It's Zack!!

New post! Yay!! Well it's been a while since I've made any updates. None since I've moved in, which is super-slacker of me because i'm just as busy as i was while living in my parents' house. But I'm back! Miss me?... no?

Not too much to update you guys with. My brother Dan is engaged and he'll be out some time December or very early January which means i'll be back to having my own room. I didn't have any problem sharing a room with him for the last 3-4 months. But i'm kind of a slob when it comes to my clothes and laundry so i won't have to feel back about that anymore pretty soon. I'm really excited for him. his fiance is gorgeous, energetic, and a lot of fun.. his polar opposite, HA!

It has been a rough semester. I've never taken on as many classes at one time before as i am now. thankfully only a few expect me to complete assignments at home after work, but it's still a lot for me to handle. Work hasn't changed much, i'm still working the same job for my parents. My Cavalier was totaled this week, so it has been a little more stressful to get work done. But it looks like i'll have another car before the weekend is over. I've got the reserve on a Jeep Cherokee right now. Already tested it and it drives similarly to my Chav. It's a bit more truck-like and may use more gas, but i'm not too worried.

I'm going to try to be better about updating more often. Thanks for coming to my blog. Comment!!

Some delays

Well the moving operation didn't go as planned. i forgot that the carpet needs to be cleaned before we start moving things into the house. but we made a lot of progress yesterday. beds, couches, tables and chairs have made their way into the garage, waiting to be moved some time after Wednesday after the carpet cleaners had done their job. Dan want's to wait until our room mate from California has arrived in July, but i choose not to be that patient. I already have the phone numbers of a few elders quorum presidency members, so i can have a team assembled to move furniture from the garage at any time. For now, that's the plan. Once the carpet is done, i'll get the quest out there for internet/cable and hopefully i can get some elders to help furnish our living room. It's not coming together as quickly as i'd like it to, but it's getting there. So i'm happy. soon very happy. wish me luck!

Sabino, here i come

As the weekend draws near, the ending of nights spend sleeping in the bedroom directly under mom and dad's room does also! Mmhmm, this weekend marks the next baby step in my endeavorer to cut the umbilical cords and stand in a house of which i hold legal title! huzzah!

Well, it's an exciting concept, but that's probably blowing it out of proportion. For right now, the parentals are out the money on buying the place, but luckily my parentals are smart and they bought the house in my name! More likely than not, one of their friendbanks will be able to give me a home equity loan since, by law, i own the house free and clear of any debt. that will pull the financial load off of mom and dad, and onto my shoulders. And to help with that...

ROOMMATES! If it all goes according to plan (and it always does, right?) I'll have a few individuals to take residence with me in a Win-Win situation. They win, because their rent will be based on the purchase price rather than the worth of the home! There's a significant difference between the two since I bought the home at an auction and struck gold! It was in great shape considering the deal we got on the place. And, I win - because my payments to kill off that equity loan will be covered easily by the rent! It's like i inherited a townhouse in the middle of gilbert. I say bye to mom and dad, move 5 miles away, and bang. Free house. Granted, i'm taking the financial risk here; added the fact i'm the owner of the house, i believe i can justify supporting the loan payments completely with rent checks from individuals who also take room in my primary residence! woo. I don't take any credit for the brilliance in this plan. it was all dad's idea. Ultimately, i won't be surprised if Dan ends up with the house since it was his desire to live in such a floor plan that attracted mi padre to pursue the deal in the first place. But we'll get to that in a few months (maybe years. who knows).

I'd like to publicly thank my parents in being the brilliantly awesome caretakers that they are. I'd be a fat lazy nothing if it weren't for them (or at least more of a fat lazy nothing). For that and the hard work and risk they put into the opportunities and support they give us to help us succeed and be the best Dan and I can be. All the exciting changes, all the accomplishments, all the inspiration and motivation that will push my future endeavors - it all roots to you guys. Thank you

No more school!

There's not much more to report on this week than the end of the 2011 Spring semester. This week was one of the easiest in the final week. But never again will i enroll for classes at 7am in the frackin morning. that was just no fun having to go to bed earlier than i was use to in a house that didn't sleep until 3 hours later. That's all behind me. My summer class starts in two weeks. Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues in Business. woo. wish me luck

Slacker

Hoooo boy what a week. For the past few days, I've been feeling the burn that comes from being a procrastinator. Every night, essay after essay after essay robbing me of my sleeping hours. Most nights i didn't sleep for fear of sleeping right through class. A match or two of Left4dead 2 kept me from passing out. Thankfully that time has passed and I've come to learn that i'm sittin' pretty for finals testing this week. In Macroeconomics, i'm doing well enough to pass with a B without touching the final due to can extra credit assignment that kept me up for most of Thursday night, and busy all Friday morning. This week i have three finals and no worries. Academic content was not all that complex this semester, and i'm a great tester. I've attempted to explain this to the parentals, but they still worry and push to study. I never study! And somehow my tests still turn out OK. Crazy, right? After that, the break comes for a few weeks before the summer semester comes to drag me into Laws and Ethics of Business... fun. My hopes for the summer are to use the extra time in July (no classes) to put some extra moneys away and get back into my fiction writing again in preparation for my writing class for spring. If i turn out anything interesting this year, i'll be sure to share it with you all here on the blog.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, her mom, all the other moms and the future moms. You're awesome.

Falling behind already?!

Well now i have the means to fix. As of about a week ago i got my first Droid in the mail! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!! I loved it the very hour i had opened and activiated service to it. it's frackin amazing. i never thought i'd become 'one of those people,' the twitter/facebook nuts. But with the accessibility constantly sitting in my pocket, i've started a twitter account and i find myself commenting to every facebook status changed my phone buzzes to. I'm not ashamed, it doesn't really take up too much of my time. but when i came to that conclusion, it reminds me of some people and their saying "I spend too much time on facebook! must delete life-sucking account." Really? I could only think of two possibilities that made sense to me. Either you have WAAAAY more facebook friends than i do or you have a lot of free time on your hands used to play facebook games or look for more people to add to your already monstrous facebook friend database. So i'm going to play with that. Till now, i've only followed people on facebook that i know well and hear from often through means other than facebook. So if i sent you a request sometime sunday morning, you're my guinea pigs =P.

In case some of y'all aren't aware, Dan's going to be home very very soon. i believe it's a week from Tuesday (perhaps 2 weeks) that I head to Florida with the parentals to see him in his current habitat. He'll be taking use around his areas once his mission president releases him from the call. He'll still be a missionary until we get him home to his stake president, but between presidents, we get to steal him. The following Saturday, we'll be home with a fresh Return Missionary... and i'll have to start sharing my room. HA!

For the next post, I'm starting to write again like i use to in my Eastern Arizona College days. I've purchased a number of books with my birthday and Christmas moneys. I've i actually get down to writing a few pages, I'll link them into the next blog post. Please express your interest in comments on this post. =) that will encourage me to make sure something is ready next weekend.

what a week

It has been a CRAAAAAZY week, people. A very crazy week. i knew it was going to be hard taking 12cred hours of qualitative classes, and now that fear has been realized. Last thursday was the first sleepless night. and it was probably the hardest. I enrolled for a communication class to work on me.. eh, communication skills. there are only two papers for the class, but the first was a 'self analysis. it's exactly what it sounds like. The assignment is to write a paper on yourself while being as unbiased and objective as possible. It was Not an easy assignment. anything positive i could thing to right on fell in the 'subjective' category and thus invalid topics for the research. So all the research and work i had to do for the paper involved examining faults and self-destructive attributes. The next was an causal analysis on foreclosures in arizona, easier but still very time consuming. The only highlight of the week to speak of is FHE in singles ward. dodgeball was fun but it reminds me just how out of shape i am

Seeing no comments on my last blogpost made me sad. If anyone's reading, i'd like to know who. so please comment just this once. if no one is reading, this all seems to be a waste of time

Let's try that again

ha.. well i just read my September post from last year.. fail. well here's to a second shot. more blogging, at least once a week. maybe I'll try some video-blogging since my newest laptop has a webcam built into the top of the screen. optimism would have me set goals for dropping my weight as well but.. one thing at a time hahaha. For those not of my non-East Valley friends and family, i did eventually secure a job; 2 actually. first was working in my dad's home office here where we run what needs running to move his auction and rental business movements forward. My responsibilities mainly fall on data management and running to and from the bank about every other day. it's a dry boring job but with the recent addition of bank/check runs to my responsibilities, I've been able to get alot of hours and some of the largest paychecks I've ever deposited. it makes me laugh to remember the days in EAC when i use to smile at the 10 hour paychecks i use to get from working as a teachers aid for my physics professor. but in those days, i didn't have to pay for my phone or car. all i bought in those days fell in the 'grocery' category.

Anyhow, aside from that job, the other was successfully completing my real estate license training and signing a contract with Red Brick Realty. there i've only taken some of the smallest steps in my real estate career and i'm trying to make it a point to grow and push forward in that area. i knew entering a field that took you in for passing a test would not be easy to get started in, but thankfully i have mom's support and dad's experiance to lift me up. any success in this endevor will be thanks to the effort they put in to me.

Not much goes on aside from work. my spring semester routine begins early morning to get ready for my 7am classes a 20 minute drive away. when i get home somewhere between 10-10:30, i usually go to work after finding something to eat. that usually goes on to 7pm. after work, i have about 2 hours left in my day before i need to get back to bed for getting up the next day. it's rare that this time diverts from sitting in a recliner couch with my laptop running from the zombie apocalypse or hunting down terrorists. about a year and a quarter in my singles ward and i hardly know a soul ha. i never expected different from me, i don't think anyone does.

But there's all the news. as things slowly change around here, i'll try to keep the blog updated. hopefully i'll find a way to make it fun with videos or other interesting things i run across.

Hi again

To all the non facebook bloggers, I've decided to come back to blogger and try to keep this thing up to to date. I've been working for dad since April i think. in June he decided to put me through real estate school. I've passed and I've got all my papers in order and i'm on the final steps to obtaining my license. before all that. i started school at CGCC again, despite my total failure to make any grads in Thatcher at EAC. now I'm holding a 3.2 gpa! much better. the Monday before this week, i started the HCG drops diet which is basically eating a bland 1500 cals a day with this medicine that makes sure your body keeps burning fat for fuel instead of going into survival mode. I've lost 13lbs that way as of this morning. next week, i have already set up interviews with 3 real estate brokers to find myself a place to work. that's the news for what I've missed over the months. i'll try to start weekly updates

Sad day

A sad day indeed, yesterday. Upon getting a hold of the hiring officer at the power and ray, i found out that one of the two open positions had been snagged by someone transferring from another store and the other had been given to someone else. UGH.... i thought i was sooo close, being told i would be set up for a second interview with the store manager soon.... Today hasnt been all that bright either. I've spent 5 solid hours filling in online applications and calling for job openings.. just to find again that no one is hiring... i did find that staples is looking for some temporaries.. another little glimmer of light. hopefully someone from all those applications i filled calls back

HI AGAIN

Sorry all for the way overdue post. I've been home for over a MONTH and I've neglected to update the blog. So.. to start, i've been home since the day before thanksgiving - right on time for the turkey-fest. Since then I've been looking all over for a place to work while I'm in school at the Chandler-Gilbert Community College campus on Williams Field and Sossaman. I've gotten some help and advice from my employment specialist in my singles ward aswell as at CGCC for some help. i got a resume up and everything and got right to looking for work. I cant quite remember when i got in contact with petsmart, probably 3 weeks ago, but they're the second place i've talked to that was actually looking for people. Costa Vida was the first, wasn't selected for that one. I've had one interview with the hiring officer their and I've been selected to interview with the store manager too!! wooo!! I've been so stoked over this job since it's shown its potential. I'd love working around animals... even if it's just watching them on my lunch break while i work as a cashier hahaha. I've already gone and checked out the store, fallen in love with the cats they have for adoption and took some interest. the little critters and fish aswell. Anyhow the exciting part is that tomorrow, the hiring officer will be talking to the manager about hiring me!! wooo!! i'll get another interview with the manager this time which makes this all the more exciting. Wish me luck, people. I'll let ya know what i learn tomorrow

March1

This week has been nuts. Bah. The office and the process of de-cluttering our house to prepare for moving has destroyed my freetime. the last few days, i've spent an average of 6 hours on the road a day.. what a hectic week.. oh but since i never posted last week, we'll start there. the major event was that my brother and i finally got to go through the temple for the first time. brother wright, our temple prep teacher warned us that there was alot to understand and take in.. the guy wasn't kidding. the other thing he told us what that food will be your first thought when you leave. and dispite all the pondering i was doing just before we passed out the rotating doors, my stomach roared hahaha. gave me a good laugh and we got to mi amigos, one of my favorite places to eat. it's been kinda funny watching mom ever since, she's been saying how we need to start our lists of people that need to be invited to dan's open house on the day of his fairwell. like a month in advance. as far as my studying goes, i've regrettable reverted to my 'bed at 1am and up at 9' rutine, so i have no time between breakfast and work this week. i'm hoping to change that this week, as i'm way behind on my spanish in prospective of where i wanted to be, and i set myself at a pretty high expectation. i hope i can catch up; it wont be easy. oh and another thing for last week. my dad and grandma from the guthrie family got to take me out for my birthday wendesday and friday. gramma took me to our favorite place to spend time together, barnes and noble, and rekindled my love for reading. i haven't picked up a book in ages and i was instently hooked to the lit-drug again upon picking up the first sci-fi that caught my eyes. i grabbed that as well as two more. i know the one i'm reading now has 3 sequels, so i need to read fast if i'm going to finish them all in 75days! This monday for family night, we went to the mall and did the shopping for the clothes we would need for dan and my mission. no new suits for me thankfully! i did, however, get to stock up on some nice shortsleeve shirts. if the packing list for the uruguay mission is anything to go by, i'll be wearing them every day except for meetings and other occations. its hard to believe its been a full 2 weeks since i started the countdown at 3 months. crazy! time's flyin too quick for me. but i know it will fly even faster in the field, and i cant wait till i get to experiance that first hand.

Post-Birthday

For those unaware, yesterday was my 21st birthday. I've been complaining about how i'm an old fart and wish i was 16 again for the past 2 weeks haha. But all is well. Today a party will be held at Peter Piper Pizza for me and my 15 younger cousins to just have fun with the pizza and games. i haven't had a genuine party in probably 3 years and even though its just triple P, i'm excited.
My spanish hasn't expanded much since i posted last. i went ahead and put together a goal list on how much of the material i'd have covered, and i've had trouble keeping it in mind. I'll have to press myself harder to get in bed early enough to have the time to study for that before work. i'm a full 4 days behind where i wanted to be. not a great start.
Another thing for this week, tuesday Dan and i are going to be interviewed by the Stake Pres for our temple recommends and recommend for living endowments. The big day is Thursday 530, and i'm excited for that too. i've always been curious about the mysteries that are kept there, the symbols, the doctrine, i cant wait to go and learn what its all about. So, ya. this week will be one of busiest for some time. I'll try to post later in the week and report on the goingons

The call

Again its been ages since I've set a post here. I thought Facebook would help me keep y'all posted on the goin'ons of the life that is mine, but I've noticed how hard it is to put much detail in what new there, so here i am again with a new music playlist of some of my recent and old favorites from listening the The Edge 103.9FM.
For the unaware, my papers went into the stake president for my mission around the first weekend of February... i think... and my call came last Thursday. I 'Elder Zackary Ryan Tate' have been called to the Uruguay Montevideo West mission. To the geographically challenged, myself included, Uruguay is a small country that touches on the south boarder of Brazil and the East of Argentina.I'll report to the Argentina MTC to learn Spanish on the 21st of may, and i cant wait. I was slightly overwhelmed after learning that i was leaving the country and being given the chance to go and teach such a humble community of people. I know lord heard my possibly overbearingly long prayers to be called to another part of the world where I'd be forced to work hard physically and mentally in order to do his work so that i might gain the discipline i'll need to survive on my own and to show myself what i'm capable of with the spirit at my side.
I've recently made an investment in my Spanish skills by purchasing all 3 lessons of the Rosetta Stone software for the Spanish(latin) language and i'm surprised by how fast i'm learning, how much i'm learning, and the fun (yes kids.. learning is fun) and sense of accomplishment that comes from using this software. I want to get a feel for how much time each of the 10 chapers in these 3 big lessons are going to take and hope that i can squeeze all the lessons into the 3 months i have left to learn before they ship me off to Argentina to be surrounded by the language. It would be neat to meet the mission president and surprise him with a fluent ability to speak the language when i finish my time in the MTC.
Even though i'm not reporting for another 3 months, i'm starting to see things here at home, or things we have in the states and i'll think "Man i'm going to miss that." And the one that comes to me over and over again is Music. Ever since Padre has stuck me in my little car with my GPS and camera for hours a day, i've been a loyal listener of The Edge. I'm going to miss Sublime, GMGT, U2, Muse and many others while i'm gone. Surely it wont be something that will occupy my mind in the feild for large amounts of time, but i'm sure it will be missed. Thankfully my spanish studying combine with my working for dad has kept me rather busy, so i dont worry too much about missing video games and tv like i use to. There was a time last year when it was normal for me to spend 40-50 hours a week in these two activities, and now there just aren't enough hours in the day to indulge in them for more than 15hrs a week, of which has been place in the games. Tv's out, oh well. Last week a thought had rolled past my mind concerning i had had enough saved to stop working, so i said out of the clean blue among my parents, 'I think i'm going to stop working...' ,to which they replied 'And do what?' "nothing.." i said. They laughed, and i did too when i realized what i had said.
It was just a few days after that while Brother Wright was putting on a video for us for our Temple Prep class that talked about time. I still remember the message that hit me and the thoughts it provoked then it touched me. That is, that we all have spent a certain amount of time in the past, and we all have an amount of time to spent. Keep that in mind, the concept of time being something that can be spent and think about what you're spending it on, or rather, what you spending it for. What are you getting for you time. When i applied this to myself personally, i compared my time-spending habits of now, and then. And it scared me a bit. Then, i spent massive amounts of time on entertainment. A short term pleasure. None of it was 'Invested' into raising money for my mission, developing my traits and character, or progressing skills that could be useful at a later time. Just as one has the ability to waste money(another limited resource) on instantaneous indulgences, time can also be 'spent' on less noble causes. Realizing that, I've made it a point to better manage my time and invest it in places where it will be beneficial. Of course i wont be perfect with it. Everyone needs a little fun, to be indulgent every once in a while, but in moderation and with self-control. But i know learning that lesson and keeping it, will make me 'Rich' in character, in mind, and in spirit...
Heh, well looking up i see I've set a rather high bar for my next post.. I've made it a goal to set something in here every week, but i hope that I'll do so twice week. We'll see if any of them end up as large as this one.

First real post

I should probably start posting in here more often if i'm going to keep a blog. hehe, well if you linked to me through mom, you know they were in hawaii last week and stuck me with my bro the whole friggin time... what a joy that was. the best part of that week had to be saturday. I hadn't been out of the house all week long, so spending SIX HOURS at golfland was pretty much awesome. After that around 7 was a fireside, i guess you call it, where President Daulqust (spelling? =P) addressed the young men about standing up to do what needs to be done, especially the teachers and deacons presidents as holders of the keys to preside over your Quorum. At one point he was talking about how he use to teach his girls songs and poems, here was an example he gave to us that i liked.

We all can't be captains, some have to be crew.
There is something for all of us.
So if you can't be a highway,then be a great trail.
If you can't be a sun, be a star.
It isn't by size that you win or you fail,
The difference lies in just being
the best at whatever you are.

music

the playlist is going to have tons of different song. most wont go together. the contract might be pretty funny in the transition between songs. hahaha. anyhow. enjoy. i'll be adding to it bit by bit. (ps, dont tell me i listen to weird music... trust me. i know)

hi all

I be new to the whole 'blog' thing. figure it should be easy enough. just got to get use to it all again. i use to do this kinda thing alot when i started college. only my blogs were roleplay concepts. which kinda means i was writing for a fantasy character i created and wrote the history for. it was fun writing new chapters. got several comments that i might be a decent writer. Thought about it, set it aside for now. maybe i'll pick it up again, but music and 'poetry' have caught more of my intrest in my freetime for now. anyhow. i take critisism opinions and comments well. i like to know whacha all think. if i think you got a point, i'll poke around the appropriate areas until i'm satisfied. if not.. oh well. i win, you lose =P