Music (This Time Not Of The Mind...)

Since it's so scandalously late, I'll save a full post for later (one about, you know, life), but as you can see/hear, I've put a playlist up on my blog. I originally was going to do one earlier, but I didn't really like the playlist.com thing. I changed my mind, obviously, and here it is. It's about 100 songs (only about 1/28 of my huge iTunes library) and is REALLY random but also REALLY good. I have no idea what you're hearing right now/will hear if you go to my blog. It could be jazz, rock, French, a dancing lobster...OK, maybe not that last one, but you get the point. Anyways, enjoy, and feel free to comment on it...whether you're saying how weird it is or if you like it (or deeply hate it). Cheese out! :)

For Some Reason, I Feel Very Blog Right Now...

Hello friends...it's nice to be here with you in...my blog? (I couldn't say Primary, of course, because this is kind of--not Primary at all.) Anyway, hola. (Like the lame Spanglish.) Once I stop thinking of creative ways to greet you all to this blog entry, maybe I'll actually write something.

This has been a fun week. It's kind of not over yet--there is that little awesome thing called Saturday still to come--but I'll just talk about it anyway. Sunday, our ward got the chance to go to the Randolph Center, a home/facility for those with mental disabilities. It was a great experience--I was very scared about how I would be to handle taking care of and interacting with someone one-on-one for an hour, and at first, I felt inadequate and unsure, but I ended up doing well, being touched, and feeling the Spirit. I got to sing Primary songs the whole time, too!!! (And play piano, but only for the instruction meeting thing we had beforehand, and the sacrament meeting our ward had afterwards.) It was a unique and very amazing way to spend a Sunday morning.

OK, I said I was going to talk about this week, but random time switch--the Variety Show went very well. I felt like I sang and played my best, and just...I don't know, let my song out there. Thanks to all of you who have complimented me, you guys are great. And most of all...a huge GREAT JOB!!! to everyone who performed in the Variety Show!!!! You guys ALL were amazing, there was not an even close to remotely OK act the whole show, they were all completely terrific! All your top-notch talents really shined. (Hey, if you any of you took video of your singing/playing/stuff, you should post in online, like on Facebook or YouTube. Or send it to me. Or something...by the way, if you missed the Variety Show, I have my song up on Facebook, and I might put on YouTube someday. I don't know, though...)

Before this gets too long(er--yes, I know this parentheses makes the sentence grammatically incorrect), what else is new/happened? I don't know, I was going to say other things but I forgot them. Or they don't fit in with how I wrote this today. Why am I thinking out loud...or, more accurately, on screen/typing-ness? I don't know. Anyways, I will hopefully post random stuff soon. Or not. Anyways, cheese out! :)

More About Conference...and Things

First off, I need to make a correction...in case you haven't heard, the Variety Show is actually at 7, not 7:30, but still is tomorrow. And I am still breathing. Oh wait, I didn't need to correct any statement related to that. Anyways, moving on...

Well, I told you I would post some quotes I really liked from Conference. And now I will break my promise!!! Just kidding, of course I won't...here they are:

• "Let us remember that love and service are like twins that seek each other's companionship."-Eduardo Gavarret, Seventy
• "Harmony in an orchestra only comes when its members make a concerted effort. So it is that harmony comes in a marriage when both make a concerted effort."-Russell M. Nelson
• "The Lord isn't asking us to load up a handcart. He's asking us to fortify our faith."-M. Russell Ballard
• "Nothing is as constant as change."-Thomas S. Monson
• "Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity."-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

And those are just a few of the pieces of amazing counsel that we were able to receive this weekend! Conference was really great.

OK, what else do I have to talk about? In the field of random news, I am sad that Misty May-Treanor had to withdraw from "Dancing With The Stars." (If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, basically, she is one half of the awesome women's beach volleyball team from the USA that won the gold, and she was amazing at dancing, but she got hurt badly and had to leave.) Also, I have fallen in love with the music of Nnenna Freelon these past few days...she is an awesome jazz/gospel/amazing music singer whose music I have had and loved for awhile, but recently become obsessed with. If you like good music, you'll probably like her a lot...she's amazing. And I'm not done with the plugs...make sure to see the Variety Show tomorrow! OK, now I'm done with the advertising. I hope everyone's doing great! Be sure to eat lots of cheese! Cheese out!

Thoughts On Conference...And About Life, About Love (You Little Wet Puppy)

(Please keep in mind that the second half of the title must be spoken in a cheesy French accent, a la Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther." Which is where that quote came from. Anyhoo, moving on...)

OK, so I loved Conference a lot. It was very inspiring and just...Conference-y. There were so many good talks and important messages. And a lot of random fun things that happened. To start off, I'll name a few:

• Elder Causse (from the Seventy) giving a good talk, and at the same time, sounding like an awesome cross between the guy in the Dyson vacuum commercials and Steve Martin in "The Pink Panther."
• Two General Authorities in a row during the Sunday Afternoon session having equally awesome South American accents. (And their talks were also very good. There never is a bad talk at Conference.)
• Having the strange and exciting experience of seeing both Jason Alston and Brad Pew pop up on the screen during Priesthood Session. They were singing in the Provo MTC choir, and it was crazy, because when they said where the choir was from, I was thinking, I wonder if I'll know anyone in there?, and about a minute into the first song, there was Jason. (They didn't show him again, but they showed Brad twice.) It was weird to see them on TV and with missionary tags on and everything, but also great because they get the chance to serve the Lord. Coolness!
• The new temples they announced excited me! Especially the Kansas City and Rome ones...now the Costello's will have a temple really close, and it's amazing that there will soon be one in Italy. Go Italy, it's your birthday! (Well, not really--it's a figure of speech--oh, deal with it!)

In terms of spiritual-ness, I really got a lot of President Uchtdorf's talk about hope. It just gave me a lot of comfort. Elder Nelson's talk was comforting to me as well. And Elder Perry talking about Henry David Thoreau (whom I really admire) and basing his talk on that to talk about the spiritual things we need, that was amazing! Since this post is getting too long, I'll wait until my next post to put down some really good quotes that stood out to me from my notes.

In other news...the Variety Show is this Tuesday, at either 7 or 7:30. I'm not sure about the time right now, though I thought I was. No matter what the time is, come! It will be a night full of great performances, music, and...cheese? Well, you could bring some cheese. There we go, that problem is solved. And as for other things...I don't know. I can't really think of anything else to say right now, at least not anything that would fit in the end of this crazily long post. So anyways, I will end this now, and all I have left to say is, cheese out!

Blogging Is Less Scandalous Than Snogging...

As the many (code for: NOT many...insert smiley face here) visitors/readers/hippies/cows? to my blog may notice, I have changed the format a bit. Let's see if I like it at all. Or if anyone likes it at all.

Anyways, you may have noticed that my last blog entry was spastic and/or devoid of much information. Since I am writing this one at 12:30 on Friday night, it will likely be much more spastic, but probably less devoid of information. Which would make it have...more information? I think so. Anyways, as an update, I did make the Variety Show! I will be singing and playing piano (at the same time, just in case those who do not get things that fast--like me, the most out of it of them all--didn't catch that...who knows, you may have hung around me too much). The song is one I wrote. So go to the Variety Show on Oct. 7 at 7:30! It will be fun! (Sorry if that sounded too much like an ad. It wasn't, I promise! Though I am Brandon Randall, and I approve this message.)

Wow, I'm actually trying to separate this into paragraph-like things this time. Maybe that's because this is obscenely long. Um...what else is happening? I watched the debate tonight and thought it was awesome. I hope you did too. Though you might not have. Let's continue this blog entry. Let's continue it with short, choppy sentences. Yes. That is a good idea. This is what happens when Brandon blogs in the wee small hours of the morning. Yay, I broke the short sentences curse!

OK, now that you're all convinced of my utter insanity, I should stop now. Maybe next time I'll have more to say...I mean, type...Anyways, cheese out! :)

Randomness...(Do I Ever Post Anything Else?)

It's been 20 days...or so?...since my last post. I really need to be more consistent. Or something like that. Anyways, since September 1st, I have died. OK, not really. But really, life has been pretty normal, I think from off the top of my head. (Not the bottom or the slightly-to-the-right northwest corner...which doesn't really exist, does it?) I've sung things. I've breathed. (I tell you, that does not sound like a word, but I don't know any other past tense for "breathe." If you have a better real one, let me know.) I've danced...OK, not really, but apparently we're having dancing lessons for Mutual on Wednesday. I tried out for the Variety Show on Friday--I find out tomorrow (Monday) how that went. (It probably might have been better to do an entry tomorrow instead where I would know if I made it or not, but it's too late now...great, now have that Carole King song stuck in my head...but then again, I like that song...) I wrote a song for it. I need to write something else besides these weird, choppy sentences. And start a sentence with something else than "I"...hey, I did that without even trying! (Well, maybe I tried a little bit...) Well anyways, my life is...alive. Questions? Leave a comment. (Too bad I can't truthfully say, "Comments? Leave a question," because that wouldn't make sense, not that the previous sentence made any sense either.) Hopefully I'll keep up with this blog some more, but for now, cheese out!

Is It Too Late To Learn How To Ride A Bicycle Instead?

OK, I haven't updated this blog in a while. Do you expect me to make regular posts or something? Well, I kind of expected that myself, actually, but I can never think of anything good to post about...Anyway...

So I went driving...a car...a REAL car...for the first time yesterday, when my dad surprised me by saying if I wanted a ride to our ward building for the fireside we had, I had to drive. I was completely nervous (if you're surprised by this, you don't know me that well...or haven't been in, say, a golf cart or something that moves with/around me), but anyways, I backed out of the driveway, surprisingly not hitting any of the cars in it. Going down our street towards 24th, I actually found a good speed, so that went OK. And though I had a little trouble stopping before 24th, I didn't die (of course you probably guessed that, from the fact I am, you know, typing this...). Then came the big, scary street. I turned onto 24th, and due to my horribleness at pressing down on the gas pedal, I probably turned onto it at about 60 or so MPH. Yeah, my dad was freaked out, I was freaked out, and if the car that was about 10 seconds away was paying any attention, they were probably freaked out too. I tried to slow down, but ended up kind of stopping in the road...thankfully, pointed toward where I was supposed to go. I put my foot on the gas quickly again, and I somehow survived the 10 or 15 seconds to the church parking lot.

You know, that bicycle is looking better and better...hopefully I'll get used to driving soon. Or hire a chauffeur. Or something...