Incredible.

So...I'm completely done with finals and school for at least 4 months.  Hallelujah.  The last final I took was for my Music 202 class.  And before that I took the music and art ID exam for the second half of the class.  I love studying for those ID exams.  Does that mean I studied for it in advance?  Heck no.  But for the few hours I spent cramming I loved listening to the classical music and looking at all of the art and architecture.  There are some pretty dang talented people out there.  And yes I'm a nerd.  Anyway, this guy named Franz Liszt wrote some insane piano pieces.  I'm sure they're all great, but the one we had to know was "La Campanella".  This is by far my new favorite piano solo.  I will never be able to play it in a million years and don't know if many people can.  But if you can...you have mastered the piano and then some.  Anyway, the video is well worth your time.  It's crazy.  Enjoy!

Not too shabby...

It's that time of the semester when one realizes they haven't blogged in far too long and they have no idea where to begin.  Thus, you all are in for one very long post.  :)

So...the Dodgers.  Hello.  I am THRILLED to say the least that baseball season has finally arrived.
The fact that the Dodgers are 8-1 is just a nice little bonus.  8-1.  That would be the best record in Major League Baseball right now.  Not just the best in the National League West or the best in the National League...but the BEST in the Majors.  Yeah yeah yeah.  I've heard it time and time again...baseball season is long and it could all change very quickly...in fact I'm sure it will as soon as I post this.  (Knock on some wood please.)  But I will enjoy it while it lasts.  :)  Oh and remember how the Angels (who are currently last in their division with a 3-5 record) got Albert Pujols?  Well...he hasn't hit a single home run yet this season while Matt Kemp on the other hand has hit 5 in 9 games.  He hit 2 tonight in his first 2 at bats making that 3 home runs in 2 games.  Do I hear MVP chants?  He is crazy...or should I say cray.  Can't wait to get back to the City of Angels to see my team in person.

Some how the beginning of baseball always corresponds with the end of the semester.  And since my priorities aren't exactly in the correct order I probably watch more baseball than I should and do less studying than I should.  Oh well.  You only live once...right?  Don't worry...I study a lot.  Kinda.

Taxes also correspond with the end of the semester.  I'll have you know I am a tax pro.  Okay not really.  But I did my taxes all by myself without any help from a live human being.  That is quite a feat.  You would think they would make taxes less confusing if they wanted people to file them.  Guess not.  All I know is I made about the same amount of money as last year, but my federal tax return was about 4 times as much this year.  Thank you Mr. Obama.

Guess what.  I love my major.  I'm sure I probably said this 3 million times previously.  But seriously.  Who wouldn't want to watch sports highlights all day and then talk about them and eventually get paid to do it?  Sick.  You know you picked the right major when you can justify your sports watching addiction by calling it homework.

And now an ode to the Spanish language.  I just finished the last class of my Spanish minor.  I LOVE the Spanish language.  A big thank you to my mother for making me take Spanish in high school instead of French.  Best choice I ever made.  Now to get called to a Spanish speaking mission...that's the goal.  Just kidding.  I decided I really don't care where I get called.  English speaking would just make things easier.  Spanish speaking would make my Spanish a million times better.  And another language speaking would make me trilingual.  Oh did I mention I'm planning on serving a mission?

Also, have I mentioned lately that I have the coolest friends?  It's true.  I love 'em to death.

And my family...they're the greatest.  Also, my siblings are way cuter than your siblings.  Especially this guy.  :)

Oh and remember BYU basketball?  What a great season capped off with the biggest comeback win in NCAA Tournament history.  Down by 25.  No big deal.

Well...I'm currently loving life probably because the fact that I have finals coming up hasn't hit me yet.  But hey...at least I'll be done by Wednesday.  Have a lovely day.  :)

Winter 2012.

It's finally here.  It actually looks like winter outside.  It's snowing!!!!!!!  I guess I can survive at least a few more weeks of winter especially if it keeps snowing.  The cold weather gets a little old, but nothing is worse than a Utah winter without snow.  Everything's dead and there's no snow to cover it up.  I'm a huge fan of snow...probably because I don't have to drive in it.  I just have to walk to school on the ever so treacherous frozen tundra that is the icy/snowy/slushy sidewalk.  It's an adventure to say the least.  Schiess and I barely made it out of the icy parking lot trying to walk to church yesterday.  Thank goodness for kind people who give us rides.  :)  Sorry to talk so much about the weather.  It's so hard not too when it's so exciting.  A week ago Saturday I walked home from work and it was GORGEOUS outside.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Super warm (for Utah).  It made me SO happy.  I walked home in complete awe of the beautiful weather.  The next Saturday (two days ago), I walked home in the pouring rain.  I was DRENCHED.  It was pretty hilarious.  And then it finally started snowing.  Meaning all the rain turned to ice and the snow covered it.  Lovely.  :)  I wish I had pictures of all of this.  But my camera decided to die and my new one is not here yet.  Here is one of my favorite weather pictures in substitution.  :)

This is when we were in Spain...Córdoba to be specific in May of 2010.  It was raining...or shall I say pouring...off and on throughout the day.  Somehow we decided to walk over the bridge right as it stared to pour.  This rain was torrential.  And it was really windy.  I was with a tour group of a bunch of senior citizens (which was super fun).  But they all were trying to stay dry under umbrellas while we crossed this super long bridge.  It was hilarious because the umbrellas were doing practically nothing to keep them dry.  In fact most of them were blowing inside out because of the wind.  So I decided to scrap the whole umbrella idea and just go for it.  So...I was soaked.  Completely.  I thought it was hilarious.

Alright.  Enough about the weather.  Classes are decent enough this semester.  I'm not super motivated yet.  Hopefully that will happen soon.  I have to be at school at 7 a.m. or before 4 out of 7 days of the week.  The other two days are 8 a.m. and Sunday is 9 a.m.  I never thought the longest I'd get to sleep in would be when I have 9 a.m. church.  But who needs sleep right?

The other exciting news of the semester is that I'm the Tuesday/Thursday sports anchor for Eleven News on KBYU.  Basically my news director got super desperate for someone to fill that position and I was willing to do it.  I've only done it once so far and it wasn't on air, but it's so fun!  I get a 3 minute segment and I get to talk about whatever I want...meaning about what our very limited audience wants to hear about...meaning mostly Utah sports stuff which isn't much.  But hopefully it will help me get an internship this summer.  So if you're in Utah turn on Channel 11 every Tuesday and Thursday starting tomorrow at noon.  It'll be great.  :)  I also am a producer for the Friday show which is an all sports show.  You can watch that too.  :)

Well...this was an awfully boring post.  Sorry.  Hope you are enjoying winter wherever you are.  :)  Just think...if we didn't have winter, summer would be far less exciting.  P.S.  I made potato salad the other day.  So good.  Who says potato salad can only be eaten in the summer?  I'm against the notion of seasonal foods.  In fact, I think I'll go eat some right now.  :)

Oh and one more thing.  I love my Cougar basketball.  LOVE it.  And did I mention my dad will be in town for the St. Mary's game on Saturday?  It's just probably the biggest game of the regular season.  Can't.  Wait.

Loving life.

Today is just one of those days when I am loving life.  Really every day should be like that.  Of course it won't be, but I've come to realize that we choose our attitude.  So I've been trying to be grateful, focus on Christ, and just love life.  Because we really are so incredibly blessed.

The holiday season is just so great!  First, Thanksgiving.  I'm pretty sure I appreciated Thanksgiving a ton more than usual.  Probably because it was the first week in an awful long time that I didn't have to do a news story.  But more than that, I got to go home and spend time with my family.  While it can get a little hectic in that Ostler household, I love it!  And I got to see so many people!  I swear I saw more people in the few days I was home than I see during my four month summers.  And I got to wear shorts.  Utah makes bad California weather seem glorious.  :)

After dinner with my mom and sister at the Americana.  :)

Leaves do change color in Southern California.

And now it's almost Christmas.  I LOVE CHRISTMAS!  Who doesn't?  We had our Christmas concert for choir.  I loved it.  It's amazing how spiritually uplifting Christmas music is.  And it's such a different experience to be singing about the birth of our Savior with 500ish people who understand the true meaning of Christmas.  Christ truly is the reason for the season.  I am so grateful for the Savior and his Atonement for every single person who ever lived.  What an incredible gift.  Here is an excellent quote from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf in this year's First Presidency Christmas Devotional:

"He promises to be with us - to come to us when we need comfort, to lift us when we stumble, to carry us if needed, mourn and rejoice with us.  Every day He offers to take us by the hands and help transform ordinary life into extraordinary spiritual experiences...The celebrations of Christmas can help remind us of Him.  The hallowed Christmas season can be an opportunity, and should be one, to recommit to keep the fire of the spirit and the glory of the Son of God burning in our  hearts everyday throughout the year."  

And here is an amazing rendition of "Infant Holy" by Vocal Point:

Also, I get to go home in four short days.  Hurray!  This will be my third trip home in a month and a half.  And we made the long drive every time.  But it's all worth it!

Oh and did I mention it's basketball season again.  :)  So great.  I get to film sometimes meaning I get to sit on the court.  It's great.  Love my major.  :)  But sometimes it's great to just sit in the student section and cheer as loud as I please.  :)

And as if this post isn't long enough already...here are the rest of the stories from this semester.  :)

The following is my favorite (and probably best) story of the semester.

  

This was my "breaking news" story.  Everyone has to do one.  The press conference was at 11 a.m. and our news show airs at noon.  Enough said.

My last story and another favorite.

It has been one crazy semester.  And in case you're wondering.  I LOVE MY MAJOR!  Especially when I get to talk about sports.  Few things make me more happy.  :)

Well...Merry Christmas!  :)

The weather outside is frightful.

OK...not really.  In fact, it could be much worse.  It's only about 48 degrees right now.  But it is not the perfect 70 degree weather I love.  Of course I still wear flip flops and sandals.  I won't stop until it starts snowing.  Also, occasionally I still wear shorts.  I tend to think that if I dress for warm weather, it might end up being warm outside.  Sadly...that is not the case.  But here are a few things that have been on my mind due to the not so nice weather.

First of all, my apartment is all about keeping utility bills as low as possible.  Meaning we have yet to turn on the heater.  The thermostat currently says it is about 65 degrees in our apartment.  Not too bad, but definitely noticeable.  In fact, last night I was drinking water that had been sitting in a glass on the table for multiple hours.  And it was definitely colder than room temperature normally is.  Maybe once water left in a glass on the table freezes we'll turn on the heater.  :)

One of my least favorite parts of cold weather is the fact that you need a jacket.  I do love my jackets, but it is just one more thing you have to do before heading out the door.  That is 3 extra seconds that I could spend doing something else.  And a jacket is just one more thing to match to your outfit.  And if you know me, I hate matching.  Actually I love matching, I'm just weird about it and not good at it.  So instead of 3 seconds, sometimes it takes me 7 seconds.  Also, BYU tends to keep their buildings exceptionally warm which is not necessarily a bad thing.  But it does mean you end up taking off your jacket when you enter a building.  And then you have to waste another 3 seconds putting your jacket back on before you go outside.  Boy...what a hard life I have.  Ha.  Just kidding.  :)  Also, if you are briskly walking to the library or some other unusually warm building, you have to take off your jacket or at least unzip it 30 seconds before you get to the library because if not, heat stroke is a very real possibility.  OK...maybe not heat stroke, but it is definitely way too hot if you don't take the previously mentioned precautionary measures.  P.S. That sentence was not conversational and thus not good for a news story.  And this is why I blog...so I can be as non-conversational as I want.  :)

Finally, I wish to talk about jumpsuits.  Why are they not in style?  They are INCREDIBLY convenient.  Matching is no longer an issue when you wear one.  What could be better?  Anyway, I bought a jumpsuit for a costume back in high school.  I used it freshman year for Halloween and I brought it out for a Halloween dance last night.
 

For uncreative people like myself, a jumpsuit is a must-have.  In fact I would have worn it last year for Halloween but luckily my roommates are creative people and manage to come up with costumes for me.  :)  And did I mention jumpsuits are super comfy?  After the dance last night, I curled up in a chair and slept for about 7 hours.  Shoes and all.  In a chair.  For 7 hours.  Sleeping anywhere in any outfit is a talent I possess and one I am incredibly grateful for.  :)

Anyway...here are my most recent stories in case you missed them.  Didn't the first one freeze on such a lovely frame?  :)

Did I mention it's college basketball season?  That's definitely up there on my favorite things about winter list.      Do something great today!

Microsoft Word 2007

I would describe myself as a PC person.  Don't get me wrong.  If someone offered me a Mac, I would gladly accept it and use it.  In fact, I'm sure I would love it.  But, unless someone else is paying or I decide to be a professional photographer, I don't expect to be using a Mac any time soon.  And, I do not believe the claim that a Mac can never get a virus.  OK...maybe it's true.  Who knows.  But that doesn't mean a whole number of other things can't go wrong.  All I know is whenever I hear about a friend needing to fix a computer, it's almost always a Mac.  Maybe it's just because people who own a Mac tend to care deeply about their computer.

Anyway...back to Microsoft Word.  The point of the entire previous paragraph was to explain that while I do not shun Apple products, I am the proud owner of a PC.  And with PCs comes Microsoft Word.  And currently I use the 2007 version of the program.  This version is great except for one thing.  And that one thing is the default settings of the program.  Every time I start typing a paper, the font is set to 11-point Calibri.  Who in the world would ever purposely choose to use this font?  Never have I had a teacher who requested that I type a paper for their class in Calibri.  And if I wanted to be creative, I would pick a font that looked much cooler than Calibri does.  And size 11?  What a random number.  I prefer 12.  And so do the majority of people I have met.  If the default font wasn't bad enough, Microsoft Word 2007 decided that your document should also be not double spaced, not single spaced, but 1.5 spaced.  How do you even say that?  Now I've had teachers want something single or double spaced so if one of those were the default I'd understand, but 1.5 spaced?  Also, the default makes it so every time you press enter, you get an extra space in between paragraphs.  I guess this might be useful for some people.  But not me.  

The truth is you can change these settings in about 30 seconds max and if I were more computer-savvy, I'm sure I could figure out some way to set the default the way I want it.  But for now, I am forced to change four things every time I want to type anything.  But life could be worse...much worse.  That being said, I am thankful for my computer, Microsoft Word 2007 (including its default settings), and life in general.  Happy almost Halloween.  :)    

More stories.

So here are my two latest stories.  One is about the supposed "rivalry" between Utah State and BYU and the other is about lighting the Y for homecoming.  I have to do a story every Wednesday so there should be a new one by Thursday of every week on elevennews.byu.edu in case you don't want to wait for me to post them.  Anyway, enjoy...