Valley Life

The geek’s guide to finding a girl

Wolf T-shirts, jeans from Costco, pale skin, a vaguely sinister presence and that odd smell that you just can’t seem to find on anyone else: This is what we geeks get for not dropping more points in charisma. Taken straight from the source (the FOH gaming boards and myself), I’ve compiled an all-important list of things that you should and should not do to make the process of finding a girl a little smoother.

How to make it through spring semester 2009

You knew it was coming. You could feel its dangerously close presence after New Years Day when the holiday fun started winding down. What can we do? Can we stop it? Delay it a little while perhaps? Despite our heartfelt objections, the new semester has fallen upon us swiftly and without remorse.

BYU alum writes children’s book about same-sex marriage

Mention the Mormon church and gay rights in the same paragraph and most Utah residents become livid, frustrated, or violently proud and defensive. Christian Burch, a BYU grad currently living in Wyoming, has taken it a step further, writing a children’s book about a boy with a gay manny (male nanny) which, according to a press release, includes in its plot a gay pride parade floating past the Salt Lake temple and a same-sex marriage between the manny and his charge’s uncle.

A japathon for the new year

On Jan. 1 in the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, devotees gathered for a japathon – a ceremony often practiced on New Year’s Day as a welfare project or gift. The participants in the japathon chanted 305 rounds total, surpassing their goal of 289 rounds.

Jenn’s Dusty Shelf

Morrissey and Marr made a name for themselves when they joined forces to become the legendary as well as infamous group The Smiths. I use the word infamous because most people have heard of The Smiths, but have never actually heard their music — or if they have, they don’t know it.

Not your average folk band

From Johnny and June Cash to Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel of Mates of State, husband-wife musicians tend to capture people’s interest because they are so, well, cute. Brett and Brit Pedersen of the band Johan the Angel are no exception. When this affable folk-duo aren’t running marathons or transcribing medical records to make ends meet, Brett and Brit put their energy into producing the music of Johan the Angel, and have a sound that many have dubbed “epic folk.

If you haven’t read it

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a post-apocalyptic picture of an America that no longer exists. An unnamed catastrophe has all but destroyed humanity and left the country an ashen wasteland. A father and his young son fight certain death at every turn as they make their way on the road to the coast — and what they hope will be salvation.

Jenn’s Dusty Shelf

Revisiting this film time and again has never disappointed me, ever. Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums is easily my favorite movie of all time — reason being the quirky characters. Anderson picked a stellar cast, including Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum, Luke Wilson as Richie Tenenbaum, Gwyneth Paltrow as Margot Tenenbaum, and Ben Stiller as Chas Tenenbaum, just to name a few.

Let The Right One In

In 2008 one of the most amazing vampire movies ever made was released. The film, of course, is the Norwegian production “Let The Right One In.” The film is so beautifully filmed, directed, written, photographed, and acted that it could be watched every day for a month and still be needed.

Milk

Milk, easily one of the best films of the year, tells the story of gay people fighting for the exact same civil rights that the blacks fought for just one decade earlier. It doesn’t matter where you stand on Proposition 8 or same-sex marriage: Milk is made for anyone who values equality.