Status of computer: Doing a little better, yet a little worse. Instant updater for VirusScan has been fixed with a quick reinstall, but now my computer crashes every 15 minutes or so and blue screens. Heck, what am I writing this for, this is for tech support, not a blog.

A little more about my summer. Being Mormon, I went to EFY in June. It's a big youth camp that has classes, provides oppurtunities for service, and is just about the funnest thing I've ever done. I learned alot about my self and began going out of my way to meet and get to know people. I've learned, through that experience and throughout the rest of my summer, that people and friends are extremely important. They make life what it is. Not classes and grades and computers and swimming, but people. "Well, duh!" you say, "Everyone knows that." See, the strange thing is, I didn't know that. I knew it intellectually, but many things you just have to experience to really know. And I think I'm not aone in this world in not realizing this simple little fact of life. If I were, I doubt wwe would have so many problems. I mean, if Saddam knew that people make life what it is, would he really have been a mass murderer and cared so much about oppressing people to keep on power? And would so many politicians be so intent on keeping issues alive so they can use them for elections, rather than solving them. These power-hungry men and women don't understand that they are hurting the poeple that could be making their life wonderful. Maybe someday those who come into power will understand, really understand, how improtant it is to have principles.

Principles...people and interactions with them give life meaning, but principles are what make life happy. I remember reading a book called 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens or something like that. This book proposed that the only way to have a stable and happy life is to center life on our principles. By centering everything on ideas like honesty, charity, kindness, and stuff like that, anyone can be happy and successful. I agree. Those ideals are hard to live by, but being raised a Mormon and being in the Boy Scouts, I have been taught to live in this way all my life. And am I happy? Not all the time, of course. No one is. But I look around at my friends who live different lifestyles and I can see the pain and troubles they go through. It's harder for them. Now, maybe life put them down a tougher road than me. That's probably true, but I think I have avoided many of those problems and snags in the road because of the way I live.