Stickman in the Gallows

Creative Commons

2012-01-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

I was about to write a post when I found that Blogger has been assimilated into Google. Of course Google has owned Blogger for some time now and my accounts were linked, but they finally made the transition to uniformity, much like Google Reader did a month or so back. Blogger (from the inside) looks like Google+ now with orange buttons and thin frames. It also looks like it has incorporated various other Google+ traits like location posting. Well, what fun.

Anyway, the point I was getting to is the copyright issue I wrote about a while back about SOPA. In case you didn't notice, protests against SOPA and PIPA in the form of website blackouts (notably Wikipedia) happened on Wednesday. Now, the two have been "shelved" according to my sources and hopefully trashed in the future.

In learning more about this issue, I found a book called Free Culture by Laurence Lessig wherein the history and recent developments (as of 2004 anyway) of copyright were detailed. It was an interesting read and showed me how copyright, and how it is viewed by the public, has changed over the past 40-50 years or so.

Where copyright once only prevented publishers from printing a book within 14 years of the author filing for copyright, it now covers all works from any unauthorized use for up to 120 years (it'll probably get extended again come 2020). Hence the phrase "All Rights Reserved." The copyright holder reserves any and all rights to the distribution, dissemination, or modification of the work. Sure there's "Fair Use" but that's often only applicable after defending it in court against multi-million dollar corporations.

This presents a problem (a number of them really, let's look at these ones). 99% (or so) of the works created since 1930 have no commercial value but are still under copyright. If I wanted to use any of them (an old film, a forgotten book, a dusty vinyl, a random photograph, a certain webpage) for any reason, I could try my luck and use it anyway (illegally), or I would have to track down anyone who might have a claim on the work. Normally I wouldn't have to worry because after the copyright expired, it would fall into public domain and I could use it freely. Instead, I probably won't use it and no one else will ever see it.

That's why I licensed my blog under Creative Commons (co-founded by the aforementioned Laurence Lessig). You can see the license at the bottom of the page. CC (their phrase is "some rights reserved") aims to clarify limits and allowances for distribution, modification, and commercial use. I opted for the free distribution license, just so long as they link back here and give me credit. Obviously for some silly blog (3200 views over four years or so), it doesn't really matter much, but if I were to write a song or a book, I could apply a non-commercial use license so that I could earn some money off my work.

My understanding of how this works is that CC sits under United States copyright law. Because all rights are reserved for me for my work, I can choose to give up certain rights that I don't feel are necessary. CC gives me the legal jargon (written by lawyers) to effectively control my work with less ambiguity. I really think there would be far less copyright infringement if media companies were just more open on the matter but I don't get the feeling they want to give access of their property to commoners. They seem to prefer litigation.

So that's my take on it. Note that this isn't about piracy. Piracy is illegal. Unfortunately crossing into illegal territory happened long before while still in fair use land. That kinda takes the edge off of being a felon.

Dollars!

2011-12-04T22:38:00.004-07:00

I wrote a while ago about all the dollar coins sitting around. The number has reached some 1.4 billion of them of Congress decided to take action and save money by removing the dollar bill from circulation. What? That didn't happen? Oh right, they went the other way and saved a little money by stopping the mint of new dollar coins. And I was so looking forward to spending some Teddy Roosevelt coins.

Since they are on a roll, why not halt pennies next?

Update: I suppose I should say that I was doing my part by withdrawing a roll of dollar coins every month. Are you doing your part?

SOPA?

2011-12-02T18:00:00.003-07:00

I've heard a lot about PROTECT IP and SOPA recently. Being a regular resident of the internets, it's usually vehement opposition. It did get me thinking about copyright though, and I have a few observations.

First, consider the following situations:

1. Buying and watching a movie

2. Renting and watching a movie with a large group of people

3. Copying a movie

4. Downloading a movie

5. Quoting a line from a movie

6. Reenacting a scene from a movie in a video

7. Recording a video where a movie is playing in the background

8. Posting a scene from the video on Youtube

9. Posting the entire movie on Youtube

10. Making a parody of the movie

11. Singing a song from a movie

12. Performing a song from a movie in front of an audience

This could be arranged in some order of legality, if that's possible, but that gets confusing. Expand it in your head though. Consider these alterations to each. How much copyrighted content is involved? Did the audience pay to attend? How large is the audience? Is that audience over the internet? What about music or books instead?

So then, which are legal and which aren't? Obviously #1 is and #4 and #9 aren't (although on #4, some argue otherwise). #5 is pretty innocuous but what it were a book and you quoted a paragraph, a page, a chapter, or the whole book? The others would seem legal (by my common sense anyway, unless you get paid) but might not be. It depends, I suppose? It would less of a problem if it were possible for the casual user to request permission to use content and pay royalties but there's no easy way to do that.

From what I've learned about SOPA is that it grants copyright holders to more easily decide where the line is and then enforce it by blacklisting sites. They already can submit DMCA takedown requests and sites that don't comply can be taken down. Blacklisting involves blocking the site entirely by removing references to it from search engines and other sites plus blocking it's revenue sources and domain name. It probably won't work against the targeted piracy sites; they'll find a way around it. It'll probably block small, personal sites though. And since #7 is apparently enough to get a Youtube video pulled in the current system, I'd expect a lot of sites blocked.

And do you know how long copyright lasts? Life of the author plus 70 years. Or 95 - 120 years for anonymous or for-hire works. Nothing created in my lifetime will be ever be free domain by copyright expiration. Probably.

Half Year

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

So it's been about six months since we both graduated and moved on with life. And here we are. Now we have a scooter, some furniture, and no debts. That's right, all the student loans have been paid off resulting in exactly $1.59 of interest, a nearly free loan courtesy of the establishment.

In case you're interested, the average graduate that carried any loan at all owes around $25,000. That seems mighty excessive for me, but my off-the-cuff estimate for personal collegiate costs are around $50,000 (I did an in depth study of this for my exit survey where I calculated the percentage of each source of funding. Unfortunately, it is lost) while national average for 5 years at a public university would be closer to $75,000. So it's relatively right, I suppose. I just don't understand the $100k loan for a degree in studies of dead languages. Sure, do what you love, but didn't anyone teach you to do a simple cost-benefit analysis?

Like my scooter. Sure I could have paid more and been spared the hassle of owning a Chinese piece of junk that I have taken apart, and will continue to so, and replaced various parts of it but what is the fun of that? At least I know how a carburetor works now. I might be forced to dig into the engine too ere long. Doesn't start or idle very well. Fun to ride though.

So that's where we are at coming into these holidays. It's good times.

Rain

2011-10-05T18:00:00.000-06:00

It has finally rained in Boise for the first time since early June. It's also below 80 degrees since almost just as long. I like the rain. It reminds me of getting caught outside in the rain in Brazil (with or without an umbrella, often it didn't matter because you always get soaked feet) and of Washington and its greenery. Mostly though, it reminds of elementary school when I loved the rain because it meant I didn't have to go outside for recess. I didn't understand why I should be forced outside anyway (I protested slightly at least once); I was perfectly happy staying inside with books, computers, or something else like legos.

And now? Nothing beats walking in the rain wearing a trench coat and fedora because sunshine makes me break out in a rash.

Prosopagnosia

2011-09-07T07:00:00.001-06:00

I listen to various podcasts, including Radiolab. Unfortunately, I recently caught up to the present, so I can't listen to hours of Radiolab at a stretch anymore. They once talked a bit about face blindness, or prosopagnosia. After listening to that episode for a bit, I realized that, hey, those things have often happened to me! So I found a face blindness test online. Turns out that I'm more face blind than the average person. Michelle says it's because I just don't pay attention. Fair enough, I'll admit that. They can work in conjunction.

Later, after walking around work without glasses, I started to remember how it was before I started wearing glasses 2.5 years ago. I remember having trouble recognizing even people I know before they are within five feet of my face. I would pick up on clothing and hair to help out (or just stare at them if I suspected knowing them. Creepy, especially if it turned out I didn't), if I was paying attention at all. And once people change clothes, it was over (especially in movies).

So just remember that there are people out there that don't perceive the world the same as you do. At least I don't have synesthesia. Those people are weird!

Food

2011-09-02T07:00:00.002-06:00

It recently came to my attention that the national average food-stamp recipient gets about $130 per month, per person for food. I thought this odd, since that's only a bit less than what Michelle and I spend on food per month together. Then I looked up how much the average American spends on food per month. I was astonished! The thrifty end of the scale was $366 for a family of two in 2010.

Now don't you say, "Yeah, Bret lives off of tacos and zucchini." That was in my bachelorhood, and left to my own devices, I probably averaged $30-40 per month. Now, I only occasionally eat tacos; I'm back to the regular PB&J for lunch. Plus Michelle made a delicious ricotta eggplant (hooray for Bountiful Baskets!) dish a while back, I make sushi, and so on. I feel that we eat well. My only guess is that we don't buy meat or snack foods. Not often anyway. And our breadmaker has produced some 250lbs of bread in the past year (that's 2-3 2lbs loaves per week). I'll probably get back on the oatmeal breakfast once it stops being so hot around here.

Now if the average meal weighs about 1lb, then we might be eating 180lbs of food per month. At $366 per month, that's about $2.03 per pound of food (or per meal, per person) vs our $0.78 per pound. According to this site, most items that cost more than $2 per pound are the meat and dairy products (plus potato chips). The cheapest items of July 2011 were, in order, flour, bananas, sugar, cabbage, rice, and potatoes. The most expensive were wine, sirloin steak, cheddar, coffee, potato chips, and ice cream.

Just food for thought.

New phone

2011-08-29T18:00:00.002-06:00

In the due course of time, Michelle and I have grown up and detached ourselves from family phone plans. In need a new plan, I jumped on a deal Best Buy was having on a free Nexus S phone with 2-year contract with AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile (normally $99 with same contract or several hundred dollars without). So we went in and chained ourselves for the next 2 years to AT&T, being the cheapest, having no texting with minimum minutes and data. The plan was to text via data or Wifi using Google Voice and make phone calls over Wifi using the built-in VoIP functionality. Texting works great, but the VoIP needs some lovin. I'll find a free solution eventually.

Of course, since I sit at a desk all day near a phone and Michelle got a job as an insurance agent, she is the one that gets to use it on a daily basis. I asked her how she likes it. She says it's fast, she likes the buttons on the bottom and that she can watch anime on it. "And the widgets?!?" I say. "Meh, I don't care for them. Except the Weather Channel one." She was referring to the Facebook and Twitter widgets, which she then replaced with links to the actual applications. I spend evenings playing games or tinkering with it (like using it as a remote for the computer. Someday perhaps we'll have a Raspberry Pi computer TV that we control with this), but during the day, I still carry around my iPod touch.

Diamonds

2011-08-17T07:00:00.001-06:00

I wrote the following piece in April 2010 while I was looking around for an engagement ring and doing a lot of research.

The search for an engagement ring is quite exhausting. Online sources are far from unbiased, and faction battles faction, company vs. company, and so on. Mostly what I am referring to is the simulated diamond market. A simulated diamond is any shiny stone that imitates a diamond. They range from (in order of quality, so far as I can tell, and there are more than this) glass to cubic zirconium to moissanite to manufactured diamond. They all differ in chemical composition, and thus in material properties such as light reflectiveness, hardness and chemical reactivity to the environment. At first, most of them are just about the same as diamonds, just after time, the softer stones scratch and such. Moissanite is hard enough that it isn't too bad of an issue, and manufactured diamonds are chemically identical and thus are harder than most anything. And even cubic zirconium isn't too terrible of a diamond simulant. Point is, there is technology available to accurately and inexpensively recreate diamonds without having to dig them out of the ground, even to the point that they can be identical in every way to the "real" thing.

That being said, there are mixed signals when it comes to public opinion of such stones. I think most of the married women I have heard from about the subject agree that fake diamonds are the way to go since no one can tell the difference, they are less expensive and some object to scheming diamond cartels and potentially questionable paths diamonds take to get from Africa into your ring. There are others who object to any cheap knockoff and nothing less than diamonds will do. "Real diamonds equals real love. Fake diamonds equals fake love," comments some random person online, summing up feelings of many others. But really? I mean, really?

That sentiment rubs me the wrong way on so many levels. It's hard to describe exactly why. The fact that any person attaches so much emotion and bases their affection on a material substance and indeed an aethereal concept whether a stone came from a lab or Africa boggles me. Whether or not my true love is worth the cost of the stone isn't the question; if it came down to it, I would choose my love over a diamond or even a pile of them. As for the supposed symbolic or spiritual meaning of real diamonds, they aren't part of tradition or eternal symbolism, but more likely just marketing over the years (including the concept that 2 months salary should be spent...De Beers!).

The tradition of wedding rings started as a sign of ownership (among Romans) and eternal companionship (as a ring is without beginning or end) and diamonds did not become commonplace in rings save for the past 100 years or so when broken engagements no longer had legal implications, then an expensive ring became a sort of financial commitment on part of the groom to the bride.

In any case, diamond hockers fight against the diamond simulants. They, of course, fight back. And they all fight each other to get a piece of the delicious throw-every-last-penny-into-the-wedding pie. It's good business and who can be expected to practice honesty in times like these, am I right? And then so many newly-weds get into debt...how could that be?

Mind you, I did end up going with a trio of real diamonds because any of the manufactured stones would have cost more because of the small size (the ring was a size 3.5, any large stones would have looked gaudy) but I did buy two cubic zirconia for comparison.

Money!

2011-08-12T19:00:00.001-06:00

Did you know that there are over one billion dollar coins sitting around in government warehouses? Did you know that a single dollar coin costs twice as much to manufacture compared to a paper bill but has 20 times the lifespan? Yep, it's true, dollar coins save money. Probably not you though, since most people have a tendancy to spend change more freely than paper money. You should probably go withdraw some dollar coins from the bank. I did, and I feel great! But don't take my word for it.

Apple and Android

2011-07-29T21:30:00.002-06:00

I was excited about two years ago when I got my G1 phone. Those were exciting times. New phone, new software, new possibilities. Eventually, however, that phone started to randomly reset. Then it became more frequent. Then it stopped working altogether.

That was late last November. Shortly thereafter, Michelle got me an iPod touch for Christmas. Sure it was no Android, but it worked, and it was fun. I quickly made a list of pros and cons for each device and planned to write some kind of back and forth review about it. So here it is.

First off, I've noticed an increasing number of people on the internet fighting (some times more literally than others) over which is better. Apple fans cite ease of use and quality overriding reason to go Mac. Android fans say openness is preferable. I say, depends who is using it. Apple has done an outstanding job making their stuff clean and easy to use, allowing anyone to pick up an iPhone and use it. Their devices are all manufactured to the same level of quality and there's a uniformity and connectivity in their ecosystem.

That's not for me.

To me, it's too easy. So easy, you only need one button. I miss the menu and back buttons, the physical keyboard, and the trackball on the G1 (trackball lets you scroll letter by letter through text, iTouch can't do that). I miss the multitude of options and settings available and the widgets. Oh the widgets! Plus I use Google applications more than Apple ones, so you can guess which syncs better with which... And I can't get my music off the iPod, it's a sealed box.

But that's just me. Most people aren't like me. That's why over 9 million iPads sold last quarter and the Xoom shipped 400k. The Xoom was probably designed by engineers like me.

So just keep that in mind. Apple is just one brand of many. Most others are cheaper, some are more. Mind you, I have limited experience with Macs though, but this is the impression I get. I touched one of those once last year and it gave me the jibblies.

The Googlenet

2011-07-14T18:24:00.002-06:00

It's quiet. Seems like this neck of the blogosphere has fallen into some kind of deep sleep. How can this be?!? We live in some exciting times here on the internets. Google+ adding the ability to actively (Buzz) and passively (+1) promote internet content. Plenty of hosting services to be had for websites, pictures, music, and videos. Individuals making a living by only creating more internet content (or real world goods, to be sure). Free textual, audio, and/or video services are here.

By my count, there are around 40 services offered by a single Google account. You can take a look at them on the dashboard. I foresee a further integration of a lot of these, particularly the social ones. Blogger and Picasa, for example, will be renamed in the coming months. Probably to Google Blog and Google Photos or something similar. With this integration, you could check out my Google profile and see my ranting blog posts, tweet-like mental vomits, pictures and videos of stuff I do, and any other sites and content I want to spread around. Maybe I'll start participating. Or become a belated hipster. "I was blogging when it was still really cool."

Happenings and goings on

2011-06-06T22:30:00.000-06:00

Hrm, it has been a year since I last updated this blog. I figure you're due for an update. Michelle and I have been married for 10 months yesterday. We both graduated from Utah State University in May. Michelle with a bachelor's degree in horticulture, and I with a Master's degree in electrical engineering. After that, we acted pretty quickly in moving up to Boise, ID so I could start my new job at Micron technology on May 23. Since then, we've been settling in and acquiring furniture and things. Our new apartment is probably twice as big as our last. That has been a good change.

So at Micron, I have the position of product engineer in mobile memory. I'm on a team that's working on certain low power RAM chips for smart phones and things. It's only been two weeks, but I'm enjoying it and I'm learning lots.

Michelle has been setting the apartment straight, looking for a florist job, working on her new sewing machine, and so on. She said she's just not a good hand sewer and I just laughed. Heh, hand sewer.

So there you have it. Grads, Boise, Micron, grownup life. Woot!

P.S. We recently started using Mint.com to keep a budget and it works beautifully. I've heard Yodlee.com is also good.

The Big Picture

2010-08-20T18:00:00.000-06:00

I've recently come across this photojournalism series called 'The Big Picture.' I am impressed with all the pictures from floods in Pakistan, fires in Russia, landslides in China, and oil spills in the gulf. Most recently though, they featured a series of high quality color photos from 1910. Be sure to check it out. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

Summer '10

2010-05-20T18:24:00.005-06:00

Ah summer! No more homework. I can go to work, come home, and not worry about due dates. Thank groodness. There's plenty to be done, of course, but I'm on my own timetable. Unfortunately, Michelle's fleeing the country for a study abroad thing, nor will I see her much during the week once she gets back, due to wedding planning. So, to pass the time, get in shape, and see Cache valley, I bought a new bike. Not like that old one, no sir. This one is meant for roads, has brakes, gearshifters that work, and is fairly light, being made of aluminium. I found it on KSL classifieds. Turns out, more people use that around here than Craigslist. I had no idea. It's a nice bike, I like it. A lot easier to ride, that's for sure.

With my newfound freedom of time (even now, Michelle's in class), I've been riding around, like I did last summer. This year, however, I can keep track of my explorations with my phone. So far, I've gone over 35 miles since Monday, reaching top speed of 38 mph. If you visit my Google maps page, you can see my progress. Anyway, that's what I'll be up to this summer.

Side note on Google, they've announced Google TV, a service for televisions to connect to the internet. Sony and Logitech are on board to make internet TVs powered with Android and/or Chrome so you can watch YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc on your TV directly.

A 3-bit ALU

2010-05-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

The semester is over at last. So these are a few of the things I've done therein.
This is a 318 transistor circuit that takes a serial input of 1's and 0's and converts them into a number between 0 and 7 and then adds or subtracts them. It's pretty cool.
This one is a video demonstration of my solar powered automated irrigation project.

I'm engaged!

2010-05-02T12:39:00.005-06:00

So I got engaged on Friday. I got a call around 3PM that day saying that the ring was ready and by 6, I had picked it up and by 6:30, Michelle and I were going for a walk up to campus. We went to go see the magnolia tree that's at the top of old main hill. I had put some flowers there earlier so I picked them up and gave them to her and there proposed. Awwww!!! The date is August 5.

This is what I do

2010-04-21T10:47:00.005-06:00

Among many things, this is what I've been working on this week.

The first is a transistor layout of the second one, which is a schematic. They are both models of my differential amplifier design. I'll post my final projects up here too, I think. This only has 21 transistors, my next layout will have 350. They will be smaller though, because this is an analog circuit whereas the next one will be digital.

My bike

2010-03-24T21:06:00.003-06:00

Oh my bike, ode to my bike. For 11 long years it has been mine. And for the past 2 1/2 years, it has been ridden nearly every day for about 3 miles round trip to campus. And now...

Slowly, it been to fail. The first replacement I remember were the pedals that broke when I used to ride it to and from the Target in Orem when our family lived in grandma's house while she and my grandpa were away on a mission. Those trips also punctured the tires dozens of times. I sure got tired of patching up the tubes.

There was a scouting trip when I was 14 or so, where we brought our bikes. I remember that my handlebars came loose from the wheel, making it impossible to steer. And no one had a hex wrench set! That same problem made me late for work later too.

I painted it up all nice just before I brought it up to Logan; the black paint had rubbed off from 8th grade when I would haul my saxophone around on it. That also busted my gear shifting mechanism which I had to replace in 2008. It has also begun to rust since I didn't use it much between 9th grade and college.

Only a few times have I actually crashed on it. Once when the chain came loose and my pedal jerked, causing me to fall off the pedals, loose balance, fall forward over the handle bars, hit the ground just as the bike came over and landed on me. And a few other times when I took turns too sharply when I was young and unexperienced (about 1 1/2 ago).

I came close to truly wiping out when I was zipping down from campus when I noticed I was about to hit a curb. The front made it fine over as I jerked at it, but the rear wheel really hit it hard. That bent the rim and bulged the tire and tube. The rear brakes were never the same, even after I replaced the rim from one at DI awhile later when the rear axle simply split in half. Except that rim was a few inches too small. I did find the right size eventually.

The front wheel started to give out when the ball bearings wore through and scattered. That's about when the front brakes stopped working too. Eventually, the axle wore out completely without bearings and I found another axle to replace it. Still have the same rim though.

It wasn't too long ago when the forward chain moving thing got caught in the chain (again) and broke off. I've been in high gear ever since! (To get the highest, one would have to shift quickly enough that the momentum of the shift would set the chain on the smallest rear sprocket, otherwise it would settle on the 2nd one) Not that I can even sit down on that seat that has been stuck low for 10 years; my trench coats would get caught in the wheel.

I mostly blame my dad for my bike lasting as long as it did. It has had a hard life and is now a veritable Frankenstein's monster. Maybe I'll rig my next bike with a battery and motor...

A new semester, a new project

2010-01-14T17:51:00.002-07:00

My team and I, the same team as last semester actually, have landed yet another pet project of the professor in charge. This time, instead of working on Dr. Chen's MASnet platform, Dr. Wheeler evolved our drip control system idea into a self-sustaining irrigation system meant for use to benefit an orphanage in Uganda. If we can prove that our designs will work in an effective and cost-efficient way, they might actually be implemented. That would be cool.

So far from what we've decided (today) is a system that collects rain water during the rainy season and automatically uses it to irrigate a field for a few weeks once the dry season hits. Apparently it has been hitting a few weeks too early and the corn hasn't matured properly. It's self sufficient because it has to collect rain water and provide its own electricity. So aside from that, I have four other classes that I have to attend to, and two jobs. Woot!

Back to School

2010-01-11T13:31:00.003-07:00

I've been back to school for some five hours and I already have an assignment due Friday and a major project (much like the senior project of last semester) due at the end of the semester. This time, though, the project is based on microcomputer interfacing and not so much on mobile robots. That means this project is the same thing, just instead of programming robots to move in certain behaviors, we will build and program a computer board to control a certain system. First, we need to decide what system that will be by Friday. Past projects include a computer automated greenhouse, a motion tracking camera and a marble sorter that sorts by color. Ideas will be much appreciated and further information will be posted forthwith.

Senior Project Rehash

2009-12-04T06:00:00.002-07:00

About a month ago, I wrote about my senior project. In the here and now, that project is thankfully coming to an end. I haven't been to the BkE during daylight hours on a non-Sunday in over a fortnight! Anyway, here are a few videos. And we have a website. Check it out!

Senior Project

2009-11-05T14:54:00.007-07:00

In the midst of all the business, I suppose I should let everyone know what I'm currently working on. It seems to be an interesting project, one with intrigue, betrayal, robots and a game of tag. So this is what I've been up to most recently. It's coming along quite nicely too.

First off, Dr. Yangquan Chen at USU has most graciously allowed us to use his MASNet platform. That is, the set of robots with locating camera. These robots will be programmed to play games of tag, in teams of two. Two seeker robots, knowing the position of all four robots, will attempt to trap one of the two hider robots, which will only know the position of the robots it can 'see.' Programming this ability to see was my job, and I think it worked out rather well. The host program, called Robot Commander, already takes the camera image and finds coordinates for each robot on the playing field, and I just tweaked it a bit to check the pixels in between the robot coordinates for a bit of white (or green, if we choose to upgrade).

The next step after finding relevant information, was to broadcast it to each of the four robots. That is very currently in the process. Once the robots have the information, they need to use it to play their game of tag. That has yet to be done and is the more difficult part of the project. Then, if all goes well, the robots will be given a "social context" flavour, that is, they will be able to betray, change sides, or whatever and the other robots have to adapt. Good times. I'll keep you posted on that progress.

Com...fort?

2009-10-02T20:00:00.002-06:00

Thad has told me that I have no nerve endings. Maybe that's true. Or maybe I just have a high tolerance in accounting for what I eat. Like zucchini. Every day. I think he says that because I want to live in a tiny house and because of the zucchini thing. Besides, I don't even eat zucchini every day! Today, for instance, I ate fresh green beans, bell pepper and tomatoes for lunch. The only downside is the high water content in most of those. I can't carry enough of it to eat because it's all less dense! And furthermore, the way I figure it, if I can gain something better at the cost of what I eat or how I live (in other words, my personal comforts), then it's all worth it, right? Although this sometimes makes living with me a bit colder or warmer, depending on the season, than one might like. Among other things. Sorry about that, guys. I'll try to be a bit less insanely cost-efficient this winter. We'll compromise at a nice, balmy 66 degrees this winter, instead of whatever temperature it is outside in Logan at the time.

A Vast Increase of...what?

2009-09-17T22:45:00.003-06:00

I recently bought a new phone through Craigslist. I’d take a picture of it, but using a camera to capture a camera…well…I’ll just stick with a stock photo. Getting this phone has caused me to understand even more fully how very easily I can be contacted. Sure I could be had before, but now I have instant notification through email, phone, text messages, three instant messaging systems, Facebook, and probably more. All instant, mind you. I receive an email and my pocket vibrates. You sign onto Yahoo, MSN or Google Talk and I’ll probably be there. An event featuring someone’s kitten’s birthday on Facebook and just somehow, I’ll know and have an RSVP already. Now, I didn’t get the phone to broaden my opportunities to not talk with people. I could open up a Twitter account (another thing which I could have to make my pocket vibrate, but I abstain) to accomplish that for cheaper. Mostly, I just needed a new phone, I like having a calendar on my person so I can mark occasions and I like shiny new toys.

Back before I even had a cell phone, I purchased a PDA in 2003 after my previous one (from 2001) had worn itself out. It was a shiny new toy that kept my minimal high school life in order and was pretty fun to have. (Related note: Never never never EVER buy expensive electronics through retail without a very good reason. Let someone else do that and buy it from them a year later. Related to the related note: Anyone want a six-year-old PDA?)

This just furthers the ability of anyone to figure out what I’m about through the internet. Google Latitude reports my position, their calendar has my schedule, Blogger has my thoughts (which I’m thinking is akin to musing aloud while walking around and taking comments from passersby), and Facebook, Pandora, Google, Yahoo and others all have info on me. And to what end, really? I mean really. At least my phone also fills separate unfulfilled niches in my life because of it’s nigh infinite expandability. I now also have a geocaching capable GPS, a music tuner, a resistor lookup chart, a library, a dictionary, a translator, and a stargazing map all in my pocket. Ironically enough, the only phone call I’ve used it for was to call Thad to test it out when I was buying it. (Update: Kimber did call me, so that was the first)

So in the end, I’ll keep my schedule updated with free food opportunities that I find around campus. Be sure to show up, I’ll post them to the Butterknife Estates calendar.

Humdrum

2009-08-28T19:11:00.002-06:00

On a lonely Friday evening, the first since school has commenced once again, I'll decide to write on my blog. School? I might learn a thing or two about control systems, digital signal processing, microelectronics and mobile robots. Speaking of robots, I'm on a team to build one for my senior project and I need ideas for a mobile robot function. We're thinking so far of tag or something like that. With two robots, not with people. That would break some kind of robot rule, tagging a human...unheard of!

And perhaps you've heard of 'battery memory' or somesuch nonsense, where if you don't drain your battery completely before recharging, it will quickly and surely become defunct as opposed to slowly but surely. Turns out that only applies to NiCd and NiMH batteries, the cylindrical kind, and not to Lithium types in cell phones and cameras. In fact, my deep discharges probably have been quite damaging to my phone and battery. Oh, the things you learn.

Gibberish III

2009-08-27T06:37:00.000-06:00

This is the last of that stream of words that somehow makes sense but doesn't.

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Gibberish II

2009-08-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

Here's the second part of the giberish spam.

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Gibberish

2009-08-11T22:02:00.002-06:00

Now, I'm not one that lets spam go unnoticed. I tend to scroll through the piles of whatsit to see if I know anyone that sent an email that sadly found itself in the spam folder. This only happens, however, when I'm checking my extraneous email accounts. I have them to receive such garbage. Anyway, the point is that once, I found a choice collection of spam. I call it choice because...well, you'll see.

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Living in a Tiny House

2009-06-26T20:10:00.002-06:00

What would you do if you lived in this house? It measures to be about 117 square feet and contains a kitchen, bathroom and a front room with a bedroom in the loft. It is heated, has running water and electricity. Is there any reason you couldn't live in a house like this one?

I saw this concept on my Google home page, "How to live in a tiny house." I thought the concept absurd, anyone can live in a smaller house! But when I saw a walk-through of one of these houses, I was intrigued and I looked into the idea of small houses on wheels. Turns out, this guy named Jay has made a living off of designing and building these houses and lives in one himself. Looking into it further, I have found many benefits of living in a small house. I don't own very much stuff and could even stand to loose some more of what I have. Cost of living is cheap because of reduced heating costs, fewer lights, less stuff. A house like this could be built for around $20,000, bought pre-made for $45,000 and is mobile.

Long story short, I am tinkering with this idea in my mind. In two years, I will be thrust out upon the world, looking for places to work and sleep (or both in the same place!). I don't need too many resources to live on and designing and building my own house would be just as interesting as a wooden clock or homemade projector, albeit larger and more useful. We'll see how this one pans out.

Working!

2009-06-24T04:00:00.000-06:00

For three full weeks I have had a full-time job at the Space Dynamics Lab, part of the Utah State University Research Foundation. It's where the University takes care of the research and development of technology like satellites and other electronic equipment. They also do a lot of contractual work for the government and other entities. My job is to test and debug the computers and boards they put together. So far, I've done a bit of that, including how to configure them (yay Linux!), but I have also done a few odd jobs here and there. The project on which I am currently assigned is called Groucho and implements a Synchronized Optical Network (SONET) communication and is a large board the sends and receives optical communications. We'll see how that breaks down. I've worked with the Groucho box myself and have put pieces together, taken them apart and even did some maths to find what some resistor values should be.

At the current moment, much of the team is in D.C and I finished testing the lastest Groucho and CPU with it so I'm looking for things to do. I have my own desk with computer in a lab with a whole lot of electronics. No one else uses the lab all that much so I basically have it to myself for now. There are nine computers with an excess of monitors and lots of oscilloscopes, power supplies, extraneous electronic equipment and the like. Basically, I'm in my element.

The story of a troubled youth

2009-06-03T01:55:00.000-06:00

Here's a short story I wrote in 9th grade. I think the point was to incorporate specific words or phrases.

Frederick is a young man at the age of 12. Fred, as he is known, has been addicted to marijuana for a few months. Recently, Fred was caught smoking a joint of marijuana. He immediately ran away with his girlfriend before his punishment could get too severe. Fred decided to run to Mexico and soon changed his name to Frank there.

Frederick took on the name and identity of Frank in Mexico. The newly named Frank is sixteen and a registered pharmacist in Mexico. Frank took full advantage of his job as pharmacist by mixing drugs together and selling them as new drugs.

The Mexican police had just found him out when he was sold out of the mixed drugs. They did not have any criminal record on him so they sent him free. They were a little hesitant but few thousand more pesos in their pockets cleared their minds.

After a long day at the pharmacy, making and testing new drugs, Frank got unusually high off of one of the new drugs. He was convinced that his pregnant girlfriend was a chicken. Being very hungry, he thought he could cook his girlfriend. Before very long, he passed out and his badly burnt girlfriend rolled off the stove.

When Frank woke up, his head hurt and his hands were burned. He got up and looked for his girlfriend. He found a note and read it. It said, “I can’t stand you anymore. Goodbye.” Frank collapsed on the floor and tried to get up. When he couldn’t he took some pills out of his pocket and ate all of them.

Ever since then, Frank has been crazy. He began to believe that he had some kind of magical powers. He tried to make chairs explode at his house but every time he failed, he took incredible amounts of drugs. One night after mixed up a lethal drug that would kill instantly; Frank tried his work on a stool. After failing, he took his drugs and tried not to take the lethal ones. Unfortunately, Frank took the wrong pills. He died agonizingly about five minutes later. Nobody found him in a week, in a month, even within a year. Only when his bank account was empty and his bills unpaid did anyone go into his house. They repossessed his house and soon demolished it. He was never found in his house.

A Master of what?

2009-05-22T20:19:00.002-06:00

Very recently, but none too late, I applied and was accepted in the concurrent graduate studies at Utah State University. What that means is that I will add one year of school on my life, graduating in the spring of 2011 instead of 2010, and I will have a Master's Degree in addition to my Bachelor's. Very exciting, I know, but now I have come to the point in time where I really ought to decide what I want to be doing and where I want to go with all this schooling.
My two preferable choices in terms of subject matter are Control Systems and Signal Processing. Control systems, from what I know, involves robots. Signal processing involves the way all signals are utilized but not so much how they are sent and received, that is more of electromagnetics. But this decision is minor, and only involves the difference of one or two classes, the real decision is the difference between a Master of Science and a Master of Engineering. A Master of Science would require me to write a thesis with or without a project. A Master of Engineering would be more coursework but no thesis. I'm leaning toward the ME just because I'd rather not do research but is there a real difference? I hear that there isn't. Anyway, I've been sorting my classes out and been working through this conundrum. Any ideas?

Carrot!

2009-05-19T02:13:00.001-06:00

I wrote this one in 9th grade. Kimber helped me write it.

Charles “Carrot Boy” Peterson was an avid carrot eater. He ate boiled carrots, fried carrots, frozen carrots, steamed carrots, baby carrots, fresh carrots, carrot stew, and even carrot ice cream. He ate so many carrots, he turned orange.

One day he woke up, and after breakfast of scrambled carrots with carrot juice, he noticed a sprout growing out of his navel in the mirror. With the combination of the orange skin and the sprout growing out of his belly, he decided to make an appointment with his doctor. When he got to the doctor’s, he found that it had been evacuated because of the orange skin epidemic. The good doctor soon appeared covered fully in suit, mask, and gloves. Charles asked the good doctor, “I think I have a small problem. This sprout…” “What you have here is a rare but lethal disease. A CTD, or Carrot Transmitted Disease.”

Charles was shocked, “Is there any cure?” The good doctor then pulled out a syringe and stuck it roughly into Charles.

The good doctor answered, “This should help.” Immediately, Charles started to change slowly. He stretched out and became more and more orange. After he stopped moving, the good doctor picked up Charles and took a bite. “Not bad…”

Poetry

2009-05-12T14:58:00.004-06:00

I found some poems that I wrote in school back in the day.

Fear

Is it under the bed,

Or is it the creaking door?

Is it in the closet,

Or on the dark, empty floor

Through the darkness, shapes are forming

In the mind or are they real?

Try to sleep until the morning

But another creak resounds

Shrinking down because of fright

Cowering beneath the blankets

Reaching over to get the light

Nothing there, at least for now

Bored

Sitting up against a wall

Waiting for something to do

Staring at a clock tick by

Nothing coming into view

Laying down on the floor

Hours pass by with no sign

Trying to think of what to do

But nothing comes to mind

Still staring at the clock

And then a minute goes on

Only a minute has passed

But still there is nothing to do

What is a tragedy?

Is it when one’s time shouldn’t be through,

Or when one has left many regrets?

The latter I think is more of the worse.

These two I know then did not end

In tragedy, but lived each day

Among friends, amid laughter.

Sad we feel for our separation

But hope for a time not too far.

When we will all be back together,

For Friends are friends forever.

Big Sounds

2009-04-24T08:59:00.002-06:00

I like the hearing large sounds in music. No, that doesn't mean I like listening to a guitarist, bassist and drummer amplified to absurd proportions. Those are only three instruments. Large sounds have dozens of instruments and concurrent sounds. Large sounds don't have to be loud because they are deep and rich and they can fill a large auditorium. Perhaps like Mendelsson or E.S. Posthumus.

Random Guppies and more!

2009-04-11T10:00:00.001-06:00

For those of you familiar with woot.com, it is a website that sells one item per day. Now, this item may be strange and new or it could be a old and refurbished. But once in a very great while, a special item called the BoC or random guppy appears. When it does, to goes fast! This because for $3 and $5 shipping, you could get anything. And I mean ANYTHING! It is a coveted item. One I have been trying to get for over a year and a half. And this past April Fool's day, I got it! Excitedly, I awaited the arrival of my bag and this is what I got yesterday.

1 x Refurbished 4gb Sansa
1 x Power Squid
2 x pairs of Woot-off lights
1 x Easy Park
1 x Green Bucket
2 x Woman's Small "Yay Broccoli!" T-shirt
1 x Phillips headset
1 x Nondescript pair of sound cables
1 x Camo Screaming Monkey
1 x Strange Polaroid Gamepad
25 x Bag of Texas Air

All in all, a good haul. For $8, I got much of value, particularly the Sansa and power squid. The Sansa is an mp3 player but so far, hasn't worked. The screen doesn't turn on and I can't get it to do anything. I took it apart, but nothing was immediately noticably wrong. I did manage to hear some of the recordings I've accidentally made so now I'm trying to hear the music I loaded onto it. I'll keep at it. Matt and Harrison managed to fit inside the t-shirts though.

I do have a new niece! Her name is Daphne Beryl Christensen. Go ahead and congradulate Kimber, Nick and Rex for their new arrival. Congratulations!

In other news, I am enjoying my new glasses. I can see outlines now! Trees look pretty cool. I think the glasses also improved my depth perception because now, when I walk by trees, they look more 3-D. It is so cool! Also, I noticed why I liked pictures I've taken at night. They are so clear! You see, when the camera does the focusing and I sit yea far from the computer screen, I still perceive the clarity. Now, I can see that kind of clarity on my own! I guess my night vision is also better. Good times.

So yes, that's my story. And school ends in three weeks. I'm looking for a summer job at this point. Happy Easter!

Times and Times Again!

2009-03-24T21:31:00.003-06:00

So yes, it has been quite a long while. What has happened? Well, here is a breakdown. Since January, I have nearly finished another semester at school. It hasn't been a terribly trying semester. In fact, since I only have three classes, it has been relatively straightforward. It hasn't been that I am without time to blog, but that I am without reason.

Over spring break, I got in touch with several old friends. Some from High School, one from the mission, others from times past. I also got cavities filled and my eyes checked. So I now will have glasses! Which is awesome; I will be able to see like I've never been able to see before.

Also, this past week or two has marked my first actual active involvement in the democratic process. A proposed increase of fees was brought up nothing but some propaganda supporting it. I went full-on in researching the ins and outs of student fees and the athletics department. Nothing I learned convinced me much of a need to take $3 Million from the student and give it to the athletic department nor that they deserved it any more than AIG deserved their bailout. I did my research, put it in neat little graphs on fliers, printed out about two dozen and posted them around campus. I haven't checked them all, but I would guess that most of them were torn down. The ones in the Engineering building were all torn down repeatedly in any case.

Anyway, much to my disappointment, the fee increase passed with the support of the students through the misinformation of the powers that be. They run up a deficit over the past few years and then play on the student sympathy for athletics, propagandize at basketball games and squelch opposition to get enough money to cover the deficit and then some. Just in case, perhaps?

So that's my spiel. I've never been too involved in athletics but never actively opposed them. I mean, I already have been paying for basketball and football games that I never go to. I didn't even realize that the games are free until last fall, not that I go now. I've been to more hockey games (where I do have to pay) than anything else. Spectating sports intrigues me, just not in the way where I want to participate in spectating. More like, I can't possibly think why I would want to. I'd rather be involved in playing, not watching (but sometimes, not by much). I've concluded it must be the atmosphere. Screaming at the top of my lungs while in pep band was enjoyable, but not because of the basketball or football game; just because it was enjoyable.

That's mostly it. I've been looking for a job/internship for the summer and so far, no hits. We'll see how that works. Other plans for the lesser distant future include the possibility of a three-man triathlon team in one month. I went swimming today to train and found how badly I had gotten out of shape since my swimming days in the summer. It may be doubtful that Thad, Matt, Harrison and/or myself do this triathlon, but one can dream...

Christmas Break

2009-01-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's been a long time! Very long, in fact. And the reason is mostly that I have been home in Highland and I have not been on the computer all that much. Time has been used up in other pursuits that don't involve a computer. Like Christmas, Final Fantasy XII and hanging out with friends. I'll be glad when school starts up again so I have better things to do with my time (since FFXII took up most of that time).

On more productive and worthwhile notes, the contributors to the What do Mormons Believe? gathered to hold the first ever blog meeting. So for the new year, the blog should be better than ever. And more regular for that matter. The goal is to have new posts every Monday and Thursday. So stay tuned!

Other developments this Christmas season include my Christmas experiment: my facial hair. I last shaved on Sunday the 14th and after three weeks, this is how it shows. I don't believe I'll be doing that again anytime soon. My next experiment will be centered around a seemingly plastic cup that claims to be made of corn and to be compostable. I'll see if it's good to its word.

A Missionary Summary

2008-12-02T18:30:00.002-07:00

I left for Brazil the morning of July 26, 2005 and after many hours in a plane, I and several other missionaries arrived in Sao Paulo where we were taken to the MTC there. We spent two months there, doing little more than studying and eating. My companion, Elder Feuz of Nebraska, enjoyed running so I attempted to run with him around the 240ft track. It didn't take long for him to start lapping me. After the two months were up, we headed out on a flight to Porto Alegre where we would enter the mission field. Our mission president, Sergio Antunes, greeted us at the airport and in his very excited manner, told me to do a contact with him. As I started in broken Portuguese, "We are representatives of the church..." "No, no, no." He interrupted, "Say, 'We are representatives of Jesus Christ!'"

Soon enough, I met my trainer, Elder Baier of North Carolina and we headed off to Gramado and I stayed there for three months, during which time I saw Claudio, Carina, Leniol and Maria baptized. I left Elder Baier to train for his last transfer. My next companion was Elder McCardle of Washington and he had been in Caxias do Sul for the previous four months without any baptisms. Summer was coming on strong by then but we found many new investigators, baptized a family (Maria, Artur, Jaqualine and Viviane) and a very friendly couple, John and his wife. We even received an extra two missionaries to help in that ward. Elder McCardle left after his seven months in that ward and Elder Bevell of Arizona came to help with the work. We did loose that extra set of missionaries after only two transfers and the Elders were taken out altogether for a season after I left, but Elder Bevell and I taught likely a hundred people in those three months and baptized two.

After being in a mountainous city for a time, Lagoa Vermelha, a small town in the country, was a nice change. Elder Page of California and I worked hard to help build the small branch there. We baptized four individuals, including Milton, who read the Book of Mormon in two days and came to church for his first time during fast Sunday and testified that he knew the church is true. After Elder Page left, Elder Howe of Texas had only five weeks to work in Lagoa but we held the best baptism I ever attended just a week before I left.

After that, I was transferred to the neighborhood of Guajuviras in Canoas with my first Brazilian companion, Elder de Jesus of Araςatuba, Sao Paulo. Being his last transfer, he was a bit trunkie, but we kept working. Elder da Silva of Sao Paulo took his place and we worked in that tiny, humble area as the heat increased. He stayed only six weeks and Elder Zuniga of California came. With no baptisms in months and feeling that every door has been knocked, we tried our best to stay excited. We finally went to the house of a woman who had been baptized as a youth and she wanted her children to be baptized and they were baptized my last week in that area. With only three transfers left, I was suddenly startled with how little time I had left. That, and I expected my next area to be my last, which was not the case.

In four months, I was transferred from Montenegro to Gravataì, and within Gravataì from Parque dos Anjos to Bom Sucesso. Elder Galani of Campinas worked to reanimate the ward in Montenegro and visited every address in the ward directory. In Parque dos Anjos, Elder Feuz and I were once again companions and we helped a wonderful family to be baptized. My last transfer in Bom Sucesso was with Elder Ferreira of Salvador.

My mission has been a help to me in indescribable ways. Without it, it would have taken an inordinate amount of time to understand the power of the Atonement and the guidance of the Spirit, both of which I was privileged to see daily while serving as the Lord's servant. Because of my mission, I know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and that because of Him, I can be happy, and without Him, I am inevitably lost and fallen. He accepts me notwithstanding my many faults because He wants me to accept Him into my life. I know that the prophets, past and present, speak the words of the Lord and that we must study and follow their teachings to better understand Christ. There is no substitute for feeling the effects of the Atonement in our own lives and in the lives of our dearest friends. This is the work of the Lord and it will go forth.

Algebraic Wonders

2008-11-14T15:37:00.009-07:00

I was just working on my Circuits and Signals homework when I realized something. Whatever happened to working with the variable 'x'? I still have the 'y' but it can differ with dots, capitalization, cursive, italics and Greek and they make me work with a lot of 's's these days. Often a 't' or 'τ' gets in there but what happened to 'x'? I miss x...
Now solve for Y(s) and find the inverse Laplace transform. Yeah, that's how I feel.

Solarphobia

2008-11-06T16:44:00.010-07:00

I do not understand the concept of getting a tan. I just never have. If you go out into the sun for too long, you get burned, right? And spending a little less time in the sun results in a less severe burn. What is this I hear about tanning if there is no middle ground? I don't get it!

And that must be why I dislike tans; I instantly associate light with burns and cancer therefore, I see a person with an obviously manufactured tan and I shriek in horror, "You're gonna die!" Well, perhaps not that dramatic but still, it unsettles me to see a girl with skin darker than her hair. Lucky for me, I live in an engineering building where no one sees the sun...I'd better move to Alaska before long.

All Hallows' Even

2008-11-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

And Halloween! It went over quite well for myself and I hope that it was much the same for all of you as well. My Dr. Horrible costume was a success and was made possible due to the help of Jennie. I wore the costume all day, first to school and then to the Butterknife Estates Halloween Party. Twas good times. Only a few actually recognized my costume as Dr. Horrible but mad scientist also works well for me.

Research Made Possible by Wikipedia

2008-10-24T14:50:00.002-06:00

Alright, just to clarify, stock prices do not equal economy. The two are indeed related but I think we all get to wondering about the state of the economy by the falling stock prices. Stocks are basically what someone will pay for a particular piece of a company. In the case of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it is just that, an average of several companies. The fact that stock prices plummet shows that people are not willing to pay very much for a piece of the economy. This happens when people panic at a piece of news and attempt to sell their stock before the company goes under and they loose everything. At least that's how they see it. Problem is, when this become widespread and everyone panics, no one really wants to buy it and prices drop drastically.

In the 1920's, this caused major problems because people were borrowing money to invest in stocks, hoping to make a return. When they didn't, they couldn't pay back loans, banks didn't get their money, people panicked and ran to the banks to get their money before the bank completely ran out of money, banks fell apart, not having enough money to cover the massive withdrawal, other companies lost money from their banks, there wasn't money in the right places, companies had no business and hence laid off workers and there was an overall mess that led into the great depression. Note that this took years from the Black Tuesday in 1929 to the stock bottoming out in 1932 and many years more to rebuild what had been broken. Also note that while the crash led into the depression, it wasn't the cause. If anything, the depression caused the crash!

Another interesting panic was the one in 1907 where some rich guy thought he could get richer by cornering the market in copper and squeezing money out of investors. Well that didn't work and his bank lost money. People lost confidence in all banks, companies with stocks lost collateral on loans being called in and J.P. Morgan, John Rockefeller and New York's richest guys bailed out the banks to cover the cost of the run on the bank (Andrew Carnegie probably would have helped but he sold his small business to Morgan and retired six years earlier). And by bailed out, I mean it was a loan.

My verdict? Speculation is bad, some kinds worse than others. As is greed and corruption, all the time. And above all take advice from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, DON'T PANIC!!! Just don't do it.

Help me, I'm trapped!

2008-10-21T22:17:00.003-06:00

See that building? That is where I live. Tuesdays are my specialty at living there. 9:30AM to 12:30AM for a neat little 15 hour day. If they would just have institute in this building, or at least linked to it, I could stay inside all day! Six tacos generally tackle my hunger for those 15 hours. Now if I could just get some work done...

Something?

2008-10-10T18:40:00.000-06:00

3 Names you go by:

Bretzel
Cornglen
BRET!!!

3 Restaurants I love

Umm...
Uhh...
Food...?

3 Trips to plan on this year

Logan
Highland
Back to Logan

3 Things I want badly

Something useful to do with my time
Someone with whom I can do said thing with said time
Well, I'm doing alright actually

3 pets I've had

Tigger
Thud
Kimber X6 (the fish)

3 Things I did yesterday

Homework
School
Ate plums

3 Things I ate today

Plums
Beans and Rice in a tortilla
Cream of Wheat

3 Fears

That I'll either go insane or become sane
That I'll go all day without accomplishing anything worthwhile
That I won't measure up to the challenge

3 Things I plan on doing today

Not sure, it's Friday night!
Bake some more?
Do some more homework

3 Things I plan on doing tomorrow

Work on a Dr. Horrible lab coat
Work on some homework
Do something productive

3 Favorite Holidays

Christmas
Halloween
The Ides of Every Month

3 Favorite beverages

Water
Generic Beverage
Otter Pops

3 People I tag

The glass?

2008-10-09T17:07:00.002-06:00

I saw this at despair.com. They sell it on T-Shirts. I like the realist. Which one(s) are you?

I think!

2008-09-30T23:58:00.008-06:00

As Pandora Radio is to music, Project Gutenberg is to literature. Kind of. And by literature, I mean the old stuff. The classics. Words well written that is not such a simple read. I wish I could write like them!

Anyway, Project Gutenberg is an online library of thousands of free electronic texts. You can find most anything that does not have a copyright to it. From Plato to Dickens, Jeppe Aakjaer to Samual Zwemer. Just this evening, I found the book, "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen and read the whole of it.

So go for it and broaden your minds by listening to music and reading fine literature!

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep: wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, "Peace, be still!"
-James Allen

Maybe I've played too much...

2008-09-26T18:17:00.005-06:00

Most every time I finish a task of a size, I tend to hum to myself this ditty.

It's from every Final Fantasy game out there from I to X and you hear it every time you win a battle. It's my way to telling myself that the day is mine.

Butterknife Estates Blog

2008-09-23T17:06:00.002-06:00

Check out the new blog of our most beloved dwelling, Butterknife Estates. 'Tis a wondrous place!

Music for the Masses

2008-09-17T20:59:00.005-06:00

You probably should have heard of Pandora Radio by now. Why? Because it is the greatest thing to happen to the listening part of musics. I used to log on to Yahoo! music every day and listen to the music they had there, rating every song that came my way so that I could get only the music that I wanted to show up. Maybe it was after 500 or so songs that I rating for good or bad that I realized that if I wanted to listen to a different genre (or even to separate them) I would have to pay for membership. Then I found out about Pandora.

Well, I actually served a mission and THEN I found out Pandora. Put an artist or song in and then you have your own radio station powered by the music genome project. Neat, huh? I put in Jon Schmidt, Jim Brickman and David Lanz into one station and now I have all the best piano music out there. And if I only had an AT&T or Sprint phone, then I just might be able to do it all on my phone. Or if I had an iPhone, I'd have it made!

So get out there and participate. These two posters are two of 25 possible winners of the Pandora poster contest that ends tonight at midnight. Soon, they'll be giving them out to people who donate through globalgiving to promote music education throughout the world. That will be sometime soon in the future. So with just $10, you can help get a music stand for two Brazilian children.

With my Freeze ray I will Stop the World!

2008-09-09T21:12:00.002-06:00

I'm at work and I've finished most of my current homework and I'm slightly bored. Not too much though. So I'll blog about my latest endeavors.
Last night, I put it into my head (more so than usual) that I would like to dress up as Dr. Horrible and possibly sing along (as suggested by the name of his blog). For Halloween, for Mr. 11th ward...whatever might come up where I would need to don the likeness of the man with a PhD in horribleness. For those of you who haven't heard, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is a delightful 43-minute musical in three acts about a villain (the good guy, Dr. Horrible), a girl (Penny, the one he's too shy to talk to at the laundromat) and his nemesis (corporate tool, Captain Hammer). You should all watch it at hulu.com or maybe I'll send you a CD.

The real problem with the costume of Dr. Horrible is his lab coat. I cannot find its likeness anywhere short of a cheap mad scientist costume from a Halloween shop. And that also must be altered somewhat. Anyway, I'll find a way.

But the costume wasn't what I was working on last night and this morning. It was the dilemma of getting music that has words to be music without words. So I worked long and hard over audacity (the best audio editing software that is free. Tell your friends) to shift, invert, mix and cut noise from one of the songs on the blog. No such luck. I did find a method that works to varying degrees depending on the song. But not at all on this one. It involves splitting the stereo, inverting one side and then mixing. It works! Wait, no, it didn't. But I did find someone who took the time to transcribe the music himself and put it in a midi that sounds just like the original. So that turned out ok.

And as a side note, I do nearly always plan my Halloween costumes sometime in August. It's the only way to do it!

The Musical Density Function!

2008-09-05T20:39:00.000-06:00

I think that you should listen to more music. And I mean music! It doesn't really matter what type, though some kinds contain more musicality than others. Why I say this is this: I noticed that I liked music a lot and the more I listen to it, the better I feel.

The musical density coefficient (of sorts) is more something that I made up on the spot for this blog. But think about it! If you were to listen to an hour of your favorite band, you would hear some music, depending on the genre, but then how much MORE music would you be listening to if it were Beethoven or Bach? See what I mean? Not all music is created equal then. And not only is there more absolute music in Mozart, it just has that superior quality to it.

Currently, I've grown fond of the Irish musics. True, the drinking songs reflect no Mozart but they certainly are lively and the Irish ballads ('The Town I Loved so Well' and 'The Fields of Athenry' are among my favorites, almost without regard to the arrangement) carry great music.

So go listen to some more music. Increase your intake!

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their
pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski

Retrospect and Conclusion

2008-08-19T16:12:00.000-06:00

So my summer has come to an end. About time. But the summer started with such promise in store! Let's look back at what I started with in my ambitions and compare the beginning with the end, shall we? Let us begin. My old blog post from last April had these assertions to which I would hold.

Waking up at 7:30: Until I became a slug-like creature in this last week, I woke up at 7AM every day.

Swimming every day: Yes! About 85% of the time. I've been enjoying it.

Scripture Study: Every day!

Books: Reading and listening to audio books nigh constantly. At current, 26 books and I'll finish "Ender's Shadow" before I get home.

Music: I did buy my clarinet (not a guitar though) and I am quite deft at it, but I haven't really practiced too much. I have listened to copious amounts of Irish music this summer though.

Random Numbers: 30 pounds of taters. 7 lbs of rice. 8 cans of beans. 3 lbs of oatmeal (the rest spilled in my car). Over 140 corn tortillas. Over 5000 miles. 102 installations. 4 offices. 4 singles wards. 14 weeks and only one single day with rain. And garlic powder is my most trusted seasoning.

That's about it. I've had worse summers. And now I'm coming home. Woot!

Automobile Maintenance

2008-08-09T09:41:00.000-06:00

Having some time on my hands at sometimes and none at othertimes, that and I drive my car an average of 66 miles per day (that's 2000 miles in a month), maintaining my car has been important. Usually, I figure I can do it myself but I want the best for my car and my last oil change was done by a professional. Plus I had a coupon. Of course I had expected him to try and make more money out of me, they always seem to do that. Super oils and performance bids and all that jazz. Like my car has performance. Just keep it running. Anyway, he brought to my attention the dismal condition of my radiator and transmission. Both were in desperate need of changes. So maybe you're thinking what I thought. "Wait, one needs to change transmission fluid and flush the radiator?" Forgoeing the $230 fee he thought to incur ("I'll throw in the air filter for free!"), I decided to do a bit of research.

Autozone.com has a wonderful database of car repair and maintenance manuals. Everything I need to know to fix my car, except recharge the air conditioning. They told me that my car would explode and I'd die in the attempt. So here, I'd like to impart my acquired knowledge to all yous.

Oil: Everyone know that you change every 3000 miles or three months. No biggie. Do it yourself or the jiffylube guy can do it. Not a particularly costly endeavor.

Radiator: Mechanic websites say every three years. My antifreeze says it's good for five. Do it eventually though, it isn't all that difficult. Just open the valve at the bottom of the radiator and in the engine block to drain then run some flushing chemical ($3-$5) through it and rinse. Refill with a 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze ($9) and you're done.

Air Filter: Very easy. The filter (mine is $14) says every 12,000 miles so you should be good for a few years. Be sure to check it every once and again to knock the fluff out.

Transmission: This one is fun and takes a more than an hour to completely finish (I'm in the process now). Mechanic websites say every TWO YEARS. Not that I think many people actually do. The stuff I took out of my car could very well be 18 years old as it was black as pitch. Probably basing themselves on the fact that few know how or when to do this, the mechanic wanted to charge me $100 to do it. As if! The fluid ($13 for a gallon, almost twice as much as I need) and the filter ($20) are all you need. Drain the old stuff. Remove the pan and old filter. I had to scrape the 18 year old cork gasket off the thing. Clean the pan and magnets that catch metal shavings and put back together correctly. Check the autozone website for details on where to find these parts on your car. Then hopefully your transmission fluid will be bright pink like it should instead of black like mine.

Because nothing feels quite as good as knowing that one piece of your car is in perfect working order. Ding!

Sandy Eggo!

2008-08-02T11:11:00.000-06:00

So I've set to the road again, this time to San Diego for the final three-week stretch. Well, it's really Vista, CA but considering that I'll be one of two technicians, I could conceivably work strenuously until the end of my term. But what's more is that I have my own apartment! A single bedroom apartment for my very own with garage, washer, dryer, microwave and queen sized bed. Not sure how I feel about that last one though. My sheets don't fit it.
I should have been in place last night when I arrived but Alex, the lead tech here, wasn't answering his phone from 10:45 to 2AM when I gave up for the night. I resigned to sleep in my car (very uncomfortable) and on the ground (my woolen blanket, now in the wash, smelled badly) mostly because I didn't feel like stopping in the La Quinta Inn for the four hours or so that I would sleep. Besides, what is more fun than scampering from one resting place to another as the sprinklers turn on in the night? I did get reimbursed for the money I spent at IHOP at around 5AM. You may very well guess that it wasn't a most restful night. The oatmeal broke open and got everywhere in my car...

All Over!

2008-07-23T15:56:00.000-06:00

Throughout my travels, I've visited a few temples and taken pictures. Las Vegas temple. I went there during the two weeks where I waited for work. It wasn't too far from the apartment either.Redlands, CA temple. This one was just over thirty minutes from the apartment.

Los Angeles, CA. I went to church in the building nearest to the temple so I thought I'd stop by and take a picture.San Diego, CA. I had no idea that the temple was nearly on top of the freeway. I passed it on the way to a job there. Yeah, I did drive four hours round trip for a single job but at least I got gas paid for and made $100 on top of that

Food and fancy free

2008-07-21T20:56:00.000-06:00

L.A. has been good and fairly busy even if I'll never wish to live around here again. That traffic! And it hasn't rained here in Southern California since May. Not my type of conditions. Soon, I'll be back to the comfort of Logan, UT where it will begin to turn cold and I won't have to drive everywhere. Sweet.

Today has been slow. I even spent all day at home waiting for that call to arms. But, alas, no such luck. As I ate dinner, I worked out the price of that meal, something about which I tend to be quite concious. My rough estimate for the delicious meal of mashed potatoes and tacos was about 45 cents. I ate the same thing for lunch too. And Sunday dinner though I still had salsa and a nectarine then. I have found that variety certainly costs. And while buying twenty pounds of potatoes at a time certainly saves money, it does extend the length of time where I eat potatoes. Not that I can complain. I eat well. Even if it is just a couple of rolls and bananas that I pick up at a local grocery store while on the road.

L.A.

2008-07-10T14:18:00.000-06:00

With the Riverside office closed down after all that stuff going down on the fourth, I was lucky enough to not be sent home or waiting endlessly for a place. They promptly put me in the Los Angeles East office in the middle of the city only a few blocks from Chinatown. The apartment here is more like a four-star hotel and quite nice. I'll probably spend my remaining days of summer here. That's the idea anyway. I'll keep you all posted.

Now what did I say!

2008-07-04T13:09:00.000-06:00

Phew! The cops just left. I guess there's a first time to be frisked by an officer. So here's the low-down. Another guy working for Pinnacle but in another apartment was about to be arrested for domestic violence. He threatened to shoot her and she him. They bust out and what-not while I'm unaware in my room until someone apparently saw him come into our apartment. The fuzz got everyone out and then yelled for me to come out (it was at that point that I entered the scene, walking out of my room to stare down the barrel of a readied firearm). They do their thing, looking for weapons and such. So that was very interesting and all but after they checked our infos (there were four of us, I being the only one who actually lived at that apartment), they left. I think they arrested my roommate too, but outside earlier, and found his 'stuff' in the couch. Good times.
Happy Fourth of July everybody!

And there you have it

2008-07-01T15:22:00.000-06:00

Summer Update: Work exists, even if it isn't steady. Nine in a week is respectable enough but I do spend most of my days at home until a job in the night times. Except on Saturday. I guess the salesmen weren't enthused so they all scarcely left the house. Needless to say, I didn't work on Saturday but I did watch four movies. The prospect of moving up to Stockton is postponed indefinitely and was indeed canceled all-together over the weekend. Looks like I'll stay here for a time. I might also be losing one of my roommates. I certainly don't know what's going on but someone told me that if he sticks around, I should be prepared to see myself on COPS.

But not much else has been happening so I'll let you all get on with your lives.

Idea Blog

2008-06-17T14:39:00.000-06:00

It's been sweltering down here and that makes attics all the better to work in during the afternoon. I do try to avoid that though.

I suppose not much goes on. I work when there's work and either read or listen to audio books when there's not. Or perhaps I buy rolls and bananas for snacks and take a nap in a local park. Whatever the case, I try to stay on top of things.

Just now as I was starting to write this post, a man comes up to me and tells me that once, his wife spoke to me as I sat in the shade of this tree with my laptop. Apparently I had snapped closed my laptop and sprinted from the scene. So he asks, "Now why did you do something like that? She said she talked to you and you went and boogied out of here." Interesting observation but not unheard of. I do like to run to places when I have somewhere to go. I told him that, and that I hadn't the foggiest remembrance of the event. Even if I don't find it strange, he did, but he let me be.

Although I'd like to challenge the phrase "colorful language" when it comes to profanities. Most recently here, I've found the rapidity and frequency of the use of such language but colorful? When the f-word alone is used to describe every single noun in a conversation, I hardly find that colorful or interesting. But that's just me.

Something that is a bit more colorful and cheerful would be all the ice cream trucks around here touting their wares and playing their silly jingles. I preferred the one that plays Puff the Magic Dragon and Greensleeves. But if I were an ice cream man, I'd take a completely different approach to the music. Think about it: do the kids even hear what song is playing? Is the type of song inviting? No! The mere jingle-jangly tune is what catches their attention so it doesn't matter what song it is, they'll come running. The trick is to catch the adults attention. Now, what songs could be jingly and catch adults' attention? If I heard one such truck playing Mario, I'd come running too! What better way to get parents to buy ice cream than to invoke the memories of their childhood?
"Mommy! Can I have some ice cream?"
"No dear, we'll...wait...isn't that the theme from Joust? I love that game! Let's go get ice cream!"
"Yay!"
See what I mean? Anyway, that's just an idea. I demand royalties on any success it might have.

And Pictures like I Promised

2008-06-01T22:59:00.000-06:00

You want pictures? You'll get pictures! Since I am not wont to carry my camera around with me, most of them are taken candidly with my cell phone camera. A little (or a lot) less quality but a lot less of a time getting it on my laptop. Just take and send to email. How convenient!

This one is smaller than the rest but it shows dinner while waiting for my tires to be replaced. Not that Wal-Mart did anything, I had to go to Discount Tire the next day to actually get it done. More on that later. So here, I bought a loaf of bread and a package of salami and grabbed hot sauce packets from the Jack in the Box next door and enjoyed a gourmet meal on the grass outside. Ahh, nothing like quick on the road meals that aren't fastfood.

This is where I live in Riverside, CA. Windemere apartments. Nice place but nearly no parking to speak of.
The apartment pool. I go a-swimming in the mornings. Unfortunately the guy who unlocks the place isn't very consistent so I never can guess when it's opened in the morning.My car! Such a trooper for making it thousands of miles around for me since the day we met. Those familiar with the vehicle might notice that the white spots on top have been replaced with red ones. That is because I spray painted them. Yeah, nothing like a simple job done by hand to transform a car from merely old to "that car has spray paint marks on it." I went bonanza and covered all the chipped paint areas to prevent rust. That's what Rustoleum does, right? With the new tires, she's ready to keep going for at least a while longer.

Standard lunch foods. Ivan, Ben's Bulgarian buddy, likes to cook quite a bit. So much that leftovers pile up. So there seems to be an endless supply of cold ham in the fridge. And the goblet? I bought that at the DI in Las Vegas. I like having my own cup out of which I can drink without it being mistaken for just another cup.

This is my clarinet. I bought it at a reasonable price from someone in Las Vegas and I have been practicing on it. So far so good. The only problem is that the mouthpiece and the barrel have a hard time separating and it takes a few days to wrench them apart again.

This is a usual setting for me for checking my email. We don't have internet at our apartment so I go off and borrow someone else's. And that is the least conspicuous spot of doing so.

This is where I last got my haircut by a real professional barber, the kind that have been cutting hair for 51 years.

So Shines the Sun Upon Us All

2008-05-30T00:11:00.000-06:00

And now for an update. All is fine, nothing is ruined. In fact, things are starting to pick up. I've done three installations today (that's at $55 apiece) and several others this week. I haven't had much time to doddle...or do my laundry. My email has even been piling up. Such is life. I have been keeping up on the stretching, swimming and reading routines. This is usually how it breaks down:

I find myself minding my own business when out of the blue, I get a text message from yonder Leah, the office secretary of sorts. The texts supplies no more information than a name, address and phone number and the curious letters, asap. I head up the attack and arrive on the scene in a few minutes thanks to my trusty GPS. What's this? A security system with a two-way voice system needs installing in this house void of all securities? I accept the task! The panel is placed within close proximity to both outlet and phone, causing the work to fly. Under less favourable conditions, I could find myself exploring the lost regions of an attic in order to get the proper signals and powers that are required. And insulated walls? For soothe!
Having vanquished the panel, its extremities, the sensors, fall into place easily. Some may be found recessed in doors, others mounted on the side. Testing them proves their mettle. If the signals and powers that be are correct, a voice (let's call him Harold) informs me that my signals are indeed received and an operator will be on the line shortly. Having thwarted his scheme once again by placing the entire beast on test via the one on VRT (let's call him Geraldo), I throw my head back and laugh. Success! After confirming with Geraldo that communication between these newly conquered lands is stout, I inform the denizens of their newly acquired duties to perform in order to keep the secure their vassalage. The seal of approval is given by the many voices from the place of Q&A. Unlike Harold and Geraldo, these have intonation and variance in their speech.
Conquest achieved, I inform Leah and take leave to rest in the shade of a tree while reading of the many gallant deeds of the Knight of the Rueful Figure also known as Don Quixote de La Mancha until another such text requires me to act.

Move West, Young Man

2008-05-17T11:42:00.000-06:00

In accordance with my work (and lack thereof), I have been transferred from my post in Las Vegas, Nevada to Riverside, California and next month to Stockton, CA. It's a promising area, booming with work for those of the security technician persuasion. I hope to still keep up my stringent regime of productive stuff I do. Unfortunately, the pool here doesn't open until 8AM which will cause a change in the schedule. Such is life. At least I have my own room now. And I'll earn some money doing work. I had considered getting a second job in Vegas at Savers or a call center, but not seriously. This change should be for the best!

A Glimpse into the Eternities

2008-05-11T17:48:00.000-06:00

I've often wondered at the lives of people. As I have mused previously, each person that I meet has a number of years that he or she has lived, even as I have 22 years that I have lived. In my 22 years I have had a great many experiences, trials, joys, pains, sorrows, choices and just plain life. Another person of my age has had a completely different set of all those things, differing in almost every respect. Of all the separate billions of years of experience that now exist upon the earth, no two are the same.

What an amazing concept! And what of the eternities of these years even before we came to this earth? How have those years formed our distinct person? The fact that we are now here testifies that we were indeed loyal to the wishes of our Father and strong to the obedience of those wishes. That we chose to follow Christ unmistakeably shows that we loved and trusted our Father. In light of this, I couldn't ever comprehend how individuals could so blatantly rebel against Him. How could they have rejoiced in the plan of salvation and then so fully reject it? How can so many forget their royal origin? You are a son of the Most High, a daughter of the Divine, regardless of who you are in other respects and what you have lived. And as such, you have unlimited potential no matter what you may believe to the contrary. So many times I wanted to be able to open people's eyes for less than a moment. That is all it would take to remind them of these things. Let them remember their former joys and life and the undying devotion they must have felt towards their Father in Heaven.

O my Father, Thou that dwellest in the high and glorious place, when shall I regain Thy presence and again behold Thy face? In Thy holy habitation, did my spirit once reside? In my first primeval childhood was I nurtured near Thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose Thou hast placed me here on earth and withheld the recollection of my former friends and birth; yet ofttimes a secret something whisper, "You're a stranger here." And I felt that I had wandered from a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call Thee Father, thru Thy Spirit from on high, but, until the key of knowledge was restored, I knew not why. In the heavens are parents single? No, the though makes reason stare! Truth is reason; truth eternal tells me I've a Mother there.

When I leave this frail existence, when I lay this mortal by, Father, Mother, may I meet you in your royal courts on high? Then, at length, when I've completed all you sent me forth to do, with your mutual approbation let me come and dwell with you.

Let us not forget our wonderful beginnings, our loving Heavenly Parents and our divine purpose to return ourselves and help others to return. With that done, we can indeed return home.

Photo Courtesy of Vaughn's Photo Art

And Life in Vegas

2008-05-07T13:01:00.000-06:00

Ahh, Las Vegas! So hot right now. Seriously. So in accordance with that previous post, I am indeed out for the summer working up a storm. Hopefully. The salesmen haven't gotten entrenched yet so jobs haven't happened much. More are on their way...I certainly don't want my summer to be a bust.

I have liked it here so far. If I jump over the wall by our apartment, the library with within three minutes walking. The non-wall jumping route takes more than 15. That also puts a few grocery stores and a music store within walking distance, which is good. So far, cereal is breakfast, PB&J is lunch and mashed taters for dinner. I also have been doing quite well with my scheduled mornings. We have a pool, which simplifies things, so I swim each morning. I found a guitar and clarinet on Craig's list and everything else seems to be working nicely. Except the whole working thing. Bah!

If Ye are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear

2008-04-27T22:11:00.000-06:00

Things are going well specifically. Not so sure generally. I'd like to take a moment voice my unqualified opinion about the situation. Assuredly, you are familiar with news of gas prices and rice shortages. Neither of which are all that fun but can be coped with by most people I know. Of course, one of the few things I remember from my economics class (aside from the fact that no one really knows how economics really work) is that a crop failure and rise in food prices have always preceded recessions in the economy.

If that wasn't enough to make me uneasy, just the whole preoccupation with the economy and not so much with anything else.

For behold, the Lord had blessed them so long with the riches of the world that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, nor to bloodshed; therefore they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, they began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another; therefore they began to commit secret murders, and to rob and to plunder, that they might get gain. Helaman 6:17

Further, there was the great opportunity for me to hear President Boyd K. Packer today in my stake conference. He mentioned briefly gas and rice and told us to be prepared. He told stories of impoverished peoples. Most importantly, he told us that if we are prepared, we needn't fear.

Are we prepared? Can we survive physically? Do we have patience to flourish spiritually? Can we do what it takes and not languish and despair and murmur? Now, I have no idea what is up and coming in the history of the world, but the point is that it is indeed coming. No amount of indifference, apathy and ignoring will prevent or delay anything of the like. It might let it progress unhindered though.

I should like to be ready to do anything, to experience everything and to endure all things. I cannot expect anything less than difficult for the world until Christ Himself comes. What a great opportunity for us to keep Him in heart and mind so that we can not only survive, but flourish.

Snowflakes keep falling on my head...

2008-04-25T09:41:00.000-06:00

It snowed quite profusely yesterday. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the way it came down so thickly. I could look up into the sky and see nothing but millions of snow clusters on the backdrop of an overcast sky. Each snow flake falling, blown about by winds, some landing in my mouth, others in my hair and on the ground. Pleased, I went through the thick of it, staring upwards, lost in the true kaleidoscope in the air. Amazing how the trees can catch it as it piles on and the grass turns white towards the end of April. It needs to be seen as such, not a nuisance, but a wonder!

Productivity is up Something-Eight Percent!

2008-04-15T22:07:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty excited for school to be over. By that I mean that I am stressed out by all the projects that I have to finish in the next week or two. Especially those that I have no idea how to do. I figure I'll get them worked out, even if it takes all the energy of my soul. But after that, the summer begins. And by that, I mean that the work begins. You see, I might be going to Los Angeles or Las Vegas, or any of the other larger cities in the west to mid-west United States, to install security systems. It might be a sweet deal; free rent (provided I work hard) and great pay (also dependent on my work ethic) with time to boot.
Now, what can I do with all that time? The prospect of playing more video games than I could shake a stick at isn't all that attractive, so I devised a number of activities, studies and somesuch that will occupy my free morning time (being the mid-afternoon to night that we work). My schedule, ahem:

Wake 7:30 I like to wake up early
Swim 7:45 Something I decided to do on my mission
Shower, Clothe, Breakfast 8:45
Study Scriptures 9:30 Just like a missionary!
Study Languages 10:15 I'm thinking of adding Spanish to my Portugeuse
Practice Sax, Clarinet, Piano, Guitar 11:00 To sharpen my musical skillz
Lunch 12:00 PB&J!
Reading 12:30 I have a library that I've been meaning to read
Work Whenever something comes in.

It will be like being on a mission again! Ahh, good old structured time. I hope beyond hope that I'll actually stick to this and not get distracted. I would like to though, at the very least to come out of summer well learned and practiced and fit. And it's exciting. Of course if any of you have ideas for things to do, I'm open for ideas.

Most Sublime

2008-04-04T10:28:00.000-06:00

While reading one of my most favorite chapters of scripture the other day, I read the words,
"And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Enoch, and told Enoch all the doings of the children of men; wherefore Enoch knew, and looked upon their wickedness, and their misery, and wept and stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook." Moses 7:41

I thought of the immense charity that Enoch had to feel such compassion on millions of people he never knew. Can any of us say that our heart has swelled wide as eternity for even one person that we love? Enoch then proceeds to weep and ask repeatedly the questions, "Lord, when will the Messiah come? When will the Earth rest?" After the visions of sorrow had passed, he saw his city, the city of Zion, coming to usher in the period of rest for the earth in a time when everything seems to have gone wrong. Even in that last time of nigh hopelessness, the Lord promised righteousness from Heaven and truth from the earth so that we could prepare Zion. There is always hope, provided we reach for it. The following corresponds with the general feeling I get from Enoch.

Oh where is the comfort of my soul? Yea, why hast thou hardened thy heart? I speak of joy, happiness and of thy God and thou dost turn away and reject mine words. I speak neither of myself nor for mine own gain but indeed for thy benefit. Hast thou prayed? Hast thou turned with thy grieving unto thy Father in Heaven? Where art thy scriptures, the words of the holy prophets, and why hast thou not searched them for the answers that thou seekest? Is not thy pain real? Is not thy sorrow consuming even unto death? Yea, thou continuest in thy ways, neither perceiving nor desiring to see the light that doth abundantly shine. Hast thou forgotten thy former joys? They were as colored as springtime and filled thy soul with gladness, yet now thy soul droopeth in sin. How hast thou fallen? Why hast thou forgotten? Remember, my brother, remember and sin no more. Call upon the name of the Lord for thy deliverance and He will pluck thee from thy sorrows even until His own bosom, yea, His arms reach continually unto thy soul. Arise and remember! Thou art of royal lineage, no mean creature, but a son of the Most High God. Thy time is now; let it not pass away in vain. Let it be for thy progression and not for thy destruction, then shall your joy and mine be full and our confidence wax great in the presence of God and we shall rejoice in the righteousness of the Lord forever in His glory, for His is the power and glory and His mercy faileth not.

So the point I am trying to express is that we all need help and we all need to help. Maybe then our bowels will yearn and cause even all eternity to shake. We can do it!

Now That's Freedom

2008-03-18T17:58:00.001-06:00

I'm happy to be me. I'm happy that I can find joy in the things around me. Just imagine if you couldn't. Something would always be too hard, too cold, too unpredictable, too much or too uncomfortable. Then life would gather more than its share of everything unpleasant because life does have its unpleasantness but who wants to see more of that? I should hope that on no one. Life does indeed have it's pleasantries, granted you look for them. There's always help with that too when one allows it. Seek for joy, I implore you.

When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstance.
- Victor Frankl

I muse

2008-03-15T22:07:00.000-06:00

Do you muse? We should all muse every once and again. Sit, ponder, wander in wonderment, lost in thought, in someways, out elseways; there should always be time to just find yourself in the labyrinth of the mind, finding new things, uncovering old things and looking at all things. I drove. That's what I did: I drove. About eight hours actually. I noticed the flowers at intervals at the side of the road and wondered at the life each represents. How many years were lost? Surely they had friends. Which was more lamented, the old experience gone away or the pure potential never reached? What is their story? Each one has a story. Each one has to. I mused over what those stories might mean. Worlds without end of thoughts, dreams, hopes...hope? I hope. I know we mustn't mourn too harshly. Because I hope. Words of hope are also on the road. "Dreams for a better world, and does something about it: Hope." He hopes too. We all should. Good must exist everywhere there is hope. There is much good. Can I find it? It couldn't possibly be missing. There it is, in the people. We should be wont for goodness, don't you think? Less the badness in favor of goodness. And that should make a difference.

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

2008-03-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

Don't you just hate it when you waste time? You can waste a whole lot of things and not feel all the choked up about it. We waste food, water, words, electricity, thoughts, gas, advice and just about anything that can be found in any excess. But time? Nothing just strikes at the heart as the feeling of a day gone by that was used to accomplish absolutely nothing. Ouch. It's almost as bad to use all that time to accomplish something of no worth. That's basically the same as doing nothing. Nothing doing! You only have so much time. Do you want to look back a week, month, year or half a lifetime and see absolutely nothing? How dreadful! We all could probably benefit from cutting a few useless activities from our life and replacing them with stuff that benefits someone's future or at least our own. Yeah, let's do that. Stop all those games and tv and go make a friend and get on with life, eh? Life! Life is great. We should all live it.

"It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live."
-Jean Valjean Les Miserables

Dead Burning Rubber Skunks

2008-02-19T01:02:00.000-07:00

There have been some strange goings on in the world today. Just this weekend, I've received a text and two bogus phone calls on my cell phone. No, I do not care if my warranty has expired on my car! Nor if you are 'free' for the weekend and your pictures are posted on the internet. Nor especially if you are calling from 911 (from a residential address, nonetheless) making sure that I am ok! You can call that last one at 801 - 374-0260. Tell me if you find out what that is. Anyway, that all doesn't matter. Just a few lost minutes from my cell phone plan. The REAL problem is Ogden freeway construction. Anyone who has traversed that particular area knows what I'm talking about. Two lane traffic, 55 MPH, orange cones, generally a 30 minute delay...it's bearable, of course, if not trying. But whoever thought that diverting traffic off the freeway was a good idea? And why didn't I see the correct detour sign? And how is it that I went in the completely wrong direction?!? Basically what it boiled down to was wandering around in the whereabouts of Ogden (ended up in West Haven) for over a half hour until we got our bearings, turned around many times and ended up at the off ramp where we had started the whole shenanigan. Good times. Besides the fact that the smell of burning rubber and dead skunks made its way into the car.

Yarr! Barnacle Serpent!

2008-02-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

I think there were some people that were complaining that I erased my blog. Yes, I deleted it sometime ago but to rectify the problem of broken links, I thought it my best interest to re-create it. It's good times. And be sure to visit various of the blog links on the side. They would all appreciate comments, especially Thad's "What do Mormons Believe" blog. Go! Comment away!

Logo

2007-11-14T11:16:00.000-07:00