Summer Break

I'm Going On My Mission!

2009-11-13T13:14:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that time has finally come! Two years later I'm finally leaving! I'll cut right to it, I leave for the MTC on Nov 18th, 2009. I'll be in there for three weeks, then I'll head into the Salt Lake City South mission for the remaining 23 months and 1 week. I might be able to post more to my blog while I'm in the field via e-mail, but if not, there probably won't be any updates for the next two years.

I'm super excited! See you guys in two years!

Live from San Diego

2009-11-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

Hello, dear faithful blog readers!

Yep, I'm in San Diego right now. Neal and I (one of my coworkers) are in San Diego for a training conference on internet marketing and real estate investing.

The seminars have been good but super intensive! That could just be mingled with my own tiredness from being on the go for the last few days.

So we flew out of Raleigh at 6am on Saturday morning. Which means I was up by 4:30am that same morning. that totals my sleep for Friday night/Saturday morning at around 3-4 hours. We arrived in San Diego exhausted but alert and jumped straight into seminars.

Anyway, we're staying in the hard rock hotel here in San Diego which is right on the edge of the Gaslamp district. The Gaslamp is the historic-scenic strip of sorts which is pretty fun to just browse. Last night while walking around, Neal and I saw this procession of about 20 early 90s cars with midget tires and 3 ft hydraulic jacks on the front and rear axles. They were 'pimped' out with neon lights and they bounced on their hydraulic jacks. It was one of those I'm not in NC moments.

My second funny story just happened. They were serving refreshments, and I grabbed three bottles of this VOSS water, which looked really expensive. I was just trying to save on my own bottled water costs. I cracked the lid, took a sip, and almost gagged. It was sparkling water. Yes, that is correct. Somebody decided to take water, put carbon dioxide in it, and sell it for more than regular water. This stuff retails for between $2-$4 a bottle. I mean seriously, who the heck are these people? Who found out they could carbonate plain water and make that a product. I didn't have to pay for the water bottles I took—thank goodness. Now I've cracked the lids on all three, hoping my water will go flat so I can drink it. Well, seminars are resuming once more, so I better get back to it. Pictures to come soon from San Diego!

Halloween 2009!

2009-10-31T22:14:00.001-04:00

Here are a couple of pictures from Halloween 2009! I would post more, but mom didn't bring her camera to Trunk of Treat (GASP!) So here are just a few from after with my Iron Man chest piece. Shaylon and I made the chest piece last year (I wired the LEDs and he made the case itself). A lot of people at the Trunk of Treat got a kick out of seeing my costume. Anyway, Happy Halloween everybody!

Kristen and Cory Have Cute Kids!

2009-10-29T14:22:00.000-04:00

I was at home and Ian wanted me to take his picture with his soappy foam beard. All the kids were doing something cute so I took a picture of all of them. Also a big shout out to Kristen and Cory for their hospitality to me over the last year or so. They are AWESOME!

Kids These Days....

2009-10-14T13:14:00.000-04:00

If you've read my blog, you know I love technology. I keep pretty up to date on the latest software, betas, and experimental stuff out there today. I used to be a regular computer prankster here in the office where I work.

Recently, Cory, my brother-in-law and one of my co-workers, jokingly accused me of changing his XP profile picture to a duck. This happened several times and Cory suspected both me and my brother Ethan. One night, when the whole family was together after supper we started talking about this mysteriously changing profile picture. Cory was convinced that me or Ethan was responsible for the change.

Soon, we started asking Kristen's kids. Elise, the oldest said she hadn't and Ian said the same. Then we got to Merry Grace, who is 3 years old said that she has changed her daddy's picture to a duck. We were all incredulous, I mean, she is THREE YEARS OLD. So to test this out I asked her sweetly:

Me: "Merry Grace, could you help me change my computer picture?"

MG: "Sure, Uncle Adam"

Still incredulous, I took her over to my computer while we all crowded around the screen. Merry Grace clicked the start button, clicks on my profile picture, scrolls down to her favorite (the duck), picks it, hits apply, exits the screen, clicks start again to show my new picture (now a duck) and says:

MG: "That's how you change it Uncle Adam. I like the duck, its my favorite."

We stared in disbelief. I know that kids are getting more and more technologically comfortable from a young age, but never in a million years would I have suspected that the culprit to Cory's changing profile picture prank was the work of a three year old little girl.

One other quick little computer story. The other day Elise, (8 years old), was in the kitchen.

"Mommy," she asked "can we use Google Chrome on Netflix?" At the time, Netflix didn't support Chrome, but it now does. Kristen told Elise no, and Elise said:

"That's lame. Google Chrome is my favorite browser. I hate using Internet Explorer because it is so slow, and Firefox takes forever to load up."

It was a moment of pride for me. My 8 year old niece is already using and prefers Google Chrome to the other browsers. Logan's computer app teacher didn't even know what he was talking about when he told her that he used Google Chrome. Kids these days...

My Mission

2009-10-12T12:45:00.000-04:00

Here I am again, two years later, preparing to serve a mission. In case you haven't heard the news already, I got word this past Sunday all my mission-related paperwork is in Salt Lake, so a decision should be on its way.

Although my story may not be unique, it certainly isn't typical either. A little under two years ago, I got my mission call to serve in the Salt Lake City South mission. I entered the MTC but returned home shortly thereafter. I'll admit that this experience brings with it some embarrassment and shame. I remember thinking at the time that two years was this incredible, impossible sacrifice. I was determined, or at least not very willing, to serve.

Then about a year ago, I remember driving home from work and feeling this intense, burning prompting that I needed to serve a mission. The feeling was very unexpected. But from then on out things began to change. With the help of family, priesthood leaders, and a supportive best friend, I progressed and prepared to serve. This time, real desire filled me. I wanted to serve a mission.

I believe that ultimately, the direction we are moving in life is far more important than where we started or where we may end up. Moving forward is progress and anything else is distraction.

I'm grateful for the experiences that have helped to shape me into who I am today. I grateful too, for those that have supported and helped me get to this point—on the cusp of serving the Lord for two years. As my best friend and I frequently say, things will work out. If we are doing what's right, then things will work out.

I'm preparing now to make the same two year sacrifice I almost made two years ago. Although the sacrifice is the same, it doesn't seem impossible. In fact, the future has never looked so bright and felt so full of promise for the next two years and beyond.

What's New in North Carolina

2009-09-28T22:48:00.000-04:00

Well, there is a new blog template. I figure it was about time for something new.

Over the weekend there was one little humorous incident. We have a small poodle mix, technically called a peekapoo. Probably the manliest breed name ever, right behind labradoodle and yorkiepoo. Yikes.

Anyway, his name is Chip and at nights he will tireless chase this little stuffed monkey toy he has. Dad came back from Georgia and we all wanted to watch a show together. Every 30 seconds, Chip would whine, wanting somebody to throw his chew toy so he could chase it and bring it back. Dad, who usually sits in the chair closest to Chip's loot stash area thing. Dad, growing tired of the game, would reach down and grab the monkey without looking, and toss it casually behind him.

Well, inevitably, Dad reached down for the toy, only to grab Chip by the throat and attempt to throw him down the hall! He didn't hurt him, but it was kinda funny because we all happened to be watching at the exact moment Dad reached down and grabbed Chip. After a few seconds Dad said "Whoops, I thought I had his monkey chew toy!"

All is well though. Plus, quick status update on my mission. Last I heard, my information should be in Salt Lake, so now its a waiting game to find out what Salt Lake reports back. Of course I'll post an update when I hear something more definitive. Good night!

Should I Keep My Blog?

2009-09-02T19:01:00.004-04:00

Themes for Google Chrome

2009-08-19T14:22:00.000-04:00

Google Chrome is pretty awesome. Their theme support is already pretty ground breaking.

So go to the Google Chrome themes page and check out their themes. After you've tried a few, you will wonder why you would ever want to download themes with Firefox ever again.

As a sidenote, make sure you are running a dev or beta version of chrome. I use the dev version and its safe to use. I promise. But if all the warnings about stability scare you, no one will call you coward for sticking with the beta (or stable) versions.

Check out the themes and install a few. No browser restarts are required and all the themes have a professional quality to them. Enjoy!

Google OS

2009-07-08T10:24:00.000-04:00

Short post today, but Google is officially entering the arena as a major contender to Microsoft on all fronts.

Microsoft has been trying to steal Google's search dominance with bing, the latest iteration of search from Microsoft. Now Google has announced that they will be designing and releasing their own Operating System (OS). What is an OS? Well, Windows XP and Windows Vista are both OSes from Microsoft. Microsoft currently dominates about 85% of the OS market. The remaining 15% is divided between Apple and Linux.

So, just like Microsoft is in Google's arena with Bing and internet search, Google is now in Microsoft's Arena with its new OS.

You can read the full article on the Google Blog here.

I'm paraphrasing, but the goal of the new Google OS is to make the fastest OS possible, that starts instantly, and is designed to be used on the web/around the web. The post also mentions redesigning security so that with the Google OS, antivirus software will no longer be needed. This announcement might even ruffle Symantec's (Father of Norton Antivirus products) feathers!

Changes to the Blog, and Cool Ways to Enhance Your Own Blog

2009-07-06T14:38:00.000-04:00

Well, there is now a news ticker at the top of the page, courtesy of Google News. Obviously, since this is my blog, it features cool stuff from the Science and Technology corners of the world.

Also, an embedded Grooveshark playlist app is coming into existence, and will be placed on my sidebar, probably near the top. It will likely feature a rotating playlist of songs I enjoy listening to at the moment.

To get the Grooveshark embedded playlist add-on, you will need to create a Grooveshark account, then create a playlist of your favorite music (double check the songs, as occasionally you may find multiple versions of the same song), and then click on the "i" button next to your new playlist. From there you should see the "Embed Playlist" button. That will take you to an in depth embedded player creation, where you can customize the size, colors, and more of your special Grooveshark embedded player app. After all that is over with, you will get the code which you can then paste into your Blog's sidebar.

And if you want some cool background, then hopefully you can find something with a Google Search for Blogger templates

Google Voice (aka GrandCentral) in Beta

2009-06-29T16:35:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post today. But Google Voice is officially entering beta. Which means if you signed up for GrandCentral back in the day, then you should keep your eyes peeled for an invite. And you can try signing up again on the Google Voice site.

For more information about what Google Voice is, how it works, etc, check out the official post on the Google Blog.

Things Only Chrome Can Do

2009-06-19T14:55:00.000-04:00

Today I'm gonna make a quick post full of fun things you can do with your Google Chrome browser.

If you are using FireFox or Internet Explorer, these experiments probably won't run right. Why you ask? Chrome has a special and powerful JavaScript engine that makes it able to do cool things like in the links below.

If you have the latest FireFox beta (3.5), then you may be able to run some of these experiments, but they probably still won't look exactly right. The Chrome Experiments page has more links, but here are a few of my favorites, plus descriptions.

Bomomo - This is a cool randomizing drawing program. You can make tons of cool shapes and patterns. Select randomizing tools from the bottom of the page and hold down the mouse to draw. Play with the line and polygon tools located along the bottom of the tool bar on this page.

Fireworks - Spells out a message, (customized by the box at the top of the screen). Shoots line fireworks all over the screen.

Solitaire - Takes a little bit to load, but it an extensive solitaire game that runs entirely on the web. (Better than XP's default solitaire, I think).

Google Sphere Image Search - An awesome way to use Google Image Search. It may take a sec to load, but once it does, the page will rotate around the image search box. Perform a search and watch the images fly into orbit around the box. Do another search and the old images fly away replaced with the new results, all in a perfect, mouse-controlled orbit, around the search box. Very cool!

Depth of Field - A fun little way to watch a very well done 3-d depth of field demonstration. Camera x-y axis controlled with the mouse.

The coolest part of these experiments is that they are done with JavaScript and not Flash or Silverlight. What does that mean?

Its like somebody who can build a really nice car (Ferrari) with two screwdrivers. If he can build a Ferrari with that little, then imagine what all he can do with power tools. That's why Chrome is so cool, because it can do all the neat stuff in the above experiments with two screwdrivers, where other browsers need power tools.

Skype Beta (v4.1.x) is Available

2009-06-18T10:20:00.000-04:00

I like betas. Well, I like have cutting edge technology, and the latest features. That's why I use Gmail Labs, bleeding-edge Google Chrome (Dev Version), Google Labs, (including my personal favorites, Google Squared and Google Trends), and Google Search Experiments. In addition to all the Google betas, I have the Firefox beta, and the beta of anything else I can get my hands on.

But the point of this post is Skype. Most of my family/friends use Skype, and some portion of them read this blog. So if you haven't already, make sure you go download the Skype Beta. It's definitely worth it.

Just a couple of the cooler features include screen sharing (so no more demanding that you go to Tools -> options -> sound settings -> microphones and webcams -> advanced options -> manual configuration -> reset all). Plus its easier to share contacts, more stable (i.e. less crashes), and its just cool the LATEST VERSION.

If you didn't read any of the post, then use this link to download the Skype Beta. Talk to ya Sunday @ 7!

Something Cool only Chrome Can Do

2009-05-28T15:38:00.001-04:00

Well, Google's I/O conference is happening, so expect lots of big Google announcements over the next several days.

But before you Google Search "Google Wave" and "Google Squared," make sure to check out this fun page, for Google Chrome only.

http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/google_gravity/

It does work mostly in FireFox 3.5b4. But because Chrome has such a powerful Javascript engine, its really the only browser than can run this page. Move the mouse, watch the page fall, and make sure to use the search box to do a Google Search. The results drop down from the top of the page. Use your mouse to sling the objects willy-nilly.

Google Chrome 2.x VS Internet Explorer 8 VS Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 VS Firefox 3.x

2009-05-27T15:44:00.002-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, I'm all about browsers these days. Google has made available a set of JavaScript benchmarks that can be run on any browser to see how fast that browser is. Well, Firefox fanboys clamor around the newest beta release, claiming its the Ferrari of Internet Browsers, whereas Microsoft's PR people tout benchmarks are useless and IE8 is actually the fastest. Anyway, I ran these benchmarks on all of the above browsers 5 times each to see what kind of results I got. Click the link below to see the full spreadsheet with all the data. Or just enjoy the chart below. Higher numbers means faster performance.

The Google Docs Spreadsheet

Commentary on "North Korea 'will pay' Over Tests"

2009-05-26T13:43:00.006-04:00

My commentary is on an article published by the BBC over North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests. The article, if you haven't already read it, is located here.

"Her comments come a day after the UN unanimously condemned North Korea for conducting an underground nuclear test."

Well how a bout that? If the UN unanimously condemns N. Korea's actions, that should totally stop them from launching any more missiles or conducting any more nuclear tests.

"'North Korea needs to understand that its actions have consequences,' she said."

This quote is my favorite. I completely believe that N Korea understands that their actions have consequences. The UN and political ambassadors have applied diplomatic pressure, and N Korea has consistently ignored the pressure, or escalated their nuclear/military arms race. This suggests one alternative. N Korea fully understands what it is doing and either doesn't care about the consequences, or is actually pleased with the consequences. Either way, it should be abundantly obvious that N Korea is not going to respond to diplomatic pressure, the UN (unanimously too) condemning their actions, or other such tactics.

If you are still not convinced, then make sure you've read that article thoroughly. The timeline is as follows:

N Korea tests nuclear capabilities underground
UN responds by unanimously condemning N Korea (what does that even mean/do?)
US ambassador emphasized displeasure and consequences
N Korea tests two short range missiles, hours later

It appears that N Korea is openly mocking the diplomatic pressure applied to them.

"Diplomats said they were seeking 'tough measures', including further sanctions."

Well, obviously the 'sanctions' thus far have failed. But what the h3ll, why not try more sanctions? I think the US foreign policy has failed to account for the possibility that a country might not respond to diplomatic pressure. Even more worrisome, there appears to be absolutely no plan to alter/change this approach foreign policy.

History has shown us that some countries, especially those with large amounts of power consolidated in few people (i.e. Dictatorship), can act irrationally at best and downright evil at worst. Until the US learns this concept and changes their approach to dealing with N Korea appropriately, I fear the pattern of escalation (we sanction more, they escalate their military testing) will continue with potentially devastating results.

Giving Microsoft Props

2009-05-25T10:14:00.000-04:00

So I gotta give props to Microsoft. I still think Google Chrome is a better browser than IE8, but not every company can be the best and everything.

So recently I got my Xbox 360 repaired. I did the request online and had to pay a fee since my Xbox 360 was out from under its Microsoft-extended 3 year warranty. I wrote a note along with the repair order expressing my displeasure in having to pay a repair fee. But I figured since I had done the order online, that there was little chance I'd get my money back.

Anyway, the Xbox got repaired in record time, and it came back with a one year warranty (instead of the typical 90 day warranty). I was checking my account and discovered that they had indeed refunded my money from the repair to me!

So in a situation where no one (besides myself of course) would ever know if no refund were issued, Microsoft took one for the team and repaired my out-of-warranty Xbox, gave me a long warranty, and refunded my money. (Plus a one month free trial of Xbox LIVE). Other issues aside, Microsoft's repair system is unmatched.

One Google Chrome trick to improve your browsing experience

2009-05-21T10:48:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a window open as kind of a popup? And it really should have been a new tab? Well, in browsers like Firefox and IE, you don't have a choice but to use the annoying popup window as-is.

But in Chrome, when you get a popup that ought to be a new tab, you can set the situation right. Click on the Chrome icon in the top left corner of the new window and then select "Show as Tab." BOOM! You did it. Now you can drag the tab into your tab bar at the top, or leave it as a new window.

And in case you didn't know, any tab can be 'drug' into a new window, and windows can be drug, by their tab, into the tab bar. Enjoy!

Want the Google Chrome Beta?

2009-05-14T13:47:00.001-04:00

Quick post today. So do you like Google's betas? I sure do. Well, if you want to use the Google Chrome beta, you have to download the Google Chrome Channel Changer. Basically, at anytime, you can use it to switch between the stable (for the end user who doesn't know what IE stands for), the beta (for users who like new software), and the dev (bleeding edge, when you HAVE TO HAVE the latest, even if its a little buggy) channels.

Download the channel changer here and start getting the latest from Google Chrome. Plus, the new Dev version (and possibly the beta version), have some cool new features, and slightly updated UI (User Interface)

********************************* (Updated 5/15/2009 @ 10:03am)
Using the above download link will download and .exe file. And yes, running that .exe is what you need to do in order to get/use the Chrome beta. You can save this .exe and switch between the stable Chrome, the beta of Chrome, and the dev version of Chrome. Cool, huh?
*********************************

Why Internet Explorer 8 is Worse than Chrome.

2009-05-08T12:31:00.000-04:00

Well, before I get started, I need to fill you in with a little bit of how the innards of IE8 and Google Chrome work.

Both use a multi-process structure. What does that mean? Each program on your computer (iTunes, Your browser, etc) use a process. A process is basically a house. Each house has its own lot, with a default amount of acreage, which you can add to if you want. And each house/process has a certain number of people living there. And the acreage is the memory that the program can use or has access to.
So here is how firefox works:

Firefox runs in one process. So that is one house, with a default acreage (or memory). Every time you open a new tab, you still have just one house with one more resident. Maybe you add some land. Let's say you have 10 people living in that one house, or 10 tabs open in firefox. Sure you have more land, but eventually there is gonna be a conflict over who owns what and how much land each of them should have between them. This is known as a browser crash. And when all the tabs/residents are under one roof, when one blows up, it hurts everybody and crashes all your tabs. So running all the tabs in one process can be bad, especially if one of them crashes.

So Chrome and IE8 use a multi process approach. Each tab has its own house with its own land. So whenever a house/tab has a conflict, its pretty isolated and the other tabs are unaffected.

That is the theory. Chrome does this perfectly. My tabs rarely crash, but when they do, all my other tabs stay open and the browser putters along as if nothing happened. Well, IE8 needs to take a few lessons from Chrome.

A tab crashed in IE8, and I had three tabs total open. I tried to close the tab. No luck. I finished my business in the other tabs, and tried to close the browser. It 'hung' trying to close the problem tab. So then I go to the task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del), and find the iexplorer.exe process. There are a couple of them, because, as I said earlier, this is a multi-process browser, so each tab gets its own process. Well, I do what I always do when a problem has a major meltdown. I kill the process. Thankfully, IE8 is soooo advanced, it knows when a tab is having a problem, so it reopens the process. So basically, I'm in the task manager, just trying to close the processes faster than IE8 can reopen them. Finally I close both processes, and manage to close the process before IE8 can fully reopen them, and finally close out my browser.

Stupid IE8. Chrome has a built in task manager just for Chrome (Right click on your chrome window and select 'Task Manager'). It allows you to see which tabs are doing what, how much bandwidth and processing power they are using. If a tab becomes completely unresponsive, you can easily find which tab and close it. With IE8, you have to use the windows task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) which offers ZERO assistance as to which process is related to which tab (each process and tab is named iexplorer.exe) Once again, I say BRILLIANT microsoft.

Sure IE8 is loads better than IE7 and lightyears beyond IE6. But in terms of speed and reliability, Chrome has got IE whooped! And a new study just came out that shows that 97% of Chrome users have the most recent (and most secure) version of Chrome, thanks to their super-silent update. Whereas Firefox is 84% and the other browsers are 15%-30% below firefox. So you tell me which browser is best.

Preloading Images using CSS and Javascript

2009-05-01T14:49:00.000-04:00

Alright, you web devs out there. If you've ever used javascript-based mouse over effects, you usually want to preload the "moused over" images.

If you want an example, go to http://www.allcapnet.com and mouse over the buttons that are in place for a menu bar. When you mouse over the button javascript says "Hey, somebody just put their mouse over this button, so now I'm gonna swap the current button for this new button."

WHY YOU NEED PRELOADING:

It's like if you buy someone a Christmas present. It would be insane to wait to buy the Christmas present until Christmas day when someone asked you "Hey, where's my present?"

No one would actually do this. We all buy the present 1 year/1 month/1 week/1 day early. Then we wrap it and hide it. That is exactly what preloading is. When the page opens, we know there are some images and stuff we'll need later. So using one of the methods below, we get the image early, while the user isn't looking (metaphorically speaking), so that when the user DOES need the image (like a navbar mouseover), we already have the image.

So preloading get the image early and when the user wants to access the picture (aka a navbar mouseover), we don't have to wait while javascript panics and loads the image — because we preloaded the image it is now instantaneously available to the end user.

However, if the image hasn't been preloaded, then the menu will appear to lag because javascript has to load the image, and then perform the swap. But if the image is preloaded, then when javascript performs the swap, it will be instantaneuous to the end user and they won't notice any menu lag.

So here are two methods for preloading images. One uses pure CSS and one uses javascript. Right now I'm using both together and have been pleased with the results.

CSS Method:

#div-preloader{

width: 0px;

height: 0px;

visibility: hidden;

background-image: url(image-mouseover.gif);

background-image: url(image-mouseover2.gif);

}

Then put this html code soomewhere on your site:

EXPLAINED:

This puts an invisible div on your site. But it has the images you need preloaded set as the background. So the browser downloads the images and then they are available for javascript to swap as needed. The second method involves using javascript:

function preloader(){//created by Adam at summerbreak.blogspot.com

var imgToPreload = new Image();

imgToPreload.src = "image-mouseover.gif";

}

</script>

You would call this function via a body onload command. Like this:

EXPLAINED:

The javascript method creates an image object, and then loads the image. The downside is that not all users support javascript, or have it enabled. Plus the onload command doesn't execute until the rest of the page has loaded. But both essentially do the same thing. Experiment on your own site and find out what works best for you.

My laptop has been losing time

2009-04-30T16:17:00.000-04:00

And you don't understand. I DEPEND on my computer to deliver accurate time to me, within 20 seconds of UTC.

As the title says, my computer was loosing time, and would be off by as much as an hour or two. Completely unacceptable.

So what do I do? Let me tell you. A couple of registry edits, and task schedulers later, my computer should by syncing so often that it'll never lose a second again.

Normally, your windows PC (I'm assuming your running XP or later) syncs time with an internet server once a week. Apparently for me, this wasn't often enough. So first, how do we tell windows how frequently to schedule a time sync? The registry of course. If you don't know what the registry is and still want to make windows sync time more frequently, just follow these following steps exactly.
Registry Edit for increasing (or decreasing) the frequency with which windows syncs time:

Click Start
Click on "Run"
type "regedit" (without quotes) and hit enter
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\TimeProviders\NtpClient
Double click on "SpecialPollInterval" (if that doesn't exist, go to "Edit -> New -> DWORDS" and create a DWORD called SpecialPollInterval
Click on the radio button "Decimal" and enter a value
That is the frequency with which windows will sync time with an internet time server (in seconds). So if you enter a value of 1440 would be .4 hours and 14400 would be 4 hours.

But your not finished. You still want to setup a scheduled task to run often enough that to keep your time synced often.

Go to the control panel, go to task scheduler and make a new task.

When it asks you for a program, tell it to run w32tm.exe (click browse and go to c:\windows\system32)

In the command line for w32tm.exe add the following additions so your command line looks like this:

"c:\windows\system32\w32tm.exe /resync /rediscover"

That will force windows to resync time, regardless of previous errors. Then setup a schedule that runs this at Logon and after the computer has been idle for 5-30 minutes. Or run it whenever you think it good for your system and your available system resources. You can even tell the computer to "wake up" from standby to perform the sync.

ENJOY!

DOJ vs. Google. Round 1

2009-04-29T13:06:00.000-04:00

Word on the street is that the DOJ is increasingly anti-google. Here we appear to have the first official clash between the two.

You can read the full article here.

If you want my opinion on whether Google is actually guilty of anti-trust whateverness, my opinion is no. Microsoft, when it got hit with its anti trust lawsuit back in the 90s, was guilty. Why? They controlled the computer OS market, with 90% of machines running Windows. So they put software on their that users couldn't choose. So when you got a computer, you had to use Internet Explorer. Because that was all that was installed on the computer.

The inefficiency of IE6 and IE7 are direct results of the lack of competition back in the 90s for IE 5, IE 5.5 and IE6.

So why is Google not guilty? Because there is a huge difference between being forced to use IE, and choosing to use IE because its vastly superior to all competing products (its not, but for the sake of the analogy I said it).

Its the same with Google. Sure I could search with Yahoo. Or Ask.com. Or Microsoft's search (what is it, live something?). But each time I choose to use Google because its the superior search engine. Its faster, its more reliable. It delivers more accurate results, with the information I need usually in the top three results.

So thats why I think Google isn't guilty of anti-trust. Aside from that, Google has been very consistent in making sure that all their products are easy to start using and easy to leave. Gmail, for example, allows contacts to be exported/imported (a feature lacking in competitors like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail), e-mail forwarding, POP access, and other features which are lacking in the free versions of many of Gmail's competitors.

If only the new Obama-DOJ saw things my way.

3D User Interface — Without having to wear a glove, etc

2009-04-28T16:52:00.001-04:00

Yeah its pretty friggin cool. Check out the first little bit of the video here.

Or just watch the embedded version beneath this post.

3D Computer Interface from Free Flow on Vimeo.

GrandCentral becomes Google Voice. OH MY GOSH THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE

2009-04-08T20:26:00.000-04:00

Ok, so that was an exaggeration. But seriously. If you have GrandCentral already, then log into you account and upgrade it to Google Voice.

The features are amazing. It may actually replace my cell phone!

Wanna Get the Chrome beta?

2009-04-06T15:31:00.001-04:00

Have you been wondering why, of all the Google products labeled "Labs" and "Beta," why Google Chrome doesn't have a beta? Well, they do. They use a channel changer to switch between three "branches" of Google Chrome's development.

You can "subscribe" to the stable release, the beta release, or the dev release (dev is short for developer). The stable release usually sees quarterly updates (According to Google), the beta release sees monthly updates and the Dev release sees weekly updates.

I would recommend the beta branch to pretty much anybody as its a good way to use and test new features. If you understand/recognize the following info, then the dev branch is for you:

You understand the difference between server side and client side scripting
You regularly write snippets of code
You scoff at people who call HTML "coding"
The warning you get when trying to terminate a process from the Task Manager doesn't scare you in the slightest.

Anyway, here is a direct download link to the Chrome channel changer, which let you "tap" into the beta, stable, or dev version of Chrome. Enjoy!

Which Antiviurs to use?

2009-04-03T13:06:00.000-04:00

Well, this post may be a little out of the ordinary, but I'm trying to figure out which antivirus/security suite is the absolute best.

I have used AVG free, AVG security whatever, and currently BitDefender. I've looked at some reviews online, and some of the top names appear to be Kapersky, Norton (Specifically 2009), BitDefender, and another one that I forgot.

So far, from my own personal experience, BitDefender appears to be superior to AVG. I really like the control that BitDefender gives me. I can even control which websites are allowed to write/read cookies, store scripts on my computer, etc. Plus their antivirus appears to be top-notch.

However, I have only tried these two antiviruses. What do you guys think is best? Any good reviews or tech tips from tech-y friends? Let me know in the comments.

Turn an iPod Touch into an iPhone (+Skype)

2009-04-02T18:59:00.001-04:00

For many years, iPod Touch owners have felt envious and jealous of iPhone owners. Why? Well, a lot of Apps, features, etc, only work on the iPod Touch. Plus the iPhone can make calls and text.

Well no longer. With a $25 add-on, I turned my iPod Touch into an iPhone (almost). I already have a skype account, with accompanying skype number and skype plan (8.95/3mo + $30/yr). Well, iTunes App store has a free skype app download. The $25 microphone (an iVoiceIII) allows me to use the skype app, and effectively turns my iPod Touch into a phone.

And let me say, the Skype app is top notch. An excellent interface, quick load times, and not buggy, like many apps are.

So with a little tech savyness, an iPod Touch, and the Skype app, you can use your iPod Touch like an iPhone. Even better, trip out your friends when you start making calls on your iPod Touch. The iVoiceIII (from Macally) is pictured below.

Internet Explorer 8

2009-03-27T10:55:00.000-04:00

Quick post for today.

If you haven't been keeping up with the browser wars, now might be a good time to start paying attention. The biggest contenders right now are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome (and Opera, recently upstaged by Chrome).

****Browser War Recap*****

Internet Explorer was released on all Windows OS platforms, and was able to get their browser usage high enough (around 98%) to run Netscape into the ground. Netscape is no longer a supported browsing platform. Webpages were built just for IE6 and web development reached a standstill.

Then Firefox was introduced, and now commands 22% market share. Microsoft responded, by releasing IE7, nearly 5 years after releasing IE6. IE7 failed to deliver, and firefox continued to gain market share. Two years after the release of IE7, IE8 is now a final release. As a sidenote, Safari's popularity shows similarity to the increase in mac sales, as safari is the default browser for that OS.

So the big question is, what browser is best?

Well, if add-ons are your thing, then firefox is still the way to go. If prefer speed to all else, then Chrome is where its at. So where does IE8 fit into all this?

Personally, I use a mix of Chrome/Firefox. But after using IE8, I think IE8 may replace firefox on my personal PC. IE8 is significantly faster than previous Internet Explorers, and I feel sure it is faster than Firefox 3.0.7 (current FF version).

I rarely rave about Microsoft products, but IE8 is worth raving about. No matter which browser you use, the good news is that the increased competition from Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, has forced all web browsers to become better, faster, and less obtrusive on your system. So for end users everywhere, this is great news.

My Office

2009-01-29T15:37:00.000-05:00

So yeah, I just wanted to post a quick picture of me at work. The coolest thing I've done lately is hook up an extra monitor to my laptop and use the Extended Desktop functionality.

Now, instead of having to constantly switch between windows, I can have two displays, cutting out a lot of needless window switching.

Right now I've got the MLS (Realtor's search engine thingy) and Raleigh Craigslist open on my computer.

If you have an extra monitor, hook it up to the VGA port on your laptop, then right click on the desktop and select "Graphic Options -> Output to ->Extended Desktop -> Notebook+Monitor"

This will create a second desktop which you can use just like your first. For me, I have to do alot of transferring data from .pdf files into online forms. It gets pretty tiring to constantly switch between windows. This solution has definitely streamlined the process. Yay!

I'm Back

2009-01-22T13:25:00.002-05:00

So I'm back on the blogging scene. Be sure to stay tuned for around one post a week.

And good news, they all won't be tech oriented now, although, if that is what people really want, I will continue to post some tech news.

So stay tuned for lots of exciting blog updates from the world of Adam.

By the way, if you want a laugh, be sure to check out my humor blog project over at http://uselesshumor.blogspot.com

That blog is devoted to providing one funny picture per day, from all sorts of sources. The humor is clean and tasteful, so be sure to check it out.

Xbox 360 Self Repair (We fixed the Red Ring of Death RRoD)

2008-10-01T12:08:00.005-04:00

We did it! Hahaha. We took apart our Xbox 360, piece by piece, and fixed the Red Ring of Death. It took about 2 hours from start to finish and a lot of patience. The hardest part, by far, was removing and reattaching the x-clamps that hold both heat sinks in place.

Besides that one delicate procedure, it was smooth sailing the whole way. Check out the pictures below or check them out in our picasa web album.

Xbox Self Repair

Promoting Websites and Getting Free Insurance Quotes

2008-09-28T18:07:00.004-04:00

Hey everybody. I'm promoting dad's new website, http://www.ncgetaquote.com

My blog is indexed by Google, so links I put on my site make other sites more likely to be included by Google. Anybody who wants to join me is more than welcome.

And if you want an insurance quote, there are forms you can fill out on the site. Unfortunately he can only quote people in NC, but he can usually beat the larger national companies.

Deciphering URLs: A Lesson From Gmail

2008-09-16T16:38:00.003-04:00

So what can we learn from the URL bar? Ever notice how a lot of sites have ridiculously long URLs, full of '?', funny names, weird extensions (cfm, php, shtml, asp, aspx, etc.)?

Before I spill an enormous trade secret here, I want to give a midget lesson, because such things are fascinating to me. Hopefully, your next question would be 'How do I decipher a URL, and what meaning does it have for me?'

If that indeed is your next question, then you are in luck.

The '?' mark in a URL signifies that information is being passed in the URL itself. For example, imagine you have three kids named Bill, John, and Sam. You want to tell your neighbor publicly how old your three kids are. You would say that Bill is 3, John is 6, and Sam is 7. If you wanted to tell your neighbor all this information in a URL, you would do it like this.

http://www.example.com/? bill=3 & john=6 & sam=7

(spaces have been included to make the URL easier to read)

The question mark means information is being sent. Bill, John, and Sam are variables (easy to remember names to use and access the data). The data in this case are the ages of the three kids. The variables (the kids names) make this information easier to access. The '&' sign means more information is being passed strings everything together.

Here comes the fun part. I was wondering if it was possible to sign into Gmail without activating chat. I didn't want to have to disable the chat setting everytime I signed in, etc.

Anyway, I wondered if Gmail chat could be manipulated through URL variables. So I typed this into the URL bar.

http://mail.google.com/mail/?chat=0

The variable here is 'chat' and the data is the number 0. If you are still with me, then you may be wondering why I used a 0 there. In coding, 0 is equivalent with 'false' and 'false' is equivalent with disabling features, etc. So by guessing 'chat' was a valid variable and setting it to 'false' (0), you can sign into gmail without enabling chat. If you use the regular URL (http://mail.google.com) then chat will be enabled like always. Cool huh?

So try it right now, click on the link below and watch as your Gmail loads with no chat box at all. Amazing!

http://mail.google.com/mail/?chat=0

My Inbox = The Year

2008-09-04T18:56:00.003-04:00

Huh, so my gmail inbox has the same number of messages as the current year. Yes, I celebrate a wondorous 2008 messages with Gmail.

Its been a long journey, but we've had some good times along the way. (Click on the image for a full-size)

By the way, if you haven't checked out Google's new browser, you should give it a spin. Download Google Chrome

EthanAdam Design Is Open For Business!

2008-07-05T00:56:00.002-04:00

Just a little side note. Some of you may remember me mentioning that I was into web development. Anyway, that has progressed to me and Ethan creating our own website. Yes, with a friendly little click, you can visit EthanAdam.com and browse through some of our gallery pages, or get a quote for a logo or website design project.

So make my stats look good and visit www.ethanadam.com.

Feedback is always appreciated!

Browsing the Web, 10 different ways to Sunday

2008-06-23T22:26:00.001-04:00

Alright, by now the immensely large community who visit my blog page day after day in hopes of a new post will be happy to see another article popping up on my homepage.

Today's topic is more of an addendum to last week's post. So I've been designing (actually programming) websites recently, trying to turn this into a career, or at the very least, a profitable summer job.

Ethan, my brother, had been helping me with the designing some of the web graphics. His work is quite groundbreaking. Sometimes its hard to even know how to properly implement some of the stuff its so cool.

Anyway, one unfortunate job of being a web programmer is making sure your site works with every browser known to man. Well, here is a quick little list of the browsers and browser versions one should check to make sure your website is fine in all of them.

Internet Explorer (IE for short)
Version 7.0
Version 6.0
Version 5.5
Version 5.0 (Optional, sites are beginning to discontinue support for IE 5.0)

FireFox
Version 3.0
Version 2.0
Version 1.5 (Again, this could be optional)

Opera
Latest Version

Safari
Latest Version

Flock
Latest version (Unnecessary, because Flock is essentially firefox under the hood)

You get the picture. Counting all the different versions of browsers, I currently have 9 different browsers installed on my computer. And I sure do love checking every page of a website 9 different times making sure everything looks the same.

Anyway, I would encourage everyone to try out some of the new browsers. My personal favorites are Flock and Opera.

Flock is a social web browser made primarily for viewing sites like facebook and blogger.com. And opera is awesome purely because of one feature. When you open a new tab, it opens a page with 9 thumbnail images of sites you have set which you can visit very easily and rapidly.

Lastly, with all the energy I have in me, if you are viewing this webpage in anything but the most current version of your browser (go to "Help -> about" to view your browser version), use the links above to download the most up to date browser of your choosing.

And if you happen to be using IE 6 or earlier, PLEASE DOWNLOAD IE 7 or FireFox NOW! As a web developer, I have learned from personal experience that even if a site looks perfect and crisp in IE 7, FireFox, Safari, and Opera, it will look like a happy meal (toy and all) stuffed into a blender and left on high for 30 minutes in IE 6.

I wish I were joking. And the next time you see a message telling to update your browser, do not click ignore. Those thirty seconds for a quick install will give me more piece of mind than you could know.

So I'm A Web Designer

2008-06-10T02:02:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone. Just a quick post to tell everyone to check out the website Ethan and I have designed for Tarron's Kennel. So please check it out and tell me what you like/dislike and what things could be improved.

It is under construction, so some links may lead to placeholder pages, but for the most part, you can get an idea of the website, its design ideas, and the flow.

Anyway, any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

When You're Bored

2008-05-26T18:38:00.004-04:00

If you are sitting at work and have nothing to fill your time, here is a simple, yet addicitive flash game.

All you use are the left and right arrow keys to steer through a 3-d maze of sorts.

Anyway, if you can beat the third level, let me know, thats as far as I've gotten.

http://js.pp.sohu.com/ppp/blog/widgets_0914/game/3dcube.swf

Nabaztag ---- Internet Advertising at its Peak?

2008-05-24T16:02:00.003-04:00

Here is an ad that just blew me away. I found it at hitslot.com so your welcome to check it out to see if the add is still there. Anyway, here is the picture I found. This just doesn't seem like something I would ever need or could ever find any sort of practical application for. Enjoy.

Mom, It Could Be Worse

2008-05-15T13:12:00.002-04:00

Mom, I know you think we play too much Xbox, but it could be worse.

Much worse. Click the link for the full story. This guy is 32, owns all 247 North American Xbox 360 games, plus 3 Xbox 360 consoles (the "Pro" "Elite" and "Halo 3" editions) and he has a wife and 8 year old daughter (and a full time job).

Cars and Technology: The Past, Present, and Future

2008-05-10T15:38:00.002-04:00

The Past

Cars manufactured before the 1970s were purely mechanical animals. The combination of advanced manufacturing processes and a deeper understanding of simple machines gave way to cars in the steam age. The idea was refined and redeveloped, eventually leading to the model-T: the first affordable and mass produced car ever. Technology changed and cars switched from steam to internal combustion. Manufacturing precision and speed increased with time, allowing for higher quality cars to be mass produced.

Coming to the 1970s, computers were placed in cars. At first, these were simple computers that monitored simple things, like oxygen to gas ratio and temperature. Even these simple computers helped engines run more efficiently.

The Present

Today, computers are an integral and inseparable part of any car. Cars now perform diagnostics and monitor most---if not all---working components. From air pressure in the tires to rain-sensing wind shield wipers, cars today do it all. GPS navigation systems are becoming increasingly common standard components in cars. In fact, desktop computers are even built into some high end models with internet capability, just like a regular computer at home. So with computers becoming increasingly common in todays cars, some might ask, what's next?

The Future

So here is my idea for where cars are headed next. Instead of making separate displays (GPS screens, etc), make the windshield itself the display. Instead of having to look away from the road to see where your going on a small 3"x3" screen with a map on it, the map would be overlaid on your windshield.

Manipulation of the screen would be handled by motion sensing gloves. If there was a high amount of glare on your hood, you could draw (using your gloves) to block the glare with a small box drawn on the windshield/computer display.

When driving at night, you could open up a night-vision box so you could see both via normal headlights and with night vision right beside it on the windshield.

Plus, some amount of normal computerness would be available, like opening a youtube window to entertain your guests, or checking weather reports. Traffic reports would be built into the GPS system.

Alerts (like your air pressure is low in the right front tire), would pop up directly on your windshield. Alerts telling you its time for an oil change would also display on the screen along with options to schedule an oil change, a map box showing you nearby locations for oil changes, and the functionality to call ahead and see if one is busy or not.

Lastly, the all-to-familiar "Distance to empty" feature would be much cooler. Instead of showing you a rough estimate of how many miles you've got left to drive, on the GPS screen, you could overlay a Distance To Empty map, showing the farthest gas station you can reach along your current route. Now, if you're running on empty and on a long trip, you can see exactly how far you can push it before running out of gas.

So if I could make a car, this would be it. You've gotta admit, it'd be hard to top!

Windows Vista Speech Recognition

2008-02-02T10:24:00.000-05:00

So for this blog post after the long, cold, winter, I wanted to do something kinda funny. Anyway, I remember hearing some hype about Windows Vista and its revolutionary speech recognition. Having had other things to occupy my mind, testing of this particular feature escaped me. A few weeks ago though, I broke down and gave the speech recognition a whirl. At first things were a little rocky, so I tinkered with some settings in an attempt to optimize this tool to my speaking style. I even spent time training the darn thing! By now, I’m sure you’re curious as to what my final opinion is on Vista’s speech recognition. Well, I won’t spoil anything for you. Below is what Vista thought I said when I dictated this blog post to it in MS Word. Below that is a link to the sound recording of me dictating. Enjoy!

So for this blog posts after the long cold winter I wanted to do something kind of funny. Anyway, I remember hearing some hype about windows be stuck out his revolutionary speech recognition. Having had other things to occupy my mind, testing in this particular feature escape me. A few weeks ago though, I broke down and gave a speech recognition of world. At first things were able rocky, so like tinker with some settings and attempted to optimize this tool to my speaking style. I’d even spent time training the darn thing! By now, I’m sure you’re curious as the one my final opinion is on these two speech recognition well, I won’t spoil anything for you below is what the step by step my belly dictated this blog posts to get up in Microsoft word. Below that is a link to the sound recording of me dictating. Enjoy!

Networking 103: The Router

2007-10-14T13:22:00.000-04:00

So here we are, poised and ready to venture forth into the wild untamed wilderness that is the router.

Ok, so what is a router? Well, on the absolutely most basic level, the router splits your internet signal so that multiple computers can share one internet connection. Now before I proceed further into what a router does and how, I would like to explain how a router splits an internet connection.

A cable splitter creates a copy of the cable signal. Imagine a pie. Each TV connected to a splitter gets a whole "copy" of the pie. A router, on the other hand, can't make multiple pies. It only has one pie, so it has to split it up into pieces to share between the computers. If one computer is downloading some huge files, it means the router doesn't have as much pie (or bandwidth) to share between the other computers.

The next order of business is how a router functions. Before I get started with this, I have to explain what an IP address is. An IP address is just like your street address. All mail that goes between your house and the world goes through your mailbox. All information between the internet and your computer goes through your modem. A router splits the "mail" between all the appropriate computers. For example, two people are browsing the internet. One visits www.google.com and another visits http://summerbreak05.blogspot.com. The router sends those URLs to the modem, which then sends them into the internet. The two webpages send information back to the modem. The modem sends the information to the router, which makes sure the right computer gets the webpage it requested.

So that is how routers/modems work at the most basic level. So what ELSE does a router do? Because all information between your computers at home and the internet goes through your router, your router provides a way to manage your internet connection and add protection via firewall. Almost all routers have a built in firewall which protects all computers connected to the router. Now the question is what is a firewall and how does it work? Your home network (all computers connected to a router) is like a small community. Without a router (and pretending your comptuers have no anti-virus or other protecting software), your community can send anything out of the community and anything can get in. A router is like building a castle around this community. So how does information get in and out with a giant castle built around your village? The answer is ports. Remember in the movies how castles have holes in the wall that can be opened and closed to allow archers to fire out? That is similar to a router. It operates all these holes (or ports) in your firewall.

For example, did you know that all website traffic goes through port 80? By default, routers leave the important ports open, like port 80. A lot of routers also allow you to open and close these ports. Have you ever had a program that went really slowly or not at all when connected to the internet? Likely, your router was blocking the port that the program was trying to use. It would be like trying to get in/out through the strongest part of a castle wall. You can open these ports, and your program will work fine, however, you can block ports to prevent computers on your network from using limewire or other programs you don't want to be used on your home network.

So routers have two basic functions. Split the internet signal and protect your computers. I would like to revisit one topic I mentioned earlier. The IP address. Imagine IP addresses are phone numbers. You have a global telephone number. Lets imagine mine is (111) 111-1111. This is the equivalent of your modem's IP address. But routers keep track of the computers by giving them all IP addresses. Think about it like this. If your trying to call someone in your community, you don't add the area code. But calling to Hawaii, you better have that area code on there. Your router gives each computer a "local" IP address, which makes sure the router sends the right information to the right computer. However, your modem is the one making the long distance calls and actually getting the right information from the webpages.

Anyway, that's all for now. Ask me questions in the comments and I will do my best to clear up any issues and hopefully make another networking post soon. Hope you guys like it!

Networking 100

2007-10-10T11:44:00.000-04:00

Due to public demand, the networking 100 class is now being offered on http://summerbreak05.blogspot.com. So let's start with the basics about a connection.

What actually happens when you type in www.google.com? Well, its like shopping with a credit card. You can buy as much or as little as you want, but no matter what you buy, you have to swipe your credit card to purchase it all.

When you visit a website, you have to give that website a little information before you can view the page. That information is always the same. That information is the site's URL, in the case, it is www.google.com. If you visit my blog the information you would send is http://summerbreak05.blogspot.com. Sending that URL is like swiping your credit card. You can get an entire webpage back, just by sending out that URL.

Glossary time. Uploading is anytime information is sent FROM your computer TO the internet. Downloading is the reverse. Information is sent FROM the internet TO your computer.

So going to www.gooogle.com is like buying a furniture set with a credit card. In terms of physical space, you used a 1 inch peice of plastic and are taking home a pickup truck full of stuff. You upload a tiny piece of information to www.google.com and they give you a lot back (their webpage).

Uploading pictures is like going to a pawn shop. You take a bunch of stuff to a shop and walk out with cash. You send in a lot of information and take back just a tiny bit.

So Xbox LIVE uses more upload space. Browsing the internet is more downloading. But if someone is uploading pictures and using LIVE at the same time, its like two people cahsing in their life's belongings at the same pawn shop at the same time. It would be madness.

Which is what happens. Both LIVE and the upload process conflict with each other and make both slower and less efficient.

Stay tuned for my next class which will be Networking 103: The Router. If you want to know how to network multiple devices AND configure your router's firewall properly, I will guide the way.

If you are a particularly adventorous soul, you can check out www.port-forward.com for some helpful tips and guides on how to get the most out of your router.

I Hope They Call Me On A Missioin

2007-10-06T10:56:00.001-04:00

Yeah, the time has finally come! I just wanted everyone to know that I will be reporting to the MTC on December 12th and after that I will head into the Utah Salt Lake City South mission for two years!

Woohoo!

Networking 101

2007-09-28T05:58:00.000-04:00

Mom recently pointed out that I complained for her taking all the upload bandwidth. Here is a brief explanation of networking principles as it applies to the matter at hand. :)

Everybody knows about download bandwidth, which is usually just called downstream, or bandwidth. This determines how quickly webpages load, files download, etc. Browsing the internet is primarily download driven. However, it is still a two way street. When you type in a URL (like www.gooogle.com) you are sending a small amount of information to a computer (actually a server) somewhere which then sends you information back, which you then download and your computer displays the webpage. So browsing the internet is primarily download driven.

Xbox LIVE multiplayer matches are primarily upload driven (usually called upstream). What happens is one Xbox 360 "hosts" the match (he decides what is what in the match, whether you killed that person or not, etc). Anyway, because everything that you (the player) does must be verified with the host of the match, you have to upload information regarding every time you pull the trigger, turn, pick up weapons, grenade, etc. So we say that Xbox LIVE multiplayer matches are primarily upload driven. While you download information, the information is only the stuff relavent to you. You won't download as much information about a player 100 feet away who is off screen as you would someone who is right in front of you.

Typically, browsing the internet and Xbox LIVE exist harmoniously because one is download driven and the other is upload driven. However, two upload processes occuring at the same time (pictures and LIVE) can hamper both. Also important to note, with cable internet, the downstream capabilities are greater than the upstream capabilities. I can't say how everybody's internet service providers (ISP) operate, but typically the upstream is less than the downstream.

So anyway, that's why things went crazy last night. And now you know a little bit more about the internet in general, and what not. Enjoy.

Another Chapter From The Philosophy of Adam

2007-09-10T18:22:00.000-04:00

Alright guys, this post might get a little dry, but I'll try to keep it as brief and entertaining as possible.

So I was running the other day and began pondering good and evil, free agency, and other interesting topics. By the end of my run I had developed a new take on all of the above topics.

I'm just gonna dive right in. What is power? Think about it. My musings led me to one conclusion. Power is the ability to act or to do. In other words power is potential. So what is action? Action would be the yang to power's ying. Action are the choices we can make as a result of the power we have. I compare this relationship to running. I have the power to run about 2 1/2 miles. That power means nothing without being able to exercise it and do the physical running. So the idea is one of action and power, both being equally necessary.

I then applied my new definitions to free agency. We all have the power to make our own choices. This power, like running, can be altered by our choices. Choosing to run daily will increase my power to run. Choosing to eat unhealthy foods instead of running will diminish my power to run, thereby limiting my choices. Even trying to avoid choice will affect my power to run. Inaction on my power to run will diminish it.

So now all the above was finally applied to good and evil. Right and wrong. Before I delve into that, I would suggest that every choice we make is by nature a sub-choice stemming from our power to choose. Since our choices affect our power to choose, all our choices have some kind of an effect on our agency, or power to choose. That line is the line between good and evil, and indeed it is a line. As a part of the definition of right and wrong I submit that evil is addictive while good is liberating. Think about it. A lifetime smoker is addicted to cigarettes. While services like charity do not consume the participant as do cigarettes, alcohol, or other vices that grab hold and tend not to want to let go. In other words, the sin itself entices us and attempts to control us. "Good" does not entice us. Our own desires for freedom and control over ourselves pushes us to do good. I guess you could call this a definition of the conscience.

My grand, overreaching point is this. Choosing the wrong negatively affects our ability to choose, enslaving us, while choosing the good positively affects our ability to choose, allowing us to choose more and more freely. So here is my definition of good and evil. Good increases our power to choose while evil decreases our power to choose. Even inaction has a result on our power to choose. By remaining inactive and not exercising our power to choose, we are passing up chances to choose the right thereby decreasing our power over choice. So the only way to better ourselves is to choose the right. We cannot simply not choose the wrong and think ourselves to be choosing the right and moving forward. It is only by choosing the right that we can obtain more power over choice. This path of right leads to a perfect control over ourselves and a perfect control over every choice we make.

So what do you think? Am I right, or way off base? I have only used my own personal experience and logical thinking to form my conclusions, so feel free to point out weakness or strengths of my argument. Anyway, enjoy.

You Think You Sing Pretty Well, eh? Listen To This

2007-09-03T16:02:00.001-04:00

If I Ever Gave An Answer Like This In School....

2007-08-29T14:18:00.000-04:00

Original Video Here

Family

2007-08-27T21:04:00.000-04:00

Before I being, I'd just like to point out that this is my 201st blog post. So yeah, it has been awhile since I've posted and just wanted to thank Kristen and Cory for being such awesome family (and gracious hosts) to me and Logan this previous week. We sure had a lot of fun spending time with them. Plus, getting some of Kristen's cooking was an added bonus! One of my good memories from this trip was playing "bad stingray" with Ian. For those who may be unfamiliar with this game, I'll explain the rules. This game can only be played on a trampoline. Ian is spider-man while I play the "bad stingray." I shoot stingers at Ian, while he shoots "web" at me. Then we both fall over, I tackle him, tell him "he'll never escape." Ian then responds with "I will escape somehow," and somehow he always manages to free himself.

I also enjoyed seeing how grown up Elise and Merry Grace are. Conversations with Elise reach a surprisingly adult level and yet she still is mischievous and fun to be around. Merry Grace doesn't say much, but her smiles melt hearts (and possibly butter, although science has yet to weigh in on the matter).

Overall the week spent in Raleigh was quite awesome. I sure hope they will let us stay again sometime. Or better yet, come up here. And next time we're together, bring on the Guitar Hero Kristen and Cory...bring it on.

Violence In Videogames: The Truth

2007-08-02T23:09:00.000-04:00

Well, here I am again, sitting at my computer and thinking about what to write. I've been pondering about video games lately and whether video games are too violent.

Many adults and parental figured rally around the war cry that video games are responsible for the increasing violence in today's society and that video games are too violent.

I myself agree that on the whole, video games are generally too violent. Many video games out there I would even call disturbing. But just because the majority of movies produced or books written contain excessive sex and violence does not mean that good, enjoyable, and downright excellent books and movies do not exist.

The same is true of video games. Many are of poor quality but there are some that are worthwhile. I wish to give a couple of examples of games that meet my own personal criteria for excellence.

The first is Guitar Hero (and Guitar Hero II). Here are games based completely around music. They contain zero violence. If anything, it could be argued they teach rhythm and provide a stepping stone into other musical pursuits. In fact, I began taking guitar lessons because of playing Guitar Hero II! Very quickly, to those who say video games are a waste of time, I only ask, are video games any more of a waste of time than TV? Video games are interactive, whereas TV is strictly one way.

The second game is Viva Pinata. Viva Pinata is a children's game filled with bright colors, fluffy pinatas and happy music. Viva Pinata is geared toward younger children and shows a softer and fluffier side of gaming.

Now I wish to cross into dangerous territory. My last example of the good of video games is Halo 3, a well-known "shooting" game. The reason I give Halo 3 as an example is to show that perhaps those who rally should reexamine their stance against games in general and some shooting games. So what makes Halo 3 a "good" shooter? Because shooting isn't the focus. Just like great movies aren't great because of special effects, Halo 3 is not good because you shoot. Halo 3 is good because it is social. It connects people in ways that e-mail and phones can't connect people. Halo 3 is about playing with friends and socializing while playing a game. It is not about playing a game while socializing. I won't go into the nitty gritty of how Halo 3 makes this happen, but only that Halo 3 is about playing with friends and not about shooting.

I make these arguments only to help people see the good in video games. Again, I don't deny it, the majority of video games are too violent, but instead of plucking out all the bad apples, let's just enjoy the good ones.

My nephew Ian being funny

2007-07-30T14:28:00.001-04:00

Here's a funny video of Ian being a "turkey" cookie monster. And saying "tik-ten"

Harry Potter 7 Magic vs. Cory and Dad

2007-07-25T13:39:00.000-04:00

Hmm, hopefully I have intrigued you enough to read a post with a title like the above one. A little back story to this post. My sister and I were dying to read Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (Book 7) and we wanted to read it on release day. I found that if you order the book at www.amazon.com then you could get release date shipping. My family was going down to my sister's house and we figured that we would both read the books once they came. Unfortunately we (my family) was trying to help her getting ready for a move into her new house. My dad and my sister's husband (Cory) wanted to keep us focused on moving and not on reading HP 7. They happened to be outside when HP 7 was delivered and proceeded to hide the book with no intention of telling me or Kristen until they had extracted proper amounts of work from us.

Anyway, I, about 30 minutes after all this went down, decided to see if there was tracking information to tell me when my book would arrive. I found tracking information, went to UPS, and discovered that UPS said my book had already been delivered. What?

So I checked all the normal places UPS would leave a delivery. It was nowhere outside, nowhere in the garage, etc, etc. Then I figured it must have been hidden. Going inside I went straight for dad's luggage. Guess what I found...two copies of HP 7---one for Kristen, one for me. Dad and Cory were particularly surprised and how quickly I had found the book, especially since they thought they were the only ones aware of its delivery.

It only goes to prove that the magic of Harry Potter and the not-so-magical package tracking trump parents and husbands any day.

Vacation and Potter Mania (Why I Shouldn't Read Books)

2007-07-17T12:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I would love to make a huge post about vacation, but sufficeth it to say that enough vacation information (plus pictures) can be found on the blogs of my family. Allow me to share an equation or two regarding vacation. Vacation = family. Family = awesome + fun. Vacation = family(awesome + fun). Family(awesome) + family(fun).

So there you have it.

On a side note, Harry Potter (Book 7) comes out at 12:01am on this Saturday. Crazy, eh? Not to mention, the Potter series has sold 325 million copies worldwide. And www.mugglenet.com has 40 million hits per month.

I'll admit to be completely taken in by Potter mania. I'm as eager as the next guy to get my hands on the last book. In fact, to prepare for the final book, I reread the 6th book (Half-Blood Prince is the subtitle). However, I underestimated my own ability to regulate my reading. Starting at 8:30pm on Saturday, I had finished all 650+ pages by 5:30pm on Sunday. I know I have a weakness when it comes to reading books, but I had no idea it had gotten this bad. I literally could not stop until I finished it.

However, this has taught me one valuable lesson. When I do get my copy of Harry Potter 7, I must turn off my cellphone, shut off my laptop, and stay in my room until I finish it. And make sure I remind my mom to come in and refill my food IV from time to time.

Useless Series, part 4: "That" key

2007-07-04T00:50:00.001-04:00

Although partly a rehash of previous ideas from an earlier discussion, I present to you the most useless key on any keyboard---the tilde/backwards quotation mark thingie. Yes, have you ever stopped to look above your tab button and below your "Esc" button? A few spanish speakers/typists may use the tilde from time to time (albeit rarely I imagine), but I know of no one who uses the backwards quotation mark thingie.

My question is, did the people who decided what goes on all keyboards just run out of stuff to put on here? I mean, my laptop keyboard is a condensed version of a full-size regular keyboard and the keyboard people certainly found enough room to put the tilde/whatever on here. Hmmm.

Now that I'm through with my rant, I have a question---have any of you (the readers) ever used either of these buttons? I guess the real question is, are they truly useless? And with great power comes great responsibility. Now that you know you have a tilde button and funny looking single, oddball quotation mark, you must find ways to use them. Just kidding. By the way, happy 4th of July everyone. More from the "Useless Series" tomorrow.

The Useless Series, part 3: Vienna Sausage E-mails

2007-07-02T19:08:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the misleading title. I have invented a new "level" of spam e-mail. Vienna sausage e-mails. Vienna sausage e-mails are those e-mails you get when you buy one item from one online store once. And receive e-mails from that store for the rest of your life. You know what I'm talking about, that $7 ink cartridge replacement from circuit city seemed like a good deal at the time, but now your paying for it with a sludge of vienna sausage in your e-mail inbox.

Now, obviously, this e-mails are useless, but here's the real reason behind their ultra-superfluous nature. These e-mails (most of the time) promote the exact same deals as the store has on their homepage.

Don't get me wrong, if you buy often from online stores, then these e-mails may not be unwanted, I'm talking about the store you buy from once and then regret it every time you see "Bargains: The Perfect Gift for anyone this 4th of July" in your inbox. Who buys gifts of the 4th of July anyway? These sausage e-mails prey on those helpless enough to get sucked into the black abyss of e-mail advertising.

Useless Series: part 2

2007-07-01T21:43:00.000-04:00

Alright, useless series, part 2. So what do I have on tap for today? Gift cards. Let's think about this for just a second. When picking out presents for someone for a birthday, everyone wants to pick out something personal and yet useful. Money is too impersonal, while personal gifts are often stuffed under beds. So people get gift cards.

Gift cards are, essentially, money that can only be spent at one store and expires if you don't use it in 6 months. And gift cards cannot be exchanged for cash. Why??? Don't get me wrong, gift cards aren't bad, its just that money is better.

Now, think about it. Some gift cards are for stores you like, some are not. Either way, money is a safer route. And while gift cards seem more personal, money (at least to me) is just as personal.

So, the question is, what is your opinion on gift cards? Useless, or useful. Cast your vote today.

The "Useless" Series

2007-06-30T15:27:00.000-04:00

Well, its been awhile since I've blogged, so I've decided to create a blog marathon. Everyday for a week, I will post about things that are completely useless. So be prepared for 7 consecutive about the 7 most useless things that clutter life.

Today's Post---Cursive Handwriting:

Ok, everyone (at least primarily throughout the US) has to learn how to write in cursive during their elementary school years. And every student has asked why. And every teacher has answered: "You'll need to learn how to write in cursive for high school, college, and the rest of your life." And every teacher has lied. If you were a persistent and inquisitive student, then you continued to as why. Some teachers might follow up with "Cursive allows you to write faster," or something to that extent.

So honestly, how many students (you included) have ever used cursive extensively outside of elementary school? Other than, of course, to sign your name? And forging another's signature---especially your parents---does not count.

Wait, cursive lets your write faster? Maybe back in the 18th century it did, before the typewriter was invented. Today, PCs/Laptops allows every student with half a brain and lots of Instant Messenger experience to type at blistering rates of 75 wpm. If you can write legibly in cursive at 75 wpm, my hats off to you.

So, cursive, the ridiculous and over-taught art. Stay tuned tomorrow for another useless creation/practice.

Why I Hate Outlook

2007-06-24T15:19:00.000-04:00

Ok, you may have noticed my slight propensity towards things technological. Anyway, I wanted to comment on a minor gripe of mine. Microsoft Outlook. You may remember a post from a few months ago about Microsoft Office 07. I praised the new UI (user interface) and explained a few of the new features.

The one program that has continued to suck (and no one seems to care but me) is Outlook. That is the most retarded interface ever born. Let's examine the default interface. The left third of the screen is filled with folder buttons and tabs to access your calendar, contacts, email, etc. The middle third lists your e-mails in whichever folder you happen to be viewing. The right third is a preview window that shows a preview of the current e-mail.

So wait, lets make a slow UI that has to open each e-mail as you scroll over it. But you can also double click on an individual e-mail to open it full screen. Why the crap is the preview window there? It seems ridiculously redundant to have two ways to view one e-mail. Also, if you scroll over an e-mail with a lot of in-line pictures, then Outlook takes a few seconds to load that e-mail into the preview. The computer stops to "think" and you have to wait for it. Even though you weren't even going to read that e-mail. Ridiculous. So, in summary, Microsoft Outlook is gay. Don't even get me started on the calendar portion!

My post would not be complete without listing some of the features of competitors. I'll go for my favorite, Gmail.

Gmail has POP access, just like Outlook
Gmail has e-mail forwarding
Gmail has 2.8GB of storage, and counting
Gmail links to most other Google Apps, like Docs & Spreadsheets (meaning you don't have to download attachments to open them)
Gmail has a great UI (conversation view)
Gmail has labels - instead of folders, any e-mail conversation can be put into multiple labels. For example, an e-mail from BYU which contains my financial information would be labeled (according to me) as "BYU" and "Financial Information." Outlook doesn't do this.
Gmail has a great search for finding e-mails
Contacts auto-complete when sending e-mails.

And more. So yeah, what gripes do you have about Outlook or other software you use? Do you have a good alternative? Anyway, until later, amigos

Google Analytics and My Blog (Who is visiting YOUR blog?)

2007-06-01T20:59:00.000-04:00

If you don't know that I love Google by now, you obviously don't know me.

So, I've been trying out Google Analytics for about a week on my blog to see how many people visit the ole' blog. Let me tell you, its actually very interesting.

At first I was only checking the number of visits to my blog. Soon I discovered the advanced features of Google Analytics. Probably the coolest is the map overlay feature which shows where your blog traffic is coming from geographically. As of today, I've had 1 visit from the UK, 2 from California, 2 from Ohio, and 27 from North Carolina.

I can also tell you that 68.75% of my blog traffic comes from returning visitors while 31.25% comes from new visitors. Or, how about the fact that 40.62% of my blog traffic comes from the link at Kristen's Blog.

Now here is the most interesting statistic: Search Engine traffic. Apparently, one visit to my blog was the result of the search keywords "brain-eating amoeba new mexico." Ironically, I do have a post in which I discuss a hike in the New Mexican wilderness where I encountered some brain-eating amoebas. By the way, if you type the above search phrase into Google, my blog is the 3rd result. Weee! So, yeah, check that out and find out how many people are visiting your blog! You may even discover some sites are linking to your blog that you never knew about. So go wild. And tell me if you use Google Analytics. We'll swap numbers.

(Almost) Run over by a Redneck

2007-05-27T17:43:00.001-04:00

Road rage. From silent insults to verbal and physical assaults, road rage affects all drivers. I wish to share a particularly funny (and frightening) incident of road rage that happened to me.

I was driving back from Zack's house at about 10:30pm on the Saturday of memorial day's weekend when a small white truck pulled out behind me and started riding my tail. He wasn't just tailgating me but riding so close I couldn't see his headlights in my rear view mirror. The roads were curvy and I didn't want to get in a wreck because of some idiot so I slowed down to 35-40. Apparently this only infuriated Mr. White Mitsubishi, so he proceeded to pass me on a double yellow while flipping me off. I wasn't surprised. I already knew he was an idiot, I just didn't know how much so.

He passed me, flipped me off and Logan and I laughed at this retard. Then, my shirtless, redneck friend slowed down to around 20mph and repeatedly flipped me off while staring out the window back at me. Kinda creepy. Logan and I laughed again because obviously this guy had to get somewhere important, which was why he slowed down to flip me off and show me what a tough guy he was.

Being the safe driver I am, I pulled off onto a side road in order to diffuse the situation. But apparently the freaker in the white mitsubishi decided he had more to stay. I pulled onto the road and found that he had turned around to come back for more. He pulled into my lane in order to block me off so he could have his say (or start a fight or who knows what). Anyway, I pulled onto the shoulder and went around him before gunning it all the way home. My car was not made for a 90mph high speed chase. However, it got the job done and he was unable to pursue me because of my amazing driving skills. Once I got around him I floored it and saw him trying to turn around to chase me down. Again, fortunately he appeared to have some trouble turning around and I was gone in no time.

So yeah, just thought I'd share that. So, be careful of other drivers, especially drunk rednecks.

Analogies

2007-05-15T12:24:00.000-04:00

Those who know me know that I love analogies. Analogies makes funny things funnier. They add emphasis. They help make difficult points clearer.

Anyway, here's an analogy I was pondering over. Last night Logan and I gave a combined lesson on the Holy Ghost. Logan explained some of the roles of the Holy Ghost (comforter, guide, etc). I tried to explain the gift of the Holy Ghost.

In my lesson I was trying to explain how the gift of the Holy Ghost is both a gift and conditional at the same time. The power of the Holy Ghost is different than only having the gift of the Holy Ghost. I was having a rough go of it, but I thought of a good analogy to make my point.

Let's say someone gave you a HUGE entertainment system. A 67" HDTV with BOSE surround sound---the whole 9 yards. So you get this awesome gift. Yet you don't have a single power outlet in the entire house. So you already have the gift, but no power to use it. So that's how the Holy Ghost is both a gift and conditional.

Also, if you haven't seen the funniest birthday video in the world, you should check it out.

Southern Weather

2007-04-24T01:24:00.001-04:00

What am I looking forward to most about coming home to North Carolina? Besides seeing friends/family/etc? That would be warm summer nights. I just love going outside my house (in NC) and just enjoying being outside as the sun sets. Here, it has been cold and cloudy. 60s during the day is nice, but when the sun goes down, I just don't want to go outside. But yeah, I can't wait for some good ole' Southern Weather.

Google PowerPoint? Now Why Was I Going To Buy MS Office Again?

2007-04-18T03:45:00.001-04:00

Well, a lot of people know how big of a Google fan I am, so I thought I would let you guys in on the newest addition to the Google Docs & Spreadsheet applications. Yes, Google will soon be adding a presentations section which will be comparable to MS PowerPoint. That's about all the details I'm privy to. I figured this would be a good time to examine products designed for home productivity and compare/contrast some of the different solutions out there.

I would like to briefly mention the three main types of office software out there. One is Microsoft Office. The second is Open Office. The third is Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Here's what you need to know. Google provides a good, free alternative to MS Office. While you will lose some functionality, you will gain mobility. Google also allows you to collaborate on documents more easily than Office. So here's the bottom line. Because Google Apps relies on internet access, I would recommend Google Apps for people who are always in range of a broadband connection and don't want to pay for Office software.

MS Office gives you tons of features than are necessarily essential but can be both convenient and time saving. For example, being able to publish blog posts from inside Word. How about being to use Word to automatically insert bibliographies and switch between bibliography formats like MLA, Chicago, etc and automatically update references throughout the paper. The features are cool and timesaving but not essential. If you have the money, Office 07 is certainly worth a try. The competition between Google and OpenOffice has certainly made MS step up its game.

OpenOffice certainly has its strong points as well. OpenOffice offers less functionality that MS Office. However, you don't need internet access to work on documents like with Google Applications. Here's my take on OpenOffice. If you only occasionally use Office type applications and have reliable internet access—stick with Google Apps. If you use Office applications extensively or have spotty internet access and can't fork out the cash for MS Office, OpenOffice is the direction you should take.

Blog Color Scheme Update

2007-04-16T18:05:00.001-04:00

Yep, the blog has gone green. Green is probably my favorite color so I picked something that would reflect my amazingly cool sense of style. Anyway, I really like how it looks. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Oh yeah, check out the "Best of the Best" blog posts there to my right. There are some good blog tid-bits and fun memories for all.

And be sure to read my provocative opinions on Sociology and Race, located below.

On The Topic of Race

2007-04-16T17:05:00.001-04:00

Obviously, college is all about higher learning. Grade school is two parts common sense and one part busy work. While you learn a few interesting tid-bits, you are not mentally challenged in the same way that college does. I'm in a sociology class, which makes some interesting points and is all about observing and understanding social behavior. Don't get me wrong, this is a great science to study, but sometimes the "liberal" tint the book takes frustrates me. I think my general skepticism stems in part because my teacher wrote the textbook I use. In my case, sociology is just like dessert—one serving is good, but two servings of the same thing is just a little too much to digest.

Anyway, because I write on a blog that only my family reads, I can splash my opinion liberally wherever I desire. So I will. Here is a statistic from my book that I think is ludicrous.

Factor (relating to divorce %)	How much does this decrease the risk of Divorce?
Some college (vs. High School dropout)	-13%
Affiliated with a religion (vs. no religion)	-14%
Parents not divorced	-14%
Age 25+ at marriage (vs. < 18 marriage)	-24%
Having a baby 7 months+ after marriage (vs. childbirth before marriage)	-24%
Annual income of $50,000+ (vs. $25,000 or less)	-30%
Totals:	-119%

Since I enjoy destroying credibility, I copied this table directly from my book (minus the "Totals" row). I saw this figure and thought something didn't add up. I added the percentages and found that by following the advice of this table, you can have more than a 100% guarantee of not being divorced.

So, if I marry a Mormon girl at age 25 who has not suffered through her parents' divorce and I work as a successful software engineer making $75,000 annually (of course no children until at least 9 months after marriage) then I have a 119% chance of staying married to her. I will hold my teacher/textbook to that promise.

Anyway, on the topic of race, I have been reading the chapter on race. Here are several concessions I have.

Race is not biologically based, human DNA is more similar than different (with regards to social boundaries)
Non-whites (in the US) have suffered tremendous injustices since the founding of the US and before.
Racism still exists today on both a culturally conscious and subconscious level

Now, in my book/class, there is a plethora of statistics showing racial prejudice/discrimination in today's society. There are stats showing the average and infinitely higher (as the book says) quality of living among whites versus non-whites. The way the book makes it sound, blacks are cultural victims. Because of their race, they have been doomed to receive jacked-up mortgage rates versus whites and to live in higher average poverty than whites. The tone suggests that being white provides a social bonus, while being black/non-white is a large obstacle to any social/monetary success. Granted, I see the point, that racism is still a problem in today's society. But I realized that I am not going to get a better job because I'm white. I mean for crying out loud, if I could get some social bonus because of my race, why would I go to college and get a degree?

The book paints blacks as victims (keep in mind I speak to the majority who are not the rare victims of circumstance) and whites and instigators. Sure blacks and non-whites may have more obstacles to overcome than a white person, but they are not powerless victims (as the book depicts them). I believe each of us has power to control our lives. I could drop out of college right now and find a mediocre job and live a mediocre life. I could change majors, work harder, work less, get married, etc, etc, etc. My point is that we choose what we become. We each have obstacles in our lives. Some we place there. Other obstacles are placed there by others. Whatever the case, if we choose to be victims of circumstance, we are only victims of our own fear and laziness. It is infinitely easier to blame circumstance when the real challenge is choice. College is difficult. I have to constantly choose difficult tasks. I choose to write a paper due next week. I choose to wake up early (7:45am) to get to classes on time. I choose to study when it would be easier to say I have a hard 16 credit hour schedule plus working part time and can't study.

Instead of focusing of victimizations of certain ethnicities, we should focus on improvement. If someone is dissatisfied with their current position, try to change it. It may be harder for some than for others, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. There are a few people who truly are victims, but they still have choices and chances for self improvement. If we do nothing to change our own position yet complain about it, then we are much more to blame than ANY external factor.

If anyone has actually read to this point, I applaud you. I'm sure I ramble more than most. But for you, oh faithful reader, I have an overreaching point that connects my proverbial dots. I don't want to major in sociology. Whoops, sorry for the letdown. Anyway, before I wrap up, here is a link to an uplifting post from one of my fellow bloggers and friends from high school. He makes some valid points and shows an example of someone who believes in choice and changing your circumstance—not letting your circumstances change you.

A Really Patriotic Song

2007-04-11T18:32:00.000-04:00

I'm a huge fan of music. My iTunes is 80 songs away from 3,000. With 8.7 days of music on my iPod, should you chance to see me, odds are I will have a pair of earbuds in and jamming to some sweet music. I don't say this to brag. I only reference the volume of music I listen to illustrate the fact that I keep "in touch" with the happenings of the music scene. Very rarely does one of "cool" or "hip" bands of the day sing about something truly inspiring, patriotic, or something that seperates itself from the rest of the music scene. Well, I have such a song. It is sung by The Almost, and their debut album is called Southern Weather. The song is their tribute (more or less) to the song "Amazing Grace." So, mom, listen to the song. You may not be a fan of this style of music (although I think you will), the message and meaning of the song very cool and very well done.

Life at BYU

2007-04-11T16:14:00.000-04:00

Before I step on any toes, allow me to preface this post by saying that I have really enjoyed going to BYU this semester and had some professors I really enjoyed and met some people that are super cool. This experience is (generally) atypical. Now that I've said that, allow me to elaborate on a particular annoying experience while at the Wilkinson Center (the center of BYU)

So Phillip and I were eating lunch together when a girl asked to sit down at the table with us. Now Phillip told me that he knew of her but didn't really know her. Phillip and I continued our conversation about missions/missionary work, since he is leaving soon on his mission. I told him about my last roommate and how he lived in Virginia and was called to serve in North Carolina. I also said that my roommate's father told my roommate that he was "sorry" (direct quote from my roommate's father) for his mission call.

This incredibly PRICKISH girl chimes (picture with snobbish inflection) "Well, your on the Lord's errand and where you go shouldn't matter."

Totally true. Let's pause and reflect upon my story. Did I ever mention that I felt sorry for my roommate's call? No. The irony/humor of my story came from the fact that my roommate's father, the one person you would expect to be the most supporting of a mission call, expressed a very atypical reaction. The point is humor, not to mock the mission experience.

I tried to explain myself by in various ways by saying that being called to a mission where you live or very close to where you live would be difficult because of how close you would be to your "regular" life, making the temptation to leave/slack off much higher. No, this girl would hear none of it. Every mission is perfect, as is every missionary. My point was only that certain mission calls could have very different challenges.

This girl continued to make equally snide remarks as the first quote! What's up with that? I think I know the answer, but I want to emphasize that this next portion is my opinion.

Because I have been extremely sick over the past few days, I haven't shaved. I was still feeling under the weather and woke up late today, missing my first class. I had forgotten to shave and so I looked a little scruffy running out the door. I felt that the snobby girl (as I will refer to her from now on) judged me because of my scruffiness and then made comments based off this superficial observation accordingly. Not even that, she heard a snippet of the conversation and decided to call me to repentance, if by nothing else than a snappy tone and "holier than thou" comments.

What does this mean for me and the rest of humanity? Your accomplishments do not determine who you are. They certainly provide indicators, but they are not you. In the case of snobby girl, just because someone attends BYU, does not give them any higher spiritual qualifications over anyone else. In contrast, at BYU there are many opportunities to hear from general authorities and have a very spiritual experience. But just attending BYU does not make you perfect.

Moral of the Story: Don't eavesdrop on conversations and then snidely interject. Offer an opinion, join the conversation before refuting the character of the people involved.

A New Heart? Cool

2007-04-02T20:44:00.000-04:00

Check this out. Scientists in England have engineered heart valves from stem cells. Apparently, this is the first time any part of the heart has been engineered in a lab. From what it looks like, we (the human race) could benefit from stem cell heart tissue within three years. That would mean that many people with heart problems could delay heart transplants or avoid them entirely by replacing portions of the heart with stem-cell-grown tissue. Even better, scientists also hypothesize that within 10 years we could grow entire hearts from stem cell tissue. This would increase longevity of patients and eliminate the need for lots of rejection drugs when replacing/repairing organs. Interesting to consider, eh?

Technology Lovers Galore

2007-04-01T02:40:00.000-04:00

Hello fellow blogger people. If you have never read a post on this blog before, READ THIS ONE. I've compiled a short and sweet list of the must-haves of internet goers. If you use the internet, check these out.

Google News
Number one on my list is Google News. This is an oldie (in Internet years). Google News has been around since about 2004. It has been out of beta for a little over a year. And it is one of the most useful sources for news-alcoholics. Google News compiles news articles from all the major news providers like CNN, MSNBC News, ABC News, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc, etc, etc, etc. Right now, Google News pulls news from 4,500 different sources. Instead of browsing through different news sites to find out what's happening, Google News sorts out current events by topic and lets you pick which news provider when you want to read the full article. Trust me, just go to http://news.google.com and browse around. It's pretty cool. The first time you visit Google News, you will see some default categories on the left like "World," "U.S.," "Health," "Entertainment," etc. You can browse through these popular headings or do a search (like Xbox 360 if you are me) to find news relevant to you. Now, here is THE cool part. While browsing Google News (you must be signed in with your Google account), Google will start to figure out what interests you. It will then automatically compile a "Recommended" section that contains articles that you would like to read. Now, when I go to Google News, I rarely leave the "Recommended" section. Google News also lets you create your own sections (like "Xbox 360") so you don't have to do a search. Also, you can create e-mail alerts that notify you when "big news" is happening to a topic of interest. That's about it for Google News. Check it out, love it, use it. I never go a day without checking it.

Google Reader
I do apologize for the "I'm in love with Google tone," but the services they provide are certainly unique and par above the rest. So, what is Google Reader? Google Reader is just as essential (in my opinion) as Google News. Google Reader is a web based RSS/Atom feed viewer. Some of you are quite familiar with RSS feeds on your Google homepage. For those that aren't here is a post explaining RSS/Atom feeds and how that relates to your Google Homepage. Anyway, Google Reader allows you to subscribe to all your feeds, place them in folders, e-mail them, share them, sort them, organize them, star them (like Gmail), add tags (similar to "labels" in Gmail), etc. Basically, Google Reader is the perfect (web based) way to view RSS/Atom feeds. In order to make this applicable, here is how one would use Google Reader to view multiple blogs. If I were Kristen and had 15 blogs that I visited everyday, I would get tired of hopping from blog to blog and sifting through annoying load times. Google Reader would eliminate that. It automatically downloads THE ENTIRE POST from blogs (including pictures) and sorts the downloaded posts by date. Basically, you can view entire posts for every blog you frequent from one place. I won't go into features too much, but go to http://reader.google.com and check it out. It's worth your time.

Google Notebook
Google Notebook is no longer part of Google Labs. What this means: Google Labs looks cooler, has more settings to tweak, and allows for more control of sharing. You can allow people to read a notebook only, read and edit, or publish the notebook for the world to see. It's cool. Head over to http://notebook.google.com and play around. Its cool.

Google Homepage
Google Homepage has gadgets for these Google services: Google chat, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google News, Google Reader, Google Notebook, Google MP3 search, Google Docs, and some others. If you've used it, there is a Google Homepage gadget for it. Click "Add Stuff" from your Google Homepage and then search for "Google." All of the aforementioned Google services will be available to add to your homepage. They are very useful and very cool.

April Fools
This is one I wish was true. Head to http://mail.google.com and read about the new paper archive feature. Unless I'm way off here, looks like an early April Fools joke. My favorite line is the "Photo attachments are printed on high-quality, glossy photo paper, and secured to your Gmail Paper with a paper clip." However, Gmail was launched on April Fools day, so keep your eyes open for new changes to Gmail....ones that are real. Also watch out for Google's TiSP April fool's joke. This one made me laugh. It advertises free broadband by flushing a optical cable (provided by Google) down your toilet.

So there you have it. Technology from around the web. Enjoy, use them, and let me know what you think. If you want more details on certain features, just comment me. Until then, sianara

Questions

2007-03-27T19:00:00.001-04:00

Here’s a question to ponder. Cable TV and Cable internet. Both use the exact same cable to transmit data (coaxial). However, TV allows for streaming of live video with no “buffering” delays. Even Hi-Def channels (which transmit more data) have no delays while viewing them. So why is watching TV or clips on the internet so much slower. Watching Hi-Def trailers (forget HD movies) take an exponentially longer time to view. So my question is why? Does anyone know the answer to my ever-more perplexing question?

Oh yeah, if you stood in a sphere of mirrors, what would your reflection look like?

So yeah, if you have answers to my questions, or other cool questions that have always puzzled you, post them here.

I Like Photoshop

2007-03-25T22:06:00.000-04:00

Ok Guys, a quickie post for now. I've been using photoshop. So here is a picture of me. I was playing around trying to make myself subtly more attractive without making drastic changes. Anyway, see if you can pick out the photoshopped picture. Enjoy

The Long Awaited Podcast

2007-03-21T03:12:00.000-04:00

Here is my podcast...

Here is the link to download the file if you don't want to listen to it on my blog.

Another Cool Analogy

2007-01-24T16:43:00.000-05:00

I think of my blog as a place to post personal thoughts and feelings, however random they may be. Anyway, here is another musing I had as I walked up to campus. Its about 3 or 4 blocks, so I had quite a bit of time to ponder. So here it is.

I was contemplating my ordination to Elder and the nature of the Preisthood. We all (for the LDS population that reads my blog, readers of other faiths can still understand the analogy) know what the Priesthood is; that is the power to act in God's name. That's a pretty standard saying in LDS culture. But what does that mean?

I really pondered over the phrasing "...to act in God's name." I related that to my life. Giving someone the power to act in my name would be the same as givng them everything that makes me, me. For example, giving my father my social security card, my ID, my bank account information, etc. He would then have the power to do anything in my name. Giving someone that power shows a tremendous deal of trust. Imagine giving someone close to you the power to make every decision in your life. Things like class registration, getting a job, earning money; they have all that power. That is tremendous trust. That is the same trust God gives to us. He gives us the power to act as him, in his name.

Just some thoughts.

Life is A Swimming Pool

2007-01-21T20:54:00.000-05:00

So why is life like a swimming pool. That's a good question that I'm about to answer. I had this amazing analogy a couple of days ago when I was pondering about the course my life has taken up until now. This is what I came up with.

When we are born, we start in the kiddie pool. We wade around through elementary school/primary amidst toys while our parents watch over us and occasionally splash around in there with us.

As we mature we venture into the shallow end of the pool. Our family is all around us, as well as our friends. We play through high school, carefully shielded from the entirety of the pool around us. We realize there is more to the pool than where we are, but its too big to really understand.

Just to interject, I can't really complete the analogy, because I only can relate my feelings up until this point in my life.

Anyway, as we graduate high school, we climb out of the shallow end and wander towards the diving board. Our parents have yet to realize we have wandered off. Suddenly, we find ourselves poised on the end of the diving board, looking out at the pool, finally seeing everything for the first time. We find ourselves separated from our parents, poised over the deepest and scariest end of the pool. Its something we have to do alone, and the decisions we make on that diving board will affect the rest of our lives.

I feel like I'm at the end of that diving board, finally seeing my life for the first time. My mission, marriage, a career, my education, my family, all lays in front of me and for the first time I'm rushing to meet it. In the shallow end, we wade around without a grasp of what lies in front of us. Now, life is staring us hard in the face, and we have to dive.

Yep, that's my analogy. Enjoy.

BYU-I Year In Review

2006-12-18T12:54:00.000-05:00

Well, with barely over 24 hours until my departure from BYU-Idaho, I feel that this is a good time for a little reflection on this semester both the good and the bad. First off, a little award goes out to my parents and my siblings for their spectacular support over the semester. Research suggests that raising a child to age 18 costs around $150,000 give or take a little. Now, that translates (based on $60,000 annual income) to $1,080,000 over 18 years. That translates to $918,000 after 15% taxes. Take another 10% for misc. debt and expenses leaving the take home pay at $826,200. Now, $150,000 means that a parent spends 18.16% of their income on one child. How many people do you care about enough to spend 18.16% of everything you make on them. Now let's not forget the cost of raising children after 18. The cost of college (a 4 year college education) is probably decently close to the same $150,000 mark after book, tuition, living expenses, etc. So thank you mom and dad for you absolutely fantastic support of me over the years. Monetarily speaking, you've only given me 18.16% percent of your monetary possessions, but I know that you've fact given me 100% of yourselves, plus some change. And were it required I would give you 100% of what I have. That happens to total to the order of $0.72, but hey, its the thought that counts, right?

As far as my BYU-I experience, it has been quite an eye opener. The culture here is quite different from the culture of North Carolina. Rolling hills are replaced by snow capped jagged peaks that loom in the distance. Greenery is replaced by potatoes. Also, a town that is 98% or 99% Mormon is quite foreign. Its pretty cool no longer being the minority and my social/religious life has become one and the same. My educational experience here has been excellent as well. I have enjoyed all of my professors and I have learned so much. I really like my Computer Science teacher. He worked on Microsoft Word 97-07 editions. For those who don't know, MS Word 07 is the new version that will become public on Jan. 30th, 2007. In Word 2003 he did the research pane where you can look up word definitions. The point is that he is an awesome guy and really knows his stuff. I mean that guy knows computers. And he has a sense of humor, which is verryyy rare. Most amazing to me is learning how to program computers. For example, imagine you have 5 numbers that you want to sort lowest to highest. It would take you about 10 seconds. Imagine that you couldn't do that. Imagine that all you could do was tell if one number was higher than another number. Someone had to tell you to look at the first and second number, see which one is higher, and then either switch them or leave them the same. That's what programming a computer is like.

Back to my year in review. Another thing I have learned is that Calculus is evil. Yes, calc II was created by mentally insane people. You know, one day, I just realized that by adding consecutive nth-order derivatives that I can approximate functions through polynomials of order nth + 1. And I'll call it a Taylor series. And I'll put cool-looking Greek symbols throughout my formula so people will think I'm smart. That's what Calc II is like. I understood what I said about as much as you did. So I have successfully eliminated math as a possible career choice.

Overall, the year has been cool. I've enjoyed my time here and felt like I've experienced a little more of the world. Again, a huge thanks goes out to my friends and family. I really wouldn't have survived this semester without you guys. If you've so much as e-mailed me over the course of the semester, you've made a sizable impact on my life, and I appreciate it. Plus I loving hearing from anyone from NC, I miss my home land.

One last little story. Fortunately I have a laptop, so when I want to type a story about my roommate, I can just leave the room as I'm doing it. Anyway, I got a ride with him down to Provo this last weekend. I've seen bad drivers, but I honestly thought I was going to die! He was only going 5 over the speed limit, but when he would get get behind a car going slow in the left lane, he would ride up on their bumper, I mean realllllyyyy close, begin honking his horn and flashing his lights until they moved over! I mean, I honestly thought we were going to get shot! Anyway, I found another ride back from Utah, one that didn't involve my roommate so things went much smoother. Anyway, happy holidays to all! Merry Christmas and see you in North Carolina at 7:35am wednesday morning!

Weather Forcasting Should Be Standard

2006-12-12T23:21:00.000-05:00

Alright, what is up with Rexburg weather? I mean I thought weather forecasting was the same everywhere. Apparently not. So before I go to bed I check the forecast. The forecast is 'light snow.' Now being from North Carolina, I thought 'light snow' meant 'light snow,' when, in fact, 'light snow' actually means 3 inches of wet snow blowing in your face at 29 degrees with a windchill of 2. Ok, I'm exagerating; the windchill was closer to 14 degrees.

More to the point of the story, I thought that being only 29 degrees (that's reasonably warm by my Rexburg standards) I went out in a t-shirt with a AE sweater overtop and jeans. Whew! Snow was blowing hard enough into my eyes to make my eyes start to water! I think a few people thought I was bawling and have me some odd stares on my way up to campus. Rexburg natives, pugh! The point of the story is: weather forecasting is different for every area. So to prevent weather forecast confusion, I've added a North Carolina/Rexburg translation guide:

North Carolina Forecast	Rexburg Equivalent
Midly warm, high of 62	humidity 100%, heat wave of the century
Slightly Chilly, high in 50's	Getting toasty out there, DON'T BRING A JACKET
Very cold, possible ice on bridges	Standard weather pattern
Bitter COLD, lows in the 20s	Nippy in the morning, wear a hoodie
Blizzard of the century! STAY INDOORS	Light snow expected, wear a jacket, no gloves
Blizzard of the MILLENIUM	Mild snow, add the gloves
--no NC equivalent--	Mild to heavy snow---expecting 24-36 inches per hour

So there you have it, how to interpret weather in Rexburg. Seriously, there was 2-3 inches of snow on the road and not a single snow plow. I asked someone why and they said the snow plows don't come out until it snows!! I looked incredulouosly at her as I politely pointed at the 2-3 inches of white powder on the ground. I maid a mental not "not to talk to crazy."

Back in NC in t-minus 6 days.

Why I Don't Like My Roommate

2006-12-10T23:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, before I dive right into this post, let me comment on how hard it is to write a post entitled "Why I Don't Like My Roommate" when your surrounded by people who are your roommates. The one time I leave my room to put away some dishes, my roommate (who has been out all weekend, which was wonderful) walks in. I run (casually of course) back to my room in time to exit out of that screen before he could see the title of my post.

Now, on to the meat of this post. This semester draws to a close and I have built up quite a list of dislikes of my roommate. At the beginning of the semester, I though he would be pretty cool. The problem is, roommates who are complete opposites simply avoid each other and don't talk. Suffice it to say my roommate is in love with me and has no concept of "proper social courtesy."

Case 1---Listening to Music While Sleeping:

Every night, my roommate listens to music while going to sleep. This wouldn't be so bad, except that he listens to it from the speakers on his desktop PC. And the music is Gwen Stefani, and I despise rap/whatever-it-is-she-sings. So I go to bed 30 minutes later than him so I can turn off his music without waking/disturbing him. Keep in mind my roomie does have an mp3 player and could listen to his music through headphones. Anyway, in the morning he acts all upset that I turned off his speakers in the night. Pardon me for liking to sleep in silence like the rest of the world.

Case 2---Talking on the Cellphone at Night:

One night while I was going to sleep he was chatting it up with a girl at around 1:00am. I tried listening to my iPod to drown out his voice, but his piercing, high-pitched laugh (I'm not making this up) kept me awake. I ended bringing my blanket and pillow into the living room and slept on the couch.

Case 3---Running Tabs:

How many roommates keep running tabs of how much their roomie owes them. My roommate does. Thats understandable if your roommate constantly borrows money, but my tab on the year is less than $10.00! I mean honestly, how petty is that? Anyway, let's not forget how much he owes me. For example, my printer, which I let him use, and my paper in my printer, and my ink in my printer, etc. Ironically, Marc uses my printer more than I do! Anyway, I could go on and on but that's just the most obvious example.

Case 4---Music:

While I'm in the room alone, I typically play some music to listen to. Whenever Marc enters the room, and I mean nearly every time, he sits down at his computer and starts to play his music over my own! He doesn't even ask if he can listen to some. He doesn't put in headphones just blasts me into submission.

Case 5---No Personal Space:

Most people observe Personal Space Boundaries, or PSB as I like to call them. Marc does not. He constantly rearranges my things without asking me so it's hard to find my things. Not to mention he always uses my bed as a desk. Book, clothes, sheets, he puts it all on my bed. At the beginning of the year, I carefully placed his things back on his bed, but now, he places his stuff on my bed, and I place it on the floor.

I'm sure there are plenty more things that I could name off that annoy me, but these are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm not trying to be mean, but sometimes you just have to vent about somebody. Don't worry, my next post will be much more uplifting than this one. Oh yeah, as a side note, I will be returning to beautiful North Carolina in approximately 8 days! December 19th/20th I will arrive in RDU. See you then!

My New Template

2006-12-10T19:18:00.000-05:00

So you were probably stunned by the sign-in page at the beginning of my blog, plus once you got in, surprised again by the new template. These are just a few of the new features of the beta blogger by Google. So, tell me how you like it and be prepared for my next post, which will sum up the things that drive ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY about my roommate. (Which is why I have a sign-in page to view my blog). So yeah, tell me how you like the new blog....give me any suggestions...and be prepared for a full-blown roommate bashing. The post after the roommate bash will be of a more sentimental nature and offer my reflections on my first semester at BYU-I and my first semester away from home.

Why Go To School When You Can Spend Your Life…

2006-12-03T19:29:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen something that took so much time and was so specialized that you sat in a stupor and wondered "How much time did that take?" or perhaps "That guy must not have a life!" Well, I have found such a video. Of course it's really cool to watch and will give everyone a chuckle. Even watching it twice, I must ask myself, where do you find out that you are good at rollerblading through a street full of bottles and making music by placing metal strips on the outside of your skates to hit the bottles and make individual tones. Yeah, head over to www.youtube.com to check this video out.

Movie Review: The Prestige

2006-12-02T03:34:00.000-05:00

Ok, I went to see a movie tonight and man was it good. Now don't get me wrong, this movie is not for the faint of heart. Still, it is one of the best movies I've seen in awhile. I would especially recommend it to dad, Ethan, and Logan. I don't want to give anything away, because it's a movie I would like to watch again (possibly as a family, over Christmas break). Actually, in order to preserve suspense, I won't give away any details, above that of the basic premise. The basic premise is that two magicians aren't big fans of the other. I can't give away any more details than that, and I won't even give away the primary mechanism that drives the plot. If you watch it (which I highly recommend), you'll find out soon enough for yourself.

So if I just spent a paragraph praising a movie and giving away absolutely zero details, what makes a movie good? Well, I think the most important part of a movie is the story. The Prestige does not dissapoint there. The story is expertly told. One of the more interesting things is that nothing is really given or spelled out for the viewer. The movie utilizies some flashbacks and other such techniques but gives no warning of its occurrence. I think it adds to the movie because it makes you more engrossed in it and more captivated by it as the story progresses and reaches toward the climax. Above all else, this movie will make you think.

One last paragraph here will be devoted to life at BYU-I. Hmmmm, let me see, what's new. Classes are wrapping up. With only 10 days of actual classes left, the year is rapidly drawing to a close. This year at BYU-I has been really interesting and enlightening in many ways. I've gotten a taste of the college life and know what it means to live on my own. Its tough but also rewarding. Another lesson of the "I" is how to survive in arctic-circle climates! I've also learned a ton about what I enjoy doing (career wise) and what things I should pursue over the course of my education and life.

Before I depart, just a little weather update. The high over the past couple of days hasn't gotten above 20°F, at least to my knowledge…and that's not including the windchill! Biking on snow is tough, but I manage. Certainly my daily 30 mile ride has been drastically reduced to around 5…possibly 10 depending on my mood. Side note: I would LOVE to do some biking over Christmas break. Anyway, all is well here. I love you all and can't wait to come home for Christmas. Thanks for all your love and support.

Gmail Gets An Overhaul

2006-11-10T16:21:00.000-05:00

Yeah, Gmail got an overhaul. The standard gmail interface has gotten a sleeker, trimmer look and (I think) looks more stylish than ever. In addition to the much cooler look, the details view for e-mails is improved. Gmail now includes domain keys (verifies that an e-mail from bobloblaw@yahoo.com was actually mailed from the yahoo.com domain) and a few other miscellaneous enhancements. Also, the reply button is at the top and bottom of the e-mail, and conversations update as soon as you receive an e-mail. Gmail will notify you that the conversation has changed―even if you are in the middle of a reply. Also, Gmail is now available (for those with cool phones) for download at gmail.com/apps. This only works for cell phones, but you basically download a gmail app so you can use more advanced functions of gmail through your phone. You can even open sound and picture attachments!

Yeah, so check it out today by logging in to your gmail account and check out all the new features!

I Love Wake Forest

2006-11-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

Ok, instead of using my Wake Forest Take Down blog site to tell about the latest breaking WF news, I've decided to just use this blog to keep all my thoughts and such together.

Many people in NC are band-wagon fans. They like whatever school is doing well in whatever sport. For example, a band-wagon fan loves Boston College or Miami during football season (ACC teams only) but can't get enough of Coach K or the UNC tar heels during basketball season. However, very few people are die-hard fans. A die-hard roots for Wake Forest during football, basketball, golf, and chess seasons. I am a die-hard WF fan and have been since 5 or 6. And since I have been 5 or 6, I've been accustomed to cheering for an often loosing team. The other kids at school would rabidly cheer on J.J. Reddick while I would lamely add, "how 'bout Eric Williams?"

However, now that I am away from my beloved NC, WF is going on a rampage. I'm just going to comment on the WF football season. Their current record is 8-1. Do you know the last time WF went 8-1? That would be 1944. Do you know what else? 8 wins ties a school record for most wins in a season. Holy Cow! I've got to say, fate, it would seem, is not without a sense of irony. The first year I move away (and to Idaho of all places) WF has an absolutely record breaking season. WF is ranked 22 in the nation. That's absolutely amazing!

Next, WF just played BC (no 16) and won 21-14. Many people said that WF was having a fluke of a season and that the honeymoon would end with a loss against Boston College. It would appear not so. With an end zone interception, WF kept up the pressure against BC all through the 4th quarter. I'm just in awe of this WF team. It's about time WF got some intercollegiate respect. Is WF number one in the nation? Probably not. Could they beat the no. 1 team in the nation? Possibly. Many people would disagree. They would scoff and say "when the planets align, yes." Well, WF is 8-1 and if they win another game it will be a first in the entire history of Wake Forest University. Now that's saying something.

Who knows where this season will end? I certainly don't know, but its gonna be awesome!

MS Office 2007 (Beta 2)

2006-10-30T02:58:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody, how’s it going? Yeah, it’s getting kinda late here, but I wanted to make a posting before going to bed. For all parties concerned, I’m posting this article from MS Word 2007. Yeah, what a cool feature. You can register your blog account through MS Word 2007 and then write an article from Word and then post it. How friggin awesome is that? So your typing a journal entry and suddenly you realize you’d like to post it to your blog. And for me, I often post my paper and such on my blog, so this would make that incredibly easy and efficient. Plus my grammar is atrocious, so typing the post with Word will make my articles infinitely more readable.

Anyway, those are just my feelings on the matter. With Word you can also set up a workspace so several people can view and edit a paper as one. Mom, if your writing a family newsletter, you can create a workspace and set it up so certain people can edit certain parts. That way I can edit the section dealing with me while Ethan can only edit his section.

So I’m not completely 2007 (Beta 2) pro, I will say that I have encountered a bug while printing. There’s a simple workaround and I think it’s just with my printer driver/setup. Also, compatibility with previous versions can act up, but only with documents with funky graphics and such. Overall, Office 2007 looks pretty amazing. It has a lot of features missing in any current-gen office software. Check out the beta if you want. Tomorrow’s post will have more day-to-day info., so stay tuned.

Invisibility Cloak

2006-10-20T15:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, this should be a record short post, but I just found a really interesting article about a cloak (more or less) that bends electromagnetic waves and microwaves (plus visible light) around an object.

Right now, its only partially invisible in 2 dimensions and there is a slight shadow, but the researchers (from Duke Unviersity) said the ultimate goal is invisibility in 3 dimensions with no shadowing.

The basic idea, is that carefully constructed materials can bend light around itself, making it invisible. We see things when light bounces off the object and some of it reflects back to our eyes.

Anyway, check out this article, its pretty interesting.

Book of Mormon Test

2006-10-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, I'm just dropping a quick note on this one. I installed the rest of the MS Office 2007 apps and one of the ones I tried was Microsoft OneNote (which is like a really beefed-up, super cool version of Google Notebook...it even includes all the cool sharing features plus some new ones). Anyway, I have to write an Ensign article (not really, but that's the premise) about a topic in Alma chapters 13-29. Here are the notes and ideas I've collected thus far. If you happen to have MS OneNote, then use this link.

Anyway, any feedback or cool ideas you have or thoughts to share I would really like. Oh yeah, download MS OneNote...it's really cool, well worth the $1.50 download charge.

Oh yeah, if you're wondering why to download OneNote, a couple of these features might entice you.

It's just like writing notes in a notebook...anywhere you click the cursor, you can write a note.
Sharing, you can share/collaborate/anything you want with other OneNote users.
You can use OneNote to create a picture file from a portion of the screen...see a picture you like inside a flash application and you can't download it...now you can.
Text recognition from pictures---this makes it super easy to convert text documents or pictures with text in them into actual text.

So yeah, check it out and check out my notes from Alma 13-16. I'll probably publish my notes for the rest of these chapters as well.

Techno Update

2006-10-16T18:09:00.000-04:00

Ok guys, I know that I'm a huge procrastinator when it comes to posting. Things have been extremely busy these past few weeks up here at BYU-Idaho. However, once this week is over, things are gonna be niiiiccceee.

First up, quick little dating review. I've officially gone on my 3rd date with Marianne, and I still can't tell for sure if she likes me or not. For my parents, especially mom and dad, I'm not too worried about the girl situation because I know that I'm going on my mission in a year anyway. However, thus far, I've really enjoyed the dates that I've gone on with her...oh yeah, and she's gorgeous. Enough about that though. The girl that hit me with her car (while I was on my bike) happens to be in my ward and the roommate of the girl I usually sit beside in Book Of Mormon. Craziness there ;)

As far as school goes, I got a 94 on my first physics test, which counts for 20% of my grade and I had my world civ presentation today, which counted for 25% of my world civ grade. Let's see what happens there. Also, I have a presentation in Physics on work and motion, etc. this Wednesday. I'm kinda dreading it, but oh well.

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On to other news, like the new Office 2007 Beta. So everyone who knows me that I seem to keep decently current with technology related info. For those of you who don't know, Office 2007 and Windows Vista (the new operating system, like XP) are coming out to consumers early next year (January or February). Also, if you didn't know, you can download both Office 2007 (beta of course) and the 1st release candidate of Vista. I'm a little too timid to download Vista since there could be some major issues with compatibility with my current software, but that means Office 2007 is fair game.

True to Microsoft's word, Office 2007 is a huge improvement over previous versions. 10x shinier, it has that "new software" feel to it. That's not what's most impressive. I have not conducted any tests, but it appears that Office 2007 loads a tad faster than 2003. Another neat feature is the absence of traditional menus. They are gone. Instead is a more streamlined and intuitive interface. It might take users a few minutes to become acquainted to, but it has a lot of new features that are easy to use and understand. Another cool feature is the level of integration. It works better than you imagine it could. One cool example is when inserting a table into PowerPoint. You click the button and in a few seconds your looking at PowerPoint with Excel open right beside of it. It gives you full access to Excel features and as you edit the tables in Excel, it changes the graph in PowerPoint. Its cool.

I haven't tested compatibility with previous versions of office, but I imagine it works smoothly with Office 2003 and Office XP. Its a cool download, although it does cost $1.50. I justify this by saying that I'm downloading a refreshed Beta 2, which is decently close to release software. Office 2007 will cost between $200-$400, and I've got it for $1.50. This should hold me over until I buy a new computer, in which case it'll come bundled anyway.

So yeah, check out the link/title of this post and see if you'd like to try out the Office 2007 beta. It's worth it, or at least I think so.

BYU-Idaho

2006-09-27T02:36:00.000-04:00

This post will be relatively quick since its getting kinda late and I'm really tired. I just wanted to share a few spiritual experiences that I have had while I've been here.

In my Book of Mormon class, I've found the Spirit to be present every day. Each day I feel a strong witness of the topics that we discuss. Not just little "oh, that's cool" moments, but Ensign moments, manifestations that I won't forget...ever. Also, in devotional, (not every week), but the way the speakers say something, the Spirit has born witness to me of the truth of many things and I feel so blessed to be a part of that. I'm not doing a very good job at explaining things, but I just want everyone to know what a spiritual experience BYU-I has been for me thus far. I just feel such a close connection to the Lord, a knowledge that when I pray he will answer. He's waiting to help us, we just have to be willing to accept things his way. I feel like all too often we have our own ideas about things and how things should work out, but when we seek to do the Lord's will, we receive guidance and blessings beyond our own abilities.

One quick personal story before I sign out. Last night I prayed specifically to be able to remember to say my morning prayers. It was a simple request. Let me background this moment by saying that I haven't said my morning prayers in at least months. But this morning, I remembered. It's so wonderful to feel the guidance and companionship of the Lord. Plus, saying my morning prayers really helped me throughout the day. I didn't get lost in Calculus and was on time to every class. The Lord is always willing to help, no matter how small or insignificant something (or some request) may seem. I'm just grateful for all the Lord has given me.

I bear my testimony that the Church is true, that Gordon B. Hinckley is a prophet, that Joseph Smith restored the Gospel and translated the Book of Mormon. I know Christ is the center of our religion and that he atoned for our sins. I like the words of Isaiah when he writes (from the Lord's perspective) "...my arm is stretched out still." I think this means that no matter what the Lord is always waiting and willing to help, no matter the sin or unworthiness we may feel personally. The tender mercies of the Lord are everywhere. I want everyone to know how thankful I am for the best family on earth and I'm thankful for how supportive you are of me and helping me through my homesickness. And don't worry guys, I'm not moving to Rexburg anytime soo-------ever. I'm just grateful for the Spirit I've felt. The Gospel related things I've learned here I can take with my anywhere. I wish you all a good night and hope to hear from you soon. You guys are great.

Why Mom Would Like BYU-Idaho

2006-09-13T01:32:00.000-04:00

Just a quickie for tonight. It's kinda late and I just want to share a quick little snippet into campus life here. Wierd though this may seem, there are hand sanitizer dispensers near every building entrance and exit. I think mom would be in heaven here. Even outside some bathroom/interior doors there are little dispensers to keep things squeaky clean. So yeah, if you're ever on campus, don't worry, because things will always be clean.

Anyway, physics and calc are pretty tough, but not impossible. My computer class is easy and fun, while religion and world civ provide a neat balance. Catch you guys round

Life at "The I"

2006-09-08T21:39:00.001-04:00

So I bet everybody has been eagerly awaiting my next blog post to see what I've been up to in college. Hold your breath no longer! I've finally gotten settled into life here and things are returning to a sense of normal.

First off, I would like to say thank you again to all those who have been praying for me over the past week or so. Moving off to college was a million times harder than I thought it would be. Leaving my family at the terminal was hard enough and then Ethan dropping me off at Rexburg was the final straw. It finally hit me that me living by myself would become the norm. I mean, I know that I have roommates, but I still feel like its mostly me watching out for myself. The best way to describe it is being independent.

The good side is that the homesickness has finally started to wear off. Not that I no longer miss my family, but the sadness I feel at being far away from them has been reduced to a manageable portion. Life has to go on and I've got classes and such to do here. Speaking of classes, I'll give everyone a quick little run down on my schedule.

My schedule is obviously posted above, but that doesn't explain what my day is like. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are the hardest, but still quite fun. I actually really enjoy all of my classes so far. The class I was most scared about was my Calc II class which start right where my high school AP Calc class left off. Fortunately my teacher is super nice and I think I'm really going to like her. My Calc I teacher (which I only had for a day) seemed mean and determined to make Calc I a difficult class. She even promised 3 hours of studying per hour of class time. yikes! I mean, I know I need to study in order to do well in my classes...but there is no way I need to study that much for a class. Especially not on average. Anyway, Calc II is way cooler and its exciting to start learning where AP Calc left off. Physics is probably my toughest class because it applies a lot of things that I didn't really learn in high school physics. In high school physics I learned several topics really well, but in college physics it looks like I may need to understand a lot more. Potentially my favorite class is the Intro to Software Development. Before we even got into how to actually program, I was writing some C++ code in the Linux lab. For those who aren't familiar with computer programming terminology, C++ is a Object Oriented (OO) programming language. Linux is an operating system much like Windows XP or Vista. Linux is common among programmers. Anyway, its pretty interesting to start learning a few things about how to make programs. Thus far all I've done is make the computer display some text and create conditional statements based on user input. Don't worry, it sounds way more complicated that it actually is.

The religion class is great as is World Civ. Both teachers are way cool and know their stuff. I especially like my World Civ teacher because he doesn't even need to look at a book to teach us stuff, he just knows it that well.

Lastly, I want to slip in a quick technological update. If any of you are using the internet (which all of you must be in order to view an online blog) go to this website and download the Google Toolbar. Granted, I have to really like a browser plugin before using it because I hate any performance slow downs and I hate plugins that take up precious viewing space. the Google Toolbar does neither. Once downloaded, check out the "Send To" button. Find a web page and click the "Send To" button and then click "Gmail." Basically, you send a copy of the web page you are viewing via e-mail to anyone. It's really a neat feature to show someone exactly what you are looking at. Anyway, that's all I've got for you guys today. Stay classy San Diego. I'm Ron Burgundy?

Leaving Home

2006-08-26T00:03:00.000-04:00

Where to begin....hmmm. It's hard to pick a starting point for this epic saga. I'll try my best to give a brief narrative of the events of the past couple of days and give some commentary without getting too emotionally involved.

As (hopefully) most of you know, I am no longer in North Carolina. I'm going to school in BYU-Idaho this fall and (probably) winter semesters. Anyway, my adventure started on thursday, August 24th. My family drove me to the airport in Raleigh where my flight was delayed from a 4:05 departure to a 6:50 departure. That meant that I would miss my connecting flight in Chicago. It ended up that I hung out with the family for awhile before returning to the airport and rebook my flight for the next morning at 6:45am. The only really bad thing about the early departure was that I had to get up at 4:40am EST. I honestly didn't feel too sleepy. The morning flight was nearly empty and went from Raleigh to Nashville and then to Las Vegas and then to Salt Lake City. On the way from Nashville to Las Vegas, I pulled out the laptop and watched several episodes of TV shows I had downloaded to my hard drive. It really helped to pass the time.

It was funny landing in Vegas. I (not having left NC much) thought it was funny that even the airport had built-in casinos. I even saw a 90-year-old woman staring down her slot machine. From Nashville to Vegas I sat beside a really nice couple. We talked about college and what not and they related to mom in being sad when children leave home for college. The last of her children had just left for college and she sympathized with my feelings of sadness at leaving home.

In Vegas I spent the better part of my time charging my laptop battery for the flight from Vegas to Salt Lake. In turned out I didn't even get to finish one episode of the TV show I was watching. Oh yeah, if anyone is looking for gift ideas...House Season 2 is looking really good right now. Or software to decode DVDs and copy them to the hard drive.

Anyway, I made it to Ethan's apartment successfully then I had to drive him to work. I went from there to Best Buy and bought a wireless router for his apartment and since I would need one in Idaho anyway. Probably the craziest part of the day was how little food I had. Kristen bought me a biscuit that morning around 5:30am and the next food I had was in Vegas at 9:30 (12:30 EST). All I had there was a pink lemonade and a handful of combos. My next meal was a chalupa at Taco Bell...weeee!

I'm starting to ramble, but I would like to share a few of my thoughts before I close. Leaving for college is scary and daunting, yes. But through hard and difficult circumstances can come great joy. As I used to quote "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." This applies to me, I know. One "known" blessing is the blessing of coming home for Christmas. I know that the absence of college will make the reunion much sweeter. Of course other blessings may occur while at college, but those are up to me as I allow the Lord to work through me. My attitudes and desires will bear the greatest effect on how sensitive I am to the Spirit and how much I learn and grow from my surroundings. Life is like dinner. If all we ate was dessert (even though it tastes amazing) we would be unhealthy and suffer in the no-so-distant future. However, struggling down fruits and vegetables (although not as tasty as pie and ice cream) helps us both mentally and physically. Adversity can equal tremendous growth. It's all in how we handle the situations we face. Maybe leaving home and going to BYU-I isn't cake, but I can still enjoy the BYU-I broccoli salad. Just as long as it doesn't become celery, we should all be fine ;)

New Laptop

2006-08-02T10:53:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody. Continuing the my new tradition of late blog posting, here I am. But I bring a new song called "Don't Wait" by Dashboard Confessional. Check out the music video above. It's really interesting, especially if you watch it all the way through.

Anyway, new laptop. I just bought a new laptop a few days ago from Dell. I wanted to get a 14.1" screen because (instead of the 15.4" or 17") for battery life reasons. Plus it's a little more mobile than the larger laptops. I had been eyeing this one for awhile but it just didn't have as good of deals as its cousin laptops ;) ironically, one night when me and logan we're up kinda late, I looked at the laptop again (a little after midnight, August 1st) and it had identical deals as the other laptops. Cautiously I decided to go ahead and buy the it. $700 later and that thing is all mine!

The cool part of the story is that the same morning (about 9am) I checked Dell.com again and all the deals of the previous night we're gone. I don't know what happened, but for just a couple of hours I was able to get the deal I'd been hoping for. Yeah for me!

For those curious about what kind of laptop I got, here are the specs:

1.86 GHz single-core processor (Intel)
60 GB Hard drive (5400rpm)
1.04 GB of DDR2 SDRAM
533 Mhz FSB speeds
802.11 b/g network card
DVD/CD burner @ 8x (dual-layer burning support)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I think I'm forgetting something, so just comment any questions. My next post will follow the trend of the "Love" post, meaning it should be a thoughtful and reflective post of a different topic altogether. Oh and mom, go back to the top of the page, unpause the video and watch it. I think you'll like it.

Love

2006-07-15T13:56:00.000-04:00

Perhaps such a post as this should be written at a less cynical time in my life. Fear not though, for my dissertation is like a scary bedtime story. No matter what happens, it always ends happily ever after.

I was thinking in the shower about 10 minutes ago and my train of thought led me to love. I cynically remarked to myself that there is no such thing as true love. The more I thought about it I began to realize my own error. Among teenagers, true love is a rare thing, in fact, its practically nonexistent.

I know I'm rambling, but I will make my point. There are a couple of kinds of love and all of them must be examined to understand the point I'm making. Teenage love should be more appropriately called infatuation. Although not always the case, teenagers often mistake infatuation for a purer form of love. Infatuation is a physical love, with no roots in traits of personality, character, humor, etc. Infatuation is skin deep and both comes and goes as fleetingly as the wind.

The closest mortal approximation of true (or perfect) love is unconditional love. The best example of this is the love parents have for their children and the siblings love for another sibling. This kind of love is always present and based entirely in personality traits and not at all in looks. Unconditional love is loving someone for who they are, not how they look, dress, or act.

Now I'm nearing the realization I had in the shower. Unconditional love is not perfect love. Unconditional love can become perfect love, but it isn't always the case. Perfect love can only be felt in a state of Celestial glory. Because perfect love must be perfect, it must be eternal. The closest mortal approximation of perfect love is true love. Eternal marriage paves the highway for an eternity of perfect love between a family, but it is only a highway. It must be followed and each of us has the agency to choose that path or not.

My point is that perfect love is felt on earth. It is almost only found in marital relationships (especially the eternal variety) and between the members of a family. However, because of our mortal state, I believe a more appropriate name of perfect love is true love.

True love is like a seed. Just because its planted doesn't mean it will become a tree. Under proper conditions a seed can become a tree, living for hundreds of years (mortal eternity). Ok, that's as far as I got in the shower. A bit of a ramble, but still the good ending.

Why MySpace is Stupid (and life)

2006-07-11T23:21:00.000-04:00

Ok, first off, I'm going to give a paragraph synopsis of the last three or four weeks.

New Mexico Trip: C- this trips gets a C- because I don't like camping...at all. One week spent without modern conveniences...of which I am a huge fan. The only reason this trip didn't receive a failing grade is for two reasons. One reason was getting to spend some time with logan and my dad. The second reason was getting to spend time with my friends. Ok, the scenery was decent, but I spent the week looking at the person's feet in front of me. I would glance up to stare at 300ft high canyon walls! WOW! and the second day, guess what I saw when I looked up? Yep, you guessed it, 300ft canyon walls! WOW! and the third day, guess what I saw when I looked up? Yep, you guessed it....you get the picture. The canyon walls were kinda interesting, plus we saw some cool cliff dwellings. However, it is unlikely I will go on a camping trip like this one in the near future.

EFY: B+ EFY gets a B+ for being EFY. The reason it didn't get an A or higher rating is because I felt a noticeable maturity gap between me and some of the other participants. It wasn't terrible, but it was there. I just can't figure out what was missing. Plus, girls are gay. I apologize to all feminine readers of this blog...but its true. I have a few stories to tell, but they're too long and drawn out to write out here. Suffice it to say I was out-flirted by a friggin candybar. Ok, so he was human, but his name was Heath. Exactly...friggin candybar. Oh well, I'm over it now...but it does help to vent with writing. Hanging out with Logan and my friends was exceptionally cool.

Work: F- Yeah, work sucks. I mean not good. I really don't enjoy work because it's a complete waste of time. Free movies are nice, but the tasks I do are menial. It's like getting paid to do 3rd grade math for 10 hours at a time. It's ridiculously easy, but you know you have sooo much more potential yet it's not needed. Frustrating!

Ok, why MySpace is stupid:

1. You can only upload 12pictures
2. Picture must be less than 600KB
3. MySpace makes you compress the files to a size under the 600KB mark
4. MySpace uploads only one photo at a time
5. MySpace uploads photos until it gets to the 600KB mark before telling you its too big.
6. MySpace uses a billion subdomains to process server requests (purely technical complaint)
7. MySpace doesn’t allow scripting
8. MySpace doesn't utilize active scripting (check out picasa web albums---the comment feature)
9. MySpacece doesn't fully support IE 7
10. MySpace is home to hundreds of pedafiles
11. MySpace doesn't always work...MySpace screws up. Other sites don't.
12. Everyone has one...and no one shares my overwhelming hatred of it...thus I am doomed to communicate with others through the "Cursed Network" as I will now refer to MySpace as.

Oh Yeah, by the way, check out my pictures from EFY and YC here. Yeah, and you can still comment on my pictures. They're good

New Mexico Camping (and Free Long Distance)

2006-06-16T13:43:00.000-04:00

Ok, before I get started into the New Mexico camping trip rundown, I'm gonna do a quick software review. I'm taking a break from my typically Google oriented reviews and branching out into another software provider. Skype. Skype can be downloaded here. Skype is similar to other programs that allows you to talk to other Skype users (over the internet at 256-bit encryption) for free. This means a hacker would have 1.1 x 10(to the 77th power) different combinations of numbers to guess before gaining access to your private conversations. The best thing about Skype is that now you can make free calls to any land-line phone in the US for free. Just download the program, dial the number (in the +1336123456 format) and wa-la---free long distance. For all those with any connection faster than dial-up, I would recommend checking this out. At the very least it will save on long distance calls.

Anyway, on to New Mexico. I'll get around to posting some pictures today or tomorrow, but for now I'll have to paint a picture of the trip with my own words (ahh, I sound like a poet). The trip started at 3am in my house, where we left for good ole' RDU airport. 2 hours early for our flight, our time was spent sleeping in the terminal (of which I have many pictures). The flight was fun and within 10 hours we we're safe in Arizona's Tuscon Intl' airport. Our two guides picked us up and drove us to one of our guides grandparent's home---in the 109ºF heat. Yikes! That's like 42ºC for any who care (give or take a degree). We spent the night in the basement of the grandparent's house and the next morning---Monday morning---we we're off into the deserts of New Mexico. After a three-hour drive, we arrived at the drop-off point.

Enough with the minute description. To make a long story short, the week was hot, long, and tiring. It was also a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Don't misunderstand me---it wasn't spectacular, but it was.....almost fun....at times. I will only admit this one---and grudgingly at that---but parts of it were genuinely fun. The only thing I didn't like about the trip was our guide's sense of direction. He was always wayyyy off when it came to distances. One morning he told us it was 1 mile to the nearest swimming hole. 6 miles later, we reached the swimming place. Yikes again! However, the place where we hiked was really pretty. Most of the week was spent in a narrow canyon with 300ft. high walls surrounding us! One cool point in the trail came when we found a hot springs deal. Heated by magma deep within the earth, hot and fresh spring water was delivered to us in a 4ft deep pool. It was really nice and everything. Without the natural setting, it could have doubled as a sauna. The only downside was the brain-eating amoeba that lived there. For that reason we couldn't dip our heads beneath the water as the amoebas would crawl up our nasal cavities and eat our brains. Yeah, I'm serious about that. Oh well, it was still fun.

Coming back to civilization was also weird. After being away from girls for a week, I found myself checking out the 40 year old waitresses at the Golden Corral. After a few hours my senses returned to normal.

Well, that's all for now. I'll post the pictures from the trip in the slide-show or in the blog for everybody to check them out. One other side-note (in the life of Adam) is that I've got my job orientation at 3:30pm at the movie theatre here in town. Looks like I landed my first job! Everybody wish me luck! Aurvoir!

Graduation Day!

2006-06-04T02:03:00.000-04:00

Wow, where do I start? It's been four years at Mount Airy High School and now I'm done with high school---forever!

In case you didn't guess from the title of this post, the new pictures in the slide-show, or the new song playing called "Graduation Day," then I'll tell you. Friday, June 3rd was my graduation from high school.

I've got to admit, actually being here feels a lot different than the journey. From as far back as I can remember, I really hated school. I had friends and everything, but I just didn't get excited about the whole concept. However, now that I've actually graduated I have a slightly more bittersweet outlook on the whole thing. Sure I'm glad to move on, but high school was fun. More precisely, senior year was fun. All my classes were with people that I enjoyed being with and the atmosphere had a maturity I'd been waiting for for four years.

Aside from all that, I'll be the first to admit I'm a little scared/nervous about heading out to college. I mean I've never been away from home for more than a week at a time to EFY. Now I'm living on my own some 2,000 miles away from home. And the next time I see my family could quite possibly be Christmas. Yikes! Ok, enough sadness. On the positive, I'm closer to serving a mission. That really excites me. I've been waiting to serve a mission ever since I my family sang "Called to Serve" in the car to keep me quiet. I'm also closer to coming home from my mission, getting married, and raising a family! No need to look too far into the future though =)

Let me describe my actual graduation and then I've got to head out. At graduation all the seniors took balloons and placed them on my Principal's podium while she read out the names of the graduates. It was pretty funny when she became buried in the balloons and no one could see her. I don't do the scene justice but it was hilarious. Also, when my principal pronounced us graduates the silly string was everywhere! Volleyballs, toilet paper, and streamers was flying everywhere! The coolest part was throwing my own hat in the air! That was such a cool, rush-like feeling. You see people do it on TV all the time, but actually doing it---it was cool!

Ok audience, I must go to bed. It is 2:11am and I'm leaving for a camping trip at 3am. I will be gone until 6/12/06. Sorry guys, no posting or content until then. But I'll post some cool pictures with my new digital camera (thanks again Kristen and Cory). Until then, enjoy the new song, "Graduation Day," by Head Automatica and enjoy the new pictures in the slide-show. Don't forget that if you click on the pictures, it will take you to a picture index if you want to see enlarged versions of the pics. That's all. Wish me luck in the deserts of New Mexico. Aurvoir and Sianara!

Life

2006-05-30T22:50:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I just wanted to give this post a cool title when in fact I actually have nothing to post about. Be prepared for intense rambling.

I'll write a few random thoughts about graduation, college, and life in general. First up, graduation. Service of Celebration was (I think) Monday. The speakers were nice, refreshments were so-so, and graduation tradition carried on like always. I only pose one question. Who thought wearing robes, strings, and caps with gay tassels was cool? Forget cool, what about just plain comfortable? As I was "robing up" for the S of C, I felt like some actor out of a bad Harry Potter Movie spin-off. And you know what else---those robes are hot! The air conditioning in that church was nonexistent! And it was wayyy too sunny! Oh well, I will admit that it was cool seeing old high school friends again (woah that sounds weird to say) and it felt like I was finally done with high school. I'm a little nervous and scared heading out west for college...being so far away from home. At the same time, it's kinda exciting to finally be done with high school and moving on.

Ok, that's all the rambling I have for today. I'll try and cook up something especially cool for my next post. Oh yeah, the slide-show should be back up sometime this week. My hosting site is down for awhile but should be back online soon. I'll even throw in a few extra pictures.

One last thought about the heart of my post. You know, life is all about change. Yet, life isn't a mix a "big" changes that alter the course of our lives. I think its more like a slow transformation. Although life still holds key moments---our past day-to-day actions slowly shape who we are so that when we come to big choices---we've already made the choice. Life is a river---always changing yet never ending. Always following the land---but a river does is not shaped by the land. Water shapes the land it runs on. So do we affect the world in which we live.

(I just wanted to write something poetic sounding) See you guys round'!

Myth Busting

2006-05-20T11:04:00.000-04:00

I'm in a pretty random mood this morning, so this post will be short.

Everyone gets those e-mails telling a brief horror story about "little Susan" who wishes she had only known not to flash her headlights at oncoming cars because it was part of a violent "Blood Gang" initiation ritual. Well, I decided to start finding out whether those e-mails were true, partly true, or straight-up hoaxes. My findings thus far have been very interesting. You can find all the information I've gathered thus far here at my Google Notebook. So far, what I will do to new myths is to post the original text of the hoax e-mail and then post clippings of the relevant information about it, plus Google Notebook automatically includs links to the websites I get my information from.

If you have a Google account you can search my notebook exclusively from the google.com/notebook page. Also, I made a heading for each new myth, so it makes it easy to scroll between the blue headings to find myths relevant to you. Also, if you have some sketchy e-mails, feel free to forward them to me so I can add them to my "myth busting" Notebook collection.

So far I have only busted two myths. One about the Blood Gang initiation ritual and the Dial *677 for emergency dispatch. So far both proved almost entirely false. Anyway, feel free to enjoy my Myth Busters notebook. Btw, prom (Kelsey's is tonight). Wish me luck :)