Eschew Perfection

The Reason

2010-10-17T22:37:00.002-06:00

Why did I grow a beard, you ask? Well here is your answer:

Meet Beard

2010-10-16T16:41:00.003-06:00

Hello friends and family, meet Beard!
Beard was only around for a few weeks, so most of you never had a chance to meet him. I thought you might like to see him though, so enjoy

Since Beard left, I'm back to looking like my regular self. But don't worry! I'm sure Beard will be back some day.

Happenings

2010-08-25T23:28:00.004-06:00

Oh hello there Blog. I've sort of missed you. I see you nearly every day when I get on the internet at home, but it's been too long since we've sat down and talked. A lot has happened, but at the same time, not a lot has happened. In May I moved. I know we've talked since then, but I didn't mention it and I don't think you really even noticed. Thanks for noticing the details, blog. Sheesh.

I got a summer pass to Seven Peaks, which has been great. A couple hours after work is just what the doctor ordered on some days, especially after getting stuck at work a half hour later or more.

I've thrashed my feet this summer by taking all winter off from running, then immediately getting back into it with Vibram Five Fingers. In retrospect, it would have been best to get into running again, then transition to the Five Fingers, but oh well. I've been plagued by injuries to my feet, dozens of blisters, and sore muscles, but it's been worth it because I love the shoes. They may look funky, but they are so comfortable.

I went to Seven Peaks with my family, got some crazy expensive sunglasses for free (thanks dad!), hiked Table Rock in Five Fingers and got some awesome blisters on my heels for it, probably did some other stuff that I don't remember, and then had a birthday (26. I know, ancient). What did I do to celebrate my birthday, you ask? I guess you could say I hiked Mt. Timp. I know, I'm crazy. I did it last year, and I just couldn't resist the pull of the second trail. Oh, and it was at midnight again. Crazy, I know.
This is the only picture I took, mostly because for the most part, I was thinking to myself "Why the freak am I doing this again..." The other part is because we cruised up there pretty quick. 6.5 miles in 4 hours. And then down in 3.5 hours. Was it worth it again, you ask? No, no it was not. I will not be hiking that mountain for at least another 10 years.

And I've decided I need to be inducted into the order of the Geeks. Much like how Luke Skywalker needed to construct his own lightsaber before he could become a Jedi, I must construct my own computer before I can truly become a Geek. All my parts should be here this weekend, so that's what I'll be spending my weekend doing. Hopefully I don't suck at it.

Well Blog, that was pretty much my summer. We should do this more often.

Wrong Season

2010-06-03T22:55:00.000-06:00

The colors make this look very Halloween, but it's late and I'm tired once again. Improvements to come.

U-G-L-Y

2010-06-02T11:10:00.002-06:00

I can't say I'm a super huge fan of this look now that I've spent a bit of time looking at it. In other news, I ran 7.25 miles on Saturday. I was surprised at how much I wasn't tired during the run. I had difficulty staying awake for the remainder of the day after, though. I have been absolutely exhausted lately, and I'm not sure why. I've been a bit restless at night, but not enough to explain how tired I've become. I'll just say I have mono so I can stay home for a while.

This'll work

2010-05-26T22:48:00.002-06:00

Still gotta adjust a few settings, but I'm too lazy to do that right now. In any case, not much is going on in life. Just work, church, forcing myself to exercise. You know, the usual. Bone and Back is one month away today. Yikes.

Construction

2010-05-18T22:06:00.000-06:00

I had a shiny new template all worked out, but it was missing some major aspects, so I'm temporarily back to plain jane. It'll change soon. Don't know to what, but it'll change soon.

The Cutest

2010-04-17T11:09:00.006-06:00

I was thinking the other day how adorable all my nieces and nephews are, so I thought I would put some of my favorite pictures of them up all in one place for bragging rights. Most of these were thieved from family blogs, so sorry for the double post, though I think it's entirely worth it. Nat's kids first, then Eric's:

I love this one of Brooklyn because it shows that she already has the hip-cocked-to-one-side-with-leg-bent-to-show-attitude stance. Wonder where she got that from...

I took this picture with my phone a couple years ago, so that's why it's all washed out. I love the little toothy grin on Nathans face, still.

My buddy Eli. He really lucked out getting those baby blues.

Thomas is the chubber of Nat's family, but he's equally adorable as the rest.

A quintessential pose for Carter, contemplating the mysteries of the universe and calculating how may whales could fit in our Solar System.

Molly, arguably the cutest BYU cheerleader ever to exist.

Sadie was clearly very excited for 2010. Too bad this pic was out of focus.

The heretofore unnamed(?) Eric and Jenn Jenkins child. Due for an appearance on or around June 5th.

BONUS: This is a picture I couldn't help but love. It's of my cousin Sylvia's daughter, Bailey. She had just posted pictures of her two other children showing off their Easter Eggs with their arms raised triumphantly. Then she posted this picture. Her own subtitle following the picture:

"Bailey opted for looking like she's offering Satan's earthly progeny in egg form"

Double Down

2010-04-12T17:04:00.004-06:00

I have consumed one of the most abhorrent concoctions to be conceived by fast food in a long, long time. Behold the Double Down:
A product so meaty, there was no room for a bun. I'm just gonna dive right into this behemoth of a product.

To start off, it looks a lot bigger in the ads than it really is. Granted, it's fairly dense, so that's not really a major problem. It's substantial enough that you won't really need to buy the meal to fill you up. Well, I guess that doesn't apply to a lot of guys, but it was sufficient enough to fill me without making me feel full. The chicken patties(?) are very thick, so you have to open wide to get a full bite. Swiss and Pepper Jack cheeses are included, and surprisingly, the Pepper Jack doesn't get drowned out completely. There is just a hint of spice remaining. Certainly not the full flavor of the cheese, but enough to let you know that it's there.

Bacon...why is there bacon in here? Oh yeah, because everybody loves bacon, and so they could jack the fat and sodium content as high as possible. Unfortunately, the bacon is mostly lost in the overwhelming wave of original recipe spices that assault your senses. You will taste it occasionally, and it's a delight when you do, but it's mostly a useless addition. The "Colonel's Special Sauce" seems to be Thousand Island, which I'm not particularly fond of, but blends adequately with the other flavors here.

All in all, it's a decent product. As with all fast food, it is by no means something you should eat on a regular basis. It only seems more disgusting than it really is because we are used to handling a bun, rather than directly handling the meat itself, making us feel like ancient neanderthals. Which brings me to my next point: Changes.

There are two main things I would change. The first is the chicken itself. While I was eating the sandwich (or perhaps more accurately called a chickwich?) I was worried about the grease and juices from the Original Recipe getting down my hands. How about a Crispy recipe option? That would help with the worries of juices running down my arms to drip off my elbows like spring runoff. Also, I'd like to see a different sauce in there. Maybe a nice spicy ranch to add a little oomph to the Pepper Jack?

At any rate, this is worth the price just to say you've tried it, and probably worth a second visit later on, but I do not believe this would make it into my regular-item-to-order-when-eating-out list.

The transformation continues

2010-03-30T13:32:00.002-06:00

I had a horrible realization the other day: I don't notice the taste of Utah water anymore.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!!?!??!

Little Peoples

2010-03-26T14:34:00.003-06:00

I hopped on Google Talk to talk to Jenn today. I was surprised by Carter responding instead. These are a couple parts of our conversation:

me: Hey Jenn.

Jennifer Jenkins: It's Carter Steve

me: Well hello Carter Steve!

Jennifer Jenkins: It' Carter Jenkins.

For some reason I cracked myself up by responding how I did. Carter's response aided in the humor.

Later...

me: Are you home from school already?

Sent at 2:23 PM on Friday

Jennifer Jenkins: Yep. Fridays are short days.

me: Cool! I wish Fridays were short days for me.

Sent at 2:28 PM on Friday

Jennifer Jenkins: Mmmm. I see. Well tallk to ya laytor.

me: Ok bye.

Jennifer Jenkins: Bey.

Sent at 2:31 PM on Friday

Evidently Carter had some serious contemplation to do upon learning the inner yearnings of my heart.

Nephews rock.

They see me rollin...

2010-03-22T18:01:00.004-06:00

They hatin. Why are they hatin? Because I'm styling this bad mother of a machine:
That's right. Some little 17 year old dame in a slammin' classic Mustang decided to hit my car while I was at work, so I have a rental until my ride is all prettied up again.

Enough with the slang. I'm stuck with this thing until Wednesday or Thursday. And you know how Enterprise's big thing is that they will come pick you up? Well they do, but they deceive you into thinking you are getting a nicer car than you are. My driver showed up in a Dodge Avenger. He made small talk about the Health Bill that just passed, and I waited eagerly to get behind the wheel and show him how to really drive that kind of car. I signed the paperwork, and then they took me back out, and my heart sank.

I got in to the thing, made sure I knew where all the essentials were, and drove off, testing the pathetic and noisy acceleration. Only when I was exiting the vehicle did I realize that it has both manual locks and windows. Did you even know that they make vehicles without auto windows and locks? I sure didn't. The only redeeming factor of the vehicle is that is has an aux in, so I can still listen to my iPod. Speaking of my iPod, check out the latest on it:Nevermind the weird waves, that is just due to having a picture taken of an LCD screen. Those big black lines started showing up a few days ago. It's sad, but exciting, because if the screen completely fails, that means I can save up and get a Zune HD, which I have been pining over for a number of months now.

Blah blah blah

2010-01-31T17:41:00.001-07:00

There, I updated. Real update coming within a week or so.

I've been too busy

2009-12-07T16:36:00.003-07:00

See, I haven't updated lately because I've been busy spending time with a girl. Yes, let the speculation rise. And that is a perfectly legitimate excuse, because girls are way more important than a blog. Perhaps not more important that calling your mother, though. Sorry.

Excerpt

2009-11-06T01:23:00.000-07:00

An excerpt of a larger personal essay I'm currently developing:

We typically speak of perfection in terms of being flawless or without error. Indeed, Merriam-Webster.com’s first definition of perfect is “being entirely without fault or defect”. Definition 1b is perhaps the better description to keep in mind while discussing finding the perfect girl. It reads, “Satisfying all requirements”. Another states “lacking in no essential detail”. Perhaps those two combined gives us the best definition of what ‘perfect’ is when considering a spouse. Perfect girl – one who meets all the needs that you have. A girl whom you love despite her flaws, because the flaws really don’t matter. It’s exactly who she is that makes her perfect to you.

A changing of ways

2009-10-29T23:43:00.000-06:00

I got called out by my mom the other day for not writing in my blog for two weeks. So here, mom! Here's your stinking blog post!!!

But seriously, it's kinda been a crazy few weeks so I haven't taken much time to post. Let's start three weeks ago, Conference weekend. I am hanging out with some friends until about midnight, and decided to go to bed because I had to clean the church the next morning. I had a bit of an upset stomach, but I figured it was just something I ate. Come two in the morning, I woke up from some crazy, crazy dreams, which means that I'm about ready to hurl. Rush to the bathroom, and WHABAM!! Ice cream in the toilet. Give it another 10 or so minutes, and WHOOOSH!!! half digested ice cream in the toilet. I'll spare you the details, but every half hour or so I was back in the bathroom, and I ran out of ice cream pretty quickly and switched over to bile.

By the next morning, all my roommates had been woken up at least once by my gastrointestinal escapades, and I was so entirely drained of fluids that I was feeling sick because of it. Which really didn't help my original nausea. At any rate, I had my roommates buy me some apple sauce and soda in hopes of getting at least a little energy back. I had to take tiny sips and nibbles of stuff or else I would start heaving again. So it took me a very very long time to get any sort of energy back. Suffice it to say, I didn't clean the church. And I tried to listen to conference, but I was mostly incoherent for the day, so I didn't get much out of it.

A couple weeks go by and I find out one of my roommates has Swine Flu. YAY! I figure I'm immune since I got so deathly sick just a couple weeks ago. Well, the next day comes, and another roommate drops the the Swine flu. And then the next day I get sick, but not as sick as the other roommates, which was really good because I had a concert to go to. Ingrid Michaelson, but more on that to come. I suffered through a thursday at work, and just couldn't find it in myself to make it to work on Friday, so I stayed home and slept. Saturday, the big concert, and I wasn't feeling 100%, but well enough to go to this concert, because it was pretty much the best concert ever.

I met up with some people from my old branch and Ingrid pretty much rocked out socks off. If you haven't heard of her, look her up, because she is seriously one of my favorite artists of the past few years. I'm sure going to the concert didn't help my sickness, because the next day I was pretty exhausted. I can't describe to you how so, so, so, so, so worth it it was, though. That was the most fun I had experienced in a long time.

My Sunday

2009-10-12T19:45:00.002-06:00

I've decided that Sundays are pretty much the beginning of my workweek now, and here's why. The following is a breakdown of Sunday, October 11th:

I wake up at 6 to get ready for my 7 AM EQ Presidency Stake training. That goes until about 8:15, and then I come home and type out a letter for the Stake President because he is teaching EQ in a couple weeks at Ward Conference. I also gather all the announcements and prepare an agenda for EQ that day so my counselor can conduct.

Right after I finish I go right back to the church so I can find the program person to find out if there are any other announcements I'm missing. Also needed to chat with the RS President. I get stopped by four different people on my way back to the Priesthood room, causing me to get in the room only one minute before 9. Church for three hours. Two setting aparts, ward choir, PEC AND Ward Council afterward takes me to about 3:15. I finally get to go home, and I make some rice to eat for a sorta-lunch. Then EQ Presidency meeting at 4, which goes to about 5:15.

After organizing the 20 or so papers I got througout the day, I hop on facebook and check it for a few minutes, then decided that I haven't read my book lately. So I pull that out, read a chapter, doze off with it on my chest until about 6:55, and run to the church because I have Stake Choir practice at 7. It should have ended at 8 but went until 8:30. I immediately run to my friends house because he invited me to dinner. I got there right in time, which was nice.

Delicious Chicken Courdon Bleu with homemade gravy to die for. Anyway, at that time, it was almost 9, so I had Ward Prayer. That was actually pretty fun this time. We played Never Have I Ever. But anyway, after that I head back to my friends because we still had cake to eat.

I had made plans to go over to another friends house because he got new songs for Rock Band.

So after eating cake and playing Settlers of Zarahemla for a while, I went over to my other friends and played Rock Band until a little after midnight, then was up talking with them until about 1 AM. After that I finally went to bed.

It was tons of fun, but it was a loooong day.

Follow up

2009-09-18T22:43:00.004-06:00

My finish photo can be found here.
I'd post it here, but if I try to copy it it tells me I'm a thief.
Also, my official stats are as follows: 23:35 was my official time.
Overall I was 34th place. For the men I placed 31st. For age 25-29 I placed 4th. 4TH! One spot away from winning a prize!!! Granted, I would have needed to run 1:51 faster to beat the next guy in my age group, but still. It's the thought that I was that close. Next year, I promise to be better.

Double Header

2009-09-13T22:15:00.003-06:00

Well, I finally ran my 5k this weekend, and I'm pleased with my result. I had planned on coming in at about 25 minutes, based off some workouts recently.
As you can see, I was pretty much bottled lightning. So fast that the camera couldn't capture me. In reality, Lisa was borrowing her friends camera and it didn't perform as admirably as one would hope. But it mostly got the job done. My watch clocked me at 23:37, so I was about a minute and a half faster than I planned. Woohoo!! I actually really enjoyed the course, with one exception. There is a really small hill at the end you turn a corner and you have literally 25 meters to go, so if you don't know the course very well, you have a hard time knowing when exactly to give a last good push. But oh well. Maybe next year.

Most of you who read this probably know already, but I'm the new EQP in my ward. After a month of waiting, it finally became official today. Weird, scary, exciting. And that's pretty much all I have to say on that.

Long time comin'

2009-08-30T23:30:00.013-06:00

Hooookay, it's been a couple weeks since I posted last. I was doing so well at one post a week for a while. I'm sorry for disappointing all of you. Let's move on though, shall we?

Mt. Timpanogos. A well-known landmark of Utah Valley, and the second highest peak of the Uintas. Perhaps the most hiked peak in Utah, one would think that due to it's popularity, it would by necessity be a fairly easy hike. You would be wrong, fyi. It's no Y hike. Do not bring your children on this hike unless they are super-human. Let me stop here and give you a little back story.

During FHE, a guy in my ward invited anyone who wanted to come on a midnight hike of Mt. Timp so we would be up there in time for the sunrise. Sounds pretty decent, I thought. Forgo a little sleep for a nice sunrise on a mountain top. So I pulled out the old Camelbak and prepared every needful thing (As a sidenote, it always seems like every time I go on a hike with dad, he manages to put every thing you might ever need into his pack. On this trip, I felt like dad, because I could have supplied my group with jerky, trail mix, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, duct tape, and fruit snacks all by myself). I took a nice two hour nap on friday evening to prepare for being up late. We had planned on being on the trail by midnight, but a friend of a guy in my group was going to join us with his friends, and they were running late, and then they led us up a road that we didn't really need to go up, so then we had to drive back down. After all was said and done, it was 12:45 when we started. But no biggie, really.

The friend-of-a-friends group started out at a breakneck pace, quite faster than I was really willing to go, so the friend-of-a-friend (hereafter referred to as FOF) group ditched us on their quest to conquer the mountain as quickly as possible. Since it was dark, we didn't exactly get great pictures to start off with:If you look closely, there is a waterfall behind all the mist that my camera so expertly captured.

At any rate, we moved along nicely by the light of our flashlights, being rather oblivious of the sheer cliff faces we hiked next to. We were all in rather good spirits until about 3 AM, when my body finally started telling me that it would rather be sleeping than hiking up a mountain just to see some measly sunrise. Undeterred, I shoved some trail mix in my mouth, sucked on my water, and kept chugging. We finished a long section of switchbacks and found ourselves in a field of sorts, though since we couldn't see it very well it was hard to appreciate.

The trail at that point had decided that any hiker passing through would have had a good enough rest, so threw some random hills in, causing me to have the need to literally use my hands to push my legs up one particular section, and if it weren't for the fact that we were so far along, I may have just given up right then.I'm starting to wonder what I've gotten myself into.

My hiking mates convinced me to continue, and we slowly made our way through some perma-snow and up to a ridge called The Saddle, which gives a gorgeous view of Utah Valley.
You could actually see a portion of the Salt Lake Valley as well, but I didn't have anything to stabilize my camera with, so it turned out to be a blurry mess. In fact, I stole this pic from my friend because it turned out better than mine. At this point in the hike, it's about 5 AM, and you have just hiked about 6 miles. You have a nice little vista, and a perfect place to watch the sunrise. But nooooo, there are still about 400 feet of elevation you need to go before you can rest, so you suck down some water and chomp on a granola bar and off you go. Nearly one hour later, you reach the top with some little metal shack and a form you can sign, proving you made it to the top. My first though was roughly as follows: "What person in their right mind would take the time to construct a fairly sturdy metal shack at the height of nearly 12,000 feet? I mean, seriously?"

So your body is just screaming for sleep, but you manage to sign the register, then throw on the jacket and gloves you brought up with you because it is cold up there. I think I managed to doze off for about two minutes, but that was enough for me to make it through. We eventually situated in a different spot so we could get a good view of the sunrise coming up over Heber, and settled down for some snacks and conversation.
Nothing like cold water and trail mix for breakfast at 11,000 feet with 100 other people. Seriously, there was an insane amount of people there at the summit, with about 30 or so more staying at the Saddle for the sunrise.
We were in the middle, so this is about half the people that were there. And yes, some people were actually hanging out at the top with just a t-shirt and shorts on. How they managed, I don't know. But we hung out for a while, I took the time to pop the blister on each of my heels, duct taped them up, and popped the shoes back on. We all decided that we were ok with not physically seeing the sun come over the horizon, so at about 6:45 we left the summit to beat the crowd.
The sun got a little closer than this image, but I was busy with my heels and didn't snap a last pic before we left.

If you have ever hiked anything somewhat significant before, you know that going down can be just as painful as going up. Well, that held true for this hike, perhaps moreso. Imagine using up all your energy in the middle of the night, then being asked to hike down a thousand feet or so of elevation on absolutely no sleep. Good times. We managed to snap a shot just before the sun came up, and it turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself.
And finally, here is the sun in all it's glory at 11,000 feet:
The picture really doesn't do this view justice, but such is the nature of photographs. Once the sun came out, we of course were able to see our surroundings finally and it really is a great view throughout the hike. It was kinda like doing two hikes in one since we couldn't see anything on our way up. I'll cut out some scenery shots due to space, but I'll have the full set uploaded to Facebook, or you can just ask me to show it to you when I'm around.

Suffice it to say, we were all exhausted, so we decided to hike down to a shack that was built near Emerald Lake, a small lake that is basically fed off the perma-snow up there. As we drew closer, we came upon something unexpected:
Mountain Goats! There was a herd of 50 or so there, which was pretty neat. We went to the shack to take a nap while waiting for a couple others in our group. Between the light, the sounds of the hikers, and the utter fear of a goat coming up and nibbling on me, I didn't sleep, but rather chose to take a few photos of the surroundings.

Once our group finally met up together, we again started down the mountain, with a loooooong way to go. The hike down is excruciating not only because of your joints and muscles screaming in exhaustion at every impact of your feet, but because it feels like an eternity. The parking lot didn't seem like it got closer for hours. We knew we were making progress when we got close to the waterfall again, though.
Here we met back up with the FOF group, who had passed us as we napped higher up the mountain. I took the time to get a little artsy and capture falling water. I also downed an entire bag of peach rings in preparation of the last 20 minutes down.

10 1/2 hours after we first started, we made it to the car. And let me tell you, at that point, lying down in the back seat was as near to heaven as I think I've ever been. Conveniently, I finished my water right at the bottom of the hill. Pretty good timing, don't you think? Once I got home, I took a very thorough shower, climbed in bed at about noon, and didn't get out of bed until 8. I then got up and ate a peanut butter sammich, drank some water, and attempted to sleep again. I couldn't, so I watched a bit of The Office, then went to sleep, and didn't wake up until 7:30 Sunday. It was a glorious way to spend 20 hours.

So all in all, the injuries I got were a blister on each of my heels, a cut hand from falling on the snow (one of a few times I fell going down, actually. Darn shoes are losing their touch), two slightly tweaked ankles, a slightly tweaked left knee, and very tired muscles. Not too bad for a 14 mile round trip hike.

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Now playing: The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
via FoxyTunes

The Difference

2009-08-15T21:29:00.004-06:00

Well, I've been living down here in Utah for just over three months now, and have been working out for two of those months. I recently hiked the Y again, this time with a couple friends who have never done it. It was so much easier to do this time, I can't even tell you. That was really good for me to do, because it's given me an idea of how much I've improved over the past two months. I've also been tracking my weight, and last I weighed I was 189, almost 15 pounds lighter than two months ago. I've had a hard time noticing that weight loss other than by the fit of my clothes. I haven't had any pictures taken of me where I could put some side by side to take a look until now. I present to you the comparison of two pictures:
On the left, we have my Y hike from Memorial Day this year. On the right, my Y hike from the 4th of August. If that comparison isn't motivation to keep with it, I don't know what is.
And here's that new pic in all of it's glory, just because it turned out so good:

Thanks for letting me steal that pic from Facebook, Brit!

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

2009-08-09T21:52:00.003-06:00

It's been a rather significant week for me. Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Ok, the bad news it is.

I got Utah License Plates. It's really a tragedy that I can't explain adequately in words. Something you have to experience yourself to truly feel the weight of.

Second, I got a job! Though most of you know this already, I still wanted to put it up here because it's so freaking awesome that I finally have one. It's for a company called Quomation. They do software for independent insurance agencies that helps compare and collect quotes for their customers. I'm in tech support. Hooray!

As mentioned in a previous post, I want to run a 5k before the summer is over, and I've made my choice on which one. It's a 5k/10k in Layton on Sept 12th. So mark your calendars, I expect everyone to be there to cheer me on!!

Merge Right

2009-07-27T23:26:00.003-06:00

This place may change daily until I decide on something I really like. So visit often to see myself make up my mind. Also, I'd like to draw your attention to the new fish on the side. What do you think? Kinda simple, but I figured some of you might get bored and find it entertaining enough to steal a few minutes. Honestly, it has for me already.

Who'da thunk?

2009-07-19T22:40:00.004-06:00

A funny thing happens to you when you start working out on a regular basis. Old clothes start to fit better. You don't get winded by climbing the stairs to your apartment. That hill doesn't look nearly as menacing. Your jaw starts coming back. It's as if you are manipulating the fabric of space-time itself! I highly recommend it.

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Now playing: Ingrid Michaelson - I'll See You In My Dreams
via FoxyTunes

x+5/3-y= Completion!

2009-07-13T22:12:00.004-06:00

Ho. ly. cow. I can't explain to you how happy I am to be done with my Algebra class. Thursday I spent nearly all day doing homework and doing a test. Friday I took some time off and went to Eric and Jenn's to watch their kids (more on that in a moment), Saturday I spent time doing homework, working on a take-home test and also studying for the final, Sunday was nearly six hours of homework, finishing my take-home, and studying for the final. Somehow I managed to keep my brain from liquefying through all this. It got so bad that I literally dreamed of math last night. Equations were floating through my head and everything. Then came the final today:

I walked in and sat down, pulled out my take-home, and just started chuckling. This happened at regular intervals throughout the test. I'm sure it seemed very odd to my classmates, but I couldn't help myself. I knew it was the last time for a while that I would need to worry about how to factor an equation or how to figure out what x equals. Despite all my efforts, I only got a C on the final. But you know what? I don't really care. Because I pulled at least a B+ in the class, maybe an A- if I'm lucky. And for not having taken a real math class for three years, I'd say that's pretty darn good. Especially considering the pace we took for this class. It was Beginning and Intermediate Algebra all crammed into ten weeks. My brain was literally at the limits of what it could learn during this time, especially during the last chapter, where I'm not sure if I learned a single lasting concept. But oh well, it's over!

Friday I had the joy of going to Eric and Jenn's to watch their kids while they were at an appointment. I joined Jenn and the kids for a wonderful lunch of a steak and cheese burrito while the kids had hot dogs and Mickey Mouse shaped chicken nuggets (it really was delish, I promise). After a heart-wrenching goodbye, Sadie was lugged up to bed for her nap, and shortly thereafter Eric and Jenn left, leaving me in charge, with Carter as my assistant. We started off upstairs where we played with some awesome cars, built a toy car, motorcycle, and prop plane. Carter and I pretended we were playing a video game where we were racing cars.

I was determined to solidify my spot as the favorite uncle, so after playing for a bit, we went downstairs to make chocolate chip cookies. Carter and Molly were excellent helpers adding the ingredients and helping mix the batter. The cookies turned out quite good, if I do say so myself :) I believe my efforts paid off, because Molly could hardly allow herself to be more than three feet away from me for the rest of the night.

A little while after Eric and Jenn got back, we went out to dinner at Jason's Deli, a first for me. I had a very good Corned Beef and Pastrami sandwich. After that little adventure, we went back to the house and played a little bit of 1 vs 1oo on xbox live. I stayed a little later than I would have liked playing video games, causing me to have a strong desire to sleep in the next day, which I did since it was Saturday. The whole experience was great, and Eric and Jenn's kids are so good that it really wasn't babysitting for me, it was just hanging out with my adorable niece and nephew. Plus I got free dinner out of it. How could it be any better?

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Now playing: Ingrid Michaelson - Far Away (Live)
via FoxyTunes

The results are in!

2009-07-08T22:21:00.003-06:00

Well, not really. Just needed a catchy title so as to redirect you to the poll on the side of the page now. I figure I'll let this one run until the end of the month to see how many (few) people actually read this thing.

As an aside, I've been reading a surprising amount of short stories online lately, and I've been curious to see if I could pull one off myself. I've posted little bits of fiction on here before, but nothing with a concrete idea behind it. Perhaps for inspiration I'll go to Starbucks with my laptop and sit there for three hours wearing glasses and looking artsy. Although I'd need a Mac to pull that off...

Anyway, I've moved out of Mike and Jen's apartment. I'm sure they are rejoicing that I am finally gone. I'm in a place called Winter Haven, which is real close to UVU campus. I could walk to class if I felt so inclined. I bought off someone's contract, which is why I was able to move in mid-semester. This means that the contract is up mid-August, when the semester ends. It's kind of nice, because it means I get sort of a trial of the place before I commit to something more long term. So far it's not bad. I've mentioned this to a couple people already, but none of my roommates had really spoken to me except one I trapped while he was watching tv. Since I've told people that, I've actually had conversations with a few of the guys. So turns out I don't have a bunch of jerk roommates. Thank goodness.

Oh, speaking of roommates, the missionaries stopped by earlier today looking for one of my roomies. Turns out he was studying with them, then had some personal things come up and hasn't had a chance to meet with them for a bit. Kinda cool.

My Algebra class is coming to a close, and we are running a tad bit behind based on the schedule. Because of that, I have a test to take tomorrow, a take-home test to complete by Monday, then the comprehensive final comes on Monday as well. Yikes. Hope my brain doesn't explode in the next few days.

Another sad thing of note: I realized the other day that I have yet to go on a date since moving down here. Isn't that the saddest thing ever? Two whole months since I've taken a girl out. If I'm not careful, my skillz might get rusty. I best stake out a spot at Starbucks before all the seats are gone. Until next time, keep...doing the things you like.

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Now playing: Paolo Nutini - New Shoes
via FoxyTunes

Running Man

2009-06-17T22:09:00.004-06:00

I've recently started to run again. After hitting 205 it was finally time to get back in the habit. My idea is that I need to get and stay in shape until I at least get married at some undetermined time. After that, I can can plump up and stop working out entirely.

Anyway, it's been pretty painful, but at least it hasn't been as painful as this guy:

Yikes. I certainly hope it never gets that bad for me. Although I do plan on running at least one 5k before the summer is over, so let's all hope I'm over chaffing by then.

The JourneY

2009-05-28T23:52:00.003-06:00

It started as a simple suggestion by Mike for a Memorial Day activity. I then invited Eric to come along since he couldn't come down the day previous. Some time between that and the beginning of the hike of Y Mountain, it turned into a Bennett Family Excursion, where Mike and I happen to come along. Still trying to figure that one out.

At any rate, after listening to a fairly detailed explanation of the Y taken from Wikipedia by (Matt?), being handed about a dozen rocks from Sadie, a psychological analysis of Spock and why he has no emotion (the conclusion of which somehow came to "His only loyalty is to your entertainment"), lugging Sadie up only one of the switchbacks and nearly dying, listening to Carter ask "Have we gone 98 meters yet?" a dozen or so times until finally responding to him, seeing Molly's response to Mike's answer as to why his head was wet (a raincloud came and dumped on him and left just before Molly came up to him), and roughly one mile of hiking uphill, we came to the bottom of the Y. Mike basically told me that if I didn't hike to the top of the Y, I wasn't a real man. So I acquiesced.

What he "neglected to tell me" is that the section from the bottom to the top of the Y totally sucks. Like, it is as bad as the entirety of the hike up to that point. After much huffing and minor feelings of nausea, we got to the top and staked out a spot at the ledge. The rest of our group arrived shortly thereafter. Eric whipped out two things at that point. One, the camera:Sadie seems rather perturbed that the camera isn't focused solely on her.Pretty much the whole crew that was there.

Two, Strawberry Peanut Butter M&Ms. It sounds a little disturbing, but are actually rather delish. They are a tie-in to Transformers 2. I speculated why there weren't Autobot and Decepticon icons printed on the candies themselves. We decided that if the candy were in the movie itself, it would probably make the movie suck less than it inevitably will. We went down the mountain with few significant events, and Mike and I finished the day off by going to a pizza buffet, effectively negating all the exercise we had done that day. I weighed myself the next day and I had actually lost about two pounds from the days activities. I was rather happy with myself.

Also, today Ben came down for some business stuff and we went out to dinner to catch up. Ben really wanted to go to Tucanos (I did not object), a Brazilian grill where they come to your table with 12-18 different meats (depending on the time of day) over the course of your meal and offer you all you want. It comes with an amazing salad bar that included cinnamon-sugar covered bananas. Yummy. It's all unbelievably good, and if you get the chance to go to one, do not hesitate. My three favorite meats were the Tri-Tip, a teriyaki-beef (it's like the best tasting, most tender jerky ever), and fillet mignon wrapped in bacon. The pork loin was really good, too. Oh, and did I mention the cinnamon-glazed, grilled pineapple? Mmmmm.... After we finished, both of us felt like we were going to burst, so we took a walk around the shopping center before we got in our cars to head home. I weighed myself after I got back, and I definitely gained the pounds back I lost from my hike. But you know what? It was totally worth it.

Laundry day, see you there...

2009-05-27T19:09:00.004-06:00

Sadly, I did not meet anyone to fall in love with and ultimately kill. Sorry for the spoiler. Anyway, I went to the laundromat for the first time in a year today. Gosh I hate those places. There was actually a dearth of people there today, which was very nice. I got in and out whilst only having to see one other persons underthings tumbling. Also, if you have not watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog yet, I suggest you do so quickly.

Webcam required

2009-05-20T15:10:00.003-06:00

This is perhaps the coolest thing you can do with a webcam.

Also, after watching this vid, I want to marry both of these girls:

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Theft

2009-05-13T18:17:00.003-06:00

I decided to take a post idea from a friends blog, that of going to your picture file, going to the sixth file, and choosing the sixth image to post and explain. I figured it would be pretty interesting considering some of the pictures I have on my computer. Turns out I was wrong.
This is a picture from when I went with my parents to Havasupai, near the Grand Canyon. And of all the pictures I have of it, this is easily one of the most dull. This shows a part of the switchbacks that took up the first mile or so of the hike down. It wasn't bad a bad part of the hike, with two exceptions. One: The horse caravans you see there don't stop. Period. So it's pretty much leap out of their way as soon as you can, or get trampled. Two: Hiking back up this while you are about to poop your pants is very uncomfortable. On the plus side, that motivated me to get done with this section very, very quickly. Huh, that turned out to be a better post than I expected.

24

2009-05-05T17:53:00.002-06:00

Here's a synopsis of my first day in Utah:

I got up around 9:45, got ready, and went to the bookstore to purchase my books for the semester. I only picked up three of them for now, since I won't need the fourth until next block, about seven weeks from now. Mike is doing a couple online classes, so he was there too. We get there, and the bookstore had maybe four or five other people in it. I'm used to BYU-I bookstore, where two days before a semester starts, it's pretty much packed with nearly every student and their moms for the entire day. That mean cramped aisles and very, very long lines. Depending on when you went, it wasn't uncommon to have to wait for 20-30 minutes to make your purchases. So it blew me away to go to the UVU bookstore and be able to freely walk anywhere I wanted with ease, not to mention going straight to checkout.

After we finished, Mike and I came home and got ready for the big event of the day: having a race to see who could beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the fastest. Years ago, Mike and his friends had beaten the game in around 12 hours, so we expected to be able to do it in 10-12 as well.

Looks intimidating, doesn't it? This was the better of the ideas we had for video games for when I moved down. We had originally planned to play through all four 3D Zelda's in 48 hours, a feat some online gamers could not complete a while ago. Ultimately, though, we decided that we didn't have the willpower to do anything of that magnitude, and settled on racing on the Zelda game we both know best. I had some ambitious ideas on how to speed through the game, which didn't come to fruition. The only real shortcut I used was near the end, and I learned that from a speedrun I watched online. I ended up winning, with a final time of 8 hours, 20 minutes and 33 seconds. And yes, that was played straight through. Having done that, Mike and I agree that the 48 hr Zelda challenge is definitely doable. By the time I finished, it was about seven thirty, so we ordered pizza and then played Jenga and practiced throwing cards into a basket because we didn't have a cowboy hat handy. Afterward we chatted for a while and then went to bed around midnight. And thus ended my first day!

I still don't like Utah water, and it will take me a while to get adjusted to drinking it. I'm not terribly looking forward to when it becomes full blown summer down here, because I don't do well in the heat. Although that may help me sweat some pounds off, which I could desperately do with losing.

I'm excited to start school again, but also a bit worried, because it's been a long time since I've had to worry about homework, and I'm not sure how well my psyche will adjust to that again. Oh, and I hate that textbooks cost so much. I think they should have iPod Touch versions of them at a reduced rate. That would rock my socks.

Boldly gone

2009-04-21T19:45:00.004-06:00

Good gracious, that thing was annoying. It's like Monk-email, but worse, because it's my own face. Here's where you can make your own: Enjoy

Trifecta

2009-04-16T22:25:00.003-06:00

I was going to celebrate with my brother and sister-in-law, but alas I was too slow. Suffice it to say, I'm moving to Utah. Finally. Yes, yes, I know. I've been saying it for over six months now. But it's actually happening this time. I'm already accepted at UVU, and am working out the last kinks of registration. I will be living at Mike's place, so I don't have to worry about housing for a few months.

It's rather nerve-wracking, really. I've been having to stress about something for the first time in a long time. I'm the sort of person where once I'm done with work, I leave it there. That makes doing homework remarkably difficult for me.

Now that spring is mostly sprung and summer will be coming quickly, it's time for cool treats again. It has almost become a weekly ritual for me to be at Sub Zero, perhaps mostly because it seems like the only time I get to talk to Ben anymore. But I've recently revisited an old friend:

Vanilla Bean Frappuccino

A Grande (medium, 16 oz in non-elitist terms) will run you 350 calories. It is wonderfully worth it, trust me. And as an added plus, you get to look hip by going into Starbucks. If you are in to that. If not, go get one anyway because they are a tasty treat that will leave you craving more.

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Now playing: Weezer - Island in the Sun
via FoxyTunes

Body, fat. Fat, body.

2009-04-01T21:22:00.004-06:00

This picture does not accurately show how amazing this sandwich really is. It is the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch sandwich from Burger King. Doesn't that just scream deliciousness and chicken heartstopper? Anyway, the real reason I posted this picture (it's truly tragic the picture didn't turn out as well as I hoped) is for the cheese. I kid you not, the stuff was radioactive, neon orange. I'm living under the assumption that it was some sort of April Fools Day joke by the company. I shudder to think of the other possibilities. Some of you may be thinking, "Steve, what possesses you to eat radioactive orange cheese? The answer is simply this: It is DELISH. Also, Burger King has the most tasty of all fast food fries. Discuss.

I sometimes go to great lengths to get the result I want. For instance, my phone, which provided the fantastic above image, uses Memory Stick Micro, which I purchased separate from the phone, It came with a Memory Stick Pro Duo adapter, which my computer does not read. So I had to buy an adapter for that. So it's a Memory Stick Micro in the Memory Stick Pro Duo Adapter in a Memory Stick Duo Adapter. Ultimately, it is Sony's fault, because all the formats of their proprietary Memory Stick are as follows, going from smallest to largest: Memory Stick Micro, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Memory Stick Pro/Memory Stick Duo(basically the same size), and finally the original Memory Stick. What this translates to is a monumental waste of money for both them and the consumer, constantly having to buy a new memory format for their newest Sony devices. Sony noticed that they were wasting their money, so on average it costs $15 dollars more for a Memory Stick than a comparably sized SD card. Thank goodness for Ebay. If I weren't so in love with Sony Ericsson phones, I would boycott the company.

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Now playing: John Mayer - No Such Thing
via FoxyTunes

Blasted Scribefire

2009-03-30T22:33:00.001-06:00

I spend like twenty minutes putting up a new post, and I minimize scribefire and what happens? It deletes the whole freaking thing. I had text in there for like five months and it never removes it. But when I actually have something in there I want to post? IT DELETES IT. Once I'm done weeping, I'll consider posting it back up.

The Latest and Greatest

2009-02-22T22:03:00.003-07:00

Yep. There's another one.

The newest member of my family is named Thomas. That makes me an uncle. Times seven. Bask in his cuteness.

Dear Beyonce

2009-02-10T22:47:00.002-07:00

If you weren't so afraid of commitment, then I would have put a ring on it.

Arc

2009-02-02T21:47:00.003-07:00

I have an propensity to buy sexy electronics that I don't need. Behold the Arc!

I've never been a fan of the standard mouse that comes with a PC. They are clunky, loud, and most detrimentally, ugly. Even worse is the compact laptop mouse. While you gain ultra-portability, you sacrifice your hands to carpal tunnel if you use the thing for more than three minutes. The Arc harnesses those weaknesses and, like a pearl-producing-oyster, takes the unpolished, worthless rock and turns it into something magnificent.

First, the Arc takes the nearly-full-size form factor, removes all the unnecessary bulk, cheap plastic, and loud performance. It is replaced with a gorgeous, well...arc shape that provides the bare necessity of form while not sacrificing comfort. It has a wonderful satin-type finish that is superbly smooth to the touch providing just enough grip for easy movement and precise selection. Microsoft opted for a scroll-wheel with a light click sound, and while this is not a bad thing, the writer prefers a silent wheel more prominent on computer mice these days.

Microsoft has finally opted for a smaller USB receiver which will protrude from your computer roughly 1/2 inch. While this is not as small as some Logitech receivers, it is definitely a step in the right direction. Users will find that the Arc USB receiver connects to the inside form of the mouse via magnetics, albeit weakly. While the mouse is closed, though, the worries of lost receivers is put to rest as the folding action of the mouse secures the receiver against the opposite wall inside the arc.

The most distinct feature of the device other than it's shape is it's ability to reduce itself in size. The reduction of excess plastics in the design has enabled the Arc to reduce itself in size, while folded, to just 60 percent of expanded size claims Microsoft's website. This makes the device remarkably portable, and you will be amazed when you hold the folded form in your hand and see how easily it slips into a jacket pocket, carrying case, or backpack (for you college students out there). The Arc has a sturdy metal hinge, so you don't need to worry about breaking it after repeated use.

For those used to a compact mouse, the size may be a little unfamiliar at first, but you will quickly adjust. There is a small button on the left of the mouse for use with different functionality. It very close the front of the mouse, making frequent use inconvenient. The biggest learning, ahem, curve is the placement of the laser. Since it is placed so close to the front footpads of the mouse, the user can no longer twist the back of the mouse to move the cursor side to side. While this is by no means a deal breaker, a beginning user may find themselves wondering why the mouse doesn't seem as responsive as another mouse. Which brings me to my next point:

This mouse is fast. The first time you plug it in, you will probably need to go into the control panel immediately to adjust the speed to make the thing usable. That speed, though , is presumably because it is intended for on-the-go computing where you may not have much space for mouse maneuvering. All in all, I give the mouse a 4.5/5. I take a half point off due to the lack of four-way scrolling, poorly placed side button and only having one side button, to boot.

If you are just looking for a sturdy, slightly more featured, less sexy mouse, I would recommend the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 7000, which has a comfortable, familiar feel, two side buttons for multiple functions, and four-way scrolling.

FYI

2009-01-17T23:29:00.001-07:00

That last post is not a quote or an excerpt from a book. I'm really just that good. ;)

Whisps

2009-01-07T22:57:00.002-07:00

He held her, not wanting to let go. That day he was fortunate, for she held the embrace as well. It was a cool afternoon, nearing evening, and the shadows of the trees criss-crossed their bodies as small leaves fluttered to the ground around them. The man desperately wanted to kiss her, and her warm body did nothing to discourage the thought. She pulled away slightly, just enough to look into his eyes. 'Just like she did' he thought to himself.

'Alice had those eyes. She had that beautiful hair and that perfect height where she fit nicely under my chin when I held her.' The thoughts were stirring in his head again, and he fought to push them back. Ella reminded the man of Alice. So much so that he sometimes caught himself just before he called Ella by the wrong name. It was really what drove him to where he had gotten with Ella. He saw what he had missed after Alice was gone, what he wanted so desperately and had been denied. It blinded him and he knew it, but the pull was too strong for him to resist.

He leaned closer, savoring the moment. It would have been a perfectly picturesque moment had it not been for the cars and cigarette butts littering the parking lot. The man paused near Ella's face, so close that their noses brushed.
"Is it really that hard to do?" she whispered.
He inhaled, and smirked that half-smirk he was so well known for...

My Adult Christmas List

2008-12-14T21:33:00.003-07:00

The Dark Knight: Two Disc Special Edition with Digital Copy
No more lives torn apart
Windshield Wipers
No wars to ever start
Brighter Headlight Bulbs
Time to heal all hearts
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Everyone to have a friend
A Wife
Right to always win
Pistachios
Love to never end
New Windshield

The life and times

2008-10-15T22:13:00.005-06:00

Whilst my friends and family plan and execute family vacations, prepare for children, and make changes in their life to accommodate school and future careers, I buy an 8 gig flash drive for 30 bucks. It just doesn't seem fair that they should miss out on such great deals.

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Now playing: Missy Higgins - Scar
via FoxyTunes

Continuum

2008-09-01T15:58:00.003-06:00

Sure, it's a bit morbid. But you know what? It's still hilarious. This pretty much establishes my sense of humor here. All I'm missing is the Swiss Army lightsaber.

2008-08-27T23:18:00.003-06:00

Since the world isn't perfect, I have decided to share with you who I am, in picture form. More to come once I drag my giant old external hard drive out of the box covered in shirts. I think this is a fairly good representation of what I'm all about. Oh wait, there is one more...

Yeah, that's my girl Nastia. There's nothing like having a gold
medalist for a girlfriend. She's good to me.

Other things you can learn from this post:
I have yet to teach myself how to format posts properly.
I dream about beautiful people
I spend way too much time on the internet

So we can learn to pick ourselves up

2008-08-18T22:02:00.001-06:00

If you ever want to stop being friends with me, lie directly to my face, and then go against what you told me within seven days. It does a bang-up job of getting me to not like you or want to speak to you in the least.

On a lighter side, I tried wakeboarding for the first time Saturday. I think it would be something I would really enjoy, if I could, you know, get up. I shouldn't be so pessimistic. I got up once. For thirty seconds. And it was great until I realized the water was getting closer to my face, and it wasn't a wake coming toward me. Sinuses are not made to hold water.

As I was telling my mom and sister about it, my mom said that when you fall on water, there go your ribs. I asked her how many times she had lost her ribs when she fell on the water. I think it reminded her of how much it hurt, because she held her ribs for a long time after that. I think she was crying.

Why do we fall down, Bruce?

2008-08-09T22:52:00.003-06:00

Life has a way of triggering complete emotional breakdowns in me. Sometimes they even occur in front of girls I'm interested in, like this last one did. Here's basically how it went down:

"Hi, I'm Steve." Random charming comment or two. "I'd like to take you out some time." Best first date ever goes here. "You are pretty much the coolest girl ever. We need to go out again soon." Wonderful second date goes here. Cue emotional breakdown. "I'm basically crazy, and am scared to death of being alone forever. All my close friends are married, and I would love for nothing more than to be married also. Because of that, I try to start relationships way too quickly."

The middle details of this consist of her not really wanting a relationship right now, which I suspected from the start, but didn't want to be the case. But such is life. After my meltdown, I never expect people to react in a positive light. I mean, let's take this case. I knew this girl for a week before she found out I was crazy. How in the world would you react if this happened to you? Well she didn't run away warning everyone she knew to steer clear of me. Here's how that went down:

"You aren't crazy, you are just insecure. Why do you feel this way? Boy, it sure is unhealthy that you don't talk to you friends very often about this. What makes you think that? It really is ok that you are almost 24 and not married. I'm sorry that I caused all this." Objections on my part to it not being her fault. More chit chat about the whole thing, still. Embarrassing moment of dozing off an snoring in front of her.

I think this is the first time I have had this happen with someone I didn't know very well. All other times it has occurred with a good friend or someone I have been dating for a while. I was shocked to know that she still wanted to get to know me more. I mean, what kind of person does that? Good people do that. People who don't think you are crazy, despite evidence to the contrary. People who are willing to stick it out regardless of knowing there will be more hard times to come. Friends.

2008-08-04T16:48:00.000-06:00

/end childish emotional rant

Advice

2008-07-12T10:41:00.003-06:00

Everybody knows that computers stink. Yours may not be giving you trouble at the moment. You might lovingly spray it with concentrated air to keep it clean and caress it's screen with cleaning wipes to save it's beautiful artificial glow. But here's the straight dope, jack: It will eventually fail you. No matter how much antivirus and malware protection you have on that sucker, it's eventually going to die, and it will piss you off when it does. So back up your computer, and back it up often. Yeah, it might seem like a waste of money to go buy an external hard drive just to back up your perfectly running computer. But it will be worth it. You will be happy. And while you are at it, switch to Firefox and use a bookmark add on so you don't lose all your bookmarks, too. Personal experience, so take it and use it.

Firefox 3

2008-06-19T23:08:00.001-06:00

If you don't use Firefox yet, there has never been a better time to adopt! Here is where you can get it. Download it. Install it. Love it. Go to Tools and access the add ons. Love it even more. I'll let the website itself speak for how amazing the browser is. Some add ons you might like:

Adblocker Plus-You know all those annoying banner ads that flash and have stupid games where you can supposedly win a bunch of money from? With this, you won't see another one. Simply amazing.

Download Status Toolbar- instead of a separate window coming up, this little program causes a small toolbar to appear at the bottom of the browser to let you easily manage all your recent downloads.

PicLens- An amazing addon that lets you view a large number of pictures from a websites like google, flickr, amazon, yahoo, facebook and more.

Foxytunes- For the music-centric web surfer. Lets you control your music player straight from your browser. Supports Winamp, Windows Media Player and, of course, iTunes among many others.

Forecastfox- Simple weather tool to check weather. Allows setup of multiple profiles to quickly switch to or simply check weather in other areas than your own.

Stumbleupon- Select which topics you are interested in and start stumbling. Each time you stumble, a new website related to the topics you chose will come up for you to discover. Addicting.

Scribefire- Excellent tool which allows you to blog anytime, regardless if you are on your blog page or not. You can write a little bit, minimize scribefire, then go back to it later and finish it up.

Other- You can download custom skins, or programs that change the look of Firefox, to make your browser even more personalized.

But seriously. You will lose nothing by switching to Firefox. It's simply incredible.

Getting There

2008-06-12T23:05:00.002-06:00

So I'm in Rexburg now. I moved back up about a week ago to an apt complex called West Park. I've got one roommate, whose name is Trent. He's from Gilbert, AZ and moved up here a bit early to be with friends before he starts classes in July at BYU-I. I'm still working at the big M, which is one of the reasons I am even in Rexburg. I could have transferred to the IF Call Center, but I wanted to stay at the Rexburg one, since I would be working with more people my age.

My singles ward is just that, an actual ward. There are over 100 people that were there last Sunday, and it was weird to have a singles ward meeting in the chapel, not just the Relief Society room like the branch back in IF. It should be a lot of fun. For FHE we climbed 'R' Mountain, and had a lesson at the top. There is Stake Softball each Thursday, which I did today. We got a full team there, which was nice, and played. My roommate is pretty much amazing at baseball, so he was the star of the night. Yours truly hasn't played ball in a long time, so only did mediocre, and will be fairly sore tomorrow.

All in all everything is going pretty well so far. I like where I live, I like my roommate, and am working on improving my job status. There are some pretty cute girls in the ward, which is always promising. I'll just need to work up the guts to actually talk to them first, though...

Pictchas!

2008-05-31T18:27:00.003-06:00

Just thought I'd post some pictures from my most recent trip. My sister Lisa recently received her Masters from University of Phoenix. On our way back from Vegas and the graduation, we went to Zion Natl Park and went on the Angels Landing hike.

As It Is

2008-05-07T23:22:00.001-06:00

So here's the scoop for anyone who actually reads my blog. I am not just deferring my summer semester. I had bad grades, so I am on academic suspension. Let me emphasize ACADEMIC. No, I didn't fornicate, nor did I get caught with pot or any of the myriad things you are thinking. I had bad grades. That is all.

Now what this means is that I can't go back to the school for at least a year, and I must fulfill 12 credits from another institution for them to even consider me back. But this was pretty much the last thing that has forced me away from BYU-I forever. If you would like to ask me why another time, feel free. The real problem this has caused is that I had a contract for the summer semester at Aspen Village. Since the school has kicked me out and I am no longer a student, that means I can't live there anymore. Now, call me crazy, but I would automatically assume that since the SCHOOL is essentially kicking me out of that housing, the contract would be made null and void by them. But that would be silly. No, am still held responsible for that contract, and if I can't sell it, I have to pay for it. EVEN THOUGH I AM NOT ALLOWED TO LIVE THERE. Sounds like a perfectly Christian thing to do. And I understand that a contract is binding, and that those housing complexes need to make money, but seriously how many contracts does this affect each semester? Like, two? As if the owners of those things are starved for money. Grrr.

So right now I'm at home in IF, but still working at Melaleuca in Rexburg. Good old commute. Especially since they are doing major construction on the road. Which is needed, though. Highway 20 had nearly turned into swiss cheese after this winter. I plan on moving back up to Rexburg sometime in the next couple weeks. Hopefully everything works out.

Catalyst

2008-05-03T00:00:00.002-06:00

I have thought for some time now that what I needed in my life to really push me to where I felt I needed to be was a good girl. Someone I could fall in love with and marry. If only I had that, it would give me the motivation to be a better person, to work a little harder at what I'm doing. Perhaps the reason I feel that way is because it's happened to me once before. I met someone who drove me to be better, kinder, and a closer follower of Christ. Losing her..was literally losing one of my best friends, and so much more.

It's like having part of you leave. When you are ready to commit yourself to the notion of being with this person forever. Like having a single bite of the most delicious food you have ever tasted, only to have it taken immediately after, completely unexpectedly. To have something so precious and so dear torn from you-it's horrifying. It is something that has affected me more than I am willing to admit. I honestly believe I should have married her. Had we been wed, we would have had our difficulties, but we would be happy.

It's not so painful anymore. It's changed from a longing for her to a longing for that feeling. That feeling of calm, safety and security so desired that once you feel it, you can't help but...crave it. It becomes a thing of such importance to you that you would do anything you could to have it again, save for the absolute fear of losing it again. To be crushed so completely again would break your fragile heart and literally kill you. So you sit and wait. But you wait too long. You are too scared to invest enough of you to find out. You worry that you will be investing too much in the wrong person, and in that time, the right one will have passed by already. So you keep waiting. But you wait too long.

By the time you settle on one person, they have already started dating someone else. And even though you may know that relationship is doomed to fail, and that you and her would make a fantastic couple, you wait even longer. You wait, hoping they will break up, hoping she will see you for the amazing person you are. See you as desirable, as someone who inspires them to do their best and to make the most of themselves. They become a person who might bring that feeling back into your life.

I live for love. I don't live for toys, or for money or the shiny things it can buy. If I can have the love I seek, I won't care about anything else. Life will be worth it. All the trials, all the stress about work and school(sic) and money would be worth the happiness you would find in your home, in your family, in your relationship with your wife. A friend has often asked me why I want to be married so badly. That friend is married now. I truly hope he understands why I desire marriage. I want to be able to go into my home and see her there, to know that regardless of what has happened that day, she will be there to hug me. A hug that has so much meaning in it that it becomes all you need. You feel such pure joy just being near them. They fit so perfectly in your arms that if the world were to end, you would desire nothing more than to have them there safely inside your arms.

I crave the love I cannot have without improving myself first, yet I feel I need that love to push me to improve myself. Once again, my decisions get wrapped up in a paradox. A paradox that is ever growing to encompass all matter in my life.

I hate Macs

2008-04-15T17:33:00.001-06:00

So we recorded our first podcast a couple weeks ago, and we sat down and listened to it last week. We found out that six minutes into the recording, we found out that the recording went scratchy. So there goes a few hours of work! It turns out that there is a glitch in Garageband that doesn't have a fix yet. So now we go back to recording using a different program that records natively in a different file format. Hopefully we can convert this format, so we haven't wasted even more hours of our precious life.

Wind down

2008-04-10T22:36:00.001-06:00

Sweet sassy Molassy! The semester is finally over! I'm sure most of you still have classes, though *snickers*. We here at BYU-I have short semesters, due to the school's schedule. It can be a good and a bad thing. Regardless, though, the semester is over, and I will be taking the next semester off to weigh in my options and pay off some bills. That means going back to full-time employment and waking up earlier. It will be a pleasant change. Now if I could only work on that dating bit, I'd be in business...

Slowly getting there

2008-04-04T11:43:00.001-06:00

Well, we finally did it. My friend Ben and I finally recorded our first podcast. No, no, don't get too excited about it yet. We still need to do a little editing on it, but that won't get taken care of until next week, due to the fact that I am in classes still and have a job, and Ben also works a lot. Hopefully we will be getting it up by next weekend.

2008-03-28T23:12:00.002-06:00

Ah, how life throws you twists and turns. Sometimes there just don't seem to be words to accurately describe how one feels. Even if there were, it is such a mishmash of emotions that it wouldn't make any sense to anyone but the person experiencing it. It's just...AAAAHH! If only I could convey emotion easily through pen and paper...err, digital ink. It's like experiencing angst, depression, rejection, confusion, fear, and determination all at once. You have finally realized one part of why life is horrible, but you don't really know what to do to break out of it. You seek answers, and all you get is more confusion. If you could only get a little inkling of where to begin, you could break out. You could figure out where you were supposed to be, what you were supposed to be doing, and how to really enjoy things if you you could but grasp the beginning point.

Oh, and a pic. Just for you, Sylvia ;)

One step closer

2008-03-25T12:32:00.004-06:00
I have a confession. I have a dream car. It's such a beautiful thing. It's not some sports car, or exotic beauty. Matter of fact, I could sell my car and buy one right now if I wanted. If I did that though, I would be sacrificing my masculinity, without having a shred of dignity remaining.

Yeah, it's that bad boy right there. Go ahead, start laughing. No really, it's ok. Everybody else laughs when I tell them. It's just so, mmmm, tasty! Now, it's not like I'd buy just any New Beetle and call it good. No, to try to justify the purchase it would have to have certain specs. First, it would need to be a certain color. Silver would be the first choice. Ok, silver would be the only choice. And it would be turbo. With leather, heated seats and a sunroof. Oh yeah, that would be nice. Naturally, I would need a set of tires for the winter.

If you have never sat in one of these, oh, you are in for a treat. They look so small, but once you sit down in them you realize how roomy they are. It's amazing! When I actually got to sit in one, it was late in the day, so I wasn't able to take the time to drive one.

I think my love for the New Beetle started with the Nintendo 64. There was a racing game that came out called Beetle Adventure Racing. I bought the game because I liked the design for the New Beetle, not because I expected it to be a quality title. It was basically an advertisement for the car, of course. What I didn't expect was that it turned out to be a pretty sweet little ditty of a racer. Since then, I have wanted to own the vehicle. The only way I could buy the car and not be laughed at constantly is by waiting until I am married and buy it "for my wife". So I guess I'll have to wait until then so I can shamefully hide my passion behind that excuse.

A little treat for ya

2008-03-21T23:30:00.002-06:00
In between legitimate posts, I'll throw this in. I was cleaning up a couple (that's right, more than one) flash drives, and I found this paper I had written my first year in college. You can almost feel your hair getting blown around while reading it!

Running was part of my life. I had begun as a young 12 year-old at my middle school, slowly improving and progressing, with the occasional stand-still as injuries were acquired. I loved it. I loved the feeling of nausea after a good, hard workout. It felt even better after your body took the liberty of relieving your stomach of its contents because of that workout. All of that training seemed to culminate on the day I had my final race of my high school career.

It was a wonderfully warm day. I sat in the center of the track, stretching, just moments before the final call for the one mile race. I had run the race numerous times before, and normally would not be nervous, but this time was different. It was Districts, marking the first time I would be there to run, and not simply to keep time and cheer my teammates on. My mind was excited and prepared for the race. My stomach had different ideas. It seemed as if at every moment, it wanted to go in the opposite direction of the rest of my body. “Last call, Men’s 1600 Meter race.” My stomach tried running again.

I nodded to my friend, Kent, whom I would be racing against. We trotted over the lush grass, and walked on to the track. The aroma of splintered rubber tires rose to our noses, and we soaked it in. It excited us, helped prepare us for the forthcoming adventure. I looked around at the other runners. Some were doing free squats; others were on their tip-toes, as if they were straining to see over a crowd.

The crowd was giving support with their voices. Over them, I heard the bear-like growl of my coach, Bob Neal, yelling for me: “C’mon Steve Jenkins! Use those calves of a Goddess!” I smirked once more at the defining expression of my coach. Many others were yelling, friends and family alike, all trying to lend their strength to us through their voices. We drifted toward the waterfall start as the yelling continued. “Runners take their marks!” We settled in closely, that runner’s crowd of twenty. “Get set,” crowed the starter. Muscles tensed, arms drew back. “Go!”

We burst forth as if a pack of wolves closing in on their prey. Kent and I were at the front of the pack, quickly establishing our school, Hillcrest, as the Alpha Male. Close on our tails, craving that leadership, were two runners, one from Skyline and the other from Rigby. I was not about to lose leadership, and as we rounded 200 meters, my brother ran along the side of the track and encouraged me to maintain the Alpha position. 275 meters; the crowds grew louder as we neared completion of the initial lap of four. Again, Bob Neal barreled out, “Let’s go Steve Jenkins! C’mon Kent Shirley!” also encouraging us to stay in front.

One lap down, three to go. The group was thinning noticeably now. By the time the second lap was finished, there were gaps between runners, as if nature was taking its course and thinning the weak from the strong. My pack had been reduced to four: Me, the Alpha male, and three others, struggling to dethrone me. “No way” I thought. This was my time to shine, and I was not about to let some lesser animal usurp my power in front of everybody. 1125…1150 meters down, and the cheers continue. Nearing the final lap, the crowd began to get hysterical as they tried to force their energy upon us.

I cross the 1200 meter marker with Skyline close on my tail. Kent trailed by a small margin, still eager for leadership. The bell sounded, signaling the final lap. Only 400 meters left until my superiority was final. “I can’t let the others pass me, I must stay strong.” It was a line repeated in my mind over and over. 220 meters comes and goes, and my brother runs along once more. “Keep going!” he cheered. “It’s time to kick it in.” “But I’m really tired,” my mind came. I had slipped. With that small slip, my mind began falling ever so slowly, and my body responded by slowing down.

Skyline and Kent caught up, and took the outside lane to begin passing. “NO!” my mind screamed. At that moment, it all made sense. I needed that constant pressure to perform at my peak. That was what I had been missing throughout the years; someone to truly compete against. I had been stuck somewhere in the middle where I had stopped caring, and did not try. Now that I was in the front, that all changed, though. My mind immediately recovered from the slip and refocused. 125 meters left, and I gave it my all. The finish line neared, and quickly passed. I had defeated Skyline by over one second, showing that I had not given up. I walked off the track that day truly knowing what I needed to succeed.

The overly complex title for the reason

2008-03-18T21:59:00.002-06:00
So why am I writing this blog? A few people might find it terribly odd that I have chosen a written medium for sharing my feelings, considering my history of making known my absolute hatred for writing papers for school projects and things. The real truth is, though, that I enjoy writing. It is a medium where I am able to sufficiently express my feelings. I feel that I am a good orator, but it seems that I frequently am unable to find the correct word to convey how I feel in a timely manner, which means I am there with my mouth open, pausing at awkward times when the right word comes. When I write, even if the right word doesn't come immediately, I have time to think of it without giving pause to the train of thought for the person I am communicating with.

Also, I plan on starting a podcast with a friend soon, and plan on maintaining a blog for that podcast containing commentary or other info we wanted in the podcast, but weren't able to fit in. I figured I also should start to learn more about some of the latest tech trends that are going on. I also hope to change my major to Communication soon. The current plan is to work for a company such as CNet, where I would be able to test and review new tech items that come out. Whether that pans out or not will be an interesting process. Regardless, if I do go in that direction, I will need more practice and expertise at writing, so when the time comes to act all professional and have something of a portfolio showcasing my talents, I at least won't be out of practice on writing. Plus, I like to use big words. It makes me feel smart.

The overly complex process of developing a title

2008-03-18T21:47:00.002-06:00
You'd think that making a blog would be a simple process, setting it to look like you want, add a couple pictures, and viola! Unfortunately for me, I tend to over-complicate things. I was going to set this blog up a day ago, but was utterly stumped at what I was to name this. Did I want something witty, a funny name, or something serious. What would be best, and what would portray what I wanted in this blog? Well, nearly 24 hours after the process began, I have finally decided. It seems fitting that the title contain a word that many do not know, because it seems that when I speak to people, that happens often. I decided on that title to always remind me that this blog doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, I intend for it to be not that way at all. Also, this blog may contain things I don't normally talk about to people. My fears, worries, and, well, imperfections may come up on a frequent basis. Not to mention this is really the first time I have blogged at all, so I very well may be horrible at it. Let us begin...