Live from the Old Mill

I am so bored right now.

I went to Church with Dan this morning, and it looks like he'll have a cool ward. Since church, I've just been sitting around the apartment...doing nothing but surfing and snacking. I can't wait to move in tomorrow. On Tuesday, classes begin once again. I'm taking structural steel design, and two other courses (still undecided on which ones.)

This is my brother Dan:



He's a tech-support guy. He even assembled his own computer. It's awesome. I haven't played video games in years (except for at parties, etc.) It's amazing how behind the times I am in the gaming world, considering how I was raised by Nintendo. Unreal Tournament III and Fallout III are absolutely stunning.




This is the Old Mill, the apartment complex where I've been squatting the past 24 hours. Not a bad place. As luck would have it, I'm right next door to my future home.

Stand by for details.

Homeless...but not unemployed.

Today I checked out of my apartment at University Villa. Drew and I agreed: two years at this complex was one year too many...our first year was okay, but we both got sick of the place. Having an unbearable third roommate didn't help.

Moving out is always a pain. We had to pack up all our stuff (which in Drew's case, amounted to about two minivan-loads of boxes, suitcases and Tupperware.) All together, I had two suitcases, a large cardboard box, and a backpack. I value mobility, so I'm going to donate some of my unnecessary clothing. I like the idea of only needing two suitcases to live off of...and being able to get all my stuff together and relocate at the drop of a hat (just like on my mission in Uruguay!)

Once packed, we did a thorough cleaning of the entire apartment. It took hours and hours. Fortunately we had some help arrive:



Friends my old high school/ward came down from Idaho to attend another friend's wedding reception in Salt Lake City. Gleeson returned from his mission in Paraguay about a month ago, and I was glad to see him after four years. Also there was Amy:



Sorry Amy, but that's the only pic of you I took. She's already graduated and working full-time...and she's been married for 3.5 years. Amazing when you consider I'm a few months older than her.

Anyways, this summer we'll be living at Carriage Cove...a fancier place located about two miles north of campus. Our new move-in date isn't until Monday...so, for the time being, I'm homeless. Luckily, my brother Dan was kind enough to let me sojourn in his apartment until then.

I also started my new (old) custodial job at the cafeteria. It's dirty work, but the meal discounts make it well worth it.

Why I don't love MySpace...

Actually, I have many reasons to dislike MySpace. It's for stalkers.

I have a MySpace page...but I only use it to look up other people.

One recent trend with MySpace (and social networking sites in general) is how employers will look up applicants to get a look into their personal lives and discern whether or not they'd make good employees.

Anyone who tries that on me will be disappointed:



That's all I have on there.

Something to look forward to!

Today I attended the commissioning ceremony for this year's Army ROTC graduates.

One of our newly-commissioned lieutenants is an immigrant from Nigeria. He had his wife and daughter both pin on one of his new ranks. Check it out:



Hehe, isn't that cool?

Spring has sprung!

Today I took my last final. It wasn't too bad.


School starts again in six days, I still haven't made a final decision as to which classes I will take.


Check out this video I recorded of line outside the testing center:



It was ridiculous.

Moral of the story: don't wait 'til the last minute!


In other news, today the temperature reached eighty degrees! I loved it. Provo is so nice during the summer.

Only one left...

I have but just one final remaining. I'm going to take it tomorrow, so today is my day to study.

It'll be great when I'm done with this semester...even though classes start again the following week. I'm taking classes in both Spring and Summer, so 2009 will be my year as a perpetual student.



Like my flower arrangement? This one's rather modest. I wonder how much water it's going to absorb by the time I come by the lab again.

Top Ten Yahoo! Searches!

Of today's top ten Yahoo! searches, seven of them are women.

Let's take a look:

1. Padma Lakshmi.



An actress. She's pictured here with here with her former husband (it's sad they split --- they made such a cute couple!) Salman Rushdie. Not many marriages work out when you've got a million Muslim guys bent on killing your hubby.

2. Susan Boyle.



I have no idea who this is, but I'm guessing she(?) is a singer.

3. Callie Thorne



Another actress. She was on Law & Order: SVU a few years ago.

4. Keshia Knight Pulliam



Also an actress. This little cutie was on Sesame Street and the Cosby Show.

5. Lana Clarkson



Actress and Fashion Model. She died of murder a few years ago, and the culprit just recently got convicted.

6. Sabrina LeBeauf



One-time child actress.

7. Yasmine Bleeth.



One of the original Baywatch babes. She got busted for coke, but later went to rehab (where she found love!)


...wasn't that interesting? Not really. I only included this because I noticed most of my traffic comes via GIS, so I'm going to test and see if these oft-searched pics get me more hits.

<--- Watch my counter for details.

Finals are on...and off again.

This morning I had a final scheduled at 7:00am in the JFSB. It was no ordinary final, I had to give an oral presentation for my technical writing class. I got up early, got dressed up, and headed to our classroom in the JFSB...and waited. As the clocked ticked away, the classroom gradually filled up with people waiting to give their presentations. Everyone was there...except our instructor. We waited patiently for another half hour, then finally someone checked his laptop and saw the following e-mail:

Dear Section 3 of English 316,

It's (my professor's name). I have had a family emergency and am unable to attend our final examination.

I was unable to locate a sub this morning AND also unable to reach an open office in the English Department (in order to notify you @ 7am).

I sincerely apologize . . .

and will not penalize you, but will calculate your final grades with an A for the Oral Presentation.

I'm SO sorry that you are all prepared for your presentations. I was honestly looking forward to hearing them.

**Section 1, we will meet as scheduled on Wednesday @ 11am.

:-)

As he read it out loud, the class cheered...including me, though I was a bit disappointed because I was going to give an awesome presentation.

...I bet the people in the other section were ticked off though.

I have two finals left...one on Monday and one on Friday. They're both going to be tough, so wish me luck!

All snowed in.

It snowed yesterday.

At least the people who set up this tent were caught off guard.



Failure under excessive compressive load, as an student of engineering will quickly observe. It looks like an exaggerated frame deformation.

Tomorrow, finals begin. I, fortunately, only have three...and that includes an oral presentation.

I haven't been able to find a job...I'm considering just taking an extra class and focusing 100% on school.

Time marches on...and so do I.

I'm typing this in a silent, empty apartment.

Two of my roommates are engaged, and the other one has moved (after we filed enough complaints about him, the complex management just put him in another apartment.) Drew, an old high school friend who's been my roommate for the past two years, just got engaged last week...to a girl that we home-taught back in the Spring. I'm happy for him, they make a cute couple. They plan on getting married in August. Wow.

I'm doing stuff too. On Thursday, I went to a party put on by Army ROTC:



Dining Out, as it's called, was hosted over at the UVU ballroom. That's me with my date, who happens to be the little sister of my roommate from freshman year...speaking of which, Brian and I will be getting back together for our senior year. We've already signed a contract for an apartment just south of campus, and I'm way excited. It'll be like Desert Towers all over again.

Okay. Back to Dining Out: Kim (my date) mentioned that UVU's student center looked like an airport:



It does, doesn't it? We also saw the weirdest ad for Institute:



Not quite sure what the message is here.


Our guest speaker, however, was awesome:



Colonel Roger Donlon. He's a Medal of Honor recipient. Read about him here. The speech he gave was amazing. I just loved listening to his voice...it had a million miles on it, just like Johnny Cash.



Oh yeah, and I can't stand bow ties!

Some good things must end...

As the semester winds down, so does my job as a physics TA. After our final meeting, I convinced the other TAs to pause for a group photo:



I'll miss working with this fun group of nerdy LDS kids. Oftentimes during our regular TA meetings the conversations turn to dating anecdotes, mission stories and various cultural aspects of BYU. We have one non-LDS kid on the crew: Bibek, a kid from Nepal (standing on the far left, in case you can't tell.) Bibek is really smart and a good sport about sitting through our meetings when we talk about Church-related stuff.

Now I need to start looking for a job for the Spring...I've applied to two departments already, wish me luck!

Dang you, spell-checker!

Today the Daily Universe, BYU's student newspaper had a rather unfortunate typo:



While covering General Conference, they mislabeled the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles...the "Twelve Apostates." Dang, that's bad. Somebody's head is going to roll for this one.

By about 10:00am, all the papers were recalled:



People on campus have been joking about it all day, but the whole thing makes me shudder. I never liked the Daily Universe because it gives a megaphone to the dumbest people at BYU. Seriously, the opinion pieces and angry letters they print range from preachy and pretentious to downright asinine. BYU is full of bright and creative people, why can't we have a good student newspaper?