A funnier tribute to Gary has never been paid...

And probably will never.
Nicole even laughed. I was so proud.

Change of plans...

I was going to blog tonight about something I'll never understand, but I just saw some sad news. Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died today. Just thought I'd tell ya'll, since I know you're all so into DnD...

Anyway, just for kicks and in honor of Gary, I think I'll go roll my d20. If it rolls higher than 10 I'll go to bed. If not, I'll do some more homework.

P.S. to my post the other day about anti-biotics.

It's also amazing that a lot of antibiotics can kill not only bronchitis, but enough of the normal bacteria in your body to make you grow mold on your tongue. Lots of it. And it kinda sneaks up on you because for the first day or two it just feels like your mouth and tongue are really dry. Weird, eh? I'm having all kinds of new experiences these days...

So if your doctor prescribes you Azithromycin, eat lots of yogurt.

Finally, something new and exciting...

Some of you (who have never had a programming project deadline) are probably wondering why I'm blogging at 2:15 in the morning, while my poor, sweet, sick wifey is sleeping peacefully in the other room. Well, I'll tell you.

To start with, I was the weak link in our little group for this group project deadline because I was sick and missed the 2 class periods that would have been the most helpful for this particular project. Consequently, I finished my part last (as you can see, about 2 hours after the midnight deadline). Since I had a Mountain Dew at around 9, and a box of marshmallow peeps that lasted until about midnight-thirty, I need a second to unwind (and think about my Sunday School lesson tomorrow that I haven't looked at yet).

But more importantly, I had a brand new experience yesterday (Friday, which I guess that's 2 yesterdays, since it's Sunday now). Many of you who know me will know that I'm not usually very antsy about spending a couple of bucks. If I buy something that was not very expensive and I don't like it or if it doesn't work out, I consider it a few dollar lesson. I have never in my life felt like I "wasted" a few bucks. Until Friday. Let me elaborate. I like fantasy. I like mythology. I am one of the few people you'll meet that thinks the original story of Beowulf (translated at least into middle-english for clarity) is a good read. So, when I saw a trailer for the movie Beowulf, I thought it might be kinda fun and I'd give it a shot. Nicole was going to "The Other Boelyn Girl" with some friends, so I'd mosey down to the Red Box and pick it up.

OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS!!!!! There is no other way to describe that movie than as lame-@%#-ed. I know some of you who will read this don't swear, so I pseudo-disguised it. But seriously. It actually followed one version of the story that I read a while back fairly closely, for about an hour. At which time I had had enough. Much more than enough. I've never encountered laziness and lame-osity (and just plain weirdness) on that kind of scale. I have no clue what the heck the producers of that show were thinking.

Producer-guy A: "Hey guys, do you think we could sell a movie that was done in video-game animation? We could get a couple decent actors (Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie) and spend a lot of rendering time on the trailer, so people would think it's only partially animated, and then we could suck up the rest of the movie and see if it actually works... Hey, pass me that joint. And another beer."

Producer-guy B: "Dude, what a good idea. Most of the people in our target audience haven't watched movies like Star Wars, or the Lord of the Rings, which use good animation, so no worries, they won't know that we're slacking off on their time and money... And quit asking to steal my high. We'll need all the marijuana we can get to talk any half-decent actor not to sue our pants of when they see what we do to their character. Hey, animation guy, what do you think?"

Animation Producer: "Whoah. There's like, all kinds of sparklies in the air. And when I wave my hand, it makes trails. Do you guys have any food? I'm hungry."

Seriously, folks, for the first time in my life I felt like I wasted a dollar. One dollar. I have spent a dollar on a new kind of pop that I didn't like, and not cared. I've spent 2 or 3 bucks on energy drinks that were nasty as heck, and not cared. I have never not finished an action movie. I've watched (and liked) action movies that received abysmal ratings (Fast and the Furious, XXX) But dang. This was a whole slough of firsts for me. I still can't believe it. I've almost lost my faith in action movies, like that I might start paying some small attention to ratings. And now I'm getting tired.

Ah, BYU

This card from Indexed marks one of the reasons I like BYU a lot. I once found my Ipaq at the lost and found here.

Musical Alphabet

So, I know that there are some of you who think I never update my blog. And you're very nearly right. The other day I was thinking about how much music has played a part in my life, and I spied on Nicole preparing her "Alphabet of Favorites". I was told not to do an alphabet game before she did hers, so now here goes my alphabet of favorite songs:

A = All Along the Watchtower, by Jimi Hendrix
B = Blaze of Glory, by Bon Jovi && Bringin' On the Heartbreak, by Def Leppard
C = Can't Stop Loving You, by Van Halen
D = D'Yer Mak'er, by Led Zeppelin
E = Every Breath You Take, by The Police
F = Free Bird, by Lynrd Skynrd
G = Gel, by Collective Soul && Gone Shootin', by AC-DC
H = HeartBreaker, by Pat Benatar
I = It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, by The Rolling Stones
J = Janie's Got a Gun, by Aerosmith
K = Kickstart My Heart, by Motley Crue, && Knockin' On Heaven's Door, by Guns 'n' Roses
L = Layla, by Eric Clapton (at the time he was part of Derek and the Dominoes)
M = Mary Jane's Last Dance, by Tom Petty && Moby Dick, by Led Zeppelin
N = Nighttrain, by Guns 'n' Roses
O = Over the Hills and Far Away, by Led Zeppelin && Octopus's Garden, by The Beatles
P = Planet of Women, by ZZ Top && Paperback Writer, by The Beatles
Q = Killer Queen, by Queen -- gimme a break, Q? It's a miracle there's a decent song with a word that starts with Q in the title.
R = Ramble On, by Led Zeppelin
S = Sweet Child o' Mine, by Guns 'n' Roses & Stairway to Heaven, by Led Zeppelin
T = Texas Flood, by Stevie Ray Vaughan
U = Unchained Melody, by The Righteous Bros
V = Voodoo Child (Slight Return), by Jimi Hendrix
W = When the Children Cry, by White Lion && While My Guitar Gently Weeps, by The Beatles
X = Extreme Ways, by Moby -- again, gimme a break, eh?
Y = You Give Love A Bad Name, by Bon Jovi
Z = Zombie, by The Cranberries. -- Yes I know, but I like the song, what can I say?

Isn't it amazing???

What a little antibiotics can do? Ok, so a lot of antibiotics, but still.

I actually had some real food today.

The amount of blood that I coughed up in the shower this morning was about a third what it has been.

I haven't had a fever at all today.

I changed my blog, so you can all dig in for another little while.

Now this is a functional website...

You'd think that after years of dealing with the same start-of-semester rush of website usage, and several semesters of statements that upgrades are being done to allow greater utilization during said rush, that the organization in charge of a website could be prepared for said rush.

Well, you'd be wrong. At least in the case of the BYU website. The above pictures are screenshots taken about 15 minutes apart while I was trying to check my progress report to see if I need to change my schedule before tomorrow. The astute observer will notice that the progress meter in the lower left of the window says, "Done". The second one indeed looks done, but the astute observer will also notice that the _one_ thing I need right now is missing. That's right, no log in button. I don't care if that's the only thing that shows up on the entire screen, that one little button is the only thing I need right now. Way to prioritize, OIT.

Now you may ask, isn't there another way? And at first glance it appears that there is. By trying to directly access the page/service I want, I get this nifty page, which at first glance looks like it will let me log in and take care of business.
But after entering my login info, I am miraculously led straight back to the _exact_ _same_ _page_!!!
Oh, and that outlined link at the top of the page that presumably leads back to the BYU homepage? It goes to:
Again, hats off to BYU's Office of Information Technology. So the old website wasn't "pretty" or whatever they thought they were gaining by changing it. At least it worked.

This is a different situation...

For what may be the first time in our whole marriage, I find myself in a very interesting situation. I (who since getting married have been a night-time showerer) showered this morning. The strange thing about it is not that I showered, but the fact that my most recent shower is several hours (14 give or take) more recent than that of my compulsively hygienic, sweet wife. Very strange. I checked outside and the sky hasn't fallen. Hmmm.... So very strange...

(almost) Wordless Wednesday - Which is worse?

...

Bus error, or the fact that my source control repository doesn't contain my last several hundred lines of code changes? I'll let you decide...

The last week of class...

Since the deadline for submitting work was last Thursday (the last day of class), I'm sure you're all dying to know the story of yet another coding marathons. So here are the official stats from last week, starting Monday morning and ending Thursday at around 11:00 PM.

Hours of sleep: 8
Hours programming: 50
Cans of Mountain Dew: 6
Cans of Sobe Adrenaline Rush: 3
Cans of Red Bull: 2
Pushups (another stay awake tactic): 320
Protein energy bars: 2
Real sit-down meals: 2
Lines of code written: somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 (I started one project completely over at about 4:30 Thursday morning.

Some pictures:

In the beginning (well, Tuesday morning):
After 24 hours (Wednesday morning):
After 48 hours (Thursday morning):
After 60 hours (Thursday night):

Yes, I was very wired, but due to an increase in physical activity since the last time I participated in this kind of insanity my resting heart rate stayed below 86. Last time I even scared myself as after about 50 hours my resting heart rate never dropped below about 100.

Oh the weather outside is getting more frightful by the day...

At least for a few days...

Perspective

I am a schemer. I am also a horse-trader. Whenever my dad or I would say to the other, "I'll make you a deal..." my mom would leave the room and tell us to let her know how it shook down when we were done wheeling and dealing.

I also love a good project. Whenever I started thinking to myself (usually out loud, because I do that), "I wonder if I could..." Nicole rolls her eyes at me, usually so hard I wonder if they are going to roll right on across the floor at me.

I am a very curious person. When I discover something I like or am interested in, I study it. I do research on the internet, read books, talk to people who are knowledgeable on the subject, and pretty much every other thing I can to learn about it and/or become better at it. This is a sub-feature of my "project-ivity" that also causes some eye-rolling around here.

I'm also not very patient. I can watch a hillside for hours waiting for a woodchuck to show his little rat head, but when it comes to waiting months or years for something, I quickly reach my limit. And then I have a project on which to scheme. Perfect.

My bike was just such a project. It began with a realization: since I'm in school, I no longer have time to boulder for hours ever day. Then it was realized by a horse trade. I traded my brother I snowboard that I had purchased with the intent to learn how to ride it, but also didn't have the time or money for, and a rock-climbing hangboard for a Liahona Mission bike. Then I started to do my research. Being fairly mechanically-minded, it didn't take me long to recognize the features of higher-end bikes that make them higher-end bikes, and superior to my Liahona. Then I started scheming. I scrounged, saved (usually not for too long, see impatience, above) and started buying upgrade parts. New handlebars, stem, pedals, and fork made a noticeable difference in ride quality and comfort, and finally my birthday came around and made possible a horse-trade-ish deal. I found a new, lighter frame on eBay. It was listed at $90, which was $10 more than I had managed to save, but being impatient and scheming, I watched it anyway until it closed without receiving any bids, at which time I contacted the seller and asked if he'd take $80 for it. He agreed, and even better, said he was driving from Vernal to Salt Lake City that very afternoon and could drop the frame off so I wouldn't have to pay shipping. Perfect. I started with a $400 bike, and through scheming and slow project-izing (I've since replaced the handlebar yet again, the pedals yet again, and the saddle) I have a bike that would spec out at around $900 sold new. It's not a full-suspension bike, which means around here I'm still in for a rough, slow ride everywhere I go, but it'll do.

The reason I tell you all this is because I had a flash of perspective the other day, which led (surprise surprise) to a new project, and some more scheming. I realized something. I've spent 3 years and lots of brain cycles on my bike. Don't get me wrong here, I've enjoyed that bike immensely and will continue to leave patches of skin cells scattered around the hills and canyons anywhere I can get a chance. However, this is a sport that I can only enjoy for about 4, maybe 5 months of the year. I've also realized, in this same flash of perspective, that I'm not likely to be in as good shape any time in the near future (at leas while I'm a student) as I was 10 years ago. Spending time with Nicole is way too high on my priority list (and time in the weight room too low, because of the opportunity cost factor) for this to happen. So on to my new project.

Some of you may know that I play the guitar, and even fewer of you may know that once upon a time I was quite good. In yet another horse-trade, a little over 4 years ago I traded my electric guitar for a Pocket PC, which was incalculably valuable to me in my job back then. However, this means I have been electric guitar-less for almost 5 years. That is much, much too long. In my flash of perspective the other day, I also realized that playing my guitar is a perfect way to unwind for a few minutes when every thing looks like a semi-colon, or I can't tell which bracket closes which block of code any more because the whole world looks like mono-spaced text.

So I'd like to introduce you all to the new scheming, horse-trading, impatient project: the Fender Highway One Telecaster.

I've never owned a Telecaster before, but I've played a few, and owned a couple other kinds of electric guitars. The telecaster has a very unique sound that I really like, and the fact that Jimmy Page played a telecaster on "Stairway to Heaven" is a definite bonus. The guitar solo from "Stairway" is my favorite sounding guitar of all time. I now have a new project. And so I'm saving. And scheming. And, of course, impatient.

Some Telecaster highlights I patched together from the Fender Highway One website.

Ah, mutated MormonAds

Remember those MormonAds that you used to see all the time? Well, Divine Comedy (a comedy group at BYU) has really had a good time with them. I think this was about the funniest one: