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:

And the results are in...

Okay, I know you've all been anxiously waiting for the results of my little contest, so here they are.

1. With 1.5 points, my Dad.
2. With 1.33 points, my Mother, and my sweet wife, Nicole
3. With 1 point, Insanity, Mari, and Bob

So, I know you're all wanting to know what the answers are, so here ya go:

1. I have never performed CPR on a human being. Lots of training dummies, but no people
2. I gave varying degrees of partial credit for this one: First, they are saying that you need to know how to protect your PC, but they are using a picture of an Apple MacBook Pro with the luminous apple photoshopped out. They are saying that you need to protect your PC from viruses and spyware, but Macs don't suffer from viruses and spyware. Finally they mention that you should get anti-virus software, when there is only one company that makes anti-virus for Mac and it sucks. So there you have it.
3. "What is and what should never be" is the title of one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs. I'll play it for ya sometime if ya remind me.

What is and what should never be...

So today I saw a funny article on the Popular Mechanics website. 25 things a man should know how to do.
While I can think of a few things on the list that I wouldn't necessarily have on such a list, and a few not there that should have been, it was fun. Incidentally, I know how to do all of them, and have actually done all but one. So now we're going to have a little game, the winner of which will get a prize, determined by me when I see who wins. The game will consist of 3 questions.

1. Name the thing on the list (there's only 1 of the 25) that I haven't actually done.
2. The picture above is a screenshot of one of the items. There is something seriously wrong with it. Name what that wrong thing is.
3. What is the significance of the title of this post?

You may post your answers in comments, as I'm not the best blog keeper-upper in the world. Good luck.

Visitors...

We recently (last weekend) enjoyed a visit by Natalie, Jay and the munchkins. Despite the fact that I am bogged down in the middle of a semester and spent a good chunk of the time on campus or in our office room working on projects, it was great to have them. Nicole had someone to talk chick-stuff to, I watched most of Eragon with Jay (Nicole won't watch that and many other movies that I like) and I was constantly amused by 2 and 4-year-old-isms. Every morning when I got up, and when I came home from school, or when I came out of the office after a while, I was greeted by Chelsea's cheerful little, "Hi Awix!" Every so often while working on my projects, Jayden would wander by and say, "What your doing, Awix?" That, combined with his cheerful, "Hey! What your name is?" when my Mom stopped by with our pumpkins, took me back to my (much) younger days growing up on Army bases and hearing the same kind of phrasing from my (older than Jayden) friends.

We had a great time while they were here. Nicole and I introduced Natalie and Jay to "Munchkin", our current favorite time-sink, we watched a couple of movies together, and Jay brought some of his tasty chili. So thanks for coming guys, and come back any time.

Some of my favorite pics from the visit:

Chelsea finally tolerating my presence because "the wittle puppy show" was on:
Jayden knows good footwear when he sees it (when you're that small it doesn't matter which foot you put them on)
Clearly this is someone who knows what is coming next...
Who doesn't like cupcake batter?

Better late than never...

Well, Nicole and Natalie have pretty much covered the Newport Beach trip this year, so I'll just say that any week I have 2 gyros at the Mad Greek in Baker is a good week, even when I'm sick for half of it. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the trip.

I'm rather proud of my steady hand.
This was a 1 second shutter opening just before the fireworks.
Ostensibly a "tame" ride, those rocket ships can pull some serious G's if you go all the way up and then head for the deck as fast as you can drop.
For good reason, Mater is probably my favorite character from Cars.
Apparently Chelsea likes him too: "Mater, a-funny Mater"
Believe it or not, Sleeping Beauty's Castle is one of my favorite sights at Disneyland.
Jayden sure loved his Mickey Ears Hat, not to mention the carousel.
Chelsea and I both love It's a Small World. And look how we're wearing matching shirts...
Me and an old friend.
Someday I'm going to build and program my own R2-D2 to clean up after me.
I like naps, although it appears that Chelsea didn't quite get the concept...
The Tallest One (Nicole's Grandma L*) got a kick out of my signature vacation facial hair.

Warning!

While we were in St. George for our anniversary we made a small trip to the bike shop. While talking to one of the guys there I learned that what I thought was a relatively harmless crack in the shell of my helmet could be very dangerous, and that any time a helmet takes a significant impact it should be replaced. So I picked up a new helmet.

The fun part started when I began reading the manual that came with it, and the warning stickers on the inside. Some examples:

WARNING: No protective headgear can protect the helmet wearer against all foreseeable impacts.

So don't get shot in the head while wearing this helmet?

Your helmet will not protect against injury in all types of accidents. Even while wearing a helmet, low speed accidents may result in serious head injury or death.

Yeah, so go faster and you won't get hurt as bad?

Because every accident scenario is different, it is impossible to know whether use of a helmet will provide partial or complete protection. Studies have shown that you are better off with a helmet than without one.

"You might live through it" is better than "You won't live through it" after all.

WARNING: Do not take risks just because you are wearing a helmet.

Don't be stupid.

Note: The useful life of your helmet may be less than five years as a result of exposure to sunlight, rough handling/storage that results in dents or cuts or as a result of heavy use.

I guess. I'm on my 3rd helmet in 3 years.

And finally, my two favorites.

A bicycle helmet does not protect what it doesn't cover, and as noted it may not protect what it does cover. A bicycle helmet will not protect against injuries to the spine, neck, or face.

We make no guarantees. At all.

WARNING: A bicycle helmet is for bicycling only! Always wear a helmet when bicycling. When you get off your bicycle, remove your helmet. Do not wear a helmet while climbing trees, in play areas, on playground equipment, or, at any time while not riding a bicycle. Adults: Instruct children to follow this warning. Failure to follow this warning could result in serious injury, death by strangulation, death.

A: Apparently sombody sued because their 10-year-old fell off the merry-go-round while still wearing his bike helmet and died anyway. B: Apparently death by strangulation is not as bad as death.