Seek and it shall be dumped out upon you

HAPPY MONDAY! Ok, for those of you who are ready to kill me for simply muttering those two words next to each other, I remind you that if the week never began it could never end. Now THAT would truly be tragic. Well it seems that I have come onto the good side of the Utah draw system because I’ll have an opportunity to kill a Turkey this May. I’m excited because I’ve never hunted Turkey before and I think it’ll be a lot of fun, thought perhaps a bit difficult. In an effort to continue developing my meager writing skills, I have decided to write a story. As I may have mentioned to some of you before, this is a story that I thought of as I was mowing the lawn about 4 years ago in our Lehi house. Now I don’t expect this to be anything worth… well anything, so don’t expect much. Hopefully I’ll be able to have a rough draft by the end of the year. Once finished I’ll supply a copy to anyone who’d like one. UVSC had one of their junk sales last Friday, and in all that junk there were 3 projectors. I’ve wanted to get my hands on one for our theater, even if it’s just a cheap second hand one for now. They had 3 available, only one of which turned on. Though it was a nice prospect to pick up a used one for $60, it was not what I was looking for. I have priced out some nice projectors and have come to the conclusion that I can get a very capable one which will perfectly match the geometry of our room for right around $1000. It doesn’t sound like much until you actually try to come up with the money. In the long run it’ll happen though I doubt it’ll be within the next year. When I do happen to get a projector, I plan to post a tech article about setting up the projector, screen and optimizing the whole system. In the mean time we have a full surround system, to glorify the images supplied by our standard 27” TV. Awe well, can’t have it all at once. I have been becoming interested in writing some other tech articles as well, though I don’t know if it’d be appropriate to post them in my main blog. I imagine some of the things that I’d choose to cover would be mildly interesting to one or two people and bore the rest. Perhaps I’ll post them on the Wiki, or maybe add another page just for tech articles. Some of the things I am considering covering at this point are basic/intermediate/advanced engine maintenance and repair, basic/intermediate electrical (both automotive and home), vehicle modification, suspension design, and various other things. If that interests anyone I will be more than happy to do what I can. Also if you have any subjects you’d like addressed I’ll do what I can to help, so please leave those comments. Other appropriate subjects would be how to build an Interositer, defining infinity, completing the square, removing squirrels from small passages, illuminating pinhole pictures through use of a reflective shadowbox, building the worlds greatest diorama, making your own homebrew LCD, preparing various explosives, capitalizing on seemingly useless bodily waste, and of course how to separate all the valuable materials found in everyday soil. So let me know!

Revolutionizing the ways we make fun of people

Well I’ve updated again and I can just see it now. Everyone rolling their eyes and wondering what I’ll be going off about this time. Well I’ve got news for you Bub! I’ll be the first to admit that my blog has sucked lately, and I believe that I have figured out why. It’s no secret that I think little of my fellow students at UVSC, and often being around them makes me irritable and puts me in a poor mood. The problem is that I usually start to blog when I get back from school and I have this cynical demeanor. Thus I will not be bloging when in this mood in an effort to produce a more uplifting page. In the spirit of this effort I will also be refraining from posts about politics, as this is another subject which I have a rather cynical view on. At this point I feel it appropriate to apologize to the two or so people who actually read for my lack of content and basically crappy attitude. Instead, I’ll be using the site to further my agenda with regard to world domination.

Now what?

We hear about all kinds of countries, mostly communist or socialist, censoring the media so that the people of the country only hear what the government want them to hear. In some cases this isn’t necessary because our own biases will edit what we don’t want to hear for us. I have often wondered what the world thinks of our “adventures” in Iraq. I know this is a huge can of worms and everyone had a different opinion, but the point remains that it is a problem. Our leader and president acted based on the information he was presented with and this is where we are. Point the finger all you want, but the problem still remains. How do we improve the situation so that we can bring our friends and neighbors home? Anyway, in my search for understanding, I have been looking at world wide news agencies, particularly BBC news. I have found a worldwide resentment toward the American people. I can understand their views as well. Mostly, I see that is seems difficult to separate the interests of those in power with the interests of the general populous. I heard this morning that the Presidents percentage of popularity has dropped in to the 20’s. They just see us losing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now attacking in Somalia. To some, not just Islam extremists but normal people in several countries, we are the terrorists. We are losing global popularity and it is no longer safe for me and others to call themselves Americans in an increasing number of countries. Tomorrow we’ll hear about what Bush plans to do about this terrible situation we find ourselves in. I wonder what he’ll come up with and if any of it will actually happen. I can’t help but feel manipulated by yet another wordsmithing politician. Soon, our congress will meet for the first time and try to make sense of the situation. What will happen I wonder? Is this the start of the fall of the greatest country in the world? Time will tell. In the meantime, it may be pertinent to proclaim yourself as Canadian if you should find yourself suddenly in another country.

They're on a collisions course with wakkiness!

Well whether we like it or not, the New Year has come. Holidays are over and it’s time to get back to work and school and all kinds of happy crap. School starts back up on Thursday and I don’t feel ready. I decided to wait on the truck project for a couple of reasons. First, wanted to have a bit of time off over the holidays to just sit back and take it easy. Second, the cost, difficulty and danger of keeping the garage at or above 70 Fahrenheit would have been great. Propane heater + volatile chemicals misted from a paint gun = no eye brows. I’m all about explosions, but only when I’m not in the middle of them. So we’ll see about doing it in the summer. Meanwhile, I did get a chance yesterday to set up our surround sound in the theater. The wires were pre routed in the walls, so I really only had to do a little trimming, some hanging and a little testing and optimization (and a little bit of creative problem solving when one of the wires was found to have dropped back inside the wall). Anyway, it was rather painless, and sounds pretty good. One strange thing I noted it that the remote for our sound system seems to have a life of its own. It will randomly send out signals to the receiver instructing it to shut down. This violates my policy of “do what I say or die” so it is now lifeless (a.k.a. no batteries). There is something about exhibiting your will on inanimate objects that leaves you feeling refreshed and gratified. Well, like so many at this time of year, it’s time for me to start focusing on a diet. Since starting school 1 year ago, I have gained and held about 20 lbs. While I don’t care at all how much I weigh, I have noticed that my clothes don’t fit as comfortably as they used to and I don’t feel as healthy as I have in the past. However, rather than make all these promises that’ll last about 3 weeks, I’ll just make some simple changes. In the past 2 weeks the Nikkster and I have been on the bishopric hit list it seems. (like that? the Nikkster? I just thought of it. I bet she’ll hate it! It’s code talk you see, so I don’t have to use her real name! Yes I AM awesome, aren’t I?) You see, 3 weeks ago we were your typical people who were privileged enough to be able to attend our regular block, Sunday school and Elders Quorum/Relief Society. Now, THE Nikkster (pronounced ‘thee nik-STEER’ for the time being) is locked into talking in front of the 11 year olds with the title of ‘Teacher’, and it would seem I am to do all the paperwork for the Elders presidency as their secretary/conveyer of donuts. Thus, I shall now begin observing national Secretary Day which will be held this year on April 25^th. I expect chocolate and lots of it! Now on to business, as some of you may know my computer is stupid. Here stupid is used synonymously with ‘it no worky’. It would seem to be a fairly straight forward problem, in that when you push the power button absolutely nothing happens. Referring back to the IT crowd, the first thing I checked was that it was plugged in. From here things got a little technical, but basically it was plugged in. Next I checked the power supply and it was good. I even verified this with a second power supply borrowed from the Deliveror of all things containing lemony goodness (My favorites are the Goth Rock Speed Metal Fusion cookies! Ok only about 3 people will get that joke). The more I test the more I find out what the problem isn’t. Unfortunately, all signs are pointing to the motherboard which is a cheap but crappy problem. If I were to replace the motherboard, the temptation to upgrade is SO strong. That’s how I work. Just look at my truck, anything that has broken on it has been replaced with the biggest and strongest components I could find, within reason. And if I ever break those then I’ll have to abandon reason and just buy an M1 Abrams tank (nothing says I’m cool like potentially dangerous government surplus). Thus, what I’d really like to do is spend about $1100 and upgrade my entire system. This, however, will not be happening unless anyone finds me cute and lovable enough to fund the project for me (this is where I smile and bat my eyelashes). So I’m stuck right now with a computer that looks like it’s in the middle of a rather invasive abdominal explosion (as opposed to the non-invasive abdominal explosions). I guess once I verify that it is in fact the Motherboard I’ll find a nice little orphaned replacement and cram it into my system. Anyway, I’d like to thank everyone who came to the party for a good time and condemn those who didn’t come to a life full of curiously talkative breakfast cereals. It was a good party. I know this because we had all the necessary things. We had a fireworks show (courtesy of Ty, Happy Birthday Ty!), wild animals showing their talents (the girls sleeping in the bedroom and the parakeets… doing what ever it is that parakeets actually do), movies (thanks to Deliveror’s Media PC, and a very special thanks to Eegah and very strange foreign cartoons), LAN gaming (again, thanks solely to Deliveror’s ability to procure graphical human interface devices), strippers (in fact the same ones that I brought to the bachelor party), staggering drunkenness (when I slipped and fell down the last 2 stairs), even someone loosing their lunch (when Tessa surprised us all with her impression of a garden hose). And in the morning there were at least 3 individuals (besides the Nikkinator and I) that had lost consciousness in various places throughout the house. Anyway, I thought it was fun and I hope everyone had a good time.