Thursday, October 2, 2008
Good Joke
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world. People who can read binary, and people who can't.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Bitter Sweet Ending
Last night, Megan and I had "The Talk". The Talk consists of one member of the relationship complementing the other on the great time he or she has had. Then the unavoidable and expected "but" comes in and you know where it's going. Funny thing was we were both expecting it. I knew Megan was too young and she realized that a college relationship is bigger than a high school relationship. So we cut it off.
I didn't feel any different walking away from it. In fact, I felt that the 10 days we were dating was a blessing. Before I was dating Meg, I chose to stay away from the library, which was my second home last year. However, Meg and I would meet at the top floor of the library to study together almost everyday, and I rediscovered its educational value as a great study environment that I'll continue to go to. Unanswered prayers are good.
I didn't feel any different walking away from it. In fact, I felt that the 10 days we were dating was a blessing. Before I was dating Meg, I chose to stay away from the library, which was my second home last year. However, Meg and I would meet at the top floor of the library to study together almost everyday, and I rediscovered its educational value as a great study environment that I'll continue to go to. Unanswered prayers are good.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Who Doesn't Like Movies?
So I'm an hour late on this entry, but life's busy. Onward with the story.
After a few tennis matches, I decided we should go on a real date. The kind where dinner and a movie are involved. So the next week we went to Zupas, a deli, where we sat outside and talked about our life stories. She was first to educate me on her life and I learned something in the process: the girl can talk. I eventually took my turn, but cut it short so we could make the movie.
At the dollar theater, I wanted Megan to see a movie she hadn't seen yet. However, to my surprise she had not seen any (I later found out she's not a big movie person...smooth). I was in the mood to see "Kung-fu Panda" that night, which looking back was probably the best choice. The other movies had some crude scenes, and I would have felt uncomfortable with her there. Besides, we had a great time laughing more at the kids watching the movie than the actual movie itself. I thought it better to not try to hold her hand, as I wasn't even sure yet if I liked her. I kept my distance and remembered what Eli told me: "Be the flame, not the moth." Thank you, Casanova.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Tennis in the Summer
How do you ask a girl out who you never see and whose number you don't even have? There I was sitting at home wanting to ask Megan on a tennis date, and I was without her number. Calling Maddie to set it up would have made me feel like I couldn't do things on my own, that I needed someone else to get a girlfriend for me. So in my pride, I opted for the universal college form of communication: Facebook.
The next day we had our tennis date. Megan played in high school so the game actually had a few decent rallies. Along with her skill, she plays with finesse. I was having fun just watching her. She looked cute in her tennis outfit, too. When the tennis workers came around to check our BYU id cards, the girl commented on her skirt. "I like your skirt! You look cute!" I quickly jumped at the opportunity. "She does look cute, right?" Smooth.
After a few games, we called it a day and went to 7-11 for some drinks and to socialize. Her personality was upbeat and very mature, and I thought the world of it. On the way home, we decided to do it again, and I was excited. Self, great day.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Megan
I suppose I should try to answer the questions about my new girlfriend. Her name is Megan Nelson. She's from Phoenix, plays tennis, and currently attends UVU studying child psychology. I met Megan Nelson while taking another girl back to her dorm. She was very happy, and seemed older than her friends. A week later I was playing my guitar with Maddie when Megan came down to see what was going on. I was very attracted to her, and after she left I turned to Maddie and told her I wanted to take her out. Maddie made it happen. Thanks Maddie.
That's all for now. Everyday this week I'll try to add a little tid-bit about something on the story of Meg so you can all be up-to-date.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
First Week of School
Ah, the Fall. Ever since New York, I have loved this time of the year. The colors on the trees mixed with the cooling air creates an awesome ambiance, and I love it.
The other day, my programming professor showed our class a neat function in our programming tools, but there's some background to understanding its awesomeness. Essentially, every program has two elementary functions called "getters" and "setters". These two functions allow you to "get" a variable you are working with (i.e. if you want to use the variable x in an equation) and "set" or reset a variable (i.e. if you want x to equal 2 instead of 1). In class, our professor showed us that the new tools we are using have a button to automatically take every variable in the program and create the code for each getter and setter. When I saw that, I turned to my group and said, "That is cool!" I guess I'm a nerd, but not yet a geek.
The other day, my programming professor showed our class a neat function in our programming tools, but there's some background to understanding its awesomeness. Essentially, every program has two elementary functions called "getters" and "setters". These two functions allow you to "get" a variable you are working with (i.e. if you want to use the variable x in an equation) and "set" or reset a variable (i.e. if you want x to equal 2 instead of 1). In class, our professor showed us that the new tools we are using have a button to automatically take every variable in the program and create the code for each getter and setter. When I saw that, I turned to my group and said, "That is cool!" I guess I'm a nerd, but not yet a geek.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Belizen Experience
I know I said one of my goals for this blog was to not forget about it, and you might have thought I had done so, but to save this blog from being amongst the googlies of forgotten web pages, I decided to write about my Bedizen experience.
Last Thursday, we arrived on the island city of San Pedro. The hotel, Paradise Villa, lived up to its name providing us comfortable, cozy, and beautiful rooms and beach-front views. We had a kitchen and living room to our disposal which I was thankful for as the food in the restaurants, I'm sad to announce, was mediocre at best. The TV even received a signal from Colorado! At first I thought the TV would only be a distraction, but with the activities being scarce on the island and the Olympics going on in Beijing, we found it to be a great filler for the night time.
We filled every morning in San Pedro with scuba diving. My first real dive experience was a huge highlight of the trip and will be hard to forget, at least until I replace the snorkel I lost on my first entry. Once underwater, I immediately noticed the sense of moving in 3 dimensions as I would swim through the coral trenches like an X-wing fighter on the Death star (sorry for the Star Wars analogy, but that's all I could compare it to). My excitement for the adventure was unfortunately evident in my high intake of air which caused me to come up early, but the experience alone was unlike anything I've done and well worth it.
After a few days in San Pedro, we embarked on the road trip to Chaa Creek. The directions to get there are as simple as drawing a line from point A to point B, but we never saw a single sign for Chaa Creek. We passed San Ignacio (where the address for the resort is) and continued through some hills and farming land. Still with no signs for Chaa Creek, we stopped on the road and thought about turning around to ask for directions in the city. The thought passed me, If the resort is on the other side of this hill and we turned around now, I'd kick myself. I saved myself a self-kicking when we reached the top of the hill and Paige jumped. "Look! Chaa Creek!" Sure enough, an old broken sign bore the name of Chaa Creek and pointed down a dirt road. How much were we paying to stay here?
The sign was deceiving as we popped out of rainforest into a pristine landscape. That set the tone for the whole stay as everything from our rooms to the service followed suit. How much did we pay to stay here?
That evening we went canoeing up the river. Yeah, we went up. Paige and I struggled to maneuver up the faster currents while mom and the guide did so with relative ease (good thing Paige and I still have the energy to waste and still keep up). Our guide knew everything about everything, or at least appeared to know, as he explained everything that did and didn't move.
A few hours later we had the same guide take us on a night walk. We all had headlights on and the first thing he had us recognize were the Jewel-like bellies on the spiders by just shining your light on them. At any given time, I could have counted five spiders in front of me. Any arachnid-phobics should probably not do this on their trips to the rain forest.
The next two days were spent spelunking. The first cave we floated down on inner tubes which was OK. The real highlight were the zip linings we did through the jungle afterwords. The next day's cave had us crawl, swim, and climb to get through. In an hour, we reached some Mayan pottery and bones which were left over from sacrificial activities. The time period was 800-900 AD which made me think of the apostasy the people had fallen into; the sacrificial activities were made to the gods of the underworld. The adventure of seeing the stalagmites and the ruins was breathtaking! In some caverns you could have fit a two story house. To think that water alone could have made such formations and large caverns.
To sum up, the trip has been a success. We have 4 more days to explore, and today will be a day at the resort as Paige has picked up something in her stomach and won't be out of bed until later.
Last Thursday, we arrived on the island city of San Pedro. The hotel, Paradise Villa, lived up to its name providing us comfortable, cozy, and beautiful rooms and beach-front views. We had a kitchen and living room to our disposal which I was thankful for as the food in the restaurants, I'm sad to announce, was mediocre at best. The TV even received a signal from Colorado! At first I thought the TV would only be a distraction, but with the activities being scarce on the island and the Olympics going on in Beijing, we found it to be a great filler for the night time.
We filled every morning in San Pedro with scuba diving. My first real dive experience was a huge highlight of the trip and will be hard to forget, at least until I replace the snorkel I lost on my first entry. Once underwater, I immediately noticed the sense of moving in 3 dimensions as I would swim through the coral trenches like an X-wing fighter on the Death star (sorry for the Star Wars analogy, but that's all I could compare it to). My excitement for the adventure was unfortunately evident in my high intake of air which caused me to come up early, but the experience alone was unlike anything I've done and well worth it.
After a few days in San Pedro, we embarked on the road trip to Chaa Creek. The directions to get there are as simple as drawing a line from point A to point B, but we never saw a single sign for Chaa Creek. We passed San Ignacio (where the address for the resort is) and continued through some hills and farming land. Still with no signs for Chaa Creek, we stopped on the road and thought about turning around to ask for directions in the city. The thought passed me, If the resort is on the other side of this hill and we turned around now, I'd kick myself. I saved myself a self-kicking when we reached the top of the hill and Paige jumped. "Look! Chaa Creek!" Sure enough, an old broken sign bore the name of Chaa Creek and pointed down a dirt road. How much were we paying to stay here?
The sign was deceiving as we popped out of rainforest into a pristine landscape. That set the tone for the whole stay as everything from our rooms to the service followed suit. How much did we pay to stay here?
That evening we went canoeing up the river. Yeah, we went up. Paige and I struggled to maneuver up the faster currents while mom and the guide did so with relative ease (good thing Paige and I still have the energy to waste and still keep up). Our guide knew everything about everything, or at least appeared to know, as he explained everything that did and didn't move.
A few hours later we had the same guide take us on a night walk. We all had headlights on and the first thing he had us recognize were the Jewel-like bellies on the spiders by just shining your light on them. At any given time, I could have counted five spiders in front of me. Any arachnid-phobics should probably not do this on their trips to the rain forest.
The next two days were spent spelunking. The first cave we floated down on inner tubes which was OK. The real highlight were the zip linings we did through the jungle afterwords. The next day's cave had us crawl, swim, and climb to get through. In an hour, we reached some Mayan pottery and bones which were left over from sacrificial activities. The time period was 800-900 AD which made me think of the apostasy the people had fallen into; the sacrificial activities were made to the gods of the underworld. The adventure of seeing the stalagmites and the ruins was breathtaking! In some caverns you could have fit a two story house. To think that water alone could have made such formations and large caverns.
To sum up, the trip has been a success. We have 4 more days to explore, and today will be a day at the resort as Paige has picked up something in her stomach and won't be out of bed until later.
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