From a foreign computer

I know many of you reading this may not be fans of Macs, but let me tell you a few things:

• The computer (HP) I'm writing this from seems fairly new and already has an issue with the spacebar. I have to make sure to jam it down so that it actually produces a space.
• Another PC laptop in our apartment is about a year and a half old, and the mouse button doesn't work very well. Actually, it works almost too well, and you have to make sure you're no where near it so you don't actually click stuff you didn't mean to. (It's not a feature of the computer, it's broken.)
• The track pad on this computer is super small. It takes like 3 swipes across it to move the mouse from one side of the screen to the other. I know this is something that can be changed in preferences, so why isn't it??
• I've never even gotten close to getting a virus. I was working on a PC at Leadgenix doing some SEO stuff, and the computer I was on had a quite annoying virus. It was far from the first time I've had to deal with a PC with a virus. 'Nuff said.
• My roommate just told me not to use the volume keys cause it will freeze the computer for like 10 minutes, and that the fan is broken and that the processor might be dying. The computer is 1.5-2 years old.
• The reason I'm writing from a foreign computer is most likely because my video card was faulty. In fact, NVidia, who makes the cards, told Apple they wouldn't be an issue in their computers, and then it was. So the problem most likely isn't a problem with the Apple computer, but with the video card. Apple actually pays for every video card replacement to be done because of this problem, and even reimburse all who already spent their own money to get it fixed.

I think people who hate Macs hate them because they think they're too trendy, or not professional enough, or overpriced. (They are definitely overpriced, I'll concede on that one). Then again maybe I won't concede to that, since I don't have to deal with the aforementioned problems. Ever. That's probably worth the extra money to me.

My frustrations with Macs:

To not be completely one sided, here's what I don't care for:

• You can't NOT put the computer to sleep when you shut it. Silly. (Maybe there's something new, but not that I know of.)
• Very few games. I just want to play Worms Armageddon, Apple! Oh well, I've lived without it so far.

Well that's about it. Not too bad.

Priorities

I had an interesting conversation with my mom a few weeks ago that has stuck with me. She was talking about how people often worry more and spend more time looking for their first job out of college than looking for a spouse.

How do you feel about that? It seems backwards as far as priorities goes, but I can't blame anyone for it being that way since finding a job fills a more immediate need. I just think something isn't right when we stress out more about finding a job that will last for a few years (heck, let's even say it lasts until you retire) and less about finding someone to spend eternity with.

I'm not saying I'm exempt from it either. Cause I'm not stressed about finding a wife. (In case that's what you were thinking.) But I have no idea what I want to do when I'm done with school.

My childhood in videos

Having just talked to my dad for Father's Day, spending time reminiscing about me when I was young, we got to talking about the movies/videos that I always watched when I was just a young'un. I remembered a lot of it, but some of it my dad reminded me of, and I just had to share it with someone.

So, thanks to the miracle that is YouTube, here is a summary of a number of my childhood memories. Oh the memories :-)

George Harrison - I Got my Mind Set on You



MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This

I guess embedding of MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" is disabled, so here's the link if you want an awesome blast from the past:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo

Star Wars - Jabba the Hutt
 
Sorry about the subtitles in this one.





An American Tail - Never Say Never



Babar



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game for Nintendo

Obviously you don't need to watch all of this. Plus the guy playing has no idea what he's doing, I could play circles around him in this game :-) (Boy, if that doesn't make me cool, I don't know what does!)



Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Another one with disabled embedding. You won't be disappointed by watching this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0YkXmebAGM


Wow. I had a great childhood! :-)

Why Soccer Sucks

1. They don't review the plays. All this technology we have now, and they won't look to see what really happened. Instead, much of the outcome of the game relies on what the refs think they saw in the mass of players on the field. Here's my point illustrated:





Oh yeah, I forgot you can get called for a hand ball when it hits you in the cheek. That makes sense.

2. Soccer players are the biggest pansies in the world. Here's my point illustrated a few times:





There's tons of other videos like that.

3. How much time is left?? Today in the USA - Slovenia game, it reached the 90 minute mark and the officials added 3 minutes to the game. Then just before the 3 minutes were up, someone got injured (or so they made everyone believe. See #2.) and they played until about 94:25 or so until one of the officials blew the whistle. The announcers didn't even know if that was a whistle that signified the end of the game. What a joke!

4. There's an exciting moment every, what? Ten minutes? Good grief. That's like worse than watching baseball. (Ohh it's a pop fly! It's going to deep center! It's going.... going... oh no wait, it was caught. That's just another out, same as all the other ones.)

Sorry soccer (football) fans, but your sport sucks. The only cool thing about it is that so many people all over the world like it, which creates a vortex of cyclical confusion in my mind.

Cheese is not mold!

I know I already put this on my Facebook, but I just had to put it out there again.

I'm a bit of a mold-phobic. When I see any small amount of mold on anything, I'll just throw the whole thing away. This is most applicable to breads and cheeses.

Then most people are like "Silly Bob, everybody knows cheese is just mold anyway!" At this point I always think, "I should look that up, because I think that's a bunch of bull...logna." (Get it? Like "bologna?")

So today I finally did. And it turns out I'm not silly at all! (At least, not for that reason...) CHEESE IS NOT MOLD! At least not the kinds I ever eat. Here's a quote from eHow.com's article "Is Cheese Really Mold?":

"Cheese is not a type of mold, but mold is used in the cheese-making process for some types of cheese."

So you say, "See?? There it is! 'Mold is used in the cheese-making process for some types of cheese."


And I say, "Here's the rest of the quote: 'Some types of cheese that are made using mold include Roquefort, blue cheese, Gorgonzola, Camembert, Stilton, and Brie.'"

So hah! No one eats those kinds of cheeses anyway! (Except maybe bleu cheese, which they shouldn't be eating anyway because it's gross.)

Furthermore, if there is visible mold on any of those soft cheeses, you need to throw it all away. Only on hard cheeses where mold isn't used in the cheese making process can you safely cut mold away. And even then, it is recommended that you cut at least one inch around the edge of the mold, since mold grows roots into the food.

Now if I ever hear someone tell me that 'cheese is just mold' I will just refer them to my blog.

To wrap it up, here's another quote from the article:

"The misconception that cheese is nothing but mold is false. In fact, mold on cheese can release potentially harmful toxins and is highly undesirable."

The misconception that cheese is nothing but mold is false. In fact, mold on cheese can release potentially harmful toxins and is highly undesirable.

Read more: Is Cheese Really Mold? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_6371041_cheese-really-mold_.html#ixzz0qxGG9n43

I guess this weekend wasn't for resting

Friday:

Internship meeting from 12-1 as usual. Then I met with my mom in Murray to look at our auto insurance policy. Apparently my credit rating and driving record are so good that by switching our plan to put it under my name reduced our policy's premium from over $1500 every 6 months to $601 every 6 months! Ka-Ching (says my mom)!

I get home just in time to leave for the Hot Springs in Spanish Fork Canyon. What a place! It was super secluded (about a 45 minute hike from the trail head, which was about a 10-15 minute drive from the highway) and extremely scenic! (To see pictures, click here).

Then we went to In-N-Out. The guy who joined our group at the hot springs (who was originally there by himself... yeah...) must have overheard that we were going to In-N-Out and I guess he followed us there. A little bit creepy...

Then of course hot tubbing and swimming, since we apparently didn't get enough of the water.

Saturday:

10am Ultimate game. We weren't at full strength, were missing one of our best players, and had a player with an ankle injury (way to walk back and forth between end zones, Nat! Sorry we couldn't get it to you better...), and we lost. I think losing 6-12 isn't so bad when you are so outnumbered.

Then went to watch the Soccer game. We also lost that. I guess we couldn't expect much being one man down, and when the other team has a bunch of Hispanic players and an African player. (Complimentary racism?)

Ward activity at Rock Canyon park with a water balloon civil war. I wish I had pictures of that. Oh well.

Volleyball at the Riv at night. Fun times.

A couple of episodes of 24. It's sickening that we have only 1 more episode left in season 1 when we started like 10 days ago. It's also awesome.

Well time for bed. I'm still awake because I took a 2-hour nap today, but maybe I can manage a little sleep before tomorrow.

Those who read all the way to the end: leave a comment on what you're thinking about right now.

NorCal Trip

So this is what I think would be about the coolest thing we could ever do. It would be a lot of driving, but totally worth it and relatively cheap for how long the trip is.

• Day 1: Drive from Provo to Coarsegold, CA, about 55 miles south of Yosemite Nat'l Park. Stay at roommate's grandparents house
• Day 2: Yosemite Nat'l Park. Do whatever hikes people want to do, possibly including Half Dome. Drive back to Coarsegold in the evening/night.
• Day 3: Drive to Danville to John's house. Spend the afternoon/evening in San Francisco seeing some sights. (Golden Gate Bridge bike ride, anyone?)
• Day 4: More San Francisco sights. Stay at John's house again.
• Day 5: Drive up to Auburn to Brent's house. Go boating all day on the nearby reservoir. Stay at Brent's house.
• Day 6: Drive home to Provo.

The actual planned travel distance is about 1868 miles if you include about 150 miles of miscellaneous travel. Using conservative numbers, gas would only cost about $50 per person for the whole trip! (30 miles/gallon [my mom's Prius gets between 40 and 45, if we averaged it all with the other cars it would be about 35 miles/gallon] and $3.30/gallon for gas).

I think the trip would be especially fun if we did it over 4th of July weekend, but that's a whole other discussion. Meanwhile, since travel costs are so cheap, we could see a symphony or a play for $20-50. Also, we could keep food costs down by buying our own food to prepare at the houses and having our own sandwiches/snacks for the drive rather than stopping at restaurants. We could probably do this whole trip at a cost of about $150/person or less.

Anyway, I just had to get it out there. I'll be trying to get people interested in the next week or so.