28, not 30

I have good news: I was approved to work more than the normal 20-hour limit. My boss requested 30 hours/week for me because of some special circumstances. First, several of the employees here will be student-teaching in area schools this semester and will have reduced hours at work, but will be back for Winter semester, which makes hiring and training new employees for one semester not effective. Also, I only have 9.5 credits this semester, so extra hours would not impede my schoolwork. Also, we are hiring some new instructors, and I'll probably be involved in the training. So apparently the administration saw the logic in this and in their infinite wisdom granted me not 30-hour weeks, but 28-hour weeks. I'm not quite sure what the reasoning was behind that one, but it was approved, so I'm not complaining. It essentially means I'll be working 7 (4-hour) days a week, but still have the weekends! And since I don't have time to spend all my earnings like I did during the summer, I might increase my savings a little :)

And so it begins...

School started again today. My last semester. I only have 3 real classes (albeit 400 level CS classes) and one PE class, so hopefully it won't be too bad. I went to soccer this morning already and got my locker and stuff already. My digital signal processing class seems like it will be pretty cool. It's mostly about image recognition and stuff and the professor seems really cool. I haven't been to my other two classes yet.

I'm still doing interviews at work. It's become confusing trying to keep track of all these people, especially when we do two interviews (one normal, one where they teach). It will be nice when our classes start again and work goes back to normal.

I see the light!

So I went to the orthodontist this morning, and there is light at the end of the tunnel! In typical fashion, my uninformative orthodontist mentioned only that he would remove the bands on the back molars next time. I was later informed by one of the assistants that this means that two weeks after that they all come off and I get my retainer later that day. So by September 30th I could be braces free! I will of course post pictures when the blessed day arrives. Now I just need to decide what I'm going to write on his wall...

Gala? huh?

OK, my previous comments about the Olympics have now turned into full-blown annoyance. In lieu of showing decent coverage of the decathlon, in which an American won a surprising silver, NBC decided to instead dedicate no less than three long segments on the "Olympics Gymnastics Gala" last night, an event that has no meaning and in which no medals are won. They at least showed the Morrocan guy win his elusive gold in the 1500 M, but I must have missed the coverage of the 3000M steeplechase, pole vault, track cycling, and weight-lifting finals. No wonder Americans don't have any understanding of foreign countries; they aren't even allowed to watch Olympic events unless a token American has a chance of getting a bronze. I, for one, would like to appreciate these events as the great sporting competitions they are, regardless of who is competing, especially since many of the events are only seen widely during the Games. But if all the people want to see is meaningless gymnastics, I guess in 2008 I'll have to get extended cable and Tivo to truly experience the Olympic Games.

PS - Congratulations to Roman Seberle, gold-medalist in the decathlon, a.k.a. "Greatest Athlete in the World", who brought the Czech Republic its first and only gold medal. I must have missed the special interest story on him...

Hiring

The new semester is coming up and we're hiring some new employees. As the eldest trainer around, I expressed interest in helping with the process, so now the full-time guy and I are interviewing applicants. It's kind of fun being on the other end of things for a change - reading the resumes, asking ambiguous interview questions, deciding the fate of these poor souls... We've found one good applicant so far from 5 interviews, but the job(s) is(are) still officially open for another week.

Still here

I haven't posted for a while, but I'm still here. I've been pretty wrapped up in the Olympics. It's been good so far, I just wish they would give more options for viewing in prime time. NBC is very proud of the fact that they have 4 billion hours of programming every day on their various channels, but during prime time - the only time most people can watch - your only choice is NBC and they only show the "marquee" events (ie swimming, gymnastics, and track & field). Alas, the one chance for table tennis and badminton to get television coverage and no one can watch.

I went on a double date on Friday. We played frisbee golf, did the picnic thing, then watched Olympics and a movie. As for how it went, I'll continue my stance of being intentionally uninformative until something worth talking about.

On Saturday I went to a polynesian event type thing near Salt Lake (Ally knew the MC), then headed up to the airport to pick up Marisa and Adam (roommate) who flew in within 45 mins of each other. That worked out rather nicely. Marisa hung out at my place until her friends finally came to get her at 11:30 or so. It will be fun to finally have some family around here!

Fun toys for Windows

At the end of a good article about Windows XP SP2 and the new Longhorn from PC Magazine, there are some good links to make your Windows OS a little more futuristic (i.e. more like MacOS and Linux).

For one, there is a little app called Dashboard 2.0 that creates a sidebar much like what is supposed to come with the next version of Windows. You have lots of options on what to put on this sidebar, the most useful in my opinion being a clock, a news aggregator (for RSS feeds), a note board, built-in Notepad with tabs, and a weather section. It's a fun little app when you have a big enough monitor.

The other fun things are all Microsoft Power Toys that I hadn't looked at in a long time. Among the treasures here:

• Alt-Tab Replacement which changes the Alt-Tab menu to give a preview of the window instead of just an icon (similar to the Exposé feature of MacOS X).
• TweakUI is an awesome utility that lets you really customize your computer.
• Virtual Desktop Manager gives you the ability to have up to 4 simultaneous desktops (a feature that has long come with most versions of Linux). Some things to know if you try this one: It is a task bar toolbar, which means nothing will happen when you install it. Right click on the task bar, choose Toolbars, then Desktop Manager. Also, to keep your desktops from interfering with each other (by default, all programs are visible in each desktop and choosing a program brings it to the current desktop) right click on the toolbar and uncheck Shared Desktops.

GRE

I took the GRE Saturday morning. I signed up for it a long time ago and was so successful at putting it out of my mind that I forgot about it until Thursday. So I did a crash course math review on Friday night while watching the Olympic opening ceremonies, then went for it Saturday morning. I got a 620 in the Verbal section and 650 in Quantitative (both out of 800) and there is a written section that I haven't gotten a score for yet. According to a random web site I went to, I did above average (470 V, 570 Q). The verbal score seems good enough, but the math score I think is a little low for technical majors. I guess I'd better get good letters of recommendation...

Olympics

Well, paraskevidekatriaphobia or not, the Olympics are here. Apparently Athens was able to finish preparations on time and the Opening Ceremonies are tonight. I've already been watching the men's and women's soccer games which started on Wednesday on Telemundo (our US women started off well, blanking hosts Greece 3-0). I've never been a big fan of the opening ceremonies, but we're going to have a big group and watch together. I enjoy the procession of nations, but the rest seems excessively needless. And despite what some in the media have said, I think there is still a large interest in the Olympics. It may be over-hyped and over-marketed, but I think most people can see through that and enjoy the friendly competitions with a little bit of national pride. I know I'll be watching as much as I can, especially since it's been 8 years since I've seen a summer Olympics thanks to the mission. And what cooler venue can you get? I think they're running the marathon from Marathon, for goodness' sake... So enjoy the games, and go USA!

Wedding Day

No, not mine... I spent all day yesterday attending wedding events for my former roommate Richard. I went to his sealing in the morning at the Provo Temple. Afterward there was the obligatory ton of pictures. Then there was a luncheon at the Chef's Table (near the Provo/Orem border on State Street) which was excellent. I don't know about the prices, because I didn't have to pay, but the food was amazing. Later that night there was also a reception. As the groom's buddies, we also took it upon ourselves to decorate the get-away car. It actually turned out to be quite an adventure, because Richie's dad gets very uptight about his cars (the kind of guy that puts towels on the seats), so we had to find out which car he was taking, find it (it was parked in the very back of the parking lot), and decorate it and get out without his dad finding out. We came back later and watched from a strategic location as they drove off to Salt Lake. They're flying to San Diego today for their honeymoon. It's kind of sad to see him go, but he found a good wife and I think they'll be very happy.

Hail to the Redskins

The Redskins were victorious in their first preseason game last night (the "Hall of Fame Game" in Canton Ohio), defeating the Denver Broncos 20-17. I was a little disappointed in the first string players' performance and of course the unfortunate loss of Jansen for the season. On the bright side, Sean Taylor, the rookie, proved he is worthy of his 5th overall pick (and salary...) by picking off two passes - one in the end zone to prevent a score, and the other for a touchdown. And the team won for Joe Gibbs' return; a symbolic win, but a win nonetheless. One preseason game down, Super Bowl here we come!

Movie Reviews

I've seen several movies recently (thanks to the newsgroups) and I thought I would proffer my unsolicited opinions:

Napoleon Dynamite: A must see movie! This is a low-budget, essentially student film produced by BYU alums that has catapulted to national popularity after finding success at Sundance. To attempt to explain it would be nearly impossible, so I'll leave it at this. It's a movie that gets funnier every time you see it, with quotability at least as good as Dumb & Dumber and a title character that is sure to become classic impersonation material. It's a refreshing change from standard Hollywood assembly-line products and is clean enough to make BYU proud. Go support a good film.

The Manchurian Candidate: This is a remake of a communist-era film that critics decry as not living up to the first. Having not seen the original, I would recommend the film, not for the acting, but for the compelling spy/thriller/paranoia plot. I guess the movie is rated R, but perhaps my desensitization to people getting shot in the head made it seem less than that. I liked it, but let your conscience guide.

Super Size Me: This is the much talked-about documentary of the man that ate McDonald's 3 times a day for 30 days in order to find out if eating fast food could be the primary cause of obesity. It was at once informative, fascinating and disgusting and I think everyone should see it. It was interesting to see not only the effect the food had on this guy (he throws up 3 days into his diet) and his health, but also the issues of fast food and advertising and the politics of it all.

Around the World in 80 Days: This movie was quite a bit more entertaining than I thought it would be, despite its utter predictability. It was made to be slapstick and it accomplished its purpose.

Collateral: Another R-rated movie (again because of violence and language), but this time one I wasn't that excited about. Tom Cruise is a hired killer who gets Jamie Foxx, a cab driver to drive him to his victims. The plot is at times unbelievable (like how Foxx coincidentally picks up, immediately before Cruise, the last vicitim on Cruise's hit list, who also happens to be Foxx's love interest...) I would say save your money and your innocence.

Weekend (Up)Date

I didn't have any big plans for Friday night except helping a Czech friend of mine set up a Czech Church web site (www.sweb.cz/ceskaliahona/) until I got a phone call that afternoon. Lo and behold, in a boost to my self-esteem, it was a girl asking me out on a date! She's the sister of a friend of mine at work and she'd taken several classes from our department. I'd thought about asking her out, but had procrastinated because of her age (19) and our differences (me left-brained, her right-brained). But despite our differences she made a favorable impression and we might have to try the inuendo-packed (in Provo) second date. We ended up seeing Spiderman 2 after some other plans fell through.

Iraqi Police

Some interesting stuff you don't see in the mainstream media, excerpts from this article:

"Something very significant happened Wednesday in Iraq. In two separate incidents Iraq police and security forces successfully took on insurgents without the presence of coalition forces..."

"Maybe the powerful technical intelligence capability of the coalition forces was able to give the Iraqi authorities some assistance in advance of their two engagements Wednesday. However... any tips-off that led to these two operations almost certainly came to the Iraqi authorities from ordinary citizens who would have thought twice about giving the same information to anyone from the coalition."

"Now that Iraqis are in charge, there is general despair at the persistent violence. Even in Fallujah in the old Baath party heartland former supporters of Saddam Hussein are reconciling themselves to the new political reality and their loss of privilege. More importantly they are losing sympathy with the die-hards in their midst who prosecute their pointless campaign of violence."

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I don't know whether to laugh or shake my head at this one: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=sportsNews&storyID=5861050

Set your phasers to stun!

There used to be a time when Dick Tracy's two-way tv/radio wristwatch seemed preposterous, but with the way electronics have improved, I don't think anyone would be surprised if it were to come out soon. Apparently now scientists have taken a page from that paragon of futuristic technology, Star Trek, and have created what amounts to a phaser - using lasers to direct a paralyzing high-energy beam. Who knows, maybe Star Trek isn't quite as far-fetched as it used to seem. Beam me up Scotty!

Football Fever

Just one more week before preseason NFL starts! I'm just full of joy that the football season is finally starting again. I've been going crazy with baseball being the only major sport doing anything right now. And the cable company with perfect timing called to let me know that for 6 months, which happens to be how long I will live in this house, getting cable TV will actually reduce my current bill for cable internet. So now the games will come in crisp and clear.

If anyone is interested, my roommate and I are also going to do a salary-cap-based fantasy football league. If you'd like to do it too just let me know. It's absolutely free and doesn't seem to be that hard.

Rafting

Friday and Saturday I went on a little jaunt to Idaho and Wyoming to do a little white water rafting. Ally's ward sponsored the activity, so I figured a free organized trip was the best way to try some real rapids for the first time. I didn't bring my camera, seeing as how it was a water activity, but I probably should have.

We drove up on Friday night and stayed at a family's house (well backyard, actually) near Idaho Falls. One of the cars coming up got a flat tire which when ignored turned into a shredded tire which then turned into a rim with no tire. Luckily for them, they knew someone in the thriving metropolis of Malad, Idaho, who happened to know the owner of the local garage and they got the tire fixed and managed to get there the same night.

On Saturday morning we drove into Wyoming to a beautiful spot on the Snake River (which as far as I know is like everything else in Wyoming - not near anything). People seemed to know where it was, however, because the river was pretty crowded the whole time we were there.

The rafting itself was great. The run we went on is just about right, with its smooth places, some nice rapids and a couple of doozies. Our group had two rafts, and I happened to be on the raft that is probably older than I am. One rafter even complimented us on our antique raft as we were on the shore tipping out the water and pumping more air into it. We had to stop a couple times because of our holey raft and we actually walked the raft around a more dangerous area, because it was bending so much, but I still thought it was fun. I managed to stay on the entire time (all in the hips...) and it was fun to watch others get bucked off :) Going just for the scenery probably would have been worth it. The area is very picturesque, with pine covered hills looming on either side of the river. It was reminiscent of Alaska, but probably not quite as nice.

On the way back to Idaho Falls we encountered a pick-up truck laying on its side in the middle of our lane with no other vehicles involved. Even more amazing was that it appeared the front axle had completely snapped, because only one front tire was visible and it was as if it had been glued to the bottom of the truck, right in the middle of the front end. Hard to explain, but I wish I'd had my camera for that one. The guy driving seemed to be OK, fortunately, because the ambulance which we passed later wasn't going to make it to such a remote location very quickly.

We made it home without incident except for a stop at Denny's. One more funny story - on the way home from Ally's house (where I had left my car) I was play-racing Anne down University Ave. It was 2:00 AM so we had the road pretty much to ourselves. We were head-to-head coming to a red light. Both of us saw that the lights going the other direction had just turned red so we both accelerated assuming the light would turn green. Well, another reason why you never assume, the light stayed red for a green left turn arrow from the opposite direction (where nobody was) and I had to slow down pretty quickly. Anne didn't quite make it and ended up stopped in the middle of the intersection, feeling pretty stupid, then proceeded to run the red light to get out of the intersection. I thought it was pretty funny anyway. Oh, and we saw a cop not too far down the road right after that, but luckily by then we'd had enough fun and were obeying the speed limit...