Onelowerlight's Daily Photo Safari

ONELOWERLIGHT'S DAILY PHOTO SAFARI HAS MOVED!

2007-07-30T23:55:00.000-06:00

Onelowerlight's Daily Photo Safari has moved to http://www.onelowerlight.com/photos. The .blogspot photoblog is no longer active. Please update your links/bookmarks and visit the new site!

Yeee-haw!

2007-07-24T23:02:00.000-06:00

So this, is me and my roommate Steve, crashing the Harry Potter party at Barnes and Noble! It was F-U-N!!! Steve, on the roof, flying a broomstick, and me driving him in circles around the TONS and TONS of people who were outside of the store! People were cheering and taking pictures! It was fun! Since I told the story, I thought I'd at least put a picture up of it.

Also, I would like to announce that I am officially closing this blog. The daily photo safari WILL continue, just at a different location! That location is www.onelowerlight.com/photos. Please, if you've linked to this site, update your links so that they will point to my most recent work. Also, if you have any subscriptions or bookmarks that point here, you will probably want to change those too.

I really like the new setup! I got some hosting for my site and downloaded some special photoblogging software for it, and so far, I'm really impressed! I really think this is going to work out well! One side note, however; I'm going to be traveling to Massachusetts tomorrow, by train, so I might not be able to update the photo safari for a couple of days. I'm going to try, but if I can't, I'll be sure at least to post a photo for each of the days that I miss. I'm sure that I'll have plenty of opportunities to take some awesome photos! It's going to be a fun trip!

Harry Potter Costumes at the BYU Bookstore

2007-07-23T23:12:00.001-06:00

Here is a bunch of bookstore employees, posing for a shot. It looks like they really got into it!

Quick! She's casting a spell on me!

More girls with ties. I wonder how many BYU students fantasize about going to school at Hogwarts?

There were several families at BYU who really got into it!

These guys were really funny! I like these costumes.

In the unlikely case that there's any confusion...

There's Steve again, trying to impress some of the French girls from Harry Potter IV.

Miz McGonigal! This was an excellent costume.

There were lots and lots of families at the bookstore, probably more than in other places in the country. Harry Potter really appeals to kids and families, so it's understandable that there would be so many families out.

Can you guess this costume? It's the sorting hat!

More wizards! Outside of Borders and Barnes and Noble, there were actually some guys who were selling thin tree branches that they'd carved into wands! My roommates remarked "gosh, we could have chopped down a tree and made $500!"

Dumbledore! Man, it would be crazy to have a beard like that! I wonder how long it would take?

Harry Potter Costumes at Barnes and Noble

2007-07-23T01:08:00.000-06:00

So, here are a few more costumes from Harry Potter night. I'll do another post tomorrow with the last of the costumes, maybe do a couple more posts of the night, and then close down this blog. Don't worry! It's not because I'm quitting the photo-a-day project! In fact, you could say that I'm taking it to the next level! More on it later, but in the meantime, you should check out the new photoblog that I'm setting up.

For some reason, I found this costume really attractive, especially on this girl. I'm not sure exactly why. There were a few goths scattered around the crowd, but nothing too gross or scary. Mostly, they seemed to blend in.

A lot of the girls were wearing men's ties, which I thought was kind of funny. Probably has to do with the Hogwart's school uniform.

There were a LOT of little kids! These guys were pretty funny! They were so giddy and excited!

Hagrid! One of my favorite characters from the books.

I think this guy was dressed up as Harry. He looks quite a bit like him, too.

Who says Dumbledore is dead? Dumbledore was my favorite character from the books, so I was pretty disappointed to hear that he died. Someday, I'll read the series over again (I only got up to the fourth book before losing interest) and figure out exactly how and why it happened. Of course, Steve was running around, and he got in this shot here! He's a funny guy!

Harry Potter Costumes at Borders

2007-07-21T18:22:00.001-06:00

Here are some of the more interesting photos of the costumes we saw as Steve and I crashed three Harry Potter parties. Since there were so many, I'll split it up into several posts. All of the photos here were taken at Borders in Orem.
That's my roommate Steve on the left. You'll see him in a lot of pictures. The whole night, he was running around with that broom making flying noises!

Everybody and their brother was wearing a maroon and yellow scarf, tie, or other article of clothing.

The girl to the right of Steve works with me at the MTC, and she's also going to be in the FLSR with me next year. We saw quite a few people we recognized!

There were a ton of kids, as well as teens and adults. More kids than you'd expect to see. I think that was a combination of Harry Potter's appeal to children and the fact that this is Utah.

The guy with the white head looks like the silver surfer in a black suit.

This girl looks like a nymph from an ancient Greek myth. More devoted Harry Potter fans will have to enlighten me as to the character that she's trying to imitate.

This guy wasn't dressed up as any particular character; he just figured it was a good excuse to put on a cloak and hang out at Borders insanely late. Seriously, that's prettymuch what he told me.

This ladies here told me and Steve who we were (even though we put on our costumes without really trying to be any particular character at all!) Steve was Cedric, and I was Charlie Weasely, who, in the seventh book, ...just kidding! No spoilers on this blog. Personally, I was going more for J K Rowling's husband, but an actual character is good. And don't you wish I'd post a picture of myself up here! Heh, heh--sorry!

This girl, by far, was more in character than anyone else I saw. I don't remember who she was, but she had the act down solid. I can just hear her saying to me now, "what do you MEAN acting? I'm so confused. You muggles are so difficult to understand!"

There were tons of people camped out under the bookshelves! It was crazy! Like some kind of rock concert in a bookstore! And yes, there actually was a band playing! It was INSANE!

Harry Potter Release Night at the BYU Bookstore

2007-07-21T02:47:00.001-06:00

My roommate Steve and I went Harry Potter party hopping tonight, and it was a LOT of fun! There will be many pictures on this site of it in the next couple of days, including some AWESOME pictures of Steve riding on top of my van, wearing a cape and a busboy uniform with a broom underneath him, while we bust out with some awesome Final Fantasy music as we drive past the hordes of Harry Potter fans crowded outside of Barnes and Noble! How awesome is THAT? It was pretty freaking amazing! But those will be coming soon--I have a lot of playing around with them to do before they look good. In the meantime, here are some photos from the BYU bookstore, where we were at midnight.

Whenever there's a huge line at the bookstore, they usually have someone with this sign at the end of the line, wherever that line has woven its way in between the shelves and aisles. But tonight, the line was so long that not even the bookstore itself could contain it! It stretched all the way to the freaking JFSB on the other side of campus! Huge! Instead, the person with this sign just directed people to the door!

A lot of people really camped out for this! It was about 11:45 pm when I took this shot, and the first person in line had been waiting since 8:00 pm. There were all kinds of awesome costumes, but I'll save all those shot for another post.

The moment the Harry Potter books are unveiled! A huge scream erupted from across the bookstore when this happened!

The reaction from the ravenous hordes as, at long last, they lay their eyes on the prize.

The staff at the bookstore really went out with the costumes. This guy was waving around the book to add to the excitement.

And, the line starts moving! It actually moved very fast, because there were too lines. The first line was to buy a receipt showing that you'd payed for the book, and the main line was to pick up your copy(ies). Since everyone had already bought a receipt before midnight, actually picking up the book was very quick and easy. The workers at the BYU bookstore told me they'd be opened until sometime past one, whereas at Borders, the workers told me that they'd be there sometime past four; that's how significant of a difference this method had.

Stocking up the tables as the people eagerly come to pick up their copies. There were a ton of copies, and they all went very, very fast!

These girls were jumping up and down the whole time they were picking up their copies. There was a LOT of excitement in the bookstore!

These guys came running out of the bookstore screaming and yelling, they were so excited! They paused long enough for me to take this picture, then ran off yelling and screaming again! The mass hysteria was crazy! Definitely better than getting drunk somewhere!

National Ice Cream Day at the Creamery on Ninth

2007-07-19T23:38:00.000-06:00

Apparently, this month is national ice cream month, and to commemorate that, the BYU creamery was selling ice cream at fifty cents a cone today. Also, today is my father's birthday. As a side note, I don't believe in coincidences.

I went up with my roommate Steve to get some ice cream. It was pretty good! I basically paid for both of us out of the spare change that floats around in my car. Understandably, the ice creams were a lot smaller than usual, but it was still very awesome.

While we were walking around in the creamery, we ran into these girls enjoying their ice cream on the floor. They posed for a picture. It's been a while since I've been to the creamery on ninth; it's mostly frequented by freshmen and married students, due of course to the close proximity of Heritage and Wymount. It's actually kind of funny, because on one aisle, you'll find all kinds of baby food, and down around the corner, you'll find a bunch of freshmen kids hanging out. I have no idea if these girls were freshmen or not, but it's not hard to find them in the store.

Playing on the Floor During Church

2007-07-18T23:29:00.001-06:00

When I was in Idaho, I went to a friend's mission farewell (technically, it's not a farewell, since they got rid of those, but it's traditional for missionaries to give a talk in church their last Sunday before leaving, and we call those farewells). While I was there, I noticed this little girl playing around on the ground next to me. It reminded me of when I was her age and my parent gave me paper to draw on to pass the time during sacrament meeting. It's not too unusual in a Mormon chapel to have the kids playing around at the parents' feet. It's also not too uncommon for couples to have their arms around each other's shoulders, or to have a lot of screaming babies. I suppose that's different from some traditional Protestant chapels, where (so I've heard) the kids are kept strictly in line and no form of PDA is considered socially acceptable. Different cultures for sure. Well, I snapped a picture and here it is.

Good news! I recently invested in a hosting service so that I can upgrade this blog using Pixelpost! I'm really looking forward to it! The shift should happen this Friday, if all goes well. I really don't know the first thing about PHP or MySQL, but hopefully once it's set up, it will run itself until I learn. I do have a lot of friends who can help. We'll see how it all works. I'm all giddy and excited!

Studying Next To Turtles In The Duck Pond

2007-07-18T01:20:00.000-06:00

I just happened to be walking down by the duck pond today, and as I was in a hurry to get somewhere, I glanced over and saw all these turtles gathered on top of this floating log! It was too good to pass up. As usual, there was someone sitting down doing something on one of the benches, so I framed it with her in it as well. The light glinted pretty sharply off the backs of those turtles, and I was't able to patch it up on gimp or photoshop.

Bargain Book Sale Outside the Wilk

2007-07-17T01:36:00.001-06:00

Every year the BYU Bookstore has a big sale during the summer semester, where they clear out their book inventory and put out all the books on sale under a tent between the library and the wilk. It's a neat sale; they always have at least a few really interesting books. I was on campus today so I stopped by and picked up a few. I also saw a few friends while I was there, like Adelaide, who I haven't seen in a really long time. Good times!

Wildfires in Idaho

2007-07-16T01:05:00.001-06:00

I was up in Kuna, Idaho this weekend with my roommates Stephen and Danny. We had a lot of fun, and on the way back we passed by the site of a very large fire! This photo was taken as we approached it. The entire mountain was burned!

It took us maybe fifteen or twenty minutes of driving before we came to this--charred out land that stretches right to the base of the highway, and even a little bit on the other side!

Don't worry, it's only the camera that was hanging out the window, not me! But this shot was taken head on. It must have been a really intense fire to have burned entire mountains and hills, and come so close to the highway here.

You can see the smoke in the mountains from the remnants of the fire.

This was an interesting sign posted on both sides of the highway as you approached the hot area. Most of the stuff before this had cooled down already, but there were still a couple of hot spots. On the way up, we passed this area at night, and you could see the flames deep in the hills! Very cool. Reminded me of Mordor.

Yes, there was smoke. In fact, it seems that the entire sky was overcast because of the fire, and that most of the cloud cover in these pictures is in fact smoke. Whenever I opened the window, we got this intense smoky smell from the outside. When we passed through this cloud, for a few miles visibility was only about one hundred yards.

I've definitely got a lot of respect for wildfires after this experience.

Photo Hunt: Shadow

2007-07-15T01:20:00.001-06:00

I'm down in Kuna Idaho right now for my friend Travis' mission farewell. While we were hanging out around here, we went and visited this local cave. It was pretty amazing! This is the ladder that led to the bottom! The main tunnel stretched on for about a quarter mile or so! At certain points you had to get on your hands and knees, but mostly you were able to just walk through it standing. While we were there, two college couples and a large family passed us by to explore the cavern. As we were coming back, my friends all turned out their flashlights and tried to scare me! Funny. This isn't close to the best picture I've ever taken, but then again, the lighting was far from ideal.

WFPC Conference Room in the Morning

2007-07-13T23:30:00.001-06:00

This whole past week I've been getting up pretty early each day to help set up for the World Family Policy Forum. Today was the last day of our work, helping get the last of the delegates to the airport. It was a VERY fun conference! Look for a summary of the event on my other blog sometime soon! This photo was taken the morning of day two before the meetings began. The blue booklets are copies of the delegate directory, which I helped to print and put out. We had people from 34 different countries, with several UN Ambassadors and Secretaries. Strangely enough, most of the countries represented were from the developing world; we did NOT have a representative from the US government, the British government, the French government, or pretty much any of the developed nations. I suppose that the developing world takes the family and family issues much more seriously than the developed world does. In the words of Dr. d'Entremont, who spoke at the conference, "a word of advice to all of the delegates from developing nations--if you are looking to the West for a model of how to develop your countries, do not follow our example when it comes to the family!" Very, very true. But there will be more of that later!

Charred Hills Near Provo Canyon

2007-07-13T01:06:00.000-06:00

I took this photo last week--while the air was still clear! Yesterday, a gigantic cloud of dust and smoke descended upon the valley and clouded the air so badly that you couldn't even see the mountains! Thankfully, it rained this morning and cleared most of it out, but the air is still very disgusting, and there is a lot of smoke on the horizon. Why is this? Because there are some tremendous wildfires burning in Utah right now! It's getting pretty bad. Hopefully, they will contain it soon. The ashes pictured here are from a fire that burned in Provo canyon for a little while. I'm glad they put it out before it got worse! Before it threw up enough air pollution to cover Salt Lake City in ashes. It's pretty bad.

World Family Policy Forum

2007-07-12T02:41:00.001-06:00

This is a shot from the WFPC conference that has been going on for the past several days. It's been a very interesting conference! I here that family issues are not typically discussed in the UN in the way that they've been discussed here (specifically, that leftist radicals tend to dominate all the discussions). We've had several UN delegates, representatives from various countries, and a handful of ambassadors, such as His Excellency Hamid al-Bayati from Iraq. It's been an excellent week! I'm very glad that I've volunteered. I have many, many stories from the conference, but I'll have to save them for my other blog. But this is a picture of the inside of the conference room, where all the action took place.

Sunset from the Library Window

2007-07-11T00:00:00.000-06:00

I took this shot the other day when I was in the library during that really spectacular sunset. I'll see if I can post any of the photos from the WFPC forum.

Bridal Veil Falls from the Base

2007-07-09T23:00:00.001-06:00

The World Family Policy Forum began today, but I'm not sure whether or not I'm allowed to post any of the photos I took from the conference, so I thought I'd post another picture of Bridal Veil falls that I took the other day. This one was from the base; I walked up just a little bit from where all the people were, looked up at about a 30 to 45 degree angle, and took this shot. Such a beautiful place! Can you see the little boy who was climbing up in the rocks?

He was having fun!

Volunteer Meeting for the World Family Policy Center

2007-07-08T21:51:00.000-06:00

A while ago I was walking through the BYU Bookstore when I happened to see this book on one of the shelves. It looked really interesting. It was called "A Sacred Duty" and it told the story of this BYU law professor named Richard Wilkins who, using the Family Proclamation as inspiration, turned the tide at the Habitat II UN conference in Istanbul to help defend the traditional family. He helped to rally supporters for traditional family values in several countries, mostly in the G77, and shortly thereafter formed the World Family Policy Center to help continue the fight in other UN and international law conferences. I bought the book, even though it was a little steep for my budget at the time (yeah, I'm a pathetic starving student right now), and I'm not quite sure why I bought the book; I guess I was somehow drawn to it. Well, it was extremely amazing and moving to me, and it really helped my ideas of what I want to do for a career start to congeal and solidify. It helped me to see that I wanted to work for an NGO or for a cause that is really worth fighting for.

Well, shortly after I read the book, I was walking around in the Wilk, and I saw a booth set up advertising the 2007 WFPC conference from July 9th to 11th, and it had fliers and stuff calling for volunteers. I was really excited, because this was the same group that I'd read about in the book! Well, I sent an email to the address listed on the flier, and they signed me up as a volunteer! For the past several weeks, I've been editing the speakers' papers. It's been really interesting, because these are professors and government researchers from several different countries across the world! The surprising thing was that I found several grammatical errors in every paper! It's kind of comforting to know that professional academics are human too! It's especially funny because some of these papers read like the kind of stuff I've been doing in some of my classes. It lets me know that I'm capable of doing this kind of academic stuff as well, which I hadn't realized before on a gut level.

Besides that, the people in charge of the conference are also going to have me be the guy taking all the pictures! They saw my photoblog, liked it, and asked me if I'd like to be the conference photographer. I'll have clearance to go to all of the meetings, all of the lunches, and all of the formal and informal stuff! That's really cool, because we've got five UN ambassadors coming here, including the UN ambassador from Iraq, and we've got UN delegates from several different countries, not to mention representatives from several NGOs and professors from universities across the world! It's going to be AWESOME!!!

I took this picture about a week ago, from the volunteer meeting that they held. It was basically the meeting where they gave us all the overview of what's going on, what our various duties will be, etc. The guy speaking up there is Jeb, the man in charge of conference security.

This is exciting! The delegates and ambassadors arrived tonight and were picked up at the airport a few hours ago, and tomorrow at 7:00 AM (hope I can wake up on time! Yikes!) is the meeting for the volunteers. Then we've got a morning and afternoon session and a few other meetings. Crazy!!!! I'm excited!

I don't know how many other pictures I'll be able to post, because most likely the copyright for all the pictures I take will be owned by the WFPC. I'll ask about it, though. There's also this really awesome paper by Scott Loveless that I'd like to post on my other blog. I'll ask him for permission to post it there.

Bridal Veil Falls

2007-07-08T01:15:00.000-06:00

There is this really beautiful place in Provo canyon called Bridal Veil Falls. The ice in the mountains gathers in this spot and melts into the summer, providing the beautiful falls. As a result, the water is C-O-L-D!!! Perfect for a hot summer day! I've climbed up to the top, where the people are--it's a short but steep climb. There were tons of people down below, wading in the water and otherwise just enjoying the view. Still, it was a lot of fun.

Sunset from the Top Floor of the Library

2007-07-07T00:46:00.000-06:00

It's pretty hot these days, and the internet connection is a little spotty at the house I'm staying at right now, so even though I'm not taking classes, I'm spending a lot of time at the BYU library. Air conditioned, awesome internet connection, lots of space and books...wonderful! The other day, I lost track of the time, and looked up from my computer to see a stunning sunset from the window. I just happened to be on the top floor overlooking the atrium, so I went up to a window and clicked a few shots. I think this one is the best one.

Sunsets like these remind me of Massachusetts.

Playing Halo 2

2007-07-06T00:46:00.001-06:00

One of my roommates has an xbox 360 with Halo 2, and my roommates Steve and Danny play online all the time. It's pretty amusing to watch them! They get really into it. I recently started playing it, too, and then I regretted it. It's ok to play, in small amounts, but if you aren't careful, you'll get caught in this really weird time warp that seems to suck the life out of you. You'll start playing one minute, then before you know it it'll be 3:00 am and you'll be this hulking empty shell of a human being. It's not healthy. But if you can manage to play for only half an hour to an hour, and only once a day, it's actually kind of fun.

This is why I don't like playing video or computer games--they're addicting and burn you out. The only games I really like to play are the rpgs from the Final Fantasy series. Those, and Peacemaker. I play other games too, but I wish I didn't. With Final Fantasy, though, I NEVER have regrets!!!

The Parking Lot of Fire

2007-07-05T02:14:00.000-06:00

My Dad and sister were in town visiting, and we all decided to spend the evening with some friends of my family in Orem who were having a block party. They called it the "parking lot of fire," as a parody of the "stadium of fire" that goes on every year at the LaVell Edwards stadium. That one is a huge show, with tons of fireworks and big name country artists. It's also pretty expensive. This one was much more affordable, since we were holding it in the parking lot of the local church.

Two sisters having fun watching the fireworks as the show gets started. There were a ton of little kids playing with the fireworks! I was kind of surprised. They were really getting into it, too!

Some fountain action. These things can be pretty fun. They celebrate the 4th of July very differently in the western US than in the eastern US. Back east, pretty much all fireworks are prohibited, so everyone just watches the big shows. In the west, people buy all kinds of fireworks and the streets are ablaze into the night.

These guys were pretty fun to photograph.

There were a lot of local families at the party, and they were all really friendly. After all, this is Utah.

Hmmm...this one probably wasn't legal...

Waiting for the 4th of July Parade

2007-07-04T02:00:00.001-06:00

There are a whole bunch of people outside right now pulling an all nighter on the curb of University Avenue in order to hold their places for the 4th of July parade. Holy heck they are making a freaking bunch of noise! It's pretty freaking annoying! But I thought I'd at least take a picture.

View of Y Mountain from Center Street Provo Exit

2007-07-03T03:30:00.000-06:00

I was driving back to my apartment from visiting my sister in Orem yesterday, and I reached the exit at just that magical time when the light from the sunset paints everything in an awesome light. Here's a picture of Y mountain from the road. Yes, I did stick the camera out of my window and drove while I was taking pictures, but I was careful when I did it and nobody got hurt.

The View From the Front Porch

2007-07-02T02:08:00.000-06:00

I was sitting on the front porch the other day, just relaxing and editing papers for the World Family Policy Center conference coming up, and I looked up and realized that it made a great picture. This is it. It can be very relaxing to not have any school obligations and just sit on a front porch, watching the sunset. It's not something we do in America very often, but it's kind of nice to do sometimes.

Parody on The Office

2007-07-01T02:33:00.001-06:00

The TV show The Office is really popular here in Provo these days. It's not like everyone's always talking about it, but everyone knows about the show and most people watch it each week. Some girls apartments go all out and watch it together religiously. Anyways, a couple months ago, I was wandering around some apartments near the Provo library, and I saw this sign that someone had printed up and posted near their door. I recognized it right away--it's a parody of the logo for the TV show The Office. Kind of funny.

Provo pop culture sort of parallels the mainstream, but it picks and chooses what it likes, and puts different emphasis on different things. 24 and The Office are big shows right now, so they're also big in Provo, but other shows that have big things happening, like The Sopranos, don't seem to be as big because they're more edgy. Also, corny romantic stuff like The Princess Bride is REALLY popular out here, whereas not so much in the mainstream. I don't really keep up with pop culture, here or in the mainstream, but I can't help but notice certain trends. I think it can get pretty hilarious sometimes.

Dying Fires Across the Lake

2007-06-30T01:15:00.000-06:00

There are a ton of fires going on right now! Yesterday I saw one out in Provo canyon that got put out pretty quick, and today, there was another really big one across the lake! This is from a while ago, Monday or Tuesday, when they were putting out the big one that I photographed the other day. Or maybe they didn't put it out all the way, because it was kicking up a lot of smoke today. I'll try to get a good shot tomorrow, maybe drive up Provo canyon and see what there is to see. Coming from "back east," I'm not used to this many fires. They sky is half clear, half filled with smoke! Very strange to me.

EFY Kids Trooping Along Near Heritage Halls

2007-06-29T01:36:00.000-06:00

I took this picture yesterday when I drove up to campus to go to the library. I parked my car as far away from the Wilk as I could, so as to avoid the eyes of any parking cops who might see that I don't have a parking sticker (not even a Y sticker! I've just been too lazy to get one). When I parked, I noticed a whole bunch of EFY kids marching along. For those of you who don't know, EFY stands for Especially For Youth, and it's basically a church summer camp for high schoolers. They divide the kids up into groups of about twenty or so, and put a couple of counselors (usually a boy and a girl, college age) in charge of each group. It looked like these groups had each made some kind of a flag to identify them, because they marched with the flag at the front of the procession. They also were giving off these random cheers and shouts; each little group usually makes up their own sort of group shout, as kind of a solidarity thing. And then, if you notice, every person in the group is walking arm in arm with a member of the opposite sex. That's the way they do it. I guess they do it that way to encourage the guys and girls to meet with each other and hook up. I wouldn't be too surprised. And hey, it's all good. When I was in EFY, I was a very shy, introverted person, so it was good for me. Then I went on my mission and somehow turned into a very extroverted person, probably because I realized that I'd talked to the craziest of the crazy and the scariest of the scary and found that it wasn't that bad after all.

As a side note, I got this HUGE reaction on my other blog for one of my 1:30 am brainfarts on the TV show Firefly! eight freaking hundred unique visitors, most of them rabid, angry Firefly fans, visited my site in order to tear me apart on various Sci Fi forums, blogs, and other online communities. HOLY COW!!! It's pretty awesome, but it's also pretty scary! I'll have to be really, really careful to have correct spelling and grammar (especially the spelling of the characters' names--oops!) and provide supporting evidence for any of my claims! And also to be careful not to commit any logical fallacies. I don't think I did too bad with what I said on that post, and I'm happy that all of the commenters have been very respectful (I haven't yet been attacked by any internet reavers), but I really have to be careful from now on! Yikes!

Lunch at the MTC Cafeteria

2007-06-28T00:56:00.000-06:00

I've been working a lot at the MTC these past couple of days, and it's been pretty busy. The new mission presidents' seminar is going on, and things are really hectic. That's good for me, because I could use the money. It's also a great job! I really enjoy it. One of the best dining jobs available on campus. The nice thing about the seminar is that all of the workers get one free meal each day. So today, while I was at lunch, I snapped this shot from where I was sitting. I really love it at the cafeteria! I especially like interacting with the missionaries. I'm glad the MTC isn't just a place that I went to for three weeks and never came back. And I hope I don't get in trouble for taking this picture, either :). I'm already starting to get in trouble for something I said on my other blog. Ouch!

The Whiteboard at the Capitol House

2007-06-26T23:17:00.000-06:00

A lot of college students put whiteboards up in their apartments. They'll write messages for their roommates, doodle, set down goals and appointments, etc. Missionaries do it, too. I did it more as a missionary than a college student, but the guys at the capitol house (where I'm staying for the next month) have a whiteboard. It's a fairly big one, too. The other day, I was having fun playing around with it, and just wrote a bunch of Arabic stuff. I didn't do the teddy bear, though! That was there before me. Somebody drew a teddy bear, and then somebody went and mullafied it, and then I contributed my share with the bismallah and all. Good times.

University Mall on Sunday

2007-06-26T00:23:00.000-06:00

Notice anything strange about this picture? It's broad daylight and the mall parking lot is virtually empty. That's because this shot was taken on a Utah Sunday. It's interesting how Sunday works out here. Most of the businesses close and everybody goes to church. It's not just any place that you see something like that. I think it's part of the Mormon culture in the state. I kind of like it.

Fire on the Mountain

2007-06-25T00:24:00.001-06:00

There was a huge fire on the mountain across Utah lake today! It threw up lots of smoke! This photo was actually taken after it had died down a bit. The plume reached eastwards almost completely across the sky at its greatest point! As I was driving home from Orem, I saw the brilliant sunset, and I knew I had to take a picture. I drove up to the hill near the Marriott center and snapped a few pictures.

You could actually see the fires themselves, if you looked closely enough! It was very interesting. Probably fairly dangerous to fight. It's definitely summer--hot, dry, and perfect weather for brushfires. They don't get too many of those "back east" where I'm from, but here in "the west," they seem to be more expected.

DI Dropoff

2007-06-23T21:32:00.000-06:00

I recently moved out of my old apartment, and in the process, I found a whole heck of a lot of junk. I decided to get rid of most of my old clothes (in the hopes that maybe my Mom would buy me something when I get home! Heh heh!), and the best way I could see to do that was to go to DI. Deseret Industries is basically the LDS church's equivalent of Goodwill or a Salvation Army store. I'd never heard of it while I was living out in Massachusetts, but out here in Utah, it's a very big thing. They had a drive through for dropping off donations, and I was kind of surprised to find a pretty long line. I've also never seen a drive through donation at a thrift store before. It's kind of nice, though, to see that DI is so big. I had several friends as a missionary in California who pulled themselves up from virtually nothing through the help of thrift stores like DI. It's about the most practical form of charity that I can think of.

Cleaning the JFSB

2007-06-23T00:27:00.000-06:00

I was in the JFSB earlier this week with the Quark club. They had brought a wii and were playing it in one of the lecture rooms. I could only stay for a short while, but on the way out, I saw all the cleaning equipment out. I thought it made an interesting picture. The semester has died down by now, and campus is getting ready for the next semester. That involves buildings closing down early and cleaning / construction crews getting their work done.

I also found a new way to take relatively good (non-blurry) pictures indoors without flash. If you set the exposure time to +1 or +1.5 seaconds, it'll take a clearer but darker shot, and then you can edit it using D-lighting. At least, that's the name that Nikon has for the function, and I assume that other brands have similar functions. It's basically a function that automatically adjusts for darker lighting. My camera can actually D-light a picture itself, so I can do it before I upload them to my computer.

J-Dawgs

2007-06-21T21:22:00.001-06:00

There's this little hot dog shack just south of campus along 700 South called J-Dawgs. It was started a few years ago by a business student as some kind of school project, and quickly grew into something much bigger. Now, it's been assimilated into part of the BYU culture. Everyone knows and loves this place--not only because the hot dogs taste good, but because they're so cheap. It must be a really difficult place to work in on a hot day (like the ones we've been getting lately), but I'm glad that it's open.

Beating Final Fantasy IV

2007-06-21T02:29:00.001-06:00

Today I beat Final Fantasy IV! Yay! Happy day! I honestly think, after playing it for the last month, that it is the best Final Fantasy game that has been made--and that's saying a lot. I'd even say it's better than VI. Of course, you may be wondering "IV? Why does it say II in the picture?" When it was released in the US, it was II, but in Japan, it was IV.

The thing that made this game so good was definitely the story. It was a story of internal conflict as well as fighting good and evil. The main character goes from a dark knight, fighting for the evil empire, through a repentance process until he and his friends unite to fight the source of the evil. And almost all of the friends, at one point or another, sacrifice themselves and show that they're willing to end their lives to save each other. It's very emotional.

This is the final boss, and he was a beast to fight! One of the most difficult bad guys in any Final Fantasy game I've played! I tried at first to use some cheat codes, but they all did weird things to the game. Final, I just figured out a strategy and did it. I'm glad I did, because it's a lot more satisfying to win legitimately than to cheat your way through it!

And the best thing was that the ending was actually pretty good! I've had some bad experiences with Final Fantasy endings--they don't show what happens to the characters, don't tie up the loose ends, don't bring any closure, etc. FF7 was the worst--the bad guy dies, the planet's life force destroys the evil that he summons, and...you never find out what happens to all the good guys. Even FF6 had a somewhat weak ending--Terra finds that she can stay on Earth as a human, even though all magic comes to an end, and then...you zip around the world in your airship for ten minutes. But FF4 was much better! It showed what happened to all the characters after the battle, where they went, and then Cecil and Rosa, two of the main characters, get married and everyone reunites for the wedding, and it's just happy and very satisfying. A great ending!

Unusual Graffiti in Downtown Provo

2007-06-20T02:13:00.001-06:00

I was walking around in downtown Provo a while ago, and I saw this on the side of a newspaper stand. It looks like somebody spray painted it on, but I don't know why they'd go to all the trouble of making a stencil like that. It's unusual because it looks to be in some kind of sophisticated newspaper font. I wonder if whoever wrote this was trying to send some kind of message. I wonder if they were homeless. I don't know.

Road Construction Between Price and Green River Junction

2007-06-19T01:00:00.001-06:00

Here's a photo from a long time ago. I was driving down to Monticello about a month or two ago, and right when I got past Price, and a long ways before Green River Junction, I met up with some road construction. When they work on the roads out in the desert, they'll work on several miles of road at a time. The way they do it is they'll put all the traffic into one lane, and put men with stop signs and radios at either end. A truck with flashing lights will come up to the line of cars and lead them through to the other end, then lead the cars that have lined up on that end across to the other end, etc. The guys with stop signs keep traffic bottled up so that the other cars can come through. It's not too much of a job--just stand around with a stop sign all day. But it's out in the desert, and it's hot and sunny, and it must be tiring to stand around all day. It can also get pretty darn freaking boring, I imagine. While waiting in line, I snapped this shot of the guy taking a little break--as much as he could, anyways.

MOA Statue

2007-06-18T01:45:00.001-06:00

My mom was in town a couple of days ago, and we went together to the MOA (Museum of Art) to see this exhibit of various artwork depicting the life of Christ. It was a really neat experience! Very spiritual, actually. My mom is an art teacher, so she always likes to check out this kind of stuff. I've got some different opinions on art--I like it, I'm kind of creative myself, but I don't always appreciate it when people look at it and start "deconstructing" it, or looking for metaphors and hidden meaning. I mean, that kind of stuff can be really interesting and enlightening, but sometimes the way people do it it seems like they're just BS'ing. It's probably the social science training coming out of me: approach everything skeptically, look for logical fallacies, operationalize your variables, and trace the causal logic so well that an untrained dog could follow your argument. Art critics just don't do that kind of stuff, and it's hard for me to take them seriously. My old roommate Steve wrote a screenplay about a group of really shallow people who go to a museum and try to analyze the art, but then a guy comes out and says that they're just full of crap and the art isn't really that unique. It's kind of like the Emperor's new clothes, except more complicated, and since I haven't read the script, I can't really give it justice. But when Steve went with this script to have a board of professors and students review it, he was torn to pieces! Basically, these people were angry because they felt that his piece was trying to destroy their world of art appreciation. In reality, it was trying to reform things instead of destroy them, but he recorded the discussion and I listened to some of the arguments these people brought against him. Listening to that tape helped me realize why I couldn't be a film major--and by extension why I probably couldn't be an art or English major. Your arguments are so wishy washy and full of unjustified assumptions that objectivity gets trampled to death in a chic popularity contest. But anyways, this particular exhibit wasn't like that at all. It was very spiritual and thought provoking. It was really fun to go through it with my mom.

Wall Pattern on the HBLL

2007-06-17T02:47:00.001-06:00

The BYU Library has an interesting little pattern on the outside wall. I think it's supposed to imitate Precolumbian art. The other day, I was unlocking my bike in the late afternoon, and the sun hit the wall at such an angle that it really drew out the pattern.

Howl's Moving Castle at the JFSB

2007-06-16T01:47:00.001-06:00

The International Cinema at BYU put on Howl's Moving Castle at the JFSB tonight. It was really fun! The movie was great! I didn't understand half of it, but it was really emotional and artistic. Hiyao Miyazake is an amazing filmmaker. Come to think of it, I'm really impressed by almost everything fiction that comes out of Japan. This movie reminded me a lot of Final Fantasy with the airships and the monsters. It was really fun, especially since it was outside. The International Cinema puts on some REALLY good movies. I'm looking forward to their fall lineup.

Sunset from the HBLL Atrium

2007-06-15T01:39:00.001-06:00

I've got to say that this is the reason why I do this blog. This is what makes it fun and worth it. I was walking around in the library, doing some research for a poli sci paper (one of the last ones! Yay!), and I happened to be walking towards the stairs right as the sun was setting. It made for a truly awesome picture, especially since the glass atrium of the library lets in so much light and is itself a very beautiful structure. Right before I went to bed (which is when I update this blog), I edited this picture with the gimp, to really draw out those blue hues in the sky. This is the result; I have to say, it is quite satisfying. And to think that the moment captured in this shot was just another random moment of the day, completely unplanned for. There's all kinds of amazing stuff that we see every day that makes for amazing photos. It just takes a good eye, a camera, and some good photo editing capabilities.

Construction on 800 North

2007-06-14T00:39:00.000-06:00

There's some major road construction going on on the street just north of the Elms where I live. I was up there visiting some people across the street, and I decided to take a picture.

PLSC 200 Lecture

2007-06-13T01:58:00.000-06:00

This was our second to last lecture in poli sci 200. Whew! The lectures can be interesting, but because this is a summer course, they are long! Dr. Nielson generally makes them interesting, though. And it helps to have a laptop :).

One thing, our group got some good news yesterday! We finally broke 90 on a paper! Yay! Granted, it was no more than a 90, but it's still good news!

I've noticed that I'm using all this poli sci jargon whenever I talk with people. I talk about quantifying and operationalizing things, and I point out flaws in people's causal logic all the time. It's like geekdom metamorphizing into law school, or maybe some kind of social science.

It would be really awesome to work as a research assistant for a while, that's what my friends with CESA are doing. Hopefully I'm meeting the right people and making the right impressions to get into that.

Two more papers, a giant, scary final, one more lecture and probably about three or four more quizzes, and we are FREE!!!!!

Masonry Work on the BYU Walkways

2007-06-12T01:23:00.000-06:00

I've noticed these guys working on the brick walkways around campus. I suppose that they do this every year or so. It looks like they're just picking up the bricks and flattening out the sand underneath. They've been doing this everywhere, so I think they'll eventually do it for all the bricks.

Provo Block Party

2007-06-10T22:57:00.000-06:00

I was coming home a couple of nights ago when I heard this really loud music coming from across the street. I decided to go over and see what happening. Turns out that the people at the Hollywood house were throwing another party.

My friend Jeffrey Linford, brother of Jason (who was in my ward last semester), threw this party. He and his buddies threw it for this organization called Operation Iraqi Children. Apparently, they threw the party to gather support to send a car sized pillowcase full of toys and supplies to Iraq.

It was an interesting crowd that came by. People I haven't seen before, plus a few curious neighbors. There was a lot of hip hop music and rap, and some cigarette smoke, which is pretty rare for Provo.

They have this giant sheet that they drape over the Avenues condos so that you can watch movies and stuff from the parking lot, and they were playing a bunch of youtube movies on the screen. The movies were all wakeboarding movies, plus some surfing. Not sure what that has to do with Iraq, but it was kind of cool.

It was an interesting party to watch. I saw a couple of friends there, and watched a lot of it with my old roommate Steve on his roof. He lives in the capitol house next door. There are supposed to be some large parties coming up at the Hollywood house in the near future. We'll see what it's like.

Photo Hunters: Shoes

2007-06-09T20:26:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd put up this picture as part of the photo hunt thing. This is a picture of my sneakers at the very end of my 2 year mission. Since we were missionaries and usually wore dress shoes, I only wore these shoes once a week when we had our preparation day--or whenever we had heavy service to do. By the end of my mission, they were completely destroyed, as you can see.

Poli Sci 200 Drop Box

2007-06-09T00:45:00.000-06:00

This is the poli sci 200 drop box in the TA office on the third floor. If you take poli sci 200, you become very familiar with this box. All papers are due at 5:00 PM on the due date. If you turn it in between 5:00 and 5:15, it's docked 5%, and from 5:15 to 5:00 the next day, it's 10%, plus an additional 10% for each day. Considering I've pulled all nighters to write these papers and still haven't broken a grade of 89 (including any rewrites), it's just not worth it to be late. But today, I think I did really well! I wrote my paper last night, brought it in to run questions about the assignment with my TA, made sure I wasn't missing anything and did a good job on all my parts, I handed it in a few hour early! Ah, sweet freedom! I felt sorry for some of my group members, however, because they started their papers while I was sitting there in the TA office! Holy cow, I couldn't do that!

I have some better pictures, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll put them up tomorrow.

800 North From the Hill

2007-06-08T00:47:00.000-06:00

It rained all day yesterday! And it was wet and cloudy all day today! Actually, it was kind of nice, because it was very cool. As I was walking up the path that leads up to campus, I leaned over the edge to grab this shot. You can see the snow in the mountains.

EFY Garbage

2007-06-06T21:39:00.000-06:00

This might be a kind of disgusting picture, but I think it's kind of interesting. I went to the BYU law library yesterday, and on the way there, I saw a TON of EFY kids all on the front lawn in front of the Wilk. I guess they were all having lunch. They certainly were making a lot of noise! And apparently, that's not the only thing they were making. I'm just glad I don't work the daytime custodial shift at the Wilk.

Piles of Pollen on the Path Leading Up to Campus

2007-06-06T01:01:00.000-06:00

When I was biking up to campus this morning, I noticed all this pollen floating through the air from some trees along the path that leads up to campus. When I came back down, at the end of the day, I saw that the pollen had collected in these huge piles by the side of the road! That's right, what you're seeing is pollen, not snow! Yes, we're definitely past the spring and into the summer right now.

Power Cleaning at the SWKT

2007-06-05T01:02:00.000-06:00

These guys have been washing the face of the SWKT for the last couple of weeks. Looks like a scary yet exhilarating job. It also looks like it's funner than poli sci. I did research for six hours today and didn't find anything useful. It was sad. I love the discipline, and even this class is really good...but I'm glad it's soon to be over.

You might be interested to know that I'm in the process of making some major changes to this blog. I'm probably going to start hosting it somewhere else, so I can hack into the programming code easier (don't worry, I'll keep this URL), and also, to make things easier for me and for people with slow internet, I'm going to start compressing my files. After all, every serious photoblogger I've seen does it, and it will help to keep down expenses. So, if you're wondering why this photo is compressed, that's the reason.

Apparently, the United States isn't the only place where this blog has a readership.

You Spoony Bard!

2007-06-03T23:34:00.001-06:00

A classic moment in bad RPG translation, brought to you by Final Fantasy IV (US-II). Actually, this is a really amazing game. I haven't played it all the way through yet, but I picked it up again recently, and I'm really impressed by the story! I've always felt that the true strength of the Final Fantasy series is in the storyline. That, and the beautiful, intensely emotional music by Nobuo Uematsu. Emotional for an SNES sound system, that is. Err...anyways, FF IV may have terrible graphics and very limited sound effects, but the story really is amazing. I'm fast coming to love it. I'm surprised that a game built on such outdated technology can exert such a power over my emotions and imagination. It's really good.

More EFY Kids

2007-06-03T02:18:00.001-06:00

This past week, campus has been saturated with EFY kids! Especially in the area of the Wilk and the HBLL. They were gone today, so I think that the EFY session ended on Friday, but for the past week, it's been impossible to miss them. This is a photo I took in the Wilk while walking by one of their devotionals. Part of the EFY program is a mock MTC experience, so that's what the guys are all doing here--pretending that they're in the MTC and having a devotional on missions and missionary work.

Here is a group of EFY kids just walking around. You'll notice that most of the guys have linked up arms with most of the girls. That's also part of the program, to go everywhere in couples. I guess it's to make everyone meet at least someone from the opposite sex, even people who are pretty shy.

Testing Center Sign

2007-06-02T02:20:00.000-06:00

So true. So freaking true. This sign was next to the exit from the main testing room in the testing center. I had a huge poli sci midterm today, which actually wasn't that difficult, just LONG. Three hours. I do write a lot, and write slower than most people, but it was still a very long test.

Earthworm Jim Screenshots

2007-06-01T02:15:00.001-06:00

I bought a computer from a hacker friend of mine, and he had an SNES emulator, loaded with a TON of really old Nintendo games! One of them that I've been playing recently is Earthworm Jim. I've got to tell you, this game is sheer genius! It is the most hilarious Nintendo game I have ever seen in my life! The sheer randomness is truly the mark of absolute brilliance!

You play as this earthworm (named Jim) who walks around in this man suit, and you go on various adventures from the depths of Heck to Andy's Asteroids. Along the way, you race crazy mutant crows, shoot up guard dogs and demons, launch cows, ride giant hamsters, and help your friend Pete avoid dangerous obstacles (if he hits an obstacle, he'll mutate into this monstrous pit bull and chew you up for paybacks!)

My favorite part so far has to be Andy's Asteroids. You ride an interstellar crotch rocket (literally--no, really, that's all it is) around these asteroids and race this crazy guy called Psycrow. If you lose the race, you have to fight him, and it's a pain. Fortunately, it's not that hard to kick his trash!

These hamsters can come in really handy. After all, when you're an earthworm, they're practically the size of a horse to you!

There goes Pete! Earthworm Jim has the shocking ability to pull himself out of his man suit and use his elongated earthworm body as a whip. Or maybe it's just the man suit doing that to him? At one point in the game, you come out of the suit and you have to go back in. I've got to tell you, if I were ever an earthworm, I wouldn't be caught without one of those things. How else can you run around and shoot up all the bad guys? This game is AWESOME!

EFY Kids Outside HBLL

2007-05-30T23:23:00.001-06:00

Well, it's the spring semester, and there aren't so many students around anymore, but there are TONS of EFY kids, and they are EVERYWHERE! I was lying on the lawn next to the Kennedy center, and every twenty minutes, it would get really noisy everywhere, and these EFY kids would come tromping by! You can tell that they're with EFY by the orange bracelets on their wrists. I was hoping some of the counselors would walk by in their bright orange shirts, but none did (or maybe they were wearing blue shirts?)

It's funny because a lot of the kids took pictures with the statue here. It's like they're tourists here at BYU! Funny. I only attended one EFY session, 2002 back in Schenectady New York, and although it was an amazing experience for me then, lots of fun and exactly what I needed, I don't think I'd fit in to the program anymore as a 20 something year old. Maybe as a counselor...but even then, I don't know. But I'd highly recommend the program to anyone who fits in the age group!

Provo Streets at 3:30 AM

2007-05-30T04:24:00.001-06:00

Some cities never sleep, but apparently, Provo has a bedtime. I was up really late writing a poli sci paper, and I took a break around 3:30 AM to go out biking around town. It was so quiet! This is University Ave and 800 North, looking South.

This is looking north. I walked across the street and just stood there for half a minute, taking pictures. There were a couple of cars, but it was mostly empty. It felt really weird standing out in the middle of the street. During the day, this is one of the busiest streets in Provo.

This is Bulldog and Freedom, looking East. I did see more traffic here, about one car every fifteen seconds. There were also a couple of pedestrians. A couple.

Recognize the BYU sign? This shot is a little bit shaky (I took all of these with a point and shoot and no tripod), but this is Canyon and Bulldog, looking north towards Helaman halls.

Well, it's late at night (or early in the morning) and I'm up blogging and watching Valentine's Day Massacre with my roommate who's pulling an all nighter. I took a three hour nap this afternoon before writing the paper, but I'd better get some sleep before tomorrow's classes.

Stairs in the HBLL

2007-05-29T00:53:00.000-06:00

I took this picture a while ago. The stairs in the HBLL are so old that there are impressions on each step of the students walking up and down the stairs--for the past thirty something years. I was in the library today, working on a big poli sci group paper. Poli sci 200 is a VERY difficult class, but I'm glad to be getting it behind me. It's also very fun, but a LOT of work.

Nice Notes and Brownies at Ward Prayer

2007-05-28T01:31:00.000-06:00

Here's another picture of a ward prayer. Technically, this is the linger longer after ward prayer, but it's basically the same thing. Good time to catch up with people and just socialize, over food and nice notes. The nice notes are little notes that we write to each other, just saying what we appreciate about each other (and other things as well). All of the student wards in this area do nice notes, and it's a nice touch to student living.

Late Afternoon View from the KMB

2007-05-27T03:31:00.000-06:00

The KMB is this obscure little building near the south edge of campus where The Leading Edge currently meets. TLE is a quasi-professional sci fi magazine that's run by BYU students. Right now, they need help going through their slush pile of submissions, so I go over there every once and a while, and encourage the guys in the Quark writing group to come as well. Quark is BYU's sci fi / fantasy club, which is where I heard about TLE's need for help with submissions, and I just recently was made VP of the club in charge of the writing group, so I guess I'm the writing group's new fearless leader. It's been a little slow so far, but fun. So anyways, as I was going to the meeting, I saw this awesome view from the railing where I locked up my bike, and I took a picture. Utah can be such a beautiful place, especially with the mountains.

Wall Art in Downtown Provo

2007-05-26T00:59:00.000-06:00

I went downtown today to check out this place where my old roommate is working now. On the way, I passed by this beautiful wall mural. I've seen it many times before, and decided to take a picture of it. I don't know how long it's been here, but it's been around ever since I've been living in Provo. I really appreciate city art like this. I think it really adds to the beauty of the place.

Late Night Piano Recital

2007-05-25T01:17:00.001-06:00

I'm taking beginning piano this term, and one of the requirements is to attend a piano recital. I've never been to one before, so it was very interesting to go to one tonight.

It was surprisingly late! It started at 9:30 PM. However, it didn't feel too long. It was actually kind of relaxing. I'm not often in a situation where I'm only listening to music. Most of the time, I'm used to multitasking, so during this recital, I was taking lots and lots of pictures to have something to do.

The music was quite good! It reminded me of what it was like growing up with a father who has four degrees in music (including one from the Curtis Institute of Music). I remember hearing piano music late at night, and sneaking out of my bed to watch my dad play these huge, dramatic, beautiful pieces of music. I was kind of sad to realize that my kids probably won't grow up with memories like that; that is, unless I marry a music major! But if they don't, that's fine; every family is unique.

I'm usually kind of bored by piano music, but I really enjoyed this recital. The music was very powerful and played very well.

Ducks On Campus

2007-05-24T00:04:00.000-06:00

I saw these ducks on campus the other day, and I stopped to take the picture. I have some plans for this blog, and some other blogs I'd like to start, so things will probably be changing here in a bit. Also, I'll probably be going down to San Francisco in the next couple of days with my old roommates! Woohoo! More news on that later!

Couple Riding a Motorcycle

2007-05-23T02:32:00.001-06:00

I was driving the other day and I saw a couple riding their motorcycle. It seemed to make a good picture, so I took it. I actually really like this shot. I think it would be pretty awesome to be driving a motorcycle with a girl holding on on the back seat.

Sunset Over Y Mountain

2007-05-22T01:43:00.001-06:00

I went to visit my old roommates who live just across the street now, and I found Steve up on the roof playing guitar. I joined him up there, and was treated to a very beautiful view of the sunset playing off of the mountains after a small rainstorm!

It was very beautiful. I showed up just as the sunset played red and orange colors across the mountains. There's a very brief window when the sun does that, and then it just starts getting dark as the sun creeps down.

It was also very beautiful how the clouds were coming up. We got a little bit of rain this afternoon, and it cleared up just as the sun started setting. Very beautiful. I only wish I had a better camera with which to catch it.

Dumpster Behind Elms Apartments

2007-05-20T22:15:00.001-06:00

I have no idea who wrote this or why, but I think it's kind of funny.

Photo Hunt: Cooking

2007-05-19T17:34:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I participated in the photo hunt project, so I thought I'd do something for it this week. The theme is cooking, and I took a little different twist on it. This is the Jamba Juice on BYU campus, when it's REALLY busy during the middle of the day. BYU is full of California kids, who really just want to feel like they're at home. Besides that, Jamba Juice is generally awesome, and since I get a smoothie from here every week or so, I thought I'd put up a picture from there for this theme.

Baby Seat in the Provo Library

2007-05-19T01:22:00.001-06:00

There are kids everywhere in Provo. Case in point, check out this picture from the men's restrooms. The seat on the right is for fathers carrying infants. I have never seen a device like that before, but here in Provo, there's stuff like that all over.

Renovations in the HBLL

2007-05-18T00:29:00.000-06:00

I was in the library between classes today and I saw some major renovations going on on the third floor of the library. Not sure what's going on, exactly, but it looks like they're adding some rooms in what was previously a study space.

Printing Poli Sci Papers from Under the Bed

2007-05-16T23:38:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of my bedroom. My printer is underneath my bed. You can tell I'm a college student. When I moved the desk over to my side of the room, there wasn't anywhere else to put it. As it is, it almost doesn't even fit there. I've got about seven boxes of books and my luggage under there, so putting in the printer was a tight squeeze. I think I'm going to put a sign above it that says "Dungeon Publishing Inc."

It is SO nice to have a printer, though! Last week I had to put some money on my signature card, bike up to campus, and print out my poli sci paper from the JSB. It worked out alright, but it was a hassle. I'd hate to have to do that to print up manuscripts of stories I'm writing--especially when the manuscript is twenty or thirty pages. It costs some upkeep to have this printer, but I use it--I run through about a ream of paper each semester. 10 cents per page adds up real fast.

BACKLOG: Artistic Shot of the Provo Temple Grounds Before Sunset

2007-05-16T02:13:00.000-06:00

When I biked up to the temple the other day, I arrived in the late afternoon just as the sun was beginning to set. I saw this picture and thought that it would be really interesting. One thing was that the sun was actually in the shot, so I knew that it would end up really grainy and not quite as real looking. I set the exposure time to as long as the camera would allow, and took a couple shots while nobody was looking (which was actually kind of challenging). Then, played around a little with my photo editor, and this is what I came up with.

Looking Down the Library Stairs

2007-05-15T02:57:00.000-06:00

I was in the library today, working on a monster Poli Sci 200 paper, and on the way out I saw this interesting shot. It's from the fifth floor looking down.

Sunday Falafel Dinner

2007-05-14T01:47:00.000-06:00

I got some friends together and we cooked up some falafel sandwiches today. It was fun, and very tasty! Here, the oil is heating up. It can be scary cooking with hot oil! At least, it is until you figure out what you're doing.

The falafel paste. You take this and form them into balls, and then deep fry them. Basically, it's chick peas (garbanzo beans) and various spices. I made this from a just-add-water mix--not authentic, but very easy and fast.

The sandwiches are ready! You take a pita, spread some hummus on it (or in it, if your pita is the kind that opens) crush a falafel ball over it, and add vegetables and whatever you would like to eat with it! It's vegetarian, and tastes very good!

Yum! Mallory likes it. You should try some!

Closeup of a Bike Derailer

2007-05-13T02:12:00.000-06:00

I bought a bike from one of my old roommates for $25, and I'm fixing it up a bit so I can ride it around Provo and Orem. Gas prices are shooting up WAY too high around here ($3.15 at Sinclair, the cheapest of the cheap!), so I'm going to avoid driving my car if I can at all. Today, I biked from 700 N and University to the temple, and it was very interesting. Boy, let me tell you, the Provo temple is up on a hill! But it was very exhilarating. And the ride downhill was WAY fun! This bike is pretty beat up, but I don't mind it. It's like a throwback from the old mission days, fixing it up and riding it around in a shirt and tie. Good times.

Furniture at DI

2007-05-12T01:46:00.000-06:00

I was at DI with my new roommate today, buying sliverware and other kitchen stuff. We walked past the furniture section, and I wanted to take a picture, because of something funny I heard from my sister. The furniture at DI sells really cheap (just like everything there), so what students will do is buy a sofa for the length of their housing contract, and when they move after the semester is over, they'll just give it back. In this way, the sofas at DI get recycled through many apartments. What would be funny is if we were to write our names on the underside of the sofas, and see how many names we could add up over a few years. Another funny thing is the kid in the shot. I didn't even see him walk into my picture, though I'm not sure why. There are kids everywhere here in Utah.

BACKLOG: Graduates Outside of the Marriot Center

2007-05-11T02:54:00.000-06:00

While my computer was broken, I was driving around during the convocation exercises, and I saw this long line of graduates waiting to get into the Marriott Center for some kind of ceremony. It made a funny picture. It's going to be interesting when I finally graduate. That won't be for a while, and honestly, I'm not in a rush.

Windows into the JFSB at Night

2007-05-10T00:45:00.000-06:00

When you're walking around campus at night, it's kind of neat how everything will be dark, or maybe cold, and you'll look into the windows of rooms that are still lit, and think about how different it is in there than where you are. It's not something I always think about when I'm walking around on campus at night, but it's kind of interesting.

Tattered Signs Posted Up Across Campus

2007-05-09T02:10:00.000-06:00

I see these signs everywhere on campus. Usually they're pasted up against things like dumpsters or signs in obscure places. Does anyone know who's putting these up, and why? It seems like some kind of propaganda, but I don't know who it's from.

Blood Drive at The Elms

2007-05-08T01:04:00.000-06:00

There was a blood drive today, and instead of hosting it at a church or a school building, it was run right out of this van right here. This was the first time I've seen such a van, so it was kind of interesting for me.

Everything needed to donate blood is here in this van. It's kind of like a cross between an RV and a hospital. Apparently, there are quite a few of them, because there are three of them right here in Utah valley, and they use them quite frequently.

Inside the van. The turnout wasn't as large as some blood drives I've been to, which means that the line wasn't all that long. That was good, because there wasn't a whole lot of space. The nurse had me press up as much as I could against the wall to keep my arm from protruding into the narrow walk space.

I got a cool shot of the blood getting sucked out of my arm! I also asked to find out what the restrictions are on donating blood to anyone who's lived in the middle east. I didn't find out too much, just that Saudi Arabia and Turkey have a lot of malaria risk areas, so I'd probably be deferred for a year if I went there. That would be too bad. I enjoy giving blood because it really is a good service to do; it saves lives, and in that way it really helps people out. There is always a need for it, too, because blood doesn't keep for very long. I was considering donating plasma so I could get some easy money, but I decided against it because I was told that plasma isn't always used for medical purposes. In fact, I heard that it's often used in makeup. That's why they're allowed to give you money for it; organizations which collect whole blood can't give money because it would give people an incentive to lie and give bad blood. And when I heard that you have to wait nearly two months after donating plasma to donate whole blood, I decided I'd just donate whole blood instead. I do it about once a semester or so. When I come back in the fall, I'll probably do it again.

BACKLOG: Artistic Shot of the JFSB

2007-05-07T02:04:00.000-06:00

I was pretty busy with church and reading today, so I didn't get out much to take any pictures. I was looking through my old photos and my new roommate really liked this one, so I decided to put it up. I took it a couple of months ago, was walking to a class, looked up and saw this shot, decided to take it. I like how the sky seems to blend into the glass of the building. It's a pretty good shot, but I think it could have been better if I had a digital SLR camera. I would like to save up and get one, even an older one. I hear that they're really good quality cameras.

Heads Up Seven Up During Halftime

2007-05-06T01:39:00.000-06:00

Some friends of mine from my ward were holding a party / get together to watch the Utah Jazz play Houston. During halftime, there wasn't much to watch, and so we all started playing games. It was good, because half of the people there are new to the ward, and don't yet know everybody. One of the games we played was heads up seven up, a fun elementary school kind of game. I was supposed to have my eyes closed, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't have my camera off at the same time!

Candy Store at the BYU Bookstore During Woman's Conference

2007-05-05T01:50:00.000-06:00

Wow, I must say that campus is packed with tons and tons of women just about now! And these women are crazy about buying candy! I was in the Wilk today to get lunch, and it was very crowded! In the middle of the BYU Bookstore, there is this stand for candy and fudge, and usually, it seems that they get moderate business, but I noticed that for this conference they had to have all of the ropes up for long lines and everything! And the lines were very long, too! It will be interesting this spring to see campus transform. Right now, it's all women for women's conference, and afterwards, it's probably going to be full of EFY kids. Will it ever just be quiet around here? We'll have to see.

Women's Conference Service Project

2007-05-04T02:36:00.000-06:00

Woman's conference is going on right now, and I signed up for a temp job working with concessions. It's pretty late tonight, and I may not actually make it to the job on time, but we'll see. I was in the Smith Fieldhouse today, and I saw that the women were having a service project of some kind. I think they were assembling some kind of care packages. It was interesting, and so I took a picture. Definitely, for the next couple of days, women's conference is going to dominate everything on campus. When I went to look for a place in the cougareat to sit today, I almost couldn't find one, and that's very unusual for the spring! These women are everywhere!

Cleaning the Library Carpets

2007-05-04T02:27:00.000-06:00

I was in the BYU library late the other night, and they were doing all the cleaning. I'm not sure what these things do; I think that they're fans of some kind. For some reason, I thought it would make a good picture. This is just about around the time where the library starts playing loud music to drive out all the stragglers right before closing time.

BACKLOG: Packing Up and Moving Out

2007-05-02T15:56:00.000-06:00

This past weekend, all of my 5 previous roommates moved out as the winter semester came to a close. One of them graduated and the other four are renting a house across the street. I was the only one staying, and as everyone went through the process of packing things up, cleaning up, and moving out, things got pretty messy around here! This was all of the stuff that we moved BEFORE we realized that we had to empty the cabinets and shelves, and clean them out, etc. Then, with all the pots, pans, dishes, food, and other stuff, it was another load just like this! Then, as all my new roommates moved in, it was again something like this, though not quite as messy. Busy busy busy. I'm looking forward to regaining some degree of normalcy in this place.

Onelowerlight's Computer in its Death Throes

2007-05-01T21:41:00.000-06:00

I hope none of you ever have to see this. Fortunately, all of the files I really needed (my journals, schoolwork, and the dozen or so stories I'm working on) were all backed up. But yeah, my computer crashed really bad, and I had to erase my hard drive and restore it back to factory settings. The guys at Dell tech support were REALLY helpful, though--it turns out, as a matter of fact, that Dell's tech support is based here in Utah! Got to talk with one guy about how his brother served a mission in Russia. Interesting. Well, here's what happened, as best as I can piece together: I plugged in my flash drive, tried to copy some files, the window froze up, and I shut down the computer by holding down the power button. Before I restarted the computer, I unplugged the flash drive. That was bad. A bunch of data that was transferring from my hard drive was lost, and a sector of the disk became corrupted. So corrupted that it brought up the blue screen of death on the computer that I accessed my hard drive from (this is not the blue screen of death in the picture, by the way--it's just chkdsk). Bleh. At least I learned a lot about computers. And also to be really careful about disconnecting a flash drive. But, perhaps most importantly, I learned that I actually CAN survive losing my computer. Except for the bare bones essential files that I needed to keep, I've been thinking these past few days about the very real possibility of losing everything else. And instead of doing what I normally do (verbally and physically abusing my computer), I calmed down, thought it out, and decided that it would be OK. If nothing else, the experience was worth it just to learn that I was capable of that.

Unfortunately, however, I lost all the other photos of the alternative commencement (except for this really awesome shot of me shaking Ralph Nader's hand--but since I have a strict policy of not posting photos of myself on this blog, I won't be sharing it).

Intermission Part III

2007-04-30T23:44:00.000-06:00

Quick computer update: I worked with the tech support for a long time, and the hard drive is definitely corrupted. I'll be running chkdsk /r tonight, but it looks like it freezes up even when I try to run that, so I'll probably format the drive tomorrow and reinstall windows. I'll lose all the photos that I haven't put up on this site (or on facebook). Fortunately, all of the personal files I really need are backed up (THANK GOODNESS). And, on the bright side, it's like getting a new computer. So, I'll probably start posting photos again tomorrow.

So, to get to the really interesting part of the story. I was thinking about starting up a podcast with some friends, where we'd share mission stories and invite people to come and share their conversion stories. I asked my roommate Steve what he thought about it, and he actually laughed at the idea! He said that he didn't think that we'd get any listeners, that it's too much of a niche market. A heated debate soon ensued, which went something like this:

"Dude, there's no way anyone's going to care about your podcast! It's way too niche!"

"What are you talking about? Podcasts are all about finding a niche! That's what makes podcasts better than the radio!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Oh yeah? Well, I'll prove it to you! I'll bet you I can pull up a dozen or more podcasts on a really niche subject, like, say, scrapbooking! Just watch!"

So, in an effort to prove to my roommate that my podcast idea would actually work, I pulled up a list of scrapbooking podcasts on iTunes. And, as I started looking at them, I found this really interesting one, actually. Believe it or not, scrapbooking is actually one of my hobbies. It's been on the back burner for a little while, but I enjoy it. I think it's a good sunday activity.

Anyways, I downloaded and listened to one of the episodes, and there was this interview on the episode with a photography expert, who suggested an idea for improving your photography skills. The idea was to start up a blog and post a photo a day, and share it with all of your friends, so that they could give you feedback.

I thought about that idea for a second, and it really appealed to me. I'd tried a couple of blog projects, which didn't really go anywhere, but I already had a blogger account and I knew how to set everything up. I had taken several photography classes in high school, and had even gone on a photo trip to Italy with my teacher and four other classmates to further develop my photography skills. I didn't really have an outlet for my photography skills now that I'd left high school, and I worried that I would lose those skills if I didn't practice them. I thought about it, and figured that it would be a good thing to try out.

Once I started the blog, all of the creative energy that I'd been preparing to invest in my podcast idea transferred almost immediately to my new project. I knew, from all of the good podcasts I'd seen that had podfaded, that one of the most important thing was to produce new content on a regular basis. I knew, also, that I could come up with daily content, because there are so many opportunities to take photographs. I didn't have to worry about coming up with something new to say. I committed myself to update my blog daily, and to my surprise, I've actually kept up with that resolution.

From there, it just took off. As I kept posting new photos every day, I'd come up with newer and better ideas for what to do with the site. What you see now is the current state of my blog's evolution. I'm sure it will change in the future, but for now, I like it very much the way it is. I see this as a photoblog with more emphasis on "blog" than on "photo," which is why there are two sidebars and posts with large amounts of text. I see each photo as an opportunity to say something, in writing and in .jpg. I also like the sense of community and connecting with other bloggers of similar interest. As the site evolves, I'm sure the blogroll will grow, and I'll link to a number of other fun sites.

In the future, I would like to upgrade to an SLR camera and enter into a number of online photo contests. I've seen a couple that look interesting. Photo hunters is an interesting one, though I get the sense that it's more for the homeschooling scrapbooking Evangelical Christian Mom type (not that there's anything wrong with that--just that I can probably find other groups of people more similar to myself. I like photo hunters and I plan to stay, for now).

So, that's the story, in three parts. Hope it didn't bore you. And don't worry--photos will be coming soon! I promise!

Intermission Part II

2007-04-29T15:09:00.000-06:00

So, this is going to be interesting, because all of the photo labs are closed down at BYU on sunday. Instead, I'm writing this on a 10 minute kiosk in the Benson building, between and after church. (the bishop just asked me what I'm doing, so I'd better get going to priesthood soon). But anyways, I'm sure I'll be able to piece this together.

So, while I was in Hollister, collecting my music and putting it together in a giant CD case, I had this run-in with an ex-Pentecostal lady who had joined the LDS church, but had a lot of doubts about it. The run-in ended up lasting about six months, because she was the most intelligent person within 20 miles when it came to talking about religion. We talked about all kinds of stuff, all kinds of doubts and things she was struggling with, analyzed tons and tons of doctrines, shared all kinds of testimonies, and really had a fun and interesting time. I found out that she was also going to this message board on the internet, to discuss other apologetic issues and her questions. The message board she was referring to was the old FAIR message board, now Mormon Apologetics. We became close friends, and I decided to check out these boards after I got back from my mission.

Blogging is very much about community, and the FAIR message boards was the first real internet community that I got involved with. It's an excellent place for people who are involved with apologetics and Mormon studies, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. There really is a sense of community there, and I got to know quite a few people over the internet (I even met one guy, Jerubaal, in person, which was kind of fun). It wasn't too much of a jump to blogging, after getting to know what it's like to be part of a message board community.

To get back to the whole "what do iPods have to do with blogging?" question, I got my first mp3 player, an iPod, when I got back from my mission. It was a cool little toy, and I played around with it quite a bit. As I played around, I saw this interesting thing on iTunes called "podcasts." I had no idea what that was, but I wanted to find out, and that's how I started getting into podcasting. It was pretty cool! The idea of getting free mp3 downloads was kind of neat, and when I started seeing what was out there, I got more excited about it. It's so cheap to start a podcast that there are podcasts out there on just about any subject, including all of the really strange and random stuff that I'm interested in. Before long, I was listening to podcasts every day, walking up to school, in my car, or doing whatever. I really started getting into this.

I'm a fairly creative person, and creative people almost always have about a dozen or so projects or ideas for creative things that they're working on. As I got more and more into the world of podcasting, I started thinking that maybe this was something that I could do. After all, all you really need is a computer, a microphone, and an internet connection. I knew, however, all about the problems of "podfading"--that's when a podcast starts up, the author has a whole lot of initial excitement, but over time, loses interest, and the podcast gradually dies out as episodes become more and more infrequent. I found a lot of really neat podcasts in my browsing, only to discover that the last episode was several months ago and that there probably wouldn't be any new ones coming out. It frustrated me, and I knew that if I ever did a podcast, I wouldn't want it to podfade. I wanted it to be very consistent.

I decided that I'd need some friends to help me out--if I couldn't handle an episode one week, my friends would be able to pick up the slack. The problem with that, though, is that it becomes harder and harder to get something started the more people become involved. I got a few friends on the bandwagon, but when we started trying to get everyone to come together to plan it out, things started falling through.

Intermission Part I

2007-04-28T16:44:00.000-06:00

So, my computer is down right now, and I probably won't have it up until sometime next week. Because I can only blog now from public computers, chances are that I won't be able to post new photos for a little bit. In the meantime, I thought it might be fun to tell the story of how this blog came to be. Since I don't like reading blog posts that are more than 700 words long (and also because I want to have some daily content, even while my computer is down) I'll tell this story in three or four parts.

The decision to start this blog was the culmination of a number of causally linked events. The first of these happened in Sunnyvale, California, in the spring of 2004. Sunnyvale, in case you don't know, is right at the heart of Silicon Valley. As missionaries, we were only about a twenty or thirty minute bike ride away from Apple headquarters (one of the missionary apartments I lived in down there was actually on the same street as Apple). One sunday afternoon, I was sitting in an elder's quorum meeting and the teacher asked the question "what are some of the essential things that we need to have in our homes?" The lesson was something along the lines of temporal welfare or so. One of the men in the quorum raised his hand and said "an iPod!" and everybody burst out laughing. I turned to one of the men next to me and asked, "what's an iPod?"

You have to understand, I'm not all that tech savy, and never really was on the bleeding edge of things. I got upset when my Dad got rid of our old 386 in the summer of 2000 (even though it hadn't really worked since Y2K). I backed up all of my pre-mission files on 3 1/2 inch floppy drives, and used an external CD burner to burn all of my CDs (each one took about fifteen minutes, at least). To this day, most of the computer games I play are abandonware and old SNES games that will play on my emulator. I haven't beat Chrono Trigger yet.

Well, when I learned about iPods, I had about another year to think about the concept before I came home and could actually acquire one without breaking mission rules. I collected (missionary appropriate) music on my mission, and by the end, when I was in Hollister, I went to one of those really cheap Mexican stores (the ones with the colorful rugs on the wall, the flashing virgin Mary wall hangings, lots of cheap cleaning supplies, and tons and tons of beautiful but absolutely useless trinkets) and picket up a massive CD case for my entire collection. Every once and a while, as we drove along in our car, I thought about how awesome it would be to have the entire contents of that case in a little tiny electronic device. I decided that for my birthday in 2005, I was going to ask for an iPod.

Well, I haven't counted all the words in this post, but it's looking like it's starting to get a little too long, so I'll cut out for now and continue this story tomorrow.

Disclaimer: since 2005, I've learned that there are much better and cheaper alternatives to the flashy but rigged up iPods. Most frustrating are the long download times (and no-refunds policy) with the iTunes Music Store, the fact that anything from that store can only be played on an Apple iPod, the high cost of the iPod, and the VERY frustrating fact that you can't download songs from your iPod straight to the computer (which accounts for why my iTunes library is chronically disorganized). Now, while I still use an iPod for music, I use an iRiver 800 for listening to podcasts. You can get one of those babies for a mere $15 on eBay and although they only have 1 Gb of storage, they have amazing recording capabilities and make for an awesome portable microphone.

BYU Alternative Commencement Part I

2007-04-27T15:16:00.000-06:00

Here's an update on my computer: I think the sector with most of the photos in it is bad, and so whenever I try to open them, my computer freezes. Not only that, the computer has crashed multiple times, and I may need to reinstall windows. However, all of the files I absolutely need are backed up, and I was able to recover some photos from the alternative commencement. When I get the CDs and components that Dell tech support sent me, and get my computer running properly again, I'll post the rest of the photos.

The alternative commencement was held at UVSC, because BYU, for one reason or another, didn't make any space available for it. I'm not sure exactly why this was; it may simply have been for practical reasons, since the alternative protest was organized so quickly, and UVSC has been out of session for a week already. Others (including some of the speakers) interpreted the move in more sinister terms, but I at least prefer to give the BYU administration some benefit of the doubt.

There were quite a few reporters and people with cameras; I got the feeling that I wasn't the only blogger there. It wasn't nearly as large or as formal an event as the actual commencement, but there was quite a crowd.

I would say between 1,500 and 2,500 people were there total. This was taken before the event started. While there were quite a few people I recognized from BYU (including some of my poli sci TAs), there were also a lot of people from the wider community.

The meeting was conducted by a couple of graduates, Ashley Sanders and Eric Bybee, and started and ended with a prayer. I was amused to see my friend Carl Brinton sitting on the stand next to Ralph Nader; that would be pretty awesome to sit next to a national figure in a meeting!

The graduates walking in. There were between forty and sixty graduates who attended the alternative commencement as a sort of graduation. The atmosphere of the meeting was something of a cross between a political rally and a commencement. The graduates were recognized, though without the formality (none of the speakers pretended to any authority in the false priesthood), and you could tell that everyone who was present had some really strong political views.

This is Ashley Sanders, who shared some very interesting personal thoughts on integrity and criticism. Her remarks, as well as Eric's, were very intelligent and thought provoking, and I appreciated hearing from them. I also learned here that a number of businesses have put everyone from the online anti-Cheney petition on a do-not-hire list, which is pretty dispicable, but hey. I'll link to the list of businesses who have done this when I can find it.

There was quite a mix of people here at the meeting, but there was quite a bit of unity and enthusiasm throughout the meeting. I got the sense that most everyone was somehow part of the larger Mormon community, active or less-active, and that these people mingled pretty well with the members of the BYU community. Everyone was very passionate politically, and though it was a lot more like a political rally than a commencement, it was a respectful and very thought provoking rally, and I didn't feel uncomfortable there at all.

You know, in high school, most of my peers were on the far left when it came to politics, and I disagreed with them pretty strongly. However, at this alternative commencement / rally, I found a lot that I could really respect. There were a couple of things that struck me as somewhat naive or merely charismatic, but there were some really intelligent thoughts and words shared, especially from Pete Ashdown and Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader's words were absolutely awesome! They were the most intelligent words I've heard from a politician since returning from my mission, and quite possibly the most intelligent words I've ever heard from a politician. More on that when I get the photos of his speech, and I'll try and link to the transcript / mp3 of his speech if I can find it.

Technical Difficulties

2007-04-27T03:06:00.000-06:00

Alright, I took a TON of pictures of Commencement and the Alternative Commencement, but my computer isn't working right now. I'm blogging from my friend's computer now, and I've been at his apartment for the last four hours because the internet isn't reliable in my apartment. I could give you a long list of what's wrong with my computer, but it would be too long. It suffices to say that if my computer were a small animal, I would kill it. If it didn't contain all of my important files, and wasn't worth money, I would honestly go to the top of the JFSB and throw it onto the concrete. So, the rest of the pictures will be up tomorrow--I PROMISE.

Commencement: Cheney's Speech and Honorary Degree

2007-04-27T02:27:00.000-06:00

This when the main dignitaries walked into the commencement. Gordon B. Hinckley presided over the commencement ceremonies, and when he walked into the room, a great cheer sounded throughout the Marriott center. Besides the President of the church, M. Russell Ballard and David A. Bednar were also present.

This is just as the ceremonies were beginning. Dick Cheney was seated between M. Russell Ballard and President samuelson.

Quite an interesting lineup: Dick Cheney, President samuelson, Gordon B. Hinckley, David A. Bednar.

The applause for Gordon B. Hinckley and Dick Cheney was just about equal. Dick Cheney also received a large applause when president samuelson announced that he was to receive an honorary degree.

The Marriott Center was packed, but I was surprised that they didn't collect the tickets, or even seemed to check them. Maybe it's because the didn't distribute all the tickets, or maybe somebody saw mine and just let me go in. Either way, the Marriott Center was fuller than I've ever seen it.

The decision to grant Dick Cheney an honorary degree is very controversial in some circles. Other people point out that it's a standard procedure to grant any commencement speaker an honorary degree. In his speech, Dick Cheney made a passing reference to the fact that he didn't actually earn this degree: "unlike me, you students have actually earned your degrees!"

I'm not sure what I think of it myself. I didn't exactly feel comfortable with the whole thing. It really did make me think of Hugh Nibley's words: "we gather together today in the black robes of the false priesthood." I know that Cheney gets a lot of criticism which he doesn't deserve or merit, but he isn't innocent either. One thing that did bring me some satisfaction was a conversation I had with one of my roommates who's graduating, who said that commencement itself is little more than another devotional. As evidence of this, he cited the fact that nobody actually walks or is presented a diploma on commencement; everyone walks at convocation in their own respective colleges. To him, at least, commencement really wasn't a very big deal.

The cameras went pretty crazy when Cheney was awarded the degree. A time lapse shot captured several of the flashes. It looked almost like gunfire at night.

Cheney's speech seemed to have been written by the same speechwriter as President Bush; that was the impression I had. Basically, it was all about how unexpected thing happen in life and you never know where you're going to end up. One interesting story that Cheney shared was how he and Rumsfield had very bad first impressions of each other; they came away angry and thinking that the other was arrogant and difficult to work with. I didn't know that these men had such a strained relationship, even if it did warm up over time.

Judging from the applause in the Marriott Center, Dick Cheney had a lot of supporters in the audience. I don't mind that, as long as everyone is willing to recognize and accept that some people frankly felt uncomfortable with the whole thing. The way some people go on, it's as if anyone who protests anything having to do with Dick Cheney is not fit to be Mormon, and that's utter nonsense. Honestly, I think some people feel threatened by the protests and the alternative commencement, and their reaction is to try and make them all shut up. I believe that that is unacceptable and undemocratic. Even though I am not as gunghoe about Dick Cheney or this entire affair as some of my peers, I don't feel threatened by their views, so long as they don't try to force them on me.

Commencement: The Security

2007-04-27T02:11:00.000-06:00

One of the things that made the commencement this year so unusual was that it was ticketed. Another was the security. The tickets said to allow for two hours of waiting time. I showed up at about 1:30 PM, and there wasn't a line to speak of. I was fortunate to get in so quickly; later on, I noticed that the lines had grown very long. Since the security was unusual for BYU, I thought I'd take a few pictures.

The security seemed to be pretty efficient. It was like going through an airport, except that the line moved slower. Especially slower than it moves at SLC International--that airport has the most efficient security checkpoint I've ever seen at an airport. It's absolutely wonderful.

I don't know what people thought of having all the security. I'm glad that it worked, and that there wasn't anything crazy like an assassination attempt or a bomb. I wasn't expecting it, but it was nice that it didn't happen. The student who gave the opening prayer asked in the prayer that we'd all be safe.

I don't know what people thought of the security, but it certainly was unusual. A big thanks, though, to the law enforcement personnel who helped things to run smoothly. They deserve respect for their jobs.

Cheney Protests: Commencement

2007-04-27T01:23:00.000-06:00

The Commencement protests were today! They took place on the corner of Bulldog and Canyon, near the big BYU sign. There were quite a few people who showed up. There was also quite an interesting response from passers by. Since everyone in cars, there were a lot of honks. My friends in the protest told me that they'd gotten a lot more honks of support than honks of anger, but while I was there, I saw quite a few people drive who were either ridiculing the protesters, or shouting out some pretty mean stuff. Reminded me of my mission, to be honest.

I thought this was kind of interesting. A lot of people say that even if you disagree with Cheney as a person, you should still "respect the office" and not protest because it's the Vice President. I don't really understand that logic, but that's what some people have said. This is an interesting counter argument.

That's Diane Bailey with the flag, president of the BYU Democrats.

Carl Brinton. He is the most involved student I know of on campus, and probably one of the busiest people at BYU. We had the same Arabic class this last semester, and we were both finalists for the Presidential scholarship. He's a really cool guy.

The girl on the right saw me walking around with a camera, and asked me if I was the guy with the onelowerlight blog! I remember that she was on the crisis team for the Utah Colleges Exit Poll this last year, and that she really helped us out a lot when I was with my team down in Elk Grove, but I don't remember her name. I was really surprised: I think that's the first time somebody's recognized me from this blog (it's especially surprising because I'm trying to retain at least a little bit of anonymity). I was surprised and flattered that someone would recognize me by my blog. This sign says "peace" in a bajillion languages, including Arabic, by the way.

Various signs. This protest differed a lot from the previous protest, in that it was just a general peace / anti-war rally, rather than a specifically anti-Cheney rally. As a result, there was a wide variety of signs. I honestly felt that it watered it down a bit and made it more generic, but I appreciate that the protesters got out and expressed their views in a respectful manner.

"Do you want to be on TV?" One of the many reporters at the protest interviews one of the protesters.

Hmmm...either this guy has a beard card, or he isn't a BYU student. There seemed to be a lot of people from outside of the BYU community who participated in this protest. As I overheard a cameraman from Channel 5 News say to the reporter, "this isn't just BYU students--it's anyone with an ax to grind."

One thing that I think watered down the protests and made them less significant than the on-campus protests earlier this semester was that there were several people from outside of BYU who came to protest, while many of the BYU students who were part of the other protests had apparently left for the summer. So, in short, the crowd consisted about 40% of students, 30% of non-students (most of whom didn't even seem to be part of the BYU community), and 30% of reporters and people with cameras.

I think that the BYU protesters have always tried to make it clear that they are not anti-BYU or protesting against the First Presidency or the other church leadership. This sign seemed to be an attempt to convey that they weren't trying to ruin anyone's commencement.

I liked this picture--I took it as I was walking to the protests. White is the color that the BYU Democrats chose for all of the Cheney protests.

Post Finals Bonfire

2007-04-26T00:40:00.000-06:00

Finals are over! Yay! I was hanging out with some friends tonight--we started in our apartment, they left to go to a bonfire up the canyon while I stayed home to watch Lawrence of Arabia, then I gave them a call after the movie, the fire had been canceled because somebody found out about their plans, so we stopped briefly at another bonfire in someone's backyard before another change of plans. While there, I took a couple of pictures, and liked this one. It's not uncommon out here for college students to have bonfires, especially this time of year. Last year, my RA had a pallet he was saving for a fire. When you live really close to the mountains and canyons, it's not too hard to find a place, if you have a car.

Stressing Out About Exams

2007-04-24T22:42:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is the last day of finals, and all week, we've all been studying and cramming out here at BYU. This was a cute sign that I saw in the library. For me, I had my last exam this morning. It was so strange--before the exam, I was stressed out a whole lot, cramming and studying very hard. Then, once I handed it in...nothing. No obligations or appointments until Thursday. No work or school, or anything. It's like coming home from a mission, a little bit. But I'm sure glad that this semester is over! Time for a refreshing change of schedule.

Sushi Night

2007-04-24T22:01:00.000-06:00

My roommate Steve invited me to come with him and some friends to Demae's tonight in downtown Provo. Demae's is a really neat little Japanese restaurant that is famous around here because they offer their sushi for $3 on Tuesday nights.

Because of this, a lot of people come down to Demae's on Tuesday nights. It's a very social thing, and very fun, especially now, because finals are over.

Large groups will wait around for a long time to get seats. In fact, as we were waiting, one of Steve's friends from the film department walked by with his wife, and we chatted it up...for about half an hour! It was fun, we didn't mind--I didn't mind, at least. In the end, we broke up our group into a group of three and a group of two.

This is Stephen with Mallory, who he met through working with the dance department. It was cool to sit and talk with them. It's good to go to a sit-down restaurant with friends, every once and a while.

Yes! The food! For $3 per roll, it was definitely worth it! Sushi is great!

Cheney Commencement: Picking Up Tickets

2007-04-23T19:46:00.000-06:00

I heard that the tickets for the upcoming commencement with Dick Cheney weren't going to be made available to the main student body until today. I would like to attend this event, just to see what it is and what happens, and also to cover it on this blog (I might also get a chance to attend the alternative commencement with Ralph Nader; I have an appointment that night, so I'll probably only be able to catch the tail end of it). Commencement is this Thursday, and it's a pretty big deal around here.

This is the first time that they've had tickets for commencement. This is also probably the first time they've been telling everyone to plan for a two hour security screening at the door. It's going to be an interesting event.

I was very surprised that the line at the ticket office wasn't longer. I came at about 10:00 and I thought that the ticket office opened at 9:00, but there wasn't any line to speak of (a rare occurrence here BYU). Also, it seemed that they had several tickets available, at least when I picked mine up. The lady at the counter initially gave me two. She did say, when I asked, that there weren't very many tickets left, but I didn't have any problem obtaining one. All they asked for was a student I.D.

Studying for the Arabic Final

2007-04-23T01:29:00.000-06:00

I took these photos a couple of days ago, when I took the Arabic final on Friday. I thought I'd show up about an hour early and study in the hall. I wasn't the only one with that idea--practically the entire class was there! I thought it was so funny that I took a few pictures.

We were all very nervous, I think, and a symptom of that nervousness was that we didn't really study very much--most of us just chatted with each other. There wasn't a whole lot we could do, really. Language skills are not something you can pick up in an hour or cram right before an exam. They grow slowly over a long period of time, and when you're put on the line, either you have them or you don't.

The Arabic final ended up being very hard. Ten pages, lots of translation, summarization, grammar sections; it just kept on coming. By the very end of the test, where you had to write a paragraph of your own original thoughts in Arabic, I was pretty burned out. But, even though it was hard, I think I did pretty well. The listening was tough (I understood only about 30% of it...though I don't think most of the rest of the class did any better), but the oral was great! Basically, Brian took us out into the hall, one by one, and we had a Q&A in Arabic to test our speaking and conversation skills. I was really surprised, because I understood exactly what he was saying the whole time! Also, when we came to the FusHa (formal Arabic) sections, I found that I could read through it quite easily! It helps that I've been reading Book of Mormon Stories (قصص كتاب مورمون) and memorizing the Articles of Faith (بنود الايمان). I hope to keep reading and growing in this language over the summer, to only increase in my language skills, not lose them! It's going to take a lot of work, but I'm enthusiastic about it!