I'm a Mormon.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

The Facebook


Today I took an hour out of my schedule to go to the Marriott Center where there was a forum where about 10,000 students came to listen to Mark Zuckerberg and Orin Hatch.  Questions were submitted from students and they (mostly Mark) answered and talked about interesting topics in technology, education, entrepurnership, and government regulation.  The conversation seemed highly political, neither person wanting to say anything inappropriate to tarnish their reputation.

It was interesting to hear Mark speak about things such as dropping out of Harvard and making philatropical donations, and I found him to be rather personable.  He seemed real, and I think that's why he'd done such a great job with facebook and all, because he is real.

It was about six years ago in May that I sat around a lunch table with my 'friends' at Anacortes High School.  (Having just moved there my friends consisted of those in my classes, the AP calculus and physics nerds.)  One of my friends, who had just been accepted to Stanford asked us how many of us had already been accepted to a university, most of us had, and he told us that with our newly acquired university e-mail addresses we could join an online social site called "TheFacebook.com"  he said, "Go home today, go to thefacebook.com, and make a profile, then we can all be friends."  We created silly groups (The Citrus Horse) and had meaningless conversations which was about all facebook was good for back then.

That summer I joined into some BYU freshman groups and made a few friends, one of which actually ened up in my Freshman ward!  One of the few friends I have ever met 'digitally'.  Facebook of course became an important part of the 'freshman experience' for me, and it's existence changed my life in a small way, as it has for millions of other people.

I have begun to use facebook less and less, but not to say it's not important.  Just this morning I recieved a wedding invitation from a very dear friend, albeit one who I have little contact with these days.  And so facebook goes on, changing lives if ways big and small everyday.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

sack lunch?

I love having lunch while I'm at school.  Don't tell my wife this, but I am actually really, really glad that she gets up and packs some leftovers into a tupperware for me to heat up and eat for the days lunch break. (I usually tell her not to worry about it, and that I'll be fine).  I like to be able to sit down, eat some real food, and take a break from staring a computer screens (food isn't allowed in the CAEDM lab you see).

What really irks me about having lunch though is using the microwaves on campus.  No, I don't have a problem with their interface, I do think there are enough of them, and I don't think they're *too* gross to be used, but the other people using them need a butt kicking if you ask me.

Why do we use a microwave?  to be fast.  What are most people I see using the microwaves doing?  not being fast.  I refuse to stand in line behing Mr. Picky-Eater as he heats his pizza for 25 seconds, stops, turns it, dabs grease off the top and puts it in for another 25.  I hate watching as people insert last night's casserole for 30 seconds, take it out, stir it, put it in again for 30, take it out, stir it, put it in for another 30... and on and on!

If I see someone standing in front of the microwave (there is only one in the Clyde Bldg.) there is usually someone behind them so I will go somewhere else, get a drink, to the bathroom, anything for a few minutes to avoid watching them take their precious time heating up food over and over.  Most days I end up having to go into the MARB where there are two microwaves and I have never had to wait in line.

To me a sack lunch is good for being cheap and fast (you don't have to wait in line to have someone else make your sandwich) and these people are ruining half of it.  Either they don't value their time much or they value their food way too much.