Excited?

1 weeks

I recently got really geeky, and I created something so wonderful I just have to share it.
For the past three months or so I have had various pictures of BYU basketball players as my desktop background, but as BYU basketball ended, so too did the backgrounds.  I didn't feel like finding any special pictures at the moment so I just opened up the default picture folders that Apple gives you, browsed through some of the pictures (they give you a lot, some cool B&W pics, some weird nature ones, and a couple classic pieces of art).  I ended up picking this Japanese looking wave painting called "The Great Wave."

As I enjoyed my new background I began to fantasize of how great it would be to have a truly functional background, one that could display the time or date perhaps, or maybe show weather or have a calendar even.  So I began a google search for 'function desktops' or 'live desktops' even 'auto-updating desktop pictures'...  and although it took me a bit I was sitting in a boring class, so time wasn't an issue.

Eventually I stumbled upon GeekTool 3.0, and well, it's a tool for geeks!  With the program (a simple system preference pannel) you can create "geeklets" that allow you to take auto-updating images, files, or unix-shell commands and paste them on top of your existing desktop image.  It's really a great and amazing little tool, and as far as I'm aware it's for mac only, which makes me feel special.

I browsed a website where people had uploaded pictures of what they had done to customize their desktops and also uploaded files and scripts of their geeklets.  Some of them were really cool, and eventually I made my own desktop collection:

Now, the most exciting part of this is in the front and center of my desktop, a countdown!  This I'm particularly proud of because I had to do a hefty bit of editing to the geeklet I downloaded inorder to get this one to show up just the way I wanted it to.  I however did not go in depth enough to program it to read of singular times with singular units (1 hour, instead of 1 hours).  And this is why I am pleased to announce that I have precisely 1 weeks, 1 days, and two hours until my last class is over :-)

(Sorry this post is so long, but another new toy of mine is Bowtie, a desktop-level iTunes controller/identifier.)

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.

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.

Wii

For Christmas Stephanie and I were blessed to get the curse of a Wii from her parents.  I say curse because all of our spare time is now spent not on catching up in classes, but playing Mario!!  (it's not quite that bad, but I am wary of the entrapment that it represents).

For the last couple weeks we've been involving ourselves in playing Super Mario Bros Wii, and I just realized that we did a pretty good job of beating the game in just a few weeks (we started Sunday Jan. 1) considering: we did it together, we never played by ourselves (we each had our own games for when we were home alone).  We went through every world, although we did earn the trip to some world-skipping cannons, we went back and beat every castle the levels.  We even spent some time playing finding missed star coins and earning extra lives in World 1.  

And for the visual enjoyment of all.  This is how you beat Bowser.  You avoid one half of the screen while not falling into the lava.

And how do you do it?  (notice the mario in the above pic?  yeah, you pretty much have to fly.)

in my head

I'm standing in the MARB waiting for a class, there are people all around, sitting on the ground mostly reading or texting.  There is also a girl who looks and sounds Russian talking on her phone, in Russian.  I begin to wonder what she is talking about, is she a spy, a terrorist, a scientist looking for high tech secrets, or perhaps passing info on the education system here back to top officials in Russia.  She is speaking quickly (at least it sounds fast to me) and seems a little stressed (or maybe distressed).  

Then her Russian is broken by something I recognize, 'Ma, Ma, Mama!...' and she continues complaining to her mother about how hard of a time she is having here at the beginning of the semester.  She's not a spy after all, she's just a normal student, having normal problems that her normal mother still doesn't understand.

Sunday Dinner Parties!!

Every Sunday evening the Beres family plays host to a myriad of BYU students to help fight college hunger and have a little fun.  Wendy is very good at knowing when birthdays are coming up and making a big celebrations for everyone's birthday.  This last week we had an exceptionally special birthday for our beloved Mums.  I took the liberty of being the photographer for the evening and snapped a few pictures on my cell phone.

Happy Birthday Mums