DIY

When I was young I told myself that when I was grown up I wanted to be able to do lots of things on my own, and never pay someone to do something that I could do myself.  Which is pretty much the basis for 99% of all DIY projects.

Anyhow, here are some of the project's I've done in the past year: 

THE RETRO PI

A Raspberry Pi is a miniature computer, the size of a pack of cards, that is very simply and cheaply built with basic components.  People have taken them and created modifications of both software and hardware to create home theater hubs, security systems, programming teaching tools, and (my favorite) retro console machines.

Basically people have created software programs that mimic old video game systems like the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Atari, and pretty much anything and everything built before 2000.  So with some birthday money I bought a Pi kit, put it together, and now I can enjoy Mega Man X, Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, many other wonderful games of my childhood.

All of the pieces.

The assembled gaming machine. 

OPERATION HD EXCHANGE

Our home computer is a 2012 model mac mini.  In 2010 Apple changed from this mac mini design to this slightly smaller configuration.  Then in 2011 they decided to get rid of the CD drive and that's been the design ever since.  The reason I tell you this is because while Apple got rid of the CD drive, they didn't do anything with the space that it previously took up, so every mac mini has room for an extra hard drive in that compact design.

My 2008 macbook has had a broken screen for a few years, and the power supply has seen it's last legs, but I've kept it around because it has all of my music and pictures from college and my mission.  Well, it just so happens that the hard drive in a 2008 macbook fits perfectly into the open spot in the 2012 mac mini, so I  got a mounting kit, and dismantled my computer to add this new drive inside so I could get rid of my laptop and add the additional storage to my desktop.

Opening up the laptop was the easy part.

Following along with the iFixit guide.

Action shot

It all went back together, a very good sign. 

Then I spent an hour copying files, backing up, formatting, etc.

My team

**I wrote this back in September, but just now got around to adding links/pics and posting it.  As I sat and watched the Seahawks on Monday night football.**

Growing up in Utah you don't get a "hometown" NFL team.  You either go with the Denver Broncos as the closest geographically, or you go with the 49er because of Steve Young.  I remember as a kid watching each of these teams win a super bowl and rooting for them.  But let's be honest, I was never really a fan of either of them. 

For the most part I've just ignored the NFL, watching a big game here and there, and rooting for whatever team had my favorite former college star.  (i.e. Dennis Pitta on the Ravens, Austin Collie on the Colts/Patriots, John Beck on whatever team picked him up that season, etc.)  Then as soon as that team started doing poorly, or my player was traded I stoped caring again.

As of last night, that is no longer the case.

I have chosen to be a fan, follower, and supporter of the Seattle Seahawks.  I would like to here present you with my reasons.

1. Seattle.
2. Neon Green and Grey.
3. My parents and my in-laws live in Washington, I likely will too someday, so I might as well start cheering for them now.
4. Some small connections to a handful of players including: Russel Wilson who I followed through his years at Wisconsin, Robert Turbin who played at Utah State (and scored a TD on an 80 yd run on the FIRST PLAY FROM SCRIMMAGE against BYU in '11), and Golden Tate who I had on my college football fantasy team for several high scoring weeks.  (Other's include Jermaine Kearse and Bobby Wagner.)
5. I like them, and it's as simple as that.  From here on I will support the seahawks win or loose.

I've kind of been a Seahawks fan for awhile, but very much a fair weather fan.  I was irate when the '06 superbowl was stolen from them by the officals and the Steelers, but I stoped caring as they rebuilt.  Now I'm jumping back on the bandwagon, but I'm here to stay.  I really like teams from Seattle.

amateur

I just read an article about Dez Bryant's disappointmentwith the NCAA and the amateur athlete rules and the enforcement thereof.  For those of you like me, who have no clue who Dez Bryant is you can read the article or just know that he's currently in the NFL, and played college football for Oklahoma State from 2007 to 2009 and one time worked out and had lunch with (former NFL star) Deion Sanders.  I don't know the details of this lunch or whatever, but it had the potential to violate NCAA rules so the incident was investigated. 

Remember the scene in The Blind Side where Michael Oher is taken into the NCAA office and interrogated about his connections with the Tuohys and such.  He's a nervous wreck and has no idea what to say about why he chose Ole Miss.  I would imagine that most college athletes that get investigated are pretty nervous about it, especially since you know that none of them have ever even tried to read the NCAA bylaws, and probably don't know if what they did violated Code 4 Law 26 Section 7.3.1.

So in the course of Dez Bryant being investigated he lied.  He said he didn't have lunch with Deion, and when the NCAA eventually found out that he did (though no NCAA rule was violated in the process) he was suspended for 10 games for lying.  10 games aka, the rest of his senior season.  You probably wonder why he lied, and I would love to interview him, I'm sure it had something to do with not being sure if what he did was illegal or not, so he tried to avoid the whole issue by lying about it.  True, not the best choice but a logical one for a 20 year old kid.

Fast forward to 2010, Ohio State quarter back Terrelle Pryor (among others on the team) sells things he owns (championship ring, jersey pieces, shoes, etc) in exchange for some tattoos.  Again, not the best choice but a fairly logical one for a 20 year old kid.  (The choice being "I own this, I'll sell it").  Terrelle (along with some of his teammates) is suspended for 5 games, but not their next game which was the  Rose Bowl.  Terrelle decided he didn't want to be suspended for 5 games and joined the NFL where he still had to sit out for the first 5 games (kudos to the NFL for enforcing that) but got paid half a million to do so ($580,000 signing bonus). 

So to recap: Dez doesn't do anything wrong, but lies about it and gets his senior year revoked.  Terrelle does something 'wrong' and lies about it and gets to play his final game and get paid half a million.  hmm....

In all fairness timing makes a big difference here, because Terrelle was investigated near the end of the year, and his sentence came at the end of the season.  Dez was investigated over the summer so his sentence came near the beginning of the season.  Technically Terrelle also missed his senior year (he went to the NFL early), and Dez did get a 1.9 million signing bonus.  HOWEVER, Terrelle still only got 5 games, while Dez got 10.  Seems unfair.

Okay, new track.... Let's imagine that I'm really cool and still in college.  Let's say I write a book, and it goes on to become #1 best seller.  Some other famous person invites me to dinner, wahoo!  Now imagine that I'm an actor, a director, or singer.  I become famous, go to a red carpet premier, I sign pictures of myself and sell them for $1,000.   It's all good.  Now imagine I did those things, but I also play on my college ultimate frisbee team.  I'll probably be investigated by the NCAA to make sure I didn't receive any improper benefit from my athlete status.  Those are crazy and somewhat extreme examples, but I think its something to think about.  I don't think college athletes should be paid necessarily, but I do think there is some change/reform needed in the overall system of rules, investigation, and punishment.  Also some if the NCAA did something to help protect athletes from being exploited by others.  (When people started selling Johnny Football t-shirts the NCAA just joined in and Manziel's family had to file suit to stop them and trademark his likeness.)  

It's a mad mad mad mad world...  but I still love football, and I sure hope Johnny gets to play this year.  I think by suspending him the NCAA is just encouraging him to leave to the NFL early (as it did for Terrelle).

As another side note, I found this incredibly interestingsite on NFL player's salaries.

Jack's Birth Book

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Jack

I don't really want this blog to just become a place where I put pictures of my baby.... but he is the cutest, so it's kind of hard not to.

The Man Himself

He's so cute I can't even hold the camera straight...

Ok, but really, he's cute.  For those of you still with me here's a general update on my life.  Stephanie and I have been spending our Saturday's attempting to remodel our house.  With a lot of help we got the laminate floors done and we're working on baseboards.  We usually end up spending more time taking care of our baby more than we do working so it's a very long process.

I've been thinking about getting my phone set up to publish to my blog, then I will update this much more often.  I'm sure you all will highly enjoy that.  

Speaking of phones, I never really thought I'd be the kind of person to put a picture of my wife or kids as my phone/computer wallpaper.  It's not that I was against it, I just never really thought I would care so much that I would go through the proces to change it... My cell phone now has a picture of Jack, and our new iPad that we just bought (as an anniversary gift to ourselves) has pictures of Jack as the lock and home screens.  My computer however does still maintain it's StarCraft themed background.  

That's all for now.

mobile update

While I sit at work all day long, Stephanie like to send me pictures of Jack.  They're pretty cute, so I thought I'd share them with you...

miracle chip

Over the weekend following Christmas 2012 a small miracle occurred.  It took me these past two months to finally get around to taking this picture so I could post about it properly.

After a good day of skiing at Snow Basin, I sat with Maddeline at the bottom of the hill waiting for some of our other siblings to finish their last run.  We found some chairs and we sat down and relaxed a bit, loosened our boots, took of our gloves.  ....

Thirty minutes later we were in the car driving home when I realized that my wedding ring wasn't on my finger!!  Freaking out I soon realized that it must have come off when I took my gloves off there at the base.  There was zero chance of just looking around and finding it since I had taken my gloves on and off several times at the end of the day.  I resigned my self to just crying over it and telling myself that we'd check the lost and found the next day.

Well the next day we didn't actually go to Snow Basin, but to Powder Mountain, which was a really awesome ski day.  So the following day we were back at Snow Basin and as the day ended I went over the the lost and found and asked if they had my ring.  The conversation went something like this;

"Was there a men's wedding ring turned in here a couple days ago?"
"A silver one?"
"Well it's actually cobalt, but it looks like silver."
"When did you loose it"
"uh... 2 days ago"
"Yeah, I saw it here earlier today"

at this point I got really excited, but then he spent like 4 minutes rummaging through boxes and lost items saying, "I thought I saw it here...."

Finally they found the piece of paper they had taped it to, told me that someone found it on the ground near the base lodge.  The base there at Snow Basin is not just snow like many other resorts, but paved with bricks, so my ring picked up a souvenir of being kicked around on bricks, and I call that souvenir my miracle chip.  You can see it on the rim at about the 8 o'clock position in this picture.

On a slightly related note, my ring is made out of Cobalt, not as ridiculously hard as tungsten or as strong as titanium, but still hard and very strong, and it has a more silvery color that matches white gold well.  On the inside is lightly etched 'Cobalt 24" which you can partially see here:

I love my ring.