new theme!

You all may remember my infrequent updates on what my desktop background looks like.  My last update was in August, but it's changed since then (twice actually, not counting today's).  For the past three months I've had my desktop background a wintery Christmast theme, which was great for December and even part of January, but now that Groundhog Day and Valentines Day have come and gone it was well time for an update.

This weekend, tickets for The Hunger Games movie went on sale.  I'm pretty stoked for this, and I'm planning on buying tickets soon.  In honor of such, I have created this:

I'm still playing around a bit with some of the fonts, but that's the gist of it.

For those of you who care, all the updates to my desktop have been chronicled in my flickr photostream. (yeah, just those 5)

Fit to curl

That right there would be me, throwing the winning rock!

Pretty good for a first time!

I am also, a most excellent sweeper.

curling dreams

So this past weekend Stephanie and I lived out a dream and went curling.  Ever since the winter olympics two years ago (when we were just dating) we watched several curling matches and decided that we would someday go curling.

The Utah Olympic Oval in Kerns, UT offers curling classes and open curling times in the evenings so we went with some of my siblings (and my dad) and curled!  The most interesting part of living out this dream is that the night before I had had a dream about going curling.  And as with most dreams, everything was just a little strange...


Instead of curling with nice, rounded curling stones like this:

We were using unnaturally tall and awkward stones like this:

And instead of curling on a nice long sheet of ice (about 120 feet)

We were throwing stones on a rather short and boxed in sheet and I kept hitting the back wall, no mater how soft I did it (typical dream frustration).

The dream was further crazy by the random appearance of Stephanie's former roommate (a totally crazy, and really creepy person) who was not only in the dream, but wouldn't stop talking to me.

Hopefully I'll post some pictures soon (when I get them from my dad) of us actually curling.  I hope to go again soon, and I just might be the next world champion curler.  (Okay, not really next, but future... the national championships are actually happening right now, fyi.)

PS. since things in dreams don't really exist I did quick mock-ups of them using Google SketchUp.

life questions

So after a year of no job offers, I've decided to go back to school.  Well it's still in the deciding process, but we're pretty sure that it's the best thing to do.  As I've been working on my application to grad school I've come across some interesting questions, questions that have pierced me deep as I have pondered their meaning.

Part of the application is a letter of intent, the application says this about the statement of intent:

This statement gives the admissions committee an opportunity to learn the following:

1. your preparation and background for the program to which you are applying and the special emphasis you hope to pursue in it,
2. your academic or professional goals and reasons for your choice of career,
3. your particular academic or professional reasons for applying to Brigham Young University and the scholarly or professional contributions you expect to make to your program;
4. .....

Those middle few questions have really got me thinking.  What are my academic and professional goals?  What scholarly contributions will I make to the field of civil engineering?  I've been thinking for the past year that I want to do 'transportation' engineering, designing roadways and such.  But really, I never really thought of that before I ever went to college.  I never even thought of all that before I took a transportation class.  The real reason I switched to civil engineering was for structures.  

I think I speak for most engineers when I say that engineering is fun regardless of what it is your engineering.  Making awesome things is just always cool, whether it's buildings, roads, dams, engines, computers, waste water treatment plants.... it's just cool to build something intricate and amazing.


So I've applied to graduate school at BYU, and I'll hopefully bet going into structural engineering.  It will be strange going back to school, but hopefully I'll do a little better and care a little more, and it will probably be a lot of fun in the end.

when honest people steal

I've been meaning to write a lot of stuff for a long time.  For now, here's a story.

Stephanie and I went running in our apartment complex's rec-room one evening (as we often do), and even though I didn't lock our front door for the 30 minute excursion, I still brought my keys with me.  So we ran, I placed my keys in the cup-holder on the treadmill.  (Really?  a cup-holder on a treadmill?  let's call it a water-bottle-holder).  Then after running I walked around a bit, stretched, got a drink from the drinking fountain.  Then we left, and I left my keys behind. 

The following morning was quite disastrous.  Stephanie usually keeps her keys in the car, to help her not forget to take them to school, and that's where they were in the morning, inside the locked car.  My keys of course were nowhere to be found I went back to the rec-room, but found the treadmill water-bottle-holder empty.  Someone might have taken them and given them to the office?  Sadly the office was closed that early in the morning.  A good while later and not-the-best-locksmith-in-the-world had my car door open and we're off to work for the day.

That afternoon though I dropped by the office and sure enough there were my keys in one of the desk drawers.  "Some honest resident dropped these by" says the office secretary.  And that is how honest people steal.  Had they just left them there where I'd left them, there probably wasn't anyone who would have taken them, and I could have found my keys that morning and been happy.  Of course an honest person turns things into the lost & found....

no-snow depression

I'm generally a fan of Christmas.  I do shy away a little bit, and frown upon the general over-indulgence and over-excitement of those around me, but I like Christmas.  This year however I haven't really warmed up to the idea.  I was gladly turned the holiday switch after thanksgiving buying a tree, putting up lights, and preparing for (hopefully) a great Christmas season.

Then days turned into weeks, Christmas was still weeks away, and I was getting pretty grinchy.  I had to go shopping once or twice and was annoyed by the crowds.  I've been out at night, several times, but I haven't wanted to see any Christmas lights.  Talk of going to Temple Square bored me, and the holidays seemed further away than ever.

Then today happened.  I went outside to my car and my spirits lifted.  SNOW!  It had snowed a light dusting durring the night, and everything seemed Chistmas-y in an instant.  Then as I worked through the morning I kept an eye outside and watched as the snow-flurrys kept coming and coming.  My jubilation at the beautiful weather made me realize, I need snow to make my Christmas complete.

Well if I ever live in Texas then I guess I might just skip Christmas, but for now, I am fully happy to welcome the real winter and the real Christmas.

craving

I'm really feeling the urge to post something, but I don't know what.  I often think of simple ideas to talk about while I'm working and stuff, but I don't remember them for long.  Life lately has been fairly mundane...

Oh wait!  I remember one of the more exciting things of the past week or two.  One night we went out to Cold Stone to get some ice cream.  All day at work I had been thinking about churros and I day-dreamed about churros mixed into ice cream.  So we went to Cold Stone and I quickly glanced at thier mix-in's list.... no churros or any other kind of cinnamon-covered pastry, sigh.  But then I saw this on a sign:

The Churro Carmel Crave.  It was wonderful, toasty churros, gooey carmel, and tasty french vanilla ice cream.  It was a dream come true.