i is mojo

the new and the new old school

2011-01-18T19:46:00.001-07:00

Mario Kart 64. Man. KB is addicted.

I love that she's so into N64 gaming. It's the new old school. I took it over to her house when she was tending her nephews for the night and left it there. She has been playing ever since.

That being said, this semester is all about gaming for me. I'm taking four classes and I think that I've had the most busy first two weeks of my college career. Senior project is coming along nicely. I've been working mostly on the sound and getting it to sound good. We don't have a whole lot of good sounds to add yet (other than the ones already added, that is) so the music is very limited. But nonetheless, I've been working like crazy to get what I can working.

My artificial intelligence class is going to be hard. I can already tell. Our first assignment is due in two days, and it is using python. I have no idea how to use it, and the tutorial (homework 00 -- a non-credit assignment, but negative points if you don't do it) gave me a basic understanding, but I'm still worried. I got my book in the mail. 1100 pages. If I could convey sarcasm over a blog, I would tell you about how much I love carrying my book. I have it at school with me today, and I'm not really thrilled. Yes, class is almost over and then I'm going home, and I still haven't opened it. Looks like other homework took priority and I didn't have time to get any of the hard class stuff done. Awesome. The funny thing is that the entire class is focused on Pacman. Ha.

I have two film classes, one is a continuation of a class from last semester called Game Development 1. The unambiguously titled class (Game Development 2) is at night and is hard to stay focused after a long day. My other film class is the only class I have on two weekdays. Yeah. I'm not a fan of classes all day two days a week and then ONE class on its own days each week. I hate driving to school for one class.

And although I'm complaining, my earliest class this semester is 12:30. Not too shabby.

So back to the fun part of gaming. I did something crazy. Or should I say, Krazy. I bought a Kinect.

For those who don't know, that's for the Xbox 360. It's made for playing your Xbox without controllers. YOU are the controller (Microsoft's slogan for its new product). It's pretty fun. I played Kinect Sports and I was sore for days. I'm excited for it to come.

The reason that I decided to get my Xbox (which I haven't actually gotten yet) is because I wanted a console that I could play my game I'm making on. It should be ready for me some time this week, so the Kinect should come about the same time I get my Xbox. Now I just need to make sure that I don't waste my precious time on.

Crap. Now I'm sure that I'm going to waste my time. I guess I can take it over to KB's house, but then I wouldn't be able to play my game on it for homework. Why isn't self-control easier?

five. laura luisa triana aguayo

2010-11-23T15:06:00.001-07:00

Location:	Guayaquil (Paraiso), Ecuador	Repayment Term:	14 months (more info)
Sector:	Services	Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Activity:	Sewing	Currency Exchange Loss:	N/A
Loan Use:	For the purchase of a sewing machine.	Default Protection:	Not Covered

Laura designs and sews clothing from her home. She lives in a periurban zone called Paraíso de la Flor, located in an area characterized by its dirt roads and mountains.

As a child she learned how to sew because she enjoyed it. But having had her children without their father, she decided to begin working on a sewing machine that she bought when she was young. Little by little she was able to sew and have some regular customers.

Currently, she does her design and alteration business from home. She works from 9am until her orders are done. She completes her work mending, sewing and designing by the end of the week.

With this loan she wants to buy a sewing machine, cloth and string, because what she has is old. In the future, she wants to have a different location for her business and to be secure in old age.

Translated from Spanish by Flavia Garcia (vol), Kiva Volunteer

Laura, confecciona y cose ropa en su casa. Vive en una zona periurbana llamada Paraíso de la flor ubicada en una zona caracterizada por sus caminos de tierra y montañas.

Desde pequeña ella aprendió a coser porque le gustaba. Pero al ya tener a sus hijos sin un padre decidió comenzar a trabajar en una máquina de coser que se la compro cuando era joven. Poco a poco pudo coser y tener ya un número definido de clientes. En la actualidad tienen su taller de costura y confección en su casa, trabaja desde las 09h00am hasta que termina sus pedidos. Realiza su trabajo haciendo enmendaduras, cociendo y confeccionando para entregarlo el fin de semana.

Con el préstamo quiere comprar una máquina de coser, telas, hilos porque la que tiene ya esta vieja. En el futuro quiere tener un local para su negocio y asegurar su vejez

i'm tired and i want to go home

2010-11-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

What can I say? I've been horrible about writing. And I know that I could just "vow to write more often" but we all know that won't happen. I've been busy and blogging has been the last thing on my mind.

For those of you who haven't dabbled in my other blog that I have to keep for school, I would say, "why would anyone want to read this?" So don't bother. Sadly, it's linked up to my Google Buzz account, so everyone who is following me gets to read it. Ha!

The last few weeks have been really hard on me and I've taken it out on those who are around me, and for that I'm sorry. My classes are not going as well as I had hoped. I started out this semester with an attitude that I was going to like every class. I even told myself that about a computer systems class which is very hard. I thought, "I'm going to be really busy, but it is going to be fun none-the-less." Sadly, it hasn't been the case, and this week has really showed me how unstable I am in school.

I've been spending as much time as I can in my hard class, but we have a midterm tomorrow and I don't know how to do any of the problems on the practice test.

I have to build a unix shell (for the same class I have the midterm) and I don't even know where to start.

I have a film project due tomorrow and I haven't even started it yet. I hope to get it done this weekend, but even then, that might be a stretch.

My other film class isn't going well either. I have to have a working game by Thursday, and we can't even import the models for the player, let alone the environment, correctly. We were put on "warning" and our game is probably going to get scrapped.

The only other class is my senior project which is surprisingly going well, but I hate being that guy who is leaning on the work of my group.

I spend so much of my time going from school work to emails to everything else. On average I get 25+ email a day that I have read and respond to. I'm overwhelmed. Luckily today has been kind and I've only gotten about 10 or so, but the day is still young. I'm stressed and I can't wait for some sort of break to come.

On top of that, I haven't been sleeping well... for weeks. I don't remember the last time I made it through the night. Huzzah. I'm sure it's stress-related, but I'm almost to the point of not functioning. I tried exercising, and KB was kind enough to come with me, but 6am was too early and I quickly lost motivation AND a running partner.

I'm sorry that this has turned into a pitty party, but I'm on my last leg...

and I can't buy lunch because I couldn't find my wallet this morning. I'm starving.

back to work

2010-11-02T20:49:00.000-06:00

Well, with a new (-to-me) computer, the semester is back in full swing. And with school being in session, that means that I'm back to work! Yay!

We had a demonstration to highschool teachers today and I think that it went pretty well. We have a lot of cool things to show them and I'm really excited about how well our presentation went. From the looks of it, we had the most entertaining and involving 30-minute block and our new group works extremely well together. We even have a teacher that has come up to us a few times to talk to us about what her students can do to get into computer science. Sweet!

happy flinstones day

2010-09-30T14:10:00.000-06:00

Yeah, you heard me. The Flintstones turned 50 today. The amazing things you learn from using Google.

So we're (my classmates and I) sitting in class now waiting for the capstone class to start. It seems that our game gained popularity. More-so than we expected... or wanted. We've been working hard to make our game look good in our presentation that we had on Tuesday, but we really don't want to work on it much longer. It's a great idea and concept, but it's outside the scope of the class. We could hack together a game pretty quickly, but making it fun to play and leveling out the players is going to me a ton of work.

For those that don't have any idea what I'm talking about, you can check out my other blog post (on the other blog) that I keep for the class. So... yeah.

Other than that, life has been quite uneventful. School keeps me so busy that I feel like I don't have a social life. Although, with the new computer, I was really sad that my pictures were lost, but I found some on the desktop in our home office. How awesome is that? I found some gems:

2010-09-14T23:19:00.001-06:00

er is ready. :-)

setbacks

2010-09-14T23:18:00.002-06:00

Temporary set back... mojolappy is out of commission. A tumble leads to a new computer. More on this story after the break... that is, when my new comput

fitting in

2010-09-04T12:00:00.000-06:00

Hello readers from St. George!

Yes, Mojo has taken the trip down to the hot part of the state with KB and her family. Apparently she got a lot of lip about inviting a boy down here, but she got over it pretty quickly. We got in last night just in time to grab some food, set up my N64, play a little Mario Kart, play loud enough to wake other people up in the house and go to bed.

The funny thing is, I brought a lot fo videogame equipment. I didn't go true "old school" on everyone and bring the SNES, but I wanted to. I thought that it might have been (rather, "I might have looked") a little too dorky, but judging from this:

I think I'll fit right in.

idea generator

2010-09-02T12:55:00.000-06:00

I sometimes wish I had an idea generator. This semester, I've been told to come up with multiple game ideas. I had to come up with a new game idea for a class (not the senior project) and what I came up with was a Bomberman-style game. I used to love Bomberman and I played it on consoles, computer, and even my TI-86. Yeah. I was a nerd even back then!

But I'm trying to be original in these ideas, but I'm feeling like my ideas are starting to get a little repetitive. Hmm. Maybe if I came up with an idea generator where all I would do would be to add in some confines and it would give me an idea.

Some of the ideas from my class have been interesting. I've actually liked some of them, but hearing pitch after pitch has been a little hard to really focus on. I'm getting tired and it's only the second week of the semester. I think it's time to go on vacation.

Oh wait, I have one planned! KB's family has invited me to go down to St. George with them this weekend. It's going to be pretty fun. I haven't been down there since I was in elementary school and I think it's time to go back. It's going to be nice because they boys in her family are all like me. They love games and they love CS. This bodes well for me.

I'm going to have to do quite a bit of homework while I'm there, so I might not be the funnest person in the whole world, but I'm going to try and keep that boring-ness to a minimum. I've gotten a few assignments to do over the weekend, which I think is totally lame. I can't believe that teachers think that over a long weekend, all I would want to do is homework. Yikes.

KB, I wish we were leaving today.

a new semester

2010-08-31T12:35:00.000-06:00

And thus begins one of the most fun semesters I am going to have of all time. Saweet!

This semester is the beginning of my senior year in Engineering Arts and Entertainment. What does that mean? Let me tell you. I have four classes.

Film class number one: Game development. Our first assignment was to play old school videogames from the NES and SNES and write about what it is about that game that I love.

Film class number two: An introduction to film development. We are going out and just making simple movies and learning about what makes movies so interesting.

CS class number one: Capstone project where I'll be creating a videogame to port to the Xbox 360. I've already started my pitch which is Peggle but in space where you can manipulate gravity either as the level or in certain powerups. Although even if it isn't picked (we whittle it down from 30 proposals to 2 games) the games I've seen in the other proposals would be fun.

Lastly, the non-fun CS class, but I'm not focusing on that one.

Doesn't that sound awesome? Now I just have to keep up to date with each of them and not die under the pressure. I'm sure this is going to be a blast.

Studying videogames. Who'd have thought?

perfect day

2010-07-31T23:59:00.026-06:00

So camping was a blast. I didn't tell you readers about it, but now you know. I'm going camping... yesterday

Lars and I have been wanting to go up camping for a while now and the event with the Party Planning Committee that I got really burned at wasn't exactly what we were looking for, so we drove near a city in Utah called Kamas and entered the national forest to do some fun stuff.

It was a little bit of a process, but in the end, it worked out quite well. We didn't know how many people were going to come until the day of, but we had plenty of food (in fact, we bought extra in Kamas and didn't touch it) and then made the drive. Our campsite that we wanted to go to was already reserved out and we were too late to make reservations for the others (5 days advance notice? What?) so we drove up in anticipation that we'd find one. We did. It was slightly hilly, but honestly, who cares, right?

A tinfoil dinner ("hobo dinner"), some hot chocolate, cobbler, and some guitar playing later and we headed off to bed. KB and the girls in one tent (Yes, she has a nickname on the blog now) and the boys in two smaller ones.

Breakfast in the morning was simple. We were going for simple cleanup so muffins won. We didn't even touch the bagels. We drove up to Mirror Lake (where we wanted to camp, but it was full) and walked around the lake. It was fun. There was a group with 3 iggies (Italian Greyhounds).

Then it was heading home (with a stop at Dick's Cafe in Kamas) to meet KB's family. So I should explain that KB is somewhat obsessed with two things: Sprite and Benihanas. We met three sisters, a brother and each of the spouses. 10 of us, being loud, somewhat ignoring the chef... it was great. I had a great time with them and from what I've heard, they kinda liked me too. Awesome.

The evening ended with a walk around Temple Square. What a perfect evening.

Oh, and one more picture of KB and I. You know, for good measure.

nicknames are hard to do

2010-07-29T19:26:00.001-06:00

So, I started dating someone pretty recently. She is an amazing girl. I only have one problem; I can't think of a name to call her on this blog.

Since the inception of this blog, I've started to use pseudonyms more prevalently, but I don't have one for her yet. Most of the other people I talk about, at least the girls, have numbered nicknames because they usually have the same name. I started this quite a while back when I was dating a girl with the same name as a friend. To avoid confusion, there was 1 and 2.0 (because the second one was WAY more fun). And ever since that time, anyone with that name gets a numbered nickname. But this girl doesn't have that name. Too bad.

That leaves me is right between a rock and a hard place. We haven't really known each other long enough to have nicknames or funny inside jokes yet, although she does like the nickname of "Mojo" (but then again, who wouldn't?). Hmmm.

I don't want to rush a nickname because anyone that would drive around the city, find a random house that left fireworks out, and then not only consider, but ACT on Mojo's idea of putting them on their porch to find in the morning...

deserves an AWESOME nickname.

thought provoking questions

2010-07-22T16:30:00.001-06:00

The frustrations of my class seem more like a fire being continually fueled by new annoyances. Here's the one from today.

Every week or so, we get assigned study questions that we work on and usually ask good questions about the information covered that week. I like them for the most part, but I feel like the information is good, but the questions can be AWFUL.

While working on one this week I came across this question:

In-and-of itself it's a good question. I admit that it was good enough that I had to look at the key to know the answer was "d." But here's what I thought was idiotic about it. I cut off the next question:

Yeah. You see that? Now can anyone in their right mind tell my why that would be an "important concept of Biology" and help me to "make connections" and "not just fly by using memorization" in a class where each of those are what she sees as important in a class like this? It's nothing but pure laziness and what seems to be a question based on busy work!

Breathe Mojo, breathe...

the next step

2010-07-22T16:06:00.000-06:00

So I'm taking the next step in interweb-itude. It starts with my new email addresses, and ends with pure awesomeness.

That's right. We're moving away from morganreynolds.info, and moving into the Dot Com world.

For the time being, morganreynolds.info will still redirect you to the new address, but from hence forth, we're going big with

iIsMojo.com

I'm pretty jazzed about it. I know that this only makes me more of a nerd, but at least I love doing this sort of stuff. I have to say, I was a little nervous that this wasn't going to work. We had a little hiccup that seemed to resolve itself pretty quickly.

For some reason (I blame the cache) my computer wouldn't go to iismojo.com. It just kept giving me errors. I checked my DNS, all my forwarding information, everything. Seems that once I used another machine (via VNC of course. It's not like I'm going to get out of my chair) everything was working. Cleared cache and an annoying restart later, everything on the mojoLappy was working just fine.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing with the old .info site for now, but I'm sure I'll use it for my portfolio eventually. I'll let you all (aka, my mother) know when that day comes though.

word of the day

2010-07-22T10:55:00.000-06:00

I sure hope that everyone saw Dictionary.com's Word of the Day: morganatic

ouch

2010-07-17T23:41:00.000-06:00

So this weekend, I did a bad thing. I was so good all last weekend up until Friday. I forgot sunblock and boy am I paying the price.

We did a campout near Morgan (the city. Yeah, I know. It was confusing all weekend) starting on Thursday and going through today. But my misfortune would bring me to my knees on Friday and I came home early. I drove late Friday night and got home around 11:00 to tend to my sun-scathed wounds.

But here's the really cool part. Everyone kept saying that I should try this trick to heal a sunburn. I figured that it couldn't hurt (too much) so I'd give it a try. To be honest, I'm a little impressed and I think I might keep doing this in the future. Now mind you, I've read some articles online that make it sound like you put it on and, magically, it's like you never were in the sun to begin with. THAT is a little too far-fetched, but it worked on me. My burns don't hurt.

So if you haven't already used the link from above, here's the trick: Vinegar.

Yeah, you read right. But read it again if you'd like. See? Still what you read before.

I was shocked. All I did was take a shower in somewhat cool water (Come on. I can't take a hot one with a sunburn), dried off, and them sprayed on the magic concoction (Can a concoction consist of one ingredient?) and I feel great. I feel the burn, but the burn doesn't hurt. I can tell my skin is a little upset, but it's like it was screaming at me, and I just walked out of the room, shut the door and put in some headphones. Yeah, it's probably still screaming, but honestly, I'm already jamming out and dancing in the living room. Awesome.

So the weekend was okay. I need to be diplomatic because I honestly don't know who reads this thing (cough. Just my mom) but I feel like there was a lot of planning that went on, but the planning wasn't really organized in a way that made it clear to everyone. The camping was great. The spot was gorgeous, the pond was "stocked" with fish and we even had rented port-o-potties out there. Meals were hit-and-miss though. Some of the ingredients were missing for some meals, others were perfect pseudo-camping style meals. I think that the planning people were great and they put a lot of work into this, don't get me wrong. I just think there were a few miscommunications about activities and meals.

Sadly, by Friday, I was already hating life due to 3 hours of sleep and skin like unto a fried fish, so I called it quits and didn't stay for the boating planned for Saturday. Oh well. I guess I can learn to wakeboard some other time.

online treasures

2010-07-15T11:12:00.015-06:00

Is this like my new email addresses?:

complex variables

2010-07-12T18:02:00.001-06:00

Take one of these:

Add a couple of these:

Put them in this:

Subtract this:

And then for good measure, put this at the end:

And what do you get?

You got it. Awesomeness.

By the way, White Pine backpacking trip was a success. We went up Logan Canyon on Friday morning, hiked (4 miles) to the camp ground, spent the night, came back down and made it in time for the demolition derby. It was my first one ever and it WON'T be the last!

online treasures

2010-06-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

Found this on a test I was taking online for a biology class. I loved that it was part of the answer.

fish sticks and guitar music

2010-06-30T20:44:00.002-06:00

My niece and nephews staying with us are pretty fun. We just had dinner and they were a blast tonight. I wasn't able to spend most of the day with them (like each day since Sunday) because I had a study group for a quiz I have tomorrow. But when I came home, we had a great time.

Dinner was a classic dinner at the RFC. Yeah, you guessed it. Fish sticks.

We love fish sticks at this house. We eat them all the time. My father is actually quite in love with them. We have them about once a week but tonight they were also accompanied by home made baked fries and a romain lettuce salad. Yum.

But the best part of the evening was sitting in the front yard. We haven't had a great bench in the front yard so it normally gets quite a bit of neglect. But for Father's Day, we got my father a new bench and it's changed how we spend time here at the RFC. It's warm so now we can spend as much time as we'd like out there. We all sat around the yard on the bench and some camping chairs. I got my guitar, my father played his, and we sang songs that the kids knew and loved.

Summer rocks.

life is like lego star wars

2010-06-27T16:57:00.001-06:00

So I've spent the day with my niece and nephew. It's been a blast. I have learned a lot from my nephew who is 5 (although he claims to be 200), mainly that babies are born knowing how to do backflips, climb houses and jump off without getting hurt. Little did you know, right?

You can learn a lot from kids. I have found that my nephew follows after my own love of videogames. While the rest of the family was getting some sleep (8-hour time difference calls for some jet-lag) he played games on my computer for quite a while. In fact, in anticipation, I bought some games on Steam for just this occasion. Not too long ago, I sent them a link to Sushi Cat, a flash game that is well known and easy to play and they have loved it. So, since Steam decided to have a major sale, I thought, "why not?"

So in a depression of spending way too much money on things that don't matter, I thought, I'll buy some for me to make myself feel better. Here's the list of new games:

(For the kids... and myself)
Plants Vs. Zombies
Peggle Deluxe
Toki Tori

(for me)
Audiosurf
Deus Ex
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal
Team Fortress 2

So yeah... I may have gone a little overboard. It's okay though, I figure that I've wanted these games for a while and they were all on sale. Nice.

Just so you don't think that this is all we do, I've also had them on the trampoline and playing outside. I'm not THAT irresponsible.

all in a days work

2010-06-23T18:56:00.001-06:00

There's a reason that I love my job. That reason is because it rocks.

There has been a summit planed where kids would come and see each of the engineering groups do presentations about their field and how it "changes the quality of life." And as a naturally born awesome person, of course they came to me (and my group) to present on behalf of the computer science department. We were thrilled because we really haven't had much to do since school got out, so we quickly got to work coming up with some ideas to show how computer science helps for a better life.

First stop, the SCI institute. Now SCI does some pretty cool things. They have movies about doctors who are doing surgery on patients just by looking at monitors doing images and representations of what they are working on, they have models of chemical explosions with timelines to see how everything looks at a given time in 3D space, and countless other cool stuff. So we thought, "Hey, let's do a tour!"

Next, we recycled the module they did from last year. It's based on a simple green screen and the program would take in the first photo, and a second photo to overlay on only the green parts. This is a thing they do in basic movie making to make the characters look like they are somewhere else because the second image (of Mt. Everest or cemetery) is overlaid. This makes actors happy, because they don't have to climb Mt. Everest nor do they have to deal with rotting corpses climbing out of the ground hunting bbrrrraaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnsssss.

For two weeks setup and stress, the group coming was a tad smaller than I had expected. There were only eight. Now, don't get me wrong, this worked out pretty well for us because we could do some more one-on-one helping with our presentation (which rocked. Hard core) but I hope to get the word out a little earlier next time so we can have TONS of kids.

It was fun and I think the group had fun too. They were quiet, but they seemed interested in the stuff they were doing with our groups today. We go again Friday so they can show us their finale. (A letter/ powerpoint going to the governor). Awesome.

spring brings color

2010-05-13T21:45:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm not normally one to just post another cliche, but this view ROCKED tonight.

four. julia piedad castro moran

2010-05-12T15:41:00.002-06:00

(A loan from my mother)

Location:	Guayaquil (suburbio), Ecuador	Repayment Term:	14 months (more info)
Activity:	Catering	Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	For rice, seafood, cement and concrete blocks.	Currency Exchange Loss:	N/A
		Default Protection:	Not Covered

Julia, 58, lives in a periurban area in El Suburbio, Guayaquil; she sells prepared lunches from home. All of her children are married and she lives alone because she separated from her husband a few years back.

Julia started her lunch business when her children got married and she separated from her husband. Because she lacked income she decided to invest her savings in rice, vegetables, meats and seafood for her lunches. She started to home deliver them among her friends and neighbors and gradually her business grew.

Now she sells lunches using her home’s dining room where customers can come eat because she doesn’t have enough money to have a place to set up a restaurant.

She will use the loan to buy rice and seafood and she’ll use part of it to buy cement and concrete blocks to remodel her house.

She would love to have a place for her restaurant and a minimart in the future.

Translated from Spanish by Michael Bujazan, Kiva Volunteer

Julia de 58 años, vive en una zona periurbana en el Suburbio de Guayaquil, actualmente vende almuerzos en su casa. Ya todos sus hijos se casaron y vive sola ya que se separo de su esposo hace unos años atrás.

Julia empezó el negocio de almuerzo cuando sus hijos se casaron y cuando se separo de su esposo. Por la falta de ingresos decidió invertir sus ahorros en arroz, legumbres, carnes, mariscos para la venta de almuerzos, comenzó a repartir almuerzos a sus vecinos y amigos en sus casas, poco a poco fue creciendo su negocio.

Ahora ella vende almuerzo utilizando el comedor de su casa para que las personas vallan a comer porque no tiene un local para un restaurante por falta de dinero. Con el préstamo quiere comprar arroz, mariscos y también una parte del dinero quiere comprar cemento y bloques para remodelar su casa.

En el futuro quiere tener un local para su restaurante y también un minimarket.

three. amaris del rosario escandón gòmez

2010-05-07T23:00:00.000-06:00

Location:	San Jacinto-bolívar, Colombia	Repayment Term:	14 months (more info)
Activity:	Crafts	Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	The purchase of thick yarn to produce hammocks woven on a vertical loom and to make purses and backpacks.	Currency Exchange Loss:	Covered
		Default Protection:	Not Covered

Amaris Escandón Gómez is 55 years old and lives in San Jacinto, a municipality in the Bolívar town center known for the production of artisinal goods like hammocks, purses, and backpacks. Amaris is shopkeeper and producer of artisinal goods, a traditional activity inherited from her mother. The products that she makes the most are backpacks that she makes at night, and hammocks that she makes with her sisters and mother. Additionally, Amaris works in a company in the morning, while her husband does field work. She has had two loans with Fundación Santo Domingo which have improved her family income and allowed her to improve her living conditions. The loan she requests will be invested in the purchase of thick yarn to to make woven hammocks on a vertical loom, and also to make purses and backpacks.

She expresses that she has seen difficult times during periods of violence when her husband could not work in the countryside, when it was up to her to take charge of the majority of household expenses; thank God the situation has changed and today most sajacinteros[those from San Jacinto] can work in the countryside again. In the future, Amaris dreams of improving her home, which she owns, and of helping one of her three kids finish their university studies this coming year.
Translated from Spanish by Flavia Garcia, Kiva Volunteer

Amaris Escandón Gómez tiene 55 años y vive en San Jacinto, municipio del centro de Bolívar conocido por la elaboración de artesanías, tales como hamacas, bolsos y mochilas. Amaris es comerciante y productora de artesanías, actividad tradicional heredada de su madre. Los productos que más fabrica son las mochilas, las cuales elabora en horas de la noche y las hamacas que las elabora con sus hermanas y su mamá. Además, Amaris trabaja en una empresa en las horas de la mañana, mientras su esposo se dedica a labores del campo. Ha tenido 2 créditos con la Fundación Mario Santo Domingo los que le han aumentado su ingreso familiar e hicieron que pudiera mejorar sus condiciones habitacionales. El crédito que ahora solicita lo invertirá en la compra de hilaza para producir hamacas tejidas en telar vertical y también para la elaboración de bolsos y mochilas.

Manifiesta que ha visto tiempos difíciles durante tiempos de violencia cuando su esposo no podía trabajar en el campo debido a aquella problemática y entonces a ella le tocó encargarse de la mayor parte de los gastos del hogar; gracias a Dios la situación se ha cambiado y ahora los sanjacinteros pueden trabajar en el campo de nuevo. Más adelante, Amaris sueña con mejorar su vivienda, la cual es una casa propia y con ayudar a uno de sus tres hijos para que realice sus estudios universitarios el año que viene.

two. inna savchina

2010-05-07T22:56:00.006-06:00

Location:	Kherson, Ukraine	Repayment Term:	8 months (more info)
Activity:	Grocery Store	Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	To increase the assortment of food to sell	Currency Exchange Loss:	Possible
		Default Protection:	Covered

Inna is married with two children. She has a business that sells various kind of food. She started this business 15 years ago with one small table at the market. Today Inna has two kiosks at the market and a small store that sells food items in bulk for other vendors. Inna has very strong entrepreneurial skills. Her business story is a great example for her friends and colleagues to follow.

Inna would like to borrow 14,700 UAH to increase the assortment of food she sells. She hopes to increase her sales during the coming Christmas season

one. thalia lizeth escalera sánchez

2010-05-07T22:55:00.001-06:00

Location:	Nuevo Laredo, Mexico	Repayment Term:	15 months (more info)
Activity:	Teaching and Schools	Repayment Schedule:	Monthly
Loan Use:	To pay for school fees	Currency Exchange Loss:	Possible
		Default Protection:	Not Covered

Thalia Lizetha Escalera is a mother of two small children and is studying to be an accountant. However, right now she is requesting a loan to pay her school fees since she doesn't have the money necessary to pay them.

She works as a seller at a telephone company which is the income that she uses for her studies and will use to repay the loan, since her husband Roberto Coronel covers the household expenses.

Translated from Spanish by Donald Allen, Kiva Volunteer

La señora Thalia Lizeth Escalera es madre de dos pequeños hijos y está estudiando la carrera de contador público.
Pero en este momento solicita un préstamo para poder pagar la colegiatura y el titulo profesional, ya que no cuenta con el dinero necesario para liquidar.
Ella trabaja como vendedora en una compañía de teléfono, este es el ingreso que tiene para sus estudios y pagar el crédito ya que los gastos familiares los cubre su esposo el señor Roberto Coronel.

the micro loan

2010-05-07T22:52:00.001-06:00

So I got an email from Kiva today to remind me that Mother's Day was coming up. They had some gift certificates that they wanted to sell. Kiva is a pretty cool non-prof though. I think I first heard about them from watching A LOT of commercials on Hulu. And getting to know the company by checking out their website was pretty cool. I've really enjoyed doing micro loans to people.

A friend of mine named Frances said that it was her goal this year to make one micro loan. What a great goal that is. I think I'm going to follow her lead. My goal, to get someone else to make a micro loan.

So in that light, I'm posting 3 posts (is that redundant?) about the people that I have loaned money to in hopes that it will get you to think about doing the same.

Woot.

singing, "schools out for... two weeks"

2010-05-06T14:02:00.001-06:00

Well, finals are done. My last one was today. Yikes, that was an intense semester ("like the circus, and camping." ha!)

Things are winding down, and we all know what that means. Yes, it's a short break before summer semester begins. I really wish I had more time to myself to relax, but I am self-imposing these schedules so that I can graduate without killing myself. Although, I have been running into some major snags along the way.

I got my acceptance letter from SLCC (...huzzah...) but it said I wasn't a resident of Utah. Okay, shut the front door. I'm totally a resident. Jerks. I had to call them and settle the whole thing. It didn't take too long, but I was informed that before I could sign up for classes, I would have to come in and do their orientation. Having been a college student far longer than I would like to admit, I didn't feel it all that important. But, I COULDN'T register for a class until it was done.

I found out that I could do it online. I was stoked. It took ten minutes and I was feeling quite good when it told me that it would take up to two more days for them to process my online orientation. And here I thought when I pressed the "Complete" button, I was done.

All-in-all I got it all set up and I tried to add the class. Red letters sirens and all such forth were overwhelming me and I soon found out why. The class was full. Not only full, but TOO full. In the books, it's a class that seats 35. That is a great class size and I was pretty excited to have a Physics class that wasn't over 200 students. But there were 51 enrolled. Yeah, you heard me. 51 enrolled students in a class of 35.

I called the professor and asked if there was anything I could do. When I didn't get a response, I emailed her. Seems like she won't add anyone else into the class until at least 10 people drop out and she said that won't happen within the first week and she wasn't willing to let someone in after the first week. Sheesh.

Well, So here I am, getting ready to take Physics from the U which I was avoiding in the first place. I guess you can't always win... Maybe I'll get the time to myself to relax after all.

interview

2010-04-15T11:08:00.003-06:00

Self reflected Microsoft interview Score: B+

Here's the rundown of what they asked:

Write two programs to calculate the Fibonacci sequence - One iterative and one recursive

Tape with the numbers 1...Million with one number missing. Only looking once at the tape, how do you find which number is missing?

If you owned a elevator business and you did the quality control, what tests would you run on an elevator put into a hospital?

We were on the phone about twice as long as was expected which she apologized for... good? bad?

1 @m 5u(h @ d*r|{

2010-03-31T22:30:00.001-06:00

So I just wrote a program that will change what you type into craziness. Let me give you an example aside from the title of the post...

$o i ju57 wR*73 a PR*graM that Wil) [han9e w4@7 y*U tyP3 int* cr@Z1n3$5_ |37 Me 91V3 y*U an 3XaMPle @$ide FroM th3 717|3 *f th3 P*$t___

Yeah. I know. I'm a dork.

(I'm not sure how I feel about having the "h" be a 4...)

Although I guess it's not all that surprising. It's what I like to do. That wasn't an assignment or anything, I just did it because I had some spare time one day.

Dorkiness runs in the family though. I'm the first in the family to officially study dorkitude, but everyone loves it. My oldest brother has been as dorky as I since I can remember.

I remember when he worked coding HTML locally (and I hope you know that I spend all my time with people who will argue for quite a while about how HTML isn't a language for no more reason than to show how much they know about HTML and coding), and in his spare time... you guessed it... he taught me.

This was WELL before the days of what some dubbed "FakeTML" programs like Dreamweaver, iWeb, etc. That was back in the good ol' days when you coded each line yourself, and the walk to the computer was 2 miles, uphill both ways... in the snow.

His dorkiness and mine are the most similar in the family. Most everyone else has their own outlets. Songs titled, "Love is like a Refillable Mug" were invented at the RFC, a brother has 4 pinball machines, my father used to collect VCRs and bread machines, a sister did have a collection of snow-globes, and the list continues.

But here's the best part. That's why we are so dang cool. Each of us has our own passions and yet, although some of them are stupid enough to be creating a program that changed the letters of a sentence, we still accept each other, despite the dork that lives within. I have never heard anything but positive things about what I find fun and interesting.

I guess that's what family is though. It's not the blood that binds us, but the attitude we show to each other for our passions, or problems and even our mistakes.

Plus, they're a fun group to vacation with...

PS - The image at the beginning was taken from a Google image search. I thought I HAD to add it because I did a search for "nerd programmer" and within the first 10 images, I found a picture that looks amazingly like my brother...

big things come in small names

2010-03-25T22:08:00.000-06:00

Have you ever thought it funny that such a large company has a name that starts with "Micro?"

I got my resume all typed up and sent it off. I hope to hear back soon. An internship over the summer would be fantastic. I know I'm getting into the game a little late, but it's always worth a shot.

It's been a fun spring break. I was a little shocked that it was Thursday today. Honestly, I went through the entire day thinking that it was Wednesday. Weird. I've been quite productive and I hope to get everything done this week that I need so I can focus on school. I'm cutting it down pretty close to the wire, but I'm sure I can work it out.

I've been working with my new job and I have quite a few new leads. It really helps that my mother worked for the school district and seems to know everyone that I would need to talk to. In fact, she got me talking with the people whose job is to find people like me. Nice. I'll be making a few more calls tomorrow before everyone goes home for the weekend to see if I can get some more headway on this project. I'm pretty excited about it.

I did get to visit Slagle while I was down at the highschool the other day. She's great. It was the morning before a concert so it seemed that she was pretty busy getting everything done. She made a huge impact on my highschool days. It was fun to see her and I hope that when we get up and running at that school, that I'll be able to say hello more frequently.

Why does spring break go so quickly?

list

2010-03-19T13:35:00.003-06:00

Thumbs down button on remote

Pencil holder

Pen

Soda can

DVD cover

Shirt

A/V cables

Book

American flag

Uncle Sam's bowtie

Candy

Picture frame

Magazine

Child's toy bus

Model airplane

Dish towel

Painting

Shoes

And that concludes the things around me that are red.

it is time part ii

2010-03-18T13:48:00.001-06:00

That's it folks. As of today, I no longer work at the bank. (I feel like I can say that now that I don't work there)

I have learned a lot from that job and it was actually pretty hard to leave. The people at that branch are awesome and I loved working with them. I did have frustrating days, as everyone does sometimes, but I came out of that a better person with a skill set that can be applicable to a whole lot of areas.

So here's the thing. I think I need to celebrate. A new job, a lot fewer hours (which is going to help me with school), and the fact that this week has been so busy that I could throw up.

So readers and buzzers, here's the plan.

BREAKFAST!

Woot woot!

This Saturday morning I want to get whoever wants to come with me and get some breakfast (I already know what I'm going to order) at a little place called Chick's Cafe in Heber. It's a bit of a drive, but it will be fun with friends, trust me!

So if you are interested, meet me at my house at 9:30 so we can drive up there, get some breakfast! It'll be fun.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=374653598742

it is time

2010-03-14T21:19:00.001-06:00

At least it will be in 3:12:58:10 (3 days, 12 hours, 58 minutes and 10 seconds)

But who's counting, right?

onward and upward

2010-03-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

Okay readers (and Google Buzzers), it official. I put in my two weeks.

I went in and spoke with my boss and made it unofficially official. The unofficial comes from the fact that we're going to count the two weeks as of tomorrow. So that makes tomorrow officially official.

Leaving is bittersweet. I have learned a lot from my job and I adore the people that I work with. They are pretty awesome so I'm sad to say goodbye.

But don't worry. (I know you were worrying.) I have something else lined up. In fact, I was offered the position today. (Which is why I put in the two weeks. Both jobs would be too much for me) I am going to have an amazing new job that I am very excited about. Want to know what it is? Well, I'll tell you. Just keep reading. It's just after this... Wait for it... wait for it...

duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba duh ba (That's a drum roll)

KA-TCSHHHHHHH! (That's the symbols that usually follow drum rolls)

I'll be working for the University. Ah yeah baby! I'm going to be designing curriculum to promote Engineering (with an emphasis on the Computer Science Department of course) in highschools around here. I'm going to be picking a topic that interests me, make some module (lesson) that I can share and then go and share it. I know. Can you imagine me teaching some aspect of why CS is so awesome? 'Cuz I can. And I will.

Ideally, I'll be writing it so that others can take my module and teach it themselves in the future. I'm EXTREMELY excited about it.

So if you have any ideas on something that I can do (and I'm sure I'm going to get 30 buzzes from my friends about making a remote fart noise maker or something similar) comment/buzz and let me know.

Yay for an awesome new job!

domain

2010-02-25T13:36:00.002-07:00

Wahahahahaha!

So GoDaddy is having a sale on domain names and renewals. I tried to use the coupon code for the renewal (BUY2010 = $1.17 for 1-year or 1-year renewal. Go buy one for yourself!) but it seems that .info sites were off the list. Oh well.

So I did the next best thing. I bought another one.

For the time being, I won't be moving anything. But when the time comes, and there will be ample warning, I'll move the site over to the new address.

What is the address you ask? Oh. iismojo.com! Yay! Now the name of my blog will be the same as the URL!

The interweb just got that much more cluttered with crap.

japanese baseball league

2010-02-24T16:59:00.007-07:00

What?

No. It sounds strange to me too. I'm not really sure why the Japanese Baseball League is so interesting and important when it comes to databases, but it is.

Let me explain.

So I came into the computer lab today (where I am currently, and currently avoiding starting yet another project) to finish some homework assignments that are due tonight at 11:59. It's pretty fun stuff. Databases seem to be the most captivating of all aspects of computer science. If you haven't caught on the sarcasm yet, I'm not sure I can lay it on any thicker.

Well, the assignments that I have to do is a barrage of multiple choice questions. To make sure that people don't just get the answers from answering wrong a lot of times, they have some fail-safes. (Calm down. I'll get to the JBL in a second) The first of which is the 10-minute delay before starting again. If you get it wrong, you wait 10 minutes until you can restart the assignment. Although the benefit is that you can take it as many times as you want... with a ten minute delay...

The other? Random answers. There is one correct answer each time they ask, but there are multiple right answers that can show up. An example (non Computer Science):

Fill in the blank

An apple is _______ .

Okay. There are a few correct answers here:
Red
Delicious
Round
a Fruit

And multiple wrong answers too:
Black
15 lbs
Made of metal
a port for highspeed internet
etc..

Now... each time you start the assignment, it randomly picks 1 correct answer and 3 (or more) incorrect answers. Yikes. So none of that, "Well, it wasn't a, b, or c. It must be d," for this assignment.

Here's the kicker. Each of the questions (there were 12 on this assignment) started with the exact same phrase:

EVERY QUESTION. Now I don't know about you, but I really don't care about the latest Japanese Baseball League scores. I just don't care.

open

2010-02-14T15:45:00.002-07:00

Yikes. My last post was about 2 weeks ago. I need to be better about this.

Well, tomorrow is a Federal Holiday. And we all know what that means: No school or work... except that I have to work.

Yep, that's right. My work (which told me NEVER to divulge what/where/who my employment is via blogging) is going to be open for the holiday. I have to say that the sign reading said news on the door was a huge disappointment on Friday when I walked in. Oh well, I guess that there isn't much you can do, especially when you feel the dread dread of walking in the front door each time you go.

I've been thinking a lot about my job right now. I'm feeling very overwhelmed with school and work at the moment. I don't feel appreciated at my job either which doesn't help the whole situation. We (my bosses and I) had a talk the other day about my job. They didn't think that I had been doing as much as I could have so they threatened me with the "Official Warning." For fun, I decided to count how many times from that moment on that I heard the words, "Good Job" directed toward me. That was 3 weeks ago. Friday was number 1. (Which was after I told my boss about that)

So school and work move ever forward. That and Steam games going on sale. I bought 2 recently and I don't really have a computer to play them on... nor the time... But for $7 for two games, I'm not going to feel much remorse. I'll have time when I become a millionaire.

I have a good feeling about: 4 8 15 16 23 42 as the lotto numbers.

Oh, and yes, I've gotten back into Lost. Season three. Don't ruin it for me.

goodbye week 3 hello week 4

2010-02-01T14:30:00.003-07:00

With school going on, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of excitement going on in my life. In fact, it's all been pretty boring. I rarely have time to really get out and play, and when I finally get some time, I feel too stretched thin to even WANT to go and do fun things. Yikes. And yes, the picture above IS my calendar from last week...

School this week was a little rough. I had 4 assignments and a test this week and honestly, I don't know how I'm still alive. The classes that I've been taking this semester are funny because half of them are pretty hard, and the other half look and act easy until right before a test or assignment.

I was feeling frustrated with my Biology class this week too. This is the one that the teacher sent out an email saying, "If you are not a Pre Med or Physical Therapy, etc, don't take this class." Well, sadly I don't have much choice. I'm taking the class and there is nothing you (nor I) can do about it!

We had a test on the first two chapters of the book. I was really excited about this teacher because of how she spoke the first day of class about not wanting us to just regurgitate information. She really wants us to learn. I have a lot of respect for teachers who understand that, but her test did NOT reflect that.

First of all, she had the test as the final 30 minutes of class (a two hour class mind you) after a lecture with new information. I thought that was just a crewel joke. Yes, it does weed out those who just cram before the test. What she fails to realize is how LOW LEVEL her questions are for wanting us to really learn. "Define xyz…" WHAT?!?! So after a long lecture with new information, you expect us to remember definitions? THAT is not good teaching… it's called being vindictive.

Luckily, all my classes made the assignments and test due last week, so this week is going to be a breeze. Thanks for all the great planning university! But with a week with only 1.5 assignments due, it does give me time to play "get ahead"… or "catch up" in some places…

Oh, funny conversation I overheard this week:

Girl1: Hey! How are you and Ed?
Girl2: Ed? Ed who?
Girl1: Oh. Aren't you married to Ed?
Girl2: Sorry, no.
--At this point, anyone would move off the subject--
Girl1: Are you sure?
Girl2: --pause-- yeah.
Girl1: Who are you married to then?
Girl2: --pause-- John
Girl1: --pause-- Oh.

Girl2 Leaves

Girl1: I'm pretty sure she's married to Ed.

greatest snow on earth

2010-01-24T11:10:00.008-07:00

Now, the slogan of the state may be a lofty statement, and as we have seen this season, the snow hasn't been up to snuff, but this week was absolutely pristine.

Forecast for the previous week....

Monday: Snow

Tuesday: Snow

Wednesday: Chance of snowy showers

Thursday: Snow

Friday: Snow

Saturday: HUGE snow storm.

Yeah, you heard me. It was amazing.

Friday, 2.0 and I drove up to Brighton for night skiing (boarding). On friday, chains or 4x4 was required, but we were in luck. We loaded our gear into the trooper (nameless as of yet), switched into 4x4 and started the trek. I had a group

of friends that were going to meet us up there about an hour after we were planning on arriving, so she and I drove up the snow-covered roads to the

top of the canyon.

It was the most amazing snow I have ever boarded on in my life, and any misgivings I have had about Utah snow were thrown out of a high window. Imagine taking a path and loosing sight of the gear strapped to your feet because there was just too much fluffy powder.

Any Google search you do with the words, "Utah" and "Snow" will bring up pictures like this one:

or this one:

But I promise you, THIS is what it looked like on Friday and Saturday. We didn't take pictures because one, we are dumb, and two, I didn't have my camera and my phone is too hard to use with gloves on. But still.

Well, because of the snow on the roads, like I said earlier, 4x4 or chains were required which kept the crowds on Friday down to a bare minimum. There were lines, but no wait was longer than a minute.

But sadly, this did mean that Mojo's friends who were coming up later couldn't make it. Little to my knowledge, they didn't have a car with 4x4 and so they called it quits. It's too bad. I would have sacrificed a half hour at the bottom of the canyon to wait for them (in all my trooper goodness), but alas, they didn't even text me until I was down for the night wondering why they hadn't called me when they got there. Sad.

Saturday (not the 2-for-1 deal so no one else wanted to pay full price -- I have a pass so I don't need to plan around that) was the same. The only downfall was that my goggles (new this season) were awful. I'm going to take them back. They would fog up inside the lens (not just the inside of the google. Fog in the part you can't wipe) and I just couldn't see. I tried the whole not wearing them thing, but with the blizzard, it did make it hard to see with snow smacking my eyeballs.

Next time (this Friday after I return my my goggles) we'll get some great pics.

After snowboarding on Saturday, we rushed down, got changed and went to a Golden Globe Birthday, where we came up with the shows that we were being nominated for, and then won our own prizes. Imagine Mojo in his tux from high school accepting this award for best actor in a TV series Second Degree Burn Notice:

spring semester here i come

2010-01-17T11:31:00.004-07:00

So yet another semester has begun, and we all know what that means… time to pay lots of money so I can be poor again! Yay!

So I tried to come up with some good ways to cut costs in any way I could. I sold one of my textbooks online. It was the first textbook that I have ever sold back at any point. I got $60 for the book so it’s a wonder why I haven’t done it in the past. So I’ve got that going for me. All the other textbooks are sadly outdated because they co

me out with a new edition every year… just to screw with me…

So I’ve decided to cut cost by trying something new: Renting a textbook.

Chegg.com is a website that will rent textbooks. It’s a genius idea. I head about the website in my Biology class. One of the other students brought up the fact that you can rent from them which is perfect for my needs… I don’t need more textbooks lying

around my room for years to come. Plus, with the website, because they are trying to promote reprinting of books and going green, they plant a tree for each book that you rent. How cool is that? Plus, when I ordered, it was $20 cheaper than buying used online.

So my Biology book came in the mail yesterday.

It came with some great goodies. First, the book. Because without that, this would be a pretty pointless transaction.

Next, a small explanation about the tree that was planted for renting a book from them

Now, you’d think that was it. NO! Yes, that’s right, a FREE chegg.com pen

What? Still not convinced at how amazing this company is? Well, don’t worry, there is one more thing that just puts them over the top…

[I left it in the other car. I'll have to post a pic later.]

Yeah. My very own slap bracelet to keep forever and ever. Heck yeah. Could this be any cooler?

Well, I guess if I didn’t have to get a textbook… but let’s stay positive.

nightmare

2009-12-15T15:15:00.002-07:00

Have you ever had that nightmare where you go to your class one day and when you walk in, you don’t have any of your books or anything else. It is only after you sit down that you realize that your teacher is handing out an extremely hard test that you had completely forgotten about? Then, as you look at the test, you realize that you have no idea what is going on and everyone keeps talking to you about how easy it is.

You then, in a panic start to write your name at the top and then read the first question. Then the horrible words spewing forth from the mouth of your teacher:

“Everyone, hand in your test. You’re time is up.”

As you realize that you haven’t written anything except your name, you slowly walk to the front of the room. And turn in your exam. You know that it’s going to get no credit and all you can think about is dying right then and right there. Suddenly a cool breeze comes wafting past. It’s colder than it should be, like someone opened up the door to the outside and some winter winds came rushing in, although you know that it’s not that cold.

Oh great. You’re naked. In front of the class, and for some odd reason, they only now are beginning to notice that you are naked. Luckily, you are in a class of 95% males (I’m a male, so that makes sense) but that seems to make you more nervous because all the guys you know from the class start pointing and whispering… then laughing historically at you.

As you run outside, you see all the girls you ever dated (who knows why they are all in the engineering building) and they all want to come talk to you, somehow oblivious to the fact that you are naked running from a class. After a calm conversation, where you step lightly as to not let them know that you are naked, they then want to introduce you to their boyfriend.

Yeah. Those dreams suck. So guess how my day went today…

Well, I guess this whole story starts on Monday. I hadn’t looked at the schedule the week before so I didn’t know what days I as working. As I gazed on the organization of my life dictated by those who seem to be in charge of even the most minor details of my life such as where I’ll be every morning at 8:15, I found something that I thought might be a discrepancy.

I brought it up with my coworker who makes the schedule.

“Hey, I have a final at 1, and I don’t get off work until 1 on Wednesday.”

“Are you sure,” she replies, “because I gave you Tuesday off for your final on Tuesday.”

A sudden rush of doubt creeps into my mind. I pull out Grete (the handy G1) and start to look up the class website. At the bottom of the Schedule page, I saw in clear, bold letters,

Final Exam: TUESDAY Dec. 15, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

It was then that I decided I needed to plan my day to get everything done so that I could get some studying done.

Go to work… check.

Get home and eat

Go to the Service Auction

Be back with enough time to study. Perfect

Well, the Service Auction went later than I expected. I was in charge of getting all the audio set up (which I did and I totally rocked the audio system’s world) so I had to stay till the end so I could put everything away.

I got home at about 10:30. That’s not to late, well, except if you are feeling sick and have a deep desire to go to bed so that you can be alive for the test the next day.

Tuesday:

Wake up, and study

Eat Breakfast

Relax for an hour to calm the nerves.

Head to the test.

To maintain the calm relaxed exterior, Mojo needed some sweet music to rock out to all the way to school. Grete gets plugged in (how cool is she?) and Pandora starts. Well, I must have been listening to some more mainstream (who? Mojo?) calmer music because a familiar, Mojo-wishing-it-was-forgotten song came on the air.

Hands Down (Acoustic) by Dashboard Confessional

Now, why would this song want to be forgotten? Oh, that’s right. It’s the song that reminds Mojo of the first (and probably only) girl to break his heart.

Awesome.

Now to the test itself, let’s just say I didn’t feel as good about it as the last test. And the last test I felt pretty good about… and didn’t do “pretty good.”

Yikes.

I think I may just change my expected graduation date to 2019.

life update

2009-11-24T17:10:00.003-07:00

So I thought that I might need to take a little time to update you on what's been going on in my life. Here it goes...

Kate and Tom are in trouble.

It seems that the scientology and weirdness of being controlling has really been taking a toll on Kate. She's been taking care of their little girl Suri (who seems to be dressing like a 30 year old at the age of 3) but Tom has been very controlling about the whole thing. Even down to the little stuff like what the family eats for breakfast.

The whole thing seems odd to Kate's friends too. She seems much more distant in the past little while. It's like she's a whole other person. In some of her new movies, she doesn't seem to socialize with her coworkers as well as she did in the past.

So in other words, someone left US Weekly at work...

choose your words wisely

2009-11-19T23:21:00.004-07:00

The people I know make me happy.

So, you know that a conversation is going to be good from the sentence that precedes it. Such examples include:

I can say this because my best friend is a bishop...

Now I love [ethnicity] people, but...

So a new one was laid on me today. It was one that I had never heard before.

We're friends, so we can talk about this...

The conversation that followed was how since her breast implant surgery, it's been somewhat difficult because she is always cold but if she wears anything to keep warm, she sweats more than anyone could imagine.

"Oh. Thanks for... letting me know...?"

why google wins

2009-11-19T14:42:00.002-07:00

the google on the inter-web

2009-11-16T23:05:00.006-07:00

Do you ever do Google searches for yourself? I do. It's somewhat depressing that I don't ever come up in those searches though. I even cheat and put my city or state... and nothing.

And then in my stupor of thought and depression (from not being popular... even on the internet), I figure, "Why don't I see if other people I know come up when I type their names." This only depresses me more though.

I have to say that I know of someone, whom I know would not like me to divulge ANY information about him/her via the internet (those who read this regularly will know whom I'm talking about... yes, you.) who seems to come up on most every search for his/her name. It's somewhat sickening. I then decide to try the image search. You got it readers, there is his/her face staring right back at me.

It makes me laugh. Because usually at that point I start doing the image search for my own name (which I'm sure you a thinking about doing to yourself at this very moment) to see what I can find. Why don't I share that with you:

Yep. Some awesome guy with a mustache, and a picture of 9/11. Well, if I'm going to be associated with 9/11, at least I'm sporting a mustache that just says, "Yeah, that's right. I've got a mustache. Want to fight about it?"

lazy friday

2009-11-13T12:49:00.006-07:00

Nothing says fun like staying home on a Friday morning and getting some vital stuff done.

TV
Nap
Email
Blog
Paying my first speeding ticket ever which was $90
Raisin Bran

Well, some of those being more important that others.

I do have to admit, I've been pulled over before, but the first time was this early this summer... and the second 3 days later... but this was my first ticket.

So I give all you readers (4 I believe) to watch yourself. When you are in Salt Lake, and you want to get off the freeway at 500 South, REMEMBER THAT THE OFFRAMP HAS A SPEED LIMIT. It's 40 MPH. I know. That seems crazy to me too. Just be forewarned.

fifth of november

2009-11-05T14:28:00.003-07:00

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Well, it's Guy Fawkes day. For those of you who don't know what that is, just Wikipedia it. I does make me want to watch V for Vendetta...

art attack!

2009-10-30T10:16:00.002-06:00

So I've been doing some work with Charcoal in my art class. I'd say I'm getting pretty good. I've only done three drawings so far in the medium. The first was only three hues: white, shadow, black. I decided not to take pictures of that one 'cuz it's not quite as interesting. So here was my first attempt at a whole range of hue:

I sadly was unable to finish Pooh Bear, but what can you do, right? Next, one especially for Halloween:

They were teddy bears with Halloween masks intermingled with baby dolls.

going places

2009-10-22T16:47:00.004-06:00

Here is Mojo's daily attire (due to work dress codes):

Here's Mojo's mode of transportation across campus:

Yes, it's quite the sight to see. Although what is more interesting are the looks from people watching me streak past them in a blur of solid colored shirt and striped tie. There are mainly three different looks that I tend to see. All of which, I saw today. To make the explanation of easier to understand, I refer to NBCs The Office:

Firstly, there is the Jim Halpert. This normally comes from non-longboarders:

Secondly, the Dwight Schrute. This comes from those who walk in the bike lane:

Lastly, my personal favorite. The Michael Scott. This look comes from longboarders, especially the longboarders that I know personally:

Not too long ago, I was leaving my art class and someone in the class came up to me and asked, "Hey, do you longboard." My class is at night and the materials are to cumbersome to carry while longboarding so it doesn't come with me to class. I responded with a resounding yes. She then told me that she had seen me longboarding across campus that day and thought to herself that it was so funny to see someone dressed like a businessman riding a longboard across campus... twice.

I somewhat like being that type of spectacle on campus. I'm hoping that I get some sort of nickname like, "Longboarding Business Guy," or "Necktie Boarder." Something like that. Readers, see what you can do about that.

poor, poor (totally awesome) mojo

2009-10-18T22:47:00.007-06:00

My adventures for this week can all be seen in this informative and hilarious fake web ad:

2009-10 Season Pass to Brighton Ski Resort: $215

New Boots: $110

New Bindings: $100

New Board: $200

A new friend at Sports Autority who told us that we could go boarding with him as long as 2.0 doesn't make him tie her boots for her: Priceless.

For everything else, there's credit card debt. Accepted most anywhere but hardly acceptable.

Yeah. That's right readers. I'm so ready for this jump into awesomeness. Plus, just OWNING the gear makes me cool, let alone my sweet skills whilst wearing them. Ah, yeah.

2.0 and I went back to Sniagrab on Saturday and got our best friend (whom we met our first time there) to help us get the rest of the gear. Toni (aka, 'bluetooth') helped me pick out a good board and some awesome bindings.

Afterward we headed to Costco to meet up with some other friends and get some shopping done. It was fun running around the isles, pointing out great eats, trying samples of lime roasted shrimp and BBQed Beef. Nothing beats going there on a Saturday.

We were there with 2.0's little sister J who was extremely late getting home for a family party (which 2.0 was only planning to stop-by for some time during the night). We drove out and said hello to everyone. Well, it was quickly evident that we should stay (steaks on the grill) so we helped fix dinner and ate with the entire family. Now when I say entire family, I'm not exaggerating when I am saying ma and pa, 4 siblings, 6 nieces and nephews NOT including the 2 babies. It was a full house.

We had a great time talking a playing with the kids. I even found out I have a class with 2.0's brother. Who knew? Darn that university for having a class of 200 students!

it's completely linux based...

2009-10-15T15:40:00.003-06:00

For those of you who have never seen Criminal Minds, it's a show about FBI agents who get called into areas to help solve crimes. There was one episode I watched once where the main computer-wiz was out and someone had to take over her job for a little while. The new tech said after a shocked look on his face, and I quote:

"It's completely Linux-based!"

Okay. I'm a computer geek. That is not being refuted. But to be completely honest, that would be like me walking into a bakery and saying, "Wow. This cake is made from flour!"

Yes Linux isn't that well advertised in the "land of the norms" (non geeks) but still...

To get to my story, I've been wanting to create a computer recently with a good coax input running a linux operating system. My reasoning? I can take an old computer, put a fairly lean OS on it, and use it as a cheap DVR. It's not like I couldn't just get one from the cable company, but it's more about the adventure.

That was a few months ago. I never got around to doing it. I've had two torn apart computers sitting in my room since the beginning of summer with the full intention of doing said project. Many months later... time to get rid of the mess.

I took the computers to my local BestBuy and said my last goodbyes. I figure, if I really want to do it in the future, I can always find an old computer. There' no real need to keep them lying around in the off chance that I DO have time work on it.

That being said, with Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) now installed on my computer, my virtual machine program no longer worked so I lost my Virtual Windows machine. I got a new program, and reinstalled Windows... and Ubuntu (Linux)... and Mythbuntu (A branch of Ubuntu with DVR programs installed). Yeah. Might as well mess with them before I start building a machine...

Baby steps...

v jack

2009-10-10T15:34:00.003-06:00

For those who don't read my school blog, (and who would?) I just thought you would enjoy last night's adventure:

Need I say more?

adventure 101

2009-10-09T16:25:00.005-06:00

The blogoshere is interesting. It's a place where you can read updates about poeple's lives, food they've eaten, diseased cats, adventures in Mexico, anything really. Although there is one catch the whole process: updating.

I have a writing class this semester that has an assignment to write a blog post and comment on someone else's blog each week. This seemed like a simple task when I first started the class, but I have quickly started seeing blogging as "an assignment" rather than a release from assigned work. This is depressing. VERY depressing. This "assignment" feeling flowed over into this blog too.

So I need to think of a way to make blogging into the fun time again. Originally it was a girl who got me into the whole thing. Girls come and go, but blogs shouldn't have to. I really want to make sure to update this puppy as much as possible. I think that's why I started the blog with the theme of being thankful. It gave me something to write about.

Hence, Adventure 101.

I'm going to try and give as many examples of the adventures of my life as possible. I'm thinking once a week is going to be much easier than daily or sporadically.

Piper.

We watched a cute 7 year old at our house this week. She stayed with us for two nights and she slept in the basement (scary for a 7 year old) next to my room. The best part? My father decided that Coraline would be a good fun movie to watch right before bed. Tim Burton movies always set the mood for a delightful and restful evening.

3:30 am: "Morgan... Morgan... I had a bad dream. It was about spiders."

She's adorable. We went back into her room, talked for a second, and then she went back to bed.

All-in-all, it was pretty fun with her. She's totally cute and has enough energy to power most of Europe for 6 months.

holy fast, it's 3g

2009-09-22T14:23:00.003-06:00

For crying out loud, it's about time. T-Mo has decided to grace us here with the presence of 3G wireless internet. Although I haven't had time to really had time to utilize the blazing speed of 3G since I've been at work and school all day, but like the baby panda at the zoo, it's comforting just to know that it's there.

This week is turning out to be a little less stressful than last week. Holy Hannah, I thought I was going to jab my eyeballs out with stress last week. This week is going to be much calmer.

With all this calmness, now all I need to do is find something fun to do with high-speed internet.

smile

2009-09-18T14:38:00.004-06:00

Things that make me happy:

Reading blogs
Cartoons
Chatting
Argyle socks
Leather couches
Quiet
Guitars
Steam
Reflections (literal and figurative)
Firm pillows
Wifi
Naps
Magic
Koala bears
Koala soda (which I haven't seen in years)
Hulu
Friendly strangers
Pears
Open windows
Heavy blankets
Bookshelves
The Russian letter "Ж"
People with interesting names
Art
Snugly Pets
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Readers, I just thought it was about time to make a good list of good things. Make your own. It's pretty relaxing. You can even post it in my comments if you want.

mega mega megaman

2009-09-17T14:22:00.002-06:00

Readers, I've started a new blog. Well, to be honest I started the blog a a few weeks ago, but now it's getting interesting.

I'm writing a blog for one of my classes. It's all about the project I'm working on for my 3d modeling course. It can be found here. (http://mojoschool.blogspot.com/)

3D Megaman is coming along. I'm actually pretty proud of my artistic ability. Those are sketches which yes, line-up nearly perfectly.

visa card, be gentle

2009-09-15T14:19:00.004-06:00

Well, Mojo will be poor for the next little while. 2.0 and I bought season passes to night skiing at Brighton. I know. How could I resist a night skiing pass for $200? Well, actually it would have been very easy.

2.0 called me the other day with the idea of buying passes. Now, Mojo's not rolling in the dough, but he's not too poor either. The only problem that I was faced with was that the sale of tickets ended only a few hours after I found out about it. The entire night was spent pondering and debating about the tickets. $200 is nothing to shake a fist at.

Lyndsi, a mutual friend without a cool nickname yet... YET... went up enough times last winter to necessitate a season pass. But not everyone was on board for the $200 investment in pure adrenaline fun. So time pondering was spent and a reasonable compromise was found. 2 for 1.

The resort does a 2 for 1 deal each Monday, Wednesday, Friday (although you have to stand in line for a while) for $16 bucks a person. That's a steal. Better than going for $32. We made a Facebook group so we can contact people about going to the 2 for 1 deal. I know. Sweet.

So here's the deal: It's going to be a little different from what I'm used to... see below

Regular Skiing vs Night Skiing

Warm... Cold (New warmer gear) $$
Bright (Sunglasses)... Dark (New SEEING glasses) $$
Preperation... Able to go on short notice

Plus, the boots I'm wearing above are slightly too small so I can't wear thick socks... yikes. I'll have to see if I can find some sales online.

welcome back jerk

2009-09-09T15:16:00.009-06:00

I'm sitting in the computer lab waiting for my next class. I feel congested. Not nasally though. Timely. I've had so much to do before noon today that all of yesterday and the beginning of today was nothing but sheer congestion of time and things.

One of my classes (CS 4400 Computer Systems) is pure hell. The information is somewhat interesting, but I'm not seeing any applicable information to me. I like learning about some of this stuff, but it's hard to buckle down especially when the homework is very one-answer oriented. A + B = = C. It's tiring. We went over the homework that we had just turned in. It wasn't looking so good. Let me give you an example:

Is this always true? If not, give an example that would prove it wrong.

Note: What you are looking at is True = True.

Mathematically, yes. It's true. Computer-Sciencely, no. What if y is the Max_min? Negating an already extreme negative maintains its negativity. Mojo got that one wrong.

One after another like that too. Arg.

Ah to be the SOEP again... sigh.

So long SOEP. You're already missed.

don't let school get in the way of your education

2009-09-03T14:05:00.002-06:00

Readers, it's been a little while since I've written. The vacation was awesome!

Boston rocked
New York rocked
Niagra Falls rocked
Connecticut rocked
DC rocked

Yeah. You heard me. We went EVERYWHRE! In fact, in NYC, we ended up walking more than 23 miles in one day. Yeah. That's borderline "hardcore," although I'm just "core."

For teh most part, there were about five to eight people just gallivanting round the touristy areas. I more my SOEP shirt as much as possible, but you can only wear a bright yellow shirt with a squirrel on the front so often before the stares and shaking of heads from absolute strangers seems to weigh you down. But I got some quality ones like me at Fenway Park (Go Reds!) and Yankee Stadium (Go Yanks!).

Now, back to school. If I can get through the next week or two unscathed, I'll see that as a great omen of luck and prosperity.

natalie update

2009-08-22T02:55:00.004-06:00

Well, I worked on a little video the other day. It's a pretty simple on about a girl named Natalie that was diagnosed with Juvenal Onset Diabetes. I'm pretty sure I've written about her in the past.

Well, I just checked online to see how the donations for the Step for the Cure was going. Let's just say that they are well above 100% of their goal.

It makes me really happy to see that there are still people in the world that can take a need of someone and take the time to donate, contribute and even in a small way, take the time to make a difference in someone's life. From all the pictures that I got from Devany (mom), I can tell that this girl is adorable. She seems to be so energetic and life-loving. What a neat thing for me to take part in.

Tonight I made some new friends. They are friends of friends who are now just friends. But as we got ready for bed, which as you can tell, I'm not being very good about being in seeing as it just passed 5:00 am as I sit here Facebook stalking and typing away, we discussed our favorite passages of scripture. I pulled out a scripture that is so dear to my heart, that I don't often share it... and since I only have 2 readers, I thought I would share with you what insight I get from a simple and overtly overlooked one.

And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness.

Now, the first time that I share this scripture with others, they read it, and stop, dazed and confused. So let's do the back story:

Mahonri Moriancumer (Commonly referred to in the scriptures as the 'brother of Jared') had a dilemma. He was commanded of the Lord to build a ship. One unlike ANYTHING anyone of the time had seen. It was to be built for a long journey across the ocean and thus had to be windowless and air tight. But with this comes a lack of light. So BoJ tells the Lord that he sees a problem, and the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, doesn't fix the problem, but rather asks BoJ what to do. He quickly devises a plan and tells the Lord:

I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones...

Here's what's so cool. He does it. With His finger, he touches the stones and they glow. It totally works! God didn't solve BoJ's problem with some light from the heavens to come down and sit in the middle of the ship. No. First he let BoJ figure out a good plan in which he used other stones. God being the Father of all wisdom and knowledge, prepared them so that they would be the source of light unto the people.

God uses people to bring His light into the world of darkness. He let's us find the light from those who are around us. Strength from our family or friends. Kindness from a stranger. Help from a leader. Love from God through a fellow man.

So I ask you this: What are your stones? What brings you strength? What has God put in your life that truly brings peace and God's love? Think about it for a moment. You can come back to reading in just a moment.

[Intermission]

Now, there is only one more thing that I leave you with. A question so vital to our own happiness. One that is a thousand times more important than the ones previously stated...

Are YOU a stone in someone else's life?

I hope that in this small gesture of creating a simple movie for a cause that would have otherwise just passed me by, that I have been a source of light, if only for a moment, to this wonderful family. I pray that I have helped someone feel the love of God, and the life changing light and warmth it brings. God is in the details, and we are the details.

the red coats are coming.

2009-08-21T23:59:00.001-06:00

Dear Boston,

My name is Morgan. It's nice to meet you.

Thank you for your wonderful falafel. They are super tasty.

Although it was hot, I am thankful that you were so kind as to have fountains for us to run though.

Tomorrow will be fun and we won't be tired from traveling. Thanks for letting us stay.

Sincerely,
Mojo

but a banana in your ear

2009-08-20T21:28:00.004-06:00

Our new song for the trip: Put a Banana in your Ear. Don't ask.

We said a sad farewell to Eric and Kate, and we were on the road again for Albany!

We had a fun stop at an historical landmark for my church. It was pretty sweet. Kirtland, OH baby! I know, for most of you, that doesn't mean much, but for members of my church it's pretty freakin' sweet. That's kinda the birthplace and there were some cool things that happened there. Feel free to check it out. We did.

We went and had a tour given by the sister missionaries. One from Hawaii (who could easily take Grant on in a teasing war. I was impressed) and one from Orem, so like neighbors.

I took some pics, but they are on the camera... in the car...

Elektra (the receptionist at the hotel) recommended a restaurant for us in Albany, but we got lost a little bit. So we walked down this street and found this AWESOME Chinese place called Awesome Wok Chinese. Yeah. That's how you know it's good.

rain, rain, go away

2009-08-19T23:09:00.000-06:00

(Cincinnati, OH) Day two may have started a little rainier than we had expected... Oh well. I guess you can't win them all.

Although I think we are running into this storm a lot on the trip. And when I say run into a lot, I really mean, get in the middle and follow it all the way to Boston. It rained at the hotel last night while we were sleeping and then we drove right into the heart of it.

I'm a little worried about the baseball game in Boston though. We have tickets for the Sox Vs. Yankees game in Boston (Fenway Park) on Saturday. As you can see, with the whole "driving with the storm" party we are having, I'm scared the extremely expensive tickets are going to go up in smoke... or rainy haze as the case may be.

I'm pretty amazed at how much rain there is here. And it comes with NO WARNING. About ten times today alone, we have been hit with sudden POURING rain. It's so bad that we can't really see out the car. It's amazing. I was Google Talking with Sallee while in the smooshed (Spell check is really angry with that, but offers no real help or suggestions) back seat of Grant's car and she too reminisced on the awe of how quickly they come and how mysteriously they seem to appear AND vanish.

Notable Landmarks passed today? Well let's see...

Iowa: None, although there was quoting of Field of Dreams ('Is this Heaven?' 'No, It's Iowa.')

Okay I lie. There was that exciting part where I-80 turned slightly to the right, but it was fleeting and we were back to going in a strait line.

Although we did pass one awesome place of note on our trip today...

Yes, the exit for Knox College. Ah, the memories... *Sallee's Memories plus the one time I came out to visit*

We're staying with Eric and Kate whose picture I stole from their blog. They are totally awesome for letting us stay with them. We even got a tour ("tu-er" NOT "tore". "Uuuu" sound, like in pOO). This is the first time we've seen them since the move to Cincinnati: A city whose name I learned how to spell today while trying to find it in the GPS... after about 30 incorrect spellings. They have a great place and live in a very lively city. It seems like a huge place (with 2 Million people, it should) but the area they live in is quaint enough to still be labeled as comfortably rural-urban.

seop #4: road to boston

2009-08-18T20:10:00.002-06:00

Well readers, the time has come for the final Summer Of Epic Proportions trips (number 4): The final and big shebang. Road trip to Boston!

For those of you who don’t know why Boston, I’m headed to help my friend Grant move in to the housing at MIT. He’s there to do his PhD. I know. Smarty pants.

We’re driving across country in a little car packed to the brim with stuff. It’s a pretty funny sight to see. There is barely room for the three of us driving out there. The back seat is pretty cramped, but all withstanding, it’s pretty fun.

Awesome.

We have some pretty big plans for the trip, including New York, Niagra Falls, DC and a tour of the White House. Oh yeah baby!

So my friend Frances is living in DC and I sent a text to let her know that we were going to be in town. I was hoping to meet up with her one of the days and go to lunch or just chill. We are going to be in DC on the weekend so I thought that would work out pretty well. It worked out better that well. After a few texts talking about plans, Frances told us that we could crash with her. That’s going to be way better than the plans we had. Sa-weet!

operation codename: boot

2009-08-11T23:59:00.000-06:00

Natalie is back from her surgery, and she came with a new, boring, fun-killing toy... a boot.

Well, after we told her that her new nickname was "Boot" and that her boot's nickname was "Fun-Killing Boot," we got to work making sure that this boot could rock out. (The name of "Fun-Killing Boot" comes from the fact that Natalie was going to come to the GSL with us, but she couldn't because she can't get the boot or her foot wet. Boring. Fun Kill...)

Here was my contribution tonight:

The picture doesn't quite do it justice. Yes, those are freaking awesome flames coming out of FKB. My logo is the M in the corner. Yes, it's on fire too. Awesome.

Natalie is going to be just fine. She just needs some time to have a little R&R.

an soep reunion

2009-08-08T23:59:00.002-06:00

'Twas a Summer of Epic Proportions reunion! We drove to Magna and saw Urka (Erica) in her play at the Empress Theater. The play was Once Upon a Mattress. It was awesome. And don't you worry, we all wore our SOEP shirts. Each of the cast members, including Erika, told us how distracting it was to look into the audience and see a complete row of BRIGHT YELLOW shirts as seen below:
A delightful reunion followed by IHOP. Mmmm... Pancakes...

soep trip #3

2009-08-07T23:59:00.000-06:00

You know, looking back on my blog posts, I didn't ever really write about Yellowstone, which was the inaugural Summer Of Epic Proportions trips, but I'm sure when I get some time, I'll write about it. But for now, trip 3: buoyancy.

We (2.0 et al) took a trip to the Great Salt Lake. For those of you who do NOT know about the GSL, you will be pleased to learn that it is one of the most salty bodies of water in the world. That being said, only one organism can live there. Brine Shrimp.

These little buggers are a delicious treat for most fish, but since the water is so salty in the GSL, they seem to thrive without the natural predator. They are tiny and if you are not looking for them, you won't see them, but in the lake, THEY ARE EVERYWHERE AND NUMBER IN THE MILLIONS! It's kinda gross to swim with them (including the stink of the lake), but that is in fact what we did.

We had stemware with bottles of sparkling apple cider and other good beverages. We got out in the water, and watched the sun set as we drank cider and played. One would think that as soon as you got out far enough, it would be hard to keep afloat with all the stemware, bottles, etc. Not the case in the GSL. Because we are more buoyant, it was in fact hard to be completely immersed in the lake. I tried. Floating is so easy, that it's hard to sink, if not impossible. It's quite the experience. If you can stand smelling horrible for the next 48 hours (with showers... showerS) it's amazing to try.

After some frisbee and such, we got out and headed back to Sarah's house for some treats. One of the group members has a hot tub in the apartment complex so we headed over there. We all rinsed off as best we could and got in the hot tub. Even with the best rinsing, when we got out, we still found little brine shrimp not-so-enjoying themselves in the hot tub. ...Sorry to those that have to clean it...

Quickly heading to the Pi Pizzeria for a bite, the night came to a conclusion. Good times. Although smelling myself even after a shower, hot tub and a shower... this is going to be an interesting thing to explain to those around me. Although with the salt deposits after swimming, you come out feeling like you are COVERED in sand (which is purely salt), your skin does look amazing!

an ode to breakfast

2009-07-29T11:08:00.002-06:00

There's something to be said

For having white bread

with mustard and some smoked ham.

You want to add cheese?

You can do as you please.

Nothing's better than a sandwich in hand.

Readers (I put a plural on that because I think I have two now), I thought you just might want to join in the praise of a delicious breakfast. I hear it's the most important meal of the day.

burgers and donuts

2009-07-27T23:59:00.002-06:00

Okay, tonight pretty much rocked. Laursen called me and we decided that it was high time that we got some food. We were pretty hungry. Well, one thing led to another and we were off to Alby's to grab some fixins for burgers and dogs. $10 later, and we had enough food to feed enough for the impromptu BBQ.

One or two invites seemed to escalate into a few more which seemed to take another step, and before we knew it, it wasn't just three or four people, but rather we had a good ten or eleven.

2.0 came and brought a salad that she had made. It was freakin awesome. She had composed her own raspberry vinaigrette dressing on spinach and mixed lettuce. (No iceberg junk for this masterpiece)

A mutual friend Heather was there and shortly after leaving, I got a call from someone she drove with named Angela. Angela explained that Heather had gotten a flat tire just after leaving my house and needed some help. I was on my way to the rescue.

Now, I'm no MASTER at changing tires, but I know what I'm doing. But this tire was a MONSTER to get off. A very kind officer of the law stopped and helped us with the light. We chatted with him while we got the tire off and he told us about how we was working the night shift on this particular street for just a little while. He had come from being undercover ("a long haired dirtbag with earrings, not to say long hair or earrings make you a dirtbag...") where he had been working for the last 5 years or so. Before that, he was a homicide detective. Wow.

Well, with the donut in place, Officer Long-Hair was off and we all parted our ways. I drove Sarah home while she got the update of her nephew who was in the hospital for having a nut lodged in his esophagus. Fun. Now I'm off to bed to sleep until eight AM work... yippy...

ben rocks

2009-07-25T20:22:00.001-06:00

Kudos to Ben for the awesome pic at the top of my blog. He wants the credit, so I'm giving it to him. It's from the Yellowstone Summer of Epic Proportions trip. There was a strorm coming in over the water. It was pretty amazing.

white trash day

2009-07-24T21:25:00.008-06:00

For those of you who know our family, we do have a few white trash things lying around. Since before I can remember, we have had a soda machine in the back yard. When I was a wee lad, I remember a dry season where the Coke machine died and left us high and dry for nearly a whole millennium (although real time was much shorter, a matter of day seems closer) and to a kid, that is pure hell.

On top of that, we do have an old church pew right next to the giver-of-cold-beverages-with-the-quarters-on-top. Oft I would sit on the pew, drinking a cool refreshing beverage, probably a root beer or Mountain Dew, and think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Well not too long ago, there was a new addition to the RFC. We have had him (as well as his brothers who have been replacements for when the previous one seems to have flaws or breaks) in the family for years, and it was a good day to see him rise from the ashes of winter like the phoenix of summer. Welcome back old friend and thank you for bringing summer back into our lives.

This is where he has killed the grass in previous years and left us with putting a "putting green" in his stead.

It's good to have you back.

fast food nation

2009-07-23T19:14:00.006-06:00

Today was an all-day-work-fest. I spent the whole day in my little workspace, talking to people, getting frustrated by that intolerable "ding" noise that comes from the drivethru, and best of all, talking about restaurants and food that we wanted to eat.

We really did expect the day to be hilariously insane busy (I'm trying that "hilariously" thing out. Is it working?) and were not so thrilled to find how painfully slow it was. I mean, come on! The day before a holiday, although be it a Utah state holiday, when we have to close is usually so busy you want to vomit with rage. But not today. I was working drivethru (...Yay...) so I had

about twice as much work as those who were around me, so I felt busy, but we were slow. Well, to make a long story not quite as long but still substantial, when it gets slow, we like to start talking about random topics. The goal today? Get the other people to change their mind about what food they want for lunch.

Now that might get a little confusing. I can tell. I'm confused. But really, we all wanted something different, and the goal of the before-lunch hours was to convince someone else that they wanted the same food as you so that someone else could go pick up your food. Here is a little hint of our discussion/debate:

Wendy's: JBC, Frosty

McDonnald's: Fries, McDouble

Little Ceasars: Peperoni Pizza

Costa Vida: Burritos

Cafe Rio: "Better" Burritos

Chipotle: Free Drink with Burrito (Employee name tag required)

Costa Vida revisited: Also free drink with Burrito (University of Utah ID required)

Apple Pie from wherever

McDonnald's revisited: Apple pie

Top Stop: Hostess Apple Pie

Apple Pie from wherever (Probably Dan's Food) revisited

Barbacoa: Burrito (More a discussion about the restaurant. No one really wanted food from there)

Costa Vida revisited: Salad

Salad won. Although the battle had been won, the war was a terrible loss. It seemed that I was the only person that wanted to eat from there. After so much talk, everyone else just seemed to want to eat "the lunch they brought from home." Lame. So I went by myself. Got a steak salad with a cherry coke, and was on my way to lunchtime bliss and euphoria.

3 extreme's extreme glee water fight

2009-07-22T23:59:00.000-06:00

That's a first... I went over to 3 extreme's house (For those who get confused with the numbered nicknames, let's just say I know a lot of Sarahs). I had called her to hang out and I was with the fellas. We headed over to B&D Burger (It literally is Ben's back yard) and got shakes and fries... I went with the Oreo Cheesecake. Yeah. I know. It was as good as it sounds. Well, after grabbing some grub, we headed off to Sarah's house ("3 extreme" has been established)

I have only been on the outside of her house, so it was a little adventure to just walk in without knocking and having it be dark (Imagine some old lady having some kids walk into her house... screaming ensues... "This isn't Sarah's house?

Sorry." Luckily that didn't happen). We went into the kitchen and I could hear laughing and screaming. Instantly when we came into view of the back yard, laughing went to zero and there were some whispers of "hurry." Conspicuous?

No, of course not.

After closer inspection, we found 4 soppi~g-wet people hiding (fully clothed) in and around the hot tub.

Step One: Lock door

Step Two: Take all electronics out of pockets

Step Three: Wait patiently for 3 extreme to turn her back

Step Four: Grab pitcher

Step Five: Apply liberally (to others)

Step Six: Get attacked

Step Seven: (Still fully clothed... jeans and t-shirt) Admit defeat. Get in hot tub

After the water fight which none of the other fellas seemed to want to join in (Oh well. More fun for me.) it was inside playing time.

The rest of the evening was spent with me in a towel and a borrowed shirt while my clothes were in the drier.

As Sarah explained it, we were in France. They had French fries, and we were going to watch Ratatouille. Billiards wasn't really French, but we played anyway.

I've got cool friends who are pretty spontaneous.

leavin on a jet plane

2009-07-20T15:00:00.003-06:00

Boston here I come!

Grant is heading off to school and I'm road tripping with him to Boston. It's going to be freakin' sweet!

There is one little problem though. I seemed to have bought my ticket online, and the moment after I placed my order... I looked at my calendar. Yay!

So I'll be returning from Boston the Monday AFTER school starts. Yes, you heard right. I'll be missing the first week of school. I was nothing but thrilled to find that I had forgotten to make considerations for, well, you know, the whole GOING BACK TO SCHOOL THING!

Although I'm not too worried. I have already emailed my professors to explain my idiocy. I've heard back from two of them and they said not to worry at all about it. In fact, one just said I could meet him the week before and we could go over the stuff that I would be missing. Here is the really nice thing about being in the Computer Science department. I wrote an email to all four of the professors that I'll be taking classes from this upcoming semester. Within 10 minutes of sending, I had already gotten a response from BOTH the CS teachers, and in once instance, had already emailed her with one more question and gotten a second response.

Awesome.

I'm still waiting to hear from the Art and Writing teachers. Seems that in other departments, professors seem to not check their email compulsively. Sad really. Think of all the fun internet playing they are missing out on while they do their "interacting-with-other-people-in-real-life" thing. Virtual communication seems so much easier...

i is mojo extreme makeover

2009-07-20T14:53:00.001-06:00

For those of you who read the blog via a reader, you'll be missing out on the new look of IisMojo. Well, enjoy!

back to the future

2009-07-19T21:04:00.005-06:00

So I recently made some purchases. I've been pretty good about buying things I don't need, or rather, NOT buying things I don't need. But I figure I can do it every once and and while. So here was my splurging:

Do you remember our good friend the blue superhero with a gun attached to his arm? Yes, the amazing Megaman. (Rockman)

Well, I remember YEARS ago, renting the original games from the place just up the street. It wasn't a big store or anything, just a locally owned place and I would rent Megaman as often as I could.

Then came the day when I bought the NES cartages. I had saved my money for who knows how long and I went up to the same store where I rented the games. I don't remember which game exactly I bought, but along with BattleToads, I was home playing my new games. The $5 tag taken off the cartridge, and it was mine.

Well, in memory of these great games, I got on Amazon the other day and started looking for some information on the old Megaman games. I decided that it was time to play all these classics again, so I bought the MegaMan Anniversary Edition for the Playstation 2. It is a collection of the original eight Megaman games on one disk. I've been nostalgic for these games and it really is amazing the memories that come back from playing them.

Well, the original games is great to have, but I thought I might as well get the Megaman X collection as well, so I know own Megaman 1-8 and Megaman X - Megaman X7. Nerdy, I know. Awesome, Oh, I KNOW!

pack your bags

2009-07-19T00:11:00.004-06:00

Well, after a little thinking, I think the blog is going to be moving. I just bought a domain name, so I'll have to keep you updated on moving. I'm trying this whole "running-a-domain-name" thing.

I was told it might take 24 hours or so for the domain to be ready to receive this amazing read, but the old address should redirect you.

Fun times coming soon! Woot!

music, music, la la la

2009-07-18T23:50:00.001-06:00

Friday Night? Free time? What's that? Concert downtown? Check!

I went to the Pioneer Day Concert put on by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. 2.0 called me and told me she had a ticket for me, so I took Trax down (meeting Therisia along the way) and met up with friends. It was pretty fun.

They truly know how to put on a great concert. A lot of the songs that were preformed were hymns of the church, but also they made sure to sing some great American classics (Somewhere Over the Rainbow for one).

They read (in the videos between the musical numbers) letters from people both members and non-members of the Mormon church where the people just praised the choir and their program each Sunday called Music and the Spoken Word. It seemed pretty cheesy (in a totally awesome way) until I found out the woman sitting next to us was in the same boat. She was not a Mormon, but had been listening to the program for years. She never missed a week. When her friend from Salt Lake City found out they were doing a concert for the state holiday (July 24th), she called this woman who lived in another state, and told her she was going to get tickets and that she should fly down to listen.

Wow. Sometimes I think I take for granted that I have such amazing culture right at my front door. I really should take advantage of those kinds of cool opportunities more often.

The evening ended in a SORELY needed dinner at Red Rock (in Salt Lake). Delicious.

stardate tango charlie sierra 2009.01

2009-07-09T23:59:00.000-06:00

Note: Buildings shown in photo are MORE curved in real life...

Yes, TCS 2009 baby! Concert 1! Tonight was Bon Iver and it was freakin' schweet!

I went with Sarah N. ("2.0") and her friend Megan from P-town. Yes, the one and the same P-town with the whole carpet cleaning escapade. It was a blast. And with the VIP tickets, we totally got free water bottles... none of us drink beer so the 6 free ones didn't really seem to appeal to us...

I would say the two highlights of the night:

Megan found a bench and somehow shimmied enough to get enough people off to fit Sarah and I. We proceeded to listen to music when Sarah got a fabulous idea. I quickly pulled out my phone and downloaded an app... then and there, with our twinner gPhones... yes the suspense is killing you... flashing from the screens of our phones were zippo lighters. The amount of people who looked and pointed us out to their friends was astounding.

Soon thereafter, a girl who had had WAY too much to drink came stumbling (near passing out) onto the cement. Someone had to help her up and we gave her our hard-earned free water bottles so she could sip. We gave up our seat on the bench.

Returning back from the concert, Sarah made us a supurb dinner of eggs, black beans, tortillas, and a fruit that resembles a banana that isn't a banana, who's name escapes me.

It was a fun night.

soep hiking... the drive there

2009-07-07T11:58:00.000-06:00

Summer of Epic Proportions trip #2 - Hiking Green River

It's been a while readers. Guess what though? I am freakin amazing!... and somehow still alive...

I was helping my friend Dennis the other day make some calls on Monday, and it soon got too late to make any more. I don't know about you, but I think around 10:00 pm, I have to call it quits because I feel bad calling people who are not expecting calls from a random person...

Well, as luck would have it, we started to chat. He asked if I could make the final few calls on Tuesday. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off of work, so I was delighted to put in a helping hand. Lo and Behold, it was just my luck that I told him that because after a few moments of thinking, he said, "Well, do you want to go on a hike with us tomorrow?"

Woot!

Of course I want to go on a hike! What kind of silly question is that? So he had to make sure there was room in the car, so he called our friend Sarah to see if that was cool.

IT SURE WAS!

Sarah called me instantly and in more or less these words said, "We're leaving in about 20 minutes... [(thinking)... what? It's 11:00 PM] and it's going to be a 7 hour hike with repelling. Do you have any gear?"

"No," Morgan replies

"That's okay, we can send it up and down the ropes. [(thinking)... Let's see, the last time I went repelling... 12 years ago...] Do you have any good clothes that are quick drying?"

"No."

"That's okay. I think it's not going to be too bad if you just bring some shorts."

"... shorts eh?..."

"Do you have a camel back for carrying water?"

"... No."

"No worries. I might have one. Make sure to bring some good food for hiking because it's going to be a long one. Online it said 7 hours, but we're thinking about 5 or 6."

"hmmm... I'll have to stop by the store..."

At this point Morgan started to doubt his ability and preparation for said trip. Although somehow Sarah convinced me and I found myself at Albertsons packing my cart with granola bars. As I was packing, I wasn't exactly sure what to bring so I grabbed some plasticy pants that I use for sleeping every once and a while. They're kinda like warm-up pants, but totally cheap and crappy. My guess? 50 cent sale at Old Navy kind of quality. Although my dollar flip flops are still holding together. "Thanks Old Navy!" [Cheesy smile and thumbs up as seen in photo]

Sarah and Nathan quickly show up and I load my very improvised-last-minute gear (bag with granola bars) in the car. I had forgotten by this point to think about where we were going to go hiking. One of those last-minute details that seemed to slip my mind as I scrounged the isles of Albertsons. I asked where we were headed.

Sarah replies, "Well, to tell you the truth, we need to go pick up Dennis in P-town (~45 minutes away) because he's still doing a job out there."

??

"He's doing some carpet cleaning of a house, and might need some help."

Here's the lucky thing. I worked as a carpet cleaner for a long time with my dad's company, so it was pretty easy for me to get back into the swing of things. Although here is the major problem with it. Boy is it hard on the body! It uses a lot of arm strength which I sadly have lost from my carpet cleaning days. I got right on a machine and started the hardest part of professional carpet cleaning... stairs.

Clean stairs, clean second floor and 4 hours later, we were done. I know what you're thinking...
Phonecall: 11:00 pm
Picked up: 11:30 pm
P-Town: 12:30 am
Carpet Cleaning: 4:30 am

You are correct, and give yourself a gold star for aweome math skills... base 60, carry the 2... We loaded up Dennis's car and returned the equipment thus leaving P-town by about 5:00am. I proceeded to ask the question again of where exactly the hike was thinking mostly about how much sleep I was going to get after working my arms for quite a while and then going on the 7 hour hike.

"It's just outside of Green River."

"Green River? How far is that?"

The next part of the story is a little painful in memory and may have been permanantly blocked in my memory... Let me just show you the picture...

Point A: P-town
Point B: Green River
Distance: 140 miles
Time (with construction): ~3 hours

Now here's a little reference for you. You might be thinking, "Where is Green River exactly? What landmarks or big cities are near it?"

As you can see... Nothing. Unless you count Crecent Junction, which litteraly is just two highways converging with nothing there. Salina is 70 miles away...

Back to the good stuff. Let's see here:
Carpet cleaning: 4:30 + 3 hours... carry the 12... oh yeah. 7:30 am

I don't sleep in a car too well either...

We arrived and luckly the group that had slept [there] the night before was just leaving. They were about 10 minutes ahead of us, but they could hear Sarah's poor car being demolished my the dirt and motly tire-eating rocks which seemed to find delight in slamming themselves against the undercarrage of the car. Fun!

We didn't want to keep them waiting any longer than they already had waited for us, so we packed up our stuff and started to head out. Sadly, due to lack of sleep and food, Sarah was feeling pretty sick to her stomach. She said that if she went with us, she would be good for the first 2 hours or so, but she knows her body well enough that she would get REALLY sick. After much deliberation and trying to convince her to "tough it out," Sarah made her decision to stay with the car and sleep. She gave us her equipment and food and mothery concern, and Dennis, Nathan and I started down the first hill (and back up the second)

And thus the Hike begins...

[Next time on IisMojo... can he survive the towering cliffs and shear cliff wall drops? Stay tuned for the next installment of IisMojo]

remember to run really fast

2009-05-25T11:43:00.004-06:00

It... is done...

We finished the 10k BolderBoulder today. It was pretty freaking sweet. Nathan was hardcore, Sallee and I were pretty core and ran the ENTIRE way. It was pretty exciting. Now begins the journey home. More details to come after a nice shower and a long drive home.

Let the race begin

Photos after the race were a little lacking. We were tired...

rocky mountain high, colorado...

2009-05-24T00:38:00.004-06:00

"I thought that Rocky Mountains would be a little rockier..."
"That John Denver is full of shit."

Ha! Now that I've offended my readers with a little Dumb and Dumber quote, I thought that I might indulge those of you that remain with my fun times thus far on the road trip to the BolderBoulder...

Friday (Day 1)

Left the comfortable abode and made our way up the canyon.

A few hours in, Mojo thinks that he sees something in the road in the lanes going the opposite direction although the little wooden peg reflector thingies are in the way so he can't quite tell what is going on... Suddenly is forced into a life-or-death (of a coyote) situation where he has to lay on the brakes... doesn't swerve too into the other lane, but slightly, only nearly missing the confused and terrified animal. His brush with death averted.

Laramie, WY...
hotel 1 : no vacancy
hotel 2: no vacancy
hotel 3 : no vacancy
hotel 4: no vacancy
hotel 5 : no vacancy
hotel 6: no vacancy

some would be discouaged, BUT NO! Not us. Hotel 7 had abundant rooms available and we were lucky enough to have it be the cheapest one too! The sketchy people outside pacing made us bring in all our belongings from the car into the room...

Saturday (Day 2)

Woke up. Car NOT sitting on cinderblocks. Rejoicing ensued.

Mojo and Nathan head over for the "complimentary breakfast" at the resturant across from the front desk while Sallee goes over to the Walmart to buy some socks... (She might need those for running the BolderBoulder) M & N quickly find out that they had missed the "complimentary" portion of the breakfast by 25 minutes.

Nathan (to waitress): "I think I'll have the same thing that the complimentary breakfast was... but looks like I'll pay for it."

Fill up with gas (petrol for Nathan) and head out.

Mile 25 of the newly filled gas tank: Mojo realizes that his glasses are in the resturant.
Mile 50: Mojo gets his glasses from the front desk
Mile 75: "I feel like I've seen this before..."

Trip to the National Park is beautiful. But after a quick hike to Bear Lake (not the one in Utah, the small one that is more similar to a big pond). GPS coordinates entered and we're on our way to Boulder.

1 hour later in a city called Ward, CO: "2 houses and a country store... so... one person stalks the shelves and the other person buys?"

Short time later: GPS reading: Turn Right... 2 minutes away. Actual sighting: If we turn right we go up a REALLY steep road that would be of the DIRT variety....

15 seconds later: GPS reading: Recalculating route (because you jerks didn't turn)... 1 hour remains.

2 seconds later: GPS powered off.

Safely arrive in Boulder, eat dinner and head off to the lodging. YAY!

I'll keep you updated on how the race goes on Monday, but I might not write until Tuesday...

a long long time ago... was the last time I wrote

2009-03-24T20:10:00.004-06:00

Okay, Marcey makes a good point. I really haven’t written in a long time, and to be honest, a lot has happened. I guess I’ll have to get the blogging world back up to date with my life.

My team for Machinima has been “working hard” on our video. We thought we were done before Spring Break (which sadly ended yesterday) but our teacher wanted us to add some other stuff to make it look a little better. I think that we are going to work on that today and tomorrow in the lab. So that’ll be fun. [huzzah!]

So other than school (and the lack of school last week, sorely needed) not a whole lot has changed in my life, well, except the new love Grete (For those, like me, who were amazed at how that name is spelled, it’s “Greta” but more European.) We’ve been together for a few weeks now, and life is good. Now, the first two weeks were outstanding, but I still had the “new relationship goggles” on. I’ve found some things with Grete that bother me. Now, they are NOT deal breakers, but there they are notable. She knows that I love her so I don’t feel bad about listing the problems that I have noticed on my blog:

1- There is a problem with communication. I just can’t listen to the music she has because she won’t communicate correctly with my other things, so I sit with headphones…
2- Movies are a pain, and it takes a lot of editing and converting to watch movies with her.
3- She has a very low memory threshold
4- This also goes along with the headphones thing. She has no dedicated port…

I’m feeling a little confusion from you my lovely readers. Maybe a formal introduction is in order?

Grete, meet my readers. Readers, meet Grete.

Yes, Mojo spent a ridiculous amount of money on a new fancy-shmancy phone. And yes, I fell in love. Grete is the new (-to-me) phone from Google sold via T-mobile. Grete the G1 (the manufacturer HTC calls it the HTC Dream) is the iPhone equivalent, which for me, has a lot of perks above the iPhone but also Apple knew what they were doing and HTC somewhat missed the boat on. ie

iPhone: Limited on programs that you can install and use
G1: You choose whether or not you want “Google Non-approved” apps on the phone (use discression)

iPhone: Dedicated headphone port (you can charge it and listen to music at the same time)
G1: Only one input port (mini USB – so charge OR listen on headphones via USB to headphone jack converter cable)

iPhone: Sexy
G1: Sexy

iPhone: AT&T [gag]
G1: T-Mobile and unlocking capability for use on most wireless networks. [huzzah]

the sky is falling, the sky is falling

2009-02-15T20:04:00.003-07:00

Okay, I know. Two posts in one day. What the junk? Well, I thought this was note worthy enough that I couldn't keep my readers in the dark...

I've spent the last while (all of today in fact) studying for an online test that I have. I didn't realize until almost too late that there was a review posted online. This was due to the fact that there was a typo on the email from my teacher explaining about the review.

The exam covers lessons 1-8. Since the exam's objective questions come from the same question pool used for lesson quizzes[ps, internal note... how cool is that?], you can prepare for the objective portion by taking lesson quizzes over and over. There should also be an exam review once you complete lesson 8.

Well, little did he fail to mention was that every time he typed 8, he meant 9. I looked online for the review for a while, and I thought to myself, "oh. Guess there isn't a REAL review, just the lesson quizes." Wrong. Try looking at the bottom of lesson 9 and there is was. Yippy.

So as I spent the entire day studying away, I had to take periodic breaks for sanity purposes. In one instance, I stood up, stretched while putting my hands on the ceiling (heavenly) when lo and behold, my hand went THROUGH the ceiling. Now, I'm not engineer (except a software engineer, but that's besides the point) but I'm pretty sure that hands are NOT supposed to do that.

Note: That hole doesn't seem to fit the style of the ceiling design.

Oh yes, and as we picked at the hole, a load of water started to make its way into my humble abode. I know. Awesome.

I'm just thankful that nothing happened to my laptop, which was sitting almost directly below it as I was studying. I couldn't imaging losing all my notes for my open-note test just minutes before taking it. Oy. Someone is smiling upon me today.

look who's talking 2

2009-02-15T11:58:00.003-07:00

So we have two little babies in our family. We talk about them, and how much we love them, and here's the funny thing. They aren't born yet.

These two kids are so loved and adored, and yet we haven't even seen them yet. One of them, we don't even know if it's a boy or girl (But is called "Brian"). I'm so excited to have more babies in the family.

the 2d 3d world

2009-02-10T21:15:00.006-07:00

A crazy week, but after a weekend of Jello and toys, can it go anywhere but down? I finished my project though. Steve and I worked hard, and we didn't get EVERYTHING we wanted to work in it, so the video is missing the last line of "See, Bob liked it." But I can't complain.

[blogger apparently can't handle the awesomeness of this video, so check out youtube]

Here are some screenshots of the programs that I've been using. Thanks Valve and Wikipedia!

Faceposer (just like it sounds. Make the "actors" move and look the way you want)

Hammer (3D environment creator)

I know. It's a pretty awful joke, but you can't expect much more from a computer science student.

Life is going well though. I feel good. Sunday was anything but the pinnacle of "stress-free," but really, I feel good. I'm feeling more relaxed then I have been, but I still think that I should get a massage. I've gotten into Lost. I know, I know, I can't believe it either. I used to be so good and NOT getting suckered into trends. Now here's the sad part... I've been lent the DVDs of the first season. I know. Death.

So I'm just pointing this out... it's almost Friday. You may be thinking to yourself, "Dork. Why would that matter?" Well, let me tell you. If today is the 10th, that makes Friday the.... yep, you got it... Friday the 13th. [falling off a cliff scream] oh man! it's friday the 13th! oh my gosh!

What am I going to do? Dunno yet. I'm thinking it's going to be something awesome though.

j-e-l-l-oh, it's alive!

2009-02-06T23:59:00.001-07:00

Let's see, what type of fun can you have with Jello?

First comes Moses

Then Kristina and Ginny

Well, here's Moses again, parting the Jello Red Sea...

Yes, he also had a orange jello aura.

And here's the soldiers who followed...

And after completing said story, I jello-through-a-straw-eating competition.

Need we say more?

steam

2009-02-05T23:27:00.001-07:00

I'm astonished
Twice I laugh to disguise
what is within me.
A midday shower no longer soothing
the tired eyes and arms
falling to their rightful sides.
The water is warm here.
The vapor is penetrating.
I haven't found it yet
but I feel like it's not here.
Looking seems oddly disconcerting;
I search anyway.
The light is fogged with enclosed air.
It waits for me to finish,
uninterrupting while openly present.
There are few things like that here
and I start to see myself as two.
One for others.
The other I keep close and closed
maintaining my own selfish protection.
Steam makes me feel malleable.

My instincts tell me I'm not.

russkiys and card sharks

2009-02-04T23:59:00.001-07:00

We've been having fun with our Russian visitors. I've had my phone
with me since Sunday night, always expecting a phone call from
neighbors and friends, asking if I can help with a translation. I
even appended my phone's answering machine message to have, in
Russian, "If you need a translator, please leave a message and I'll
call you back in a few minutes." Fun times.

I think that I have forgotten how different this culture is. They are
so funny. Instantly walking into the house, they asked if they could
have some house shoes. I told them not to worry about it because we
don't normally take off our shoes in a house here, but they insisted
that they CANNOT walk around the house in the same shoes that are
"dirty from walking on the street."

It has been fun having them around though. But holy hannah, my
Russian grammar is awful! I keep catching myself saying things that I
KNOW are not right, but I just spit them out like a bowl of cereal
with 2-week-spoiled milk. (Nice and chunky) I should practice more,
but I don't really have a lot of time (or opportunity) to do that.

So Natalie came over tonight, toured the RFC and met the russkiys.
Sergei (18) blushed way beyond the Soviet flag's crimson red. We all
pointed it out to him, and he got even worse. She and I had a good
time. Let's just point out the awesomeness of the evening:

Kung Pow Shrimp & Lemon Chicken - Both coming from the resturant where
they normally say, "We thought that was you on the phone."
Checkers (a version called "Russian Checkers" that I'm sure does NOT
derive from Russia)
California Speed
Five Crowns
Mojo crying like a baby when he got WORKED at each of the events.
(Including the shrimp)
Delilah crying because she was locked in the bathroom all night (and
because I was crying)

Oh yeah. Totally awesome.

from russia with love

2009-02-01T19:26:00.006-07:00

Some pictures from the party on Friday...

Nat and I (notice the hot tux)

Kerstin, Sarah, Natalie

Yay for parties!

I know. I look awesome in a tux. I got that out of the closet (more like the storage room) and I haven't worn it in AT LEAST 6 years. Wow. I was surprised that it still fit. It did smell bad being next to the water heater for that long, but what can you do?

Well, tonight, we're picking up the Russians. We're hosting them while they are here for the Special Olympics. I was the lucky one who speaks Russian, so I'm going to be busy this week. I won't have much time, but I guess that I can help when I can. I don't think that many other people who are hosting speak Russian, so I'm expecting a lot of calls. We only have a week before they are going to Idaho for the games themselves.

Notable memories of the day( and family party last night):

-Aunt Sam- "Bob has a magnificent organ." -Dad - "I've heard rumors..."

Salle and Nathan's sunday school class inturupted by a four-year-old, "I can feel my bones."

Christmas in February miracle, Brenda found her camera, and I posted the photos

extreme partying sports

2009-01-31T15:49:00.005-07:00

Okay, I've been getting pretty bad about writing on here. I've been trying to keep this blog updated, one: for the leagues of followers, two: because I'm just that awesome, and three: I'd like to keep a little bit of myself for posterity (think about how [much more] popular this blog will be when I'm [much more] famous)

It's been a pretty crazy week. I made a video. We've been taking the Halflife 2 Game Engine and making movies in my Machinima (WHAT?! 'Machinima' isn't in the dictionary?) class. It's a fun class, and I've really enjoyed it. I spent MANY hours on this assignment, and now I realize that if I started over now, it would only take me about 30 minutes to do what I did, but hey, it's about learning the stuff right?

I know. It's pretty basic. I just had to texture the scene (background, walls, make doors, etc.) and then have each of the "actors" go around and do what I wanted them to do and such forth. It's pretty boring. Some of the ones that came out of the class were pretty good.

That's pretty much been my life this week. Boring, I know.

I did have a chance to go to a party last night for Sabriel. She had a birthday this week, so we had a "surprise" party that she somewhat knew about. Pictures coming soon:

Cheesy "Prom" Photos
Twister
Twister Limbo
Twister Jump Rope (didn't really work or last long)
Moon Boot Dancing
Spraining ankles due to Moon Boot Dancing
Popping balloons between two people using a chest bump

Oh the joys of kiddom.

I believe that the festivities will be continued tonight at the crepe party...

emergency power outage 101

2009-01-26T20:11:00.008-07:00

Things to do while the power is out:

Take a nap
Wear warm closes
Make a fire
Watch a fire (from the power lines and transformer)
Play on the computer
Surf the web
Watch TV

Yes, all of those things were available today at the RFC while the power was out. Now, I know the first ones made sense to you, my lovely readers, but you might get lost with the last three (or four?).

I started the day with shoveling snow. It was deep. It was wet. It was heavy. My gift to my father this Christmas was shoveling all season long. He's old and deserves the rest to he honest. Later, I got ready for my presentation that I had in my class today. (The power was still on, so no problem with that) I got ready, scraped my car of ice, and headed off to school. I was planning on working at school after class, but by the time I got there, I realized that ALL my school books were still at home. Guess I'd go home to do homework.

Once home, I realized there was no power. Guess I wouldn't work on school. Ate lunch and took a nap. By the time I was going to work, the power was still out, but the RFC-EGG (RFC Emergency Gas[-powered] Generator) was carried out and set up. Yay! Although the power was out for the entire street (on the south side only... odd) the RFC was lit and warm. Now the fire department DID try to put out the electrical fire with a fire hose (Picture 2)... doesn't sound safe in the slightest...

Now the best part about having power? Modem and wireless router. Oh yeah! I didn't get much work done though because I was at work for the majority of the power-filled evening.

For those readers still following at this point out of bordom or a weird masochistic need to read the ramblings of Mojo, don't you worry. After 10 hours of the "power-outage," the RFC is back up and running at full-strength.

Yay for the Scout Moto: Be Prepared. Also for the Computer Science Moto: Make sure to have backups for wireless internet access because without internet, what good is a computer?

frances cake 14: a cupcake story

2009-01-21T23:59:00.002-07:00

A lovely tradition, only surpassed with it's own spoils...

Frances

The spoils

The Glaze

Now, the first batch got the glaze while it was still cool. The second batch was a little too hot to frost, and then when they cooled, the frosting was little hard to put on.

It was pretty fun. I mean, how can you be disappointed with funny stories from foreign countries (and one shocking one from the good ol' US). That Frances is a smarty-pants.

She's also convinced me to start with Battlestar Galactica.

good morning mister president

2009-01-20T21:04:00.007-07:00

It's been a while since I have written. Sorry followers (though few you may be; what we lack in numbers, we exceed in awesomeness), I'll get more on the ball about that.

School is going. My first assignment is due on Thursday, but I'm on too worried. This is going to be a time consuming semester. The real trick is going to be managing my time. I'm doing okay so far.

Notable things since last post:
deer running down my street in the middle of the afternoon.
invited to Frances cake. (to be take 14) - the first one of the year!
missed out on snowboarding with Sarah.
started running every day (okay, I only started yesterday, but that's two days in a row)
nd sadly missed out on the inaugural ceremony.

I didn't get a chance to listen/watch the new president of the United States give his inaugural address, but on my way to school, I had NPR on the radio, and I caught the tail end of the ceremony; I heard the poem and benedictory prayer. I've been thinking a lot about what I heard. Here's what I took out of it:

Elizabeth Alexander:

...Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.
What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light...

Rev. Joseph Lowery:

...we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance...
...With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.

I noticed a theme within those that spoke today (while I was listening of course). One word: Love... okay, in two words: Love and Tolerance. (does 'and' count as a word, because that would make it three) What a grand message to share with the American people, or even with the world. In my opinion, we as the human race need to love more.

Love family.

Love friends.

Love neighbors.

Love your leaders.

Love those you lead.

Most importantly (and sadly hardest to do), Love yourself.

My friend Frances, with whom I'll be making Frances cake, has a sort of tradition each year to dedicate the year to something to become, "The Year of ____." Most of the time, the blank is filled with "Frances," but if I remember correctly, her father convinced her to fill that with something more. So 2008 was "The Year of Jesus." What I neat idea though. To dedicate a year of loving yourself, and in turn loving others through loving yourself.

May the new presidency be a presidency of love, of patience, of understanding, of tolerance. And may we be the nation and people of love, of patience, of understanding, of tolerance.

dk

2009-01-16T23:45:00.001-07:00

Billy Mitchell can suck a lemon. Go Steve Wiebe!

don juan

2009-01-15T23:05:00.006-07:00

Don't you readers worry. I successfully averted the tragedy of completing my homework tonight. You can all breathe a little easier. It's just a little reading that I need to do before class, so I'll just do it before class tomorrow. I know. Children's Lit is going to be some HEAVY reading.

I spent the night with my main honey. It was fun. Pizza, TV, video games, reading, playing with her new doll house. Yeah. Totally hot.

I spent the evening with my, what can best be described as, niece/godsister Piper (age 6). An adorable redhead with enough energy to power a small country for 3 days. We played with the dollhouse she made at school, and read books. She read me one about Santa. I think my favorite line that was "read" was, "Mom said to the girl, 'You are getting ready for Santa.' Feel his beard. Is it soft or squishy? I'd say soft."

All-in-all, a good day.

PS - I might want to be careful. If Madison found out I was hanging around other girls, I don't know what she would do. I mean, she has, on occasion, mistakenly called me dad... and she is the younger woman at age 2.

rip van winkle

2009-01-14T22:23:00.003-07:00

Class, day 3: I found that the reading that I did for class today wasn't as vital as I had thought it was prior. I'll still continue to do it of course, but it does make it hard to really want to read when you go over the entire thing in class. I didn't get the books for my other classes until later this afternoon in the mail, so I came home and putzed around until work.

My life is pretty boring right now. I feel like I should at least write something, but as Francis posted today,

...the world of blogging is sort of a mixed bag. there is pressure to be funny, interesting and to take at least some photos without a double chin. there is worry about whether anyone is reading anyway, and if they even care that i lost the office belching contest...

Well, today was NOT the office belching contest, be we did compete. I emptied the quarters from the soda machine in the basement so I can go out and buy some more soda. Before counting it, we placed it in a cup and everyone guessed the amount. Most guessed in the 30s, but ranged up to $100. My guess, which didn't count sadly because of a conflict of interest and experience counting the coin, was $60. Actual, $66.75

Truth be told, it wasn't that boring of a day. I got in and took down the nondenominational holiday plant (Christmas tree) and in the process, seemed to create an air conditioning breezeway for my pants (a hole in the crotch about 5 inches wide). I proceeded to work today without realizing it. Yep. 2-6:15 with a HUGE hole in my pants.

Awesome.

i beat the smart kids

2009-01-13T23:19:00.004-07:00

I've decided, I am little Ralphie. I'm the character that most people enjoy and love to hear from, but yet am lost in obscurity. I'm remembered, but not sought after.

I've felt out of place recently, as though I belong, but not right at this moment. Or at least not for an extended amount of time.

School is fine this week. My classes haven't yet "started," but I think that I'll be busy this whole semester. Work is the same. I'll be working every day this week, right after school. I've had to map out how I'll be spending my time to the point that I have even scheduled time that I can spend on each specific class at a specific time. It's looking good.

The thing about my major is that I'm not one of the smart kids. I often feel like I know the least about anything that we are studying. I constantly have to look up what things are or what people are talking about, but I know that I love the material. Where does that leave me?