i feel special.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=broccoli+burps+stink&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

per digg:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ______________
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./ It’s a trap! \
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _,,,--~~~~~~~~--,_  . . . . . . . . .\ .____________/
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: : : : : : : ¯’’~~~~~~’’’ : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : : : : : :

i remember when i was a younger, things were a lot simpler. not nearly as much to worry about.

• i remember it took me almost a week to get up the courage to tell my mom that i thought it was time to start wearing deodorant. why in the world was i embarrassed by that? it doesn’t make sense, but i remember it being very difficult to do. thank goodness i did.

• as a deacon at church, my biggest worry was weather i would be able to hold up the water tray while passing the sacrament. we would wait at the sacrament table until the presiding leader took the sacrament, and we would hold the trays out in front of us. the full tray of water cups was just too much for my skinny little twelve year old arms, so i would try to position myself to be the last person to get a tray meaning i had the least amount of holding time.

• the pants i was given for 7th grade football were about four times too big. they gave me a belt that had the amazing ability to come loose every time i started running. i spent a whole season trying to keep my pants from falling down. maybe it was good i was waaay to embarrassed to ever put on my jock strap in the locker room.

• when i was fourteen i first tried asking a girl to dance and… who am i kidding, i’m still deathly afraid of that.

ah, simpler times. i am sure i can look back twenty years from now and say the exact same things about what i am worried about now. kind of keeps things in perspective.

another injustice has occurred on byu campus. relevant links:

• byu police beat, see january 24th
• daily universe readers forum, see chill out
• facebook cloak boy support group

join the facebook group. wear a cloak. sing in public. fight the man.

White House says phone wiretaps back on “for now”

every time i hear someone say that they like the bush administration, i get a little sad inside. even if a child molester is a good cook, or tells funny jokes, or gives money to a charity, none of that takes away from the fact that he/she is viciously destroying children’s lives. even if you like bush’s stance on abortion, same sex marriage, or heck, even the war in iraq, that doesn’t change the fact the this administration is willfully and blatantly breaking the law and acting contrary to the fourth amendment to the constitution. here is what is so idiotic about this: THERE IS A LEGAL, CONSTITUTIONAL WAY FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE WIRETAPS. a SECRET court exists specifically for this purpose. all of this court’s documents are CLASSIFIED. the government can receive a warrant up to 72 hours AFTER beginning wiretaps and still be within the confines of the law. why or why are they continuing to break the law? i am sorry to any of those of you who think this administration has redeeming values. there are no if, ands, or buts about it, this administration is acting CRIMINALLY.

senator obama asked rhetorically recently what has happened to this country where we are even considering whether it was alright to use torture in interrogation (for those who don’t stay up with the news, the CIA admitted to using water boarding though conveniently they came out with it on super tuesday when everyone was too busy to notice). the same question can be asked about illegal spying on citizens. why is there even a question as to whether this is right or not? what have we come to?

ok, so i was reading through my old journal i kept my freshman year at BYU. man, i wish i would have kept that up. some classic stuff in there. i wish i could post more of it, but some of the people discussed in there are still acquaintances. anyway, for my writing class i had to answer a number of questions in my journal. here was an interesting one about the honor code. i think most of you who know me will be interested to see that my feelings on the honor code have not changed much in the past three years. enjoy:

Why (or why not) is it important to have an Honor Code?

Hmm. Hehe, this is thought provoking. Is it necessary? Well, the majority of the students here at BYU are members of the Church. Therefore, under their baptismal covenants (and in some cases, temple covenants), they are required to live a certain way. There is a set of commandments that they must keep as part of those covenants, including the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, the 10 Commandments, tithing, etc etc. And then here at BYU there is the Honor Code. Basically, it tells all of students at BYU that they have to keep these same commandments (with a few extra tacked on) in order to stay at BYU. In reality, I think this is pointless. A member of the Church attending any other university can be strictly following the commandments and living a good life, though still stay out at their female friend’s apartment after midnight, and can sport shaggy hair. These things are not against Gospel principles. It is interesting that a member outside of BYU would have less rules, where it would seem as if a person would be more likely to face temptation because of the fewer numbers of those with similar standards. So why do we, who are at BYU, need these extra rules? I mean, I have no problem with the Honor Code stating we need to keep the commandments, but why not just leave it at we must keep our baptismal covenants? Why the added padding? What good does it really do for us? I really feel that some parts of the Honor Code are silly and without reason. Another thing that is silly, is I have been told that in most cases, if someone confesses a sin to a bishop, the bishop will not report them to the Honor Code office, even if there has been a violation. I think this just exemplifies the superfluous nature of the Honor Code. If the violation is enough to put someone in danger of losing their baptismal covenants, shouldn’t that be enough? I guess there is some need to separate the University from the Church, but still, I think the Honor Code office tries to do too much sometimes. The Honor Code should not be what dictates our actions, it should be our covenants with the Lord. And because the covenants we make have no mention of long hair or facial hair, why should the Honor Code go against these things? Is there really any justification of having those rules? This isn’t like a commandment where we can just say that we don’t need to know the reason, we should just have faith, because it is from God. The Honor Code is not from God. Granted, men such as prophets and apostles have come up with [actually i was mistaken here…], yet it is still just a man-made policy. Therefore, we should not be expected to be subject to pointless rules. The Honor Code is not Church doctrine, nor is it canonized scripture. Why are we punished for attending BYU by having rules placed upon us, with seemingly no reason? Anyway, enough ranting for the evening. Thanks.

hello all from tahoe. i am up here spending the weekend with a group of friends in a really nice villa. good stuff, very relaxing. anyway, part of my relaxing vacation was trying out my new shaving tools!!! i skipped my lunch hour on friday so i could go pick up the box from the post office. i was really tempted to give it a shot friday night once we got to the villa, but i decided to hold off until the next day once my beard had grown out a little bit more. so, after doing a bit of snow shoeing in the morning, i gave it a shot yesterday. i filled up the sink with hot water and put my brush and mug in there to start soaking and warming up. after my shower, i washed my face down with my pre-shave soap. it has a light lime smell, and my whiskers felt pretty soft afterwards. i then pulled the brush and mug out of the water. as expected, the brush smelled terrible. wet badger. nasty stuff. apparently it takes about a weak of use to finally start smelling nice. anyway, i put a tiny bit of shaving cream in the mug and got to work on making a lather. i really like the smell of the shaving cream i chose. at first i was worried it would smell too old manish, but it has just a very manly fresh smell. unfortunately the mug i was using (i just found it in the kitchen here at the villa) was a bit small, so it wasn’t too easy getting a good lather. i might have to invest in wide mouthed mug. but after some trying i got a nice wet lather going, and i applied it to my face. the badger stink was mostly covered by the cream, but not completely, so that was a bit unfortunate. once i got the lather worked up nice on my face, it was time to go at it with the razor. i am using the indian derby blades since i was told those are good for beginners. the shave felt nice and smooth. it took a bit of time since i was concentrating on keeping the blade at the right angle and not applying any pressure, but i got through one pass without any problems. unfortunately then i was disturbed by someone who wanted to use the bathroom. this was a bit frustrating for me, since i had explained to everyone what my plan was. so then unfortunately i only went through a second pass, and it was a bit rushed. i rinsed off with cold water and then applied some aftershave balm. even with the rushed second pass, it felt pretty good. just as close as i had ever gotten with a mach3. no nicks or razor burn. all in all, it was pretty good. everyone says that the closeness and comfort will improve with time and practice, so i plan to keep on it. maybe someday i will achieve the legendary baby butt smooth shave. i will be sure to keep you all updated.

anyway, thought i would just share that with all of you (plus tangerine requested it, so i thought i would be a nice guy). sorry for the dearth of posts lately. i will work on it.

long time, no post. i got paid on friday. it feels nice being rich. it might be a bit tough going back to school in the fall.

i have exciting news. this is what i bought as part of my new shaving hobby:

• DE Blade Sampler Pack, Standard

• Merkur “Hefty Classic” Safety Razor

• Vulfix #2233 Super Badger Shaving Brush

• Shaving Brush Stand, Nickel

• Taylor of Old Bond Street Luxury Shaving Cream

• Musgo Real Glycerin Lime Oil Soap

and possibly most important:

• Nick Relief Styptic Liquid

all of these purchases were made after a number of hours of research, so i think like i am getting some really good quality stuff. this might all seem expensive (and yeah, it was), but this stuff is an investment. the razor itself could become an heirloom they are so well made, and i got a very good quality badger hair brush that should last me many years. in the long run, the double-edge blades are much cheaper than mach3 cartridges, so after a few years it will pay for itself. this should be good.

goda (lil' bro) flew into san fran yesterday so i went down there to spend some time with the fam. my grandpa bought himself a wii for his birthday, so we had some fun with that.

i think i am going to hold off on buying an iphone. yes yes, the apple fanboi is still not fully sold on it. 3G is the deal breaker for me. so, my plan is to buy my coworker’s unlocked blackjack for $80, get an AT&T contract, and then wait it out until the 3G iphone (which is hopefully by next christmas).

i enjoyed a relaxing evening at home tonight.

work today was kind of lame. all of the TMEs were supposed to go to this 6 hour long linux training. i was a little nervous about the whole 6 hours long part, but i figured it would be sweet to learn a bit more about linux. weeeell, it turns out this was a training for newbies and everyone else in the group figured that out and didn’t show up besides me, and, well, the newbies. so yeah, rough 6 hours. i actually didnt make it to the end and just left because i was getting nothing out of it. blah.

i cooked myself dinner again tonight. i think that makes at home dinner for every night but one so far this week, which is pretty dang good for me! i made beans, rice, and chicken. it tasted decent enough. i love my new george foreman grill. no more boiling chicken!

speaking of food, i started a “fitness program” last night as part of my new membership at a gym. so basically some chick tells me i need to eat less junk food, exercise each day, and then she shows me how to use all of the equipment i already know about. she told me one of the bad foods i can’t eat is cheese. every day that i eat junk food, i need to put a red X on a little calendar she gave me. no cheese! whatever. but i did go running tonight and felt pretty good. i think i might be running a 5k next saturday. its definitely been 2.5 years, and i definitely ran my slowest 5k ever 2.5 years ago, so it might be interesting.

i watched the movie juno tonight. it was good.

tomorrow is cleaning my room, doing some shopping, possibly going to a museum (its free museum day here in sac), hitting the gym, and playing with my sis. hells bells, its gonna be a busy day.

i am giving a presentation about google’s android os to the technical marketing engineer team on tuesday morning. i am a bit nervous, but i think i will do fine. i have studied quite a bit about android, so hopefully i can answer their questions.

a few thoughts on android: to be honest, i think it has gotten a bit more hype than it deserves. i mean, list of members in the open handset alliance is rather impressive (including my employer intel), but the products just don’t exist yet. where are the phone announcements? where are the actual demos? supposedly something will come out at the mobile world congress starting on the 11th, or at least thats what the android blogs are hoping. we shall see.

i think the use of the word “open” confused a lot of people when it came to android. android is not linux. i mean, at least it is not linux in the common sense of the word. android uses the linux kernel, but it doesn’t come with the typical utilities that we associate with “linux.” no X11, no vi, not even cp! don’t expect anyone outside of hobbyist hackers to be running linux apps on android anytime soon. and if the capability does come about, one would have to ask why they would take the time with other “true” mobile linux platforms out there (openmoko, qtopia, etc). no, when google said it was open, they meant that it was open to third party java-based applications. it also is built on a sort of modular application system, where one can swap apps (including those provided by google) and they can perform the same function as long as they conform to the APIs. kind of cool, but maybe not what people imagined when they heard “open” and actually not even fully achievable yet with the incomplete SDK and the limited emulator. its been fun learning about android, but i can’t say i have all that much faith in it yet.

speaking of openmoko, i kind of want to buy this:

neo advanced developer’s kit

it looks like it would be fun to play with. but i guess they are coming out with a new version of the neo soon, so its best to wait! and maybe with the release of the iphone SDK coming up, i will just forget about openmoko altogether!

i think i have become obsessed with shaving. yes, weird, i know. but the other day i was at the store just standing in front of the after-shave, and i realized how ignorant i was about taking care of my own face. i submitted a question to the 100 hour board about when i should wash my face (before or after the shave), but today this was on digg:

how to shave like your grandpa

it opened a whole new world to me! now i definitely know what is on my list once my next paycheck rolls around! i am planning on buying a safety blade, a badger hair brush (maybe splurge on a silver tipped one??), some real shaving soap, some pre-shave oil, everything! everyone i have told thinks its totally weird, but i am really excited about it!

here are some other links about shaving:

• mantic59’s shaving video tutorials
• badger and blade shaving forums
• shavemyface.com
• shave blog

no more scraping my face and slathering on the chemicals!