argh, safari 4 + growlmail = crash.

holy holy holy crap! real sugared pepsi!! goodbye cavity free teeth!!!

these are usually lame but this one is funny enough to share. these are the top ten results from typing “ryan likes to” into google (i changed she->he, etc):

1. ryan likes to display a substantial amount of very incisive ignorance and low wit.
2. ryan likes to shock bystanders with his infamous riddler’s cackle…
3. ryan likes to take familiar images and clichés and reincarnate them in a wholly original form.
4. ryan likes to play video games and destory things -_-.
5. ryan likes to flick cameras off (:.
6. ryan likes to hear a laugh that comes from human empathy.
7. ryan likes to think about the solar system, the dynamics of rotation, its effects on binary star systems and if it has linear or emotional effects.
8. ryan likes to accumulate image after image, one per line, as if trying to find the essence of something, even as he knows it’s ultimately impossible.
9. ryan likes to keep his social life simple and he stays close to his roots.
10. ryan likes to read mysteries, horror stories and biographies; play tennis; and play video games.
11. ryan likes to play cricket.

i would say thats pretty darn close.

here is her dribble entitled “new anti-christs” that was posted in today’s daily universe:

I have heard many BYU students say that we know that we are children of God, and so there is nothing really wrong with evolution. This is a false statement. The teaching of evolution has an erosive effect. It is subtle and harmful. Evolution is in opposition to the doctrine that we are children of God, the creation, the fall and the atonement, and warps all moral law. In the Book of Mormon, we learn about the anti-Christs such as Sherem, Nehor and Korihor. What did they teach? “Every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.” These are the same doctrines that come from the teaching of evolution. It’s a plan of selfishness. It contradicts the golden rule. It leads to situational ethics. It slaps mankind in the face. Why did many Nephites indulge in what Korihor taught? Like those who supported Korihor, many are now saying that what we have been taught in the past is the “effect of a frenzied mind; and that this derangement of your minds comes because of the traditions of your fathers.” Why as BYU students are we accepting and allowing these things to be taught at this university?

yup, thats right folks, all of us who have no problem with evolution being the method of the creation of this earth and its inhabitants are basically on satan’s team. contrast this with the letter to the editor my little brother wrote entitled “courage to understand” on wednesday:

The letter “Courage to believe,” on Feb. 9 was an attack to both one’s beliefs and intelligence. I am amazed how many people feel a need to embrace the argument by anti-theists that science and religion cannot coexist. Science, such as the theory of evolution, is the attempt to observe and figure out the means by which the world around us is the way it is. We don’t understand the way God does what He does, and we won’t understand until we live with Him again. We would be overwhelmed at this point in our eternal development if it were explained to us. Establishing a mean by which a few organic chemicals interacting can eventually become the plants and animals that enhance His children’s lives testifies of God’s infinite knowledge and wisdom. “[B]y small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37: 6-7) can apply to all of God’s works, such as the Creation. The nature of atoms, the effects of gravity, the process of evolution, etc., are all part of the intricate systems in God’s Creation to make things work the way He wants. Understand that evolution or any of the real sciences don’t conflict with the Gospel, and those who claim they do are manipulating them to deceive fools and create contentions.

a world of difference.

results of provo frozen yogurt smackdown 2009 are up!

so i guess frozen yogurt became the hip thing to eat in california, etc awhile ago and it hit here in provo sometime towards the middle of 2008. when i got back from my internship in august, there were at least 3 new stores opened up within about a mile of each other. usually i pay no attention to such things as pudding on the rice is really all i need to be happy, but mariam wanted to try something new. of course i wasn’t going to just let us go eat some crappy frozen yogurt, i wanted the best in town. with a serious lacking of yelpers in provo, i decided i would find out which was the best. thus was born the provo frozen yogurt smackdown of 2009.

i present to you the contenders.

so here is how it worked: at first we were going to just do the dedicated frozen yogurt shops: provo fro-yo, yoasis, yozone, and spoon me. but then we decided for a better sampling that we would try some stores that focus more on ice cream but also have frozen yogurt: byu creamery, sub zero, baskin robbins, and hogi yogi. for this to have been a really scientific experiment, we should have gotten the same flavor at every store, but who really wants to eat 8 different plain frozen yogurts? so we just got what sounded good at each store. we brought them all back to mariam’s apartment and the competition began.

mariam had difficulty remaining objective.

i will present the results as a short paragraph about each frozen yogurt, and at the end i will present our final rankings.

non-frozen yogurt stores:

baskin robbins:

obviously known for its ice cream. when i ordered a singe scoop sundae with frozen yogurt, the girl looked at me all confused and i had to show her the frozen yogurt way off in the far corner. i got it with hot fudge, cherries, and whipped cream. this frozen yogurt was probably the most ice cream-like of the bunch and had quite a smooth texture. both of us liked it.

byu creamery:

also definitely known for its ice cream. the line was freaking long here, apparently its the cool place to go for dates? we ordered the key lime frozen yogurt with pineapple, but for some reason the girl gave us coconut. it was definitely a unique flavor, and it reminded me of sherbet.

hogi yogi:

they make decent sandwiches, and apparently the do frozen yogurt as well. mariam went here so i can’t give any details on the in store experience. she got chocolate with oreos mixed in. it wasn’t as ice cream like as the baskin robbins, and i thought the chocolate tasted kind of funky.

sub zero ice cream:

this is the place with the gimmicky making the ice cream with liquid nitrogen thing. i guess mariam lived here last summer. she had a full punchcard that got us a free ice cream of any size. so not wanting to pass up the opportunity, we got the large. which apparently is enough to feed a polygamous family. we got malt fudge chocolate with brownie mixed in. it was definitely a better chocolate than hogi yogi’s, but i recommend sticking to their custard.

me contemplating on the virtues of a smooth frozen yogurt.

frozen yogurt stores:

provo fro-yo:

this is the only frozen yogurt store that was around before last year. they claim on the outside of their store to have the best frozen yogurt in provo, which made me quite surprised to find out that they blatantly use dreyer’s frozen yogurt. we go blueberry tart with granola, and honestly it tasted like crap.

spoon me:

this place is definitely the most “hip” of all the frozen yogurt stores. it was full of pretty people and hipsters, with funky looking chairs and pulsing music. and the price was definitely built in: $4.50 for a small. we got the açaí with kiwi, strawberries, and nilla cookies. the yogurt tasted quite excellent, though it was definitely one of the least creamy of the bunch.

yoasis:

it took over where a donut shop used to be, which is quite a shame if you ask me. once again mariam went here so i can’t comment on the store itself. we got plain yogurt with mango and blueberry. it was a little creamier than spoon me, and the fruit was nice and fresh. overall a pretty good frozen yogurt.

yozone:

this is one of the sell by weight frozen yogurt shops kind of like a place called big spoon i used to go to a lot in sacramento. i liked the atmosphere, not as pretentious feeling as spoon me. we got new york cheesecake with strawberries and cheesecake hunks. it was excellent tasting.

overall results (lower is better):

so, yes, if you are looking for good frozen yogurt, i recommend yozone. lots of choices, a cool atmosphere, good prices, and good yogurt. but its still not the best dessert in provo.

mariam in heaven.

my friend’s iphone game. its fun and worth the $.99. support student developers!

i am officially announcing the end of my support for msn/windows live chat. having one less service just simplifies my life, and msn was always clunky. less than 10% of my contacts still even had an msn account. so, if you want to IM with me, please consider upgrading to google talk (or AIM if you must). add me (remove all the spaces):

AIM: c c r y a n j

GTalk: b i s m a r k 9 0 (at) g m a i l (dot) c o m

i went and saw gran torino with mariam yesterday afternoon.

first off, i loved it.

second off, yes it was rated r. not cuz of sex; it was squeaky clean. not cuz of gratuitous violence; it was amazingly tame for a movie with gang fighting as a central aspect. it was rated r because clint eastwood spoke like a real rugged war veteran and the gang member spoke like real gang members.

so as i am sure a lot of you already knew, today denny’s was giving away free grand slams. this is probably not what they want me to say, but denny’s food is absolutely terrible. but the combination of free food and having a fun story tell got my out of bed this morning at 5:20 am to head off to our local denny’s with mariam and little bro.

we got there around 5:45, and the line was already starting to form outside the door.

the line steadily grew behind us and by the time we were done at 6:50, it wrapped around half of the restaurant. i am quite certain this is the only time in history that people have lined up to eat at denny’s.

mariam braved the cold well and even punched out a girl trying to cut in line.

yeah, we were basically desperate for food. we got inside and seated around 6:10. the staff looked surprisingly sane, thought i suppose we were only 10 minutes into what must have been a hellish day. we got drinks, ordered our grand slams, then waited. we actually got ours before some other people who ahead of us in line, probably because we all order scrambled eggs. i think they make those up in a big vat somewhere in georgia and ship them out as is.

once the food came out, there was no stopping mariam. as we left, people in lined cheered. i like to think it was just because it was us and not because they wanted people inside to hurry out so they could get out of the cold.

conclusion: the food was still terrible, but seriously, when was the last time anyone had a conversation about denny’s? i heard about 10 different ones yesterday and today. some marketing dude better be bringing home a nice bonus this year.

so, i talked about sharing sites back in this post, but i was never really happy with my solution. thus, i’ve come up with a new one. now, every time i add a link to my delicious account, it will also send an item to this site’s rss feed. i don’t post sites to delicious too often and it will only give a daily digest, so it won’t be filling up your rss readers, but it will give all of you, my readers, a look into what i found interesting during that day. enjoy!

i guess i’m not the only person who feels the way i do about webapps:

doing it wrong (via daring fireball .)

i love my mail.app, my netnewswire, my textmate, and my marsedit (which i am currently writing this on thanks to molecularbond and charles).