My Stories

My Stance on SOPA/PIPA -- I oppose

2012-01-18T11:15:00.002-05:00

I am against the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. I have long held views favoring a less regulated Internet (as noted here) because I feel like the Internet is a very unique invention that has already transformed all of our lives and will continue to only do so in the future. To regulate this developing infrastructure with 20th century paradigms will be detrimental for our society in more ways than one. Additionally, the Constitution provides for Congress with the authority to create a copyright law to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. However, if the copyright law is divorced from this basic premise, on the effect regulations have on promoting innovation, the law becomes unconstitutional. That is why in my opinion every copyright case should be looked at with a healthy dose of fair use. SOPA/PIPA seem to look at copyrighted content only from the perspective of the established, powerful content police, seeking to fix piracy with an overly broad measure that chills precisely what the Internet has done a marvelous job of promoting: fair use. There are less troubling means of stopping pirated content than by these proposed bills. I have already made my thoughts known to my Congress representative and if you similarly think that SOPA/PIPA is not the best approach, I urge you to do the same. There is a really cool website that allows you to easily find out who and how you can contact: http://americancensorship.org

Help me with your extra sky miles!

2012-01-09T07:27:00.001-05:00

Almost 23 years ago, my mother passed away. Now after raising all of us kids, my dad is finally getting married again. I'm so happy for him and his fiance; they go so well together. The only problem is that I won't be able to go without a financial miracle. At first, I wrote this off as an expense I could not handle. Money is really tight right now. Now 11 days away, I realize that my dad needs me there and I would love to be there. My wife would also love to go! If you have any extra miles, I am happy to provide any sort of services in return that I can such as web development or patent support. If you want to donate to my cause, please click here at WePay: https://www.wepay.com/donations/my_dad_s_sacramento_wedding

Skipping the voicemail instructions

2011-12-20T08:13:00.001-05:00

You've all heard been here before. First, you wait ring after ring to get a hold of the person you are calling. Then, you hear the person's personalized voicemail telling you to leave a message. On a sidenote, as technology is, this voicemail message is pointless to me. You know the person unavailable--that's why they didn't pick up. So what is the point of the voicemail unless it is detailed enough to give you information that you didn't already have about the person. As Google is getting more and more integrated with cell phone features, I wouldn't be surprised if a feature for Google status updates allows for you to sync the updates to your voicemail. So you can say on your status update that you are in Beliz, and if someone tries to get ahold of you, that information can be communicated to the caller. Anyway, back to my voicemail rant. Finally, as if it wasn't enough waiting, you proceed to hear an automated woman's voice tell you instructions on how to leave the message. A nice way to bypass all this hoopla is by simply pressing #. It sends you straight to voicemail. However, some phones (I don't know if this is a network issue or phone-specific) are not in tune with this nice feature. Instead, it prompts you to enter a passcode, not allowing you to enter a voicemail that call. This needs to stop Verizon (or particular phones). Get with the program.

All set?

2011-12-04T11:10:00.001-05:00

"Are you all set?" It was a question I started liking towards the beginning of this year. I liked how simple and direct the wording was and how the person asking the question doesn't have to provide any details of what he is asking because the context makes it relatively straightforward. However, like most cool things, I have seen this question's enchantment decline through overuse. Just the other day when standing in a bakery, A+ and I were looking at the menu. The employee looked at us after a while and ventured, "All set?" What did that question even mean? The most obvious interpretation was that she was wondering if we were ready, but since we were still glancing at the menu, the context did not make her intent obvious. A more effective question would have been, "Do you have any questions?" or "Are you ready to order?" That would have been nice.

Take home true principle: use cool phrases selectively and in moderation.

Some popcorn guidance

2011-11-22T10:05:00.001-05:00

As the holidays come upon us this year, thoughts inevitably turn to one way that we celebrate and spend time with loved ones: eating good food. It's also a time when lots of people are trying to make every dollar count.

This season make homemade popcorn. If you can splurge, make caramel popcorn. You will save money by making it yourself. The one thing I'd recommend is to not scrimp on the kernel quality. Unlike other goods that you can substitute an off-brand without noticeable difference, with popcorn you can tell. Get jolly time popcorn, the kernels get so big it's crazy.

The almond experiment

2011-10-24T14:07:00.001-04:00

Steve Jobs is now famous for saying that consumers don't know what they want until they are shown. This same principle is equally true for food.

I am spending a lot of time at home working. This means that whenever I have a craving during the day, I'm covered. This post is in no way meant to brag, but our home is filled with good snacks to choose from, including mucho candy. While you can usually find me munching on some pretzel m&ms, lately I've switched things up. Every time I want to grab some candy, I instead go for the plain almonds. It doesn't seem like that glamorous a snack, but every time I go almond, I find that I really did want to eat almonds. Not to mention, I feel healthier too.

So my take home is that your brain can deceive you in what you want to be eating.

The Dude Guy

2011-10-11T19:21:00.001-04:00

When I was around 10 years old, my brothers and I found ourselves searching for things to do in the summer time. With the help of our dad, we eventually hatched a most brilliant plan to set up a candy stand. In my opinion, the candy stand launched each of our young work ethics. One day, business was good, and then all of a sudden a jeep shows up. Out jumps this guy in his 20s without a shirt and a long blond pony-tail. He ordered some candy from us and then paid with a $20. The only to this order was that we didn't have that kind of change. We scrambled to give him all the change we could, pouring $7 of coins into a cup for him. His cheerful response, "Dude!" started an instantaneous friendship between us. From then on, this guy would drive past and he always enthusiastically honked at us as he drove past and we'd all yell out "Dude!" This dude was far less worried about getting his money's worth for his purchase. He probably cared more about just taking from life what life would give him. We fast forward a couple decades. The Aimers and I just had a little trip to Maine. Maine is a really great place, in case you are not familiar. As hectic and as crazy as Boston is, Maine is equally relaxed and laid back. I think our hike guide was the epitome of Maine. This guy Bryan graduated in Geology a few years back and rather than sell out to corporate America and "make rich people richer," he decided to keep doing what he loved, being a guide in West Forks, Maine. And this guy was good. He was smart, interesting, and very personable. In my opinion, this guy could be making a lot of money if he wanted. But we found out that the rafting business and tourism in general in Maine is not doing very well right now, so this guy was literally scraping by. It struck me that he didn't seem concerned about that at all. He instead seemed completely at ease about it. He constantly reassured us that we didn't need to rush on our hike, but that we should take our time. My favorite part of the hike was Bryan's comment at the end on how nice of a hike it was, especially at the summit where we could just "chill." The comment showed that he genuinely loved his job and was content with life. I like a lot of types of personality, but I have an especially soft spot in my heart for people who are totally chill about life.

A Thai restaurant you can't not try

2011-09-15T18:23:00.000-04:00

The first time I went to a Thai restaurant was surprisingly only about two years ago. My love for the food took off instantaneously. Maybe I have Thai in my blood somewhere in the lineage. Two days ago, I went with a friend to Aiyara Thai Cuisine in American Fork. It was the best Thai food I've ever had. I ordered this super creamy coconut, lemon grass chicken soup. It was amazing. I also had this green curry chicken dish. I was in heaven. To top it all off, we had a mango sticky rice dish with ice cream on top. I didn't know anything could taste so good. And it couldn't be that bad for me, with dairy, fruit and grains included, right? If you are in Utah, or frequent the state every once in a while, you need to try this restaurant out. It's kind of secluded, so you may not find it just browsing for restaurants. But here's the address. Find it and eat there. It's very affordable. 224 East Main StreetAmerican Fork, UT 84003(801) 756-4775www.aiyarathai.net/

Limitless

2011-09-04T01:20:00.000-04:00

Tonight was movie night featuring Limitless. The film was interesting, action-packed, and had some really unique cinematography. It's got Russian, which always makes a movie just a little bit better. Plus, it's got Robert De Niro. What's not to like about Robert De Niro? I would really recommend the movie. It's at the RedBox and on iTunes. ;)

If you haven't heard of the movie, the plot focuses on this kind of deadbeat guy who gets a hold of a drug NZT, which makes his brain function at full capacity. Can you imagine all your neuronal synapses connecting like a perfectly lubed machine? Or everything that you have learned (even subconsciously) at your disposal when you need it most?

The reason why I loved this movie is the same reason why I love any movie. It allowed me to escape reality but connect truth from this imaginary film into my real life. It absolutely fascinates me to think about someone condensing the pain of learning into one productive learning session. I guess I like the concept of operating at maximum capacity. Haven't you ever had your brain on super-productive mode? Or been able to complete a giant list of tasks in a short amount of time? Have you ever felt like you were on top of the world? The life of the party? All your jokes were funny and all your conversation was interesting? Okay, these last items don't happen too often to me. But I do get little brief glimpses of them.

Lately I've been trying to figure out why people have only glimpses of their brains operating at 100%. The majority of the time, your brain seems to be in "blah" mode. I've noticed for me one reason is that it allows me to be humble. I am a creature that needs to be forced into humility. It is then that I realize that I'm not better than other people. In fact, I'm more willing to interact and reach out to people when I am in a humble state, potentially building them up. I found it interesting that the movie only focused on the glamorous components of using your brain, like knowledge, power, money, without touching on the virtues that the brain can learn. Isn't it true that the brain can digest the benefits of living the precepts of wise leaders throughout the ages? Food for thought.

My other reason for why we are so designed sounds like a good reason, but I don't know if it's true, so I'm interested in what you have to say. Maybe life is more rewarding when you experience what you can't have. You see that elusive destination, but at the same time you are so far from it that it ain't even funny. We as humans need to be ever-progressing. We can't just reach a level and be content. That's why the Matrix initially failed. That's why we play RPGs. Have kids. Coach. It's fun to see the progress in ourselves and in others, but if there's a point where we have "made it," that becomes boring. That's all I've got for now, my brain is now dead.

August is the month of stories

2011-08-21T01:52:00.000-04:00

In order to share a story, you have to be in the right mood. I think I've finally gotten into the right mood for this story. It all started yesterday...

I have temporarily moved back home to Orem, Utah to work for Novarad while the Aimers is gearing up for the school year in Boston. Living at home has taken some major adjustment on my part. Life is better elsewhere, but this situation will pay some bills.

Anyway, a couple days ago I drove my dad's Dodge Spirit to work. I am not too used to living in Happy Valley, so notwithstanding the fact that no one in their right mind would ever try and break into that car, out of habit I locked the car doors. But before I locked the last door, I made sure that the key I had could open up the door. After all, I wouldn't want to lock myself out of the car. Sure enough, the lock opened up the door and everything was fine.

The next day (yesterday), I drove my brother's Cavalier to work. It is a nicer car, but not nice enough to attract criminal conduct. After pulling up to the parking lot, I rolled up the windows and locked all the doors. This time, however, I did not check to see if the key I had would unlock the door. That minor detail would prove to be significantly important.

At lunch, I went out to the car to grab my peanut butter and honey sandwich. I put the key in the car and twist. Or, I should say, I tried to twist, but it wasn't twisting. I feared that I locked myself out of the car, but for good measure go to the passenger door and try. No twisting. I checked every door in hopes that I had forgotten to lock one. No such luck. I was locked out.

My brother confirmed my fears. Apparently, Race has one of those crazy cars that has a different key for the engine than the doors and trunk. His door and trunk key was inside the car. After a couple phone calls, I found out I could get a replacement key for $25, provided I show the dealership documentation with the VIN and my name on it. The problem was that I didn't have said documentation, Race would forget to call the bank to fax the dealership said documentation, and even if said documentation was received, I needed to be Race Ostler to pick up the key. It was too bad that he was going boating right as I called too.

So I decided to not worry about it during my lunch break. I went hungry and relied on a very kind fellow-employee that I got to know through my wife last year and very coincidentally started working with. He gave me a ride home and I was determined to get the key situation ironed out later. But my dad wanted to do it the next morning, so I waited.

When I was in high school, my buddy Ray used to lock his keys in his car so often that he would have a system to breaking into his car. Hey would pry the door open a little bit, shove his wallet in the pried area towards the top of the door, and then get out a hanger that he kept under his frame. If the lock was right, you could put a hook in at the end, put the hook under the locking mechanism, pull up and it would unlock.

I thought that I could do what he did and avoid paying fees and cutting bureaucratic red tape. Race had locks that appeared to be manipulatable by a hanger hook so the next day (today), my dad and I packed plenty of hangers and headed to where the locked up car was.

The process was not as easy as I had remember it. I could only fit one fold of my wallet in between the door, which didn't give us much wiggle room with the hangers. Tried as we could, we could not get the wires to come through from the top of the door--we had to settle on pushing the wires from the right hand side of the door. This could not give us the right angle. We made hooks into the hangers to latch on to the locking mechanism, but we could hardly touch the locker.

We then made a hanger guider, which was a glorified hanger loop that we threaded the hook through so that we could guide it closer to the locker. This got it much closer. Two times, my dad latched on to the locker, pulled, and moved it a little bit, but not enough to unlock the door. We just could not get a good enough angle from the entire other end of the door.

It was getting hot. I was very grateful that very few people were in the parking lot on a Saturday morning because we must have looked either very ridiculous or very shady. We had been so far unsuccessful at moving a wire to the other end of the door frame, so we decided to switch gears. What if we tied some string to the hook and navigated it over? It was worth a try.

After a quick drive to the nearest Circle K, we were tying waxed mint dental floss to the hanger's end. When that was attached, we shoved it through the usual door part and this time I navigated it to the opposite end of the door, closer to the locker mechanism. From this vantage point, I was able to stabilize the hook. But we didn't have much luck getting the hook coming in at the right angle. We tried, tried, tried and failed, failed, failed.

My dad then had the offball idea of putting a loop of dental floss to the end of the hanger and kind of lassoing the locker mechanism. I knew that idea wouldn't work. It was almost like a joke. So I said, "Okay, let's try it." Miraculously, the loop didn't get caught on anything getting in. I used my floss to guide the hook close and slowly the lasso got closer and closer to its target. Then the lasso closed in around the locker.

At this critical point, I carefully moved my floss to the other end of the door so that both the hook and floss were opposing where the locker had to be pulled to be unlocked. We both pulled. All eyes were on the locker.

The locker pulled back. The loop then fell off the locker. I reached for the door handle, as I couldn't believe that the door was unlocked. The door opened wide. My dad and I burst into laughter. WE COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAD HAPPENED! That was the luckiest, flukiest thing. But it did happen. And I was glad.

We then made it home and Race was outside. He seemed happy to see his car back at home. He tried to show me where the key was that I had locked in the car, but it wasn't there. A little while later, he said, "Trent, here's the key to unlock the car doors. I had it all along."

The likability factor of Lebron James and others

2011-05-17T18:11:00.001-04:00

I'm always interested in NBA playoffs. This whole season I have viewed the Miami Heat as overhyped and overrated. The Heat signed all the talent money could buy and still they didn't have the best record in the league. I have viewed Lebron James his whole career similarly as overhyped and overrated. Because of these two points, as you might imagine, I didn't want the Heat to go far in the playoffs. I wanted the 76ers to take them out. I did get some sense of satisfaction that at least it wasn't easy for the Heat to take out the sixers. Then I really wanted my Celts to knock off Lebron, but that obviously didn't happen. Now I'm glad the Bulls worked the Heat in Game 1 (and look to continue throughout the series) and it's made me wonder: What is it about human nature that wants to tear down something that is hyped up?

I watched the movie More than a Game and I'll have to admit that my perception of Lebron changed for the better. In the movie, Lebron comes across as very likable. He's just a kid who grows up just like everyone else, has struggles, and eventually starts succeeding - big time. But even as he is starting to really become famous, people at the same time are starting to tear him down even in his own town. This phenomenon happens with all sorts of types of people from movie stars to musicians to politicians. They are interesting as they rise, then once they are at the top, people crave more interest and so they try and expose faults, making them less likable. But why do we as people want to tear down something that has been propped up?

I think it has to deal with jealousy on our parts. We get happy initially for someone's success. It inspires us that we can also be successful. But then we don't want them to be better than us, we want them to appear more human, so we look for ways to tear them down.

As I mentioned, I am not as anti-Lebron as I was because I want to appreciate his talent. He has already done some incredible things in his career. Think about him with the Cavs. He basically had no one else on his team, and they won 66 games one season, 61 games another season, get to the finals, play in the conference finals. That is impressive. What's funny, is that he follows that up with 58 wins season with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.

Now that all my teams have been eliminated from the playoffs, I am now throwing my support behind the Mavs. My brother is living in Dallas this summer, so for his sake I am going to be cheering them on.

How I would change the written English language

2011-05-13T13:07:00.001-04:00

One downside of putting spoken language to print is that inevitably the same emotion cannot be adequately expressed. For the most part, I think that a writer can do a pretty good job in English. But there is one area that the English language struggles and may very well be in need of a new symbol: emotional emphasis. A lot of times, putting certain sentences to print with a mere period punctuation makes the sentence look as if a robot is saying it. This is undesirable, especially when the subject matter is emotional.

So how most people compensate for this is by using an exclamation point. The exclamation point definitely has an emotional emphasis, but too often it is used with excitement, rather than just to stress heartfelt emotion. Imagine the context of me writing a letter to my professor. The words of appreciation with a period make it sound not very grateful, or robotic, or not very genuine. "Thank you for writing the letter for me." But because the whole tone of my email is serious and professional an exclamation point is out of place: "Thank you for writing the letter for me!" Keep in mind that I don't want to communicate excitement here, I just want to let her know that I am really grateful. If I did send her the exclamated sentence, she might be like, "Whoa buddy, you're getting a little bit excited there."

Another example is in the most recent Ensign magazine. Elder Quentin L. Cook, referring to women, wants to really express how wonderful he believes women are. But the editors of the Ensign clearly struggled with the same idea. Here is the text.

I echo that sentiment today. Our LDS women are incredible!

By reading the text of this excerpt, it would appear as if Elder Cook was raising his voice, or at the very least has an excited tone. But the video shows quite the opposite; the tone is very level, the exclamation is merely being to infuse emotion into his words.

So there's the dilemma. You want to sound emotional, but not overly excited. To solve this problem, we should come up with another symbol to distinguish the two cases. The exclamation point should be used in contexts of high excitement, like when you are at a basketball game or rock concert, while another symbol should be used for emotional emphasis. There are quite a few symbols available on the keyboard that we don't commonly use in English print, but the checkmark symbol √ seems most appropriate. The checkmark is simple, and it gives the reader the impression that you are giving emphasis to this sentence. And that is usually the context of when the exclamation point is inadequate. "It's nice to meet you.√" I'm really happy to meet you, I'm not bored and I'm not a robot, but I'm also not one of those overly excited types either.

There may be times when the exclamation points can be combined with checkmarks. For instance, what if you were trying to stress emotional emphasis and really excited at the same time. You could couple the checkmark quite easily with other punctuation; the checkmark will just come last. "I love you!√" This is like combining question marks with exclamation points, completely acceptable. For example, "Are you serious??!" But most often, the checkmark symbol will stand alone, I imagine.

The exclamation point is currently used to stress emphasis. However, because the exclamation point is also used for excitement, this leads to a confusing conundrum. That is why introduction of the new emphasis symbol, the checkmark, is so vital. I really think we should adopt this system.√

The dilemma of the Provo dater: A guy’s perspective

2011-05-03T18:23:00.000-04:00

In my college physics class, my cousin Andrew and I came up with a theory on the ideal age for a guy to tie get married. We based our theory on the assumption that guys want to marry the right girl at the right time in her development. To support our theory, we compiled two graphs. First, there are three characteristics that a guy is looking for in a girl, to one degree or another: pretty, interesting, and spiritual. These characteristics tend to increase and decrease at different points in a girl’s life so the goal for the guy is to maximize. Second, the availability of girls diminishes rapidly due to the environment of Provo. A perplexing tension thus exists, our theory held, for the guy to choose between the girl’s ideal age and her availability. Here are the data:

Graph 1. The x-axis represents age, and the y-axis represents an arbitrary scale from 1-100. You may be wondering why my graph starts at the age of 17. There happen to be 17-year olds that attend BYU. I have a story about that.

The first characteristic that every guy looks for to some degree in a girl is physical beauty. This characteristic peaks in the early twenties. However, it remains remarkably stable for a long period of time, well into the early thirties. There is a big window of opportunity for a guy looking for prettiness in a girl.

The second trait is the spirituality. The guy wants a girl who he can go to church with for the rest of his life, someone who can help bring him up when he is feeling down and vice versa, and also help him raise kids in the gospel. Generally the late teens and early twenties are a period of finding oneself. Away from family for the first time, the Utah valley culture and influence of the church provide opportunities to learn and grow and be challenged in ways they never have before. This leads to much spiritual growth during these years. After a few years of this, many girls choose to serve a mission, which further increases the spiritual factor. This spiritual growth tends to plateau as missionaries come back home to enter the real world, graduate from college or otherwise head off to get absorbed into a career or grad school. Rather than being encouraged to keep up their spiritual lifestyle, they tend to get influenced the opposite direction. Unless they have great faith, they will tend to throw out tenets of their belief system. After a few years, however, of once again finding oneself outside the bubble, the girl recognizes that in some regards she “threw out the baby with the bath water” and finds again elements of her beliefs. After this second period of finding oneself, steady spiritual growth ensues.

The final factor is how interesting the girl is. This can mean a lot of things to a lot of guys—having a funny personality, having an ability to carry on interesting conversation, an being able to play an instrument, or just having a passion in something. The graphs show that girls’ level of being interesting generally increases throughout their lives as they accumulate experiences, talents and other interests. As the guy’s “interesting” factor increases, this in turn increases the girl’s interesting factor. It takes interesting to perceive interesting.

To the observer of this graph, it would appear that the ideal age at which to meet and marry one of these girls would be 29 years old. At this time, the factors are maximized at a central point. But here the second graph is introduced, which changes the selection dynamics altogether.

Graph 2. The x-axis once again represents age and the y-axis represents the percent availability.

Starting out, there is near 100% availability. As you can see by the following graph, Provo is a unique environment where girls start getting into serious relationships very young. Starting at age 19 and continuing until the age of 26, the availability of girls decreases exponentially. This in turn leads to fewer odds of finding that special someone that matches the guy’s traits.

Thus the paradox is that the longer the guy holds out for the ideal age for the positive traits, the less he has to work with and thus the lower these characteristics actually are.

Guys for the most part know about these graphs intuitively, but the majority of them don’t know how to resolve the tension. They don’t know when to hold out until while still getting a pretty good deal. That is why many of them do not get married for a while.

If you saw money on the road, would you pick it up?

2011-04-05T08:47:00.000-04:00

One of my young men told me on Saturday how he found a twenty dollar bill on the street. How nice, I told him. Little did he know that I love finding money. I consider myself quite good at spotting money and picking it up in all shapes and varieties.

You know the economics concept of opportunity costs? It goes something like this: the amount of time that you spend bending down to grab a coin on the street may not be worth your time, depending on how much you could otherwise earn. This is technically true with me. I have opportunities to make money making it possibly not worth my while, were I just to spend that time on working. But notwithstanding this knowledge, I'll still bend down and pick up a penny if I see one.

Why? I need to make known to myself and the universe that I am always on the lookout for ways to make money. Plus the times that I find such money is relatively rare so I can make up for the time in non-working times, like sleep. Plus, I'm not as rational as economic theory tends to assumes someone like me to be.

What is the lowest coin you would "stoop" to pick up?

General Conference 2011 - The best ever?

2011-04-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

Twice a year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds what is called general conference for two days. "Conference" includes multiple two-hour sessions of inspirational talks on a variety of gospel-related topics. The addresses are available for all to view either on TV, radio, Internet (lds.org), or satellite transmission at a local church.

For the past few years, I've done a good job of keeping myself busy during these April and October conferences. While still participating, during these times I would sometimes casually listen to the talks and otherwise not let the meaning sink deeply into my heart. This didn't let met extract as much meaning and value to my life! But this year was different. I decided to focus on conference and put aside my other tasks at hand. I focused myself and watched all 10 hours, which made a world of different this made for me.

For one, this conference really helped me think about ways that I can be a better person. There are a lot of ways that I can be better so liked how the speakers inspired without making me feel overwhelmed. I think this is the trademark of when you are being touched by the Holy Ghost. You realize that the gospel is simple and that you can tap into God's power through His grace and it makes you feel wonderful and optimistic. It was also good to regain the perspective of why I am on this earth. It's kind of easy to get weighed down by life, but you find comfort and happiness in knowing that God really is there for you trying to help you. I definitely felt Him these past couple days very strongly and there's no greater feeling. He will always be there for us, we just need to do our part to come to Him.

This has also been my first general conference being married, which also made for an interesting new perspective. Even though I haven't been married as long as Elder Scott, I can see that family life is paramount. There was so much good counsel about the gospel, especially the priesthood, that I want to study, study, study. There is so much to learn and so much to do that my work seems mountainous. But I find comfort in the words of Elder Bednar that we learn and grow line upon line, precept upon precept. I definitely recommend anyone listen to the talks on lds.org when they become available. Also, if anyone out there would like to learn more about the church, email me. I have gmail: (trent.ostler)

As an aside, I don't know why the April conference is termed "Annual" and the October conference is "Semi-Annual." Don't you have to have two semi-annuals each year to make it be semi-annual?

29

2011-03-03T23:29:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe that this year has come to a close. So many things have happened to me since my last birthday--so many big, life-changing events. I finished one of the hardest semesters of my life, I got serious with a girl, I finished my law review note, I started p90x, I worked at a job that furthered my career and paid me for it, I got engaged, I made an iPhone app, I almost died, I saw my sister get married, I helped write an amicus brief, I finished the formal part of law school, I got the go-ahead to take the USPTO Registration Examination, I got married to a beautiful girl, I moved in with said girl, I started my externship, I filed my taxes after taking the class personal finance tax (Btw, big difference in understanding terms after taking that class), I experienced a sad passing with my grandmother, and I started once again maintaining my professional blog (click here to see). (My goal is to make my professional blog come up as the number one hit when you google Trent Ostler, but as it is now it's still this crazy blog.)

In sum, this year was CRAZY. But you better believe that's the way I like it. Life is not something that should be lived casually. You've gotta live it up to the fullest. That's what I did in year 28 and I show no signs of letting up. Watch out world, cuz I'm older and I'm wiser.

The General of the Ostler Family

2011-02-20T07:29:00.003-05:00

My grandma passed away Saturday morning. I have had her on my mind ever since. I don't think I've known a better representation of the goodness of humanity than grandma. She she was always content with life, was the hardest worker you'll ever know, was patient and courageous in her afflictions, cared about people, and had class in all situations, even when dealt a bad hand.

She was always happy with life. When she was in school, the cool kids would wear their fancy clothes and my grandma wanted to fit in with them, but she couldn't afford it. So she would make spin-offs herself and be perfectly fine with it. She went her entire life with only one vacation. I sometimes get caught up thinking about exotic destinations and luxurious accommodations. My grandma probably had hopes of going somewhere nice too, but she was fine when that didn't happen.

My grandma always worked hard. Always. She started working at her dad's fruit stand and starting at age 12, she would even drive her dad's car to pick up supplies. Orem was a different place back then. I remember her looking after us shortly after my mom passed away. One time while my dad was away, she came over and cleaned the entire house. Then she just sat in the dining area while we slept because she wasn't tired.

Jennica was only a month old at the time of my mother's passing. My grandma and grandpa were preparing to go on a mission with my grandpa, but my grandma took it upon herself to raise Jenny.

When I got back from my mission in 2003, my grandma was in a wheelchair. A slip resulted in a series of surgeries on her knee, eventually requiring her knee to be fused. For the next 8 years, she would deal with the consequences of that slip. It was extraordinarily painful for her, but she hardly complained. She was a champion of champions. She was a fighter though, and showed us all what it means to not take life for granted.

My grandma had a humble sense of pride. She was always aware, even in her jazzy-ridden condition, of how her house looked. She would have me come over and take out the weeds that had overrun her bushes. You would think that at that point in her life, she wouldn't care about how the front area looked, but not grandma. She had us plant a patch of flowers right next to the garden, and directed where they needed to go.

At social gatherings, grandma wasn't the most prominent. But she did her work behind the scenes. She was the peacemaker of the Ostler family. She was intricately involved in her family's lives. She was on everybody's side, even when there were conflicts within the family. Everyone came to her with their problems and she gave her undivided attention.

My grandma had been struggling a lot lately and she's in a better place right now. But it'll still be hard going without her.

DonorsChoose Shoutout

2011-02-08T18:04:00.002-05:00

I love education. I love learning and gaining skills that can be used in the real world. It’s sad to see that much of the world does not have opportunities for getting an education. It’s doubly sad to see that right here in the USA kids are getting lousy educations. I’m sure that politicians will continue to talk about investing in education and improving our system, but the reality is that our education system has many problems and a simple silver-bullet fix is not possible. That being said, I recently came across a program that aids in one of the system’s problems: lack of resources for teachers.

Very simply, our public education system is funded by allotments of money based on how much money the taxpayers pay in that particular locale. This system leads to disparity in different communities. It also leads to some school districts without sufficient resources for kids to learn.

One program that allows for teachers to bridge the lower-income gap in some districts is “DonorsChoose.org.” Teachers who are in need of a particular classroom item(s) post the item and donors donate money to it. This lets you donate money to projects you think are a good idea . Plus, organizations help out in the funding. Bing.com, for instance, will donate $3 if you fill out a survey. I did this the other day, but you can donate according to whatever means you have. This program is a way to concretely help students right here in the United States.

My wife teaches eighth grade special education. Special education is especially hit hard when districts are already struggling to come up with the resources to distribute. This, for the simple reason that kids with mild learning disabilities require more time and tailored education. Amy’s DonorsChoose project involves getting a digital projector for her students. This will aid in better interaction and better learning. To donate to her project, click here. It is named "Make Us Equal!"

Blog Post about My Blog

2011-01-27T23:02:00.002-05:00

This is a short and sweet blog post about a recent change to my blog name. For the longest time, my blog has been called “My Stories.” Today I started thinking about my blog, and realized that a better name for it is “Me” because my blog really gives you a flavor for who Trenton Bradford Ostler really is. There are the philosopohical posts on life, the business-y posts, the spirtual posts, the stories of adventure, the posts on love and family, and the opinions on random topics. I would rename my blog to “Me,” but that's not too terribly creative so I decided to translate the word "Me" into Russian giving as an end result "Ya." I hope you continue to enjoy the posts.

My Business Advice for Customer Service Departments

2011-01-27T22:50:00.003-05:00

I heard on the radio not too long ago that companies save huge amounts of money by not talking directly to the customer. It’s true. A company can save upwards of $6 per call. That is why automated directories are now widespread. But people still just want to talk to real live people to resolve their issues. I, for one, have gotten quite good at pressing the right keys to get to a person the fastest. The number 0 usually does the trick.

Today was different. I decided to try the website approach. You know those "email a representative" links on websites that nobody ever uses? Yep, I clicked on that and asked my credit card company a total of two questions, which were in turn promptly answered. This experience restored my faith in alternatives to calling humans. Indeed, using websites gives you access to more helpful and better organized information than is possible by talking to someone over the phone.

But here’s the problem: people are going to need an incentive to switch to addressing their problems online because it takes time to search the website, figure out their organization and wait for a response (which could take upwards of a couple days). The only reason I tried the email approach today is I was curious. Notwithstanding this problem, I think I know of a way that companies can incentivize customers to email them: pay them cash to resolve their complaints online. I know, you’re thinking that there’s no way to prevent abusers from gaming the system to get money. But the solution lies in making the price low enough that people won’t want to ask questions, but high enough that will attract people to go online.

I will be the first to say that I hate waiting for answers. When I have an issue, I want it resolved right then and there. But in reality, in a lot of instances, the problem is not immediate and going online can be much more efficient. I would be willing to jump through some hoops and be patient if the price is right. I think a lot of others out there are too.

That was scary

2011-01-07T11:35:00.000-05:00

I nervously stalled in the stairwell. I knew the gist of what I wanted to say, but as I came to the second floor, I started getting nervous. I went over some thoughts that I wanted to say in my mind again. Then I started walking to his office. The door was locked--he wasn't there. Shoot, I'll try back later. After about 20 minutes, I got a text from him. "Come on over for a visit before 10." It was 8:50. I immediately started walking back over to the Benson building. This time I was not as nervous; after all, he was basically beckoning me to come over. I also had been thinking about things to say for the past half-hour. I made it to the second floor of the Benson. He was with what looked like a colleague and a girl who was talking about her engagement or something. I retreated out of sight. I was sure that he didn't see me because his back was turned on me. Then I waited until the conversation ended and I made my move. He was in his office, but was on the phone with what sounded to be his wife. He motioned for me to come in, and I sat down on the couch and waited for the conversation to end. Then it was me and him. We small-talked around for a little bit, but we both knew what we were there to really talk about. In essence, I told him I wanted his permission to marry his daughter. Then I waited for his response. And waited. It seemed like an eternity. I am exaggerating, but at the same time I'm not exaggerating because he seriously paused for about 15 seconds. Then he started talking about how I would be so good for Amy and that he is really impressed with my appreciation for his daughter. A wave of relief spread throughout my body. What a nerve-wracking experience! And even for someone that I thought had shoe-in support for me. It was at that moment that my desire to have girls began as I would have the opportunity to have lots of fun with their potential suitors!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T02:59:00.002-05:00

Every once in a while, I get genuinely complimented on my blog. I'll have to admit that such compliments are my favorites. They make me want to blog more frequently.

Christmas this year was amazing. I would like to share with you why it was so good.

1) Time to unwind. I consider myself a pretty intense individual. I work hard and get a lot done. But I have noticed that when I am intense for too long of a stretch of time, I tend to go a little crazy. So starting Christmas Eve, it was so nice to just relax and not worry about stressful things.

2) Carrying on good traditions. We spent Christmas Eve at Amy's place, which involved fun and interesting activities. From reading the Polar Express, to reading the scriptures, to seeing the lights around Orem/Provo, I was introduced to some pretty great traditions that I would love to continue in the future.

3) Spending quality time with family. Amy and I were able to spend lots of time with each of our families. When you have families as cool as ours, this translates into a lot of happiness. It was funny how back and forth we were on Christmas, but it wasn't that funny considering our two homes are literally a half-mile away from each other. I felt very at home at the Burton residence and at least in my mind, Amy felt very at home at the Ostler's.

4) Meeting new family members. I have talked to Amy's sister Eli on the phone a couple times before, but never face-to-face. Christmas day changed that. I got to meet Eli and her boyfriend Jimmy. These were very intriguing people and I only wish I had more time to interact with them. Thanks to them, I was introduced to some vegan dishes that were not bad at all.

5) Getting good presents. Christmas should obviously not focus on getting presents, but good presents is definitely not a bad thing. This Christmas I got great presents that were well-needed and from the heart. Haley gave me socks, Graden gave me a Nordstrom rack Groupon, Ben Bernanke gave me an interesting mountain man book, and Amy gave me some rockin' shoes. I also got hooked up with cash from both parents. I. Am. So. Grateful. (I usually hate doing the sentence split up by periods, but it does add a little dramatic effect.)

6) Going on a run. I don't know about you, but I have been eating far too much garbage food lately. Obviously it's unrealistic to completely bypass such delicious food (especially when it is abundantly available everywhere you go). But it is realistic to burn away some of these calories on a nice jog to Will's pit stop. It was pretty cool going on this run also because a fog was setting in and I could see the fog-like wave formations coming down.

7) Watching LOTR. At first glance, Lord of the Rings may not seem very appropriate for Christmas. But with the context of Race calling me up late to see if I wanted to watch the Fellowship of the Ring with Scott, it was a perfectly appropriate way to end Christmas.

8) Amy. Amy and I will officially be family in just a few short days. This truth kind of blows me away. At least in the back of my mind, I have been waiting to find the girl that I would marry for quite some time. This year, I realized that I had found this girl and it was only a matter of time of waiting for the wedding date to arrive. But this date seemed so distant. Now it is not distant at all. Christmas was such a great day for us, me especially. When you are a thinker, such as I am, you sometimes let the gravity of marriage overwhelm you. But as with all seemingly-overwhelming aspects of life, you just kind of take things one step at a time. Christmas was great in that regard. It was an excellent illustration of how fun life is with Amy when we just enjoy things in the moment. I am so in love with this girl. We had plenty of funny moments today, inside joke moments, serious moments, and even moments where I beat her consistently at Othello. Best of all, as I've gotten to know Amy better, my love for her has grown. For me, that is the most impressive thing because love has historically been such a fickle thing. With love, things can fizzle, things can come to a screeching halt, or things can just not progress, for little or no reason, and on either end of the relationship. But this has not been the case with Amy, where my love for her has matured and grown. Ironically, it has become more difficult to express my love but as I better understand her personality, complement her, and get complemented by her, we climb higher and higher. I know I have a long ways to go in truly becoming unified with my sweetheart, but I am going to take things one step at a time. I feel very optimistic about this.

A technology that should already be implemented

2010-11-16T12:18:00.003-05:00

The world is full of so much innovation it makes a budding patent attorney like myself salivate. While I am almost always pleasantly surprised with the innovation that technology presents us, there is one idea that I have had for a while that has not been implemented and I don't know why. The problem is this. You go into an unfamiliar and massive store to find predefined items. You have no idea where these items are, so you wander around like a nomad. If you get lucky, you find an employee to ask for directions. But in stores like Walmart? Good luck. There are aisle markers for general items, and I've even seen more detailed lists at the end of aisles in select stores. But even these approaches don't give you precise results and further waste your time. The idea I am thinking of would allow me to query the store's database for specific items using my cell phone or the internet. By so improving the efficiency, I won't have to be a zombie lost in a foreign realm.

If I was a grocery store, I would invest in item-finding technology. But being an outsider, I will have to wait for the technology. Most of the time, innovation involves significant expertise and hard-work, but every once in a while, a new product or service comes out and you think to yourself, "Whoa, why didn't I think of that?" In other words, it seemed easy enough to implement that it was just a matter of thinking about the idea. I think that this idea is involves both approaches. Hopefully, a store can spearhead this project and I will be their most loyal customer.

Kindness

2010-11-13T07:39:00.001-05:00

Today is World Kindness day. I never know for sure how these world-recognized days start, but apparently this one started in Tokyo, Japan, at a World Kindness Movement conference, so I know it's legit. I think my thoughts on kindness can be summed up by this quote:
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. ~Abraham Joshua Heschel

Unlike Heschel, I am not old yet, but I am getting there it seems. Now I would not characterize myself as a kind person. But I know kindness is an ideal that I want to shoot for. I have found that external factors can change my disposition so that I naturally and almost automatically am more kind. Some factors include seeing the positive examples of others, hearing others' inspiring words and stories, following the example of the Savior, and watching youtube videos that have Enya playing in the background displaying good quotes. With these things, I have more of a desire to be kind, rather than just forcing an unkind me to do kind acts. Big difference.

Here is the video about kindness that I referenced above. My favorite is from Plato, "Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle."

A real poem

2010-11-09T07:19:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time, there lived a man by the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In the year 1839, while living in Cambridge at the Craigie house, he published "A Psalm Of Life." I hope it does not disappoint.

What the heart of the young man said to the psalmist
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!--
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

a poem

2010-09-25T15:51:00.004-04:00

sometimes, you need to go on a run
on a nice autumn saturday.
you forget to start your stop-watch,
then realize that losing track of time is just what you want.
the warm breeze blows comfortingly on your skin,
and your muscles are eager at the chance to work.
you think about life and all its complexities,
while you play the "catch a falling leaf in mid-air" game.
you may not know where you're running,
but that's ok because the leaves are turning colors
and it's beautiful all around you.
then you come to a stop because you are done
and life is good again.

The Power of Choice

2010-09-09T23:23:00.003-04:00

People do stupid things sometimes. Okay, let me back up. Maybe I shouldn’t make this generalization about the entire populace. How about this: I do stupid things sometimes. That sounds a little better. Allow me to explain. I do things that are not for my ultimate good. I break guidelines imposed on myself, which guidelines seem so logical and beneficial to me. I also break standards that society has established as desirable to abide by.

But am I really alone here? Maybe I can generalize about this particular concept after all. Yes, people do stupid things. In the age of information and zero-privacy, it is very apparent that people do stupid things; you see stupidity all the time. Think about the most recent celebrity who has been caught for carrying on an illicit secret relationship that they “know” they shouldn’t be carrying on. Obviously these people know the ramifications of their actions. Of course they do.

Less serious acts also illustrate the concept. Take, for instance, someone who needs to be very conscious of his diet and has imposed guidelines on what he can’t eat. This particular person then passes a donut shop, knowing full-well that this type of food is off-limits! But the thoughts start spinning. And before he knows it, our friend caves in, and the donut is history.

This concept happens so often, where we as humans fall victim to our apparent stupidity. Most of the time, the “stupid” activity is only stupid after something goes wrong. At the beginning, it is only risky or dangerous. There are the financially dangerous activities, such as gambling. There are the physically dangerous activities, like harmful drugs or risky sports. There is the emotionally dangerous, like when someone has unharnessed anger. All of these dangers are playing with fire! We don’t think that we will get burned, but we continue to participate in the activities nonetheless. One could easily make the conclusion that we are very irrational creatures. After the fact--always after the fact--I think to myself, “Why?? Why couldn’t I stick to my norms, my guidelines, my rules? Why couldn’t I play it safe?” Such a response is very good in that it gives you sufficient emotion to change your behavior. But such feelings can also have a negative effect, if taken to the extreme. Here is one perspective that is useful in making sure that such negative feelings are not kept inside for too long. Maybe there is another reason why we behave stupidly sometimes. Rather than trying to justify breaking rules and laws that people should follow, I am interested in positing why it happens. For me, it is a very primitive craving to demonstrate that we are human and that we can make decisions for ourselves.

In the timeless book, Crime and Punishment, the character Raskolnikov plots to murder and rob a woman so that he can put her wealth to better use than she would be able to. Assessing the potential consequences of this act, it is unlikely that any rational person would carry this out. The most interesting part of the story is that after the dreadful deed, Raskolnikov doesn’t end up doing anything with the widow’s money but bury it. For days, he lays in bed sick and thinking about why he did what he did. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that the reason that he murdered was to prove his ability to do it. He had proved that he was alive: "Life is real! Haven't I lived just now? My life has not yet died with that old woman! The Kingdom of Heaven to her-and now enough, madam, leave me in peace! Now for the reign of reason and light...and of will, and of strength...and now we will see! We will try our strength." Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov, Part 2, Chapter 7.

A lot of times we are exactly like Raskolnikov. We all have temptations that we want to entertain despite understanding the consequences of such actions. We may “know” how we should behave, but we just don’t act accordingly because a more powerful motive is working against us: the power of choice, the ability of us to demonstrate to ourselves and to the world that we are not a robot that only does X, Y, and Z. That is the reason why we are all on this earth, to choose to do things. This is a very powerful force indeed.

A solution to this age-old tension? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Settled

2010-08-28T11:23:00.003-04:00

I'm getting settled in to my newest living arrangements of Medford, Massachusetts quite nicely. My experience with the Brookline Goodwill is that it rarely disappoints. Everything is in order, except for my bed, which is in a New Hampshire storage unit. It's only a matter of time before someone lets me use her truck to transport my beast.

Last night, I had a dream that reflects something that has been on my mind laterly. I happened to be at Apple headquarters in Steve Jobs' private loft area. He was talking to me about working for Apple and I was entertaining the idea quite seriously! The conversation kind of started wrapping up and then he reached into his wallet and gave me his business card. Thanks for the offer Steve, we'll keep in touch.

I had to share this animated gif, a sign "that your dog hates you," taken from cheezburger.com.

My near-death experience

2010-08-09T22:35:00.011-04:00

This is a story about adventure and foolishness. It is not for the faint of heart. Reader discretion is advised.

Over the weekend I almost died on a canyoneering trip in Zions national park Utah. Normally people refer to near-death experiences in the context of a single event. My situation was more prolonged than a single event, perhaps only to make it more interesting. As you read about this experience, pay special attention to Murphy's law.

It all started Saturday morning at 7 AM. The demand to hike Zions that day was especially high, making the options canyon options extremely limited. Apparently we should have slept out the night before at the visitor's center to get the canyon of our choice. Our group, consisting of me and my two cousins Andrew and Scott, chose to hike Spry canyon. A few things happened before we even started hiking that should have set off blaring red flags in each of our minds. 1) Rain started heavily coming down very soon after we bought our permit. 2) The ranger at the visitor's center updated the weather information to include a flash flood warning of high. 3) After asking the ranger up the mountain where the trailhead to Spry canyon was, she looked at us with the most baffled expression on her face. "Never heard of that canyon before." Then after turning around our car, the ranger let us know that she called another ranger who also didn't know anything about Spry canyon. On those ominous notes, we set off on our canyoneering adventure.

Stage I: Finding Spry Canyon
Using the topographical map on Andrew's iPhone, we found what looked like the trailhead to reach Spry canyon. We were each at least a little relieved that Andrew had done Spry before. Starting out, our spirits were surprisingly high considering how little sleep we were running on and that it started raining on us again. Besides, since the weather was not good, we planned to hike only to the canyon entrance and make the hike only with good weather conditions. The rain kept intermittently coming down, however. The dry river bed that we were hiking in suddenly became a full-on river. We made it to the source of most of this water, a waterfall that under normal conditions was regularly just a drizzle.

The waterfall was beautiful and as glad as we were to see it, most likely it was the distraction that led to us missing Spry canyon. Rather than taking a left early into our hike, we continued going straight. Andrew was by far the most optimistic at this point. He would reassure Scott and me that everything was OK by pointing out features that he remembered from his previous Spry experience four years ago. But after hiking four hours through dense and painfully sharp foliage, steep terrain, and intermittent rain, our "trail" ended by going straight up cliffs. Regretfully, we turned around to go back to the car. A disappointing experience! Especially, considering we never got to use the rappelling gear. As we made our way back, nagging questions persisted in our minds. What did we do wrong and where was this canyon? We finally realized that we should have taken a left early on, in between "the temple" and "the brothers." About this same time that we realized our mistake, something else happened that turned out to be a game changer. The weather turned beautiful. No longer were we getting doused with cold rain. Our spirits were rejuvenated and we wanted to try for Spry canyon again.

After backtracking almost the entire way we had come, we found what appeared to be our canyon, with a giant dome-shaped rock structure on one side and giant brother-like structures on the other side. But after trudging up steep rock, we found a steep ravine blocking our path. This promising canyon was a decoy. But we remembered passing a canyon on our way to this decoy canyon. That had to be our canyon! We were faced with a critical decision. Up to this point, I had probably been the most unenthusiastic about the trip. To my defense though, I had never gone canyoneering before, so I didn't know the fun that awaited me. Also, I had a lot of things to do at home. But I changed my tone at this critical junction in our trip. "I say we find Spry and conquer it. We did not come all this way only to back to the car in shame. Mother Nature has tried its hardest to keep us away, but will we back down?" With that rousing monologue, we started on our path that would eventually lead us to Spry canyon. By the time we reached the canyon, it was 4 PM. Little did I know, Spry takes 5-8 hours to traverse. Daylight ends around 8:30. You do the math.

Stage II: Hiking Spry
It was a lot of fun rappelling down cliffs. Landing into murky, foul-smelling water took a little getting used to. We took our time going down these rappels, especially me, the newbie. Soon into Spry, I started smelling a delicious meal. To me, it smelled like pizza. The others thought I was crazy, but soon Andrew started smelling it, characterizing the smell as Spaghetti-Os.

There were supposed to be 10 official rappels on Spry.

At the 7th rappel, things started going wrong for us. After we each made it down,

Andrew proceeded to pull one end of the rope out of the carabiner. All of the sudden, the rope that was feeding into the carabiner became a tangled mess. There was NOTHING that we could do to get the rope unstuck, even working on it for a half hour. We finally gave up and left the old and weary rope where it was. Now we only had one rope that was 300 feet long, which meant that we couldn't rappel down anything higher than 150 feet.

A couple more rappels later, it started to get dark. We frantically started moving like machines to get down this canyon as fast as possible. The particular rappel that we were at had two segments, each segment having a pool of water deep enough to require swimming. The tricky part about these two-segmented sections was making sure the rope didn't get stuck when we were pulling it back down to us upon completion. We each made it down to the second segment of this particular rappel and to our dismay the rope got stuck. Luckily for us, both ends were still within Andrew's reach so he climbed back up the second segment and managed to free up the rope. But the problem was that the rope was getting stuck on the first segment. From our position, we couldn't pull it down. Andrew finally managed to reposition the rope in such a way that would allow us to pull one side down so that we could continue on the next rappel. It worked for a while. Each of us pulled a substantial portion of the rope and then it got stuck again. This time, the other side of the rope was far up the first segment, beyond our reach. On one side of us, there was a cold and murky pool of water, and on the other side there was a sheer 90 foot cliff waiting to be rappelled. The rope mocked us and the daylight faded away.

Just when we were about ready to mentally prepare ourselves for a long night of spooning in a cold, damp slot canyon, Andrew reached up to the rope and with one final and desperate motion, heaved the rope loose. We were shocked. We could now proceed with our rappelling, even if it was in the black darkness.

We hoped that we only had one more rappel left. There was no such luck for us. Instead we found about four more rappels without a flashlight and somehow traversed them in the dark. One little mistake in such an environment would have been disastrous. Finally, we finished the last official rappel. We could see cars driving on the road, what appeared to be about 2 miles away. We just had to climb down a boulder wash and climb up to the road.

Stage III: Finding the Road
If we had light, navigating ourselves down this wash would have been routine. Instead, it turned out to be the most difficult part of our entire day. There was no moonlight and initially the clouds covered the stars, which made for a very low visibility of only a few feet. The wash area was littered with giant boulders that we had to navigate through. Sometimes it was possible to go over these boulders, provided there was no steep drop-off on the other end or if we could use other objects as stepping stones. It was necessary for us to wedge body joints and other body parts into the boulders to have enough grip to traverse the boulder. But it was also not uncommon for us to be confronted with 15 foot drop-offs after climbing up a boulder, forcing us to painstakingly retreat and find an alternate route.

For some reason, I was able to see the furthest ahead and I was charged to go find the road. I left Scott and Andrew in search for the car. I was making good time, and I still kept smelling what smelt like pizza. Now, because I was without a shirt, I also started feeling periodic oozing from my backpack onto my bare back. I remembered I packed a can of Progresso soup in my backpack. Throwing down my backpack earlier in the hike must have broken the seal. I reached into my pack and pulled out a slimy mass of a soup can. That was my pizza smell.

I made it to this one boulder that looked like it had a drop-off of about 12 feet. I thought that I could baby step my way down by first side stepping onto a nearby ledge. Very conveniently, the large boulder I was on had a perfect grip on the drop-off for my two hands to hold onto as I reached my foot over to the nearby ledge. But with bad visibility also comes bad depth perception. While holding onto the hand hold, I swung my body out, fully expecting to touch the side ledge with my feet, but nothing! I then swung all the way around like a pendulum, staring down at what could be a 15 foot dropoff. I thought about all the movies where the actor is holding on to a handhold on a steep dropoff. I realized that now I was the movie star. I don't know how I held on, considering the momentum that was going against me, but I knew that it would be unsafe for me to drop myself down because I couldn't see how far the ground was. Plus, it was most likely an uneven surface and the last thing I wanted to do was injure myself. I pulled myself back onto the boulder and found a way around.

Soon, I came across what looked like a ledge and a steep drop-off. I couldn't tell how far down the drop-off was, but it looked big. After trying to find an alternate route, I finally decided to wait for the others because the ledge was too wide. "Yu-hoooo." "Yu-hoooo." "Are you at the car??" Every other shout from Andrew included the words, "road" and "car." He was getting very anxious to finish this trip. When we all reached the ledge, we decided to rappel down this drop-off, not knowing how far down it went. Because this rappel was not official, it was a complete mystery how many feet it dropped off. We found a nice sturdy tree to tie our webbing around and Scott agreed to go first. As he was about to go, the very strong impression came to him to let down 20 or 30 more feet of rope. This turned out to be a good idea. Scott lowered into the darkness and Andrew and I waited. Finally, Scott was done and it was my turn. I started down and then I came to a part where I was free falling, not able to touch the cliff. This free falling style of rappelling was my favorite, but I looked down and couldn't believe my eyes. I couldn't accept how far this drop-off was, but the further down I rappelled, the more true it became. I found Scott at the bottom. After Andrew joined us, Scott told us that the rope barely had enough length to get him to the bottom. The drop-off was about 140 feet and had we not been careful in the dark, one of us could have easily walked right off it!

I started ahead once again, determined to find the road. It was now well past midnight and the cars that had been so regular on the road, providing us with headlamp light, started becoming less frequent. After a while of traversing down treacherous terrain, I had the biggest epiphany. We could not split up. Based on the fact that everything that day that we had done had gone wrong, there was a very high likelihood that one of us would get lost. So I waited for the others. "Yu-hoooo." "Yuuuu-hooooo." "Are you at the road yet??" "No." "Go find the road!" I finally told Andrew that I wasn't going ahead and that we were going to the car 3-musketeer style. We found one final drop-off where we had to use the rope and then we were at the bottom of our wash at a river.

We took a little break on a rock in the river. Staring up at the sky was incredible. It felt so good to stop moving and to eat food. As poor of a job we did planning our route, we did an excellent job of packing food and water. Andrew had enough granola bars to feed an army, and we each had plenty of water. Sitting on a rock in the middle of that river, I had never tasted anything as good as those granola bars I ate.

Now it was time to climb up to the road. Unfortunately, we could not find a trail to the road from where we were. Also, the plants that lived on this slope were not soft and fluffy, as we had hoped. Rather, they were hard, sharp, and lashed out on our already battered skin with ferocious intensity. Onward we hiked until finally I made it to the road. "Wooooooo," I shouted.

Stage IV: Mama I'm Coming Home
There was no time to waste once I made it to the road because I saw headlights coming my way. I waved the vehicle down, which turned out to be a minivan. I was actually quite surprised that it stopped for me, a sketchy-looking half-naked traveler, at 3 AM in the middle of a remote area in a national park. But the people in the van were so nice. I asked the driver if I could get a ride up to my car. She agreed and I shouted down to Andrew and Scott that I would be back for them. This saved us each from walking another two miles up to the car. I'm afraid that another two miles might have put the finishing touches on our bodies. After I made it to my car, I changed hurriedly out of my wretched clothes, drove back, and picked up the group. It was here that I believe I lost the Asics that I had worn throughout the hike. But we were now on our way home at 3:30 AM! We had been going nonstop for almost 20 hours straight.

By now the adrenaline of finishing this last stage of our hike had me completely wide awake. I was so sick of Zions that I was ready to drive the four hours home right then and there. Slowly the excitement died down and one by one, our group started dozing off. I had every intention of holding strong, but my body finally started catching up to me. I started hallucinating. Billboards on the side of the road started turning into machine-like transformers. Objects at the side of the road started looking like they were in the road and that I was going to crash in to them. Finally, the realization set in that I was in no condition to finish the remainder of this leg. I pulled off at Cedar City and we all slept in the car. At 6:30 AM, I awoke feeling refreshed. We started out again and after getting some gas, and taking a good swig of Andrew's code red, we were on our way home. Andrew did a great job of talking to me to keep me awake and we were in Mapleton by 10 AM.

It is amazing how much our bodies can do for us when our lives are in jeopardy. With the adrenaline pumping, we can tap into our body's capital and use it like we never thought possible. Sure there are consequences of abusing your body, such as a gallon of lactic acid coursing through your muscles. But in the moment, your body really works its magic.

Some people that I must thank for making this experience possible:
Andrew for providing me with food, water, Spry experience, training, socks, and conversation.
Scott for providing me with pictures, knots and canyoneering expertise.
Dan for providing me with comfortable Asics shoes at the beginning of the day. I doubt that I would have made it in my Keens. I am really sorry that I lost them. Shoes are definitely the way to go with canyoneering.

The love of many will wax cold

2010-07-26T02:01:00.002-04:00

Wednesday evening found me at a religion class learning about the signs preceding the second coming of Christ. One sign, which I have never quite understood, is that the love of many will wax cold. See Matt. 24:12. What does this mean? We all get bugged, ticked off, and irked over things in life. It doesn't matter how serious these problems actually are, at the time they always seem HUGE to us. I believe that the love of man waxing cold is becoming consumed in our own problems to the point that we don't overlook and forgive others' offenses to us.

It is easier to forgive and overlook others offenses to us when we are young. When I was around 8-10, I would get mad at lots of people: babysitters, brothers, dad, etc. But I was too positive to remain mad at anyone for very long. I remember trying to consciously hold my grudges for long periods of time to get even. But at that age, I always quickly bounced back, even from very serious things done to me.

We can't stay kids forever, but the principle of getting over others' offenses is still relevant. In the masses of thoughts that course through our minds each day, there are bound to be positive feelings that seek to resolve conflicts, forget offenses, and walk the higher road. I think this is the love trying to manifest itself in our lives. The problem is that there may be so many more opposing thoughts that may be more convenient and satisfying to endorse. As you allow these negative thoughts to "fester" in your mind, however, your love waxes cold to your fellow humans.

How to avoid getting sucked in to the festering thoughts syndrome? It's easier said than done, no doubt about it. But one key is to maintain the big picture. Squabbling and getting worked up over trivialities will probably not be the game-changing life experience that you expect it to be. Let the problem go. Let it go down memory lane. And wish it good riddance while you're at it.

I guess my take-home message is that problems we face give us unique opportunities for us to grow our love. It also lets us draw closer to One who was offended much more than He deserved. But He understood the big picture, and by walking the higher road and disregarding undeserved pain and suffering, preserved a legacy that has lasted, and will continue to last a long time. His love did not wax cold, will ours?

Random musings and recent developments

2010-07-18T19:50:00.003-04:00

I love Jazz music, more than any other genre. I like the slower and more rhythmic variety the most. Jazz is always appropriate and leaves you feeling at peace afterwards.

Tomatoes are the perfect food. I love eating them when I feel I've overdosed on either sugar or salt.

I doubt I'll ever fully understand my dad. He loves spending money in interesting ways. Take the other day, for instance. We had some ice cream after dinner (we actually had 5 good cartons of ice cream in the freezer). I then got home later that evening (around 10:45 pm) and my dad asks, "Do you wanna go to the creamery for a milkshake?" I love my dad, but wow.

I am well on my way to making my first iPhone app. After banging my head against the computer for quite a few hours yesterday, I made a little something called headway.

It's easy to critique other people in different situations. I sometimes think to myself, "Oh yeah, I would handle their issues so much better if I was in their shoes." Then you get yourself into some comparable situations, you see yourself react, and then you think to yourself, "Who am I?"

Sometimes, you get sucked into the mind trap that you are just a reactant in a chemical equation. Guess what though? You don't have to be. That's right. You can change the reaction to whatever you want in life.

This summer has got to be the busiest summer of all time. I never have time to sit back, open up a cold one, and just chill. But I'm not complaining. Instead, I'm laying the groundwork for a great next year.

Sometimes you wish that you could marry your girlfriend sooner than you plan on doing so. Why? Part of it may be impatience. The other part may have something to do with this phrase: "Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry the person you can't live without." A particular long-distance relationship is highlighting the truthfulness of that phrase.

Yes, I'm becoming a publicly cheesy person. I'm fine with it though.

Song of the Day

2010-07-09T00:39:00.006-04:00

Every once in a while, a song comes along that you can't get sick of, regardless of how many times you play it. Back in high school, Self-Esteem by The Offspring was that song for me. I heard it today and had to share it with the world.

Balance and Moderation, A Key to Happiness

2010-07-05T13:19:00.001-04:00

I am not always balanced and moderate. In fact, I was just thinking back to a few distinct times in my life when my life's balance was whacked.

About 10 months into my mission, I was having a difficult time reaching goals, so I determined I was going to take my determination and hard work to the next level. My new resolve took on the form of waking up at 5:30 AM, talking to everyone and their dog, not taking lunches at home (or if we did take lunches, making them super short), and sacrificing time on p-days for preparing lessons and working. I think back to one particular time, my poor junior companion and I were in a remote part of our area lunchtime. I remember eating our lunch of crabsticks standing up because I couldn't justify taking a little relaxing break sitting down. After we finished eating our food, we continued contacting. It is clear to me now that I had taken the work aspect of missionary work to the extreme.

When I was a junior in college, I was determined to do well in an advanced computer programming class--CS 240. That semester, I can't remember going on a date or even hanging out with friends that much. Instead, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the catacombs of the Talmage building. The final project was intense. We had to write up a chess program basically from scratch using a very low level language. The week leading up to the final deadline I probably spent 60 hours on the project. This is while I was enrolled in other classes and even working part time. My desire to do well in this one class led me to become an extreme computer geek.

Another unbalanced time was law school. The truth of law school is that if you really want to get good grades, there isn't a way around making your life unbalanced. There is just too much work to do and too much competition to let you get by without focusing all your energy on law school. I sacrificed balance for good grades.

Looking back, I can tell that when I get out of balance, it inevitably leads to an unhappy, unsettled feeling. Some unbalanced times can be justified because they are temporary (like a deadline for a big project), but focusing so much time and effort into one thing is not sustainable. Knowing this, I still take things to the extreme. Take for instance this past week. I was determined that I would make a boatload of money through web development and cellphone apps. Even though I did a good job of working hard and my desire did not get burnt out, I realized I was a less happy individual because I was being stretched too thin by competing tasks I had going on.

It's easy for me to take things to the extreme. I have a somewhat proactive disposition--I believe that if something needs to be done, I have the power and ability to do it myself. So it's natural for me to take things to the extreme, especially when I feel like drastic changes are in order. Also, it's good to get fired up in a particular resolve because that draws a lot of attention to the problem. However, working like a maniac is unsustainable, and it makes me realize that when I become unbalanced, red flags should go off in my head.

The Girl I Would One Day Marry

2010-07-04T11:22:00.006-04:00

When I was 22, I sold satellites in Vancouver, Washington door-to-door. I remember talking to one woman who was not interested in a Dish, but was interested in talking with me. She found out I was Mormon and we started talking religion (She turned out to be Episcopalian). The conversation strangely enough drifted into marriage. I told her I was not married and that I was on the lookout for that special someone. She talked about how I should get married, but because her tone was a little too holier-than-thou I couldn't take her completely seriously. Because I hated knocking doors at this point in the summer, however, and because she seemed very willing to talk to me, I continued the conversation by asking her where I would find my companion. I asked this more out of curiosity of what she'd say rather than because I believed she would provide me an answer I could rely on. Her answer was very succinct and without hesitation: "You'll find her at church."

It took me about 280 church services (over 5 and a half years), but that is exactly how I "found" the girl I will marry. I had met Amy long before the church meeting over last Christmas break, but that meeting was the catalyst that started our relationship. As many of you already may know, a couple weeks ago, I proposed to my girlfriend Amy at her cabin in Idaho and she said yes. We will be getting married in the Draper temple December 29th. I am really happy in this stage of my life, a stage that I had doubts I would ever experience. It's fun to be engaged and to plan the future with someone else that you love. I look forward to and feel very good about the future with my little Blueberry.

Because I don't believe in ending blog posts on cheesy notes, here are some pictures of us that are too awkward to post on facebook, but funny enough that I couldn't stand with a clear conscience before Amy for not publishing them somewhere.

This is us driving across the country. Here, Amy is pretending like she's sleeping and here is me doing a very poor job of focusing on the road.

This is Amy's birthday night. As we were getting ready to begin our Provo Canyon date, we decided to do a picture to resemble high school dance pictures. Did we do a good job?

Here, Amy is looking cute (nothing unusual about that) and I seem to be starting a campfire rap: "Hook a brother up with a peach, yeah!"

Amy insisted on this picture, much to my dismay, but now I'm glad this picture happened. It paints a very real picture of my backyard. The collapsed basketball standard, one of the many motorcycle tires, the peeling white paint, the unkempt patio all contribute greatly to the aesthetics of this photo.

Simple Formula: Good Customer Service = Retention

2010-06-08T12:48:00.004-04:00

It's been almost a year since my Bank of America tirade. It's time for me now to give a positive review on a company: T-Mobile.

A few weeks ago, I downsized my phone plan from data to no data. It was in the middle of the month and I was fully expecting T-mobile to charge me the data fee for the entire month. As a loftier thought, I thought T-mobile would prorate the data I used and only charge me for that. The customer service rep said that he wasn't going to charge me at all for any of the data used that month. I was shocked.

In a time when companies are trying to nickel and dime the customers that make their companies possible, this little gesture was a bright spot in my bleak mental imagery of corporate America. I commend T-mobile for doing nice things for customers.

My brother called me up on last Monday trying to get me to switch to a Sprint family plan with him. Even after Weston reassured me that Sprint's network has undoubtedly improved since my experience 4 years ago, I had no desire to change plans. My sense of loyalty towards T-mobile could not be denied.

One reason why I love New England

2010-05-03T00:21:00.004-04:00

Sometimes when you really wish you could sleep, you just can't. What to do? Because lying in bed is a waste of time, I will blog about an experience I just had that reinforced why I love living in New England.

I was laying in my bed and the air in the room was pretty warm. As an aside, the temperature today got up to 89 degrees here in New Hampshire and the warm air still lingered in my room. But this wasn't ordinary warm air; it was humid east coast warm air.

I opened the window and relatively cool spring air flowed in. The air was so humid that it felt like there was a certain texture to it. I was then brought back to the couple summers that I lived in Boston.

Have you noticed that memories associated with the non-obvious memory senses (touch, smell) seem to let you relive memories the best? Well, I was very much brought back to when I lived in Boston and the humid warm air was an everyday reality. What an awesome memory.

Now I better get back to trying to sleep. I've got a big final tomorrow.

The General Lee method

2010-04-26T18:47:00.008-04:00

Thinking back, I learned some valuable things in college applying to unexpected areas of my life. Here is one such example.

I took a Physics class from a really old professor. The only two things I remember from that class is the professor talking about his grandma and how to solve problems. The professor would always explain solving problems in terms of the Robert E. Lee method and the Ulysses S. Grant method. As you may recall, Robert E. Lee was a very crafty and efficient general who made due with the resources he had. General Grant, on the other hand, was successful in large part because of the advantage in more resources and men. Some physics students, apparently, adhered to the inefficient General Grant approach in solving physics problems.

In another class, computer science, I learned about the same concept under a different name: the brute force technique. The technique involves a non-elegant algorithm that exhaustively iterates over and over until a solution is found. The advantage to this technique is that it's an easy way to approach solving a problem. The downside is that the implementation of the brute force technique is inefficient, drains resources, and can be so much slower in solving the problem. Some students, were a little too eager to jump into tackling the problem without thoroughly planning ahead. And without mapping out the best approach, the code turned brute.

The same dichotomy exists with everything in life. Everything (e.g. school, work, fitness, friendships) can be done efficiently or non-efficiently. Over time and with practice, one can become more efficient at anything. If you have extra time, money, or resources to burn, maybe you can afford the brute force approach. But not me; I always need more time. My name is not Robert E. Lee, but I am becoming Mr. efficiency.

The Job Search

2010-04-17T22:02:00.002-04:00

My brother Weston was in my opinion my most interesting sibling growing up. He took the most risks, was the most passionate, the most adventuresome, the most interested in other people and the most curious. Growing up, Weston would do the jobs that no one else wanted to do. When someone lost something in our oftentimes cluttered house, Weston would surprise everyone by coming up with the lost item. He eventually earned the title of "Mr. Find-it." He also seemed to enjoy fixing things. Hence the other title of Mr. Fix-it. By praising Weston with such titles, I'll admit that we older siblings might have influenced him to do things in our favor more than we deserved. But Weston was the type of brother that probably wouldn't have even cared.

Weston was also never shy about anything. He would literally do anything, even if everyone else around him thought he was weird. When we were all pretty young, we would watch "Land Before Time" a lot. In the opening scenes of that movie, different sized bubbles flash across the screen. We developed a tradition whenever we'd watch this movie to exaggeratedly say, "Whoaaaa!" whenever the big bubbles would flash across the screen. The bigger the bubbles, the louder we would exclaim "Whoaaa!" This tradition is all fine and good in the house, but in the Scera movie theater it is a different story. As we were sitting in the theater, watching the introductory scenes, the bubbles start flashing across the screen. In a moment when the bubbles were truly huge (with the theater sized screen), Weston could not help himself and literally shouted "Whoaaaaa!" to a very-much silent room full of people. The rest of the audience did not seem to be as equally impressed with the size of the bubbles. Weston would do things without really caring about what others thought of him. If we were at a store and we wanted information about something, but were too shy or hesitant to ask, we would get Weston to do it because he never got embarrassed. After a while, I think he caught on to our tactics and was less willing to go along with our enticements. But after explicitly giving him the title of "the one who never gets embarrassed," it became an honor to live up to such a title for Weston.

When I turned 16, I wanted a job. Our family was poor and I wanted money. My brother Graden and I briefly tried a morning paper route. I enjoyed driving the car (as all 16 year-olds do), but the schedule of waking up so early was awful. I had no idea how to get a regular job. My dream job Target would never get back to me. Other nearby jobs also did not show me any interest. Then, my brother Weston surprised me big-time. He said that he saw one of those trailers on the side of State street with a big Carl's Jr. "Now Hiring" sign. My brother approached the general manager, who was inside the little building, and said that his older brother was looking for a job. (See? The dude truly never got embarrassed. He just did things without thinking twice.) The manager was most likely taken aback by this 11 year-old signing his brother up for an interview. However, after I talked on the phone with the manager and later interviewed with him, I got the job, which turned out to be really good for me.

Now, as I'm finishing up my 2nd year of law school, I'm already feeling anxiety about finding a job. I've had a lot of great jobs since Carl's Jr., and I'm pretty well-qualified in my opinion. You wouldn't think that I would be too concerned about securing good employment, but the economy has never been this bad in all my life. This past year, I have seen so many well-qualified friends and family struggle with finding a job.

Now my graduation date is still a ways away and I'm going to stay optimistic, but I kind of wish Weston was in Boston looking for a job for me.

Statistics

2010-04-11T17:00:00.001-04:00

It's time to get a little reminiscent. I've now had my blog for three and a half years. I'll have to admit that the main reason I started a blog was to make money. The relationship between traffic and money is pretty direct, especially when you are good at streamlining ads onto your site. But my blog evolved into a means for me to talk about myself, and I don't necessarily want everyone to know about me, even if that means that I must sacrifice making lots of money. Maybe I will generate lots of traffic with another blog (I have already started another blog and it has met relative success). This is not to say that I make no money on this blog. This past year alone, I have made $1.62 from the ads that you see on the right sidebar. Every time someone clicks on one of those ads, it generates smooth cash.

I have discovered some interesting statistics about my blog. The top three most popular posts involve me talking about 1) taking the LSAT, 2) a very buff woman I saw at the gym, and 3) three funny words. It's strange that these would be my most popular posts, but it also makes sense considering that over a quarter of my traffic comes from search engines.

The Blizzard of 2010

2010-02-08T22:19:00.000-05:00

D.C. is a great place. But even great things are sometimes not-so-great. Such was the case this weekend with D.C. when Brett and I competed in the JRCLS moot court competition.

The moot court competition was a great experience as can be seen from the picture.

Then mother nature unleashed havoc on the city of D.C. Or the state of D.C., whichever it is. The storm didn't seem that bad while it was happening, but the consistency was the real killer. Some areas got over 30 inches of snow, all in the space of about 24 hours. This was very impressive to me, who is no stranger to cold climes and heavy snow. Getting so much snow would have been fine to me normally, but any plan that we reasonably thought of doing was now undoable (I think I just made up the word undoable). My take-home from this experience is that D.C. is utterly unable to deal with lots of snow. But I heard they were over budget to plow the roads, so I won't talk bad on them too much.

So the trio John, Brett and I made the best of our time by walking to nearby restaurants and watching TV. Does that sound lame to you? It was!

Then we learned of our flight's cancellation. We literally tried everything to get out of town. But after lugging our suitcases all around town, trying to rent a car to drive up to NH, and trying to get ourselves another plane ticket, we were left optionless. A two liter carton of juice I had been carrying pretty much summed up the gravity and desperation of our situation. Even as the juice in my carton was powerless to stop itself from solidifying into solid chunks of water crystals, so too were we at the mercy of our Mother Nature from getting out of that blasted city.

Finally, today (Monday) at 5:30 PM, we lifted off the ground of BWI on a Southwest airline. Tears were streaming down my cheeks. Then after a brief hour flight, we were touching down in New Hampshire, another life-affirming event. You see, here in New Hampshire we live free or we die. This phrase not only refers to freedom from repressive governments or people. Most importantly, New Hampshire's slogan refers to snow. I felt at ease knowing that I was free.

Why I'm Happy that Scott Brown Won

2010-01-19T22:45:00.004-05:00

I first discovered Scott Brown while watching local news. The last few weeks, I have been blitzkrieged by an outrageous number of commercials. I liked his style, his seeming independence from Washington, and his fresh perspectives. Tonight, Republican Scott Brown very surprisingly defeated Democrat Martha Coakley to replace the late Ted Kennedy. I am happy Brown won because it will improve the quality of our government.

One of the beauties of our government is actually its bureaucratic nature. For reform to happen, it requires compromises from multiple parties and multiple interests. Through these compromises, our government is a better machine as it ensures that the majority of people are happy with its leadership. It makes sure that the majority is not complacent and isn't trampling on the feet of minorities. This past year, I couldn't help but feel like Democrats have wielded their super-majority dominion in a trampling manner.

I am not that old, but I cannot remember another Congress that passed bills with such unanimous opposition. At first I thought it was the Republicans being cute. They had lost big in 2008 and they needed to show their constituents that they were willing to stand up to Obama. But after a year of these unanimous votes taking place, it gives the layperson the impression that Congress is just ramming bills through as fast as they can. For how much Obama talked about the olden days when there was comradery in the House and Senate and how he wished for those days to return, it didn't make sense to me how little the president attempted to reach across the aisle. With so many important issues, I believe that we need at least some inkling of support from the other party. In the alternative, maybe I am just really naive and this is how politics works. But I really cannot remember a time when one party was so unanimously against the other party.

Anyway, Scott Brown is now going to end this year of ramming. I hope that it will encourage more deliberation, more compromises, and better-quality bills. My goal, and maybe this is unrealistic, is to have at least one Republican vote for a bill in regards to issues that are important to all of us: climate change, health care, and financial regulation.

Jack Bauer and Civil Rights

2010-01-18T22:12:00.005-05:00

It is very fitting for me to write about civil rights on MLK day. It is also very fitting for Fox to show the third and fourth episodes of 24's Season 8 today. You may not see the connection between 24 and civil rights, so allow me to explain. You see, we are stuck in an imperfect legal system. Jack Bauer is the solution to our problem.

One of the great paradoxes in the legal system is the dichotomy between accuracy and efficiency. Basically, the paradox is that you can't have both accuracy and efficiency at the same time. Why not? Flawed human beings conduct every aspect of the legal system--from the attorneys to the witnesses to the judge and jury. Teasing out inaccuracies takes time. In general, I think the legal system is improving. Technology has helped increase the accuracy of evidence in the court room. Also, civil rights in our country have improved markedly in the past few decades leading to less sociological inaccuracies. This has resulted in what I would argue is a more efficient and more accurate system. But accuracy and efficiency are still diametrically opposed to each other. We still struggle with an imperfect system of convicting people. I imagine people get wrongfully convicted all the time. You can't have both, . . . [pause for dramatic effect], you can't have both, unless you have Jack Bauer as the judge.

It would be very difficult indeed to watch a version of 24 with Jack Bauer as Mr. Proper Police guy. In fact, not only is it difficult to picture, it would be awkward, and downright annoying to see Jack Bauer go through with the formalities of the legal system to ensure the right person is being convicted. This is because Jack Bauer has that 6th sense. He's got the intuition that is so very accurate. We're OK with him not reciting Miranda rights to the bad guys. Jack can take a hatchet to someone's chest because it's clear they're guilty. With clenched teeth, he can take out a guard's jugular because that's what must be done. We're even OK with Jack approaching the torture line because he knows what's required for the information to come out.

How does this carry over into real life? Jack Bauer is the perfect ideal for combating injustice. As our intuition and knowledge of the real story becomes clear, the inefficiencies and inaccuracies in the legal system fade away. Jack shows us that there really isn't a paradox between accuracy and efficiency. You can have both.

In other news, Lucie is the new A.

My Trip to Utah

2010-01-09T12:27:00.005-05:00

The title of my blog is "My stories," but I don't really write about that many stories. Instead, I mostly write about my thoughts. But today I thought I'd change it up a little bit and write about a recent trip to Utah.

I left New Hampshire the day of my last final. I learned that it's not a good idea to leave a carry-on box unattended in the airport, unless you want to meet TSA officers and see a dog rummage through box's contents. My flights were good. You've got to love Southwest--a great airline.

Our family had a whole lot of fun together. We didn't play any basketball, in large part because of snow, but we did play the very popular board game Acquire. Rich joined the family, but it was me who won for the first time ever. My key to success: diversify your portfolio, especially early on in the game.

My dad and I had our usual political brawls. I would call them debates, but debates typically involve intent by both parties to exchange well thought-out ideas and good arguments. Our situation centered on my dad telling me that I am a "lib" and explaining why libs are bad. To most people it would be easy for me to demonstrate that I am not liberal, but not to my dad. We thankfully stopped these conversations after the first couple days.

I found out that the BYU law library is better than my library, but because of a certain lack of interest in this observation, I will leave it at that.

I have a niece by the name of Evyline who is about 6 months old. I love that little girl! This may sound weird, but I could stare at that small human being for a long period of time without losing interest.

My sister has a new boy of interest, which created quite the excitement around the house. I love the preliminary stages of a relationship because you don't know what the other person is thinking and it's kind of mysterious. But you don't always have to be in one of these situations to feel the excitement. Sometimes you can be an older brother. My role included consultant, editor and interpreter of texts, and wing-date. All in all, it was quality entertainment. I feel like I'm a good source of wisdom because I have a decent sense into what guys prefer in a girl. Obviously my advice only goes so far because the things that I care about are not the things that my sister's man will necessarily care about. But there are some things that are universal. I wish I would have had a reliable source, who had blazed the trail before me a little bit, willing to show me the ropes. Being the oldest, I could only really ask for advice down, which is not the most effective way to figure life out.

My sister tried to set me up with people. At first, I wasn't in the mood to meet new people. But I became more social by the end of my trip. I met a girl in SLC who turned out to be super cool. If only she shared in my passion of the internet. I met another girl in my neck of the woods. She is great. It turns out that she actually knows some of my family. This girl's pseudo name is hereby A. I just realized that I use the term "girl" very loosely. You may be thinking that once a girl reaches maturity, she becomes a women, right? But I think the term "woman" sounds too sophisticated for me. If you're reading this blog in 15 years, and I'm still on the lookout for Ms. Right, maybe then I'll refer to my prospects as women, but for now I will refer to them as girls. But back to my story about A, she is finishing up her undergrad, and preparing to continue her education, much like I am. I just wish I was continuing my education a little closer to home.

Now on to some of my thoughts. First, allow me to introduce you to my friend Denise. Denise doesn't know I have a blog and I am uncertain that I will ever see her again in my life, so I feel comfortable in writing very freely about the following section.

Denise and I worked together at the Brick Oven the summer before my senior year of college (2006). It's hard to believe that was 3.5 years ago. It was Denise who first brought the name Trenton into the mainstream. We were good friends back then and the wonderful thing about good friends is that you can pick up where you left off regardless of how much time it's been. She called me in a famished state, so we went to dinner, believe it or not, at the BO. I wasn't hungry so I just came along for the ride. My favorite quote of the night came from Denise when she explained of her struggle to make friends in her last couple weeks in Provo. She analyzed that in such a short space of time, "girls require too much effort and guys always have ulterior motives." Haha.

Midway through the evening, I asked her how she's changed since we knew each other. I thought it was an interesting question because I was sure in three and a half years, we had both changed in a lot of ways. But I realized after I posed the question that I did not really anticipate an answer. Deep down, I thought that she had remained the same person and I knew that there was no short answer she could give me to tell me how she's changed. I can't even remember what she said in response, but later that night, she answered my question.

A lot of times we use the term "cool" to describe someone. I don't know exactly what being cool entails, but it probably means possessing traits that others find exciting, interesting, or otherwise admirable. I would consider myself pretty cool, but I haven't invested that much in my "cool" stock recently. Don't get me wrong, I have definitely invested a lot in myself in the last few years, but not in the types of things that you could show off at a party. Denise, on the other hand, had, and it seemed to be paying off for her. She played me popular songs on the guitar, sang with the most beautiful voice, and was otherwise very interesting. If I were ever (in the pinnacle of my coolness) ahead of Denise on the cool scale, it became apparent to me that night that Denise had surpassed me, and I was happy for her.

I have a lot of take-home messages from my trip to Utah:

When trying to evade a political discussion, do not try and change the subject in an obvious manner. You've got to use subtlety.
The Christmas spirit is about giving, unless you don't have any money.
It's a good thing to make sure your kitchen is clean before inviting others over.
Stereotyping is easy, but not very inaccurate. Maybe you don't really know someone as well as you think you do.
Life goes by really fast and there is a lot that you can do to increase your cool ranking. But if you want to invest your time in other non-cool things, that's OK too.

I am Going to Usher in the New Decade with Happiness

2009-12-31T01:53:00.006-05:00

This year (and this decade) has been great in a lot of ways. I've been surprised at some of the opportunities and successes that have come my way. But some of these successes have come with a price, especially this year. For instance, this year my level of happiness kind of crashed and burned. Now it's time for me to come around and get it back.

Happiness seems like such an elusive term, but there are some things I can do to ensure my happiness meter goes up. The first key is to not be overly busy. Having so much on my plate this year has frustrated both my ability and desire to serve people. You recall the story of the Good Samaritan? I never used to relate to the passersby in the parable. I used to think, "Who are these guys?? Why don't they just help the poor wounded traveler?" Now, I completely relate to them--they were probably really busy. I sometimes feel like I embody the Levite and priest quite well; wrapped up in my own affairs and not looking outside myself to help others in need. And when I do serve, I often times do it reluctantly--either checking the clock and preoccupied with what I need to do next. So I want to change that this year. I need simplify my life because the very last thing I want is to put a damper on my relationship to people around me.

The next key is to do some things that I don't want to do. This may seem counter-intuitive, but some of my happier moments in life (looking back) has involved me getting outside my comfort zone. I'm beginning to see that there are things that I naturally don't want to do, but when I do them anyways, it makes me happier. For example, if I wake up tired, and it's cold and dark outside, when I push away my natural tendencies and go for a run anyway, I feel great afterwards. But I am not so much referring to overcoming my physical comfort zone. Rather I am referring to my social and spiritual comfort zones. My body doesn't always correctly forecast what I want and need. Sometimes I need to do things that are counter-intuitive in the short-term, but very wise in the long-term.

Finally, there's a scripture in the book of Proverbs:
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
I've become quite the independent person. But lately I have realized two things: I cannot do it all, and I don't want to do it all. My goal is to become more dependent on the Lord. I want to enter into more of a partnership with Him, rather than putting all of life's burdens on my shoulders.

So there you have it. 2010 is going to be one fetching good year. Good Samaritan, mind over matter, and Proverbs. Happy New Year's to all!

My Brief Moment of Fame Following a Tragedy in Orem

2009-12-17T00:32:00.003-05:00

Today was an interesting day and now I am famous all across Utah. Here is how it all went down.

My brother Graden came to visit with news that he had caught on camera the entire life cycle of a house catching on fire. While driving along, he saw firetrucks approaching so he pulled off to the side of the road. Then he noticed that the house across the street was smoking. He pulled out his camcorder and started filming. His video caught in high definition flames enveloping the house. It is a really sad story for the family, who lost their house. But Graden was in the right time and the right place to document this happening.

Being the entrepreneur that he is, Graden wanted to see if any of the news stations would like his footage. We started calling and we found instant interest. The news stations had arrived too late to the doused house to record anything interesting. They gladly agreed to accept the high quality video and credit my brother. The file was quite large (500 mb) so I had to work some magic to make it available for download on my server personal server.

A couple hours later, on the 6 o'clock news, KUTV and KSL both showed Graden's video. KUTV properly gave the credit to the video to Graden, but KSL, for some reason, credited the video to me. Later that night, the video was featured on the front page of KSL's website.

It is remarkable that my brother and I shaped the way that news was presented to Utah today. Without Graden's graphic footage and his willingness to share, the story might not have made such headlines. This is the direction that news will go in the future: citizen's media. The masses providing the masses with news. Sure, we will still need aggregators of news, but having a news agency gather all relevant news will soon be a thing of the past. News aggregators will have to inevitably rely on the masses to provide them with news. This will be only easier to accomplish with ubiquity in cell phones, cameras, and internet.

To see the video uncut, check it out on Youtube here. The flames get really big. Also, if you want to see me get credited on KSL for something I did not do, check it out on KSL's website.

A Christmas in the USA

2009-12-13T12:53:00.003-05:00

I am the oldest in my family, which means that growing up I was a trailblazer. I accomplished some good things and grew in areas that my brothers and sister would later follow. I am pretty sure, however, that my dad is most proud of me for one thing: my ability to sit down and enjoy a football game. Obviously it would be frustrating for an avid football fan such as my dad to have kids that don't share in his football appreciation. But my dad has told me on many occasions that is precisely his situation: kids for the most part who are apathetic to football. This may seem strange, but the ability to like watching football is something that my dad never fails to praise me on.

On that note, I was watching the last part of the Army v. Navy game last night. Navy, coming as little surprise, won the game. Following the post-game celebrations, Navy's coach was interviewed about what this game meant to him. He actually became really emotional at that point. He was proud of the players for both schools. He added that many of them would be sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to fight in wars and risk their lives. He downplayed his victory that day as "only a football game." Then the interview concluded. It was a sobering response, and a topic that I probably don't think enough about! We have such brave men and women who are protecting our country. They are amazing and I hope that they feel it.

This Christmas season, many thousands of troops are overseas and unable to spend time with their family and friends. I ran across a great idea that Xerox is sponsoring. It's called LetsSayThanks.com. You create a card on this website and Xerox will actually print out and send the card to someone in the armed forces. Making the card can literally take 10 seconds and will most likely lift someone's spirits to know that the sacrifices they are going through are not going unnoticed.

Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

How we choose our friends

2009-10-04T09:34:00.004-04:00

I was noticing the other day that my irate Bank of America post was still at the forefront of my blog. I knew that I had to change that or else someone might think that I am a bitter person. Besides, Bank of America has since changed their overdraft policy as I found out recently. I'm glad that I was a part of the backlash.

Have you ever thought about how you become friends with certain people? For instance, you can be in a big group setting and be able to interact with everyone, but you'll gravitate to certain types of people. Why is that? You can probably force yourself to be around other types that you don't naturally jive with, but in an ideal environment, you'll be attracted to certain people.

I think part of how you choose friends has to do with the early beginnings: the family and the people that surround you early on in life. I think you are attracted to characteristics and personality traits that these people find attractive. But family is only one part, in my humble opinion (Note: my opinion in this entire post is very humble because I have no formal experience with psychology or sociology so take this with a grain of salt). Next you might wonder about how you choose friends that are very much different from your family. Part of the answer may lie in who chooses you early on in life. You then get comfortable with these types of familiar personalities and they stick with you.

In sum, I believe it all boils down to a combination of environment and genetics. Isn't it interesting how the answer to almost everything in life is a combination of two extremes. That is why I think it is unwise to be either a full-fledged Republican or Democrat. You've got to have balance and realize that there are answers in both extremes.

Bank of America uses immoral practices to squeeze money out of the customer

2009-08-05T17:05:00.004-04:00

Our world is now quite accustomed to fine print. Every company has to cover its back by countless clauses of legalese. Sometimes, though, companies can use the fact that no one reads fine print to literally take advantage of people. Such is the case with Bank of America's debit card policy.

Last week, I messed up and bounced a check. Ooops. No one is perfect with their finances. So I was in the negative. I didn't know that I was in the negative, however. Contrary to Bank of America's assumption, I don't check my account balance on a daily basis. Even though I am enrolled in the online banking, I received no email about the overdraft. The next day, I went to the Post Office and bought a stamped envelope on my debit card for 54¢. Bank of America charged the card even though I didn't have any money. The next day I did the exact thing. A total of $1.08. Then they charged me a fee of $35 for each day. Their policy with debit cards is that Bank of America assumes you are in an emergency and will charge the sum of money, and then ding you with a $35 overdraft fee. Am I the only one that thinks this default policy is ridiculous? When I don't have any money in my bank account, my assumption is that my debit card will be declined. I'm in an emergency far less frequently than not and if I was in an emergency, I'd want to call up the Bank to allow for an exception. The fine print, though, finds ways to jack the customer and give the giant bank corporation more profits. Should Bank of America really assume that spending one dollar was worth $70 to me? Pleading with the stone-cold representative and her supervisor did me no good, so I am now resorting to my only other forum to spread the word about this crappy policy.

The representative offered to change my account settings so that my card will be declined when there are no funds and I accepted. Why can't this be the case by default? It should be. Do any other banks engage in this shady practice?

My Take on Net Neutrality

2009-07-21T10:37:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, the internet is a huge passion in my life. I understand this may seem weird, but very few topics about the internet do not interest me. The latest news about the internet comes from Tim Berners, who yesterday declared that the web should be uncontrolled and unfettered by corporations and governments. The debate on the nature of the internet is not new. As the internet becomes increasingly relevant and vital to society, it is very apparent how much the internet has changed from its very independent and free-spirited beginnings. Here is an excerpt written by John Perry Barlow in 1996 entitled A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.

We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear.

Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you know our world. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. Do not think that you can build it, as though it were a public construction project. You cannot. It is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions.

You have not engaged in our great and gathering conversation, nor did you create the wealth of our marketplaces. You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions.

You claim there are problems among us that you need to solve. You use this claim as an excuse to invade our precincts. Many of these problems don't exist. Where there are real conflicts, where there are wrongs, we will identify them and address them by our means. We are forming our own Social Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.

Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.

We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.

We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.

Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.

Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge . Our identities may be distributed across many of your jurisdictions. The only law that all our constituent cultures would generally recognize is the Golden Rule. We hope we will be able to build our particular solutions on that basis. But we cannot accept the solutions you are attempting to impose.

In the United States, you have today created a law, the Telecommunications Reform Act, which repudiates your own Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis. These dreams must now be born anew in us.

You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.

In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace. These may keep out the contagion for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon be blanketed in bit-bearing media.

Your increasingly obsolete information industries would perpetuate themselves by proposing laws, in America and elsewhere, that claim to own speech itself throughout the world. These laws would declare ideas to be another industrial product, no more noble than pig iron. In our world, whatever the human mind may create can be reproduced and distributed infinitely at no cost. The global conveyance of thought no longer requires your factories to accomplish.

These increasingly hostile and colonial measures place us in the same position as those previous lovers of freedom and self-determination who had to reject the authorities of distant, uninformed powers. We must declare our virtual selves immune to your sovereignty, even as we continue to consent to your rule over our bodies. We will spread ourselves across the Planet so that no one can arrest our thoughts.

We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.

This declaration embodies net neutrality better than anything else I've come across. I am not a fan of complete net neutrality. The internet has turned into something that is very similar to real life, and that reality necessitates real-life laws and regulations. For instance, breaking into someone else's computer is similar to theft: you have violated another's personal property without their permission. The internet is also a natural extension of human speech and should be subject to the tort actions of libel and slander. Intellectual property, like trademarks, copyrights, and patents, simply must be regulated or else needs to be protected online.

Having established that the internet should be regulated to some degree, I think we should resort to the law regulation as a last resort. Lawrence Lessig explains that there are 4 ways of regulating the internet: law, markets, social norms, and architecture. In my opinion, these other regulations should be used to a much greater extent than the law. From the perspective of a computer geek, it is amazing what kinds of things you can do to safeguard yourself or your property using the architecture of the internet. Behind everything on the internet is code. The internet should and most likely will continue to use that architecture to protect people and ensure them their rights. Social norms also play a vital role. If a certain behavior is highly frowned upon, there is a much greater chance the behavior won't be pursued. Also, maybe even most importantly, markets determine people's incentives for doing things online. If people out there can't make money doing bad things, they won't continue doing them.

In sum, I am more partial to net neutrality than I am to a completely regulated and interfered with internet. There is simply too much good that comes from the openness and flexibility of the internet. Governments should intrude only as absolutely needed.

The Road to Love is not Always Laced with Roses

2009-07-21T01:21:00.001-04:00

Dating-relationships can be crappy. When you start to date someone, there are only two possible outcomes: it either works out, or it doesn't. If you're like me, it's hard for you to work out with someone. That means that you start something up, only to see it die time and time again. Each relationship death is a painful experience.

Does it have to be painful? My experience is yes. Throughout the course of one's lifetime, it is inevitable to have feelings for someone else. It is part of our human wiring. These feelings range from friendly, childhood affections to more mature, romantic feelings. It doesn't matter if you are seeking a casual friendship, a networking opportunity, or a significant other, you are bound to be turned down by someone else out there sometime in your life. Romantic love can be the most painful because you are tapping into your deepest feelings. It takes a while to learn that when you freely give away your love and affection, and putting your heart out there, your feelings are likely to not be reciprocated and your heart to get trampled on. If you don't feel this pain, you are most likely dishing it out to someone else.

Is having painful relationship deaths a bad thing? My experience is yes. Some act like breaking up is not a big deal, or that they have transcended getting hurt by dating. I think these individuals are either deceiving themselves or they are more robotic than human. I think that the more relationship deaths we experience, our hearts shrivel up a little bit. We become a little more apathetic and we are less apt to put our love out there for others. We act like we don't have feelings, act like we're above the game, and are less willing to love. A bad thing, in my opinion.

Is there an alternative to being poked by the barbs that are strewn along the road to love? I don't think there is an alternative. When someone is trying to find love, there is always a risk of disappointment and failure. Perhaps you could sit and do nothing, but we all know that inaction does not lead anywhere noteworthy. My bottom line is that notwithstanding the highly probable pain along the way, you've got to keep believing and having confidence that someone, someday will love you back when you show them your love.

Turn the other cheek

2009-06-24T09:39:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I was reading a sermon where the Savior sets forth the higher law in regard to the law of Moses. Instead of "an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth," Jesus outlined that whoever smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone sues for your coat, give him your cloak too. And if anyone makes you go a mile with him, go two miles with him. Give to him that asketh thee, and give to him that would like to borrow from you.

Talk about a difficult set of scriptures! I wondered if anyone that lives a normal, everyday life really lives by these words? To me, this block of scripture meant pure selflessness to others, not thinking about your own interests at all. I at least could not claim to live by these teachings. But even thinking of how truly selfless Jesus was during his lifetime, I didn't picture him always doing what others wanted him to do. He always did what the Father did, but Christ was not a super-meek and submissive person to his fellow man. Needless to say, I was perplexed by the text and wanted to reconcile the teachings to everyday life.

Spencer and I were talking about this on our way up to Salt Lake land. His BYU religion professor Stephen L. Robison claimed that this scripture needed to be understood in the context of Jewish culture. When it said "whosoever shall smite thee on they right cheek, turn to him the other also" it meant that you get back on your feet after someone takes you down. This answer didn't satisfy me though. I understand that you could rationalize Jesus' teachings by saying He wanted to stress a point of humility to others, so He fell down pretty hard on the side of selflessness. But when you are looking at the text of the scriptures (the New International Version is virtually identical to the King James version), I found some serious doctrines that are hard to rectify with real-world life.

Every once in a while, God sees what's happening in our lives and intervenes to teach a principle. I was supposed to take a right at the 1300 S exit, but instead got in the left lane. Once I realized my mistake, I sheepishly tried to inch back into the long line of cars also desiring to go right. The people in the right lane were livid mad that I was trying to cut in front of them. One grandma would net let me in one inch and the backseat 45-year-old man was shouting at me from behind the window. Three or four other drivers met me with similar contempt. I stared at these people with a calm and fixed demeanor. Then it struck me. This is what turning the other cheek meant. God was teaching me an eternal principle on I-15. These scriptures didn't mean letting bad people do bad things to you, but rather having a different mindset. When someone does something bad to you (like cutting in front of you [this is really bad guys, huh]), give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you'll get burned by someone who is really trying to maliciously do bad things to you (and cut in front of you on purpose). However, it may also be the case that they just missed a turn and need to get back into your lane. Why risk turning into an evil human being because this person might cost you 5 seconds of your day. Life is short, be nice to people. Maybe your example will help someone else be nice.

Global Warming is Happening, for Real

2009-06-17T15:01:00.003-04:00

I have recently come across those who don't believe that global warming is happening, or that mankind is not directly causing it. I have nothing against such beliefs - I fully support people exercising their God-given rights to believe in whatever pleases them. However, when I hear the argument that the global warming phenomenon has no scientific data to support, it makes me want to rise up and condemn such an ignorant position. I don't know why, but this disregard for science literally boils my blood. My frustration is most likely due to climate change turning into a partisan debate. Because people are passionate about politics, it doesn't take very much evidence to persuade them that they are on the right side of the debate. However, yesterday the White House released its most strongly worded report about how climate change is unequivocally happening. This detailed report, which cost us Americans $15 billion to research, pulled together research spanning many years and multiple administrations. The report, which included many different types of models in a region-specific manner, painted a bleak and sobering picture of what's going on in our world. Dr. Jerry Melillo, said climate change is fact, not opinion.

"It is clear that climate change is happening now. The observed climate changes we report are not opinions to be debated. They are facts to be dealt with."

A brief overview of the science behind climate change. The greenhouse concept was discovered long ago (1824) and so accepted today that you could find the principle illustrated at any junior high science fair. When greenhouse gases are present, there is more potential to absorb heat, thus warming the surface and atmosphere of the planet. Right now, there are more greenhouse gases than ever. The concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane are higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. Geological evidence supports that the last time there was this much CO₂ in the atmosphere was 20 million years ago.

The principle that humans are contributing to global warming is well established in the scientific community. It's kind of like the principle "smoking causes cancer." Sure there will be some people even within the scientific community who claim this cannot be established as fact. They claim "other things cause cancer" or "some individual smoke and never develop cancer" but just like in global warming, these naysayers are looking at the exceptions and not at the established scientific data.

With so much data available in our world today, it should come as no surprise that there is evidence both for and against global warming. Statisticians can play with numbers and show anything they want. But in my quest to understand what is really going on, I have found more scientific literature which supports global warming hands-down. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific, intergovernmental organization that assesses the body of scientific literature. It bases its assessment mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific literature. The organization seeks to state only conclusive findings, rather than doomsday predictions or even highly probable, but not established theories. Because of this, what the IPCC establishes is very authoritative. While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with some findings of the IPCC, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC's main conclusions. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least thirty scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. These conclusions are that the average temperature has increased and that most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in man-made greenhouse gas concentrations via an enhanced greenhouse effect. Three compelling points are worthy of emphasizing.

The temperature of the earth is increasing - In the last 50 years, the temperature of the earth has risen 2º F. Before this, the temperature of the earth for the last couple thousand years has been relatively stable. The year 2005 was the hottest on record, based on estimates by NASA.

The glaciers are disappearing - A 2001 report by the IPCC suggests that glacier retreat, ice shelf disruption such as that of the Larsen Ice Shelf, and sea level rise are attributable in part to global warming. The consequences of this are frightening, but I will save this for another time. The key to this post is not the consequences of global warming, but that it is occurring.

The oceans are becoming acidic - Oceans are being greatly affected by climate change. Not only are the glaciers melting, as the temperatures of the oceans are increasing, the acidity of the ocean's waters are also increasing. Increased atmospheric CO2 increases the amount of CO2 dissolved in the oceans. CO2 dissolved in the ocean reacts with water to form carbonic acid, resulting in ocean acidification. Ocean surface pH is estimated to have decreased from 8.25 near the beginning of the industrial era to 8.14 by 2004, and is projected to decrease by a further 0.14 to 0.5 units by 2100 as the ocean absorbs more CO2.

Some of you reading this have the glossed look in your eyes, ready and excited to resort to your trusted global warming defenses. The first defense is other factors contribute to the temperature of the earth. The IPCC even remarks that natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward. Solar flares also contribute to the earth's temperature. The argument is kind of like saying, "My lifestyle does not cause me to be fat-it's my genetic predisposition. There's no point in exercising or eating healthily doing so would not in and of itself lead me to be skinny." Just because there are other factors (which are uncontrollable by us), does not mean that we shouldn't work on the controllable factors. It is interesting to note that in 2005 (the hottest year on record) the solar flares were at their lowest levels in 30 years.
The second defense is that the earth goes in cycles. We do go in cycles, but the recent trend is not natural. Even if the hockey stick graph is not conclusive, all major models project that the earth will continue to heat up for years to come.

There are other critiques and defenses to the global warming hypothesis, and I will address them in the comment section. But why do I bring up global warming on my blog? Recognition is the first step. My motive was not necessarily to inspire a decrease in greenhouse gas consumption (although if that were to happen, I would definitely be happy. I myself try to conserve energy when I can by recycling, driving fuel-efficiently, and conserving energy. The more people that go green the better!) Mostly I wanted to first establish a fact that sadly has not been established yet. Our planet needs us to look after it better. I want to go back to Alaska and see all the glaciers that I remember seeing as a boy. My hope is for each of us to be honest when talking about climate change. Instead of saying, “There isn't enough evidence that humans are contributing to global warming,” say “I don't care about the environment” or “I care more about making money than preserving something for future generations.”

To the financially weary, I salute you

2009-06-02T21:16:00.003-04:00

I used to think I was an economic conservative. It was easy and logical to think that the world justly rewards according to one's own work. I used to view the poor as somehow deserving of their condition either by not working hard enough, or by poor decisions that should not be rewarded. I don't feel that way anymore. You hear stories of people who got that one lucky break or that chance to shine. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy. But for every success story, there are many more stories of good-intentioned, honest, hard-working people who fail. A lot of times, it is nothing more than the luck of the draw - Luck of skillsets, health, interests, upbringing, education, and networks. And what bugs me the most is corporations like banks, credit card companies, and insurance companies acting as the bully by taking advantage of these disadvantaged folk. To fight these big corporations and to get out of poverty, you need certain things like education, skills, good health and connections. But each of these costs valuable resources. Without any access to these resources, the poor remain entrenched in their dilapidated state. Maybe it's possible to rise out of the poverty cycle, but so many simply do not. I realize my generalizations may be a wee overly broad, but what I write of happens far too often to go unnoticed. Am I advocating socialism? Absolutely not. I just see the injustice of our society and I wish it could be better somehow. If I ever get rich, which is actually one of my biggest goals in life, I will not forget where I came from.

Conpiracy theories debunked

2009-05-23T15:23:00.002-04:00

Have you ever heard a theory that sounds ridiculous at first? It doesn't make sense and requires lots of explanation for it to come together. Call me skeptical, but my experience has been that the vast majority of these "conspiracy theories" are bologna. Nine times out of ten, the simplest explanation is the correct explanation.

A few years ago, I watched a movie with my cousins about how 9/11 "really happened." It explained that the government had really ordered the attack to give it motivation to go after other countries. The hour-long film was pretty convincing and did a wonderful job of arousing an emotional response. I was confused. Then Google came to my rescue. After searching for a response to the 9/11 conspiracy theory, I found a very succinct and comprehensive rebuttal to all the arguments presented in the conspiracy theory. This experience opened my eyes to how I approach digesting theories that don't jive well with me.

A lot of the reason that people latch onto beliefs that seem kind of weird is because of an emotional response triggered and a failure to research the other side of the issue. Here is a list of other conspiracy theories that I hear people believing in.

There is a cure for cancer that is being suppressed by the medical community because they are making so much money off of cancer.
The US never landed on the moon.
Big oil businesses are suppressing technology that fuels cars with just water.
The government has secret UFO and alien materials, but won't release it to the public.
Global warming is not happening. The only reason for society's focus on global warming is because the media is liberal. Because the media popularizes global warming, representatives make it a big deal to get elected.
Elvis is still alive.
The US only invades Iraq for their oil.

Remember, you can find answers to any question using Google. It's amazing.

Is optimism-bias a good or bad thing?

2009-05-20T13:02:00.006-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about risk-taking lately. For better or worse, I have always been someone who takes risks at a higher-than-is-normal rate. In my Contracts class last fall, I learned about the concept optimism-bias. This concept is interesting. Often times humans are overly optimistic in themselves to their detriment. The example we studied was signing away your rights to engage in a risky activity believing you are the exception and that no harm will come to you. For instance, a river rafting trip has a lot of risks. There might be a pretty compelling reason to forgo the trip, however, lots of people take the risk anyway. I looked up some other examples of optimism bias on wikipedia: Students overestimate their own test scores. Grad students overestimate the number of job offers and salary they eventually will get. Almost all newlyweds think their marriages will last for life, well aware of high divorce statistics. Those who smoke believe they are less at risk to suffer from smoking-related disease than others who smoke.

I think that it is fantastic that we have optimism-bias hard-wired into us. Sometimes I have been burned by my optimism-bias. I have plenty of scars, have gone into debt, and even worked for free as a direct result of risks. But I have also been rewarded. One obvious example is the huge amount of time I invested into learning HTML and PHP. I think I will capitalize on these skills for the rest of my life.

Living in America allows this optimism to shine. You listen to someone's rags to riches story and even though you may not have any similar skills or talents as this person, the story inspires you. You believe in yourself, and believe that you can achieve similar success. And then you strive for something that pushes you further than you would have gone had that distant target never been there. Without an impetus to propel me further, I would sit still and stagnate.

The key to risk-taking is for a healthy balance between the two extremes. In business, too much risk leads to epic financial crises. Not enough risk leads to stagnation. But risks are absolutely a good thing (in moderation of course [but not too much moderation {it needs to be a wise amount and level of riskiness}]).

Optimism-bias may be one magical factor that sets us apart as uniquely human. If we were completely logical, and we made decisions based on mathematical probabilities, we would be robots; robots that probably wouldn't achieve as much as we humans have and will achieve.

Things I've learned while on the East coast

2009-05-12T10:19:00.003-04:00

Hello blogosphere. My second semester of law school is done. It was very difficult, but I think i did alright. Tomorrow I will be driving back to Utah for the summer and it got me thinking about my trip out east. Exactly 2 years ago I bid Utah farewell and embarked on my journey to Boston. It is unreal to think back on all the experiences, friendships, and opportunities I've had in such a short amount of time. What have I learned? Here is a short non-exhaustive list.

I like school when I don't have distractions - Learning is fun, hands down. I get turned off by the intense and competitive nature of learning at school. But when I don't have any distractions, school can be fun, even when it's law school.
Girl Power - I had always been under the traditional school of thought in regards to women before moving out east. Then I met amazing women who branched out my mind. I now wholeheartedly support women doing whatever they want with their lives. I acknowledge that may sound sexist because it may seem obvious to some, but I have recently learned this. I wanted to thank everyone who has helped me realize this: Heidi, Michelle, Kristie, Katrina, andmy con law professor who taught us about equal protection rights.
Buying the highest octane gas does not give you better gas mileage - In fact, if you buy higher octane fuel than your car's needs, it is counterproductive.
There is a disparity between English/British on Wikipedia - Have you ever been checking out a Wikipedia entry and noticed some funky spelling going on? That is because the English version of Wikipedia merges all flavors of English into one. This is trouble for a Wikipedian such as myself, who prides himself in regularly fixing spelling and grammar mistakes.
Eating apples fresh from the orchard is 100 times better than eating an apple from the grocery store. I was blown away when I tried this last fall.
Hairspray - I only recently discovered this amazing product. As much as people give hairspray a bad rap for killing the ozone layer, it fulfills a vital role for certain hair textures like mine.
I have a passion for education - If I ever have kids, I want them to be smart. There are so many advantages when you are smart.
Me? Smart? No way! - The past couple years have taught me about my own level of intelligence. This is not an attempt to practice being modest or humble: compared to people all around me, I am not very smart.
I work harder than others - I think this is a mechanism that I have that makes up for my lack of smarts: hard work. It's amazing what you can do when you work harder than almost everyone else around you.
I am so similar to my dad - It's crazy I would really figure this out by living 2000+ miles away from him.
I never knew that a guy and a girl could spend so much time together as my roommate and his gf do. At first, I was taken aback by it and thought that maybe I needed to work on getting close to people like them. But after thinking about it, I decided that just was not my style. Nope.
Pepperidge Farms bread is the best on the face of the planet - What am I going to do when I go back to Utah where there is none?
East coast hot dog buns are weird, and they are also slightly inferior.
Kissing someone for the first time doesn't mean anything - Actually, I take that back. You're not gonna kiss someone you are not attracted to or that you wouldn't mind stepping the relationship up a notch. So I guess, kissing denotes attraction and/or you wanna take it to the next level. That's all it means tho, at least to me.
Apples give you negative calories when you take into consideration the work needed to eat it
You can make home-made cheese - I found this out from a true food specialist. Her name is Lillian and she goes to law school with me. She is great.
I hate the word "mingle" - Some synonyms I found on dictionary.com: intermix, work the room, hobnob, and socialize. Any other suggestions?
I love making websites - Hit me up if you want to collaborate on a project. I'll be more than happy to chat. This summer I have no concrete plans for employment which means I'll have a lot of time to invest.
I've learned to relate to people better - Have you ever wanted to be liked by people more in your life? Well for just 15.95, click here to buy my book and I'll tell you all about it.
Social networking is where it's at - I have discovered Digg, Twitter, Youtube all to be wonderful tools for networking.
I am a better Othello player than most - Tina, you better get practicing because I won't back down from you.

Well that's it. Utah, here I come! Now I need to get back into Utah stuff. When in Rome do as the Romans do. I need to get my Utah vocab and accent back. Maybe I'll start watching Fox News. Maybe I'll cut my hair. Well, I better get back to packing up my crap. This summer is going to be so fetchin' FUN!

The Behemoth Stirs

2009-04-18T19:34:00.004-04:00

It was particularly dark in the forest. A settled, hazy fog penetrated everything with a damp and chilling cold. The Behemoth was fully within the fog's grasp. For months it had lain cold and dead.

As the dawn approached, something different was in the air. Sunlight cut through the trees and fog like a sharp knife cuts through flesh. A new life. The forest was not accustomed to it. It had been so long. The beast was in plain view now. Debris, which had long encumbered the lifeless, massive frame, had all but melted away. Now there was breathing. Up and down, the breathing became deeper, more rhythmic, returning the creature to full life.

The surroundings seemed the same as before, but something was definitely different. Suddenly, in an unexpected moment the Behemoth's eye flashed open. After looking around momentarily, the beast began to recognize familiarity.

My Adventure is Over

2009-01-11T17:51:00.002-05:00

After three weeks in Utah, I am back. As I sit in my room, I am wondering if my Utah trip could have been any better. The resounding answer is no. My trip deserves a perfect score of 10. Here's what made it so good:
Spending an inordinate amount of time with family. I love my family so much. I couldn't get enough of them! You see, last year I spent Christmas in Boston because I was too poor to fly home. After that experience, I no longer take for granted time with them. On Christmas eve, Jennica and I went to the tree lot to get ourselves a tree. Not contented with an average size tree, Jennica picked out a beast of a tree. We managed to somehow fit it in the trunk of the rather small Sebring convertible. We did not decorate the tree all fancy and cute afterwards, but most importantly, we got a real tree for only $9. With the whole family together, we discussed business ideas and other ways of earning money. It's something our family has done ever since I can remember. Our family played Acquire twice. I am not very good at that game, yet. However, I did beat anyone who opposed me in Othello and Chess. Lots of my relatives have new places of residence. I saw 5: Kristen and Erik's, Brooke and Stan's, Haley and Graden's, Lisa and Graden's, and Aunt Lark and Uncle Dennis. They all look really nice, especially Graden's. I got to know my brothers' wives a lot more over the break and I love them. They are great additions to the Ostler family.
Snowboarding in fresh powder. Mother nature has already smiled down upon Utah's slopes this winter. Few feelings in the world are better than carving down a freshly powdered mountain.
Weightlifting in good company. Scott, Nate and I started our "march-to-March" regimen. The goal is to work out so that when March comes around, and it's warm enough to take off your shirt, we can do so without shame. In fact, all eyes will be on us.
Spending quality time with old friends. Ray and I discussed website ideas over lunch. Rich and I watched the funniest Russian film together. Renny and I made caramel popcorn and watched Boston Legal.
Spending lots of time with SK. From holiday festivities to swing dancing in Sandy to the Harold B. Lee, I was glad I got to know SK better than I ever have.
No car problems. I drove the Sebring for three weeks. The tires were very much bald and the left headlight was out. I had a couple moments when I truly thought I would get in a wreck. One time, while approaching a red light at a more rapid-than-is-safe rate, I braked, slid, pumped the brakes, kept on sliding, then slammed on the brakes until I stopped 6 inches behind the car in front of us.
Working on personal website stuff. This involved working at the BYU library and also working from home late at night. In fact, on Thursday I found myself up until 5AM coding, which reminded me of my college days.
Meeting Lady Schwarz. The last night I was there, Ray set me up with his cousin. It turned out to be super FUN with her. I will need patience, however, as our geographic disparity is 2,343 miles.

In short, Utah is a great place. I've always been the type of kid who was totally "over" living in Utah, but my trip reminded me how cool Utah is. Now that I'm back East, I will enjoy sleeping in a large and spacious bed. I also need motivation for an even more difficult semester.

An Ode to Law School

2008-12-20T11:37:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the end of my first semester as a 1L. I was expecting a huge feeling of relief after handing in my last final exam, but strangely enough, that did not happen. Instead, anxious thoughts about grades swirled through my mind. Here are some thoughts of what made this semester so memorable.

When I first started the semester, I had a strange preconception that I was going to excel above all the other students in my class. I figured that because I had no distractions, I could spend all my waking time on school. I discovered, less than a couple weeks in, that spending all my time with school is necessary just to keep afloat. Each of my five classes required me to read and write more than I ever had before. Also, it seemed like everyone around me was as smart or smarter than me. Plus, every guest lecturer or student adviser stressed the importance of getting superb grades. It was around this time that I felt overwhelmed, freaked out and depressed about law school. I later found out that 1Ls tend to have these moments.

However, I felt confident that if I kept working hard, I could do well. For motivation, I went online and bought a poster to get me riled up. Every day I would come home to this poster. If the text is too small, it reads: 21st May 1965, Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston, First Minute - First Round. Sometimes I felt like the man on the mat, but most of the time I pictured myself as Muhammad Ali.

I was not completely anti-social, but close. Thinking back throughout my life, I realized that without distractions I tend to close myself up and study. I got really good grades in high school, because I was basically not into the high school social scene. I didn’t get good grades in college because I liked hanging out with friends. In Boston, I was supposed to study for the LSAT all summer long and do amazing on it. Then I made great friends who helped me unfocus myself from my studies. Then I came to law school and without any relatives or close friends, found school to be my outlet for spending time.

I found out something very interesting about my sleep patterns. When I spend a lot of time exercising my mental faculties (studying), I don’t need very much sleep. Especially when working on specific assignments, I found I need no more than 7 hours of sleep. Getting by on less sleep was crucial over the course of the past four months.

I learned that writing is an art. I love it, love it, love it. Writing as a lawyer is so logical, once you know how to do it, and it’s FUN.

As fun as it was to become all competitive with fellow students, I learned that getting good grades isn’t of sole importance. Actually, it may be, but I am not going to incessantly fret about grades. My motto has become this: work hard and in theory you will get what you deserve.

Franklin Pierce Law Center did not let me down. The facilities were good. The fellow students were very friendly, helpful, and smart. For the most part, my professors were great, knowledgeable, and friendly. Civil Procedure was awesome. Professor Budd, Harvard Law alum and former head of the ACLU in California, taught like a champ. Contracts was cool. Johnny O was cool. I liked his conservative approach and his lectures were very interesting and funny. Torts was not too fun.

The Reality of the Girl's Network

2008-11-16T09:39:00.004-05:00

It has come to my attention that many either do not know of the girls' network, or deny that it exists. Often times it comes as a surprise to boys how quickly information about themselves spreads. No one should be surprised once the girls' network is truly understood.

The girls' network is vast. It transcends national borders. Oceans cannot limit its sphere of influence. The girl's network does not have beginning of days nor end of life. It is beyond comprehension and defies understanding. What is said to one, may very well be said to many.

The girls' network is a powerful and effective means of gathering information. Most of the time spent on the girls' network is discussing boys. The girls' network shows that girls are much more adept at compiling and transferring relevant information at all levels of complexity. At the most fundamental level, they've got the face-to-face girl-talk down. Whether the group is small or large, girls have an innate capability for asking the right questions, and answering with enough information to very quickly gather and disseminate lots of information in a short period of time.

Technology has only fueled the network. Standard forms of technology, such as cellphones, email, SMS, and IMing, allow for the girl's grapevine to more quickly gather and spread information. Then there are the more advanced technological resources found on the Internet: Facebook, Myspace, blogs, Twitter, etc. Through the Internet, masses of information go into the public domain so that any girl with a web browser can harvest the relevant information and insert it directly into the network. In fact, assuming that girls and boys use technological resources equally, in a way I don't quite fully comprehend, girls seem to utilize them better than their counterparts to promote the network's ends.

It is true that not every female is an active participant to the girls' network, but this does not diminish the validity of the network. No other network comes close to being as efficient or robust. While I fully acknowledge there are exceptions, I also make the argument that many girls who are not active participants to the girls' network would participate if given the chance. Some girls feel like they do not participate in the girl's network because they limit their information-divulging to select individuals who "do not spread it." This is often times false, and may be how the girl's network is so effective. All it takes is one girl, and the rest is history.

I feel like a piano key right now

2008-11-07T22:59:00.004-05:00

Before I begin, let me reassure you that I love life very much. This past week has been hard on me, though, as I have become acutely aware of my inadequacies and limitations. The worst part is that I have felt quite powerless against my weaknesses. In Notes from Underground, the underground man perfectly explains how I feel: "then, you say, science itself will teach man that in fact he has neither will nor caprice, and never did have any, and that he himself is nothing but a sort of piano key or a sprig in an organ; and that, furthermore, there also exist in the world the laws of nature; so that whatever he does is done not at all according to his own wanting, but of itself, according to the laws of nature." The underground man later questions if mankind really has free will. He uses the example of someone playing the piano. That piano player may say that he is pressing a key with his right hand because he wants to, and that he can play it with his left hand if he really wanted to, but there is actually another factor that goes into his decision-making besides his own free will. This upstream reason exists whether he knows it or not. In fact, if he thinks he is in control, he is stupid. This analysis is exactly how I feel with life at the moment. I feel like I may think that I can choose, and live my life according to plan, but I am actually not making any decisions. I am at the mercy of my motivations, my mood, and chemicals in my body. I feel like I am a piano who is very much at the mercy of other factors to play me.

However, I am almost 100% sure that my "underground man" feelings are only temporary. It is not true that we have no control over our circumstances. Each of us has ups and downs (I am in a down moment in case you can't tell), and we may doubt our free will at times, but we have power to rise above ourselves. In addition to our bodies, each of us has a spirit. This distinction sets us apart from all the animals and any scientific creation. Let me conclude with a quote from Notes: "It seems to me that the meaning of man's life consists in proving to himself every minute that he's a man and not a piano key."

Why I Support Proposition 8

2008-10-29T19:21:00.005-04:00

The whole man/woman marriage debate has become quite exciting, even for non-California residents such like myself. I have never been one to shy away from action and so I've decided to throw my insight into the mix. Hopefully, this will be brief and to the point.

I've seen a number of different approaches to proposition 8. There are those who become angry at the whole homosexual movement. Their support of proposition 8 is simply because they are bigots. Others hate the supporters of proposition 8. They manifest their own bigotry by calling sincere and rational people bigots. Why can't we reason through this without hate? I like to consider myself a very tolerant person. I understand that by living in America, we need to be tolerant of other people's beliefs. After all, that is what makes our country great. Our country is engaged in a never-ending quest of balancing individual freedoms and limiting the infringement of others' rights. I strongly believe that homosexuality is wrong. But I try not to so in an arrogant, self-righteous, or intolerant manner. How can I believe in an amendment that would limit others' beliefs and still claim to be tolerant? Let me explain.

Lately I have been inundated with legal jargon. Honestly, I feel slightly less intelligent than I was a couple months ago. One thing I have taken away from my law school curriculum is that in some situations, you need to come up with a bright-line rule. This standard may not seem fair to some people, but is necessary to make things work in society. Establishing marriage as only between a man and a woman is a standard that we need to make. If you don't draw the line somewhere, you'll just have a big mess.

The basis for my support for proposition comes down to a matter of faith. Recently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirmed its support of Proposition 8 and called on all members to help out in the cause. It has been recently reported that out of the $30M raised for the pro-prop8 movement, 40% has come from donations from the Mormon church.

I had mixed feelings when I first heard the church's statement. If you'll recall, in the late 19th century, Utah was a community that was prohibited from joining the United States because of its beliefs in plural marriage that it held. If we were being discriminated against back then for the government regulating our marriage practices, why should we enforce the government to regulate that today? Then I thought about how I know that God leads and directs this church. I don't know all the answers to how He leads and guides the affairs on earth. What was true back then may be different today. But what I do know is that God has affirmed that marriage is between a man and a woman.

There is a lot of excitement as to the implications of gay marriage in California. A lot of speculation abounds pertaining to the effects of Proposition 8 not passing. I don't know if children will be taught gay marriage in public schools or if churches will be sued if they don't perform gay marriages. I believe the effects of not passing Proposition 8 will be more detrimental than not to the state. Marriage needs to be a bright-line standard for our country.

A Mormon for Obama in New Hampshire

2008-09-13T08:49:00.003-04:00

Last night, I attended an Obama speech in Concord, New Hampshire. Afterwards, I shook Barack Obama's hand (to be more precise, his right hand grasped my right hand). Here is a video that I took.
It was unreal to be so close to one of the most famous men in the world.

I think my favorite part of his speech was him going after McCain. He talked about how ridiculous it was that McCain all-of-the-sudden was an agent of change. Then he said, "They must think you're stupid." At that point a man in the back, with a gruff appearance responded, "We're not stupid!" Barack smoothly replied, "I know you're not stupid."

There were a lot of posters, some more unexpected than others. I saw one "Republicans for Obama" poster. I also saw older women holding posters "Hockey Moms for Obama." I thought about what kind of a poster I could have held up. Mormons for Obama?

Yes I am Mormon, LDS, a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I support Barack Obama. I thought I'd enumerate why I like him.

1) He has family values. With a wonderful wife on his side, who adores him, and whom he adores, he also has 2 beautiful daughters. He loves them, it shows, and he is a good example to our country.

2) He is smart. First off, he attended a couple of the top universities in the country. After receiving his BA at Columbia University in political science with an emphasis in international relations, he proceeded to graduate from Harvard Law School Magna Cum Laude. This shows that he "gets" education - the value of it, the need for it. He understands that in a global economy, the United States needs to step up its education or it will fall behind. Many will say that the United States has done fine in the world without excelling in education. I don't believe this is sustainable. Education is something that I also have a passion for, and I believe that the hard work of a good education pays countless dividends.

3) He is smooth. I want someone to lead our country at home and abroad who articulates himself well, and who looks extremely comfortable doing it. That is Barack Obama. I don't know how he does it, but he is in his element when he is speaking to others. This makes someone look legitimate. When you have to rely on someone else writing a speech for you, and then looking awkward while delivering it, that does not lead to respectability. It makes you look like you're a puppet in the hands of someone else.

4) He is black. Sit back for a second and think about what this means for America. Look at how far we have come since the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Most likely, this will prove an important element with regards to foreign policy as we can approach and relate to countries that have inaccurately written us off as the country with the rich, white-male that oppresses everyone else.

5) He is not always decisive. The world has complicated problems and to tout that you can always act decisively and not blink is a weakness. One example is the recent Georgia/Russia fiasco. Did Georgia provoke Russia? Absolutely. It probably didn't deserve such strong military action, but to have someone immediately assume he knows the whole situation leads to bad foreign policy. Obama, with regards to the Iraq war, and Georgia most recently, has shown that he doesn't make hasty and potentially bad decisions. Will he make decisions? Yes, but they are much more careful and deliberated - something our country needs.

6) He inspires. When I listen to Barack speak, I honestly want to be a better person. Because of people like Barack, I want to be a better American. This is key. Without this element, you sometimes feel reluctant to do things your leaders tell you to do.

7) He has class. The McCain campaign has recently demonstrated that it is willing to say anything to get McCain elected. I can't believe some of the flat-out lies I have heard spread by Karl Rove/John McCain. Dishonesty makes me sick to my stomach and I have been impressed with Barack Obama for walking the high road. Lately he has been forced to use a little more exaggerating, but only because the American people have been believing the smear and slander. As these hilarious women were shouting next to me at the speech last night, "Shame on McCain!" If someone is going to be dishonest while campaigning (and if you don't believe me that McCain is being dishonest, go check out FactCheck.org an independent source that tracks truth in the political arena), it is likely that he will continue to be dishonest while in office. No, the American people want something different than that.

8) He is real. Barack Obama is himself. He's not trying to be more conservative than he is, he's not trying to be more qualified than he is. He is running as Barack Obama. He's honest about it too. He'll be the first to admit he made mistakes growing up. But it's not like he's trying to hide from it, pretending that isn't a part of who he is.

9) He has vision. Obama knows where America needs to be and much of that involves long-term strategies. From health care (which will inevitably cost America less as we focus more on preventive, rather than emergency room scenarios) to energy independence, Obama's policies in the long run is where America needs to be. We don't need the "Drill, baby drill" philosophy because in 10 years after we have drilled, we will still be dependent on a non-renewable source of energy. We need to invest in alternatives that include renewable energy and nuclear.

10) He understands the constitution. He taught constitution law at the University of Chicago for over 10 years. This means that he understands a document that was inspired and has served our country well for over 200 years. When I heard Republicans mock this sacred text at the Republican National convention, I realized that there are many people out there that don't understand something that sets our country apart from others: much of the beauty of our country is based on our government following the constitution. This means when it isn't convenient to do so [cough, Cheney], we still must abide by it.

11) He has done a lot of things. Barack Obama in Illinois was responsible for a bill that many thought was impossible. He got both parties involved and it was passed. I think that he will be able to get a lot of his ideas passed because he has shown that he can work well with people. He showed that early on when he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review. He also was a community organizer. I know he has been ridiculed for having this seemingly unimportant title on his resume, but let us remember that Jesus was also a community organizer. Pontius Pilate? He was a governor.

12) He likes people. Barack goes out of his way to talk to people and to make friends. He has a genuine interest in people. After graduating from law school at the top of his class and serving as president of the law review at Harvard, I am confident he could have worked anywhere he wanted. But he chose to work with disadvantaged people in Chicago. This not only shows that he will treat others that he deals with in other countries with the respect they deserve, he will also do everything in his power to help people in our own country.

13) He understands where he came from. Barack Obama was not given success on a silver platter. He has worked for it. He understands the principle of hard work and wants to give others the same opportunities.

14) He is open-minded. Obama is very open-minded to others' beliefs. He understands that we have differences, but we share so much more in common than we probably realize. I highly doubt that Obama is "the most liberal senator in the United States" as alleged by some National Journal study. It was flawed for a lot of reasons (including not voting for a third of the bills that year). How can you possibly go from being 16th most liberal to 1st in 2 years? No, Barack looks at both sides of the parties and recognizes similarities in all of us.

15) He is prepared to lead. He has been leading his whole life. At home growing up, at law school, in Chicago, even on the Senate floor he has shown remarkable poise to lead. No, he has not served in the military, but why does someone have to serve in the military to be prepared to lead? He has already generated more excitement in politics than anyone else in a long time.

16) He is a champion for the middle class. I heard straight from his lips yesterday, (and I have no reason to doubt this is included in his detailed plans as president) that contrary to what McCain purports, Obama will not raise taxes on 95% of taxpayers. When we hear of Democrats taxing the rich to give to the poor, I think it's a very common conservative argument to hold that isn't fair. The rich deserve their money because they worked hard for it. However, the richest people don't get taxed an equal percentage as others. Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world, has expressed that he would be willing to pay more in taxes. I think another train of conservative thought is that we don't want the government taking money from us. But I think a lot of my conservative friends don't realize that they aren't rich! They are middle class. My advice is to not worry about the government coming in and sticking it to you. Barack Obama is here to help.

In conclusion, there is a lot to like about Barack Obama, enough that I am fine putting my support behind the man. Our country will be better off with Obama at the helm.

A critique of the RNC

2008-09-03T23:24:00.004-04:00

I am pretty confident that the strongest argument against Barack Obama is that he hasn't done anything. It's a strong argument because it's hard to defend. All of the important, but seemingly small things he brings up in defense of this argument is easily discredited as unsubstantial. And if he tries too hard to talk up his credentials, he appears boastful and arrogant. If you do something really huge, though, like serve in the army then someone is treated automatically as though he has performed heroic acts. Mrs. Palin - I love you to death for being from Alaska, but you need to remember that we all have different roles to perform as Americans. It's not guaranteed just because you serve in the military that you are doing more for your country than someone doing other things. Where does this stem from that being in the military is the best thing you can do with your time? I guess that's what I'm so worried about with the Republican National Convention is the overemphasis on military. Yes I am very glad that people serve our country, sacrifice for our country, and even die for our country. But let us remember that military dominion is not the penultimate. The pen is always mightier than the sword.

Post #100

2008-08-30T20:18:00.004-04:00

After spending almost the entire day at the library studying, I realized I needed to go to the grocery store. I had written my grocery list in my planner (I love my planner, I write in it so much). I hopped in my car and started driving to Shaw's. While approaching a red light, two things happened: my car shut off (I have a hybrid and every time you slow to a stop, the engine shuts off, saving gas) and a pedestrian in the distance started crossing the street. I thought to myself, "Suppose my car was always silent, a pedestrian walks out in front of my car, I hit him and he dents my hood. Could I sue him for negligence? What is reasonable for someone to know to put himself out of harms way? (This is what I was studying all day long today and it's called Torts) Because usually I listen for traffic every bit as much as I look for it. Now with the Green Age upon us, we need to use sight much more. What I really need to know is if the reasonable man should know about and be held responsible for walking in front of a 'silent' car." The law had been on my mind a lot, and it showed by this thought. I realized this and thought back to the Utah - Michigan game. I know that I should be proud of a "home state team" and support the Mountain West conference, but I seem to always want the U to lose. Even knowing that there are lots of good Ute fans out there and that Kyle Wittingham is actually a pretty nice guy. I can't help it. If Threet was a semi-decent quarterback, the Wolverines would have had that game too. After picking up everything I needed at the store, I started looking at checkout stands. The 10 items or less had no one in line and all the other stands were packed. I made eye contact with the checker, then remarked, "I've got more than 10 items." It was clear that I did. "No worries," he replied and I made my way down to the belt. Then I was back home unloading my groceries, gearing up for some more studying. But I did have one more thought on my mind before I started reading Torts again: "I think I may be experiencing the beginning signs of carpel tunnel syndrome with my left arm. Not good."

Hard work, Trent's Playground, and Barack Obama

2008-08-28T22:00:00.004-04:00

Monday morning was the first day of law school. It was then that I found out that I was already behind. Ever since, I've been working HARD to play catch-up. Already, overloaded to-do lists have beleaguered me. But I like working hard. I must admit that I do get distracted. You see, part of my geek side involves tinkering around with computers and web development. My newest idea that I have been working on is called Trent's Playground. I would tell you more about it, but as of right now there's not much to it. I also have a feeling that this project will be put on the back burner in exchange for study. I found out that one of my large classes requires class participation. I thought to myself, "Trent you're not outgoing enough to get a good grade in this category." Doubt crept in. Then I thought to myself, "Well, you can be outgoing enough. Timshel - thou mayest." So I decided that I was going to be outgoing if I needed to be.
I think Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States of America.

An old first-day-of-school tradition revived

2008-08-24T19:12:00.002-04:00

ENTP

2008-08-20T15:21:00.002-04:00

I am in my second day of orientation right now. I am really glad I brought my laptop because today is BORING. Why? Because I am not going to sexually harass others, I'm not planning on engaging in illegal activities while ridiculously drunk, I'm not going to plagiarize, and finally I am not so much a fan of personality tests. I just took the Meyers-Briggs indicator test. The problem I have with this test is that a lot of the questions are really arbitrary, you would need to think about each question for a long time to get an accurate answer. Instead, we think to a limited amount of experiences, which may depend on our mood, and may not accurately summarize our personalities. Then, when you read the explanation of what your code means, the words bring to your recollection memories that reinforce the analysis and you are so impressed at how accurate this personality test explains you. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating my feelings just a tad.

My new place of residence

2008-08-18T21:02:00.011-04:00

I rarely post pictures of myself on my blog, but today I must make an exception. See, I now live in a fairly remote area - Concord, New Hampshire. I have low expectations that friends and family will come and visit me, so I've decided to take you all on a virtual tour.

First off, check out all the movies that I will not be watching this year.

Movies is not the only thing that my new roommate has a lot of.

Walmart has been crucial in my quest to furnish my apartment. If you look closely, you will notice something very special about New Hampshire - no sales tax.

Next is the bedroom. Here is my queen-sized bed. I reasoned that I've been sleeping on ghetto twin-sized beds for too long and it was time for me to upgrade.

This behemoth of a bookcase I got on Craigslist for free. Amy helped me carry it down the four flights of stairs and into the car. It must have been a FUNNY sight to see a little Civic cruising down the highway with a seven-foot bookshelf hanging out the rear window.

I put this desk together from Walmart scratch and felt like a true handyman doing it. With my new desk and desktop computer, I am content.

There you have it, my apartment. And here is a picture of the beautiful outdoors.

A reason to be baptized

2008-08-17T23:52:00.002-04:00

While moving up to New Hampshire, I found a little notebook with some notes I had taken. It brought back such good memories, one of which I wanted to share with you. I spent two years proselyting for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the country of Russia. The following story happened in one of my favorite areas-Saratov. I was in the Zavodskoy area for almost 11 months. When I first started in this area, I got my hands on a program to quit smoking. Since everyone and their dog in Russia have problems smoking, we thought it would be a useful way to introduce people to the church, especially if we could claim they would quit in 7 days. So we advertised through flyers and word of mouth to get as many people to show up. In the end, five people came. One young man by the name of Ludwig showed up. His mom and sister had recently joined the church and both of them had been putting pressure on Ludwig to come to the lesson. I remember him keeping to himself, giving everyone the impression that he was too cool to be there. The lesson includes a number of steps, but probably the most dramatic occurs at the beginning. Each participant is prompted to hold a pack of cigarettes in his hand, and crush them on the count of three. This really sets the tone that there is not going to be any more smoking going on. It's one thing to go to a lesson and listen passively; it's quite another to destroy something that you really like and paid good money for. The next step involves signing a contract that you will never smoke again. It's actually really powerful. Everyone in the room signed the paper, with the exception of Ludwig. You see, Ludwig is the kind of guy who is really honest. He's not going to pretend to believe that he'll do something if he's not sure. However, after some persuasion and coaxing, we got him to sign. I guess Ludwig decided in his mind that he was really going to quit smoking. The amazing story is that he did. Thanks to his wonderful family support, he followed each of the steps to a tee and never again touched a cigarette.
Months went by and Ludwig started becoming interested in the church. After meeting for months with the other missionaries, Ludwig came to a point where he knew that this church was true, he was just fearful that he couldn't keep the commandments after baptism. I planned a split with Elder Grant and I talked to him openly about baptism. I felt like I could do this because Ludwig and I seemed to have a really good connection. Here is an excerpt of our discussion. "When we are baptized, we give God a commitment to keep His commandments. Do you remember the lesson we gave you on how to quit smoking?" I showed him the paper he signed. "You gave us a commitment that you would quit smoking. I doubt that you could have quit smoking without such a fortified resolve. Baptism is the same. It's difficult to live by the commandments, without making a commitment to do it 100%." I then related that all he needed to do is repent of his sins, and then tell God that he's ready to keep His commandments by being baptized. And the clincher: Will you be ready to be baptized by next Saturday at 11? The rest is history.
I like this story because it shows that God gives us power beyond our own to succeed in this life. Whether it is breaking an addicting habit, making a resolve to abide by certain principles, or whatever, God will help us if we covenant with Him.

World record inflation

2008-08-12T22:14:00.002-04:00

I've got to give some props to Speedo for designing fancy new swimsuits which dominate old world records. It's amazing to see. I will probably never again in my life witness an Olympics with so many records being set. Unless next olympics they come up with salamander suits. But not all excellence in the olympics is easy to measure across time. Take gymnastics, for instance. How are you supposed to maintain a world record in this event especially when judges change, scores change, and Olympics committees revamp scoring systems every once in a while? Or volleyball. I suppose you could evaluate teams or individuals based on how the competition does against them. In other words, maybe a disparity score might help, which measures the gap between the gold medalist and the rest. If you are reading this, and feeling slightly bored bear in mind that I am alone at home right now, in New Hampshire. There is no one to talk to, so I am kind of using this blog as an outlet for communication. Well, Michael Phelps is pretty sick. I will most likely compete in a triathlon someday. And when that time comes around, I want a Speedo bodyskin to my advantage. They are only $340. I can't believe how good America is at swimming. Wow

Flashback #1: An awkward "date"

2008-08-05T23:22:00.000-04:00

Nostalgia was in the air. The spring flowers were in full bloom, bringing back memories, and I had just graduated from BYU. I was leaving Provo in a week and a half for Boston. But that trip east seemed so far away to me. I wanted to instead focus on a couple girls that I was interested in.
First was this girl in my ward, Ashli. We had transcended the hometeaching bounds and started hanging out to become quite good friends. The other girl, Janae, worked as a secretary for the BioAg college. I got to know her as I came in regularly to finalize my impending graduation. What started out as casual Facebook messaging turned into "maybe we should hang out sometime" and "most definitely. you should give me a call sometime."
Two girls I was interested in getting to know better, a limited amount of time to work with. What to do? My plan was to organize a group to see Spiderman 3 on opening night. Lucky for me, I had a couple single guy friends that were willing and able to participate.
There is a law known as Murphy's law that states "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." Pay special attention to this law as I continue my story.
A series of events disrupted my plans for a casual group activity. Two days before the movie night, I was hanging out with Ashli and her two roommates. I threw out the idea that we should all go see Spiderman that weekend. Ashli was positive, but the vibes from her roommates were unenthusiastic. In fact, if I could read one of the girls' minds, it would have probably said: 'Dude, Ashli is digging on you. You need to stop hanging out with us as a group, and hook up with her.' Needless to say, I didn't press the issue. Ashli was in--even if she was under the impression it was going to be a date.
Next, I called up my facebook friend Janae. The conversation was a little more formal than I anticipated, it was as if I were also asking her out on a date. This I did not want, but at the same time I feared being rude so I told her that my cousin was also coming and that if she wanted to bring a friend that would be cool. My reasoning was that at least in her mind, the setting was going to be more casual than a one-on-one date. After I hung up the phone with her, I was pretty sure that Janae was now under the impression that we were going on a double date. I started thinking about the predicament I was getting myself into. "Oh well," I thought to myself, "it'll sort itself out tomorrow."
The next day, Janae let me know that a friend of hers was indeed coming. I invited my cousin Andrew and another friend of mine Peter. My logic was as follows: even if 3 out of the 3 girls thought it was going to be a date, maybe the 2 guys with me could work some magic and make it more of a casual group setting. A series of unfortunate events proved to make this untrue.
1st unfortunate event – My car cannot hold 6 people. This meant that one of us was going to have to meet us there at the movie theater. I thought it would be fine as Peter was in Orem anyway, and Andrew could ride in my car.
2nd unfortunate event - Andrew, my cousin, got tied up practicing with his brother's band. Because he was running late, he called to tell me that he'd meet me there. I remember getting a sick feeling in my stomach.
3rd unfortunate event - Because Andrew called me on such bad notice, I was unable to get Peter to come down to Provo and to pick the girls up with me because he was in Orem. This meant that I would have to pick up the girls singlehandedly. At this moment, I'm pretty sure I started thinking about Murphy's law.
I drove first to Janae’s, where her friend was also. They hopped in the car. Early on, Janae pointed out that her sister was someone I used to date. When she said her sister's name, I immediately became embarrassed. My face must have undoubtedly turned red. You see, the relationship with this girl's sister did not end on a good note and memories were now flooding back to me. The evening would only get better from this moment on.
Janae and friend were probably expecting another male in the car, so I told them that my cousin was at the movie theater, but that I needed to pick up a friend on the way. Then I pulled up to Ashli’s, rang on the door, and walked her to my car where two other girls were. She gave me a look that asked, “uhhhhhh, what’s going on here?” I told her as we walked to the car that it wasn’t what she thought, and that I’d explain later. She climbed into the back half-smiling as she began to fathom the awkwardness of the situation. The conversation managed to remain shallow all the way over to the theater. With three girls and one guy, nobody dared to bring up what this situation was, although I knew that everyone was thinking about it.
Unfortunate event 4 – We didn’t arrive at the movie theater early enough. This was unfortunate for two reasons: There was insufficient time to establish a good connection with everyone in the group before the movie began. Peter burst onto the scene just minutes before we entered the theater, and Andrew still wasn’t there. Without that group chemistry, it set the tone for the rest of the evening. The second reason it was unfortunate was that the seating in the theater was complicated. Because it was opening night, there were a lot of people already in the theater when we arrived. We finally decided on one region of seating with a decent view. There were four empty seats on back-to-back rows. It looked something like this:
X X X X
|_|_|_|_|XX
|_|_|_|_|XX

I knew this setup wasn’t ideal as we’d have to choose whom we'd sit by, but I thought to myself, 'Whatever, we'll just sit as a group.' Well, Peter led the way up the aisle and he started going down the top aisle. I was next and didn't want to sit next to Peter, because I wanted another girl to so I hesitated. I was like a deer in the headlights in between the two rows. There ensued an awkward moment where everyone was thinking the same thing probably: Where are we going to sit? Janae and friend went for the bottom row, then Ashli sat next to them. I didn't want them to feel excluded so I decided to sit next to Ashli. Picture it: Trent, Ashli, Janae, and friend on the first row, Peter on the back row by himself. Andrew eventually came and joined Pete up a row.
As you can see, this evening was turning out to be an evening devoid of group engagement and interactiveness. The one thing good thing is that movies encourage silence. After the movie, the dynamics of the group situation did not change. Everyone knew that something weird was going on. The girls didn't buy their tickets. They had been picked up in a car from their respective apartments. Was this just a really nice guy that wanted to bring people together or was it kind of like a date? That is what everyone was probably wondering. The answer, of course, was not that straightforward. Hence the after-movie moment of awkwardness. We engaged in some small-talk discussing the film and after that fizzled, it was time to make a decision. Was the evening going to continue? or were we done? Of course we were not done. We had barely interacted. So we decided to go to Starbucks for some cocoa or something. We had to travel over there in two cars though so Peter met the rest of us there. Inside the coffee shop, another awkward moment struck. By now, Janae and her friend were pretty much getting the vibe that this wasn't necessarily a date so they paid for their drinks. However, Ashli beforehand had a pretty clear impression that we were going on a date and she knew that I bought her ticket for her. In a moment of silence, where we both understood that this was really weird, she went ahead and paid for my hot chocolate. I dropped off Andrew at his car, then dropped off the girls, then I walked in the living room where Andrew was watching TV. I looked at him and could not believe that evening had really happened.

Get in your element

2008-08-02T21:51:00.006-04:00

Listen, I wish I knew more about psychology because I find human behavior insanely interesting. I've noticed that we humans are comfortable in certain settings and uncomfortable in others. I have been trying to figure out why this is the case. I understand the argument that an individual has the power to choose how he or she will act in any situation, but I would argue that this is the exception to the rule. Not to sound pessimistic, each of us have our scenes in which we don't do well period.
Every once in a while, you get struck upside the head with a truth that seems so novel, but so glaringly obvious. Such was the case with me last weekend while backpacking in the white mountains of New Hampshire. Let me explain.

Three friends and I were hiking along a trail, and we started talking about our preferences of socializing with people. Then I really started analyzing my preferences, and I noticed something interesting: my social preference depends on if I'm in my element or not. You may be asking yourself what is "your element." For all intents and purposes here, your element is an environment where you feel comfortable and like you fit in. As we were discussing what types of situations we feel most comfortable in, we all agreed that we were comfortable in that moment at that place. This struck me. One reason why is because we were all very into the outdoors. When you get people doing something that they all similarly love and are passionate about, the environment is bound to be more conducive for him or her to thrive in.
After I made my discovery of truth, I came up with a take-home message: For you to be comfortable in different social situations, get into whatever you are into. Get into your element.

My blog

2008-08-02T21:15:00.002-04:00

I love the concept of blogging. It's amazing: you write, the world listens. Recently, I've discovered one problem with my blog - it is trying to extend to too broad an audience. I've decided to divide and conquer in the blogosphere. trentathon will continue to be used to relate my thoughts and stories from the perspective of an up-and-coming LDS young man. trentostler (the new blog) will be devoted to my professional, sometimes technical or geeky, non-personal thoughts.

Recent happenings

2008-07-20T21:59:00.002-04:00

An update on some things that are going on in the life of Trent...
1) I am going to law school in one month. I will be attending Franklin Pierce Law in Concord, NH. That means that I will be leaving Boston very soon! I can't believe how many people take it as a surprise when I tell them this "news". I thought everybody knew.
2) I am really excited for law school. I feel similar to when I first started BYU as a freshman: ambitious, eager, charged, excited, motivated, and happy. These are very different feelings compared with my senior year of BYU...
3) I have not seen the Dark Knight yet, but I want to so bad that it hurts. Tomorrow may be the day. I've only run into two individuals who didn't give it amazing reviews, but these two individuals may not count. First off, they are both girls and let's be honest-some girls can't always fully appreciate the Batman. They're also roommates so maybe they infused each other with falsehoods.
4) I am training for a marathon... in New Hampshire... October 4th. It is USATF certified, meaning that if I run it in 3:10 I qualify for Boston. I'm shooting for a sub-3 hour performance. I just ask myself, 'Is there a better way to complement a rigorous school schedule than with some intense physical exertion?' The answer that keeps echoing in my mind is 'No.'
5) My apartment all of the sudden has a lot of ants, everywhere. For almost one year, we have been ant-free. But now they are here, and I'm just wondering where these little guys come from... I was on the bus the other day and there was an ant crawling on my backpack. I shook my head, realizing where he came from. This morning, I was reading my scriptures with my B-Sox hat on, and I looked up at the rim. Lo and behold there was an ant crawling on the rim. Well, good thing that Windex works wonders on them.
6) The idea of social justice is really starting to fascinate me. I'll write more about this later, but really briefly I believe that we all should have equal opportunities for success in life. The question is implementation. I wonder if people would voluntarily help others if it were not mandated. That would be the best case scenario ideally, but we all know that we don't live in an ideal world.
7) East of Eden is a very fascinating book. I read it almost daily and am now a third of the way done. If you haven't gotten over the bad high school memories of reading Grapes of Wrath, you probably wouldn't believe me when I say that Steinbeck is a great author. Well, trust me. Or better yet, go out and see for yourself. He really has a knack with using the English language to convey his message.
8) I want to start a new website that may potentially be a big deal. I don't want to publicly expose this idea though, as I may get scooped. If you're interested in hearing about it, write me an email and if I deem you trustworthy, I will fill you in.
9) Cooking = good times. I have really gotten into the dessert making thing lately. Yesterday it was caramel popcorn and I'm coming to the point where I don't need a candy thermometer. Watch out.

A breakfast you must try before you die

2008-07-17T09:13:00.010-04:00

I started this morning off on a really good note because I ate something I haven't eaten in a long time: buckwheat, also known as grechka. More than likely, you have never tried this classic Russian dish. If you like good food, you will most probably enjoy grechka. Let me tell you the secret to making it taste delicious.
Buckwheat is a grain that has an appearance similar to rice. If you are unable to find it at your local grocery store, go to a more natural/healthy store like Whole Foods. You also need some peach juice. I'm not talking about the juice that accompanies canned peaches, rather actual peach juice. Going to your local Russian store is a surefire way of finding everything I'm talking about. You'll also need a banana, milk, and sweetened condensed milk.

Cook the buckwheat just as you would rice--on the stove and uncovered. However much buckwheat you want to cook, add double the water. I made half a cup of buckwheat and it was plenty for me. Once all the water has boiled out, the smell will have filled up your kitchen with grechka goodness. Now you are ready to add the other materials. Get your banana and smash it to a pulp in a separate dish. Then add it, along with some milk, peach juice, and a dash of condensed milk to the mix. Delicious!

Now I'd like to talk about the health benefits of buckwheat. The nice thing about eating buckwheat is that you don't feel hungry shortly after breakfast. This is because the glycemic index is a whopping 65. Just to give you perspective, dry pasta is only 49. It has so much fiber which provides a cleansing feeling throughout the day. This isn't a sluggish feeling, rather a feeling of refinement. After eating a serving, my intestinal tract feels like a well-oiled machine. The iron makes you more alert during the day. It is low in saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol. In fact, a protein in buckwheat has been shown to bind to cholesterol very tightly, not letting it go and congest your body. 2. Feel grateful that you have little friends that go around your body binding the bad guys. Buckwheat contains rutin, a medicinal chemical that strengthens capillary walls, reducing hemorrhaging in people with high blood pressure and increasing circulation. 1 Also, it contains D-chiro-inositol, a component related to Type II diabetes. Research to treat diabetes with buckwheat looks promising. Also, prepared my way, you get your Vitamin C, Potassium and healthy sugars.

My advice to all you blog readers: Get out of your mundane breakfast regimens and try grechka. Your body will thank you.

Sources

1. N. Ihme1, H. Kiesewetter, F. Jung, K. H. Hoffmann, A. Birk, A. Müller and K. I. Grützner (2003). "Leg oedema protection from a buckwheat herb tea in patients with chronic venous insufficiency: a single-centre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial". European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 51: 7287–7291.
2. H. Tomotake, I. Shimaoka, J. Kayashita, F. Yokoyama, M. Nakajoh and N. Kato. (2001). "Stronger suppression of plasma cholesterol and enhancement of the fecal excretion of steroids by a buckwheat protein product than by a soy protein isolate in rats fed on a cholesterol-free diet.". Bioscience Biotechnology and Biochemistry 65: 1412–1414. doi:10.1271/bbb.65.1412

Being modest is not always the hottest

2008-07-10T08:55:00.002-04:00

Apparently, I am good at a few things in life. The problem is that I don't know how to react when others give me praise. I end up downplaying others' compliments--not the proper way of responding. I'll give you some recent examples.

Example 1
Person A: You are a really fast runner!
Me: I'm not that fast.
Person A (unfazed): How do you get to be so fast?
Me: [Awkward pause] Well, testosterone goes a long ways in the sport of running.
Person A: Really?
Example 2
Person B: You are really good at swing dancing.
Me: There are a lot of dancers better than me.
Person B: No, you're really good, honestly.
Me: Well, I just make up moves out there...

Basically, I think I need to come up with better responses to compliments that are less modest. I thought of the solution while I was on my run this morning. Here are some one-liners that I will now use in response to praise of any kind:
"I know!" [in an enthusiastic and confident tone]
"Aren't I?" [with a genuine expression, pausing until they give an answer]
"I was thinking the same thing." [nodding slightly]
"I'm glad you brought that up. I'll have to concur." [non-sarcastically]

Likability

2008-06-30T23:19:00.004-04:00

I watched the movie Wall-E last night and the theater was absolutely packed. It was packed for a reason. An interesting thought came to me: I was struck at how you couldn't help but like the main hero of the movie. Why was this? Undoubtedly, this theme is studied a lot at Hollywood and I already understand certain elements. Obviously if the character is cute, funny, or an underdog he's almost universally more likable. You find yourself literally rooting for him and wanting him to succeed. In this regard, movies accurately represent reality.
The interviewer hires the candidate who he likes the most, not who is the most qualified. As a salesperson, the more you're liked, the more money you earn. People don't usually buy things from salespeople because it is the logical thing to do. They mostly buy because the salespeople get on their good side and they start to like them. The ensuing benefits then start to sound good. It's no wonder that the good sales associates are always likable individuals.
At the core of missionary work is a very important principle: Build relationships of trust. I could rephrase this to "Become liked." It's absolutely crucial for those you teach to like you.
This principle determines how we function in interpersonal relationships. People are more likely to put up with your crap, give you the benefit of the doubt, listen to your advice, offer help, do kind things for you, consider you legitimate, and want to hang out with you if you score high on their likability scale.
Politics tells the same story. Initially, political platforms matter far less than likability. When you like a candidate, it opens up the door for you to learn more about their views. You then have a much higher likelihood of agreeing with their views after you like them. And if you really like them, you'll do crazy things like volunteer or vote for them. On the flip side, people are often turned off to candidates for one reason or another. Once disliked, very little can be done in terms of convincing and reasoning. (We humans are not logical creatures, folks. In fact, sometimes we're just plain silly.)
So how do we become likable? I think there are universal likable traits out there (like being a humble, funny 28th century robot), but for the most part I think it depends on which crowd we want to be liked by.

How much am I worth?

2008-06-23T09:51:00.002-04:00

I don't know the answer to that question. But apparently my blog is worth this much:

My blog is worth $4,516.32.
How much is your blog worth?

. I accept cash and Paypal.

Unprepared

2008-06-17T14:40:00.003-04:00

There's one problem with Mozilla trying to set the Guiness book of world's record for the most downloads in 24 hours. Not enough bandwidth to allow people to access the site.

Introducing a new website

2008-06-17T11:00:00.002-04:00

Check out TrentOstler.com.

My little experiment

2008-06-16T19:35:00.005-04:00

You hear stories all the time about the guy who chases the girl, and finally because of his resilience he finally gets her and they live happily ever after. It happens in movies, on TV shows, in our extended families, and these stories are also told by our church leaders sometimes. Well, a few years ago I was convinced that the chase philosophy was flawed. Girls, I reasoned, need to put forth every bit of effort as boys. The boy shouldn't be forced to give up his power by displaying more interest. Besides, girls don't want a guy who is going to pamper them and be nice to them. They want someone who isn't going to put up with their crap, someone who is going to be real with them. Years went by, and then a situation crossed my path where I had the choice to chase or abandon. I remember reading a friend's blog that had a profound effect on me:

Make her a flower in late December
When the sun is not shining on her.
Write her a love song and play it all day long
To remind her of all that she is worth,
Never never leave her.
Take her on long drives for ice-cream by sea sides
And give her your coat when she is cold.
Tell her you miss her when you're close enough to kiss her
And that you'd walk a thousand miles to tell her so.
But, never never leave her.
Take photographs of her on Brooklyn street in October
When her nervous smile is slightly curved.
Some days when she is slightly down tell her its okay to frown
It makes you just fall more in love with her.
But, never never leave her.

I know, it's a little cheesy. But it really did get my thinking! I thought, 'You know Trent, maybe there's something to be said about chasing a girl.' I hadn't done it in a long time. Instead I had been cool, macho, and hip. So being scientifically minded, I decided to put this new philosophy to the test. Now here is my conclusion: the chase is not for me. Some guys can pull it off, but I guess it's just not my style. Or maybe you've got to chase like you're not chasing. Anyway, I'm through thinking, talking, discussing, philosophizing about this topic because I'm sick of it. And if anyone wants to leave a comment, please do, but I will probably not reply. Unless it's really funny.

An interesting thought on happiness

2008-06-05T01:06:00.001-04:00

Remember that time when Adam partook of the fruit? This catapulted him from a constant, static state into a state where he could experience the bitter and the sweet. I hypothesize that there is a happiness gradient and that the happier you are, the more potential to be sad and vice versa.

My own life validates this principle. There have been times when I didn't really get that excited about anything. Nothing made me extremely happy, and hence I also never got that sad. I was just kind of living the Garden of Eden life. Other periods of life have included much more polar feelings. On my mission, for instance, I had moments when I haven't been happier. I also had moments when I was the most sad. Also, there is something about dancing that makes me happy. When I used to dance regularly, I would experience peaks of happiness, but during this same time I would marvel at how crappy I would sometimes feel for no apparent reason.

Drugs also confirm my hypothesis. Some drugs make people feel extraordinarily good. The user feels temporarily happier, but the 'high' is inevitably followed by unhappiness. Other drugs are used to make individuals feel less bipolar. By numbing the mind, the drug removes much of the capacity of feeling really happy or sad.

The rich and the famous are another interesting example. While this group may not be the most unhappy, it sometimes seems that way given that the media publicizes all their problems. One reason why they are unhappy, even though they have so much, may stem from the polarity reason. The more the potential for happiness, the more the potential for unhappiness.

This leads me to pose a question: What would you prefer? Would you rather have a more consistent, less fluctuating level of happiness or the more turbulent lifestyle that goes through extreme highs and lows. For me, the answer to this probably depends on my mood. Sometimes I'm up for some roller coaster riding, other times I prefer to avoid the trouble and hassle.

Random tidbit of information #2: How long digital storage media lasts

2008-06-04T00:35:00.002-04:00

Everything that is stored on the internet is ultimately stored somewhere, on some computer's hard drive. It is true that large storage companies, like Google, have multiple backups of such data and they mirror this to multiple sites to make sure the data is safe. However, allow me to propose a hypothetical situation. What if the internet suddenly ceased to exist? All of your emails, photos, and documents online would vanish and you wouldn't be able to show off all of your good memories to your posterity. Hence the need for backing up data. Now let me clarify that I am not a doomsday proponent. The internet will most likely not vanish so abruptly. But allow me to break down some information on backing up your own data.

The reason for this seemingly random tidbit of information is that I recently heard that CDs will only last 5-10 years. This didn't sit well with me so I set out to research it online. The element of truth to this assertion is that unwritten-to CD-Rs and CD-RWs are only writable for 5-10 years. Once written to, CDs can last a long time under optimal conditions. Depending on the manufacturer and the storage conditions, CD-Rs can last 50 to 200 years while CD-RWs have an expected lifetime of 20-100 years. Obviously if you are routinely scratching the CD, exposing it to extreme conditions, or peeling away the plastic label on top, it won't last that long. Some solid recommendations that I found while researching digital media preservation:
1) Keep two backup copies and store them in separate locations. This decreases the chance that your data will get corrupted.
2) Buy from a good manufacturer. The brand of CD that you buy should have life-span information available. Make sure they've got a long-lasting, quality product.
3) Make note of changing formats. Remember when Formats change. You do not want your prom pictures that you show your grandkids to be in a deprecated format in 50 years. With every monumental format change, you might want to re-backup your data.

May the internet live long and prosper.

Something smells really good right now

2008-06-02T17:21:00.007-04:00

When our plane touched down at the Denver airport early Sunday morning, I felt sleepy. As I stepped outside the airport, however, I was greeted by a very familiar and pleasant aroma-the Russian Olive tree aka Elaeagnus angustifolia. This smell, which continues to make my nose happy, has helped me fall in love with Denver. (The more I travel, the more places I love.) Here is a picture of the tree of interest in case you don't recognize it by the name.

The little yellow flowers emanate a most heavenly smell in late spring and early summer.

Maybe this tree isn't very popular on the east coast, but I definitely remember its smell from my Utah days. As I've ranted and raved about this fragrance (yes, to me it is more like a fragrance than a smell), I got blank stares and awkward silences. This lack of positive reinforcement has forced me to conclude that some people can't distinguish the Russian Olive scent. Even though I don't know why this is the case, I'd still like to propose a mechanism, but I've got nothing.

Randomness is often overlooked

2008-06-01T17:50:00.003-04:00

I listened to the coolest NPR program the other day. A physicist talked about how humans try to apply rules to everything in their lives. While rules sometimes are useful, very often they can't be used to explain the whole situation. The concept relates to every facet of life. Here are a couple facets that I frequently think about.

Sports At the end of the game, the victorious team is considered the better team. All sorts of analysis are used to back this up. But a lot of times, this is ridiculous. Case 1: The Spurs beating the Suns in the playoffs this year. Because this happened, the Spurs were considered this really good and experienced team that knows how to win championships. But in all reality, the scenario could have been completely different. What if Tim Duncan missed his truly fluky 3-pointer to force overtime in Game 1? My point is that in the game of basketball, little tiny things that are basically lucky happen all the time. Case 2: The Rose Bowl between Texas and USC was a really close game. Vince Young eventually triumphed over Matt Leinart. I can just picture the NFL teams discussing prospects among themselves on draft day. "Vick won the game, he is a better quarterback." Because of this, Young was drafted #3 and Leinart #10. Just like the basketball example, it's possible that other small factors could have played a role in Young's success other than his skills alone.

Religion I have already talked about this here, but we tend to explain things in the church a lot. Elder Jones got a baptism because he is a good missionary. Person A is happy because she reads her scriptures every day. In some cases these rules can hold water, but life is so complex that we must also consider randomness into the equation.

Business It is very difficult to explain things in the business world, yet people try to do it all the time. At the 2008 Macworld conference & Expo, Steve Jobs unveiled the newest and coolest Mac products. Because some people were disappointed in the products, the stock price fell a lot. In the space of a month, it went from $200 to $120 a share. At its lowest moment, people were saying that Apple wasn't keeping up with their innovative ideas and blah blah blah. Was the stock justified in dropping so much so quickly? Let me remind the reader that the stock has since rebounded back to around where it was. In my mind, the cause probably involved an element of randomness.

Politics True or false: John McCain was the best Republican candidate. I would say false, but there was something very important that started happening when his campaign was literally in the dumps - the surge in Iraq started working. The policy, which was so unpopular with the American public because they had seen so little military success among the insurgents, started working. The policy to continue the course gave McCain the much-needed legitimacy to win New Hampshire and he milked that momentum until Super Tuesday. All the analysts explained that McCain won because of his experience and bla blah blah, but honestly I think he just got lucky. He was in the right place at the right time, and that to me is randomness creeping in.

Now what does this all mean? Some people would use randomness to explain that God does not exist. They would claim that religion is used as a crutch to explain things like the meaning of life, why we're here, etc. I would argue the opposite. When something happens that can't be explained, it's possible that it can be explained by Someone. Just because we don't have the big picture, doesn't mean that it isn't out there. When making explanations, keep in mind an important Arabic phrase Masha'Allah( ما شاء الله) which means God has willed it. Because in many cases, that is the only reason that it happened.

Listen to the complete radio program
here on Windows Media Player or here using Real Player

Opera 9.27 vs. Firefox 3

2008-05-31T09:23:00.005-04:00

I was initially drawn to Opera out of curiosity. The beautiful and sleek interface made it easier for me to use a browser other than Firefox. (It's true, I was addicted). Let me explain how a web browser can be beautiful. Every time you hover over an HTML component, the element becomes highlighted, giving it the impression that it is glowing. Also, when a page is loading, the cursor becomes an hourglass, unless you are hovering over an element that is action driven. This subtly suggests that you can perform the action that you are hovering over. Speaking of hovering, when you hover over a tab at the top of the browser, it displays a small screen shot of that page so that you don't have to open the tab up just to see what's there. It has cool features such as fast forward and rewind. It also has an easy to use Speed Dial page which allows you to select from a number of specified pages. This feature is far more useful than a simple homepage. Whenever you close your browser, it will automatically save your session so that when you open Opera next time, you can continue exactly where you left off. It allows for you to disable scripts that are running on your page. This has come in handy for me with javascript debugging. Rather than cycle through masses of alert popups, or restart the browser, there is a checkbox in every popup to stop scripts. Wonderful! It is very compliant to web standards. One issue that irked me with both Firefox and IE was that When you highlight and copy html content, it also copies the hidden content. Not with Opera :) Opera seems less buggy than other browsers. Another important feature worth noting is that when multiple tabs are open, you can cycle through them just like with other browsers with Ctrl + Tab. The difference with Opera is that it doesn't cycle through them in order of tab, it cycles through them in order of how recently you've used the tab. In this sense, it is very much like using Alt + Tab for all applications. In case you haven't yet noticed, I like using a lot of tabs. Currently, I have 7. One final feature, do you ever get annoyed with the little download window that's always in a small, separate window? FYI, if it doesn't show up in firefox by default when you download something, you can force it to appear at any time by hitting Ctrl + J. Anyway, Opera has designed a cool feature that breaks out of the Netscape/IE mold. Rather than having a separate window for downloads, it has a dedicated tab called Transfers. I like this idea as you don't have to add yet another program to your list of desktop processes. Opera is free and I recommend you download it here. Opera has room for improvement incorporating some rich media, but I really like using it.

Recently I downloaded and installed the Beta version of Firefox 3 and I was impressed. They claim that they gutted the code under-the-hood and redesigned it. I was definitely able to feel the difference. In fact, I feel like I will be in love when the real version comes out which should be soon. Already, it makes me feel like I'm using a google product (with all the AJAX features [When you start typing in a url in the address bar, it matches your text not only to previously-used urls, but also text in the urls' title]) plus the sleekness of Opera. Oh yeah, apparently IE 8 is coming out soon too. Even though they claim that IE will finally play by the web standards, I'm not too excited about it.

Ramblings

2008-05-27T00:34:00.004-04:00

It's late, but sleep is so far away. The sound of waves crashes into my eardrums. U2 is a joy to play on the guitar. Do not promote bad movies by going to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I am like a ninja - every girl that wants to get married should have me as a practice boyfriend and her dreams will most likely come true. Sugar is like sin. Sand castles and crabs are man's best beach allies. Old acquaintances come back at random moments. The natural man is an enemy to God. I have a lot on my plate right now. The Celtics will advance to the finals. A tan face is better than a pasty face. Humor and old friends are good for the soul. Sunscreen should be applied evenly and consistently across skin surface area. Life for me gets better with age. I will go to a Red Sox game this summer. Motorcycles are a great mode of transportation. The Mac chess program is very difficult to beat. I constantly find myself looking for ways to make money. I know this may sound cliche, but there's something to be said about following your heart. Utahvalleyfun.com is now more operational than it has been. Franklin Pierce is a sick law school. Drupal may be the key to my success. I have no strong loyalty to any particular operating system. I am now sounding a little bit geeky. Sleep calls my name softly.

A walk down memory lane

2008-05-23T13:49:00.002-04:00

Utah was fantastic. I'll mention one thing about the trip. Unexpectedly I found a boatload of personal memorabilia. At my grandparents, I found a baby book detailing bizarre tidbits of information ranging from when I first smiled, to when I first ate solid food. I found an autobiography I wrote in the sixth grade. Then there was the goldmine of mission stuff, that made me really miss the mother land! Here's the point that I want to deliver: After thinking back to who I used to be, I started thinking about who I am now. Then came the inevitable question of if I had lived up to expectations I had back then. My conclusion was that I have not measured up. This conclusion made me a little bit sad, I'll have to admit. But it was the feeling of sadness that motivates you to be a better person. I'm not one to harbor regrets, but one regret I have that I hope to learn from or that I could convey to others is this: do not be deceived. You're probably thinking, 'Well Trent, hindsight is always 20/20. How are you supposed to know when you are being deceived?' That is a good question. We don't always know what truth is and indeed that is why we are living life-to gain experience based on the limited amount of truth we have. But God knows all, and He has given us a way to tap into His truth. I wish I would have tapped more into God's inspiration. You can't always rely on it, and it's definitely not always easy, convenient, or logical. But it's better than relying on yourself and/or others. Let me conclude by saying that it's definitely not the end of my life. Watch out folks, cuz I'm going to carpe diem until I die.

Thoughts

2008-05-15T17:08:00.002-04:00

I want to make up for my dearth of blogging. I told a friend not too long ago that I have a lot of interesting blog topics to write about, I just don't blog. But before I blog about interesting topics, allow me to catch you up on my life and some of my thoughts.

I am flying to Utah for the weekend and I find myself unusually excited to go back home. One reason may be that my brother Graden is getting married and I will see the majority of my relatives and friends. Another reason may be that my expectation level is different for this trip. You see, for the past year, I have thought about either fanning flames of old embers, or finding new fire in Utah. Friends and relatives love participating in the fun by playing matchmaker. While I will definitely enjoy hanging out with friends, I will not be looking for that special someone. That adds a lot of happiness to my soul. It's kind of like the feeling of leaving Vancouver, Wa in the summer of 2004 and realizing that I wouldn't need to knock doors the next day. Right now I am just thinking about all the fun things there are to do in Utah valley. I think I'm going to go for a long run up the canyon. I might also go to the gym with my good friend. Perhaps I'll go swing dancing. I could even sleep under the stars with my brother Weston. This trip is going to be so fun.

I thought Lamar Odom had an awesome game last night. In fact, he has had an awesome series in general against the Jazz. If the Lakers win the series, (which I'm still hoping will not be the case) I will crown him MVP of the series. On the flip side, D-Will is my man! If only he had a little bit more help...

The other day, I read an article in Newsweek (America's Next Top Mormon) about how a lot of Mormons are hitting it big on reality TV shows. One reason that it I thought was particularly interesting: "there's also a longing to show America that Mormons aren't the insular community they're often perceived to be." There are so many people that think Mormons are WEIRD. The more that this perception is changed the better, in my opinion. I think there is a fine line between fitting into the mainstream and standing out. But if I were to choose one extreme, I would probably choose trying to get into the mainstream. I think Jesus was a good example. He never tried to isolate himself from others, rather he was always putting himself in situations to reach people. While never compromising his standards, he mingled with sinners, heathen, and unclean folk on a regular basis. That's one reason why I love living outside of Utah: there is more of an opportunity to interact with people that are different from me. Now I think I can run for office.

How do I feel today?

2008-05-12T17:30:00.002-04:00

Like Usher

The Hack a Shaq strategy should go away

2008-04-29T22:48:00.003-04:00

The NBA needs to change its policy of allowing dirty Spurs from fouling Shaq every possession, thus preventing quality basketball from being played. Greg Popovich, the mastermind of San Antonio's evil ploys, should enroll in a basketball ethics course. No, it is not ethical to abuse NBA rules. In fact, since David Stern doesn't understand how cheap coaches can be, I'm going to write him an email expressing my views. Here is what the new rule should be: every time someone is fouled without the ball, it results in a technical so that the best free throw shooter gets to put it in. Okay, I think I'm done venting.

Random tidbit of information #1: How Spiders Create Spiderwebs

2008-04-19T15:30:00.005-04:00

I love sharing interesting tidbits of information. This post begins the first of a series entitled "Random tidbits of information."

Have you ever wondered how spiderwebs are created? I'm not talking about the synthesis of silk. I'm talking about how the spider spins a web from point A to point B, even if these two points are far apart. This concept has boggled my mind at times, actually. I mean do spiders just fly from one bush to another like Spider man? Well I took the question to Wikipedia, and I was not let down.

According to wikipedia, the first thread is the most difficult part of construction for the spider. "The spider effectively utilizes the wind to carry its initial adhesive thread. With some luck the silk is released from its spinners and carried by the wind to a suitable adherable surface. When it sticks to a surface the spider will carefully walk over the thread and strengthen it with a second thread. This process is repeated until the primary thread is strong enough to support the rest of the netting."
Contemplate that the next time you see/walk into/push someone else into a spiderweb.

Viva Concord

2008-04-07T22:51:00.001-04:00

In the summer of 1950, having applied to Harvard business school, Warren Buffett took the train to Chicago and was interviewed by a local alum. What this representative of higher learning surveyed, Buffett says, was "a scrawny 19-year-old who looked 16 and had the social poise of a 12-year-old." After ten minutes the interview was over, and so were Buffett's prospects of going to Harvard. The rejection stung. But Buffett now considers it the luckiest thing ever to have happened to him, because upon returning to Omaha he chanced to learn that Ben Graham was teaching at Columbia's business school, and immediately--and this time successfully--applied.

When I read about the humble beginnings of the currently richest man in the world, I became happy. You see, lately I've been receiving a lot of rejection letters from law schools I had aspirations of attending. But one school, Franklin Pierce, was willing to take a chance on me. In fact, I've been getting really excited about Franklin Pierce Law and firmly believe that I can be successful in life through this program.
Franklin Pierce is renowned for its Intellectual Property law focus Currently, US News & World Report ranks them 5th in IP. I will be able to take awesome classes, get great job opportunities, and make connections with powerful people like few other schools can provide.
New Hampshire combines the best of both of my worlds Being on the east coast, it is close in proximity to cities. Yet, New Hampshire is very much a non-city environment, kind of like Utah. Transportation is very simple. If you want to go from point A to point B, you hop in your car at point A, and drive to point B. You don't have to drive to point C, pay for parking, take the train to point D, walk to point E, and then arrive at point B like you do in Boston. Housing is cheaper. Outdoor adventures will happen with all of New Hampshire's undeveloped land and wannabe mountains. Another exciting feature: Wal-Mart.
I won't go into that much debt I was fortunate to be offered a generous scholarship for each of the three years by FP. Also, housing is cheap and I am low maintenance in my needs. I may not have to sell my soul to a large law firm after law school.
I will have a better chance of standing out Everyone always rants and raves about getting into the the most competitive school, but I think there's something to be said about being a big fish in the pond. FP's total enrollment is 400 (For a comparison, Harvard has 1730) and I will more likely rise to the top of my class and land a top-notch job or internship. As a friend told me recently, I am about to start the end of my formal education. Because New Hampshire isn't well-known for its fast-paced, fun, city-lifestyle (Concord has a population of a whopping 40,000), I can hit the books hard. This way I'll get the most out of my law school experience. Will this take dedication? sacrifice? pain? Yes. But I think I'm ready.

In conclusion, I believe that great opportunities sometimes turn up in unlikely places. I would not have seen myself going to New Hampshire one year ago. But I am now firmly under the impression that it will be an amazing experience.

Some geese are not nice

2008-04-03T10:06:00.005-04:00

For those of you who don't know, I am training for a May half-marathon. I recently bought a nice running watch, and have dedicated 6:30 - 7:30 every morning to running. This morning, I probably looked quite ridiculous. Let me explain:
I was running along Riverway and started approaching two geese. I thought nothing of it since I pass geese all the time. All of the sudden, one of the geese started flying towards me with his beak gaping open. I was stunned, not knowing what to do. The goose proceeded to fly slowly and directly towards my face. I stopped dead in my tracks and became SCARED. As my nemesis approached even closer, I behaved instinctually, not having any time to think things through: I cowered in the face of this bird. Seeing my submission, the goose called off his attack. After somewhat recovering from my spell of terror, I kind of laughed and continued on with my run. Thinking back to the experience, I can just imagine how much entertainment that must have provided someone driving by at that moment.

Good Friday

2008-03-22T08:00:00.004-04:00

I have a confession to make: before this year, I had never heard of the holiday 'Good Friday.' In fact, I hadn't heard of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday or Holy Saturday either. I'm particularly amazed that I had never heard of Good Friday considering how huge it is in mainstream Christianity. Many students and workers throughout the world get the day off. I grew up in an predominately Mormon community which doesn't celebrate this holiday, but shouldn't I have at least heard of it? I mean the stock market isn't even open on this day.
R invited me to a church's Good Friday service in West Newton. It was almost surreal being inside the chapel. Not only did the church have that old look to it, there were candles and the stained glass windows that added to the effect. Walking to the pews, soft music filled my ears. In the dimly lit chapel, I could make out 3 cellos, an oboe, a flute, and a harpsichord. The service was entitled Jeremiah's Lamentations and a man and a woman traded off singing in a foreign language that I thought was either German or Latin. The music was absolutely beautiful. In between songs, the pastor would get up and speak to the congregation. I would like to include some of what he read taken from the book of Isaiah, chapter 53. Pay special attention to the wording as it is not King James Version.

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

The question crossed my mind, 'Why don't we as Mormons join with mainstream Christianity in honoring and revering this special day?' I'm familiar with some of the standard answers. First off, there are a lot of false traditions that detract from coming to Christ. I've heard of weird reenactments of Christ's crucifixion and also overly focusing on Christ's death. But in the United Church of Christ, there was nothing morbid or unpleasant. In fact, it gave me more of an appreciation for what Christ did for humankind.
The second reason we Mormons don't celebrate Good Friday is probably because we like to instead focus on the happy part - the resurrection. While I see the logic in this, I also see several weaknesses: First off, by implying that we don't celebrate all the other holidays in Holy Week in favor of the climactic holiday, Easter, you would think that there would be a climactic celebration. However, my experience is that Easter is just like any other Sunday. So if we are going to say that we don't celebrate Good Friday in favor of celebrating Easter, then when Easter rolls around, we should really celebrate it. Secondly, I think the more often you can be touched by Christ, the better you are. I feel like we wouldn't be worse off as a church if we spent more time thinking about Christ and what He did for us. Thirdly, remembering the death does not mean we have to become too preoccupied with it. Indeed, it can make celebrating the resurrection that much sweeter when we realize that there was a Friday that was necessary for Sunday to come. Leo Tolstoy made the distinction in his later years how one can know if a work of literature is Christian. Whether it be happy or sad, if the work brings you closer Christ, it is Christian. I feel this standard applies to all art. I felt like this service definitely drew me closer to God as I thought about and pondered Christ. Fourthly, overlooking this holiday (and not even knowing what the flipping holiday is) makes us appear less-Christian to others.
In conclusion, I think it would be good to celebrate Good Friday in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church has been making a push lately to stress that it is Christian. Wouldn't celebrating Holy Week help in this regard? Also, wouldn't it help us think about what Christ did for us? I think so.

Mastermind - A Powerful Concept

2008-03-16T00:24:00.002-04:00

In the book Law of Success, Napoleon Hill talks about the concept of creating a 'Master Mind'. Allow Napoleon to explain what a Master Mind is. "A Master Mind may be created through the bringing together or blending, in a spirit of perfect harmony, of two or more minds. Out of this harmonious blending, the chemistry of the mind creates a third mind which may be appropriated and used by one or all of the individual minds." He then focuses the remainder of the book in showing how a Master Mind approach can help achieve goals-whatever they may be. He supports this conclusion mostly with examples from business successes in the early 20th century. But lately I have found that this concept applies in the 21st century as well. My cousin came to visit me from DC, and we actually started talking about John the Baptist around 11:30 PM. This topic quickly turned into how to better pray, study the scriptures, and keep the commandments. I did not expect to be so spiritually uplifted on a Saturday night. But it reinforced the Master Mind concept that when two or more minds come together, something greater than the individual minds is possible. Anyone up for creating a Master Mind?

Daytime cellphone use is down

2008-03-12T11:14:00.002-04:00

I have 7 days left in my cellphone billing month and I've used 24 minutes. That means that on average, I use (21/24 = 0.875) less than a minute a day. Ha! That's kind of funny. Well, don't be fooled that I never talk on the phone. My free minutes start at 7 PM and by being on the east coast, you can get a lot done with such a plan. I'd try and use my phone more during the day, but Sprint = crummy reception at work. 9/10 when people call me it goes straight to my voicemail, and I'm pretty close to a window. You'd think that the reception would be better. Well, my cell phone contract is about to expire and I'm open for suggestions.

I've got that loving feeling

2008-03-11T21:07:00.002-04:00

Today, I made a realization - I realized how much I love the Boston area. It is something that I've been thinking about recently, but now I think I have a better idea of why my love for this area is so strong. Today at work, I realized how much progress I have made in understanding what I do. I knew nothing about mass spectrometry, very little about proteomics, and was an infant in web programming. It is SO exciting to see how much progress I have made. What does this have to do with Boston? I have been surrounded by some of the brightest minds in the country in the field of mass spectrometry. It has been the opportunity of a lifetime to work where I work.

At lunch, we had a pizza talk with Dr. Shoelson from the Joslin Diabetics Center speaking. His presentation focused on a drug that is currently in its first clinical trials that may revolutionize obesity and diabetes in America. I have always been skeptical about quick fixes to big problems, but the data he showed were pretty impressive. I love opportunities of being on the forefront of technology!

On my way to my class at the Harvard extension school, I began observing the students. As I made my way to class, I thought about how some of the world's greatest minds are/have been/will be here. In a minuscule way I am a part of them, I thought. In case I haven't told you about the class I'm taking, it's called Internet and Society: Politics of Change. As you can imagine, we talk about how the internet is changing our society. The professors are top-notch and provide interesting and mind-stimulating conversation. In today's class, we not only talked about the Orange Revolution which happened a few years ago in Ukraine, but also a guest from Ukraine came and spoke about some of his experiences in helping to lead the revolution. He was a member of the alternate news website Maidan, and helped use internet and SMS services to topple the existing and corrupt government. As my class came to a close, I marveled at what a cool class I have. Then I started thinking to myself that there is probably no place like Harvard. I fully acknowledge that there are probably other great establishments out there, I am simply a little biased. I also acknowledge that some of the people here are caught up in themselves, but the opportunity of being in their midst is truly worth it. Is everyone in Boston oozing with intelligence? No, but it is definitely nice to run into smarties moreso than I'm used to.

In conclusion, when I moved out here 10 months ago I had no expectation of what kind of experience I would have. Now I love Boston in a really deep kind of way. That's all I have to say.

A More Spiritual Topic

2008-03-09T16:29:00.004-04:00

Because it's Sunday, I feel like I should blog about a spiritual topic. Before I begin such a topic, allow me to discuss one thing about myself: I love explaining things. Here are some examples that I have entertained recently:

I feel alert because I went for a run.

I like Person X because she is optimistic.

I feel sleepy because I ate tons of sugar.

The world tends to focus on explaining things too.

Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primaries because she cried.

The economy is heading downhill as a result of the subprime lending.

Men are attracted to women because of symmetrical facial features and a .7 hip-to-waist ratio.

Person X is homosexual because of biological factors.

Clearly, the world does not factor into its explanations the spiritual aspect. But I marvel at how much I focus my thoughts on the material, tangible world without thinking about the spiritual. I may make the conclusion that prayer is useful because it helps to clear my mind, and fuel my desires. But if this is all prayer is good for, I might as well pray to a brick. The more complete truth is that prayer invites the Spirit of the Lord into my life. There is no material explanation for this. Nor is there a way to explain today how wonderful today was.

I think back to the car ride to church. We were running late and I was feeling bogged down with an overwhelming array of things that I needed to get done. In a word, I felt CRAPPY. But by the end of the meetings, there was a complete change in me. I could try and explain it a number of ways: I had meaningful interactions with friends, I met up with an old friend, etc. But all the explanations that I could possibly come up with from a purely worldly sense fall short. The missing explanation is that I had the Spirit with me. And with the Spirit, I am a different person.

I feel like the world is very confusing. I am impressed with the intellect of brilliant minds tackling complex issues, and I even want to follow them in their noble pursuit of knowledge. But I am also going to try and recognize the role of God (the Holy Ghost being His manifestation to us) in everyday life.