Something smells really good right now

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Like Usher