The First Christmas

As I was sitting in Sacrament meeting today, I decided that I wanted to do a little reading. I pulled out my trusty Palm and fired up the scriptures. I thought, since it's the season, that I would read through the Christmas story in Luke 2. Some of the things that struck me were that it basically goes through Christ's whole childhood in one chapter. Most of the things we know about him growing up are right there. I think having a young child during this time of year makes me much more grateful for Mary and Joseph than I have been previously. If it's stressful for me to raise a child in today's environment, I can't imagine having to raise a child that would be perfect and never sin. I also can't imagine having to see my son crucified at 33 years of age. One of the verses that struck me the most was when Mary saw the things that were happening and "treasured them up in her heart". Being around my wife makes me understand this passage much more than I ever could've before I met her. She is very positive and is always pointing out the wonderful things that our son has done or learned. Just as Mary "treasured" things, I think all mothers treasure everything about their children.
When I had finished Luke 2, I thought about people in other places, and what their Christmas would've been like. I turned to the Book of Mormon and read the first chapter of Third Nephi. In it, it tells of the people who were living in the Americas when Christ was born. There were signs that had been prophesied to happen at the birth of the Saviour. Many believed, but some did not. The non-believers gave the believers a deadline for the signs to occur. When the deadline came, the sign was given that Christ had been born. What a miraculous time to be alive that would have been. I hope that I would have been one of those who held out to the end even under threat of persecution or death. I'm very grateful for those who have been faithful in those times and in our current time.
We are living in a difficult time. Sin and hate abound. I'm grateful that we live in a time when we have a living prophet and the teachings that we need to raise our children righteously.

Ebay

Well, you live and you learn. This week I put an item on eBay. Nothing too special, just an old 100MB switch. I was expecting to get 5 bucks for it, on top of shipping. I put shipping at 7 bucks. No bids for most of the week. Looks like somebody sniped it at the very last second for 1 cent. Now I'm just hoping that I can get it shipped for 7 bucks.

• Life Lesson 1: Always set a reserve price if you're not willing to part with something for less than a certain number.
• Life Lesson 2: Always make sure that you set the shipping price for an item to something that will at least cover your expenses to send the item.
• Life Lesson 3: Your crap isn't worth as much as you think it is.....

This has been a fairly good week as far as weight goes. At least it was until today. Sundays are typically my most difficult days. I think this is because, for the most part, we always go over to either my parent's or my wife's parents for dinner. I also have a hard time not snacking throughout the day when there's some wonderful Football to be watched.

My Fantasy team is doing extremely well. 3-0 so far this year, and looking to secure another win this week against my niece from Las Vegas. Barring a spectacular performance on Monday by Donavan McNabb, I should be golden.

Biggest Loser

Well, I just finished watching "Biggest Loser" tonight on TV while my wife was doing her church calling. It's pretty amazing the effort that those people can put forth. I've been trying to lose some weight, but it's been difficult. I'm down significantly from what I was when I first met my wife, but as you can tell if you've seen any recent pictures, I still have a lot to lose. One of the best moments of the show tonight was when one team won a challenge and won the opportunity to call their family. Really made me reflect on what's important in life. As long as I can be healthy and happy and have my family there with me, nothing else really matters.

Long time....

It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. Quite a bit has happened, too. In December, I graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Computer Science. I graduated Cum Laude, which is pretty good all things considered. In November or sometime around there, I got a new job at the same place I had been working. It's in a different department, and it will be interesting to see how things turn out. I started working full time towards the end of December, and have been working ever since. In February, I bought a house. It's a 5 bedroom, 2 bath house that's about 5 years old. It's fairly nice. I also bought an Onkyo theatre system and a 51" Toshiba HDTV. That's been enjoyable, but I've been trying to spend a little more time reading and riding my exercise bike, so I haven't watched it as much as I would've thought. I was in Salt Lake to see some friends this weekend, and bought several books, an Italian cookbook, 2 South Beach diet books, and 2 computer hacker type books. One was the latest book from Kevin Mitnick, "The Art of Intrusion". It's been interesting, but I feel that some of these "hackers" weren't quite as savvy as some people would believe. Shame they can't focus on something positive.

Bourne Supremacy

Tonight I went and saw the Bourne Supremacy with a couple of friends. The Bourne Identity had been one of my favorite movies in the last several years, so my hopes for this film were incredibly high. Also, I have never read the books, so I'm not sure how faithful either of the movies have been to the plot. However, from a purely theatrical standpoint, I was fairly impressed by the latest film in the Bourne series. The acting was fairly good. Matt Damon was very impressive as Jason Bourne and was well supported by many actors, some of whom returned from the first film. The plot is incredible. It took me quite a while to figure out exactly who did what and where it was going to end. On the other hand, the car chases which I loved in the first movie were filmed much differently in this movie. It seemed as if the camera was not on a fixed platform, with the camera moving in random directions and seemingly having a hard time keeping track of what it was shooting. I understand that they would like to have the perception of a bumpy car chase, but it was very overdone. It seemed to have similar problems in some of the fight scenes, which were also very enjoyable in the first film with clean, deliberate motions that you would expect from someone as well trained as Bourne. Definitely worth seeing if you liked the first one, but the jury is still out for me on owning it when it comes to video. I probably will, though, just so that I can have the whole series.

Great Hackers

Great Hackers
This article has an interesting prospective on what kind of programmers should be classified as great hackers, how to find a great hacker if you are running a business, and the differences between normal programmers and great hackers. I thought this article had some particularly good information, and used the term hacker in a more pleasant light. Many articles use the word hacker for a destructive virus writer or somebody who steals information. I prefer to think of a hacker as somebody who enjoys learning about computers and who has a natural ability to make them do amazing things. It's also interesting that it talks about how nobody can really tell if they themselves are a great hacker, since they very rarely have anybody to compare themselves to. Great article, gives you something to think about in regards to you and your co-workers.

Vacation

This weekend until Tuesday, I went to visit my brother in Oregon. It was quite enjoyable. I stayed at his house, helped him out in his restaurant a little, and did some touristy things. I went and visited the Pendleton Underground which is a bunch of old abandoned underground connected basements. Among the stops on the tour are a Prohibition Era speakeasy, an ice cream parlor's production facility, an ice making tub, and a brothel which had been bricked up for over 30 years. It was pretty interesting, and the tour guide had some interesting stories for us. It was a long drive home, since I didn't have much to look forward to since everybody else would still be on vacation.

New Software Additions

Tonight I installed Apache 2.0.50, PHP 5.0, MySQL 4.0,
MySQL Admin, MySQL CC, phpMyAdmin, tested the MySQL
connections, and generally got my laptop ready to be a webserver for anything I decide that I want to have around. I think I will use it mostly for having some things like a blog that I can carry around and have handy at all times so that I can keep sort of an online journal of my doings, and upload it whenever I get in the mood, or get near a wifi spot or something. Anyhow, the installation was mostly painless, although I really should document how I do things so that I can repeat them without relearning the hard parts. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

Dell Home Systems Axim X30

Dell Home Systems Axim X30
This is what I'm considering for my next hardware purchase. It's very tempting to get a wireless device that would be able to go everywhere with me, and would be much less conspicuous in the classroom. It seems to me that laptops have not gotten the acceptance that I thought they would, even in the college atmosphere. At 237 dollars, I think the price is right on this little piece of hardware. The only thing that I've seen from the Palm OS side that I have been impressed with lately is a Sony Clie TH-55 that a co-worker has, and the price is roughly double what Dell is selling for. Hopefully I can afford to get one of these in the next month or two.

First Post

Well, this is an interesting new idea. I hope it is kind of fun for me, and also for any friends and family who care to listen while I use the internet to talk about my hobbies and my life.