19 Years of School Down...

2010-12-12T23:07:00.004-05:00

i like this alot, hope u think so too

2010-11-20T12:06:00.004-05:00

The Alot is Better Than You at Everything

Fall in Princeton

2010-10-21T08:34:00.002-04:00

Incredible colors. Incredible weather.

Friday Night

2010-10-08T22:35:00.002-04:00

A lot of statistics homework.
A jar of applesauce.
A bag of pretzels.
An episode of 30 Rock and The Office.

Nearly perfect start to the weekend. Or not.

I should work for the CIA

2010-09-22T16:52:00.003-04:00

The wireless internet here in my apartment is often sketchy. So today I was having trouble connecting at all. I looked at the list of other available wireless networks and noticed that my neighbor has taken the proactive step of getting her own wireless router and plugging it into the wall so that she doesn't have to rely on the university provided wireless network that is so bad. I on the other hand am too cheap to go and buy my own router and therefore have been plagued with patch internet service. Of course, I would like to connect to my neighbor's and take advantage of her responsible nature. However, the network is password protected.

Here's where the title of this post comes in. I successfully guessed her password on the first attempt! Admittedly, "princeton" is not a very creative password when the network requires the password to be 8 characters or more. But you've got to hand it to me for either incredible luck or incredible deftness as cracking passwords. I'm going to assume the latter.

I think I'll try my luck at wellsfargo.com for the rest of the afternoon.

Version 2.0

2010-09-11T23:37:00.002-04:00

The blog is back! My 3-4 semi-regular readers inquired over the summer as to why my blog was lying dormant on the internet. My response was that posting on this blog is correlated with how exciting my life is. Definitely correlated, but negatively so.

Well it's been several months since I last put something up here. I figured it was time to give the entire page a new look as it is the start of a new year. Note that (although slowly), the countdown in the title is getting closer to zero.

School is starting up. The summer was wonderful. I am officially a second year. My new apartment is fantastic and a huge upgrade from my dorm. I proudly display my microwave without any fear of repercussions. And I have a new job at church. I am in charge of the 11 year old scouts. Sadly, I threw away my scout uniform several years ago, along with my manual, so I'm starting fresh. My mother was quick to point me to a video that I think I have posted here before. However, this time as I watched it I laughed even harder as it's become even more apropos. Enjoy!

:58 takes on a whole new meaning.

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

Spring Break and Karma

2010-03-22T20:40:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm back from another wonderful break. This week in Utah was better than ever. I had a fantastic time visiting good friends, seeing my family, running a half marathon, and generally not thinking about school. So I'm back now, and there are only 6 weeks left in the semester, but who's counting...

Anyway, the trip back to NJ was in my mind an act of Karma. As my loyal reader knows, I've not always had the best luck flying back and forth across the country. Late flights, late trains, trees falling on top of my train, drunk people sitting next to me on the trains, and an especially difficult time with Southwest's voucher program have significantly jaded my opinion of traveling in general. Well this most recent flight has definitely helped improve my outlook. I was supposed to fly out Sunday evening from SLC to Newark. While waiting for my flight the gate agent announced that the flight was overbooked. Like Pavlov's dog, I am trained to immediately go to the gate when I hear these type of announcements even before I know what exactly they are offering. Better to be at the desk and then find out if the deal is worth taking. Well this one was too good to pass up. I volunteered to give up my seat and fly Monday morning into JFK instead of Newark. This meant I would have to miss one of my classes. But in return I was upgraded to first class and given a $600 voucher to use on any Delta flight. This time I will make sure not to lose the paper they printed the voucher on.

Finally, I should note that this was the first time I had ever flown first class. This is how flying was meant to be. I don't think I'll ever be able to fly coach again. Knowing what goes on in front of that curtain and knowing that I am not being given such treatment will be too much to bear.

BABY BOY

2010-03-08T11:37:00.002-05:00

My brother and his wife just found out they are having a baby boy! Here are my recommendations for choosing a name.

1. No names that end in "-er" "-or" "-ar". Just think about having to say Trevor Barber, Parker Barber, Connor Barber. Too many "er"s.

2. Before thinking that spelling a name "creatively" is a good thing, consider that your son will have to correct every school teacher he will have for the rest of his life. Spare him that trouble.

3. Before deciding for sure, tell several middle school children the name. See how many ways they can make fun of that name. Any more than 3 and you should reassess.

4. No names that could possibly be considered a girl's name. Think of the young boy's self esteem...and those middle schoolers.

A QUOTE

2010-03-07T22:30:00.003-05:00

This comes from an article I am reading for my American political institutions seminar. "Anyone able to visualize a ten-dimensional matrix can readily see that each player's dominant strategy is not to pay..."

Of course, I had a bit of trouble visualizing a ten-dimensional matrix, and thus I did not readily see the author's conclusion.

ASSORTED ITEMS

2010-02-28T20:32:00.004-05:00

None of these events/thoughts deserves its own post, but together they are worthy.

Countdown to spring break. Two weeks until the break. It has been so snowy, cold, wet, and busy. I'm definitely ready to leave for a week. Granted I'm going to Utah, which will likely also be cold, snowy and wet, but when you add the Wasatch Mountains to that equation what was a negative becomes an extreme positive. I can't wait to get in some backcountry skiing.
Half marathon fast approaches. During the break I will be running a half marathon with my sister and uncle in Moab, UT. I've been training, but these next two weeks will be critical to success. Unfortunately this is also midterm season, so balancing the two will be interesting.
If you look back a few posts, you'll notice that I've upgraded my desk by adding a big new monitor. One of my favorite distractions from school work is to search for pictures of places I've been that would also make good desktop backgrounds. Below are some of the pictures I've found. I didn't take any of them (the only camera I own is attached to my phone), but I enjoy them nonetheless as they invoke memories of fun times hiking, camping, skiing, rappelling, climbing, etc.

(I don't know why it appears to be snowing in all of these pictures.)

PARKING

2010-02-20T10:10:00.002-05:00

One of the many reasons to love Princeton University is the parking policies. My only other experience with university parking is at BYU. Let me create a hypothetical situation that perfectly describes BYU and their parking. A young man drives onto campus in a hurry to pick up his wife who has just gone into labor. He stops at the gate and relates the story to the parking guard who protects the most sacred of roads in Utah, Campus Drive, which loops the inner campus. You cannot drive on this road unless you have a faculty parking pass or are driving a university vehicle. To keep this road free of the riffraff, there are two parking guard stations with gates at either end of campus. As the man hurriedly asks the guard to lift the gate so that he can pick up his wife and rush her to the hospital, the guard stoically tells the man that without a pass he cannot let him past. But if he would like he can park in a student parking stall approximately 2 miles away behind the Marriott Center in the next county over. The man pleads with the guard, but he refuses to relent, so the man quickly pulls into the nearest spot, a 15 minute temporary spot, and rushes to get his wife. They come back to the car 16 minutes later to find that the car has been ticketed by one of what seems to be thousands of turncoat students who are employed by the parking office to constantly patrol the lots surrounding campus. The husband accepts the ticket knowing that appealing the ticket is as fruitless as trying to get past the guard at the gate.

Compare this to my recent experience parking at Princeton. I had just dropped a friend off at the train station and it was 3pm. The lot next to my building is open to students at the incredibly early hour of 5pm. I didn't want to have to drive home and park at the dorms and walk 20 minutes across campus to work for an hour to turn around and walk another 20 minutes, so I parked in the lot 2 hours early with the expectation that I would likely get a ticket. When I got to my office I related the situation to several students who responded that I would not get a ticket because Princeton issues a warning the first time you violate campus parking policies. This was great news to me. Furthermore, I was informed that if you simply call the parking office, they will frequently let you park in the faculty spots if you have a semi-decent reason. And they're pretty liberal with their reasons; "I didn't want to have to walk back across campus" worked for one of my friends. Anyway, I parked, I worked, I returned to my car to find it free and clear. Having a place to park is such a small thing, but at the same time it feels oh so great to pull up right next to the building on a freezing cold afternoon in mid February.

NERD ALERT

2010-02-19T09:29:00.003-05:00

You know you are a true nerd when the highlight of the week is your double monitor setup at work. I ordered a new monitor for my desk so that I could have more statistics programs open at the same time. When it came it was like Christmas Day. I went in that night to set it up and then gazed in complete satisfaction at my multimedia masterpiece.

This is pretty much where I live all day and night. Occasionally I go back to my dorm room to sleep.

FCINO

2010-02-12T08:27:00.002-05:00

This is one of the strangest political ads I've ever seen. It's for a race in California, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given the way the government works there. Anyway, have a look.

OH ACADEMIA

2010-01-15T14:37:00.002-05:00

I get a lot of e-mails from the university. Many of them advertise conferences that are going on in the region. Often they are asking people to submit papers for presenting at the conference. This one made me laugh:

Annual Graduate Student Conference April 9-10, 2010

*Call for Papers*

'Uselessness' explores conceptions of utility and value as they have been theorized and deployed within the domains of art, science, and the everyday. What is the useless? .... Encompassing topics from a wide range of disciplines, ‘uselessness’ presents a broad problematic of life, work, meaning, and value. We invite proposals for 15-20 minute presentations that address these issues through any medium

My first thought was to submit a paper or dramatic reading about the uselessness of the 'uselessness' conference.

UPDATE

2010-01-15T14:25:00.003-05:00

Forgive me, loyal reader. I've been absent from the blog for some time now. This is because excitement in my life and level of blogging are inversely related. And the last month has been simply wonderful. Classes wrapped up on December 19th and I quickly left town and flew to Spokane. Quite a journey to get there (a tree landed on my train causing me to miss my flight at the airport), but it was worth the effort. Aside: I seem to have the worst luck with the NJ Transit system. I mean, how often do trees fall on moving trains? Not often I would guess. Anyway, the day after I arrived in Spokane my sister Christie married her fiance Ryan. The wedding, reception, and fellow company were all wonderful. We had a great time partying at the Davenport Hotel into the late night (about 10pm).

Christmas was great and soon after I went to Utah to celebrate New Years. I had so much fun seeing old roommates and friends. Skiing was a must, and the snow was excellent.

After a week in Utah I came back to NJ to take finals. Princeton is the only university that I know of that maintains high school style semesters. So I spent a good portion of the break writing papers, doing a take-home final, and studying for two other finals, but it was nice to have all that time to prepare. Anyway, I've just finished my last final and now I'm free of responsibilities for 2 weeks. As you've probably inferred from previous posting, my first order of business is to get out of town. So today I'm heading into NYC for a great weekend with friends and Monday I fly back to Utah for more time in the mountains. Anyway, that's what's going on here.

THANK YOU MAX WEINBERG

2009-12-16T16:15:00.002-05:00

If you look 4 posts ago, you will see that US Senator from Utah Orrin Hatch, a Mormon, recently wrote a Hanukkah song as a holiday gift to the Jewish community. Max Weinberg of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, a Jew, has returned the favor to the Mormons. Speaking as one of many Mormons, thanks Max.

I HATE AT&T

2009-12-14T21:25:00.002-05:00

Somewhere in the fine print of AT&T contracts is the following statement:

For every 10 minutes of talking there will be at least 1 time when you will lose service and drop the call for no apparent reason.

AT&T has exceeded expectations in this part of their contract. Rumor has it that the iPhone will be available on Verizon next summer. I will be the first in line.

PAPER WRITING

2009-12-12T13:08:00.003-05:00

Two posts in one day? What's going on? I have a paper to write, and so of course posting on this blog is an easy way to procrastinate and kill a few minutes. But, I am happy to report that the paper is moving along. I have 20 pages of paper to fill with information regarding voter turnout. I've written papers of this length before, but they are usually filled with research designs, experimental findings, and lots of tables and graphs. (Even academics have an affinity for pictures in their books and articles). However, this paper will contain none of those things. Thus, 20 pages seems particularly daunting this time around. So I am going to keep you (my 3 faithful readers) updated as to my progress. I'm going to update my google chat status with a completed pages/total pages as I go along as well as future posts on my blog. I have until January 12th to finish this behemoth, but I am hoping to get most of it done before the end of the month.

2.5/20

WHAT IF GOVERNMENT RAN HEALTH CARE?

2009-12-12T11:36:00.002-05:00

I'm sure you've all seen one of those Sprint Mobile ads that considers the possibility of some rough and tough group managing the world. You know, "What if truckers ran the world." etc etc. Here's an amusing example:

I had a good laugh at this spoof.

MAZEL TOV SENATOR HATCH

2009-12-10T09:15:00.004-05:00

You wouldn't think it, but the Mormon senior senator from Utah, Orrin Hatch, is also an avid song writer. He writes and perfoms mostly patriotic and Mormon themed music and has actually produced a CD of original music. Click HERE to listen to "Heal our Land" which was performed at the innauguration of President George H. W. Bush.

Being 75 years old, one might think that Senator Hatch's vibrant music career is coming to a close. On the contrary. He's recently produced this sure-fire hit: "Eight Days of Hanukkah". Who knew that this elderly Mormon from Utah had such an affinity for Jews. The NY Times quotes him today saying, "I feel sorry I'm not Jewish sometimes." Well, have a look at the video and tell me this man doesn't deserve an honorary barmitzfa.

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Oh, and I also loved this line from the Times article. Referring to Hatch's love of Barbara Streisand, one of America's most famous Jews, the Times writes:

"He said his ultimate goal would be for his idol, Ms. Streisand, to perform one of his songs. “It would be good for her and good for me,” Mr. Hatch said, while acknowledging that given her outspoken liberalism, that union might require another miracle."

Now that would be bipartisanship at its best.

TWILIGHT (YEARS)

2009-12-07T20:03:00.003-05:00

I've not seen the new Twilight movie and have no plans to see it. I was tricked into watching the first one on a plane while flying across the country. After 1/2 hour of watching I determined that staring at the seat in front of me was a better use of my time. However, I recently came across this incredibly funny video made by several members of the LDS singles ward in Manhattan. It's a trailer for a similar movie "Twilight Years." Watch and laugh.

Twilight Years.

Op-Ed of Interest

2009-11-30T18:16:00.004-05:00

This is an op-ed piece written by a good friend of mine that appeared in the USA Today today.

Click Here

HAPPY TO BE AVERAGE

2009-11-23T18:29:00.004-05:00

This week is going to be fantastic. I'm leaving town today to enjoy an incredible and incredibly extended Thanksgiving weekend in Utah where I will see and enjoy friends, family, excellent food and skiing. And if that wasn't enough, I've started the week with great news. Here it is.

The past few weeks have been filled with midterm exams. I took three, and up until today, the two I had received back with grades were dismal. I'm talking about really bad scores that I've never seen before. I wouldn't be upset by a low score if the average was also low. Thank you to Dr. Jay Goodliffe at BYU for teaching me about classes with very low scores AND correspondingly low averages. However, in both cases I was well below the average. So today I got my third midterm back. The verdict: perfectly average, perhaps even slightly above! I stress slightly though. That would be good news by itself, but to add to it, I discovered that on one of my other exams the professor missed an entire page of my exam. I showed this to her and she regraded it with an 11 point upgrade. Where did that bump me up to? THE AVERAGE! I've never been so happy to know that I was perfectly average. I figure in the company I spend most of the day with, average is pretty darn good, i.e. complements to my cohort because they are all incredibly intelligent.

But enough of the school junk. I'm out of here for the mountains!

FUNNY, YET SOMEHOW RINGS TRUE

2009-11-21T00:27:00.002-05:00

We all had a good laugh at this video.

SOLICITING YOUR OPINION

2009-11-15T22:38:00.002-05:00

In an effort to cut costs I have decided to downsize my cell phone plan. I currently have 900 anytime minutes plus unlimited nights and weekends. I never use all 900 minutes. The most I've ever used was this September when I burned up 722 weekday minutes calling every person I knew to help keep me company after the big move to NJ. The month after that I only used 413 and this month I've only used 157. (My plan renews every 28th of the month.) Because of this I have accumulated over 4000 rollover minutes.

My first thought was to downsize to a plan that had around 600 minutes. However, there is only one other available plan and it has 450 anytime minutes. That would be fine with my large mountain of rollover minutes. However, if you downsize, you lose all of your minutes except the number equal to the new amount of minutes you have for each month. (i.e. I would lose all but 450 of my rollover minutes.) I'm still thinking this is a good idea since I rarely go over 450 and if I do, 450 rollover minutes would be plenty to cover it. I would also likely keep building up a few minutes every month, and it saves me $20 per month!

However, I am reluctant to give up what is rightfully mine. So the most logical thing to do before changing plans is to use all 4000 extra minutes this month. Eat that AT&T. Why do I get such pleasure out of this idea? That's roughly 66 hours of talking. So I'm asking for your advice about who I should call for 66 hours. There must be some great good I can do with such an astounding resource. Aren't there charities that get money based on how long people are on the phone with them? Is there some company you despise that you want their phone line to be occupied for an entire week (Southwest Airlines)? Anyway, submit your suggestions quickly as I need to start talking (letting the phone run on) ASAP.

P.S. The person cannot be an AT&T customer as I have free mobile-to-mobile minutes.

THE LAST FEW WEEKS

2009-11-14T14:04:00.007-05:00

A lot has gone on in the last few weeks. I've had a great time traveling around visiting friends and family. Unfortunately I don't have a lot (and by a lot I mean any) pictures of my latest activities; nevertheless, here's what's been going on.

1. Boston.
I traveled up to Boston for the biannual Mormon young single adults education conference. The conference theme was innovating ways to share the gospel. The keynote speakers were Elder Ballard (Quorum of the 12 Apostles), David Neeleman (JetBlue CEO), and Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School professor). The weekend was fantastic. In addition to the speakers, there was an incredible Halloween masquerade ball in the very classy Harvard Club. My friend Kaeli has an excellent description of the event with pictures to boot. Check it out here.

2. Spokane.
Leaving from Boston, I flew to Spokane to spend the week of fall break with my family. It was so nice to be home with my siblings and parents. My brother, his wife, and my sister Nicole drove up from Provo to be there for the weekend. We all came together to celebrate my sister Christie's upcoming wedding. Saturday morning Christie went to the temple for the first time and received her Endowment. (For an explanation of Mormon temples and temple ordinances, go here). That night was her wedding shower. I did not attend, nor was I invited, but my brother and I did send a very matronly looking pair of shorts along as a gift.

3. Philadelphia.
After getting back from Spokane I traveled a few miles down the road to Philadelphia. Several of my friends from BYU were in town to attend a Public Health conference. It was great to see familiar faces and to spend a great evening talking about our plans for the future. Its fun to see all of us begin to focus in on our lives and careers whereas as undergraduates we were so lost as to where we would be in even 5 years.

In between each of these trips was plenty of school, including several midterms. I'll spare you the self loathing; suffice it to say that exams are much more difficult here than at BYU. Luckily, I don't have to go through that again until mid-January. Anyway, things are pretty much back to their regular routine, but I'm anxiously looking forward to going to SLC for the week of Thanksgiving.

2009-10-27T23:18:00.002-04:00

I've never had such a terrible time booking a flight in my life. I suppose I should expect it to be rough since I am trying to fly out of the country's largest airport at the busiest time of the year. Nevertheless, I venture to say that it is bad business to do any of the following:

- Advertise flights that do not in fact exist. As you can imagine, booking imaginary flights is difficult.

- Change the price of flights every five minutes. I'm not kidding. One flight had 3 different prices ranging from $113 to over $500. This makes finding the least expensive flight a crap shoot.

- Advertise flights that are actually completely booked even though your website says "3 seats remaining at this price"

In addition to this, I also question who is in charge of pricing seats for airlines. How is it that a flight on a Saturday can be less than 300 dollars and the same flight on a Sunday is more than 600 dollars? Demand can't possibly change that dramatically over a 24 hour period.

Nevertheless, I prevailed in booking a flight for Thanksgiving week. I arrive in Salt Lake Tuesday before lunch and leave Saturday night at midnight to arrive at JFK early Sunday morning. I'm extremely excited to go and plan to maximize my time with all of my favorite things (I may have sounded like Oprah there), which are, in no particular order:

My family
Utah
Skiing
Old roomates
Mountains
Streets that follow a grid (or any) pattern
Little America Hotel
KSL Weather Forecasts
My old couch and high definition television

I plan to savor all of them.

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

2009-10-24T00:43:00.005-04:00

Tonight at dinner I saw my friend Christian who also graduated from BYU. Christian is in the economics department here and is also a first year grad student. One of the rumors floating around among students is that John Nash (A Beautiful Mind, Nash Equilibrium) regularly eats at the Frist Campus Center. Well Christian saw him there at lunch today. He snapped a picture with his cell phone, and lo and behold, that's John Nash. Aparently he has an office in the mathmatics department that is just down the road from my office. So after dinner I decided that I would watch the movie based on his life. It was fun to see all of the locations on campus that I have become familiar with in the movie. The faculty dining room where he receives the pens of all of his colleagues is actually the common room of one of the undergraduate colleges. There are several scenes that take place in places that I walk through to get to my office every day.

(Guess which one is the real John Nash)

Moreover, it is incredible to think that the guy that developed a concept that is key to several of the classes I am going to be taking is wandering around campus is incredible. Even further, I am constantly amazed at how many people here really have developed foundational ideas that are critical to the study of political science. I'm doing a presentation next Monday for my political behavior class and one of the articles that we are going to discuss really sets the stage for the modern study of political behavior. And what do you know, the guy who wrote it is sitting down the hall from me. Pretty cool when you stop to think about it.

UNABASHED SELF PROMOTION

2009-10-22T19:28:00.003-04:00

I'm learning quickly that it is quite easy to become overwhelmed as a grad student. I look at the work and deadlines I have each week, and I don't feel like I should be stressed, but nevertheless I've felt that way this week. It could be because my first midterms as a Princeton student are right around the corner. It could also be that everyone around me seems overwhelmed and stressed and so I unconsciously think I should be freaking out as well. It could also be that I should genuinely be stressed with the amount of work and high standard faculty have of students here. Anyway, enough of the self pity. To counteract this malaise, I've made sure to keep time in my schedule for running. Its one activity that graduate school can't suck the fun out of. In addition its very easy to get fat as a graduate student. I've heard many stories about people starting grad school, spending all day and night in a small office with no windows, eating lots of pizza, and getting very large. Thus far, I've done a pretty good job of running regularly. I plan to run in a marathon sometime during the summer of 2010 and be well trained for it, unlike my last marathon which I was definitely not adequately prepared for (nevertheless I finished). That being said, I've been keeping my weekly mileage pretty constant and plan to maintain this until well into the winter when I can start to crank up the distance in preparation for the summer. So tonight I ran 6.5 miles around town and managed to maintain a 7:30 pace. I'm pretty pleased with that and thought I would share my success with my faithful reader.

LAUNDRY DAY

2009-10-18T17:11:00.002-04:00

I did my laundry today. It took every ounce of self control I posses to not hang all of my clothes on the artwork, even though it was raining.

ACTUAL EMAIL RECEIVED FROM COLLEGE HOUSING

2009-10-12T22:23:00.003-04:00

Subject: Do not hang your laundry on the artwork

Dear Residents:

It has come to my attention that residents have gotten into the practice of hanging their wet laundry all over the sculpture on the East side of the New Graduate College. This is a reminder that this is not allowed and nothing (including laundry) should be put on any of the pieces of art that inhabit the areas around the Graduate College.

Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

Olivia

Who can blame us? We're poor. We don't want to pay to use the driers, and the sculpture in question really does resemble a broken clothesline.

THERE AND BACK AGAIN

2009-10-10T23:24:00.009-04:00

Today I went into the office early to get some homework done. Its amazing how easily I get distracted. Needless to say, I didn't get much homework done. After a few hours of that, I decided I would go for a bike ride. The weather prohibited going earlier but by the afternoon the sky was clear and the air was crisp. Perfect for a fall ride. I had mapped out a route the night before and planned on riding about 25 miles into the countryside north and west of town. I wanted to make it all the way to Pennsylvania, which is actually not that far from here. Well I made it. The picture below shows the Delaware River. That's right, you're looking at Pennsylvania. It looks like a pretty crazy place. This photo is about 1 mile north of where George Washington crossed the very same river a few years earlier.

It tuns out that this bridge is a little further than I had anticipated. Its actually about 20 miles from Princeton, which meant I had 20 miles of backtracking and only about 1 hour of daylight remaining. My advanced math skills told me I would have to ride pretty fast to get home before it got dark. I didn't make it. The last 5 or 6 miles were a little precarious as I rode home in the dark on a pretty busy road coming into Princeton. Moreover, I hadn't eaten much prior to leaving since the dining halls are closed on Saturdays so when I got home I had that feeling where any type of food sounds extremely good. (Think fast Sunday with a 10K thrown in.) The moment I got home I devoured an interesting assortment of snack foods. Dinner consisted of 2 small bags of Doritos and Fritos, several Tootsie Rolls, a bunch of Jujyfruits, some peanuts, beef jerkey, pretzels with peanut butter, and a cup of hot chocolate. About an hour later I had the opposite feeling. Every type of food sounded repulsive.

BARF

2009-10-09T10:16:00.007-04:00

I admit, he is a very smart man with great ambition to do a lot of good things that I agree with. But really, there's no one else in the world that is more deserving? Obama has decades of diplomatic potential left, why not wait to see if he can actually deliver the goods? I think SNL would agree with me on this one.

Its amusing that these two pieces came out within days of each other. I have to say I'm with Lorne Michaels.

MY FIGHT AGAINST CORPORATE AMERICA

2009-10-08T22:37:00.006-04:00

Last summer I flew from Utah to Seattle for a friend's wedding. The returning flight was overbooked and since I had nothing scheduled for the next day, I volunteered to get bumped. This meant that I became the proud owner of a $350 travel voucher that is good for any Southwest flight during the next year. I plan on using this voucher to help pay for my flight back to Spokane for my sister's wedding and Christmas. However, I have encountered a small obstacle. For some reason Southwest claims to keep no record of the voucher number and accompanying security code. I know this because in the process of moving from Utah to New Jersey I have lost the credit card sized slip of paper that has both of those number written on it. I thought I would lose it, which is why I emailed myself the voucher number soon after getting back to Utah in July. However, at the time I didn't realize that the security code was also necessary.

I've called Southwest twice and both times been told that they don't keep a record of the numbers and therefore cannot help me. I know this is false. How could I type in the numbers online and receive credit for the voucher if there wasn't some sort of record floating around on their system somewhere? The real reason is that they know that a good number of people like me will lose the tiny shard of paper and be unable to claim what is rightfully theirs. I refuse to allow this corporate giant to prevail.

So here's where I currently stand. I have the voucher number from my email. I don't have the security code. However, I know that it is a 4 digit number. That means there are a mere 10,000 possible numbers that it could be. And, unlike many bank websites, southwest.com doesn't boot you from the site if you type in the wrong security code after 4 or 5 attempts. So what is the next logical step. Of course, try every possible number. Now, any economist reading this would be likely to suggest I review the principles of opportunity cost. I reply that this is now about much more than money. Its about beating the man, and nothing is going to be more satisfying than when I get that number.

I'm currently 1000 numbers into the series and have yet to find the right combination. It takes about 20 minutes to type 100 numbers and I keep a spreadsheet with all the numbers I've tried. Lucky for me I live in Princeton, New Jersey where there is absolutely nothing to do, so typing numbers while listening to music for an hour each evening is actually more exciting than the available alternatives. I figure at 200 per day I have a 50% probability of getting the right number in 25 days. As long as I finish with enough time to book the flight before Christmas I'm set. So I will periodically keep my reader updated as to my progress on the "Southwest Problem", and expect a big post when that fated day of victory arrives. I'm hoping its sometime before Halloween, but as luck would have it, it will probably be the last number I type.

LIFE AS A FUGITIVE...PART II

2009-10-06T22:14:00.008-04:00

My loyal blog reader will know what the title of this post refers to. However, for the other person that has recently slipped into a lonely and depressing period in their life, er... I mean started to read my blog, I will explain. An earlier post in August discussed the strange appliance rules imposed by the housing czars at the Graduate College. On the list of unapproved appliances is an assortment of water kettles, a multitude of lamps, candles or candle warmers, and microwaves of any sort. However, I chose to press my luck by owning a microwave. Actually, I bought it prior to knowing many of these electrical policies. And what choice was I given since I was expected to live here for 3 weeks without any kitchen or open cafeteria. Given these circumstances, I kept the microwave and hid it under my bed so that if I were subject to an unannounced dorm inspection I might have a chance of avoiding the law on this one.

So despite my disbelief that people here really have nothing better to do (...like cleaning my shared bathroom which needs a good bleaching) than go door to door looking for contraband water kettles and candles, I came home to find I had been the subject of a search. A small paper was left on my desk informing me that a person had entered my room and I would be receiving an e-mail in the next 5 days informing me of the results of the search. Adrenaline rushed through my body as I quickly turned around to see if the inspector had discovered my secret microwave. It was still there, and I had made my bed in the morning so as to cover the gap between the floor and the bed frame where the microwave resides. (I've never made my bed regularly in my life except for now, and the main reason is to hide the evidence of the microwave.) However, I noticed that the cord was slightly exposed at the end of the bed. Had I been careless with the cord? Was I going to receive an angry e-mail threatening confiscation, fines, expulsion, jail time, court fees...? Should I abandon my education and flee to Mexico, or maybe Belize? I hear they don't extradite prisoners there and the local universities can't be that bad.

A few hours later I went to dinner and asked my friends if they were also under investigation. Turns out the gestapo was in full force today as several of them had also received a notice. One girl had the same experience last week. She and her roommates (she lives in a four person suite) were the owners of three unapproved water kettles. Notice I say "were". It turns out that if the secret police find something they don't like they immediately take it with them. Somewhere on campus there must be a large room full of all sorts of kitchen fare. Or perhaps some Princeton official has a kitchen counter lined with hundreds of water kettles and candle warmers. Anyway, according to my friend, the promised e-mail is then sent to inform you of the $50 fine they are assessing you through your student account. Incidentally, she and her roommates must collectively pay $150. I was elated; not that she had to fork over $50, but that I was likely not going to have to transfer my credits to the University of Belize. Assuming that since my lovely microwave is still in my room, I must have escaped the eyes of my local appliance inspector. But until I have the all clear from the forthcoming e-mail, I think I'll start looking into whether or not UofB accepts credits from Princeton.

SOCIAL LIFE MARGINALLY DAMAGED, BUT...

2009-10-03T00:20:00.002-04:00

12:20 Friday night/Saturday morning. Real analysis problem set finished! Take that math, I will not allow you to ruin a good Saturday or Sunday. Bring on the Conference.

MY FAMILY TO A 'T'

2009-10-02T21:59:00.005-04:00

This is such a perfect description. And I have no shame in embracing and perpetuating the stereotype. Just change SUV to minivan.

Click Here

TO MARYANNE:

2009-10-02T21:32:00.000-04:00

Shout Out.

SNL ON NEW JERSEY

2009-09-30T17:19:00.004-04:00

Saturday Night Live featured their David Patterson character this week on Weekend Update. David Patterson is the governor of New York who also happens to be legally blind. The sketch is basically several minutes of the Governor making fun of New Jersey. Living here made this quite a bit funnier. The video is displayed below (skip to 7:50 to get to the specific sketch).

CAREER CHOICES SLIGHTLY MORE LIMITED AFTER THIS WEEKEND

2009-09-26T17:25:00.006-04:00

I can safely say that there is no way I will ever captain a shrimp boat with Forrest Gump, or work on one of those ships in the TV show "Deadliest Catch", or anything else having to do with the ocean and boats. Allow me to explain. But first a shout out to the two people who are now "following" this blog. My loyal friends I promise not to disappoint by providing mildly entertaining stories of my life.

My good friends from Spokane, Ben and Aarow Eastham invited me to come with them on a fishing trip in Asbury Park, NJ. Ben is doing medical school at UW in Seattle and they were out in NJ this week visiting Aarow's family. I agreed to come along on the trip and expected a great time. Let's first say that the image I had in my mind was not the same as reality. There are only three other times that I can remember being on a boat in some sort of salty water: Bremerton to Seattle ferry through the Puget Sound, Staten Island Ferry through New York Harbor, and a party boat in Puerto Vallarta that took several BYU students snorkeling in Bahia de las Banderas. I had never noticed before, but these are all quite protected areas, meaning the waves don't get that big. This will be important to note later in the story.

We boarded the boat at about 7pm and found our spots near the back. The boat is 120 feet long and has fishing rods lining the edge from the front to the back. People continued to trickle in until there were about 50 passengers and 10 crew. This was a rough crowd. The phrase curse like a sailor is absolutely true. I'm surprised we also don't use phrases like drink, smoke and smell like a sailor in our conversations because they would be equally true. The picture below shows some of the people we rode with. You can probably guess that the girl in the center was not completely sure what her boyfriend, shown at left, was getting her into. The other picture shows the chum that they throw overboard to attract fish. It is made of pieces of other fish.

The boat left at about 8 and we cruised due east for about an hour. The open ocean is not a friendly place. (Yes I did just sound like a pirate there). The swells were between 5 and 7 feet and as we kept cruising several people in the boat were getting sick. On man starting chumming (which is sailor talk for barfing) into the garbage can inside the cabin. The crew quickly directed him to the edge of the boat to save the rest of us from watching. About 1/2 hour into the ride I started to feel a little bit of an upset stomach, but nothing more than a long winding car ride. We finally stopped and I felt a bit better after that. Once we stopped the fishing immediately got underway and people started pulling in fish right away. I caught one not more than 10 minutes after dropping my line in the water. A picture of my prize catch is shown below. Note the size of my foot (size 10) and the relative size of the fish. It put up a good fight as I reeled it in.

After I caught the fish things quickly deteriorated. I didn't feel so great and told Aarow I was going to take a break inside. The moment I walked inside the cabin the sea sickness set in and I spent the next 3 hours either bent over the edge of the boat depositing a half digested Subway sandwich and diet coke into the ocean or laying inside the boat with eyes closed and stomach rolling. I did manage to make it 15 or so minutes somewhere in there where I caught another fish. However, that respite was short lived. I wasn't alone since I saw most of the other passengers chumming at some point during the trip, but I do think I won for most frequent barfing. At about 1am they reeled in the last of the fish and started for the shore. It amazed me that immediately after pulling into the harbor I felt completely fine. I think I'll stick to land-based activities for the near and distant future.

CLASS THUS FAR

2009-09-23T13:20:00.002-04:00

After today I will have completed 1 week of classes. I still don't think I have a good indication of what the semester is going to be like. 1 of my classes has yet to assign a problem set, which when it does come, I'm sure it will be hefty. I still haven't decided what to do about the never-ending story that is my dilemma between microeconomics in the Econ Department (super-hefty) or microeconomics in the Woodrow Wilson School (not so hefty). Thus far, I've been attending both. The WWS version makes sense. The Econ version makes sense while I am in class, but the moment I leave class and look at the problem sets my brain melts. Most of the problems are proofs of some sort or another. I've not done a lot of proving in the past, so here's my assessment of proofs thus far.

Step 1: Write down something that makes absolutely no sense or is completely obvious.

Example: Show that {#<<|*(c<=3)} is [(0)-$3-->R++] OR Show that 1 is 1.

Step 2: Stare blankly for several hours and wonder either:

a) Did the person fall asleep on their keyboard to create this proof?
or
b) Why is this not already completely obvious?

Step 3: Use lots of symbols and definitely more symbols than words.

I recommend < > # $ * ~ and {}. These seem to be popular choices.

Step 4: The few words you use must come from the following set:

assume, suppose, implies, exist, therefore, we have, & as desired

Step 5: Mix symbols with words. Never use actual numbers. Never use the word "example".

Step 6: Write the same thing at the end that appears at the beginning.

Done! You now have proven something. Granted, you are still confused and most likely frustrated, but take a deep, satisfying breath and know you've filled lots of white space.

In case you don't belive me, here is a sample from the first day's material.

Let B` = A ∪ B. Then, WARP yields c(A) ∩ B` != ∅ implies c(B`) ∩ A ⊂ c(A).
But since c is a choice function, we have c(A) ∩ B` = c(A) ∩ (A ∪ B) != ∅ and therefore
c(A∪B) ∩A = c(B`) ∩A ⊂ c(A) as desired. Next, assume that c(A∗) is a singleton for all
A∗ and c satisfies α. Also assume that c(A)∩B != ∅. Then, c(A) = {x} for some x ∈ A∩B.
Let {y} = c(A ∪ B). If y ∈ A, then α and single-valuedness implies {y} = c(A) = {x}.
Hence, by α, we have {y} = c(B) implying c(B) ∩ A ⊂ c(A) as desired. If y /∈ A, then
{y} = c(B) and c(B) ∩ A = ∅ ⊂ c(A), again, as desired.

SUNDAY STUFF

2009-09-20T17:29:00.007-04:00

After church today several of the young single adults in the ward came over the the Graduate College to eat with Christian and I. Sunday afternoons are well known at the GC because of the Sunday brunch. It was very good. Afterwards, as we were walking out of the dining hall we heard the sound of bells. It turns out that Cleveland tower (the large tower attached to the GC) has one of the largest carillon bells in the world. Here is a sample of the music we were hearing.

We stuck around and spoke to one of the people who was playing the bells. It turns out that there are free carillon lessons every Sunday afternoon and the music we were hearing was several of the students practicing. Well I'm sold and will be practicing alongside the other students next week. Where else will you get the opportunity to learn how to play the carillon bells? What a great conversation starter at parties. Not only did we talk to the people playing the bells, we also climbed to the top of the tower. It is definitely the tallest building for miles as you can see from the pictures I took at the top.

Looking across the golf course onto Princeton main campus.

A view of the Graduate College. My room is hidden by trees in the top left of the frame.

After descending the tower we heard a different type of music. Someone was playing the organ in the dining hall. Yes, there is a pipe organ in the dining hall. I don't even think Hogwarts has that on us. The organist looked like a fellow graduate student and I was able to record the very end of "The Great Gate of Kiev" which is an incredibly loud, full piece. The sound was so great. It filled the entire hall. I loved it.

Overall, Sunday was a great day.

Some more of the organ, but softer. I recorded this from outside.

BOOZE, BOOZE AND MORE BOOZE + FOOD

2009-09-16T22:09:00.003-04:00

Princeton has an unbelievably large endowment. So what do they do with all that money? Buy large amounts of alcohol and food. This week has been full of welcome meetings, orientations, and other beginning of school receptions. A person here could go from party to party and always have a drink in hand. I remarked to one of my friends in the department that our stipends would probably be much larger if the department cut its alcohol budget. He remarked that no one would join the program. So, even though I don't drink, I still benefit from the excellent food that accompanies the alcohol. In fact, I've made it a goal to never buy lunch while here. I already know that I will get free lunch every Thursday and Friday due to subfield seminars. I know that other subfields meet throughout the week and there are frequently leftovers placed in the lounge. Additionally, with this being job talk season there is always lunch being served when people come in to give job talks. I don't think I'm going to have a hard time accomplishing my goal.

SQUIRRELS AND TOUCHING

2009-09-15T18:05:00.006-04:00

As I walked home from a welcome reception to my dorm I passed approximately 30 people. I also passed approximately 300 squirrels. There are definately more squirrels living in the area than people. Its a good thing these animals posess a lower intellectual capacity than humans, otherwise they may begin organizing. One little known fact about the squirrel population here is that Princeton is home to the rare black squirrel.

Kudos to the university for promoting diversity in the animal population as well as the student body. This variation of squirrel is exactly the same as his grey brother with the only difference being the color of his fur. The black squirrel is so appreciated here that there is a local baseball team that uses it as their mascot.

Prior to my walk with the squirrels, all of the incoming graduate students attended an orientation meeting. The meeting was filled with a lot of campus administrators giving us advice and reciting policies that we immediately forgot. We know we all came for the free lunch and t-shirts that were distributed afterwards. During the meeting, however, there was a brief address by a more senior graduate student in the history department. I don't remember the majority of his remarks, but I do remember the title of his disertation, "Exploring the Significanct of Touch in 16th and 17th Century British Literature." As Tina Fey and Amy Poehler would say on SNL's Weekend Update, "REALLY!?!" I can't believe (actually I can, which makes this all the more ridiculous) that someone would want to devote 3+ years of intense research into answering this question. In fact what is the question? And what faculty member looked this young man in the face and said, "Yes Johnny! You're really on to something here. I've been meaning to wrap my head around this one but just haven't had the time. "

P.S. I came across what looks like a very interesting new take on Jane Austin's classic novel. Perhaps someone here is exploring the use of zombies in British literature.

THE CITY

2009-09-13T21:56:00.003-04:00

This weekend I went to NYC for a tri-state singles conference in Manhattan. I had a great time and met a lot of great people while also connecting up with some old friends. However, rather than discuss the contents of the conference, I wish to comment on the beginning and end of the weekend. The easiest way to get from Princeton is a short 1.5 hour train ride. The station is less than half a mile from my house and takes me to the main New Jersey line where I transfer to the NY bound train. Once on the train I get off at Penn Station in New York and hop on the #1 line to the temple at Lincoln Square. Prior to spending much time in New York, I had developed the idea that the subway is full of really crazy people. Well this weekend disproved that theory and replaced it with another. It is not the subway but rather the train in and out of New York where one finds all of the crazy people. Two stories illustrate the point.

Story #1

While waiting for the train at Princeton Junction, I turned to the left to see a man standing no more than 10 feet from me. He was facing away from the platform looking back at the parking lot. I didn't think anything of it until I noticed that he was not admiring the many cars but rather peeing off the platform. I suppose he didn't mind that there were several people, including myself, around him, or that there was a restroom not 100 feet from where he was relieving himself. I slowly moved down the platform so as not to get any splash on myself or my luggage and to ensure that we were in different cars once we boarded.

Story #2

On the way home from New York I had the pleasure of sitting next to a man who found himself incredibly funny. I imagine that the majority of his time is spent discussing NASCAR, drinking beer, and scratching himself. He found it highly amusing to pass gas loudly for the entire 1.5 hour trip. Amazingly enough, this man was married. His wife was equally amused by his gastric abilities. Honestly, the first thing that came to my mind was, "We really allow these people to vote? Why do we revere a system of government that lets these types of people make decisions about how to govern our country?" The second thing that came to my mind was, "...And I'm the one that's not married. Man, what is wrong with this scene?" Needless to say, I was more than ready to disembark from the train.

Overall, I was surprised that by far the strangest and most annoying people were not on the subway in New York but rather in New Jersey. Just one more reason people speak so highly of The Garden State.

P.S. This does not at all compare to my friend Brad's experience riding a train in China. For that humorous (only because it is not happening to you) story, click HERE.

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY

2009-09-11T10:19:00.003-04:00

Greg Mankiw, a Harvard economist who I greatly respect has provided a link to a response to Paul Krugman's recent New York Times Magazine article titled, "How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?" The response is written by John Cochrane, a University of Chicago Financial Economist who, if you've read the Krugman piece has plenty of reason to feel the need to respond. See the original article HERE and the response HERE. Seeing as Krugman's lair is only one floor away, perhaps I'll bring this up to his office for him.

"FAMOUS" PEOPLE FROM LEFT AND RIGHT

2009-09-09T19:13:00.004-04:00

I put "famous" in quotes because there definitely is a difference between Michael Jackson famous and famous among policy wonks. Nevertheless, I have stumbled across some famous people this week. Yesterday several students and I were sitting in the lobby of Robertson Hall working on some math problems when a nice man asked us where the vending machines were. We pointed him towards the basement. As he left, one of the students remarked that the man was Josh Bolton. I know, you're probably not gasping for air and fainting at the idea of seeing Josh Bolton. In fact, I bet you don't even know who he is. Josh Bolton is not related to Michael Bolton the musician. He was the chief of staff to President George W. Bush. What is chief of staff, you might say. For those of you who are Mormon, this is like the executive secretary for the President. You know how much responsibility and influence comes with that job. For those of you who aren't Mormon, think of the Chief of Staff as the President's right hand man. He's involved in every decision made in the White House. Later that day I was wandering around the halls and found out that his office is actually a few doors down from mine. Apparently he is a Princeton alum and is going to be teaching a few classes this year.

Josh Bolton

While I was wandering the halls, I came across the office of another famous person. Paul Krugman, the economist who recently won the Nobel Prize and writes regularly for the New York Times, has an office at Princeton. I imagine that he is rarely here and that he used to teach but now is too busy writing columns that I am convinced he does not (nor does any other liberal economist) actually believe. In my opinion, his columns are bogus and he knows it, but bogus seems to be the flavor of choice in the NYTimes. Anyway, perhaps he'll make an appearance here and I can meet the man in person.

The Beast's Lair

INNAUGURAL BIKE RIDE

2009-09-08T13:40:00.008-04:00

So I took the bike out this morning and went for a ride through rural New Jersey. The route wound through all sorts of country roads with very nice views. It turns out that the entire area is not covered in trees, and once you escape the canopy there are great vistas of the Princeton area. Here are two photos I took along the way at the top of a large (for NJ) hill. I'm attempting to smile, however, I was really out of breath and sweating like crazy in the humidity, so I think I look more ill than anything.

TRADITIONAL GET OUT OF TOWN TRIP

2009-09-07T18:08:00.008-04:00

Thinking back, I've noticed a pattern in my life. I seem to leave town every Labor Day. It's the perfect holiday weekend if you really think about it. Usually school has just started and you are not at all excited about the schedule/reading/homework you already have piling up. Labor day is really the only thing that gets me through that initial week of school. So to continue the tradition, I packed my bags and headed for Boston, MA for the weekend. I had only been there once before when I went to visit MIT and it was at the end of February. All I remember is it was freezing cold, everyone seemed dreary, sad and tired, and it was freezing cold. So this time I was extremely surprised to find a city that is actually incredibly fun and exciting. I went with my friend Kaeli who just started a PhD in political science at Yale. I picked her up and in Boston we met up with several of our friends from BYU that are now studying or working in the city. I had a great time.

Saturday morning we went to the temple and that night we went swimming at Walden Pond.

The actual pond made famous by Thoreau

It is a beautiful place. I would have thought that those big-government New England liberals up there would have stopped people from swimming in the lake and turned it into a giant boring museum by now, but that's not the case. When we weren't doing that we were eating in Harvard Square, or hanging out with many of the other LDS folk that live in the Cambridge area.

Harvard Square

Honestly, there were moments when I thought, "Why on earth did I not chose to go to school here." But I had to remind myself that I definitely am at a better program, and will probably do much better this year since there are zero distractions here. I recently remarked to my dad that I can either study or go running. Those are the only two options available to me right now, and after it gets dark running is really treacherous here. I tried to convince all of my New England friends to come down to NJ and visit, but they were much more interested in me coming up there again. Honestly, I think I agree.

On a side note, we wanted to watch the BYU vs. Oklahoma football game but didn't have a place that was showing it. We talked to a friend there who was going to watch it at Tagg Romney's house (oldest son of Mittens, our favorite presidential candidate). He tried to get us in, but was unsuccessful. Those darn super-rich people. (For a hilarious discussion of the difficulties of being super-rich see: Rich/Super-Rich.) It turns out there weren't enough solid gold miniature football party favors for us to come along.

LIFE AS A FUGITIVE FROM THE LAW

2009-09-02T18:54:00.004-04:00

What little political theory I have studied has come in handy this week. I remember reading St. Augustine (and watching the moving The Great Debaters) and coming across the famous phrase "an unjust law is no law at all." Well, I've taken this to heart as I participate in my first act of civil disobedience. The Graduate College (the castle/small box that I live in) forbids the use of microwaves. Apparently, New Jersey law forbids any sort of cooking appliance to be used in a "dorm." If people use these items then the building somehow looses its designation as a dorm and a galactic wormhole swallows our reality. Who knows, but apparently its bad. At the same time, the Graduate College provides us with no way to cook food for the time that we are here prior to the start of the fall semester, which is about 3 weeks. So, I must follow my conscience on this one, and it is telling me to cook that delicious Stouffer's lasagna.

A picture of the contraband, which must be hidden in case of "unnanounced inspections." No joke, they really come around during the semester and inspect your room for illegal appliances.

GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

2009-09-01T20:22:00.003-04:00

It has been brought to my attention that portions of previous posts may have implied that I did not enjoy spending so much time with my parents during the previous week on our way to the East Coast. In no way was such an implication meant by the author. In fact, I have been thinking all week that I needed to express to my parents how thankful I am that they came with me to start this great adventure. Moving here would have been impossible without their help. That is in no way an exaggeration. They are wonderful and are incredibly supportive of everything I do. They are some of my best friends. I hear my peers talk about visiting friends in various places during winter, spring and summer breaks. I have great friends scattered around the country, but when I get a break there is nowhere I would rather be than in Spokane with my family. Ask any of my old roommates and they will tell you that during the summer I was always planning my next trip back home. So props to mom and dad for being great.

And if that little ditty didn't bring a tear to your eye, then this picture of the family surely will.

LOST

2009-09-01T10:01:00.004-04:00

I'm convinced that GPS units were definitely invented on the East Coast, and not in Utah.

Princeton Area:

Salt Lake City Area:

DAY 2 - WELCOME TO THE BUREAUCRACY

2009-08-31T22:42:00.006-04:00

So I'm starting to get settled in. Today was not the most exciting day, but I did get a lot of little administrative things done that one must do when moving into a University. Having mastered the bureaucracy of BYU, I've forgotten how difficult it can be to interact with university staff.

For example:

I need a parking permit. After finishing my econ placement exam (more to come on that pleasant experience) I started walking over to the parking office. I was reading my graduate student handbook and saw that I needed my licence plate number to get the permit. That required me to walk all the way back to the dorm (about 1/2 mile) to get it. Since I had nothing else to do I began the walk. After retrieving my licence plate number I went back across campus to the parking office. Upon walking in, I was greeted with a sign informing me that I would need to also bring in the vehicle registration and some sort of online application. I wasn't about to walk back to the car again, so I decided I would do it tomorrow. Nevertheless, I would get the online registration out of the way today. So I needed to find a computer that also had a printer nearby. Well those are hard to come by here. At BYU OIT must have received a government grant to install printers on campus so that no person can be more than 3o feet from a printer. Here, not the case. But before I needed the printer I failed at even finding the online registration. After calling the parking office and getting an earful from a cranky lady I found the site where I was told that my parking request was "inactive" and that I would need to talk to the parking office in person. Well, having used up all of the time I was going to devote to parking, I decided I would take my chances another day and park without a permit until tomorrow. (Notice that their website only displays bicycles. It must be because no one ever successfully gets a parking permit.)

Econ Placement Exam:

Well we could sum this one up in one statement from the witty television show 30 Rock: "What the what?!?" There were nine questions on the exam and if you got a perfect score you were not required to take the class. I had no intention of accomplishing this, I just wanted to avoid being the dumbest one there. Well, I'm not sure that I succeeded. We had 3 hours to answer 9 questions. I used the previously mentioned statement at least 5 times (However I expressed these feelings in the more cordial phrase "I do not know how to solve this problem"). There were 2 that I knew I had learned how to do in the past, so I felt good about that, but overall I'm just hoping that they don't send me an e-mail politely inviting me to "take advantage of the frequency with which the class is offered and sample the course next year having completed a few prerequisites." Apparently tomorrow they are going to send us an e-mail telling us if we need to plan on coming to class. I'll keep my fingers crossed until then.

I LIVE IN A CASTLE, SORT OF

2009-08-30T18:22:00.001-04:00

So my housing is definately a tale of two cities. Here is a view of the building from the outside. It is not at all an exageration to say that I live in a castle. The Graduate College is so beautiful. The tower, stained glass windows and gargoyles are definatly a change in scenery from my blue house on 560 North across from the gas station. However, do not let appearances decieve you.

Once you step inside you quickly realize why people no longer build castles to live in. They are dark, dank, and in this case, quite small inside. I was shocked to see the new size of my living quarters. It makes my University of Idaho dorm look palacial and the dorms at BYU look like they came from a page in Better Homes and Gardens.

To add to the humor of the situation, I've moved in early to start the math camp. Well, the cafeteria here doesn't open up until the fall semester starts, so I've got to provide for myself without a kitchen, or even so much as a sink in my room. Luckily, my parents have graciously provided a small fridge and microwave with which I will prepare my food for the next 2 weeks. I think I saw a show on the Food Network where a bunch of professional chefs had to prepare gourmet meals using only dorm room appliances. I should get that episode for a few tips. In the meantime, I suppose my ambition of hosting weekly swanky dinner parties is going to have to wait until my living situation improves dramatically.

BEFORE THE DRIVE/GOODBYE UTAH

2009-08-30T18:00:00.005-04:00

In my anxiousness to talk about the cross country drive, I left out some great final moments in Provo. For me leaving Provo is bitter sweet. I've been there for a solid 5 years now and really grown into the city. It's the longest I've ever lived anywhere on my own, and the only other place I've spent more time in is Spokane. So its definately become home to me. To add to that,

I've lived in the greatest apartment. I'm sure going to miss the giant plasma high definition television and super nice couch that accompanies the TV and all its DVR glory, oh and I'll miss my roomates too. So to celebrate my graduation from Provo my roomates and I did something

I had never done while living in Utah. We went to Causey Reservoir near Ogden and went cliff jumping. It is for this reason that I love summer. When else do you get to do such fun things? Here is a picture of the five of us in mid-air. A nice couple in a canoe took it for us from the middle of the lake. We are jumping off of the lowest ledge since it was the only place that would fit all of us. It is about 25 feet from the water. John Lattin and John Hill both lept from the highest ledge which we agreed was close to 60 feet high. I have terrible estimation skills, so I initially said I thought it was about 40 feet. Ben and John Hill both disagreed and we finally agreed that 60 was about right. I was more inclined to trust Ben's estimation since John Hill had already jumped and had an interest in enlarging the height to increase his bragging rights. Ben, Taylor and I were satisfied by the still respectable 45 foot cliff. We all had a great time.

THE LONG AWAITED DRIVE

2009-08-30T17:23:00.001-04:00

To quote Depeche Mode, I just can't get enough, of I-70. Having already once traveled this road from Utah to Washington D.C. (See roadtriptochange.blogspot.com/) I was not exactly thrilled to do it again. However, this time we were going to take our time and stay in hotels along the way. Moreover, we were going to drive it in the summer, which having seen it in summer and winter, I can say the scenery and weather are immeasureably more attractive in the summer than in the winter.

So here's a breakdown of the trip in a day-by-day report.

Sunday: My parents arrived Saturday night into Provo with my sister Nicole and all of her stuff. They stayed the night at my brother and sister in law's house (Ymount) and we left early on Sunday morning. We stopped briefly in Vernal to visit the family and then left for real. We drove through Colorado and into Kansas stopping to eat in Denver. Denver, by the way, had the worst traffic of any of the cities we drove though. This was also true during the Road Trip to Change. We stayed the night in Hays, Kansas.

Monday: We were up early and on the road headed for Indianapolis. Along the way we were planning on stopping in Independence, Misourri. We arrived in Independence in the afternoon to a visitor center that was totally empty. I can't imagine how boring life as a visitor center missionary must get during the off season. We also saw Liberty Jail, which was only a few miles north of Independence. Previous to our leaving, I had to talk the family out of a full day's detour to Nauvoo, Illinois. We prompty left Liberty and headed for Indiana. We didn't quite make it to Indianapolis and decided to stop instead 2 hours short in Terre Haute (pronounced Tera Hote despite what my father may say). There we stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast right off the freeway...Actually we stayed in a Day's Inn that wasn't on the best side of the tracks. We inferred this from the glass pane that stood between the customer and the hotel front desk. Nevertheless, it was the cheapest option.

Tuesday: We drove into Indianapolis and made a few stops to see the first apartment I lived in as a missionary. I also drove my parents to see the office building where the ward attended church and the new church that they built after I left the area. The Crossroads area is not the nicest part of Indy by any means, but driving through this time it was even worse than I remember it. I can't believe that I walked down some of these streets on several occasions at night as an elder. It was either the dumb ignorance of missionaries or the Holy Ghost protecting us (probably a combination of both). We kept driving and eventually made it to Washington D.C. It was great to know that the major driving was over and we would have a day to stretch our legs in D.C.

Overall, I can say that the trip was long, but nevertheless entertaining. There were many moments where I didn't think I could take another minute in the car with my dad or my mom, and I'm sure there were similar moments for each of my parents with similar feelings directed at me. Nevertheless, it was great to have so much time to spend with them since our relationship over the last several years has been one of short visits during Christmas and summer breaks. I can also say that the only way to drive across the country and not lose your sanity somewhere between Salina, Kasas and Effingham, Illinois is to have a good book on tape. We listened to Greg Mortenson's "Three Cups of Tea" the entire way there. It was a great book and probably saved us from suicide in a corn field on several occasions.

I'll post pictures of the trip as they are sent to me by my mother.