Since I've got a dissertation defense presentation to plan out, I naturally decided to blog. Today marks my one week countdown until the defense, which is next Wednesday at 3:30. Its intimidating and nerve-wracking, but having witnessed the defense of the last guy from our group to graduate makes me feel a little better. His was bad, and he still passed, so I think I'll be fine. Thats my strategy for life in general- stand next to someone doing it worse so you look good. Kidding, Jenny, kidding.
Mini-rant: So am I the only one tired of any tiny political scandal being immediately given some nickname involving the suffix "-gate"? Not even real scandals, but just small things a candidate does that makes him/her look kinda bad are now "Something-gate". Attorney-gate, Plame-gate, nipple-gate, Rather-gate aka memo-gate, Trooper-gate. Enough already! Its just not cool anymore.
Speaking of kids nowadays, I've been the teacher for 6 math classes for about two weeks now, with another 4 weeks to go. I always kind of thought that being a high school teacher would make you feel young- not that thats why I'm teaching now, and not that I feel particularly old, but I just assumed that being back in that environment would remind me of what it felt like to be 16. Man was I wrong. I've felt older in the past month than I ever have. Being around these kids, besides being excellent birth control, just makes me want to be even farther away from them in age than I already am.
And finally, after all this time planning for and looking for a job, the last place on Earth I thought I would end up is ... back in Provo. No, I haven't accepted a job there, yet, nor has a job been offered to me, but a headhunter contacted me representing a company down there that was impressed with my resume and wants to interview me. By this point, 6 months into the fruitless job search, I just might accept if the money is right, even if it is back in the last place I wanted to move back to. Provo. But no fear, Seattle-ites, I also just applied to a job in Renton that looks pretty nice.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Counting down...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Great Moments in Pointer History: Video Edition
Long story short, the Brothers Gillins and I made a video called "Pointers for Beginners."
To better understand the premise, watch this one first and read the blurbs beneath the video.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Tank you...
So Lucy really likes praying now, so much so that she doesn't let either of us do it but demands that she be the one to pray at family prayer time. Unfortunately, most of her prayers consist of "Dear Heavly Fater... and... amen!" 
So every night we usually have to remind her to thank for things and to ask for blessings. Tonight, she started out with her usual "Dear Heavly Fater... and... amen!", and after we prodded her with "Thank you for...", she said "Tank you... Uncle Steven, tank you... Juju, tank you... Nana, tank you... christmas lights, tank you... fire, tank you... food, tank you... Fiona, tank you...Donkey, tank you... Cat, tank you... Shrek, and.... amen!"
Dreamworks: Mission accomplished.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Waxing nostalgic
I've been doing much better lately at living in the present and not pining for the past or longing for the future so much, but there are some things I miss:
--Jon's rants, from why the BYU All Sports Pass policy is dumb, to why he hates rainbow-chip frosting (or was it rainbow chip cake mix?)
--Making fun of Nick for waxing the floor yet again, realizing that I too had homework that I didn't want to do, and offering to help
--Banding together in harsh conditions (no heat)
--Warming up on 35's couch because 18's heat didn't work all winter
--35. Those girls were the best--we never found another apartment like them
--Performing "Toast" in the original trio
--Freestyle walking with Jon
--Singing barbershop
--Banding together in harsh conditions (weird roommate (Darryl))
--Ultimate Frisbee in between General Conference sessions
--Jenny doing improv storytelling on the piano
--Banding together in harsh conditions (weird roommate (Brett))
--Making salsa with Nick
-on official Salsa Nights
-on random late nights with too many habañeros, then staying up sweating and watching reruns of Cheers and Taxi
--Making faces at Katie
--Banding together in harsh conditions (no toaster)
--Parley and his great conversions
Friday, November 09, 2007
Change in Intro. to Book of Mormon
Did anyone see the news report on the left sidebar about the changes in the introduction to the Book of Mormon the church has recently made? One of the changes is just the addition of one word. Where it says that all the inhabitants "were destroyed, except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.", they add the word "among" before the words 'the principle', so now it implies that the people in the Book of Mormon were only a few of the people that were actually here. This gives great relief to those who found themselves trying to defend the church from criticism that the church erroneously teaches that the American Indians were all descended from Israel, and not from people who came across the land bridge from Asia which is what all the archeological evidence suggests. I never really had that problem since I kind of just assumed that the book of Mormon people were just a small subset of the people here, and that the B.O.M. introduction isn't scripture anyway.
The other change is the omission of the words "as does the Bible" in the sentence that says it is "a record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting gospel."
Any idea why they would have changed that?
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Fantasy '08
Political junkie that I am, I registered last month on the fantasy 2008 election "stock exchange" hosted by realclearpolitics.com. When you register, they give you 10,000 "RCP dollars", which you can use to buy securities for candidates winning or losing races, whose prices are determined entirely by what people are willing to pay for them. After over a month trading I am proud to announce that I am ranked #9, now with about $12,500.
I keep my trading based mostly on the Republican primary, since I just don't understand how most Democrats think, and I feel much more comfortable predicting the outcomes of races on the right. The races in which I have made the most money have been the Michigan Republican primary, and the prediction of who will be the Rep. nominee. I placed about $2200 on Romney being the winner in Mi., and that has earned me about $1700. I placed $5000 on Thompsen NOT being the nominee for the Republican party, and that has earned me about $1000. I put a little money on Romney being the Rep. nominee and that earned me $100 so far with minimal investment. I also put some money on the South Carolina primary, for Romney and against Thompsen, which has lost a little (since Thompsen is still polling higher than Romney there), but I believe that will change soon judging by some recent polling there.
I've put a little money on both McCain and Paul not winning the nomination, since at the time that I did that they were both relatively highly priced to win (in the upper single digits), but that has lost me a little money since they have gone up since then. I think I'll buy more of that since I think they can only go down- especially Paul.
I have not put any money on New Hampshire or Iowa since I think Romney will win those, but his stock costs too much to make it worth purchasing. I also have not put any money on Giuliani since his stock is also very high, and I don't think it will get any higher- yet I don't feel safe betting against him yet.
So barring personal opinion of what you want to happen, what do you think WILL happen in the primary?