A Resolution

On Tuesday of this week, my roommate, Scott Manning took me longboarding up Provo Canyon. Anyone who's seen me since then knows the fate that I suffered on that tragic trip. I ended up eating it 3 time with epic road rash on my arms, hands, and face. More specifically, I didn't end up cutting up any part of face other than my nose, since on my third, and hardest fall I ended up falling right on my nose and leaving one massive gash/puncture wound. Yesterday, the wounds finally scabbed up and coincidentally started to get infected. Soon after I realized this, I made my way to the BYU Bookstore and purchased a cheap knockoff of Neosporin, which was a really good deal, but that's a story for another day. I've been carrying around that tube ever since I bought it. Needless to say, even with "Pain Relief" it still burned like H3lL. Therefore, I have decided to make the following resolution:

I solemnly proclaim that I will never again use any form of non-foot transportation that does not have brakes.

I do this because my concept of speed is based on my experience riding dirt bikes. Now 35 mph really isn't too bad on a dirt bike, when you have a pair of fully-functional disc brakes. When you're riding a longboard and have nothing for brakes except your face, 35 mph is a totally different story. With this resolution, I will no longer ride longboards, skateboards, sleds, toboggans, skis, snowboards, ice blocks, skouches, etc. I will continue, however, to ride motorcycles and bicycles, drive cars, and maybe ride a scooter or two, but anything without brakes is out.

Consumption

To be perfectly honest, I'm really sick and tired of being poorer and living at a lower quality of life than people who are on welfare in the United States. I'm really looking forward to the time when I can get a full-time job and actually afford things that normal Americans enjoy. Here's a sampling of the things that I plan on purchasing when I actually have some cash:

• Car - Have you ever taken groceries on a bus? I have. It sucks. I've lived in a western US, sprawled out city for the last 3 years with little or no access to a car. Also, I refuse to try to commute to and from a job without private transportation. I'd really like to finance a new car, so that I could maintain my goal of not buying a used car from anyone who wasn't an aircraft mechanic and has the last name "White." I'm currently looking at the Mitsubishi Lancer, Chevrolet Cobalt, and Honda Civic as possible option. Admittedly not the most manly cars, but it's what I could afford new. And I think whatever car I get, I'm going to keep most of the stock speakers, put put a pair of massive subs in the truck, so that I can actually hear the bass lines in my music... and occasionally bump like an APX salesman.
• Computer - The computer on which I am currently typing this is pretty much crap. It literally hasn't had a battery for a year or so... like there's a prismatic empty space where the battery used to be. Also, when I upgraded this ~4 year old computer to Windows 7 (straight from XP) it became dramatically more ghetto. My graphics card is not fully compatible Windows 7... and a new one wouldn't be compatible with my hardware. Now there's about an inch on each side of my screen that's just black because everything is incompatible. Also, my SD port no longer works. I'm not savvy enough to know why or figure out how to fix it, but I can no longer upload pictures. A couple of years ago, I also landed a chair on it after leaning back and broke off a side panel. The '9' key on my keyboard clearly still works, but is only hanging on by a thread. The wireless antenna also fell off at some point, so my wireless range is limited. This computer has served me well, but I think it's coming time to retire it. I think I'll get another Sony VAIO, just to maintain compatibility with the Sony camera and Sony memory card for that camera that I already have.
• TV - I'm sure that my old roommates are glad that I left my old, busted Mitsubishi Television set that I got from DI in that apartment when I moved out, but I was honestly glad to be rid of it. That TV weighed at least 60 pounds and took up about a cubic yard of volume. The picture was starting to get snowy on many channels, and most of the time when the sound was turned up enough to be audible, there was high-pitched squeal that emanated from the speakers. At some point, I'd like to get a Philips flatscreen TV, but I don't think that time is going to be quite yet. For now I think I'll just find something that 's on sale at Sprawl-Mart, and use it... but it will certainly be a vast improvement over the crap-box that I've been using over the past 2 or so years.
• Gun(s) - Since I've been in college, I've bought exactly one gun... and that just about bankrupted me. When I actually have some cash, I'm going to have make up for lost time and pick some up. For a while now, my dad has talked about getting me either a Remington 700 or Ruger M77 in 7mm-08. Due to the recent actions by the Arizona state legislature (illegal immigration reform) and the fact that the Sturm, Ruger, and Co. plant is in Arizona, I've decided that, in the mean time I want to get the Ruger M77. Next, ever since my ward had a shooting menrichment activity up at squaw peak a couple of weeks ago, I've found a new firearm that has captivated my mind and heart. Sometime soon I will get myself a Saiga 12 (pictured below), which is essentially just an AK-47 modified to take 12-gauge shotgun shells. I've contemplated getting some sort of short-barreled "home defense" shotgun for a while, and I've decided that this is going to be it. Also, after owning a Glock 17, I don't think I'll be able to own another pistol that isn't a Glock in 9mm Parabellum. Therefore I think I'm going to get a Glock 19, which would be good for concealed carry...which brings me to my next point.
• Concealed Carry Permit - Since I turned 21 (all of 10 months ago) I haven't had the money or incentive to get a concealed carry permit. I mean, I live in Provo and spend most of my time on BYU campus where I'm very unlikely to run into trouble. Depending on where I get a job, a concealed carry permit may be a very good idea. Even if I ended up using it very little, I believe enough in the second amendment that it would be worth whatever it cost just to have it.
• Apartment - Over the past 3, or so years I've been living in apartments that range anywhere from halfway decent to disgustingly mega-ghetto. At Stadium Terrace (where I left my TV) our apartment literally had a public bathroom. There was a row of 3 sinks, and 2 legit bathroom stalls along one wall, and a vanity and 2 dorm-style showers along another. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to live in a slightly more refined place than that in the future. This is, however, totally dependent on where I end up finding a job. If I end up in BF, Egypt, Indiana, chances are that I'm going to be able to find something nice on my salary. If I end up in Silicon Valley, I might just have to rent a cardboard box beneath a bridge for $500/month.

Now this post kind of sounds like I'm totally covetous of filthy lucre, but that's not really what I'm going for. For the last 4 years, I've been sacrificing a lot (mostly in opportunity cost, and quite a bit in monetary costs and debt) to go to college and get a bachelor's degree; now I'm looking for some return on my investment. And even after spending to get all of these things, I still plan on trying to save at least a little bit of cash for grad school. As you can read in my previous post, I'm hoping to go to grad school for more or less free, but I'm still planning on needing some cash somewhere along the way.

So, on the net, I'm really looking forward to graduating in August and (cross your fingers) getting a real job.

Narrowing it Down... A Little.

So, over the past few weeks, there have been a couple of factors which have influenced my potential choice of graduate school. One of these is that new rankings for graduate schools was released by US News and World Report. The other is that I've been looking at the possibilities for financial assistance from the schools I had previously been interested in. This has led me to discount a few potential grad schools and to include a few that I had not previously included.

First of all, the US News and World Report Graduate School rankings for civil engineering didn't change much from the 2010 edition to the 2011 edition, but the latter was definitely more inclusive. One thing to note is that BYU was ranked #73 while Utah State was ranked #65 in the nation. This essentially took Utah State out of the ranking. If I was going to take the time and effort to try to go to Utah State, I might as well just go back to the school that I've been going to for the last 3 years.

Though the rankings were not that different, I noticed a few schools on the list that I had previously discounted, but realized that, for the given economic circumstances, I'd be willing to go to. Two that I noticed were the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of my employers, Dr. Hotchkiss got his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, so I'm sure that he could provide me with recommendations and contacts galore. As I looked into the University of Wisconsin, I really liked their program and the possibilities for research that they had. Though their cold and kind of liberal, I think I could deal with going to either Minnesota or Wisconsin.
As I perused the US News and World Report Rankings, I also noticed that there were about 7 schools in the top 30 in California. At the same time, I thought about how I had two sets of aunts and uncles in California, who would probably be able to help me find something in the way of jobs. Even though I hate California and everything that they stand for, I decided that these factors were too much to ignore when looking into jobs and grad schools. I guess for 3 or 4 years I could just bury my guns in my back yard and yield 3/4 of everything I make to the man in order to get a top notch graduate education. As far as schools go, the ones that I like best were UC Davis, UCLA, and UCSD, in that order. Additionally, the department chair for BYU's civil engineering department went to UC Davis and my professor for steel design and reinforced concrete design went to UCSD. Once again, recommendations galore.

Secondly, I have recently been thinking that I really don't want to pay much, if anything, for grad school. In fact, I think it would be a really good idea if a grad school paid me to go there. I'm thinking that I could apply to several schools, whether or not I was a resident and see what kind kind of financial assistance I could get as a graduate assistant doing research or teaching. As I looked into the financial assistance programs of the schools in which I've been interested, I found out that they were definitely not created equal. For students who are awarded graduate assistantships, some schools offer full tuition waivers, some offer waivers for the in-state portion of tuition, some offer waivers for the out-of-state portion, and some say "Eph you, you can't have an assistantship!" So, as I did some research, I found that there were 6 schools where I could get a full tuition waiver:

• Virginia Tech
• Oregon State (whose logo is pictured below)
  
• Washington
• Colorado*
• Wisconsin
• Notre Dame

*I don't know if CU-Boulder offers full remission of out-of-state tuition, but since I'm a Colorado resident, it really doesn't matter.

The financial assistance program with which I was least impressed was that of North Carolina State. They basically said, "We really don't like giving out money, even if you are qualified, so don't ask." At this point, I'm pretty sure that I won't be going there for graduate school.

There were also some schools that would be willing to waive the in-state portion of tuition. I would be willing to consider these schools if I was able to find a job in the state where they are located. These include:

• Arizona
• Minnesota
• UC Davis
  

The graduate school at Texas A&M is willing to waive the out-of-state portion of tuition for anyone who is awarded a graduate assistantship. Considering that the tuition at Texas A&M is fairly reasonable and that there are many other opportunities for funding, I might consider attending if they made me a good offer, but their standing has definitely dropped.

Additionally, I've found that, the more experience that I have with Purdue University, the less I like it. The university's website kind of sucks. The civil engineering department website kind of blows. Their program, though ranked #3 nationally, doesn't appeal to me as much as it once did. I couldn't figure out whether Purdue offered a full or partial tuition waiver, or if it only applied to fees. And I've just never been that big of fan of Indiana.

As it turns out, the big winners of the day are Oregon State and Wisconsin. Oregon State went from being virtually unconsidered to being near the top of the running. Wisconsin went from not being considered at all to being in the top 5, or so.

y = e^-x

Disclaimer: The following blag post contains both intermediate mathematics and references to my relationships with women. In fact, this blag post contains little else. Reader discretion is advised.

As the enginerd that I am, I often try to model things mathematically. Since my experience with BYU math, I haven't been as much, but I still do occasionally. Recently I've decided that I should try to model my experience with women over my life mathematically. Therefore, this post is directed mostly at my nerd friends.

Over my life, I figure that my optimism toward women is inversely proportional to my social exposure to them. I say social because, as my friend F@$$w@$$ pointed out, exposure can mean more than one thing. Anywho, as I get to know women in general better and better, my optimism toward them tends to fall. I figure that, at birth, I had a higher optimism for women than in any other context, being perfectly naïve. As my society with women increases, I feel less and less affinity for them. I figure that the decline in optimism would be sharp at first, as I was first introduced to women, and then would flatten out as the exposure to women affected me less and less. I don't honestly think that my optimism toward women would ever actually reach zero, but would come progressively closer to it.

Any curve that would be used to model my relationships with women would therefore need to be horizontally asymptotic to zero. Two equations immediately come to mind when discussing things that are horizontally asymptotic to zero:

y = 1/x OR y = e^-x

I considered y = 1/x for about 10 seconds, but upon remembering that it is also vertically asymptotic to zero quenched that thought. Since this function is vertically asymptotic to zero, it would insinuate that my optimism toward women was necessarily infinite at birth. Considering that infants are innocent in the sight of God, this is possible and even fairly likely. However, considering that neither I neither anyone I know can remember much of their condition at birth, I'll say that this assumption is unnecessary and off-base. I'd rather model my relationships with women as a percentage of the maximum possible optimism. Since y = e^-x has y-intercept of 1 this works perfectly.

So, for the function y = e^-x, the abscissa (x) would be my social exposure to women, and the ordinate (y) would be my optimism toward women as a proportion of the maximum possible. At time t=0, my exposure to women would also be zero and therefore my optimism toward them would be 1, or the maximum possible. As time progresses and my exposure to women increases and therefore my optimism toward them decreases. Naturally, there will be sometimes when my optimism toward women will be higher and some times when it will be lower, but as a general rule, there will be a downward, asymptotic trend.

So, if anyone has the need to know how my relationships with women are going, they really only need to refer to this post. As my time with and therefore my social exposure to women increases, my optimism toward women will only decrease as a general rule. If there's ever a marriage event, there will probably be another phase of the curve which will temporarily spike the curve upward, and then bring in back down to be asymptotic to zero. However, such an event would be unlikely, and the very existence of the y = e^-x relationship would almost preclude it altogether. If it did, I would need to remodel the curve, but would probably only cross that bridge when I came to it.

Think Again

APRIL FOOLS!!! In case you were at all wondering, the blag post immediately before this one is completely and totally fallacious in every way. The only truth in that post was that the application deadline for the University of SPEWtah's CE department was in April 1st. Now let's review some facts:

• FACT: I did not apply to the University of Utah for graduate school.
• FACT: I have never actually set foot on the University of Utah campus.
• FACT: I hate Utah. I hate everything about them.
• FACT: Utah's Civil Engineering program is actually ranked #48 in the nation according to US News and World Report.
• FACT: I was actually totally unimpressed by the U's Civil Engineering program and research.
  
• FACT: I will never apply to Utah for anything, unless it's a contract to blow the whole thing to the ground.
• FACT: The dude on the right-hand sidebar of the U's Civil Engineering Website looks like a child molester.
• FACT: None of the people in the pictures on the U's website looked all that attractive.
• FACT: Red is the color of Satan.
• FACT: 26-23
• FACT: I will be a die-hard Cougar until the day I die.
• FACT: I am currently wearing my, "Friends Don't Let Friends go to the U of U" shirt.
• FACT: This symbol kicks trash:

Interestingly enough, after a full day of lies, treachery and deceit, I feel closer to the spirit of the University of Utah. It's kind of sad, I feel like I need to wash my hands clean from sin... After this experience I think I'm going to be wearing all my BYU gear for 3 days straight... and maybe burning my "Utes" t-shirt. :D

A Revelation

All 4 people who read my blag will know that I've recently been considering where I should go to grad school for civil engineering. I've previously been planning on postponing this decision slightly, but the recent epic nose-dive of death in the economy has caused me to move up some of the decisions that I've been considering. I've been planning on working for a few years before I even start applying to grad schools, but my lack of possible job prospects has lead my to look into grad school as more of a short-term option.

Today I had an interesting thought: "Let's just see where those skanks up at the U of U are ranked in terms of civil engineering grad schools." When I looked up the University of Utah on several ranking sites, I found that they were ranked anywhere from 6th to 24th nationally. Needless to say I was shocked that a school in which I could qualify for in-state tuition would be ranked so high. I figured that it was worth at least looking into the Civil Engineering Program at the U, since it is so close by. What I found was interesting to say the least. I found that they have a very good program for things about which I am passionate in civil engineering. Their classes and research for bridge design and the use of prestressed concrete were awesome, and I liked their program for water resources, hydrology, and hydraulics.

I also looked up when the application deadlines for both fall and winter semester, and it turns out that the application deadline for fall 2010 is... drum roll... today. I figured that I would not be able to apply for this fall since I have not yet taken the GRE. I continued reading on the University of Utah's civil engineering website and found that candidates for non-thesis master's degrees who had GPAs above 3.2 could apply without a GRE score. Sensing that the opportunity was mine to grab by the man-parts, I decided that I could finish the application in one day. The online portion of the application was easy... getting my official transcripts and letters of recommendation up to Salt Lake in time was another story. Nevertheless, I conquered and got all of my application materials up there in time.

While I was on the campus of the U, I decided that I fairly like the environment there. There weren't any drunkards or skanks walking around. The people there just seemed relatively normal. I also looked around the facilities of their engineering building on campus and rather liked what I saw. I mean, it wasn't some masterpiece of architecture, but I enjoyed my brief stay there.

I know this would be a rather drastic change of pace for me. I've been bashing on Utah ever since I started going to BYU, but I just think that I would enjoy the environment and academics going there for grad school. If I did end up going there, I'm not sure I could ever advocate University of Utah football and would probably still cheer for BYU when they played each other. Overall, I just think that the University of Utah wouldn't be too bad of a place to go to school after all. :)

[For all reading this post at this point, check its date. Yeah, April Fools. ;) ]

A Mighty Change of Heart

As those who know me well will already know, I am a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many of the converts to the church end up being exposed to it via full-time missionaries who are tracting about and stumble upon them. However, my story is quite different than that. It's even quite the contrast to the stories of members sharing the gospel with random people they know. Since I've been asked about it recently at a surprising frequency, I suppose I'll share the story of how I came to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
My story really has two parts. There's the part about my dad and his relationship with the church over the years and there's the part that's all me. I can definitely say that I would not have been converted to the gospel had both of these taken place, so I will share both.

First, my dad's involvement:

Strangely enough, my dad was actually born in the covenant to parents who had been sealed and lived most of his life in the Mormon belt in Idaho Falls. His childhood and his relationship with the church were both lukewarm at best. His parents divorced when he was about 7, and he continued to live with his mother afterward. She soon remarried another guy who was a member of the church on paper, but not really in spirit. To make a long story short, my dad's relationship with the church was strained and he ended up going completely inactive around the age of 17 or 18. Over the next 25 years, he ended up joining the Air Force where he met a rough-and-tumble kind of woman, got married and had a single son (me). During this time my dad had little or no contact or association with the church.

In about 2003 or 4, my mom got a job with an armored truck company hauling around money, (this hearkens back to the 'rough-and-tumble' idea). My mom's boss was married to a member of the church though he, himself, was not a member. They ended up discussing the church at length and my mom ended up bringing home many of the conversations that they had, knowing that my dad was a member. Additionally, my dad's brother, who had always been very active in the church (and is currently serving as a bishop) called my dad more frequently than usual just to see how he was doing. These two often ended up discussing the church and the gospel, at least on some level. The combination of these two things got my dad thinking more and more about the church. This culminated until one day in February of 2005, he resolved that he was going to go back to church for the first time in 25 years and recommit himself to the gospel.

And now the portion that's all me:

From before I could remember my family has always had a big wall unit kind of thing that held our TV, VCR/DVD player, stereo system, and other miscellaneous things. One of the things that we kept there was basically our family's collection of books. None of us read incredibly fast, so there was never all that much in there, but there was at least enough to fill a section. Since my dad was an inactive member, we had several copies (and several editions at that) of the Book of Mormon. I remember one day when I was about 9 or 10 laying on the floor just looking at the collection of books my family had, when I saw the Book of Mormon. The title on the spine of the book didn't particularly catch my eye at the time, but the script below it did. It read, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." When I saw that, it made me feel a sense of happiness and peace for no apparent reason, and I said to myself, "Hey, I bet the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the place to be when it comes to churches." Up to that point I had never really attended any church services and would probably have characterized myself as an "optimistic agnostic." My mom and I had gone to a few non-denominational Christian services that were basically like The Who concerts with a collection plate. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling that. A couple years later I picked up the same copy of the Book of Mormon and thumbed through some of the pages and looked through the pictures it had in the front, which I later found out were the prophet Joseph Smith, Samuel the Lamanite, Jesus visiting the Americas, etc. When I looked at these I felt that same feeling of peace and happiness from before and knew that that book was just a good thing in general.


After I had these experiences with the Book of Mormon, when my dad decided that he was going to go back to church in February of '05, I knew I was going to go with him. In an interesting turn of events, my dad actually called up the bishop of the Malley Ward and informed him that he and his family would be coming to church on Sunday. After cleaning out his underwear, Bishop Robinson of the Malley Ward confirmed where we lived, and that we, indeed, actually lived in the Webster Lake Ward. I'm pretty sure that, to this day, Bishop Smith owes the Malley Ward 3 new converts.

After we went to the correct ward a couple of times, my mom and I met and took lessons from the full-time missionaries. After finishing these up, my dad, since he already held the Aaronic Priesthood was privileged to baptize both of us on April 23rd, 2005. In an irony of extreme proportions, April 23rd would have been the night of my Junior prom, had I elected to go. I like to think that I diverged quite a bit from most of the rest of the people my age that evening.

Now my parents are both actively engaged in the church with my dad serving as the 1st counselor in the Elders' Quorum presidency and my mom learning the way slowly, but surely. I'm here, at BYU, being as faithful to the testimony I've gained as I know how to be, and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.