Sooner in Provo

The dread of the Talmage

Devon — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:47:22 +0000

Yes, the curse has returned to haunt my schedule once more - even this early in the semester, I’m already having to spend an inordinate amount in the Talmage building. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the BYU campus, the Talmage houses the Math and Computer Science departments. Which means that there are very few spare power outlets and even fewer windows.

Back to Provo

Devon — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:50:43 +0000

The air in Oklahoma really is a whole lot cleaner. Flying in to Salt Lake, it was startling to see how bad the smoke and smog was. Made me grateful for all of those Oklahoma windstorms.

With the new semester looming on the horizon, my roommates and I have been giving our apartment a thorough cleaning. While our apartment was fairly clean to begin with, there was still a whole lot of junk left over from previous tenants. Once (if) it’s completely clean, we’ll be able to a bit of interior decorating and make the place at least somewhat presentable.

My sister got back from an LDS Church mission to South Korea two weeks ago today - she’s doing a great job at adjusting to normal life. I went with her and her roommate to IKEA yesterday to purchase a few items they were missing for their apartment. I picked up a couple dozen glasses to reduce the frequency of dishwasher runs in my own apartment and a few other odd items like some rolls of shelf protector material and a thing to store/recycle plastic shopping bags.

My classes this semester look pretty intense, but it’s too early to say how bad (or good) they’ll really be. I purchased a laptop for my CS classes, so that should help me reduce the time I have to spend in the basement of the CS department. Which can only be a good thing.

Lastly, my dad let me borrow his road bike, so I have it out here in Provo now. It’s a classic Motobecane Grand Touring model, so it’s been interesting trying to retrofit accessories to fit the frame, but it should give me a chance to get some nice rides in before the winter sets in.

Window screens finally installed

Devon — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:57:48 +0000

Solar Window Screens, West

Solar Window Screens, South

Now that summer is almost over, I finally managed to install the solar window screens that our apartment has so badly needed. Besides making the apartment look a whole lot better from the outside (our windows were pretty darn nasty and our landlords wouldn’t do anything about it), having them installed meant that I could finally put away all of the supplies and tools that I’ve used to assemble and install them.

Parents on Facebook

Devon — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:00:27 +0000

No, my parents aren’t on Facebook, nor do I think they ever will be. So let’s leave them out of this.

I recognize the need for parents to monitor their children’s activities, especially when those children are at a point in their lives when they can be emotionally vulnerable to strangers over the internet. However, when those kids are in college, it’s really weird for parents to want to buddy-up with all of their children’s friend on social networking sites. So how about it? How many friend requests have you gotten from your friends’ parents?

Family reunion this weekend

Devon — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:06:23 +0000

The annual love/hate fest for my mother’s side of the family is scheduled for this weekend — should be interesting as always. We all get along pretty well, we just hate (and I use we in its editorial form here) having to deal with the mosquitoes that abound at the family cabin. Fortunately, since said family cabin is less than a half-hour’s drive from my apartment, I can at least avoid having to spend the night there.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Devon — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:42:46 +0000

Written by the author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns tells of the lives of two Afghani women whose lives intertwine during the chaotic power struggle that has occupied that country during the recent decades. While I didn’t feel that A Thousand Splendid Suns was as moving nor as powerful as The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns is definitely geared toward a different audience, so my take on the novel might be a bit biased. I think it’s safe to say that females will relate much better to the characters in Hosseini’s latest book than to those in The Kite Runner. As an older brother, I thought some parts of A Thousand Splendid Suns to be more disturbing than the graphic nature of The Kite Runner, but that stems more from my revulsion of misogyny rather than any overly graphic content.

Library Folding@Home team takes lead

Devon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:45:52 +0000

The Harold B. Lee Library’s Folding@Home took this lead this morning as the top-scoring team at BYU. Congratulations, and thanks to those who have donated their CPU cycles to such a worthy cause. Now that the HBLL team leads at BYU, their next goal is to overtake the teams at Yale, U Minn, and the University of Oklahoma.

Also of note, the author of The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, passed away today after his extended battle with pancreatic cancer. If you want to show your support for his widow and children, the easiest (and most meaningful) way is to purchase a copy of his book.

BYU trying to make it’s campus less environmentally friendly

Devon — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:22:29 +0000

In an effort to simultaneously improve the aesthetics of the campus and melt the remaining ice at the poles, BYU will be removing the bike racks located at the sides of the Harold B. Lee Library. The official explanation is that BYU is trying to be a “walking-only” campus, which honestly would be a great idea, except that a large number of the students who attend classes here, in addition to many of university’s employees, don’t live within walking distance.

Three Cups of Tea

Devon — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:50:13 +0000

Wow. I might actually catch up on my summer reading list at this rate. Three Cups of Tea was a good read, if not particularly captivating, somewhat due to the rather stop-and-go narration found throughout the book. The book undoubtedly leaves the reader inspired to do more to help children who are unable to receive a good education, but inadequately covers the post-9/11 era up to the its time of writing.

Oakenfold it is!

Devon — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:40:28 +0000

Yep. Decision made. I’ll be going to the Oakenfold concert @ In The Venue on Saturday. Between that and watching The Dark Knight up at the IMAX in Sandy, my entertainment budget for this pay period is pretty much shot. Not so much because of the cost of tickets, but the cost of a tank of gas to make two trips up to Salt Lake City. Pretty sad when it costs $60 to fill up a ‘96 Honda Accord, but that’s what we get for having such a crappy energy policy. Don’t even get me started on our foreign policy — I can guarantee you that starting a war with Iran is not going to drive oil prices any lower.

Today, I ordered/purchased most of the few remaining things I need to install new solar screens on our apartment’s west- and south-facing windows. I figure it’s cost me about $450 altogether, but that’s including the half-roll of solar screen I won’t need in addition to all of the tools I’ve purchased to be able to assemble and install the screens. I think my lightbulb-replacement project was much more economical (and, truth be told, will probably have the most effect.) Oh well, it’ll at least give me plenty of experience with windows screens - hurray for that.