Catching up on life

Well, it's certainly been a while. My company released the latest version of its product yesterday. My life for the last month had been living hell up until Saturday, when we got everything done. It wasn't bad enough that I did 16 hour days for the last two weeks (including on the President's day holiday). No, I topped it off by showing up to work last Thursday morning at 10:00 and not leaving work (except for an hour shower break) until Saturday around 5:00 PM. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, where did Karl sleep? But that would be assuming that I did sleep, which is a mighty big assumption. As a matter of fact, I took a 2 hour nap Friday morning, and an hour nap Saturday morning. Besides being might cranky after waking up from the Saturday nap, I think I fared pretty well. Of course, then I slept a total of 13 hours Saturday night to make up for things. But hey, now I can relax a little and take some vacation in a few weeks.

To reward us for this past month, my company gave all of the development team mini-iPods on Monday. Usually they get us something, like jackets or shirts, for major milestones like this. This year it was mini-iPods. It's an extraordinary gesture, but I'm in much less of a position to appreciate it. I mean, why do I want a little gold thing with an Apple on it polluting my house? Besides, my PocketPC plays music just fine. Although my PocketPC isn't as small and doesn't have as much disk space. But it can play (good) games, give me GPS directions, connect to the internet anywhere and everywhere, and sync up all my appointments. So I'm thinking if I have a choice between carrying a PocketPC and an iPod, the PocketPC wins out. But I hate to seem ungrateful. Anyone want to buy an iPod for a somewhat discounted price?

Speaking of PocketPCs, I had to trade the replacement in—the screen was all buggy. So my new replacement works just nicely. Plus, they sent me one with a newer chipset (255 instead of 250). Which was kind of inconvenient, since you can't do a restore to a newer chipset.

As for law school applications (yes, I'm applying to law school, despite the fact that I don't think I've mentioned this before. But with an LSAT score of 168, having not even studied for the test, I figure I'll give it a shot. I'm bored of my job). I heard back from Texas, Georgetown, and BYU last month (which was like really really quick--less than 2 week turnaround time), and I'm accepted to all of them. I'm thinking BYU is right out, but Texas and Georgetown are neck and neck. Meanwhile, I'm holding out for Harvard or Berkeley or RAND. Apparently since they're harder to get into, they take their sweet time getting back to you. It may be another month and a half before I hear from them. Sigh. I'm also starting to get a bit concerned about finances. I filled out some financial aid applications, and I'm afraid the fact that I've had a job for the last three years might work against me. Plus I had to show my parent's income because Harvard requires you to do so unless you've been independent for 7 years (I've only been independent for 5).

On the athletic front, it's almost frisbee season again. I'm feeling almost entirely injury free (after may false starts), so I'll be restarting my workout program with the goal of leaving BYU with an intramural championship. We've got a really stacked team this spring (assuming I'm healthy), so it shouldn't be too hard. A bunch of us got tired of spreading the good players thin in the name of competitive balance, and then watching a bunch of guys who know nothing about frisbee win purely on athleticism.

And as for dating, well despite how busy I am, I've been seeing a few people. There's one girl I'm seeing a lot of (even took her out on Valentine's). But I can't decide if I'm interested in her or not.

So that's life. I'm sure there's tons of other stuff going on that I'm not mentioning (e.g. family and such), but there's no time to account for it. Just gotta press on.

Posted 10:22 PM | Comments (1)

South Fork Bonfire

Burning a whole bunch of things at South Fork park.

After a wonderfully sunny and warm March day, full of Ultimate and yard work, I went up to South Fork park tonight and burned things. And by things I mean wood. We took that huge pile of wood in our backyard, loaded it up in a truck, and went up there. Of course we burned food as well. Did you know Dorittos put off a very bright flame? It's fascinating. Anyway, it was a just a whole bunch of the usual people from the ward, celebrating the Equinox, and we watched the Wedding Singer afterwards. Here's pictures and video:

• Pictures
• Video (5:01)

Posted 04:41 PM | Comments (1)

More catching up on life

It's vacation time! Yep, time for the annual Spring Training trip to Phoenix. But first, maybe a little update on the last few weeks.

At work, I've been touching up docs and making the slow transition to development. We're working on a more comprehensive dashboard solution, and I've been put on that team. Right now we're still in the product design stage. It's going to be a lot of work. Meanwhile, Mardell's supposed to be finding another tech writer. By the way, I sold the iPod they gave me to some guy in San Diego. I got $250 for it (which was the retail price). It's all about supply and demand, and iPods are in very short supply.

As for law school, no word yet from Virginia, Harvard, Berkeley, or RAND. BYU's offered a scholarship, but no word from Georgetown. I talked to an LDS guy from Georgetown on the phone a few weeks ago and was pretty impressed. I was also pretty impressed at a luncheon I went to at BYU--although I get the impression that the cool professor who sat at my table (a black woman who graduated from Berkeley and who I later saw quoted in a CNN article) was more of the exception than the rule. I think that except for price, I'm leaning heavily towards Georgetown. Although I'd really love to be back in Texas. I'm planning a trip to check out both schools around Easter.

Church stuff is kind of hectic. We got a new Stake Presidency. Saia got engaged, so I haven't had a functioning 1st counselor in forever. Because of Stake Conference and Easter and General Conference and vacation, I'll miss 4 of 5 Sundays. So it's crazy and disorganized. One cool thing we did recently was a Man of the 229th Ward competition. A whole bunch of us got together at the Crandall's and we had a decathlon of events like Street Fighter, Fusbol, Darts, Mario Kart, a Standing Long Jump, Spelling Bee, and so on. Roger ended up winning, but only because Lori proposed a last competition—improvising a poem in front of the judges (Lori, Natalie, Sharolyn, and Becky) that began "Roses are Red." As we all know, I'm not terribly good at improvising love poems (I got too caught up trying to make real poetry instead of being funny and appealing to the audience). Roger did a pretty good job of sucking up to all four judges and being funny, so he won. Of course, now I can think of what to say, but oh well.

Athletics is getting better. The orthotics and training exercises are really starting to help. I'm just wearing them for Frisbee and basketball, but I can tell the difference. I've been training for about a month now—weights and the exercise bike 3 or 4 times a week. And just this week it's getting light enough for Tuesday-Thursday Frisbee. Plus, we started volleyball at the church on Tuesday. Our main intention was to kill a basketball game that had gotten out of hand, but we had over 20 people there to play, plus a lot of people I haven't seen in forever. Anyway, I'm feeling better than I have in a long time, and I'm looking forward to Frisbee season.

As for my personal life, I'm still seeing Angela on occasions. I've also gone out thrice with a girl named Jamie. Becky introduced me to her at a couple of parties she threw together, and I was impressed enough to ask her. She's a Computer Science major. She has a pretty good since of humor (and I guess by good I mean similar to my own—very sarcastic) and is cute and a brunette. Plus she really likes rock-climbing and other outdoor stuff. So I took her to see Jakob the Liar at the International Cinema back the first weekend in March. That went well, so I took her to a company dinner the next week at Tucanos. Then we watched Second Hand Lions (which was an awesome movie, by the way—almost as good as Big Fish). Then just yesterday I took her to see Jane Eyre at the Hale Centre Theater. That too went pretty well, so I guess I'll continue to ask her out. Except she's moving to Houston at the end of April, so that might put a damper on things.

Posted 10:48 PM | Comments (1)

The Road to Phoenix

Time for the most important event of the month: the second annual baseball Spring Training trip. Like last year, we're taking a couple of days off to drive down to Phoenix and watch baseball (particularly my favorite team—the Texas Rangers) and be warm (it's been unseasonably warm in Utah this last week, but I'm hoping the forecast is right and it will rain and be cold while we're away just so I can brag). However, I'm going with an entirely different group—Lori (who couldn't go last year because of a Microeconomics conference), Amber Morris, and Joralys. Amber decided to go because she was stressed out with work, and Joralys decided to go because she loves baseball and one of her brothers played professionally for a while.

So how is it that I ended up on this baseball trip alone with three women (not that I'm complaining, of course—3 women and baseball, what more could a guy ask for)? Well, Mark was supposed to go, but about 2 weeks ago he backed out because he couldn't get that much time off and still have some time left for his honeymoon (oh, yeah, he's getting married to Krista in June. They're such a good couple). Mike decided to go on some kayaking trip instead (which he subsequently back out of). Kyle decided he didn't want to spend 20 hours in a car over the course of 4 days. Erika (who I hadn't even seen for half a year until a few weeks ago at Stake Conference) had back problems and couldn't sit in a car for that long. And various other people backed out as well, including Patrick who didn't even tell us he was backing out—he just wasn't home when we came to pick him up and didn't answer his phone.

Anyway, we spent all of today on the road. We left Provo around 10 or so. Amber entertained us at first by reading from Lori's book—"The 5 People You Meet in Heaven." We made it half way through the book (which was okay reading—kind of got on my nerves in some places for being a little preachy) before we stopped in Kan Kun for lunch. Well, okay, it was a Mexican restaurant named Kan Kun sitting right off the Interstate in Beaver. The food was okay. And then there was the gas station with the giant-sized rocking chair right next to it. Then we got on Highway 20 and cut on over to Highway 89, which was a great drive—very scenic in the Spring time. It reminds me of passing through some quiet European valley with little villages sprinkled all over the place. I liked Kanab especially. It was during this drive that we entertained ourselves by making Lori a CD with a lot of random music like Sting, and then made Joralys a CD with a lot of Dixie Chicks on it. Then, by complete accident, we took a scenic detour down 89A in Arizona. This was totally different scenery—more desert-like and dry, but still pretty cool. It took us down within an hour of the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and we were thinking of going since we were so close anyway, but it was still closed for Winter. That made me sad. The most interesting part of the drive from there was a town called "The Gap" which has a really really old and cool looking gas station, but strangely enough no Gap outlet. That was at about sunset, so the rest of the drive wasn't as scenic, although we did get some pretty interesting pictures at another gas station with Cowboy and Indian cut-outs and a fake prison. We stopped outside of Flagstaff for dinner (McDonalds—it was kind of lame), and got into Phoenix about 10:00.

Lori's great-aunt and uncle were kind enough to give us a place to stay. They're a cute old couple—the uncle was standing outside with a flashlight when we arrived, just so we'd know which house it was. He must have been standing there for half an hour at least. We took few minutes to settle in, then we watched Seinfeld while we tried to see the images in the Magic Eye books in their basement (you know—the ones with pictures that look like noise but supposedly have a 3D image). Amber was the only one who could see them. I think it's all a big conspiracy.

The ladies all fell asleep during Seinfeld (which ended at midnight). So I guess it's now my turn. Good night.

Posted 12:56 PM | Comments (1)

Spring Training Day 1

Ah, what a beautiful day. We woke up this morning around 10 or so—at least I did, I think they woke up a bit earlier. Then we decided to see the Mariners and Giants this afternoon, and Texas and Milwaukee tonight. So we went straight to the first game in Peoria, which was a good idea because it got really crowded really quickly, and had we not been there by noon it would have been hard to find a place to lay down. We had some lunch before the game (mmm, Brotwurst), and then had a lot of sun. The game itself wasn't that great. The Giants were split-squad and Barry Bonds wasn't there. But the Mariners ahd their full roster. Jamie Moyer pitched and Ichiro hit pretty well—it was fun watching him beat out an infield single. The Mariners won pretty handily. Meanwhile, Amber got a sunburn because she didn't worry about sunscreen until halfway through the game. Lori and Joralys got a little burned as well, but I got almost nothing, even though all I used was some SPF 4 lotion. After the game we had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, right across the street. This was a very clever tactic, because we just walked there and left our car in the lot, while everybody else battled each other to get out of the parking lot. The food was pretty good. I had the Catfish, and that was great (and I'm emphasizing great here to spite Lori who doesn't like seafood at all). Then we stopped at a Walmart to pick up a few odds and ends. I ended up with sunglasses, a lot of bottled water, and more writeable CDs for the trip home. Lori ended up with a new wardrobe. Then we went to go pick up Big Jake, who just arrived in town. He's down here for his brother's wedding tomorrow. We all went to the evening game in Surprise, which was considerably less crowded. The night air was nice and cool and refreshing. This ended up being a tight and entertaining game. But alas, Milwaukee won 1-0. Despite a gem by Kenny Rogers, the Rangers had a split-squad out there, and the only ones who could bat were Mench and Nix. After the game, there were fireworks, and then we all went the cheesecake factory where Jake ate, and the rest of us had cheesecake. It was good cheesecake, but I was so full afterwards. By then we were all pretty tired and decided to come home. We pretty much went straight to bed.

Posted 01:04 PM | Comments (1)

Spring Training Day 2

Yet another great day for baseball. The weather's been perfect—just hot enough in the day time to make you feel like getting lemonade, but not too hot to be outside. And then just cool enough at night to cool you off. This morning I got up a little earlier and Lori's great aunt and uncle made us an awesome omelet with homemade salsa and grapefruit fresh off the tree in their backyard. Then we drove out to Surprise to see the Rangers again. They were playing the White Sox. It was a great game. Chan Ho Park was on the mound and despite a rough start did pretty well. The Rangers held on for a 4-3 win. I think Surprise was our favorite stadium—not too crowded, and intimate enough that we felt like we were down on the field. But we were tired of sun by the end. Lori and Joralys hid under an umbrella, while Amber had to go buy a hat to shelter her from the sun. I was alright, but feeling a little dehydrated myself. After the game, we drove back into Phoenix to visit the Dillard's Clearance Outlet that Lori's great-aunt told us about. Apparently I won big points for being willing to go shopping with three women. I ended up getting a few things myself, actually—some shorts, swimming trunks, and two summer shirts. Amber got a pink dress, while Lori bought a whole new wardrobe again (well, most of them were Easter dresses). I think she ended up with about 8 dresses for $75 or something like that. She thought it was a steal. After that, we headed back to Peoria to see the Padres and Cubs. Despite both teams having a full lineup, that game wasn't nearly as fun. The Padres rocked the Cubs, and Sammy Sosa couldn't hit a thing. Plus it was super crowded. We got there late, so it was pretty hard to find a seat. Luckily Joralys is a pretty bold person, and she dropped our blanket right in the middle of the crowd and despite a few grumbling, we had a place to sit. We decided to leave the game early, since it was going so bad. Jake called us, having finished with the wedding, and we met him outside the stadium. Then we went to have dinner at In'n'out, which has franchises in Phoenix now (seems kind of lame to me—takes away the novelty of it). They were good burgers, though. And then we rented "The Rookie" and watched it over at Lori's great-aunt and uncle's house, before Jake had to go home and we all went to bed. It was a pretty fun day. On a side note, I actually saw something in the Magic Eye book. So maybe it isn't a conspiracy.

Posted 01:10 PM | Comments (1)

Bye Bye Baseball

Sadly enough, we had to come home today. We had a late start—all of us slept much longer than we had intended. We had some cereal for breakfast, and were out the door around 10 or so. The drive up to Flagstaff was uneventful—Lori and I both spent some the time calling people in the ward about various items of business, and then After that Lori and Joralys started scanning through my music trying to create CDs. They cam up with a huge list, not even getting through half the alphabet. Flagstaff was surprisingly cold, and there was snow at the top of the mountain. What a contrast to Phoenix. (And it pretty much stayed cold from Flagstaff back into Utah). We stopped there to eat lunch at a Jack-in-the-Box, which really excited Joralys and I, since there's so many Jack-in-the-boxes in Texas (oh yeah, Joralys is from Houston). From there, we had some pretty good scenery and a lot of conversation. Lori and I had an awful lot of fun talking about the absolutely most random things. I only ended up making a couple of CDs—a Sunday music one for Lori, and an Alanis Morrisette CD for Joralys. And before we knew it, it was dark. As soon as he hit the freeway, we all started making calls to people—I can't believe how many relatives Lori's able to keep track of. We ate at a Subway about an hour's south of Provo, and then made it back around 10—just barely missed ward prayer. I unpacked, and now it's time for bed.

Posted 11:13 PM | Comments (2)

FHE Pictures

The Ward Watches Ryan Present about South Africa

Here's some pictures from tonight's FHE activity. The whole ward met over at the Haws' house for an "International" event, and since I had so much fun with the camera all weekend, I thought I'd capture a few faces in the ward before I'm tired of the camera again.

• Pictures

Posted 11:27 PM | Comments (1)

Spring Training Pictures and Video

Watching the Rangers at Spring Training

Well, here's the long awaited pictures and video from the Spring Training trip last weekend. Loads of fun, I'm telling you. Enjoy.

• Pictures
• Video (19:14)

Posted 01:37 PM | Comments (1)