For a Moment, I Was a Champion

We had a team off-site today which involved go-kart racing. There were three groups of 8. Each group did two races and then we had a finals race of the fastest 12 people. I made it into the champions race and got 6th place. Dead middle, that's not the exciting part, I live my life in the dead middle of the advanced crowd (if that makes sense). The champion part came in my second race. I scored the fastest lap of the day. Of our group, nobody beat my lap time of 40.52 seconds. There were people crowding around me to ask my advice, people wanted to hear what I did, what it was like, what was my secret.

All the fame and attention lasted about 3 1/2 minutes before they went on with their normal lives, but it was actually very satisfying to have people rushing up to greet me. What a rush. I was literally shaking form all the adrenaline.

So it seems I've used up about one fifth of my 15 minutes of fame. I wonder what's next, maybe I'll make it to the 10 o'clock news !!!

Good analogy for how we progress through life

Flowerpots from Crictor on Vimeo.

Tips for Surviving the New Depressions

Surviving the New Depression: Tip #34 from Steve Delahoyde on Vimeo.

Coming Soon to a Boom Box Near You

This is what I did with most of my day today. I was very much inspired by the realistic-looking icons Mac OS X has for printers. I'm working on a web site for the Church and needed an image of a cassette tape. Finding a high-res image of a cassette tape proved a little more lame that I thought (that is, until a co-worker showed me tapedeck.org). So I grabbed an image of the current LDS Catalog site and more-or-less traced it. The fun/challenging part was adding the color. That is what made it realistic and that is where I pulled in the expertise of my co-worker.

And while I'm showing off things I've done at work, check out LDS Account. It's a service that the church is offering which will (eventually) allow you to sign in to nearly any online service the church provides. Currenly there are few services our there that utilize it simply because it's so new. Eventually your Stake and Ward websites will use it. But now you are in the know.

I Think I Just Got Punked

Here is an exchange I had with a lady sitting on a corner downtown (verbatim, as far as memory serves):

Lady: So how's your McDonalds?

Me: Huh?

Lady: How's your McDonalds? Is it good food?

Me: Yeah, I think they have pretty good food nowadays.

Lady: Hmm. I think I might do carry-out. That might be nice.

Me: Yeah.

Lady: Carry-out, just like they did Mildred.

Me: yup ...


This is what I love about working downtown.

On a Lighter Note,

This looks really comfortable

Agency

I want to make something clear. My religion is not superstition. I would like you to think of what “superstition” means. I think of somebody kissing a frizzy-haired doll before their bingo number is called: no grasp on cause and effect. The connection between the two events exists only in the mind. I learned cause and effect in science class. Correlation does not mean causation.

I have seen people treat their religion like a superstition and I have seen people treat religion like reality. There is a key difference between these two behaviors. The first, treating religion superstitiously, is dangerous. This is likely to result in learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a psychological condition that happens then the person can’t detect a pattern in their actions and their consequences. That is to say, they feel they have no control over their situation, whatever they do is futile. They have learned to feel helpless.

When you realize, however, that religion is reality, and that God does in reality live, you begin a constant journey of converting faith into knowledge (Alma 32). And as you travel down this path, you gain a sense that you are truly an agent unto yourself (D&C 58:28).

Salvation By Haircut

This post is for Katie. If you get to talking to her about the BYU honor code, she will tell you exactly what she thinks about it. To save you the suspense, I'll tell you that she is against it. And this always raises a good amount of controversy, especially since a number of our extended family have strong feelings in favor of the h0nor code. Me? As is typical, I can see both sides of the argument. In this day and age, it's comforting to know that there is a place that does not relax its standards to appear in vogue with the rest of the world. However, we can never learn for ourselves until we are able to exercise free will.

This morning I was reading on Wikipedia about Hugh Nibley, a superstar LDS Scholar. Brother Nibley had been a professor at BYU from 1946 until 1975, but continued teaching there as a professor emeritus until 1994. I feel confident that he was familiar with the BYU Honor Code. Katie will be interested to know that Hugh Nibley was very critical about the some of the ways in portions the Honor Code are enforced. He notes that

The worst sinners, according to Jesus, are not the harlots and publicans, but the religious leaders with their insistence on proper dress and grooming, their careful observance of all the rules, their precious concern for status symbols, their strict legality, their pious patriotism... the haircut becomes the test of virtue in a world where Satan deceives and rules by appearances. Taken from The Lord's University: Freedom and Authority at BYU

In other words, little can be profited by an overactive focus on the dress and grooming of the students. I'm not suggesting that the relaxing of the BYU Honor Code will produce better Laatter-day Saints. I am suggesting that we all put first in our minds our relationship to Jesus Christ in our daily lives. Do we know Christ, and is His image in our countenance?

Tagged

As infrequently as I post on this blog, I figured I should jump on her invitation to fill out this little blog meme so all both of my readers will get to know me better. But since one of those readers is Katie, I guess this one goes out to the other reader.

10 Years Ago: I had probably opened my mission call and was reading about Virginia in an encyclopedia (note, wikipedia was not even a gleam in Jimmy Wales' eye). It's also possible that I was getting ready to go on a date with Trinity McDermaid, my biggest crush at the time.

5 Years Ago: I had recently proposed to my girlfriend Katie (my biggest crush at that time ... come to think of it, she's still my biggest crush). She had just scratched the surface of how angry she could be at one human being (me). I'm thinking we've gotten just below the surface now.

5 Months Ago: I was getting ready for the strangest job switch in my short professional history. I was going to quit one company and work for another just so I could keep doing what I had been doing. I had been working as a contractor through STG for the LDS Church and I was hiring on full-time at the Church.

5 things on my to-do list today:

1. Work on designs for magazine subscription site
2. Ride my bike to TRAX
3. Attend an HTML workshop put on by mah peeps at work
4. Come home to my loving wife
5. Await her instructions concerning my after-work to-do list

5 snacks I enjoy:

1. M & Ms
2. Cookie Dough
3. Ice cream
4. Graham crackers and Cool Whip™ Free
5. Chips & Salsa

5 thinks I would do if I were suddenly a millionaire:

1. New car (a Mini Cooper)
2. Server Room
3. Media Room
4. New computer(s)
5. Ice Cream for everyone

5 of my bad habits:

1. Bad Speling
2. Procrastination
3. Clutter
4. Not following through
5. Easily distrac

5 places I have lived:

1. Salt Lake
2. Sandy
3. Farmville
4. Orem
5. Draper

5 jobs I have had:

1. Buddy Beeper
2. Cell phone salesman
3. Antique furniture mover
4. Developer
5. Designer

5 things people don't know about me:

1. I have a secret crush on all 3 of my sisters-in-law (Katie, your sisters are hot)
2. My dream job would be to lecture on philosophy
3. I believe God put me on earth for a very specific purpose (although I don't know exactly what that is)
   
4. My greatest fear is that I will fail at that purpose
   
5. There is no 's' on the end of Grigg

So there you go. That was actually a really cathartic exercise, thanks Katie. 5 people I tag: Drew and Taylor, the Meyers family, The Owens family (even though Katie already tagged them) and Shboogoo.

Un Tooned

Verry talented bloke over at Pixeloo took it upon himself to see what a couple of different cartoon characters would look in real life. This isn't to say, "What would they look like if they were a real person", all he did was take the proportions of the character and apply photo-realistic texture and shading. Based on the comments on his site, Mario is a molester and Homer is a murderer. What do you say?

Written Just For You

It's scary how much companies can learn about you from the data your browser sends to their sites. For the past 5 or 6 years, I've been working as a web developer and have been working on a little project in conjunction with my course work in psychology at the U. At long last I've got something to show. I've written a little program that will take the data that your browser sends and from that, will produce a personality profile. Please read below and tell me how accurate it is so I can tweak the algorithm to be more accurate.

You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker, and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.

Thanks. Please rank on a scale of 1-5, 5 being most accurate. Leave feedback in the comments.





Actually, I've written nothing of the sort. This paragraph was written in 1948 by a psychologist called Bertram Forer as an experiment on one of his psychology classes. If you thought this was pretty accurate, don't feel too badly. We all have a tendency to believe vague-yet-positive statements about our personality that have supposedly been written specifically for us. This is known as the Forer Effect (or Personal Validation Falacy) and has been used to great effect by astrologers, psychics and salesmen that I meet at Home Depot (another story for another time).

So, having said that, how accurate did you honestly think it was? Me? When I encountered this earlier this morning, I would have rated it a 4 out of 5.

I'm Riding A Banana and You Love It

Found this illustration on Al Murphy's site. If you visit dear Al's site, be ware that he's quite fond of the cursing.

Impulse Buy

After visiting a great design blog, I found a website called TypeTrust, which sells fonts and specializes in Typography. Upon visiting, I saw Ventura, a great one-weight script font for under $30. I've never actually paid for a font before, but I think this will be the first in a long line of great fonts for which I'm willing to shell out some hard-earned bucks.

Truth in Advertising

What does it take to become the 34th safest city in America? I was driving to work the other day and I saw a billboard that said something like Welcome to Sandy, the 34th Safest City in America. Let me first say, this struck me as an odd thing to put on a billboard. Second, based on an experience I had the night before, I believe that Sandy is among the 34th safest city in America.
My wife and I were driving to my parent's to pick up a ladder with which to hang a picture high above our stairs. We were waiting at a red light when the very next thing I notice is an explosion (or what seemed like one) right in front of my eyes. After a couple milliseconds, my brain figured out that it was a car accident. Helping this realization was somebody's white company van spinning wildly out of control and heading right for our car. Sitting in the car: my wife, my son and my self. Frightened: my wife and my self. Happy that we were on the way to see grandma and grandpa: my son. The spinning van stopped about 6 feet short of smashing into the passenger side of our car.
As soon as I realized we were out of harm's way, I busted out the trusty cell phone and dialed 911. The funny thing was, by the time the operator picked up, there was one cop on the scene, lights flashing, another waiting in a left-hand turn lane and a third had showed up by the time I hung up the phone with the operator, approximately 10 — 15 seconds after the white van came to rest. As far as I could tell, nobody was hurt. I saw the guy get out of the white van, I never saw the guy in the red mini van that hit the white van but the officer said everyone was all right.
So scary accident notwithstanding, I totally buy that Sandy is a safe city because there were three cops all within 5 minutes of the intersection where this accident took place. Go Sandy City Police Department

Christmas in January

As I was looking through my list of TiVo'd tv shows after watching a disappointing episode of Smash Lab (episode 3), I came across last December's First Presidency Christmas Devotional. From this, two comments stuck with me: one from President Thomas S. Monson and the other from President Gordon B. Hinckley.

President Monson told a story of a Christmas when he was little. His Mom had given him a rather expensive electric train set and he was very excited; it was just what he wanted. His Mom had also bought a wind-up train set for an underprivileged boy; it was a lot cheaper, but it had an oil tanker car that little Tommy Monson's train set didn't have. He begged his Mom to let him have the car. Reluctantly his Mom gave in and let Tommy have the car. They took train set, one car down, over to the boy who loved the train set too. He was unaware of the missing oil car. However, Tommy's conscience soon overcame him and he told his Mom to wait as he ran back to get the boy's oil car; he also grabbed a car from his more expensive train and gave them both to the boy. "The feelings I experienced as I watched his added joy are difficult to describe, yet absolutely impossible to forget." He said he learned that true happiness only comes from making other people happy

It's a simple story, but it stuck with me, probably because it was so simple. It is a concrete example of what the Savior meant when he said that we must become as little children.

President Hinckley's was really only two sentences, I quote them entirely: "How grateful I am for the kindness of people toward me. I frequently think what a different world this would be if all people were treated as well as I am." This shows true humility: he knows his place in this world and that it garners kinder treatment from others. But he also remembers that Christ once said that if ye have done it unto one of the the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

One Week Later

A full week has past since the half marathon (and my last post) but I haven't been able to run at all. I've had a miserable cold/cough. I'm feeling a lot better now, but I'm still coughing enough to nearly shake Katie out of bed.

Hopefully next week I'll be able to pick back up the training. The only question is, what will I be training for ... I can't decide whether I want to train for a faster 1/2 marathon or for a full marathon. Although I recently talked with my boss who's training for the Las Vegas marathon and his training is essentially the same as training for a half marathon, so i may not need to decide quite yet.

Half marathon

I just finished my 4th half marathon in St. George witn my sister in law Lizzie. I finished in about two hours and she came in about 30 min later. She beat her previous time by about 15 min and I finished about when I normally do. However, I'm really pleased with how I finished because my goal was to finish strong, and I finished way stronger than I have in the past. Now I feel like I'm at the point where I should start working on my pacing and I can really start making improvements on my time.