Jacob’s Blog

August 2006 has had the most number of visitor and most number of hits that this website has ever had. About 700 of my visitors of the last month have come through Google searches, while 70 visitors came through an article on ProvoPulse.com, also another 40 or so came to the site because I made a post which commented on a recent Google Blog post.

The words BYU and EFY were some of the post used keywords which brought people to my site.

Thank you to everyone who has visited my site.

Today I read that Google has a service for large organizations to use Google Apps for Your Domain to provide branded email, calendar, and chat services for their specific domain. I have a couple of suggestions.

Why not sell it as a rack mountable computer like the Google Search Appliance?

Also, why not include a Google Groups feature into the bundle?

If you want to sign up for Google Apps, you can do so by following this link.

Update I welcome the Google Talk Gadgets for Hosted Domains, as well as the ability to hit the mail system from my phone. Some of the other new enhancements are cool too. I still would love a groups feature. I think it would be huge for enterprise.

I would like to thank the guys in apartment sixty for letting me crash on their couch tonight. Just another place to rest for the homeless man. I’m looking forward to getting out of Provo and letting this whole homeless game be over.

In other news, I think I’ve been forgotten already by some even though I haven’t even left yet. Maybe it helps answer my prayer today.

If you want to check out someone, I’m already in the cart.

As part of my homelessness, I spent a night camping out in an area in between a couple of University Villa buildings known as the Cove. We had a campfire in the barbecue, pizza, croquette, a shopping cart, and a tent to sleep in. It was more of a party than anything else, so it was pretty fun.

I’m homeless. But I’m not your typical homeless. I have money, a car, a job, just not a place I can currently call my own. See, my summer housing contract ended, and I don’t move into my new place for another week.

I’m not the only one who is homeless. There are perhaps many other BYU students in similar situations. Their summer housing contracts ended around August 19th or so, and their apartment complex where they plan to live fall semester isn’t allowing people to move in until very late in August, or early in September. I even have a friend who was forced to move out on the day before finals.

Most of us homeless are staying with relatives or friends. Some are continuing to stay in their old apartment as their roommates guest even though they have officially checked out. These people keep their things in storage units, in cars, or with friends.

This whole problem of finding a temporary place to stay and a temporary place to keep their stuff is kind of a hassle, and certainly an inconvenience. The problem isn’t small either; I personally know half a dozen people or more in this situation, which makes me believe the problem could reach into the hundreds across the BYU population.

I am asking BYU and Provo housing managers to work together for a solution. Please coordinate a specific date for summer contracts to end and fall contracts to begin. This way students can go from one apartment to another without being homeless in between contract periods. Please work together for solutions that will help the students have positive experiences with housing in Provo.

Its long, curly and soft

–Carson about his chest hair.

Time is funny. We are always running out of it, yet there is always more.

So Maria finally came around at about noon on Saturday, and gave me a perfect checkout. In 30 days (according to the PDF of the BYU Housing Handbook) I should be getting my deposit back, less some money for the last month utilities.

So ever since then I’ve been homeless. I found an apartment that I previously crashed in to crash in again. The only problem is that there hasn’t been any hot water, so my shower was kind of chilly. I guess I can’t complain since I’m not really suppose to be crashing here anyway. Another disadvantage I found was that it was difficult to get the wrinkles out of my white shirt for church.

People seem to be helping me in simple ways. I got a Slurpee within an hour of being homeless. Ryan shared some milk to use with my cereal, and Carson provided the pasta for my Alfredo sauce for dinner.

I’m out! I didn’t sleep a wink, I didn’t even slow down. Everything is out, all my cleaning assignments are done. My neighbors are serving breakfast, which is good. Now I just need to figure out where I’m sleeping tonight.

Maria is suppose to come by to check me out of my apartment. I told her that I would be ready at 10am, which I am, but I wonder when she will actually come around.

Well, except for the vacuuming in my bedroom, all my cleaning assignments are finished. Now all I have to do is get my stuff out. One of my neighbors who works really early mornings cleaning the Wilk was just getting off work and was surprised that I was still at it. In five hours, I can surely get everything out.

Wrapping aluminum foil around the stove burner pans is an art.

I’m still awake and kicking. I finally have everything out of my room and the room is all cleaned up. I just need to vacuum it, and I’ll wait for my roommate to wake up before I do that.

I just have to clean the oven, and get all my stuff from the living room to other places outside the apartment and I’m done.

My roommate Jason left without checking out, and he was suppose to clean the rest of the kitchen, so I really don’t need to worry any of that, because he will just get cleaning charges taken out of his deposit and that is that.

In about thirteen hours, I check out of University Villa. I’ll probably be packing and cleaning for the next 12 hours straight. After I leave, I’ll be homeless in Provo. I’m transferring to Portland State University, but I don’t leave for Oregon until about August 30th. I have a tent and a sleeping bag all ready. Check back on my blog to see how living with out a home goes for me.

After posting the photo of the view from the Y, I thought I would post this photo of the view from Squaw Peak. I didn’t hike up Squaw Peak though, because there is a road to a nice view point. You can click on the thumbnail to see the full photo.

Oh, and for the record, I was with a rather large group of friends in the afternoon.

This is a view of BYU campus as seen from Y Mountain. This photo was taken on one of my hikes to the Y this summer.

Joseph Smith read from James. It is likely that Joseph Smith did not just open to James, but read the Pauline episodes first. Joseph Smith would have been reading over the doctrines of the old church while visiting and investigating the churches in his area at his time.

I believe that Joseph Smith had a personal and deep relationship with Paul. Their lives are parallel. Converted through seeing the Lord, chosen to be a great church leader in building the Church, persecuted, imprisoned, and martyred. It is interesting how the only physical description of Paul comes from Joseph Smith.