Jacob’s Blog

It wasn’t democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski. It was Republican State Senator Bruce Starr. He wrote it, and brought it up before the state legislature. Starr was the principle sponsor of the bill, but when legislative leaders blocked a vote on it, did Starr get help from Kulongoski? Not really.

Jessica’s Law mandates convicted molesters of children 17 years of age and under serve a minimum prison sentence of 25 years.

Bruce Starr drafted a ballot measure and began collecting signatures. Only when it became clear that the public overwhelmingly supported Jessica’s Law, was the bill brought up in a special session of which Kulongoski urged the Legislature to “limit its attention.”

Finally, it passed and Kulongoski signed Jessica’s Law into law. And now Kulongoski wants to take credit for the whole thing.

Please read this excellent editorial, about just how offensive it is that Kulongoski wants to take credit for Jessica’s law, when true credit should go to Bruce Starr.

I’m not sure what I think about all these “The” movies. I think they should come out with a movie called, “The Blogger” or “The Insomniac.”

The Prestige was one of those movies which tries to keep you in the dark about some fact only to reveal it to you in the end. Of course, I’m not going to tell you what it is, but it is a little better than, “Oh, the aliens don’t like water.” I figured some of their secrets out a little early, which either makes me think that they were too obvious or that I’m still missing something.

Overall, the movie was interesting, but it did some of that time jumping that I thought was overly excessive and confusing. It was so bad that I’m still not exactly sure the order of some of the events.

Two thematic elements of the movie are secrets and obsessions which I’m concluding are both bad.

This movie is not scary, not overly exciting during parts, but makes you think a little bit. Watch it with friends because you will probably want to talk about it when you are done. A movie to see, but I wouldn’t recommend haste to see it. I can’t remember any musical score, which probably means that it wasn’t exceptional. It is PG-13, probably because there is hatred and death in the movie.

A friend of mine about a week ago got her wallet stolen by a black man going door to door soliciting donations for Hurricane Katrina victims.

This happened in University Villa. Myself and other residents at University Villa remember seeing this guy come around last summer. Apparently he is looking for “donations” but also looking for opportunities for easy theft as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if he has been spotted at apartment complexes all over Provo.

If you see this man, use discretion. In this case and other similar cases, it may be appropriate to call the police immediately and alert them to suspicious individuals. Never let a stranger access into your apartment. Maybe if we can keep ourselves and our neighbors alert about this guy and other dangers that occur even in Provo, we can help prevent another victim.

After almost two months of work and waiting, I finally found out today that Portland State has recognized me as a resident of Oregon, which basically means that I pay less tuition. I’m glad they were so wise. I would hate to have had to use a picture of my webbed toes in an appeal.

Oregon Measure 43:

Requires 48-hour notice to unemancipated minor’s parent before providing abortion.

Currently in Oregon, anyone 15 years or older may consent to and obtain an abortion without parental notification. So let me get this straight. If you are 15 and miss a day of school, the school phone robot calls home to let the parents know. If you are 15 and want to get a body piercing, you have to have parental consent and accompaniment. But if you are 15 and want to get an abortion, the parent doesn’t even need to be notified.

I’m voting in favor of Measure 43. It just makes sense that a parent of a minor should at least be notified before their child gets an abortion.

I’m taking a solid-state physics class at PSU, and I just got the results back for the first mid-term exam today. I got 83% right before “the curve” and 93% after the curve, which means that I got an A. This is really good news because I could really enjoy an A grade in the class.

The thing though is, the exam wasn’t that hard. At BYU professors had the attitude of “Why should I test you on anything you’ve seen before?” This exam was fairly straight forward and mostly stuff that was familiar from the lectures or the homework. I really liked the straight forwardness of the exam and I wish my classes at BYU could do that.

I got back to Hillsboro today after watching BYU deliver a decimation to UNLV: 52 to 7. The win (and an Air Force loss to SDSU) puts BYU on top of the Mountain West Conference standings. While the game didn’t contain a lot of suspense, it was an awesome game, in the literal sense that I’m filled with awe about what BYU is capable of. Seriously, I am very impressed with the athleticism of the players and the team in general.

I also wanted to thank some friends who made watching the game very enjoyable. Thank you: C, C, S, W, A, K, K, B, and R. Having good friends like you makes life tons better. I love all of your guts.

This week is homecoming week at BYU. Of course the highlight will be the football game with BYU beating UNLV, and I’m going to be there! To get excited, I thought I would share a UofU joke I found on facebook:

Q: What is the difference between the U. of U. football team and a bowl of Cheerios?

A: The Cheerios belong in a bowl!

Lighter of Lamps? Fits in well with “Alive in You,” “Firm in the Fire,” and “Never stand still.”

Jacob has been a very popular name over the last couple of years. Of course, I was named Jacob before it was quite so popular. The meaning of the name Jacob is Held by the heel and has Hebrew origins.

I’m not really sure what that means, “held by the heel.” I mean, I can envision someone being held by their heel, but I’m not really sure what the significance of it is.

Jacob is a biblical name. It is used in the Old Testament, and also in certain translations of the New Testament. It is also used in the Book of Mormon.

A few months ago there was a discussion on ProvoPulse.com about blogs and how they can be public and representative of their authors. I’ve given that discussion a fair amount of thought. Continue reading My secret blog…

I’ll be in Provo starting next Wednesday night through Sunday morning. So far, the only thing I have planned is the Homecoming Parade and Football game, although I would love to do additional things, so suggestions are welcomed. I think I would really enjoy going out on a date, but that probably won’t happen because setting one up from two states away is kind of difficult.

A few weeks ago I talked about a box truck crashing into an awning at BYU. As an update to that post, I’m posting the photo of the damage. I’ve also seen the awning a little bit ago, and I’ve come to the conclusion that yes, they should bother to fix it up. I think maybe they should also tell their drivers not to crash into things anymore.

Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to post a picture and have links to friends. On Facebook, you can view all your friends photos as a grid. To do this, select “My Friends” from the left menu, and then select “—-” from the drop down menu next to the text “Show.” Normally it will show “All Friends” or “Recently Updated” friends, but if you select to show “—-” then you get the grid. These images here are scaled down because I have so many friends it would take too much space to show everyone in full size.

• If we fail to plan, we plan to fail
• Preparation is key
• The hardest thing to know is how to use what we know
• Expect good from people
• We need to improve in our plan to improve

I’ve been doing some research into socks for hiking and backpacking. I need some new adventure socks. I found a page at REI that describes how to choose socks. The page is helpful and straight forward.

If I’ve met Everett Curry, it was only briefly, but I have a lot of respect for him and what he wants to do for the State of Oregon. Curry is running toward Salem to be a State Representative.

Curry seems like a good, honest man with morals. His campaign has been clean; I don’t even know who he is running against, which is evidence that Curry has run a positive campaign. Curry also seems like he is a hard worker, without personal agenda, just trying to do the right thing.

I’ve decided without any provocation or incentive to write this blog post. I’m doing so because I really like Curry. Please join me in voting Everett Curry for State Representative.

If you would like to learn more about Everett Curry, please visit his election website at www.VoteForCurry.org . Oh, and he is a ham radio operator, which I think is pretty cool.