Jacob’s Blog

It is already the last week of class for me here at Portland State. I just got my second mid-term back in my physics class, and I got a C on it, which compared to how well I felt that I did, isn’t that bad of a grade. It sends me into the final exam with a B in the class.

I feel that if I were to take this same class at BYU, the test would be more difficult and the grading also would not be so generous; so instead of sitting at a B, I would be struggling to find a passing grade.

I’m suspicious that perhaps classes at Portland State are easier, but because I’m only taking two, the sample size is not large enough to determine such.

Some people write in secret blogs. Some people write so cryptically that no one understands what they are saying anyway. Tonight I hope to achieve both.

I love clean teeth. I mean, I love it when my teeth are clean. I guess I also like it when others teeth are clean, but that takes second place to my own teeth being clean. Fortunately, I haven’t come across appropriate occasion to share a life-saver.

I think I’ve gained some weight this week. Too many pies, cookies, and thanksgiving food. Too little exercise. Maybe the time is appropriate to enact certain plans to keep this putative weight gain from being a problem.

I mentioned a few days earlier that I think I’ve discovered my evil proclivity toward procrastination. I think I get some sort of adrenalin rush off of trying to do things at the last moment. As with many other addictions, there are side effects, and I think at times my addiction messes up my emotional balance. It also causes stress. Fortunately, I’ve gotten pretty good at dealing with this, but that doesn’t mean that over time it can’t wear me down if I don’t seek help in some way or another. It should be a red flag if TV commercials can cause allergic eye reactions. That is unless the commercial happens to be one of those LDS “family: its about time” commercials. They always get me. Actually, there is only about one thing that has a chance to get me, and it is displays of selflessness and love toward others. I’m off topic now, but the point is that I need to find some way to get myself off this addiction.

Sometimes living on a rainy island, isolated from the fears and tears, is worse than riding out the hurricane. Mixing metaphors like it is chocolate chip cookie dough, the seeds being to create new bridges between the worlds. When I reach the other side, will I recognize myself as the person who was worthy enough to harvest the crop? I once thought that I was missing something like crazy nothing, until I found that life-savers dissolve more quickly than one would like. Now I’m afraid to desire that which is departed with fears that I may find the well traveled path. Me and my gang were never enough to resolve the disputes between the heart, fingers, and eyes. Jumping off the train is always scarier than jumping on, but not any more severe than the fright of unknowingly staying on. Angels to comfort; seeing single rather than double; you can help. When I hear the song, I can’t help but to think what if you and I forgot that friendship on the cold night when stars fell from the sky. The most important thing to remember is you. Electrical pulses dancing on the lines, please show me the directions and show me the signs.

BYU beat Utah today with pull-over-mama fashion worthy of never being forgotten.

Because I won’t be there to see it. The last two times BYU beat Utah in football were 2000 and 2001, which were the two seasons that I served my mission in Romania. My freshman year, 1999, BYU lost.

This year I’m in Oregon studying, which means that BYU will probably win because once again I won’t be there to see it.

I have some friends who are friends with BYU basketball player Gavin MacGregor who got some play time tonight. From the game recap:

Walk-on Gavin MacGregor made his first career appearance in the first half. In the second half MacGregor scored his first points as a Cougar. MacGregor also blocked a shot.

Now apparently these friends have taken to calling Gavin, “Gavinpants.” I’m not sure exactly why, but I remember being around these friends when Gavin called on the telephone only to hear them shout, “Gavinpants.”

One of these friends blogged about the game and cheering for “Gavinpants” (worth the read), and I thought I would like to hear at least the parts where Gavin played, and I excerpted those parts in this mp3 file (about 1 minute).

One thing that impressed me generally about the game is the second half dominance by BYU. I’ve watched so many games where the first half was commanding, only to loose the commanding lead early in the second half. That didn’t happen with this game, and I’m glad.

I think I finally figured out what is wrong with me. I promised myself I wouldn’t blog until my test is over later today, but I wanted to write it down lest I forget.

My problem is that my biggest (and sometimes only effective) motivator is urgency, which is why I tend to procrastinate. The problem is that urgency also causes stress which starts messing with my head and emotions and throws the rest of me out of balance.

I don’t know why urgency is such a big motivator in comparison to other things, and I don’t know how to change it, but at least identifying it might help me.

I’ll explain more later, after the test is done.

The following article is from 2006. Click here for 2007 Las Vegas Bowl information.

I’m not all knowing when it comes to football bowl games, but I do know enough to try and guess. The number 4 team from the Pac-10 will go to the Las Vegas Bowl to play BYU. It could be any of these teams: Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, and Washington State.
Continue reading Who will BYU play in the Las Vegas Bowl…

Today BYU will become the Mountain West Conference football champions. All they have to do is beat New Mexico at home. To get psyched up, I went to Google Video to watch some clips. I’ve been in Oregon and haven’t seen but one game on TV and one game live, and I don’t think I fully realized just how talented of a team BYU really is. Amazing. I’ve been listening to the games from KSL.com, and I know the team is good. They are really good. Normally during the last home game of the season they present blankets or whatever to the seniors on the team after the game. This year they are honoring the seniors before the game. I think that is because they want to leave time after the game to announce the championship and the bid to the Las Vegas bowl.

While I was at Google Video, I came across some video of Men’s basketball from last year. Specifically the most amazing BYU comeback I’ve ever seen. I was there, live, in the Marriott Center. It was truly amazing. With just over a minute left, I might had even lost hope in a BYU win, but I was wrong, and I was amazed. I hate to admit it, but watching this clip (below) I almost got a little teary eyed. allergies I’m sure. Anyway, hopefully we will continue to be amazed through the winter with BYU basketball.

It stopped raining today. It was so great that I opened the window. But you really don’t care about the weather here, do you?

I made my pie, and I’ve eaten most of it. I’m not generally a calorie counter, but I figure as long as I don’t eat more than half of the pie in a day, I’ll live.

I accidentally fell asleep early last night. I was going to take a quick nap before the eight o’clock television hour, but I ended up sleeping through until midnight. So what do you do when you wake up at midnight? I read some blogs and went back to bed, although I didn’t sleep very well, but it didn’t bother me. For most of the night I felt like I was just kind of floating on day dreams, but during the night. That didn’t make sense, but oh, well, swallow. Sad thing is that I slept in this morning too.

Jennifer once told me that punctuation is an art and something to be passionate about. I’m not sure if I’m passionate about it, but I do think it is an art. Following the metaphor, my punctuation is like throwing cans of paint at a wall.

Why do all bombs on the TV shows have wires where if you cut the right colored wire it disarms the device? I bet that in real life it doesn’t work that way.

Is spirit matter? It doesn’t seem to be a solid, liquid, or gas. Maybe the type of matter of which spirit is composed exists in an alternate dimension, meaning, not height, width, nor depth, but spirit. Scientists claim there are at least 11 dimensions, maybe spirit is one of them.

Having been reading many blogs recently, I think I observe a trend of frustration and stress. I think this might be due to the fact that many are working hard at school in a stretch of hard work right before the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m kind of stressed out too. But I think that if we all spend a moment to think of one or two of the things we enjoy, and then do those things, then we can see a reprieve in the rains and storms that come out ways.

Someone told me they loved me the other day. Well, actually, they just wrote it and I read it. I’m pretty sure they were meaning the kind of friendly platonic sort of love, but it felt good anyway.

Change is a funny thing. I mean, sometimes we grow up in life expecting things to be a certain way when we are a certain age. And then we reach that age, and it isn’t what we thought it would be like. Do we give up our dream and follow some more practical ideology, or do we continue to follow our dreams trusting that we will someday grasp them?

Ah, my heart doth ache for that which doth not disappoint.

School was good today, I actually got some good studying done on the train to school. Solid state physics is all about crystals. Mostly silicon crystals, although sometimes we talk about hard carbon ones.

Its another rainy, blowy, Oregon day. I really like it, especially with the new waterproof coat that I bought myself. It is a little chilly, but I just put my hood on, and all the wind and the chills and the rain stay outside, and the good warm feelings stay inside.

As soon as I got home, I got this incredible desire for pie, specifically, pumpkin pie. The Sara Lee pumpkin pie went even more on sale this week, and is now less than a dollar fifty per pie. But the thing is, I know I should be cutting back on sweets and things so I don’t get fat. I mean, what girl is going to marry a fat Jacob? So I want the pie, but when I compare the options of a piece of pie against eternal companionship….. but there are no promises that the pie will make me fat or that I’ll ever get married, so it’s not really a competition like that. I don’t think I have any whipped cream, and that could be a problem. What I really want is just for someone to give me permission to eat the pie.

I wouldn’t feel so guilty about eating pie if I was more active. I really want to hike a mountain, but I have no one to go with me.

We talked about the creation in institute class today. I can’t believe how much people on both sides of the evolution topic get worked up. I know I’m a child of God. I exist. All the little details about how Adam was created…. well, if it was important to my salvation, then it would be in the Book of Mormon.

The rain slowed down today, and some sunshine came though my window blinds this morning which was a really nice change. But more than a few rays though my window, are the many rays of goodness in my life. Special shout out to Lillian who left a comment on my last post.

I went to institute tonight, and it was really good. We were studying from D&C 42:6 where it says, “Declaring my word like unto angels of God,” which makes me think, “How do angels declare the word of God, and how can we emulate it?” We also talked briefly about verse 21: “Thou shalt not lie,” which reminded me of a previous post about how the worst lies can be the ones we tell ourselves.

I’ve been reading some blogs, and I’m wondering why people don’t seem to care about capitalization and punctuation. It doesn’t seem like it is that hard to get it right.

I think there is something about bread which demands chocolate. Nutella is some of the best stuff on Earth, but when I don’t have any, chocolate milk is the beverage of choice when eating bread and butter.

I have a test coming up in my physics class Monday, so I’m going to be studying my brains out this week.

Speaking of brains, I watched the new NBC show 3lbs tonight, and I’m glad that they didn’t kill off the little girl, because I would have been mad.

Sometimes I struggle between the part of me which wants to be a nerd and the part of my that can’t stand anything nerdy. I’m not really even sure what nerd means, but I know that different applications of the word bring about different responses from me.

I ate too much apple pie today. The Sara Lee pies have been on sale for $1.98 each (no sales tax) so I’ve been eating way too much pie as of late. This is my first pie though in over a week, so I think maybe I’m doing ok now.

I think I make a big deal over small things. For example, this week I created a new homepage for myself, whatever that means. I’m not even sure if I would want to call it a homepage, but I created it. Initially it was just something small, a quick 20 minute project. But then I wanted to make it better, then more colorful, then I wanted more functionality out of it, then I wanted to make it good enough for other people to use, then I wanted to tweak some of the values, then blah blah blah. I made a big deal about it.

Have you ever wondered if there were an exact copy of yourself, personality and everything, if you would love your copy or be annoyed by it? Would someone who thinks they are always right always argue with his copy? I think that if this were to happen, and I had a copy, I could see tons of stuff that I would hate about myself that otherwise I can’t see in myself.

One of the things that I thought when I moved to Oregon is that I would fit in socially better, and I’m still finding it difficult. I’m not sure if it is because I’m still the new kid, or that the average age of my peers is older, or if I’m just being stupid. Maybe I’m just a nerd and people here don’t want to be around me. I really felt comfortable socially in Provo; I felt like I was on top of the game. Maybe I’ve lost it though, and when I move back to Provo I’ll find it hard to have friends.

Mmm, a slice of apple pie right before bed wouldn’t kill me would it?

Sometimes I struggle with not being married, but sometimes I’m ok with it. I guess maybe what it is is that I’m ok with not being married right now, but I don’t like the idea of being single in the future. For about the last three or four years I was told that “it was my year.” I’m ok with the fact that last year wasn’t my year, or that this year may not be my year either, and I’ll continue to be fine with it as long as my year comes sometime this decade.

Maybe I’m getting a little too personal here and I should be typing all of this in my secret blog. But I’ve also had the thought that I’ve been way to formal or serious on my blog recently, so I’m not really sure what I should type where. In the shower tonight I considered creating yet another blog where I would write all the boring or serious stuff, like politics, sports, and reviews, so I can use this blog more for this personal type of stuff.

Well, I have to teach Sunday School tomorrow, and while my lesson is mostly prepared already, if I don’t get some good sleep tonight, then I’m not going to think clearly enough to be able to make my lesson interesting. So I’m hitting the collection of springs and padding which is commonly called a bed.

Almost two months ago, James Chasse Jr. died during an arrest by Portland Police. The situation is somewhat controversial because some eye witnesses claim that the police officers used excessive force, however a grand jury ruling exonerated the officers of criminal wrongdoing. But the controversy isn’t the subject of this post.

Recently the police reports of the incident were released, and KOIN 6 News was reporting on what they said. The news station said that the police accounts of what happened were inconsistent with accounts of bystanders. The story ended with Jeff Gianola saying, “Another possibility is that police understated their reports.”

Wow. To me saying that “police understated their reports” is just one step away from calling them liars. A major news station making such accusations is inappropriate. They should present the news and the facts, but not the possibilities of what could have happened, especially when such possibilities come close to calling our public servants liars.

BYU football seemed unstoppable tonight with their 55-7 win over Wyoming tonight. Both teams had the midas touch: BYU turning everything to gold and Wyoming turning everything to mufflers.

BYU turned things up a few degrees showing that they are indeed a top 25 team. BYU did more during the first half of play than many teams hope for in a full fame. By the time the teams walked into the locker room at half time, BYU held a 31-0 lead; especially impressive as Wyoming hasn’t scored 31 points in any half of any game this year, and only scored more than 31 points total in two games this year. Fortunately, Wyoming couldn’t mount any sort of comeback, only scoring once in the final few minutes of the game.

Particularly spectacular was the first drive of the game which started with a 84 yard kickoff return that almost was returned for a touchdown. Also great was the 77 yard punt return by McKay Jacobson that was returned for BYU’s last touchdown of the game.

With the win, BYU improves to 8-2, 6-0 MWC. The win guarantees BYU at least a share of the conference title, and almost certainly a trip to the Las Vegas bowl.

BYU gets the weekend off before facing New Mexico at home on the 18th. If BYU wins that game, they will have won the conference title outright. The Mountain West Conference Commissioner will be on hand to present the championship trophy should the Cougars win.

Dear friends and loyal readers,

Please remember and take the time to vote. If you haven’t voted yet, and you have the next 30 minutes free, I suggest voting now–don’t put it off any more. Even if you haven’t reviewed all the issues, at least vote on the few issues you know about.

For those of you in Oregon, remember that it is too late to mail your ballot, that you will have to drop it off at a collection site by 8pm tonight.

I would also encourage you to make sure you vote Ron Saxton. He has pledged to put partisan politics behind and work not for any particular political party, but for Oregon. Oregon needs change, and Ron Saxton will get it done (or you can elect someone else next time).

Oh, and the whole measure 45 thing about term limits for state legislators… vote that down please. Term limits may have a place on the national scene, but local politicians don’t really carry huge names or budgets (like national politicians do), so it is more important that we allow experienced representatives to use their experience in office. Besides, we already have term limits… if someone has been in office too long, then we just vote for someone else. At least that is what the Hillsboro Argus said, and I agree.

So there was a really small earthquake in downtown Portland tonight. It had a magnitude 2.6. These sort of earthquakes happen often, and they can hardly be felt and do not cause damage.

But that doesn’t stop the news stations from jumping all over the story. They had reporters reporting live from the epicenter, a place I happen to walk by frequently on my way to or from school. I suspect that the only reason they are even reporting on it is that the quake originated from downtown Portland where so many people (including the TV stations) are located and so the combined fuss from so many people made the story worth mentioning.

I live about 20 miles away from Portland, and I didn’t feel a thing. In fact, I would guess that if this quake happened in Southern California, that it wouldn’t even be mentioned, at least not like the news headline.

Now the real story is that we’ve been getting so much rain that some of the streets can’t drain the water fast enough that there is minor flooding. The rain is causing real damage, that is a real story, while the earthquake was just slightly unusual and thats it.

Oh, well. Let the Oregonians get all excited about their little earthquake.

The BYU football team has finally broke into an elite group of football teams with the term, “ranked.” The associated press polls which ranks the top 25 college football teams were released this morning, and BYU just barely squeezed into the 25th spot. This is after the Cougars have won the last 6 games straight and every conference game they have played.

If the Cougars win any of their next three games, then they will do no worse than at least share the conference title. If they win any two of their next three games, then they will be the conference champion outright.

At this point, a trip to the Las Vegas bowl seems like a done deal. The Las Vegas bowl gets first pick from the conference, and after a BYU sell-out crowd last year, they will certainly want to pick BYU again this year.

The final games this year are Wyoming and New Mexico at home, followed by the Holy War at Utah.