Jacob’s Blog

I’ve heard a number of my friends and other people talk about “meeting someone” or “finding an eternal companion.”

These phrases seem a little odd to me.  They always seem to allude that the particular someone special is a person we haven’t met yet.  I think it may be unfair to think this way.  There are always possibilities that we will marry someone we have already met, but haven’t yet dated.

I think single people should keep an open mind about who they might eventually marry, and not limit their potential companions to those they haven’t yet met.

Furthermore, if singles put themselves in the mind-frame that they will marry someone they haven’t yet met, then they risk creating a habit of always looking for the next person, whom they will never actually find.

Seven years ago during my freshman year at BYU, I lived in the dorms in V-Hall. Recently, V and W halls have been torn down. I stopped by the site yesterday to see what was left. I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad to see it go. Maybe a little of both.

I had a lot of time to think today driving from Oregon to Utah. I found that I have a lot of questions about myself, and about life in general. Here are a few of them: Continue reading Like swarming bees, questions of life…

Tonight I was putting just enough gas in my car to get through Christmas. As I was leaving the gas station, I noticed this cop parked in the shadows. Not a big deal because I wasn’t going to do anything wrong. But I was waiting for a few cars to pass by so I could safely get out in traffic. These cars were turning right at the red light. I notice that the last one raced around the corner without stopping, and I looked at the light, and it was still red. It was obvious enough for me to think, “He just technically ran the red light. I wonder if the cop is going to pull him over. Then I saw the cop pull out of the parking lot right behind me. I made sure to stay in the right lane so that the cop could pass me on the left. And then I just kind of followed slowly and watched the cop race after the car and then pull it over.

I’m not sure if there is any point to this story other than, please don’t be an idiot when driving.

I’ll keep this short. I’m moving again. This time back to Utah. I really don’t like moving for many reasons. Packing and unpacking is such a chore. But more internally, I feel like every time I move, I leave a piece of myself behind.

Some of the feelings of a procrastinator are, “there is always time to do this tomorrow.” I think procrastinators especially hate moving because there are many things which cannot be done tomorrow, because tomorrow I won’t be here any more.

Other people hate moving just because they will miss what they’re leaving behind.

I have a long car ride ahead of me tomorrow, so I’ll have plenty of time to think about all of this. Maybe I will have further insights into the psychology of moving.

(Arriving in Provo hopefully around 7 or 8 on Friday)

Today I thought up a troubling question; troubling only because I have yet to find an answer.

Do people in pre-arranged marriages need to date? If you were in a pre-arranged marriage, do you date and get to know your arranged fiance?

On one hand, dating can be a stressful activity, and one that could be avoided completely in a pre-arranged marriage situation. Not only that, but eliminating dating could be financially beneficial.

On the other hand, dating can be a fun activity where the couple can get to know each other. Even in a pre-arranged marriage, learning about the other person in various situations, including pre-marital and dating situations, could prove to be helpful later when married. Not only that, but the beginning stages of marriage can be difficult time merging two lives into a companionship, and dating before marriage could alleviate the difficulties during that phase.

Fortunately, this question doesn’t really need to be answered.

Just to be straight up clear: the title is a verb phrase, not an intention.

It is however a verb phrase that I’m contemplating.

I found out my grades for fall term, and they were ok. I was kind of hoping for a little higher, but I guess I would always hope for a little higher unless they were all As. But it put me in a mind set of looking forward to being at BYU and taking classes again.

2007 will definitely be a difficult year. There will be lots of change in my life. For one, I’m fully planning on graduating this year. What happens after that point, I don’t know yet. But there will be a lot of things different about my life twelve months from now. That is going to create a lot of stress as I adapt to the changes which I will find along my way.

One thing for sure, is I need to make sure that I’m an incredible student this studentupcoming semester. I’ve been thinking about what things I might need to do to promote academic success, and one of the things which crossed my mind was to give up blogging. I’m not yet sold on the idea, but I’m not going to discount it yet either. I guess I’m thinking out loud (in writing) about it here.

On one hand, I get this great sense of accomplishment from the one or two thousand people who read from my blog every month. This is well over double what it was a year ago, and I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to write for an audience. I also think that writing has helped keep my mind keen and fresh.

One the other hand, blogging can be a big distraction, especially the constant urge to continually check to see if there is a new comment. It is a further distraction if you include “reading other’s blogs” with the whole blogging verb. It takes time too. I think I average about 20 posts a month. If each post takes half an hour to write, then I’m spending 10 hours a month writing. An extra 10 hours a month spent on some of my classes sure would have helped.

On the first hand again, blogging could be viewed as a constructive way to blow off stress. It is relaxing, reflexive, and fun. I’m sure someone could even come up with an argument saying that blogging is healthy, but I don’t know that I would go that far. Not only that, but it is possible that I help other people when they read some of the things I have to say.

On the other hand again, if I were to compare blogging to other activities such as hiking, talking with friends, or watching a basketball game, blogging would lose. It definitely does not seem like a priority.

So as I finish my exploration through the various advantages and disadvantages of blogging, I’m still not quite sure what I should do. Obviously if I could keep the advantages while discarding the disadvantages then I would surely be better off.

Do you suppose praying about blogging is even appropriate?

I’m thinking about starting a new group on Facebook called:
Coalition in support of increased distribution of mistletoe.

By supporting this cause, you can help to put the joy back into Christmas for many college-aged students everywhere.

Leave a comment below if you support the cause.

Wishing well, wishing well
cast me a spell
Release me from prison
and release me from hell

help me find beauty
help me rebel
wishing well send me
from this jail cell

someone is out there
someone who cares
help me to find her
and answer my prayers

I’ll donate a penny
I’ll donate a thought
wishing well grant me
the desires I sought

Some of us wonder
and some of us pray
grant us our wishes
while its still today

But while we sit wishing
the opportunities fly
so get off your fanny
and find your sweet pie.

This last week I launched yet another blog. This brings my blog count up to 6. This may sound like a high number, but I think I finally having so many blogs helps me to focus on particular audiences with each blog. My blogs are:

• Jacob’s Blog which is my personal weblog and where I’ll likely place random things.
• Jacob’s Technical Blog is where I’ll put all things nerdy. Many of my other readers won’t want to be bothered by all the technical or nerdy things I may have to say, so I’ve separated all that out to its own blog.
• Jacob on Religion is where I write anything with a strong religious tone. While I hope my other readers will stop by this blog, I’ve separated it to help with syndication of the content.
• Columns and Capitals is my newest blog. This is where I’ll write about non-personal things, such as movies I’ve seen, sports, news, politics, and other topics which may be generally interesting but not personal. Any editorials, opinions, or essays are likely to find a home here.
• LDSsearch.com Blog is a blog I sometimes write in as the maintainer of the LDSsearch.com search engine.
• Then there is my secret blog, which is of course, secret.

I’m hoping that Columns and Capitals will be a big success. In looking at what I have done with this blog over the last two years, I’ve gotten less and less personal. I’m hoping to reverse this trend by moving all that non-personal stuff to Columns and Capitals. The words column and capital both have references to print media and architecture.

Today was a great day. It was a good follow-up to Friday night, which was a great night.

Friday night I wore my mustard colored tie with my dark grey shirt, and while I’m not convinced that it totally went together, it was a unique and bold combination that seemed to empower me for the whole rest of the weekend. I also got to see a good friend whom I haven’t seen in quite a while, and it was really good.

Church was also great today. There were so many good people who shared good things just all day long. It was also great afterwards to be able to eat and socialize with everyone.

I guess nothing spectacular happened, just a number of nice little things that I hope will continue into this week.

Today is the last day of classes for me. After my physics lecture tomorrow, all I have left to do is take my physics final exam on the 7th. This is the first December in about 4 or 5 years where I haven’t been completely stressed out. I’m excited too because I actually feel like I can relax a bit and enjoy the Christmas spirit.

I really don’t like going to wedding receptions. All the old people keep poking me and saying “You’re next,” as if that meant anything. Maybe I should start going to funerals and poking the old people saying, “You’re next.” I swore that the next wedding reception I would go to would be my own (I thought that would get me out of having to go to them for a long time). But tomorrow (which is actually later today) I’m going against my previously stated convictions and I’m going to one. The main reason is because I want to see friends who will be there that I otherwise would be unable to see.

Are people with freckles at higher risk for skin cancer?

Am I really ready to subject myself to extreme mental and social pressures again? Am I ready to go back to Provo? Maybe the question I should be asking inquires if Provo is ready for me.

Do any of my friends need a color ink jet printer? I have a brand new in box printer (Epson C86) that I have little use for and I’m wondering what I should do with it.

I made crepes last night for dinner. I made my usual recipe and a recipe out of my mom’s weight loss recipe book, and I could hardly tell the difference. Living at home has caused me to eat healthier, mainly because I have more time to cook, and more foods available.

I don’t know that I’ve ever told this story on my blog, but at the beginning of the term there was new student convocation where the Portland State president and some other people wanted to give some general pep talks and a few other things like that. But unlike BYU, Portland State’s convocation isn’t a part of their orientation program, so it wasn’t very well attended. To help motivate people to come, they advertised a bunch of door prizes and such. Well, the morning of convocation, my alarm went off and I was debating with myself about whether or not it was actually worth getting out of bed to go, and I decided that all I would get done is some extra sleep if I stayed home, so I went, and I sat through their boring speeches and stuff, and then they did the drawings for the door prizes and I won! I got a $250 gift card to the book store. The problem is that I’m only at PSU for a semester, so it isn’t like I needed a lot of books from the bookstore, so in addition to the one book I had to buy, I bought myself an iPod. Now I still have a little bit left over, and I’m trying to decide what I should buy. I’m thinking about a sweatshirt that says Portland State or something like that. Maybe I’ll also buy some general school supplies since those are always good.