I was walking through the student center of BYU the other day, and I noticed that they had some of their Christmas decorations up already. This happened more than 50 days before Christmas! It used to be that the Christmas season started with Thanksgiving, but apparently this year it is starting with Halloween. I’ve even seen Christmas merchandise appear in some stores already too.
I’m excited to share that Google Maps has expanded its street views to include Portland, Oregon. Google announced the addition recently on its LatLong blog. Portland is such an interesting city, I’m excited that people can explore all the many many miles of street view photos available. You can see the Portland LDS Institute Building, where I took classes last fall, or the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Please have lots of fun exploring Portland, Oregon.
On the Fourth of July, I intended to wake up early, but I didn’t set an alarm. How fortunate then, that I had another type of alarm, something unusual, and perhaps even something magical.
In my sleep, I heard noises, but I didn’t readily recognize them–they weren’t a lawn mower or a garbage truck. Then, as I was waking, I realized that they were from the burner of a hot air balloon. I jumped out of bed, only to see my apartment building being buzzed by a such a balloon, and the sky all around me being filled with various hot air balloons, flying as part of Provo’s freedom festival.
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.
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.
A couple of months ago, I hiked Kings Mountain in Oregon. Here are a couple photos I took of the view from the top of the mountain.
My dad is currently in Japan on business, and he sent pack this photo of the controls that go with the toilet. I kind of thought it was funny so I thought that I would share.
This is a picture of me during my homeless days. I shaved about 20 minutes later.
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.
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.
Last Thursday we conducted a science experiment. We had three different concentrations of IPA, 70%, 91%, and one unknown, because it wasn’t marked on the bottle, possibly meaning that it was close to 100%. I won’t say here exactly what IPA is, but a carefully crafted Google acronym search might provide clues.
We put two tablespoons of each concentration in identical bowls, and lit them all similarly with matches. We found the 91% and the 100% lit very easily, with the 70% concentration of IPA being a little more hesitant in igniting.
The flame from the bowl containing the 100% IPA was the highest, followed narrowly by the 91% IPA. The bowl containing the 70% IPA had a considerably smaller flame.
The bowl containing 70% IPA burnt out first, even though there was still liquid left in the bowl. The 100% and 91% bowls lasted considerably longer, although the 91% lasted just barely longer than the 100% bowl. Both the 100% and 91% bowls were dry after the flame extinguished.
Bruce brought home this weird shaped orange. It like of looks like a pear. Could it be a pear in an orange’s peal? Could it be healthy?
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with my blog. People have stopped visting it. So I thought I would add a picture of my cat to see if that would help at all. So this is my cat Gilligan. I think the name comes from the old TV series, Gilligan’s Island.
This cat is home in Oregon, so I only get to see it about once a year.
I don’t know why I think this is interesting, but I do. It just goes to show that if you go to design something for a computer program, things are bound to get a little messy. Don’t try to make sense of it at all. Just admire the beauty of computer software chalkboard design.
I figured I needed to post something in my blog, but I couldn’t figure out what. So here is a photo. It describes some of what it is like to live in University Villa.
On a different note, the weekend is just a couple of days away. It sure came faster than I thought it would. I feel unprepared.
