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I have been going to some Country Swing Dances in Pleasant Grove quite regularly lately. And last night one girl I danced with said a cool comment to me, she thought I reminded her of "Bill Nigh the Science Guy". I took it as a complement, and she ment it that way.

New Years

Happy New Years everyone.

New Years Resolution

The last week or so I have been thinking about life in general and the different things I have accomplished and what I want to accomplish. Looking back and thinking, even though I have done some "big" things in my life, I don't feel they matter as much as doing the little things consistently. So in general, my New Years Resolution is to do the "little" things more consistently.

Dating

I just got a book in the mail. "Dating Design Patterns", a dating book written for geeks by geeks. I was browsing through Think Geek to spend the Christmas Money that Ben gave me. And I saw this book, I could not resist. Think Geek did not have it in stock, and would not for a while. So I did some looking around, and I found it at Amazon.


My favorit review on the book from a Amazon user:

We all know that software development has benefited tremendously from design patterns. But I had no idea what you could REALLY do with patterns. Fortunately, my partner Bert was a beta tester for some of these patterns, and let me tell you, without half-bad-boy-plus-protocol, I'm not sure he would BE my partner today ; )
If you have a brother/friend/co-worker geek in your life who is still single and searching, you might want to slip this under the tree as, you know, a "gag" gift. But it's really a lot more than that--there's REAL dating advice in there! Don't be fooled by the fun; this book is really stealth love-life-improvement wrapped up in a package that will look funny and geeky and won't embarass the guy who needs it. He can put it on his desk or bookshelf where it'll look right at home next to the Dilbert-a-day thing. It'll make every developer/programmer (and yes, even the *architects*) laugh out loud, but secretly they'll be learning how to apply a pattern language of design to... dating. (Sorry, no sex patterns in this edition, so if the advice works and you find yourself in a successful dating scenario, you're on your own for what happens after that. Perhaps there'll be an eXtreme Dating (XD) version?)

Heck, forget the single guys--if you're a woman, you might give this to your partner if he's forgotten (or never knew) how to *act* like he's trying to sweep you off your feet.
There's one more reason I like this book... if even a fraction of the guys who work in cube farms take up the advice, the workplace will get a lot more fun and stimulating! How could more chocolate, games, and toys at work be anything but GOOD? (Yes, they really are girl magnets...although they might be guy magnets too, but that's OK too... the more friends you have in your camp, the more likely it may be that one of them will introduce you to your next hot date. And don't forget the puppy.
This is no fluffy, foofy, self-help, mars vs. venus, get-in-touch-with-your-inner-whatever book. You'll find all the things that make a software developer feel right at home, beginning with UML. If you've read GOF or just skimmed it, you know what to expect from the format.
So, get it for the humour, get it for the practical advice. And for gosh sakes, go get a slinky, a couple of unusual action figures (there's even an Einstein action figure now and a Starbucks-style barrista--either one a better choice than G.I.Joe) and some chocolate, right now, and put them on your desk tomorrow.
Have fun!!


Check out other reviews on the book:
Amazon
Think Geek

Interbank FX

Thought of some new services I can provide for www.interbankfx.com. Talked to Mark about them and he really likes them. Now the only problem is finding the time to write everything I wan to write.

Rat Race

"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."

Lily Tomlin

WordRepeats.RetzNest.com

Birthday

Today is my Birthday. Bought myself a Blue Vest and a Bow Tie for my Birthday.

Church

Yesturday my mom and I had a nice treat. I went to church in the morning with my mom. In addition my dad and sister went with us. It was nice, with my grandparents we took up a whole bench.

Life

"There is just one life for each of us: our own."

Euripides

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Every one. May you find peace and joy thru God's Love.

Juggler

Last night I went to Temple Square to look at the lights. On the way there ran into a street performer who was doing a lot of cool juggling tricks. He was very good. He was great at dramatizing what he was doing, plus he was able to do some tricks that I have tried a lot of time to do. One being he was able to juggle tortches behind his back. I have not tried to juggle tortches behind my back, but I have tried to juggle my knives behind my back witch is the same thing. I get close to doing it, but just not quite there. He also had some other cool tricks, on was he juggled a little kid. I can't wait for a talent show were there is a little kid so I can do that trick. It was good.

Christmas

I am so glad, I finished my Christmas shopping this morning on the way to work. Not a moment to soon.

Book of Mormon

Finished reading the Book of Mormon this morning. Did not plan it this way, but it sure turned out to great timing, in that today is Joseph Smith's 200th Birthday.

Ben

Ben flew into town for Christmas vacation on Fri 16 Dec 2005. We have been good friends sinse 5th grade, witch I think is about 13 years ago. We have done a bit of chatting after he arrived. Last night we spent the evening hanging out. We did a little window shopping. Then we say King Kong together. It is a long movie, but a good one. He gave me a gift certificate for Think Geek for Christmas. I wont have any problem spending it, there are tons of things that I want from Think Geek.

His website is www.CaptB3N.com.
His blog is captb3n.blogspot.com

Personality Test

Could not sleep so I took a personality test at Tickle, here is what they said about me. I don't give these things a lot of weight but they are fun to do and read.



Steven, you're a Chosen One!

Your personality is actually determined by two personality sub-types - your primary, or dominant sub-type, and your secondary sub-type. You are a Chosen One which means you are a Golden / Seeker Your primary sub-type is defined by "Golden" characteristics and your secondary sub-type is defined by "Seeker" characteristics.

That means you're warm, giving, knowing, and patient. Chances are you're not afraid to actively pursue your goals and dreams. As if all that weren't enough, you pretty much set the standard for emotional health by being filled with positive feelings and energy.

How do we know all this? How do we know that you'd be a great person in an emergency? Or that you always return phone calls? How could we have divined that you're no fair-weather friend?

Because while you were taking the test, you answered four different types of questions — questions that measured confidence, apprehension, willingness to take risks, and your focus on experience versus appearance — the primary traits that determine your personality. Based on your responses, we determined your personality type, Chosen One.

And that's just scratching the surface.

Dating

"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."

Albert Einstein

WordRepeats.RetzNest.com

Life

"Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."

Vince Lombardi

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Church Calling

Part of my Church calling is to do the mailing list. I was asked to come up with a creative way to invite everyone to the Ward Christmas party. Here is what I came up with.

On the 12th day of Christmas my most random friend gave to me:

Twelve inches of Ribbon,
Eleven days of Tissue usage,
Ten-Colored Wrapping Paper,
Nine sparkles on a Christmas Ornament,
Eight days use of a Hand Towel,
Seven Baskets full of gifts,
A Six-inch Tooth Brush,
Five Christmas Cards,
Four quarter-Bars of Soap,
Three month's supply of Tooth Paste,
Two-piece Toothbrush Holder, and
One visit on December 17th!

Come join us give all these wonderful gifts to, and just enjoy visiting with, the Senior Citizens at our Christmas Service Party.

I am impressed with myself, for one I generally don't do things like that. And everything in the 12 days of Christmas came from the baskets we put together on Monday.

Life, Quote

"There is more to life than increasing its speed."

Mohandas Gandhi

WordRepeats.RetzNest.com

ISP Sisna

I have been helping someone in my ward for a little over a month with getting DSL thru Sisna. Last night I helped him out again. It took Sisna about 2 hours to comfirm what I was thinking from the begining and asked them to check at the begining. For some reason we were not getting a DSL signal. And aparently, it has not been ordered. If you are thinking of going with Sisna, beware.

School

Just registered for English and "History and Philosophy of Religion" classes thru SLCC.

Wrangler

Horners Service, Auto Shop, called me today. Letting me know what is going on with my Jeep Wrangler. The only problem with it, is the windshield. It will take a while to get, and after they get it, I want them to paint it to match the rest of the Jeep.

Friend

A while back ago I let my friend Ryan McBride use a sub-domain off my domain. Sinse then he has gotten addicted to it. One night I stayed up with him trying to think of a domain. I came up with McBrideFireSide.com. And it started to grow on him. He talked with his wife, and she liked it. She is also excited to use it to, because she is planning to do an online scrap book. Ryan is planning to host the web site at his house like I do.

Testimony

I have not born my testimony for a while now. And I was planning on bearing it today. But when it came time I almost didn't. But when Ralph mentioned how he felt he show gratitude for everything the Lord has done, I felt like I should go bear mine also. The last few months the Lord has helped out with a lot of things.

Life

Wed was an eventfull day.

I have been working at Interbank FX as a sub-contracter, writing expert advisors, writing some programs to help automate different IT tasks, and working on a service idea I have, for a while now. I was not sure what was going to happen with Interbank FX and me. I have tried to talk to Mark, IT Director, for a while about it, but it kept being but off, we both had too many things to do. I felt like I needed to make a decision about going to school full time or staying at Interbank FX. I wanted to stay at Interbank FX, but decided to quit and go back to school full time.

I spent the day registering for Neumont University. Decided to go with them because they had an accelerated program, and would let me clep out a lot of classes. Witch for me is important. I have been a computer programer for around 10 years. I don't particulary want to sit in classes and be bored. I was excited to go back to school.

In the evening I was visiting my friend David, and telling the what I just did. While doing so Mark called and said they want to keep me. I told him I'll come in on Thursday to talk about it.

In the evening I went for a drive up Lambs Cannon to clearn my head and to think about what I want to do. For some reason when I have a big decision to make, I want to go to the mountains to think about it. The road was a bit icy. But I didn't let that scare me. I turned on my 4 Wheel Drive and went up. Going up was easy. Going down, I had a bit of trouble. Aparently, on a turn there was a ton of ice and I was not able to get any grip to turn. So I went down 12 feet with my Jeep Wrangler into a cold stream. I stayed calm the whole time. In fact when I stoped falling, water started to pour in, and I was wondering were it was coming from. Then I remembered about the creek on the side of the road. Boy was the water cold. I tried to find my cell phone so I could call for help. After a while I could not find it, and figured it would be bad for me to stay in the cold water. So I climbed up my seats (the Wrangler was on its side). And started jogging down the hill. It is a good thing I have been jogging at the gym on the tred mill for a while now. I jogged 2.5 miles down the cannon, then 2.5 miles up I-80 before anyone stopped to help me out. Looking back it is good thing that I went for the jog, because other wise I think I might have gotten hypnothermia. While I was jogging, my pant legs froze along with my coat sleaves, but I stayed warm.

Someone called a tow truck with their cell phone for me, and started to take me back to my Jeep. At the mouth of the cannon, a High Way Patrol Man was there, aparently someone called and said there was a pestrateran on the Free Way. I talked with the cop about what happened. And he told me they have been wanting to close down the cannon for a while now. I wish they had. When we got up were the Wrangler was, the road was pretty slippery. And it seems like the only mistake I did was to drive up the cannon in the first place.

The first tow truck was not able to help me out with getting my car back, because it was too far down. The cop got another tow truck company with better equipment. I was impressed how well the new tow truck guy got my Wrangler out of the creek, he defently knew what he was doing. Once he pulled the Wrangler out I drove the Wrangler down the cannon. From the looks of it the only I will need fixing is the windsheild holder and the windsheild. I got very lucky.

Thursday I went in to see Mark. We talk and nogeated for a while. We came to an agreement that we are both happy with. I am glad things worked out with Interbank FX, I wanted to stay with them in the first place, just did not look like I was going anywere. I thing I like, I will be working on software that I want to write, and even if I was not there I would be writing it for myself. So I am getting paid to do something I want to do, can't get much better then that. What I will be writing are service ideas of mine and Marks to promote Interbank FX, and bring more customers. Some of the old things I used to do, I will not be doing anymore, because these ideas are too important to be put off.

My school plan now is to go back to SLCC part time now. Not worried about getting it anymore, but it will be good to have just in case.