September 28-30, 2013

With my birthday coming up in a few days, I'm going to remember the days surrounding last year's birthday.

On September 28, I woke up completely freezing in my tent in Great Basin National Park. I hadn't slept well because it was so cold, and only in the last little bit had I slept well, and it was time to get up. So I got up and ate a cold apple and my pumpkin pie Pop-Tarts. I put away my tent. I found the campsite's bathroom, and we loaded up in the van to go to Lehman's Cave.

We got there, and a park ranger talked to us before we went in the cave. Upon learning that we were geology students, she said that we probably knew more about cave formation than she did, as she wasn't a geologist. (She might have been a biologist.)

At some point, I asked one of my classmates to take a picture of me:

We marveled at some of the practices of early explorers, such as writing their names on the walls and breaking off stalactites to use in building a wall.

When we got done, I looked briefly in both of the gift shops, not realizing  that one was run by my sister's then-mother-in-law. We were all standing outside the visitors center, watching a little stinkbug on the ground. One girl obliviously stepped backwards onto it, and it was obviously injured. Realizing that it wasn't going to survive anyway, I went ahead and smashed it, with some of my classmates going "eww!" One person, who might have been a park employee, said somewhat facetiously, "Did you just kill a bug in a national park?" I explained that I hadn't been the first to step on it and that I was just putting it out of its misery.

We met up with a PhD student in biology from BYU who knew some things about the groundwater of the area. We went to different places and looked at the wells, which were basically PVC pipes that went really deep in the ground. They used some measuring instruments. We went to a little stream that had some watercress growing in it; there we measured the oxygen in the water. We also drove past some Indian drawings, and we might have stopped at some other places.

Then we drove back into Utah to an area known as Snake Valley. We stopped to look at a place where the Utah Geological Survey had installed a meter, but it was on private property and we had to crawl under a barbed wire fence to get there. There were two horses, a black one and a white one, that followed us around. The white one was friendlier. I didn't want to be at the edge of people, because I worried about the horses hurting us, particularly the black one, who was more skittish. One of the horses bit one of the plastic boxes that held measuring equipment. We stopped at a spring on the property, then we walked up a small hill to see the UGS meter. The horses stayed back at the spring for a bit before they followed us up to the meter. Then we had to climb under barbed wire again to leave the property, and the horses watched us, seemingly sad to see us leave. We walked across the road to another spring where the ground was so saturated that it felt like an earthquake when someone jumped on it. I think we saw some ducks on the little lake that resulted from the spring. Then we drove to a little stream and looked at the mudcracks. We took measurements at one place, then walked downstream and took more measurements. We went back to the van, but before we got in, some of us began playing catch with a mudcrack.

Then we drove to a gas station before we drove up a road to some hot springs. I think we got a little lost on our way there, but we found it. As we pulled up, we saw some people going up to the spring, and some people were worried they might be naked, but they had swimsuits. We got to a stream we had to cross, so we took off our shoes and rolled up our pants. My classmate Geoff complained about tapered pants being hard to roll up. There was a little stream carrying water from the hot spring down to the regular stream, and I asked our professor if all the rock in that stream was tufa. He confirmed that it was, and I was happy I knew it. We had to climb up the mountain stepping on reeds and tufa, and one of them cut my foot. We stepped briefly in the hot spring before coming down again. One of my classmates, who I think was named Jeff (not Geoff), was saying he didn't want to listen to Jeremiah's iPod with Bon Jovi, so I said that when we got in the car I wanted to listen to mine, since we hadn't listened to mine and I was the one who had brought the auxiliary cord. He sarcastically said, "I don't think that entitles you," and then he asked what kind of music I liked. I said the Mamas and the Papas and Lady Gaga, and he said he liked Gaga's first album. Geoff asked whether I preferred Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, and he might have also asked about Kesha. Jeff said he thought Gaga was a better songwriter than Katy. When we got in the van, I realized this group might be hostile to some of my music, so I settled on my new Mideau album. As the first song, "Hejduk," was playing, my classmate Matt got in and said, "This sounds very familiar," and I told him it was Mideau, since he had been to their album release show like I had. Jeff hadn't heard Mideau, but he knew that one of them had been with the band Fictionist. Matt asked me what my favorite song was. I said I liked "Benny" and "Way with Words"; when "Feet to the Sun" was playing, Matt said it was his favorite. My album lasted just long enough for us to get back to the gas station, where we briefly stopped.

When we got back in the car, the grad student driving our van plugged in her iPod again. At some point on our drive, Geoff asked me how old I was, and I said, "I'll be twenty-five tomorrow." We stopped at Subway in Delta for dinner, where one of the workers gave us their apple slices, since she was going to have to throw them away and she thought college kids could use them.

When we left again, Jeremiah plugged in his iPod again with some standup comedy that wasn't funny and was vulgar. So then Jeff wanted to play his comedy, after I had said I didn't want to listen to more standup. Jeff's was funnier, but it was inappropriate. It seemed I was riding in the sinful van, and I feared man more than I feared God and didn't say how uncomfortable I was. I asked if they could hand me back my MP3 player from the front, at which point I turned on Lady Gaga the loudest I could get it to try to block out the foul comedy.

We arrived on campus, and Matt said he had left his bike in one of the rooms, but they were locked. I told him my ID card had access to the stream table room, so I gave him my card so he could get in. There was discussion about another geology student (who wasn't with us) that they didn't like.

Then I walked home.

On my birthday, I went to church in the Varsity Theater. This might have been the day that there were some heavy topics discussed in the combined third hour. I came home, and I think I ended a few-day Facebook fast by posting a video of  moving wind-powered sculptures, and my mom used the link as a means to wish me a happy birthday, and my bishop then wished me happy birthday. I wrote my blog post of the week.

That night I went to a ward event where there were lots of cookies, and since I could eat them, I ate too many of them. While I was there, David called me, so I walked away and answered the phone. He asked me about what I thought of marriage, and he tried to get his boys to talk to me. I got a somewhat sarcastic "Happy Birthday" song from Preston, but that was all. While I was talking, I saw my friend Carrie walk by.

Then I walked up to the stake fireside in the Marriott Center. After it was over, I ate too many brownies and talked to some girls, Katria and Larissa. When I got home, my roommate Scott had made some cake or something, but he never told me I could have some, and I was sick from all the cookies and brownies I'd eaten.

Then Monday the 30th might have been the day I bought some cookies 'n' cream milk from a vending machine and was astounded at all the sugar and calories in one little bottle. That day, I was excited to see that both Cherie Call and the Lower Lights were working on new albums.

That takes care of last year's birthday. But although I have done a few birthday memory posts, I never wrote about my birthday in 2012, even though I wrote about September 28 and 30 of that year. So here is September 29, 2012:

I got up early to go help out with a service project, but I was very tired. I got dressed to help, but I couldn't find the place in my GPS, and I knew I would get lost, and since it was my birthday and I was very tired, I went back to bed. Eventually, I got up and drove home while eating a yellow Caramel Apple Pop. I think I was listening to my Owl City Midsummer Station CD, and then I switched to the radio. Lady Gaga's "You and I" came on. When I got home, I got various gifts from my parents: fall-colored M&Ms, a giant spider decoration, a Hogan's Heroes DVD set, a Michael Vey book, and a cup with a skull on it. Then something reminded my mom that she had two other gifts for me, a Lower Lights CD and the Tabernacle Choir's latest Christmas album. I remarked that I did think it was funny that I wanted CDs most for my birthday and didn't get any. Then we went to Chili's for lunch, and then we went to Walmart. I wanted mint ice cream and pumpkin ice cream, which I could use after my birthday. I saw some pumpkin-shaped Reese's ice cream bars, but we didn't get any.

Then we went home and had cake and ice cream. I wanted to show my parents Mad Monster Party?, but Allie didn't want to watch it because it had monsters in it. Because the Relief Society broadcast would be starting, I skipped some less important scenes. The movie ended right in time for the broadcast to start. I gathered up my stuff to leave to go back to Provo, and I think I looked for my copy of Corpse Bride to take with me.

I listened to my new Lower Lights CD on my drive back to Provo. When I got home, my roommate Scott had rearranged the living room.

September 14

Today, I am going to remember what I can about today's date, September 14. Not because it's a significant date, but just because I can remember some things about it.

2013. In the morning, I had to walk down the street to my car, which was parked far away. I took my new Mideau CD to listen to in the car. At the grocery store, I bought some Halloween fruit snacks to put in my lunch the next week. That night, I was on the computer while my assistant clerk was helping out with membership records, asking me questions via email as needed.

2012. I drove home, and after everyone had gone to bed, I watched the sixth-season Halloween episode of Bewitched, since I hadn't watched it and I wanted to make sure it worked for Halloween. After midnight, I ate one of the caramel apple Milky Ways in my bed cupboard.

2011. It was a long day at work, and I remember telling my coworkers that I wouldn't be able to stay late the next day (since I was going to see Mary Poppins). I remember this incident, but I think the blog post I made explains it the best:
"When we send off envelopes, we put them in different color totes, depending on the kind of order it is--distribution store and urgent orders in red totes, international orders in blue totes, and normal orders in yellow totes. One of my coworkers, Michelle, went to get a tote. When she came back, she said, "We're sendin' 'em in blue." I misheard her, and thought she said "synonym," but then I realized that didn't make sense, so I determined she must have said "We're cinnamon and blue," cinnamon meaning red. Since many of my coworkers were decked out all week for the rivalry, I thought she was referring to our shirts--she was wearing a red SUU shirt, and I was wearing--wait, I was wearing a black shirt. Then she said, "'Cause I couldn't find any yellow totes." Then I realized she was talking about the totes. I didn't actually see her bring the tote over, so I thought she had a blue one and a red one. After a minute I said, "Why did you say cinnamon instead of red?" She was really confused, and asked if I was talking to her, or the other coworker, Cameron. When I realized what happened, I couldn't stop laughing to explain myself."
When I did explain it, Michelle thought it was hilarious.

 2009. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a typical P-day. We did go and get the oil changed. But it wasn't all typical. We went to the Robinson's [sic] and played Bang!, but after that Elder Tamblyn was sick so we didn't do anything else." [I have decided not to write down the second paragraph.]
I think this was the first time we went to the Robinsons', since Elder Robinson, who was related to them, was newly transferred to the adjoining area. This might have been the time he drank horse milk.

2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"The point of September was for it to cool down, but even though leaves lie on lawns, it is very warm.
"We tracted a little bit but only one person was home. We really want more people. But the Raabs might help with Glenda Lee, a potential investigator."

2002. In the morning, I noticed that the Reeds across the street had a little decoration of a pumpkin with a face, so I decided that I would bump up my Halloween starting-time to September 14 rather than the 15th. (At one point it was bumped as early as September 11, but I have bumped it back to the 15th, and now I'm going to ease into it.) Then we went to my sister's new apartment to help her. I remember sitting in a parking lot outside a store that advertised Halloween decorations, but I wasn't celebrating Halloween that year. Then I waited in her apartment and watched Roughing It, which I had rented from Top Hat Video.

Technological innovations in my lifetime

During my life, I've seen a lot of changes in technology. Definitely more than I will be able to remember for this blog. But nevertheless, I will try to remember what I can.

As a little kid, I can remember watching cartoons on our big TV that was put on the floor. To change the channel, you had to type a two-digit channel number, so if you wanted to go to channel 2, you had to put in 02. The channel numbers showed up as a large green writing in the lower right corner. I remember sometimes looking really close at the screen and seeing little green, blue, and red squares. I think I was in late elementary school when I first heard about TVs that were flat like pictures and you could hang them on the wall. But they were very expensive, and I didn't know anyone who had one. Now, of course, most TVs are flat.

I remember when we got our first fluorescent coiled bulb when I was in third grade. That night my parents came home from Fred Meyer and put it in our downstairs lights. Then I stayed up late to play Super Mario World.

And speaking of Nintendo, I grew up with my siblings playing the NES, and then when I was around seven, my brother bought a used Super Nintendo. When I was in second grade, the Nintendo 64 came out, and I wanted one really bad. I was obsessed with getting one. But I never did. (My brother tells me it was because he told me it was hard.) I remember trying one in Target one day when I was "home" sick, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work. (Now that I think about it, I don't think stores have video game testing centers like they used to.) Later in elementary school, the GameCube came out, and I was no longer really interested in newer game technology. In high school, the Wii came out, and that has been the most recent Nintendo system, until the Wii-U. Of course, there have been other game systems that I've seen--I remember watching Sega games at others' houses, and then there were incarnations of PlayStations, X-Boxes, and others. When I turned eight, my grandparents got me my own GameBoy. It was really cool, because it was black instead of typical grey. Then Pocket GameBoy came out, then GameBoy Color, then GameBoy Advance (which is the most modern one I have), then DS and 3DS.

When I was a kid, we would listen to tapes. I remember listening to The Little Mermaid and the Carpenters on tapes. Occasionally we would even listen to records on our big stereo, which was so big it was its own piece of furniture. When I was six, we finally got a CD player, although they had existed long before then. However, our cars only had tape players, so we would put our CDs on tapes, and we would make mix tapes for vacations. When we finally got a car that had a CD player, it was a big deal. Now, of course, tape decks are obsolete, except that I use mine with an adapter for my phone. CDs are well on their way out, with some stores not selling them at all. I still buy CDs, but I pretty much only use them in my car, ripping the music electronically. It is more convenient to have all of your music available from one device, rather than having to carry CDs that only are part of your collection.

When I was very young, we had a computer that when you printed something, it came out on those sheets of paper that are attached and you have to tear off the sides. It had WordPerfect (which was a great program, even in high school, and I'm sad it's gone) on it and some primitive games. There were plenty of floppy disks that went with it. Then in 1997, we got a new computer with Windows 95 (school computers used Windows 3.1). We had dial-up internet, and we of course used AOL. (The only people I know now who use an AOL email are my grandparents.) We had to wait for the internet to dial up, and it was super slow on Friday nights. On one occasion, I heard my mom and brother say that they had dialed a different number, and it ended up being some old lady's number, so they heard her voice when they tried to get on the internet. We thought we were pretty cool for having the internet. It wasn't uncommon, but not everyone had it. I had a lot of fun searching the internet and setting up my email account. That was the era of email forwards. (I was spared most email forwards, but now that they have transferred to Facebook, I unfortunately have to deal with them.) One time, someone sent this video to my mom, and it took ten minutes to load:
Now we can watch it instantly, most of the time. One time, I remember reading an article in the newspaper where they made a computer that could access the internet without any wires. Now wifi is the norm. As with TVs, large monitors are practically fossils.

I remember when cell phones weren't overly common. You must have been rich if you had one, and they were really annoying when people used them in public. The ring tones were just beeps. Then cell phones became more and more common. When I was in high school, Apple announced the iPhone, and now smartphones are really common. Even I have one. Phones can do pretty much anything. In the early 2000s, Palm Pilots were a big deal, but now phones are better than they were.

I remember in early high school seeing the top of my house from Google Earth. Now that's not special, and you can see the front of your house with Google Maps. Sometimes I think it's a little creepy how much Google can do; recently, I got some notifications from Google in which they identified where a lot of my pictures were taken without me telling them. It amazes me when Facebook and other sites can identify people's faces.

I have been home from my mission for five years, and sometimes it amazes me the things that have happened even since I've been home. I first heard of iPads in 2010, and now they are common. I remember a discussion in 2010 about cloud storage. I had never heard that term before. I know it existed before then, but now it is much more common, with things like Google Drive and Dropbox.

Around the year 2000, DVDs came out. I didn't know why they were better than VHS tapes, and I didn't think we would ever get one, as DVD players cost hundreds of dollars. But now they are very cheap, as are DVDs. Blurays try to replace them, but the change isn't as drastic, so I think they will take longer to finally dethrone DVDs. I think Bluray and DVDs will probably die out around the same time. The 3D movie fad, which was popular five years ago, is becoming less popular, and there are fewer 3D Blurays being released, even when they are 3D in theaters.

We thought our used 1995 Subaru Legacy that we got in 2000 was really cool, as it had a CD player and a tape player, and a sunroof and a moonroof, and of course automatic windows (which wasn't new to us, but we did have several cars without automatic windows). Now, cars have built-in GPS, iPod decks, backup cameras, alarms that alert you when you might hit something, and so much more.

Household appliances have become more high tech, with lights that show you when a cycle is done, alarms that beep when you keep the fridge door open, and other things.