When I was a kid, I had some misconceptions about how things worked. I'm sure there are lots I'll remember at another time, but here are some.
When I was very young, I thought that when you ate food, it went all the way down to your toes and would gradually pile up.
When I was six, I would see jets' vapor trails, and I believed that they were real clouds. That led me to believe that clouds came from jets, and that the sole purpose of jets was to put clouds in the sky. I never understood how they went from being straight lines to lumpy things, though. One day the radio announced that that day there was "not a cloud in the sky," and I remarked, "We'll be seeing a lot of jets today!"
When I was seven, I believed that lava was so hot that if one drop of it touched your pinkie nail you would die.
And then there's one that is the most implausible to me, and I was probably nine or so before I learned it wasn't true. I learned that in cel animation they had to draw every frame. But I didn't understand that they used cels and that they placed them in front of backgrounds. I thought that the entire screen had to be redrawn every time. And here's where it gets progressively more implausible. I thought that if they did that for movies, they did it for video games too. So every possible position that Mario could be, with any combination of enemies, had been individually drawn, including the backgrounds. And I liked the Mario Paint Super Nintendo game, so I believed that everything I ever possibly drew on Mario Paint had already been drawn before--also with every combination of cursor location. And then since they did that with video games, they did it with computers too. This means that everything you ever drew in Microsoft Paint had been drawn before--not just in Paint, but the whole screen, with every possible cursor, cursor location, window size, background image, icon combinations, etc. It hurts my head to think of all the combinations that would have to exist if that were true!
Friday, September 25, 2015
Sunday, September 13, 2015
September 28-30, 2014
I'm going to remember the day before, the day of, and the day after my birthday last year.
September 28. I had an early morning stake priesthood meeting, but I had a bad attitude and wasn't committed to get to the meeting on time without eating breakfast. I ate breakfast (or maybe just a pumpkin pie Pop-Tart) before I went to the meeting, and I was late. The speakers talked about making sure we get enough sleep, and I had to think, "Then why did you schedule such an early meeting?" After the meeting, I drove to church, waving at my former roommate Chase Elwood and eating a Sonic mint that was in my car. I think I had a dirty windshield. I went into the priesthood room, where our first meeting was. Our bishop came in and asked me if I could help clean up, because we had been assigned to clean the church the previous day but had neglected to do so. I washed the windows on the doors. During sacrament meeting, our bishop told us that if we cut out most music and most TV, we would feel more fulfilled. That night I blogged.
September 29. After sending off an email at work, my boss called me (since I had CC'ed him) and told me that it sounded potentially hurtful, so I had to email again to clarify my email. I felt really bad, like I had let my boss down. That night my family bought Papa John's and my mom made Mexican chocolate cake. They brought me a bunch of gifts. They got me Cars sheets, because I wanted fun sheets, but I'm not a fan of Cars, so they said they would return them. My sister got me lots of socks--fossils, Halloween, other animals--but they were too small. The label on the back, as I discovered later that night, said they were a women's size. My mom tried to give me something different, Pharrell's GIRL album, but I said I thought it was inappropriate. She said it didn't have an explicit label, but I still thought it was inappropriate. It was raining really hard, so we didn't get any ice cream to accompany the cake. I didn't go to FHE either, because I didn't want to drive out in the crazy rain. I journalized as follows:
"A mediocre birthday. I worried Reid today by sending an email to Alex Masterson saying he had had problems with the RSC. I feel bad about that. I reviewed Utah geography and Church Style Guide while waiting for a new assignment. I'm going to do another transcription verification.
"We had pizza and Mexican chocolate cake for my birthday. I got Cars sheets, but I don't like Cars. I got a Pharrell album, but I think it's inappropriate. I got some cool socks, but they could be too small. I especially like the dinosaur fossil socks. Then I cleaned my room a bit and am getting to bed early."
September 30. I was working at home, and while I was working I listened to the Pharrell album on Spotify so that I wouldn't have to open mine so I could return it. It was just OK. I didn't hear any bad lyrics (I wasn't paying super close attention), but I looked up the lyrics and wondered how they got through without an explicit label. I think I didn't go running because it was rainy. Dave Finklea came by and worked on our front area for an hour and a half, and later I told that to my mom; she was mad that he was only there for that short amount of time, since he had been working on the project for two months. That night there was a "mega-mingle" at institute. Peter Moosman and the Gublers were at my table, and they asked about my mom. Kelton described seeing the picture of her leg and said it would be an appropriate Halloween decoration. Another girl was there and I told her about my mom's leg injuries, and she was shocked she was that injured simply from missing a step. I wrote in my journal:
"I worked from home today. Dave Finklea came by for an hour and a half. Then tonight I beat two levels on the Mario Lost Levels and went to institute. There was a discussion with Peter Moosman and Devan and Kelton Gubler about Mom's leg."
September 28. I had an early morning stake priesthood meeting, but I had a bad attitude and wasn't committed to get to the meeting on time without eating breakfast. I ate breakfast (or maybe just a pumpkin pie Pop-Tart) before I went to the meeting, and I was late. The speakers talked about making sure we get enough sleep, and I had to think, "Then why did you schedule such an early meeting?" After the meeting, I drove to church, waving at my former roommate Chase Elwood and eating a Sonic mint that was in my car. I think I had a dirty windshield. I went into the priesthood room, where our first meeting was. Our bishop came in and asked me if I could help clean up, because we had been assigned to clean the church the previous day but had neglected to do so. I washed the windows on the doors. During sacrament meeting, our bishop told us that if we cut out most music and most TV, we would feel more fulfilled. That night I blogged.
September 29. After sending off an email at work, my boss called me (since I had CC'ed him) and told me that it sounded potentially hurtful, so I had to email again to clarify my email. I felt really bad, like I had let my boss down. That night my family bought Papa John's and my mom made Mexican chocolate cake. They brought me a bunch of gifts. They got me Cars sheets, because I wanted fun sheets, but I'm not a fan of Cars, so they said they would return them. My sister got me lots of socks--fossils, Halloween, other animals--but they were too small. The label on the back, as I discovered later that night, said they were a women's size. My mom tried to give me something different, Pharrell's GIRL album, but I said I thought it was inappropriate. She said it didn't have an explicit label, but I still thought it was inappropriate. It was raining really hard, so we didn't get any ice cream to accompany the cake. I didn't go to FHE either, because I didn't want to drive out in the crazy rain. I journalized as follows:
"A mediocre birthday. I worried Reid today by sending an email to Alex Masterson saying he had had problems with the RSC. I feel bad about that. I reviewed Utah geography and Church Style Guide while waiting for a new assignment. I'm going to do another transcription verification.
"We had pizza and Mexican chocolate cake for my birthday. I got Cars sheets, but I don't like Cars. I got a Pharrell album, but I think it's inappropriate. I got some cool socks, but they could be too small. I especially like the dinosaur fossil socks. Then I cleaned my room a bit and am getting to bed early."
September 30. I was working at home, and while I was working I listened to the Pharrell album on Spotify so that I wouldn't have to open mine so I could return it. It was just OK. I didn't hear any bad lyrics (I wasn't paying super close attention), but I looked up the lyrics and wondered how they got through without an explicit label. I think I didn't go running because it was rainy. Dave Finklea came by and worked on our front area for an hour and a half, and later I told that to my mom; she was mad that he was only there for that short amount of time, since he had been working on the project for two months. That night there was a "mega-mingle" at institute. Peter Moosman and the Gublers were at my table, and they asked about my mom. Kelton described seeing the picture of her leg and said it would be an appropriate Halloween decoration. Another girl was there and I told her about my mom's leg injuries, and she was shocked she was that injured simply from missing a step. I wrote in my journal:
"I worked from home today. Dave Finklea came by for an hour and a half. Then tonight I beat two levels on the Mario Lost Levels and went to institute. There was a discussion with Peter Moosman and Devan and Kelton Gubler about Mom's leg."
Sunday, September 6, 2015
September 16
I'm going to remember what I can about September 16. September 16 is Mexican Independence Day, but that's not important to me.
2014. In the morning, I made this Facebook status: "Don't you hate it when you sleep late because you were dreaming about a talking sinkhole?" During my lunch break I went over to Kneaders for lunch, my first time going to the one at City Creek. I was looking at the desserts, trying to decide what seasonal one I wanted to try. I'd never had a Kneaders sugar cookie, so I got one. They had leaves and acorns; I think I got a leaf because it was bigger. It was way too sweet and it wasn't the greatest cookie. I went to institute that night and they had donuts with fall sprinkles, so I could eat them. I was talking with Jackie Gubler, and she told me she had been on a diet from desserts. I told her that my way of limiting them was to only eat seasonal desserts, so I could eat the donuts they had that night. I think I took some home, and a girl in charge of institute began closing a box of cake donuts to take away, even though she had just told us to take as much as we wanted. I journalized as follows:
"Today I walked over to Kneaders for lunch and got a sickeningly sweet sugar cookie. I had a rough time focusing today. Tonight I went to institute, where there were donuts with fall sprinkles."
2013. I went to Kneaders in Provo, the second time I had ever been to Kneaders. I remember loving the Mideau CD I had in my car. I looked at all the pumpkin desserts they had and settled on an expensive, but massive, piece of pumpkin chocolate chip cake. I was a little annoyed with how expensive the meal was. As I was eating my dinner, the workers were talking about 5ks, including the underwear run in Salt Lake, saying a lot of guys probably went to see girls there. Some other customers came in, and I think they asked for the same cake I had; as they left and saw my cake, one of them sad to me, "That's the best cake!" I awkwardly responded something like "I'm excited to try it." After I finished my meal, I began eating the cake, which had cream cheese frosting. It was delicious (and I hate that word), and I was excited to eat the whole piece. However, after I got halfway through it, it became sickening. I think I didn't finish the last third of it and took it in my car, just keeping it on the paper plate. I drove back to my apartment and put it in the fridge. Then I went up to campus to finish working on a Mono Lake water budget project for my groundwater class. It was a harrowing experience, staying up late to finish a huge assignment. My motivation for finishing (besides the due date the next day) was that when I went home I could finish my cake. I might have ordered Jan Terri's latest album, No Rules, since it came out on September 17, but maybe I waited until the next day.
2012. At some point in the day, I bought the BYU Singers' version of "Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake" to add to my hymns playlist. I went to my home ward, and after church, my mom said to me, in a little bit of an annoyed tone, "Did you hear my news?" She had just been called as primary president. I told her that I thought she was going to tell me she was pregnant; she said she would shoot herself if that were the case. I drove back to Provo, admiring the red mountains on the way back. My roommate Bryton asked me to help with his home teaching. We visited Hannah Russell, and they talked about the crazy BYU-Utah football game from the day before. I think she was talking about her views on science not conflicting with religion. Bryton said he would want to see us engage in a deep conversation because we both were very intelligent; we talked a little bit about global warming but generally agreed on the issue. After we were done, I began putting up Halloween decorations in my apartment, and my friend Carissa came over to visit. I had cut out orange and black drippy letters from construction paper to spell out "Get Down Goblin," so that I could incorporate the framed Jan Terri picture in the decorations. Carissa suggested putting the pumpkin/ghost lights outside of our door. She also found a weird knife thing in our "drawer of requirement" and tied a string to it and hung it on the front door. I wasn't too fond of the idea. (And then someone ended up stealing the tool.) I also shared my candy corn Oreos with her, my roommate Scott, and his girlfriend Mary. I wrote a blog post, and I journalized as follows:
"Today was the primary program, and after church, Mom got called to be the primary president. I drank grape juice and tonight I came back to Provo. The mountains are beautifully covered with red trees.
"I went home teaching with Bryton to see Cassie Fox and Hannah Russell. Then Carissa came over while I was decorating for Halloween. Then I wrote a blog post."
2011. I was at work at the Distribution Center, and in the morning some of my coworkers and I were called up to the leads' office because they had donuts for us for working late earlier that week. I think my coworker Michelle knew that I hadn't previously been eating desserts, so she was surprised to see me eating one. I explained that I could have it because of the fall sprinkles. (That might have been the first time I explained it to her, but maybe she had known about it before.) Later that day, a group of us were working together on a special product, and there were leftover donuts; Michelle told the others not to have the ones with sprinkles because they were the only ones I could have. At some point, one coworker quoted the following: "If I don't do it, then nobody else will, and he'll never exist." I was pleasantly surprised that someone else knew that quote from the relatively obscure It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown; I said, "I know what that's from," and another coworker said he didn't know what it was from. Then I drove home; I think it was a rainy fall-like day, and I think I was listening to the Corpse Bride soundtrack.
2009. I was on an exchange with Elder Masten, and we went around seeing a bunch of potential investigators. He was annoyed that we weren't teaching anyone. We stopped in the church to use the restroom, and he tried to scare me when I came out. We were walking on Grelle Avenue when I told him that earlier someone had driven down the road and thrown an apple at us; he said he would have thrown a rock at them. We also talked about people we both knew from East Wenatchee, since I had served there before he had. I wrote this in my journal:
"I wasn't too fond of my day with Elder Masten. The day itself wasn't the greatest, but it was worse with Elder Masten having a somewhat negative and judgmental attitude. It wasn't too bad, though. We just saw a bunch of random PIs."
2008. I think the man we talked to lived on Fancher Heights in East Wenatchee, and his sister was in another room laughing at the things we were saying. Elder Duncan sometimes had a chip on his shoulder, so he got in defense mode, which aggravated the man. I think the Timothy Tucker we met gave us cherries, either on that occasion or another one, because he worked for one of the local agricultural companies. I journalized as follows:
"Today almost everyone was nice to us. We ended up talking to this guy who had questions but he didn't seem too receptive or sincere, and he got mad when Elder Duncan was being defensive. We met Timothy Tucker, an inactive friendly person."
2000. I don't really know, but it's possible this was the day my brother went through the temple prior to his mission. I was putting up plastic ghosts with newspapers in them while my cousins were at our house. We went to Ho Ho Gourmet for dinner, and one waitress kept refilling our water glasses, even if we had only taken a sip or two from them.
2014. In the morning, I made this Facebook status: "Don't you hate it when you sleep late because you were dreaming about a talking sinkhole?" During my lunch break I went over to Kneaders for lunch, my first time going to the one at City Creek. I was looking at the desserts, trying to decide what seasonal one I wanted to try. I'd never had a Kneaders sugar cookie, so I got one. They had leaves and acorns; I think I got a leaf because it was bigger. It was way too sweet and it wasn't the greatest cookie. I went to institute that night and they had donuts with fall sprinkles, so I could eat them. I was talking with Jackie Gubler, and she told me she had been on a diet from desserts. I told her that my way of limiting them was to only eat seasonal desserts, so I could eat the donuts they had that night. I think I took some home, and a girl in charge of institute began closing a box of cake donuts to take away, even though she had just told us to take as much as we wanted. I journalized as follows:
"Today I walked over to Kneaders for lunch and got a sickeningly sweet sugar cookie. I had a rough time focusing today. Tonight I went to institute, where there were donuts with fall sprinkles."
2013. I went to Kneaders in Provo, the second time I had ever been to Kneaders. I remember loving the Mideau CD I had in my car. I looked at all the pumpkin desserts they had and settled on an expensive, but massive, piece of pumpkin chocolate chip cake. I was a little annoyed with how expensive the meal was. As I was eating my dinner, the workers were talking about 5ks, including the underwear run in Salt Lake, saying a lot of guys probably went to see girls there. Some other customers came in, and I think they asked for the same cake I had; as they left and saw my cake, one of them sad to me, "That's the best cake!" I awkwardly responded something like "I'm excited to try it." After I finished my meal, I began eating the cake, which had cream cheese frosting. It was delicious (and I hate that word), and I was excited to eat the whole piece. However, after I got halfway through it, it became sickening. I think I didn't finish the last third of it and took it in my car, just keeping it on the paper plate. I drove back to my apartment and put it in the fridge. Then I went up to campus to finish working on a Mono Lake water budget project for my groundwater class. It was a harrowing experience, staying up late to finish a huge assignment. My motivation for finishing (besides the due date the next day) was that when I went home I could finish my cake. I might have ordered Jan Terri's latest album, No Rules, since it came out on September 17, but maybe I waited until the next day.
2012. At some point in the day, I bought the BYU Singers' version of "Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake" to add to my hymns playlist. I went to my home ward, and after church, my mom said to me, in a little bit of an annoyed tone, "Did you hear my news?" She had just been called as primary president. I told her that I thought she was going to tell me she was pregnant; she said she would shoot herself if that were the case. I drove back to Provo, admiring the red mountains on the way back. My roommate Bryton asked me to help with his home teaching. We visited Hannah Russell, and they talked about the crazy BYU-Utah football game from the day before. I think she was talking about her views on science not conflicting with religion. Bryton said he would want to see us engage in a deep conversation because we both were very intelligent; we talked a little bit about global warming but generally agreed on the issue. After we were done, I began putting up Halloween decorations in my apartment, and my friend Carissa came over to visit. I had cut out orange and black drippy letters from construction paper to spell out "Get Down Goblin," so that I could incorporate the framed Jan Terri picture in the decorations. Carissa suggested putting the pumpkin/ghost lights outside of our door. She also found a weird knife thing in our "drawer of requirement" and tied a string to it and hung it on the front door. I wasn't too fond of the idea. (And then someone ended up stealing the tool.) I also shared my candy corn Oreos with her, my roommate Scott, and his girlfriend Mary. I wrote a blog post, and I journalized as follows:
"Today was the primary program, and after church, Mom got called to be the primary president. I drank grape juice and tonight I came back to Provo. The mountains are beautifully covered with red trees.
"I went home teaching with Bryton to see Cassie Fox and Hannah Russell. Then Carissa came over while I was decorating for Halloween. Then I wrote a blog post."
2011. I was at work at the Distribution Center, and in the morning some of my coworkers and I were called up to the leads' office because they had donuts for us for working late earlier that week. I think my coworker Michelle knew that I hadn't previously been eating desserts, so she was surprised to see me eating one. I explained that I could have it because of the fall sprinkles. (That might have been the first time I explained it to her, but maybe she had known about it before.) Later that day, a group of us were working together on a special product, and there were leftover donuts; Michelle told the others not to have the ones with sprinkles because they were the only ones I could have. At some point, one coworker quoted the following: "If I don't do it, then nobody else will, and he'll never exist." I was pleasantly surprised that someone else knew that quote from the relatively obscure It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown; I said, "I know what that's from," and another coworker said he didn't know what it was from. Then I drove home; I think it was a rainy fall-like day, and I think I was listening to the Corpse Bride soundtrack.
2009. I was on an exchange with Elder Masten, and we went around seeing a bunch of potential investigators. He was annoyed that we weren't teaching anyone. We stopped in the church to use the restroom, and he tried to scare me when I came out. We were walking on Grelle Avenue when I told him that earlier someone had driven down the road and thrown an apple at us; he said he would have thrown a rock at them. We also talked about people we both knew from East Wenatchee, since I had served there before he had. I wrote this in my journal:
"I wasn't too fond of my day with Elder Masten. The day itself wasn't the greatest, but it was worse with Elder Masten having a somewhat negative and judgmental attitude. It wasn't too bad, though. We just saw a bunch of random PIs."
2008. I think the man we talked to lived on Fancher Heights in East Wenatchee, and his sister was in another room laughing at the things we were saying. Elder Duncan sometimes had a chip on his shoulder, so he got in defense mode, which aggravated the man. I think the Timothy Tucker we met gave us cherries, either on that occasion or another one, because he worked for one of the local agricultural companies. I journalized as follows:
"Today almost everyone was nice to us. We ended up talking to this guy who had questions but he didn't seem too receptive or sincere, and he got mad when Elder Duncan was being defensive. We met Timothy Tucker, an inactive friendly person."
2000. I don't really know, but it's possible this was the day my brother went through the temple prior to his mission. I was putting up plastic ghosts with newspapers in them while my cousins were at our house. We went to Ho Ho Gourmet for dinner, and one waitress kept refilling our water glasses, even if we had only taken a sip or two from them.
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