My family lost one of its legendary figures today. My great uncle C. died after an extend illness. One of the reasons Uncle C. was legendary in my family was because he had been a professor at Church College of Hawaii (long before it became BYU-Hawaii), and had been an active participant in getting my mom and dad together and married when they were students there. So we heard lots of stories about those days from my parents.
One of the amazing thing about Uncle C. was that for his entire adult life he was a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair after a fall from a second story window during his rowdy days in the military. What made uncle C. amazing is that there are few people on earth who were a genuinely friendly and funny and loving as he was and enjoyed life as he did. He just loved people and he made you feel good to be around him. I remember going to a lot of family parties where there would be all the old folks (now I laugh at this, since they were probably not that much older than I am now, but they seemed awfully old then.) and I would really feel uncomfortable as a kid until I saw Uncle C. and then I thought, okay, I can survive this party if he is here. My grandfather had a lot of brothers, many who were good story tellers, but none was better at making people laugh and enjoy themselves as Uncle C.
I have a lot of memories of going over to Uncle C. and Aunt K's home near Payson after my family had moved to Utah from Hawaii. They lived kind of up in the foothills and they had some farm animals and a well and stuff. Which for a kid coming from Hawaii, seemed like the coolest thing. I think the only time I have ever attempted to milk a cow in my entire life was at their home. (Didn't do very well at this.) While my uncle R. had horses, I was always scared of him (and the horses as well it turns out.) My uncle C. and aunt K. had this enormous family room, which I remember having a foosball table and other cool games and stuff. We had a lot of family gatherings there on holidays and such. I remember the scary Halloween haunted woods thing their kids put on one year when I was a teenager. Ken and David set it up in the woods behind the house, and I think Uncle C. delivered the big set up scare with the legend of some Indian who died in the early warfare in the early days of the Mormon settlement period and came back to haunt the nearby area. I also remember a big family party with a magician and that I was so frustrated at not being able to figure out how he was doing the tricks.
I guess this is to just say thanks to Uncle C. for a lot of wonderful memories.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tying Shoelaces
So I recently read "To the Rescue", an autobiography of President Monson written by the mother of one of our former ward members. (President Monson's grandson used to be in our ward too, so I guess there is some connection there.)
One of the most important things I learned...
...was how to tie my shoelaces right.
It seems that at some point Elder Monson asked Elder Hunter why Elder Hunter's shoelaces never came untied while his always did. Elder Hunter replied that he was tying his with a square knot while Elder Monson was tying a granny knot. It took me a few seconds to "get" what was meant by this, but then it dawned on me, and now I have switched the way I tie the bow and yes, I no longer have problems with my shoes coming untied over time as has been a problem for many years. I am not sure how I was originally taught this, but I am sure at some point it was easier to remember to do the same motion twice rather than inverting it as is required for the "square knot" variant of the bow.
One of the most important things I learned...
...was how to tie my shoelaces right.
It seems that at some point Elder Monson asked Elder Hunter why Elder Hunter's shoelaces never came untied while his always did. Elder Hunter replied that he was tying his with a square knot while Elder Monson was tying a granny knot. It took me a few seconds to "get" what was meant by this, but then it dawned on me, and now I have switched the way I tie the bow and yes, I no longer have problems with my shoes coming untied over time as has been a problem for many years. I am not sure how I was originally taught this, but I am sure at some point it was easier to remember to do the same motion twice rather than inverting it as is required for the "square knot" variant of the bow.
Q: What do March Madness and the BCS have in common?
Answer: they are both used to decide the NCAA national championship of their respective sports.
Other than that, not a lot.
If the BCS was used to pick the basketball champion, we would have had 1 game and Ohio St. would have faced Duke. But thank goodness, in basketball there is a real championship tournament. Turns out, Ohio St. is not even the best team in Ohio. Given that not a single one of the top 8 rated teams made the final four, and that Butler, given an 8 seed, will now be playing in the championship game for a second time in a row, I think we can pretty much laugh at the idea that humans or computers can pick the winner of head to head game from teams in different conferences and that the "elite" conferences hold any special edge. But in football, the BCS will go on tiredly spinning its yarn and the rest of us are held hostage to it.
Meanwhile, in the real championship, go Bulldogs! Take down them other puppies!
Other than that, not a lot.
If the BCS was used to pick the basketball champion, we would have had 1 game and Ohio St. would have faced Duke. But thank goodness, in basketball there is a real championship tournament. Turns out, Ohio St. is not even the best team in Ohio. Given that not a single one of the top 8 rated teams made the final four, and that Butler, given an 8 seed, will now be playing in the championship game for a second time in a row, I think we can pretty much laugh at the idea that humans or computers can pick the winner of head to head game from teams in different conferences and that the "elite" conferences hold any special edge. But in football, the BCS will go on tiredly spinning its yarn and the rest of us are held hostage to it.
Meanwhile, in the real championship, go Bulldogs! Take down them other puppies!
California Dreamin' 3
So on one of the days, the conference offered the chance to sign up for a whale watching trip during the afternoon break. Of course I signed up and paid my money. The original day, they had to cancel because of the weather, so I was really bummed. But the next day they were able to go, and this actually worked out well anyway.
The Channel Islands are a several miles of the Ventura coast and are the Channel Island National Marine Sanctuary.
On the way out to the islands, we spotted a gray whale (the primary type of whale we were expecting to see at this time of the year. The blue whales don't come by for a few more months, and the humpbacks as well.
In some ways, watching gray whales is less interesting than humpbacks because they are bottom feeders, so most of their activity is below surface and they don't do any of the joyful breaching and such that humpbacks do. They lack a dorsal fin, because they swim so slowly they apparently don't need this stabilization. Additionally, regulation don't allow intentional approach to the gray whales closer than 100 yards. So mostly we could see the blows and the tail lifts at the start of deep dives, but not so much else.
When we reached the Anacape Island, we saw the beautiful formations and also had a superb view of a California stellar sea lion, which is much larger than the more common sea lion. A group of four seals swam out to our boat and play in the near vicinity.
On the far side of the island we found two pods of four gray whales.
But for me the highlight of the trip was on the return, when all of a sudden we were surrounded for about five minutes by literally hundreds of common dolphins. It was simply amazing. If I can figure out how to load movies from my iPod over to a format that my PC can use (any suggestions) I have some cool movies of this to share.
The Channel Islands are a several miles of the Ventura coast and are the Channel Island National Marine Sanctuary.
On the way out to the islands, we spotted a gray whale (the primary type of whale we were expecting to see at this time of the year. The blue whales don't come by for a few more months, and the humpbacks as well.
In some ways, watching gray whales is less interesting than humpbacks because they are bottom feeders, so most of their activity is below surface and they don't do any of the joyful breaching and such that humpbacks do. They lack a dorsal fin, because they swim so slowly they apparently don't need this stabilization. Additionally, regulation don't allow intentional approach to the gray whales closer than 100 yards. So mostly we could see the blows and the tail lifts at the start of deep dives, but not so much else.
When we reached the Anacape Island, we saw the beautiful formations and also had a superb view of a California stellar sea lion, which is much larger than the more common sea lion. A group of four seals swam out to our boat and play in the near vicinity.On the far side of the island we found two pods of four gray whales.
California Dreamin' 2
So my conference was in Ventura, CA, and the hotel was right on Ventura Harbor. Although I mostly saw seagulls, I did see a seal swimming around once.
It was about a mile walk down to the beach and there was a couple hours set aside in the middle of the day for recreation. I really like this kind of conference schedule seminars and meals together from 7 am to 1:30, free time to 4 pm, then science and dinner from 4:30 to 10 pm.
The break in the middle of the day gives some time to let the brain rest, because its way too hard for me to focus on information overload for 11 hours without break.
I had brought my swimming suit, but I have to admit that the water was too cold for me to really enjoy swimming. So mostly I just sad on the beach and reflected.
It was about a mile walk down to the beach and there was a couple hours set aside in the middle of the day for recreation. I really like this kind of conference schedule seminars and meals together from 7 am to 1:30, free time to 4 pm, then science and dinner from 4:30 to 10 pm.
The break in the middle of the day gives some time to let the brain rest, because its way too hard for me to focus on information overload for 11 hours without break.I had brought my swimming suit, but I have to admit that the water was too cold for me to really enjoy swimming. So mostly I just sad on the beach and reflected.
California Dreamin'
The Griffith Observatory features prominently in Rebel Without a Cause featuring James Dean, that California icon. (Worth seeing on netflicks by the way.) I think BAD thought I should be more fascinated with the stars in the sky rather than the stars of Hollywood.
We were also able to have a nice dinner together. Here is my Brother K (pun intended) with a smiling J. My niece was a bit tired. Her mom got to share her experience with seagull rescue, so we now call her the the bird whisperer. We also had a chance to plot our strategy for the Logan to Jackson bike race. Fortunately for me, I found out that Coach K (pun intended) was allocating 3 and 1/2 hours for me to make my 45 mile leg of the relay rather than the 2 and 1/2 hours I had remembered.