Nebo and iTunes' Prank on Me

Story number 1: Nebo

Some of the basic truths of our faith are rarely mentioned in testimony meetings. Example: All single twenty-five year olds are dating failures. Failing to set them up is like failing to feed a starving person in your very midst. Four wanna-be Cupids were shooting arrows at me just over a week ago. My blind date for that Saturday fell through, so I decided to hike Mount Nebo instead. On the whole, I've lost a lot of faith in blind dates.

I enjoy hiking. Hiking can be a wonderful social event and an pleasant outing. This hike, however, was neither. This was to be a Man Hike. I convinced myself that my awesomeness was directly proportional to how quickly I could get to the highest point of the Wasatch Mountains. My ascent would consist of Godzilla Steps with a some running. An occasional Man Roar (the kind that would intimidate a Viking) would be appropriate.

Thus I found myself moving quickly past a couple who had stopped to rest after a steep part.

Bryan: Hello!
Guy: Wow, you're like in fourth gear, aren't you?
Bryan: Ha, thanks.

I got to the top, ate a granola bar, and turned back down the mountain. About an hour and half after our first encounter, I passed the couple again as they continued their ascent. The first words out of the guys mouth were: "I've got a smokin' hot sister that I want to set you up with. You seem like a nice guy. She's a hiker."

What did this guy know about me? I hike fast. I'm wearing a BYU shirt. Two (friendly) words: "Hello" and "thanks." I'm not sure if they'll actually convince the sister to go out on the date, but I gave them my number. I don't expect it to go anywhere, but wouldn't that be an awesome "how we met" story?

Story number 2: iTunes' Prank on Me

In reorganizing my music, I told iTunes to fetch any missing album art for my iPod touch. The visual recognition adds a little convenience.


The problem is, many of my songs were ripped from the CD by other programs before I became an iPod user. iTunes doesn't always get the CD right. I did this for my entire music library, only to discover some errors while listening. I had my entire iPod on shuffle last week, when a Bach song came on from The Only Classical CD You'll Ever Need. This is what I saw:


I began laughing hysterically, right there in my cubicle at work. "On Fire: Hottest Bellydance CD Ever" is certainly not something I'd ever buy, but I still haven't cleared the album art. I'm too amused every time I see it.

Disassociate

I'm programming at work, working with code dealing with Wi-Fi connections. In the last 20 minutes I've found the following spellings for the word "disassociate" in the code:

1. dissassociate
2. dissasociate
3. dissocaite
4. disassociaght
5. diassociated
   

And they say programmers aren't creative! Fah!

Timpanogos Trek

Today I was called by Hollingshead, and old friend, who hadn't heard from me in months. He told me that the Eloquist wasn't exactly helping me to stay in touch with others. Time to start posting again.

Yesterday I got to work super early. By the late afternoon I was pretty brain dead, and I stepped outside for a few minutes to think. Mount Timpanogos soared overhead.



I thought to myself, "I want to be there... Whoa. I could actually do it." I didn't walk back into the office. I walked straight to my car, got in, stopped at a gas station for Gatorade and snacks, and drove to the trail head. I began hiking at 5:00pm, and I didn't have a lot of sunlight left. I ran for most of the first hour and then hiked like a madman to reach the summit a while before sundown.

If you're keen on a moment of majestic solitude, might I recommend watching the sun go down from the summit of Mount Timpanogos?

There is still a lot of snow on the far side of the mountain this early in the year. Fortunately you can go down steep snow covered mountains much faster than you can go up them. I hiked back to my car by the light of a full moon.

Probability of Kitchen Disaster

After about 3 it starts to get crazy really fast.

Turning my faith loose

It was the career fair again today. While wandering, I was stopped by a black student.
"Why are you here, brother?" he asked.
"Just looking for a job," I answered.
He placed his hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said, "Just remember to turn your faith loose."
Then he turned and left.

Watch

I'm usually about as sentimental about my things as Chuck Norris is about his boots. But over Christmas break I had to say goodbye to my watch.

For a moment, please imagine a movie with a beautiful horse, a beautifuler young girl who rides it every day, and her brother who can't ever remember to feed the chickens. The girl becomes a horse jockey in an effort to win prize money to save the family farm. Of course, she has to race against the horse and jockey of some rich guy that looks a lot like Kingpin, but lacks the threatening pants. And, of course, the horse breaks its leg and has to be put down.

This is the same basic tragedy, with a few plot substitutions:
Tender little girl = Bryan
Horse = Ironman Triathlon Watch
Saving the farm = Reminding Bryan to remove ginger snaps from the oven
Breaking Leg = Failing to beep when timer reached zero

The watch was on my wrist continuously from my sixteenth birthday until Christmas 2008, except for while sleeping and showering. In that third of my life, we went through four batteries and over ten wrist bands. It's been there for every date I've ever been on, every moment of a four year degree, and an entire mission. But once it let my ginger snaps overcook, it was all over between us. I had flashbacks to Toy Story II as I left the once precious object to be forgotten in a box until the next yard sale. It's been replaced with the new version of the Ironman Triathlon, which is mostly identical, but with blue buttons.