jetlev.com: One Amazing toy

I found a new toy that I will get when I become rich an famous!  It is a Jetlev water jet pack!  It uses water to push a person up into the air.  There are some limitations... only 30 or so feet in the air, there is a little boat connected to you by a long tube.  But here is the thing, that boat does all of the work of pumping the water and you can fly around for about 3 hours before you run out of gas.

Now why must I wait until I am rich and famous?  Because the MSRP on this thing is $99,500.

BYU vs USU: typical time of year

This Friday at 18:00 MST, the football game against BYU and USU will begin.  This game has usually been played the Friday before the first Saturday in October as to not conflict with the Semi-Annual General Conference of the LDS church.

So what is in store for this years game?  BYU has a power-house defense as well as an amazing special teams... but I can't give so much acclaim to the offense.  USU running game is killer, their freshman QB is the shiz, they had Auburn against the ropes (and lost), yet their defense and special teams have problems.  As a biased BYU fan, BYU wins the game but in a fashion similar to how they won the UCF game: with Special Teams.  I would love to see another kickoff returned for a touchdown, but that is not quite expected.  I think that special teams will put the offense in easy positions to score for BYU.  And with the clash of USU run offense and BYU power defense, those series are going to be exciting.

the video has some hightlights of the BYU vs. U of U game then everything from the UCF game.

I say a close game of dominate offenses, but BYU special teams wins it for the home team.

Rocky Mountain Conference 2011

I recently made a movie highlighting my and my team's experience at the Air Force Academy during a student Civil Engineering competition.  It was a lot of fun while I was there and it was a lot of fun making the video.  I made it with windows movie maker, which sucks but it was the only thing I have.  iMovie is a lot better.
Hope you enjoy!

Blue Man Group: perfect fit for BYU

I recently saw online that Blue man Group is going on tour and they are stopping in Salt Lake.  I grew up wanting to play drums all the time.  And I did just that for about 10 years... through my senior year of high school.  During those last few years of high school and still to this day, I loved to preform.  I then had a new dream job: to become a member of the Blue Man Group!  It was pretty ambitious, and true is... it may never happen.  But if I am ever asked I will have to be held down so I don't break things as I am jumping around with excitement. 

Maybe BYU could think about doing a Blue Man Group show for a little bit.  They both bleed blue!  I'd try out; because I could never leave this dream go.  It's part of me to preform.  I hope to get back into it.  One day...

Mahna mahna, doot doooo do do do...

The Muppet's have become a great child icon over the years.  They have made great movies (Muppet's Treasure Island and Muppet's Christmas Carol) and great songs.  My favorite song is Mahna mahna.  I am not sure if the song is a Muppet's original or a remake, but it sure brings bake some memories.

The band "Cake" does a really cover of the song.

Ultrasound = Ultra-excited!

Early this morning my wife and I went to the doctor's office.  Upon a very revealing ultrasound we found that we are having a baby GIRL!  The tech that did the ultrasound finally got in a good position to best see male or female organs and said, "Do you see those three dots? That means its a girl."  Personally I wanted a boy first, but I couldn't be more happy at the moment.

During the Ultrasound, I kept thinking about how it works.  I know that it sends out high-pitched sound and receives a refection of that sound.  But what I was thinking about was how the image is created from a software standpoint.  I think the image is made from a plane that is sent straight out from the sensor.  Now imagine all of the code that goes into getting that image to so quickly... not to mention the bliss that comes with knowing that I will have a baby girl come December!

We hope that you are excited with us.  We are both very excited for this next chapter in our lives and becoming parents.

Schadenfreude!

Oh how wonderful it is to speak a language that has taken so many words from different languages and pronounces them how we want.  This lists includes many but is not limited to the following: chance, Los Angeles, San Diego, taco, schnitzel, crepe, foot, book, kaput, light, schadenfreude.... Schad-WHAT?!

(A band named Avenue Q wrote a song about the word.  Its funny, but not appropriate for children.)

You know, the German word schadenfreude; a compound word from two words meaning "damage" and "joy" respectively.  So what does this mean?  Well, it has one of the best meanings ever and I am happy that the English (or at least American English) has adopted this vengeful word to our diction.  It means, "to be entertained because of the pain of others" or from Webster, "enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others".

from: nichtlustig.de

I first heard the word while serving in the Hamburg, Germany LDS mission along with the likes of "ohrworm" and "tja", meaning "ear-worm" (a song stuck in your head) and "alright-y then" (there really isn't a good translation for this one... look at the picture).  So why do I like this word so much?  It's german for one and I don't have to make up a word in english for it now.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

While on a spring break band trip my junior year of high school to New Orleans and Orlando, we took our last day of the week long trip to make a short three hour visit to Kennedy Space Center.  I say short because it was not nearly long enough to see everything... and I wanted to see everything!

The three things I remember the most are the Space Shuttle replica that sits by the main entrance, a Saturn V rocket, and the gift shop.  The Saturn V rocket was used in the Apollo missions and is absolutely enormous; much bigger than the space shuttle.  There is one hanger that has the rocket in sections on its side an one engine nozzle is probably 40 ft in diameter.  Now the gift shop may seem odd but i wanted to remember my time there and get a book that had more information so i could take a virtual tour if you will.  My favorite souvenir is a full size Apollo 13 mission patch.  In fact it is hanging up in its packaging in my cubicle at work.  On the back I wrote the mission motto: Failure is not an option.  Go and take a look at my Pick Me Up's! page, it's toward the top.

This is a monumental end to a great American era of space flight.  I hope we continue to endeavor into space flight.  It would be very cool to someday go up there my self.


To see more pictures of the last mission, LA Times as a good selection.

A World to Create

Creativity is all around.  Where do you look?  What do you see and hear?  I grew up in a fortunate house where both parents had graduated from college and where successful in their fields.  My mother is very "theatrical, innovative, and crazy". (that's the best way to put it mom...)  My father is a very open minded engineer.  Now from my mom doing something with scrapbooking (or at least wanting to) and my dad's problem solving skills, I have grown up all around creativity.

At a young age I developed a liking to drumming, hitting pots and pans on occasion.  My parents would turn on the dish washer as they went into their room after putting the kids to sleep and I would make up beats in my head to the rhythm of the machine.  And although I haven't been in any part of a musical group since high school, I still walk to a beat and compose percussion music mentally.  When you hear an obnoxious kink in the dryer from a pair of jeans, I hear a rhythm.  When you hear the loud construction work on you way to work, I am tapping out a funky beat.  And when the engineering side of me comes out (just ask my friends... or my wife, who hated my concrete canoe and never let me forget it) construction is cool!  Blue prints are someones innovation and creativity waiting to explode into something much, much bigger.


This poem comes from a take home essay test I took in a class called History of Creativity.  It is much different from my normal creative niche.  The Last question of the test asked for a Sonnet with at least 10 key terms from the chapter covered by the test. Here is my Sonnet and explanation:

More and his Utopia, describes earth

In its perfection. Richelieu’s rule today

Brings pow’r to Louis, France’s noble birth.

Thirty years ‘til Majesty’s Letter say

“Be peace” ye Protestant and Catholics.

See beauty, el’gant Hands drawn by Dürer.

See splendor and be ye not hypocrites,

St. Bartholomew not Mary Stuar’.

De Vinci saw the future of mankind

And sought to give all that he could his part.

Create a better outcome with the mind,

With Ninety-five good reasons from the heart.

Ideas flow. They need no restoration.

Creature, take note with consideration.

The main theme of the sonnet is having a better world. There is a standard that Thomas More established with his book, but that standard has yet to be met. Thus, all we can do is strive to be good, look to the future, and creatively change the present. With the last line I suggest that humans have yet to reach their full potential and should look to others who have shown big “C” creativity (creativity that has changed the world) in the past. The last two lines vary from the usual emphasis because they are my main argument. The world will become a better place, but only with the help of great ideas from many sources.

So, I repeat my initial questions: Where do you look?  What do you see and hear?  "And if I don't?" you ask... MAKE something!