Disneyland!!

This is a stereopost:

Lisa and I went with her mom, sister, brother, and all of their families to Disneyland and California Adventure for a couple days early in January. Pictures are better than words, so here they are!



James LOVED the rocket ride



On the teacups we asked JJ to smile and he did a simultaneous fish-face and candy sign



We weren't spinning very fast. Joe and Lauren however (up in the upper left teacup) were trying for the nauseated effect!



Fish carousel!



James sure loves his Nana and Grandpa Gary. He almost always had to be holding someone's hand.



Joe and Lauren on Small World.



Linda and Mike on Small World.



JJ and Grandpa Gary on Small World.



Lisa and me on Small World.



There was so much stimulation and so much going on that JJ, without much notice, would just crash when it was time for a nap...and he would be totally and completely out!



That's me in the back with my shirt over my head on Splash Mountain. I'm so proud of myself.



JJ on Lauren's shoulders playing with his Mickey balloon.



JJ using his super-human strength to bend the prison bars!



Everyone in Toontown.



The Finding Nemo submarine ride which replaced the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride...JJ (as well as everyone else) loved it.



We thought JJ looked more like Joe's son than mine this day.



Lisa, JJ, and me in the race car. You can barely see James' little head between the two of us.



Us in the race car again.



I love the Peter Pan ride.



DUMBO! (Which is ironic since we didn't actually go on the ride)



Classic portrait in front of the castle.



Joe, Lauren, Linda, and Mike on the crazy ferris wheel in California Adventure. Oddly enough, this ride almost killed the day for me. I got more nauseated on this ride than any other...it took me hours to recover!



The little kiddie area of California Adventure was "Bug's Life" themed. This was (for some strange reason) by far my favorite of the kids rides. It was just a goofy fat caterpillar eating through different foods...he was hilarious!



We went to a drawing workshop presented by a "real Disney animator" who showed us step-by-step how to draw Goofy. James' is the one closest to the camera on the right.



Awwwww...



I may be 25 years old, but you know what? Mickey and Minnie are still awesome!



The second night got cold and rainy. Not a problem that two well-placed ponchos and a coat can't handle. JJ got all the excitement he could possibly handle!



Since it was cold and rainy, we had the park essentially to ourselves. In the course of an hour (between 11pm-12am) we went on Space Mountain 3 times, Finding Nemo (the most popular ride in the park) once, and the Buzz Lightyear ride once. A great end to a great trip.



What's a great family road trip without a picture of the 15-passenger van? This beast took us safely there and home in ultimate 5-row comfort AND style!

Hooray for Disneyland and hooray for family! It was a great trip!

Hooray for Vacations

So here's what's been going down since finals ended. The good news- well, finals are over. I did well in my classes (A, A-, B, B), but not well enough to obtain early admission to the PhD program. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for that one, but am also applying to a couple other institutions.

Also good news, we've spent a week in NJ with my parents and are now in Phoenix, AZ with Lisa's mom and sister and their families. We're off to a couple night stay in Disneyland tomorrow. Lisa's brother and his wife are going to join us for that trip...it's going to be fun!

The not so good- on Christmas Eve I developed a tickle in my throat. That tickle soon progressed to swelling and pain and tightness. Swallowing became very difficult and very painful. Then I developed ulcers (symmetric) on both sides of my tonsil area. Swallowing became very very difficult and very very painful. The doctor told me that I had Strep Throat and for some reason developed ulcers too (not a normal symptom) - lucky me!!!

Oh I also developed a high fever during this time period (it peaked at 103). The doctor gave me antibiotics so that I would be less communicable. I then found out the hard way that the antibiotics induce violent vomiting when taken on an empty stomach. Fortunately I only had this lesson twice before I leaned exactly how to take the little puke pill.

The second time the puke pill reprimanded me, I discovered that my stomach acids are a catalyst for weird sores on my lips...and the roof of my mouth. Sores that don't go away and spread easily.

A week after first feeling the tickling in my throat, the fever and Strep and ulcer pains are all but gone. My lips, however, are like red and white numb balloons. That's right, at least they don't hurt like normal sores on your lips...just swollen blood-and-puss colored numb orbs. Oh yea, and there's also a swollen and inflamed portion of the roof of my mouth and gum line which makes brushing pretty painful.

But at least I can swallow without pain.

I've been asked numerous times whether I'd rather be sick like this or be back doing finals week again. The answer is easy...

Sick.

How To Convert iTunes to MP3

Background

When a song is downloaded using the iTunes program, it is encoded in an Apple proprietary format with the suffix ".m4p". When the free iTunes program is used to convert these files to mp3 or any other actually usable format, an error message is displayed informing the user that "protected" files cannot be converted to mp3.

This makes it virtually impossible for the user to use the files, which have been rightfully bought and are now owned by the user, on any non-Apple device. This also restricts the user from using the files as part of a slide show, movie, or any other multimedia project which is not compiled on Apple software. This is a problem for the sensible people like me who are more concerned with system performance and usability (and thus PC owners) than bright colored lights, shiny things, creative commercials, and how 3-D and new-age my desktop looks (and thus Mac owners).

Two Methods

If you have a pile of writable cd's around that you don't care about and a bunch of time to waste, iTunes does allow the user to make music cd's with their iTunes files. Then user can then use any of the myriad of free cd ripping utilities (including Windows Media Player) to rip the music back off of the cd onto the computer in mp3 or any other format.

A better solution to this problem is to use the MyFairTunes utility. This free program creates a new music file, magically changing the encoding of your song from the protected ".m4p" format to the unprotected ".m4a" format. Once the format is changed, the user can import the ".m4a" file into iTunes and then use the built in iTunes mp3 converter without reservation.

Tag, I'm It

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago
1. Enjoying being a typical 15 year-old Sophomore at Lenape High School.
2. Taking flight lessons.
3. Doing my Eagle Scout project.
4. Getting rides from Matt Braydich home from school cuz I wasn't old enough to drive yet.
5. On a youth Church trip to Kirtland, OH I totally developed a crush on a girl named Rebecca Defeo.

5 things on my to-do list today
1. Pack for huge holiday trip.
2. Clean the house in preparation for leaving.
3. Continue reading the book "Five Families" about the rise of the 5 most powerful NY mafia families.
4. Finish grad school applications.
5. Enjoy not actively having any assignments due.

Snacks I enjoy
1. Snickers
2. Ice cream and brownies
3. Crumb Coffee Cake
4. Cheese poofs (Nicole totally inspired me to say this one!)
5. Chocolate chip granola bars

Things I would do if I were a billionaire
I'm going to go presidential here and change the heading to say "when" I'm a billionaire :)
1. Save Africa with Lisa (our agreement is that I can't buy anything for myself until we save Africa).
2. Call up Lisa's uncles to setup a trust fund and otherwise soundly invest it.
3. Pay off any debts anyone in the family has.
4. I don't think I would start any new charities...I think there are plenty out there. I would probably focus on one or two that have realistic and honorable goals, wise leadership, and a clear direction and contribute both financially and in influence and manpower (if I've got billions, I probably know influential people).
5. Get Lisa her yellow Jeep and me an airplane hanger for my Aston Martin and Cessna.

3 Bad habits
1. Sometimes I get too focused on my work and don't pay enough attention to Lisa.
2. I really really really enjoy sitting around and totally wasting time and doing absolutely nothing.
3. Yea it's true, I pick my ears.

5 Places I've lived
1. Born and raised in Mt. Laurel, NJ.
2. Provo, UT for undergrad.
3. Salt Lake City, UT.
4. Tampa area of Florida for my church mission.
5. Brighton (Rochester, NY) for grad school.

5 Jobs I've Had
1. Weed slave for Hans' Landscaping...man that's some tough work.
2. Rock climbing instructor at Vertical Reality.
3. Research Assistant for BYU physics dept., Dr. Durfee.
4. Waiter at Chef's Table in Orem, UT.
5. Lisa and I were both "outside sales reps" for a jewelery store.

5 Things People Probably Don't Know About Me
1. I took flying lessons.
2. I love to cook.
3. I've never naturally been very good with kids. (Lisa and I share this one!)
4. Ever since I started rock climbing, I developed a fear of heights. I have no fear whatsoever if I'm attached to a rope, but ladders and other heights kinda weird me out now.
5. I play the guitar.

I tag anyone who wants to do this. David Timme and 4 of my imaginary friends.

The Office, Writer's Strike, And My BFF

Lisa and I pay for "cable" (essentially it's just the networks, but we don't have to fiddle with bunny ear antennas) primarily so that we can watch ER and The Office every week. I was saddened today to see that it was another re-run...obviously a ramification of the writer's strike. I quickly went to the NBC website to see if there was any additional information about when new episodes would be airing. There wasn't...but there IS this gold mine of a section where anyone can post "comments" about recent episodes. Most of the comments are pleas for NBC to "pay the writers" so that new episodes can air. This one, I thought, was amazing:

hey guys!
i just got hooked on the office and i always set my alarm clock to 8:00 on thursdays, just do i won't miss the office, MY BRAND NEW FAVORITE SHOW!!! well, u can proabably imagine how disappointed i was when i found out there's gonna be NO MORE NEW EPISODES. me and one of my bff's jenny, always talk about the office in our spanish class and we always qoute these two sayings: "hey hey you you i dont like ur boyfriend, cuz cuz cuz cuz cuz he sucks at ping pong!" and "hey your ugly and the evidence is RIGHT THERE." hahahahahah, im cracking up just typing those. so i dont really think u read this and i dont think this will make a difference or anything but PLEASE MAKE A DEAL. I CANT LIVE ANOTHER MONTH WITHOUT A NEW EPISODE OF THE OFFICE!!!! ughhh. pleaseeee. pretty pleasee.

all love to the show/company,
Julia
JULESS ferrn
December 5 - 6:32pm PT

Wow.

Book Review: Freakonomics

I've been so busy recently with school and my sister's wedding (which was awesome) that I'm way back-logged on posts I want to write. We'll start with a book review. This was another book on cd for Lisa and me. We listened to it while driving to and from Lisa's dad's house in Detroit for Thanksgiving.

Freakonomics claims to present a mind-altering perspective to the way we view not just the economy, but life in general. In the beginning of the book, the author states that many of the points he makes may seem unorthodox at first, but after hearing him out we will discover that his conclusions make perfect sense.

He argues his points in solid syllogisms throughout the entirety of the book, making his points clear and salient from impetus to conclusion. However, almost in passing, the author points out a principle which ultimately is the mortal downfall of his entire platform.

He briefly mentions a principle called "The Butterfly Effect"- one small overlooked cause can have dramatic effects [a butterfly flapping its wings in South America can cause a tornado to form in Texas...see below for a more nerdy description]. Having done numerous calculations of differential equations and knowing more than the average person about chaos theory, my attention was perked when I heard him mention the Butterfly Effect.

On every issue, the author gives us some initial condition (abortion being legalized; the No Child Left Behind program being enacted) and then holds our hand through a series of facts and statistics which lead to the now-logical conclusion (our current crime rate is much lower than 20 years ago because kids who are prone to crime are no longer being born; teachers are becoming corrupt [like sumo wrestlers] in order to keep their class grades high).

The problem is that the Butterfly Effect doesn't work both ways...it's an irreversible process. Essentially what the author is saying is that he has found THE butterfly in South America that caused the tornado in Texas. That's quite a claim!

With that said, I really enjoyed the author's thoughts and feel that he made some interesting points. Maybe he has found the butterfly in many of the issues he tackles. However, the tornado was also effected by the Earth's rotation and the jet stream and the warm and cold air masses...all of which need to be considered.

I think there are two good items of discussion from this book.

1- Let's say that his syllogisms are accurate (the legalizing of abortion does have a significant effect on our current crime rate). How significant of an effect is it in comparison to the myriad of other factors which contributed to the outcome(improved economy, improved schools, fewer crimes being reported, etc...).

2- Let's say that he has genuinely found THE butterfly and direct cause of whatever his conclusion is. Does it qualify that means towards the specified ends? Suppose that the legalizing of abortion is directly responsible for our current drop in crime. Does that mean that we should never consider outlawing abortion for fear of crack-babies shooting up the streets? Where is the line...1st trimester, 2nd, 15th? My sister-in-law (an elementary school teacher) recently had an altercation with one of her more troubled students which ended with the student shoving her. This child obviously is in a statistically high position of engaging in crime during his life. He probably should have been aborted. We might as well just kill him now in order to avoid the inevitable, right? Enter Jonathan Swift...

Or is the problem more with the fact that we have these socio-economic sectors that are prone to crime in the first place? Maybe if we focused more on improving peoples' quality of life and "teaching them how to fish", the crime rate would go down without having to kill children. I realize how naive and high-and-mighty this sounds. I have no idea how to improve the economy or an entire civilization's quality of life, and I'm not creative or charismatic enough to make people think that I can. That's why I'm in science, not politics.

All in all the book is a great "bathroom reader". It's chuck full of interesting statistics and is at times thought provoking. By no means does is knock you over the head and change your view of the world, but it just might make you say "hmmm...interesting, I hadn't thought about that" a few times.

[Butterfly Effect: Gets its roots in chaos theory. Edward Lorentz in the 1960's was running a weather simulation (again) on one of those new-fangled things called computers. Complex calculations took a long time back then...commonly over the course of days. Lorentz stopped his calculation one night and recorded the current value of his computation. He came back the next day and re-entered the value, but truncated it to three decimal places instead of pushing in all six from the night before. To his amazement, the end result of his computation was completely different than the first time he ran it. Apparently, the onehundredthousandth of a change in his daily initial condition was enough to alter the entire algorithm. One uncreative scientist after another suggested a name for this phenomena until eventually "the Butterfly Effect" was settled upon.]

Why My Wife Is Awesome

This is a stereopost.

1) She is the best mom ever. Seriously, you have to see how James lights up when he sees her. You have to see how James interacts with her. He trusts her. He loves her. He knows that she's going to always make him happy and take care of him.

2) She's an incredible wife. Staying at home and supporting me and our family has been a difficult adjustment for her...she's incredibly intelligent and motivated to work in her field...but she has been wonderful. She works hard to have food ready for our family, she works hard to make our house beautiful, and she works hard to make my life easier in any way possible.

3) She's a wonderful friend. Lisa genuinely cares about me and my life and tries to care about the things which are important to me. She calls to see how my day is going and thinks about me when I'm not with her.

4) She's one hot mamma :)