The Pumpkin Walk is upon us!

The Syracuse City pumpkin walk begins tonight and will continue through Saturday (the 27th). It's open from 7:00pm-10:00pm each night and is free of charge, although usually the city has some sort of cheap concessions (typically cookies & cocoa or something along those lines).

If anybody's interested in checking it out, it's located at Centennial Park, right behind the Syracuse City Office Building: 1800 S. 2000 West, Syracuse, Utah.

To get there, travel on I-15 until you get to pretty much any Syracuse, Clearfield, or West Point marked exit (I'd tell you exact exit numbers, but since they re-numbered the exits there not too long ago, I really don't know what they are), and head West until you reach 2000 West, then just turn whichever way you need to go to get to 1800 S. Yes, these are probably the most general directions ever, but since I'm not giving a specific exit to get take, it's kinda hard to be more specific. Sorry!!

If you need more specifics, gimmie a call or email me or something!

What an exhausting week!

When I was a student at SDL I often wished I could work a few more hours each week to give me a little financial boost, but now that I'm working 30-40 hours each week, my GOODNESS!!! I had no idea how exhausting working full time and taking classes could be!!

Happily we're at another Friday, and I've got big plans. First I need to go to school...that'll be shortly...in about a half hour. Then I'll sit in class for 2 hours and try not to sleep. Next I'll meet with my project partner for one of my classes and we'll do homework for about 3 hours, and I'll try not to sleep. But THEN!! Woo!! Pumpkin Carving Party!! What I like to call, PCP! ..aw yeah...that's the good stuff.

I stayed up super late last night because once I'd finished all my homework I, of course, needed to find some ideas of things to carve. After scrouging around a bit I found 3 pictures on my computer that I converted into pumpkin carving patterns...if ya wanna see what they are, you better come carve a pumpkin at our house tonight!!

Tomorrow's also going to be a fun-filled day, as I am going down to West Point for a planning meeting for this year's pumpkin walk (where there's going to be a reporter from one of the local papers). Also tomorrow night my brother, my cousin, my best friend, and me are going to have a Halo 3 party! We're excited. In Halo 3 you can, apparently, have up for 4 people all playing through the story-mode of the game cooperatively...and that's always super fun! I'm a big fan of co-op play.

I can't believe it's already pumpkin carving time!! Such fun! Here's a pumpkin I carved 2 Halloween's ago. It took MUCH longer than I thought it would, and really didn't turn out a cool as I thought it would (considering how much time I spent), but I still thought it was a pretty good one. ...Good enough to share on here, at least. ^^

Hospitals: Fact or Fiction?

So this last week I had two hospital experiences: One in real life and one in a dream (Fact & Fiction, get it?!? HA!). Both are somewhat wordy, though, if you may wanna stand up and stretch for a minute before delving into them.

Let's start with that dream:

*** Dreamt Sept 24-25, 2007 ***

I'd just gotten a new job to work at the same place my roommmate Michael P Christensen work, namely in the lab where they clean surgical instruments at Logan Regional Hospital. I was informed that my job was going to consist of two main activities: (1) Cleaning instruments and sending them to the ER when they were needed, and (2) manning the cash register at a little pharmaceutical store that was located above a little mexican market. The kicker was that the store and the Hospital were about 2 miles away from each other. I'd tried asking my new boss about my responsibilities, but he just kept making jokes and wouldn't give me any straight answers...it was really annoying.

My first night on the job I went over to the store and looked on the schedule to find that I was scheduled to work at BOTH places that night...at the SAME TIME!! I panicked. What was I supposed to do!?! No one would tell me. My co-workers didn't seem to have any pity on me, but since the ER seemed like a more important place I decided to go there. Upon arriving at the ER I found my boss again and told him about the double booking thing and he told me, "Oh yeah, that happens sometimes. If you ever get scheduled to be at both places, ALWAYS go to the ER!" So at least I did the right thing!!

As I was there, though, I started to freak out a little because there wasn't ANY close parking. ...I think I'd left my car at the little store 2 miles away. So I asked my boss where I should park in the future and he said, "Okay it's easy, get a piece of paper and write this down..." I grabbed a piece of paper and pencil, but didn't really have to write anything down because the directions he was giving me were already printed word-for-word on the paper I had. Upon closer inspection, I realized that this paper wasn't just typed-up notes on where to park...it was the script for my dream!! Next to his lines was the printed "Boss:" and he was - of course saying exactly what was on the script. His directions on where to park was something like this: "walk 2 blocks west, then turn right and walk about 3 quarters of a mile before turning right again..." this went on for a while, and then the last line of the script was "Everyone together: Then run the last 70 feet to your car as fast as you can." Of course, everybody in the room said it all together ('cuz that's how it was in the script), but the REASON they said it all together was because that's how he always ended the instructions. Incidentally, the reason for the "running as fast you can" was because the parking lot was in a really slummy neighborhood, and if you didn't RUN to your car, you'd probably get mugged.

After all this I really started to freak out! The parking lot he'd described was over 3 MILES away!! I was supposed to work swing shift, park in the worst part of town, then walk THREE MILES to work!?!?! My boss could tell I was freaking out, so he bade me follow him outside so he could show me something. I followed him out to a little patio that was on the back of the ER and he said "watch", as he picked up a golf ball sitting on the ground. He turned to the north and threw it as far as he could...but it didn't get lost...it bounded on houses and cars and buildings etc., until it finally came rolling back to us. He turned to me and said "See!?" Clearly I didn't, so he did the experiment again. He tossed the golf ball as far as he could, but sure enough, it came back to us. "No matter how far you throw it, it ALWAYS comes back", he explained. Suddenly it all made sense. Parking wasn't a big deal at all. I was going to be okay working there at the ER.

***


Are you confused? SO WAS I!! What the HECK did I eat for dinner that night, I ask you!!

Well, 2 days later, I had the opportunity of going to the REAL Logan Regional Hospital to take a drug test and have a pre-employment physical for my new job. You know, I've had to take drug tests and had pre-employment physicals for past jobs, and it was always sort of a "Pee in a cup and make sure you don't have high blood pressure" kinda thing. This was a SERIOUS physical! I was at the hospital for almost an hour and a half!!! After the usual drug test stuff, I had my blood pressure checked, color blindness check, sight test, and then the full physical including the ever exciting hernia test, as well as a myriad of really bizarre little muscle tests.

You know, nothing is more humbling than a full physical. For an hour I had people poking, proding, inspecting, and doing anything else they could think to me, the whole time with the mindset: What can we find wrong with this person?

Bleh. Not the funnest of days ever.

Power Showers

Do you ever take a shower that makes you feel EXCEPTIONALLY clean? I'm not just talking your normal run-of-the-mill, use soap = don't stink type of showers. Every now and then I'll take a shower that just seemed MORE cleansing than normal, and for several hours afterward I'll still have that minty fresh feeling.

Yesterday I took a shower like that, and it made my day! Well...the rest of it. I took it in the afternoon, and I think maybe that's part of the trick. In the mornings I'm too sleepy to appreciate the power shower and at night I go to bed too quickly following it. That midday shower, though...it's really the prime time to appreciate the power shower's effects.

What time is it? Oh my gosh! I have to work tomorrow!! Why am I still up!?!?

Persuing Other Opportunities...

The title of this post is the same as the title of the email I just sent to my boss and my current project manager here at SDL. As many of you know, at the end of last week I was offered (and I accepted) a programming position at Dupont Holographics here in Logan. I was so excited for the change, excited to work at a new place, excited to get out of the looming project that's just around the corner here at SDL that I've not been excited for, but as I just wrote and sent that email officially resigning from the lab, I've suddenly (and quite unexpectedly) become quite melancholy about the whole thing.

I've been at SDL my entire college career. It's kinda become my home...it's certainly been much more stable that my living conditions in Logan. While employed at SDL I started my college career, I graduated with my bachelor's, I bought my first car, and I've lived in 4 different houses AND 4 different apartments with a total of 29 different roommates. I've been through a lot while employed at the Lab, and it's kinda sad to see the era come to an end.

But "All good things...", right? In every way that I can see, this is a good move. I am excited for things to come and especially for the opportunity to get out of the "student employee" title that I've held so masterfully for lo these many years. It's been a long, good run, but the call of gainful employment that I've been ignoring since I got my B.S. has finally annoyed me enough to get me to answer. See Kendra...you just gotta keep calling for another year or two, I'll eventually answer the phone.

Rubicks Cubes and Pumpkin Carving

I can't remember my dream from a few nights ago well enough to really give a full account of all of the details like I would a normal dream post, so it's going to have to suffice that I share just the tiny part of my dream that I do remember well.

I seem to remember my entire dream taking place inside a mall (for some reason this isn't a particularly unusual locale in my dreams...come to think of it, I've had LOTS dreams that took place entirely in malls...weird).

*** Dreamt Sept. 2-3, 2007 ***

I found myself looking in an interesting store with several little odd things in it. There were mostly brain teasers and magic tricks in the shop, and I found a shelf where they had rubicks cubes. Now I'm a big fan of rubicks puzzles, so I grabbed one off the shelf, and it was the most bizarre rubicks cube I'd ever seen. Instead of being a solid NxN cube, it was made of string and beads and as such didn't hold the shape of a cube incredibly well. I fiddled with it a bit, and finally asked what the deal with it was, and the person working in the shop told me that it was just for show; not really a puzzle at all. I was quite disappointed, but that disappointment didn't last long as I found they had a pumpkin carving section to their store. They had several really interesting pumpkin shavers, and some tools that looked like they'd be SO useful for smoothing. They also had a big selection of patterns, but I think I was more intrigued by the tools.

Sadly, I really don't remember much beyond that, except that it made me VERY excited for the upcoming Halloween season.

***

I'm not sure how many of my blog readers know this, 'cuz last October I'd only been at ButterKnife Estates for a month or two, and I still didn't know many of you, but I am what we call a "pumpkin carver". You see, what we do is around halloween time we go out to a pumpkin patch and find a good pumpkin and then we hollow it out, and then carve something into the front of the pumpkin. But that's not all! We then put a light or candle INSIDE it!! So you can see the carving on the pumpkin even at night!! You should all look into it...I hear it's starting to catch on.

Since having that dream I'm WAY excited for October! Unfortunately, I can't really start carving until about 2 weeks before Halloween, or they'll rot before the big night. But I definately need to start getting ideas for cool pumpkins to make. If anyone has any brilliant ideas, do share.

I was going to post pictures of several of my pumpkins from past years, but I'm sure that I'll make more posts in the month of October regarding pumpkin carving, so I think I'll wait and slowly release the pictures. To hopefully whet your interest, here's a picture of one I did 3 years ago.

Blogging for Blog's Sake

Well I've not had a good dream recently to write about, but I couldn't let the entire month of August slip by without so much as an entry on my blog, so I'm going to share about one of my favorite new things.

Johnathan Coulton!

Johnathan Coulton is a singer/songwriter who did one of the coolest things I've ever heard of. He made a weekly podcast called "Thing of the Week" where he released a new song via the internet every week for an entire year. But here's the kicker: They're actually pretty darn good! He wasn't just throwing garbage out there, they're actually some really good songs. Another pretty awesome thing is that he charges $1 per song to own, but then you pretty much own the song. You're free to use it whatever you want without fear of getting sued or anything. I'm a fan. And he's definately a tech geek, as is evident by the subject of many of his songs.

The last few days at work I've been listening to a lot of his songs, but BY FAR my two favorite are "Code Monkey" and "Flickr".

For the uninitiated, a "Code Monkey" is kindof a derogatory term for a computer programmer who can grind out computer code, but probably doesn't have the higher-primate skills of software architecture, analysis, and design. I love this song, and there's a kinda cool video somebody made for it on youtube. You can check it out here. Now remember, Jonathan Coulton just made the song, not the video (which, incidentally, was made using the videogame "World of Warcraft"). This may not be as cool to other people as it is to me since I am a computer programmer myself, but even so, I think most people would appreciate the cleverness of the lyrics style and recognize it as a pretty good song overall. As a warning, however, right near the beginning of the song, he does curse once, so you may not want to blast this song where sensitive ears may be.

"Flickr" is also a great song, but more than a song, you GOTTA watch the video. Flickr.com is a photo-sharing website where anybody can stick their photos up there for people to view. Johnathan Coulton went out there and viewed a couple of pages of random pictures and made this song & video about what he saw. Again, this video is watchable on youtube here, but I'm pretty sure that Johnathan actually made this video himself. It's crazy how it's super random, and yet such a good song! Even if I couldn't see the pictures, I think I'd still love it, but having seen the pictures it's just that much better. Again, there's 1 or 2 little moments that may make you blush, but nothing too bad. They could definately play this song on the radio without having to edit it. And watch for my favorite part: Dwyer! haha.

Mmm-K. Go watch, listen, and enjoy!