29th November 2007

Well, it is finally hitting me. I went to Grad Night here at BYU-Idaho and got some free goodies. I spoke to some friends that I haven't seen for a while. Graduation is in 15 days. I feel it too, with tests coming up and projects due.

I've figured out what I'm doing so far. I'll be here in Rexburg through the end of the summer semester. Winter semester will consist of me applying to graduate school and possibly working in the geology department. I'll be adjunct faculty here for just the summer. I've filled out the application for the position, and I'll know in a week or so if it is a done deal.

I've been looking at several options for grad school:
BYU
U Wyoming
Utah State
U Colorado
Colorado School of Mines
Oklahoma State
Baylor

It is a large list, but I've learned from Ryan's experience with Dental School not to limit yourself to only a few options. Oklahoma State is the one that looks like the best deal.

Rexburg is being it's old self. A little bit of snow, sub-freezing temperatures, and horrible wind. Maybe I'm being prepared to work in Antarctica. If I went to Oklahoma State, I could end up doing research in Antarctica. I've been needing to get a hair cut, but the wind chill has persuaded me not to. I also need an oil change. Hopefully I'll get to that Saturday along with the haircut. My band has a show next Friday. We are playing at the Westwood, an old movie theater. We've done a show there before. It is a really neat place. It is very old and has a lot of beautiful architecture and art.

November 9th, 2007

The past few weeks have been rather busy with exams and projects. I had a calculus exam. I'm not sure how I feel about it. We will finally find out our scores Monday. Calculus has been pretty hard, but I am doing better than I thought I would. I also had a lot due in my Micro
Applications class. I had eight assignments, two quizzes, and one exam all in a matter of four days. I got everything submitted early. I'm trying to get ahead in that class right now so I won't have much to do during Thanksgiving break.

Halloween wasn't anything special. I had to work in the geology rock lab from 7 to 11pm. I TA a night lab during that. I was invited to two different parties, but I couldn't make it to either.

Last Sunday was stake conference. It was nice to finish church by noon. Church is normally from 1:30-4:30. Elder Christofferson of the seventy spoke. Our stake presidency was changed. We remembered the time change, but quite a few people didn't. It made for an entertaining day.

I received e-mails about several internship opportunities. One is at the church beef farm in Florida. Another was with the PNL. I applied to both to increase my options. If I get one of those, I'll be out of Rexburg Jan-March. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do next semester. I'll have graduated, so I don't have to live in approved housing. That increases my options if I stay. I may be able to get a job with the geology department during that semester.

I'm not sure if I should stay or come back to the Tri-Cities. Most of my friends are hear, and I don't really want to leave. It makes more financial sense to head home and work at the office for three months. I know mom would love it. I just don't want to deal with the hassle of moving all my stuff. I've sold or given to DI some things. See dad, I even have to get rid of stuff. I'm bringing home some books and rocks during thanksgiving break.

About the break, it is the entire week. From how it sounds, we may be leaving Saturday morning. I'll be bringing Lyle Fort, his wife, her brother, and Christi Perkes. Good thing I have a roomier car than most people up here.

My band and I are playing in Grand Pianos Live this Saturday. We are doing a cover of "Penny Lane" by the Beatles. It will be our drummer, myself on bass, and our lead singer singing and playing piano.

Job offer

I interviewed with a few oil companies when I was at Laramie a month ago. I've been waiting ever since for a phone call letting me know if I got a job or not. These companies are now calling people to let them know. I have two friends that have received offers. I'm expecting a phone call any day now.

While I was at school Friday, one of my professors called me into his office. I didn't know what he wanted. He is the head of the Geology department here at BYU-Idaho. He asked me when I was graduating and what my plans are. We talked about how I am waiting to here if I got an internship. He asked me when I was planning on going to graduate school.

We discussed a few more things and then he asked me something I didn't expect. He asked me if I was interersted in teaching. He told me that the school needs someone to teach some introdutionary geology lectures and labs Summer 2008, Fall 2008, and Winter 2009.

I've been a lab assistant and a teacher's assistant for the past two years and have really enjoyed it. I've wanted to eventually teach geology at a small college or university, so I expressed to my professor my interest in the job. He told me that it will be a great experience, a powerful resume item, and great pay. I told this to Lyle Fort, and he said that he'll try to take one of the courses I'll teach.

October 22, 2007

Things have been more relaxed the past few days. I had quite a few assignments and test a couple weeks ago. I got an 89% on my calculus test, so I feel pretty good right now. That puts me at an A to A- in the class, including all other assignments.

The weather doesn't know what it wants to do here. Some days are borderline jacket/no jacket while others require a winter jacket. It has snowed twice already. The snow usually melts in a day, then it is beautiful the next. Most days have been overcast. That makes things a little depressing. That, combined with the lack of due dates, have made the past week a little too lazy. I just need to kick it up before it gets me into trouble.

My band made it to the Best of Guitars Unplugged. It was a lot of fun. It was my third time to the best of. There is a amazing feeling when you play in front of over 4000 people. We are having a little show this Friday. Some friends from Spokane are coming down. It'll be fun.

Friday, October 5th, 2007

I've been busy the last few weeks. I went to Laramie, Wyoming to the AAPG Rocky Mountain Rendezvou where students mingle with companies. I had four formal interviews and 5 informal interviews. There are a few companies that I'm interested in. I'm holding out until I get a response from some of the larger companies. One company I am hoping to work for is El Paso. They are a mid-sized company that would expose me to the many aspects of oil and gas exploration and production. I have a few offers already from two companies who provide great pay and exposure, but they are very low level jobs with small exposure to whats out there.

This past week has been one of long days. I've spent 41 hours on campus the past three days. A former student did a senior thesis that he never finished his poster for and he is too busy to work on. I've been asked to work on his poster, which will be presented at the AAPG annual meeting in Snowbird, UT. I was offered free travel, hotel, and food if I wanted to go down to it and present the poster myself, but that will be on a Tuesday, the worst day for me to miss any class. My professor will present it on my behalf. Since I am the one putting everything together, I am the primary author. This will be something good for my resume. Undergraduates usually do not present posters, especially in a meeting this big. I have another long day ahead of me Saturday to finish the poster, finish some online homework for my excel class, and study for calculus.

My band, Madeline Walks, auditioned for Guitars Unplugged again here at BYU-Idaho. We are the first act on Friday night. We usually play one of our own songs at Guitars Unplugged, but we decided to cover "Sadie Hawkins Dance" by the band Reliant K. It is a fun song.

First week of the last semester.

Today has officially ended the first week of the Fall semester. My schedule isn't too bad, with one little exception. I am doing a senior project that I need to do in a week. I have all the data, I just need to spend a few hours a day combining the data and making a poster that I will present in a professional meeting at the end of the month. We discovered a significant tectonic fault where we worked this past summer.

The other classes I am taking are calculus 1 (Math 112), physics lab (PH150), Applied GIS (Geol 440), and CIT 140, a database management class using Excel and Access. I have calculus M-F, physics on Tuesdays, and GIS on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My CIT 140 class is online and my senior project is the rest of the time. So far, I'm keeping up. Nothing too crazy yet.

Monday, we had a ward family home evening. We received out group assignments. The M\F ratio is such that there are 3 guys and 7 girls in my group. Most of the girls are 18.
the bishop said that our ward usually has a high number of freshmen girls compared with most wards. Being 24, this is a little weird.

For work, I only TA one class. I spend most of my time in the computer lab or the rock lab. I have usually been stuck working a lot of nights and the weekend. I've been lucky this time around. I was assigned two evenings, but I switched my Friday night shift with an earlier one. I also wasn't assigned to work Saturday.

I like my new apartment. Overall, it is a nicer place. We have larger bedrooms, but our front room isn't as big. We only have four people here, so it's not so bad. My last apartment held six. I've been slowly going through my things and decluttering. What we did with Mom's stuff at home has got me doing the same here. It is nice that I moved into a new place. It makes me want to move as little as possible, so I really realize what is excess.

The open house for the temple was announced. It starts December 29th. It will be dedicated in February. So much construction is going on around here, and it is all finished after I graduate. The new 15,000 seat auditorium and the new student center will be done 2009. Campus is nearly cut in half by the construction of those two buildings.

Sorry that I don't update this more often. Moving back to Rexburg and re-adjusting has kept me busy. Since I will be spending a lot of time on a computer with my projects, I should do better soon.

Summer Cleaning and stuff

I've been home from school for a little over a week now. Things have been pretty busy and hectic.

My last final was Wednesday the 18th. It was an oral presentation berfore the class and the faculty. I presented my poster which includes information on what I studied and mapped in the Beaverhead Mountains. After presentations, I made the fixes to my poster that the professors wanted me to. I reprinted it, and it is now hanging in my room. The printer ran out of blue ink while printing, so when I get back to school, I'll reprint it for the professors.

The rest if the 18th and all day on the 19th and 20th involved moving my stuff into Lyle Fort's house to store over the break. I packed my stuff up and cleaned the apartment. I was the last one out, so I made sure everything was clean. I had to be out on the 19th, so I spent that night at Lyle's.

Lyle, his wife, and I caravaned to Spokane to visit the Johnson family for the weekend. I always enjoy being with them. They are a great family. Visiting their house and playing on their pianos is a plus. It is amazing how nice a Bosendorfer Model 290 Imperial 97-keyed 9' 6" Grand Piano sounds. We went to Pizza Pipeline and got the 26" pizza. It fed 8 very hungry people. We later went downtown to the park and stopped by Dick's for some burgers.

I had been planning on heading to Spokane for a couple weeks when I found out that Voyle was flying in there. He was supposed to get there Saturday night. He got bumped to Sunday morning and routed through Denver. When he got to Denver, his flight to Spokane had already left. He was then put on a flight that showed up at 1pm. This allowed me to spend more time with my friends and to go to sacrament meeting with the Johnsons. I picked Voyle up and we stopped at Zips in Ritzville for lunch. We got home that evening and played some card games.

I ran some errends with mom Monday morning and made it to work in the afternoon. I did the usual sweeping of the cobwebs around the building and sweeping the stairwell. Tuesday involved running around and getting errands done. Wednesday, Voyle and I ran to some car audio places and then I took him to Loren's office. While he was there I lubed my car, renewed my driver's license, applied for a concealed weapons permit, and ran to the bank. We then went home and stared cleaning the basement and shop. While running around during the week, Voyle and I have been eating a taco wagons since Toronto doesn't have real Mexican food.

The next couple days involved disposing of 800lbs of stuff from the shop and organizing what was left. I know that I need to go through the small stuff in the back of the shop during the next few weeks. I also have to go through the toys to dispose of broken toys.

The weekend involved giving my car to Voyle for a couple of days, not knowing what was happening, and pure confusion.

Monday, I pulled up the RV and did some cleaning and prep for the family reunion. I just now need to contact Pimp My Ride.

I had friend who told me that, while I was in the Tri-Cities, I was to be on the lookout for a Nintendo Wii for him. So, while I was getting a part for my car stereo at Best Buy, I found two. I got one and informed him to get controllers and games. I've been testing it out the last few days. It really is amazing and fun. I highly suggest getting one to those curious. He will be down here to pick it up from me later this week, so I guess I need to use it as much as possible.

Finals Week: Summer 07

It is now finals week here in Rexburg. We got back to town last Friday afternoon to conclude our last time up in the mountains. I spent 7 hours in the geology computer lab Saturday working on my map. I was on campus today for about 6 hours today and I finished my map. I began to put in in Adobe Illustrator to make my poster that I'll present in front of the geology faculty on Wednesday. I'm working on my report right now. I should finish that tomorrow along with my poster.

I spent 5 hours cleaning our front room and misc. areas of the apartment. I also ran some stuff over to Lyle Fort's house for safekeeping during the 7-week break that begins later this week. I'm staying here in Rexburg until Friday. I'll carpool with Lyle and his wife to Spokane to visit the Johnsons. We'll stay there till Sunday then we'll head to Pasco. I should be there Sunday night.

P.S. - I lost 40 lbs. during field camp.

Week 5: Beaverheads, 4th, and fun.

This week was pretty short. We were only in the field Monday and Tuesday. I had the rest of the week off. I hiked around my area to some critical areas on Monday. Tuesday, I spent with Drew, another student, and we went over some faulting that runs through both our areas.

Kirk's family arrived up here Tuesday afternoon. We went to lunch Wednesday. It was good to see them. I spent the rest of the day along the Snake River in Idaho Falls to secure a spot for the fireworks that night. I hung out with some friends, but mostly friends of Drew. Mitt Romney was there, but I wasn't sure where he was, so I didn't go see him. I sat in the shade and played Risk and read the Illiad. The firework show was impressive as it always is here in Idaho Falls. They supposedly have the 5th ranked firework show west of the Mississippi.

Thursday and Friday involved straitening and cleaning. I picked up some boxes behind Kmart and have been packing some stuff up, mostly books and notebooks. I'll be home for about 7 weeks from July 21st to early September. I'm also moving to another apartment with a few friends.

The new place doesn't have the mold problems this place has. The bathroom here had to be completely ripped out and redone. The rest of the apartment will be gutted and fixed during the 7 week break, so I can't keep anything here. Lyle Fort and his wife, Cari, have a basement that they have offered to store my stuff for however long I need to store it. Chairith made sure I knew that her family had space available, but I think this should be fine, thanks.

Tomorrow will involve making my map on the computer on campus. I need to correlate my data with another student, Dave. He has been out of town, preventing me from getting it done already. I'm also working with Drew so we can finish our maps. We have one more week in the Beaverheads to double check and solve problems with our maps. We've found some major faults that haven't been mapped before. One of them will help solve a big puzzle with some of the major mountain building events here in North America.

Week 4: Beaverhead Mountains

Long Canyon, Beaverheads: The southern part of my mapping area.

A series of Z-folds in a chert/shale unit.

Folded vertical layers.

The west side of Copper Mountain in my area, 10,303'.

They told me to do it, or rather attempt it.

Field Camp - Week 3: Spring Mountain Canyon, Lemhi Range

Spring Mountain Cirque.

Top of Big Windy Peak, 10,380'.

Meadow Lake, 9,140'. Meadow Peak, 10,727'

Long Distance Rock Hammer, Horseshoe Gulch, 8,940'

Bear Killer, 50 Cal. Armor Piercing Round.

Week 2: Big Hole Mountains

A view looking east from the 7724' peak we climbed. Tetons in the background.

The view looking south. Thompson Peak in the background.

April flowers bring May snow showers!

Robin Williams' Plan for Peace!

Robin Williams' plan...

"I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan."

1) "The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those "good 'ole' boys," we will never "interfere" again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They're illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available
to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort
to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in t he Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given
to the army. The people who need
it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, t he building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it...or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan?

"The Statue of Liberty is no longer
saying "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses." She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'you want a piece of me?' "

Not much so far ...

The first half of this semester has been going fast. I only have one class this first half, Book of Mormon 2. This allows me to get a few more hours at work. I'm getting 16 or more hours every week. The school doesn't want me to work more than 20. I get close to that sometimes.

What I do for work varies. I am a Teaching Assistant for a lab that meets twice a week. It is Geology 102, a generals class. I also give tours of the mineral museum to elementary and middle school kids. Some other duties are proctoring tests, grading tests and assignments, tutoring, and being a lab assistant. I am the acting president of the Geology Society here. That, along with being the president of the BYU-Idaho student chapter of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Since I can see the light at the end of the BYU-Idaho tunnel, I've been going through my stuff and selling what I don't need. When you settle down, you end up amassing greats amounts of junk/stuff. This is the reason why Mom and Dad can't move.

My field camp starts May 30th. We'll spend the first and last weeks here in Rexburg, but the rest of the time we'll be in the Big Hole and Beaverhead Mountains of eastern Idaho mapping. We'll be dry camping, so that means no shaving or showering. I want to stay somewhat sanitary while out there, so I'm thinking on getting baby wipes or something like that and AXE for daily personal hygiene. Any suggestions on what to do are welcome.

I'm not sure what I'm doing this Memorial Day. I was thinking of heading down to Utah or possibly Washington. I'm able to get someone to cover me at work for my few hours on Friday, so I would be able to head out about 12:30pm on Thursday and have a four-day weekend. But with everyone coming down here the next weekend, I'm not sure what to do.

I woke up to a snow covered Rexburg last Saturday and now it is sunny and 80 degrees here and the only AC in my car. It warmed up to fast.

Dearly departed ..

Random Photos

This is the view atop Beartooth Pass in Montana. This was during my week long field trip in the beginning of Fall semester 2006. 10,974 feet above sea level.


My housemate, Stephen Johnson, after recording a song about my roommate Mikey.

Back to School

I got back to Rexburg at about 8pm. I dropped off the two passengers I had and unloaded my stuff. My new car runs fine. This one lacks some of the nice features that my old car had, but this came with some others. Give and take I guess.
I've been on the phone with the insurance company today. I also asked Derek if he could run to the wrecking yard and get my CD player and speakers. Since my new car is the same model, the speakers will work. I guess I should have asked him to take a picture or two of the car.
My schedual this semester is great. I have one class during the first half of this semester that meets for two hours twice a week. It is a Book of Mormon class. I also work 15 1/2 hours a week on campus. Two of those hours are tutoring GE geology classes. The second half of this semester is filled with camping, so that'll be fun.

Springbreak doings:

More things I did:

Read the "Bathroom Trivia Book".
Celebrated Shiloh's Birthday.
Helped the Easter Bunny hide eggs.
Attempted to go shooting.
"Dukes of Hazard", too bad the "General Lee" didn't survive.
When car shopping.
Bought a car.
Took some Tylenol.
Entertained some children.

Spring Break

What have I done so far?

Work at Dad's office.
Bug-bombed things at home.
Vacuumed the house.
Babysat twice Derek's kids.
Went out to eat lunch almost everyday.
Drank pop like no tommorrow.
Went to the bathroom like no tommorrow.
Costco.
Setup Mom and Dad's Blog.
Setup a new blog for myself.
Played card games.
Showed off my 3.6 GPA for this semester to Mom and Dad.
Had my 12-string guitar restrung, waxed, and polished.
Looked up possible configurations for a new front computer at Dad's office.
Drove Mom around to several places and helped her order a foreign film online.
Beat Peggles.
Recorded Music Videos that play at night and watched some of them.
Exposed Mom to a Prince video, "Kiss".