Update

Several months ago I wrote about a group of MIT students who created a random paper generator and then submitted it to a conference. It was quite the joke when they were accepted. Well, they received a few donations, went to the conference, and presented their paper. And, as promised, captured the whole thing on video. You can view it here.

More Booksignings...

Just when I thought I was done!

I just found out I am going to be doing a book signing at education week. I'll be at the BYU bookstore on August 16 from 2pm-4pm, and then at the South Orem Seagull Book Store on August 18th, from 5:30-7:30.

Skype

So I've known about snipes for a long time, but just recently heard about Skype.

Since I now work in a different county from where I live, and don't have a cell phone, there is no way to communicate with the homestead. We've been using MSN when we need to, and although I can chat with the best of them (sometime I need to write an essay about all of the wonderful possibilities that the chat medium affords humor). But hey, chatting is chatting. I can't talk to the kids. Actually the oldest can type, but it usually consists of him asking for links to movies.

Anyway, I heard about Skype, download it, and in about 45 seconds my wife and I were chatting. It is easy to use, and although you can only talk to somebody else who has Skype (unless you want to pay), it's a wonderful, wonderful thing.

So, if anybody else out there wants to get it, throw me on your list of buddies and Skype me anytime you want.

What am I supposed to do with the stickers?

So, I did something today I've never done before. Ever.

I bought an apple product.

It's not that I avoid Macs. Or hate them. Or love Windows machines. It's that I'm lazy. I grew up using a PC, I know all the shortcuts, I'm comfortable with them. It would be painful for me to switch to a mac.

Anyway, I don't think I've mentioned that I got a new job, and one of the perks is that I spend two hours a day in a car. Now I enjoy NPR, a few news stations, and every once in a while I'll catch a song I recognize (sometimes I even like the song!), but it's getting old. And what with podcasting now available on iTunes, and all of the time...

Long story short, I am the new father of an iPod.

I'm just installing software and syncing up songs now. I will blather on later about how much I like/hate the device.

Oh, and I have these two apple stickers. What am I supposed to do with them? I can't likely put them on my dell, I'm sure that will cause all sorts of problems with Windows.

Maybe I'll sell them on e-bay.

Whoops...

What do you say when this happens? A man spends almost 20 years in prison, is denied parole because he won't confess to the crime, and then we discover that it in fact wasn't him that did it.

Seriously, what do you say? "Sorry about that... Boy is our face red."

Somehow that doesn't seem to cut it. How do you make up for 19 years of a man's life? How do you make it up to him, how do you make it up to his kids?

Blasphemy?

My cousin told me yesterday that my book, Chickens in the Headlights, was used in his Sunday school lesson at church. I had to laugh, and then ask, 'what could they possibly have used my book for? He told me the topic was Doctrine and Covenants section 123. I read the first line in the introduction which says, "The saints should collect and publish an account of their sufferings and persecutions."

My book is about life with 7 boys under the age of 10. There is plenty of suffering and persecution. It's been collected and recorded, though I don't think we were necessarily saints.

I guess I can see the connection.

Can't Top That

I may as well drop out of my doctoral program. My younger brother has upstaged me. He has written his masters thesis, a feat for which he should be applauded. And I do applaud him. But what is even cooler, in my opinion, is the fact that he used the word 'fart' in his dissertation. Impressive, no? What makes it even more impressive is the fact that he goes to school at BYU. That is right, a dissertation at BYU using the word fart.

I know I can't make a claim like this without proof, so you can see the dissertation here. It's on page 12. *Edited to clarify* (Page 1 of the dissertation, but page 12 of the pdf document).