Passing...

This morning one of the leaders of my church, James Faust, passed away. He has given his life to teaching, helping, and serving others. Every six months, leaders in our church broadcast messages. We call it General Conference. Last conference, the talk that stood out to me most was President Faust's. It gave a message that I think anybody and everybody can learn from and appreciate it, not just members of our church.

If you'd like to read it, you can find it here.

Ahoy Mateys...

Nice, finally a party I can join and feel good about.

The Last Book Signing?

I have never liked book signings. I just feel out of place. I don't like to be the center of attention so they make me uncomfortable.

In addition to that, book signings make other people in the store uncomfortable. They don't want to come over and talk to me because they feel like if they do they're obligated to buy my book. If they walk away without buying it, isn't that kind of like kicking me in the pants, insulting my mother, and spitting on my head? So instead of coming to talk to me, folks pretend to see something interesting on the other side of the store and head that way. I don't blame them, I do the exact same thing when I'm the customer.

So I swore in my wrath (ok, it wasn't wrath, as more of a blah feeling, but 'swore while I was having a blah feeling' doesn't have the same ring to it as the wrath bit does), I swore in my wrath that I would never do another book signing. But then I got suckered into one. It's BYU's education week, and they are kind of fun. They are fun because any time I'm on BYU's campus it's kind of fun. I'm an Aggie, and I wear a beard, so I kind of feel like a rebel spy or something whenever I go down there. If I had enough time, I would have grown a mullet. Maybe shave a handlebar mustache or something.

But anyway, if you want to stop by, please do. I won't make you buy a book. I won't feel bad if you don't buy a book. Honestly. I might give you a hug because you made eye contact, but that is the worst that will happen.

I will be in the BYU bookstore (I think that is where they put us) on August 22, from 11:00 until 1:00. Maybe I'll have some door prize or something for everybody who stops by and called me a bearded heathen.

The linux of Search Engines?

Interesting article. I've often wondered if you could have an 'open' search engine. Jimmy Wales, the really, really cool guy who started wikipedia, is heading up the project. Should at least be interesting...

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

Or rather, pay no attention to those ads. I've signed up for adsense, not because I want to make a lot of money, but because I've been curious as to what kind of ads would appear on this site. I'll probably keep them up for a few weeks, and then shut them off.

An interesting side note about this blog is that if you do a search for exploding coconuts, my blog is the first one on the list. I wrote an article about it years ago, and it's number one. When people have a coconut explode, and they turn to the web for detailed, informative information. They don't find it, instead they find my blog. Imagining their bitter disappointment keeps me up at night, but what can a blogger do?

So anyway, my own personalized ads should be showing up soon, and the world will soon know the answer to this burning question: what kind of ads will appear on a blog posting about exploding coconuts?

This is almost as exciting as waiting for the last book in the Harry Potter series.

I haven't the skin for it...

So I write for a small blog that is owned by a guy who is the brother of a person I work for. I wrote a post the other day, and thought little of it (by the way, the title isn't mine). It is just some of my thoughts about tying information to location. I always post the same stuff here, just a few days later. Again, it's just a little blog post. Nothing fancy.

The next thing I know the article is on the front page of slashdot. Then it hits Digg's front page. Then it gets techmeme'd and is on the front page of del.icio.us. It's been read about 30,000 times.

I'd be feeling good if it wasn't for all the negative comments about my spelling prowess. I'll be the first to admit that I'm no editor. Which is too bad. But I think it does show that the idea is a keen one, and people are interested in the concept.

My only regret is that I should have written this article after we had built some kind of prototype that allows people to do exactly what I was describing. I think if it done so that it's easy for the end user, a lot of really cool applications will be 'thunk up' up by the internet community at large.

I'm sorry if I misspelled thunk up.

Pass me a drink

I don't know if it's been in the news more lately, or if I've just happened to hear about it, but bottled water is under attack. And as far as I can see, for good reason. Here is probably the most succinct of the articles I've read.

So, buy a water bottle, hit the drinking fountain, and call it good.