Archive for March, 2006

My brand new GPS arrived earlier than expected, so I was really excited to have it for today. I wanted to make my first cache a big one. Randy and I have wanted to conquer Double Peak, the oldest geocache in San Diego County. It’s also the second highest peak in San Marcos. It rained yesterday, and the forecast called for rain today as well. That didn’t matter becasue he couldn’t clear his day on such short notice. I really wanted to use the GPS and I had no transportation, so I searched for the closest cache to where I live that looked like I could reach on foot. I really had no idea what to expect.

Even though it rained yesterday the ground wasn’t very muddy. The trails I was on were pretty sandy, so it didn’t make much of a difference. It was a pretty steep climb, but not too bad. It was steeper than I expected though, and this trail is a lot less casual than most of the other trails in San Elijo Hills. There were about 3 or 4 switchbacks. After the first one I was wondering how many there might be. The cache was about 130 feet off of the trail up the hill. I wasn’t quite sure if I should look for another switchback or not, but I found an area that looked like others might have pushed down the bushes before. It looked pretty difficult from the trail looking up, but the climb wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

The cache was hidden under a bush and I found it almost immediately. The GPS was very accurate and lead me right to the cache.

I really wanted to do some more, but I couldn’t find any more that were within walking distance. Distances can be very deceiving, and if you try approaching a cache from the wrong direction you may find the terrain completely impassable. I walked for about a mile toward where I thought a cache might be hidden according to the coordinates for it, but reached a ravine that was fenced off when I was still a half a mile away from it. It turns out that one was over a hill and really needs to be approached from the other side of the hill.

I can hardly wait for the next opportunity I get to go find some more caches. Randy and I are planning on tackling Double Peak next Saturday.

The missionaries were invited to a JAE Tagung (Young Single Adult Activity Day) in the Nürnberg Stake. We had a missionary activity where we drove to different areas and had the young adults for our companions. It was a lot of fun, and we had an opportunity to proselyte where missionaries rarely get a chance to go because no missionaries live in the area.

After the areas had all been visited, we were brought back to the place where the activity day was being held. We couldn’t really do very much because were were in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation, so we had to wait for someone to give us a ride back to civilization. During this downtime some Elders played volleyball or did other activities. Elder Adams and I decided to give the giant chess board a go. There’s something very satisfying about throwing the opponent’s captured pieces off the board.

In my grammar explode is an intransative verb. I would never say “He exploded the dynamite.” or “She exploded the bridge.” I would say, “She blew up the bridge, or in other words, the bridge exploded.”

Only recently have I found that I am in the minority, although I think most people use blow up more often than explode in their everyday speech. I seem to hear explode used much more often now than I used to. I suppose it’s to avoid ambiguity. I still don’t like the transitive use of explode.

I think I’ve always had this bias, but I think it was strengthened considerably while I lived in Germany. in German explodieren is intransitive, and translates to mean explode in English. If you want a transitive verb, you would use sprengen which, not surprisingly, means blow up. More research needs to be done to determine if the English transitive usage of explode is new or old.

In any case, I don’t like it.

Update: Transitive usage of explode goes back at least 400 years according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The short wait begins. I have, health with the approval of my lovely wife, cialis purchased a Garmin eTrex Legend GPS unit. With shipping I found one for just barely over $100, and was very lucky I did.

Now all I have to do is wait for the little guy to arrive. I can hardly wait. This is gonna be great!

Just two days after heavy rain and hail there is a beautiful moonrise just opposite the golden sunset.

This afternoon we had a beutiful hail storm that ended up sticking to the ground. It was pretty slushy and took on a snow-like texture. People got all excited and I saw at least 5 families out playing in it and taking pictures. It’s been three hours and there is still some on the ground, but most of it has already melted.

I can see the ocean from my balcony, so this is a really low elevation for something like this to happen at.

In my logic class today the professor was illustrating the point that the final conclusion in a mapped argument may not be the main point of the argument. As an illustrative example he related the following scenario.

Imagine that I am building a wall out of LEGO^® bricks. I want to make the wall as tall as possible, but it’s still on its side on the ground. I want to add more LEGO^® bricks to it, so I ask my friend if she’s done with her LEGO^® bricks yet. She says she is done with her LEGO^® bricks and that I may use them. Where do I put the LEGO^® bricks in order to make the wall taller? You can put the LEGO^® bricks at the top or the bottom of the wall. It doesn’t matter, it still makes the wall taller.

I was impressed that he followed the instruction on the back page of the LEGO Company Profile. The 2004 and 2005 versions, and possibly other oversions, include the following recommendations:

Using the LEGO brand name

Help us to protect our brand name:
• The LEGO brand name should always be written in capital letters.
• LEGO must never be used as a generic term or in the plural or as a possessive pronoun, e.g. “LEGO’s”.
• When the LEGO brand name is used as part of a noun, it must never appear on its own. It should always be accompanied by a noun. For example, LEGO set, LEGO products, LEGO Group, LEGO play materials, LEGO bricks, LEGO universe, etc.
• The first time the LEGO trademark appears in a headline and in the following text it should be accompanied by the registration symbol ®.

Thank you for helping us!

As it turns out, he had no idea that there were any such recommendations and seemed quite amused that he was “being a good guy and didn’t even know it.” Speaking like that seems so unnatural to me that I was relatively certain that he was doing it on purpose as a result of something he had been taught. LEGO^® would have been pleased to know that such brand name usage advocacy is being demonstated in an academic setting.

The detail to which this video recreates the main title of The Simpsons is amazing. Watch and be stunned by its awesome greatness.

The Japanese seem to be lightyears ahead of everyone else on the technological front. It may not be so, tadalafil but it certainly appears that way when there are such evidences for everyone to see. Check out this video to see just what I mean.

Krissy is going to be attending a gala put on by the company she works for. She decided that she wanted to curl her hair, and so she bought herself a curling iron. I’d have to say that this is the strangest warning I’ve seen in a while. I mean, if I’m worried about getting burned, my eyes are not the first thing I’d be worried about. I’ve never burned my eye before… ever. Whenever I see warnings like this I always wonder how many people it takes that complain that this specific warning was never stated anywhere with the product before they cave and just tie on a tag or stick a little sticker on it like this.

Curling irons are hot. hot things can burn you. If something says it can burn you, then it can burn you anywhere it touches your body. This obviously includes the eyes, although if you have a curling iron in your eye, then burning is not your only concern.

I’m not even going to go into the details of just how rediculously unhelpful that drawing would be to anyone who couldn’t read the text under it. When I covered up the text and showed it to Krissy, she thought it was a warning to watch the iron while it was plugged in because it is hot.