02.26.08
Neal’s Hot 100
I got this idea from my sister a while back. It took until my astronomy class last week for me to actually write them down though.
1) Study the Scriptures daily with a strong emphasis on the Book of Mormon.
2) Hike the trail to Mordor! (Visit New Zealand and surrounding areas like Australia.)
3) Meet the Prophet
4) Pray at least twice daily, meaningfully.
5) Study the physical sciences.
6) Develop a keen eye for miracles.
7) Go on a cruise with the family, extended included.
8 ) Cultivate my talents.
9) Eat more veggies.
10 ) Prepare for the inevitable zombie attack.
11) Give thanks.
12) Nurture my loves.
13) Several gross of bottle rockets + a large bonfire in an open area.
14) Shine the light.
15) Study the biological sciences.
16) Laugh until I literally become sick.
17) Never fail my family.
18 ) Lift others when able. Carry others when needed.
19) Spend an entire swinging in a hammock on the beach.
20 ) Prepare for the inevitable alien invasion.
21) Be understanding.
22) Appreciate nature.
23) Be humble.
24) Fulfill my duties.
25) Study the mental sciences.
26) Be worthy of my blessings.
27) Remain worthy of my blessings.
28 ) Southeast Asia for at least 4 weeks.
29) Never turn down a priesthood calling.
30 ) Prepare for the inevitable robot uprising.
31) Spend time meditating daily.
32) Go camping regularly.
33) Be prayerful.
34) Visit the temple weekly.
35) Study mechanics and engineering.
36) Build a natural food dehydrator.
37) Count my blessings.
38 ) Be devoted.
39) Jump out of a perfectly good airplane.
40 ) Prepare for the inevitable Second Coming.
41) Set a perfectly good car on fire (my own car).
42) Grow in wisdom.
43) Be grateful.
44) Take time to truly experience each of the senses.
45) Study mathematics.
46) Support my loved ones.
47) Europe. Multiple parts of it. Multiple times. (But mostly only where they make good cheese.)
48 ) Build a house.
49) Show compassion.
50 ) Remember who I am.
51) Live for my beliefs, not just with them.
52) Never give up.
53) Be clean.
54) Write a series of novels. (Even if no one reads them.)
55) Study language.
56) Be the husband my wife deserves.
57) Be the father my children deserve.
58 ) Learn to make foods from scratch.
59) Serve willingly.
60 ) Remember who everyone else is.
61) Get a juicer and juice regularly.
62) Publish a philosophy paper.
63) Be smart.
64) Sealed in the temple.
65) Study art.
66) Get a doctorate in something.
67) Cry once in a while.
68 ) Grow a self-sustaining garden.
69) Serve diligently.
70 ) Have an herb garden.
71) Create art regularly.
72) Go forth in faith.
73) Be true.
74) Cut meat out of diet. (Except fish.)
75) Never stop learning.
76) Live up to my covenants.
77) Continually court my wife.
78 ) Dig a moat.
79) Help raise all the breakfast items (Wendee and Sam’s kids).
80 ) Learn how to cook gourmet meals.
81) Grow in stature before God and man.
82) Serve with valor.
83) Be charitable.
84) Never take life for granted.
85) Become a scholar in religion.
86) Never be too busy for my family.
87) Read a library’s worth of books.
88 ) Never make my wife sad.
89) Arise early each morning.
90 ) Be everything my mother wants me to be.
91) Build a food smoker.
92) Return with honor.
93) Be an example.
94) Never be without the spirit.
95) Take my wife dancing often.
96) Make my calling and election sure.
97) Never ignore/disobey the spirit.
98 ) Prepare for disaster.
99) Live without fear.
100) Wrestle a bear. The bigger, the better.
02.25.08
Wii Want a Revolution
(This note is for those of you that may not know the details about some of Nintendo Wii’s features. The Wii comes with an available memory on the system of 512 Megabytes, or MB’s. It also has 4 pages of 12 channels, a total of 48 channels in all. The reason for this letter I sent to Nintendo is because Nintendo has a service called the Virtual Console that allows you to buy classic games from older systems. The problem is that each of these classic games takes up its own channel and anywhere from less than 1MB up to 30MB’s or even more. Nintendo has not offered an answer to either running out of space or channels though. This is what inspired my letter.)
Let me first preface this email by stating that I am, and always have been, a loving fan of Nintendo. From my 8-bit NES I have been on the Nintendo train and not second guessed my devotion. There are a couple increasingly rising concerns I have over the Wii though. These two issues revolve around the channels system and small amount of memory on the system itself, both when in conjunction with the virtual console and soon to be released WiiWare.
Nitendo has not presented a viable source for me to keep and manage these programs. I have not yet, and will not in the future, make any such purchases until this matter is resolved. And let’s be clear here, I do want to buy a large number of these games and can only imagine that there will be an even larger amount I will want to buy in the future. As of yet, I have heard two options Nintendo has given to resolve the matters of running out of available channels and memory.
Those “solutions” are a repeated process of deleting and transfering programs from an SD memory card to the Wii memory, or just deleting and redownloading. Both of these are a major joke to me. One that isn’t all that funny as well. Why not simply create a system update that will allow users to manage channels within channels, or just allow for any number of pages of channels? Why not allow downloaded games to be played off of an SD memory card? Constantly moving or redownloading files is not a suitable answer. Especially with the new Pay and Play for new content.
If, for example, I were to get Rock Band on Wii, or any similarly styled game with an ample supply of downloadable content, and I was running out of space I would have to delete those songs I had purchased only to redownload them at a later time when I wanted to use them. That is ridiculous. And rather than making me want to buy any such games for the Wii, it makes me much rather want to buy them on another system where I have been provided that ample amount of storage space for downloads. That’s something I’m sure Nintendo doesn’t want.
And it’s not just me that feels this way. I’m sure you receive similar letters from your fans. It’s great that Nintendo is doing so well. It’s great that so many people are buying Nintendo’s systems and games. But it’s not great that Nintendo is ignoring their fans and the people that kept trucking along with you. Why should I, or anyone else, buy Virtual Console, WiiWare, or downloadable content if Nintendo is not taking seriously the problem in running out of channels to access that information or even memory to store it?
The fact of the matter is that there is no reason for me to buy any of Nintendo’s digital content. Instead I should just spend my money for similar content on another system where I can access it easily whenever I want. That is the attitude I am getting from Nintendo, and until that attitude changes, I won’t buy any digital content from Nintendo. And I will not do anything to indicate to other Wii owners that they should either.
02.06.08
An Erosion of Confidence
I just got home from my anatomy class. It’s several weeks into the semester and this class is divided into three sections with a test at the end of each. Today was the first of those tests. It seemed simple enough. We had covered the basics of life and chemical reactions up through tissue, skeletal, and muscle systems. I knew going in that we weren’t going to be required to name off all these stupid little muscles or bones, which made my life a lot easier. I entered the class confident that I would at least be able to muddle my way through.
Upon sitting down and receiving the test I quickly began. Multiple choice. Nice. It’s hard to go wrong when you know that one of those answers is the correct one. Even if you aren’t entirely sure which one it is, it’s a fairly easy task to narrow down which ones it is not. There were about forty multiple choice questions and I breezed through them. I flipped a page.
True of false? That’s pretty cool. Here’s something that I think is a little tricky. When it comes to true/false questions you have to be careful. Most instructors try and phrase the question oddly to trick you. Also, as strange as it may seem, unless you are confident in your answer you had better be prepared to go through some nasty reasoning sessions in your head. With only two choices you can easily think “those are good odds of me getting it right” and pick one, but it’s a double-edged sword my friend. The odds are the same of you being wrong.
I got through the true/false virtually unscathed and flipped that page. Matching. To clarify, on one side of the page I had a list of definitions while on the other side I had a list of terms. Four different sets. And worse yet, two of the sets didn’t have an equal match of answers, so some of them needed to be used more than once. Three of the sets weren’t so bad, but that fourth set, no clue. Honestly, I did have one clue. I knew where the answer for mitochondria was, but smooth ER? Did we cover that? I pretty much guessed my way through that set.
Turn the page. What I could only think of as being the worst question type yet (I would later be proven wrong though. Just wait.): Short Answer. GAH! Not short answer! What purpose does a membrane being made of phospholipids serve? What? I don’t know. I do know that I wish it was serving me a heaping portion of study time right now. Name five functions of proteins and what they are for. Name me five reasons why I should care. I can only think of “getting a good grade in this class” as being one.
At least it’s over. Right? Oh no my fine feline friends. (Only cats read this blog right?) I turned the page and seized. Labeling Diagrams. NOOOOOO!!!! This proved to be my ultimate undoing. I hadn’t a clue what all those arrows were pointing to. I should have answered each one “A crappy drawing of something biological in nature.” I did know on of the diagrams, but not the other three. I left those blank.
One thing’s for sure. I have to study better.
