Random Thoughts on the English Language #19: Resigns vs. Re-signs

Saw this headline today, "New Mexico coach Long resigns after 4-8 season", and at first was thinking that he had re-signed -- signed a new contract. But after a second glance, I'm sure that it means that he resigned -- quit, and actually reading the article confirmed that. I just thought it was interesting that those two words are so close and have such opposite meanings.

FSS Sin Numero

Today at the Big Digital we're breaking out the old FSS tag. This last weekend was fairly eventful. Thursday night I already discussed (see previous post) and the excitement that was Utah's comeback victory over TCU. Friday night I went to the Jazz game with a large group (~38) from my ward. I had a good time driving to and from the game with some girls from my ward. Apparently the Oklahoma City Thunder were not a hot ticket. We got ours for $7 each and they weren't even the very back row or even in the corner. We were behind the basket, but up very high. The Jazz won without really being tested and it was Jerry Sloan's 1000th victory as head coach of the Jazz.

After the game some of us ended up at one of the guys' house and watched "The Man Who Knew Too Little". I fought off falling asleep until just minutes before the end of the movie.

Saturday I slept in a bit, and then worked on a few things (paying bills, preparing a Priesthood lesson). The evening wasn't as eventful as Friday, but I did end up stopping by a friend's birthday party for the pizza and cake portion, skipping the bowling portion that concluded the festivities, and opting instead to meet up with some other friends and check out an indoor soccer game, which was not all that exciting, but did conclude with an exciting last second penalty kick finish.

Sunday I taught EQ, had a home teaching visit, went to a dinner group, and finally to ward prayer, after which I headed home because I wasn't feeling so hot, and also had an early dentist appointment this morning -- got a post put into the root canal to support the permanent filling that went on top of it. So far I'm cautiously optimistic about my dental future.

Another ridiculous Utah victory

Last night I was lucky enough to be in attendance at the Utah-TCU game, where two top-ranked teams met with conference championship and BCS-bowl implications. After a defense slugfest where TCU missed two short FGs in the 4th quarter, Utah had one last drive to finally score a touchdown and win the game. Very similar to the ridiculous finish against Oregon State a month ago (also a Thursday night game, coincidentally). At least this time we were only down by 4, instead of 8, so I guess this comeback was more probable, although still very unlikely given our anemic offense up to that point. Anyway, a great game and lots of fun to come out on top of close ones like that. Here are some highlights from around the Internet, courtesy of other people.

An update to the tooth situation

Went in yesterday and got a root canal, and spent the rest of the day in bed, watching TV shows online. If you would have asked me last night I would have said that the procedure was a total failure, based on the pain I was having last night. I was downing pain pills every couple hours just to keep my sanity.

Luckily when I got up this morning, things were feeling better. Maybe better than before the root canal, which, of course, is a pretty low bar. So far things are going okay today. Not sure I'm ready to eat some solid food, but last night I wasn't even up to the task of eating soup.

So...things are marginally better and trending upward. Let's hope.

The Big Digital Has a Toothache

So for about the last year or so I've been having pain in one of my molars and my dentist and his team of assistants have been unsuccessful in fixing it, to the point that for a long time I just gave up on it, and avoided eating chips or at least chewing them on that side of my mouth.

Anyway, about a month ago I had a regular check-up, and the assistant suggested that probably I needed to get a crown on that tooth to fix the problems, so I reluctantly agreed, thinking that if I could get it fixed and be able to eat normally again that would be worth whatever trouble it would be to get it fixed. The first step was getting a temporary crown put on, and then waiting 3 weeks for the permanent crown to be ready. With the temporary crown on, the problems I'd been having continued, but I wasn't surprised because the temporary was modeled after the original tooth. Anyway, I got used to taking Ibuprofen a couple times a day.

Finally, it was time to get my permanent crown on, and that day went pretty well, and the dental team assured me that it might be sore for a day or two, but that it ought to start feeling pretty good soon. This was about 4 days before my defense. I was still noticing some pain in a couple spots and maybe some problems with my bite that were affecting the tooth behind the crown. But as I had my defense coming up, I put that on the back burner for a couple days, and as you may know went on to successfully defend.

The next day I called and scheduled an appointment to get my crown adjusted. Unfortunately it would be over a week until I could get in have that done, but I figured I could tough it out. A couple days later, I was still having a lot of problems, so I called again just to see if there was any way I could get in earlier. Turns out they had had someone cancel that day and I was able to go right in and get my crown looked at.

After checking my bite and making some adjustment, things felt better and I was optimistic that the problem might have been fixed. I ate lunch that day (this was last Thursday) and didn't have any problems. Then that afternoon I just happened to bump my tongue against that tooth and noticed that it was pretty tender and sensitive. I thought maybe it was due to the drilling that had been done on it, and hoped that it would get better as the day wore on. Sadly that was not the case. The tenderness of that tooth continued throughout the day, so much that I called my dentist that night to see if he could look at my tooth again on Friday. Turns out Fridays are dentists days off, but he said he'd be willing to come in after a training that he had in the morning.

Friday morning I woke up at 3:30 am, because of the pain in my tooth, and after taking some Ibuprofen was finally able to get back to sleep for a couple hours. Then I woke up and sat in semi-pain for most of the day waiting to hear back from dentist around 3, when he'd told me that his training would be ending. 3:00 came and went, no call. Finally at 4, I tried to call him. No luck. Finally at 5:30, he called me, and let me know that bad news -- that he had gotten severely ill and was home in bed.

We talked a little about my pain and he said it might be an infection of some kind, or it might be an abscess. Either way he phoned in a prescription for Codeine and Amoxycillin which I went and picked up. I should mention at this point that I hadn't been able to eat solid food since Thursday at lunch, and I was now being told that the earliest I'd be able to get in to see him would be Monday morning. Let's just say at this point I'm tired of eating soup and Instant Breakfast.

Anyway, just called to find out when I could get in, and after trying to push me off to tomorrow morning, I was able to get an appointment for 2:30 this afternoon. Sadly, it sounds like I may be getting a root canal on this tooth that I just paid a lot of money to get a crown on. I hope this is the last time I have to deal with this tooth, and maybe this dentist as well.

Watch This Wednesday #47: Back from Hiatus

I know I've been blogging quite a bit less lately, but maybe now that I've successfully defended my dissertation I might be able to get back into a more regular cycle of posting. Anyway, the big news in online video this week is MTV making a huge archive of music videos available (20,000+) at www.mtvmusic.com. Hard to just choose one of those videos for today, but for now I'll give you this classic video from Oasis, which will always be one of my favorite songs, and maybe the only Oasis song that I really even like: Wonderwall.

Oasis |MTV Music

Dissertation....Defended!

This morning I successfully defended my PhD dissertation! It feels really good to have it over and done with. Obviously you expect to pass it, but when your fate is in the hands of other people, you never know for sure how things are going to turn out.

Basically, now all I have left to do is address a final list of revisions to my manuscript that my committee has promised to give me, and then get the final manuscript formatted properly, and then I'll be completely finished!

Quick Update, Pt. 2

Still working on that defense presentation. I've got a set of powerpoint slides put together and have been running through them, giving my presentation to the wall in front of me. I've been through the whole thing 3 full times now (at over 40 minutes per attempt), and tomorrow I'll be heading up to school to run through it at least 2 more times -- once in the conference room where my defense will be, and once more for a professor whose opinion I respect and who won't be able to attend my actual defense due to scheduling conflicts.

Suffice it to say that giving 40 minutes presentations to a wall is a daunting task and it's taking quite a bit out of me to give them. It's good practice, though. I've made several changes to my slides as a result, and have also realized that it's important to breathe sometimes, or else I get light-headed. The hard part is trying to fit 3 years of research into just 40 minutes.

Anyway, aside from defense prep, I got my permanent crown put in today and can only hope that things will be looking up from here dentally. Its been a rough 12 months for 3 of my teeth and I'm hoping that this finally gets the problem solved.

I'm also still looking for a career, hoping to hear back on the position I interviewed a couple weeks ago, but haven't really worried about pushing for an answer from them as I've had other things on my mind (see paragraphs 1 & 2).

And finally, I did manage to find 2 new roommates to take the place of the one who already moved out and the one who is going to move out. Big changes taking place here, but it doesn't really feel like it yet. Also the one who moved in today apparently doesn't have a checkbook (sounds a little fishy), and paid me in straight cash (homey) for the end of this month and next month's rent, so let's just say somewhere in my house right now there is a very large stack of bills that I plan to take to the bank tomorrow morning. So hopefully by the time you are reading this I've already deposited them. Either that or I'm pulling a Pac-man Jones and makin' it rain.

Quick Update

I know I haven't been blogging much lately. Got a lot on my plate with preparing for my defense on the 27th, looking for a job, looking for 1-2 roommates, and I guess just life in general. Doing pretty good most days, though. Sorry I haven't had more to say.

Watch This Wednesday #46: Band Montage!

This week's video is all the rage in Internet land, so you may have already seen it. Its "Take On Me" by Ah-ha, but with words describing what's going on in the video. There is a tad of mild cursing (very minor tad), so if you're bothered by that, feel free to skip it.

Highlights from last night's ridiculous Utah-Oregon State game

Sorry for no video this Wednesday, maybe this will make up for it. I'm still hoarse this morning from screaming so much at the end of last night's game. Utah was down 8 points with 2 minutes to play, and from there on out were amazing in scoring a TD, 2 pt. conversion, getting the ball back and getting a last second FG to win without needing overtime. Versus.com has an embeddable video player, but it doesn't work like you'd want it to or expect it to. It seems to always go to the most recent video, rather than the one you select. Anyway, there are about 8 highlights from last night's game that you can check out.

Old Book, New Book #11: The Gypsy Morph -> The Best of H.P. Lovecraft

Finished up The Gypsy Morph about a week ago. Yes, it was good. No, it was not the best Shannara book ever. I enjoyed it, but would probably never read the series again. I do like how Terry Brooks has tried to bring the Knight of the Word trilogy together with the Shannara world, I just haven't enjoyed his more recent stuff as much as his older stuff.



As for the new book, I put a request on this H.P. Lovecraft book on the library website back at the start of the summer, and despite just being the second person waiting for it took until now for me to get it. Kind of weird for a book that was published (in this edition) in 1983. Anyway, it was so long ago now that I don't remember the exact reason that I wanted to read it at the time. Its a collection of short horror stories from someone who wrote around the turn of the 20th century. I've finished the first couple and I'm definitely interested. I haven't got to any of the Cthulhu stories yet, which is what I think Lovecraft is most known for. In fact I saw a trailer for some Cthulhu story a month or two ago. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

Watch This Wednesday #45: Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

The Office is back for Season 5, starting tomorrow. I'm interested to see how this season shakes out. So far I've thought that Season 2 has been the best, and since then the episodes have suffered from plots that were a little too ridiculous (Michael driving his car into the lake on the advice of the navigation system) or were too much about relationship drama.

I've always felt like the strongest aspect of the show is Jim's interplay with Dwight. When Jim moved to the Hartford branch, this aspect suffered to the point that they started having Jim interact with Dwight over the phone or via fax. From Dwight. From the future. Anyway, someone put together a nice compilation of Jim and Dwight interactions that I'm sharing today. Far from a complete compendium, its definitely a good start, featuring the Conflict Resolution scene with a large list of pranks, and culminating with Jim dressing as Dwight.

The Big Digital Hits The Big 3-0

So...today is my 30th birthday. And it seems like it should be a time for reflection, not that I don't do plenty of that already. Seriously though, how often is it that a person has a 30th birthday? Not very often. Birthdays marking the decades of one's life are pretty big milestones on the journey of life. 10 years ago, I was in the MTC, still about a month away from leaving for Argentina. I didn't even have my first webmail address yet. 20 years ago, I don't really recall where I was, but I was in 4th grade. 30 years ago, well I don't remember much of that.

Definitely this 3rd decade seems to have gone by the quickest, but in retrospect, I still managed to accomplish quite a bit. I finished one degree (Computer Science) and nearly completed another (Biomedical Informatics). I've managed to stay out of debt and even save up a bit of money. I own two computers (and gave away a third). I've made lots and lots of friends. And considering that when I returned to Salt Lake following the mission I knew at most a handful of people. I feel lucky to have been blessed with all the great friends that I've made along the way. For all my work with computers, I definitely still think that people are what make life enjoyable.

I am, of course, still single, a fact of which I am very much aware, and with which I sometimes I think am getting a little too comfortable. I certainly don't spend all my free time scheming of ways to find me a wife. But I do think about it, and I do try to be out there looking, dating, you know, doing the thing that we single people do. Seeing my brother's family, I definitely can see that there is a lot of great things that I'm missing out on. I don't feel like I've had moments where there was someone I could have married and I turned my back on that, so I don't generally feel too guilty about not being married. I just haven't found someone I wanted to marry who wanted to marry me back. Still looking. Hopefully ten years from now I'm not having this same discussion with myself.

In the next ten years, I do also hope to get a job with benefits. I guess I've had things like health insurance during my last four years as a full-time graduate student, but I definitely wouldn't call that a job. Working regular work hours five days a week might be a pretty big shock to my eternal student workdays that are pretty flexible, so long as I get done what needs getting done. But I'm sure there are benefits to the old 9-to-5 grind. Not having to scour the internet for new roommates every couple month would be one of those. I also have a dream of some day driving a car that was built in the same decade in which I'm driving it. Yes I know, my dreams are lofty, but they say that you should aim for the stars.

Anyway, at this milestone in my life, I guess I feel pretty okay about things. My life is far from perfect, but at least I have an idea of where its headed and I feel pretty good about the direction.

Watch This Wednesday #44: I got a hot date tonight. A date. Dinner with friends...

Some more Simpsons goodness courtesy of Hulu:



Perhaps the most humorous use of a lie detector ever. And yes, I've seen Meet the Parents. Not even close.

Old Book, New Book #10: Brave New World -> The Gypsy Morph

Finished Brave New World the other day...I have to say that I was definitely impressed by how prescient some of the aspects of the (dystopian?) future depicted therein. Obviously we aren't yet to the point of embryonic conditioning and relegating people even before birth to specific roles within society, but I could definitely see a lot of points that related to our current world. Things like the push to make everyone a consumer, and a densensitization toward all things immoral. Also there was a moment when Bernard and Lenina were in a helicopter looking at the ocean, alone with their thoughts, and Lenina could hardly stand the silence and lack of external stimulation. I would guess that few people (myself included) take much time to meditate, and feel much more comfortable with something else going on, be it television, music, or for the younger generation, a constant stream of text messages. Not sure this book will find its way into my all-time favorites, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

Anyway, I've moved on to the final installment of the latest Terry Brooks trilogy, The Gypsy Morph. Once again, very pleased with the Salt Lake County Library network's hold request system. I added this before the book was even published, and eventually I worked my way to the top of the list, at which point I got an email and just had to drive over to my local branch to pick it up. Kind of like Netflix for books, except that I have to drive a few blocks, and that its totally free.

The Big Digital goes on the defensive

Sorry for no video yesterday. But I did finally find a date on which to defend my dissertation which works for all five of my committee members, and even my department chair, after some schedule wrangling on the part of her admin. Mark your calendars for October 27, 2008. It could quite possibly be a really big day in my life. (Let's hope so.)

FSS: Fun & Stress Edition

This past weekend was pretty full. Friday night started out slow, but did include a viewing of Hellboy and a moment where someone yelled "Psst" at me, but I thought it was the surround sound, which then resulted in that someone climbing in through the window.

Saturday I went boating with my ward up at Jordanelle and had fun riding a tube. Then I came back to Salt Lake and went to the Utah-UNLV football game. It was kind of stressful for a half, and then Utah came out in the 2nd half and put things out of reach early.

Also on Saturday, I found out that my newest roommate is going to be moving out at the end of the month, leading to some stressing about what's going to happen next, given that at one point our apartment manager had said that if that happened, we'd either have to move out or just pay the full rent with less than a full house. I talked with her about things today and she was much more positive about our chances of being allowed to find someone to move in to replace him. Guess we'll see what the big boss has to say when he gets back on Thursday.

Sunday was a typical full slate of meetings, but also I got a new 2nd counselor to replace the one who is getting married this coming Saturday. I'm excited about the new guy, and will definitely miss the old one.

So Long, Rong Jon Silver

Today my good friend Jon is leaving for Seattle to go get his PhD in Chemistry. I've known him for just about two years and I would say we've been good friends for about a year and a half of that time. Even though he's a little younger than I am, I feel like I really found a kindred spirit in Jon. We don't see eye to eye on certain things (music from the 90s, for example), but somehow that hasn't seemed to matter. Jon is that rare friend who can call you on crap that you probably shouldn't be doing (wasting time at work, hanging out with girls who are only going to break your heart, etc.).



Things that will remind me of Jon:

• The word "emo"


• Our trip to NYC


• Whitecastle


• Coheed & Cambria


• Motion City Soundtrack


• Huzzah!


• Rock Band/Guitar Hero


• "Throw your diamonds in the sky if you feel the vibe!"


• All the Murray people that I now know through Jon


• Stomp the Yard


• and of course..."Smooth Criminal" by Alien Ant Farm

So long, Jonny-Cakes. I'm gonna miss you.

Watch This Wednesday #43: I'm Wearing Boots of Escaping!

This week's video comes to you from Comedy Central's website. Its an older clip from Reno 911 in which two guys have been playing some live action Dungeons & Dragons. Featuring Patton Oswald. I'm pretty sure Geo told me to check this out one time, so kudos to him.



P.S. I totally got this ready this morning thinking that tomorrow was Wednesday, but as I looked at the calendar I realized that today is actually Wednesday. Not sure why this week has been so confusing for me. Its not like I've never had a Monday off before.