Adventures on State Street

So, I had kind of an interesting experience last night, and you won't be surprised to hear that it has something to do with meat. However, it was nothing that I could have ever expected. And no, it had nothing to do with me dropping ribs on the ground, although I'm sure there were some ribs involved. Anyway, I should probably just get to the story.

Our ward had a small activity last night involving a bonfire and a spiritual thought. It was really quite a nice activity. I got a ride up there with some people in the ward, but then decided that I'd like to get a ride back with a friend of mine who was going to be leaving a bit earlier than the others. So, we had a good time at the activity and then took off. The ride back was just like any other ride for the most part. We talked, laughed, sat quietly, etc. Then, out of nowhere, her truck (which is an old, small Nissan) started making a funny squeaking sound. My best guess was that it was a belt slipping somewhere, but I really don't know a whole lot about cars. Anyway, we kept driving hoping that it wasn't going to be a problem.

Well, here I am listening to the squeaking when all of a sudden a dead deer appears out of the shadows on the road ahead of us! By the time we could see what was in front of us, it was too late to try to swerve out of the way without causing more trouble, so the truck just went right over top of the deer. There was a great big bump and it was all over. Fortunately, the squeaking stopped. Unfortunately, after driving for a little bit, my friend started to notice a bad smell and then I noticed it and it kept getting worse. So, my friend pulled into a parking lot and told me that I had to get out and check things out because I was the man. She didn't really need to tell me this because I was planning on checking it out anyway, but it felt good to be called a man. Anyway, I got out and looked under the truck to find that there was a hunk of deer carcase hanging from the bottom of the truck. So, I figured that the smell was this, and other smearings of deer, burning on the hot and moving parts of the truck. Well, that mixed with the inherent stench of deer carcase.

Anyway, I went and found some sticks and used those to dislodge the hunk of deer from the bottom of the truck. We had parked next to some mexican fast food restaurant that was advertising 99 cent tostadas, so after I finished with the deer I went inside and washed my hands. I did not buy a tostada.

We got back on the road and started searching for a car wash. It took a couple of tries, but we found one that was open and that had an undercarriage wash. Trying to get into the car wash was an adventure in and of itself. It kept rejecting our money and has this annoying voice that would tell us which wash we had selected and kept demanding more money. I swear I heard the creepy electronic voice repeat "plus wash" about a hundred times. We finally got into the car wash, cleaned the truck, nearly had the roof of the truck cave in on us, and got out alive.

Anyway, that's the tale of the deer on the road. I hope all the discussion about deer carcase and such didn't gross anyone out.

Trip to Ottawa

This summer was the first non-missionary summer of my life that I have not spent some amount of time at home in Alberta. Normally I spend about a week up there sometime during the summer months. This year, however, I decided to fly out to Ottawa instead. My brother lives out there with his family and my parents were going to be visiting him, so I figured I would join them. I had a great time out there and it was great to see Patrick, Michelle and the kids. Some of the stuff we did included a picnic at Rideau Hall, a boat ride around the Thousand Islands, visiting various museums around town, going out for sushi, and just visiting and having a good time.

Emily had a great time playing with Grammy

Dad couldn't believe that, after flying across the country to visit, Patrick and I ended up playing Street Fighter

A guard in front of Rideau Hall

Getting ready for our boat ride around the Thousand Islands

Gananoque, Ontario

It was really windy on the boat.

A house on an isand

Another house on an island

The Canadian Museum of Nature

Frontside of the museum

A moose on the museum

The Canada Agriculture Museum

Before and After

So, I meant to put this up a couple of months ago, but it took me a long time to get around to putting any pictures on my computer. In fact, that's the reason behind a few posts not having gone up yet.

Anyway, I went to Lake Powell this summer for about 5 days (Monday through Friday). My roommates were shocked to see me when I came home. I wasn't ugly or anything, but it was a change from the everyday.

Before~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After

The Power of Meat

So, it's no secret that I like meat. However, over the last few days I've come to realize that meat has a great influence on my emotions. This might sound pretty silly, but it's true. Here are a few examples.

1. Last weekend we had a ward campout up around Alpine. It was fun. The people were fun, the weather was nice, and the food was good. Speaking of food, Bishop Pack cooked up a ton of bacon for breakfast. In fact, he cooked up so much that Sister Pack sent a big ol' tray of it home with me and my roommates. This made me very happy. I mean, free bacon! It was wonderful. Never before have I been able to go to the fridge looking for a snack and grab some precooked bacon. It was a amazing and made me happy every time I went to the fridge.

2. It's the end of summer term and our ward closing social was this last Monday night. I went expecting there to be some kind of dinner, but figured it would be something like hotdogs. Well, what surprise when I saw people showing up with chicken and ribs. Ribs! This was going to be one of the best church meals I had ever attended. I was so excited. I had a good time until dinner, but nothing could compare with my excitement about the ribs. So, dinner started, I got in line, got my ribs and some chicken and sat down on a bench outside to start eating. I saved my ribs for last, eating the chicken and sides first. Okay, I need to set up the scene for you now. At one point there were about 4 people crammed onto the bench, and I was sitting on the very end. By the time I finished the other food on my plate, there were only two of us on the bench and I was still sitting on the very end. Well, right as I was preparing to go for the ribs on my plate, the other guy stood up, causing the bench to act like a teeter totter, throwing my ribs to the ground. No!! My ribs were ruined! Okay, okay, they brought lots of ribs so I'll just go back and get some more. What!? There's only chicken left? No!!! I mean, the chicken was good, but I was so excited for those ribs. This really ruined the meal for me and it took me a little while before I could cheer up, swallow my pride and get some more chicken to replace the ribs that were stolen from me.

So, there you have it. A couple of examples about how meat can affect my emotions. Don't worry too much, though, there are things that I am more emotionally attached to than bacon and ribs...such as ribs wrapped in bacon.

Eliane French Bakery

I spent 2 years in France serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was tough, of course, but I loved it over there as well. One of the things that I loved was the food. The bread, pastries, cheese, crepes and so much more. I loved it.

Eliane French Bakery is located in Orem and I like to go there occasionally and buy some of my favorite pastries. Some of these favorites are chocolate eclairs, millefeuille, paris brest, and lemon tarts. The food is great there. It's not quite the same as going to a boulangerie-patisserie in France, but it's really close.

Anyway, I always love going there. Not only for the food, but also for the experience. The place is run by a Tahitian man (at least, I think he's Tahitian) and he likes to greet his customers in french and then switches over to english if needs be. Even though my french is getting rusty, it's fun to go in and order in french and talk with him a bit. I think today was the best experience I've had in there. I actually ended up ordering everything in english first because I didn't respond very quickly when he greeted me in french, so he switched over to english. However, when I was paying, I said something in french and he asked me if I speak french. After telling him that I had served in France, he got excited and started asking me how I liked the food over there and this turned into a fun conversation about pastries and cheese and crepes, all in french of course.

I think the best part was right at the end. We had been talking for a bit and he told me he wanted to show me something. He walked over to a big box he had on the counter, spun it around toward me and opened it up. Sitting inside the box was a large galette des rois (King Cake). It's a cake that is traditionally served around the New Year. There's a little porcelain figurine (feve) inside. Whoever gets the feve in their piece of cake is the king. Anyway, he seemed so excited to be able to show that to somebody who appreciated what is was.

I don't go to the bakery very often because I always want to buy a lot of stuff and its a little pricey, but it's always fun to go in. This, however, was by far my favorite visit.

New Name

So, I decided to change the name of my blog. Instead of Uncle Bob's Bloggish Life I've decided to simply go with Uncle Bob's Blog. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the "bloggish life" part of the title has been bugging me and just didn't feel right. So, welcome to my blog, Uncle Bob's Blog.

Update

So, it's been nearly a month since my last post. It's been 10 days since my sister demanded on Facebook that I update my blog. Seriously, she said "I demand you update your blog." So, I guess it's about time I do.

So, what's been happening in my life? Well, I need to think about that a bit. I'm done with classes until the fall. I was taking one class during the spring term (Coal Combustion) and finished it quite successfully. According to the grade list that my professor posted online, I had the highest final grade in the class. I don't think that's ever happened to me since I came to BYU. Of course, there were only 13 students in the class, and half of them were up at the UofU taking the class via Skype, but it still feels good.

So, I mentioned a while back that I was going to try to be more active. I think I've done better over the last month than I did the previous eight months, but it still wasn't impressive. There was one week when I either went running or played racquetball or something similar 4 days of the week. That was great. That was the same week that I discovered Fatman Ironman. Reading his blog actually motivates me quite a bit. And I think he's funny. I particularly like when he writes about his experiences with Nemesis Hot Blonde Girl.

Anyway, I decided last week that I needed to get serious again, so I started up a regular workout again. I used to drive up to Orem and lift weights and run 2-3 times a week. I kept this up for over a year, until last fall. I started doing this again on Saturday. It felt great at the time, but my arms have been yelling at me for the last couple of days, reminding me that I hadn't lifted since August. Oh well, they'll get better.

Good Day

Whew, so today has been a pretty good day so far. There are still 6 hours left, but I'm pretty sure that all of the exciting stuff is over so I can go ahead a write about it now.

First of all, today is Memorial Day down here and that means (along with remembering those who have fought in the many wars over the years) no school. Then I woke up this morning at 7:30, without my alarm clock, and went running. I didn't run very far (maybe 1.5 miles or so), but it felt great to be getting out and getting some exercise in and to actually run after months of not running at all. Oh, and I learned something very important this morning...it is very difficult to burp while you are running. Somehow I haven't run into this problem until today, but it sure wasn't very fun.

After I got all cleaned up and dressed, I did the dishes and finished just in time to go out to a pancake breakfast that our bishopric put on for the ward this morning. It was great. Pancakes with whipped cream, strawberries, syrup and bacon along with orange juice and chocolate milk to wash it all down. That was all a great way to start the day.

At noon our FHE group got together to go rappelling. We hiked a little way into a canyon up in Orem to a cliff that has everything (except for ropes and harnesses) set up to climb and rappel. It was short hike, but it was very steep and did quite a number on me. I have to say, I very happy to be able to say that I have gone rappelling now, but I'm not sure if I'm going to search out opportunities to do it again. The scariest part was definitely going over the edge at the beginning, but I couldn't wait to get to the bottom either.

Me just after starting my descent

Finally, after all of that, I went out and had dinner at Tucanos when we got back. It was wonderful. I had a free birthday meal coupon to use there, but it had to be used sometime in May, so today was my last chance to use it. So, I asked one of my friends out to dinner and we had a good time stuffing ourselves with meat. I am proud of myself for stopping before I was miserably full. Also, I figure that the running and hiking and scaring myself helped justify the meal. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day.

A Close Encounter

I had a neat encounter tonight. My FHE group went up and hiked around Bridal Veil Falls tonight. It was the first time I had ever gone up there. It was nice short hike and it was fun to walk around by the falls a bit. Before leaving, everyone got together for a big group picture. I was toward the edge of the group and turned for a second and noticed a bird out of the corner of my eye. It was flying toward me and started to get really close. I was quite surprised by how close it was getting, so I turned some more to get a better look at it. Well, when I turned, I noticed that it wasn't flying like any bird I had seen before, and it wasn't moving forward very fast. That's when I realized that I wasn't looking at a bird. I was looking at a bat. Anyway, it flew right by me within about a foot of my arm. It was really neat. It landed a few feet away and everyone got a good look at it. It's amazing how small bats can curl up. I swear, their wings look like tissue paper when they are flying.

It's Feeling More Like Summer

Okay, so, I realize that technically it's still spring, but everyone knows that "summer" actually starts as soon as school gets out. Anyway, it's starting to feel a bit more like summer this week. This is partly due to the weather (which really has only been nice today) and how I've been able to spend some of my time.

I mentioned in a previous post that I've been wanting to get more active. I've succeeded somewhat at that this week. I was able to go play racquetball with one of my roommates earlier in the week. That felt great, even though he beat me. The only problem was that I hadn't played since September. I'm pretty sure that this is the reason behind me successfully getting charlie horses in both my legs simultaneously after the first game when I jumped up to grab the loose ball. I landed and felt both calf muscles seize up. Luckily, my left leg eased up pretty quickly, so I was able to hobble over to the wall and sit down.

Today we played softball. It was supposed to be a friendly game between the two Elders quorums in my ward. However, my quorum was the only one to provide enough players to make a team. Luckily, there were some other guys at the field when we got there, so we played with them and had the few guys from the other quorum be on their team. Anyway, weather was great (sunny, not too hot) and it was really fun. Also, I have to brag a little bit here say that, with two outs in the final inning, I hit a walk-off single to bring in the winning run. That felt pretty good.

Double Down!

So, as you could gather from my latest post, I've been indulging myself a little bit this week. Well, the indulging continued today.

We had our end of semester cleaning checks today, and I've been taking some time each of the last few days making sure that our bathroom was as clean as could be. I finally finished everything today and sat down to relax in front of the TV. After watching some Holmes on Homes, I realized that I was really hungry because it was almost lunch time and I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. This opened the door perfectly for my latest indulgence...the KFC Double Down.

For those of you who haven't seen the commercials, the Double Down is a sandwich that uses chicken in place of the buns. Here's the description found on the KFC website

The new KFC Double Down sandwich is real! This one-of-a-kind sandwich features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel's Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!

So, the first time I saw the commercial on TV I thought to myself, "you have to be kidding me. They're really marketing this?" It seemed delicious yet disgusting at the same time, but I told myself that I had to try it at least once, so I did today. The verdict? It was delicious. And it wasn't as greasy and nasty as I thought it would be. The only problem was that the seasonings on the chicken overpowered everything else. I couldn't really taste the bacon and only occasionally tasted the cheese. It was pretty much just like eating a couple of pieces of KFC chicken. But, like I said, delicious.

It's Over!

Yesterday was the last day of finals. I had actually taken my last exam on Tuesday, but I still have some research stuff that I needed to work on and turn in by 5:00 pm yesterday for another class, so I didn't get to feel like finals were over until last night. I'm not sure how I did in my classes, but I'm not going to worry about that until I see my grades.

Here's how I celebrated. First, I left all my books and papers and such in my office and didn't take home a single school/related thing. That right there felt pretty good. Then I let myself play some Guitar Hero when I got home. Then my roommates and I went out to Outback Steakhouse to fill ourselves with beef. I got a nice ribeye steak with garlic mashed potatoes, caesar salad, and a pomegranate mango lemonade (which was amazing). I even had leftovers that I ate for lunch today, and they were still delicious. I also started reading Catching Fire last night. It's the sequel to The Hunger Games. I read The Hunger Games a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it and stayed up far too late reading it a few nights in a row. So, I told myself that I couldn't start reading the next one until after finals were over.

I'm still going to have one class this spring term and I have a lot I need to get done for my research, but I'm really looking forward to spring and summer and feeling a little more free to do what I want and not feel like I should be working on something else. Oh, I've also decided that I need to get a little more active again. I bought a cool blue, three-piece suite last summer for really cheap. I hadn't worn it for almost eight months before last week when we had a formal dinner as a ward activity. Well, the vest and jacket sure didn't fit like they used to. And I think "fit" is a generous term there. So, I need to get moving again.

A Great Night

Last night I went to my first ever big concert. It was awesome. Muse came to Salt Lake City and performed at the E-Center.

I've been to a couple of smaller events, but never anything that I had to pay more than $10 or $15 for. The biggest act up until now would have been when I went to the Calgary Stampede a few years ago and saw Good Charlotte doing the free outdoor show. I'm not much of a fan of Good Charlotte, and it was a fairly small crowd, but it was fun.

Anyway, Muse is the first band to come around (and whose tour date I was aware of) that I really wanted to see. So, after talking about it and tiptoeing around the idea for about a month, a couple of my roommates and I bought tickets. Money well spent. I had heard that they put on a good show, and they definitely didn't disappoint last night. They had a lot of cool effects, lazers, videos, and whatnot. But, most importantly, they sounded amazing. They played quite a bit of stuff from their new album, which was pretty good, and they played a lot of our favorites such as Supermassive Blackhole, Hysteria, Map of the Problematique, Knights of Cydonia, Plug in Baby, and Time in Running Out. Even though they came back out and played three or four encore songs, it still felt way too short and I definitely could have stayed for another couple of hours. But, I guess they do need to stop at some point.

Optimization Project

Hey everyone! So, I'm working on a class project right now where I'm trying to optimize the combination of games and food available on the midway at a carnival or fair. I need some data for my model to work. It would be great if anybody reading this could complete a little survey found at the link at the bottom of this post. It's only 10 questions on one page. Thanks for your help!

Click here to take survey

Apollo 13

Today's BYU forum was one of the neatest one's I've been to in a long time. Captain James Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, came and spoke to us today. His address was titled "Apollo 13: A Successful Failure." He pretty much told the story of the Apollo 13 mission from his point of view, which was a pretty amazing one.

I had heard the story of Apollo 13 before. I've seen the movie quite a few times. This was a completely different experience. It was just so fascinating to look at him and think that he was actually one of the astronauts in trouble up there. To think that he had lived it. Not only that, but he is quite the story teller and has gotten quite good at sharing this experience of his.

I don't know if any audio or video files of this forum will be posted online. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. I think it has to do with whether or not the speaker will let BYU put it up. Anyway, if they are put up, I highly recommend checking it out.

High Pass!!!

This afternoon, at around 2:48 PM, I sighed a giant sigh of relief. I got a high pass on my qualifier exams! I'm not sure what else there is to say about that except that I'm very happy to know that I won't need to take them again next year and I won't have to worry about doing a masters thesis before my dissertation. What a great day.

It's Out of My Hands Now

About 40 minutes ago I turned in the last of my qualifier exams. It's a great feeling to be done. The only problem now is that I have to wait until Wednesday to see my results.

If you wondering what the qualifier exams are, let me tell you. Last semester I took 3 classes that every ChE grad student takes during their first year of grad school. The semester after taking these classes, students take the qualifier exams. These exams are based on the 3 classes of the previous semester. They are taken over 3 days (3 hours each day) and each day has one question from one each of the 3 classes. There are a lot of 3's in this paragraph. The exams are graded, then based on a combination of your exam score and your GPA from the previous semester, the faculty decide if you deserve a High Pass, Pass, or Fail. High Pass means that you qualify for the PhD program, Pass is for the Masters program. Fail means that you qualify to be kicked out. If I don't get a High Pass, I'll need to get a Masters degree first and retake the qualifiers next year to try to get into the PhD program. I don't want to do that.

Anyway, I've known for over a year that I'd be taking these exams, but they've been weighing down on me pretty heavily the last couple of weeks. It's such a nice feeling to be done. There's nothing more I can do about it. I just have to wait and see what my future will hold for me now.

I'll Have Something Soon

So, I need to apologize for not posting anything on here in a while. Things have just been kind of crazy the last couple of weeks with a project, midterm, crazy homework assignments and trying to prepare for my qualifier exams that start tomorrow and finish on Saturday. I guess I can let you know that my ear is feeling better now. Just over a week ago I was sitting in church and my ear popped all of a sudden and I could hear again. It was amazing. I turned to tell the people sitting next to me and they just laughed at me.

Anyway, I need to get going and study some more. I'll have something more interesting up here soon.

The Glass is Half Full

So, whenever I think of optimism and "the glass is half full," I can't help but think of the following routine from Demetri Martin (slightly edited):

Those who see the glass half full are considered optimists. Yeah, but shouldn't we be more specific about the contents of the glass? If it's a glass of poop, I'm going half empty. I don't like poop. As an optimist, there's a half-empty poop glass here, so don't worry about it. Baby blood, that's even more complicated. Is this blood going to a baby or coming from a baby? If it's to a baby, yeah, we got a half-full glass of baby blood here. It's gonna be fine. Don't worry about it. From the baby, okay, hold on. It's a half-empty baby-blood glass. Don't ask me why he collected the blood in a glass. Just listen to what I'm saying.

Anyway, the reason I've got optimism on my mind is because I've had an ear infection for about about a week now. It started out really mild, but it's gotten a fair bit worse the last few days (I've been to the doctor a couple of times about it). Well, I haven't really been able to hear anything through my left ear since Tuesday night because my ear is all swollen up. While the infection has been quite annoying and painful at times, this lack of hearing has had it's benefits.

Take, for example, the fun it created at work. We have a couple of pressure regulators in our lab that make a hissing noise when air is flowing through them. Yesterday, while I was in the lab, I noticed that I couldn't hear the hissing at all when my left ear was facing the regulator and that the hissing would get progressively louder as I turned my right ear towards the regulator. Well, I was really fascinated by this and started testing it out. While everything I was doing made perfect sense to me, my research assistant got this really confused look on his face when he looked over and saw me spinning around in random circles in the middle of the room. Maybe he thought that the pressure of grad school had finally gotten the best of me. Anyway, we had a good laugh about this.

My favorite benefit, though, was discovered last night while I was in bed. I was still awake when my roommate started snoring. I was not happy when this started. Normally I just kick his bed when he starts snoring, but he had work early in the morning and I didn't feel good waking him up. So, I was lying there not knowing what to do and ended up randomly rolling over onto my right side, thus blocking my good ear. The snoring stopped instantly! It was wonderful.

Olympic Opening Ceremonies

So, I've known for a while that the opening ceremonies were going to be tonight and I've been really excited about them. Then, I found out that our ward was having a Valentine's Day activity and dance tonight, and I'm now on the committee that has been planning it, so I was pretty sure that I would be going to that instead of watching the opening ceremonies. Well, I haven't been feeling very well today and decided that it would be best if I didn't go to the activity after all. I am so glad that I stayed home.

Watching the ceremonies has been wonderful and has turned out to be a lot more emotional than I was expecting. The most emotional part for me was when the Mounties carried the Canadian flag into BC Place. I was feeling a lot of Canadian pride at the moment, and that was mixed with some strong feelings of missing Canada as well. It was a strong, and interesting, mixture of emotions.

Another emotional part for me was when the Georgian athletes walked in during the Parade of Nations. Earlier today, a Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, died in a crash during a training run. The Georgian team was fairly small, and it was clear as they walked in that they were in mourning for their lost teammate. The welcoming applause and support that the audience gave them was very touching and it was great to see and hear everyone, from a wide variety of countries, rally behind this team.

Aside from all of that, I thought the ceremonies were great. They were beautiful and fun. I was really amazed at the whole presentation. I was in total shock during the beginning of the cultural celebration when the projectors made the floor look like it was breaking up into a bunch of ice flows. It was amazing.

The Olympics are more than just an athletic competition. There's something special about them. There are other international competitions, but none of them have the same feeling.

How I Spent My Night

Toffee Crunch Crepe Cake

So, if you've looked at all at my other blog, 100 Things, you probably have a pretty good idea that I like food and that I like cooking. Well, tonight proved to me again that I really do enjoy working with food.

Tomorrow, the chemical engineering graduate students are participating in a "Cultural Culinary Conclave" for the weekly graduate seminar. Students are encouraged to bring a food either from their home country or some other country they have a connection to. Last year I represented Canada and made Nanaimo Bars. I didn't want to make the same thing two years in a row, but I couldn't think of anything else from Canada that I could do well (I've been wanting to take poutine, but I just can't think of a way to make it convenient for everyone there and to make it fresh enough so that I don't just show up with a goopy mess of soggy fries). So, this year I decided to go represent France and make crepes. However, I didn't just show up with a plate full of crepes (even though I'm sure people would love them). Instead, I decided to go with a recipe that my sister gave me a while ago. This would be the Toffee Crunch Crepe Cake that is pictured above.

Anyway, this is pretty much what my entire night consisted of after getting back from institute tonight. It's actually a pretty simple cake to make, but it's time consuming because of the crepes. I decided to make two cakes just to make sure there was enough for everyone. So, this meant that I ended up spending an hour standing at the stove making crepes. Do I normally like to stand in one spot for an hour? No. But this wasn't really a problem tonight, or most any other time that I'm cooking. Anyway, I actually ended up with enough crepes to make three cakes, so now we have an extra one that is staying at the apartment. My roommates were happy to hear about that.

Something else interesting about all of this is that I have another roommate who likes to cook, and who cooks for us quite a bit. He tends to stick to the savoury side of things and cook main course type foods. While I like to cook in general and like making nice dinners, I tend to spend more time on the baking/sweets side of things. I guess that balances things out in the apartment.

Urban Dictionary

So, there's a new Facebook fad going around right now. I've noticed a few people doing it. In their status they have written "go to urbandictionary.com, type in your first name, copy and paste this as your status and the first entry for your name under comments." So, I decided to try this out and was pleasantly surprised. Here's what urbandictionary.com had to say about me:

The most incredible guy in the universe, end of story. He’s sweet, caring, and truly amazing. He isn’t concerned with himself at all, but instead he’s concerned with other people. He always knows the perfect thing to say and the right time to say it. He takes your breath away and leaves you speechless. And he has a way of making your heart melt like no one else ever will. Robert is so wonderful, it’s almost impossible to find the words to match.

A Little Thinking

Something happened this morning that go me thinking a bit. I have a good friend who is on a mission right now and I'm one of the people that her parents forward her weekly emails to, which usually come Monday morning. Well, this morning her email contained some sad news from her mission. Apparently a couple of Elders passed away recently because of a gas leak in their apartment. Obviously this was completely unexpected and a total shock. Nobody ever expects someone they know to pass away suddenly, especially on their mission when they're on the Lord's errand.

As soon as I read her email I started thinking about a former roommate and dear friend of mine who passed away during Christmas break just over three years ago. We had only been back from our missions for a year and a half, so he would have been close to the same age as these Elders. It was also completely unexpected with no warning in advance. He was one of the best people I have ever met and it was really hard to hear the news.

I think it's interesting how quickly we can become so close to somebody. We had only met during our freshman year at college. And in the four years between us meeting and him passing away, we had only been in the same area for less than half that time. However, he was one of the best friends I've had.

Anyway, in thinking about all of this, I am also reminded about the comfort that I received. It was really hard for the first couple of days. But, things got better. I still miss him, but the gospel and a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation helped with coping with the situation. I know that death isn't the end. I know that God loves and cares for all of us and that situations like these aren't just random, pointless tragedies. We might not always understand the point behind them, and sometimes it is only meant to be understood by a select few, but there is a reason behind it.

It's interesting how a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation can take situations like this and remind us of the greatness of the Plan and also fill us with faith and hope. Like I said, I still miss my friend, but the pain that I initially felt upon receiving the news has since been replaced with greater faith in our Heavenly Father's plan. And I believe that this can happen with any challenge, hardship, or tragedy that we encounter.

Oh, What Joy!

I am so happy right now. Words cannot describe how happy I am. The seemingly impossible became possible today. What could possibly make me this happy right now? It's very simple. I turned on a gas compressor.

That doesn't sound too exciting, does it? Trust me, this is a pretty big moment for me, and here's why.

Last summer I was told that we needed to do some safety upgrading on the facilities used for my research. At the time it wasn't too big of a deal...install some extra outlets, clean up some wires, etc. Well, not long after that, we got the news that we needed to move our gas supply from the basement of our building to a spot outside before we could run anymore tests. Well, this has been a major inconvenience. Our gas system consists of a natural gas compressor that fills up 4 natural gas cylinders to 1500 psi, and we didn't want to move it. We were able to get an exception for a couple of months as long as we only filled the tanks to 500 psi, but we eventually had to take the steps to move everything outside. After all the planning for that, we were told it would take 1 to 2 weeks. It's been 4 months now, and we haven't been able to do any testing this whole time. Inconvenient? Yes. Frustrating? Yes. Anyway, we finally got everything moved and hooked up how it's supposed to be, with proper safety measures and such. I went to turn on the compressor today to start filling the tanks, and it wouldn't turn on. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was wrong. Anyway, after a day full of running around, annoying people, and jerry rigging a temporary solution, the compressor finally turned on. The tanks are filling as we speak (or as I type). The end of this 4 month frustration is finally coming to an end!

If you don't believe me that I was as excited as I stated at the beginning, well, I'll just say that I started laughing and dancing around by the compressor when it turned on. If you know me, you'll know I don't just randomly burst out into dance all that often.

Welcome!

***Note: A portion of this post discusses the name of my blog, which has actually changed since this original post***


Hey, everybody!

As some of you may know, I started a blog a few months back called 100 Things. If you haven't been there, you should check it out. Anyway, I had a specific goal on that blog and I reached that goal about a week ago. However, I wanted to keep blogging, so I decided to leave that blog as it is and start up a new one. And, voila. Uncle Bob's Bloggish Life.

I get the feeling that I should explain the name of this blog. First, the Uncle Bob part. Yes, I am an uncle, but my nieces and nephews don't call me Uncle Bob. Uncle Bob is a nickname that a couple of people in my ward here at BYU started using last summer. Like I said, there were only a couple people who ever really used it, and there's only one who uses it at all anymore, but for some reason it came to mind when I was thinking of a title. So, there you go. And even if they don't call me Uncle Bob, the uncle part does make me think of my nieces and nephews, who I absolutely love. So, I like that about it too.

Now the Bloggish Life part. Am I saying that my life resembles a blog? No. I'm not really all that sure what it means to have a life resembling a blog. Am I saying that everything about my life is something that somebody wants to read about on a blog? No. Trust me, there is a lot of stuff that you don't even want to hear about ("I sat at my desk today. Then I checked facebook. Then I was sleepy. The end.") Nope, my Bloggish Life refers to those moments of my life that I deem appropriate to appear on here. So, a good translation of the title could be "The relatively interesting moments from the life of Robert (who is occasionally referred to as Uncle Bob)."

Well, hopefully you were able to get through that little bit of nonsensical rambling and have decided to keep following my updates and whatnot on here. Enjoy!