Dallin's Blog!

Link

2007-04-22T16:38:00.000+09:30

So, we had a Heroes themed YSA dance last Friday, April 20th. I decided to go as Link, the Hero of Time (from the Legend of Zelda). Go to my Picassa Web Album at the top of the page to see a few photos. I hoep to get some more from other people soon.

Dallin (Link)

Ultimate!

2007-03-01T13:38:00.000+10:30

Representing or exhibiting the greatest possible development or sophistication.

What a definition (Thanks Google!). Ultimate. Normally I would use it to describe my favourite game - Ultimate Frisbee. Fast paced, fun for everyone, easy to pick up, impossible to master, play just about anywhere, with just about anyone, with nothing required but a Frisbee. Whoever coined the name 'Ultimate' was certainly on track.

But today, something else is ultimate: Microsoft.

Whether you love them or hate them, chances are you have to use their products. Windows is, essentially, universal. And so is Microsoft Office. Word Documents, Exel Spreadsheets, Powerpoint Presentations, these are the usual formats that most people use to transfer information.

Unfortunately, Office comes in different packages these days. At least ten different versions, each including various combinations of the world's Most ubiquitous productivity software. A friend recently complained that she couldn't share much of her work with others, because they didn't have Publisher. The general problem is the cost.

That's why Microsoft named their most comprehensive version of Office 'Ultimate'.

It includes everything. But retailing at around $1000, it is out of many people's price range. That's where Microsoft's ultimate deal fits in. Australian Uni students have the option to buy a 1 year licence for $25 or an unlimited licence for $75.

Visit http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au for all the details. If you're an Australian Uni student, you can not pass this offer up.

Impressions of the Sydney and Melbourne trips, as well as of the Adelaide YSA Convention DVD to come.

Imprints of a Golden Finger

2007-01-08T21:24:00.000+10:30

Convention was incredible. If I'm allowed to say that, since I helped organise it. I think I can say it, because I don't think it was our preparation and organisation which allowed it to be so good and run so smoothly. It truly was touched by the finger of gold. Or perhaps more correctly, touched by the Hand of God. It was He who allowed and caused everything to run so smoothly. And who provided the perfect weather! And I am so grateful for it.

Do you ever have times like that, where it seems that everything you do, no matter what you do, turns out for the best? It is an incredible blessing which I don't deserve. But, convention was a great time for it, because it blessed the lives of so many!

Some time ago, I spent several days pondering the word 'impression'. I was reminded of it these past few weeks. Who can tell me why?

One thing that I thought to myself, which is probably not entirely true, but is interesting to think about, is that, excepting for outside influences and pre-conceived ideas, it is difficult to get a wrong impression of someone. If one honestly considers the impression received, it would be the image projected by that person. People are, unfortunately, prone to project false images of themselves, for various reasons. But...ok, I'm not going to keep on going with that.

The point is, every meeting results in some form of impressioning. It can either be a good impression, or a bad impression (a depression?). But if we are honest with ourselves, it is a true impression. It can and Most likely will change. But, first impressions, as they say, last.

So, what does this mean?

It depends what result you want to create.

And so it was, that we pulled off 'The Great Con!' All the best for the coming year everyone!

Dallin

Advice is a Dangerous Gift

2006-11-20T17:59:00.000+10:30

Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.

Of all creatures, perhaps the Elves are the most wise. Yet, they are also the Most reserved in giving advice.

Because, why?

All courses may run ill. Even the Elves do not know how things will end up. Advice is merely one person's considered opinion of the best option to take at the time. It is important to consider all options, and the positive and negative aspects of each (for each will have both). The wisdom of the Elves is that it is worse to give bad advice than to give none at all. Letting someone draw their own conclusions and determine their own course after a plain presentation of the relevant facts is their method.

And it would be frustrating as anything, for an indecisive character like me.

At least, I think it would be....

It would seem like wisdom, but for the warning in my heart

2006-11-08T17:17:00.000+10:30

Ever just know something? Yet not be able to give any sort of reasoning, logic or feeling behind it? In fact, all of those things point to the exact opposite? I imagine that's how Frodo felt when he offered to take the Ring to Mordor. It didn't make any sense and he would have much rathered just go back home, but he just knew he had to do it.

And do it he did!

So, I went to the beach this morning. It was nice. It was a bit windy, but I guess that's what you get at the beach, hey! It has been really windy at home all week though, especially at night.

I didn't go swimming.

Well, I wish I had more to say, but I think I am done. I can't even think of any good way to give out points. So, I think I might just have to leave it like that. Hope everyone is well!!

Dallin

It's My Turn!

2006-10-26T23:32:00.000+09:30

Liz gets 25 points for her amazing singing and totally awesome hat/veil thing! And because it almost inspired me to want to see a musical opera thing. But not quite. Well Done Liz! You're a champ!

Ok, I'm finished now

Dallin

Ductile

2006-10-17T18:10:00.000+09:30

Drake Lake. Man, I was just thinking about words, and came to ponder on Wave Race 64. That was an amazing game. And an amazing train of thought. See, it started with Ductile (I'll explain that in a bit) which moved through to Drake, via Malleable. I think that connection came via Mandrake, the former name for a type of Linux. Drake Lake was a course in Wave Race, thus letting me ponder that game of years ago. And people wonder why I lose the game so often - so many different things can remind me of it.

Anyway, I really like the word ductile. I remember I learned it together with 'malleable' when oing a project about Gold in primary school. But, whereas malleable is a word in somewhat common usage, I think ductile is pretty rare. So, I have decided to introduce it to the world.

Incidentally enough, my first paragraph was an example of ductility. I took one thought, and drew it out into an entire paragrpah, without even really going anywhere. There are some other possible meanings though. These are some I came up with.

Someone who goes on and on about a point that has already been done to death. Including making the same joke again and again.

One who drags out a simple process so that it takes for ever. Especially when going over irrelevant details that have already been dealt with or are blatantly obvious.

Fortunatly enough, cheese is also quite ductile, when melted at least. And, I guess it depends on the kind of cheese. Some cheese doesn't melt, it just burns. Other cheese melts in a stringy kind of way, and then other cheese melts very liquidy. Yay for cheese!

So, make sure you describe someone as 'ductile' today!

Dallin Howes

Burning - Mel weighs to a T!

2006-09-28T17:48:00.000+09:30

So, I have Mostly not answered too many people's questions about the Melbourne trip, instead stating that I would write a decent blog entry about it. So, here it is. Hopefully it is good, and answers all your questions. But, I can't go into too much detail on some things - never know who might be reading!

So, we left Friday morning, September 22. We met at Steph's just after 6:30 sometime, packed the van and were off. I (and I think everyone) was amazed that we had all packed so light that our bags didn't go above the top of the rear seats. If it weren't for all the tall people sitting in the middle, the driver would have had a clear view out the back window. That driver being Steph almost all of the time, and Natalie the rest of the time. I think the rest of s would have gladly driven, butit was their car, they were running the show.

We weren't in any rush to get there - we had no definite plans for Friday night (well, not as far as I knew, at least) so we didn't speed at all, and took our time when we stopped, and we stopped regularly. Bordertown for breakfast, somewhere else for petrol, and Ballarat for lunch. The have the coolest McDonald's in Ballarat. Well, almost the coolest. I enjoyed it.

We had a bit of trouble finding our way to the appartments we were staying at. The McCappin girls had made Most of the arrangments for everything, so I didn't even know what they were called, and being completely unfamiliar with Melbourne, I had no idea where anything was anyway. Rachel realised where were were though, and I found us on the map just after that, and it was clear sailing from then on.

Except for parking. We had booked secure parking with the accomodation, but there were only 3 convenient secure parks, and 2 or three completely inconvenient ones. That was for our building, which had probably 12 appartments, maybe 16. It's a good thing the McCappins have my least favourite driveway in the world, so they are used to backing up and driving in tight spaces. Steph and Nat did a great job with it.

Man, I've written all that, and we only just got to Melbourne....

We went to Hard Rock cafe Friday night with Kelly, Alex (her fiancee), his brother and his best friend. That was pretty cool, but it started the trend of spending too much on food for the entire trip. But, I guess that's what happens when you eat out in Melbourne. After that we went to the crown complex, which was a pretty impressive building. Some people ate desert. The rest of us just wandered around looking at stuff for ages. We got home late, and stayed up late. Another trend for the whole trip.

We slept in Saturday morning. Another trend for the trip.

The girls wanted to go shopping, so we walked to Chapel street and all had lunch together there, and then did some grocery shopping for things we (or some of us) would (or might possibly) need for the coming 4 days. Then the girls continued with their shopping, and the guys went back to the appartment and watched the football. Well, I slept through half of it.

That night was the engagement party, which was the real reason we had gone over. It was cool to see Kelly and Alex and a bunch of their Melbourne friends. Well, kinda - I didn't care too much for Melbourne people at this point. The 'famous' guys were there, but I was too lazy to introduce myself. I don't think I really did it all trip. How lame am I?

The party finished at 10:00. Most people left about then. The YSA (that being us) hung around and helped clean up, and then hung around some more, until midnightish. We were apparantly really close to a Krisy Kremes shop thing there, and it was suggested that we go get some. But, I said we were going home. I don't know what anyone else was thinking, but no one argued, so we did. Unfortunately, we stayed up late chatting again, so it didn't really win me any extra sleep!

We were fortunate to get to church on time. Many of us didn't realise how far away it was. We went to Wantira ward, by the temple. We walked in at 1:15ish, during the Sacrament hymn. The first speaker was a High Councillor, and talked about Sacrament meeting, and how was should pay attention, and be on time and stuff. Oops, us evil Adelaideans....

The YSA class teacher was away, and their rep was too lazy to teach us, so we sat and talked all through Sunday School. I had a few thoughts prepared, and would have taught something, but we never even had an opening prayer, and I wasn't really in much of a position to take control. Fortunately we did have an EQ lesson, but only just - it was spontaneously prepared sometime after the start of church, coz the teacher had to go home or something. But it was good.

After church the guys walked and the girls drove across the road to Stewart (and Taryn) Brown's place. The girls made dinner, which was nice, and then we walked back to the chapel for a fireside, which was really good. Had a good chat with some people there too - I'm looking forward to catching up again with a bunch of Melbournians at convention.

We headed back to the Brown's, and stayed way too late again. That's actually not what I minded so much this time - it was just kinda frustrating coz it was decided about 3 times that were were leaving before we actually did. But, I get to read 'Why Kids Lie' which was at least somewhat interesting. I had no idea the trip was goign to be so educational!

Monday had the potential to be the biggest disaster, but it turned out pretty good. The Malbourne guys were going to the Show, so we almost ended up doing that, but we were delayed going to lunch, and they didn't want to pay for the SHow for just a little while (they were donating blood later), so we all ended up going bowling instead. It was a really cool place, a Strike Bowling Bar - a very modern, relaxed bowling and hang out venue. The lanes seemed really short...But it was good, I bowled ok, got 130ish both games.

Monday night we went to the Brown's again, and the guys cooked this time. Sam and Matt directed, and Most everyone else was doing what they were told. Except me, I was off making brownies on my own. But it was a successful night I think. We stayed late again, but it was ok, coz we all enjoyed it!

Tuesday morning we had to take Rachel to her Aunt's, coz she was staying for another week. I did a wonderful job navigating there (as well as to several of our other targets), but missed a couple of turn offs we should have taken when going back to the freeway. But it all worked out, and by 1:00 or so we were finally on the road home again.

Anyway, we got home ages ago now, so probably no one cares about this any more, but I'm going to post it coz I said I would.

Dallin!

Manifestations of Hallucination

2006-09-26T23:11:00.000+09:30

Well, It's too late and I am too tired to do my summary of Melbourne now. I just wanted to put something up here so I could say hi. And so I could use that title for a blog entry, coz I have another title that applies for the Melbourne trip.

Well, I guess I need to give some kind of incentive to read and comment here. Umm, so, who wants points? Ok, the first 5 people to comment get points. The number of points will be determined by the order, the name used when posting, the length of comments (although, longer may not be better) and some other random criteria. I'll let you know how I determined the points afterwards. Ok, have fun everyone!

Dallin - back from Melbourne

We mash ye scurvy dogs like potato!

2006-09-18T21:49:00.000+09:30

Tomorrow, September 19th, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I love the internet.

It also happens to be Hermoine Granger's birthday. I love Wikipedia. I don't like Hermoine so much though. So I won't be celebrating that.

Mashed potato is really quite a magical food. At times through my mission, I practically lived off the stuff. We would buy dry mix, just add milk, butter and water (or something). It was great. People sometimes like to compliment my cooking. It's really not that good. And, I managed to ruin those incredibly simple mashed potatoes quite a number of times. You were meant to put 1/4 teaspoon of salt in at the start, and then boil the water. I was too lazy to get a teaspoon or anything, so I just poured some salt in. I knew it was too much, but I didn't want to waste the effort so far, and thought it would work out alright. I should have realised that all I had in the pot was salt water - it would have been no effort at all to restart. But, I kept at it, and they were so salty we couldn't eat them. We tried just about everything to get rid of the over abundance of saltiness. In the end we added pineapple I think, but probably went to bed quite hungry...

Anyway, I don't think that's what I was really going to write about here....

Manipulation: Shrewd or devious management, especially for one's own advantage.

Actually, my favourite is the ad at the top of the google search page!

Is Your Man Manipulative?
TakeBackYourHeart.com - Learn "Secret Reason" Why You're Attracted To Jerks & Players

I like looking at Google Ads. Maybe because they support my blog. Or maybe because it is such a brilliant concept, to advertise based on what is actually on the page. GMail gives some of the funniest moments on the internet, because of the ads generated by emails people send me. Like that one I had one time for a 'Mormon Honeymoon Retreat'. Needless to say, the person who wrote the email that generated that ad, is on a mission.

Oh yeah, manipulation. It's funny, coz we all do it. But, often we don't realise it. As selfish creatures, we will do what serves us best. It is actually quite unfortunate, because it causes each of us to have a certain distorted view of reality. And perhaps more unfortunate, it's hard to stop, if we don't realise we're doing it. And that's why we have friends.

Or something.

Anyway, I'm done!
Yardarm Goodfellow

Pain

2006-09-04T13:27:00.000+09:30

Some things aren't meant to be said publicly. For everything else, there is the internet.

I don't know what that means. And even if I did, I probably wouldn't tell you. I did just make it up myself though! Really, I am just writing this so that everyone doesn't have to still stare at the DPGet thing, which Most of you didn't understand anyway. So I won't explan it.

There are somethings in life money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard.

That's a kind of a funny attitude. Hey, I can't afford it, but I can buy it with a credit card, and pay it back, with a whole lot of interest, later! I dunno, whatever works for people.

I guess what I am trying to say is, we don't always know what we're doing. As people, we act on whatever we can see at the moment, and don't always think too far into the future about what consequences our actions might have. And what feelings they will generate in others.

Unfortunately, sometimes we don't and can't ever realise that on our own. And so if no one ever tells you, you won't ever know there is a problem. And that's not cool.

I'm trying to write something meaningful here, but (as you can probably tell) I am really struggling.

I probably should have thought about it before I started....

Blah

DPGet

2006-08-26T16:37:00.000+09:30

Welcome to DPGet!

DPGet is an addin script for Messenger Plus! Live, an addon to Windows Live Messenger. Whew, that is a mouthful! The purpose of this script is to save and organise your contacts Display Pictures (DPs) in some sort of organised fashion, and with as little hassle as possible. I started off just making it for me, but decided that if other people liked the idea, they could certainly use it too. With MSN 7.5, I had always used StuffPlug NG to save DPs. But, it didn't (and still doesn't) exist for WLM 8.0, so I made my own solution.

The newest version (0.80) contains numerous improvements over the last version (0.75). Perhaps the Most significant is the auto update notifier. I plan to eventually make a GUI, but don't have much time at the moment. But this way, everyone will find out when a new version is released, without having to check continually.

Various commands have been improved, Most notably /dpgetall, which had a serious bug which stopped it from really working properly at all. It will now report how many DPs it does save successfully. I have also added a few menu entries, for functions I thought would be Most useful in those menus. From the contact list window you can turn AutoGet on or off, perform a GetAll, and open the home directory where DPs are saved. From a chat window you can instantly save all DPs from contacts in that chat, or 'imitate' the other person's current DP (Only works in single person chat).

Various Toast popups are now clickable. Those announcing that DPs have been saved can be clicked to open the Home Folder. The AutoUpdate notifier will take you to the DPGet entry in the Scripts Database.

Download: Scripts Database

Help: Readme - MsgPlus Forum Thread

MsgPlus: http://www.msgpluslive.net

Messenger: live.com

Leave comments on suggestions and bug reports. I don't get much time to work on it, but I will eventually fix things and implement things that I can do! If there is something that really doesn't work properly at all, I would really like to hear about it. Please email me at < dallinh+dpget (at) gmail (dot) com >.

Thanks for your support, hope you enjoy it!

Dallin

Jonno!

2006-08-17T23:39:00.000+09:30

Jonno gets 122 points, because he is going on a mission! Yay for Jonno! There isn't anything more worthwhile he could be doing with the next two years, and no better place he could be doing it than within the Perth mission.

I haven't known Jonno all that long, less than a year. Ok, maybe that is a long time. But anyway, I digress...Jonno is going to be a great missionary. His testimony is good and strong, and he has a great desire to share it with everyone! But, he is also willing to learn. And learn he will!

GO JONNO! We'll see you in two years! (And we'll try to let you know if anything important happens while you are away.)

In other news, responsibility is back in fashion! Oh wait, it always was.

Oh, I thought I would hand out some more points today. We have a question, with absolutely no context. That means, there is NO RIGHT ANSWER. We don't want another fiasco like we had with <ahem>280<ahem>. Creative answers will be awarded points. Answers involving Google or Google products will be rewarded more richly. As will longer, more creative answers. Or, something like that. Points awarded will actually be very subjective. No correspondence will be entered into. I do not have a valid licence to run such a competition in South Australia. Oops...

Oh, the question - I nearly forgot! What do I want?

There is never enough time to do all the nothing we want to do!

A psychic Teapot?!?

2006-08-06T21:59:00.000+09:30

What is the world coming to?!?

The Ball on Friday was great! Thanks to everyone who came, and made themselves look nice and stuff. And to everyone who helped setting up and packing up. It all came together and worked really well. And I had fun, and think Mostly everyone did too! But don't come complaining to me if you didn't....Oh, and thanks to everyone I danced with. It was nice.

I almost don't know what to do with myself now that all that stuff is over with the Ball. I guess I will have to actually get my uni work done this week! We do still have a whole bunch more YSA stuff coming up. We're meant to have another dance next month, and then activities both months after that, and then convention in December. Hmm...I should probably do something about that!

So, Sarah is gone now. I guess Most of those few of you who bother to read this don't really know her all that well. So, I won't go on about her too much. But I will miss her. She is doing the right thing though, and will be back soon enough. It's kinda weird, coz I have never really had a friend as close as her leave on a mission. I left before all my best guys friends. I don't think it has really hit me yet. Separation is a strange thing. And different people deal with it very differently.

So much for not going on about that...

You know what really annoys me? When I notice something about someone else that really annoys me, and then I see myself doing the exact same thing. I am silly. I have silly prideful double standards. But I am trying.

Anyone who comments about me being too harsh on myself will lose points. And I'll have to come up with some other suitable punishment for Jake, since he doesn't want points anyway!

For anyone who is interested, here is a photo of my cheese slicer mentioned in a past entry. It's probably not what you were really imagining yourselves. It works wonderfully well though!

Ok, well, no other points for today I don't think. Hope everyone is well, I will catch you all later!

Dallin

PS. Is that really socially acceptable?

Nored.

2006-07-31T10:13:00.000+09:30

I wish I had somethign worth saying, but really I don't. But, I said the result to the last competition would come out today, so it is, now.

The answer was that my mum got me a cheese slicer. If I were at home, I'd take a photo, but I'm not. Maybe I'll take one tonight, and add it to the post. If I weren't so lazy, I'd look through Google Images to find something similar to mine. But I'm lazy.

I guess Carolyn was the closest, since it is effectively a "sharp string". Of course, it is actually really a wire. But, since she wasn't really right, she won't get the full amount of points on offer. She will get...11 points (the number of letters in "sharp string".

Other people who posted will get up to 5 points for their efforts.

As for the randomness - The title of the post and the first 'PS' were from The Emperor's New Groove. Funny movie that!

Roadshows were great on the weekend. Well done for all invovled. It was a pity I couldn't see those involved at Modbury as well, but I had commitments by Firle Chapel.

Well, I'm done. Sorry this was such a lame post...Hope you all have a great day!

Dallin Howes

Let's End This!

2006-07-24T13:22:00.000+09:30

So, my mum finally got back from Sydney yesterday, and broughtmy dad with her! He only went on Friday, so I hadn't been home alone for very long. Living on your own would be pretty boring. Well, I thought it was for the weekend. But it's ok, I had stuff to do.

Anyway, my mum brought me a really cool present back from Sydney! It was something really simple, for use with everybody's favourite food, cheese. So, that means it's competition time! if you can get the right answer of what it was, you will win 3 times as many points as there are letters in your correct answer. So, if the answer were 'a block of cheese' that has 14 letters, so you would win 14 * 3 = 42 points. But if you got more specific with your answer and said 'a big block of edam cheese' and that were also correct, you would get 21 * 3 = 63 points. Thus the challenge is to be as specific as possible, while still being right. And, of course, only thefirst person who gets the right answer gets the points.

Consolation prizes will be awarded by me however I so choose. And just so you know, the real answer is actually quite short. And yes, I will give tha answer out after a period of time if no one gets it right.

In other news, Uni is back on. Haven't done much so far (just one lecture, another one in half an hour). Yay!!

Also, our fireside last night was really good (I think). Thanks to everyone who spoke, sang, played the piano, prayed, conducted music, prepared food or was just in attendance. Actually, a special thanks to anyone who decided to change because of something they felt. For those who weren't in attendance, it was about the Book of Mormon. We had 8 wonderful young adults share personal experiences and testimonies of blessings gained by study of the Book.

Thanks, have a good day!

PS. Ladies first.

PPS. 19 points for recognising the randomness...

280

2006-07-12T11:40:00.000+09:30

So, Some of you have seen the points tally over on the right column there somewhere. And some of you have complained about some people perhaps not having points on there who deserve to have points. Well...that might be true. But i'm running this show, so I'll run it like I want to. And I didn't make it very convenient to edit. But I will update it sometime. And if you have points that need to be credited, email me and let me know who gave them to (or who you're giving them to) and why, and eventually I'll probably put them up.

So, I'm in Sydney again. Someone just asked me if I was here to get engaged. I unfortunately had to say no. But that's only because it is still a secret. Oh, wait....

So anyway, it's cool being here, staying at my sister's place, with her 2 month old girl Adelaide (Lady). And we visited my brother and his week old boy Blaise the other day, and might be over there again today. Havn't been up to much other than family stuff though. There was a YSA fireside on Sunday night, but I didn't really meet anyone i hadn't met last time i was here. Ok, that's not entirey true, I met a couple of people. It was a good fireside.

Lady is really cute.

Oh, if anyone tells you that I nearly killed people on the way home from the dance at Craigmore last week, it isn't true. I'm a safe driver, and everyone was always completely safe. I wasn't even tried. I'll tell you what though, I was the next day. After I got home from the dance at about 1:00 I checked my email (the computer was still on...). I had a message from a former missionary friend, and one of my companions is engaged! He must only have been home for a couple of weeks. But his girlfriend was really cool, so that's pretty exciting for them! Anyway, back to my story about me, I then had to pack my bag to go to Sydney. I probably finally finished that by 2:30 or so, and went to bed. Then I had to leave for the airport at 6:00. I took my laptop in the plane, just incase i wanted to get some stuff done (not my mouse though - no radio comunications stuff in planes). But instead I just slept. Or tried to.

So anyway, I was tired, but now I'm all good.

Anyway, I'm done. This is Dallin Howes, reporting from Sydney!

PS. Oh, 74 points to whoever can guess what 280 is for. 12 points to anyone who comes up with a good creative guess answer thing.

Stuff

2006-06-27T21:46:00.000+09:30

My dad likes to mock me about my over usage of the term "Stuff". But then I found in some of the lecture slides from one of my courses at uni this semester they taught us about "Stuff", so I feel justified now!

A few days ago my little blog here was the first result in a Google Search for Dallin Blog. Now I'm not even in the top 100 results. What's with that?

Man, I love my new mouse! I had actually been getting quite used to the trackpad. And it was always quite convenient having my hands close to the keyboard. Using shortcuts like Alt + Left to go back in a web-browser was great. The first few days using the mouse, it felt like everything was so slow, because I had to move the mouse all the way to the back button, or move my hands all the way to the keyboard.

There is, however, a solution, greater than one could possibly imagine! I decided I would stop using Internet Explorer as my default web browser, just after I got my laptop. I use Firefox (See right). Firefox has extensions, small programs which increase the usefulness of the browser. I found one called Mouse Gestures. It lets you use your mouse to do a lot of common browsing tasks. Very convenient! The ones I use most, rather than the ones shown at the site where you need to move the mouse, are "Right click, Left click" for Back, "Left click, Right click" for forward, and "Right click + Scroll Wheel" to switch tabs.

I now find myself trying to go forward and back like that in Windows Explorer and other programs now too. It's frustrating that I can't. Oh well.

And I'm Dallin Howes, and that's all I have to say for now!

Competition Time!

2006-06-22T14:17:00.000+09:30

Who ever can guess first what I bought today gets....80 points!

I'll give you a clue, coz otherwise it is probably a bit hard. And you have to be specific, but not too specific. For example, if I'd bought a loaf of bread, you couldn't just say "A loaf of bread" It would have to be "A loaf of white bread" but you wouldn't have to go so far to say "A loaf of Helga's white bread bought at Coles"

Make sense? Ok, cool, now I just need to make the clue....Sweet! Here it is (It's a picture clue)

Take Luck and Be Fun!

**EDIT**

Sorry everyone, the competition is over. Sophie won, with the correct answer of "A Bluetooth Mouse". I got the Logitech V270 from Get Right on Payneham road. I think. I was deciding between this mouse, and the V400, but went with this because of the Bluetooth. That means, it connects directly to my laptop, so I don't have a little dongle hanging out of a USB port to use my mouse.

I was considering the V400 because it is a laser mouse (a lot more precise than regular optical) but in the end the Bluetooth did it for me. I was surprised how few Bluetooth mice exists, and how it is really hard to find one here in Adelaide. But I have my mouse, so it's all good. And I love it. The guy at the GetRight store said he uses the same mouse at home. But, I find that a lot of sales people always use the thing you are looking at buying. Maybe they do. Or maybe they used to until the upgraded. Or maybe they just want you to buy it. But, it worked either way. And I like it, so it's all good!

What happened in Sydney stays in Sydney

2006-06-19T14:59:00.000+09:30

Except that i am revealing it all here on my Blog....

So, the Sydney trip. It all seems like so long ago now. Probably because it was! It's a week today sicne the last activity! But Oh well. It will be even longer ago by the time i finish this, and people eventually read it!

So, the trip over. We were meeting at the Rice's at 2:00 I think. Dane finished Uni early and came to my place about 11:30 I think, and we got some stuff organised while I finished packing. Dane made up a table to keep track of our expenses, which was realy useful, and allowed us to keep our expenses under $150 each for the whole weekend. It ended up being a bit late by the time we all got to Sarah's but that's ok. We still left by about 3:30 or so as I recall. It was her car, so Sarah took the first shift driving. We almost died at the bottom of Moules Road, when Sarah tried to do a U-turn on St.Bernard's. But we survived, and somehow she got us safely to Renmark.

Peter took over driving after that, and we pulled into the Caravan park in Hay at about 11:30. It was pretty dark. But Peter did a good job on the night driving. Our cabin at the caravan park was pretty small. But it had two "sleeping areas" and so it was good enough for us. Peter took a video of it, which you should hopefully be able to enjoy below, so you can all enjoy our accomodation with us! I somehow scored the very top bunk! I think the audio is a bit out of sync, not too sure why. Dodgy YouTube....

We took off as early as we could in the morning, I think it was about 8:00. The reception didn't open before that, and we had to pay. Peter Dane and I hadto pay extra for bedding too, since we hadn't brought sleeping bags to save room in the boot of the car. But it was a pretty cheap night's sleep: $16 for the girls, and an extra $7.50 for us, I think.

Dane took the first shift driving, and got us to Gundaggai. Yes, we busted out "On the road to Gundaggai" a couple of times. It's too bad I don't know how to spell it! We had lunch there, and then Steph took over. We all fell asleep, and she got us safely to Sydney. Unfortunately the exit I wanted to take off of the M2 didn't exist, and then we missed the next exit, but it was still pretty easy to find where we were staying - with Justin and Ryan Osmotherly (ok, I have no idea how to spell that!) in Epping. The girls were staying with a bunch of YSA girls just down the street.

Friday night there was due to be a Bonfire, but it was raining, so we all went to the Krok's mansion. It was a good night of Pool playing, TV watching, Pizza eating and meeting new people. It was cool, and their house was big! Interestign side note: their son (I think Matt) was the kid on "Hey, Dad!" and the Sorbent ads all those years ago.

We left pretty late, coz we were relying on Justin to show us the way home and he's the Stake YSA rep, so he was staying to the end. Conveniently, his Girlfriend is the female rep. And they make a cute couple....

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to go the the temple. That was nice, we hadn't been to the Sydney temple in years! After we were there we had pancakes for breakfast just down the carpark by the church office buildings. They had this weird Sydney combination of stuff to put on them: Whipped cream and Golden Syrup. But it actually tasted really good! We then played this weird game called "War". I won't try and explain it. It was ok, but once was enough. So I wasn't excited when we played it again on Monday night at the Family Home Evening at the Owen's. Especially since it doesn't scale well to huge groups. It was ok with 20 at the temple, but 50 at FHE was too much.

Satruday afternoon nothing was planned, so I went to Callie and Blair's place with Luke and Jerusha. Blair's parents and his brother Nick and his wife Sarah were there too. And I got to meet my niece Lady for the first time! We hung out, had lunch and then Callie and Blair took me shopping. It's like it's their favourite thing to do or something!

Saturday night was the cruise/dance. That was a lot of fun. The boat wasn't really big, but it was just the right size for the number of people that came. I'm not going to try and guess how many that was though! Our Adelaide group spent a lot of the night hanging out with Phil Benallack (an old Adelaidean himself, who I never knew before) Isy Murphy (Blair's younger sister) and Carolin from Germany. They're all really cool and it was a fun night. It was cold and raining outside (and we even spend a good amount of time otuside on the roof) but it was really, really warm inside.

Sunday we had a good rest in the morning, and then went to Dural ward - Phil and Isy's ward. Callie and Blair were also visiting, coz it was ward conference. it was really good. A few people somehow recognised me as Luke's brother. I dunno....But it was a good ward to visit, I enjoyed it. We even saw Brett Wilmott, who just moved out of our ward less than a month ago!

After church, we rushed off down to Mortdale chapel for the Fireside with Elder Scott. It took about an hour to get there, and it was starting at 5:30. Church finished at 4:00. We were in a bit of a convoy, with Tace Krok leading the way. Phil and Isy were in another car, and then this other random car cut infront of us too. We ended up being 4th in the convoy, and got stuck at some traffic lights. Fortunately Phil had my mobile number. Isy got my number off Phil and called me (which is how I got her number - my only number for the weekend ;)) and together with my really really old street directory, we got there in time. There were a lot of YSA there. And Elder Scott gave a really good talk about getting married and making good decisions and stuff. It was so good it actually got me excited to actually do stuff, and I even went on a bit of a date a couple of days after gettign back! Yay me!

I saw Sam Pickford there too which was really cool. I hadn't seen him since he got home, coz he was in Adelaide for like one day, and then ran off to Bathurst. He's a good kid, I really like him.

Since the fireside was over by 7:00, we stayed around at the chapel for a while, packed up all the chairs (there were a lot. The chapel was just like Modbury, and the whole hall and stage were packed. And the chairs were heavier (and more comfortable) than the ones we have here), and met a few people. Sarah and Peter were in fine form getting numbers and email addresses or something....But anyway, we still got home by like 9:30 or so I think. The night was young, and so we ate, and ate, and were all crazy all night. It was cool. The girls left sometime just after midnight I think, and then we guys stayed up and chatted for another while. I don't even remember what it was really about. Well, it was about girls. But I don't remember much of what was said.

We slept in again on Monday, and called Phil to see what they were up to. We went to Phil's and had waffles for breakfast/lunch. They were good. Nice work Phil and Isy! Carolin was there too, and Isy's bf, Craig. I think....Phil and Dane wanted to go to the beach. It was a pretty nice day. So we did. No one knew how to get to Bondi (don't look at me...I'm from Adelaide!) so we went to Dee Why, which was a really nice beach. Dan and Phil went swimming (with their shirts off!!!), I went with them for a run (they put their shirts on) Andwe all had a good time. We even took some random photos...

That night was the FHE at the Owen's place. He's a councillor in the Stake Pres'cy, and was at almost all the activities. Callie lived with them for a few months before she got married. They're a really nice couple! it was a good night. Sarah got propsed to by this really tall guy called Peter. More on that later. Heim taught a good lesson about....service, as I recall. It was a fun night. AND, we found out that the random car that cut in front of us on Sunday night was a bunch of polynesion girls going to the firside, and they were HOPING that we would be left behind at traffic lights. Grrr...They were really funny though!

We left kinda late (But it's ok, we ha tosay good bye to everyone!) and that's when I got to drive for the first time all trip! We had to go past Callie's place on the way home ot pick up some DVDs for mum. The we dropped in at the temple to get a coupld or photos (They were ok) and then went home to sleep. We were getting up early Tuesday morning to get everythign finished up and aacked up and were hoping to be on the road by 7:00. Before that, Dane and I had the job of getting some chocolates for our hosts, and picking the girls up from their place. We did everything pretty well i nthe morning, and were on the road by 7:30. It was a fair effort. And I got first shift of driving. It was cool. Everyone wanted to drive, and we were always making jokes "hey I need to go to the bathroom. And since we're stopping, we might as well change driver" or "ok, your half hour is up!". Or something. I drove to Gundaggai (Which I still don't know how to spell) where we had a bit of a pre-lunch snack. Then Steph drove. And....everyone fell asleep again! She drove all the way to Balranald, (Bah! I can't spell that either!) where we ate some real food. Late lunch or early dinner or something. Dane got us back to Renmark, and feeling safe back in SA again, Peter took us home. The night driver again!

We pulled in to the Rice's a bit after 11:00, maybe close to 11:30. Peter stayed at mine, Steph stayed at Sarah's. Dane went home. it was good. Peter slept in really late!!

Song of the trip: So Sick, by Ne-Yo
Saying of the trip: There's a bit of truth in every joke.
Story of the trip: Sarah and the giant Peter! He is actually here in Adelaide now. For Sarah. And he drove all night to get here. I don't want to say too much about what I think of it in this public forum though. But yeah. He's here. So, I think there was some truth behind that propsal joke. From one side at least. but Sarah will be on her mission soon. and I think I'll miss her. Maybe even enough to write to her once or twice!

Anyway, that was Sydney. I'll get around to posting photos and maybe a video or two sometime! But that's all for now!

Dallin

Home again, home again!

2006-06-15T00:00:00.000+09:30

Hey Everyone (both of you!)

Just so you know, We all made it home safely from Sydney. We had a great time, and met a bunch of cool people, it was great. But I'm glad to be back in Adelaide. I'll write up a decent entry about what we did some other time. But it was great.

SYDNEY!!!!

2006-06-07T17:51:00.000+09:30

Hey look, I used all caps in the title, and added a whole bunch of extra exclamation marks. That makes me ultra cool....

So, tomorrow (Thurs) we're going to Sydney. It's going to be an interesting drive, 5 people packed in. I think it's me, Dane, Peter Watt, Sarah Rice and Steph McC. Should be a really good trip though, there are some cool activities planned for the YSA this weekend. Elder Richard G. Scott is going to be there live for the fireside on Sunday! Awesome!

It's also going to be great catching up with family over there. I'll get to see my cute little niece for the first time. And I haven't seen Luke, Jerusha, Callie and Blair since Christmas. So it'll be cool to catch up with them all.

But, I guess that means I probably won't be around much over the weekend. So, don't wait up for me on MSN, or expect any emails. I don't even know when we'll be back actually....Wednesday night at the latest I think, certainly in time for institute.

So, everyone else, enjoy your long weekend. I'll catchya later.

Dallin

Dang Pressure from the Internet Community!

2006-06-04T23:53:00.000+09:30

So! I have a blog. YAY!! Can you feel my excitement?

That's good, coz I can't....

Anyway, I have said for a long time that I like the concept of a blog, which is certainly true. A public opportunity to voice thoughts and opinions and stuff, where people can give comments in reply. Brilliant!

My problems with it:

What to say.
Who would read it.
Saying stuff in public that I would rather keep private.
making my boring thoughts compact, readable and understandable.

But you know what? I don't care....The wonerfl thing about the digital age, is that if I don't like it, I can delete it. Or, just not update it. And when people complain, I can ignore them...."What, email? Nope, never got it." Or "Nah, MSN was't working properly, didn't get your message at all!" Or, the best one of all "You can't see my newest post? Must be something wrong with the site..."

Unfortunately, I refused to go with MSNSpaces, so I can't really blame Microsoft....

See what I mean about going on forever about nothing? The sum total of this post is nothing. But it is really long. That is how I am. I can't help myself. So, I pity you, my poor readers. Maybe one day I'll change. or something....