Link
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!
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
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
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
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!
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
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!
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!
