Finalizing

Well I am notorious for my lack of ability to decide what I want in my life, but today I made a decision to go for it.  So I am going to be applying to Utah State and University of Utah to a couple of programs at each one and I will see who accepts me and where I go from there.  I guess I am at the point of deciding my path and we will see which way I go.

Picking a path

Well here I am again and what to say.  I find life can be a very interesting endeavor when you get to a crossroads and have to come up with the next move.  I just got confirmation earlier today that I passed my math exit exam so all I have to do is finish 2 weeks of class and some "finals" and I am done.  Then what?... That is the real question I will have finished my Bachelor's degree in Mathematics with a physics minor, but what does that give me?  I don't really know.  I need to find some kind of job to support my family I will be losing the employment I have had at SUU and I need to decide where I am going and if we are leaving Cedar if we want to move sooner than later and look for jobs where we are heading.  Big questions and hopefully I will get some kind of answers in the next few weeks so I can at least point myself in the right direction if anyone has ideas I am open to suggestions.  Well good luck to all of us.

I think I got a bonus

Well I looked at my bank account earlier today and I got more money from the school district than usual so I am suspecting it might have been a christmas bonus.  I got one last year so it will be neat if we got them this year as well.  i have been working a lot on shoving money into savings as soon as I get it so that I can keep it protected from frivolous spending.  Jane and I have been doing pretty well with savings during our marriage and I have found that walking can save quite a bit of money.  I walk most everywhere I go during the week and it has made a visible difference at multiple points.  Well have a nice week and have fun with holidays.  Happy Thanksgiving

Thinking of Starting a Poll

I have decided that the best way to decide what I am going to do after graduation might be just to ask for suggestions, so I am opening it up to all of you to suggest the perfect profession or course of action.  Please comment on this post I need all the input I can get. Comical or serious responses will both be accepted (within reason).

On top

I actually am on top of things for the most part right now and it feels good to be there.  I got done with the grading I had to do and for the rest of the semester I mostly have to prepare a few lectures in Physics and do a couple of assignments.  I will have to do work stuff of course, but a lot of the looming stuff is done now.  Well that is my update for the day.

Gratitiude

Last night I was flipping through the Friend (we decided to use it for FHE) and noticed that there were several articles about being thankful, fitting for the month of Thanksgiving. I am grateful for a lot of things lately these last few days have been good ones.  I am getting ahead on some of my stuff that I am doing this week is going to be one of the last big weeks for this semester.  I am grateful that I am almost done with school even with the problems of planning that that brings on.  Veterans day passed this last Sunday and gratitude for what has been done for freedom of this country should be something no one ever forgets.  Things are going well though and those that aren't great are at least looking up.  Hagoda All

I can almost see the end

I am almost to the point of being able to see the end of the semester and goodness it is nice. I am grateful that I am down to one paper and presentation in one of my classes and the other class that actually has homework I have a presentation/lesson today and then a couple of one page article summaries due next week. Other than those two classes I am down to giving a couple of lectures every week for physics and next week for intermediate algebra. I am almost done though and grateful for it. Well, good luck to others that are in school with the last month or so and to those not in school be grateful you don't have finals coming up.

Keeping up appearances

Well here I am on a Saturday at my mom's house I have to try and control myself so I can get through some work today.  I set a deadline for myself to finish a spreadsheet I am working on for a Family literacy program in town called Even Start.  It shouldn't be too hard if I can just make myself focus long enough to get through it.  I guess we will see.  I also have some other work I should probably be doing this weekend, but 1 thing at a time.  I found a crazy link yesterday check this out.

Here I am again

Just sitting in Physics listening to Prof. Sorensen go over a test that the class had yesterday.  I was getting antsy so I thought I would write.  Life is going quite well lately I go the newest Mac OS and it has fun to use.  School is getting closer to being over and I am glad for it.  My weekend is going to be busy because I set myself a deadline on some project I need to finish.  Oh well, I should have a busy weekend once in awhile and it will let me get some stuff out of the way.  I am still trying to figure out what in the world I am doing after I graduate, but I guess that is life.  Good luck to everyone.
SuperGuy Out

Math Trick Disillusionment

Here is a math trick with fairly common structure, after the trick I will proceed to explain the math behind it. So if you don't want to have the trick be demystified don't read after it.


YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH 

It takes less than a minute.
Work this out as you read. Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out! This is not one of those waste of time things; it's fun.


1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat (more than once but less than 10)


2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)


3. Add 5


4. Multiply it by 50 


5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757 ... If you haven't, add 1756


6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born 

You should have a three digit number.

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week) The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

I am going to use some algebraic notation for this it shouldn't be too hare to follow. Let's say x=the number you picked in step 1, b=your birth year, and r=result of all the steps.

The problem can be written as
50*(2*x+5)+1757-b=r or if you haven't had your birthday yet 50*(2*x+5)+1756-b=r

it turns out that by simplifying the equations above we get

100x +2007-b=r and 100x+2006-b=r

Looking at the first equation we see the 2007-b this is in fact your age or if you have not had a birthday we subtract 2006.
So we have your age and assuming it is less than 100 we simply add on 100 times your original choice so it ends up in front of your age in the finally calculation.

Interesting to note this trick only works for this year next year the 1757 and 1756 will both need to increase by one. I hope someone else found this at least remotely interesting.

Have a good one

GRE fun and Referendumb 1

I have just been very opinionated on a few things lately not something that happens often, but when people decide to mail me papers with Hilary Clinton and Al Gore on them I draw the line.  Vouchers and the whole debate took a dive at the polls and the state legislature and governor should be saying "Oops, seems we don't know what our citizens want"  I don't know that I truly have a well informed opinion on the voucher issue, but there were definitely flaws in some of the arguments for them and the holes were glaring.  Sorry just had to get that out.  As for the GRE fun in my title I was supposed to take the GRE Physics test last Saturday and the testers dropped the ball and no one was there when we (6 of us) showed up for the test.  I don't really need the test so I am trying to get a refund, but the testing company is being a little difficult or at least it feels that way.  I called I believe Monday or Tuesday and then Wednesday to try and request the refund. I was told Wednesday to fax a written statement that I did not want to retest.  Come today (Thursday) I was contacted by one of the test proctors and told that the person in charge of handling the case wanted me to submit in writing my rationale for getting a refund.  The big problem here was and is that I still don't know if that was in addition to the original email my assumption was that it was and my goodness I don't appreciate that.  My rationale is that there was a breach of contract and I simply want my money back. I wondered if I was being irrational, so I asked opinion of my supervisor at the SUU tutoring center and she backed my opinion so I felt a little better.  I hope that this doesn't cause too many problems, but it did cause at least a little undue stress.   Blahhh

Crisis

It was interesting to learn about the word crisis on my mission and it applies perfectly to where I am at right now in my life. crisis |ˈkrīsis|
noun ( pl. -ses |-ˌsēz|)
a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger : the current economic crisis | a family in crisis | a crisis of semiliteracy among high school graduates.
• a time when a difficult or important decision must be made : [as adj. ] a crisis point of history.
• the turning point of a disease when an important change takes place, indicating either recovery or death.
• the point in a play or story when a crucial conflict takes place, determining the outcome of the plot.

The main definition I had then related to a turning point or fork in the road. A point at which the continuance of a course is in question. We get to a point where our course seems to need alteration and our nature is often one of enjoying comfortable feelings and needing to alter course is often if not always uncomfortable.

Just a little more of my ranting and trying to settle my mind. I have ideas and they seem good, but nothing feels solid to me right now. To much shifting sand.

What Now? (Super Guy's Rant)

Well, as some may know I am preparing for my last semester at SUU. I only have one complication and that is to figure out what in the heck I am going to do after that. I am considering a few options, but none of them is overpowering and I hate the feeling I get when it comes to these points in my life. It is like going to Dairy Queen and wanting a blizzard but not having a favorite flavor. I find myself looking at the options and none seems to stand out, so I end up running around in circles and just wondering what I want. Our fast this sunday is for a better understanding of what to do. I am grateful to actually have a major and a good solid graduation outlook but beyond that I really don't know what is going to happen. Just so you have some idea of the options I am facing the main 2 branches are "get a job" or "grad school" each of those has several options as well so that is only the beginning. I am mostly covering my bases right now and hopefully by the time deadlines start showing up I will be ready to jump on them. I just remembered something else that is a little bit annoying about all this "You can be anything you want to be" that is just the problem people have told me that all my life, but that contains the problem in itself "want" that is the problem I don't "want" to be anything in particular. I have only been able to eliminate things that I don't want or things that I don't feel are the right decision for me. I had the opportunity to go through the seminary teaching classes this last year in institute and although it was something I had wanted it didn't quite feel like the path I am supposed to take so I got put back to square one in some ways. Well, I guess that does it for my freaking out.

Keeping a little more up to date

I don't have much of a stand to make or a commentary to create about anything but yet I am still blogging, kind of strange actually. I guess I could find some soapbox or cause to take up, but I don't have a whole lot to say. Life is pretty good. I have a great wife and a beautiful little baby girl that just keeps getting cuter and cuter. I am going into my last semester of undergraduate work in the fall and then from there who knows, but I have a little more hope than usual that things are going to look up. I am getting some skills for after graduation just to make sure I can get something in the work force either as a career path or to help sustain me through graduate school. Things are good and I guess I just have to keep telling myself to go forward.

Information Overload

I am just one of those guys that is trying to make something of his life and honestly it is pretty crazy out here. I am recently married with a 6 month old daughter. I am trying to finish off my bachelor's degree and then what?? Who knows I would like to go on to graduate school but if I do am I going to be able to take care of my family, not to mention the issues of health insurance, thinking about getting a house and all kinds of other things. It almost seems a better way to go about life would be to get a job and get on with life but it is all too much for me and I wish I knew what I should do. All this comes to a crashing problem during the summer especially this one since I have only one of my part time jobs and I am trying to look at finances and other pieces of out situation. I have thought about other things I might be able to do to get some money "on the side" but lets just say that I am not a business man and although I feel I am quite skillful in many areas I have no idea how to get the positions I might qualify for more importantly I don't know how to find them in the first place. Well, I just feel a little lost sometimes and feel like the information may be available but I am drowning in the fluff trying to find what I am really wanting.

Renaissance man

Well, I am getting a few new skills under my belt this summer so I can be grateful for that although I am working less with school being out. I hope to be able to get some money from a small business venture I am starting up. My daughter Gwendolyn is really cute and my wife and I love her a lot. It can be rough having a baby sometimes but fun none the less, especially when she is smiley. I have been thinking of different ways to make some money during the summer and I have a wide variety of skills and abilities I just need to be able to implement them for a profit now. I'm sure I will figure something out. Here is a picture of our little Gwen.