Tribute to my New Friends

You know your life is boring when you talk to an old friend after, oh, six months and you have nothing new to report, nothing has changed... still studying.... still working... Well, now that summer is here without school, I've been trying to catch up with old friends. I've also been trying to make new friends. I'm sure Rob gets sick of me telling him how hard it is to make friends once you're married. I don't know if any of you other girls feel the same way--it might just be me. I now somewhat understand how hard it is for a guy to ask a girl out the first time. Every time I meet someone who I think would be fun to hang out with I'm always asking Rob, 'how long should I wait before I call?' or 'should we just do dinner and a movie?' Either way, I found the easiest way to make new friends is to just steal his. So to all of you who may not know these people, here are some of my new friends.








This is Amber, her and Rob have been friends since they were like 3 years old. She's like a girl version of Rob. Rob and I talk A LOT, and we like to discuss different points of view on different issues. Because Rob is going to law school, he always has the better argument. Amber is currently in law school, and whenever I want to win an argument, I call her. Amber is totally my role model. She is going to law school, working, and has 2 kids. I have no idea how she can do it as I can barely keep my two dogs alive. Plus, she's super tough. She's been through a lot and I love her attitude about life. She doesn't take crap from anyone. Unfortunately, she lives in Arizona and probably will for a long time. Who knows? Maybe Rob will go to law school in Arizona. As much as I hate how hot it is down there, it'd be way fun to live next to Amber and her family!





This is Mariah. So she wasn't Rob's friend before she was mine, but her husband Doug has been friends with Rob for a long time. So Rob and I just decided that she's my new fashion consultant. She always dresses so nice and looks so cute....while going to grad school and working. That's harder than it looks. At her wedding I remember her dad saying that she got a job when she was 16 at Dairy Queen or something just so she could buy clothes. This is great for me because before I got married, I never knew how to dress and never liked shopping. Her and Doug are currently in San Francisco for the summer. Before they left we went shopping. I only got a couple of things, but Rob loves them. He says I need to hang out with Mariah more often. Aside from her fashion sense, she's really fun to hang out with. I'm so glad she is at BYU with me. She brings some sanity into my world of grad school!

Well-- I'm out, I hope I can post more. This whole blogging thing can be difficult. I know how to use computers, but I'm pretty sure a 2nd grader can blog better than me.

Oh and just a side note to Rob's latest blog-- Regis and Kelly are incorrect about living to 140. They are extrapolating the data they have as no one has ever lived to be 140 (except for Moses). But that's okay eh? You always say it'd be better to die young!

Rob's Feigned Graduation

Wow, So it's been a long time, eh? Yeah. It's ironic how much extra time you are supposed to have in the summer, and yet how little time you end up having. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we really have no excuse for the lack of posts, other than the old adage 'Where did all the time go?'. The real benefit to this situation is the fact that we've had a lot happening over the summer, we've been more diligent in taking pictures, and my memory seems to still be functioning for the past couple months. I hope this is an equation which equals out to many posts to come that are interesting, not just what I'm feeling/pondering for a given day (although I'm sure those could be interesting too!).

So I graduated...well, sort of. The proof:

I think I've probably said that 100 times so far since May. It is my feeble attempt to describe the ever morphing situation that is my life. My schoolings has become an ongoing affair with a fleeting mistress.

Case in point.
#1: I have a letter from my department which I use to gain employment that states 'Robert has completed all the requirements necessary to be awarded a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering'. No degree awarded yet due to my involvement with the combined BS/MS program.

#2: I have pictures from a graduation ceremony in which I was walking with my fellow BS/MS students for the completion of said degrees. However, no ground up tree pulp as of yet garnishes my wall. Blasted parsley at the Cheesecake Factory mocking me on my plate... :-) Seems I have a knack for unfinished finished things. A status update, to date, I have finished all my BS requirements, all my MS coursework, billed the minimum required number of thesis hours, but am aforementioned thesis short of completing my MS. I will be done with this in the Fall and thus will be officially given my wall decor December of 2008.

#3: I have way too many classes...interesting predicament to have, eh? What does having around 215 hours at a university give you after you've completed your MS? Answer, you are one course away from a PhD in course load....oh and that pesky thing called a dissertation. If you take the cope out road....like I probably will, you are awarded the silver medal, i.e. an Mphil. A masters of philosophy in Mechanical Engineering. A PhD minus the dissertation component. So worst case, I'll have that May of 2009, but my profs would like me to take a hiatus for law school and work on the dissertation during my summer and Christmas breaks.... Comments? Don't know that I really want that, but it won't increase the number of years of school I have since I'll have it done in a couple summers.

One thought I've had about all this is that I think it's a father-son thing. I've learned that I'm genetically predispositioned toward education. My Dad places a high value on education. Not just at a university, but in everyday life. He is probably the oldest guy at all the conventions, the only guy I know that asks for textbooks for Father's Day, and that goes jeeping in Moab and takes his geology textbook to look at rocks.

I think that's why I'm in no hurry to start my life long career and terminate this lifestyle as a student. Lucky for me I've got the wife that agrees. She supports my hippie views on life and what it's really about. It also helps that she's smoking hot...lucky, I know.

Happy Anniversary Babe :-)

Just as a clarification, for those of you that think I sound disgruntled at all, you are sorely mistaken. I'm a cynical person, I've learned to accept that. I love my life, my wife, and my school....ife. I'm excited for the future, but not overly in a hurry to get there. Why bother, according to Regis and Kelly I'm going to live to be 140 years old....

Don't forget to celebrate!

Random Old

Okay, so I've decided to post some old miscellaneous stuff just to get caught up. Actually, it has been quite awhile since I've posted and thought that my faithful 3 readers deserved an update. funny. So it must have been a month and a half now, but we went to have dinner at Cyndi's apartment at BYU. WOW, that is a whole different kind of experience, kididng, kind of. Afterwards, we went to Rachel's grandma's care home to have a visit. I've never met Grandma Jolley, so it was good times.

I think you can see the family resemblance, right? I thought I could. She was really fun.

Rachel had never had the 'bright flash of light burning image' experience, so I thought I would enlighten her. For those of you who don't know what I mean. At night, turn off all the lights in the bedroom and close the blinds. It needs to be pitch black. Then, simply use a camera, with the flash turned on, making sure that no light at all is visible and take a picture of your own face with a funny face. If the other person is looking right at you, they should be able to see an imprint of your face with or without their eyes closed for a couple seconds. I'm sure it's probably not good for you, but tons o' fun when your bored. Anyway, I got a little carried away and started doing it to the dogs.....

I only wish I knew whether or not they were frightened by my funny face being burned into their retnas!

The Boat Show

So we've gotten a little backed up on posts recently due to midterms, projects and just overall disarray I think. So, despite the fact that the boat show was in February, I thought I'd post some pictures from it. It's an annual tradition for our family to head to all sorts of different expo extravaganzas! Weird I know, but the Friday night of nearly every "show" is considered college student date night, so we can get in for really cheap. This show was actually a little disappointing since they only brought the poor man's house boats....not even one of them had granite countertops! Can you believe that? ha ha. We actually could have bypassed like 90% of the show and not missed much. Like for instance....who buys a boat that is made 100% of diamond plate steel? Or, why would I still be interested in watching the wakeboard show when all the "pros" are out skiing (per the announcers comments since it had snowed a couple feet the day before) and instead watch who is likely his little brothers. By the way, the were definitely not pros, and sad as it may seem, there wasn't even any carnage... I know, I know, that shouldn't bring me happiness....tough!

We decided to find my mom a boat for kicks, and it turns out that she is only concerned with one thing....well, maybe two, but they're related.

1) Does it have a potty?
2) If so, can you actually fit in it to do your business?

You'd be suprised how many boats have number one, but neglect number two. Hence, Corey volunteered to be the ultimate tester.... makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Not only was there boats at the boat show, but there were attack dogs as well.....yes, I said attack dogs. Well, I typed it anyway, and then retyped it just for emphasis. So as random as it sounds, we had the privilege of watching a Belgian Malaneux (really sorry pooch about misspelling your breed), which happens to be the dog they use at the prison, nearly eat his trainer alive.

Maybe he just didn't approve of the dirty Jimmy Buffet Hawaiian shirt. I guess we'll never know.
We saw boats of all shapes and kinds, some with big bows and some with little bows. Some with pretty colors and some with PLAID.... what? Yes, and it's gotta be the most expensive boat there outside of a house boat. Plaid? Really? I know it has been in and out of fashion lately, but on the side of a boat? It never ceases to amaze me what "the industry" can convince people is good looking. It's got the Mastercraft name, so you can put whatever the heck on the side of it you want and people will eat it up. Lets not think about trying to sell a plaid boat 10 years from now....ah, but there's the secret. People who buy this boat don't own it for more than 3-4 years before they get a new one. On average they will use it for family outings 3-4 times per summer. So wow, 16 trips on the water....if only my cars could be traded out every 16 trips... Anyway, forget the fact that they have a HORRIBLE maintenance record, just like Range Rovers (I reference this because I saw one no more than one year old with 5 foot flames shooting out from the hood yesterday....again) and will cost you more than what people put into a house to buy and fix for 4 years. WOW, anyway, I love capitalism, truly, I do.

I took that picture so I could warn my loved ones away from the hype that is actually the Land Rover of boats. That wonderful status symbol that says 'I care more about appearances and a name than efficiency, reliability, and financial intelligence. But I have enough money, so what the hell?' ha ha, I joke, but really, it's the best way to confuse all around you as to how you got your money in the first place. Maybe they just do it for the joke?

In the end, we picked our boat of the show. Hands down it was the winner. So we took a picture in front of it to show it off. Well, and because when we remembered we wanted a picture we happened to be standing there. :-)

We had a newcomer to the group this year. Cindy, Rachel's younger sister, occasionally needs a break from her educational institution that turns out to drive thousands to anxiety attacks annually, BYU. So, she comes and stays with us for the weekend to get her fill of normal-dom (not a word I'm sure, but I'm working on getting a couple added to the dictionary) to set her on an even keel. She seemed to enjoy it, although I think it's more fun when you realize that we're there to hang out and see some cool things and collect as many books as possible, not to look at the price tags and actually contemplate buying them.

Anyway, I have a lot to again catch up on, so hopefully I'll get a couple more posts up soon. PS, If anyone knows how to do the little collage that the pictures can expand out of so that my blogs don't have to be 7.3 miles long, I'd love to know. Thanks!

Hello

Hi y'all. I thought I'd put my two cents in since Rob has been doing all the posting. I am currently working on my Master's Degree in Statistics at BYU. It takes up most... no all... of my time. I would tell you more about it but I'll spare you the boring details. I have been going crazy with all this warm weather. I want to be outside doing something. Hopefully summer will be a nice break. Rob and I want to do a lot of camping and hiking with our dogs. We got them at the end of summer last year so we're excited to use them as an excuse to be outside more. Anyway, I don't have much more to say except thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoy, and if you are an old friend with a blog, let us know, we'd love to see what you're up to.

See ya--

A Whole New Mind

I thought that I would post some random things that I've been up to in short increments in order to increase the number of smaller posts we have as opposed to my more traditional 'once a month gigantic' post. So, the book that Rachel and I just finished reading is 'A Whole New Mind' written by Daniel Pink.

It's an interesting book, written on the premise that, although there still are careers in left-brained disciplines, with the advent of outsourcing and the overall evolution of the global marketplace, a new type of worker will find themselves successful. No longer is just engineering a good product good enough. Instead, products need to be continuously improving, customizable, and relative in order for them to maintain success. It does a good job of opening the right mind of those of us who are left brained (If you're organizationally based, numbers oriented, scientific and/or logical, that's you.....and me). At any rate, here is a link if you'd like to read an excerpt or a professional synopsis as opposed to mine.

http://www.danpink.com/aboutwnm.php
(The photo was also pulled from the same link...)

Overall, I liked it. It is extreme in a few instances and predictions, but the point of the book (I believe) is to pry open the mind of us left brained folk; therefore some extreme language is warranted. I've found it surprisingly applicable in my brief career of real world engineering experience. When I was at ATK, I found myself complaining about the higher ups and certain members of my surrounding cast because they held so fast to the archaic business model of slow and steady wins the race combined with a false belief that the status quo is fine because the numbers say so. What a gross waste of time in meetings, meaningless redundancy and illegitimate time frames existed there in my opinion.

PS.... It's everywhere in the engineering world.
PPS.... I wonder what the statistic is on how much time is wasted in corporate America annually? What does this equates to in dollars?

At any rate, this is surprisingly an easy read, and I did it in a week with my incredibly slow reading ability. He is a very good author in the fact that he writes in a very conversational tone as opposed to a formal tone so it makes for an enjoyable read.

Enjoy!

Understanding Engineers......

I found this amusing... maybe someone else will too!



Two engineering students were walking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"

The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."

The second engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
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Understanding Engineers - Take Two

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
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Understanding Engineers - Take Three

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularl y slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with those blokes? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!"

The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!"

The priest said, "Here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him."

He said, "Hello, George! What's wrong with that group ahead of us?

They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The group fell silent for a moment.

The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."

The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"
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Understanding Engineers - Take Four

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.
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Understanding Engineers - Take Five

The Graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The Graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"

The Graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"

The Graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"
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Understanding Engineers - Take Six

Three engineering students were gathered together discussing the possible designers of the human body. One said, "It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints." Another said, "No, it was an electrical engineer.

The nervous system has many thousand s of e lectrical connections." The last one said, "No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?"
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Understanding Engineers - Take Seven

Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
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Understanding Engineers - Take Eight

An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket. The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back int o a pr incess, I'll stay with you for one week and do ANYTHING you want."

Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's way cool."