Fame

This is just about the most amazing thing I've ever seen:

MLH's blog

Gregory Mankiw's blog

She's famous!!!

I can do it on my own

Please note:

b n b n b n

Do you see how they work? It because I fixed it.

For the last few days, my spacebar, b, and n have been tempermental, only working about 20% of the time. I tried to be patient with them, hoping that they might repent of their ways and return; I learned the alt-codes for b, n, B, and N, which make typing a little tedious but I was working with it. Thursday I gave up and replaced them. (I'm going to be a great church leader someday.)

I chatted with Kiran from Dell who didn't get any of my jokes, but did send me a replacement keyboard.

Last night, I got to gut my laptop in order to replace the keyboard myself. I was very brave. It's a little intimidating to peel back sections of one of the most expensive things that you own when the pieces that are supposed to snap out of place feel like they are probably just going to snap in general.

Now it's all better though and I can write about all sorts of things that are more than one word long.

The cat is out

So I've officially submitted the hatred post below to the campus newspaper and it's been printed today. I'm also currently typing this from the BYU Democrats booth. I usually try to hide my political leanings from strangers (I make more friends this way), but I seem to be pulling out all the stops these days. The next thing you know, I might buy one of these Democrat t-shirts and wear it around campus or participate in an eco-terrorism rally.

You know that feeling when you buy new clothes and wear them to school for the first time and you are a little self-conscious about it. It's a little like that.

So far, no one has disowned me.

But the day is still young.

Hatred Awareness

I just noticed a "Radical Islamic Terrorist Awareness Week" poster in one of the buildings on campus that is in part sponsored by the BYU Republicans. I think that it is great of them to occasionally remind us of the people that we are supposed to hate and fear. Otherwise I may have forgotten and, as a result, been kind to the Muslim people that I know.

While we are at it, I thought that it would be a great idea to start other sorts of similar weeks:
Columbian Drug-dealer Awareness Week
Thieving Mexican Awareness Week
Violent African Awareness Week
Lazy Poor-people Awareness Week
Communist Unpatriotic Democrat Awareness Week

Where's McCarthy when you need him?

Language

I recently had an English assignment where we were supposed to find a letter to the editor that we agreed with and disagree with it. Here was mine:

"On February 5, 2008, Gary Hatch published a letter to the editor of the Daily Universe condemning the verbage of Senator Chris Buttars, who referred to a bill that he didn't like as "dark." Have we become so sensitive as a people that we can't say a thing without someone accusing us of racial hatred?

"As I sit here typing this response, my screen is a little dark because I don't want it to run out of batteries. By that, I mean I decreased my screen's luminescence.

"I went to bed early last night because the film my roommates were watching was a little too dark for my tastes. I mean it wasn't as light-hearted as I would have liked it be.

"I recently made a batch of cookies, but they didn't turn out well. They were a little dark. I mean they were not quite burnt but more well-done than I usually prefer to eat. But this is not because I don't like non-Caucasian people. Had there been one there, I would've given him or her one of my cookies. Except for the fact that they were a little da. . . I mean, burnt.

"In an effort to avoid offending a small minority of hypersensitive extremists, it seems we often have to tiptoe around language, and sometimes it's quite a detour. Since when have special interest groups hijacked freedom of speech?

"In short, perhaps we all need to learn to not take offense to the smallest turn of phrase. People usually aren't out to get you."

I thought it was one of the most offensive things that I had ever written. Unfortunately, I had a few people respond to this post saying that I made a few good points. I was shocked! Rather than leave a legacy of racial hatred behind me, I decided to write this as a response and hopefully partially redeem myself:

"While it is one thing to say that it is dark outside, it is another to call an immigration bill "dark and ugly," and make pretty direct reference to a tar baby. (I left out the other part to help strengthen my argument.)

"Even if this comment weren't supposed to be a racial reference, I believe that we should be careful about what we say. I think that part of becoming a "perfect man" by taming our tongue, as James says, is by knowing when it is appropriate to use certain language. I think that "speaking with the tongue of angels," like in the talk by Elder Holland, is learning to respect others through our language.

"I had a friend in high school from England who let out an occasional 'damn' and 'hell.' He would claim that because it didn't mean anything to him, it was OK. I explained to him, however, that we should be careful with our words, not because of what they mean to us, but because of what they mean to others.

"While perhaps we all could learn to not be offended, I think that it is yet more noble to learn to not offend."

Deon Turley is blogging

Here is a link to Deon Turley's blog. She is great.

Clutter Therapy

I was looking my friends blog tonight and came across a post of him lamenting over the impermanent nature of the cleanliness of his room. I chuckled to myself, realizing that I gave up the battle of permanence long ago.

Don't get me wrong though: I am a generally clean person. I like having a clean room and an uncluttered desk; however, I know that when life gets cluttered itself, a clean desk comes after passing my classes and sleeping at night on my list of priorities.

Actually, I think there is something deeply meaningful about a messy room. I’ve recently noticed the the state of my desk parallels the state of my life; when I notice that my desk is getting too cluttered to do anything useful with it, it’s time for a change. (On my desk and in my life.)

If my room were consistently clean, then I’d have no way to tell that my life is a clutter. I would be unknowingly simmering in stressful living and wouldn’t think to get out until I ended up spontaneously bursting into tears of frustration in the JFSB Quad someday.

And furthermore, I think that using psychology to justify my bad habits is among the most genius ideas ever!