If I can do it, anyone can do it...

I know that a lot of the inspiration for my blog posts comes from TV, but I'm really not a huge TV junkie. At least not in the traditional sense. I do have my shows that I follow, but mostly online, allowing me to spread me TV watching throughout the week. Anyways, enough about that.

Really what I want to talk about is something from a commercial. It was for one of those technical colleges. The poor, struggling father turned his life around by obtaining an education. A heartwarming 30 second story for sure. As a sign off and a promise, the man says, "If I can do it, anyone can do it."

While in the confines of this commercial, this optimistic statement may work. In the broader sense of the human experience, this statement is a bold faced lie. On some level, it took me a really long time to understand that just because I could do something, doesn't mean somebody else can. My extended family still tells the story of how, at a family reunion, I took a bag of tootsie rolls and proceeded to sculpt little dinosaurs out of the pliable chocolate deliciousness. I thought it was no big deal. Sculpting a dinosaur out of pretty much anything has always come naturally to me. Because the process was so easy for me, I just assumed that everyone would find it equally easy. The fact of the matter is, not everybody can grab a bag of candy and turn it into a scene from the Jurassic Period. Dare I say, few people can. It wasn't until much later that I realized this fact. There are several things that I can do that not many people can.

This whole concept seemed to crystallize when my younger brother started attending college in the town next to where I was attending college. He is majoring in Theater Education or Technical Theater, or some combination of the two. Anyway, one day when we were driving, it dawned on me that he probably knew as much about theater as I knew about geology. Suddenly, a college became and incredible place. Everybody there knows so much about their chosen field of study. It really boggles the mind. My roommate, Scott, knows more about first aid and human anatomy than I will probably learn in ten lifetimes. It is incredible to me that there are so many people who know so much.

Simply put, just because Zach can stage manage a play and Scott can save the life of a bleeding bike accident victim certainly doesn't mean that I can. But I doubt that they could snag a couple tootsie rolls and turn them into a T-Rex.

Grandma's internet connection is still keeping me down, so no pictures yet. I'm still working on it.

Update on Life

It's Thursday, and Thursday is blog day, when I'm not busy... I figured since it has been a while, I could just give an update on what is going on in my life. I am doing alright, no major complaints. Living in Grandma's basement was never a dream of mine, but I am glad that I am able to help her with things, and she cooks me healthy meals, so I guess it works out. 

Living with an elderly person kinda makes me feel like a superhero. I can lift things that are too heavy, I can reach things that are too high up, I can make the computer obey my wishes. Grandma seems to appreciate the help, and it doesn't cost me anything to help somebody out. Grandma has started loaning out my super powers to other elderly people in the neighborhood. I go over and help her neighbor at least once a week. This last week I was over there helping her clean up after she accidentally set her kitchen on fire. I could reach all the high places to help get rid of the soot. Heck, I even got $25 out of the deal, so I'm not complaining. Exactly how the lady across the street manage to set her kitchen on fire remains a bit of a mystery to me. She said that she left some bacon cooking on the stove then left and went to the bathroom and when she got back, her drapes were on fire. The bacon grease must have been shooting pretty far to reach from the stovetop to the window. But sure enough, the scorch marks on the ceiling patterned up and away from the window (I've been watching a lot of crime TV, especially Bones, so I feel legit when I say stuff like that). 

On Labor Day, I took Grandma to the dollar theater to see How To Train Your Dragon. It's a pretty good flick, and given the crap that is in the regular theaters, it seemed like a good choice. Grandma seemed to enjoy it, the parts she was awake for anyway... After the movie we hit up the Pier 49 for pizza. I think it's been a while since grandma enjoyed a nice slice of pizza, but she enjoyed it and it was nice to get out of the house. Nice for her and nice for me.

Yesterday I decided that if I am going to stay in grandma's basement, I might as well resurrect other aspects of my childhood. In this spirit, I went off to the zoo! I still love the zoo. It has changed so much from when I used to go with my grandpa when I was 4. I still remember where everything used to be. But the changes are good, for the most part. I miss the seals, and the part with the polar bears and the penguins was closed for construction. But man, have they done a good job fixing up the place. The elephant/rhino enclosure is awesome, the new highlands of Asia exhibit is fantastic, and the old standbys like discovery land and the small animal house still look good. I was able to take a ton of pictures. It was a really nice way to spend an afternoon. My favorite picture I took is this one of the tiger.

So Grandma's internet hasn't been working too well since yesterday, I don't know what the problem is. So for now, no awesome tiger picture unless you go to the web album. I'll try to fix it in the near future...


For more pictures from the Zoo, just click here to link to my web album.

Moving On Up

I guess the moving bug is going around, school is starting again and people are off about the country. I myself moved up to East Millcreek in Salt Lake City. The move wasn't too traumatic, though my spine may never be the same again. I only own one major piece of furniture, but that one piece happens to be a credenza that weighs enough to be made of gold. In fact, my friend Brady, who helped me move, decided that Chris Lambson and the Credenza of Gold would be a good movie. It took three of us to lug that thing around, and not one of us liked it. But the credenza is awesome. It's painted black and red and really comes in handy to store all the other stuff I have. Enough stuff to fill two Jeep Grand Cherokees with the rear seats folded down. I have a lot of stuff, especially for a single guy. And as a geologist, I am obligated to have a few boxes full of nothing but rocks. I felt like I should get my friends t-shirts that said, "I survived helping a geologist move," or something like that. It was quite a production and left me exhausted for days afterward.

My new home is the same as my old old old home. By that I mean that I am living where I lived when I was 4 years old, my Grandma's basement. It is taking a little bit of getting used to, I've had to move things around down here and what not, but it's not too bad. The biggest thing to overcome is the low low ceiling. If I'm not careful when I walk out of my room, the ceiling will catch me right in the eyebrow. Next time you see me, I may have either a black eye from walking into the ceiling, or a hunchback from crouching below it. Only time will tell.

So yeah, we'll see how things go from here. I am still busily looking for a job. I've decided to attend the singles ward here in the area, so Sunday will be my first chance to go. Hopefully it will be a fun ward and I'll be able to make friends and get out and do stuff. Not that hanging out in my Grandma's basement isn't fun... Anyways, I'll hopefully be able to get back into the rhythm of writing every week again. And I'll see what I can do as far as taking pictures of stuff. Maybe for next weeks post I'll have to go to the zoo!

So Good To Be Finished

Well, yesterday I took my Calculus final. After studying for what seemed like endless hours I finally felt prepared enough to go and face the beast. The test itself took me two and a half hours to fight through, the longest test of my BYU career. The experience left me drained physically, mentally, and emotionally. I do have to say that I felt good about it. Well, good about it in the sense that I was able to answer the questions, not good about it in the sense that I really care about what I learned in the class.

Calculus class is a giant hurdle for those of us in the geology department. Speaking generally, most of us in the Geology department love science but hate math, which is why we chose geology in the first place. Let's face it, calculus is not all that applicable in our field. When the other members of my calculus class found out that I was a geologist, their collective response was, "Well why the heck are you in this class?!" I have found myself wondering that on more than one occasion. At one point, I even asked one of the geology professors why the department subjected us to the mathematical hellscape that is calculus. They responded by telling me that it was to help develop our problem solving skills. I personally would have rather done the sudoku in the newspaper every day, that would build problem solving skills in an environment that would not make me want to jump off a building. Other students in the department have suggested that calculus is a class to weed out the students who don't belong in geology. In response to that I was forced to wonder if a department with a graduating class of 12 really needed any less students.

Despite all the arguing and wondering and pain and suffering, calculus 112 and 113 remain required classes for geologists. It is a hurdle that we all have in common. 95% of being a geology major was awesome, it was just two classes that drove me out of my mind. Is there a corollary here to life? I'm sure there is. Life is full of wonderful experiences, dare I say that about 95% of the time, it is awesome. But sometimes it seems like that other 5% is enough to drive us out of our minds. Everyone has bad days, it is an experience that anyone can relate to. The trick is to persevere. God requires us to suffer the bad times and the good times, and in the end, I'm sure it will help our problem solving skills, our faith, our character, and a myriad of other traits that our Heavenly Father wants to build up in us.

This week I went on a trip to Goblin Valley. It was quite a drive, about three hours, but totally worth it. The scenery was beautiful, both on the way there and on the crazy back roads that I took on the way home. Feel free to check out the pictures. Till next week.

Naturally, as a geologist, I could tell you all about how and why the goblins formed, but I wouldn't want to bore you with the details of how the Entrada Sandstone fractures and then spheroidal weathering coupled with differential errosion formed the valley full of goblins, so I won't...

Imagine What We'll Know Tomorrow...

Graduation inches ever closer! Soon I will be a Geologist with a degree to prove it. A geologist, like any other scientist, is someone who is searching for truths in the world around them. The only problem with scientific truths is that they are liable to change. It reminds me of a quote from the movie Men in Black:


"Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow." 


My seventh grade science teacher had another way of putting it. She said that science was the search for "little 't' truths". Science is always changing, and the field of geology is no different. In 1938, a ceolacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for 80 million years, was caught off the coast of South Africa. In the 1960's the theory of plate tectonics revolutionized the way that geologists think about the planet. Just recently, Pluto was relieved of its status as a planet. All these discoveries and theories and ideas changed the science of Geology. The truths that we know today, may not be the truths we know tomorrow.


Because of its ever-changing nature, science is an imperfect discipline. That doesn't mean that it's not important or not exciting and fun. In fact, because it is always changing and new discoveries are always being made, science is very fun and exciting. The future of science and geology is filled with limitless possibilities. There are new discoveries waiting to be made every day. With new discoveries comes new knowledge, and like Agent K from Men in Black said, imagine what we'll know tomorrow.

This week I went on a trip to Nine Mile Canyon, not on purpose though. I was just out driving and saw a sign that said, this way to nine mile canyon. I thought, why not? I had no idea that I was on my way to see a bunch of awesome petroglyphs and enjoy a pretty awesome drive. Anyway, you can see my pictures from the trip right here.

Everything Will Be Okay in the End

This weeks post is inspired by a quote on a friend's facebook page. The quote simply says,

"Everything will be okay in the end, if it's not okay, it's not the end."

This quote has been on my mind a lot lately, as I have been struggling with some things. The big thing that I have been struggling with is school, but not in the traditional sense. I owed the school some money, so I couldn't sign up for classes. I couldn't apply for my loans to pay the money I owed the school because I couldn't sign up for classes. It was a ridiculous and terrible cycle. Eventually I was able to find the people I needed to talk to, and started to get things sorted out. Holds were supposed to be removed so I could register for classes, but they weren't. The deadline to add classes passed, so I had to petition to add my classes. The petition passed, but there was still a hold, so I had to get in contact with the collections folks at school and get the hold lifted. Then I finally got into the classes I needed, then we were able to get the ball rolling on the financial aid, and hopefully after all the back and forth everything will be squared away. The point of the story is this. It was a struggle that lasted a month and a half and there were several points where it felt like nothing would work out. It was difficult to keep pushing and I was worried that I might not make it. I thought I was going to lose my financial aid, get kicked out of school, and still owe the University a couple thousand dollars. But those times that I felt that way, I knew that it wasn't really the end. There was still more that I could do and I could keep persevering. It couldn't be the end because everything wasn't okay yet. Now as things are finally coming to an end, I know that the stress and frustration I felt during the whole process were just a passing thing. The end must be near, because, at least in regards to this ordeal, everything is turning out okay.

On Sunday, I took a little trip up into the mountains east of Heber City. There is a national forest and several trails that go all over the place. I took a trail that went up Heber Mountain and was rewarded by an awesome view of Heber Valley that stretched all the way to Mt. Timpanogos. Here's the picture:

For more pictures from the trip, here is the link to the Picasa Album.

The Abydosaurus Dig

In the summer of 2009 I worked in Dinosaur National Monument outside of Vernal, Utah. The team I was on was responsible for the discovery and extraction of several fossils belonging to the brand new dinosaur species, Abydosaurus. It was a pretty awesome experience and the fulfillment of a lifetime dream. When I was two years old I said I would dig up a dinosaur and it took me 23 years, but I did it!

For more pictures check out my web album:
Abydosaurus Album