Pictures of You, Pictures of Me

Such a funny picture


Hoover Dam


Vegas

The happiest place in the world!

Splash mountain with zombie faces

I honestly thought I'd pull it out this time

Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones

Graduation!!!!!

My building - the SWKT

The stole makes a good tie

I am a graduate, like my father before me

Moving

Leaving PP8 like we came in, minus Bravin, the gorlock and guitars

Baseball

Wheelchair basketball

Gosh, we should have totally done it. Drawn stashes on people as they are frozen in the flash mob

A sighting of Elder Kaiser

General Conference

Zombie faces

Bike riding

Freaky

Leaving the Festival of Colors

Don't worry, I got her pretty good too.

Awwwww, poor baby

I always like doing these type of pictures

Taking a picture of Em's building, the Widtsoe from my building, the SWKT

Playing frisbee on top of the SWKT.

I've decided that McCain isn't such a bad guy. I mean I disagree with a lot of policies and stuff, but this article: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080508/D90H5S3O0.html convinced me that he's at least a good guy.

I still need to write more in here about stuff. Real quick, me and my professor have been running statistical tests all morning on the data and we have found a POSITIVE CORRELATION. Here's what he said:

"good news! i plugged in the basic numbers from Table 1 in the paper and did a chi^2 test, which is the right test to compare cross tabs, and it shows a very strong statistically significant relationship. i don't know if the formatting will change, but the table is pasted in below. note that the probability is Pr=0.000, which means we can reject the null hypothesis. so this is *very* good news. even without dropping the gleditsch and ward cases, there is a statistically significant relationship. we should still think about how we can explain the deviant cases, but statistically, we're ok. . tab var1 var2, chi var2 var1 0 1 Total-----------+----------------------+---------- 0 61 15 76 1 53 58 111 -----------+----------------------+---------- Total 114 73 187 Pearson chi2(1) = 20.0414 Pr = 0.000"

"k, i just did the chi^2 test with the table you sent and the results match perfectly with what i did (i essentially created fake data derived from the aggregate numbers you gave me). so this is great news. we definitely have a story to tell. next steps: 1. do a SSCI search for Owens/Straus2. figure out an option for the riot and protest data"

LOL, I feel so grown-uppy, political scientist-ish.

Um, so when we were taking pictures last week, a guy from the Salt Lake Tribune took a picture of me and it's in their BYU graduation slideshow:
http://166.70.44.68/multimedia/2008/byu_graduation/

Here's a picture of me and Kayla. She's graduating elementary school and I'm graduating college. When I graduated high school, she graduated kindergarten and so we got a cute picture, this picture was more a reenactment of that pic. Maybe I'll graduate law school or grad. school when she's graduating high school. If ya click on the pics, you can see them closer up.

Lol, yeah:

Wow! Wow! Wow!

I have Sooooooo much to be grateful for right now. Holy cow, so much is going on, so much to write about, where to begin?

Ok, so I finished my last final last week Monday. About 12:00 noon, I walked up the stairs of the JFSB, put my hands in the air, looked up and yelled, "I'm done...whew!" I've seen a couple people do that after their last tests and so I decided to do it too. Gosh it felt good. It was my final for National Security Affairs. All my finals were scheduled: Civil wars was on Friday at 3, American Government was Saturday all day, Political Islam was Monday morning, followed by National Security Affairs. I studied Saturday night in the library and as I was walking home I realized that was my last time studying in the library, my last time listening to the creepy music that is played 15 minutes before it closes. It was really sad actually. I walked home, the moon was full, it was nice weather with a little wind, everything was set right to create a mood of nostalgia and remembrance. It was weird having one chapter of my life close like that. Sunday came and then midnight I pulled an all-nighter and studied for Political Islam and Nat'l Security. I'm guessing that'll be my last all-nighter. So yeah, school is over...done...for...ev...er! Well, maybe forever, right now I'm thinking forever, but I do want to get a masters in something or a law degree.

We all had to move out of Park Place #8 by Wednesday at 5 ish. It was kind of a fun end, we all had been cleaning and packing all day and then we just sat around, drank Big K's, talked about the memories in Moon Apts. and Park Place, and waited for our check outs. So now, me, Cannon, and Jared are in #7. It's alright, I dunno, it's just not the same, but give it time probably.

Graduation came and went. The fam came out, it was cool. It was weird being in the ceremony, getting my fake diploma, and wearing the robes of a false priesthood. Elder Bednar gave an awesome talk. It was really cool walking into the Marriott Center. The professors and administration were there at the entrances, kind of like we were being presented and accepted by them. You had to have been there. Lots of pictures and funny moments.

On graduation day, I heard back from Dept. of Veteran's Affair in Salt Lake, and I got the job! That was a relief. It felt really good knowing that that was now secure. But I didn't want that job as much as another that I had applied for. So the company is called Lane Links. It was formed out of D&H about a year ago. D&H is a fortune 500 company, or something like that. Let me tell you about Lane Links...there are companies like Walmart that have private fleets to ship goods from distribution centers to local stores. But on the way back, these fleets are wasting gas and money because they're bringing nothing back. Lane Links coordinates it so they bring back goods for other companies. It is a really interesting, innovative, creative idea where everyone saves money. As far as I know there is no competition and lots of market for this company. They have doubled a couple times and the CEO is projecting them to have 200 employees and $300 million in revenue in 5 years. Right now they have like 12 employees, but they are expanding rapidly. Anyway, they are located in Orem, but moving to a bigger office in Provo and are looking for Logistics Account Executive trainees. I love logistics! I've always been pretty good at remember small details and have just loved planning things and remembering all the things that have been involved. On my mission, on transfer night, the zone leaders would be calling each other and pulling out train routes, trying to figure out how to get the missionaries transferred everywhere so they weren't traveling or waiting alone. It was always really fun and funny seeing missionaries plan stuff, only to get it ruined the next day due to delays, postponed rides, etc. Anyway, so I thought it sounded cool, and then the HR lady emailed me and told me she was really impressed with my resume. She called me, told me more about the job, and how they are looking for people with an entrepreneurship spirit/leadership in them. I fell in love with the company from that first phone interview and she scheduled a second interview. It turns out that she was the old HR lady for HELP Int'l, who I went to Uganda with last year. So we knew the same people and such. Anyway, went in for the second interview last week Thursday and job shadowed, and met the CEO---awesome, humble, great guy. He's just a really nice family man. Yesterday I went in for an hour and a half third interview and I fell in love with the company. Seriously, I told my mom and Emily how I almost even felt the Spirit in there. Everything just felt right, it sounds like that would be an exciting place to work, LOTS of growth opportunity, excellent pay and benefits, and everything. And it would work out cause I really don't want to drive up to Salt Lake everyday and I could stay here in P-town and get a scooter to drive to work everyday. Anyway, so I REALLY wanted the job. I was nervous all day yesterday and this morning, cause she was going to call today to let me know. I even dreamed about it. Anyway, she emailed me that they wanted me! So I have my dream job! It all worked out so perfect, so fast, I am just so grateful for everything. Of course it doesn't have anything to do with my BA in political science degree, but I've always been a business guy deep inside and this job is perfect because it wants creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship/leadership type people. So yeah, I am super excited! It means that I will most likely be here for at least 10 years, so I'll be here when Dallas, Colby, Jamie, Kayla, and all the cousins come out here. I'll try to save up for a couple of years and then get a house with several rooms for all the family and friend visitors that are guaranteed will be coming. But yeah, it feels Sooooooo good.

Ok, there is so much more to write, but I'm really hungry right now, so I'll write tomorrow or Monday or something. I don't start work until May 19th, so I have two weeks to play. Me and Em are going to do some fun stuff before I become a boring businessman. But here are some things I need to write about still in my next entry:

-my last class period, my professor said we should ask for our money back because everything we've learned in political science classes isn't real...um, gee, thanks.

-My capstone project. My professor wants to co-author it and get it published in journals and thinks NGO's and IGO's like the UN would love the data I've come up with.

-NGO is officially started in Uganda. Empower Lives- Uganda. Lots of goals including teacher training and starting some schools. But right now we're working on a water sanitation project.

-Disneyland trip

-It's about time to buy a jet ski and a scooter.

-Those Dems, Obama is having HUGE problems.