Middle East/Asia Lose Internet

As many of you are already aware, a couple of undersea cables were damaged in the past 48 hours or so. This has caused a major disruption in the Middle East and India. Their access to the Internet is not completely gone, but enough to send shockwaves around the world. The United States is all experiencing some after shocks from this because many companies have alliances and data centers in India. It's amazing how much we take for granted; we are literally consumed by technology on a daily basis, whether we want to be or not.

See this USA Today article for more details.

Live in the Present

As another week passes me by, I am reminded of the myriad of things that I need to get done. There really is not enough time in the world. If you ask me now what I have to do, I can probably rattle off at least twenty items on my to-do list. But that is not important. Whether I get these things done or not matters not to most people. What matters most to me, though, is that I live in the present. I need to remember to enjoy each day as it comes and goes. I shouldn't be thinking about, "in the future when I'm done with such-and-such, I'll be happy" or "I'll take a vacation..." So, there you have it: enjoy life! It will only be as good as you make it.

Importance of News

I was on KSL.com this morning and I noticed that President Hinckley's funeral announcement was listed above President Bush's address. I'll blame this on local reading population. (Note: I'm not downplaying the significance of the loss of this great leader.) What I don't understand is why the local bad weather was above him. Is it because President Bush spoke last night? Maybe...but still shouldn't we value what our President says a little more than the weather?

Scrabulous Jam

So, I was playing Scrabulous the other night (since that's my only reason for staying on Facebook). I guess somebody came out with a song about the game that's pretty funny.



P.S. It's not on auto-start because I hate it when websites interfere with your own music (as does my professor who blogged about it the other day).

Gordon B. Hinckley Passes Away

So, Diane and I were spending an evening with our friends, Mark and Sara, when we receive a call from Carolina informing us that President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away tonight around 7:00pm MST. Not much about the situation is available online, but the Mormon networks are busy spreading the news via SMS and phone calls. KSL.com is running a "Breaking News" headline, but the website is unaccessible (well, extremely slow) right now. I just found some information on the LDS Newsroom website. For those of you who do not know about President Hinckley, he was the beloved prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located in Salt Lake City, Utah. I'll refer you to the official press release for more information about his wonderful life. Surely, he will be missed by members and friends around the world.

Wedding Website Up and Running

Being a techie, I couldn't really imagine paying somebody to make me a wedding website. It would be like asking a mechanic to take his car to somebody else's shop to get the oil changed. Anyway, this past weekend, I decided that it was time to create my wedding website. You can find it and http://www.DianeAndFernando.com. I hope you like it. If there's something that's out of whack, please let me know.

The code itself is pretty simple. About 100 lines to create the home.php page, 100 lines of javascript (mostly for Google Maps stuff), and a stylesheet. The prototype was built in a matter of hours. I spent a few more learning about Google Maps and its API (which was--and still is--very fun and exciting). Then there were the minor design tweaks. Anyway, I now present it to the world for all to see.

Pistachios

I love pistachios. They are one of my favorite nuts. The other night, I was snacking on some pistachios straight from the bag and I came across a couple of pistachios without a shell. I love it when this happens! It’s so fun to be able to just chomp on the nut w/o splitting the shell open. Pretty silly, I know.

The Lazy Man's Guide to Church

It's been a few days since I've posted anything. Just you wait, I have a few lined up. If only I didn't have homework. Anyway, this came to me via email and I actually thought it was worth passing along, so here you go:

Is visiting/home teaching getting you down? Can't get your leader off your back? Is visiting teaching interfering with your TV soap operas and/or manicure? Is home teaching cutting into your NFL time? We can help! At “Zion's Visiting/Home Teaching Service” we'll do your visiting/home teaching for you. For a small fee we will send one of our trained representatives to the homes of your families.

Visit Services
$10 - Basic Visit
$15 - Basic Visit plus Spiritual Message
$20 - Birthday and anniversary cards in addition to the Basic Visit and Spiritual Message

PLEASE NOTE: Because of heavy volume, an extra $15 will be added for visits on the last day of the month.

Check Out Our New Services

Meetings: We will send a representative to the appropriate meeting to take notes for you and report back.

$30 - Ward Council Meeting
$50 - Ward Council Meeting w/ written report
$20 - Presidency Meetings
$25 - PEC
$20 - Sacrament Meeting
$20 - Sunday School
$20 - Priesthood
$50 - 3-hour Sunday Block (best value)

PLEASE NOTE: Surcharge of 10% for stake meetings.

Talks and Lessons

Did a bishopric member call and assign you a talk? Tired of wasting Saturday night preparing a lesson? Well, free up your time and just read one of our professionally prepared talks and lessons. No need to spend countless hours poring through books, writing and praying. We'll do it for you!

$20 - Basic Talk (any subject assigned)
$30 - Scripture Talk (basic + 5 scriptures)
$40 - Deluxe Talk (scripture + 1 poem + 2 G.A. quotes)

* All talks are guaranteed to last 15 minutes.
* Add $1 for each additional minute

$25 - Basic Lesson (40 minutes)
$35 - Deluxe (Basic + visual aides)
$45 - Super Deluxe (Deluxe + Handouts)

* Due to high expectations, centerpieces and floral arrangements, Relief Society lessons are slightly higher. Call for quote.
* Due to lower expectations, priesthood lessons, receive a 10% discount.

Additional Programs
Introducing our Bundle Buys and Frequent Shopper plan. Bundle any 3 services and receive a 20% discount.

Receive one free Basic talk or lesson with any 10 purchases.

Casserole Service
If you just can't possibly throw together food for various ward occasions, WE CAN!

Our basic services include:
- Funeral Potatoes
- Green Bean/Mushroom Soup with Crunchy Onions
- Green Jell-O with Carrots
- Spinach Dip in a Bread Bowl
- CheezWiz/Tater Tot Surprise

For only $15 each delivered to your house with Corningware marked with your name! They'll never know you didn't make 'em!

We take all the work off of your shoulders and put ours to the wheel for you!

Call us at 1-800-752-2537. That's 1-800-Slacker.

Keep Scrabulous!

Recently, I have been hearing that Hasbro and Mattel are trying to get rid of the much beloved scrabble-like game on Facebook: Scrabulous. I really hope that they do not get rid of it. That's my main reason for logging onto Facebook. Here's a link to a fairly good article on Cnet.com. What do you guys think?

It's Cold

So, today was very cold. So cold, in fact, that the “real feel” temperature is currently -4 degrees. Yes, I know that Weather.com doesn’t call it real feel (AccuWeather does). Fortunately, Diane and I are going to a land of milk and honey. OK, so how about a land of oil and humidity. Anyway, I am very excited for her to meet the whole family this weekend. Yay!

Fernando's Hideaway Is Everywhere!

For my web analytics class, I have been researching search engine submission. After getting bored, I decided to google my own name. It's quite common to do such a thing nowadays. Anyway, I first queried "Mladineo" and found my blog to be the first result! Yay! Maybe it is getting more popular. The second result was the Ambassador of Croatia (see, my name isn't so weird after all). My next query was "Fernando's Hideaway." I knew that I wasn't the first one on the list, but I did find a restaurant in Kanab, UT named after my blog!

Here it is! (see http://fernandoshideaway.net/ for more details--OK, not really because there is nothing else on the site)

So, not exactly the best site, but hey, it's Fernando's Hideaway!







Here it is on Google Maps. I was so about to drive there, but then I realized it's all the way down in Southern Utah in the middle of the state. Totally out of the way. Leave it to Kanab to be in the middle of nowhere!

Transitioning to Married Life

It may be a bit premature to say that I’m transitioning to married life, but there a number of changes occurring in my life. After weeks of discussion, Diane and I finally got our honeymoon planned. It was a big step for me—it seemed to be next big check on my checklist. So far, I’ve done pretty well. I’ve found the girl, I courted her for some time, I proposed (and she said yes), and now we’ve taken care of the honeymoon. We even went to a Bride and Groom show yesterday at Thanksgiving Point.

Yes, I know. I never really thought that I’d go to such events, but it was kinda exciting. I like to be in the know, so it was interesting to see what people had to offer. Some stuff was interesting (like looking at announcements), but other stuff was dull because I didn’t feel like it applied to us. Since we’re getting married out of state, we don’t necessarily want to fly caterers, photographers, etc. in for the event. It would be terrific to find somebody local. If anybody has some good recommendations for Orange County, please let me know.

Anyway, after the B&G show, we went to Diane’s friend’s home. It was an evening spent with young, married couples and their children. We had thrilling chats about kids, pregnancies, dogs, etc. :) To top off the night, we relaxed at my condo while Zacc entertained us with his Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond impersonations.

Web Analytics Here We Come

So, it's my last semester and I am taking this web analytics course. I am pleased to declare that BYU is one of the few universities with this course. Maybe it will give me some sort of marketable advantage? I don't know, but let's hope it does! If you're like me, you're probably wondering what web analytics is. According to Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge),

"Web analytics is the study of the behavior of website visitors...Data collected almost always includes web traffic reports. It may also include e-mail response rates, direct mail campaign data, sales and lead information, user performance data such as click heat mapping, or other custom metrics as needed. This data is typically compared against key performance indicators for performance, and used to improve a web site or marketing campaign's audience response."

Hopefully that makes sense to somebody. I guess I can say that I expect to learn how people visit and interact with my site. That is, I want to know how people reach my site and what they do while on my site. This will hopefully allow me to think of ways to keep them on my site longer. After all, I want Mladineo.com to become uber popular. Yes uber. Right now, I can't say that I have much of a following on my blog. Maybe some people read it, but they definitely do not post very often. My fiancée seems to be the only one that posts on a semi-regular basis. And for that, I thank her. :) Looking at my Google Analytics, it shows that 8 people have viewed my blog today. Sad day. My all-time high has only been 35 visits in one day. That was during my splendid vacation to Asia. My highest number of unique visitors is only 16. I have a ways to go before this blog starts making headlines.

Clumsy Ol’ Me

It's been a while since I've been online. I spent the last few weeks enjoying my last holiday break as a graduate student. Next year, I will be faced with the harsh realities of work, less vacation time, etc. On the flip side, I will finally be making some real money. Anyway, this is not the point of this post.

In the past week, I had a series of funny, clumsy, and forgetful events occur. It all seems a bit out of character for me, but here goes. Last Friday, I was on a wonderful hike with Diane and some other family members. We were climbing the "Sleeping Giant" on the island of Kauai. Diane was in front of me and I just followed her lead. I didn't bother to look up too often because I wanted to make sure that I didn't step in mud holes (since I had a brand-new pairs of running shoes on—bad idea, I know). Well, maybe because she is shorter than me or maybe because I was just a clutz, I totally walked into a tree branch. We're not talking a thin, little branch that gives if you walk into it, but something more sizeable (3-4" diameter). Needless to say, the tree branch didn't budge; instead it lacerated my forehead.

Fortunately, that's the only story that involves me getting injured. The rest occurred on the flight home from Kauai to Salt Lake City. I had Diane take home my big piece of luggage because I didn't have enough time in Honolulu to get my luggage and check-in to my Continental flight. We shuffled things around; unfortunately, my bag now weighed 54 pounds. Fortunately, the Hawaiian Airlines person didn't seem to care; he just slapped a "heavy" sticker on it and let it through. I was relieved and totally forgot about it. Diane caught her flight and I was sitting in the terminal waiting to catch my commuter flight. The time finally arrived for me to board the plane. While in line, a lady noticed a laptop lying on the ground. She made a little commotion about it, which grabbed my attention. I looked down and wondered, "Hey, somebody has the same laptop cover as me—weird." Then I checked my own bag and realized that it was my laptop! Somehow, it had slipped out of my carry-on!

With all of my items now with me, I boarded the plane. I went to put Diane's carry-on in the overhead compartment and it didn't fit! This is a 2 x 2 commuter jet that has really small compartments. What was I to do?! I didn't want to check the bag because I didn't have time to wait at the baggage claim. Instead, I put my big carry-on underneath my seat and I put her bag on top of mine. I knew that this was against airline rules, but I needed to keep the two bags close to me. I used my hoodie to cover up the two bags and I proceeded to read the airline magazine. This was so the flight attendant couldn't see the unnatural shape of my hoodie. It worked! I made it to Honolulu without any problems (other than the fact that I had no leg room and I was seated next to a large individual).

What a rough start to a red-eye flight. The story continues... Diane and I briefly met up in Honolulu and we had a quick dinner. We were both a little stressed because of the short layover (and problem finding a ride home). I hurriedly left to catch my next flight. I still didn't have my boarding pass when they were announcing "final boarding," so I proceeded to the counter. The lady was a bit confused about me not having a boarding pass (after all, I was already past security). Anyway, she printed one up for me and I took off. As I was about to board the plane, she yelled "Fernando!" Apparently, she had forgotten to give me back my driver's license! I almost boarded the plane without it! Once aboard the plane, I struggled to get to my seat since I had two carry-ons (one which was too wide for the aisle since it was stacked length-wise on top of the roller carry-on) and my Burger King dinner (half eaten). As I reached my seat, there was a gentlemen sitting there. He wanted to trade seats with me; I asked him where his seat was and it was in the middle. I told him no because I was not going to suffer all night in the middle seat on a red-eye. Talk about torture.

Fortunately, after that, I didn't have any more problems with my flight (well, that were my fault, at least). I had two more layovers and I was exhausted by the time I got back to SLC, but I was happy to have finally arrived home. On the flip side, I was a little sad to have left 70+ degree weather for 32-degree snow.