Happy Easter

I admit that Easter has never been a holiday that I have been super excited about. I feel kinda bad since it's generally considered the most important religious holiday in Christianity. As a child, I loved having Easter Egg hunts and snacking on my 1 lb. solid chocolate easter bunny. However, I never really got into the celebration of Christ's resurrection. This year, I decided that it was time to change my way of thinking. I haven't done too much this year, but I feel like I have made steps in the right direction.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently created a new website about Jesus Christ. I'm not sure how long it's been around, but last week, I received an email promoting it. One thing that I like about the site is the various videos that the Church has released on the Internet. One of my favorites is Special Witness of Christ. On the website, you can view videos from each apostle or member of the First Presidency. There are also a few other videos relating the Church's beliefs about Christ. I invite everybody to check the website out.

URL Rewriting

I know that I rarely write about web analytics on my personal blog. However, I did come across this today. It's very nice for those of use who already have websites with dynamic URLs (like my wedding website). Right now, this site is set up with a simple GET query (e.g., http://www.dianeandfernando.com/home.php?view=registry). With this Dynamic URL generator, the URL would be changed to:

1. www.dianeandfernando.com/home-view-registry.html OR
   
2. www.dianeandfernando.com/home/view/registry/

How wonderful is this?! Since I already built this site, I don't want to have to recreate it using a framework (e.g., CakePHP or Djanjo). This little tool allows me to keep the existing infrastructure intact while making it easier for search engines to scrape my URLs.

When you enter a dynamic URL into their tool, it will tell you have the URLs may be rewritten. In addition, it will provide you a little code snippet to add to your .htaccess file that will dynamically rewrite the URLS.

Things to Remember
Please note that this only works with Apache web servers. Also, both your old and new URLs work:

• www.dianeandfernando.com/home.php?view=registry (original)
• www.dianeandfernando.com/home/view/registry/ (new one)

Amazing Soccer

I wish I played soccer like these Brazilian boys.

Handling Dangerous Situations

My comment has to do with the video found at on CNN VIdeo (Texas High Speed Chase).

The video had no dialog (from what I gathered--just the hum of the helicopter) so it was hard to figure out what was going on. Anyway, at the end, the man frantically tries to get out of the vehicle (total failure).

I was a bit disturbed by the way the two suspects were treated. The man handed something over to the women and right away a policeman viciously tackled her. At the same time, the large man was stuck underneath his car door and policemen were punching and kicking him. This is completely deplorable. Yes, I know that he had just led them on a long chase, but there was nothing shown that should have provoked such a violent reaction from the policemen. After the suspected is apprehended, a policeman aggressively tries to close the door, but it's stuck on the man's belly. He seems to mercilessly close the door, which probably tore at the large man's belly.

Sometimes, I think police officers take advantage of the potentially dangerous situations. With eight or so officers surrounding the man, I think they abused the man and were a bit out of line. What do you think? I am being too critical of these police officers?

The Gamble of Reselling

This is a follow-up to a fairly old post on reselling. I just sold my Toshiba HD-A3 player on eBay. If you haven't heard, Toshiba announced (about a month ago) that it will be discontinuing the entire HD-DVD product line. So, pretty much, my HD-A3 became extinct overnight. I was fortunate enough to get a measly $75 for it on eBay. I'm not sure why people still want it (well, BluRay is still way overpriced), but I was happy to unload it. I've had many successes and a few disasters when selling (or reselling product). The other disaster involved my 60GB iPod. On the other hand, I have been able to sell several Wiis, an iPhone, and other random "junk" for a decent price. I just picked up 3 more Wiis and I'm hoping to sell them soon. If anybody is interested, please let me know. The asking price is the usual $325. :)

Online Confessions

I was a bit surprised to learn the other day that it is possible to "confess" online. Now, I must say that I do not know much about confessions in other Churches, but I think that confessing online is a bit silly. It's one thing to go into a Church and confess to a priest or father (whatever the case may be); it's a completely different thing to confess anonymously online. Granted, some people post video confessions for the world to see and therefore it's a little less anonymous. It's hard to say how many of these confessions are real and legitimate, but hopefully these people are truly sorry for whatever wrong they have done.

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, people generally confess their sins before God and to whomever they have wronged. In the case of very serious sins, these are resolved through local ecclesiastical leaders.

While confessing online may help some individuals feel the burden/guilt lifted from their shoulders, it is best that each individual seek his/her local religious leader and confess in the proper way. Does anybody have something to say regarding this matter?

BYU's Unofficial Spring Break Party

Since BYU doesn't have spring break, they decided to throw an "Unofficial Spring Break Party" in the WSC Ballroom on Friday evening. You were supposed to dress up in a touristy outfit (totally missed that memo) and spend the evening dancing, walking around the various booths, etc.

As Diane and I arrived, we ran into few familiar faces and chatted for a bit before entering. Since we happened to time our arrival exactly with the start of the event (complete conincidence), we were first in line for the caricatures. Both students were from the Visual Arts program here on campus, but I must admit that I don't think there is too much of a resemblance. Take a look:

Caricature #1


Caricature #2

Even though it was a stereotypical BYU party, it was fun and I'm glad I went.

iPod, iPhone, iPod Shuffle

What do these three things have in common? Yes, they're all made by Apple (I'm not that dumb). But what else do they have in common? If you know me, then you might already know what I'm hinting at: they're all items that I have won at various raffles at BYU. It's true! I just won an iPod Shuffle today. I plan on keeping it (unlike the past prizes, which I have semi-successfully sold).

Creator of Dungeons & Dragons Dies

So, here's the nerdy side of me coming out. Nonetheless, I loved playing Dungeons & Dragons as a kid. It was during the days of the glorious NES and it gave me a chance to explore the creatives caverns of my mind. It's too bad to hear that Ernest Gygax died at the young age of 69. May he rest in peace.

One Step Closer to Graduating

Today has been crazy. I had to finished writing a Spanish literature paper (which was poorly written), I had a phone interview, went to class, and most importantly, I got a class substituted for my Computer Science minor. I still have to write a 5-10 page paper, complete a midterm, and prepare my presentation for tomorrow. Anyway, it is the last of three minors that I will be graduating with in April. I've literally been trying for months to get this professor to approve this class (no really, since November). I've stopped by his office on countless occasions. He has always said to email him and then he would contact the advisement center in the Marriott School of Management. No luck. Finally, I decided to get some form from the advisement center and have him sign it right there in front of me...and it worked! I no longer have to worry about not receiving my CS minor. It's official!

P.S. In case you're wondering how many credits it takes to graduate with a BSIS, MISM, and three minors, it's a lot. I'm hovering around 263.5 credits when it's all said and done.

My Lame Laptop

[3 Mar 6:15pm] I went ahead and purchased 4GB from NewEgg.com.

On the IS mailing list there has been a lot of talk about Trent's new laptop (MacBook Pro or Lenovo). Other than being a little jealous, I am here to proclaim to my disdain for my current tablet PC. With only 1GB of RAM, this machine is so freaking slow! I can't stand it at times. It takes up to 10 minutes to boot up and then crawls after that. Companies should be held accountable for producing such poor pieces of equipment that cost people countless hours of productivity (or playing Scrabulous for that matter). If I only had 2-4GB of RAM in this machine, then I might consider it useful. A 7200RPM hard drive would be nice as well.

I Wish I Owned a Ferrari

So, I'm not one who likes to buy counterfeit goods, just to show off. You'll never see me snatching up D&G sunglasses down on Canal Street for $20 a pop (oh wait, they're gone now--sorta). My philosophy is buy the real thing and be proud. Knowing that something is a fake generally kills it for me. It's a total waste of money in my opinion. That said, I thought it was pretty ingenious of this Italian chop shop to sell counterfeit Ferraris!

If you want to hear about some more crazy stories, check out Reuter's Oddly Enough series. Here are a couple more funny and slightly disturbing stories:

• Bikers say wrong night for a robbery
• Pregnant woman uses train toilet, baby slips out