Had a busy week. Friday before last, I went to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was not as bad as I was expecting it to be. (I actually liked it. I've put it on my list of movies to buy when it comes out.)

Last Tuesday was two concerts for my son's choir up in Salt Lake. (Yes, I can call him that, I adopted him last September.)

Wednesday night, went to see Skyfall, which was pretty good.

I got my Christmas bonus Thursday and my dear wife decides she wants to give me a heart attack by spending too much - we have bills to pay off ($40k of them, between everything that needs paid off! But it used to be $45k, so we're working on them!) and stuff to save up for. Did get a few small ones paid off, however, and we'll get another one paid off today so I can pick up my new prescription glasses.

Friday night, we did the Festival of Lights.

Saturday, all I wanted to do is sleep. At least the schedule is lighter next week, just a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and a Christmas party on Friday.

I've got my tickets for The Hobbit on Saturday, as well.

Well, just got back from the Stadium of Fire... was fun. Scotty McCreery was the opening act, they had the talent show, the flyover, the Beach Boys, and then the big fireworks show, with a 007 motif this year. More tomorrow, if I remember to post it.

Well, it's been a long time since I posted here... what's going on? Well, my 6-month anniversary was last month.

I ended up moving down to Spanish Fork last August - had to have a bigger place.

Yes, the wedding happened! All the pictures (engagement, bridals, wedding, and reception) are at http://wedding-pictures.curtisjewell.name/ , but here are a few.





I've been in the Nebo Chorale this last year. It's hectic, but I'll probably do it again next year. Especially around Christmas (think of my new son being in one choir, me in another, and we have our big concerts on consecutive days!)

As part of that choir, I got to sing with my son at Spanish Fork's annual 4-choir Community Easter Concert last week (He's in the Utah Valley Children's Choir. He'll be on tour in the South during the summer.)

We're currently up in Wyoming visiting her father - I realized yesterday just as we hit the border that I should have brought the videos of the Easter concert on a USB stick! Oh, well! Heck, let me see if I can get them up on YouTube to post here once I get back home! Probably be a good idea.

(Video for the song - unfortunately un-embeddable - is at http://youtu.be/t1Rd1AsyRl4 - It's one I played at the reception.)

I've done a number of fun things over the last few days that I want to write about.

Wednesday the 15th, I was interviewed for a podcast about Strawberry Perl. I liked doing it, and hope I can get some help with it.

Thursday evening the 16th was a hour-long bell concert at BYU at the Centennial Carillon Tower. They had a very good selection of songs, including the Star Spangled Banner to begin the concert, the Stars and Stripes Forever to end it, and Climb Every Mountain and Joshua at the Battle of Jericho (correct me if I'm wrong on the name) during it, as well as some classical pieces. Afterwards we got shown the practice keyboard for the carillon and an explanation about how one operates. Quite the interesting instrument.

Saturday Liz and I got the wedding invitation pictures taken. We took them at a few different places, in a few different sets of clothing. We'll see how they look over the next few weeks. After that, we took two of her sisters up to the airport to leave on a two-week vacation. Was a busy day.

Sunday was Father's Day... Next year, I'll qualify! *grin*

Tuesday night was the Republican Liberty Caucus of Utah convention, where they elected officers for the past year, and had speakers to inspire us to help get leaders elected (and to be those leaders) that will get government out of our lives as much as possible and get out of our way and let us enjoy the freedoms.

Friday night Liz and I went down to Manti to go to the Mormon Miracle pageant. It was very good, as expected. Didn't get home until 2am, and didn't get up until 11am.

Now it's time to relax today.

Well, I want to write down what happened yesterday afternoon before I forget it. If you wonder why I've been so distracted that I haven't been saying much online, one of the reasons why is the lady below.

First major thing I did that morning was take my car (did I mention I just got it this week? No?) and find a beautiful spot, up on Provo Canyon (just off US-189) about a mile north of the Sundance/Timpanogos Cave (UT-92) turn-off. I would have need of it later that day.



(I wanted to go to Bridal Veil Falls, instead, but there was no parking there during the "winter season".)

Did that, returned to get ready to go to the Provo Temple (needed to have my church clothes on for that), then went and did my laundry for the week and got back to the house, where my girlfriend was waiting for me.



We went to the temple, and then back to my apartment to change out of church clothes. I had told her to bring walking shoes, and that was the only clue I had given as to where we were going. Then we went back up Provo Canyon, pulled over, and walked down to the river. Then, I gave her ( this...Collapse )

Well, it's time for those New Year's resolutions.

1. When I got to Provo, I weighed 200 pounds. My goal for this point was 180. As of today, I'm at 182.0, so I'm only off by 2 pounds, and that's because I've been holding, rather than going down, for the holiday season. This year, I want my weight to be down to sane ranges for my height (135-145) before the end of it, and if I'm down there by September, that'll be fantastic. It's a little hard to believe that less than 4 years ago, I was actually below 120.

2. Get the dental work done. I've already got some appointments for it. I went in at the beginning of December, and 3 of my wisdom teeth and one other tooth needs extracted. For not being able to afford a dentist visit since before I started this journal (10 years last September), that's doing pretty good.

3. Spiritual goals. The usual scripture reading and praying ones.

4. Writing in this journal a little more than I have been.

I now live less than a mile and a half from the Provo Tabernacle (I walk to it for the occasional concert), so I was quite surprised Friday morning to be texted by my girlfriend that it happened to be on fire... My guess (and my girlfriend's) is that someone in the group that was rehearsing there the night before was careless or left too many lights plugged in, but who knows?

I got lucky I heard last night that The Sing-Off came back for a second season - I don't have TV reception at the moment to watch it live, but I've bought all the episodes so far, and will be buying the last one once it gets on iTunes. The joke in my family is that if I like a show, it doesn't last more than 2 seasons, and I really liked it last year, despite the BYU group having had to leave early.

Speaking of the BYU group, I'm going to one of their concerts in January. That should be fun.

Life is going pretty well.

Considering that this is the Sunday after Thanksgiving... I've been thinking the last few days about what I'm thankful for.

( post-Thanksgiving entryCollapse )

Had a fun date and a fun class afterwards yesterday (a UVU professor was doing a class on "How Not To Marry A Jerk or Jerkette")... Been a long time since I really went out on dates (2003) so I was a little worried - no worries!

Signed up for a run tomorrow.. it's a cancer benefit run for someone in my ward. Should be fun.

My orange laptop is now working again - all it needed was a new power brick. Now all I need to do is to get it upgraded. (doing that now, starting with the operating system. It is 4 years old, so I have hopes this will work...)

Got the laundry done tonight, as well.

Not feeling well the last few days - got myself a bad cold. (or maybe it should be 'some bad code?') Apparently I've been trying to burn the candle at both ends and it's catching up with me.

And I'm not sure I'm even going to be able to get a bicycle on the 20th, the way things are going.

I really need to get myself some new music - any good artists to check out that you'd think I'd like?

I like that LJ is spotlighting 65redroses today - Sarah, have you seen the documentary they mentioned there?

Well, I now live in Provo, Utah... I can't believe it'll be 3 weeks tomorrow since I moved down here!

Had to find a place quickly, because I decided to start my job on the 15th of last month - and ended up getting some help from my ward in getting into my new apartment, instead of having to stay with somebody. Only 2/3 of my stuff is here so far, and I'm going to have to buy some bookshelves, as well as a lot of other stuff.other stuff,

I found a pretty convenient place, all things considered. The only thing that ISN'T convenient is my work - it's 4 miles walking distance away. I can take the bus and cut it down to a mile and a half - and I'm glad it doesn't rain much.

Here's how my weekday schedule is looking.

5:40 - time to get up. Washed, bathed, shaved, etcetera.
7:00 - out the door, if I want to get to work before 8.
8:00 - start work. It's a fun job..
16:30 - time to leave work. Hopefully it hasn't started raining, otherwise, I'll need a ride.
18:00 - I usually get home by this time, even if I walk it. (If I take the bus back, 5:30pm is a good guess.)
20:00 - time to start winding down - I like my sleep.
21:00 - time to go to bed.

My weekends have been varied. The weekend of the 18th, I was fried - still getting used to my schedule and all that. The 25th, I went back up to Fielding for the weekend to get more of my stuff. Last weekend was General Conference - which is always busy for me, but a restful busy, if you can believe that - especially since a screen to watch the sessions on was only 3 blocks away. I had 3 favorite talks from the 4 sessions I've seen so far (I slept through Saturday afternoon's session) - Elder Malm's talk Sunday afternoon where he mentioned the tree that looked fine from a distance, but was hollow inside, Elder Holland's talk Saturday morning on service in the Church, and Elder Kearon's talk during the Priesthood session, when he commented that we must lay down our own "weapons of rebellion." I'm thankful I haven't had to dig ice caves anytime lately (at least since I've been a Boy Scout.) I plan to get a bicycle soon - and that should tighten up the schedule quite a bit (I can get to work and back home quicker, so I can have more time for my own stuff and to get to sleep later.)

No, no car for a while - the student loan people found me already, so I've got to start paying them - and if I can save up $5,000, hopefully I can get the penalties and fees part canceled (I'll check with them on that closer to time.)

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• 00:48 Will be watching this: bit.ly/caZamC #
• 00:49 Watched all 3 Twilight movies last night, by the way... Can we say squee central? #

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Days 2 and 3 of YAPC were great. Got some news from the job fair that I don't want to reveal yet. OK. I will say this: One of the places I dropped off my resume at the job fair ended up interviewing me the next day. I'm supposed to hear from them in a week or so as to whether I fly out to their offices and do a second interview. Should be fun. I also ended up buying a few autographed things from the auction. May need to get a picture.

The trip home was long, but funner than the trip out, even though I didn't get any stops longer than an hour until Salt Lake to charge my phone and computer at.

When I arrived home, it was time to conk out (for the same reasons I conked out on the way there. I slept a little better, however,) take a bath, unpack my luggage, etcetera.

I ended up ordering the wrong item from Best Buy before I left. Darn it. (I got a wireless access point, and I needed a wireless bridge.) I got the one item returned. Family loves it.

Ordered two more computer books at different times - one should be coming in soon, I hope. Waiting for another good discount before ordering #3.

My sister loved her birthday present (two Celtic Thunder DVD's.) So did Mom for theirs! (A new TV and Blu-Ray player.)

Went to see the Twilight trilogy last night... can we say squee central? I think I was one of 10 guys there, and about 250 females of assorted ages. Did like it, however. I just wish *I* got that type of reaction... or maybe I don't.

Getting to Columbus was fun, to say the least. I think I mentioned before that I had a 44 hour Greyhound trip to get there. I left Friday afternoon. Getting to Denver was all right, other than not getting great sleep. Once I got there Saturday morning, we found out that a busload of people had missed their connections, so they set up 2 buses to head to Kansas City and St. Louis, and I ended up on the second one that left Denver about 30 minutes late, if I recall correctly. That gets us to Kansas City, where there was a problem with another person on the bus - he was arguing with the driver, who may or may not have miscounted how many people were supposed to be let on the bus there. He got kicked off and made it a security issue by laying behind the wheel of the bus. So we ended up leaving at midnight Sunday and getting to St. Louis at 4:30 in the morning, when my connecting bus (and about 25 other people's) was supposed to be leaving at around 2:30, with St. Louis being known for not holding buses for connections that arrived late. Thankfully, the next bus WAS held, and I was able to get to Columbus at 2:30 in the afternoon, (next bus would have arrived in Columbus at around midnight) and who should be at the terminal but a former roommate of mine, who took it upon himself (he hadn't told me) to meet every bus I could reasonably be on until I got there. That one was #3. I much appreciated getting a ride from the terminal, as while I was able to sleep on the bus, it was not GOOD sleep, and I still needed to get my talk set up. I got to the dorm room, took all my luggage out in a pile, and laid on the bed and conked out until my roommate got up again.

The first day of YAPC (Monday), I got to 3 talks, not including the opening ones and the lightning talks, of the 6 I could have gotten to - reason being I was still wiped out from the trip and I needed to finish my lightning talk.

This was the biggest audience I ever had to give a presentation to... (the LDS Church wards I've given talks at weren't as big, I think) and I felt it went well. Had an easy time of it, (I got clapped at the beginning because I've been working on Strawberry Perl for the past 18 months - I'm respected for working on it, even though I am NOT the polished speaker at all [see the user icon on this entry for a hint!]) and it was only 5 minutes. Did forget to grab the microphone at first. *grin*

Learned quite a bit from the other speakers - tomorrow should be great, now that my worries are over.

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• 12:19 I'm now at #yapc in Columbus, Ohio, learning a lot. (Got stories to tell about getting there - blogging tonight) #

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Well, the money came in last week from the grant. I'm leaving late this afternoon for Columbus.

Got my mother, father, and sister birthday presents. Got me some stuff, too.

I got a kick out of this video...

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• 23:56 Well, looks like I'm going to Columbus, Ohio to attend the Yet Another Perl Conference in two weeks. Bus tickets are in, money is coming in. #
• 00:47 Just listed myself at localtweeps.com. List yourself to Find and Get Found by tweeps near you! #

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Well, it's been a while since I've written in this journal - been busy programming and now, getting ready for my trip in 2 weeks.

Yes, I'm going on a trip - to the Yet Another Perl Conference::North America 2010 in Columbus, Ohio. I've got a string of Greyhound bus tickets that's as long as I am tall. (I transfer buses 4 times on the way out, and twice on the way back, for a total of 8 different buses, counting the buses I start on. It's a 40-44 hour trip each way. It also cost half as much as airplane tickets - and then I'd still have to find a way to Salt Lake!)

I'll even be speaking - I've got a 5 minute talk on Strawberry Perl Professional and other modern tools...‎ I've got to prepare that talk next week. First time I'm speaking to more than a church or classroom audience. I hope I do well.

I finished my grant - that's what's paying for the trip and the food to eat while I'm there and while I'm traveling. I'm expecting the second half of the money to come in late next week.

My parents are gone on a temporary job for 3 months - they're one month in. I have my sister's room - she's moved out. My two brothers are still living here. We get along pretty well. I do most of the chores, they provide money on a regular basis (they both have jobs).

The family's main computer bit the dust - it's 5 years old. I'll probably pay to get it repaired.

I should start applying to jobs that use Perl next week, as well. A little tired (relief? possibly) the last few days.

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• 13:20 Sounds like I'm missing the right songs on #eurovision today - but another 4 minutes and I'll be able to get the feed. #eurovision #
• 13:37 Latvia had better get enough points to go on to the final with the lyrics for here song... but sing better! #eurovision #

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• 13:04 Interesting article: Hands Down | Jews and Mormons | Jewish Journal bit.ly/dCgdLP #

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• 16:57 Did some room cleaning today... #

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• 03:26 FINALLY found my multi-Twitter client that is not AIR-y (does FB & LinkedIn, too.) #sobees ++! tinyurl.com/6bruxn #

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• 12:15 Been working on my father's website the past few days - I'm almost done with the stuff I want to do for now, then it's back to work on SP! #

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• 17:55 (considering the US men's team is now 0-4 and the women are 0-3...) #
• 17:55 But then, #curling, like golf, was invented by the Scots to drive us crazy! #
• 22:20 By the way, thumbs up to Torah Bright for winning the women's snowboard halfpipe! #olympics #
• 22:52 Strawberry #Perl Professional Alpha 1 is released: Announcement w/ details at csjewell.dreamwidth.org/8928.html #

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• 22:16 Watching the Opening Ceremonies right now... ooh... pretty! #van2010 # olympics #

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• 18:08 Working hard on about 3 different things... #

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Funny things my family said on a trip down to Salt Lake night before last:

(we were talking about psychics)
Younger sister: I don't think people would listen to psychics if they told people that their dead relatives told them that they were going to be meeting them soon.

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• 09:51 At #utosc2009 - first talk hasn't started yet, and they had some venue coordination problems, but things are solved. #

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• 14:29 Heading to the 2009 Utah Open Source Conference tomorrow. 2009.utosc.com/pages/home/ #

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Well, they announced who's getting the Perl Foundation grants for this application period.

http://news.perlfoundation.org/2009/09/

As you can imagine, I'm positively ecstatic!

Yes, I'm one of the three who got their grants.  Now I've got to get a bank account to put the money in, and then look up what kind of computer I want to get with the first part of the money. (I'm aiming for $800.)

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• 19:35 Having a stressful life at the moment. Hoping for good news next week. #

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I know I've been busy the past few months with a major project, so I haven't been posting much - and it's almost bearing fruit. This was posted 6 days ago: http://use.perl.org/~Alias/journal/39305 (no, not by me, "Alias" is Adam Kennedy. My user name on that site is "DiamondInTheRough" - appropriate considering my last name.)

It's really been only 6 months, not 9, that I've been working on it. It's felt like 9 months or longer sometimes, however.

I've done the "trivial rebuild" and it's available at the same links. Adam Kennedy and I will be uploading the two main files to the Google Code servers and updating the web site ( http://strawberryperl.com/ )within the next few days.

Other fruit it could bear is actual money. I'm applying for a grant from the Perl Foundation. It's at http://csjewell.comyr.com/perl/windows-perl-grant.html (I formatted the pod that will actually be submitted as a web page, and edited a few quirks out of it.)

I have to admit, I wasn't planning on getting actual money for this project when I started back in January - I did it because it scratched an itch. But money is good! And it's also a nice thing to put on my resume - not many Perl programmers can say that they've gotten a grant from the Perl Foundation, so it's something that can only help get me hired at any job that requires Perl programming.

Well, things are getting busy - Mom broke her arm a few days ago. So we're all having to help out here more.

That and I'm close to releasing Strawberry Perl - should be within the next few weeks. There's a few other projects happening, too.

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• 12:16 Wow! @msofficeus is breaking HTML email by using Word to display emails in Outlook 2010. See fixoutlook.org and RT #

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• 09:13 Maybe a few more days... ran into some bugs. Have possible good news, but can't say much yet. #

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• 08:41 Long days the last few - but will be getting out a Strawberry Perl release candidate within the next few days. Got the room clean, too! #

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There's 4 things that need said about the last few weeks, so if this entry seems scattershot, that's why.

1. Well, my Dad found some work for the next 3 months - and hopefully we'll hear about Japan by then! Unfortunately, it's in Kennett, Missouri! In fact, it's the job Dad quit in order to go to Japan in the first place! He left last night to go there, so the last few days were busy with packing. We'll live - and now I can start looking for jobs more seriously.

2. We just got back from stake conference down in Garland - the "general adult" session was at my building last night, and I had gotten asked last Sunday to give the opening prayer for that session. A little scary for the first time having to do something like that at the stake level, but I lived. The talks were good.

3. My sister went on Trek last Thursday and Friday (for those who aren't in Utah, it's an event put on by the different stakes of the Church here that has the youth acting like the handcart pioneers of the late 1850's and pushing handcarts for 3 days and doing other activities (square dancing, etc.)

She had a little too much fun dancing and pushing - her legs are still sore and it's 3 days later.

4. I've been working on different things in Perl - submitted a patch to the local::lib maintainers to make that module work on a Windows system at all and another patch to the DBD::mysql maintainers to make building that module much easier using Strawberry Perl so that we can include an up-to-date version of it in Strawberry, and releasing Beta 2 of STrawberry. (The goal date for "out-of-beta" is July 13th.)

I'm going to have to write an article on how to build CPAN modules under Strawberry Perl...

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• 22:40 Things have been busy the last few weeks - everybody is looking for work. I see a few possibilities, however. #

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• 18:55 Whoa! Rain! Just as we were taking down said garage sale. I wasn't expecting a gullywasher right now! #

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• 18:10 Busy with garage sale today. Tomorrow, too. #

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