MWC

BYU creamed Air Force today. UNLV creamed U of U.


All is well in the Mountain West Conference.

Wearing Green isn't Enough

You may have heard about the protests in Jena, Louisana this week regarding unjust punishments for racial violence in the small town. When I first heard about the story I was appalled. I just couldn't wrap my head around the blatant racism that was being tolerated.

When I saw a group on Facebook called something like "Wear Green on 20 September for the Jena Six I was happy to do so. Then when I got to work I told some co-workers about the importance of wearing green today, but they hadn't even heard of the Jena Six. I went online to see what I could find about the wearing of green and to see how many people knew about it. (I had heard about it only because a girl from high school joined the group, and so it came up in my newsreel).

One article really got my attention. The basic premise was, "Wearing green is not going to do anything to solve the racial injustices that are still going on in this country. If you want to do something about it, you need to do more than wear green." That really struck me.

So I wrote a letter to Orrin Hatch tonight. I mentioned that although racial tension isn't much of an issue in Utah, it is a national issue. I emphasized that if he would speak about it, more people would realize what a problem it is. He would be able to put pressure on the Louisiana senators to step in. I think it especially would matter because it would be a white man speaking on behalf of black boys. That would show that even white people recognize racial injustice when they see it.

Ward Paintivity

This Saturday there is an activity in our new ward. From what I understand, the leader of the activities committee (or at least somebody on said committee) really enjoys running.

And so we are having a "Fun Run." The route is two miles long and winds through the ward boundaries, which means that it will be hilly. The gun goes off at 8 a.m.

There are few things I hate more than (1) Running and (2) Not being able to sleep in on Saturdays.

I just don't like to run. It hurts my body. It hurts my knees. It hurts my lungs. Walking is fine, but I'd rather do it in a canyon.

And why, oh why, do I have to be there at 7:45 on a SATURDAY MORNING?

With this sort of painful activity planned, I'm pretty sure next month's activity will involve flogging.

The Spouse

Today is Eric's birthday. He picked me up early from work so we could spend the day together. We went straight home and took a nap together. Then we went to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. Eric really loves walking around up there. The gardens are quite beautiful. I especially love the Secret Garden and the Rose Garden. I mostly love the gardens in late April during the Tulip Festival, but it's quite nice in mid-September as well.

After our wanderings we went to the restaurant up there called The Harvest. Eric used to work there when it was called the Garden Wall. We ate food. My soup was great and Eric's meal was great, but my meal was less than stellar. Much less than stellar. Ah well, when we go back many moons from now, I will not order that food. We also got free dessert because of the birthday.

And now for a few reasons why I love Eric:

• He is always, always, always nice to me. Even when I probably deserve less than that.
• He knows how to have fun.
  
• He is very observant of everything, especially of pretty things. He always notices beautiful scenery. When we're driving I'm constantly reminding him to watch the road instead of looking at the foliage, the sky or the mountains.
• He is funny. I wish I could tell you what makes him funny. He just is. Oh, here's an example. Today when we were leaving the gardens, we saw a fox near the road, and he stopped so I could take a picture. After a couple of tries I said, "All of my pictures keep turning out blurry." To which Eric replied, "That's what happens to me any time I try to photograph Bigfoot."
• He gets really excited about the accomplishments of those he loves. His parents, his siblings, me- anyone he cares about. He really is thrilled when good things happen for them.
• Sometimes he lets me win games and he doesn't let me know he threw the game.
  

And those are just a few reasons that Eric is fantastic. Happy birthday!

Indexing

When a day of work is done, all I want to do is nothing. Nothing whatsoever. Eric usually wants me to do something that isn't nothing.

Lately I've taken to focusing my efforts on nothing toward FamilySearch Indexing which is actually not nothing at all. It's really a great program. Basically it's an extraction program. You download a batch, extract the information that the program tells you to extract, and then send it back to FamilySearch. Eventually FamilySearch wants to have the entirety of the LDS Family History Library completely indexed. That's quite a lofty goal, and I'm keen to help.

So far I've index 2,153 names. Usually I index census pages, which almost always have 50 names per sheet. I've also indexed Revolutionary War Pension files as well as Land Bounty Warrants. All of these are really important records for anybody doing genealogy on their American ancestors. But don't fear, FamilySearch isn't just focusing on American records. Poles are indexing Polish records; Russians are indexing Russian records; Mexicans are indexing Mexican records, and so on.

My goal is to have indexed 10,000 names by the end of the year. And also to get some of you to start indexing! In just 15 minutes a day, you can accomplish quite a lot. I usually can finish one census page in 15 minutes, but I'm pretty fast. I think the average is about 25-30 minutes per census page. Lots of people are indexing. You should help out. You'll never know when you'll need an indexed census.

Business News

When my boss called me into his office on Tuesday, my first concern, albeit irrational, was, "I'm fired. They don't like me anymore." Then I got into his office and he let me know of some things going on in the company and some things he wanted me to work on. I'm not fired. Good enough for me. Then he asked me if I might be interested in doing some traveling for the company. I'm thinking some various conferences across the country. "Sure, I'd be willing to do that." Then he said, "I'm doing too much international traveling and not getting enough accomplished, so we might be sending you to negotiate contracts internationally. We'll probably send you to Australia, maybe to Paris, and maybe to Mexico City." I told him that sounded great.

What I meant was, "ARE YOU KIDDING? OF COURSE I WANT TO TRAVEL THE WORLD AND NEGOTIATE CONTRACTS!"

When will I go? Later, but soonish. We've got to get some contracts underway.

How will I fly? Coach. Sadly.

Who will I meet with? Various archive officials and content-managers of genealogy companies like ours.

Am I excited? Heck yes.

And I've got to get a passport.