Las Vegas

I went to Las Vegas over the weekend. I don't really feel like saying too much about it, so I'll put up some pictures ans comment on them a little.

Here's a pretty landscape I took the second evening we were there:


On Saturday we went to Tournament of Kings at Excalibur:

It was a lot of fun. You get dinner, which you have to eat with your hands, and they have knights jousting and fighting and stuff. The meal started with a bowl of dragon blood soup, also known as tomato soup with cheddar cheese melted in. Then they bring you out a platter containing broccoli, steak fries, a roll, and a game hen. Dessert was some type of pastry that was alright. And you're drinking Pepsi this entire time. We were seated in Spain, but sadly our King didn't win, and was killed, twice. I don't have any pictures of the action, because they are strictly forbidden, but I managed to snag a shot or two of the food, but they didn't turn out very well, since I didn't use a flash.


This picture I took specifically for Lavish because of a conversation we had the other day. But, sorry Lavish, I didn't buy you anything.


After the show we trekked over to the Bellagio and visited the atrium that they always have decorated. This time it's decorated with a Route 66 theme. Here are the little jumping water fountains which we always enjoy.


They also had some amazing rose arrangements.


Then we headed outside to the big Bellagio fountains, which are still my favorite attraction in Vegas. I really tried to remove the "Bally's" building from the picture with GIMP, but, alas, my photo editing skills seem to be lacking.


On the way home we stopped by the Las Vegas Temple. I took some really nice pictures of the front, but my camera apparently didn't like them, because there's a 4 picture gap on my camera. Very strange.


And, of course, we did some shopping while down there, but I don't have any pictures from it. I got a sweet jacket from Express, and a shirt from Banana Republic because they had some 50+ % off sales going on.

Why?

So, over the years I have had a number friends who are girls, as well as a few girlfriends. In my recollection I think that at some point in conversations with these girls many of them have said something along the lines of "Curious Physics Minor, why are you so nice to me?" And I think to myself what a sad statement that really is. I don't think that I'm overly nice, I'm just me. But I'm learning that I must be wrong in my hope that most guys are nice to girls, because, apparently, that isn't the case. Which makes me sad. Why aren't people nicer to each other, and more specifically, why aren't guys nicer to girls? Why do girls put up with guys that aren't nice to them?

I remember a friend I had in high school. She was in a bad relationship for something like 2 years before a small group of us that cared convinced her that the guy was a bastard (pardon my French). He insulted her, blamed her for his problems, pretty much just treated her like crap; but she'd always say things like, "He's not so bad", "He apologizes afterwards", "He's nice sometimes". We'd just shake our heads and feel sad for her. She finally got out of the relationship, and has since hopped from bad relationship to bad relationship. She tells me she's in a good relationship now, which I really hope is true because she's a great girl.

So.

Guys, shape up and be nice to girls.

Girls, don't put up with jerks. Kick them out on the street and don't let them come back.

Adventuring

I spent Thursday through Saturday in a bit of a depressed funk. But it's passed for the moment, and I think I'll be good through my coming escape to Las Vegas. I watched "Howl's Moving Castle" in the JFSB courtyard on Friday evening, it was actually quite good; the free ice cream novelties was a nice bonus to the free movie.

Lavish and I have decided to complete the Utah Valley Adventure Passport thingies that came in the mail a couple weeks ago. Yesterday we loaded up a car and drove the Alpine Loop from Provo Canyon to American Fork Canyon, stopping at Cascade Springs along the way. It was quite nice; clean, cool air; relaxing; beautiful views (I wanted to use the word vistas, but Microsoft has forever tainted it).

As soon as I get the pictures from her I'll put some up here; but they'll probably show up on her blog first.

Philosophy from Atlas Shrugged

I've bee reading Atlas Shrugged, it having been recommended to me a number of times. It's a long book, 1168 pages, and takes a little while to get going, but I'm quite enjoying it now (pg 533). I've come across two monologues that I really liked. One was by the character Francisco D'Anconia, and it pertained to the true nature of money and how hard money (meaning things that were valued in and of themselves: gold, silver, etc) was a mark of a prosperous civilization. Without hard money a nation will never progress at a rate rapid enough to amount to anything. Our current system is based on fiat money, it has value simply because the government says it has value. While this is better than a barter system, it is still much more volatile than a hard money system. Fiat money systems can be controlled and manipulated by persons in power, simply by decreeing a change in the system. Anyways, I don't remember the whole monologue, but it was quite impressive, and didn't use the strict terminology I've employed here.

The second monologue I found just as interesting though, and provided a new look into the human mind. It begins on page 489 in my book, in the chapter entitled "The Sanction of the Victim"; it is also given by Francisco D'Anconia.

" ... The men who think that wealth comes from material resources and has no intellectual root or meaning, are the men who think-- for the same reason-- that sex is a physical capacity which functions independently of one's mind, choice or code of values. They think that your body creates a desire and makes a choice for you-- just about in some such way as if iron ore transformed itself into railroad rails of its own volition. Love is blind, they say; sex is impervious to reason and mocks the power of all philosophers. But, in fact, a man's sexual choice is the result and the sum of his fundamental convictions. Tell me what a man finds sexually attractive and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life. Show me the woman he sleeps with and I will tell you his valuation of himself. No matter what corruption he's taught about the virtue of selflessness, sex is the most profoundly selfish of all acts, an act which he cannot perform for any motive but is own enjoyment-- just try to think of performing it in a spirit of selfless charity!-- an act which is not possible in self-abasement, only in self-exaltation, only in the confidence of being desired, and being worthy of desire. It is an act that forces him to stand naked in spirit, as well as in body, and to accept his real ego as his standard of value. He will always be attracted to the woman who reflects his deepest vision of himself, the woman whose surrender permits him to experience-- or to fake-- a sense of self-esteem.

.....

Let a man corrupt his values and his view of existence, let him profess that love is not self-enjoyment but self-denial, that virtue consists, not of pride, but of pity or pain or weakness or sacrifice, that the noblest love is born, not of admiration, but of charity, not in response to values, but in response to flaws-- and he will have to cut himself in two. His body will not obey him, it will not respond, it will make him impotent toward the woman he professes to love and draw him to the lowest type of whore he can find.... He has damned himself and he will feel that depravity is all he is worthy of enjoying. He has equated virtue with pain and he will feel that vice is the only realm of pleasure. Then he will scream that his body has vicious desires of its own which his mind cannot conquer, that sex is sin, that true love is a pure emotion of the spirit. And then he will wonder why love brings him nothing but boredom, and sex-- nothing but shame."

Just some things to think about.

Short Circuit 2

My apartment watched Short Circuit 2 last night. As I was watching it, I became really excited about a book I bought last semester but haven't had a chance to read yet. It's something about Philosophy as explained by Science Fiction Movies. I need to get through the final 3/5 of Atlas Shrugged so that I can read that book. The main human character of the movie is, of course, a complete geek who happens to have feelings for the main female lead. He enters into a conversation with Johnny 5 about human relationships and how complicated they are. For some reason I found it really interesting when he explained something about how there are 6 billion of us on this planet but even getting just two together in a meaningful way seems so impossible at times. Then Johnny 5 tried to express his feelings of loneliness and depression, and relate them to the many things he had read in the books; part of me wishes I didn't know quite so well what he meant.

Anywho, I'm hoping that I'll find something fun to do this weekend; or at least get a bunch of reading done.

My Birthday

Saturday was my birthday. Via the board titlebar, I wished myself a happy birthday. It was quite enjoyable. Here is the cake my sister made for me:



The city of Orem was kind enough to provide fireworks for the occasion. I hope you all enjoyed them as much as I did.

Dating Application

By popular demand I have created a CPM Dating Application. You can find the link under "Links" on the right hand side of your screen. Please email the completed application to curious (dot) physics (dot) minor (at) gmail (dot) com. I will try to respond in a timely manner. Thanks!

More ridiculous exercise

On Saturday I woke up around 8 and decided to ride my bike. I ate breakfast, showered, etc and then got on my bike. I rode to 900 East, rode down 900 East to State Street and took that to the Springville border. I did have a purpose in this trip though. I was looking for somewhere to live in the Fall. I saw a number of place; but none that seemed to fit both my budget and my atmosphere. I rode up the bench of a couple of times, and looked at some nice houses back near the Juvenile Detention Center. Coming back down that hill I broke my speed record (I have a speedometer on my bike). Previously my speed record had been 30.1 mph coming down the hill from Orem to Provo. But I hit 32.9 mph on Saturday, it was cool. The round-trip distance of the ride was around 17 miles, but I didn't feel terribly tired.

When I arrived home I hopped online and continued my housing search. I found a couple places to go check out, but decided to drive as the day was getting much hotter, and I hadn't brought any water with me on my biking excursion. So I drove around and checked out some other places, still not finding anything too great. Then I stumbled upon two houses out on the west side of the highway. I would really like to live in one of them, but it would be too expensive as well (about $400 a month after utilities/internet/etc). [sigh]. Oh well. My search continues.

So if anyone knows of any decent places to live for under $300 a month let me know. I have graduated so I don't have to live in the artificially created BYU bubble, moving outside of that zone is my main goal right now.

Running

I woke up Thursday morning at about 6:50 am. My alarm was set for 8. I couldn't sleep. So I got up and headed out on the Provo River Trail. I ran all the way down to Geneva Road and back, a 6 mile trip. I've never run that far in one go before. I don't know why I did it, but I did. Part of my life is becoming very complicated right now. Perhaps I just needed some physical exhaustion. I'm hoping that I will sleep better tonight, but I don't think I will.