Have you ever had a class where you go in and learn something, something that may even make total sense, but then be left wondering, "But...why did I need to learn that?" One might think of earlier times when things such as Calculus, Statistics, or maybe English class seem irrelevant. Looking back, however, there's almost some potential for application. Well today I had one of those moments. We learned about Factorization--basically, a matrix A can be separated into two other matrices, L times U (a lower and an upper triangular matrix), and after the fact I just had to ask myself: "Why did we just learn that?" Just a funny little thought, and I don't mean to sound irritated--really, I thought it was quite funny. Still, I couldn't help but think to my Physics classes where it seems that you never learn anything without obvious implications. Ha ha, I guess you could say I'm glad that that's what I'm going to. Don't get me wrong; I love math and all, but sometimes things can seem a bit...over the top. I'll definitely be interested to see what comes of this class in the future...
~The L.o.t.S. Writer
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
BYU Devotional: President Monson
Wow, what a great devotional! It was wonderful to be able to hear from our Prophet, and it was amazing to feel his spirit as he spoke. Alas, I was unable to go to the Marriott Center due to 9:00 class (I figured the place would be packed), but even over the air it's amazing the Spirit that President Monson brings. For those who missed it the talk was entertaining, as is typical of President Monson. The messages taught were excellently woven into stories of the prophets during President Monson's lifetime, making for a devotional which was both educational and uplifting, and really a good reminder of the power of the Prophet's calling.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Almost there...
Life is so good. It's Thursday and I've only got an exam left before the weekend! It's always so good to get the week's work done, and with Friday left I feel like I can get a head start on my next week. One thing I'm realizing now is that after really trying to break you the first week or so, things seem to be slowing down. And with that slowing, it's finally starting to feel like I can have some time to myself. And of course that means, time to work on Lett's Legacy. With the story written and edited, I'm hoping that soon I'll get the time to get to the BYU Publications Lab and learn some more about publishing my book. With any luck I'll be well on my way to a published book by the end of the year! (well, I hope so anyways).
- The LotS Writer
- The LotS Writer
Friday, September 4, 2009
One Week Down
Alright, so after a several-week hiatus, I'm finally writing again. Life's been pretty crazy as of late, and with school at the Y starting I've hardly gotten a moment to myself (or at least a long enough moment to worry about anything like writing a blog). But now, with a three-day weekend commencing, it's about time I add another entry. So here we go!
Things over here have been going fairly well--I've been chugging along, trying to keep up with my classes. Of course, it didn't help that all three of my Monday classes gave me a double load of homework. Their usual line was: "You should have read that before class, but you can read it along with today's assignment." Evil, considering that lead to probably around 100 or so pages to be read in two days. So yeah, it's been busy, but now it's the weekend, meaning three days to try to get ahead. My classes have generally proved interesting thus far--I'm really looking forward to learning about electricity and magnetism in Physics 220 and about linear algebra in Math 313, though I wish I could remember all the math I forgot in the last two years. There's also CS 142--Intro to Programming--which is turning out a lot simpler than I had anticipated, and really should be quite enjoyable. The Tuesday and Thursday selection is decent, with a very engaging New Testament teacher who is very passionate about what she teaches. I wish I could say the same for my Psychology class, however. Now, I don't want to rant about it, but the professor for that class seems a bit...lacking, in the enthusiasm department, though perhaps that's just my perception, considering I've learned a lot of the material we've covered already through high school psychology and statistics classes. We'll see where it leads. Anyways, I've probably rambled on enough, so perhaps I'll describe Social Dance and Computer Physics Lab at a later point. For now, let's move on, shall we?
Now I'm sure after last entry that somewhere out there there's someone who wants an update on my book, right? Well, I've finished the editing I wanted to do--now on to publishing. Of course, upon looking into the topic I was quite overwhelmed, and with school looming closer at the time I decided to leave it for the time and see what I could find over in Provo. If you haven't guessed it yet, I haven't had any time to deal with that yet. Don't lose hope yet, though--as soon as I've got the classes under control my next goal will be to start searching for a publisher! In fact, perhaps to see if anyone will give me a response (or if anyone has even read this far), I'd welcome any and all suggestions as for places to look into for publishing or any general ideas whatsoever. I hope to hear from you all (or at least those who care much about it) and I'll sign off for now. Until next time!
Things over here have been going fairly well--I've been chugging along, trying to keep up with my classes. Of course, it didn't help that all three of my Monday classes gave me a double load of homework. Their usual line was: "You should have read that before class, but you can read it along with today's assignment." Evil, considering that lead to probably around 100 or so pages to be read in two days. So yeah, it's been busy, but now it's the weekend, meaning three days to try to get ahead. My classes have generally proved interesting thus far--I'm really looking forward to learning about electricity and magnetism in Physics 220 and about linear algebra in Math 313, though I wish I could remember all the math I forgot in the last two years. There's also CS 142--Intro to Programming--which is turning out a lot simpler than I had anticipated, and really should be quite enjoyable. The Tuesday and Thursday selection is decent, with a very engaging New Testament teacher who is very passionate about what she teaches. I wish I could say the same for my Psychology class, however. Now, I don't want to rant about it, but the professor for that class seems a bit...lacking, in the enthusiasm department, though perhaps that's just my perception, considering I've learned a lot of the material we've covered already through high school psychology and statistics classes. We'll see where it leads. Anyways, I've probably rambled on enough, so perhaps I'll describe Social Dance and Computer Physics Lab at a later point. For now, let's move on, shall we?
Now I'm sure after last entry that somewhere out there there's someone who wants an update on my book, right? Well, I've finished the editing I wanted to do--now on to publishing. Of course, upon looking into the topic I was quite overwhelmed, and with school looming closer at the time I decided to leave it for the time and see what I could find over in Provo. If you haven't guessed it yet, I haven't had any time to deal with that yet. Don't lose hope yet, though--as soon as I've got the classes under control my next goal will be to start searching for a publisher! In fact, perhaps to see if anyone will give me a response (or if anyone has even read this far), I'd welcome any and all suggestions as for places to look into for publishing or any general ideas whatsoever. I hope to hear from you all (or at least those who care much about it) and I'll sign off for now. Until next time!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
To Fincaldon and Beyond
To commemorate reaching Fincaldon in my editing of Lett's Legacy I am...making a blog. Well, it's the best I can do, really. But why should I celebrate reaching the continent of Fincaldon? Fincaldon really opens a new phase in the book, as it is in Fincaldon that ties to earlier books in the series begin to form and be hinted at. Take Grimham, for example. Just your regular crazy guy, right? But he leads on that he actually knows a lot more about Lett and his destiny than has previously been revealed. Add on to that, in this part we get another tantalizing hint that there's more to Lett's old instructor than meets the eye. What is that something? You'll have to wait and see when you read the book, but I've got to say that reaching this part is exciting for me as the writer because this is also where another major nemesis of Lett is introduced in Ferandie, who later grows to be one of the antagonists of Lett that the reader gets to associate with the best, and he's just the right person to be the villain that you just can't help but hate.
For a brief review of the plot (without ruining the storyline, hopefully), our hero, Lett, is discovered as the first human wizard, and very shortly in the book we learn that he has the legendary Master Staff, an ancient weapon that supposedly has "the power to destroy armies". Lett, led by an intense curiosity, an appetite for adventure, and a developing sense of responsibilities, takes the reader through various adventures where he makes various friends, including the lovable Rallin and the ever-loyal Swilt, and gets into plenty of predicaments as he begins learning to be the Staff Bearer that he must become in a world of increasing dangers as threats from an army of dark creatures, at the command of the mysterious "Dark One," come to destroy all who would oppose them, from the Bavaroh Forest to the Armanose and Aquidian Kingdoms. Throughout this first portion of the story Lett collects the various Elemental Staffs, aiding him in his magical abilities of things ranging from flight to moving the very ground he walks on. And all of that is packed into just the first half of the story, only to have the plotline continue to thicken as we proceed into the second half of Lett's exciting adventure. Will Lett be able to stop the armies of the Dark One and save the world? Well, if I told you that there'd be no point in reading the story, would there?
So yeah, I'm excited. But that's enough rambling. Wanna know more? Leave me a message or send me an email!
The L.o.t.S. Writer
For a brief review of the plot (without ruining the storyline, hopefully), our hero, Lett, is discovered as the first human wizard, and very shortly in the book we learn that he has the legendary Master Staff, an ancient weapon that supposedly has "the power to destroy armies". Lett, led by an intense curiosity, an appetite for adventure, and a developing sense of responsibilities, takes the reader through various adventures where he makes various friends, including the lovable Rallin and the ever-loyal Swilt, and gets into plenty of predicaments as he begins learning to be the Staff Bearer that he must become in a world of increasing dangers as threats from an army of dark creatures, at the command of the mysterious "Dark One," come to destroy all who would oppose them, from the Bavaroh Forest to the Armanose and Aquidian Kingdoms. Throughout this first portion of the story Lett collects the various Elemental Staffs, aiding him in his magical abilities of things ranging from flight to moving the very ground he walks on. And all of that is packed into just the first half of the story, only to have the plotline continue to thicken as we proceed into the second half of Lett's exciting adventure. Will Lett be able to stop the armies of the Dark One and save the world? Well, if I told you that there'd be no point in reading the story, would there?
So yeah, I'm excited. But that's enough rambling. Wanna know more? Leave me a message or send me an email!
The L.o.t.S. Writer
Friday, July 31, 2009
The Trouble with Work
Has anyone noticed that whenever you have something you really want to do that about ten minutes into doing that thing you start to feel distracted, like there's something else you want to be doing. Heh heh, I guess that something else right now is this blog. I've thought about making a blog for a while as a way of keeping friends and family updated on my life, and now I've finally gotten around to it. Sure, there are plenty of tools like facebook, myspace, email, and telephone calls that could work, but the former two seem a bit...lacking, in the details area, while the latter two can be time consuming (especially phone calls), and honestly sometimes it can be difficult to try and express things to meet people's individual means. And mass emails can just be obnoxious, forcing people to read about your life even if they don't want to--or missing people who want to hear about you that you DON'T think to email. So I figure a blog may be a good remedy to that problem.
So, the reason for the title of this blog is mostly to announce that I've now gotten over one hundred pages of The Legend of the Staff: Lett's Legacy edited, and now I've just got a little over 200 pages left to go. I thought originally that it would go faster, but that's the trouble with work--distractions. And since coming home from Minnesota two months ago there have been plenty of those. But I'm still hoping to finish editing in good time, though my goal of finishing before school starts is quickly slipping away from me. Alas, but what can you do, really?
Anyways, that's my blog for now. Go ahead and post comments or email me or whatever, and I'll try and get back to you. If I've neglected talking to you, it's probably just because I've got so many things that I want to do that I miss out on talking with people. But hey, send me an email and we'll chat. Until next time!
The L.o.t.S. Writer
So, the reason for the title of this blog is mostly to announce that I've now gotten over one hundred pages of The Legend of the Staff: Lett's Legacy edited, and now I've just got a little over 200 pages left to go. I thought originally that it would go faster, but that's the trouble with work--distractions. And since coming home from Minnesota two months ago there have been plenty of those. But I'm still hoping to finish editing in good time, though my goal of finishing before school starts is quickly slipping away from me. Alas, but what can you do, really?
Anyways, that's my blog for now. Go ahead and post comments or email me or whatever, and I'll try and get back to you. If I've neglected talking to you, it's probably just because I've got so many things that I want to do that I miss out on talking with people. But hey, send me an email and we'll chat. Until next time!
The L.o.t.S. Writer
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