My Philosophy

All of my beliefs, opinions, and thoughts are fluid and subject to change based on new information. I don’t like to argue or disagree but instead find the commonalities and see where I can change and improve myself. Of all the truths that exist in the universe, I know only a very small amount of them. Of those truths I know, they are filtered through my biases, prejudices, and preconceived notions which makes them distorted. I only know a very small amount of distorted truths which keeps me from judging others or arguing with them because I think we are all doing our best with the limited information we have. Think it is best to cooperate and help each other improve. 

I don’t believe in terms like “wrong” or “bad” or any other terms with a strong negative connotation. I think all things come down to differences in opinion and it is alright to be different. Because I only know a limited number of distorted truths, I don’t think it is my place to use negative judgmental terms. I often find that the way we treat others is a reflection on the relationship we have with ourselves. I use positive affirmations three times a day and treat myself kindly, as a result, I find it easy to be kind to those around me. I chose my actions based on the goal that I want to maintain positive, long-term, healthy relationships and weigh possible behaviors with that in mind.

Thoughts on feedback and conflict resolution

Conflict Resolution Goal: Positive solution-oriented discussion. 

Desired Discussion

If there is a word or action I took with you that you didn't like, I would like to know. I would like to have a discussion to resolve this and I don't mind making changes to improve our relationship.

Communication Philosophy

My goal in personal and professional communication is to build a healthy long-term relationship through uplifting, positive, solution-oriented discussions.

Boundaries

Limits: Taking actions towards me I have specifically asked someone not to make (Negative labels; Talking with healing emotions; or Indirect problem solving).

Definitions

Limits: Things that would result in me taking some space if crossed. Example: I would walk away.

Negative labels: Using a word with a negative connotation to describe me as a person or my actions. 

Talking with healing emotions: Talking in a raised voice as an example. As opposed to talking about healing emotions.

Healing Emotions¹: The big 3 are anger, fear, and sadness.

Indirect problem solving: If someone else has an issue with me, they can resolve it directly with me. I do not wish to talk about it through a third party.

Examples

Example 1, presenting solutions: I noticed you said "f*%k" when talking to me yesterday at lunch, if instead you could say "shoot", or some other word I would appreciate that. Is that something that works for you? [talking in a positive, collaborative way]

Example 2, presenting solutions: When you said "it is dumb" when talking to me about the leadership flowchart on Tuesday, it hurt my feelings. Instead, could you describe what what specifically about it that you did not like? I don't mind making changes to improve the flowchart. [talking in a positive, collaborative way]

Q&A

Question 1: If you said something that really hurt me, I am going to get angry when I talk with you about it. How could I talk without anger?

Answer 1: I will take space if approached in anger. How I handle big or repeated problems: 

1. Healing emotion: I feel a strong healing emotion because something happed which I don't like.
2. Recognition: I thank my body for bringing to my attention something I don't like so I can plan a course of action.
3. Take space: After recognizing, I ask to take some space if the situation is ongoing. Within the next few days, I take the rest of the steps.
4. Feeling better exercises: I feel all three of the healing emotions, imagine the person saying and doing what I need to forgive them, and then I forgive them.
5. Problem solving: I imagine a situation where the person conveyed the same information to me in multiple other ways I like, so I can focus on positive solutions. This likely involves talking to a therapist or an expert on the subject or doing research on my own. Sometimes I find out that this issue has nothing to do with the other person and is a trigger from my own past, in which case there is no need to bring it up to the other person and I then go through feeling better exercises for the original trigger.
6. Presenting solutions, preparation: Before I bring anything up to the person, I state positive affirmations until I am in a positive mental state, then I ask if the person is ready to have a brainstorming discussion. If the answer is yes or they need some time, we can have a positive discussion. If the answer is no, I will likely be taking more space from this person in the future.
7. Presenting solutions, application: I noticed when X happened, you took Y action, which was OK. I was hoping to brainstorm some alternative actions together, I came up with a few and I would like to know if any of these work for you. Present some alternative actions ...

Question 2: What if I am upset because I know someone has a problem with you? What if I feel you should know?

Answer 2: That is someone else's issue at this point, if you make it my issue, that is crossing my limit. I suggest you talk with the person who has a problem directly and encourage them to resolve the issue directly. There are also third-party intermediaries who are specially trained to deal with these sorts of indirect conflicts if that is the only way forward. I will only agree to third party indirect arbitration if this is mandated by law, if not, the answer is no. A professionally trained arbiter will likely have the two parties present with the arbiter to manage a dispute through open dialog.

Notes:

1: Healing Emotions are traditionally called "negative" emotions. They are recommended to no longer be called this due to the negative connotation of this word. These emotions can be used to positively change our lives. Source: Mars and Venus Starting Over: A Practical Guide for Finding Love Again After a Painful Breakup, Divorce, or the Loss of a Loved One - By John Grey PhD.

3D Models of home on 4913 Boyd Drive

Moved my model page from my Google Drive account to my Blogger account.

This is because Google is deprecating web hosting in Google Drive for users and developers.

3D Warehouse - House Interior




3D Warehouse - House Exterior



Sketchfab Interior



Sketchfab Exterior

Lego Phone Stand

Here is a 180 degree panorama of my Lego Galaxy Nexus Phone stand at work.

Purchasing Second-Hand is a Moral Grey Area

Posted in response to Xbox One: Do we have a moral right to sell used games?

I agree that purchasing used media (books, DVDs, CDs, Video Games, etc.) bypasses paying the people who helped produce the content.

Despite all the hype, there aren't any "evil corporations" making millions on the backs of innocent consumers. Making media is a cooperative effort usually involving hundreds if not thousands of hard working individuals. I believe that the people who worked to make the content possible should be compensated for their efforts.

When purchasing media content, the physical hardware is not being purchased. Using books as an example, users don't care about the ink, paper, or binding materials as these only make up one-tenth the cost of the book; what they care about is the content. The right to consume (view, read, etc.) the content is what is being purchased.

Consumers are the ones who set prices depending on the rate of "sharing" that takes place. The more people in society are comfortable sharing media (instead of purchasing it), the higher the price for the media needs to be. The cost to create the media is set by industry (wages, etc.), the cost per media unit is set by the total number of media units expected to be purchased by first users. If only a small group of first users are expected, then the cost per media unit will go up. If a large group of first users are expected, then the cost per media unit will go down. While this is usually not seen in micro-scale economics, it can be seen at the macro-scale with overall trends in media costs. I must admit this principle works in both directions, higher initial costs usually result in more sharing of content.

There was so much music sharing at one time, some experts predicted several music labels would collapse.

While I do purchase used content frequently, I do wish there was a donation button where I could contribute something to the original content producers - to help encourage the long term trend of lower first costs.

Talks, Papers, and Other Documents

Here is a listing of all the documents I have written. Clicking a title will open up the document in webview mode. Will be using this in many cases instead of blog posts.

Church:
Living a Life of Peace, Joy, and Purpose - Talk given in Sacrament meeting on 3/9/2014
Atheism in Public Schools - Personal belief about what is taught in public schools on 9/16/2012
Faith - Talk on the importance and reason for faith on 5/19/2005
Holy Ghosts Role in Scripture Study - Talk written in 2013
Home Teaching and Actions - Talk written on 1/26/2012

Explained: Google Personalized Ads

A Google advertising bot displays advertisement based on your search history and email content. (Similar to search bots which identify words and links in webpages). This works in the same way as a MS Word document and any other program that can find text. For a Word document, when you hit Ctrl+V a script runs which matches a string of characters in the document to the characters you type in the search box. This is how how a Google advertising bot finds text in your email and Google searches. Although the Google bot may seem to be understanding what you are saying, it can't read or understand what you are writing any more than a MS Word document can, it's just a word search tool in this regard.

Once the advertising keywords are found in your search text or email, the corresponding advertisement is then linked to your account.

Why did Google do this?
This generates advertisements which are more relevant to users - benefiting the user (who sees more things they like) and advertiser (who get more clicks). ISPs, websites, and advertising networks all have ways of tracking your online behavior. Cookies are the most direct way of tracking user behavior, although there are many more. What Google also did was allow its users to control the type of information that is shared with advertisers, which you can do right here:

http://google.com/settings/ads

This tool also allows you to block adds you do not want to see. Keep in mind, none of this is new or coming from Google, Google is simply using existing tools which everyone else uses. Google simply gave this personalization, control, and transparency over to users due to their philosophy - don't be evil.

Does Google show you adds based on your location?
Yes, Google, like all other ISPs, websites, and advertising networks, track your location via your IP address. If you own a cell phone, your provider also tracks your location information (as well as any other applications you allow access, such as Facebook).

Hotel - Breakfast Comedy (not being serious)

My family is really enjoying the hotel stay, but there are some things we are getting used to. The most annoying of which is you have to get dressed up for breakfast, who wants to go through all that hassle. I prefer my morning meal in the nude. Now I know what you are thinking, "But what about your children?" No need to worry, I have spoken to my children's therapist who tells me they are doing fine. They are so alright with it, that nude breakfast is a family affair. As an added bonus it also makes cleaning up the kids afterward a breeze. Just squeegee all the spilled food off of them.
When we checked into our hotel the staff said to treat our hotel stay as our home away from home. Needless to say our first time to the buffet breakfast was a rude awakening.
Hotel staff, "What are you all doing?!?"
Me, "I thought you said this hotel was accommodating?"

Teaching Megan about the Godhead

One night I was teaching my daughter about the Godhead. I told her about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I gave her a 20 minute lesson on each member. At the end of the lesson I asked Megan who the three members of the Godhead are. At which time Megan said, "I don't know."
Me, "We just had a lesson on these people and repeated their names many times so how do you not know their names?"
Megan, "I forgot."
Sighing I say, " I will give you a few minutes to think about it."
About a minute later, Megan tentatively asked, "Jesus?"
"Yes, very good, one of the members of the Godhead is Jesus Christ. How about the other two?"
"I don't remember."
"You don't have to answer immediately, you can think about it."
After more time passes Megan says, "I don't remember."
"OK I will give you a hint, one of them is a spirit that dwells inside you."
"The Holy Ghost?"
"You are doing great, who is the last member of the Godhead? He is a person you pray to every night."
"Jesus?"
"Close, we pray through Jesus Christ, but who to we pray to?"
"I don't know."
"Well start saying a prayer and you will say his name almost immediately."
"I already said my prayers."
"Yes but you are having problems remembering this member of the Godhead, so start saying a prayer and you will say is name."
"I see his name in my mind."
"OK so tell me his name."
"I see it in my mind."
Exasperation starting to enter my voice, "Then tell me his name."
After a brief pause Megan defeatedly says, "I don't know his name."
Reassuringly, "OK then start saying a prayer and you will say his name."
"I already said my prayers"
"Just start saying a prayer!"
"OK, OK."
After a noticeable pause, Megan whispers in my ear, "How do I say a prayer?"
Sighing, "You just finished saying a prayer tonight and you say a prayer every day, how on earth could you forget to pray?"
"I don't know."
"OK," I take a deep breath, "we start prayer with 'Dear ...'"
Megan exclaims, "Heavenly Father!"
"You got it. I knew you knew his name."
We then both hug. Megan tells me how happy she is to get the answer.
Proudly I ask, "So who are the three members of the Godhead?"
Megan, "I forgot."
...

The Holy Ghost and Scripture

The scriptures have been given to us because through reading and living them the holy ghost is invited into our life. However, there is a catch, in order for us to read the scriptures for understanding and spiritual growth we must have the Holy Ghost already with us. So how do we get the spirit to be with us in the first place? The answer is through personal prayer. This is the reason we pray always, even before reading scriptures. Prayer combined with obedience opens the spiritual gateway for the Holy Ghost.
Knowledge of scriptures is good just as knowledge of the Holy Ghost is good. However, knowledge is not enough. Knowledge of purity is good, but living a pure life is much better. In the same way, knowledge of the gospel is good but living the principles and doctrines found in the gospel is much better. It is my belief that when we are at the judgement bar we will not be quizzed on our scriptural knowledge. Instead we will be asked what we did with the knowledge we have been given.
What this means to me in my personal life is when I read the scriptures I must experience a call to action. I must feel a strong connection to the spirit every time I read the scriptures; if I do not, then I am doing something wrong and I need to change. The Holy Ghost testifies of truth and calls us to action when it is needed. Whenever I behave in an unchristian way the spirit withdraws. When I subsequently read the scriptures I do not feel the spirit strongly until I take action and repent. Sometimes I forget, and when I sit down to read the scriptures I don't feel the spirit strongly. I then pray and ask Heavenly Father what it was I did that causes the spirit to withdrawal. Once I ask with sincere desire, the Holy Ghost brings to my remembrance the action I took that needs to change. This then allows me to repent and feel a powerful witness of the spirit which I can only describe as the most amazing feeling of joy I have ever experienced.
The savior distilled all the commandments given to us down to two fundamentals: love God and love our fellow man. I believe this can be reduced even more: follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost in all things.

Interesting Hotel Stay

I have stayed at a number of hotels and have some pretty interesting experience but the most interesting one happened last night. My wife and children just finished setting up our living arrangements and were heading down stairs for a walk. My wife grabbed the door handle and pulled it open to go down stairs but it wouldn't budge. I then tried twisting and pulling both possible ways but no go. We called down and a host came up to help but couldn't open the door either. Maintenance came up quickly after but had just as much success as the rest of us. After some supplies were gathered maintenance came back up and was able to pry the door open with a crow bar. Once the door was opened it was fairly apparent that the maintenance worker came to our aid directly from his house. The hotel staff were so nice and apologetic afterward and offered us whatever we wanted to make up for the inconvenience. It was only a fifteen minute wait so my wife and I mostly thought it was funny.

Animoto Video

Video I made in less than a minute using Animoto Video.

Home Repairs

I have been doing a lot of house repairs lately. I have installed automatic door closers on many of the doors in our house and have ordered more door closers for some exterior doors. If you are not already familiar with a door closer, it is a spring loaded hinge that attaches the door to the frame. The wider the door opened, the more resistance is felt and the faster the door closes. At this rate of installation, in the next few weeks most of the doors in my house will be nearly impossible to open but they will all close flawlessly. My wife had the most concerned with the bathroom door, as our youngest, Veronica, loves to get into this room and touch/lick everything. I put the highest setting on the door closer for the bathroom. Now most of our guests and young children rather pee in the hallway as opposed to opening the bathroom door. I am still very proud to get that closer installed. It only took 30 different power tools and six quick hours of intense manual labor. No longer will I have to be calling out to people to close a door in my house; all our doors slam shut nearly the moment they're opened. Our electricity bill has never been lower.

When I first looked into automatic door closers, I found a number of videos describing how to perform the installation yourself. These videos showed people smiling, laughing, and having a grand ol time installing door closers. These people described how easy it is to perform this installation. I quickly found out that they were all liars.
The first thing that should have tipped me off was that all the doors and framing displayed in these videos we're perfect geometric shapes. None of the existing doors and framing in my house came close to this ideal.
These Handymen showed how a door installation could be done in a few simple steps. When applying these steps to the doors and framing of my house (which were made in the late 1950s) the number of steps increased exponentially. I found the complexity of hanging a 1950s door roughly equates to that of performing brain surgery on someone born in the 1950s.
With that being said, I did find it to be a challenging and fulfilling experience. Which is why I will be doing it again for my external doors. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment

Fun with Bees

My family had an interesting experience today. About 10 bees came pouring out of our chimney this morning. I grabbed the kids and ran them into their room and close the door. Sarah was kind of panicking so wasn't much help at first. Then I took a Tupperware container with a lid and started catching the bees and releasing them outside. I know sometimes when they sting or die they can trigger other bees to attack. After several minutes Sarah also was able to grab a piece of Tupperware and help get the bees out of the house. After the 10 bees came through no other bees came down except for two 20 minutes later; after that Sarah covered up the fireplace with a plastic bag and secured it with tape. We had a local beekeeper come over to our house and see what was going on. Turns out a bunch of Scouter bees came down our chimney. The beekeeper verified there was no hive or so warm nearby. Still thought it was pretty scary/odd that so many came through at the exact same time but the beekeeper said he has heard to of up to 30 come in through a chimney. The beekeeper recommended we cover up the top of the fireplace chimney with a board weighted down with bricks. So that is what I did. Hopefully no more bees from here on out.

Google Reviews Using Your Real Name

Posting  on http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/_lhgjeLIwMg

@MB-CBS

I agree with your sentiments. I have found most reviewers to leave honest feedback and most businesses strive to make improvements in response to customer feedback. I find this policy change of showing peoples names needed, because a few bad apples ruined the bunch. Being an anonymous user gives people the power to say things they never would normally. Because some people have abused this power now all the rest of us are being "punished."

@AnonymousCoward123

I post as myself everywhere and have a unique name so I am obviously biased against anonymity. Statistically speaking, a person who post using their real name live just as happy a life as those that do not. I have not seen any negative effects in my life as a result of posting using my real name and believe most people who do would say the same. Again this goes back to the extremes. Most people in America are not a part of a persecuted minority group. Because of this, your comment does not seem applicable to most people living in America. I do agree with your conclusion though, that privacy is valuable to some people and in some situations, this mostly comes down to common sense. Anonymous name or not I would not post a public review of my primary bank, as this would not be a good idea. With the vast number of Americas using smart technology, on-line services, and numerous digital resources, privacy is simply a figment of the imagination. Even hundreds of years ago when people lived in small towns and neighborhoods there was no such thing as "privacy." Anonymous reviews or not, if a person wants to find you they can.

Realistically I think the issue has more to do with businesses having access to people's names with the potential to hound them than any privacy issues. Again we are looking at the extreme cases as I have posted hundreds of negative and positive reviews of businesses with absolutely no problem whatsoever. I would like to reiterate, if you are online making reviews then ANYONE has the potential of monitoring you. In reality, this usually is not a problem though. If you are an average American, then posting reviews using your real name will likely not effect you in any way whatsoever, so long as you use common sense.

The most important reason that real names should be used comes down to the USA legal system. Whoever stands to loose the most is given preferential treatment (this is why pedestrians have the right of way, and there are many more examples). So we now have two situations (both of which are not likely but possible).
1. Users being hounded by businesses to change their review.
2. Anonymous user posting a horrible, untrue review.

In case 1 being hounded could cause serious issues in a persons life (but in the vast majority of cases this is simply viewed as an irritant) and there are many avenues of recourse available to people who are being hounded. The main one being to sue a business that does this.
In case 2 a horrible review could cause negative publicity and could even put a business out of operation, which would be far more damaging than a simple irritant. More that this, there is absolutely no recourse of action a business could take in this situation unless they already have a good idea who made this comment, and even then possibly not due to free speech.

Interesting Field Experiance

Earlier this week I went on a site visit as part of a design meeting. The the facility has an underground vault filled with mechanical and electrical equipment. A visual inspection of this equipment is necessary so a coworker (an Electrical Engineer) and myself (a Mechanical Engineer) went inside the vault.

Breaker box that hit me

After looking around at some of the equipment I heard an odd noise coming from an electrical panel on the opposite wall about 10 feet away. Quickly looking up, I saw sparks emanating from it followed by a loud boom. At that instant the panel flew open and a breaker flew across the room and hit me in the chest. Unhurt, but very surprised, I noticed the box bounce off me and land several feet away. Turning to my coworker I said, "You need to fix that in your design."
When we left the vault I noticed a black mark on my shirt, but it simply wiped off. I suppose the breaker box was simply dirty, so unfortunately I do not have a singe mark to show off.

Control Panel

Google - Indefinite Storage

Just posted a question on Google Chat discussion forum:

The question I have doesn't fit into any category. I have looked at multiple questions on this subjects but have received no definitive answers.

Q: For all Google products, how long will your data be stored? 

I am looking for a table of some sort giving different data storage durations for each product Google offers. 

For example I am using (and have stored information on) Google+, Gmail, Analytics, Drive, YouTube, Maps, Play, Web manager Tools, ... (30+ services). So it could look something like this:

Service              Storage Duration

-------------------------------------------------------------

Google+            Until account is deleted

Gmail                 Up to 40 years of inactivity 

Analytics            Up to 10 years of inactivity

...

...

...

In line with this same question, if a storage duration is "until your account is deleted" could it also be said this way: " Until account is deleted, Google no longer exists, or (if the first two don't happen) for all of eternity"

I have never heard of a company keeping peoples information around indefinitely, but all of the posts I have seen on the subject have pretty much said this. If Google does keep your account with its records around forever, they should definitely be advertising this. Think about it, if I stored my sequenced DNA, a full neural mapping of my brain (still in development), and several full body scans, I could be completely recreated in the future (still in development). By Google storing all your information indefinitely they don't just help future generation understand you better, THEY TURN YOU INTO A GOD! You (the information that makes up who you are) could exist forever!

The one hitch in this eternal existence involves storing data that requires software retrieval. But it is a problem that Google has already solved. Google automatically updates the software in such a way that the original data can always be retrieved (at least they do for native Google Drive documents). 

The only indication I have that Google does not do this is with their failed products (Google Buzz). For failed products they give users a warning to get their information off of the discontinued product. However, I have never seen Google do this for successful products before.

Church Leaders

I was thinking about the church and about our leaders last month. As I was thinking I realized how accurate the statement is that “God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.” Looking at the life of J. Golden Kimble I realized how much better I could be. God called a person who swore, had difficulty following the Word of Wisdom, and is well known for other interesting behavior as well. At the time Golden was called, there were people like you and me, who didn’t seem to have any of these problems. Yet God still chose Golden as a prophet, sear, and revelator; someone that I should be looking up to. If Golden, with all of his failings, is a person I need to work up to, then I need to do some serious improvements in my life.
With that being said, there are many people who are better leaders than the prophet Thomas S. Monson. This is because the Lord does not choose great men to be His leaders. He chooses those who are humble, who, despite their numerous imperfections, strive to be like Jesus Christ in every way; and then He makes them great. I honor and revere Thomas S. Monson, not only as the prophet of this church, but, more importantly, as one who exemplifies the life of Jesus Christ.

Megan and Dad

I just found this today and had to post it

1-8-09
Starting Monday the 5th I have been with Megan every single day. I have really enjoyed the time with her. She has been very cute and funny. During this time Megan has a cold and I am doing everything I can to take care of her. This mainly involves using a lot of Vick’s vapor rub. I also set up a pup tent for Megan, so that Megan and I can use a humidifier to help clear her lungs.
I have to say some of the funny stuff that Megan has done lately. While in the put tent Megan lifted herself up my eight of my arm hairs. I don’t think those hairs will ever grow back.
On another occasion Megan was playing with my PS2 controlled robot. I was showing her how to move the robot around by pushing a few buttons. She tried to press one button over and over again but no matter how hard she tried she just didn’t have the strength to push the button all the way down. Finally she gave the button a hard look as she pushed it down with all her might. This sudden look of fierce determination upon hitting the button caused me to burst out a laugh. Megan visibly jumped in my lap. She turned toward me as if to say “Wow! I never knew the button could cause you to make noise.”

1-9-09
Megan has developed a great fascination for laser pointers. This is one of the best 99 cent purchases I have ever made. Megan can be captivated for almost an hour at a time following the laser light. Lasers: for dogs, cats, and children. 

1-12-09
One time while Megan and I were in the tent with perfuse amounts of Vicks vapor rub, Megan decided she could not take the smell any longer. I had put some vapor rub on Megan’s upper lip that way she could take advantage of it reparatory benefits more readily. Megan was not to have it though; she reached over, grabbed my shirt, and with the palm of her hand wiped the Vicks completely off of her lip and onto my shirt.

1-16-09
Yesterday I purchased a new laser because the old one went dead. Megan still has a great fascination for lasers.

Flying in Bill's Four-Seat Plane