Finding Answers

It's my favorite time of year! This weekend is General Conference. I am working on a list of questions that I need answers to. I know that at some point during the different sessions that I will find the answers.

Jonathan and I usually watch it live on the Mormon Channel through YouTube.

Here are all the various ways you can watch it.

Currently Stuck in My Head

I have been down with a cold this weekend. (Jonathan was kind enough to share it with me.) While I've been taking it easy, this song has been stuck in my head.

Sorry if it gets stuck in your head too.

Faith - the Choice is Yours

Whenever I workout, I listen to General Conference talks. I listen to them a few times so I can focus on the message in each talk and how it applies to me.

I am currently listening to the talks from the October 2010 General Conference. I can see that these men were aware of the way the world was going before it happened. Earlier this week I was listening to the talk given by Bishop Richard C. Edgley. It is powerful and I wanted to share part of it.

"When the disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast a devil out as they had just witnessed the Savior do, Jesus answered, 'If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove' (Matthew 17:20). I have never witnessed the removal of an actual mountain. But because of faith I have seen a mountain of doubt and despair removed and replaced with hope and optimism. Because of faith I have personally witnessed a mountain of sin replaced with repentance and forgiveness. And because of faith I have personally witnessed a mountain of pain replaced with peace, hope, and gratitude. Yes, I have seen mountains removed."

I'm with him. I've never seen an actual, physical mountain moved, but I have seen other very real mountains removed. When Jonathan was laid-off, I was at the foot of a mountain of anxiety and fear. I knew that I didn't actually have to climb that mountain and I studied about people in the scriptures who faced fear and allowed the Lord to quiet the fear. I followed their example and that mountain was removed. We all have mountains and some have to be climbed, but some can be removed through faith.

Here is a video of the entire talk. I invite you to listen to it and apply faith in your life as you face your own mountains.

My Wife Was Right: The Story of the Grey/Green Shirt

My wife and I have had a disagreement for most of our marriage. It is a minor thing, but I have a polo shirt that she insists is grey but I was pretty shirt was slightly green.

I should note that I am slightly color blind in the green region, so for the most part I didn't argue with her about this. But I always believed that it was green. I knew it wasn't kelly green or seafoam green or even moss green, but more grey with a hint of green.

I recently started a new job as a software developer for The Home Depot, as readers of this blog already know. My second day on the job they had me work in one of the stores so I would understand the company's core business. While I didn't plan this, I just so happened to wear my grey/green shirt to work that day.

After I finished my shift I went up to the paint counter. There they have a calibrated colorimeter, a device for measuring the exact color of an object. This is how they are able to match paint colors to the color of an object a customer brings in.

I asked them to measure my shirt After a surprised and slightly quizical look from the girl behind the counter she pulled the machine and measured the color of my shirt.

The machine spat out some giberish numbers that meant something to their paint mixing machine, like a recipe for color. Me being more knowledgeable about computers than paint I didn't understand what this meant. Fortunately the computer also told them the names of the closest premixed paint buckets they had. The closest to my eye is the Behr paint called Chinchilla. It was a perfect match to my shirt.

The problem was it looked a little green to me as well. This didn't prove anything though since I didn't have any numbers that meant anything to me, but I had a name.

I found that Behr has an app for my Android phone. I put in the color name and it displayed that color on my phone's screen. I took a screenshot of the app and opened the image in the Photo Editor app on my phone.

I isolated the paint color from the screenshot and increased the saturation and brightness of the color, leaving the hue of the color alone. If there is any color at all in this sample, this process amplifies it and makes it visible.

As you can see from the screenshot above, If there is any color at all in my shirt it is orange. Not green, not where near green. It is closer to red than to green.

That number at the stop that starts with FF describes the color in base 16 numbers (that is why there letters in it). That means that on a scale from 0 to 255, the transparency is 255 (not transparent), red is 106, green is 102, and blue is 98. They are all very close which is why this color appears grey. Red has the highest number making it dominant. Since green is higher than blue the color is shifted toward green slightly, but just enough to move it toward orange, not even getting past yellow. For this shirt to appear green, green would have to be the highest value in the chart.

I am enough of a man to admit it publicly, my wife was right and I was... less right. No, I was flat out wrong. This shirt isn't even slightly green. With how little difference there is between the values (1.5% difference) the shirt is solidly in the grey category.

Another Year Side By Side

Last month, we celebrated another anniversary. When I think back on where life has taken us these past 12 months, I can't believe it. There is one thing is constant throughout it all. We made every decision together.

We faced it all side by side.

We served in Nursery together and sometimes had more fun than the kids.

We grew spiritually together.

We celebrated accomplishments together.

We faced physical challenges together.

We took a leap of faith and moved 1,700 miles together.

We enjoyed new experiences together.

 We faced disappointment together and trusted that it would all work out.

Life is so much better with Jonathan at my side.

First Week Done!

Jonathan had a fantastic first week of work.

Naturally, we celebrate with brisket tacos!

He still doesn't have a desk, but he does have a laptop and smartphone. It seems like a cute girl previously had the phone number because he keeps getting texts from people calling him sweetie. It's been a source of many jokes this past week for us.

While he doesn't work in a retail location, he still has an orange apron!

It's been weird going through the transition of being around him pretty much all day every day to only having the evenings with him. I'm slowly getting back into my normal routine, though as soon as he gets through the door I'm ready to cuddle with him on the couch. All these years later, we are still very much in the newly-wed phase of wanting to spend as much time as possible together.

This job is perfect fit for Jonathan. He's doing what he loves and is getting paid to learn even more about what he loves. It doesn't get much better than that!

Austin Adventures

We've been going on quite a few adventures here in Austin. Back in December we went to the LBJ Presidential Library on the campus of the University of Texas.

They have a 7/8 version of the oval office inside of the library.

 We went on a drive through downtown Austin and saw some beautiful old buildings and even an old car.

The capitol building is beautiful!

I love this sign in our neighborhood.

For a Christmas gift, Jonathan got us passes for indoor go kart racing. I think he is now addicted to it! It's okay because I am too!

We wandered around the massive campus of the University of Texas.

Check out the size of their football stadium! Everything really is bigger in Texas.

We love living here and are so glad that we are staying!

San Antonio Temple

Back in January, I finally took pictures of the San Antonio Temple.

I love this temple so much. It is very similar to the Sacramento Temple.

The biggest physical difference is that the entrance and baptistry have been flip flopped.

One of the motifs that can be found throughout this temple is oak trees and leaves. I don't think that there are little oak leaves in the decor in the Sacramento Temple, but it makes me feel right at home since there are so many oak trees throughout the Sacramento area.

I love this sweet little temple.