Utahiana

52 weeks in the foothills: week 52

2010-12-20T14:16:00.001-08:00

Well, that should about do it. Oddly enough, it ends much like it began. Cloudy and snowy with wet snow. It's been fun, there's been some great shots and it's time to do something different. I'm looking forward to breaking the streak in week 1 of 2011. Not sure what's next but I am sure it's not running the foothill trails every week for a year. The closing shot is my car, alone in the

52 weeks in the foothills: week 51

2010-12-17T18:59:00.001-08:00

Cold and windy. Very cold and very windy would be more accurate. Colder than right before snow-meh-geddon. If you look closely in the valley shots you can see the smoke from the Provo Tabernacle burning. That's just sad. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 50

2010-12-11T20:23:00.001-08:00

Nothing pretty about pollution this week. Pollution in the valley plus an overcast sky makes for sobering images of crud in the valley. On a positive note, a camp out with the scouts did provide for some bounding through knee deep power in the sun. I think I'm actually looking forward to running the foothills in midwinter again. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via

52 weeks in the foothills: week 49

2010-12-09T20:38:00.001-08:00

Was expecting to slog through the mud but ended up pondering the optics of pollution at sunset while running through the snow. The deer (or elk?) are back down low. A little surprising to see them again. As they say: pollution makes good sunset colors. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 48

2010-12-01T20:50:00.001-08:00

Got out just before the blizzard. The blizzard didn't amount to much in our neighborhood, but it was cold. Very cold. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

Still some blue sky on the horizon. It was cold. Very cold.

2010-11-23T15:35:00.001-08:00

Storm of the century is on the way. Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothils: week 47

2010-11-23T07:25:00.001-08:00

Caught an interesting sunset this week. Other than that, saw the first snow of the season. If the weather service's dire predictions are correct, we'll see much more of that in the next day or two. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 46

2010-11-17T15:43:00.001-08:00

A little browner and fewer leaves compared to other runs thid fall. Visited the Draper Corner Canyon trails system with an old friend and co-workers. Good to see some different dirt and a different kind of forest system. Those Draper trails are well marked and they even have a map. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 45

2010-11-10T16:09:00.001-08:00

Yup, that's a grasshopper in the first picture. Saw another 3-4 in addition to that one. Otherwise, another fall week in the foothills. I think I might actually be excited to run in the mud and snow for the next 4 months. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

fun at the BYU game today

2010-11-06T16:11:00.001-07:00

And we even won. Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 44

2010-11-02T20:17:00.001-07:00

Little more snow on the mountains this time around. Could have run in the snow if I'd timed it just right. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 43

2010-10-23T14:34:00.001-07:00

It was a good run Saturday morning: made about 3 wrong turns (I recovered quickly from 2), out for almost 2 hours, slipped 1 time and didn't get shot by deer hunters. Didn't see any deer but apparently the hunters think they are back there. Did see one hunter dragging a smallish buck out. Optimal fall leaf viewing was about the start of Dry Creek canyon through to above the cliffs. Perfect

52 weeks in the foothills: week 42

2010-10-19T21:14:00.001-07:00

You know that road in Glacier National Park called "Going to the Sun Road"? It was kind of like that. Just a strange time to be out with the sun sitting so low. Included a bonus picture from the backside of Timpanogos from the BSA Centennial Camporall held near Heber. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 41

2010-10-13T20:08:00.001-07:00

Caught a pretty sunrise, other than that, a pretty standard week in the hills in fall. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 40

2010-10-04T07:09:00.001-07:00

Fall leaves are still turning. It's an odd thing to run through the fall leaves when it's like 90 degrees and sunny. Hot September. This was "fly your jet low in front of Timpanogos" week. Two pictures of unusually low private jets in this week's set. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 39

2010-09-27T19:23:00.001-07:00

Whoosh. Some kind of charge crackles through the powerlines overhead. The thunder rolls quickly after that. Yup, time to turn around. This week's run in the Timpanogos foothills was short, very short. I had 1 hour this week to run and that hour happened to be during a lightening storm. Long time readers (mostly my Mom and siblings :) ) will recall that I'm a little skittish about

52 weeks in the foothills: week 38

2010-09-22T06:02:00.001-07:00

Fall leaves are turning. Shouldn't be long before all the trees are in color See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 37

2010-09-11T14:15:00.001-07:00

Generally sunny, warm and kind of nice this week. Look closely in the higher foothills for fall leaves. Got out on the bike this time rather than running. The little sprints up some of the single track were a bit much, but only in one spot. Interestingly, I was only about 5 minutes faster on bike than on foot. Going up it was about the same. See and download the full gallery on posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 36

2010-09-09T21:40:00.001-07:00

Feeling pretty unmotivated to post these. Foothills look much last last week, last month or pretty much any other time in late summer. But I did notice for this week that the leaves are starting to turn up high. Doubt I'll get that high this week but at least there will be some change. Summer is really long and static. Winter is long too but the snow is contanstly changing. I have to say that

52 weeks in the foothills: week 35

2010-08-28T19:07:00.001-07:00

Sunrise was unusually spectacular. Unfortunately, I slept through the best of it. Saw a fox again. This time it was a younger fox with an apparently injured back leg. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 34

2010-08-21T20:47:00.001-07:00

This week included a trip to the summit. Running to the summit is very different than hiking. Rests are periods of walking rather than periods of sitting by the side of the trail. And just to be clear, "running to the summit" meant "running about half of the way to the summit and walking the rest." This was not a record-setting trip. The main difference, compared to hiking, is that it goes

52 weeks in the foothills: week 33 (take 2)

2010-08-21T20:39:00.001-07:00

As promised, the pictures from week 33. As expected, they show hot, sunny trails with dust and clouds. There's a snake in this set as well. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 33

2010-08-14T20:48:00.001-07:00

Well, looks like we are going to take a bit of a vacation this week. The pictures were taken, of course, but are sitting on my camera which is sitting in a guest lodge up at Aspen Grove. As you might imagine, the pictures show hot, dusty trails with brown grass and green trees. A lot like weeks 29-32 for that matter. But just to make things interesting, I will say that I did get a good

52 weeks in the foothills: week 32

2010-08-08T04:36:00.001-07:00

Last December I came over a ridge and found myself about 20 yards from 2 bull elk and a small herd chewing their cud. I wished I'd had a camera. So I decided to start carrying one and that was the beginning of the 52 weeks project. This week I captured a similarly difficult shot: a lightning leader in full sun. This isn't so hard to get at night because you just open the shutter and wait.

Close lightning strike

2010-08-04T17:02:00.001-07:00

I took this while coming out of the foothills ahead of a storm this afternoon. It's a frame from a 2 minute video. Note the bolt extends to the bottom of the frame. I'm pretty sure that lightening is not as close as it looks because I don't remember lightening striking the ground at my feet. Interesting shot. Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 31

2010-08-02T10:36:00.001-07:00

It was hot, it was sunny, it was dusty. It was a lot like last week. Did see a bee working over a thistle. Would have made a great insect shot except I couldn't convince my camera to focus on the bee. So I included the blurry shot to show what might have been. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 30

2010-07-24T19:12:00.001-07:00

Generally, each week has it's own charm and uniqueness. Except for week 30. Pretty much dry dusty and much like last week. And the week before, and the week before. Ran into a neighbor just after taking the grass close up. She has said she sees snakes up there. I'd never seen one until after I ran into her. Maybe they follow her or something. Picture from near Lake Creek junction thrown in just

52 weeks in the foothills: week 29

2010-07-17T19:58:00.001-07:00

Needed to see some different dirt this week, so we trooped up to the Y and then to the canyon south of Y Mountain. That was great, except now my IT band hurts. Very nice to get into the lush forest south of Y Mountain. Dragged through a run the day after just to keep the legs loose after Y Mountain. Great to be out as the sun set over the valley. Lots of pretty flowers this week. See

52 weeks in the foothills: week 28

2010-07-10T19:58:00.001-07:00

Another week of summer in the hills. I did have my first up close encounter with wildlife this week: I think a bee stung my ankle while I was running through knee deep foliage. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 27

2010-07-05T08:28:00.001-07:00

Two unique wildlife photos this week: a bee and a hawk. I think it was a hawk. Whatever it was it was cruising above the ridgeline and sort of passed behind me. It didn't seem to concerned about me being there. Lost the trail a couple of times in the weeds. It's an interesting experience to put your foot down onto a trail you can't see through thigh-high weeds. See and download the full

52 weeks in the foothills: week 26

2010-06-29T15:53:00.001-07:00

Better late than never. Seems we've got a very effective schedule randomizer in our house. She's very cute though. Grass is drying out down low. Not sure what else is going on as this was a minimal running week in which I got out once for a 20 minute jog. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 25

2010-06-21T10:05:00.001-07:00

Just a few shots this week as the more interesting photos were down in the valley with our new baby. It's green and warm up in the foothills. Pretty soon it will be brown and hot. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

Mocap day in CS 455

2010-06-16T07:42:00.001-07:00

Special thanks to the Abbots for bringing their son, to Eli for enjoying the retroreflective stickers so much and to Ross for doing that backflip thing over and over. We should have some videos later this summer. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 23

2010-06-12T17:51:00.001-07:00

Sego lilies starting blooming early in week. Some other funky flower like thing bloomed too. The flowers were so nice that I took the kids on a walk to see the flowers. Everything is growing, crickets are doing their thing and summer is in full swing. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 23

2010-06-07T19:46:00.001-07:00

Wildflowers are blooming. The foothills don't exactly draw a crowd with a profusion of wildflower color, but there's still a few here and there. The snow line raced up Timpanogos surprisingly fast this week. Not much wildlife, just lots of crickets and a few birds. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 22

2010-05-29T20:13:00.001-07:00

It was surreal to see the snow with green grass and green trees on Monday. Probably won't see that again anytime soon. Then it was haze, dust and wind. Then Saturday it was clear blue skies and sharp contrast. Seeing a few more wildflowers. Not a ton, but a few. Included a shot of some orange flowers growing in the road cut. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via

52 weeks in the foothills: week 21

2010-05-22T20:37:00.001-07:00

Turns out that all the survey tape was for the T3 Triathlon Timpanogos Marathon and Half Marathon. After I figured that out, I was sorely tempted to sign up for it and run the 1/2 this weekend. But there were two main problems: I wasn't in shape for it and the weather looked bad. Not being in shape was ok, I'm still foolish enough to attempt anyway. But I didn't want to commit to run that

52 weeks in the foothills: week 20

2010-05-15T21:19:00.001-07:00

Good shots of atmospheric effects early Saturday morning. Had hoped to drop into Battle Creek Canyon from the south but the trail was just too muddy on the north-facing slope. There's a ton of survey tape in the foothills right now. Must be some kind of race coming up especially for people who like lots of reassurance that they are on course. See and download the full gallery on

52 weeks in the foothills: week 19

2010-05-08T21:38:00.001-07:00

Pretty much everything is green and growing except the scrub oak, but the scrub oak near the trail head is starting to bud. Tried out the trail the mtn bikers were telling me about a couple weeks ago. It's a nice little jaunt through a large meadow and a picture is included. Had another first experience this week: I got passed on a trail by other runners. I did make sure that I didn't get

52 weeks in the foothills: week 18

2010-05-01T19:51:00.001-07:00

The first spring flowers have bloomed and the scrub oak is starting to bud. Other than that, it was muddy, windy, wet or snowy or all four. The spring transition is in full swing. Shouldn't be long before it looks like summer. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 17

2010-04-24T20:22:00.001-07:00

Managed to get out a couple times in between rain and snow this week. Saw a fox for the first time ever in the foothills. Chatted with some mtn bikers as well which was also a first. Turns out mtn bikers know the trails really well. Found out about a new trail I've never been on. One interesting sign of spring is that the perinials are growing in the place of their dry brown stalks from

52 weeks in the foothills: week 16

2010-04-17T11:43:00.001-07:00

It must be spring because I ran into 4 trail runners this week. Deer herd was low and weather was perfect. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 15

2010-04-10T20:59:00.001-07:00

Green grass + white snow + blue sky = colorful pictures. Wednesday morning it was crisp spring air with birds singing their hearts out and snow blowing off Cascade. Even the return leg on the Provo River Parkway trail was sublime. Great week to be out in the foothills. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 14

2010-04-05T07:51:00.001-07:00

Blustery week in the foothills. I managed to avoid getting rained or snowed on, which, in the end, was a bit of a disappointment. Saw the bird on the backside of the ridge again. This is the bird that ran along in front of me for a 1/4 mile or so last week before turning left off the trail. This time it immediately turned left off the trail rather than running in front of me. Seems to be

52 weeks in the foothills: week 13

2010-03-27T19:09:00.001-07:00

This week included three sure signs that spring is taking hold in the foothills: ran a real loop with minimal mud and no snow, meadows on the ridgeline are turning green and I saw a mountain biker. A real loop is a loop consisting of established trails--no trudging through snow. Now that the snow is gone, off trail runs are avoided because they can damage the plants and the newly exposed rocks

52 weeks in the foothills: week 12

2010-03-20T20:22:00.001-07:00

Had the most scary experience I've had on a trail since, well, ever, on Saturday afternoon. I'm jogging along going down a ridgeline when I hear this rustling sound behind me to the left. I thought it was just birds in the bushes but it was bigger and sounded like something sliding. I must have thought I was about to ride a snow slide down the hill because the first thing I did was check my

52 weeks in the foothills: week 11

2010-03-15T18:25:00.001-07:00

We have spotted green plants growing in the foothills. They've probably been there for more than a week but that's ok. Pretty much the same as last week: dirt, mud, snow. Though the mud and snow were a little higher than last week. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 10

2010-03-06T18:34:00.001-08:00

Ho hum. Another week of starting in the dirt, passing through the mud, sloshing through deep wet snow and then repeating the process in reverse to get home. I guess it will be a month or so before the upper trails are passable. Until then, enjoy some pictures that look a lot like last week, and the week before that and the week before that... See and download the full gallery on

52 weeks in the foothills: week 9

2010-03-01T17:13:00.001-08:00

Snow and no contrast early in the week and then mud on Friday. Wednesday I got out in the tail end of that little storm and ran in the fog with 4 inches of new snow on a hard crust. The crust was hard enough to run on and with the new snow it was a good day to be off trail. Except for the lack of contrast. It was impossible to pick out little rollers or bumps in the snow and confusing to run

52 weeks in the foothills: week 8

2010-02-20T09:08:00.001-08:00

I needed to see some different mud, so I went up the road north of Dry Creek (in Lindon), over the top and down through the canyon. Not only did I see some different mud, but I went early enough that the mud was mostly frozen. And it had snowed a little. And I found out that most of the people who hike in the foothills in late winter apparently do so in Dry Creek. Saw about 9 other people at

52 weeks in the foothills: week 7

2010-02-13T18:47:00.001-08:00

The mud caked on the shoes says that this was the first spring run of the year. Pretty good thaw down low, then really muddy then still winter not too high up depending on aspect. Solid crepuscular rays shining through on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. No wildlife spotted. Just kids playing airsoft battles in the parking lot and more unleashed dogs. Glad I'm not riding a bike as

52 weeks in the foothills: week 6

2010-02-06T19:43:00.001-08:00

More snow, more clouds, a little sun and a little mud. No wildlife spotted this week. Added some variety to the winter grind by cropping photos to funky aspect ratios. Also got in some variety by running just after sunrise on Friday. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 5

2010-02-01T05:14:00.001-08:00

Lots of sun, lots of crusty snow, a few elk and lots of unfortunate choices on Saturday. Nice blue sky pictures and clear views into the valley. Bored with the 2 trails that are passable right now I decided to venture over to a deer trail straight up the ridge Saturday morning. It was like slogging through a sandy wash in the desert except it was steep and cold. Fortunately some intrepid

why the iPad might eventually matter

2010-01-30T21:16:00.001-08:00

These are the instructions we gave my wife's Grandma to check email on her HP desktop machine. These don't include turning the computer on, by the way. iPad instructions would look like: - Touch "email" - Touch the messages you want to read. - If you want to reply, touch "reply"Not too bad. And only $500. And we don't have to worry about everyone reconfiguring her machine when they fix the

52 weeks in the foothills: week 4

2010-01-22T18:30:00.001-08:00

Ran in various combinations of snow, fog and wind with visibility ranging from tens of feet to crystal clear all the way to Spanish Fork Canyon. My favorite image of the week is looking across Provo Canyon to the south at Cascade Peak in the clouds. There's just enough of Cascade there to make it visible way off in the distance. Elk/deer (whatever they are) made an appearance down low but

52 weeks in the foothills: week 3

2010-01-16T13:40:00.001-08:00

Dry, hazy and cold week in the foothills. Old snow hanging around from the last storm a few weeks ago. Patchy on south facing slopes. Pounded down to a slick icy sheet on the water tank road. It was a good day to be wearing spiked running shoes made by screwing hex head sheet metal screws into an old pair. No wildlife seen this week. Saw 4-5 people and a couple dogs though. Shin splint

Allison pole vaulting

2010-01-12T16:06:00.001-08:00

These were taken at the BYU invitational in January 2010. The cool thing about these pictures is Allison is pole vaulting one year later at exactly the place where she tore her ACL. First step back: done. See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from mikemike's posterous

52 weeks in the foothills: week 2

2010-01-09T20:19:00.001-08:00

Week 2 included just a jog and walk up the road to the repeater (it's about 1.5 miles round trip) after class Thursday. Turns out I picked up a shin splint somewhere last week so that was about it for that. The sunset was nice and the elk herd was crossing the road up from the golf course. I don't know much about elk, but the antlers on that one looked big to me. I'll sit out until next

52 weeks in the foothills: week 1 (take 2)

2010-01-09T20:07:00.001-08:00

This time with pictures! (not sure what happened there, I used firefox with a drag and drop plug in to attach the files, which weren't attached to the final sent mail. This time with chrome and file dialogues...). Anyway, the plan is still the same: running in the foothills once a week for 52 weeks, take pictures, post them. On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Michael Jones

52 weeks in the foothills: week 1

2010-01-09T19:51:00.001-08:00

The plan is to run up in the foothills each week this year. While I'm there I figured I might as well snap a few photos and post something from each week. I thrive on structure, so there will be 1 flora close-up, one shot aimed at Mt. Timpanogos and one shot aimed back into the valley. This is week 1 (December 27 - January 2, 2010). The sunny day shots from this week were cold. Very cold.

"To Help Other People at All Times"

2008-08-30T15:04:00.001-07:00

It didn't look like this today,but you get the idea.Image via Wikipedia Today I was riding my bike along toward Lehi north of Utah Lake. I hear a motorcycle approach but it doesn't pass. A lady and a little boy pull up next to me and match me speed. She says "do you know where we are going?" I reply that we are headed toward Lehi. Turns out that she's trying to get to the other side of Utah

Close call for BYU Football

2008-08-27T07:46:00.001-07:00

This morning while driving across BYU campus, I stopped at a crosswalk to let a guy finish crossing the street. Consensus between my wife and I was that it was one Bronco Mendenhall (he looks even younger up close). The guy in the other lane almost didn't stop and almost ended all discussion of whether or not Bronco would stay at BYU by taking him out in a crosswalk. Fortunately all ended

Most of my Personal Money Management Dreams Have Come True

2008-08-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaThanks to mvelopes.com which is everything I hoped MSFT Money would be in 2004. It slurps in all my credit card, retirement and savings account info. It lets me categorize spending, it lets me make an envelope-based budget, it lets me track spending. It runs in the cloud. It's awesome.That said, there are some issues. The user interface is pretty good but not great.

More Free Time in July

2008-07-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaI put professional cycling on a 5 year doping ban and have made no effort to follow, watch or even know the stages in this year's Tour de France. That certainly frees up a lot of time in July, it's been nice.

Bangkok Grill in Orem

2008-07-09T06:25:00.001-07:00

"A rural scene in Utah County"Image via WikipediaIn our never ending quest to try all the Thai restuarants on the Wasatch Front, we visited Bangkok Grill in Orem last night with the Barney's. We deviated slightly from our control order which was pad Thai, massaman curry, green cury, tom kha gai and a surprise dish. It was hot and a hot bowl of soup didn't seem to fit the bill so we got satay

Thank "U"!

2008-06-26T07:42:00.001-07:00

Image via WikipediaIt looks like the University of Utah has lost my identity information for the second time in 6 years. The good news is that I keep getting a year of free credit fraud monitoring! No identity theft detected yet, though we did have quite a scare a month or so ago. That turns out to be a case of mistaken Mike Jones identities (who knew that two of us would live in the same city

Voters may have got one right

2008-06-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeI think the voters got the Cannon/Chaffetz race right even though I voted for Chris Cannon yesterday. I started to think that when I read this in the Des News this morning:"If I don't win I'll do exactly the same thing I did before and essentially what I'm doing now. I'll go out and make money, which I can't really do now"Hopefully Jason Chaffetz will work out

Welcome Back Lee!

2008-06-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaLooks like Lee Cummard will be playing in the Marriott Center again next Winter. Works for me. Cummard's a great work-hard player. A friend of mine is in the Cummard's ward. They tell us that the Cummard's are a solid student family. Deseret News | Cummard is turning NBA heads: "Said Rose: 'He's out to find what the likelihood of his going in the first round is. There are

Graduation rate woes?

2008-06-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaDespite all our consternation about lowest per-pupil spending, it looks like we have only the eighth highest graduation rate in the nation now, down from the first.Don't get me wrong, I think we should increase pay for teachers and supplies, but I also think that that's pretty darn efficient.Maybe other states should try to figure out why we spend so little yet do so much

Memo to Flashers in Provo

2008-06-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Apparently, some guy allegedly flashed two women on the Provo River Parkway Trail. I happened to ride by, apparently, while they were on the phone with 911 and later while the police were on the trail. I stopped and talked to the police and later to the two women. Frequent trail users, such as myself and several other people out this afternoon, are going to be watching a little more closely.

Best Thai Food on the Wasatch Front

2008-06-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaWe've been to two Thai restaurants so far in our quest for the best on the Wasatch front. Restaurants are judged based on their Tom Kha Gai, Green Curry, Massaman Curry, Pad Thai and a randomly chosen entre.Of the two we've officially visited so far, Mekong Cafe in Midvale (Hat tip to Gazelem) at 7777 South State St. is the current clear winner.My personal favorite is the Thai

Cycling in north Orem Utah--even on the Provo River Parkway

2008-05-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaJason, a scout leader, is wondering where to take some scouts on a 15 mile (I would guess) ride. He's thinking about the Provo River Parkway but my comments from last year made that seem like a less-good idea.Here's an 18 mile loop in Orem:Start at 1600 North and 400 East in Orem. Ride down to 400 West (where the new goofy light is next to State St). Turn right and head over

Fake picture of Mt. Timpanogos

2008-03-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

If you took photographs of a mountain for a year about 20 times a day and recorded the weather and time for each shot, then you could use machine learning to learn what the mountain should look like as a function of the date and time.If you did that using 3 perceptrons per pixel to learn linear functions for hue, color and saturation for each pixel, then you'd get this image for May 20 at 2:20 pm

Nice work Trent Plaisted

2008-02-26T21:28:00.001-08:00

So I was running slowly around the indoor BYU track at lunch a whileago (as I often do) when I saw one Trent Plaisted shooting freethrows, with someone to shag rebounds for him (his wife?), on one ofthe hoops at the volleyball court.That paid off nicely tonight. Nice work.

Overheard on NPR

2008-02-21T18:53:00.001-08:00

On NPR this morning they were commenting about how the risk of anyone being fatally exposed to rocket fuel gas from the spy satellite was "only 3% and even then you'd have to hold your face next to it and breathe for a while" Clearly, this was just a pointless display of military might. Suppose the satellite had not been shot down. And it hit a populated area. And someone died. Would the

First time I saw that

2008-02-21T18:46:00.001-08:00

One of my hobbies is watching the mountains so that I can watch avalanches roll down through the cliff bands. I am pretty good at it, not that it's very hard, and have seen a fair bit of avalanche activity on Timp. At least before our kids were born. Sitting by the window and watching for avalanches isn't that compatible with raising kids. So while I was driving home today I watched the tail

He's got a point

2008-02-21T18:41:00.001-08:00

Tony Caputo (mmm, Italian) says "Our government, both federal and state, is opposed to someone eating salami, but they're not opposed to us being in the environment with toxic nuclear waste" He's got a good point. If we can't important some salamis because they are too dangerous, then,um, why should nuclear waste be any safer?

That's too bad

2008-02-13T06:47:00.001-08:00

I see that our legislature repealed in-state tuition for the childrenof illegal immigrants. Bad call.Yet another indication that our Republican Legislators are out of touch.If some kid graduates from High School and gets accepted at a collegeor university and his/her parents have established residency in Utah,even illegally, then that kid should get in state tuition.Someone please tell me why

I wish I'd waited 45 minutes to vote

2008-02-05T20:27:00.001-08:00

Because I had to wait 1 hour and 30 minutes to vote in my precinct in Orem. Mostly I felt sorry for the poll worker volunteers.

Not what I thought

2008-01-22T21:32:00.001-08:00

I thought this article titled "Cosmo vs. Provo" would be about parking in Provo or some other town vs. gown issue. It wasn't. Pretty funny.

Better duck if you are Mormon? Not quite.

2008-01-22T21:15:00.001-08:00

Doug Robinson wrote a piece in the DesNews which gave his take on the recent torrent of ignorant statements about Mormons. It hasn't been since High School in Montgomery, Alabama that I had to deal with this kind of stuff. It was really awkward in High School. This time around, it is much clearer to me that Mormons just aren't well-understood in popular American culture. That lack of

Rolly and I agree on Something?

2008-01-21T06:41:00.001-08:00

Rolly nailed this one about Republicans in Utah County. It's not often that we agree. However Steve Baugh picked a tough race to win against Stephen Sandstrom for three reaons. First, Sandstrom does a great job staying close to his constituents, third, Sandstrom voted for vouchers as did just over 1/2 of the voters in his district and third, Sandstrom is a productive and engaged legislator.

Macbook Air: No Regrets Here.

2008-01-16T17:24:00.000-08:00

I finally bought a new laptop in December. I knew I could have waited for Apple's rumored new ulta-portable, but didn't and bought a Dell XPS 1330 instead. Now that the new Macbook Air is out, I am happy to say that I have no regrets.The Air fits nicely in a manila envelope, as demonstrated by Steve Jobs in his keynote talk. Here's a picture of my Dell XPS not fitting in a manila envelope (it

Memo to anonymous commenters

2008-01-10T20:24:00.001-08:00

I've gotten a spate of anonymous comments of late. Either lots of anonymous people are hitting my blog, or someone with a lot of time and no identity is working through the archive. I thought I'd respond to all 4 in one post. So here goes. Steve Baugh anonymous #1: I am going to assume that that was a complement. JM Bell wasn't so gracious. You'll need to keep an eye on him, he's not

Steven Baugh?

2008-01-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

Maybe so. I don't think I am going to switch parties, but I'll give an ear to Steven Baugh. Sandstrom is right, a Republican will likely be elected in District 58. But a viable Democratic Candidate in our Distract may energize moderate voters in our District (where "moderate" in our District only means "didn't join the John Birch Society in college") and move the Rebuplican party away from the

Sandstrom v. Baugh in District 58

2008-01-09T15:12:00.000-08:00

Now that's a race I'll be watching closely because I live in District 58. Baugh is running as a Democrat. Cool. I may end up voting for a Democrat in my District race. We'll have to see how it goes. Sandstrom is having a breakfast this Sat for Precinct chairs. I'd need to find a sitter since my wife will be at Cub Scout Training, which I might just do now. Sandstrom was, if I remember

New Type of Boy Scout Story

2008-01-09T07:22:00.001-08:00

The Maldives, best known for printing really colorful postage stamps , has given us a new type of Boy Scout Story, which brings us to 4 types and now two of them are good. Type 1 is "Adult leader abuses scout", not good, type 2 is "Boy scout is injured/lost/worse", also not good. Type 3 is "Boy scout performs heroic first aid", good, and now type 4 is " Boy Scout thrwarts assissination attempt"

Provo Canyon Trailer Park Closes

2008-01-09T07:14:00.001-08:00

I often wondered how that trailer park in Provo Canyon stays open. It's a throwback to hippie life in the 60's. I wouldn't have been surprised to see the Rainbow Family there. I thought that was all fine and kind of liked having some solid Americana in the canyon. However, it turns out that the county has caught up with the park and it's now closed due to all the usual kinds of issues that a

In the future...

2008-01-08T18:36:00.001-08:00

I rather listen to the Nighside Project on the day of New Hampshire's primary than listen to Dave Rose talk about why Wake Forest demolished the BYU basketball team. In fact, they could have switched away from the game to the primary in the first half when the game was pretty much over.

My coffee mug collection

2008-01-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

Now includes a J.M. Bell - and Friends coffee mug. I put red pens in it just to be sure that (a) I didn't look too liberal and (b) my students would continue to respect the power of the red pen (just kidding).I got the U of Utah water bottle at a PhD recruiting thing we went to at the U in November. It was great, me and another guy sat behind a desk for 3 hours while nobody came and asked us (

Huckabee vs. Obama?

2008-01-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's an interesting proposition because it may set up a Democrat to win Utah in a Presidential election. I'd vote Obama over Huckabee at this point (though I haven't made up my mind yet). SLCSpin � Blog Archive � I Don’t Usually Do National Topics…

Memo to Huckabee: How to be competitive in Utah (if it comes to that)

2008-01-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

Mr. Huckabee: Congratulations on the win in Iowa. I was glad to see that money doesn't always win. That's refreshing. I noted in a CNN article that you won 45% of the evangelical vote and they comprised 60% of caucus goers. That's an impressive bloc. You won't have that cushion in Utah. In fact, some of your comments and campaign so far may have alienated LDS voters in our fair state.

I can relate

2008-01-02T13:26:00.000-08:00

This lady in a Trib article bought a vacation home in Park City because... 'When you travel with three small kids, a nanny and a housekeeper, you need all the conveniences.'Boy, don't I know that! When we travel with the twins we couldn't imagine roughing it without a nanny, a housekeeper and a grocery store. Salt Lake Tribune - Opulent getaways a big chunk of Park City's housing market; few

Good thing the SL Trib Editorial Board Doesn't Live in Georgia

2008-01-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

Because their reaction to Gov. Perdue's prayer for rain given on the steps of the capitol would have been off the charts. (That is, if their indignation of Leavitt's early morning seminary classes in the Gov's mansion is any indication. )Did the home teachers visit at the mansion too or did they have to go to a park or something?There's got to be something I am missing here, but I am not sure

Tough Questions from 4 Year Olds

2008-01-01T10:49:00.001-08:00

Christmas brings difficult questions from 4 year olds (Can I have it? Why do Santa's reindeer fly?) But this year we got 2 tough questions. First, the nature of the internet. Daddy, where did you get our game? We got it on the internet? Daddy, where's the internet? I'm thinking what do you say at this point? Well, it's a bunch of boring looking boxes with lots of wire coming out of them.

Mormon Journalist Prof on Media Coverage of Mormonism

2007-12-31T07:47:00.000-08:00

Joel Campbell gives an insightful analysis of media coverage of the LDS faith. Apparently, journalists writing articles are supposed to give both sides of a discussion a chance to respond. Wow. Letting Mormons respond to claims about how non-Mormons define Mormons? Great idea. Also, note how Campbell reveals his bias in the first paragraph. Deseret Morning News | Mormon Media Monitor: Time

Question for Mike Huckabee and for Baptists in General

2007-12-24T05:22:00.000-08:00

Question for Huckabee: if elected, will you continue to preach a sermon every Sunday? The POTUS should be at Church most every Sunday. I like that idea. But I am still warming up to the idea of the POTUS giving sermons. It seems to erode the appearance of separation of church and state.Question for Baptists: I understand that Mike Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister. I have to say

New trail in Utah County Perfect for Winter

2007-12-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

The Utah Lake trail, surprisingly, runs next Utah Lake on the east side of the lake. It's 1.75 miles each way and has lots and lots of sun which makes it perfect for those short winter runs on a sunny day.I ran it earlier this week and guessed the length at 1.25 miles each way based on my time. Looks like my pace was either a little fast or the newspaper article didn't count the .50 miles that

CNN.com - CNN Political Ticker Huckabee denies subliminal Christmas message �

2007-12-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

It's funny, but this was the first thing I thought too when I saw screen shot from the ad. I'd really like to vote for Huckabee, I like his approach to dealing with critics, I like his personality as it comes out in the recent NY Times Magazine article. But at some point the guy's got to bring out some serious "this is what I'd do if elected" stuff and convince me that he can function as a POTUS

Rally around JM Bell (echoed from SLCSpin)

2007-12-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the tip, Ethan. Now I've got a Militant Progressive t-shirt to wear to my next Utah County Republican Party Central Committee Meeting and a Militant Progressive coffee mug to put on my desk at BYU. Maybe I'll give the tshirt to my Democrat sister in Idaho.I first met JM Bell yesterday when he took me to task for getting after Jon Krakauer without reading Under the Banner of Heaven.