all things cbl

Orrin and I went to the Priesthood Session this evening at 6pm. Somewhere during the beginning of it we see some old man (like in his 70s) with a sling on his arm (we’ll call him man#1) stand up and say something rather loud and insulting to another old man (which we’ll call man#2 who was also in his 70s) in front of him. It sounded like he wanted to go outside and fight him, even though he had a broken arm (Which he mentioned). A younger looking man (we’ll call him man#3) sitting next to man#1 took man#1 out and I guess calmed him down. Man#3 came back eventually, man#1 didnt.

3/4 of the way through the conference we see man#1 come back in.. point to man#2 and say “that’s him”. Man#1 leaves again, and in comes police officer #1 and #2. Police Officer #1 takes man#1 back out, and police officer #2 stands on the aisle and points to man#2 and uses a finger to get him to come out.

From what we gathered man#1 was loud, man#2 told him to quiet down. Man#1 got offended and wanted to fight #2.

Priesthood session I’ll never forget.

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Talking to Pete about my mortgage payment just barely.

ME: freaking mortgage..
ME: there goes another $1600
PETE: see? see why i don't want to buy a house?
ME: but I get to write off the interest.. and build equity.
ME: so it's like an investment that pays twice.
PETE: it's called paying a dollar to save 30 cents.
ME: i'd rather have my own house than rent
ME: because then it's like paying a dollar.. and losing a dollar
ME: ...so it costs you $2
PETE: that's pretty awesome logic
ME: i know.

So for those of you that read my previous posting, you’d know that I had an unopened XBox360 Premium in my possession. Three business days came and on Tuesday evening of this week, I took the said XBox360 home. Yeah, I know. AWESOME! A free Xbox360!!

On the way home I stopped to pick up Halo3 at Walmart – $58.95 or some price like that.
After playing at home on the big screen (56″ Samsung DLP 1080i only though ), I was wanting to get another controller so my brother-in-law (who lives in my house currently) could play with me. The next day (Wednesday) I went by Best Buy, got a second wireless controller ($49.95) plus a recharge pack (which came with a battery pack) and a 2nd battery pack (for the other controller). All in all $100.91 spent that day. This will make it nice not to have to worry about batteries dying and replacing them. Assuming I spend “that much time” in front of the console playing.

So in the end this “FREE” Xbox360 has cost me around $160.00 in game + accessories. That’s where they get ya. On the accessories and games.. But I am still not out $349.00 for the console

So, today we got three boxes of Buffalo routes from Circuit City that I ordered. Circuit City only allows you to order 3 at a time per order. Kind of silly, I’ve been buying about 70 or so total. They’ve sold out twice, because of me.

Anyway, today we got the three boxes. Two boxes that came USPS were fine. The third came FedEx Ground, and it had three routers in side, but as well an XBox360 Premium. Yes, I know. An XBox. Nothing noted on the packaging list, nothing on the order. Nothing. Do we (and by we, I mean “I”) keep it? Tempting. But then comes to mind the “are you honest in all of your dealings with your fellow man” question..

So I called up Circuit City and explained the problem to the first person. After a significant amount of time on hold, she said she’d transfer me to the supervisor who had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to explain the problem to him as well. He has never dealt with this before. I guess people aren’t honest. Thanked me for my honesty, and filed a ticket for the other people to deal with… to figure out what to do. Since I don’t have a Circuit City near by, I can’t really run it back to the store. So he said, if after 3 business days if I dont hear anything, consider the problem resolved. I guess that means, keep it.

We’ll see. I’m hoping they let me keep it. Nothing like a free XBox360. But it could be too good to be true. More when I hear it.

Six weeks ago, someone accessed some sensitive information at Dixie State College which included:

Social Security numbers, birth date information and addresses, of former students, alumni and former employees

Dixie State College officials have taken six weeks to alert the alumni and employees of this security “incident”. Why? Sure no credit card information has been leaked, but like that matters when your SSN, birth dates and addresses have been leaked. Sounds like anybody could sign me up for a new credit card, take out a line of credit in my name, and do more harm than good.

DSC has put up an “ID protection” site for those to access to find out more about how to protect their identity, accessible here. They even link to the free annual credit report. But what if I’ve already used my free credit report this year. Are they going to foot the bill for me to check it again? If only.

I just emailed idprotect@dixie.edu asking why it has taken six weeks for people to be alerted of this incident, as well as what are the plans to notify the alumni? Billy hadn’t heard about it and he’s an alumni. I only heard about this “incident” from my checking of my college email account. WTF?!

Below is a copy of the press release that went out today. For me, it seems like it is about 5 1/2 weeks late. If you are an alumni of Dixie State College, I’d suggest you email your complaints as well. Doubt it’ll do any good, but still.

Dixie State College Notifies Alumni and Employees of Security Incident

(ST. GEORGE, Utah – October 23, 2007) Dixie State College of Utah’s Information Technology (IT) staff became aware of a security incident on September 11, 2007, in which an unauthorized individual was able to gain online access to confidential files holding personal information, including Social Security numbers, birth date information and addresses, of some alumni and current and former DSC employees. However, the files did not contain any credit card or financial data.

Once DSC officials became aware of the incident, the compromised files, which contained approximately 11,000 names of those who graduated or worked at DSC from 1986 to 2005, were immediately deleted from the server. In addition, law enforcement officials, along with the Utah State Attorney General’s office and the Utah Higher Education Commissioner’s office, were notified.

The files were accessible through an internal DSC search engine for a period of up to 14 months, though it appears those files were not accessible to public search engines such as Google or Yahoo!.

“At this time, there is no evidence that the information has been misused,” said Gary Koeven, DSC dean of information services. “However we take this risk very seriously and are taking steps to notify those individuals listed in the files as well as our entire campus community. The situation will continue to be monitored.”

DSC officials have confirmed that the files were accessed, though it is inconclusive as to whether any sensitive information was actually accessed and/or acquired. Koeven added that efforts are being made to notify those affected.

Koeven also noted that a thorough information technology audit is currently underway and that all security and IT processes are being reviewed and will continue to be strengthened.

“We regret that this incident has occurred and we want to let everyone in the Dixie State College community know that we take this matter and all security issues very seriously,” DSC President Dr. Lee Caldwell said. “We know and understand the danger of identity theft and we are committed to ensuring that this does not happen again at this institution.”

Those potentially affected are urged to take precautionary measures by monitoring their bank and credit card statements. In addition, individuals are encouraged to request a free copy of their credit report and review it thoroughly and, if necessary, place a fraud alert on their credit.

In order to further assist, update and provide as much information as possible, Dixie State College has created a website dedicated to this issue at www.dixie.edu/idprotect. DSC has also established a toll-free telephone hotline accessible at 1-866-295-3033. Individuals may also email questions and concerns to idprotect@dixie.edu.

I had some issues with my Saab this last Thursday. That’s another story, but I had it towed to the Saab dealership in Vegas to get fixed so it’d work again. I caught a ride this morning at 6.30am with my brother to Vegas to pick it up (he works for North LV Fire). He had to be to work at his station early, so he offered to take me further into the city, closer to where the pickup shuttle could reach me easier..

I arrived around 7.15am (vegas time) at the Flying J truck stop on Cheyenne. Called the Service department, got the number for the shuttle dude, I was told to call him at 8am (this is vegas time btw) and he’d get me on the schedule. I called at 8am, he told me he leaves the dealership at 8.15am to deliver those that brought their cars in this morning.. and that I’d be first on his list to pick up. Turns out I got picked up around 10am.. almost 3 hours after I arrived there. Sure I could have taken the bus or taxi, but I’m cheap.

I spent the time listening to the truckers talk in the “drivers lounge”. Some of these guys have the nastiest mouths I have ever heard. One black guy was pretty up-to-date on the current events, he wanted to know if Bush had spoken to the UN yet or not.. and what he said.

Specifically there was this Mexican guy (well, he was from California) that bought his own rig and drove long hauls…because it makes more money. He typically drives out east, and then once he’s out there they give him short hauls from like Baltimore to Georgia, or Georgia to Virginia, .. it takes him forever to get back to the west. He had to wait for like a day for his stuff to get loaded or unloaded.

There was this other guy, we’ll call him Trucker B. He seemed to be hard on his luck. He said he’ll be waiting in this chair for two days for his load to come in. He mentioned he was lucky to get any work. Only making $22k this year, and can’t pay his mortgage. Seemed like a nice guy, just hard on his luck.

Trucker C was this guy that came in at the end of the conversation and said that he made 40k since the end of May. He had no idea why Trucker B was having such a hard time.

Trucker A (the black guy from above), liked to dominate the conversation. He mentioned that 20 years ago the D.O.T. liked to stop him all the time and ask for his docs. Now, they stop the Mexican drivers (pointing to Trucker B).. and he thanked Trucker B for taking the heat of the DOT off of him. Kind of funny. Trucker A was quite the liberal guy.. critiquing everything that the government is doing or isnt doing… He also kept saying how Ford, Campbell soups and all these companies offloaded their factory work into Mexico for the cheap labor, and instead of shipping it into the states, because it costs too much, they just truck it over the border into the US.

It was an interesting situation being in the room with these three truckers going on and on about life as being a “rig” driver. Every once in a while another trucker stopped in.. waiting for his turn in the shower. I guess there was some computer that they scan a card to get “in line” for the shower. Didn’t really pay much attention to that.

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Walking down the personal hygiene aisle at Wal-Mart, I notice a teenage boy taking the caps off a bunch of stick deodorants and smelling them. His mom walks up and says:

“Why are you smelling them? People aren’t going to be going around smelling your armpits.”

Stage 9 from yesterday.