Mac Attack!

Is this a common sight for many of you? Have you been around the BYU campus and seen the influence Apple has established on campus? Here, in the library, I took a picture of a regular day. Out of the 12 computers I can see in this picture, 8 of them are Macs! 67%!

I have always loved the uprising of Apple. It has always intrigued me after watching a movie called Silicon Valley in high school. After watching the movie, which depicted the former partnership of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, I felt a loyalty to Apple that I never had before.

Apple continues to produce moving advertisements, like this campaign:

Apple is continuing to gain market share. I am excited for the day when they will surpass Windows in sales. In 2006, Apple owned about 4.6 % of the market share for laptops overall. Not very impressive, but it has been steadily growing. In 2007, it grew to 5% and in 2008, it kept growing to 5.6%, and Apple continues to grow!

Go Apple!!!

Climbing a Rock?

     Why do people feel the urge to climb things?
Especially in the case of climbing rocks and mountains, why do people do it?

I've decided to use this as a research project for my writing class this semester.

To give you my opinion, here are some pictures I took yesterday from a 600 foot climb my buddy and I did.

Simply beautiful.

You look cool.

And you're safe... for the most part. ;)

Those are a few of my reasons for climbing, but I'm interested to see what others' reasons for it are.

"The Devil Can't Make You Do It" by President Boyd K. Packer

"The Devil Can't Make You Do It"

President Packer

General Conference October 2010

    Bold as he was in the October General Conference, Boyd K. Packer made some enemies. In the morning session of General Conference on October 3, 2010, President Boyd K. Packer talked about the sanctity of the family and bravely presented his feelings on the Family Proclamation and the sins of homosexuality and pornography. He answered my questions and although no new doctrine was presented, his message brought about a protest on Tuesday because of how straight forward and logical he was, not beating around the bush.

    The night before, I found myself asking my date why she thought we, as a church, were so against the gays having an opportunity to get married. It was a question that had bothered me, because I felt it went against the LDS philosophy of agency. Luckily, the Lord knew that this concern would be on my mind and had President Packer give a talk on it the next day (I love how that works). President Packer gave me the answer I had known all along, but never connected. From the Family Proclamation, he quoted “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” Wow, it's so simple. Marriage is something that only applies to a man and a woman, not a man and a man or a woman and a woman. Your agency allows you to be gay together, but don't call it marriage. It's not marriage. Marriage is ordained of God and perpetuates life and the family.

    Apparently, the gay community along with a few disgruntled members of the Church weren't spiritually ready to hear this message. On Tuesday, a group protested against President Packer's conference address. It's funny, President Packer addressed people like this in his talk. He implied that you wouldn't vote on absolute truths, asking “what would a vote against gravity do?” His clever remarks helped me to realize that God's truth can't be altered or voted on.

    President Packer couldn't have been more bold in his remarks. He used a great sense of logos to present his message in a way that answered my questions, and I'm sure others' as well. His speech couldn't be taken any other way than the way he intended it to be. Great talk, President Packer.

Puffery

    Puffery is a technique commonly used in the advertising world. It refers to an over-exaggeration of a product or service. Examples of this would include saying such phrases as "the best", "the most satisfying", or "the greatest". These phrases don't even necessarily need to be true. They could have the worst, least satisfying product out there. The way that advertisers can get away with phrases like this has to do with proof. There is no calculation that can tell me if your product is "the best." Although the company can't prove that it's the best, you can't prove it's not. Best in what? Even though quantitative claims can be proven wrong, qualitative ones can't. Puffery is present in many companies.

This probably isn't the greatest value in the world, but you can't prove its not.


Even modern advertisements that you'd never guess, use puffery. Take, for example, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. They're what?? They're gr-r-reat!! Really?

Look at the ads you see today and notice how many of them use puffery.

My Bold Move

  I've been on a few dates since being home, but none were initiated quite like this one.

  Friday rolled around and I found myself sitting on a bench outside the Wilkinson Center. A girl came and sat down on the bench next to mine and I heard my thoughts say, "wow, she's really cute." I couldn't keep from looking at her and I knew it was a problem, so I decided I was going to do something about it. You only live a mortal life once, right? So about half an hour went by and I didn't act. I kept waiting for her to approach me (like that ever happens) and nothing came of it. Finally, as class was about to start, I decided it was now or never. Music influences our irrational decisions and I think I was listening to Muse, so I was pumped.

   I went up and introduced myself, nervous at the thought of what was to follow. She told me her name was Laura and I said something to the effect of "Well, I think you're really cute and I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me some time." Warning signs started shooting off in my brain as she paused, smiling. I had to blurt out "I would never do this, but something told me to." She accepted and gave me her number, telling me she normally wouldn't say yes, which made me feel a little better and boosted my confidence back up a little bit.

  We went on a date Saturday night, which was a lot of fun. She came to my apartment to pick me up (lame, I know) and when I opened the door, I was surprised by how beautiful she was [with these situations, you never know if you're just feeling that way in the moment]. We went to the malt shop and then to Comedy Sportz (which was pretty hilarious). She seems really nice and interesting. From California, and has two older sisters. Parents are converts, which is really cool. Overall, it was a great date. There will be a second.