Surprise!

So, yesterday morning I would have expected this post to be about how glad I am that the MCAT is over. But things changed. I got an email yesterday afternoon from Prometrics (the people that run the testing centers for these big graduate school tests) saying that tomorrow's proctoring of the exam was cancelled. I was rather incredulous. All of this work, all of my psyching up, and for... nothing?

I called up the phone number that was listed in the email, and after waiting almost half an hour, I explained my predicament to the guy on the other end. He was very helpful, and we were able to get me scheduled for May 28th at noon at a testing location in Salt Lake. It sounded like they had to pull some strings but everything is on track, just with a new date.

My feelings on the matter: mixed. I was pumped and ready to take the test and be done with it. I was kind of upset yesterday. On the other hand, I get an extra month to study for the test, and I get to take it at noon instead of 8am. Also fortunate is that they were able to reschedule me before it gets too late in the application cycle--if they tried to reschedule my test for late June or July, I would have been fairly angry.

So anyways, thanks everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers. Keep 'em going for another month. :)

I'm not contrary.... Oh.

When I was in Bolivia on my mission, the lady who cooked lunch for us said to me: "Elder, usted es muy contrario." This translates to: "Elder, you are very contrary" (but it doesn't rhyme in Spanish). Just last night, I came to the realization that I haven't changed much in that respect in the past 3 1/2 years (side note: can't believe it's been that long already). I mentioned this to Jess last night, and she just sort of laughed at me and said "yep." We discussed my contrariness for a few minutes, which helped me understand my standard reaction to so many things.

I think a lot. I analyze things. Probably too much. I find that a lot of issues have multiple facets, and that makes it harder to make snap judgments. Because of this I tend to want others to see these other facets, and my subconscious method for doing this is to play devil's advocate. I don't always espouse the idea that I present--mostly I just want the person that I'm talking with to think about it. Have they considered this aspect of what they are talking about? If they have, great! I'm not looking to argue, just to show that things might be more complicated than initially realized. I actually don't like contention--I just like to explore ideas.

So what's the bottom line? Two things: 1. If I have ever offended you because I came across as argumentative or disagreeable, that was not my intention. I apologize. Hopefully what I have written here will help you understand what is going on inside my head. 2. Finding character defects is kind of a painful process. However, recognition is one of the first steps towards fixing a problem. I still think that thinking things through is good, but maybe I just need to be more careful in how I present the things that I've thought about. I need to harness this power for good instead of evil. :) Any ideas on how to do that? Did any of this make any sense?

Yaar, thar be pirates

Interesting news this week: pirates off the coast of Somalia took an American ship (the Maersk Alabama), but the situation has been resolved. The crew of the ship acted quickly and disabled it so that the pirates wouldn't be able to sail it. So three of the four pirates hopped in a lifeboat with the captain of the Maersk. After a while at sea, US Naval forces showed up (the SEALs), ready to rescue the captain. At least one of the pirates had an AK-47 assault rifle aimed at the captain's back, so the commanding officer gave the order to fire. Three Navy snipers dropped the three pirates at the same time, one head-shot each. The captain was rescued, safe and sound.

I have two main thoughts about the whole situation. The first is that it breaks my heart that things are so bad in Somalia that people are having to resort to piracy to make a living. The country basically has no government, and hasn't for a while. There is no easy solution in sight. Even sadder is that these men lost their lives essentially because of the situation they were in.

However, these men did have agency and they used it poorly. The life of an American citizen was in danger through no fault of his own. So my second thought is that how impressed I am with our military men and their skill. They took care of the situation quickly and efficiently, and saved the life of the captain. This is the sort of thing that you read about in a Tom Clancy novel, not hear about in real life.

So I'm glad the captain is ok, that the SEALs are awesome, and that the crew were quick on their feet to prevent bigger problems. But I'm also wondering, what can be done to help the Somali people and prevent this sort of thing from continuing/happening again?

More cool science pictures

I found these pictures a while ago and thought they were pretty awesome. They come from National Geographic's Best Science Images of 2008. Basically they provide further validation for studying what I study.




(Note: this is sort of a cop-out post meant to take care of something that I had backlogged for a while. I've got something better [a real post] coming down the pipe, have no fear.)