Its what you’ve all been waiting for…

This is a pass/fail course, I am happy to report:

“Kelvin,
Good paper. I have everything I need to give you credit for this class.”

Apparently my writing skills are excellent and my manipulation skills are over-par!

I discovered that an Enterprise arena isn’t necessary to learn the things that I wanted to learn, and can even be detrimental to learning (too much red tape and politics getting in the way).  Either way, I got done what I intended and am still employed.  That should last until at least the end of this year.

I did a lot of HelpDesk related things, not exactly what I was signed up for, but it was pretty good experience anyway. I did get to write a number of Group Policies, helped image both Windows and Mac-based labs, ran cables, set up printers and tons of other sweet computer-related activities.

Because of some happenings that were beyond my control I was not able to complete one of the three objectives that I set out before I started the Internship, but since I wasn’t able to spend time doing that last project, I spent a ton more time inside Group Policy, which is exactly what I wanted.

I even applied for a more permanent position inside the same department I was doing the Internship for, doing the same type of stuff, because I enjoyed it enough. :)

Overall I give it a 8.5/10.  There could have been more learning done, but that wasn’t always in my control.

Not too long ago we decided to float down the Provo river with some friends. Two words: Cold. Freezing.

The idea was good. The execution was perfect. The weather could have been better. Maybe that’s a mis-statement.. the weather should have been better.

We rented some cheap-ish tubes for $10 a piece from UVU and hauled them up the canyon ourselves, instead of renting it from those people who set up camp right along the river, mostly because of cost.

Tubes on cart

The other people we went with decided to buy their tubes outright at Big-O-Tires in Provo. Some were a little lopsided and none of them had the sweet covers that we had (see picture below), so overall we had a better experience (!) but it worked out just fine for everyone else. Unfortunately we were not the only ones on the river that day.  It was not as busy as I had imagined, but there were still a good number of people floating down with us: Families, couples, scouts, you name it.. they were there.

The sun was out, birds were singing, kids were smiling and the sound of beautiful rushing water filled our ears.

Everyone (-Brent)

That was the good part, standing outside in the sunshine, that is.  The very second we had all entered the water something terrible happened.

Clouds

Okay, that picture might be a little bit of an exaggeration but as soon as we started our better-not-turn-back adventure on the ice-laden river some clouds came and covered us. Immediately.  These clouds didn’t go away until after we had finished the float and were leaving the canyon.  We were already cold from the water and with no sun to heat us up, it made for a somewhat miserable trip.

Thankfully Jilleun and I had each other.  Although, I will admit that I abandoned the JR ship a few times because her arms were not long enough to properly steer the tube away from the walls and other dangerous objects..  I saw that a crash was imminent and I didn’t want to go down with her.  Call me what you will, I was just trying to save my own skin!  After she got mad at me for ditching her to the rocks a few times, we linked tubes and I stuck with her the rest of the trip.. and saved her for the rest of the trip.

Thanks to Grandhi for the great cloud picture and Brent for the “everyone” picture.

As you probably know we got married on Thursday the 24th of June and had a reception in California the next weekend on Friday the 2nd on July. With Kelvin’s car not having a cruise control and me not knowing how to drive a stick shift, we decided to break up the driving into two days and stay in Vegas because its about half way.

We arrived in my home town, Coalinga, on Friday afternoon and Kelvin was already to leave because of the heat. We did a few things when we first arrived: like help my mom, and hang out with my younger brothers; then we left to check in to our hotel and get ready for the night. The reception went really well, it was nice to see people and introduce “my husband”, plus it was only 93 degrees. This reception was a little more relaxed, we actually got to still down, have a drink of water and lemonade plus some of our wedding cake! Afterwards, we went back to the hotel open presents with some family. The next day was very low key with swimming, playing with my family, and eating delicious food. I wish we could have stayed longer, I wasn’t ready to leave family, hot weather, and good food.

On Sunday afternoon we headed by to Vegas to stay with our friends Luis and Natalia. We stayed up late into the night talking, and slept in the next morning. We went to the Original Pancake House for “breakfast” and then went on our way back to our home. I don’t have many pictures but here are some..

On Friday the 9th of July, 2010 Kelvin and I went to the drive in for the first time together with our good friends Shaun and Kim. We started the evening by meeting at their house to blow up an air mattress which we put in the back of Shaun’s truck. We left for Salt Lake with a 20 percent chance of rain. We went to the market to grab some batteries for his iPod Dock/Radio and a few snacks. There was a Subway on the same road so we picked up some dinner to take to the movie. We saw Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia, we all loved Toy Story but most of us fell asleep during the Prince of Persia, since Kelvin and I had seen it before and it was pretty late by the time the second movie started. It sprinkled a tiny bit for a few minutes between the two movies but nothing we couldn’t deal with, over all it was a fun night.