Next week will be the best week of college. Before you start disagreeing, think of this. Three days of class, then four days off. That’s right. Fall break seems to come very early this year. To celebrate this wonderful occasion, I’m headed up to Seattle to visit my brother. My siblings UEA Week (a time of year where Utah students get some days off) doesn’t have any of the same days as my break, and they’re going to Disneyland. So, as a bit of a consolation, my parents are sending me to Seattle. It should be great weekend in Seattle. My brother is currently working for RealNetworks, and living in an apartment in West Seattle. Of course, I’ll have to go to a Starbucks, as there are hundreds of them in Seattle. I’m going to be taking a lot of pictures, so keep your eyes open for them. I’ve also got some new photos from campus that are going to end up on Flickr, so browse on over there and check them out.

On a different note, there’s an incredibly smart guy (Matthew Schinckel) over at Paint the Tiger, Carve the Swan who has been doing some incredible things with Blogsome Blogs. I’ve attempted to implement his comment preview, but I seem to have botched something up somewhere. He’s also created bits of code for Gravatars for Blogsome, and a Catchpa.

There are many things I’m working on for my blog, and otherwise.
You should look for this in the future:

-an instant preview for commenting
-a quicktag option for commenting
-a direct link to Graphic Memory (my up and coming photoblog)

CD News: I’m recording again. Those of you who are interested in getting my CD, I’ll have some more information soon on this page.

Thanks for your support.

Wal-Mart is usually a company I frown upon for their marketing tactics, human resource policies, and the way they treat minority workers. Today is not the day to be frowning upon Wal-Mart. Even before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Wal-Mart was using its warehouses and distrubution centers for emergency kits, food, and water storage. After it hit, they were the second group to respond to the hurricane, second only to the Salvation Army. I find this highly honorable of Wal-Mart. They seem to be trying to rebuild their image, and hopefully this will result in better treatment of their workers, regardless of what ethnicity they are, or where they live. Sam Walton, the original owner of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club was a Christian, often giving to the poor. His companies were at one point quite moral, and quite ethical. It seems after his death, that they’ve been involved in a lot of law suits about gender discrimination, labor laws, and pay problems.

I hope Wal-Mart continues in this direction to return to the point where they had been at when Sam Walton was still alive. They still have a long path to get there, but in the end, I can see it being worth it. It’s not like the company is going to go under anytime soon. They’ve got a large customer base, and a great deal of profits coming in.

Let me know your feelings about this, as I feel I may only be presenting one side of the issue.

Additional Reading:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/09/news/fortune500/walmart_image/index.htm

Loukomades. Gyros. Music. Dancing. $3 admission.

Yes, today was the 2005 Greek Festival in downtown Salt Lake City. The festival took place around the Greek Orthodox Church and the neighboring Hellenic Cultural Center. I attended mostly because my wonderful Greek [EX]-girlfriend attends every year, but I also wanted to get some of the wonderful loukomades. Loukomades are a Greek pastry in the shape of a ball. They’re battered up with honey, then sprinkled with cinnamon. There’s not a better dessert around, in my own humble opinion. They’re extremely difficult to make, as you have to pull them out of the oven at exactly the right moment. Too long in the oven, they burn and lose most taste, too short, and they don’t rise. Note: I know this through experience.

Once inside the Festival, I headed straight for the food. As is custom for a non-Greek like me, I decided to try a lot of new things out. I hit the usual gyro, then headed for some meatballs in a special Greek salsa. Ashley decided to make me try another type of meatball, this time wrapped in some sort of leaf. [Pardon my general explanations of these foods, I’ll get the exact names once I have the opportunity.] To top it all off, I had a Greek salad with fetta and to drink, a Dr. Pepper.

After filling my stomach with these delights, I headed towards the stage where very soon some Greek dancing would be performed. I took a few pictures and a couple videos for your viewing enjoyment.

Note: You will need to download the Google Video Viewer to watch these videos. It’s small and doesn’t take long at all to install. I have tested the program itself, and it’s trustworthy.

After watching the dancing, I decided to get some of the loukomades I explained earlier. I’ve now discovered the worlds’ eighth wonder. Yes, it’s Greek, and it’s amazing.

The festival has it’s last day Sunday the 11th, and has rides for kids, great food, and wonderful family entertainment.

Update: My videos are now uploaded and verified by Google. Feel free to check them out here.

The first night game at Ute Field began with a hard attack on the Purdue goal by the Runnin’ Utes. Although thwarted by the Boilermaker’s defense, the Utes would continue to attack and ravage the goal. The Utes scored in the 30th minute, on a through-ball resulting in a one-on-one situation with the Purdue goalkeeper. The half ended 1-0 in favor of the Utes. The halftime show consisted of two local girls’ teams playing a short game on the pitch at Ute Field.

After the halftime festivities, Purdue came out on the field, looking as pumped as the Utes did after the first goal. This energy contributed to a goal about the 50th minute, scoring as the Utah defense collapsed. Utah’s morale did not suffer from this goal, as the Ute women got back ahead, scoring in the 70th minute, with about 20 minutes left. Despite being plagued with fouls and even a yellow card in the first half, the Utes ended the game 2-1, adding another victory to their record now of 5-0-0.

You can visit the Utes Womens’ Soccer team website here.