100 things I'm grateful for

I've been working on this list for several months, off and on. It seems my life is pretty awesome. I don't mean to brag; I just hope my list makes you a little more grateful for the blessings in your life.

1. I have friends who care about me.
2. God listens when I pray.
3. God put me here on this earth to learn and gave His Son to get me back.
4. I get to learn daily about how the world works.
5. I am healthy and strong.
6. I've been blessed with an acute intellect.
7. There is beautiful music.
8. Nature is beautiful.
9. Nature provides never-ending opportunities to study.
10. I get second chances. And thirty-fifth chances.
11. There are magnificently powerful tools to help me accomplish almost anything.
12. There are holy temples all over the world and I get to attend them frequently.
13. Even the people I don't know are usually really nice to me.
14. There is lots of freely and reasonably priced art available in lots of forms.
15. I have a good singing voice.
16. There are more good books to read than I could possibly digest in a lifetime.
17. God guides me. He knows what He's doing, even though I don't.
18. My body heals itself.
19. Not everyone is the same as I am, which makes life interesting.
20. I have a stable family.
21. I was raised in a home where education is valued.
22. My basic needs have always been met.
23. I was able to become financially independent while still in college.
24. I basically never had to pay tuition.
25. For almost every topic, I have a friend who is knowledgeable about it.
26. There are libraries.
27. The internet allows me to access information quickly.
28. I can communicate instantaneously with people all over the world.
29. There have been and are prophets and their teachings are invaluable.
30. The prophets also provide good (but human) examples.
31. My friends know my quirks and shortcomings and still want to be my friends.
32. I have friends who are willing to call me out when I'm wrong.
33. I have friends who can see qualities in me that I can't see.
34. People teach me the lessons they've spent a lifetime learning.
35. My mission changed me forever.
36. I have frequent opportunities to serve others.
37. I'm capable of growing a beard.
38. I have enough flexibility to take a nap when I need one.
39. Hot showers during cold winters.
40. Worlds don't end when I err, which is a luxury not afforded to movie characters.
41. My ex-girlfriends aren't ex-friends.
42. People do so much good that I see it even when I'm not looking for it.
43. My car works and even looks pretty good.
44. I'm not dead, despite the many times I've been in serious danger.
45. Thanks to freezers, I can enjoy basically any food at any time.
46. I know stuff about nutrition.
47. I look pretty good bald.
48. Dancing is fun and I'm good at it.
49. People's parents seem to like me.
50. People can change - myself included.
51. Someday, I get to have a family.
52. The chant "You're either with Petey or against America!"
53. I've had lots of opportunities to benefit from the wisdom of generations past.
54. Little children have a knack for believing and seeing the best. It's inspiring.
55. I get to live in a place where there's room to spread out and breathe.
56. My mother taught me how to cook.
57. My mother taught me manners.
58. My father taught me to always do what's right, regardless of circumstance.
59. In-laws: they're sudden extensions to the family.
60. I've never had to fight to defend myself and likely won't have to.
61. I live in a culture where most people deal effectively with bodily odors.
62. I get ample reminders to do good things and improve.
63. I get ample reminders that I'm actually a decent guy.
64. Summertime.
65. I've always had a ward, so I've always had friends.
66. It's okay to take a break when I need one; there's always more time.
67. Beyond my necessities, I enjoy several luxuries.
68. I can type. It's fast, accurate, and otherwise less annoying than writing.
69. I get divine help when I need it, even for mundane tasks.
70. There are many good examples of familial happiness and stability.
71. My whole life is perfectly designed to teach me what I need to progress.
72. Winter is beautiful.
73. The sun always comes back.
74. The vast majority of the bad things that could happen don't happen.
75. Exercise works. It's possible to do hard things and not be sore later.
76. Nerd skills come in handy.
77. Affordable gamma lids.
78. Poetry beautiful enough to get my attention.
79. I live in a time where violence is discouraged rather than encouraged.
80. The ability to learn from my mistakes.
81. Writing allows me to express myself and to think through my problems.
82. Different cultures capture different truths. We get to learn from them.
83. It's fun to learn languages and doing so changes how I see the world.
84. My failures and disappointments have made me better.
85. Every once in a while, I hit a string of green lights.
86. People I haven't seen in years are happy to see me again.
87. Deciduous forests.
88. Mountain lakes.
89. I sometimes get feelings of surpassing wonder. They're never predictable.
90. My vivid imagination makes my life incredibly rich.
91. Hoods and hats go a long way towards keeping my bald head warm.
92. There's a reason to laugh every day. Often, there are several.
93. My great sense of smell is coupled with a strong resistance to revulsion.
94. When there aren't great people to spend time with, there are good books.
95. Most of the things I need to do become interesting if they aren't already.
96. Sometimes I do something and am met with a shocking degree of success.
97. People often value my opinion.
98. There is always something new to boggle my mind.
99. I've had uncounted wonderful experiences and I know many more are coming.
100. As terrific as this life is, there's something much better waiting.

Update: Fixed a typo in #71. Life teaches me things. It does not reach me things.

Apple's patch Wednesday

Apple released several updates yesterday. Most talked about was iOS 6, but there were also upgrades to Mac OS, Xcode, and other Apple software.

I'd heard about iOS 6 but don't have a device that will benefit much from it, so I didn't bother with it.

I use my Mac for school. It's basically a Linux laptop with shiny hardware and an aesthetically pleasing (if space-wasting) window manager. I use homebrew to manage the software I use from the FOSS ecosystem. So when I checked for updates last night it told me that my Xcode command line tools were out of date. This typically means that Xcode itself is out of date. I'd expected to see the update notification from the App Store, as Apple had just forced me to upgrade a few months ago to get a version integrated with the App Store.

It turns out that although the update was available, the App Store hadn't yet notified me. This isn't a huge problem; it just means that I can't trust Apple to notify me as soon as critical security updates are available. And, of course, I love the irony of being notified by a third party application that my Apple software needed to be updated.

I opened the App Store and checked for updates. I told it to upgrade everything (Xcode and iPhoto) and typed in my password to authorize the process. I quickly noticed that the update was over a GB. Having just been released, this patch was in high demand among developers and the download was painfully slow. I was only somewhat surprised that Apple doesn't use something sensible like BitTorrent to distribute its patches; after all, Apple maintains tight control over its products – even after the products have been sold to customers.

Hours later, I checked to see if the download had finished. For some reason, it was still listed and I instructed the App Store to update everything again. I typed my password again. For some reason, the patch was larger. It's possible I missed a detail somewhere, but I'm quite sure that 1.6 GB is larger than 1.3 GB.

The next time I checked, iPhoto had still not been upgraded. I told the App Store to install the update and authenticated a third time. It quickly reported that it wanted to upgrade but that it couldn't until I updated my operating system. Apple, of course, hadn't notified me that an update was available.

So I opened Apple's update tool and installed the upgrade, which forced me to authenticate (I think – at this point, it was late enough that I may have missed something) and then restart.

After restarting, I told the App Store to upgrade a fourth time and authenticated yet again and it happily complied.

When I launched Xcode, it had an update waiting inside of itself that I had to install before doing anything else. Then, finally, I dug my way through the preferences menu to find a way to upgrade the software contained within Xcode, including the command line tools. It listed four updates but said at the top that no updates were available. After ignoring the message at the top, I tried to install one of the tools. After authenticating (twice), I was told that my Apple Developer account doesn't have access to iOS 5. I have no idea why Apple maintains farcical security around its developer tools, as they're certainly available on the Internet without Apple's red tape. And it wasn't immediately obvious how I could convince Apple to give me the software. So I ignored the iOS 5 emulators and moved on to what I really needed.

The other updates didn't hassle me (although I think I had to authenticate again for each one). I was finally done. The experience left me thinking of the years I spent working in technical support for my department as an undergraduate, installing OEM copies of Windows XP on professors' laptops and doing battle to find and install the drivers they needed in order to operate properly. Apple had actually succeeded in creating its own Patch Tuesday (except that it was a day late, as it all came out on Wednesday).

So, Apple, I pose my questions to you: how do you justify such a horrific experience? Are you willing to own up to the fact that your developer tools are clearly an afterthought? Are you even bothered by the fact that third-party tools notify your users about updates (which could be security-critical) before you do, despite the fact that you control the operating system and applications that can deliver these notifications? And we all know that stealing ideas is how the computer industry works, but didn't anyone tell you to steal the good ideas?

Green Eyes

During my first year in college, I was asked to teach a Sunday School class to my peers. I was apprehensive at first, having taught few times and having never formally taught anyone my own age. I was also disappointed to not have the assignment that I thought would be the most fun.

After one week, my apprehensions were gone. I loved it. Every week, I would study with my partner and we would split the lesson and the time in two. She was a good teacher and fun to study with. We settled into a great rhythm and so did the class: people sat in basically the same seats every week – all but the front two rows. To be honest, I remember very little of it because it was so long ago and because it was so routine.

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A little stroll

This morning, I chose to walk across campus instead of taking the shuttle. It was a very pleasant walk - the air was crisp and not insanely cold and I took some time to think. I even reminisced about dancing the country polka.

When I got to the engineering building, there were several minutes before class started. I decided to go up to a little lookout point to appreciate something beautiful.

The haze immediately convinced me that the walk could have done more damage to my lungs than it benefited them.

Utah, I think it's time we did something about the air here.

People keep saying I'm a flirt...

It seems like everyone I meet thinks I’m a huge flirt. I used to be a huge flirt, but I’ve toned it down since I was a freshman. Maybe that’s why I don’t understand it. I do talk with people a lot, but the fact that I’m talking with a girl doesn’t mean I’m trying to ingratiate myself with her. Whatever the reason, my reputation as a flirt has persisted for many years, even among different groups of friends and in different cities that I’ve lived.

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Why I no longer fear rejection

When I got home from my mission, I was so absorbed in just living a non-mission life, finding a job, and then working at a job, that it hardly occurred to me that I might go on a date for a while. I'd been home for about four months when I decided that I needed to make some time for dating and asked someone out.

Since it had been about two and a half years since my last date (maybe more), I was very out of practice. To say that it was awkward would be a gross understatement. I tried to be proper and polite and ended up being so formal that our conversation was almost nonexistent. I don't remember who won the game of bowling, but I do remember that some girl in the next lane kept bowling in our lane.

The next day, my date went on a date with a guy in our ward. They began dating shortly thereafter.

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Nate vs Petey

Once upon a time, a young man named Petey was working as an EFY counselor for the first time. Being an astute young man, Petey couldn’t help but notice that the lady counselors were beautiful, accomplished, and fun. He particularly noticed a lady counselor by the name of Nora (no, her real name is not Nora), who stood out to Petey as particularly beautiful and fun.

Petey made a point of paying some attention to Nora and was richly rewarded in kind; once, when he surprised her, she called him Sweetie Petey. Petey didn’t mind the attention one bit.

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