Pool Party

On Monday I discussed with some friends that it would be kind of cool to have a pool party where we met the capacity of the pool, which is only 52 people. Today at about 5 o'clock a few of us decided to try. At institute we gathered as many people as we could, then knocked on every door in the apartment complex to get more people. We had around 25. About half way there, but it was still fun.

We took pictures of everyone jumping in, and other pictures of us in a big simile face, and even in the shape of a Y. It was fun.

I am glad that I could have that kind of effect on people. That I could want a party to happen, then have friends help and get a crowd together. If I had planned it further in advance it would have probably worked. There is always next time. I like having friends.

Today I followed Jesus

Since about April I have been growing a beard so that I could be an extra in a New Testament movie that the church is making right now. Last week they finally started filming, and today I was called in.

I have never been part of a movie set. Everyone was really nice. They gave us costumes, they did hair and make-up, and even gave us meals plus forced water on us all day. It is hot in the middle of no where Utah.

I got to take part in three takes. The first was following Jesus to where he blesses children, hence the title "Today I followed Jesus", it was a literal statement. The next seen was after blessing the children we followed him away. While I was "acting" I tried to put myself in the character of someone actually following Jesus. It was a nice feeling. I pondered if I would be able to leave work and everything behind to go and just follow him. It would be hard, but worth it.

The children were a miracle. They did their scenes amazingly and I couldn't help but smile at them. They were patient and did everything asked. Some of the mothers said there was no way those kids would act like that all day in the sun normally. It had to be a miracle.

My last scene was sitting in a group after the Resurrection when Peter, James and John were in charge of the church, and they gave us the Sacrament. I am straight on from the camera. I hope I get to see myself in the movie whenever they actually produce it.

I don't know if I will be called in again, nor know if I would want to, but I would do it anyway. It was a good experience where I met some good people. I met the guy from Saints and Soldiers, he was our medic. Also I met the guy who played Joseph Smith in the newest church movie. He is a nice guy. I also met a Jamshid. That is my middle name, and I don't come across it much because it is Persian. He was only half like me, and knew less Farsi that I did.

The only thing I didn't like was that some people complained. Even thought the sun was very hot, it was tolerable. There was a non-member man, that was sad that they had postponed the casting, was not happy about how little we know about when we are needed. He is keeping a beard like all the men, and thinks he can't get a real job till this is done, so he wants to participate more. I guess that is understandable, we all need money, but I only came for the experience, getting paid was just a bonus.

We all learned about it last night at like 9 pm, so getting there at 5 or 6 something was hard but worth it. Some people traveled really far. One guy, Jeff, drove from at least 100 miles south into Utah both ways today so he could participate. He was a really great guy. I knew at least two that even came down from Idaho. I really hope everyone made it home safely, not implying heaven.

My only regret is I should have talked more about how amazing it was to be on the set, and even just act as a disciple of Christ. It was nice.

Yay, the months of growing a beard and looking iffy have paid off. Now to see how much more they call me.

Giggle

This might be a bit weird but I have a giggle. I use it when I am sad or just generally not happy. When I hear it, it makes me smile. That usually fixes sadness or general unhappiness. I think it is great.

Lost Pictures and a iPhone Jailbreak

This weekend I went to the Apple store with a friend of mine. She had a computer that when some other Apple Certified care tried to fix it really messed up the enclosure. Since I was there I asked about my iPhone, it has been draining the battery a ton, but only while I travel, and calls didn't work while in crowds. They tell me the crowd part is AT&T's fault, which I mostly understand, but still. The said there was nothing they could do about the battery. I was sad, but I at least wanted my head phones replaced, because jiggling the end would make one side not work. Turns out that was a short in the phone, so they were able to get me a brand new looking, probably refurbished iPhone 3gs. Note: IF YOU EVER BUY AN APPLE PRODUCT GET APPLE CARE FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN, it is worth it, their customer service is great.

Since I had driven an hour to Salt Lake City to get the the Apple store my friend and I decided to go to the top of the conference center to see the park on top, and wander a bit around temple square. I took 30 great pictures. I like tulips a lot, and Temple Square was covered in them.

When I got home, I plugged my phone in and "Restored" it back to what I had on the other phone that morning, which is a pretty cool feature, it brought back all my texts. notes, info in apps, and even pictures. S

ad thing is it completely deleted the pictures I had taken that day. Really annoying, I should have copied them first, but I was in a hurry and didn't think.

I really liked a few of those pictures so I did what any knowledgeable computer person would do, and tried to find a way to restore the pictures. Most devices this would be rea

lly easy, just download a program that does photo restoration, and it will look though your hard drive for deleted files and find what it can, as long as it hasn't been covered with something new. Computes don't actually delete files, they just forget they have them, and replace the space with something else eventually. Sadly this is an iPhone, so Apple wouldn't let me see anything. There was no way to check the drive, and therefore no way to get back the pictures.

I really liked those pictures. This gave me the motivation to try and mount my iPhone to be able to search the drive. I never did figure that out. Instead I found other pages that told me how to completely copy the entire drive over ssh. I have never really used ssh for anything, but I really wanted those pictures so I learned how. On my windows computer I had an ssh client, but still needed a ssh server so I found it. The program I wanted to copy with wasn't installed in the command prompt, so I downloaded it and even added it to the windows path. Real complicated stuff. The program I added didn't work through the ssh, so I tried again in ubuntu linux. It was able to work.

The process to get ssh on the iPhone started with a Jailbreak. That just means using a hack that does non-apple prog

ramming. I was a bit afraid of breaking my iPhone, I tried twice unsuccessfully luckily not bricking it and the third time the Jailbreak took. From that point I installed ssh and got it all working and copying. The copying took about 8 hours, but I was able to do it, after one unsuccessful attempt of about 3 hours. 14GBs is a lot to copy. It is a good thing it lies about being 16GBS. After I had the memory saved, I got my iPhone fully restored with

apps and all and all my music back on. I hadn't put everything because I didn't want the pictures coverd. Luckily it didn't auto copy all the music back.

Now I still have to make a virtual drive on my PC to be able to scan for those deleted files, but that means clearing 20 GBs, which I haven't had time to do. I might do it tonight.

Since I was already Jailbroken I decided to see the perks. I am not going back. There are two things that make it more than worth it. Two simple programs: Springboard and PlayAwake. Springboard lets me hide the icons Apple stocks that I never wanted and also gives me easy access to simple controls I wanted of turning on and off wifi and bluetooth, and changing brightness. Apple makes you go through like 20 options to do that. PlayAwake lets me choose a song from my music library and then use it for an alarm. That has been my biggest peeve about my iphone. I am not going back now. I even paid $2 to get the office PlayAwake because I support it, even though it is super easy to get a cracked version. If only apple would give me those shortcuts and the ability to choose my songs, I would never Jailbreak, but those two simple options make me never want to go back to stock.

Springboard PlayAwake

Unacceptable

Yesterday I was walking home from campus and came across an emergency call box. There are many located around campus, that have a blue light on a tall pole so they are visible from a distance if someone is in trouble. I walked past it and this is what I found."Out of Order" just isn't acceptable for an emergency box. As far as I know, the main purpose of this are if girls are in trouble and someone wants to attack them they can run over and be safe. How you would feel if you were a scared girl and ran over just to find that it was out of order, your only safe haven lost. It truly would be sad.

Blue Hair

The other day I met a girl on campus with blue hair. In most universities that would not have been anything special, but here at BYU where it is strictly not allowed it is. Here at BYU some teachers might kick her out of class, but I guess they haven't. The main place at BYU where checks for "inconsistencies" in dress and grooming is the testing center. There if a man doesn't shave or a girl has blue hair they will get turned away. This girl says she makes sure to wear a hat or hide it somehow when she gets there.

I guess I should be sad that she is breaking the rules, but rather I was really refreshed to see some individuality. Blue hair rocks.

ChromeOS

Right now I am typing on my brand new Cr-48 with ChromeOS from Google. They are giving lots away and today is the last day to sign up. Well it actually works and I am using a brand new scarily unmarked 12 inch notebook with just Chrome on it. I am really excited and may post more about it in the future, but for today I have a paper cut on my pinkie and it hurts to type soo I am postponing all judgement other that it being super awesome!