Free Pizza Happens

So today at work was pretty busy and I had worked through the normal lunch hours. It was no big deal, it happens from time to time. So it was around 2:30pm this afternoon and this guy that works on my floor comes into my office, throws an olive garden box down on my desk and said, "There just about an entire pizza in here, I hope you haven't had lunch yet."
I was quite surprised to say the least. I opened the box and there was on piece missing from the pizza, which was replaced by 3 still warm trademark Olive Garden bread sticks. It really was a beautiful site. If I was capable of tears I just might have shed a few.

Several times I have been patron the Olive Garden and experience quite a diverse selection of foods, but this is the first time I have ever even seen an Olive Garden pizza. If by chance you are a fan of the pizza food group as myself and have yet to experience an Olive Garden pizza I would definitely suggest you give it a try. I would not say it is the best pizza I've ever had, but it was one worth noting.

Big scare

Last week on Friday morning I went to send a quick e-mail before heading to work and that's when it all began. The instant my internet browser was open, before I could do anything, an alert notification appeared informing me that my computer had been compromised by 6 viruses, 2 worms, and over 1200 bits of spyware. About a minute later another window appeared telling me that one of the worms has infiltrated my e-mail and had already sent an infected e-mail to every one of my contacts. I was pretty worried that I was going to receive several hate texts from newly infected people and that all my computer data was lost.
As I did not have much time before I needed to leave for work I promptly set my anti-virus software to work. When I arrived home from work approximately 9 hours later the initial scan was not yet complete. It took 11 1/2 hours to scan my computer to locate all of the aforementioned problems. Once all the problems were located it software took 4 hours to remove the viruses. After over 15 hours of my computer running my anti-virus software was unable to remove 2 of the viruses and one of the worms.

I was at a total loss as to what to do. I computer savvy friend of mine told me it would be in my best interests if I just saved everything I could on an external hard drive and completely re-format my computer. So that is what I did. If you haven't ever done that before, it take about 8 to 10 hours to delete your hard drive and then another hour or two to load all your software and saved files back onto your computer.

So I spent the majority of my Friday and Saturday dealing with computer problems. I guess the bright side is that as far as I know there haven't been any e-mails sent from my accounts to people as a result of the viruses.

Death by elevator

I was talking with friend as I was leaving work today. As per my normal routine I decided to take the elevator down to the main floor. Apparently there are stairs but I'm not quite sure where they are. Anyway, I my friend and I boarded the elevator, joining 5 other people from other floors of greater altitude. The elevator door shut, as it should have, and then suddenly the elevator dropped one foot then came to an abrupt stop. The door opened while the elevator was beeping and I could see that we were about 12 to 18 inches lower than the sixth floor. Then the door shut, dropped, I'm guessing, about another foot, the elevator began to beep again and the seven of us sat in a stopped elevator for about 1 minute. In elevator time 1 minutes is equivalent to ho long 1 minute of wall sits seem to be. After 1 minute the elevator began to move in a normal fashion again and all passengers were delivered unscathed to the lobby. Well one lady might have had a little bit of an anxiety attack, but I'll never know for sure.

As a result I thought, maybe I'll start taking the stairs, then I found out that you need to have an access card to even enter the stair well because they don't want vagrants spending the night in the building. Which by the way happened a couple of times last week. Some guy was spending the night in the mens bathroom on the 17th floor. I don't think he was doing any harm, just a little hard on the nose and eyes from what I was told.

Long story short, you never know when the elevator your riding in could send you into a 6 story free fall and either give you a cool war story to tell or possibly cripple you or end your life.

View

I work on the sixth floor of the Zion's Bank building in down town SLC as mentioned in a previous post. Believe it or not my office has a window with a view. It's not really a glamorous view but a view that I can always look at due in part because it is always changing. For the time being and probably the next year or so my view includes a construction site. All day long, should I be tired of working, I can look out the window and see big trucks and tractors driving around and moving dirt. From my office it looks like little kids playing with Tonka trucks without the little kids moving the trucks and tractors.

Sometimes I find it somewhat hypnotic, why, I don't know. Once in while when the weather is pleasant I think it would be quite satisfying to do such work and in the future to be able to point to buildings and tell family and friends that I helped build that building. There are a few houses and restaurants in the Salt Lake area I have helped build or remodel but they are few in number.

I only have one window in my office but if look out the other direction I get view which includes most of the SLC Temple and most of Temple Square. It's a pretty good view, considering its my first full-time job out of college.

The Ultimate Home Cinematic Experience

For roughly the past year I have a owned a projector. I have not had a quality screen on which to watch the output of said projector. Since I was in college and dealing with mediocrity the norm I was content to project movies, sports, and other programming on a white wall, which produced a glare in the middle of the picture, or a white bed sheet pinned to a wall with thumb tacks.

Being a recent grad school graduate I decided it would be advantageous in upholding the esteem of my degree if I did not profess a bed sheet hung on the wall as a movie screen.

Since purchasing a manufactured screen from a store or off the internet would cost me money my greater judgment forbid me to spend I had to find another avenue. I decided I would revert to the natural instincts of man and build one from scratch with my own hands and sweat.

Notice saw below is worn and used and on the front there is a piece of metal wire that shouldn't really be there.
I started this journey by collecting some man tools: tape measure, stapler, circular saw, power drill, and a power sander. I took some measurements and when off to the 1 of 2 man emporiums; you may know it as The Home Depot. I do not necessarily prefer Home Depot over Lowe's, its just where I went.

I purchased 1x2 boards and the necessary brackets and quickly returned home. With my shirt off and my sweat glistening on my chest I cut 45 degree angles in the boards and proceeded to fasten them together with metal picture frame brackets.

Once I had the a good sized wooden frame put together it was time to try and find a material worthy of becoming the face of my home entertainment for years to come.

I asked the people at home depot if they had anything worth of the type of responsibility mentioned above. They told me I was crazy. I looked deep within myself and realized that this finished project was important to me, so swallowed my pride and lost a few man points and I went to a fabric store on my own looking to buy fabric. I had no idea what I was doing there or even what I was looking for let alone where in the store to look for it. Finally after talking to a person or two I decided on a piece of fabric I deemed adequate. I vacated the store as quickly as possible.

Once I had the screen home I took a stapler, whose use is mainly to staple insulation into walls of homes, and I began to fasten the screen to the wood frame I had previously constructed. After a good deal of time the screen was finished and all that was left was attaching it to the wall.

Now the screen is completed, attached to the wall and with 5.1 surround sound aiding the projector and the screen I am able to provide the Ultimate Home Cinematic Experience to others and myself. Watching movies with this set-up is almost as good as being in the theater.

Here is just a preview of what it looks like in action. The picture is of a TV commercial and is even more clear and crisp when watching movies or HDTV. It really is more spectacular in person, so anyone who wishes to share in the delight of the ultimate movie or TV viewing experience, feel free to give me a call or just come over. If there are any other developments I will let you know.