Holy War
Several weeks ago our Sunday School class broke out into one of its frequent arguments between the kids that support
BYU and those that support
U of U. (It might actually be the kids whose
parents support those schools, but I guess it's normal for loyalty to span generations.) One of our students claimed that
BYU shouldn't even be allowed to have that name because Brigham Young founded the University of Utah and not
BYU.
I did some research on his claim and thought I'd share it since we're rapidly approaching the climax of Rivalry Week. I discovered not only that Brigham Young had founded both schools, but that they were once part of the same school: the University of Deseret.
In 1850 Brigham Young founded a school called the University of Deseret. I guess he didn't do so well managing it because it only lasted two years before going out of business. Meanwhile other schools were being established in the territory, including a school that was built in Provo in 1862.
In 1867 the University of Deseret reopened, though I assume Brigham was no longer in charge because he was promoting his own goals to open a new school in Draper. The school in Draper didn't pan out, but the University of Deseret did well enough to start expanding, and in 1869 it bought the Provo school and made it part of the University.
Brigham Young continued with his own goal to open a school, and in 1875 he succeeded by purchasing the Provo campus from the University of Deseret. Brigham himself (not the Church) owned the newly purchased school, and named it the Brigham Young Academy.
In 1896 (some years after Brigham's death) the LDS Church acquired Brigham Young Academy, and in 1903 it was split into two separate schools: Brigham Young High School and Brigham Young University. Meanwhile the University of Deseret changed its name to the University of Utah in 1894 (paralleling the change in the name of the territory that was on the brink of becoming a state).
According to legend the rivalry between the two schools started at their very first sporting competition. It was a baseball game in 1895. It was a tie game and there was a brawl after it was over. The rest is history.
New Xbox Experience
Microsoft released a pretty
big update for the Xbox this week. It's basically the Xbox's equivalent of Windows Vista: no new functionality, but everything looks shinier.
The most obvious change is the addition of
avatars. They let you create little digital characters for your profile. Basically the same thing as the
Nintendo Mii, except that the Xbox versions don't look as much like
Lego toys. I'd be a little worried that the introduction of these characters would cheese-up my otherwise adult gaming console, but it doesn't really change anything. There are no changes to existing games and only
a few games can use the avatars, and
only one of those can do anything with the avatar besides display it. So, really, while the avatar is fun to create, the only functional change that it offers is to give more personality to the
old gamer profile icons.
The other noticeable change is the menu system. It's all shiny and bright, and after seeing the avatars you might think that the lighter feel of the menus is another Wii rip-off, but I think it's more similar to the
Cover Flow interface that Apple has been putting on their new i-products (tunes and pods and phones). Basically the menu looks like a bunch of individual pages that you flip through. Besides the look of the menu, the menu system has gotten a lot bigger. It scrolls horizontally and vertically, so basically there's just tons of menu options. There are a couple places where the new navigation makes it easier to find things (like that there's finally a separation of full games from trials and demos in the Arcade menu). For the most part, though, the menu options are the same the new layout just gives Microsoft more real estate to throw in advertisements.
Something that actually does upset me about the new interface is that the skins for the dashboard are basically useless now. The old skins still exist, but the new interface just uses them for a background image instead of skinning all of the menus. I probably wouldn't care about that if it weren't for the fact that I had a
special edition theme that came with my
special edition Halo Xbox. So now I just have a special edition desktop image that anyone could probably get just by downloading a screenshot off the Internet and using that for their background image. It kind of takes the "special" out of the edition.
So, while the update is mostly just visual, there actually are two features that I'm excited about. One is that
Netflix now has their own Xbox app, so you can watch the streamable portion of the Netflix library right on your Xbox. If that ends up as nice as I'm hoping then it might make me switch teams away from Blockbuster.
The second new feature that I'm excited about is the
Community Games section. It's pretty empty right now, but basically this is a new area that will let individuals share their homebrew games with the rest of the Xbox world. Even if no good games surface out of the community, I think it's awesome and encouraging that it's even an option now.
If you're not an Xbox player you probably don't care about most of this (and if you are then you've probably already drawn your own conclusions), but I just thought I'd share my review while the system is still new enough for a fresh perspective. Even though the avatars are the most prominent change, don't be fooled and think that the Xbox has turned into the Nintendo Wii. Most of the changes are just cosmetic, and probably more ripped off from Apple than Nintendo anyway. If you don't like the cosmetic changes then you can find comfort in the fact that once you pop your game disk in the console is just the same as it always was.
Bluetooth
Ok, I understand that it's a pretty cool technology to be able to have these wireless devices. I even think a wireless hands-free headset is a good idea. But that's not really the problem is it? If you're on the phone, fine, but if you're not actually talking on the phone, take the stupid thing out of your ear. Don't you know that you look like a moron? I don't walk around holding a phone up to my ear all day long just in case I get a phone call, so take your stupid phone out of your ear when you're not using it.
Where did this tradition come from anyway? Did the inventor of these headsets tell everyone that it would be cool if they just wore them all day long? Because that was a lie. It's not cool. You don't look cool and we're not impressed by you. It's not like driving around in your Porsche to show off that you're successful. It's more like wearing a high-tech pocket protector. So seriously. Just stop it.
Unique Experiences and Circumstances
The Church made a
press release about Proposition 8 the day after the election, mostly in defense of itself and attacks made against it for getting involved politically. This paragraph towards the end struck me:
Before it accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions for the amendments, the Church knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position. Voting choices by Latter-day Saints, like all other people, are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances. As we move forward from the election, Church members need to be understanding and accepting of each other and work together for a better society.
What impresses me most is that the Church gives its members flexibility about this issue. It acknowledges that not all members would support the amendment and it seems to be fine with that. Instead of demanding that Church members support the amendment, it grants Church members their varying influences on their votes, and only asks mutual understanding and acceptance, not conformity.
While it would have been nice to have this kind of statement before the election while the debates were actually going on, I'm really glad for it now. Although (as the article states) the debate on the issue is not over, I hope that moving forward this will allow Latter-Day Saints to discuss the topic more openly and respectfully, without accusing each other of wrong doing simply because their politics "are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances."
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-responds-to-same-sex-marriage-votes
Election Day
You know what I'm most excited for today? For it to all be over. It's just gotten way too stressful and I'm eager to get back to where I can complain about the government and not worry about my voice being heard. Think how relaxing it will be when we can just rely on the government to make the wrong decisions without all of us needing to stress and argue about our own political decisions.
Plus then I can get back to writing and thinking about more important things, like food and video games.
