The Office

I seriously have the best office in the world! I think any Board writer or reader would love to work in our office. As of right now we only have one Board writer, but he happens to be one of the 'all-powerful editors.' Board conversations flow as normally and naturally over our office staff whether they be about Q&A's posted on the Board (presently or in the past) or about writers identities and personalities. You could say that the Board has been integrated into our office culture for which I am eternally thankful. Because of our connection through the Board to the other employees and through the greater BYU culture in general, we become better employees, filled with the desire to help our fellow man. Plus our office never knows the visitors that may come, such as Tangerine, Krebscout, Uffish Thought, and others!

The white board (not to be confused with 'the Board') receives visits randomly from Board writers who come to the office, where we then, as Board readers, get to enjoy the fantastic Board for that day as well as a personal message just for us. For those of you who frequent our office...you know who you are...our office sends you thanks for making our days at the office a little brighter! Hazzah for the Board!!!

Cookie Dough

Q Dear Wally III [5],

• Is it possible to collect all the cookie dough in Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream and actually bake cookies from it?

-Thinks they would be fabulous

A Dear how many cookies do you think you could get out of a half gallon?,

Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it. It is much better in its raw form, just enjoy it. That is cookie dough in general...who wants cookies when they can have the glorious raw egg, trans-fatty, and wonderfully soft tasting dough? Plus think of all the electricity you would be saving? With that you could go buy a half gallon of premium Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.

-Wally III [5]

A Dear Thinks they would be fabulous,

See Board Question #31335.

-The [real] Board

First Club Meeting

The first Go Club meeting was a success! Bismark and Tangerine were there and fought an excellent first game. I was playing my good friend James. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures; I had my camera in my pocket, and even had an extra set of batteries...but I had "to go and ruin the ride" and completely forget to take them. Dr. Forcade in the Math Department has some really nice stones and a really nice board, they were really fun to play on. I did get the idea to make some smaller boards that are just 10x10 grids, so that we can use those to get some practice on before moving to the larger board. That would be easier than using one quarter of a larger board. Plus if I am already making some boards in the Woodshop it wouldn't be too much to make a few little ones. I am amazed at how closely the Go club is related to the Board [please note no official connection is/was intended nor actual]. I guess it is because most of the people I now associate with, are also associated with the Board. And you thought the world was small in the Church....HA! let me tell you... Unfortunately the fellow reader who helped inspire me to create the Go club is unable to attend because of her class schedule, but hopefully in the future.

P.S. I am still geeking out that I had a famous Board writer [they are all famous] and a famous boardie at the club. Yippie!

The Making of the Go Board

This has been a long time in coming (see Board Question 30286, Board Question 30753, and Board Question 31038).

Yes there is a Go club on campus! It meets Tuesday nights In the Math Department Commons Room (294 Talmage Building) 6:00-8:00pm. It starts 16 Jan 2007 A.D.

All this Go stuff Made me want to make my own board, so over Christmas Break I got together with a good friend of mine who does a lot of wood work. I wanted to make something basic, as well as something really fancy. So I made two boards. One of the hardest parts was making the legs for the traditional board. I felt a little like 'Wilson from home improvement taking these picture.

My Boards are not finished yet so more Pictures will be coming, also perhaps some pictures from the Go Club itself.

This is us turning the legs on the lathe, and what we made the legs from. They ended up looking really Neato!

1) Me holding what we started with compared with what we made.
2) Sanding the leg on the lathe. (much easier than regular sanding, thus the masks)
3) The beginning of the shaping of the leg!




Pictures courtesy of Splendid.

Mournful Question

Q Dear Lover of the Board [AKA. Wally III],

Why do train whistles at night always sound lonely and mournful? Not so in the daytime.

-Thomas the Train is Never Mournful

A Dear Thomas the Train is Never Mournful,

(I have heard this story second-hand, but have also personally experienced it) It all begins with Women's Conference, I think the real title is General Relief Society Meeting. I know kindof a funny place to start seeing I can only call you werf. Well if you read in the Ensign or watch the broadcast (My only options seeing that I am a male) you will find that all they talk about are positive uplifting things. They tell the sisters how wonderful they are and that they are doing performing their callings to the utmost. Picture now, a husband who wonders what his wife hears about at womens conference. While she is at the meetinghouse listening to the broadcast, he listens in. Speaker after speaker praises the women in general, attempts to lift their spirits, and basically tells them they are going to the Celestial kingdom (perhaps a little exaggeration, but not much). The husband is excited because he knows that his wife is the best wife in the world; he tries to praise her as often as he can, but he knows that this will be great for her to hear the church leaders telling her how good of a job she is doing. He wants to celebrate when she gets home, they can all celebrate what a wonderful wife and mother she is. The husband hears the car in the drive and goes to watch her walk in--oh no! She must have been in an accident, or something equally terrible because it looks like she is crying--it is a good thing the meeting was so wonderful he thinks, she will be able to handle a little stress after having such an uplifting meeting. Imagine his confusion as she comes in the doors wiping tears from her eyes, asking questions like "do you still love me?", and "am I a good mother?" and remarking "I need to be such a better person." Just the opposite is true for Priesthood meeting. We go to the meeting, get a flogging from every general authority, and we come away thinking "I could probably do something better in my life."
Now I bet you wonder what all this has to do with a mournful train whistle...here it is. Is the whistle physically different from Night to day? NO. Does the lack of sunlight cause the sound of the whistle to change at all? NO. So what is different? The idea is different. When it is dark we can no longer see all the landscape, trees, other people (unless they are independently lit), giving the feeling of being alone. Human beings are social creatures; we need our herd. Without such we become mournful, so naturally the train whistle sounding in the dark would sound mournful at night and not in the daytime.

Mournful

1.	feeling or expressing sorrow or grief; sorrowful; sad.

2.	of or pertaining to mourning for the dead.

3.	causing grief or lament: a mournful occasion.

4.	gloomy, somber, or dreary, as in appearance or character: mournful shadows.

Just like the differences in the people going to different meetings for the Church, if you go in already feeling that you are not doing enough, when they talk about how wonderful you are doing all you can think of is that "I am not there yet." While the men think "I'm all I could ever be and more" going in, when they are sternly rebuked it is tempered into their previous thinking, so they end up coming out thinking "I am doing really good right now, I wonder if I can help someone else who has those problems."
So you see that how we think about it, determines in large measure, what you are going to think about it.

The Mind is Amazing!

-Wally III [5]

Board Questions

Awhile back I stumbled upon a website. It was similar in idea to the Board, but obviously lacking in panache. They didn't even answer every question. They posted all the questions that went unanswered, so I thought I would have a go at some of them. Some of the questions were really funny, and I couldn't help imagining what it would be like if these questions were asked to the Board. [I will be taking a few liberties with the format of the questions. Any resemblance to the 100 Hour Board is not only intentional, but crucial to my experiment.]

Q Dear Ridiculously Addicted Boardie [AKA Wally III] ,

What comes after 999 trillion?

-One who wants to keep counting

A Dear are you joking me?!,

I tried counting to 1,000 once and I got bored at like...actually I am too embarrassed to say. Now to your question...I guess nine-hundred and ninty-nine trillion and one [999,000,000,000,001]--but I am guessing you were really asking "What comes after nine-hundred and ninty-nine trillion nine-hundred and ninty-nine billion nine-hundred and ninty-nine million nine-hundred and ninty-nine thousand nine-hundred and ninty-nine [999,999,999,999,999]?"

In that case it is one quadrillion, which is followed by quintillion, which is followed by sextillion, which is followed by septillion, which is followed by octillion, which is followed by nonillion, which is followed by decillion, which is followed by undecillion, which is followed by duodecillion, which is followed by tredecillion, which is followed by quattuordecillion, which is followed by quindecillion, which is followed by sexdecillion, which is followed by septendecillion, which is followed by octodecillion, which is followed by novemdecillion, which is followed by vigintillion. This is about where it ends for no particular reason, but I am sure the pattern would continue with unvigintillion, duovigintillion, trevigintillion, quattuorvigintillion, quinvingintillion...etc. Larger than that there is a googol 10^100, centillion 10^303, and googolplex 10^(10^100). All of which are extremely large.

I am sure that will keep you busy counting for another 10^361! years. All of this information is readily available on Wikipedia for fast easy access. Happy Counting.

All these numbers remind me of the Count on Sesame Street. he was the coolest. I remember the episode where he was asking a little girl how much money she needed to ride the bus. It went something like this.

Count: [Dracula accent] How much will you need.
Girl: [Very High Pitched Girl Voice] ohhh... Twenty something.
[Dramatic Cord]
Count: Twenty something?! You can't have 'twenty something' it can be [he counts in the dramatic way that only the Count can, as the numbers appear on the screen] 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, or 29.

Yeah Sesame Street was amazing.

-Wally III [5]

The Board?...or the board?

While on holiday I had a chance to hob knob with the Fam. One of my big projects was to make a few Go boards. Every time I would talk about the board I was working on, I would automatically think of the Board, as in the 100 Hour Board. Immediately after saying something like "We just need to finish sanding the board" or "should we use a laser or a woodburner to do the grid on the board", "which board do we want to work on today?", or "should we put miter, or butt joints on the board?"; I would always want to clarify by saying "not the 100 Hour Board, but the Go board".