They're Watching You

Too often the media runs a scare campaign revolving around some hardly understood aspect of technology, and it works. From people re-posting links claiming that Facebook maliciously added in new security features, to Google being on the path to world domination (yes, I've heard both), people fear that which they don't understand. This fear cripples them into the borderland of paranoia, making them susceptible to hacks, phishing, and lies. These victims rely on us to remove the mystery from the machine, to make false scare reports ineffective in raising the mass's ignorant cry. We fight the pandemic.

Link to Article: Facebook Is Tracking What Users Buy In Stores To See Whether Its Ads Work

Google Police

Censoring strikes a strong chord in me. I am not sure where I stand for recognizing the when and where censoring is appropriate since it is far out of my experience. I am an admin of the facebook page my apartment complex uses. Most of the time my position is that if something should not have been posted, the users will reprimand that person well enough without me exercising admin privileges. The less I get in the way, the more natural censoring happens. However, I do not have to worry about lives being in danger. My method would not have worked for Google, yet their actions makes me wonder where the line resides. Law has yet to decide how much responsibility internet service companies have over the content their service is carrying, even when it's user generated. Google police starts to sound too much like a 21st century Orwellian antagonist.


Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/technology/google-blocks-inflammatory-video-in-egypt-and-libya.html

Writing Skill

My untouchable field, computer science, isn't so immortal. HP announced that they're predicting 29,000 job cuts over the next two years. Ouch. Great computer skills do not equate to job security. In lieu of this I recall how several CS professors stress developing good writing skills. When it comes down to the line, those with exceptional communications skills will keep their jobs, while their practically mute counterparts will be on the job-hunt again. For my ideas to be shared, decisions respected, and accomplishments appreciated, I will need to constantly polish my writing abilities.

Link: HP Now Sees 29,000 Job Cuts In Restructuring Plan

My Actual Priorities

Yesterday in my design class we discussed how to gather details from users. The professor mentioned that surveys and plain Q&A interviews mask the details we need because people tend to answer "how they think they should answer." For a different class's seemingly unrelated reading assigment I studied Focus and Priorities by Elder Oaks. These two events provoked the internal question: "What really are my priorities?" I would normally regurgitate the expected "God, family, church, school" but at this moment it wouldn't be true. I would have to earnestly look over how I spent my time to find my actual priorities. Perusing the moments of yesterday reveal a disappointing answer: school, school, work, school, God, more school, and food. I feel imbalanced. 

Learning to Let Go

As suggested by the title, this last semester (during which I have been dreadfully absent from the blogging world) has been trying to teach me to let go. I'll try to summarize a few of the incidents of last semester to help show this lesson.

Dating: (Had to start with a overused yet little understood topic like this.)
 I talk with my family every week on Sunday afternoon. Our discussions, varying by person, range from how good old Las Vegas is doing, my school and work load, adventures, and any signs of my dating life that they can squeeze out of me. During one such conversation with Dad, I expressed my concern that I am very busy with school and work, I have been attending BYU for nigh 3 years, and I had yet to actually date someone (something more than a few first and second dates). This common topic always raises concerns since, although you'd never know that about 50% or so graduates leave without a spouse, marriage and dating are heavily mentioned in almost all facets of BYU life. I was feeling like a failure.

After voicing my fears and feelings of inadequacy to my father, he put dispersed my fears by saying "Ogden, are you doing your best?" "Yes, Dad. I am doing the very best I can." "Then God will take care of you. Stop worrying and let it go. He's not going to deny you anything. He'll handle it - even if it is your dating life. He'll provide opportunities for everything to work out." That really put me at peace. I was definitely working as hard as I could to meet the demands of life. I really didn't see how I was going to have even the slightest dating life that semester, but I took my dad's advice and let my stress-inducing feelings go. I took faith and knew that everything would work out. 

It did. Winter semester was the best dating semester I've ever had. I was dating (never-exclusively - and don't pry because it's NOYB) an awesome girl. We went on several dates that semester and it was wonderful! My semester was still the busiest yet, with massive work loads and projects piling up (every saturday was spent in the Talmage building working on CS projects). Yet in-spite of all that, God took care of me.

Choices:

With the last semester of my junior year, the need to make life changing decisions slammed into my face, put me into an americana hold, and really tried to make me tap out. The main issue was figuring out what to do for after graduation. I really had two choices. Go for a master's degree or go into the career field. I thought, prayed, studied some more, all with no avail. I still had no clue what I should do. Once again the lesson came to me to "Let it go. I'm doing my best. It will be alright." So with that I've decided to apply for both. I'm going to apply for the masters program and I'm going to submit my resumes. When my actual choices are placed before me, I will make the choice. Right now, since there is no way of knowing my options (besides applying) I shouldn't worry about it. I should just keep moving forward doing my best.

So, as I have learned to let go of uncontrollable issues I have become better at feeling peace, being ready for the future, and letting God have more of an influence in the ratification of my decisions. As long as I'm doing my best (which I've always been doing) then God will handle the rest.