Keeping Up With the Tyler Joneses

Moving!

2009-01-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

Hey! So basically I've started a new combined blog for my wife, Alie and I! Her and I have made it, and are even running it out of our basement apartment! Go to http://tyleralie.info or click on the banner above to go there!

Update Jan 26: ANND our home internet is down right now. So hold tight until this evening.

Transformers

2008-11-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Some people just have too much time, and large cars, on their hands.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

2008-11-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

Oh, crap.

I think the ACLU might be behind this.

2008-10-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

Proposition 2 - Standards for Confining Farm Animals.

Initiative Statute

Summary

Requires that calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely.
Exceptions made for transportation, rodeos, fairs, 4-H programs, lawful slaughter, research and veterinary purposes.
Provides misdemeanor penalties, including a fine not to exceed $1,000 and/or imprisonment in jail for up to 180 days.
Fiscal Impact: Potential unknown decrease in state and local tax revenues from farm businesses, possibly in the range of several million dollars annually.
Fiscal Impact: Potential minor local and state enforcement and prosecution costs, partly offset by increased fine revenue.

What a Yes or No Vote Means

YES: A “YES” vote on this measure means: Beginning in 2015, state law would prohibit, with certain exceptions, the confinement on a farm of pregnant pigs, calves raised for veal, and egg-laying hens in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.
NO: A “NO” vote on this measure means: State law would not contain prohibitions specifically concerning the confinement of pregnant pigs, calves raised for veal, and egg-laying hens.

I can't believe that we have to vote on this. I think this is a good cause, but I am openly going to vote no, and here is why:

If I were a farm animal, by the time I am pregnant, I will have accepted that the purpose of my life was to be killed and eaten. I might have even realized that the purpose of my race (be it pig, chicken, etc.) was to be eaten by humans.

Really. We've all seen Charlotte's Web. And even though I didn't realize it when I watched it as a kid, there are a lot of pigs that die in that movie. It might be arguable that they aren't intelligent enough to make those observations. But then I might argue that nobody knows if a pig is sore because he doesn't have enough space to move. When was the last time that you were a pig and your feet hurt?

As for me, I will let Alex get us a pet pig. And we will give it all the room a little pig wants to move around. Even if it is pregnant.

And one day, I might have bacon for breakfast.

BYU Football (in general, and a review of the New Mexico game)

2008-10-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

Alex, roommates, and 64,000 people yelling within 500 feet of me. Now really, does life get any better than this? I suggest that it cannot.

So before I was a BYU student, I was a pretty hardcore BYU football fan. I would get a friend (usually Ashley Hunt) and go to Calvin Branson's house a couple blocks away to eat all his food and watch the game on satellite. On top of that, I will never forget my first game at LaVell Edwards Stadium. I was a freshman, and it was fall of 2004. We played Notre Dame, and it was our season/home opener. I have never seen a place so loud in all my life (and I've been exposed to some playoff 49ers crowds, and don't forget the Mexicans in the outfield pavilion at Dodgers Stadium). My bones tingled of such awesomeness. I think that to this day, a little bit of that crowd tingles in my bones every time I think of BYU football. I get that high every time BYU scores, every time I sing the fight song, every time I see the team play.

With that aside, I think I'm going to start posting my comments on every BYU game here. Since I am 16 rows up every home game, we have a pretty good view. I also have noted that my take on the games is usually different than what most people think. But I am pretty observative.

The first half of the game could be characterized by saying that we were experimenting on offense. Sure, we gave up our first points in a few home games, but I think we learned a lot. I was able to see how our offense works. Usually our receivers will run long routes, long outs, or just streaks. That is why we had so many big plays at the beginning of the season.

The letdown to many Cougar fans at the beginning of the game wasn't that we weren't playing well, but that we were opening up our playbook. We ran our short crosses and our quick slants five times more than I've seen in any other game. As we did this, there was one big drawback: inconsistency. Since we haven't run those plays as frequently, we were more prone to come up short. We weren't having 3rd and 10 plays, we were having 4th and 2 plays. In other words, those plays were coming up just barely short.

There was also one big difference, and now it fits together for me. Dennis Pitta. He's is too fast for linebackers, yet too big for a team's secondary to take on. Dennis was placed as a slot receiver most of the game. He didn't have any great plays, which is a little unexpected. Theoretically, the move to slot receiver puts the defense in a hard position. They either have to sacrifice a linebacker to struggle to keep up with him, and cover him short, or they have to dedicate a safety to him, and risk him getting deeper and getting away. Either way, its a risk for the defense. But honestly, New Mexico did a great job of covering him. They did not, however, manage to realize that while Pitta was at a Slot WR/TE spot, the Cougars were sporting their second TE, Andrew George. And he had two touchdown receptions. And he got the extra blocking up front to get Harvey Unga some rushing yards.

So all in all, I'd say that the New Mexico coaches did their homework very well. They managed to hold us in many aspects. They sacked us once, which was amazing. They really pulled some tricky plays on us, and helped us discover some big holes in our rushing defense.

Hehe... I love it when the opposing team has 4th and 34. And they go for it.

Only at BYU

2008-10-10T08:48:00.001-07:00

Posted from an email I received 9:38am this morning:

University Police would like the campus community to know that the helicopter buzzing our campus is not a threat.

The university has hired the helicopter to help with a film that is being prepared. Filming is scheduled to continue through today and Saturday.

We apologize for the disturbance.

Man. Good thing they told us that. Otherwise some sheltered person would have definitely thought that terrorists were attacking BYU. With a helicopter circling around campus. That would have made the Police Beat for sure.

Hospital Patient for the first time in 12 years

2008-10-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

Yep, its for reals. The last time I was signed in at a hospital was when I broke my leg the day of Trevor's baptism when I was 10 years old.

So on Sunday at 2am I woke up with a bad allergic reaction. Hives started erupting over my entire body. I tried to ignore it and I slept horribly that night. That whole day I watched General Conference with a severe itch all over me. I had hives from my shoulders to my ankles. I want to hope it has something to do with my clothes, but I was wearing sandles and shorts all day.

Lucky for me that I have Alex, who accompanied me to Utah Valley Medical Center. We went to the Emergency Room. They asked if I had been a patient there. I told them my name, and my date of birth, and they found me. They definitely tracked me down to the address of 400 N 250 E. The names on the apartment... Todd Evan Jones and Connie Lee Roberts Jones. I was definitely a patient there the day that I was born.

I spoke with a doctor, and guess what he told me? "Well I know this is a textbook allergic reaction. But I can't figure out what caused it. I can make it go away, but I can't tell you what you are allergic to." So he told me to take Benadryl, and he prescribed me 4 days of oral steroids. In the words of my dad, "[I] should go to the gym this week and take advantage of the opportunity." But really, I can testify that steroids can help do good things. Like make my hives go away.

To this day I don't know what is causing the allergic reaction, but I am hoping that it doesn't affect me much more. I don't want to think of what I would have to go through to see an allergist. Alex bought me the special allergist recommended laundry detergent today. She really is the best.

Website fun: FailBlog.org

2008-10-06T07:49:00.000-07:00

I don't know if everyone has been here, but one site that I have been checking out lately is FailBlog.org. This site dedicates itself to making fun of our shortfalls, in logic, common sense, spelling, writing, speaking, sitting, wearing, and just about everything that we can do.

To me it is like naming your child Bathsheba. Yesterday during conference Alex, BG and I couldn't help but notice the associated shortfalls. Wouldn't you feel a little reluctant to take her to the pool? Or what would you say if she had invited her friend David over to eat?

Website Fun: StuffWhitePeopleLike.com

2008-09-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

Recently Lauren got me hooked on this site, Stuff White People Like. This site is dedicated to pointing out white people culture. I love making fun of my Caucasian background, and skin. Let me shed some quotes on you so that you can understand this classicness:

"There are a number of industries that survive solely upon white guilt: Penguin Classics, the SPCA, free range chicken farms, and the entire rubber bracelet market. Yet all of these pale in comparison to classical music, which has used white guilt to exist for over a century beyond its relevance."

"Among the wrong kind of white people, there are few more hated than the wigger or whitethug. Though it is very acceptable and common for the right kind of white people to dress and act as though they were Japanese, Chinese, or European, it is completely unacceptable for them to act like rappers."

"Within a matter of months, MySpace had gone from a virtual utopia to Digital Detroit, where only minorities and indie bands remain. If you plan on befriending white people, it is essential that you join them in the digital suburbs and open a Facebook account immediately. It’s also a good idea to make up a story about how someone from high school sent you a friend request and after accepting you discovered that they were fat and unsuccessful. White people love these stories."

ASM and Raffles

2008-09-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is, but I always seem to win raffles.

So this last Thursday we had the first club meeting of ASM, the Association for Systems Management. It is reckoned to be the most active club within the Marriott School. We went to a ropes course near Utah Lake. It was so much fun to climb and what not. We were also humans escaping from a little barge to a little plank so that we could get zapped up by aliens (might I mention also that Alex couldn't pick up her feet, so she kept on losing parts of her body to the sea of liquid nitrogen). Then I had to climb up a log about 40 feet, and walk across one between two trees about 50 feet above the ground. It was nerve racking, but I loved it.

Then at the end we listened to a presentation by Ernst and Young. They were voted by Business Week to be the best company to start working for after college. They really gave a great presentation. I would enjoy working for them in the IT security field. They have some security centers out east in which they are paid to hack into people's computers and find vulnerabilities. They also do lots of work in LA for Hollywood-based companies. It also sounded like a lot of fun.

Then we had a raffle at the end. I always seem to win raffles. I don't even say that in a stuck-up way. I just win raffles a lot. Five posts ago I wrote about winning a raffle in the baseball stadium. So that makes me two for three in the last few months. This time I won an 8GB iPod touch. Which I might add is the greatest technological gadget I've ever had. Everybody is probably already bored of hearing me talk about how great my iPod is, but really, it's awesome. It does convince me that buying an iPhone would make me more productive. Except the whole $90 a month data plan thing.

Tones is getting hitched

2008-09-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm sure that most of you guys have heard this already, but I proposed to Alex last Thursday (September 4th). And she said yes. So that makes me engaged.

Everyone that reads this probably wants the story. So for the record, I had the ring for a couple weeks beforehand, knowing that I wanted to propose, but I had no idea how. I have always imagined the whole proposal to be something different and special for every couple, so even if nobody else cared, I had to make it special for Alex and myself.

In fact, I might dare day that I wasn't necessarily planning on doing it that Thursday. I wasn't sure if there was enough time. But somewhere along the course of that day I worked out the plan. So I had an idea. And a ring. Which for me, equals not being able to hold it in anymore.

Here's what I did: I made her a book. Alex, in her apartment, has coffee table books with titles like How to find Mr. Right, Boys are Stupid, and other stuff. These books are composed of funny/thoughtful pictures with descriptions under them. I made her a book titled "How to Find a Guy or Dude So Ridiculously Awesome That You'll Probably Want to Marry Him." It took so long to set things up. I had to pick all the pictures to put in there. And think of cool things to say about all of them.

But here's where I went wrong: I just had to buy her flowers. Unfortuntely I remembered that just about 3 minutes late. Because that is how late I was to get to the flower shop. So I stupidly spent about 45 minutes trying to find flowers anywhere else. The whole time I had in my head a quote from a friend that day, "If you are going to propose, you better get her flowers." So I have going through my head that the night just won't be cool enough without flowers. And they have to be lillies. Getting the wrong kind of flowers might have been worse than no flowers at all. So I didn't get her flowers.

Finally I got everything together, and I'm leaving my apartment, and calling her. I knew I was going to have an interesting night, because she had the voice of, "I know you haven't been at school, and you've been doing random stuff for a long time tonight that I can't know of." She seemed a little burned out of waiting. We went out to ice cream, and then went to our secret hole in the world park outside of Orem. It's kind of our special place to go and talk and have fun, and know that nobody else will bother us. Since we both discovered the place together, its a cool "us" place.

So there I gave her the book. She read through it to the last page. And she just stares at me. I looked at her and said, "So what is missing in all the pictures?" She stared at me for the longest time ever, without saying anything. Then finally she says, "a ring?" I replied, semi-reluctantly, "Oh yeah. That's right." I paused for about a minute. I figured I would milk this engagement for all its worth, as if we were on an episode of the Office. I then said, "Okay, who am I fooling." And then I proposed.

One third of my summer...

2008-08-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

So yesterday my work was featured on BYU Weekly. Nobody reading this probably cares about where I work, but in case you want to know, you can click on the link below to see the video. I haven't yet identified myself in it (I was excluded by about 2 feet in one shot), but you can see the people I work with. I know everyone who was interviewed. Brandon Roberts was my supervisor, Steve Starks is my boss's boss, and a cool friend of mine too around here. I also work with Jared, the guy that has the long sideburns that are against the Honor Code.

Link to BYU Weekly (Works on Windows Media Player)

I work 8 hours a day here, so that's one third of my summer that I have been in this office.

I'm, as the Utards say, high on life.

2008-08-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well these last few weeks have simply been amazing. My life has been full of turns and business as usual.

It is funny how the Lord always seems to bless us with things according to His time line, not our own. Usually when I least think I'm ready for something is when it comes right to me. Just shortly ago I was pretty sure I didn't want to date anyone. I think I had become frustrated with the female gender and just decided to accept that I would never meet anyone who thought like I did. And if I never met someone that thought as I, how on earth was I supposed to find someone that was going to make decisions with them over an eternity?

All summer I had been trying hard to meet new people. I've been trying to be my best. I've been trying to live my life the best I can, down to every last detail. After some group activities, I got to know a girl by the name of Alexandria Dean Ginos. At first we talked a little bit every here and there. I remember while I was in California I got her phone number and gave her a call. I actually think she was the only person in Provo I called during my entire trip to California. At first I found that it was so easy to talk to her. We seemed to think in the same ways. It almost felt as though the gears in our heads were both turning the same ways. Now, when I thought or said that, it was definitely an understatement. One of the things that I now love most about Alex is that I understand her character, and really feel that she understands mine. Alex is sweet. She is committed. She's thoughtful. She will drop everything she is doing to help me out if she needs to (and she has). She isn't overly materialistic. She is forgiving and she knows how to compromise. She is so cheerful, and seeing her smile makes me smile from ear to ear. She loves to serve others. She is smart. She is creative in everything she does. She is simply a unique person, and she is motivated by what she wants to do, not necessarily by what other people think (she might deny that statement, but I'm fairly sure its true). We make an amazing team. She is flexible and I am flexible. We can make decisions easily. Even my roommates and family like her. I love playing games with her and my little cousin Amy. I love hanging out with Alex and Alicia. We do have fun together, even if we do make Alicia want to spew sometimes.

Truly, I absolutely know that my life is easier and happier because of Alex. She completes me.

Oh, and I got accepted into the Information Systems program. In case anyone wanted to know ;).

If I had one wish, it might be that summer would not end.

2008-07-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Wow its been a while since I've truly posted on here! I think there is a lot to catch up on, so I'll try to make the best of it.

Spring Semester ended well. I got an A in my Information Systems class! I felt amazing taking that class because I learned a bit, but also got amazing grades on the tests. It was definitely a confidence booster. I think that the class was tremendously easy because I do networking at work every day. In fact, I teach people here to help others with network problems. So take that and Computer Engineering class experience, and I felt like I knew more than the Professor on a few subjects (sorry Dr. McKell, but an ALU does not process a computer's instructions).

Intramural Softball. David Dalton, a friend from work, invited me to be on his men's softball team. I played catcher and right field (because I suck at fielding) but was a fairly consistent hitter throughout the playoffs. We made the double-elimination playoffs. We lost early, but made it through the loser's bracket to the championship game. We were down by 5 runs in the bottom of the last inning of the game. We had a couple of people on base, but weren't able to get them home. I went up to bat and hit a single to get our six-run inning started. We won the game and forced the other team into the loser's bracket. So we had to play them again. Unfortunately we lost 21-8. But we won second place! It felt really special to be in a championship game. The tone is different. We all put our game faces on and submerged our minds into the game we're playing.

California in June. Aunt Kelly, Irwin and I drove down to California in June so see Dad get ordained a high priest (he's getting old. He's going to be 47 this year hehe.) We had a lot of fun with so much family in town! It was nice to see Grandma and Grandpa Jones. I also enjoyed having Kendall as a roommate for a couple of nights.

My birfday. My birthday was probably the best I've had in at least 3 years. It was different to be around my friends. July 8th is right in the middle of summer vacation, so as a kid my birthday was pretty much ignored by my friends. But this year was great! I got to see and feel that people cared about me so much. I went to my favorite restaurant (Tucanos) for some carnivore action the Saturday before. Then on Tuesday, Mike Castillo took me to dinner at Los Hermanos and tried in every way to embarass me (loudest restaurant birthday song ever). BG also organized a party for me. I was glad to see so many old and new friends. People even sang for me, and then made me give them a speech and do 22 pushups while they ate my ice cream.

Information Systems. The last day of June was the deadline to submit my application for the Information Systems program. I'd first of all like to thank BG and Sarah for staying up a little late helping me finish my essay. I was so nervous. Even though I was completely made from the ground up for this major, my grades don't necessarily show it. And a written paper shows grades and an essay. With that said, I guess my essay was alright because I got my acceptance notification on Monday. I am so excited.

California in July. I think the July California trip was one of my highest-anticipated events of the summer. I had so much fun. On Monday and Wednesday Kendall, Ben and I went to go play tennis. We started in the morning, but we played about 2 1/2 hours each time. I became the tannest I've been in my life. I got to go classic places with my family, like Dewar's and In-N-Out. Kendall and I jumped into line for the midnight showing of Batman: The Dark Knight at 2pm. We were third and fourth in line. I dressed up in a cape, and Kendall had a Batman cape with a mask on it. We read and ate junk food for about 8 hours. Then we got to see the midnight showing. It was so great and well worth the wait (that rhymes!). We also made it on two news stations and my head made the back of the newspaper. I also got to hang out with the Kummers. On Saturday I went to Santa Barbara! I picked Sarah Ray up from EFY, and we went to the beach. It was overcast that day, but nothing was going to keep me from the ocean. The water could have been worse (like the east coast, jk), and it did have a lot of ash in it. It was some good aguas negras action. We also went to the harbor in Ventura, where it was Pirate Day. I got a picture with Jack Sparrow. Sarah came to church with me on Sunday too, which was fun (imagine her next to my mom in Relief Society: this is Tyler's friend Sarah. She's going on a mission in October!).Then that night we drove to Las Vegas, and I drove the rest of the way home by myself!

Social Life. Probably one of my favorite things this summer has been the social life. It is sooooo nice to only work 40 hours a week. While that is a lot for some, I feel like I am relaxing more than I have in such a long time. I haven't really had a break since I got home from my mission. Think about getting home on September 5th. Wait... that was the second day of school. And I did go up to BYU that next Monday. I took classes fall, winter and spring semester. It was time for a break. But I have made so many cool friends. I will never forget cooking spaghetti or fried chicken with Robyn Bird. Or random phone adventures or tennis with Miriam. I won't forget working on video projects, or going canoeing, watching movies up the canyon, going to Color-Me Mines, playing candyland with Alie and Alicia, or having water balloon wars (after singing Battle Hymn of the Republic and hearing Mike Castillo pray "as we engage in conflict one with another"). I also won't forget all the classic times I've had with my roommates. Getting my trash kicked at Wii tennis (or Wii anything, for example) by Dustin. Random conversations. Getting a HD TV. Its all been so awesome.

So its a good thing that I still have a month left of summer to enjoy. Even though it seems like it could wrap up soon, I feel like I have so much to look forward to. I have been so blessed with great friends at the right time. This summer I have been able to think about the kind of people that I need in my life to be truly happy and comfortable. It's taken me time, but I feel like I am finding my niche in the world, among both the people I knew and the people I am meeting every day. With each day I am stronger, smarter and wiser to be able to help myself, and to help others by serving them.

California!

2008-05-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

So I would like to say that I had probably among my greatest vacation trips to California a week ago. The pictures are on Picasa. Might I mention some of the highlights?

1. Family. Of course. I got to see my little sister Olivia. I got to walk her to school, and even get her to ditch school for one day so that we could go to Disneyland! My dad and Kendall came, so it was a blast. We got to ride a lot of stuff, from Space Mountain to the classic Jungle Cruise. The weather was nice and I got a little sunburned, but it was great! I also got to hang out a bit with Kendall, and play tennis. I already miss watching The Office late every night with my parents. I had a great time at "the dig" at Goodwill with Suzy!

2. I got to hang out with some old friends and see some family I haven't seen in a while. Among those, I got to see Lauren Gillespie and Dustin Cosby's families which was classic as ever. I got to see my cousin Andrew Brown, who recently returned from his third trip to Iraq with the Marines. It was a pleasure to see him again. I also got to hang out with Ross and go to dinner with him. I miss that guy a lot and wish he were around here in Provo, but understand he is up to great things in California and now in Portland!

3. I got to experience the California things. I got to go to the Dodgers game with Ben Gardner and we had a great time watching the Dodgers and getting free Joe Torre bobble-heads. My car broke down on the way home, and that was pretty memorable in a good way. I got to eat at In N Out burger (a 4x4 to be exact). I got to go to Six Flags with Ben and some friends from our ward here in Provo. It was a lot of fun!

Disneyland

2008-05-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

So I am working through the pictures of my California trip! Probably one of the funnest things I did was go to Disneyland with my Dad, Kendall and my seven-year-old sister Olivia. It was so much fun! I took a lot of pictures, and you can see them at my Picasa album.

Apartment 331 vs. Wild

2008-04-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well my roommates and I made a video this last month. I thought I would post it here so that others can see. Just remember to keep warm...

First Post

2008-04-23T14:32:00.001-07:00

So I would first like to thank all those who have encouraged me to start my own blog, including Lauren and Sarah. I guess your enthusiasm for blogging has been contagious.
I hope that this will be more fun than Facebook so that people can keep up with me and see what I've been up to. I always seem to be up to something completely random, so I will be sure to post some pics so that you and I can both keep track of my random-ness.