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2010-04-26T12:14:00.000-07:00

The stories are listed in the post index on the right. Only one story can be displayed at a time, so that this page doesn't get crazy long. You can also use this post to comment on all of the stories located here, as opposed to commenting on each story individually.

Aftermath of July 7th in London

2010-04-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is a story I wrote as an email to family and friends after the July 7, 2005 terrorist bombings in London. I was serving in the area as a missionary at the time. The first part recounts an amazing experience with the heightened security in the tubes, and the latter is a thought I had while experiencing 2 minutes of silence in central London. This is a direct copy/paste, so it's not exactly polished as we tended to write pretty quickly to make use of our limited weekly email time.

I'm emailing today (thurs) because yesterday we had a workover with the AP's. I went down to London with Elder Bertilson, and Elder Shipp went up to work in St. Albans. So I spent yesterday working in London, it was good. Then today was our p-day, so now I'm in London as I type this, in an internet cafe near Trafalgar Square. London is still pretty hectic. A lot of the tube lines are either completely shut down or only running on parts of their normal full route. Theres a mass amount of police running around everywhere, and they're doing an incredible job, lemme tell you. I'll share something that happened this morning ;P Another missionary and myself were on the tubes, and we had to get off the tube we were on to get onto another one. The other missionary had two bags with him, and as we left the tube and started walking he froze and goes "oh, no." He only had one bag with him, he had left the other one on the tube. As you can imagine, unattended bags are a *major* security alert, throughout the past week they have intermittently closed down tubes and stations to investigate random unclaimed bags. Now, this is where the story gets amazing. This realization was, oh, 10 seconds after we had gotten off the tube and the doors closed and the tube went off on its way. We frantically searched around the platform in the hopes he had taken it off and just set it down, but it wasnt there. So now we're at about 30 seconds. So, running the whole time, we dash up to where the customer services and security station are in the tube, about a 15-20 second run. So all in all its been, MAX, 60 seconds since we got off the tube and he lost his bag. There's a buzzer thing to speak through an intercom into the security room where you can see people behind the glass, and he does so and tells them he just left his shoulder bag on the District line running eastbound. They go "alright, come on in", and buzzer open a little sidedoor into the security room. We both go in, a uniformed officer points to the left and goes "is that your bag?" we look in a room to the left and both our jaws dropped - there was his bag, sitting on the counter. They had already searched it entirely. They scolded him severly, and said that there is a £1000 fine right now for that, but because he reported it promptly and they could easily search his bag and see it wasnt a threat (had his scriptures and whatnot in it ;) they would just let him take his bag and go. So we left. I have no idea how the heck they did that. I could barely have intentionally gotten his bag to that office from where we were in the time that we got there, and my companion at the time swears that he got off the tube with the doors closing right behind him, his bag should have gone to the next station. But somehow they had realized the bag was unattended, rushed it up to that security room, and had already searched it by the time we got there. So, to say the least, they are really on the ball right now. After that we went on to another station where we were meeting the other pair of missionaries, and this station was Kings Cross, where at least one of the bombs went off in the tubes underneath. Theres a big memorial otuside the station with flowers and pictures and whatnot, and a lot of pictures up of people that are still missing and havent been found among the identified dead. Right after we got there there was a 2 minutes of silence at noon, since its a week since it happened. We were there for that, it was amazing. I've never heard London that quiet. Cars, people (thousands just in sight), and businesses just stopped, nothing moved, was completely quiet for 2 minutes. Just before that we also saw a procession pass of family and relatives of those who had died going to the memorial place, there were TV crews and whatnot all over as well for it. Anyway, after that we swapped back and we decided to stay in London and look around. London itself is impressivly functional still, people going about their lives and work and whatnot, so since we are here we're gonna see some of the sights. Its probably safer right now with the heightened alert than it normally even is.

But all the missionaries are fine, even though there was a large group in London that day for a meeting, no one was caught in it, though one pair was 2 stops behind one of the trains that blew up, if they had been there earlier and gotten on that train instead of the one 2 trains later that they got on, they would have been on one that blew up, its crazy.

I had an interesting thought as we stood during the 2 minutes of silence this morning. There we were in London, amidst thousands of people (litterally people filled up all walking space where we were, crammed with people) and with all those people of VERY various beliefs, cultures, lives, and levels of morality and righteousness, all stopping what they were doing to pay their respects to the dead, and assert their belief that what had happened was a tragedy and most decidedly wrong. It was really amazing to see. It was almost like seeing everyone's potential - seeing through all the differences, and seeing through all the obscuring immorality and sin of the various people there - seeing what everyone could be and really were, children of God, united in their disgust for malice and unjustice. Just that morning I had read an Ensign article about the Light of Christ, and how it is given to EVERY one that comes into the world to lead them to righteousness and give them conscious of right and wrong and of sin. I thought for a moment that what I had a glimpse of was how God sees his children, through all their mistakes and sin, no matter how thick that might be, and viewing their true identity and potential, seeing what they could be if they would only choose to be. Its strange the uniting effect and various other positive outcomes that come from a tragedy, hopefully many people may be led to a search for the answers the gospel provides as a result of this. Times like this also refresh my own gratitude for the knowledge I do have of the plan of Salvation and what is really in store for all of us.

Blur

2010-04-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

This is actually a paper I wrote for a high school English class, but the story is true.

Blur

“Who’s next?”
The soft spluttering sounds of the Pilot’s engine faded as my friend approached and let off the gas. A cool spring breeze gusted sporadically, the air temperature seeming an odd contrast with the sun’s warm rays. Morning dew still clung to the grass, causing the backyard to sparkle as gentle gusts of wind formed rolling waves across its length. Three of my friends and I had been taking turns riding the Pilot, a small four wheeler, around the large backyard for the better part of the morning, and my friend had just returned from yet another excursion. Pulling up to the driveway where the rest of us stood, he removed the red protective helmet and waited.
“I’ll go,” I said without hesitation. Snatching the helmet as my friend tossed it, I thrust my head through, pulled down the visor, and used one of the red steel rods of the roll cage to heft myself into the seat. Immediately I felt the now familiar vibrations of the idling engine, and turning the wheel towards the expanse of grass I set off. Smooth acceleration didn’t last long, as the level, tended area of the lawn soon gave way to the much more turbulent back section. Tall, uncut grass hid many of the various ruts and potholes, but that was part of the fun.
The rhythmic vibrations of the engine were soon overwhelmed with much more violent shocks as I began racing around the tall grass. Straining seat belts attempted to clutch me in my seat as my body chaotically jolted around along with the Pilot. Exhilaration filled me as I flew both across the ground and through the air - the maximum speed of the Pilot was supposedly seventy miles per hour, and although it lacked a speedometer my friends and I intended to reach that goal. Trees flashing by, grass whipping along at my sides, the pressure of the wind against my body and the high-pitched whistle of it through my helmet were all indications of my speed, and I loved every second of it. Fear of being overturned never entered my mind, as I could clearly see the tracks in the grass from previous trips. A familiar course was laid out before me, and although the various ruts and jumps were still hidden under the matted grass all of us knew exactly where they were; knowing where to accelerate and where not to had become second nature. Brakes were rarely used, both due to the desire for speed and because simply not accelerating usually brought the Pilot to rest in short order.
Wind rushed around me and the elating feeling of temporary freefall told me that I had just cleared the largest jump of the course for the third time. Thinking that it was near time for someone else’s turn, I headed back towards the driveway where my friends stood waiting. I knew all too well how they felt; I was already regretting the ending of my ride and looking forward to my next turn. As my friends came clearly into sight, I let off the gas to give myself ample room to coast to a stop. My mind momentarily wandered as I tried to think of who would be next. Then vision urgently jerked my mind back to my surroundings. Now no more than twenty feet from where my friends stood clustered in front of a car in the driveway, I was still traveling at a much higher velocity than I should have been. In an instant I tried to surmise my options – turning left would put me in the pool, and turning right would send me head on into the basketball hoop at the head of the driveway. Frantically I reached for the sides of the wheel where the brakes were located, and jammed them down.
The world blurred.
Time and space seemed to stretch out. I felt myself turning, completely out of control. Shards of something spewed through the air as I heard a ripping, crunching sound. Shouts of surprise and alarm reached my ears as I saw my friends trying to dive out of the way. And then the world was still.
For a moment I sat in confusion and shock, trying to figure out what in the world had just happened. As the shock wore off, I blinked, thankful to realize that I seemed to be in one piece, and began to look around to see what damage had been done. My friends were just getting up from where they had leaped to avoid being hit, looking at me as if I were a madman. Chagrined, I unbuckled myself and leaped out of the Pilot. After turning around and taking in the scene before me, I laughed.
My laughter didn’t seem to help my friends’ expressions; in fact they probably thought I had gone crazy. But no one and nothing had been hurt, and after pointing out to my friends just how close to disaster I had come and what I had managed to pull off, they began to see the humor as well. The Pilot sat in the exact place where my friends had been clustered moments before, however it was facing opposite the direction that I had been traveling before I slammed on the brakes. In addition, it was perfectly in line with my friend’s parent’s car, and had stopped only two feet from hitting it. Apparently hitting one brake an instant before the other coupled with the still damp grass had allowed me to somehow pull off a perfect 180 degree parking job in the driveway. James Bond came to mind, and the infinitesimally small chance of actually accomplishing that feat by accident in the real world had my friends chuckling as well, if a bit hesitantly. On top of that the small, ornamental ring of bark that had enclosed the base of the basketball hoop was torn to shreds – in my spin I had come within mere centimeters of taking out the basketball pole as well.
After apologizing profusely for nearly killing everyone, and explaining that I had always coasted to a stop and never had to use the brakes before, the day went on normally. Riding the Pilot provided far too much fun to let an incident where no one was injured stop us. I was even allowed further turns that day, though with a bit of debate, and even after promising to be more careful my friends were obviously wary the next time I coasted in at the end of my turn. However I did manage to complete the rest of my rides on the Pilot without incident. My luck had been amazing that day, and my lesson had been learned: to be a little more careful when operating a machine at seventy miles per hour on wet grass.

An Interesting Night

2007-09-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

Some introduction to this story. I wrote this out the day after it happened. My initial intent was just to tell a co-worker about my previous evening, and I sort of got into telling the whole story. It was a particularly slow day at work ;)

Part I: The Realization

Some background. I had just gotten back to home from my parents, where I had picked up my new shoes that had just arrived ;) Its funny tracing events back to their catalysts – carrying that box of shoes up to my room would prove to make for a far more interesting evening than usual. I got up to my door, and began to try and get my keys out from my pocket while carrying the box of shoes and a couple other things from home. The first thing to note is that my usual, habitual action is to take out my keys, unlock my door, and put my keys straight back in my pocket. However today as I was fumbling around with my arms full one of my housemates, Prach, came walking by and offered to help. I had just taken out my keys, and said “sure”, and threw him the keys so he could unlock the door for me. After doing so I said “just throw the keys into the box,” and he threw them in next to my shoes, and I walked in. I set the box on top of my dresser, and began milling around preparing for bed, as I was pretty tired. I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste, and began to head out the door to go down the hall to the bathroom. Note 2: I *always* do a quick check that I have my keys in my pocket before I close the door behind me when leaving my room. This is usually accomplished by a quick pat on the outside of my pocket, to make sure I can feel my keys inside. So, of course, I do so. And I feel keys. So I close the door behind me and head down the hall to the bathroom to brush my teeth. As I head back to my room, I reach in my pocket to pull out my keys… as useful as keys to my cash locker, drawer, and the branch at Issaquah are, they are rather ineffective at getting me into my room when its locked. As I hold my bank keys in my hand, an unpleasant realization of my situation sweeps over me: its around 10:30 at night, I’m standing out in the hall with my toothbrush and toothpaste, and I’m locked out.

Part 2: No worries… right?

So! I start thinking about what I can do about this situation. Some further background: Gabe is the RA at our place, so he’s got a master key to let people into their rooms when they lock themselves out. But when I got home I hadn’t seen his car… I knock on his door to double check. No response. Ok, still, no worries. I know Gabe really well, and help him with a lot of the stuff he deals with as RA, and so I’m the only other one in the house that knows a secret spot where he will usually stash his Master key if he’s out of town or gone for a long time so that I can stand in as RA if anyone needs to be let into their room. So I go to said spot and check... no master key. Well, no worries, that means he should be around or home sometime soon, I’ll give him a call and see where he’s at. Except that my phone is on my dresser. In my room. Next to my keys. How about that ;)

At this point I’d like to interject that I’m really glad that I know a lot of the people in the house really well. This will prove even more critical as the story progresses ;P So I need a cell phone to call Gabe. I head back upstairs, and yes! Dan’s door is open, and he’s home, along with his roommates Alex and Xun. So I fill in Dan about my situation, we chuckle about it, and I ask if I can use his phone. Of course I can! I dial up Gabe… and get his voicemail. I leave him a quick message, tell him that its me even though its Dan’s phone, and ask him to call me back when he can. Well, I don’t know what else to do now but wait, so I grab a chair and join Dan, who is watching “Heroes” since he hadn’t seen the series before. Time passes, no call back from Gabe… sometime past 11 I start thinking about my options if Gabe is actually out of town and not coming back tonight, and just didn’t leave the master key in its usual spot, and the chance he could already be asleep wherever he is. I could sleep in Dan’s room that night, and even wear the same clothes to the bank tomorrow if I absolutely needed to… Oh wait. It’s not just my room key that’s locked in my room. My car keys happen to be on that same keyring. I’m not going anywhere without those keys. The only other option would be to call my parents and have them head to Seattle at well past 11 at night to bring me the spare Vibe key so that I can use my car the next day. I mention this to Dan, and he asks “have you tried the credit card thing? That works sometimes.” Why, no, I haven’t!

Part 3: In case of lockout, break in.

And thus Dan and I begin a mission to see if we can break into my room. I pull out my Qdoba’s card, trying to find the piece of plastic I’d miss the least using it to try and pop the door open. We manage to get the card slid in between the door and the jam (though this was tricky, the jam actually overlaps the door on our side by a good inch, so the card is bent at a 90 degree angle to be in-between the door and the jam). But try as we might the card won’t slide down through and push the retracting metal piece into the door so it will open. My next suggestion to Dan: do you have any paperclips? He didn’t but knew there were some in the study downstairs. As he kept trying his luck with the Qdoba’s card and the door, I ran downstairs and grab a couple paperclips. Maybe we’ll have better luck with our lockpicking skills! We begin jamming bent up paperclips into the door, trying to wiggle them around and seeing if we can randomly and through sheer luck get the lock to pop open. Well, after some time attempting this we both conclude that neither one of us have any clue how to actually pick a lock with paper clips ;P Though Dan has another thought: “are your windows open?”

Another couple interjections. First is this: My room is on the third floor. The side of the building that my windows are on is flat, red brick, 3 stories of it. The second thing that needs to be brought up is that over the past week we’ve been having new windows installed in all the rooms, and all the uninstalled windows and the equipment the window installers have been using are sitting in a little courtyard area that’s part of our house (surrounded by the house on two sides and fenced off on the other two sides with a gate to the alleyway behind the house). The windows in my room had been replaced the previous day (and they are nice I might add, I like our new windows ;) With that said, moving on with the story!

I look at Dan, obviously puzzled by his question. “Yeah, they are actually, but what good is that? There’s no way we’re going to be able to get to them.” Dan: “Well, I think the window people may have left the huge ladders they’ve been using out in the courtyard.” I think about that, and I think he’s right, I have seen ladders out there! But wait… “I think you’re right, but there’s a padlock on the gate to the courtyard, we wouldn’t be able to get the ladders out of there.” Dan: “Oh, I know the combo to that padlock, just go check if the ladders are there!”

Part 4: They make some *really* big ladders!

Sure enough, out in the courtyard is a pile of ladders, all stacked together, ranging from smaller step ladders to larger ladders than I thought they actually made. I figure we’ll need the largest ones they’ve got to reach the third floor, so I go over to the stack to see about grabbing one. Problem. It looks like the window install people have run a metal cable around the ladders, and padlocked it shut, so all the ladders are tied together so you can’t move or steal them. I start examining the lock, and the cable snaking through the ladders… wait a minute… the padlock on one end of the cable is too big to pull through the slot in the ladder that the cable goes through, essentially attaching it there, but the cable then snakes through the ladders, and ends… at bare cable! Someone was apparently too lazy to tie them up properly ;P So I work the cable backwards, un-snaking it from the loose end, until I completely free one of the largest ladders. To give you a description: These aren’t the ladders that spread apart so they can stand up on their own, but the huge tall kind that you lean against a building for support. The ladder comes in two layers, with a pulley system, so that you can pull a rope and one layer climbs the other layer, making it possible to extend the latter so that it’s twice as tall as it would be when both layers are just sitting on top of each other. Even in this compact state, the ladder I’m looking at is roughly 2 stories tall. And its *heavy*.

I get Dan, we unlock the gate to the alley, and both carry out the ladder to the side of the house with my window. After heaving the ladder down, we look at each other with the same thought: how in the world do they get this heavy, 2 story ladder off the ground and propped up against the side of the building? First we think about trying to just keep pushing it up until its straight up and then setting it against the side of the building. We didn’t get very far with this: it really quickly became too heavy to keep pushing upwards, and too topheavy to keep balanced. Then we thought about using a small chimney outcropping of brick – we could use the corner this created on the side of the building and just push the ladder up enough to get it wedged in there, then keep shimmying it up a bit at a time, with the top always resting in that corner between the side of the building and the chimney until it was up enough that we could swing it to the side and place it flush against the side of the building. We started this, but it quickly became apparent we needed more help. So Dan went to grab his roommates, Alex and Xun.

Now that there are 4 of us, we think about trying to get the ladder up using the usual “keep pushing it up until its straight” method instead of the chimney-shuffle method. We put one of us on the base of the ladder, pushing down so that the base stays put, and the other three of us work on getting under the ladder and walking towards the base, pushing the ladder above us one rung at a time, and working on keeping it steady. We actually manage to pull this off! With the two story ladder now towering precariously above us, we carefully rotate the ladder 90 degrees so we can then carefully lean it flush against the side of the wall. It comes down just above the second story windows, so we then use the pulley system to extend it up until its now just below my window. We shuffle the base back a bit so it’s not as nearly straight up as it was, and use some wood to shove under one side of the base to level it out since the ground wasn’t doing that for us ;)

Part 5: The break-in of the century (at least for us)

We’re nearly there! There’s now a ladder going from where I’m standing up to my open window 3 stories above. With admonitions for everyone on the ground to hold the ladder steady, I begin climbing up 3 stories and get to my window. And begin to examine the screen before me. It should be noted that our old windows didn’t have screens, and this was a welcome addition to the new windows. Until now. Screens aren’t made to be taken off from outside the window. The little tabs that you’d use to push the screen back on its little metal springs to pull it out are on the inside of the screen, I don’t have anything to work with. And I’m not going to destroy the brand new screen to get into my room tonight. I keep playing with it, trying to push the screen to the side with no tabs or holds, but any movement I get just ends up getting snapped back into place without something to pull the screen out in my direction. But I think I might be able to do it if I had a screwdriver! I call down to Dan, and he runs in the house to get a screwdriver. After climbing down, grabbing the screwdriver from Dan, and returning up, we’re in business. I get the screwdriver inbetween the window and the screen, and get it to slide out towards me, and eventually get the whole screen off!

Now just one more obstacle. Currently my huge standing dresser is flush up against the window, blocking my entrance into the room. Being careful to use the window ledge as my leverage and not the ladder, I begin slowly pushing the dresser back away from the window, trying not to tip it over since I’m pushing over halfway towards the top of it. I get it to edge forward enough… I climbed up on the ledge into the crack between the dresser and the window… and jumped down into my room, amid the cheers of my three housemates below ;P I put the screen back, and call down that I’ll be right there to help take the ladder back down. I grab my keys, unlock the door, and head back down to the ladder.

Part 6: Just when you thought it was over

Now we just need to put everything away. We figure we’ll get the ladder down the same way we got it up, so we start trying to push/swing it out away from the building to get it standing straight. Now, if you are more observant than we were, you’ll remember that we moved the base of the ladder away from the building after setting it against it, so the angle wouldn’t be as steep. This also means that there’s a good chunk more top weight to deal with in getting the ladder now from the building to being completely horizontal than there was when we eased the ladder against the building in the first place. We weren’t expecting this. I’d like to mention now that the following all occurred very very quickly, and writing it out doesn’t nearly do it justice compared to our frantic shouts and actions at the time ;P

So we start to push the ladder up away from the building and swivel it around (in the same movement!) to walk it down, not expecting the extra weight compared to that same movement when we set it against the building in the first place. Immediately we realize this horrible mistake, as we don’t have enough oomph ready yet to deal with that weight, and the ladder begins to skid sideways across the side of the building, as it tries to keep falling against a support that we aren’t providing. Lots of frantic shouting ensues, and we try and shove the ladder against the building with enough force to stop the skipping sideways and get the top of the ladder to wedge against the wall again before the whole thing falls over sideways, 3 stories. We barely manage to do this, but all our effort is on keeping it steady in this position, and it’s still wanting to fall. Because its still slipping away we move more under it to try and support the weight, twist it a little more, and walk it down like we planned on doing. Now, the next part is one of those times in life where things seem to happen in slow motion, and everything is happening on automatic, no conscious decision making involved ;) Because we had all moved to help support the weight of the falling ladder, no one was left in the critical position of bottom brace – making sure that the base of the ladder was firmly pushed into the ground. The base of the side of the ladder away from the house swung up, and the other base pivoted, finishing the rotation that we had planned on making, but removing the option of pushing the ladder against the wall, the ladder was now 90 degrees turned from when it was lying flat against my window, in the orientation we had originally pushed it up. As we were all at the same instant realizing what was happening, and that no one was on the base, we could feel that the last remaining leg on the ground also wanted to pivot straight up, so that we would act as a fulcrum point on the falling ladder, and of course the result of that would be the entire weight of the ladder now completely on us, with all of us only a few feet away from one end of the ladder and 3 stores worth swinging down on top. We all shouted “THE BASE!!” And Dan, who was closest, frantically swung his foot around and jammed down on the base, shoving it back to the ground. I was a fraction of a second behind him doing the same thing to the other base, and I shoved that into the ground. Now Dan and I were both using a lot of effort to keep the base on the ground, while Alex and Xun were dealing with the still descending ladder and trying to keep it steady and controlled and get a handle on it. Finally we seemed to reach something stable, with all of us panting, Dan and I still holding the base down, and Alex and Xun holding up the ladder at a good 45% angle. They were both *really* straining though, we had barely been able to handle that weight with three of us on walking and only one on base when we got the ladder up in the first place. But the bottom was still wanting to pivot up, and it was taking both Dan and I to keep it from doing so, so Alex and Xun had to slowly walk backwards and bring the ladder down on top of them. VERY slowly they managed to do this, until the ladder was finally down, and we all gave each other high fives and laughed ;D

Part 7: That’s the story

So we managed to retract the ladder, put everything back, I re-snaked the ladders together and went up to my room. I then checked my phone – Gabe had called back on MY phone, since I told him it was me, and he said he was out downtown and would be back soon. Sure enough, a few minutes later Gabe returns home, and I filled him in on all the details of the story ;P (He had a cool story as well actually, had gotten free spontaneous tickets to a concert downtown, anyway, another story, but he was in the concert, why he didn’t answer his phone ;) Finally after all that I got to bed, like at 1:30 or so ;P