McAlister Matters

You wouldn't think there would be a reason to start collecting records.  After all, people are already starting to abandon their CD's.  Music collections should reside on your iPod and in the cloud, right?  Well yes, BUT there are some surprising joys in collecting records as Sarah and I have discovered. Connection to the Past My sisters and I spent a lot of time when we were kids listening to old records at my grandmother's house. Playing records brings back memories and feelings from those times.  Most of the records we have once belonged to someone else.  Several are from Sarah's dad. It's an interesting feeling to play records that you know others played and enjoyed many times in years past. The Aesthetic Appeal The occasional pops and skips during playback give surprising warmth to the music.  Some artists today even attempt to add that missing warmth by inserting some grit and artificial pops. Discovery and New Horizons One of the biggest pleasures ha

I was working on a new mapping project at work and came across a funny bug.  At first I thought it was a bug in my code that was causing the Great Salt Lake to turn purple.  After a few minutes of puzzlement and code checking I realized that I was experiencing a classic brain bug, or optical illusion.  We got a good laugh out of this at work.  Check out these two pictures.  The blue lakes and green forest polygons are, in fact, the same colors.

We had a fun family outing with Sarah's family last weekend and spent a day at the Hogle Zoo.  The new sea shores exhibit is pretty amazing and the polar bear was amazingly cool.  We also went to the bird show which was really impressive and unique.

Sarah and I enjoyed a small campfire last night.  We went up to Mueller Canyon just up the road in Bountiful and made some tinfoil dinners and smores.  Tinfoil dinners are so easy and so good!