Serve Your Ward, Post Your Job

Serving in my church is a great way for me to volunteer my time and talents to help others. Recently my wife and I were called as the Employment Specialists in my BYU Married Ward. This past Sunday we launched a ward employment web site that helps married college students find work in the Provo / Orem area. I used Wordpress to power the site and the Jobpress theme to power the Job Board. Any ward member can post jobs where they work. This allows ward members to network with each other.  Those looking for work get employed faster than before.

Google docs is a powerful surveying tool.  We set up a survey through google docs forms that allows us to know where each ward member is employed and what their job title is.  If you have never used Google Docs forms, I HIGHLY recommend you do so.  They are quite powerful and save a lot of time.  I used these forms to compile my wedding addresses.

Employment Survey

The Ragnar is a relay race where a team of 12 people get two vans and run 188 miles divided into 36 legs from Logan to Park City (also known as the Wasatch Back).  Each runner gets three legs where each leg varies in length from 3 to 9.6 miles and ranges in difficulty from Easy, Moderate, Hard, to Very Hard.

We rented an Acadia from the airport on Saturday Night and headed to Logan where we spent the night with some family friends, the Bryans.  We woke up and ate some french toast at Lindsey’s parents’ house. Sadly, Lindsey ended up with a confirmed case of Swine flu and she was unable to join us after the many hours she spent organizing and preparing our team to run Ragnar.  Luckily Lauren, Kellie’s sister, was able to fill Lindsey’s difficult runs.

Here’s the Van 2 runner breakdown:

• Runner 7 – Kellie Goff
• Runner 8 – Nicki Brammer
• Runner 9 – Lauren Goff
• Runner 10 – Chase Brammer
• Runner 11 – Brady Brammer
• Runner 12 – Brady White

Distance Chart:

We picked up Lauren in Ogden and headed to our first transfer point in Ogden Valley.  Kellie was the first runner and she started off great.  We had a tradition of stopping every one to two miles to give water, support, and an occasional butt slap.  Brady Brammer had a tough run which started our ascent to Snow Basin ski resort.  My leg followed his and I finished the 3.1 mile ascent to Snow Basin which had a 4.2% gradient (an 833 ft elevation gain in 3.1 miles).

We then headed to the town of Morgan, grabbed some Subway sandwiches, and rested. Afterwards we headed to our exchange point, whipped out our sleeping bags, and attempted to take a nap before our next legs which would start at 10:30 pm.  The black sky dawned on us and Kellie put on her Headlamp and LED vest.  She had a tough run which she conquered with ease.  The rest of the runners followed.  At one point we thought we had lost Lauren.  Turns out she was running faster than we expected and her bobbing headlamp and LED vest passed us without us knowing.  I got about 45 minutes of sleep before it was my turn at 4 am.  I felt great and headed out on my run.  I have to admit, I thought this leg was going to be my least favorite but it turned out to be my favorite.  There is nothing like running 5.2 miles in the middle of the night.  Even the 450 ft elevation gain didn’t dissuade my spirits.  I finished strong at 5 am and then we headed to our camp.

We pitched sleeping bags near a baseball diamond in Midway and I got about 2 hours of sleep before the other van was done with their runs at 9:30.  Kellie started us off strong as Lauren and Chase prepared for Ragnar Mountain.  Ragnar mountain has a 3,100 net elevation gain which the two had to conquer.  I was amazed at their sub 12 minute miles as Lauren and Chase conquered the muddy mountain in a downpour of rain.  Brady Brammer had a difficult 7.3 mile run coming down the Ragnar Mountain with the relentless downpour still mocking us.  His knees took a beating during a 600 ft net elevation loss over the course of one mile.  Miraculously the rain stopped as it was my turn to finish off the 188 mile relay through Park City.  My run was ideal, a 5.1 mile with a 460 net elevation loss with perfect weather.  With 50 yards to go, Kellie, Lauren, and Chase met me and we ran across the finish line together.

Thanks to everyone that came to the Adobe Flex presentation at BYU.  It turned out great.  Many people learned what Flex can do and found solutions to ideas they had.  Thanks to Rain Interactive for sponsoring the event with Papa Johns Pizza.  Special thanks to the Web Startup Group for hosting the event.  They recorded my presentation and have my slides hosted on their site.

Adobe Student Rep for RIA

Yesterday I was welcomed as an Adobe Student Rep for Rich Internet Applications. I am excited to get the Flex community going at BYU and educating other students about what Adobe Flex is and what an RIA is. Since I do this for work, I find it is easy to share my passion and my love for it with others.

I created a user group for BYU students. If you are a BYU student, join the group and enjoy the perks of being a member. You do not need to be an active Flex developer to join, you just need to be interested in what Flex is. I will be hosting an event this semester to get things kicked off.

For 2 years I leave, and come back, and wham! All these social media sites have popped up without me knowing about it. I’m on a social media extravaganza right now.

Tonight I just found:
Flixster.com – Movies! Actors! Movies! – Everything I’ve ever wanted in a movie site!
iLike.com - Find Music!

Recently I just registered for:
Facebook.com – An Upgraded MySpace!
Linkedin.com – Professional Community

Other social media sites I enjoy:
YouTube.com
43things.com

Other Fun Sites I enjoy:
Pandora.com
LastFM.com
Threadless.com

This list will always be changing… so keep coming back!

Pics from last night:

For all mission call photos, go to my photo gallery.

I sit and wait for my call, hoping it comes tomorrow. One letter will tell me where I will be serving for two years of my life, I bet you’d be nervous too.