Tyler Hunt

Last night, my wife and I were discussing the tragedy that occurred at Virginia Tech yesterday. The first question that popped into her mind was, “how could someone do something like that?” My answer was “sin.” People very often make the assumption that people are inherently good, and then, sometime after they’re born, they become corrupted by their environment. This leads people to make claims like the one that video games were responsible for the Columbine killings. When you live instead under the assumption that people are inherently evil, the world tends to make a lot more sense.

As a child, I much preferred the blended, Swiss-style yogurt to it’s chunkier fruit on the bottom cousin. However, as an adult I’ve found my taste buds have realigned themselves in favor of the fruity jam at the bottom of the cup. I’ve often wondered, though, what the purpose of keeping the fruit separated from the yogurt was. While it doesn’t answer that question specifically, this excerpt from an article in Food Product Design goes into quite a bit of detail about the manufacturing of these products:

Swiss-style yogurt has the fruit mixed in. Preps for these products usually contain fruit puree, flavors and/or essences. For fruit-on-the-bottom—or, sundae-style—yogurt, fruit pieces are a more critical factor. “Here, you’re looking for fruit identity,” says Haughey. “But there also are some blended products that should have identifiable fruit mixed in the product.” In general, yogurt fruits only contain between 33% and 50% solids, with the rest being water and stabilizer. Fruit-on-the-bottom (FOB) preps have formulations similar to those for Swiss-style. The fundamental difference between them is how the prep is applied. “Fruit-on-the-bottom preps are meant to stay on the bottom, and the formulation of the stabilizer system is critical to getting a clean interface between the fruit and the yogurt,” says Nick Nikola, business unit manager, Sanofi Bio-Industries, Trevose, PA. “In Swiss-style, the interface isn’t there so it’s easier to formulate.” According to Nikola, an FOB prep frequently uses a pectin-based stabilizer. This makes its appearance resemble the jams and preserves consumers used to add to their yogurt. Because clarity and shine aren’t as important in a blended/Swiss-style, a starch-based system might be appropriate. Since yogurts are refrigerated, yogurt preps can have a fairly high water activity, and they can contain large pieces. “Piece size is pretty much up to the processor,” says Nikola. “The type of fruit depositor they have will limit the fruit size. Typically, the depositor tubes are 9 to 13 millimeters.” If the prep contains fruit pieces, it must be properly processed so the moisture between the pieces and the surrounding prep equilibrates. If not, moisture migration could occur beyond the fruit prep and affect the texture of the yogurt.

Maybe the answer comes not from the manufacturing process, but from the consumer himself. I know that I enjoy the process of eating fruit on the bottom. There’s an odd satisfaction found in the simple act of pulling off that foil topper, digging down to the bottom to surface all of those intense, fruit flavors, and then stirring intensely to integrate them into the creamy white yogurt. We may never know its true origins, but fruit on the bottom will always be my yogurt style of choice.

I’ve noticed for a while now that whenever I get into a pattern of sleeping less each night, I tend to be able to stay up for longer hours with less tiredness. I had never realized why this was before (and my mother always told me I was crazy for even suggesting that there was something to it), but reading this post has shed a little light on the issue. What the author claims is that there’s a natural 90 minute sleep cycle that can be used to make your sleep more effective. With that in mind, and thinking back on my sleep patterns over the past few years, the times when I felt the most rested where when I got closer to 6 hours of sleep, rather than 7 or 8.

I never was much for naps, but I would definitely be interested in giving them a try if I can figure out how to make it work with my current work schedule. Sleeping only 3 hours a night, and then taking a 90 minute nap would give me about 2 extra hours each day, but it sounds like a regimen that would be better suited to self-employment, though.

If I see the word “your” used instead of “you’re” one more time, I think I might just shove a shotgun down my throat and blow my brains out. This isn’t hard folks:

your

belonging to you

you’re

contraction for you are

And don’t even get me started on all of you namby-pambies who use plural nouns with company names. A company is a singular noun. You wouldn’t say “the company are big,” so why are you saying “Honda are big.” Honda is big. See? Isn’t that nice?

Apparently it’s not just the blogosphere whose grammar lies in shambles, either. According to NBC News, Fortune 500 companies spend $3 billion annually teaching basic English.

There has been a lot of news in the Apple community lately. I came across two Apple stories today which I want to comment on. Neither are innaccurate, but both could have been fleshed out more than they were.

The wedding went really well. The months of planning, preparation, and pining paid off and the ceremony and reception went off without a hitch. Well, almost. Other than Melissa’s veil, which kept falling off at the most inconvenient times, including right in the middle of the ceremony.

I’ll try to get some photos up soon, and will most likely do a write up on the wedding site with more details.

I’m getting married. Most of you will know this by now, but Melissa and I met at Daniel and Jeni’s wedding back in June. We were both in the wedding, and first met at the rehearsal. We were engaged on October 23, less than five months after we met. I’ll spare the rest of the details as all of this is chronicled nicely on our wedding site for those who would like to read the whole story.

We’re getting married on January 21^st in Winter Park, FL. The majority of the planning is now complete, so aside from a cake tasting, it should be smooth sailing from here on out.

While I haven’t yet finished reading Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, I have started to see certain events in the world in terms of “tipping points” lately. I came across one of these in my own life today.

When my fingernails are growing out, I have absolutely no issues with them getting longer until they reach a very specific length, at which point I become absolutely consumed with their length until I can get my hands on some clippers. This is really not at all like the the societal tipping points Gladwell speaks of, but I consider it a personal tipping point. And while I’m sure this is just another of those crazy little things that makes me the weird kid that I am, I thought I would share this insight into my life and mind for your own amusement.

Now that I’m finished with school, have only a limited job schedule at the moment, and there’s nothing else that I’m required to do each week, I theoretically have have quite a bit of time on my hands. Time that I don’t use well. I had a chance tonight at Status to think about what I can do to change this, and came up with a few short-term goals for this week.

At work today, I had the need to use a pen, and knowing that there was one laying around somewhere on my desk, I figured I would look for it. However, upon noticing the stack of papers that I presumed the pen might be hidden under, instead of simply lifting the papers to look under the stack, I pressed F11 on my PowerBook. For those who may not have a Mac, or are unfamiliar with Exposé, F11 is a key that will move all of the windows on your computer’s desktop out of the way to reveal the contents of the desktop. I, unfortunately, had to find out the hard way today that this does not work in the real world.

I had a conversation with my dad last night. He said to me, “You need to have a plan.” I responded, “Why?”

I’m not going to deny that a plan wouldn’t help my life. With graduation only a couple weeks away, it would make sense to know the general direction in which I’m heading. Yet, for the past month, all I keep hearing is that God has made us to be wild, as he is wild. Not wild as in reckless, but wild as in untamed. And this plan my father wants me to formulate is surely more along the lines of doing whatever it takes to live the American dream: a house, a wife, and 2.5 kids. Somehow I don’t think that’s what God had in mind for his children. That’s not living, it’s settling for an existence.

A month ago, the last thing on my mind was moving out. Tonight, I signed a lease. It’s a very odd feeling to think that I now have a place to call my own outside of the bedroom I’ve lived in for the past eleven years. There’s nothing like putting a key on your key-ring and a garage door opener in your car to make a new house feel like reality. I’ve been packing for the last couple days, so I had enough boxes ready to justify taking over the first load. Being there for the first time without the landlord was a very strange feeling, but a very good one. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to utilize Kirby’s amazing painting abilities tomorrow night. We should be able to knock out the bedroom in a few hours and have it finished before everything gets moved in this weekend.

We went and looked at another house today. Steve thought it might be a good idea, since it was with the same management group they’re with now, and it was cheaper, but it turned out to be a pretty horrible property. Dark brown carpeting, lime green kitchen walls, twenty year old appliances, and a brand new tile floor that I could have done better myself and I’ve never touched a tile cutter before. There was no comparison to the place in Avalon Park. So, it looks like we’re getting that one. I’m excited that we’re getting it, and relieved that we’re not having to settle for something less.

In a surprising call from the owner of the house we looked at in Avalon Park, we found out that we’ve been approved for that property. He’s going to send the lease to us tomorrow to look over. Steve has been looking at some other houses, though, so whether or not we actually take this one seems like it’s still up in the air, although my feeling is that we should just go with this brand new one. But it is good to finally be approved for something, after the first few rejections and losses.

We found another house. This one is brand new, in Avalon Park. It’s a little smaller than the last one we looked, but the bedrooms are very generous, which is nice. Unfortunately, after hearing some positive things from the owner, it seems that he now has a couple interested in it, and he’s going to consider their applications before handing it over to us three kids. I guess I don’t blame him, I’m sure I would do the same thing if I were in his shoes. I suppose it’s about time we look through the listings and find our next candidates.

I’ve been having fun looking at stuff to buy for the new place though. I spent a good bit of time today looking at dinnerware and trying to find something that’s both nice and cheap. It’s going to be fun moving out. I can’t wait.