A Geek’s Think

Note: This is an adaptation of a message I sent to many of my friends and family to update them on my status.

Merry Christmas!

Roughly seven months ago, I lost my job as a system administrator for a company in Gilbert. That shook up my life quite a bit. About a month after losing my job, I decided to move back to Utah to look for work. During my first four months in Utah, I didn’t have much success finding a job, but I did get a lot of time to think. That period was one of the best periods of my life, not because it was easy, because it wasn’t, or because I had a lot of free time, which gets boring pretty quickly. No, it was because I came closer to God than I had in any other period since my mission. I don’t say this to boast, but to thank the Lord for the blessings hidden in my trials. He has been very good to me.

During that period, I made a major life decision - I joined the US Navy. The decision to enlist was not an easy one, nor was it one that I took lightly. I spent many weeks researching and many hours on my knees as I contemplated what was to me almost a foreign concept. In the end, I knew and know that it was a good way for me to go and signed up. I enlisted (yes, enlisted - going officer didn’t feel quite right) for six years and will report for basic training in April, 2006. I’ll be working with either electronics or advanced weapons systems for my job - I won’t know which until later in my training.

As the time for boot camp approaches, many aspects of the life I have lived are becoming more dear to me. The lifestyle I will live during my period in the Navy is unlike any I have experienced, and I approach it with a nervous, yet excited anticipation. The time leading up to basic training will be busy, however, as I work to get in shape and pay the bills. I am currently working a contract job for Zions Bank doing data entry and reports that I expect will last until close to my report date.

My family is also experiencing a lot of growth. In January, my sister Anna and her husband John had their first child - Adam John Brooksby. I saw him when I visited for Thanksgiving and he is a healthy, happy kid. Anna and John are planning to move to Rexburg, Idaho in April of 2006 so John can continue his schooling at BYU Idaho. Also, in May of this year, my brother Carl graduated from high school and my father received a masters degree from ASU. A short time later, my brother Jacob returned to Iraq for his second tour in the Army. He is as well as can be expected for his circumstances. We expect and hope he will return safely to the United States in the first part of next year. More recently, Carl began college at MCC this fall where he hopes to study computers and electronics. And, of course, I joined the Navy.


I cannot fully express the thanks I feel for the blessings my family and I have received this year. I am grateful for friends and family and hope they are well this Christmas season. I may not call or write often, but I do think of them. I am where I am because of the love they have shown me. I owe them my eternal gratitude.

I recently did something that most (if not all) who know me will be extremely surprised to hear - I joined the Navy. I report for boot camp on 11 April 2006, a little less than seven months away, and will spend a minimum of 6 years serving my country. I will be trained in the Advanced Electronics and Computer Field (AECF), a field which during training feeds two navy jobs - Electronics Techinician (ET) and Fire Controlman (FC). Here is a PDF describing what I will be doing. I’m not sure which of the two jobs I will be assigned to, though I would prefer ET.


You may be asking yourself at this moment, “Why!?!?” Well, there are a few reasons why:

• A feeling that I should - I have been as surprised about this turn of events as many of you are. Military service had never been in my plans, but one day a couple of months ago the thought came to me to look into the Navy. Many hours of research and prayer followed that convinced me that entering the Navy was a step I should take.
• Training - I’ve been in the IT world for the past two years, and while there are aspects of it that I enjoy, there are aspects of it that I really don’t like. The hours are crazy and the responsibility is often overwhelming. Committment to keeping your systems running must be total. Nothing else should come first (well, at least the boss would like you to believe that). It’s not for me.
• Travel - I’m excited to see the world. Of all the armed forces, the Navy provides the greatest access to the world.
• No Direct Combat - When a war is on, the Navy provides a supporting role. The likelihood that I would ever see the field of combat is small, and if I do, it will be with an iron hull surrounding me.

This morning while sitting in church I made a decision - I would not watch TV or browse the Internet today. These activities have become so much a part of my life that I felt I needed a break from them. What better day exists to take a break from the world than the Sabbath? As I returned home from church, I was somewhat fidgety - what would I do all day? Read a book, maybe?

As I looked over my bookshelf, I noticed a book that I read years ago as part of a BYU course on the New Testament. It is entitled In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon.

In His Steps is the story of a preacher and his affluent congregation who are interrupted during church one day by a shabbily-dressed stranger who asked of them:

I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night,

‘All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
All my being’s ransomed powers,
All my thoughts, and all my doings,
All my days, and all my hours.’

and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there’s an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn’t exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don’t understand. But what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and sin.”

The appearance and words of this stranger in the church last Sunday made a very powerful impression on me. I am not able to conceal from you or myself the fact that what he said, followed as it has been by his death in my house, has compelled me to ask as I never asked before ‘What does following Jesus mean?’ I am not in a position yet to utter any condemnation of this people or, to a certain extent, of myself, either in our Christ-like relations to this man or the numbers that he represents in the world. But all that does not prevent me from feeling that much that the man said was so vitally true that we must face it in an attempt to answer it or else stand condemned as Christian disciples.

I want volunteers from the First Church who will pledge themselves, earnestly and honestly for an entire year, not to do anything without first asking the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ And after asking that question, each one will follow Jesus as exactly as he knows how, no matter what the result may be.

I’ve been working on my image gallery a bit today and was able to scan in and upload another 60 pictures or so. It’s amazing to me how many pictures I’ve taken during my life. I’ve already uploaded more than 1200 pictures that were, for the most part, taken during the past 5 years. I still haven’t gone through the hundreds of pictures I took during my 2 years in Brazil as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the 3 or 4 photo albums I’ve put together over the years. Maybe I’ll even get some of my old videos of family and friends up on the site eventually (though until I get a VCR that’s going to be a bit difficult).

It’s amazing how much we document our lives without even realizing it. A little here, a little there, and soon you’re drowning in photos. Not that I’m complaining - I love having the pictures around to help me remember the many good times in my life. I’m also enjoying putting up those photos for my friends and family (and anyone else) to see. Now I just need to go through and label them…

As seen on Slashdot, 13 kids in the Kutztown Area School District are facing felony charges over their “hacking” of laptops that the school district issued them. The Slashdot poster, as usual, left out the bit about the extent of the abuse or the first attempts at discipline, but I guess that’s what I’ve come to expect from Slashdot. The real info can be found in the school’s press release and http://www.cutusabreak.org, a site created by the kids to “get the word out.” Also, here’s a Slashdot comment from someone who went to the same school.

Well, as one who has worked in school IT, here’s what I understand:

1. The IT department didn’t do their job - the admin password was listed on the laptop itself.
2. The kids, by using the above admin password, weren’t very wrong. They were curious. But they were still wrong.
3. Some of the passwords were eventually changed, but the kids used password crackers to break back in. This is where the kids entered the realm of really wrong.
4. Someone should have told the IT department earlier. Kids, it’s OK to talk to grownups when there’s a problem.
5. When the IT department found out, they should have changed the passwords on all laptops as soon as possible.
6. The kids were reprimanded, punished, etc., but no one lost their laptop privileges!!! Why!!??
7. According to the kids, some even tried to turn in their laptops, but the school wouldn’t let them. Huh???
8. The kids claim that it’s the administration’s fault. The computers were too tempting. They were too easy to crack. BAD EXCUSE!
9. The administration claims it had done all it could. Reporting the kids to the police was the only recourse. Um, no, they could take away the laptops…