A couple of days ago, I noticed that the lighting outside was amazing...and the found that it came from an amazing sunset.  It was a quick scramble to find a good foreground, and even with that most of the color had faded.  But it still turned out a nice image.  And I like the embedded symbolism with that dark and foreboding sky looming behind the spire rising like a sort of spiritual lighthouse.

I was able to sneak in a short hike after my SysAdmin class earlier this week--just up Rock Canyon in Provo (nice and close to BYU).  The colors are really becoming beautiful, both in the mountains and in the valley.
I start two research classes for my own PhD this coming week, so hiking time will probably be in short supply.  In fact, I'm thinking that both sleeping time and breathing time are going to be in kind of short supply. <sigh>  It's self-inflicted, so I can't complain too much. (But I'll be really happy when it's all done in a year or two.)
I always hope that if I'm busy enough, I won't have time to get into trouble.  It does help, but I seem to have the ability to get into trouble anyway--though usually for different things.
On a tangentially-related note, I learned (well, learned more thoroughly) last quarter that qualitative research is very cool, and that many of the possible research questions floating around in my mind may be best approached with various qualitative techniques.  Since my current classes are related to research methodologies, I'm quite excited to explore this space a bit more thoroughly.