Cheaaa!!!

The Subsitute Mormon Chaplain

2011-12-31T15:21:00.000-08:00

The Substitute Mormon Chaplain provides a look at a man who is low on faith. The book relies on flashbacks to give the reader several inspiring stories that the 'Mormon Chaplain' experienced to have faith in God. The book serves the purpose of inspiring the reader to look back at their own life and analyze the experiences that have contributed to ones own faith. For those who are not familiar with the Mormon faith, many terms in the book will be a little bit confusing and undefined unless you are willing to do a little bit of research. Those with a basic understanding of Mormonism will be pleased and may draw on similar experiences where they could see the hand of God influencing their lives.

Overall, the book is well written and holds the interest of the reader. There are blessings ascribed to those who search to know how to follow God's will and obey commandments that they see as divine. Some will see a luck and chance play into how things are accomplished and others will attribute those things to divine intervention. Whatever the faith of the reader, this book does a great job at promoting obedience and faith building in a religious context.

http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?dorrance+7XZRvv+index.html

I received a complimentary copy of (The Substitute Mormon Chaplain) as a member of the

Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com

to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Grown Up Christmas List

2011-12-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I wrote about a Christmas Mix that has really been meaningful to me during this Christmas season. One of the songs on that cd by Amy Grant is entitled "Grown Up Christmas List". In that song the verse goes like this:

No more lives torn apart,
That wars would never start,
And time would heal all hearts.
And everyone would have a friend,
And right would always win,
And love would never end.
This is my grown-up christmas list.

I grew up listening to this song and have always liked these lyrics, especially as I become more grown up and form my own grown up Christmas list. Sure, they are a little cheesy, but the inherent message is meaningful to me. The list that Amy gives includes many things that she has no control over and will obviously continue to happen in great abundance. Lives will be torn apart, wars will start and everyone will not always have a friend, but there are 'wishes' that she and you and I can control and bring to pass.

As a young man I looked forward to Christmas so much. I knew that this was my one chance in the year to get new toys, clothes, essentials and no sleep. The no sleep didn't bother me that much considering all of the others bells and whistles (literally) associated with the Christmas season. One thing I could also look forward to was Secret Santa or the 12 days of Christmas. This is something that we would do to a neighbor who we would all decide on and needed some extra Christmas love. Each night for the 12 days preceding Christmas we would leave anonymous gifts on the doorstep, back porch, mailbox, bricks through windows (kidding) or anywhere else around the house that we had decided on. These small gifts all espoused the Christmas spirit. Kris and I would go with my dad, or in later years by ourselves, to deliver these gifts to the chosen neighbor. I always loved doing this and experiencing the joy that came with giving. I'm grateful for my parents who incorporated this tradition into our home.

Now, I don't look so much forward to the gifts or presents. I'm at a point in life where I can purchase any necessity or want whenever I need to. The waiting Christmas morning for gifts doesn't bring the anticipation that it once did, but the spirit of giving has always stayed with me.

Amy's wonderful song offers some things that I believe can be achieved by one's one volition. Some of her grown up Christmas list items are wishes that are on my grown up Christmas list too. As a member of the LDS church, I firmly believe that right will always win in the end. That is a grown up Christmas wish that I have and know will come to fruition. I also know that love will never end. The love that comes through Christ fills and increases as people all around the world try to do the deeds that the Savior did and love their fellow man. Love will never end, but it can end in our hearts if we don't seek to give freely and serve those around us. President Eyring, an LDS apostle recently said, "Threre are gifts to us that we can offer to others for Him. We do that by remembering Him and trying with all our hearts to do what He would do and love as He loves." We can love as we have been loved. The last wish from her song that I hope for is that everyone will have a friend. I can be a friend to all those who need one and seek to help those in need. A lot of these wishes are self-fulfilling prophecies. If you have a Christmas list this year, do your best to fulfill the items on the list and spread the joy of this time of year.

A Picture Diary of a Christmas Birthday

2011-12-19T16:14:00.002-08:00

Aaron Lewis, my sister Rachel's wonderful fiancee had a birthday last weekend and we celebrated Sunday night. I like Aaron for a lot of reasons. 1) He'll be way more successful than me 2) He and I studied similar scholastic subjects and had many of the same professors 3) He makes my sister happy 4) He'll be way more successful than me and 5) He's a pretty good guy. For all of these reasons and more (like that he'll be way more successful than me) I decided to honor him with a caption picture diary of last night's celebration.

I know people have many different preferences, but all Aaron wanted was a small piece of meat for his birthday. I won't tell you how I felt about it (extremely unsettled), but to each their ownHere's Laura (Aaron's sister and my future cousin) sitting in her car while we went to town on all the food Aaron didn't eat (who just eats a single piece of meat on their birthday anyway?) Laura was in this car for 4 hours and 26 minutes (all times approximate)
Ok, here's what Aaron's plate really looked like (kind of). This is actually my sister's plate, but since they are getting married, all things in common right?
After dinner Aaron read us his mission call. This was a little strange because he's already been home for about three years and we all knew that he served in Colorado, but he really wanted to read it to us. Anything for the birthday guy.
4 hours 27 minutes and counting ........

After Aaron read his call, Kris read us a story that he had written about a young boy who met a young girl with beautiful long hair. Everyone thought (incorrectly) that the story was about Aaron and Rachel, but those of us who had eyes to see knew that he had just blatantly stolen the basic premise of Tangled.

Katie was absolutely captivated

Laura finally decided to join us. She had some obvious signs of hypothermia, but quickly regained full mobility. We were all grateful she decided to face the music and begrudgingly wish her brother a happy birthday.
Aaron didn't have a chance of blowing out all the candles, we stacked the deck (and the cupcakes) against him. It was a noble effort and by noble I mean failed. After the candles, Laura put her arm around Aaron. This was a nice sisterly gesture, but we were sure that Rachel did not like it one bit. Laura, Aaron is Rachel's now
Kris was really tired from everything that was going on . I don't blame him. Everyone was really tired of pictures and videos being taken all night (sorry guys), but those scowls all turned into smiles once they heard I was making a picture diary of the night.and here's one of those smiles right now. You're very welcome Rachel for documenting this great night. I hope you enjoyed Aaron's birthday.
.

Merry Christ(mix)

2011-12-19T07:45:00.000-08:00

What makes a great cd mix? Is it the variety of songs? The theme of the cd? How catchy the songs are? How the songs make you feel? None of these, all of these? It is a tough question. I don't really know the answer to what makes a cd mix great or spectacular, but I recently received one of the best mixes I've been exposed to in a while and it has many of the qualities I find pertinent to good mixes:

1) It's Christmas music (I love Christmas music)

2) The music sticks with you (I find myself humming many of the songs when I'm not listening to the cd)

3) The music is very positive and makes me happy

4) I want to do good things (Christmas related) for others when I listen to the songs

5) They are fun to sing along with

6) Some make me laugh because they are cheesy/over the top (thank you Mariah)/strange (Busta Rhymes and Bieber??)/or talk about hippopotamuses (I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, is this a metaphor?)

7) It's Christmas music

8) The Killers are involved

9) The music reminds you of someone or something (the nostalgia factor)

10) It's Christmas music

Here are my short thoughts along with the singer/song of one of the best mixes I've ever had the pleasure of listening to:

1. Oh Santa. Maria Carey-Strong solid opening song from Mariah, catchy, fun, multiple Santa references, everything you want in a Christmas song

2. Mistletoe.Justin Bieber- I love when 5'4 teeny boppers call other people shawty (I know shawty means girl, it's still funny to me). This song does tug at the heart strings though, makes you want to procure some mistletoe immediately and find a special someone

3) Only Thing I Ever Get for Christmas.Justin Bieber- More mistletoe references, more heart strings being tugged

4) Fa La La.Justin Bieber-Boyz to Men help out on this track, which is always a plus. Some easy rhymes in this one, holly/jolly, fa/la. Bieber isn't bringing it on this track like his other ones, Boyz to Men represent though

5) All I want is You.Justin Bieber-Christmas love songs can be very sentimental, I feel like Beiber opened up my chest and took these lyrics out of my heart. He has a special gift that Bieber.

6) Home this Christmas.Justin Bieber-Stay out of my heart and mind Bieber!!

7) The Christmas Song.Justin Bieber/Usher-Beautiful duet by these two. When I picture them singing this song to each other it makes it kind of funny. I would have picked a female to sing this song with. Thoughts of Usher and Bieber hanging out on Christmas Eve singing this song to each other is a bit of a stretch, but hey, why not?

8) Little Drummer Boy.Justin Bieber/Busta-YES YES YES. Listened to this song three times in a row. You can hear Busta in the background leading up to his verse making various references to fireplaces and saying 'yeah' a lot. Busta talks about food (no surprise), rapping (less of a surprise), and Christmas (big surprise). Thanks for this great tag team.

9) A Great Big Sled.The Killers-Do I love the Killers? Yes. They make a new Christmas song every year that comes out on Dec. 1 to support the RED campaign to help with the eradication of AIDS. This is my second favorite of their six Christmas songs. It offers nostalgia, catchy tune, Christmas, and it's the Killers. Love it.

10) Happy Birthday Guadalupe. The Killers-Very good Killers song. The first Happy Birthday/Christmas song (they do mention Christmas, decking the halls, wishing upon Christmas trees, and Mexican angels). So good!

11) Merry Christmas Happy Holiday. N Sync-Who would have thought that N Sync stood for In synchronization? Thank you google. (Joke, I actually did already know this). This is a great holiday tune.

12) My Only Wish.Britney Spears-This is one of my favorite songs on the mix. It is so catchy and happy. It reminds of a better Britney, a less tainted Britney. So that helps with the nostalgia factor. This song may have gotten a repeat or two.

13) All I want for Christmas Is you. Mariah Carey-Mairah+Christmas=guaranteed good time. This is also one of my favorite tracks on the mix. Very fun, very upbeat, very Mariah.

14) Last Christmas. Wham-The synthesizer song! That's how I originally referred to it upon first listen. Very 80's ish (probably because it's from the mid-80's) and that explains the synthesizers. I want to slow dance to this song right now.

15) Feliz navidad-Christmas classic, the mix would not be complete without this gem. I do think there are only 3-4 lines in this whole song, but that enables everyone to sing it.

16) Melekalikimaka.Bing Crosby-Many people didn't know Christmas existed in Hawaii before this song, Bing set the record straight back in the 40's. We're grateful to him.

17) Baby it's cold outside-Nice chill song about Christmas, I like it. I hadn't heard it in many years. I don't know how it would be as a karaoke song, but that doesn't really matter. But as you listen, think about doing karaoke with someone on this song. It's A Capella in many parts and would be quite interesting to sing this with someone.

18) Grown Up Christmas List. Amy Grant-My mom had Amy Grant's Christmas cd when I was young and would always listen to it. Very nostalgic for me. I like the message to this song and Amy does a good job. I think of one of my good friends who always tried to be friends to everyone when I listen to this song.

19) The Gift. Collin Raye-I had never heard this song before, but I really really like it. It makes me think of people who have been gifts in my life. There have been many.

20) Oh Holy Night. Mariah Carey-If you aren't looking at who is singing this song when it first comes on, you will think it is a man for approximately the first two seconds of this song. Just wait until the end though, DIVA time!! Awesome.

21) I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. Gayla Peevey-Speechless. I almost skipped this track and it turned out better than I thought. Funny song.

22) Suzy Snowflake-Great ending track to one of the great Christmas mixes. I want to do this for my next karaoke appearance. It will catch people off guard, it is a good song, and there's a great interlude where a dance number can be interjected.

So, there you have it. One of the best Christmas mixes around. These songs have helped me feel the Christmas spirit, experience an appropriate amount of nostalgia, and get my heart strings tugged at way too much. I hope you've enjoyed the track by track break down. Enjoy this Christ(mix) and have a Merry Christmas.

Companionship Inventory

2011-12-17T16:10:00.000-08:00

It took a full three months on my LDS mission to experience my first real companionship inventory. For those of you who are not familiar with this terminology, a companionship inventory occurs when two missionaries discuss the positives, negatives, strengths and weaknesses of how the communication and relationship in the companionship is developing. Previous to this first 'real' inventory I had only asked my companion if he was good, to which he generally replied 'yeah' and we would go on our merry way. Guys are so easy to get along with sometimes. It wasn't until I actually sat down with a companion and hashed out everything going on that I saw the immense value that these discussions can have. Over the rest of the time on the mission I enjoyed these inventories to take stock of what was going on. I did hear some unusual and once or twice petty things that annoyed companions about me, but every time I received this information I was grateful to know so that I could work on it and become better. In the cases that I heard petty things, I would state my case and resolve the issue.

There are a number of reasons why I liked having this inventory once a week.
1) It only was once a week for a few minutes
2) Anything that upset me during the week allowed me to wait until we talked and usually by then it wasn't that big of a deal
3) I learned a lot about how I am perceived
4) I learned a lot about how other people perceived themselves
5) I learned to say encouraging things that I recognized as great qualities in others
6) I learned how to work well with people from other cultures
There are many great things that one can learn from similar experiences. This list is by no means exhaustive, but these are some of the great lessons I learned.

I'm mentioning this because my sister Rachel recently told me how she and her fiancee have a relationship inventory on a regular basis. Many good things have come from this because of the regularity and frankness with which they can discuss their concerns. I think this is a wonderful idea. When you can talk openly, espousing the spirit of love with someone who you care about, great things will happen. Most good relationships will need great communication to be successful. This is a necessary skill that will help two people grow closer, get to know each other better, and sort out any misunderstandings. It can be just as hard to be open with someone as it is to hear what someone thinks about you, but it is worth it. A relationship inventory done correctly is a great tool for any two people serious about making a relationship successful.

Amazing Race

2011-11-29T23:57:00.000-08:00

No Love in the Club: Part 2

2011-02-08T19:53:00.001-08:00

The drive up to Park City was rather uneventful considering the initial shock of seeing a harlot walk out and enter my friend’s car. We talked a little about ourselves and started joking around more as we got closer to our destination. Fortunately for the scantily clad women with us we found a parking spot right in front of the club. The girls spent another ten minutes or so getting ready and debating over trivial tasks such as bringing in a coat (for the 15 foot walk to the front door), leaving a purse in the car (also, our car was 15 feet from the door), applying chap stick, and applying perfume. The combined time it would have taken a normal person to complete these tasks and make these decisions was 42 seconds give or take, our entourage complicated these simple tasks by deliberating for a full ten minutes of personal agony for me. As we finally approached the front door to the club, greetings were given to the bouncers and we were ushered inside. I was subjected to only a visual frisking at this point and made my way into the club.

As I entered the club bar area my mind reverted to the many episodes of Jersey Shore that I had watched in anticipation of this moment. I expected the following things from my club experience that seemed standard in every Jersey Shore club excursion.

1) At one point there would be multiple women dancing on tables or bars (Coyote Ugly also contributed to this delusion)

2) There would be at least two people beyond any point of coherence due to inebriation that would fall down at some point during the night.

3) Every bouncer that I came into contact with would give me mad props and I’d say something cool to them that they would immediately courtesy laugh at

4) A girl and guy making out with no regard for any other living (or dead) person

5) The wild card was that I would see a guy kissing two girls at the same time

Now these are all things that I legitimately expected to see at some point because of my avid watching of Jersey Shore. None of these is something that I necessarily hoped to see (who I am kidding, I wanted to experience all of these things), but I did fully expect to see something of this sort during the night. I will say now that I did not see any of these things happening during the course of the night and was a little bit upset by my misfortune. However, there were other things that I did see, but first I will go back to our entourage.

As was expected the girls that we arrived with quickly ditched us after we had been there for 15 seconds. They seemed to know everyone and started taking an insane amount of pictures. I fully believe that nearly 50 pictures were taken over the course of the next two hours. To put this in perspective, I recently spent a full 9 days in Europe and managed to take 28 pictures the entire week. This is most likely because it was freezing and I hated taking out my camera, but still 28 pictures in Europe. We were in a dark club with nothing cool to see at all. I couldn’t understand why the girls wanted to take so many pictures of themselves dressed in such revealing outfits. I can understand one or two pictures, but there were enough pictures for multiple albums. It was like they were documenting the fact that they had no self-respect for their future dead beat husbands and families. Congratulations to them.

One of the girls that we came with was expecting a boy that she had a crush on to be at the club that night. However, she often varied from her original desire to see him. Her reasoning went like this

1) hope that he comes

2) hope that he doesn’t come

3) hope that he comes so that she could ignore him

4) hope that another boy she liked would show up so the first boy would be jealous

5) hope that she could go home with the first boy

6) hope that she could go home with the second boy

7) hope that the first boy wouldn't show up

8) hope that she could dance on a table and kiss two guys at once

Ok, I made that last one up. But claiming that this girl was fickle, was a gross understatement. She was almost as bad as Brad on the Bachelor. Every time that Brad goes on a one on one date with a girl, he almost always gives them a rose and says that he is way into them and that he is excited with how things are going. This man can not pull his emotions away from rationale thinking at all. I guess now that I think about it, he is just like every guy, so I suppose that I cannot fault him too much.

About halfway through her deliberations the first boy did show up and proceeded to grab her friend’s butt, hit on various other girls, ignore her, and then eventually talk her into staying the night with him. This last part was especially excruciating. We had planned to leave at 12:00 because of some early morning church obligations for myself. The girls pleaded for 1:00 and my friend and I relented. At 1:00 the girls showed up and said they had to say goodbye to their friends. 1:20 came and one girl came by and said she had to find the other girls (we could clearly see them dancing on stage by the DJ as she claimed she couldn’t find them). At 1:45 we finally corralled them into the car and were about ready to go, but the one who had so many deliberations about the boy said that she had to go back into the club for a second. She didn’t answer our phone calls or come back out for 20 more minutes. This was the point when I started cursing her out to her friend, with my friend more than equaling my creative swears. Finally the girl showed up outside. She came to the car, said she was staying, and walked back inside. I was furious. Her plan had obviously been to stay much later at the club, but she had the gall to drag us along for such a long period of time with no intent of intimating what her true desires were. By the time we got home (a snow storm had just come in and slowed our drive home) it was 3:30 in the morning. Only Pauly D can change my idea of clubs now. I still think he is one of the coolest guys that ever graced the club scene and I pledge to continue my club affiliation vicariously through him.

There were a few things that I did enjoy during the night and here they are in no particular order:

1) A man that looked exactly like Billy Zane and for all I know it was his cousin or maybe even son, spitting image

2) A large woman in a bright red dress that we simply referred to as The Big Red Machine, I was mildly entertained when we talked one of the girls into getting her picture taken with The Big Red Machine

3) Drinking half of a red bull and feeling like my heart was going to explode, I would be an awful drinker

4) A kid getting tackled at my feet by three bouncers and one of them cuffing the kid and another taking a shot to his gut as they dragged him out of the club, no one knew what the kid had done, but it was funny

5) An older gentleman wearing crappy skate shoes from the late nineties and bobbing his head to the beat of the music for most of the night, I’m pretty sure he was so liquored up that he had no idea where he was

6) A cool kid walking by my friend and simply saying, “you’ve got a grabber”, we later learned that this was when a girl leaves and then comes and finds you multiple times throughout the night and often drags you along wherever she goes. Thanks cool kid!

7) An indian kid who looked like a gypsy shaman indian who was actually wearing a headband with a feather and indian looking vest

8) An Asian kid doing a sweet break dance before it was broken up by the bouncers

Let me now explain how this was my personal liberty jail. As Joseph received some of the greatest revelation ever known to man he was in a dark, awful jail with people who hated him. I wasn't in quite such a circumstance, but I did have clear thoughts as I sat in the back of that club. I knew that I was grateful for the knowledge that I had been given of the restored gospel and that I should do nothing that would disqualify from the wonderful blessings of a Christ centered life. I walked out of that place feeling empowered to choose the right and make the most out of my life in whatsoever situation I would find myself. I believe that sometimes the sweetest thoughts can come in places you would never think. This different perspective really helped me to see how great my life is and how great it is to have the gospel in it.

Car-less

2011-01-31T15:33:00.000-08:00

Last week I was seated around a spacious table with a few of my co-workers working diligently on a new project. We had just finished a great meal and were finishing up the small details pertaining to the completion of the new initiative. As often happens after meals, my mind was prone to wandering and I glanced up at the tv right above our table. Some program about a car show was on and I didn't think too much of what was going on, nor was I much interested in what was happening. Suddenly someone mentioned that the car that the camera had focused on was a '68 something or other, to which someone else responded that this was not the '68 version, but the '65 model. The feeling that washed over me was similar to the feeling I got about two-thirds of the way through Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen; I had no idea what was going on. I saw that there was a car on the screen and that it looked like an 'old' style car and that people were looking at it. In Transformers I was aware that explosions were happening and that some robot vehicles were fighting for some reason, but beyond that I had no idea what was going on.

I don't think I am alone in saying that when it comes to cars the best thing that I can come up with to say is that the car looks cool, nice, or big. I suddenly revert to a third grader trying to describe his house in my elementary vocabulary. There must be some generational gap when it comes to car knowledge or maybe I'm less inclined to pay attention than other people. I do not know anything about old cars except that they are old. I can distinguish a Mustang, or Camaro, and even the rare Corvette, but when it comes to years and models, I have no idea how people can tell what is what and does it really matter. Apparently one model was better than the other for some reason that no one can really explain, it just is general knowledge.

Everyone has heard stereotypical jokes about men and their adoration for cars. Men love cars, they fix cars, they wash cars, they go for long drives in their cars in the fall, they grill out of the back seat in their cars, they make out in cars, they do everything with their cars. It would seem that the whole reason for man's existence begins and ends with a car. I remember watching Home Improvement in my youth and wondering why the "Tool Man" was always working on his car or talking about a car. I mean always. A full 25% of the scenes were of him in his garage working on his car with his friends, boys, even his wife, and oddly enough many times he was all alone working on the car. As a child I was taught that a good portion of my everyday life must be spent doing something with a car. I had better things to do as a 12 year old and skipped the mandatory daily sessions working on a car. On another note, if a life form from another planet could only tune in to Home Improvement episodes they would be convinced that man had some sort of amorous relationship with his car. (heck, even I was convinced of this, no wonder Miss Taylor was always so upset with Tim, he was stepping out on her)

My lack of knowledge or even concern for vehicles led me to wonder about the following question. Will the cars of this generation be considered classic cars in the future? When someone calls a car classic, I'm not even sure what that means. I do know there is nothing classic about a Corolla or Accord. So my answer would be no. Which means, that unless this generation goes and researches old cars from the 50's to 70's, people will just stop caring. I can't recall a conversation where I sat around and talked with my friends about cool cars. (except after each and every Fast and Furious movie and in that case we only talked about how fast those cars were, and to boot, those cars were civics, nothing classic about that). Why would we talk about cars? Did guys ever just sit around and talk about how cool cars are? Maybe they did, but that seems way outdated. To car lover's defense, I'm sure that people still do get together and talk about their cars that they've owned in the past and how cool they are and that's great for them.

Now there is one area of pop culture that has embraced mentioning cars and showing them on music videos. You guessed it, hip hop!!! Country music videos with hicks driving old beat up trucks around just never caught on. I suppose that the hip-hop culture does talk a lot about cars, but usually they only refer to the price tag, rims, or how many hood rats are draped over the vehicle. And all of those things are just bragging anyway (I've never seen a rap video where they are doing an oil change or rotating the tires). So, after all I do suppose that there is some contemporary discussion (if you call a scantily clad woman washing a Maserati as a discussion, I do, that is something to discuss for better or worse) or cars, but it's not a conversation I'm likely to join in on soon, unless a new Fast and Furious movie comes out soon.

My Liberty Jail (Part One)

2011-01-13T16:00:00.001-08:00

Liberty is perhaps the most ironic name for a prison, unless somewhere an inmate somewhere is sitting in Freedom Jail shaking his head slowly. That’s like naming the biggest buffet in Louisiana “Slims” or referring to the largest inmate at the state pen as “Tiny”. Most cities have jails and the jail usually follows the name of the city (Salt Lake County Jail). In Mormon historiography, Liberty Jail was where Joseph Smith was unjustly incarcerated for 4 months during 1838-1839, however the title Temple Prison was later associated with this locale because of the tender revelations that were received here and now reside in the LDS scriptures the Doctrine and Covenants. Those familiar with Mormon history are well aware of the content and circumstances that brought about these revelations. This location was probably the last place that Joseph would expect to receive a revelation. But do revelations ever really come when or how we want them to? It is my experience that this is not the case, inspiration comes when and how the Lord sees fit. Certainly we have places of refuge in Temples, Churches and even our own homes that are conducive to revelatory experiences. However, I believe it is possible that someone can elicit responses from the divine in prison type surroundings, just as Joseph did. These locations may in fact include spiritual or physical prisons (the Church actively assigns member to visit prisons to those members who have made mistakes and end up there). I witnessed first hand how a prison like atmosphere can induce one to want to be better and led to think more clearly on what direction their life should take. In no way do I intend to encourage people to seek such an environment for divine inspiration, but sometimes a glance at a riotous and sinful type of life can lend itself to the realization about how good life is without those influences .

Another weeknight sprawled across a sofa clad in basketball shorts and a hoodie watching sports was the pinnacle of what my genius could come up with to entertain myself. Luckily a friend with promises of hot tubs, games, and girls was the incentive I needed to pry myself off the couch with a rain check promise that I would soon return to my sanctuary. Rushing through my pre hang out warm up I showered, dressed and even doused myself in some smell goods (cologne for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term smell goods). Within the hour I was at my friend’s doorstep ready to meet some new people and hopefully meet a great girl. My optimism was approaching defcom three status (which is really high, there are four defcoms). This night was going to be awesome!

Two hours crawled by as the girls continually prolonged their proposed time to meet up with us, patience was certainly waning and the initial optimism had all but dispersed. I think that once you hit that second hour of waiting for someone to get ready you start entertaining other ideas of something to do, any idea, ideas of dollar movies, play box (xbox), or anything that doesn’t involve waiting longer for someone to put on clothes and comb their hair. We would have welcomed a coloring books with open arms at this point (and don’t think that thought was not entertained).

Finally the time arrived that the girls where ready (I could have gotten ready 17 different ways in the time it took them to prepare themselves) and we pulled up to one of their houses. The optimism was back, we were finally going to meet up. This night was going to be great! And then…the butterflies of the stomach variety were replaced with a large stone. As soon as I looked out the window a shudder of disappointment rippled through my whole body (I believe, and my friend confirms, that my body actually shook). The girls were dressed like women of the night, harlots, whatever you want to call it. I was in jeans and a t-shirt. Looking back I’m not sure if I was more rattled by the outfits or what the outfits suggested. We would not be going to any movies tonight; hot tubs were a distant thought, my longing for my comfortable sofa refuge at home would not be seeing me for longer than I had supposed. Those outfits suggested only one option for that night’s activities, we were going to one location and one location only…..we were going clubbing.

Anklitis

2010-12-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

As soon as I landed I knew that this was much worse than any of the other ones. I've been prone to ankle sprains for the last decade or so. The first time that I ever had an ankle injury was one spring afternoon in the backyard of one of my good friends. As precocious young children we often sought fun in precarious ways. On this particular day my neighborhood cohorts and I encountered a number of mattresses in a dumpster. Naturally, we laid claim to our treasures and took them back to my friend Shu Shu's house. We started jumping on the mattresses while imitating wrestling moves for a few hours until one of us realized that the mattresses were probably extremely dirty. It was then that we started spraying the mattresses off with a hose and were surprised to see a foamy liquid emit from the first mattress, much to our chagrin we realized that these mattresses were laden with urine from one of our good neighbors. The spraying of the mattresses continued for a few hours until we were satisfied that all of the urine was cleaned out. During the hours that it took for our new "toys" to dry we cogitated about the possible uses. Wrestling mats, makeshift sleds, a motorized bed and other ridiculous uses. We finally settled on an idea, we would jump off of the trampoline and land on the mattresses doing various stunts, flips and aerials. Now the trampoline at our disposal was not your conventional round tramp that was so common in the late 1990's, not this was one of the old rectangle tramps that provided possible injury at any jump (which could possibly be said of any tramp, although these seemed much more dangerous). The fun started off innocent enough, we'd jump off on the mattresses on our feet first and then onto our back and then some flips. The ante kept on escalating until finally I decided to jump as high as I could and land on my feet on the far side of the mattress. I took off confident in my take off, but quickly started to fade to the right, I waved my arms frantically to try and control my drift, but as I came down my right foot landed outside the mattress and rolled my right ankle hard. It felt (and sounded) like it popped as soon as I landed. I laid down instantly and tried to move my ankle, but it was quickly swelling up to unnatural sizes. As I limped home, I winced with every step as I could barely walk. Days of my foot in ice packs and bowls followed as I utilized crutches to make my way around school and home. Since that first sprain I have injured each of my ankles numerous times. The most recent one was last Tuesday at a Church pick up game. I was driving to the middle of the lane and came down on someone's foot. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post I knew that this one was worse than the others. I could feel a small pop in my ankle and was sure that I had done some damage. I was determined to walk it off like all of the others, but my dad encouraged me to go get an x-ray. I had not been able to put any weight on my ankle for two days and was rather discouraged that I had fractured my ankle. As I sat in the doctor's office I offered a silent prayer that nothing was broken and that this wouldn't hinder me with everything that I needed to get done that week. As the doctor walked in my heart dropped, but I was soon reassured that I had only suffered a small bone chip and that the ankle would be ok. I was so relieved. The next day I found that I could move around a lot easier and that the swelling wasn't as bad as the previous day. I'm sure that there was some sort of divine intervention because there was such a stark contrast from the previous day. There was still some swelling as the days continued, but overall there should be a full recovery. I did however get a call from the radiologist today that there was a small crack in the bone that could have happened last week or could have been older. Perhaps that first trampoline incident was more serious than I first anticipated, but I feel blessed to know that I should be fine.

Here are some pics of the recent injury

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When in 'Doubt, fire' the ex

2010-11-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

Last night as I was impatiently waiting for the Jazz game to come on because of an error with FSN, I randomly came upon a show that I had not seen in years. The story was a simple one, man has marital issues, man divorces wife, man attempts to win kids over (fails), man becomes house maid dressed like an old lady to stay close to the kids and keep tabs on his ex. You’ve guessed it, the incredible story of Mrs. Doubtfire!!! Apparently my memory is not so good because after watching for a couple of minutes I couldn’t believe how crazy the premise of this movie is.

Take a second and pretend that you are fifteen years old again. You have seen your dad everyday of your life and know him better than you know anyone else. Unfortunately, your parents decide to get a divorce and to compensate for taking care of you and your siblings, your mother hires a housekeeper. Oddly enough the new housekeeper looks exactly like your dad in a huge fat suit (Mrs. Doubtfire is the largest British housekeeper ever, has a strange body structure, and always wears the same thing), and to boot has a funny accent (did I mention that your dad was a professional at impersonations?) At any point would you suspect that this might be your dad? (you nodding your head slowly) YES!!!! It’s such a convoluted plot. How did the writers create the script? Here’s my take:

Screenwriter: Ok, I just talked to Robin Williams and he wants to make a new movie. He wants to do lots of impersonations and funny voices and that’s about all he said.

Writer: Hmmm, he does do that fantastic old English lady impression.

Screenwriter: Yeah, I’ve seen that. Ok, let’s see…how about he impersonates a housekeeper of some government official so that he can spy on them?

Writer: No, he’s not a great action actor. We need something with kids.

Screenwriter: He’s a hip housekeeper for street kids and helps them get their lives on track.

Writer: Wasn’t that kind of the premise of Hook?

Screenwriter: Ok, they’re his kids and he’s trying to be around them without them knowing it’s him

Writer: You’re on to something…

Seriously, how was this movie created? (It was actually based on a book, but it’s funny to think of a bunch of writers sitting around trying to create a movie this movie out of thin air) When I think of how you could get this kind of story I am stumped. Despite my misunderstanding of how this movie was created, I found some parts of the movie very funny, especially when you contrast it with Arrested Development. For AD fans, you’ll remember how Tobias dresses up as Mrs. Featherbottom so that he can see his daughter more regularly, but it is painfully (as in laughing too much pains) obvious that Tobias is the new housekeeper. I know I’m a bit late to hop on the mocking bandwagon of Mrs. Doubtfire, but AD ridicules how blatantly obvious it is that Robin Williams is the housekeeper in Mrs. Doubtfire. Does the movie ever address why there no background check? Name check? (how many Doubtfires exist?) Social Security check? Did Mrs. Doubtfire go to all this trouble to provide this false information?

All this thinking about Mrs. Doubtfire led me to some self evaluation. Don’t we sometimes want to remain in the lives of those who we break up with? Many people react to break ups in the same way as Robin Williams reacted to the break up with his (her) family in this show. I came up with six similarities:

1) After break ups, many girls (and boys) quickly find a way to get back into their ex’s lives. Examples include, attending the same church or club, going to a party they know the ex will be at, or in one crazy case actually moving into the same apartment complex as the ex. (this really happened and they are actually married now) Most people try to stay around and be friends with the ex in vain (sometimes legitimate) aspirations to rekindle the flame that has been put out.

2) Being friends with the new man (woman) in the ex’s life. Now this one is a little weird and to pull it off the person has to be very clever or subtle. In Mrs. Doubtfire, she sort of befriends Pierce Brosnan (new boyfriend) to keep loose tabs and make fun of him at every opportunity. Sometimes it is a lot more obvious. One time I met a really cool girl and we soon became friends on Facebook. Later that same day I received a friend request from someone who I did not know at all. I noticed that his friend’s included the girl I had recently met and her sister. When I questioned the girl about this she confirmed that he was her ex and that he added every boy that she met. I’m serious about this. The funny part was when I was hanging out at her house a week later and he came over. “Hey, you added me as a friend last week on facebook.” He mumbled something and walked into the other room. Weird…..

3) Parties. This is the easiest way to stay around in someone’s lives, especially with the advent of Facebook. Mrs. Doubtfire always finds ways to be at her (his) kid’s big events even though the dad can’t be there in person. He is still involved in the fun times. How easy is it to go and see what events someone is attending and randomly show up at that event (on the contrary this can help if you don’t want to randomly run into someone at a party)? Parties are a non-confrontational, relaxed environment that provides a place of casual conversation with an ex. Parties are a safe place to “run into someone” and chances are that the other person is going to be civil and maybe even kind. If you are really lucky they’ll realize that they made a huge mistake and start trying to date you again. Maybe.

4) Text. Although the texting craze hadn’t quite hit a stride yet when this movie was made it still proved that limited contact was necessary at some level. Robin Williams could see his kids once a week and only for a brief period and he was still relevant in their lives. The text offers limited contact in our day, but can mean many different things. Usually we have no idea why an ex is texting us, but this list gives a pretty good overview:

a. I’m sorry I hurt you

b. I hope that you come around

c. I’m still thinking about you

d. I’m not thinking about you enough to call

e. I still want to be friends

f. I want to ask you some irrelevant question that I already know the answer to

g. I’m lonely

h. I want to get back together

i. Remember how good of times we used to have

j. I am lost and have no idea what I’m doing

k. I want to hurt you in some way

l. I want to show you that I am more mature than you

m. I want to see you to see if there is anything between us still

The list goes on and on and on. The text is a wildcard. No one really knows what the other person’s motives are in texting. That is why it is called text, its 160 characters of words. Trying to derive any emotion out of text usually leaves people more confused. One of the most confusing things in a text from an ex is ‘how are you’? “Well I’m sad, you dumped me” “I’m over you”, how to you respond? There is no way to decipher what the words ‘how are you’ really mean. Refrain from using this at all costs.

5) Wasn’t Mrs. Doubtfire essentially stalking her (his) ex and children? He was obviously not in full custody of his children and seeing your children when you don’t have visiting rights is illegal. Stalking also happens when break ups occur. This does happen. The bad thing about stalking is, it is so easy. People can of course do it from a distance these days through social networking, but does that really diminish how crazy it is? There are times when you want to see how the ex is doing or what they have been up to lately, but it can go much further than that. I guess as long as you aren’t dressing up as a housekeeper at your ex’s house and cleaning up after them you are probably in good shape.

6) The straight up approach. At the end of Mrs. Doubtfire she finally comes clean, or rather is found out. She (him) states her motives, her love, her desires for her children and a reasonable solution (reasonable in the sense that this would be unsettling to find out your dad has been cross-dressing for months) is found. Sometimes the best solution is to get back together and sometimes the best solution is to cut all ties with the other person. If there exists any smidgen of doubt about where the relationship stands, the best thing to do is talk about it directly with that person. I spent the better part of a few years reading into signals (I guess they weren’t signals) that I perceived to be someone’s interest and I was wrong. I should have asked some tough questions and been clearer.

Maybe the writer of Mrs. Doubtfire had been divorced, maybe the screenwriter had been in a tough relationship and then tried to reconcile with his ex. Someone got the inspiration to write this movie and provide a blueprint of how to not do things when it relates to a break up of any kind. There are kernels of wisdom in explicitly not following the path that Mrs. Doubtfire walked.

A ride on the Ferris wheel

2010-10-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

I’m reminded of a story that I heard or might have even made up about a young parent who had a baby girl. That parent cared deeply for the young girl and did everything possible to provide for her all of the opportunities that would lead to a successful life. As time progressed, the parent began to neglect the girl with the promising future by denying financial and emotional support. See, the parent had other pressing issues to worry about instead of the future of the little girl; powerful rich friends often requested help from the parent to set in order their affairs. That once promising young girl was quickly forgotten and left to her own devices to find success. You may be surprised that you already know this negligent parent and young girl; they often go by their more familiar names of the United States government and the public education system.

Most of the demise of the public education system can be traced back to one single event. Some suggest the end of segregation, Republican budget cuts or Mormons having way too many kids (I just threw this in for fun because it’s just this empty rhetoric the church is often criticized for). These are all wrong; David Hasselhoff had a better chance of winning dancing with the stars than any of these being legitimate causes of the education downfall. No, the real reason this happened is because of a well known movie that came out in 1986, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This movie glamorized the notion of not going to school. Before this movie came out, no child or teenager had probably ever played hooky instead of attending class. The concept of not going to school was outlandish and completely foreign to students in the United States; (almost as foreign as Spin occurring in the Bill O’Reilley No Spin Zone) no one thought it was possible. To say that the fad of cutting class caught wild fire is an understatement, Ferris essentially ruined the American school system by teaching it was cool not to go to class.

For those of you who haven’t been alive for the last twenty years or in a hole and not seen this anti-school propaganda film, Ferris Bueller is a young boy who develops an intricate plan to not go to school for one day. Principal Rooney (Ferris’ arch nemesis) does all he can to foil young Ferris’ plans and at one point even shows up at the house to gather evidence in hopes of expelling the brash young school ditcher. Mad props are due to the nefarious Principal for going above and beyond his call of duty, but as we’ll see it was of the utmost importance that Ferris’ not get away with his radical ways. Never has someone done more to attack the public school system and never has someone accomplished so much in one day off of school. Ferris did the following things in roughly seven hours:

Talked his friend into also cutting class and picking him up

Schemed to getting girlfriend out of class and then picked her up

Attended a Chicago Cubs Game

Went to tour the Sears Tower

Walked through the Art Institute of Chicago

Crashed a massive parade in the middle of the city and “Twisted and Shouted” all over it

Weaseled his way into a High-end Restaurant for lunch

Went swimming with his friends

The amount of time this would take any normal human being to accomplish is roughly 38 hours (give or take), but Ferris’ magically achieves so much in just seven hours?!?! Let the delusion begin!! Teens everywhere were suckered into believing they too could cut class and crash parades. (Why do you think we no longer have random parades in the middle of the week with thousands of people?, that is how the world was before this movie came out). Kids realized that 1) principals were not in fact student’s pals (or prince’s for that matter) 2) crashing parades was normal 3) cutting class was the coolest thing ever and if you had a fun enough day they might make a movie about it some day.

No matter how you slice it a pie is still a pie and no matter how you slice skipping schools it’s still giving the old screw you to lady America. But I must digress for a minute. Is the education provided for in America’s school really worth not cutting class? As I illustrated in the beginning, the deplorable state of America’s schools has left many children unable to receive the education that will provide them with the skills they’ll need in life. “Waiting for Superman” is a movie about children throughout the United States who are trying to get the best education possible. Some must go through admission processes that utilize a lottery selection; which doesn’t allow some children to attend their preferred school. This process is difficult for families with low incomes because they often do not have access to the same private institutions as higher income families if they are not accepted. Interestingly enough, many school aged children could ditch school to watch a movie about how inefficient school is; they would learn more about school by not going to…. wait for it…school. I don’t necessarily condone this behavior, but I don’t criticize it either. The purpose of schools is to provide learning, but if instruction isn’t adequately offered children should not be punished for not attending?

In high school my friends and I always tried to replicate Ferris' sweet day off, but we always fell short. We went to hang out at an abandoned house and it got cold so we left and went back to school. Other times we went and played basketball or nintendo at one of my friend's houses. The best time that I ever had when ditching school was to go see Star Wars 2: Attack of the clones. I never traveled more than 10 miles away from my school in all of the times that I ditched, and as you can tell I never did anything remotely cool at all. Basically, there was nothing worthwhile to miss school for and I probably did myself a great disservice by not attending school, even though I got great grades. There really was no reason to go if I could maintain high marks and enjoy some friend time, even though I never had close to the day that Ferris did.

Ferris’ wasn’t too concerned with the equality inefficiencies that exist in schools, but no doubt he wanted there to exist an option that the school system and provide a fair shake to all children. I have some suggestions. 1) Rank schools based on objective criteria that is public information to all families. The parents can choose where their kids go and the schools that underperform are shut down. Nothing motivates an institution to perform like the threat of closure. 2) Schools should be able to specialize in certain subjects. I hated art, science, and history in school. Why couldn’t I have gone to a school that specialized in math and economics; wouldn’t that prepare me better for my future than superfluous time wasting subjects? Yes, and so would other children who would have thrived at an art, music, of even a sports school. America is based on choice, let the people choose. Perhaps there is reasoning behind teaching a wide range of subjects to children, but to me it seems an inefficiency of the system. There are many problems with the school system and I’ve tried to offer some suggestions instead of simply criticizing the problem. The circumstances will get better over time or America’s youth will continue to ditch school. Maybe Ferris was on to something deeper when he decided to take that day off.

He ain't heavy, he's Kris.

2010-10-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things is when I notice something funny and have someone else notice the same thing at exactly the same time. That knowing glance from a friend that indicates they are on the same page as you is validating. Earlier today I was sitting in the foyer before class as this man walked by with his stomach hanging out of his shirt. At first I was caught off guard, but as I looked over to my friend sitting next to me I saw a sly grin spreading across his face and we both started laughing. No words were said, no synopsis of the random event was given, just a hearty chuckle. I couldn't have been more amused. Maybe it is the thought that someone understands or thinks like we do that causes us to feel a solid connection from moments like this. Being on the same page is not always so simple though and usually direct communication is necessary when trying to get on the same page as someone else. I like to use the example of being a missionary and finishing up teaching a principle. There are many ways to pass the discussion on to the companion, a subtle voice inflection, a testimony, or a quick glance. There are times though in any presentation when you have to be very direct. "Elder 'XYZ' will now teach us about faith."
You just have to say their name and what they will be doing. This can be frustrating for both parties. The way I fix this problem is through practice, but I've found that time and experience usually solves all problems eventually.

One weekend night recently I was preparing myself for a scheduled date.(I highlight scheduled because we both knew the time and I confirmed the date) I was really excited to go and had been looking forward to this date all week long. About twenty minutes before 'kickoff' I received a lengthy text explaining how it was not going to be possible to meet up that night due to unavoidable circumstances that had not be foreseen. (By the way any time cleaning is involved in an excuse the offended person should be able to collect some sort of severance, please never use cleaning in any form to get out of a date) We've all been stood up before and I understand it is a necessary part of the dating cycle, but it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Anyway, with my suddenly free night I decided to go see a cinema by myself. Pathetic huh? Actually no, you should be saying how resourceful I am at doing something at a moment's notice. Upon my arrival home that night from my solitary evening I texted my brother encouraging him to see the movie that I had just seen. In a few short minutes I received the same text from him, telling me had just got done seeing the exact same movie and that he shared my sentiments. I couldn't help but smile, his fiancee had been out doing something with her friends and he had come to the same conclusion as I had. Two brothers in separate cities going to the same movie alone at the same time. There is nothing like being on the same page as someone. There are two, maybe three people that I am on the same page with consistently, one of those people is my brother.

Kris and I have not always been on the same page, in fact we often butted heads about trivial things in our youth. This was never more apparent to me than when we traveled to the Far East together. Soon after Kris got home from his mission, we journeyed to Hong Kong together. The following situations illustrate how we were not really of the same mind set at all:
1. Crossing the street-We were not familiar with the opposite direction of traffic on our second day in the city. We were crossing a road in the Wan Chai district when on our left we saw cars coming rapidly towards us. I raced across the street and attempted to jump a four foot high railing. As I tried to clear the jump I caught my foot and fell onto the other side of the railing right on my back. The sidewalk was crowded with lunchtime goers and many stopped, looking bewildered at my folly. My brother came around the rail, which I had failed to see, instead of hopping it and laughed at my misfortune. I hadn't followed him to the easy route he had shown me and paid for it with asians enjoying my misfortune.
2. Ocean Park-This is one of the main attractions in Hong Kong. This place is an Asian version of Sea World and sits on the South Side of Hong Kong Island. As Kris and I left the park we hurried to a bus that was about to leave. Kris was lagging behind a bit and we arrived at the bus as it was about to leave. I had arrived a few seconds sooner and realized that I didn't have adequate change for the bus fair. Incensed that my brother was taking his sweet time I turned around and started quickly walking back to get change at the front office. Kris once again came lagging behind and as he reached me asked why we had come back. I told him that I needed change and he informed me that he had sufficient fare for both of us. I was irate for some reason and yelled,"why the (really bad expletive) didn't you say anything?" I then sat down by a fountain and put my head in my hands. This was about the fourth day of the trip and I think we were getting sick of each other. We weren't communicating well at all and our relationship really suffered. To this day I don't know why I was so uptight.
3. The Models-One day in Mong Kok, Kris and I were buying some counterfeit sweaters. I was looking at some bracelets and as these two girls walked by I said, "can I get a second opinion?" That led to Kris and I hanging out with two girls, one from Germany and the other from Uzbekistan, for a good portion of the day. We thought they were beautiful and indeed they were until one of them lit up a cigarette, then we just thought she was hotter. They invited us to a party that night at the Dragon Bar. I really did not want to go because I was so tired, but Kris was adamant about going. I've never seen him so determined to do something in all our lives. He tried in vain to get me to join him, but I refused. He ended up leaving around ten o'clock to meet the girls at the party. I got ready for bed and was just falling asleep when he came back into the room. I never learned how far he actually got, but I was glad that he came back home. That didn't stop me from laughing the rest of the trip about his determination in going to meet the girls though. Part of me wishes we would have gone to the party, but the story is better this way.

This trip was really fun and we had a lot of good times, but I wasn't as kind as I should have been to my brother. Instead of bringing us closer, I felt like we were so very different and there arose a small strain in our friendship. The problem was that I was not communicating with him at all, and took for granted that we would understand each other after not seeing each other for 3 and a half years. That was the time we spend without seeing each other due to our missions overlapping. Over the years we have grown a lot closer to each other and I now consider him my best friend. We talk almost every day and I find him texting me about something funny that I happen to be reading or listening to at that very moment. As he gets married in two weeks, I couldn't be prouder of my little brother. He's the man that I want to be and constantly humors me with his funny antecedents and one liners. I'm glad that we had this experience and feel that my brother and I once again understand one another.

Whale of an Offense

2010-09-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

“You know how [insert friend’s name here] is always so rude and always telling lies, I just can’t figure it out, she/he is such an enigma and makes me so frustrated, but I love him/her.” I have spoken ill of my friends, I have often criticized, mocked, harangued, and even scoffed (that’s right I’m going to use a biblical term) at them. Often, my motives stem from the fact that it is just something to talk about or something that intrigues me, and often I can’t find anything interesting to say about myself. However; I’ve found that many people, including myself, like to cover ourselves when we make such comments and we marginalize our critiques with certain phrases that make us seem a little less mean-spirited. Truly I don’t believe that we are generally mean-spirited creatures, that is why contemporary talk includes phrases such as ‘but I love him’, ‘with all due respect’ and ‘no offense’ that indicate that we don’t want to cause ill towards others; or at least leave other people with the impression that we revel in tearing down our friends.

“With all due respect” inevitably means that you are about to disrespect someone with the very next comment. This phrase is ostentatiously used as a precursor to an insult. Can you imagine Truman at the outset of World War Two saying to Germany “with all due respect Germany, you really fought hard and made some incredible tactical decisions and it’s been such a pleasure to have engaged you in globalwarfare for the last four years”? No, you can’t! There is no respect due and in many cases when we say with all due respect we are indicating that there is no respect involved at all. I’d like to propose a change to this common phrase. Say it only when you want to say something respectful to someone like “With all due respect, you ate that chili cheese dog with poise and integrity” or “With all due respect, I really respect you.” When you ‘due’ someone respect, it’s probably correct to say something positive. The same pattern can be utilized with the term “No offense”. Has there ever been a time when you said no offense and then didn’t offend someone in even the slightest way? I’m just going to start saying “OFFENSE!” or “with offense” and then say what I would normally say with “no offense”.

When Pinocchio shamelessly plagiarized the bible and jumped in that whale (echoes of Jonah anyone?) I was just as livid everyone else. But what really steamed my engines was when he had the audacity to gloat about having no strings to hold him down. This caused parents everywhere to cover their children’s ears due to the subtle implication that children didn't require 'strings' meaning parents. That wooden ‘real’ boy was a ‘real’ menace. Thankfully the bible was safe from Pinocchio’s blatant stealing when it stated “let your words be either yay yay or nay nay.” (I’m taking credit and intellectual property rights fees if this ever appears in a rap song, because don’t lie, it would be an awesome chorus) When we offset a discouraging word with a caveat of optimism we’re sitting on the fence. Let's be honest and consistent!

I freely admit, just as Pinocchio freely admitted that he could talk to crickets (you kidding me?, this also led children to believe that animals could talk, which eventuality led to the widespread disappointment of said children, myself included). It is hard to talk about others without being slightly negative; negative things are a lot funnier. It’s hard to laugh about someone’s good qualities. “John is such a great writer, he comprised this beautiful sonnet dedicated to his grandmother, it was hilarious.” There is nothing funny about that.

I guess I just wanted to write a blog throwing Pinocchio under the bus (or under the whale in this case), but I do believe that some consistency can be achieved in how we speak about our fellow man. What do you say? Yay Yay?

m night 'sham'amalan

2010-09-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

There has to be some reason why movie executives continue to green light multi-million dollar projects for someone who has not made a good movie in 8 years. Truth be told, no matter how bad M. Night Shyamalan's movies are, people still go to see them on opening weekend. I officially stopped about three movies ago, but found it strange that his movie career can be used as a blueprint for most of my recent relationships. I'll provide the similarities numerically.
1) At first glance (preview) I am intrigued. "This could be awesome!" I'll see the trailer for a movie and am instantly pulled in. (Perhaps all of his movies should just be trailers, by far his greatest talent) It's too bad that the trailer never translates into a good movie. In the same vein, the first time I meet a girl I am interested in her, her 'preview' is good and I want to see more and get to know more about her. Thoughts fly through my mind of her being the one or at least being an awesome girlfriend. In both instances, I am convinced that I need to learn more about this situation.
2) After seeing a trailer I like to dig a little deeper and learn more about the movie. This is done by reading reviews or production tidbits. I love knowing how a movie is made, whether it be what kind of filming techniques are used, where it was filmed, cost, or any other aspect that comprises the final picture. Some people like to go to the theater and sit down with no prior influences and see experience everything fresh. I wish I could do the same, but I have never been able to. I am one of those people who does weekly google searches for "New Indiana Jones film". I get excited about this kind of stuff. I get excited about girls too, always have. I like to learn about them. I like to go to their houses and meet their "production crew" (parents). I like to get to know their "editing crew" (friends). I like to dig through their garbage and find things that they have thrown out (ok, not really that last one) These things help me understand the person better and how they act and why they act a certain way. Often times this can generate lots of excitement about a female or movie, and other times it can shoot up red flags faster than the Jersey Shore boys can kick 'grenades' out of their hot tub. Recently, additional information has led me to be cautious when contemplating viewing a new film or squiring a new lady. With M. Night, words like over budget, filming delays, Writer (he's an awful writer), raise more red flags than a mustachioed man with an overcoat driving a non-descript van. I've promised never to see another movie that he is the principle writer for. (which i'll be regretting as soon as a new trailer for one of his films appears) With girls it is very similar, silver platter, raised by maid, rode to her sweet 16 on an elephant; these phrases rattle me like a hot Mexican reporter in an NFL locker room (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/new-york-jets-reporter_n_716136.html) Although I've never actually heard any of these terms used when referring to a potential gf, you get the drift. The red flags are very apparent and should be avoided like, hmmm....let's say an M. Night movie to use an obscure reference.
3) There is an old adage, you have to spend money to make money. That is not the case with M. Night movies. You have to spend a lot of money to get horrible critical reception and a box office dud. M. Night movies have require a lot of investment, just like in the initial dating process there is a lot invested. I've probably spent a bulk of dating money on the first three dates in relation to any other time frame of dating. I want to impress, I want to throw out the big cash money, but sometimes that is where I lose. The times when I've tried to give the nicest gifts have led to the absolute worst outcomes. I don't believe M. Night has been much more successful, his recent track record.
"Lady in the Water" estimated loss at $100 million
"The Last Airbender" cost $150 million, do you know anyone who has seen it?
"The Village" dropped nearly %70 of the viewers from the first week to the second week, meaning that no one was telling their friends to go see it. They all got duped into going the first week because they saw an awesome trailer and hoped for the best.
4) Disappointment!!! Ever heard of Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Air Bender, even the poorly written Unbreakable??? Ahhhhh!!! All of these films have been painful to watch. I haven't seem the last one, but it is currently getting a 7% out of a possible 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. To add caution to the wind a new movie called Devil is coming out soon that M. Night wrote. Don't go see this movie!!!, you'll just be disappointed once again.
Besides The Sixth Sense, I give some credit to Signs, but that's just because of the line "Swing Away" at the end. Really, one of the great climactic events of the film. However, I found this odd. The water being accidentally knocked on the alien clued in every human being on earth that to kill the aliens you simply add to spray some water on them. Really?!? Three weeks had passed and I'm sure the army was using every weapon known to mankind to quash this alien invasion and a kid 'swinging away' in the middle of a corn field figures out that this is the secret to saving earth!!! You see what I am saying? Anyway, when you finally get to the theater or to the point of wanting to really date someone you are often teetering on possible disappointment. Phrases like "I had no idea it was about this from watching the trailer" "This was not what I expected at all" can easily be transferred to "This girl isn't who I thought it was" or "Wow, you think you know a lot about someone". Usually if you have been suckered enough to get to the silver screen you are going to get burned.

As with M. Night, his first try at a major motion picture was his best and so was mine as far as dating. We keep hoping that he will make a good movie, but deep down we know that we will be lucky to just get a few good trailers and maybe some day a great movie. I keep holding on to hope that one day I too will 'Swing Away' and find a rare winner, (as long as she doesn't like M. Night Shyamalan movies).

Schooliosis

2010-04-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have been out of full-time school for one year now. It was a year ago to the day that I went to see 17 again instead of attending my graduation. That's right, 17 again. I think that watching a movie about a boy who gets to be 17 again (hence the name) was better than going to my own graduation. Probably not one of the better decisions of my life, but I'm okay with it.
Today I was accepted into the MBA program at the U of U. I was very excited to find out because I didn't think I would hear back for a few more weeks. I was actually calling to see if my transcript had arrived and when I called the lady asked my name so she could look me up on the system. I said that I needed to apply to the Master's in Finance program and was wondering if I had done everything. She said, "well it says here that you have been accepted into the MBA program". I couldn't believe it. She dropped the news like it was no big deal and I was caught way off guard. To put it simply, my journey to get into this program has been crazy. I've had to leave work and drive to the U in the middle of the day, I've had to pay more fees than I thought possible, I've had more frustrations than I thought possible, but today a nice young lady informed me that my efforts were not in vain. So stoked!

The Revelation

2009-11-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

This last Saturday I was called upon to work because of the busy season. I thought I would only be in for five hours or so, but ended up staying about seven. I would have been more uptight about the lengthy day except for a comment that one of the Draculitos Emmett made.

Now, I am well aware that most of these posts concerning Draculios are satirical and that although evidence points in the direction of vampires crawling around my work place, it is not factual. You already knew that though.

I brought in donuts for the eight of us who were working that day and encouraged the others to partake in sugar rushes to fill up their energy reserves. Near the end of the day I entered the breakroom and noticed that there was only one donut remaining. Emmett was on the other side of the table, so I told him to go ahead and eat it. (Emmett usually doesn't bring lunches to work and I never really see him eating, I guess he just likes to get all his work done before eating.) I told him he needed to eat the donut and that he should really be eating during the day. He responded, "man, I only eat when the sun goes down." I stopped and looked at him and said,"Emmett, you just sounded like a vampire." He laughed a loud laugh and said,"yeah, i kind of did didn't I." and that was the end of it.

I really like how there are so many coincidences concerning vampires at my work or "draculitos". Even though there is no evidence, things continue to happen that would lead some to believe that draculitos really do walk the aisles of the Coke warehouse.

Cocodrilos

2009-11-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Arturo is very proficient at doling out pseudonyms to the people at work. Some of these have obvious connotations, but others are a huge mystery to me. I must admit right now that I do not speak Spanish very well, I understand the gist of what is being said and the context of the words, but sometimes I do not understand every single word that is being said to me. However, for the sake of my audience I have meticulously researched these nicknames and double checked them with other fluent Spanish speakers (Mexicans) and believe that these are the most correct translations I can decipher.

1) Los Cocodrilos-The Crocodiles Arturo calls our two bosses the crocodiles, I think because he thinks one of them walks around and sniffs the air looking for trouble because he always calls them spies too. One time he said "los cocodrilos estan buscando as pulgas" the crocodiles are searching for fleas. I also had no idea what he meant by this, but as it stands, I have two bosses who are crocodiles

2) El Gordo-The heavy(fat man) This one is pretty easy to decipher. Any 300+ man is going to be referred to as the fat guy. Spanish has a way of being very straightforward and this is no exception. The gordo is a very large man and thus has been dubbed as such.

3) Hormiga Atomica-The Atomic Ant This name is given to a 6'5 Samoan kid at work. He is very strong and I think that the ant part might have something to do with him being able to lift heavy loads, as far the Atomic part, your guess is probably better than mine. I can't imagine calling anyone an atomic anything as a nickname.

4) Florencio- Florence This is what Arturo calls me. I did some research and a horse named Florencio was popular in the early 90's. I do not think Arturo is familiar with horse racing though. Florencio is also a popular name in Mexico. Lupe (another co-worker) told Arturo this was my name and for the longest time I could not figure out why Arturo kept referring to me as Florencio. I guess it was a misunderstanding, but I enjoy it.

5) Sapote/Manotas-Big toad/Big hands This nickname is given to Mark, a large imposing Polynesian man. He is taller than me and about three times as thick and is the one man who strikes fear in every other employee at work, even though he is the funniest guy around. Manotas is the kind of man who will make fun of you and you do not dare to say anything back when you first meet him. But as you get to know him you can make fun of him and he will laugh just as loud.

6) La profesional-The Professional This name is given to the guy at work who is always running around looking like he is working really hard and giving everyone else crap for not working as hard as he does. I think the name is intended to be the man's mindset of himself and not how others view him. I guess you could say it is an ironic nickname, as so many are.

7) Patito-Little duck When a large man walks and appears to be waddling like a duck he receives a corresponding nickname, the little duck. This is why Arturo has given one man at work this name.

8) Luchador-The fighter This is for a man who used to work with us and always walked around with his shoulders held high as if he wanted to fight someone, he never did fight anyone, but one time Manotas was making fun of him and he really wanted to fight, but like I said, no one fights with Manotas.

9)El Italiano-The Italian Arturo claims that this Mexican guy is a fake Mexican and so he calls him the Italian

10) Rey Benjamin-King Benjamin A guy named B.J.

11) Draculitos-The little draculas I've talked extensively about this on other posts, but two white looking Polynesian kids who have convinced Arturo that they are vampires. It is still a mystery to me.

12) Chinito-Small Chinese guy Actually a guy from Laos, but everyone calls him the Chinese guy, kind of racially obtuse, but who ever stopped anyone from grouping a diverse group of cultures into one large race? Neither I nor Arturo, that's for sure.

That is most of the better nicknames that he has coined over the course of my employment. There are others that are not as good or memorable, but I feel like these ones should see the light of day, or at least the light emitted from your computer screen.

Draculas of a feather . . . . suck blood together

2009-10-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

The third installment in a series following one man's quest to rid a warehouse of Vampires.

I've noticed Arturo has been a little more nervous with the proximity of Halloween around the corner, or around the week if you prefer. He stated on Monday that we were all forced to wear collared shirts so that when the Draculitos bit our necks to suck blood out the evidence would be hidden behind a collar. (At least it's not a popped collar, we aren't that cool) We enjoyed a nervous laugh together as I say his point and wondered to myself why indeed we had to wear collared shirts.

Things got a little bit more intense this afternoon. . . .

Arturo approached me with a few minutes to spare before he left for home. He asked if he could buy two rolls of the plastic wrap that we use to keep product on the pallets when it goes in trucks, (above is a picture). I asked him what he needed it for because I thought it was a weird request that he asked me to question the crocodile (this is what he calls our boss, there will be another story elaborating on this) and he would wait. I went into my boss' office and asked if Arturo could buy two rolls of the plastic wrap. The 'crocodile' was a little perplexed at such a strange request and replied that we did not normally sell these wraps to employees and that a box of it (4 rolls) cost $86. I returned to Arturo with the news that he could purchase a box of the wrap. I again inquired to what use he intended this wrap, the reason being that the wrap is hundreds of yards long and you do not need a large quantity to wrap a lot of things. He was once again vague and said he had a lot of things "fuera da casa" that needed to be wrapped many times. I went inside and finally convinced the 'crocodile' to sell Arturo a roll and he agreed to do so for $20. Arturo was excited by the news when I came back outside the office. This intermediary business had tired me out and I intended to find out the purpose of all this wrap. As Arturo was leaving I asked him once again why he needed so much plastic wrap. This time he finally heeded my call by simply replying with a sly smile To set traps for the little draculas." and walked out the door. To be continued . . . .

The assasinated gato

2009-10-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is the second part in my series of the Draculitos and Arturo.

The last few weeks have brought 3 kittens into our lives at the Coca-Cola warehouse. They showed up out of nowhere one day and a couple of the guys started leaving scraps of food out for them by the parking lot in back. The cats have gotten bigger (as kittens are known to do) and eventually one of the ladies even bought them a small house to keep warm in because of the ensuing cold. One day last week I got to work very early and walked inside and started my normal routine of work. A few hours passed before Arturo approached me. He said that the Draculitos were in need of blood and had killed one of the cats ( his spanish words were, Los Draculitos estavan con hambre y assiniaram el gato). I was a bit confused and thought he was kidding so I didn't think much of it. A few minutes later another co-worker appeared and said that one of the cats had been killed in the parking lot. I didn't know quite what to think, I hadn't grown particularly close to any of the cats, but I thought it was strange. About five minutes after this my boss came up and told me he had pulled in and seen the dead gato on the pavement too. News was certainly moving fast. Maybe the Draculitos were really out for blood and Arturo had been right. When I walked in that morning I had seen no dead gato's on the road and the Draculitos always got to work after I did. Well, being on the low end of the totem poll at work, I found Arturo recruiting me to help him pick up the remains of the cat. He drove his forklift out with a garbage bin and I had a shovel. Sure enough when we got outside I saw the assassinated gato. The entrails were sprawled out next to the flat body and a bird was picking at them. (I said assassinated because gatos are usually quite agile and this one had been hit by a car, I suspected foul play, but unfortunately no proof was ever found.) I moved into position with the shovel and had to turn away while Arturo pushed the gato with a broom, I seriously almost yacked all over when I felt the weight of the gato in the shovel. I tried to do a no look lift into the garbage can and missed . . . . the gato smacked back onto the ground. Arturo chuckled and made fun of my weak stomach. Much to his chagrin I found my mark on the second toss and the gato was out of sight. Perhaps the Draculitos had struck again, I am not sure how the gato died other than it was hit by a car, but I do think something must have happened to impede the gato from moving. When will the Draculitos strike again?

Just as I wrote that last part down I remembered a story that happened about two days after the gato incident. I was sitting in the break room with Arturo and Lupe. I looked on top of the Coke machine and saw a bottle of Fruit Punch Powerade. I inquired of Arturo if it was his, to which he sheepishly replied, "es la sangre para los draculitos" (it's the blood for the Draculas). I couldn't stop laughing for the next 5 minutes. This guy seriously has me convinced that there are Draculas at my work and they have taken the form of two half-Samoan kids.

Draculitos

2009-09-30T17:03:00.001-07:00

I have a co-worker at work named Arturo. He is the utility man as I like to refer to him as. He scrubs the floors on a Zamboni and empties the trashes. He basically does all of the work that no one else wants to do at all. Arturo is an interesting man, he has nicknames for all of the workers in the warehouse, I am referred to as Florencio, there is no rhyme or reason to many of these pseudonyms, but they are really funny. The nicknames that strikes me as the most odd is Draculito. Arturo refers to two Polynesian guys as "Los Draculitos". I suppose it is because they are both half Polynesian and rather white in appearance. Whenever Arturo sees one of these two guys he says in Spanish that "los draculitos estan buscando sangre" or the draculas are looking for blood. I always found this rather funny and played along with his joke, chiding his once in a while about the draculas wanting to suck his blood and other vampire references. On Monday of this week when I entered work I wandered over to Arturo's cleaning station where he keeps most of his supplies.Much to my bewilderment I happened upon a clove of garlic sitting on a barrel. I thought it was strange but didn't think much of it. When I saw Lupe, one of the other Mexicans, about an hour later I asked him why Arturo had garlic by his equipment. He told me that it was to ward of the draculas. So apparently this whole time Arturo really has believed that these two workers are legitimately vampires. I loved it! When I questioned Arutro about this garlic he verified that it was indeed because of his fear of the draculas. I don't know whether he is afraid of Polynesians, or he really thinks they are draculas, but either way I thought it was hilarious.

Swiftly Seeking Swift

2009-09-21T16:12:00.001-07:00

I have always loved "Love Song" by Taylor Swift. I think it is an incredible song! However, that was about the extent of my Taylor Swift knowledge until last week. As some of you may know, Kanye West went a little crazy and hurt this young girl emotionally. This caused me to do some song searching on Taylor Swift and I must say that I am in love with her. "You Belong to Me" describes how I feel when I really like someone so well. If you've seen the music video you know that she tells her crush she loves him with a note she pulls out that says "I love you", well guess who is now walking around with that same note in his back pocket all of the time?!? That's right, this guy, and I do mean guy. Speaking of notes, Taylor hits them all. She has the voice of an angelic song bird. I know I'm not so "swift" to jump on the ol' Taylor Train from Awesomeville, but I'm on board now. I only have Mr. West to thank for this. But before I finish I must say that the Taylor Train is going full steam ahead and the sun happens to set in the West, could this be a slow decline for Kanyeezy, let's hope not, but I don't see him winning public approval for quite some time.

Mannerly

2009-09-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

An old gentleman at my work tried setting me up last week. He referred to the girl as sweet and mannerly and that she was abused as a youngster. Oh great! Now I'm well aware that beggars cannot be choosers, but they can be cautious. So, this cautious cat decided to take the low road and lie. Sure, I know that is bad and I probably should give it a chance, but I'm going to dodge the ol' bullet before the gun goes off and make up something about being out of town every single day for the next month

Oh no Kanyeezy

2009-09-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Oh no, why did you do it Kanye? You promised us you were going to be good, you promised us you weren't going to run your mouth no more, you promised us that you would smoke cigars with three fingers instead of two, you promised us that you wouldn't publicly humiliate 19 year old country singers, you promised us you would leave the crazy designs out of your hair, you promised us that you wouldn't damage your already questionable reputation, you promised us you wouldn't deliver unsolicited shout outs to Beyonce in the middle of other people's acceptance speeches, you promised us that you would glow in the dark during your glow in the dark tour, but we couldn't even see you, you made so many promises and now I will make a promise to you. I promise to never listen to your promises anymore unless you make promises in your songs and I happen to listen to them because I still think you are a great rapper, but I will not promise to listen to your promises about promising any more.

Soda Sales

2009-09-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

I was not too excited for work this morning after getting five hours of sleep last night. I do not understand why, but sometimes I lie awake thinking late into the night and cannot fall asleep. Last night was one of those nights and it set the tone for work today. I arrived at work and I was noticeably chipper and feeling very happy. Every two weeks my work does employee soda sales where all the employees come to the back and get the products that they have ordered. I am usually put in charge of this adventure because no on else wants to do it and I enjoy it (this may be why I was so happy or maybe because I'd talked to an old friend the night before, I'm not sure). Anyway, one of the first things that happened was Lupe's arrival. He was picking up product for his son and his friend and ended up with 18 cases of soda. There was no way to accommodate all of that soda in his little car, so he brought a huge truck to work and directed me and another co-worker to dump it all in back of his truck. We did so and I could not stop laughing. Below is a picture of Lupe sleeping in a chair. Lupe then had me check to make sure he had all the right product and I gave him a hard time because it was all mixed up. I was about to take the papers, but he indicated he wanted them so that if the f------ cops found him he could prove that it was his soda. I really could not stop laughing and allowed him to take the papers in case the law came after him for soda stealing. So Lupe left and it was on to a certain employee who does the exact same thing every fortnight (two weeks, the period of time in between soda sales). She can never seem to find a certain product that is usually right in plain site and always beckons me to help her. Then she plays the long face card and asks me to help her take the stuff out to her vehicle. I wonder if this is her idea of flirting or just to be annoying, but it has the same effect on me. We are not usually supposed to help people take product to their cars, but I usually cave and do it anyway. Later today I was given a young Polynesian apprentice named Emmett. He is a way nice guy and quite large, he could smash me into pieces but he is nice so he doesn't. Anyway, I was showing him the ropes of employee soda sales and began to introduce Emmett to all of the females who came to pick up product. I would say, "this is my friend Emmett, he is more than willing to pick your order and help you out to your car with it" The strange thing is that no one took me up on my offer of offering Emmett. I think it was fear because of his stature. One lady looked at him and shook her head, it was hilarious. Emmett would later say, "man, I don't think that any of these people like me." It did appear that way. That was mostly everything that happened. It was a really fun day and I enjoyed doing soda sales and talking to everyone at the office. Here is a picture to show how happy I was.

Trick knee

2009-09-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

Last week I was playing in a recreational basketball league. The week before this game I had dunked it three times and was eager to have more opportunities to slam it home. We were playing the best team in the league and I had a little bit of trepidation, but was still excited to try and dunk it on someone. Within four minutes in the game I was wide open on the right side and streaked to the hoop, as I went up I put all of my weight on my left leg and it gave out from under me. I looked like a fool! To avoid any embarrassment I grabbed my knee as if I had tweaked it to give the impression to everyone present that I had hurt myself. My friend Mike called from the bench, "oh my gosh, are you ok?" I indicated I was and continued to play the rest of the game as if no injury had occurred. You win some you lose some I suppose.

Lemons

2009-09-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life gives you lemons and you just say, "screw the lemons"! I know that may sound weird, but I am finding myself guilty of not taking all the opportunities that come my way and oft times I don't recognize the lemons when they are in front of me. I took the gmat a few months ago in preparation for graduate school. I did not get the score that I thought I needed to get me in and was quite distraught about it, especially because I'd studied so hard and had a blessing indicating that everything would go great. Well, I overreacted a little bit and found myself a bit bitter. Fast forward to last week and I met with the admissions director at the U of U to see what I needed to do to get in to the program. She asked me what I got on the gmat and my g.p.a., to my chagrin she told me that I had more than enough to be accepted into the program. She then said she felt like she should tell me about another new program that the U just began offering focusing on global enterprise. I asked about the requirements for that and she named three upper level economics classes and proficiency in a foreign language. I found that I met all of the requirements and will be able to start as soon as January in the program. I learned a great lesson in patience and trust through this experience.
In other aspects of life I find the same things hold true. Like a friend will mention someones name and it will happen a couple of times and I feel like I should call them and it turns out that is just what they needed. Sometimes I also ignore these feelings though and feel like I missed out on something by not following through. There are certainly two ways to live life, make something of the opportunities that come our way or just let them lay by the wayside. A part of me definitely did not want to make anything out of the gmat and give up and take the test again to get a better score, but everything ended up working out. I wish I would be more trusting and go with promptings more, there have been times when I wanted to ask someone out and I just didn't because I believed there was no chance it would work out. I've had a fundamental paradigm shift and a greater desire to be trusting of inspiration that comes my way. I'm happy that lessons can translate to all aspects of life and be beneficial no matter what the experience.

Ironic

2009-08-30T20:08:00.001-07:00

The Catholic Church is against capital punishment. I find that somewhat hypocritical considering that if it was not for capital punishment in Roman times, let's say circa 33 a.d., there would have been no crucifixion of the Lord. You can see the obvious problems of that event not occurring, so let's try and be a little consistent here. Condemning something that gave rise to your beliefs??? I guess it works if it fits into pop culture . . .

New music

2009-08-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

New music coming out

Muse-The Resistance-Uprising is the first released track and United States of Eurasia is available, if you are a fan of 1984 this song is for you. There is a 3 part symphony called exogenesis that will be great too.

Ingrid Michaelson-Everybody, her last cd was not as good as Girls and Boys, but this one is promising

Jay-Z-Blueprint 3-Already released "Run this Town" with Kanye and Rihanna. Kanye disses Rav-4's, which is funny.

A.F.I.-Crash Love. Not super stoked, but I'll give it a listen. The new single "Medicate" is decent.

Favorite song right now: 1901 by Phoenix

Favorite Album right now: Wolf Parade-Apologies to the Queen Mary

Funny Song I like: I am not a robot by Marina and the Diamonds

Newest Band into my rotation of favorites-Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The world I live in

2009-08-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

So summer has passed without a blog post due to other activities and hobbies. Once graduation hit I decided that I needed some new hobbies to keep myself busy. I have been engaged in watching a telenovela entitled Al diablo con los guapos (the devil with the good lookings) and find it very interesting. Here's the break down, a mother died at child birth and left her daughter with a necklace, but the girl (sometimes mistaken as a boy) really wants to know who her father is. On the other side of things, a dad recently killed his wife and his son's girlfriend and now his son is in a wheelchair and hates the dad with a passion. A friend of the family starts falling for the orphan girl who uses so many crazy ways to get by, like selling cards with saints on them and selling soda pop at baseball games. Oh, and you don't want to miss the coach at the baseball games, he is always good for a laugh. The series is heating up and one can only hope that everything gets solved in the 15+ hours left I have to watch of the show.
Another hobby that has been keeping me busy is running. I'm the kind of guy who you see running really fast on the street and say to yourself, "there is no way he can keep that pace up." well, you are correct, seconds after passing me you'll probably notice me slowing to a walk in your rearview mirror, I make sure to run on the busiest roads so as many people can see me as possible.
I've also become an avid reader this summer or as i like to call it story time. I like novels, especially Clive Cussler tales, for those of you who don't know Clive, well let's just say they are like Indiana Jones meets the ocean meets diabolical plans to take over the world. Pretty great stuff. The latest story I leafed through was about a bunch of people trying to control population growth by leaking viruses on cruise ships. Let me tell you, the action did not stop for a page. The funny thing is, this crazy novel was talking about population control just as I was reading another book about population growth, talk about contrasting views. Anyway, the basic concept is that the more humans there are on the earth, the more geniuses will be among us. Say if there is one genius per 1 million people, then we will have more geniuses. That is why it took man (according to scientists) thousands of years to progress so little, any invention that happened was rare and took a long time to disperse among other groups of people. So as the world becomes more crowded, there are actually more intelligent people on the earth to solve overcrowding, urbanization, and depleting resource problems. I also read that ten percent of the people who ever lived on this earth are alive right now! Think about it, the population has doubled over the last 30-40 years. That is incredible to contemplate and who knows how accurate it really is, but I like telling people that and I never have been questioned, so make of it what you will.
It's funny how prayers are answered through the strangest ways. A few weeks back I was going through something that some people might consider a difficulty and found it hard to be at work, anyway I prayed seeking an answer for this issue and was blessed with the comfort of a 50 year old mexican named Lupe. He started taking me under his wing for some reason and offered me solace and humor that I never expected. I'm way grateful for that blessing.
I have been pretty busy this summer, there are some things that I wish I would have done and others that I'm so glad that I did. It's always great to connect with old friends and seemingly not miss a beat once you've reunited, especially when you thought you would never talk to them again. Some relationships seem to permeate any things or distance that may come between them and make you feel happy just to say you know that person. Sometimes the greatest surprises in my life come from such simple things and make me so happy.

The month that keeps on fooling

2009-04-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

So, I just read this rather unsubstantiated article but funny nonetheless. It appears that kids who list Lil Wayne as their favorite artist are the dumbest in the nation. Now I do not list Lil Wayne as my favorite, but he is constantly in my top five rotation. This article lacks some credence though. I think some of Lil Wayne's music is super clever, not all of it of course, but the man's word play definitely takes thought. I think this study is more critical of demographics and the kids who enjoy his music. I do not think that music can make you dumb, but if you are dumb maybe you listen to a certain type of music. That is more what it seems like to me, but I do not know. Anyway, check out the study that has lots of different groups on it. My favorite group is actually near the top of the study, so maybe I'm just half dumb. Study on music Preference!!!

Fooling April

2009-04-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

So I spent April Fool's Day up in West Jordan and was fooled in a way that I never thought. So, I was watching tv in my front room and I got a knock on the door. I answered it and was greeted by two little kids from down the street. They seemed really excited and told me that my car was in the middle of the street. I thought they were just yanking my chain, but sure enough I looked and my car was in the middle of the street. Now I live in a circle, so there was no immediate danger, but my car was blocking nearly the entire street. Apparently my clutch popped out and the parking brake couldn't hold the car on the slope so it rolled back into the street. The kids had been playing in my front yard and were freaked out because they saw my car rolling back with no one in it. I was kind of embarrassed, so I ran inside to give these two heroes some reese's peanut butter cups. As I was running out to give them the candy I slipped down my back stairs right in front of the kids. I couldn't do anything right. I gave them the candies though and returned to watch my lfietime original movie. I'm not even kidding, I watched a whole lifetime movie yesterday at home because nothing else was on. Oh well, I sure got fooled.

Testing Out

2009-03-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

As my college career comes to a close I find that my test taking ability has declined precipitously. I liken it to an ink blot test, where you see black ink on a page and you say the first thing that comes to your mind. On a side note, I think that 40 percent of ink blots look like butterflies. I realized this after taking a test yesterday. There were 70 multiple choice questions and a two page fill in the blank portion. I finished the test in less than 35 minutes. The average test time in my class was bordering on an hour. I do not know if I just do not care how i do on tests anymore or if i have become so trustworthy of my first instincts that I just go with it. I figure that combined with my study methods, this is not the best route to take. Here is my justification, I can study for one hour and get a B on a test, it would take me about 5-6 hours to study hard enough to get an A. I just cannot justify 4 more hours of studying for a marginal increase in my grade. It's the law of diminishing returns, and what I can accomplish in those four hours is of far greater worth than a slight increase in grade. My favorite ink blot, because it is so easy "Giant Panda attacking human kind"

Spring Break

2009-03-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

Due to BYU's non-compliance with spring break, Kris and I decided to take a day-cation up the canyon to Park City for a day of shopping, sweets, sun, and swearing. First of all, I don't understand why spring break exists in the first place. For me, the thought of going without school for a week is nice, but 1) I would not do any homework 2) i would get out of my groove and have a hard time getting back into the groove 3) I would probably spend a lot of money on a quick vacation 4) anywhere I went on vacation would be crowded because everyone has the same idea. I feel that spring break is a little overblown and although offers a nice furlough from studies, is not indicative of the real world. I prefer getting out of school two weeks earlier than any other school and being done anyway. So aside from that harangue, Kris and I had our spring break and I broke most of the rules I just talked about. We went up to Park City and I spend $100 on some new kicks, LeBron James shorts, three shirts, and a hoodie. It was one of those days where the stores had everything that I wanted and I could not pass up purchasing, that coupled with the fact that literally two minutes from entering the first store I received a call from my landlady informing me that I did not have to pay rent next month. CHEAAA! I was thus in a more prodigious situation financially and more inclined to spend. After hitting up all the stores, we stopped in Heber at McDonald's. Now, usually I wouldn't write about a fast food eatery in a blog post, but this McDonald's was "the shit." (it's funny how people use that phrase to mean something awesome) It had flat panel tv's all over and even one above the urinal in the bathroom. It was the longest I have ever stood in front of a urinal in my many years of urinal standing, but when you have a tv right in front of you, what is the rush? There was also a McCafe with stools and a bar, an air hockey table, a play station 3, and a basketball hoop. I'm convinced this was the nicest fast food place I have ever been, there was even Internet stations. I was blown away. So, that was basically my spring break with my brother. Not too much to gloat about, but good to forget about school for a day.

Touching down in China Town

2009-03-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Whenever I go to a new country or city I like to listen to a song that gives a shout out to that city or province. These are some songs that I have listened to on arrival to various destinations.

One Night in Bangkok (Murray Head)- As the plane descended into Bangkok dusk was just arriving and this song was pumping me up.

Two different songs were played when I went to Vietnam. The first was neon tiger by the Killers, which says, "far from the rain fall on the trails of old Saigon". Ho Chi Minh, which was formerly called Saigon sure did provide plenty of trails to see, especially along the old tunnels the Vietcong used. The next song that I had going while riding around town was none other than Kanye West's Diamonds from Sierra Leone, "Good Morning, this ain't Vietnam still, people lose hands, legs, arms for real."

The next song is a classic, "Turning Japanese" was playing as I touched down in Nagoya, Japan. I didn't turn Japanese, so the song didn't work, but I still liked it there.

Last summer, Conor Oberst and the mystic valley band wrote a song called Moab, which I had playing as I drove through Moab on a road trip.

Jump Little Children have a song called "Mexico", so this was playing as I crossed the border into Tijuana. Very appropriate for the occasion.

The Recession by Young Jeezy has provided me with lots of good tunes, one in particular is called "My President is Black" and talks about the earthquake in China. Two weeks after that happened I arrived in Hong Kong with this song playing.

Costa Rica is another country that provided me with some songs to listen to. The first song is by T-Pain called "Can't believe it". He says "I put you in the beach house, right on the edge of Costa Rica." I happened to stay in a beach house in Costa Rica, rather a beach hostile, but it's all the same there. The second song is an old one by Saves the Day called "You Vandal", where he says, "last night I dreamt you called from Costa Rica, the place you've been for the last two weeks." I wasn't exactly there for two weeks, but I loved all the time I had.

The last and final song is probably my favorite from Alt. country star Ryan Adams called "New York". You can of course guess where this destination is. Ryan really gives the New York feel in this song and I listened to it about fifteen times during the three times I went to NY last summer. Kanye also gives some "NY summertime" shout outs.

So there are a few of the songs that I have listened to while going to various places. Comment on some of the songs that you have resonated with while going to various countries, they don't even have to have the name of the place in the song. Maybe just a song that meant a lot to you when you went somewhere. I wish I could go to England because there are tons of songs I would listen to, American Boy, Jude Law and a semester abroad, and English Girls Approximately. Holla to all you London town goers.

Buzzed

2009-03-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

During this time of year it is common for kids from colleges around the United States to go on Spring breaks and indulge in various buzzes. These range from drug buzzes to alcohol buzzes or whatever form of buzz to alleviate the pressures of college studies. I however, have taken a different route concerning spring buzzes, an actual shaved head. This was not my desire but due to some fortuitous circumstances I now look fifteen years old. Here's how it played out . . . I went home last Sunday and asked my Dad for a haircut. I felt like my hair was a little too long on front and with the advent of spring I wanted something a little shorter. My Dad would not shave my head when I first made the request, but he was willing to trim up my hair. So, he cut my hair and it looked pretty good, but once again there was a part in the front that appeared a little longer. I asked my dad if he could go over that part again, he paused and then grabbed the clippers. Unknown to us at the time was that he had left the shorter clip on the shears that he had used to trim the sides. He went right over the front of my head and gave me a reverse Mohawk, with a short line right down the middle of the head. The only remaining option was for him to shave the rest of my head. I guess I got what I originally wanted, even though I took four years off my looks. To make it worse I laid out in this warm 50 degree and am now sunburned. So, my looks have suffered this week, but I don't care because spring is on the way!

America's best dance crew

2009-03-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

I seldom tune into dance shows, but last night was the finale of America's best dance crew and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. My friend Val invited me over to witness the culmination of this season's efforts and I was astonished. An Asian crew won, which is even more exciting for me. I have trying to dance all day long!!! They won 100,000 dollars and I think I am going to try and win next season with my own crew. I could use the money. I am going to name my group the classy cloggers, because that is the name of a group of older women in my ward who formed a clogging group with that same name. We're not going to clog though, just jazz dance, because I love the Jazz and I don't know how to clog, but I like the name. I obviously have a dilemma, my name doesn't fit and oh yeah, I don't know how to dance. I think I'll just stick to watching the show.

Dan's in my crew

Gun Guy

2009-03-06T10:39:00.000-08:00

I have never desired to possess a weapon, except when I saw Lord of the Rings and looked in the really big sword market for a while. However, recently I really want a gun. Talk on the political circuit is that they are trying to outlaw any gun with a detachable magazine, which would limit the types of sweet guns that people can purchase. I think that with the threat of guns being banned, I am more inclined to get one now. It's like when a movie you kind of wanted to see is at the dollar theater and it's your last chance to see it on the big screen. You go and see it even though it was never really a priority before. The one exception being when they put the Start Wars movies on the big screen in the late 90's, but that won't happen for all cinema attractions. Anyway, I think a gun would make me look more manly, telling people that I own a gun would sure to be a great subject topic, guns bring safety. So those are a few of my reasons why I want a gun, that coupled with them possibly leaving are huge motivation. Concealed weapon's permits are cheap and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning than learning about guns. I have been talking to many of my colleagues lately and they have been extremely informative as well. One man even saved a families life because he had his gun on him. This all leads me to wonder why guns are being prohibited. If you limit the number of guns available, then criminals are more likely to commit crimes, because there is no deterrent. In other words, people aren't likely to break into a house where there is the possibility of the owner owning a gun and using it on an intruder. The introduction of fear deters people. In a town in Georgia it is strongly encouraged for every male 18 years old and older to have a concealed weapon. Guess what the homicide rate is for that town. One in the last 100 years. That's a pretty effective mechanism for dropping crime rates. So, while I don't want a gun to use I do think it would be effective in convincing girls that I am tough, just by saying I have a gun. This is probably the biggest reason why (tongue in cheek here). Not really for that reason, but events are taking place that are moving me in the direction of owning a gun.

Gating

2008-12-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

(Two Guys just playing in the snow)

(A rare woman in our midst)

Gating is what I call when you date guys, but not intentionally, that would be gayting. Anyway, I was musing about this topic the other day and this is exactly what happened to my roommates and me last year. Most weekend nights we subconsciously weighed our options about what we would do. There was always the pressure to go out on dates, but for some reason our cost-benefit intuition kicked in and we decided it would just be better to hang out with each other. I mean, why would we want to go on awkward first dates or spend money on someone else when we knew that we would have guaranteed fun with each other. We spent many a night at the nickel arcade, dollar theaters, or at home watching Jazz games. Some of the best times of my life with my best friends of all time. I think a lot of people subconsciously do this, but I noticed it in my life a lot last year. Having two of my best buds not live with me this year has of course changed my perspective and made it a lot easier to date, visit the sick and elderly (mostly my grandparents), and read of the best books. Having my best friends close around was one of the best times of my entire life, but I realized that the marginal benefits from this lifestyle were small and amount to little in my current life. I would never trade those times, but I am grateful for the position that I now find myself in. Gating can be a good thing and most of the time a fun thing, but I've learned to limit these interactions.

Gaters!!! (Guy daters)

Going on the Record

2008-12-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

We all know that T.I. has had a huge year on the charts with "Whatever you like" and "Live your life". These songs are way sweet and I love them both, but I'd like to introduce you all to a song you probably haven't heard yet. Let's just say that the closer T.I. gets to going to jail for a year, the better his songs get. T.I. still thinks all other rappers have success because of him and that he is the King supreme, which right now makes sense because he puts out more music than most everyone else. It has actually been out for a while, but I feel like it is about to take off. He raps more in this new song than any of the others and it has Justin Timberlake as a guest. Hope you enjoy this, it's going to be around for a while . . . Dead and Gone

Wedding formalities

2008-12-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

So I just got back from my best friend's wedding and there were some great times to accompany the events that took place. I thoroughly enjoy the Josie extended family and took more time taking pics of them than the actual bride and groom during the day. Anyway, the day started with the ceremony in the morning and as I passed Jesse upon the conclusion of the sealing I kissed him on the cheek much to the chagrin of many present including the sealer. As far as I am concerned it was appropriate for the time and setting. Kelly Josie presided at the ring ceremony and offered one of the best wedding speeches that I have ever beheld. I could not contain my laughter because it was actually so good. He started talking about when rings were introduced in ancient roman times and how the bride and groom would be chained together for a number of days before the wedding to make sure that they could stand each other and how rings symbolized a bill of sale in some cultures. He then moved on to the traditional exchanging of rings, which wasn't popularized until the 13th century. Kelly was at his finest and I really enjoyed his words. We had to leave a little bit early to get back for school and social events, but it was good to see Jesse and Darcy and how happy they were.

Fred taking some pics and creeping a bit.

Riley being the funny kid that he is and doing impressions of some of our old acquaintances.

Holy Matripony (Stang edition)

2008-12-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well, the day that I have been anticipating for the last few months has finally arrived. The wedding of my best friend Jesse Josie to Darstang. Her real name isn't Darstang by the way. Her name is Darcy and she drives a Mustang, so we put the two together and arrived at the moniker Darstang, it was later shortened to Stang. December 12th these two love birds will get married in the St. George temple. I'm about to drive down with my family to witness the event. There are pictures and stories to come from this outing that I am excited to share. The fact that I should be studying for finals this week makes it all that much better, because I will be able to relax and enjoy the events.

Agoraphobia

2008-11-30T17:41:00.001-08:00

Agoraphobia is my new favorite word/disorder. It was recently used on an episode of 30 rock. The literal definition is a fear of the marketplace, but it is basically a fear of fear. In other words, someone needs to go to the store later, but they are scared that they will be scared or have a panic attack at the store, so it renders them useless. Even though it sounds serious and somewhat funny I suppose that many people have already suffered from this disorder to some degree or another. Like, when you have to go on a date with someone and you are scared that you will have a bad time on the date, or if you have to play in a game and you are scared you will mess up. These are lesser degrees, but kind of humorous if you think about it. Oh well you agoraphobics I am out of here.

Recent Reads

2008-11-30T17:28:00.000-08:00

I didn't get any homework done this entire weekend, but I did get the chance to finish three books. I have been wanting to read them all for quite some time and I finally go t the chance. Catcher in the Rye was good, about a young lad who has a proclivity for cursing and contradicts himself more than a local weather man, but an interesting read and has some funny phrases (i.e. Did you give her the time?) I'm going to start using that term liberally in my speech.I finished this book a little post-maturely, if that is even a phrase. Yes, I know McCain was defeated in the recent election, but this book is an interesting read for anyone interested in Navy lore and stories. I was disappointed in the sketchy character of young Johnny Mac, not quite the winsome man that we now witness on tv. I enjoy war tales, so this was a good look at the men behind some of the biggest decisions in Americas largest battles over the last century.

Amazing book. If you have read Blink or The Tipping Point you will understand how interesting these books are. Outliers is no different and offers an interesting view into what makes people successful in the world. It also offers some interesting ideas for rearing children and giving them opportunities to make them extremely smart. It also helped me to review my life and notice the opportunities that I have given and what to do with them. He also makes interesting correlations between the Beatles and Bill Gates, and how they achieved success. This was my favorite of the three and if anyone is interested in reading this book, let me know and I'll hook you up.

Skinny Jay-(n)z

2008-11-29T23:46:00.000-08:00

The rapper Jay Z so eloquently coined " Can't wear skinny jeans cause my knots don't fit No one on the corner gotta pocket like this, So I rock Roc jeans cause my knots so thick" in a recent song called "Swagga like Us". It's a sweet song with T.I., Kanye, and Lil Wayne. But anyway, he refers to skinny jeans, which is interesting because you don't picture most rappers wearing skinny jeans, but the lyric worked for his rhyme so I see no problem in the reference. I recently purchased a pair of skinny jeans and according to the obvious innuendos in this song I should be able to purchase them for a specific reason (because my knots do fit), but this is also just a nonsense lyric and skinny jeans are actually very accommodating to knots, maybe just not his. I'll move on. I was at Sears (of all places to shop for clothing) and found a pair of dashing 511s. They had my size (well my actual size does not exist, but this is the closest thing) and so I tried them on and they were tight of course, because that is what skinny jeans do, they tight you. I decided to get them because the price tag said they were 27 dollars. Not a bad price and it is hard to find jeans that are close to fitting me. So I swaggered up to the counter and the baby girl rang those pants up and they came to 10 dollars. I don't know why they came up so cheap, but I was glad and considered it as a Thanksbirthday miracle. I bought them and got up on out of there. Just another way that Jay-Z is such a blessing in my life.

Thanksbirthday

2008-11-27T22:39:00.000-08:00

It isn't very often that a man gets to sit down and enjoy his birthday on one of the major holidays of the year. That was the case this year as I shared the celebration of my birth with the celebration of native americans giving pilgrims maize, amongst other things. So, I attempted to look at my life and see all of the ways that I can apply indian principles in my life. First of all, I can give maize to anyone in need, especially hungry people. I figure the best way to do this is to have my pockets constantly full of the stuff so that at any moment's notice I will be able to fish out some of this food and give it to whoever asks. Second of all, I will become proficient with the bow, but not the bow that is commonly associated with the native americans. No, I will focus on the bow used to translate the book of Mormon, the one that Joseph Smith inserted the seer stones into to look (peep) through and decipher those ancient hieroglyphics. This bow will obviously provide positive returns for me and my study of ancient texts in the future. Third, with India growing so rapidly on the international scene with the advent of globalization and the flattening of the modern technological world it is becoming increasing difficult to distinguish between Indians from India and Indians of the native american origin. Really, this is a perplexing issue for me anyway, because when Columbus arrived in the Americas it should have taken him all of five minutes to realize that he had not landed in India via a faster sea-route. So, why didn't he change the name of this indigenous people? Any name would have suited them better, Squawks, Reds, TimTims, but because of his error we are stuck with the awkward question in contemporary speech to ask people to clarify what Indian they are referring to. This all could have been cleared up many years ago and there needs to be a suitable way to reform this nomenclature. A fourth item that I will try to implement into my way of life is to eliminate xenophobia from my life, this is also known as the fear of foreigners. I know there are perplexing issues involving illegal immigration and even legal immigration in this day and age, but I vow to not be scared of foreigners, just like the native americans, and teach them and help them in any way that I can until they eventually overrun me from my way of life as was the case with the pilgrims. So there you have it. Some birthday lessons that I learned on this glorious day and the things that I am going to try and change in my life. Thank you for all the birthday greetings!!

Kanye verse Killers

2008-11-03T22:47:00.000-08:00

November 25th two new cd's from two of my favorite artists in my two favorite genres of music are hitting the shelves. I really wish they would collaborate and make a song together. Chris Martin did it with Kanye, Elton John and The Killers recently teamed up as well.

What I'm listening to:

Let it Rock-Kevin Rudolf ft. Lil Wayne

Independent-Webbie

Put On-Young Jeezy ft. Kanye

Heartless/Love Lockdown-Kanye

Human/Losing Touch/Spaceman-The Killers

I'm not going to teach your boyfriend how to dance-Black Kids

Starting Now-Ingrid Michaelson

Freeze-T Pain and Chris Brown

Live your life-T.I.

His Girl Friday-Academy Is

Stang-a-rang

2008-11-02T20:16:00.000-08:00

My best friend Jesse recently got engaged and I am so excited for him. He is marrying a fine young woman who is absolutely perfect for him and will be a joy in his life. Her name is Darcy and she is from St. George. They actually used to work together at the Pizza factory and fell in love over a calzone earlier this year. They are getting married in the St. George temple December 12. Jesse and I have been friends for the last 14 years and worked, schooled, and played basketball together for most of that time. Just like the Killers are known as the best British band to come from America, I like to think of Jesse as the best British man who has come from America. His style and humor far exceeds that of many of my close kin. I'm extremely excited for him and the events at his wedding. I have never been able to relate with a man on so many things and always be on the same page with him. Even after years apart and attending different schools, we maintain the same ambitions and humor.

Indy's new adventure

2008-10-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

The Indiana Jones film that came out this year was not loved by everyone who saw it, in fact many of my friends were not fans of this movie at all. I can understand their point of view, but want to explain some relevant points about this fourth installment of Indy that they might have missed. First, a lot of people have troubles with the aliens at the end of the movie. Has everyone forgotten that Indy dealt with Voodoo dolls, the lost ark (which kills all who view it), and the holy grail that offers eternal life to its partaker? We have dealt with the mythical and paranormal before, and aliens is not that far of a stretch, although it does seem to be a popular cop-out for extra-terrestrial obsessed Spielberg It's a commonality in many of his films, but one that he can't be blamed for in an Indy adventure. 2) The Cold War was more intense than WW2 and lasted a lot longer. The KGB makes up a worthy foe (although Cate's accent is numbing and forced). I'm still scared of the Soviets, not so much the Germans. Elder Uchtdorf has done much to calm my fears towards Germans. 3) This movie has some classic quotes. I will share a few.
Mac: This isn't going to be easy Indiana: Not as easy as it used to be

Indy: Drop dead (slap) Indy: I'm sorry, I mean drop dead comrade

Indy: Why did you do it Mac?
Mac: Well, what can I say Jonesy, I'm a capitalist
Indy: After all those years spying on the reds.
Mac: I'm not going home empty handed again

No famous last words Dr. Jones?
Indy: I like Ike!

Interrogator: Don't throw your war record in our face Colonel Jones, we all served.
Indy: Well, what side were you on?

Admiral: Do you have any idea how many medals this son of a bitch won?

Oxley: How much of the human life is wasted in waiting?

Indy: Nice try kid, but I think you just brought a knife . . . to a gun fight.

Those are just a few of the amusing quotes that I found in the movie. That is why we go to the movies, to be amused. No one was expecting an Academy Award type movie, but I was entertained and enjoyed the adventure.

A tribute to Putnam

2008-09-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Funny hair Putnam. He let us give him a haircut.

Putnam looks absolutely massive in this picture. A true giant.
Getting our groove on for a little party. We were a force to be reckoned with.
A death match wrestling tournament that Putnam was getting geared up for. He wrestled a boar.
Senor flaco estas se preparando para lucho libre
Our version of the triple stack.
A gave Putnam the best turkey ever and right after he gave me a goose.
Power
Cheers Putnam.

Putnam

2008-09-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that Matt Berrett Putnam is a bad a-- and the coolest person that I know right now? Number 57 had a coming out party yesterday and it was the best moment of my life. First, early in the game Bronco Mendenhall is on camera and behind him my two old live ins are playing around behind him. Mark Freeman is grabbing Putnam's armband and snapping it back and they are laughing. Then Putnam gets in the game in the third quarter and starts blowing my mind. He is a part of every play and running around everywhere, not to mention that at 6'7 he looks huge out on the field. This is when the best thing ever happened, Putnam spins off the offensive lineman and winds up in the backfield with the quarterback who looks to throw it, Putnam times the pass perfectly and jumps high up into the air and knocks the ball down to himself. One of the most athletic plays I have ever seen!!! All between him and a touchdown is the QB, who spears Putnam and flips him over. The Quarterback of all people!! I laughed harder than I have in a long time. The announcer's then quote Bronco Mendenhall talking about Putnam saying, "He will be great!" Indeed he will. He went on to have a sweet sack on the scrambling quarterback. Freeman also got some good minutes and played well on the Offensive line. I love those two guys and they made my day, especially when the announcer's kept talking about Putnam being an athletic giant out on the field. It was all topped off when the camera showed Putters after the catch and he had an ear to ear grin on the sideline and the words on the bottom of the screen read "First interception of the year for BYU." Way to go Putters!! There is a pic of Putnam with Mike on the reservoir on the right hand side as well, so you get the true feel of his magnitude.

Flower Power

2008-09-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

Killers faves
This first one is a little drama, but oh well.

replaceable, it's cynical call me useless; just you wait put me down and call it fate broken bridges, wasted hate so just stand beside your man, the boy ain't wrong, act like I never turned you on, all I do is cry and you watched me die at least a thousand times but it's great to hear you're doing fine tonight, too late to fight but you've got inside this naive head of mine

I can't even recognize myself behind So if the answer is no Can I change your mind
While I ignore, that we both felt like this Before it starts to show So if I had a chance Would you let me know
I said I don't feel like touching her no more Well how did it happen I spent two long years (maybe mission?) in a strange strange land Well how did it happen I'd do anything just to be your man

But my heart, it don’t beat, it don’t beat the way it used to. And my eyes, they don’t see you no more. And my lips, they don’t kiss, they don’t kiss the way they used to, and my eyes don’t recognize you no more. For reasons unknown; for reasons unknown.

She told me sweet thang Run a labour In your shoes Touch me til i follow in love I wanna help her Maybe we were better alone I wanna show you how

'Cause heaven ain't close in a place like this I said heaven ain't close in a place like this
Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight

China

2008-09-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

My recent morose mood on life causes me to reflect on where I am going and what I am doing. I feel somewhat unsatisfied in my endeavors, especially recently with most of my best friends pursuing their lady loves and making that "next step" in life. I had a lengthy discussion with my friend Dantley the other day about taking the marriage step after the mission and the pressure often associated with it. I mentioned to him how a young man in my home ward recently returned home from a mission and proposed the very next week to his bride to be. Dantley had some harsh criticisms of this move, but I can understand it. Now, I am aware I should engage in an engagement to a young female as my next step, but I don't feel like there should be a time frame associated with this step, as there often seems to be within the Mormon culture. This background sketch leads me to my current desire to live in Asia and particularly China as soon as I can after graduation. I don't know if I am ready for such a move, but what worries me more is finding someone compatible with me who will be ready to take on such a task. For seven years I have felt a strong pull to live in the orient, as I feel my talents and strengths can be used effectively in that realm of the world. I talked to another friend this week and was surprised to learn of his similar desire to live abroad in Asia. I feel like ours is a generation being prepared to ready that land for the gospel and participate in the ushering in of a marvelous work there. I knowingly accept that this will be a hard and trying time for many of us. What worries me in the courting arena is finding someone who is always positive and willing to take on such challenges. Someone who challenges themselves in their daily lives to be better and serve their fellow man. Perhaps my endeavors may continue on a personal level for a few years, but I also understand that I need to not judge or sell anyone short of such charitable capabilities.

The Killers

2008-07-30T17:48:00.001-07:00

The Killers tried out two of their new songs for the upcoming CD Tuesday night, and I love them. One reason why is that the song names have a certain mystique about them, an electronic theme. The respective track, Neon Tiger and Spacemen, were revealed in a small club for members of the Killers fanclub. Another reason I like the songs is because they tell a story. Flowers focused on many broad topics in his last album, mainly struggles of life and death, family issues, and personal fears. Hot Fuss had songs that tell stories, such as Jenny and Mr. Brightside. The sound quality is not the best from these new songs, but there is an electronic feel to the tunes and The Killers will continue to be one of the best bands in the world. They are one of the few bands who can alter their style of music on any new cd, while others simply play to one genre. Enjoy Neon Tiger below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLvP7JDkPiE .youtube.com/watch?v=jLvP7JDkPiE

And here is a recent pic of President Monson that I really enjoy as well at the 24th of July Celebrations. A holiday that I handed out Oreos to my co-workers that had notes on them reading Happy Pioneer Day.

Memorize, memorandum, memory

2008-07-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

The more intimate the memory, the better.

1. Add a comment on my blog. Leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Move over Las Vegas

2008-07-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

On the southern tip of China lies a city that is a rare destination by western travellers. Macau is one of the lesser known hot spots in Southeast Asia. While many tourists flock to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Bangkok, Macau has become a favourite destination of mainland Chinese and a popular weekend getaway for Hong Kong’s wealthy. Macau offers a wide array of culture, history, and excitement, but is primarily renowned for the casino/hotels springing up everywhere. I only had a vague concept of Macau and knew very little, other than the descriptions of one of the “Bourne” novels that take place in Macau. The book depicts Macau as a slum ridden gangster run city with widespread corruption. The images portrayed in the book differed from what I experienced firsthand. My curiosity led me to discover why this locale is unknown to many people; including many of my acquaintances.

I will begin with a brief background of Macau to facilitate explaining some of my observations. Macau is very similar to Hong Kong, in that it bares the title of Special Administrative Region to China. China owns operative rights of Macau, but Macau is run by local politicians and enjoys more freedoms than mainland Chinese, such as religion and speech. Portuguese settlers owned the peninsula for many years before returning the region to China in 1999. There are many Portuguese styled edifices dotting the city and street signs are written in Chinese, English, and Portuguese. Macau, long an area of crooks and corruption, now boasts more revenue than Las Vegas in the gambling industry, which can still be considered corrupt by ethical standards. Despite the dynamic background, Macau is relatively unheard of in western discussions. A few reasons for Macau’s hedged prominence may be because of the late blooming economy, small population, and lack of family activities.

Hong Kong has always been the economic tiger of the region. This financial capital of the world, previously run by Great Britain, thrived and rose to prosperity over the last 100 years. Macau never received the influx of foreign influence and effective governance that Hong Kong did. However, the tides have turned and Macau is growing and an unprecedented rate. As I walked through the developing Cotai strip, I was awestruck at the construction projects being undertaken. Across from the Venetian Macau an entire block is under construction. Every single building on the street is being built simultaneously appearing similar their Las Vegas counterparts. Names like, Wynn, Sands and Bellagio are sure to ring a bell to western ears, as the opulent structures take form. This influx of money is staggering as the strip, rivalling that of Vegas’, emerges. This new Macau is a stark contrast from the Macau of past years, when the city was viewed as dirty and riddled with crime.

The small size of Macau’s population and area is also a reason for the lag in growth. Macau does not have a thriving financial sector and much of the investment comes from other locales. An investment banker I spoke with recently said that casino officials invited representatives from 40 banks outside the region to help finance the new structures being built on the Cotai strip. Investors, desiring to see return on their investments; will push for more aggressive marketing of Macau to foreigners. The other problem with the size of Macau is that the population is a mere half-million, making it one of the smallest populations of major cities in Asia. Gambling is the major source of revenue but that will not attract permanent residents to the city. Much like Las Vegas, Macau is a town that many flock to on weekends, including successful Chinese businessmen. With time, Macau will experience increased financial growth and more outsiders will seek permanent residence in the city.

Perhaps the greatest failure for the lack of western knowledge about Macau is the absence of family orientated activities. Las Vegas offers families with alternative fun to gambling. Roller coasters, shows, and water parks all welcome travellers from around the country. Macau does not offer the variety of shows or concerts to attract customers of all ages. The atmosphere around town is geared towards a more mature, gambling crowd. Parents with children were non-existence as I roamed around the city and through casinos. This lack of family orientated activities is one of the main reasons that Macau is not an ideal destination for western people. There is no apparent reason to choose Macau for a vacation over Las Vegas. The grandeur and availability of activities in Las Vegas offers no reason why travellers should venture overseas to a similar and less superior locale.

I took the hour long ferry from Hong Kong and arrived to a long line at immigration. This seemed strange because airports around Asia all do a much higher volume of people and are more efficient. Macau does not appear capable to handle a large amount of people into the city or communicate with them. English is not as prevalent in Macau as in Hong Kong, but strides are being made to facilitate tourist accessibility. Buses going to and from the Venetian Casino are free for tourists and leave regularly outside the ferry station. I opted to trek through the streets of Macau prior to the casinos, and randomly wandered through parks and shops along the streets. For mid-day on a weekend I was surprised to find myself alone on many of the streets. Not until I arrived at the casino did I find the masses. Truly, gambling is the foremost attraction to foreigners and explains the absence of people on the streets experiencing the culture.

Macau is a city experiencing tremendous growth due to a tide of foreign investment flowing into the economy. Not many years will pass until Macau receives greater attention from the west. More tourists will take the inexpensive journey from Hong Kong to spend a day or two in this bustling community if Macau broadens their tourist scope to include family activities, such as shows and concerts. Perhaps, Macau is not ready for so many newcomers and prefers no foreign intrusion. However, this does not seem the case, with both a highly touted NBA exhibition game between the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers last summer, and a much publicized tennis match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras. These events place show that Macau is moving in the right direction to be a popular destination in ensuing years, both regionally and internationally.

G.I. Jordan

2008-07-20T03:45:00.000-07:00

For some reason that I can not clearly define, the Vietnamese would not shave my head. This was disconcerting and annoying. I am now left with a bad semi-military inspired haircut that is by no means complimentary to my facial structure. This episode all began when I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon (pronounced Sigh Gone for anyone begging a pronunciation guide). I subcontracted a taxi driver and he left me in the downtown area without a place to stay. So, I started walking around and stopped in a few places to inquire about room prices. All were full or expensive. I wasn't too worried though, so I continued to wander aimlessly through the streets. I decided that I needed a confidence booster, so I stopped in a hair parlor. This enterprising business doubled as a pedicure local (the Vietnamese are famous for their pedicure expertise). So, I assumed that one of these beautiful Vietming would cut my hair, but to my chagrin they called a young lad from the back who performed the hair cut. It was strange and very awkward because this guy was cutting my hair and there were 5 girls in matching blue dresses sitting on a couch staring at us. I requested that the lad buzz my head so that I would resemble a G.I., he proceeded to give me the worst hair cut of my life. I looked like a Saved by the Bell reject extra in a scene at the Max. I left the saloon with little confidence intact, for the small fee of $2.

I finally found a place to rest my head. I was settled in and ventured out to find a computer and notify my parents of my safe arrival. I entered a park where the locals were courting on their bicycles, no lack of public affection. It was late at night and trepidation began to run through my body. I crossed a street where I noticed a large hotel that undoubtedly housed an email facility. As I was crossing, a very pretty Vietcong girl pulled up on her moped. She was dressed nice and I was startled at first, 1) because she almost hit me with her moped and 2) she obviously was a woman of the night. Her English was broken, but she basically told me to get on the back of her moped and that she would take me somewhere and then bring me back. I looked at her incredulously, my eyes indicating my loathing of her abominable suggestion. She persisted and like Joseph of old, I ran. I raced across the street and to my astonishment, she flipped a bi--- and continued after me. I stopped, turned to her, and shook my head. she finally got the point and drove off. I succeeded in emailing my family and went home, but not before one other strange thing happened. I was shocked when in the market a lady endeavored to sell me some gum and cigs. Abruptly, a uniformed cop walked by and ripped the items out of her hand leaving her staring after him. I was grateful that I had not purchased anything from her incessant nagging.

The next day I went on a tour of Vietcong caves and was bombarded (much like this area that had been peppered with American bombs) with anti-American sentiment and propaganda. Understandable, but part of the tour included a documetnarty that denounced "evil Washington D.C. and their bomb dropping". The facts were hard to stomach of the killing (3 million Vietnamese) that happened during that time. I was the only American in the tour group and sunk a little lower in my chair as the movie progressed. The caves were cool though and the tour guide asked for any young and strong people to volunteer . I raised my hand and said, "I am young, and I am strong." He beckoned me to crawl100 meters underground in the underground tunnel. I accepted his challenge. I was followed by a young Korean boy who is in the accompanying picture. We couldn't see anything when we went down the steep stairs so I got out my camera for light to lead us through the dark until we came across some other lights. Later, the Korean lad, a mere 14 years of age (13 American, they start age the year they are born as 1 already) indicated to me that he had just followed me and was a bit nervous. I had been nervous myself when I undertook the journey.

We left the tunnels and got back to Saigon. I exited the bus and walked down the street and entered another hair cutting saloon. I decided to give it another go. Yet again I was greeted by an attractive young Vietnamese girl and she called a young man from the back to cut my hair. I told the guy I wanted my hair buzzed and even indicated it, with sound effects and all, but to no avail. I was in for another standard haircut in Vietnam. At least it was shorter this time. So, that is how I got 2 haircuts in as many days in Nam, and now I look like a G.I.

Dark Knight

2008-07-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

Out of everyone that I know I am the first first to see the new Batman movie. Batman is released one day earlier in Hong Kong and it is 14 hours ahead of home, so I was in a good position. All that I can say is that it is very dark and I cringed on more than one occasion due to the violent nature of the film. I was also not aware of two-faces long appearance in the movie. It was a surprise, but a good one. The movie was rather long as well and climaxes and then dives into a more intricate storyline. All in all I thought it was a great movie, and I could not even tell it was our good friend Heath under all that makeup. Luved it!

Failed Finger Foods

2008-07-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

Last night I reverberated to juvenile humor in attempts to be the "life of the party" at a work event. I retrospectively condemn my failures and describe some of them in detail here.

First of all I thought it funny to write summer intern on my name tag and introduced myself as summer intern throughout the whole night. This act got a few chuckles from my fellow Cathay Pacific colleagues, but others just looked confused. I think my sarcastic and feeble humor attempts were lost on many.

Now I have to explain my demeanor and actions at parties. I am always eating. If you have ever attended a party with me I will be lurking by the food at all times. I don't know why I do this, but I always like to be eating something or have something to eat when I am mingling with people.

So, next I saw some beautiful females and on further discussion learned that they were Japanese. They were dressed far better than most at the party and I was intrigued when I first saw them. I started with the same bad jokes about being 18 and attending a hair school in Hong Kong for the summer. These were failed bits of dialogue and I again felt cheap in my comedic actions. I righted myself a little bit and talked normally for once to these beautiful ladies and then finally moved on to other tom-foolery.

My next try at being funny was eating as much as possible. A small plate of brownies came by and I grabbed three at one time and threw them into my mouth at the bewilderment of three Indian females standing on the other side of the platter. One of the ladies kept pointing out to me the rest of the night whenever the brownie plate was being taken around. I made a huge mistake. Throughout the rest of the night I would grab food and call over the waiters instead of them coming to me. Why I thought this would be funny I don't know, but I regretted it in more than one way. I was bemused at my follies for bad humor and my stomach was in shambles all the way home.

I guess that I dodged a bullet though, they would probably not be prepared for my eccentric dancing.

Are you Mormon?

2008-07-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

This past Monday I was in Taiwan running around the city and having a great old time. I wandered to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial and tried taking pics of myself. The pics didn't turn out how I desired, so I asked a man if he would take a picture of me in front of one of the beautiful memorials. He accepted my proposition and asked out of nowhere if I was a Mormon. I gaily laughed at his inquiry and said, "why yes, I am a Latter-day Saint." I asked him how he knew and he attempted in vein to respond coherently. Something about him seeing a Mormon bible in the U.S. once upon a time when he studied there. His English was not entirely understandable, but I found his question humorous. I would never ask someone out of the blue if he was a Mennonite, or Presbyterian. How is it that someone would ask that. I was dressed in a white shirt and tie, but so were hundreds of other people in the city. If I saw a man in an orange smock I would assume he was Buddhist. If I saw a man in a brown tunic I would assume he was also a clergy man, or perhaps a friar if it was 500 hundred years ago. These are generalizations, but I believe they are quite obvious. The audacity to ask someone if they are of a particular sect is peculiar to me, but then we are a peculiar people. I took the question in good spirit and later was pleased that I was recognized for what I am and what I was portraying. This was a lesson in comportment and more significantly countenance and demeanor. What an honor to be asked such a question. However, I don't believe that I will ask the next person I see if they are Lutheran. There is no way to tell the difference, but I'm glad the world recognizes a Mormon in a group of faces.

Jump guy jump

2008-07-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

As a single white male I have a rare gift that not many others in my demographic share. I can jump really high. Now to give you some background info, this ability stems from stem cell research ironically, where I have genetically altered my calves to feed off themselves and grow exponentially stronger. At 6'4 you may think that I'm not jumping high at all, because of my long torso, or lanky arms, but I assure you that the jumping is all real and that these photos have not been doctored in any way (except for the doctor who took the pictures, his name is Dr. Maelstrom). A jump is measured by where the crotch line is, and as you can see in the final picture, I blow the competition of other single white males out of the water. Sometimes I'll jump clear over someone while they are standing there. This has been my trademark move and fascinated scores of people. There is nothing better than running and jumping clear over a Chinese lady in the middle of a Hong Kong park. Over and out . . .

Intern Musings

2008-06-06T17:42:00.000-07:00

There has been a long line of predecessors that have walked the intern line, I don't know if it is a straight line, but a pathway nonetheless. There has been the famous temp from The Office who rose to the heights of management, there have been interns on boats performing various labors as depicted in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and there have been countless of real interns all over the world getting that oh so precious on the job training. As an intern I have made some observations. 1. If you do an internship in HK everyone will assume you are British. As far as I can tell, out of the 3,000 employees at my place of work I am the only young American boy. In fact, I have been accused of being the famous Prince William on more than one occasion. I have endeavored to learn British to cover for my Western drawl. Words such as peckish, lift, rubbish, brilliant, and cheers have entered my word arsenal throughout the day to assimilate me into the British role I am assumed to be playing. 2. Interns can ask any question and do anything. In the short period that I have been here I have asked every stupid question that you could possibly think of and will only continue to do so. "So, do you like work?"; "Those guys fly the planes, right?"; "What time do we leave?" Most of these questions are followed by me smiling and the other person laughing. Brilliant! I really am getting the hang of this. 3. Interns get special privileges. So in this week I have been to airplane simulations, watched flight attendant trainings and briefings, witnessed where the meals and items are prepared before the flights, and many other things. I know what ISM, FP, and Y3 stand for. I know protocol and procedures, safety and service standards. It has all been a wonderful opportunity. 4. Interns sometimes go a long time without talking to other humans. Finishing work at six and heading home leaves me with few options. I get to my flat at a retirement/wealthy community and my options become limited. I could take an hour bus into the city, read, run, or write blogs. All enticing options, but monotonous after a few days. I think I regularly go 10-12 hours without talking to anyone. Dreadful, but it opens up a lot of time to reflect and ponder. All is well. Those are some of the intern scrutinies and joys that I have found in this first week. Cheers!

Driving Me Crazy

2008-06-02T05:33:00.000-07:00

Today I found that I have a fear that I had never previously considered. A fear that is plausible, but never considered feasible. While driving to my new flat on th gold coast, courtesy of one of the many lovely buses of HK, I became intent on the actions of the driver. The man could not go more than 10 seconds without rubbing his eyes are hitting himself on the back of the head. I found the bus drifting out of the lane on several occasions while this went on. I had never seen a man fight o hard to keep his focus and stay out of delirium, other than witnessing various students attempting the same feat in tedious poly sci classes at the Y. My curiousness into the matter elevated as my dear old friend led our entourage into a torrent of rain. The veerings into other lanes got worse, and as he endeavored to pass a truck I thought for sure that we were going to collide. To my astonishment we arrived unscathed at our destination and the driver embarked to his next destination with a prayer from me that he arrive safely there. Perhaps I underestimated the prowess of this man and his keen sense of the dimensions of his vehicle, however, when it comes to avoiding collisions with other vehicles, I prefer a sober, coherent driver.

The grass is greener where I stand. , ,

2008-03-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

The more options that I have the harder it is for me to make a decision about something. Currently, I have over 11,000 songs on my ipod and every morning when I arise and head for school I am amazed at the cogitation process that preempts a song choice. The more movies I have in my arsenal, the harder it becomes to choose one to watch. I mean from Babe pig in the City to Poison Ivy with Alissa Milano, the choices become difficult when mass amounts of media are available. This has been my problem in the past with dating. I know this is cliche coming from a Provo dweller and I think it is becoming cliche to say cliche these days, but I'm at a loss for words. The mentality of so many of my peers (including myself) lacks a notion of compatability, and awaits perfection, in the meantime acting mediocre ourselves. What awaits around the corner? How in the hell is that guy with that girl? Why can't the girl do all the work? Why, when I tell someone how I really feel it always goes south and when someone does that to me the same happens? These are questions I pose. Are too many options a bad thing? By narrowing down the options I find it a lot easier to choose. Tacos or pizza? The National or the Killers? Black shirt or blue? Jurassic Park 1 or Jurassic Park 2? You might still find complication in these decisions, but I am suddenly able to arrive at a decision with a lot less trepidation and not have any cognitive dissonance to reflect on after words. So, this Easter I vow to turn over a new leaf, to accept my position and my options. No more waiting for girls to mature, or wasting time with what isn't there. I know what I like in someone and a lot of my friends possess the qualities that I find attractive. Where I stand I have viable options and no one else grass is greener than mine.

Groverfield

2008-02-18T21:51:00.001-08:00

Grover Cleveland was a great president. If you are interested, his birthday is the first week of March. He was also the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms in the White House. He was also a leader of the Bourbon democrats in a period overly dominated by Republicans. These are a few reasons why I think that Grover should be more celebrated on this day more set apart for the Lincolns and Washingtons, and Roosevelt twins (Teddy and Franklin). Grover was also a Mayor, Sheriff, Governor and eventually President. He was a cartographer, boy scout, and expert at the sextant. This day commemorates President's. How many people are truly trying to acquire more information about these men on this day? Everyone I talked to today I would question them about who their favorite President was. Few were the responses of Taft, Grant, or Cleveland. Apparently there is some new movie out called Cloverfield, instead of wasting time on a porous film such as this, take some time out and learn about a President. I did, and Grover Cleveland founded Cleveland.