Who started this whole Christmas thing?

Got this in my e-mail today and instead of hitting the forward button, I hit the blog button. I hope you all enjoy this:


A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours
of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable; and
after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on
those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.
She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of
the year - overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming,
taste all the holiday food and
treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping
list, making sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure
of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card. Finally the
elevator doors opened, and it was already crowded. She pushed her way in and
dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors
closed, she couldn't take it anymore and she stated, "Whoever started this
whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and killed."

From the back of the car, everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, "Don't
worry, we already crucified Him."

For the rest of the trip down in the elevator, it was so quiet you could
have heard a pin drop.

This year, don't forget to keep "the One who started this whole Christmas
thing" in your every thought, deed, purchase and words. If we all did it,
just think of how different this whole world would be.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
(John 3:16)

Thoughts of Sugar Plums...

I love Christmas. The time is getting closer now as we are only 5 days away from one of the most exciting days of the year. While I have watched people stress throughout this year and even more so now, I'm glad that I have been able to keep a level head and a cool demeanor.... for the most part.

I have watched Christmas shows that I haven't seen in years. I have listened to music that celebrates the season and the birth of the Savior. It has been great.

Tonight is "date-night" for Alythea and I and we are going to the Voice Male Concert at Abravanel Hall. I figured something out last night. Of all the dates Alythea and I have been on, this is the 1st concert we have ever been to together.

We have seen concerts together, sort of... There were times where we were both working at the E-Center during a concert or event. I think my stint with the E-Center and my experience with concerts have caused the lack of desire and we never had the urge to go. There have been some concerts that we wanted to see, but never enough to get tickets or schedule the time to go.

So anyway, Merry Christmas and we hope that this season bring joy, love and family to everyone.

Geocaching Bag

So when we went geocaching the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I was told that I needed a bag for it. Well I got one. Here's the story...

For Christmas every year my work does Christmas gifts. It's pretty cool. Well the last couple years I've ordered a gift that hasn't come or was shipped back for some reason. This year I ordered a DVD player, it was just a cheap on, but it was something I could have put in my car for when we go on long trips. So it didn't come in and I was sort of upset. Two years in a row I'm getting the short end of the stick. Of course I have ended up with something both years, hence the new Geocaching Bag. I got this card called a "Thanks" card. You go to this website and order your gift online and they ship it to you. I went on line and there were only a few cool things. They had a lob wedge, a box of Nike golf balls, things you'd find under 25 bucks. I found this really cool hip bag that I think will work perfectly for Geocaching. We'll have to get it filled and go from there. I'll let you know how it works.

Geocaching and A Great Song

So at lunch today I tried to run over and do a quick cache. Didn't work because of the snow on the ground. However, there were some deer just hanging out in the thicket that we were looking in. It was pretty cool. I have my Garmin at work and everyonce in a while I'm going to go caching. I have a friend here that has one too so we are going to go on lunches and find a few here and there. It'll be fun.

A great song... Kenny Rogers is one of the best story singers, my own term, I think there is. He tells a great story in his songs. The Greatest, The Gambler, well a new song of his, called The Last Ten Years is about what the last ten years has brought us. It's a good song. It has a subtitle because every time he sings the chorus it's different minus the line, "We even lost Superman" and the last time he says "Gonna miss you. Chris..." It's a pretty good song to cover the last ten years in memories and important figures in our world. Here's the lyrics


Oh, the last ten years, it's been quite trip
Over thirty-six-hundred spins around without a cosmic slip
But within the realm of our atmosphere
We're 'bout as out of whack as we've ever been in a million years
We watched the Y2K scare in a panic
An' we watched as time proved Nostrodamus wrong
An' we watched as Mother Nature shook the planet
An' cellular replaced the telephone
We lost Charlie Brown, Ray Charles an' Johnny Cash
We even lost Superman, mhm.

Well, the last ten years, look at the hills we've climbed
The best golfer's black, the best rapper's white an' it's about damn time
But we best beware, there's a brand new fight, you see
An' I hate to say we might be our own worst enemy
We watched Oklahoma sifting through the damage
An' we watched a US President get caught
We watched shareholders watch their savings vanish
We all cried when we watched those towers fall
We lost Minnie Pearl, Ron Reagan and Sam I Am
We even lost Superman, mhm.

Expensive gas an' free downloads
The dot-com boom, an' reality shows
What's gonna happen next is anybody's guess
Satellite radio and hybrid cars
Hand-held computers an' a trip to Mars
It's all become a part of who we are
In the last ten years.

In the last ten years
We lost George Harrison, John Paul and June Carter-Cash
Hell, we even lost Superman
Gonna miss you. Chris...


You can download it from iTunes.

Just Thinking...

I know this is a shock, but I was just thinking...about some stuff that I wanted to get off my chest. Nothing important really, just the little things that bother me about the sporting world. Yes, this bothers me, don't know why but it does. What's wrong with the world of sports you ask, well everything about it is unfair. Think about it, the Jazz have the best record in the NBA and they get very little attention, except here in Utah, pardon the favortism. They have beat some good teams. Minus the ugly loss to Kobe and the Lakers, they have had a pretty good season. Where's the love. It's because they are from Utah. Oh well, people don't know what they are missing.

The other thing in the world of sports that is really stupid that people are whining about is the idea of a Ohio State/Florida match up in the National Title game instead of Ohio State/Michigan. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people complain about stuff they have no control over. I understand making your voice heard, but make it heard and stop complaining. If your voice isn't going to change things, is it really helping to make your voice heard. I don't know, I'm a pretty passive person and really don't care I guess. I don't know. Anyway, back to the BCS and what not. It, the BCS, is a broken piece and should definitely be looked into, but until the powers that be find it in themselves to get off their duffs and do something to fix it, it's the best we have. I think it's funny that the people are complaining that the BCS is dumb because it didn't pick Michigan over Florida in the #2 spot so we could see a rematch of Michigan and Ohio State. They argue that if we had a playoff system it would match the best teams. I'd like to point out that not always are the top seeds the ones that win the playoff. Look at the unlikely winners of the Colts/Titans game were last Sunday (10/3 Colts lost on a final second 60 yard field goal by the Titans). This isn't a perfect sports society and never will be, period. Stop complaining and let's all enjoy some good sports.

If you read this and are saying to yourself, "Why did I just waste my time?". Here's the answer, I'm complaining about something I can't fix, my voice has been heard, and now I'm done. Have a great day.

Christmas Time

I really like Christmas. I mean, a LOT. Its not because I get presents, but is because of the season. First, its a b-day celebration for Jesus. What a wonderful thing to celebrate, the birth of the savior. Second, it celebrates what humanity is all about. The giving, caring, sharing, being together are all part of the season. You sing Christmas carols, drink egg nog, have family parties and generally just have an opportunity to be happy.

I do see that sometimes it is a stressful time of year because of what has happened to Christmas. Having little to no money for gifts or seeing others with lots of "stuff" and it not being enough for them. I sometimes get caught up in the idea of "buying" Christmas, but that is not what its about. I remember being a kid and the magic of the season. It was so special. Christmas songs, Christmas movies, and looking at the lights on the tree, all part of the magic of the season. As I see people get caught up in the $$ of Christmas, I remember a story from my father's youth that has become a family classic and will probably be an immortalized story within the family.

Years ago, when my father and his siblings were kids, they were a poor family. Unfortunately they lived in one of the richer parts of town. How and why, I don't think I'll ever know but they were definately out of place. Grandma was a divorced mother and during those times, it wasn't very common and was frowned upon. Talk about piling troubles on a family.

When Christmas time came, money was lean so presents were scarce. Grandma made I.O.U.'s for Christmas. These were little things like helping to do one of their chores or cleaning their room or something that was performed to help out the recipient of the I.O.U.

Now the kids, having received this, didn't understand the repurcussions of this gift. They went outside to see all the neighborhood kids playing with their nice, new, shiny toys and were upset.

Years later, they understood one basic fact from that Christmas. Christmas wasn't about toys and things but was about giving of one's self. Sharing with others who you are. Giving them time is more important than a shiney, tangible item. Love and charity are what Christmas is all about.

I've had Christmas' where were able to spend abundantly and other Christmas' where you had very little and had to get creative. Of all the Christmas' that I remember the most, the one's that stand out are not the times where we received a lot of gifts, but the times where we spent watching Christmas movies together, or singing (badly I might add) along with the Christmas albums.

I hope I am able to instill that into my own children as they grow up. I hope they will find more enjoyment in the season than in the gifts.

Merry Christmas, and in the immortal words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, everyone!"

Beating the Tag

Chels is sitting next to me writing a blog because she was tagged. So since I know she is going to tag me, I'll just go ahead and do my list at the same time. It's a Christmas Tag...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog, Hot Chocolate is good but I have to be in the right mood for it. Otherwise it gets really cold and gross. Out of 5 cups of hot chocolate, I drink about 2 of them.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrap. That way we can watch the money we spent on the wrapping paper go right out with the trash.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Color. It makes it more festive looking. White lights are all over the place. Colored lights are cool.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Who needs it. Kissy, kissy, kissy.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend. So around Emily's birthday. ;)

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Spiral ham...duh!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: The power was out one year. We woke up to no lights on the tree, but we started a fire in the fire place and opened the presents by the light of the fire. It was nice because with every present the flames got bigger when we'd throw the paper in the fire. See what I mean about the money. Oh and every one since my kids have been old enough to get excited.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth about Santa. He's real. I will not stop believing.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? The kids open some pj's. We also have a Christmas party at my grandparents house and we open gifts there.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lights first, then ornaments. No order really to the ornaments. As a matter of fact the kids are doing the ornaments now and Chels and I just go around and space it out a little. Star on last of course.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Dread it. Lived in Utah my whole life and there have been some good snow storms, not like Minnesota I'm guessing, and I don't like snow. If I lived in Minnesota I'd hate them too. I'm not a cold weather fan.

12. Can you ice skate? Yep, not good, but I don't fall down much.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My favorite gift, hmmmmmmm. I'd have to say that it was probably my Nintendo when I was young. You remember when the original Nintendo came out. I can't think of many gifts.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? The family. The fact that it is to celebrate the birth of Christ.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Same as my all year round dessert, Angel Food Cake.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I'd have to say the Santa letters. We changed Chels' family tradition a little. Here's how it went, and then how we changed it. The first snow fall after Thanksgiving, Chels and her brothers and sister would write their letters to Santa and he would come pick them up and leave a little gift. We do the same thing, but we do it after we finish decorating the house for Christmas. He comes and makes sure the decorations are fit for the season and festive enough.

17. What tops your tree? A star, that Jarik put on this year.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving. I like to give meaningful gifts.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song! Carol of the Bells.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Depends on the flavor. I know you could argue that real candy canes are only in peppermint or whatever flavor, but I like the cherry ones. They are the best.

21. What is your favorite holiday movie? I have a few. The Santa Clause 1 and 2 and Miracle on 34th Street. I also like A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Story. They are all pretty good.

22. Do you go all out with Christmas lights outside or just enjoy riding around seeing them on ther homes? Both, but not too close to Christmas for the riding around, it gets too crowded. "Whey don't these people just stay home?" Guess who said that.

23. Have you been Naughty or Nice? Nice, yeah, nice. *wink, wink

24. Do you shop on Black Friday and if so what is your most memorable experience? A little. But we don't get up early to do it. That's just stupid. Sleep in people, it's a day off.



Add a question to the bottom of this list asking something that YOU would like to know. Post it in your blog (or put your answers below) for others enjoy this tag!

25. Do you like to listen to Christmas music? Yep, on my mission we would start listening to after Halloween because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Ireland. And we get sick of the music that was approved. Since that was all I listened too, approved music. *wink, wink

26. When do you take down your Christmas decorations? Usually New Years day. Or thereabouts.

Pretty Fun Weekend...Common Theme

So the Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone without too much weight gained. We are now in full Christmas mode. Thanksgiving was good. Total of 4 dinners, with the last one being last night with my wife and kids. It was nice. Lots of turkey and stuff. The day after Thanksgiving, while the rest of the world is shopping, I am busily setting up Christmas decorations. I like to decorate, it is fun. Usually I take the Friday and Saturday after to do it, but our Saturday was booked. So I did the outside lights on Friday and the indoor stuff on Sunday. Looks nice.

Saturday we went Geocaching in Spanish Fork. When I say we, I mean me, Chels, kids, B, Aly, Mason, Nikki, Jayna, and Harold. I got my Garmin Legend not too long ago and now I know how to use it a little bit better. It's pretty cool. It was fun, we found 9 caches on Saturday. Then things started going south. Here's where the common theme comes in. I'm a sports fan, my favorite teams include the 49ers (NFL), Jazz (NBA), and Utes (College). This weekend all of them lost. The Jazz got their butts kicked and the Utes and Niners lost on last minute drives. What a bummer of a weekend.

Besides the big loss to the Cougars though, Saturday ended pretty good with a fun game of the Amazing Race, Darden style. Our friends the Darden's put on a party where we were in teams and did a "Amazing Race" style race. It was fun. Long, hard, but fun. Well that's my weekend in a nutshell. Have a great day!

Geocaching fun

Today was supposed to be Tracy's first geocaching expedition (yes, I'm rubbing it in.) He called yesterday to tell me that instead of going geocaching, he was going to St. George (see previous blog.) Anyway, we went anyway. Solved a puzzle cache that took us up little Cottonwood Canyon and a very long hike.

It was a lot of fun and felt, since I was logging the cache, that I would write a quick blog to tell Tracy, "We had fun with out you so there."

Next Saturday is a special geocaching trip. Am extremely excited about it and it appears we will have a fairly decent group going. It's so exciting!!!

Surprise for Mom

I am sitting in St. George blogging. Yesterday at about 12:30pm, Chels and I decided to join Rick and Nic in a trip to St. George to surprise my mom. We came down as a group to have a Thanksgiving dinner since she won't able to make it to Salt Lake for dinner at Grandma's. It was so cool to get here and have her totally surprised. We sent the kids up to the door and it was fun to watch my mom look through the window to try and see who was at the door. Bob opened the garage and Rick and Chels go running across the front of the house trying to hide. It was hilarious. We are here and it's been a good weekend so far. Here's a picture we took on the way down.

heynerd.net Changes

So I am moving slowly but surely on heynerd.net. I've added some text on a couple of pages, including my playlist and my geocache pages. These pages are kind of taking form, there needs to be some styles added to it and I need to put some pictures on there, but for the most part, they are moving. Go for a visit and enjoy what I have on there for now.

Black Hole

OK, so I've decided that black holes exist and they aren't in the vast expansions of space but right here on earth. Impossible you say, I don't think so. The dictionary has this as part of the definition of a black hole. Something that consumes a resource continually. So what is this black hole I speak of. E-mail. While e-mail, or email how ever you flavor it, is a necessary evil, it is one that can cause someone to enter a black hole. One of the biggest black hole issues is the e-conversation, you know that conversation that is going back and forth in email, black hole. Get IM for these things. Anyway, just wanted to mention that. Laters.

Number 400...Wow

Well this is the 400th blog in Whadda Blog. We've come a long way since that stolen Red Socks cup way back when.

Right now it is so quite in my house, minus the coughing by Bree, that the click, click, click of the keyboard is the loudes thing I'm hearing. It's is a little after 10 and if I was smart I'd head to the softest warmest place in my house, my bed. As a matter of fact, I think I hear my pillow calling. Such sweet sounds, haha.

The reason I'm writing right now instead of heading to bed is because Daddy gets to be proud about something before Mommy. Mommy gets to stay home and see all the fun stuff the kids do and gets to get all the fun information, good and bad, about school. So she got this good news but I get to be the first to brag about it. I know pride is a sin, but I'm pretty proud. Tiaree came home and was really excited because her and one of her classmates got the "Principal's Pride" award at her school. This is an award that is handed out to good students. She was so excited, her and Mommy get to go have lunch with the Principal of her school tomorrow. It's an exciting thing. In my day, having lunch with the Principal and my mom meant that I'd done something wrong and a simple phone call wouldn't do. But my kids are better, smarter, and cuter that I was. They are smarter then I am come to think of it. Well the proud daddy is now going to publish this post and head to that wonderful pillow and mattress that is calling me ever so sweetly. Goodnight.

While We Are on the Subject

I'm not the biggest fan of TV shows, usually. I don't like the time commitment, I'm afraid of commitment. Anyway, the shows that I actually like are Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Crossing Jordan. These shows rock. However, I'm in fear for both of them. Crossing Jordan aired on Sunday nights, now thanks to the NFL, NBC has football on Sunday evenings, kicking Crossing Jordan into the great vast emptiness of space. While I like football, my wife isn't the biggest fan and watching Crossing Jordan was our one last ditch effort to do something together on the weekend without the kids. Won't work with football, I've tried. So while we wait for the season of Crossing Jordan to kick off, no pun intended, we have been watching Studio 60. Then today I read this article about it. I guess it helps me remember that TV isn't the cure all to family entertainment, but you can only watch Cars so many times, thank the entertainment gods for Netflix.

Blog This!!!

Acually, I guess the title would indicate that I'm angry but I'm not really. I think I'm just in a cranky mood. First, I'll tell you why than move into the reason I wanted to blog.

Last Monday, I did something to my shoulder/back area. It got really sore. Tuesday, it was so bad, I didn't go to work. Wednesday and Thursday it seemed to be doing better but Friday was aweful. I spent the weekend down mostly. What we have determined I have, (self-diagnosis anyway) is a pinched nerve. So, Its been a miserable week and I have a doctor's appointment today either to fix it or give me enough drugs that I don't care. (I'm really a wimp when it comes to pain. Not that I can't stand it, I just complain a lot.)

Anyway, reason for the blog: Since I was down all weekend, I found out that Season 2 of "Quantum Leap" was at the library. Having borrowed Season 1 a couple of months ago, I felt it time to spend the weekend on the couch watching Season 2.

For those of you that don't know about "Quantum Leap", learn. It was an awesome series back in the late 80's/early 90's and was one of the very few series that I actually watched and kept up with on a regular basis.

Anyway, one thing I always wonder about is "after the story." What happens next? This is always something that has plagued me because, while you get to know Sam Beckett, you also get to learn about the characters quite a bit. What happens to them AFTER Sam leaves? What happens to the person that Sam leaped into after they return to their body?

In the show, Al states that they are in the waiting room. Basically, the souls change places but the bodies stay in their respective time frames. So, while we see Sam as Sam, everyone, including Al, sees Sam as the character in whom he leaps. You assume then, that the person displaced leaps into Sam's body. Does the displaced person, upon return to their body, remember that they leaped into someone else's body? Do they have a recollection of the past few days that they experienced through Sam? Given that Sam doesn't have their memories, my guess to that question is no but I think I could make a good Devil's Advocate arguement for it as well.

One episode that brings this up very strongly is an episode called "Sea Bride" in which his ex-wife is about to be married to a mafia-type and Sam is supposed to break up the wedding. In the process, the mafia-type groom tries to kill Sam by hanging him by his wrists and then throwing him out with the garbage. Sam escapes running up to the area where the wedding is taking place to announce that the groom tried to kill him. He succeeds in stopping the wedding and winning the girl, but then leaps out.

My question is this, did the mafia mobster get arrested and convicted of attempted murder? I know its not important to the show because the person being helped is the bride, but sometimes Al and Sam get a minute or two at the end of the episode to discuss the future of those helped and so you can know the rest of the story.

Knowing the impact of what Sam is doing, in my opinion, is very important to the story line. When you change something in the past, you change the future. This show does show that some of what we do is directed but that we do have free choices to make and somethings are meant to be.

Anyway, I really like this series and have my reservations in for Season 3 at the library. The show ran for 5 seasons and is, in my opinion, good, wholesome family programming.

A Long Wait

I'm a Simpsons fan and just wanted to let you know you can watch a new trailer on The Simpson's Movie.

Other Favorite Things

So my last post was about my favorite foods. I thought I would now write about some of my favorite music, movies, and other stuff like that.

My Favorite TV Show is Crossing Jordan. This is a show that Chels and I have watched for the last few years, it's our show and it's pretty cool. It was on Sunday evenings so we would get the kids in bed and watch it. Now we are just waiting for it to come on again. Another show that we are getting into is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's pretty cool too.

My Favorite Movie(s). This is hard to say because there is so many movies out there that I really like. Here's a short list of some of them. LOTR Trilogy; Serenity; House of D; The Legend of Bagger Vance; I, Robot; Independence Day; I really like Will Smith as an actor and a singer, so most of his movies. You'll notice a pattern when I get to my favorite albums. So moving on...

My Favorite Albums. I like a lot of different music, but to find whole cd's that I like seems to be rare. I like a lot of the Disney soundtracks, Little Mermaid, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast...etc. Avril Lavigne, both albums, Let Go and Under My Skin, They Might be Giants - Flood, Most of the Garth Brooks albums. But I think that my favorite one at the current time is the newest by Will Smith. I like all of his, and a lot of his DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince albums. Lost and Found is a great album with some good guest artists, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige to name a couple.

Well that is quite a bit. I'm putting together a list of my favorite songs and artists, a playlist of sorts, that I will be posting on heynerd.net in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Cheese and Crackers and Other Favorites

So I'm sitting at my desk at 8:00 in the morning munchin' on saltine crackers. I have come to believe that saltine crackers are one of the best munching foods of all time. You can add a little cheese and have your own little tray of Hors'Douvres and I know we all love Hors'Douvres. So today I'm going to blog briefly on what are my likes for food and what not.

Favorites broken down by category:
Fast Food: Cafe Rio. We have been there twice this week and it was excellent both times. However don't eat it and then go to bed shortly after.
Sit Down Restaurant: Chili's, still my favorite, just haven't been there in a while.
Snack Food: Cheese and Saltine Crackers, I found that mild cheese is better than medium.
Drink: Dr. Pepper, though I do like Diet Pepsi or Diet Dr. Pepper with a lime.
Candy: Right now I'm in a bit of a any candy is good now. Frozen Snickers are good, but if I have to choose one I'd say Milky Way Dark.
Dessert: Angel Food Cake or White Cake, it doesn't need frosting. Just hand over the cake. Frosting is ok, but the cake is just fine.

Anyway, just wanted to blog since I haven't for a while. And this was a good topic. Well that just about does it for today. Laters!

Happy Anniversary

Nine years ago, I married a woman that has put up with me for the last nine years. So I decided to take a minute and give a short list of our accomplishments as we have been together:

Nov. 7 1997, Sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple
1998 moved to Logan, UT to go to school at Utah State
April 2000 welcomed Tiaree into our family
December 2001 finished up school in Logan, moved to Salt Lake
March 2002 welcomed Jarik into the family
November 2002 I started working for the U
October 2003 welcomed Bree into the family
April 2005 moved into our new house
June 2006 welcomed Keighlee into the family
July 2006 endured 6 weeks of Bree being in a spica cast (half-body)
Today celebrate 9 years of marriage.

There isn't a lot in that list, but it has a lot of our life changing events. Life has been great and we have had a good marriage. To my dear sweet wife, I love you and look forward to forever more with you.

heynerd.net

I'd like to introduce a new website that I'm going to do. heynerd.net. Ok, so it's isn't up and running with anything cool yet. I have to define what is cool first, then I will put it on there. I have some ideas for the site but you'll have to be in the know to understand some things. But for the most part I think I'm going to use the site to practice some web development stuff that I want to work on. Other than that, it's just going to be a lame website. So get ready for lame and enjoy it the best you can...

Wednesday, Ugh...

So it's Wednesday, the week is half over. Thank heavens! I was going to take Friday off to go to Tracy Aviary with Jarik's preschool class, but I have a presentaion that day. Stupid presentations.

So I'm getting ready to change jobs back to the web team, where I started. I'm heading back there to get back into that. It will be a nice change, since I'm not HIPAA ready. It's a tough team to be on. The web team will be fun to get back to. The reaction I got from the team members was nice, they are all excited to have me back on the team. Kind of gives me a big head. Anyway, it's all good.

Song of the Day time...I missed yesterday, but I did two on Monday so that makes up for it statistically for one per day of the week. :D Today's song is by Will Smith. I have liked Will Smith for a long time, he's one of my favorite actors and he's got some good music. Espically his early stuff when he was Fresh Prince with D.J. Jazzy Jeff. Today's song is Who Am I. It has Will Smith, Tatyana Ali, and MC Lyte. It's a pretty good song. Have a good day!

Return of the Song of the Day!

So I've been going through my music on my computer getting rid of some things keeping some things. Just cleaning up really. I came across a couple of good songs and realized that I haven't done a Song of the Day for a really long time. So today I'm going to do two.

The first one, and if you haven't heard it, you should. It's called "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What A Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. It is a way cool song.

The second one is "Safe In My Garden" by the Mama's and the Papa's. This song is cool because of the counter melody that is going on through the song. It just sounds really good.

If you haven't heard either of these songs, or haven't heard them in a while, go for it. I've linked the songs in the iTunes Music Store if you want the. :D

Fine, 8 Weird Things

So my wife has been bugging me to find 8 weird things about me and post them. She got "tagged" on her blog and mentioned that she was going to tag me. I watched for the tag and it never came, but I guess it was a verbal tag because she alwasy says something like, "Where are your 8 things" or "You haven't posted your 8 things yet" or some other smart comment like those. Well as hard as it sounds, I will work on my 8 weird things.

1. I have an order for when I take a shower. First the hair, then shaving, if it's time to shave, and then the rest. The soap runs down so it would be dumb to wash my hair last and let the dirt get all over a clean body. Makes sense to me anyway, and since I don't shower with anyone else, who knows how weird this really is.


2. I think that if one of my favorite sports teams wins, they should all win, if one loses, then the others should make up for it. Now since this isn't really true, I'd say it's wierd. After all the Utes lost to Boise State 36-3 and the Niners got shut out 41-0. So much for that weird thing.


3. Trains aren't bad things, unless they are on an overpass and I have to drive under it. While the overpass is surely stable and can handle the weight of the train, I shudder, physically, when I drive under a train on an overpass. When Chels is driving, she slows down, which really makes me go crazy. Stupid I know, but it is a true thing.


4. Although many don't find it to be wierd I think it is. I can't hold a new born baby unless it is my own. I don't think I've held any of my neices or nephews until they were at least 2 or 3 months old. Maybe even longer. I just don't trust myself.


5. I have to poop fast. Gross I know. There's something about hanging in the bathroom for too long when you've just left a stinky. If I have a good book, then I can spend some time in the bathroom but that's mainly because the book takes the stink away. That or it adds to the imagination of the book, who knows. For me it's get in get done and get out. Whewwww, don't go in there.


6. Another weird thing. I type a lot and I only use one shift key. I only use the left hand shift key. It doesn't matter what letter or special character I'm looking for, it's always the left hand pinky hitting the shift key. It's espically hard when I'm trying to captilize the Z or the X.


7. Trying for 8 is really stretching it. Sometimes when I walk, I have to take one step in the middle of the side walk and one on the line. If that makes sense. This is hard to do when the lines are spaced out quite a ways. Hence the reason I only do it sometimes. And even on regular sidewalks it isn't something I always do, just once in a while.


8. So while this is #8, I've been given the go ahead to just do 7. My dear sweet wife of almost 9 years says that I don't have many things that are weird. I can't think of any that most people don't do. And then there are some things that I do that you would all have me put in the looney bin for. But for the most part, these are the weird things in my life. Only 7 of them and that is stretching it for a couple of them. I guess I'm pretty laid back, or maybe I'm totally weird and noone has bothered to point it out to me yet. Anyway, which ever the case may be here are my 7 weird things.

Well now it is late, almost 11. I have to work tomorrow and so I'm going to bed now. Besides holding this laptop on my lap is getting really hot and I'm sweating. Please feel free to comment on anything you may think is weird. Have a good one.

I Found It

So I've been looking for a CD by The Beach Boys for a while. Don't ask me why I needed this particular cd, I couldn't tell you, but I needed it. For a long time iTunes didn't have it, and today I was just doing a search on it on google and google said that iTunes had it. To humor the dummy that put it on the website that iTunes had it, I clicked the link and sure enough, iTunes pulled through. So this CD that I've been dying to have I have. I'm excited as I sit here at my desk and listen to the cool sounds of The Beach Boys.

What a Week

So last week was a crazy week. This week is headed in that direction. We have Jarik and Tiaree in sports and the time that those takes is crazy. Welcome to the crazy world of parenting. Before it was easy, we had nothing going on and now we have a ton of stuff packed into one day. It is exciting to watch the kids play their sports though. I'm actually the coach of Jarik's t-ball team and it is fun. The kids run and run and run and there is nothing I can do to stop them, but for the most part they do a great job. Well I just wanted everyone to know that life is hectic and doesn't look to lighten up for a couple weeks. It's all cool though.

ATTENTION: Please Read!!!!

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Health Human Services.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now think about this:

Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U. S is 80,000,000.
(Yes, that's 80 million.)

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188

Statistics courtesy of FBI

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.

We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention

Archer Fan

Ok, so I don't blog a lot and today is the second day in a row that I've blogged. I wanted to blog and let you all know that I have been doing a lot of reading this last two weeks. I finished two novels and have started on my third. The one I am currently reading and the one I just finished were by Jeffrey Archer. (link to his blog)

The other book I read was called Three by Ted Dekker. It was a good book. It had a slow middle section where you are saying to yourself, "get to the point", but it gets really good at the end. It didn't end bad, not how I was envisioning it, but it was pretty good. Chels is just finishing it up which is good because then I can complain to her about it.

The Archer book I just finished is called "The Eleventh Commandment". It is really good and is up to par with the other books I've read by him. The one I am reading is called "False Impression". I'm not very far into it and I'm already liking it a lot.

Not being a big reader I'd say that I'm liking it more and more. One of these days I'll finish the Eye of the World series by Robert Jordan. My wife has read them all and I have a couple friends that have read them all.

A couple of recommendations for reading if you haven't already read them are "Three" by Ted Dekker and "The Eleventh Commandment" by Jeffrey Archer.

3...2...1...Cast Off

So as some of you know, about 6 weeks ago my little Bree broke her Femur bone. Not the easiest bone to break but she did it. On July 22 she was put in a Spica Cast. For those who aren't familiar with the medical lingo, it means she is in a half-body cast. The cast goes from the toes on her right foot, up her leg, around her waist and back down to the knee on her left leg. Assuming you know it was her right leg that broke. We were camping at the time and she was running to see a bunny, damn bunny, and she tripped on a big root sticking out of the ground. Anyway, this Thursday we have an appointment to get the cast off. They will x-ray the leg again and if they feel it's healed enough and properly then the cast will be off...WAHOO!!!

If you ever want to watch someone who is already pretty bossy turn into the bad boss from hell, have a 2 year old break their leg and become immobile. When you ask Bree what she is going to do when she gets the cast off she mentions things like swimming, going on walks, general kid stuff except for running. Running in my little 2 year olds eyes right now is the worst thing anyone should ever think about doing. She says that you get hurt when you run, more specifically you break your leg.

She has done an exceptional job for being the spunky little 2 year old that she is to sit for the last almost 6 weeks and not be able to swim or play or anything really. She has had it with the cast and has let that show a couple of times. She breaks down and cries, though it is only for a minute it is the hardest thing in the world to watch. When she gets it out and realizes that there are only a few more days until it comes off she is happy again. Someone asked me if it went by fast and I think, no, it has been the worst 6 weeks of my life. Bree has really been an example to me in enduring to the end and having a lot of faith in the doctors and cast to help her heal. We have big plans this weekend and most of it includes swimming, swimming, and more swimming, oh and some walking.

If you were to ask me who my hero was right now, I'd say Bree McGee.

Lyrics Freak

So, I sit at work all day and work and listen to music. There are times where I think that I would like to either sing along and bug those in the cubes around me or just want to see what the lyrics are to the song. So I heard about this killer website called Lyrics Freak. So it's cool, you find the artist that your listening too and then you can find the song lyrics. I did it for a They Might Be Giants, Letterbox today and it was funny to try and keep up with them as they sang. Anyway, check it out...

Laters

A Trip to the Dentist

Today was my scheduled cleaning for my teeth. As many of you may or may not know, I'm not a regular visitor to the dentist. I'm pretty sure that anyone that chooses to be a dentist of their own free will has issues. Think about it. They willingly putting their hands in your mouth and sit so close that they can tell you, by the smell of your breath, what you had for lunch. How discusting.....

Anyway, I've re-evaluated a few things and feel that if I want to prolong my denture-wearing days, I need to make sure I'm providing the best care for my teeth that I can. So, I got dental insurance for me and the family and scheduled my appointment to have them cleaned and examined.

First thing they did was take 2 types of x-rays. One was a panaramic view of my teeth and the other one were the ones where you bite on cardboard. After having x-rays done, the dentist came in to scrape "stuff" off my teeth. Apparently, you can get mineral deposits on your teeth and I had some so he spent some time scraping that off.

He examined the x-rays and was very impressed. My teeth were perfect. No cavities, gingivitis, gum disease, etc. They were straight, the roots looked good and with the exception of some normal stains (probably left over from my smoking days) I was given the thumbs up on my teeth.

Next, a dental hygenist came in to do the normal cleaning and I was then done and on my way. I can definately tell something was taken off my teeth and they feel great. So, thought I'd share my good fortune since, well, my life is so exciting that I blog about a trip to the dentist.

...Then She Got on the Bus

So today was the big day...the start of First Grade. I left for work and my dear sweet wife was crying a little. She misses her really bad. It's weird to have her going to school all day, she is still my little girl. They grow up way too fast. Jarik starts preschool in a couple of weeks and then 3 days a week the mornings for Chels will be just Bree and Keighlee. I am excited to see how the first day goes. If I have time I'll blog about it tomorrow.

Target: Rabbits

Saturday I took Mason rabbit hunting for the 1st time. I was concerned whether he could handle the idea of killing an animal. To my suprise, he did handled it in true hunter fashion.

We went with one of my friends and had Mason "finish" off a couple of hits that didn't result in immediate death. He seemed to have trouble at first with the hiking portion but as the killing started, he became more involved with seeking out animals and on several occasions was on hand to shoot a rabbit to finish it off even if it was already dead.

Anyway, morbid subject but we had a lot of fun. The eldest wants to go so I may take her out to see if she can handle hunting.

Long Time No Type!!

It's been a long time since I've entered anything into this little blog of mine. So I decided while I wait for the dumb Microsoft updates to install I'd take some time and let you know what has been going on.

Life in general is pretty good. Work is good. The new job is pretty fun and I am doing a lot of fun little things. It's amazing how many things there are to learn when you start a new job. Life is good there.

The most exciting things in life, the kids, are doing well. Bree broke her leg about 3 weeks ago. When I say her leg, I mean her femer bone. One of the biggest bones in the body. Well because it was the femer bone to cast it the put on a spika cast, which is one of those half-body casts. It's really quite annoying sometimes because Bree is starting to act like a little princess and she's getting really bossy. You feel bad for her because she can't move, but you get frustrated at the same time. Here's a picture:

Then good news is that we found out that the cast can probably come off in 3 weeks. It is exciting. Bree gets this huge smile on her face when we talk about getting the cast off. She loves the attention but is starting to realize she's missing out on all the fun.

Other news on the kids. Keighlee is now 2 months old, time flies. Tiaree starts first grade next week. Jarik starts preschool soon. He needs it. Chels is good she just started Weight Watchers again, she is excited. Well time to go. Good night.

Sad days

It has been almost a month since anyone posted a blog to this site and I felt it time to post. Unfortunately, the thing I want to post about is not a fun thing nor is it a happy thing.

I felt I should post this because I am a father. I love my kids dearly and could not imagine having any harm come to them let alone causing harm to them. I may be over protective, but from the look of currant events, it isn't unfounded.

Two cases that have really got me bugged are Destiny Norton and Angela Andrews. For those of you that haven't paid attention to the news or the world around you (at least in the Utah area), Destiny Norton was a 5-year old girl who was abducted by a neighbor. When Destiny tried to scream, the vile creature covered her mouth with his hand suffocating her. He then sexually abused her dead body and hid it from police and investigators.

Angela Andrews was a 10-year old girl who was beaten to death by her father who stated that he "lost control". Information has arisen as to the life this child had. The things described that this child had to go through, I would not want for any child. And the worst of all, this was done by her father and step-mother.

Another case of late is Jayden Cangro, a 2-year old boy killed by his mother's live-in boyfriend who threw him across the room when he was babysitting.

I just have to say, these people are sick. It is scary out there to realize how bad it is really getting out there. I can't believe that people would do this to children. I know I've led a pretty sheltered life and that there have been numerous cases throughout history of evils done to children, but these just clarify that there is something wrong with people.

I know that after thinking about these aweful events, I've probably brought down the mood of a Friday, but I just am about to burst. Having children, and even children close to the age of these cases, really makes these events hit home harder than they should. I love my kids and would only want the best for them.

I hope I haven't ruined your day and hope that if you are a parent, that you will appreciate the beauty that is in every child. I hope that you will take the time to make sure they know you love them.

Kids Make You Forgetful

So I've relized that staying home from work and hanging out with kids is fun, but has this side effect of losing brain activity. So I haven't been blogging much as of late and I know you've missed the Song of the Day, but I promise that things are settling down and I'll be able to get back to it here soon. New baby, new job, it's got my head spinning as well. I will get over it, but until then there will only be sporadic entries. :D

That's about all I have for today. Have a great weekend.

Claim your wings

~~Claim Your Wings - Pics and Long Answers~~

Your wings are DRAGON wings. Massive and covered in scales, they shimmer with strength and magic. They are the most obvious display of your power - though it runs equally throughout your heart and mind. You are uncompromising and grave, with a profound sense of justice. You have firm ideas about what is right and what is wrong and set out to fix what problems you can. You realize that you are more capable of dealing with life and evil than most, and as such you see it as your responsibility to protect those who cannot defend themselves. You have existed since antiquity and as such you are wise far beyond your years in this lifetime. While you strive for fairness and peace, if someone should steal from your cave of treasure (though not all that glitters is gold) or compromise the happiness of you or one who is close to you - they have signed their death warrant. You have a mighty vengeance and will unleash it upon such people immediately and mercilessly. Arguing with you is useless...you rarely back down and are known for holding firm in your beliefs. Sometimes you feel intensely burdened with the troubles of others...acting as a Guardian can get so wearisome. But you never give up...you see it as your life's mission. Often very introverted, you can be so smart...it's scary. Such a combination of intelligence, creativity, power, beauty, and magic is often intimidating to those around you - who are also unlikely to understand you. Arrogant, proud, overserious, and sometimes a bit greedy or obsessed with whatever treasure you choose to pursue...you have enchanted people for centuries, and will continue to do so.Image Source:http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/pkamvyss/www/album/art/pictures/dragon.jpg
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Fun for the Philbrick Clan

You don't realize how much time flies when you are having fun until you sit down Monday morning to blog about it. Last weekend was our Philbrick Family Reunion at the East Canyon Resort. We stayed in Family Reunion Area #1. Almost the entire family made an appearance during the weekend. I think that there were only 2 cousins that I didn't see. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

Anyway, it was really nice to have everyone there. The suprise I talked about earlier was my little sister and her family showing up. They rushed home from their job in Illinois to come to the family reunion.

We didn't get to do all the activities that we wanted to but we did do quite a few. I got to go run around on Paul's 4-wheelers for a bit and see some neat areas. We played on the boat for a while, swam in the swimming pool, ate lots of food, played games, talked, roasted marshmellows, and had a general good time. Didn't get to play tennis or walk in the river or play mini-golf, but there's always next time.

I look forward to going again in a couple of years. It'll be neat to compare this time with next and see what all of the changes are. Now comes the downloading of pictures, transfer of video, etc. I'm pretty sure I'll be busy this winter spending time doing things for the videos that I want to make. Mostly video collages but we will get to that another time. Just thinking on a different tangent at the moment.

Anyway, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for making this happen as they do each time. It is such a treat to go up as a family and hang out with everyone.

Back to Work

Well today was my first day back to work after my two weeks off with the new baby. She's so cute. The other kids are doing well with her, it's pretty cool. Work is new to me, since I got this new job. New cube, new responsibilities, new atmosphere, new coworkers, new stresses... It should be fun.

My two weeks off was pretty productive, I conqured a good number of the things that I wanted to get done. I started big with fixing up my rock garden. It was a two day job and I got a lot of help from my kids. They got two new Justice League movies out of the deal. I also got our new microwave put up. This was a big feat as it was installing a new plug and hanging it over the stove. It looks nice. The garden got weeded and tilled, since there isn't anything growing in it besides weeds, it was pretty easy. Overall it was a fun productive two weeks. I'm glad to come back to work, but I will miss the days with my wife and kids. It was a fun time.

Now I'm looking forward to my vacation that starts Thursday. I love taking time off.

Family Reunion

This weekend is the scheduled of our bi-annual (hope I got that right, every 2 years), Philbrick Family Reunion. I look forward to this trip because it is a camping trip with my Grandma and Grandpa and we usually get to see all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Since it is at the East Canyon resort, we have camping as well as tennis, mini-golf, swimming pools, horse shoes, volleyball, baseball/softball, and a variety of card, board, and dice games. The kids look forward to this as well.

I'm so excited. I'll get to see my mom as well as some other suprises. It'll be an exciting weekend.

Mason's Tattoo

Just wanted to share a picture. On Monday, Mason had a tattoo on his head. This is one of those removable tattoos. Why he put it on his forehead, I'll never know but wanted to show the pic from today. Anyway, here it is....

Random Thoughts

It has been a while since I've posted last and thought it time to put down in words some of the thoughts that I have had recently. As I was trying to pick a topic to blog, I realized how jumbled up my brain is and how in need of some mental housecleaning I need to do. Its almost as if someone took the deck of cards that is my brain, and shuffled them and then scattered them in the wind. Nothing like a rousing game of 52-pickup when its your mind that is the deck. Anyway.....

There are so many things going on in the world around us and in our daily lives. Work, family, entertainment, spiritual growth, mental growth, etc. Each subject demands so much attention that it tries to take away our attention to other things. We spend our lives running constantly from one place to the next. Spend too much time on spiritual growth, you miss some opportunities on family. Spend some extra hours at work, you lose some of your much needed liesure time. Its a vicious circle and each can be a major distraction from the others.

Finding a balance between all of the subjects of our lives becomes difficult when you realize that there are only 24 hours in a day and some of that time is needed for rest, eating, transportation and/or preparation. (Preparation to include grooming, washing, dressing, etc.) Chores around the house need to be done. Chores in the yard are being neglected. The family needs to spend time together. So many times we say, "I'll get to that as soon as I can." "If I can get this stuff done, I can then concentrate on these other things."

We put off so much to put out fires that we never find the time to make an appropriate balance. There are those out there who are willing to offer advice and help but their advice and help is in areas that they think you should be spending time. So much to do and so little time.....

How do we focus on what is important and how do we know what that is? How can we balance our lives to find an appropriate amount of time for everything? What sacrifices do you make to accomplish other goals?

For example, you can either do "A" or you can do "B". Both you very much want to do, but how do you choose? Which is more important? Which is going to give you the maximum amount of benefit to your happiness and your live as well as the lives of those around you?

Sometimes, A and B are linked in such a way that you want A and your partner wants B. (By partner, I am refering to spouse, kids, or whomever else your life is entwined.) When do you say that A is the way you are going and when do you give in to allow B to happen to make your partner(s) happy? When do you consider your own personal growth vs that of your partners? So many questions... So few answers....

I guess this was my little gripe about having to make so many decisions. Sometimes you just want to sit and tune out the rest of the world but you can't. Sometimes you just need a break to recharge your batteries. Maybe that's where I am. I need to recharge the batteries.

Anyway,thanks for the talk. I think it helped put a few things in perspective. Even if the actual issues weren't discussed here, they light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little bit brighter.

A New Baby, A Renewed Respect

Well Keighlee Jo joined our family last Friday. It was kind of fun and hectic hence the reason this blog is being written today. Just got to lazy really to do it. So I decided to write it today. Plus I've got some good pictures now. I just wanted to say that she is a dang cute little girl.



We are having a lot of fun with her here at home. The kids continually ask to hold her. It's cute. So there is the new baby part of the title, moving on the the renewed respect part now.

I have always known that my dear wife is a wonderful person. Watching her go through the birthing experience once again gave me a renewed respect for her strength and love for having a family. She is the most amazing person I know, truly a hero of mine. She is my queen and I know that I could not of found a better woman to be the mother of my children.

Having a Baby

Here we are in the hospital waiting for the baby to come. Chels is doing well, a little sore but that is from all the little needle pricks to get the IV in. She's doing well and we will keep you posted.

Woah, What a Day

Ok, so I can't believe that it is nearly 4:00pm. Today has just zipped by and now I am ready to head home. I finished up a web report for the directors of our IT group today and that was a big win for me. Yay, me! Anyway, I thought about doing my top 5 favorite things today, like my top 5 novels, top 5 songs, top 5 albums, but now it seems that I may have run out of time. I am actually waiting to see when my ride is going to be hitting the road so I'll work on it until he comes. So here it goes, and I might not get all of them done but it will be a start, espically the top 5 songs and albums. So I will start with books.

Tracy's Top Five Novels:

1. Honour Among Thieves, Jeffrey Archer


2. Sons of Fortune, Jeffrey Archer


3. Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card


4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling


5. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

I did novels because then I'd be able to get away with not putting Green Eggs and Ham. My favorite book of all time is probably the Book of Mormon, it's a good read, if you haven't read it I'd suggest it.

Now while that list is numbered one to five, those books aren't in any particular order, although I think if I had to choose a favorite of those five it would be Sons of Fortune I think.

I'm going to skip the songs and albums as I want to ponder them some more. Have a great day.

Book Review - Speaker for the Dead

Synopsis:
Book 2 in the Ender Wiggins saga begins 3000 years after Ender destroyed the entire bugger race with the exception of one hive queen in a cocoon. Ender, because of the war with the buggers is seen as an evil person who committed xenocide. Due to his space travels, while 3000 years have passed for everyone else, only about 20 years have passed for Ender.

Another alien race of piggies have been discovered on a planet called Luisitania. One person is killed by this alien race for unknown reasons and Ender is called to speak his death. While in transit, 20 years have passed and the original caller has since cancelled the call but 2 new calls have come in.

Accompanied by the hive queen and Jane, a computer intelligence, he begins the research that will lead to the speaking he was summoned for and the secrets that will be unleashed may be too much for the community to bare. Can he save this community? Can he understand this new race and their society? Will he be discovered as the benevolent Speaker for the Dead or as the vile Ender the Xenocide?

Review:
I relly think this is a good conclusion to Ender's Game. At first, it went a little slow and wasn't sure what to expect when this was to pick up the story 3000 years AFTER the end of book 1. I was pleasently suprised to find Ender and Valentine still youthful after 3000 years. I would recommend this book to almost everyone. While Ender's Game was written to be enjoyed for 10 years and older, this seems to be more geared to the older crowd. Both have many different levels of understanding and there are so many "outside-of-the-box" concepts that it can really make you think about the possibilities. After reading this, I REALLY want to read The Hive Queen and the Hegemon refered to in the book but know that it doesn't exist.

I hope that if you haven't read these stories, that you would concider this. It was very well written and Orson Scott Card is a master story teller. Having read now 4 of his books, I can truthfully say that his sci-fi mastery and exceptional story telling make his books a joy to read.

Avert Tragedy... Plan Ahead

I'm struggling with a title for this blog to really indicate the subject matter of this blog. So, I'll write the blog and maybe it'll come to me.

For those of you that don't know, I work part-time at Albertson's as both a cashier and a night-time manager. Last night, I was the manager. This week, I don't want to be there at all because Smith's is closed all week.

The information that we have is that Smith's is remodeling and was to be partially open during the remodeling. Well, rumor has it that someone did something that caused a part of the roof to collapse and so, they have been closed all week as of last Saturday. They will re-open this Saturday but in the mean time, we are getting a lot of thier shoppers during their crisis.

Add to that problem that we are understaffed to begin with because we cannot find any qualified candidates to work as cashiers. So, we are able to be just busy enough for our normal shopping business but with the Smith's closure, we are just frantic.

Anyway, I'm not going to go into a lot of the supervisorial details but needless to say, at the end of the night, I have a LOT of work still to do. We are usually very excited to close and lock the doors right at midnight and last night was no exception. Exhausted, I hurriedly locked the door at midnight and then about 10 after, walked out the last customer. So, now we get to the reason for the blog......

Standing outside is this girl who tells me that she needs to buy bird seed. First of all, who buys bird seed at midnight? Duh!!! I told her we will re-open tomorrow morning at 6am. (It's actually the same morning because its after midnight but that's more of a technicality.) Anyway, her comment was, "Well, you just lost my business."

Oh my goodness!!!!! I'm so freakin' heartbroken... Woe is us!!!!!!!! Ok, now that there is a bit of dramatic sarcasm, I'm over that. I just found it very funny that someone would be so conceited that to think we are just going to say, "Oh, so sorry miss... I know we closed 10 minutes ago and our hours are posted on a BIG freakin' sign on the front of our building but we can't have your birds go starving, now can we... Let me rush you right in and help you get that right away!!!! Albertson's paying me overtime is so worth the purchase of BIRD SEED!!!" Sorry, that was more sarcasm again, right?

What gets me is she probably feels we owe her something because she came to shop at our store. I'll bet 10-to-1 that if the roles were reversed, she would have no problem telling someone that they were closed under the same circumstances. Not to mention, I'M NOT ALBERTSON'S! I only work there and they pay me a small wage to do so. Just as you work some where and they pay you a wage. You don't own the company and neither do I. I work for a living just the same as you and you don't get that we are all trying to work together. Be kind enough to acknowledge that the posted hours are when we are going to be open.

The only time I have ever made exception or will make exception is for medicine for a small child. Everything else can wait until morning. Better yet, PLAN AHEAD! Got pets? Make sure that when you fill their little food tray, that if you use the last, go to the store at a reasonable time within the next 24-hours and life is great? Don't have 24-hours worth? Shoulda thought about that when you did have 24-hours worth. Hello?!?!?! Doesn't take much.

So, now that I got that off my chest..... Back to the title.

Red...

You Are Apple Red

You're never one to take life too seriously, and because of it, you're a ton of fun. And although you have a great sense of humor, you are never superficial. Deep and caring, you do like to get to the core of people - to understand them well. However, any probing you do is light hearted and fun, sometimes causing people to misjudge you.

What Color Red Are You?

Weather

Ok so as most of you know I am here in Decatur, Illinois. Its in central Illinois. We have been here for a little over 2 weeks and we have had some interesting weather. It rained the first few days and it was not bad. Still kinda cool and what not. Then it heated up fast. We went from 60 degrees to 90 in like 2 days. But the glorious thing about the middle of the US is that they have this wonderful stuff called humidity. Ok so we do have it in Utah but we have nothing like this. It is around 80 degrees here and with the humidity if feels close to 100. But really thats not the worst part. The worst part is now when it rains there is a mist that stays in the air. Seriously you walk out and there is dew on the grass mist in the trees, mist in the air and its still hot. Its almost like when your camping in trees but usually its cool there here no. So today I wake up a little late so I decide to order pizza. I was tired cuz Jaxon decided to freak out at bed time (he's teething and he sucks at it). Then about 1-2 hours into my lovely sleep we get one of the loudest craziest thunder storms I have ever heard. Rained like mad and the thunder was one right after another and sounded like it was right on top of us. Very crazy. Anyhow... I order pizza papa john's of course and they won't deliver because I don't have a local phone number so I have to go pick it up. Now here is where we have issues. We live in a apartment and our neighbors across the hall are of another ethnicity. Not sure what but their is a stench coming from their apartment that basically smells up the entire hallway and then at the end of the hall we have in home smokers and it seeps out as well so basically It smells so bad you have to hold your breath if you don't want to throw up. Opening the doors to the building won't help because we have yet another stinky problem. We I guess are in the Soy Capital of the world or something like that. Basically they have a very large soy plant here and on one of my ventures around town I drove by it and ugh. Even filters can't keep the smell out. Well I am sure you can guess it. When you mix heat, humidity, soy, ethnic food, and cigarette smoke it is the worst combination of smells and will make you gag if not throw up. One of our guys have cuz of the hall way. I can say thank goodness for central air and a towel at the bottom of our door. I did put a very good plug in air freshner in the hallway that sadly is doing nothing. It is the same kind that I can drop a few drops in my Hyla vacuum and it makes my entire home smell good. Lets just say it is not helping much in the hallway. The combo is just to potent for it.
I guess what I am getting at is be greatful for good clean air. And if you produce stinky air. Be kind bathe, clean your home and air things out. There are other people in this world that would like to keep their food down when the go out. And as far as stinky cities well I found one of the stinkiest....

Generic Title

There is so many things I wanted to blog about today that I couldn't pin a title to it.

First off, I got a new job. I will be working with the Privacy Office at the University here. Basically, I'm moving from one team in ITS to another. I'm even in the same building so it is nice. With that comes a certain level of wonder and excitement as well as a little bit of saddness. The team I am currently on rocks and we have a lot of fun, but I felt the need to move on. So I am excited and will start working with them once I get back from my time off when the baby comes. It will be fun.

Second, the BABY! When is the big question. I wish that calculating the due date was more of an exact science. This whole wondering when and all that stuff is for the birds. So we are due in a little more than two weeks, but it would be nice to know when exactly. Other than that, the baby is moving and streching all over the place, by the way Chels winces I'm guessing that it is very painful. I feel lucky to be a man and not have to go through that. Yep, I'm a wimp.

Third. My son and daughter are learning to ride their bikes without training wheels. Minus getting on the bike, Jarik has it down pretty good. It took all of about one push to get him up and going. Tiaree on the other hand is turning out more difficult. Reason, she's learned bad habits depending on the training wheels. She was finally getting it when it got too late and we had to go in. We'll work on it again today.

I have a movie review that I'll do a seperate post on. We went and saw Over the Hedge last Wednesday. It was good, but I'll give a little better review later.

Time for the Song of the Day! I know I missed last week, but that's because I decided to listen to a movie while I worked instead of listen to music. I listened to most of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it was cool. And believe it or not, I got a lot accomplished. Today's Song of the Day is from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. We just got the CD from BMG, one of the free ones. Anyway, the song is The Candy Man. Now, the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Johnny Depp, is awesome, but the old musical with Gene Wilder is awesome and the music is dang cool.

That's about it for today. I may get to the movie review, but in case I don't, don't hold your breath. Laters.

Book Review - Ender's Game

As we were preparing to go camping last weekend, I thought it appropriate to take a book with me. I decided on something that I have never read before. After searching through the library catalog online and coming up with nothing at the branches I was looking at, I finally stumbled across the Orson Scott Card books. They had Ender's Game in stock at the library close to my work. So, I ran over and picked it up.

I had read Orson before years ago. In fact, I still have the book. It is called A Planet Called Treason and I really liked that book. Boy was I in for a suprise. Anway, here's the synopsis.

Andrew "Ender" Wiggins is a 6-year old boy who is very intelligent but also, very small. He can't comprehend the "kids" around him and wants nothing more than to be left alone. He doesn't get much help from his older brother who continues to threaten him with his life and is quite capable, physically and intelligently, to commit such a crime.

Ender is being tested by the International Fleet to join their battle school. As the youngest person to ever be admitted, he is wisked away to the battle school orbiting earth. His goal, to be trained to fight a war against the buggers, a race of insect-like creatures that have invaded earth previously and were fought back. Unbeknownst to Ender, his training is actually to command the fleet against the buggers.

Will he succeed? Will the human race be saved? Is Ender the hope humanity has to insure its survival?

I really liked this book. Written for all ages, it is easy for the kids to read but also very though provoking for the adults. For those of you that have not read this book, I would highly recommend it. If you like Sci-Fi at all, it is a very good book. For those of you that don't care for sci-fi at all, it is very philosophical and will make you think.

Honk if you are .... STUPID

As I was driving down the road yesterday, close to the rush hour traffic time, I heard someone honk their horn. This was one of those honks that was mean and angry. The duration was longer indicating that someone was upset. I started thinking about the use of a horn.

My take is this, the horn is to be used as a tool to alert others to keep them out of harms way. It should only be used in extreme situations so we do not become desensitized to its usage.

People who just lay on the horn anytime to indicate frustration or anger or road rage only cause more problems. First, the person that just cut you off, do you really want to take their attention away from driving? They seem to be having a hard enough time of it and if they have to look behind them to find out why someone is honking, they can not pay attention to what's in front of them. Given their lack of driving skills, do you think it is wise to divert any attention away from that?

Second, people around you wonder if you are honking at them. Their attention is also diverted causing more problems just because you are upset.

Third, is it really important to cause others grief because you are a bit angry? If you didn't get in a wreck, move on with life. No need to ruin someone else's day because that horn doesn't really convey your thoughts on what the other person did. They may just think that you are rude and they get upset that you honked for "no reason".

Fourth, LIKE YOU'VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG WHEN DRIVING, Right? No one is perfect. Have you ever accidentally cut someone off? Have you ever gone too slow/fast? Have you never got in to someone else's way unintentionally? If you haven't, you must be more ignorant than you think you are.

And last, get over yourself. Road rage and being angry and aggressive while driving will only ruin your day, raise your blood pressure, and cause undue stress on you. If you have such issues with "other drivers" then ride the bus.

Just A Comment...

I would normally comment on what B wrote at the bottom of his entry, but I feel that I need to have a little bit more room to ramble. It is funny how our past can come back to us here and there. I watch my kids and think of the times I must have had when I was younger. I have done a memory dump of pretty much everything in my life from before I was around 11. I have some memories, but they are brief glimpses into what I consider a pretty good childhood. Memories like getting smacked in the face with a baseball, playing cops and robbers at an empty house that was two doors down, then moving into that house, playing football and hitting golf balls at the school, swimming in the Higbee's pool. Although the memories are good they aren't always complete.

One thing that I hate is when you do something and you are having a blast and then it has to end. One of those special times in your life that won't be duplicated. It happens all the time. Special times come and go and hopefully your memory can hold it. If we were all wise, those special times would go in some sort of journal. The best thing though is that we do get to take them with us when we go. We go through life with experiences and the things we learn and do, these are things that will stay with us as we continue on our journey after this life. It's a great feeling.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane B.

The Best of Times......

I had a very sad dream this morning and it was one of those that you just wake up feeling really sad about some things.

Some of you may remember the Newman Elementary School in Rose Park, not the new building but the old building. The new building has only been in existance for a few years. Ok, maybe more than a few but still....

Growing up, I never went to Newman Elementary as a student. I did however play quite a bit in the school yard. As kids, we played softball, tag, football.... Sometime we even went over and hit golfballs. It was a place where we could go climb some of the trees, hang out with friends, or just ride bikes. It was quite upsetting when they changed it around.

I know that the school is now bigger and better, it just doesn't make me feel better that the neighborhood is changing. We like to keep things from our past. I'm no exception. We like somethings to change but others, well, they just need to stay the same. I have come to grips that they changed the school and the yard or at least I thought I had.

So, back to my dream. In my dream, the school yard, the original, was alive in a sense. It couldn't move but it had consciousness. It was aware of all the kids that would play on it. It shared our lives, our hopes, our dreams. It revelled when we scored a touchdown and felt sorrow when we scraped our knees or fell from the monkey bars. It looked forward to each day and loved all the kids that would come.

Now, a new school sits where the old playgrounds were. The old play field is now part of the school and parking lot. In the dream, it was as if the new school were dropped right on top of it. There were people who talked of progress and others who couldn't feel the pain that the field felt. Having a school dropped on you is a lot. The playfield was partially covered and you could see part of the grass and knew where things were. Yard lines were cut into it where the field had tried to modify itself to remind others of where the football games had been played but no on really listened. In its pain, it would emit a "mental scream" that would remind the people of playing on the field. It would remind them of their youth and the time that had been shared. The memories were strong enough that all you wanted to do was to relive those moments. To go back in time and knowledge to the times of your youth to when that time was important to you.

You could see that the field was dying and with it, all the memories of the years past. Some people felt it but they were few. They didn't know what it was like to be a child and couldn't remember their childhood much at all. Those people you felt sorry for because as they walked the field, the were oblivious to the pain that was being suffered right beneath their feet.

Anyway, I woke up with a very empty feeling. One that makes you realize that life continues down the path whether you are ready or not. It doesn't stop or slow because you say "Hey, this is fun.... Let's hang out here for a while before we move on." It trudges on with or without notice and if you are not careful, it slips by before you know it.

I'm not 100% on whether dreams mean anything or not but I awoke with such a feeling of dread and realized how many things I couldn't remember about my childhood. I hope, that once we leave here, our memories will be complete and not subject to the errors of this world. That we can relive in our minds all our lives. Remember the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. I think that was the worst part of the empty feeling is knowing that many of the memories are not readily available for recall and may never be here. I can only hope that it isn't permanent.

Greetings From San Francisco

Well I'm here in San Francisco. Sitting in a JavaOne session on Spring Webflow. Overall the conference has been relly good. We finished up yesterday at 20 after 11pm. It was a late night. I'm staying in a pretty nice hotel but the windows are old school and don't seal shut. Last night I was watching TV during one of the breaks that I had and I heard this drumming outside. So I went outside and saw this guy with a bunch of empty 5 gallon buckets, pots, and empty water bottles and he was drumming, it was pretty cool. I guess he will be in the a new Will Smith movie coming out soon. It was cool to watch him. I'll post some pictures laters. Anyway, life is good here in San Francisco, but I can't wait to be home. I'm headed to Chinatown a little later to pick up some souvies and then I got a free ticket to MI:3 so I might go see that. See you guys Friday.

Desperate Homemakers - Play Review

In the spirit of movie reviews, I felt that other "events" could be reviewed as well. We have season tickets to Deseret Star Playhouse. We enjoy the atmosphere and the kids love to go see the shows.

The show we saw Saturday was Desperate Homemakers which is a sequal to the show My Big Fat Utah Wedding that played last year. While we didn't get to see the previous show, there was not a lot of "catching up" to do as with most sequals. This show could have stood by itself instead of being a sequal.

The story line is that the wife of an "empty-nest" couple feels very bored. It starts of as an e-mail to her daughter that she has even gone to Idaho and purchased a lottery ticket. The husband, who comes in and reads over her shoulder becomes very distraught at the realization that his wife is a closet gambler.

While the arguement insues, the state of Idaho calls to inform her that she has won the biggest payoff in Idaho's history. Because of their fortune, they move to the "east side" and meet the variety of neighbors in their new neighborhood. They are now part of the private country club which has had the same president for 5 years because no one will run against her.

As the wife tries to play the societal games commonly sterotypical of money and wealth, the neighborhood goes through the "picking of sides" in the battle between the lottery winner and the social elitist.

This show was very funny. It is very appropriate to view as a family and offers song, dance, mystery and comedy. We enjoyed this show very much and would recommend it to anyone that wishes to see it.

Afterwards, the performers do an olio and this time it was the America Olio involving a variety of songs about America. During this, they do a Desert Star Playhouse rendition of American Idol where the audience helps determine the winner.

If you are into plays at all, I would highly recommend the Desert Star Playhouse for families.

Happy Friday

I like Fridays, most of the time. This weekend should be pretty good. Tomorrow is our Desert Star Playhouse day for the new show they have and then I get to spend some time repairing the trailer enough to have it workable for our camping trips this summer. I would like to rebuild it but it looks like it will just be some repairs.

I've already replaced the lights on the trailer and they are working wonderfully. Now, I just need a few brackets, some tie-downs and I'm set. We will probably set up the tent (weather permitting) to make sure it is functional.

Sunday is Mother's Day and we have decided that we are going to the Zoo with Irma. It should be a lot of fun. Then a bbq afterwards at the park.

Anyway, that's an update on what's going on this weekend. I hope you all have a great weekend and I hope your Mother's feel appreciated this weekend for all the crap you put them through. Make sure you at least call and tell them how much you love them.

A Good Tuesday

I know weird. Today has been a very good day, minus the fact that I suck at basketball. Oh well it's fun anyway. So today I'm working on creating a survey for our application that we are finishing up here shortly. The current survey is built in ColdFusion but we are going to move it into Java using Spring. It will be cool. Anyway, today's Song of the Day is by the Eagles. The first time I remember ever hearing it was the special TV concert they did not to long ago. It's called Hole in the World. It's on 'The Very Best Of' CD that came out shortly after the TV special. From what I remember this was the song that they wrote after 9/11. It is a really great song. The line I really like, they repeat quite a bit is "There's a hole in the world tonight, don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow." Good song. If you don't have it, find it on iTunes or at WalMart and buy it. I think it's worth it.

Monday is Almost Done

No band tonight though. I have a dying lawn, sick kids, pregnant wife, and a body that wants to sit on it's butt so I'm going home to take care of things, not necessarily in that order though. Tonight we're having some Cheesy Tostadas for dinner and I'm excited for them. I'm going to go home figure out what I need to fix my sprinklers go pick it up and then fix my sprinklers so they are done. Then I will have dinner and goof off with the kids a little. It should be a good evening. In one week I'll be blogging from San Francisco, I'm excited for that trip. Well my ride should be here any minute now so I am going to start getting ready to head out. Before I go, let me do the Song of the Day.

So last week, maybe even the last Song of the Day came from the same album by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince entitled He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. Today's song is just a funny one and it's one of my favorite ones on the album. It's called Human Video Game. It's about Ready C who is a human beatbox. He is dang good at what he does. It's always been a favorite of mine so now it can become a favorite of yours....Laters.

This is a TEST

I know Mondays are not days to have tests, but this e-mail really got me going today. Why? Well, I'll tell you later.... Here's how this works, read the below story, THEN it gives an assumption and suggestion at the end. It relates a story about eggs to gasoline. AFTER you have read this, please post to say whether this will work or not and why you think that. (I'll give you a hint: This is a trick question.) Anyway, here is the story:

A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast. When he goes to the grocery store he pays 60 cents a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won't last a week he normally buys two dozen at a time. One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to 72 cents. The next time he buys groceries, eggs are .76 cents a dozen. When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, "the price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly". This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day. He checked around for a better price and found that all the distributors have raised their prices. The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms. The small egg farms have been driven out of business.

He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000 dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of eggs.

This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen. The man says,"there must be something we can do about the price of eggs".

He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop buying eggs. This didn't work because everyone needed eggs. Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need.

He ate 2 eggs a day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.

The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler. He told the distributor that he didn't need any eggs. Maybe wouldn't need any all week.

The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse. He told the huge egg farms that he didn't have any room for eggs would not need any for at least two weeks.

At the huge egg farms, the chickens just kept on laying eggs.

The distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again. The grocery store owner said, "I don't have room for more eggs. The customers are only buy 2 or 3 eggs at a time". "Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would start buying by the dozen again".

Finally, the huge egg farmers lowered the price of their eggs. But only a few cents. The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, "when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by the dozen."

Slowly the price of eggs started dropping. The distributors had to slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers. The huge egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn't buy at a higher price than they were selling eggs for.

Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn't need eggs for quite a while. And them chickens kept on laying.

Eventually, the huge egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing away eggs they couldn't sell.. The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.

And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.

Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.

What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time they pulled to the pump. The dealers tanks would stay semi full all the time. The dealers wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms. The tank farms wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the refining plants. And the refining plants wouldn't have room for the oil being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the Middle East.

Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don't fill it up. You may have to stop for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.

Think about it.

As an added note..When I buy $10.00 worth of gas,that leaves my tank a little under half full. The way prices are jumping around, you can buy gas for $2.95 a gallon and then the next morning it can be $2.75. If you have your tank full of $2.95 gas you don't have room for the $2.75 gas. You might not understand the economics of only buying two eggs at a time but, you can't buy cheaper gas if your tank is full of the high priced stuff.

Also, don't buy anything else at the gas station, no cigarettes, no bread, milk or chewing gum, don't give them any more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices come down.. Oh, some folks may not see this message. Can you afford to print 10 at a time and pass them out where you buy gas? If you can afford more, you may think of putting them on windshields at the mall.


I'll post later to tell you the answer and why spreading these types of things is a bad idea.

Song of the Day and other Ramblings

I'm going to start with the Song of the Day because I'm listening to it right now. Today's song of the day is from Veggie Tales. If you haven't seen Veggie Tales, I highly recommend it. They have some good messages and they have these things called Silly Songs. Today's song is one of those Silly Songs. It's by Larry, yeah, he's a cucumber. The song is called Endangered Love. Basically Larry is in love with a "soap opera" type character on tv. Her name is Barbara Manitee. He even has a stuffed animal of her that he dances with during the video. Anyway, Veggie Tales ROCK! They are so funny.

The All New Get Off Your A$$ Program

I believe it was on a previous blog where I commented on the lack of sports knowledge of a lot of the general circulation kids these days. There are those that still play sports and are part of the "jock" clique, but not generally your run-of-the-mill boy that plays sports. I've seen this quite too often and has happened more in the last few years more than at any other time in the history of our country.

Now, this isn't a knowledge of how the game works, but is a knowledge of actually how to play. They may tell you when you ask the about baseball for example, that someone throws the ball, another person tries to hit it over the fense. If they hit it at all, they are to try to run the bases while the other team tries to get the ball and touch them with it. General synopsis and most people are familiar with this concept. HOWEVER, how many have experience hitting the ball, throwing the ball or running the bases? Now, take that number and minus out the people who have only done those things on video games and how many are left? Then, take out those that are general "jock" types who are not in it for the big dollar$. Not many. A lot less than when I was a kid.

Football, baseball, basketball, and any other ball sport you could think of when you were younger (if you are at least 25+ years old) were popular when we were kids. Saturday and Sunday afternoons during spring/summer we specially designed specifically for this purpose. Riding bikes, playing at the school, flying kites, and how many other things did we used to do when we were kids. We used to run around and play army if the mood struck us right. Now, they have a video game for just about all of that. I haven't seen one for kite flying but just about everything else has been covered in one respect or another so that you can do all that stuff in front of the television. AND it makes it look easier than it really is!!!!!

So, now with the long explanation, I've instituted the "Get Off Your A$$ America" Program. This program is designed to do just as it suggests, get off your lazy, tv watchin', potato chip munchin', video game playin' butts and move something other than your eyes and remote fingers! Play baseball, football, catch, tennis.... Go bike riding, hiking, walking, running, etc. Go learn new sports! If those listed above don't suit your fancy, I've seen people playing lacrosse (which sounds French but can be quite a cool game, even if it is French.) Work in the yard, go to the park, fly a kite, walk the dog (if you don't have one, you can borrow one of mine for a while, lease and all.)

There are a lot of trails through out the Salt Lake Valley that are really neat and fun to go on. It doesn't cost much other than gas to get there in the first place but can be a good family outing. The Jordan Trail has quite a long strech that you can walk as much of as you want. You can almost walk from Rose Park to Riverton along the Jordan. Not sure how far south it goes but could be an adventure to find out.

If gun-play is your sort of thing, take up skeet shooting or rabbit hunting. OR even paper hunting (shooting targets if you haven't figured that out.) Don't have a gun? I'm sure you know someone that does. Not sure where to go? Those with guns usually do. SO.... This is a wake-up call!!!!! GET OFF YOUR A$$ AMERICA!!!!!!!

Thanks for listening.

Next program... "Are you REALLY sure you want to eat that? Healthy eating vs. Junk Food." Until next time....