My Ramblings

Book Reviews

2010-10-18T08:40:00.002-06:00

I've been meaning to do a book review or twenty for a couple years now. It started with reading Artimes Fowl by Eoin Colfer and wanting to warn others away from the book. So here is a string of micro reviews. I might break it down into a few posts.

Artimes Fowl (book 1) by Eoin Colfer - Great premise and interesting characters for an urban fantasy comedy but what I want to know is where was the editor? A good story was crippled with countless viewpoint errors. You would start the scene in one character's head and in the middle shift to a second, or even a third, and no, I don't think the author was aiming for third person omniscient. Also the story would jump forward and backward in time as scenes changed leaving one having to mentally break from the actual reading just to try and figure out "when" you were as well as where and with which viewpoint character. It kept pulling me out of the narrative of what otherwise was an interesting story.

The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - I loved these books. This is dark and edgy epic fantasy at it's finest. The characters are well rounded and likeable. There are huge world changing twists and turns in every book and the magic is truly unique. The story tackles the question of what if the farmboy hero takes his journey and loses, becoming the evil dark lord. It focuses on a man bent on bringing down the dark lord and the entire system by creating a religion centered on himself, and focuses on a distrustful teenaged girl who gets pulled into believing his plan just might work. If you like supernatural kung fu you'll love the metals based magic system called allomancy which allows mistings and mistborn to ingest certain alloys and be able to push and pull on everything from metallic objects to peoples emotions. These books contained truly unique magic and magical creatures. Elves and dwarves need not apply.

Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do by Tom Vanderbilt - This is a delightful read about the task so many of do each day and seldom think about. Why do people slow down to to look at accidents? Why does it feel like the other lane is always faster than your own? Why do we drive the way we do? This book explores one of the most common activities we engage in, driving, in a fun yet educational way. I recommend this to anyone who has ever found themselves in a traffic jam wondering what created it when by the time they get out there was no visible cause of the jam.

Stay tuned for more micro-reviews!

The Family Just Got Bigger

2010-09-26T21:27:00.004-06:00

Sorry I'm posting this a few days late. Helping with diaper changes and wondering if your baby is eating enough tends to push general announcements to the back of my mind. But anyway, I'm sure many in the family, particularly those who are too far away to visit have been dying to get a look at the new addition to the family. Well here she is.

Not to boast or anything, but she was the cutest one in the whole hospital because she was sporting the new female version of the Fall 2010 Talmage Signature Series hair style. All natural, no infant toupee, or hair treatment formulas were required for this authentic look.

On Heroism

2010-06-20T08:16:00.002-06:00

So I just finished writing my latest book and was discussing it with a coworker of mine. I may have written my first true tragedy. Instead of ending the book on a wedding, as seems to be a common theme in my stories (maybe I'm a hopeless romantic), the protagonist dies, and not even in a glorious way, sick, alone, and facing an antagonist that through the story becomes increasingly sympathetic to the reader (who also loses everything in the end).

If someone is dying anyway from a terminal illness, is it heroic to die fighting for some great cause? One argument from my coworker was that it is better to live to save others another day than to save someone once and not be able to do more good because you're dead. Save someone today, someone else tomorrow, and save another the day after that. It's better than saving someone today and not being able to save any more.

But if you're dying anyway, you won't have any tomorrows or the day afters to save others. You have today and only today. We concluded that to die having done nothing is far less heroic than to die trying to help. In the end, it is not the hero who decides whether they were heroic, it is decided by those saved. In fact, one could argue that it is more heroic to not believe in your own heroism.

I heard a statement that said, the difference between bravery and insanity is that the brave were afraid but did the dangerous thing anyway. Those that don't understand or care about the danger, are not brave but crazy or stupid. Heroism tends to tie into bravery. The hero is the one who didn't want to, was afraid to, but did the right thing anyway, even though it was hard.

Skate or Die, 720, or Please Just Don't Break Anything!

2010-06-20T07:31:00.006-06:00

So we have the DB for the summer and felt we should enroll him in some fancy pantsy youth program to keep him entertained and build some skills of some sort. The first thought was more swim lessons. Then we got a flyer with our utility bill for summer programs and, right there among everything else, was Skate Camp!

"Ah ha!" I exclaimed as I heard the choir of angels sing in the background. "He'll love it and it'll be way more gnarly than that silly swim thing!" So we signed him up. In a way this was vicarious wish fulfillment for me as I loved skating as a kid and not just the video games from the 1980s (Skate Or Die and 720).

We dragged him over to the city's skate park on the first day with brand new gleaming pads and helmet and a five dollar skateboard from the second hand store. He had a good time learning the basics in his first class but none of the "cool tricks".

In his next class, he got a different teacher who informed us that his five dollar second hand skateboard was junk. They lent him one of the school's boards and it was night and day. He wasn't fighting it and could do much more.

The next day he added to his now slightly scuffed up pads and helmet, a totally rad new skateboard from the local skate shop. Everything from the bearings to the trucks to the deck were vast improvements over a wally world reject dropped off at D.I..
So yesterday, I took him to the skate park for some practice time and he was ripping it up in the bowl when I got this crazy idea that I could be a gnarly skater dad since I had skated on lousy wally world boards (sorry Mom, I really liked them at the time. I promise) as a kid too.

So I dropped into the bowl with my son's board and nearly broke my arms while the DB and a couple other kids watched. Dads need pads too... and maybe skate lessons.

Discussing it with the 12 year old Tony Hawk, he said that he wished the skate park had a bubble in the winter, like swimming pools, so he could skate year round because, everyone forgets some of their skating skills over the winter. I had a good twenty of those to forget how to skate, as if I was every any good to begin with. Going to the mall and back isn't exactly a half-pipe. Despite nearly killing myself and being totally outclassed by little kids a third my age, I had a blast on the first actually good board our family has ever owned (sorry again, Mom).

Watching my son go from having to stop the board and turn it with his hands to making smooth 180 kickturns in the bowl made me proud. He is working hard and getting better all the time!

So if you're wondering where we'll be, find us at the skate park practicing our fakie vertical 360 kick flips. I'll just have to get some pads before I try that one though... and a better life insurance policy. The kid, he's made of rubber, he'll survive anything.

Catch ya on the flip side dudes!

You don't see this on your odometer every day!

2010-03-06T11:09:00.004-07:00

This last Wednesday, on my way to work, Sippy the Wonder Saturn reached this magic mile and I had my camera ready and here it is, 222,222 miles! Maybe I'll get another picture when we reach 234,567 miles.

I Love My Dog

2009-09-10T20:53:00.002-06:00

After taking care of two other dogs in the last few weeks, I have come to realize that my dog is actually quite a nice little guy. Right now he's sleeping on the couch next to me being all cute.

Love Her

2009-02-14T07:03:00.005-07:00

Thanks Eliza for the idea. I'm copying it.

How and where did you meet your wife?

We met online through an LDS dating website. We were both about to give up on the the site and the idea that it could find us anyone too. It's a good thing we didn't give up!

What was your first date?

Dinner at a park and then an outdoor movie at another park (The remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, weird flick). It was on my birthday in 2006. I didn't know why but I felt like I really should ditch my family on my own birthday. It turned out that it was a great idea. I met the woman of my dreams that day.

Our second date was on her birthday, a week later. We helped her get refreshments for her own birthday bash and went to the grand opening of the pixar movie Cars.

When and how did you know she was the girl you wanted to marry?

I think I knew by the time of our ice cream parlor date sometime in the late summer. She wasn't so sure yet. The funny thing was we hadn't kissed yet.

When and where did you first kiss?

She was beginning to wonder if I really loved her because we had been dating steadily for months and I hadn't kissed her yet. It was a full week since the conversation where she demanded that I either kiss her or stop pretending to like her. We had gone to our second Real Salt Lake game and at the end we kissed on her porch. It was quick and short.

Who said I love you first?

I don't remember. I knew I wanted to get married before she did but I don't know who said the magic phrase, "I love you" first.

How long did you date before you got married?

Six months to day.

How did you propose?

Technically, on I-15 zipping along at 80 mph toward Malad Idaho for a family dinner at my sister's house. We didn't even slow down.

Officially, I had planned to propose on an early morning hot air balloon ride in Park City. Due to poor weather, I ended up taking her to breakfast at the Waffle House in Salt Lake and proposed in front of the building. Not quite as romantic. Plan B could have used a little more attention.

How long have you been married?

Two years, two months, and twelve days.

What does she do to surprise you?

I don't know. Otherwise it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?

What is her favorite color?

Silver. She likes silver things.

What is your favorite feature of hers?

She has a beautiful smile but I have to admit that I really like her um... mammary organs. Yeah, I'm a guy.

What are your favorite qualities?

I love her testimony and that she works so hard at her callings, even when they stress her out. I like that she is down to earth and practical. I also like that she is madly in love with me even though I'm not always sure why.

Does she have a nickname for you?

She calls me "T". I think it's cute, it's better than some of my Junior high nicknames I had like "Speedy" and ""Crazy".

What is her favorite food?

I'd have to say sweets, particularly if chocolate is involved.

What is her favorite sport?

Cycling is her favorite. She'll even do it in the cold of winter. Brrr!!!! I suspect if she had a horse she'd also be doing rodeo things like barrel racing. And she likes paintball which delights me to no end.

What is her favorite music?

Country music and church music.

What is your favorite thing to do as a couple?

I don't think there's any one thing because most everything we do together is nicer than doing it alone. I like reading together, playing paintball together, cycling together, and doing ...um... married couple things... together.

How old is she?

Exactly one week younger than me, to the day.

What do you admire most about her?

I'd say her testimony and passion for the gospel. It makes getting through life so much easier when you can share it with someone who loves her savior, follows his prophets, and makes the effort to make an eternal marriage work. She inspires me.

It Feels Good To Be Running Again

2009-02-03T20:37:00.002-07:00

As the New year rolled around, I reviewed my bucket list and resolutions for the year. The longer I waited, the harder running a marathon would get. So I started working out!

I plan to run in the Salt Lake Half Marathon in April and the Ogden Marathon in May. I've got a long way to go as I've built up years of not quite exercising enough. I'm a little over three weeks into it and I already feel much better. My inner high school cross country runner is beginning to stretch his legs again. I'm so excited!

Hamlet - Strange Brew Style

2008-12-31T18:49:00.003-07:00

Right now we are watching the 80s classic Strange Brew to wile the time away until the New Year. And it just hit me, the plot is a rip off of Shakespear's Hamlet!

Pamela Elsenore is Hamlet Junior and her father was killed and her uncle married her mother, just like in Hamlet. And like in Hamlet she fakes insanity while trying to prove that her uncle did it.

Bob and Doug McKenzy (Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis) fill the role of Rozencrantz and Guildenstern, the bumbling fools of the play... except that they don't die.

The former pro hockey player guy fits the roll of Horatio in some parts and Ophelia in others (Pamela's love interest).

Pamela's father's old friend and confidant is Polonius.

Her mother is Gertrude and her uncle is Claudius of course.

The creepy doctor/criminal mastermind could either also fill the Cladius role or perhaps the role of Fortinbras, the prince of Norway plotting against Denmark and the Hamlet family.

The old videos of her father and the wierd electro ghost stuff match the ghost of Hamlet Senior.

And to top it off, Elsinore Beer, the brewery that the whole story revolves around is named after Elsinore, the castle in Denmark where much of the play, Hamlet takes place.

And for all these years I thought it was just a silly romp about a pair of witless Canadian brothers and their favorite vice. I do not condone drinking and in fact encourage everyone to stay away from alcohol, period.

Well the movie finished at about the time I finished this blog and now we're watching The Right Stuff.

A Good Day For Paintball

2008-10-19T18:37:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, I took a friend paintballing for his first time. We were the first ones at the field so we did a walk around of the field and then played a 1 on 1 game. Naturally, I won. After the game, more people arrived and we did bigger groups. My poor friend got shot a lot but he liked it anyway.

I was pleased to see so many pumps at the field. I would have had my WGP Sniper II (a pump) myself but the cupseal is bad so the valve leaks. I plan on getting that fixed soon. Instead, I played with my Automag and fourty round hopper to limit my paint consumption.

The weather was perfect, the players were fair and honest, I had a two to one elimination ratio, and a good time was had by all. It would have been even better if my wife wasn't feeling so sick and could play too. She had a good time at this same field last week.

The Habit and Ten Things On My Mind

2008-09-28T19:02:00.003-06:00

In an effort to blog more regularly, I'm trying to make it a habit. Since I couldn't come up with anything, my sister recommended just putting up ten random things on my mind so here goes decimal randomness.

1) If you force yourself to blog regularly, then it becomes a habit and your friends and family appreciate it.
2) Dentists are weird because they always talk to you and ask you questions about your life while they have their tools in your mouth and you can't respond.
3) The parts of your brain that deal with your wants and your happiness are two separate places. We really are hardwired to want things we know will make us miserable.
4) I meant to post on my other blog about the saturday we were in Sugarhouse and saw six Subaru Bajas and how we decided to name the day Baja Day.
5) If your wife is happy, it's a lot easier to be happy yourself.
6) For writing as many books as I have, I should probably submit some of them to get published. If I don't I'll never be a published author.
7) I really love my family. They're wonderful people. I like being with them.
8) Sometimes, conversations going on around you distract you from the task of blogging.
9) I have really cute nieces and nephews.
10) Hey, I made it and it wasn't that hard.

The Magic Of A Clouded Skye

2008-09-21T09:19:00.002-06:00

From reading and listening to other writers on the subject of magic, a few common rules should be considered for the magic in any story.

1) Magic should never be free. There should always be a cost to magic.
2) All aspects of the world should take into consideration the magic of that world, economic, technological, or social.
3) Magic should have an underlying structure or philosophy. You don't have to tell the reader the rules of how it works but you have to have thought it up.
4) Avoid using magic as 'deus ex machina' within the story. Don't cheapen the protagonists' struggles and triumphs with it.

The magic of "A Clouded Skye" is not free. There are physical limitations and social ramifications. Skye gains the ability to hear the "heartsongs" of living things which are the harmonies and rhythms of all life. She also gained the ability to tap into the "Mist" which is the uncreated potential of the world. She soon learns two things about the magic of her world. One is that channeling and focusing the Mist to create something is very exhausting. Two is that she is rather tone deaf and has a hard time learning music, as her former music instructor Jacek would attest to. Socially, many humans fear magic and things of the mist. This is especially true in the old country, which has had more time and distance between it and the parts of the world still covered and shaped by the mist.

The magic of "A Clouded Skye" is related to the magic of the preceding Paradise Season stories. The Paradise Season stories take place in the same world but much later than Skye's story. In those stories, the heartsong was the major focal point. The mist had receded to the point where the magic was weaker but more sophisticated and everywhere. In "A Clouded Skye", the Mist is not yet exhausted from the world so the magic is more powerful but less understood. Fewer people understand or use it. Its close proximity but lack of understanding to the people of the world make the magic more greatly feared whereas in the Paradise Season stories it is a more commonly accepted part of life.

The mist and heartsongs are part of a universal underlying structure to the world. Some of it gets explained in the story but some of it may not. The faerie queen Ellana mentions that she was escaping a great calamity from another world. Although she doesn't elaborate more, the Mist ties into how multiple worlds exist in the setting. Picture it as the sea between many islands. Somehow the faerie queen took herself and many of her children from one world to Skye's. Just for fun, I think of wacky multi-world things from time to time. One of these days I should write a Sliders-esque world jumping story sometime.

Although magic helps Skye in the story, the magic she or her faerie friends wield does not just happen to solve all their problems for her. In fact it probably creates just as many problems as it solves. Remember, Skye is tone deaf and her ability to manipulate the heartsongs of plants is inconsistent at best.

I hope you enjoyed these revelations on the Magic of a Clouded Skye. And if you haven't guessed it yet, there is link between the Mist and the title of the book.

A Clouded Skye

2008-09-20T19:52:00.002-06:00

“Right, then, anything I should know about Prince Junior the Second?”

“He likes hunting and fencing. It makes him feel manly. If you want him to really like you, pretend to be interested.”

“I’m always looking for a good sword master to teach me to use this blade of mine,” I said patting my sheathed rusty sword. “I spent a winter with a man who was a swordsmith. He made fine ones and taught me a few basics. He said that since I tended to wander off and get into trouble, I should learn how to protect myself.”

“Have you ever had to use it against someone?” Ora asked.

“I’ve scared off a few would-be thieves with it. But it didn’t impress the bear.”

“The bear?” she asked.

“Yeah, I was traveling alone near Crescent Bay and a bear was attracted to the smell of food in my pack. It seemed rather indifferent toward the sword but quite insistent about the food. Rather than fight for it, I just let the bear have it. I haven’t had much luck with food generally.”

Just a small excerpt from the latest book I'm writing about a girl named Skye Natala. Born with a mismatched pair of eyes, she managed to stumble her way into a blood pact with a faerie queen to become her world's first elf. The story is about her adventures, or as is often the case, misadventures. Unlike several of my previous works, this one is a more lighthearted tale involving a tone deaf music student (Skye), inept highway robbers, a big red dragon named Clifford and more.

The original character concept was part of a role playing game being developed and play-tested with my friends Dave and Paul. The game ended prematurely as real life got in the way for the three of us, but the character lived on in the back of my mind. At one point, I rendered an image of Skye using DAZ 3D studio, a freeware 3D rendering program (the picture above).

I later wrote a short Story called Paradise Winter about an elf whose human husband had aged and was about to die while she continued on in immortality. It was followed up by the longer stories, Paradise Spring, Paradise Dawn, and Paradise Day. In Paradise Day (an incomplete work at this time), the main character actually gets to meet the oldest elf, the "Eve" of elves, Skye Natala. When writing that story, I knew that Skye needed her own story told. And thus began "A Clouded Skye".

With a blog, I realized I could probably share some of the thought process that goes into the creation of a story. It may be of interest to some people. One of my nieces is an avid writer herself. This post should be just the first of many (if I can actually get myself to blog on a regular basis).

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

2008-08-20T08:17:00.002-06:00

I had this dream that I was getting ready for a paintball game with a friend and found out that I was out of air. I decided to hurry to a local paintball shop to refill my tank but by the time I got there, they were closing and wouldn't do anything for me. I ended up leaving and going to someone's house and picked up tree trimmings and stuffed them in my car. I have no idea what the tree trimmings were for.

The dream then kind of shifted to this weird 1930s aviation thing (kind of Crimson Skies-esque) with all of these fanciful airplanes shooting each other down, just for fun. And then I noticed that the biggest plane was being picked on and flown by my friend I had left at the paintball field. I wasn't up there in the sky to help him, so I picked up a black shiny rock off the ground and was taken back in time to the critical day of when I decided not to go into flying with him.

It was some time in the 1910s or something and I was at a county fair. I was bringing airplane parts to my friend for our wooden monoplane with thin transparent wings. We were going to do a demonstration at the fair later in the day. I went into the school gym and found some other friends sliding on an impromptu ice rink made inside.

And that is when I woke up. An odd little dream with rather beautiful airplanes in it. I'm always good for a few good (or bad) dream interpretations. Feel free to leave a comment if you know what it means.

To Everything There Is A Season And A Time To Every Purpose Under Heaven

2008-07-19T14:14:00.002-06:00

I always liked that scripture. Yesterday, I stumbled across a book that my brother had on time. It was "The Geography of Time" by somebody or other and he'll probably do a 42nd page on it if he hasn't already. Anyway, it made me think about my time.

Every weekday morning, I wake up at 5:50am and get ready for work ...that is unless I hit the snooze button. Then I get 5 more minutes of sleep, as if that will really make a difference in how tired I feel. I head out the door by 6:40 and drive 50 minutes to work, unless there's a big accident or the weather is bad, then it can be much longer. I work 8 hours and then I drive for another hour to get home again. When I'm home I still might have work to to do as I'm almost always on-call these days.

My day is dictated in precise increments of time that can be measured and dissected. I live my life on clock-time. Whenever anything takes me off course from the planned events of my day, I feel out of balance and irritable. Even planned events not of my choosing can bother me.

In two days, I will be hopping in a car and heading to Lava Hot Springs. In that tiny corner of Idaho, I step out of clock-time and into the world of event-time. I sleep when I want, wake when I want, eat when I want, swim when I want, tube when I want. Time is still measured in days but instead of hours and minutes, the day is subdivided by the ending of one activity and the beginning of the other.

I read in the book that hunter-gatherer societies typically work 15 to 20 hours a week. The rest is spent in leisure, often just napping and staying out of the hot midday sun. Nobles and peasants alike in the middle ages had about 115 holidays a year. That is nearly a third of the year spent kicking back and having a good time!

My year is filled with a lot more hours of work than that. Beginning to hypermile has helped reduce my stress, at least during my commute. I take the drive home much more casually now. When I get back from my short reprieve from the real world, I will begin working a compressed work schedule, probably four sets of ten hour days and an extra day off during the week.

What will I do with that extra day? Probably housework, gardening, and the like. Maybe I'll work on sewing and selling custom paintball soft-goods. My clock-time centered perspective fears that I'll squander much of that day in unproductivity, a very American perspective.

Our time is perceived to be so valuable that we must either be productively earning money with our time or engage in "productive leisure" activities like cycling or painting. Just sitting and meditating or doing nothing is considered time wasted. Maybe those people in Nepal are onto something. Time is never wasted to them. Even doing nothing is actually doing something with the time.

I guess on my sabbatical next week, I will have plenty of time to meditate on what to do with the extra day off from work I'll start getting. And I'll consider it time well spent.

The Evolution of the Fork

2008-06-13T18:32:00.002-06:00

So my dear wife and I were talking the other day about forks and I came to an epiphany. They are descended from spoons which in turn descended from sticks! You can tell because sticks over time evolved into big wooden spoons. Then the spoons started growing prongs, passed through the spork stage, and became true forks as we know them today. The image below shows several sporks (sporkus pokus) in varying degrees of evolution, the center one (F108) being the closest to the forkus prongus or modern fork. The left most (JM101) is actually a neo sporkus pokus or proto-spork.

I Love You Mom!

2008-05-11T20:44:00.002-06:00

My siblings have already written great tributes to our mother. All I can add is that she truly is an angel here on earth. Her selflessness and charity is without measure. The eight of us kids couldn't scare her away from her motherly nature. She continues to give to us, to our own children, and to all of the children she tends day in and day out.

I remember my sister and I finding a bottle of vitamin C tablets and eating them like candy. When Mom came home from wherever it was she had gone, she took care of us as we threw up into the big green bowl that she reserved for her sick children. There were many times where she would bring out that bowl and lovingly give us sprite or saltine crackers till we felt better.

She was always there and encouraging us to succeed and try things. There was nothing we couldn't do because we had Mom backing us all the way. She helped me learn my times-tables so I wouldn't flunk third grade. Thanks to her I passed and later passed my AP Calculus exam to springboard me into my college education.

Thanks Mom, I love you!

My New Blog

2008-05-11T20:37:00.002-06:00

I have created a new blog, http://lifefreallyisahighway.blogspot.com/ for my automotive and fuel economy posts. I just created it today so there's not much there yet. I'll make it better soon.

For mother's day I gave my wife a scooter. Pics and other spiffy stuff coming soon. Stay tuned and happy Mothers Day to my wife and my mom and my mother-in-law! I love you all!

The 50 MPG Mark Has Been Passed!

2008-04-12T17:06:00.000-06:00

With the weather warming up, finally getting several dry days, and plenty of freeway driving, I have been able to pass my goal of a 50 mile per gallon tank of gas. This afternoon I filled up with 3.922 gallons of gas after driving 207 miles. The total mileage? 52.78 MPG!!!!! My new goal will be to reach a 55 mpg tank.

My lifetime mileage since I began measuring on March 10th is 46.52 mpg (2896 miles and 62.25 gallons). All in a Saturn Sedan that has had no modifications to increase fuel economy. Imagine what I could do in a Prius!

Man's Best Friend

2008-03-30T08:17:00.000-06:00

Last night I heard our neighbor's hound dog howling in the cool darkness of spring. As I heard his aging whine, I smiled. We haven't heard as much of him through the winter because the poor old dog has spent most of it inside. Now he can spend more time outside again.

I've wondered about the high strung sort of people who get upset at other people's pets if they even sniff in the wrong direction. To me the sound of barking dogs is part of the urban human experience. It tells me that all of us, human and dog (and I suppose cats too even though they don't make as much noise), are all part of the same large pack. We depend on each other for survival, friendship, and happiness.

The dog has been one of the earliest animals our ancestors domesticated. After thousands of years, its clear that they are worth keeping, drooling, barking, and shedding included. Rather than get upset by the noisy four legged creatures, enjoy their presence. They love us unconditionally, despite all of our own faults and things we do that annoy them. Let's cut the dogs around us some slack too. Lets be best friends.

Wor of mighty

2008-03-28T19:04:00.000-06:00

Out ssshshsh

Ball a ttack

it,s the Super heros!

Saving Gas and Turning Heads Doing It.

2008-03-27T21:20:00.000-06:00

Wouldn't it be nice to drive one of these?

Its a Carver and was invented by a Dutch company. The American version will be called the Venture One and will come in hybrid or all electric versions. And here's a news clip showing it in action.

An electric motorcycle with an airbag! Sweet!

PS - I got 49.6 mpg on my last tank of gas! I'm this close to passing the 50 mpg mark in a Saturn the EPA rates at 33.

Life is a Highway... Part 3.5 or Something

2008-03-16T11:48:00.000-06:00

This week I began hypermiling in my 1998 Saturn SL2. It is yet another spinoff of my interest in reducing fuel costs and finding alternative energy transportation. I decided to try it after reading an article in Reader's Digest at my mom's house last Sunday.

The results of my first try was a whopping 46.27 mpg in a car the EPA estimates at 33 mpg highway! I did this in heavy rush hour freeway traffic with frequent slow pockets, occasional stop and go, and freeway speeds.

Wayne Gerdes coined the term recently but the techniques have been used by some in the lean times of World War II and the oil crisis in the 1970s.

How does hypermiling work? It begins by understanding that the EPA (actually the manufacturer of the vehicle in most cases) runs a bunch of tests that "simulate" what the "average" driver will do in city streets and on the freeway. The tests include stops and starts and high speed driving with the AC on and off. Hypermilers throw out all of the "average" driver habits.

Hard acceleration wastes gas. Hard braking wastes gas. Driving faster than the speed limit wastes gas. Aerodynamic drag increases by the square of your velocity and as a function of your aerodynamic drag coefficient (based on shape of the car). Most cars are at their most efficient somewhere in the 45-55 mph range. Most drivers try to go at 70 or 75 these days.

You can then add in other tricks such as giving extra space to the car in front of you and coasting when everyone else starts braking. Stopping further back at a stop light on a hill so you can coast-start when the light turns green. There are all kinds of little tricks. A good resource for hypermilers is cleanmpg.com.

The cool thing about hypermiling is that you don't have to "DO" anything to your car other than treat it more gently. Your brakes and engine will last longer. And it won't take you that much longer to get there than you think. Despite driving slower, I don't really add more than about 5 or 10 minutes on a 33.5 mile trip.

Now if I only lived closer to work...

The Smart Fortwo Test Drive

2008-03-10T19:22:00.000-06:00

Last week, while getting onto I-15 at 5th South in Bountiful, an adorable little blue car from Europe passed me. I was delighted to see the Smart car finally had finally arrived in America (not counting grey market imports).

I looked up the car online and discovered that they had a dealership in Lindon. We had to pick up our son in Orem anyway so my wife and I swung by and gave it a test drive.

First impressions? Tiny on the outside and roomy on the inside. There is plenty of room for tall and big people. When the dealership lady gave me my turn to drive it, I had to scoot the driver seat IN to reach the pedals (I really do have the family short legs)!

How does it ride? It feels like a normal car. You forget that there is only a few more feet of car in front or behind you. It accelerates and corners nicely at city speeds (never took it on the freeway) and the specs indicate that it can go 0-60 in 12 seconds with a top speed of 90mph. It didn't feel underpowered in the driving I took it through.

The shifting was certainly something else. The transmission is an automated manual transmission (or as I call it automanualmatic). You can drive it in automatic mode or manual mode. In manual mode, you can shift it up or down from either the shift lever between the seats or from the two finger paddles on the steering column. It is a clutchless transmission so there is no third pedal to press. You simply ease up on the gas momentarily and pull gently on the paddles or use the more traditional gear shift lever. It was certainly new to me.

So is it worth it? It depends. The base model costs about 12,000 and the deluxe convertable model is about 16,000. You get 40mpg but it needs premium gasoline. If you want a cute sporty car for less than a Mini-Cooper then this car will certainly by a fun second or third car. As a commuter vehicle it can get the job done with pretty good mileage and parking should be easy to find. It comes with driver and passenger front and side airbags and meets Europes 4 star crash ratings and the USA's 3 star crash ratings. Despite its size it is safe enough.

Is it for me? I'm going to have to say that although I loved driving it, I'm going to pass. For a car its size, it should be getting (but does not get) closer to 45-50 mpg, at least, and I would rather be able to put regular unleaded into it to reduce the cost. If I wanted an economical two seater, I could look for things like a used Mazda Miata or if going for the fuel angle, a used Honda Insight (70 mpg). My current car gets almost the same mileage (32-35 mpg) as the Smart Fortwo in 4 cylinders and 5 passengers. In a few years I wouldn't mind getting a used one to play with unless the Tata Nano makes it to America and keeps the projected $2,500 price tag.

I really hope to see more of these on the roads because we do need to get over our nothing but an SUV mindset. I also hope to see other manufacturers building cars in this class. Drive safe everybody!

Rescuing a Wayward Horse

2008-02-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, when the weather was still warm and the snow almost all melted, Louise and I went for a bike a ride. We didn't get very far from our house when we found cars stopping and a police officer and another guy trying to get a horse out of the street.

Louise pedaled home and got her lasso from her rodeo and cattle branding days. We got the rope around the stubborn animal's neck and I pulled while Louise pushed from behind. The other guy cajoled it along with grass while the police guy tried opening up the hole in the fence to make it easier to get back in.

I am thankful the horse didn't bite or kick any of us. By the time we almost had it back to the hole in the fence another police officer had shown up. We had to shoo another horse away from the hole before our big project would go back in.

Once in we closed up the hole while the other two horses chased the one that escaped and biting him (or her) on the rump. We suspect that is how it got out in the first place. It was being picked on by the others, got cornered, accidentally crashed through the fence, and then got away with the lucky event. We hope they all play nice now.

Life is a Highway... Part II

2008-02-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

A friend of my sister's brought up a few interesting articles about the cost/benefit analysis of driving hybrids (see comments to my Life is a Highway... post). They still cost more.

I am aware of the cost issues and have been doing some thorough analysis of my wife and I's actual vehicle usage specs as apposed to consumer and industry averages. I'm an analyst for a living after all.

We hope to have a baby soon and one of our two vehicles (Chevy S10) gets poor mileage and doesn't allow seating for infant car seats. The Chevy S10 is still in working order but is getting long in years and maintenance costs will eventually exceed use benefit value.

Our plan would be to give the existing higher fuel efficient vehicle (Saturn Sedan) to her and replace the S10 pickup with another fuel efficient vehicle for my longer commute and extended family road trips. We will be needing the vehicle soon anyway as the truck wears out.

One of the things I found interesting that was not covered in the cost benefit analysis offered in the articles in the comments section, is the depreciation value of the hybrid over time vs the traditional engine equivelent.

My own research indicates that the value holds up overall. For example, a new 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid is about 20,000 while its traditional equivelent is about 16,000. A 2003 Civic Hybrid has depreciated to about 11,000-13,000 (55%-%65 over new) while the traditional 2003 Civic has depreciated to 8,000-10,000 (%50-%62.5 over new). The difference is still about 4000 dollars. Hybrids are holding their value over the long term, even slightly better than their traditional counterparts. Individual models and conditions can modify these numbers but these were the trends I found.

Now for the results of comparing the current operational costs of our Chevy S10 and our Saturn SL1 vs our Saturn SL1 and a Hybrid, or the Saturn and another traditional economy car. I am assuming the new vehicle is either a Honda Civic Hybrid or a Standard Civic.

Without Tax breaks for clean vehicles:
Hybrid over current vehicle usage becomes less expensive within 4 years (not accounting for potential growing maintenance on the Chevy which would make it even less time).
Hybrid over another newer traditional vehicle becomes less expensive within 5 or 6 years.

With Tax breaks for the clean vehicle, those numbers drop by about a year.
Hybrid over current cars become less expensive within 3 years.
Hybrid over newer traditional car becomes less expensive with 4 or 5 years.

If you plan on driving the hybrid for less than 5 years, it is not cost effective. I plan on driving it for as long as it can safely run, or until a much better one comes along, at which point its resale value is still higher than its traditional counter part.

Other reasons to purchase the Hybrid over the traditional vehicle besides fuel economy are as follows:
1. It is greener (Anna would be so proud of me). We all breath the same air and frankly, the Salt Lake Valley needs all the help it can get to have breathable air.
2. It is cooler. The early adopters can brag about their better mileage and how awesome their new technology is. Isn't that how the SUV craze began? To one up the Joneses.
3. Reduce dependence on foreign oil, or oil in general. Its in our national security interest... or something like that.
4. Promote the auto industry to continue manufacturing more fuel efficient cars and alternatives to gas hogs.

If you care about any of those reasons up to a 4,000 dollar value, it is a better deal (to you) than the same car with a traditional engine.

In conclusion, and with apologies for the length of the post, we won't be making this purchase for at least another 10 to 12 months. In the meantime we will be saving our money for it. We will never buy a brand new car, unless its in the price range of a $2,500 Tata Nano. It will be used. Enough years have passed since the introduction of the hybrids to allow a good used car market to exist. We will be busy saving our money and sell the truck in a private sale since dealers rip you off. We will pay cash for the new car which gives us all of the bargaining chips over the dealer and avoid the hidden cost called interest.

Disclaimer: All of this is my plan. My wife's plan involves more 4x4 offroad capability and lower resulting fuel economy. Many babies can be rocked to sleep with a pleasant car ride through steep rocky hills and mountain gorges.

Drive safe everyone so Mater don't have to pull ya out the ravine.

Life is a Highway...

2008-02-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

...And I want to drive it all night long in a nice fuel economic car. My Saturn seems to do pretty good in the mileage department for a standard 20th century sedan. Then the other night I got to looking for an affordable super fuel efficient vehicle.

My findings? For $12,000 we could do a full electric conversion on my Saturn, or even my wife's Chevy S10 pickup.

For $2500 I could get a Tata Nano (assuming they'll let it come to America). The world's cheapest new car and it boasts 47mpg! Unfortunately, the radio and air conditioning are extra. But it can do freeway speeds! Barely.

Its not as fuel efficient as the fully electric Corbin Sparrow (see below) but at least it holds more than one passenger.

Maybe I should spend a little extra and get a used Honda Civic Hybrid or Toyota Prius. That would be less complicated. Anyway, my car's not dead yet so I have time to ponder the matter.

Poetry From The Deep Dark Dusty Archives Of My Youth

2008-01-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

So, I was doing some cleaning and organizing around my house and found some of my old school papers. As I read the old poetry I wrote for English class I thought of my dear sister Rachael who is quite a poet herself.

I think most of these were written in either my Junior or Senior year of high school. This should compliment the Duct Tape poem I wrote more recently.

Talmage's Huck Finn Shrinklet
River Lad
Escapes from Dad,
Builds a raft,
and meets many people daft.
Enters a feud
of two families crude.
Meets a duke and a king.
They can't act, they can't sing.
His friend Tom he did see.
And poor ol' Jim they set free.

A pair of Haikus
The wind speaks softly
The trees whisper in reply
The wind sighs and weeps.

Dreaming about grass
The gentle cow weeps alone
In a field of Mud.

Mirror (A Pertrarchan Sonnet)
I stared into the glass I had.
I saw a face like mine
With tangled messy hair that didn't look fine,
Droopy eyes, and pajama clad.

I brushed my teeth
I combed my hair
He combed his hair
He brushed his teeth

This funny looking guy
kept mimicking me.
I waved my toothbrush and said "Hi."
He kept mimicking I could see.
To get a better look I rubbed my eye,
The funny looking guy was me.

There's more. When I get some more time, I'll put those up too.

Everybody loves Wacom

2008-01-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

If you're ever the not popular kid, just get a really cool toy and then everyone will want to play with you. Not really but at my brother's house, my new drawing tablet was certainly well received. Below are some of the works of art that came of the visit.

The first is "A Day at Work" by my nephew Caleb. The second is "Puppy" by my wife Louise. Third is "Blender Power" by myself. And the fourth is "The Statue of Liberty", also by Caleb.

My brother and niece also doodled in a note-taking program but I didn't keep those. Maybe I should have.

First Real Wacom Project

2008-01-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

So, after hours of practice with random doodles and experimenting with different brush and canvas settings, I have produced my first "real" Wacom tablet piece of art.

I used a stock photo from the interweb as a reference (by eurasianrose at deviantart.com). The piece was produced in Corel Painter 3 (came with the Wacom) using entirely the tinting brush and plenty of layers. I call it "Dreams of Flight".

For my next project, I might try oils or watercolors. Probably oils because I am actually more comfortable with those. Happy New Year everybody and resolve to be creative in 2008!

Hurray For Wacom!

2007-12-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, my wife gave me a brand new Wacom Bamboo One digital drawing tablet. Having pretty much spent my whole life in traditional media I would have to say that the foray into the digital realm to be rather fascinating.

It is certainly different. For example, I am drawing on my computer screen but my hand is going over a tablet in my lap. Sometimes, I'm not mentally synched up between screen and tablet. Fortunately, the curser goes where your stylus is when it hovers near the tablet.

Also, I'm having a tricky time finding a brush that I feel really comfortable with. Oils and watercolors are nice but the mixing can get weird if not careful or if I forget to use layers properly. I feel more comfortable with dry media like pastels and pencil but in Corel Painter 3 (came with the Wacom) the sensitivity settings for those feel unnaturally hard (too much pressure required).

I don't have to worry about my markers ever drying out! But I do have to worry about my hard drive crashing. You can't win 'em all.

I hope to have some real art done but for now, here is some warm up doodles for you to enjoy.

Happy Aniversary

2007-12-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

One year ago today my dear wife and I got married. Happy Anniversary and I love you! On this day two years ago the LittleB and me were living in a spare bedroom in my parents house and no potential mate in sight. My goal for my life consisted of either getting married or moving out of the house by the time I was thirty. I insisted that I wouldn't be the grown up stay at home child that failed to launch... again.

Lucky for me, Louise stepped into my life. She was everything I had hoped for. She liked shooting guns, playing paintball, mountain biking, watching action movies, and was even be fiscally responsible. My dream woman!

She let me meet both of my goals of leaving the house and getting married before I turned thirty. I am so thankful to have her in my life. One year of bliss and an infiniti more to go.

I love you!

A Taste of What's Good In Life

2007-10-25T21:56:00.000-06:00

Many companies spend millions of dollars on glitzy ads with the intent to convince you that what they have is special, different, better than the rest. However what truly matters in the end is the personal magical touch when you, as the customer ,walk away feeling satisfied... or the kick in the gut that says you could have done better.

"I just saved a bunch of money on my cholesterol!" Not to turn this post into a negative bash of the places we hate, I will merely say that my wife and I are boycotting McDonalds & Carl's Junior... which unfortunately happen to be two of the boy's favorite places to eat. We do find Wendy's, Arctic Circle, and Paces Dairy Anne to be acceptable alternatives.

Now when I speak of all of these places, do not assume that we eat out all of the time. In fact we don't, which is why we expect to at least get our money's worth if we are going to pay two or three times the price of eating at home. And that is where that magical touch becomes so important when we do eat out.

Although the finest chefs in New York or Paris may want you to think that it is their culinary masterpieces that make the meal, that is not the case. It is not the spice in the soup that matters, but the loving care to the customer's experience. To my experience.

When my sister and her husband showed us the house that we eventually bought, they introduced us to a nearby restaurant called Costa Vida. It is an interesting blend of Mexican and American style spiced among California and Hawaiian decor. If you are in Layton Utah, swing buy and grab yourself a delicious salad.

It isn't the silhouettes of palm trees that make me recommend this particular Costa Vida. My wife and I purchased a salad and asked for the extra meat as we were going to split the salad to save money. Rather than the proper double portion, they heaped upon us a triple portion. When we reached the register, the woman said that they were having problems with the card reader and they could only accept cash or check at the time. I only had my debit card with me. The girl at the register said we could take the salad and return with the cash later. We went home, ate, and returned after dinner to pay for the meal.

They didn't know us and could easily have thought we wouldn't return, or held onto the salad until we did come back with the cash. Instead, they trusted in the goodwill of humanity. That deep down inside, people really are basically good. Their trust in us to return with the money made the food taste all the sweeter, and the evening brighter. We discarded our own cynicism toward human nature and felt an increased love and empathy for strangers. There are good people in the world and Costa Vida of Layton employs them.

Tonight, we went to a movie at the Kaysville Theatre and found the experience to be wonderful. Although the theater only has three screens, it makes up for it in its rustic charm, nestled between small shops of Kaysville's Main Street. For only ten dollars we had two tickets, two drinks, and a bag of popcorn. An incredibly affordable date that supports a theater that closes on Sundays and is run by members of our community.

After the film, we walked next door and discovered Just Desserts, a tiny dessert and sandwich shop nestled in the same historic neighborhood of downtown Kaysville. We enjoyed a delicious apple crisp with ice cream and gooey caramel while admiring the blankets and cuddle toys that the owner's wife made and sold in his tiny shop. The prices were incredibly affordable and once again it was run by members of our community who valued being closed on Sundays. As apples go with caramel, ice cream with apples, and caramel with ice cream, so should you go to Just Desserts on Main Street in Kaysville.

And hey, if you're going, call us! We'll come along too, to have another taste of what's good in life.

To Catch a Thief

2007-09-14T19:30:00.000-06:00

Today my wife and I went mountain biking on a hilly trail on the east side of Layton. While we were resting for a bit, a man tall man in black pants and a black shirt ran down the trail past us and a woman yelled out, "Stop! Thief!" A few seconds later a female police officer ran down the hill after him. We told her which way he went and then decided to help chase him ourselves.

We followed him on bike (mine had a severe flat by this point) until he slipped through someone's backyard down the hill further. We rode around the block to the culdesac where he would have come out and met the same kids we played paintball with on Wednesday. They had seen him run through their backyard. With two police officers we canvased the area but failed to find the thief.

If I could have done it differently I would have ditched my flat tired bike and ran down the hill after him and yelled for the paintball friends to help chase him down. We were relatively fresh while he was probably expending the last of his adrenaline. If we weren't in that initial shock and acting more promptly and aggressively we could have easily caught him. We're just not use to meeting criminals I suppose.

The officer herself had incredible stamina. I really hope they catch the guy for whatever he did.

Four Wheel Mayhem!

2007-08-25T20:11:00.001-06:00

Today, while everyone else in my side of the family had a big family birthday party, Louise and I went to 5 Mile Pass and kicked up the dust on four wheelers with her family.

And not all of the fun was had on four wheels. A few nieces also caught a nice new friend (since it a was a catch and release park they couldn't take him home).

A great time was had by all and best of all nobody died!

That Really Brightened My Day

2007-08-09T18:53:00.001-06:00

Today started out like any other. I went to work and sat in a million meetings wondering if I would actually get to do anything productive at work, like o say, work. And in the end it all didn't matter. When I could finally get down to getting something done in the late afternoon, the power went out.

And that was the best part of my day. Nothing seems to bring people together quite like a good power outage. You laugh and joke in the ominous darkness. You get to know your neighbors better. I think we need to unplug a little more often. We get so wrapped up in our work that we forget to look at each other as people instead of as to-do items.

It was great.

Settling In

2007-08-08T19:45:00.000-06:00

So I haven't blogged in a while. Which isn't really new.

In our new house it felt like we were just house sitting for someone else. Now that we've made our first mortgage payment, it suddenly feels very much like our own house. Funny how the sudden loss of money can do that.

Home Sweet Home

2007-06-24T09:30:00.001-06:00

So most everyone who reads this probably knows already, we're getting a house. Yeah, a real one with a yard, garage, and little white picket fence. Actually there's no white picket fence but that's okay.

We close and move in in less than a week. And it's about time really. Because of our apartments getting turned into condos, we packed about 6 weeks ago to move into another place that turned out to have mold. We've been living out of our boxes ever since and it's driving me CRAZY!

Uno has suffered the most from this. His usual indoor play areas, his bedroom and the living room, have been taken up by stuff. His room is stacked to the ceiling with boxes and the living room has three couches in it, thanks to our foresight in getting cheap furniture from the local second hand store before we had a place to put them.

In his new bedroom he will have it all to himself. No more parent stuff taking up his personal space. He can lay those legos out as far as he wants. He can let his imagination fill the now wide expanse. He can pick a color for his walls other than the purnkle that now decorates the new room.

I find it a little odd that somehow, with everything packed up, you would think there would be more space in this apartment but there actually seems to be less. Maybe our stuff is multiplying under that principle that junk tends to expand to fill the space alloted for it. But it is supposed to happen after we move not before. Maybe our stuff in close proximity causes it to reproduce and multiply. Maybe I'll open a box and find that we now have five staplers instead of one.

Maybe I can get a jumpstart on that food storage that way. Unfortunately, the food seems to be the only thing that seems to decrease around here. But I've got plans to heed the prophet's council. We will finally have somewhere other than a tiny kitchen to store the food. We plan on getting 2x8 boards and cinder blocks to make affordable shelving in the utility room.

We've got plans.

Artemis Fowl

2007-01-20T20:33:00.000-07:00

The night before last, DW and I finished reading Artemis Fowl, a book I received for Christmas, about a young criminal mastermind and the Fairy Police Force. It was a good read however, I did find issues with the way it was written.

First, the point of views would frequently change between the beginning and ending of a scene without warning. You think your inside one character's head and the next instant your in another's. This could get disorienting if you're not paying close attention.

Second, the time frames would switch too frequently. One scene would go through a series of events and then the following scene would be about events that already occurred but from a different perspective... which was switching around randomly already (see above).

These storytelling techniques are fine if used properly but in this case they tended to actually distract from the story itself, which was very entertaining. A nice light read but no Candid or The Stranger.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well, its that resolution time again, the time of year when everybody declares with firm conviction that they will perform a complete personality transplant on themselves and become somebody they are not.

That would probably explain why so many people's resolutions don't last long. Don't try to take on every single character flaw you have in one year... let alone one month. Continue to be yourself and set modest achievable goals. Line upon line, precept upon precept, so the scripture goes. Even our savior grew that way. Why should we be any different?

I have also found that unless you are willing to start doing something RIGHT NOW toward your goals, you are not likely to do it tomorrow either. I haven't been blogging lately so I figured I'd start up again. That is something modest and not too hard to do. So happy new year everybody and may some of your resolutions be achieved this year!

It's been a while

2006-10-19T07:29:00.000-06:00

I haven't blogged in over two months and a lot has happened in that time. I'm engaged now among other things. I am moving out of Mom and Dad's this week. I'll have a little over a month of living on my own to get the place ready for my bride... or a month to mess the place up.

We did the wedding registry thing at Target this week. Three hours of walking around later, my feet were reminding me of why I don't like shopping. At least I had the most wonderfull girl in the world with me. She was really tired too.

Yesterday her truck finally gave up on her. It has been seriously suffering for several weeks and now it is finally in the shop. We hope it isn't an expensive fix.

I gotta go to work now, otherwise I would write more of our happinings in the same short disjointed not nearly detailed enough sort of way.

The Real Deal

2006-08-12T23:25:00.000-06:00

So on Thursday night, after I came home from my GF's house, she called and asked why I hadn't kissed her yet. After all, we had been dating for nearly three months now. I indicated that I didn't want to be too forward and I save kisses for special people only.

Apparently she's been expecting it for a while now and I totally missed the silent signals... which I am good at missing. I am a clueless man after all.

We went to the Real Salt Lake vs Real Madrid game tonight and held hands and interdigitated. We talked some more about the rules of kissing between screams by other fans. I felt that I should wait until the next get together to kiss her, just to keep her waiting a little bit longer. Instead, when I dropped her off at her house she asked if she could have a kiss.

How am I supposed refuse at that point? Say, "Sorry, I won't until next time just because you should wait,"? So we hugged and then kissed... twice, before going our separate ways. During our discussion during the game, there were indications of a deeper relationship forming. Are we shifting from 'just friends' to 'more than friends'? Time will tell.

Yee Haaw!

2006-07-23T16:15:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I had a fun time with Louise. We went tubing down the provo river with some of her old friends who live in Orem. Once you got past the mindnumbingly cold water it was a lot of fun. Afterwards we went to the Days of 47 rodeo at the Delta Center. It was my first rodeo and a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.

I learned a lot about rodeo competitions, saddles, and trucks from my cute little cowgirl. A few of the competitors were neigbors she knew growing up in Grantsville. She also had tried her hand at barrel racing when she was younger. She said it was a lot of fun but she wasn't very good at it.

We've done several other things recently which I have failed to blog about because I'm an inconsistent blogger. We went paintballing and went to Lagoon together a week ago. Next Saturday, we'll be going to the Salt Lake Real game together. I feel like a finally have a social life!

The deal of the century!

2006-07-05T20:46:00.000-06:00

Today after my haircut I decided to meander over to the fabric store. I was going to go to Joanne's, my usual supplier, and on a whim decided to visit Nuttall's next door. To my surprise not only did they have cordura, but they also had treated canvas CADPAT fabric for... get this... drum roll please... only ONE DOLLAR!!!!!! ...per yard.

For those of you who aren't sewing savvy, 5 color print fabrics like the treated and rubber backed canvas often cost as much as $13 per yard. The original selling price for this CADPAT was $13 and I got it for $1. I bought 20 yards for $20. If I had paid full price it would have been $260 for that same 20 yards. The woman said she just couldn't get anybody to buy it. I have no idea why. It is good fabric, not quite as good as 1000 denire cordura, but certainly a bargain at the price I paid.

For those of you who aren't military clothing savvy, CADPAT is Canada's pixilated camoflage pattern. It was joint developed by Canadian and American military researchers. With CADPAT, Canada became the first nation in the world with a "digital" style camoflage in service. The US Marine Corp. followed about a year and half later with their own version, MARPAT. The US army followed about another year and half later with ACUPAT.

These new pixilated patterns are aproximately 40% more effective at concealment than traditional patterns like the Woodland BDU pattern worn since the 1970s or the Tigerstrip pattern, also from the 1970s (used by US special forces in Vietnam). The old patterns utilized sharp edges with distinct shapes between color 'splotches'. The new patterns use a method simillar to how printers and televisions work in using smaller pixels of color to make larger shapes. Up close the smaller shapes are recognized and the coloring and discordant edges distract the eye and prevent object or shape recognition. From longer distances the pixels blend together to create "blurred" edges that also make object recognition more difficult. The pigments used in the military versions of these patterns also obscure recognition as seen through nightvision systems.

Nifty stuff! Although the CADPAT I got has brighter greens than is usually common in Utah, it will still be very useful to me. MARPAT would be better for our area but hey, I got it for $1 per yard.

CADPAT

MARPAT

Woodland BDU

Paradise Spring - Creating a world

2006-06-27T17:55:00.000-06:00

My last post talked a little about my latest story, Paradise Spring. Now I will elaborate on the setting. Some of these concepts are referenced directly from the story itself. Others are infered but not clearly stated.

What makes elves and humans in this world different from each other? There are the obvious ones like pointed ears and round ears, eternal elves and mortal humans. So the cliche things. So what else makes them different?

The elves I pictured in this setting were magical in nature, using song to weave their magic in the world. To go with the musical magic, I needed a musical language. I pictured the elves like Melaana speaking and singing in a very melodic nature. I pictured tonal and pitch variations as means of differentiating words, simillar to Chinese. Unlike Chinese, however, I also pictured the elven tongue to speak/sing only in vowels and soft consonants. Any consonant that could not be held out for a whole note or more was not used. Melaana would use consonants like L, M, N, Sh, S, etc. and avoid using T, P, K, etc.

The human language on the other hand I pictured to be more free in the hard consonants and much less melodic as the humans cannot use the song magic of the elves. I imagined the humans having a more germanic style language and hence the frequency of names with hard consonants in them, Torrin, Gretchin, Clara, Yvette, etc.

If Torrin asked Melaana to pronounce the word Montanha (mountain in portuguese), she would probably pronounce it like Monyana. She would say the english word mountain like Utahns by swollowing the T in mountain and say moun'an. Elves would have a very rich accent among the humans and likewise the humans would likely sound flat and off key to the elves.

Cultural differences would also exist. As the elves musical magic is centered around a musical rythm possessed by all living things, the heartsong, they thrive on being surrounded by life. Gardens and even homes are made of living materials. Trees are grown and shaped to make houses and shops. They are not killed or cut. Paths and roads are made of grasses rather than dirt or rock. A stone or cut timber structure to the elves would be considered dead and lifeless, a place only fit for a fort or prison.

The humans on the other hand cannot hear their own heartsongs, let alone anything else's. To them building materials are building materials. Wood is wood, stone is stone, straw is straw. Building materials cannot be shaped by magic but by ax, saw, or chisel. The elves find the idea of living in a lifeless, heartsongless home to be appalling. Humans can comfortably live in anything and often mistake elven distaste for human style dwellings as arrogance or prejudice.

How do immortals keep from overrunning the local environment? Humans live short lives and have many short lived children. The natural world easily accomodates their presence. Elves however live very long and if they bore children at the same rate as humans would quickly overwhelm the local ecology. Nature builds into the elves a variable fertility depending on the amount of death and life around them. If a lot of elves die in a short time (natural disaster, war, disease, etc), the sudden drop in elven heartsongs triggers physical changes which significantly increases fertility among the surviving members of the population. If the presence of many elven heartsongs is felt (ie stable healthy population), then the fertility rate drops significantly and few or no births occure.

That also brings up the perspectives on death. To the humans death is natural and an expected part of the cycle of life. They tend to be more fatalistic than their elven counterparts. The elves , in general, are more risk averse. All death to elves is sudden and violent. They can live forever if nothing ever happens to them but the longer one lives, the longer the dice of chance has to roll some kind of fatal accident or calamity.

Those are just a few of my thoughts surrounding the setting of the Paradise Seasons stories. I have other ideas but they can be saved for another time.

Paradise Spring

2006-06-25T20:38:00.000-06:00

I have posted yet another story to the Library of Alexandrea. The story is called Paradise Spring which is actually a 33 page prequal to my short story (also posted in the library) called Paradise Winter.

I do have ideas for a Paradise Summer and a Paradise Fall. I am currently working on another Paradise Season story which has the working title Paradise Spring - Anya's story. But it might get turned into Paradise Summer and the story I intended for Paradise Summer might get moved to Paradise Fall.

Paradise Spring follows the story of an elven princess banished from her own kingdom. She struggles to find and redefine herself in a human world filled with prejudices. Elements of the story include tragic love (Melaana and Torrin), sacrifice (Melaana's father), mortality vs immortality (the changing seasons), broken families (Melaana & her mother), fear and hatred (King Wesmier & Yvette), loyalty (Clara, Torrin, & Warren), depression (Melaana's inner demons), hope (The old jewler), perserverance (the cobblestone road), and acceptance (the spring shrine).

Excerpt from Paradise Spring:

The feast was large and boisterous. Loud music filled the torch lit hall. Several women doted on the newly returned princes. Melaana noted that the younger brother, Warren delighted in the attention. Torrin, on the other hand seemed distracted and annoyed by the girls.

He looked at her with pleading puppy dog eyes. She sighed, neither of them wanted to be there. She stood and walked over to him, slipping her arm in his, smiling falsely at the young women.

He kissed her on the cheek and she blushed wondering if it was real or part of the charade.

The women backed off as planned. As Torrin led her toward the courtyard outside, she glanced back to the stony faces of the other women. One of them in particular looked rather livid. She wondered if she had just made enemies with the wrong women.

Whatever joy she hoped to have outside away from the crowded hall was sucked away by her worry. Palace politics had caused her exile. She didn’t want to be outcast yet again.

“You okay?” he asked as they walked along the courtyard.

“Yes,” she lied. “And you?”

“Now I am.”

Planetariums, Roller Coasters, and Sidewalk Chalk

2006-06-17T17:35:00.000-06:00

I took the boy to the Clark Planetarium today. We watched the Cardboard Rocket and the Black Holes films in the star theater. There was a new exhibit/art thingy/contraption that was really nice. The boy liked turning the levers that directed which way the balls rolled down the ramps. The balls would also bounce off little bells and chimes and things making it a very musical (and noisy) contraption.

It reminded me of a little marble roller coaster I had when I was a kid. I also used to make larger roller coasters out of garden hose and tennis balls. Those were the good old days! I could entertain myself for hours with the simplest things lying around the house.

As we left the Gateway complex, we stumbled on a sidewalk chalk art thing going on. Professional artists were putting their art to the sidewalk of the Gateway. Some of the pictures were very detailed and fantastic. I hope that it doesn't rain for a few days so lots of other people can admire the art.

Cars

2006-06-10T13:31:00.000-06:00

Last night, Ben and I saw the new Pixar film, Cars. It was very good as are every other Pixar film to date. Ben really liked it.

Before the film began there were the obvious previews of other films and I saw one very interesting fact. All of the other animation studios have no originality. I saw three previews from three studios that were all basically Over the Hedge rip offs which I think is actually a Madagascar rip off.

Cars shows yet again that Pixar can create an original film. Time and time again they put out an original concept while everyone else puts out a "me too" film.

The plot of cars will be familliar to any sports film enthusiast. Cocky rooky gets humbled and learns that wining isn't everything and picks up new friends along the way. The way Pixar took that classic plot and wrapped it into a world populated entirely by cars was well done. The pace of the story dragged a little in places but over all a very fine film.

One of the key symbolic elements of the story was the old highways vs the new interstate system. The classic roads like route 66 fell into disuse so that people could save ten or fifteen minutes on the interstate, passing by the heart of the country.

Out of respect to the old roads that knit America together, I drove us home from the theater in Salt Lake along Highway 89, trying to imagine what that road must have been like before I-15 and I-80 came through the Salt Lake Valley. Kinda thought provoking.

CONduit

2006-05-28T17:11:00.000-06:00

Yesterday and Friday I attended my first sci-fi and fantasy convention ever. It was at the Sheritan Hotel in Salt Lake. I got to meet the author/illustrator/publisher of one of my favorite webcomics. I even got a free original sketch from him which he used to sign the book I bought from him. He's LDS and really funny too. What more could you ask for in a comic artist?

I also got to sit in on various panels and workshops on various subjects from military history to writing a story in an hour (flash fiction). I was expecting it to be fully of geeky men like myself. In reality there were a lot of men, women, and children from all walks of life.

Quite a few men and women wore costumes of various types. Some were very well crafted. One guy was a very convincing Borg from Star Trek complete with flashing lights. I just about burst into laughing when I saw him standing in the hall talking on his cell phone to someone. I was thinking, "Don't they have built in communication systems with the rest of the collective?"

One of the women on security was dressed as a pirate, a pirate with a red Security shirt and radio. "Argg, maty! Keep yer rum in yer hotel room. There be kiddies about! Argg!"

Jack Sparrow made an appearance at the convention. He played the drunken disney pirate to a tee.

Other honerable mentions include a faerie princess, a fox, and a wolf. There were quite a number of mideval dressed people. I wonder what the regular hotel guests were thinking about all the dressed up people wandering around.

CONduit has something for everyone. I should get some friends and family to come along next year.

Spring Cleaning Part II

2006-05-21T18:08:00.000-06:00

If I hadn't gone cleaning crazy enough, I just rearanged my bedroom. Instead of facing North, the bed now faces East. Sometimes I get this crazy urge to rearrange furniture. I bet there's a fung shui something about this.

Anyhow I think people need a break from the routine from time to time. Otherwise we get in ruts and once the rut is deep enough you get high centered and your progress through life stops. Moving furniture is an easy way to get out of the rut, at least for a little while.

Spring Cleaning

2006-05-21T14:26:00.000-06:00

I was cleaning my bedroom today and my sister arrived with her family. Well the dear niece was nice enough to take some of my clutter off my hands. She is now the proud owner of a binary clock, empty bubbles bottle, foam, empty boxes, a mood ring, and other odds and ends. I guess one man's trash is another man's (or girl's in this case) treasure. Now the clutter is my sister's problem. Aren't siblings wonderful?

Texas and Babies

2006-05-14T16:06:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted much lately. The Texas cousins are now here for the week. I can't believe how big they are! But my boy is just about ready to start kindergarten so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. My boy and Texas Cousin #1 are now partners in crime, mischief, and mayhem. They like each other a lot.

Soon the boy will have an explosion of new cousins as just about everybody seems to be pregnant. Lots of babies. I like babies. They're cute! This year should be called the year of the babies.

Whir! - More Paintball Stuff

2006-04-30T18:43:00.000-06:00

It worked! Last year, I had my agitated loader (Ricochet Apache if you care) break down. I assumed I would need to buy a new one. And then one day, this February, I stumbled across a message board post indicating the manufacture's lifetime warranty. I figured I might as well give it a try so I called them up. They asked for my address and said the replacement parts were on their way. About four days later, a package arrived with the parts.

I was delighted with their customer service but didn't actually bother switching out the bad parts for the good until today. With a too small screwdriver I managed to take the broken shells appart and put the internals in the new shell.

I popped some batteries in and tested it. Just like new, it went whir each time I tripped the ball feed sensor! Now my Apache is fixed! Yippy!

The boy tested it too. In fact, he kept testing it over and over and over. I asked him to stop it so the battery wouldn't wear down. He stopped, what a good boy, and I put the tools away. Before putting the loader away, I tripped the sensor for one more triumphant whir. The boy said, "Dadda, don't waste the battery." He's a quick learner. I turned the loader off and left it in my room.

I can't believe it'll be May tomorrow and I still haven't played any outdoor paintball this year. Usually I get at least one early season game in by the end of March. This year I had school and it rained and snowed a lot. It was just a bad combination for getting out and playing.

From Poland to Playstations

2006-04-15T20:52:00.000-06:00

Tonight, the boy's final bedtime story was the history of World War II... in a nutshell. I spoke of how a bad guy named Adolf Hitler, in a country called Germany, attacked his neighbors, Poland, Belgium, and France. I then talked about how he got greedy and attacked Britian and Russia too. I explained how Winston Churchhill rallied his country to fight off the attacking airplanes from Germany.

I explained how Japan attacked us in Hawaii and that got us really upset. We helped Russia and Britain fight off the Germans while at the same time hopping from island to island fighting back the Japanese. First we rescued France and Belgium and stopped Hitler. We then stopped the Japanese by dropping two really big bombs on them (actually they were already considering surrender but I don't think he cared for the finer details, besides I didn't even mention Italy and the African campaign).

In the end we stopped Germany and Japan. And because we hurt them really bad, we helped them rebuild their houses and roads. Then we became friends and made up. To show how happy they were, the Japanese built us Playstation IIs.

The boy asked about X-Boxes and I had to explain that we make those in America and sell them to the Japanese. So, in his mind, because Germany attacked Polland, Japan gives us Playstations.

Aren't history lessons for 5 year olds just wonderful?

Random Things on the Road... III

2006-04-15T08:02:00.000-06:00

On Thursday, on the way home from work, a small rock landed on my windshield and rested itself on my windshield wiper. Rocks hitting my windshield aren't that uncommon. What was noteworthy about this was that I was in stop and go traffic so there was noone going fast enough to kick up the rock. I guess it just wanted a ride and leapt onto my windshield on its own.

It enjoyed the whole ride home, the whole ride to work yesterday, and part of the way to Provo yesterday before deciding it had enough and hopped off. Odd little rock. I wonder where it will go next. Perhaps its on a sight seeing trip across the country.

General Conference

2006-04-02T18:55:00.000-06:00

Conference was nice this year. It seemed to go by so fast though. I saw a theme this year on the simple elements of the gospel, Christ's atonement and repentence were mentioned quite a bit. I liked the Sunday morning talk from one of the quorum of the twelve (I was ironing shirts at the time and don't remember which one) about coming unto Christ with our burdens. I liked the poem on the carpenter of Nazareth mending the plow and the doll and mending our broken hearts.

Loving our neighbors and being christlike was a big theme too. President Hinckly spoke in the priesthood session about prejudice and racism. Several others in the various sessions also spoke on tolerance and loving others regardless of creed, race, or nationality. We need to be nicer to one another.

It just went by so fast!

Temple Sealings... and Walls

2006-03-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

On Friday, the boy was upset that I came home from work only to leave to go to the temple. I explained to him that I was doing sealings with Grandma and Grampa. We snuggled while I explained how going to the temple helps others and help our Heavenly Father.

I realized the understanding gap when he asked if I was going to do the walls.

"Walls? What do walls have to do with anything? Oh! You mean Sealings?"

"Yeah, the cealing."

I think he got the part about the temple helping people but not the finer details. I felt really blessed to be able to snuggle with my five year old son and explain the plan of salvation and how temples help unite families. It was one of those father-son bonding moments. It was wonderful.

YouTube

2006-03-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

Found on the same site as the cheesy computer game reinactors from a previous post I found the following two gems, one of which is technically out of season but a classic nonetheless.

The Twelve Days of Christmas ala Cartoon Network - aka more cheese.

and

A love song made from more video games (Final Fantasy series I believe) - This one is actually kind of touching and well made.

56k users may want to take my word for it... or wait patiently for the download to complete.

Why Write?

2006-03-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

I've had this other blog for a while and I'm not sure but I suspect nobody reads it. I have been posting some of my short stories (and two of my longer stories) to it but I suspect it has not been well advertized, and thus, not well read. Anyway, its out there if you have time to kill and want to read an amature author's work.

One thing is, I suspect the longer the work, the less likely it is to be read all the way through. My Jane and Henry story is at 70+ pages and still far from completion. Combining all four of the Anaaka stories (only two of which have been posted to the blog) and you get over 100 pages of book to read.

The whole thing begs the question though of why write if nobody is going to read it? I supose it may some day be of value to somebody. After all Emily Dickensen's poems were locked away unpublished until after her death. I'd rather not die though just to get something I've written read. I can write because I enjoy it. That is reason enough.

Maybe I should offer up writer's commentary on this blog to encourage people to read the stories themselves on the other.

Please Remain Seated Until the Fasten Your Seatbelt Light Turns Off

2006-03-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

I was driving home from Home Teaching today and a thought hit me. Why is it that when planes are taking off or landing, they make you move the seat into the upright locked position? The amount of inclination is just a few insignificant degrees of rotation. And if the plane buys the farm (pilot speak for crash), its not like a few inches difference in the configuration of your seat is going to make a difference. These are cramped airline seats, not Lazy Boy recliners.

And To Think That I Saw It On Mullberry Street: Part II

2006-03-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

Today I had to drive through rush hour traffic... twice. It was my weekly drive to Springville to drop the boy off at his mom's.

As I flew down the freeway (at the part that was fast, ie the beginning), I saw a ski on the shoulder of the road. It looked kinda battered and perhaps ran over a few times. It reminded me of my other blog about random things I've seen while driving. Minutes after passing the ski, I drove past an empty pet taxi. I hope the pet wasn't in it when it bounced out of whatever vehicle it came from. Most of the rest of the trip, the bumper to bumper traffic kept me occupied with the road instead of the garbage along it. I did pass a deceased skunk but that's not really noteworthy because dead critters line our nations roadways by the thousands... no offense to the cute fluffy things.

If this is the best thing I can blog about, I should get a social life.

Earaches and Trampolines: A Ghost Story

2006-03-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

This week the boy got an ear inection. Two actually, one in the left and one in the right. He told me "it only hurts when I burp or hiccup." Later in the day it got worse so we took him to the doctor to get it fixed.

He was bouncing off the ceiling. For a boy whose ears really hurt he was in a great mood. I wish I could bounce off the ceiling like that when I'm sick. Maybe I was just like that when I was young. Nowdays I stub my toe and it takes 5 minutes to recover. I feel old! Which is funny, considering that my favorite sport involves large amounts of sprinting, sliding, and getting welted by little balls of paint that fly through the air at 280 feet per second.

What does any of this have to do with trampolines? Nothing.

And then there was a trampoline... and a ghost.

Ward Conference

2006-02-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

I should blog more often. How many times have we all said that? I was sitting in church today thinking, I should blog about this. I should blog about a lot more than I have lately.

We had ward conference today so the stake presidency did most of the teaching. They went into dating and everything (after all, we are a singles ward). I think the best part was the Stake President's talk on the atonement in Sunday School. It gave me greater insight to forgiveness. The Lord said, "I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive but of you it is required to forgive all men."

I always understood the part that the amount we will be forgiven will depend on how forgiving we are ourselves. What the stake president pointed out to me was that Christ already paid for the pain of both the person who wronged us's sin and our pain for being hurt by the other person. Why make those pains be paid double by not forgiving? Why hold a grudge against another and subject them, or more importantly ourselves, to continued suffering when Christ already suffered it?

His gospel is a gospel of peace. The atonement makes amends and comforts the spiritually wounded. Whether we have sinned or not, we all need the atonement. Our Father in Heaven's plan is called 'The Plan of Happiness' for good reason. The most peaceful and joyful times of my life have been the most spiritual moments, the times I have felt the closest to my savior.

In the saddest time of my life, when I had to let James go back to his father in heaven, I felt the comforting love of my savior around me. When in the greatest pain, peace did come to my heart. What reason did I have to sorrow for all children are alive in Christ? His salvation and exaltation was assured. Who we needed to sorrow for was us left behind in this mortal existance to continue our struggle against temptation. And the joy I can look forward to when, after this mighty struggle, I can wrap my arms around James once again.

2006-02-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

A strange little gem of a home video. It is a live action parody of certain computer/console RPGs. It will probably be more funny to gamers than anyone else. Odd what you can find on the World Wide Web.

A Book, A Birthday, and A Broken Leg

2006-02-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad boy and haven't blogged in a while. It wasn't like I wasn't typing or anything. I've been busy writing my Hannan book as part of the Anaaka Chronicles. Its kinda funny though considiring that it is the fourth story in the series, Anaaka makes no appearance in the story at all. I have the first story published on my Library of Alexandria Blog. I've been meaning to get the second and third up there too. I suppose I will once I find out people have read the first one.

The boy had his 5th birthday this week. Wow, that is crazy. I can't even call him a toddler anymore. He is getting so big! He was really funny this week. At Flips, he hurt his leg and insisted it was broken (it wasn't). He limped out to the car. A limp that looked suspiciously like skipping. I paid close attention as we got out of the car at the local big box store to get valentines cards for his class. His injury seemed to randomly switch between one leg and the other as he got tired of limping/skipping on one particular leg. He limped out of the car when we got home, but as soon as he was inside and ready to watch his new Wallace and Gromit movie, the broken leg mysteriously disapeared altogether.

Library of Alexandria

2006-01-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

I made a new blog to store my poetry and short stories. I call it the Library of Alexandria and can be found here.

I'm not sure if I should put my longer stories on there too as one is currently 47 pages and counting. My three Anaaka stories probably total about 90 pages altogether. I'm still debating what to do about those. Dave might let me host the files on Bountiful Tool's server and then I'd just link to it for download or something.

I don't want to clutter cleverly.planet with ENORMOUSLY HUGE posts of story. Michael doesn't have it feeding into cleverly.planet yet and he might not want to. Who knows. Anyway, enjoy my literature, fine or not.

Saw Narnia

2006-01-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I saw Narnia yesterday with Paul Robinson. We originally planned to play paintball but there was a tournament going on at Paintball Addicts. We went to the Gateway and saw the flick instead.

I must say that C.S. Lewis really made a fantastic story with so many symbols tying it into Christ and his atonement. There are the obvious references, like Aslan's sacrifice for Edmund and his resurection. Then there are the more subtle references like the children's baptism by water (snow everywhere & falling in the river) followed by fire & blood (final battle in the heat of spring/summer).

I loved how Edmond came across as a basically good boy in this film, making his forgiveness and redemption more paletable. The old cartoon of the story may have predisposed me against Edmund as he seemed like just a whiny brat and willing accomplice through more of it than this new film.

I don't know if it was my eye being trained to find these things but I was jarred by some of the special effects being obviously CG effects. And some of the effects budget was wasted on scenes that needed no special effects, like the sleigh crossing an open snowy plain.

Despite the minor CG effects quible, I loved the movie and heartily recommend it to anyone... but I think all the relevant friends, family, and aquaintences I know have probably already seen it.

On Communism

2006-01-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

This is from a post I made on communism in a forum about paintball (of all places): My comment is on page 3.

I agree with some of what others have already said. The greatest weakness of communism is its contrarity(is that a word?) to natural human behavior. We are selfish. Competition breeds activity and innovation. Communism removes the motivation to try to excel. Stagnation is a result.

Also most large scale communal systems have turned into tolitarian dictatorships because human nature still exists and if you become the top dog you tend to set the terms for 'equality'. Some people assume that government by nature is benign. Government is just another organization run by humans with human desires. The result is inherently imperfect and corruptible regardless of whether it is a democracy, replublic, dictatorship, or monarchy.

One personal issue I have with socialist and communist systems is agency and choice of action. I shall use a religious example so if it bugs you just gloss over this paragraph. Christ asked a wealthy man to sell what he had and give to the poor to be saved. The man walked away sad because he loved his riches. Note that Christ gave the man the choice, his riches or his salvation. Christ didn't force the man to give up his wealth. It was the man's choice alone.

Now when someone says we all HAVE to give to the poor and implement laws or regulations to redistribute that wealth, it is not giving me the opportunity to CHOOSE to be generous or compassionate. I lose an opportunity for personal growth. Now if society choses of its own free will to give it is good for all. Mandatory giving produces only bitterness in those forced to give and a sense of entitlement to those who recieve. Neither gratitude on the part of the reciever nor compassion on the part of the giver is encouraged. Nobody grows (shades of my earlier stagnation comment above).

Finally I have found that when those promoting a communist or socialist agenda are happy to feed the poor with somebody else's money. Don't raise THEIR OWN taxes but tax whoever is above you in social status. That is putting on a generous face while still being greedy. What hypocracy. I know many generous people and hope that I myself am sufficiently generous to the less fortunate but I feel that is our own choice as individuals to make, not decided for us.

Trigun and Other Observations

2006-01-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

So I finished watching an anime called Trigun. I borrowed it from my friend Paul. In a nutshell a pacifist sharpshooter has to deal with his psychotic and homicidal brother.

Out of a nutshell, a bio-engineered superhuman named Vash, on a desert world tries to help people but his psycho brother keeps causing all kinds of death and destruction around him. Soon everyone is calling him Vash the Stampede and The humanoid Typhoon. Associated with thousands of deaths he was involved in but didn't cause, those he wants to help shun him.

It actually comes out a little less cheesy than the above plot synopsis would indicate. It analyzes the debate of the right to kill and under what circumstances. Is it okay to kill an evil person to protect the innocent or is there always an alternative if you look hard enough? Does killing turn you into the very monster you are trying to defeat? After a great wrong, what is the price of redemption?

The story has symbolism running throughout. One theme is the yin-yan of opposing views. As the two brothers struggle against one another, the world they live on has two suns and two moons. Sin and redemption are discussed, as sin is represented by the gun and redemption by the cross. The image is combined by a priest named Wolfwood, who carries a large cross that stores his personal arsenal of weapons. The dichotomy of the two images is combined in Wolfwood's mysterious and dark past, explaining his life of both cloth and gun. Hopelessness and destruction are represented by the many villains sent by Vash's brother while Hope and rebirth are represented by the two insurance girls, Milly and Merrill, that follow Vash and his path of destruction.

It was a rather thought provoking series, wrapped up in wild west gunfights. And it was a cartoon. When will mainstream America realize that a mature story (sorry, Family Guy is not mature, its garbage) can be portrayed in an animated format. Cartoons are not just for kids.

Also not all storylines have to pander to the lowest common denominator. An intelligent extended plot can exist and still entertain the people too dense to provide a critical analysis of what was being shown. When will we ditch lame 'Reality' shows and mindless sitcoms for actual thought provoking tales?

There once was a great story in a setting created by a tiny Canadian company named Dream Pod 9. They licenced with Sony to bring it to life. The Dream Pod 9 creaters dreamed of an epic tale of human suffering and achievement in a beautifully detailed science fiction setting. Instead, the Sony executives felt that the kids wouldn't understand a plot that complex and so hijacked the creation process and created WWF with giant robots. And Sony then went on to wonder why the show flopped. Executives are not artists (some might be, Walt Disney was, Michael Eisner isn't). They fund artists but they have to understand that the artist's art is what will sell the film. The executive's job is to fund the art, not create the art. Michalangelo painted the sistine chapel, not his patron and financer.

2006-01-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

I found this little gem in my browsings of the internet, a little video called MINE. It was made from a first person shooter game and borrows elements from Monty Python skits and even Finding Nemo. Funny and clean for the most part (cartoon violence occasionally).

You'd think my first post of the new year would be something inspiring or about my New Year's resolutions. Instead, you get this random post. You get what you pay for and you're not paying me, so I guess we're all even.

One Hundred Twenty Four Dead Sheep

2005-12-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Just in... One hundred twenty four sheep are killed by a train while escaping from a dog. Many of the sheep are pregnant, mere weeks away from delivery. Only eight from the flock survive.

What a headline. And its true. It happened in Spanish Fork, UT this week. The neighbor claims his dog is innocent, and the sheep owner's attorneys are looking to see if the sheep fit within the laws requiring railroad companies to pay compensation for livestock struck by trains. Apparently the neighbor doesn't have enough money to be worth suing. The railroad people say that maintenance of the fencing along rail-lines is the responsibility of the property owners. While the three sides bicker, the sheep are off to the great pasture in the sky.

Cute Boy

2005-12-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

The boy had a good Christmas. He asked for power rangers. He sat on Santa's lap and told him so. He wrote Santa a letter and mailed it to him. Santa gave him his power rangers.

Dadda and the boy went to the pharmacy today and the boy brought his power rangers along. He showed the pharmacy lady all of the cool things his toys from Santa could do. He asked her if Santa brought her favorite toys this year. He certainly stole her heart at the pharmacy. Now I need to have him pull that trick on some nice single girls.

This christmas was good for the boy. He's happy, he's content, and I hope he remembers that there was a little baby named Jesus in the holiday somewhere. After all, he did come to save us all.

Isn't the History Channel Great?

2005-12-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

Today I watched a lovely little documentary on toys! The Greeks invented the yo-yo and the pull toy was quite popular among the Egyptians.

The creator of the Lionel train company was originally an air conditioning fan motor salesman. His business always seemed to dry up when summer ended. He decided to advertise his motors in the off season by making an electric train set. His train was more popular than his air conditioners so he ditched the HVAC business to sell trains full time. Lionel was his middle name.

Billions of lego bricks are made and sold every year. They were made by a Danish man just after WWII who knew some kids didn't have the patience for the nuts and bolts of erector sets (invented in 1913). His bricks were instantly popular. In fact, Lego is a Danish contraction of the words Leg Godt which stands for play well. I know that I have played well with legos.

I think Ben is getting ready for the big boy legos. Unfortunately his ability to play with them is limited by the ever present number of small children who might view such small blocks as food. Maybe when I get married and move out of the house or something...

In the meantime he has been having fun with the larger duplo blocks. As long as he's happy its all good. I feel that one of the single greatest toys of all time is legos. It is the window to unlimited creativity. I have spent countless hours of creativity with legos. In fact, David Ashton and I reminisced together about our lego days of yore. Neither of us know where our little blocks are now.

Weird Dreams

2005-12-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Last night I had a weird dream. I dreamed I was at the UofU in the middle of some kind of spy/romance movie or something.

A friend (not clear who) and I who were roommates together in the student housing up by the U. The friend introduces me to another friend of his, a nice girl named Ashley. We start hanging out together and laughing about school stuff and other random things. She invites both of us roommates to her parents house.

The next day, the roommate and I walk through large snow filled university parking lots to get to Ashley's parents house. The roommate informs me that her father is an attorney and very rich. We arrive and meet the parents. Ashley's father is a very watchful hawk, wanting to know EVERYTHING about what her new boyfriend (me) is like. One of his tests is to play Pac-Man against him in his arcade room where there are dozens of old arcade machines. Good naturedly I lose and admit to not having played the game in years.

Satisfied I'm not some golddigger or other creep for his daughter he shows me around his enormous house. In the course of the tour I meet the extended family. There are hundreds of relatives living in this home, I discover.

I meet up with my roommate again and discover that the house is so full of relatives because one of Ashley's sisters is getting married and the reception is here. During the course of the reception we find out that another sister, one of the bridesmaids, has some secret documents that the government needed back before it fell into the wrong hands. My roommate manages to distract the sister while I snatch the documents and run for the waiting military police guys waiting around the block.

I meet up with a government agent on our dash to the meeting point and he verifies that the documents are the right ones. The MP Lt. takes the documents and asks if any copies had been made by ourselves or the bridesmaid. I tell him that we hadn't but we don't know how long the bridesmaid had the documents or if she made copies or sold the information already. The Lt. asks us to go back to the wedding and find out.

Once back at the wedding, my roommate informs me that the government mission will have to wait because he has to get back to class before he flunks out of college. We walk back through the snow filled parking lots and get to the roommates class. It is a combination art-puzzle invention class. While there my department manager from work appears and informs us that due to a scheduling conflict with this class, his class on computer networking had been cancelled. It will be rescheduled for next semester.

Through the class I draw my assignment but get frustrated that its not turning out well. On the way out, I light the assignment on fire in the closet where everyone kept their work between classes. After leaving I begin to worry that my little act of arson will burn everyone else's assignment too. My roommate tells me not to worry and we should get back to my girlfriend. Instead we get sidetracked by playing hide and go seek in a jumbled construction site where a new building is being added to the campus.

Then I wake up. What a busy dream; girlfriends, parents, secret agents, schoolwork, bosses, and arson, oh my!

I should blog about something

2005-12-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days where I know I should blog about something but I have no idea what. I should come up with some funny story about things going on in my life or express my latest epiphany about the gospel or something.

In the end I just typed away at my computer and really didn't say anything. But at least I can say that I blogged. See, there it is. I blogged.

School's out!

2005-12-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Another semester has come and gone. I finished my last final this afternoon. I think I did really well this semester, but that's not hard to do with an art class and a diversity requirement.

In a few weeks spring semester will begin and it will be back to the books. I should make a bouquet of pencils or something to celebrate continued education.

I found out that my Deaf Culture instructor Jeff has just been nominated one of the USA's most valued snow boarders and he recently took about twelfth (or was it tenth?) in the nation in a recent snowboarding contest (not a competition for Deaf but some of the best in the nation, hearing or Deaf). Deafness is not slowing down this university professor, in academics or sports!

But that is what he has been teaching us all semester. Deafness is a cultural identity not a disability. In fact not hearing the student cell phones ringing all semester has probably been more peaceful for him than for any other professor on campus. I'm really glad I could take his class.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

2005-12-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

So I was driving home from Christmas shopping yesterday and I zip right past another roadkill on the freeway. Roadkill isn't all that rare but what made this particular lump of flattened animal was that it looked like it may have been a chicken before it got hit. Why did the chicken cross the road? Maybe to commit suicide...

Anyway. I don't think I'm cut out for shopping. I went to Toys Backwards R Us to get all of Ben's Christmas stuff so I could just be done with it. I spent an hour and a half wandering around with achy feet second guessing my selections and ultimately finding only a single toy for him. I then spent another twenty minutes standing in line behind men and women with shopping carts filled to the cealing to make my purchase. As I walked out of the store with a single rather lightweight bag I wondered to myself, "All that work for this?"

Yeah, shopping is definately not my forte. When I got home, I asked Mom how some people handle the mad Christmas Bonanza that occures the day after Thanksgiving each year. She told me some people actually enjoy it. I think those people must be crazy.

Allegory of the Olive trees

2005-12-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

In the book of Jacob there is an allegory about an orchard full of trees. The lord of the vineyard and a servant work to bear good fruit from the trees throughout the allegory. On one level it is the history of the house of Israel in its varying states of faith and apostasy.

On another level though it is the story of each of us as individuals. There was good ground and bad ground, good fruit and bad fruit, even on the same tree. We are not all good nor all bad. We are very much a mixed tree or mixed orchard. We have an easier time believing in some doctrines or obeying some commandments than we do others.

There are two possible outcomes in the allegory. In one, the evil fruit overcome the good fruit and take over the tree. In the other outcome, the evil branches are purged from the tree as the good branches become strong enough to take the nourishment from the roots.

We are a mixed tree. Whether we become all bad or all good in the end will depend on whether we nourish the good branches in our lives and work to prune the bad branches out.

The neat thing about the scriptures are that they are like onions (no, they don't stink). There are many layers to the same text. At the most shallow layer, there is only the story about a bunch of trees. At a deeper layer is the story of the house of Israel. At an even deeper level is the story of the human soul. I'm sure there are other layers in this allegory alone that I haven't discovered yet. Time to strap on the scuba tank and dive even deeper into the scriptures.

Mad About Hats

2005-12-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

Today while riding the bus to the Health Plans Christmas Luncheon with Sarah's brother, Joseph, I told him about my idea for a hat shop.

I would like to run a hat shop that sells every kind of hat imaginable but NOT baseball caps. There are already too many baseball caps in the world. They are the rodent infestation of hatdom.

I would sell cool hats like derby caps, fez, sumbreros, bonnets, and berets. Hats really add style to someone's appearance and they have become all too rare in today's society. Look back on the good old days when women would walk the streets with ornate hats that matched their gowns or the gentleman who could tip his own top hat to those same ladies as he greeted them in the streets. We need the classiness that came with a good selection of hats.

I once said, "I think everybody should wear a hat."
Ben promptly replied, "And a purse."

I don't plan on carrying a purse everywhere but I am a firm believer in hats. I am mad about hats!

2005-12-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

Well I've been on mornings for one week now. I love being able to interact with real people at real people hours but I'm exhausted at the end of the day. My body still wants to be awake all night and sleep all day. Gradually I think my body is getting the idea that it belongs in the world of daylight again.

The little guy has had a hard time wondering why I crash before even getting him into his jammies or reading him bedtime stories. Dadda gets up at 3am (soon to be 4am) just doesn't make sense to him at 7 or 8pm. Oh well, we'll manage. We always do.

Manly Toys

2005-11-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ben's great Aunt Debbie gave Ben a sword today. It is made in China from a company called Manley Toys. Kind of ironic isn't it? I wonder what other things Manley toys makes for little children. Guns? Trucks? Kinky sex toys? I think that the sword will likely disapear mysteriously. They usually do. Swords tend to get him excited.

Ben also informed me that the blunt plastic swords come from the kid toy factory but the metal sharp swords come from the grown up toy factory. I explained that his sword came from China which he thought was neat. He was curious about toys from Egypt. I told him that I'm sure there are toys in Egypt but I have never seen any. I told him most toys come from China. I think I lost him at the part about trade deficites.

Duct Tape

2005-11-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

A poem by me:

They say duct tape can fix anything,
If that is true, then how does it fix my heart?
If duct tape really fixes everything,
I've got a roll, where do I start?

They say duct tape can fix anything,
If that is true, then it must not be just a token,
If duct tape really fixes everything,
I've used up a roll, so why is my heart still broken?

They say duct tape can fix anything,
If that is true, then what should I do?
If duct tape really fixes everything,
I've got another roll, do I just tape myself to you?

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

I'm thankful for several things this year. I figure I ought to mention a few in no particular order.

My family, especially Ben. He's so cute and smart.

My Mom, who makes it possible for me to survive as a single parent.

A girl who will stay up way past her bedtime to talk to me on the phone. Thanks Sarah.

School. The ability to get educated.

Finally being off graveyard shift. I'll actually have contact with the real world again. Yippy!

President Hinckley's Book of Mormon challenge. I've never read so much. I better keep it up even after the New Year.

My friends, even though I'm usually too busy (or awake at the wrong times) to see them. Sarah fits in here too.

A free country where I can exersize my rights, participate in government, and not worry about car bombs.

I really do have a lot to be thankful for. Thanks!

Salt Lake Library

2005-11-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

I meant to blog about this earlier but I forgot until today as I was passing the library on my way to school. The Salt Lake City Public Library has a large collection of zines. In fact it was the first public library to have such a collection of amature produced zines in the world. Unfortunately it is poorly indexed right now but it is cool. Some of the zines are works of art.

Also for those interested, the second Monday of each month is WWII night at the library. WWII vets bring their gear and stories between 6 and 8 pm to anyone in the community with an interest. They have machine guns, M1 Garands, and cool stuff like that. I would have stayed for it when I was at the library for school but I couldn't. My time on the parking meter was running out and I didn't have any loose change to give me more time.

Cool stuff at the library! Check it out.

Muses

2005-11-20T02:18:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon an interesting web comic about a troubled girl's journey through her own subconscious. I wouldn't call it entertaining (although it is) but though provoking. It made me think of who I am and how well I treat my muses.

Creativity is quite active these days. She is the impish little elf girl in my head. Always thinking up new stuff. She has helped me write a few short stories recently (which I should publish or something).

Romance has been inprisoned by work and school. He is the dashing musketeer who helps me woo the ladies. I think Creativity has a school-girl crush on him. It's poor Sarah who has probably suffered the most from Romance's incarceration. Not that she needs me or my romance. She is quite independant and capable on her own (one reason I like her).

Adversity(she also goes by Suffering) still inspires Creativity quite a bit. It must be strange that a chained and beaten woman on the verge of death would be a source of that impish elf's inspiration. Adversity was a constant companion of mine during my troubled marriage. She tells Creativity to create dark tales of suffering and misery. Somewhere in the eternal darkness is the hope for a better tomorrow. Every drop of blood she sheds, leads to my growth.

Cunning has been getting a little out of shape. Normally she is a fit and dangerous huntress. She likes to go paintballing or play wargames with me but once again, I have been too busy to let her exersize. The poor girl.

Her fraternal twin sister, Inteligence, is doing well though. She is the woman with the glasses and lab coat, always with her nose in a book. She is having a delightful time going to my classes with me at the UofU.

So I have a bunch of girls (and a boy) running around in my head. I guess that is a sign that I'm a healthy straight guy (not that I doubted that). A trip through my twisted mind would be a strange journey indeed. My muses haven't complained about the accomodations though. But then again, sometimes I think they're nuts. Oh, they just informed me that I'm crazy ...something about any lunacy on their part is merely a reflection of my own insanity, as they are merely figments of my imagination. Go figure.

Paintballing

2005-11-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

I went paintballing yesterday. I had a good time. I met a first timer and let him use my A5 for a game. He liked it. I hope he got hooked enough in the sport to keep coming back. I tried to get Paul Robinson to come but I couldn't track him down. So I went by myself as usual.

I did see a minor equipment change I may want to do as I go into the winter/indoor season. My current red dot sight requires both eyes open, one sees the dot and the other sees the target and the two images get joined by the brain. That is good except for when one of your eyes is blocked by the bunker you are hiding behind to limit exposure. Then you only see the dot.

The sight was fine during the summer when most of my games were in woods where both eyes could be used. In speedball/indoor, I have to tuck in extra tight to avoid getting hit. I only want to expose one eye. There are red dot sights that can work with one OR both eyes. Maybe I should spend the $$ to get one of those for speedball.

What's nice about my current one is that it uses one of those fiber optic rods that gather ambient light to make the dot so it doesn't have any batteries. The see through one or two eye dot sights require batteries so that's one more thing I have to monitor and replace periodically.

Then there other players who think sights are pointless on paintball markers altogether. They just walk the shots in and tend to use accuracy by volume. That's not my style. One game I played was a one on one with a kid. He fired off about 40 or 50 balls at me. I took him down within 10 balls. I was firing my standard 2-3 shot bursts which equated to about 3-5 bursts all together to take him.

Maybe that's enough rambling about paintball for now. Most of my readers (hi family) don't even play the game.

To think that I saw it on Mulberry Street

2005-11-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

Dr Seuss wrote a story about a boy coming home from school. His father asked him what he saw. The boy saw a cart and a horse. I'm always seeing the stranger things than that on the road, and I don't mean the furry roadkill you can't tell what it is any more.

For over a year there was this gallon milk-jug of some brown liquid on the winding ramp from I-80 to Bangeter Highway. Every day I passed it on the way to work, always wondering what was in it. Was it apple juice? Automobile oil? Beer? Who put it there? Why? It sat there on the side of the road for a year before it finally disapeared. Now I'll never know.

On the way home from work, there is this fence line that looks like the mountains as you go by. The top of the fence is all crooked and cragly. It took me several minutes of driving by it to realize that it wasn't the mountains at all but a fence.

One time I saw a fender on the side of the road. I wonder what happened for some car to lose its entire fender and only the fender.

Last week I was driving home in the rain and saw a car on the shoulder facing the wrong way. It must of have slid out of control and spun into the shoulder. The car looked undamaged. Ben and I had a simillar experience back in the early spring except our car faced forward and stopped perfectly between two other cars that had also slid off the road. I know how lucky the driver must have felt.

Each object along the side of the road has a story. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks of it but I wonder what that story is. There are a lot of objects in the road. That means there are a lot of stories.

Holiday Musings

2005-11-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

Halloween has come and gone. Ben had a good time and was nice enough to share his candy. That means he will eat less of it and maybe have more healthy stuff. He had a good time being batman. The weather was actually nice this year.

Now we're already racing off to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm still largely clueless as to what to get everybody for Christmas this year. I imagine Ben is still young enough to be happy with whatever. But he's already started pointing to things in catalogs and saying he wants it, not insistantly but still... Its all down hill from here. The sad thing is I probably deserve it because I was just as commercial and gimee-gimee at his age. Maybe I was worse.

Anyway Happy Thanksgiving everbody! It'll be here and gone before you know it!

I'm getting better!

2005-10-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

I'm still coughing and sniffling but I'm not on my death bed anymore! I'm so happy! I stayed home from school so I could recuperate some more. But really its so I can take Ben trick-or-treating before it gets dark.

I'm taking it easy today. Didn't Ralph Waldo Emerson or somebody say that "The first wealth is health"? I'm happy I lost about 5 pounds by being sick but I'd rather be 5 pounds heavier and healthier. I need to get exercising again so that when the 5 pounds come back it will all be muscle instead of fat.

My new schedule was perfect for exercising at the gym. I can't wait till I can go back to it. I would like to run a marathon before I die. If my life could settle down, I'd actually do it. I tend to play much better paintball when I'm in shape too. I'd be better able to take care of Ben when healthy too.

2005-10-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

Ben surprised Grandma Claudia today by coming to do the primary program. He was really cute and did his line well. During the singing part afterword he kept trying to get at the microphone and all the other sunbeams followed suite. The primary lady had to keep moving it out of reach while they sang. It was adorable, unless you were a primary leader.

I went in to train the new guy today after church and he didn't come. He stayed home with his wife who just had surgery. I could have stayed home too but I guess it turned out okay. I had to fix some backup issues and that would have been hard to do from home. So in the end it was a good thing.

I won't let you be in my dream.

2005-10-29T13:46:00.000-06:00

Last night I had a strange dream. I dreamed I was in the middle of a Star Wars movie with blasters blazing and light sabers twirling. Then Ben came into the movie and wanted to play too. I told him not to because it was "too violent". The movie then shrunk down to little action figures so that he could play with them. I guess I'm a hypocrite, indulging in violent dreams but not letting Ben in on them. Or maybe its just that I'm sick and I tend to dream strange things when I'm sick.

Last night I went to work and got talked into going home by Abhishek (coworker). He and the other night guy will cover for me. I went to Instacare to see if its strep or some othe horrific life threatening disease. They told me I have a cold. So I went home and found Ben up. We talked and snuggled for a bit and then went to sleep. I slept all morning too.

Flu Shots and Colds

2005-10-26T12:53:00.000-06:00

Last night, Ben went with Grandma, Grampa, and me to get flu shots for the winter. The woman there said Ben was the best kid she gave one to. He didn't cry, or even flinch when they jabbed her with the needle. He just sat there and took it with a smile on his face. The kid in the next room was screaming uncontrollably for his shot.

As we were leaving he said that the doctor was fun and now it was time to go to the pharmacy. Apparently in his mind, all doctor visits end up with a trip to the pharmacy to pick up medicine. A lot of visits do.

I've picked up a nasty cold. I can't wait to be over it. I don't think I've had a good night's sleep in 3 days. I wake up with a swollen throat, plugged up sinuses and a pounding headache... just in time to train the new guy. The thought of the exhausting efforts of training is making me feel worse. It takes a lot of energy to ensure that the new guy learns how not to bring the entire business to its knees. I'd like to take a few days off just to recouperate but that would stretch our existing guys out, delay the new guy's training, and delay my return to mornings. I'm to tired to deal with that so I'll just work.

Life Update

2005-10-25T00:42:00.000-06:00

The end is in sight. We have a new hire. I'll start training him on Wed. As soon as he is done, I can go back to the mornings. Yay!

In other news, I actually got together with Dave and Paul on Saturday. First time in a several months. Maybe I can actually get a social life of some sort. Which reminds me. I haven't seen Sarah in a while... On Saturday she gave me her email address though. I'm going to write.

I'm hearing through the grapevine that Malad is looking very promising. I would like Rachael and Robert to move there as does the entire rest of the family.

Conflict and Peace

2005-10-16T20:22:00.000-06:00

I finally started reading, April 1865: The Month That Saved America. I'm only half way through it but it's really good.

To hold the Union together, you not only have to beat the separatist army but extend a hand of love and fellowship at the same time. That is really hard to do when you're daily killing their sons and brothers and husbands. Abraham Lincoln had the hardest task of any US president and he managed it well.

Lincoln couldn't do it alone though. He needed a counterpart on the other side also willing to facilitate peace. Robert E. Lee over the course of the war had gained the admiration and respect of his soldiers and the entire south. He could have ordered his men to disperse and begin a guerrilla campaign to continue the fight when his army was about to fall to Grant. Southern president Jefferson Davis wanted to extend the fight that way. Lee chose peace and reconcilation. It took trust in a Union that had many crying for his head.

I also recently watched a documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Barak really did want peace. Yasser Arafat wanted it too but refused to take the risks that would begin the process. When Barak was voted out, Sharon came in and the peace process really had no chance. Sharon would talk of peace and then do everything in his power to undermine it. With Sharon and Arafat in power, peace had no chance. Arafat is now gone but Sharon is still around. When Sharon leaves will the new leadership on both sides really have a chance at peace?

It takes extroardinary people to make two warring sides forgive each other, Christ-like people. People who are willing to lose everything they have to ensure that others can gain. Hate and revenge have no place in the heart. And it can't be just the leaders. Everyone needs to take the higher road.

What's with some comments anyway?

2005-10-09T19:11:00.000-06:00

Okay I just published my last post about paintball and I noticed that I got a comment on my Iraq post. It has absolutely nothing to do with my post. It was just a random advertisement for someone else's site for low carb diet plans.

An earlier post I made about my courtship with Sarah ended up with a comment that was an advertisement for a dating service. At least that one was on topic ...sort of.

I'm beginning to wonder if attacking bloggers with ads is the new spam! When someone comments on my blog, I'd like it to be by a real person responding to what I posted. I don't want some random blog-spam-bot to send garbage to me or my readers. People who annoy me tend not to get my future business.

Skills

2005-10-09T18:53:00.000-06:00

I gotta work on my skills. Paintball skills that is. I played at Paintball Addicts today (Hi, my name is Talmage and I'm addicted to paintball). I played with my pump to work on my aiming and snapshooting skills. I need a lot of improvement. I used to be really good at both but I got rusty as I played with my semi-autos for the last year and a half. I should go pump for the next while to work on that. I miss my lean and mean first shot take-outs.

The funniest thing that happened was being informed by my back player that the far left bunker had been cleared by him. I made a mad dash along the tapeline to backdoor the other team. Needless to say, there had actually been two players in that bunker and he hosed me whereas my 1 shot (remember, I'm playing pump) had already been spent on a midfield player as I ran past.

I tried to stop once I was hit but ended up sliding into the netting. The netting is where all the old paint gets swepped to be out of the way before the deep cleaning. It was messy but certainly a wild ride. The ref asked if I was okay as I laughed my head off tangled in the netting.

I love this sport!

The Truth about Iraq

2005-10-02T18:40:00.000-06:00

Recently I stumbled upon a blog from a historian imbedded with a unit stationed in Iraq. He really doesn't consider himself a journalist as he views most of the journalists in Iraq with disdain for shoddy journalism. He goes on patrols with "Deuce Four" and is on the bleeding edge of the war on terror.

And here is what CNN and Fox News aren't telling us. We are winning and winning handily. The Iraqis want us to stay. They are helping us. We are training their police and military forces. Their forces are taking up more and more of the duties. The Iraqi citizens believe in their fledgling government. They give the US and Iraqi forces leads on terrorist cells daily. Thousands of construction projects are going on across Iraq, everything from schools to power plants.

Michael Yon says that it is violent but the progress is steady and consistent. CNN doesn't mention the failed road side attack which led to the uncovering of an enormous weapons cash, shutting down of a foreign fighter importation route, and removal of several resistance cells in Mosul. He said that the foreign fighters are having to be drugged or blackmailed to become suicide bombers and once caught are singing like birds to route out their co-conspirators.

Yesterday, I watched one of his videos he posted to his site. A group of jihadists fired twenty mortars at a US army base with counter battery radar (in english you launch a mortar at us we can reverse calculate the trajectory and nail you right back). The counter battery was told not to fire. Instead one of our unmanned arial drones already in the air was directed to the launch site and the troops scrambled. The jihadists hopped into their van and drove off to drop off the various fighters at their homes. The whole time unknown to them the American eye in the sky was watching. After following the van for 45 minutes the van was stopped in front of a local police station where Iraqi and American forces took down those in the van without injury to anyone. Simultaneously raids were conducted on the homes of those dropped off also without injury. A cell was shut down and many weapons captured. A few additional leads were also uncovered for future operations. Not bad for an hour's work.

This unit is also sending a small Iraqi girl with severe illness to doctors in New Mexico to treat her. Her life expectancy has gone from a months to years. A family in Iraq is very happy. A family here in Utah is gathering school supplies to be sent to a US unit in Iraq for distribution to the children there. Many other units and people across america are doing the same thing. Food, clothing, school supplies, medical supplies, medical manuals. The Iraqis are grateful. They are gradually losing their decades long fear of the west.

I'm not finding these stories on the front page of the New York Times. The media is out of touch. The cry for pullout is ever increasing but the troops who are actually laying their lives on the line WANT to stay until the job is done and done right. The people demanding pullout are the ones whose lives are NOT on the line. The media is doing more damage than the insurgents.

Going Green

2005-09-28T12:57:00.000-06:00

I find it somewhat odd how so many people in America are complaining that the USA is refusing to switch to greener technologies while simultaniously complaining about the high gas prices we have. Don't they see how wonderfull it is? Expensive fossile fuels will drive more people to cheaper alternatives, greener alternatives. They will finally get what they want.

The fact of life is that money runs the world. Warm fuzzy feelings toward Mother Nature do not get things done. Money does. If it becomes more economically viable for a greener technology to compete then people will go green. I'll happily hug a tree if it is cheaper for me to do so than hugging an oil barrel. I am on a budget after all.

America rocks

2005-09-24T21:58:00.000-06:00

Last week I was reading in Inocents Abroad by Mark Twain on my Palm Pilot. I've only been reading it in spurts so its taking me forever.

Anyway, Mark Twain had just finished visiting several Italian cities and made a few comparisons between American society and Italian society in his time. In Italy, the government was bankrupt and corrupt. The church held all of the wealth and the citizens lived in filth and poverty. In america even the poorest family had bread and clothes. The government actually worked and the citizenry could vote out the corrupt officials. Even the cities were clean and orderly. America was ever expanding and building anew while the Italians lived like rats in the crumbling structures of the Roman Empire's former glory.

I thought about America today. Our largest complaints include things like traffic jams and gas prices. Even our poor can get food or a roof over their heads. We have tremendous amounts to education and opportunities for economic gain. What are we complaining about? We have more wealth than the kings in generations past. We even put men on the moon!

I guess I was just taking for granted that we DO live in a promised land. It took the satirical wit of Mark Twain to remind me of that. Man we are blessed!

Flap Your Wings

2005-09-18T21:48:00.000-06:00

A frequently read bedtime book here is Flap Your Wings by P.D. Eastman. It is a tale about an aligator egg accidentally placed in a bird nest. As Ben and I have read the book, I noticed an interesting thing about the two main characters, Mr. and Mrs. Bird.

Mr. Bird is quite confident, happy, and full of "can do" attitude. The illustrations show Mr. Bird with a serene smile on his face through most of the book.

Mrs. Bird on the other hand is always frowning, worrying, and second guessing herself. She is in a chronic state of stress.

It got me thinking about my parenting of Ben, who only sees a funny story about an alligator in a tree. Am I the Mr. Bird parent or the Mrs. Bird parent? I think I'm more like Mrs. Bird, always worrying and wondering about his development and if I'm doing enough for him. It's a very draining way to live.

Mr. Bird seems to have the better time. He worked just as hard as Mrs. Bird but he actually enjoyed the ride. He was content with whatever "his child" threw at him. When his kid failed to fly like a proper bird, he was delighted to see that Junior was an excelent swimmer. Nothing phased his positive outlook. I wish I had more Mr. Bird in me.