Sunday, August 30, 2009

Hi Politics, It's Nice To See You Again

I'm not sure why it's been this way recently, but I just haven't been as into the political scene as I normally would be. I think this summer I got away from a lot of things that I normally do, and being back up here it's easy for me to get back into old school (not like old skool) patterns which includes more motivated thoughts coupled with a good amount of time wasting, which usually includes a lot of keeping up with politics.

I have a few favorite political writers. Jay Nordlinger is my favorite by far. I used to read David Brooks a lot more, who is a New York Times Op-Ed guy. Thomas Sowell, Byron York, and Michael Barone are all pretty great. Someone that I've been getting into more recently has been Jeff Jacoby. He writes for the Boston Globe, and his stuff is a great conservative take on political issues. Jay is pure conservative. David is more moderate-conservative. Jeff seems to be pretty strictly conservative. I haven't read a ton of his stuff, but his opinions line up well with my own, from what I've read so far. You can visit his website here, and his most recent article is in reference to the passing of Ted Kennedy, and how being a Kennedy used to mean a supply-side tax cutter. Here is an excerpt from the article:
HIS NAME WAS KENNEDY. He was the preeminent figure in the Democratic Party. And he was a resolute supply-side tax-cutter.

"It is a paradoxical truth," he once told the Economic Club of New York, "that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now." What he had in mind, he said, was not "a 'quickie' or a temporary tax cut." He wanted nothing less than "an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes."

Would he be a Democrat today?
Those were not the words of Senator Edward Kennedy. The speaker – in December 1962 -- was President John F. Kennedy, and his ringing call for tax cuts was no anomaly.

In a televised address from the Oval Office four months earlier, JFK had called high tax rates a danger to "the very essence of the progress of a free society: the incentive of additional return for additional effort." In his 1963 State of the Union message, he said his first priority was "the enactment this year of a substantial reduction and revision in federal income taxes." In the speech he was scheduled to deliver to the Texas Democratic State Committee on Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy planned to report proudly: "We have proposed a massive tax reduction, with particular benefits for small business."

In recent days, Ted Kennedy has been justly acclaimed as a lion of the Democratic Party. But how different the party mourning Kennedy today is from the one that first nominated him in 1962!
And maybe you're wondering what it means to be a supply-side tax cutter. Go here.

I'm not entirely sure that this will mean that I'll be commenting more frequently on politics again. I have ebbs and flows, and I kind of feel like I'm coming out of my ebb once again. We'll see. One thing that will certainly keep me interested will be a voting behavior class that I'll be auditing in the political science department. Hopefully I can jump onto some of the research that that guy is doing.

Ahhhhh, there is so much ambition in the air. Must be the start of another fall semester.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Back To School

Drove back yesterday. I'm pretty sure that if I'm going to die tragically, it will be on one of these car rides between California and Utah. Thanks to all those who kept me alive with texts and phone calls. Seriously. Although I must say that it is kind of thrilling/terrifying when I open my eyes and realize that I was, or was about to, start dozing off, and there is the split second of sheer terror when I just hope that I'm still driving straight in my own lane. Nothing jump-starts your heart quite like wondering if you're about to cause some major damage. Somehow it makes it all worth it.

I can't emphasize enough how proud I am of the people that I know. I had some really good conversations yesterday and I was reawakened to just how impressive my friends are. Not a lot of other things can inspire me the way my friends and family do. I am so excited for them and everything that they have going on and are looking forward to, and also feel their upward pull with their examples. Within my circle there have been or will be graduations, new school programs, babies or baby announcements, and engagements or impending ones. I am so impressed and proud to know all of you. It's such an exciting time, isn't it?

I'm really looking forward to this school year. There is nothing like the days leading up to school when hopes and ambitions are at their highest and not ruined or tainted by the ensuing follow through of real life. I just found out yesterday that I will be working with one of my favorite professors for the duration of my program, and I hatched a bunch of new goals and schemes during my drive yesterday, so I have a lot to look forward to.

Among other things to be excited about:
  • Football, both the college and NFL variety.
  • Fall and Winter Holidays - I've already got an idea for my Halloween costume. Does it involve makeup? Of course. Is it at all gay? No. Phew. Man, All Hallow's Eve is the best. The best. Scary movies, haunted houses, crisp autumn weather. Candy. And then Thanksgiving and Christmas are pretty cool too. Actually, I heard some Christmas music the other day and I started getting really excited about it. That usually doesn't happen for me.
  • Being done with the marathon.
  • Baseball playoffs. There is nothing better than reading and studying to the playoffs going on in the background. I can't believe the Angels got Scott Kazmir. I kind of have a thing for that guy dating back to several years ago when I watched him dominate while with the Rays. More to come on that later, Kent.
  • The new school year in general. New beginnings are just exciting, aren't they?
That's all for now. I heard this song and really enjoyed both the song and the video. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Say Hey, I Love You

I guess this is my last California post. I was supposed to be leaving today, but I decided that I had to go to the beach one last time, especially since it's been so warm lately so I'll be heading out early tomorrow morning. The last few weeks haven't felt like August at all.

I didn't really think at all about how sad I'd be to leave here until I started packing up stuff yesterday. This summer has been an interesting one, but if there is anything that I have enjoyed about it it has been all the relationships with everyone that I have down here. I can't believe how incredibly blessed I am to know the people that I know. Here are some examples:
  • A couple weekends ago I drove up with the Reids to visit the Andersons and while making the drive I began to remember just how close Dave and I used to be with Laura. We used to see her on an almost weekly basis during the summers away from BYU, which is amazing considering that we live an hour apart, and that's without traffic going through the heart of LA. It was so great to be able to see her and her two kids. And Laura, your husband is awesome. A lot of people that are the spouse of the friend wouldn't make the effort that he does to be involved and friendly with us like he does. I wish we all lived closer to you guys.
  • Earlier this week I got to go to Korean BBQ in Koreatown in LA with Dr. Nick. I don't know anyone who is more of a consumer than he is, and he is flat-out the best "yes person" I've ever met. This is what living with Nick at BYU is like: Hey Nick, wanna go fly-fishing? Okay. Do you wanna go rock climbing? Alright. Wanna stay up until 4am and play videogames? Well I have this final tomorrow, but okay. Can we shoot the guns you hide under you bed in BYU approved housing? Sure. The only difference is that now that he actually makes money you can ask things like, wanna go to Nepal and hike to the base camp of Mt. Everest? Wanna go fly-fishing in the Patagonias? Yes and yes. The guy is just awesome. And there may be nothing better in the whole world than Korean BBQ.
  • The Reids. Obviously these are my favorite people in the whole world. One time this summer I more or less blew off dinner with them to hang out with a girl. When I was done hanging out with her, I was still hungry. This is how cool they are. I asked if I could still drop by and come and eat, they said yes, and so I came by and was trying to put together the meal myself without having them get up because I already felt bad about missing dinner, but then both Dave and Caitlin came over to cut up more lettuce and arrange the food just as they had eaten it earlier because they thought it would be much better that way. It seems like a small thing, but that kind of thing means a lot to me, and they never stop doing those kinds of things for me. They are so selfless and unfailingly supportive. Just when I think I couldn't love the entire family more than I already do, another one is born and my love for them grows that much more. There have been a number of times this summer when I've been in a sour mood and then just seeing baby Mason's face just melts my heart, or seeing Doug's kids and getting to play with the boys. In fact, nothing pulls at my heart more than thinking that I won't get to see Mase on a regular basis and get to watch him grow up. I start tearing up just thinking about saying goodbye to him. I never thought I'd get so attached.
See what I'm talking about? This is the look he has on his face 90% of the time. How can you not fall in love with this little guy?

And there are so many others. Thanks for helping me find a reason to get excited about Wahoo's and always making me feel like you care. Thanks for always being so nonjudgmental and supportive when we talk, even when your world is falling apart. Thanks for lunch and identifying with me in my weaker moments. And I'm so glad I got to see you guys before you left.

As sad as I am to leave California, I'm excited to get back to my life in Utah. This really has felt like a two month long vacation, and I'm interested in getting back to structure and responsibility. And what's more, I have been lucky enough to make some good friends up there as well and I'm really excited to get back to them.

I don't know why it's worked out the way that it has, but I've always been able to form really close relationships with the people around me. I am not one to have a ton of friends and acquaintances, but the ones that I do have tend to be highly personal and deep, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

But I'll at least be back in October to run the Long Beach marathon, so see you in about 6 weeks!


I think this song is this summer's theme song for me. Until next time, dearhearts.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Dose Of Reality

You know what was maybe my favorite movie of the entire summer? Star Trek. Yeah, I said it. And I'll say it again. I think Star Trek might have been might favorite movie of the entire summer. There were some other entertaining ones, but this is the only one that I left the theater thinking that I wouldn't mind paying another full priced admission to see it again in the theater, or that I'd even like to buy it when it comes out on DVD.

At the time that the idea behind it was dreamt up, mankind had already explored the whole world over. With nowhere else to go, Gene Roddenberry took exploration to space and created a universe of characters and stories that revolved around what those journeys might be like. What really drives the franchise along are the characters that he fabricated.

I can't even really remember what the TV show was like, or what they were like in the movies, but this adaptation with the new Captain Kirk, Spock, and everyone else is just wonderful. Kirk is both courageous and a bit reckless, while Spock provides the perfect foil of being both logical and measured in his actions. Beyond that they have a friendship that is really worth hearing about. The franchise has been rebooted, and they really couldn't have done a better job.

(This is a time period that will be funny to look back on for this reason alone: everyone will look back at the last part of the decade and will ask, "remember when Hollywood decided to reboot every major franchise that ever existed, and they actually did a really good job with it?" James Bond, Batman, among others.)

Several years ago, Orson Scott Card visited BYU's campus and talked about the importance of fiction. I've made this point a number of times on this blog, but many people would rather just write off fiction as just being fiction, that it's only made up and has no real bearing on reality or our everyday lives. Card made the point that what is made up in fiction is often repeated soon thereafter in reality. In a sense, it becomes a breeding ground for ideas and what remains possible. There is no such thing as just a movie/book/TV show/story/etc. Everything has a purpose and will have some kind of impact, one way or another.

Although Star Trek is only science fiction, it remains, nonetheless, a reflection of true ideas and beliefs about the world as we know it. In fiction we find what it is that we really value, even if the stories and characters are entirely manufactured. We see in Star Trek a glimpse into the excitement of space exploration that existed during the 1960s when it was a major focus of this country's ambition. In the characters, we get a sense for the kind of traits and characters that we value in real life; through the pairing of Kirk and Spock we see the value of passion coupled with reason; in exploring the outer limits of our imagination we gain an appreciation for the curiosity that mankind has in the world and universe outside ourselves.

While talking about this topic with a friend tonight, she playfully chided herself for not reading books that supposedly have more meaning, autobiographies of important people and the like, but who's to say that these fictional portrayals don't have the same kind of real impact and inspiration that real life accounts do? Many real life lawyers point to Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird (or as Dave likes to say it, Tequila Mockingbird) as their inspiration for the type of lawyer that they want to become. I'm sure that there is a whole generation of kids out there that want to be brave in the face of danger and loyal to their friends because that is what they learn from reading Harry Potter. Unfortunately on the flip side, there are probably many teens and women that I'm sure develop their sense of romance from what they have read in the Twilight series.

Just because it is fiction does not mean that the impact that it has on your life is not entirely real. As a child, I loved Peter from The Chronicles of Narnia books. I loved that he was the leader, and that he was always on the lookout for his younger siblings. I loved Aslan because of his selfless sacrifice in behalf of the kids. I loved Encyclopedia Brown because he saw everything, could always figure out exactly what was going on, and was always one step ahead of everyone else. When I read T.S. Eliot sometimes I think I am that nervous, perpetually self-conscious person that he so perfectly captures. The power behind fiction is how it can affect us on a deeply personal level.

Not that this movie is particularly deep. It's a sometimes witty, but mostly action-packed ride that entertains from beginning to end. Nevertheless, it does have some aspects to it that are no less real than you sitting there reading this on your computer screen right this minute.

Gratitude Campaign

Just thought that this was a nice idea worth passing on.


Sunday, August 23, 2009

Just One More Post About Running

I'm not sure exactly why, but I have to tell you about how excruciating it is sometimes to train for a marathon. I know I promised I wouldn't, but I must.

I ran 19 miles this past Saturday, and let me tell you it just about killed me. What made it especially difficult was the gross amount of humidity that we experienced that day, and in particular, that morning.

The reason why the long runs are important in marathon training is to get your body acclimated to the conditions of running for hours on end. It's been interesting to me to see how my aches, pains, and challenges have been different this time around as opposed to the first time I did this. I don't have the same knee pain from sheer impact that I had last time. My food diet is better. Since coming out to California I have managed to cut off about 8-9 lbs. It was mostly water weight, but after my run Saturday I actually came in at under 170 lbs for the first time since I was like 16 years old. So instead of the knee pain that I would feel after these long runs I'm feeling pain in my right ankle. I haven't been taking any pain relievers yet because I don't want to train for a marathon if I'm having to rely upon medication to get me through it. I'll do it for the recovery from the actual marathon, but I want to make sure that I'm feeling well enough during the training to make it through without popping 800 mg of ibuprofen. Maybe that's dumb, but I just want to make sure that everything is working naturally.

One of the main reasons for doing the long runs is to expand your body's limits in fighting off the build up of lactic acid in your muscles. You know how when you decide to carry 20 bags of groceries from your car into your house in one trip, that that is somehow better than making multiple trips, but because of that your hands and arms start to burn intensely? Well that's what it's like when you run for a few hours. I ran for 2 hours and 45 minutes on Saturday, and although I'm alternating from one leg to the other so one is not flexed the entire time, each of them is flexed for about half of it, so imagine holding those groceries in your arms for about 80 minutes in a flexed position, and the kind of burn that would leave you. That's what it feels like when I finish the runs.

For about the first 12-14 miles I'm actually feeling fine. It's not really a problem for me to run those distances without any real difficulty, but once I get upwards of 15+ miles, that's when it gets really hard. Legs become fatigued, and one place that I really feel it is in the lowest part of my abdomen, right above the crotch but below the belly button. That's not an area that gets much direct workout, at least not with what I do, so those muscles get really fatigued for me. Anything over 17 miles is done just be sheer will power, but until I'm actually done nothing really hurts too badly.

And it's once I'm stopped when the lactic acid begins to settle in. What's funny about it is that my memory becomes so short-term anytime I finish these especially long runs. The burning becomes excruciating, I can't stand anymore, and I always think to myself, "this is the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life." It's like, up until that point in my life, I've never felt pain before, but at that moment I'm introduced to it and in heaping doses.

I always try and walk around for at least 10 minutes post-run to warm down, get some calories and electrolytes back in me, and then I finally lay down and put my legs up for the next 20 or so minutes.

Greg was talking to me the other day about a point that Stephen Covey makes in one of his books, that some spiritual lessons can only come when we experience them first physically. This is why I want my kids to play sports on a competitive level when I become a parent, but I think this is a point that people who don't play sports or do any kind of intense physical exercise never fully appreciate.

Everything that we do physically has more to do with the mental aspect than anything else. It does take a certain amount of physical gifts to do athletics, but in the end people succeed because they overcome the mental barriers before the physical ones. The reason why I can run a marathon is not because I'm just really physically blessed. It's taken several years for me to learn how to manage my diet and weight, which is a big part of being in a state where I can even consider doing one. I can run a marathon because I've set my mind to doing the training for it. I've committed myself to running 4-5 times a week, up to 40-45 miles a week, for upwards of 14-18 weeks.

And I don't say this to boast of myself, because heavens knows how deficient I am in so many other areas. I say this to make the point that the accomplishments we're able to attain are won through the day to day personal battles that we have in our heads. Don't think for one second that I go to bed Friday nights not dreading the next morning when I have to get up early knowing the pounding that my body is going to take. I'm well aware of the incredible burning sensation in my legs that follows for about 30 minutes after every one of my long runs, the kind of pain that makes me forget all of the other pain that I've ever felt during my life. I have two more 20+ mile runs, and I guarantee you that I will wake up every couple of hours throughout the night prior because of the dread that I will be feeling.

The great things we do in our lives are preceeded by the small and simple things that help us arrive to that point. If we do enough of them for a sufficient amount of time, eventually we'll get to the point of achievement without even realizing that we had even run the marathon in the first place.

Now if I could just apply this to finishing my thesis, I think I will become unstoppable.

If only.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Best Ride Ever

I am a veteran of Wild Rivers in Irvine. As a kid growing up, I have had a season pass there multiple years, and I even attended a summer camp right next door and each morning we would get to go an hour before the park opened until about lunch time. So I'm very familiar with the ins and out of it.

It's pretty tiny, but there are definitely some gems. There is always the option of the lazy river. Congo River Rapids is a tube ride that has a place where you can stop and hold up other riders. That used to be way fun when I was a kid, but I can't bring myself to do it anymore as an adult. Bombay Blasters is a tube ride that goes underground and then shoots you into a pool of water. I am the very best at tucking into a cannonball upon exit from that ride, drenching anyone sitting on the bleachers. But the best ride by far is Surf Hill.

It's a really simple ride, not really much more than a giant slip and slide that goes down the hill and you ride on some mats. No one who isn't a veteran of the park can really appreciate all of the nuances of the ride, but it's the best. The. Best. Ever.

Let me break it down for you:
  • There are two mat folding philosophies. If you don't fold, then you don't know what you're doing. There is either the full burrito roll, or just folding the long ways. One is geared for speed, the other for jumping at the end.
  • The push-start. One of these days I want to get a running start onto the ride.
  • The paddling motion to gain speed. Another pretty awesome move is when the person in the lane next to you actually gets ahead of you, and actually pulling on that person's leg to propel yourself forward. It's seriously like a surf hill version of having nitrous. It's amazing the kind of speed you get from doing that.
  • The jump on the final hill. This is by far the best part. It comes from a push-up motion and a crucial element is pulling up the mat with you as you're flying through the air to emphasize the air you're getting.
  • And finally there is the matter of pulling up your body and mat enough to remove enough friction to not only coast through the water that is intended to slow down and stop you, but actually hit the wall at the very end of the ride. Last year I went with a kid that was so good at this part that he lost almost no momentum and would hit the wall so hard that he would actually fall out of the back onto the cement. It was amazing.
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard the kind of joy that I experience with this ride. When the rest of our group left, Dave and I went on the ride at least ten times on our own, and you know what thought I had this afternoon? I wish that I could have gone again today and I would have gone on only that ride for the entire day.

Am I almost 30 years old? Yes. Would I seriously consider buying a ticket to a waterpark to go on one ride for 6-8 hours straight? Without question. I think it's one of the funnest things in the world.

Friday, August 21, 2009

It's A Muse Day


I'm so pumped for this album to come out, and then the subsequent tour that will follow to promote it.

Off to Wild Rivers! See y'all later!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Anchors

When it comes to personal conduct, we need anchors to set the standards that govern our behavior. With free-floating standards our behaviors too often have a radius that encompasses what we would also deem as unacceptable. An example illustrating this idea is with R-rated movies.

I said it just recently on here, but I think there are some R-rated movies that are worth watching. Sometimes they get the ratings because of swear words, violence, or suggestive content, among other things, but the sometimes messages or the stories that they deliver are wholesome and even uplifting. The trouble, however, is that when I start allowing myself to have the free-floating rule of just being selective rather than taking a hard-line stance, it's so easy to allow my judgment to drift and watch other movies that are inappropriate. Giving an inch often becomes a mile in what becomes permissible. Some people might be able to get away with it, but I think for myself I'm just not smart and disciplined enough to allow leeway when it comes to this kind of thing (just to be clear, this is a personal decision for me and might not be necessary for other people).

I started thinking about this recently with respect to a girl that I know. In the midst of a conversation about our dating experience from when we were younger, she mentioned how she and her friends used to bait guys into liking them, only to drop them and move on to the next guy. I remarked how mean that seemed, and I thought that her response would be something like how that was a different time and she has since seen the folly of her ways. Instead, she snidely replied, "you can't be cruel to guys that are heartless."

That answer just never sat right with me. Regardless of what another person is like, that shouldn't change the way you treat them. Whether they invite poor treatment, or they even deserve it, there are certain boundaries that you just shouldn't ever cross, if only because it expands the realm of what you think is acceptable behavior. In talking with a friend last night about this subject, she said that your behavior shouldn't be guided by what other people do, but by your own principles. Because this girl (the former, not the latter) let her conduct be dictated by her circumstances, eventually it turned into whatever served her purposes, so even more recently when she has been dating decent guys, she treats them with little regard. This idea has been expressed in many different ways, but I like how Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character expresses it in the movie Mission Impossible III, "You can tell a lot about a person's character by how they treat people they don't have to treat well."

In the end, the anchors that we choose to use are the principles that govern how we act. Without principled behavior, we allow ourselves to be tossed about by the waves of our circumstances. Rather than having an anchor that secures us to a specific code of conduct that we can never venture away from, we have only floating buoys that drift and are tossed until eventually they no longer even mark the ground where we thought we were standing.

Monday, August 17, 2009

My Dream Job


Do you still have a dream job? the kind of job that you'd love to be able to do someday because you really romanticize what the work would actually be like, and feel like there is an outside chance that you could actually do it? That job for me would be a writer. Except for academic writing, I would do just about any kind of writing. I wouldn't mind being a journalist, or a political commentator, or write fiction or non-fiction literature. I would do any of it. I would love to do all of it.

Every so often the bug hits me a little bit harder. This comes up semi-annually, and I wonder if I'm actually capable of it, of producing stuff that's worth reading and that leaves a lasting impression on people. I kind of envision it like in the movie Orange County where the kid picks up that book he finds on the beach and because of the book decides that he wants to dedicate himself to writing. To me, it just seems like the most amazing vehicle to connecting with people. It's because of smart thinking and good writing that the founding fathers were able to garner the needed support to ratify the constitution. Even when you're talking about the scriptures, it's because of the writings of the prophets that people can even learn about Jesus Christ and his gospel. It can affect you on so many levels. I just love it.

I think what I'm really enamored with when it comes to writing is the story-telling aspect. There is a story to every person and event if you can just find the right angle, it just requires a nose for what's interesting and then knowing how to tell it. This is probably why I love This American Life so much. In my own life, I think Greg and Dave are my favorite story-tellers.

I just finished reading Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks, the author of The Notebook, A Walk To Remember, and Message In A Bottle. Over the last few years I've been developing a taste for biographies, so when I am looking for a book I'll often start searching around the biography section and just start reading the first few pages of ones that look interesting to me. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and I think that's what makes biographies so great. Real people sometimes do unbelievable things, and it's really great to learn about those things.

I really loved the book. You know how you read critical reviews included on the book cover, and you don't really think anything of it? There was one that seemed so cliche that I didn't even consider it, which said, "the sweet and bitter, it's all here. You will laugh and you will cry," but after having read the book, I couldn't think of a more apt description. I think it's hard for humor to come across in writing because you not only have to have a good sense of what's funny, but you have to be so succinct in the delivery, but there were several times while reading when I marveled at how funny he is. And there are a few moments that are just so heart-wrenching that I really did tear up, and I never really feel that way when reading books. Maybe in movies, but not when I'm reading, because his stories are especially compelling. I think my favorite thing about the book is just realizing what an impressive man Nicholas Sparks is, how good to the core he is, and the sweetness of the relationships that exist between himself and his family. It's just really touching.

There are two parts that I want to include here. This first one is about his first experience writing a book.
The next morning, I sat down at my dad's typewriter, rolled in the first sheet of paper, and began to write. I chose horror as a genre and conjured up a character who caused accidental death wherever he went. Six weeks and nearly three hundred pages later, after writing six or seven hours a day, I'd finished. To this day, I can remember typing that final sentence, and I don't know that I'd ever felt a higher sense of accomplishment with anything I'd done in my entire life.

The only problem was the book. It was terrible and I knew it. It was atrocious in every sense of the word, but in the end, what did it matter? I didn't intend for it to be published; I'd written it to see if I could. Even then, I knew there was a big difference between starting a novel and actually finishing one. Even more surprising, I found that I'd actually enjoyed the process.

I was nineteen years old and had become an accidental author. It's funny the way things happen in life.
I think what I like so much about that part is if I ever do end up writing a book, I think it will unfold in a very similar way. It's kind of like how I decided and eventually ran a marathon; I'll play with the idea in my head for a long time, something will make me realize that it's probably a little bit easier to do and more realistic than I had first expected, and then I'll just sit down and start figuring out how to make it happen.

The second excerpt is when they finally had exhausted all their options for treating his sister's cancer.
At the end of the consultation, Micah (the oldest brother) said good-bye to the doctor. He held my sister's arm so she wouldn't fall, and led her outside.

They sat on the steps outside the memorial complex. The day was cool, but the sky was blue and clear. On the sidewalks, people passed by, without a second glance. Cars rolled by steadily, and in the distance one or two of them honked their horns. Everywhere else, life was going on as normal, but for Micah, nothing seemed normal at all.

Like me, Micah was exhausted. Yes, he knew it would come to this. We all knew it would come to this. Yet, just as well had at our mother's bedside, we'd never stopped wishing and praying for a miracle. There was no logical reason to expect one, but Dana was our sister and we loved her. It was the only thing we could do.

My sister said nothing. Her left eye drooped and a bit of saliva leaked from her mouth. She couldn't feel it, didn't even know it was there. Micah gently wiped her mouth.

"Hey sweetie," he said.

"Hey," my sister answered quietly. It was no longer her voice; her words sounded different now, like someone mumbling in her sleep.

Micah slipped his arm around her. "Do you understand what the doctor was saying?"

Dana looked at him, moving her head slowly. It seemed to be everything she could do to remember.

"No...more...meds?" she finally asked. The words were soft, almost too low to hear.

"Yeah, sweetie, that's right. No more medicine. You're done with all that."

My sister stared at him, trying to follow his words. Her expression saddened, half of her mouth forming a frown.

"So that's it?"

Micah's eyes immediately welled with tears. It was her way of asking Micah if she was really going to die.

"Yeah, sweetie, that's it," he whispered.

He pulled her close, kissed the top of her head, and Dana leaned into his chest.

And for the first time since she'd been diagnosed with the tumor, my little sister began to cry.
Doesn't it just break your heart? The only experience I have had with death is when a neighbor of mine passed away when I was about 13 years old. I wasn't even close with her at all, and my mom brought it up casually in a conversation because it actually happened a year or two before she mentioned it, after they had already moved away. I started crying immediately. My mom brought it up so nonchalantly that it hurt me that she didn't speak of it more reverently, and that's when she said it happened a few years earlier. My other experiences are limited to dreams that I've had, and although completely imagined, the feelings were nonetheless as vivid as anything that I've experienced while awake, but with the benefit of knowing that none of it actually happened. I just can't imagine something more sad than having to dealing with death.

There you go.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Movie Macabre

While watching TV again waiting to get tired, I saw on the channel guide what I thought would be a gem of a movie - Zombie Honeymoon. I couldn't have been more right. The story goes something like this:

Two newlyweds embark on a month long honeymoon in New Jersey when the husband gets transformed into a zombie. Denise walks a fine line as she is torn between her love and loyalty to her husband while also fighting her disgust at his flesh-eating tendencies. The most powerful scene comes toward the end of the film as Danny, aka zombie husband, devours several dead bodies belonging to two friends and several police officers and Denise, devoted but terrified wife, stays in the house and listens to her husband enjoy his midnight meal.

Unfortunately I only caught the last third of the movie, but truly this is American cinema at its finest. I was so tired when this movie came on, but I couldn't pull myself away, and I couldn't stop laughing. It was so good.

Here's the trailer:


Friday, August 14, 2009

Man v. Beast

Michael Vick was recently released from a two year stint in prison for his role in dog fighting operation. At the time, he was playing under the richest NFL contract that would have given him $100 million over the life of contract. Following everything that happened, he ran into trouble with the IRS, was forced to declare bankruptcy, was released by the Falcons from his lucrative contract, and upon his release, it was still questionable as to whether or not the NFL would reinstate him. Even still, many animal rights organizations still protest the move by the Philadelphia Eagles to sign the embattled Vick. The Philadelphia Daily News blasted the move by the Eagles with headlines screaming "Hide Your Dogs" and "What Are They Thinking?" He was a marquee player who is having to start from scratch.

In contrast, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth pled guilty to a charge of DUI manslaughter earlier this year. While driving drunk he killed a 59 year old pedestrian, a human being with a family and responsibilities to loved ones and to his community. He served 24 days of a 30 day prison sentence, and has been suspended for one season, but will be reinstated after the Super Bowl in 2010, making him eligible for the 2010 season. He is suspended without pay for the upcoming season, but still has a contract with his team and will have a place with the Browns next season.

Although deplorable, Michael Vick's actions remained limited to animals. Donte Stallworth is responsible for the death of a man, a father, husband, who had a job and people to care for, but because we live in a society that has a permissive attitude towards riotous living, even at the cost of the lives of other people, but never animals, he received a far less severe punishment. It just amazes me.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

We Literally Need To Stop Saying Literally So Much

I don't want to pretend that I haven't done it myself, but can we all just work on not using the word literally when we actually mean really? It would just be too paradoxical if the word literal lost its literal meaning, don't you think? It's like crossing the streams. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Total protonic reversal. That kinda bad.

I kind of love this song. It's baby makin' music, ain't it?

Egoism v. Altruism

Can people ever be truly altruistic in their actions or is it all based in egoism? This is a question that receives much attention in the field of social psychology, but I hadn't really formed any particular opinion about it when we discussed the topic in my social psychology class last year. I have one friend in my program who is utterly convinced that everyone is egoistic, that nobody is truly altruistic.

This question became more personal to me as I started thinking about different friendships and relationships that I have had and my motivations behind my actions. There have been a few times, and more in the last few years, when the distinct thought entered into my mind that with a particular person, a few of them, where I wanted to be serviceable/other-person oriented, and not self-absorbed. Consequently, much of how I would associate with these people would center around doing things that I thought served their needs, e.g. provide a listening ear, make meals, paint houses, etc.

As I talked with a friend about one person in particular, she began saying that my actions weren't entirely selfless because much of my motivation rested in trying to win her over and be a source of her happiness (which is probably another blogpost for another day). But this got me thinking about this question: even if my motivation was a little bit different, doesn't it always end up that somehow whatever service I provide ends up serving some kind of egoistic purpose? I know that it might appear to be a little cynical to look at it that way, but is it necessarily a bad thing?

Let's take the example of serving a mission. What are the various reasons that a person serves?
  • Maybe parents will hold some kind of financial motivation for the child, like buying them a car or pay for college when the missionary returns
  • To not disappoint parents or friends
  • At the behest of a girlfriend
  • Because the prophet says so
  • Because of a testimony of the gospel
  • Because the missionary has true Christ-like love for other people and desires their salvation as much as his/her own
Of course the list is not exhaustive, but each one has an underlying motivation for serving. There are material considerations, a sense of responsibility, obligation to loved ones, and then obligation to self and to God. Although some of the motivations are more virtuous than others, do they not all have some element of self-serving as well? Even in the instances where a person is purely motivated by love for God or for others, that someone derives some measure of pleasure in doing so is still somewhat self-serving, is it not?

What matters then is not so much the question of whether service rendered is truly egoistic or altruistic, but how pure are the motives and intents of the person serving. It is an interesting paradox to think that someone can be selfless in providing service to others, while also being selfishly motivated.

I started writing that last paragraph, that last sentence in particular, but I'm not sure that you can separate the root cause from any of those motivations, which is egoism. This question matters because it helps to delineate what is good, better, and best. I think in the end there is a good kind of selfishness and a bad kind, and knowing the difference helps us identify what ends up being either kind or malicious, or somewhere in between.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Don't Know Much About...Anything

I feel like I must laugh at myself about as much as I laugh at anything else. Last night it was because while I was watching the end of Pretty Woman on TV, waiting to get tired, Richard Gere's character says, "my special gift is impossible relationships," and I thought to myself that I could so identify with the fictitious billionaire who decides to pursue a serious relationship with a hooker. It's idiotic. But kinda funny, right? I actually thought, man, I so get this guy. And then I removed myself just enough to be able to laugh out loud at how absurd I am sometimes.

I guess I mostly identified with the sentiment of that line. I don't think you get to be a single 29 year old member in the church without wondering to yourself once in a while why haven't things worked out yet in the marriage realm.

Thankfully, I have a lot of great people in my life who are incredibly insightful about dating and love and all of that jazz. One reason being home has been fun has been because of power lunches I'll get to do with friends. For some reason in Utah I just don't have many of those types of friends, but in California I never hurt to find someone who wants to go and get something to eat. I absolutely love it.

Given some of my recent experiences and what I've seen in the lives of others, some of these various lines that I've heard these people say aloud are like gold to me, but I realize that with them posted nakedly here, they lack the context and probably some of the potency that they have taken on for me.
  • He gets invested past the point of feeling - a friend of mine said this referring to her brother. I never really thought of it in this sense, but it's so true when you think about it in the way that Nephi says it in reference to his brothers being past the point of being able to feel the operation of the spirit in their lives. I know that I've seen this in my own life, more often than I would like to admit. You just get so invested with a person, there is so much time, energy, and love that even when all signs indicate that the relationship just shouldn't work, you keep hanging on anyway. How do you counteract that tendency? I think by keeping in mind this next line...
  • Love is about growth and vulnerability - said to me last night. I think she had a slightly different spin when she said it than what I'm taking it as right now, but I've been thinking a lot lately about love and what it really entails. Love is grander than infatuation, excitement, or just feeling really attached to somebody. Love, the kind that we should all aspire for, has not only depth, but should also be indicated by growth and progress with a person. I mentioned this at length in my last post, but we need to eschew counterfeit bonds masquerading as what we may mistake as love. Just like faith, hope, and charity all accompany one another, I think that love, virtue, and righteousness are deeply embedded within one another. Love is kindness. It's either all there or it isn't. There are no two ways about it.
  • People misbehave because of pain, or at least the fear of it - I liked this one the most, and it came from my friend's grandfather. It really rings true for me in what I've been noticing lately, and helps me feel sympathy for people who treat others poorly, but I also think that it helps me to recognize that if I'm thinking less than good thoughts that I need to zero in on the real source of why I want to act out.
Like everyone else, I've had both good and bad experiences. They're not any better or worse than anyone else's, they're just mine. I've felt a lot of things this past week while I've been trying to figure myself and others out, and I think I can honestly say I'm grateful for all that I've gone through. I am not like Paul and am at the point where I glory in tribulations, but I know that the Lord is proving my mettle, and I do not want to fail him.

The experiences I have had give me depth, and hopefully with that depth comes wisdom and understanding. Sometimes the things other people do leave me scratching my head or wanting to scream, but I can say with full confidence that with all of my course corrections, I think at some point I'll reach my appointed destination.

Now if I only knew where that place actually was this whole thing would be a lot easier.

This song has been in my head since I heard it this morning, and it seems appropriate for the content of this post, so enjoy!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Behold The Man

Warning: This is almost every single thought that I had today. Beware.

This weekend the church had a huge Young Single Adult (YSA) conference across the state of California. It was kind of neat to realize that across the state 10,000 YSAs had all gathered together to listen to messages on temple covenants, following the prophet, moral agency, and Jesus Christ. As I've been living at the Reid home with Annalee, who had a big hand in the organization and planning of this event locally, I got to witness firsthand just how many phone calls, emails, and meetings it requires to put together something of this magnitude. It's a lot, so my thanks to all those who helped out.

I heard a lot of different messages, but the ones that stuck out the most to me were the ones that came from the Priesthood meeting that we had this morning. There's a funny thing in the church, and it's always the case, that the tone of Priesthood (for the men) meetings are always the complete opposite of what the tone is in Relief Society (for the women) meetings. Priesthood meetings are always heavy-handed and very straightforward, while Relief Society meetings are always very positive and upbeat. You wanna know the funny thing? The guys wouldn't have it any other way.

Today while talking over lunch to several different guys, I asked them what their favorite message was from the Priesthood meeting and invariably the answer was the same - President Monson's from the Huntington Beach stake. It was my favorite as well. He spoke directly and unapologetically about the law of chastity and our treatment of women. The topics in the meeting ranged from provident living, to treatment of women, to pornography. These are messages that we brethren fail to be learning very well because it keeps getting harped on relentlessly.

It's one of the interesting gospel ironies that a man is someone who can bridle his passions, and refrain from indulging in the expression of his masculinity through his sexuality. I guess it's only ironic if you look at from a worldly perspective. All thoughts, appetites, and passions are to be kept within the bounds that the Lord has set. Knowing that our body is the temple of God and houses the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), it follows that only by respecting one another's bodies can we hope to keep our mortal tabernacle clean enough to invite his spirit to dwell within us. When the spirit is available to us, then we are able to enjoy its fruits which include love, joy, peace, and goodness (Gal 5:22). The distinct thought entered into my mind today and a few times this past week that the love that my future wife will have for me is directly related to my own righteousness. She will never love me more than when I can completely safeguard her virtue as well as my own.

There are laws irrevocably decreed in heaven, upon which all blessings are predicated (D&C 130:20-21). And I think that the blessing of real Christlike love between a man and a woman is the predicated blessing associated with the law of chastity (or at least one of the blessings). When we fail to observe this law in our dating and marital relationships, any feelings resembling love that we experience are counterfeit because we cannot experience real love absent the presence of the Holy Ghost, being that it is one of the fruits of the spirit. It may even be the preeminent fruit being that it is placed first in that list in Galatians.

Here is one possible explanation of counterfeit feelings formed from violation of the law of chastity from a psychological perspective:

Classical conditioning is also known as respondent or associative learning. The classic example of this is Pavlov's experiment with dogs. In empirical terms, a stimulus elicits a response. For Pavlov's dogs, food served as the stimulus, while the stimulus response is to salivate in the presence of the stimulus, food. Pavlov noticed that while experimenting with his dogs, that they would salivate not only at the sight and smell of the food, but the ringing of a bell that would signal mealtime. With the frequent pairing of the two stimuli (food and bell), the dogs learned to associate the two such that the bell not only signified food, it kind of became the food, if that makes sense.

As two people indulge in a sexual relationship, not living according to the law of chastity, they engage in a similar associative learning experience. The physical stimulation from arousing each other sexually evokes incredibly powerful chemical and physiological responses in each person. In a marriage relationship, this can actually strengthen a couple. However, outside of the Lord's bounds, it creates counterfeit feelings of love and damages the soul of each individual. As the two people continue this type of relationship, the feelings that should be assigned strictly to the physical experience become associated instead with the partner.

The real trouble is that the experience of that kind of stimulation has a similar euphoric effect akin to those experienced when a person takes narcotics. Once those kinds of bonds are created between a couple, they are so hard to extinguish because the partner literally becomes a drug for the other. The physical and emotional arousal evoked by the relationship become associated with the person. Similar to how the bell becomes the food, the partner becomes the arousal that evokes those feelings of pleasure.

Chastity is the answer. It provides the avenue through which love can prevail in a relationship. And the love I refer to is the divine kind, not the temporal-worldly variety. It suffers long, is kind, envies not, is not puffed up, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things (1 Cor 13:4-7; Moroni 7:45). My favorite line from President Monson this morning was when he said, "by and through our relationships with His daughters can we become like our Heavenly Father."

At the same time, I don't think that we have to confuse chastity with being prudish. Sometimes in the church I think we have a tendency to overcorrect and become prudes at the expense of being real and honest about the reality that those impulses impose on us. The important thing is to be respectful and mindful of one another.

By no means have I come close to being perfectly chaste, but I know the doctrine and the potential blessings that are available, and I don't think there is anything in this world that would be more worthwhile than experiencing that kind of love.

This past week I realized that I need to reinstate a no rated-R movie policy in my own life. For several years I was really strict with that rule, but in the past year or two I let up. I don't think that every rated-R movie is inherently evil, and some are actually quite amazing and worth watching, but I am remembering once again that I am not strong enough to toe that line of being perfectly discriminating. Other people might be able to do that, but I cannot. I need to increase my sensitivity to the spirit because the benefits it provides are too valuable to risk losing.

Parley P. Pratt said,
The gift of the Holy Ghost... quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form, and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.
The emphasis in that last line is my own. I just love that part.

Today, while sitting in all of those meetings, I felt the strength of those words from Parley Pratt. Last week, as I took a friend's advice and began to overparticipate in all of my meetings, I realized what a difference the Holy Ghost can make in my affect and motivation. The price to pay to have it in my life is worth the cost of not indulging in stupid whims and appetites.

"Behold the man" is what Pilate utters as he turned over Christ to the Jews to be crucified, probably not realizing the depth of truth behind those words. Bishop Edgley gave a talk in priesthood meeting some years ago with that title on that subject. He says,
There is no manhood in being defeated by his principles...

You can describe a man in inches, pounds, complexion, or physique. But you measure a man by character, compassion, integrity, tenderness, and principle. Simply stated, the measures of a man are embedded in his heart and soul, not in his physical attributes (see 1 Sam. 16:7). But they can be viewed in conduct and demeanor. The qualities of manhood are so often evident in this thing we call countenance. When Alma queried, "Have ye received his image [meaning the Savior--the true man] in your countenances?" (Alma 5:14), he, my friend, was talking about the attributes of true manhood.

Yes, Satan has his man and God has His. Satan would present his characteristics as the true measurement of manhood and God's criteria as weak and wimpy. But one must understand that Satan's criteria will almost always be the easiest and the wimpiest. Satan's way takes no courage, no character, no personal strength, and it proves no manhood at all.

A true man does not need Satan to lead him down the easy path with his everlasting chains of destruction. A true man is strong enough to withstand the wiles of Satan and humble enough to submit himself to the redemptive powers of the Savior.

Moses, in a moment of both motivation and rebuke, charged the Israelites, "Who is on the Lord's side?" (Ex. 32:26). What he was really asking was, "Whose man are you, anyway?" Our Father in Heaven is called "Man of Holiness" (Moses 6:57; 7:35). That is a title we reserve with reverence for the Supreme Being. It is not a title we take upon ourselves. But every priesthood bearer should seek to be known simply as a man of God. That, my dear friend, is manhood.
I always laugh at how resolved I feel in the midst of these meetings and how quickly that fades once the excitement of the moment has passed. It's a trying process to always be steadfast and resolute, but it is the only pathway to becoming a man. It's the only way of life worth living. There are a lot of ways that I am not manly, but in this way - the one that matters most - I hope to earn that measure.

Friday, August 7, 2009

And Everything Is All Right

HT to Moomby for putting this commercial on her blog (by the way, Moomby, you also happened to use as your post title my favorite lines from the song, good job). I'm in love with this song, which happened to be featured as part of a blogpost I wrote about a year and a half ago, and who doesn't love watching skate tricks? Oh, to be back in my freshman dorms watching surf videos while eating Pizza Pipeline. I love the cameos. I love the street shot with downtown LA in the background. Some of those shots are just so Southern California and it melts my heart. Anyway, enjoy!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

My Own Impromptus

  • Consider in your mind for one second what your conception of what a question and answer session following a White House press conference looks like after the President addresses the nation. In my mind, I think of it as kind of chaotic with all the journalists firing up their hands, asking questions of the President and him having to come up with answers on the spot. That doesn't sound so far off, right? Well not with this President. Instead of impromptu questions, reporters submit questions beforehand and the President responds with prepared answers that he reads off of his teleprompter. That's crazy, right? Right?

    ...

    Right?
  • I was watching CNN the other day while eating lunch and they were talking about health care reform. They had mentioned that one way they thought that they could pay for it would be by heavily charging insurance companies for those with premium insurance coverage. When you don't think about something like that, it kind of makes sense. Oh, well then it gets paid for by the insurance carriers, so it's not really taxing the rich, not like we're so opposed to that anyway, right? some would be inclined to think. But if you demand heavy payments from businesses, how do they cover those costs? by passing it along to the consumers. Why don't people understand this? It drives me crazy. Taxing businesses really becomes a tax on consumers. When you charge gas companies more money for higher fuel standards or whatever it is that they charge for, those companies pass it along to the consumers because how else are they going to cover those costs? I've said it before, but everyone should be forced to take at least some basic classes in economics.
  • Why does it seem like everyone I know on Facebook lists themselves as moderate/liberal? I look at the groups they are associated with, and for the most part, they are far from being moderate/liberal. Why the stigma? Do you favor more taxes/abortion/same-sex marriage/big government/social programs/hate guns? Then you're probably somewhat liberal. No? Then you're conservative. Just own it.
  • Saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said, "Pro-life is not pro-war." Ugh. Really? Pro-war is pro-a particular way of life, a life that we believe in. I know this might sound crazy, but nations go to war to preserve life, or lives, or a way of it. It's ugly, but people die in war, but hopefully they die to preserve for us an ideal - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness/property, whatever. Love this John Adams quote,
    "Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it."
  • I saw somewhere that in NYC, temperatures have not climbed above 100 degrees once in either June or July. That was a first, or the first time in many, many years. So how about global warming now? Has anyone noticed how it's being referred to less as "global warming", and more as "climate change"? With this being the case, is there any way that anyone can possibly distinguish any variation in temperature without attributing it to some kind of man-made carelessness?
  • I love the Carpe Diem blog. The next few items come from there. The first is about how a referendum passed in Congress that would force the legislators and their staffs to enroll in any government health-care reform plans. All Democrats in that committee voted against it. That story comes via this WSJ article.
  • The top 1% income earners in this country pay more than the bottom 95% combined. Go here for more.
  • An op-ed in the Boston Globe discusses the healthcare legislation here. The author, Jeff Jacoby mentions,
    IMAGINE the sort of car you’d drive if government regulations made it illegal to sell any automobile that didn’t feature 380-horsepower direct-injection V6 engines, computer-controlled electric power steering, eight-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel-drive, automatic climate control, “smart key’’ technology, touch-screen navigation, backup cameras, LED headlights, acoustic glass, surround-sound stereo, and leather seat stitching.

    If those were the minimum requirements every car had to meet before it could be sold, would you commute to and from work every day in a Lexus LS 460 or some other luxury vehicle? Well, you might, if the steep price wasn’t an obstacle. But it’s more likely you wouldn’t be driving at all. If the government barred you from buying anything but a high-end car, you’d probably have no choice but to rely on the bus or subway, or to find a job closer to home.

    What is true of transportation is true of everything else: Increase the number of amenities that a product or service must include, and more consumers will be unable to pay for that product or service.

    That is why one of the simplest strategies for making health insurance more affordable is to reduce the minimum number of benefits that insurers are required to cover.

    In every state in the union, legislators and regulators drive up the cost of healthcare by making insurance policies more comprehensive. Rather than allow the free market to determine which medical services health plans will cover, states force consumers to pay for an array of covered benefits they may not need or want. For example, 45 states require insurance policies to include treatment for alcoholism and 34 mandate coverage of drug abuse treatment. Contraceptives are covered in 31 states, as are hairpieces in 10 states, and in-vitro fertilization in 13 states. Consumers who buy health insurance are often forced to pay for coverage of services they may consider highly dubious, such as acupuncture (benefits are mandatory in 11 states), chiropractic (46 states), osteopathy (22 states), and naturopathy (four states).

    Forty years ago, there were only a handful of benefits that health policies were required by law to cover. Today, the Council for Affordable Health Insurance identifies an astonishing 1,961 mandated benefits and providers. While any one mandate may not add appreciably to the price of an insurance policy, in the aggregate their cost is huge. The Cato Institute, citing the Congressional Budget Office, estimates that state regulations increase the cost of health insurance by 15 percent. And since “each percentage-point rise in health insurance costs increases the number of uninsured by 300,000 people,’’ as scholars John Cogan, Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel Kessler point out, it is clear that the proliferation of insurance mandates is one reason why millions of Americans are uninsured.

    Yet instead of pruning back this thicket of compulsory benefits, lawmakers are planting even more of them.
  • I liked this post: The Hot Waittress Index. From the post:
    The indicator I prefer is the Hot Waitress Index: The hotter the waitresses, the weaker the economy. In flush times, there is a robust market for hotness. Selling everything from condos to premium vodka is enhanced by proximity to pretty young people (of both sexes) who get paid for providing this service. That leaves more-punishing work, like waiting tables, to those with less striking genetic gifts. But not anymore.

    To be actually useful, of course, the Hot Waitress Index must be a leading indicator, and there is good reason to believe that it is. Employment is generally thought to lag behind economic recovery, which is to say that jobless rates remain elevated, and even climb, after a recession has technically ended. But hotness occupies a privileged place in the employment picture. As a commodity that’s fairly cheap, historically effective as a marketing tool, and available on a freelance basis, hotness will likely be back in demand long before your average Michigan autoworker is. Or the rest of us, for that matter.
  • I was listening to last week's episode of This American Life while on my long run, and the theme of that week's show was Fine Print. It talked about various ways in which the fine print really makes a huge difference. The first part of the show talked about how in Iran, the government is coercing and torturing people into giving false confessions about their involvement in supporting insurgency, saying things like the US is sponsoring and promoting the recent uproar that has gone on since they had their elections. I loved the story, but it made me think about a broader issue.

    As anyone who reads this blog with regularity knows, I love This American Life. Love it love it, but I can't pretend that it's not moderate-liberal in its leanings. For the most part, I think the stories stay away from those kinds of issues so I don't have much trouble overlooking the politics, but this was one case that I thought was kind of interesting.

    People everywhere are upset about what has come about in Iran, Democrats/Republicans, white/black, everyone. There are no limitations on the outrage, and rightfully so. But wasn't it just within the last few years that liberals were welcoming Ahmadinejad with open arms onto university campuses? When this guy was talking about wiping Israel off the map, it wasn't a big deal, but somehow when they're crushing down opposition within their own country, all of a sudden it becomes so much worse? How is it not worse for a nation to openly declare that they are for the annihilation of a different country, but govern their own people with a similar heavy hand? Isn't the government of Iran free to govern their own people as they see fit? I know my logic isn't completely sound here, but I think it's a point worth considering. I'm sure most people who support the Iranian opposition also voted for Obama. I wonder how they're feeling now.

    With respect to the radio show, I thought it was interesting that they could be so honest and forthright about how awful that government is to their own people, but only now because it's politically convenient to do so. Kind of annoying.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Running Away

Remember last year when I wrote every week about my marathon training? Being that it's not as novel this year, I'm sparing you all of the wonderful details, but I did feel like talking about it at least a little bit.

This time around is kind of nice. I had been considering which marathon to train for when a couple months ago I had a friend mention that he was interested in running a marathon. Of course, this got me super excited and I told him that if he was really serious that I would train for and run whatever marathon he happened to choose. He ended up choosing Long Beach on October 11th, which I think is awesome. October is a great season to run in, and Long Beach will surely be pleasant and plenty flat. All good things.

I hadn't spoken with him for a few weeks, but I've gotten a few updates from him the last couple of weeks and sure enough, he's right on track. He even went so far as to purchase a GPS/heart-rate monitor. I kind of love this guy.

My own training started off later and more slowly than I would have liked. I had a hamstring problem before coming out to California. Resting it for a couple weeks turned out to be enough, but I was several weeks behind the 18-week schedule I used last year to train for Chicago. I was thinking that I would have liked to have gotten three 20+ mile runs, but I would have had to ramp up the mileage much more quickly than I would have been ready for.

Anyway, things have gone really well. I've been in official training mode for the past four weeks. I reached a high of 15 miles last Saturday, and it took me just over two hours to do it. I felt pretty strong throughout. Getting up at 6am to get ready to run at 7am made a huge difference in beating the heat, which I've been so lazy with doing lately.

The best part about this second go-around with the marathon training is that there are no mental barriers that I have to break down as far as being able to cover the months of running, and the lengthening of distances. Last year, I had all sorts of problems with severe cramping in my calves immediately following any long runs of 15 miles or more, but that has not been the case this time around. I would also normally get soreness on the outside of my knees, but I've varied my running surfaces more and I think that's helped soften the impact of each step.

The worst part about marathon training is that a lot of my runs feel like chores rather than something that I look forward to. Although there are a lot of days when I'm not in training mode when the runs aren't as easy as other days, with marathon training I feel burdened by making sure I'm eating healthy, getting plenty of protein, giving myself adequate time to digest food, and make sure that I'm getting rest. The rest part actually has been super easy given my unstructured lifestyle. But most days I kind of dread knowing I have to get out and hit the pavement.

Last week I also decided that I wanted to run at 165-170 lbs. I don't think I have been that light since I was 15 or 16. The nice thing about weight loss during marathon training is that all it really takes is cutting out a few things a few extra times during the week. You'd be surprised how many calories you burn running 30 miles a week, playing soccer once a week, and doing some weight-lifting in between. I was at about 179 lbs last Sunday, and now I'm at about 174 lbs fully clothed on a full stomach at the end of the day. Consequently, all my shorts and jeans can slip right off my bum if I'm not careful.

I only have four more long-long runs of 17,18, 20, and 23. The drop back weeks will be cake.

Anyway, unless I have more interesting stories to tell you, this will be the last you hear about it on here until I actually run it. So there ya go.

Be blessed y'all.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Rock And Roll Will Change The World

Last week I was reading a Bill Simmons' article on ESPN wherein he quotes extensively from the movie Almost Famous. I had seen a part of it several years ago, but never the whole thing and so when he just kept raving about it, I felt like I should take a gander at the whole thing.

I am also kind of a sucker for the writer/director of the movie, Cameron Crowe. His other movies include Singles, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, and Fast Times At Ridgemont High. What's really great about Crowe is that he really gets how music captures emotion, connects people, and can just be the audial embodiment of everything that we feel. Music elicits emotions that are at once both so completely human and divine. It can be so perfect sometimes.

Crowe has some really iconic scenes that incorporate music in his films. The boombox scene from Say Anything is probably the most obvious. I also love the scene in Jerry Maguire just after he had been fired and he flipped out at his agency when it shows him driving in a convertible with the top down, belting out the lyrics to Tom Petty's Free Fallin' while the life he knew unravels before him. My favorite scene from Almost Famous, along with probably everyone else that has seen the movie, is just after the band picks up lead guitarist Russell (Billy Crudup) from a local party in a town that they had hit during their tour. Russell was feeling alienated from his band and wanted to just get away, and some locals gave him an opportunity to do so. He goes to the party, does a heavy amount of drugs, gets up on a rooftop, screams, "I'm a golden god," and then jumps into the swimming pool. The scene opens with them heading out on the road and the tension between the band members is obvious as no one is speaking and everyone is just looking out the windows. Then Tiny Dancer by Elton John begins playing...



I just love the subtlety of the scene. One guy begins nodding his head to the song, the drummer starts drumming the beat with his sticks, and finally everyone starts joining in. That scene gives me the chills every time I see it. It's funny how it affects me so.

It's amazing how music can deliver so much. Whatever music I'm listening to invariably identifies the mood that I am in - frustrated, tense, sappy, excited, giddy. I have one friend that sometimes asks me to listen to certain songs with her. By her song choice I know everything that she's going through at that moment, and somehow that makes me feel connected with her. One time while driving to Hollywood to see a concert, there had to have been three or four accidents that delayed our trip by more than an hour. We sat in traffic, bursting in my car to the music of Rage Against the Machine, which expressed musically everything that we could not release physically. Anyway, music is just great.

I think today I'm feeling...

Saturday, August 1, 2009

What The @%#&!!!

I got a ticket on the 4th of July for using a cell phone while I was driving. Yesterday I finally picked up my mail and I got the bill for the ticket. What I thought was going to be a $50 fine turned out to be a $182 ticket instead. I totally flipped out inside, and the first thing I thought of was Cameron's reaction in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when he sees all the excess miles that have been put on his dad's car. Just watch the first minute of this video.



That was exactly how I felt. And then I laughed because that is the funniest reaction I could think to have. Oh well.