These and Those

No real meaning in the post title. Sometimes I title these potpourri style posts "This and That" so I just decided to pluralize it. There ya go.

There's something really touching to me about this photo:

That is the South Korean President bowing to the nation as he apologizes for a bribery scandal that his older brother and former aides had a part in. Cultural customs can be beautiful, and there is something to me really beautiful about a world leader who knows he is beholden to his people for the actions that those close to him make, bowing to his people in acknowledgement of the mistakes that have been made. There's just so much humility and regret in that gesture, no?

The Aurora tragedy. I was listening to some talk radio the other day and one of the people was saying that we need to move away from even mentioning the name of the killer. Charles Manson is famous to this day because we have glorified him, however grotesquely, but that still helps those people achieve what they seek after - fame. So while this story is about the less than noble actions of one horrified father, this one details three boyfriends who gave their lives for their girlfriends:

Great evil often brings out the best in good men, men like Todd Beamer on Flight 93, Medal of Honor recipient Michael Murphy in Afghanistan, and now the Aurora three -- the three young men, each in different parts of theater nine, who gave their lives to protect their girlfriends.

Twenty-five-year-old Jon Blunk was sitting next to his girlfriend, Jansen Young, at the midnight premiere of "The Dark Night Rises" when the gunman (who shall remain nameless) opened fire in the dark theater. Blunk instinctively pushed his girlfriend to the ground and threw his body on top of hers. Blunk, a security guard, served eight years in the Navy and was in the process of re-enlisting in hopes of becoming a Navy SEAL, family and friends said. He was killed in the gunfire; his girlfriend survived.

Twenty-four-year-old Alex Teves dived on top of his girlfriend, Amanda Lindgren, when the gunfire erupted. Covering her body, he took the bullets so they did not harm her. She survived the massacre; he did not.

Matt McQuinn, 27 years old, threw his body in front of his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, as the shooting continued. Yowler survived with a gunshot wound to the knee; McQuinn's body absorbed the fatal shots.

These men were three of the 12 innocent people killed early that morning. Their incredible sacrifice leaves us asking: Why? Why would a young man with his entire life ahead of him risk everything for a woman he has no legal, financial or marital obligations to?

I think I have a post brewing just about the Aurora stuff. (The other story is about a guy who, when the shots started firing, left his fiancee and two children, ran out of the theater, and even drove away from the scene. As my friend said, a real life Costanza.)

And, lastly, a couple articles about Justice Roberts and his possible end game, here and here. Chief Justice Roberts has received a lot of criticism about his decision, but as these articles mention, he actually might have been the one person with the most foresight when it comes to the whole health care issue. A couple excerpts, first, from the The Atlantic:

Many are saying Chief Justice Robert's decision to sustain Obamacare was designed to preserve the long-term political capital of the Court. I think he simply made the decision he ultimately decided was right on the tax issue, which the precedent strongly supported. But to the extent a long-term political angle may have subconsciously motivated him, there is a large one that commentators have so far missed.

The unseen long game is that sustaining Obamacare as a tax helps preserve the Republicans' ability to adopt two items on their own political wish list: the Paul Ryan plan to privatize Medicare and George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security.

Consider the Ryan plan. It would convert Medicare into a voucher that seniors could use toward buying medical insurance from either Medicare or private insurers. The voucher amount would equal the cost of the second-cheapest plan, so if traditional Medicare is not one of the two cheapest plans, individuals would have to buy a private plan to avoid paying extra.

In short, under the Ryan plan, Medicare would become a mandate to make contributions into a Medicare trust that you would later draw from to buy yourself medical insurance, which could be from a private insurer, and might have to be so in order to avoid paying a penalty. This looks a lot like Obamacare's mandate to buy yourself medical insurance. There are two seeming differences, but neither is telling. 

And now the Capretta and Levin piece from NRO:

Essentially, the Court struck down the mandate while retaining the penalty. So those champions of Obamacare who relied on behavioral economics to argue that the law’s individual mandate could be sufficient to avert an insurance death spiral must now contend with the fact that the Court has closed off that argument.

In the wake of the Roberts decision, participation in Obamacare’s insurance scheme is optional. Rather than a requirement to buy coverage backed with a penalty for violators, the law now offers Americans two equally lawful and legitimate options: buy expensive insurance (which Obamacare will make all the more expensive), or pay a modest (and still largely unenforceable) tax and just buy insurance for the same price later if you need it. Presented as a choice, not a command, this provision will invite a straightforward comparison, and for many Americans the choice it would pose would be a very easy one.

Obamacare was always going to lead to a disastrous meltdown of America’s health-insurance system, but in the wake of the Court’s decision, many of its former defenders should acknowledge this fact too. If you argued that the mandate was the linchpin of the system, and that it would work despite its low and unenforceable penalty because Americans are a law-abiding people, you should now see that the mandate as you understood it no longer exists. The CBO should certainly acknowledge this in its new score of the law’s effects on federal spending and the uninsured, due out later this month.

Of course, this doesn’t really make Obamacare optional, because although the law can no longer order consumers to buy what insurers are selling, it still strictly defines what insurers may sell. People would therefore only have a choice between Obamacare and nothing. Many will prefer nothing, but that’s hardly a great set of options to choose from.

Obamacare is optional in a different, more important way, however. The November election will serve as a referendum on the law, which can be repealed in 2013 with new political leadership. The Supreme Court’s decision has made the case for repeal even stronger.

There is a lot at stake in this upcoming election, this being one of the main issues.

Knick Knacks and Paddy Whacks

Kite-boarding looks like one of the raddest things ever. E.V.E.R.



The Church recently came out with this statement regarding its financial independence. This statement is probably coming out as a response to the Business Week article that came out a few days ago that you can find here. I actually know one of the guys who commented in the article, described as a devout member. This is the same guy that I referred to in a post from a few weeks ago. He and some of his buddies were the ones who supplied a number of the quotes in the article, and although they are mostly benign, I'm not sure they are entirely accurate, nor am I sure that they reflect the feelings of mainstream membership. These guys are not mainstream by any means.

It seems that a good number of people are having difficulty with the Church's involvement on the City Creek Mall, and how much money went into that. Some questions have been raised about how much money went into that project versus how much is given to humanitarian aid, that the numbers seems to be not well distributed. Others ask about the Church's financial transparency and why is it that the public doesn't have detailed knowledge about all of the Church's financial holdings and actions. The same guys I mentioned above wonder aloud why the Church disclosed everything up until the 1950s or 1960s, but curbed that practice. This to me is a non-issue. If we trust the leadership, believe its inspired, then why can't we trust that it's no longer necessary to continue that practice? That may be blind faith to some, but that seems a fundamental faith concept to me.

Lastly, the Utah v. BYU football rivalry is off during the 2015-2016 seasons.This is really foolish to me. The Utes called it off presumably because they either didn't want to have to deal with BYU's team and possibly disrupting their opportunities at a title run by losing to the Cougars, or there is more to be gained from a non-regional opponent whose program maybe has more national prestige. There are all kinds of things wrong with this kind of thinking, but I think the biggest is sacrificing a rivalry that goes to the core of passion within your fan-base. What does competition even mean anymore if there is no longer a team that you're desperately trying to beat? Any Yankees fan will always say that a win against the Red Sox is more meaningful than one against the Royals. Pick any other dozens of rivalries and that's the case. It gives meaning to the competition and without it, what is it that makes sports interesting anymore?

But alas, this is how things seem to be going all over the place in sports. How does Ray Allen join the Heat after what has happened the last several years? How does Nash go to the Lakers? (Although I will say, I never really considered the Suns a "rival". They were never both peaking at the same time, so that one doesn't mean as much to me. Pierce to the Lakers though? That's another story. Yuck.)

Anyway, back to the Utah-BYU games. Is there anything else that carries as much weight in sports in all of Utah? Not even close. Local sports talk radio doesn't even talk about anything else besides the Jazz and college football. And college football has much more broad appeal. It's a terrible thing.

Random Thoughts

aBear with me, some of this might be interesting to you.

I went running last night at the gym because that's what you do on a Saturday night and your wife isn't in town. I loved it. I was listening to an episode of This American Life and it just kinda got me thinking about some things.

The episode in question was about jobs, stimulating the economy, that sort of thing. They talked at length about Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and some campaign promises about bringing back over 250k jobs to the state. The reporters questioned him at length about his philosophy and what it meant to be bringing back jobs.
The funny thing about the report was that the reporters just seemed to have a pretty fundamental lack of understanding about conservative politics. They just didn't get how Walker wanted to shrink the size of government and give incentives to businesses and stimulate the economy through economic growth rather than intervention. One of the reporters even made the point that by reducing taxes, the governor was promoting growth in the short term, but ultimately that would lead to a long term reduction in quality employees because people wouldn't come out well educated and they would be worse off as employees.

I marveled at that assumption: spending on education=better students/employees, etc. If the US is not already at the top of the list for spending on education then it's very close to it, but has that really meant better educated? Not necessarily. We are in dire need of some education reform. Other countries that are spending less are getting more out of their students. Why would that be the case?

One thought that came through my head was because of greater character and integrity. Someone with integrity naturally demands a lot out of him(her)self. If we fail to instill that in ourselves and in those around us, then no amount of spending will make up for the loss in quality of person, no?

That thought caused me to think about an article I read earlier this week that someone somewhere linked to about What's Wrong with Teenager's Minds. The writer speaks about how kids are reaching puberty at earlier ages than ever before, but reach adulthood at much later years. It's an interesting read.

And then that got me thinking about a conversation Amy and I had last week about how funny some parents are with their kids. Nowadays it kind of seems like some church members will have a newborn and then take Sundays off for a couple months like they've been given a free pass. I can't refer to any actual numbers and I probably sound judgmental, but that's just the feeling I get from people, you know? And we both remarked at how people from previous generations would have never let that stop them from attending Sunday meetings, how people with greater "awareness" and more available knowledge seem to be able to do less with it than before. Like I said, I'm not speaking to anything specific, just a feeling I have.

Last random thought from today: I got to sit in on a combined priesthood/relief society meeting because of it being the 5th Sunday. (Although I love my calling in the primary, oh how I miss regular church.) The subject was the priesthood and ward members submitted questions they had about it. I was surprised at how little knowledge some of the leaders had about the priesthood, but that's not my thought. One person asked about how he(she?) had heard of a sister bear testimony about giving a blessing by the authority of her husband's(dad's?) priesthood. The question was if that was proper. This isn't my thought either, but I'll finish this part to get to what I want to share. The bishop answered and said that the spirit will dictate what is proper in what circumstances, and while it's probably improper to mimic a priesthood blessing without being conferred the priesthood, faith can do great things.  I thought that was well put. I really do like our bishop.

This brings me to my thought:A sister behind me asked if the person was healed as a result. If so, then there's your answer, meaning that it would indeed be proper to act in such a manner, but I thought that was making too large of a jump. The reason that the person was or wasn't healed has to do with whether it was God's will. The outcome is not relevant to how the miracle happened because in the end, God's will supersedes all of that. Just because you got the desired outcome doesn't mean it was carried out in the proper manner. I won't bother with examples.

And there you have it. G'night, y'all.

This and That

A few things:

• Romney is having a hard time right now and it mostly has to do with his decision to release (or not) his taxes for previous years. I was listening to Michael Medved and he thinks it was a huge mistake for the Romney campaign to not have anticipated having to release his tax returns in light of the fact that he would be running for the presidency and be subject to some pretty intense scrutiny. The reason why is because it's looking like he probably only paid the 15% rate on capital gains, which is lower than what most citizens are paying and further paints him into the corner of being among the elites who are out of touch with the country. I can see Medved's reasoning, but I can also sympathize with Romney. It's not likely he does his own taxes and whoever is in charge of his money probably thought they were doing him a favor not paying just a little bit more in taxes so as to avoid this issue. I don't know. I do think it's a mistake that they aren't acting more quickly on this and just getting the issue out of the way. Romney seems to have a lot of these types of seemingly non-issues that tend to become bigger ones because of how his campaign decides to confront them. 
• The Muppets movie is adorable. It's just so happy and very funny. Everyone should go see it.  
• I love Coinstar machines, the ones that count your coins. I had been avoiding these kinds of machines because they normally charge a fee to count your coins, but you can get e-certificates free of charge, and Amazon is among the retailers you can get them for. Perfect! I love Amazon, and now I love Coinstar. $40 in mostly pennies later and who knows what I'll be getting. It's awesome.
• Perfect practice makes perfect. That's what I'm counting on as I take the GMAT (again) this next month. Here goes!

Friday Round-Up

Random bits:

• So among the worst passwords of 2011 are the typical "1234" or "password" but I guess a lot of people are also using "monkey," "dragon," "trustno1," and "letmein." I love those. I hope some of you are using them. I think I might pick one of those up.
• The Denver Broncos keep winning. No explanation whatsoever. It's so weird. That is all.
• I hate BYU's sports schedule. I don't care about any of these games. Have you seen the basketball schedule? How in the world am I supposed to be interested in a win against Dixie State or their game tonight against Longwood? Where in the world is Longwood? I've never even heard of that school. Don't worry though, tomorrow we play powerhouse New Mexico State in football. Look out Aggies! You'll be the second team of Aggies we'll beat this year. Yay?
• I can't believe how spoiled some people can be by just a little success from their sports teams. I had some back and forth last night with a guy on Facebook about the Angels being able to bounce back after last season. He thinks we're in bad shape as an organization, but they've made the playoffs in 6 of the last 10 years, and the 2002 World Series is still pretty fresh on my mind. How bad can they really be doing, right?
• The Help. We saw that movie earlier this week and I really enjoyed. I really like the lead, Emma Stone, and I love movies that take place in the South, and I love stories about race relations. While there is still much progress to be made, it's amazing to think of all of the progress in just the last several decades. In the lives of many people still alive, things have gone from intolerable to pretty good. Very good movie though. For a time I was pretty fascinated with literature from black authors, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, and the like. Here's a famous one by Hughes that I always liked: What happens to a dream deferred?
  
  Does it dry up
  like a raisin in the sun?
  Or fester like a sore--
  And then run?
  Does it stink like rotten meat?
  Or crust and sugar over--
  like a syrupy sweet?
  
  Maybe it just sags
  like a heavy load.
  
  Or does it explode?
• Not sure how I missed this song before the last couple weeks, but I just love it. Have a good weekend, y'all.

This and That

• I was reading an article about sprinting a week or so ago. A researcher of the mechanics of running said that the root of sprinting is essentially how hard your feet hit the ground. He then said that the world record holder in the 100m hits the ground with more than 1000 lbs of force with each stride he takes. 1000 lbs!
• But in the end, humans are naturally adapted to running long distances. This is our evolutionary advantage over other animals. We're not even close to being able to run faster than other animals, but we can run much longer than any of them over long distances. Even horses.
• Read this post yesterday about what brick and mortar restaurants and Borders bookstores have in common. A hint: adaptability.
• There is a trailer for the Amazing Spiderman movie that is coming out next summer. It looks cool, but I can't believe they're rebooting the series so soon. It's been less than 10 years since the first, and I thought that one was really good to begin with, soooo...why the reboot?
  
• I run a marathon in 4 days. I'm feeling okay about it. 
• I miss my wife. She's been gone since Sunday. My house is quiet. I think the solution is for us to get a dog to keep me company.
• I love these:
  
  
  
• Funny how white that audience is, isn't it? Like totally white. As evidenced by the dancing.

That's it. That's all I got.

This and That

• Some of my favorite blog entries are the ones that I don't publish. I just noticed recently that my blog is approaching/has approached 1000 posts. I thought that I would reach that number much sooner, especially if you look at the sidebar over on the left and see how many posts I had in the first few years of this blog's existence.
  
  
  It's crazy to think that this blog has years under its belt, as well as hundreds of posts, and around a 1000 at that. I say around 1000 because every hundred or so posts I have a few drafts of posts that never got published, so the published ones are still probably just under 1000.
  
  
  They don't get published for a variety of reasons - they aren't well-developed enough, the topic loses my interest, or the topics are too close to home, or they refer too much to someone that might read this blog. That might all be surprising considering the kinds of things post about, right? Seems like all my posts have some level of application to all of those things to some extent. But now you're curious, aren't you? Well, I'll never tell. Or maybe not. We'll see.
  
  
• I was supposed to run 8 miles yesterday, and 12 this Friday before we go camping this weekend. The day kind of ran out on me, so I thought I would only run 5, until I got out there and realized how great I felt. I ended up pushing the miles up to 8 without even blinking, and I would have gone to 12, but I thought my absence out running in the dark at 11pm might worry my wifey. When I got back, I realized that she's not really fazed by that kind of stuff, so I probably could have gone longer. Not my point, however. Point is, I felt great, and I just loved being out there on the lonely streets, putting one foot in front of the other, as I explored Pleasant Grove/Lindon in the dark breathing the brisk night air. It felt perfect, and I probably could have run all night.
  
  
  Something really neat happens when you mix up the distance of your runs, throwing in occasional long runs, with medium and a short ones. Even altering the speed at which you run makes you a more adept runner. All of it helps make the running experience one that is richer and more expansive. I can't even tell you how good it feels to come back from running more than an hour and feeling like it wasn't enough. It's bliss.
  
  
  I was recently talking to a friend who just found out she got in the St. George Marathon. It's her first, and I tried convincing her that her time really doesn't matter on this first one, but of course she started asking me about how she can start running faster. It's funny how that is everyone's tendency. Just focus on completing the 26.2 first, and worry about your time once you've got a few of those under your belt. Funnier still was that she asked me if becoming a faster runner means logging more miles. It made me laugh. "No, I said, running faster makes you a faster runner." Not sure why that was so funny to me. You get better at something by practicing that specific thing, right? Not by practicing other similar somethings hoping that it might help with something else that's different. There aren't shortcuts for all of that.
  
  
• I'm helping out as part of a research team, and the main topic we're pursuing is intentionality. I'll probably write more about that in a separate post, because I doubt anyone has come this far, and it deserves a fair treatment. It's interesting is all I will say right now.
  
  
• People at home, or I should say from home, want to protest the closing of a pizza place that we all grew up with. Some even want to stage a peaceful protest. You know what's a better way to protest the closing of a business? Patronizing it. Strikes me as silly that everyone is trying to prevent it. If you want it to stay around, buy their pizza. What do you want them to do? Run it without a profit so that when you go home you can drive by it and look at it nostalgically, but not actually buy anything from there? Makes me sad, but what can you do and what do you expect them to do?

• Lastly, Chris Brown has made quite a nice comeback, no? People forget bad history pretty quickly when you're really good at stuff. Anyway, I downloaded some of his songs last week, and I've been digging on this one lately. Here you go:

This and That

Our servers are down at work so I can't access any of the projects that I've been working on, so that usually means lots of websurfing and that leads to blogging. Here are some random things:

• Read this article on Governor Walker and the maneuvering that he did in Wisconsin to remove collective bargaining off the table for the teachers' union. More and more of this stuff is starting to surface, and will continue to do so in the next few years to come. Public unions and services have been borrowing against the future for a long time now, but the problem is that the future is fast arriving with crushing realities, namely, fiscal insolvency. I can't wait until this happens in California. Anyway, the big thing worth noting is that Governor Walker has been amazing in his handling of this situation. He never blinked during the whole process, but you know what's also crazy? Democratic legislators have been hiding out in Illinois for the past 3 weeks. Word is, one thing that prompted this process was when one of the Dems filed for an absentee ballot for the April 5th election. That means they were planning on sticking it out for at least a month! That's insanity. Good for Governor Walker, and good for Wisconsin.
• There are certain blogs that I just love, and they're all posted on the left of your screen. One of those is Study Hacks. He had a really cool post yesterday. He advocates simple things - focus, hard work - and while those are very obvious positive attributes, it sounds so unfamiliar these days, you know? Anyway, yesterday's post was on Non-Conformity in a Conformist Career. Good stuff.
• Regarding that last point, I think I'm going to start a thesis journal, and post more about that progress on here. Another guy I know has been doing that, and something I read recently talked about how getting things done really requires complete focus, which means allowing yourself to get somewhat consumed by the pursuit. I need more of that. Wedding stuff has made me distracted lately, which I hate using as an excuse, but it really has just been that way. I'd like to stop punting. Time to start going for it...in about 2 weeks...smiley face.
• A friend of mine was asking me about how often I verbalize my feelings, and then I had to preface my answer with the fact that I might be an anomaly because I tend to be really verbally expressive. I guess that shouldn't be surprising to anyone who reads this blog, but I'm just that way in my relationships. Just got me thinking about love languages - affection, words of affirmation, gifts, time...the fifth one. It's interesting how people evolve and how those things can change as a person matures, or as a relationship matures. Thankfully, Amy and I seem to coincide with how we express and receive so we don't really have any dust-ups with that stuff.
• Service. There's the fifth.

Last point: Everything is just amazing, isn't it? I was thinking this morning about our wedding, but more about the sealing and it started to get me emotional. Pretty soon I get to partake in some of the highest privileges that the gospel has to offer, and regardless of how the rest of the day goes, because I will partake in the sealing ceremony next Friday the best day of my life up until now will be March 18th, 2011. That's amazing. I hope I can keep that in perspective.

Bit O' Honey

You know what's weird? I just noticed that someone that invited me to be her friend on Facebook ended up defriending me. And she sent that invitation not long after she had invited Amy and I over for dinner one night. We haven't had any kind of negative interaction since then, but I have noticed a cooling on her part towards me. I thought I was just reading into it, but then I noticed that today and it just surprised me, you know? People are weird.

Hockey season starts today. The baseball postseason started yesterday. It's strange being so removed from the baseball playoffs. Usually I really look forward to this time of year, as the Angels are usually contenders, but they faltered badly this season. Their signings didn't work out.

Kent, you were right, and I was wrong. They should have resigned Vladdy. Hideki wasn't a good option, but if you look at his numbers, he actually wasn't bad either. It's just that no one noticed it with them playing so poorly. Losing Kendry was a huge blow in the early to middle part of the season. Their starting pitching was good though. Their bullpen was terrible. Lots of room to grow. You know why I'm really optimistic though? Because Arte Moreno is our owner. They'll bounce back. In the meantime, I'm rooting for the Braves and Rays.

BYU football is terrible. I don't care if I don't watch another game this whole season, that is, unless I get invited to the Cougar Club again. Mike?

And you know why I can't allow myself to care about BYU football? Because the Raiders are 1-3. I can't be a diehard for multiple losing football teams. My heart just can't take it.

I haven't exercised once this week and I love it.

I love several shows right now - Modern Family (like everyone else in the whole world, and rightfully so), Community, Running Wilde...and there are some others that I really like. But I watch those ones pretty religiously. Outsourced may have some potential.

How are world affairs? Okay, I guess. There is no end to dumb stuff that people and countries will do. Yale welcomed with open arms the President of Iran. I wish I could communicate how idiotic that is. The midterm elections are forthcoming and the beauty of our two-party system will reveal itself as the country will swing back to the middle.

You know what else? I'm dating the sweetest girl in the whole world. My roommates are awesome. I have wonderful friends. And it's October, which may be my favorite month in the whole year. A friend of mine pointed out on her blog that there are 5 Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays this month. How great is that?

Watch Stars Wars in 3 minutes through the timeless art of construction paper stop action filming here:

And this movie really intrigues me:

But I'm a little sad because I guess it's going to be a pirate movie and I haven't seen one of those in almost a year.

And with that, I'm back to work. Have a great day, dear ones!

Some Things You Should Know

It's funny how when I really start to get into something I start drawing all these life metaphors using that new obsession of mine. The latest culprit...golf. It's amazing how much repetition you need before you really have any idea what you're doing with a golf club. After several weeks of class and hundreds of swings, today was the first time when I actually felt like I had any idea about what the mechanics of my golf swing were like. I started to realize which swings felt right, and why the ball might be slicing, or how I'm pulling the ball. This will be a future post some day, but I think the key to being great at anything really comes down to complete control. A musician is great because he has complete control over an instrument, knowing exactly how to move fingers or to blow wind through the instrument. Picasso was a great artist because he had complete control over his brushstrokes and how he wanted to distribute his paint on a canvas. I am learning to hit a ball straight and far because I am learning how to control my hands, wrists, arms, and torso as I pull back swing the club in alignment. It's interesting stuff to me....

I didn't get this feeling last year, but I feel like the Angels are a .500 team this year. It hurts for me to admit that. Still though...Erick Aybar has to emerge from his slump at some point. Hideki Matsui is a better hitter than he's showing. And maybe Brandon Wood will figure out MLB pitching. He has to. We have too many years invested in him for him not to be productive. Our starting pitching looks good, but our bullpen is atrocious. Namely, Brian Fuentes. Shieldsy isn't looking very good either. We'll see. Jered Weaver is looking like an ace though, and I'm so glad that Lackey and Figgy are struggling in their new homes. Especially Lackey. I'm so mad that guy ditched us for the team that I hate most in all of professional sports. Get this...I don't even hate the Yankees that much anymore. Weird.

I love that the Lakers just look better and better with every game in the playoffs. These first two games with the Suns have been a joke. I loved loved LOVED that the LA fans last night were chanting, "We want Boston!" That's going to be such an epic series. Yes, both the Magic and the Suns are already history. The Magic lost both their games at home, and the Suns didn't even show up to either of the first games. Done. Let's get to the Finals.

All the uproar over the Arizona immigration law is sickening. They're just trying to enforce the law. And our lame President and ambassadors to China are pretending like that law is equivalent to what the Chinese do to their political prisoners. And former Utah Governor John Huntsman kowtowing to the Chinese, too? Shameful.

Anyway, if you want to find me this weekend, please direct all correspondence to my address at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. I'll be golfing and hanging out by the pool for the next 48 hours.

Also, I love BoB. His rapping just does it for me. This is a crappy version, but I wanted to protect your innocent ears. You'll just have to deal.

Sorry, Blogging

I suck at it this past month. And the weird thing is, I don't really even care. Here's to a cop-out Impromptus style post:

• March Madness - I created seven brackets, and not one of them has a single Final Four participant. A lot of people could have picked Duke, but they've been piss-poor the last several years and I didn't expect them to get past the Sweet 16. As for the the other guys, two 5 seeds and then West Virginia as a #2? You kidding me? I wonder if there is one person on the entire planet who picked that Final Four.
  
• UPDATE: I had a really mean comment here, and even if I think it's true, it's not something that I should be expressing aloud. I'm still working on not thinking it about this person, also. If you knew who I was talking about, you'd agree that she's just a huge goofball...as you were...
  
• Which reminds me, last week we were talking in one of my classes about how anonymity removes all need for normal social conventions, the internet being the prime example. The next day a friend of mine was telling me about a blog-post that she wanted to comment on because it really bothered her, and she was going to post as Anon, but decided against it. The end result was a much more positive outcome than would have been otherwise. So the lesson is this - standing by your opinions requires you to say things that are defensible, and that in turn requires you to be reasonable. It encourages decency, which unfortunately, is too often short-changed.
  
  The ironic part of this comment is that in the bullet point just previous, I was totally indecent to that girl because I know she'd never see this post, or even be able to identify herself as the culprit, but it's precisely because of that that I'm able to say something so harsh that I'd never say to her face. This just further illustrates my point - anonymity removes accountability, and no accountability allows you to say/do idiotic (or really mean) things. And again, if you knew who I was referring to then you'd agree with me.
  

I'll put up a real post soon enough. I have plenty of great insights the world (you) is dying to know about, and lots of great things to report on from my own life. But today I have to read Lord of the Flies and then write a paper connecting it to principles from my Org Theory class. Gag.

See y'all later!

My Misadventures

I've gotta kill some time while I wait for one of my professors to fill out his evaluation of my performance last semester so I thought I may as well do something productive...like blog...

The last two weeks have been really interesting. I've been able to make some good headway on my thesis, I've had several midterms, and I had two presentations to give. Yesterday I had a 45 minute presentation for the other students and the faculty in my department and I winged the whole thing. Granted, I was only talking about how I got to where I'm at now in the graduate school and then some of the research I've done and what my current interests are, but I guess what's really weird to me is thinking that I've become a person that is so at ease now in front of large groups, even ones that should be intimidating like a bunch of people with PhDs or who are pursuing graduate degrees. I have to give thanks to the church for that one, however, because I've had so many experiences now in front of people giving talks or teaching classes that it's now something that doesn't even faze me. I wish you would have known me when I was a kid because I was deathly afraid of public speaking, but now it's something that I really kind of relish. It's weird to think about the ways you grow through the years. Thank heavens for that.

Saw The Princess and the Frog last night, which was a pretty cute movie, but what I really enjoyed was the real cartoon animation. There's something much more Disney and inviting about that, isn't there?

I had a nice little chat this morning with a friend from the place I worked at back home and I had forgotten how much I had missed her. Reminded me of that Lincoln quote, "The better part of one's life consists of his friendships." The people in my life comprise everything that makes me happy. I'm lucky to know the people I know, including all of you.

I love the 80s. You should know that by now, but it's really true. We have an 80s roller skating activity with my ward tonight and I couldn't be more excited. I even made a compilation of songs to get myself in the mood.

I'm surprised at how lazy I've gotten with this lately. It's not at all substantive, and for that, I apologize. I'll come back with a vengeance next week. Promise. Until then, have yourselves a merry little weekend, and enjoy this ditty by Sublime:

...and I'm like Baby...

Another impromptus post by yours truly...

• Last week I went to Color Me Mine and it was a lot of fun. The girl I went with is very artistic so of course her soup mug thing was really cute and impressive. My spoon rest, however, sucked to high heaven. I knew that it would be a fun date, especially for her, but I also know that I suck at the visual arts. It frustrates the hell out of me because, for the most part, I do everything at least somewhat well. I feel confident in most of my abilities, but if you want me to draw/paint/sculpt or anything like that, then I'm just terrible. It's so funny to me, too, because it's not like I didn't put any effort into it either; on the contrary, I went through some long periods of intense focus only to have my piece come out looking like a 5-year old using his feet did it. How does that make me feel? ...aaaaangry...
• For one of my classes we are currently reading Made to Stick. It's a book about what makes some ideas 'stick' more than others. It's a really interesting read, and one of the points that it makes is referred to as the curse of knowledge. Try this simple experiment with someone you know - tap out a familiar song and have the other person try and guess what the song is. Try the simplest songs too like Happy Birthday, the Star Spangled Banner, etc. Some guys at Stanford tried this and most people assumed that the guesser would get most of the songs. How many were they actually able to get? Something absurdly low. I think it was like 3 out of 197 different songs. Why would that be the case? It comes down to the simple fact that there are some instances where you know something and are so familiar with it that you can't even remember what it's like not to know. You tap and the whole song is playing in your head, and you are dumbfounded that the person you're doing it with is such a moron that they can't pick out something as easy as Happy Birthday, only what the other person is hearing is....tap, tap, tap, tap, TAP, TAP, tap, tap, tap tap, TAP TAP...come on! I can't believe you're not getting this! Sometimes having knowledge about a certain something also removes our capacity for empathy. That's a loaded statement and has a lot of implications, but I'll let you draw those on your own.
• Dating can be fun sometimes. And why is it that when it rains, it pours? Dating is mostly tedious, but there are some spots when it's just really a good time. I'm remembering how much fun it is to be the guy - to ask out, to assert myself and make decisions, to try and think of fun ways to show that I'm thinking about her or concerned or whatever. Most of the time I feel like the game playing in dating is something more like, hey! why don't you stand up against that wall naked while I fire comments at you and see how self-conscious you can get? Sometimes the game playing is actually fun - is she touching my arm even though she's talking to someone else?...okay, don't get too excited that her favorite TV show is also Scrubs...I think I'm going to reach for her in 3-2-1, now!
  
• This is why NFL football is awesome: the last three seasons the biggest game of the year has also been probably the best game of the year. There are multiple storylines that intersect for the final big game. 2 years ago it was literally David and Goliath - the first ever 18-0 team was playing a 5th or 6th seed, and David kept it close enough that eventually he slew the giant. Last year it was a team with an over the hill QB who shouldn't even be at the helm (how many times is one person, Kurt Warner, going to provide us that scenario?). It was a former assistant coach, now turned head coach, guiding his current team against his former team. This year it was Peyton Manning's attempt at football immortality against the only bandwagon team where it was okay that everyone wanted them to win. Here's the crazy thing too: no team in each of those Super Bowls was even the same, so you should have entirely different fan bases interested in the games, but somehow there is something for everyone to watch and be excited about. How often do you feel that way about baseball? basketball? even college football? I didn't care one lick when the Phillies played the Rays, or when Alabama played Texas, or when the Spurs played the Cavaliers. I'll tune into some games or part of the games, but I'm not sticking around for the whole thing. The NFL just does an impeccable job of making the stories enticing, producing a product that's first class, and having a championship game that really pits the best teams against each other. And because it's only one game, there is also a great chance for something unexpected to happen.
  
• I have more that I want to say, but I really need to get started on my day, so I'll leave you with this song. I feel so lame for liking it, but I think it's so catchy. A friend of mine wanted me to like one of his other songs, but I just couldn't do it, and then I heard this one and was like...oh that's too catchy. I think he only just recently started crawling, but I can see the appeal that he has.
  

Quick Hits

I'm not sure why I haven't felt like writing anything. Honestly, I think my journal efforts are tying up a lot of my writing thoughts. I'm writing 600-1000 words a night. That's kind of a lot, right? It surprises me sometimes how verbal I am.

• Did you all catch the State of the Union last week? Besides all of the usual stuff, one thing that was really interesting was Justice Alito's reaction to the President's comments. Jim Geraghty at NRO made this observation:

  Perhaps it would have been more politic if Justice Alito had managed to remain stone-faced during Obama’s demagoguery, but I find it encouraging and refreshing that, notwithstanding his years in D.C., he retains the capacity to be jarred by lies. (It’s also impressive that Alito was still paying attention; Justice Ginsburg evidently fell asleep during the drone-a-thon.)

  
  And here is the video of his reaction:
  I just love seeing that reaction. And can you believe how old Justice Ginsberg looks? I think she's over 90, or close to it at least, and definitely looking her age. Geez. Two of the best things that Bush did while in office was nominate Alito and Roberts to the SCOTUS. Really.
  
• I don't know if I've made this comparison before on here, but I know I've thought about it a lot. Dating is so much like job hunting. The way I was thinking of tonight was just about how that initial interaction matters so much and is pretty much the resume that you're submitting. It makes all the difference in getting you an interview/first date. There has to be something appealing enough that someone thinks you're worth taking a more in depth look at - are you attractive enough? smart enough? nice? funny? spiritual? do you have anything in common? etc.
  
• I always always always hate asking for the first date. I can find every reason to talk myself out of it, but I'll always get around to it eventually. Lately when I find myself up against this problem, I always end up relying on the thought that the girl is just not going to say no. Especially LDS girls, will give just about any guy a chance unless there you give them an explicit reason not to. Plus, I feel confident enough that my resume can at least get me that first interview. It's just the follow ups that I'm not so sure about.
  
• I think everything in my life will be easier and more doable if I just get myself on a schedule. My haphazard way of going through my days just isn't allowing me to be productive enough. Routine is the enemy sometimes, but other times it allows you to figure out how to keep all of the balls in the air.

Goodnight, folks!

Just Breathe

I finally watched Conan's final episode on The Tonight Show. Kind of emotional, right? And I can't believe how classy he was about everything. What's also funny is hearing some of the stuff that Letterman was saying about Leno, and how they came up with the retirement agreement thing to avoid the fiasco they had when Leno took over the Tonight Show in the first place. Like everyone else, I loved his parting thoughts, and in case you haven't caught them yet or didn't really get a true sense of what he was saying from seeing everyone quote his cynicism point, here it is:

He just seems like a genuinely good guy. And who knew he could wail on the guitar? I'm with Coco.

I don't have much else people. I need to work on some school stuff. Oh...for you Angels fans, tomorrow I get to go to a meet and greet with Mike Scioscia. Yup. You better believe it!

Good things are happening, people. I almost feel like I should be checking to see if the sky will be falling anytime soon just because I have been feeling so good about everything for awhile now. But until then...here's a song to take with you for the weekend.

Have a great one, y'all!

Away From Here

• Was talking to a friend yesterday, the one that's compiling the breakup songs, and I shared one of mine which is a punk song. She immediately turned up her nose and asked if liking punk music is a regional thing, like techno is for Europeans. I agreed at first, but I think it's more a cultural-attitude kind of thing. Europeans have a brand of punk music. Chileans liked it. I used to hear it all the time down there as a missionary, and no, not because I brought it with me and listened to it of my own accord. Like in the streets. I really miss that about South America - that music was always blasting from people's homes and no one thought twice about it. Anyway, it has a lot to do with the skater/surfer/snowboarder culture, and isn't limited to Southern California. While a lot of it is kind rebellious, a lot of it is also rooted in positivity that seems to escape many other brands of music. Anyway, the post title actually comes from a British punk song that I've come to appreciate because it's so wonderfully British punk rock. I don't know how to describe that brand of punk, but this song screams it.





• Insight/inspiration/revelation is funny and amazing thing. I feel like I've been doing a really good job lately on keeping my thoughts centered on good things, and it's funny how I see that evidenced throughout my day. Lately I've been studying judgment v. condemnation, and out of nowhere while I was walking to my car from school the thought popped into my head about how restraining prejudiced attitudes towards others is entirely related to extending forgiveness to all people, and I had never made that connection before, but it made perfect sense to me. This morning I was reading about relational ontology for my personality class (which, hopefully, I'll take the time to explain at some point), and then I had a few thoughts materialize out of nowhere about how I can be more productive and how I should alter my prayers. It's just amazing thinking about how God can be involved in the details of our lives if we have our eyes opened to it. Not really related, but if "details" are the small things, then what's the word for big things? Now, more related, while Heavenly Father is completely aware of those "big things" that we have going on, what an incredible evidence it is of his intimate love for us as his children that he would get involved in the minutia of our day to day lives, like how I can avoid being lazy and just get more stuff done. Even those little things matter, and that is so comforting to know.
• I can't describe how much I'm loving this personality class. Usually I'm mostly engaged in my readings, but when I read about this stuff I can't believe how interested I am in the material. It almost feels like there is never enough, and I am almost sorry that there isn't more reading when I finish it for the week. I'll really do my best to share some of the stuff we've been learning about, and hopefully I can do it justice, because it's really abstract and those things are hard to explain without being overly wordy. But I tend to do that anyway, so maybe it'll work out fine.
• I know that you guys very rarely click on the links that I post on here, but if you ever do click on one, I hope that you would click here. No, it's nothing political or anything like that, because that's so boring and lame, right? I'll just post the intro to the post here:

  Anyway, when we have leftover dinner, the permanent roommate packs us both a lunch. Since they look identical, she started leaving a Post-It note so I would know which lunch was mine. At first they just said Chris but I guess she got bored with just writing my name. She started writing funny messages. I saved my favorites.

  And here's an example...




So cute, right? I was reading them thinking about how much I wanted to be married to someone like that, and then I realized that we all would probably want that. Anyway, follow the link, there are more.

• That's all folks!
  

Who Let the Dogs Out?

This is an Impromptu's piece...

• You know what amazes me? Prayer. I don't know if your prayers resemble anything like my own, but there are certain stable things that I'll pray for all the time, and I have to admit, in a somewhat half-hearted manner only because it seems like such a far off thing. Like you might pray for world peace, but it's hard to imagine that happening any time soon, right? There are those kinds of abstract, intangible things that you pray for, like say, help me be a better person, and it seems vague and kind of lame to pray for, but that you do honestly hope comes to pass. What's really cool is that when you've been praying for something like that over the course of at least months, and maybe even years, and then you finally start seeing it becoming a reality. I feel like I've been praying for one of those types of things, and I'm actually starting to see those prayers bear fruits and it blows my mind that God is actually mindful of what can seem to be like such a menial request. Ask and ye shall receive...
• I started writing a journal again, but like really writing. I know the blog might seem very personal, but there's actually a lot that I don't cover here. I didn't do the thing I normally do where I write one day for the first time in months, try and catch up on everything that's been happening since the last time I wrote, wherein I apologized and agonized for not having written in so long, and vow never to do so again, only to have it happen again the very next time. Instead I just wrote about that day, and I've been doing that all this week, and I'm amazed at how much it helps me to be more self-aware. It's incredibly beneficial. I shouldn't be so surprised, but I totally am. Know something funny about me? Without any prompting or anything, the times when I was a most faithful journal writer (besides the mission) was when I was like 12-16. And I didn't grow up in the church setting where people were always encouraging that sort of thing either. I was a weird, introspective little kid.
• I am loving, loving, loving my personality class. It is about to spawn a really long and thoughtful post.
• I had my Itunes on shuffle earlier this morning, and this song came on and I started laughing out loud. How in the world did this song become so popular? I was on my mission when it released, and my favorite memory attached to this song was in a district meeting, and Hermana Gee talking about something funny that happened in the week. She was on a bus with a native sister where the song was playing (that's common in Latin America), and the girl asked Hermana Gee to translate the song. She hadn't been paying attention until that moment, and she started translating, "quien solto los perros, quien, quien...wait...what the???" I loved Hermana Gee. She was so down to earth and just awesome. So, for your pleasure...The Baja Men!
  

Impromptus

• I took my first final today and I finished in about 10 minutes. Yes, it was a graduate level course. Know what else? I'm pretty sure I did awesome on it. Now just the data analysis from the dating survey, the final for that class, and a couple drafts of my thesis to try and crank out. Should be a pretty light week for me next week. Really.
  
• You know what's funny about the difference between my friends here and the friends I have at home? I can be SO sarcastic with my friends at home and they ALWAYS get when I'm being sarcastic, but here my friends don't always pick up on it. I think what makes it funny is that I think I am mostly a pretty nice person, so when I say something super absurd or mean-sounding, I would think that they would realize that it's out of character for me and realize that it's just me making a joke. Instead, they think I'm moody and then I have to explain that I'm not a total idiot.
• Today, for the first time in more than a month, I ran without any pain during my run or immediately following it. I didn't have to cut it short at all because I thought my knee would buckle because of the pressure I was putting it under. I wasn't walking around outside following my run wondering if I might have to call my roommate to pick me up or walk over to a friend's nearby house because I wasn't sure I could make it the one or two blocks to my place. It's so nice to run without pain. Sometimes when I was running these last few weeks I thought I might have to find some other form of aerobic exercise. Turns out that I'm pretty much fine now. I ran five miles today and it felt like a breeze. So nice.
• Our ward choir has been desperate for male voices and I've been meaning to go for awhile, but other things kept coming up so I haven't gone, that is, until last Sunday. We had an extra practice on Monday for the pieces we'll be doing in sacrament this Sunday, and I just love it. I love hearing everyone sing their parts separately, and then hearing everything come together, and then you're like, oh, there it is! It's really cool. Singing hymns is a really, really fun thing. It's only been in the last few years that I've figured out that I really enjoy singing. I wish I would have known sooner. Music is really fun.
• Lots of sports stuff to comment on, but I haven't really felt like it. Actually, blogging for me in general lately has felt a little bit forced. Not that I have any trouble still coming up with ideas to post about. I think I'll be going on hiatus over the break and recharge my batteries.
• Get this - I've been tracking my expenses for the last 12 weeks. My method has been crude - just a little notepad where I write down everything I spend each day at the end of the day. Here's what cool about it: I am so conscious of my spending and all of my inputs and outputs that I do a much better job of restricting my spending. Mostly. I still suck sometimes like over Thanksgiving with friends in town and eating out constantly and doing a bunch of fun things, but still, it's an improvement. What's come out of this is a Christmas present spreadsheet where I have a budget and allotted amounts for everyone I plan on buying presents for. I kind of love it. I have a budgeted amount, actual amount spent, and then a summation formula, with a tax multiplier next to it. Typically, my heart is larger than my wallet, but I think with this system I'll be able to reign in my spending, while still feeling like I'm taking care of my loved ones. Cool, huh?
  
• How about some Christmas music to end with? Try this on:
  

Bit O' Everything

I had kind of a great weekend. Friday night I went to Velour, a local little live music venue where they were having a Cowboys and Indie music festival over the weekend. Imagine Dragons was the headliner on Friday, and I caught those guys before seeing Kelly Clarkson back in June. They actually won the Utah's Got Talent competition. They're an indie band from Las Vegas, did the Provo scene, and are now trying to strike it big. They're a pop-rock type band. The lead singer is very entertaining, and their music is really fun to dance to. Here's a taste:



Then Saturday morning my roommate took another friend and myself out flying. We were in a little 4-passenger plane, and flew over whatever these mountains here are called, over Hobble Creek, near Mount Timponogas, and just around the general vicinity. My roommate hardly ever mentions it to anybody, but I think it's the coolest thing to be able to do. He has a pilot's license and has access to a plane. Isn't that awesome? He let me take the controls for a bit. It was a ton of fun.

I've said this before, but don't you love those people in your life that you think, "wow, I would have just died tonight if so and so weren't around." I feel so lucky to think that I have so many of those kinds of people to count on.

This might come as a huge surprise, but I really place high value on time to think and reflect, but especially so when I'm engaged in some sort of physical task. I love running and not listening to music for that reason - just the me time and time to think. But in addition to that, I think there is something highly therapeutic about just getting on your knees and cleaning. Speaking of missionaries knocking on doors, President Faust used to say, "I know it's not the most effective method for finding people, but knocking on doors is good for the soul." I think getting grimy and dirty is good for the soul in a similar sense.

It's funny to me how representative people can be of their own gender. I was cleaning the kitchen (I guess I've been doing a lot of that lately) the other night, and my roommate suggested soaking the metal gratings from our stove top because they were dirty. I asked him if we had any all-purpose cleaner left, and he had no idea that sort of thing existed. Then I was making brownies, and another roommate saw me using shortening and flour to grease the pan and he had no clue what I was doing. Then I borrowed a vacuum from some girls down the street, and the one girl commented on how it doesn't really suck up very much, but that we could use it anyway. I turn it on this morning, and not only is the vacuum screaming loud, but the bag is beyond full. I don't feel like I'm particularly enlightened, but these incidents the last few days have kind of made me feel that way.

Lots Of Things

More on most of these later...

• When I first heard about the Ft. Hood massacre, and saw the guy's name, I couldn't believe that the story didn't at least consider the possibility that this guy was an Islamic extremist, or at least profoundly anti-American. Now I've been reading that he may have been shouting "Allahu Akbar" as he was gunning people down. In case you don't know, that is the refrain that terrorists shout when they are performing their killings. It means "God is great". Obama's weak response this morning is equally annoying.
• This morning, I'm pretty sure that a student was flirting with me. The student is a guy.
• Obama is not going to Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.
  
• Sometimes I just don't get people. And sometimes I don't get me either. Anyone and everyone can be very confusing.
  
• I think I want to write for the BYU Political Review. The title of my first article that I'll be submitting will be E Pluribus Unum.
  
• I haven't been that into SYTYCD this season, but last night two routines really stood out to me - the fear dance and the Bollywood number. The thing is, they both have dancers that really annoy me. I think Legacy is terrible outside of his b-boying, and Mollee's personality bugs me, but they were both really good this week. I think I liked the Bollywood piece more than the fear one, but I think that's because I'm rooting for Nathan.