Finally...Mitt Wins One In Michigan

It's interesting how much emphasis is placed on declaring a "winner" in these states where it isn't winner take all. Then it becomes more like a cumulative point total, kind of like how the NASCAR end of the season winner wins at the end of the season. As long as you have strong showings in all of the races, you can easily end up winning the overall title. For example, although Mitt won last night he actually only got three more delegates than McCain did. That isn't a big deal considering that the eventual nominee needs to rack up more than 1200 delegates to obtain the nomination. I guess it's mostly for the media and for people who don't really understand how the process really works.

Some reading:

• This is Hugh's take on what the win last night means for the GOP race.
• This is also from Hugh's site, but it comes from his blog contributor, Patrick Ruffini. What I like about this one is that he breaks down the demographics of the vote.
• This is John O'Sullivan from NRO talking about the overall race.
• Byron York, also from NRO, talking about Romney's campaign strategy and whether or not it can work anywhere that's not Michigan.
• And finally the guys over at Powerline. I thought this was some really good analysis about what last night meant for Mitt. I almost prefer to hear the impartial perspective that they have over Hewitt's heavily pro-Romney points sometimes. If I'm looking for hope, I read Hugh. If I'm trying to think realistically, I read these guys.

There are no significant polls yet for South Carolina or Florida. I say that only because nothing will reflect what went on last night, but it's doubtful that this will give him much of a bounce because that has generally been the case this campaign year. As far as I know, it sounds like Mitt will concede in South Carolina and take aim at Florida, where it's looking pretty open.

Did anyone see the post-primary speeches? I'm surprised no one has really written anything about this yet, but Huckabee was the first to take the stage to concede defeat. About 5 minutes in and before he could finish, McCain took the podium. Less than a minute had passed when Romney began his victory speech. I wonder how that will play out among the candidates. That had to have set off McCain because that guy has cussed out other people for less.

On the other side of the race, I think Hillary's margin for victory was only about 15-20%. She got about 60% of the vote, but when your next biggest competitor is "uncommitted," that can't be very encouraging. That means that about 40% of Democratic voters went out in freezing temperatures to pull a lever for a vote that essentially means I'd rather not vote. Isn't that funny? It'll be interesting to see what impact that has, if any. That's all people.

Bits and Pieces

The Michigan primary is today. Want some reading? Of course you do. I liked this article the most on Mitt. It comes from a nationally published journal focusing on public affairs in politics and the arts. I liked the comments that follow. It's funny how many people develop their talking points in regards to politics. What are talking points? The issues that people consistently bring up about what issue is in question, e.g. if the economy is in question then Dems and GOPers have their respective points they bring like earmarks, tax cuts, supply-side economics, welfare programs, etc. The RCP poll average has Mitt up by 2.7% in Michigan. It seems that about a week ago McCain was up by 6%, and Romney has been picking up momentum. This is from National Review about how close the race is in Michigan. And this is another from NRO that gives an insider perspective from the Romney camp.

Isn't it funny that there is so much polling and interest in the primaries before they actually happen. I guess it gives people perspective and people like me something to write about.

When that sister gave the talk on Sunday in the regional conference about marathon running I was coming out of a mini-rest period, so gimme a break. I had been at the church since seven in the morning because of priesthood leadership. At least I wasn't in the deep REM sleep that the grandma to my left was in whose volume of snoring was competing with my ability to sleep/listen to conference. I still think she must have been really inspired to talk about marathon running because the message so obviously hit home for me - run a marathon and now I'm actually planning on doing it. Although it is kind of an unusual topic for a church forum, but again...it's inspiring change in one member and I got the message loud and clear.

Does anyone else miss TV? I watched last week's My Name is Earl and 30 Rock. I guess those are the last episodes that they had available? because they were Christmas episodes...

The Lakers have been very quietly succeeding this season. Very much so. Their budding star just got hurt and will be out for the next couple of months, but if we stay quiet they might continue to do well. Shhhhhh....

So I found out yesterday that an ex-girlfriend of mine is getting married sometime in June. What's weird about it? I felt totally unaffected by the news. With her I've become very familiar with the feelings of disappointment of her moving on, or feeling heartbroken about how things have turned out, but none of that was the case yesterday when I found out. While running last night (thanks good sister marathon-talk), I was thinking about all of this and I came to this conclusion: it just wasn't my time with her, and I wasn't ready to head in that direction in general. There have been so many very vital life lessons that I've had to experience and I don't think that I could've gotten them if things had turned out with her. I think I've really gained a lot of perspective about the things I want to do with life career-wise, and have become very settled spiritually. Granted, are you ever really ready for marriage? Of course not, but I can't help feeling that things are turning out just as they are supposed to. And that's just a really good place to be.

St. George Marathon

We had a regional/stake conference the past couple days. There were some good messages, and Sister Parkin spoke yesterday morning. I'm sure she was talking about something else entirely, but what I got out of her message was that I should put in motion steps toward actually running a marathon. Let's run the St. George Marathon. I seriously have no idea what she talked about now that I'm trying to recall her message. I'm sure I wrote down more than just that, but that is what I'm taking away from her talk.

I've been toying with this idea in my head for some time now. I don't think I've expressed these thoughts aloud to anyone besides Greg, though. Running a marathon seems to be one of those things that is all about mind over body and is one of the ultimate tests of endurance, mental and physical. I think I've become more motivated in the last couple months just because I keep hearing about all of these people who have run marathons and so many times I find myself thinking, how is it that some middle aged mom is running marathons and I haven't even seriously considered it yet? Some lady in my office apparently runs marathons every month. Even my boss who is almost 40 ran a marathon a few years ago. She was inspired by some old nun who had run one in Chicago.

I keep hearing about all these people who have done it and I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to do the same. I'm 27 years old, consider myself to be in pretty good shape, and with as much determination as anybody else, so why not? If I were a professional athlete then I would be in the prime of my career. This is why I think you should run with me and why I feel like it's a good choice:

• The age thing - you guys are all about the same age as me. Now is as good a time as any.
• The scenery is supposed to be beautiful.
• This particular marathon is apparently one of the fastest to run in the country.
• It is set for Saturday, October 4th. So it's not a Sunday (and now I'm remembering what her talk was about) and if we do some reading on marathon training and get the gear (shoes...I guess you don't really need anything else) over the next couple weeks, starting in February we'll have 8 months to train for it. That should be enough time to do it.
• Winter is already starting to taper off here in Southern California so running weather should be pretty decent.
• The most intense part of training will be during the summer, so if you're in school then that should make it more convenient. One training program I've been looking at peaks about 3 weeks before the race so if you (or maybe even me depending on what happens with my applications) are starting up again in the Fall, then it will only conflict for the first couple weeks of the new school year.
• And if one of your resolutions is to be healthier and get into better shape, this is probably one of the most hard core ways to do it. You'll be exercising a ton and you'll necessarily have to be eating better just so that your body can keep up.

I think I make a pretty strong case. Greg is going to be running in the Catalina marathon in March. He's just starting to train now. His wife thinks he's crazy, but I really think this is just a mind over body kind of thing. I mentioned this before, but another friend of ours is going to medical school at UNLV and he found out that his program had him registered to run in the Las Vegas marathon a week before it was to occur. So without any training and basically just rolling out of bed and getting up and running 26.2 miles, he did it. And he followed that same plan two years in a row. If people can run these things with no training whatsoever, who are well past their physical peaks, then why can't I? Or we?

Even my branch president ran one. He's the guy who is inspiring Greg to run in the Catalina marathon in a couple of months. And that guy has 4 kids, is a branch president, and is a marriage and family therapist so don't try and say that you're too busy to do it yourself. I've been putting together resolutions and goals for the next year, before I'm 30, and lifelong goals and this particular one falls into all three categories. I think the first place to start with this and actually see it through is doing things that will commit you to the goal, e.g. say yes to it, write it down, buy shoes, register early, and actually start training. Let's do it.

Hewitt On McCain

This is the full article. I think it's really interesting, and gives some more depth to the issues I briefly mentioned in the previous post about Senator John McCain. Here are some key excerpts that he brings up:

What will decide this thing? The Luntz focus groups on Sunday and Thursday night which went overwhelmingly to Romney and Thompson respectively tell us what Republican voters prize most of all: Fight in their candidates. This may be because of what we know lies ahead in the fall, when not just an energized Dem nominee assaults them day after day, but when Soros et al unleash their tens of millions and the leftie nutroots scream BushCo and Halliburton at the top of their virtual lungs 24/7. The GOP knows it will need a fighter full of energy and optimism who will both argue the case for Reagan conservatism and do so with the graciousness and charm that will be a sharp contrast with the angry left.

And then this parting shot:

A GOP vote for McCain is a vote for a shattered base and a desultory campaign in the fall. It is a vote for lecture after lecture on global warming, campaign finance reform, and the bridge to nowhere. It is a vote for an old warrior way past his prime and the prospect of three debates against Barack Obama in which the age and energy gap goes unremarked upon while devastatingly obvious.

What I can't understand is how Michael Medved - whom I normally hold in regard with respect to his political opining - can so heartily embrace McCain as his candidate. Then again, there have been several issues where he and I have departed far from one another in political philosophy. Anyway...it's hard to read anything by Hewitt without thinking that Romney doesn't still have an excellent shot at the candidacy.

Here Comes Michigan

Some more items on the presidential election. Is this still interesting to everyone? It only makes sense that there would be such intense scrutiny on what is the most important job on the entire planet. If you think about it in terms of an application process, with the American people serving as the board to arrive at a decision to decide on who the next CEO/President of the United States will be, then it's really kind of a cool process.

Anyone have any links that clearly explains how each party's nominees will eventually be decided? From what I understand, the nomination process for each party consists of securing a majority of the delegates that go to the national convention and cast their ballots for a particular nominee. I think on the Republican side it's around 1200-1300, and the Democrats have around double that. So when you look at the states and who comes out the "winner," it's a little misleading because it depends on the state and how they go about alotting their delegates to each candidate. Some states are winner-take-all states where if a certain candidate "wins" the state, then they get all of that state's delegates. The first couple of states that have already had caucuses and primaries so far - Iowa, New Hampshire, Wyoming - aren't winner take all states. For that reason, each of the candidates have won over a certain amount of delegates. The number of delegates that a state has depends on population and adherence to certain rules (I'm still not entirely clear on how that works out). Most of the states that have primaries on Super Tuesday, February 5th, are winner-take-all states. I give all of that as a background for this story on how Romney can win the nomination without having to "win" every state. That one is especially interesting.

Last night there was another debate. This is Hewitt's take on it. I think this story by the New York Times gives a pretty impartial look at the debate, so I thought that was pretty helpful. This is a National Review guy, Jim Geraghty. And then this comes from Rich Lowry, who I think gives some good insight, always. This comes from Jonathan Martin at Politico.com. I like that one least because it feels like he is decidedly pro-anyone not named Mitt Romney so it feels like in his writing, Romney will always come out behind. And this last one comes from Dean Barnett, who writes for the Weekly Standard, and is usually the guest host when Hugh isn't doing his own show.

You know, to be honest, I'm not feeling very good about Romney's chances to succeed in this race. There is still a chance, no doubt, but it seems like there have to be a lot of ifs that have to go in his favor in order for him to win the nomination. If he doesn't get Michigan this Tuesday, then I just really do not think there is a way for him to bounce back from that. He will have lost three big battles in a row that he tried to make a hard stand on and it feels like at this point, he's already reeling. And what's worse is that I feel like Michigan is already leaning in McCain's favor. Right now it's a tight race between Romney, McCain, and Huckabee for that state. However, the Michigan primaries allow for Independents and Democrats to vote for a Republican candidate. That would not bode well for Romney one bit. Here is a look at the polls for Michigan. What Romney does have going for him in Michigan is a couple of newspaper endorsements, his father being the governor there back in the '60s, and conservative outlets harping on McCain's and Huckabee's out of the conservative mainstream views. That and the fact that after his loss in New Hampshire, Romney secured $5 million in campaign funds. That's amazing considering that Huckabee got only got a couple hundred thousand after Iowa, and McCain about the same after New Hampshire. That's also another point in favor of Romney - McCain has very little money left to campaign, which is why the matching funds debate is so big right now. So...it's still anybody's guess how this one turns out. Tuesday, however, should provide a lot of (or maybe just more) clarity.

Let's also welcome the recently engaged Taylor Rice to the blogosphere. He'll be permalinked on the left.

Ebbs And Flows

While sitting in sacrament meeting the other day I was looking at our unremarkable attendance in the branch. The thought came startingly to my mind that I've actually been there for three years now. I just hit that mark. I really can't believe it. I've never been in a ward/branch for that long.

My first thoughts drifted to the inception of the branch and just how many people we had attending back then - it was probably around 120 or so. Now it's about half that, and has been holding steady there for about a year and a half. Back when things started, I could have never imagined the branch being so small, and now the converse is true. Then I started thinking about how this is probably just a phase and it's just a matter of time before things pick up again.

From that point, I began to drift off and think about how ebbs and flows are common in probably all areas of our life. Spiritually speaking I can point to many times in my life where there have been some very definite peaks and valleys. In my personal life last year - I think April through August - was a valley so to speak. At the same time, however, I feel like I experienced a corresponding peak in my spirituality. None of the things that happened at that time ever could have been things that I would have categorized as desirable, or could have even expected, but they gave me an increased capacity to learn to cope, and then to thrive. I emerged with my faith intact, and never have I felt so capable to confront life head on. It's a wonderful feeling of empowerment to feel like I am master of my own creature, that I have complete dominion and autonomy over not just my own personal appetites, but my own capacity to adapt internally to all circumstances, even the external events that I have no control over.

More recently I feel like I might have plateaued in some areas of my life, but I've felt an upswing with renewed commitment to simple things - exercise & diet, personal worship, etc. I love health and fitness because it's something that's pretty easy to measure. Something that's interesting about social psychological research is that when rating levels of happiness one thing that researchers commonly ask about is how often a person exercises in a given amount of time. The reason being that engaging in physical activity is an objective measure to subjective states, i.e. people who exercise regularly report higher rates of overall well-being. But the personal worship items - scripture study, prayer, church attendance, etc. - pays huge dividends also.

The ebbs and flows that we experience are common. When I had these thoughts Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach actually came to mind.

The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!

Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Agean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

It is a somber poem, but I think really captures that feeling of ebbs and flows that can occur. His message is a little different than what I would prefer to share. In a fireside that I attended over the summer, the Brother Millet read aloud John 3:8:

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is
born of the Spirit.

Then he explained that the Lord is obviously not talking about wind patterns. In the original Hebrew we find that "wind" is better translated as the spirit. He further expounded that there are definite times in our lives when we will feel greater communion with the spirit than others. It isn't necessarily because we are living poorly, or are otherwise flouting gospel principles. The ebbs and flows that we experience with the spirit sometimes is just simply a matter of Heavenly Father allowing us to walk on our own at some points in our life.

I think if you look at it from the perspective of a loving parent, all a mother or father wants is for a child to grow up to be self-sufficient, and contribute to the lives of those around him/her. I think that as God removes those training wheels and we have to begin riding on our own, He expects us to hearken to those times when He gently guided us. That is why, for example, that I suspect in the Doctrine & Covenants, Oliver is reminded of the time when he undoubtedly felt His warm over him (D&C 6:23) and not just given another booming response.

I just think it's a pattern that reoccurs throughout our lives. It doesn't seem like there will ever be a point where we can sit back and rest because there just always seems to be so much upheaval, in one form or another. The concept of time and its measurement is a testament to me of God's acknowledgement of this concept. We have a new year every 365 days, 12 months a year, and seven days a week to try and recommit ourselves to living the best we can. It happens over and over, and it's for good reason: we need every opportunity we can get to right our ships and learn to navigate the ebbs and flows that beset us in the seas we live in.

Those are just some thoughts I had in sacrament meeting last Sunday.

Britney - A Picture Story

Remember when there was a time when Britney Spears used to drive you Crazy?

And not that kind of crazy?

Sometimes...

I remember back in college we used to have a cardboard cutout of her when she was in her hey day. We would hide it around our apartment, and at night if you were walking around in the dark you might get a rude awakening a la Britney if you weren't careful. It was the only way we could get her into our apartment, because unless you were this guy...




she was just way out of your league. Then, Oops...

Boys...

She did it...








again...

Now it seems like she's probably wishing she could do so well as hook-up with the likes of a Kevin Federline.

I used to think...if only I could be so Lucky...

I would have been her Slave...

During freshman year at school me, Dave, Laura, and Brenna went through a two month phase where, baby, we just wanted one more time out on the scene...

Now I wish I didn't have to see her fall from grace.

I wish she were Stronger...

And Toxic...

But not like that...

I wish I could say that I want her to Gimme More...

but even then it doesn't seem like she will ever recover.

Well it's My Prerogative to preserve the memory that Britney we all used to know and love.

More Race For The Nomination Stuff...

If you don't already know, McCain took New Hampshire yesterday in that primary. The big surprise was Clinton pulling off a victory, when earlier in the day, people were thinking Obama was going to pull off a victory, possibly even in the the double digits. That was pretty stunning.

McCain winning New Hampshire wasn't a huge surprise. Romney was starting to build-up steam following his performance on the debates, particularly Sunday night's. However, nobody was really expecting him to close that gap over such a short span of time. I did read somewhere that it's a possibility that with so many of the independent voters swinging between Obama and McCain, they might have fled the Obama bandwagon to McCain as a strategic vote because of the early anticipated blow-out of Clinton. That would explain McCain's ability to hold on and Clinton's upset, but that still seems implausible to me. So you're telling me that about 25,000 people had that same thought in mind yesterday? Not likely.

I think this is a really interesting take that Romney had mentioned following the close of the voting yesterday.

HH: Now Governor, this is not unfolding the way any pundit called it, certainly not the way you had hoped it would unfold, but also not the way your opponents hoped it would unfold. John McCain’s down from 60% eight years ago. You’ve dealt with a lot of situations where tactics and strategy has to evolve. How are you doing that? Have you arrived on a central message for the next eight weeks?

MR: Well, there’s no question but that our message continues to be the same message, and it’s a powerful and connecting message. What’s happened that’s quite different is that we were anticipating that we had to win the first two primaries to go up against Rudy Giuliani, who was way ahead in the national polls, and who would have a commanding lead in Florida. Well, now Rudy Giuliani’s no longer in the lead in the national polls, and it looks like he’s number four or number three in Florida. So the whole world is different than we thought, and it’s much more of an open process than we’d expected with at least three and maybe more Republicans all vying for votes. And I think it’s anybody’s guess as to exactly how this is going to turn out.

Here is the post by Hugh Hewitt. This is Hugh's analysis of what happened yesterday and some things to possibly anticipate coming up over the next couple weeks. This comes courtesy of the guys at Powerline. And if you're really interested on getting different takes, visit Real Clear Politics. What that site does is collect a number of different headlines from around the country and posts them in one spot. It's really a great resource for this kind of thing. If you look at this morning's headlines you'll notice that pretty much everyone has a different take on what's going on, probably because nothing has really gone the way anyone has expected. The only thing that does seem clear is that the race on the Republican side is wide open. I thought this article from the Wall Street Journal was pretty interesting. This New York Times piece gives some good analysis on the next primary which will be next week in Michigan.

If you're a Romney supporter, these are some reasons you can feel encouraged:

• He has won more delegates than any other GOP candidate
• He has a strong base support among Republicans in the electorate - more so than any other candidate. Huckabee's Iowa support drew largely from Evangelicals, and McCain's win in New Hampshire was buoyed largely by Independent voters. Michigan will be the first open race between more than just two candidates. Florida will probably be the most open of all the races. At least in the beginning.
• Romney still has more resources and better organization than any other candidate nation-wide. In a race that is more and more looking like a war of attrition, his ability to outlast could be the determining factor in winning the nomination.

Nevertheless, the guy still has to pull out a major victory at some point. If it doesn't happen in Michigan, or at least in Florida, it may not happen at all.

On the other side, I think Clinton's victory yesterday is good for the GOP. Now there is no clear front-runner and Obama and Clinton will have to fight tooth and nail to get that party's nomination. That means dirty fighting for both sides which will really expose each candidate's weaknesses even before the race for the Presidency is on. There was some speculation that the moron sexist voters who should up at a Clinton rally Monday could have been plants from the Clinton camp to generate more support among women. I thought that was interesting.

In any case, this thing is a long way from being finished.

Juno

I thought that I would enjoy this more than I did, although I do think that I still enjoyed it. The dialogue is very clever and all of the performances are really good. All around. One particular character left me feeling so disturbed, though, that it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. Dave is right, Michael Cera is just awesome. I wish he would have had more scenes in the movie, but Ellen Page was really good also. I was surprised at how good Jennifer Garner was too. I thought the song at the end was really cute. The love story that did eventually play out was really very sweet.

Another group of people went to see it the same day we did. You wanna know what happened? Several of them walked out on it. Yeah, they were mormon. My favorite part is that the guy who was there didn't think anything of it, but when I heard about it I was totally annoyed right off the bat. I guess I just think it's just dumb that someone would go to see a movie about teen pregnancy and not realize that it's probably going to be dealing with some touchy issues. Of course I'm also reading into the situation and assuming that the people who walked out also felt they owed it to themselves and to those who stayed to protest the film with their "righteous indignation" at such appalling content. But of course I'm judgmental about people who are judgmental and when it gets to that point, we're all being dumb. At least I realize that I'm probably more annoyed about that situation than I should be.

Japanese American National Museum

Admittedly, when I first heard about this exhibit I was intrigued. All I heard was that there would be some contemporary Japanese art. Good enough, right? And when it's recommended by someone you know then you tend to give more creedence, but this was a friend of a friend recommendation. I know, pretty perilous and I should have known better.

First off...it's funny how often I let myself get tricked by things like that. So and so says this movie or book or whatever is great, you'll probably like it. Well, unless that so and so is Dave, or someone who knows me inside and out, then I probably shouldn't give too much weight to another person's judgment because simply put, it's not my own. Therefore it's not necessarily my taste. Not to say that I can't take recommendations, I just shouldn't be so surprised sometimes when I'm not as satisfied as I thought I might be.

The museum was very small and the exhibit we were going to see, The Giant Robot Biennale, was really brief, even by that museum's standards. It was basically two rooms of some cover art on the walls. I liked some of the stuff, but most of it just seemed really strange to me. I don't know if there is any modern art that I'm really excited about, not that I even have that much exposure to it.

One part that I did really enjoy, however, was the display on Japanese Internment Camps. One quote in particular stuck out to me. I liked it enough to actually write it down on paper and include it here:

The achievement of redress demonstrates how the actions against one community came to be understood as a violation of the freedoms and liberties of all Americans.

I liked that because I think it eloquently expresses the interconnectedness we share with others, whether we're consciously aware of it or not. Sometimes I'm not very sympathetic to pains that persons of specific groups sometimes express. This just helped me to remember that often our collective fate has great bearing on our individual lives.

I wish that I would have learned earlier about the Dali exhibit at the LA County Museum of Art before it wrapped up last weekend. Not only did it have The Persistence of Memory on display, but it was a film and painting exhibit. Let's all keep our ears to the ground for all the good stuff that's out there people.

Onward To New Hampshire

Maybe some of you didn't hear about it, but Mitt won the caucuses in Wyoming. What's that? You had no idea that was even going on? Neither did most people. Here is the story and it happened on Saturday.

This last weekend was mostly all about the debates that went on both Saturday and Sunday nights. There was a lot of speculation that with the Iowa loss, Romney would be reeling and his support would be jumping ship, which would be revealed in New Hampshire. He desperately needed to have a good showing over the weekend in order to be competitive for NH, and even beyond. His whole campaign strategy was built around the idea that he would win the early states and slingshot himself with the momentum he built up into the national race to win the nomination.

Well Mitt destroyed over the weekend. He needed to come up big and he really did. So much so that whereas just last week he was down double digits in the polls to McCain, even before the Iowa stumble, now he's entered to within the margin of error, down just one percent from McCain's 32% support. A couple of things are in play here, namely, his good showing in the debates as well as Obama's growing support from Independent voters. NH has a large amount of independent voters and McCain's support drew largely from that crowd. However, with Obama's recent surge he is pulling away that support and Romney is clearly benefitting.

Here is the take from the guys at Powerline here, and here. The second is a detailed account of the debate, point by point. This one comes from Michelle Malkin. It's also long, but what you're probably most interested in is found right at the top. I'm going to include a really interesting video from Frank Luntz with New Hampshire voters immediately following the Sunday night debate. This one is Hugh Hewitt's take. And this comes from several different writers at National Review Online.

Tomorrow is D-day for Romney. It won't make or break his campaign, and it's still very well possible, maybe even probable that McCain wins tomorrow. However, this will go a long way if Romney can manage to pull this one out.

The Nominations Are Underway

Did you all catch what happened yesterday? Huckabee 34% to Romney's 25%. Obama 37% to Edwards and Clinton at 30% and 29%. Both of the winners from upstart campaigns. Pollsters say that voters commonly reported that they didn't expect either Huckabee or Obama to win the general election, but they ended up voting for them anyway. And there was about a 2-1 showing of Democrat versus Republican voters in a state that's considered a swing state that Bush won in 2004. That does not bode well for the GOP.

Here is a link from Powerline. These are Hugh Hewitt's thoughts. And this comes from a Senior Editor at National Review. I haven't even read this one yet, but this is the Townhall take on what happened yesterday. Here is one last link that describes a little bit about how the caucuses in Iowa work.

Basically it's pretty bad news for Clinton (yay!) and very bad news for Romney (uhoh!). If Romney doesn't take New Hampshire on Tuesday (which right now is very plausible), then we're probably looking at a Huckabee-McCain race for the nomination. Although yesterday I was reading some commentary that was suggesting that an Obama victory last night could be bad news for McCain because of the fact that New Hampshire allows Independents and Democrats to vote either way, Republican or Democrat. That being the case, undecideds could very well go over to Obama and feed off some of the momentum that he has built with a good sized Iowa victory. Romney really needs a good weekend and strong close if he is to be taken seriously as a candidate. There are a couple of debates this weekend. It will be really interesting to see if he changes much in his strategy, goes off the cuff a little bit because a major knock against him is that he's too polished and rehearsed.

Yesterday I was listening to some of Huckabee's statements about his fair tax policies that he wants to install should he become the next president. They were actually pretty good ideas. I still think the guy would be bad news for GOPers if he became the nominee, but I do dislike him a lot less.

Happy New Year!

This was our New Years crew for the celebration. It's funny and seems arbitrary to put so much focus on one single moment in time, doesn't it? There is so much build up and anticipation for one passing moment that could just as easily be February 1st, June 1st, or October 1st, but it's nice to have the universally recognized non-holiday so close to Christmas because then I get to have so much paid holiday time off. I don't mind that one bit, it just seems strange. It was really fun to see everyone. It feels like it's been too long. Not Dave and Caitlin, I see those dirtbags all the time. I say that affectionately.

I'm going to link to what I thought were some interesting pieces. This one comes from a free-lance journalist reporting from Fallujah, Iraq. Do you remember that name? It's the place, where, a couple of years ago they had burned and dragged the bodies of dead soldiers through the streets. One of the notorious taped beheadings took place there. Now it's the place where this is a common scene:

Is it all possible for that guy to look anymore relaxed than he does in that picture? The article is really interesting because it paints such a different picture of that city than what you would ever imagine. Some of the pictures feel like scenes from my mission - just similarities in the simplicity of the people and the feel of ease that they seem to have.

This next link covers a New York Times editorial. These people must be completely insane. I mean seriously. Things are, and have been, very good in the United States for some time now, but the picture they paint would have you think otherwise. The articles are a little bit longer, but worth your time. The first link includes lots of pictures.

Wishing You A Belated Merry Saturnalia!

Before it gets to be too far gone to bring this up, I wanted to link to some interesting articles on Christmas. This one is from my favorite columnist at NRO, Jay Nordlinger, talking about the assault on Christmas. This article comes from the Wall Street Journal detailing a brief history of the holiday - this is a really great read. And then this article from a Catholic perspective, gives a great explanation of the holiday but grounded in Christianity. Finally, there is this piece that I found on National Review Online (NRO - I don't know if I've ever clarified that abbreviation before).

Professor Wilhelmsen makes an interesting point in his theological discourse regarding the usurpation of the pagan holiday for the purposes of tranposing Christianity:

A solar cult of the Mithraic religion competed with Christianity for dominance within the Empire. Set up to climax the older Saturnalia which lasted from December 17 to December 24, the feast of the Sun climaxed a period of merrymaking when all classes of society mingled together in a carnival spirit of gift exchanging, the carrying of torches, and the wearing of colorful and outlandish costumes. In grafting the spirit of that pagan celebration onto Christmas, the early Fathers transmuted heathen revelry into Christian joy.

The last link is one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I try and avoid doing this, but I'm going to quote at length from the article. I'd really like you all to be able to partake in this because it will lead quite well to my last point. Anyway, you might think that the excerpts I include from articles are too lengthy as it is, but trust me...I do pare it down a lot from what I would initially like to include:

It’s easy for anyone with one part brain and two parts wit to puncture an incandescent bubble of faith. Sometimes, everyday life does the same. It was on a Delta jet somewhere above North Carolina that I first doubted everything I’d learned in catechism. Peering through clouds, those swirling puffs of fog that our ancestors thought concealed Heaven; looking down at the specks of cars and homes and skyscrapers writ small, one grasps with alarming clarity the idea of personal insignificance. In the clouds, a vision of a personal God retreats as quickly as the oxygen supply.

But then, you land. And it isn’t long before God creeps back in. Faith cracks, it mends, it matures. It takes in new information and adjusts. Like a GPS navigator, it recalculates constantly, sometimes a little too often, sometimes not often enough.

Or, is it just that damned temporal lobe acting up again? Perhaps. Or maybe it’s not my circuit board that’s misfiring, but Hitchens’s; there appear to be more of my kind than his. Usually, normalcy is something to be desired; not in the skeptic’s world.

But for those of us who don’t need a God Helmet, who intuit a Presence all on our own, what Hitchens writes doesn’t matter. Here is a man who admits he has no faith, nor capacity for it, but presumes to write volumes on the topic. Meanwhile, holly-sprigged rubes like me welcome Christmas and its admittedly pagan customs because we find in it, amid the carol-singing and present-wrapping and eggnog-swilling, little bursts of joy as inexplicable as a black hole, or a massive wet planet skipping through space.

At church this past Sunday a guy attended who has been investigating for some time, but I think at this point he is developing his own unique brand of faith. As we're leaving he starts asking how we, people who claim to belong to the true church, could celebrate a holiday with pagan origins. I like that my answer would come from the bits and pieces of these various articles offered by people from different faiths.

In spite of differences that we might have in points of doctrine regarding the Godhead/Trinity, Christ's literal resurrection, or any number of other disputed tenets, one thing we can agree upon and celebrate together is the birth of our Savior. It's less about being accurate with the day of observance and more about the universal recognition of the ethereal nature of the miracle we celebrate. In His birth we have the fulfillment of prophecy; in His birth we have the reaffirmation of the vital pillars that support the Plan of Salvation. This time more than any other people are more inclined to act Christlike than at any other point during the entire year. Moreover, it brings faith and charitable living to the forefront of our collective consciousness'. I can't think of one valid reason to not celebrate Christmas that would outweigh all of these tremendous benefits. Not a one.

More On Stem Cell

Admittedly, I had not looked much into the issue of stem cell research when this debate originally began to surface a few years ago. Regarding this issue, I briefly looked over the two sides of the argument and went with my default position of being conservative and didn't think much more about it. With the recent developments I've been reading a little bit more about the issue and have found it just riveting. Really.

I found this article this morning via Powerline that will soon be appearing in Commentary magazine. A point man from the Bush administration wrote this article about how Bush's policy on stem cell research was forumlated. It really is just fascinating - please read it. The writer gives a clear picture of the months of deliberation that went into the policy formulation. Reading this article reaffirms my personal stance on the necessity of electing officials who will seriously consider the ethical ramifications of the policies that they adopt. I really think it is just so vital to have a president that embraces religion if only because that person will then operate from a perspective that seriously weighs the moral stances of the various faiths that he is representing. It's not enough that the person respect religion, but practices it himself so as to really appreciate the ethical weight that accompanies his decisions. As time goes on it has become more and more clear to me that President Bush has been a stalwart in crafting political policies that reflect these kinds of considerations.

Regarding the issue, the foremost stem-cell researcher said, "If human embryonic stem-cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough.” One point of argument that I had previously failed to fully grasp with this issue was just how much our eventual position reflects our respect for life. That may be something that you've already considered, but have you really thought about that in depth? I consider myself pretty informed with these issues, but this was one thing that I still feel like I failed to fully appreciate.

An incident that occurred between the President and a spokesperson for National Right To Life illustrates the President's commitment to doing what was right, not necessarily popular:

When a member of the National Right to Life delegation took out a public-opinion poll to bolster his claim that opposition to stem-cell research would be a winning issue politically, Bush swatted the paper away and replied with uncommon sharpness: “This is too important an issue to take polls about. I am going to decide this based on what I believe is right.”

From a conversation in the oval office between the President and bioethicists, the President said:

I must confess I am wrestling with a difficult decision. It’s a difficult issue for me. On one hand, it offers so much hope; on the other, so much despair. I worry about a culture that devalues life. I think my job is to encourage respect for life. On the other hand, I believe technologies and science will help solve many medical problems, and I have great hope for cures.

And one last excerpt from the article:

A few days later, I brought into the Oval Office my copy of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 anti-utopian novel, and as I read passages aloud imagining a future in which humans would be bred in hatcheries, a chill came over the room.“We’re tinkering with the boundaries of life here,” Bush said when I finished. “We’re on the edge of a cliff. And if we take a step off the cliff, there’s no going back. Perhaps we should only take one step at a time.”

Read the article.

Oi To The World Saturday Night

I had another multi-concert weekend. You know what's funny? Yesterday I was actually thinking to myself, "when was the last time I saw a punk show? I need to go again..." I think I've been really, really spoiled the last several months. It's been a heckuva concert fall and winter for me. I had seen these guys only once before, New Year's Eve 1998. They're a pretty silly band. Mostly they just talk about nothing, it's kind of great.

I'm not a huge fan of theirs, but the show was definitely a lot of fun. The first half of their set they played all Christmas songs, a la the Christmas Album they released a few years ago. I thought they added a nice touch with fake snow blowing into the crowd. The second half they played a lot of signature songs - My Girlfriend's Dead, I Have A Date, etc. I was pretty tired that day and I really didn't feel like going to the show before I actually arrived, but once I was there I was really glad I went. Gotta love adventure mode.

I think concerts are pretty much the greatest thing in the world. End of this story.

Unwritten Law and Lagwagon

I think this is one of my favorite songs to see them perform live because he just gets so into it. I hadn't seen them play it this way before, but this time around what they did was play the Hit List version of Rest Of My Life where it's a little more bitter than the original version and then after the first chorus he breaks into She Says. I thought it was pretty sweet. And at the shows that I've seen him perform this song when he gets to the chorus where it kind of blows up he throws the guitar behind him. I love the theatrics involved with the shows, it really does make a big difference.

The opening band had decent music, but their presentation just felt all wrong to me. It makes a big difference to have a lead singer and even band members who can really get into the emotion of the music and not just sound good musically, but then deliver as far as it comes to the actual performance and presentation of the song. Unwritten Law does a really good job of this, but my one complaint with them is that they don't maintain energy between songs. They played Lonesome which would be one of my favorite songs to see live, but then they always take like a ten minute break at the bridge and he talks and introduces the band - totally unneccesary. I would much rather they just keep the flow from one song to the next. Other than that, I love the way they sound live and the delivery of the finished product. Great, great stuff.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Lagwagon. I had just seen them back in October and I've seen them several times before, but I just forgot how much I really enjoyed their music in general. They played several songs off of Blaze and Hoss and those are easily my favorite albums of theirs. More than any band I've seen, I think Lagwagon does the best job of mixing the music they perform live between old and new stuff. My favorite moment(s) of the evening was when Joey (singer) steps off stage to "take a break" and asks one of the guys standing on the side to sing Never Stops. The guy was so revved up for the song and kept talking about how it's the best song in the universe. As he is singing in lieu of Joey, right at the part where it slows down (about 2:30 through the video) and gets back into fast rhythm he does a full body head bang as the rest of the band completely stops playing and they all just stare at him as he looks up at them confused about why everything went silent. If you weren't familiar with the song, then you probably missed the joke. Then at another point they did a similar thing, but rather than stop completely they delayed the note as he lurched forward in anticipation of the music. Since the concert I've listened to that particular song at least a dozen times. I love how concerts can awaken you to certain music or reinvigorate old love that you had. That's exactly what happened for me last Friday night at The Grove.

The Two Of Us, We Dream Like One

Don't be fooled by the title. It comes from a Yellowcard song called Inside Out and I only wanted to use the "dream" part of that line for this post. The other night following soccer I had a dream when I went to sleep that went a little something like this:

I had a mission dream. I had these a lot upon returning home from the mission and now they come up occassionally. In times past, the feelings surrounding serving another mission in these dreams are usually about what a huge inconvenience to me it would be and I'm feeling very reluctant to go back out again. And it has to do with varying reasons - I'm afraid I don't remember the language anymore, have to disrupt school, feels burdensome when I wasn't anticipating serving another one so one, etc. This was the first time that I accepted the call and was grateful to go. Maybe that's a transition point for me in my own personal spiritual development, maybe not. Who really knows unless it actually happens, right? This time around I have the same mission president as I did before. Making a cameo was a girl from high school that I'm not sure I even had one conversation with in my entire life, Amy Anderson. I think Dave knew her alright. I'm pretty sure she only came up because I'm dating an Amy. Anyway...what was most vivid was the part about having to ride a really tall, probably about 25' or so, bicycle. I'm struggling with making it turn and basically not topple over because the base is basically very slim and I feel top heavy trying to control and balance and all that stuff.

The tall bicycle has been a theme in several of my dreams over the last year, maybe more. Courtesy of Dream Moods, I get this interpretation from them:

To dream that you are riding a bicycle, signifies your desires to attain a balance in your life. You need to balance work and pleasure in order to succeed in your current undertakings. If you have difficulties riding the bicycle, then it suggests that you are experiencing anxieties about making it on your own. To see a bicycle in your dream, indicates that you need to devote time to leisurely pursuits and recreation.

This was the first time that I had ever read one of those interpretations and actually thought to myself, "wow, I think that could actually apply." There have been a few times when a dream actually revealed a lot to me about my subconscious cognitions. One even felt like revelation because it regarded a question that I had been praying about for some time. Back to this dream though...I just thought it was really interesting. Also, I just think that it's funny that my brain would think of such an elaborate metaphor to illustrate subconsciously in a dream what I'm feeling consciously when I'm awake. I think that the above quote captures pretty well what I'm feeling, but I think it's also coupled with concerns about school, work, my mom, etc.

Do you have any recurring themes in your dreams? I know readership has been down lately, but if you do drop by please share whatever things you've had recurring in your dreams in the comments link. This one is relatively new for me. I used to have dreams about falling a lot. Teeth falling apart was another. That's all I can think of right now.

The painting pictured above is Dali's Persistence of Memory. It's one of the signature pieces of the surrealist movement. It is on display right now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until January 6th. Let's go see it. I included it with this post because I remember my humanities professor at BYU talking about one of Dali's methods of deriving the unusual imagery that he portrays. While falling asleep he would hold a fork in his hand hanging off whatever he was laying on and when the fork fell out of his hand it would land on a plate that he placed below so that the sound wake him up. Then he would paint those images that came to him while transitioning from wakefulness to sleep (is that a word?). Makes sense when you look at his work.

Live At The OCPAC - The Rockettes!

I guess the show we saw last night was the same one that's performed in New York every year at Christmas time. It was really, really great. Despite how tired I felt at the show, it was so much fun to see. The video is one of my favorite pieces from the show. We had terrible seats, but for this particular number I think it worked out well because you could see the formations much more clearly. In any case, it's definitely worth checking out.

Under My Thumb

Maybe you're wondering why I haven't had more political stuff lately. To be honest, I'm surprised that I've kept up my stamina with following the political landscape. Usually I'll follow for several months at a time, then get tired of it and move on to something else. I don't think there has been a whole lot to report on lately. Most of what's out there is all popular conservative voices combining against the Huckabee surge. Rest assured that if that guy wins the nomination, then just go ahead and write in the Democratic nominee as the next US president. The guy really just seems like a lightweight and he's just not equipped to withstand the intense scrutiny that he will go through in the running. Here are some recent comments Huckabee has made. Here is a link to some questionable pardons he's made. And then this one is talking a little bit more about people's distaste for Hillary Clinton. This is the original article as it run in the Washington Times.

Now for a change of pace. I've read a couple of really, really great church articles. This one is a talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell on becoming a disciple. And over here is Elder David A. Bednar's talk on living waters. More specifically he talks about how to transition from reading to studying to actually searching in the scriptures. I've read it a few times, but the part that stuck out to me this last time around was the insight he pulls from Lehi's vision of the tree of life. There is a difference that he notes in that story that I never really paid much attention to before he mentions it in this talk, but he talks about the difference between clinging and holding fast to the rod of iron.

Lately my scripture study feels like it has gone flat. I'm reading and studying, but I haven't felt like I've gotten a lot out of my study recently. This talk gave me some good insight and ideas on how to improve that and if you've been feeling the same, then I would highly recommend this talk to you.

Do you guys feel like there is a lot to be excited about? I do. I'm not even sure about what exactly, but life is good. Hope you're feeling the same.

Just Thinking Out Loud

I’m giving up on work today. That’s right. I cannot seem to get myself on task today at all. I think that part of this is coming from just having no down time whatsoever in the last couple weeks and so now I’m just looking to unwind, and unfortunately, it seems to be happening here at work. I’ve also got some more things on my mind with Christmas and holidays, stuff with my mom, and school and everything seeming to converge all at the same time.

I had a really cool conversation with my dad last night. Last night marked the first time I brought him up to speed on my mom’s plight over the summer. To tell you the truth, I had actually been avoiding him because I knew that this conversation was going to come up sooner or later and more for my mom’s sake than my own, I didn’t want to have it. After having spoken with him, I only wish now that I had approached him sooner about the whole thing because he definitely was in a position to where he could have helped alleviate the situation. However, I almost think it might be better this way for my mom, if only for this reason – sometimes people just need to learn to take care of themselves and suffer the consequences.

Consequences are really difficult to face. Often we spend a lot of time and energy trying to avoid them, only to have them come and take effect in the end. They are, by nature, completely unavoidable. But I think my mom has been living consequence free for the past several years. Mostly since the time she and my dad split up. Now her consistent poor decision making is catching up and it is going to hit her where it hurts. As awful as it is to watch her go through this, I think these are some necessary growing pains that will have to happen. My dad astutely pointed out last night that sometimes it isn’t until we’re older, or when more is at stake, when we learn these very important and sometimes very painful lessons.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that statement by Dr. Drew, “bringing the consequences to bear.” That applies as much to wayward teenagers experimenting with drinking and drugs as it does to any area of life where we live carelessly and become our own worst enemies. I’ve seen it in my own family where my aunt continually shields her kids from their own mistakes, to the point where they have only continued to regress and now have been both transferred to other lesser high schools. This happens when people get abortions because of careless attitudes about procreative gifts. This happens when parents absorb their children’s poor spending habits and assume their children’s debts, or continue to support them while they live negligently. I’m sure you can think of many examples in your own life.

I would think that as a parent your greatest hope for your child is that they become a contributing member of whatever community, church, or world that they live in. Not just a consumer, but a producer. In Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series, I love that the central character’s greatest talent and the means by which he helps to make the world a better place is his ability to create. His enemy in the book is vaguely referenced as the Unmaker. How often do we play each of those roles of maker or unmaker in our own lives? When or how do I help build, fortify, and benefit the people around me or to what extent do I become a drain, sapping energy and resources from those I come into contact with?

Another interesting thing is having relationships with people that you are forced to love. Sometimes those kinds of relationships offer the greatest surprises for us in terms of increasing our ability to forgive, developing patience, and just loving despite another person’s shortcomings. I think one easy example of this is the mission companion that you just never get along with, but I think something that everyone can relate with is the relative that seems relentless in his/her pursuit of testing your ability to exercise that love. It is no coincidence that we are members of the unique family units that we have. The family that we are apart of now gives us the laboratory setting of learning how to exercise decency and compassion in what will eventually be a very large scale affair.

My dad has some very quirky things about him. Although he comes from a latin culture that is typically very affectionate, when I see him he shakes my hand. He has embraced his German roots and disputes the reality of the holocaust. He thinks it’s rude for me to fall asleep on his couch. And sometimes he just feels very cold and cynical. In spite of these and other traits that can really get under my skin, I do my best to appreciate him and maintain a relationship with him because he will always be my father. What I liked most about my time with him last night was just how much he surprised me with his brightness and his humanity. I’m speaking pretty abstractly right now, but that’s the overall impression I had of him after I left him. It was nice for me and more than that, it felt good to feel close to him and to want to be closer to him. Regardless of the type of the relationship, I think it’s always good to feel that kind of yearning.

Up All Night

That's an Unwritten Law song. At one point I wanted to just have all my posts have song titles and I thought I was being creative, but apparently there are TV shows that would do the same thing with naming their episodes. I think it was That 70's show that named all their episodes from different seasons after Led Zeppelin songs and other bands songs. Anyway...I couldn't think of anything so that's what I decided to do.

I got an interesting link, courtesy of April the artist formerly surnamed Tartar (right?). It is here. And guess what it's about.The church is encouraging the members to use new media (i.e. internet, blogs, etc.) to develop the conversation surrounding the church. There is so much information, and misinformation, that there is no way it can be entirely covered by the authorities of the church. So it is depending on the members to spread the word, more particularly, the truth and help people learn from the horse's mouth, so to speak. It's a brief article so please read it.

A couple weeks ago my bishop gave the lesson that focused on Sister Beck's conference talk, Mothers Who Know, and he brought up an interesting point that was meant only as a side comment to the topic. By the way, I love that something controversial comes up and it kind of rubs people the wrong way and the church simply will not back down because some shmoe is upset. Anyway, my bishop is a Marriage & Family therapist and was in conversation with a colleague of his and she had said that for men in the church, it's not so much a matter of if a man starts looking at pornography, but when. That kind of startled me. The threat of pornography is just so pervasive, and we really have to take advanced measures to safeguard our virtue. We really do. Since he gave that lesson I have been meaning to ask him when I had a minute with him alone about what kind of prevalency rate he thought pornography use would be among male members of the church. I was thinking something like 50-60%, but then he said, "oh at least 80%." That startled me even more and so I asked, really? He responded by saying, "Chris, of all the male patients that I have come into my office, at least 95% of the men have problems with pornography. And I know that is just of the men that are coming in for therapy, so I can only assume that there are many, many more who are out there trying to deal with this stuff on their own, who aren't saying anything. At least not yet." Pretty crazy, huh?

When I think about graduate school and the direction I'd like my career to take, a couple things really interest me. Underneath the social psychology umbrella of topics that I think would be really interesting, understanding the outcomes of media influences really interests me. And then within that field, I think it would be really interesting to delve into the kind of research that people like Dr. Judith Reisman have pursued and really develop good, reliable, valid research about the pornography question. If only because I feel like there is just so much misinformation out there regarding the issue. I have many other interests within the field, but that is one of them.

Tonight I went to my friend Aaron's house to celebrate his birthday with his family. I felt really privileged to be among the few that were there because the guy really does have a lot friends. I will always be amazed by just how good it feels to observe and be with a family that really practices the gospel. We all mentioned something like like about him, we laughed a lot, we read scriptures, and we even prayed together. It really was just an honor to be among those people tonight. That right there is what brought me to the church. When it all comes down to it and you see that kind of family, that right there is one of the best reasons of why the church is true. It fosters a strong family that is happy and genuinely appreciative of one another. I really can't point to a better fruit of righteous living than that.

If I weren't so tired already, I'd do more to thread the common theme between these various topics, but I think my readers are smart enough to make up their own. Have a good one.

I Love Culture

It's true, I do. I am getting oodles of it these days, and will be through next week. For now, I'll just review what's occurred most recently.

Saturday was a morning at the LA temple and then the afternoon at the Getty. Have you ever been in a three hour session? That was my first, and also the largest that I've ever participated in. There must have been about 100-120 people there. I love that temple though.

And of course being so close to UCLA campus, we had to swing by Diddy Riese. Now they're up to a $1.50, but still so worth it. Check out this blog post because it contains a response from the owner of the store in the comments portion. Kinda cool.

The afternoon was spent at the Getty. We moved pretty quickly, probably due to the fact that we had already been up in LA all day long by that point. I hadn't been in about a year, but I actually remembered a good amount of the more significant pieces. I think it's about time that I start visiting the more obscure pieces of art that don't get the same love from museum patrons. One of my favorite things about the museum are the photo exhibits, but this time around they had an exhibit focusing on nude photography so of course, we spent the rest of the night with our eyes glued to the glorious human body. Or maybe not.

What I like about art is that you don't have to be an expert or a critic to really enjoy it. I feel like the idea behind it generally is to stimulate thought or emotion from the audience, and anybody can do that who will take a minute to just breathe it in. I'm really aching to go and see more museums, maybe like a DC trip and see the Smithsonian, or venture over to Europe and soak up what they have over there. I’d really like to see some work by Rodin. I think his stuff is amazing. Of all the classes that I took at BYU, humanities was probably one of my favorites, but I’m just that way. I really like literature and art and all that junk.

I think it would be really cool to have some original artwork. Even better, I would love to be in a position to become a patron to the arts and support some budding artist through their creative gestation. I guess I have to work on paying off my car first, but maybe some day. Here is a place where you can check out a pretty cool program that I came across earlier this year.

And on Wednesday night we went to go see the inaugural performance of the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization. They sang an assortment of Christmas carols. It was really fun. I had never been to the Segerstrom Hall before, and the performance was beautiful. They had an adult choir, as well as children and teen choirs too.

Now this weekend I’ll be going to see Christmas Carol, and next week the Rockettes, Unwritten Law and Lagwagon, Chewie’s Christmas Party, and then the Vandals that night. Peace…on Earth, good will to all men.

Dance Party?

There is so much going on. Last night I went on a little harbor cruise in Newport as part of a Christmas party. I thought it was really fun. I used to detest that Huntington crowd, or those party people, but there are some really stand up people amongst them who are just great.

Karaoke is so great to watch, but you know what I like more? Watching people dance. I'm guessing that about 20% of all guys will ever really let themselves go when it comes to dancing. And what's really great about watching people dance is that it doesn't really matter if they're good or bad, just as long as they really commit to the beat. I can think of at least 5 people last night who I probably could have watched dance the entire evening. You know what I think also really does it for me? Facial expressions. When that gets incorporated into the dance, it just makes it so much better. Amy's roommate does this move which I think is funny, but it really gets me the way her facial expressions compliment the move. It makes it that much better.

There was a guy there who had some kind of mental or social disability and he was dancing, but a girl was there dancing with him. I couldn't tell if she was just doing it so that he would have a good time, or if she was partly making fun of him, but she was so committed to the music. I kind of think it was the former, because from the first second the music started going she seemed to be sold on dancing. Another guy reminded me so much of Robbie Haglund. His style of dress, his gregariousness, and even his dancing. He had such exaggerated movements and was just screaming for attention. It's funny, but what I liked about him was that he was all about having everyone look at him, and then what I liked about the girl was that it really didn't seem like she had any care whatsoever if other people were around or not. He was driven by the attention, and then she was just driven by the music. She would have been going like that if she were by herself in her bathroom listening to music and just dancing around.

My absolute favorite though was this one dude who at first glance was just another goofy mormon guy - tall, lanky (doesn't lanky just automatically mean they're tall? usually), and came dressed in some kind of frilly shirt like he was from 17th century England. But I saw him dancing and he was just perfect. He was just so fluid in his movements, and when the beats came he hit them so hard. And he seemed to know every song and had some kind of funny motion for every single kind of sound that would come up. It was an incredible combination of jerky at times, but then so fluid at others. It's just so fun to see people let loose, especially dancing. It's like there is just no restraint and a total expression of inner feelings in outward movements.

Video notes - the guy who does the robot in the Footloose clip is amazing. The guy in the So You Think You Can Dance clip is...amazing crazy crying crazy.