“God, how we get our fingers in each other's clay. That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of each other.”
-Ray Bradbury
That highlight is from the Lakers game earlier this week, and is probably one of the sickest plays I've ever seen. Apparently, at the same game a girl was put on the jumbotron at the Staples Center and she totally flashed the camera. I wonder how often that happens. I've been listening to Matt "Money" Smith on AM 570 and I actually love his radio show. It's kind of ridiculous how much talk radio I listen to now. I think that alone officially qualifies me as an adult. Or maybe just lame.
Back over the summer, I was all about wanting to have regular, weekly posts. I've been dying to post some sports stuff, so I'm going to leave some stuff here. I'll keep it brief though.
Sports is the best reality television there is. Over the course of a season there are so many possible storylines from rivalries to camaraderie, the pursuit of perfection collapses, among other things. And what's more, it's only about the competition and aside from occassional cheerleader shots, it doesn't have anything sexual about it at all. I love that. This quote explains sports fanaticism well:
It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift.
I wanted to link you guys to an article about the Angels biggest offseason acquisition in Torii Hunter, but you need a password to access it. I'll just post an excerpt here:
The Angels know who they got in Torii Hunter -- a man who drips energy and preaches hope and potential. There are numbers that will quantify what Hunter is or isn't worth, just as there are politicians who try to tell us that "experience" is far more important than the foundation of hope and potential.
Those numbers don't matter as much as Hunter's ability to energize and inspire his teammates, with character that cannot be quantified. A "bad" contract to a good and generous man is worth a great deal more than a "good" contract to a mediocre and selfish man.
Hunter hopes to inspire fellow players to reinvest in their heritage, their country, their hope. And Arte Moreno knows that a lot of that $90 million is going to all the right places.
What I love about Torii is that he's not just a good bat, the guy is an amazing presence in every way possible. He plays jokes on his teammates, but then in his contract he had a stipulation that 100 underprivileged children come to every Angels game, and they had to put up money to support baseball for kids in depressed areas around the country.
There's a lot more, but I'll spare you. At least until next week.
That's the title for my favorite Strung Out song. It may very well be my favorite song ever. And just like the song, the relevance of the title to the song and this post eludes me. They're playing in two weeks.
It's subtle the difference, but you guys do actually comment more when I don't write about politics. I'm even getting comments from some of yous who haven't commented for a while. I think the shift in writing is only coincidental because I think I'm kind of burned out in general on political stuff. I have ebbs and flows in my interest regarding that stuff. Don't worry, I'm still following it all and will post more as time permits. It takes a different kind of energy, though, to write about that stuff.
Sometimes it's scary how well Ipod shuffle knows me. I just got three songs in a row that I wouldn't have been able to pick out on my own, but having them brought up for me made me realize just how perfect the choices were. Thanks, Ipod.
I think all married couples are the same when it comes to maintaining friendships. I feel like they all think that nobody else does anything, but if you are willing to hang out on their terms then they have no problem keeping up the friendship. They only get distant because it's harder to please both people and have them both be interested in doing whatever it is that the other people are doing.
When I was at BYU I had this couple that I just LOVED, Steve and Hillary. They are some of my favorite people in the whole world to talk to because they both have very similar conversation styles - they are 100% interested in whatever it is that you have to say. They ask great questions and they contribute a ton of thoughtful insight, but they are tops when it comes to eliciting your own thoughts and feelings because they're just that interested. It's so great. While we were all at school, they had a kid pretty quickly into their marriage, and so they were pretty limited in what kinds of things they could do. However, I made a point to just drop in on them every week or so and it was never hard to feel close to them. The same has been true with Dave and Caitlin, and Greg and Laura are a lot more accessible than I thought they would be. I bring this up because next week I get to see Laura, Matt, and Chase and all it took was saying that I would come up and visit them on their home field.
This is something common to a lot of friendships, married or otherwise. Great friendships tend to fizzle, or just fail to develop because one party is looking for a return on investment (usually in the form of immediate reciprocation) when the return should really only be evaluated over the long term, not the short term. I guess it's natural to look for a corresponding amount of reciprocation, but it just seems like if we're always waiting for that, then we'll miss out on some great people.
To put it another way, the last girl I dated was so great with how she approached her friendships. She totally knew and understood that if she didn't make an effort, then some of her relationships would become dilapidated. For her, it was more about her giving than receiving, if that makes it a little more clear. She also approached it liked everything depended on her, and I think it's a credit to her and her ability to develop personal and abiding relationships with people. Just thinking aloud...
An old friend from school has been back in contact recently and she's been checking out the blog. She really only knew me during my freshman year, and as most of you know, I was much more reserved then. I'm still pretty reserved as it is, but for some reason my blogger personna is very interested in vocalizing every dumb thought that crosses my mind. And the other night I got a call from a friend that's a recruiter because a TV show producer was looking for a male recruiter that was smart, honest, and pretty witty, so she gave him my name. I couldn't help out because I'm not up in LA, but all this got me thinking a lot more about the impression of myself that I project to other people. My biggest curiosity with that is the variation from person to person. Brenna from freshman year is going to have a much different impression of me than Farrah from Huntington Beach. I guess it depends on the context in which you know people. Too often we don't give each other enough credit to how much depth there really is to one another. That's why I think that most people (not all) are dumb who end up getting married so quickly after the first contact. That's another post for another day.
Have you ever heard of him before? He and Reagan are credited as being the most influential conservatives ever. William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review and his ideas have largely driven the conservative movement over the past 50 years. The writers over at NRO have a wonderful tribute to him. This comes from the gentlemen over at Powerline. Here is Hugh's tribute to the man, and what follows is an excerpt from his post:
There may have been more influential conservative pundits and intellectuals over the past half century, though none come immediately to mind, and there may have been more accomplished interviewers and authors of such numerous, diverse and always interesting books, though, again, no names jump out.But I don't think there is anyone who combined accomplishments of this order with such widespread, genuine and deep affection across the center-right except for Ronald Reagan, who owed much to Buckley, which means we all do.
From this piece, a brief description of Buckley's output during his lifetime:
Consider the statistics. During his nearly 60 years in the public eye, William F. Buckley Jr. published 55 books (both fiction and nonfiction); dozens of book reviews; at least 56 introductions, prefaces, and forewords to other peoples’ books; more than 225 obituary essays; more than 800 editorials, articles, and remarks in National Review; several hundred articles in periodicals other than National Review; and approximately 5,600 newspaper columns. He gave hundreds of lectures around the world, hosted 1,429 separate Firing Line shows, and may well have composed more letters than any American who has ever lived.
This short article touches on his role in helping defeat communism. And this from the editors when news of his death first reached them. Perhaps the words that emphasized the most for me what this man meant to so many people were these, "we are devastated to announce the passing of William F. Buckley Jr." Of all the stuff that I read about him between today and yesterday, that one line was what I appreciated the most. And this last link will take you to the mission statement for National Review when Buckley first started the magazine more than 50 years ago. This is an excerpt from that statement:
"I happen to prefer champagne to ditchwater," said the benign old wrecker of the ordered society, Oliver Wendell Holmes, "but there is no reason to suppose that the cosmos does." We have come around to Mr. Holmes' view, so much so that we feel gentlemanly doubts when asserting the superiority of capitalism to socialism, of republicanism to centralism, of champagne to ditchwater — of anything to anything. (How curious that one of the doubts one is not permitted is whether, at the margin, Mr. Holmes was a useful citizen!) The inroads that relativism has made on the American soul are not so easily evident. One must recently have lived on or close to a college campus to have a vivid intimation of what has happened. It is there that we see how a number of energetic social innovators, plugging their grand designs, succeeded over the years in capturing the liberal intellectual imagination. And since ideas rule the world, the ideologues, having won over the intellectual class, simply walked in and started to run things.
Run just about everything. There never was an age of conformity quite like this one, or a camaraderie quite like the Liberals'. Drop a little itching powder in Jimmy Wechsler's bath and before he has scratched himself for the third time, Arthur Schlesinger will have denounced you in a dozen books and speeches, Archibald MacLeish will have written ten heroic cantos about our age of terror, Harper's will have published them, and everyone in sight will have been nominated for a Freedom Award. Conservatives in this country — at least those who have not made their peace with the New Deal, and there is serious question whether there are others — are non-licensed nonconformists; and this is dangerous business in a Liberal world, as every editor of this magazine can readily show by pointing to his scars. Radical conservatives in this country have an interesting time of it, for when they are not being suppressed or mutilated by the Liberals, they are being ignored or humiliated by a great many of those of the well-fed Right, whose ignorance and amorality have never been exaggerated for the same reason that one cannot exaggerate infinity.
There are, thank Heaven, the exceptions. There are those of generous impulse and a sincere desire to encourage a responsible dissent from the Liberal orthodoxy. And there are those who recognize that when all is said and done, the market place depends for a license to operate freely on the men who issue licenses — on the politicians. They recognize, therefore, that efficient getting and spending is itself impossible except in an atmosphere that encourages efficient getting and spending. And back of all political institutions there are moral and philosophical concepts, implicit or defined. Our political economy and our high-energy industry run on large, general principles, on ideas — not by day-to-day guess work, expedients and improvisations. Ideas have to go into exchange to become or remain operative; and the medium of such exchange is the printed word. A vigorous and incorruptible journal of conservative opinion is — dare we say it? — as necessary to better living as Chemistry.
We begin publishing, then, with a considerable stock of experience with the irresponsible Right, and a despair of the intransigence of the Liberals, who run this country; and all this in a world dominated by the jubilant single-mindedness of the practicing Communist, with his inside track to History. All this would not appear to augur well for NATIONAL REVIEW. Yet we start with a considerable — and considered — optimism.
I think what I appreciate most about the conservative voice, and what I think that last excerpt exemplifies, is that the voice is not one that is harsh, irrate, or loud. Rather, it is better characterized as pleading, informative, and full of hope. The discovery and fashioning of that voice is perhaps William F. Buckley Jr.'s greatest, and longest-lasting achievement.
For the last week or two I have had a hard time feeling the motivation to post. Can you believe that? It felt like a chore more than something that I looked forward to doing. Fortunately, today is quite the contrary. And it's not even that I have something really exciting to tell the world, but more just the fact that I feel like I have to say something, or some things about a lot of things.
A couple of movies that I've seen the last several days. Over the weekend I caught Be Kind Rewind:
I won't really go into much detail about it. It doesn't really touch on any sensitive subjects, so it's pretty family friendly. I think there's a swear word or two, but mostly I liked hearing the replacement words and phrases they came up with like, "what the duck!?" To really enjoy this movie you have to appreciate silliness. I got in a little bit late and had to sit by myself because the theater was so packed. Enjoying the movie thoroughly, I often caught myself laughing by myself at least with respect to the row that I was sitting in. None of the kids that I sat next to laughed audibly the entire movie. The audience as a whole received the movie warmly, but not these teens.
And then I caught this one last night, Definitely, Maybe. I love the actresses in this one. All of them, but especially Elizabeth Banks. She's one of my top three, and not a big star by any means. Her eyes, more specifically the shape of them, draw me in. Just love her. This movie, however, not as much. It didn't go where I expected it to, and that is not always a problem, but that it went in directions that I didn't really care for it to go. Know what I mean? I didn't really like the little girl, Ryan Reynolds was pretty good. He was funnier than I expected him to be. My favorite scene of the movie followed a part when he had his heart broken.
For whatever reason, I just love movie portrayals of guys when they have been devastated. Maybe it comes from having been there before and realizing that for a director to project the right image, or for an actor to do it justice, they have to have experienced that kind of pain previously, and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one. One that is pretty funny is in Legally Blonde when Elle is watching TV and is in her pjs, eating chocolates, and screams "liar" and throws a chocolate at the screen. My favorite depiction comes from the 90s movie Singles. Have you guys seen that one? It was early 90s, but watching it now you realize just how gloriously 90s it is. It takes place in Seattle (of course) and has white guys wearing flannel, clothes that just don't seem to fit right, and tapered jeans. Several alt. rock bands make cameos including Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam. This particular scene shows the guy lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling with food crumbs spread on him and on the floor, his apartment is a mess, and he has jazz music playing so loud that he can't even hear people knocking on the door. It's perfect. I love the movie probably more now than I ever did before because it is so quintessentially 90s. This is also a one-sided phone conversation that I enjoyed from the movie:
Linda Powell? Steve Dunne. Hey, yeah, I met you... 61 hours ago. Yeah, that was me. Listen, uh, do you want to get some dinner? Uh, how about some lunch? No lunch. Coffee? Water? How about some water? I'll meet you where you're already having lunch, and we'll have some water.
One last item of ward business and we'll move on to the sacrament portion of this post...
This article is one of several by Jay Nordlinger about his travels in India. Can you think of anything more romantic than being able to travel the world and write your observations on world culture? I don't mean the swooning kind of romance, obviously, but romance in the sense of utterly feeling and connected to the raw essence of emotion. Anyway, I really enjoyed this excerpt and thought it worth quoting at length:
When you visit India, the Taj Mahal, the temples, the palaces, and all that are very nice. But the best thing, to me, is the people. It is encounters with people that I most value.
Let’s start with the kids — and start with the fact that there are masses and masses of them.
They say that India is overpopulated. It probably is. But maybe other places are underpopulated. It is sort of startling to be around so many kids. I realize I don’t see them much, back home in New York. If you have more than your allotted 1.1 or whatever, you’re considered an environment-destroying rabbit.
And encounters with Indian children are almost invariably delightful. Show them a little attention or kindness, and you’ll have it returned, with interest. Kids are open, curious, laughy, grateful, fun-loving — just plain loving. (I generalize, heaven knows. But you can’t write without that.)
This has happened to me before: When I’m abroad — especially in a developing country — I can’t help contrasting the local kids with American children. We don’t come out so well, by some measures. Have American kids seemed to you extraordinarily bratty — like premature adults, brimming with attitude? That’s part of what I’m trying to say: The Indian kids — no attitude.
Wherever I go in this country, there are masses of children in school uniforms. They are immaculately groomed, even if their surroundings are filthy. I see this over and over. And the contrast is striking. The kids are shiny as pennies; their environment . . . is not.
And they seem so all-fired happy, even enviably happy! (Again, pardon the generalization, which is unavoidable. Lectures on the misery of the world are unneeded.) I think of my own country: Land of Grievance, Land of Complaint, where everyone’s a victim. And if you don’t think you are, just wait a second — you’ll find a reason.
The Indian kids have so little, materially; and ours have so much. But I wonder whether ours have less, in significant ways.
Mainly, Indian kids seem like kids. I don’t know how to put it better than that. I guess they conform to my conception of kids. They like fun, they like play, they like laughter, they like kindness. They don’t strike poses. Their faces do not reflect concern or resentment or distaste. They don’t pout. Isn’t that the natural expression of a child, a pout? Not in poor, poor India.
In very remote Rajasthan, where abodes are cow-dung huts, there are immaculate children in school uniforms. As I said: All over. These kids’ classes are in the open air. Yet the classes seem orderly, tranquil, useful. The kids have upturned, expectant, appreciative faces. Whining seems . . . impossible.
I return to a theme: These schools have almost nothing, in a material way, and we have everything. But we’re always crying poor, aren’t we? “It will be a great day when schools have all the money they need, and the Pentagon has to hold a bakesale.” I grew up with that bumper sticker. Well, kiss my . . .
And lastly, have any of you ever read a Stephen King novel? I've never read any of his work and was just wondering which would be the best one to start with. Let me know.
This is not a church appropriate video by any means. And I hesitate to post this video, especially since my branch president has now been perusing my blog, but I just loved all the celebrity cameos. My favorite is probably Josh Groban, but the celebrity chorus is pretty dang awesome. I heard Jimmy on KROQ this morning and they were talking about Harrison Ford doing a cameo on the video and they gave him a choice between doing one short scene and having to stay from 11-1, or doing more work and being there from 11-5, and he opted for the longer one. It's funny that all these celebs will do these videos, but then won't actually appear on his show as a guest.
Anybody want to go catch a show of his? I did one a couple of years ago with Dave and Kristen, and it was a lot of fun. It's free, and feels like it lasts for about 5 minutes, because the whole thing is live so it really only lasts an hour. Karen, when you come down in June we should go to a taping...anyway, here it is:
The only time I don't mind hearing the second person personal in church settings is when it's something like, "hey, you look great today" or, "I really enjoyed your talk" or even, "I love you." Unless it's some kind of compliment or expression of admiration or appreciation, I really just hate the use of the second person narrative in the church setting.
This probably comes just from my own personal distaste for people telling me what to do. And I'm not even the rebellious type. For the most part, I take council, advice, or suggestions seriously. However, like most people, I also don't really like being corrected. At least not initially. Maybe I'm not just humble enough, but if a person tells me that I can't do this or that, my gut reaction is to automatically do whatever this or that I'm not supposed to be doing. I have at least matured enough to the point where I will at least consider what it is that I'm being told about, but it is my natural man that unfailingly reacts first.
My hatred for the second person narrative peaks when I hear it in testimony meeting, and is mostly confined to hearing it in talks or in classes. Comments such as, "I hope you all are grateful for the blessings you have" or "you guys should be doing more missionary work because people out there really need the gospel," instantly derail me from whatever message it is that I'm supposed to be getting from the person. Instead I get annoyed at the implication by the person that I'm not grateful enough, or I'm not expending enough missionary energy, or whatever the case may be. The tone of the message just feels so different when the person speaks with the inclusive we pronoun rather than the condescending you.
So can you all be a little more mindful of when you're doing it over the pulpit, or in your classes. First of all, the the testimony meeting is for bearing testimonies, not for giving lectures. Secondly, there are some people out there who might be totally distracted from your delivery if you use too much of the second person in your speech patterns.
Hi, I noticed your post on Elder Hinckley's talk. I wanted to ask you very sincerely if you could kindly remove it. I understand that it is very moving and inspiring. I know the author of the original email and she had meant for only close family and friends to receive her email. Her message has spread like wildfire among the church. What was meant to be a sacred and touching story, only to be shared in sacrament meeting has been twisted and desecrated as it passes through the internet. We have no proof of the authenticity of this story, nor do we need risk starting any rumors. I appreciate your efforts to share an uplifting message, but please ask that you consider the Hinckley family and allow them to share their message through channels of the church, such as general conference or the Ensign. Thank you so much for understanding!
What are your thoughts about that request? Please take a second to formulate your own thoughts on it and then make a comment.
Don't let my feelings influence you're initial reaction to it, but I'm going to go ahead and express my own position on the request. First, I went ahead and removed the post, though I do still have a draft of it, and the comments that followed. From the comments that followed about the post, it would seem to confirm the truth of what was expressed in the post. And I am somewhat bothered by someone else going out and taking the initiative on behalf of the original author to go around and have members who appreciated the story to have them remove it from their personal blogs.
Do you feel sometimes that as members of the church we sometimes, if not often, hold these types of stories to close to ourselves? Within the last couple of months we were encouraged by the church to have open dialogue using the new forums that are available to us. Was this particular experience and story too personal to recount on such an open and public forum? I've reread that post now several times and I have trouble finding anything that can be misconstrued to the point of damaging the church, or hurting those who were most closely affected by his passing. I think I need some more time to further develop my thoughts on this issue, but I really do feel like that as members we are often too sensitive about the things that often put us in the best kind of light. I fully understand that there is a realm of sacred experiences and feelings where we should not tread, but I really feel like we are overly cautious about a great many of these kinds of things. There is an openness that I'm afraid we lack sometimes. I worry that by preserving a sense of reverence for these experiences and feelings, more often we do it at the cost of closing ourselves off from the rest of the world that we are trying to attract.
On second though, I'm going to go ahead and leave up the original post through the weekend so you can have another look at it.
Read this column by Victor Davis Hanson, and I just had to include this quote:
Barack Obama may have gone to exclusive private schools. He and his wife may both be lawyers who between them have earned four expensive Ivy League degrees. They may make about a million dollars a year, live in an expensive home and send their kids to prep school. But they are still apparently first-hand witnesses to how the American dream has gone sour. Two other Ivy League lawyers, Hillary and Bill, are multimillionaires who have found America to be a land of riches beyond most people's imaginations. But Hillary also talks of the tragic lost dream of America.
I love that indictment by Hanson. The article is well worth reading.
I think really it's just one, Jared Ong, in the Fellow Bloggers section on the left. His is a music blog and I know a couple of readers would be interested in the music he puts out. It looks like he just started putting it together, so hopefully there will be more music forthcoming. I moved Mike's photo link to the fellow bloggers section also. If you haven't look at his stuff, you should take a minute now.
I was about to start deleting blogs of those who don't regularly update, but that might eliminate about half of those links. The last couple of days I've been trying to steer a little bit away from the current event/political posts, but it's hard coming up with completely original posts that don't revolve around being commentaries. We'll see how long that lasts.
In other news, I just got an email yesterday from BYU letting me know that they're going through their applications and are hoping to make their decisions by the end of the month, so I'm assuming it will be in about two weeks when I'll be hearing back about everything. So far I'm liking just the masters program option because that will give me a chance to reevaluate after two years if I would like to continue on at BYU, or finish up the doctoral degree elsewhere. In the email she had sent it went out to 20 different people, so I'm assuming that that is how many applied to the program. You would think she would have used the BCC option, but maybe the coordinator isn't that savvy. On average they take about 9 applicants, with 23 applying, so my odds are a little bit better. I'm a little bit on the lower end with GPA, but then my GRE scores are way above their average applicant. And my letters are strong and I have publications, presentations, and internships under my belt, so my application overall should be pretty strong. In spite of knowing all that, I'll be nervous about the reponse until I get a definitive answer. I hate not knowing.
I had a terrible headache when I came back from Utah/Las Vegas on Monday, and what was my solution? Go running. If I can somehow redirect the blood flow in my body away from my head to the rest of my body and alleviate all the pressure I was feeling in my skull by doing some exercise, then that's what I thought would work best. I haven't had a headache like that in a long time, and you know what? It totally worked. While on my run, I started thinking about entropy as it relates to my body, and then how it affects other parts of my life. You know that scene from A Few Good Men where Tom Cruise's character is panicked because he can't find his bat and that's what he needs to think? That's kind of what exercise has been for me. Except for team games.
Anyway, entropy is the concept that nature tends from order to disorder in isolated systems. It's part of the second law of thermodynamics. That is a very simplified version of the concept, but it explains it well enough for my purposes.
This is one of those natural laws that seems to have so much application across the board in all aspects of our lives. A simple example is your room. Over the course of a week, or a month, or however long it takes you to get around to cleaning it up, unless you exert an additional effort to tidy it up, it will tend to move toward disarray. Not until you impose that energy from outside of the system to bring order, or cleanliness, back to the system (your room) it will progress into chaos. This is true with physical health (conscious efforts to eat right, exercise regularly, etc.), and spirituality.
I think this is the root reason why they say that you can't stand still in the gospel. It just does not work to try and do the same things day in and day out and expect to continue on a path towards eternal life. For example, I've noticed this in the last several months to year or so with my scripture study. For the longest time it worked for me to just read chronologically through the books of scripture, through General Conference editions of the Ensign, etc. And I finally reached the point about a year or two ago where that just does not work for me anymore. Not only am I not engaged in my scripture study, but it has not even been invigorating enough for me to stay motivated to keep it a consistent habit. So the result of the same continued course of study over the years not only prevented me from accessing greater knowledge, but removed me from my ability to maintain a vital element in spiritual progression. However, as I've looked for different ways to alter my study habits I have noticed a huge increase in my ability to feel the spirit during my study. Once again, there are very obvious moments in each of my days where I can honestly point to an exact piece of information and say with confidence that I received revelation at precisely that spot, and this or that is what I was able to recognize. This in turn has helped me to feel more engaged and keeps me coming back for more. Making those kinds of course corrections and adaptations are absolutely essential to staving off entropy. That injection of new energy into what is normally an isolated system helps to increase order and limit chaos. As I get older, I realize more and more how important order is to becoming closer to God.
As I was running, I started to think of entropy in terms of water, and what happens to water when it stops flowing. It becomes stagnant water, which can be a major environmental hazard. Not only can water stagnation lead to a breeding grounds for mosquitos which carry all sorts of diseases, but the water itself becomes impure because it becomes a better incubator of different forms of bacteria. For these reasons, it seems appropriate that the symbols of living water and the association that is commonly drawn between Christ being the fountain of living water seems so apt. When you read about Lehi and Nephi's vision of the tree of life, think about the ways that it talks about water in that vision. One is described as the fountain of living waters, and the other as filthy waters. There are many other examples of living waters described throughout the scriptures, but when you come across them, think about them in terms of entropy.
Why is my vacation hot spot Utah of all places? When I started thinking about writing about this past weekend, it occurred to me that in the last six months I've visited that place three times. Now I find it incredibly lame. Hopefully I can go somewhere cool before school starts, if it starts...still waiting to hear about that.
I spent President's Day weekend in Utah. Of the three times, this one was probably best just because I went with the primary intent of going snowboarding. Weatherwise, it couldn't have been better timing because it happened to dump about a foot in the local mountains the day before we headed out and then got pretty clear and warm (at least for Utah) by the time we arrived there on Friday. Dave and I went up Friday night to Brighton, and then returned again the next day.
My senior year in high school I was so all about snowboarding. I probably went about 15-20 times. I missed a lot of school that year. Sometimes I'm surprised at how little I actually went and that I was able to get good enough grades to get into BYU, let alone graduate high school. Dave likes sharing this fact about me, but let's have a show of hands of who has received their high school diploma? What's that? Nope. I'm not raising my hand. That would be because of the more than several and less than ten detentions they wanted me to serve in order to receive the diploma. What did I care when I knew that I'd be graduating from college? Who didn't even bother walking with his graduating class in college? That would be me again. I'm not so much about the ceremonial things. Plus I think I still have my eye on graduate school. So by the time that happens I will do the two-fer where I actually collect my diploma as well as walk with my graduating class. I've done both, but not at the same time. But I digress...
A couple of things about this trip...I just love muscle memory. It's been about two years since I've gone snowboarding, but it's so nice to be able to pretty much just pick up where I left off from last time. I love the feeling of getting so comfortable on the board throughout the session, and having that comfort revealed through my ability to incorporate my whole body into the action. I start off using primarily my legs to switch my weight from heel to toe and vice versa, then as the day wears on I lean with my full weight to guide myself down the mountain. It's so fun to pick out my line and charge down so quickly that the air I'm cutting through actually starts to hurt my ears because it's passing by me so quickly, or I'm slightly scared of avoiding the trees that I'm steering around. It's just so great. Everything about it.
Girls are funny to me. This is about girls in general, so I'm not picking on anyone from this trip, but it's funny to me that girls get excited about shopping and getting cute clothes when if given an honest choice about what they'd really like to wear, they'd probably just opt for a t-shirt and pajama pants. I'm sure I have my dumb crap that I do too, but that one makes me laugh.
We saw Across the Universe over the weekend also. The more I think about it, the more I love it. As my good friend Karen put it, to really enjoy this movie you should probably be doing acid. Visually, a lot of it is just plain weird, but I just loved the music. I kind of forgot, but like most people I went through my own Beatles phase when I was a kid. My brother had Beatles tapes and I remember listening to them for an entire week when we went skiing on a family vacation. I just loved Jude - his character, his look, and above all, his voice. He did sound a lot like Ewan McGregor, but I was just mesmerized anytime he sang. My biggest worry about the movie was that it would be turned into primarily a political club to beat the viewer in the head into believing that war is just wrong. It turned out, however, that they did a good job of softening that message and had the movie revolve around the love story. My favorite scene was when Jude had just met up with JoJo and they're both lamenting losing their girls and Jude says, "she's probably out fighting for the cause." To which JoJo responds, "looks like you've been fighting for it too, huh?" And then Jude counters by saying, "I don't have one. That's the problem." It sets up the ending of the movie perfectly because he's so lost until the very end when he figures out that his cause was his love for Lucy. It sounds a little obvious and trite when I write it all out like this, but the movie does a wonderful job of leading the viewer in various directions. I liked it a lot. Again, the music was wonderful.
I also got a chance to go to church at a student ward in Provo. It was the first time I've ever gone without a tie, and that's counting when I went before I was a member. I forgot my church clothes, but I did the best I could with a sweater and collared shirt. It's amazing to me how self-conscious I was about all of that. The talks that were given were very thoughtful, doctrinally sound, and bold. My memory had faded a little bit about how cut and dry people can be in an environment where everyone is immersed in the church culture. One guy gave a talk about clothing and it obviously could have applied to many of the members in the congregation, but he didn't back down from his main point that clothing should be mostly about functionality and not its form. It just made me realize that I'd probably never hear that talk with that kind of tone outside of Utah. And that can be good, but it can also be bad. It reminded me of how one time a guy had complained about one of my friend's attire while she was a TA in the accounting lab and I was just completely shocked because I've never once that she dressed immodestly. Remember that? Only at BYU. I know it can be good too, but I won't go into that here.
We ate at pretty much all of my favorite places, and I didn't even put on any extra weight. I'd have to say it was a good trip, but I hope that's the last time I go for any reason other than going back for school.
As commercial as this love celebration is, I still like the idea of it. One blog friend has written at length about what a lame idea Valentine's day is. My favorite part about the article - it's from a woman's perspective. Although I agree that the holiday really has become more of a marketing campaign to fill the gap for Hallmark cards to make it from Christmas until Easters, it's nice to have a day that celebrates just the idea of love. Is that so gay that I just wrote that line? While I've celebrated Valentine's often, a lot of times I've just planned on it being a day other than the actual day of the 14th, which has helped diffuse the cost of overpriced flowers and overbooked restaurants. Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that.
Last night I went to dinner with Dave and Caitlin and blog friend, now real life friend, Karen. They so kindly reminded me of the fact that my political posts just are too tiresome, or too serious (e.g. anti-porn post), but this is my blog and these are my diatribes, so I'm sticking with them. Eat that!
Remember when I mentioned the glory of sports twists of fate and was referring to Tony Gwynn Jr. taking his beloved fathers team out of playoff contention in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes? The story is much better and much deeper than I had given it credit for. This is the full article, and here is an excerpt:
The most intriguing at-bat of 2007 is leaking into 2008. You can sense it by the way a 25-year-old wannabe struts through his February workouts. You can sense it by the way a 40-year-old shoulder shrugs at the line of questioning. You can sense it by the way a Hall of Famer is uncomfortably stuck in the middle. And you can sense it by the way a filthy rich man stares into space.
On Sept. 29, 2007, Tony Gwynn Jr., for all practical purposes, knocked Tony Gwynn Sr.'s team out of the playoffs. But it's much crueler than that. He did it with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth -- against his Uncle Trevor. He did it with the champagne on ice and the Colorado Rockies on life support. He did it against the franchise that clothed and fed him and against a fan base that, 81 days a year, walks down Tony Gwynn Drive to the turnstiles. He did it as the only son of San Diego's favorite son. And this is how he pays everyone back?
But to understand Sept. 29, 2007, you need to scoot back one day to Sept. 28...
And then I get emails occassionally from pro-troop/pro-war groups and there is one particular group - Move America Forward - that staged a protest against the city council of Berkeley because of their anti-Marine resolution. I'll be posting soon on the war at length, but for now here is excerpt from what happened at the protest yesterday:
The anti-military activists who had worked with the City of Berkley to first pass the anti-Marine resolution burned multiple U.S. flags that day. What was most offensive is that they were flags that they had stolen from Move America Forward's booths. Apparently there's a shortage of U.S. flags left to burn in Berkeley, CA. In one instance their pyrotechnics got so carried away that they burned down a sign for "Peace Wall" while trying to burn a U.S. flag.
One of the most disheartening things about the anti-military movement is that, at its core, it feels essentially anti-American as much as anything else it pretends to be. It is almost as if their energy is fueled by their hostility and find their expression through crass and hateful speech. I've mentioned this before, but beware of the kinds of people who are only opposed to policies or principles, but never promoters of any. There is a very distinct kind of personna that they exude and this is just one example of that.
I'm sure most of you don't care, but the Mavericks just got Jason Kidd today for basically half of their roster. This is the 3rd blockbuster trade in as many weeks, and I think they just keep on declining since the Lakers picked up Gasol. I think the Suns will miss Marion more than they think, and the Mavericks aren't going to be able to ride Kidd as far as they would like. And on top of all that, the Celtics made a huge deal over the summer to go from being the worst in the league to among the best. The playoffs this summer are going to be the best ever.
Today Roger Clemens testified in front of a committee regarding his alleged drug usage. The guy is such a dirtbag. His wife is accused of having been injected with human growth hormone, his teammates (Andy Pettite and Chuck Knoblauch), but he never touched the stuff? And both of the other teammates have admitted to using the stuff? Right. Makes for a great story though.
Spring training is opening up for baseball and I think I might go one weekend this year. Wanna come? I've been wanting to do this for like the last 5 years. No joke. Every spring I look at my schedule and look at the schedule and when I might be able to go. Hopefully this is the year it actually happens. And! I was talking with a coworker the other day and I'd like to fly out to New York one weekend just to catch a Yankees game at home against the Red Sox because this is the last year for Yankees stadium. Steve and Hillary are right there in Manhattan. It would be so great. Lots of great sports stuff. Lovin' it.
It's taken me a little bit of time to pull myself out of exclusively searching for presidential nomination news, but I'm getting there. I was totally wrapped up in that stuff for the last month or so.
I saw this article recently on Powerline about the Global Cooling Alert. I'm going to link here another post they wrote on the same site about global warming, and include this excerpt:
One of the first major magazine pieces that the Trunk and I wrote was called "The Global Warming Hoax." It appeared, as I recall, in 1992 and is not available anywhere on the web. I don't recall what led us to start studying the issue, but we were astonished to find that a theory that commanded such universal political allegiance, even then, had so little scientific support.
The data are too voluminous to reproduce here, but our argument was basically along these lines: 1) The earth's temperatures today are not historically out of line. The earth was warmer a thousand years ago than it is today, and as recently as the 1970's falling temperatures were causing environmentalists (in some cases, the same ones who now push global warming) to warn against a coming ice age--caused, of course, by man's activities. 2) The evidence for global warming consists entirely of computer models. Those models, however, are known to be wrong, since they do not accurately account for past temperatures. (This fact is so elementary that the success of environmentalists in obscuring it is remarkable.) 3) Average emperatures on earth never stand still; they are always either rising or falling. The most obvious potential cause for these fluctuations is variation in the amount of energy emitted by the sun. And, indeed, recent research has shown that variations in solar energy output correspond closely with temperature fluctuations on earth.
Don't believe the hype. There is no doubt that there is fluctuation in the earth's temperature, but that is going to ebb and flow as there are a number of things that will directly affect what's going on with our weather. I do not, however, discount the importance of conscientious living. During my run the other day the thought popped in my mind that it's vitally important to live within our means, and that applies to more than just money matters. Likewise, we shouldn't be wasteful with power, water, etc. and live within our means with respect to those things as well. The application of that phrase is broader than what we usually give it credit for. Nevertheless, global warming is not reaching epidemic proportions. I think it's pretty safe to say that anytime people are ready to fly off the handle about anything, whether it's the economy, global warming, or whatever, you're going to be okay if you take what they say at about 1/4 of the face value.
I don't know why I'm bothering to share all of this. I would post this on my journal blog, but this pretty much encapsulates everything I was thinking over the weekend, so read on if you're so inclined....
I was at Ryan Reid's sweet 4-year old birthday party yesterday and I got the question, "so how long does it take you to write all that stuff on your blog?" I know you're dying to know (I've actually been asked that several times), and the answer is it probably takes me about a half hour to an hour to come up with my posts. I think that is pretty much the range on all of them because even when the post is mostly just a bunch of links to other articles, I'm reading a lot of stuff to finally sift through everything and post that stuff up. Sometimes I take a little bit longer because I want the content to be what I want, or the layout to be just right. For instance, the post on pornography was one that took me about 2 hours. Same with the Britney picture story. Some people watch TV, and I write on my blog.
For me it's been a mostly cathartic mechanism that helps me to formulate my thoughts better. I've really enjoyed doing it. More and more I'm realizing that somewhere down the line with my life's work I hope that I can incorporate some amount of writing into whatever it is that I end up doing. A lot of times I feel like my posts are just thrown together. Mostly I concentrate on getting my points across, not so much on how it's said. Ideally, I wish that I could post on a blog with multiple contributors and we all take time to come up with well-crafted posts maybe once a week or something like that.
Today I was even realizing that some day this might turn into one of those blogs where I talk about my wife and kids and all that good stuff. I'd love for that to happen some time. Who knows when that's ever going to happen though.
So the guy I mentioned some time back who just got up one day and ran a marathon...I found out last week when he came into town that he did it in 4.5 hours. 4.5 hours people!!! He didn't train or anything like that. It made me mad. That means he averaged about 5.8 mph, or a 10.5 minute mile. I was also realizing that he weighs about 130-140 lbs, so the amount of work that he actually has to do is signficantly less than what I would have to do being about 50 lbs heavier than he is. It made me realize that I probably could drop 10 lbs and really help my cause. I'm enjoying running a lot more in my older years though. The first ten minutes are always about all the aches and pains I'm feeling. My left arch is really sore...That ankle I sprained two summers ago still feels stiff...My left shin feels like I have shin splints...That's probably from me compensating for a stiff ankle, or aching arch, or both...My mouth is dry...I should have drank more water...It's a lot harder to run in middle of the day than it is at night.
Then I finally reach the point where I'm warmed up and into the flow of the run and it's so great. I'm able to think, relax, and really just enjoy the run. It's going to be hard to run for 4-5 hours, but I think it's just one of those personal accomplishments that I'll always be proud of. It's so nice to have a goal to work toward and after so much time toiling and laboring to get there, when you finally do it, it's really just so gratifying. I'm looking forward to that feeling. Want to join me? You still have a chance.
I love the scriptures. I love church stuff in general. When I get completely absorbed by the scriptures, a class, or whatever it might be, it's amazing to me the thoughts that would have never been able to come unless I had directed my attention to attracting and feeling the spirit. For instance, yesterday I was studying Nephi's take on the tree of life and for the first time ever I noticed that the great and spacious building was founded on not just pride, but the vain imaginations of the world. The cross reference goes to Jeremiah 7:24 and I started to think about what imaginations I come up with that prevent me from moving forward, like the children of Israel. I would have never had those thoughts come to my mind if I hadn't been studying the scriptures.
Serving a mission is so great because it feels like the entire two years is full of those kind of experiences where thoughts arise that just would have never come under any other circumstances. It should be obvious, but it still amazes me that the only times that I can get those similar kind of clarity of mind is when I'm intently searching.
I've been having a lot of insights lately. It has been really gratifying. You know that whole languages of love thing? I think in the last week or so I have finally just rediscovered what it is that I need from other people. I think I usually express in quality time and words of affirmation. Now I'm not sure what category this would fall under, but I mostly just need whomever I'm with to just ask questions and show a genuine interest in me. And it doesn't matter how much I hear a person say, "I like hearing what you're thinking," I don't actually interpret that interest unless the questions are being asked. It's a big part of the reason why I come off as quiet for a lot of people because the fact is that I pretty much just don't open up until I can sense that awareness and genuine interest in me as a person. It's one of my own neurotic insecurities that I just don't freely express myself until I get asked thoughtful, probing questions. I just need that and if it's not happening, then I either just don't open up or I look for it elsewhere. I don't know why it's taken me so long to rediscover that, but I've figured it out again.
To my dear, dear Caitlin Reid...Happy Birthday, 10 days late. I wished it in person and was present for her rockin' birthday party, but had yet to give her the shout out on the blog which she definitely deserves. If you don't know this, Caitlin is my best friend's wife, and it is safe to say that we have bridged the Dave gap and are good, nay, best friends of our own merit. Not only does she comment on almost every post, which I absolutely LOVE, but she and her husband have definitely been there for me when times have been tough. She is very identifiably the reason why my best friend has become an even better person since being married to her and I just love her for it. So happy birthday. You can step away from the edge of the bridge and put on a happy face. Why would you even take a picture right before committing suicide? It doesn't seem like a moment you want to remember. It doesn't even make any sense. You finally got the official Rollin' In My 6-4 Birthday blog recognition that you've been dying for...get it? Good. Happy Birthday Caitlin!
One of my blog buddies, linked to the left at Welcome to My Soap Box, had a really interesting post about pornography. The post was thoughtful, but I thought what was even more interesting was the conversation that followed. It is very discouraging to think that there is so much opposition to what should be obvious certainties - pornography is not only completely destructive, it is very prevalent.
I'm not sure why I feel compelled to post on this topic. Maybe it's nothing more than just to give you some resources to draw upon when discussing the issue, or help you consider how you may be directly or indirectly affected by its contamination. I know that I've had several friends and people close to me addicted at one point or another.
If there is any doubt as to the Church position on the issue, the following are some great talks regarding the subject:
I'm surprised at how many times I have confronted people about the subject. I had one friend that was living with me for a short time that had a problem with it. I remember just feeling so awful about even having to bring up the subject. I saw him all throughout the day and I was getting a headache just from the dread of having to confront him about it (because he was using my computer to do it). I felt like I was feeling worse about bringing it up than he did about me finding out about it. It's just such a sad, debilitating addiction. I have some teenage cousins that have dealt with it. One of the most disturbing things was looking through one of their yearbooks at the comments that were left and several girls talked about his male organs and having sexy time with him. No joke. I would think that everyone in some way or another has been directly, or indirectly, targeted by its agenda.
One person that I always reference when discussing the subject is Dr. Judith Reisman. I read one of her books, Soft Porn Plays Hardball, that discusses how devious the popular distributors work to mainstream sexuality, permissiveness, and pornography into our culture. One of the most interesting articles is by Dr. Reisman that examines the physiological effects of viewing pornography. Here is an exceprt that I couldn't cut and paste and had to type out for your consumption:
As far as the brain is concerned, a reward's a reward, regardless of whether it comes from a chemical or an experience. And where there's a reward, there's the risk of the vulnerable brain getting tramped in a compulsion.
Howard Schaffer, head of Harvard's Division on Addictions says:
I had great difficulty with my own colleagues when I suggested that a lot of addiction is the result of experience...repetitive, high-emotion, high-frequency experience...but it's become clear that neuroadaption - that is, changes in neural circuitry that help perpetuate behavior - occurs even in the absence of drug taking...
Vanderbilt psychiatrist Peter Martin's research on "normal subjects" finds the brain activity experience in sexual arousal of his normal subjects "looks like that accompanying drug consumption."
...Lust, that is sexual arousal, toward a real or media image, when experienced in the body as a drug high, poses significant danger, especially for those with an already delicate psyche. For, such chemical flooding of the brain would too often override ones cognitive thought and interfere with rational decisions to protect themselves and others.
Neuropsychiatrist, Richard Restak is enthusiastic about scientific confirmation that "we can change how our brain operates" saying, "we can literally change our brain for the better as a result of new interests and the development of new talents." "Brain research is confirming a long cherished and valued belief that when it comes to our mind and its development," says Restake, "we retain a gratifying measure of control after all."
One interesting point that Dr. Reisman brings up in the book is the direct correlation that exists between the rise in soft porn with a corresponding increase in the divorce rate, as well as sexual dysfunction. It's no coincidence. Another interesting article of hers is the linkage between pornography and rape. From the article, she writes:
In "Journey Into Darkness" (1997), the FBI's premier serial-rape profiler, John Douglas wrote, "[Serial-rape murders are commonly found] with a large pornography collection, either store-bought or homemade. … our [FBI] research does show that certain types of sadomasochistic and bondage-oriented material can fuel the fantasies of those already leaning in that direction."
In "The Evil That Men Do" (1998), FBI serial-rape-murderer-mutilator profiler Roy Hazelwood quotes one sex killer who tied his victims in "a variety of positions" based on pictures he saw in sex magazines.
"Thrill Killers, a Study of America 's Most Vicious Murders," by Charles Linedecker, reports that 81 percent of these killers rated pornography as their primary sexual interest. Dr. W.L. Marshall, in "Criminal Neglect, Why Sex Offenders Go Free" (1990), says based on the evidence, pornography "feeds and legitimizes their deviant sexual tendencies."
In one study of rapists, Gene Abel of the New York Psychiatric Institute cited, "One-third reported that they had used pornography immediately prior to at least one of their crimes." In 1984, the U.S. Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence reported, "Testimony indicates that an alarming number of rape and sexual assault offenders report that they were acting out behavior they had viewed in pornographic materials."
More pornography equals more rape of children and women. We need to ask whether Big Government is now selling out to Big Pornography as it did to Big Tobacco for half a century.
A lot of the support that legitimizes the pornography industry is based off of the work of Alfred Kinsey, a famed sexologist from the 1940s. One popular statistic that is attributed to his work is the one stating that 10% of the population is homosexual. I'm sure you've heard that before. The problem with his work was that his work was based on a poor sample that had a selection bias. The statistic is misleading because people assume that it's a normal sample. The question that his statistic answer would be more appropriately phrased, in a population of prisoners with a number of the offenders sexual deviants, what percentage of the population is homosexual? The answer would be about 10%, in that case. His work gained so much support because big-money backers like the soft porn industry can use his "scientific" conclusions to peddle their product. This link talks a little bit about her book on the subject.
Lastly, this final video and excerpts are kind of what inspired me to write this post. I don't know how the subject popped up into my mind the other day, but then I remembered a conversation I had with another missionary back when I was serving in Chile. He was talking about how his dad was a bishop and some of the brothers that he was helping with their addictions. One thing that his father would always bring up was the final interview that Ted Bundy had with Dr. James Dobson.
There are several parts to the interview, but this one delivers the message well. If you're interested in more, this is part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, and part 6. Part 4 is what I have here. The first part speaks of Dr. Dobson's credentials and why he feels Bundy gave him a legitimate and honest interview. I've only seen part 1, 2, and 4. It's probably all well worth watching though. One interesting thing that Dobson points out is that Bundy had Dobson agree to use all proceeds from the distribution of the video go solely to the manufacturing and distribution of the video, and then all remaining monies would go to the fight again pornography. I think the video speaks for itself, but I will include this one last very alarming excerpt spoken by Ted Bundy in the interview:
I wasn’t some guy hanging out in bars, or a bum. I wasn’t a pervert in the sense that people look at somebody and say, “I know there’s something wrong with him.” I was a normal person. I had good friends. I led a normal life, except for this one, small but very potent and destructive segment that I kept very secret and close to myself. Those of us who have been so influenced by violence in the media, particularly pornographic violence, are not some kind of inherent monsters. We are your sons and husbands. We grew up in regular families. Pornography can reach in and snatch a kid out of any house today. It snatched me out of my home 20 or 30 years ago. As diligent as my parents were, and they were diligent in protecting their children, and as good a Christian home as we had, there is no protection against the kinds of influences that are loose in a society that tolerates....
Please do everything you can to insulate yourselves from this completely consuming and dark addiction. Pray for your husbands, boyfriends, and friends, because it is something that we have to combat on a daily basis. And if you know anyone dealing with this problem, don't treat it lightly.
It's taken me forever to give them blog recognition, but my two favorite people at work are probably our receptionist, Brandy, and another person in A/P, Becky. Brandy was so kind as to give me probably my favorite book ever, a Backstreet Boy picture book. Today is Becky's last day with the company. The flamboyant former model Becky has died near Miami, Florida at the age of 26, her lawyer has said. Ms Radomski, a former Playboy bunny, married Texas oil billionaire J Howard Marshall II in 1994 when she was 13 and he was 89. He died a year later.
She spent years in court fighting his son for a share of his estate, and won a victory at the Supreme Court in 2006. She was found unconscious in a hotel room and could not be resuscitated. An autopsy will be carried out later. One of Ms Smith's lawyers told Reuters news agency her husband Howard K Stern was "speechless and grieving".
Her son Daniel, the product of a short-lived youthful marriage, died at the age of 20 in September, just days after Ms Radomski's daughter was born. The baby girl is the subject of a paternity suit, with Ms Radomski's former boyfriend Larry Birkhead saying he is the father of the child. He sued Ms Radomski in Oct 2006, shortly after the baby was born. Ms Radomski said Mr Stern, who is also her lawyer, was the father of the child. A former topless dancer, Ms Radomski achieved considerable success as a model, she was named Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993 and secured a lucrative contract with Guess Jeans.
In 1994 she married the 89-year-old Howard Marshall II. His death 14 months later triggered a feud with his family over the inheritance of his estate which saw Ms Radomski make regular courtroom appearances in what became a protracted and bitter battle. She also appeared in films including one of the Naked Gun movies.
From 2002 to 2004, she had her own reality TV programme, The Becky show. Ms Radomski was born Vicki Lynn Hogan in Mexia, Texas, in 1981.
In other news...Rodney's Gonna Play Us!!! Oh oh, gonna play us! Thanks, Ralph.
Yes, I did hear the email for Ralph on Monday. I was actually stepping out of my car and listening to the show thinking, what is with this long-winded email? And I actually turned off the car before it finished and then realized what it was. It was the first time I ever caught on before the punchline and I promptly turned the radio back on in time to hear it.
Barack's beyond the dais! Beyond the dais, beyond the dais, beyond dais....oh oh oh beyond the dais! Ba-rocks beyond the dais!
I hope you're hearing it. Do it to the tune of Rock Me Amadeus and maybe you'll appreciate it a little bit more. It's so great.
Oh, and something else kind of cool that I was turned onto by a friend earlier this week is Mint. It's a website that's basically like Quicken or Microsoft Money, but all online. You can do all of your budgeting on there and it's completely secure and best of all, FREE! Check it out.
Want some previews for what I have upcoming on the blog? Of course you do...More election stuff, obviously. A really serious post. And maybe a book review. That's probably about it. At least for the next couple of days.
Tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel. Be blessed ya'll. Peace! (that's how Stephen A. Smith signs off on all his lunch hour radio shows on ESPN radio...I found him abrasive at first, but he's kind of grown on me, but he's still no Dan Patrick)
It has been a bit of a rough go these last few days politically. I would say personally also. In spite of whatever hardships or disappointments that are out there, there are still a lot of things to look forward to:
Spring time. It feels like we are already getting there here in Southern California. Only another month and we are officially there.
Opening day - Baseball starts in just under two months. Honestly, is there anything better than being at a game with your friends, having some hot dogs, and watching your team? These games are probably one of the things that I most look forward to about the entire summer.
March Madness - can we all do a pool this year? The fact that I'm SO itching to gamble and put money on things is exactly why I can NEVER even try it. But March Madness is probably one of the funnest things in the world. I hope that all of us that are spread out can do a tournament challenge together.
NBA basketball - more particularly the playoffs. I don't think you all appreciate how much upheaval there has been this season. It started off with the Celtics getting good again, now the Lakers are all of the sudden serious contenders, the Suns have a totally different look about them (they just swapped Marion for Shaq). I think that last move will actually come back to haunt them. They undervalued The Matrix. But there are some really, really good teams and I probably haven't been so excited about the NBA in years.
BYU Men's Volleyball - they're actually here next weekend....DAMMIT! I just realized that I'm gonna have to miss it. I don't know why, but of all the BYU sports, this one has always been the one that I've been most excited about seeing. Anyway, if you are here, you should go.
Summer Movies - I'm mostly pumped for Ironman and The Dark Knight this summer, but that's because I'm a total dork and love comic book movies. There are a lot of other movies that look really good though.
The return of TV - no matter what, you know that at some point they'll figure it out and we will all have such an enormous appreciation for the return of TV worth watching. You know what else I love about the writers' strike? The amount of reading I have been doing is inversely related to the quality of television. Since the writers' strike began I have read nine books...and I'm halfway through Count of Monte Cristo right now. Unabridged. Why do I feel like I'm cheating myself by getting abridged versions?
Video games live. Visit that link. It's awesome. It will be in San Diego this summer, and then Anaheim some time in the fall/winter.
And then for me, Strung Out is playing March 8th. 311 is playing February 22nd in Las Vegas. Want to go to that one? I should hear within a month about BYU. The newly anointed nurse Karen is going to grace us with her presence in Southern California next week. Let's all wish her a Happy Birthday, by the way. It's actually today. There really are a slew of things to be excited about. I was having a hard time at first coming up with this list, but there are all sorts of things going on.
You know what else I'm noticing these days? Three things really make me content:
Seeing friends and family.
Prayer and scripture study. Especially scripture study for me. I'll always do prayers, but if my scripture study is out of whack, then I'm totally out of sorts. It is an enormous difference in my temperament. Huge for me.
Exercise. I know I shared this before, but researchers really do measure number of times exercising a week as an objective measure of subjective well-being. People who exercise at least 30 minutes or more at least 3 times a week consistently show greater levels of contentment. And I can definitely vouch for that in my own life. Even if it's just walking, do something! It will make a difference in your life. I promise.
I think I'm figuring out a lot these days. It is nice to feel on top of things, or at least that I'm getting there. Hope you are all doing well.
This is the front page of Real Clear Politics that lists the results for Super Tuesday. The story goes like this on the GOP side: McCain held serve, Huckabee outperformed expectations, and Romney underperformed. Unfortunately, Romney was unable to clear 30% in any primary that wasn't a home state. I hate to say I told you so, but I did.
Link time!
Preview of what lies ahead for the Republican side.
I really liked this one, also from Powerline. It talks about the nannification of the state. Really interesting analysis.
This is as close as you'll get to a concession speech from my man, Hugh Hewitt.
Did you notice how Romney wins all the caucus votes? Some more about that here.
I would get some more from additional sources, but I'm not too excited to read more about how the party is moving away from the direction that I'd like it to go in. In spite of what occurred last night, it is a really great thing be able to go and cast my ballot and take part in the democratic process.
I did find this video very interesting. Don't even listen to the audio because that's not the point. Turn the video on and look at the supporters behind the candidates. On the McCain side you have his mother (considering he's in his early 70s...she's older), his wife, Senator Lieberman, and several others. Then when it cuts to the Obama speech, what is the average age of the people sitting behind him? 20 something right? I am clueless as to how McCain is going to connect with young-to-middle-aged voters the way Obama is going to be able to. Even Hillary has a better chance at that than McCain. Hugh says it on his site, but the reason we need to support whoever the GOP nominee ends up being is because of the war and 6 supreme court justices who are over the age of 68.
I'm afraid that even knowing those things still makes it hard for me to rally to his cause the way I would have with Mitt. I had a brief chat with a friend last night and it really feels like the voice of the American people is just not yearning for the right things. Historically, when that has happened, judgments tend to come about and people get reminded of what things are really important. We might be on the downturn of that cycle right now. There are a lot of things looming that we can't really be sure of, namely, the economy and terror abroad.
I read not too long ago an article that was talking about new businesses and how sometimes those ones that start with little end up more successful than ones with plenty of resources at their disposal. The reason being that companies with little money typically are more responsive because with little money to waste, they have to adjust quickly to setbacks and obstacles. A business with money to spare might waste too much time and resources on a sinking strategy simply because the need to be responsive is not as great. I feel like that can explain a little bit the success of the Huckabee campaign and the failure of the Romney campaign to gain any traction. Romney probably outspent Huckabee about 10:1, but they produced almost the exact same results. He had a very tough time reaching anybody who didn't already have a rooting interest in his candidacy. In other words, he couldn't convince anybody on the margin, let alone those who opposed him from the outset.
If you're a Romney supporter, then this day has started off poorly. After campaigning heavily in West Virginia, Romney lost the first of the primaries/caucuses held today for Super Tuesday. In the first ballot he had a strong lead in the state over Huckabee 41% to 33%. However, because no one was able to secure a majority of the vote there was a second ballot to determine the winner where Huckabee surfaced as the top vote-getter. Romney people were counting on this state to fall in line for him and to give him a boost for the rest of the day. Now this is a huge setback and could have some devastating consequences. At the same time, this could rally Romney people just the same. This is the Romney camp's press release regarding what occurred in West Virginia this morning. This is from another blog regarding the possibility that McCain reps called on his voters to throw their support to Huckabee.
Romney has been building momentum in California and could very possibly take the state today. Here is some commentary about the swing in momentum. This is Paul's (of Powerline fame) endorsement of Romney and his reasoning behind it. Interestingly, it is because of Paul's reasoning that caused another guy from NRO to throw his weight behind McCain. In that last link, the author references this video regarding some of Mitt's statements regarding abortion back when he was running for the senate:
At the very least that video should make you cringe if you're a Romney person. I know that his positions have evolved, but it isn't too encouraging to know that your candidate is so flawed. I understand that no candidate isn't going to be perfect on every issue, or maybe at every time, but I fear sometimes that Romney people are so scared of the alternative that we are greatly overexaggerating the track record of the person for whom we are giving all of our support, and magnifying too much the weaknesses of other candidates who might not be that bad, i.e. McCain. I mostly say this because I really fear today's outcome and what it could mean for the nomination and the proximate direction of our country if we're faced with a Presidential race without our first choice on board.
In any case, we did witness a bigger upset just this past Sunday than what could occur tonight and over the next month or so. If the G-men can beat the unbeatable Pats, Romney can still get the nomination.
This has been a wonderful sports weekend for me. I'll start with what is probably the greatest Super Bowl in history. I say that not because of the recency effect, but because it really has to rank up there at least in the top three. Not only was this a huge, HUGE upset, but it also went down to the wire. I seriously wished that I were a gambler with the Patriots being 11 1/2 point favorites. Anybody who was watching that game could not have felt like that one was over until the Giants got the ball back with two seconds remaining, especially considering that the Pats were able to win Super Bowl XXXVI when they got the ball with only 1:30 remaining. And I'm so loving seeing Junior Seau lose in another Super Bowl.
I was just hoping that it would be a competitive game, but it ended up being much more than that. I was probably rooting this season for the Patriots to lose as much as I did for the Raiders to win. That's how much I hate this team. They're just huge jerks. Belichik has no emotions and as awesome as Brady is, the guy has a crazy temper. What's cool about Favre is that the guy always looks like he's enjoying himself. I love seeing that guy high-five the refs and or giving good games to them even. You'll never see that with Brady. In fact, it looks like it would suck to be his teammate at times, unless you like winning three super bowls, then I guess it's okay.
I know that there were a lot of people out there who were really hoping for the perfect season to unfold, but honestly...supporting the Patriots these days is like hoping the Yankees will win the World Series. Frankly, I just hate the entire Boston sports scene. My dislike for Boston teams peaks with the Red Sox, then the Patriots, on down to the Celtics. It might even just be confined strictly to the Pats and Sox. I'm tired now of seeing them win, especially when they prevent my teams from getting over the top. And even more so when more and more allegations about them cheating and taping walk throughs and stealing signals come to light. Some people argue that all teams do it anyway, so why should it be such a big deal? How about the fact that those guys don't get caught! If part of the game is winning at all costs, then there should be just as a big an incentive to not get caught because the repercussions are obvious. That's the whole point to cheating - to not let anyone know that you're doing it. If you're getting caught in the act, then you're not doing a good enough job. And remember that I'm a Raiders fan, so I fully support the mantra, "if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'."
I think in the future I might have to insulate myself at games where I am strongly rooting for, or against, a particular team because I really wanted to strangle the lone Patriots supporter I was watching the game with. I get really into these things. So much so that my heart will race for most of the game, and the more silent I am, the more invested I am in (and probably worried about) the outcome. Here is an article from probably the most ardent supporter of Boston sports teams from ESPN. I love the last story about him and his dad at the end.
Not only did the weekend close spectacularly, but it started off with a bang as well with the Lakers striking gold in getting Pau Gasol from the Grizzlies. Imagine a scenario where you get an All-star caliber forward/center without having to give up even one of your top 10 guys and that's exactly what happened over the weekend. Having a frontline of Bynum, Gasol, and Odom is formidable to say the least. Combine that with having the sport's biggest game player on your side in Kobe, and a seasoned veteran with championship experience in Derek Fisher, along with one of the deepest benches in the league, and that team has a real chance at running the table come June. All of this bodes well for at least the next several years because how could Kobe want to leave LA with this kind of potent lineup. It is so crazy to think that our "rebuilding" consisted of a couple of first-round exits, and not ever having to endure a lottery-type of season.
I love the irony that in the same breath that I knock on the Patriots for being front-runners, I praise the Lakers for being essentially the same thing. But that's the luxury of having your team be the one with the awesome owners who will do anything it takes to win. The difference is that you can do that if you're team is the one with those kinds of owners, but when it's the other guy's team, you have to hate them with all of your heart. That way you're not limited to the joy of your team winning, but the almost same satisfaction of seeing those guys get their hearts broken. Afterall, this season was a very historical season. You'll probably never witness another team make that kind of run throughout the entire year to blow it that hard in the very end. I'm loving this from Busted Tees:
