Cabin Schedule

I've gotten the latest cabin schedule from Dad and have entered all cabin weeks for 2010 and the families assigned to them.

The cabin schedule is on the right side of the page.

Enjoy!

Sports Fail, But Really A Win!

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An Average Wednesday

It was an average Wednesday, just like any other. I drove Makayla to school, came into work, and plopped myself down in my chair and started focusing on emails and projects I had on my plate. The one exception to the day was that my cousin was getting a long-overdue heart transplant, starting at 6am.

Throughout the day I continued to work, receiving updates from my Dad concerning my cousins condition and how the surgery was proceeding - all of the news excellent. At around noon or so I received an email from the Elders Quorum President, who had received an email from the Bishop, stating that whoever was doing the church lockup for the week needed to set up extra chairs for Sacrament Meeting this Sunday due to a homecoming for an elderly couple returning from their mission. Since my responsibility for this year has been to oversee the church lockup schedule, I knew who was doing it for the week - my Home Teacher and neighbor just two doors down - and I emailed the Elders Quorum President to let him know I'd get that information passed on.

So around 1pm I emailed my neighbor, Jeff, and told him the situation, and offered to help him set these extra chairs up on Saturday if he needed it. Jeff has been living in the neighborhood for a little over a year, and was married to Krystal almost exactly 1 year ago. Jeff and Krystal are super nice, and Jeff at one point had helped me install a new disposal in my sink. Within 30 minutes of sending my email, I got a reply from Jeff. In a very positive email, he told me he'd be more than happy to set up more chairs, and also mentioned he'd like to set up a time to come Home Teaching and asking when a good day would be. I emailed him back and told him to pick a day next week and we'd make it work, and thanked him again for locking up the building and being willing to set up extra chairs.

As the day worn on, I got stuck at work for an extra hour trying to update my iTunes and iPhone to the latest software, and wasn't able to leave until about 7pm. On the way home, I got a text from my sister who stated that she was officially engaged. Overall, it was a good day. My cousin's heart transplant went smooth and he was recovering, my sister was engaged and I had taken care of my church responsibilities, and I was heading home to spend some time with my wife for the evening.

As I got closer to the house, I got a phone call from another Elder in my ward, Jeramie - a guy I also play World of Warcraft with from time to time. His first question, and almost first words on the phone were "Hey, whats' going on at Jeff's house?" He was asking me since I lived 3 doors down from Jeff. "What do you mean?", I asked. He then said that he had driven by there on his way through the neighborhood and there were a few cars out front, as well as a police car. I told Jeramie that I wasn't even home yet, and that I'd be home shortly, but that I wasn't aware of anything.

Jeff has two brothers that he works with, one of which was Ryan. Jeramie has been friends with Ryan for years. Jeramie mentioned that he had tried to call Ryan multiple times, but was getting no response. Finally Jeramie got a text message from Ryan which simply said: "Jeff shot himself". Jeramie texted back and asked if it was an accident, from which he got a simple reply: "No". After that, Jeramie couldn't get any further responses from Ryan.

So I got home and had a hard time getting into my driveway, due to all the cars on our street. As I was walking from the garage to the front door, I glanced over to Jeff's house and saw a man standing out front. I paused for a second and then waved him over when he looked in my direction. He introduced himself as Chris, and was a neighbor of the parents of Krystal's (Jeff's wife), and had driven her parents over to their house. He was all alone outside so I started to ask him questions. He revealed to me when Jeff got home from work, he went downstairs and shot himself. Krystal was upstairs at the time, heard the gunshot and run downstairs and say him "bleeding out", as he phrased it. Chris also mentioned that a note was left that mentioned something about financials, but was extremely vague. Due to the vague note, and that Jeff worked with his two brothers (they owned an insurance company), Ryan and his brother went back down to the office to try to find any clues about what Jeff was referencing in his note. After standing there in shock for a few minutes, and then asking some other questions Chris didn't know the answer to, I told him about my email with Jeff that day. As we were talking some detectives arrived. I told Chris where I lived and told him that if Krystal or the detectives needed anything from me to send them over.

I went back in the house and called my friend Jeramie to let him know the most current events as I knew them. Being a good friend of Ryan and Jeff, I wanted him to be kept in the loop. I also tried calling the Elders Quorum President to let him know as well, but only got voicemail. I left a message for him to call me, and then started to cook some chicken out on the grill. Out in the grocery store parking lot behind my house, there was a guy sitting at a table selling something, but every 10 seconds he was yelling something completely inaudible, and for some reason, due to the events of the evening, it grated on my nerves like nothing else ever had. He was shouting and yelling in a way that had wordless moan to it from the distance I was at, and sounded a little too eerie, taking in recent events and the shock I was still in. I have never wanted to punch another man in the face so bad as I did that night, and kept thinking over and over "That man needs to just shut up!". I called Leslie around this time to let her know what was going on with Jeff and Krystal. She had been away, taking Makayla to dance. Leslie's shock was very audible on the phone, which only increased my own shock and disbelief yet again. After a few minutes, I got off of the phone with her, as she was heading home.

In and out of the house I went on barbequing, and eventually, I got in touch with the Elders Quorum President, Dan. I asked Dan if he had a minute, and he said that he did and asked what was up. I asked, "Are you sitting down?" to which he replied, "No, but I guess I probably could be…" in a tenuous voice, unsure of what type of news he was going to get. I waited for a just a second, trying to pick which words I should use, then I said very simply, "Jeff committed suicide tonight."

Silence.

A few seconds later, he, as I did with Chris over the fence in the front yard earlier, began rambling, saying things like "Are you serious?" and "What happened?" and other questions like that when pure shock has set in. After I relayed all the events as I knew them, I asked him if he was available to go over and visit with me…even if it was a quick knock at the door to let Krystal know we were available for any support we could provide. Dan wasn't currently at home, and we agreed I should grab my next door neighbor, James, also in the Elders Quorum Presidency, to go over with me. I went to his house but he wasn't home. So in the end, I decided that I should get Jeramie to go over with me, since he's close friends of the family. Sometime during this time at home and on the phone, Jeff's body was removed from the house. Leslie also came home around this time and we hugged and talked a little bit. Jeramie drove down to my house after just a couple of minutes, and he and I walked over. Leslie wanted to come, but needed to get Renton in bed.

As we were walking over, we noticed there was a large group of people outside, and in the middle of them all was Jeff's wife Krystal, and Jeff's two brothers, Ryan and Jeremy. The first sound and sight that I heard was Krystal crying and hugging someone I didn't recognize. We simply stood there for a moment, not sure exactly what we should do or say; just letting the moment work itself out. After a minute she backed away from the person she was hugging and saw us, and I moved forward to give her a hug, as did she. As she hugged me, she started to cry even more. All I could respond with, in a whisper, to her over and over was "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry". While her face was buried on my shoulder, she started to talk through her sobs, but she was sobbing so hard I couldn't even understand, which made my heart sink even more than it already had. After a moment she backed away, and I noticed that although she had just been sobbing on my shoulder, her eyes were completely dry, which broke my heart even more. She had obviously been crying for so long and so hard that she didn't even have any more tears to shed, but her emotions wouldn't let her stop at least attempting to shed any extra tears they could.

She then said through her lighter sobbing, "I bet you're here for the church lockup key…". I immediately frowned and shook my head and said "Krystal, that's the last thing I care about right now", to which she replied "No, it's not that. It's just that I know Jeff had the key and that it was his responsibility and now he's not here to do it and he should be!". Her sentence trailed off as she again started to cry, and someone grabbed her and hugged her. Again, my heart sank even lower. Jeramie and I let her know that we were simply here for her and if there was anything we could do, we would. Through her tears, she asked her sister-in-law to run in and grab the keys for me, which I wasn't after, but I figured that I should just let her do whatever she feels like she needs to do and let it all happen.

I then saw Jeff's brother, Ryan, who used to also be my Home Teacher and lived on our street, and his eyes were red and emotionally, visibly, he was struggling. I also gave him a hug and offered condolences to him as well. He never full-on cried, but he definitely looked like he had shed his share of tears, and would again at any moment. He talked about how he had driven Jeff home that night at about 5:15pm, and that Jeff for the most part seemed normal, but admitted he felt a little tired. Ryan said he didn't think anything of it, nor would anyone else in that same situation. I then shared my story about the emailing back and forth I had with Jeff today, and how normal Jeff seemed. He then said that he and his brothers had gone to lunch with their dad that day and nothing out of the ordinary popped up in any of Jeff's actions.

After a few minutes and minor conversations, I got the house keys from Krystal as she was leaving to go to her parents house. The crime-scene cleanup crew were coming at any minute, but Krystal and her family didn't want to hang around the house anymore, so I offered to hang around until they came. Jeramie stayed with me, and by this time James was also there, as well as the Bishop. We four stood out front talking and very shortly the crime-scene cleanup crew arrived, just one man, Shane, who was very professional, courteous and considerate - so much so that I was very impressed. At the same time I remember thinking that I could never do that job in a million years.

While he was inside assessing cleanup effort, the four of us stood outside talking. I found that the Bishop had been there for quite a while and knew more than any of us did. There was a scout Court of Honor that night, but he bailed out of it as soon as he heard the news about Jeff. I asked him about the situation and the details, which he divulged, and made the entire story even more stark and startling.

Ryan drove Jeff home, as mentioned, at 5:15pm. Krystal was already home. Jeff went inside and went downstairs while Krystal stayed upstairs. She was working on something, which I have no details of. Whether it was dinner, or some scrapbooking, I have no idea. After a few minutes, Jeff yelled to her and asked her if she could come downstairs for a minute. Krystal replied that she'd be down in just a minute while she finished up what she was preoccupied with. A couple minutes later Krystal heard a gunshot. She ran downstairs to see Jeff laying on the floor, with a gunshot wound to the head, bleeding out onto the carpet, still barely breathing. I'm unsure of whether or not he was cognizant, but he died shortly thereafter.

The Bishop stated that the note said something to the effect that Jeff was sorry, and that he had made a bad business decision. They believed the note was printed at work, but again, said that it was very vague and left no details as to what this business decision was. But the Bishop uttered what we were all thinking: "What business decision could be THAT bad…?"

Shane came out of the house after a little bit and said that the "event" had been very well contained, but that there was some residue on the couch, and that he normally leaves that up to the members of the house as to whether or not they want to keep the couch and clean it, or get rid of it. The Bishop tried to call Krystal, but couldn't get in touch with them, so we all agreed that he should attempt to clean and save the couch.

He went back inside and we continued talking. After a while, Jeramie had to leave and so did the Bishop, who also offered to do lockup at the church for the night since he would be down at the church anyway.

I continued to talk with James in front of my house for a little bit as a couple more of the neighbors came straggling into the conversation, one of which was Mary, James' wife. She said that at 5:15pm, she was walking on our street and saw Jeff and Ryan drive through, and they both waved at her and she waved at them and even to her, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I could tell shock had her as well, due to her repeating that a few times, as if in disbelief.

Abraham came over after a while, and as my conversation with James and Mary faded and people left for their homes, Abraham and I stood there talking. Abraham was Jeff and Krystal's Home Teacher who lived just around the corner - within view of Jeff and Krystal's house. Abraham also never saw this coming. We both conveyed our shock and disbelief and talked about the events, and eventually he needed to go back home. At this point Julia , from across the street from me, pulled into her driveway and I talked with her about the events too. She was also in shock and relayed a story to me about her grandfather who, at 92 years of age, killed himself without warning. It reaffirmed to me that you can never say "never". There is no telling where our lives my lead and what events will transpire to put us at our breaking points.

Later, back in the house, my wife and I talked even more about the events, and her fears were shared with me about trust, and how an event like this can really shatter someone's sense of security. Krystal, Ryan nor anyone else who had contact with Jeff during the day had any inkling of the events that were going to transpire. But, it brought up the thoughts again of "Never say never", and that every day, all day, we just have to keep ourselves on track and work as best we can towards happiness, even when everything around us may seem to be falling apart.

To Krystal - I am so sorry for your loss. Jeff was an amazing guy with such a happy demeanor, and his positive attitude was infectious to all those around. In fact, many times after talking with him, I felt that I needed to do better and act that way more around the people that I came in contact with. If there's any advice I can give, it would be this: I'm sure that brief time when you were "busy with something" when Jeff asked you to come downstairs will be a source of stress, worry and guilt. But don't let it be. I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that you were "busy" upstairs for a reason. Upstairs was where you needed to be at the time Jeff took his life. Take comfort in that - I believe the Lord was watching out for you.

To Ryan - I'm so sorry for the loss of your brother. I only have one brother, but I've thought many times about how I'd feel if I ever lost him. If what I imagine is even .00001% of how it really feels for you, then I hope I never have to find out the reality, and my heart aches for what you must be going through.

My prayers and thoughts are with you both and your families. I know there's really nothing anyone can do for you right now - that you just need to be around each other for the time being - but know that if there is anything you did need, any of us will jump to do whatever needs to be done.

Personal thoughts: I don't know what Jeff had going on in his head behind the scenes. What do any of us truly think in the privacy of our own minds? But this type of event solidifies my belief that regardless of what we have going on inside, when we're struggling with things, we all need to share those feelings and work them out. Whether it's with family, friends, Home Teachers, the Bishop - or our spouses, work through your struggles and trials and find help for them before they become so large you don't feel like you can handle them anymore, and something tragic and drastic happens like it did last night. There's always help, but we each need to seek it out. No one is ever alone, and no problem is so insurmountable that taking your own life is the only way to fix it.

Directing this to everyone I know: I am ALWAYS available to anyone who needs to talk, family or otherwise. I can't see what's inside any of you to know when to ask questions, or what questions need to be asked, but I'm always available should you need it, and I sincerely hope you take me up on that offer. I'd rather spend every free hour of every day helping anyone talk through issues, then to go through another tragedy such as this.

A Spoof on ObamaCare

Racism Fail

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Another Graph

Now, I love being married and I love my wife, but this was hilarious:

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Sarah Palin

Say what you will about her, but in the current world of corrupt politics, she knows what's going on.  I'm not saying she's perfect, I'm simply saying she's one of the EXTREMELY VERY FEW that has a level head and is trying to make a difference.  Now if only more Americans would take more action, instead of just talk a good game (myself not excluded):

Sarah Palin: A Leader Without A Party

10 Questions to Ask Anyone Supporting ObamaCare

Neil Boortz linked this article and I thought it was really great for people who aren't all up to speed on what Government-Run Healthcare exactly means. These questions will give you a much better understanding of what this would do to America:

10 Questions to Ask Anyone Supporting ObamaCare

Government Controlled Healthcare

If, by now, you're hiding in the dark and ignoring politics (like I did for years) and you have no idea what's all going on with Goverment Controlled Healthcare, it's time to find out.

Read some blogs, ask a friend - do anything you have to do.  But find out the facts, and if you decide you're opposed to it - CALL YOUR Senators and Congressmen and tell them to vote AGAINST it!

Tonight, our corrupt leader, Mr. Obama, is going to come on your television spouting out how amazing this is going to be, and how it will help thousands of people and blah blah blah.   Did you know that Mr. Obama, although he's pushing super-hard for this doesn't even know exactly what's in this bill?!

If this goes through, the U.S. will never be the same.  We will be so far down the road of Socialism/Fascism, there will be no turning back.  We will ALL be affected one way or another in a negative way.  All other countries who are on Government Controlled Healthcare dislike it.  Additionally, if Government Controlled Healthcare is so amazing, why aren't any Politicians citing Medicare, Medicade or our Veteran's Hospitals as examples of how well Government systems work?  Answer:  Because they're not good examples.  Our Government can't even fix our economy after stealing $1.4 TRILLION dollars from our pockets, and future generations pockets.  Healthcare will cost all of us normal citizens TONS of cash - I think the estimate was somewhere around $1.2 TRILLION just to get it implemented.  The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost upwards of almost $10 TRILLION over the next 10 years to help fund the cost of this Healthcare overhaul.  But wait - we're not even out of the woods with all the Stimulus packages yet!

Again, READ up on it - watch O'Reilly or Glenn Beck.  You won't get any coverage on this from your regular fluffy-fluff stations - they all love Barack Obama and the amazing poor job he's doing so far.  If you don't have the time to sift through all the material, ASK someone who already knows.  This is the big one, and Obama is pushing HARD to get this passed fast.  Even some Democrats are backing off of this one due to the size and scope of it.  But if people don't get involved and contact their local representatives, then those people are leaving it all up to the Politicians who don't necessarily look out for the best interest of the people they represent.  Either that, or at the very least, if you don't get involved you're leaving it all up to your neighbors to do for you.  This is YOUR government and YOUR community.  Get involved and know what's going on.

Michael Jackson

I saw this graph online and I thought it was so profound that I just had to share it:

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The Bachelorette

I hate Jillian.

The Stupidity of Some Women

So my wife and I are watching the Bachelorette...and yeah...  I've never really liked Jillian.  The way she talks is a blend of Valley-Girl meets Canadian Mounty and it gets under my skin.  But still, she seemed like a classy woman with a good head on her shoulders...but as this season has drawn on, she's down-right stupid.

First, I'll comment on Ed.  Ed's a good guy.  And a few episodes ago, he bailed out of the show because he had what I thought was a legitimate excuse:  He was going to get fired from his job if he stayed on the show.  Now, I know there are the women out there that believe you should do anything you have to do for love.  Fair enough.  However, in this economy I think a man needs to do whatever he needs to do to keep his career moving!  I thought his choice to save his career was an awesome choice and I respected him for it - it's a tough decision.  Let's be honest - how many women out there would marry a man that didn't have a job?  So Jillian completely wigs out and rags on him relentlessly for the remainder of that episode and can't understand how a man would do that to her and that he's totally screwing her over and blah blah blah.  At the time, I turned to my wife and said "If he stays, he has no guarantee, right?  I mean, he has a 1 in 8 chance of being with her in the end anyway."  Say what you will, but Ed made the right choice.  I've noticed with Jillian that when things go well and the guys swoon over her, her life is just great.  But if one little thing doesn't go her way, she's a crying, sobbing, stuck-up little princess that isn't getting her way.  And every time she says the same thing, "Maybe I should just call it quits because it never works for me".  Boo hoo, biotch!  But when things are good, she's so noble and says things like, "But I know this is a process, and if it wasn't hard, I don't think it would be right".  Yeah, so really, it's the Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde type of thing going on with her.

Second, Wes.  That guy is the biggest sleaze I think I've ever seen on one of these shows.  He admits to the other guys he has a chick at home and completely admits to the guys and the camera that he's just here for the publicity, and if he gets the girl, then cool.  I honestly don't know if I've ever met a more completely morally inept man in my life.  But the kicker is last nights episode when Jake, a REALLY super-nice guy, comes back to tell Jillian about Wes' girlfriend.  He even opens the conversation saying "I don't want a rose, I don't want back on the show.  I just think there are some things about Wes you need to know."  So he tells her about Wes' girlfriend, and even provides her name AND proceeds to tell Jillian the fake story Wes is going to give her about this girlfriend being an Ex and all that.  To make this long story short, Jake confronts Wes right in front of Jillian, telling Wes to look him in the eye and tell him he doesn't have a girlfriend, and Wes can't do it, and keeps looking at Jillian saying "He's lying".  Jillian sees all of this happening.  Then SHE even makes the comment "I don't know who to trust.  Do I trust the perfect all-american nice guy (Jake), or the country-western singer (Wes)?"  DUH!!!  You just answered your own question!!!  In the end, this completely stupid and inept woman decides to disregard Jake's warnings and she believes Wes.  To top it off, Wes is the classic jerk-of-a-guy that says that crap like "I'm actually upset you're asking me about this again.  I told you I didn't want to talk about this again".  What man, who is head over heals for a woman, is going to ORDER her around?  To me, even if I had never known about his girlfriend or that he was there for his music, by the things he's said himself, this dude is bad news.  Jillian is the world's biggest twit for not even being able to see it.  Heck, she even said at the beginning of the season, "I always fall for the bad guys".  LAWLZ.  Yeah - well if you KNOW you do something and it keeps screwing you over, THEN STOP IT!  Any guy who has to tell you over and over and over "I'm not a good liar" - Yeah, HE'S LYING!!!  Unbelievable.

I have no respect for her whatsoever anymore.  Watching the tail-end of this show is now torture - not just because of watching her and knowing how stupid she is, but now I'm so afraid for all the nice, good-guys left that might end up with her, and I just want them to RUN RUN RUN as fast as they can to get away from a dumb mental patient like her.  Amazing.  Truly amazing.  I sincerely hope that all the women out there watching this show are taking notes. 

Government Healthcare And The Idiots Behind It

You HAVE to read this article.  If you want a clear window into how completely inept and deceitful our government is, read this article.  Even if you have never read any other political blog entry I've written or other articles I've linked to, READ THIS ONE.  The first 3 opening paragraphs will give you all the evidence you need of how pathetic our government truly is.  And these aren't opinions.  The first 3 paragraphs are mostly quotes directly from the guys running this country.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49743

My own thoughts?  Government Healthcare will run this country into the ground.  If you read the stats at the bottom of the article, NO COUNTRY enjoys government healthcare.  In fact, I read an article a couple of months ago where people were fleeing Sweden after they implemented government healthcare.

Our Prayers Are With You

A tragic event happened in my close uncle's family yesterday.  My cousin Brian passed away.  For more detailed information on what happened, please visit this link:  http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6764721

This has sparked a lot of conversations between me and my wife, as well as with my other siblings and their spouses, and the underlying feeling is how trivial all of life's little issues truly are compared something like this.  Things that we are stressed about on a day-to-day basis seem to be washed away, and our focus on what is important in life is adjusted when tragedy's like this happen.  It's a shame that we even forget in the first place.

To quote one of my favorite songs, "Living in the pools we soon forget about the sea".  I think we need to do better to constantly stay focused on the larger, more important things in life.  

Our prayers will be with Brian's wife and daughter (and the baby on the way) as well with the rest of the Cardall family.

Thus Endeth the Man Code

So last night on the Bachelorette Dave was finally ousted.  I must say I was disappointed in the episode, simply because Dave didn’t get a lot of air time.  I was so eager to hear more junk come out of that guys mouth.  Near the end of the show, when Jillian confronted them all about who had a boyfriend, I was half expecting him to say “Whoever has a boyfriend, I’m going to go hang you over the side of the &$*%’ing building and beat the living @#!$ out of you!”, but he didn’t.

The best I was able to get from Dave (which was awesome) was when he had his 1 on 1 time with Jillian and completely made himself look like a circus freak.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy be so fowl and crude TO THE WOMAN HE WAS TRYING TO IMPRESS as he was to Jillian.  So even though I wasn’t able to see his testosterone-driven comments towards the other guys, at least, for one last time, his true identity did shine forth during his last appearance on the show.

Dave – continue to honor the Man Code, and keep on keepin’ on.  There are plenty of other girly-boys out there like Juan that need educating.

I salute you!

 

The Man Code

I’m an amazing husband.  Season after season I watch the Bachelor and Bachelorette with my wife.  Oh, I know – all the women out there are drooling over how completely awesome I am – but ladies…I’m taken. 

So after watching all these shows for a few years now, I’ve finally been rewarded for my selflessness.  How have I been rewarded?  But this guy right here:

 Dave.  What a real man.  This dude is a MAN’S MAN!  He’s all about telling it how it is and keeping it real, all the while following the unwritten “Man Code”.  Never you mind the fact that he makes himself look like a total jacker during all his tirades…He’s the real deal.  He makes all other men look like little ol’ ladies while they gawk at him as he’s keepin’ it real.

 With phrases like, “I’d love to tie that guy to a tree an beat the $#&@ outta him” and “That dude needs to be dragged to a $#@&in’ lake and &%#$in’ drowned”, he’s climbing his way up the Man Code ladder and may soon be able to topple even the great Chuck Norris himself.  The day when Dave really started to set himself apart from the other girls on the show was the day Juan dumped out his glass of booze, and faked a toast and a shot – and even the choking afterwards – and Dave immediately piped up with “Dude – he’s breaking the Man Code!!”, while staring in disbelief that ANY man would dare trash the Man Code, as if it would bring shame down on their family for generations to come.  Ever since that shining moment, Dave has proven himself to be the Wild Tiger caged up with feeble mice, uttering timeless phrases such as “Juan – just go back inside” while Juan stood there for a second looking like a group of bullies were teasing him at recess back in the 7th grade.  His testosterone is unparalleled on this earth.  I dare say even the Lions, yes, the very King of Beasts, would cower in humility to Dave and his overpowering Man Code which radiates from him like a wide-open fire hose.  What’s even more impressive and powerful is when all this manliness isn’t quite enough, all Dave needs to do is get a little liquored up and where he once was a fire hose, he’s now a raging river of brightly shining man essence for all around to bask in!

 Others have blogged that they’re disappointed that Jillian has kept him on for another week.  But for me, I’m eagerly looking forward to another week of being blown away at how womanly I am next to this true Man among men.   Jillian will probably be booting him shortly, but until then there will be a smile on my face and I’ll be eagerly awaiting more manly garbage to spew from this jack-nugget’s mouth.

Pick of the Week

 

Pic of the Week

 

 

Lost

So the wife and I have been recording Lost episodes and never got around to watching any of them. So for the last couple of weeks we’ve been running mini-marathons to get caught up on the episodes. As of last night, we’re 100% caught up.

I will say that this season has been a pretty good one. One thing I’m happy with is the fact that they seem to solve “most” of the mysteries they introduce within just a couple of shows. This is so much better than how this series started when they introduced the Black Smoke and the Polar Bear Monster way back in the first season, and then didn’t even touch on those again until pretty much this season. Kind of like the Numbers Hurley won the lottery with. We know the numbers are cursed, but honestly I’m not sure if, to this day, they’ve ever really explained why - other than they were the numbers printed on the hatch.

So let’s run with a couple of these other items that haven’t yet been explained.

1) Libby. Libby died around the end of season 3 (if I remember right). She and Hurley had a little romance there for a bit, and one of the most perplexing things we see with her is when she’s at the Mental Institution as a mental patient WITH HURLEY. What in the heck is that all about?

2) Richard Alpert. After watching season 5, we pretty much find out that Richard has been on the island for pretty much the last 60-ish years. What I’m really impressed with are the skin products he’s been using because after 60 years, he hasn’t aged a day! If that’s the result of Mary Kay, I’m making an order. But if this dude has been on the island for 60 years and hasn’t aged at all, who in the heck is he? Also, so far, the island has “chosen” Charles Whitmore (sp?), Ben Linus and now John Locke to be the leaders. Both Charles and Ben have failed, and we have yet to see what Mr. Locke will do…BUT if Richard Alpert has been around for 60 years, why hasn’t he ever been the leader? At the very end of the last episode, Ben Linus made a reference to him as an “Advisor”. I’m sure Mr. Alpert will be explained more next season, but for now, this dude is a mystery. Aside from that, during WWII when they were on the island, and even in 1977, have you noticed that everyone around him is British, but he's an American?

3) The Others. Where did they come from? We kind of now understand the Dharma Initiative, but we still have no clue where The Others really came from. This season we at least understand they arrive around WWII (if my memory is correct), or were they there before WWII? But these dudes live in the forest and just move around all over the place in tents? They all have nasty dispositions, except for Mr. Alpert, who also seems to be the pseudo-leader of them all back in the day, before Whitmore and Linus “grow up”. They have a truce with the Dharma folk, but apparently they existed on the island long before Dharma arrived, so why didn’t they all just merge together into one big camp? When Dharma is building houses and crap, The Others decided to just stay out in the jungle and rough it like Grizzly Adams? Of course we already know it stays like this for a while until Ben Linus (once grown up and in charge) decides to raid the Dharma camp, kill everyone and take it over. But still, The Others are never fully explained, and I think it’s largely due to Richard Alpert being associated with them. If they explain him, then I’m sure it’ll explain The Others.

4) Christian. Where did he come from and what in the heck is he doing? For a couple of episodes I thought he was Jacob. But now Locke wants to go meet Jacob so I’m lost again (imagine that). So Christian (Jack’s Father) is just alive and well on the island in some sort of real form, but vanishes and appears like a ghost, and he’s telling Locke how to do things and that he should stop following and trusting Ben and all that. He also tells Locke how to fix the unhinged “wheel of time” to get the island stable again. He’s almost more of a riddle than Richard Alpert right now.

5) Jacob. He’s been a mystery since, what…the 2^nd season? I almost think the writers of the show invented him to add mystery, but are now crapping their pants trying to figure out how to explain him. He apparently sits around in some old cabin that can move around as needed…? ...OK… We also just found out that Ben has never really been to see Jacob, although Ben did first take Locke there (or at least Locke followed him) way back in season 3. So I don’t know if this is an error in the script, or they’ve decided they did screw up and now they’re trying to fix it all so they can better explain Jacob. Hopefully we’ll figure this one out soon.

6) The Island. We’re finding more and more out about the island, but it’s pretty much a breeding ground of imagination. I think it should be renamed from “The Island” to “Fantasy Island” – that’s more fitting.

There is so much going on in this show, and it’s completely unreal and incomprehensible, my fear is that the ending is really going to blow. This show is going to have one of those endings where it’s either all explained as being a fantasy in Hurley’s mind while he’s sitting in the Mental Institution, Space Alien technology, or some mystical Aztec or Egyptian sorcery/god making people do all these things – and that would be REALLY disappointing. But it’s going to happen, because when you create a story line like this that’s so completely fantastic and unbelievable, the only way to really answer it all is explain it with something just as fantastic and unbelievable. I’m reminded of the movie “Tommyknockers” by Stephen King. A whole town became completely obsessed with technical ideas and inventions, and became somewhat “possessed” as a community. So how did Mr. King solve it? An alien spaceship buried in the ground in the woods - and half-dead aliens were using their mental powers to take control of all the people. Maybe to some people that’s a great ending, but to me it’s like deflating a really cool looking balloon slowly, instead of letting all the air go at once by popping it and being shocked by the big explosion.

Lost season finale on Wednesday!

LAWLZ

Sometimes jokes speak so much truth…

Nice Weather We're Having

Good ol’ Utah!  Last week, we had rain (and some snow) with temps between 40 and 55.  This week, so far, it’s been between 70 and 80 degrees with lots of sun.  Apparently, tomorrow we’re getting rain and temps in the 50’s.  Wow.  Talk about lack of consistency.

 

I’ve always complained about the Utah seasons, especially swapping from Winter to Summer.  Why did I leave out spring?  Because there really is no such thing.  We don’t get the month of 65-75 degree weather with mild breezes and rain showers.  We go from a snowy, cold Winter to a 2 week period (where we are now) that the weather can’t figure itself out, and then immediately jump into the 90’s for summer.  I really wish we had more of a spring.  I LOVE the mid-70’s temps and the mild breezes and all that – it makes for GREAT soccer weather. J

 

But I guess you take what you can get, and much to my wife’s dismay, I ain’t moving to California anytime soon.

 

You know, I can’t believe I was so hard up for something to blog about that I blogged about the weather.  Oh well, it’s a good thing no one reads my blog anyway. :D

Good Ol' America!

So today kicked off Tea Parties across the U.S. in virtually every state.  For those who aren’t aware of what these Tea Parties are for, I can sum it up very quickly:  They’re a peaceful protest against the wasteful government spending that has gone on since Bush finished out his term in office.  We’ve had to endure stimulus package after stimulus package – all of those packages are ultimately going to be charged to…(insert drum roll)…the average taxpayer!!  These Tea Parties are to show Washington that we’re sick and tired of how they are mismanaging the money in this country, essentially enslaving our children and children’s children into massive debt that can’t possibly be paid.

The graphic posted today isn’t aimed at these Tea Party protests and the people attending.  It is actually pointed at the critics of these Tea Parties.  You see, there’s another movement going on right now by the main-stream media, as well as the liberals in this county who are now starting to label REGULAR conservatives as “idiots”, “extremists”, “militia members” and so on.  They are trying to discredit and belittle anyone participating in these protests.  The irony is that they all say the same thing: that these protestors don’t realize that it was Bush who started it all.  They say that Bush alone doubled the size of the national debt and completely condemn him for it.

DUH!!!

What these “Leftists” don’t understand is that the vast majority of us know all too well what Bush has done and are ticked at him too.  But what they won’t admit is that so far, Obama as DOUBLED WHAT BUSH DID!  It’s such a stupid argument anyway.  “Well it was your beloved Bush that doubled our debt!”  My response is simply, “And so that makes it OK for Obama to do it too!?”

This country is full of ignorant people who aren’t grasping what’s going on.  So many people are so far out of touch it’s sickening.  These Tea Party people are rising up in protest in SUPPORT of the Constitution, and they’re being hammered by the “Lefties” for it.  I mean, really?!  Being criticized for defending our Constitution?!  Really!??

Make the dumb people go away.

 

HEY-YO!!!

Everyone give my sis a shoutout!!!

Awwwwww

How precious...

My Blog

After some careful thought and observation, I’ve realized a harsh truth:  No one reads my blog.  I thought this morning that instead of “ifyoureseekingpower”, I should’ve named it “noonereadsmyblog”.  Who knows, maybe I’ll make another blog with that title, or one close to it.

The best part about this post is no one will read this either, so no one will care whether or not I’m even writing something right now.  Maybe someone might glance at my blog but see that I wrote more than 20 words and will just pass on by because of the effort it takes to read all this text.  Maybe I should just start making my blog entries super-short, or just put pictures.  I bet if I just put up pictures of explicit nudity or graphics of Barack Obama, I’d get millions of hits an hour.  But I have standards, and those 2 items are WAY above my standards right now.

Oh well – I guess blogs aren’t necessarily for other people to constantly read and drool over.  It’s just a place to write my own mindless-babbling garbage for the sake of getting something out there in the universe that aliens might one day read, and realize how truly insignificant we all are.  And you can bet once they read my blog, that’s EXACTLY what they’ll be thinking.

See, because of me, this planet will be spared annihilation.  I'd say “go ahead and thank me”, but again, who’s reading this crap anyway?

National Direction (or lack thereof)

Neal Boortz threw this out today and I thought it was worth repeating:

"Almost half of the people in France believe that it is acceptable for workers who are facing layoffs to lock up their evil, greedy bosses. What's more, 56% of blue-collar workers approve of boss-nappings.

This is the type of attitude that is fostered and even encouraged by the constant hammering on the high-achievers in our society. Never have I seen wealth envy so intense, and never have I seen it so eagerly promoted by demagogues in power."

Doesn't it feel like we're somewhat close to that ourselves?  The government is helping us rise up against our greedy corporate executives.  People have shown up at some of these "failed" company's doorsteps, picketing the wages and bonuses of the top-level execs.  They have even shown up at these same Execs homes in protest.

We've entered a scary era of Wealth Envy and personal entitlement.  We are further down the same path that France is already treading than we realize.  What's sad is that most Americans don't know or won't accept the fact that our very own Government is HIGHLY responsible for getting us to where we are today, and not JUST "WallStreet" as they claim.

Wasn't this country built on freedom and personal choice?  If we want to succeed, don't we all have the means and freedom to attempt just that?  Likewise, if we want to be lazy and fail, aren't we all free to do exactly that?  This country has become the greatest country in the world in only a few hundred years, and that greatness was built on Individual Freedoms - everyone has had the right to choose whatever they wanted to do.  America has been a breeding ground for innovation and inspiration.  Now, your government would have you believe that all this is wrong; that personal freedom and achievement is what brought this country down.  The people who have sacrificed and climbed to the top are now the enemy, and that Government is the solution to level the playing field and make us all equal.  They'll take the money from the achievers and hand it to the underachievers - while in reality they'll pocket a massive amount for themselves, run up the national debt and enslave us all, economically, for generations.

I heard a quote the other day from a Socialist from a few decades back who said "I don't call myself a Socialist, I call myself a Progressive.  I believe in the power of the individual, and in the fairness that this country could obtain for the people."  ...something like that.  

What caught my attention (if it didn't catch yours) was how she touted that the power of the individual was a good thing...then contradicted it immediately by spouting the word "fairness".

Quite simply: Taking away from the "individual" and giving it to others to be "fair" seems counterintuitive.  Aside from that, it's unconstitutional.  Nowhere in the constitution does it state that people are "entitled" to other people's successes.  We each have the promise to "the persuit of happiness", but that doesn't mean we're all going to achieve it.

Even in Religious circles there is no entitlement.  In my faith, we're taught that our reward in heaven will be subjective to our faith, effort and sacrifice here on earth.  Nowhere in our doctrine are we told that we can slack off and do whatever we want and reap the same rewards in heaven that prophets of old will receive.

Let's take another stab:  Karma.  Karma denotes that whatever you put out into the universe, you'll get back - generally speaking.  It doesn't mean that if Joe donates every free second of his time serving homeless people food down at the shelter that his buddy Steve is going to be rewarded for it.  To me, it's just common sense.

Our government wants you to believe that all of these basic, fundamental truths of mankind aren't correct and are, in essence, fundamentally flawed.  The goverment wants you to believe that THEY are the source of all your happiness and well being, and that YOU aren't smart enough or good enough to achieve it on your own.  Fascism, Socialism, Marxism - whatever you want to label it, that type of view is just wrong, and our founding fathers knew it.  The government wants to control us, and most of us are buying right into it.

Oh, I should mention...  Barack Obama is one of the biggest, most avid supporters for this "punish the rich so the poor can benefit" nonsense.  Did you know that he has an Aunt living in this country illegally?  That's not a big deal in and of itself, as there are a lot of illegal immigrants floating around.  But what really gets me is his aunt is destitute - completely broke and living in a shelter.  Why didn't Barack Obama ever "share his wealth" with her?  He's a millionaire - why isn't he helping her out?  At the very least, pony up some dough to help her become naturalized. Oh, I get it - Barack Obama wants to "share the wealth" as long is it's with OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.  Ah, I get it now.  He shuns his own relatives on the same principles he and our Democratic congress and senate are SHOVING down our throats.  Odd - I don't see much "fairness" in that.

Anyone else have a problem with what's happening to our country?

Cabin Schedule

After tedious hours of hunting the web and configuring a calendar, I finally have the Cabin Schedule and room assignments back up and running. You should see them on the right side of the screen a little further down.

Also, with the help of Google Calendar, I have actually scheduled our cabin weeks all the way out to the end of 2010. J This of course doesn’t take into account any “swapping” of weeks with other families, but those can be easily adjusted as I find them out.

Let me know if you see any problems or glitches.

Enjoy!

A Quick Pic of My Son

This was taken back at the beginning of December in Disneyland - and before his haircut.  This is such an awesome pic...

WHEW

I’m done. I think I found a theme that works and have it all configured (for now). I like this much better than my last theme.

For those interested, the header was a picture originally sent to me by a friend of mine a while back, and I always wanted to incorporate it into my old blog as my header, but never got around to it. So after a few touch-ups and editing to the original picture, VIOLA! The rest is history.

BTW – this new theme appears to correctly center pictures sent through email. It automatically centered the image 2 posts below. Schwwweeeet! I don’t like how it formats the date of each entry on the upper left, but meh – oh well. I can probably tweak that manually at some point.

Finding Theme's

Either I’m really picky, or everyone out there who has ever created a theme for Blogger sucks.  Obviously it can’t be my fault, so I’ve figured out where the blame lies.  Seriously, I have scoured 15-25 different “template sites” for a new template for this blog, and I can’t find what I’m looking for.  AAAAAAAARGH!  It’s driving me nuts!

 

Rant over – back to the hunt…

Making Posts From Email

Ok, now I have to admit this is pretty cool.  Not only can I make posts by sending an email, but I can also include pictures and they’ll post.  The downside is I can’t really format it right, since the only way the image will show up is if it’s an attachment, and not an image embedded in the email.  So it always aligns “left” and shoves it before any of the text.

 

If you haven’t noticed, this entire post is through email. :)  The cool thing will be that I can take pictures on my phone, then email them to my blog and have them posted.  Very slick.

 

The Death And Life of My Blog

My old blog has died.  The blog I previously had at power.prototype-b.net was being maintained (monetarily) by a good friend of mine who has decided that he doesn't want to renew his account.  He asked me if I really wanted him to renew, but of course I'm not going to make him make any payments on something he's not even using, so I told him to just let it die and I'd find something else.

So here it is - I'm not sure I'm sold on this "blogger" stuff.  I'd really like to get my own domain (possibly through Xmission) and actually create a real website, and not just a blog.  But I figure this is worth trying out anyway.

I'll be playing with this for the next month to test it out.  With any luck, maybe 1 person may read it and post some feed back. :)