I Think I Speak For Everyone Here When I Say, "Huh?"

Hey Jude

2009-11-02T20:34:00.003-07:00

I'm not much of a Beatles fan, but I found this flow chart entertaining.

Desire

2009-10-13T18:50:00.004-06:00

"Too often, the thing you want most is the one thing you can't have. Desire leaves us heartbroken, it wears us out. Desire can wreck your life. But as tough as wanting something can be. The people who suffer the most, are those who don't know what they want."

I hate to admit it, but I may have seen an episode or two of Grey's Anatomy. Even more I hate to admit there are quotes from the show that make a lot of sense. Such is the case with the episode I watched today. I watched an episode today that ended with the above quote. It got me thinking. What are the things that I desire? What are the things that I want most in life? Do I even really know what I want?

I desire to go back to school. I desire to find someone special and start a family. I desire to have a career that I enjoy and provides a good living.

Lately I've been have a really hard time with life. Actually, life has taken me out back, smacked me around a bit, and now refers to me as Susan. I'm sure things could be worse. I'm not starving or homeless. Yet the things I desire seem to be so far out of reach. I've started to wonder if I'll ever have any of the things I want. I have the sickening feeling that I'm going to end up alone, with no education, and an $11 an hour job. The thought of a wasted life kills me. This is not the life I want, but I don't know how to keep it from happening

These lyrics from the song "Ball & Chain" by Social Distortion communicate exactly how I feel.
"Times are hard, getting harder. I'm born to lose and destined to fail."

I'm Not Nearly This Creative

2009-06-25T12:02:00.002-06:00

I found this surfing online last night. It made me smile.

Who knew you could do so much with post it notes? Apparently this guy did.

"I Thought They Smelled Bad On The Outside!"

2009-06-18T15:02:00.005-06:00

One of the best scenes from The Empire Strikes Back is when Han Solo has to save Luke Skywalker on the planet Hoth. Luke has just escaped the Wampa, an alien ice monster set on eating our hero. After his escape, Luke is wounded and stranded in the middle of a ice planet with no shelter. Luckily for him, Han Solo comes to the rescue. After finding Luke, Han Solo's Tauntaun dies from exposure to the cold. So Han Solo must improvise on the best way to keep Luke alive and warm. The scene I'm talking about starts at the 3:15 mark on the clip.

What a cool scene! As a kid I liked the sound effects of the Tauntaun innards spilling out as Han Solo sliced it open. Anyway, the purpose of this post is to point out there are still fun and creative ways to make money off of Star Wars. The folks over at ThinkGeek have come up with Tauntaun Sleeping Bag. Their description of the bag says:

This high-quality sleeping bag looks just like a Tauntaun, complete with saddle, internal intestines and glowing lightsaber zipper pull.

It looks just like a real Tauntaun!

It's the intestines that are the key in keeping the kids warm at night.

Okay, this product isn't actually available or even in production. It has become so popular and requested by so many Star Wars fans though, the people at ThinkGeek are trying to get all of the permissions and licensing required to sell these wonderful pieces of nostalgia. I think it's a great idea.

My Camera Breaking Butt Story

2009-06-16T15:59:00.005-06:00

Last week my friend Elisa came for a visit from Utah. While she was here we did all sorts of fun stuff like going out to dinner, attending a wedding reception, having a barbecue, breaking a pinata, and bowling.

While on the way to the bowling alley, I decided to act a little immature. I stole Elisa's phone from her purse and hid it under my leg. She thought she dropped it or left it at the restaurant where we had lunch. I silently snickered to myself as she had someone else call it, but I successfully muffled the ringing. She eventually figured out I had her phone. After a little obligatory taunting, I returned it.

After our bowling game we were paying for our respective games, when I discovered that my phone was now missing. I know I probably deserved it. I searched around for it, but it was nowhere to be found. I figured one of the girls, Elisa, Tabi, or Shelby, had taken it. Although I wasn't sure which girl. So in order to get my phone back, I started systematically taking their electronic devices to trade for my phone. My plan was to use their property as ransom for my phone.

I began with Tabi's cell phone, probably because she was the easiest target. Then I managed to get Elisa's cell phone and camera through some mis-direction. Then the girls threw a wrench into the plan. They had somehow stolen my friend Jon's cell phone. Jon eventually got Shelby's cell phone, which meant we had all three of the girls cell phones and a camera. Then I took Tabi's car keys. So I had three cell phones and a set of car keys in my front pockets and I placed the camera in my back pocket. Jon got his cell phone back by wrestling it away from Shelby.

I told the girls that I would willingly trade all three cell phones, a camera, and the car keys for my cell phone. We were all acting pretty juvenile at this point and had to have my friend Adrian (a neutral party) act at the go between for the trade. All seemed right in the world again until Elisa turned on her camera. This is what it looked like.

Apparently this is what a camera looks like after I sit on in.

I felt so bad I had broken the screen. It turned out Elisa's camera had been a Christmas gift from her mom, which made me feel even worse. I told Elisa I would replace it. So we made a trip to Wal-mart and found a new camera. They didn't have the exact camera there but we found a comparable one that she liked.

The moral of the story: Don't sit on stolen digital cameras while involved in a gender war at an ice cream shop.

What the %$#@!?

2009-04-01T09:03:00.004-06:00

Since last night, I have realized a few things that have been a little annoying to me. They're not enough to ruin my day, but they're still annoying. I figured the best place to vent about these things would be right here on the great big world wide web. Heck, maybe even someone will read this.

First up on my list of annoyances is the dinner I attempted to make last night. Every Tuesday I have a couple of friends over and I make dinner. Last nights main dish was to be stuffed pork chops. I've made them once before and they turned out well. I thought this time would be just the same. I placed the pork chops in a brine over night, made the stuffing, and was ready with my cooking plan of attack. When I went to get the pork chops out of the brine, I discovered the salt for the brine hadn't dissolved. I didn't think too much of it, and kept going. I then struggled actually getting the stuffing into the pork chops, but eventually succeeded. I was ready to cook them up. I placed them in the pan and began cooking on medium heat. When they were golden brown and delicious I figured they were done. I checked, and they still were a little raw on the inside. I kept cooking and eventually they became blackened stuffed pork chops. And here is the kicker, they still weren't cooked all the way. How in the world can you burn something and still have it raw at the same time? So frustrating.

Next I was watching SportsCenter and found out the quarterback of the Denver Broncos will get the trade he wants. He got his feelings hurt and now he doesn't want to play anymore. What a whinny baby. He's such cry baby that he won't even answer calls from the team offices, coach, or owner. Choosing to ignore them instead. That sounds real professional to me. I'm sure that makes a wonderful statement to any other teams that might want him. I hope Denver trades him to Detroit and he's stuck on a bad team for the rest of his career. On a side note, now my team needs a new quarterback. It'll take a while for a new quarterback to learn a new offense and we'll probably miss the playoffs for a fourth straight year. Thanks for nothing Mr. Whinny Baby quarterback.

This morning I woke up to see an overcast sky. I checked the weather and it said the high today would be 39 degree. 39 degrees! It's April. It's supposed to be spring time. Two weeks ago it was a warm sunny 70 degrees. Now it's freaking 39 degrees. It's not supposed to be close to freezing with a chance of snow. I'm a warm weather person and this cold cloudy weather is really starting to suck.

The weather leads me to my next annoyance. My car heater has decided to crap out on my again. For the fourth time. I've flushed out the heater hoses and even had the water pump changed. Still, my car heater's favorite pass time it to blow freezing cold air from outside. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to replace the heater core. There's another couple hundred bucks that will be sunk into the money pit also known as my car. Lame.

Speaking of cars, I went to fill up on gas this morning on my way to work. It was such a pleasant surprise to see that gas has gone up to $2 a gallon. Not. I don't know about anyone else, but during these lousy economic times, rising gas prices are not something I want to see. Do the oil companies not have anything better to do than to stick it to Joe Public? I am so not excited to see what gas prices will rise to when the summer comes. Looks like I won't be taking any road trips.

Dog Hero

2009-03-30T10:15:00.004-06:00

I came across this video and was amazed at this dog. It tugged at my heart strings a little bit. I wonder how much animals really understand about the value of life. It even has a happy ending.

Friday Funny: AT&T

2009-03-27T14:14:00.001-06:00

This is kind of dumb, but it gave me a chuckle.

One thing that has always bugged me, and I'm sure it does most of you, is to sit down at the dinner table only to be interrupted by a phone call from a telemarketer. I decided, on one such occasion, to try to be as irritating as they were to me. The call was from AT&T and it went something like this:
Me: (swallowing) Hello
AT&T: Hello, this is AT&T...
Me: Is this AT&T?
AT&T: Yes, this is AT&T...
Me: This is AT&T?
AT&T: Yes This is AT&T...
Me: Is this AT&T?
AT&T: YES! This is AT&T, may I speak to Mr. Byron please?
Me: May I ask who is calling?
AT&T: This is AT&T.
Me: OK, hold on.
At this point I put the phone down for a solid 5 minutes thinking that, surely, this person would have hung up the phone. I ate my salad. Much to my surprise, when I picked up the receiver, they were still waiting.
Me: Hello?
AT&T: Is this Mr. Byron?
Me: May I ask who is calling please?
AT&T: Yes this is AT&T...
Me: Is this AT&T?
AT&T: Yes this is AT&T...
Me: This is AT&T?
AT&T: Yes, is this Mr. Byron?
Me: Yes, is this AT&T?
AT&T: Yes sir.
Me: The phone company?
AT&T: Yes sir.
Me: I thought you said this was AT&T.
AT&T: Yes sir, we are a phone company.
Me: I already have a phone.
AT&T: We aren't selling phones today Mr. Byron.
Me: Well whatever it is, I'm really not interested but thanks for calling.
When you are not interested in something, I don't think you can express yourself any plainer than by saying "I'm really not interested," but this lady was persistent.
AT&T: Mr. Byron, we would like to offer you 10 cents a minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Now, I am sure she meant she was offering a "rate" of 10 cents a minute, but she at no time used the word "rate." I could clearly see that it was time to whip out the trusty old calculator and do a little ciphering.
Me: Now, that's 10 cents a minute 24 hours a day?
AT&T: (getting a little excited at this point by my interest) Yes sir, that's right! 24 hours a day!
Me: 7 days a week?
AT&T: That's right.
Me: 365 days a year?
AT&T: Yes sir.
Me: I am definitely interested in that! Wow!!! That's amazing!
AT&T: We think so!
Me: That's quite a sum of money!
AT&T: Yes sir, it's amazing how it adds up.
Me: OK, so will you send me checks weekly, monthly or just one big one at the end of the year for the full $52,560, and if you send an annual check, can I get a cash advance?
AT&T: Excuse me?
Me: You know, the 10 cents a minute.
AT&T: What are you talking about?
Me: You said you'd give me 10 cents a minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That comes to $144 per day, $1,008 per week and $52,560 per year. I'm just interested in knowing how you will be making payment.
AT&T: Oh no, sir, I didn't mean we'd be paying you. You pay us 10 cents a minute.
Me: Wait a minute here!!! Didn't you say you'd give me 10 cents a minute? Are you sure this is AT&T?
AT&T: Well, yes this is AT&T sir but......
Me: But nothing, how do you figure that by saying that you'll give me 10 cents a minute that I'll give you 10 cents a minute? Is this some kind of subliminal telemarketing scheme? I've read about things like this in the Enquirer, you know. Don't use your alien brainwashing techniques on me.
AT&T: No sir, we are offering 10 cents a minute for.....
Me: THERE YOU GO AGAIN! Can I speak to a supervisor please!
AT&T: Sir, I don't think that is necessary.
Me: Sure! You say that now! What happens later?
AT&T: What?
Me: I insist on speaking to a supervisor!
AT&T: Yes Mr. Byron. Please hold.
So now AT&T has me on hold and my supper is getting cold. I begin to eat while I'm waiting for a supervisor. After a wait of a few minutes and while I have a mouth full of food:
Supervisor: Mr. Byron?
Me: Yeth?
Supervisor: I understand you are not quite understanding our 10 cents a minute program.
Me: Id thish Ath Teeth & Teeth?
Supervisor: Yes sir, it sure is.
I had to swallow before I choked on my food. It was all I could do to suppress my laughter and I had to be careful not to produce a snort.
Me: No, actually, I was just waiting for someone to get back to me so that I could sign up for the plan.
Supervisor: OK, no problem, I'll transfer you back to the person who was helping you.
Me: Thank you.
I was on hold once again and managed a few more mouthfuls. I needed to end this conversation. Suddenly, there was an aggravated but polite voice at the other end of the phone.
AT&T: Hello Mr. Byron, I understand that you are interested in signing up for our plan?
Me: Do you have that friends and family thing because you can never have enough friends and I'm an only child and I'd really like to have a little brother...
AT&T: (click)

"He Lights You Up"

2009-03-24T14:34:00.003-06:00

Last month I shared a story of John Elway and the kindness he showed to a young fan. Today, I came across this story from the Associate Press about Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat. We need more sports hero's like this.

MIAMI -- When Dwyane Wade visited the home of 8-year-old Michael Stolzenberg, he noticed all sorts of Miami Heat souvenirs around the boy's bedroom. Magazine covers, championship memorabilia, that sort of thing, but no jerseys.

Problem solved.

After the Heat defeated the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night, Wade removed his jersey and gave it to the boy -- who nearly died from a bacterial infection last summer, an ailment so devastating that doctors needed to remove both of Michael's hands and feet just so he would survive.

"He lights you up, the smiles on his face. He seems so happy," Wade said."Everything that's happened to him is unfortunate. But he lights you up. He makes you feel good. He's a kid I've had a relationship with for a while. I've been to his room. He has everything already in there, and I wanted to add to it."

Michael was bitten by a bug on July 22, 2008, and went into shock two hours later. The next day, doctors warned his family that he would likely die. He wound up spending more than seven weeks in the intensive-care unit of a South Florida hospital. He was the quarterback on his youth football team, a lacrosse player, an avid bicycle rider and video-game player.

All that changed, suddenly and without warning.

Eventually, the Heat learned of the boy's situation, and reached out. Michael was shown on the jumbo video screens Monday night during the game, got a standing ovation, then got the biggest thrill of all -- the jersey.

"Hopefully we can get that signed and get it on the wall," Wade said.

Wade has often met with sick children during his time with the Heat, usually in private, often not wanting any part of the spotlight.

He didn't want any on Monday, either, even after making a gift so publicly.

"I knew where he was sitting, so when I caught his eye and saw him smile right back, it's great," Wade said. "It didn't matter at that time, the connection that we had, it didn't matter who was looking. It was just us."

Hot Tamale

2009-03-21T19:18:00.006-06:00

My favorite food of all time are tamales. Of course this hasn't always been the case. When I was a kid I claimed my favorite food was pizza. I was a teenager and being a normal teenager, I liked pizza. I have since gotten over it. Although I still enjoy a good slice, tamales are by far the more superior food. Unfortunately they are not nearly as easy to make as picking up the phone and calling the neighborhood Dominos. I didn't let that stop me.

The other night around 9 pm, I decided Saturday would be a tamale making Saturday. Of course, I had no idea on how to make tamales. So the first thing I did was search a recipe out on the Internet. Internet recipes can be a little sketchy because all you have is the list of ingredients to go from and maybe a picture. Who knows if it'll taste good or not. Anyone can put a recipe out there. This is the recipe I used.

Meat Filling For The Pork Tamales Recipe

Ingredients:
7lb pork butt roast, prefer boneless
1/3 cup chili powder
96 oz. chicken broth
1 Tbs. + 2 tsp cumin
2 heaping Tbs. Garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. + 2 tsp chicken base
2 triangles of Ibarra chocolate
6 heaping Tbs. flour
3/4 cup cold water

Directions:
Fill the stock pot with the chicken broth and add the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, chicken base and chocolate. Heat to boiling then cover and simmer on low while you cut up the pork. Cut the pork into 1 inch cubes. Trim as much fat off as you can. Add the cut up pork to the boiling sauce. Partially cover and simmer on low for 2 hours or until pork is tender. When the pork is tender, combine the 3/4 cup cold water and flour with a whisk until well blended. Turn the heat up to high and when it is boiling, slowly add the flour mixture to the pork. Stir the pork continuously to avoid lumps. Continue to slow boil while stiring for about 3 to 5 minutes and then turn the heat off.
Before you make the masa, soak the corn husks in warm to hot water in a bowl for 30 minutes or until they become pliable. Gently separate the husks so as not to tear them. If some are torn you can use two husks and over lap them before putting masa on them.

Delicious Masa Recipe

Ingredients:
4 cups MaSeCa Instant corn Masa Mix
3 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder (no salt)
1 cup fresh corn oil
2 1/2 cups chicken broth

Directions:
Put the masa, salt, and garlic powder in a large bowl and combine the dry ingredients.Then add the corn oil and mix with your hands. Add the chicken broth 1/2 cup at a time.Continue to mix with your hands and adding the broth until you get the consistency of cookie dough.You should have a consistency that you can spread with a knife or spreader. If you add too much liquid you can always add a little more masa to thicken it up.

Putting The Tamales Together
The corn husks should be soft and pliable. Take a few out and pat them dry with a paper towel or towel. Take a spoonful of masa and spread it on the corn husk. Place several chunks of pork down the center of the masa. The idea is to put just enough meat so that you can encase it in masa and not leak out. Now roll it up. Continue to make tamales and when you are done place them in a steamer with the open end pointing up.

Steam The Tamales
Place the damp cotton towel over the top of the tamales and cover with the lid. Make sure you add just enough water to the bottom of the pan so the water doesn't touch the tamales. Check it often so the water doesn't run dry. Get the water to boil and then turn the heat to low. Simmer/steam for 1 1/2 hours. Check the tamales by removing one and letting it cool for 5 minutes. Open the hot tamale and check that the masa is firm and not mushy. If need be, cook a little longer and check every 15 minutes until done. When tamales are done take them out of the pot to cool on the counter.

I quickly wrote down a shopping list from the recipe and I was off to the store. Some of the ingredients seemed a bit strange. It called for chicken base (strange because I wanted to make pork tamales), 7 pounds of pork (that's a lot of pork), and chocolate. I never thought I would attempt to make something spicy by adding chocolate to it. The recipe said it would make about 20 - 30 tamales. So I decided to buy two of everything to double the recipe. That 14 pounds of pork if you're keeping track.

I got back from the store at about 10 pm with all of my tamale making loot. I knew making tamales would be an all day adventure, so I decided I would prepare the pork filling right away. I could refrigerate it over night, and not have to worry about it on Saturday. I immediately set to trimming the fat off the pork. I don't use a lot of pork in my cooking, so I'm not sure what the raw pork is supposed to be like. Maybe someone can fill me in. I started trimming away, but the pork was much more slippery than chicken or beef. Maybe my knife was dull or something, but it seemed like it wasn't cutting very well. It was all I had, so I perservered. By now it was 11 pm and I only had one of the pork roasts trimmed. I was determined to get some meat filling prepared before I went to bed so I opted not to prepare the second roast. After the pork was trimmed I cut it up in to more managable pieces and started cooking it. It took another 2 1/2 hours to get it fully prepared. Not something I expected or planned for when I realized it was 2 am.

Saturday I invited Andrea over to help me roll the tamales out. I made the masa and we proceded to begin rolling the tamales. It didn't take long before we realized that there was a lot more meat than there was masa. So we made a second batch of masa. Then we made a third. And half of a fourth batch before I ran out of masa mix. I was expecting to have about 20 - 30 tamales. By the time it was all said and done, I had made 4 and a half dozen, with enough pork to make another 18. A total of 6 dozen tamales was way more than I expected.

So I did what anyone one with that many tamales would do, I attempted to sell them. Okay, not really. But I did feed just about anyone that came over to my house of the weekend and tamale or two. They turned out really well and I got quite a few compliments, which always makes a cook feel good. Next time I make tamales, I'll make sure I'm more prepared.

The tamale masa

The pork filling

The corn husks

Pre-steamed tamales

The last step

The finished product

Friday Funny: Ever Been In This Situation Before?

2009-03-13T12:10:00.000-06:00

Holy Ravioli!

2009-03-12T11:51:00.003-06:00

I like to cook. It's a relatively new hobby for me, but one I really enjoy. I've made some things I never thought I would be able to do. Dishes like a stuffed pork chops or chicken Kiev. I've really had fun finding new dishes to attempt. Having them turn out successfully has been that much better. That was until I tried to make ravioli the other night.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I make dinner for myself and a couple of friends. They've had the opportunity (I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing) to partake of my culinary creations. This week we were having trouble figuring out what we would have for our weekly meals. We asked around and it was suggested I attempt making ravioli. I thought it would be easy enough. I could find a recipe and a video on YouTube on how to do it. Piece of cake. Surely I couldn't do a worse job than Chef Boyardee.

I found a ravioli recipe with fairly simple directions. I borrowed a pasta roller from a friend. I thought I was ready. I made the pasta dough according the recipe. So far so good. While I was letting the pasta dough rest, I made a spinach and ricotta cheese filling. Things were still going well. Then came time to roll out the pasta dough into a sheet. For those of you who don't know, when using a pasta roller, you can't just set it the the desired thickness and start rolling. You have to start the roller on the thickest setting and progressively work the pasta dough thinner and thinner until the desired thickness reached. As I was attempting to roll the dough, I ran into my first problem. The thinner I rolled the pasta dough, the more it fell apart. The pasta dough wasn't elastic like it was supposed to be. I had to throw it away because it got so bad. No problem though. I thought ahead. I had made two batches of pasta dough, just in case I messed the first one up.

As I started rolling out the second batch of pasta dough, things went much more smoothly. The dough was elastic and stretching out like it was supposed to. I had the dough rolled out in a sheet on the table to my desired thickness. I was ready to cut the pasta dough, add the filling, and seal those little suckers up.

After I cut out all of my individual ravioli squares, I began to place a small amount of filling on each one. Still no problems. I began to cover the filling with another piece of pasta dough when it happened. Every single piece of dough I tried to pick up was stuck to the table. I thought I floured the table sufficiently to keep the pasta dough from sticking, but I was so wrong. I tried various techniques to get the pasta dough unstuck from the table with minimal damage to the cut out squares. I tried a slow steady pull resulting in stretched out pasta dough pieces. I tried quick and fast, like a band-aid, which resulted in even more stretched out or torn pasta pieces. I tried a spatula, which tore the pasta pieces and bunched them up so they couldn't be used. After about a half an hour, I was done. I had been defeated by the pasta dough. I was so frustrated that I swore off Italian food altogether. Of course that didn't last long. We ordered pizza as a replacement for the ruined ravioli. Foiled again by Italian cuisine.

Last night I decided I would try the ravioli again. I must be a glutton for punishment. I found an episode of Good Eats on YouTube to see how Alton Brown would make the ravioli. I watched as his technique involved using an ironing board. Weird? A little bit. Effective? Absolutely. Apparently the pasta dough doesn't stick as well to the cloth of the ironing board cover like it does hard table and counter surfaces. After watching the episode, I was filled with confidence again. I was ready for a rematch. One on one. Mano y ravioli.

I made fresh pasta dough and made sure to let it sit extra long to allow the gluten to form. I made a new filling, this time with some beef. Because who really wants to eat pasta without meat anyway? I know I don't. I rolled out the pasta dough with the pasta roller just as before. And just like on Good Eats, the dough wasn't sticking the cloth. Yes! I could smell victory. Actually I couldn't smell anything, because I wasn't cooking anything yet. But I knew success would come. I placed the filling on the pasta dough and then folded the other half of the pasta dough over on top of the filling. I sealed them up with an egg wash, and then I cut them out. It so much more efficient and easy compared to the first attempt.

The nice thing about fresh pasta is that it only needs to cook for about 2 minutes in boiling water. After I had my little raviolis formed, I cooked them up and put a little bit of homemade marinara sauce on them. They turned out oh so good. The ravioli's weren't pretty (hence no pictures), but I think they'll begin to look better with more attempts. Or maybe next time I'll try making tortellini instead. I'm confident I will no longer be defeated by pasta. HA!

Random Thoughts

2009-03-11T10:43:00.003-06:00

I decided to jot down a few of my random thoughts from today. They may be serious, funny, or just weird. But this is an example of what goes on in my mind during the day.

It seems like when I read other peoples blogs, their lives are way more interesting than mine.
I think I would starve if I had to live on a vegetarian diet. I once dated a vegetarian, and as wonderful as I thought she was, I really wanted to eat at a steak house.
Question: I wonder how long I can hold my breath? Answer: 1 minute, 1 second.
Question: Why was Kermit the Frog the only Muppet allowed to be on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street?
I should make an effort to learn Spanish.
Goonies Never Say Die!
I have the Elton John song, Tiny Dancer stuck in my head. It's funny how some people thing the lyrics are "Hold me closer Tony Danza".
I still need to do my taxes. Ugh.
Going back to school simultaneously scares and excites me.
If I were to start a Latin boy band, I would call it Tamale!
Speaking of tamales, I would like to make them some time as well as travel to the International Tamale Festival in Indio, CA.
I just called a company called Independent Group Agency. Aren't the words "independent" and "group" opposites. How can they be together like that? I wonder if their offices house a hole in the fabric of reality because of those two words being put together?
I wish Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels would just learn to get along
I hate having a catch phrase. Currently it's "I was gonna say...". It used to be "I've gotta be honest...", on my mission it was "Fetch", and before my mission it was "Oh dear". They've all annoyed me and I wish I could learn to speak for 10 minutes without saying the current phrase.

"Up, Up, And Away!"

2009-03-09T14:39:00.005-06:00

My friend Tabi is a huge fan of the show Smallville. Recently she has brought here DVD collection of the show to my house for me to enjoy. I used to watch the show like clockwork while I lived in Rexburg. When I moved to Fort Collins, I didn't have cable. So I stopped watching the show. It wasn't until a few years later that I got cable again. By that time I was so far behind in the watching the show that I didn't even bother to try to catch up. That is until Tabi re-introduced me to the goodness of Superman.

After watching an episode of Smallville the other day, my roommate asked "What super power would you want?" I thought that was a really good question. You would think that a comic book fanboy like me would already have a power chosen and reasons to back up my decision. Sadly, this was far from a reality.

As I began thinking about it, I found that I became more and more indecisive. Should I choose super strength so I don't have any problems doing any physical activities? Should I choose super speed so I can accomplish any task quickly? Should I choose flight so I never have to worry about being stuck in traffic. Should I choose invisibility so I can go and do what I want undetected? Should I choose telekinesis so I can manipulate things with my mind? There are so many to choose from. After some lengthy thought, I finally narrowed down the super power I would want.

Instant teleportation.

Sure those other powers would be cool. I mean really cool. I would choose being able to teleport because of it's practical use. Running a few minutes late to work? Not anymore. I could wake up 15 minute before having to go anywhere, shower, shave, and dress. Then BAMF!, I'm exactly where I need to be. Forget to pick something up from the grocery store? BAMF!, I'm right there in the dairy section to get it. Want to visit my brother in Texas? BAMF!, I'm right there hanging out with him. It would be like the movie Jumper, except good.

What would your super power be, and why?

The Friday Funny: The Pope's Chauffeur

2009-03-06T12:51:00.001-07:00

After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo, (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices the Pope still standing on the curb.

"Excuse me, Your Holiness," says the driver," Would you please take your seat so we can leave?"

"Well, to tell you the truth," says the Pope, "they never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a cardinal, and now that I'm Pope, I'd really like to drive today."

"I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! And what if something should happen?" protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning.

"Who's going to tell? Besides, there might be something extra in it for you," says the Pope with a smile.

Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 105 mph.

(Remember, he's German.)

"Please slow down, Your Holiness!" pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens. "Oh, Dear God, I'm gonna lose my license -- and my job!" moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio. "I need to talk to the Chief," he says to the dispatcher.

The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going a hundred and five.

"So bust him," says the Chief.

"I don't think we want to do that, he's really big," said the cop.

The Chief exclaimed," All the more reason!"

"No, I mean really important," said the cop with a bit of persistence.

The Chief then asked, "Who ya got there, the Mayor?"

Cop: "Bigger."

Chief: " The Governor?"

Cop: "Bigger."

Chief: "The President?"

Cop: "Bigger."

"Well," said the Chief, "Who is it?"

Cop: "I think it's God!"

The Chief is stumped, " You been drinking, John? "

Cop: " No Sir."

Chief : " Then what makes you think it's God?"

Cop: "He's got the Pope as a chauffeur."

Guilty Pleasures

2009-03-05T00:43:00.008-07:00

Hi. My name is Mo. I secretly like a lot of things that are pretty lame and for which other people would laugh at me. But that's okay. I'm going to share them with you anyway. I was surfing different blogs and came across a post about guilty pleasures. I was having a pretty good chuckle when I realized I had some of the same guilty pleasures. You can make fun of me all you want. I'll still indulge when you're not looking.

WWE - World Wrestling Entertainment. I can't believe I'm admitting this. I enjoy professional wrestling. As staged and cheesy as it is, I still enjoy it. It's totally a soap opera for guys. Maybe I like it because it reminds me of being 11 years old and watching Monday Night Wrestling with my friend Danny and my dad. Whether it was rooting for the Ultimate Warrior or booing Rowdy Roddy Piper, it was a good time. Whatever it is, I still watch. I don't watch on a regular basis, but if it's on and I'm home, I'm probably watching it. At least until anyone else comes into the room, then I make sure to quickly change the channel.

Robot Chicken - I know, I know. This show is crude and pretty twisted sometimes. But more importantly it's really funny. It has so many pop culture references and pokes fun at a lot of the things I enjoy.

90's Country Music - When I was fourteen I was friends with a kid in my ward named Bill. He was just about the coolest guy I knew. He was 16, had a car, and was on the football team. And Bill loved country music. I wanted to be cool like Bill too, so I started listening to country music. In fact, one of the first albums I owned was Billy Ray Cyrus. I didn't think that a love of country music that was popular at the time would stick with me for so long. I still find myself occasionally searching out songs like Summer's Commin' by Clint Black, Some Girls Do by Sawyer Brown, Too Busy Being In Love by Doug Stone, or Cadillac Ranch by Chris LeDoux.

Competitive Eating - Not participating in it, but watching. I wouldn't consider myself a fan. I find it more of a spectacle that I can't not watch. Every Fourth of July, Nathan's Hot Dogs sponsors a hot dog eating contest which is televised on ESPN. I happened to stumble across it last year and couldn't stop watching. It was gross and intriguing at the same time. Weird.

Shopping - Okay, I admit it. I like to buy new clothes. I don't do it often because I can't afford it. But when I can afford it, I totally enjoy shopping. Although I do have my limit. I can't shop for more than an hour or two before I get grumpy. Yet during that hour or two of time I'm excited like a teenage girl at a Jonas Brothers concert. Ugh.

So what are your guilty pleasures?

Saturday Mornings

2009-02-28T12:43:00.004-07:00

Dear Saturday Morning,

I write this knowing you have already come and gone for your weekly visit. I wanted take a little time to write to you. I'm doing this during the time I spend with your brother, Saturday Afternoon, but he'll get over it.

Saturday Morning, you have been over stepping your bounds as of late. I used to enjoy our easy going times together. You never brought the alarm clock with you like your friends, Weekday Mornings. I thought our time was mutually enjoyable. I would sleep and recuperate from hanging out late with Friday Night.

Lately you have become more and more insistent in starting our time together earlier. The last couple of weeks you have decided to wake me up between the hour of 6 am and 7 am. This does not make me happy. I'm not sure why you have started doing this, but I would appreciate it if you would stop. I'm single, with no children, and relatively young. There is no reason for you to wake me up so early.

I admit when I was younger we had something of a contract. You would wake me up early. We would eat sugary cereals and spend our time watching cartoons. Those are fond memories. But I've gotten older and I've changed. Things won't be like that anymore. But that doesn't mean they won't be good.

Let's compromise. You promise to let me sleep in until at least 9 am. Then we can spend the morning making breakfast, playing football, running, hiking, playing racquetball, or whatever else sparks our fancy. Sound like a deal?

I'm looking forward to seeing you next week.

Your friend,
Mo

The Friday Funny: Puns & Other Groaners

2009-02-27T15:14:00.004-07:00

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, "You stay here, I'll go on ahead."

14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: "Keep off the Grass."

16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, "No change yet."

17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

18. It's not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn't have the balls to do it.

19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium, at large.

20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

21. A backward poet writes in-verse.

22. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

23. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

24. Don't join dangerous cults, practice safe sects!

"Where The Light Is Better"

2009-02-25T18:26:00.007-07:00

Sometimes our sports heroes really are as good as we hope they are. In a world of prima donna wide receivers and steroid fueled baseball sluggers, it's nice to see that some sports figures really get it.

My issue of ESPN The Magazine showed up in the mail today. The first thing I do when I get a new issue is to quickly flip through the pages looking for anything Denver Broncos related. What a delight to find the last page with this picture right on top. I started reading the story standing in the doorway. Yes, I'm enough of a Broncos fan to stop whatever it is I'm doing to devote all of my attention to anything having to do with the team.

The story I read can be found here.

I hate to admit, but I've been turning into a big softy and this story touched me. It's stories like this which make it so easy to be fans of sport figures that are stand up people. It's not what they do on the field, ice, green, or court that matters. It's what they do when the cameras aren't rolling, the lights aren't flashing, and the crowds aren't cheering that really matters. I think it's what makes them into real sports heroes instead of just sports figures.

Top 5: TV Theme Song Edition

2009-02-23T14:15:00.004-07:00

I probably watch way more TV than I should. In fact, I know I watch too much. I can't help it, I get sucked in by a good story. Plus I learn lots of useless and random facts, which is always fun at parties. That is if I can tear myself away from the TV long enough to actually go out and be social. Anyway, I'm getting off topic here.

Back to the topic at hand. I was trying to introduce the newest of my Top 5 lists. I haven't done one of these in a while. I was sitting at work, reviewing various pop culture topics in my head, when the theme song from the TV show The Greatest American Hero popped into my head. I started thinking about how catchy it was. That thought eventually evolved (if you can call it evolution) to thinking about what my Top 5 TV theme songs would be. That's how I ended up here. So lets get started.

5. The Greatest American Hero - Believe It Or Not

I have a vague memory of watching this show with my parents as a child. I don't remember much about the show, but I definitely remember the song. Turns out I'm not alone in remembering the song more than the show. The full version of the song actually made it to #2 on the Billboard charts, making it way more popular at the time than the actual show. This song is so catchy that even George Costanza from Seinfeld used it as his answering machine message ("Believe it or not George isn't at home, please leave a message at the beep. I must be out or I'd pick up the phone; where could I be? Believe it or not, I'm not home!"). It's also been used as material for everything from making fun of President Bush to being parodied by Homestar Runner to being used in the Gilmore Girls. How can a song that has contributed so much to pop culture not be on my list?

4. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme

Chances are if you were a teenager in the 90's like I was then you know all of the words to this song, and can sing them on command. It's cheesy, but don't be ashamed. I can too. There's no judgement here.

3. The Dukes of Hazzard - Good Ol' Boys

When I was younger I loved this show. I don't remember any episodes in particular, but it was the song that stuck with me. Nike helped renew my love for this song by using it in this commercial. This song actually reached number on on the Billboard Hot Country Charts. There is just something enticing about "straitening the curves" and "flattening the hills", basically making your own rules as you go along.

2. The Andy Griffith Show Theme Song

All of the songs on this list ranked and remembered primarily because of my childhood memories. This one I think more than any of the others brings up memories from my childhood. I would watch this during the summers. My dad would come home for lunch and we would watch the daily episode of The Andy Griffith Show. He even taught me how to whistle using this song. It's simple with no need for lyrics. Absolutely classic.

1. Cheers Theme Song

Who doesn't want to go to a place "where everybody knows your name"? The writers of this song attempted 3 times prior before coming up with the final product. What they came up was an instant classic, eventually becoming iconic. Every time I hear this song I have metal images of Cliff and Norm sitting at the bar. Every single time, no matter what the song is used for. And it's been used a lot.

Ultimate Man Cave Plans, Finally

2009-02-19T23:00:00.012-07:00

Right now it's 11:00 pm on Thursday night and I can't think of what to share with you about my man cave. I designed the layout and even made a 3-D model using Google SketchUp. Yet I still can't seem to come up with a way to explain my ideas in a clear way. Maybe it's writers block. Maybe I'm not that articulate and expressive to begin with. But the fact still remains that I need to post an update. So here it goes.

My ultimate man cave would have all of the following, if I'm ever blessed the the space and money to actually build it. Since I don't see myself winning the lottery any time soon, I'll just have to dream. My man cave would be equipped with everything from a theater room, to a pool table, to a urinal in the bathroom, to a wall painted with a giant Broncos logo. I don't want it to just have the fun toys to make it entertaining, but I also want it to be an expression of my personality. Here is an over view of what I would like it to basically look like.

That's right, this design is pretty generic and you're wondering where the personallity is. The above picture doesn't do justice to what I really envisioned. Maybe it's because I'm not really proficient at using Windows Paint. One day I'll remedy that. Actually, I probably won't. I'll just have to show you the designs I made using Google SketchUp. These pictures better represent what I'm envisioning.

Do you see that? The huge Broncos logo in my billiards area? No.

Okay, here's a better view of that important wall.

I can't forget the theater room with an HD projector.

What man cave would be complete without a barbecue and grilling area?

I designed much more, but I don't want to bore you with more pictures. If I do that, you may just stop reading all together, and I can't have that. Another time I'll post more ideas as my man cave evolves.

There you have it. My ultimate man cave. It's simple, but it's mine. A place to dream about where I can watch the game, grill food, and hang out with the guys. Wait, I'm single. I do all of those things now. Maybe I should work on converting my place into a real life man cave.

To The Man Cave, Cave Man!

2009-02-11T11:35:00.005-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was watching TV when a commercial for the DIY Network came on. The DIY Network stands for the Do It Yourself Network, which is kind of like HGTV. They show programming to the viewers about how to perform home remodeling themselves. The commercial that came on was for a show called Man Caves. My curiosity was instantly piqued. I want to have a man cave I thought to myself. I did a search on the Internet and found this.

As I've been thinking about man caves for the last couple of weeks, I've come to realize that the concept of the man cave isn't new. The website for Man Caves states: "Every guy needs a space to call his own… a sanctuary where boys can be boys, where life essentials include a wet bar, a poker table and a place to watch the game with the fellas." Batman has the Bat Cave and Superman has his Fortress of Solitude. ESPN Zone's are large public man caves.

Heck, even my dad had a man cave. I think most of our dad's did. Usually it was an old couch sitting across from an old TV where they could watch the game, or the den, or garage. My dad didn't call it a man cave. It was the shed he built in the back yard where he and his friends would hang out. I remember he put in a wood stove and a dart board. I think he convinced my mom it would be an extra storage space for all of the things that had accumulated in the garage in order for her to let him build it. Even as I type this, I realize that my grandpa has a place where he goes to be alone too. My grandma even calls it "the cave". It has his computer and I helped him set up a little black & white TV over Thanksgiving.

Today man caves are much more sophisticated and modern. They have big screen TVs, bars, and pool tables. Still the concept is the same. It's a place where a man can get away and hang out with the boys. Women don't seem to understand the man cave concept. Women will call each other up on the phone or get together for dinner in order to bond. Men need an event like watching a game, or playing golf, or poker, or going fishing. A man cave provides that type of environment to do those things.

I'm still in the process of designing my ultimate man cave. I'll show my design in my next post. Until then, I figured I would post some pictures of man caves that are already in existence.

I like that you can see the screen from the bar.

The pool table is a nice touch.

What's better than one projection screen? Two projection screens.

Dante's Peak

2009-02-08T18:50:00.005-07:00

Tonight I watched the movie, Dante's Peak, for the first time. I know the movie is about 12 years old. It came out while I was serving my mission and I never got around to watching it. When I came home and was catching up on the movies I had missed, it wasn't on the list. In fact, I've never even had a desire to see it.

My friend Kerrie changed that. She came over and chose Dante's Peak for us to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not saying I think it's an Academy Award caliber movie. I would say that it's a total popcorn movie. The type of movie that is watched purely for entertainment. I didn't have to think too much about what was going on. I was able to just plop down on the couch and get lost in the movie. That is a nice thing to do. Sometimes I think we look for artistic direction or social commentary so much in films, that we forget that it's okay to just enjoy the movie.

Dante's Peak was fun. Everything from rock slide inside the volcano, to the acid lake, to the lava flow destroying the grandma's house, to the melting tires on the truck while driving through another lava flow. I would have loved to see this movie on the big screen. The special effects were very good, even 12 years later. It's definitely a movie that I would see again.

25 Random Things

2009-01-29T13:09:00.003-07:00

There is a Facebook note going around telling people to list 25 random facts about themselves. If you're tagged in the note, you are supposed to write down 25 things about yourself, tag others, and post the note. I've been tagged twice in the last 2 days, so I decided to write the 25 random facts about myself. I'm kind of a push over some times. Here are 25 random facts about me. If you're reading this, then I tag you.

1. My first paycheck was $127 dollars. I did handyman work for a local mortgage company.
2. I bought my first pair of Nike shoes with that first paycheck.
3. When I was 14, my favorite music was country music.
4. When I learned how to ride a bike, I didn't know how to use the brakes. So I would stop by running into cars, trees, fences, etc.
5. I hate tomatoes.
6. I drank almost 2 liters of soda a day while I worked for FedEx. So healthy.
7. I got my first D in fourth grade science.
8. In middle school, I rebelled against family tradition, and named the San Francisco 49ers as my favorite football team. I have since repented.
9. I did a summer internship at Disney World. I like to tell people that I was Aladdin, but I actually operated Splash Mountain.
10. My favorite food is tamales, but I have no idea how to make them.
11. My favorite novel is the Sword of Shannara. I read it for the first time in 7th grade.
12. I hate the game Phase 10, and have never made it past phase 4.
13. In second grade, I was the first in my class to count to 100 by 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's. I was rewarded with a soda from the teacher for doing so.
14. History was always my best subject in high school.
15. I'm a super-hero geek. My favorite super-hero is the Incredible Hulk. When I was little I would growl like the Hulk from the TV series.
16. Disney World is the only amusement park I've ever been to.
17. Pancakes are my least favorite breakfast bread. Waffles, french toast, biscuits, crepes, and then pancakes.
18. I have been to 25 of the 50 states.
19. I used to memorize commercials and recite them to my family for fun. I still have the Tootsie Pop commercial memorized.
20. As a child, I once lit a poster of a panther on fire with a lighter while it was hanging on my wall. I'm still not sure how I put it out and didn't burn the house down.
21. The first football game I remember watching was the 1985 Super Bowl between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots. I remember because I watched with my dad.
22. I have never changed a diaper in my life.
23. My favorite song from the 80's is Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles.
24. I once drove for 14 hours straight, by myself, to see a girl.
25. I think that a no-bake cherry cheesecake is pretty much the best dessert ever.

Far From Perfect Push-Ups

2009-01-28T13:18:00.005-07:00

I've been a little lax the past couple of months about exercising and staying healthy. Okay, that's a bit of an understatement. I haven't done any regular exercise since my last 5k race. Shame on me. I'm trying to do better. In an effort to exercise more, I started doing push-ups yesterday.

This past summer I worked my way up to doing roughly one-hundred push-ups a day. Not all at once though. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that. I was doing sets of 15 throughout the day in order to get stronger. I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then for no reason at all, I stopped. I haven't done a push-up since, until yesterday.

I only did about 3o push-up yesterday, but I am totally feeling it today. My chest hasn't been sore like this in a long time. I tried to do more push-ups this morning before work. I managed to squeeze out 5 before my body started shaking like a leaf and my eyes began to water. I managed a total of 10 before my body gave out on me. It's kind of depressing to remember how far along I was and how far I have to go to get back there. All I can do is take it one day at a time.

What's That? Teen Pop Trash? Nope. None Of That Going On Here

2009-01-25T17:02:00.006-07:00

I've listened to a couple of songs on the radio lately that I can't seem to get enough of. In fact, I even found myself on YouTube looking for them, then listening over and over again. I'm not really sure why, but I really enjoy both songs. The strange part is that they are pop songs. Not just pop songs, but as my friend Sandy would say, they are teen pop trash songs. Totally not the kind of music that I listen to. What is wrong with me? I normally listen to alternative and modern rock. I enjoy bands like Rise Against, 3Oh!3, and Tickle Me Pink. Music that is a little edgier and has more substance.

Yet I continually find myself drawn to these two teen pop trash songs. Scary as it is, I kind of like it. I'm not saying I'm going to start listening to The Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus or anything drastic like that. I'm just saying I enjoy these two songs. Don't judge me.

The first is Hot-N-Cold by Katy Perry. I've heard this song on the radio in several different places. It has a catchy hook. The chorus is melodic and easy to remember. The subject matter of the song isn't original, but I do think it's a fresh take. All of which are reasons why I enjoy it so much.

The other song is Love Story by Taylor Swift. I was flipping through radio stations in my car when I first heard this one. It was something that I didn't recognize and I decide not to change the station. After that, I was done. I had the words of the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I actually had to look the lyrics up just so I could know how the song goes, in order to get it out of my head. It's a totally cheesy love song, but enjoyable just the same.

So there you go. I've taken the first step. I've admitted that I like a couple of teen pop trash songs. Now the healing can begin. At least until Rihanna comes out with a new song.

Time To Make The Doughnuts

2009-01-25T00:30:00.008-07:00

One of my favorite shows to watch on the Food Network is Good Eats. It's hosted by Alton Brown. It's sort of a Bill Nye the Science Guy meets a cooking show. The various recipes are presented, as well as the science and history behind the featured food. I have to admit, the first time I watched the show, I found Alton somewhat annoying. Yet I continued to watch and eventually grew to like the show and the host. It helps that he has some pretty good recipes.

A couple of weeks ago there was an episode about doughnuts. Who makes doughnuts at home? It's so much easier to go to Krispy Kreme, Duncan Doughnuts, or any number of other places. But the episode intrigued me. So I kept watching. As I watched, I remembered making doughnuts with my mom as a child. I remember they were very simple. Refrigerated biscuit dough from the store we poked holes in, fried in oil, and then sprinkled with powdered sugar or cinnamon. Since cooking seems to be a new hobby that I enjoy, I decided to make homemade doughnuts from the episode.

Here is the recipe from the show:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 ounces vegetable shortening, approximately 1/3 cup
2 packages instant yeast
1/3 cup warm water (95 to 105 degrees F)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
23 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface
Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying (1 to 1/2 gallons, depending on fryer)
Directions
Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment, combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch thick. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 degrees F. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

With nothing to do tonight, I decided to try my hand at doughnut making again. This is the third time I've made the doughnuts, and I'm still a ways from having them perfected. I did take some pictures of the process just for fun.

The doughnuts have been cut and are bench proofing.

The doughnuts have been fried and are being cooled on a wire rack.

I would normally make my own icing, but I had some canned frosting I needed to use.

Don't they look good enough to eat?

I also decided to add the Good Eats episode. Gotta love YouTube.

The ABC's Of Me

2009-01-23T14:09:00.003-07:00

A
- Age: 31
- Annoyance: Floss breaking and getting stuck in my teeth.
- Animal: Weimaraner. It's a bird dog that I want.

B
- Beer: Smells bad, why would anyone want to put that in their mouth?
- Birthday/Birthplace: September 7/Montrose CO
- Body Part on opposite (same) sex?: Smile
- Been in Love: Yes, several times in fact.
- Believe in yourself: I try. Sometimes I'm mores successful than other times.
- Believe in God: Without a doubt
- Believe in Ghosts/Spirits: Depends
- Believe in Evolution: Yes

C
- Car: 1997 Chevy Blazer
- Candy: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
- Color: Blue and Orange. Go Broncos!
- Cried in school: In the first grade after I vomited on the school steps.
- Chocolate/Vanilla: Chocolate
- Chinese/Mexican food: Chinese is good food, but I'm a Mexican. I love Mexican food.
- Cake or pie: Pie. Key lime pie to be specific.
- Country to visit: Mexico. I want to see the Mayan ruins.

D
- Day or Night: Night
- Dream vehicle: Nissan 350z. It's not super luxurious, but I think it's one I could actually own someday.
- Dance in the rain?: Nope. I don't dance at dances. Why would I dance in the rain?
- Do the splits?: Um...no.

E
- Eggs: Over medium.
- Eyes: Brown
- Everyone has: Their own special brand of crazy.

F
- First crush: Meggan Hustad. I was in first grade.
- Food: Tamales. So good. I think I may try to actually make them sometime.

G
- Greatest Fear: Spending my life alone and not living up to my potential.
- Goals: To go back and finish college.
- Get along with your parent(s): Yes.
- Good luck charm: I'm supposed to have a good luck charm? Why didn't anyone tell me? Where do you get a good luck charm?

H
- Hair Color: Black
- Height: 5 Feet, 10 inches
- Happy: When the Broncos win.
- Holiday: Christmas.
- How do you want to die?: Surrounded by loved ones
- Health freak?: Not really, although I am trying to be healthier
- Hate: Feeling like I'm stuck in life

I
- Ice Cream: Tin Roof Sundae. Vanilla ice cream = good. Caramel ribbon = good. Chocolate covered peanuts = good. All together = Tin Roof Sundae
- Instrument: Guitar. I blame Guitar Hero for wanting to learn how to play

J
- Jewelry: Nope
- Job: Phone Surveyor

K
- Kids: Are loud and sometimes smell.
- Kickboxing or karate: Kickboxing is more fun to watch, but both would be cool to learn
- Keep a journal?: I have a journal although I could be better at writing in it

L
- Longest Car Ride: Rexburg, Idaho to Baltimore, MD. 2200 miles in 3 days.
- Love: Happens when you least expect it
- Love at first sight: Never happened to me

M
- Milk flavor: Chocolate
- Movie: The Godfather
- Mooned anyone?: Never
- Marriage: Someday
- Motion sickness: Not usually. Unless I'm on a Ferris wheel.
- McDonald’s or BK: McDonald's is definitely the lesser of two evils

N
- Number of Siblings: 2
- Number of Piercings: 0

O
- One wish: Just one? Isn't customary to get 3?

P
- Place you’d like to live: Fort Collins, CO
- Perfect Pizza: Pepperoni, ham, and extra cheese on hand tossed crust.
- Pepsi/Coke: Pepsi

Q
- Quail: Is a small bird
- Questionnaires: Give me something to do with my down time

R
- Reason to cry: I don't know. I hate crying
- Roll your tongue in a circle: Yes

S
- Song: Currently listening to: Typical by Tickle Me Pink
- Shoe size: 10
- Salad Dressing: I don't like salad dressing on salads, but they do make good marinades.
- Skipped school: Not until my senior year of high school. My mom caught me.
- Smoking: No
- Sing well?: I'm tone deaf, so no
- In the shower? Nope
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Strawberries

T
- Time for bed: Usually not before midnight.
- Thunderstorms: Are cool
- Touch your tongue to your nose: Nope

U
- Unpredictable: Colorado weather. It was 70 degrees yesterday, and today it snowed.

V
- Vegetable you hate: Mushrooms
- Vegetable you love: Carrots
- Vacation spot: Disney World

W
- Weakness: Kryptonite
- Which one of your friends acts the most like you: None. I'm unique
- Who makes you laugh the most: Probably Sandy or Lori
- Wanted to be a model?: Never
- Where do we go when we die: To spirit paradise or spirit prison
- Worst weather: Hurricane like winds and hail.

X
- X-rays: Once, when I thought I broke my ankle.

Y
- Year it is now: 2009
- Yellow: Is the color of snow you should never eat

Z
- Zoo animal: Lions

LAST PERSON WHO…
1. Slept in a bed beside you? It's been a long time. I don't' remember.
2. Last person to see you cry? Andrea
3. Went to the movies with you? Andrea
4. You went to the mall with? Andrea
5. You shared a meal with? Tabi and Kerrie
6. You talked to on the phone? Clemente. He called me at work to provide some information about his business.

My Bad Days Aren't Nearly This Bad

2009-01-22T08:57:00.008-07:00

On my way to work this morning I was listening to the radio. In between songs, the DJ related this news story about some poor guy in Michigan who seems to have had one of the worst days ever.

Just remember, your day is NEVER as bad as this guy's. In Michigan, man lost his dog. Drives car out onto frozen lake to look for dog. Locks keys in car, while it's running. Heat from the exhaust pipe melts ice. Car falls into lake. Dog never found. It's a Perfect Storm of SUCK.

A Perfect Storm of SUCK! This man is a living breathing country song. You can read the full story here.

Official Slacking Blogger Update

2009-01-21T11:35:00.003-07:00

Okay, it's official. I have been a total slacker the past couple of months in updating this blog. There have been plenty of things happening in my life that I could have written about, but I haven't. I've been lazy. I've been spending all of my free time watching SportsCenter or the Food Network. I guess spending time doing those things makes for less motivation in updating my blog. Since I have some free time right now though, I've decided to give everyone out there a treat by putting up a new post. I think some people have gotten tired of the picture of my feet and the scale from the last post.

This is my car. A 1997 Chevy Blazer LS. When I bought it, I loved it. I actually bought it thinking that in the near future it would be used as a family car. Well seven and a half years later, I'm still the only one driving it. On the bright side, it hasn't been trashed because of rowdy kids. I've managed to trash the car all by myself. I'm kind of surprised it's stayed in one piece for so long. I've had to get new tires twice, get the brakes replaced twice, replace the U-joints and the drive shaft, replace the windshield, fix the rear hatch release lever, replace the drivers side mirror, and weld the drivers side door latch back on so it would stay closed. And there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

This is what it looks like now. A little bit dirtier and definitely more worn down. About a year and a half ago I was getting new tires for the second time. At the time I was told the ball joints needed to be replaced as well. I didn't have the money to replace them so, in typical Mo fashion, I put it off. About a 2 months ago, my car started making this loud clunking noise as I was driving down the road. I did some research on my own and determined it was the ball joints that needed to be replaced. I took the car to the shop and told them I needed the ball joints replaced. The worker asked all of the typical questions about my car. Make, model, year, and what I wanted done. Then he asked if it was the upper or lower ball joints that needed to be replaced. I was speechless. Upper or lower ball joints? My car has two sets of ball joints? It turns out my car does have two sets of ball joints because it's a 4 wheel drive. I told the worker that I didn't know which set needed to be replaced. He said that wasn't a problem and they would evaluate which ones they were. To make a long story short, it took the better part of 2 days and $400 to get the ball joints replaced. As I was driving home, I remember thinking at least I won't have to hear that awful clunking noise anymore. Just as I had that thought, the noise started up again. Argh! I spent my travel home for Christmas budget on my car, and it still made the clunking noise.

Last week as I was driving home from work, my car started to overheat. The temperature gauge was north of 260 degrees and the check gauges light was on. I figured the thermostat had gone bad, so I stopped to get a new one. I had to stop three times on my way home from work so it wouldn't overheat completely. In order to replace the thermostat, I had to wait for the engine to cool down, so I decided I would replace it before work the next day. The next morning I changed out the thermostat and figured that would be the end of it. I decided to let the car run for a while to get the coolant circulating and to see if the car would still overheat. I came back about 10 minutes later to look at the temperature gauge. Lo and behold, it was north 260 degrees again. Not cool. (No pun intended, but still funny.) The thermostat wasn't the problem. It was the radiator or something else to do with the coolant system. Argh! This was going to cost more money.

I took my car to a local radiator shop to see if they could figure out what the problem was. After a quick check, it was determined that the radiator was cracked. The mechanic decided to add some more coolant in order to find exactly where the crack was. He began pouring the coolant into the radiator to fill it up. He kept pouring and pouring and pouring. It turns out the water pump was literally falling off of the car and the coolant was being poured on to the concrete. The mechanic said they could fix it, but that they would have to order a new water pump. While he was speaking, the only thing I could think was how much it was going to cost. After doing some figuring, he gave me an estimate of about $200. I agreed and he began work on the car.

The next morning he called and said the work was done. I could come get my car. Not excited to pay the money, I took my time in getting to the shop. After paying for the work, I drove away. As I was driving, I noticed my heater worked. It hasn't worked in a couple of years. That means I can stay warm in the winter time when I drive. I was so excited about the heater working that I had already driven a couple of miles down the road, when I realized I hadn't heard any clunking noise either. I would have never thought replacing the water pump would get rid of these problems. Now that my car is in good running condition again, I even enjoy driving it again. I'm not happy that I had to spend $600 in the past month to get things fixed, but at least I am experiencing farfegnuten (the joy of driving).

At least until my radiator cracks some more.

I Got On The Scale And What Did I See?

2008-11-17T12:53:00.004-07:00

I've been working on my weight loss for quite a few months now. The other day I got on the bathroom scale and was pleasantly surprised to see my weight. It wasn't something that I was expecting, yet I became very excited about it. The scale said that I was not longer over weight. Yes, that's exactly what it said. In a loud booming voice the scale bellowed "Congratulations! You Are No Longer An Unhealthy Mass Of Flab."

Okay, that maybe a bit of an exaggeration. There is no talking scale in my bathroom. Although if there was a talking scale, I doubt it would be so articulate. I did get on the scale though and was surprised that I've met and surpassed my target weight. I was so excited that I immediately took this picture and texted a couple of friends about my happy accomplishment.

I know the picture is somewhat grainy, but just in case you're wondering, the scale says 177.5. As in 177.5 pounds. That's 7.5 pounds below my target weight of 185 pounds. This is close the my weight when I came home from my mission! That was 10 years ago!

I know that I'm a big dork for being so excited about this and then posting it on my blog. But hey, if you can't share it with the whole world wide web, then who can you share it with? I'm feeling really good about myself and in addition to a crazy, yet wonderful, weekend, this was just icing on the cake. Except I don't really eat cake anymore. I mean I do eat some sweets, but...well you know what I mean.

Just For The Record

2008-11-13T18:59:00.010-07:00

Last night, as I was looking through some books on my shelf, I came across my missionary journal. I didn't have much to do, so I opened it up and began reading. I haven't opened my journal up since my mission. In fact I have never even read any of the entries. I had written down my feelings and experiences (so I thought) and haven't really thought about them since.

It turns out that I wasn't very articulate or expressive as a 19 year old kid. Big surprise there. I used the words 'awesome' and 'cool' a lot. When describing teaching experiences I often wrote something to the effect of, 'the spirit was so strong'. What does that mean? As I was reading my journal entries I found that I was a little irritated with myself because I hadn't been more descriptive. I thought I was doing a good thing by keeping a journal. Keeping a journal is good, but I think it's better when you actually put your thoughts and feelings down instead of vague words and phrases. I do feel confident that I have some good thoughts and ideas written down, I just haven't discovered them yet. I wish I had written down more of the things I had learned and not only the day to day experiences. I look back now and I want to know what things were taught in my district meetings which caused me to write down the phrase 'the spirit was so strong'.

This experience helped me to understand the importance of keeping a journal, or diary, or blog, or some form of life record. As a child, it seemed to me, I would often see my mom writing in her journal. Her journal wasn't anything fancy, just a spiral bound notebook she would write in. For family home evening, she would attempt to teach us the importance of keeping our own journals. I remember a few times, the activity after the lesson was to make our own journal with notebook and construction paper, and then to write in it. I'm sad to say that those journals usually had just one or two entries before the were forgotten.

Even more sad to me is that I haven't done very well at keeping a journal since I came home from my mission. The past 10 years of my life are recorded only in my mind. It isn't very good that my mind is the only place where those memories are kept. Memories need to be written down. I'm not saying that I'm old, but I already forget things that have happened last week, let alone the past 10 years. I've decided to make a better effort at keeping a journal. Not only for me look back, reflect and learn, but hopefully someday my posterity will be able to learn as well through my thoughts and experiences.

Long Time, No Writing

2008-11-07T16:25:00.013-07:00

I know, I know. I haven't written or updated my blog recently. It's not from a lack of ideas or thoughts to write down and share with world. It's complete and total laziness on my part. I kept thinking to myself, 'Self, put up a new post tomorrow'. Which of course never happened. So I figured I'd just make a big long post about the things that I have been up to in the past 3 weeks.

Run for the Wolves 5k
This is as good of a place to start off as any. I decided to run this 5k race because I wasn't very happy with the time that I got for the Homecoming 5k. Although my time for the Homecoming 5k was an improvement on my previous race time, it still wasn't under 30 minutes. I was sure that I could run 5k at a faster pace. So I signed up for Run for the Wolves 5k.

A couple of my friends said that they would sign up for the race too, and we could run it together. As the race got closer though, I found I was the only one that had actually signed up for the race. I talked to my friends and all of them had some reason or excuse not to run the race with me. I on the other hand was committed. I'd like to say I was committed because I'm a dedicated running person, but mostly it's because I had already paid the sign up fee and there were no refunds. So I went to the race by myself.

This race was much smaller than the other two races I ran in. There were only about 300 people compared to the 600 in my first race and the nearly 1,700 people in the homecoming race. I arrived at the starting location and this race had a completely different feel to it. There were people and dogs dressed up in costumes. I saw a small dog dressed like a hot dog and a guy wearing faerie wings. This race seemed more relaxed and laid back than the others.

As the race got started I was feeling pretty good. I began the race at the front to the pack and I was feeling pretty good about being ahead of everyone. That feeling didn't last very long though, as people passed me on regular basis. Still I kept my pace and kept moving along. I would like to say that this was the easiest race of the three that I have ran. I would be lying if I said that. In fact running in this race was down right hard. I kept thinking to myself that I was going to have to stop running and walk. I began picking points ahead of me and thought to myself when I reached that point I would walk. I would reach that particular point and realize that I could go a little further. So I would pick another point ahead of me and tell myself the same thing. I kept doing that until I finally got to the point where I was going to walk. I had made up my mind and I needed a rest. That is when I looked up and saw the finish line. I couldn't start walking so close to the end, so I kept running. I finished with a time of 27:36. What a pleasant surprise. I finally ran a race in fewer in 30 minutes. In fact, that is 3 minutes faster than my previous race time. Now the trick is to keep on running, so when I run a race again next year I can do even better.

Meetings with Elder Bednar
David A Bednar is an Apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of which I am a member. Apostles routinely travel the world visiting the members of the church in different areas. Because I live in a place that is so close to Utah, where the church is based, it's rare for an Apostle to come to visit. In fact I think it has been something like 22 years since the last Apostle came to visit this area. It was announced a few weeks ago that Elder Bednar would be coming to this area to have meetings with the members of the church in Northern Colorado. Part of those meetings was a special meeting with the young single adult members of the church.

The experience was unlike any other church meeting that I have ever been to. To start off, we arrived at the church building a few hours early in order to have good seats. My friends and I knew there were going to be a lot of people there, so we made sure to arrive early in order to get seats right up front. When Elder Bednar came in, we all stood to show respect for a servant of the Lord. He began the meeting and explained to us that our meeting would be a bit different than other meetings. He said our meeting was going to be a question/answer meeting. Can you believe it? We got to ask our questions to an Apostle of Jesus Christ. What an experience.

He made sure that we understood what kind of questions we should ask. He said that although all questions are good, some questions are better than others. He then gave two example of questions. He said that although questions like "Where is the Sword of Laban?" are interesting, they really have nothing to do with our eternal salvation. He said a better question would be something like, "What have you learned about prayer since you have been praying with prophets for the past 4 years?". Then he let us ask our questions. Some really good questions were asked, and a lot of questions hadn't even crossed my mind until they were asked. Elder Bednar took his time and made sure to answer the questions fully and to the best of his ability. I learned so much and I am grateful for the experience that I had to be there.

Cooking
When I watch TV, my entertainment usually comes from one of two channels. I watch a lot of ESPN and a lot of the Food Network. There are some pretty entertaining shows on the Food Network like Good Eats, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Iron Chef America, and Ace of Cakes. Not only are these shows entertaining, but they get me excited to try making the food myself.

A couple of friends and I decided that we would get together on Tuesday nights and have home cooked meals as a nice break from the single persons diet of ramen noodles, mac-n-cheese, pizza, and other various fast food meals. I have to say it's been a good experience. We usually meet at the store ahead of time to purchase the food items for our next meal and then we head to my house to prepare everything. I have been very pleased with the way our meals have turned out. We started off with simple things like chicken enchiladas, waffles, and pot roast and worked our way up to chicken cordon bleu and chicken fried steak. I know these meals aren't super hard to make, but they have been tasty. Next week, I'm hoping to do stuffed pork chops.

I really don't know why I enjoy cooking so much, other than it feels like I'm creating something and I hope other people will enjoy the food. I never thought that I would enjoy cooking so much considering that when I was younger and I had the responsibility to be in charge of dinner, I would usually just order pizza. Cooking for myself tastes so much better.

Trip to Utah
A few months ago, my friend Elisa made the decision to move to Utah. After putting it off for a while, she made the effort to start the process to move. She applied for and got a job working for the University of Utah and found a place to live. She set her date to make the move and started preparing the arrangements to move out there. While she was making her preparations, the person that was her first choice to drive the moving truck out to Salt Lake fell through. So I got the honor to drive the truck. Probably because of my box truck driving experience from my days as a Sears delivery guy and a Fed Ex driver.

Turns out that driving a moving truck across a couple of states isn't nearly as much fun as being a delivery driver. As a delivery driver you stop every couple of minutes to make your deliveries. Driving in the moving truck, we were stuck in the cab of the truck for a good seven to eight hours. Not fun at all. To make matters worse, those delivery trucks don't even go the speed limit on the freeway. I blame the car that we were towing behind us. It felt like we were going so slow and like all of the other cars on the freeway were passing us. I'm glad that Elisa was in the truck with me though. Good company can make a long trip a lot more bearable.

When we got to her new apartment I was not impressed. It looked pretty run down on the outside. The building was built in like the 1920's and it was all gray brick. The steps were crooked and there wasn't much of a yard. But we went inside and it was a nice place. The interior of the building had been remodeled with new drywall, flooring, and cabinets. I'm glad that she ended up in a nice place.

After unloading Elisa's things my brother came to pick me up so I could stay with he and his wife in Orem. It was nice to see them. We spent the first night playing video games and just hanging out. It was a pretty good time.

On Sunday I met up with my friend Michelle in Salt Lake and I went to the singles ward with her. I'm realized that I don't really like going to church in Utah. There are too many people and I feel like I'm lost in the shuffle every time I go. I definitely prefer attending church here in Fort Collins.

After church I went back to my brother's house for dinner. My sister and her family came as well. We enjoyed a meal of beans, potatoes, red chili, and home made tortillas. It's a meal that we often had growing up and I rarely, if ever, eat anymore. The food was so good and we had an enjoyable time spending time with each other. I miss having family around to hang out with. Hopefully someday, we'll all live closer to each other.

Eating Sugar Again
On the way out to Utah, we stopped at a Little America travel station in Wyoming. For those of you that don't know, Little America has 50 cent ice cream cones. It's a tradition of Elisa's family to stop there on road trips to use the restroom and get ice cream before hitting the road again. So we stopped and Elisa talked me into getting some ice cream. I hadn't eaten any refined sugar in 8 months as part of my diet and weight loss plan, so I was a little anxious about eating sugar again. I was worried that it might make me sick or even worse that I might not like sugar anymore. Turns out I still like sugar. I put the ice cream cone in my mouth and it was super sweet. Almost too sweet. Yet it was so good. Now I know Little America ice cream isn't gourmet ice cream. I mean come on, they sell it for 50 cents a cone. But it is worth the 50 cents.

Since then I have fallen off the wagon a little bit. I had some candy while I was staying with my brother and I may have had a few cookies here and there. But I'm determined to keep my sugar intake limited. I've lost nearly 40 pounds and I'm in no hurry to put it back on. I'm not saying that eating sweets will make me fat, but I want to make sure that I monitor the things I eat and the amount I indulge in.

Getting In Contact With Old Ricks College Friends
A couple of months ago I received a random email from Facebook. The subject said "Is this Mo?" and the message said "From Ricks College?" It was from a girl name Melodee I went to school with my freshman year of college. Talk about out of the blue. I haven't talked to or spoken to her in over 10 years. My friend Jacob and I had gotten pretty close to Melodee and her roommates while we were at Ricks. We even made road trips to see our friends in Utah the summer after my freshman year. But as happens so often, Jacob and I left on missions and the girls moved on with their lives and we lost contact with each other.

Thanks to the Internet invention of Facebook though, she was able to find my profile and send me a message. It was cool to write back and fill each other in on what's been going on in our lives. At first I was a little shy to share what I've been up to, since I don't feel like I've accomplished much since my mission. So I didn't write back immediately. Melodee stayed persistent and sent me another email about what she has been up too and I made sure to write back. She also put me back in contact again with some of her roommates and filled me in on what they are doing. It's been pretty cool to hear from these people that I haven't talked to in such a long time. In fact they have a special place in my heart because they helped me to see the importance of gaining a testimony about the gospel and serving a mission. I am so glad we have gotten back in touch with each other and I hope we can continue our friendships.

Other Random Things That Have Happened Or That I've Thought About
I love sports. I love playing watching them, whether it's on TV or in person, it doesn't matter. I even watch Sportscenter to see the highlights of the games I just watched. I dedicate a decent amount of time to reading about sports on the Internet too. But I just can't seem to like basketball. I would go so far as to say that I hate basketball. I recognize the athletic ability that is required to play, but it is a sport that I have no interest in. Recently though, I have thought about starting to play basketball. A group of guys from my ward get together Monday nights after FHE to play a few games. I have been giving some serious consideration to going and playing with them. Not because I want to feel included or because I have a new found love for basketball, but because I need something to do for exercise. I haven't gone running since I ran the Run for the Wolves race and I'm starting to feel a bit lazy. I know that I could get a good sweat going if I were to start playing on Monday nights. I guess my dilemma in making my decision is do I hate basketball more than I want to exercise? I guess I'll just have to play a game to find out.

On a completely different subject, I miss my friend Elisa. She is one of my closest and best friends. Now that she has moved to Utah I feel a little bit lonely. I have a lot of friends and I enjoy hanging out with them, but I still miss her. We had stake conference at church last week and I felt a little lost because I would always talk to her after the meeting. I don't like it.

Here is something random. I'm not ready for Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of year, but I'm a things-need-to-be-done-in-order kind of guy. I hate that there are Christmas decorations and music playing before Thanksgiving. I even saw some Christmas stuff up before Halloween. Pretty soon there will be Christmas stuff on sale right after the Fourth of July. It's not that I don't like the Christmas, I love it. It's just that I would like to enjoy Thanksgiving first before I focus on Christmas. That's just my feeling on the subject.

Top 5: My Personal Buzz List Edition

2008-10-22T12:14:00.007-06:00

Normally, the Top 5 is a list of pop culture things that I want to rank. For this installment, I decided to list the things that have piqued my interest over the past week or so. That's not to say that there aren't any pop culture items on the list, but they're not all pop culture related. So here are the Top 5 things that are on my buzz radar.

5. Spiderman: Web of Shadows
I'm not much of a video game player. I used to be, but I just kind of lost interest in them. Maybe that means I'm growing up. When I saw the trailer for this game though, I was ready to be a kid again. I love Super-Heroes and comic books and the trailer for this game got my inner fanboy going. It has both Venom and Wolverine! How much cooler can you get! Check out the video and you can judge for yourself.

4. Denver Broncos Football
Okay, I know they aren't playing very well right now. I know, they've lost 3 out of the last 4 games. I know, that they have a slew of players that are out because of injury. I know, their defense can't stop the run or pass. I know, they've turned the ball over 12 times in their three losses. But I'm no fair weather fan. I love this team. I think that they can pull out of this rut they're in. With the bye week coming up, it time to heal up and recommit to being a good team. When healthy, the Broncos offense is hard to stop and is able to score almost willingly. They lead the AFC West by a game over the Chargers. There is still time to turn their recent poor performances around. I look forward to being there to watch them.

3. Nick-N-Willy's Pizza
Last week my roommate came home with a pizza from Nick-N-Willy's. He was kind enough to let me have a slice. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't the absolute best pizza I've ever had, but it was good. Good enough for me to plan to order it for Monday Night Football. The nice thing is that the restaurant is close to my house so I can just stop by on my way home from work. That makes it even better.

2. Fort Collins Run For The Wolves
Yes, I'm running in yet another 5k. Mostly because I was not satisfied with my time for the CSU Homecoming race. I know I can run 5 kilometers in less than 30 minutes. Signing up for the race gives me an chance to prove it to myself. I've also heard that it's a really fun race. There is a costume contest for people and dogs, and trick or treat stations for the kids. Those types of activities definitely make running a race more fun. I wonder how many people will be there. I don't think there will be 1600, like there were at the CSU Homecoming race, but I'm sure there will be a good turn out. My friend Rachel said she was going to run it too, so I think I'll just try to keep pace with her. Hopefully the weather will be nice. I'm not a fan of running in the rain. The forecast for Saturday is supposed to be sunny with a high of 65 degrees. I hope the weather man know what he's talking about.

1. Elder David Bednar
Elder David Bednar, and apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is coming to the Fort Collins area this weekend. He is coming to speak to the young single adults as well as a conference for the Fort Collins stake. As young single adults, we have the opportunity to listen to an apostle and hear his counsel for us. I'm really excited to be able to attend. I had the opportunity to meet Elder Bednar while he was president of BYU-Idaho. My family home evening group was invited to have family home evening with both he and his wife. It was one of the coolest meetings I've been too. I'm sure the meeting coming up this weekend will be even better.

I Never Liked The Game Of Tag

2008-10-19T09:37:00.005-06:00

Apparently I've been tagged. I was told that means I get to post the 8th picture in my 10th folder. The problem is, I don't have that many pictures on my computer. I sure don't have 10 folders, and if I did, I don't think that they would have at least 8 pictures in them. So I opened the last folder of pictures on my computer and chose the 8th picture. I know it's kind of cheating, but it's all I can do.

This is my brother and sister in-laws wedding reception back home. It's a group picture of my immediate family along with all our aunts, uncles, and cousins on my dad's side.

If you're reading this, I tag you. Post the 8th picture that is found in your 10th folder (or your last folder if you don't have 10 folders).

Super Busy Saturdays

2008-10-14T13:07:00.005-06:00

This past Saturday was crazy busy for me. Normally I like to have a nice quiet Saturdays involving sleeping in and relaxing the rest of the day. This last Saturday was nothing like that. To start off, it was the day of the CSU Homecoming 5k race. The race started at 8 am and I told my friend Tabi that we should meet up at 7:30 am so she could get registered. I wonder why they start races so early in the morning? Getting back to my day, I woke up at 6:30 so I could eat a healthy breakfast before the run. Unfortunately it was a cold rainy morning and that wasn't much fun to run in. When we got to the race location, there were roughly 1700 people there. That's a lot more than the 600 at the last race I ran. I couldn't believe how many people were there. I did see quite a few people from the institute, so that was cool. There were so many people, that there wasn't a single time during the race that I was by myself. I was always passing someone or someone was passing me. A little over crowded if you ask me. I finished the race with a better time than the other 5k I ran, but I still didn't break 30 minutes. That disappointed me a little bit. So I've decide that I'm gong to run another 5k in a couple of weeks. It should have fewer people, so I think my time will improve.

After the race, I was supposed to meet up with some people to play a game of football. Unfortunately only two other people showed up because of the crappy weather. So we couldn't get a game going, but that was okay since I was still pretty tired from the race. It was cold enough to make my hands sting when I tried to catch the ball though. Maybe I should invest in receivers gloves. We ended up calling it quits after about half an hour. Hopefully more people will show up next time we play.

Then I went home to get cleaned up so I could go to the CSU Homecoming football game. I thought I bundled myself up pretty good and made sure that I was wearing lots of layers. Turns out that really wasn't enough. It was still raining and windy. By the end of the 1st quarter I was freezing. To make matters worse there were lots of rowdy fans and CSU ended up loosing the game 13 - 7. Lame.

I then hurried home to get ready for the institute choir concert. Elisa volunteered me to be the curtain puller and possible narrator. So I got all dressed up and went to the stake center to do my part. But because of some miscommunication I ended up sitting there not doing anything. The concert was good though and I think the choir did a really good job. Hopefully they'll have even more people join and they'll just keep getting better.

After the choir some of my friends and I played some games and went to the movies to celebrate my friend Brian's birthday. We went and saw "The Express: The Ernie Davis Story". It was a good movie. I really enjoyed it and I even geeked out a little bit when they included Floyd Little in the story. I liked the movie, but it was not one that I came out of all hyped up from. If you know about Ernie Davis, then you know why.

That in effect, was my busy Saturday. Running a race, playing football, going to a football game, watching a choir concert, and then seeing a football movie. Sounds like football related events dominated the day. Hopefully future Saturdays won't be so busy, but I'm sure that won't be the case.

Hair Of The Dog - Literally!

2008-10-08T12:26:00.009-06:00

This is the funniest and possibly one of the more disgusting things that I've heard of people doing. While checking out random blogs today I came across a post that had me laughing. The post stated this:

"In photographer Erwan Fichou's series Dogwool, pet owners are photographed wearing sweaters made from the fur/hair of their animal companions, with the actual dog posing along side them for verification."

Does that gross anyone else out? Because it sure made me a bit squeamish. I remember my dogs growing up and their fur is not something that I would want adorning my body. Maybe these people have better dog grooming habits than we had for our dogs. I don't think that I'll ever love anything enough to make me want to wear it's hair. Here are a couple of pictures from the photographer.

You can see the rest of the photographs here. The site is in French, but click on the link to the left that says Dogwool.

Best Date Ever!

2008-10-07T13:05:00.003-06:00

Occasionally I'll be flipping through the channels on TV and I'll come up on some pretty interesting shows. Recently I came up on VH1's Best Week Ever. It's a show that recaps all of the pop culture happenings of the week along with commentary from various comedians and celebrities. Not that any of that matters. The reason why I bring up the TV show Best Week Ever, is because the title made me think about some of my best fill-in-the-blank ever experiences. That got me thinking about the best date that I had ever been on and gave me a another subject to post about.

The best date that I've ever been on was when I was attending Ricks College (it wasn't BYU-Idaho yet) and my friends and I decided that we would do a big group date for an upcoming dance. I know, there aren't normally dances at college, but it's a Mormon school and we can be a little weird. My friends and I decided that we would find dates and have an evening of excitement and fun. Before I get started, it's important to note that I had a friend who was a Rexburg local and his parents owned several business locations and were also the owners of the local Sears dealership.

We started off by getting permission from his parents to use one of the empty commercial buildings they owned for our date. It was an old tile store and there were no furnishings at all, except for the counter. Prior to picking our dates up, my friends and I did all of the set up work. We bought about 150 candles and set them up around the room. We also set up our dining area with blankets, pillows, Asian style dinnerware, and chopsticks. Now that I think back on it, it kind of had a middle eastern harem look to it.

After all of the set up work, we were off to pick up our dates and attend to our pre-dinner activity. After picking up our dates, we headed to the mall in Idaho Falls for some fun dress up time. We broke into groups of 2 couples and went into the different stores trying on different clothes and taking pictures of ourselves with disposable cameras. It was a good time and we got some pretty fun pictures. When we finished at the mall we headed back to our dinner location to surprise them with our dinner set up.

As the girls came in to the store, all of the lights were off and the candles were burning. We presented each girl with a rose and we sat down as we waited for the food to arrive. Because of the way we set up the dinnerware and the chop stick, the girls were expecting to get Chinese food. They were a bit surprised when the pizza guy showed up instead. They had a good laugh though, and enjoyed the pizza too.

After the dance we decided to watch a movie. We picked a movie to watch and realized that no one had an apartment big enough for everyone to fit. My friend talked to his parents and they said we could watch the movie at the Sears store. We got a bunch of bean bags and soft chairs and headed over Sears to watch the movie. It was quite the experience to watch a movie on 2 dozen screens. I think we all ended up falling asleep though.

I've had lots of good dates with lots of different girls but this is the one that I remember as being the most fun. What was the most fun you had on date? What did you do?

Top 5: Childhood Cartoon Edition

2008-10-03T12:24:00.003-06:00

Growing up I spent a lot of time watching cartoons. I'm sure my parents appreciated the three of us kids waking up at 6:00 am on Saturday mornings, watching TV for 5 hours, and eating all the cereal we could. Looking at my life now, my Saturday mornings were much more fun when I was a kid. Thinking about those cartoons I decided to list my Top 5 childhood cartoons. Keep in mind that I was a typical little boy and I liked the typical little boy cartoons. So cartoons like Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, and Jem won't make my list. That being said, on to the list.

5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
When you're a little boy like I was, all that you have to do is mention the word ninja in the title and I thought it was cool. Having four ninjas with names like Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo only made it cooler. And how could you not end up with the theme song stuck in your head, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Heroes in a half-shell, Turtle Power!"

4. Dungeons & Dragons
This is a cartoon that not only I enjoyed, but one my mom enjoyed too. The premise was about a group of kids that gets on an amusement part ride and find themselves magically transported to the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons. Wanting only to get home, the group takes detours to help out others in need. The animation was good and some of the monsters that the group faced were just plain cool.

3. Thundercats
This cartoon had it all. A main character trying to become the hero and protector he is meant to be. His team of allies who teach him the importance of becoming a good leader and have cool powers and abilities of there own. Finally it had a villain that would fail in his evil plans, but would not stop trying. When I was 8 years old there weren't any other cartoons nearly as cool. Unfortunately I saw it later as an adult and it wasn't nearly as entertaining as when I was a kid.

2. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
What typical little boy doesn't like a cartoon about military heroes, secret organizations, and lasers? This show had all of those things plus ninjas. How can you top that? Plus, each episode had it's own public service announcement that would always end with the phrase, "Now I know. And knowing is half the battle." I loved this show. I would wake up early on weekdays in the summertime just to watch this show. And I had a lot of G.I. Joe action figures to hold me over when the show wasn't on. So good.

1. Tom & Jerry
Okay, I admit this show would not have even made my list when I was a kid. There were so many other shows out there. But I always enjoyed this cartoon when it came on. They were only about 7 or 8 minutes long and they were fun. Now that I'm older, I enjoy watching these short cartoons more than ever. I haven't seen one on TV for a long time, but you can watch a bunch of different episodes on YouTube. The episodes produced by Fred Quimby are some of my absolute favorites.

Top 5: Worst Country Cover Songs Edition

2008-09-30T00:46:00.008-06:00

While surfing CNN.com a while back I came across this story. After I read it, I had to find some of the songs on YouTube. That got me thinking about all of the lame country artists that decided to cover various songs. I remember listening to the country versions of songs like "I Swear" and "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" and thinking to myself how bad they sounded. After doing a little research on my own I came up with a list of horrible country cover songs. Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong with country songs or cover songs. In fact I generally enjoy both, but the two should never cross. When they do, we get the unholy abominations below. I've added the original song to compare.

5. Faith Hill - Piece Of My Heart

I realize that the Janis Joplin version of this song was a cover as well, but what was Faith Hill thinking when she covered this song? Probably nothing, because she never actually heard the Janis Joplin version of this song while she was doing her own recording. Her only exposure to the song was the country arrangement made for her on a demo. Sadly, this version of the song has no power or feeling, it's sounds just like any other sappy country song.

4. Jack Ingram - Lips Of An Angel

Why do country musicians decide to release cover versions of still popular right now songs? Are they so desperate for new material that they have to cover the song before anyone has even forgotten about the first version that came out? The video for this cover is absolutely ridiculous. It has Jack Ingram singing the words of the song to his bride. Does he think it's romantic? Did he not pay attention to the words? He's singing to his bride about cheating!

3. Dolly Parton - Shine

I can believe that Dolly won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for this. I'm not saying Dolly isn't talented, because she is. This type song is just not where her talent lies. It makes me wonder how she won a Grammy for this song when not even Collective Soul, the original artists of this song, could win one.

2. Glen Campbell - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

Punk music is notorious for covering songs from other genres. It seems to be a very punk thing to do. Who would have ever thought that someone would do a cover of a punk song? Apparently the people who convinced Glen Campbell to do this thought it was a good idea. This just goes to show, that just because an idea is new and fresh doesn't make it a good idea.

1. Dolly Parton - Stairway To Heaven

When I first saw that she covered this song, I thought it was a joke. Come on, Dolly really wouldn't try to country up the ultimate rock anthem of the 1970's. Turns out she did and it wasn't good. Dolly Parton and Led Zepplin don't mix. It's not the worst version of a song that is covered by just about everyone, but it is pretty bad. Hopefully Dolly has learned to stay away from covering rock songs.

Memories Of My Dad

2008-09-28T23:50:00.004-06:00

Today is the anniversary of my dad passing away. I can't believe he has been gone for 7 years. It's hard to believe how long it's been, how much I've changed, and how much he still influences my life.

My dad makes up a lot of who I am. It's interesting and a little funny that I find myself doing some of the same things I remember him doing. I remember my dad's laugh, and when I listen to myself laugh, I hear him. I look at my hands and feet, at the way they are shaped and I realize that they look like his. When I talk, I sometimes hear his voice instead of mine.

I enjoy the same things that he enjoyed. Things like watching Denver Broncos football, or playing pool, or watching episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. My first memory of football was Super Bowl XX in January of 1986. I watched the game with him at my grandma's house and we made a bet on the game. I remember we bet $2 on the game and I got to choose what team I wanted to win. I chose the Chicago Bears to beat the New England Patriots. Probably because at that age I knew exactly what a bear was and had no idea what a patriot was. The point is I remember watching the game with him and the time we spent together. It is that point that I can trace my love of football.

I'm grateful for my dad and for the way that he and my mom raised me. Growing up my mom was the rule maker and my dad was the disciplinarian. I think it's interesting how he would punish us when we did something wrong, yet we were never spanked. Punishment usually consisted of losing certain privileges, receiving extra chores, and in one case reading a series of magazine articles, writing about what I learned, and then implementing them in my life. As often as I would get into trouble he was there to put me on the straight and narrow through love and discipline.

One of the things that I really remember about my dad was his willingness to serve others. He would send me to my grandma's house to mow her lawn or shovel her sidewalk and he would specifically tell me not to take any money that my grandma would offer. He did things like organize a community Easter egg hunt. He would often gather the donations himself, organize the egg coloring (usually done by my aunts, uncles, and cousins), and hide the eggs. After he died, my cousins told us about one time they were stranded in a different town because of car trouble or something. They were out when they weren't supposed to be, so they didn't want to call their mom. Instead they called my dad and asked for his help. He went to help, brought them back home, made sure that they were safe, and never ever said a word about it to anyone.

Looking back I realize what a wonderful man my dad was. Of course he wasn't perfect. He had his weaknesses, struggles, and trials. Yet he was a good example to me and my siblings. I'm grateful that I was raised by him and hope to be the kind of man that he would want me to be.

When We Were Young

2008-09-26T13:31:00.007-06:00

I've had the opportunity to instant message my brother quite a bit the last couple of days. In talking with him, we were both reminiscing a little about growing up and some of the things we enjoyed. We weren't a family that was well off financially and we lived in a small home, but we were happy. In fact, I don't really have any bad memories of my childhood and I'm grateful to my parents for that blessing.

Growing up, we lived across the street from a park. In essence, it was our front yard, complete with playground equipment, basketball court, soccer field, and baseball diamond. I remember meeting up with the neighborhood kids so we could play pick up games of football. Or making huge cities in the sand for our Hot Wheels cars. Or playing an imaginary hero's quest games with my friend Ponchy. He would be the narrator and bad guys for us to fight against. Or playing in the sprinklers on hot summer days. Or seeing who could climb highest up the big pine tree. There was always something to do at the park.

My brother used to be a master of making his own toys. He would find sticks and string and make a bow and arrows. He would also save the cardboard tubes from wrapping paper and old shoe boxes to make his own Ghostbuster equipment. He helped me to have ideas to make toys too. We would find a long stick and a short stick and nail them together to make swords. One time we even wrapped the handles with some electrical tape that we found in the garage. My dad wasn't very happy when he found out we used all of his electrical tape. I had to replace the wasted tape with a new roll. My dad even taught us how to make rubber band guns with wooden ground stakes and clothes pins.

Getting haircuts was always an interesting time growing up. I remember my parents discussing giving my sister a hair cut. She had long thick hair that was in a braid. I remember my dad sitting her down, taking the scissors, and cutting off the braid. My mom must have been horrified. The cool thing was she had the braid kept in tact to save. My dad also used to give my brother and me buzz cuts every summer. Oh, how I hated and loathed getting a buzz cut. I think my brother really enjoyed them, but I hated them with a passion. In 4th grade I received a buzz cut earlier in the year than usual. I would normally get my haircut after school was out for the summer, but that year my dad gave me the haircut over spring break. I was so embarrassed to go back to school. I wore the hood of my jacket as long as I could that day until the teacher made me take it off. I'm sure the other kids didn't care much, but back then I thought they were all laughing at me. After I got back from my mission I gave my dad a buzz cut because he didn't want to pay for a haircut. Sweet revenge. It was fun and I probably enjoyed it a little too much.

Aside from the fun and games we had growing up, we had chores to do as well. Bringing fire wood from the wood pile into the garage was a weekly task, so we could keep the house warm in winter time. Mowing the lawn and cleaning the garage were also regular chores I remember having to do. We also had to take turns with indoor chores like doing the dishes (which my brother hated), cleaning the bathroom (which I hated), and cooking dinner (which my sister hated). I remember coming home from school and being given the chore of having the house cleaned up somewhat before my parents came home. We would literally wait until the last minute. One of us would spot my mom's car coming down the street and all three of us kids would spring into action, trying to get all of the house cleaning done in the minute and a half before my mom walked through the door. We were usually less than successful.

Thinking about these things has really made me grateful for the happy childhood that I was able to enjoy. I hope my siblings have equally as happy memories.

Scars Remind Me That The Past Is Real

2008-09-19T14:32:00.004-06:00

Sitting at work today, the song "Swing Life Away" by Rise Against came up on my play list. As I was listening to the words and possibly singing along I was struck by the following lyrics.
I'll show you mine
If you show me yours first
Let's compare scars
I'll tell you whose is worse

That got me thinking about some of the scars that I've managed to give myself over the years. Most, if not all, are mainly due to stupidity on my part. I remember three scars in particular that I inflicted on myself. One on my left index finger, one on my chin, and one on my chest.

When I was five or six, my family and my grandparents went to visit my aunt who was living near Denver. She had a two story house with a basement that provided 3 floors for me to play on. I had a fun time, until the last day that we were there. At that age, I had a habit of putting my hands on counters, or tables, or anything too high for me and push myself up so I could get a better view of whatever it was I was looking at. My aunt had one table that had a glass covering with the glass broken up into 3 or 4 big pieces. Now I, of course, saw something on that table that caught my interest, so I went over and pushed myself up so I could see. There must have been something under one of the pieces of glass, because as I pushed myself up, a glass piece stuck up in the air. As I lowered myself down the piece of glass that was sticking up went right into my chest. I don't remember a whole lot about the experience except crying a lot. I don't remember it hurting or anything thing else about the experience, but I'm sure it freaked my mom out.

When I was fifteen, I had a job working as a custodian for the high school during the summer. I was helping with general clean up and getting things ready for the upcoming school year. I wasn't old enough to drive, and had to ride my bike to work everyday. After work I would come out, get on my bike, and ride home. No big deal. Until one day I got off of work and got on my bike to go home. The bike rack was up on a sidewalk area next to the school and I decided to jump my bike off the curb into the parking lot and ride home. That was my mistake. Instead of riding away as I expected, my bike fell apart. Literally. As I landed my bike broke in half at the welds and I ate asphalt. My chin was the first thing to hit the ground. I split it open pretty good and was bleeding all over the place. I somehow managed to get up and make my way back into the school so someone could call my mom. She came and we got to go to the emergency room. I got stitches and a huge bandage on my chin. I was a typical image conscious fifteen year old and having that huge bandage on my face was so embarrassing.

Just before my mission, I was working at an embroidery factory. I ran one of the huge sewing machines that embroidered 12 shirts at a time. Each shirt location had about 10 needles, each needle with a different thread color. When the machine finished with one color, the computer would switch the needles to a different color to continue with the design. It was my job to make sure that the machine ran smoothly, the patterns were straight, and make sure there wasn't any loose thread or broken needles. The proper procedure when there was a loose thread or a broken needle was to hit the all stop button on the machine, fix the problem, and then start the machine again. I guess I was in a hurry or something because I saw a loose thread and decided to pick out when the machine was changing needle color. I thought I could be faster than the machine. Turns out I wasn't. The new needle came down and went into the tip of my left index finger. I was so surprised by it that I jerked my hand away and tore open the tip of my finger. Of course I was bleeding everywhere, so I went to the restroom to clean my hand off. My boss saw what happened and asked me to wait about 15 minutes until the shift ended so he could take me to the hospital. As it turned out he didn't have a car. I had to put his bike in the back of my truck and drive us to the hospital. I ended up quitting that job a month later and went back to working at McDonald's. I don't think that I've touched a sewing machine since.

Awesomely Bad Movies

2008-09-17T17:50:00.002-06:00

Last night, Andrea and I watched the movie Call Of The Wild: Foxfire. Andrea rented it because she wanted to watch a nice family movie. I just happened to be invited along to watch. So we settled in and began watching the movie.

Now I'm not a movie snob. In fact I'm sure there are quite a few lame movies I like, but I still enjoy them. This was not one of those movies. Have you ever watched a movie that was so bad that you still found yourself amused because of how cheesy, campy, unrealistic, or badly acted it was? Normally when I'm watching a movie that I don't enjoy I try to go to sleep. Every so often though, there is a movie that is so bad that I can't go to sleep because I want to see what ridiculousness will come next. Such was the case with this movie.

I read Jack London's Call Of The Wild when I was a kid, but I don't remember a lot about it. I do remember some of the main points. Buck was a dog that was taken away from his comfortable life, became a sled dog in Alaska, and eventually heeds the call to return to the wild. The only thing that this movie had in common with the book was that the dogs name was Buck and it took place in Alaska. About 45 minutes into the movie, I turned to Andrea and asked what the point was supposed to be. There was no plot development. We could not figure out what, if anything, the characters were trying to accomplish.

Talk about bad acting. I remember wondering to myself what kind of people speak that way. The dialogue rivaled that of a George Lucas script. I actually started laughing at one point because a character was supposed to be excited about his wife staying with him and all that came out was the monotone unfeeling line, "I'm so glad that you are staying". I guess there is a reason that I've never heard of any of the actors before or since.

The direction of the movie was equally awful. There were secondary character story lines that had nothing at all to do with overall plot of the movie. These characters interacted maybe once with the main characters through out the whole movie. Yet we were still forced to see what these characters were doing even though it didn't further the plot. I think the director may have just wanted to make sure that there was more footage so it could be more than a 70 minute movie. I also enjoyed the exact same scene shot from different angles and then shown at different times through the movie. It reminded me of the stock footage that would be shown in the early days of film. It seemed the producers wanted to save money and were hoping the audience wouldn't notice. I guess that's what I should expect from a straight to DVD release.

What are some of the awesomely bad movies that you have seen? Tell me so I can steer clear of them as well.

Communication Is Key

2008-09-10T19:23:00.007-06:00

Why is communication so important? Why is being able to convey your thoughts and feelings to others so important and vital to the relationships with those around you? Psychologist and author Rollo May said, "Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing."

So communication is important because it leads to understanding, intimacy, and mutual value. In the past week or so, it has come to my attention that I'm not very good at communication. How in the world did that happen? When I'm attending school, my major is speech communication. I think I have a lot to learn. I've found that my unwillingness to communicate or my inability to communicate effectively has damaged some of my relationships. I have lost out on the understanding, intimacy, and mutual value that could have been shared with others.

I realize this makes it hard to get to know me as a person. I find having a conversation of substance is sometimes a difficult task. It is so much easier to stick to the "small talk" or to subjects of no real value. Talking and sharing my feelings has never been easy for me. I don't enjoy it. Still, I realize the importance of effective communication with others and how much it can strengthen relationships. My relationships with those around me are things that I cherish and I am making a conscious effort to improve my communication skills.

It's also important to realize that effective and meaningful communication does not only including talking, but listening also. Author Rachel Naomi Remen said:

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just
listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our
attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect
than the most well-intentioned words.

I always thought that I was a good listener. I have to come to realize that wasn't necessarily true. I have a tendency to try to solve or figure out solutions to scenarios and situations that are presented to me. I realize this is not always helpful. Sometimes the other person just needs to vent.

I really want to improve my communication skills. It will not be easy and it will not happen over night. I'm fairly sure that I'll even get frustrated at times, but the rewards of effective communication can only enrich and deepen my existing relationships. My thoughts on this subject may not be 100% coherent. In fact some of the ideas that I feel I have discovered may seem basic and remedial, but these are things that I have begun to learn. I hope that I can work to improve myself and become more effective at communicating with those around me.

My Own Before & After Photos

2008-09-02T15:38:00.007-06:00

Last night there was a surprise birthday party for my roommate and my friend Danny at my house. It wasn't Paul's birthday, but it was Danny's. The point is that the people that planned the party brought pictures of Paul to hang up with the decorations. That's when I saw this picture. Holy crap!! How did I let myself get that big? Why in the world would I let pictures of myself be taken when I looked like that? Then I started checking out Facebook and found thisI don't remember that sweater looking that tight and form fitting when I was wearing it. I know that it sounds vain when I talk about the way I look. But mostly I look at these two pictures of myself and realize how unhealthy I had become. Not good. Not good at all.

I've been on my no sugar diet for about 5 months now. No processed or refined sugar and making sure not to stuff myself full when eating. Exercise has also helped a lot too. Not only do I feel better about my self image, I just feel better. I can run and play sports and not feel like I'm going to die after 2 minutes. I can go hiking. I don't know why I ever stopped being active or started being so lazy, but I am happy that I am on my way to a more active and healthy lifestyle.

Here are a couple of pictures that were taken of me yesterday. So these are my most recent pictures.

So I think that I'm looking better. I'm not down to my target weight yet, but it feels good to have lost about 30 pounds. I never realized how much 30 pounds really is. There are some toddlers that weight about 30 pounds. I've lost the equivalent of small child without having to give birth. I'll keep you posted when I finally get down to my target weight.

Life Is The Only Game In Which The Object Of The Game Is To Learn The Rules

2008-08-29T16:26:00.005-06:00

Why do we have rules? Why are they so important to our society? Rules are known by many different names such as laws, commandments, guidelines, regulations, edicts. But they all amount to roughly the same thing. A set of principles set up by a person or people to maintain order. I was talking to Andrea today and we were discussing the importance of rules. Too often we think of rules as restrictive and keeping us from doing the things that we want to do. That is not true though. If we didn't have rules, we would be without direction. When we follow the rules it leads us to have more freedoms. Cecil B. Demille, the director of the movie The Ten Commandments" said:

We are too inclined to think of law as something merely restrictive - something hemming us in. We sometimes think of law as the opposite of liberty. But this is a false conception...God does not contradict Himself. He did not create man and then, as an afterthough impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating, restrictive rules. He made man free...then gave him commandments to keep him free. We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them - or else, by keeping them, rise through them to the fullness of freedom under God. God means us to be free. With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice.

Rules help us to make sense of the world. Whether they be national laws, rules of a game, or personal guidelines that we follow it is important that we stick to them. It is through following these rules that we find our greatest freedoms.

I'm Not Even Close To Ready For Summer To End

2008-08-28T16:58:00.004-06:00

I can't believe that it's almost September. School is starting and the summer is pretty much over. I don't like it. There are so many things that I wanted to do this summer that I didn't get to do. Don't get me wrong, it's been a great summer and I've really enjoyed it. It's just that this weekend is Labor Day weekend and I always feel like it's the last breath of summer. I know the weather will still be warm, but those lazy summer evenings are gone until next year.

Most of my friends here in Fort Collins will be in school and they won't have time just to hang out. On a side note, I hate that school is back in solely for the reasons of more traffic and fewer parking spaces. I guess that since I'm not in school, I kind of feel left out because everyone will be concentrating on school work. It would really be nice to be back in school. Someday I'll be an enrolled student again.

I was driving down the road the other day and I noticed that some of the leaves on the trees are already changing colors. Not a lot of leaves. Only one or two leaves on one tree along the whole tree lined street. But I noticed. It's only August and the leaves aren't supposed to change yet. I've also noticed that it's getting cooler and that it gets darker earlier every day. I don't like it. I wish it could be summer year round.

Don't get me wrong, fall is a good season too. I love to see the leaves change color in the mountains. It's beautiful. I love playing football on cool Saturday mornings and watching Denver Broncos football on Sunday afternoons. Though those are wonderful fall activities, they don't fill that summer activeness void. Someone should figure out a way to combine Denver Broncos Football with summer time. You can't go wrong combining two great things like that.

There are definitely certain things that have the feel of summer though. Things like songs, barbecues, baseball, ultimate Frisbee, family reunions, swimming, road trips, hiking, and countless other things. I love summer because of all the activities and good summer memories I have. I guess I'll have to let those memories hold me over until next summer.

Leaving On A Jet Plane...And Ending Up On A Road Trip Instead

2008-08-24T12:01:00.006-06:00

This weekend Andrea and I went to Las Vegas to so she could go through the temple. Her dad is a pilot and has some connections for cheap flights. Usually that means standby tickets. We went to the Fort Collins/Loveland Airport to catch our flight to Las Vegas. After getting our tickets and waiting in the terminal for a couple of hours it was time to board the plane. Because we had standby tickets we would be the last ones to get on the plane after the regular paying passengers boarded. As we were standing there waiting for our turn to get on the plane, we were told that the plane has reached it weight capacity. Something to do with the altitude, the heat, and the short runway only allowed for certain weight limit for a non-stop flight to Las Vegas. All of the regular passengers boarded the plane, and they had reached the weight limit. So those of us with standby tickets weren't allowed on the plane.

After going back to the ticket counter and trying to figure out the best way to get to Las Vegas, we came up with absolutely nothing. There was another flight leaving from Colorado Springs, but that still left us with no way to get to the Colorado Springs Airport. Even if we had made it, we still were not guaranteed a seat. We looked into renting a car to drive down to Colorado Springs but it was just too expensive for the short time that we needed it.

Another couple who also wasn't able to get on the plane because they had standby tickets too asked us if we wanted to car pool with them to Las Vegas. They were from Las Vegas and needed to get back so they could get back to work. They told us they were renting a car and were going to make the 12 hour drive. They asked if we wanted to travel with them and split the cost of the car and of gas. Of course we jumped at the chance because Andrea needed to get to Las Vegas so she could go through the temple.

Words almost escape me as to how to describe the trip. Oh, I've got it. Worst. Road Trip. Ever. We ended up renting a Chevy HHR to make the 12 hour road trip. Not a comfortable car at all. We also didn't leave Fort Collins until about 1:30 pm, so we already had a late start. And then there was just the awkwardness of spending 12 hours in close proximity of complete strangers. Thankfully Ivan & Toni (the other couple) were pretty cool and we all seemed to get along.

By the time we got to Las Vegas it was about 2 am and I was miserable. I don't know who designed the seats in the Chevy HHR, but he was a bad person. I wouldn't even call what we did in the car sitting. Sitting is supposed to be somewhat comfortable. And what we did was so uncomfortable. When we finally stopped, I couldn't get out of the car quick enough. I thought I might lose it. I was so irritated. I was so relieved to get to Andrea's house. A strange bed never felt so good.

Top 5: 80's Female Rock Edition

2008-08-18T15:55:00.004-06:00

Recently I was able to get my old computer working again. This was a huge deal for me since it's been about a year and half since I've had my own personal computer. Usually I would just use a friends computer or the one at work. But now mine is working again. It's old and slow, but it does what I need it to do.

Since I got my computer back, I've been putting music on it from the CD's that I own. It's been a fun and kind of a long process, but I finally have stuff to put onto my iPod. Anyway, while putting the music back on my computer I re-discovered that I have a bit of 80's music. This got me thinking about a Top 5 list that I could do. So I chose to do a best female rock artists/bands of the 80's as decided by me. Hope you like it. Comment on what would be in your Top 5 list.

5. The Go-Go's
I'm sure a lot of people think that this group should be higher on the list, and they probably deserve it. But they're number 5 simply because I didn't really have a lot of exposure to them growing up. Pretty much all I knew about them, until recently was that they were fronted by Belinda Carlisle. They do have catchy tunes and I realize that they were somewhat pioneers for other female rockers.

4. Nena
Yeah, I know. A one hit wonder. But have you listened to 99 Luftballoons. I've never heard a foreign language song that is so catchy. Catchy enough for me to try and learn the German words. I haven't had success at it except for knowing the phrase 99 Luftballoons. I have a lot of work ahead of me. The point is that not only was this German song successful, it was almost as successful after she sang it in English. That deserves a nod on this list.

3. Pat Benatar
With hits like "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", "Love Is A Battlefield", "We Belong", and "Invincible (Theme From The Legend of Billie Jean)" how can she not make the list? From 1981 to 1984 she won the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and was nominated in 1985, 1986, 1988, and 1989. This woman dominated 80's female rock.

2. Joan Jett
Joan Jet Rocks. Hard. Pure and simple, she rocks hard. When I see her, I think that she would out rock and out perform most of the male rock stars of the 80's. In the excess of the 80's, that's saying something. She was listed on Blender Magazine's 100 greatest guitarists of all time, which is impressive because there was only one other woman on the list.

1. The Bangles
Okay, they might be number one on my list because I used to have a crush on Susana Hoffs. But they have some really good songs too. "Walk Like An Egyptian" is definitely going to be on my Top 5: 80's songs list. They have other good songs too, like "Eternal Flame", "Manic Monday", and "Hazy Shade of Winter". After breaking up for 10 years, they got back together and are still touring, recording, and just rocking out.

George Lucas Ruined My Childhood

2008-08-14T14:06:00.007-06:00

What is George Lucas thinking? Seriously? Does anyone know what's going on in his head? Does he think that the movies that he is making now somehow enhance the wonderful movies he made in the 70's and 80's? Hasn't he done enough damage to my childhood movie memories?

I just read that he is mulling over a 5th Indiana Jones movie. Did he not see the last one? Did he think it was actually good? Not only that, but he has a new animated Star Wars movie coming out in a few weeks. Did anyone see that movie trailer and get super excited? I for one, did not. After seeing the Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith I no longer have any desire to see any new Star Wars material. I'm not sure why I was so surprised at how lame these movies are. I mean Lucas did attach himself to such cinematic gems as Howard the Duck, The Ewok Adventure, Captain EO, and Radioland Murders.

I'm not trying to pick on Lucas or say that he is a lousy film maker. Okay, maybe I am saying that he is a lousy film maker. But he hasn't always been. I mean as lame as the movies that I just mentioned are, he has also given us American Graffiti, the original Star Wars movies, the first three Indiana Jones movies, Willow, and even The Land Before Time (before it had 20 sequels). In fact, I thought that Lucas was such a great film maker that I even convinced myself to pretend to like the Star Wars prequels.

It wasn't until I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that I came to the conclusion that he no longer has any film making talent. After Crystal Skull, I came out of the theater let down because he ruined a character that I enjoyed since childhood. He doesn't seem to have any more original ideas. For the last 20 years he has been doing things involved with either Indiana Jones or Star Wars. The only exception was in 1994 when he co-wrote Radioland Murders. Everything else has been some form of spin off of work he has already done.

Jim Emerson at MSN Movies said in reference to Lucas, "He's a mogul, not a director." He re-released the original Star Wars movies in the 90's and made a bunch more money. Then he re-re-released them on DVD and made some more money. Then he re-re-re-released them on DVD again, this time without the digital enhancements he made in the 90's. Now he plans to re-re-re-re-release them again in 3-D. When does it stop?

I'm sure he still has some good ideas for new stories and films. And I would love to see some of them once he tires of tinkering with the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. I think that he is worried that any new material that he comes up with will not be well liked or as profitable as those two franchises. He's right, but who cares? At least it would be new and fresh and that's what a film maker needs to be in order to stay successful and relevant.

The World Is Just Awesome

2008-08-13T11:11:00.011-06:00

I know the Olympics are on and I shouldn't really be watching anything else on TV, but I love the Discovery Channel. So many good shows to choose from. I really enjoy Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs. But there is just so much cool stuff on the channel. Mythbusters is fun and helps me to get my science fix. For some unexplainable reason I enjoy watching Man versus Wild too. Who thought that it would be so fun to see a guy getting dropped off in the middle of no where and then try not to die in the wilderness. And don't even get me started on Shark Week. I haven't even seen the Planet Earth Series, but I think I may buy it on DVD.

The reason that I bring this up is because of the Discovery Channel Commercial that is so fun. You know the one where they change the words to from an old camp song. Boom-dee-yada, Boom-dee-yada. I love that commercial. It just makes me so excited to see the world and all of the cool things that it has. I mean on what other channels are you going to find such cool things about the world to see and learn about? Some of the shows and the shots that they get are absolutely amazing. And the Boom-dee-yada tune is so catchy I even made it my ringtone. Yeah, I know I'm a dork, but it's catchy.

Wow, that sounded like a total pitch for everyone to watch the Discovery Channel. I promise they didn't pay me anything to say that. I just enjoy the stuff that they show is all. Oh, and in case you want to here the Boom-dee-yada song, I made sure to post it for you.

In case you still want more Boom-dee-yada fun, here is a 3 minute long live version.

An Olympic Spirit

2008-08-11T13:22:00.006-06:00

For those of you who may live under a rock, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing started this past weekend. I've never been one to really enjoy the opening ceremonies, but this time I found myself excited to watch them. It was an amazing show. From the fireworks, to the 2008 drummers, to the people on the giant globe thingy, and the many shots National Stadium (aka "The Birds Nest"). It was a spectacular show. Unfortunately there weren't any actual sporting events on the day of the opening ceremonies.

Unless you're awake at 1:00 am. After the opening ceremonies it was just normal TV time for me until I saw a commercial saying that the first events would be starting after the current show I was watching. It made me kind of happy that the Olympics were happening 14 hours away so that I could watch them live. Even if it was at 1:00 am.

The commercial that came on to advertise the games made it seem like they were going to show a basketball game or something exciting right away. I was a little disappointed when the first event that they were showing was Womens Sabre Fencing. I thought to myself, "Really? Fencing? Who does fencing?" Aparently America does fencing. I watched several matches, and to be honest I found them almost comical at first. Probably because I didn't really understand what was going on. Not that I understand it now, but I have a much better idea. I found myself, after a while, actually enjoy the matches. Not something that I would have ever expected. It turns out that I ended up watching the three women that would sweep the medals for Womens Sabre Fencing.

It's funny how the Olympics changes the way one feels about certain sports. It takes a sport that is completely boring at any other time and turns it into an exciting competion. Now I'm not saying that the sports are not exciting, because I'm sure that they are plenty exciting. I'm just saying that I find myself not having much interest in those sports until the Olympic Games. I would never watch Sabre Fencing, Synchornized Diving, Badminton, Rowing, or Air Rifle Shooting or a ton of others without the Olympics. But I find myself excited to watch these competition and it helps me to have a new respect for the athletes.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

2008-08-09T23:33:00.011-06:00

My friend Nathan gave me a couple of extra tickets to the Colorado Rockies versus San Diego Padres baseball game this week. Andrea and I drove down to Coors Field in Denver tonight to see the game. I know, the Olympics were on TV and Michael Phelps broke the 400 meter independent medley. I missed it. I know, the Denver Broncos first pre-season game was on. I missed it. I know, UFC 87 was on pay per view featuring Georges St. Pierre versus Jon Fitch. I missed it.

But I'm glad I missed those things. Yeah, even the Broncos game. I had a really good time with Andrea at the game. Even though we lost 8 - 3. It was just nice to be able to spend time together and enjoy one another's company. I think the part that I enjoyed the most was actually walking to the ballpark from the car. We parked in kind of a rough neighborhood so we wouldn't have to pay for parking. We ended up having to walk passed a homeless shelter while a bunch of people were milling around outside. It was funny because Andrea's demeanor totally changed. I think that she realized that she was the only white person around. I guess I just find some other peoples discomfort entertaining.

As for the game, it was too bad that we lost. But I do love going to baseball games. There is just something about the atmosphere there. The music over the loud speakers, fan contests for prizes, and singing during the 7th inning stretch. There is almost something nostalgic about going to a baseball game. I noticed quite a few fathers and sons there enjoying the game and I realized that is one of the ways the love of baseball gets passed on from generation to generation. Much in the same way my dad passed along a love of football to me. Although I didn't grow up watching baseball with my dad, I do hope to pass on a love of the game (as well as a love of other sports) to my children.

Top 5 Fun: 80's Movie Edition

2008-08-08T13:41:00.020-06:00

I've been wanting to do some more top 5 lists for a little while, but I was drawing a blank on what types of things that I could rate. Then I saw that Ferris Bueller's Day Off was on TV and it hit me. I could do a top 5 list of 80's movies. Actually I want to do more top 5 lists as well but that might take some time. So for now I'll just stick with my 80's movies edition.

5. Conan The Barbarian - I remember seeing this movie when I was really young. I don't remember anything really about the movie except that I thought the sword fighting was pretty cool. It wasn't until I got a little older that I really understood and appreciated the movie itself. A story of a child that suffers hardships and who grows up to overcome those hardships. Eventually he has his revenge on those who caused his suffering. Classic.

4. The Never Ending Story - I absolutely loved this movie the first time I saw it. My family used to rent a VCR and videos from the local video store. I remember watching the movie like three times in the 24 hours that we had the equipment. I wanted to be a great warrior like Atreyu. I wanted to have his horse Artax and ride the luck dragon, Falkor. The Gmork, that wolf like monster that serves the Nothing, totally scared me. Such wonderful characters, how could this movie be bad? The only thing I didn't like, and still to this day can't understand, was the name that Bastian gave to the Empress. I know he give her his mothers name and that he shouts it out into the rain, but I have no idea what he says.

3. Better Off Dead - Okay, I'm not really a big John Cusack fan, but this movie is awesome. It's funny and has tons of great one liners. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl start to date. Girls dumps boy for someone more popular. Boy is depressed until he realizes he is better off with out said girl. Boy even finds a cooler and better girl to be with. Plus there are so many funny things that happen from the friend that snorts snow and jell-o trying to get high to the dancing hamburger claymation scene. And the quotes: "I'm sorry your mom blew up Ricky", "It's got raisins in it, you like raisins Lane", and "I've been going to this high school for seven and a half years. I'm no dummy. I know high school girls". So funny.

2. Weird Science - The first of the two John Hughes movies on my list. About two high school geeks trying to fit in and their creation of cyber girl come to life. What's not to love? Maybe I identified with this movie because I was somewhat geeky in high school. I dont' know. But it's another fun story about the main characters actually learning to be themselves. Actually, I'm starting to wonder if there are any 80's movies that don't take place in high school.

1. The Breakfast Club - The best John Hughes movie as far as I'm concerned. I'm not really sure what it is about this movie that I like so much. It seems like everything about the movie seems so memorable. From the characters to the music to the scenes themselves. So much so that even JC Penny has remade some of the scenes for a commercial for a back to school sale. I like how the kids start off being completely different from each other. Each from a different social group all stuck in the same situation and forced to learn how to deal with each other. I think that character development that is seen through out the movie is what I really enjoy.

Honorable Mentions: Top Gun, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Footloose, Goonies, Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, The Karate Kid, Labyrinth, Back To The Future, Brewster's Millions, Adventures In Babysitting, Short Circuit, Big, Over The Top

Are You Ready For Some Football?

2008-08-07T20:35:00.011-06:00

This week has been an awesome week for NFL football. No, there aren't playoffs or any big games happening. I'm just excited about football starting up again after 5 months, especially Denver Broncos football. I've been watching NFL Live on ESPN almost every night to get the latest scoop on what's coming up for this coming season. Last night, the HBO documentary series, Hard Knocks: Training Camp With The Dallas Cowboys started. It's an inside look at how training camp is run and how some of the players work to earn their spots on the team.

I've also been reading up a lot on the Internet about this upcoming football season, especially (you guessed it) the Denver Broncos. They started up training camp a couple of weeks ago. They have practices that are open to the public everyday that I really want to go to. Unfortunately gas costs way too much just to go see a practice. Actually gas costs way too much to even go to a game.

The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Yahoo Sports, and Fox Sports all talk about the improvements that Denver has made to their team this year. I'm really excited to see how Selvin Young does as the featured running back and too see the new linebacker set up. I'm hoping that Brandon Marshall can be nearly as productive this year as he was last year, even though he has a 3 game suspension. Jay Cutler should be a lot more productive now that he better understands the offense and has his diabetes under control. Champ Bailey and Dre Bly make up a formidable cornerback duo.

I think this year looks very promising. I don't know if they can beat the Chargers for the AFC West division. But I feel confident that they can at least get a Wild Card spot and make it into the playoffs. My prediction is that the Broncos will go at least 10-6. Hopefully they can do even better and make it past the first round in the playoffs.

My Bags Were Packed, I Was Ready To Go

2008-08-04T21:58:00.005-06:00

Tonight at Family Home Evening we celebrated the mission of Elder Plautz because he has finished his mission and is going home. For the lesson, he gave a final talk to our singles ward about doing missionary work and why it is important to share the gospel with people around us. Afterwards he did a song parody about missionary life and leaving a girl at home and getting a "Dear John" letter. It was pretty funny.

While he was doing this, I couldn't help but think about my mission and about what it was like to come home. I served my mission in San Antonio Texas from December 1996 to December 1998. It's hard to believe that it's been almost ten years since I came home. Crazy how time flies. The last day in my area was memorable, not because of who we taught, but because of how less effective it was. The crank arm on my companions bike broke and so we ended up having to walk everywhere. Fun last day in the mission field. The next day was spent in the mission office waiting as the mission president gave us our exit interviews.

The most memorable part of finishing my mission was coming home. After spending the night at the assistants apartment we were taken to the airport to catch our plane. No fanfare or anything. I was dropped off at the terminal and was left to myself for the first time in two years. I went to the gate and found out I had too many bags to be checked in without being charged an additional fee. Being a missionary I had no money and was trying to figure out how I was going to get everything home. I must have had a look of utter panic on my face because the airline worker let me check all my baggage and told me there was no charge. Talk about relief.

I don't remember much of the flight home. It must be my old age. Basically I remember running from one end of the Denver airport to the other so that I could catch my connecting flight back to Montrose. Not even enough time to find a restroom.

After landing back in Montrose, it seemed like it took forever for everyone to get off of the plane. Standing there I was super anxious. I'm not sure why though. I was excited to see my family and friends that I hadn't seen in two years, but for some reason I felt anxious. I wondered to myself how different things would be. Walking into the terminal and seeing all of my family and lots of friends there had an profound effect on me. I saw all of those people and immediately started crying. I was amazed at the love that I felt from them.

Coming home was a wonderful and happy experience but hard as well. I was no longer a missionary and wasn't sure that I knew how to be normal anymore. I look back on that day with fond memories.

Sparkling Personalities?

2008-08-04T13:35:00.004-06:00

Last night there was a group of friends at my home for our weekly Sunday night cookies get together. My friend Elisa makes the cookies and a bunch of us just sit around hanging out and talking. While we were sitting around it was brought up that someone had brought a personality test to our little party. We ended up gathering about 10 of us around our tiny kitchen table to take this personality test. I went outside right after the test questions and didn't get a chance to evaluate what kind of personality I was. Someone ended up checking it out for me. I came back into the house was told that I'm an ISTJ personality. You're thinking, okay good, what does that mean. Well I'm not really sure. I was given the book to read about what that means, but I had little interest as the new conversation totally caught my attention.
So I decided this morning to look up what an ISTJ personality is and if I really fit into the category. Looking online I found this statement about ISTJ's.

Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging (ISTJ)
ISTJs are often called inspectors. They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility. They are noted for devotion to duty. Punctuality is a watchword of the ISTJ. The secretary, clerk, or business(wo)man by whom others set their clocks is likely to be an ISTJ.
As do other Introverted Thinkers, ISTJs often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. Effusive expression of emotional warmth is not something that ISTJs do without considerable energy loss.
ISTJs are most at home with "just the facts, Ma'am." They seem to perform at highest efficiency when employing a step-by-step approach. Once a new procedure has proven itself (i.e., has been shown "to work,") the ISTJ can be depended upon to carry it through, even at the expense of their own health.
ISTJs are easily frustrated by the inconsistencies of others, especially when the second parties don't keep their commitments. But they usually keep their feelings to themselves unless they are asked. And when asked, they don't mince words. Truth wins out over tact. The grim determination of the ISTJ vindicates itself in officiation of sports events, judiciary functions, or an other situation which requires making tough calls and sticking to them.
His SJ orientation draws the ISTJ into the service of established institutions. Home, social clubs, government, schools, the military, churches -- these are the bastions of the SJ. "We've always done it this way" is often reason enough for many ISTJs. Threats to time-honored traditions or established organizations (e.g., a "run" on the bank) are the undoing of SJs, and are to be fought at all costs.

Is this really the type of person that I am? I do see some aspects of myself in this description, but do I fit it to a tee? Am I a text book ISTJ? What do you think? What kind of personality are you? You can take a personality test here. It's not the same one that I took last night. But I did take it and it also said that I am an ISTJ.

A Room With A View

2008-08-01T10:19:00.013-06:00

I've spent the last couple of nights cleaning my room. Yeah, I know, it sounds really boring and you're probably wondering why I'm even mentioning it. Let alone dedicating a whole post to the subject. Well, I've been living in my current residence for about a year and a half now. And in the whole time that I've lived there, I never finished completely unpacking or putting everything away. As a result, my room has been a constant mess of clutter. And because everyone is moving this week in Fort Collins because all the leases seem to end the last day of July, I decided that I would clean and rearrange my room just for fun. Wow, that makes me sound like a really boring and lame person. Cleaning and rearranging my room just for fun. Lame.

I've spent the last couple of nights cleaning and organizing it. Mostly between the hours of 11 pm and 3 am. Why? Because I'm not as lame as you would think. I try to go out and be social, so when I would arrive home at 11 pm, it was time to get to work.

Talk about junk. I'm not sure where or when I accumulated so many things. When I moved to here to Fort Collins, I could fit my entire life in the back of my Blazer. Not so much anymore. Since living here I've accumulated a queen size bed, a couch, a recliner, roll top desk, TV stand, and several book shelves. As I decided to clean up all the clutter that was my room I also came to the realization that I have a lot of papers. Papers from church, old credit card statements, junk mail, etc. Why do I keep all of that stuff? I don't think I keep it because I like having it. I think it's more of a 'I'll just put it down here on the desk' type of thing, and then I just forget about it until I have a huge stack of junk. I wonder if anyone else does that, or if it's just me.

Now everything is cleaned up in my room. And by clean, I mean organized. It's a really good feeling. Now the trick is to keep it like that. Maybe I should dedicate Saturday mornings to make sure that everything stays in it's place. I guess we'll see how that works out.

It's Just Like Riding A Bike

2008-07-30T16:44:00.002-06:00

Actually it is riding a bike. Something that I haven't done on a regular basis since serving my mission in Texas. While Andrea is away for the next couple of weeks working at Girl Scout camp, she left her bike here for me to use. Now I haven't owned a bike since mine got stolen on my mission. That was like 10 years ago. That's not to say that I haven't ridden a bike since then, just that I haven't been regular about it. In fact, I don't think I even rode on a bike from the time I was on my mission to living here in Fort Collins. Every time I've been on a bike since it made me just a little bit saddle sore. In fact I feel like I walk like a bow legged cowboy after I finish riding a bike.

This time was no different. Because gas is so expensive, I decided to ride Andrea's bike to our weekly ultimate Frisbee game. And because I'm such a smart guy, I didn't bring any water with me. It's only about 3 miles to the place where we play ultimate Frisbee from my house. But anyone who has ridden a bike for any amount of time know the soreness that accompanies the ride after not being on a bike for a long time.

After playing a game of 4 on 4 ultimate Frisbee and an institute class, it was time to ride home. Something that I was not excited about at all. All I could think about was how after the first day on my mission I couldn't even sit on the the bike seat because it hurt so much. But I had to get home. With more than a little dread I climbed on the bike, turned on my iPod, and started riding. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it definitely wasn't a pleasant experience. The three mile ride home was a lot longer and harder than the ride there. I felt the muscles in my legs getting sore and I was much more winded than I would have liked. I guess I just need to keep on biking around and hopefully I'll get over this soreness.

I Like To Say "Quirk". Quirk, Quirk, Quirk, Quirk!

2008-07-29T23:17:00.007-06:00

Okay, I know that the title of this post is a rip off of a Calvin & Hobbes quote, but this is my blog and I get to put down what ever I want. And I want to talk about quirks. Dictionary.com says that a quirk is a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality; mannerism. In institute class tonight, the teacher brought a bag of Clementine oranges for the class. They're the really small oranges that are really sweet and super easy to peel. Somewhere between the second and third orange, I realized that I like to peel them all in one piece. I don't like to have a bunch of little pieces of orange peel. One continuous piece is the way that I like to peel my oranges. While looking at the orange peels on the table, I got to thinking about what other kinds of quirks I have.

For one, I only like to eat one box of cereal at a time. If I open another box of cereal before finishing the previous box, I will never finish the first one. I don't know if I could mentally handle having more than one box open at a time. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's not something that I like to do.

Other food quirks:

I only like original flavored Starburst and Skittles. None of the wild berry, tropical, or fruit smoothie flavors. I want nothing to do with them.
I hate tomato-y (is that a word?) flavored things. Salsa, spaghetti sauce, whatever. If it has a strong tomato taste it's not finding its way into my mouth.
Pinto beans are the above all and be all of beans. I know lots of people like black beans, but in my book pinto beans are as good as you can get.

Other general quirks:

I hate to be late. That's not to say that I've never been late, but I don't like it.
I don't like to be in the water. Showers and baths are okay. Swimming is not something that I enjoy. Probably because I don't know how to do it. I should work on that. But it's more than that. Part of it is the difficulty of breathing from the water pressure pushing against my chest.
I would rather fall asleep on the couch than get up and go to bed. I'm not really sure why. I just don't like getting ready for bed. I think because after I get all ready for bed, I'm awake and don't feel as tired anymore.
My iTunes music must be labeled correctly with song name, album name, and artist, and album cover. It drives me nuts when it's not organized and I can't find the right album cover.

So as I sit here typing this I realize that I have quite a few quirks, some of which I don't want to name. But how many quirks does a person need to have before then are considered quirky? What are some of the quirks that you have?

...And I Ran, I Ran So Far Away

2008-07-26T15:10:00.007-06:00

Today was my 5K run. I have to say that I was not excited. I had weird dreams the night before about not being able to run and having rubber legs that I had no control over. So needless to say when it was time to go to the race, I was a little nervous. Andrea and I got there about 10 minutes before the race started and made our way to the registration table. They looked me up on the registration sheet, and my free T-shirt and race number was not there. I had to re-sign in so that I could get a new race number. Luckily they didn't charge me again.

As we were lining up to start the race, I heard one of the ladies who was some sort of an official say that there were about 600 people there. That's a lot of people. Here I was thinking this was going to be some small thing with maybe 80 people max. It was huge. There was even a band. I don't remember hearing them play anything, but they were still there set up and ready to play.

After the Star Spangled Banner, the race started. I felt pretty good as the race started. Especially after not keeping up on my training like I should have. I made sure to keep a nice steady pace so that I wouldn't poop out at the end. I didn't really think about much during the race, mostly just putting one foot in front of the other and reciting in my head the words of songs playing on my ipod. I was pretty happy when I came to the 1 mile marker. I had run a mile, and I wasn't even tired. I felt really good. That all changed by the 2 mile marker. There were people out there handing out cups of water to the runners. Just like you see on TV when you watch a marathon. I was still feeling pretty okay, not great, but okay. So I took some water. Drinking while running is an interesting experience. The water got up my nose. The water that I got in my mouth wasn't cold and trying to swallow was hard. In fact it made me feel kind of nauseous. So I quickly threw the cup away. I ended up surprising myself by how far I was able to go without walking. I went just over 2 miles before my body needed a break. So I decided to walk. Oh, did it feel good. I had only walked for maybe 2 or 3 blocks when I came to the 2 1/2 mile marker. The girls at the checkpoint were really encouraging and said that there was only half a mile left. I thought to myself, I can pick up the pace and almost sprint the last half mile. Big mistake! Although my mind said to sprint the last half mile, my body disagreed. I made it maybe a quarter mile while sprinting and then I just felt sick. I have never ever felt that bad before from running. I looked up and there was Andrea cheering me along. Just then, some 10 year old kid passed me with no problem. I was a little jealous of his endurance and energy that he had. Anyway, I gave up trying to sprint to the end and just decided to slow my pace back down to what I was doing before.

I managed to finish the race in a time of 31 minutes and 41 seconds. Not phenomenally fast, but about 10 minutes faster than I thought I was going to finish. I was feeling really good about myself and my performance. Not that I want to run another one tomorrow or anything. But I would like to run another 5k again. My friend Danny mentioned to me that there is another 5k race on Labor Day. So I guess I should keep up with the running so that I can do that race. Maybe I'll even get a better time.

Chillin' Out Making Chili

2008-07-24T10:38:00.004-06:00

Last night on the way home from work, I was trying to decide what I would make for dinner. The only criteria was that there should be left overs for lunch the next couple of days. I'm kind of easy to please like that. As I was talking on the phone (while I was driving, but you should never do) I decided that I would make chili. Now I don't really know a good chili recipe. My mom taught me how to make her chili, but that was years ago and the only ingredients I really remember were beans and ground beef. So I decided to start there and kind of make my own recipe as I went along. I know. This could have turned out horrible and I would have a bunch of gross chili that just sat in the fridge. But it didn't. It actually turned out really well. At least I think it turned out really well. And my roommate seemed to like it too. But I thought I would put the recipe that I made up as I went along to see if anyone else thinks it's any good too. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Chili
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 15oz cans of beans (pinto, kidney, black,
etc.) rinsed and drained
2 10oz cans diced tomatoes with green
chilies
2 8oz cans tomato sauce
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons hot sauce

Brown & drain ground beef. Combine ground beef, canned beans, tomatoes with green chilies, tomato sauce, spices, and hot sauce in a large pot. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer covered for 20 - 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now this recipe is in no way perfected. In fact there are some things that I would like to do different next time. I want to try using steak instead of ground beef, maybe add some flour to thicken up the sauce, and add onions and bell peppers. But in my opinion this first try turned out extremely well and no one is more surprised than myself. Like I said, if anyone decides to make it, let me know what you think by commenting.

The Dark Knight: A Comic Book Movie Pinnacle

2008-07-23T13:53:00.005-06:00

I admit it. I'm a comic book geek. And just so you know, the correct term for a comic book geek such as myself, is fanboy. I love comic books. Ever since I was a kid I would read them and enjoy their stories of struggle and heroism. My favorite super hero growing up was The Incredible Hulk. He was big, strong, and could beat up just about anyone. I used to run around as a kid growling like the Hulk from the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV show. Sometimes I was even called baby Hulk. So my love of comic books goes back a long way back.

While reading my comic books growing up I would imagine my favorite super heros in live action movies. There was even a make believe casting call in a comic book magazine that would cast real actors in the ideal roles of some comic books. Although the Hulk was my favorite, I would also read Spiderman, X-men, Thor, Avengers, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Superman, and Batman comics, just to name a few.

As I have gotten older, I have been a pretty stalwart fan of the comic book movies. I absolutely love the Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie. I was so excited for the Spiderman movie that I had butterflies while I was waiting to see it. I love "geeking out" when comic book writer names are dropped into the diologue or when Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance or when there is an additional scene after the credits. I have seen a lot of the super hero movies out there ranging from the bad (Superman 3 & 4) to the mediocre (Daredevil) to the good (Spiderman) to the awesome (The Dark Knight).

If you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet, it is amazing. This is no kiddy comic book movie. In fact, I wouldn't even recommend that kids watch it. It's dark. It's violent. It's intense. It grabs you and takes you in and does not let go. I had the opportunity to see this movie with a group of non-fanboy friends and we all loved it. I remember sitting there and watching the characters on the screen and realizing that they were as dark and life like as they are in the comic books. There was no campy 1960's Batman that was a little pudgy with a side kick that would say "Holy 'fill in the blank', Batman!" This was not the surreal Tim Burton vision of Batman or the dumb cartoony Joel Schumacher version with the "bat nipple" costume. The Dark Knight is an intense and serious movie that almost doesn't fit into the comic book movie category. This is a serious movie with a serious plot, serious (and award winning) actors, and a serious director. It is a movie with good character development and plot progression. Christopher Nolan has taken Batman back to his dark roots when he was created by Bob Kane. This movie may be the perfect comic book movie.

5K Training

2008-07-22T10:54:00.006-06:00

The 5K race that I signed up for is coming up this Saturday. I have to say that I'm not really excited about it. I've slacked off on running the last couple of weeks, so I've lost a good deal of running endurance that I had built up. I decided to start running again so I can be marginally ready for the race. I went running last Saturday morning to kind of check my progress. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't fun. It was much better than I thought it would be though, so that was a positive.

I went out and I had no desire to even be running. Just to let you know, I absolutely loathe running. Running for the sake of running is just hard. Running while I'm playing a game is easy, because there is a point to it. Chasing down a Frisbee or running with a football is so much more enjoyable for me. But I know that running is important for me to get in shape and lose some weight. So I run.

The nice thing about this running exercising not eating sugar diet thing is that I have lost weight. I've only have about 10 pounds to go until I reach my target weight. And it feels awesome to fit into some of the clothes that I had "out grown". My pants are way more baggy and I feel like I'm drowning in some of the other clothes that I have. I'm going to have to get an new wardrobe so I can have clothes that fit again. But I'll worry about that later.

Anyway, back to talking about the 5K race on Saturday. It starts at 8 am at City Park in Fort Collins. It's called the Run For Hope. It's race to raise awareness about carcinoid cancer. The race is for a good cause and I would invite anyone out to come out and support this organization in their cause. If you want to race, they are accepting entrants up until race day. You can get more information about the race at www.runforhope.net I'll keep you posted on how I do and let you know my race time.

More Flash Animation Fun

2008-07-18T15:56:00.002-06:00

I found this just surfing around on the internet. It's by the same kid who made the Animator vs. Animation cartoons below. Hope you enjoy.

Pink Army by *alanbecker on deviant ART

Top 5 Fun

2008-07-17T15:13:00.012-06:00

My friend Sandy loves to make lists. Lists ranging from favorite movies to favorite karaoke songs. So I thought I would make a few Top 5 lists of things that I enjoy. Keep in mind that these lists aren't set in concrete and more than likely will have changed within a couple of hours of posting this. But as of this moment, these are my favorites.

Top 5 Favorite Movies

5. Braveheart

4. The Matrix

3. 61*

2. Rocky

1. The Godfather

Top 5 Favorite TV Shows

5. The Office

4. Battlestar Galactica

3. Angel

2. Firefly

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Top 5 Favorite 90's Songs

5. Better Man by Pearl Jam

4. Everlong by The Foo Fighters

3. Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind

2. Enter Sandman by Metallica

1. All Apologies by Nirvana

Dating: The Great Mystery Of The Single Person

2008-07-15T20:27:00.004-06:00

I have been trying to come up for some good dating ideas for this weekend. In trying to come up with some good ideas I came across this list of dating do's and don'ts from some of the sisters that were in my singles ward. As I have been reading some of the advice and comments from the girls, I was reminded of one of the best dates that I've ever been on. I won't share that experience here. If you really want to know about it, just ask. I wanted to talk more about the perceptions of dating that we have and some of the things that I've learned in the past 15 years or so about dating. These observations are from a male point of view and if I'm way off or don't have a full understanding of what's going on, please comment. After all, I'm no expert. I'm still trying to figure this dating thing out.

1. Even if you have no intention of starting a long term relationship, most girls would still like to be asked out, even if it's just for fun. I have found that most girls would rather go out just for fun than be stuck sitting at home. Very few girls would not want to be asked out at all.

2. If you're asking a person out on a date, it's a good idea to have a plan on what to do on the date when the time for said date comes around. Girls do not like to be asked, "So what do you want to do?" Girls like the effort that guys put in to showing them a good time. If you really want to have the girls input, have a couple ideas ready for her to choose from. But never ever go in with no plan. That is usually not the way to a super fun and memorable date. Okay, it may end up being memorable, but not for the right reasons.

3. A good date is constituted of easy flowing conversation and no awkwardness. Let's face it, we've all been on dates where there is awkward silence and you couldn't think of anything to talk about. Not a fun time. Now I'm not saying that a good date will lead you to your soul mate, but the chances of finding your soul mate from a bad date are significantly less. It's important for the date to feel comfortable and laid back.

4. There are no set dating rules. What I mean is, there is no rule stating that you should call a girl 2 days before you get her number and not a moment before. There is no chart that says by the 3rd date you should be holding hands, by the 5th date there should be at least a kiss, and by the 14th date there should be a marriage proposal. Life rarely, if ever, adheres to such rules. All relationships progress differently because there are different people involved in each relationship. A relationship should progress at a comfortable pace for both people involved.

5. Even if girl is not interested in you, more than likely she will grant you at least one date. So make the most of it. Have fun. Dating is to have a good time and find traits that you like in others. Just because there may not be a romantic attraction, doesn't mean that the person has no redeeming qualities. Go out, have a good time, and you may even find a trait in that "just for fun" date that you want a future girlfriend/boyfriend to have.

6. Be the kind of person that you would want to date. If you want a person that is spiritual or that serves others, you should try to develop those qualities in yourself. The saying "birds of feather, flock together" is a true statement. I was talking to my sister and explaining to her that I wanted someone with a testimony of the Savior, someone that realizes the importance of family home evening, and temple attendance. She explained to me that if I wanted a girl with those traits and attributes, I should work on developing them in myself.

These are just a few of the things that I've learned. If I'm way off, hopefully someone will set me straight so I can get this figured out. Maybe something here will help someone else.

Computers Gone Crazy

2008-07-14T10:52:00.008-06:00

I found the first one on a friends blog and then kind of stumbled across the second. I thought both were pretty entertaining.

Animator vs. Animation

Animator vs. Animation II

Road Trips = Road Rage?

2008-07-14T10:01:00.015-06:00

I had the opportunity to travel back home to my home town of Montrose, Colorado for a family reunion this past weekend. Seeing the family was great and I enjoyed spending time with some relatives that I hadn't seen a while. But in order to get home to see all of these relatives, I had to drive for six hours to get there. Now a six hour drive normally isn't that bad. In fact, I've driven for 14 hours straight to get to a destination. So six hours doesn't seem like it would be a long time. Except that my car doesn't have AC and it's the middle of July. Not a fun experience. The nice thing was that I didn't have a car trouble, so that was a definate blessing. The drive down to Montrose was really nice. There wasn't anything to slow me down and I made really good time.

It was the trip back that was a little more irritating. While driving along I-70 into Denver, traffic just decided to slow to a crawl. There's no feeling quite like that of going 10 mph on the interstate. I'm still not even sure what caused traffic to slow down. There wasn't any road construction or an accident. It was like some people just decided to go 10 mph and slowed everyone down behind them. So lame. I couldn't believe that I was stuck in a traffic jam on a Sunday afternoon. The same thing happened on I-25 from Denver to Fort Collins. More traffic and going slow for now apparent reason. Argh! So frustrating.

The nice thing about the drive back from Montrose was that I drove over McClure pass on Highway 133. What a beautiful drive. I love going that way. It's so quiet and the beauty of Colorado is so apparent. I love that drive. It's even better in the fall when all of the leaves are changing colors. I included a few pictures from the drive yesterday. Hopefully I'll be able to get over that way again in mid-September to get pictures of the fall colors.

Playing Dress Up At Target 10 Minutes Before Closing

2008-07-10T10:19:00.014-06:00

So last night my friend Andrea and I were hanging out after going to choir. As a side note, I don't think I'll be in any more choirs. Turns out I'm tone deaf. After choir we went and delivered some homemade goodies to some of the girls on her visiting teaching route. But none of the girls were home, so we ended up just dropping off the treats and finishing up like at 9:30. After discussing what to do next, we decided to go to Target and play around there. We went and played with with a bunch of the toys in the toy section. We were bouncing balls, making all of the talking dolls talk at the same time, throwing the football around in the aisles, stuff like that. Andrea managed to knock down two display signs and damged one pretty good.

We eventually got tired of playing with the toys and Andrea came up with the idea of picking out outfits for each other to try on. By this time the store was closing in like 10 minutes. So we rushed around and found each other some clothes to try on. I, being a nice guy, chose some shorts, a shirt, and jacket that ended up looking stylishly good (scary that I was able to do that). In fact, Andrea really liked the shorts and wants to go back and buy them. For me she chose a pair of slacks, a t-shirt, and blazer. Not all of them stylish and all of them too small. Now I'm trying to lose some weight, but I'm not quite there yet. I've got a little ways to go. The t-shirt was like trying to pull on a second skin, it was that tight. But I managed to squeeze into everything. Not comfortably, but squeezed in just the same. After getting all dressed up, we got one of the dressing room clerks to take a couple of pictures. I haven't had that much fun on a trip to Target in a long time.

A Sporting Chance

2008-07-09T11:39:00.005-06:00

Growing up, all we ever watched in my house was football. And not just any football mind you, but Denver Broncos Football. My entire family are huge Broncos fans. I remember going to my grandma's house and showing up there with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins all ready to watch that weeks game. There was always lots of cheering for our team. In fact I remember watching John Elway engineer "The Drive" against the Cleveland Browns. I had chicken pox at the time, but I remember mustering up enough energy to actually jump up and down when Elway threw the touchdown pass to Mark Jackson that tied up the game. Football has always been my favorite sport and I have lots of wonderful memories of watching Broncos games with family and friends.

But with in the past few years of my life, I have found and come to love other sports as well. I'm not saying that any of them will have a place in my heart like Denver Broncos Football, but I have grown to appreciate so many different types of sporting events. Within the last year or two I can't seem to get enough baseball. I would have to say that I root for both the Colorado Rockies and the New York Yankees. But my enjoyment of baseball has gone even beyond just watching "my teams". I found myself watching a game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox the other day, for no reason other than it was a baseball game. I don't really care for either team and could care less if they win or lose. The only thing that I can figure out as to why I might care is that they are both ahead of the Yankees in the AL East. But baseball has become a wonderful pleasure that I enjoy and I plan on watching many more games, both in person and on television.

Another sport that I can't seem to get enough of is Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). The first time I saw an MMA match, I was living in Baltimore and a friend decided to order it on Pay Per View. I think it was the second UFC match between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock. I remember thinking that it was incredibly boring. They're were both on the ground and I couldn't really see anything exciting that was going on. So I decided that it wasn't a sport that I was interested in. Flash forward a few years. My roommate had an membership to the local video store to rent as many movies as you wanted for a flat fee. We watched all the movies that we could think of, and then ran out of anything else we wanted to see. That's when we discovered the older UFC fights on DVD. We rented a couple and took them home and were just blown away at the skill, athleticism, and respectfulness of the fighters. After that first DVD we were hooked. We ended up going back to the video store and eventually watched every MMA DVD they had.

I guess I'm just wondering out loud why I have been turned on to so many different kinds of sports when all that was watched growing up is football. I find myself watching so many different sports and I wonder where it started. I'll end up watching professional tennis, and world strongman competitions, Nascar, and even golf. I don't even understand the sport of golf and have never played it, but I find myself watching. Explain that. Heck I even watched the hot dog eating championship on the 4th of July. Although I think I found that to be more novelty and circus side show than sport. But I do enjoy the watching so many sports and I find that I enjoy identifying with a team or individual. I hope to pass a love of sports and respect to my prosperity, especially a love of Denver Broncos Football.

The First Time

2008-07-08T10:29:00.001-06:00

So I don't really know what I'm doing here. I guess I just wanted to start a blog about my life and some of my thoughts. Instead of sharing my life story, I'll just share my current thoughts and eventually I'll talk about things from the past that will give a better idea as to who I am.

At the beginning of the summer, I decided that I needed to be more active in my lifestyle. Less sitting around and more physical activities. I decided to do this for a few reasons. First, I love to play sports and games, but I would just get tired running around after about two minutes. Seconds, I kind of freaked out when I saw stretch marks from gaining so much weight. And third, I think I just wanted to feel better about myself.

So I decided that I should start running. Although when I started, I don't think I would have called it running. More like walking with occasional short bursts of speed. I figured that if I really wanted to lose some weight that I should buy a scale so I could measure my progress. I went and got a relatively inexpensive scale and weighed myself. I got on and I thought I had bought a defective scale. I had no idea I weighed that much. Talk about depressing. I was looking for things around the house that I knew the weight of so I could put them on the scale to see if it was really wrong. Turns out it wasn't. I was about 30 pounds heavier than I thought. That's when I decided that I needed to do something about it.

I decided that I'm not eating any more refined sugars. No more cookies, cakes, pop, candy, anything. Anything with high fructose corn syrup or anything else refined was out. I quit it all, cold turkey. Natural sugars like honey and fruit are okay. Then I realized that I needed to stop eating until I was uncomfortably full. Learning to eat only until I am satisfied has been interesting. I've worked hard to make meals with smaller portions. And when I'm not hungry anymore, I stop. Then I set a goal of being able to run a 5K race. Not fast, just to be able to finish it. That's coming up on July 26. We'll see how it goes. I've been at this for about 2 and a half months now and so far I've lost 20 pounds. Hopefully I'll be able to keep losing weight and get down to my target. I'll keep you posted.