Deep roots are not touched by the frost...

Chirp, chirp...

2012-09-01T22:02:00.001-06:00

Hello there. You may have noticed there's been no new posts here for quite a while. That's because I moved my blog to WordPress a while back.

I don't blog often these days, but when I do, you can find it at http://alesplin.wordpress.com.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

2010-07-26T22:47:00.013-06:00

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Today Nicole and I have been married for 7 years (the 2002 picture is when we were first dating). Sometimes it seems like only yesterday, and sometimes I have a hard time remembering what life was actually like before Nicole. Either way, the constant thing is that it's been the best 7 years of my life. I'm sure most people who knew us separately before we met were scratching their heads and wondering how two people so apparently different could date, let alone get married. But the end result is something that perhaps neither of us imagined. Life with Nicole has opened my eyes to a lot of world previously beyond my horizon. She's been a constant source of stability (something which I didn't have a lot of pre-Nicole) and comfort. She encourages (forces?) me to really think about things I never gave a lot of thought to, and not to just think something because somebody (anybody) else does. I could go on and on about why I love her, but perhaps most of all I love her because she loves me, not just for who I am, but for who I have the potential to be.

Well, that was new and exciting...

2010-06-22T23:51:00.006-06:00

Today, at about 6:40, I experienced something completely new. I was riding my bike on State road 77 (4000 S) west toward where the road curves south to go into Lake Shore and Benjamin. (the A is pretty close to where I was)

Before I get into the new experience of the day, let me give a little background. This is a road cycling haven. Long, flat, straight roads with little traffic. Last Saturday I rode out this road to West Mountain and had an incredible day. The few cars overtaking me were moving all the way to the other side of the road to give me plenty of room. Farmers waved hello from their tractors. I saw several other cyclists, real roadies who greeted me with a cheerful, one-hand-off-the-handlebar wave, and I felt like I had finally found the ladder to the secret clubhouse. It's a perfect place to start increasing the mileage on my endurance rides.

Today, it was not so perfect. A faded red, mid-to-late 80's Ford F-series with a silver/chrome strip down the side (I think that was the Lariat trim model) drove by me, heading east. I saw a dark object flying toward me and ducked my head instinctively. After (a non-trivial) impact, I briefly wondered how that big of a rock had gotten up on the road and thrown up by the truck. Then I saw the object, which had bounced off my head and was still in the air headed toward the cat-tails growing out of the ditch on the other side of the road, silhouetted against the sky. It was a largish (probably 32 oz.) bottle of water. I immediately stopped, but the truck was too far away to make out the license plate. Then I thought to take off my helmet and have a look.

To be clear, I'm okay. I've had a bit of a headache this evening, but I'm fine. But I was extremely lucky. If it had hit me anywhere other than the head (where my helmet earned its $100 by bouncing it clean off) or hit my bike, I would have been doing a 20 mph tumble on rough asphalt. Not to mention the injury the bottle would have done to me if it hit anywhere other than my helmet.

So now I have to buy a new helmet. And, for Nicole's peace of mind, I have to find someplace else to stretch out the miles when I go for a ride. (Provo Canyon is a great place to ride, but that's a pretty steep hill to go riding up for 20 miles, let alone the downhill trip on a fixed-gear...)

I know that nobody reading this blog is likely to be the kind of person who'd throw something out a truck going 45 mph at a cyclist. But everyone can help. You can help people start seeing cyclists. You can watch for instances of illegal and belligerent behavior toward cyclists and report them. Since it seems clear that some people will not use the brains God gave them, the rest of us have to pick up the slack, and it really needs to be sooner than later.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T01:03:00.005-07:00

Disclaimer: I'm in no condition to go anywhere to take pictures of fireworks, so I'm using some from the 4th of July last summer.

The daytime of the night.

2009-08-29T23:05:00.008-06:00

I've spent a lot of time outdoors in the nighttime. I've driven a lot of miles in the middle of the night with the moon so bright that sometimes I've just turned off my headlights (when there weren't other cars around) and driven by moonlight. I've always enjoyed hiking by moonlight, and I've been quite surprised by how well you can see, and how much you can see, by the light of the moon and stars. So a couple months ago when I was looking at the dates for our trip to Hawaii I was quite pleased to see that the full moon would occur during our trip. So I spent a few nights wandering around the resort and the beach with my camera and tripod. Here's some of the cool stuff you can see in the middle of the night at the Marriott's Maui Ocean Club.

the view of the pool from our balcony

palm trees leaning out over the beach, lit by tiki torches

a little farther away from the torches

hiding the moon to see the stars

amazing how much color you can see in the dark if you look long enough

the beach melting into the ocean

looking down the beach toward Lahaina

tiki torches + long exposure time = pretty cool

pretty cool how far stars move in 20 seconds

a little time lapse of the moon rising

Hawaii Highlights

2009-08-28T21:58:00.006-06:00

I like Hawaii. A lot. Although I don't surf or boogeyboard, and I'm not a super-great swimmer, I _love_ the ocean. And it just so happens that Hawaii is smack dab in the middle of a great big, blue ocean. Very blue. I have always loved spending time outdoors. Having grown up partly in the South while my dad was in the Army, and partly in the desert and the mountains in and around Orderville, I have a little bit of a schizophrenic ecological preference. I like swamps. I like forests. I like deserts. I like mountains. And awesome-ly, Hawaii has all of that. And jungles, which I didn't grow up with, but which are quite cool nonetheless. I remember not quite knowing what to expect the first time we went, in 2003. Driving across the desert side of the island to the western side of Maui, you see a lot of brown grass, scrubby bushes and lava rocks. Sound familiar? Yup. Looks just like home. Only with an ocean. So now that we've established that I like Maui, here are some highlights:

sunset over the ocean. from my seat at dinner. yup. love that Lahaina Fish Company.

the daytime of the night. at the resort.

for some reason I like taking pictures at night.

not quite sunset from the boat.

closer to sunset. still on the boat.

apparently I like sunset pictures.

bridge on the road to Hana.

Wai'anapanapa. near Hana.

waterfall by a bridge on the road to Hana.

sunset at the resort.

the edge of a very hard seat. on a canoe.

patterns in the sand. Lahaina.

Me and the people.

2009-07-12T19:41:00.008-06:00

Nicole reminded me after my last post that there were no pictures of me (or us, or me and the kids) in it. Which is not surprising, since all of those pictures came from my camera. So here's some pictures of with me in them from our trip to Newport Beach. And the ocean. And Disneyland. :) (These were all taken by Natalie or Nicole)

Me

Me and Nicole

Me and Ethan

Me and Chelsea

Me and Jayden

Gang pictures

Newport Beach trip 2009

2009-07-10T22:24:00.013-06:00

So I'm finally getting around to documenting our trip to Newport last month. To begin with, an amusing photgraphic anecdote:

Nicole's shoes for the trip (she would like you to know she's not crazy):
My shoes for the trip:

The night we got down there had one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen. After rushing back from taking the kids to the pool, I grabbed the tripod and took a few pictures:

Our first day at Disneyland, I was the designated water carrier so I didn't take my D60. Therefore, I only took like 3 pictures with our little point & shoot. But look how pretty I am... :p

Tuesday we went to Laguna Beach for a while in the morning and hung out at the pool and condo in the afternoon.

The next day was our Downtown Disney day, as well as Ruby's on Balboa Pier for some tasty burgers.

Thursday I left my Camelbak at home and took my D60 to Disneyland. As Nicole has said many times, one of the coolest things about Disneyland is the attention to detail. There's a lot packed into a relatively small area and it all, down to the last chair, is meant to add to the completeness of the park. Here's just a few of my favorites from Disneyland.

Friday was another mellow day at the condo and the pool. The grounds at the Marriott's Newport Coast Villas are fairly well suited for the whole Tuscan theme.

As is customary, we stopped in Baker on the way home for a gyro (for me--everyone else eats somewhere else). Here's a few pictures of the Halloran Desert, south of Death Valley.

We got back to St. George just in time for dinner and the sunset.

Wiser words...

2009-07-07T23:44:00.005-06:00

My dad once gathered my brother and me up, and said he was going to tell us the secret to success. His next words were, "Win if you can, lose if you must, but no matter what happens always cheat." My mom yelled at him from the kitchen of the trailer we were living in, and I figured I had it made. Since that day (I think I was 11) I've evolved through varied definitions of the term "cheat". Occasionally in my younger years, "cheat" meant do whatever it took to win/get ahead. In the Disney film The Sword In The Stone, the wizard Merlin defines cheating as using magic: "Every last trick in the trade, if I have to." He doesn't do anything dishonest, even when Madam Mim turns into a purple dragon (the dishonest form of cheating), merely thinks very creatively. When I realized that honesty and integrity were important to me, my definition of "cheat" took a turn in this direction.

I've had some fairly proud "cheat" moments in my life, though only a couple stand out as the years go by. One was in my last job, where 16 alligator clips, 2 ethernet cable ends, 2 pieces of foam, and some very creative soldering became what we called the "superhack" and allowed us to verify that 1200 feet of CAT 6 ethernet cable were still useful and didn't need to be thrown away.

The most recent was on our return from Newport Beach, where I discovered that my fine Swiss watch is water resistant but not steam resistant. On getting the watch back from the store where it had been dried out, I discovered that the date was wrong. Whereupon I discovered that the knob setting that allows turning the date forward was not working. No worries, I could just turn the hands (that still worked) forward and the date would go forward that way. Whereupon I discovered a problem. It takes roughly 3 spins of the little knob to turn the hour hand 360 degrees (12 hours). It was July 1. The date according to my watch was the 9th. Faced with the prospect of roughly 132 spins of that tiny little knob, I improvised. With a little dose of awesome. Enjoy.

The Thing That Should Not Be

2009-06-18T00:54:00.003-06:00

(other than the fact that I'm still awake right now)

Any of you who follow me on Twitter, or read the Facebook status updates that are piped there from Twitter know I've been somewhat actively following the situation in Iran. For those of you not following as closely, here's a brief (not in any way guaranteed to be accurate) synopsis:

1. Friday, June 12: Iran holds their election to determine a new president, with 85% of the population turning out to vote (with some precincts reporting more bodies than registered voters). Less than 2 hours after the polls close, Supreme Leader Khamenei declares Ahmadinejad the winner 63% to 35% (roughly). This despite the fact that all of their ballots are paper. This despite the fact that previous elections have taken days to tally and have resulted in a runoff between the 2 candidates with the highest number of votes. This includes the fact that Mousavi apparently lost IN HIS HOME CITY. Strange, no?

2. Saturday, June 13: Mousavi and the other "reformist" candidates declare the election a fraud and demand not just a recount, but a new election. Protests begin in the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities.

3. Sunday, June 14: Protests get larger and more violent, Basiji (plainclothes "police" loyal to the Supreme Leader) begin to exercise violence in attempting to quell the protests. The regime begins blocking Internet chat sites, email, Facebook, and other communication channels. Some reports say that the communication crackdown began BEFORE THEY ANNOUNCED THE ELECTION RESULTS. Late Sunday night, Basiji storm the dorms at a (maybe several?) Tehran university arresting many students, and killing some (I'm not CNN). Many (perhaps hundreds by now) of the students detained in these nightly raids ARE STILL MISSING.

4. Monday, June 15: Mousavi supporters take to the streets in previously unheard-of numbers in Tehran and other cities. Non-violent protests of nearly 2 million are estimated in Tehran alone. As the numbers swell, tension between Basiji and other government "security" forces rise. Government security goons riding motorcycles (one guy driving and one guy whacking people with a nightstick) are patrolling the street. Several are pulled from their motorcycles and set upon by protesters, then rescued by other protesters who remember that Mousavi has asked them to remain non-violent. By the end of the day it's estimated that security forces (with the Basiji being the most violent) have killed over 10 protesters and seriously wounded who knows how many others. Major news channels (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc) which have been mostly silent on the budding revolution begin to provide coverage. In particular, the Boston Globe posts a page full of pictures that have been squeaked out of the attempted communications crackdown. Worldwide attention has been fully captured (including mine) due to the paradigm-changing phenomenon that is twitter. Things are getting serious. People around the world (including yours truly) are displaying green in profile pictures, clothing, and virtually anything else imaginable as a show of support and sympathy for the Iranians. Obama (very wisely, even though I'm not his biggest fan) states that the government of Iran is for Iranians to determine, preventing the regime from having the US as a scapegoat. The world (including the US State Department) talks Twitter and their network provider from moving a scheduled downtime from 9:45PM Pacific time Monday (the middle of the day in Tehran) to 2:00PM Pacific Time (roughly 1AM in Tehran) Tuesday, since Twitter is a vital communication tool for the protesters. People from all over the world are setting up proxies for Iranians to connect to the Internet through, bypassing the government's blockade on web communication. A young protester is shot in the face by a Barsiji outside one of the headquarters buildings, and the protesters on that street storm and burn down the building.

5. Tuesday, June 16: More rallies, more violence. Rogue twitter accounts (opened by government or government-friendly individuals) begin attempting to spread misinformation amongst the resistance. This remains largely ineffective as by now most people who are taking anything like an active role (even in just observing) know who the reliable sources are. Higher-ranking reform "leaders" have been arrested, with no-one aware of their whereabouts. It is estimated that by now over 4M people have taken to the streets in Tehran alone. It appears that this has escalated beyond a simple recount or brand new election, and that most of the protesters want real change.

6. Wednesday, June 17: Nighttime raids by the Barsiji on university campuses continue. Government is attempting to tighten its grip on outgoing Internet communication, but people from all over the world continue to set up proxy servers, VPNs, and other anonymous means of communication on the web. Stats begin to show up concerning twitter traffic, with a report of a peak volume of over 200,000 tweets in one hour concerning the situation in Iran.

As most who know me are already aware, I'm a firm supporter of the ideas espoused and enshrined by the Founding Fathers of the United States. This includes the right (and responsibility) to protest against, and if necessary overthrow, oppressive government. I honestly can't say that it is a majority of the 70 million citizens of Iran who want change. What I can say is that enough want freedom that they deserve to be heard. The Constitution of the United States was not a complete, unanimous consensus but rather a carefully (and hotly) debated series of compromises between vastly differing interests. To be frank, I don't care what kind of government Iran has when this is all over, but I know 4 things:

1. In looking at the pictures coming out of Iran, it is startlingly clear that most of these people are not so different than me. They go to school like me. They go to work like me. They love their families. Some of them even look a little bit like me.

2. These people are human beings, and as such deserve at the very least a voice, and for that voice to be heard.

3. From what I can tell, the vast majority of these protesters have been non-violent, and in return hundreds have been met with brutality, kidnapping (it's not an arrest when you are not charged with anything and nobody knows where they're keeping you) and murder. Yup. That's what I said. When an armed man shoots into a crowd of unarmed people, I'm calling that murder.

4. These people are doing the exact same thing that I would be doing in their situation. They are doing very nearly the same thing that led to the birth of the United States. They believe, as do I, that all children of God have certain, unalienable rights. So, they say Allah o Akbar (God is Great). I say God bless them, and I'll be praying for their voice to be heard. As the updates flash by on my screen at work, I'll be hoping to see a peaceful, productive end to this uproar, and hoping that the voice of the Iranian people will continue to be heard.

At long last...

2009-06-06T23:51:00.005-06:00

For the last couple of years, whenever Nicole and I have gone on a trip, she's taken her camera and I've used our little point & shoot. Whenever I've tried to do something that was just plain beyond its capabilities, I would ask if I could borrow hers. The answer was usually the same: "Buy your own dang camera." She almost always actually let me use hers, but only under protest.

So I saved for a while, and with the aid of some birthday funds I bought a Nikon D60 and took up a new hobby. Then, just the other day Nicole and I were up taking pictures of the sunset at Rock Canyon and she pointed out that after 6 years we've finally found a common interest; something we both like to do. So I've collected my favorite pictures I've taken since April. You can see more at my picasa web album.

One of the cacti at H&I's house in Green Valley. (4-4-09)

An interesting rock across the street from there. (4-5-09)

Some flowering pear blossoms on Easter morning. (4-12-09)

A little branch of a runoff crick in the South Fork of Provo Canyon (5-3-09).

Sunset from Rock Canyon. (5-14-09)

A white flower. yup, that's right. (5-22-09)

The eyes of a storm over Orderville. (5-23-09)

A wide panorama of the sunset from Slate Canyon (5-29-09)

The runoff crick coming out of Rock Canyon. (5-31-09)

A wide panorama of the sunset from Rock Canyon (5-31-09)

The Big Dipper at about midnight. (6-5-09)

Sunset over Deer Creek Reservoir (6-6-09)

Wordless Wednesday: you'll never guess who I went to take pictures with...

2009-06-03T23:40:00.001-06:00

Me and Mr. E.

2009-04-27T19:41:00.005-06:00

So I'm finally getting around to remembering that I have a blog now that the semester is over and I've survived the usual last-week-of-class ordeal. Nicole's sister Natalie and her kids were visiting from Denver so here are some pictures that I took or was otherwise involved in.

Watching a little Planet Earth...
After watching a little Planet Earth...
Nicole and Mr. E. (whose facial expressions remind me a _lot_ of Calvin)...

So many eggs, all to myself...

Photos by me, except the ones with me in them, which were not by me growing telekinetic powers (as cool as that would be) but rather (and much less cool-ly) were taken by Nicole.

Apparently it's the day for it...

2009-03-26T20:16:00.005-06:00

According to my FSIL Natalie, Thursdays are the days for random thoughts. I've been having lots lately, so here are a few of them:

1. I went to turn in my Honor Code sheet about a week and a half ago. The middle-aged lady who was there mentioned I could use a shave. I didn't argue; it had been a couple of days. The only reason I hadn't shaved the night before (or that morning) was because I was up until like 0200 taking a midterm and shaving with a straight razor when you're very tired is not a good idea. Here's where the fun begins. As I turned to leave she informed me that they couldn't process my form until I came back and showed them a clean-shaven face. Yup, that's right, you actually read that, and she actually said it. After handing her a paper that said I give my word to abide by the Honor Code, and told her the reason why I was a little scruffy, the Honor Code office lady told me she couldn't take that word, and that I had to come back clean shaven to show them that I do, in fact, at age 28 know how to shave. I'm _very_ tempted to not go in for another week or so, then not shave again. Since going in once with a clean-shaven face means I'll always be clean shaven. Unreal.

2. Apparently I really like AC/DC these days. I've been listening to last.fm and pandora.com at work a lot lately, and hearing a lot of their older stuff that I don't have in my collection any more (temporarily). Loving it. My favorites are Jailbreak, Let There Be Rock, Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, and Who Made Who.

3. Two swear free weeks can come to a very sudden end when a burr in the edge of a very nice straight razor you are sharpening catches on the edge of your hone and breaks a big chip in the edge. Here's to starting over (on the razor and not swearing).

4. It's amazing to me how many people/companies/other entities want the government to stay the heck out of their lives until we are in a recession. Then they want to figure out every possible way to get the government in their lives (monetarily at least). Amusing.

5. Friction and Inertia are very interesting things. My favorite scripting language is Python. It's clean, enforces well-structured code, and awesome. However, I find myself using Perl (can be made clean with effort, can have well-structured code with effort) on lots of scripting projects at work because there is very little inertia in interfacing with system commands and regular expressions/pattern matching in Perl.

6. The cream almost _always_ comes off on the cookie side of the golden oreo with the crack. Since I like to split the cookie and lick the cream off, I find this _highly_ annoying.

7. One of my resolutions this year was to get back in shape. The 100 pushup challenge was a good start. I'm fairly well pleased with my progress there. In 2.5 months I've gone from being able to do 50 or so all at once to being able to do 75 _after_ doing 200 spread over 4 or 8 sets. Pullups (using the same progression) are progressing much more slowly, since my biceps and lats are working with my whole (too heavy) body, but we're making progress. Situps are another story. I've always hated situps, and consequently have yet to actually hold myself to the plan with situps. Once it warms up a little bit I'll start running again. That ought to be a hoot. But I can't ride my bike this summer and I have to do something. Plus, when I ever get back in any kind of shape I'll enjoy running like I used to.

8. There are only 2.5 weeks left of the semester. I have to get my butt in gear. Big time. which means that's enough random thoughts for one evening...

p.s. By the time most of you read this, you'll be getting the version that has been edited for clarity and proper-ness... :)

Happy Endings

2009-02-19T19:19:00.003-07:00

Well, yesterday was my grandpa's funeral. Having grown up in a small town with lots of older folks in it, I've been to my fair share of funerals for those who've lived long, full lives and were ready to move on. In addition, I've been to some for those who I wasn't ready to have move on without me, starting with my Uncle Daniel's little baby girl Shannon (who was stillborn) and my grandma on my mom's side, who died at the age of 57, one month before I went on my mission. Possibly the saddest funeral I've ever been to was that of one of my best friends from my mission, who died 4 years after he came home, and less than 2 years after getting married.

Our lives are stories, and my grandpa's is one I'd dearly like to have seen firsthand. And yet, as I look back at what I know of my grandpa's life, his has shaped mine, and many of the qualities I so admired in him have occasionally peeked through in me.

Grandpa spent several years living out with the sheep herd, and later working cows. I spent a lot of my spare time in high school wandering around (on foot or in my truck) out in the desert and up on the mountain, in many of the places my grandpa had been years before.

It was partially because of him that I joined the Army, and he and my dad taught me how to spit-shine my first issued pair of boots. Occasionally when things got a little hard at Basic Training and AIT, the knowledge that my grandpa (and my dad) had been there before helped me to keep going.

Grandpa was an excellent cook, although not one to really use recipes. He just put stuff together and it always tasted good. With some help from my dad, I also am not a recipe cook, and my meals almost always turn out pretty darn good.

Grandpa was a quiet joker. He never said much, but you could always tell that there was a little glint of mischief in his eyes, waiting for the chance to come out, and some of my clearest memories of my grandpa were when he was pulling a joke on someone. I'm not nearly as quiet as Grandpa was, and my jokes are a little more frequent and usually a little less subtle than some of his, but you know...

Grandpa just kept on going. My mom used to say he could teach the Energizer Bunny a thing or two about that, and it's true. I mentioned the other day his ability to wear me into the ground when I went hunting with him when I was a kid. It never quite sunk in to me that those walks (runs, for me) all over creation when I had to run to keep up, and would be _very_ tired the rest of the day, were when he was 70 years old. And all that wood we hauled, when I couldn't hardly stack fast enough to keep ahead of him were when he was closer to 80 than 70. You'll have to ask me in 50 years whether or not I measure up to him in that respect, but the one thing I've always been able to do in my life, no matter how hard things have been, is just keep on going.

Grandpa's life definitely left its mark on him. As long as I can remember, he's had kind of a hunch to his back, and the last several years he said it took him a little longer to get going in the mornings than it used to. However, I never heard him complain about it. When he said it was a little harder for him to get around than it used to be, it was merely a statement of fact, usually immediately followed by him telling me that no, I didn't need to cut and haul firewood for him, because if I did he wouldn't have anything to do. As young as I am, I'm not a complete stranger to this. A foot I broke a few years ago causes me to limp for about 5 minutes when I wake up, and one or both of my elbows (which took a lot of strain from construction work and high school wrestling) sometimes seize up, and won't move (in either direction) until they pop. Nicole likes to play cards sitting on the floor, and if I play for more than 15 minutes or so, it takes me a good 3 or 4 minutes to stand up completely straight and walk normally again. And yet I miss working outside, with my hands, and I can't wait to have a yard to work in, and take my kids (if we're ever able to have any) to go cut wood up in the mountains with their grandpa.

And now to endings. Grandpa was an incredible man. He lived a full, long life, and was a great grandpa. I don't know much about many of the trials he may have faced, or things he might have struggled with, but I do know that all my life he's always been the same. Sure, he was a little more frail the last couple of years, but that didn't change him much in my eyes. Last Friday, he cut my uncle Richard's hair, had Grandma cut his hair, hauled in some wood for the stove, watched Logan cut up some kindling, built a fire, and sat down in his chair to watch the evening news, just a day like almost every other day for the past several years. He died peacefully, at the end of a normal day. None of us can think of a better way or time for him to go, and we know we'll see him again someday. I, for one, can't wait to see him tall and sturdy as my dad and uncles knew him. Now that's what I call a happy ending. Or beginning. Or maybe both.

Grandpa, me, Mike, and Nathan

Gone but never forgotten...

2009-02-15T16:31:00.002-07:00

Friday evening while Nicole and I were at Carrabba's for our Valentines date I got a phone call from my grandma's number. Normally, I don't answer or return calls when out with Nicole, but my grandma _never_ calls me. So I checked my voicemail to discover my dad telling me that my grandpa (his dad) had passed away earlier that afternoon. Although it was not entirely unexpected, as he was 90 years old and finally starting to slow down, I found myself sadder than I thought I'd be (most who know me know I'm not emotional about much at all). After Carrabba's, I took Nicole to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (we'd already been, but Nicole _really_ liked it, so I figured we'd go again) and I have to say, watching that movie on a "normal" day (we saw it for Nicole's birthday the first time) is one thing, but watching it an hour after learning that my grandpa died was a totally different experience, and not in a bad way.

When we got home that evening, Nicole of course had to blog about the movie again, and I figured that we'd be going to bed fairly soon, so I didn't start working on homework. So I sat and remembered things about my grandpa. Here are some of my thoughts about a truly incredible man:

1. 20 years ago, I never wanted to be the one to go with Grandpa when we split up while hunting, because I had to run the whole time to keep up, and he never seemed to slow down. Ever.

2. A large part of the reason I switched from wanting to be a fighter pilot when I was that little to wanting to be in the Army was when I learned that Grandpa had served in World War 2, and his dad (my great-grandpa) had served in France in World War 1.

3. A few years later, when I was big enough to do actual work when we would go cut firewood but still young enough that I didn't realize exactly how old he was, I began to take it for granted that stacking on Grandpa's side of the truck meant that I had to stack fast, because he would hand wood up into the truck much faster than I could stack it, and he never seemed to slow down. Ever.

4. As long as I can remember, Grandpa has had a fairly significant hunch, which I learned about the same time (age 13 or 14 or so) had come partly because of having several inches of his small intestine removed after being shot 5 times in a failed robbery of the rock and jewelry shop he and my grandma ran at the time (early 70's) and partly from working _very_ hard his entire life. Grandpa's toughness and resiliency took on a whole new meaning for me then.

5. When I got older and started wandering around the Arizona Strip and Cedar Mountain by myself (well, with my gun and my dog) I would spend some evenings sitting in Grandpa's room telling him where I'd been, and listening to what he had done in those same places. I learned a _lot_ about the places I loved to be from him. I learned where the deer went during different seasons, where the eagles wintered, and a host of other things from these evening visits.

6. We used to sit around listening to Grandpa's stories every now and then, and let me tell you, he's been there and done that (at least as far as outdoor things are concerned).

7. I don't think I'll ever have sourdough biscuits as good as the ones Grandpa used to make.

8. Dad, Grandpa and I (sometimes with my mom along for the ride) used to go scouting for the place we'd go roll Easter Eggs every Easter. Despite the fact that we went every year, he always knew where there was another sandy hill that would make a good egg-rolling track.

9. After I got home from Basic Training, Dad and I would spend evenings talking to Grandpa again about different places around Southern Utah, what animals lived where, what we'd seen out riding around, etc...

10. Grandpa had a sense of humor. One evening in the fall probably in the early-to-mid-90's when most of the family was there and we were bottling veggies, Grandpa starting making the rounds with spoonfuls of his pickle-relish. It was yummy, until the little red chilis he had put in it kicked in, at which time he'd laugh and bring a glass of water.

11. On another occasion, Grandpa laughed for about 15 minutes straight at Mom's reaction to something that she wished she hadn't said. First time I'd ever seen him laugh so hard he cried. If you were there, you know what I'm talking about. If you weren't there, you'll have to ask me in person as I won't incriminate anybody or anything on my blog. :) (don't worry, it's nothing very bad)

12. Even as he got older (as if mid-70's isn't old enough to start slowing down) and started to slow down a little, he still chopped and carried in his own firewood, fed and took care of my uncle's animals, grew a garden (until just a year or two ago) and did the same stuff he'd always done, just not quite as much of it.

I have far too many memories of Grandpa to list them all here, but I'll always remember the time I spent with him, sitting by the wood stove, sitting in their living room, sitting on the chest in his bedroom while he rested in the evenings. For a lot of years of my life, Grandpa was a central figure in things I liked to do: hunting, hiking, camping and many others. I learned many valuable life lessons from him, not the least of which is to just keep on going. and going.

So I'll miss my grandpa. He's always been there, and always been such a solid and seemingly unchanging part of my life. But the silver lining is that sooner or later I'll see him again, tall and straight as he was before being shot and long years of hard work, and I'm sure he'll have that same quiet manner, with the occasional glint of mischief in his eye, and probably not slowing down much. Ever.

Ok, Ok, I'll do it...

2009-02-11T20:08:00.008-07:00

So like a million people (ok, only five or so) have tagged me on facebook for the 25 things about you thing. And my mom tagged me with something a lot like it, so I'm doing this here cuz my mom isn't on facebook and I'm killing two birds with one stone.

So here we go.

1. I am an awesome cook. Not so much with following recipes, but if I just make stuff up, it's almost always super yummy.

2. Except for my mission, I have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings every year for 17 years.

3. I like watching American Idol. Most of the time. The season that Fantasia won was boring as death, but the rest of the time it's pretty good. I'm a big fan of Bo Bice, Chris Daughtry, and David Cook.

4. When I graduated from high school I could bench press 340 pounds, dead-lift 500, and squat about 650. Now I cannot. :)

5. When I got my mission call (on April 1st, 1999) I almost gave my grandma a heart attack by telling her I had been called to a 4 year service mission to mainland China. I also pissed off my then girlfriend by telling her my Army Reserve unit had been mobilized to Kosovo. Perks of getting your call on April fools...

6. I once thought I'd wrestle and run track at college (if I ever went). I even got a letter from BYU's wrestling team, but I was anti-BYU back then, and wanted to wrestle at Ricks (now BYU Idaho) because they were a big feeder program for the big wrestling schools. I don't wrestle any more...

7. I did not think in a million years I would marry someone like Nicole.

8. I did not think in a billion years I could be so happily married to someone so unlike me.

9. I've been playing the guitar off and on for about 15 years. Someday I'll have the time to play a lot and get good again.

10. I'm a very good shot. Being at BYU has put a hold on lots of shooting, but I'll graduate soon and restock my gun collection.

11. I believe strongly in the right to keep and bear arms. It is the one non-religious thing I will never back down on.

12. I love Hawaii. A lot. I'm gonna live there some day. (hopefully)

13. I like hot weather. A lot. My optimal range starts at about 85 and so far as I have experienced doesn't have a ceiling. After my first winter in Toronto (almost 2 month stretch where it never got above -10C) I swore I'd never complain about heat again.

14. As mentioned earlier, I was once very much anti-BYU. When I moved to Provo, the 2 things I did _not_ want to do were go to BYU and live in BYU-approved housing. I have since repented. There's nowhere I would have rather gone to school, and I met my dear Nicole in BYU-approved housing.

15. I'm a big fan of fast cars. Musclecars, rice-rockets, as long as it's fast I dig it. Making it go fast is almost half the fun.

16. I don't go anywhere without at least one pocketknife, a lighter, and a sharpening stone.

17. I wear boots. Corcoran boots. I'm cool with spending $125 on a pair of boots that will last as long as these do. My last pair lasted over 6 years and easily several thousand miles.

18. I like road-tripping. With the windows down, and the music loud (yes even in the summer my AC is fresh air at 70 mph).

19. According to Nicole, I'm dead inside. I've cried once and a half times since 1990. I think I'm just not a big crier.

20. I've broken my nose 6 times. In the winter time my nose is always cold, and it's a rare day when one nostril or the other isn't clogged at least a little.

21. I'm a recent fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.

22. Like Star Wars I do. Learn much from it, one can. Being totally serious, I am.

23. Pain is not a deterrent to fun for me. I think my pain receptors are slightly broken from overuse. I've broken 2 bike helmets, had numerous cracked ribs, and a _lot_ of road/dirt/rock rash. I don't care. For most things, if you can't get hurt doing it, it isn't all that fun.

24. Despite being a redneck, I can appreciate "civilized" stuff. Given a song or two, I can name the show to 99% of Nicole's favorite Broadway songs.

25. I really like to build stuff. I will someday own a wood and machine shop. With a hoist. And a forge. I'm totally serious.

Wordless (on my part) Wednesday: So he didn't get all the young punk burned out of him after all...

2009-02-04T00:21:00.004-07:00

(almost) Wordless Wednesday: Not the original, but not too bad...

2009-01-28T21:50:00.004-07:00

Wordless Wednesday: It's like looking in a mirror...

2009-01-14T19:35:00.003-07:00

Wordless Wednesday: Apparently I'm not the only one "following" the progress of Spirit and Opportunity...

2008-11-19T01:29:00.004-07:00

(image courtesy of MarsPhoenix and Gizmodo)

Wordless Wednesday: while we're on a Star Wars note, it appears there was a truce while I was gone the other day...

2008-11-12T12:45:00.002-07:00

That's it...

2008-11-09T19:38:00.002-07:00

It's happened. That point in every debugging session where if I don't take a break I will cause myself or my computer physical damage. So I'm taking a break.

I've been mildly amused by reactions to the election last Tuesday. For several reasons. So here goes.

1. It's amusing how much the American people attribute to the President in light of how little he can actually do. Sure, he can suggest a bill, but law-making is entirely out of his hands. Sure, the confidence of the people in the President reflects somewhat on the economy, but there's not a dang thing he can do about it actually. Sure, he can say his plan includes tax cuts, improved programs, etc... but the legislative branch has to actually make the laws to implement them.

2. I've heard several people mention (mostly before the election) that if Obama were elected they would move to Canada (presumably because it's easy to cross the border???). People. Have you ever _been_ to Canada? Obama would make a pretty good right-wing nutcase up there.

3. I've heard several people express their sorrow and/or fear for our nation at the fact that Obama was elected. This is really funny to me. How much direct effect has the Bush administration had on your daily life? Really? The only direct affect the Bush administration has had on my life is that Federal Financial Aid was cut. And it's a lot more of a pain in the can to get on an airplane. Don't get me wrong. I voted for Bush both times, and I'm not sure the alternative would have been much different. It's just funny that people are so concerned about the future of the country now that a different idealogy will be in the White House. If you look at numbers throughout the last few decades, the so-called "GOP" has been the party to increase government spending and government size. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure 4 years of a different mindset will be that bad of a thing.

4. I've seen several petitions/groups asking for Obama to provide his birth-certificate. This is a good one. His mother is an American citizen people. Therefore, he is an American citizen. Do we really need to argue the point?

5. I have finally reached the point of complete apathy regarding the election process. My life's dream now is that someday there will be an election wherein I won't be trying to decide which of the major candidates will do the least worst job. After months of mud-slinging ("He's un-American. He's unbalanced. blah, blah, blah) I was completely fed up. While I like _some_ (not to be confused with "all") of Obama's policy ideas better than McCain's non-specfics, I don't really like either of their policy ideas, so I voted for Bob Barr.

6. I've heard a lot of people (not just my boss) say that Ron Paul would have been an ideal candidate 200 years ago. I'm not entirely certain a candidate who looked good 200 years ago would look so bad today. Most of my displeasure over the Bush administration stems from a less-than-intelligent foreign policy program. I agree entirely with Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and others who say we have _way_ too many problems here at home to need to be bothering with the rest of the world. There are certain things that I believe should not be allowed anywhere, anytime. Genocide is one of them, which is one of the reasons I think that we've accomplished something worthwhile in Iraq, even though I don't agree 100% that we should have been there to begin with. It's kind of irritating that so mass murder/genocide happens elsewhere in the world that doesn't rate the same kind of response. If you're going to be the international do-gooder, at least spread it around a little, eh?

7. As you might be able to tell, I'm a little fed up these days. The Bush administration has failed to make good on quite a few of its promises. The soon-to-be Obama administration has lots of ideas that look good on paper, but I wonder where they will get the money with the tax cuts he has proposed. Whatever happened to finding the best person for the job? Hence, my previously-mentioned life dream. Maybe someday.

8. Don't get me wrong here. I think George W. is a good guy, and I think he felt that he was doing the right thing most of the time. If I weren't so sick of the partisan mud-slinging fest, I probably would have voted for McCain, simply because on the whole I still feel that of the major parties (i.e. those whose candidates have a chance of being elected) the Republican party comes closer to my ideals than the Democratic party. It's just mildly amusing to me that so many people think a Democratic president (whose projected ideas are not much different than any other Democratic president we've had in the last few decades) signals the end of the world.

9. I am now done being amused at politics and will now return to debugging my graphics project.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday: that's 5 bags, with 5 bottles each

2008-11-05T17:17:00.005-07:00

Happy birthday Hen. Hope 50 liters of Diet Coke is plenty for your celebration...

I suppose it could have turned out worse...

2008-11-01T10:23:00.003-06:00