Good One Dad

Had a phone interview today

2011-06-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

It's still only just past noon today, but it's turning out to be a good one I think. There's a Law Firm that is looking for a computer support specialist, and gave me a phone interview this morning. Finger's crossed, I'll be called back for an in person interview with the hiring manager.

Funny thing is, I don't know if I want the job or not. Getting it will introduce a hole slew of other issues. Will I be able to finish my bachelor's degree in the next 2 years if I take it? Can I really leave Meg and the kids to go to Bakersfield anyway? I would kind of rather go to CSUB and maybe CSUSM, I still don't know.

With Meg leaving to Honduras in a couple of weeks here (wow, less than 2) Can I really start a new job? How will it affect my unemployment, financial aid, school plans ...

It almost seems easier to just not get the job and keep focusing on school.

Over a Year

2011-05-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

At the age of 36 I had still never walked in any kind of commencement ceremony. You wouldn't think it would be that big a deal, or at least that over time the regret would subside. I thought it had until I got the email from my community college that I had qualified for an Associate's Degree and would be able to participate in the 2011 graduation ceremony. All my life I had belittled that college calling it "Harvard on the Hill" and "13th grade" implying that it was only barely more than a high school. While that still may be true, and while community colleges get no respect (mostly due to the non-exclusivity factor) I was proud to have earned that degree. It may not seem like an accomplishment to most people. In fact, I still minimize it somewhat. The fact is though, had it not been for that school, at this time in my life, I would have lost hope.

Jobless, and feeling worthless it was just my last opportunity to prove to myself that I am not an idiot. I put a good show for people and they get the sense that I'm an intelligent guy who thinks deeply. The reality is that I talk slowly because I am not quick witted. Like anyone, I can see humor in things and inconsistencies, but this degree is tangible proof that I have put in the work, the studying, the analysis, the critical thinking to earn it. With it, I see the possibility of no longer playing the part of a scholar, I can be one.

I intend to go on, and that ceremony moved me to tears. Helped me to feel that opportunities are attainable. I enjoyed that feeling immensely, and I want it again. I plan to continue my education and now have a goal to walk again in 2 years, and again two years after that. I'm not stopping until I have a law degree, and maybe not even then.

nook II

2010-04-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

This post unlike the other nook post is just about the nook and not done from my nook.

I'm pretty impressed by it so far. I've been able to read more than I have in the entire time we've been married since getting it. That number would be really impressive if reading was a hobby up until now. Strange that it took a geek device for me to appreciate the joy of quietly getting engrossed in a storyline. Maybe not so strange seeing as I am a geek.

There are benefits and drawbacks to it though and with the newest firmware upgrade, there are more of both.

First the main draw is that you can download books (some free through the Google Books project) straight to the device, through AT&T's mobile network. I find though that for free books, the quality of gutenberg.org and feedbooks.org are superior. Many of the free books are also available from Barnes & Noble (the only place you can purchase books through for the nook) for very cheap. Usually $0.99 - $2 and somehow, no sales tax.

The price of most books is cheaper too. One example is American Lion about Andrew Jackson. The hardcover is $18 and the eBook is $10. Score. I got a $30 gift card from my mother-in-law and still haven't used it all. I'm very frugal with books still.

With the newest firmware upgrade the additions have been
1) Games
- Sudoku
- Chess
2) Web Browser
3) an improved dictionary function.
4) Moved the Audio Player to the main menu

Now I think that putting games on it is a bad idea. It minimizes the point of the device and tries poorly to do something that it's not for. Let PS3 and Apple do "everything". nook should just do one thing and do it well. Playing chess has nothing to do with reading, except that it might be the same segment of the population that gets into both in a big way. Still, for me it's a distraction which I don't need.

The web browser would be cool if it did two things that it doesn't. You can only browse if you're using you're using the WiFi and not using the AT&T's network. That's lame. The other thing that would make it cool is if you could download books from other sources like the aforementioned gutenberg.org and feedbooks.org. But you can't. You still have to download them to your laptop, PS3, PC, iCrap, G1, smartphone ..... and then sideload (and yes I know I'm a sellout for using that word) to the nook. Which begs the question; Why not just read the book on one of those?

My G1 for example has an eBook reader app that will go and get a book, download it and let me read it, while listening to music on the music player, and let me use thefreedictionary.com (app) to look up words. All with a backlight. And it fits in my pocket. Pretty much it does everything my nook does, better, other than the screen size and battery life, which is why I got my nook in the first place.

So anyway, nook is cool, but should stick to doing the one thing it does well. Keep the music player, bag the games, improve the dictionary or use an online one, and mostly add text to speech. That would make it perfect in my mind. A browser that let's me use the cell network to download free better books would just be gravy.

nook

2010-04-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

I m writin this blog from my n crap i just hit the home 'n' and thought i lost it all. ook that i bought before i got fired. I won't be correcring any mispelling just to see ho
w accuratr it is. It seems pretty c goo

Unemployment

2010-04-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

So I just got my first unemployment check yesterday. It seems weird to have been paid for getting fired and filling out the appropriate paperwork. Oddly enough, it didn't come until I'd been out of work for almost a month. If I was truly in need, I'd be living on the street right now. Luckily my final paycheck and tax refund were sufficient to hold us.

Additionally we qualified for "food stamps" and have been eating really well. Costco accepts them so we bought in bulk and have plenty of food. On this part I was feeling a little guilty. Enough so that I didn't want my parents to find out, a challenge considering the tight knit nature of my family. Mom especially would have put me on a guilt trip for being 'part of the problem'. That's pretty much been my take on any kind of government assistance too. They are a group that takes from the system instead of contributing.

When mom did find out, she was not only understanding, she was almost excited for me. The perspective finally came when she said "You have nothing to feel guilty about. You've been contributing and this is exactly the situation that it's there for."

That felt good to realize that I'm not 'bilking the government'. Instead I'm drawing on the monies that for years I have been paying into Social Security and Unemployment and Disability Ins. Maybe that makes me a Democrat, that I'm grateful that the government took my money for .... 15 years? So that I could draw on it when I needed it.

Hmm. That brings up an interesting math question then. How much have I paid in vs. how much am I alloted to draw? A question for another post I guess.

Getting Rich

2010-03-14T15:58:00.001-07:00

I read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" recently, well listened to the audiobook anyway, and it got me thinking about becoming rich. The advice that he gave was based on his life experience. It is partly stories of how he learned about money and partly advice that he recieved.

I noticed that his advice was only similar to his experience. So I'm listing my own version of advice based on what he did.

1) have a father that earns a lot
2) have a friend who's dad is good at business
3) have your father put you through college.
4) have your friend's dad start a corporation and let you work in every dept. Of the corporation.
5) become a successful salesman
6) use the money you make to buy assetts that make money without having to work.

2010-03-14T15:30:00.001-07:00

Steps to getting rich. There isn't necessarily an order to these except when one is dependent on another.

Right to Live

2010-03-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

I had a talk the other day with sarita where health care came up. She said with sarcasm "yeah it's not like we have a right to live or something." I was surprised at this being the perception of health care.
We do have a right to live. That is to say, it is our right to not have anyone take our life from us. We don't howerver have a right to be taken care of. Our care is a personal responsibility.

Rights are inseparably contingent on the understanding that we can have them on the basis of being responsible for the accompanying right.

This is where health care isn't a right. When our health fails, it is either our own negligence or just bad luck that causes it to fail. In neither of these is a person or even institution denying our right to live.

Obviously in extreme cases where we are poisoned or something like that, there's liability. Erin Brokovich and all that. But putting a healthy person on the hook for someone who gets lung cancer after smoking a pack a day for 20 years is unreasonable. The same goes for a slew of other diseases.

The thought that the Federal government should be responsible for our health is, in my mind, another example of the mentality that they are our 'ultimate parents' who we run to whenever there's a perceived injustice.

It reminds me of my children yelling "NOT FAIR", when they have to do their homework instead of watch TV, or put the book down and go to sleep. When will our social neoteny end, and we turn from dependence to accountability?

Oh!! There's ONE!

2010-02-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

I'm constantly surprised by the things that people find interesting. The Charlie Bit Me phenomenon was heartening. YouTubers (the potatoes?) aren't as bad a group as some would believe. In spite of all the 'celebrity commentators' there really are a lot of people that like to see things that are inspiring or darling.

My most viewed video is now of Andrew and I'm inserting it below. Apparently people like to see adorable babies being adorable.

There I fixed it.

2010-01-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

I'm going to post one of these on 'thereifixedit.com ' but I'm not sure but I haven't decided which it will be.

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

Terminiator thinks 'Technology will save us all'

2009-11-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

Gov. Arnold (I can't spell Schwartsiwhatever right), said it here

When I heard this, immediately I had the thought that this is where we've come to in our worship of the new. The implication is that we're no longer saved by our works, grace, faith, a savior, inner peace or a litany of other earlier versions of salvation.

That it came out of the mouth of the Governator is just awesome comedic fodder. It's like someone on his speech writing staff said "How can we make it even more obvious that we elected a movie personality rather than a qualified leader?". All the 'girlie-man' references back during the last budget standoff weren't enough apparently.

But back to the real topic. Science and medicine have taken over as the new religion in our country, and in most of the world I expect. Priests taking confession have been replaced by psychologist taking an hour to listen to how you feel. Inner peace is then supplied by prescription rather than prayer and meditation, and in the ultimate irony, meditation is sometimes prescribed. The places of discovery are no longer seminaries, they are laboratories. Scripture has been replaced by Google as the place to find answers.

The end effect as so eloquently stated by California's leader, is that salvation from our problems is the job of scientists and engineers, instead of finding our own solutions with the help of deity, through quiet contemplation and study, and changing our personal behavior.

My Healthcare Take

2009-10-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

I've been kind of avoiding political news lately. Still listening to my NPR and AM Conservative radio in the morning and evenings respectively, but it's kind of carried over to my not keeping any sort of blog lately. I could swear I've written about health care before, and now I'm thinking I'll go back and check again. Ok I haven't. Good.

The catalyst for writing this was an email I got from my mom. Her email forwards are pointedly against any Democrat and Obama is the devil in her mind. Still love my mom dearly, and she may be right to feel the way she does, I just don't know. Anyway the latest email was about an interview he gave where he was asked if he would use the health care plan that he's proposing. He dodged the question implying that he would not and he would keep his own Presidential plan. It went on to say that the proposed legislation adds verbiage exempting the president and senators from using it.

I'll add the quote and apologize for the all caps.

SO, THIS GREAT NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND I... IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR OBAMA, HIS FAMILY OR CONGRESS...??

WE (THE AMERICAN PUBLIC) NEED TO STOP THIS PROPOSED DEBACLE ASAP !!!!... THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG !!!!!

PERSONALLY, I CAN ONLY ACCEPT A UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL THAT EXTENDS TO EVERYONE... NOT JUST US LOWLY CITIZENS... WHILE THE WASHINGTON "ELITE" KEEP RIGHT ON WITH THEIR GOLD-PLATED HEALTH CARE COVERAGES.

This misses the point if you ask me and makes an assumption about health care that's erroneous. It assumes that everyone is as valuable as everyone else. We're not. The harsh reality is this. Some jobs are more important than others. It's the whole reason that Capitalism works the way that it does. If you have a job that is more important, influential, or are in some other way irreplaceable, you will be compensated more handsomely.

Senator and president fall into the influential group, and in some cases irreplaceable. Health insurance for anyone is so that they can continue to provide the service/function that they do for their company. It has nothing to do with elitism as this email claims.
The whole idea that the president should use the health care system that he's proposing kind of weakens the argument of those who don't want it passed. These are the same folks that are against socialism in any form. Pick a side folks. Either you admit that his job is more important and stick to your capitalist view that his insurance should be better, or accept that socialist medicine is preferable. You can't have it both ways. Wanting him to use the health care he's proposing is a socialist mindset.

There's one other point about the health care debate that bothers me and that is this. I don't go to the doctor. I haven't visited a doctor for myself in easily over a year. My family is a different story of course. The insurance I have is for them. This isn't because I'm incredibly healthy or anything either. I do what I can to stay healthy and to avoid needing the doctor. Don't drink or smoke for example. I've quit coffee, and even sugar for the most part.

The whole health industry is geared toward treating sick people and not promoting wellness. There is no motivation for doctors to get you healthy other than their passion for solving a problem, or feeling like a hero. Monetarily it makes more sense to keep you alive, but not well.

The Primary Care Physician idea was supposed to fix this, but ended up having the problem of denying treatment to stay solvent instead of promoting wellness.

So here's the problem. Policies are being decided by doctors, politicians, and sick people. Where are the well people in this equation? Paying for sickies which is either incredibly altruistic or completely unfair depending on your point of view I suppose.

Church Yesterday

2009-09-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Wrangling kids during church can be a headache. Especially when you move from 'man-on-man to a zone defense'. Luckily with Grandma to help, we do a decent job of keeping all the kids occupied and attended to. Ah who am I kidding? It's a struggle every week.

Usually, one child will be asking to go to the bathroom while another needs a drink, and the third needs your focus every second to keep him occupied. And if the baby didn't get to eat before sacrament, you can bet mom will need to take him out at some point. When she leaves, #3 will be inconsolable leaving me with the no win decision of either leaving a 7 and 9 year old alone in the pews trusting that they won't get into a spat, or letting the crying 2 year old disturb everyone in the chapel.

Now that you have an appreciation for what it's normally like, let me give you a run-down of what it was like yesterday.

Andrew was not feeling well, and neither was Meg, so they stayed home. The baby of course needed to stay with momma since he's still nursing. This left me to go to church with the two older boys. I opted to not take the Sun. bag with Friend magazines, and church coloring books, just to see how the boys would do with paying attention to the speakers.

It went surprisingly well. Hyrum was attentive the entire time, and Sean was not disruptive at all. He did get bored and laid his head down to nap, but at least he was quiet. It was actually a pleasure having them sit with me. I was a very proud papa indeed.

This was particularly welcomed this Sun. because all three speakers spoke on Reverence. I was a little disappointed that no one used the word revere, but whatever. It was some of the best quality time that I've spent with my big boys in a while, and it was great.

Little Man Can

2009-07-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

My brother is in school to become an interpreter. I've had a little bit of experience with ASL and I remember when I was on my mission I was amazed by a little kid that was just barely learning to walk, so about 10-14 months old, who could communicate with his deaf parents already. He walked up to a door that he wanted to walk out of and made the sign for open. Amazing. Short of using some vocabulary software that would get plugged directly into their brains, this kind of communication is impossible to expect for a little person that can hardly form words much less assign meaning to the words and messages.

Andrew's most recent love is Yo Gabba Gabba. So he's made up his own sign for it so we know that's what he wants to watch. At the beginning of the show the host D.J. Lance Rock opens up his magic boom-box with his toys in it. Sparkles come out as he says the magic words "Yooooo gabba gabbaaa..". So Andrew says "Yo Dab Dab" as he opens his hands wide. It's pretty cute. The show kind of tripped me out the first few times I watched it. Like most kid shows, it's very spacey, but now after seeing the I'm So Happy I Can Dance video by the Salteens I've become more a fan, and don't mind sitting with him.

Doing pretty well, considering.

2009-07-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

My family is not rich. None of us has much education, and that's got a lot to do with it. Even with that deficit, though, we are doing pretty well for ourselves. We have extended family who by comparison are far more educated than we are, but unemployed. The suggestion has been made more than once that it's a matter of feeling 'too good' for a job.

Luckily, we learned our personal finance skills from our mother. Growing up we worked paper routes, kept exchange students to the point that our home was busting at the seams, and we seldom if ever ate out. Everyone contributed in some way or another for as long as I can remember. Our strength has been in our numbers.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I had this idea a few months back. My brothers and I, while employed and supporting our families, aren't doing as well as we probably could be. All of us are mentally capable, we're a lot smarter than the McPrides give us credit for., but haven't made education a priority in our lives. The idea is that it would be really cool if we all pooled our resources to take care of one family, while the dad knocked out his education really quickly. Then, on down the line. Nothing crazy. Maybe $500/mo per brother, and live very meanly. Maybe at mom's house. And just go to Mesa College and do the maximum of classes to get degrees in the shortest amount of time. Then on to SDSU since it's close and easy to get into. I don't think any of us would take more than 2 years doing the fast track classes and going Summers.

Re-Learning Piano

2009-06-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

We got an old beat up piano from my brother David. A lot of the keys stuck and it desperately needs to be tuned, but I figured those could be taken care of and a home needs a piano. It also has writing and scratching on the the coats of paint that are on it. I'm sure I've posted about the piano before so maybe I'll just link to the old post to give you that background description.

Last night I got out the "Step by Step" books because I wanted to start teaching myself again, and they're what I'm used to. I started at about 7:30 amidst the boys needing to get their pajamas on, Andrew vying for my attention and Emmett fussing. After about 15 min I stopped and just went back to the bedtime daddy stuff. As I stood up I thought to myself in facebook third person format "Jared really needs to get a nice electric keyboard."

When I get home, there are only about 2 hours before the kids go to bed. That is spent on some or all of the following parts of the dinner ritual. Preparing, setting the table, gathering the children, eating, clearing the table, cleaning the messes the children have made.... Then after dinner getting the older boys into bed. Believe it or not that pretty much takes up the whole time I'm home before the house needs to be quiet. I have some private time to practice then, but I don't want to keep the big boys up, or wake the nursing baby.

Any good story would have an arc at this point and then somewhere a resolution toward the end....

Ha Ha, just going to stay not a good story I guess.

Messy and Stinky

2009-05-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

I promised that I would write a little about our two exchange students. Let me preface this post by saying that despite the drawbacks to having them in our home, the benefits make up for them. Not only that, but I actually like both of them. They are both very sweet girls with whom we genuinely enjoy sharing our home and our dinners.

First is Messy. She's our little Saudi Arabian. Messy is Muslim which is no big shocker, but the common sect of Islam in Saudi Arabia is Sunni and she is Shia. We learned this while her father was staying with us. One of the benefits to her of living at our house instead of somewhere else was it's proximity to the mosque. Turns out, it's the wrong denomination. Oops. There are some differences stemming from both her culture and religion that we've had to adapt to. First is the meat. We can't just go to a regular supermarket anymore for meat. She only eats 'halal' meats. Basically it means that the animal has to bleed to death and someone has to invoke the name of Allah while it's dying. If there's a complete lack of 'halal' meat, kosher is a good alternative. This turns out to be a benefit, because we end up having a lot more vegetables at dinner. There are just some nights where meat is too hard to come by and cook.

Now the reason I call her Messy stems from both a cultural and a religious reason. She's required to wash five times a day, so her personal hygiene is impeccable, but when she uses the bathroom, she must stand in the middle of the floor and dump water over her head because the floor is soaked when she's finished. Her room is a constant mess with clothes strewn all around and on the floor there are always papers and wrappers and boxes. Also, back to the bathroom, she doesn't seem to try and put trash into the trash can. Meg has found trash in the drawers of the sink, in the toilet ... oh and she tries to flush her 'feminine products' which has stopped up the toilet twice. It doesn't matter much because the water on the floor is already, from what my friend Jeremy says, pooh water. She has a gardening water pick thing that apparently isn't for her hair. The water has been so bad in fact, that it's seeped under the door and soaked the carpet so that a water stain has formed in the hall. Messy messy Messy.

OK now for Stinky. This is a lot shorter and easier. While she doesn't keep her room any cleaner, she does do fine with the share bathroom. Or maybe she just doesn't use it. She kind of smells. Whereas Messy has a pleasant scent, Stinky does not. She must not own deodorant or jut not like the feel of it, but she also showers less often than I do which is saying something. It's not uncommon for me to go 2 days sans-shower. And at home, it's even less than that. I shower at work once or twice a week to save a little $$ on the water bill. Stinky it seems, might shower twice a week total. Maybe it's just that she can't get in with Messy hogging it all the time. Who knows.

Let me reiterate here, that I do actually like both of them. Stinky is a very caring friend and has been very open to our family right from the beginning. Messy is very generous and has filled my gas tank at least 3 times, and paid for my parking ticket when I dropped her at the train station. They both are great with the kids and very willing to play our dinner games with us (Telephone, I'm going to the moon, etc.) and we have shared many laughs with them both.

Services vs. Service

2009-05-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

This isn't a fully congealed concept so I apologize ahead of time if the thoughts are kind of random.

Let's go!

We have an exchange student. Two actually. Messy and Stinky are their names. I'll maybe write another post later about why they've been dubbed as such.

Messy, has been with us since the end of February I think. And we took on Stinky the middle of April. Messy we thought, would be leaving us on Sat. and Stinky is scheduled to stay until Sep. Here is the conflict.

Our little French Girl that stayed with us last year, had asked around Jan. if she could come stay with us in July for a month and bring her friend. Meg and I adore her and were happy to agree to it. They'll be sharing a room since we only have 2 bedrooms available for students and only one will be available, so we thought. It turns out that Messy, will not be leaving on Sat. and that she is in fact staying until Aug. 20. So we have 0 rooms available for our French Daughter.

With all that set in place as background, here's the thought that I had. I was thinking about how our sense of community in a capitalist system are based on services rather than on service. See I really like all three of these girls. They're all very sweet, and each has their little quirks, but I wouldn't want to hurt any of their feelings ever. Sharing a home and meals together makes it feel like they are close to family. Really though, they are tenants. Our relationship wouldn't have existed if not for the service that we provide of room and board.

Mulling on this idea while driving Messy to school this morning, it sparked the idea that whole communities are built on this idea of being able to sell goods or services to each other. Even in old agrarian societies (somtimes current ones) the way that people would initially meet was "I have corn you have potatoes, I'll give you some of mine if I can have some of yours". Barter became fruit stands, became farmer's markets, became the town, spawned a need for government, and the next thing you know there's town hall meetings.

By comparison, if all things were equal and everyone has ownership of everything, and personal property is non-existant, the sense of community wouldn't depend on reciprocation at all. Service would be the norm instead of services. One of the great things about churches and to a lesser degree local community organizations, is that money is taken out of the equation. At church, no one get's paid for what they do. All service is provided out of caring for individuals and maybe sometimes from a sense of obligation, and in fact the best of them will pay money for the priviledge of being about to serve the of the group. A peculiar people indeed.

Do I? I really don't... Do I?

2009-05-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me that most of the blogs that I follow are families documenting fun experiences they're having. I have spent woefully little time posting pictures of myself, or my wife and kids or even making commentary on their lives. Mostly I do that on my Facebook though, so I feel kind of justified.

Sadly this excludes a lot of folk from getting updates on how my family is doing.

The reason I think I do this is that my favorite blog is more along the same lines as this one. That person is quite a bit smarter than I am (don't get a big head Evan), and has some great thoughts on politics and life and I really enjoy his posts.

Everyone that's not Evan (I think there are four of you haha) please don't feel slighted. I do enjoy your posts too. I'm just trying to explain why it is that I post the types of things that I do.

In an effort to see how many people actually read this though, I'd like comments on a specific topic.

"What should I do when I grow up?" And by I, I actually mean me. The person writing currently. If you know where this blog is and follow it at all, then you know me personally and have some sense of the things that I'm good at. Please think about what I currently do and throw that out the window. I'd really like suggestions about what you've observed I'm good at and things that you've seen me doing when I've been happy, actually smiling.

I will not take offense to any suggestion, so feel free to write anything. The only suggestion that I will be displeased with is some form of "Only you can know what you should do for a living!" That type of answer is not what I'm looking for here.

Where's the Real story.

2009-04-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

Arthur Dent once said, "I knew it. I always felt there was something sinister going on beneath my nose but I just couldn't place it." Only to be replied to by Slartibartfast "No that's just regular paranoia. Everyone has that."

I didn't get the quote right, but I'm betting that I'll go back and find the actual quote and insert it later if I remember it.

I, like Arthur, have a healthy sense of paranoia. Too much seems to not make sense to not have some deeper story that what's on the surface. If I was more ambitious this could definitely make me a really good (or dead) investigative journalist. But, since I'm not, coming up with conspiracy theories seems like a better use of my time.

The latest theory is that there's a certain non-story 'going around' that every journalist is 'catching' hold of. It's 'spreading' faster than a wild fire, and personally I 'wash my hands' of the whole thing. Ok that last attempt at a pun was a little weak. But while you 'rub your eyes' (no don't) and shake your head, think about it.

How many people are there in the world. A billion, give or take a few hundred million. How many people have become infected, in the last week. Less than a thousand. How many have died? About 150 I think the count is. If the statistics are to be believed, about 10,000 have died from cancer in the same time period, in the US alone. But because of the hype that is being put on this, Egyptians have started killing all their 'swine'. When the outbreak is over, they're just not going to have any bacon for a while, and have to import some more. Probably from Mexico.

I can't help but wonder what's really going on, that our attention should be on. Now that everyone knows that we should be washing our hands regularly, and not coughing in other people's faces, I say it's time that reporters go back to covering things that matter.

Oh and here's the real quote.

Arthur: All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's something big and sinister going on in the world.
Slartibartfast: No, that's perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe gets that.

In this economy

2009-04-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

Goodness me. Has it really been nearly a month? Well I'll just get to it.

This is another 'rant' post so if you have tender souls or of a weak constitution, be forewarned. I'll try to keep it tame though.

I'm getting tired of the phrase "in this economy". It gets used in advertising for anything a la, "In this economy it's important to pay close attention to your finances. That's why we want you to buy this frivolous crap that we're hawking." I've heard it for cars mostly, but also for health care/insurance, various food items, phone service, television service, Internet service ... just about anything that you can pay money for, the term is being used.

My two big beefs are these. That you have to advertise that you have them for sale indicates already that it's a non-essential item. Essential items don't advertise. You never see an advertisement for tap-water, that usually just ends up on the news if it's contaminated. And while you see foods advertised, it's always the sugar-cereal, prepackaged, ready to eat or severely overpriced stuff. When was the last time you saw lettuce take center stage in an ad. Heck it's been awhile since I saw a Got Milk ad now that I think of it. The point is these are the things we need.

The other beef is this. If we didn't need them the DJIA was up over 13,000 and money flowed like potatoes over a conveyor belt, why when the line is heading toward the bottom of the chart, and money is tight do we suddenly decide that it's fiscally irresponsible not to buy a new car. Makes perfect sense right. You have no money, buy a car. In this economy you need a car payment.

Choose your words carefully.

2009-03-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

This morning as per my routine, I was driving our exchange student to school and listening to the radio. It's always a choice between Dave, Shelly, and Chainsaw (a humorous morning show on a rock station) or KPBS radio broadcasting NPR. Today NPR won, and I'm both glad and bothered that it did.

For a long time I've been a fan of NPR because they are sticklers for journalistic excellence and avoid the AM talk radio tendency to be very partisan and loud. Also, it relaxes me and I get to sound like I know what's going on in the world without reading. The reason that I'm bothered that I was listening today is, that I heard evidence that they are not as unbiased as I previously thought.

The topic was the purchasing of 'toxic assets' by private investors for a fraction of their value with the federal government being 'on the hook' for the 'lion's share'. I use quotes here because those were the actual phrases used in context. They also spoke of how the American people are angry, at executives at corporations like AIG getting paid bonuses with the bailout money, reporting that "Obama is sensitive" to the feelings of the American people, but that we can't legislate out of anger.

All of these quotes showing a degree of bias, but I didn't really catch them until the reporter slipped in calling it a "bank bailout", catching himself and correcting it to "federal economic rescue plan". At that point it was just too obvious to ignore anymore. Anytime the same 'stimulus' package was referred to when Bush was in office, it was called a bank bailout, emphasizing the one's profiting from the money were banks and bank executives. Now, it's no longer a bank bailout, but a 'rescue plan'.

It's about connections little or big.

2009-03-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

For my Birthday this year, we went to Disneyland. Kind of strange choice for me because it's one of my least favorite places. I know, I know. I must be dead inside for not loving Disneyland. But I have been rehabilitated by this trip.

This past Halloween our family went with Ben and Sharon and their respective spouses and children with the plan to go two days, and stay at a hotel near the park. When we went to get our tickets I was sticker shocked at the price. We went back figuring that there must be some mistake and asked if there were CA - resident discounts. There weren't for two-day tickets, but the low end annual passes had a CA resident discount that were cheaper than the two-day park hopper passes. So we got those. That set a bad mood for that trip, but setup my best day yesterday.

This year Disneyland is giving free passes for people that come for their birthday. In addition to getting the free admission, you get a button that you wear that says your name and that it's your birthday. Terry went on his birthday this year (we missed it GRRRR, but that's a rant for another time), and they also have annual passes. So he got a voucher for the price of admission that could be used to upgrade his annual pass, or just buy a bunch of stuff in the park. Which brings me to why I decided to spend my special day in on of my least favorite places. Free money.

Spending money in the park is something that I was brought up to not do. We always took our lunches, and would NEVER buy souvenirs. With ten children, my parents were prudent with money out of necessity. Ten kids means, ten tickets. Add to that ten lunches, ten souvenirs, ten ice creams ... you get the idea. The idea of having free money to spend in the park was a very exciting prospect to me. It turns out it was the right choice.

On to the day. Meg drove up the night before to Hesperia with the two younger boys so that her mom wouldn't have to drive. I stayed at home to take our exchange students to school, and brought the older boys to the park. This was great. For 4 hours (the drive up to the park and a little while in the park) I got to have my boys to myself and just be 'the world's greatest dad'. I pretty much let them run the show during this time. We went to Toon Town and did everything there first. Then we took the train to TomorrowLand where I bought my first EVER D-Land souvenir. A light saber and some carmel corn! Also, while on the train, I checked all the emails that were piling up on my phone. The majority of them were from Facebook friends wishing me a Happy Birthday. It was a little thing for each of them to do, but all together it added up to a lot of attention and love from people that I care for. But back to the events.

We saw the "Jedi Accademy" which was so much fun too see. Little kids are the best entertainment. My boys love "Star Wars" and when we go back for Sean's birthday, we are definitely going to get them into the show. Then it was Buzz Lightyear.

By this time, the Fowler women caught up with us. Mom was so great about letting it be my day and insisted that we only go onto rides that I wanted to go on. She also bought me lunch in the park, another luxury that was appreciated.

From here I'll just say, many rides were gone on and much fun was had for the rest of the time in the park. Every ride that we went on, the attendent would wish me a happy birthday. I would just say thanks slightly shyly, but it made me smile every time. A few times there were othere people in the park with the Birthday badge who would wish me a happy birthday by name. Even though we were complete strangers and still are, we have this silly little connection of sharing a birthday and choosing to celebrate it at Disneyland. Those tiny interactions were nice too.

To end of the day: I got to see some of my oldest friends at the park that I haven't really gotten to see in years. Throughout the day they were dotting our trip. At one ride, Meg and Terry were at separate parts in the line. The way the lines double back on each other they passed each other from time to time, and Meg decided that Grandad Terry needed to take Andrew, but there was a row between them. A nice older woman in a wheelchair passed him over. In line at another ride, I saw her and pointed her out to Meg saying that she looked like a nun because she had a black hood, and a white hat, that combined to make her look like well, a nun. But I didn't recognize her then either. But after we got off the ride, and were trying to get in touch with Elise, this woman in the wheelchair rolled by with her group, and I heard my name. It was the Wilcken family. A family that was in my ward and stake from the time I was 5 until I went on my mission, but Meg had never met Sister Wilcken and wouldn't have recognized her. We had a fun little chat catching up, and it was the perfect end to a really nice day.

I want my BIG BANG THEORY!

2009-03-03T17:31:00.000-08:00

My favorite thing to do with my clothes on is watch TV. Sad I know, but it's the only hobby I have and it makes me laugh. Since we got At&t Uverse complete with HD programming and a DVR (which is amazing) the wife and I have become more and more addicted to our shows. There are two however that she has given up that I just can't seem to get out of the habit of watching. Heroes and Lost.

She records them anyway because she's a wonderful woman and I like a wonderful husband don't watch them at home. I watch them on Hulu. What's that you say? Haven't heard of Hulu? hulu.com has a bunch of prime-time shows along with a bunch of old TV shows available for viewing for free with minimal advertising. Instead of sitting through 2-3 minutes of commercial breaks like on normal TV, the breaks are at most 30 seconds, and placed appropriately where they would be if you were watching on regular TV. True, I could watch the recorded show and fast forward through the commercials all together, but this is steering me away from the point that I want to make.

That point is this. The folks at CBS are MORONS. They are idiots that haven't caught up to the fact that in this day and age of instant gratification and immense availability, television shows are going to be watched through a myriad of venues with or without commercials. If you go to hulu.com you can see most of what NBC puts out. If you go to ABC.com you can see most of what they do. Both are with minimal commercial interruption. People HATE commercials. Sure they are the lifeblood that drives this capitalist society, but they are annoying and non-entertaining. Furthermore, both NBC and ABC have full episodes to watch. They've figured out the format.

CBS on the other hand is either way behind the curve or filled with execs that have their heads so far up..... I'll stop there. First, there are no full episodes available to watch. I wouldn't care except I've gotten hooked on two "Big Bang Theory" and "How I Met Your Mother". Instead they have 'clips' for these shows that are 2 min long. To watch them you have to sit through a 15 - 30 sec commercial. Do the Math people! The proportion of show to commercial is 1/4th. It probably doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're not getting a full show even, it's very much not worth it.

All I can figure is that the advertisers are paying a lot less for this avenue than what's being paid for hulu or abc ads. There's a good reason, no-one is watching them, so they're not reaching the audience. Essentially wasting your money. I'm not sure who's the bigger idiots, CBS for not catching up to the times, or the advertisers who are still willing to pay.

Hyrum's Baptism

2009-02-15T22:41:00.001-08:00

It's been a whole week since the event but I felt like it deserved documenting.

Some days are good and some days are not as good, and some days are just really nice. Last Sunday was one of the really good days. On the same day, I blessed my youngest son and I was able to baptize my oldest son. Both events were very sweet and full of tender emotions and and tears born of deep gratitude and love for my children.

Having extended family present made the day so much nicer. Brian and Beth commented on the blessing. I remember most of the blessing and I'm still considering whether this is a proper forum for sharing the content of that blessing. I'll err on the side of caution and not post it, with the caveat that if anyone would like to know I'll type out what I can remember and email it off.

The blessing was done at 1pm at the beginning of sacrament meeting and the baptism was done after church and a little dinner that my mom coordinated. As a side note, it is really nice to have a mom that will take charge in certain situations to organize special events where I would fall short.

Baptisms are always special but the significance of it didn't hit me until after Hyrum and I were dressed in our white clothing and standing in the hall to get a picture taken. At that point it hit me that I remembered a picture very similar to the one we were posing for but it was of me and my dad. I was baptized in the same font, and my dad and I took a picture next to the same wall.

The service was very impromptu, Ben led the music, I am a child of God, Kate gave a great opening prayer, Aunt Joie gave a talk on baptism and shared her testimony all of which invited the spirit in wonderfully. Then we baptized him.

Without going to into too much detail, I walked into the water which was a little cold, then turned and invited Hyrum to join me. I gave him a little reminder about how it would work then closed my eyes. When I said the baptismal prayer, I choked on the words, being overwhelmed with emotion, laid him under the water and brought him back up again and gave him a great big hug.

We got dressed back into our Sunday best and came out to our seats again where, Sarita gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Both talked were addressed Hyrum. He came up to the front where I invited all of my brothers, the Bishop and a family freind that was there to stand in for the confirmation. For this I can't recount what I said, except the words "you can be a light that reflects the light of Jesus Christ", but the rest is a blur.

The whole time I was just so proud of my little boy and hoped that he would remember this as a day to remember. On a personal note, I was struck by the thought that while I may not consider myself worthy to perform tasks in the name of my Savior, he still sanctified the act so that my son wouldn't be denied the blessing of recieving this ordinance, and I know that the Holy Spirit was there to testify that it was accepted by the Lord.