Movies. Coolest Invention Evar

Courtesy The Bioscopic

Since I've been blogging, I've wanted to write about things where pure opinion matters. I don't have a ton of interests. However, movies happen to be one of my few "things". Ever since the inception(pun completely intended) of movies in the early twentieth century, they have captured the imagination of the world. Some of us take this interest to near obsession, like me. I'm so much of a junkie that I procure movies from many a source. I just can't wait for the movie I want when I want it. F.Y.E and Neflix are vendors I patronize pretty often. I recommend them, especially if you're trying to find something obscure. Best Buy has great prices sometimes for new releases. But sometimes I wish Circuit City didn't get run out of business. But I digress.

Don't Forget About The Upcoming Primary Elections!

It seems that at this point of an election year people, even junkies like myself loose interest in the races for office being run; especially at the local level. Here in Salt Lake County we have two very important races being run on the republican side: The senate race between Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee and the Salt Lake County Counsel race between Richard Snelgrove and Winston Wilkinson. I believe that the candidates are very different on the issues for both races, despite the fact that all candidates are relatively very far right conservatives.

Memories From The Heat of Arizona- UPDATED LINKS

As some who are acquainted with me know I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and as such I chose to endeavor upon fulfilling two years of full-time service for the church preaching the tenets of my religion. I was sent to Tucson, Arizona. Part of my assigned area included the Gila Valley, and area north west of Tucson. The valley, settled by many of the same pioneers who followed Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley, were sent all the way to Southern Arizona to settle as part of an enormous plan to settle the west. These pioneers put down roots in the Gila Valley, and have been there since the 1850's. Much of the area is still thickly populated by active LDS members, but has since found much diversity both religously and racially.

3 Pieces of News That Will Interest Any Utahn

1. Recent political activity, especially here in Utah, has been making national attention. Lot of questions have been flying around the internet about the recent convention failure of Bob Bennett to win his party's nomination. Questions like "Are the tea-partiers this strong?" and "The convention system in Utah disenfranchises regular voters. Why does Utah still use it?" I've already given my answer here. Here is an excerpt from one of the more popular articles on the subject published in USAToday.com:

Utah Political Memes

Today has been a big day for Utah politics, no matter which way you lean, if you lean at all. The State Delegates decided to oust Sen. Bob Bennett from office, and sent Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee into a primary to take place on June 22nd. But of course, if you're reading this you most likely know the convention results. What I want to address are a couple of political memes that I've been seeing crop up in most discussions about politics here in Utah.

Paint.net

So today I've gotten myself interested in Paint.net, a powerful and free alternative to Photoshop. I've just been playing around with it, trying to get the hang of it. I really don't have a knack for graphic design or art, but for my own purposes, I think I've done okay. Here is a sampling:

Salt Lake County Republican Nominating Convention

In my own normal fashion, it has taken a couple of days to gather my thoughts on the subject. No doubt many of you who found my post dug up all the stuff Deseret News and the SL Trib and were disappointed by the lack of thorough reporting. As a county delegate who attended, I can report on at least those portions I was part of.

LDS General Conference FTW!

General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a bi-annual affair, something that most Latter Day Saints look forward to from the time the most recent one ends. I find this true for myself as an active Latter Day Saint(LDS).

Many people find us "mormons" to be strange. I saw a short film produced by a couple of LDS guys that proved the point. Some people they talked to confused us with the Amish. Most of the misconceptions are not true. I've heard some crazy idea's about us; no, we don't have horns, and no, true mormons don't have multiple wives.

What I want to mention today, however, is something that most people can find some common ground with. That is our General Conference. Most other religions can find some similarities with us in the fact that every religion comes together to listen to their leaders. People come from all over the world to witness conference. I have some friends who brought people they knew from Fiji all the to Utah for conference. So there is another similarity. We feel it paramount to give heed to those we know are men of God, even if that means traveling long distances.

But something that is desperately needed in this day and age is reliable counsel. We receive counsel and ideas from all sides these days. We have the internet, TV with thousands of channels and so much music that we don't know what to do with it. We need someone we know we can rely on. That someone is God. I know that many people don't think that the idea of God is needed these days, with all this technology and so called "new science". For me and nearly 14 million other Latter Day Saints, we feel that God is a reality. And so do some few billion other Christians, Catholics, Jews and Muslims.

General Conference, more than anything else, is a time when we Latter Day Saints can receive counsel that comes directly from God, given to us by men he has chosen to lead us, men he has chosen as prophets and apostles. Knowing that these men are what we believe them to be, we can rely on them to help us through these tough and perilous times. It is counsel for our day. They help us to understand the scriptures. For these reasons and many others, we look forward every six months to General Conference.

Mormon.org

Big test tomorrow

Yep. Tomorrow I take the skills portion of my CNA licencing test. The problem is that when I scheduled it, the only time within the next three weeks that was open was tomorrow. So naturally, I took it. After that, the feeling of pressure set in. In the healthcare field if you make one simple little mistake, that could harm your patient. So naturally they make their tests just like real life. If I miss something in the skill portion then that's it. Total failure. So I'm just hoping that I don't screw up. Here's a picture that mirrors the post subject. I think it will provide some entertainment for everybody.

HBO's 'The Pacific' is real deal for veterans of World War II

Just read through this article written by a WW II vet who has just seen the first installment of the new HBO mini-series "The Pacific". The author, Bill Gallo, shared a lot of great insight into the mind of a young man fighting a war and doing all he can to keep his friends alive. It's a great little piece.

'Twas a fairly okay week.

Yes, in spite of having very little to do outside of getting a place for my bro to live ready, it was an okay week. How do I mean that?

Well, to make a short story shorter, I decided to expand my social horizons a little. Firstly, I decided it was time I went to church where there were more people my age. I finally got around to that last Sunday, and it was a great decision on my part. Being out of the house and amongst my peers was a good way to lift mood, and it continually gets better now that I'm making new friends. Next on the list was to get out of the house and do things with other people. I would frequently do things outside of the house by myself, but I found this past week that it's also essential to socialize with others.

Now, before you all chuckle at my lack of observing the seemingly obvious things about life, I have to mention that these changes have been hard for me to make, but once made, I did realize it's importance on my life.

So here is the moral to my short story(Itemized of course). 1) Reminiscing of good times gone by is fun, but you can't do it all day every day. 2) You may feel something is the right thing to do, even though it looks difficult. Don't panic, just do it. 3) You'll come out at the other end of your journey a better person if you did what you know is right.

Any way, just a bit of rambling there. Had to get it on paper so I could organize my thoughts of recent events better. Maybe whoever reads this can find something useful as well.

Learning to enjoy life

Well, to say that the last few weeks have been easy ones is a slight understatement. However, it hasn't been miserable either. As some of you may know, I'm making a drastic change in what I thought my career would turn out to be. My many interests have revolved around history/politics and construction. Little did I know that I would end up studying to become a CNA(certified nurse assistant). I plan to go back to school probably right after getting a job as a CNA to be an RN.

So far it's been enjoyable an fulfilling working to be a CNA. Many people see it as a job where you have to deal with really nasty things, and you do, but the real fulfillment comes from knowing that I'm helping someone to a better quality of life. It's a job that needs to be done.

A lot of what I get to do now has always been shrouded in mystery for me. You may be asking what real skill does someone need to be a nurse assistant. But the coolest skill I've picked up so far is learning how to measure blood pressure. So if you want to know your blood pressure on a whim, you know who to ask!

The next coolest thing is that I get to wear scrubs. These things are ridiculously comfortable. I wear them not only in clinical's but also at home all the time. You can't ask for a better type of clothing.

But in all seriousness now, I'm really grateful for all the different tidbits of medical knowledge that I'm soaking up and can use as I go to school, as well as at home. Anyway, time to stop gushing. Other cool stuff is as follows:

• Brother Aaron comes home from LDS mission in Houston in March

That's it.

That's The Way It's Has To Be

Within the last couple of week, I believe that I have learned a lot about life. For those of you who are very literal people, I will qualify this statement by saying that you can learn everything there is to know even in one lifetime. But here are the things I did learn.

1)You should look at what you can and can't do very objectively.

This is something that I have learned to do recently.

A former employer called me up a few weeks ago and asked if I could install a satellite dish for him. The catch here for me was, I hadn't installed or even seen these dishes in about three or four years. I had been fairly capable when it was my job, so I felt confident that even though it had been a long time, I could still do it, especially since this former employer had no one else to call for this particular piece of equipment.

I get out to the job, which is between 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get to from my house (this after having a minor panic attack concerning my ability to point the dish with a meter I'm not familiar with) and get to work. The first thing I did was asses the job, and it was determined that I needed to come back with a non-penetrating roof mount, which I didn't have. So I came back the next day.

The next day I got there and got to work. It all went well until I got to the part of the install where I would point the dish. I got the meter up there and set to work, sweeping the dish back and forth, up and down, and got nothing. The meter, wasn't telling me whether or not I was getting closer or farther away from the target. I did this for 2 1/2 hours(this after about 3 hours on the install already). No joy. I promise the client I would return the next day with a better meter.

The next day came, and I was trying to help my former employer and his office figure out what meter we actually needed, and found that we couldn't get the one we needed until the next day.

By the next morning, we did have a different one, but it was only a newer model of the one I had been using. I was distressed about that for only a few minutes. I had the chance to play around with it and get to know how it functioned, and became confident that when I got it out to the job it would go one way or the other in magnificent fashion, but really hoping it would go my way and work. But when I got it out there, it didn't.

That was the punch line. Here's the moral that I drew from it.

I knew that at one point, I was really good at installing satellite dishes. Three or so years without even laying eyes on the dish in question however, made me rusty. That includes loosing the ability to strip wires and put fittings on them, knowing how wide to drill holes, knowing the troubleshooting intricacies of the modem and so forth. I had forgotten all of that, and just figured that it would come back because I needed to remember. That was not the case. I had to admit to myself that I didn't really know how to do something that I used to know. Knowing my own limitations, as well as talents, is really a value, just as much as patience is.

And if you're wondering what that picture is, it was taken coming down a Utah mountain pass on one of my many trips out to the job site.

Utah Cities Among Those With Fastest Average Internet Connection Speeds

I don't know why people are complaining about this, but in the last few months reports of other, "less advanced", countries having faster internet on average than us super amazing Americans have crossed my desk.

Few, that was a mouthful.... moving on.

Well, in this recent article it was reported that the U.S. averages around 3.9 mbps. That really isn't anything to turn your nose up at. The only thing limiting speed is the stingy ISPs who want more money but don't deserve it because of crappy customer service. But what really caught my eye was that two Utah cities were among those with the fastest average internet connections in the U.S. That makes me proud. I even almost live in one of them. It also goes to show us all that we haven't totally been forsaken. The providers in other parts of the country just need to take a look at the top ten.

Good Tidings To All

Christmas is now over, and part of me is glad for it. I have made some major life decisions over the break, and I am eager to go and get to work. I know that some of you may find going back to your jobs to be a downer, and rightfully so. But after having a good holiday to get rested up and get a renewed prospective on life have done a lot of good for me.

A new dynamic this Christmas season for me was the extreme lack of feeling the same "spirit of the season" that I used to feel as a kid. I was trying to bring those feelings back, but found that I could not. I don't know if many people experience this, but what it allowed for me was to ad something new to my holiday. Growing up, we all know Christmas as the time of year when we get tons of crap and think we should have gotten more. You would be right in telling me that just a few posts down I was ranting about all the things I wanted for Christmas. All I can say is that it is healthy to hope for things in your life, but it is not healthy to get mad when you don't get what wanted. Often we think we want something, and then once we have it, it looses it's luster. There are other things that we should have in life that are not "things". We should use this season to cultivate familial relationships, to learn how to give(if you're me, that means learning it again), and most important, to learn who Jesus Christ is, and what the holiday really means.

You've never heard me say much about my religion, but I wanted to say a little bit now. I learned a lot this last month. It was not told to me by some preacher or anything like that. But what I did learn was what I remember from being taught as a child about the life of Christ and what he  did for mankind. Christ's mission was so profound, that no man could ever effectively teach what He did by himself. But let me tell you what I know. Christ gave, so we must give. He served, so we must serve. He used His time and money wisely, and so we must do the same. What Christ gave us was the ultimate example for the perfect life, and during this season which bears His name, we must learn what He did, and do the same. That is what we need to do to effectively celebrate Christmas. This brings a different spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

So even though I didn't feel the same 'ol Christmas "spirit" that I felt as a child, I found something else, something that I hope I will continue to build upon for the rest of my life.

This Explains A Lot

I'm going to tell you a tale. This is not a tall tale. It is absolutely true.

Last night as I was trying to mosy on over to netflix to catch a movie, I could not get there. It was totally weird. I tried other sites, including Amazon.com. What was really odd was that I could get to many web site, but at the same time, the number I couldn't get to increased. I thought it had to do with one of our ISP's(we have two and load balance). So I went about my business, and got my highly qualified brother(CCNA, CCDA for those of you who know what those certs are) to look at it, and he told me it was totally weird as well. Well that was a load of useless.

Turns out that there was a DNS attack on a number of shopping websites last night, totally rendering those sites incapable of being viewed by the outside world. I still don't know if I can really say that netflix was involved in all of this, but it certainly turned my on to the larger problem, but who knows. What's really important is that some shmoe cost these companies a lot of money. I don't know whether to congratulate him for his craftyness, or condemn him for such an illegal act. Actually, I'll do both........ But then again, it really caused me alot of grief. Ya, the guy is an official deuche.

It's weird how things work out

I'm not going to bore you by regaling you with the subtleties of life, but I am going to tell you that life seems to be weird sometimes. And it's not that society is creating this feeling in me, but rather, the culprit seems to be myself. Let me explain, and you can listen for what you find may be similar to yourself.

I hate school. I hate going, doing the homework, group projects, the works. And it was worse this last semester because of a job that kept me in a constant state of fatigue. I was hating life more than at any time before. But now, however, having been done for two weeks or so, I find myself missing some of the things involved with school. Mostly the structure. I go to community college, so some may not see any set structure to their lives while going to school, but that is what I found. This is beginning to sound crazy to myself a little bit.....

Anywho, it really is weird how things tend to work out, and how we may start missing the things we like to hate. But I guess that's how we are wired.

Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes!

Although I believe it willfully ignorant of me to think that there are people who actually read this, I will still mention the fact that I decided to make some changes to the layout of my blog. There were many things that I wanted to do with it, but alas, my plans are too far-flung to achieve at this point in time. I must stick to what I can do; and that is to write, to find interesting and note-worthy things to fill people in about, and to write well(repetition originally unintended, but now I think it has a ring to it, and those who think it doesn't, you're probably right).

Now, some real news. For a lot of you who know me in person, one of these great changes is that I have left my employment at UPS. It really was a good job, but not a good job for me. I don't have the same physical capabilities that I once had. I know that sounds funny coming from a 22 year old young man, but due to certain chronic conditions, my body could not handle the very physical work required of an employee at UPS. They truly have worker satisfaction at heart(my bosses at least), but I couldn't keep up.

The college semester is now over for me, and I am in waiting for the next one. Due to continuous fatigue that has hampered me for the last little while, I haven't done very well at school. That should change, hopefully..... I still have a lingering hatred for homework and sitting in class. One wonders how he graduated high school. At any rate, I now know my limits and can carry on in a more efficient manner.

So now all you people got the scoop on me. Consider this the worst Christmas Card you've ever received.

By the way, I'm glad they put spell checkers in web browsers now or else I would never remember the "i before e except after c" rule. You almost got some obvious misspelling right at the end of the last paragraph.

Utah: Life Behind the "Zion Curtain"

In the first few years of my life, I was a California boy. Culture was different in many aspects of life. Most notably, stores were open on Sunday's, stores also stayed open later, there was a heck of alot of traffic to deal with and so on. In some respects, I felt like the people I knew were "real". I don't know really how to describe this, except to say that no one had to put up some sort of facade to fit in.

This is where I can catch a lot of flak, my opinions and so forth. I need to be clear that I'm not bashing every single Utahn there ever was. But I just see those people here and there, on the rodes and in stores who seem to have a sense of entitlement. It feels to me like certain people really feel like they are better than the other guy. You can really feel it, and even see it on the roads. In 2006, late in that year, I was driving down a major road, trying to get to a job. It was late in the day, but as a satellite dish installer, that doesn't tend to matter. Traffic was horrible because of a concert that was to take place just up the road. Some woman in her husband's pickup with an 8 in lift and new Eddlebrock pipes, rode up onto the sidewalk, and drove past the traffic.This is just one extreme example of the common attitude of "I'm the entitled Utahn". I can continually see people forcing their way into another lane on a merge, jerk-like, not even caring that it would cause an accident unless it were for the person who was forced into courtesy. I never see such driving habits on the roads of California. Everyone there seems to know the rules, and while they are extreme drivers(driving there is like racing) people tend to work together on the roads. It's an attitude that carries over to other parts of life.

These aren't the only things happening. There are multiple manifestations of an over reaching problem. The "I'm better than you" thing. I can't really say it's because some are Mormon(I'm Mormon myself), or if it's because people feel like they are rich, or because every Utahn has a chip on their shoulder. I don't know, but I think that it comes out to a combination of the three.

Don't get me wrong, Utah, I love the state and plan on living here for a long time to come, but we all really need to work on this attitude problem.

What really set me off on this topic was the recent news article that appeared in the Deseret News paper. The article presents some of the bills that rep. Carl Wimmer is having drafted for the upcoming session to open in January. The thing with all of this is not necessarily the bills themselves, but the purpose for which they will be presented. The first is the one I really have a problem with. After being involved in a minor fender-bender, Rep. Wimmer decided that the guy who caused the accident should really have to pay double to triple the fine rate just because it was rush hour. And so now he's taking a personal vendetta against all who make the same mistake. Why don't we all get the opportunity to make laws because they are personally motivated. Again, don't misunderstand me, I believe that any representative can and should feel some personal motivation to pass a bill that he sponsors, but I mean, come on! Just because it happened to him means it should be changed? No sense in the reasoning.

So now you all know life behind the Zion Curtain. These certain things that motivate Utah life and politics. We as a whole really need to change.

Monday's: The Bane Of My Existence

Everyone has their bane. For some, it's test taking, no matter what the subject is. Doesn't even have to be academic for some. For others it's crappy drivers. No, not those kind of drivers. Now I have you all confused...... Anyway, for me, as I stated above, it's Monday. I've been battling this choice and capable foe since I was in 1st grade and learned how to play hooky. Monday still doesn't relent in it's onslaught of making me go back to work, getting things done, being productive and what not. Judging by this picture you can see how fried I am. Oh, wait just a minute, I gotta put the flash card in....... Here we go. (None of that was for you, I just need a minute for the pic to upload)

So now it's 30 minutes later(don't ask) and the picture is finally up. It's important to note that I don't feel like I look. But this is what Monday's do to me. It sucks.

But enough of me ranting on about my Mondaphobia. Time to bid my guestimated 4 readers adieu.