The last appeal for 2008

Goodbye old friend. You are almost dead. I will never forget you 2008, until I do.

I am at Boydell and Jen's house, and we are all standing idly by while a year dies. Why don't we do something about it? a WHOLE year is in peril, and we are having a party??!! What kind of twisted world is this?

Did you know that 1 out of every one years die? That's 100% fatality rate. In fact, today there is only 1 single year known to exist, and it is dying as we speak!

The Klingons have a word for year, and it is un-pronouncimable.

I refuse to celebrate new year's this year. I think we owe some respect to the current one, and actually, I am not sure why it has to go? I don't think there is anything wrong with the current one. People are fickle, and end up throwing away perfectly good things, like years.

I didn't even do anything this entire year. There is a lot of tread left on those tires. What a shame.

Apanthropinization

Sometimes hiding sounds like the best choice. People like to poke and prod and tug at my ears and my eyes. People think I should see the stuff that they see. I just see a lot of cardboard, pipe-cleaners, and paper mache........ Does anyone actually use pipe-cleaners to clean pipes? I have only ever seen them used to make hearts or flower stems or other such artaphernaliousnesses.

I like the smell of butter, and I like the taste of butter, but I REALLY don't like butter's attitude. It just sits there staring up at me saying "I'm cool, you go on and eat that bacon, I'm not going anywhere." But if you take your eyes off the butter for even the miniest moment, the butter is gone!!! I seriously do not know where it goes, and I know it was actually there and not a figment of my imagination because It leaves this buttery trail of forensics behind which I always send to the lab for analysis.... Well, I mean... Ok, I eat it. I eat the forensic evidence, but my mouth is as good as any lab, especially when it comes to butter. GOSH! I better stop talking about it or I will be up all night obsessing about how angry my fingers are at me for even bringing it up. They think I complain too much, and.... Ok, I'm sorry.

I have been told that the safest time of year is winter. Winter has an excellent hot-chocolate-to-my-face ratio. It also produces the most hyphenated terms of any season. If I live the rest of my life on hot-chocolate alone, I will be a warm and happy person. I mean... probably until I get really hungry. I get cranky when I am hungry.

I strive for one out of every poem, so here it is:

Ode of the eating
-----------------
Oh, cure of the crankies,
thou which art food for my face.
I eat thee and am full nigh unto sleeping.

I sleepeth not!

I must now clean mine house,
or suffer the sting of womanly knuckles,
against mine face.

Oh, parcel of continuance,
thou cookie of chipped chocolate!
Endure the assault of sharpened teeth.
I sharpen them according to the heart's desiring,
which now sounds kinda creepy.
I'm not a vampire.

I'm just not.
-----------------

Now I want to go to iHop. They should run iHop on linux. Or freeBSD. I mean, look. It already has the little "i" for the first letter. Now I REALLY want to go to iHop. Anyone want to come?

I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadows. If I fail, if I succeed..... I'm sorry people, sometimes Whitney creeps back into my conversations. I know, it happens to everyone, I'm still embarassed. What I was going to say is: I decided that I wanted to be an educator. I want to teach the truth of things via my blog, which you are now reading. To this end, I have inserted little pearls of wisdom here and there that I have learned from various people that I consider sagacious and phlyarologistic. Watch for these jewels of luminous perspicacity as they will be scattered throughout my writings. Please note, however, that many of these wise-folk dwell in a realm that I like to call "not-so-existent-or-truthful-land." It is a land of wonder, and above all, semi-accuracy.

One of the wisest sayings I have ever heard uttered is a saying that quickly and efficiently teaches us that we are all creatures of God and are all connected. It is a saying that originated in Central America, and is translated to read: "You can't have the Juan without the otter."

An old gargolomot of Gargolia, who was widened with age (yes, widened. He was as large as he was old. And he was VERY old), uh, where was I.. Oh yes, this old fatty said to me: "The duck and the monkey drink from the same pond." Which means: Even if you are awesome like a monkey, you still eventually have to talk to a duck here and there.

One of my most favoritorious of quotes is this one: "The lazy mouse sleeps within the snake." I think the meaning here is obvious. Don't be a mouse. I bet the snake never got eaten by nobody! Snakes are so much better than mice. Mice....

Well, I know that this entry was more pensive and deep and all that garbage, but I promise to write an entry later that.... I forgot what I was typing about.

ponderings of a mute tubist

One is not the loneliest number. Three is, after one and two got married. They were all still friends but one had to get that job shucking corn 60 hours a week just to support two's gambling problem. I would tell you which was the man and which the woman in that scenario, but numbers don't have gender. Everybody hoped that three would find a nice prime number and settle down, but you know how that never happens. Three saw how one and two struggled to make things work, and to make ends meet while living in their double-wide down by the water reclamation plant. Three thought he would prefer to travel the world, but he settled for making pies. Well, he actually only started the pies and let other numbers complete them. I don't think any of the pies actually got finished, They were HARD to make, it seemed like there was always someone else that needed to add something.

Cinnamon is the number one cause of Tornados in the U.S. Don't believe me? Well, you will when you hear my proof!!!! Pass it on.

I hear people saying that violence is not the answer as they are throwing hand grenades at whoever happens to be nearby, and I think they are right. Violence isn't the answer to anything, it's just fun. Kinda like churning butter. You could just go buy the butter anywhere, but then you would miss out on the churning.

Love is like a ray of sunshine, it sounds nice, but when you actually experience it you get burned and decide to protect yourself from it. Oh, and it gives you cancer eventually.

I really wish that the gay community would give the rainbow back to the unicorns. They had it first.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a peom:

Night sky, way up yonder,
We all worry about you,
you seem to be eating
too many clouds,
and you cry a lot,
you pansy.

A wise man once said: "It is better to drink water than to drown in it." It took me a long time to understand the meaning of that saying, but I did finally understand the crap out of it!

Here's a similar saying: "If you like something a lot, don't smash it to pieces, unless it was meant to be smashed into pieces. If it was intended to be smashed into pieces, make sure you clean it up after you are finished with it, unless the point is the resulting artistic arrangement of the smashed pieces." Children from a young age understand this concept clearly and deeply.

Robots will never learn to moonwalk. Yes, they will someday visit the actual moon, but I am talking about that timeless move that Michael Jackson introduced to the world. Here is the reason that robots will never moonwalk: It's hard. Most people can't even do it right. How is a robot supposed to do something that defies the laws of physics? A robot can't go through the motions of walking forward and end up walking backward. A robot also cannot pretend.

I cried myself to sleep until I realized that I could just close my eyes when I was tired and go to sleep. Kids don't understand that even though they are having fun playing, or spitting chocolate milk at the cat, it's fine to go to sleep. they don't realize that they have no job or responsibilities of any kind, so when they wake up in the morning, they can just go right back to whatever they were doing. Come on kids! Give me a break. Also, kids can't count. Don't ask kids to count sheep because they can't, and even if they could it sounds like a really stupid idea to them because it IS a stupid idea.

I sat down to my computer and I really wanted to type a new blog entry. I know that if I don't type blog entries, I will have no way of passing on my knowledge to my posterity. Unfortunately, my knowledge is extremely..... non-existent. If you compare my knowledge to that of a library, I would be the library's little brother who doesn't know anything. So instead of some inspiring tome laden with wisdom and poetic imagery, you get me typing whatever comes into my brain. Like:

Trombone players think they are awesome, and they probably are.

The moral of the story is: "Loneliness is like not having anyone to talk to"

Blog flux

As you can see, this blog is in flux at the moment. Don't get scared, but don't get too comfortable because I am going to try to con a certain someone into helping me paint this blog with all the colors of the wind. (I never did figure out what that meant. Pocahontas... I think she had some mental disorder. .)

Finally!!! The answers we all crave!

So Elesa started this new blog and invited me to post on it. It is a super-awesome blog so check it out!!

Interpreting the Uninterpretable

Thanks

Simon loves to drawar drawarings

No he doesn't.

I am in need of a cool logo for the new World Domination Organization site. I will be posting the url soon. So, anywayz, I was thinking that since I have like tons of people who read my blog like all the time.... Ok, I will be lucky if even one person reads this post.. Well, so what I am trying to say is that If any of you out there in the internets wants to take a crack at a cool new logo for the World Domination Organization, send me your stab at it, and I will pick one (If I get any) and you will get a prize, but the prize is a secret. And don't tell me that I am just saying that because I don't know what the surprise is, because I do know. I do know what the surprise is, Elesa.

So here is some information about the World Domination Organization: Uber Villains, super-awesome secret spy stuff, world takey-over ideas, oh and capes are welcome. It occurs to me that some uber villains have capes, but I think that most of them actually have collars and are designed more for hiding in the shadows than flying. There, have I crystallized it for you? Um also there are bombs and land-mines and minions and lairs. You know what a lair is right? Come on... you know... Where the uber villain goes to make all of his evil robots and also where he sneaks off to check his email. Yes, some uber villains also have lairs dedicated to their build-a-bears, but we are trying to pretend that that kind of thing isn't happening, Thomas.

Ok, so come on now, draw me a cool logo. Please?? I at least expect Faralee to make one for me. Faralee, don't let me down.

Also, whether you draw me something or not, start thinking of your uber villain pseudonym. The opportunity to join is at hand!

Wow

Ok, I am writing today to pay homage to Elesa. If you haven't read her Toilet Humor post, you should probably go read it now. I consider that post to be THE definitive guide on toilet usage and etiquette.

nomenclature

It seems like all I can do is rant nowadays. But ranting is easy. That's why I do it most.

Today's topic is: Baby Animals.

You would think that baby animals are perfect in every way. They are usually cute, granted. It's not the animals themselves that I would like to rant about, it is the stupid un-ending names that humans have decided to apply to each animal baby type. Why, oh why, do we even need to name them at all. Baby swans are called cygnets. CYGNETS!!! What???? Why??? What a stupid thing to call a baby anything!! Don't get me started on horses! Some baby horses are called foals, some are called colts, I think fillies are the girl ones but only a certain age range. I have no idea where the pony fits in. Is it a different type of horse? Holy cow!! Who cares?! My vote is to just call everything a baby ____. Wouldn't it be so much easier to say "Look, there is a baby horse."

"Well, Lance, when things are babies they need a special name because blah blah blah blah blah!" You know what, fake person responding to my rant? Shut up! You can't even come up with a proper response! Why don't you go back to come-back school, you come-back school drop-out!! All you can say is "blah blah.." Sure, I invented you and your response, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm right. Any other fake responders? I didn't think so..

While we are on the topic of the excessive nomenclature circus: Do we really have to call a group of crows a "murder." Murders, flocks, herds... What does it matter to say those things. Just call it a group of crows. Or maybe just "a bunch-o-crows." The term "bunch-o-*" is a term that can be used with any object to indicate that there are more than one of said objects being discussed. Just replace the asterisk (*) with the object you are talking about. Everybody will know that you are talking about a group of that object, I promise. Nobody wants to hear you say, "look yonder! I see a flugertyblurg of kurnkyknuckles." By the time they figure out that a kurnkyknuckle is the term used only during the months of June and October for a baby female squirrel between the ages of 2 months and 3 years, and that a flugertyblurg is a group of them, They will have missed the event anyway. I definitely speak for everyone when I say that I would rather someone say "Look, there are a bunch-o-baby squirrels." than hear them say "Hark! A flugertyblurg of kurnkyknuckles percheth upon yonder shmorntaven splorg." Ok, so those aren't really the terms applied to squirrels, but if you look up the actual terms at the link below, you will see that the real terms aren't any better.

It must be that at a certain point in history people just got really bored. They were all sitting around and one guy said: "Gosh I wish there was something to do!" and another guy said: "Well, we already named every object that we have ever come in contact with, and all our crops are planted. Games haven't been invented yet. Naming all those things was really fun, let's start naming everything's baby. And then let's come up with really stupid names for groups of everything!" And then everyone spent the next million years naming away.

You say you don't believe me that this animal naming thing is out of control? Check out this small list of animal baby and group names: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/animals/Animalbabies.shtml. A sounder of farrows? I rest my case. For a moment..

The End.

Tickle for best results.

I inherited Fae's old digital camera. It is small so it works for me. I thought that I would take some pictures of Sydney because she was readily available, and she happens to be quite pleasant to look at. I had to tickle Sydney to get her to smile. She is so silly.

Here are the raw images:







Here is one that I did a little treatment on:

If it makes you feel better...

Hi. I am not a mac or a pc. I am a person. Also, I am growing very suspicious of those mac vs pc commercials for two reasons. Number 1, I don't believe that those two guys are computers. I think they are just guys. Number 2, real nerds know that the term "pc" is not synonymous with Windows. You can run all kinds of things on a "pc" that aren't windows. In Fact, you can even run OS X (Mac's OS) on a "pc" if you really want to.

Let's forget about that for now. The real reason I am writing this post is this: I have grown weary of hearing people throw the word "investment" around. It just drives me crazy. So many people trying to make themselves feel better about spending money by calling it something else. Sorry, dumb-heads, but you are dumb.

The dictionary that I found online listed this as a definition of investment: The investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.

I happen to feel strongly that this is the correct use of the word. Investing in something is when you put your money into it in the hopes that you will gain more money out of it later on. A house can be an investment, because houses normally increase in value. A computer is not an investment. I don't care how much money it will help you make, its own value will not increase. A car is normally NOT an investment unless you are some collector who is able to sell the car later for much more than you paid.

I just get so sick of hearing people say "I invested in that digital photo frame." NO! You didn't invest in anything! You took your hundred bucks and spent it! Which is fine! Really, I am a big fan of people buying things which keeps money circulating, which is how the economy functions. Spend away! I like buying toys and things. I like buying things that help me be more productive, but that's simply not an investment.

Ok, well. I am sure that people will disagree with me. But I don't care, because I am a super-villain, and in proper super-villain fashion, I have already made up my mind and won't change it! Eat that batman!!

I'm hungry now, maybe I will go invest some money in a hamburger. I can barely even stand to say that in mockery. Gosh!

-- End of Transmission --

Why do good things always happen to bad people

I don't have to put punctuation at the end of my blog titles, Jessie! And If you could look past (crap! Is it passed or past?? I can't be handing this kind of ammo to the grammar gustapo)... Uh, If you look.. beyond (nice save) the missing punctuation, you will see that the meaning of the sentence is what's important. Although I guess it is hard to tell whether I am asking, yelling, or whatever. But I didn't type it in all caps, so I'm not yelling.

This is an issue that affects millions of families every year. Four (4) out of every bad person has good things happening to them.. like all the time! This doesn't seem right to me, and I intend to do something about it. I am going to need the help of humans everywhere, and that is why am writing this post. Please join with me in this effort to restore balance to the force. Here is my plan:

Phase 1: Alert the media. I am asking everyone to call their local newspaper and television stations and alert them to the injustice that is happening all over the world. Ask them to shine the bright, uncomfortable, burning light of shameful shamefulness on this issue. Once the piercing laser-beam of scrutiny has been focused, we will deploy phase 2!

Phase 2: Release the hounds! Once the scorching heat of awareness is beating down upon the bad people like a thousand suns firing an endless barrage of cancerous photon death, they will start to scurry and slither to get out of the hot hotness of doom. This will be our moment to activate those robot ninja monkies. This will be the time for big holes in the ground covered only by a thin layer of leaves. If you don't have monkies or big leafy death-trap holes, deploy any old thing you have laying about the lab. Battery acid, when carefully balanced on a slightly-opened door works very well indeed.

Phase 3: This is a phase that will be easy to overlook. However, it is vital to our success. Once we have captured all of the bad people who are having great things happen to them, we have to brainwash them to become members of our great scary villain army. Once we reach this phase I will send each of you the IP address to our orbiting brain-control satellite array. Yes, that means that I will have control over them all, but that's ok, we're friends, right?

Ok, we can make this right. If we all join our hands in holding the hammer of justice and hammeriness, we can hammer out a message to our brothers and our sisters, aaaaahahaaall over this land.

Let me close with this inspirational picture:

Some people just can't handle the jealousy

I just can't bottle this in anymore. When raw emotion grips you like a mother cat grips the back of her baby kitty's neck and carries you to the edge of sanity and throws you over into the boiling saucepan of never-ending boilingness, you have no other choice but to cry out to the humans of planet earth for just a little piece of understanding!! I am there. I have felt the whispering winds of whiperiness. I have opened the sauerkraut bottle of magnanimous magnanimity. I... ok I can hear you asking me to shut up and get to the point. So here it is:

Telepathy is not a joke, people! I just think that we could all be more thoughtful toward people who, by no action of their own, were born with that burdensome burden of burdenitude. I know that many of you think that the ability to communicate with your mind, and to read other people's minds would be a big tease. You think that you could have a lot of fun, well think again! Imagine the following true story:

Once upon a time there was a man named shibblesnork. All of his friends called him 'old shibsy' because that was easier to say back then when things were different than now.

Shibsy was minding the goat churner one morning when a strange fellow from the east wandered past the front gate. Since he was telepathic, without trying he caught this thought fluttering out of the stranger's brain: "Gee golly hey, I'm going to rob me up a bank today! Whoop diddly doo dum did!!" Now, you might not know this, but telepathic people can ask non-telepathic people questions, and the non-telepathic people will answer those questions just by thinking them, never knowing that they had been asked by someone else. So Shibsy telepathically asked "Which bank done you did think up robbing?" To which the stranger thought "Hadn't reckoned up what bank to caboozle. Maybe that big red one down in the town there." "That sounds great! Go for that one, you big sack of moldy old soap bubbles!" replied Shibsy. Shibsy was relieved, for it was the bank that he did not bank at, and thus, was no worry of his. However, this whole time he forgot to keep winding the churn winder, so his dinner was spoilt.

My great grand-friend used to read that story to me at night. Every night. Holy cow I got tired of that stupid story! But it taught me something! Just because someone can do something cool, that doesn't mean that they are automatically cool.

I would like to close with this final thought that my mother always taught me: Only reach for the stars if you want to burn your hands. They are balls of burning gas, stupid!

Bridges across nothing.

This post is about a dirt bridge that crosses.. more dirt. Useless. Or is it? I found it quite useful, actually. Here is video to prove that I am not lying, oh and yes, it is me driving my new dune buggy.:




And another:

I can't think of a title for this post. Probably because yesterday at the very moment the sun crossed the International Date Line, I blinked. I am sure that all of you are aware of the consequences of blinking at such a moment, so I will spare you the explanation.

This post is not about anything typed above. That was just stuff that I have been wanting to say for a long time, but I didn't think the world was ready for it.

I still haven't started writing about what I intended to write about, so stop distracting me! Ok, here it is:

Boydell and I bought two of these dune buggies. Mine is black and Boydell's is Yellow like a dandelion. We got them put together and finally went out to five mile pass to test them out. They are so much fun!! The have really high clearance and independent suspension so they are pretty cool.

Next week we are going down to Little Sahara. I haven't been there for years, and I can't wait to get back with our new buggies. We will have to buy paddles, which will let us tear across the sand.

Well, I am out of words to type. So there.

mahjong vs bubble breaker

For those of you who know about the secret underground mahjong tournaments in Brunei, you might not know that there is a parallel movement happening all over Scotland involving bubble breaker.

Last month, there was a huge brawl between the two groups. Each group wanting to settle the score once and for all!! Brunei sent their laser-robots with chainsaw arms. Scotland deployed their alien-cyborgs.

I don't know how it turned out, because right as the chainsaws were firing up, my mom called and needed me to help her fix her computer. I never got to find out which game is better, So if anyone knows which game is better, please tell me by voting on the poll.

If you haven't played either game, I would recommend that you run as fast as you can, because once you start playing, you will never ever stop.

So I used to be stuck on bubble breaker, but now I'm a mahjong monkey. Here is a link to an online mahjong game:

Mahjong

the Topher anomaly

So I have noticed something very unsettling. I don't know why it's unsettling, that just sounded good. Anyway, here is my observation: Every high school tech crew has a guy named Topher on the crew. It's true!!!!

Go check it out, it's true.

You get what you pay for

That phrase is very true. Especially when it comes to anything technology related. I find it interesting, however, that the more expensive and "fancy" something is, the more trouble it is to maintain that thing. I just wouldn't think that to be the case, but sadly it usually is.

For example, One of my friends bought a Mercedes. Nice car. Well, nice "looking" car is probably more appropriate. I mean, I drove it once and it is zippy, but when he had a problem with it, the service was very costly and difficult. Also, surprisingly, the car is completely useless if there is even a micron of snow on the ground. I am sure that the snooty, monocle-clad elite would argue that the Mercedes is designed for specific driving conditions, and really should only ever be driven on windy mountain roads in Sweden, preferably only while being filmed from a helicopter for a commercial for cologne, or a spy movie. Well, Reginald, if a car can't handle the tiniest amount of snow, I would worry about even driving it at all. What if a surprise rain came a fallin'? All I am saying is, I know that cars can be very pretty, but most people don't have car museums, so let's just draw the line somewhere.

How did I get so derailed there? Sorry about that. What actually spawned this whole thought was that over the weekend I upgraded some of the hardware over at Fibernet. I put a brand-new firewall in place along with a new cisco switch to replace our consumer-grade switch that was there before. It all went well, except that anytime I replace a device that faces Fibernet's switch, I have to call them and ask them to clear the arp cache so that their switch will pick up and allow traffic from the new device. This really only happens if I change anything from the firewall level and up, so usually not a big deal. And I know that their switch uses arp caching to make things a lot faster and that it is a good thing, but it's just another case-in-point that fancy things require more babying. Stupid baby switches!!

I guess I would rather have a something that is solid and works than some consumer-grade device that just kinda works. So I will take the extra work that comes with it. I do think it is worth the extra trouble. After replacing our consumer-grade switch with the fancy new cisco switch, our ping times have stabilized which is a dramatic change. Our ping fluctuations and collisions have also cleared up completely, which makes it worth it right there.

Another Mosaic?

Sorry, I can't help it, these are fun to make!

Sleep gentle hippies, sleep!

Everyone needs a picture of themselves made out of many pictures of other people. Here is mine (click the image for bigger picturization):

This seems simple to me

I am not going to explain the literal whatever behind this post. I just feel the need to put this out there.

If you are a nerd, and you are NOT a masochist, I would NOT recommend walking up to the strongest, stupidest, most anger-prone bully and punching him in the face. This is especially true if on top of everything else, you are a fat nerd and can't run for nuthin.

Just to clarify: If you come across a crocodile that looks very hungry and you decide to see how long you can keep your hand in it's gaping mouth, pulling it back only at the last moment before the crocodile's mouth snaps shut, you forfeit your right to be surprised.

Nobody is going to be sorry for you or what happens to you if you decide to walk into a police station and start smoking crack in the lobby.

There will be jokes told at your funeral if you strap wings made out of cardboard, garbage bags, and duct tape to your arms and run off the edge of a cliff. Extra laughs will be had if you make some kind of ninja yell as you leap out into the open blue.

If you juggle chainsaws...

The inescapable truth of blogs

Recent scientific and religious studies have come to this shocking, and yet somehow obvious conclusion: If you write something in a blog, it is instantly true.

Some people have a hard time wrapping their minds around this, but it easily explained through the following story:

"ten hundred years ago from this very second there was a man who had a running parakeet. The parakeet was wise and did not ask for crackers that he would probably never get anyway. One day the sun turned purple, so the man asked the parakeet to fly to the highest mountain and fetch the longest and purest feather from a magical armadillo. When the parakeet returned with the feather, the man used it to fashion the internet and then he published the first blog. Thus we see that everything written in blogs is true."

Now it is up to all of us to trust everything we read in blogs without question. Next week we will discuss the true function of email-forwards! You won't want to miss it!

Blessings

Hi Everybody!

Note: This post is not humorous, nor is it very coherent. I am just writing some thoughts here, so if you are looking for a chuckle, this is not a chuckle bin.

I find it pretty cool that Anne lists blessings at the end of each post in her blog. It not an easy thing to be continually conscious of blessings.

Recently, I read a few blog posts written by an old mission friend of mine. He is a special kind of person. I remember him being stuck in an area for 8 months that had been really ruined by a scandal perpetrated by previous missionaries. That's a long story that I won't get into here, but it is sufficient to say that the name and reputation of the church was in bad shape in this place. Baptism hadn't occured here for as long as any of us had been in the field, but this elder was determined to change things before he left. He really cared about those people and worked so hard to try and turn things around there. Instead of asking for a transfer, he actually asked to stay in the area until he could help at least one person there get baptized. Anyway, cool guy.

So I mention this friend of mine because his blog talks about his current struggles with trying to realize some specific objectives he has for his life. Things are difficult for him right now. He is very poor and not seeing the results that he would like from the work he is putting in. Still, he makes mention of the many blessings in his life. I certainly don't have the same struggles in my life that he has in his. I have different struggles, but I have good reason to be thankful.

I have thought about why it is important to recognize and be grateful to God for blessings, and have some ideas. I don't think that is has to do with ego. I don't think that God needs a pat on the back from us. I don't think He needs our recognition. Just like everything else in this life, I think it is about empowering us. I think that God wants us to realize that we have abilities beyond the limitations of our mortal bodies and minds. We have these extra abilities and resources through Him, in much the same way that our children have limited abilities on their own, but through us they can accomplish much more.

Ok, my point is that recognition of blessings and their source is designed to teach us to learn from and rely on God. I also think He is teaching us to rely on each other.

As we progress in this life and the next, I really believe that it will be important for us to maintain family and friend relationships. Of course, all of us crazy mormons know that families can be forever. But why? Ya, it's fun to be with family, but I think it's more than that. We need relationships for this thing to work. It is the same after this life. I think that as we increase in knowledge and ability in the next life especially, we will rely on those relationships more and more. Does God have family and friends apart from those He has created. I think He does. It makes a lot of sense that the circle of life we see here on Earth is the same circle we experience in the hereafter.

Well, I am a babble-bot. Good bye.

AaaaaRRRRRRR maties!! Thar be treasure!

Everybody likes treasure hunting. Even your grandma likes it. I know this because every human on the planet is required by law to love treasure hunting. Look it up.

Being that I am a law-abiding, tax-paying, lawn-mowing, email-forwarding, upstanding citizen, I love treasure hunting just as much as the next guy. Not more, not less, but just as much. Actually, no! I love treasure hunting MORE than the next guy. He's a jerk anyway. I wish he would give my elevator shoes back! I'll get you, next guy!!

Anyway, back to treasure. So I have heard about geocaching for years, but I finally decided to try it, and convinced Boydell, Faralee, Charlie, and Fae to try it as well.

We were all on our way back from Las Vegas, and Charlie had a new GPS so we decided to look for a couple of caches. Our first find was at the South Point hotel. We searched everywhere and even caught the interest of the hotel security. Right as we found the cache, They pulled up in their official security golf carts and grilled us about what we were doing there. We told them what geocaching was and showed them the cache, and since we hadn't done anything remotely wrong, they said "ok" and we left. We were all worried that they might remove the cache since they now knew about it, but we checked several days later and people had continued to find it after our visit. So, all is well that ends well. And for me things end when they are out of my immediate attention.

Well, we found a few more in Las Vegas and a couple in wendover, or mesquite, I can't remember. Anyway, I am hooked!! As of this writing, I have found 36 caches and placed 3.

If you would like to find my caches, The links are below. Also, you will have to create an account to see the coordinates, but that is free, so no problem.

Red Fountain
Hedwig's Cache
Wolf Hollow

Also, If you are looking for a good GPS, I recommend the Garmin eTrex Venture HC. I have that one and it is excellent for geocaching. I bought mine at Cabella's, as they had the best prices in the valley, also the largest selection.

Note to Cabella's: If you read this, you can send me a pizza or a box of chocolates, cause look, I plugged you guys for free. That's just the kind of guy I am.

Heart Beeps and Bump Beds

We got a new bump bed for Sydney and Ethan. What is a bump bed? I believe most people call them bunk beds. We bought it from IKEA, and while we were in the store looking for it Ethan said "Daddy is that one?" pointing to something in the store to which I replied "Nope." "But it looks bumpy!" Ethan is such a funny guy.

So today we got the bump bed all set up and the kids love it! Sydney can climb in and out so easy now since she is on the bottom and the mattress is pretty much on the floor. They are the cutest kids!

As Ethan was laying on his top bunk, he said "Daddy! I can hear my heart beep!" I guess it makes sense since he is a robot-monkey.