What a wonderful life

Dear Santa,

I am having a hard time deciding what I really want for Christmas this year, usually there are a couple large items on my list that I would most likely buy myself if I didn't get them from someone else (something I've done for the past couple years and has resulted in some nice stuff). This year, however, I don't seem to want too much and although there are some expensive items that would be sweet to get such as a mountain bike, a snowboard and snowboarding boots, another gun (you never know when we'll loose a lot of the choices due to government legislation and regulation), and a surround sound system to complete my basic home entertainment system, these items aren't as appealing to me due to recent changes in my life.

As I'm sure you are aware, I have finally found the woman of my dreams, the love of my life, my "one and only", and because she has agreed to be sealed to me for time and all eternity I am finding all of the customary things I ask for are appealing less and less to me when compared to Staci Wilcock (soon to be Staci Andelin)

I have been thinking of a literary character to whom I could compare my soon-to-be bride and I think Desdemona from the Shakespearian play Othello will suffice. Desdemona is known for her beauty, purity and devotion to her husband; Staci fits those comparisons very well. Now Santa don't misundersand me, I am not comparing myself to Othello and fortunately there is no Iago in our relationship (except that one tempter, Satan, who tries to destroy everything good and beautiful), and I am certainly not suggesting that Staci will have a similar fate to Desdemona, I am merely comparing Staci to Desdemona due to her beauty, loyalty, and above all her purity. I love her so much; I have gone two days without seeing her amd my life has felt empty in those two days. She makes me happy, she keeps me laughing, she helps me grow spiritually and helps me see new perspectives to life, she takes care of me when I'm sick and loves to have fun when I'm well, she keeps me healthy by motivating me to eat healthy (and she usually generously prepares the food herself) and by encouraging me to exercise regularly through her example (something I am needing more and more with a desk job). She gives me direction, motivation, and above all she gives my life so much more meaing. I had a realization the other day that from now on all of my decisions will effect her; I am humbled at the trust she is placing in me and I hope and pray that I can live up to that trust.

So as you can see, my life is so much better with Staci in it. But that is not all that is going well for me; I also have been blessed with a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my Savior so much; I am reminded of one of my favorite lines from a fantastic movie, "Amazing Grace"; the priest who was a former slave ship captian says a very profound yet simple line towards the end of the movie (and his life) "I can remember two things, that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior". Sometimes I wonder why He is so merciful towards me; the scripture in D&C 18:10 comes to mind, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God", I am humbled to realize that the worth of my sould is also great in the sight of God.

So as you can see, my life is very good right now and I foresee it only getting better regardless of what I get or don't get for Christmas this year. I hope you don't take that the wrong way; I really do enjoy receiving gifts and I really appreciate the effort you go through to get the right gifts for the right people, but my happiness is not related to my material possessions (but they're still nice). To show that I appreciate receiving gifts as a simple gesture of friendship and love (I say simple because it is just one of the many ways to show these things and it is not necessary either) I will attempt to right down some smaller items that would be nice to receive on December 25, 2008.

I realized the other day that I don't have very many whit Sunday shirts; I would prefer nicer shirts, with some texture, French cuffs (not necessary), and a wide European collar (pretty important). I don't want any ties though, I am a little too picky with my ties and I don't want you to feel bad because you bought me a tie that I won't enjoy wearing.

Some how I have lost most of my black socks that I received last year for Christmas; I'm not sure how that happened but it did and again this I could use some black socks, I prefer the thick kind.

I am a fan of Church books; Hugh Nibley books are good as well as books written by Apostles, but no LDS fiction.

I think Batman: The Dark Knight is coming out soon on Blu-ray, I would absolutely love to receive that.

That is about it, if you come up with something that you think I'd like then I'm sure I will enjoy it, you have bben doing this for a long time and I trust your judgment. Oh, I just remember that next to my fiance the other great gift I have already received is for my parents to be able to come to our wedding. Those two things have made my life great.

Merry Christmas

PS. I trust I'll be getting the customary orange in my stocking right? :)

Dang, We look good!

Here are our pics,
Tell us what you think
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Many thanks to Jed Brown and Stephanie Calton for helping make these pictures look so great.

Election Day

I have been thinking about politics and the future of America a lot recently, as I'm sure a lot of people have been. I thought I would write down a few of my thoughts before elections are finalized.

First off I want to say that I really don't want an Obama presidency; I do not hate everything about him but there is a lot of his views that I totally disagree with. I do have to admit that there are some things that are admirable about him, first and foremost is he seems to be a genuine family man. He cares about his wife, daughters, mother, and grandmother (who just passed away today, which is unfortunate that she passed away at an already stressful time for Obama). It is true, however, that he has a half brother living in poverty in Kenya although admittedly I don't know all details about that.

Another thing that is admirable about Obama is his ability to get young people excited about politics. I have seen a couple interesting youth groups singing songs and praising Obama, one was a steppin routine done based on exerpts from some of Obama's speeches with the teenagers starting out by chanting "Alpha and Omega" over and over, that I found a bit disturbing. I have read a lot of criticism comparing these youth groups to Hitler's youth groups in Nazi Germany. That is a bit unfair though because even those youth groups were based on community service and serving the public good, they were all just so completely deceived about their leader's intentions.

Then I have to ask the question, what are Obama's motives? I don't know but there are a number of disturbing patterns about his life and associations. He has repeatedly associated himself with the extremists of society, including domestic terrorists, Palestinian terrorist sympathizers, and racist religious leaders. It may be true that these men are not involved in his administration but I see these as signs to what his personal views are, and with a man so inexperienced we have very little to judge him with so why not use all the information we can gather. I am very concerned about what will happen to this country if Barack Obama is elected the next president and with the most recent Fox News poll showing Obama with 50% and McCain with only 43% it is looking more and more likely that Obama will win.

But I must remind myself not to fall into the liberal mentality of the past 8 years where bad news for America was good news for liberals because they could pass the blame onto the Bush administration. (This very well could have been the mentality of conservatives during the Clinton years but I don't remember and I certainly hope it wasn't). I will not become an America hater just because I don't agree with the current administration. I will still pray for my elected officials that they will be able to make good decisions for the great country and that we can stay protected from our enemies and that the wars we are involved in can end as soon as possible with the best possible results for us.

God Bless the USA

Staci and Jamon sittin in a tree...

Well, I am finally getting around to making this blog entry after a week; I'm sorry for the wait but in perspective it really isn't that long to wait.

I am so happy to able to write this, I AM GOING TO MARRY STACI WILCOCK!!!!! YIPEE!!!

My proposal was simple but it did come at a cost. I had already purchased the ring and talked to her dad Saturday morning and I was long boarding on my way over to propose and thinking about this very large step in my life when KABLAM I crashed on my longboard breaking my elbow. I was able to finish riding to her place, some may think it was foolish of me to continue on my long board but I figured it would get myself there quicker and also I was feeling a little light headed and almost fainted, I'm not sure I would have been able to walk over there. Another side story is there was a guy and a girl getting into a parked car right behind me and they didn't see if I was alright, they must have seen at least some part of the crash and yet not even a quick "you all right?" I would have told them I was fine anyway but I would have appreciated the concern. Back to the important story.

I got over to Staci's place, she doctored me up, and we went to the insta-care. I was really worried because although I left the ring in my jacket at her place I did have a card in my wallet with the ring info on it and she needed to pull out my medical insurance card; I was really worried she would see it but luckily she didn't. The entire time while at the doctors I was either thinking this really hurts or I should be engaged already. It was especially annoying when after putting Staci's name down as my emergeny contact info the nurse asked our relationship and I had to say girlfriend and not fiance.

Afterwards we watched the BYU vs New Mexico game at Tyson's apartment with the ring in my jacket pocket while Staci used it as a blanket, that made me especially nervous. After the game we watched a movie then went back to her place and finally about 11 hours behind schedule I proposed. For more, and different details check out my fiance's website :-) http://stacethespace.blogspot.com/

We just spent the weekend in Houston visiting her sister and bro-in-law, the only family members I hadn't met yet. It was a lot of fun and really nice weather. We even tried to take some engagement photos but none of them really turned out very well.

We are getting married Feb. 7, 2009 in the St. George temple, a reception will be in Enoch, UT (right next to Cedar City) that night, an open house will be in Provo, UT on Thursday Feb 12 and then another one in Sparks, NV on Valentine's day; I know, a bit cheesy but Staci really wanted to have it that night. Actually it just works that way even though Staci doesn't want to have it on Valentine's Day, it could be the 13th but only if the 14th absolutely won't work.

We are really happy and are enjoying the engaged life and are eagerly awaiting married life.

A Temple in Rome!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy right now, I almost hesitate to write about this because I don't think I'll adequately describe my feelings. I can tell you that when the announcement was made I raised my arms up in joy, everyone in the room looked at me (because I predicted they would announce a Rome temple) and I was speechless, one of the few times in my life that I've been speechless. And I would be lying if I said my eyes stayed dry.

Rome has a very rich history (just call me Captain Obvious) and was the center of the Western world for over a thousand years when you consider the reign of the Caesars and the Popes. Italy was the center of the Renaissance and was therefore instrumental in coming out of the dark ages. It is home to some of the great artists, musicians, and thinkers of the past two millennia. And yet Italy has a brighter future than past. There are a number of prophecies made by modern prophets about Italy and its place in the church. Lorenzo Snow dedicated the land for the preaching of the Gospel and after WWII Ezra Taft Benson rededicated the land for the preaching of the Gospel and in both prayers marvelous blessings were promised.

I would like to inform everyone about the very first Italian and most likely Roman Catholic convert. His name was Giuseppe Taranto and he was born in Cagliari, Sardegna (I've been there) and moved to Sicily when he was young. His family was very poor and so he left home to become a sailor in order to provide better for his family (he wasn't married). He came to America and decided to start a business in Boston providing fresh produce to merchant ships in the harbor, sort of like a boat to boat produce salesman. He was very succesful at this and was able to save a substantial amount of money. He met missionaries and accepted the Gospel but didn't join the saints in Nauvoo but stayed in Boston. Oh and before he accepted the Gospel he had a dream one night in which he was told to give his gold to the prophet, Brigham. After the martydom and an accident in the harbor when he almost lost his life (he never learned to swim) he decided to join the saints in Nauvoo. At this time the Church was very strapped for cash and was having a very hard time coming up with the financial means to continue building the temple. Brigham Young called a meeting and announced that they would have to cease work on the temple unless the Church could come up with more money. This was the same day that Giuseppe Taranto arrived in Nauvoo; upon hearing that announcement he then understood his dream he had years ago and saught an audience with Brigham Young during which he gave the Church his life savings of about $6000 in gold. These funds were enough to keep the Church going and able to finish the temple which allowed so many of the saints to receive their endowments.

And now more than a hundred and fifty years later Italy will be getting a temple.

There is more I would like to write but I need to get this posted.

Rosh Hashanah Woes

So yesterday was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year (Sept. 30). For this holiday it is custom to focus on cleansing one's life of sin in preparation for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In institute last night (where I was reminded of these things) my teacher mentioned how Christians and Jews have many similarities and because of this it can be benefitial to be aware of Jewish customs. I find it fascinating the way other people worship and I try to learn as much as possible from other cultures; however, this is not why I titled this entry "Rosh Hashanah Woes".

My complaint is with Congress for having the nerve to take a day of vacation right in the midst of the greatest financial crisis the nation has faced since the great depression, and possibly the second greatest financial crisis in the history of the US. I don't just think they should have worked because it was just a Jewish holiday, if this was in December I would expect them to work on Christmas also (maybe not Christmas morning though). The are the leaders of this nation and they were elected and are paid by our money to serve the people, why then are they taking a couple days off for a holiday that most of them probably don't even understand let alone recognize themselves. They should be working non stop until this issue is resolved. Although perhaps the best thing for them to do is to leave Washington and do nothing, the current Congress doesn't exactly instill confidence and hasn't really accomplished anything of note in the past four years, and what's more, who's to say that their "answer" won't cause more problems.

Another thing that annoys me is how even now members of Congress are playing politics. John McCain suspended his campaign to try to help in Washington by doing his job and working out a solution to this problem (I don't think he had to announce to the world he was 'suspending his campaign', if it was purely altruisticly motivated and not to look more presidential to get a boost in the poles why didn't he just go and not announce it, perhaps there are logistical intricacies that I don't understand). The Democratic Congress then announced that they had an agreed upon bill that would pass the vote when in reality they didn't. The vote came and failed by about 20 votes (which could have easily been covered by Democrats in Congress if they all agreed on their pork-filled bill) and the Democrats and the media lumped the blame on McCain for getting in the way while trying to be some cowboy riding in to save the day.

These elections are really starting to bug.

Go BYU!!!! (ranked 8th in the nation)

The US of A socialist style?

So Congress is voting on a financial bailout plan that has been written in the past week in attempts to avert the economic collapse that has been charging towards us. This plan is on top of the other legislation that has been passed in the past month including a bailout for mortgage holders (providing means for people foolish enough to buy houses they couldn't afford to stay in them), a bail out for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (providing them the loan up to some huge amount and of course they took the maximum amount), nationalizing Lehman Brothers Inc. (or something like that) (correction; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were fully nationalized whereas previously they were only partially controlled by the goverment, Lehman Brothers just went bankrupt) which I only thought happened to oil companies in communist countries (nationalize meaning the government takes over the company), and I think I heard about some $30 billion loan to companies not even in the US that was decided on over night without the common public finding out until after the fact. The most recent bail out plan being voted on today is for $700 billion, and some people are saying the funds won't stop there. Glenn Beck (a staunch conservative prone to far right views I concede) said on his radio show that his contacts are suggesting that this legislation could cost easily up to $1.3 trillion. The legislation is designed to buy high risk debt from the institutions that currently hold them. This includes mortgages, credit card debt, and car debt. Then the government will collect on that money. Obviously the tax payer will be hit hard for this legislation but I wonder what the government will do will the debt the do succeed in collecting on, or maybe only debt deemed as uncollectable will be purchased. (It should be obvious that I have not studied extensively on this but I just wanted to get some of my thoughts on paper, so to speak, I'll continue).

And all of this is happening because people have bought things they couldn't pay for. I remember in my Macro Economics class at BYU my professor said, when talking about how the economy grows, that people spending money grows the economy and people saving money shrinks the economy. The more money in circulation the better. Henry Ford understood this and started paying his employees more money so they could have enough money to purchase cars of their own thereby increasing revenue for Ford Company. This discussion was actually just after a CES fireside (or maybe a devotional or a talk in conference) by one of the Twelve, I want to say Elder Oaks in which he said we shouldn't be spending so much money, that we need to have an attitude of saving rather than spending. It was funny because he brought that up and said something like "now I'm not contradicting the Brethren, it is better to save in your personal lives, but for the economy is better to spend money; so you don't spend money but hope that everyone else does so the economy grows." The country at that time had a negative savings rate, meaning the nation as a whole was spending more money than they were making. Another factor was back in the Clinton administration there was a large push to put every American in a home. There was a lot of talk about how everyone deserved to own a home and there was legislation passed to require mortgage companies to fulfill quotas when giving mortages. In essence it was affirmative action for the housing market. Sub-prime mortgages came into existence as these companies greatly increased their high risk mortgages. People kept buying larger and larger houses with the intention of selling in a couple years and cashing in on huge earnings from a perpetual housing boom. Now that people have come to their senses and the housing boom has ended people are stuck with huge mortgages which will only get higher as their adjustable interest rates increase. With some many mortgages going into default mortgage companies and losing billions of dollars on bad debt.

Anyways, the question remains what needs to be done to fix the problem, if anything? Do we allow the goverment to step and make very socialist decisions in regards to the economy in order to try to curb the destruction of the economy? Or do we allow market forces to run their course and cleanse out the economy of these lenders and borrowers who made poor decisions? President Bush said that the cost of this bailout plan will in the end be less than if no action is taken and the economy collapses.

I guess in restrospect we should have had the forsite to realize that what is good for an individual is good for a nation and what is bad for an individual is bad for a nation.

In the end all I can think of is this Demotivator.
(30 minutes later)
So apparently it doesn't look good for the legislation to get pass Congress, I still don't know how I feel about it.

I was thinking more about how we got into this mess. I mentioned earlier that a lot of the problem is people living off of credit and getting into bad mortgages. A lot is being said about how this disaster is a result of "8 years of failed Bush economics". It seems to me that liberals and the media (the same thing most of the time) are just trying to place the blame on the easiest target, George W. After 9/11, the claim is that Bush urged everyone to start spending to save the economy; that is not how I remember it. I remember him urging everyone to live life the same way you have been, to not panic. (granted I was in Italy during that year, but still...)

Things are a mess but if we practice good financial principles, live conservatively and don't buy things on credit, we should be fine.

Cheating Olympics

If I had a choice to win a gold medal by cheating and never get caught I would not do it. There are a number of reasons why I would not cheat and the guilt factor is certainly one of them, as well as the honesty factor, the reason I want to bring up right now is the competition factor. I ask myself why would I be competing in the first place? A large part of why we compete is to pit our skill, preparation, and determination against the competition. That being the case then why would I want to alter the competition to give myself an unfair advantage? I just thought of one of my wrestling matches in high school. It was my sophomore year at the Sparks High School Invitational Tournament and I was got matched up with one of my friends on the team. He had beat me in the past and we were evenly matched in practice; however, about 30 minutes before the match he told me he would let me win that day and sure enough I won the match. Now I can't know for sure if he really let me win but I do know it was easier than I thought it would be and because of that doubt I didn't have the same amount of satisfaction from the victory than if I didn't have this uncertainty about the level of competition he brought.

Another example, albeit not from my personal experience, is when the referee is paid off and makes calls to allow a certain team to win. Now I have never been in that situation (although in the moment sometimes I felt like I was on the team the ref was trying to make lose) but I wonder how satisfied the other team could be with that win, I must admit that this is not as good of an example because the team still has to play good enough to win but the point is they had an unfair advantage.

If I used performance enhancing drugs and won a gold medal I would not get much satisfaction out of the victory because I didn't really win based on my own ability. I would not use performance enhancing drugs because to do so would undermine the spirit of the competition.

Ethical question

I have a question for everyone,

If you could cheat and win a gold medal in the Olympics and no one will ever find out would you do it?

Think about it, write in your diary about it, and if you want post a comment with your thoughts. I already know my answer and why I feel that way and I want to see what your thoughts are. I will post my answer as another blog entry in a couple days.

Oh and if you are uncomfortable sharing your true feelings then just post as 'anonymous'.

Obama vs. Bryant

So I have been loving the Olympics this year; I have thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the Phelps races, gymnastics, track (just getting under way), volleyball, and so many other events. One thing I was thinking about today, though, was an interview I saw of Kobe Bryant on what it is like for him to wear the USA jersey. The commentator asked him if it is no longer "cool" to be patriotic and proud about one's country, especially USA at this time and Byrant essentially said "it's cool to me". I find that very ironic when you compare his attitude to the attitude of the Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama and his wife. They are repeatedly saying things that suggest America is a bad country, a down right mean country, and they are finally proud of their country because Obama may become president. All Olympic athletes place their hand on their heart during the national anthem and yet the "messiah", "God's gift to America (according to Nancy Pelosi), Barack Obama does not. Am I the only one who finds it ridiculous that the man running for president and has a very good possibility of being elected does so much to make people question whether he even likes America. He goes to Germany and instead of praising America he is critical of America, talking about all of her supposed problems.

Now back to Kobe Bryant, he cynic in me says he only said those things because he is trying to build up his public image both in American's eyes and Chinese eyes so that he will get bigger endorsement deals and make more money; but if that is true then how twisted is our society that we want our athletes to love our country and we want our politicians to hate our country. I can't be sure if Kobe was sincere or not when he expressed his love for our country but after watching the interview I was convinced and I certainly want to be optimistic about at least some things. Bryant certainly has issues and I don't always cheer for him (especially when he is playing the Jazz) but I don't like to have bitter feelings towards anyone and I have definitely found more to cheer Kobe for. GO USA!!!

Which one

This evening I decided to get rid of my goatee even though I only had it for a couple of weeks. So I decided to try out different facial hair styles. Please comment on which ones look the best on me, Staci thinks the long mustache is the best. She is trying to decide if she wants to say anything right now....still hasn't decided, she just is hoping it will be softer now (hint, hint) ;-)
The soul patch is her favorite, mine too.

Family Reunion

I was able to make it to the Andelin Reunion this week. I was fortunate enough to get my time off of work on Wednesday and Staci and I drove up to the reunion that evening.

We went on a fun hayride right after dinner that evening; it took a little longer than Uncle Kenny had planned for us to drive from the campground we were staying at to his family's ranch but it was a beautiful evening and I think everyone had a great time.

The next day we went horseback riding and four wheeling; Staci is really not a fan of riding horses but we were able to convince her to go on a short ride and she did very well. We had nine horses in the group, three of Uncle Brian's and six of Uncle Kenny's; having that many horses was pretty fun and much easier to keep the horses together.

We played this really fun game in the afternoon; everyone had a short length of 1/2 inch PVC pipe and a bad of small marshmallows and then we went outside and shot the marshmallows at each other using the pipe as blow guns. It got pretty gross because to shoot the mellows the best you had to get them wet by letting them soak in your mouth, then you could shoot them pretty far. But when you get hit the mellows stick to you. I was just glad I didn't have long hair because some of the girls got a lot of mellows stuck in their hair. Staci and I formed an alliance with Dan and Elise so we were able to stay much cleaner then most everyone else. Then again we did stay on the outskirts of the group and we would pick off people coming towards us. All in all it was a very fun game but I am pretty sick of the taste of marshmallows right now.

We had a short talent show during which I was reminded how talented my cousins are. I am more motivated to practice the piano now. It was funny because the first person to play was Jennis Andelin, a cousin who is about 10 maybe, and when she started playing I looked over at Staci and she had this look of amazement at how good she was. I just have to confess that I have a great family.

The reunion was a lot of fun and I am really glad that I was able to make it. It was well worth taking that day of comp time to go spend time with my family and my girl friend.

I need to post something

As the title indicates, I am feeling pretty lazy for not having written anything on my blog for a while. As a default posting I thought I would complain about politics.

So now the government is not only bailing out homeowners who made poor decisions i.e. bought homes with no money down, a floating interest rate, and no income and now have to foreclose because they can't make the high mortgage payments from drastically increasing interest, but our "friends in Washington" have decided to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest financial institutions involved in mortgages. (I can't think of the term for them but I do know what they do, a bank supplies a mortgage to an individual and then the bank sells that mortgage to these other companies). The congress has moved to allow these two private companies to have an unlimited line of credit (temporary but no time specification on how long temporary will be) .... Actually I just decided to post a couple paragraphs from a conservative email I receive regularly that explains these issues much better than me.

On Wednesday, the House passed its housing bill by a 272-152 vote. The Senate will vote in coming days and send it to President George W. Bush, who has dropped his veto threat. The multi-provision bill became even more of an “emergency” because of trouble at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which, between the two, own or guarantee almost half of the nation’s mortgage market. Along with the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie and Freddie accounted for 90 percent of mortgages originated in the second quarter.

The Washington Post reports, “The measure would grant [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson immediate but temporary authority to extend an unlimited line of credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or to buy their stock if their financial condition deteriorates sharply before December 2009.” Paulson will also have wide latitude in setting the terms of a bailout, though the bill’s primary author, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), cautions, “You have to protect the taxpayer.” Protect taxpayers by using their money to bail out irresponsible lenders and borrowers? That’s Democrat logic for you.

In line with that bit of fiscal irresponsibility, the bill raises the national debt ceiling by $800 billion to $10.6 trillion to make room for any bailout. The Post reports further, “In addition to the rescue plan for the mortgage-finance firms, the package includes a plan to rescue more than 400,000 homeowners at risk of foreclosure by helping them trade high-cost loans with rapidly rising monthly payments for more-affordable mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration.” That little gift will cost as much as $300 billion.

Furthermore, nearly $4 billion will go to local governments to purchase and restore foreclosed properties; $4.6 billion will go to tax credits for first-time homebuyers; and $5.3 billion will go toward more low-income housing. Concerning the overall cost of this boondoggle, The Wall Street Journal said it best: “Even conservative estimates by the Congressional Budget Office say the cost for this bailout will run to $41.7 billion, with $16.8 billion offset by higher taxes. No one has any idea of the real cost.” What was that about “protecting the taxpayer” again?

Of course, missing amid all the furor over this behemoth bill is one simple question: Is it constitutional? (compiled and written by Mark Alexander)

Honestly, what ever happened to individual (and corporate) responsibility for ones actions. These people made poor financial decisions, I don't want to have to pay higher taxes and have less savings to put toward a down payment on my first home so that some bum can stay in his $800,000 home subsidized by Uncle Sam. Let them lose their homes and move into an apartment, maybe they'll learn not to buy what they can't afford. Now if there are not-for-profit organizations willing to assist some people get through these hard times more power to them, that is a very laudable endeavor; but that is not the government's responsibility.

Another thing that is really bugging me is how certain members of congress don't seem to have any common sense when it comes to the energy crisis in America. One of the biggest arguments I have heard coming from capitol hill against drilling in ANWR and off shore is "it won't even produce any oil for 10 years". First of all, one of the main reasons it would take so long is all of the federal loopholes that oil companies would have to jump through to start drilling. Second, experts are saying the drilling could go much quicker; and third, even if it does take ten years then all that really means is we should hurry up and drill. Are these politicians really that dumb? They said the exact same thing 10 years ago, and do they not think we will need oil in ten years? If all farmers had the same mindset as politicians (not doing anything without an immediate payout) then we could say goodbye to our food industry; these politicians are like the man lost in the desert who came upon a pump that needed to be primed and he had just enough water to prime the pump but instead of investing the water in the pump to get an unlimited amount he drank the water and died. They must not understand the way the oil industry works, that the price of oil is driven by future expectations of the price. All of these companies involved in the oil trade buy and sell futures, which means they estimate that cost of oil in the future and then lock in that price for a given amount of time. If it is determined that there will be a large increase in oil production then futures prices will decrease. And yet our "friends in Washington" don't seem to understand that ever so simple principle. Now they are proposing an increase in the gas tax and guess why; with the increase in oil costs people are buying less oil and the government's precious tax revenue is decreasing. Instead of increasing taxes thereby increasing fuel costs and decreasing consumption why don't they work on increasing supply thereby decreasing cost. I swear, if they would all just go to an Economics 101 class they would learn these basic principles.

In conclusion, I must reaffirm my love for this country and my belief (albeit hard to remember at times) that there are good men and women working in the government who understand these problems and the solutions available through the constitution.

The rest of the trip

Well I'm sorry for slacking off on the rest of the trip. It was a ton of fun but I just was finding it harder to be motivated to write all the entries.

On Saturday we went whale watching and had a ton of fun. We set off at 10am and were out for about three hours. I was a bit annoyed by one thing though; as we were getting on I asked some of the crew members where they thought the best place to be was and it was so hard for them to give me an answer. I find that often people are so nervous to give their opinions on things such as meals at a restaurant. It's like people are scared that I'll get upset if I don't agree with their opinion, which I guess could happen with people at times. But I enjoy getting to know what other people think when I'm making decisions. On the boat we had the option to be high or low and they were so hesitant to say anything other than "it depends". All well, we had a great time and found that indeed the front down low was much more enjoyable than the top.

We saw five humpback whales in total, two cow and calf combos and one bull. We actually got a lot closer than I thought we would but not as closed as I wished. We were probably twenty feet away at the closest. I learned that whales do not drink any ocean water, if they did they would die just like us. But instead their bodies create all the water they need from their blubber. Also they use half of their brain at a time. One half is used for normal stuff like swimming, eating, etc. and the other half turns on when they are "sleeping". Its only function is to breath and swim. So each half gets rest while the other is functioning.

We then went to a famous seafood restaurant called Boston Legal Seafood. Apparently it has won a bunch of national restaurant awards. The food was really good, I actually had swordfish for the first time and I really liked it.

Then we went to the Boston temple. It was very peaceful and relaxing going to a session and walking the grounds. I'm happy we were able to go there, of course it's always nice to go to the temple but now I have one more temple crossed off my list and I'm well on my way to visiting all the temples in the world (well, maybe that's a bit ambitious).
On Sunday after Church we decided to drive up to Maine to take a walk on a beach. We heard about a place in Ogunkuit, Maine called Marginal Way. It was a very beautiful walk we were able to go on. On a part of it I saw a dogfish that had been beached and subsequently thrown back in the ocean by some people. The dogfish was way weak and you could see it trying to swim. I have my doubts that it survived, it seemed too weak to swim out to deeper water and even if it could I'm not sure it would be able to catch any food. Still, it was fun seeing it and getting really close.

The next day we headed up to Vermont to check out Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory and also to go to Sharon VT and check out Joseph Smith's birthplace. Ben and Jerry's was pretty fun. We saw how ice cream is made there and also learned about their company (nothing I didn't already know from all the projects and lectures we had on that company for my business classes, Marketing, Strategic Mgt., Organizational Behavior, etc. We must have mentioned Ben and Jerry's in over half my classes in the business school.)

We also stopped at a maple syrup farm that was close by. I learned that it takes 40-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. No wonder it's so expensive. Also sap looks like water when it comes out of the tree.
The Joseph Smith Birthplace memorial was great. Did you know that the actual obelisk is one of the largest single pieces of granite in the world? The entire monument stands 38 1/2 feet tall, one foot for each year of the prophet's life. It was very relaxing there, we arrived towards the end of the day and had a personal tour by the senior missionary there, Elder Mckinnon. He was great and very entertaining. Afterward he invited us to attend FHE with all the other missionary couples there. It was so much fun. There were about 20 people there including us and we had an American History trivia game. Some of the questions were: when was the Pledge of Allegiance instituted? What city was the original national capital? Who wrote the Star Spangled Banner? When was the Declaration of Independence signed? What is the first line of the Declaration? How tall is the Statue of Liberty? What was the population of the 13 colonies when they declared independence? So everyone reading this think of the answers and then see if you're right, the answers will be in a comment.

We stayed that night at Camp Joseph, a Church run camp right next to the memorial. It was so incredibly peaceful there, the weather was perfect, we had a nice fire and roasted marshmellows, the night was clear and we could see a ton of stars (when we stepped away from the fire of course), and there were fireflies that we tried to catch (well I caught two of them, I was very happy), living in the west we don't get the joy of fireflies like east coasters do, they were a lot of fun. The camp was really really great, the missionary couple running it, the Wallaces, were great. They provided us with everything we needed, matches, flashlights, and firewood. It was a great change from Boston.

The next day we drove through New Hampshire and stopped at the stonehenge of america. Have you guys never heard of it? Yeah, me neither and we found out why. Well not for sure but for starters they were charging $10 admission. None of us wanted to pay that (maybe $3 dollars) so we took a picture of the sign and took off, we couldn't see the actual place because of the woods. I did see a sign informing me that if I wanted to go on a ghost siting trip I should come back for Halloween. But I would need to bring my own recording equipment to be sure to capture my siting on film (seriously, I saw a notice for this). Apparently this place has an underground paranormal activity following. We wanted nothing to do with that so we went to the beach.

The waves were big enough so I was able to do a little body surfing, I'm not very good at it but I did catch a couple good waves and from what I saw I was the best that I could see (OK I admit it, there were only like three other people trying).

That night we went to the perfect conclusion to a Boston trip, a game at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play. It was such an awesome game. Fenway was so much fun, before the game Jed and I went down to the front row right off of third base and took some pictures. The national anthem was incredible, the girl singing it was amazing and the setting was great, I got a ton of chills. The game itself was really good. We scored in the 1st (and when I saw we I mean the Red Sox) and then the Twins scored three in the third. Long story short this game had everything except for an in park homerun and someone stealing home and a fight and someone getting tossed (Ok so it didn't have everything but it had a lot). There were stolen bases, triples, broken bats, and a home run by Manny Ramirez (Boston) to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. That stadium was so loud, you'd think they just won the World Series. Boston won 6-5, what a great way to end our trip there.

The next day we flew home in lowly old coach (no upgrades this time, but I did fiddle for someone in first class).

Cutest blog my eye.

I have been a bit concerned that ever since I found this new background for my blog I have had an advertisement for "the cutest blog on the block". I want everyone to know that I still prefer to not have the adjective cute describe things about me (unless it's the girls I date of course). This was the least feminine blog background I could find on that website and I think it looks really cool. I'll probably change it sometime though.

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day!!!

The Fourth of July here in Boston has been quite something else. We started this morning at the flag raising ceremony which included the national anthem, the pledge of allegiance, a message from the mayor of Boston, a performance by a band, and also by a drum and fife group. There were a bunch of Navy and Coast Guard there and also the Captain of the Swiss guards stationed at the Vatican. At the end of the ceremony we paraded down to the old cemetery where there was a short program at the gravesites of certain patriots including Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. I was really touched towards the end when a bugle was playing taps; it sounded beautiful in that crowded yet quiet and peaceful city street and I looked over and say an older gentleman probably in his 60s who was brought to tears. A funny thing that happened right after that was I was listening to a couple people speaking and I could almost understand what they were saying, so much so that I was certain they were speaking some Italian dialect. So I asked them what part of Italy they were from (in Italian of course) and the guy informed me I was wrong and he was actually from Spain but they were speaking Catalan. It was incredible how well I could understand them, we had about a five minute conversation me speaking Italian and he and his wife speaking Catalan and the only holdup I had was when they asked about fireworks. I was pretty proud of myself.

We then headed to the old city hall building to here the reading of the Declaration of Independence but unfortunately there were a lot of people so we couldn’t really understand what was being said, there were way too many echoes.

The next item on our agenda was to find a place to see the 21 gun salute to the nation from the USS Constitution. That proved more problematic than we thought it would be…. I just realized that so far too much of these blog entries have been simple story telling. I will try to be more creative in how I say what I’ve done from now on, I hope I haven’t been too boring.

I will continue by saying this, the next time I come to Boston for the Fourth of July I will know exactly what I want to do and how I want to it. I will be able to accomplish so much more in so much less time and it will be so much less stressful. Our plan was to catch the ferry over to the naval shipyard and watch from there; everything was going to plan and we had plenty of time until we realized that at 11 the Coast Guard closed down the harbor in preparation for the sailing of the USS Constitution. We missed the last boat across by 6 minutes. We started walking over and were trying to figure out the fastest way over, we couldn’t find a bus and we weren’t sure if there were any trains going over so we took about 45 minutes to finally get to a place where we could see. We found out that there was a train that we could have grabbed and we would have saved about 30 minutes. Ah, it’s so annoying. But the adventure was worth seeing the cannons being fired.

After a long nap back at home base, we headed out to find a spot for the fireworks show on the Charles River. We got an awesome spot right on the center of a bridge.

I love this country, and not just because we have the largest economy in the world, or because we dominate in the Summer Olympics (which I’m really excited for, go USA), or because we give more than any other nation in the world to charitable organizations, or because our military is the best armed forces in the world and is completely made up of men and women who join on a volunteer basis, or because we have some of the brightest minds in technology and science, or because we are ruled by elected officials who operate in a system designed to not let any one group of people become too powerful, or because any one who has the desire can become successful in life. No, all of those are great things about the United States of America but the reason I love this country is because it was established by the power of God and it is by His Hand that we may continue to succeed, as Benjamin Franklin said in reference to America, “if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?” The Founding Fathers recognized our Savior’s Hand in the roots of this nation, we would do well to remember that as well. God bless America. However, this doesn’t come with its hazards. I was reading a book by Hugh Nibley, “Since Cumorah”, and in it he mentions the song “God Bless America” and the thing I got from it was that we cannot arbitrarily think that God is always in favor of what America does. It is very dangerous to be so arrogant to think a certain nation, or state, or group of people, or person can do no wrong (one exception does exist of course). What we need to remember is the promise this land has been given, which is “if ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land—but if ye keep not his commandments ye shall be cut off from his presence” (Book of Mormon, Alma 37:13). It has been said that the most important thing we can do for our country is to keep the commandments because by doing so we make this nation more eligible for the blessings from the Lord and that is the only thing that can really help us.

The fireworks were amazing; I enjoyed singing along with the Boston Pops to the tunes of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, as well as a number of patriotic songs including “This Land Is Your Land” and “God Bless America”. Also Rascal Flatts was there performing and they are always great. The actual fireworks lasted for about 30 minutes but it sure went by awful fast, some of the fastest 30 minutes of my life.

I hope you enjoy some of these film clips I took from different things today.

Hm, I've been having issues with loading these video clips. Once I get it figured out I'll post them. Check back, they're worth the wait. At least I think so.

Day 3

Today was another good day, we woke up at a reasonable time of about 8’oclock. I had a couple funny dreams last night; in one I was batman, always fun, in another I woke up to find a bucket of mealworms in the motel room and also a couple boxes of mice and rats that were all getting out. Then in my dream I woke up and realized I needed to check on all my pets, snakes and lizard and so I went home to make sure they were all doing OK, then I really woke up. Staci pointed out that I must be missing my pets; I suppose that’s possible but not certain.

We first went to Providence, Rhode Island and we stopped at the Roger Williams memorial. I found out that he was the founder of Rhode Island. He was the one who acquired the charter from England to start his own colony. I find it very curious so much of American history is centered around religious persecution. The pilgrims left England on the Mayflower to practice their Puritan beliefs; Roger Williams left Massachusetts to escape religious persecution from the Puritans. I sure others left as well to form various colonies. And of course so many of these colonies/turned states played a part in the persecution of the Latter-day Saints and caused them to flee to the West. It seems people quickly forget how their people once were treated. Too often in life do the persecuted become the persecutors. I really think that we as Latter-day Saints need to pay heed not to do anything that would lead others to believe we feel superior to any religion. A couple religions that I think are being unfairly criticized are Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Muslims (and yes, I do think there is a difference between mainstream Muslims and radical Islam.) We should make sure we don’t criticize others for their curious beliefs; Latter-day Saints should be the last ones to do that for more than one reason.

OK, I’m off my soapbox now, but no promises that I won’t get back on. We also took a walk around the capital building in Providence, we figured we should get a picture there seeing how that really the only reason we came to Rhode Island is because it’s a state. I also went into a church and played a couple hymns on the piano.

We then headed over to Connecticut and of course the first place we went to was the state capitol. Well actually we were headed for the capital and took to detours after we parked. There is a 94 year old carrousel that we rode on for $1.00. And also we stopped at a Civil War memorial, the first national monument that wasn’t an obelisk (like the Washington Memorial). It was built to honor the union soldiers who died at Antietam Creek. I found that especially neat seeing how I went there last year.

The state capitol building was amazing. It is very cathedral like complete with stained glass windows.

We then went to the Travelers Insurance Tower, have you guys seen the commercials with the guy and the huge umbrella that he uses to help a bunch of people? We went to the top of the tower and had a very nice view of Hartford, CT.

Another thing I love about New England is all of the old buildings everywhere, as we were walking over to the Traveler's Tower I saw this building and thought it looked picture worthy, what is it exactly? I have no idea but that adds to my point that there are things everywhere to see, if you put that building in Idaho it would be a huge state attraction but sitting here in New England it doesn't even get a second glance. (luckily I took the picture on the first glance)

We then headed towards Coventry, CT to see the home of Nathan Hale. He was the man commissioned as a spy for George Washington who was caught and hung by the British in New York. His dying words were “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” I didn’t realize this but that is a quote from a Shakespeare play that was fairly well known at the time. Unfortunately the place was closed today so we just took a couple pictures on the outside. It was a very relaxing place to visit nonetheless. It was nice to get out in the countryside and explore a bit.

We then headed back to Boston and are currently chilling back at Kristy’s place watching the Olympic swimming trials.

Day 2

Today was a really fun day, although it was potentially really annoying. We slept in a little bit, I couldn’t help but sleep nine hours to make up for not getting any sleep the night before. It’s not as much as Jed slept though, he was out for about 13 hours, lazy boy. Staci managed to get her beauty sleep in just eight hours, but she did sleep the night before on the plane.

Kristy’s generosity has continued to make this trip wonderful, her latest favor is she let us borrow her car for a couple days. We left Boston this morning to visit Cape Cod. I must admit, driving in Boston has brought back a lot of memories about driving in Italy. The roads are much narrower here and also the rules for driving are much the same, which is another way of saying, there really are no rules. I like it much better this way, people are much more attentive and logical when they drive.

We made a short stop at Plymouth, MA where the Mayflower landed. We decided not to pay the $10 to go inside and check out the ship, maybe we would have if we could climb up into the bird’s nest or walk the plank, but just looking around would have been boring.J

Our next stop was Race Point Beach at the tip of Cape Cod, MA. This beach was a ton of fun, the water was a bit cold but I had recently been to Lake Tahoe so I had already been habituated to the cold water. Jed decided it was too cold so he didn’t go in and Staci wouldn’t go in because she just washed her hair (I don’t understand but maybe my sister-in-laws can explain it to me). She actually went in most of the way, just not past her neck.

When we were taking a walk on the beach Staci noticed large splashes in the water, as I was going in to figure out what they were from we saw the head of a seal pop out of the water. It was then that we realized the seal had round up a bunch of fish and was hunting them. They were jumping out of the water to try and get away from the seal. Some of these fish were huge, I was able to get close enough to get a good view of them as they would splash around and as far as I could tell they were around four feet long, small for the ocean but large fish from what I’m used to. It was a bit unnerving to be that close to a seal while he is eating, I was probably 50 feet away when it popped its head out of the water and it very well could have been much closer, and I think I saw some of the fish swim past me. Either way it was definitely the highlight of the beach trip. I just wish I had my snorkeling equipment.

Here is a pic of the seal, you can barely see its head out of the water, we later found out that this is a fairly common siting, but it was exciting for us.

We then went to Provincetown and if I had to describe that place with one word it would be “gay”. Why you may ask, simply because there were loads and loads of gay people. Apparently, it is a favorite vacation place for sexual orientation challenged people. There must have been a 4-1 guy girl ratio. And all the guys were walking around in short shorts and no shirts. Well, most of the guys, there were some fathers there with their families, and me and Jed of course. Staci kept trying to get a picture of us on the beach we wouldn’t have any of that, not in Provincetown.

We ate at a restaurant on the beach and I had some really good seafood. I must admit though, although it was great food I can’t stuff myself with seafood the way I can with other kinds of food, my body gets tired of it after a normal sized meal. What I mean to say is it’s great but I can’t eat too much.

After dinner we went shopping for a couple souvenirs, Cape Cod stuff not Provincetown stuff of course.

Then we drove on to Rhode Island and found a motel to get ready for tomorrow.

I love being around all of this history. Everywhere I look there are more things that remind of things I learned in my American history class. Today we saw signs for the Roger Williams landmark. Does anyone remember who he is? See I don’t even really remember exactly who he is, he founded Rhode Island or something, but it is still cool to see all this stuff.

Day 1

I am so tired right now. We spent all day touring the different Revolutionary War sites, Paul Revere’s home (we didn’t go in), the Old North Church (where the lanterns were hung), Bunker Hill, the USS Constitution (one of the first six ships built for the US Navy and the oldest commissioned, sailable ship in the world, built in 1797), little Italy (we got some great gelato), a couple cemeteries where a lot of the revolutionaries, and some other stuff that I don’t feel like listing right now.

This is Paul Revere's tomb, the small one is the original and the large one was made when people thought the original wasn't good enough.

I like this view of the cemetery, there were a lot of people buried here, Benjamin Franklin's parents, Mother Goose, the victims of the Boston Massacre, John Hancock, and many others.

We rode a ferry from Boston over to Charlestown, it was very refreshing to feel the ocean breeze on top of the boat. And we got a good view of Boston.

It is really hot and humid here, we were already exhausted from lack of sleep and add on top of that the humidity we were pretty tired, then as we were walking back to the subway we got caught in a total downpour. It was pretty fun running through the streets of downtown Boston getting soaked, but then again we did get soaked.

This is a long ranged cannon on the USS Constitution. The cannon itself weighs about 5800 lbs. and with everything else, it weighs around 7800 lbs. Pretty heavy.
Here is a monument to Paul Revere, if this were a better picture you would be able to see the North Church in the background. The quiz for the day is how many lanterns were hung there and what did that mean?

Staci’s friend is taking really good care of us, as I’m writing this she is just finishing up with making fajitas for dinner, I’m excited. We’ll eat, give massages and then probably crash until tomorrow when we will go visit a couple other New England states.

Boston or Bust!!!

I have arrived in Boston with two good friends, Jed Brown and Staci Wilcock. The trip to Boston was fairly uneventful however there are a couple things I thought would be fun to write about.

While waiting in the SLC airport we were presented with the opportunity to upgrade to first class, three for the price of one. We decided that for a five hour flight (from Phoenix to Boston) it would be worth $50 to have bigger seats and more leg room. While waiting to take off I decided to get out my laptop and make some money while the lowly coach people were getting on the plane, a la Brian Regan.

I had the unfortunate luck to be seated next to the only nursing mom ever to be allowed into first class. (no I’m not bitter). She was really nice and had first class for pretty much the same reason we did. Her child, who was about 18 months old, was fairly quiet most of the time but it was a bit awkward when she was still breast feeding and the mom didn’t always use a cover blanket. Oh and she changed the diaper right there at the seat. All well, I had the window seat so I just turned on my ipod and tried to get some sleep, which I didn’t.

Now we are at Staci’s old roommates pad getting ready for our first day in Boston. I’m pretty stoked.