Kyle Is Neat

2010-12-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

Christmas at the Christiansen's

2010-12-21T16:55:00.000-08:00

Decorating the tree...

My Kids (in case you care)

2010-11-18T07:24:00.003-08:00

Debate Questions

2010-09-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry! I promised myself I wouldn’t get political but I just couldn’t help myself. Fortunately no one reads my blog so I guess this is just me venting...

Have you ever watched a debate for elected office? I always thought the questions they ask the candidates were useless. They never ask real questions that get to the heart of what a candidate believes. Below are some suggestions for debate questions. I tried to break them into categories...

Rights

Where do my rights come from? Who gives me my rights? Do I have a right to fail?

Do I have a right to defend myself? Do I have a right to own a Glock 22 loaded with 165 grain hollow points and have it ready to be used to defend my family against a home invader? Does everyone in the United States have this right?

Do I have the right to post my opinion on my blog? Do I have a right to my privacy?

Money

Who’s money is it? Mine or the Government’s? Who are the evil ‘rich’? Am I allowed to keep what I make? What does the word ‘fair’ mean?

Is the United States out of money? How did the US get so far in debt? What’s the plan to get out of debt?

Are entitlements rights?

Property

As a citizen am I allowed to own property? Who really owns my house or the land my house sits on?

Equality

Are you for equal opportunity or equal outcome? What’s the difference?

What is social justice?

World View

Do other countries have the right to tell the United States what to do? Is the United States the greatest country on the face of the planet? If so, Why?

At what point should the United States get involved militarily in another part of the world? What is the purpose of the military?

The Environment

Should I be allowed to keep my thermostat set to 75° if I want to? Do I really have to use those @#$@ing swirly light bulbs even though they are made with mercury and they take 4 times as much energy to produce than normal light blubs?

Can I drive my 2006 Toyota Tacoma that gets 20 mpg? Can I go 4 wheeling on public land?

Should I be fined or arrested if I really don’t want to recycle?

How should we reduce our dependence on buying oil from countries who hate us?

Tax Policy

Is it within the purview of government to use the tax code to induce social change?

Again, what is ‘fair’?

Why is it that most Americans don’t even pay income taxes?

Jaedyn Preschool

2010-09-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

My First Grader

2010-08-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

Diamond Backs Game

2010-08-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

They retired Luis Gonzalez's #20. We went to the game...

Get out of debt...

2010-05-24T05:20:00.001-07:00

The time to get out of debt was 3 years ago!

Mela & I are going to do all we can in the next couple of years to get out of debt. No trips to Disneyland, iPads or guns!

How would it be to be debt free??!! How would it be not to have to make a house payment or to pay on a student loan??!!

Wish us luck!

Father & Son's 2010

2010-05-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

Get ready...

2010-05-19T07:55:00.003-07:00

I am trying to not be paranoid but I am... I think the world and America has some very difficult times ahead. I give us about 3 to 4 years until the meltdown.

America owns too much money. Our GDP to debt ratio is staggering.

Free healthcare? We ain’t got no money! War in Iraq or a war in some other crazy middle eastern country? We ain’t got no money! Cap and Trade? We ain’t go no money! New aircraft carrier? We ain’t got no money!

Republican or Democrat. Conservative or Liberal. It’s all the same... we are out money. The credit cards are all maxed out and they are due. In the near future America is going to have a hard time just making the minimum payment.

The entire world is tied together. If we default or some other big nation defaults the entire house of cards is going to come falling down.

Hyperinflation will hit first followed by a deflationary collapse. This will lead to a sudden stop of services from the government and industry. This stop of services with cause rioting and rampant crime in most big cities.

I really hope I am wrong!! I hope years from now we can all get a good laugh about how paranoid Kyle was back in the ‘bama years.

Food...

My family has been working on getting our food supply in order. We have about 3 months supply of basic food. We need to get more. This summer getting more food storage is our second highest priority next to getting out of debt.

A Plan...

If things get bad we will make an assessment about our family’s safety in the forsaken land of Buckeye. If we feel safe in our house an neighborhood then we will try to stay at home. If things get really bad we’re heading to Pima. My parents in-law live on a large farm in the Gila Valley.

A Viable Means of Self Defense...

The Christiansen household has guns, yes they are loaded and yes we know how and when to use them.

We Know Who Our Friends Are...

I am so thankful we are members of the Church. We are not alone. We can get help if we need to and we will provide help to whomever needs it. We know our neighbors and they know us.

Sorry to be paranoid!!

Lose Weight and Get Healthy

2010-05-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sadly I’m a computer geek and I sit of my butt most of the day. Sadly I’ve never really considered myself an athletic person. I grew up with asthma therefore I never really did good at sports or running in particular.

I do seem to do well riding a mountain bike. I think all the different gears make riding easier for me. Then again, it could be just a mindset thing.

My first bike was a big-wheel – I guess you could call that a bike. It had pedals and it got me around the cul-de-sac (our house was on a cul-de-sac).

When I was 14 I delivered papers on a 1970’s banana seat bike with huge baskets on the front and back. At 4 in the morning I would load that bike up with about 100 pounds of papers and go out delivering papers in my neighborhood. Good times!

I know I had a ten speed in high school and I never really road a bike on my mission. Most of the time we had a car or we just relied on public transportation. I could tell you stories about the RTA!

My first mountain bike was a Giant. Then I upgraded that to a Cannondale. The Cannondale was awesome. I road the Cannondale to ASU and almost everywhere in between. While I was at ASU I had 2 “U” locks and a cable lock. I made sure if anyone wanted to steal my bike they would have to get through all 3 locks. I had no doubt a thief could steal my bike if he wanted but it would take him 10 minutes to get my bike and only a minute to get the other guy’s bike.

My Cannondale ended up getting stolen right out of my apartment. Someone just walked in and walked out with it.

My current bike is a Trek 4300. I bought it back in 2007 and I really like it. I couldn’t afford to spend $1000 and the Trek 4300 is a really good bike for the money (less than $1000).

Two years ago I was really good about riding it several days a week. Then, I just got too busy with work, church and family. And, for whatever reason, I lost my energy or enthusiasm for riding. I think I just got lazy.

Now, I’m on it again. I am focused and motivated!

Eat less... Exercise more...

This year...

2010-05-17T05:16:00.001-07:00

We just had a very good Stake Conference. A lot happened... They split our ward and I am no longer in the bishopric. Mela and I are not in the Palo Verde Ward anymore. We are in a new ward called the Westpark Ward. As to what callings we will have we have no idea. I hope I get made a Gospel Doctrine teacher or a teacher in Sunday School. I really enjoy teaching.

We are really going to miss our friends in our old ward. Mela & I cried when we found out that most of our close friends and families we have looked up to and people we have served with are now in another ward.

Every ward is what you make of it. Mela & I will make the Westpark Ward our best ward ever just like we did with Palo Verde.

All this being said... I am very happy to not be in charge of anything. I’m a much better Indian than I am a Chief.

On another note:

Stake Conference always gets me thinking. I need to set some goals and get on them. Some of these goals are more urgent than others. I think I will list them in this blog post and the talk about each of them in future posts... They may give me something to write about.

This year I will...

Lose weight and get healthy
Get my family ready for any sort of emergency
Get out of debt
Have a green lawn
Get and stay organized
Serve others
Put off the world
Immerse myself in the lives of my children and my wife
Not waste time

The above goals are not in any particular order. I think they are all going to have to be worked on at the same time.

SB1070

2010-05-14T06:57:00.002-07:00

Is it just me or is life and the world just getting crazy?

SB1070 – boy I don’t even know where to start.

First of all, unlike most of SB1070’s critics, I’ve read the bill. It’s only 17 pages long. Click here...

My humble suggestion is for everyone to read the bill and form your own opinion. Stop listening to the talking heads on radio and TV. Also, if you read the bill think of it from Arizona’s perspective. Phoenix is the #2 city when it comes to home invasions and kidnappings – second only to Mexico City. Arizona is #1 when it comes to ID theft. Citizens down on the boarder sleep with their guns because of the recent murders and the drug traffic happening on their land. We’ve had several gun fights on I-10 between rival gangs. All of these are just to name a few.

If you read the bill you likely won’t find anything in it that is racist. There is nothing in it that says we are going to deport all the illegals or start rounding people up.

The federal government hasn’t done anything for years. SB1070 literally mirrors federal laws when it comes to resident aliens. What’s the difference? If the FED isn’t going to do their job then Arizona will. Frankly put we (70% of Arizona voters) are sick of the “it’s not my job” excuse. It needs to end. If FED won’t take care of illegal immigration then the states will and should.

On a personal note...

Mela and I had a drop house two doors down from us when we lived in Avondale where armed men were holding 30 illegal immigrants hostage. I personally have been in an accident with a person who didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance who was here illegally. Guess who had to pay for the accident... me and my insurance.

I really don’t want to offend anyone. I am very sorry if I do...

2010-05-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Update...

2010-02-01T06:13:00.001-08:00

I need to update my blog more often.

Unfortunately I have a deficit of time and creativity. It’s kind of sad really.

So, I will just suffice to say my family is doing great. We are getting used to having little Preston in our family. It’s funny how Mela and I feel like we have known Preston for a very long time.

Andrew loves school.

Jaedyn is still the prettiest little girl I have ever seen.

Life is good in the Christiansen world.

Christiansen News

2010-01-21T03:03:00.001-08:00

Mela & I send a newsletter out almost every year for Christmas. This year we sent it out after Christmas so we could show off Preston (child unit #3)...

I hope everyone enjoys it. I get a kick out of making it.

I have had enough!

2010-01-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

When in doubt, vote them out!

Very good article:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1861-WE-THE-PEOPLE-Have-Had-Enough.html

Preston Don Christiansen

2010-01-13T03:14:00.000-08:00

Just happy to be here!!

Step-By-Step

2010-01-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

How to change a diaper.

Preston Don Christiansen is the newest member of the Christiansen family. For my friends who don’t have children yet or for my friends who may have forgotten the joy of changing a diaper on an infant let me give you the step-by-step process of changing a diaper.

Once piece of advice before I go forward... A good friend of mine gave me a fundamental truth of being a parent – “don’t fear the poopie.”

Step 1
Determine when a diaper needs to be changed. This can be done by smell usually. Smell is often the best way to indentify the need for a diaper change. Some more novice baby owners will use the peek method. I strongly discourage this method!

Step 2
Yell loudly, “Mela, the boy has a poopie!” If you are not married to Mela then you may need to use someone else’s name when you yell. If your baby is a girl then you may want to change the gender when you yell.

I hope this detailed step-by-step method helps.

Halloween

2009-10-30T03:03:00.000-07:00

Jaedyn is Hannah Montana

Andrew is Tony Stewart

More On Windows 7

2009-10-27T05:12:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite websites is lifehacker.com. They recently had an article on some Windows 7 shortcuts. I love keyboard shortcuts:

Win+Home: Clear all but the active window.
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop.
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window.
Shift+Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window vertically.
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it's maximized.
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor.
Shift+Win+Left/Right arrows: Move the window to the monitor on the left or right.

I'm a PC

2009-10-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

I installed Windows 7 over the weekend. I just did an in-place upgrade. I went from Vista Home Premium (32bit) to Windows 7 Home Premium (32bit). I know it’s always better to do a clean install of a new operating system but I really didn’t want to go through the iTunes mess I went through a year ago.

A clean install would have formatted my drive and I would have had to recover my extensive 324 gigabyte iTunes library from my backup drive (aka The Tank). For some reason only known to Steve Jobs iTunes makes the process of moving an iTunes library an inconsistent pain in the ___. I hate iTunes but I sold my soul... I’m an idiot and I could design a better interface than iTunes.

So, the in-place upgrade was my work-around.

The upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 worked great. No significant problems.

I really like the new taskbar. I really like the customizable libraries. All the Aero stuff looks great.

Microsoft, you done good.

My Family

2009-08-15T06:35:00.001-07:00

Kill the little #$%@!!!

2009-08-10T05:31:00.004-07:00

So, I’m putting on my pants this morning and I feel something fall down my leg. I thought it was a penny or something. Then it started moving on its own. I patted down my leg and then it stung me. I took off my pants and found a scorpion in my pants. Don’t worry I killed the little bastard (sorry to my sensitive readers).

One of my close friends had a scorpion in her house (Erin) and she sprayed it with bug spray. According to Google scorpions are immune to most bug sprays. In fact, they actually enjoy the stuff homeowners typically spray on them.

Scorpions, like roaches, get high off household bug sprays and they often will try to get sprayed. This is a common practice with teenage scorpions. They show themselves to a homeowner where the homeowner freaks out and gives them strong dose of bug spray. The scorpion will run around in a strange euphoria. The intoxicated scorpion's high is often quickly brought to an end by the heel of a Timberland boot. Unfortunately, for the hapless scorpion teenager they are not immune to the repeated pounding inflicted from a size 11 shoe.

Tagged: One Word Answers

2009-08-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

USING ONLY ONE WORD

Not as easy as you might think! Now forward, change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers and do not reuse the same word. Be sure to send back to the person you received it from!

Where is your cell phone? office
Your significant other? Mela
Your hair? combed
Your pet peeve? slowness
Your favorite team? Diamondback
Your favorite thing? family
Your dream last night? house
Your favorite drink? Diet-coke
Your dream/goal? fulfillment
What room are you in? office
Your hobby? photography
Your fear? cancer
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Pima
Where were you last night? home
Something that you aren't? patient
Muffins? Blueberry
Wish list item? AR-15
Last thing you did? farted
What are you wearing? clothes
TV? no
Your pets? children
Friends? wife
YOUR LIFE? Great!
Your mood? anxious
Missing someone? no
Your Car? Truck
Something hard about your work? clients
Kids? 2.5
Worst job you ever had? Stock-boy
Your favorite store? Cabela’s
Your favorite color? blue
When is the last time you cried? 2002
Who will resend this? nope
Where do you go to over and over? QT
Five people who email me regularly? Mela
My favorite place to eat? Rubio’s
Favorite place I'd like to be at right now? Beach

It's a BOY!

2009-07-28T06:34:00.002-07:00

I can’t remember if I posted this on my blog or not. I know I put this on my facebook page... Mela is prego with #3.

Yesterday we found out we're having a boy!

Andrew is excited to have a younger brother. He wants to name him Lightening McQueen Mario after the movie and the game Mario Cart on the Wii. I think we may choose a different name...

Anyway, I am very excited to have another boy to be my buddy and to maintain the male majority in the Christiansen family.

Socialism

2009-07-16T10:02:00.002-07:00

My wife’s sister’s husband forwarded this in an e-mail to me. I thought the story made a great point about where our country is headed.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Couldn't be any simpler than that.

Emperor Kyle

2009-07-10T12:27:00.002-07:00

I need to be Emperor. Foolish people have often said I should run for some political office. I wouldn’t be happy having limited power. Unlimited power would be the only power I would be satisfied with. If I can’t be Emperor I will just have to settle with my average life.

If you think I would be a nice Emperor you would be wrong. I would be cruel and mean...

Things I would do as Emperor:

Christmas decorations or music may not be displayed or heard until after Thanksgiving. I was in a Hobby Lobby in July and they had 4 isles of Christmas crap! I went to the clerk and told them the following: “Listen, I’m going to go to Wal-Mart, buy a 5 gallon gas can. Then I’m going to the QT on Dysart and fill it up. Then I'm going to get a match from my 72 hour kit under the back seat in my truck. Then I’m going to come back and burn this whole store down if they still have the Christmas sh_t is still out.” They were not amused.

Oh, by the way, I’m just kidding... I may have thought about burning Hobby Lobby down but I didn’t really say I was going to do it or actually do it. Unfortunately, the isles of Christmas stuff remain.

Males may not wear pink shirts or ties. Here in the Land of Schwab we have TVs all over the place playing CNBS. I have a TV right above my desk so I’m stuck watching CNBS all day long. First of all, I want to humbly state that all the talking heads on CNBS are babbling idiots. I would rather watch Jerry Springer than anything on CNBS. This has nothing to do with my opinion about pink shirts and ties. However, when I see a babbling idiot on CNBS wearing a pink shirt or tie I want to pull the TV down on my head. It just pushes me over the edge.

Again... to my liberal friends who will use this blog as evidence against me, I’m just kidding! The nice people on CNBS, sorry CNBC, are idiots but I don’t plan on actually going over the edge when I see a pink tie.

Outlaw Pepsi. Pepsi just sucks. Nobody likes Pepsi. Like I’ve said in past blogs, Pepsi tastes like rust and Diet Pepsi tastes like used bath water.

I have several other things I’d like to do but my time is short. I will have to write about them at another time.

I'm a conservative

2009-07-07T09:51:00.005-07:00

Everyone assumes I’m a Republican. I’m not. I consider myself a conservative. I don’t know if I would call myself a libertarian. When it comes to the political spectrum I find myself leaning more towards our libertarian friends than I do to the republican wimps in congress.

I honestly feel like the republicans sold out their conservative base. They have spent too much money, not secured our borders and have not fought for our rights. Government just keeps getting bigger and more corrupt. It doesn’t matter what party is in charge. The only difference is the speed in which they drive our country to socialism.

Below is a quote from Anthony G. Martin from the examiner.com site. These principles generally sum up my thoughts on government and what I mean when I say I’m a conservative.

10 basic conservative principles:

'Government money' does not belong to government. It belongs to the taxpayers who worked hard for it, and who had funds deleted from their paychecks even before they got to see them.
The government that governs best governs LEAST.
Government normally does not solve problems. People do. Big government usually IS the problem.
Oppressive large governments are responsible for more murders of citizens than all of the wars in history.
The private sector is where the juice of society lies. There you will find ingenuity, creativity, and the creation of wealth--provided government gets out of the way.
Government social programs reward pathological dependency. True adults, unless hindered by debilitating physical impairment, seek independent living as free persons who are not stuck in an infantile dependency on the government nanny.
The one role of government mandated by the U.S. Constitution is to provide for the national defense.
Human rights are not granted by government. They are inherent and automatic. We are 'endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.' Government can only choose to recognize and protect those inherent rights.
The right to self-defense, as encapsulated in the 2nd Amendment, is the key to all of the other rights described in the Bill of Rights. Free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and a free press are secured and kept secure by an armed citizenry.
Our form of government is NOT a 'pure democracy' or 'majority rule.' In a Constitutional Republic such as ours, the will of the majority is tempered and limited by the rights of the minority, which are always intact and unalienable regardless of the 'will of the majority.'

Oh, by the way, THE GREEN MOVEMENT IS A SCAM!!

Swim Lessons

2009-06-26T10:11:00.001-07:00

Our kids had swim lessons this summer. It was kind of scary and exciting. I was able to sneak away from work the other day and watch my kids swim. Andrew and Jaedyn did such a good job!

The swim lessons lasted for a week and a half. At the end of the lessons they had a graduation. All the kids got trophies.

Movies This Year

2009-06-12T06:32:00.040-07:00

Okay... let me just say that Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost was dumb dumb dumb. 93 minutes of my life I will never get back. I now have to make up for this stupid movie by going to 3 chick flicks in the row.
Star Trek is one of the best movies this year - it changed my life.
I can't wait for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
I haven't seen Terminator Salvation yet. I will probably just rent that one.
The Watchmen (yes I went and saw it - I'm sorry!) was kinda dumb but kinda good. If you can get past the naked blue man junk it's not that bad of a movie.
Knowing was okay. Nicolas Cage is not my favorite actor. His best movie was Raising Arizona. Everything went downhill after that.
Race to Witch Mountain was a pretty good Disney movie. Good Disney movies are rare. I don't consider Pixar movies part of Disney.
Up was great! The kids loved it. It wasn't the best Pixar of all times (The Incredibles) but it was good.
We rented Taken. I liked all the violence and killin'.
Monsters Vs. Aliens could have been better but it got long and I think the kids got bored.
Wolverine was awesome but not as awesome as Star Trek (Star Trek changed my life!)
We haven't seen Angles and Demons. We should have seen that instead of wasting our lives watching Land of the Lost.
We haven't seen Night at the Museum yet
We haven't seen Transformers yet

Random

2009-05-26T09:04:00.001-07:00

Is it just me or does Office 2007 just suck? I went from Office 2003 to 2007 recently. Oh my gosh! I went from being an Excel/Word/PowerPoint guru to being an idiot. What was Microsoft thinking?

Oh well... I have a feeling in the near future I won't be paying for any software. I will be running Ubuntu as my primary OS and OpenOffice. Everything else will run through Firefox.

I've been playing with Windows 7 for a few months and I really like it. I hope Microsoft doesn't do any stupid pricing thing that will prohibit people from upgrading from Vista. They really need to sell home site licenses so I can install 7 on any computer in the house. I would pay for something like that...

On another note: The Bishop was out of town and I was volunteered to do a Bishop's Fireside on Sunday night. I really love the youth of our Ward. They are all amazing. I am really thankful they were nice enough to listen to my ramblings on Sunday about the importance of Education.

The youth in the Palo Verde Ward are awesome. The youth leadership are amazing.

Andrew

2009-05-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Today is Andrew’s 5th birthday. This blog will be rambling about my Sweet Boy.

Time flies when you have a boy like Andrew. In my blog today I’m going to take a few minutes to talk about my boy, Andrew. Mela and I are so privileged to have such a choice child.

Andrew has boundless energy. He does not slow down for anyone or anything. He doesn’t even slow down to eat. Eating is a distraction for him. He would rather be playing with his trains or in the back yard than eating. Would that be a nice attribute to have? I wish eating was a distraction to me rather than an attraction.

Andrew loves going to Pima where he can explore and play until he just goes to sleep. Mela and I timed him one day in Pima. He woke up at about 7:30 and he played until 11:30 that night. He was full of energy the entire day. Drew is simply amazing! According to my mom the best adjective that describes Andrew is “exuberant”.

I love it when I come home from work and Andrew, with the aid of his sister, will try to scare me. I will me standing in the kitchen when I hear him and Jaedyn coming down the stairs whispering “let’s scare daddy...” I always act scared. This kind of stuff never gets old.

Andrew is a good little helper. He will help me mow the lawn, wash the trucks and fix the bikes. He doesn’t quit and he will stay with me until the job is done. I have pictures of him helping me push the lawnmower all over the lawn.

Andrew has such a sweet little personality. I love hearing him pray. He will ask Heavenly Father to bless Baby (Jaedyn), mommy & daddy, Olivia, Floppsy (his stuffed giraffe) and his trains. Often he will ask Heavenly Father to give Jesus a hug and a kiss. I am very confident our Savior get’s His hugs and kisses regularly from our Father in Heaven.

We have watched the movie Cars at least a 1000 times. It is Andrew’s favorite movie. If you asked him what he wants to watch it will almost always be Cars. He loves Thomas the Train and Speed Racer also. For the longest time I thought Andrew had very predicable viewing tastes but lately he is into The Biggest Loser and some HGTV show called For Your Home. At least he’s not into Days! Ironically, Jaedyn is my little Sci-Fi fan. She is into Battlestar Galactica Star Wars and Star Trek.

One of Andrew’s most amazing gifts is his ability to forgive. I am so glad my boy forgives his dad when I lose my patience. With Andrew he will get mad or upset and then a minute later it is gone like it never happened. I wish I could be that way.

I love my boy with all my heart.

Father & Sons Campout

2009-05-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

This year the Palo Verde Ward decided to have our Father & Sons camp out somewhere out of the heat. My job was to find the location. So, with the help of Google Earth and GeoCaching.com I was able to find a location just south of Flagstaff. It was the best F&S ever!!

Hiking, looking for rocks, finding frogs and getting dirty...

It's difficult

2009-04-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

It's difficult when you have the two cutest kids in the world...

Mela

2009-04-18T20:29:00.001-07:00

Commitment

2009-04-15T08:18:00.018-07:00

I heard a talk from a BYU professor where he asked a question about marriage: “What’s more important in a good marriage: love or commitment?”

...I pause for you to consider your answer...

The professor answered the question stating commitment was more important than love in a marriage. When I heard this I had to digest it. His statement was counter intuitive to me.

This may sound crazy; there are times, I’m sure, when Mela doesn’t have happy/loving feelings towards me. And, this may sound even crazier; there are times when I don’t have happy/loving feelings towards Mela. It is at these times when our commitment to each other overcomes our negative feelings and brings back our happy/loving feelings.

Does this make sense?

Now this brings me to my real topic...

I think commitment is an essential component of our faith in our Heavenly Father and in His church. In part, our faith is manifested by our commitment to the Lord.

I know lots of people who love the Lord. I think that’s great and I’m not trying to take away anything from those people. However, I know people who love the Lord but aren’t committed to the Lord. People need to be committed to following the Lord and His commandments. How could I really love Mela if I wasn't committed to her? How can one really love the Lord without being totally committed to Him?

Personally, and this may sound crazy, there are times when I really don’t want to attend my meetings on Sunday. I may be too tired, the kids are grumpy, my diet coke levels are too low, or whatever. My commitment to my calling and to the covenants I have made to the Lord drag me kicking and screaming to my Church meetings.

I remember reading a story about Brigham Young and how he was publicly chastised by Joseph Smith. Brigham was committed to following Joseph no matter what. Many of the early saints were like this – they were committed to following Joseph. If Joseph asked them drop everything and to go on a three year mission to who-knows-where, they went. They may have had a hard time with what Joseph was asking but they were committed to Joseph and therefore committed to the Lord.

If a similar request was made of me, I would have a really hard time. If the Prophet called me right now to drop everything (my job, my family, my house, my truck, my iPod) and go preach the gospel in Iran, would I say yes? I don’t know. It would be an amazing act of faith and commitment to follow the Prophet.

Fortunately, I am only being asked to attend my meetings, obey my leaders, follow the commandments, be a good husband and raise my kids. Sometimes I have a hard time doing even the easy stuff let alone the hard stuff. I need to be more committed!

Commitment is the glue that binds us to our faith.

Easter Picnic 2009

2009-04-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Snow!!

So...

I put the pictures of the Easter Picnic on a link on the left-hand side of this site.

Camping for Easter weekend is a tradition on Mela’s side of the family going way back (I don’t know exactly how far back). I look forward to it every year.

This year we FROOZE! There was some freak snow/wind/rain/hail storm that blew in Friday night. Mela and I had approximately 1 hour of sleep the whole night in our tents.

Saturday morning as we were huddled in Lon & Karen’s trailer Mela and I both realized why the Lord saw fit to bring us to this world in the 20th century - freezing in the wilderness isn’t our thing. We packed up the kids and went to Denny’s for breakfast.

We came back to the campground a couple of hours later only to decide there was no way we were going to spend another night freezing our A__’s off, so we packed everything up.

I know we are wimps... kudo’s to the rest of the family who sucked-it-up through the cold and the rain. I bet your comfortable trailer’s and fifth-wheel’s helped...

Despite the cold and general grumpiness, we had a great time. On Friday and on Saturday we were able to ride Quads and hike. And, being with the ones you love will make all the difference no matter how cold it was.

Goldfield Ghost Town

2009-03-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

Easter Picnic

2009-03-09T12:33:00.001-07:00

Every year my wife's side of the family gets together and goes camping on Easter. They call it the Easter Picnic. I have been attending the Easter Picnic since 2004. I put all the pictures I took for each year on the right. Enjoy...

What’s been going on...

2009-02-26T08:51:00.000-08:00

Not too much.

I did have to officiate a funeral last week. The funeral was for a member in our ward who I have never met. The bishop was out of town and so it fell upon me. Fun fun fun...

I speak in front of large groups of people all the time both for work and church. I usually don’t get very nervous. For this funeral I was VERY nervous. Most of the audience was non-members. Emotions were running high – lots of crying and upset people. My heart went out to everyone present. I really hope they felt the spirit of the talks given and I bore testimony of the Plan of Salvation.

I am so grateful to know that life doesn’t begin at birth and it doesn’t end at death.

Mela and I are working to get back to basics. We are eating out a lot less and cooking a lot more (actually Mela is doing the cooking – you wouldn’t want me to cook). We’ve been trying to steer the kids away from watching TV towards, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, actually playing outside. I get a kick out of riding bikes with Andrew and, believe it or not, riding bikes with daddy is Andrew’s favorite thing to do.

We’re not always successful in getting the kids away from the TV but we are doing better. 76 degree days make it a lot easier to get everyone out of the house. I worry about the 110 degree days...

On another note: I survived another round of layoffs at Schwab the other day. I have survived 4 rounds of layoffs in my 11 years at the Land of Schwab. I am very grateful for my job. I make enough money to so Mela can stay home with the kids and so I can support my technology habit. Over the last year I had applied for 2 different positions in other departments. Both times it came down to choosing me or some other guy and, you guessed it, they choose the other guy. I am really glad I didn’t get those positions. I would be really stressed out being the new guy with all the cutting going on.

Life is good. Life is busy.

Sorry for not posting on my blog for a long time. For some reason they locked down blogger here in the Land of Schwab so I have to post stuff from home. When I’m at home I get distracted by kids wanting the play and the wive wanting to “play” also. Terrible!!

thoughts

2009-01-26T10:08:00.001-08:00

I haven’t written in a while. Mela and I have been so busy with life. I didn’t even get to send out a Christmas letter this year – I am very sorry. I didn’t get to a Christmas letter for two reasons: we were busy and I have been so uninspired of late. It seems like a funk has settled itself upon me for the last few weeks. Well it’s time to put an end to it!

I have been pondering the actual funk itself and its source. I noticed other people have been afflicted by this funk. I feel it in myself and I feel it in others. There is a funk out there and I have been struggling to put my finger on it.

Let me tell you what I mean when I say “funk”. A funk is a state where you really don’t want to do anything. Nothing sounds fun. Everything requires too much energy to do. Even things that were fun seem to just take too much energy. You end up sitting in front of the TV or the computer and just do nothing.

This funk could be the postpartum depression we all get from the holidays. Christmas trees come down, New Years is over and now you have to get back to the “real world”...

On another note:

Some days it just not worth chewing through the restraints....

I need to update my blog

2009-01-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

I really need to update my blog but I don’t have anything to say... Life in the Christiansen household here in the Forsaken Land of Buckeye has been very busy. Christmas consisted of service projects, family visits, getting gifts together, putting up Christmas lights, taking them down and other family stuff. It all sounds really boring but it really isn't...

Andrew and Jaedyn are at the age where they are fully immersed in the magic that is Christmas. Nothing equals the look on my kids faces as they came downstairs on Christmas morning. I love my sweet children!!

On another note...

We finally got our big screen TV – it is super cool. Let me tell you how we got it. In the Christiansen household we've been in get-our-financial-house-in-order mode for the last few months. We didn’t want to put a 42 inch TV on a credit card and we didn’t have cash just laying around. Mela had the brilliant idea of counting our change. We had a 5 gallon water jug about 2/3s full of change. I called my bank and asked them how to handle about 75 pounds of change. The bank gave us these big pouches where we could put the uncounted change; they would count it for us and deposit it into our account in a couple of days. We ended up with $787.13 in change! It turns out we did have cash just laying around. Mela rocks!!

We ended up buying a $800 42inch Vizio at Costco. Super cool.

On another note I made another impulse purchase (so much for the get-our-financial-house-in-order mode). So, we have this really neat TV... My iTunes (the program I love to hate) library has several gigabytes of movies, TV shows and music. My iTunes library lives on my computer downstairs in my Man Cave. I stopped at the Apple store at the Biltmore the other day and bought an Apple TV. The Apple TV is the bomb!! Everything in my iTunes library is now accessible upstairs on the Vizio now. If Andrew wants to watch Cars for the millionth time we can just pull it up on the Apple TV. If I want to watch the Matrix trilogy naked and eat Cheetos, I can do it with just a couple of clicks.

Family Pictures

2008-12-09T05:36:00.000-08:00

Nothing brings a family closer than taking family pictures - not!

Thanksgiving in The Land of Pima

2008-12-01T16:19:00.001-08:00

We got back from The Land of Pima on Sunday afternoon. We had a great time. We did the following:

Ate far too much (gained 5 lbs)
Played the Wii far far far too much (it rained and Mario Cart was fun)
Chased cats
Routed wood
Followed Santa through the streets of Safford
Ate Mexican food
Went to WalMart 8 times
Bought Milk for $3.19 a gallon (rip off!!)
Bought Gas for $1.799 a gallon
Road the Quad far & wide - nearly drove into a ditch twice
Got my truck covered in mud
Helped Grandpa Lon in his shop
Installed Office 2003 on a laptop
Struggled with up & down internet (it was just terrible I tell you!)
Bought Christmas gifts
Went on a date with the wife (we saw 4 Christmas')
Watched the Cardinals loss
Watched Handcock on Kyle's iPod Touch
Jaedyn barfed all over Kyle - Kyle took it like a man (You aren't a real man or real woman until you've had a child barf all over you)
Nursed Jaedyn back to health
Took pictures
Played with many cousins

Below are some pictures from the Land of Pima AZ...

Heading to Pima

2008-11-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

I can't wait to 'get the heck out of dodge' and go to the Land of Pima for Thanksgiving. It's funny, of all the holidays I like Thanksgiving the best. All the women cook and all the men do man stuff. Gotta love it!

When I say 'man stuff' I basically mean I will be keeping the kids out of the kitchen. I think I'm supposed to keep myself out of the kitchen also for some reason...

I plan on taking a lot of pictures. I will post them when we make it back into town on Sunday night.

My Latest Playlist

2008-11-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

Below is my latest playlist. What does this say about my tastes in music? I have Little Big Town mixed in with White Zombe. Should I be institutionalized?? Probably... no sane person would have the Beastie Boys and Crosby, Stills & Nash on the same playlist let alone the same computer.

Mee-la

2008-11-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

I don’t get it. People are always mispronouncing my wife’s name... it’s not Mee-la its Mel-ah. Like Mel Brooks with an “ah” at the end. Mela.

Mela also responds to the following names:
* Mela
* Mel
* Mellie
* Mellum
* Honey
* Chick
* Woman
* Damn-it Woman!
* Pretty Wife
* Sweetie
* Love Bunny
* Hey You
The way she responses to the above names varies.

Mela will have to post all the clean names she refers to me as on her blog...

I was tagged by Mela

2008-11-13T06:38:00.000-08:00

Thanks Mela for Tagging me. I was running out of things to write about.

8 television shows that I watch
1. Mad Men
2. Breaking Bad
3. Dirty Sexy Money
4. Heroes
5. Chuck
6. How I met your mother
7. Battlestar Galactica (please please let there be new episodes!)
8. My Own Worst Enemy
I don’t know about you... I’ve kind of lost my taste for TV. We DVR everything and I am so far behind on so many shows I don’t know where to start. I guess not watching that much TV is a good thing. Gotta love hulu.com!

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Rubio’s
2. Taco Bell
3. Pei Wei
4. Macaroni Grill
5. My Own BBQ Grill
6. Mela’s home cookin’
7. Karen’s home cookin’
8. Red Robin

8 Favorite Singers or Bands (I’ve been into country music... sorry Kirk & Lisa)
1. Rodney Atkins
2. Rascal Flatts
3. Rush
4. Queenryche
5. AC/DC
6. Big & Rich
7. Sugarland
8. Little Big Town

8 Books I have read lately
1. Brsingr
2. The Great and Terrible series
3. Harry Potter (4 times)
4. LDS Handbook of Instruction books 1 and 2
5. Complete Dune series
6. Twilight (too much kissy kissy not enough killy killy)
7. Mere Christianity and many other CS Lewis books
8. An Inconvenient Book by Glenn Beck

I haven’t found anything exciting to read lately...

8 things I did yesterday
1. Went to QT for my 52oz Diet Coke (Mormon Coffee)
2. Two Client visits
3. Worked on revamping internal stats reports
4. Dissected 1,820,179 line transaction file to find instances of the letter “a” in the quantity field. Easy using SQL...
5. Wrestled with the kids (it’s tickle time!!)
6. Wrestled the wife ;)
7. Tried to get the 2009 Stake Calendar into Outlook 2007 and get it to print right... (Outlook 2007 really sucks)
8. Met with the primary president (we need nursery workers really bad), the Bishop and did two scout board of reviews.

8 things I am looking forward to
1. Thanksgiving
2. This weekend
3. Windows 7
4. Quantum of Solace
5. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
6. My next long bike ride
7. The Market and the Economy to rebound
8. Go home and play with the family this afternoon

8 things I wish for...
I don’t know... World Peace...?? My kids not to grow up so fast...?

Now the election is over...

2008-11-06T05:28:00.000-08:00

Many of my friends are ecstatic Obama and the Democrats won. My mom and my sister are included in this list. I am happy for them. I hope their party can “fix what’s broke” in the nation.

I look at politics like I look at sports. I love the Diamondbacks. Often you will hear me yelling and cussing and getting frustrated at some managerial decision. There have been many times where I was yelling at the TV “Pull the pitcher, PULL HIM!” and then 3 runs later the manager finally pulls him. Does it mean that I’m not a fan? No.

To some degree I feel the same way about being a Republican.

Here are my thoughts on how we have come to this point as a party.

Bill Clinton did more for the Republicans than he did for the Democrats. Under Clinton the republicans were able to find unity, a message, a voice and they were able to come into power in 1994. Twelve years later they were just as bad as the Washington insiders they defeated.

George Bush did more for the Democrats than he did for the Republicans. The Democrats were able to find unity, a message and a voice. Hopefully the Obama presidency will wake up the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Hope

Bush is a good man. I think he means well. I totally agree with the WSJ article that the treatment of Bush has been disgraceful. My biggest problem with Bush is he’s not a conservative. My second biggest problem with Bush is he was too nice. He should have dealt with the Democrats with the same attitude he fought terrorism. They are the enemy and they and their philosophies must be defeated.

1 Kyle 1:1 “Nice guys get screwed.”

If the republicans can get back to being true conservatives then they will start winning.

Halloween

2008-11-02T05:48:00.001-08:00

Halloween was fun this year. Mela did a great job with the costumes. Jaedyn was a Pirate and Andrew was a Choo Choo Train Engineer. I know I'm biased but I sure of cute kids!

Opinion: The Election

2008-10-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

I can’t wait for the election BS to end. Please, for the love, just let it be over!

I have what I call a serious case of the OJ Syndrome. This syndrome harkens back to ’96 when OJ was on trial for the first time. It seemed like there was nothing but OJ on TV or the news for a year. I finally lost my mind and yelled “fine just let him go already!” If the price of not seeing OJ’s face or hearing about him or reading about him is letting him free THAN SO BE IT. Unfortunately, this ended up being the case anyway but that’s a whole other story...

I’m feeling the same way about this year’s election – just end it. If a true conservative (someone we haven’t had in 20 years) were running then I would think differently. In today’s world I can see little difference in either of the parties. Basically, I dislike McCain just a little bit less than I dislike Obama. It seems like we have a democrat (McCain) running against a socialist (Obama). I really wish Palin was running against Obama – that would make things interesting.

All of the contention and arguing and debating and name calling and other general BS the current election has generated has really left me with a bad taste in my mouth for all politics. I’ve said this before: We get what we deserve when it comes to our leadership in this nation. All the true leadership in America wouldn’t touch the presidency with a 100 foot pole. I don’t know too many people (myself included) who could survive the anal exam given by the media, the campaign and the American people.

Life is good...

2008-10-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

I really don’t have all that much to write about...

I went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in 10 years and I was amazed to find I am cavity free. I guess I owe my good teeth to genetics because it couldn’t be personal hygiene – 100s of gallons of diet coke and I don’t think I have ever flossed...

My kids are growing up! The Boy is a boy now and the Girl is a little girl now. There isn’t anything better than coming home from work and them running into my arms giving me hugs and kisses. I love it when my kids try to scare me. I will be standing in the kitchen and I will hear them coming down the stairs whispering to each other “let’s scare daddy...” They will sneak around the corner and go “raaar!!” I always pretend to be scared, then I chase them and tickle them. All other joys in life pale in comparison

Scanning Pictures...

2008-10-24T04:59:00.000-07:00

I have been sick for the last couple of days so I've had a little time to scan pictures. If you want to see pictures of me when I was skinny and spiritual, you can click on my mission pictures on the right. I have a ton of pictures so I'm still adding to the gallery.

From Kyle's Mission

Scary...

2008-10-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

Scary world we live in...

A member of our ward went out on Saturday night to get an air mattress at Walmart. Some relatives were on their way into town and they needed a place to sleep. Brad Garrard never made it back home. No one knows what really happened. His body was found less than a block from his house. He had been shot in the chest. His truck was found on fire out in the desert.

Fox 10 news

AZ Family

AZ Central

Brad Garrard was a heck of a nice guy. He served faithfully as one of our 11 year old leaders and in our Cub Scouts.

All of this brings me to some thoughts on our world... Is it just me or are things getting worse out there? Am I going to have to start carrying my gun with me into work at 4:00 in the morning? Are we just going to have to have a curfew in the Christiansen household? Are we going to have to put GPS devices on our kids? Is this what we are coming to?

The Garrard family lived in a nice neighborhood. One that you thought you could walk around in at night. One that you thought you could just live peacefully and raise your kids. We live in a nice neighborhood. I hope we aren’t in any danger... but I guess one never knows.

Let me tell you this... I will up and move to Pima, AZ without ever looking back if I ever thought my family was in danger. My credit or some bank’s balance sheet means nothing to me when compared to the safety of my sweet family. I would sooner live dirt poor a single wide trailer in Pima where my kids were safe.

Scaring me in a good way

2008-10-16T05:37:00.000-07:00

I love Glenn Beck and his thoughts on our economy. He scares me in a good, get my crap together, way. He motivates me to get my house in order to be prepared for what's coming in our economy.

It’s funny how a lot of us kind of knew the economic craziness was coming years ago. Haven’t our church leaders been telling us to get our houses in order for years?

Funny/Interesting story: Mela & I sold our house in Avondale and bought a bigger but still modest house in the forsaken land of Buckeye about three years ago. In our new ward we were put in as the ward cannery specialists. It was a calling I really didn’t have any interest in and I knew it was something we were bad at. At that time our year’s supply consisted of a can of El Pato sauce. We would be totally screwed if something bad happened.

Well, I can see how the Lord knew what we needed to do in our family. We are now almost set with food, water and ammo. Now if I can just figure out how I can satisfy my diet coke need during the hard times...

I don’t know what’s in store for the world, America or my family. I do know we are doing our best to prepare.

On another note: Mela and I have been reading a series of books called The Great & Terrible by Chris Stewart. It's a series of books following a family from their pre-mortal life and the war in heaven to our days. It is a very good read.

The author gives the reader an interesting perspective on good and evil. We are all eternal children of Our Father in Heaven. Our relationships to each other and our personalities carried with us into this life. The Lord has plans for us in this life and missions for us to accomplish.

The opposite is true also. Satan and his angles know us. Some of Satan's followers could have been our friends who knew us well before this life. We fought against Satan's plan. In this life Satan is focused on corrupting and destroying us because he hates us. Hate and how to corrupt is all Satan knows.

I'm on book five and let me tell you I'm glad we have food and water stored up at our house.

Old Pictures

2008-10-15T03:27:00.000-07:00

Mela has a gray photo album with 100s of pictures. Over the last few days I have been scanning the pictures. Most of them were Mela's high school days. They are totally priceless! Click here to view them all.

I also found these very old pictures in an envelope in with all the high school pictures.

Mela's father John Mattice.

Mela's mom Karen Kempton.

Wedding picture John & Karen Mattice.

I’ve been on a kick of digitizing old pictures

2008-10-14T05:29:00.001-07:00

Mela and I have thousands of old photographs that go back for years. All of these pictures are in boxes and old photo albums. I have been going through them and noticing what a treasure they are. I have gone through my parents and Mela’s parents slides and I still have a ton of those to do. Over the last year I have felt the need to try to gather and organize all of these. I wonder if the spirit of genealogy is hitting me finally...

I have an excellent scanner and a lot of hard-drive space so I have been scanning as much as I have time to do. My biggest problem is time. I hate just camping out in my man-cave for hours at a time - I feel guilty when I’m not being with my family or just taking the kids off Mela’s hands.

When it comes to scanning pictures I have to be selective. The pictures have to be in focus and of people. Believe it or not landscapes really aren’t that interesting to me when looking back on pictures taken 20 or even 50 years ago. Pictures of people and family are worth their weight in gold. A picture of the Washington monument from 1966 really isn’t all that interesting to me. All of this has been a lesson for my own photography - I need to document people not necessarily things.

Also I need to make sure I am getting pictures of myself. My wife’s father, John Mattice who pasted away back in 1979, was a great photographer but from all his pictures you’d think he wasn’t involved with his family and then you remember he was the one taking the pictures. So, pictures of the photographer need to be regularly included. When I find pictures of John they are pure gold!

When I get the pictures scanned and cropped I try to determine who is in the picture, where and when the picture was taken. Once I have this information I put it into the metadata of the jpeg images so it is part of the actual file. I need to find a way to share all these pictures. I think I'm going to use my flickr account and post a link to it from my blog.

Some of the more entertaining pictures have been pictures of Mela and her friends back in High School. Most of these pictures have handwritten notes on the back that can be pretty funny. I wish I had time to capture all of these little notes because they are priceless. I’m going to try to run them through my other sheet feed scanner that I use for receipts and bills. We’ll see how that works...

All of this is going to take me months and years to accomplish. I hope I can do it. I need to preserve these pictures for my kids and my grandkids.

Another project will be to scan all my old journals. I have no idea how I’m going to do that...

Riding the Bike

2008-10-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I know I set a goal to ride my bike 50 miles a week. Let's just say that was much easier to say than to do. It's all about time. I haven't had time to ride. I know I'm a loser!!

I have been using my weights everyday so far. So, I'm trying...

Random

2008-10-12T07:16:00.001-07:00

I was attacked!

2008-10-08T06:14:00.001-07:00

I’ve been riding my bike the last couple of days. I have a goal to ride my bike 50 miles a week. You may think this is easy and for some it probably is...

I try to stay off the road and ride on the dirt. Usually, I try to stay off the paved roads. I don’t like riding on the paved roads because I worry I’m going to get hit by some idiot driver. Back in the day I used to ride my bike to ASU. To keep myself safe I just assumed everyone was out to kill me. I also enjoy riding off road because it’s more of a workout and it’s a lot of fun.

Around my house there are many places to ride. I have a route that takes me through the desert, down a canal, past a Kingdom Hall, up a dirt-bike path, beside a golf-course to an old airport landing strip, along the side of the I-10 and back to my house. It’s about 10 or 11 miles.

So, on Monday afternoon I was riding down some path carved out by dirt-bikes and quads east of my housing development and I got to a low lying area near a golf course where there was a lot of grass and kind of wet. As soon as I went down the hill into the area I was attacked by thousands of grasshoppers. They were all over me! I stopped to try to brush them off but there were too many and they just kept on coming so I climbed back on my bike an pebbled out of there as quickly as I could. When I was finally in the clear I felt something crawling in my armpit and down my back. I pulled off my camelbak and started shaking out my shirt and three grasshoppers fell out. Thank heavens I didn’t have any of the little buggers crawling up my pants. I will be scared for life!

I think I will avoid that part of the desert until it cools off a little bit more.

It's time...

2008-10-06T11:08:00.001-07:00

One of my close friends is committing to work out everyday in the month of October. I’m going to make a similar commitment....

I’m going to ride my bike 50 miles a week and do my weights every morning. No excuses! I’m starting today. I will keep you posted.

My last 10 to 15 pounds needs to go and it needs to go this month!

Opinion: I ran out of ideas...

2008-10-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

I just kind of ran out of ideas. I have been writing a series on opinions but I have nothing that would be too interesting... Let me do a rapid fire:

Government Bailout: I think it’s a bad idea.
Obama: very bad
McCain / Palin: not so bad
Western Digital Hard Drives: good
Dell Computers: good
Macintosh Computers: I wish...
iPod Touch 32 gb: super cool
AT&T: I hate them
Alltel: they rock
Cash: good right now
Stocks: bad right now
Frozen Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: good
Dark Chocolate: bad
Onions: EVIL
Current Political Philosophy: when in doubt vote them out – necessary evil
Current Political Party: Conservative
Second Amendment: good
Movies out right now: nothing is out right now that’s worth a damn.
Mountain Bikes: I have a Trek 4300 that I need to ride a whole lot more. I just got the cleats and shoes where they lock your feet to the pedals. You have to think ahead in the event you want to stop...
Helmet or No Helmet while riding a bike: I hate it but I try to wear a helmet. I feel like such a geek!
Taxes: bad and they need to be lower and our government needs to be more responsible with OUR money.
Family verses Friends: Mela is my best friend so both!
Currently Reading: The Great and The Terrible series by Chris Stewart and Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
Cameras: I want a 5D Mark II - Canon all the way! The best cameras and the best lenses. Don’t waist your money one cheap glass!

Opinion: When Jaedyn starts dating...

2008-09-18T05:52:00.001-07:00

There was a funny story out of some Florida paper last week. For some reason it tickled the twisted side of my brain... this is never a good thing. To summarize the story a man comes home, finds a naked boy in a daughter’s bed room, he hits the boy in the head with a pipe and chased the kid off. The boy had to ride home on his bike naked from what I gather.... Click Here

You’d think when the sheriff arrived he would have thanked the man for being a good father and protecting his family from a possible intruder. The deputy would have thought father was good enough to only hit the boy with a pipe and not kill the boy with a SIG 226 loaded with Federal Hydra Shock bullets like I would have done. Unfortunately, the sheriff arrested the father – crazy world we live in...

All of this brings me to my opinion piece. The funniest part of this story was not the story itself was the comments readers submitted. Click Here

My favorite was as from momx2 submitted on 9/15/2008 at 8:27am.

My dad on his first meeting with my first boy friend came to the door with his double barrel and shells ask the boy his name wrote his name on the shells loaded the gun and sat it beside the back door The date never made it past the driveway we sat in his car for 30 minutes and that was that with my dad on the porch watching. We never went out again. If he had found a guy in my bedroom I believe he would have done much worse. As a mom I look back and thank God my dad was as protective as he was. This father should be given a pat on the back and a job well done.

This is a great idea! I totally plan on doing this when Jaedyn starts dating. In fact, I’m going to clear a shelf in my office for 12 gauge shells with boys names on them. I can envision the conversation going something like this...

I take the boy wanting to date Jaedyn into my office where I have my Remington 870 on display.

“What’s your name boy?” I would ask with a condescending southern accent.

“Jimmy...” the boy would reply timidly.

Then I would grab a half empty box of 12 gauge shells (I’m torn between #10 birdshot or just using buckshot – I’m leaning towards buckshot). I would pull out a black Sharpie marker and write the boy’s name on the side of a shell. Then I would set the shell on the shelf with all the other shells with other boy’s names on them.

There would be shells with names like Jake, Tim, John, Pepe... Just to make the poor boy wonder I would make sure two or three of the shells are spent.

Now you may ask if I am going to do this for my son Andrew? When girls come over to date my boy will you do the same thing? The answer is no. I would hope the fathers of the girls Andrew dates will find their own method of instilling fear.

143 Days

2008-09-18T05:52:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine sent this to me in an e-mail so I don't know who to credit this to but I thought it was worth adding to my blog. My own comments are at the end.

143 Days

You couldn't get a job at McDonalds and become district manager after 143 days of experience.

You couldn't become chief of surgery after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon.

You couldn't get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent after 143 days of experience.

You couldn't join the military and become a colonel after a 143 days of experience.

You couldn't get a job as a reporter and become the nightly news anchor after 143 days of experience.

BUT....

From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator,to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee,he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working. After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World .... 143 days.

We all have to start somewhere. The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that's all it is - a start.

AND, strangely, a large sector of the American public is okay with this and campaigning for him. We wouldn't accept this in our own line of work, yet some are okay with this for the President of the United States of America ?

Come on folks, we are not voting for the next American Idol!

Please, please forward this before it's too late!!!!

I love how our democrat friends have lost sight of who they are running against. They will complain Shara Palin doesn't have any experience. I hate to say this but OBAMA's NOT RUNNING AGAINST PALIN!

Obama, love ya man, but you're running against John McCain. Frankly, your 143 days of 'experience' as a Senator isn't even in the same parkinglot let alone the same ballpark as McCain's 20+ years of experience. All the hours and days of service Obama has being a 'community organizer' don't even hold a candle when compaired to McCain's service to our country.

On another note...

2008-09-12T10:51:00.001-07:00

I don't know why but I find this kinda funny. The breaking news headline on msNBC was Flee or Face Certain Death. I guess there's no ambiguity here. Yet another reason I live in Arizona.

People in Arizona don't have to worry about natural disasters. Mainly it's because we are more righteous in AZ than the rest of the country. The other reason is when god sends us a hurricane we have these things called "mountains" and "deserts" that deflect and suck the life out of any real storm that comes our way.

If you are living in a city on the coast in hurricane alley and you are 20 feet below sea level, you are going to get hit sometime or another. Don't blame the government!

Opinion: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari

2008-09-12T09:37:00.001-07:00

This may sound crazy but I don’t think most people even know what a browser is... I talk to educated financial advisors all the time. Often I will ask them what browser they are using and they have no idea what I’m talking about. Let me explain:

The browser is the application in which you view the internet. Your internet service provider is the company that gets you connected to the internet. Your operating system is a set of drivers and applications that allows you to interact with your computer.

Every computer user should be able to answer the following questions. If you can’t answer these questions then you ought not be using a computer. In other words “slowly, step away from the computer...”

Questions:
• Who makes my computer? Mac, Dell, HP, Gateway, Sony or whatever
• What operating system am I running? Windows, Linux or Mac
• What version of my operating system am I running? Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP or Vista. Mac Leopard or Tiger or whatever.
• Who is my internet service provider? AOL, Cox, AT&T or whatever
• How fast am I connected to the internet? Very fast, fast or (like my parents) dial-up.
• What browser do I use? IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Opera or whatever

Maybe it’s just a guy thing. If you were to ask me point blank what kind of vehicle I drive I would be able to tell you the make, model, year, size of engine...

All of this brings me to my opinion on browsers. I have used many browsers in my life and no browser is completely perfect. There are many features I like in IE7 (internet explorer version 7) and Firefox. Google’s new browser Chrome looks great in Vista, I like the Google Gears functionality and the ability to create application shortcuts using Chrome. Chrome still isn’t quite there yet for me. Safari on my iPod Touch or on an iPhone is amazing but Safari on a PC and even on a Mac is a joke.

I still keep coming back to Firefox 3. Believe it or not the one thing that consistently keeps bringing me back to Firefox is the pull down folders. Let me try to explain... In Firefox I have a custom toolbar with all my shortcuts. I have my shortcuts in folders. When I click to open a folder on my toolbar it opens and then all the other folders will open as I move my mouse over them. This works just like menu items do. You click on File and it open then you move over to Edit and it opens automatically. In every other browser you have to click on the folder each time you want to see the bookmarks in the folder. I hope this makes sense. I know this is a small thing but it’s the small things that make all the difference.

Firefox has many can be customized with hundreds of themes and plug-in’s. I would caution anyone who is using themes and plug-ins to keep them to a minimum. The more of these you load into Firefox the more buggy it becomes.

The Red Setter Inn

2008-09-06T10:57:00.001-07:00

Mela and I have been married for 6 years! To celebrate our anniversary we spent a few days at the Red Setter Inn in Greer Arizona. It was positively beautiful, relaxing and just nice.

Opinion: Coke verses Pepsi

2008-08-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

Lately I’ve been a blogging geek! I guess I have too much time on my hands – slow week in the Land of Schwab.

If you know me you know that I am an addict. I tried several 12 step programs to kick it. All have failed... Some people smoke, some people are hooked on crack and some people are hooked on internet gaming. I have been addicted to Diet Coke sense February of 1990. It’s not just Diet Coke it must be Diet Coke from a fountain not a can. The precise formula is as follows:

One 52 oz insulated refillable cup (my kids and wife refer to my 52oz cup as daddy’s sippy cup)
Fill the 52 oz “sippy cup” to the 1/3rd point with QT’s crushed ice.
Fill the cup up 9/10th of the way with Diet Coke.
Fill the remaining 1/10th with normal Coke.

So basically I’m addicted to a mixture of 9/10th diet and 1/10th real. There's nothing better than a nice long drag on a well made DC mix. It’s kind of sad really.

My DC addiction is a major stumbling block to my Sabbath Day observance – cans of DC just don’t cut it - only a fountain will due. Thanks to my loving wife I am doing better. I haven’t broke the Sabbath Day for a few months now. I just know if I do try to get a DC on Sunday some ward member will have a testimony crisis because the saw Brother Christiansen driving to Circle K (the closest QT is 17.3 miles away) to get his fix...

All of this brings me to my opinion piece: Coke verses Pepsi

The whole Coke verses Pepsi thing is almost like Republican verses Democrat or Mormons verses Baptists or even NL verses AL. It’s almost a religion. This whole Coke/Pepsi debate can create strong emotions on both sides... I am no exception.

Let me be frank – Pepsi tastes like used bath water to me. I would rather drink Buckeye tap water than to drink Pepsi. Simply put - Pepsi sucks.

Let me be even more frank – Diet Pepsi tastes like rust to me. That's right, you heard me, it tastes like rust. I would sooner go thirsty than drink Diet Pepsi.

Pepsi drinkers are sinning and they need to repent. Pepsi should be removed from all convenience stores and the shelves of supermarkets. Nothing irritates me more than going to some no-name convenience store in the middle of nowhere (Globe) only to find out they only serve Pepsi.

When I become Emperor of the World the second thing I am going to do as Emperor Kyle is to abolish Pepsi.

Opinion: The Best Pens

2008-08-26T06:04:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not I kind of have a pen fetish. Every year or so I get a new pen. For that year I will use just that pen and, if I can help it, no others. I have had several Cross pens, a Sensa pen and a bunch of other no-name pens I thought were cool.

When it comes to a good pen I have a few things I’m looking for... it must have blue ball point ink, it must be a solid pen (no cheapo plastic) and it must fit in my fingers well.

I like blue ink because to me it denotes a true ink signature. Black ink can be photo copied. Some state laws specify that signatures need to be in black ink. In fact, in some states not signing an official document in black ink and result in a class C felony. I don’t get this but oh well. As my brother will often say “they can bite me...” As I say, “if they want my money, then they can deal with blue...”

I have to have a solid feeling pen. I’m hard on pens. I flip them, drop them, sit on them and even throw them... Cross pens seem to hold up for about a year and then the clip will break or the twist will get too loose.

For some reason I push really hard when I write. My middle finger has a callus on it because I push so hard. I like the pens with soft, but not too soft, grips. The pen must fit just right or I will toss it in my drawer with a hundred other pens that didn’t cut it...

Sense I’ve been in the bishopric I’ve had to fill out many temple recommends so I’ve need to use a very fine tipped pen to fill out the little fields on the rec. The hardest part of doing temple recommends is not going through the questions. The hardest part is writing legibly enough press through the 3 carbon copies. Actually, on second thought, the hardest part is not filling rec’s out it’s tearing out the two top copies out of the recommend book without ripping the other blank recommends. The bishopric has to account for all the rec’s in the book so you have to void any torn ones.

The pen I’ve settled on as of late is a Pilot G2 0.5mm with blue Gel ink. I’m using a Pilot Dr. Grip with the above mentioned Pilot G2 cartridge. So far it’s a great pen. It seems to go through ink quickly but it writes smoothly without smudging. The standard ink cartridge for the pen is the 0.7mm. I need a finer point – hence the 0.5...
I'm always on the look out for a good pen. If you have any favorites, let me know.

Opinion Piece: I like Toyota Trucks

2008-08-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

In my life I have driven the following cars and trucks I turned 16 in September of 1983. The following is my vehicle history:

1983 to 1986 > 1967 Chevrolet C-10 with no paint and no AC.

1985 > my dad bought a 1976 GMC Jimmy 4x4 – 400 cubic inch engine that got about 5 mpg – I had a job at McDonalds so I could afford gas. I would drive this truck off and on my senior year.

1987 to 1988 > 1985 Baby Blue Ford Tempo – I drove this car for 9 months on my mission. Yes, an ’86 Ford Tempo can reach in excess of 100 miles per hour and will actually catch air in a Dukes of Hazard manor on State Route 700 between Hiram and Kirtland Ohio.

1989 to 1990 > 1989 Toyota 4x4 Truck. This was the first vehicle I have owned and paid for myself. It got wrecked at the intersection of Rural and Baseline. I was very glad I had my seatbelts on.

1990 to 1995 > 1983 Honda Prelude which would overheat when I ran the AC.

1995 to 1998 > 1989 Honda Accord

1998 to 2002 > 1998 Toyota Tacoma regular cab 4x4

2002 > 2001 Nissan Altima. I drove this for about a year and then I gave it to my wife to drive.

2002 to 2006 > 1998 Toyota Tacoma extended cab 4x4 – I got this truck right after I realized you aren’t a man if you don’t have a truck.

2006 to present > 2006 Toyota Tacoma Pre-Runner long-bed double-cab – This is the first truck I have ever owned that was brand new. Thanks to Discount Tire It has cool wheels and big tires. This is my family’s GeoCaching mobile and my wife thinks I look “damn sexy” driving it.

My wife is currently driving a 2000 Nissan Xterra.

In my opinion of all the cars and trucks I have driven, Toyotas are the best. You will rarely have any mechanical problems. If you do, they are very easy to work on yourself. They drive nice and nothing can beat them off road.

Opinion Piece: Gas Stations / Convenience Stores

2008-08-19T06:13:00.001-07:00

If anyone knows me they know I am very opinionated. I have what I think are well thought out opinions on just about any subject from politics to what gas stations I use. I think for the next few blogs I will talk about some of my favorite things: gas stations, computer stuff, restaurants, foods and businesses I like. Hopefully, I will be able to explain why I like them over their competition.

For my first opinion piece I will discuss gas stations and convenience stores.

When I have a choice I will only get my gas at two places Quick Trip or Costco - that’s it. For this blog I’m going to focus on QT...

I will drive miles out of my way to get my gas at a QT. QT’s are clean and usually have a good price on gas. If you haven’t noticed, most QT’s have the same design. If you walk into the QT on 32nd and Indian School you may has well be walking into the QT on
Dysart and the I-10.

The people working at your local QT seem to be smarter than the average convenience store employee. Some Circle-K employees look like their most recent job was sitting on the side of the road with a “I work for food” sign. Some 7-Eleven employees look like their prior job was Dell Technical Support out of Bangor India.

I have stood in lines at Circle-K while the cashier is trying to figure out the lottery machine or how to calculate change. It seems like Circle-K will get a homeless person, reasonably sober them up and put them behind a cash register to fend for themselves. This doesn’t happen at QT. Every QT employee knows how to work the register, find cigarettes, run the lottery machine, print money orders or count change before they ever face a customer.

This brings me to another thing I like about QT... they always have more the one person working. I have never been in a store when there was just one person there. If there are more than 3 people in line the other employees will drop whatever they are doing and get customers through the line and on their way. There ain’t no way this would happen at the Loves down the street from my house. If it’s someone’s smoking break... well, the people in line are just going to have to wait...

Finally, the main reason I like QT is their Diet Coke is the best (I will discuss my soda preferences in a future blog). There is nothing worst than going into some miscellaneous convenience store and getting a crappy soda. I have never gotten a bad soda from QT.

Quick Trip management, I’m calling you out!! We don’t have a QT out in the Forsaken Land of Buckeye. You need to build a QT on the corner of Watson and Yuma. I will help you dig the foundation with my own hands and my own shovel!! There are no good gas stations that far west valley. You will make so much money that you will thank me later.

This would be me...

2008-08-17T07:51:00.001-07:00

Fort Collins, Colorado 1968. I was a one year old.

Cherry Hills 1976

2008-08-16T17:55:00.001-07:00

My best guess is this is 1976. Maren was born in 1975. In the picture below she would have been 1 and a half.

My Home Network

2008-08-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

In case you care...

I have an extensive bunch of computer stuff in my home network. Believe it or not I kind of get a kick about all the stuff I have. So, let me tell you what I have for hardware and software...

My Hardware:

Dell XPS 410
• 2.4 Core 2 Duo - I’m thinking about upgrading the CPU to a quad core.
• 4 GB of RAM
• 512 Nvidia Graphics card
• Two 500 GB Western Digital Caviar drives mapped as c: and d: – My c: drive is for my OS, applications, general data and pictures. My d: drive is solely for my iTunes library and my Windows swap file.
• Two DVD/CD RW drives. I can rip two DVDs at the same time!
• Samsung 2234GW 22inch monitor
• Firewire and a bunch of USB ports
• Wireless Microsoft Intellitouch 5000 keyboard
• Wireless Logitech LX8 Cordless Laser Mouse – I had a MS Intellipoint mouse but the scroll wheel wouldn’t work with iTunes so I got the Logitech.

ScanSnap S510 – my scanner is my file cabinet. I hate paper.

Canon i950 – the best photo printer for the money

Canon 4200 flatbed scanner with backlit slide and negative scanning

Brother HL-2170W network attached laser printer. My HP1020 laser didn’t play nice on my network – I gave it to my parents

500 GB Western Digital network attached storage – main backup for all my computers. I really need to get a DROBO with a couple of terabytes (Mela?).

250 GB Western Digital My Passport USB drive – quick backup of my pictures

D-Link DIR-628 N router – my wife’s laptop is only using G. I got the draft N router in preparation for getting an AppleTV. With draft N wifi hopefully you can stream video.

My old Dell Dimension 4400. Ubuntu Linux machine. This is Andrew’s computer. He can play games, watch videos and surf the web.

Dell Latitude D520. This is Mela’s laptop. I upgraded it to 4 GB of RAM.

My Software:

Vista Home Premium on my computer. XP Professional on my wife’s laptop. Ubuntu on Andrew’s computer.

iTunes – 200+ gigabytes of music, podcast, audio books and videos

Quicken 2008 Deluxe – I reconcile every day. I scan my receipts, statements and invoices to PDF files. Quicken Deluxe allows me to attach PDFs to the actual transactions and to the accounts. I have my finances tracked back to 1/1/1999.

ACDSee 10 – tracks my entire photo library going back to 1999. I have a folder for each year. Inside that folder I have a folder for each month. Every picture I take during a given month is put in that month’s folder. At the end of the month I burn it all to a DVD. I use SyncToy to backup all my pictures on a nightly basis to my USB drive and my NAS.

Adobe Acrobat Standard 8 – like I said, I scan everything to PDF. I’m able to print directly to PDF files

Office 2007 – Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher

SyncToy 2.0 Beta from Microsoft – this is the best backup software and it’s free. SyncToy basically synchronizes folders. You pick a folder on your main system (the left) and match it to a folder on a backup drive (the right). On the leftI have my documents folder matched to a backup documents folder on the right. SyncToy will echo all the files on the left to the right. I have this running nightly on my network will all my computers. I highly recommend backing up data this way!!

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 – I have a cracked copy of Photoshop CS2 (the full version of Photoshop) but I don’t have it installed.

Adobe Premier Elements 4 – this makes videos. I really don’t know how to use it. I need to learn. They say it’s pretty fun.

Slysoft – the best DVD ripping software in the world. This software alone is the main reason I haven’t switched to a Mac. They don’t have a Mac version. There are three Slysoft programs I use:
• AnyDVD – this is a program that lives in your system tray. When you put a DVD in your drive it detects it and decrypts it automatically.
• AnyDVDMobile – this program will take the decrypted DVD and rip it to a MPEG 4 files that can be imported into iTunes. This program can rip to many different formats: mpeg, wma, avi, divx or whatever.
• AnyDVDClone – this will clone a DVD to another DVD.

1967

2008-08-12T15:26:00.001-07:00

1966

2008-08-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

1972

2008-08-10T19:30:00.001-07:00

My mom & dad gave me a bunch of slides. I've scanned in a lot of them.

I'm not sure if this is Kirk or myself. This does give you a good view of our back yard at the Hazelton house.

I am on the left and Kirk is on the right. I'm guessing these pictures were taken sometime in July of 1972 - I would be 4 and Kirk would be 3.

Nice 70's outfits.

The old Hazelton house. This was the first house I remember. I remember it was hugh - bigger than our current house. It had shag carpets that you had to rake regularly and mirror tiles on the walls. I really miss this house. Unfortunately, US60 was built right behind us.

This looks like Easter 1972. Gotta love the candy.

Our kitchen had a bar with gold chairs.

Kirk and I are playing the water in the side yard. I'm guessing this was a broken water pipe and we were "helping" dad. I wish the picture was brighter.

Back in '72 you gave your kids guns. On the left side of the bed you will see my Charlie Brown lunch box. I still have this prominently on display in my office.

Now I think Kirk would kick my butt.

The Girls In My Life

2008-07-30T03:21:00.001-07:00

Goin' Fishin'

2008-07-19T20:10:00.001-07:00

The family went to Heber, AZ last week and stayed at Bison Ranch. My mom and dad were able to join us for the first couple of days. We went fishin', shoppin', bikin', 4-wheelin' and hikin' - we all had a blast...

Family Pictures

2008-07-13T06:05:00.001-07:00

I'll be rich...

2008-07-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

That time of the month can be pretty difficult for men. Our wives are a little bit more on edge, they cry, they yell, they even beat us. It’s just terrible!! I have a new service I am planning to offer the poor men in the world who suffer needlessly every 28 days.

It’s a delivery service that men could access from the safety of their office computer. They could choose any combination of the following items:

Please send my wife a custom package with the following items:
(please choose any two items)

Roses
Midol
Tampax
Ice-cream
Prozac
Cheese-its
Chocolate
Jewelry
Cash

Please deliver my package to my wife:

Next day
For the love... before I get home from work
Now!!! Now!!! Now!!!

Please deliver my package to my wife by:

FedEx
Shirtless Mormon Missionary Calendar Model
Masseuse
Therapist who can prescribe medication
Armored Transport
Airdrop

Please provide a reason the package is needed:

Because I love my wife
I want the “normal” woman I married back
So I can come home
So the beatings will stop
I haven’t been fed in three days
So my wife will love me again

Slides...

2008-07-08T03:24:00.000-07:00

John Warner Mattice, Mela's father, past away back in 1979. John was quite the photographer. Back in John's day (for some crazy reason) most pro-amateur and professional photographers took pictures on slides. John literally has 100s if not 1000s of slides that no one has looked at for years.

I have been dying to look at them and to digitize them into JPEGs. I have a back lit scanner with a slide adapter but it could only scan two slides at a time. This would take forever! So, this last weekend I tried something different...

I took my camera and set it up on a tripod. I got the slide projector and the screen setup. Then I pointed my camera (as best I could) directly at the screen. I took pictures of the slides as they were being displayed on the screen. It actually worked out pretty well. I still have 100s of slides to process.

Tell me what you think...

Sylvia, Mela & George are on the left.

Michelle

Baby Tricia with Mom.

Baby Tricia with John.

George in his scout uniform

We think Michelle with miscellaneous Perry kids.

Mela, George & Sylvia

Baby Michelle

The pictures below were not taken by John but they are priceless...
Doesn't my wife look hot!! She's the red head... dang I'm a lucky man.

I love the hair!

Fireworks

2008-07-07T04:43:00.000-07:00

Bubbles

2008-07-05T19:52:00.001-07:00

I was tagged...

2008-07-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

I love getting tagged believe it or not.

How to play this game. Post these rules on your blog; List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

3 Joys:

My sweet wife - Mela is my best friend.
My sweet children - my joy is in direct proportion to the joy my children experience. I wonder if this is the same with our Heavenly Father? I bet it is...
Teaching/Presenting/Facilitating on subjects I am passionate about: religion, politics, technology, photography.

3 Fears:

Not being prepared for a disaster of any kind – natural, civil unrest, financial, crime, or any combination.
My family will be in danger in anyway.
A death of any member of my family.

More than 3 Goals:

Getting off that last 10 lbs (I agree with Erin – when is this not a goal??!!)
Getting completely out of debt
Completing many many many projects around the house.
My MBA
My Series 7 License

3 Current obsessions/collections:

I hate paper – I have a high speed scanner that scans front and back directly to PDF. I scan everything. My computer is my file cabinet.
Photography – I need to take more pictures. I should be shooting everyday!
Mountain Biking - I need to ride more. The problem is it's too dang hot!

3 Random surprising facts about myself:

I’m an introvert just pretending to be an extrovert.
I have never blessed the bread
I HATE onions. I would sooner eat my own poo...

I Tag only one person... Mela

Bad Kyle!

2008-06-27T11:15:00.001-07:00

I need to stop! I have a problem that I don’t like to talk about... it’s not drugs or anything immoral... I’m a tech junkie. Computers, iPods, scanners, cameras, lenses, miscellaneous gadgets, are all my drugs...

One of my friends just bought a Mac and now I want one really bad. Bad Kyle!! Bad Kyle!!

Let me a quote Raising Arizona:

“I found myself driving past convenience stores... that weren't on the way home”

“I found myself driving past the Biltmore Mac store... and it wasn’t on the way home”

I won’t do it anytime soon – iTunes will drive me back to Windows.

Jaedyn over time

2008-06-13T15:04:00.001-07:00

I was tagged

2008-06-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Four places I have lived:
Mesa, AZ
Tempe, AZ
Avondale, AZ
Buckeye, AZ

Four shows I watch:
Battlestar Galactica (the best show on TV)
The Office
How I Met Your Mother
Holmes On Homes

Four jobs I have had in my life:
McDonalds
Paperboy for the AZ Republic
Visa/Mastercard customer service for Bank of America
Tech Rep for Charles Schwab Institutional

Four places I have been:
Mexico
New York
Boston
New Port Beach

Four Blogs I read regularly:
Mela’s Blog (my favorite) - iamtopsyturvy
Erin Fast’s Blog - efast-fun
Lisa’s Blog - BlahBlahBlog
TurleyBenson Blog - turleybenson

Four of my favorite foods:
Italian
Chinese
Rubio's
Grilled Polish Sausage from the BOB (Chase Field)

Four places I'd rather be right now:
San Diego
Mountains
NYC
Riding my mountain bike (too dang hot right now)

Four things I look forward to in the next year:
Loosing 10 more lbs!
Buying BioShock (my wife won’t let me)
My kids getting more cute as they grow up
Fall

Four things I like to do in my spare time:
Photography
Mow the lawn
Play on my computer
Ride my bike

Four favorite things to do with kids/family:
Date night with the wife
Taking the kids to the water park
Spending quality time with kids and wife
Actually having conversations with Andrew and Jaedyn

10 things I can't wait for (part 2)

2008-06-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

I wrote ten things I can’t wait for last July. Here’s an updated list.

The election to be over. I hate the election season. I can only take so much BS and this year it seems we are getting a double helping.

Heroes – whatever happened to Heroes? After the writer’s strike Heroes seems to have dropped off the face of our television landscape.

Chuck – same story as Heroes. Dropped off the TV landscape...

Summer movies that my wife has refused to see with me: Wall-E (Mela doesn’t like animation movies!?), Hellboy 2 (opening night baby!!), X-Files, The Dark Knight and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As far as I know none of these are rated R.

Date night. Mela and I trade babysitting with two other couples. Sometimes date night is all that gets me through the week.

Gas prices to be below $2 a gallon – trust me, I’m not holding my breath.

My sweet children to not grow up. I want my kids to stay little!!

Family Vacations! We have a couple of fun vacations planned... more details to follow...

Get released from the Bishopric. I love my calling, don’t get me wrong. My calling has taught me so much about myself and has pushed me in many ways. I love the other members of the bishopric. I love my ward. I love to serve the Lord in whatever way I am asked. But, I would much rather be a Gospel Doctrine teacher were I can do what I do best, where I don’t have all the worry and where I can sit with my family during sacrament meeting.

To lose my last 10 pounds. I really haven’t written about this... I started on a diet last fall. Back then I weighted 243 lbs. Now I weigh 212 lbs. I want to get to around 200 lbs. It has been fun buying new clothes. I had to get a new suit last week.

Andrew Over Time

2008-06-08T07:17:00.001-07:00

My boy is growing up.

Bottled Water

2008-06-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

Living in the Phoenix area you soon learn water out of the tap is nasty. I’ve been all over the country on business and, ironically, the best water from the tap is in New York City – if you can believe it.

My wife and I have become connoisseurs of bottled water. Here's a list and their ranking in our opinion:

Very Best
Smart Water
Dasani
Fry’s Water (yes the water you get from Fry’s)

Best
Aquafina
Costco Kirkland Brand
Sam’s Choice
Poland Springs

Okay
Nestle Pure Life
Safeway Brand

No better than tap
Arrowhead

Worst than tap
Evian
Fiji

Cost Analysis

2008-06-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Lately I’ve gotten into a cost analysis mode on my transportation needs. Here’s what I have been doing every weekday...

I top off my tank every weekday at the QT on 32^nd Street and Indian School, I check my trip odometer and I reset my trip odometer. I do the same thing the next day. I’ve been doing this for about a month now and from this information I have been able to do a cost analysis on how much it costs me to get to work and back.

This morning gas at my favorite QT was $3.999 (you got to be freakin’ kidding me). I had driven 75.3 miles since yesterday morning. My 2006 Toyota Tacoma consumed 3.966 gallons of gas costing me $15.86. My truck’s miles per gallon came up to be 18.986 mpg.

Let’s just say gas stays at $4 a gallon. Lets increase my miles per day to include trips to the church and the store – say 80 miles a day. Let’s just say my truck was getting 19 mpg. There are about 260 business days a year. I would consume 4.214 gallons of gas for each of these 260 business days. This would be 1095.5 gallons of gas a year. My gas costs would be $4382 per year.

My friend drives truck for a living. Diesel is $4.619 (it may be more) a gallon at the QT on 51^st and the I-10. His truck’s two tanks hold a total of 300 gallons. It costs him $1385.70 to fill up. He must add these costs to the cost of load of what he’s hauling. This is the reason everything is more expensive at your local WalMart, Frys or Safeway. Everything we buy comes to us by truck.

Let me be frank – the price of fuel is screwing every American: young or old; black or white; male of female; legal or illegal. I echo what I’ve heard from talk radio recently: if I was running for president, gas prices and how to fix them would be the only thing I would be talking about.

Water Park Family Home Evening

2008-06-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

Mela had the wonderful idea of bringing the kids to the water park for FHE.

iTunes is a program I love (to hate)

2008-05-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

From my past blog you will know that my computer has recently been born again. I managed to get everything running without much problem. I had everything meticulously backed up. This included programs, my documents, my pictures (200 gigabytes) and my iTunes database (250 gigabytes – movies take a lot of space).

I have been using iTunes for years, I have 3 iPods - I know what I’m doing when it comes to iTunes. I know it is a major pain in one’s nether regions when it comes to moving the iTunes library. People have told me this pain is caused by Digital Rights Management (DRM). I reject this notion. DRM could easily be accommodated and a user should still be able to move their library wherever they wanted. To find out how to do this I would suggest Apple contract Microsoft and ask them how they do it in Windows Media Player (WMP). In WMP it’s easy to move libraries from one computer to another. Frankly, I think the programmers at Apple are idiots.

So here’s what I did:

(I’m doing this from memory – I don’t have my iTunes in front of me)

Install iTunes
Opened iTunes
Went to Preferences
Set the library directory to d:\iTunes
Checked the option Keep iTunes Music folder organized
Checked the option Copy files to iTunes folder when adding to library
Clicked on OK
File to Add Folder to Library
Find the folder where my backed up iTunes library was (p:\iTunesBack\iTunes)
Clicked on Add

At this point iTunes proceed to copy data. “Wow,” I said to myself. “These Apple guys got it going on. I want to buy a Mac because their FLAGSHIP program is the bomb. iTunes is a user's dream. Thank you Steve. Thank you Woz. I’m not worthy... I’m not worthy...”

2 hours later the process was complete. I was happy.

I was happy until I noticed only about two thirds of my music copied over. None of my playlists copied. None of my ratings copied. I could tell you more about losing an authorization (you only get 5) but I will spare you.

I can do without the Ratings and the Playlists. There was no rhyme or reason as to what was copied and what wasn’t. Ozzy made it. Rascal Flatts didn’t. All my movies made it. All my podcasts didn’t. Mela’s Christmas music unfortunately made it. Little Big Town didn’t. There was absolutely no pattern.

As entertaining as those I’m a PC, I’m a Mac commercials are the world runs on Windows. 90% of iTunes users run iTunes on Windows. You’d think Apple would want to make a good program to show off their grace and skill...

Many times I have said to myself “I want to buy a Mac. They are realty cool. Steve Jobs will make everything okay... All of my hopes and dreams will come true...” Then I use iTunes and I am reminded Apple is just as fallible and unresponsive to user needs as the US Government is to its citizens.

I could write much much more about iTunes... I will spare you... I buy all my music from AmazonMP3 anyway (DRM free is the bomb).

Swinging at Grammy's with a cat

2008-05-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

My computer was born again...

2008-05-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

My computer was starting to irritate me. It was locking up and becoming unresponsive after it would come out of sleep. I tried everything I could think of with out any luck. I think the main problem was I installed SP1 for Vista myself. I should have waited for Windows update to install it naturally - I got inpatient and downloaded the full SP1 myself. This was apparently bad...

Here’s a general best practice I preach on a regular basis: my computer gets born again about once a year. Basically I back everything up, I delete the logical partitions on my main drives, reformat my drives and reinstall everything. You will be amazed at how fast your computer will be and how many problems are solved when you just nuke everything and reinstall.

I preach this but I don’t like doing this. The whole “born again” process is a religious experience most computer users avoid because no matter how you go about it the pain in the butt factor is high.

Considering my computer was being born again I decided to try something different. I tried to RAID 0 my two hard drives. I have two 500gb Western Digital drives (Western Digital drives are the best by the way). If I did a RAID 0 configuration on these drives, I would effectively have two drives become one. I would have a 1000gb drive (that's 1 terabyte baby). My motherboard supported it and I had the RAID controller enabled, but 3 hours later I couldn’t get the Windows install to see it. I finally gave up. I know I’m a computer whimp for not searching out Google for answers or even reading the documentation... It just occurred to me that I was wasting my life and I finally just formatted the drives independently.

The process of installing Vista was surprisingly easy. It took about a half an hour and all my drivers loaded, video was working properly, audio was working, my DVD drives where all alive and functioning. This would not have been the case with XP. I’m sure I will find stuff that didn’t install right and I will deal with that as it comes up.

Now comes the fun of installing all my applications.

This time I'm going to image my drive so I don't have to do this again!!

Part 3: Our Technology...

2008-05-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

My first computer was an IBM 286 running some version of DOS. It had WordPerfect 5.1 and Lotus 123. It didn’t have a mouse or even a hard drive.

Some time later we got Macintosh Classic computers with 20 megabyte hard drives (that’s megabytes not gigabytes). We thought we had died and gone to heaven. The Mac back in 1990 had MS Word and Excel. It was the bomb!! Today, I have an original Mac Classic in my office at home. It still boots. I’m tempted to sell it on e-bay or turn it into a fish tank – I can’t decide...

Today, I have a top of the line (at least it was when I bought it last summer) Dell XPS system. I have 1.75 terabytes of hard drive storage that I use for pictures, music, ripped DVDs, spreadsheets, lesson plans, financial records back to 1994, scanned stuff (I scan everything – I hate paper) and even the occasional word document. I have a Wi-Fi network that runs my wife’s laptop, my Linux machine (I really like Linux – watch out Microsoft & Apple), a laser printer, and my photo printer. We have three iPods, two digital cameras, a scanner, several external hard drives, three DVD burners and a network attached storage drive to back everything up. My internet is the fastest available in my area. I can download a 2 gigabyte movie from iTunes in less than 15 minutes. I’m getting exited just talking about it!!

You may ask why I choose to write about our technology in relation to Our World and Our Worth. For me to answer this I need to refer back to scripture.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Jesus gave his disciples two commandments in these verses. The first was for them to teach all nations the gospel and the second was to teach them to keep his commandments. The members of the church back then had two missions:

Proclaim the gospel (aka. teach all nations)
Perfect the saints (aka. keep his commandments)

Jesus was talking to 11 guys who had no special abilities or talents. These 11 guys had no idea how to teach everyone in the world. How would you accomplish this?

Back then there was no way to really do this. Paul would get a letter from Corinth that took months to deliver; he would write a letter back, that letter would take months to deliver. The early members of the church didn’t have scriptures as we know them today. There was no bible as we know it. A member in Corinth would have been lucky to have a hand-me-down copy of the book of Mark (Mark is considered the first written gospel). Ultimately, Mormons believe the early church was lost to the world and we were left to the dark ages. Why this falling away occurred is the subject of another blog...

In the early 1800s Joseph Smith was given another commandment in addition to the other two I mentioned before – he was commanded to redeem the dead. Now we have three commandments:

Proclaim the gospel
Prefect the saints
Redeem the dead

Mormons are responsible for teaching everyone who’s living right now, perfecting themselves, and now they have redeem everyone who has ever lived. I won’t get into the process of redeeming the dead other than it occurs in our temples. Back then there was literally no way to accomplish this.

Today, this can be done. We have computers that can track generations of genealogy. We can communicate instantly with anyone in the world. I can download all of conference and listen to it on my iPod from LDS.org. The scriptures have been indexed electronically to teachings of modern prophets. I can check my own ward’s calendar so I know when the next Cub Scout meeting is. It’s amazing.

Today, computers and databases can keep track of billions of records. In fact, most modern home computers could... Today, we can keep the whole church together with LDS.org. If someone in Africa wants to find out about the church they could google Mormons and they would get everything they need.

All of this wonderful technology was inspired and created for the express purpose of us fulfilling the commandments of the Lord to proclaim the gospel, perfect the saints and redeem the dead.

I think it’s just amazing!

I think it’s important to put our technology in its proper place. We have the internet and powerful computers to further the work of the Lord. iTunes is just a nice offshoot of this.

Part 2: Our Worth...

2008-05-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

It is often asked what is the worth of a soul is to God. We don’t obey His will all the time. We sin. We are messy and carnal. So, why does God care so much? Why would God love us so much that he would send His son to save us?

First, let me preface my answer to these questions with a few things in mind. I am writing this blog for people who are not Mormon. I am trying to write to people who are Christians who have an open understanding of the nature of God and His relationship with us. We Mormon’s already have a clear understanding of our worth to our Father in Heaven. We are God’s children, we are God’s greatest creation and we have the potential to become like God. God’s job is to exalt us.

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

For my non-Mormon friends, let me talk about the worth of our souls to God in three ways.

First, we are eternal just as God is eternal. The earth will someday be just a memory to us. Our solar system, galaxy and even our universe will someday be just a memory to each of us. One soul is more important to Our Father in Heaven than all the gold and diamonds in the whole earth. One soul is worth more than the entire world to God. We are eternal, everything else isn’t. Christ gave his life to bring souls back to God so we could dwell eternally with Him. Hopefully we take advantage of Christ sacrifice. Christ wants every soul to dwell with Him and his Father eternally.

Let me try to quote C.S. Lewis – ”you have never met a mere mortal”.

Second, we are created in His image. Not only are we eternal just like God is eternal we also can be an image of Him in everyway. If we let Him, we can be polished to reflect God’s light perfectly. A diamond can only shine so much. We can shine with a light beyond the sun if we allow Christ to change us into beings like Him.

Third, we are agents unto ourselves. When Adam and Eve fell we became like God in another way:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil...

This may sound strange God knows the difference between good and evil and He could choose evil. God always chooses the good. When Jesus was on the earth he was tempted but he never yielded. God has a choice and he always chooses good.

We are just like God in this way also. We are faced with good and evil choices everyday God wants us to choose the good but often we choose evil. We call this Sin. God will never take away our right to choose between good and evil. God made us agents unto ourselves. We are free to act. We may not like the consequences of our actions but we always have the right to act.

This agency or knowledge of good and evil sets us humans apart from all of God’s other creatures. A bird, as fish or a dog doesn’t know any thing about being good or being evil. Therefore, all other creatures created by God are less than humans because they have no agency. You can have a well trained dog or a tame cat but the animal itself is neither good nor evil.

We are just like God these three ways: we are eternal, we are in His image and we have agency. Because we are like God and God is like us we are of great worth to God. God loves us because we have the potential to have all of God’s attributes. This is our worth to God. This should be our worth to each other.

Another topic for a future blog: What the deal with agency? Why are we free to choose? Why does God let us choose evil?