Video Clip

This is one of the best ones I've seen yet. Watch it twice, on the second go round, watch the ticker at the bottom of the screen.


Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Macaroni Grill

This last weekend Sabrina and I used a gift card that we've had for a while to go out to Macaroni Grill. It was great as usual. I do have to say that one of my favorite things about going there is that they have a big sheet of paper to cover the table which you can then draw on. I was most disappointed this time when they didn't bring us our crayons. Oh well.

We got their shrimp and artichoke dip as an appetizer. It was quite excellent. I really couldn't taste the shrimp, but the dish had to be one of the better spinach/artichoke dips I've had.

For my entree I got their Chicken Sorrentino. From their menu "Grilled chicken breast with honey balsamic glaze, with roasted roma tomatoes, arugula and imported buffalo mozzarella on capellini pasta." I'd never knowingly had arugula before. It was green and leafy. I tend to group all green leafy things together in a category known as "lettuce". (This is probably hearsy to some chefs.) It also included raisin-like things which very well might have been raisins. Maybe they were dates, I'm not sure. The glaze for the chicken was quite good, and tasted like it had some sort of vinegar (balsamic maybe?). All in all, it was good, but not great. I'll probably get my Penne Rustica when I go there again.

Were you aware of this?

I wasn't aware of this until recently, but it really sucks:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/04/ED5OUPQJ7.DTL

Picture Tag

Ok, so I got tagged a couple of weeks ago and have been a slow to get it done, but I finally had some free time this afternoon to devote to the cause. This is a picture tag. You are supposed to post your 10 favorite pictures. Well, if you knew how many thousands of pictures we have on our computer, you'd realize it's not easy to narrow this down to 10, so I just did my best to pick 10 I like, some of them based more on the memory than the quality of the picture. It was fun to find these though. I was also going to do some photoshopping before posting them but I decided I did well to find 10 and got too lazy to do anything in photoshop also, so it's good enough.

This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding. It's a candid taken by my friend, but I thought it turned out looking really cool, and I love seeing my bouquet once again. I admit, I really loved my bouquet.

I love the way Brett and I are looking at each other during our first dance as a married couple. I know - cheesy, but very cute.

This is on our honeymoon. We had a black and white disposable camera from Brett's sister that she took back from us and made a really cute scrapbook for our honeymoon, so the photo quality is really poor, but this is my favorite picture from our honeymoon. What great memories!

This is a fun picture of some of my best friends. It's really representative though of all the fun memories I've had with all my friends over the years. I have such incredible people in my life and a lot good times to look back and smile or laugh about.

K, you're going to have to crank your neck on this one. I don't feel like going in to change the orientation. It looks fine when I open it on the computer so I don't know what it's problem is. Anyway, this is still a great memory. This is Brett and I at the Orlando temple after my brother's wedding. That was such a fun trip. We spent a lot of time driving and got to see a good portion of Florida, but we also got to go to theme parks, the beach and see lots of family. It was awesome.

Here is a picture of Brett and I at sunrise in Hawaii. Yes, that was the perfect vacation before Adie arrived. We had a blast. I know you can't really see us in this picture, but that's probably good because this was like 5:30 am and the sunrise was definitely a better view than our tired faces. I think the silhouette looks cool anyway.

This is the day after Adie was born. It's one of our favorite pictures. It's what we sent on her birth announcement. The nicely manicured hands you see holding her are, unfortunately, not mine though. Brett's sister is holding Adie. Isn't she precious? I can't believe how different she looks now.

This is our favorite picture of Adie when we took her 6-month photos. It was actually not one we were really trying to take. It was just a random one Brett took while I was holding her and we ended up loving her expression and the composition better than any of the others.

Here is our poor divided child. This was the day of the BYU Utah game. I am pretty sure I wasn't going to let her wear straight cougar gear, so her t-shirt was accented with red.

You've all seen this one recently, but I love this picture of her, so I had to include. What a cute girl!

I know this is a total cop-out, but I tag anyone who feels like showing off 10 of their favorite photos. It really is fun, and I'd love to see what any of you have to post, so yeah, I tag all you readers (if you want to).

The Week in Review

I started writing this post and immediately recognized it was going to again be way too lengthy for the average attention span. Therefore, I have hearkened back to my days working as a business analyst at Novell and have remembered the best way to get a lot of information across and more fully ensure it may get read is to use bullet points. We had a lot go on this past week, so here's our week in review:

Tuesday, the 12th:

• We went on an early V-day date - dinner and U23D (finally!)
• We highly recommend going on a V-day date on a day other than the 14th to avoid crowds
• We also highly recommend seeing U23D - almost as cool as a concert, but much less expensive (however, the experience of an actual U2 concert is unbeatable and is worth every penny you'd pay for it)

Thursday, the 14th

• We left for the family cabin in Island Park, ID for a weekend with Brett's family
• All was uneventful until Adie started crying uncontrollably near Pocatello. We later found out this was due to her temperature nearing the 104 degree mark
• We made a stop at the urgent care clinic in Idaho Falls and got antibiotics for the mysterious infection that was affecting her ears, her temperature, making her cough, etc.
• With Adie's temperature dropping and her spirits lifting we decided to press on to the cabin, hoping, as with most ear infections, that the infection wasn't contagious (is this starting to sound somewhat akin to another trip we took at the end of December to St George?)
• We arrived at the cabin near midnight. Adie promptly began to throw up everything from lunch and beyond, including some blood
• I started to regret our decision to go to the cabin (no nearby medical facilities)
• We stayed up all night, taking turns caring for our very sick, very hot and very miserable daughter

Friday, the 15th

• Some time, in the wee hours of the morning, Adie's fever broke. We all got a couple hours of sleep, and it was then time to go pick up the snowmobile rentals
• Brett spent a good portion of the day on a snow machine
• I started coughing and coming down with a nasty sore throat
• Our niece came down with a nasty fever and cough
• Brett's sister started coughing and her throat started hurting
• Our brother-in-law ran into a tree with the snowmobile, and while incurring $1000 worth of damage to the vehicle, he luckily escaped unharmed
  
• We stayed up way too late and by the time we got to bed, Adie woke up, feeling not so miserable, but still not well - no sleep for us again :)

Saturday, the 16th

• Adie's health improved drastically, our niece's health saw a little improvement, Brett's sister and my health continued to decline - more coughing, sore throat, mixed in with a fever
• I still decided to go out on the snow machine, but discovered I much prefer riding on the back of one instead of driving - I didn't feel I had enough control of the machine and didn't want to be the next to run into a tree
• Brett's sister's boyfriend ran into a fence post that wasn't visible until he was too close to do anything about it - he incurred $700 worth of damage
• Adie decided she would like to walk without us having to launch her - she walked from where she was standing by my leg to her cousin in his bouncer about 6 feet away
• Adie also decided to attempt climbing stairs and seems to really like it

Sunday, the 17th

• We enjoyed a quiet Sabbath in the cabin - Carla (sister) and I were still not feeling any better, but Adie and Amberlee (niece) were basically back to normal by then
• Adie almost slept all the way through the night, but ironically, I didn't because my throat kept me awake

Monday, the 18th

• We said our goodbyes as everyone departed for home
• Carla and I continued to feel about the same as we have all weekend
• Adie was whiny a lot of the car ride home, but not because she was sick, because she was bored or in her new car seat that isn't as easy to fall asleep in, or who knows what
• We visited a lot more family in SLC so all the grandparents could see Adie
• We saw my mom and stepdad's almost-finished new home
• We arrived home to an already messy house, made messier by all the bags we left on the floor

Today

• I still feel the same :/ My feeling nasty comes in spurts, but as long as I keep popping ibuprofen every few hours I can at least function
• I unpacked and cleaned the entire house and felt sooooo much better!

My Kind of Winter

Yesterday and today here in Provo are examples of winter weather I enjoy. I used to enjoy full-blown winter, but not so much any more. I hate driving it. I dislike having to bundle up to go outside, or just being cooped up because no matter how much you bundle up it's not enough to stay warm. However, I think snow is beautiful. That is why today is perfect. It's 46 degrees according to BYU's weather station, and I just did errands with the windows rolled down in the car. The streets and sidewalks are clear and not at all slippery. Not only that, but the mountains are still covered with beautiful snow, and being that Provo is located in a wonderful place, right up against the mountains, we still get to enjoy that beauty. Don't get me wrong. My ideal temperature is around 75 degrees, with very little humidity and a light breeze (so I absolutely love Spring) it's still nice to have some variety, so I'll take winter weather like this.

Operating Systems

So, I realize we haven't posted in a little while. I think we both were worn out from all the political discussion we had going on so we took a bit of a break from posting. Anyway, on to my random thoughts for the day. Sabrina's mom is having some trouble with her computer. She's taking it in tomorrow to get looked at (I couldn't troubleshoot it over the phone). If it's broken down, she wondered what type of computer she should get. My initial reaction was "an iMac", and here's why:

1. I never used to be an apple fan. Well, I do admit really liking our family's old Apple IIc, but that was the last one we ever owned. I always thought Mac enthusiasts were a bit over the top. However, since we got ours I can honestly say that you don't have to be a nut to own a Mac.

2. Stability. I love the fact that this evening as I was encoding a movie to burn to a DVD, recording a TV show, re-encoding some home movies, with Photoshop up to do some touch ups to some pictures, I was able to pull up a web browser and not have noticable lag. That sort of thing would have crippled Windows. It's amazing.

3. Form factor. Can you tell me that it's not cool to have a huge LCD monitor be your whole computer?

4. It runs Windows, which I do care about still. It actually runs Windows quite well. My only complaint is that I can't run my computer game Starcraft in Windows because the resolution on my monitor only goes down to 800x600.

Super Tuesday Eve

We have had a quite a debate going on a previous post about the remaining candidates, and being we are one day away from Super Tuesday, I think I will make yet another political post, stating and finalizing my position to vote for Ron Paul. First off though, thank you to everyone who has offered their opinions and analysis. One of the reasons this country is so great is we can do this very thing, debate the issues and choose for ourselves. This dialogue is important so we become informed voters. So, with that preamble, I am going to dive into a very long post. For those of you not interested in this topic, this might be your jumping-off point. For those of you choosing to stay on board, thanks for giving my viewpoint the time of day and some consideration. As always, I welcome and encourage your comments / critiques even if they don't align with my ideas. In fact, I expect a lot of you don't agree. The only other person I know that does agree with me right now is Karen, but I still respect all your opinions!

First, I'd like to explain why I am NOT supporting the other remaining candidates, and I'll start by addressing the Democratic Party. I have long said I remain unaffiliated with either party. Both have their pros and cons, and neither one really encompasses all that I believe. However, in Utah, I probably have more Democratic leanings (most Demo's in Utah are really just moderate GOP on a national level). I am often annoyed by the Utah Republican party attempting to form a Mormon theocracy and doing favors for big business, which is far from real conservatism.

At the national level, however, I can't support the liberalism of the Democratic Party, and I actually don't mean that in terms of abortion and gay rights (while I am pro-life, abortion is not a pivotal issue for me, and I am probably a lot more liberal about gay rights than a lot of people in these parts). The issue that most concerns me is giving the national government more control. That is dangerous business. Both remaining candidates promote universal health care, gun control, more support of labor unions, etc.

Now, on the surface this looks good. What's wrong with trying to help everyone have health care? What's wrong with trying to keep guns out of violent hands and off our streets? What's wrong with protecting the rights of workers? Those are very noble goals. I think the majority of us want a safer, more prosperous, more healthy society. The problem is, the government shouldn't compel us to have this. This should be each individual's choice.

Universal health care is socialism, pure and simple. We pay the government a very large chunk of our pay check and they make sure we have at least basic health care needs met. In my heart of hearts, I am a socialist, well probably more accurately, a communist. In fact, if you believe in Mormon theology, you have to believe somewhat in it too. We believe, in the millennium, we will have all things in common. Everyone will have what they need, everyone will prosper and we won't class distinction. We'll be living in a 4th Nephi world, and I can't wait! However, at that time, I believe, we will choose to live that way. We will want to share. We won't want to look better than others by having more than the next person. No one will want to take advantage of one another. Finally, Christ will be our supreme ruler, which will ensure no corruption and true charity.

However, that is not the world we live in currently. In order to get people to share or not take advantage of one another we need to have the government monitor. The problem with that is the power to distribute, in this case, health care, is given to a very small group of people. Some of these people may have our best interests at heart, but most of the time, the adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely still remains in force, and history has proven it time and time again. If you give power to only a few, they become greedy for it, and they will seek more. This is true of any socialist / communist program. Those that have risen to the top only do things that help themselves and their friends. So, you have corrupt people at the top and the people at the bottom resent those with all the power. Remember, people can't be compelled to share, they must choose to. So, this applies to all socialist / communist programs our government already has or is proposing to put into place, i.e., social security, medicaid, proposed universal health care, etc.

As a final quick note on the socialist programs of our government - they cost a lot, and we're going to be the ones left paying for it for generations to come, because the expenses are too great for the current generation, who is receiving the benefits, to handle. Our deficits will continue to go up, as will our taxes, and we will never get ahead.

Now, on to gun control...I have never handled a gun in my entire life, not do I intend to, unless it is in a dire, dire situation. It's just not my thing. However, I am a very strong advocate of the second amendment. Remember, the founding fathers came from a very oppressive government, which is why they limited our government's powers so much in the Constitution. These men recognized the need for each individual to be able to defend themselves should the government become as corrupt as England's had at the time of the revolution. Many of you probably laugh at the thought of an up-rising against the government, common man wielding their shot guns against a corrupt US government. However, the possibility is more real than you think. There are a lot of very powerful people out there, with vast amounts of money, who want to control as much of the money in the world as they can. Their power already runs deep within many of the world's governments, including ours, and honestly, there may come a day when we are really grateful we have our second amendment rights or really sorry we gave them up.

I could keep going on about giving the government more power, but I'll leave it at that. The two main points I hope I made though are many of the plans Demo's want to implement will 1) concentrate a lot of power into a small group of people's hands, compelling the public to do and to pay what they say and taking away people's rights to choose, and further corrupting those with the power, and 2) taking away people's individual liberties, which help protect personal freedom for each person (horrible run-on sentence, I know).

With that being said, I like to think most Democrats want to implement their government programs because they want to honestly help each individual. They don't want anyone to fall through the cracks the pure capitalists will inevitably leave behind. This is, personally, the kind of ideal I feel Obama espouses. I get the impression he just wants to help out the downtrodden and make life more equitable for everyone in the US. I just don't agree with his proposed method of doing it by giving the government more power. Even if he does have honest intentions, who's to say those who follow him will? It's much harder to get rid of that power once it's been given to government. Future leaders could exploit it. We should always remember why the founding fathers limited the government's power. They know how evil and corrupt people can get, especially in positions of power. I want to like Obama, but I can't support him for those reasons.

On to Hillary...I don't even believe she cares a lick about helping out the American people. If you do your research, you'll find she and Bill have connections in very high places, where the money is. I strongly believe she is in it to serve these people's best interests. They want her to win and are doing everything they can to manipulate the election so she does win and they get their interests met. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I believe elections are rigged, I believe the international bankers basically manipulate and rule the world as much as they can, and I believe Bill was and Hillary is their puppet on American soil to achieve their goals. I will not vote for her at any cost.

Ok, I have beaten the Demo horse to death, so on to the Republican candidates. I actually feel there are only slight differences between McCain, Huckabee and Romney. They all want to continue the war in Iraq until they reach the arbitrary point that we can claim "victory". They all say they want to balance the budget and lower taxes. I find these two positions, however, contradictory. I would be interested to see how they can take in less money than they are currently and maintain a troop surge in Iraq, as well as continue all our other military pursuits, and then take care of all the veterans who return home from their tours of duty. We are running up billions of dollars a day in deficit to maintain our current military pace. I want to know what other programs or government expenditures they plan to cut in order to charge us less, keep our country's debt in check and still win in Iraq. I haven't seen or heard any concrete plans from any of them on this issue. They just claim they can. I think Romney's background makes him somewhat qualified, but I think this is a much bigger beast than he's ever dealt with before, so it would be interesting to see if he can pull it off. I'd trust him to do it more than the other two, however. McCain shows he knows nothing about economics and it appears he will just keep doing what Bush is doing, which is have no real plan, just keep spending until we "win". I know Huckabee has dealt with budgets as governor in Arkansas, but his record shows he doesn't cut taxes on a regular basis, so I'd be skeptical of him living up to that claim.

Now, to address each GOP candidates I am not voting for, individually...As I stated earlier, McCain shows he has no understanding in economics, and the economy is probably the single biggest problem we face as a country, as it's in major peril and affects, basically, everything else. I want someone who knows their stuff when it comes to history, economics, etc. McCain has proved none of that to me. I appreciate that he was a POW and am grateful for his service to his country, but I am tired of hearing about it all the time. He is also a name-dropper, which to me, indicates he just cares about his connections. I don't believe he is as well-connected as Hillary is, but I think he will mostly do favors for his friends and cares very little for the American people's wishes. He is also way to liberal when it comes to immigration law / reform and has threatened our first amendment rights with bills he's tried to pass. He'll basically be another Bush. He also would never beat either Hillary or Obama. He doesn't stand a chance.

Huckabee, to me, is actually a lot like Romney. He does have an interesting idea with the fair tax. I am not necessarily opposed to that idea just yet, but I am not completely convinced of it either. It would change how we managed our money and I think it would hurt the lower class, but I think it's worth a look. He does ride his religious high horse a bit too much. I am glad he's not ashamed of his beliefs but he's using them to get ahead and that doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth. It wouldn't kill me to have him get the nomination, but if I voted for him it wouldn't be with any enthusiasm.

Romney has a lot of support in these parts and for good reason. He really did lift the Olympics out of scandal and it ended up being a wonderfully successful event. He has a record of being a good man and an exceptional business man. He does have the credentials to address our economic issues. As I mentioned above, however, I would be interested to see how he plans to do it with all he's promising to do, and I was never impressed with his assertion that he'd like to double the size of Gitmo. More than anything, I guess, and this has little to do about politics and all to do with personal preference, I don't love that he has become a major representative to the nation of the LDS church. Sure, it's not official, and I know the church promotes no candidate, but people who don't understand see it that way. They will look to him and get some impression, if they don't have much of one already, of how Mormons are, and I don't like that because I don't think he represents us well. He is good man, but he's not inspiring. He doesn't rise above the filthy political games. He often acts smug in interviews and debates. He slings the mud, just like everyone else, every chance he gets. I guess I always wanted a "Mormon candidate" to rise above all the crap and set a higher ideal for the nation. He's failed to do that and that disappoints me. However, it wouldn't kill me to vote for him. I'd vote for him over the two Demo candidates and probably not have to plug my nose. He at least knows how to manage money and I believe he's an honest man.

As one final note on the Republican candidates, I actually think only one could beat the Democrats, given the chance, and that is Ron Paul. I know you're all rolling your eyes since you know I adamantly support him, but I'll tell you why I believe that way. Somewhere around 70% of the nation wants to get out of Iraq. All of the other GOP candidates will get defeated from that issue alone, I believe. Because RP wants to pull out also he has a fighting chance to beat the Demo's. If you had Ron Paul against either Hillary or Obama, you'd make the nation choose to either give the government more control, but worry less about getting your own health care, protecting your job, etc., which is honestly important to some people. Or, you'd choose to take power away from the government and gamble that it's better to let the free market run its course, meaning you aren't guaranteed things like health care or job security, but you'd maintain your personal liberties. It really is a compelling choice.

I know, I know, RP doesn't have a shot according to most people, but I am still holding out hope. No one can force him out until he is voted out of the primary. He keeps garnering support as people learn more about him and his positions, and he keeps getting money donated to his cause. He really looks to the root of the problems we are facing as a nation rather than trying to band-aid the symptoms. You wouldn't know that from the debates or news reports. They pretend he's not ever there and don't give him enough time to explain himself. The media has an interest in him not winning because he wouldn't do any special favors for them like any of the other candidates would be apt to do (most media moguls are or are affiliated with the international bankers who want to keep their control over the world's money). However, MTV (of all stations) did have a forum with him where young voters were able to ask him difficult questions and he was able to answer them without being cut off or interrupted or smirked at. Here is the link to this forum. It about 25 minutes of Ron Paul explaining his positions which is far more attention than he ever gets. Please at least watch it and go to polls informed as to why or why not you are voting for each candidate.

One other interesting point to ponder...Many GOP reject RP's ideas because he is not strong on national defense. However, he has received more donations from current and former military personnel than all the other GOP candidates combined. They believe he is strong on national defense because he will fight fights here to defend our freedoms and will make sure to take care of our vets. Many agree with his understanding about why we get into these wars, and why it is wrong. They've been there. They've seen the conflicts. I think they may just know about it a bit more than we do. Also, he, like McCain is also veteran. He served in the Air Force.

If you actually got this far in my post, I thank you for listening to my rant. I really, really don't mind debate, so please have at it. As I always say, the more educated we all are the better. And, please go vote tomorrow!

Comic

So, I was reading through the last couple weeks of comics, and came across one that I thought really epitomized what was discussed in my last blog post. You can find it here.