Tiny Flies...

Many years ago, I had a job working as a seamstress... Perhaps I should back up a little though...

So I graduated from High School in New Zealand with really high grades, thanks to grading on a curve. At the time I didn't want to want to waste my time at University, not having a clue what I wanted to get into, and I only had a student visa, so work was out of the question as well. Actually now that I think about it, I could have just hung out at home for 6 months, but that didn't cross my mind at the time.

Anyway, so I decided to repeat my final year of school. I may have to go into this more in future blogs, but the key thing here is that I took all the fun subjects. One of those was fashion and design. I was one of a class of 6, and I was the only guy. They then combined that class with one from a younger class, and I ended up being one of 2 guys in a class of 30+ lovely young ladies - That was pretty much the reason for my taking the class, although I did become quite accomplished with a sewing machine.

OK, so back to the job... I was desperate to get out of my old job, and the seamstress one was the first that came up after a year of more of looking. It was an underwear manufacturing facility, and I worked on both the men's bottoms area and the ladies tops area for 9 months before being able to finally get my "Man Card" back and transfer into the cutting area. My wife loved it. Nothing like... "So, my husbands a seamstress" to get the upper hand in a conversation.

So while working in the area piecing together mens bottoms, my part of the line was sewing on the fly and putting a panel on the back. We had specifications on the size of gap allowed on the fly. I always tried to get mine on the upper end of the scale. One day however I heard a quality checker tell another lady that she didn't care if the fly was too small, as long as it wasn't too big. I had to make a comment... "I CARE!" I exclaimed loudly. Both then went bright red, and the conversation ended.

I was reminded of this the other day, as I went to take care of a personal matter in the restroom. It was casual Friday, and I wore a pair of jeans which my wife got me for Christmas. They're low rise jeans. I'll spare you a discourse on specific part of my anatomy involved in this story, but the end of the matter is, certain things are the size they should be. Not too big, and not too small. The fly on the jeans however is not one of those things. I like the lower waist line, but if only there was some way to get that, without the teeny weeny little zipper.

Hey Politicians!

On YouTube there is a video of Green Day singing Holiday live from the United Kingdom. Billie Joe Armstrong begins by describing this song as a big F**k you to all the politicians. He then states that this song in not Anti-American, it's Anti-War. I would like to echo those thoughts at the beginning of this posting. I love this country, I love the constitution and all the principles upon which this nation was founded. I have tremendous respect for the military and the loyalty and sense of duty that these men and woman show, but...

Over the weekend, the death toll amongst US Military personnel in Iraq, passed the 4,000 mark. That is 4,000 lives which have ended to fight this war. In addition (and I could be wrong here...) the number of military personnel injured is well over 130,000. I would suspect that would only include those that have sustained significant life altering injuries.

On the other side, the casualties are up in the hundreds of thousands.

Forget that this war has cost over half a trillion dollars to date, which in and of itself is a great travesty, especially when the US is headed into a recession. The loss of sacred human life is inexcusable.

The stubbornness of certain leaders who stand up in front of the world and talk about the necessity of this war and how we must stay the course just pisses me off no end. The blood of many, many innocent lives is on the hands of that man, and everyone who has profited off this tragedy in human history. And yes, many have profited. This is a war which has benefited the perpetrators of it significantly.

Ready to Go....

We're launching a big application at work over the weekend. The plan is to get it done by early this morning (It is currently just after 1am) Thus allowing some of the team to take care of some Easter Weekend vacation plans. I have no such plans, but would still like to enjoy a weekend off.

As we discussed coming in at midnight tonight, 2 thoughts ran through my mind...

The first is that I will need some help to stay conscious. I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep in the afternoon, however one of the young ladies in the household needed some help with some basic bodily functions, and I was the only parent home at the time. That kind of ended all sleep at that point. Sleep didn't come when I hopped into bed at 9pm either, partly because of the afternoon nap, but there were other reasons to that should probably not be discussed in this forum...

Second was a song that was included in the movie - Black Hawk Down. I think that was the movie when I first got the impression that war is bad - before that I liked heroic stories. From Black Hawk Down, I saw the terrible destructive nature of war. I also grew to appreciate the ideals of the character played by Josh Hartnett. But that is the topic for another blog. As the Rangers are preparing to go into Mogadishu, a song is played loudly throughout the hanger. That song came to mind as I sat in the meeting today. Some research revealed that it is a song by Faith No More, called Falling to Pieces. Comments on YouTube about the video suggest that there may have been some illicit drug usage in making this video. It's a little on the strange side, but I still like the song.

I think I've listened to it 8 times tonight already. All while sipping RockStar Juiced with Pomegranate, on the rocks. I can already feel the caffeine kicking in. This will be a fun night!

Sudden Turn of Events

I had a funny post planned for today, involving the size of the zipper on low rise jeans. I then learned from a friend on mine that another mutual friend had been arrested last week.

This friend is one of the most patient, kind and gentle people you will ever meet. She was arrested on first degree murder charges. I'm still in shock. Even if she is guilty of what they are accusing her of, I'm not sure it rises to the level of first degree murder.

I suspect that there may be another side to the story that the media has not been given, or is willing to share. I wish there was something I could do for her.

Move your Freakin' Dog!!!

So there I was Saturday, running around the park. It was starting to get cold and the wind was picking up. At first I thought I was hallucinating, since in the distance the appeared to be a small polar bear walking the path. As I got closer, I realized it was a big fluffy white dog, and a nice older gentleman. Perhaps I should add that at this point, I had been running for well over an hour and a half, and was up around 10 miles. I wasn't loving life, but I wasn't hating it either - at this point it was just keeping things going.

So I have my pace down, the mp3 player had just finished Def Leppards' greatest hits, and was starting Linkin Park, and here comes the nice old man and his fluffy dog.

As I get closer the dog see's me, I move to the other side of the path, the dog moves, I cross back, the dog crosses back. The old man smiles. The dog then walks right in front of me. I try to move her aside, but she's a big dog, and she manages to get her butt right in front on me. I stop, push her aside with my legs and hands, and then try to start running again. I look up at the old man, expecting a kind apology.

The bastard laughs, and then roars - "Ha Ha!! She ran right into you". Stupid Jackass. I'm not sure if it was that, the icy wind which had started or the fact that I was listening to Linkin Park, but either way I got pretty worked up. The next mile I did in 8 minutes, all the time thinking of how best to handle it if I ran by them on my final lap.

I think I would probably have yelled at him to "Move your Freakin' dog" but I was consider other phrases to try and communicate my disgust for him and his mutt. I also considered picking up a rock, and threatening the dog with it, before lobbing it it at the owner, or running right into the owner, and saying "Ha Ha!! I ran right into you!!". Fortunately for all involved, he took a different path. The path right by the all dogs must be leashed sign.

Bastard!!

Leno or Letterman

The debate as to whether Jay Leno or Dave Letterman is the best late night host seems to be a pretty popular one. I usually wake up pretty early, so late night TV hasn't gotten much of my attention, although with the recent addition of a TV to the bedroom, I have been seeing more of it.

I watched Letterman a few weeks ago, and while the popular consensus seems to be that he is the better of the two comedians, I just didn't think he was funny. I did however see an interview he did with Paris Hilton some months ago, and it gets my vote for one of the best interviews of all time.



Now Jay Leno is not the worlds best interviewer, but his interviews are fun to watch. The piece I really like about his show is the opening monologue and then some of the little segments he has, like headlines and things like that. Letterman has the Top 10 list, but I'm not sure if he has anything else.

Another plus on the Leno show, is Kevin Eubanks. I don't even know the name of Dave's music guy, but I haven't thought he was that funny when I've seen him. Kevin Eubanks is hilarious, and not a bad musician either.

Last night on Leno's show, he had Bill Cosby as a guest. Bill started off with a brief comedy bit about Chubby Kids. The final solution he gave was that beatings were the key... Kids running from mom, mom chasing the kids, everyone's heart rate up nicely, blood going to the brain. No more chubby kids, no more ADD, no more lots of things. He prefaced it by saying it was a Com-e-dy bit, but there was definitely some truth to it.

All things aside, my vote goes to Bill Cosby. That man is a one of a kind.

This one is an oldie but a goodie!

Should know better...

Sometimes I just need to take myself aside and smack some sense into me...

I feel a lot like I did a few weeks ago after seeing a story on the news late at night that pissed me off. Why do I let this stuff get to me?

The lesson I learned back then, but failed to apply this time (At least up until now...) is:

WHY DO I GIVE A CRAP ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF ME?

I'll see if I can't get some more humorous material on here tonight, like perhaps my concerns with my 18 month old son, who I came home to find asleep in my bed the other day, wearing his sister's swimsuit and with a bow in his hair - Sounds just like something a mischevious older sister would do to him, but it wasn't... His mother was the culprit.

Should I be concerned? Again I shouldn't care what people think about me, and I think my opinions on Gay Marriage and stuff are fairly well know.... but all the same.

Filling in the details from yesterday

I've been trying to think of a way of summarizing what an amazing experience it was to read "His Dark Material" by Philip Pullman. I don't think I can... I tried reading a passage to my wife last night, but without the background it just lacked something.

I finished the book with some incredibly passionate feelings about it. Never has any fictional work hit me with quite the same force as this one. This may be due to the subject matter and the current state of my life, but all that aside, I think it is still an excellent literary work.

I went online this morning to look up a little more on the Author - Mr Pullman. I tried his website - http://www.philip-pullman.com. He had some links on their to interviews and so I looked at those. I was hoping to get a little more insight into some of the idea's in the book, but instead I found a couple of gems of wisdom.

These quotes are from the Guardian Unlimited Website, and were part of an online Q&A he did.

I'll give you the pieces of the questions, and his answers which impressed me:


Q - What influenced your courageous and refreshing view of the church and religion?

A - My view of the church and religion was shaped simply by a reading of history. The original impulses of the great religious geniuses - in whom I include Jesus - were, as often as not, something that all of us would benefit from studying and living by. The churches and priesthoods would benefit more than most, but they dare not.

Q - Do you believe that there is no value at all in organised religion?

A - No, I wouldn't say that, because it would be silly; obviously many congregations, of many different religions, do good things such as raising money for charity. No-one could argue with that. But whenever you get a political structure, with ranks and hierarchies, you get corruption; you get people who are more interested in progressing through those ranks than in doing good. Power corrupts.

That last answer really got to me this morning. Maybe I should summarize where I used to be... In the Church with which I affiliate, my father was a pretty big deal - Most of my childhood, when he wasn't at work, he was taking care of Church business. My parents are both die hard members of this Church, so much so in fact, that if I were ever to leave it (Which based on some recent experiences, is not outside the realm of possibility) would likely cause me to be disowned, or at the very least become a great cause of shame to my extended family.

My dad has been appointed as both a bishop and a stake president at various times, the latter generally oversees about 10 congregations in a geographical area. I was pretty much headed on the same track as a kid. I kept all the commandments, obeyed all the rules, and was thouroughly versed in all the policies and whatnot. I spent some time as a missionary as well, and for a long time was labeled as the "Golden Child", of course that was until I screwed a wee something up, and then I was shunned for the remainder of my term, as a border-line apostate, but that's a whole other story, and wasn't really my fault anyway, just a wrong place at the wrong time type of thing.

I then moved over to the US and actually started working for the administration of the Church. I'll spare you the details, but after 6 years of abuse (and finally getting some sense knocked into me) I quit and got a real job. I may share the details of this my other blog... I could entitle it, "How to destroy employee morale and crush any form of achievement"

I think I'm just tired of it. The manipulation, the guilt of not being good enough, the appearances, the judgemental attitude. I made a wee mistake yesterday. On the scale of evil things I could have done, 10 being full on blasphemy, this was probably a 2, maybe not even that high. I got called on it, and apologized and carried on as best I could. The person who called me on it apologized, which I didn't think was necessary, but appreciated. An hour later, I thought everything was fine. Apparentely after I then left, it was discussed in great detail, on exactly how I had screwed up and why they had to call me on it. The person then phoned me to talk about it, and apologized again. I'm not sure why they did this - the apologizing bit. Personally I think they were following the protocol, but deep down could tell something was wrong with it. I was mildly pissed at this point. I then got another phone call later in the day from someone else, saying how the person who called me on my wee mistake, and subsequently initiated a 10 minute discussion on it with all the men attending services that day, "Had my back" and was defending me. What?!?

I'm not sure what to think - 10 years ago I would have known that I shouldn't have done what I did. I was just trying to share a wee thought that meant something to me. One thing is for certain... If I am ever invited to speak again, the response will be a polite, "No Thanks!"

So what might you be asking yourself was the great sin? I could keep you in suspense, but I'm not in the mood for games.

My topic was faith. I wanted to point out that faith is a precursor to other things. Like when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he had to think about it, and then take the thought and create the light bulb. He didn't just create the light bulb one day. And he didn't have the idea and do nothing about it. I had a couple of other pieces to the analogy as well. Apparently they liked the analogy. My mistake was pulling a wee incandescent bulb from my pocket to illustrate the point. Apparently "props" are of the devil.

Better go say a couple of Hail Mary's and then beat myself senseless with a whip, so perhaps God will forgive me for this unspeakable act. Of course now that I have critisized the powers that be as well, Salvation may be beyond my grasp.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll have plenty of company in hell!

Relating to Lyra

It's been an interesting day... I'm also dead tired. A couple of things occurred to me today:

There was a wee incident during my speech at the Church. Not a big deal, but it made me realize I'm not who I used to be, and I think that's a good thing. It did make me feel pretty depressed and crappy for the remainder of the day (The incident did), but the realization was almost sweet in comparison.

I finished reading the final book in the Golden Compass series. The Dancing Mouse made mention that I might not like the ending - I think I know what she meant. It just ended differently from what I expected - not bad, but perhaps not as good as the remainder of the story. I do feel a connection to the story though, and I can see why organized Church's would not want people to read it. It points out all the problems with today's major religions. Personally if a person or organization feels threatened by the book, the problem lies with them and not the book. It might be time for a little introspection.

I am planning a much more in depth report on today, for now I retire to bed, feeling a little lost and lonely, not unlike Lyra does at the end of the book, but I feel a great sense of promise as well.

Random Thoughts and Musings

It's been a rough week, a couple of the kids have been sick, so sleep has been hard to find at best. With that in mind, I present today's post. If you like it, then I guess that's cool. If you don't then the lack of sleep is my excuse...

1. The local dairy delivered an ad with the milk this morning. Sugar Frosted Flakes were the first item. USDA Certified Organic. Do parents that buy their kids sugar frosted flakes really care is they are organic?

2. The house at the end of the street still has their Christmas Tree up. Granted, it's a really pretty tree, one of the white ones, with Red and Green globes on it, but it's also March.

3. Almost at the end of the Amber Spyglass... Fascinating stuff!!

Selling Point?

If you've been looking at my other blog Koda Fit then you probably already know that I purchased a new bike a few weeks ago. It's a racing bike and I am hoping to use it to improve my speed on triathlons which I'll be competing in over the next few years.

Along with the bike I also purchased a pair of Pearl Izumo cycling shoes. One of the selling point of these shoes is the vented toe which will keep you feet cool and dry.

Let me set the scene for those of you not currently residing in Northern Utah. We had snow over the weekend. Spring is approaching, but is definitely not here. As I left the house over lunch to put a couple of miles in on the bike, it was a balmy 30 degrees. For those whose nations have advanced ahead of the US, that is in Farenheit, and not that warm, no, not that warm at all. In fact it is 1 degree below zero if you are used to celcius. There was a slight breeze as well, but nothing too bad.

Anyway, so I did a hair over 10 miles (I think thats about 16km). The vented toe is definitely not a selling feature for rides like this. I returned home and urgently removed the shoes to ensure that 4 of my 10 toes were still there, since I could not feel them.

I also confirmed the fact that I will need to get a hell of a lot more practice in before the first race at the end of the month.

Faith, a topic and Summer

Wow, can't believe I haven't written anything in a whole week... It's not that I haven't been online, I think I just let life slip by.

Interesting weekend, that's for sure. It almost looked like we were heading into Spring pretty quickly, and then mother nature through in an inch of snow just for good measure. She was nice enough to wait until after my long Saturday run, but right now anytime is not a good time for snow. I have faith that Summer will be hear soon, mostly just because I'm sick of running in gloves and a sweatshirt.

On a different part of my life, the wife and I have been asked to speak in the main meeting of our Church this coming Sunday. The good gentleman who extended the invitation has asked us to cover the topic of faith. He then added, somewhat jokingly that he would like us to keep it within the doctrines taught by the Church. He laughed, as did my wife and I, but I think we were laughing for a different reason.

This could be an interesting task. I think faith is a pretty important thing, but I think religion uses it in a way contrary to how it was intended. I'm of the opinion that faith should increase your knowledge of self and your relationship to God and the universe around you. The doctrine uses faith as the process by which you become blindly obedient to men who may or may not have your best interests at heart. Of course they don't phrase it that way, but that's the end result.

I have a couple of interesting idea's I want to explore about how I can share something meaningful, without them deciding that I should probably never attend services with them again. Of course then I am posed with the question as to whether that might or might not be a bad thing?!?

I'll keep you posted as to how it goes...

The Subtle Knife

It was a pretty good weekend for me...

On the training side of things, I got a really nice long run in on Saturday, and then went out and purchased a new bike... I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing, but I'll spare you the details. If you're interested however, I have pics and more details on my other blog.

Saturday night, I finished reading The Subtle Knife, which is the second book in the "His Dark Materials" series by Philip Pullman. It's the one that follows The Golden Compass. It's an excellent read, although each time I read I'm faced with a challenge. Part of me wants to read and re-read each section until I fully grasp what the author is trying to convey, the other part of me wants to keep reading because the story line is so gripping. The parallels between our world and the one in the book are amazing and the devices that Mr. Pullman uses to illustrate his idea's are nothing short of genius. The second part of me is winning right now, but as soon as I finish the last book, I'll be starting over, and reading much more slowly and deliberately.

Finally, it appears that we're down to just a couple of patches of snow in the yard. It's raining currently, but I suspect that too will soon be over. I haven't been this excited for Spring and Summer in a long time. Not that I haven't enjoyed Winter, but the warmer months are just that much more fun.

Bring it on...

This morning, The Amazing Mediocre Gatsby wrote a blog all about what he would do for the love of his life... It's pretty good and has inspired me to try something.

Do you know that after almost a full year of blogging, I'm only on 1 person's blog roll? And that person had me on even before I started the blog itself? The one person who believes in me is Gatsby but I'd like to think there are more...

I want to be on your blog roll!

If fact I am willing to do almost anything to make that happen... Post your idea's as to what it might take, and I'll give it my best shot.

Oh, and I also noticed that I got bumped up 1 notch on Gatsby's list, so I guess he gets to make a request as well! Thanks Gats

Websites - Not as safe as you think...

Hey, Check this website out! It's safe for your computer, and well worth the laugh. It might take a little while to load, but once it does, give it a couple of seconds and see what happens.

http://producten.hema.nl/

Six Things Everyone Should Accomplish Before They Turn 18

I got tagged by someone.... I think this may well be my first. The person initiating the tag was Frank Staheli. The topic is....

Six Things Everyone Should Accomplish Before They Turn 18

1. Hold a Job
   Whether this is just a paper route, summers on a farm or a part time job at the local store. I think you need to learn how the world works, and the value of hard work.


2. Support a Cause
   So you can learn that there is something more important that you out there, but that you can make a difference. It doesn't really matter what the cause it, just that you have a chance to feel a passion for something.


3. Stand up for Something
   It doesn't matter what it is, but you need to stand up for something. Preferably something that gets you out of your comfort zone and teaches you to have a back-bone.


4. Learn to think
   One of my favorite quotes is "I think therefore I am dangerous". If you can think, it'll be more difficult for people to fool you. You'll also experience far more from the world around you if you approach it with an open mind.


5. Have a Pet
   Every kid needs a dog, cat, hamster or some other creature. It'll teach you to love, care for and ultimately learn about the whole circle of life.


6. Enjoy Themselves to the Fullest
   I think few people appreciate the care-free enjoyment that comes with youth, more than those who no longer have it. I wish I had enjoyed it more, and been less concerned with growing up as soon as I could.

So that's my list...

I hereby tag (as prescribed by the originator of this)

Here's the game plan
Ron and Jessica
The Mediocre Gatsby
Esteban (This one could be scary)
The Dancing Mouse
CAW

By being so tagged you are under no obligation to do it, but if you want to...

Sara Bareilles Concert - The Review

So, you might be asking.... Who is Sara Bareilles?

Sara Bareilles is an incredibly talented singer, piano player, song writer from Northern California. I'm not too enlightened about her history, but you could probably found out more about her from her Web Site.

Anyway, there is a DJ on the local radio station (KENZ-FM - 101.9 The End) called Parker who entertains me on the way home from work each day. He does an excellent job. One of his talents seems to be finding new artists. The following video (Click Here - Coz they won't let me embed it.) is actually from a show which I remember hearing as I drove home from work one day. It's Sara hearing Love Song on the radio for the first time.

OK, so with that introduction out the way, let me get to her concert...

Saturday night at the Velour Live Music Club in Provo. It was freakin' cold. We got there at about 6:30 and then found out that the concert didn't start at 7:30, that was when the doors opened. The one payoff was that we got with 2 rows of the front. Standing room only, and it was then that my wife decided she doesn't like concerts where you stand. I pulled rank though, so there we stayed!

At 8pm. Javier Dunn came on stage. He got a pretty good reception, and we just assumed he was local, and obviously a favorite of the crowd. It turns out he is actually the lead guitarist for Sara's Band. He played for about 45 minutes, and it was excellent. He was funny and an absolutely incredible guitar player. I'm trying to learn right now, so I really appreciate that side of things. I'll include a video of his from YouTube at the end of this post. It's not the best video, but it's not bad. We ended up buying one of his CD's as well after the show.

At 9pm Sara came on stage. My first thoughts were that she has no idea just how big she is. This isn't a bad thing. She looked genuinely grateful to have everyone there, and even looked a tad nervous for the first song or two. Her performance was excellent. She interacted well with the crowd, cracked a couple of good jokes and I think that about covers it. Well except for the fact that she is real and genuine, something most other stars seem to be lacking. My favorite part of the night was her telling the story behind Love Song. I mentioned it in my post yesterday, but it really got me thinking about my life, and how I let other people affect me. I appreciated her sharing it.

The only negative from the night is, that it would have been nice to meet her after the show, but I suspect that line might well have taken all night.

If she comes back to Utah again, we're committed to buying tickets. She made the comment that they don't normally headline shows, but I seriously think they could and at a much larger venue as well. Maybe next time we'll get to see her at The Depot. It's bigger but still small enough to be personal.

Excellent, Excellent show.

As a final note... When you sign up on her mailing list, you get to download Love Song - not only is she talented, but she's grateful for fans, something Britany and the other stars could do well to learn from, although, I'm not sure if they're even in the same league as Sara. She definitely has one up, if not more on Brit and the other Studio produced artists out there.

And here's the YouTube clip of Javier, as promised.

A Grand Prize and Mild Schizophrenia

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know the range of topics is pretty broad. I share everything from interesting life events to my opinions of religion and politics.

I've found that my opinions, while a passionate topic for me, are probably not often read or appreciated by others - not a bad thing, there just seems to be a surplus of angry white men with opinions out there, and I have yet to find a niche I can uniquely fill.

So with that in mind, so changes are under way in the world of the Urban Koda...

Change #1 - I purchased the urbankoda.com domain a year or 2 ago, intending to use it as a different brand for my home business. That didn't work so well, and first client I had on it ended up screwing me (Well not literally, and being a somewhat older lady, I'm just grateful that wasn't the case!) Anyway, I have repositioned that domain and intend doing more with it in the future. Right now it just points to this blog.

Change #2 - I've added 2 other blogs.

Koda Fit is going to be devoted to my escapades into increased physical fitness. Something got tweaked in my brain last year, and somehow now I enjoy undergoing intense physical pain. If you want to keep track of my triathlons, marathons, yoga and other stuff, you might enjoy it. Check it later today for a review of the new Yoga DVD I tried last night.

Koda Think Tank is going to be the blog where I hide all my political and religious rantings and ravings. I'm not expecting much traffic, but the big benefit is I will now have an outlet other than my wife to spew my opinions on.

Change #3 - I'm going to work on marketing my blog a little more. Sometime in the next week on Koda Fit, I'm going to have a chance for a reader to win a 6 month gym membership at the University of Utah Rec Center. Please let me know if you would like to be considered for that... I'm also planning on offering incentives for people to trade links with me and a few other things still in the process. If you want to consider putting a link on your blog to mine, let me know your price - I don't have much money but will consider interesting trades!

Anyway, so hopefully with those changes in place, or coming, you can read this blog with out being offended or wondering why I have yet to slit my wrists, and it you want to see either the dark side of my mind which is religion and politics, or the wacky fitness side, you know where to go as well.

Spiritual Experience

I had an interesting experience on Saturday night. As you may have noticed, I've kind of had a wee chip on my shoulder this week - OK, so it was a big chip, but never-the-less, there was still a chip.

For Christmas, I got the missus, tickets to the Sara Bareillis concert in Provo, Saturday night. I'm going to do another blog later today or tomorrow about the concert itself, but there was something she said that rang a chord with me, and got rid of that wee little chip!

Sara is a singer/songwriter and immensely talented. Midway through the concert she stopped to introduce a song and shared the story of how the song come into being. For some time, she'd been turning songs into her record company, only to have them reject them. It got to the point where she was pretty depressed and just not enjoying the whole process any more. Part that then struck me, was that she then got upset with herself, and I quote, "For giving a shit what other people thought about what she was doing."

She decided to sit down and write the most honest song she could and hopefully use that as a springboard to get back to who she really was and what she enjoyed doing.

The song she wrote was "Love Song". It has been her biggest hit to date. The crowd went wild.

Some people made some mistakes last week. Whether they were right or not, is not up to me, and when it comes down to it, I really shouldn't give a crap what they think of me, or I think of them.

I've been feeling much better since!

Right back at you...

I'm a little ticked off... I saw a news headline as I went to bed last night, heard a little bit of the story, and as I was up with a screaming kid at 2am this morning I thought about it some more.

Let me give some background. Mexico has a corrupt government and limited opportunities for it's citizens. Their government actually encourages illegal immigration across the US Border. The US government has taken a policy of allowing this to take place and actually gone as far as providing protection to these people from law enforcement and even offering welfare benefits and free medical care. It doesn't remove the fact however that the people who choose to cross the border do it illegally and are classified as illegal immigrants. Being illegal means that there is a law and you have broken it. The immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed, but that is a separate issue.

I am an immigrant too. I however came in legally, have spent thousands of dollars becoming naturalized and am doing my best to contribute to the economy. I don't want welfare handouts, and I don't take welfare hand outs.

In recent years, the Utah legislature passed a law that would give illegal aliens the ability to apply for a driving card. This way they could drive legally and apply for insurance. Currently they are considering revoking this program.

From what I understand, the new First Presidency of the LDS Church sent a representative up to Capital Hill to make the statement that the Church urged legislators to consider the lives of those that would be affected by the change in this law, in effect putting their considerable weight behind the cause of illegal immigrants, and with a number of legislators being LDS too, this is a HUGE DEAL.

Lets look at the role the LDS Church has played in Illegal Immigration. Despite an Article of Faith which ends in "obeying, honoring and sustaining the law", they have no problem welcoming in new members and giving them full fellowship despite them being illegal immigrants. They have even set up Spanish only congregations so that these people have no reason to assimilate into the American culture, which is a huge problem too, but a separate issue.

With this last decision of theirs, it looks to me like the Church is just giving illegal immigrants the biggest of thumbs up, which I guess means that someone like me, who has done it the legal way is simply getting the good old middle finger from them.

Thanks guys! Right back at you!