Festival of colors

This weekend I got the opportunity to learn more about a Hindu religion at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork along with 15,000 other festival attendees according to The Salt Lake Tribune. I have always heard about the festival of the colors, and finally this year got to go. Basically the Hindu's believe that the "throwing of the colors" is the best way to celebate the arrival of Spring by throwing colored aromatic powder up in the air, or at your neighbor. It was interesting and a lot of fun. I'm glad I had my sunglasses on the whole time, because i got plenty of face shots. The taste isn't great either.
Aside from the activity the leader of the group taught everyone a little about the religion. He said that most of the time people spend at church will just put them to sleep. He also mentioned that this colors festival will give you "more spiritual advancement than 4 hours of sitting in church." I'm having a tough time believing that, but it was probably more fun than an average evening of activities.

The festival starts out with a bonfire where they burn some kind of witch. After that, the throwing of the colors starts. It was kinda funny, cause everyone kinda jumped the gun and started throwing it around before we were suppose to. The director was shouting on the mic, "not yet, wait!" haha it was pretty funny. Eventually everyone calmed down, and we started over again the way it was suppose to be done.
I tried meeting up with my friends there, but they didn't take into consideration crazy traffic, and therefore didn't show up on time. Luckily i was with my friend Crystal, so we were able to enjoy the festival. Hopefully next year all of my friends can make it out, so i can throw powdered paint at them and have fun. It's like "la Tomatina" but without tomatoes.

Riding solo

I wanted to get up and away from the city life and have a little fun, so i decided that i would go to Sundance Ski Resort today to do a little snowboarding.
I have only been snowboarding one other time this season with Dave back in December. It's been tough finding friends to go with, or the cash flow to want to go up more often, but i decided that i might as well just go solo.
When i worked at Park City Mountain, I used to ride alone all the time while i was working, so it's not too bad. Just got to put the ear buds on and turn up the music and it's all good. My phone was acting weird a little bit and would randomly call people every time i plugged in my ear buds.














The snow conditions were great, being that it had just snowed about a foot up there two days ago. The sun was out and shinning warm, so it was a good chance to get away and do some pondering.

18 holes of golf

My last day with my dad before coming back to Utah all of us boys went to play some golf. I actually have never played through a real game of golf before, so this was a first for me. I have been to the range a few times to hit balls, but never played a game.
It was way fun to play, even though i hit way better on the range. There were a few times where i had a couple of really good hits that didn't go off and get lost.
I think i ended the game with a score of 112. Not too bad i guess for my very first golf game. For the most part, if i was able to just get the ball out there right off the tee and not hit it into a tree or the water, i would have done much better.

Cache Creek Casino

During my little trip in California I stayed with my dad and step-mom for about a week. They decided to take me out to show me what they do on the weekends for fun. Gambling! I have to honestly say that i have never really gambled before. I have dropped some coins into a slot machine at a gas station a few times as im driving through Nevada, but never to actually play any card games.
My step mom Sue gave me some cash flow to start off with and we went straight to the 3 card poker table. I did pretty well there for the first hour and came out a little over $200 on top. After lunch we went to play some Blackjack.. I didn't do too well there, so i stopped after losing a hundred. I kinda felt like a retard there, cause i had never played it before at a poker table. The rules are a tad different. For example, you can only use one hand to touch the cards in the table. So i had to refrain my other arm. There were a few things i wasn't quite sure on, but eventually i got the hang of it. It seemed like the dealer got 21 way too many times.
Before leaving, we decided to drop some money into some slot machines and try our luck. Sue and my dad both did ok on some machines, but i kept losing. I was getting a little frustrated thinking that i was only going to walk out of there with half the money Sue gave me to start out with.
I found a slot machine that treated me well though.. I was down on my 47th credit and the thing just started going crazy.. The credits kept adding up and didn't seem to stop. I played a couple more times to round of my credits, then i cashed out. This is the ticket it gave me

Santa Barbara

My brother called me up and asked me if i wanted to visit him while he was on call in Santa Barbara.
I figured why not... I'm not working right now, so this would be a great opportunity to have a little vacation time.
I jumped in my car and headed out on Wed. night to St. George and stayed the night with my friend Craig and his wife. I left the next morning to Santa Barbara.
It's been a good time being able to hang out with my older brother Brandon. We haven't hung on in many years. Luckily he never got called to work, so we spent the whole time exploring Santa Barbara. We went to the beach and roller bladed

around the the beach front area. We also went to different parks and went out exploring the city. We even found a park up by the mountains and did a little bit of hiking.

The weather was great the whole time i was there. Mid 60s during the day, and kinda chilly at night.

We went to a sandwhich deli one evening to get some food and i was in my shorts and T-shirt and the owner came outside to the table i was eating

and brought over the heating lantern and turned it on for me. It was pretty funny, but he wanted to keep me warm.

It was nice having a car to be able to drive around and get to know the city better. The downtown area reminded me a lot of Spain. It gives the european vibe.

Santa Barbara is a very beautiful city that has every. Ocean, and mountains, and shopping. I love recreational activities, and there are plenty to be done here. The vegetation reminds me a lot of Hawaii.
I recommend Santa Barbara. It's a little pricey, but if you have the hook ups like i did.. Take advantage.

Either you got it or not

My friend Spencer posted this video and I thought it was pretty dang funny so i thought i'd put it up on my blog to.
Either you got it, or you don't got it.. Enjoy it

So I volunteered instead

Saturday was the big day of the red cross 5k. I really wanted to run in it. The days leading up to the race i tried to get myself in shape. I did a little bit of unicycle riding. It is a big work out. I have been also working out the past couple months doing at least 50 pull-ups a day and sit-ups 3-5 days a week.

I decided to get out and run two days before the race. I ran a little over two miles and my knee nearly lasted. I wanted to keep going, but the pain was way too strong to keep going. I'm blaming my years of construction work on this injury. I recognize the feeling that comes to the outside part of my knee area when i do things like hike down a mountain. I can recall times at work where it would hurt a little bit after working a tough day. Normally i don't run, but now i realize why i don't.
My knee took a couple of days to recover and felt bruised, but now it's feeling better.

So I went to the 5k race and volunteered. I helped out where i could getting gift bags ready and signs, and getting people out to locations. I got interviewed by BYU tv for volunteering. My friend Megan has spent 45 of her own personal hours doing PR for the Red Cross in preparing for this race. I helped her out a little bit. She said that they got 7 local newspapers to write articles on the releases that she sent out. And got a couple of public service announcements on the radio.. She did a lot of other things to help out.. She did a very good job. There were around 350 runners sign up to run the race, and around 30 to 40 people who volunteered. They had fruit, drinks, and Pizza after the race, and a live band playing. It was a good morning.

Run for Red 5k race

This Saturday, March 7 will be a 5k race in Provo starting at Independence High School to raise money for the local Utah Mountain Chapter of the American Red Cross. This money will be used to help fund aid and relief that the Red Cross gives to people who lose their homes, or are involved in any other tragedy.

People think that the Red Cross gets money for this kind of aid through the government. They do not receive any federal aid. They rely heavily on donations from the community to be able to continue to support their cause.

You can register for the race before hand at www.runforred.org I highly suggest doing this before the race, otherwise the race will cost an extra $5 the day of the race. Of course it's for a good cause, but to those who don't have much money to donate will want to preregister.

• Location: Independence High School, (636 Independence Ave.), Provo, UT.
• Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009 @ 10:00 a.m..
• 1 Mile Walk starts @ 10:10 a.m.

$20 - Adults, $15 - Students
This includes a a T-shirt and free breakfast at the end of the race.