Justin Nixon

Taekwondo Students Prepare for National Competition

2011-04-25T15:04:00.004-06:00

I have been working on a press release for the martial arts school that my little brother Eric attends. They are trying to create a little bit of awareness about the program and get others interested in possibly sponsoring the school, or individual martial art students. Some of them, along with my brother, need to raise $2500 by the end of June to go to a national competition in California. Let's see who decides to run this press release I wrote

Local Taekwondo Students Compete In Preparation For National Competition

Lindon, Utah- April 25, 2011- Beyond Sports Taekwondo will be hosting a Wasatch Exhibition competition Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 9 a.m. to give forefront experience in tournament combating to students who will fight against top competitors from around the country at a national Taekwondo competition this June in San Jose, Calif.

Taekwondo is a martial arts self-defense sport fairly new to Utah, but has been steadily growing in the Utah County area. Not only do students learn self-defense, but also learn how to master forms that enable students to have controlled techniques that aid in the development of leaderships skills.

There are those Students who want to move on to nationals in hopes of attaining experience on a national level, but due to the high expense of traveling to nationals, only a fraction of students will be able to participate. Finding sponsorship has always been a challenge to obtain, yet is vital in order to help students advance in this rigorous sport.

Master Instructor Taralyn Sorenson at Beyond Sports Taekwondo said, “The main bulk of what I do is all about creating great kids out of leadership programs to give them self-control and discipline skills.”

Not only do students receive martial art instruction, but they also have the opportunity to become instructors and assist in teaching students in lower belt classes.

“I hope to one day qualify to compete in the U.S. Olympics. By helping to instruct lower belt students, I feel like it helps me to understand the techniques better to help me to reach that goal someday,” said 16-year-old Eric Nixon who holds a 2^nd degree Black Belt.

Taekwondo is the name of the martial art turned modern international sport which has been independently developed over about 20 centuries in Korea. The main feature of Taekwondo is that it is a free-fighting combat sport using bare hands and feet to repel an opponent. Taekwondo no more the sport of an eastern small country, Korea, has become one of the world's most prominent sports participated in by some 40 million people in more than 142 countries. The International Olympic Committee admitted the Taekwondo as an official event of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Australia. As a result, Taekwondo is poised to take another leap in its advance towards new dimensions. All events are open to the public.

For more information:

Beyond Sports Taekwondo: 801-796-0412, www.beyondsportsutah.com

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Recapturing Frank Abagnale's Speech Given to UVU

2011-03-29T16:23:00.011-06:00

Frank Abagnale, a New Yorker made famous by Film Director/Producer Stephen Spielberg's movie "Catch Me If You Can," was a guest speaker at UVU today telling his version of his teenage adventures when he took advantage of the banking system and wrote fraudulent checks totaling 2.5 million dollars in 26 countries.

The story began at the age of 16 when he met his parents at the family courthouse. The judge told Frank that his parents were getting divorced. Being confused over the option of choosing a parent to live with, he left upset and wouldn't see his mom for another 7 years.

Unable to obtain a decent working wage at 16, he lied about his age telling people that he was 10 years older than he really was. At age 16 he was 6 ft. tall, and had partial gray hair. Even then he saw that he was unable to obtain good work with good wages.

After forging a few checks, he decided it was time to get out of New York, so he wouldn't get caught. He started his criminal career posing as a Pan-American Airways pilot where he posed as a pilot flying around the world riding in the jump-seat in the cockpit of other airlines so he wouldn't get caught. He was so brilliant that he came up with ways to get a uniform and an identification card for free. He did so by posing as someone he wasn't and giving clever lies to people in order to get what he wanted. Pan-Am estimates that from the age of 16 to 18 he boarded 256 airplanes and had flown a million miles to 26 different countries without stepping on-board of a single Pan-Am airplane; all that flying and hotel stay on the airline's budget.

Continuing to fraud checks along the way to gain money, the FBI eventually caught up to him. It was time to move on. He went to Georgia and posed as a doctor. He knew exactly what to do in order to aggravate the other doctors so they would avoid him. He was only asked to be on duty for 2 weeks during his time at the hospital.

He went on to be a lawyer. A law degree wasn't required to be a lawyer in Louisiana, so he spent 2 months studying and passed the bar. He eventually resigned.

He continued to fraud checks and even figured out how to magnetically encode deposit slips, so that people who used those slips would be depositing into his account.

Frank was only arrested once, in Southern France on a Sweedish warrant. He was convicted of forgery and sentenced to prison.

Spielberg recreated every little detail according to the prison log-book Spielberg also went to Sweden penetentary to learn about Frank's past.

A U.S. Federal judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison in Virginia, but he only served 4 years in prison. He was then offered the chance to work with the FBI to help the fraud dept. out. He accepted that job and continues working with the FBI 35 year later. He resides in Charleston SC.

He had little to do with the movie. He didn't participate in the making of the film. Spielberg did his own research. According to Spielberg, he chose to immortalize Abagnale on film, not for his past crimes, but for what he has done in the 30 some odd years since for his country.

Abagnale and his family were very pleased with the outcome of the film.

Frank says that if he were as brilliant as people say that he is, he wouldn't have found it necessary to break the law. Although people find it very fascinating what he did, he looks at what he did as immoral, unethical and a burden to him.

He ended his speech talking about his dad and the importance of fathers. All 16 year olds are just children, and like all children, they need their mother and their father. ALL children are entitled a mother and father.

He cried himself to sleep every night until he was 19 and missed out on the luxuries that ordinary teenagers enjoy.

Frank said, "I owe this country 800 times more than he could ever repay it, for giving me a second chance these past 36 years." He has turned down 3 pardons from 3 sitting President's of the United States, because he doesn't feel like that would pardon his actions.

In ending his speech, he mentioned that his wife changed his life. He gives all credit for everything he has, was or ever given to his wife.

He reminds men to remember what it means to "actually be a man." "Being a man has nothing to do with money, achievements, skills, accomplishments, possessions. A real man loves his wife, is faithful to his wife, who is a real man next to god and his country and places his wife first. "Nothing has brought me more joy than striving to be a good husband and father."

Zuckerberg Speaks at BYU

2011-03-28T17:26:00.012-06:00

When I heard Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg was coming to town, I jumped all over the opportunity to go listen to what the youngest billionaire in the world had to say about success and technology.

Last week U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch invited Mark Z. to come to Provo and have an informal forum with him in front of a crowd of nearly 11,000. This was the first time Mark has ever visited a college campus to talk. Mark even mentioned how nervous he was to speak in front of so many people. He had never spoken to such a crowd. He quickly got over his shyness and did a good job talking about his company, and the major things he looks for in future employees and entrepreneurs. Senator Hatch is a form BYU alum, and did quite a candid job asking Mark some questions that had been submitted by BYU students.

Some things that stood out to me were a few simple things Mark said. He mentioned that the key to any company is the people who are employed. Make sure that everyone who you hire is great at what they do.

Mark took a psychology class while at Harvard and mentioned how it is the most important course along with sociology. It's important for

people to know what's going on with their friends and family. He just helped to provide the tools necessary to allow this.

My favorite part was the part where he mentioned what he looks for in hiring people. Passion. He said, “We look for people who are passionate about something. In a way, it almost doesn’t matter what you’re passionate about. What we really look for when we’re interviewing people is what they’ve shown an initiative to do on their own.”

What have you taken initiative to lead lately? He wants to hire people who think that his organization is broken and want to help make it better in other ways that they are currently not using.

After this technology forum I got the chance to talk to one of my best friends from Spain, Javier. He is doing an internship with a local Spanish tv station. He wanted to interview a couple people about what they had just heard, so he interviewed me in Spanish, along with a good friend of mine, Cristina. It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I went.

The Return of OMD

2011-03-24T15:19:00.006-06:00

Those who know me know that I am a big fan of music, especially 80s music. I have spent the last few years rediscovering songs from my childhood. I think I've done a pretty good job recovering songs that I can remember hearing when I was a kid. The best part is that all the songs I remember are still big hits. I think I have really good taste in music.

Some of the earliest songs I can remember hearing are songs from Tears for Fears, Animotion, and OMD. How cool is it to be able to attend one of these familiar groups in concert?

OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark), A British pop group organized in 1978, came to Salt Lake City on March 23, 2011 for the first time in 23 years, and guess who was there? Me.

I had nearly forgotten how much I love synthesizer-pop music. It's great. I didn't really know what to expect from these guys, but I was very surprised with how hip they still are. The lead vocalist, Andy McClusky, is 51 and had the most fantastic almost spazzy type dance moves.

The concert held at the Depot was sold out. There was a good range of attendees, but I'd guess that the average age was upper 30s.

They put on a terrific show, and I would love to see them again in concert. My biggest disappointment was that they didn't play "Secrets". After returning to the stage to do an encore, my friends and I thought for sure they would be playing Secrets. Instead OMD played a song off their new album and Electricity, their first hit song they wrote at the age of 16.

The band apologized for taking so long to return to Salt Lake, and promised that they would return soon.

A Different Perspective

2011-03-03T15:20:00.012-07:00

Recently BYU Forward, Brandon Davies, was suspended from the most successful basketball season to take place at BYU due to an honor code violation. As you can imagine what would happen to a player who plays for a team that is nationally ranked #3, he instantly not only became the talk of the town, but the talk of the country.

Davies' situation has become a number one topic all over ESPN and several news agencies and blogs. He has been one of the top Tweeted topics on Twitter over the past few days, consisting of over 185 million tweeters.

I respect the fact that BYU has a standard and sticks to it, but I would like to point out that Davies has gone through much, much more than what an average student would have had to go through if the exact same rule had been broken. Has his punishment been detrimental? I think so.

The church is centered around the fact that the natural man is evil and constantly committing imperfections that prevent man from returning to live with God someday. Because of this fact, a savior was needed and a gospel was created to give man the opportunity to be forgiven of his sins through repentance. It's a church of forgiveness.

I believe that some kind of restitution had to take place in order to teach a lesson, but was it necessary to take away hopes and dreams, destroy a chance of a lifetime and basically inadvertently defame that crap out of a student just because he had sex with his girlfriend? The school should have taken into consideration the effect this would have on Brandon Davies. Was public humiliation part of the god's forgiveness process? I don't know, God works in mysterious ways, but it's possible.

If you asked me what a proper shellacking would have been, I would have said a suspension from the regular season, and maybe take away the guy's scholarship for next year. This student has had it far worse than any normal student who would have committed the same violation. So if every honor code violation punishment is resolved on a case-to-case basis, why couldn't this case take a slightly different turn to avoid broadcasting a man's sins to the world? Something so personal that should only be known between you, your bishop and God; according to the LDS faith. I suppose Davies knew what he got himself into, so technically nobody should feel bad for him; however, I wonder how many other BYU athletes are sweating bullets right now?

Hanging Loose

2011-02-15T11:13:00.006-07:00

I recently returned from an lds singles retreat to Maui, Hawaii. I had a such a good time meeting and making so many new friends. I got to do a lot of fun activities around the island.

One thing interesting that I learned was where the "Hang Loose" came from. I always knew Hawaii was famous for the hanging loose hand gesture, but didn't know what it meant until now. It is actually called the Shawka, because there was once a surfer who had a shark take a bite of his hand, leaving the thumb and pinky finger. Every time he waved to the local people, "hang loose" is all they saw. They called him the "Shawka" because a shark had got to him.

My favorite experience in Hawaii was watching all of the whale breaches. It is whale season and I have never seen so many whale jumping out of the water. One day I was out kayaking with my group, and paddled over to a couple of whales. We were hoping to get a picture of maybe the tail coming out of the water rather than just the blow hole. We were about out of time when all of a sudden the whale started jumping out of the water next to us. It was a momma whale showing its infant how to jump. It was so dang cool! Our tour guide told us that we were lucky. This kinda thing only happens to him once a season. If we were any closer, the whale would have landed on top of us. It was pretty much epic.

The snorkeling was fun to see the turtles and some colorful fish, but there weren't a lot of fish swimming around, so it was hard to spot them. The coral was sweet though.

We went up the Haleakala one morning to catch the sunrise at 10,000 ft. That was pretty cool to be up above all of the clouds.

The road to Hana was a little intense. It is so pretty, but holy cow was it a doozer. I read somewhere that it has over 600 curve turns. Be prepared to get a little car sick, but that part of the island is tropical, so it's worth it.

Having time to travel has been nice. I wish I was able to go with most of my friends who are all jealous, because they're working. But in return, I get jealous of them during the summer when I am super busy working and they all get to go on vacation. Lucky them!

Mini Fiddler

2011-01-28T00:31:00.001-07:00

Last week Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband played another phenomenal concert at BYU. I was able to spend nearly an hour in the green room before the show, talking with Ryan and other members of the band. I am friends with most of the guys, so it's always a good time for me to catch up with them, since everyone is always busy with life.

I asked Ryan if he could play a song at my request. He said they didn't know the song. He continued to reject my next two song choices, because they hadn't practiced the songs together. He went on to try to teach me about the theory of concerts. He explained a concert performance like a roller coaster. It has to start high and fast and have low and slow moments, but ending on a high. I knew this, but just wanted them to play something new and different for a change. I went around asking the other band members if they knew the songs, and they all said they did, so I'm no sure why they couldn't squeeze an extra song in.

I saw Ryan's little kid, Trevor walk by with the littlest fiddle I have ever seen. I thought it was a toy, but everyone reassured me that it was real. Trevor is Ryan's Mini Me. He looks just like Ryan, and I'm told that he looks just like Ryan when he was a kid.

Trevor is the kind of kid who wants to be just like his dad. He watches his dad play and gets up and tries to be just like him. With what little vocabulary 2 year old Trevor has, he asked his dad if he could play with them in the concert. Sure enough they let him! Trevor came up during two different songs and played (unplugged) and would occasionally sing into his mini mic. It was so cute! I'm pretty sure Trevor will continue the traditions of his family name and be the 6th generation of fiddlers to be produced by the Shupe family.

I Found a Schmuck!

2011-01-11T12:22:00.002-07:00

I was recently talking to a good friend, who I will keep anonymous, about school. He had graduated in December 2008; the same semester I graduated. Since then, he has been going about his business as a college graduate. I have never had a reason to doubt him, until now.

We got to talking about how hard it is to look at a piece of paper, framed on the wall, and make monthly student loan payments for it. I have my Bachelor degree in Communication framed and hung up in my bedroom.

My anonymous friend says, "Oh I never got my degree in the mail." I continued to question him as to why he never tried to figure out why he never got it. He responded, "I just thought it got lost in the mail or something. It doesn't really matter to me, cause I know I am graduated and that's good enough for me." Shocked in awe about how bizarre that response was, I proceeded to tell him about how proud I am of that framed piece of paper that has me $13 grand in debt.

I think that was when the wheels in his head started to turn. A couple days later he came to me saying something about talking to a counselor at UVU and found out that he never officially graduated, because he still has one more class to take. I asked him, how he did not know that? He gave some kind of response that he didn't know. He did say that he had some good news. Since he's an employee of UVU, he can take this class this semester for free! Haha!

Ok so here's my dilemma. How on earth does it take 2 full years to figure out you never graduated?

If you haven't seen the movie "Dinner For Schmucks," you need to watch it.

Does anyone want to invite me and my friend over for dinner?!

Sad Day In Provo

2010-12-17T12:50:00.006-07:00

I woke up early this morning to a couple of text messages from my mom and friend letting me know that the Provo Tabernacle was on fire. I immediately thought dang it! What am I gonna do about my date!? I have a date on Sunday night where I was planning on attending the Provo City Christmas concert that is held there annually. To the north side of the the building there is a live Nativity scene that is always a nice addition to the concert.

I grew up in Provo and have been to the tabernacle multiple times. I've been there for stake conferences, concerts, and have even performed there multiple times with the Provo High Band and singing in the Stake Choir. The first time I performed there was back when I was 14 playing the Alto Saxophone in the band. Again I returned multiple times to perform there.

I remember the spirit that I always felt when arriving to the building, and it only grew stronger as I entered into it. It does look, smell and feel as old as it is with each visit. The building was built in 1883. It is a historic reminder that took 15 years for the Mormon pioneers and others to build. It's a pioneer legacy left in Provo.

I hope that maybe some of it can be salvaged and rebuilt. It will be interesting to see what happens with it in the future. (Pictures courtesy of The Daily Herald)

An Attitude of Gratitude Reminder

2010-12-11T15:04:00.006-07:00

After speaking with a good friend of many years the other day, I decided that I had better start count my blessings and be grateful for them. I hadn't talked to her in almost a year (i'll call her L). I asked her what she had been up to this past year and she responded optimistically that things are going great now . Ever since returning from a cruise this past week, she seemed to think that life was going to treat her a little better now. I was a little curious. Better? Isn't life always just grand? Apparently I had gotten use to my life that is full of adventure, has zero drama and not so much stress compared to my friends'.

She began to tell me all of the things/misfortunes that had happen to her this past year. I decided that I would share some of her experiences, so others can compare their life stresses to hers and maybe feel a little more grateful for the hand the lord has dealt them.

L had found out earlier this past year that her mom had developed stage 3 of breast cancer and had to go through lots of chemo. Her little niece died. Her good friend and co-worker was killed on a 4 wheeler accident. The house across the street from her business exploded earlier this year blowing out all the windows to her place and sending shrapnel into her business. She had surgery on her nose and head, got into a car accident a couple weeks ago and broke her nose on the steering wheel. She lost her best friends and roommates, because they became addicted to drugs. Had to deal with another roommate who had to be rushed to the emergency room multiple times due to her eating disorders that caused her to have seizures. The list goes on and on, but these are all I can remember. I'm sure i'm forgetting other things that she has experienced.

L's life experiences over this past year have really helped me to put into perspective the things that should, and do matter most to me. I'm never going to complain again about how crappy it is to not to have a great job, or be 30 and single. I'm grateful for what I got, and thankful that the Grim Reaper doesn't like to lurk near by everywhere I go.

I'm glad that God has decided to lighten my burdens. So what if my life is mediocre? At least I don't have to live with the stress of my friend L. She's a real trooper and hero in my book.

Demo Day at Brighton

2010-12-01T22:35:00.012-07:00

I hit the slopes of Brighton up today with my buddy Ryan in search of some powder. We were able to find plenty of that and much more. Today was probably the sickest snowboarding experience I've ever had, because there was a little of everything you could ever ask for all in one.

It all started with the Quad Wednesday deal where you get a lift ticket for $20 if you donate a toy for tots. Can't beat a $20 all day lift pass in comparison with the $62 regular all day pass price tag.

This day also tasted delicious. The guys at the Vans tent were making and giving out free food. It was delicious! Waffles on a stick, hot dogs, and other goods made it well worth being up there. Not to mention that some of the companies there, such as Skull Candy, were giving out free swag.

Aside from that deal, today was a demo day. I have been yearning to try out the latest technology that companies have been using in competition to have the sickest ride on the mountain. I was a little blown away seeing what extremes some companies have used in order to have a competitive edge on the market.

Nitro, K2, Lib Tech, and Arbor. I tested all reverse camber boards, or commonly called Rocker boards.I was able to test ride 6 different snowboards including my brand new Rossignol Split Twin board that is great for all mountain riding, and gives a lot of energy going in and out of turns and ollie-ing. It's a solid board that I picked up for $130... you can't beat that kinda price for a rock solid snowboard anywhere.

Aside from my new board, I demoed other boards that all run from $500-$700 dollars.

I started out with the NitroT1 board. It seemed great. My normal board is a regular camber board, so riding a reverse camber was just different. The difference is a umbrella kinda shape compared to a U shape if that makes sense. The base was bad on it and it slowed me down. I like a base that doesn't always need to be waxed. But it handled decently. The bindings they put on the board had air cushions on the heel and toe part of the binding. That was nice.

The Arbor Coda board won the board of the day for me and Ryan. It seemed to be just as responsive as you would want a board to be. Attached to the board were Flux ds45 bindings that allow the biding to twist left or right, but stiff from front to back, so i think that helped to make initiating a turn feel like you were cutting through butter. Very nice. I believe this board was partially made from bamboo, and it just also felt really light.

The next board was an Arbor Del Rey board that was a regular camber board. It seemed great to me, like any other regular camber board. The bindings weren't set up equally apart, so I didn't ride it long.

I then moved over to K2 to demo their Turbodream board. It seemed like a chill board, but they put these Uprise bindings on there that had a one ratchet tighten up the heel and the toe strap kind of an operation. I wasn't a fan of that crap technology. It just felt uncomfortable for some reason. Wasn't horrible, but just wasn't a fan.

The last board was a Lib Tech Banana Magic board (wide). Now this board I thought was going to be insane, cause the rep kept talking about how the technology and construction of the board was one of a kind. The owner of the company went to Russia to collect basalt mineral from a volcano that was brought back and used in a synthetic fiber used in the base of this board. No fiberglass.

Unfortunately they didn't use any of their fancy bindings with this board. They put Ryan's old crappy bindings on it, so that made it a little tough to get a better feel for it. Neither Ryan or I were impressed with this board though. We were disappointed and thought it was a little heavy and not as responsive for being a rocker board. It looked sick though and had wavy, serrated edges. It may be Eco friendly and super durable, but just didn't feel the the smoothness of what they put into making the board. It's possible a shorter board might have been better. It was a 159. It was still great, but was still the least favorite board of the day.

I also demoed some Van boots.. They were decent, while Ryan tried out some 32 boots. He said they felt like a cast and were straight crap, but he has a size 13 foot, so who knows? Maybe they don't make good big boots?

As much as I would have thought there wouldn't be a difference in the different boards using the same technology, but surprisingly each board had a different feel to it. It wasn't a huge difference within the same technology boards, but noticeable enough to feel the difference. Overall this day turned out awesome and I only hope there will be more days like this in the future.

A Decade of Memories

2010-11-29T15:14:00.008-07:00

Ten years ago today I was set apart to be a full-time missionary for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I tried to humble myself and become more teachable and open to the promptings of the holy ghost. I decided one of the best ways to learn more about God and his church was to serve a 2 year mission.

I decided to serve a mission after turning 19 years old. I did all the necessary things to prepare myself spiritually to be able to take on the task of becoming the lords servant. I had no idea where I would serve. I didn't care where I served, though I did have a preference to learn a new language and go abroad. If I was going to go abroad I really wanted to learn Spanish, because it would benefit me greatly since there are a lot of Hispanics I would be able to communicate with in Utah once I returned home.

I did everything necessary to get ready and soon my papers were sent to the church headquarters. It only took a week and a half to receive my call. I had a feeling that I would go to Spain, but wasn't sure. Sure enough, the first week of August 2000, I was called to serve in the Bilbao Spain Mission.

My mission covered the Northern coast of Spain from Portugal to France. I Spent 3 weeks in the MTC in Provo Utah and 6 weeks in the CCM in Madrid Spain. I then spent my next 22 months in 7 different cities along the northern coast of Spain.

I have to say that learning Spanish was extremely difficult. Probably the most difficult thing I have ever learned in my life. It took a lot of studying, practice and frustration to get to where I am today. I remember how I would talk to people on the streets of Spain and ask them if they would be kind enough to speak with me, so I could practice my Spanish. I would tell them that my Spanish was limited, so they would have to listen to what I had to say. That's when I'd share with them my Spanish vocab that only consisted of gospel talk. It was great. Once I got to the field, I learned very fast by speaking to people everyday, and studying Spanish for two hours a day on top of that.

Living in a foreign country for two years was something I was proud of doing, and will never forget the good and bad experiences I had. It was all worth it, and I saw and learned many things that have since enriched my life and my understanding of the world.

The wonderful memories have become a little faded, but they will never be forgotten.What an incredible time of my life it was to be so spiritually in-tune and act as a representative of Jesus Christ daily to spread the gospel among the Spanish people. It was not an easy task, but worth every tear and drop of sweat shed. I loved the people. For the most part, they were very tolerant and respectful.

What The Melon?

2010-11-22T01:00:00.012-07:00

This past Fall I was introduced to a whole new world of Melons that I never knew existed.I ate two new kinds of melons I've never heard of, and I have only begun to scratch the surface of the 17 + different types of melons that I learned exist. For some reason, the only melons that I'm familiar with are the conventional Cantaloupe and Honeydew melons that can be found abundant at any local grocery stores throughout the summer months.

Why is it that nobody has ever told me there were other types of more gourmet melons in existence? My favorite fruit of all times are Melons. Water Melon and Cantaloupe are pure deliciousness to my taste buds.

As I was driving back home from a 3 day work trip to New Mexico during the first week of October, a guy I work with wanted to stop in Green River, Utah on our way back to Orem just to buy some melons that I have never heard of. I was a little doubtful at first that everything he said about these melons would be true. He said that Fall is the season for the Cranshaw and Israli melons and that they make Cantaloupe taste bland. Well... He was right. I bought one of each, brought them home and was quickly blown away by the flavor of the two; so juicy and yummy that I was about ready to make the nearly 2 hour drive to Green River just to buy me some more. While these two melons are comparable to Cantaloupe in taste, they look and taste different for many reasons.

The Cranshaw Melon is a popular melon that is a cross between the Persian and Casaba melons. And are known to have somewhat of a subtle spicy undertone to the sweet flavor. These melons taste best during the Fall.

The othe

r Melon I was introduced to is called the Israli Melon, or Ogen Melon. This melon comes from Israel and is highly popular among melon lovers. Even though a substitute for these two melons could be honeydew or cantaloupe, they are one of a kind in flavor, and extra juicy.

I highly recommend them, and I'm really glad I was able to learn about them and devour them when I got home. By far, this was one of the most memorable experiences of this past summer, because I could not believe that I have never heard of, or tasted these types of melons in the 30 years of my life! I can't wait for next year, so I can find me some more.

Hanging With The Locals

2010-11-17T22:14:00.007-07:00

I love being able to be able to take a vacation. For me, a weekend is usually a sufficiently long enough escape for me to be able to get a break from the stresses of reality, or being couped up in one place for so long.

My trip to L.A. was just what I needed. I spent time with a couple friends, and even made some new friends while I was there. My buddy Rick showed me what it's like to be a local in Huntington Beach. He's the popular type of local who knows so many people there. It seems that Main Street is the place to be. Different bars like Sharkees are where the hot spots. Be

ach Volleyball and surfing is really huge there. Pros can be spotted there daily.

I had a great time, and only hope I get to return again soon and get to know the area more, and make more friends.

Weekend Get Away

2010-11-13T11:52:00.003-07:00

I have been getting a little cooped up in the cold weather that Utah has been offering this time of year. It has been abnormally cold for this time of year with a bit of snow, so I decided to fly to L.A. for the weekend to visit some friends. My friend invited me to go with her to a Mae concert with her tonight, so that should be a lot of fun.
It's been awhile since I've been to So Cal to explore and check it out. I'm excited to check out Hollywood and go to Huntington Beach to visit my buddy Rick and check out the beach. Sunny and 79 degrees. I'll take that over cold and 45 degrees any day!

Return To The Blog

2010-11-01T00:07:00.011-06:00

Don't think that I have long forgotten about my blog, or my passion to share my thoughts, experiences, and passions with my friends and the stalking world. Nope! In fact, all summer long in the back of my mind as I was laboriously working to earn a stipend that could support my lifestyle, I longed for the chance to return to my blog and put back creativity into my fingertips where it belongs.

Summer is over, and my job is starting to slow down due to colder, wet days. I actually don't mind this at all, because I'm finally getting a chance to relax after working an average of 70 hour weeks all summer long.

I have traveled thousands of miles, been to unique places, sweat-out hundreds of pounds of fluids... I'm sure, and come across man eating Grasshoppers. Some of the places I have gone include a handful of cities and towns across: New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Most every city in Salt Lake, and Davis County, along with a number of other cities across Utah. (Can I just say that Utah County traffic sucks orange cones and then some?)

Fortunately I was able to do a few fun things this summer, including a hiking trip to the Havasupai Native American Reservation in the Grand Canyon in Arizona where I hiked roughly 40 miles in 4 days. That was a ton of exhausting fun.

I feel very fortunate to have such a great job that allows me to work so hard, travel so much, see so many places, and still do my media relations internship with Real Salt Lake during every single home game this year. I am unfortunate that this has taken away from my social life, blogging time, rest, and the chance to find a suitable job that allows for the use of my education, talent and my Bachelor in Communication degree.

If you are my FB friend, none of this comes as a surprise to you. I have become a man of fewer words and crunched up some of my blogging thoughts and placed them into facebook statuses throughout the summer via iphone to keep my friends and family informed of my daily adventures. Thank goodness for FB, or else my social life would be non existing. (Thanks Mark Zuckerberg)

As the rainy days roll in this season, I'll be putting my life in rewind and sharing a few of the experiences that I had this past summer. I think of my blog as my journal, and a way to share my fancy experiences with whoever thinks I'm cool. Until then, Au Revoir

New Scholarly Spice

2010-07-20T23:50:00.006-06:00

I have been so extremely swamped at work this summer that I have had zero time to get around to posting about anything. I did see this video the other day and thought it was pretty funny, and figured it would take a couple minutes to post on my blog. This video was made as a spoof of the Old Spice commercial that came out a little while back. It was never meant to get so much attention, but it did. It's even better, because it's a BYU made video, so it hits close to home, since I call Provo, Utah my home. If I do have any blog followers, then you now you know I'm still alive. Enjoy the video.

Backstreet Back in SLC

2010-06-24T22:06:00.007-06:00

When I first heard that Backstreet Boys were coming to Utah, I couldn't wait to go see them. My roommates and I decided we'd go together to see the show. We have gone through a lot of criticism from everybody, because we were the only guys they know who was going.. All I have to say to that is that hey.. every guy not going sure did miss out. Every Teeny-Bopper who fell in love with the band has now grown up, and still hold fast to their love of the Backstreet Boys.. Yes.. I'd say the average age of women at the concert was early to mid twenties. Perfect age for 3 single guys in their upper 20s. Needless to say... We did get a couple numbers.

The show started later than expected. We waited an hour and a half before they came out. The opening act was a DJ. That was pretty much the lamest opening act I have ever seen. He ended up being the one-man band for the BSB.

They sang a bunch of old school songs, which brought me back to my teenage years.. in 1999 my buddies and I went to the BSB Millenium Tour. That was fun too. There was a movie theme that went along with the show. Each band member remade their favorite movie and put themselves in the staring roll. As the boys were changing their outfits, the movie clips would come on. They were pretty funny, and well done. Fast and Furious, The Matrix, and Fight Club were some of the movies they did. They put their own twist onto it and made it look like they were really the star actors in the movie. It was a very clever idea.

We bought our tickets the day they went on sale and ended up with some of the best seats in the house. first section from the stage, 6th row. This made for excellent photos.

BSB mentioned they have been around now for 17 years. That is just nuts. Everyone thought boy bands would fade fast, but these guys are here to stay, and continue to put out great music.

BSB mentioned that their first music video "Quit Playing Games With My Heart", was filmed in Salt Lake City. I didn't know that.

Overall, great show and sweet dance moves. I'd go again in a heartbeat.

ReAl Fun

2010-06-14T19:43:00.009-06:00

Last week ReAl Salt Lake battled L.A. Galaxy at the Rio Tinto Stadium. This was no regular game. This was the biggest game of the season for RSL. RSL took the MLS Cup playing against L.A. last year, so I'm pretty sure L.A. still carry a grudge against RSL for kicking their space junk trash during a PK shootout in that final game. This game was algo a big one, because L.A. is an undefeated team this season. 10 wins, which make them the best team in the MLS. When on the road, no team has scored against the Galaxy.

I was in charge of official stats. I regularly work with the commentators like David James from Channel 2 and tv producers to make sure accurate information is not only said on the air, but televised during the game.

Soon after the game began there was a a sudden thunderstorm that struck the area and the game had to be delayed about 30 min. due to lighting. After the lightning break was over, the game continued. The stadium was packed. I have never seen more attendees at the stadium. Just under 20,000 RSL fans in attendance.

Since the game happened nearly a week ago, I'm sure you all know the outcome already. RSL scored a controversial goal in the 80th minute. L.A. claim that the point scored by Morales was scored offsides. It clearly wasn't offsides after the ball rolled to him after it bounced off of an L.A. defender. Goal! Not only did the fans cheer like crazy, but RSL players ran around the field with their shirts off, feeding their fans with excitement. That's how much this goal meant to them. RSL ended L.A.'s winning streak and sent them home scoreless. I have noticed I have been getting way into soccer when I jumped out of my seat and cheered. Immediately I was hushed by other media guys around me, making me feel like a retard. I forgot about the no cheering in the press box rule. Oh well. RSL has won their 7th game straight at home. These games are very exciting to watch.

There were more than the average amount of people in attendance at this game, because American Idol winner David Cook performed after the game. I had just walked out of the press conference room, when suddenly I rubbed shoulders with David Cook in the hallway. I was done with my duties, so I decided to follow him and his entourage to the field. I kinda felt like a clingy fan for a little bit, because there was nobody else around. I watched him and the band get pumped for their performance. I scrambled to pull out my camera and recorded a short video clip of them walking down the hallway. Too bad he was on his way to perform, otherwise I would have stopped him to get a picture with him. He put on a great show and my friends and I enjoyed the show.

My First Jump

2010-06-06T22:24:00.010-06:00

This past Saturday I decided to jump out of a perfectly good airplane with my buddy Ryan. I love crossing off items from my bucket list. Skydiving has been on that list for years. We decided to jump in Ogden with Skydive Ogden.
I had imagined there would have been more instruction involved with the jump, but there really wasn't any until just minutes before jumping out of the airplane. Going tandem was a blast. My tandem instructor, Ryan is also a bullet biker guy. We talked about bikes on our 20 minute plane ride up to elevation.
I was as calm as a summer day the entire time until it was my turn to jump out of the plane. My buddy Ryan jumped before me and as I watched him free fall, it hit me that I was next. Jumping out at 12,000 ft. was a little scary at first, but once we reached terminal velocity speed, free falling felt normal. Just before jumping out, my instructor Ryan said, "Ok, if everything goes well our chute should come out, and i'll see you when we land. If not, it was nice knowing you." I laughed and said, "ok. It was nice knowing you to."
We did some different kinds of turning maneuvers and did lots of spinning. The free-fall lasted about a minute.
Once the parachute came out, we floated around for about 7 minutes. I was able to control the chute and get a feel for it. You really need to be strong in order to tug on the cords. It was a lot harder than I had expected.
We also did a ton of spins. It was a lot of fun, and it was peaceful to be able to talk and look at the scenery. I do remember popping my ears a few times on the way down because of the atmospheric pressure.
Our landing was great. We both landed on our feet for a smooth landing. I told my instructor Ryan that I felt a little nauseous from the spinning. He replied, "me too." I think we were a little more extreme than he normally is with other people. The dizzy feeling went away about 5 minutes later.
Overall it was a ton of fun, and I would love to go again.

Brand New Shoes

2010-06-06T10:37:00.009-06:00

The new Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband album has just been released. I attended the release party last week and had a chance to catch up with Ryan Shupe, and play ultimate frisbee with the guys in the band.

I was lucky enough to help with recording of two of the songs on the album. I was eager to see if I could hear myself in the recordings, and see my name printed in the cd booklet. I have always wanted to be involved in some kind of professional recording, and now I finally got that chance. It's so exciting listening to the songs I am in. I laugh every time, because for some reason my voice stands out. Ryan told me that he could totally hear my voice in Beep above all the rest. I think I was just closer to the microphone than everyone else. I told Ryan that I hoped that I didn't ruin the song, but he reassured me that it sounded great.

This album was recorded 2 blocks down the street from my house in a small recording studio. The band put a lot of hard work in to the album and produced it themselves. It features such classics as "Baldy", "He knows Karate," and "Beep, Beep, Beep."

Ryan wrote "Baldy" as a country music parody about "the greatest cat he has ever known," because Shupe wanted to write the best country song that ever existed. People in Nashville would tell them that their music just wasn't quite country enough, so Shupe decided to pen a country song that involved typical country items such as cowboy boots, county fair, SUV, shot out to the military, etc. According to Ryan, these are all a variety of items generally included in a standard country song.

"This album features top notch musicianship, witty creative songwriting and great musical depth. The title track is a fun jam dance tuned about a kid's pair of 'Brand New Shoes' that not only helps him run faster and jump higher, but lands him on the news stations and gets everyone talking. It's post Heehaw, Funkadelic Hiphop New Grass in its finest form."

In addition to the new album, the band recorded the music for the new Toy Story 3 video game. How much fun is that? That will be interesting to play a game with their music in it.

Check out their new album. You can listen to it free on their website where it can also be purchased. Shupe.net

An Antelope Excursion

2010-05-16T21:37:00.011-06:00

This past weekend I was able to knock off one of the items that has been on my bucket list for years; visit the Great Salt Lake.

I went to an island on the Great Salt Lake called Antelope Island. I did a little bit of hiking with my buddy Ryan. Our group rented some kayaks, and wanted to paddle around the White Rock Bay, but as you can tell from the photo, it would have been about a mile walk just to get to the water, and those kayaks were heavy. We decided to stick to the North Bay, because the water was much closer to get to from the parking lot. The lake held up to its name. It was so salty that after the water dried on your skin, it left enough of a salty residue to salt up a meal for 5 by scraping salt off your body.

It was a great day to spend playing with friends on a sandy beach.

A New Vroom

2010-05-08T10:15:00.009-06:00

I recently bought a full Yoshimura exhaust for my bike. From the headers all the way down to the exhaust pipe, all stainless steel and new. After market exhausts are normally used for racing, because when installed, they add upwards of 15 horse power to the performance of the bike. Not to mention, it also adds the the meanest growling sound that can be heard blocks away.
My friend Jose helped me to install the Japanese-made Yoshimura R-55 GP exhaust. This is Yoshi's newest racing exhaust, and is particularly made for Suzuki GSXR's.
I also added some other items to my bike including: Frame Sliders, and Swing Arm sliders.
The installation of the exhaust was one of the easiest parts of repairs. Following the installation, it was required to remove some other parts which included the actuator assembly, and disconnecting a certain wire from a wire harness of about 50 different wires. I just had the actuator assembly replaced last summer, and now it is no longer used. It is a cable system controlled by a separate motor which controls the out-flow of exhaust to maximize the power performance for the amount of throttle given. It was a pricey repair. I wish I never replaced it.
Following the installation we decided to check the air filter. Needless to say, it was the dirtiest air filter I've seen.
Installing the frame sliders would have been easy, until we had to drill a 1" hole through the left side cowling. That was a pain. Frame sliders are used to prevent body damage to the bike if it falls over, or is wrecked.
The hardest part of the 5 hour repair process was replacing both side cowlings. Jose said that my bike was the hardest bike he has ever worked on. He is used to working on his Yamaha R6.
I'm ready for some warm weather so I can ride my toy around.

A ReAl Home Win

2010-05-03T22:16:00.009-06:00

Working at the RSL game this past Saturday was a ton of fun. I got to work with the Toronto FC commentators and producer during the game. The second home game proved to be everything that real fans want and don't want in a game.

Want: A want for ReAl Salt Lake to show up and play using strategic, action packed moves to win the game. RSL spent most of the game on Toronto's end of the field. RSL had around 13 corner kicks compared to Toronto's 4 corner kicks, and had one goal taken away from them due to a penalty.

Don't Want: Rain and cold temperatures. It rained during the entire second half of the game. Luckily I kept dry the entire game inside the press box, but by the time I got to my car after the game, I was drenched.

After the game coach Jason Kreis was asked what his team could do to improve. He replied, "Nothing. They just need to keep playing like they did tonight." Kreis went on to say, "They played very well tonight and did a very good job passing the ball."

This is the way a champion team is expected to play. This game happens to be the first home win for RSL this season. They currently stand in 7th place of 8 teams in the Western conference with a 2-3-1 (Win-Loss-Tie) record.
Let's hope this win will be #1 of a home win streak. RSL will take on the Philadelphia Union Saturday May 8th @ 2pm at the Rio Tinto Stadium.

The Country Dancer

2010-04-24T11:17:00.010-06:00

I began this year by setting some goals to accomplish during 2010. One of those goals was to learn how to country dance. I'm 29 and I had only been country dancing once before this year, and it wasn't a pleasant experience, because I had no clue what to do. Since then, I've had opportunities to go, but being that I don't know how to dance, I don't go. I have always been really big into Hip-Hop dancing, and I can throw down some pretty creative moves that stun everyone I'm with.
I have been fortunate enough to have a good friend teach me, who is an excellent country dancer. She has shown me high-tech dance moves that involve spins, dips, twirls, the use of quick feet, and flexible arms in order to accomplish the desired dance move.
The term "country dancing" is a loose term which is used to describe a variety of dances. The term "Country Dance" in the western European tradition is believed to originate from pre-16th century folk dances, where along with the music that accompanied them, were brought to America by the people of the British Isles, continental Europe, and Africa.
There are so many different types of country dance moves that range from Line Dances, Two Step, Traveling Cha-Cha, Polka, Waltz and so much more, that it is difficult to remember which move to do next. The most important part of country dancing is to first have a dance partner. If you don't have a partner, then you won't get very far. Traditionally the man sets the pace of the dance, establishes the length of stride, and decides when to change steps, and the woman follows. I'm still trying to figure out how to lead the woman and it has been tough, because it seems that every girl I have danced with has a new move that I have never done before. My dance partner has been the lead in our duo, but gradually I've been taking the reins. I now know over a dozen different moves, and I have only scratched the surface of the various dance moves that exist.
I have found the most valuable skill that can be obtained, is one that doesn't require the use of anything materialistic. You can travel anywhere, dance with anybody, and be able to use dance to woo anyone around the world. This skill may eventually turn into a talent, which in return becomes a very priceless attribute that can be pulled out of your bag of tricks wherever you go.

In ReAL Time

2010-04-21T17:45:00.014-06:00

I recently began a Media Relations internship with one of Major League Soccer's most prestigious teams, Real Salt Lake. RSL is the defending champions this year after winning the 14th MLS Cup title in 2009.
The 2010 home opening game kicked off April 10th at the Rio Tinto Stadium, where they played the Seattle Sounders.
I am amazed at how much work goes on behind the scenes in order to make one of these MLS games happen. There are guys running around before the game getting everything from camera/audio equipment set up, fireworks, to concessions, and so much more. Not to mention the parking and ticket guys. I'm curious how many employees work for RSL.

My work station is upstairs in the Press Box room. There are numerous reporters and photographers who belong to a number of newspapers, blogs, or are hired by the MLS who all have their own spot at a desk where they can plug in their laptop and watch the game. I got to be the stats guy for the Seattle Sounder's sports commentator. I wore a headset like the guy in the picture and listen to the the guys in the TV trailer, and the commentator at the same time, all while watching the soccer game. Basically I kept tract of stats and informed the commentator of anything unusual or interesting that stood out during the game. Since I couldn't talk to him during the game, I had to write notes and pass them to him. I also got to go downstairs to the Press Conference room after the game to assist the journalists with anything else and listen to them question coach Kreis.
The atmosphere during the game was great, and it was just exciting to be there where everyone there is happy and loves soccer. David Archuleta even came out during half time to woo the crowd, while making the wish come true for a youngster from the Make a Wish Foundation, by singing with him on the field.
Most of my internship will take place during home games. However, I'll be able to work on a few other assignments away from the game which include: statistical research, and writing press releases for the RLS and Rio Tinto Stadium events.
This home game ended with a tie, but I'm eager to learn, and excited for RSL. I hope they play well to defend their championship title. My main goal is to try to learn as much as I can about how PR in a major league organization works, and what all goes on behind the scenes. This is a great opportunity, and hopefully my experience will be useful in gaining future employment.

Visiting Old Stomping Grounds

2010-04-18T17:27:00.011-06:00

This past week I flew to Washington to visit my aunt in Kennewick, along with with my cousins who were visiting from New York. It has been many years since we all have been gathered together at my aunt Katie's house. When I was in high school I used to visit my aunt with my brother and my three cousins every summer. We'd spend a month every summer with my aunt playing around, traveling, and camping. We loved being with my aunt Katie. She is always a delightful person to be around, and she treats us as if we were her own kids.

It has been probably 12 years since we have all been at my aunts house together at the same time. Everyone went their own way after graduating high school. Two of my cousins joined the military, while my brother and I served missions and went to college. One of my cousins, Mike, had recently returned from his tour of duty in Iraq a few months ago. He has spent a total of 3 years in Iraq as a sniper, and a gunman hanging out of a helicopter. Unfortunately we were missing one cousin, Nate, who is lives in Florida.

Katie is our dentist, and had to do some much needed work with all three of us. My two cousins and I all had to get crowns. We took turns being Katie's assistant and helping things to go smooth.

Their mom and youngest sister came out with me from Utah to visit as well. We spent some great quality time playing games, movies, and doing yard work.

I was the "DD" one night accompanying my cousins to the local bars, so they could get their much needed female interaction in. That was interesting, over rated, boring, and just a waste of money, but seeing my cousins drunk was pretty funny.

Visiting with family is always a good time. The time spent together is valued much more when your family is scattered all over the U.S.

Historical Utah Jazz Game

2010-04-07T19:46:00.008-06:00

Tuesday April 6th marked the phenomenal Utah Jazz win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, which happened to be the highest scoring Jazz game in nearly 20 years. My roommate and I were lucky enough to not only attend the game, but go down onto the court and welcome the OKC Thunder onto the court for the pre-game-warm-up with other friends.
I have to brag a little bit here, I busted out a few of my sweet dance moves while I was waiting for the players to come out. Now I can say I have danced (somewhat) on the Utah Jazz basketball court.

Every player on OKC gave us a high-five. One player, DJ White came out all spazzy. It was quite funny to watch him sort of mock us with his excitement.

We ran into former Jazz player, Jeff Hornacek in the tunnel downstairs. That was cool.

The game was a fast paced, high-scoring game. The Jazz were up by 10 points with a few minutes left in the 4th quarter, when all of a sudden Kevin Durant became the man-on-fire and made four 3-point shots, tying up the game. The game ended up going into overtime. D-Will made a clutch shot with just over one second remaining that put the Jazz up by one point. There was then tons of controversy with what happened next. After the Thunder's time out, Kevin Durant shot the ball and was blocked by Cj Miles. Durant, and the entire Thunder team felt there was a foul involved with the final shot, but it wasn't called. The entire team and staff remained on the floor for a few minutes after the game, bitching and complaining about the missed call. The final score, 140-139. Great game!

Beginning Spring with a colorful bang

2010-04-04T19:59:00.007-06:00

March 27th marked the beginning of Spring for those who attended the Holi Festival located at the Lotus Krishna Temple in Salem Utah. This Holi Festival of Colors happens to be the largest festival of its kind celebrated in th United States. Thousands upon thousands were in attendance. Hindu's believe that chanting, dancing and the throwing of the colors is the best way to celebate the arrival of Spring.
My favorite part of the festival is being able to enjoy some messy fun with a bunch of my friends. The pictures take are also priceless. I went inside the temple where I joined in with some chanting and dancing. That was a lot of fun. If you have good company you will have a blast. One week later, and the Holi Festival still has had no effect on the Utah Spring weather. It has been snowing on and off, and too cold to ride my motorcycle. Hopefully the Spring weather will begin soon.

I am Chatterbox

2010-03-25T18:33:00.005-06:00

I enjoy listening to music while I'm riding my motorcycle. In order to do so, I have to put my ear buds in and then put my helmet on. Usually this is not a very comfortable way to jam while riding. After riding for awhile the earphones usually fall out of my ears while riding, which is no good.

I recently purchased the most exciting accessory for my motorcycle since I've been riding; the chatterbox xbi2. This small bluetooth device allows me to not only listen to music streamed from my ipod or cell phone via bluetooth, but also allows me to take phone calls and talk on the cell phone while riding.

Listening to music has been great with the chatterbox. There is plenty of sound coming out to keep me entertained even at high speeds. My only complaint is that there is not much of a low end bass sound with the speakers, but with the motorcycle engine going, I don't think I'd be able to hear much of the bass anyway.

I have tested the call feature a couple of times, and it seems to work fine until I reach 60mph. The wind and engine sound seems to be so strong and loud, that it makes it very difficult to communicate successfully while cruising at higher speeds. My friend Matt says that I sound muffled even at lower speeds. I think mostly because the microphone is basically touching my lips, so he can hear the air coming out of my mouth even as I speak. I'm still working on finding a better location for the mic to give me a higher quality phone call; however, the music listening is great and volume control is very easy to do even while wearing gloves.

The Pros of the chatterbox: The sleek look that gives a constant strobe light of red and blue while driving draws a lot of positive, curious attention, which makes me feel like I'm sporting anti-collision lights similar to those found on the wingtips of a jet. The luxury of having music and the option of talking not only on the phone, but to other buddy riders or passengers who use a bluetooth system on their helmet.

The Cons of the chatterbox: lack of a remote control to pause music or switch to the next song, muffle mic sounding on the other end of a phone call. If I had a louder bike, I'd probably have a very difficult time communicating on the phone. Lastly, the lack of low-end sound coming from the speakers.

The chatterbox is somewhat pricey, but I believe that it will come in super handy throughout my riding tenure.

My First Flight

2010-03-11T21:30:00.017-07:00

Any kind of flying is exciting, and is a great opportunity to sore like an eagle. My friend and roommate Mike is studying to become a flight instructor. As part of his final test which he will be doing any day, he will need to demonstrate how fly an airplane by giving a lesson. What better way to practice than to give a lesson to a buddy where he can do so comfortably.

This was my first flight lesson and Mikes first time teaching a student. I learned everything from how to run through a preflight checklist, to flying an airplane. We went up in a single engine Piper Arrow airplane with retractable landing gear.

In a lesson, the instructor explains then demonstrates a maneuver while the student observes. Next, the student is asked to do the exact same thing while being coached by the instructor. First off after take-off, we did two touch-and-goes. I was able to land the plane on the second touch-and-go, and on the final landing. I think all of my flight simulator hours on Flight Simulator X paid off, because Mike was very impressed with how well I did. I think flying runs in my blood, since I have a brother, dad and grandpa who fly or flew airplanes.

After practicing a couple landings, we headed out toward West Mountain to practice two maneuvers, which I can't remember the names of. Basically, you find a stationary object on the ground and use it as a reference as you do certain types of turns.

Flying is much more difficult than I had imagined. You have to pay attention to altitude, speed, wind and possible air traffic in the area while flying.
The air vents inside the plane were left wide open, so it ended up being a really cold flight. We didn't know where the vents were, and didn't want to take the time to find them, so we finished the flight nearly cold as popsicles.

My biggest problem while taxing on the ground was wanting to use my hands to turn the airplane using the yoke. I guess that is a common problem with most all new pilots. You have to get use to using your feet to turn the airplane.

Mike did a really good job on his first flight lesson, and will make a great instructor. I'm highly considering changing my career, so I can fly around more often. It's a lot of fun, but I don't know if my wallet would like the idea. Meanwhile, I'll be thinking about how to make it possible.

"The Seven Deadly Sins of Job Seekers"

2010-03-08T18:02:00.008-07:00

I recently attended a PRSSA lecture at UVU, where local businessman and PR guru, David Politis, spoke about the seven deadly sins and intertwined them with how those sins are preventing some of the 19 million unemployed Americans from finding work. Politis also revealed 7 steps geared to help communication graduates land a job in this economic distressed economy.

According to Politis, 10 million Americans are unemployed and registered with the gov. and are actively looking for work. 5 million are unemployed, yet not registered while looking for work. 4 million Americans are so frustrated with the economy that they have given up on the search for work. Here are 7 job seeking sins to avoid:

1) LUST- People who belong to this category would be those who are overly passionate, or crave to obtain just one idealistic job. They will likely pass up other great opportunities along the way.

2) GLUTTONY- Doing too much of one thing could get you into trouble, because it will make you "a mile wide, but only an inch deep." For example a student overloading a schedule by taking too many classes to graduate early could lack social skills, due to the fact that they spend all of their college years studying. This also leaves little to no time for other activities and become well rounded.

3) GREED- Money is not evil; however, the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Be sure to take the right job and not pass up job offers, because you're waiting for a higher paying offer.

4) SLOTH- Sitting around and playing video games, or doing nothing productive all day. People often become discouraged from searching for jobs, because of FEAR. False Evidence that Appears Real. They flip on the tv and see how bad things are and will believe what they hear.

5/6) WRATH/ENVY- These two sins are combined, because they are closely related. In short, wasted effort. Focus your efforts and maximize your time and energy.

7) PRIDE- There needs to be a balance. Self confidence is great, but don't let it get in the way of your goals. Are you too good? Pride can derail you when you are too confident and don't rely on any outside criticism.

Luckily there is hope for those who may be suffering with any of the deadly sins above. David Politis mentioned 7 helpful skills for public relation students/graduates to posses in order to remain marketable in todays economy.

1) READ- Reading allows you to continually learn and further your knowledge. It doesn't matter if you read newspapers, or novel books. Just read! Don't be static. It's vital to continually be up-to-date with what is happening in the world.

2) CREATE- Create events which you can invite others to. Facebook events if a good way to put together events and publicize the event. Also creating a LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, and Photobuck accounts are useful to have when creating, because it allows you to create and produce your work.

3) WRITE- Write! Writing includes blogging, twittering, and writing posts on your facebook wall. Actively writing shows that you can think. Blogs should be specific and opinion based. Be careful with what you write. Anyone can be googled these days. You don't want negative comments popping up about you that could potentially ruin your personal identity called personal branding.

4) VOLUNTEER- Be involved with the community. Help where needed. This allows you to be active. You could volunteer to write press releases for the American Red Cross. I have been doing a good job with this category. I volunteer weekly as a mediator at the Orem Small Claims court, and I love doing it. This shows that you are actively engaged, which aids your continual education.

5) HAVE A PORTFOLIO- Compile your work and put it together in a folder, or digital folder that can be presentable to a future employer. This folder contains a history of your professional work.

6) INTERNSHIPS- Notice that Internship has become plural. Don't quit after doing just one.

7) ONE-TO-ONE not ONE-TOO-MANY- This refers to person-to-person communication being more effective, rather than always communicating with a group of people at the same time about broadening your potential employment opportunities. The quality over quantity rule applies here.

I think that all of these steps are very useful. It's easy to become distracted from the things that are of real importance. I also think that being aware of "Personal Branding" fits into the overall appearance you're trying to put out there for future employers. People need to be aware of Personal Branding, because it exists whether you want it to or not. Personal branding is a bit like fashion. Whether you know it or not, you've got a unique sense of style that the whole world can see- thanks to the internet. The more you put yourself out there, the more you will be seen. Just be sure to put yourself out there in a positive light with all that you do that involves social media.

Roadtrip For a Weekend Getaway

2010-02-01T23:07:00.009-07:00

My Australian buddy Lucais and I decided to take a trip to Zions National Park, and Las Vegas this past weekend. Lucais is visiting from Australia and has never been to either places. He brought along his other Australian friend, and her Brazilian roommate to help cut costs of "petrol".

We started out the trip in Zions. It is very beautiful there this time of year. Lots of snow in the shade, and no snow in the sunny areas. The Aussie girl decided to baptize my camera in a pond without the use of proper authority. That was sad to see a completely submerged camera at the bottom of a pond at the base of a waterfall. Surprisingly a few days later my camera has dried out and seems to be functioning perfectly again.

Vegas was ok. It was filled with all kinds of smut and interesting people to watch. We stayed at Circus Circus. Somehow I managed to not even gamble at all. I wanted to drop a few dollars, but never got around to it.

The funnest thing I did was go country line dancing at some club. There I met up with a

friend from Las Vegas, and her and her friend showed Lucais and I a few moves. I felt like a broken hip-hop machine out there trying to bust cou

ntry dance moves. Eventually I learned one dance. I now have a greater understanding and respect for those who do the country dancing. It is much harder than it looks.

On the way home we stopped in a couple different cities to visit a mission buddy of Lucais and a mission friend of mine. It was a lot of fun catching up with old friends. We visited Zions one more time on the way back home to do a couple more hikes. It was a lot of fun. The weekend blew by way too fast.

Experiencing the Snowboarding GrandPrix

2010-01-28T22:23:00.013-07:00

My buddy got married last week and his bride had a friend come to the wedding as a surprise visit from Australia. I was the designated guy to pick him up at the airport without knowing what he looked like, and showing him around Utah. Fun times.We decided to head up to Park City last weekend to check out the Superpipe competition. This event determined which men and women snowboarders would be competing for the U.S. snowboarding team in the Vancouver Olympics.

The event was pretty much off the hook. The weather was plenty cold, with high doses of fluffy snow throughout the entire evening. Of course Shaun White came in first place during the competition. I think he just goes bigger than

everyone else. White had a near perfect score on his first run, but during his second run misjudged a landing halfway down the half pipe and crashed. He only needed the best score of the two runs to win.

After the awards ceremony the event ended with a free outdoor concert by 30 Seconds to Mars. I wasn't too impressed, but it was ok. The lead singer had a big potty mouth.

Recording Studio Time With RS&RB

2010-01-20T23:15:00.008-07:00

One of the most common reoccurring dreams that I have ever had is one where I am a famous singer. Ever since I was Knee-high to a grasshopper, I have wanted to be a musical performer. During my high school years I decided not to sing. I tooted on a saxophone and joined the drum line and hacked on a drum for a couple of years for assemblies, sports games, tournaments and parades. Sadly as I grew older I found that the chances of becoming a famous rock star was slim to none. After high school I figured out that I loved to sing. I mostly sang in my car or the shower. I think my love for Boys II Men, Backstreet Boys and Nsync had something to do with it. I have since made a life-long goal to try to sing where I can. I have sang in different types of choirs and even in an octet group that I have been in for about a year.

This past week I had the opportunity of a lifetime. Being friends with guys in a locally popular musical group pays off if you have had a dream like mine. I was invited to a recording studio in Orem to help Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband to record a couple songs for their upcoming album. Now, my part in these songs is not anything too spectacular, but needless to say, I got to have my voice recorded with some awesome professional artists. That pretty much fulfilled my lifelong dream.

I did back up vocals and ambiance sounds like finger snapping and clapping for a song called "Beep, beep, beep" and did other ambiance party sounds for another song called "New Shoes." My part is going to be during a bass solo halfway through the song. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot about what is required in order to produce an album. Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband are an extremely talented group of guys. They are producing everything on their own. The only thing they are not doing is mixing the final product.

Be sure to check out the album on itunes or in stores late May 2010. For more information about the band, visit their webpage @ shupe.net

Mile landmark

2010-01-07T22:19:00.002-07:00

I was driving my car the other day and noticed I was about to roll over the odometer to a new number.... 40,000 miles! I quickly pulled out my phone to take a picture. I have had my car for 4 and a half years and only have put 40,000 miles on it. Not too shabby.

Beware of Seemingly Innocent Snakes

2010-01-05T22:33:00.011-07:00

I heard this story once in some kind of church function and forgot about it, but was reminded of the story when an old friend retold it to me. I think it's a great story that teaches a valuable lesson. It goes more or less like this...
One day there was an Indian boy who was hiking around in the mountains. He stumbled across a rattle snake. This rattle snake had wondered off far from where its home was, and made its way to the top of this mountain where it was too cold for the snake. The snake asked the Indian boy, "I'm weak and can't survive up here. Would you be kind enough to carry me down to the bottom of the mountain?"The Indian boy quickly replied by saying, "No, I can't do that! You're a snake and will bite me as soon as I pick you up." The snake replied by saying, "I am helpless and need your help to bring me back to the bottom. I promise I won't bite you if you carry me to the bottom." The Indian boy agreed to carry the snake to the bottom. He picked up the rattle snake and put him in his bag and began hiking toward the bottom of the mountain.
After reaching the bottom, the Indian pulled the snake out of the bag. Just as he pulled him out the snake bit him. "Ouch!" replied the Indian. "Why did you bite me? You promised me that you would not bite me." The snake replied by saying, "You knew what I was before you picked me up. You should have left me up there if you didn't want me to bite you."
The moral of this story: Be smart about the choices you make. Stay away from dangerous situations. Pay attention to warning signs, so you can avoid getting hurt. Have you been bitten by a snake?

Natural Occurrence

2009-12-26T17:14:00.005-07:00

I woke up one morning with a fo-hawk hairstyle as my morning bedhead. I kept it that way for the rest of the day, and then the next day I woke up with it automatically styled like that again.
Is this naturally occurring, or is it inspired hair by hair fairies who come to me and style my hair while I am fast asleep? Either way, I think it's a sign for a change.

Twas My Memories of Christmas Eve

2009-12-23T18:30:00.005-07:00

Christmas Season reminds me of some of my childhood memories and my ideas for my future Christmas years to come.
My Earliest Christmas Memory- I was around 5 years old living in Nevada in the small town of Tonopah where I was born. The only thing I can remember is that I was with my brother Brandon, sister Brisa and my mom waiting for Santa to come on Christmas Eve to our apt. We were so worried that Santa wasn't going to be able to make it to our home, because we had no chimney for Santa to slide down. My mom reassured us that he would be coming. In fact, he was going to be coming in a big red firetruck. Since our apt complex didn't have a chimneys, he used a firetruck to get around. I can remember him coming to our door with other fire fire fighters and giving us a present out of his sack. I have no idea what it was. That's all I can remember.
Christmas traditions- We used to anxiously await Christmas morning. Every little kid is so eager to open up presents and play with his or her new toys. I had heard of the tradition to open at least one gift on Christmas Eve. I don't think my mom would let us do this until one year when we convinced her to let us open just one present. I don't recall how old I was, probably 14. We all opened up our one gift. It was late at night and we all got excited for more. Somehow my mom was persuaded to let us open up the rest of the presents. This tradition continued as long as I can remember with my mom and siblings.
Christmas for my future family- Some the best Christmas stories I ever heard were when I was in high school. My history teacher Mr. Murphy used to tell his students about his yearly Christmas stories that he wrote for his adopted kids. He would write a very long story about Snow Goblins, and Santa's helpers. He would spend several months out of the year working on this story that turned out to be chapters every year that added to the big story that he created.
One year the Snow Goblins captured Santa. Santa couldn't escape the Goblin prison and the kids wouldn't be get any presents. This really worried the kids. One Sunday in primary school, one of Mr. Murphy's kids gave a prayer and asked that God would help Santa to escape the Snow Goblines, so that they would be able to have a Christmas. Of course the teachers heard this prayer and thought the family had money issues and created the story to help the kids understand why they wouldn't be getting anything for Christmas. Eventually the bishop caught wind of the prayer and soon enough Mr. Murphy was in the bishop's office. It was a great story, just some misunderstanding.
My favorite thing about these stories were that they taught the kids a lot about the Christmas fairytale and spirit. I believe they still believed in Santa unitil an older age. It was a family tradition that was talked about all year long. The story was even tied into Santa's actual visit. I'd like to have a similar tradition with my future family someday.
Another funny thing my teacher did was to wake the kids up on Christmas Eve when Santa was "on the roof". He would put a red light on the roof to give the illusion of Rudolph's nose, and tied a rope to the tree branches on the side of the house to elude the kids to believe that Reindeer were walking on the roof. He would go outside and turn the light on while his wife would get the kids up and run outside to investigate. As soon as the kids saw the red glow on the roof they all freaked out and ran back inside and jumped in bed. This way Santa would be able to deliver their gifts while they were sleeping.
I have these ideas and so many more in mind. I can't wait to continue with Christmas fantasy stories, and entertain my own family with Christmas tales some day. Of course the real reason of Christmas is to celebrate the birth and life of Christ. These teachings will be a top priority as well.
Merry Christmas to everyone that enjoys reading my blogs!

When you can relate to music

2009-12-10T13:02:00.005-07:00

I have been listening to music on my iPod a lot lately and noticed that there are a ton of songs that have been written about love. After going through a breakup, I have noticed more than ever before how much songs relate to me and my situation in some way or another. It's funny how artists experience different things in their own relationships and then later write about them in a song. It seems that most songs are about love for some reason, but I also noticed that these songs usually go two ways; Break up, or just in love songs.
I think most everybody experiences the same kinds of problems with their own relationships and this is why so many people relate to the music that they listen to. There are only so many ways things can go in a relationship. Every relationship is an experience that not only helps you to figure out what it is you want in a significant other, but at the same time helps you to become more aware yourself, and who you really are. Needless to say, I need to stop listening to such sappy music :)
This song is 10 years old from a group called El Canto del Loco (The crazy song) It reminds me of how those of us who are still single, are single because it's always someone in the relationship that ends up liking the the other person more than the other person likes you in return. That's what this song is all about. No matter how hard he tries, nothing seems to be working for him. He always seems to like the girl more than she likes him, and he's tired of the same cycle. A friend of mine told me this once, "In relationships, the power lies with whoever cares the least... But power isn't happiness. Happiness comes from caring the most." This is true to me, because you are the happiest when you do acts of charity for each other. When you do acts of service for your fellow being, you're only in the service of God. That is where true happiness is found.

Vivir Asi Es Morir De Amor(Living like this is dying of love)
The reason always tricks me
And dominates my heart.
I don't know how to fight against love
I'm always going to fall in love
With someone who doesn't fall in love with me
That is why my soul cries.

And I can't do it anymore
I can't do in anymore
The same story always repeats
And I can't do it anymore
I can't do it anymore
I'm fed up with going around in circles

(Chorus)
Living like this is dying of love
Love is why my soul is wounded
For love...
I don't have anymore lives than this life
Melancholy (sadness)
Living like this is dying of love
I'm a begger for her kisses
I'm your friend
And I want to be something more than that
Melancholy

My being is always over come
my serenity turns into craziness
And I'm filled with bitterness
I'm always going to fall in love
With someone who doesn't fall in love with me
And that is why my soul cries

And I can't do it anymore
I can't do in anymore
The same story always repeats
And I can't do it anymore
I can't do it anymore
I'm fed up with going around in circles

Some thoughts on my mind about relationships

2009-11-21T12:18:00.006-07:00

I used to be somewhat of an avid blogger in my past, but it has been awhile. I have been in a relationship for a few months, and it's amazing how much time a relationship requires. Trying to learn about each other, and keep each other happy isn't fast or simple. I honestly thought this relationship would work out. Everything seemed so perfect, yet too good to be true. It was too good to be true.
I haven't been in many serious relationships in my life. I have a lack of experience. I really learned so much in my relationship with Janna, but like all good things, it has ended. I learned a lot about myself, and how I need to be more considerate of others, and about some of my own weakness's.
It's frustrating when you give your whole heart and in the end get hurt. This is how we learn and grow. I believe it's all part of our mortal experience that God intended us to obtain when he sent us here. We're here to gain mortal bodies, and experience the heartaches and pleasures that come with the use of a physical body. Since family is so important to God's eternal plan of happiness, I honestly believe that gaining experience in a relationship is probably the most important thing we can learn here during our time on earth, especially if eventually this relationship should and will turn into an eternal relationship that will last through eternity.
It takes a lifetime to figure out ourselves and become perfect. Part of becoming perfect involves learning how to accept, love, and appreciate others. You would think that Godly attributes that we all inherit naturally wouldn't make it so hard to have success in a relationship. Also within a relationship, you would think that with such a strong connection and so many mutual similarities that you would be able to eventually work things out and accept and love the differences that exist in each other. But there seems to be the natural man that gets in the way of accomplishing our ambitions. It's odd how so many of us are naturally stubborn, insecure, selfish and indecisive. I think overcoming our own selfishness, and learning to have charity is eventually what we are learning to achieve. It can't be easily achieved if we aren't willing to accept differences in others. Sometimes we have to give up some of our freedoms, and our autonomy in order to accommodate other differences in those we love. This should be mutual. Nobody wants to drag their spouse to the celestial kingdom.
Unfortunately Satan doesn't want us to succeed and will do anything in order to keep us from coming anywhere close to marriage. He's against anything good. He will use simple things that aren't necessarily evil in order to distract us and keep us from succeeding and reaching our mortal goals. Is this part of the learning process God wants us to get that comes more natural to others than some, or is it human will that determine how much we fall when we're tempted? We know that wickedness never was happiness. We might begin doing things that we don't see wrong at all, because we have become so desensitized to how things should be. We tend to want to follow the world rather than follow God. Interesting how that's what we naturally do. It's also funny how we begin to reason, and rationalize the good between the bad. We can't have one foot in one side, and the other foot in the other and expect things will flow smoothly.
I wish I could say I was good at staying on the good side all the time. Learning to control our actions is part of the mortal learning experience that we are to achieve in the great plan of happiness. Overall, we should never forget that God has promised us blessings if we will but do his will and follow Christ. We can't expect blessings if we don't do a good enough job on our part. It's essential to fully repent of our past transgressions and continually persevere always. If we aren't realistic about life, and don't set goals, then how on earth can we expect to grow and become better in anyway? How would you even expect God to even send blessings? I don't know how anything would ever work out, cause we're not perfect. Dedication, commitment and perseverance is probably the key. At least with those things, you can conquer your faults one-by-one until a lifetime has gone by and you are that much closer to perfection. What a journey life would be if you were actually able to work on this with someone you loved so much and cared so much about.... Someday.... someday....
Another important fact that I learned and became very aware of is the distractions of text messaging and chatting using modern technology. There is NO substitute for person to person communication. That just makes things worse when you don't communicate important issues in person. Whenever this happened I forfeited important opportunities for developing and improving interpersonal skills. There is no substitute for laughing together, crying together, and creating rich and enduring bonds of emotional intimacy. To feel the warmth of a tender hug or kiss, to see the sincerity in the eyes of one another as you are talking to each other in person is much more valuable and goes a lot further than megapixels, online chatting, or text messages. Things always get misinterpreted anyway using this type of technology for physical expression. Satan wants us to sacrifice the kinds of experiences that will allow us to experience things as they really are, using our whole bodies. Satan knows that we can be displaced from the full range of physical capacity and experience that can only be obtained in person. We could easily lose ourselves in this type of technology, and cyber experiences. It is very possible to become past feeling. And with this I mean that it's possible to disconnect gradually from things as things are really meant to be, physically. I always had more success talking in person, rather than combating out a conversation over a text message. Things just become confusing. Don't get me wrong though. These things can be used for good. It's important to give reassurance of love, info and other relationship functions via text message, or other technology. But you can easily avoid absolute senseless arguments that manage to blow up and break couples apart every day if you don't abuse the importance of your physical body in a relationship.

The need for speed

2009-10-24T16:15:00.006-06:00

This past week I thought i'd put my GSXR, aka crotch rocket and my guts to the test, and open it up on the freeway. Now in no way am I bragging about how fast I went. I do think it's really cool to be able to say that I have been this fast without leaving the ground. How many people do you know can say they have ever achieved this kind of speed on the ground? This can easily make for a good story to the grandkids someday.
I will never go this fast again, but it was quite the rush. How fast did I go you ask? 160MPH!!!!!!
I know... I'm nuts. Immediately after reaching that speed I slowed down, so it wasn't like I held that speed for a long time. My bike can reach that speed quite fast and slow down just as fast; all by the touch of the throttle.

Night at the Drag race

2009-10-14T14:52:00.004-06:00

A couple of weeks ago Janna, Sklyer and I went on a date to the Rocky Mountain Raceway to check out the jet cars. I have seen the jet tank before at an airshow, but have never seen jet cars race down the drag.
It was the coolest thing ever to be there. Those engines are so loud. You absolutely have to go see them next season if you get a chance. Ear plugs is a must, unless you want to loose your ear drums.
When the engines fire up they make multiple loud explosion sounds. Once they take off, they roar by reaching speeds from 0-275 mph+ in less than 6 seconds! That's got to be the biggest rush ever.
Sklyer was pretty scared with how loud the cars were. Not only did he have his earplugs in the whole time, but also had to have his ears covered up nearly the entire time to.
The people watching is pretty good at the races as well. You have all kinds of interesting walks of life surrounding you. Good times though.

My little piece of sugar

2009-09-20T17:58:00.006-06:00

I have pretty much disappeared off the map during this past month. It has been difficult to find time to write on my blog, when I am always busier than a honey bee. Aside from work taking up almost all of my time, since I work overtime almost everyday, I have met someone very special who has been taking up whatever extra time I have left.
Next month I will be turning 29 years old, and as most of you know, I'm still single. Being this is undesirable living in a Mormon culture; I'm already a "menace to society" according to Brigham Young. I have always wondered when I would meet my special someone who can keep up with me and love me for who I really am.
Last month I think my dreams have finally come true! I met a very lovely girl named Janna who has come to fill the empty void in my life. She's originally from South Carolina, but lives in Salt Lake City. It is quite a commute for me, but she's worth every bit of mile I have to travel to see her.
She has every qualification that i have ever looked for in a girl. Some have told me that i was unrealistic, and that I was searching for a girl that didn't exist. I hope that I have now proven these people wrong. My sacrifice of holding out nearly 29 years has paid off, and will indeed bring about a true happiness that I have been longing for. Aside from sharing common interests, we share the same goals, views, and similarities on a ton of topics.
I must say that meeting her and becoming close to her has completely caught me off guard as well as catching her off guard. We didn't expect to fall in love, but somehow that just kinda happened. We feel like the timing couldn't have been any better to meet. We now have been dating for a month. If you know me, and know the type of guy that I am, then you pretty much know Janna. She really is much like me; in essence, she is my mini me. She completes me. We are both very excited about a bright future together. I just hope I don't blow it :)

Split Enz- I got you

2009-09-03T15:54:00.005-06:00

As I was at work driving home, I heard this song come on the radio. It's quite catchy and has been stuck in my head since. I came home and looked up the music video on it; even more catchy. It's priceless 80's music video. I think this video came out in 1979. This was before the time of all the fancy music videos that had budgets to make them appealing. This poses one question to me. How the hell did men get lucky with women back then?

Family reunion time

2009-09-02T19:38:00.004-06:00

I have been way too busy to even set down for more than 10 minutes at home, let alone try to do some blogging. Sorry to all of my blogger fans..
Last week I went to Heber Valley Camp with my mom's extended family to have a surprise family reunion for my Grandma Storey who is turning 70 yrs. old this week. This reunion had been in planning for more than a year, and it finally happened. My grandma had no idea. It was a ton of fun.
Heber Valley camp is a LDS church owned camp place that is usually used for girls camp. We rented out a camp site that had 4 cabins, and a big pavilion.
There was plenty of hiking to be had. I went hiking with my little niece and my aunt and some other fam. Little Averie is quite the trooper. She did really well and wanted to lead the whole time, so she could show us "the magical way" It was great. If you're already my facebook friend, then you've seen the pics.
Still too busy to blog.. stay tuned for the newest excitement in my life... When i get a chance to blog about it :)

Work trip to the middle of nowhere

2009-08-12T18:54:00.005-06:00

These past couple of days I went out of town near Vernal Utah for work. Every summer I usually go out of town every now and then to do asphalt maintenance. I have been to some places that I considered to be in the middle of nowhere, but I was way off. This place I went to beats everywhere I have ever been for the middle of nowhere.
It was at a place called Jones Hole Fish Hatchery. It's a national fish hatchery, so the government runs it, and the fish raised there is put into rivers and lakes all over the country. They mainly raise four different kinds of trout. Can I say that I got to feed the fish once? Haha. This hatchery is located about an hour drive north east of Vernal, way close to the Colorado boarderline. There is absolutely nothing along the way.
The good thing about this place was that it is located in a very beautiful canyon. I wouldn't mind going there sometime to do some hiking.
This was a very tough job. We slurried all of the raceway areas, along with parking lots and roads all around the facility. The maintenance guy was EXTREMELY picky. The cleanup before coming home took longer than we had anticipated. I worked there two straight days and came home with a total of 32 hours including drive time. Luckily I got the rest of today off once I got back home, so I could rest and write on my blog :)
I found this spider on this post thingy, and it was the creepiest thing i've seen in the wild. It looked like it had a smiley face on its bum.. see for yourself. I was freaked out just getting this close to take a picture of it.

10 yr. High School Reunion

2009-08-12T18:30:00.004-06:00

This past weekend I got to reminisce about the days when I once was not so popular, not so cute, and kind of a band nerd. Yes that's right; my 10 year high school reunion. It was interesting to go and see people who I had classes with. Some people I didn't really recognize at all. I ran into other friends who I was happy to see.
It was fun. I wasn't popular for a couple of hours. hahaha, just kidding. It seemed like I talked to people's spouses more than the people who I actually knew. At least my best friend Dave was there to with his girlfriend, so I got to tag along with them, since most everyone else was married. There were a few friends who are still single, but not many.
It was held in the grand ballroom at UVU. The food was terrfic. They had a few interesting facts about 1999, but overall it wasn't too exciting.
I wish college had reunions as well, cause I was in college for more years than high school, and actually know the people I graduated with.
This is actually the only pic that i have from my high school graduation at Provo High School. This was after I changed my hairstyle. Pictured is my buddy Cody.

Birthday boarding

2009-08-09T18:04:00.008-06:00

It has been awhile since I've had a chance to update my blog. Work has been keeping me so busy that I never get a chance to go out and do fun things, let alone write about them. Doesn't mean i don't do anything fun, just no time to blog about it. Working 60+ hour weeks and being all over Utah doesn't leave me with much time for much else.
Luckily there are birthday parties. My best friends Dave and Mike share a birthday. Every year we go to the lake and go Wake boarding. Mike has a boat and takes us out. He's married now, so i don't see him too often. I got to bring my new camera to the lake and test out all of the cool features.
After boarding on Utah Lake we surprised Dave at Texas Roadhouse. It was a good day off work, and a great time to be with my buddies, and celebrate birthdays with other friends.

First hand serenading

2009-07-26T14:00:00.007-06:00

My buddy Javier has this hobby visiting girls and serenading them. I'm not exactly sure why he does it, but it's pretty fun and all girls love it and i can see how it would be a good way to get them to fall in love with you. There is something that goes on in a girls mind when a guy can sing some music to them and make them laugh that makes them want more.
I have played music with Javi on some ocassions, but recently I joined Javi in playing for some friends of mine. Javi's friend Chase came along ith the yuklali and smooth vocals, and I put the beat down with the Cajon like usual, and a touch of some harmonizing vocals here and there depending on the song. Javi plays the guitar and oohs and aahhs the girls while he plays and sings. He sings some Spanish songs, and a couple of songs in English. It's pretty fun.

Jamming out to music always makes for a good time and is clean, chill fun. If you would like for us to come visit you for your very own personal concert, let us know. We have a Jason Mraz song, Enrique Iglesias, Antonio Banderas, and some other random songs on the list. The requirement, since our services are free, is that there be cute single girls there :)

Spider Monkey Niece

2009-07-20T09:37:00.003-06:00

My sister-in-law took this picture of my niece Averie in the car the other day while my brother was in the store renting a movie. It has since become one of my favorites and just had to share it on my blog. While Averie waited in the car with her mummy she got a little creative trying to get rid of some of her energy. She's either a reincarnated spider monkey, or a spidergirl. Not sure which one yet.

My wheelz

2009-07-17T20:02:00.007-06:00

I thought i'd put up some pics that my buddy's girlfriend took of me and my new bike. I just replaced both front and back tires today. I could have bought 4 brand new tires for my SUV for the same price of two bullet bike tires. Way expensive, but worth it. I got a matching helmet for the bike, but i had to do the yellow vinyl stickers for the helmet to make it match the yellow bike.

Alpine Loop

2009-07-07T17:18:00.005-06:00

Now that I have a motorcycle I can go for sweet rides up the canyon and enjoy the beauty. Before I sold my last bullet bike, i used to always go riding up the canyon, and ride the Alpine Loop about once or twice a week. Now I have been making it up there like once a week.

The Alpine Loop is a very beautiful windy road that starts up past Sundance Ski Resort and Aspen Grove up Provo Canyon, and comes out American Fork Canyon. The best part about the ride is that once you reach the highest point, which is around 8,000 ft., it's all downhill from there until you come out of American Fork Canyon. It's about 11 miles of coasting with the engine off. The best part about it is that when my bike ignition is turned off, it doesn't keep track of the miles that are being put on it.
It's pretty beautiful up there and there are streams all over. I stopped to take this picture the last time i was up there.

Pool party

2009-07-02T19:14:00.006-06:00

A bunch of peeps from my ward got together yesterday to have a little pool party. It was at Trevor's parents' house in Mapleton. Let me just say that I want to work for his dad. Their back yard was greater than or equal to a park. They have a tennis court, putting green, and a sweet pool and jacuzzi. Pretty much my dream house.

We had a nice BBQ and played some games. It was a lot of fun. It is good times like these that make being single worth it. Unfortunately this doesn't happen often enough to really making being single worth it.

11 years of riding and going

2009-06-29T22:26:00.012-06:00

This is a pic with my first bike that was taken just after I turned 17. I wasn't the cutest kid in high school, but that's ok.
I have been having this random craving on and off during the past few years, and recently during the past few months to buy another bullet bike. Last summer when the gas prices sky rocketed I decided to buy a scooter. Well the prices have come down a little bit, and I have been getting bored riding that thing around, so I sold it.
I know there what you're thinking. A bullet bike? He's going to kill himself on it! Let me reassure you that I am an excellent driver. I bought my first motorcycle when I was a senior in high school at the age of 17. My friend TW drove bikes and got me into it and helped me to find a cheap bike. I had to do some major fixing it up but eventually, after re-welding the frame straight and bending the forks back straight, I had a nice ride to school.
Since then I have owned 3 other bullet bikes, a scooter, and now I finally when out and bought a new bullet bike! This is now my 4th bullet bike. I liked my last bullet bike so much that I decided to stick with Suzuki GSXR. My last bike was a 01 600cc.
I am excited to announce that I am now the proud owner of an 06 GSXR 750. This bike has more nuts than the 600's. I love it! After riding it around for about 20 min. my riding skills came back and it seemed like it wasn't too long ago since I last drove a bike; even though it has been 4 years!

I bought it at a place up in Salt Lake. As I was driving it home on the freeway, some wind caught my sunglass and tossed them off in the middle of the freeway. Luckily they weren't too pricey, but that is the first time that has ever happened. I need to be carefull which way I turn my head at 90 miles an hour.
There are a few guys in my ward that ride bikes to, so maybe I'll have some riding buddies since my best friend Dave doesn't have a bike anymore.

Cutest nieces ever

2009-06-24T18:28:00.005-06:00

The cutest thing happened to me today at Walmart, when all of a sudden my two little nieces came running up to me shouting out my name.."Ustin, Ustin, Uncle Ustin!" It was so dang cute! They ran up to me and gave me a big hug on my leg. They miss their uncle, and their uncle misses them.
I'm so glad that I can be an uncle.. Like all other aunts and uncles know, it's great to be able to hand them back over to their parents when they start crying, and don't have to worry about finding a baby sitter, but being a babysitter.
Kaylie is two, and Averie will be turning four in August. Someone should designate a day similar to mother and father's day for aunts and uncles day. They should call it Auntcles day.

Birthday party with friends

2009-06-22T12:12:00.004-06:00

This weekend Dave's girlfriend celebrated her 25th birthday. Dave is my best friend and he is always trying to find some kind of way to make his girlfriend Kim feel so loved. I swear she probably melts out of her shoes everyday by all the great things Dave does for her. He took her out to the Zoo during the day, so he put me in charge of organizing and decorating a surprise birthday party.
We got some peeps from the ward over, and some of Kim's friends from her work. Jay kept blasting the music and eventually someone called the cops to complain about the music being too loud. They didn't do anything, so it was all good.
We had a fun night. We had some good dancing by busting out random dance moves. That was probably the funny highlight of the night.
I love all of my friends. I'm so lucky to have a lot of good friends in my ward. They are REAL friends who will do do anything to help you out, and everyone is just chill and fun.

Donut Falls

2009-06-10T09:41:00.007-06:00

The month of June is quickly turning out to be one of the rainiest on record. With that being said, I have had a few days off work here and there. I enjoy having extra days off work. This way I can venture out into the mountains and find new places to hike to. My recent find is called Donut Falls.
It's located about nine miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon. The hike is about 3/4 mile, making it short enough to get even the most out of shape people up to it without breaking a sweat. It was more like a walk through the woods until I got to the falls.
Once at the falls, you need to tread through some of the water and climb your way up to the donut hole where water from above comes through a hole on the top of a rock and crashing down into a nice enclosed cove. It's a little slick making your way up, but it's worth the climb.

Unfortunately this hike was way too short for me, so I probably won't be going up there again anytime soon unless I'm with someone who would love to go on a little stroll trough the woods to see a neat little waterfall. Where will my next hiking adventure bring me? Guess now for your chance to come with me on that hike ;)

Action packed weekend

2009-06-07T19:04:00.009-06:00

This Spring has started out busy for me and I haven't been the best blogger lately. Sorry to all of my friends and family out there who were wondering where I went. Since I started working doing asphalt maintenance again for the 6th summer straight, I have been super busy.

This past weekend I was able to get out and finally enjoy some time with friends and family. I went to the Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband concert on Friday night. My mom bought me a couple of extra tickets, so I took my buddy Javi. It was a really fun show. If you haven't seen Shupe and his band live, then you must go. The band is known for its ability to stretchout musically in all directions. They will for sure have something that will please everyone in the crowd. The band is packed full of energy as they play, and they run all over the stage with a little bit of choreography included. They also performed three new songs that Ryan wrote over the winter. Here are a couple pics from the show.

As if going to a sweet show wasn't enough, I finished my week going to the airshow at Hill Air Force Base with my mom and little brothers.

I love aviation and fast jets. Ever since I was a little tyke growing up in Nevada I wanted to be a pilot. I was born and lived in Tonopah until I was 7. Tonopah used to be the home of the Stealth Fighter. Planes always used to fly by and wake me up in the mornings.

This airshow wasn't as great as the one they had just a few years ago, but there were a lot more people in attendance this year. It took us over an hour once we got to Layton before we were able to park the car! There were WAY too many people there!
Some of my favorites from the show were: The F-16 demonstration, F-18, and stunt planes doing their flips and twists. I was a little disappointed that the F-22, or B1b didn't do any flyovers. The F-22 is my new favorite stealthy plane, but for some reason it wasn't used. The show went well and finished the day off with the Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds are great and everything, but after seeing the same routines at every airshow, it starts to get a little old. Overall it was a great day and I had a lot of fun watching my jets thunder by.

Get away to Florida

2009-05-18T17:05:00.007-06:00

This past week i decided to go to Orlando to visit my cousin Nathan. He has been in the air force for the past 6 years, and has been deployed 3 times, and stuck in North Dakota the rest. The last time i saw him was nearly 4 years ago.
Growing up Nathan and i were the closest out of all of my cousins. We were best friends. Luckily his mom lived up here in Utah, so i got to see him along with my other 2 cousins often. When he was in California we used to write each other letters all the time, since talking on the phone was expensive long distance. I remember one time getting a letter from him, and he used a mickey mouse sticker for a stamp and it worked. I got the letter.
When we were in high school all used to go to my aunt Katie's house in Kennewick WA. for a month and have the best time ever.
After high school everyone went their own ways, and now i hardly ever see any of my cousins. Nathan is now married and has two little boys: Michael, (named after Nate's youngest brother) and Titus. Nathan has been married for nearly 3 years. His wife's family is from Florida near Orlando, so they are trying to establish themselves there. Nathan doesn't like it there, because of the heat, but his wife won't let him move their family to Utah.
This trip was a good bonding time for Nate and i. His wife worked a few of the days, so we stayed home and babysat the kiddies. Little Michael is 2 years old, and looks just like Nate. We think little Michael has a crush on me, cause he always kept coming up to me and giving me a kiss on the cheek along with a hug. The other kiddo, baby Titus was just a good sport the whole time, and doesn't fuss a whole lot.
I got to help Nate redo his resume. We spent quite a bit of time coming up with ideas for things we could put on there so Nate stands out better. He's looking for a security job and is having a tough time finding work.
My brother Brandon and his family came down for about a day and a half. We met up with them and went to the beach in Melbourne. It was a lot of fun. I got to play with my nieces the whole time. The water was warm, and the waves were perfect for body surfing.
We went and checked out Downtown Disney and saw all of the shops there.
The trip was short, but a lot of fun. Luckily i was able to get on a flight back home. Flying with a buddy pass means you fly standby. You might get bumped. I took the last seat on the plane and was able to fly home with Brandon and his family. Brandon and i pretty much battled each other with the on flight trivia game they have on the plane.. i think i won her more than he won me :)

First real hike of the year

2009-05-05T22:14:00.009-06:00

Today was such a beautiful day, and with no work to do, i thought i'd get out and do a little bit of hiking. Yesterday for our ward family night we went hiking around Dry Canyon which is located at the base of Mt. Timpanogas at the foothills of Lindon. I liked the area and have never been hiking up there, so i returned today with my camera to document the hike.
It's a neat hike.It has a beautiful view of the valley and the lake on the west side, then the snow capped peaks of Mt. Timpanogas on the east side.
There are bunch of trails that lead to all over the area and at the base of the hike there is a parking lot that has some maps of the trails and where they lead to. I'll have to come back again to be able to seek out where the other trails go.

Graduation is final

2009-05-01T18:32:00.008-06:00

As most of you already know I finished my Communication degree in December, but it didn't feel official until after today. Getting all dressed up in my cap and gown and walking across the graduation stage as they called out my name made it all feel official. Today was full of waiting around, talking to friends, and listening to people talk.
It was fun to see all of my classmates again and see who actually did graduate. I thought there would be more PR students graduating, but there really were not many of them that did this semester.
Public Relations is a newer four year degree at UVU and when it first began a couple years ago there weren't many people who majored in it, so I have had all the same classes with the same pr students for the past 2 years. We have all worked together at some point or another and helped each other to get to this point in our lives; graduation. It will be interesting to see the directions that everyone takes with their careers.
Unfortunately my family was unable to attend the graduation, so I had to take advantage of taking pictures myself and having friends take some for me. Luckily my best friend Dave and a friend from my ward Lindsay came to support me today. It was nice to have them there. They also helped me to get some good pictures.
This graduation was a milestone for my school, because it was the first graduation of the school since it became a university nearly a year ago. To help celebrate this event the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was in attendance. President Monson was the commencement speaker, and he and his wife were honorary degree recipients.

President Monson iterated 3 guiding points: 1) Glance backwards and thank those who have helped you learn gratitude and realize the valuable lessons of life while you live them. 2) Reach outward doing service to get rid of your ego, and use your education to help others by lifting and inspiring them. Lead, don't mislead. 3) Press forward in your career and never stop educating yourself. Don't just keep up; keep ahead. Life is like candid camera; it's not going to wait for you to pose. Your strengths are always greater than your weaknesses. People tend to focus on their weaknesses, but rather should focus more on their strengths, because they are always going to be your greatest attributes. Don't just be a dreamer, but be a doer. Vision and work equals success.
These are all true principles, which is what the gospel teaches. (Thanks Dave for taking notes for me)

While I was waiting in the hallway downstairs for the commencement to begin, I saw President Uchtdorf in the hallway, so I hurried to get my camera and got a picture with him. He's the second counselor in the first presidency. He is one of my favorites, because he is a retired 747 airline pilot from Germany and flew for Lufthansa. I love aviation and he has so many great stories to share about tying aviation stories in with gospel principles. He’s a really nice guy and I love his accent which reminds me of Governor Schwarzenegger’s accent.

It’s good to be done with school for now, but I don’t think I will feel like it was valuable until I am able to find a job that allows me to use what I learned.

The usual Justin outing

2009-04-28T17:03:00.006-06:00

Today was such a beautiful day and i needed to get out and do some thinking, so what better way than to go on a nice rollerblading trip up Provo Canyon to get away, relax, and enjoy life. :)

I did my usual routine of about 12 miles round trip. I have always been wanting to stop along the trail at one spot and go hiking up to a waterfall called North Falls, so i brought my tennis shoes to be able to make that happen. It was only about a 10 minute hike off the river trail. You know when Spring time is finally here when the plants are beginning to start budding, and the leaves from the trees come out. It was beautiful all around.

I tried hiking up to the top of the falls, but it was a little windy and i didn't want to get blown off a cliff, so i turned back.
I love days like these where i have time to be able get out and exercise and enjoy mother nature. It's a great way to clear my mind and be happy

My last outing

2009-04-23T17:31:00.007-06:00

So i realize that i have been lame lately for not blogging about anything. Normally i have all kinds of adventures to blog about, but lately it just doesn't seem like i have been doing much. I figured it was time to blog again so i can keep my followers happier than little campers.

A few days ago when the weather was looking spectacular, i decided to get in some good leg exercises; rollerblading. As most of you already know, my old school roller blades of 14 years recently passed away and have been laid to rest in the dumpster. Currently they rest in peace at the Orem City dump. Needless to say, i ended up replacing them with some sweet K2 inline skates.

My favorite place to skate is on the Provo River Trail that starts at the mouth of Provo Canyon, and goes up past Bridal Veil Falls to Vivian Park. To Bridal Veil the trip is about 3 miles one way. To Vivian Park it's about 6 miles one way. The trail is always so much fun to skate on, because of the surrounding mountains and the beauty of the river that runs along the trail. Going up is a slightly uphill. I was hoping to make it all the way to Vivian park when i suddenly came across the remnants of an old avalanche that covered the trail. I didn't want to risk ruining my wheels, so i decided to turn back. Going back is great since it's mostly downhill. What a great way to enjoy mother nature and exercise at the same time!

I have recently started working this week doing asphalt maintenance. I'm totally bummed that i can't find a job that will allow me to use my degree in public relations, that i recently got just a few months ago. No one seems to be hiring these days.

Hobo Birthday Party

2009-04-04T21:25:00.004-06:00

My friend Lacie had her birthday party yesterday and for some reason thought it would be a good idea to do a homeless party. She had a pretty good turn out. We played Mario Kart on the Wii, and Rockband. The highlight of the night was splitting into two teams and doing a race to see who could find certain items out of trash bins that she had prepared in her house.
It was fun party, and would not mind dressing up as a hobo again.

Educational fair in Goshen

2009-04-01T23:35:00.004-06:00

Today my brother Brandon and i got the opportunity to be judges at the Educational Fair at Goshen Elementary. For those who don't know where Goshen is, it's west of Santiquin.. if you're still lost.. find a map....
Last year my brother and I were judges and judged the Math category. This year we did the Science projects for the 4th - 6th graders. We recognized a few of the kids that we met last year when we judged their projects, and even remembered a few of the projects that they had done.
Most of the kids were pretty nervous to explain their projects to us. Some of them even had memorized the things that they wanted to tell us.
That was pretty impressive to have them have something with hard vocabulary memorized.
The most interesting project was from a 4th grader who put food coloring drops in milk and then added soap. You can see how the soap attacks the fat molecules and swirls around the colors. The less fat found in milk, the less effect the soap had on it.
We also got Silver coins for helping out with the project. Now i wonder if we'll go back for a third year next year.

Festival of colors

2009-03-29T18:44:00.007-06:00

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

2009-03-27T23:25:00.006-06:00

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

2009-03-22T19:44:00.005-06:00

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

2009-03-22T19:08:00.005-06:00

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

2009-03-15T11:07:00.009-06:00

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

2009-03-09T12:08:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-08T17:34:00.003-06:00

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

2009-03-02T12:18:00.002-07:00

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.

Internship Forum

2009-02-26T14:59:00.006-07:00

Today I had the privilege of being on the International Internship panel at UVU where i got to share my experiences from the internship i did at the U.S. Commercial Service office in Madrid, Spain during the fall semester of 2007.

There were about 80 people who showed up. There were 5 people on the panel including: Eric Graves, Director of international marketing for Nature's Sunshine, Lew Cramer, CEO of the World Trade Center Utah, Danny Damron, Director of International Center at UVU, Ashley Ward, who did her internship with HELP International in Uganda Africa, and then Me.

We all got together the hour before, with some other professionals from UVU and had a caterd lunch beore the panel presentation. It was a great way to make some good contacts and get to know everyone better. Everyone kept giving me names of people to contact to ask about either doing internships that could eventually lead to getting me steady employment, or to contact them to talk about my experiences from my internship more further in the future.

I think I'll have some opportunities to be able to go into the international trade business if i can keep in touch with some of these individuals that i was fortunate enough to meet today.
I had Marsha Haynes, the Internship coordinator take these pics for me. I wish she got some more from different areas of the room, but it's all good.. I've documented the day

Saying goodbye to old school rollerblades

2009-02-24T18:22:00.006-07:00

Today was such a nice day that Dave and I decided to go get some exercise by going up to Provo canyon to ride the river trail. Dave has his longboard, and I have my roller blades.
On the way down the canyon things were going good. We finished the trail and were just getting into the parking lot, when suddenly my skate felt funny.. I looked down and noticed the bottom of my roller blade was falling off. I tried to take it easy, but then all of a sudden the bottom broke off!

I bought these roller blades, "Lightnings", back when i was 14 years old at Classic Skating. The Lightnings model has been discontinued for years, but they are my favorite skate. I got some really good use out of my roller blades and had them for 14 years! I just barely bought new wheels and bearings for them back in September. They will be missed

Road trip to Cali

2009-02-21T10:32:00.004-07:00

My friend Kurt called me up on Wed. to see if I would video tape his dog retrieve pheasants after he shot them. He's been really big into training his dog in retrieving birds. That was an interesting experience, nevertheless it was fun.

On Thursday night my friend Kurt and I went on a little road trip to Southern California to pick up a bird hunting dog similar to the one he has. Kurt thought this could possibly be something that he could do to earn some extra money, and give me a little bit in return.
We drove through the night. Surprisingly the trip went pretty fast, because we talked almost the entire trip reminiscing about the good-ol-days.
We got to the town in CA called Little Rock, near Apply Valley, around 6:45 am. We didn't stay long at all.. Maybe a few minutes.
The dog was a very good dog.. (I'm not good with knowing or remember the different kinds of dog breeds) But it kept quiet sitting in a cage in the back.
We stopped in St. George on the way back to have lunch with a friend of mine who i used to work with a few years ago, Craig. So we went to Jack-in the-box and had lunch and talked for a little bit. It was only a few more hours until we got back home, just in time for Kurt to take the rented car back.

Spanish night at FHE

2009-02-21T10:16:00.005-07:00

For my ward family night they put me in charge of the international culture, and exotic food night. I spent so much time on Sunday just making some of the famous Spanish Tortillas. Luckily i had some good help from some friends.
On Monday i got some more help and made some Arroz con Leche from Irene Caso's famous grandma Isabala recipe. Everyone loved it and it was gone in no time.
The Spanish tortilla was a hit to. I had 6 tortillas made.

Javier came to help the people in my ward get to know a little more about Spain. Javier is a talented guy and put on quite the show for everyone. He had his Cajon, and his Spanish guitar. He sang some songs in Spanish for everyone, and then i joined him in a couple of songs playing the Cajon (The box drum) while Javi played the guitar and sang. While all of that was going on, I had my dvd of my Spain slide show going, so people could see what Spain looked like.
It was a lot of fun and everyone came up to me afterward to tell me how much fun they had, and how much they loved the food.
Viva Espana! !Ole!

Black and White (with a dash of pink) party

2009-02-16T10:24:00.008-07:00

On Valentines day some friends of mine from my ward organized a little shin dig party for all of those who are single on valentines day. It was a good opportunity for a bunch of friends to get together and enjoy the night out instead of being bored at home being single. We had about 30 people show up, so we had a lot of fun dancing and just chatting.

My friend Megan works at express and was able to get this really cool decorative board from work that was used to turn the kitchen into a dance room by covering up everything from the fridge to counters.

Downstairs we had plenty of black and white snacks like oreos, brownies, cauliflower, red peppers, and olives. Everything centered around the black and white theme.
We finished the night watching the classic "Casablanca" since it was a black and white movie.

Bachelor degree

2009-02-06T14:46:00.003-07:00

I recieved my Bachelor degree in communications in the mail yesterday. I worked long and hard for it during the past couple of years, and finally got it.

Now it is official... I'm graduated. I will probably go back in May to walk with the class and wear the cool cap and gown.

I think I will feel much better about having a degree, and knowing that the last 6 years of my life attending school will have been worth it once i land a job that will allow me to apply the skills that i learned in school.

I have it framed up in my room next to my associate degree.. I feel like i have a professional office in my bedroom now...

Puppets for charity

2009-02-04T15:24:00.006-07:00

For FHE last week the ward got together to make some hand puppets out of socks.. These little puppet buddies will be donated to a childrens hospital to help them to be able to have fun while they're being sick.

I couldn't decide what i wanted to make, so i ended up making my little guy a puppet missionary with a suit and tie.

After i was done with that, i helped another girl in my ward with her puppet. She was making Indiana Jones, so i helped her make the whip and handbag.

Our ward usually does service projects once a month. We've already made hygiene kits, and beanies for new borns.

If anyone has anything they need done, my ward would be the one to get it done for you.

UVU Spring Intl. Internship Newsletter

2009-01-28T22:42:00.007-07:00

The UVU International Internship dept. wanted to spotlite my internship experience in the Spring 2009 newsletter that they put together to help get students interested in doing international internships. It doesn't have much detail, but i thought it was cool.

I was also invited to be one of the student speakers on the international panel at the UVU International Internship Workshop, Feb. 26th. I will be sharing some of my experiences and answer questions about some things that i did while i did my internship in Spain.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with other students. I'm really exited to listen to the guest speaker, Especially since he oversaw the foreign commercial services all over the world... I did my internship at one of those embassy's he oversaw. I'm hoping maybe he has connections that could help get me a job at one of the CS offices.

"The featured speaker will be Lew Cramer, who is president and CEO of the World Trade Center Utah. Previously Cramer served as director general of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, which has offices in 120 U.S. embassies and 65 offices throughout the United States. He has also held numerous other government posts, including Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Trade."

My brother the Airline Pilot

2009-01-26T14:58:00.012-07:00

I posted this on my facebook and got a lot of comments on it, because it's very informing, and most people don't know how demanding an airline pilot job is and what it really entales. But this is all true.

The next time you fly and see a pilot, keep this in mind:

When you see a pilot, he’s not getting paid. When you see a pilot going through the same security you go through, he's not being paid. When you see a pilot walking in the terminal, he's not being paid. When you see a pilot at the gate pulling up the paper work, planning the flight, and conferring with the agent, he's not being paid. When you see a pilot walking around the aircraft doing a preflight inspection, he's not being paid. When you board the aircraft and look in the cockpit and see the pilots setting up the flight deck, they're not getting paid.

When you land safely at your destination and walk off the aircraft and see the pilots shutting down the aircraft, they're not being paid. When you see a pilot waiting for a ride to a hotel for the night, he's not being paid. The only time the pilot of your aircraft is getting paid is when you DON’T see him ... when he's locked behind the cockpit door as you push back from the gate. Every thing else he does until this point is for free, for no wages, nothing!

The average airline pilot is at work 12-14 hours per day, yet gets paid for less than 6 or 7 hours.The average airline pilot is away from home, at work, for 70+ hours a week, yet gets paid for only 15 to 18 hours per week.Most pilots’ schedules have them working 15 days or more a month. That means they are not at home half of the month. Holidays, weekends, birthdays, anniversaries, summer vacations ... not at home.

A majority of pilots have 4-year college degrees or more. Then they begin training as pilots. A large majority of pilots have spent 8 years or more flying in the military, risking their lives and protecting your freedom for wages most of you wouldn't accept in the civilian world. Civilian trained pilots have spent $50,000 or more to acquire the training that qualifies them for a Regional Airline job, which pays a wage less than the poverty level in most Western countries. Most pilots do not attain the required experience level to be hired by a major airline until they are well passed the age of 30. The average age of a new hire airline pilot is 32.

Airline pilots are subject to random drug and alcohol testing any time they are at work. Fail a test and they lose their job and may face prosecution. Airline pilots are required to undergo rigorous training and certification every 6, 9 or 12 months, at which time they could fail and lose their jobs, licenses and livelihoods. Airline pilots are required to submit to random government "line checks" during which their license could be revoked and livelihood destroyed. Airline pilots are exposed to radiation levels far exceeding the normal safe radiation limits mandated by the FDA. Airline pilots are required to submit to a government medical examination every 6 months for Captains and every 12 month for First Officers. Year after year. Fail one and their career is over. How many of you go to work where people try to kill you? How many of you have had someone try to turn your office into a cruise missile?

How many of you work behind a bullet-proof door? How many of you are responsible for the lives of 200-300 people, with any small mistake in your performance resulting in the death of yourself, all of your customers and the financial destruction of your company?

How many of your jobs require you to fight your way through thunderstorms, rain, snow, ice and turbulence, day and night, year after year? No mistakes allowed. The excuse "I had a bad day at work" never accepted. Many pilots volunteer on their own time and at their own expense to be trained as Federal Flight Deck Officers and to carry weapons to defend their aircraft, crew and passengers. They maintain their proficiency and qualifications twice a year on their own time and with their own money. How many of you go to work where you are searched, patted down and your personal items scrutinized by strangers?

Airline pilot pay scales wages and hours worked are usually posted by absurdly overcompensated managers who are waging a PR campaign against pilot unions and trying to justify their own greedy bonuses while asking for lower labor costs from others.
Next time you see your pilot, thank him for his hard work. If he or she looks young, he or she is also probably broke and sleeping out of his car in the airport security parking lot like my brother did for months, while trying to financially support his family.

(My brother Brandon flies for Skywest. This pic was taken during christmas time. Notice the christmas lights in the cockpit)

Bon fire & Snow

2009-01-20T11:24:00.006-07:00

This past weekend I went up to the mountains with a bunch of friends, half from my ward, to have a bonfire. We went up Vivian Park to get there.

There were around 30 people gathered together around burning pallets. We had marshmellows and hot cocoa.

While we were hanging out, somehow i misplaced my cell phone. We looked all over for it. The next day one of my friends got a call that it had been found in a parking lot. This was my backup phone, because i had lost my original phone last month while plowing snow. Luckily i got my phone back.

I went on a drive back up to the area where we had the bonfire the next day to take some pictures. It was really beautiful up there and i wanted to be able to get some pics during the day. The snow on the ground was so cool looking. Posted here are just a couple pics i took.

Sledding..

2009-01-11T22:18:00.006-07:00

Every year i get the opportunity to bring out the sleds and go sledding with all of my friends.

This year we I had quite the group of friends show up, along with friends of other people's friends.

Dave and his brothers came, and i met up with an old mission buddy and some friends from my ward. For the most part, the hill was quite icey, but there were all kinds of different conditions all around the park.

Conely brought an air mattress and we packed it full of people to see how many people we could cram on it. It looks really dangerous, but nobody was injured more than bruising :) Our record was

a whopping 16 people on one mattress. It's crazy to think that we could even put that many people onto one mattress and get down the hill in one piece, but it was possible, and we did it a few times.

We all ended up the night with some battle wounds, like being sore and bruised from getting bumped around. We also had 10 other single or double sleds. So we did all kinds of fun things sledding.

After sledding we all came back to my pad and watched Madagascar and had hot cocoa. Luckily we're all just friends, since most of the people that came over were girls. Most of them are in my ward.. good times

my new playlist

2009-01-07T22:44:00.006-07:00

I haven't written on my blog lately, so i thought i'd muster up something..

I added some new songs to my playlist. I got bored sitting around trying to find a job. Some of my recent favorites are Level 42 and Alex Ubago. Go ahead and check my playlist and tell me what you think. Do i have good taste, or do i need a music makeover.

FHE to Temple Square

2008-12-31T12:35:00.006-07:00

My ward got together for FHE to go check out the Christmas lights on Temple Square before the lights are taken down for the year. We had a good time. We carpooled up to the Trax station in Sandy and took the Trax up.

We sang christmas songs on the Trax.

Then we walked over to a coffee shop to warm up and get hot chocolate before we went back home. It was a fun time. It was a great activity to be able to get to know the people in my ward better.

Mr. Graduated

2008-12-17T14:50:00.002-07:00

It has been exactly one year today since I came home from doing my internship in Spain last year with U.S. Commercial Services. I can't believe how fast this past year has gone by. I remember when i came back it was just like coming back home from my mission again. It was the weirdest thing ever trying to get used to everything again.. I was mostly greatful to have a car again, and a room with heat and bed i wouldnt fall off every time i rolled over.

Since I've been home I have finished another 2 semesters of school, and i'm proud to announce to say that i'm finally finished with my Bachelors degree in communications, well that is as long as my teachers gave me a passing grade. This last semester i have been doing a lot of classes that helped me get to know more about my emphasis in public relations. Now i just have to find a job in this struggling economy.

There are a couple of local internships that i think i'm going to try and get. They pay peanuts, but i need the experience, so i'll see what happens.

As to my degree, i should get it in about 6 weeks in the mail.. sweet. Can't wait to hang it up in my room next to the associates degree.

Polar Express

2008-12-11T00:54:00.007-07:00

For those of you who live in the Wasatch front area, you should know about the Polar Express. It's in Lindon at someone's house who has a mini train that goes not only through his property, but also around through at least 5 other neighbor's yards.

It's a free ride on a gas powered, hydrolic driven train through yards that are decorated in season. The ride even includes a stop off at Santa's in the North Pole, where you get to sit on santa's lap, then sing Jingle Bells.

The Polar Express is by reservation only, located just off of 200 S. 400 E. in Lindon. I'm not exactly sure how to make reservations, but i hear that they're already almost booked all the way up through Christmas.

The train ride is also available to first come first serve during Halloween time. I also did that a couple times this year and must say it was pretty dang cool. The train goes through like 5 or so different haunted houses. The entire neighborhood gets in on the action and helps build the haunted houses and the little kids dress up to spook people sitting on the train.

It's perfect for a family outing, or even for you and a date. The family that puts it on authentically wants to wish people the best during the season by giving back to the community. The Polar Express ride is really centered around Christ and has lots of pics of him posted all along the ride. Check it out!

Student PR Tradeshow

2008-12-04T22:50:00.004-07:00

I have been so slacker lately with writing on my blog. I bet there are so many people out there spying in on my blog to catch a glimpse of my interesting life, but they find it's only interesting once a month. That would be so sad if some of the bloggers that i stalk did the same thing. Needless to say, im sorry for slackin... hopefully i can get around to this more often.

DEC. 3, 2008- I had the opportunity to present my project that i had been working on with my group in my student PR firm class at the Studnet PR Tradeshow. I was the account executive this semester and my group and i worked on the future success of the student firm class, and getting participation in the PR club.

I ended up pretty much doing most everything for this project because my team was way slacker. One of the main things i have been working on throught the semester is getting a webpage built for the class. I found out that the class needed to become an organization in order to get the webpage. I'm still working on a proposal that needs to be signed and approved before i can make that happen.

Other than that i have been helping to plan events for the pr club. We had some cool people come and speak to the club members this semester. Val Hale was my favorite. That guy is the man. He also ended up being one of the judges at our tradeshow. I hope he gave us a good score.

So pretty much this semester my group and i focused on doing what we could to publicize this new class and club events. The class is not yet required, but soon will be. Neither is the club large. I did learn that there are 330 students at UVU who are majoring in PR. If any of those students were smart, they would get involved with activities that will allow them to excel in this field. Being a member of a club like that is a viewed as a bonus on a resume.

Anyway, the night went well, and i headed down to the grand ballroom to goto my mom's company christmas party. She booked Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband to play, so i stopped by to get some food, and chill with my friends in the band. It was a good private show.

Facial hair gone!

2008-11-01T12:29:00.006-06:00

During the past 3 weeks I have been sporting a full out beard. I decided that I would be Jack Sparrow for Halloween, so I needed to have the facial hair going on. It's very uncomfortable sporting a beard when you're not use to having one. It's pokey and sometimes itchy, and is the best way to scare off girls.... well some.

Jack Sparrow was a success. I went to a multi-ward activity on the 30th at Classic Skating and I had a lot of people that took pictures with me.

Then on Halloween night i went to a big dance party by BYU and ran into 2 other Jack Sparrow wanna-be's. They did alright, but I think I had them beat. The

The first thing I did after getting all of my makeup washed off was shave! Lets just say that it's good to be myself again. I can now bring the original sexy back.

Body Worlds with friends

2008-10-21T22:59:00.007-06:00

I never got a chance to update my little bloggy from a little get together i had last week with myfriends. I went to Body Worlds in Salt Lake with my friends Dave, Matt and Mallory.

It was quite interesting to be able to see into the bodies of real people. But of course the exhibit wasn't filled with tons of these bodies you see in the advertisements. There was a good handful of them. After you see a few of these interesting bodies that looked skinned and set into posses, you kinda just get use to them. After I saw a few i felt like i've seen them all; my friends agreed with me.

It was cool to see, but i don't know if it's worth the $22 that you have to pay to get in. But at the same time it is still worth seeing at least once.

I was there for almost 2 hours. They also have other body parts and intersting things on display to look at. Each display had a little spill down of what it was, or why it was. If you are still planning on going, I would highly recommend paying an extra $5 for the audio tour, so you don't have to spend as much time reading everything. This way, you can spend more time gazing in awe at the body art.

My random Halloween story

2008-10-13T14:39:00.009-06:00

Today i was chatting with one of my friends on msn messenger. She wanted me to tell her a story, so i thought i would be random and write a quick story. I seriously made up this story and wrote it in under 10 minutes. I thought it turned out pretty good, so i thought i'd post it. i edited a little bit to make more sense. Hope you like it. It would make a good childrens story.

juspain says: Once upon a time there was an old man who owned and farmed a pumpkin patch in his backyard.
His name was farmer John.
Every halloween season he grew pumkins and would sell most of his pumpkins to the community. He also donated a good porportion of his pumkins to a local youth charity.
Farmer john was a well respected man..well this one year he noticed pumpkins started dissapearing from his patch by the dozen evernight. He couldn't understand why, or where they were going. Farmer John suspected that someone was stealing them during the night. He even noticed smashed pumpkins in front of his house on the road. On halloween night he thought he would try to protect his pumpkins by staying up all night to keep watch.
He didn't want pumpkin bashers to come along and destroy them. Halloween night came, the night was dark, cold, and spooky. The ground was covered with old crunchy leaves that had blown off by the cold breezy wind.
John was walking around watching over his pumpkin patch. Suddenly, he noticed a crunchy noise comming from behind him. Crunch, crunch! the noise gradually grew louder. He paused for a moment. The noise went away then the crunch noise came back. It sounded as if someone was right behind farmer john. He could hear the crunch of leaves and noticed a small gurgling roar sound that seemed to come toward him. Madly scared, Farmer John turned around. He saw nothing. He sighed, but then noticed that suddenly the noise was so loud and all around him... He looked down and saw his pumpkins waddling toward him. Crunch, crunch crunch! He noticed that the small roaring sound was coming from the pumpkins.
They seemed to be alive! The pumpkins began jumping at John! John screamed like a girl, "Yikes!" John tried to run away, but the pumpkins started attacking him.
The pumpkins dominated and were victorious. John fell down to the ground gasping out, "help me!" like a helpless ant.

The next morning John's wife went out to the patch to search for him, only to find his shoe stuckin the side of an oddly shapped, enourmous pumpkin.
That's unusual she thought. Why was there only one gigantic pumpkin in the whole patch? And why was her husband's shoe stuck in it?
She reported her husband missing to the local authorities. When investigators came to investigate, they decided they needed the pumpkin for evidence.
They thought that this pumpkin was unusually big, so they decided to cut it open.
There they found Farmer John covered in pumpkin mush and seeds and half-digested inside of the pumpkin.
John had been swallowed up by one of the pumpkins that he had loved and cared for so much.
The End

Halloween in the air

2008-10-11T14:39:00.005-06:00

The spookiest time of year happens to be my favorite time of year. For some, it's the scariest time of year, or the least favorite time of year. I Love the fall weather when it's not too cold.

The month of October is filled with opportunities to get out and enjoy activities that can't be done any other time of year.

I was going to got CornBellys Cornmaze lastnight, but the weather made it just a little too cold to be outside wondering aimlessly in a corn maze. It was in the 30's and windy. Yikes! so i decided to goto a haunted house instead. I went with my friend Beth, and we decided that we would spend about the same amount of money, but reduce the risk of getting sick by staying indoors.

Nightmare on 13th is probably the most famous haunted house in Utah. It's located on 13th south in Salt Lake City. At $20 I think that it is a little too expensive, but had some cool effects. If you haven't been to a haunted house in a few years, it would be nice to get out and see what technology has brought to the table in haunted houses. I don't want to give anything away, but it was cool to see. Unfortunatley i wasn't ever scared. Not even once, but Beth was several times, including a few scares that came from me.

I'm almost immune from getting scared in a haunted house. Knowing that you are paying to potentially get scared just doesn't cut it for me. I know what's going to happen.

Haunted houses or not, October is a time where Americans want to be spooked. Growing up, I always loved the pumpkin carving and smashing.

Another one of my earliest memories of Halloween is my memories of scary stories. The Headless Horseman is probably one of the most recognized stories.

I'm not quite sure why people like to get scared, but it's a time of year that everyone should take advantage of. It's our culture, and something kids love. I looked forward to it every year growing up, and i still do.

My weekend

2008-09-22T09:40:00.007-06:00

This weekend has been nice chance to catch up on some relax time and hang out with some friends. On friday Dave and i bought a big plant. It was such a nice plant until it started to drip water all over our futon and put a little plant stain on our wall. So we're going to have to take it back and look for a plant that is a little more apartment friendly and doesn't pee all over the place.

On saturday night we went with a friend Bryan, and some of other friends up to the hot pots in Spanish Fork Canyon. It was funny cause I haven't been there since i was in scouts, and Bryan hadn't been there in like 2 years so he couldn't remember quite how to get there, so we wasted like an hour just looking for it. I finally found it though, after talking to like 3 different cars passing by.

The hike is about a 2 mile hike. There were quite a few people up there that seemed to be college age. Either UVU or BYU folk. It was a good time, and now i wanna go back up again during the day so i get better pics.

I also went up to Stewart Falls earlier on Saturday afternoon with a couple of friends. I didn't take any pics since i already have a bunch from up there. I guess the best part about the hike was being able to see all of the leaves on all the trees up there. Fall colors have already dominated most of the trees up there and it is always beautiful.

It's kinda weird, but the fall is my favorite time of the year. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the smell in the air... every year, around this time of year i randomly get these memories of when i was on my mission serving in Logrono, Spain. I was there in the fall of 2001 and i can totally remember walking around the boardwalk that goes along the river, and i remember how beautiful it was to see things there especially with the leaves all over. So maybe it's a certain smell that brings it all back to me. It's just a great feeling in the air that always brings back good memories.

My Condo in north Orem

2008-09-07T19:59:00.007-06:00

This past week I moved out of my brother's house in Provo and in with my best friend Dave and his little brother Jake. We found a nice condo in north Orem.

We started moving on monday. We decided that the place could use a little bit of paint in the front room, so we asked the owners if we could paint it. Dave and I wanted a nice looking front room, so we offered to paint it ourselves if the owners paid for the supplies.. They agreed and they picked out the color, so we spent monday evening painting.

Tuesday we started the move. I borrowed a truck and trailer from work, and got all of my stuff, Dave's and Jake's in one load. It was a massive load. The truck and trailer together were longer than a bus. We stayed up late and stayed our first night in the condo.

Wednesday we finished up arranging things, and getting things set up, but that wasn't enough. We also spent most of Thursday doing the same thing.

Dave and I have been planning on moving for over a month, and have been getting furniture and things like that ready for our place. We had gone to Ikea, Shopko, Target, Walmart, Biglots, Smiths... So just about everywhere to find all of the things we needed to turn our condo into the glorified apartment that it is and feel cozy. Some things we have previously owned from living in other apartments so that was nice.

Saturday night we had our house warming party and had a bunch of friends show up. They ate all of our pizza, and rootbeer floats. Now there is no excuse for our friends not to come visit us since they now know where we live.

It's 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with a washer and dryer in one of them. I got the master bedroom by paying a little extra.. It's quite roomy with its own bathroom, balcony, and walk-in closet.

It's a good thing school hasn't been too hectic yet, other wise i would be swamped with homework. I'm finally back to the normal routine of things and working when I can and going to school. I will be finishing up my communications degree this December. I'm really excited to be done with school... hopefully forever!

I already miss not seeing my two little nieces Averie and Kaylie. It's great that they won't be able to steal my chapstick and money anymore, or hide my stuff, but i will miss being able to see them almost everyday and getting to play with them.

Boys II Men Concert at the Scera Amphitheater in Orem

2008-08-29T19:29:00.008-06:00

Thursday night the 28th marked the return of the once Jive, motown, cooleyhigh harmony group from Philadelphia, Boyz II Men. For those who don't know much about this group they have sold over 60 million records worldwide and have earned 4 grammy awards. This was my 3rd time seeing them perform live. The last time i saw them perform was when i was in high school. Dave and I went and had seats on the floor 4th row from the stage. Matt and his wife were two rows in front of us.

The best word to describe the night is awesome. We all had a blast. The sold out crowd gave Boys II Men an overwhelming welcome. I could tell that the group was excited to see so many fanatic people so excited to see them, and i could tell they weren't faking. The even busted out their own cameras to take pics of them with the crowd in the background.

The concert was extremely loud and probably left me with some ear damage, but i'll survive. They are only a group of 3. The 4th retired in 2003 after Scoliosis kept him from doing on stage performances. So they were missing the Bass, but still kept the harmonies going strong.

They sang songs from all of their cd's, most of the well-known songs, plus they busted out quite a few Motown classics and had sweet dance moves for each song. It was great to be up front. I have a ton of pictures and video clips that i took and put some of them up onto my facebook page. The videos are the best, but they take too long to upload, so i'll just put a few photos up here.

I have a feeling that Boys I Men will be coming back to Orem someday soon.

Sunrise on top of mt. Timpanogas, 11,700 ft.

2008-08-18T19:36:00.011-06:00

My frind Christy had a crazy idea to do some night hiking up to Mt. Timpanogas. We have made it a thing to do the 14 mile round trip hike at least once a year with our friends. Christy invited friends from her work and we all met up at the base of the mountain at 2:45am. There were a total of 14 people that began the hike.

After a third of a mile i could start to tell which ones would be falling back, and probably never make it all the way up. It's a tough hike and i don't think that anyone had an idea just what was instore for them. Well it turns out that Dave, Christy and I were the only ones in the group of 14 to make it all the way to the top. We pushed ourselves and couldn't afford spending too much time waiting for others.

We got to the saddle just in time to take some sweet pics of the city lights with a mix of moonlight and light coming from the sun on the other side of the horizon wanting to make its way up. The sky was looked twilight and was the coolest thing to see everything in that light. And the full moon made a good natural flashlight for us.

We got to the top shack about 10 minutes before the sunrise, so we made it just in time.

Along the hike up a mountain goat jumped out about 5 feet in front of me and ran down the mountain joining up with about 10 other mountain goats hanging out in a pack. It startled me, but i think it scared Dave an Christy more than it did me, and they were behind me. It was pretty funny.

All together we saw mountain goats, gophers, squirels, a snake, deer, and wild turkeys on our hike.

The hike down isnt friendly on the knees, so im still in a little bit of pain.. we made i back to the parking lot at 10am.