Happy Earth Day! Make it a good one!

Fun Stuff!

Check this out! It's a video of a DEA agent shooting himself in the foot while giving a grade school assembly. Awesome!

I know that I'm not original here in linking to this, but it's fun just the same. And yes, I heard about it on WWDTM.

Apology :)

Sorry it's been a while. My computer wigged out for a few days, and I got behind on some work. Anyway, I'm still behind so I need to keep this short. But I just wanted to bring up one issue.

Recently there has been a lot of publicity about ethanol for car fuel. This ethanol is made from corn. Yesterday, on TOTN, I heard that it takes just about as much petroleum to make the ethanol as is replaced by the power of the ethanol made. Is that outrageous or what?

Alledgedly, the whole reason they are marketing this now is that the government subsidizes farmers to grow three or four times the amount of corn we need in the country, so every year there are huge amounts of corn that are wasted. Additonally, the huge amounts of corn produced take huge amounts of chemical fertilizers, especially nitrogen compounds, that are washed off in large amounts when it rains, run down into the rivers, kill all the life in the rivers, make the water unsafe to drink, and eventually wash down into the Gulf of Mexico where it has created an area the size of New Jersey covered with algae blooms. This area of algae takes away all the oxygen from the water and no other life can exist there.

So when you hear the slogan "live green, go yellow," know that this is a catchy phrase that is a lie, and is really supporting a whole cascade of problems that is quickly tearing our planet apart.

It would be better to just use the petroleum. But even better would be to use ethanol made from a certain type of grass that is perennial and doesn't need any fertilizer, thus, it is clean and healthy for all involved and is renewable, since it grows back every year. Crazy.

Frustration

I've been looking at iTunes, and trying to figure out how to subscribe to stuff. From all I can tell, they are trying to charge two bucks for each tv show you download. That seems like a terrible rip off to me. You can watch them for free on TV. And you can record them off TV. So I guess you're paying for the convenience of watching it whenever you want. Two bucks doesn't seem so bad there. I just don't want to pay it.

Other frustrations:

The dates this weekend were pretty lame. C____ is a good girl, but way to tightly wound for me. I'm tight enough. I need someone who is more calm than me. But not dead weight.

Which is what E____ seemed like on Saturday. I can only keep up a one-way conversation for so long. I like to laugh at my jokes, but I prefer to laugh at my jokes along with my date, not with my date blankly staring at me. Luckily, she’s going out of town for the next two weekends. Hopefully she will have forgotten all about me by the time she gets back. I want it to hurt the least amount possible when I don’t call her again.

Finally, I learned this morning that my fantasy basketball team couldn’t pull off the upset I was working feverishly for. I lost the second round playoff game against the number one seeded team by two steals. Two measly steals! If stupid Wally Scerbiackeklsfjlskdffiak had played yesterday, I probably would have won. That makes me angry. Especially because I had to work the waiver wire all week long, rotating out twenty different subs to get as many games as possible, while my opponent only made one trade all week long. Arrrrgggg!

I’m frustrated.

Once more into the gap, my friends!

In about an hour, I pick up C_____ to take her out to dinner for her birthday. I ran into her a couple days ago when I was picking up my bass bow from the HFAC. She accompanied me for master class, so I thought it would be nice to pay her. She's a cool girl, but I'm pretty hesitant since she was B____'s roomated way back when we dated. We'll see how tonight goes.

I have a date set up with E____ tomorrow. This is a blind date my mum set me up on. She met E____'s parents, they got talking, "I have a single son..." "We have a single daughter..." and the rest is history. Art history that is, which is what she graduated in. She is working now as a curator of an art museam, so that's pretty interesting. I talked with her a couple days ago, and in getting to know each other, she told me that she liked to do just about anything. In my mind, I thought, "well, she's either really cool (like me :), or she is desperate (also like me :). Either way, it should be fun. We'll double with my roommates, get some take out, and hike it up into the mountains to eat it. That is, we'll do that if she returns my call and tells me where to pick her up tomorrow.

Also, _e____ invited me to go down to the Grand Canyon next weekend with her and a group of people from her ward. The problem is, they want to leave Saturday and leave for home Monday. That leaves one day, Sunday, to get any sightseeing and exploring in. I don't relish that. I would love to get away and have some fun and see the Grand Canyon, and maybe even meet some new people, but not at the expense of my Sabath. Sorry. Am I wrong in that? Maybe at this point in my life I should be less fastidious about this.

So if everything else seems like a bust, I may track down M____, whom I met a few weeks ago, and ask her out. It's worth a shot anyway.

Sleepy Time

Josie, one of my most loyal readers commented about how difficult it is to feel rested and stay awake.

It's no secret that I fall asleep any time, any place. I sleep in class. I sleep in church. I sleep in the Temple. I sleep when driving. I sleep while doing assessments. As you might have guessed, this habbit is not exactly helpful, and can be downright unethical or even dangerous.

Some have wondered if I am Narcoleptic. I've experimented a lot through my life and habits, and have come to some conclusions about my body, it's sleep needs, and my psychological well-being. So, since Josie asked about it, I will post for all to see what my vast experience with sleep has taught me.

It's actually pretty simple.

I've discovered that when I get enough sleep, I feel wonderful. I'm extremely happy and satisfied with life; I feel very strong, healthy, energetic, and excited; and I've noticed that I can even think more quickly and easily. Plus, I can stay awake during all the activities listed above.

So, now that I've provided the carrot, what's the catch?

The plan is, I have to go to bed before 10:00 every night and get a consistent eight hours of sleep every night, and do this for a week and a half, and then I begin to feel all the things listed above.

So the benefits are great. The problem is doing it. I've done better in the past, but I am getting to the point here again that I am going to make a committment to do it again. That's the plan anyway.

Hiatus

Trying to get to bed early has stifled my blogativity. I don’t view my experiences through blogworthiness filters anymore. You might say I’m blogged down.

So here’s the quick update to catch you up on the days gone. A_____ did call Friday night and we went climbing. Conversation was still forced. I was not inspired in my climbing, and neither was she. At the end, she decided not to get something to eat and just had me take her straight to her place where we parted at the doorstep with little said and nothing done.

Saturday and Sunday were spent with the family in SLC going to General Conference. That was a good trip with lots of laughs with the family including the april fools fair exchanging my ties for a fish.

We also visited a restaurant called Himalayan Kitchen. I recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different. It has traditional Indian fare, but also some Nepalese food. It was a mix of Indian and Chinese cuisine that I was surprised at. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that all the displaced Tibetans spilling into Nepal for the last two thousand years would influence the culture and food. It’s nice to learn something new once in a while. 73 E 400 S SLC if you ever want to go.

Monday was back to work as usual. Or back to napping as usual. For some reason I have been extremely tired for the last few weeks. It didn’t help to stay up till midnight last night and get up at 5:30 to run this morning.

So there you have it. If you slogged through reading this, then kudos. If not, I don’t blame you.
I just needed to get the writer’s blogck worked out.