Entertainment Scientists Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013
A funny satire on the global warming issue compliments of The Onion…
I Don’t Want Experience!
Last night KSL 5 News reported on the congressional race between Jason Chaffetz and Chris Cannon. Mr. Chaffetz was talking about–you guessed it–”change,” and Mr. Cannon was talking about his “experience” in Washington. Well, tonight KSL 1160 reported that 69% of the precincts had posted their numbers by 9:45 p.m. and so far Mr. Chaffetz had a 61% lead over Mr. Cannon…i.e. Mr. Chaffetz will be the Republican Congressional front-runner for our district.
Incumbents should pay heed. The people are tired of “experience.” Experience has brought our nation nothing but problems. We are sick of incumbent experience. We are sick of inaction. We want change. We want something done about the myriad problems that our country faces.
I was listed as “unaffiliated” but changed my party to Republican today just so I could vote for Mr. Chaffetz because I wanted to send a message to Mr. Cannon. I haven’t seen any results out of Washington regarding issues that are very important to the American people. Your turn is done. It’s time for someone else to give it the old “inexperienced” college try!
America in Danger
An interesting read. There was nothing in this book that I didn’t agree with, or that I haven’t heard many times before. The thought that kept coming to my mind as I read the book was: “If just one of these things happens, it will be bad. If more than one thing happens at once, then heaven help us.” Furthermore, some of the things that he predicted (the book was published in 2007) have already happened in 2008. The good thing is that the last chapter is filled with advice on what “we,” as individuals, can do. But then again, it is nothing new. The advice is what we have been told for years.
This is the Place Heritage Park
Jed, Abby, and I visited This is the Place Heritage Park with Grandma Baldwin and the Parker family. The day started out blustery and cool, but warmed up as the afternoon wore on. The last time we visited the Park, it was Pioneer Day in 2002. There were shoulder-to-shoulder people all over the Park that day. This day was much more manageable with few visitors. We were able to meander through the buildings and exhibits and take part in the activities. It was a fun day.
Click Here to view pictures on Flickr.
The Living Planet Aquarium
Abby and I visited the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy with some of the Parker gang: Jodi, Mason, Lilly, Olivia, and JT. We enjoyed viewing all of the water habitat, local and tropical. It was pretty crowded, however, as you may notice from the background noise. It must have been because the weather was cool. Enjoy the movie.
Dole Plantation
On Saturday, we ventured North again to the Dole Plantation. It was a lovely drive, and a lovely day for some time in the World’s Largest Maze, the Plantation Garden, and on the Pineapple Express. We also had some yummy food in the cafe. Abby couldn’t handle the entire Maze, so Bridget, Abby and I sat around the gift shop area and waited for the boys to complete all eight paths. Abby decided to try out her lungs a few times but decided that it was better to be quiet than to wait in the van all alone while we finished our visit.
After the Plantation, we visited Shark’s Cove, where we got rained on. After realizing that Shark’s Cove is not fun without reef shoes, we headed over to Waimea Bay and enjoyed the large waves throwing our bodies up onto the beach.
BTW: you may want to sit back and watch the movie from a distance or it may make you dizzy. Think of Cloverfield.
Abby’s Preschool Graduation
Yes, it’s true. Children graduate from school every year now. Even though Abby will still attend preschool next year, she graduated from preschool this year. I guess that she is graduating from two-day preschool to three-day preschool. She had a preschool graduation last year too. That was from one-day-a-week preschool. We are going to have a lot of diplomas and caps by the time Abby graduates from college. Whew!
I’m Getting Old
My sister Jodi sent me this card for my birthday this year.
Funny. I used to get the cards telling me to have a “sexy” or “manly” birthday. Now I guess I’ve reached the age for diaper cards. Thanks Jodi.
Thanks to all who said hello on by snail mail, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, txt, and good old email.
There is a Conspiracy Afoot!
I have come to the conclusion that there is a conspiracy between the modest t-shirt businesses, and the fashion industry. The modest t-shirt businesses must give a percentage of their earnings to the designers so that the designers will continue to make clothes that are immodest and impossible to wear alone if you are a temple-endowed LDS woman.
Every time I go clothes shopping, I spend a good deal of time trying to find a shirt that I can wear alone (strange concept, I know), or some pants that don’t show six inches of my panties when I bend over. I am getting so tired of it.
Low-waisted pants DO NOT look good on a woman who has a baby pouch, regardless of how thin she is. The baby pouch is located in just the right place so that it bulges out and over the pant line that sits just below the waist. It looks disgusting. Add to that a tight t-shirt, with a snug shirt over that, and it is not a pretty sight. And you can’t tuck in the shirts…they are cut too short in length. Plus, same problem as mentioned above.
If a shirt is not cut too low, then it is cut too wide at the neck, and if not, then the underarm area is cut too low. Any of these situations require a t-shirt underneath, which are “all” round-neck, by the way. Why can’t anyone create an under-t that is v-necked? Some shirts DO NOT look good with a round-neck t-shirt underneath. The cut of “many” shirts require a v-neck, or a “straight” neck. And I’m not talking about camis either. If you have a low-cut underarm area, a cami won’t work.
Would somebody out there start designing modest clothes again? And not just t-shirts? I am tired of wearing t-shirts! The cycle has past! It has been years! Hey, why not the modest t-shirt businesses? Why can’t they venture out into other modest apparel? I think that they would double their sales because I have a sneaking suspicion that every one is SICK OF IT!
Sailing on the Maita’i Catamaran
On Friday we took an Underwater Adventure Sail on the Maita’i Catamaran. It was supposed to include snorkeling, but the waves were too high for snorkeling, so we only sailed. I was on antibiotics and already had a sensitive stomach so, unfortunately, as the waves got higher, the nausea increased in intensity until I was riding the plastic bus. As a result, there are only photos and video of the first hour or so of the excursion. The captain did let everyone jump in the water for a few minutes, but I’m not sure how long that lasted as my mind was elsewhere. The kids enjoyed it however, and in the end that is all that mattered. I had already experienced something similar in Aruba. It took a few hours for my stomach to settle down before we could head to Hanauma Bay for some swimming and snorkeling.
Polynesian Cultural Center
We stayed all day Wednesday at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which included the Ali’i Luau and the Horizons Night Show. We didn’t read the tour pamphlet thoroughly which directs you on how to tour the center to make the most of your visit. As a result, we missed visiting some of the islands, such as Fiji and Hawaii. I guess that is why they suggest you spend two days there. Regardless, it was a great experience. We really enjoyed our time there. The Center was probably one of the top highlights of our trip.
Laie Hawaii Temple
On Wednesday we arose early and headed–or tried to head–north to Laie where the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Laie Hawaii Temple are located. One word of advice: DO NOT use Google Maps on Oahu. They will lead you on all kinds of wild goose chases. Just use the tourist maps that are provided around town. You’ll get there in a flash. Needless to say, it took us a lot longer to get to Laie than it should have.
Since the Polynesian Cultural Center does not open until 11:00 a.m., we stopped at the Hawaii Temple first to have a look around. Yes, it looks just like the pictures, but farther away when standing near the Visitor’s Center. It is also quite a small temple, about the size of the average house in our neighborhood… :-). The grounds are absolutely beautiful and very manicured, like all other temples. And the same peaceful spirit was present everywhere we went. Jed told Abby that we were walking through Jesus’ garden. It was very sweet.
It wasn’t crowded yet because the shuttles don’t start arriving until after the Polynesian Cultural Center opens. So we had the grounds all to ourselves. It was very convenient for picture taking. Kind of reminds me of our wedding day :-).
Pearl Harbor
On our first full-day in Hawaii, we spent the morning on Waikiki Beach playing in the sand in front of the pink hotel next to the Sheraton. Our hotel was actually not far from there. We were on Lewers Street, which is right in the midst of all the new shops and restaurants, and just a block away from the beach. It was a great location.
In the afternoon we visited Pearl Harbor. This was after we had to exchange our rental van because the bell chiming wouldn’t stop, even when all of the doors were securely closed (i.e. “slammed”). We couldn’t bear the thought of driving a full week with the constant chiming of a bell. It was very nerve racking.
Shirlee had told us to visit Pearl Harbor in the afternoon, so we dutifully did so. Yes, it wasn’t as crowded. We missed our USS Arizona Monument tour because we were snacking after sauntering through the museum displays. We didn’t know that we should have snacked first, taken the monument tour next, and then looked at the displays inside the museum last. They don’t really give you any directions of how you should visit the site. So we had to wait an extra 30 minutes before taking the monument tour.
However, we enjoyed Pearl Harbor very much. It was a sobering, informative visit. The grounds are beautiful, although the museum seems to be under construction for a new facility. The guides were friendly, and the tourists, who wouldn’t obey the naval personnel’s instructions on the boat, were funny. Maybe they don’t understand English.
After Pearl Harbor we visited Costco (following a suggestion from a guide book) to purchase a week’s worth of food for our tiny kitchen and stayed inside the remaining evening. I think we all went to bed around 8:00 p.m. The time change wore us out.
A Peaceful Easy Feeling?
Tonight while driving I was listening to the song “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by The Eagles. I’ve listened to it many times since December 1972, but for some reason concentrated a little more on the lyrics tonight. Here they are:
I like the way your sparkling earrings lay
against your skin, it’s so brown
and I wanna sleep with you in the desert tonight
with a billion stars all around
(Chorus) ‘Cause I gotta peaceful easy feeling
and I know you won’t let me down
’cause I’m already standing on the ground
And I found out a long time ago
what a woman can do to your soul
Ah, but she can’t take you anyway
You don’t already know how to go
(Chorus)
I get this feeling I may know you
as a lover and a friend
but this voice keeps whispering in my other ear
tells me I may never see you again
(Chorus)
I didn’t think much about the lyrics, until the last verse when he said that something tells him that he may never see [the girl] again. I then thought “Eew! How creepy!” I always thought that he was talking about someone that he knows, perhaps a girlfriend. But he isn’t. He’s talking about some girl that he has just met.
Okay girls, let’s just stop and think. What if some guy you just met gives you a line that he likes how your sparkling earrings lay against your brown skin, and then, probably after some more “light” conversation, asks you to have sex with him in the desert? Would you jump up and down with delight and exclaim “Yes!” Probably not. Like the majority of women, you would tell him to get lost, and then turn to whomever would listen and exclaim “What a creep!”
I then pictured in my head Ron Burgundy from Anchorman using that pick-up line and subsequent request… because it’s such a 70’s song! All I can say is that I am so glad that I was in elementary school during that era and didn’t have to deal with creepy 70’s guys as a young woman.
Our Hiking Adventure
A few days ago we, being my friends and I, went on a hike to a nearby cave and filmed our experience. We like to call it our Cloverfield wanna-be movie. So I was documenting a lot of the trip. I now know why the camera in Cloverfield is so shaky. It’s hard to hold a camera still and hike, let alone walk, at the same time. Jordan and Kurtis decided that they were going to spelunking into this thing. I didn’t find the idea very smart, though I did go inside a small crawl-space to get some footage of the inside…
Enjoy!
World Grain Stock at a 35 Year Low
The price of food is on the rise. As a story and charts from the Wall Street Journal show, rice (prices up a whopping 134 percent), wheat, corn, and soy are all above a 60 percent increase over the last 52 weeks.
Cargill, a large international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services, saw a Chevron-like return in their last quarter with $1.03B in revenue. When I read the CEO’s comments in the WSJ, I couldn’t help but ask myself if large corporate farms control supply driving prices to their favor. While he says that they’re “doing an exceptional job,” my thought is this is an answer to shareholders, not the rest of the world who require the commodities Cargill, ADM, and others provide.
Cargill’s chairman and CEO, Greg Page, said earlier this month [April 2008] that “the dimensions of change in global agriculture are striking” and that the Minneapolis company is doing “an exceptional job measuring and assessing price risk.” He said world grain stocks are at their lowest level in 35 years.
(emphasis added)
Need Entrepreneurial Activity in Alternative Fuels
I’m amazed at how far behind we are in coming to a solution of our own energy crisis. As Americans, we are the most energy sucking people on the planet–far outpacing any other group.
“According to the Department of Energy’s most recent data on greenhouse gas emissions, in 2006 the U.S. emitted 5.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, or just under 20 tons per capita.”
WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120934459094348617.html
While we probably think of our cars first, a real issue is our homes. The “always on” appliances and devices that are taking power even when we “don’t” use them.
“You can forget refrigerators, microwaves, clothes dryers and flat screen TVs. Even a house tricked out with all the latest high-efficiency EnergyStar appliances and compact fluorescent lights won’t come close. The same daunting energy math applies to the industrial, commercial and transportation sectors as well. The clear implication is that we shall have to replace virtually the entire fossil fuel electricity infrastructure over the next four decades with CO2-free sources – a multitrillion dollar proposition, if it can be done at all.”
WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120934459094348617.html
Are cars are truly a big issue. But the proposed targets for 2050 are going to take huge changes.
“Right now our cars and trucks consume about 180 billion gallons of motor fuel. To meet the 2050 target, we shall have to limit consumption of gasoline to about 31 billion gallons, unless a genuine carbon-neutral liquid fuel can be produced. (Ethanol isn’t it.) To show how unrealistic this is, if the entire nation drove nothing but Toyota Priuses in 2050, we’d still overshoot the transportation emissions target by 40%.”
WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120934459094348617.html
I’ve really got to take a deep look into what is happening in the entrepreneurial community to see if there is an opportunity for a marketing person.
Spring Break in Oahu, Hawaii
Our family took our 2008 Spring Break in Oahu, Hawaii. We had a blast in Paradise. Everything was colorful and beautiful. The time change made it easier to awake earlier (although now it’s even harder to get to bed early). There were many things to do for free. All the people were friendly. The weather was consistent from day to day, something that was not lost on Triumph the Insult Dog. Bridget commented that it was the best vacation that she has ever been on. I must say, it might be difficult to select a different vacation destination next year. Click Here, or on the picture below, to view our vacation photo collection on flickr.
Oh, and look for movies in the near future…
Animated C02 Map
The Animated C02 Map video is from an article on Dot Earth, a blog of the New York Times. The Vulcan Project has done research over several years of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. They have animated the emissions at various times throughout the day. They have a video on You Tube that shows their research work. It’s pretty cool and gives you an idea of how much emissions are produced in high population areas. Click Here to view the article and watch the video.