Memorial Day

Well...Hello! I hope you all enjoy the new template, I figured it was time to put black away.

Becky (Em's sister) and Kyle (her roommate) are in town today to go to the Gypsy Caravan (which is a huge flea market that benefits the symphony). Also, Melody and Paul came down, but Paul got sick, so we only got to see Melody for a sec before they headed back up to Kirksville. At the Caravan we bought a bird house and an antique camera, wandered around to see the glorious eye candy mixture which is the St. Louisan. White trash, Blacks and Whites who don't think they're white trash, but deep down look forward to floating down the river with a beer in hand. Ah mullets... how I love you. That said, treasures abound at the Caravan, and no, I don't fit into any of those stereotypes.

Also, I have a deep dislike of Gypsys.

Last night before I went to sleep, I watched some Monty Python on PBS... it's TV MA, with a lday telling you that somethings may not be acceptable for children! It's 11 at night! Children shouldn't be awake, and people up at that time have a slight expectation for crude humor, why the warning? One of the episodes was where they have John Clease say "And now for something completely different." I laughed, fantastic stuff.

And for something completely different, a clip from the office....

Bare Necessities

Em gave me a little assignment: What are the bare necessities to get through the day? TV, Video Games, Food and Sleep. The End.

It's a good question, isn't it? A lot of my days recently have been centered around me and what makes me feel good. Which, sad to say, isn't too far from the above list. I've been lacking in several areas of my life, and as a firm believer that life is full of ups and down and no plateaus, several important aspects of my life have been on the down slide.

Let's start with the obvious. 30 minutes getting ready in the morning.

I don't pray or read the scriptures nearly enough. Muslims pray 5 times a day. It's one of the Pillars of Islam (or so 30 Days tells me.) Recently, my thoughts have become more spiritual, but I haven't exactly been look to the words of the prophets for advice. I have much to learn about a great many things that are in the scriptures. And as they are written for our time, I really ought to devote some of my daily life to them. So let's say 30 minutes a day for scriptures and 10 for prayer.

8 hours sleeping at night.

Now the next obvious. Food. I love food. I'm fortunate to be married to someone who's willing to be as adventurous with food as I am. Granted much of our adventures are away from home, I believe that with the coming of the baby, we'll begin to divulge into our own culinary talents. Cooking isn't that hard, right? I managed to feed myself through the mission, so why not a bit more now? So if you have any rather good recipes, please share. Jamesbob9@hotmail.com, if you didn't know already. Even if you're a random person reading this, drop a rockin recipe on me. 3 hrs a day for food.

Pooping out the food, 1o minutes.

Excercise. I'm not terribly out of shape, but the belly is emerging. I have a bike I barely use in a neighbourhood in which it's too beautiful not to. My reluctance to do so have no logical time to anything. I do take the occasional walk. And using "occasional" may be a small overstatement.
So 30 minutes a day, walking, running, biking or anything like those things, outside.

30 minute nap.

Now that the obvious stuff is out of the way, let's indulge. We bought a dobro for me 2 years ago. I worked on it for about 6 months. Since then my beautiful resophonic guitar has been collecting dust. Well, no more! 30 minutes a day should get me rockin some licks.

Just because we're human, 4 hours, 10 minutes for errands, and chores on a good day.

That brings us to 18 hours.

That gives us some time on the computer, watch your shows, and so on.

Now, this is given that you don't have to work or go to school on the given day. In that case lets break it down to... 8-12 hrs work, 2hrs food, 40 min spiritual, 30 excersice, 3 errands, 8 sleep, 30 getting ready and that's about it. And if you have a 12 hr day, it can help open up extra days in the week.

So there ya go. It's not exactly the bare necessities, but I think it works for now. What do you think?

Quick Summer Movie Opinion

Well, of the big movies aiming to make loads this summer, Spiderman 3 and Shrek the 3rd have both broken records and made people rich, (or in Spidey's case, broke even). However, both left me missing the 2nd movie from both franchises. The best part of Shrek the 3rd ,which we saw yesterday, was the new preview for Transformers. All of my inner child is screaming in anticipation of it, and regardless of plot, I will sit in amazement of my toys coming to life. Anyways, summer movies aren't really known for great plots as much as they are for action and eye candy. So I'd say go see Spiderman 3 but wait till video for Shrek the 3rd.

(I tried to find a version I could embed, but I couldn't find one of the new preview.)

Finished a book... at 3 in the morning

So... I just finished reading Watership Down. Em describes it as, "Lord of the Rings... but with rabbits." While there is no One Carrot, the rabbits do set off into the unknown into securing a better life for themselves, surviving on their wits, and in some cases their ability to kick some Peter Cottontail. This is a book you can steal from to tell bed-time stories to your kids, and at the same time keeping your eyes firmly affixed to the pages, not wanting to blink for fear the suspense will drive you crazy.

Aren't books wonderful? There's a reason people say that a movie was good... but not as good as the book.

That's all I really have to say for the moment... Good night!

What's been on my mind

So much has been on my mind lately. Em, school, work, sports, politics... all these things have been fighting for space in my mind. So why not throw them out in the open, starting from the end.

So Al Sharpton found out that even he is just one phrase away from being a bigot. Maybe we should organize a picket line in front of his place of work and call for him to be fired after saying such inflammatory remarks. "Those who really believe in God" my ass. He could've said the same things about Jews or Muslims without batting an eye. "Freudian Slips" don't always have to be about sex. Anyways, that'll blow over in a week.

As for sports. Arsenal looks to be sealing up the 4th spot in the Premiership and will have to go through a qualifying stage before being able to go through to the group stages for next season's Champions League. Liverpool and AC Milan are in a savory Champions League Final in a rematch from 2 years ago. ManU and Chelski face off in the FA Cup final, as Manchester goes for the double.

If you understood that, wonderful.

Oh yeah, and the World Champion Cardinals are sucking it up so far this year.

Come to think about it, I don't want to talk about work.

School's out for summer...yay!

And now for Em. She pregnant and that's wonderful. She gets evening sickness and is really tired. She's about 12 weeks along and is due in November. I am becoming more and more excited everyday as the prospect of becoming a father creeps closer to reality.

And that's what I've been thinking about the most. Fatherhood. My dad, my grand-dads (I am lucky enough to have grown up with both of them in my life), and God-dad have all been on my mind. What do I need to learn from them? The older I get, the more I like my dad. He has come a long way himself. Looking back at my life, I feel that what he did was mainly influenced by his love for his children and wife. I think his only true indugence was going to do his Coast Guard weekend, once a month. Now, I'm not saying he was perfect. Far from it (I love you, Dad.) He had a temper, and I've seen him very mad several times in my life. Love is a wonderful and terrible thing. It allows for some extreme emotions. Looking back, I feel that my dad acted with love since I was born.

And now on to God-dad (I'm going to leave the grand-dads out for now.) I've been thinking about Our Heavenly Father in much more concrete terms. I've been trying to think of him more as my father than just God, some guy in the sky how knows what's going on. This has helped strengthed my testimony of the "Plan of Salvation." I think my dad (Joe the Older, not God) wants me to be the best I can possibly be, even to the extent of passing him up on many levels. I think any good father would want the same. So, why wouldn't God want the same?

I like the Mormon teachings on God much more than other religions. Having him literally be my spirit's Father and having Jesus literally as my brother, helps me to feel a closeness that I can't see as being possible as when viewed in the Trinity. I think there's plenty of love and closeness felt, like one might feel for the President, but not the same love and closeness that can be found in a family.

...and now for something completely different!

I dig Monte Python. Maybe not as much as your local high school band member, but at least enough to have the words to the first couple of seasons sitting on the toilet tank. It has classics such as "Dead Parrot," "The Lumberjack Song," and "Upper class twit of the year." And every once-in-a-while I catch it on PBS, late on a Saturday/Sunday night. You must admit, in a world full of Supermen, Bicycle Repairman is the true hero.



I also can't get enough of The Office. It's so good, I wish it was on twice a week. For the first time I understand how people used to look forward to Seinfeld and Friends. It's too bad it plays against the big ABC shows that women force there men to watch (for no reason at all, I hate everything that is Grey's Anatomy.) I wish it a long run, and wonder when/if Michael will get fired and when/if Pam and Jim will get together. Plus, Dwight is freaking hilarious.



Just a couple of things that make me laugh. I also dig Scrubs, 30 Rock and Boston Legal. Even SNL can bring it. There isn't enough good comedy out there, and if it can do it without being overtly sexual or without swearing it's even better. (I know these have a bit of the former.)

Until next time...One more...

LOTR and Moroni

To begin with, WoW is World of Warcraft and is the bane of wives across the world. (As Paul says, "Wife aggro.") It is the best (and most addictive) video game ever. That's all I'll say.

Em and I just finished watching the greatest movie ever last night, which concluded the entire LOTR series that we started a week ago. And due to the recent demise of our TV and DVD player, we now get some digital channels (don't even need cable for them) and we now have surround sound. Let me gush a moment about surround sound mixed with LOTR. It rocks! Our floor shook, arrows flew by our heads and Nazgul screeched from all around us. For a couple who likes movies, it was a long time coming and I love Emily for agreeing to get it (and for many other reasons, too).

So, while watching LOTR, my mind wandered a bit. Where is our Theoden, Gandalf or Aragorn? Would I succumb to the Ring? Am I as loyal as Sam? I then got stuck thinking about 1st question and thought, "We sure have a lot of Wormtongues, Denethors and Gollums." Now, I don't want to make this into some kind of pro-war/anti-war thing, but it's hard not to when we, ourselves, are caught in a war of good and evil. Which leads me to something I've been thinking about lately...

We need Moroni.

We need someone to lead. The same short-sightedness that got us into the war, is same as the one that is trying to get us out. Unfortunately, we're run by politicians and not leaders. Pulling out of Iraq will not bring peace, just like going in didn't uncover what we were hoping for. And it's sad to think that if we do pull out, Iraq could probably turn into Darfur. And we'd probably forget about it just as easily. Just like we've forgotten that sick feeling on 9/11 (the first thing said on the radio when I hopped in my car was, "Today is a day you'll remember exactly where you were when you heard this news.")

The Book of Mormon was written for us. And I think we're at the bad end of the "Pride Cycle." If you haven't read it, do. There's a pretty great story mixed in with the religious stuff with great characters facing impossible odds.

Well, there's me getting a little preachy. Until next time...

I can smell summer coming

I feeling much better. There's something about the return of warmth that helps make life a bit easier. The past several months haven't been my best, but I'll learn and move on. Work is ever changing, several nurses are moving on and several techs are becoming nurses (not neccesarily on this floor). I'm looking forward to no more Mason dinners, so work will stop conflicting with them. (Let's face it, how often do you have managers that give you the hours you asked for, but to their credit, they do have lots of people to deal with...)

That's all I have to say at the moment. Pictures and links will be making their way back to the page soon!