The Predictable Life

There isn't much going on in my life that I don't expect. I'm happy about that. I think I've always wanted a big family, even expected to have one. I thought a lot about things like family and church and sports and schools. You have these moments in your life I think where you reflect on your life to that point and look forward to what's left. I feel like I'm at summer of halftime... :) It's funny to think that in 2010 we will welcome and new baby and perhaps send our first baby off into the world. We are a revolving door now. I wonder what a 16 year old version of me would say if he ran into the 39 year old version today? would he say "Who are you?" or would he say "Sweet!"... I'm not sure. I remember on my mission once we were sitting around the mission office and there were about 6 of us late at night working and we got to talking about where we'd be at 40. One guy said he'd be a pilot and another said he'd be a bishop (HA HA) and another said he'd have 8 kids and would work for his Dad! Another said he'd be a doctor and he is! I don't know if the one ever became a Bishop, other other had their 8th kid (might have)... But I said that I'd live in Mesa and work at a job in business and have a big family! Funny kinda was right... I guess

I don't like to be surprised much... Not meaning "BOO" but more like a unexpected bill that I can't pay or a new "Problem" that I can't solve. The predictable life is great... as long as it's on your own term.... Here are a few things that I didn't predict.
1) Football Coaching... Don't know how I fumbled into this
2) 8 kids - ummm I think we passed "Big family" a while ago
3) Greatest wife ever... Either the Lord blessed me or cursed her...
4) Kids that want to do whats right... I guess I could have predicted it see #3
5) Living in the QC... I made fun of people that moved this far away before ...


There are many more I'm sure... so is your life as you expected, better I bet! Mine is much better than I expected but about what I predicted. The difference is "It's better then I thought, even though I knew it"

Schedule - whew!

So a few posts I wrote how busy we are with the summer an what not... Well Here is a snapshot of our summer. Check it out.. I have to use Excel to keep up. Not to mention work and my PMP Certification test one day in June...

Hey You!

311 is the only band that I've wanted to see this much, now I got my tickets on July 10th.

ROCK IT

New Blog

Now I'm a geek! I've started a new Blog for our hiking this summer (http://johnsonsgohiking2009.blogspot.com/). If you didn't know we are going to Emerald Lake in the San Juan National Forest in Southern Colorado. I went there three times as a kid and can't wait to share it with the next generation of Johnsons. My first trip was when I was 7. My Dad and I went with his brother and his kids and also My grandpa Johnson went. It was a good three generations trip. I don't remember that much other then the fun of fishing, eating good food and playing in the water with my cousins. My older cousins thought my dad was the coolest because he could fly fish in the river and their dad just sat on the bank of the lake. It's an amazing place... Now my kids can do the same with three generations and their cousins...

Here is a picture of where we are going, looks like heaven to me!

Busy Summer

We have a lot this summer. I don't know why. But every year it seems to be busier than the year before. EVERY saturday in July is spoken for, 2 of June's are taken and all of May and August are already gone. I think that we have shortened the summers so much that they are now basically 7 weeks. So we try to JAM everything into it that we used to do in 3 months. It's amazing that the kids get any days off at all. Not this summer they won't. They get the weekdays in June and July is spoken for. Vance wants to work this summer but I only see about 3 weeks where he can. thats not much time to earn a years worth of spending money or save for a mission. It's end of march and I'm already worried about summer. But on the other hand it is only 9 weeks away...

An acceptable year to the Lord

Our Stake has a theme this year which they call "An acceptable year to the Lord". So each month there is a sub-theme or a month theme. This month is "Making your Obediance acceptable to the Lord". so I made a "YES I AM" list and a "NO I'M NOT" list. Unfortunatly the "NO I'M NOT list is longer than the other list. I guess my point is at least now I have a list. Have you ever made a "SIN" list? It's not fun but it is actually very fulfilling. Why? Because at least once you have it on paper then you can work on it. So I challenge you to make one too.

Facebook, Mormon's Social Networking site & Basketball

So I haven't posted in a while like more than a month. It's because all of my free time on the computer has been hogged by facebook. It's been fun figuring out the facebook system. I've been happy with meeting up with old friends from high school, mission and old wards. It's a lot easier then blogging because you can say really funny things then take them back. though i think that sometimes people try a bit hard to be funny (even me) like with movie quotes or going to the edge of appropriateness. Sometimes people put stuff in their statuses that they'd never say out loud. or maybe I'm just getting to know some people a bit better ;)

Basketball is over our little team did great. Skylar and Drew had a good year. We won 4, lost 3 and tied 1. We came in 2nd but it felt great because we beat the 1st place team in our last game, who we had never beaten. Learned a lot about YMCA ball. Like NEVER play it again, because they are a "feel good" league. I could write all day about a them and their "every one's a winner" attitude. YUCK. Next year back to Wham! who has their problems but at least understands what competition is. When I was a kid I got one Trophy. ONE! it was a 3rd place baseball trophy. I was so proud of that thing. We got it after years of losing and finally coming in third in our league. It was awesome. Drew and Sky must have 30 trophies each. NOT ONE says what place they got; just what league and what sport. Sad. Everyone is a winner turns everyone into a whiner. Anyway I told you I could type all day on this. But now we are off to baseball next.

Is this a racist logo?

Vote (by comment) if this logo is a racist logo. I will let you know what I find out... by the way I know the answer already.

My Grandma Johnson

My Gramdma Johnson passed away yesterday on December 1st. I believe she was 92 years old. Florence Payne Johnson was one of my five grandmas... but really my #1 Grandma and my mother more times than not. I lived by her a lot of my life. She did everything for me. From making my breakfasts every day before school when I lived at her house for the 7th, 8th and most of 9th grades. She was my sounding board my target to vent to when jr. high got too tough, or when my Dad or Mom(s) frustrated me. She was the one I would go to with problems I had. She forgave me my mistakes and allowed me to make them. I am who I am because of her. She would always remind me of the Savior's love for me. She would always remind me of what I could be. She would allow me to complain, and complain about somebody and than she'd say "Now Benny, you know that he/she loves you" It didn't matter what I said or did, I knew she loved me. I never have seen her cross. I've never seen her upset with anyone. I HAVE seen her many times on her knees praying, in her living room chair reading the scriptures or at her kitchen stove cooking something that was just special for me. I was blessed to live so close to my Grandma. I was blessed to have her as my one constant adult role modle during my parent's divorce. I was blessed to have her live close to me when I was a newly wed in Mesa. She was on a mission and my folks had moved back to New Mexico and she was who I called or who I leaned on when I needed something. She was a strength to many people, it only seemed like she was just for me. Grandma Johnson made me feel ten feet tall when the world said I didn't matter. Grandm Johnson kept my attitude positive at the darkest moment of my childhood. She made sure that I didn't crumble when it would have been the easy thing to do. Grandma Johnson was the reason I ended up on a mission, Grandma Johnson was the reason I ended up having a testimony. My Grandma Johnson is the best person I've ever known. I now have a lot to live up to. She expected me to succeed in all I tried to do. She didn't hope or wonder about my success, she expected it. I lived up to it sometimes and not sometimes, but that didn't matter to her. Now I suppose she is watching me. Knowing my actions and my failures. I think that I have many things to work on. Being like her and my Savior just became more important.

Hornets lose, terrible weekend, all is well

The Hornets finished their season as the 2008 East Valley Conference Runners Up. It was a good year and one game short of a state championship isn't bad. I was really disappointed for a few hours but got over it. Thanks to all of my Hornets and their families (except two). I am a bit miffed a couple so I'm glad to take a brake. But that's just their Dads. I'll always love their kids. The relationships with these boys are the best part of the whole deal. I'm not sure if this year could ever be topped. I wonder if I shouldn't just call it quits. Yeah Right!

Saturday was awful, first the Hornets lose than BYU gets bombed in the biggest game of their year, then UofA decides they don't want to win so they gave the OSU BEAVS the win. Terrible. Sunday was better. Church was good. We had our family's 2nd Annual Thanktivis. We have a thanktivis because we are sad that we never get to just our family for Thanksgiving because we are with Stacy's family or my family on Thanksgiving day. So the past two years now we eat a Thanksgiving style dinner on the Sunday before. Its great. We eat the turkey, the potatoes the yams everything including pie and pig out and spend time as a family. We enjoy it together just us. Than we have leftovers just like we should. We tell each other what we are thankful for and than watch a family movie and just have a great time. Its great. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants some holiday "JUST US" time.

Rip The Band-aid Right off!

Now that we got this president we must reboot the republican party. We are going to suffer for a while. I think we have some stuff to do in here in Arizona. John Kyle needs to re-visit some conservative 101 classes. John McCain should retire and Jeff Flake should run for his Senate seat. I think JD Hayworth is a great idea for Gov since JNap can't run anymore. (besides she's hopping up and down like Horshack trying to get to Obama's white house). I think that Andrew Thomas should be the State Attorney General and then we'd have it all. Perhaps we could then fix this 2Billion Dollar deficit we have and finally fix some things in this state (undocumented squatters, raising taxes, tuition at our state universities, etc.). Next with a true conservative senator (Flake) and Governor we could set a trend for 2012 in 2010 on what we should be like in this country.

Cycles. It always happens. Remember the great GOP wins after Billy boy was in office. So it's just cycles. In two years BO's ratings will be down and everyone will be talking about him the way they do W.

I think we should really start at our level first though. Why is the Mesa city, Gilbert City and Arizona State Government in debt so bad? Because they are trying to fix the world with $$$. Instead they are just making it worse. Pinal county (where I live) is even worse. Everyone complains that the mortgage companies are to blame for all of our foreclosures. Not exactly. In Pinal County they needed money for the growing infrastructure (maricopa, queen creek, florence had terrible roads etc.). So they raised Property taxes 20% in one year (2007-2008). So they screwed us more than the mortgages. That's why some people got huge mortgage payment bumps one month to the next. So let's see, do banks that foreclose have to pay property taxes? yes right, but do they actually pay them (I know they aren't paying the HOA)... So because Pinal County needed more revenue they raised taxes (liberal move), because they raised taxes, people lost their houses, because people lost their houses the county doesn't get the property tax, and revenue goes down to the county. OPPOSITE EFFECT. Now what if they would have lowered taxes on the rich evil building company and left the property taxes low (actually lowered) them on individual homes. More houses get built, people move from Maricopa (higher taxes) to Pinal county, revenue goes up (conservative move). Ahhh! let's review Liberals punish their constituents for the governments overspending by raising taxes, this leads to less revenue or opposite outcome from what was needed. Conservatives make up for bad spending by stimulating growth (remove obstructive government policies to encourage growth), thus raising revenue and than follow it up with more Conservative spending next time (we hope). Anyway what you think will happen (liberals) is very short sighted.

Conservative Underground

The Ronald Reagan Conservative Underground begins today. Stay strong, don't let your heart be troubled. Also don't accept it. Just peacefully fight it. Start in your area. Reagan conservativism is the only safe way. Small government, low taxes, private permanent jobs and protection of life. What part don't people get? Why would we want to raise our taxes, create temporary government jobs and allow 3rd trimester abortions? WHY? I don't get it. Do you want to know who I blame? MIKE HUCKABEE! Yep that's right. Here's my thinking. If he would have been honorable and just dropped out when he had no chance, but no he stayed in and made problems for Mitt and made a pact with the lettuce McCain folks and Mitt was sunk. If you don't remember go read the archives about Super Tuesday and see what happened in West Virginia that caused so much "perception" that Mitt was done. Then Huckabee won a few south states and "handed" it to lettuce. Mitt would have run a much better campaign than Mac. He wouldn't have had the economy issue. Think about it. If Mitt was the man do you think these economy issues would have been a weakness for the GOP? uh NO! Oh if we could just rewind. This spread the wealth around would have been shot down so quick by Romney but John "weak on the economy" McCain doesn't have the experience or the ability to do it. NEVER nominate a senator. Jeez. It's so easy to see now. Start the underground folks! We have 4 years to find someone who we can get behind and if it's Mike Huckabee I'm moving to a desert island. Who's coming?

Yeah Baby!

Oh yeah... I'm a fatty, but today after 6 weeks of working out I got a good surprise this morning. I was happy enough I had to blog it. This and the Hornets are 6-0. What a week!
BTW I WAS 230 about 6 weeks ago!

Shaq is the coolest

Ok,
So you may not like him but I find him to by far the funniest and most real superstar ever. I don't agree with him in everything he says but thats fine. He is funny, is a "clown prince". Check out this espn video. You may not want to watch the whole thing but the first few minutes are great. I'm so sick of the election that I started looking for sports stuff again.

What really happens?

For those of you who really want to know what Stacy does now that she's not the RS pres any more: Check out this picture. You guys must have worn her out. It can't be the 7 kids, right?

Benson

I generally don't like Steve Benson the quack biased pigheaded cartoonist from the AZ republic... but he does get it right about once a year.

more biden

It's getting too easy. Did you see Joe B on the TV with KC? (that was funny) I'm refering to the once cute & perky lib katie couric, who is in way over her head. She interviewed Sarah and was mean and repetative and trying to hide her hate but couldn't. But with biden she was soft cuddely and at some point I thought they were going to make out. Anyway... here's the part that got me. I in fact heard this from Ann Coulter, and couldn't believe it so I went to CBSNEWS.com to verify and it's true... JOEY B said: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'" well... as I'm sure you know FDR wasn't elected until 1934 and the TV wasn't invented until 1939 and Americans didn't really all have one until the 1950's. OH MY GOSH! Why didn't katie say anything? What a nimrod! she's so "in the tank" like every other media person, talking head obamite! She should be fired now for being too stupid. If this dope get's elected it will be because we as Americans are too fat, dumb and happy with what we have now to know any different than what we are told. What biden's point was, that GWB should have gone on the TV and taken the blame, instead of saying the truth, that the Wall Street CEO selfish "golden parachutte" pigs were at fault. The truth isn't to high on JOEY's priority list. Did you know that JOEY has been in washington since the 1970s? How can we sit here and put up with him... Barack is crazy for picking him, and we'd be crazy to pick Barack.

I hope Sarah demolishes him in the debate tonight. The problem is that it will be Sarah with facts and Joey with "zingers". Zingers are little one liners that are funny and everyone laughs and doesn't have a clue what his point was. Kinda like real Zingers, when you eat them you like them but later you feel bad and ask "Why did i eat that?" Just like in this debate tonight later everyone thinks that he won the debate because they "laughed" when he spoke, but can't remember anything that he said that was real. I laugh when he speaks too, but I'm laughing at him, not with him.

JBiden - Rants on a dummy

Yikes. So do you know who Joe Biden reminds me of? Dick Martin. It's funny, they don't really look alike but if you ever hear JBid talk its just the same. "uhhh duh, that's funny". If you are too young, than sorry. They do have the same bald head with a comb over.
Couple of things that kill me about this guy
1) He says that if you make $250K that you will get NEW higher (40%+) taxes and if you complain than you aren't being patriotic. He then said that if others would give to charities this wouldn't be needed. HOWEVER He made $2.5 MILLION in the last 3 years but gave only about $4,000! Can you belive it? Thats < 1%.
2) Saying how much he admires Hillary Clinton and how she probably would have been a better choice than HIM for the VP. Duh Joe, you are crazy, she would have been better.

There are about 300 more but those two just made me crazy. He's not too smart. He's like the dumbest guy ever. I have no idea how he's gotten to where he is.

Gov Palin - I told you

In case you missed my previous blog about Gov Palin (whom I love), she does indeed look like Tina Fey. In fact her eye glasses have caused a rush by women here in the phoenix area to buy them in so much that the Arizona Republic even did a story on it. I think that the eye glasses are what reminded me so much of Tina Fey. I found it funny yesterday morning that I saw on Yahoo! that Saturday night live had thought of it too. Check out this video of their opening this past saturday. (click here)

What a Weekend!

Well it was a fantastic weekend. We enjoyed everything about it. At least I did. I finished up my job on Friday at Honeywell ERP and spent friday afternoon moving into my new desk area. I met Stacy and Anny for Dinner at a new place called "Cafe Lagoona" I think. It's a fry bred place. You can get a nice dinner and desert there with fry bred as the main ingreadiant. It was good. We split a vegitarian and a apple (desert). It was nice. Also we found out that the owner is a guy we didn't know very well from our ward. (Nick Lara?). After that we went home and g0t ready for Saturday's activities (football football football). Saturday Drew and Skylar's teams both won. Drew's Hornets beat the Sioux 20-18, Drew did great. You can read the summary of this game at http://www.gotsting.com/. Sky's Longhorns beat the Generals 20 - 0. Sky's a star on his team. He played both offense and defense. Katy and Tawny and even Anny dressed up in their blue and gold for the games. They looked so cute and it was fun to sit and watch Skylar's game with them.

Sunday just topped it off. My parents, newphew, brother and sister-in-law all showed up at our house late Saturday night. They were there for Anny's baby blessing and Drew's priesthood confirmation. We woke up Sunday morning and enjoyed time with them. Sky lost his Mohawk and Drew got a fresh cut as well, thanks Vance! We made it to church early along with the Gilespie and Snow families who also had baby blessings. It seemed that between those three families the whole chapel was full by 2o minutes before church started. The blessing was nice. We then left and went home with 60+ family and friends and visited ate some mexican food and generally layed around. About 3:30 Bishop Topol came over and we were able to confirm Drew the Newest Aaronic Priesthood holder. Later that night Marly and Vance escorted Drew to his first youth fireside.

It was a wonderful weekend. Thanks to Stacy and others the meals were great! We were so glad to see everyone. I love the visiting the jokes. I especially liked to meat John, Boofer's new boyfriend (new to me anyway). I am happy to get to see the Tucson and Utah family that we don't see as often as we'd like.

Here is phone pic of my new office. Nicer compared to my old one huh?

last day

Today is my last day with Honeywell Aerospace ERP Team. I'm so happy to get a new start. It's been a nice 2.5 + years here but I'm ready to move on. I enjoyed some of it but it's been the most stressful job I've ever had. I've learned a lot. One thing I learned is I don't ever want to be on the Honewell Aerospace ERP Team ever again. I had a crummy desk, crummy area in a smelling building with no windows. It smells like a mixture of BO and oil. I'm 48 miles (one way) from home and usually very tired. I rode the Vanpool here so while it did save me gasoline $$ it killed my days. I'd leave at 6:00 am from my house and not get to work untill 7:30 Then I'd leave at 4:00 pm and not be home until 5:30. 11 1/2 hour days are tough when you are used to only be gone about 9. Here is a picture of my work area. IT'S TERRIBLE. I'ts like an old 1950 wood desk with sharp corners in the middle of a room with a fakey cube wall. Me and 4 other people in a "bullpen" type area. Very loud and uncomfortable.

So i start my new Job on Monday at Honeywell Corporate Finance IT. It is a project manager's job. I'll be closer to home and have better work hours. I'll be leaving really early in the morning but will be home earlier in the afternoon. So it will be like 6-3 or so. Also there is a gym much closer and more places to go. It's in Tempe instead of Phoenix so while it is only about 12 miles closer to home it is about 30 minutes closer (maybe more since I'll go in earlier). I'll post a picture of my new work area if I can. Overall today is great day! Also Hornets Football starts tomorrow Game Time 8:00 am! Next week check out www.gotsting.com for a full update of the game.

Drew's Birthday!

Yesterday was Drew's birthday! I enjoyed myself because for his birthday I got a 1/2 day off of work. After I was done working I took Skylar to the barber for a hair cut and this is how he turned out! Save this picture because his mom Says he's not going to church this way.

He looks great. He's still a good lookin' kid.

Later Drew and I and his buddies Armando, Brian and Zane went to Amazing Jakes. it was fun for them but I was pretty bored and let's just say... Don't go to Amazing Jakes if you are on a diet. I ate a lot! Anyway here are some pictures

Armando, Drew, Brian and Zane finishing up the go carts. they were later kicked off of them because Zane can't drive (JK).

Drew and Armando trying to get up the rock wall

Brian made it to the top. Armando on the right is still trying!

Zane and Armando still trying to climb the wall (maybe next time boys!)

UA Football Game

We went down to Tucson on Saturday to see the UofA play the Idaho Vandels. Maybe the Vandels are the worst team ever, but it was fun to watch the cats kill someone for once. It was any easy drive down to our favorite Mexican food place ever too. We went to El Guerro Canelo before the game. We all had some Carne Asada except for Zane Whiting who had a hot dog. Once we left there we went to the stadium. Once we got there the pagentry and warmups were nice. They had fireworks as the team ran on to the field which scared us all. We were all set for kick off. The UA players were set up for kickoff return. We were very excited. Then it started to storm. They didn't even kick off before the Referees took the players off of the field and the anouncer started saying "For your safety and the safety of the stadium staff please exit the stadium immediatly!" We were disappointed to say the least. We decided to walk over to the McHale center (basketball arean for the wildcats) to look for an ATM. We found a door on the backside of the arena where some kids were milling around. The door was open so we just walked in. We went down a ramp and around a corner then we saw it. Meca for any UA hoops fan. We found ourselves on Lute and Bobbi Olsen Court. It was awesome. We took this picture:

After we milled around the gym for a while, including a guided tour of the weight training area by some really drunk fowl mouthed UA students, we decided to go wait outside for the rain/lighting to stop. We were waiting around for about an hour with some underage drinking baseball players, some other misc. students when we started to notice some rather tall kids coming and going. The first player I recognized was Chase Budinger so I stopped him and shook his hand. This made Drew very upset saying I should have stopped him longer and let Drew meet him. The boys were watching every kid that walked by and saying "Is he on the team? Is he?". Nic Wise came by a little while later and we didn't recognize him at first but then we did. Drew ran into the building and yelled "Nic!" Nic stopped and talked for a few minutes so we took this picture with him.

Soon another starter on the team Jordan Hill came by and Drew stopped him again and took his picture too. Zane and even Alex (ASU Fan) were happy to take this picture because of how tall this guy is.

Overall, despite the rain, lightning and cold wind we all had a good time. UA killed poor Idaho, but it was worth the time. And yes we got to go to El Guerro Canelo (sorry Stacy).

what up

Well I'm really lame. But that's ok. I'm not really blogging anymore. My wife blogs all the time at her blog. I'm not that good. But I've been up to some stuff lately. I'm happy to report I got a new job here within honeywell. I'm moving back to Tempe which is awesome! I'm really happy about that at least. Other things that make me happy is that I'm going to get a real cube and not just a desk in the middle of a room. I'm also happy to be back in a less stressfull (I hope) position. 2.5 years on SAP will kill you. If you don't know, don't ask. I've been interested in the politics of the US too. I'm very happy with McCain's pick of Great white north's Gov! She seems real. For the first time It seems that a candidate for a national office might have actually had to check her checking account before heading out to dinner with the Fam. I'm not sure that she has but perhaps she has, or at least I could believe it if she said she had. I think she looks a little like Tina Fey, whom I find incredibally funny and a little attactive. I don't know, maybe it's just me. I was glad he didn't pick my man Mitt. I have many reasons but here are two. 1) Mitt can run in 2012 if McCain happens to loose or happens to not run at 77 years old. And 2) I'm sick of hearing how Mormons aren't really people and we run around trying to convert others because we are so miserable. I'm just tired. I can use the 4 year recharge period. Otherwise I'm pretty happy about who McCain picked. Since I can't really vote for him, Yeah McCain isn't in my top 10 of choices, I'll vote for the hottest Gov in the 50 states. You know she isn't really hot I guess but she's pretty and very appealing (Smack you Rodam). I'm happy over all about it now, before I was like a chick at the DNC the other night under a glass ceiling, very disenchanted. Barack is so white already, Bill Clinton was the only black guy there talking. I saw an interview with Barack with Stuart Scott of ESPN. It was comical. SS is a total wanna be ebonics speaker (webonics), and Barack's voice sounds like Eddie Murphy making fun of white people. It was very humorus. Rush Limbaugh had a good observation that there were no "persons of african decent" in the lower bowl area of the stadium last night. Too funny.

Well the Hornet's are kicking butt again this year. I feel bad for anyone that get's in our way...Just kidding. Though we are looking good. Drew and Zane and little Bulldog are really looking good. We have Ray, Mondo and Alex that are returning from last year and doing well. Even little AJ, lonely w/o Sky is doing well. The race is on now that Sky went to the longhorns between him and Drew who will get the most TD's this year. However my bet is on Sky due to opportunities. Sky is the RB and LB for his team. He got two TDs in the scrimmage the other night. Nice. Drew got one in his first scrimmage. We are all enjoying it. Games are right around the corner. Here's a quick vid. Sky's #11

why worry

Well I'm a worrier. Everyone doesn't know this about me but I am. In fact I'm such a worrier that it bugs me when others don't worry. Vance doesn't ever worry. Or if he does he hides it. Lately I've realized that my worrying makes me irritable (nah!) Anyway in most cases I worry about small things really. Like last night I worried my self into insomnia because I think haven't been brushing my teeth enough. True. I layed there thinking about the UA basketball game and started goal setting about my teeth brushing. So today as soon as I was done eating my wonderful frozen burritos and finishing my yucky diet pepsi (out of dmd at all of honeywell how is this possible, but I've visited the cafe, and 5 vending machines, nothing! ARG!!!!) I went to the bathroom with my boyscout tooth brush and my big ole tube of aquafresh. I proudly starting brushing. Trying to fill two minutes I started to look at the tube of tooth paste and realized that toothpaste has an expiration date. I didn't know that. Why? Does it turn toxic? What is in toothpaste that could expire. Well mine says 09/2002. I suddenly didn't feel well anymore so I guess I have one more thing to worry about. ug.

Awesome Video (I hope this works)

welcome back - beno

well, yeah i'm lazy. That's the problem. a no duh moment. I've enjoyed some of the time in the past weeks sin Mitt. But I liked it better before. Now I'm so indifferent I can't believe it. Have you heard the song "Animal I've become" by three days grace. Pretty cool but that's not why I bring it up. It says "somebody get me through this nightmare, I can't control myself" that's how I feel about this election. I know why Mitt lost. Everyone knows why. but no one will say it out loud. ssshhhh. crazy. I am prone to mock people that play the race card too much. "You are only saying that because I'm ". So I guess that's why I don't want to tell you all of my thoughts. I've enjoyed the last AM (after mitt) though really because I was watching so much CNN and FOXNEWS and now I don't watch and so I've been reading. I read the entire BOM since January and am almost 400 pages into GBH book by sister Dew. pretty cool huh, yeah I know I'm a freak! You are impressed you know it. well actually for people like el wifey it isn't much, but for a intelectually challenged person like me it's a major accomplishment. I see you smirking, like "you all dat".

Here's your philisophical input from your pal (me): if you want to get over a loss big or small, read the BOM in 60 days. It'll knock your socks off. You'll either 1. feel so guilty that you will forget what you were worried about or 2. feel so good that you will forget what you are worried about. for me it was both depending on the day or part I was at. You know people are always talking about "power" in the world, they have no idea. Really none.

Ok, so yesterday el wifey tore out a wall at our house then blogged about it. She is psycho. but what was funny was that she emailed me and said "I updated my blog, go read it and see if you still love me" pretty funny huh. Girl, you so crazy. But me lika the crazy girls...

Mitt today

My Best List from the Mitt Campaign

Best T-shirt: "Romney/Mendenhall '08" if you don't know don't ask; it's not funny to you...
Best joke: Youtube of Mitt's son prank calling his dad with Governor of California's old movie lines: "who's your Daddy and what does he do?" It's about half way down on the page
Best Article: To difficult to say... today's favorite is at Captains Quarters a political blog by a talk show host Edward Morissey. Why he's going for Mitt
Best TV Spot: The momentum one that is a few posts down from Nevada election that was cool, but the original "This is the story." spot will make you cry the first few times you see it. That's enough for now.

On a more important front, my condolences to all who, like me, are saddened by the Great Leader President Hinkley's death, I feel your pain. I was saddened but also my testimony of the truth of the gospel grew. Two reasons one is because of the succession of leadership is well established and we all love and admire President Monson. The second is from my boy Vance. Vance had great insight last night. We were all at a youth fireside. We were singing the song "Come come ye saints" when everyone started finding out (via text message) that President Hinkley had died. Just when Vance found out we started the 4th verse "And if we die, before our journey's through, happy day, all is well". Amen brother, Amen.

Wednesday - "Oh Where to Begin"

There is so much good Mitt stuff today. I am in heaven. There isn't much negative (much) today. A couple you should look at are this one from the editor of National Review Online. Good line about the "Mormon memo". I enjoyed the Fred Thompson dropping out news since now it helps others, hopefully helping Mitt. Many people are saying that it will help Mitt. Then of course I enjoy seeing anything bad about poor Mike Huck(ster)abee. I guess he, McCain and Rudy are out of cash. Here's an article about Huck specifically. Also there is a great story about Why all the other GOP candidates don't like Mitt. Good read, it will make you realize why I do like him so much.

I guess that's enough. I was able to enjoy these as I ate my lunch so I hope you can find the time too. Also don't forget tomorrow night is the last debate before Florida and Super Tuesday (I think) on MSNBC. I'm not sure what time... It's going to be about the Economy so guess what... Mitt will rule it.

Monday - A way of life at this point

I've been thinking today that there was going to be some good "Mitt" news. Last night I read a little and found some good news on EFM and a good "good is evil and evil is good" comparison. Those posts were great! but nothing beats this pole. Usually you don't see this for Mitt this early. Also you can say what you want about the poles, however the Rasmussen poles have been dead on for the GOP. They like everyone else missed on the Democrat NH primary but they've been right every other time. I was wrong about the SC Romney result but I was more guessing with my heart then my head. I also was wrong about Nevada. Romney got 50%+ of the votes. It was wild, not even close. It's just too bad that Nevada is ignored but it's all good for Mitt.

Yeah Baby!

Well, you gotta see it, Mitt's team put together a cool commercial called "Momentum Friday!" It got me pumped up. It's awesome. Turn it up... or use headphones because it rocks. Click Here to see it and many other MITT TV things. Later Mitt Heads!

By the Way... if you want to see Mitt in a "different" setting watch Leno tonight! He's on... Friday night. I guess that's a quick jaunt from LV where he's been campaigning.

About Time

If you want to know who and why I'm supporting Mitt there are many reasons. Yes is Mormonism made me look at first. But I've also looked at others. I actually like Fred. If there was no Mitt I would go for him, except the whole not a viable candidate thing. A good synopsis is in Ann Coulter's article today. If you don't know who she is then Read about her. A quick synopsis is that she's a very brave leader of the conservative movement. She is tough on liberals, almost mean sometimes, and is very well respected and very well liked by conservatives. She has written several books about her beliefs and political persuasions. It is a good "Mitt" article.

Mitt's Michigan

Well Mitt won. Very good. I was happy to see that but even though he won, many folks are mocking him today. Saying that he pandered and "changed" his views to win. Crazy. He's a politician so he did pander, that's what they do. Every one of them. Good job Mitt, way to sell yourself. It must have been right, because you won and people believed you. duh! I can't get over the stupid main stream media that wants Mitt out of there so bad, they are trying to get rid of Fred Thompson too. "Do you have to win (state name here) to remain viable?" What candidate would say "yes, I must win or I'm quiting". None, what a stupid question. You have to look at these news reporters and see what their motivation is: Viewers and that's it. That's their paycheck. So they will say ANYTHING they need to in order to get more viewers (or listeners you radio people). enough ranting I guess.

Today on the Rush Limbaugh show 3 ladies called and raved about how much they "loved" Romney. Rush was equating it to a point to 1992 and Billy boy. I guess women would call Rush back then and say how much they liked Bill and thought he was so handsome (gross). Anyway he said that he had heard so many women liked Mitt this time is a bit different because they don't "love" him to want to sleep with him, but because they admire him and he's handsome, good family man and has the love of a good woman; his wife. Where the bill chicks liked him back then because they thought he was good looking and thought that there was actually a chance to "hook up". I guess we should have seen the whole Monica thing coming.

ON to Nevada and ON to South Carolina. Predictions? Another gold and another silver!

Views from Larry King

While Larry King was really soft on him, I liked his answers. I liked the answer on the "Mormon" thing. He basically said that if you don't vote for him "ONLY" because he is a Mormon then you are a bigot. Also his criticism of John McNasty saying that Jobs are gone and won't come back was dead on to what I think. McStain is saying that jobs are gone and basically Auto workers should just "get over it" and "move on". I was plenty glad that he was on because a lot of independent voters watch that and not the fox news shows that he's usually on. Independents (the growing number of voters) are gonna decide this election today in Michigan and the general (if he get's that far) in November. No one has the majority anymore. In Iowa and New Hampshire the day or two before the voting Romney never was leading, so that left me hoping polls were wrong. Finally it looks like he leads the polls generally although very small. Remember with all the "polls aren't right" uproar they were right in republican in both Iowa and NH. Check out this poll on Poitico.com. It is close but at least we have a "good" feeling going into today. Something we never had before.

Tonight Mitt on Larry King

Mitt's on Larry King tonight! Don't forget to check him out. Should be 7PM on CNN

Larry's very vanilla and won't be to tough on Mitt. also Larry's married to an LDS lady so he's probably going to be nice. Should be good.

My Time for Mitt

Just wondering what's up with you. Actaully I'm back to being on the positve side of blogging. I'm not sure anyone cares but...

I've been getting a lot of enjoyment supporting Mitt Romney for President. He's fantastic. I can't get over how smart and up to date he is on everything. I've had to study just to find out what the heck they are all taking about. I am wanting to discuss this race and other things in the State goverment, national government or even local. I'll blog more politcally now, because that's what I'm into now. Also I'd like to talk more about what the kids are doing. So there's your preview of my future posts.

Check out some of Mitt's blogosphere it's amazing.
1. 5 brothers blog - Mitt's five son's blog (cool)
2. Evangelicals For Mitt - Very good Blog. Good for Mormons to get a differen perspective on what other's think of a great man. Also very religous people. And Nancy is one of the people that blogs there is super funny and just a normal Mom that is smart like most are but she blogs about it.
3. My Man Mitt - Good information. I think these guys are crazy. It's about 20 people that blog here about Mitt. They never miss a story. New posts about 5-10 times a day.
4. UltiMitt - New just a good list of Media releases or stories that are written about Mitt. Also a general list of "YouTubes" about Mitt.

Expert from book:

The boys started coming in one by one. Some were in groups but most saw me and walked slowly toward where I was standing. They didn’t really know what to expect I guess, even though Coach Thompson had spent over an hour explaining the whole process to them. Once the locker room was empty we spent the first five minutes giving practice jersey’s out. Coach Reyes taped their last names on the front of their shirts so coaches and teammates could quickly learn names. This process could have been done earlier when they met with Coach Thompson but I liked being part of that. I had learned over time that if I wrote or read a kid’s name only about three times I could have it memorized. So by the end of this five minutes I’d have everyone memorized. Very helpful. But very frustrating to the other coaches. I liked it and I liked that it made them frustrated. Most of the players kind of freaked out about it. Later in the first practice I would bark at one them and use their name and they were so shocked that I knew it. I was happy because I figured they’d listen to me if I knew their name and said it every chance I got.

ohhh very nice. More to come. I'm in the second chapter now... it gets good :)

Sometimes...

Sometimes I sit and I wonder what to do next. I am so hot and cold at work. Last week or last couple of weeks it's been so busy and everyone was was yelling and screaming and dancing on graves etc. But now quite, still calm and boring. I wish I had a job that I just sat around and did nothing and made good money, until I have a job where I sit around and do nothing and make good money. Time is slow man. Anyway today I thought of a bout a million things to do that were not work related but that I couldn't do because I was at work. It's all so boring. I think that I need a new job or something. I like my job when we are actively engaged but when I'm not oh man I don't like it. I want to switch jobs with someone that works at home. I don't even care what you do. I just want to be able to fill the boring moments with stuff. Like a nap or sweeping or even cleaning something. I don't care I just am not able to sit here and blog or surf the net anymore. I of course could do some work stuff like call people and see where I can help or go talk to someone that probably could use some help. But I don't want to. It goes back to its easier to sit here and complain then to go out and find something to do. I used to think that I'd like a job where I'm driving around all day. Thinking "how convenient another QT, I'll stop." But on the other hand I'm not sure I'd stick to doing whatever it was I was supposed to be doing. I also think that I'd rather have a job where it's the same busy all the time. Like building or teaching, but then again who knows, I'd probably not like that either. I'll stay here as long as I can because it's the only job I figure where I can blog twice a week and it looks like work!

Musings while waiting...

Here's a view of the world from my eyes. It ain't half bad.

Everything around me is falling apart but guess what? I don't really care. FUNNY huh? The freezer doesn't work, the AC / Heater doesn't work, my car leaks oil my truck is acting weird the Van is getting beat up and falling apart and If half of my kids venture into the weeds in my back yard I may never see them again. There are more crickets in my house then in the entire state of California and I haven't been past about 1/2 way in my garage in so long because I can't get past all of the crap. I don't watch TV before 9:30 at night and I never ever go anywhere for fun. I think that the only thing I do is work, drive and do football with Drew and Sky and that's it. I'm ready for a break from all this and just work on other stuff (like my house) but then I'll just get tired of that too. However like I said i don't care because busy people are happy people. Does a clean house, perfect yard/home and other stuff equal happiness? nope.

How can anyone be a house wife? No, seriously. I mean I worked from home and barely got up from my desk twice between 6:30 am and 11:00 am. I went to the fridge to get a drink a couple of times and that's it. Both times I wanted to fix this, pick up that, help with something or do something else. My wife does a great job with our home but it is very overwhelming keeping up with it and I'm part time help at best. I don't know how she doesn't walk out with both middle fingers in the air every night when I get home and come back around 10 at night. Honestly.

When you are a dad life is different. Today a person accused me of being an anti-bachelor. Meaning that I'm the opposite of a bachelor. duh. They said I had a "herd" at home. I prefer "flock" but my wife may agree with herd. I wonder how quite, clean and empty the house would be without our flock. I was home all alone yesterday and it was noticeably quite since I'm very rarely home all alone. I liked it but not totally. It seemed foreign.

Today there was a crash on the freeway. So what, right? well except it made me late for work. See as long as I don't get in a crash I don't care about them until it makes me late for work. Do you ever think about all of the tragedies in the world? I don't. Because I think if you do you'll go crazier then you already are. There are too many to count. Besides what's a tragedy? I think if I get in a car crash that's a tragedy. No matter how minor.

My daughter got a cut on her bum the other week. It was huge so the wife had to get some really big band-aids. Like 4"x6" band-aids. We all knew about her cut because she's 4 and isn't too modest about it. Anyway after it quit hurting it was kinda funny and cute when she'd show us or talk about her bum owey. Next I got hurt a burn on my hand so I asked Sky and Vance if they knew where the Ace-bandage was so I could hold the Ice on my hand. Sky says "what's an Ace-Bandage? Is it the band-aid Mom used for Tawny's Ace?" We all had a good laugh. Well last night I took it a step further. Drew, Vance and I were walking home and Drew asked if I'd rather ride his bike then walk. I said "no I don't want to fall off and get hurt and need an "Ace-Bandage" If I was Stacy I'd say "I'm so funny"

Control; Lose it!

Well today I'm frustrated. I want to control everything. I want to take control, not relinquish it ever, and remain in control. What do I want to control? Myself, others, situations and emotions. See I want to be able to dictate every situation. I want to be able to tell others what to do. I want to quickly fix mistakes and control the situation so the same mistakes aren't going to happen. I want to get in the front of a situation so that I can control the outcome. You know what else would be cool? Rewind buttons. If a situation doesn't work out, just rewind and start again. That would be cool. Ok, ok, I know that one is out there. All of this rambling is. So I think that I have to go to the other extreme. So here's the solution. Control nothing. I think that's the solution. I'll just go along fat dumb and happy. See if you don't worry about controlling things you remain in control of yourself. I shouldn't try to control the outcome of situations because most of the time I'm just going to get frustrated and wish it had gone differently anyway. I think that if I try to control others I'll mostly be disappointed anyway so I'll just stop trying. I'm not quitting I'm just 'letting go'. There's a difference see. It's the difference in allowing myself to try to be in charge to letting others worry about stuff. See we all have a choice. Try to control it or let it go. I'm letting go and man it feels soooo good.

Game Face

Vance's game face!

2007 Hornets pre-season party

These are a few of the boys that I work with each wee! My sons are both there. All these boys are Awesome!

And yet again i say YES!

Well I ran 4 days in a row. That's some kind of record. Today was good. Stacy didn't go with me so I was alone and it is very dark. I went up one way then back down then back again the way I came so it's like running the same street twice. So it's 2.4 mile run. Today was hilarious. I was running along (slowly) like always and as I passed the "white" park I saw a lady walking. She was "speed" walking you know with elbows flying back and forth and barely bending her knees and heel toe heel toe all the way. It looked like she was holding something really small in her crack. It was comical, but yet very fast. It's dark so I'd only see her when she passed under a street lamp. I wasn't catching up very fast I was more like staying 30-50 yards behind her. Pretty soon I could tell that she knew I was behind her. So I thought she might think I am a stocker or something so I crossed to the other side of the street. But her walk was so amusing that I couldn't help but giggle internally every time I saw her. She also was trying to keep her eye on me so every time she'd get a chance she'd look over her shoulder and look at me. That slowed her down I guess because once we go just past the school I had gained on her a lot. We were nearly even I was still watching her though because like I said it was funny to watch her seize as she walked down the road. It was one of those "train wreck" moments where you know you should look away but you can't (like big boobs). Anyway finally I got where it wasn't feasible to watch anymore since I was jogging even with her and by the school it is quite light. So I forced myself to look forward. At that point I did it. I had to I couldn't help it. Yeah I think she'll walk faster tomorrow. I'm just glad I was on the other side of the street. You shouldn't hold those in, it's bad for you. So I didn't. It wasn't silent, but it was deadly.

Fine then I will

Blogging is supposed to be for me. The only reason I do a blog is because Journals are boring. I was a blogger before bloggers were cool Whetten people! (I CAN PROVE IT TOO). You know I'm right. Anyway. I've been busy too. Blogging is low on the priority list. I've been spending too much time annoying football player's parents, getting fatter and offending football officials and coaches to have time to blog (not to mention working). So here's my blog message today: Only blog for yourself. Don't blog because you want to share your life with other people. It's very much less genuine when you do that. See Stace used to send out an email blog of sorts to everyone on her email address list. I loved it. It was for her. She shared with us her life. But now she quit because she was worried about other people thinking "Why does she send this to me?" When she should have been thinking "I love writing emails to these people for myself!" Here's the thing: You aren’t interesting to everyone. No one is, least of all me. So what you do is blog, email, or type whatever for yourself. It's sincere that way. It's real. If you get someone pissed off or laughing at you, awesome, you don't care what they think anyway. This last weekend in conference the best quote (my blog my opionion) was President Hinkley in Priestood quoted a former President of the church when someone wanted to know what to do when they've been slandered in the newspaper. He said (paraphrase), "Half of the people in town don't buy the newspaper, half of the ones that do won't see that article, half of those that see the article won't read it, half of the people who read it won't understand it and half of those who understand it are of no consequence anyway!" So think of your blogs that way. Because, we that love you will enjoy it more because it is the real you... Love ya and Get off of my butt about my blog! It's mine!

Last days...

Well we are on our last days before the big race! It's this saturday. Scarry. I'm ready I guess. I've been looking forward to it so I'd better do good. My goal is still 2:30. It's gonna be tight. I hope the hills aren't too tough. We swam in the lake last night so I at least know I'll finish that part. In reality If I don't make my time but I finish then I'll be happy :) I've programmed the fakey Ipod for about 90 minutes of music. I figure after that much I'll start over on the same songs. Or all I'll just turn it off. I'll be walking by then anyway.

Triathalon 1 month away

Well, I have only one month to my first offical triathalon. We did the "mock" race on Saturday. We started out at the YMCA at 9:00 am on Saturday. We swam our 1000 meters in about 25 1/2 minutes. It was pretty tough. That was the first time I'd swam that far in about 2 years. My shoulder (hurt it skiing in December) was killing me. I mostly just did the breast stoke because the freestyle wasn't working on my right side. But I finished. Then we dressed and headed out for our 14 1/2 mile bile ride. I started out OK. I was good for about 4 miles. I slowly slowed down after that. I did finally finish in 1 hour 6 minutes. I changed my shoes and started out on the 3 mile run. I ran then walked then ran then walked and then gave up and walked the rest. I finished in 55 minutes. My total triathalon was 2 hours 26 minutes. Stacy (wife) finished in 2 hours 15 minutes and Darcey (friend) finished in 1 hours 58 minutes. I was slow, however I beat the estimated time by 4 minutes. I think I can keep training and make 2 hours and 10 minutes by the time of the race. My biking and running is really hard. I can't imagine being able to run after biking that far, but maybe. More to come.

Updated Triathlon

Update on my Triathlon activity. I am doing it. My wife, me and our Friend Darcey are all running it. It is gonna be touch and go if I can finish it or not. the Wife will. She's been really working on it. The most I've done on the bike so far is 7 miles. And I haven't worked out even once in the pool yet. Who has the time? I'm going for it. If I don't finish then so what. We are gonna give it a shot on may 12th. We will drive to the YMCA pool with the bikes then do our 1K swim, ride the bikes 14 1/2 miles to the elementry school and then run to our house (about 3 miles). If I can finish that in 2 hours and 30 minutes then I'll feel alot better. It should be pretty cool to at least go for it. I've really been busy though and can't seem to find time to run. I'm not lazey just busy (yeah, that's the ticket). Anyway, If I run 3 miles in the morning and bike two or three times a week, I'm just gonna have to trust myself on the swim. I'm not sure when I'll get in the pool. We are going to ride 14 miles this Saturday for the first time, should be fun. More to come D-day is June 9th...

Five Reasons Why I HATE Mark Cuban

1) He's a silly "know-it-all". I bet he's never said "I'm wrong!" Just read his dumb blog . Also he thinks he's the news story. If you go to the Mav's website under the NEWS menu an item is called "Mark Cuban". You ain't the news man it's the players looser!!! fade away already!
2) His dang Dallas Mavericks are coached by a crybaby, and the whole team are crybabies, because HE is a crybaby. In AJ's defense he was a crybaby as a player so he didn't learn from MC.
3) Mavericks are always good. (Nuff said!) Dang!
4) He has more money then most folks yet dresses like a looser. (actually, I'm kidding, I like that about him). Get a hair cut my man! Also
5) I hate him also because of all of the stupid Cuban wannabees that post to his blog and ask for advise... Dude get over it. Cuban isn't a genius, if he was, the Mav's wouldn't have lost to Shaq & Flash last year! Also we'd all have heard of some of the movies that his company produced, and we'd be watching movies on the Internet instead of the movie theater like MC wants. I think that he should sell the Mavs and get on with his life (Dairy Queen anyone!) and join the Surreal Life cast in 2010.
5b) Because he's in the huddle. If you don't hate him for this alone then you have no right to watch basketball anymore. I'm glad Cuban doesn't have kids (or if he does, he doesn't mention them, good job my man). Because I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have his kid on your youth basket ball team and have him sneak in the huddle and say "Hey coach, you should try this and that..."

All this being said, I do like his players. JET and Dirk are awesome. Dirk is a whiner and a winner. So I guess I can live with him. He's the MVP this year, but he needs to shut up. I don't know how they work for Cuban though. Maybe its the case of he's on their side so its cool, but from the "outside" it looks embarassing.
later

Trust is a weird thing

You see people don't trust anyone, really. I mean do you? I don't. I trust my wife, but I avoid asking her to do things that I want to do myself. It's not that she can't do it, its just that I rather do it myself. Most people are the same from my observation. In fact you know what? I think most people would not want others doing things for them. I've noticed that it is much easier for people to help others then it is for them to let others help them. That is a lack of trust. I had a friend that had health issues. They were pretty serious. Her neighbors wanted to help her but she didn't want them too. She likes them, they are her friends but does she truly trust them? (no, for you slow readers out there, as if you existed). I don't trust anyone completely. It is something that I need to work on. My opinion is that we all need to trust someone completely. Naturally we don't want to do this. Naturally we want to be independent. That's the way we are made or wired. It's hard to trust someone completely, because no one is perfect and everyone will let you down once in a while. I'm very bad about that. I could never imagine anyone fully 100% trusting me. (I doubt I even trust myself 100%). What's the secret? the answer? Does it exist. In my religion we are asked to be "one with your spouse". Is this possible without this 100% complete trust? No. But is 100% complete trust obtainable? No right because then that would mean that the trusted person would have to be perfect, which by humans is not possible. The reality is that sometimes in order to trust someone you must experience disappointment or frustration. That is the only way, that improvement can be made. I'm not talking about improvement by the person you are trusting, but improvement in you (meaning me too). We also have to be able to forgive and forget. They are both important, because if you don't forget then you haven't forgiven and you aren't trusting. See if you trusted someone and they let you down, but you never ask them to help again in that area, then you 1) haven't forgotten and 2) you don't really trust them do you. Reverse it. If you let someone down and they never ask you to help them again then you never get a second chance to earn their trust. My dad was great at that. He'd tell me "You lost some of my trust with that action." but soon enough he'd trust me again and give me the opportunity to increase his level of trust of me. But what if he never gave me another opportunity? I'd never would have increased that trust, thus improving myself. How are confidence and trust related? You may have a great confidence in yourself or in someone else, but not 100% trust (or belief) in yourself or that person. The action must take place before confidence becomes trust. So Confidence (opportunity) + Correct Action = Increased Trust... However Confidence + Incorrect Action = Decreased Trust. Think about it next time you need help... Asking someone who may have let you down before, but you want to trust, give them the opportunity (a.k.a confidence) to gain your trust. Of course if they let you down again, then you only have yourself to blame...
Later.

Triathlon

Yeah Right, that's what my wife said (to herself). But today I told her that I am going to start training to run a triathlon. Why? because I did my BMI (body mass index?) and I'm offically clasified as "obese". Yep, me Obese. Wow. I at first thought "High Standards". However I'm just not sure, after I took a shower at the gym today. I guess I'm pretty fat. Oh well, I can't just get motivated this time trying to lose wait. I am gonna do this dang triathlon and I started today to train. I ran 2.2 miles in 25 min, 37 seconds. Terrible. I don't know what to tell you. I can ride the stationary bike for 30 minutes but man running is way harder. I'll update with pictures and update my progress as I can. I hope that someone will join me. We've talked about doing a family "relay" triathlon, that sounds fun. I hope that soon enough I can call my self a "triatlete"!

Oh yes I am!

Well, here goes. You know its true too. I am funny. No one cares, but I am... I make people laugh all of the time. I know you just said "AT YOU", but you're wrong. "WITH ME". you see I'm not one of these useless wastes of space that takes themselves so seriously. I think that one can not laugh at others until they laugh at themselves. And trust me I do enjoy laughing at others. I know you don't get it. You think "I don't take my self seriously" but today you'll get insanly mad at someone else because of their driving, or they were rude to you in line at the store, or because they looked at you wrong. Trust me, you didn't even enter their mind. They just were thinking about someother person. You are just another schmoe like them. You ain't all that important. However, you should be happy about that. Some folks are very self centered and either think everything is offensive or they think that everything that happens is just to spite them. My wife says I'm paranoid and that I think everyone is out to get me... she's wrong. I let her tease me about it because I think its funny, but it isn't true. Most people aren't out to get anyone because they don't have the time or the energy. Its very tiring being so self involved. It matters very little to most of us what our fellow man is doing 99% of the time. Unless they are your very close friend or your wife or kid, why would you worry about anyone else. BUT, we all think that others are looking at us wrong or thinking bad thoughts about us or that everyone is out to get us. Trust me, don't take yourself so serious, no one is concerned about you, but you. Here's the other thing, don't be intimidated by strangers. Why? Because everyone is pretty much the same. Scared that others won't like them, scared that others are thinking bad stuff about them and worried about what they are supposed to do next to "fit in". Give up! Don't try to fit in, try not to fit in. you aren't so cool anyway, or you are and it will just be natural for you to "fit in". 'A weak minded person changes his likes dislikes and views of things every 7 years' . Why because if they didn't they couldn't conform to society. Want to fit in, just keep changing what you like and believe every so often. Soon you'll be on the popular thing. No worries. But of course tell everyone you thought of it all by yourself. I like popular music, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about real things like religion, politics or how you like certain types of people and dislike others. People are not groups, people are people individuals. You can like one guy and dislike the next, and you should but don't change because its the "popular" thing. Don't change your mind on other stuff, unless you really really feel something differently. Be strong and don't cave in like most folks do. I mean, what if everyone changed their mind every 7 or eight years or so...wait everyone does. Why do you think we have a different political party in charge in our government every other election. Anyway... here's the five bullet point summary 1) everyone is the same scared and worried. 2) Don't take yourself so seriously, it smells in the bathroom when everyone leaves 3) stick to your guns, change when change is needed not just to change 4) Don't let others worry you, they are the same as you, worried and 5) Be who you like. Dont' be who you think others will like.
Later, "Like I hope that everyone likes my blog"

Me and my Hornets! 

Stupid is as Stupid Does

You are only stupid when you prove it. You know most people are pretty intelligent. Most I said. However that has nothing to do with them being stupid or not. Forget what your IQ is or how smart your mother said you were, if you do stupid stuff then you are stupid. Everyone can plead "temporary stupidity". It never ceases to amaze me how stupid I am and how stupid others are. Like the people who get drunk all weekend and hate there Mondays. Or people who claim to work so many hours and work so hard and never accomplish anything. I wonder who they are trying to impress. I think that "accomplishments" not time put in are what are remembered. I hope that people don't remember me as a guy who put in the time, but rather as a guy who got things done. Off the subject sorry.

Remember while there is no stupid questions, there are plenty of stupid people.

Miss Conceptions

I think a lot of people like to believe things that are false. It's easier then knowing and accepting the truth. I know that it do. I'd prefer to think that Warren Jeffs is evil, but I don't know it... I think that you and everyone you know believes, in fact knows, at least one thing that is so totally false they'd be embarrassed. I have a friend who at his church his whole life was taught that Mormonism is a cult and should be avoided like the plague. But then he moved a highly populated Mormon area and found out that they were pretty good folks... He was amazed. Also a bit miffed that he'd been lied to. Also I met a guy who thought that all Mormons had multiple wives. Guess what he believed something that was way wrong. Anyway you get the idea. Here's 5 things that I think most people believe that are wrong.
1) All Christian religions are the same. Way off. Most don't know what the other believe but if they did they'd be shocked. Did you know that some Christian churches preach that there was a pre-mortal existence and others don't? What about the trinity, most differ there as well. It seems to me that these are pretty fundamental ideas and peoples can't agree.
2) Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction... What do you think Saddam was?
3) George W. Bush is stupid. Where'd you go to college? I bet it wasn't Yale or Harvard.
4) All wars today are about Money. NOPE! Only the ones we are in are. Most are about religion.
5) Blogging matters. NOPE not unless you are already famous then most of the time even you don't matter either.

Your turn can you think of any... add them in a comment below.

Why Not ME????

Feeling sorry for myself today, Can you tell?
5) Why couldn't I be taller. I wish that I was because then I'd be the same weight and be considered "normal"
4) Why can't I be way smarter so that I could not make so many dumb mistakes. The other day I took a wrong turn and ended up driving around a neighborhood for about 15 minutes. The time consisted of 3 "U" turns, two times back out on the original road and twice I had to stop at a turn and randomly pick which way to go...
3) Why can't I have a better JOB? Mine is good, I get paid well, but I think there are about 10 billion that are better. I've only met like two dudes in the past year whose job I don’t envy.
2) Why do I have so much time in my stupid car... I can say in one word what I wish for two times every day: Teleportation
1) Why don't I WORRY less? I think that I worry too much, Here's my mind as I fall asleep: Did I close the garage, did I brush my teeth long enough? Floss? What are my kids doing? Do they watch too much TV? Are my kids too busy? Did I permanently damage Skylar by yelling at him today? Is the pool dirty? Why did Stacy roll over just now, is she mad at me? I wonder if that bill is due yet? What did I do with my cell phone? Is Vance home yet? I wonder who he hangs out with at HS? Why doesn't he want to hang out with us as much anymore? Is Stacy happy or just too busy to know the difference? What if my tires are flat in the morning? Why is the AC on, that’s expensive? What am I doing tomorrow? Why can’t I remember things as easy anymore? What are the kids doing tomorrow? And it goes on and on....

5 stupid things I've heard lately

In reverse order
5) "My son should play "that" position on your football team coach! He's been training for it all summer". What I wish I could say: Whatever yo! he's 9 and doesn't know is left from his right, and what's he been training for? This aint the NFL, let the kid be a kid and "Play" football. What I really say: "Well, we'll see what we can do"
4) "Dad can I have a cell phone" What I wish I could say: Kid can you read yet? worry about chores and home work then when you grow some I'll let you know... What I really say: see above (I got my wish:)
3) "I killed JonBenet"... What I wish I could say: Really? Were you on a grassy knoll with a government agent too, surrounded by aliens? What I really would say: "Finally we can get this stupid news story over"
2) "We are the best team you'll play this whole year" What I wish I could say: Wow! You are that great? How do you know? What is the point of telling me this? You can't even name all of your players yet and you are "the best"? whatever bro...right back at ya slick~! What I really say: "Wow! You guys must be really good, I hope we can just play well against you"
1) "I already told you that". What I wish I could say: Would I freakin' be asking if I had this answer? Why don't you be polite and just call me stupid like I want to call you! Tell me again then you fat liar. I'll let you get away with that once, but next time you better produce an email or a written message where you told me because a past conversation is only "hear say". What I really say: "will you please tell me again, I must of forgot".
Peace! Stupid people are stupid

Thoughts for today

Here are some random observations that are useless except to me. I think that I'm feeling a lot better about other people lately. Generally I've had mostly good experiences with human kind of late. I can't think when that last time someone tried to "get" me. I wonder if I'm just not paying attention. I also have found that more people seem to be like me lately. Basic "work-a-day" folks that only want to get home and veg in front of TV or a book or something, waiting for that vacation or whatever. The trick is to find a something each day that you can look forward to, then appreciate it and blog about it. Here's mine. Also a tip that will help you now... I had a good weekend because it was my 15th wedding anniversary and my wife didn't get me anything. I can ride that guilt for about a year. I got her two things. :) I am a genius. Do you want to know the secret to a happy marriage? I know of two. I'm sure there are more... Here they are. Even though I shouldn't document them because my wife is probably the only one that reads this blog and now she'll know that I have secrets, but despite that chance... #1 Memorize this phrase and use it: "I'm Sorry, I know I'm an Idiot and I'll try to do better" and #2 Pick something that is "traditionally" not your job and do it always (back off femi-nazi). Make it your job. I mean own it, don't ever let her do it. Mine's Sunday dinner. Sunday dinner in our culture is usually the wife's thing, but in our house it's mine. Has been for a long time now. If she wants to help fine, but I still made the meal. It sure is a lot harder to whine about a meal, especially a big meal like that, when you make it. They've been exceptional lately. Once in a while I have had to humble up a bit and ask her advice . But this is a bonus too. Why? Because she now thinks that she is helping me and so she feels important but doesn't feel that she is being "tasked". These are my only two secrets for married dudes. I'll think of more and try them out on my unsuspecting wife and let you know how it goes. You fictional reader...
Later!

Fact or Fiction

You Decide
1) If you lend money to someone and then they pay you back who says thank you? I think you shoud. It is way easier to lend money then it is to get it back. Fact or fiction?
2) When I ask my wife out on a date, she should say yes, then discuss schedules and the kids not the other way around. Fact or fiction?
3) When you go to church and no one says hello to you it is your fault for not saying hello to anyone. Fact or fiction?
4) If your coworker takes a day off of work you resent them. If you play golf and its crowded you resent everyone out there in your way. When you go to a new hot store you hate everyone else there that makes the new store busy. People only become annoyed or frustrated with others when they see things that they them selves do, whant to do or have done. Fact or fiction?
5) Familys are more fun in the long run, but in the short run they are way less fun then friends. Fact or fiction?
Post back if you want to argue!

Dumber then ever

Brilliant thoughts for today
1) I took 3 days off and played golf seemingly a smart thing. The average tempeture for the three days in the phx area was 115 degrees. Nice job on the vaca choice
2) Work is so dumb. I work well with others but they don't work well with me.
3) Working in IT these days is like walking up a down escalator. You work really hard but you don't get anywhere. Your effort is great, and rewards are few. Once in a while there is a dude at the top that shoves you and replaces you with two overseas people that cost less. But those two dudes are doing the same thing, running up a down escalator.
4) If Brazil and Argentina start fighting will the US jump in? Or is it only if they have nukes or OIL. Goodness let's just stay out of every freakin' country in the world. Why do we care so much? Why don't I care so much? I think we should protect our interests and out citizens, but why do we have to protect everyone else? Pretty soon every country will be at war with us.
5) Just wondering: is talk radio crack for your mind? I don't think it plays a part in common peoples lives. do you ever wonder what people who call these stations do for a living? At least on Jim Rome's jungle program he calls his callers "Jobless". If I was a talk show host I wouldn't take calls. I would say " You guys are all wrong anyway, so you will LISTEN TO ME". You can't do that I guess so that's why I blog!
Peace out!

Golf

Well it's been a while but here goes. I'm a little relaxed today. You see I've played 36 holes of golf in the last 36 hours. Yes It's very cool. I took some vacation off of work because I wanted to so I played golf. It is also the British open this weekend, so in keeping with my theme so far here are the top five facts about golf and why it is a very strange game when normal people play.
1) Anyone can play and wear things that they would never wear any where else. Right Bill?
2) It's 112 outside in Phoenix and we play anyway. Golf makes me dumb like that. Normal people play, in 112 degrees, haven't played in 9 months and miss a 30 foot putt we get all mad like we were expecting play better and think we are the best players on earth.
3) There are three types of golf courses. They can easily be seperated into groups 1st group: professional-Golf carts only, must have a dress codes, small things like tees and course books are free. Tips are also part of the deal. 2nd group: semi-pro - Think they are pros but aren't get mad at you if you forget the dress code, think they are better then you because their job is to work at this golf course. 3rd group Amatures-Usually city course. Reasonably priced, course is messed up, any one can play. Shirts are barely required.
4) Golf is the only game that makes people who don't swear, swear. You can hear it every time you play.
5) Golf is also the only game that lots of people play but hate everyone else that plays too. I call this the Tiger Woods effect. Since el Tigre started playing every dude in the US thinks that he should play too. I think people should be banned from golf courses unless you pass the etiquite test, are 30 years old and can name 5 golfers that won majors before Tiger was born. Of course then I'd play alone. I can dream Right?
See ya!

5 FACTS FOR TODAY

Well here's my next five facts. I know I'm a theme person! Let's go~!

1) My swiming pool attacts people under the age of 10. Not hot girls like on beer comercials
2) If it's 110 outside in Arizona why is the pool still cold... And when I get out of the pool I'm cold. Stupid. It's refreshing though.
3) Working from home by a pool is not as hard as everyone makes it out to be. Going swiming is way more work then it was as a kid. I don't like wet underwear.
4) What do you mean salt pools hurt your eyes! Get over it you whimp, or swim at your own pool!
5) Neighbors who bring their kids over to swim, wear a swimming suit but don't swim deserve to be pushed in. Watch out J!

AZ Ben J

Well its been a year. I still don't get the addiction of blogging. I tried it. I tried to be trendy and cool and have a blog that no one reads like everyone else, but it just wasn't that fun. I don't know, maybe its just I have nothing profound to say. I have thought of some cool ideas. One is that I can kind of make this a journal You know like "Dear Diary" and tell no one all of my darkest and scariest secrets. But that wouldn't really work because I don't have that many secrets that are "secret" anyway. My other idea is to do my "top ten" Ben Johnson Opinions each week. But I'm not smart enough for top 10, so I'm only doing five! I like this idea better. So here goes...
1) Mark Cuban is the dumbest genius ever. He may seem all dark and bruding but really he's just a nerd in a cool jocks world trying to buy love from the cool kids he never got back in high school... I promise some of those players would love to give him a swirly.
2) Scoop Jackson is the best NBA writer on the planet. He's great and always interesting. His writing does come accross to me as racist everytime I read it. I can't believe that he is a racist but that he just feels like everyone (white) is so he should be to... I never miss an article.
3) ESPN is only about money. They don't care about anything else just like everyother network. My gosh listen to ESPN radio for five minutes and you'll find out. You'll get five comercials without one comercial break. "The mike and mike just shutup award sponsored by McDonalds, and on the "ONSTAR" Hotline is Joe Blow presented by AT&T .... and so it goes. It's sickning, but yet I listen...hmmm
4) College Basketball is the best spectator sport. NBA doesn't matter until June and the last five minutes of each game, NFL doesn't matter until 2nd half of the season, College football doesn't include everyone, because there is not mid-major ever making the championship (Ask Utah). But College basketball rules becuase everyone is included and every basket counts
5) Local Sports radio is way better then national sports Radio. We are spoiled here in PHX because we have a good station, but others may not. It's way better to hear about your local teams and players rather then listen to the top two or three teams / programs every day on a national level.

Where am I?

These days I'm never sure if I'm here or there. My goodness. My kids are busy as ever, my wife is always busy and I'm always busy but mundanely bored. I'm at work or home or on the freeway in between. I can't find anything to sink my teeth into lately. Church is good and I do my best to keep involved and "Ardent". But I don't know if it is enough. Do you ever just look at the dark ceiling in the bed and say "where am I?" I do. I don't know why. I can't think of an alternative that sounds any better. I'm sure that there isn't one. Sure a $1M would change that perspective, but even then I'm unsure I wouldn't just beg to get back to where I'm at now. I wonder if looking at other people and seeing what they are up to is healthy. I try not to compare my life to others' because they are just about the same as me. I've decided that I've go it good, but that doesn't mean that every moment is "bliss". But shouldn't it be less boring. I think life is good enough. I used to say all the time "I can't wait until... (enter an event)." But now there is nothing down the pipe for me to wish my life away for. Young middle age to late middle age is weird. I think we all just watch the clock at work and hope for some fun once in a while. I'm thinking that everyone has bored times. I also think that everyone has once, seriously or otherwise, considered suicide. I think that people who say they haven't at least let that thought cross their mind for a brief second, even quickly discarded, is a liar. I think begin bored is the same way. My in-laws said they haven't been bored for years. Yeah, what about that 2 hours you spend in the car a day. That's freakin' boring. Admit it, its boredom. I'm not talking misery, I just mean that I'm looking at the ceiling at night thinking what am I benefiting myself or anyone else by existing. I know the kids look up to me and the wife tolerates me, so I'm OK, but past that I'm unclear. I don't wonder about this stuff every night, but some nights. That's all. Analyze your life and let me know if you happen to stumble on this blog. I don't want answers just comfort in numbers. The answers don't exist anyway...