That Crazy Kishkumen

Holy Pumpernickel, Batman!

2011-03-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I thought to myself, "Self, you sure would like to make some good crusty Peasant Bread." "Yes, I would," came my reply. So I went a looking on the Internet. After about 20 minutes of research and skimming recipes, I realized that a good crusty Peasant Bread might not work out with the tools I have in my kitchen. This was a problem, because, as my wife will tell you, I get so OCD when I get an idea like this in my head, that I will dwell on it until I find some way to improvise around the obstacles and give it a whirl. Now, before you start thinking that I have oodles of motivation and ingenuity, let me just say that giving it a whirl and failing epically is usually enough to kill the dream. I only try, try again when conditions are right, planets align, etc. But until I actually give it a try, I am in obsession land.

Luckily, I stumbled upon a website that mentioned using a dutch oven to overcome some of the obstacles of a limited kitchen. This guy's site: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/baked-good/noknead-bread-recipe-multigrain-peasant-bread-107657 (or it might be this gal's site for all I know, I kind of got in and got out once I skimmed to what I needed) discussed the challenge of getting a crust good and crusty with just a conventional oven. Apparently, it has something to do with humidity. But a slow rise method and a dutch oven are apparently the magic ingredients to crusty crust success. Now, I am sure that some skeptic might suggest that there is a very scientific explanation for why it works, but I believe it is magic. And it is simple. The recipe is crazy simple and cheap: 1/4 teaspoon dry active yeast; 1 1/2 cups of warm water; 3 cups of all purpose flour, and 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt (plus a little corn meal for dusting). That's it! Four ingredients and one sort-of ingredient. Are you kidding me? It has to be magic. And I guess it makes sense, since it is Peasant Bread, that it would be cheap to make. And magical. Because peasants believe in magic.

Oh, and don't forget the mystical dutch oven. I have owned a stove top dutch oven for years and I cook all kinds of stuff in it. And when you think of it, it does resemble a cauldron. And thanks to this website I found, I am like Harry Potter working with the Half Blood Prince's old Potions book. How is that for a contemporary pop-culture reference?

Anyway, you get a big mixing bowl and you dissolve the yeast in the water. Now, I know it says "warm" water, but if I really were referencing the old Potions book, here is where you would find "warm" lined out and replaced with "hot tap water." I think "warm water" in recipes involving dry active yeast is one of those dirty jokes bakers in the know play on novices, because I have never been able to get dry active yeast to get active with what I would call "warm" water. It gets active, in my experience, with water the temperature that I would wash my dishes in. Now you may have a different experience, and I won't question how magic works in your kitchen, but in my kitchen, hot tap water does the trick.

To the yeast water, you add the flower and the salt. And you stir it up with a wooden spoon (because wooden spoons are more magical than other kinds, and because you really don't want to beat this dough up very much). You stir it up until it is all clumped together in a sticky and shaggy ball. Then you cover the bowl with plastic and forget about it for 12 to 18 hours.

Really.

12 to 18 hours.

I mixed it up in the late evening and then went on to the next step when I got home from court in the early afternoon the next day - which was today. I liked how this turned out so much that I made it again tonight, this time around 6 p.m. Since I don't have court tomorrow and have decided to take much of the day off, I will be finishing this one up tomorrow after I work out in the morning.

Apparently, this slow rise, and being gentle with the dough, infuses it with Patience and Love magic. After it has risen (and by "risen" I mean "spread out more than up") it will have little popped bubbly pock marks all over it. And your love and patience and magic will now bring it through the post pimply scarring phase on through to the mature and crusty phase. You will lightly flour a working surface, if you can call what comes next "work." You dump the blob out onto the lightly floured surface and you sprinkle a little flour on top of it and then you gently, and lovingly, fold it over into itself twice. And if all this magic has given you foresight, you didn't get rid of the plastic wrap that was covering the bowl and you lay it loosely over the top of the gently folded dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

During the rest time, you get two clean dish towels out, lay one on the table next to the resting dough, but quietly so as not to disturb its slumber and you sprinkle corn meal over the surface of the dish towel. When the rest time is over, you take the plastic wrap off of the dough, get a little flour on your hands, and gently form it into a ball. You then place it seam side down on the towel. The seams are formed by tucking under the edges as you gently form the ball. You then sprinkle the top of the ball with some more corn meal and gently lay the other dish towel over the ball. It now gets to take another nap for about two hours, during which it will actually rise. If you don't have corn meal, you can use flour, but I strongly urge you to go with the corn meal. It is important to the magic. It is like adding the counterclockwise stirs in the Liquid Death potion. Harry Potter again. I'm a nerd.

About 20 minutes before the two hours is up, turn on the oven to 475 degrees and put the dutch oven, lid on, in the oven to preheat. Give it the full 20 minutes. Then take the dutch oven back out, take of the lid, and get ready for the tricky part.

Gently take the top dish towel off. Gently lift the corners of the other dish towel and bring them together like a stork's bundle and lift while sliding your other hand gently beneath the bundle. Take it over to the dutch oven. You are going to upend it now into the dutch oven, so the seam side ends up. BE CAREFUL - IT IS REALLY HOT!

I cannot express the absolute horror I experienced when I upended the dough after all that gentleness and the dough went, "Plop!", and collapsed a little bit. But don't worry. It keeps you safe from a burn, and this is where the magic happens. And don't worry about all the corn meal that ends up in the dutch oven either. Just put the lid on, return it to the oven, and trust the magic. Leave it in there for 30 minutes. Then take the top off the dutch oven and let it bake for another 10 to 20 minutes until it is nice and golden brown. Be careful when you take off the dutch oven lid. The lid on mine and sealed up a little due to the humidity inside, or evil spirits - I'm still not certain - and I burned the hell out of my knuckle when I gave it a yank. But it was all worth it, because inside was this:

The one in the front. The one in the back is the other loaf I baked during the nap I gave my Peasant Bread dough. That one in back is Pumpernickel. And it is really good. As you can see, the loafs are on a cooling rack. That is where you put the loafs when you take them out of the heat.

Like I said, I got a little OCD on the whole artisan bread idea, and I really love Pumpernickel bread. So I looked up some recipes for it online. None of those recipes called for slow rises and dutch ovens. But magic was in the air anyway and I made that bread in the two hours I was waiting for the other bread to rest and rise.

It is getting late, so I will continue this tomorrow and tell you how I made that bread too. I also threw together a dinner of Fettuccine with Sausage and Steamed Clams. I had to have something to dip the bread in, right? It was all awesome and I will tell you how I did it, I promise. But this is all I got tonight.

I Just LOVE to Sabotage Myself!

2011-03-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted a cream puff. Cream puffs are divinity. I still remember the first time I ever ate a cream puff. I was 9 years old and a family friend, Donna Nance, made them from scratch. It is one of those things that just stick with you. The combination of light baked pastry with custard cream has been irresistible to me ever since. Damn you, Donna. :) I love Donna. She also introduced me to homemade breakfast sandwiches with tomato. I can't order a breakfast sandwich from any fast food joint without requesting that they add tomato. But I digress. Back to the sinful bliss that is cream puff.

I must say, thank the Lord for the Internet! And, damn the Internet to hell! I had a recipe in my hot little hand within microseconds of Googling "cream puffs from scratch." It was all downhill after that.

Though it has to be babysat, the recipe and method are really not that difficult. Here is how you do it - in my own words - drawn from my euphoric, yet tortuous morning after memory:

First, get yourself a medium saucepan. You also need a mixing bowl. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In the mixing bowl, sift a cup of flour and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. In the saucepan, get the heat going high and bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Drop in a stick of butter (1/2 cup) once the water is boiling and boil together until the butter is melted. You may need to stir it a bit so it doesn't boil over. To the boiling water and melted butter, add the contents of your mixing bowl while stirring rapidly. Once it is all in and you set down the bowl, reduce the heat to medium, stirring continuously until the mix comes together in a glob that doesn't break up and has pulled everything off the sides and bottom of the saucepan. Remove it from the heat and put it into your mixing bowl. Let it cool for a minute or two while you retrieve 4 eggs from the fridge.

You will need a hand mixer. Vigorously beat in each of the eggs one at a time and continue beating until nice and smooth.

Spray some notstick butter flavor spray on a cookie sheet. Spoon out the mix onto the sheet keeping about 3 inches between each glob. When I did it, I did large heaping tablespoonfuls and the mix made 6 large cream puff shells. they puff up quite a bit while they bake, so you can probably go a little easier and turn it into a full dozen. Personally, I prefer the big dogs. But if I make this for anyone other than my nuclear family, I will probably try to stretch it out to a full dozen.

Anyway, once you have it all spooned out, put it in the 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. At fifteen minutes in, reduce your heat to 325 degrees - I opened the oven for about ten seconds or so to bleed off a little heat then closed it back up. Let them cook another 25 minutes at 325 degrees. Leave the oven on. Take them out and slice them all in half, returning both pieces to the cookie sheet. Put them back in the oven and turn it off. Leave them in there for 20 minutes to dry out a little, then take them out and transfer them to a cooling rack. When they are cooled, they can be filled.

Now for the filling.

I think I will make the filling first when I make these again because it takes some time to cool down and you can't fill the shells until the filling is cool. And you can't eat the cream puffs until they are filled. Well, I guess you could, but they wouldn't be cream puffs. They would just be puffs. And the puffs aren't sweet. Well, they are SWEET!, but they are not sweet. The sweet part is in the filling and in the powdered sugar or chocolate that you drizzle over the top of them after they are filled.

Separate two yolks from the whites of two eggs and put the yolks in a bowl. I don't care what you do with the whites, just don't use them in this recipe. If you happen to be making some french bread or something, add some water to the yolks and use it to glaze your bread. For this recipe, you need the yolks. Beat them up really well and set aside.

I used the same saucepan for this. It was cool and clean by the time I used it. Put the saucepan on the burner but don't turn the heat on yet. Into the saucepan, add 2 tablespoons of flour, 2 tablespoons of corn starch, 1/2 half teaspoon of salt, and 2/3 cup of sugar. Stir them together. Add to them 3 cups of milk, adding the milk gradually while stirring. Make sure everything is good and dissolved and incorporated.

Now turn on the burner to medium heat. You will be stirring for a while. While you stir it, the custard will start to thicken. You will want to stir it constantly, but slowly enough that you can tell when it starts to boil. When it starts to boil, keep it on the heat while stirring for another three minutes, then take it off the heat. Take about a quarter cup at a time and stir about 3/4 to 1 cup of the mixture into the egg yolks, stirring constantly so the eggs don't cook. Then take that mixture and pour it back into the rest of the custard waiting in the saucepan. Stir that all in well and return to heat. Cook and stir until it just starts to boil again and then remove from the heat. Hot custard is awesome, so feel free to taste it. Just don't go crazy because you will need the rest of it.

Set it aside to cool covered with some plastic wrap or wax paper. I let the heat come down to lukewarmish, then put it in the fridge.

Now you need a cup of heavy whipping cream. You are going to whip it up. This may be a good time to talk about calories. These things have calories in them. You need a way to counteract those calories and whipping cream by hand might help. If you are like me, you whip the cream like crazy in a bowl with a wire whisk for 5 minutes or so, then you give up, get out the hand mixer, turn it on high and whip it until it is fluffy and thick. But I figure that 5 minutes of vigorous whipping plus all the stirring I did while cooking the custard are a good enough justification to eat one (ok, one and a half) of these babies; especially, since I ran for an hour on my new elliptical that morning and had burned, according to my Bodybugg, about 1100 calories in the first two hours after I woke up.

Speaking of my new elliptical - I had to buy a new elliptical this last week. My old one finally crapped out after a good 4 or 5 years of faithful, albeit intermittent, service. I lost a lot of weight, a few times, on that puppy, and it was with a tear in my eye that I replaced it. The tear did not last long though, because the new one is freaking awesome! It folds up, has motorized incline settings, an iPod dock, all kinds of great pre-programmed workouts - all for about the same price I paid for my old elliptical. And Bec finds it to be more comfortable to run on than the last one, so that is a plus too. OK, sorry for the tangent. Back to the recipe.

Once the custard is cold, you fold in your whipped cream, which is also cold, because it has been in the fridge too. Fold the whipped cream into the custard and then load it all into a large plastic bag and cut off one corner for an improvised piping bag. Or you can just spoon it into the shells. But whatever you do, the creamy custard belongs inside the two halves of each puff. The puff is its home. Help it go home.

Now, sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops of the puffs and don't be stingy about it. You can also drizzle melted chocolate over them if you like a little contrast. I'm a powdered sugar man for my cream puffs. If I am wanting chocolate, I am going to shape my globs into eclairs before I cook them up and then top it all with chocolate when its done (subtle hint).

You can eat one right away or share it with your gorgeous wife - which is what I did. The others, I refrigerated until Family Home Evening. I wouldn't refrigerate them longer that half a day or so, though. Not because they aren't totally awesome the next day or anything, but because I have little to no self control.

Well, that is the latest cooking adventure - if you don't count the biscottis I made on Saturday and Sunday. The first had almonds and pine nuts. The second had oatmeal and cocoa (because Min and Z have nut allergies). They were actually quite easy to make too. I will probably talk more about that on another blog because I am still experimenting with ingredients and variety.

Don't let making cream puffs from scratch overwhelm or scare you. It really was very easy. And cream puffs are an essential ingredient to the stability of the known Universe. So do your part. Make them. Enjoy them. Bring harmony to the Universe.

Dinner Last Night (March 21, 2011)

2011-03-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Last night I posted on Facebook that I was making Chicken Picatta and Pesto Bowtie Pasta for dinner. A few of my Friends asked for my recipe, so it follows. I must give credit where it is due. I first learned the basic format of these recipes recently on TLC's Kitchen Boss, with my favorite baker, Buddy Valastro from the Cake Boss. It is on (mostly) daily at 5:30 p.m. I do the Picatta slightly different from what Buddy does in a few ingredients. For instance, I will thicken my pan sauces with corn starch mixed in cold water (a little goes a long way), instead of finishing with as much butter or cream. It saves a few calories. Also, Bec and I recently ate ate the Cosmopolitan Buffet and their Picatta had mushrooms. I liked that touch, so I have added them to mine.

▪ You will need:

8 or so cutlets of the meat you choose (use chicken or veal). To make a cutlet, butterfly the meat by cutting it in half horizontally between the top and bottom of the breast or boneless chop.

▪ Then, you will need to:

Pound out the cutlets to about a quarter inch thick or so. Cover each one with a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface and pound with a flat tenderizer.

▪ Now:

Get a skillet going over medium-high heat. You need one with some depth because you will be doing a pan sauce in it. I prefer my cast iron skillet. Cover the bottom of the skillet with olive oil (a few tablespoons for a thin coat) and add 1 tablespoon of butter. This will keep the butter from burning and raise the smoke point of the oil/butter mixture.

While that is heating up, get a flat shallow dish and combine around 1 cup of flour, some sea salt and fresh ground pepper, and some grated parmesan cheese for coating the cutlets. Coat about half of the cutlets and cook in the oil/butter for 2-4 minutes per side, depending on how hot your oil is. You will want them to be goldenish.

▪ Next:

Remove the cutlets when cooked and drain over paper towel on a cooling rack, then plate on a large serving dish. Put them in the oven on warm while you cook the remaining cutlets. Do the same with those when cooked.

▪ Now for the sauce:

Leave the heat on. If you are going to use mushrooms, throw in some chopped mushrooms of your choice (I use baby bellas) and hit them with a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Saute for a few minutes until they start cooking through. Pour in a quarter cup or so of white wine (a little more if you use the mushrooms because they really soak it up) and deglaze the pan (the wine will pull up all the cooked bits and stuff). Let that simmer and start to reduce. Then pour in around a cup of chicken stock/broth. Continue to simmer. Add the juice of two lemons (2-3 tbsp.). Add another tablespoon of butter (or don't and use about a teaspoon of corn starch mixed with around an eighth cup of cold water pre-mixed), a pinch of salt, some pepper, and some chopped fresh Italian parsley. Finally, add 2-3 tbsp. of pickled capers. Let it all reduce and thicken a bit and then pour it over the cooked cutlets. So freaking good.

For the pasta: cook up some bowtie or whatever you have. Make sure you salt your water (as Buddy says, it should taste like the ocean); it makes a difference. While it is boiling, in a food processor or blender with processor attachment, make your Pesto sauce. Pesto is a fresh basil based sauce. You can substitute baby spinach, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone in their right mind would do something like that.

You will turn on the processor and while its spinning, drop in 3-4 medium sized cloves of garlic and let them skip around and chop up. Then you will add a third of a cup of pine nuts and let them do the same. Turn it off and add your basil. Tear off the leaves and don't use the stems. Add to that around a half a cup of fresh grated parmesan or romano cheese. Pulse it a few times. Now add around a half a cup of extra virgin olive oil and turn the processor on. You will want it to have a smooth somewhat pourable texture, so add a little more oil if you need to get more liquid in it (or a little cream if you want a creamy pesto). Now add a pinch of sea salt or so and some fresh ground pepper to taste. Pulse it in.

Pour off the water when your pasta is done and toss it in the pesto sauce.

This was a really tasty meal and I am looking forward to the leftovers. You can add a salad or vegetables on the side if you are so inclined. With a little portion control, you can eat a pretty filling amount of these dishes for a combined 650 calories or less. But it is really hard not to grab some artisan bread crusts to mop up the drippings on your plate. I say do it and just get a few pushups and situps (or any other vigorous activity -- I have a suggestion, but I'm keeping this PG) in before bed and you should be ok.

I have a blog? Oh, right, I forgot!

2011-03-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

What can I say? Facebook has me doing all my updates in short paragraphs and I just haven't gotten around to updating this blog. It is a shame too, because there has been a lot going on. A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I went in for my semi-annual kidney check. The bloodwork was not good. And it was my own damn fault. Well, I will blame God just a little, but that's just because he has a really thick skin and can take it. My Church calling, from back in February 2010, is first counselor in the Bishopric of the Highland Hills Ward. It is a new ward. So, my calling was very time consuming for the first 7-8 months. This led to me slacking quite a bit in the physical fitness department. I could hardly attend Karate and Jiu Jitsu and my morning workouts became almost non-existant. That, coupled with a large shift away from proteins on account of my kidneys, was a recipe for disaster. I started getting thick around the middle again and basically put everything back on but for about 5 pounds of what I had lost in 2009 to get ready for my first Jiu Jitsu tournament.

And the doctor could see it in my bloodwork.

The good news was, my kidneys were stable. The bad news was my blood pressure had started creeping back up, in spite of a $200 per month pill, and my blood was getting thick, due to low blood oxygen. I asked if that might be from apnea due to my weight and the doctor thought it might be. I told him about some of my struggles and that I had been considering looking into the HCG diet or something like that, but that I was concerned with the high protein aspect of the programs that are popular right now. He told me not to worry about the protein because my kidneys are doing fine, and that losing the weight should be my priority.

At Thanksgiving, I tipped the scale at 267 lbs. Today, I weighed in at 222. Here is what I am doing, and it ain't HCG:

Well, first, I did go to a weight loss center near my home. I basically spent $600 to have them have me come in weekly and account for what I was eating. I didn't let them upsale me into any extra products, but I did get a three month supply of a low grade prescription appetite suppressant that I could hardly feel working. I didn't go with anything strong because I can't be jittery in court. I ended up using it for about 2 months. Mainly what I got from the weight loss center was a routine of writing down everything I was eating and weighing in weekly.

I have been on and currently am still on an 1850 calorie per day eating regimen which focuses on basically a balance tipping in slight favor of protein, between protein, fat and carbohydrates.

The most vital tool for me, though, has been the Bodybugg that Beck surprised me with for Christmas. It is great and really helps me know where I am at with my diet and exercise every day. And the exercise has been key to the weight loss.

My plan is to keep losing until I get down around 180. Then I can make the cut to welterweight (170) for fighting.

The best part about all of this is the food I have been eating lately. My man Buddy Vilastro, The Cake Boss, now has a show called The Kitchen Boss and his recipes are awesome and adaptable to my way of eating. I have also been working on a lot of my own recipes. I recently contributed to a cookbook the boys in my Ward are selling for a fundraiser. It is called Man Food and we had 13 men contribute recipes to it. CJ has sold about 30 of them with a little help from me and Facebook and some good old fashioned phone calls.

I enjoy cooking so much, that this blog may turn into a food blog for a while. Well, that is a quick update for now. Let's see how long I can keep this up this time.

I Wanna Be a Failed Vice Presidential Candidate from a State with a Population Smaller than Most Large US Cities

2010-04-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am dumbfounded and feel compelled to blog about it. People are paying Sarah Palin between $75k-$200k a pop for speaking fees???? My faith in the general intelligence of this nation is on a slippery slope descending into the bottom circle of hell where the goat-footed, bat-winged, pitchfork wielding Old Scratch chews on Judas's drumsticks. Seriously? The Tea Party wackoes are crying about the government wasting money and they paid that Harpie $75k to show up at Harry Reid's birthplace? What is the lesson here? And how is it that she stays relevant? Oh yeah, she skips out midterm on the people of her State to "write" a book. And then she poses for pictures wearing her running shorts during an interview and then whines when they are made public. Let's see, she also engages in a public and stupid insult exchange with the kid who knocked her daughter up and posed for Playgirl. Anything else? Oh yeah, she goes after Rahm Emanuel on Facebook for calling some Democrats retards.

So, all I've got to do is get a little prettier, move to some podunk State and run for governor and then hope that some guy who doesn't have a chance of actually winning the Presidency will pick me for his running mate so I can demonstrate my woeful lack of qualification on national television and air my family's dirty laundry (get to work on some dirty laundry people, for crying out loud!) and then I might be able to make a few million a year rallying rednecks.

God bless America. We are becoming a nation of imbeciles.

Sloan Canyon

2010-02-18T22:53:00.000-08:00

So, Beck and I and James and Nat took our kids out to an awesome place this last weekend. We went to the Sloan Canyon Recreational Area, a canyon in our desert here that has over 1500 individual petraglyph sites. I took some video and the link is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgAj1dtWZkU

I also took some close shots.

The place was really awesome. It was a good little hike that was kid friendly. You need a high clearance vehicle to get out there, but it is not far, especially if you are willing to do some illegal driving.

The legal way to get there is to go out of the valley on the I-15 to the Sloan exit. You take a left at the stop sign and then another left after you cross under the freeway. About .2 miles down the road heading back toward Vegas, you hang a right on a power line road. They are big power lines, you can’t miss them. You stay on that road, headed East back into Henderson. There is a substation about half a mile in that you have to go around, but you just get yourself back on the power line road and you are golden. Stay on that road for another 3-4 miles and you will see little metal identification tags on the poles. Just past pole 12084, there is a turn to the right, basically a two track road. You follow that for about a mile, keeping to the right hand forks, and you come to a sign that says Sloan Canyon Recreational Area. You keep going a little bit more until you can’t any more and you are there. The hike goes up a gentle slope in a dry wash.

You have to walk a mile or so and you hit a dry waterfall. From here, petraglyphs start showing up. There are two more dry waterfalls and the further up you get, the more petraglyphs you can see. It was incredible. They were literally everywhere.

You definitely would NOT want to get caught up there in a rainstorm.

Now, for the illegal directions (at least for now). If you go up Eastern into Anthem and take Anthem Parkway all the way to the end of it, drive around the Jersey Rails trying to block you from getting out there and follow the concrete storm ditch until you reach a big concrete basin, you hang a right. You go maybe a quarter mile from there and go left up the same two track road and you are there. This area is already rough graded for further development, and I bet in a few years when the building market begins to pick up again, you will probably be able to drive almost the whole way to Sloan Canyon on a paved road. James and I were talking about getting ourselves dropped off out there with backpacks and working our way over the McCullough Range back to our neighborhoods for a two day hike sometime.

I think the kids really liked it and I know the adults appreciated this gem of a hike here in our own desert.

Running is Out, Biking is In, and Other Updates

2010-01-29T14:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while. My last post was about the Ragnar. Beck and I ran a half marathon out at the railroad tunnels down to Hoover Dam at the end of October. We continued to train, but around Thanksgiving, my left knee started giving me major trouble. I had noticed some extra pain when I ran, but I was determined to keep running. Then one night at Jiu Jitsu practice, I knelt on my left knee and it was like someone was pulling a fistful of skin off my shin and lighting it on fire at the same time.

Martial Arts is higher than running in David's hierarchy of Awesomeness, so running quickly got phased out.

Unfortunately, I am paying the price in lard.

The Holidays got me bad this year. I gained back about 15 pounds or so and it is really hard to get back on the wagon. I swear, food addiction is as bad as any other one out there if you ask me. At least if I drank or did drugs I could get a buzz or a high. Instead, I get lethargy, gas, aches, pains and unpredictable bad health. I so gotta get the diet under control.

It's not all bad. We got bikes for Christmas and have been trying to get out on regular rides. Beck and I got hybrid bikes and mine is pretty tricked out with a headlamp, speedometer, water bottle holder, etc. Beck got them for me in my stocking along with some riding gloves. We got her hooked up with a light too. Safety first - that's how I roll. I also have my trusty elliptical which is a super star calorie burning machine. But high impact running is basically out. I would like to get a 5k in once a week or so still but I will just have to see how the knee feels. I have put too much into my martial arts training to be sidelined by my knee.

Speaking of martial arts, I have finally restored order to the universe and caught up to CJ in the ranks. I actually now outrank him thanks to my advanced years. We are one advancement away from Red Belt. Then it is just three degrees until Black. I can't technically test for Black until I have been in the organization for 2 1/2 years. That puts me at early 2011, so it will probably be closer to mid-2011 based on the testing schedules, but I am going to do it.

Christmas was great. We implemented Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh gifts. We had a Family Home Evening and discussed the wise men's gifts to the Savior. I told the kids that Gold represented His earthly kingship, Frankincense, since it was burned in religious ceremonies, represented His heavenly kingship, and Myrrh, which was used to anoint bodies in burial represented His sacrifice. So we told them to think about and list gifts they would like to receive with Gold being something they really wanted (earthly), Frankincense being something that would benefit them spiritually or mentally, and Myrrh being something that would benefit their bodies. We then got them one thing from each of the lists. We explained that they would still get a stocking and probably get spoiled by grandparents, and we also had them do a name draw and gift exchange with each other.

We scaled it back so we could help others as much as possible this season. We were so greatly blessed last Christmas, we really wanted to be able to pay it forward. I think we were able to give as much as we got. We were able to do a lot for our Ward's Angel tree and stuff like that and I think it really helped the kids to appreciate the Season for what it really is all about. They really liked their gifts too, because they put some real thought into them and saw that thought rewarded. It was one of our best Christmases ever.

I have also been very busy at work. Almost too busy for my taste, but I really can't complain when I know so many others are looking for work. Even though I put in a lot of hours, I get to, for the most part, put them in when I want to and keep my schedule somewhat flexible. It allows me to spend some good time with the family and that works for me.

I should also probably publicly call myself out to motivate myself to lose those holiday pounds and stay on track toward my ultimate goal weight, so here it goes, "Hey, Fat Boy! Get off your butt! Drop the burrito! Get on that bike you spent all that money on! Come on! You can do it! And if you don't, I'm gonna kick that fat butt up and down the block!"

Running -- I Must be High

2009-10-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, Rebecca and I began training for the Ragnar Relay back in June. We were also doing P90X, so getting the running in was on and off for the first two months. Come August, though, we began putting in a lot more miles. The training went fairly well, with just a few setbacks due to my hit and miss medical condition which seems to have made me susceptible to a debilitating bout with sore throat/tonsillitis every 5-7 weeks or so. When it hits, it usually grinds my physical activity to a halt for anywhere from a few days to a week. I think between August and September, I was down twice.

However, in this time period, I experienced a few lifetime firsts. For instance, I ran distances of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 miles all for the first time in my life. I remember in high school, despite being very athletic, I was of the opinion that I would rather run wind sprints until I puked than run one mile, so this is a serious accomplishment for me. I also ran in my first ever 5k race in Beaver, Utah, and a 10k race here in town. Running in actual competition was always something I watched thanks to marrying into the Campbell clan; I was never a participant. I actually got third place in my division in the 10k. (Before you think this is a big brag, I was probably the youngest in that age group division).

I never thought that I would actually make running a regular part of my life, but it feels like this new interest is actually going to stick. Why couldn’t I have had these motivations when I was younger and my body worked better? The irony just keeps on coming the longer I get in the tooth.

I also read a autobiographical book about running called, Ultra Marathon Man, Confessions of an All Night Runner, by Dean Karnazes. I won’t do a full book review here, but I definitely recommend this book to anyone. It is a quick and satisfying read, and the story is nothing short of incredible. I don’t see myself doing full Marathons or Ultras any time soon, if at all in this lifetime, but it is still an inspiring book.

So, having trained for months, participated in a few competitive races, and having read about running, I was finally prepared for the Ragnar Relay. The Ragnar Vegas this year was a 171 mile race from Logandale to the Red Rock Casino by way of the Valley of Fire, the Old North Shore Road, Lake Mead, Boulder City, Henderson, the Spring Mountain Valley and Red Rock National Park. We had a 12 man team on which both Rebecca and I ran, each team member completing 3 legs of the race. I ran around 15 miles of it, and Rebecca did about 12.5 or so.

We set off in a 15 passenger van with four other teammates including Dan Anderson, Rob Strehlow, Matt Paxton, and Dave Holmgren. It was a good time. Our legs started in the Valley of Fire. Dave H. ran from the visitor’s center to the Old North Shore Road. Rob took over from there, running to just a few miles out of Echo Bay, to the enjoyment of many of the lady’s running on other teams. Then I took over.

Rob looking sexy; me, not so much :)

My first leg was nothing short of grueling. I had cycled around to the beginnings of another sore throat issue and was feeling a little funky. Rob had forgotten his iPod, so he had to hand mine off to me at the exchange and it took me about a half mile to get it unknotted and back on. My 7.7 mile course climbed for that first half mile and then went downhill for about 3.5 or so. At the bottom of the decline, there was some road construction and no blacktop, so it was a big dustbowl. I ran through that and started the climb out. The next 3.5 miles was steady uphill with just a few flat spots. This is where I lost a little battle. I had hoped to be able to finish my legs without any walking, but those steep climbs knuckled me under. I got about three quarters through the first big hill and had to speed walk the rest of the way to the top. Then I ran the flat and about three quarters of the next big hill and had to speed walk again. I again ran the flat and then got about half way up the next big hill and then walked again. The last quarter mile moved toward flat and then actually finished on a little down-slope, which I ran and handed off to Rebecca.

I found out pretty early on into our training for this race that Rebecca is definitely a Campbell when it comes to running. She DOES NOT like to run behind anyone. Sure enough, she took off and started running people down. She came in at 51 minutes on her leg and it was like 6.5 miles. She was cruising. She handed off to Matt, who is a marathoner who averages six to six and a half minute miles. He ran down a lot more people. He was awesome to watch. Dan finished our first set of legs with a little over 8 miles down into Callville Bay. We headed off to get an hour and a half of sleep in Henderson after shooting the breeze with the other half of our team in Van 1.

I should probably pause to mention the heroes of Van 1 here. We had two runners back out at the last minute and we had to scramble to get replacements. Thanks to Reed Howe for taking a longer leg so we could entice a couple of runners, and thanks to Facebook for getting the word out quickly, two of my friends, Carl Huntsman and Shelly Phillips stepped up and filled in for us on two day’s notice. They rule!

After a short nap, and a hurried drive out to Boulder Beach, we met up with Van 1 again to take over for our second set of legs. I utilized a power shot to wake up for my run. After Dave H. got a little lost coming up the hill to Boulder City and Rob took the last major climb out, I took off from Boulder City toward Railroad Pass. This leg was 4 miles for me and over the first two miles I was running under 8 minutes on my miles. The last two miles, though, have a little climb over the pass which slowed me to a brief walk at one point, but I finished strong for my best leg average of just over 9 minute miles. By now, we were in our own training stomping grounds and Rebecca took over on familiar turf. She cruised in, running down a few more runners and handed off to Matt who hit the turbo boost.

During Matt’s leg, we encountered a tragedy. A runner from Utah had been struck and killed by a drunk driver, causing a brief diversion to Matt’s course. Dan finished up strong, but the death of a runner took the wind out of everyone’s sails for a time. We headed back to Rob’s house to catch another hour or so of sleep and then it was off to the thirds set of legs.

My third leg was tough. It was all uphill into the Spring Mountain Valley and up into Bonnie Springs. My leg was shortened by about .4 miles, but this was essentially added on to Rebecca’s last leg and it had a monster hill on it. I decided to provide her some motivation in the way of shedding my shirt and tucking my shorts up bikini style and waiting for her about midway on her leg at the side of the road. I gave her water and a show and she finished her leg strong.

Matt, of course, ran down another 12 or so runners, and Dan brought us in to the finish at the Red Rock Casino. Our team came in 92nd out of about 220 teams, and we were 9th in our division (which was the open men’s division). Not bad for a bunch of Ragnar Rookies.

Aside from the obviously sad part, this was an awesome experience and a lot of fun.

And now I have a mild running bug. Rebecca and I are about 80% sure we are going to run a half marathon out at the lake on October 31, and we are 100% training for and running in the St. George Painters Half Marathon in January. I think I am going to mostly run 5k’s and 10k’s in the future, but we’ll see how I feel after running a couple half marathons. I still have Karate and Jiu Jitsu keeping me busy too, so it will be a balancing act I am sure. But my goal is to keep dropping weight and getting healthier by increments until fitness won’t ever be a question again.
CJ and I tested for our next belts yesterday. I will post video soon.

Virtual Training Buddy

2009-09-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Allow me to brag about my brother, James. He got me the coolest gift for my birthday (delivered a few days ago). Knowing that I have been doing all of this running over the last few months, he got me a Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS running watch. The thing is too cool. I am taking it on its Maiden voyage tomorrow morning. It sincs with sattelites to get your exact position (duh, GPS) and maps your run exactly. It holds like 200 days worth of workout information. It comes with a heart rate monitor so it can track my calories burned and how long I am in the different zones (fat burn, cardio, etc.). Then I can plug it into my computer and upload all my data and get detailed reports on my activity. Sweet!

One of the coolest things it does is lets you compete against a Virtual training partner. It actually puts two little dudes on the screen and keeps track of lead changes and all sorts of stuff.

I can't wait to try it out. Heaven knows, little gizmos like this keep running interesting. And since its GPS, it can also track elevation changes and everything, so I can have data to look at when I go on hikes and things like that. I am totally stoked. Thanks, James!

My Facebook Dilemma

2009-09-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Facebook is a blog killer. It is so quick and easy to post an update a few times a day or more that I find I am neglecting my blog. This is particularly troubling because I have had a lot going these past few months that might have made a good blog post or three and I have used all my best material on Facebook. Damn you, Facebook!

But I can't seem to break the Facebook habit. It is really nice to be able to track and keep up with all of my Friends, some of whom I have not seen since High School and some of whom I now get to talk to more than I ever did in High School.

Mission buddies are on there too, so I am getting updates on South Africa, including how Springbok Rugby is doing. They rule, by the way. Beat the All Blacks on their home turf this last week! They have won two of the last four World Cups.

My weight loss has slowed to a trickle, even with all of the running and continued working out I have been doing. It's probably because I am eating more because I am hungry all the time because I am doing something physical all the time. It is cool though, because my chest is starting to move back up my torso to where it is supposed to be and my muscle tone is getting better every week. Thanks, Tony Horton!

My youngest daughter, Avienda has started kindergarten, and my oldest son, CJ took a ten day trip to Peru. My little brother, Kol, has received a mission call to Brazil and been through the temple.

And I turned 35, but I will not dwell on that.

I also got a new cell phone, a Blackberry Storm. It is awesome. Oh, and did I mention that BYU is kicking some serious butt this year in football.

I have also been caught up in recent politics, particularly the Health Care reform debate. See if you can guess which side I come down on? :)

Well, I know this is a pathetic excuse for a blog update, but it is all Facebook's fault. Cursed Facebook. The ironic part is, when I sign out from my blog today, I will head on over to Facebook to let everyone there know that I have just made a blog entry about stuff they all already know about. Thank heaven I never got into Myspace and don't have a clue how to Tweet!

Don't Mess with the BJJ Black Belt

2009-06-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted, so here are a few updates. Since my last post, I have started P90X, started training for the Ragnar Relay, been a single parent for a week while Beck was at girls camp, and rolled with a world champion Brazilian Jiu Jitsu player. So cool . . .

First off, some embarrasing photos of myself:

This is the before shot for P90X

After 30 days, 60 days and 90 days, you take more shots. Though, I can't see a huge difference in the 30 day shots below, I have gained a significant amount of muscle definition and some size on my shoulders and biceps. It will probably show up a little better after 60 days, but here are the 30 day shots:

In addition to the p90X workouts, which are incredible and really kick the crap out of me, I have continued the martial arts training and have started running every other night with Beck to train for the Ragnar Relay we are running this October with others of a 12 member team. Our team will run about 180 miles, 3 legs each, over two days. We started running 15 minutes every other night for the first week, and increased that to 18 minutes every other night for the next week.

And then came girls camp.

Beck left me, Monday through Friday with the kids. I do not ever want to be a single parent. I love the kids, but doing by myself blows goats. I was shouting "Halelujah and Praise Jesus!" when Beck got home yesterday. She is absolutely essential to my existence and I know I could never make it without her.

I welcomed her home with a new Dyson vacuum cleaner and the news that I had a jiu Jitsu clinic that night to attend. I am such an ass. I planned on just sending CJ to the clinic, but Beck insisted that I go.

At the Jiu Jitsu clinic, we got to spend about an hour and a half with 2007 No Gi International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion, Mr. David Dunn. Mr. Dun is black belt in Jiu Jitsu and also a 4th degree black belt in Chun Kuk Do (the Chuck Norris style of Karate). He is pretty much a bad ass.

The coolest part of the clinic was when he invited those of us who dared, to train with him. The guy is amazing, he rolled with Kenny Gallagher, myself, Mr. Ken Gallagher, Casey Perry, and Kenny again. He is in unbelievable shape and his Jiu Jitsu is awesome. His transitions are incredibly fluid and he never seems to not be in control of the situation. I think I might have overstepped and pushed my round with him into deep water too quickly, because I came out of it with a nice momento on my face for my trouble:

It's all good. I'm loving every minute of it! I think Beck thinks my battle wounds are sexy too. One thing is for sure, rolling with someone with much more experience is always an eye opening (or portentially eye closing) experience. I learned a great deal in that hour and a half. Thank you very much, Mr. David Dunn! And thank you Mrs. Bidwell for arranging the clinic for us. It was a blast!

Following Jiu Jitsu, Beck and I went out to a few book stores, went to a late dinner at the Oyster Bar (YUM!) and then came home and read together and relaxed.

Coming up, I am competing again at Grappler's Quest and attending the UFC convention ahead of UFC 100. The following week, I am attending and competing at the ITC for our Chun Kuk Do annual conference. Did I mention that i love the martial arts? :)

I Got Rolled

2009-05-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the Grappler's Quest tournament has come and gone, and on the whole, I really enjoyed the experience. Beck wasn't too fond of it, but she was really supportive and a total trooper through it all. It was grueling. The day before the tournament, I did my final weight cut. I had been on a liquid diet for two days. I stopped taking in fluids Friday morning and did 4 sessions ranging from 30 minutes to an hour on the elliptical machine, three of those in a sauna suit. I started the morning at 218 lbs, and weighed in that evening at 208 lbs. I made the heavyweight division (200-209.9) and achieved my goal. This represented a 50 pound weight cut from March 1 - May 8.

I can't say that I was easy to live with that day, and toward the end, I was downright irritable. We had dinner at Maggiano's in the Fashion Show Mall after the weigh in, and that was really tasty.

Saturday morning we were up and going and got the the tournament at 9:00 a.m. Unfortunately, the competition did not begin on time and only got rolling about 45 minutes late. CJ's division was up first on our mat, and his second division was fourth. His matches are at these links on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j-ruAPnUyc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OldMvRf4odg

He went 0-2, but it is his first tournament and he has only been training Jiu Jitsu for about two months. I was very proud of him. There were a lot of people at this event, and I think he was a little self conscious. It was hard to hear the coaching in there and the other guy's team was pretty big. CJ and I were the only competitors from our school. There were some teams there with 80 competitors. Our instructor, Mrs. Bidwell, as well as a few of our fellow club members, Mark Hartley and Casey Perry were there to cheer us on. It was nice having their support.

My division went 14th on our mat. I basically had to sit on some very hard bleachers until about 5:30 p.m. before my first match was called. I lost that one by submission choke to the guy who won the division. I rolled for 3rd place and lost that one too by submission choke. I have only been rolling for two months, so I am not too worried about it. I definitely need to cut more pounds though to be as competitive as I want to be. I am going to try and cut another 30 before my next tournament in July at the UFC convention.

My heavyweight matches are at these links on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr_8a5Tuqc8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKpsib-EC5Y

Then, my last division, the Absolute (open weight) was next but didn't get called until around 7:00 p.m. after a few mat changes. By this time I was pretty tired and my 34 year old body was starting to do what 34 year old bodies do after they have been in two fights with heavyweights, which is to get generally stiff and sore. It didn't help that my throat was pretty sore from two strangulation events.

Anyway, I went the full 4 minutes in my final match of the day, and I was ahead on points for most of the round, only to be edged out at the very end by one point. That match is at this YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5dtXC-WvDA

It was a very good and interesting learning experience. I am totally stoked to keep competing. Between the 6 or so Karate and Jiu Jitsu tournaments I can enter each year here in Vegas, I should be able to keep my weight down where I want it and keep getting better and better. I hope Beck can endure it, because it really is super fun very rewarding to me.

1st and 1st

2009-05-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the Chun Kuk Do Region 2 Tournament is over, and it was really fun. CJ won 1st place in his Sparring division and 2nd place in his Kata (forms) division. I won 1st in my Sparring division and 1st in my Kata division. I have attached links to the videos on YouTube below. You might note that I got to be really close with the ground all day. I slipped in the middle of my form, but finished it strong and it was enough to edge out the next competitor. I went down a few times in the sparring too. We were on a gym floor in Boulder City and it was a little slick in a few places. Its all good, though. I do have a bit of a bruise on my backside, and a deep one on my left palm. I also have a little bit of a black eye, but I don’t mind battle scars. I really enjoy competitive martial arts. It is a blast!

Dave sparring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUazEXsIKzw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4de7X1eUqKU

Dave forms:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT833B9cTeQ

CJ sparring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8ykuqvkmgY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8aB7lJq7Ig

CJ forms:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RETwi4IdzmQ

Karate Test Results are In

2009-04-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

CJ and I received the results of our Karate tests tonight and we both advanced to the next rank. Alas, CJ still outranks me by one degree, but he has been at it longer and skipping belts is very rare in the organization. CJ now is Blue with Stripe, and I am a Blue belt. Since I skipped last testing, it is not a surprise that I was not allowed to skip this testing. We had good tests. I posted videos on YouTube. The links are below.

David's Forms are at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxPRvSX9jyU

CJ's Forms are here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc7YB1hq3-s

We also did some sparring. CJ's opponent had forgotten his mouthpiece, so CJ was told to be careful. I didn't have anyone in the ballpark of my size of similar rank, so I got to spar with Mr. Petitt, a 3rd degree black belt. He got me with a few good kicks, but I think I did well too.

CJ's sparring is at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_F_WvoyZhM

David's sparring is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W-bOqH3Q_g

By way of update on the weight loss and cut for the tournament, I am now down 35 lbs. or so. I have lost so many inches so far that my clothes don't fit any more. Beck went through and cleared out about 2/3 of my clothes today. It's good I look a little better naked now because i don't have any clothes to wear. Just kidding, Beck, thanks for getting me cleared out and organized, babe!

So, now its the Karate tournament this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Then next week is the Grappling tournament. I'm totally stoked.

3 Weekends of Martial Arts Fun

2009-04-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

This Saturday starts a three weekend Martial Arts Fest for CJ and me. I wanted to let everyone know what was going on in case anyone wanted to come and cheer us on.

Saturday, April 25 at 4 p.m. -- Bidwell Karate Club rank advancement testing

CJ will be going for his stripe on his Blue belt and I will be testing for Blue belt. Since we are both advanced far enough along now to spar in testing, the test should be pretty fun. The test is in Boulder City and it is FREE to spectators. Here are the directions:

Drive towards Boulder City on Boulder Hwy. At the first light, just outside of Boulder City, you will make a right turn on to Veterans Memorial Drive. Follow it to the next light, Adams Blvd, turn left. You will see the new Boulder Creek Golf course Follow Adams Blvd, you pass through two stop sign intersections, the first is Buchanan, the second is Georgia. Take the first right after the Georgia intersection, this will take you into ABC Park .Take the first right again, this will take you around the one-way road in the park to the gymnasium.

Saturday, May 2 at 10 a.m. -- Chunk Kuk Do Region II Tournament

CJ and I will both be competing in Kata (Forms) and Fighting. This event is also FREE. There will be a raffle at the event benefitting Chuck Norris's Kick Start Program which is a diversion program teaching martial arts to inner city kids. This event will be held at the same place as the testing the week before. Directions above.

Saturday, May 9 at 10 a.m. -- Grappler's Quest Tournament

CJ will be competing in two divisions: Gi and No Gi (a gi is a karate/jiu jitsu uniform). I will be competing in the Men's Novice No Gi division and the Men's Novice No Gi Absolute division. The first is within my weight class and the second is open to all weight classes. This is a nationally Rated event, which means, from here on out, in Rated competition, we will have points earned in these competitions tracked to ensure that we compete in the proper divisions based on essentially our national rankings. Tickets for this one cost $15.00 each in advance and $20.00 at the door. They can be purchased in advance at http://www.grapplersquest.com/ . I have 2 extra tickets for this one. Beck is going and will probably be filming us. It will be held at the All Sports Park on Sunset near I-15. If anyone wants to watch Min, Avi and Z for us that day it would be awesome. Depending on how we do, we could be there most of the day. This is a big competition with something like 250 divisions when you count all of the experience levels, age groups and weight classes. They come to Vegas about twice a year and host events in cities all over the country.

I am totally excited. I am also grateful for Beck being so supportive of us in this. I hope some of you can make it to some of these events. Wish us luck!

Update on the Weight Cut

2009-03-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a month since I started the cut to get ready for the Grappler's Quest tournament May 9. I am glad to report that in the last month I have lost between 21 and 24 pounds depending on the time of day. I have to lose about that much again next month to make my goal weight, but I am confident I can do it. I have, but for maybe 2 days of the whole month. stuck to my food goals and I am in perfect compliance with my "no soda" rule. My workout goals have gone well too for the most part. I did miss about a week of workouts due to illness, and I have missed one or two full workouts in two of the other weeks due to soreness (I roll with a guy in Jiu Jitsu practice who is about 5-6 inches taller than me and has me by about 100 pounds and it can lead to some pain). I would estimate that I am about 90% compliant with all of my goals, so I am happy. But I do have to step it up that last little bit to succeed, so wish me luck. Peace.

Its all About Public Accountability

2009-02-26T12:14:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since I posted something, so I am calling myself out publicly and hoping anyone who reads this will razz me something fierce if I don't succeed in my stated objectives. I am starting formal Jiu Jitsu training through the Bidwell Karate Club next Thursday and I am totally excited about it. Martial Arts has filled a competitive sports void for me these last 7 months that had been undernourished by annual Turkey Bowls, paintball, occasional Softball and Basketball and Hunting over the last 16 years. I'm not one of those guys that constantly lives in the past glory days of High School Football, but I was good back then and always had an itch to get back into some kind of competitive contact sport. As my wife will attest, I am a rabid fan of Mixed Martial Arts and have been wanting to do it at some level for several years now.

Well, now is my chance.

Advancement in Jiu Jitsu comes not only from drilling and learning the techniques but is also, in part, based upon competitive success. An organization called Grappler's Quest puts on grappling tournaments all over the country and stops in Las Vegas a few times per year. Their first event in Las Vegas this year is going to be on May 9, 2009 and I have registered and entered the Tournament. It's a great event because you compete within Divisions designed to ensure that you are rolling with people of like size and experience. I have been working on humility for years but there is one belief I still hold about myself and that is this: If you put me in a competitive group of men in my age/weight/experience range, I am the baddest man in the room. So now I'm going to test that belief.

I have set some goals for myself, outlined below, to reach the weight at which I would like to compete in this tournament and I thought that posting them publicly, along with the hard copy that is going to be taped to my bathroom mirror, will motivate me just that little bit more to do this in a way about which I can be proud.

So, here they are:

Grappler’s Quest Tournament May 9, 2009

Goals:

Make Men’s Heavyweight Division for No-Gi Novice (200-209.9 lbs)

Daily except Sunday:

· NO soda
· 100 crunch situps total
· 100 knuckle pushups
· 100 body weight squats
· 100 leg lifts
· 3 four minute rounds on Elliptical progressive level 8, 9, 10 fast as you can with 1 minute rests between each at level 2
· 30 minute jog on Elliptical no lower than level 5
· one main course serving only at meals
· NO food after 7 p.m.

Aspirations:

· additional athletic activity at least 30 minutes in duration daily, except Saturday and Sunday
· If goal weight met by duration deadline, cut extra 10 lbs. to light-heavyweight (190-199.9)

Duration: March 1, 2009 through April 30, 2009

So there it is. I have now publicly called myself out. Wish me luck!

** People have asked, so I have added this answer: Yes, you can get tickets to the tournament by following the link to Grapplers Quest above and to the right under My Links or you can go directly to www.grapplersquest.com and follow the TICKETS link. They are $15.00 each.

An Eventful Day

2009-01-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday was one heck of a day. We started the morning early in St. George where we had stayed with Grandma Brown the night before. Rebecca ran a half marathon she has been training for over the last few months. I am so proud of her. She is awesome and a little crazy. She ran it with Tiffney, Callie and Natalie.

Here are the girls before:

Half way:

And after:

I had initially planned on running the 5k part of this event, but had to rethink that. After the half marathon, we had to drive fast to get home because CJ and I had a Karate test and had to be there by 3:45 p.m. CJ was testing for Blue Belt and though I was technically testing for Purple Belt with a Stripe, I had learned the forms to advance three belts to Orange with a Stripe and based on my pre-test, I was allowed to do all three forms.

Beck took some pictures:

The first picture is CJ and me before the test. You may notice the shorter hairstyle I am now sporting. I had cut my hair for a job interview for Family Court Hearing Master and then didn't get the job. I will probably never cut my hair again. :)

The second picture is me doing one of my forms.

The third is everyone doing Basics.

The Fourth is me getting up after finishing a One-step with an arm-bar on my partner.

For a good laugh, I have also added a video of me doing Attacking Techniques. I am the fat guy doing all the moves across the floor.

I think the test went well and if I am awarded the Orange with Stripe Belt, I will only be one belt behind CJ and the natural order of things will soon be restored. I am really enjoying Karate, and in the next few weeks will be adding one Jiu Jitzu class each week to my martial arts training. I wish I had started a lot earlier in life. The joints and muscles just ain't what they used to be.

After the test, Beck and I took Z to dinner (the rest of the kids were in trouble for the latest rash of bad behavior).

We finished off the day by seeing Defiance. I highly recommend it. It was a long and eventful day which ended at about 12:30 a.m. I can't believe we had it in us.

A Gibson Christmas Carroll

2008-12-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

Some of you may know that I am not so much a Christmas man as I am a Halloween man. I have, over the last several years, become increasingly disenchanted with the Christmas season for a variety of reasons. It always seems to me that come the end of November, my time is not mine. There are lots of church activities, family activities, parties, etc. Individually, each is typically enjoyable, but collectively, they tend to tire me out. The commercial side of Christmas also tends to drive me nuts, particularly when personal economics don’t allow me to engage in the spending as freely as I would like. This also tends to be the time of year that my particular business slows down significantly and gets pretty tight. Throwing in the economy this year, Beck and I were looking down the barrel of a very lean Christmas indeed.

But I have had a serious change of heart. I have had my own sort of Christmas Carroll experience this year that has obligated me to put away the humbugs for good.

We didn’t get a tree up until late in the season this year, and I was content to just forget the tree this year as I didn’t think I would be able to put many presents under it. But my dad would not have that and on a visit earlier in December, he suggested I use his big tree he has had in storage for a few years. I held out a few days longer, but after a particularly difficult morning, and a mutual expression of serious frustration with things, Beck persuaded me that the tree needed to go up. So CJ and I went down to Grandpa’s and picked it up. I think that kind of started things off, so I guess dad was Jacob Marley. I guess our bishop was a little bit of Jacob Marley too. He called one night out of the blue, around the time that dad offered the tree, to tell me that the ward really needed a few more families for the angel tree and he wondered if we could use the help. I explained to him that I really appreciated the thought but that I was sure things would be fine without the help. He kind of insisted though, and worked the angle that he wanted to give other families the opportunity to give, so I reluctantly agreed that he could keep us in mind.

A day or two later, Ghosts of Christmas Past showed up. While I was growing up, the 12 days of Christmas was a tradition we kept. Our family would choose another who we thought might need or enjoy 12 nights of gifts, and mom and dad would take us to leave gifts on the doorsteps and knock and run. It is a tradition we have tried to keep most every year Beck and I have been married as well. But this year, we really were not in any position to do anything that costs money. It is frustrating, because I really do make a good living – it just goes in spurts sometimes depending on a lot of factors, many of which are simply beyond my control. It is also frustrating because no matter how I have felt about the Christmas Season over the last several years, there is one part of it that I always enjoy – giving gifts. I have generally been able to be in the position of giver. I take probably too much pride in it. But the best part of Christmas for me has always been seeing others open their gifts from me. It really had me very low this year that I was not going to be able to do a lot of giving.

Anyway, back to the 12 days.

We came home one night to a basket on the doorstep. It was filled with a variety of vegetables. It had a rhyming note attached that indicated there would be more to come. We were on the receiving end of the 12 days of Christmas.

Within a day or so, either side of the 12 days starting, we also received in the mail, a gift certificate to Walmart from “Santa Claus.”

And the 12 days gifts got more and more generous as the days went by.

Another night, there was an envelope in the door with some cash in it. Much needed cash. And the 12 days elves left a large cash gift on one of the nights. It was really starting to get overwhelming. I even felt guilty to be receiving so much because my Christmas pasts had been mainly about giving.

Then the gifts from the ward came. The bishop “keeping us in mind” turned out to be a large bag full of gifts.

That was followed up by the elves leaving us a few large bags as well and extending their gift giving to 13 days (they had started the 12 days a little early).

The difference between Ebenezer Scrooge and myself is, I didn’t really need a Ghost of Christmas Present to show me the poor circumstances of others and the need to give – I understand and enjoy that part of Christmas; and I didn’t need a Ghost of Christmas Future to scare me into dropping the humbugs. I really did need, though, to more fully understand the blessings of receiving and allowing others to give.

I can honestly say that the answers to prayers, the generosity and love shown by others, and the humbling refinement of being in need have combined to make this Christmas, for me, the best ever. I have an even firmer resolve to give generously in my times of plenty. And I attribute many of our blessings to the faithful payment of a full tithe. I know that when God opens up the windows of heaven to shower blessings down, he does it through the pure love of Christ that abides in the hearts of people like our parents, our bishop, and our elves. My family is truly blessed.

I think it is a possibility that some of our elves may read this entry. If you do, I just want to say again, thank you so much for what you did for us this holiday season. We love you and hope that we have many opportunities to do for others what you have done for us. You have revived in me a desire to keep Christmas well. I will be forever thankful for that.

My Facebook Addiction - Mob Wars and other Updates

2008-11-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

I am hooked on Mob Wars. Much to Rebecca's chagrin. About a week or so ago, my brother, James invited me to join Facebook, specifically so I could join his Mob Wars Mob. I was instantly hooked and began building my criminal empire. I like Facebook too. It is pretty cool to link up with friends and family, some of whom I have not seen or heard from for quite some time. As if blogging did not occupy enough of my online time, I now find myself checking my Facebook and updating my Mob 20 times a day at least. It doesn't help that I can get access to all of it on my Blackberry. Evil technology.

By way of other updates, I went for a run yesterday for the first time since I was hospitalized and it was pure hell. Rebecca started training for a half marathon with my sisters and sister-inlaw, and I finally figured I needed to get back on the horse. So I downloaded a training schedule for a 15k and started yesterday with a 2.5 mile run/walk. I ran about half to just over half of it and I thought I might die, but I am still alive and awful sore. Today was a cross training day so I hit the elliptical for 30 minutes and then went to Karate where we practiced grappling today. It was a blast. I submitted my sparring partner twice with a rear naked choke and an arm bar from side control. Being a psycho UFC fan sure came in handy today. I am sure I will be seriously stiff tomorrow, but it is a strength training day and I don't have to run again until Thanksgiving morning.

Anyhoo, I'm hoping to start shedding some pounds again. I have pretty much maintained my weight loss since getting out of the hospital but I still have a way to go and my physical shape has suffered from the layoff.

Now I gotta run some liquor on Mob Wars. I am saving up for a couple of armored trucks so I can start robbing banks!

Bond, James Bond

2008-11-17T12:46:00.001-08:00

Rebecca and I saw Quantum of Solace this last week and I have to disagree with a lot of the reviews I have been reading from the critics. I loved the movie. I am completely sold on Daniel Craig as the new and improved James Bond and the critics who are pining for the campy feel of previous Bond efforts are a bunch of whiny babies. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up on these movies and always looked forward to the signature, “Bond, James Bond,” or “shaken not stirred,” lines in the movies or the comical appearances of Q, but seriously, should a franchise that is trying to breathe new life into itself really have to slavishly weigh its dialogue down with all of the old clichés?

This movie did not completely abandon the previous installments. Bond is driving an awesome Aston Martin in the opening chase scene. The opening credits brought the female silhouettes back into the mix, which were basically missing from Casino Royale. Bond still globe trots as he pursues the villains. The technological tools he utilizes are as cutting edge as ever. There is even a nod to Goldfinger’s golden woman dead on the bed, but this one is covered in oil, not gold. What is missing is some of the light heartedness, but so what? I still found the movie to be well done and the critics seem to forget that this is a restart for the franchise. Quantum of Solace is basically a direct sequel to Casino Royale, picking up almost immediately where the latter left off. Bond is pissed and it shows. And Daniel Craig, from a physical appearance point of view, is a lot more convincing in his ability to kick the crap out of people than any other Bond before him.

I have liked every single Bond for different reasons, but until now they all were, to some degree, paler versions of Sean Connery and they were always in his shadow. This Bond is something all together different, and is, I think, a lot more appealing to the next generation of Bond fans. Further, his chemistry with Judy Dench, who I love as M, really works for me.

I am also a fan of the new style of Bond girl. Eva Green was awesome in Casino Royale, and Olga Kurylenko, though her character is not so completely developed, is still a pretty strong female presence rather than just window dressing.

I dig the way the franchise is going and I am looking anxiously forward to the next installment. I hope Daniel Craig sticks around for a while as Bond, James Bond.

It's Getting Crazy Out There

2008-11-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

Thousands of homosexual people and their supporters marching together in the streets of Salt Lake City – man, it’s getting crazy out there. I read something like this, and it is hard to keep an even temper, not get all fired up, and to restrain myself from flying off the handle:

http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_10929992

But then I remember: I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and this is America. God said through a Prophet of whom I am rather fond, “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile – Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.

The Brethren have followed this scripture. They have said, through spokespeople, of the aftermath of Proposition 8 in California, “. . . act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information.” As I have read many comments on blogs and comments to news stories documenting the protests at the LA, San Francisco, Salt Lake, and NYC Temples, I have gotten the impression that several Mormons are not necessarily heeding the example of the Prophets. I have also been on the receiving end of many forwarded emails which in my opinion had the intended or unintended effect (depending upon who forwarded them) of promoting support for traditionally defined marriage through fear, strained logic, and sometimes outright misstatement of fact.

For instance, the Family Watch International “Policy Brief” entitled Eight Reasons to Defend Man/Woman Marriage makes some pretty big leaps (I would be happy to discuss in detail with anyone who is interested) which I have heard parroted by some well-meaning Mormons. The problem is, when examined closely, these reasons are not really all that well reasoned, and in my opinion, there are only two reasons, which are really one reason, to defend man/woman marriage, and they are: 1) God said we should; and 2) the living Prophet said we should. And I have a First Amendment right to take that position for that reason.

Those promoting gay marriage have certainly felt sharply reproved by the Church’s promotion of Proposition 8. And they are reacting in a ridiculous fashion: protests outside of Temples; boycotting Utah; withholding their ire from Catholics, Evangelicals, African Americans and Latinos, 52% of voters in California. And they have a First Amendment right to react in these ways. (I am aware that some of these protests have been done without permit but the rights of speech and assembly are fundamental rights and it really has no effect on my argument here).

What we Mormons should do is let the anger at the protests wash over us without reaction. I will admit that seeing graffiti on the outside of a temple gate fed the angry wolf inside me. But after a minute of reflection, I reread the scripture quoted above and fed the nice wolf. We need to show an increase of love. We can’t let ourselves be goaded into getting down in the gutter with the insults and anger. We are not going to change their minds, and they are not going to change ours.

And there are cooler heads I hope will prevail within the Gay Marriage movement, for instance, this article:

http://pundits.thehill.com/2008/11/12/protesting-mormon-temple-not-best-messaging-method/

We need to realize though, that if advice like is given in the Pundits article is actually heeded by gay marriage proponents -- and I believe that as tensions cool, it might be – this gay marriage thing is going to continue to hang around, and Constitutional arguments are going to be refined, and the issue is going to continue to gain traction. It is a reality of the times in which we live.

So what can be done? I found this next article interesting.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1113/p03s07-uspo.html

The part I found most interesting is the argument that marriage should be taken out of the government’s hands. I am one who likes solutions that don’t require constitutional amendments. It is a rare occasion that I will support a constitutional amendment. If the government wants to recognize meretricious unions between individuals and provide laws governing the dissolution of such relationships (currently a slot occupied by “marriage”) then it should, and it should be equally applied to all such unions regardless of sexual orientation of the parties. Call it something other than marriage and extend to it all the benefits that marriage currently enjoys. I am not talking about civil unions as currently defined. As currently defined, civil unions apply only to homosexual unions. The civil unions I am talking about would be unions, civilly recognized, of two people, or more than two people for that matter. Let “marriages” be performed by Churches. “Marriage” would then be a religious institution and each Church would define it relative to worthiness. We already have two-tiered relationships within the church; married couples and sealed couples. The Church does not unwind marriages – divorce dissolves those unions. Cancellation of sealing is an entirely other matter. It is extremely rare, relatively, and is the Prophet’s call.

The Church would still be able to enforce the Law of Chastity and would not be forced to solemnize the civil unions. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it less sinful. Alcohol consumption by adults is legal, but the Word of Wisdom, among other things, still governs Temple worthiness. Constitutionally defining marriage as between a man and a woman is not going to prevent unmarried cohabitation, procreation outside of wedlock, divorce, or any of the other attacks heterosexual couples have leveled at the institution of marriage over the last 6000 years.

It’s just an idea. Meanwhile, it seems the only other option is to constitutionally define marriage as between a man and a woman in those jurisdictions where it is possible. But that solution is, in my opinion, temporary and invites continued contention. Conflicts of laws and Full Faith and Credit challenges are going to continue to mount as well as movements to reverse the loophole Congress created in the Full Faith and Credit clause with respect to the definition of marriage from State to State. This current Supreme Court is literally one vote away from becoming more sympathetic to the gay marriage movement. It’s getting crazy out there.

Sarah Palin on Oil and Other Items of Interest

2008-10-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Presidential election is going into its final days and McCain and Palin are continuing to try to distance themselves from President Bush and fit national security in wherever they can in the economy dominated political discussion. I just read a story about a Palin rally that made me laugh. Here is the quote and link:

"TOLEDO, Ohio - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Wednesday called for a 'clean break' from the Bush administration's energy policies, which she said relies too much on importing foreign oil.

"In a policy speech, the Alaska governor said the recent drop in gas and oil prices shouldn't deter consumers and lawmakers from seeking alternative energy sources. She cast energy independence as a national security issue, saying dependence on oil from the Middle East made the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist threats.

'We not only provide wealth to the sponsors of terror, we provide high-value targets to the terrorists themselves,' Palin said. 'Across the world are pipelines, refineries, transit routes and terminals for the oil we rely on. And al-Qaida terrorists know where they are.'" See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27436937

She also repeated a catch phrase she has been using lately, "Drill, baby, drill." I assume this is a reference to offshore drilling and possibly drilling in her own home State of Alaska.

A couple of things struck me as funny. I just cannot get over how circular her logic is. She says that foreign oil independence is a national security issue because buying foreign oil puts money into the pockets of the terrorists and the well funded terrorists can then go out and target pipelines, refineries, and other oil infrastructure and distribution to terrorize us. So, the big foreign oil companies sell us oil so that they can pay for their own infrastructure and distribution to be blown up by terrorists? That's amazing. Wouldn't it be more profitable for foreign oil companies to simply limit supply, increase demand to drive the price of oil up and make more money off of us, instead of physically crippling their ability to actually produce the oil, thereby limiting its supply, increasing demand to drive the price of oil up and make more money off of us? In scenario 1, simply pumping less oil out of the ground you get a much greater profit margin, don't you? There is less wear and tear on your infrastructure and distribution and straight profit. In scenario 2, though you still get a higher price for oil, you have to then go and rebuild the damaged infrastructure and cut into your profit.

This highlights a fundamental flaw in Palin's ability to reason these issues out which she has been repeatedly demonstrating in her interviews and speeches. If foreign oil companies are sponsoring terrorism, they sure as heck are not paying to blow themselves up. Can she really be that moronic?

Though McCain doesn't seem to regret his choice as a VP running mate, his camp has got to be just shaking their heads that the Maverick passed up the Mormon boy. Romney would have won this election for Old Man River.

And yet, in the face of this obvious slight, oodles of Mormon faithful are going to overlook this major flaw in the Republican candidate and vote for him anyway.

A Catholic priest once said, "You Mormon's are ignoramuses." This quote comes from the opening pages of A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, if I remember correctly, and in that context, the priest was explaining that many of us do not understand the strength of our own position. Mormonism, he argued, is based upon a Restoration of Christ's Gospel by Christ Himself, while Catholicism is based upon a claim to direct Apostolic succession from Peter, who was ordained by Christ Himself. The argument boils down to whether or not a Restoration was necessary. If it was, the Mormon's are right. If it wasn't, the Catholics are right. The rest of the Christian sects find their genesis in someone who broke off from the Catholic church, so they are therefore apostates and have no leg on which to stand. It is a pretty piece of logic.

I agree with him that many Mormon's are ignoramuses. Except, in the realm of politics, many of us do not understand the weakness of our own position. It is a fact that American Mormons are heavily disproportionately Republicans. This has led, in my opinion, to a virtual disenfranchisement of us as a people. In my opinion, Mormons are to the Republican party what African Americans are to the Democratic party. They are a voting base enticed by a limited portion of the parties' respective platforms who are a virtual party vote every time. Republicans don't go after the African American vote with any effort because they believe it is an exercise in futility. Democrats don't go after the Mormon vote with any effort because they believe it is an exercise in futility.

On the other hand, both parties know that all they have to do to keep the respective votes of these groups is to pay some lip service to those few enticing planks from their respective platforms and the sheep will go where the shepherd tells them to go.

Can you imagine how the Republican platform might change if more African Americans were Republicans and exercising populous power within that party? Or what the Democratic platform might look like under a little more Mormon influence? Instead, I believe that the very elect have already been seriously deceived into disenfranchisement and the powerlessness of this position truly does cause the Constitution to hang by a thread for us as an LDS people.

I wonder if issues like the breakdown of the family, gay marriage, abortion, basically those with a moral component, would enjoy as much of a hold on the national discussion if Mormons had kept their presence a little more balanced between the two major parties over the years. We reproduce more than other groups do. We proselytize more effectively than other groups do. Our education level is generally higher. I think we believe that our divorce rate is generally lower. I think we also believe that we are less apathetic at the polls than other groups. In a way, in my opinion, our overwhelming trend toward one party rather than the other is at least partly to blame for the strength of the pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-general moral decline movements in the political landscape of this country. That is not to say that I am pro-life, etc, etc. I find religiously, morally touched issues to be a little to complex to pigeon hole, and it is a tangent I will not follow in this blog entry.

Back to the point, here is some food for thought: there are more Mormons in California than there are in Utah. That happened in the early 1990's. The electoral power of California in the Congress and in Presidential elections is unquestionable. We as an LDS people, in my opinion have been politically asleep at the wheel for so long, that it could be too late to stop the steam roller from completely crushing the general morality of this country, but we are encouraged still to do what we can to stand up for what is right and influence those around us. I think the best chance of gaining that influence in a real way is to spread ourselves around politically and get ourselves more involved in the Democratic Party. I think it would be great if every LDS congregation would equally divide its party affiliation. But I also think many Mormons are ignoramuses and such a thing may truly be a pipe dream (obviously a euphemism as I don't actually hit the pipe-Mormon boy).

It's funny. This actually started as a "one more piece of evidence that Sarah Palin doesn't really know what she is talking about" type entry and turned into a "why more Mormons should be Democrats" entry. But the issues are related. McCain's failure to select Romney, in an election everyone who was awake knew would come down to the economy, highlights my personal problems with the man. I think he lacks good judgment. I think he is part of the problem I see in the Republican party which leads to what I believe is virtual disenfranchisement of the LDS people. I think he is hypocritical in his claim to be a Maverick and free of special interest influence. I think he is dishonest and nasty in his personal attacks on members of the other party. I think he is a career politician who believes that he is entitled to be President whether or not he would actually do a good job as President.

Again, I digress. One last thing: lest any reader think that the only reason I am a Democrat is because I think more Mormons just should be, let me state clearly that I have plenty of other reasons for my party affiliation which I am happy to discuss and probably will discuss in further blog entries.

*** Fact check alert. A friend of mine posted a comment referring to the California-Utah membership numbers. Apparently, Church membership in California has NOT surpassed Utah. I had heard this from the MTC President when I reported to the MTC on October 18, 1993. Shame on him. I have been under that impression for 15 years now. It doesn't change my analysis much, though. The bottom line for me is that the Western United States has a large population of LDS membership and several of these States have been crucial "swing" States in the last 3-4 elections. A more balanced LDS presence in both parties could have wielded some serious influence on the the national level in the last 20 years, in my opinion.

By the way, I welcome a fact check -- arguments always get better when they are independently reviewed, picked over and refined.

White No More

2008-10-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

I am writing to celebrate that Min is accountable and I advanced in my Karate rank, so we are therefore, White No More!

On October 18, 2008, I baptized my oldest daughter Min and confirmed her a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a special day for Min and also a turning point in her young life. She can blemish her soul now with bad behavior and she got started on it right away! :) Seriously, though, she is a blessing to our family and we are very proud of her. The Bishop commented particularly on her preparation for Baptism, and though I would like to take the credit for that, anyone reading will know that her mother's influence on her in that regard is great. Here are some pictures from the special day:

Can that jumpsuit get any less flattering on me? Jeez, I look like a hairy marshmallow. More motivation to loose the next 40.

Now for the less spiritually important.

CJ and I recently advanced in rank in Karate. CJ is now at the level of Orange with Stripe, and I advanced two levels to Purple belt. We are having a blast in Karate, and I got to spar in class for the first time the other day. I sparred with Tara Bidwell, our 6th degree Black Belt instructor, and I got the distinct feeling that she took it easy on me. I was a White belt before my rank advancement, so now I am no longer as pure as the driven snow in Karate terms. Now I am just a purple Pansie, so I am working hard in hopes that I can skip another rank to Orange belt at our next testing. Wish me luck.

Election Endorsements

2008-10-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

I have been asked by several people who I am voting for in the upcoming elections, particularly the judicial elections. So I have put this list together. There are a few open seats about which I am undecided, so they are not reflected here. They will likely be in-the-booth decisions, but otherwise, here are my picks:

President - Barack Obama

Congress District 3 - Dina Titus (I know, she ran a dirty one against my uncle and I am still a little chipped about that one, but John Porter has been, from what I can see, a George W. Bush rubber stamp and I have had enough)

State Senate District 5 - Shirley Breeden

State Assembly District 23 - Melissa Woodbury

Supreme Court Seat B - Mary "Kris" Pickering

District Court:

Department 8 - Doug Smith

Department 10 - Jessie Walsh (I know Bill Kephart and don't have anything against him, but he is a carreer DA and to my knowledge has little to no Civil Law experience, and I generally have a good feel for how Judge Walsh is going to rule on a given issue)

Department 12 - Kurt Harris (again, I know and respect the Leavitt family, but I have never had Michelle make a ruling I could agree with on any single case I have had in front of her)

Department 14 - Chris Davis (I know Judge Mosely and he has been at it a long time and probably would be upset that I endorse his opposition, but Chris is family and will do a good job)

Department 17 - Michael Villani

Department 22 - Susan Johnson

Department 23 - Jason Landess

District Court Family Division:

Department I - Cheryl Moss

Department J - Kenneth Pollock

Department K - Vincent Ochoa

Department L - Jennifer Elliot

Department N - Matthew Harter

Department O - Frank Sullivan

Department P - Jack Howard

Depatment Q - Bryce Duckworth

Department R - Chuck Hoskin

Justice Court

Henderson Department 3 - David Gibson Sr.

That last one is my dad and besides being my dad, he is way more qualified than his opponent. I hope this helps for those of you who were wondering who I plan to vote for. Obviously, with respect to the judicial candidates, I have made my choices based experience with the individuals in question.

Happy voting! And remember, if you don't vote, then you have nothing to complain about for the next 4 years. Preserve your right to complain!

Spandex Enormity

2008-10-04T21:50:00.001-07:00

** WARNING ** THIS IS AT LEAST PG-13!

Well, Dan finally paid up on his Biggest Loser loss and washed my car in his speedo. We got pictures:

and video:

Though I admit that I was getting a kick out of it and laughing my head off, I also felt a little bad, so I decided to join him. Unfortunately, the mirror in my bathroom trends toward over flattering, so, though I knew I looked bad, in the mirror, I didn't look that bad. Then I saw the pictures:

and the video:

Yes, it is pretty bad. I am actually blind now and typing this with my mad no-look typing skill. I think it was all the white limbs, or maybe the speedo cut off the blood flow to my eyes. Whatever it is, we are in the market for a seeing eye dog now, so if anyone has any connections, please let me know. Actually, this will just inspire me to lose another 40 pounds.

The worst part is, Dan did a really good job on my car and then it rained overnight. This should at least lighten things up on my blog after the political stuff.

You might well be asking, "How is it that there are enough speedo's to go around in the Gibson Family?" The answer is simple: that's just how we roll.

Short Selling -- Bail Me Out Part Deux

2008-10-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

It has been pointed out to me, by the one who's opinion matters most to me, my wife, that my previous post was quite harsh, particularly with respect to the President. I agree that it was harsh and was definitely the product of the degree of angst I was experiencing over the most recent Bush blunder, inexplicably championed by Senate and Congressional Democrats. So I thought I might give a little contextual background to my train of thought.

I read a few weeks ago, when WaMu tanked, JP Morgan succumbed to the Chase buyout, etc., that some market analysts had attributed some of the crisis to under-regulated short selling of stocks. I have been hearing about short selling for years, in fact the first time I heard about a margin call was on Family Ties when Alex P. Keaton had bet wrong on a stock and got into trouble with a margin call. I had a vague understanding of this practice, but nothing solid until more recently. The relaxed oversight of these transactions has been a direct result of deregulation pushed by the Bush administration and others, including John McCain, and mostly Republicans.

Here is how a short sell works, as I understand it. Brokerage houses "warehouse" commonly trades stocks. This means that they have a certain number of stocks on hand for different publicly traded companies for trading purposes or investment on behalf of mutual fund holders and other investors. A short sell is a BET against the market. The typical stock is purchased to be held over the long run, with the market having had on the long term average about a 12% increase on investments. Basically, you buy the stock at a low price and sell it at the higher price to realize income off the gain. A short sell is a way of making money on a stock when its value goes down.

I know. It sounds really confusing, and it is a pretty sophisticated transaction when it comes down to it. This is how it works. A person who believes a certain stock is going to go down in value sets up an account with a brokerage house for a short sell transaction. The brokerage house then lends a certain number of shares to the short seller, and the short seller sells them on the open market. Instead of the owner of the stock receiving the money for the sale of the shares, the money goes to the short seller's account. Do you follow so far? The short seller sells something that does not belong to him and receives the money into his own account. Here is where the gamble comes in. The transaction does not completely close until the short seller buys an equal number of shares in the same stock that was sold to him and returns that number of shares to the brokerage house. The short seller gets to use money from the brokerage account he opened for the transaction to buy back the required number of shares. That is where the gamble comes in. If, after holding the money for a while, the price of the stock goes down, the short seller can buy the same number of shares he borrowed for a lower price than he was originally paid for selling that number of shares. He then returns the shares to the brokerage house and gets to keep the leftover money he made from the original sale.

If that was hard to follow, let me illustrate with a hypothetical short sell: Short Seller borrows 100 shares of ABC stock from Brokerage House. At the time that Short Seller borrows the shares, they are trading at $100 per share. Short Seller sells them and receives $10,000 into his brokerage account. Short Seller waits a month, and in that month, shares of ABC stock take a hit and drop in price on the open market to $50 per share. Short Seller buys 100 shares at the new price, which costs him $5,000 out of his brokerage account. Short Seller gives Brokerage House 100 shares of ABC stock and keeps the $5,000 left in his brokerage account for himself. Short Seller just spent no money of his own, but comes out with $5,000 in his pocket.

The risk to the short seller comes when he bets wrong and the stock price goes up. This is because before the transaction can completely close, he has to return the same number of shares he borrowed to sell back to the brokerage house. In the example above, if the price of the stock goes up instead of down, then it stands to reason that the actual owners of the stock will contact the brokerage house and direct them to sell the shares so that the owner can realize a profit. But if the brokerage house does not have the shares, because they have not yet been returned by the short seller, then they have a problem. This is a margin call situation. The brokerage house "calls" on the shares the short seller owes them which the brokerage house owes the actual owner. Say the shares in the above example went up in value by $50 each instead of down in value. Now the short seller doesn't have enough money in his account to buy the required number of shares--he is short by $5000. He has to scratch around for the money. With the deregulation Bush pushed in place, and in the context of a banking crash like we are stuck in right now, it is entirely likely that the short seller never had the money to cover a margin call in the first place and he defaults on the transaction. Now he is in debt to the brokerage house, the brokerage house is in debt to the actual owner of the stock, and the actual owner is out his profit on what he thought was a sound investment. Everyone involved begins to borrow from elsewhere to hold off execution on the various defaults and their deficits grow and grow until they are forced into bankruptcy.

Here is where Bush comes in, screaming that we are on the brink of a new Great Depression, and shoves a bailout package through to put the bill at the feet of the general taxpaying public. That tax burden gets spread out, in large part, over the largest group of tax payers, the middle class, and the "upper class" stock holders, brokerage houses, and short sellers then get the welfare benefit of the bailout.

The short sell transaction is analogous to the deregulated lending practices that are at the root of the housing crisis. It is a way to make money whether value is up or down based on artificial equity in the marketplace.

Now I am not saying that the individuals who overextended themselves in these various transactions have no blame. But I am saying that it is hard for anyone, particularly the relatively unsophisticated average homeowner, to ignore the hard core advertising loan companies were doing to promote "bubble protection" and other home equity schemes, particularly when the people they are trusting to put the transaction together, the loan officers, etc., are putting the hard sell on them. Just think about the typical car buying experience. It is hard to get off the lot without buying something for about 90% of those who are shopping, particularly when they move the financing around enough to make it look like a deal you can't refuse. Once you step foot on the lot, they know that they have most likely got you.

It becomes even more troubling when you examine the data about who the average target is for the people who seek to profit off of an artificially inflated market like we were experiencing a few years ago. It is a fact that a large majority of the most ridiculous and unsafe of these loans were made to people of minority races, young people and senior citizens. These groups have traditionally been most susceptible to manipulation by the system and this time around is no different. I saw an article today that estimates that half of the American work force makes less than $32,000 per year. It is ironic to me that the major beneficiaries of the bailout probably make $250,000 a year to much much more. That's called trickle down economics, or Reaganomics. The idea is if you make the rich richer, then they, out of the goodness of their rich hearts, will let their wealth trickle down the line to those who are poorer -- their employees, etc. The idea is that an abundance of money makes you more altruistic. Did nobody read A Christmas Carol? Wasn't it nothing short of the prospect of hell and chains that changed rich old Ebenezer's mind about hoarding his wealth? He must be the exception to the rule. Right.

Another irony in this situation is the fact that Bush's Secretary of the Treasury got fat off $500 million in bonuses and compensation when he ran JP Morgan while the market was going crazy a few years ago. It got him the cabinet position he enjoys. He got rewarded all the way around and is the guy who is currently setting financial policy and pushing the bailout. Isn't it funny that JP Morgan tanked thanks to the practices he put in place while he was in charge over there and had to be bought out by Chase a few weeks ago to save it from complete failure? He got a cabinet position from Bush and $500 million to run his company and now the country's economy into the ground.

Even with this context to the thought process that produced my previous post, I acknowledge that the other post bashed Bush in a hardcore way -- but it was already toned down. Believe me, I can get a lot more vicious when I talk about Bush. I did and do vote, though, so I reserve the right to go off on a tirade every once in a while. But I am also not delusional. I am sure that when Obama wins this thing, he won't be able to do much either -- there is just way too little left to work with.

Bail Me Out

2008-10-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

Wow. The stupidity of the leadership in this country never ceases to amaze me. That is a bipartisan attack. Those who know me know that I am no fan of that insidious and hypocritically named Patriot Act. It was a knee jerk reaction, pushed by (sorry everyone who likes him) the biggest retard to ever inhabit the White House; and my party, the Democrats, bent right over for it and passed the most systemic violation of Constitutionally protected rights of which I am aware.

Now the Senate has passed, in my opinion, a financial version of the same stupidity underlying the Patriot Act with this now $810 billion bailout ($900 billion if you count the AIG bailout as part of this mess -- that's right -- nearly $1 trillion) of banks that deserved to tank for their idiotic underwriting and lending practices of the last 5 years. The last time I heard the serious use of the number 1 trillion was in the 80's when Reaganomics left our economy in the toilet. And, shame on them, the Republicans, like the Democrats did with the Patriot Act, have essentially abandoned the core planks of their platform that make them Republicans, and bent right over for it.

The lowest common denominator in the mess this country is in, is the current administration -- that retard who lives in the White House. We might as well call him King George for all the Democracy and Republicanism (or lack thereof) that is flying around these days. You want to talk about the Constitution hanging by a thread? We are there! He shoved the Patriot Act and this Bailout right up the country's backside.

And no matter who wins this election, they are going to inherit the biggest mess anyone ever inherited when ascending to the Presidency, except maybe George Washington, and at least that mess was consented to by the people who had revolted.

With the Patriot Act, King George let a small group of religious terrorists bully our elected representatives into taking away Constitutional freedoms. With the bailout, King George let a small group of financial terrorist bully our elected representatives into taking away our financial freedoms. Thank heaven he only has a few more months left to screw things up. Its just too bad that the half life of the waste that the dirty bomb that was his presidency (the real WMD) is leaving behind will probably gobble up the next two administrations at least and the long range effect could last far longer.

The ironic thing is that the cost of this god forsaken war added to the cost of this bailout, could easily fund universal health care and probably bail out social security too. Or it could have funded infectious disease research, clean fuel research, better education, paid down trade deficits or any other number of things. I would rather we gave African countries this much money to fight hunger and genocide on that all too often forgotten continent than continuing to spend priceless American soldiers' lives on this unwinable war we are fighting.

OK, I am done with my rant for the moment. Man, I am fighting mad! Where is my bailout? If I stole other peoples money or denied them their rights, I would go to jail, not get a big fat check or get to keep my job.

The Great White Hunter has Returned with Blood on His Hands

2008-09-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

So, my hunting trip which I have been anxiously anticipating for the last 6 months has come to a successful end. *WARNING* GRAPHIC PICTURE:

Yes, that is one dead deer . . . and he did not make it easy on me. Let me back up.

Tuesday:

We loaded up my dad's truck and headed for the Ruby Valley in Northern Nevada at about 8:30 or so. I took CJ with me for basically some one on one, father-son, prevent a queer (as Gregor Mills calls it) activity. I figured CJ will be old enough for a junior tag soon and he might as well see if he has the stomach for hunting. He was totally stoked to go. We made a brief stop in Alamo, Nevada for drinks and snacks to hold us over to Ely. We got to Ely at about lunchtime and gassed up and had a little McDonald's. Then we headed North, through McGill, Nevada, where my great-grandfather, Fred D. Gibson lived with his young family 70 years or so ago when he was superintendent of the copper mining operations there. Next came Lages Station and a turn North toward Wells, Nevada. About 30 miles before Wells, we turned West into the Ruby Valley, and we made camp at about 3:30 p.m. The valley is in the shadow of the Ruby Mountains and we always camp in a canyon above Neff's Ranch, complete with a running stream. After we got the camp in good order, we headed down to the main road and drove along the farms and ranches, looking at the deer that had come down to the hay fields to graze in the late afternoon and early evening. We saw several nice looking bucks we hoped we would get a shot at in the morning. We then went back to camp and had a modest meal, watched Shooter on DVD, and went to bed for the night.

Wednesday (opening day):

Let me just preface this by saying that there are A LOT of deer in the Ruby Valley. I have seen some real monsters (6 points and up) and this time was no exception. The problem is that for this early hunt, the only legal weapon is a muzzle-loader with open sights (no scope). So, you basically have to get within 150 yards or so of the deer in order to get a well placed shot. The .50 caliber slugs I shoot have great knock down power, but after 150-175 yards, the bullets are so heavy that there is a lot of fall and you have to make adjustments to have a hope of hitting what you aim at. Anyway, getting to within 150 yards of one of the big ones is very difficult -- that is why they are so big.

We got up at 3:30 a.m. and were headed to the hunting grounds by 4:00 a.m. There is a particular rock outcropping there around which I have seen many large deer over the last few years, and that rock outcropping is where I intended to start the hunt that morning. In order to get there, we had to cross over the grazing rights land of one of the prominent ranchers in the valley who is notorious for locking up public access roads across his land and for generally frustrating the efforts of hunters. So, I don't even bother asking permission any more. If he leaves a gate unlocked, I use it. Luckily the gate from the main road was unlocked. We drove up toward the rock outcropping and for some inexplicable reason, I decided to stop about 3/4 of a mile short of it and hang out in some trees between the rock outcropping and the fields below. iIguess I thought that the deer would not have headed up so early and I might catch them down low. Well, that was my first major mistake. At about 6:30 a.m., I turned to look up toward the rocks and I saw movement. I looked through my binoculars and swore bitterly under my breath, and even more bitterly in my head. I was looking at about 6 bucks and 10 does uphill near the rocks, downwind from me, and the two biggest bucks had at least 6 points on each side I could count through binoculars 3/4 of mile away. The other four bucks were also big, ranging from 3 to 5 points. Had I just continued on up to the rocks in the dark as I had planned, I would have been in perfect position to knock down a trophy. Instead, I was now 3/4 of a mile downhill and upwind from them with my gun in my hand ("gun" here is a lewd euphemism in case you didn't catch it).

So, CJ and I got back in the truck and headed uphill in a vain attempt to get above them before they got skittish and got out of there. We were unsuccessful in that attempt, but got a good few miles of hiking in for our trouble, because the jerk-wad aforementioned rancher had thrown a big lock on a clearly marked public access point to a road above the rocks.

By this time, I was a little bit miffed. I had figured I would nail a deer shortly after sunup and be on my way home that evening. Instead, I blew the magic hour and now had to try to salvage something with a little road hunting. We drove down to exit the property and came across a nice 3 pointer running with some forkies and spikes we had seen the night before. Unfortunately, he was about 185 yards off, and by the time I got out of the truck and set up for a shot, he was on the run. I missed him high.

Throughout the rest of the morning, we saw several more forkies, but nothing within range. So, we drove to Wells, Nevada to get some fuel, and some Burger King, and to make a few calls in the limited cell phone range to report to Rebecca that we suck and would be there at least until very late that night, if not the next morning. Sure enough, I only got one more chance at a buck that evening at about 210 yards. I missed again. I am definitely no Davey Crockett.

By this point, about 8:00 p.m., CJ and I had been up since 3:30 a.m., walking and driving a lot, and totally bushed. We drove back out to cell phone range and left Rebecca a message that we would be on the road for home by noon the following day, deer or no deer. Then we headed back to camp, had a cold dinner, watched a little bit of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy while we ate, and then we went to bed.

Thursday:

We got up a little later than we had planned and had to hurry to get down to where we wanted to hunt that morning. CJ decided to stay with the truck and finish the movie from the night before and get some more sleep. I set off on my own and hiked out about 3 miles to a place that looked like a good ambush spot. As the morning wore on, I saw nothing but lots of does. One group of 6 or 7 decided to stop and graze about 150 yards from me and I watched them for about 2 hours, all the while undetected. It was getting on to about 8:15 a.m., and I decided that if I didn't see something I could shoot by 8:30 a.m., I would hike up another mile or so and try to catch that 3 pointer I missed the morning before, and if I missed him, I would just be noisy walking back to the truck and try to scare up anything with horns on it.

At almost exactly 8:30 a.m., the does I had been watching did something strange. They began moving downhill again back toward the hay fields. I couldn't figure out why and decided to watch for a few more minutes. After seeing no movement for another half an hour, I decided to get moving. I took about three steps out of the cover of the tree I had been standing near, turned to look back once more, and saw a deer looking right at me from about 300 yards away. I looked at him through my binoculars and saw that he was an average sized forkie buck. He had not seen me, but was rather looking in the direction the does had gone.

Keeping the tree directly behind me and relying on my camouflage, I began stalking toward the deer, thinking this was my last best chance for a kill. There were a few gullies between us and I thought that I might be able to cut the distance between us by half. Instead, he got spooked at about 200 yards out and started moving off to my left and away from me. I began moving more directly to him on a path to hopefully cut him off, when he stopped and looked right at me, about 225 yards out. Thinking it was now or never, I fired a shot. The load had been in my gun overnight and came out really smoky. I knew I had missed, but could not tell by how much. But the deer didn't run away and continued standing there while I reloaded. I tried another shot and missed low and left. That got him running, to my right, and uphill and away.

There was some more swearing under my breath and in my head at this point.

I pursued.

For some reason I cannot fathom, the deer stopped at a small tree and bush and began eating some grass again, about 300 yards away from me. There were two trees between me and him at about 70 yard intervals. I made it to the second tree undetected. Now, with no more cover between me and the deer, I had to set up for another shot at about 170-80 yards. I lined up the shot and fired, and the deer kind of jumped and then bounded around behind the tree. I reloaded quickly and looked through the binoculars and could see no sign of him. I thought that I had probably missed again and he was long gone, but the tree was in the general direction of the truck and CJ, so I walked toward it to see if I had hit the tree or something. I got to within about 80 yards of the tree and still could see no deer, so I turned to my left to correct my course and head back to the truck empty handed. I walked about 20 yards or so and heard a noise behind me to my right. Turning, I saw the deer jump up from behind a large bush and begin running away. I could see that there was something wrong with his gait, surmised that I had wounded him with my last shot, and determined that he not get away, I fired off another at him and hit him at about 90 yard on the run. He got about six or seven more steps and went down behind a bush. I reloaded once more and walked to where I had seen him go down.

HERE IS WHERE IT GETS GRAPHIC

There he was, still alive, but thrashing his legs and unable to get up. I could see a good deal of blood below his chest and a little on the ground near his rear legs. He took one last ragged breath and died. As I examined his wounds, I found that my first shot that hit him had severed part of a ligament in his back left leg, carried on through and broke the femur of his right rear leg. My second shot that hit him had entered from the rear directly between the testicles and had carried on through to bash through a lung and out the breast bone right at the juncture of his ribs. That was the killer. I was amazed when I gutted him to find that besides having his balls blown off, the only major organ that was damaged was a lung (frankly, having my balls blown off would be enough for me). The great thing about the wounds was that hardly any of the meat was ruined, which can be a problem when a .50 caliber slug fragments inside a deer.

Now I had another problem. This deer dressed out at about 140 pounds of dead weight, and I had about 2 miles to go over uneven ground to get to the truck. I also had a large rifle (I discharged my last round by the way) and about 20 pounds of backpack with me. So I dragged that sucker for about 1 1/2 miles. Then I dropped it and walked the rest of my gear back to the truck and got CJ to come back out to get it with me. I dragged it the rest of the way and then it was back to camp.

I was exhausted, but very relieved that I was able to fill my tag. Back at camp, I skinned the deer, cut the best meat off of it, chopped off its head and left the bits and pieces for the coyotes. We broke camp and were on the road by 2:30 p.m., and with a few stops on the way home, we made it to our house at about 9:30 p.m.

I was very glad to be in my own bed and was soon sleeping the sleep of the dead.

READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK (not for the faint of heart)

Friday at about 1:00 a.m.:

I woke to the sound of Rebecca crying out and hitting the floor in the bathroom. I sprang up and ran to help her and slipped a little myself on a floor slick with vomit. Rebecca had a bit of food poisoning, and it was a scene out of The Exorcist as she literally covered the floor walls and every bit of our bathroom in vomit. It was pretty impressive, I have to admit. We got her cleaned up, and six towels, a bucket of disinfectant, and a roll of paper towels later, I had the bathroom cleaned up and we went back to bed. Rebecca has been down all day, but the stomach problem passed quickly. She had a little fever and is really tired (puking that much is serious work), so I stayed home with her today and worked from the home office.

I can kill a deer, gut, drag and skin it, follow it up with a six hour drive, and on 2 hour's sleep, clean up buckets of vomit, all in the same day, and then eat a whole bowl of leftover chicken Parmesan with the smell of dead deer and vomit still in my nose. Because I am a M-A-N. Yep, say it again. M-A-N. That's just how I roll, dog. :)

The Rumors of my Demise Were, Thankfully, Premature

2008-09-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

Talk about a packed couple of weeks. Friday, August 22, Beck surprised me with a birthday trip to Cedar City. My mom watched the kids and we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast a short way from SUU's campus and the Shakespeare Festival. I had no idea what Beck had been planning and it was really fun. We saw Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was a total blast. The trip would have been enough, but there were very thoughtful presents too. One of my presents was a uniform and my first month of Karate with the Bidwell Karate Club. CJ and I are now in the same Karate class and he outranks me, so I have to call him 'sir' in that context.

Toward the end of the weekend, I started to detect a little tickle at the back of my throat, a feeling with which I am all too familiar. I get tonsillitis a few times a year and sometimes it gets worse. Well, it got worse this time, and it developed into strep. That was still not too out of the ordinary until I started peeing what looked like cranberry juice. Beck made me go to the doctor and when they saw my pee they freaked out and sent me to the emergency room.

It turns out that I have a kidney disease. It is called IgA Nephropathy. Here is a link for more details: http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/iganephropathy/

Basically, a protein called IgA, which is a natural part of everybody's immune systems, gets produced to ward of colds and sore throats and things like that. In my body, its presence builds up in the filters of the kidneys and destroys them.

This translated to being stuck in the hospital from Tuesday at around noon until Saturday just after noon, three large doses of antibiotics and three large doses of steroid. It also brought with it a roommate in the hospital who was Legal 2000 and suffering from dementia. He ran the television, loud, for all but 5 hours a day, talked to the walls and himself, and he would stand and stare at me every once in a while. I also got the short end on drugs because nothing hurt, and the food was renal patient safe, so it had no flavor.

Thankfully, the nurses were great, and Beck brought my DVD player, earphones, and all my favorite DVDs. Also, upon release, I was able to go up on Mount Charleston with my family two days in a row and enjoy a lazy Labor Day.

I followed up with the renal specialist today and he had results from my biopsy. Miraculously, there is very little trace of any permanent damage inside my kidneys and aggressive therapy is not indicated. I have been told I can do Karate, which I did tonight, and I have to watch my blood pressure. Basically I am fit as a mildly diseased fiddle.

We really are so very blessed. We had purchased health insurance a month before this hit; we have tons of family and friends who helped, visited, prayed and lent their general support. I won't even have my hunting trip interrupted!

There were a few really scary moments there for me and a lot of self-reflection, but in general, I am sure this will be one of those experiences we look back on with general gratitude for the affirmation of our relationships and faith that it really has been.

Now, however, it is back to the grindstone to try to catch up on nearly a week of missed work. God help me!

New Music and Other Updates

2008-08-19T19:54:00.001-07:00

You may notice that my blog now has a soundtrack. Bear in mind that gangsta rap and grunge were the music of my teens and I am a guy with a tattoo of a dragon on his upper arm! I got the playlist for free from a website called playlist.com and the songs aren't radio edited. The music can be silenced by clicking the speaker on the playlister at the bottom of the blog if my taste in music is a little hard on the ears. I did sprinkle in a little Cat Stevens and Johnny Cash, and individual tracks can be selected even though the player will shuffle.

Since my last post, I have won yet another weigh-in for the Gibson Family Biggest Loser challenge. I have at this point lost nearly 40 pounds since about April 29 and I don't intend to stop until I am well on the other side of 200 pounds.

Rebecca and I have been run-walking nearly every weeknight, and I am proud to say that I am actually capable of jogging a mile without stopping for the first time since high school. I should be able to do a mile and a half without stopping soon. We walk in addition to the jogging and I get time in on my eliptical every morning too. I am hoping to be able to start doing 5k fun runs and maybe a 10k in the next six months or so. I also hope to start training karate with CJ. It makes for a very full day with work and everything but it has really been worth it. I have dropped about six inches on my waist and will be needing a lot of new clothes soon. We will be getting rid of my fat clothes so I don't have the option to go back to them.

We have also been watching a lot of the Olympics and that has led to less sleep.

As far as my private law practice goes, it has been pretty steady. I could always use a few more private cases to supplement the court appointments, but that is nothing new.

Rebecca has started putting together her own blog complete with music milder than mine. You can find her at bectriesbloggin.blogspot.com.

Z turned 1 today!

2008-07-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

We have officially ended our first year toward becoming empty-nesters. Our youngest, "Z," turned one year old today. He got a lot of presents, but liked the big ball the best.

I can't believe how quickly it is going by. He started drinking from a straw today and started putting five or six steps together at a time last week. He is completely stubborn and determined but also sweet and hilarious even at his worst. We are lucky to have him.

Rebecca planned a big party at a park and it was well attended by family and friends. Thanks everyone who came and thank you for all the gifts. Really, it was just great to have everyone there and gifts were not required, but we really appreciate your generosity. Z loves his gifts and has been having a blast playing in his room since we got home tonight.

I Am The Biggest Loser

2008-07-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a long while since I last posted. I am such a loser. But there is a good excuse. The new business is going well but has been taking a lot of my time. Also, I have been kicking my own butt trying to lose some weight.

In the last week of May, Callie, Jared, James, Dan, Kol, T-Bone (my mom), Dad, Rebecca and I started a Biggest Loser Family competition once again. We decided to have monthly weigh-ins on July 1, August 1, and September 1 with monthly rewards and penalties for the winner and loser of the losers with a grand prize at the end. The reward for the highest percentage of weight loss for the first month get his house and yard cleaned and worked on by everyone else in the competition, and gets his car washed by the person (wearing a speedo or bathing suit) with the lowest percentage.

I lost 22 pounds and won the competition for the first month. Rebecca did really well too, losing 9 pounds. Dan has to wash my car in a speedo.

Two days after the weigh-in, I weighed in again and found that I had lost 5 more pounds, and to date, I am down just over 30 pounds. I still have 60 or so to go to be where I want to be. I started out at 269.

I have basically been eating less and exercising a whole lot more. I walk between 3 and 9 miles every day and get in between 30 minutes to an hour on the elliptical machine. I hit the heavy bag for about 20-30 minutes a few times per week and do some dumbbell workouts now and then. I get my walking in on a 3-5 mile walk every weeknight with Rebecca and walking CJ to and from Karate and Scouts. We have been walking to nearby parks and things too.

I was pretty proud of myself yesterday when I jogged almost all of one leg of the walk to and from Karate (it is about 1.25 miles there). Ultimately, I plan to start Karate with CJ at the end of the summer and jog there and back from class.

I know the weight loss will plateau at times and slow down a bit as I lose more and more, but I am hoping to be significantly South of 200 pounds by the end of the year and I have promised Rebecca that any yo-yoing I do from now on will be below 200 rather than over 200.

Further Update on Changes at Work

2008-05-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well I have had a lot of questions from friends and family concerning how I plan to practice on my own after so long with a firm. Rebecca and I have the home office set up and running. I have letterhead, business cards, envelopes, etc., designed and coming shortly. Here is my new logo:

This is a sketch - the real thing is sharper and in gold foil. I will be keeping my operation small for the foreseeable future. I will rely heavily on court appointments, but they will take a few months to get steady and paying. In the meantime, I will also accept criminal defense (including traffic tickets, DUI, Domestic Violence, etc.) and Divorce referrals. Rebecca and an answering service will assist phones and files, and I will do a lot of my own secretarial. Fortunately, with a focused practice like this, the secretarial is not as big a factor. I will run my communications through my home office, but I have conference rooms available in Las Vegas and Henderson for in-person client contact. I am trading work for office space at Mills & Mills for at least the next three months and hopefully longer.

I am also rejoining the Henderson Chamber of Commerce and will be networking and advertising in the specific areas of my practice with a focus on Henderson. I am confident as the word gets out, I will have a steady flow of referrals. Also, because I am keeping my overhead very low, I will be able to offer very competitive rates. For instance, where I would ordinarily charge a minimum of $2500 for a Domestic Violence case or $1500 for a DUI case, I can now take Domestic Violence cases starting at $1000 and DUI's starting at $750. Also, I have changed the contracts I will be using for Divorce cases, and where I would typically require a retainer of $5000 to $7500 up front, I can now offer more flexible payment options and require as low as $1500 to $2500 up front.

I will have to work a lot more hours initially, but I believe things will become more steady and routine once I have a steady pool of court appointed cases. Obviously there is a fair amount of risk to this new direction, but Rebecca and I have given it a lot of thought and prayer and we feel like this is the way to go.

Changes at Work

2008-05-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a few weeks since the last post, but things have been a little crazy. After nearly four years working for Mills & Mills, I am making a few changes to how I will be practicing law. I will continue to do some contract work for Mills & Mills, but I will be starting up my own practice again. I will be doing court appointed work for Clark County while accepting referrals for specific types of cases in the private sector. I will continue to accept Divorce cases selectively. I will also be providing defense to the criminally accused. I will focus on misdemeanor crimes like DUI and Domestic Violence, Traffic and other crimes punishable by 6 months or less in jail. This will be an adjustment for us and has an element of risk -- instead of a steady paycheck on salary, we will be subject to the amount of appointments I receive and the steadiness of the private cases I take. I am confident that it is a good business plan, though, and from past experience, I believe the referrals from friends, family and other lawyers will be steady. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

What a Week-and-a-half or so

2008-05-05T15:40:00.001-07:00

Our family has been realigned out of our old ward and stake into the newly formed El Dorado stake and well established Mission Hills ward. The move is bitter-sweet. I finally had just about the best calling possible (gospel doctrine teacher) to keep me sharp at church. Now my number is back into the calling lottery and I can't help but experience some trepidation. On the other hand, we know a lot of people in the new ward (Marlan and Colleen Walker are in the ward and that would be plenty) and we should fit in just fine.

I am really going to miss teaching every Sunday. For one, it forced me to stay up on my scripture study. For another, my class was always packed with people and the members of the ward seemed to genuinely enjoy the lessons. Additionally, when you are sure to bare your testimony in front of a lot of other people every single week, it makes it easier to do it out in the real world. Also, we made a lot of good friends in our previous ward.

The worst part is now that I have been teaching Sunday School for a few years, it is really hard to keep my hand down and my mouth shut when we hit a verse I think deserves deeper discussion. I only made one comment in class this week, so I am capable of the restraint, but it was still hard.

It is particularly hard when we are discussing King Benjamin and the gathering around his tower to not get off on a tangent about things I have seen in Mexico. For instance, these photos are of a pavilion in Teotihuacan, outside of Mexico City, which includes the temple of Quetzalcoatl.

This pavilion is a large sunken square with the temple of Quetzalcoatl as its focus. From where Rebecca and I are standing in the pictures above, on top of an outbuilding in front of the temple, I could speak in a slightly elevated voice and could be heard across the pavilion. The scale may be hard to see from the pictures, but the sunken grass portion of the pavilion could have easily held tens of thousands of people. A Nephite king with such a venue could easily speak from the top of this tower and be heard by those he addressed. Now I am not saying that this place is Zarahemla -- in fact many scholars put Teotihuacan too far North to have been part of the immediate Book of Mormon geography, but the people who built this pavilion are certainly within the sphere of influence of plausible Book of Mormon peoples.

As an aside, the temple of Quetzalcoatl, the great white god, which stands in this pavilion is faced by twelve smaller temples directly in front of it and to either side, and it is flanked by three more behind it.

Parallels between places I have seen and the first few chapters of Mosiah are only part of the points of interest I find in these chapters. The doctrines taught by King Benjamin also deserve close scrutiny and deep discussion. His references to the mysteries of God, the connections between God and His children, the significance of taking Christ's name, and the salvation of innocent children, to name a few, could all be individual lessons themselves. There is so much material there for a teacher. I am really going to miss it.

Good Book

2008-04-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I read a new book that I wholeheartedly recommend to all: Mormon Scientist, The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring, by Henry J. Eyring. I like a well written biography and this book definitely qualifies. It does not follow the typical layout of a biography. It first starts with a review of Henry's scientific accomplishments, which were many. It then gives some historical background categorized by attributes and qualities of this incredible man of science and faith.

I cannot overemphasize how strongly I recommend this book. When I finished the book, I could not help but think how awesome it would have been to know Henry Eyring personally.

A few highlights the book discusses are: his many scientific awards, including multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize; his revolutionary theories which are today foundational for modern chemistry; his years at Princeton where he rubbed shoulders with and proselytized Albert Einstein; and his having published over 600 scientific papers and nine books.

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, his spiritual activities are also featured. Though he was one of the great modern scientific figures, he was also a man of deep and abiding spiritual faith. He described himself as a "convinced Mormon" and shared his testimony of the restored Gospel with everyone he met. He frequently spoke to members of the LDS Church on the topic of science and religion. He felt that the two were part of a complete whole rather than antithetical. His book, The Faith of a Scientist, was reprinted in a shorter form and distributed by the Church education system, and though out of print, is still available to view for free online.

A wiki version of Mormon Scientist can be found at www.mormonscientist.org along with links to the web versions of The Faith of a Scientist and Reflections of a Scientist. I intend to read both. Additionally, Mormon Scientist, has been discounted for sale by the typical author's royalties as its author, Henry's grandson, wanted it to be as inexpensive as possible to widely distribute his grandfather's story.

I loved this book, and I think you will too.

Outdoor Activities

2008-04-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

Rebecca and I have been trying to do more outdoor activities with the kids lately. So far this year, we have been to Redrock, the Valley of Fire, Callville Bay, Red Stone, the Historic Railway tunnel trail in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Fort Paiute, and Kesterson's Ranch. The kids have really enjoyed the sights and, for the most part, it has only really cost us gas money.

These images are from Redrock. It was a little chilly, but very beautiful that day. The clouds were hanging a bit low, and there was a little bit of snow on the mountains. We went with James and Natalie and the girls and stopped at many of the different trail heads for photo opportunities and a few short hikes. Every once in a while the sun would get through and create some impressive views.

The Spring Mountains, which are part of Redrock, get their name from the many springs that flow created by water trickling down through porous rocks. The pressure of the mountains above the aquifers forces the springs out and provide a water source for a lot of wildlife. Thanks to the I-215 beltway in Las Vegas, the trip to Redrock from Henderson is a lot shorter than it was when I was a child. We got out there in no time, leaving us hours of daylight to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area provided the setting to our outings to Callville Bay, Red Stone, and the Historic Railway tunnel trail.

It is getting to be almost too hot now to get to the many sights around the Las Vegas Valley, so we squeezed Fort Paiute in last week. This place is so cool. There is literally a stream of running water right in the middle of the desert. To get there you have to go about 25 miles South of Searchlight, Nevada, just across the California Border, the turn West and drive into the mountains. It is accessible with a high clearance vehicle and is really worth the trip.

You have got to love Southern Nevada for all of its beautiful country. The weather is great for seeing all of these sights basically from October to April. It has been really fun to share these experiences with Rebecca and the children.

Ad Disclaimer

2008-04-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

I made mention in my last entry that in keeping with recent statements by the Brethren that Members of the Church should have a Web presence, that I would likely make several religious related posts to this blog. In the meantime, I also added a feature allowing advertisement on my blog which is connected to the Google search engine. Google surveys the blog and puts relevant ads on your page for you.

Unfortunately, the filtering process is limited to filtering specific domain names and there is no way for me to block potentially anti-Mormon adds from appearing without discontinuing the ad feature. I do not recommend clicking on potential anti-Mormon adds and their presence on my blog page should not reflect upon my personal opinions or beliefs.

I am interested to see if the ads change at all as I blog about secular topics of interest to me. If they do not, I may just discontinue the ad option altogether. Stay tuned for results of this experiment.

The Joseph Smith Papers

2008-04-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

I saw a story on The Joseph Smith Papers on the LDS World Report between conference sessions last weekend. I have since visited the website: www.josephsmithpapers.net, and I am very excited about the release of this material. The first volume will be published later this year and a hardbound copy can be pre-ordered soon for about forty dollars. The Church is literally opening up the Archives and will be publishing these volumes on the Internet as well. A Church Historian's Press has been created and the World Report story hinted at the possibility of other Archive projects publishing other primary sources pertinent to Church history. The project has received substantial financial support from the owner of the Utah Jazz, and that is almost enough to convert me into a Jazz fan.

I am very glad to see the Church taking this approach. We have allowed ourselves for so long to be defined by critics outside the Church, with mainly only Apologetic efforts to defend ourselves. It is refreshing to see that we are showing the world that there is nothing to hide. The Church is true and need not be ashamed or secretive of its history. Church leaders are asking the general membership to make their beliefs known as publicly as possible, including participation on the Internet in the form of discussion groups and blogs. Hence, readers will likely encounter several religious themed posts on this blog.

I expect that the content of some of the documents which will be made available by the Church Historian's Press may challenge some long held perceptions and understandings of many Church members. I noticed a significant focus throughout the Saturday sessions of General Conference on the need for members of the Church to have their own, independent, and abiding testimony of the Gospel. I have personally found that a foundation of an independent testimony has sustained me through many challenges to my faith throughout the years.

The most central pillar in my personal testimony is my knowledge that Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that he restored the true Church of Jesus Christ. I have found that there is nothing I have ever seen, heard or read that has ever been able to shake that foundation. I have been asked to speak on the subject of Joseph Smith several times, and I may, in the future, reproduce some of those talks here in written form. I look forward to receiving the first volume of The Joseph Smith Papers. I am fairly certain that Rebecca will let me pre-order it when it becomes available.

Coming Soon

2008-04-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

This is my latest attempt at a blog. Comments are welcome. I reserve the right to censor all submissions for content, but I will exercise this right only in extreme circumstances. I am a free-flow of information kind of guy and I like to think that I am open minded. Topics will be abundant in their variety and include religious, legal, artistic, philosophic, etc. Hopefully, you will find the things I have to say to be relevant, informative, funny, inspirational, controversial, apologetic, but most of all worthwhile.