Gifts 1-3

1. 2000 - Back Pack - I had just finished my first semester at Snow College and made my new resolution. The back pack I had for several years had a broken zipper and just wouldn't hold stuff anymore. Instead of buying a new cheap backpack I went and spent a little more so it would be more a nice gift to myself that I could use whilst on a mission. I used the backpack for two years on a mission and by the end it was more than worn out, I think about a quarter of it was reinforced with duct tape. When I returned home I replaced it with a cheap version to go back to school with.

2. 2001 - Mini-Disc player - While I was on a mission I had a cd player which I used to listen to music. I was soon introduced to the advanced technology in Japan. It was as easier to record and share music on a mini-disc player than on a tape recorder, but you had the quality and ease of use that came with a cd player. I used this for the last year of the mission and for four years after I returned home. It was great until it was eventually made obsolete. It became such a pain to find discs, and the battery, though rechargeable, was on its last leg. I sold it on e-bay to someone in Europe who paid me 75% of what I originally paid for it.

3. 2002 - I thought I had a picture of my Toyota Tercel, the first car I ever owned. Even though buying a car doesn't really seam like a toy keep in mind that at the time I lived in Ephraim and I didn't really need a car I walked just about everywhere but the grocery store and Denny's. It was a great little car which on rare occasions I regret that I sold it, but it was a little small for me. I always felt cramped in the drivers seat and it seemed to hurt my lower back. I sold it to a guy from Brazil whom I worked with at the time and he sold it to a Hispanic guy named Felix when he returned to Brazil who still drives it to this day.
I used to drive the Tercel camping, hiking, and exploring. In fact that Tercel probably was probably driven on dirt almost as much as it was driven on paved roads.

Millenium Resolution

Some people, as well as myself, set New Year's resolutions. I on the other hand also made a New Millennium's goal at the end of 1999; I set a goal to, despite financial obligations such as school, to buy myself one toy every year. When I first began the price of my gift to myself was fairly inexpensive. As this little resolution of mine has progressed the average price of the toy has tended to increase as well. Thus far I have been successful in fulfilling this goal. In later posts I will try to provide a picture of each of the gift I have purchased if I can find one and give information as to whether or not I still have it and if not, what happened to it, and why it was the gift or toy for the year.

2000 Back Pack
2001 Sony Mini-disc player
2002 Toyota Tercel 1993
2003 Phillips 12 C.D. changer
2004 Jamis Dakar 2003
2005 Mazda 626 2002
2006 Optoma HD70 Projector
2007 Jamis XAM 1.0 2007
2008 Yamaha V-Star 2002

Free Summer Fun... Almost

So those of you who know me would venture to say that I'm not really a golfer. A one armed man can could with his fingers (thumb not included) the amount of times I have been golfing. So when a friend of mine suggested I try a game of disc golf I was a little hesitant.
A previous roommate of mine was an avid disc golfer but he also had many things in common with hippies not drugs or smoking but he liked drum circles (which can be cool), slack-lining, tie-dye shirts, man-capries made from pants with a pair of scissors, and a few other things that I won't bore you with, but you get the picture.
So I get to a disc golf course, which I was a little surprised even existed, only to see numerous people everywhere at this course. There was a small line to start playing, an most people I saw had form. Imagine a golfer getting ready to tee off. He lines up, makes sure his grip is good, sets his feet, takes a few practice swings, (accurate??) and then is ready to swing. I was, I dare say, flabbergasted. I thought to myself, "self, I know how to throw a frisbee, so whats the big deal, why don't these hippies just throw the thing already and get on with it?" I later concluded that most of them are much better than I and their approach to the game just may give them an edge on me. The course was actually quite scenic as we walked through trees and crossed a river that winds it way through and on the side of several fairways and pins. On the first outing I was fortunate not to have a disc land in the water, however, my friend was as fortunate. When water has a current its a good thing that the discs sink and sit in the water just about where they landed.
After a solid 18 holes or pins of disc golf I found that unbeknownst to me, I had enjoyed myself the entire time and I had not spent one cent unless you calculate the cost of fuel consumption into the cost of an activity. Still gas prices on the rise or not relatively free.
So my friend and I have been disc golfing a couple of times a week and everything seemed free to me until one day... I was standing on the tee of the 7th pin, to reach the fairway you have send your disc across the river; the path to the fairway is somewhat narrow due to trees that line the river. This isn't a big river, about 20 or 30 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. The last time we had played my friend hit a tree and his disc dropped to the river bottom, so he had to get a little wet, nothing bad. I stood there and realized that my friend was to throw first. I a jestful manner I advised him to miss the tree on his opening drive; which advise he took to heart and his disc landed safely on the fairway. I, overly confident in my frisbee skills, made threw my disc and watched it smack the very tree I advised my friend to avoid. I began to laugh at myself due to the obvious irony of the situation, when a bystander waiting at another nearby tee informed me that my disc had not sunk but landed flat in the water and was about to head through some rapids on the other side of a bridge. I didn't quite understand him until I saw my disc disappear into roar of white water never to be seen again. That is not to say I didn't look cause I did. Like an lady who doesn't want to get her pant legs wet while wading in shallow water I entered the edge of the fast moving water with my shorts hiked to an upper region of my sun lacking thighs and without success searched aimlessly in the water for a disc i shall never see again.
Since I lost that disc there have been a couple of close calls on other discs being whisked away in the river but we have been more attentive and acted a little faster and have been able to prevent other losses until a couple of days ago, my friend was throwing at the pin from about 50 feet, over shot the pin and lost another disc in the water.
Long story short, disc golf is free once you have your discs and as long as you don't loose your discs in water hazards or in deep weeds.
Now I really enjoy disc golf, I don't think I look as crazy as most of the people who play, but perhaps with time I too can let my inner hippie out.

Weekend of Wonderment

That's me on the right and my brother John on the left. I think the pictures in this post do a decent job of showing what my brother and I accomplished.

I for one have been actively into mt biking for going on three years now and this was my first trip to Moab. In past years I have unsuccessfully tried to get a friend or two to journey to mt bike Mecca with me. A group of people had planned a trip to Moab and I jumped at my chance to enjoy the world famous "red rock."

In order to obtain maximum enjoyment I knew it was important to get another person to go riding with me. I contacted all of my mt biking friends and all of them wanted to come, but for one reason or another were unable to make it. As I had done in the past when I had no one to ride with I decided it was necessary to introduce another person to a hobby I have come to love. Since I live with John he was an easy target and I new he felt bad for me on account that I was so excited to bike and as of yet no one was willing to join me. As you can tell from the picture John did mt bike with me in Moab.

Even though I had never ridden the infamous "Slick Rock" trail I have heard many tales from those who have. I new it tried even the best of riders and I chose not to disclose this to John. We embarked on the trail and things were a little rough to start out with. John was rediscovering how to ride a bike on a some what unforgiving surface of jagged red rock. As we climbed on hill after another and weaved from ridge to ridge I began to feel a great amount of satisfaction. Not only had the two of us ridden where several Moab patrons only reach on motorized vehicles, but John had expressed on more than one occasion that he couldn't believe how much fun he was having despite feeling physical fatigue and saddle sore.

We had reached the just over the half-way point of the trail and we actually started to pick of the pace. The adventurer within John had begun to push fear aside and he began to let go of the brake lever. We covered 3 or 4 miles in a fraction of the time it initially took us to cover the same territory.

As we sat on top of the highest ridge the only signs of civilization you could see were jeeps and off in the distance doing there thing. As we made our way back to the trail head we stopped a few times to enjoy some fine pieces of machinery climbing what seemed impossible terrain. We didn't see any jeeps roll, but I think I saw a couple of truck bumpers destroyed in the vast red rock back country.

We rode on Friday and a little bit on Saturday and then we drove from Moab to Logan to attend a concert featuring MxPx. This concert was amazing. I tried to take a picture with my phone and it turned out to be nothing but a blur with a streak or two of light in it. At some point during the concert I got lost in the moment and the hour plus of intense concert happenings seamed to end in a matter of minutes.

Although I don't have a picture to prove it on two separate occasions, I'm not even sure how it happened, the lead signer and I pounded fists! Both times, it seems, right before and after I was kicked in head by an innocent body surfer.

The Weekend of Wonderment ended with a night at Angie's restaurant in Logan and I consumed four large glasses of water and a Belgian waffle smothered in strawberries and whipped cream.

A movie about Me?

So I was talking to my friend the other day and out of no where he asks, "Josh, if someone made a movie about you and I and things we have done, who would you pick to play you?" (quotation may not be exact) I was pretty surprised and was drawing blanks as to who I would want to represent me on the big screen.

It was the next day and he sent me an e-mail of a picture of an actor he would cast to play the part of me in a movie.

I had never seen this guy before, but apparently he's pretty popular and is a doctor on Grey's Anatomy. I haven't heard his voice, but I guess my only concern is can he do comedy and action? It would be imperative that he be entertaining and capable of performing the majority of the stunts I have personally accomplished. Also, it's important that he look good with a mustache, cause I know I do.

Before I received the face shot of Eric Dane I had enlisted the help of friend who is more Hollywood savvy than I and he suggested Chris Evans. Personally I don't know if it would really matter and the only reason I even have thought about it because a friend asked I was somewhat intrigued by his choice. Kind of interesting but that's about it.

The beginning of spring fever

Its been a long fun winter, but I decided it was time to get my bike out of storage and see what king of shape both of us were in. I had to replace a tube that refused to hold air for more than ten minutes. I was able to cycle through all the gears easily. Then after taking a rag and removing a winters worth of dust the bike was looking pretty darn good. I lubed the chain and she was ready to go.

On the other hand it was a little harder to discern what kind of shape I was in. Since I stopped riding last October I have gained 5 or 10 lbs and was unable to find a proper winter substitute for my most difficult summer hobby. I decided I would go on a few bike rides around the neighborhood prior to my first off-road excursion of the year. After a week or so of neighborhood riding I would be ready to test my might. (an old mortal combat reference)

I was sitting at my desk at work unable to ignore the beautiful rays of sunshine that demanded my attention. I felt like a kid at school waiting for the end of the school day on a sunny Friday afternoon. I couldn't concentrate, for the better part of the last two hours of the work day I stared at my work unable to make sense of the numbers and graphs I was trying to analyze. It was useless, I was powerless with five minutes left work I ducked out a little early, feeling confident no one would notice. A side note, my boss was taking a sick day and I couldn't help but think of him basking in the sun with a smirk on his face knowing I was working while he was lounging.

I walked home quicker than usual and arrived home about ten minutes ahead of schedule. Upon entering the house I noticed my newly tuned bike, and I knew, I had to go for a ride, but a day suck as this required I go off the street and hit a dirt trail. Fearing my lack, or abundance, of shape may hinder the experience I opted for a shorter trail that was guaranteed to be free of snow.

I hit the trail and rode 3 miles in and 3 miles out. I fared better than expected and was giddy about being speckled with mud from head to toe as there were a couple of puddles that spanned the width of the trail. Upon completion a bit of the mud fell off the bike but if you look close you can see the remainder of the mud that was.

Currently in the area there are only a couple of ridable trails until the snow melts but I'll take what I can get.

What's your Life Story?

I met up with some old friends of mine a couple weeks ago. I know many other people have had similar experiences, or have they?

The night started out same as usual, casual greeting and meeting while partaking of delicious food from an old restaurant favorite that has a tendency to put everyone in a nostalgic state of mind. After a quick tell everybody what your doing now a days ect, ect, ect. We began to really get down to business. When I mean business I refer to people testing my memory of events in years past that may or may not have occurred. I consider myself to have a fairly decent memory, but when remembering happenings of 4-8 years ago the details tend to get a little fuzzy for me and I have a hard time believing others remember then so clearly. Many of things I had a vague recollection of or I did not remember at all. There were a few that I remembered clearly but the memories I chose to remember are completely different than that of my friends.

It made me wish that I had done a better job recording my own thoughts and perspectives on certain issues so I could have some hard facts on how things really were instead of just taking other people's word for the things that I did.

Could you imagine if you let other people write your life story for you on a day by day basis? Think about it. Would you trust them to be accurate without adding their own bias into the picture? More importantly would they be able to capture and accurately represent your view points and thoughts? What kind of person could you trust with that type of responsibility? Could you find people to show your true colors, whether sassy, sophisticated, suave, sarcastic, humorous, intelligent, stubborn, stupid, or just plain dazzling.

How different do you think your past might become if you had to take someone else's word, whether you could remember what really happened or not.

I guess it's kind of the same thing as being able to see how you look through other people's eyes. I guess if you got to be the guest scribe for someone else you might really get a chance to take a walk in their shoes.

As I visited with friends I was reminded of my past by several different people. Some tell stories better than other. Some, in my own opinion, tell more accurate accounts of what really happened than others. Some stories were funny and others were serious stories that make you grateful that you made it through.

All in all if your life had many different authors a bystander could probably really tell what kind of affect you had on different people at the same or different stages in your life. You could understand what areas of your life you could improve on.

Anyway, that's just a little something that I have thought about a little over the last couple of weeks. If you think about it, tt might just blow your mind, or make you wish you hadn't spent time reading this.

Arena Football

I was fortunate enough to attend the season opening game of the Utah Blaze. The picture in this post along with my entrance ticket, not to mention great company were provided my good friends TJ & Kim.

This picture shows almost the entire field and the game between downs. Not pictured are the eccentric fans who came in attire reserved for true fans. Which includes their favorite players jersey, black and orange face paint, and orange hair dye. Kim was in charge of the camera so also not pictured are the Harley Davidson Blaze Dancers. I tip my hat to any person who chooses to who has that level of dedication to any sports team. The Blaze ended up loosing the game by one point and I think I saw I like face paint start to run on a couple of fanatic faces. I dared not point it out because any one of the aforementioned could have killed me without much effort.

There are several people who have watched more football than I but since your reading my blog I'm going to give you my opinion of Arena football. I'm not going to lie I like to watch football, it entertains me. The prospect of a group of guys banding together in the quest of greatness. In the NFL it takes 11 people simultaneously working together to make a big play, whether the play be on offense or defense. In the AFL there are several big offensive plays but defensive plays seem to be few and far between.

In Arena football there are so many touchdowns that the excitement spawned by a touchdown quickly looses its flavor. If a team doesn't score at least 50 points they are pretty much guaranteed to loose.

To me Arena football is like real footballs little brother. The players are smaller and have changed a few of the rules. From a distance you may think the only difference is one is played outside while the other is played inside. However, you will quickly realize that even though the basic concepts are the same there are several noticeable differences.

In the future I may watch more Arena football, but I don't ever think it will entertain me to the same extent as real football.

Free Pizza Happens

So today at work was pretty busy and I had worked through the normal lunch hours. It was no big deal, it happens from time to time. So it was around 2:30pm this afternoon and this guy that works on my floor comes into my office, throws an olive garden box down on my desk and said, "There just about an entire pizza in here, I hope you haven't had lunch yet."
I was quite surprised to say the least. I opened the box and there was on piece missing from the pizza, which was replaced by 3 still warm trademark Olive Garden bread sticks. It really was a beautiful site. If I was capable of tears I just might have shed a few.

Several times I have been patron the Olive Garden and experience quite a diverse selection of foods, but this is the first time I have ever even seen an Olive Garden pizza. If by chance you are a fan of the pizza food group as myself and have yet to experience an Olive Garden pizza I would definitely suggest you give it a try. I would not say it is the best pizza I've ever had, but it was one worth noting.

Big scare

Last week on Friday morning I went to send a quick e-mail before heading to work and that's when it all began. The instant my internet browser was open, before I could do anything, an alert notification appeared informing me that my computer had been compromised by 6 viruses, 2 worms, and over 1200 bits of spyware. About a minute later another window appeared telling me that one of the worms has infiltrated my e-mail and had already sent an infected e-mail to every one of my contacts. I was pretty worried that I was going to receive several hate texts from newly infected people and that all my computer data was lost.
As I did not have much time before I needed to leave for work I promptly set my anti-virus software to work. When I arrived home from work approximately 9 hours later the initial scan was not yet complete. It took 11 1/2 hours to scan my computer to locate all of the aforementioned problems. Once all the problems were located it software took 4 hours to remove the viruses. After over 15 hours of my computer running my anti-virus software was unable to remove 2 of the viruses and one of the worms.

I was at a total loss as to what to do. I computer savvy friend of mine told me it would be in my best interests if I just saved everything I could on an external hard drive and completely re-format my computer. So that is what I did. If you haven't ever done that before, it take about 8 to 10 hours to delete your hard drive and then another hour or two to load all your software and saved files back onto your computer.

So I spent the majority of my Friday and Saturday dealing with computer problems. I guess the bright side is that as far as I know there haven't been any e-mails sent from my accounts to people as a result of the viruses.

Death by elevator

I was talking with friend as I was leaving work today. As per my normal routine I decided to take the elevator down to the main floor. Apparently there are stairs but I'm not quite sure where they are. Anyway, I my friend and I boarded the elevator, joining 5 other people from other floors of greater altitude. The elevator door shut, as it should have, and then suddenly the elevator dropped one foot then came to an abrupt stop. The door opened while the elevator was beeping and I could see that we were about 12 to 18 inches lower than the sixth floor. Then the door shut, dropped, I'm guessing, about another foot, the elevator began to beep again and the seven of us sat in a stopped elevator for about 1 minute. In elevator time 1 minutes is equivalent to ho long 1 minute of wall sits seem to be. After 1 minute the elevator began to move in a normal fashion again and all passengers were delivered unscathed to the lobby. Well one lady might have had a little bit of an anxiety attack, but I'll never know for sure.

As a result I thought, maybe I'll start taking the stairs, then I found out that you need to have an access card to even enter the stair well because they don't want vagrants spending the night in the building. Which by the way happened a couple of times last week. Some guy was spending the night in the mens bathroom on the 17th floor. I don't think he was doing any harm, just a little hard on the nose and eyes from what I was told.

Long story short, you never know when the elevator your riding in could send you into a 6 story free fall and either give you a cool war story to tell or possibly cripple you or end your life.

View

I work on the sixth floor of the Zion's Bank building in down town SLC as mentioned in a previous post. Believe it or not my office has a window with a view. It's not really a glamorous view but a view that I can always look at due in part because it is always changing. For the time being and probably the next year or so my view includes a construction site. All day long, should I be tired of working, I can look out the window and see big trucks and tractors driving around and moving dirt. From my office it looks like little kids playing with Tonka trucks without the little kids moving the trucks and tractors.

Sometimes I find it somewhat hypnotic, why, I don't know. Once in while when the weather is pleasant I think it would be quite satisfying to do such work and in the future to be able to point to buildings and tell family and friends that I helped build that building. There are a few houses and restaurants in the Salt Lake area I have helped build or remodel but they are few in number.

I only have one window in my office but if look out the other direction I get view which includes most of the SLC Temple and most of Temple Square. It's a pretty good view, considering its my first full-time job out of college.

The Ultimate Home Cinematic Experience

For roughly the past year I have a owned a projector. I have not had a quality screen on which to watch the output of said projector. Since I was in college and dealing with mediocrity the norm I was content to project movies, sports, and other programming on a white wall, which produced a glare in the middle of the picture, or a white bed sheet pinned to a wall with thumb tacks.

Being a recent grad school graduate I decided it would be advantageous in upholding the esteem of my degree if I did not profess a bed sheet hung on the wall as a movie screen.

Since purchasing a manufactured screen from a store or off the internet would cost me money my greater judgment forbid me to spend I had to find another avenue. I decided I would revert to the natural instincts of man and build one from scratch with my own hands and sweat.

Notice saw below is worn and used and on the front there is a piece of metal wire that shouldn't really be there.
I started this journey by collecting some man tools: tape measure, stapler, circular saw, power drill, and a power sander. I took some measurements and when off to the 1 of 2 man emporiums; you may know it as The Home Depot. I do not necessarily prefer Home Depot over Lowe's, its just where I went.

I purchased 1x2 boards and the necessary brackets and quickly returned home. With my shirt off and my sweat glistening on my chest I cut 45 degree angles in the boards and proceeded to fasten them together with metal picture frame brackets.

Once I had the a good sized wooden frame put together it was time to try and find a material worthy of becoming the face of my home entertainment for years to come.

I asked the people at home depot if they had anything worth of the type of responsibility mentioned above. They told me I was crazy. I looked deep within myself and realized that this finished project was important to me, so swallowed my pride and lost a few man points and I went to a fabric store on my own looking to buy fabric. I had no idea what I was doing there or even what I was looking for let alone where in the store to look for it. Finally after talking to a person or two I decided on a piece of fabric I deemed adequate. I vacated the store as quickly as possible.

Once I had the screen home I took a stapler, whose use is mainly to staple insulation into walls of homes, and I began to fasten the screen to the wood frame I had previously constructed. After a good deal of time the screen was finished and all that was left was attaching it to the wall.

Now the screen is completed, attached to the wall and with 5.1 surround sound aiding the projector and the screen I am able to provide the Ultimate Home Cinematic Experience to others and myself. Watching movies with this set-up is almost as good as being in the theater.

Here is just a preview of what it looks like in action. The picture is of a TV commercial and is even more clear and crisp when watching movies or HDTV. It really is more spectacular in person, so anyone who wishes to share in the delight of the ultimate movie or TV viewing experience, feel free to give me a call or just come over. If there are any other developments I will let you know.

Unlike any other

After a life time of accepting what was provided for me I have finally taken the plunge and purchased the nicest bed I could ever hope to sleep on. I purchased a king size Bragada bed off of the internet. The Bragada web-site claims to have been in business longer and has the same memory foam as Tempurpedic, but happens to cost less.This bed is as wide as it is long. I still have yet to purchase a set of king size sheets due to a healthy dose of lazy. So for the time being I've placed a flat sheet down over the left portion of the bed and then use another flat bed sheet between myself and the blanket. I have been to the store a couple of times with the mission of getting some sheets. To this point I have been very disappointed with the local Wal-Mart.

I also became keenly aware that any blanket I possessed would be less than adequate to accompany my lavish king size commodity. Since it has been such a long time since I have bought a new blanket I decided to try and make the decision easier until and I asked my mom if she would make me a blanket for my bed. Little did I know that she would make me go to a fabric store and select fabric for said blanket. Did you know that roughly 80%-90% of fabrics in a fabric store have flowers on them? Who knew? After several minutes of aimlessly wandering through the isles and sifting through a myriad of flower patters I was able to find something that didn't have flowers and wasn't boring as my mother deemed most un-flower patterns. My wonderful mother has not yet finished this king size quilt yet, but it should be pretty sweet.

With this bed I sleep better at night in comfort like I have never thought possible. Memory foam took me a couple of days to get used to, but now I wonder how I ever lived without it.

This year

I have recently have graduated from Utah State with a Master's Degree and have moved to Salt Lake City. On January 1st I began working for Zions Bancorporation as a Human Resources Generalist. It's a lot like what Toby on the office does except the people I work with don't hate me or pity me just yet. Its a pretty sweet deal I even have my on office on the sixth floor.

I live down town about 2 blocks north west of the conference center. Since I work down town at Zions I walk to work every day, sometimes twice a day due to forgetting to make a lunch or forgetting my wallet. It takes about 15 min for me to get to work, the best part is no matter what the weather and no matter how many people get in accidents my commute to work does not change. However, I will say that since its been below freezing just about everyday when I go to work that walking isn't always as nice as it may seem.