Musings on Life and Living

I'm not really sure why Christmas is called "the most wonderful time of the year" - here in East Central Illinois, it is cold, drab, and grey. Snow won't typically show up until mid-January. Some folks are extra cheery, but they tend to be the folks who are cheery all year long anyway. Folks say that people are more caring and more willing to give during the holiday season, but these days, with the economy still depressed, I don't know that I particularly see it. Lots of people complain about the commercialisation of Christmas, but that is a complaint that has been around for decades . I admit that I don't understand why Christmas decorations show up in department stores in early November (or even late October). I understand that consumers don't buy stuff for Thanksgiving, but that doesn't really explain why the stores have to jump straight from Halloween to Christmas. All that being said, I do enjoy the holiday season. It is the time of year that I ge...

President Obama recently held a "Job Summit" to discuss how to get the economy rolling again. Presumably without flooding the market with money that nobody seems to have seen yet. It has been somewhat difficult to track down what was actually accomplished during the job summit, though. I did find a bunch of videos on the White House web site that showed what they talked about, but, of course, all it was was talk. Looking at them, though, I was struck by something that Linda Chavez wrote on this same subject: " If the president were really serious, he'd put more money back in the hands of those capable of creating jobs — and far more efficiently than government can — individual investors and private business." I concur. While recognising that part of the growth of our business depends upon the amount of work we have available, there are also limits to the number of employees we can hire. Simply put, our business only has so much money. And when we have to spen...

"If data cause a re-examination of previously held assumptions, so be it." ~Larry Elder "Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." ~Ayn Rand Discuss.

Due to a recent spat of unwanted visitors to the blog, Gretch and I have decided to turn on comment moderation. For the most part, this won't affect anyone. Only those who choose to spam or otherwise annoy either myself or my wife. We thought about making the blog private, but then it'd be hard for folks to find us. So as long as you don't say mean things about us or offend my wife, comments will be approved. Oh, and in case anyone cares, I have gone back and edited at least one post to correct some information, remove some other, more private, information, and clarify some ideas. Have fun figuring out which one I changed!

Gretchen has this thing for birds. And fish, it seems. Possibly for tiny little dogs, as well, although this is a somewhat recent addition to her list of animals she wants in our not-so-very-big home. When we got married, she had a bunch of bettas. The bettas were awesome, and really good sports about being used as centerpieces during our wedding reception. Shortly after we got married, Gretch got a lovebird, named it Maren, and she, the bird, took her place as queen of the living room. (The bettas, incidentally, are mostly on the counter that separates kitchen and living room.) Before getting married, she'd had a ridiculously stupid cockatiel named Jackie. (Or something like that. I still don't know how she spells this bird's name. Sad, I know.) Anyway, this cockatiel, along with being the dumbest bird alive, hates every male in the world, with the exception of Gretch's little brother. This bird had been given away, much to my delight. Then he came back and I was not h...

I received an e-newsletter from one of my US Senators, Roland W. Burris, today. In it he spoke of health care reform. The following is an email I sent to him. I have no expectations of a response, but I am interested to see if there are any thoughts on the issue from any of you dear readers. Dear Senator Burris, I have corresponded with you in the past and received a formulaic response that has led me to believe that you will never actually read this letter, but I am going to write anyway, hoping against hope that somehow you will hear of my concerns and take steps toward resolving them. I received your e-newsletter this afternoon, and read with interest your desire to establish a federally-run "public option" to provide competition within the health care insurance industry and to lower costs. I have a couple questions that I hope you will try to answer. First, how is it that a federally-run program, that is available to anyone in the United States who desires to participa...

This afternoon as I was leaving the house to pick Gretch up from class, three girls came running down the sidewalk toward me, yelling out, "Hey! Aren't you a substitute teacher???" I paused and walked toward them and chatted with them briefly. One of them asked if I remembered Ms. Costello's class at Barkstall. Another asked me if I had ever taught at Kenwood, and the third (the youngest), said, "Yeah, he's taught at Kenwood! He taught Ms. Merkle's class!" They then chatted briefly about their classes and some of their fond memories about me substituting. "Hey, remember when Ollie asked where you got your hair?" The strange thing about all this is that I haven't been to Kenwood or Barkstall in nearly a year. And yet these girls saw me from a distance and recognised me as one of their substitute teachers. It reminded of something that is emphasised at the Illinois Teen Institute: as a role model for youth, you are always on the clock. Yo...

I've been rather involved in a couple of blog discussions recently about how Evangelical Christians and Latter-day Saints interact, and in the midst of all this, a discussion about rules for LDS missionaries has developed. In an effort to not sidetrack the original posts on those blogs, but to still let my thoughts flow free, I thought I'd pose a question to you folks out there reading this blog: What is the purpose of having rules? I've been pondering this question for far too long, I'm sure, but I still haven't really come up with a definite, satisfactory answer, but I'd be glad to know your thoughts on the matter. So please, share with the class!

I suppose it is time again for an update on life, rather than a commentary on current affairs... Hm... I'm not even sure when I last made a post like this... Maybe I should check... Wow... looks like it was June or so. Okay, I really need to break my addiction to the ellipsis, but it is such a handy bit of punctuation! Gretch is in her last semester at Parkland! Huzzah! If all goes according to plan, she'll be getting her AAS in Graphic Design in December or thereabouts. Right now she is taking two classes, one required, the other merely so that she can get in as a full-time student (or maybe it is just a 3/4 student, and learn something vaguely related to her profession) The first, Illustration II, appears to be a repeat of Illustration I, except the assignments are different. She has realised that she hates doing illustration for design projects. Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I will only have to help her through a few more existential crises befor...

I just read an interesting news article from US News and World Report. If you care to read it, you can find it here . The gist of the article, for those who wish to skip reading it, is that there are a select few factors that affect a high school graduate completing a 4-year college degree, and there are a lot of factors that people have thought were important that may not be. Of all the things in the article, I was most shocked by the claim that males from low-income backgrounds, whose parents are both non-college graduates, are least likely to finish a 4-year degree. I suppose this is shocking because all of my older brothers and myself are college graduates. Our family was not particularly well-off as we were growing up and, due to various circumstances, neither of our parents completed college, although both started. So we are apparently glaring exceptions to the new expectations. The researchers also thumb their noses at community colleges, claiming that they are not useful in pro...

So my father-in-law and at least one friend have asked me to explain why I feel that Obamacare will wreak havoc on the health care system as it currently stands. I have also been asked to explain why I believe a capitalist-based system would be better. So, in my very non-professional, non-expert, and very biased way, I shall attempt to do so. First: why is Obamacare so bad? I have a number of reasons. Here they are, in no particular order: 1) Pres. Obama's plan is to force employers to provide health coverage for all of their employees. Those employers who have small businesses with a certain number of employees will be exempted from this requirement. Individuals who work for such companies, or work in jobs that do not provide coverage (because the employee is part-time, etc), as well as those who are below a certain income threshold, will be able to buy into a government-run plan (that is somehow different from Medicaid, although I am not sure how). What is the result of these pla...

I have been without health insurance since July 2007. Crazy, I know. I was also without health insurance from about January 2005 until January 2007. The only reason I had insurance in between was because I went to Australia for a semester and had coverage as an overseas student. Gretch and I have been trying to arrange health insurance through a somewhat local provider (actually in Mattoon), but we seem to have had trouble contacting the man possibly handling our potential account. Yeah, real specific and certain, I know. Anyway, in the midst of all this, there is of course the supposed debate about health care reform going on in America. I called it a supposed debate because, honestly, I am not hearing much actual debate. What I hear is the President telling Congress to pass the reform that he wants. The Republicans are saying that the proposed plan is bad, but they have as of yet to offer a viable alternative. The Democrats are saying that whatever President Obama wants, President O...

Several years ago, Number Two (aka my brother Aaron) introduced me, and several of my other brothers, to the wonderful sport of Disc Golf. Also known as Frisbee Golf or Frolf. It basically consists of throwing PDGA-approved "Frisbees" (not the actual trademarked Frisbees that you know, though) around a course, trying to get them to land in baskets. Rules of golf apply (each "hole" has a certain "par" assigned to it, etc.) Anyway, I played this game pre-mission, and then didn't think much of it until after my mission, except fleetingly, until my friend Noah mentioned to me that he had played it on his mission. So I went out, bought some discs, and... didn't do much with them. Until Noah and I decided to go on a double-date and chose Disc Golf as the outing. It was fun, and Noah and I were quite confident we'd make this sport a regular activity. Forward 18 months later. Or so. Probably longer. Noah and Cherry were up in the Chicago area visiting ...

A friend of mine introduced me to the concept of a JIC. No, this is not related to the pseudo-Mormonistic acronym, BIC. A JIC is a person who keeps things "Just In Case". I admit to suffering from this ailment, which I have decided to name jicicitis (ji-keh-ci-tis). But I am trying to find a cure. My mum suffers from this ailment, as well. In fact, it is most likely an inherited disease, which would explain much. Anyway, my sister Amanda has unwittingly given me the best idea for treatment yet. She has used it many times when treating my mum, and has enlisted me in the process often. The first step is to banish the sufferer from the premises. The second step is to acquire several heavy-duty, 50-gallon trash bags or cardboard boxes. The third step is to start throwing things away. It works remarkably well. Unless you are the individual suffering from jicicitis. In which case, self-treatment is nearly impossible. But it can be done! As this is mostly a psychological problem, it...

I decided when I was about ten years old that I would become a grade school teacher. I held to this aim, and taught myself the things I needed to know to become a great teacher. I went to U of I to pursue my education in education. And in May 2008, I graduated with my B.S. in Elementary Education. A year and a month later, I am now the owner of Simply Spotless, Inc. My current title is officially "President/Treasurer" although I prefer "CEO". Gretch is now the official Vice President/Secretary, although, really, she does the work of the Treasurer, as well, which means I think she should use the title of CFO. Regardless of what titles we ultimately decide to give our things, the awesome thing is that I am now committed to the path in my life. Not to say that I am not planning on still entering the education profession. I am. But I am also a business owner, as well.

Yes, yes, I am one of the many who love XKCD. If you haven't read it, shame on you. If you have read it, congratulations. If you read and understand it some of the time, you are like me. If you read it and understand it 100% of the time, then you are far smarter than me. And sometimes I read it and think, "Wow, this is so meant for Gretch!"

So Gretch and I had her parents and siblings over for a Memorial Day steak-fest and viewing of the classic film, Renaissance Man . Before the family arrived, I decided that no Memorial Day feast is complete without deviled eggs, so I ran to County Market to get some eggs. While there, I saw this display: Something about the juxtaposition of the grocery store's slogan (WE value FAMILY) and home explosives (TNT) just made me chuckle. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some humorously misplaced quotation marks .

So it has been a busy two weeks full of travel, travel, and more travel! But the trips have been most excellent! A couple of weeks ago, Gretch and I decided to go to Washington (Illinois) to visit my family (or, more specifically, my two sisters, Amanda and Ariana). We spent the afternoon/evening with them, but then we had to head back so that Gretch could get sleep before working on Thursday. The following Sunday, we drove to Washington again, this time to see all (well, most of) my family. Tom and Tabitha were visiting for a week with their children (seven of them). Aaron and Megan live in Washington, also, so we got to see a bunch of the family. We stayed overnight this time, but then came back again on Monday because Gretch had work on Tuesday. While in Washington, I noticed that Megan was reading a Jodi Picoult book, and I was heaps excited, as, previously, I had just one friend who read her books (Laurie is actually the one who introduced me to the author's book, "My Sis...

On Monday morning, I started my work day at about 7:30 am. I taught a mostly wonderful class of third graders at Robeson and had a fun time doing it.  First thing in the morning, we got to go see Mrs. Reger's class put on a few of their plays related to various social studies units. That was interesting, to say the least. Then Mr. Bost, who is the third grade teacher next to Mrs. Okruch (for whom I was subbing) decided that he and I should "team teach" a huge chunk of the science curriculum they currently have. (The unit is supposed to be finished on Friday, and they hadn't even started). Of course, when I say "team teach" I really mean "I teach and he manages the students". But it was fun, because I love teaching science (even when the curriculum unit is boring as!) I just hope that Mrs. Okruch isn't upset with me for kinda sorta almost completely ignoring her plans for the day... Immediately after finishing at Robeson, I went to a couple of b...

Yep. We saw "Star Trek" tonight. And it was freakin' awesome! So glad that Adam told us about the 7 pm showing! We beat the crowds and managed to get great seats. Dan and Rachel came, too, as did Adam's mum and dad. Unfortunately, none of the Richardsons sat with us, but that was okay. I was able to briefly chat with Verlin after the movie, and Adam and I discussed the relative merits of it through texting. I loved how the introduced the various characters, and how they really seemed to stay true to the idiosyncrasies of all the original crew members. It was cool to see Leonard Nimoy, also. The special effects were pretty cool, and the story itself was actually quite excellent. I definitely want to see the other films now, even though I know that none of them will have quite the same pizzazz as this one. Oh, and Gretch is renewing her interesting in Star Trek Voyager by seeking out the entire series on DVD. Apparently, there are things other than Snoopy and the Peanut...

Several months ago, there were rumours about a concert coming to the U of I Assembly Hall. I checked at the Assembly Hall's website, and there was no such concert listed. So I thought, "Hm... just a rumour, perhaps?" But then the rumour became more widespread. And then it finally showed up. Along with billboards and radio ads. So it was true. Jason Mraz was coming to Champaign, and Howie Day was going to be opening for him. This was, of course, a pretty big deal. Especially since Gretch and I are both huge fans of Jason's music. I'm still not sure how I would classify it. Not really rock, defnitely not alternative, not particularly pop, but not new age, either. Nor is it indie. Really, I think he is almost a category in his own right. But if I were forced to put him into a category, I think I'd go with acoustic pop. Anyway, tickets went on sale, but I didn't order any, because I wasn't sure if we'd really have the money to go. And then one of the r...

I have been giving a lot of thought to the state of the economy these days, and wondering where we're going from here. I am now sitting in a computer lab at Parkland waiting for Gretch to finish printing stuff for her portfolio, an activity that she said would take no more than 30 minutes, despite the fact that we've been here for two and a half hours now, so I figured I'd blog about the economy. I apologise if these thoughts come across as disjointed. I've been writing and re-writing and cutting and editing far more than I normally do. But here we go: The economy is a vast, sprawling, tangled web of people, businesses, and ideas. And it is something that the federal government should have very little business meddling with. Our politicians are men and women of ideas. They set the rules. They make sure we all play nice. But when they start meddling with the game, the game goes sour. Imagine this scenario: You are playing basketball with a couple of your friends. You de...

It is funny the way we use different adages in our lives. We use some of them to describe just the positive. Others to describe the negative. And some don't really describe one thing or the other. We just throw them out there for the heck of it. I hate sunlight. Or, rather, I hate the brightness of sunlight. I don't know how much this has to do with my vision problems, but even my baby pictures reflect this. Well, at least one of the two does: Incidentally, I am pretty certain that the background of this photo is fake, but you can see that even the thought of being in sunlight makes me uncomfortable. (And yes, the baby in this photo is me. With my five older brothers.) Even now, when it is a beautiful, warm, sunny day, I know I will be walking outside and hissing at the sunlight. The day may be wonderful, but it is a knee-jerk reaction. It reminds me of Barney Gumble responding to a door being open at Moe's Tavern during the day: Anyway, it seems to me that when someone say...

I think most of you know that I got Gretch an iMac for her birthday (and just about every other holiday/anniversary/etc for the next century...) She loves her Mac and continues to point out how wonderful it is. I agree. For the most part. Of course, I'm sure I could get an equally amazing PC desktop, but I wanted a notebook computer. Hence the reason I use my awesome Lenovo ThinkPad. But I digress... Anyway, this evening we discovered a terrible flaw in Mac OS X. Unless someone out there in the Internet knows how to fix this... The flaw is this: if you try to merge one folder with another, you lose everything that was in the latter. Gretch had some really important documents that we use for Simply Spotless in one folder on her desktop. And she had a few other documents on one of her flash drives, also for Simply Spotless. Both folders were cleverly named "Simply Spotless". So folder from the flash drive gets moved to folder on the desktop and *poof* all the documents in t...

Gretch and I went to the St. Louis Missouri Temple today. It was only the second time we've been to the Temple since getting married 9 months ago. I used to go much more often (once a month for quite a while, and almost once a week while I was living in Melbourne), but work and school have created so many time conflicts that we just haven't been able to make it there. However, I feel so blessed that we have so many temples near us. When I was born in East Peoria, Illinois, my family was part of the Washington DC temple district. It took members of the church the better part of a day to get to the Temple. Now, still living in central Illinois, we have the Chicago Illinois Temple, the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, the St. Louis Missouri Temple, and the Louisville Kentucky all within about four hours.  I love the Houses of the Lord. I have seen many of them in my lifetime. On the outside, they are beautiful, magnificent edifices that speak of devotion to the Lord. Even more, though, I l...

To those who are still following along, I have some happy news to provide as an update to the weekend's FedEx Office debacle. I got a phone call this morning from Kevin, the store manager, apologising profusely for the atrociously poor customer service I received on Saturday. He assured me that such behaviour was not the standard he expects of his employees. He also said that the extra charges for converting files to PDFs had been abolished well over a month ago, which means that he obviously needs to provide further training for his people. As I talked to him, I could tell that he was legitimately upset about what happened, and that he wanted to make things right. He asked me if I'd be willing to come back in to get my brochures re-printed, and also offered to print my other documents for me--all free of charge. I gladly accepted his offer. Gretch came in with me, and, while Kevin was not there at first, he did come in and took over our order, personally making sure that every...

Remember Kinkos? That cool place that prints all of your stuff for you for a relatively decent price? And then one day you may have noticed that I was FedEx Kinkos. About the same time, you may have noticed that Federal Express package delivery was FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight. So there had been some cool changes to the names. But FedEx Kinkos was still that cool printing place. And if you've gone there recently, you'll have noticed that they now have signs up that say "FedEx Kinkos is now FedEx Office!" Um... Okay... So I think it is a bad marketing plan, but sure, whatever. Just as long as I can still get my stuff printed off without having to use all of my own ink and paper, right? Right. So, I went to Kinkos (sorry, FedEx Office) this afternoon so that I could print off a bunch of stuff that I needed done for Simply Spotless. The reason I decided to go was because, honestly, I feel that I have more important things to do with my time than to sit around and print...

I stumbled upon the following quote from President Obama today: "The single most important factor in determining [student] achievement is not the color of their skin or where they come from," says President Obama. "It's not who their parents are or how much money they have--it's who their teacher is." I agree with the first part: neither colour of skin nor place of nativity is really all that important of a factor. I also agree with the middle of the second part: the amount of money one (or one's family) has is, by and large, relatively unimportant. However, I wholeheartedly disagree with both the beginning and the end of the second part. As a teacher, I recognise that, yeah, I'm a pretty big deal when it comes to the whole education process. But I also realise that there are two people who are far more important than me when it comes to discussing a student's academic success. Those two people are the student's mother and father. And as we h...

Yesterday afternoon I started blog-hopping to pass the time while Gretch was napping on the couch. I stumbled upon a blog that had a discussion about whether or not Mormon missionaries should be allowed to do their work. It was written by a self-described "evangelical Christian" who took the opportunity to attack LDS doctrines, although not in any specific way. I left a comment for him, expressing my concern that, while he had claimed to want to know LDS beliefs, he didn't really. I explained how often I have met evangelicals like this who proclaim to know "all about Mormonism" and yet, whenever asked, they give a bunch of examples of LDS doctrines that are either completely false or, at best, misrepresented. This comment was followed up by several other posters who claimed that I was wrong, etc., etc., etc. The original author asked me for specfic examples of erroneous statements. I had not planned on replying further but then I decided I had "somewhat mor...

While I was living down under in the land of Oz, my friend Millie and I spent a great deal of time discussing literature. She recommended several books to me that I had never read, due to the fact that they had never been published in the States. I recommended many books to Millie, and I eventually created a reading list for her. My friend Amy has recently expressed interest in reading something other than textbooks. I offered to provide the list I originally wrote for Millie. The list has been expanded somewhat, but, for all those who may wish to know (especially you, Amy), here is the official reading list I recommend to all: The Dark Is Rising Sequence by  Susan Cooper Over Sea, Under Stone The Dark Is Rising Greenwitch The Grey King Silver On The Tree The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander The Book Of Three The Black Cauldron The Castle Of Llyr Taran Wanderer The High King The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher The White Mountains The City Of Gold And Lead The Pool Of Fire T...

Susan Estrich is a opinion columnist. Her work is published by Creators Syndicate, which means, of course, that she is not just a columnist, but she is a syndicated columnist. Millions of readers are exposed to her writing each week. Her political views are different from my own, but I read her column regularly, as she is one of those rare writers whose views I can respect, because I am sure she respects my own. Also, I find it quite enlightening to read what other people think. This morning I read her article , and found that she has, as so many people in America have, decided that the passage of Proposition 8 is entirely the fault of the LDS Church. While I do not intend on starting another discussion about the merits of Prop 8 , I did email her to express my dismay at her scapegoating efforts. The following is the text of my letter to her. I do not have very high hopes that she will respond, but I felt it was worth taking the time to respond to her accusation. Dear Ms. Estrich,   I...