My day...

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my wife Valerie for the comments that she has left here today. I love it when people leave comments, but my day was going bad today, until she left all of these comments on my site today. Thank you, my goo. You've brightened my day!

Busy busy busy...

I have nothing to say today. Sorry... Until tomorrow...

'twas the week after Thanksgiving...

It's Monday, bloggers, and for most of us, that means it's time to go back to work. Some of you lucky ones don't have to work, and some others do nothing but stay at work.

Well, I don't have much to say right now except to report on my Thanksgiving antics. I am pleased to report that I didn't stuff myself to the point of near-regurgitation, as I have done on previous occasions. I am also pleased to report that my wife is getting better by the day. Val and her brother, Josh, have a Star Wars card game somewhat akin to the game Magic:The Gathering. It's kinda old, from 1996, but Val and I started playing the starter pack the week before Thanksgiving, and aside from having a few procedural questions, it's really fun. I've become hooked on it. I know that again proclaims that I am a nerd/geek, but it's fun, I like it, and by golly I'm gonna play it!

I have nothing else to blog about right now, but if I think of something later, rest assured that I will let you know about it. I'm out...

Dia de Gracias...

For all of you who are interested, Val and I will be staying home and sharing Thanksgiving with most of my -in-laws. We'll also be being sick together, she and I. Sounds like fun, don't it?

Happy *gobble* Day, everyone! Be safe!

28 Hours?

I thought that this was an interesting article. I can't imagine sitting around for more than an hour for anything. Not that I'm really impatient, but I can think of better things to do with my time than sit outside in the winter and be cold. I guess I'm not as much of a gamer as I thought. That, and $400 for a game console seems asinine. However, I remember paying about $300 for my PS2 not 4 years ago. So, maybe I'm a bit smarter now to wait for the price to drop.

On other digital topics, a virus warning has been released, again warning people to be aware of what they are opening on their e-mails. Here's what I got about it this morning: We have become aware of a number of viruses that are being spread via email attachments. The return address on the emails changes; however, the subject lines tend to be consistent and include the following:

Paris Hilton & Nicol
You visit illegal we....
Your IP was logged
Mail delivery failed
Hi i've a new mail address

There may be others. If you receive these or similar emails, please do not open the attachment -- delete the email immediately.

So, make sure you know who it is that you are getting e-mail from. If you don't know the person sending you mail, go ahead and delete it. Better safe than sorry...

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished...

What is "Goo" ?

I've gotten a few emails from you guys asking what "goo" means.

"Well, I'll tell you..."

"He's going to tell, he's going to tell..."

"No! Stop that! No singing!"

Those of you who know me know I am a bit........overweight. Not obscenely so, but more than I want. But, my wife loves me anyway. So, about a year ago, I was voicing my opinion about how I looked. I believe it was a statement to the effect that "I'm fat, and I don't like how I look." Valerie promptly said that I have "goo fat" and that I was/am cute, and she loves me the way I am. So, "goo" became our pet name for each other. We think it's unique, and we like to say it to each other.

So, that's how "goo" came to be...

This has been a public service announcement brought to you in part by viewers like you. (I took that "public service" thing from Ben. I hope he will forgive my theft.

What a weekend...

Hello, fellow-citizens. I hope all of your separate/collective weekends were fun/productive/relaxing/ etc. Mine was kind of sucky.

Val has been feeling unwell since Friday. Saturday we did all the stuff that we needed to by 2 pm, which included exercising, food shopping, going to see her dad, going to the library to get books and movies, and going to the bank to deposit $. Not too bad for a Saturday. After exercising though, Val started to feel worse. We went to a pre-Thanksgiving party at her dad's that night, and we got back at about midnight. By the time church time rolled around at 10 am Sunday morning, she wasn't good at all. She decided to come to Sacrament, but skip nursery, so that the kids didn't get what she has. She was really upset about not coming to nursery, but I think she made the right decision. She didn't sleep well at all last night, and is probably feeling miserable right now. I feel bad for her, but I feel worse in that I can't do anything to help her feel better.

My point in stating all of this is that I think I am now becoming sick from her. That's never fun, is it? I love her dearly, and I don't mind taking care of her when she needs me, but it hurts to see her so frustrated, sad and exhausted. I also think that I'll be at her point of sickness come Thursday. So, Happy Thanksgiving to me. Oh well, I suppose I should be grateful that I have a body that can get sick, and that I am a relatively healthy individual. Such are the challenges of mortality.

Fast and Furious Friday

Good day, fellow-citizens! Today at work I am by myself. So, accordingly, I am taking this lull in the storm to post a little something for your viewing/reading pleasure.

It has been a very busy week. Between coming home from work, exercising (~30 minutes), dinner (~1 hour, at least), scripture reading(~30 minutes), and any meetings for church callings, there hasn't been time enough for much of anything else, except sleep.

There is an individual who has been trying to get a hold of me this week, and I have been unable to adequately respond to him. I did leave a voice mail on his cell phone explaining why I didn't answer the phone (reading scriptures), but I wanted to apologize to him. I hope he doesn't think I'm trying to avoid him. I'm sorry, Ben.

That's all I have for right now. If I get a chance later, I'll post something else. Have a great weekend, gente del mundo (people of the world).

Thursday blahs...

Well, I don't think there is anything worthwhile happening right now, at least not blog-worthy.

I'm really tired today, and for the first time, I feel like I am sleepwalking at work. It's a really strange feeling. Hopefully I will wake up sometime soon.

If anything happens that's worthwhile, I'll post later. I'm out.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Doggies!

This is Haldir Anduril "Flame of the West" Fauver. He's my mother's doggy.

Tito Sharif Fumatumaafalah Fauver is the black Cocker Spaniel on top. He's my dad's.

Cute dogs, interesting names. But, if you know my parents, you already understand why the names are what they are.

......Right?

Right is right, and wrong is wrong......

Are there"gray areas" of right and wrong? Is it OK to do something for the good of the customer/person/group, even though, technically, I'm not supposed to do it, but I know how to? Is morality subservient to expediency?

The reason I ask these questions is because things have happened at work where expediency has trumped complete, unvarnished honesty. And I feel a bit guilty, because I'm really trying to be honest with others, but I don't want them upset because I know how to do something, and don't want to inconvenience them to get them to do it for me. Kind of convoluted, but there it is.

I'm becoming aware of just how much deception there is in everyday life. No one wants to be told how fat they are, how lazy, incompetent, worthless etc. they are. They only want to be left alone to pursue their own urges/agendas. So, we rarely tell anyone the complete truth anymore. We politely say nothing of the thoughts that run through our mind when someone enters the room wearing enough cologne for 5 other people. Rather than saying "Dude, we can smell you 10 minutes after you leave the room. You wear too much cologne." , we say nothing. Isn't that a sin of omission? I am realizing that there is a fine line between being completely honest, and letting the small annoyances/pesonality quirks go.

Because, let's face it, work and home are lots easier when we don't tell the clogne dude that he stinks, that someone is too fat, or that the way a person laughs grates on your nerves, and can be heard within a 400 foot radius.

So, again, is honesty subservient to expediency and/or avoiding an uncomfortable situation? I'd appreciate your thoughts on this...

If only ......

I love Pink Floyd, and wish they would get together one more time and tour. They did Live8, but the chances of the original Floyd getting together is miniscule at best.

But these guys have no problems with playing Floyd songs. They've even played for David Gilmour at his birthday celebration. They played in SLC this past Friday, but I had no dinero to get tickets, which was a bummer. Hopefully, next time I can go with my brother-in-law Aaron and Val.

I Hope This Isn't Condescending...

For my friend Ben, and for all of you out there who wonder where I get these images, go here, or click the NASA Images link off to the right. Here is the link for this picture.

NASA Hubble Space Telescope's most detailed visible-light image ever taken of a narrow, dusty ring around the nearby star Fomalhaut offers the strongest evidence yet that an unruly and unseen planet may be gravitationally tugging on the ring. Hubble unequivocally shows that the center of the ring is a whopping 1.4 billion miles away from the star. The most plausible explanation is that an unseen planet moving in an elliptical orbit is reshaping the ring with its gravitational pull. The observations offer insights into our solar system's formative years, when the planets played a game of demolition derby with the debris left over from the formation of our planets, gravitationally scattering many objects across space. Some icy material may have collided with the inner solar system planets, irrigating them with water formed in the colder outer solar system. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas and J. Graham (University of California, Berkeley) and M. Clampin (NASA/GSFC)

Cool Picture!

This view of one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. At the center of the region is a brilliant star cluster called NGC 346. A dramatic structure of arched, ragged filaments with a distinct ridge surrounds the cluster.A torrent of radiation from the cluster's hot stars eats into denser areas creating a fantasy sculpture of dust and gas. The dark, intricately beaded edge of the ridge, seen in silhouette by Hubble, is particularly dramatic. It contains several small dust globules that point back towards the central cluster, like windsocks caught in a gale.Energetic outflows and radiation from hot young stars are eroding the dense outer portions of the star-forming region, formally known as N66, exposing new stellar nurseries. The diffuse fringes of the nebula prevent the energetic outflows from streaming directly away from the cluster, leaving instead a trail of filaments marking the swirling path of the outflows.The NGC 346 cluster at the center of this Hubble image contains dozens of hot, blue, high-mass stars, more than half of the known high-mass stars in the entire SMC galaxy. A myriad of smaller, compact clusters is also visible throughout the region.

Check this out for the link to this picture.

Monday Morning.....News?

Sorry for not posting on Friday. I was really busy here at work, and I didn't remember to post anything until I was half-way home.

I hope everyone's weekend was fun. Mine was busy. Ever since Val accepted a calling to be in the Cub Scouts, Sundays have become lots more busy. With double choir practice for the ward and the stake, Cub planning meetings and various birthday celebrations and such, weekends don't have much time for sitting around and relaxing. Oh well, such are the sacrifices for helping others. :)

Well, for anyone who is interested in my video game progression, I finally beat Castlevania: Lament of Innocence for the PS2 on hard mode this morning. What fun! I'm gonna try beating it with the other playable character, a vampire, next. Then, I don't know what I'll do, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Sometime this week, I'll post as to why I like fall/winter more than any other season of the year. Wow, riveting stuff, isn't it?

Situational Ethics...

The purpose of this life is to be tested, to see if we will do the things which our Heavenly Father has asked us to do. Obviously, He knows what we will do and say in any given situation. But the test needs to be given, so that we may stand or fall by our decisions, and be judged accordingly.

An acquaintance of mine is faced with a situation wherein they could profit considerably from their position. However, this person has assured me that they have no intention of following this temptation and thereby selling their soul. I applaud that commitment. Because, I have heard other personal accounts of people who, although they are church members, have whored their souls and have cashed in, thereby hurting their business partners and their families. I commend this person I know for their integrity to themselves and to their faith.

It's a sad commentary on our society where men and women will prostitute their convictions and faith for the proverbial "30 pieces of silver". But, that stuff has been happening for a very long time.

Money can't buy happiness, and eternity is a very long time, isn't it?

Where is Hell?

Lying is bad. I've known it all of my life. I've been taught that lying is one of the worst things a person can do. It destroys relationships and hurts people. I found out last night, and have since come to realize, that there is no such thing as a small, white lie.

As those who know me know, I have spent a lot of my life, approximately one-half, lying about myself, my actions, and trying to shunt responsibility for my actions to someone else by lying to others and to myself. Last year at this same time of the year, I had hoped that my lying was done, and that my facility for lying had been expunged from myself.

Last night, Valerie was mad at me for something I had done by trying to help her. In other words, I hindered more than I helped, and she was frustrated about it. So, she went in to the couch, while I tried to rectify the situation. I thought that it would be all right if I told her that I actually had done the thing she had asked me to do, even though I hadn't. I didn't want her to be mad at me anymore.

However, I failed to consider the consequences of my "white" lie. With trying to help myself, I feel like I have damaged a year's worth of trust and goodwill, by telling my lie. It wasn't that I had made her frustrated, but that I had tried to tell her something that wasn't true, in order to try and help myself. She knows that I have lied to her in the past about myself, and that I have been trying to do better. However, all the progress is wiped away when one is caught, either by my own admission, or she finds out.

"Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell." Well, that's where I am right now. How can she trust me when I say things to her? How can she trust me when I try to tell her the truth? I'm screwed, basically. Hell on earth...

The other part of this situation disturbs me greatly. I didn't even consider the ramifications of my lie. I felt no stirrings of conscience, no Spirit whispering what I should do. I didn't think about anything. The only thought I had was that it was a good idea to try and get her to be happy again, by any means. STUPID! So much for trying to do better.

And even though it's hard for my goo to believe me, I am so sorry for what I did. Never again will I give you an opportunity to doubt me or my trustworthiness. Complete honesty from now on, whether or not you are upset with me. I'm so sorry. I hope that someday you can forgive me, and trust me. I love you. I'm sorry.

The Changing Face of Physics...

And I thought stuff like this was impossible... Shows what I know.

2 Wonderful Years...

Good day, blogging citizens! First and most important things first. Today, 7 Nov 2005, marks the 2nd anniversary of my marriage to the angelic voiced beauty that is Valerie. I still find myself wondering what it is that she sees in me that is worth sticking with. I suppose that I must have some redeeming qualities that she sees. I am grateful to her. I can't imagine life with anyone else. She is so much a part of me now that to try and separate the parts of me from the parts of her is almost impossible. And even though I'm not perfect, (as anyone who knows me will say), she is still right there with me. It's kind of wierd. We have spent so little time apart in the 2.5 years that we have known each other. I think that we have spent something like 2 weeks apart in all that time. She is always there when I need her. I find it interesting that when she goes somewhere without me, be it to a family thing or something else, people invariably ask her where I am. I think that's a good thing. It means that my wife loves me enough to want to spend lots of time with me, and that other people notice. Isn't that great?

Only Valerie would help trim my goatee, help give me manicures, and basically help me be more refined in my appearance and grooming. Shes SO cute!

I love her so much. I hope that we are able to spend lots more time together. She is my goo, my angelic voiced one, my beauty. I love you, my sweetheart. I need you. <3

I know, I know...

I don't have anything to talk about yet, and I don't think I'll have much of anything to report today. Sorry. Keep happy.

Why Not?

Years in the Making These images were taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic Legacy project, which encapsulates one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe. The Tadpole galaxy (top left) is the result of a recent galactic interaction in the local universe. Although these galactic mergers are rare in the universe's recent history, astronomers believe that they were much more common in the early universe. Thus, the project's team members will use this detailed image to help understand the nature of the "faint red-orange specks" of the early universe. The top right image depicts one-sixteenth of the survey field called ELAIS-N1. The bright blue sources are hot stars in our own Milky Way, which range from 3 to 60 times the mass of our Sun. The fainter green spots are cooler stars and galaxies beyond the Milky Way whose light is dominated by older stellar populations. The red dots are dusty galaxies that are undergoing intense star formation. The faintest specks of red-orange are galaxies billions of light-years away in the distant universe. The bottom left figure features an unusual ring-like galaxy, called CGCG 275-022. The red spiral arms indicate that this galaxy is very dusty and perhaps undergoing intense star formation, which could have been initiated by a near head-on collision with another galaxy. The most distant galaxies that SWIRE is able to detect are revealed in a zoom of deep space (bottom right). The colors in this feature represent the same objects as those in the larger field image of ELAIS-N1. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


Ok, enough of the explanation of the above picture and who it is credited to. I post this picture with the intent of revealing a horrible, dark, nasty secret about myself..... I am a Star Trek fan. Not fanatic, like the proto-typical Trekkie that you hear about. But, I do have some episodes of DS9 and such on my computer. I don't like the original series, but Next Generation and Voyager were OK. DS9 was my favorite. I also have a few Star Trek games on the computer. I also have a certain fascination with space/astronomy/stellar physics/high energy physics. I really wanted to be an astronomer or high energy physicist, but I lack the ambition or drive to become such. When I saw the picture on this post, I thought of how many people there have to be in those other galaxies. Humans can't be the only sentient beings that exist in the entirety of space. That's one of the reasons I like Star Trek, because it allows the possiblity of there being others kind of like us.

Now, I don't presume to say that the others who surely must exist in our galaxy and other galaxies must look something like us, but just that they are there is a happy thought.

What I still fail to understand is how people can say that God doesn't exist, and that all the infinite wonder that exists in space came to be because of a fortuitous chance. I throw the BS flag, 15 yard penalty, to quote my supervisor.

I just look at that picture, and I wonder what the others are doing in their lives. I wonder if they have some of the same experiences that we do. Just a mid-day musing...

*whew*

Well, I just got done reading an e-mail from my friend Ben, stating that he is not going to quit his blog, just that he is frustrated by the lack of control he has over his own site. That is understandable. It is rather frustrating to not be able to see who it is that is posting comments anonymously on your blog. I suppose that that is one of the drawbacks to having your own spot on the 'net, but that doesn't mean he has to be happy about it.

For better or worse, I'm glad he isn't going away from us. He doesn't know how much we need his unique outlook and logic.

NEVER!

My friend Ben is deciding to stop posting on his site. No! It can't be true! Say it isn't so!

Besides being shocked, dismayed, saddened and bewildered, I'm also worried. I don't want him to go. His site is one of the few/elect sites that I check multiple times each day to see what is going on with him. I've always found him and the things he says/thinks to be entertaining, informative, and occasionally, educational. To put it simply, if he closes his site down, I feel like I will be losing access to the mind, opinions and knowledge of someone I am friends with, who I trust, and who is a sounding board for my own opinions. It will be a travesty and tragedy if he stops, almost akin to the Earth stopping its rotation.

I urge everyone who reads this post to go to Ben's site, click on the comments entry for his post of 31 Oct 2005 titled "Results of the naming contest, and other news related to the site" and leave honest feedback as to what you think of his site.

I hope he reconsiders, and re-evaluates his impact on our lives. Because to me, he is important.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

My eyes feel like they should still be sleeping. I was in this exact same place less than 10 hours ago, and it doesn't feel any better than it did last night. Oh well.

Another Halloween has passed, and I missed it. I usually don't find 'ween very exciting or entertaining. I suppose that I am turning into a grumpy old man. However, this year I was looking forward to seeing the little ones from nursery in their costumes. I suppose, like most sports teams, I can always say "There's always next year".

Not much else happening right now. But, as always, if something happening happens, I'll fire up the blog and post. I'm out...