I flew to Irvine on Thursday in preparation for a day of meetings yesterday at corporate headquarters. Thursday night, though, I had dinner with an old friend from Ridgecrest. It was nice to see her -- she is still the same nice/good person she was 10 years ago. Basically we sat around and talked about how pathetic we were for a few hours.

After my day of meetings, I drove the rental car up here to Ridgecrest. I had a very productive thinking session while I drove. Here are some of my thoughts:

1. Sorry to bring up The Format again, but the new album "Dog Problems" is utterly amazing. There is something to be said about bands that somehow change (without reinventing themselves) from album to album. Their inherent style has not changed, but their interpretation of their own style is constantly being stretched. The lyrics on this album, for example, are simply moving -- this is the best album ever about a bad breakup. Not to mention the "Sgt. Pepper's"-esque musical arrangements. Here are some samples:

From the song "Dog Problems" (backed by a gorgeous orchestral track):
Can you hear me?
Are you listening?
This is the sound of my heart breaking.
And I hope it's entertaining, because for me it's a bitch.
Was it worth it when you slept with him?
Did you get it all out of your system?

From the song "I'm Actual":
Can we take the next time and just talk about me?
And we'll talk about me and we'll talk about me.
We'll talk about me and we'll only talk about me.

From the song "Snails":
Snails see the benefit,
the beauty in every inch of life.
Why, why oh why oh why
you're quick to kiss.

2. The traffic situation in Los Angeles makes me even more frustrated about traffic in Utah. Why do we have such a hard time with simple things like driving on freeways there? Why can a metropolis with tens of millions of people handle traffic well while a smaller urban area can't seem to get it together? Obviously there are times when there is bad traffic in Los Angeles, but for the most part, even on Memorial weekend's Friday, it seems to flow quite smoothly. Very frustrating.

3. I continue to be taken by Orange County. I really like it there.

4. I've been talking for a bit of time now about buying a sailboat. I learned to sail when I worked at Camp Kern that summer when I was 16. We had two Hobiecats and we would take them out most days after work. Now that I'm out of (consumer) debt and building a savings again, I'm going to use some of it to buy a little sailboat. Jon and I had already planned on buying (and time-sharing) an older (15 years-ish) truck that we can have handy when we need -- there have been times recently when I really needed a truck and couldn't get my hands on one -- so if I buy the sailboat I'll have something to tow it. I'm not talking about buying a new or extravagant boat. I simply want a small Hobiecat or traditional boat. And then I'll take it up to Deer Creek and Jordanelle, and hopefully prepare for a bigger sailing adventure later (like sailing to Catalina from Los Angeles or sailing up the Puget Sound -- something fun!).

5. I need a woman.

6. My beard is beyond the itching stage now. It's soft and velvetty now.

Some of my favorite bands have had new albums come out recently. Yesterday the new one from Phoenix came out entitled "It's Never Been Like That".



Their first two albums had quite a bit of Euro-pop-meets-rock-and-roll tunes, but this album has moved more toward the rock-and-roll side. I hesitate to say that it's cut from the same tree as bands like The Strokes, because that's not quite what it is. Imagine, though, a cleaner (clean referring to the sound of the production, not the language per se) version of The Strokes with a definite "summer" sound. Very poppy, but deeper-rooted than most pop music and still rock-and-roll.

Give it a listen on iTunes. Listen specifically to the previews for "Rally", "Consolation Prizes", "Lost And Found", and "Second To None", "North".

It's always refreshing to hear takes on "American"-style music by Europeans. When you think of Continental European-based English-language bands you generally go first to Sweden and Norway. Phoenix is from Paris, though. Not a city that has fed much (if anything, really) to the American rock music world. (Andrea: I know you're probably chuckling right now because I've *yet again* mentioned where a band is from. It is crucial information in this case, though.)

on why a broken leg is so bad for a horse.

http://www.slate.com/id/2142159/

I've heard for years that broken ankles are life-threatening, but I always took it at face value without doing any research. After Saturday, though, I've been learning more about the danger of infection in horses. This article is the best I've found in covering all the bases of why an infection is so risky.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/21/mont...tml

Tonight I offer my congratulations to the people of Montenegro, the majority of whom voted today to secede from their union with Serbia. I am a major proponent of self-determination. Anytime a vote like this happens I am happy. The fact that it was successful is a victory for self-determination.

Obviously this is just based on exit polls, so we'll see on Monday if the referendum truly did pass. From what I can tell, though, based on this CNN report as well as BBC and El Periodico de Barcelona reports, it looks like most people are saying they voted in favor of secession.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5003220.stm
http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpubli...7&h=

I waited with great anticipation for yesterday's Preakness Stakes, only to have my heart broken like everybody else did when Barbaro was pulled up with a fractured ankle just a quarter-mile into the race. I gasped in my living room as I watched it happen -- he was the Kentucky Derby champion, a real contender for the Triple Crown. I wanted to be part of history and see this great horse continue his run.

His career is over, though, and his injury is even life-threatening. All we can do now is pray or hope for a perfect recovery for Barbaro so that he can enjoy his stud days.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/triplecrown06/colu...359

*EDIT (8:10 PM)*: He made it out of the surgery okay and is sitting at a 50/50 chance of survival. The next few days will be crucial -- hopefully he can fight off infection and live to be an old stallion.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/triplecrown06/news...946

I had yet again become dissatisfied with the design of my site. I admit that I was in a (as Mac referred to it) "spartan" phase, trying to prove something to everyone about the overusage of motion and color in web sites. I had been playing with the Script.aculo.us and Prototype libraries and had seen their rapid acceptance and emergence into the web design field, and I felt, quite simply, that people were using motion simply for the sake of using motion.

Don't get me wrong about motion and flashiness. In a web application, motion would be quite useful. Most web sites don't qualify as applications, though; most sites are nothing more are information pieces. So, I remain opposed to the overuse of motion, color, anything to distract the eyes, etc. in web sites these days, but I decided to bring a bit of color back into my site. The result is the new Fatty Animal Brigade motif.

I've been thinking for a period of time about how closely my gender (male) inherits from the animal base that we share with some of the foul creatures of the Earth. When you consider it, really, we have the same basic instincts as dogs! All we want to do is run around, eat, hump, and fight. When in doubt about how the average man would react to a situation, think of how a dog would react to it: Will it step on his presumed authority? Will it rob him of his honor? Will it make him look bad in front of the other dogs? Will it take away his opportunity to protect his family and loved ones? Will it make him jealous? Will it take his food away? Will infringe on his space?

Men and dogs are so enamored with each other because we're practically kin! Deep down inside we all have undeniable instincts that guide us through most of our day, regardless of our (human) presumption that we are in control.

*EDIT*: I just realized that this post came right after the post about The Format's new album "Dog Problems." A funny coincidence!

One of my favorite bands, The Format, has a new album coming out soon...

*EDIT*: It actually became available on their web site today! I downloaded it and have been listening to it... It's called "Dog Problems" and it's quite different from "Interventions & Lullabies". I like it, though. Alot of different instruments, horns, all sorts of keyboards, very unique sound.

Somehow this site has eluded me, but I just discovered http://www.josephsmith.net. One of the features of the site is a document viewer with which you can see and read images of actual documents sent to and by Joseph Smith. One of them is a letter from W.W. Phelps asking for reinstatement into the Church.

William W. Phelps was an early leader of the Latter-day Saint church, but he was excommunicated in March of 1838 over profiting off of land sales to fellow church members. On June 29th of 1840 he wrote a letter to Joseph asking for his fellowship in the church to be reestablished. Some of the words in the letter touched me:


A piece of Joseph's reply:

The Babe is about to slip to number three on Major League Baseball's all-time home run list. Awaiting his place is Barry Bonds, that creep, that lecher, that horrible man, that frightener of children, that pig, that Giant.

Any day now... just get it over with so we can start forgetting you, Mr. Bonds.

enjoy that little bubble you're living in.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&sto...

Don't get me wrong: I like Laura Bush. But she is delirious if she thinks this is just the media picking on her husband. Dozens of polls have shown the number at around 35% over the past couple of months. I can understand an error of maybe 2 or 3 percent (at the most), but for her to imply that most Americans are happy with her husband's performance would indicate an error of at least 15% (35% + 15% = 50%). These polling organizations would go out of business if their polls resulted in that kind of error.

The truth, whether Laura and the White House wish to believe it, is that only 35% of Americans think that George Walker Bush is doing a good job as President of United States.

Death Cab For Cutie along with Mates of State. Two of my absolute favorite bands. I've never had the chance to see Mates of State but I saw Death Cab last year. They'll both be in the McKay Events Center at UVSC (my alma mater -- weird to say that!) on August 8th. No way will I miss this one.

OK... After four more hours of working on it tonight, plus another trip to The Home Depot, my garden boxes are done! One of them is 5'x7' and the other is 3'x5' with an 8'x16" extension coming out of it. Tomorrow or Saturday I'll put all the soil in the boxes and do all of the planting. I'm so excited! I'll post pics when I get them off my camera tomorrow morning. I can't find my USB cable so I'll have to use Jon's computer at work.

I'm ready for the U.S. to seriously invest in ethanol.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12676374/

What are your thoughts?

OK... I went to The Home Depot and bought all the wood and tools to make the planter boxes. I then loaded it all up into my little Lexus and drove home with it. It must've been humorous to see -- a sport sedan with a dozen or so pieces of wood sticking out the back passenger side window.

Tomorrow I'll build the box.

Actually, the first step will be to build the boxes for the garden. I'm going to raise it 8 inches off the ground, mostly for decorative reasons, so I need to build the box first. I'll do that tonight... this means, of course, that I will have to buy new tools. At present, the only tool I have is a tape measure.

Tomorrow I'll actually plant the garden. Tomatoes, peppers, herbs, garlic, and strawberries.

Any day on which I beat the sun up is considered a success. I'm sitting in my home office taking in the bright rays of the sun through my as-of-yet unblinded windows, not really doing anything at all. Just listening to music and reading blog posts. It's a good way to start the day -- a little mental stimulation in the morning goes a long way to having a successful day.

I got my iMac back from the shop on Friday. Bad power supply. I had waited a couple of weeks since it had broken before taking it in to the shop, so I ended up spending about three weeks without my music collection. Now that it's back, though, I've spent all weekend listening to some favorites that I missed while I was without my precious Macintosh:

Jose Gonzalez - Veneer

Thomas Newman - Road To Perdition Soundtrack

Mae - Everglow

Damien Rice - O

the whole Death Cab For Cutie collection

Welcome home, sweet iMac G5!

When I was 16 my family took a trip to LDS Church historical sites throughout the midwest. One of our stops was Independence, Missouri, where we toured the Community of Christ (nee Reorganized Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints) Temple as well as the Zion Temple Lot. At the small headquarters of the church that maintains the lot now, we sat down and listened to a small talk on what their church was all about. The man gave a huge list of what their church didn't believe, and after about 10 minutes my mom said "You keep telling us what you don't beleive. What DO you believe, though?" I feel that I may have slipped into that mode at some point over the past little while, where I spend more time talking about what I don't believe, what I don't like, what I'm opposed to, instead of talking about what I DO believe, what I DO stand for. I'm going to make a better effort to fix that.

To start, I will talk about a few issues that come to mind. They will continue to trickle in over the next few weeks, I promise.

- I believe in eradicating terrorism. We should be looking in every cave, every shack, every old Datsun, we should be using all of our resources to directly go after known terrorists.

- The best solution to the immigration situation is this: Fix the border first, then change immigration law. There is no need to build a wall. We can install sensors, use satellites, and use ground forces at "hot" areas to protect our borders better. When that situation is taken care of, we then (drastically) increase the number of immigrants that are allowed in through legal channels. This will allow the immigrants to pay taxes and be put on the road to citizenship. Legal workers means higher wages, but we're looking at an increase in costs no matter what happens. If we kick them out, we pay more for American workersl; if they stay, we continue to pay large amounts of their Medicare bills. We should do the thing that will both continue to stimulate our economy as well as allow others to be part of the American Dream.

- I am a huge proponent of transportation advances in Utah. We should be willing to increase local taxes to pay for commuter rail to Utah County ahead of schedule, and we should scrap the planned Utah County interstate overhaul of 2011 and spend the money instead to build the Mountain View Corridor. After that we can implement changes to the current I-15 infrastructure in Utah County.

- I am in favor of universal health care for all children under the age of 18, regardless of their legal status, socio-economic class, and ability to pay for the services. This means a minor increase in taxes. All children should be given the gift of health, though. Consider it an investment in the future of our country.

- I believe Israel should be divided into two states. To start, Gaza should be a UN-supported state, and eventually the West Bank must be given back.

That is all for now.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060506/D8HEBL7O0.html

I'm sure you're preparing to tell me that "the media only reports on the negative things," but guess what: it's war. There are no positive things.

And I'm also glad to see that our leadership continues to ruin relationships abroad:

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060505/2006-05-05T102918Z_01_L05500235_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-RUSSIA-USA-DC.html.

Great job, executive branch! You're making our lives so much better!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6640225987281635407&pl=true

I DVRd two programs tonight for my Candice Pearson. She, Ken, and her friend Valerie are here to watch them now. "One Tree Hill" and "Lost." The former contained a reference to a timeless Shakespearean sonnet that I felt like posting.

--------

Sonnet 116
by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.