I really have had a hard time sitting down to write a blog...and I am making no promises that it will turn into a regular thing. I do miss writing my blog and the few responses that I get from it. Last time I blogged it was around January and it was talking about my New Years Resolutions...I am happy to admit I have not kept a single one. Oh well maybe 2010 will be my year.



The only New Years Resolution that I have kept is to enhance my television experience. I have been ordering 24 on Netflix and I am officially addicted to the show. Jack Bauer is my hero. He is way tougher than Jason Bourne, Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme and Vin Diesel. I do however think that David Palmer is a terrible President and I hate his wife. He couldn't handle his wife ordering him around and telling him how to be the President so he divorced her. Bill Clinton didn't do that with Hilary, he kept her around, he just cheated on her with Monica Lewinsky. I don't know why David Palmer didn't take this route it would of been a lot more like real television. My goal is to watch all the episodes of 24 and then next fall when the new series comes out I can join that Jack Bauer bandwagon.

On a side note I wanna talk about my disgust for Vin Diesel. He is a terrible actor and the ugliest man alive. I want to demonstrate this by a simple mathematical equation. You know how Jay Leno used to do that funny gimmick like if so and so had a baby this is what it would look like. Well that's kind of what I have done here.
If you take a down syndrome baby and chimpanzee and if they have a baby together it would equal Vin Diesel.


I want to apologize to all down syndrome babies and chimpanzee for comparing them to Vin Diesel and I am sorry if I offended any of them. In their defense a down syndrome chimpanzee would probably be a better actor.

Ya know I have always considered myself a very accepting person of any race, religion, sexual orientation it does not matter to me as long as you are a good person, heck you don't even have to be a good person to be my friend, you could be a terrible person and own an XBOX and I will probably like you.

My point is I have always considered myself to be very accepting and comfortable of any type of person. But I have to admit something: I watched the show Milk, ya know the one with Sean Penn and he is a gay activist who is running for a spot on the city council in San Francisco. This movie took place in the 70's I think and they were taking away all the jobs from gay people and Sean Penn wanted to change that so he was running for office. While watching the movie I felt bad for the gays and even was happy when the gay's got their jobs back and was sad when Sean Penn got shot but...I just couldn't do it. I had to turn away or fast forward through the gay kissing scenes. I guess I am just not as accepting or as comfortable in my own sexuality but I couldn't watch Sean Penn and James Franco make out.


This got me thinking was it really the fact that they were two guys kissing or just two people that I am not attracted to kissing. I mean I don't have a problem watching two hot chicks make out so it can't be that I am not comfortable with gays kissing. I don't think I wanna watch old people make out and I remember it was always awkward when Roseanne and John Connor would be intimate with each other. So maybe its just unattractive people. I am pretty sure this is why they only have beautiful people on television.








I got tickets to the Jazz-Lakers playoff game. It's in Utah and its going to be on game 4. I am really hoping that the Lakers will be up 3-0 in Utah and can sweep the Jazz on their home floor. I plan on bringing my broom to the game and sweeping the steps of the Energy Solutions Arena when they complete the sweep. If I don't get beat up, kicked out of the arena or arrested for acting like a total jackass then i will consider it a failure. The tickets are up in the nosebleed section but all I really wanna do is just give Jazz fans a bunch of crap.

I wanna give a shot out to my friend Kendall who sent me an invitation to the group Pocatello Music. I love going to concerts and I actually prefer going to unknown crappy bands then big time bands so I am thoroughly excited for a website that is going to keep me informed of all of the concerts that are coming up in Pocatello. Here is the website http://www.pocatellomusic.com/ check it out.

Now these ain't your small town local bands. My brother is getting married on June 20th to Heidi Stewart, pretty exciting I guess but what I am more excited about is his bachelor party. On June 6th in the Idaho Falls Civic Auditorium MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice are performing and we are going. It 1990 musical ecstasy. I will be rocking the MC Hammer pants and the side steps in my hair.





Saudi King Abdullah

Who the heck is this guy!! Do we love oil so much that we have to kiss and bow at this guy's feet. As far as I am concerned every other world leader should either be a Tony Blair or a Saddam Hussein. In other words they are either a 'Yes Man' who supports every action we take or they are a terrorist and we should hunt them down and hang them. Ridiculous. This King Abdullah might be like Aragon in Lord of the Ring, the King of Gondor(Yes, I realized I just embarrassed myself by making this analogy and demonstrating my love of Lord of the Rings)but then we are like the hobbits and we bow to no one.

I want my president to be 1st class Bad A who doesn't take crap from nobody. Why can't our president be more like Harrison Ford in Air Force One and instead of bowing and negotiating with terrorists/foreigners he just beats all of them up and throws them off of his plane.




So I keep on hearing about how the newspaper industry is under attack and that eventually newspaper will be joined with alarm clocks as becoming obsolete because of advances in technology. The cell phone made the alarm clock and the home phone obsolete and the internet will make the newspaper industry die. To me there is nothing more American than sitting down at breakfast and reading the newspaper first thing in the morning. No wonder they call it the World Wide Web, once again Al Gore is trying to make us more world friendly. Well screw you Al Gore and the world I am going to order a subscription to the Idaho State Journal. GO USA!!

I am only 24 years old and sometimes I feel like my beautiful wife is trying to turn me into a 44 year old. We go on walks every evening, which I won't lie, its probably the best part of my day. But shouldn't we go clubbing every night and get hammered or staying up all night play World of Warcraft instead and to top it all off she purchased a humidifier yesterday. SO LONG YOUTH!!!

Sorry to all the non-sports fan for the lame return of my blog. It will be purely about the NBA Playoffs although I do fully intend to post a complete blog tomorrow. Let's hit it:

Lakers vs. Utah: Lakers over Utah 4-0

The Jazz vs. Lakers are always special to me. My family(Dad and cousin Steve) are huge Jazz fans and this is purely for bragging rights. I still have not forgotten the back-to-back sweeps handed to the Lakers in the 1997 NBA Playoffs and the second time in 1998. I have still not forgotten about that so I am hoping for sweet redemption and predicting the Lakers to return the favor and sweep the Jazz out of the playoffs will this probably happen no it will not but I will be attending Game 4 and nothing would be sweeter than standing next to Steve as we watch the Lakers sweep the Jazz off the floor.

Denver vs. New Orleans Hornets: Denver over Hornets in 6 games

I almost picked the Hornets to win this playoff series, winning a playoff series is never easy when you have George Karl as your head coach. They should give the Nuggets a handicap like a 10 point lead or start the series with the Nuggets 1-0 since they have Karl giving instructions during the game. As long as the Nuggets don't listen to George Karl and don't look to Carmelo Anthony to lead them they should get past the first round but it will tough and all the credit should go to Chanuncey Billups.

Portland Trailblazers vs. Houston Rockets: Houston over Portland in 7

I picked Houston to win but I'm going to be wrong. Two reasons why I picked them to beat Portland is because #1 I don't want Portland to be in the second round against the Lakers and #2 Portland doesn't have any playoff experience. Tracy Mcgrady is injured so he isn't there to jinx the Rockets and I think it would be beautiful if the first time that Mcgrady's team gets past the first round is when T-Mac is hurt.

Spurs vs. Mavs: Spurs over Mavs in 6 games

Hey! Its the San Antonion Spurs and I really don't care that Manu Ginobli is hurt. This is best supporting cast that Duncan has had since Robinson and Avery Johnson played. Jason Terry will score like 30 points a game and Dirk will once again be shut down and once again the Devin Harris trade will come back to haunt Mark Cuban when Tony Parker runs circles around Jason Kidd.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons: Cavs in 4 games

I don't see any way that the Pistons can win a game against the Cavs. They have a rookie coach, Kwame Brown and no Chauncey Billups. Favorite thing about the Pistons is they traded Chauncey Billups because they thought Rodney Stuckey would be able to replace Chauncey Billups and then eventually they found out that Will Bynum was better than Rodney Stuckey and in the middle of this they tried to trick the entire world into believing that Iverson's back is too hurt to play and that's why he is not with the team. I am fully expecting Rodney Stuckey to pull a Tanya Harding and hire somebody to attack Will Bynum with an ice skate during this series.

Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls: Celtics over Bulls in 6

The Bulls will run a million pick and rolls and Glen Big Baby Davis and Kendrick Perkins won't be able to do a thing about it. Derrick Rose is going to get punked by Rajon Rondo and maybe finally people will say that he is a legitimate point guard. I fully expect the Bulls to give the Celtics a tough tough series. I am 100% percent sure that Brad Miller and Kendrick Perkins will get in a fight and both be ejected.

Orlando Magic vs. 76ers: Orlando over 76ers in 5 games.

This will be a great matchup one for the ages. Two of the best post players going one on one in a battle of the bigs. Elton Brand vs. Dwight Howard....oh wait nevermind.

Atlanta Hawks vs. Dwyane Wade: Wade in 6 games

Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Mike Bibby, Dwyane Wade, Dwyane Wade, Dwyane Wade, Dwyane Wade

I guess I have been slacking lately on my blog for which I apologize immensely to the three or four people who actually find my blog to be entertaining, unfortunately I am not one of those four or three people.
One of my many New Year Resolutions is to keep up on my blog. I really enjoyed writing it and I love the feedback that I was getting and it was a motivator to keep me informed on current events. More importantly it really helps to kill time while I work my graveyard shift. Now I have a new work schedule for next semester and I will be working three graveyard shifts. Does this mean three blog entries a week? Probably not and if so then don’t expect anything great from each blog entry. I kind of want to jump around on a number of topics today none that any of you will find that interesting but I don’t really care.
First Topic:
I guess my first topic will some of my New Year resolutions. I think putting them on my blog will actually be a very effective way to make sure that I keep them since I am publicly declaring them to my faithful readers and this way if I fail at achieving my New Year Resolution than instead of just me realizing that I am a weak, pathetic human who can’t accomplish anything in his life but everybody else will.
Here are a few of my goals worth discussing:

I think the majority of people set this goal every year and that is to lose weight.
I read something about how like 70% of new gym memberships occur in January and February because of people signing up to join a gym at the beginning of the year. I didn’t sign up I am continuing to rip off my brother’s Gold Gym membership. It is January 6th and I have actually been to the gym twice. Not too shabby I just wonder how long I can keep this up. I don’t want to do anything radical to lose weight like exercise for 2 hours a day at 5:00 am in the morning or go on some weird diet and eat cottage cheese and oatmeal for the whole year. I just think that I am going to cut back on a few things such as soda pop and eating out which will also save me a ton of money. I would like to throw in go to the gym and exercise I don’t think that is anything to radical and overwhelming so I am going to try and milk Trevor’s gym membership for as long as I can until he realizes that he doesn’t go to the gym anymore and cancel his membership and then I have no gym and that will effectively put a stop to me going.

I have a lot of the same old same old goals that everybody sets (see above) and I am sure every faithful churchgoer sets the goal to not miss church and yes that is one of my goals as well. Although I already will end up missing the first two weeks of church due to work and I will be honest with yak if my Eagles make the Super bowl I am most likely skipping church that day to savor the moment. Nothing like reading the Bible and learning about Jesus to take you out of your football groove. So I am not too confident that I am going to keep this goal but I am definitely going to attend church more than I have been.

I think it’s important to set financial goals and weight loss goals and goals that will improve your chances of going to heaven all admirable goals but I also think it is just as important to set goals that will just make you happy. For instance I don’t watch a lot of television, and when I say television I mean television shows, I watch a lot of sports. I know these sounds like the opposite of a goal because most people set goals to watch less television but I am setting the goal to watch more television. Specifically television shows that my wife and I will enjoy. I can watch ESPN all day long with no problem if I wanted to – goal accomplished. But let’s not beat around the bush on this one my wife and I love just staying home and watching television. The only thing is we can never agree on what to watch. Since she doesn’t want to watch ESPN all day long. Cable is included in my monthly rent so I might as well take advantage of that right and I sure can’t afford to go out and do something that would be more productive so staying at home plopped out on the couch watching television is the cheapest way to have fun. I also feel that I am out of a social loop. I have never seen Lost or Heroes or 24 and so my goal is to catch up on the previous seasons so I can look forward to watching the new episodes with my wife when they come on the television.

First off I usually work ONE graveyard shift at work a week and that is when I write my blog don't know if I care that much to write it when I am at home but...I have the flu and didn't work yesterday(Wednesday, Nov 19) and I am not going into to do my graveyard shift(Friday, Nov 21) so I am sitting at home sick while my wife is at work with no energy to anything but watch Sportscenter for the fifth time today. I did not however watch The Price is Right that Dane Cook says you always watch when you are sick at home.




So I am blogging live from my living room.


CURRENT EVENTS

So apparently they want to build a coal gasification plant in American Falls. I don't know much about Coal gasification plants I assume that they will cause pollution but will also provide jobs and a boost to the economy in American Falls and the surrounding area. I am not quite sure I understand all of this I certaintely don't understand how coal gasification plants work but like most industrial plants it will release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, but releasing carbon dioxide isn't consider polluting then what is it considered? The plant will emit CO2 for a couple of years but they are going to build a huge pipe to Wyoming and then the C02 or whatever will end up in Wyoming. Not sure how that really works but...I LOVE IT!!


So we are building a coal gasification plant and will reap all the benefits but then we are building a huge pipe to transfer all the carbon dioxide to another state. That has to be the GREATEST IDEA EVER!! and why would Wyoming agree to this? Wyoming you are such a dumb bitch.

THE OBAMA SCORE


Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Zawahiri is pissed off at Obama for several things. Zawahiri said "What you have announced before ... that you will withdraw (US) troops from Iraq (and send them) to Afghanistan is a policy that is doomed to failure ...

"If you still want to be stubborn about America's failure in Afghanistan, then remember the fate of (President George W.) Bush and (Pakistan's ex-president) Pervez Musharraf, and the fate of the Soviets and British before them."

He is also pissed off because Obama was born a Muslim claims to be Christian but has prayed with the Jews who are the enemies of Muslims.(I thought Americans were the enemies of the Muslims) and when Zawahiri means he is pissed off at Obama for praying with the Jews he really mean he is pissed off that Obama didn't get rid of Joe Lieberman and that Lieberman will retain his spot as chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Pissing off Terrorists -1
Keeping Joe Lieberman who enjoys killing pissed off Terrorists +1

Obama wants to make Hilary Clinton his Secretary of State. I don't really know what to think about all of that. I know Obama said he wanted to surround himself with people that would disagree with him but does he really need to go as far as appointing Hilary Clinton to be his Secretary of State? I didn't like Clinton and I was happy that Obama won the democratic election over Clinton but I think she is by far the most qualified and would make an excellent Secretary of State. I don't think Hilary will accept the position and I think Obama knows this and he is doing this to win over all the Hilary fans andif anything its a good PR move to bring all the Clinton supporters on board to the Obamatrain.

Offering Hillary Clinton Secretary of State: +1




ENTERTAINMENT



AC/DC came out with a new album and they didn't disappoint me. I was a little hesitant that it would be like when Metallica released St. Anger and I was so excited to listen to it and it totally sucked. AC/DC and Aerosmith are my two favorite rock n roll bands from the 80's. This is just a great album and just like classic AC/DC


I had a discussion with my friend Hal about the new James Bond movie and I posted on his wall how I was disappointed in the movie and I think I will just cut n' paste my comment:

I dont know why I was so excited to see the Bond movie. The last Bond movie I turn it off after they are done playing cards, because the rest of it is dumb. I thought the opening song sounded like crappy techo and I know I just admitted that some techno isn't crappy which is a contradiction. I thought the fight scenes were too ... Read Morelong and they tried to make them like the Bourne Identity fight scenes, there were no dirty sexual innuendos for all the old people to laugh at and make you feel uncomfortable, the Haitian girl was kind of hot, but these last two Bond movies the Bond girl has been very disappointing and where the heck is Q and all the cool Bond gadgets?

So maybe I missed something in the plot, but the bad guy in the movie had bought up all the water supply in Bolivia(60% to be exact) and then decided to charge a ridiculous amount for water. I think he also built a dam to on an underground river to control even more of the water and this is why the Secret Service and the CIA was trying to kill him. The whole movie I though "so what? That's just a good business idea" I really don't see why the Secret Service would get involved in it, I thought maybe like a Better Business Bureau or whatever they have in Bolivia would just handle the whole thing. I think a good idea for the next James Bond movie should be about a coal gasification plant building building a 120mile pipeline to another state to dump all of its C02 there. Now that would make a great movie.

SPORTS

ISU Basketball


ISU played a pretty good game against Eastern Oregon and Demetrius Monroe looks pretty good. I like how he shows absolutely no emotion and doesn't even look like he is trying at all when he plays. Then ISU lost in Hawaii, a very tough place to play, in OT. They play in Boise this Saturday and I wished I had the money and desire to drive up and watch them play Boise but I am definetly going to be watching the game.

ROCK YOUR VOTE



Ok so I have the NBA League Pass and of course the basic cable which gives me TNT, ESPN and ABC so I can watch every single Laker game except for the ones on NBATV. While this poses a problem for me is because once a week fans can vote online for which game they want to appear on NBATV and so far two Laker games have been voted to be on NBATV. This is terrible, so everyday I get online and I vote for any game besides the Lakers.

MY LIFE

My English class is killin me. I always thought that I was a pretty good english student but this teacher is just tough. I got a 65% on my first paper and a 75% on the second paper(that was the sleep deprivation one) This next paper I am writing it on stem cell research. why did I choose to write a 1600 word paper on stem cell research when I know absolutely nothing about stem cell research. I really don't know I guess stupid people just do stupid things. But I have studying stem cell research and was really surprised with my ability to understand exactly what it is. Could I give a lecture or a presentation on stem cell research, Absolutely not, but hopefully I can BS it enough to write a paper on it.

I probably won't be writing a blog next week since I am going to Colorado to visit some of Sheena's in-laws and I doubt I will have time to write about it but I will let you know all about my trip when I get back.

Ok I am going to try a different format with my blog I am going to break it down into separate categories so those people that don't care about sports can easily just skip that or for those people who just wanna know what going on in my life can just read that. I really want people to express their opinions on the issues that I bring up so feel free to disagree with me, I would rather you disagree with me and tell me why you disagree then to tell me you agree with me. Of course it goes without saying that if you disagree with me you are an idiot.

CURRENT EVENTS

So Barack Obama has been very clear that there is still only ONE President of the United States, but I think people forgot to tell him that ONE President is still George W. Bush, but that's ok I am actually excited for January 20th when Barack Obama is officially our President.

The biggest thing is Barack Obama has done since becoming President Elect is appointing Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff. Emanuel worked with Clinton. Emanuel was huge in trying to get universal healthcare during Clinton's administration that's obviously why Obama pick Emanuel was because of his knowledge in healthcare. I don't care if you get Tony Blair to help you with Obama's idea of universal healthcare. There is just no way free healthcare is going to happen in the United States of America so if that's the reason you picked Emanuel it was a waste of chief of staff and plus the guy FAILED in getting universal healthcare in the US so obviously his track record isn't very good.


I don't like free healthcare for several reasons. Doctors wouldn't make nearly as much money as they do now and that would kill our economy. Since they won't be making a nice six figure salaries they will either start up a private practice which is way more expensive than public healthcare or quit and nobody is going to go to school for eight years to be a doctor so the quality of healthcare will go way down.I do not like Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff mainly because I am not supportive of free healthcare.


Lets keep a score of things that I don't like about Obama and things that I do like about Obama.

Obama: -1(not off to a good start)

I don't like free healthcare for several reasons. Doctors wouldn't make nearly as much money as they do now and that would kill our economy. Since they won't be making a nice six figure salaries they will either start up a private practice which is way more expensive than public healthcare or quit and nobody is going to go to school for eight years to be a doctor so the quality of healthcare will go way down.

Obama will have an immediate impact once he finally gets into the White House. There are a lot of changes that he will probably do immediately. Things like free healthcare, abortion rights and gay marriage needs to go through congress and it can take forever but he will use executive powers to immediately reverse George Bush's policies on stem cell research and oil exploration in national parks. He will use executive powers to reverse Bush's policies on stem cell research and drilling more oil in America.

Ok so lets talk about both of these issues. First stem cell research:


Obama has supported stem cell research to find cures for things like Alzheimer's, Parkinson disease, cancer, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and muscle damage but in order to do this research it involves destroying a human embryo. The controversy here is that these human embryos are humans and we are for lack of a better word killing people. It goes along the same line of abortion and the same question needs to be answered, "When does life begin?" I personally do not think that life begins until it becomes a fetus which generally takes eight weeks once the little soldiers implants itself. So I do not think that the destruction of a human embryo is destroying life and believe me I am against abortion but I do not think that this is the same thing plus not all stem cell research requires the destruction of a human embryo adult stem cell lines can be made to create embryonic-like stem cell lines using a single-cell biops and get the same results so maybe to avoid all the pro-life fanatics Obama needs to focus purely on that but if he doesn't I still only see good things that can result from stem cell research.

So one point for Obama.
.
Drilling in America:


The federal Bureau of Land Management has said that there is about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah that can be drilled for oil and gas and that's only what they allowing us to drill on there could be a ton more. This energy plan is a lot better than pumping up our tires with air. I know he wants to drill in National Parks and a lot of these park goers are going to throw a fit about that but If we had our own oil and didn't have to pay oil in the middle east it would lower gas prices and help our economy out a ton. I just hope Green Peace doesn't screw this one over for us.

Another point for Obama





Ok so I read this story and I was pretty surprised and had a hard time not finding a little humorous.


Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice…..

“Baptism of a Jewish Holocaust victim and then merely removing that name from the database is just not acceptable,” said Michel, whose parents died at Auschwitz. He spoke on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews.

“We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion,” Michel said in a statement released ahead of the news conference. “We ask you to leave our six million Jews, all victims of the Holocaust, alone, they suffered enough.”


Geez we are making a lot of enemies first the gays are mad at us for pushing the banning of gay marriage and now the Jews are mad at us for baptizing all the dead holocaust victims. Atleast Obama wont he popular vote in Utah so all the Black gotta forgive us for the whole not givin black people the priesthood. I don't really wanna get into a discussion if baptizing people of other churches is right or not, because I am still doing the temple work for John Stewart as soon as he kicks the can, but I wanna understand the Jews point of view. So if I am Jew I view the LDS church as just a crazy gay-hating cult and why would I care what they are claiming to do to my fellow jews.
ENTERTAINMENT


So I am going to Colorado for Thanksgiving. I love road trips and the reason I love them is I love listening to music and I just never can justify just sitting there listening to music considering all the time I waste watching sports and playing video games, so whenever I am in my car I just can kick back and listen to music. Sheena always complains about how all I listen to is punk rock and never the classic rock of the 70's and 80's that she loves so on this trip I am really going to try and be a good husband and listen to her music for the WHOLE TRIP. Sheena is going to end up driving to Colorado but I am taking on the sacred responsibility of being the Car DJ. I am in charge of supplying us with some sweet tunes to listen to and since my ipod was stolen we are going old school and I burn CD's. I want to take a voyage through the history of rock. Start with 60's bands like The Beatles, Bon Jovi and The Rolling Stone and then 70's with Led Zepplin, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix and 80's bands with Def Leppard, Aerosmith and AC/DC and conclude with Nirvana and Audioslave. Through the tour of Rock I want to listen to some Black Sabbath, Queen, Styx and Foreigner. I hope Sheena is ready for Travis' salute to Rock. By the way I know there are some Something Corporate fans reading my blog and I would love to hear what you think about their latest album I listened to it for the first time yesterday and was very impressed.

SPORTS

Today at 7:05 I will be attending ISU's first game of the Men's Basketball season against Eastern Oregon. I don't know as much about college sports as I would like to but I am extremely optimistic about ISU's basketball team. They are probably not going to even win the Big Sky Conference but I think they will be competitive and they have some good teams coming to play up at the Holt and I really want to support ISU's team this year and I hope our student body can come through and give them a home crowd.

I would like to say that I know the NBA pretty well and I am fairly knowledgeable with EVERY NBA team and I can assess them pretty well but the team that I follow the most and know the most about, The Los Angeles Lakers, I always have a hard time assessing how good they truly are because I am so biased towards the Lakers because I love them so much.

I know its only been 7 games into the season but this team is one of the best teams I have seen in a long long time. I didn't watch the Celtics much last year and even Kobe admitted that they had one of the best defensives he has ever seen and they did win around 66 games but I haven't seen a team that has been this dominant since probably the 1999-2000 Lakers where Shaq was just unstoppable and won the MVP. The Mavericks had an incredible year when they went to the Finals but they were the Mavericks so there was nothing dominating about that team since Dirk Nowtizki could never scare anybody.

These Lakers are killing teams. They are the highest scoring team in the NBA and have the 2nd best defense in the league. They might have the best bench in the league, Utah's bench would give them a run for their money and the best starting five in the league manned by the best player in the league, Kobe Bryant. I just don't see how this team is going to lose. Maybe I am wrong and I need somebody to bring me down to Earth about the Lakers so please do so.

Steve sent me a text message on Thursday saying "the hawks are legit" and honestly I couldn't agree more and be happier about this fact. I jumped on the Hawks bandwagon as soon as they got Mike Bibby in a mid-season trade. They had all these high-flying dunkers and about 8 small forwards who want to run the break and I knew that as soon as they got a decent point guard they would be the funnest team to watch and trust me they are the funnest team to watch in the NBA and the fact that they are legit and a really good team is totally awesome.



MY LIFE

So in the last section I am going to talk about what is going on in my life, I generally find this the most boring part of the people's blogs since I don't really care what they did during the week I am just looking for some shout-outs in their blog(yeah I know, how self-centered) or things I can agree with or disagree with so I apologize.

I am doing better in my fantasy basketball league, which is a huge deal to me, I get so addicted to fantasy basketball and waste way too much time and care way to much about how my team is doing. Speaking of wasting time with the NBA I have got myself a pretty sweet hook-up. So if you have Directv then you can watch all NBA games on your laptop for free . I do not have NBA League Pass but Chris Maynard does. So thanks to Chris for giving me his Directv account number I can watch all the games on my laptop so I don't have to miss any of the games this season and to make it even cooler I rigged up my TV to my laptop so I can watch the games on my TV so now it's just like I have the NBA League Pass. So thanks Chris for kindness and helping me save 85 bucks but more importantly sticking it to the man.

So on Wednesday I got pulled over by a cop because my registration had been expired since March. I told the cop I didn't know, which was a lie, I have already been pulled over for it once way back in June. The douche bag gave me a ticket and its going to end up costing me 52 bucks plus the cost of my registration.

First off let me apologize for two things: The first thing I am going to apologize is for my last blog entry it was a cheap and desperate attempt to have something interesting on my blog and I am sure it failed miserably. If you don't like reading English papers then you probably didn't enjoy reading my last entry and if you don't like reading crappy blogs then you probably didn't enjoy any of my blog entries. The second thing that I am going to apologize about is that I am once again going to talk about politics but the last time I blogged about politics I got a record number of comments, a whopping 5 comments!!!

Barack Obama

I did not vote for Obama HOWEVA I am totally fine with Barack Obama being our next President and I am not freaking out like all the other people who didn't vote for Obama. I do not think that Obama is the anti-christ or that he is a terrorist or anything like that, I think he will do just fine as our President. The guy is so likeable and charming how can you not immediately fall in love with him every time he speaks. (He kind of reminds me of Bruce R. Mckonkie when he speaks)
I am sure Obama could convince me to walk through fire and then be overjoyed that I was burned from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. I said before that I really don't think that it's the President who is making all the decisions, or any for that matter, but the people behind him. I think the President is just the face of those decisions and needs to have enough knowledge to back them up when they are talking to the media, Congress or leaders from other countries. So all I really care about is that my President is well-spoken, he is diplomatic and won't embarrasses our country by sounding like an idiot or having sexual intercourse with his interns. I think that Barack Obama will be able to represent our country in a very dignified and respectful manner and definitely better than John Mccain.

I am also extremely proud of our country and the progress that we have made in civil rights. No other country in the world could of been able to pull something like this off to quote Christopher Wallace "it would of been like the French electing an Algerian to be their President." African-Americans went from slaves to being treated like second class citizens and now to becoming the President of the United States of America.
Tupac Shakur talked about all the things that are wrong with America and how they treat African Americans in his hit single "Changes" and he says and I quote "And although it seems heaven sent We ain't ready, to see a black President" this is the exact kind of change that Tupac and I am assuming Obama was talking about and we were definetly ready for it. Obama's believed in change and as he defianetly announced on Tuesday night "Change Has Come!" I think it is just incredible how far this nation has come in its effort to squash discrimination.


When Mitt Romney announced that he was running for President I was obviously very intrigued by the idea of a Latter-Day Saint being our President. I had many discussions with my father about Mitt Romney and if I would be voting for him if he was put on the Republican nominee and I told my father several times that I would not be voting for Mitt Romney because we shared the same faith and that I wanted to learn about his policies and all the other candidates policies, and I wanted to vote for Mitt Romney because I believed he was the best man for job, and if I believed he wasn't the best man for the job then I WOULD NOT vote for him.



When Martin Luther King prophetically said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." While Obama's change that he believed in came true on Tuesday I do not think that Martin Luther's dream of his sons being judged by the content of their character rather than by the color their skin has been fullfilled.

It worries me that I was even able to get this information because I don't think it should matter but according to CNN exit polls more than 95% of black voters voted for Obama for comparison, Asians voted for Obama at a rate of 63% Latinos voted for Obama at a rate of 67% and Whites voted for Obama at a rate of 43%. Nationwide 51% of people voted for Obama. To me that means around 30 percent of African Americans voted for Obama because he as well was an African-American. To me that is just as bad as all the white people who said they wouldn't vote for Obama because he was an African American or all the men who wouldn't of voted for Hilary Clinton because she was a woman. Now I know that this happens every single election year and that only because Barack Obama was the first African American to become the President that race is being discussed, but it told me that even though we have come a long way in treating every one as equal and not discriminating because of race we still have some work to do.

PROPOSITION 8

Ok I am a Latter-day Saint so I obviously am against gay marriage right? In a way I am against it and in a way I am for it. I am not going to pussy foot around this issue at the risk of offending some people so I am sorry if I am too bold in this blog entry. Proposition 8. Big deal right? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been very involved in Proposition 8. They have encouraged church members to vote "Yes" on banning gay marriage in California. I want to be very careful of what I am saying here. I believe 100% that the leaders of my church as receiving direct revelation from God so I am very careful not to say that they are wrong but I do not understand why we are getting in the middle of this political issue.

This in excerpt from the LA Times:

During the campaign, a website established by Proposition 8 opponents used campaign finance data and other public records to track Mormon political contributions to the Yes-on-8 campaign. Opponents estimated that members of the church had given more than $20 million, but the amount is difficult to confirm since the state does not track the religious affiliation of donors.

A commercial opposing Proposition 8 also drew criticism. In it, two actors portraying Mormon missionaries forced their way into the well-kept home of a married lesbian couple. Here is the commerical:



Jeff Flint, strategist for Yes on 8, called the ad "despicable" and said it "crossed every line of decency."

"I am appalled at the level of Mormon-bashing that went on during the Proposition 8 campaign and continues to this day," he said. "If this activity were directed against any other church, if someone put up a website that targeted Jews or Catholics in a similar fashion for the mere act of participating in a political campaign, it would be widely and rightfully condemned."

Members and leaders of the Catholic Church and other Christian churches were also heavily involved in the campaign to pass Proposition 8. The Knights of Columbus, which is tied to the Catholic Church, gave $1 million, and several evangelical groups gave millions more. But they have not come under the same kind of attack.

Leaders of the No-on-8 campaign said they did not believe they were engaged in Mormon-bashing. "This is not about religion," said Jacobs. "This is about a church that put itself in the middle of politics."

I agree with that last statement, we put ourselves "in the middle of politics" something which surprised me and I think we are going to get a lot of flack and negative attention for doing so, but then again our decisions come from a much higher source even if I don't understand exactly why we decided to become so involved.

We are going to break this down Gay Marriage into two sections: First section: My opinion on Homosexuality and the second section my opinion on Marriage.

We fear people who we do not understand. I went on my mission to England and there were a lot of Arabs in England and they had the full ensemble. Dressed from head to toe in traditional clothing and they scared the heebie jeebies out of me. They just looked like terrorists or ninjas and I was constantly waiting for these women to pull out either a stick of dynamite or a ninja star and throw it at me. I didn't want to approach them, talk to them or even make eye contact with them...but one of the few times that I went and knocked on peoples door I happened to knock on a home and sure enough a women dressed in all black with the whole outfit on answered the door. I gave her our little spill and of course I wasn't expecting to get in the her home to share more about our message and I really didn't want to either but surprisingly she let us in. We sat down and talked to her for a while and met her kids, her husband was still back in the middle east, and we became very good friends with this lady, her name was Agusta Din-Gabishi. We were invited back to her home several times and we didn't even attempt to teach her about our church but I got to know Agusta very well and realized that she was just like every other lady I have ever met. We watched the Simpsons together, complained about the weather and she was completely normal, she chastised her kids when they didn't do their homework and was one of the nicest ladies that I have ever met and completely changed my view on Islamic people and I immediately overcame my fear of them.

The only reason that I even feared Agusta was because everybody told me too, the media had me convinced that they were all terrorists. All that it took for me to get over my fear of Arabic women or Muslims in general was to understand them and to get to know them. I guess I had the same problem with gay people. I didn't know any gay people and always felt that if I was confronted with a gay man I would feel extremely uncomfortable and wouldn't want to talk to him.


Two summers ago I was scammin Teleperformance out of some money by going through their month long paid training with no intention of staying with Teleperformance. In my class I sat next to a lesbian. I think her name was Stephanie, but that doesn't matter, Stephanie was very proud of her homosexuality, she had a rainbow necklace on and announced to everyone on the first day at class that she as gay. Stephanie was very open about it and always talked about how much she loved having sexual relations with women and it kind of was like getting thrown into the deep end of my uncomfortableness of homosexuals. Anyways, one day in the break room myself and two other coworkers were talking about how cool we thought it was that Stephanie was so open about being gay and how much we admired it. We talked about how we wouldn't have the guts to openly announce to the world that we were gay because we would be afraid that society would look down on us and wouldn't want to be seen as social outcasts.

Then out of the blue one of my coworkers just said "Yeah, it would be hard to tell everybody. I'm gay and I've never told anybody until now." We were shocked!! I don't know if it was the fact that Stephanie told everybody she was gay and we were all cool with it or why he thought that it was a good idea to open up about his homosexuality, but whatever it was he just felt it was ok for him to tell us that he was gay. The point is the fact that he told me he was gay didn't change a thing about the way I felt about him. I just kind of shrugged and said "ok" and then I think we went on to talking about the Transformers Movie. I liked the kid and I see him around every now and then and I don't think of him as my homosexual friend but just as my friend. It's really no big deal to me that he is gay. I think he is a great guy.
I do not believe that homosexuality is morally right on a moral stand point I believe it is wrong. This is not only a Latter-day Saint teachings it is something that is or at least should be taught in every Christian church that accepts the Bible as the true word of God. I do not believe that homosexuals are evil people or that they are condemned to Hell for liking someone of the same sex or that they sinning by having these feelings.



HOWEVA I do believe that engaging in homosexual activity is a sin. The best way I can compare it would be the example of two Alcoholic parents, when they have kids, and if especially if the mother was drinking during the pregnancy the kid most likely will inherit his parents addiction to alcohol. I believe that drinking alcohol at any age is a sin. Now this kid even though he is a an "alcoholic" has not committed any sins, it's the way he was born there is nothing he can do about it, but if he drinks alcohol then he is sinning. Same thing with homosexuals, while being a homosexual is not a sin, engaging in homosexual activity is a sin.

Second Topic and it won't be as long: Marriage:





In the LDS religion we believe that marriage is a sacred ordinance it is so sacred that we only perform marriages in our temples and the only people that are allowed in our temples are worthy members of the Church and one of the requirements of being worthy of going to the temple is obeying the law of chastity which means that you cannot engage in homosexual activities. So if you are a homosexual, you are breaking the law the chastity and will not be allowed to go to the temple and get married.




We believe that marriage is something that is ordained of God and must be performed by the correct authority, and we are the only Church on Earth with the authority to marry people and that these marriages can only take place in the temple and that you may only go to the temple if you are worthy to go to the temple. In a civil wedding you make vows to love honor and cherish your wife til death due you part and in LDS wedding you make vows to love honor and cherish your wife for all time and eternity. So basically in the LDS church if you are not married by the proper authority, the priesthood, and only the LDS church has it, and if its not in the temple, and only worthy members can enter which means you cannot have a same sex marriage in the temple, then are they really getting married? No they are not, as far as we are concerned they are just signing a court document that says they are married and the only things that change is your last name and how you file your taxes and insurance. So even if gay marriage is legalized they still are not getting married according to the LDS definition of marriage. My point is they are not threatening the sanctity of marriage because even if proposition 8 is turned down and they legalize gay marriage in every state, they are still not getting married under the proper authority in the temple and besides homosexuals are going to engage in just as many homosexual acts if they are life partners or if they married to each other anyways.

Yes, if they are married then they will file their taxes differently and they can be on their life partners insurance plan and will be rewarded a few financial benefits, but I do not see how it is taking away the sacredness of marriage and from a moral standpoint I do not see the difference between being gay life partners and a gay married couple.

On to some lighter topics:

I am dead last in fantasy basketball which I am extremely pissed off about it.

The KFC Combo meal is a huge rip off. I spent 9 bucks on my KFC Combo meal and totally wasn't satisified I would of much rather got the three chicken piece meal with two sides it would of filled me up more and cost half as less. The Big Bell Box trumps KFC Combo meal any day of the week.


The Lakers look awesome. I love how Odom is coming off the bench, something I wanted to happen last year. It's nice that they can always have either Odom and Gasol or Odom and Bynum and of course Bynum and Gasol on the floor at all times. The Lakers are kickin some serious butt.

My Lakers are 4-0 and as Stu Lantz, the Lakers play by play announcer mentioned the last time they started 3-0 they won the championship and if there is a bright side to Obama winning the Presidential election is that the last 7 titles for the Boston Celtics only happened when a Republican was the President.

Sleep Deprivation

Well I wrote a paper for English and I found it very interesting and an eye opener and since I did not post a blog last Thursday(I'm sure you were all upset) I decided to post my english paper. I apologize for this.

On November 4th we will cast our vote for the next President and when we cast our vote we will vote on the candidate that we believe will improve our country the most. These past few weeks we have heard each candidate's argument about how they will improve this nation. During the Presidential debates they have addressed our nation's biggest problems from a failing economy to expensive healthcare, increased taxes, and a poor education system but have failed to address one of the nation's biggest problem; sleep deprivation. Millions of Americans suffer from not getting the required amount of sleep and our nation is paying for it. Instead of billion dollar tax bailouts and complex and confusing health care plans, Americans really need to have a couple of extra hours with their heads on their pillows. If Americans were getting the recommended hours of sleep each night we would save American lives, boost our economy, make healthcare affordable, improve our education system and improve the overall quality of life for every single American.
The American people are simply not getting enough sleep. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. The average American sleeps 6.9 hours during the week and 7.5 hours on weekends ("National Sleep Foundation"). Despite the recommended amount of sleep for adults being eight hours a night and for adolescents and college students its nine hours each night (Behrens and Rose 502).
William Dement, a researcher at Stanford University, who has written several books on sleep deprivation, including The Promise of Sleep, co written with Christoper Vaughan, talks specifically about sleep "debt" and how the brain reacts when it is not getting the required amount of sleep. The brain keeps a tally of how much of you have slept and knows exactly how much sleep you need to get every single night. For instance if a person sleeps only six hours every night of the week that person has fallen short of the recommended amount of sleep by a whole ten hours. A person between the ages of 11-17 have missed out on approximately 15 hours of recommended sleep and will not be fully refreshed until those 15 hours of missed sleep are made up. Every week Americans are accumulating an average of 6.5 hours of sleep debt and in a year that adds up to 13 and a half days worth of sleep that they missed out on (Dement and Vaughan 537-544). Too many Americans do not fully understand the effect that sleep deprivation has on them because if they did getting a full nights sleep would be one of their top priorities.
One of the biggest topics that have been discussed in these Presidential debates is the 781 American soldiers that are being brought home in body bags every full calendar year that we are over in Iraq (icasualties.org). Even though the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration estimates that 1,500 people die every year on our nation's roads due to sleep deprivation (Behrens and Rose 502). That's nearly twice as many people dying on our roads on their way to work or to see their family or friends then defending our nation. A mother who loses her husband in the war can have some comfort in the fact that their fallen loved one sacrificed his life for the betterment of our country but when they hear that their husband is not coming home because he didn't lay in bed an extra hour it makes the devastating news unbearable. If Americans were getting enough sleep, it would drastically reduce the number of accidents and deaths that happen on a daily basis.
Another topic that is being discussed in the Presidential debates is our nation's economic crises and both candidates have offered their reasons why the economy is failing but neither candidate has talked about how sleep deprivation is costing us billions of dollars every year.
The Economic Policy Institute shows that since 1969 Americans have increased the amount of time they spend commuting and working by approxiametly 158 hours a year which is causing people to become sleep deprived while at work and the effects of their sleep deprivation is hurting the economy ("Sleep America"). The National Transportation Board concluded that sleep deprivation was the cause of the Exxon Valdez a massive oil tanker crashing and spilling tons of oil which ended up costing more than two billion dollars to clean up. In addition to the environmental damage the Exxon Corporation was charged an additional five billion dollars in punitive charges (Dement and Vaughan 537-544). The effect of an employee who was suffering from sleep deprivation cost our economy billions of dollars and gives a perfect example of just how much sleep deprivation in the workplace can cost. The U.S. economy loses 54.6 billion dollars every year due to decreased productivity, sick leave among employees and property and environmental damages ("National Sleep Foundation").
Each candidate has talked about making healthcare cheaper and more available to everybody. They want to implement new and complicated healthcare plans when all they really need to do is encourage people to get the recommended amount of sleep. The National Institute of Health spends $200 million a year trying to solve the ongoing problem of sleep deprivation and spends 15 billion dollars to help the 40 million people in the United States who are diagnosed with chronic sleep disorders. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration sleep deprived drivers cause 100,000 accidents every year resulting in 71,000 injuries (Behrens and Rose 502-503). Every year 30.4 billion dollars are spent by Americans on health care due to sleep deprivation ("National Sleep Foundation"). We are wasting billions of dollars that could be used to lower healthcare costs because people don't fully understand the importance of a good night's rest.
Highschool and college students are the most sleep deprived people in our nation. The National Sleep Foundation has reported that 80 percent of adolescents do not get the recommended nine hours of sleep each night(National Sleep Foundation 521-526). Highschool students' lack of sleep is putting our nation's future at risk. If we do not take the necessary steps of educating our youth then the future of this country looks very poor. The value of an education is irreplaceable and providing the best possible education program for them, so that further on in their lives they can contribute to society, is one of our nation's top priority. Making sure that highschool and college students are getting the recommended amount of sleep needs to be the first step taken to improve education program.
The lack of sleep among highschool students is showing; more than a quarter of highschool students are falling asleep in school and just a little under a quarter of students falls asleep while doing their homework and 14 percent of students don't even show up to school because of sleep deprivation (521). Two-hundred and eighty students were surveyed at Harrington High School and 90% of the students said that the reason they were getting bad grades was due to lack of sleep ("Science of Sleep"). According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2006 Sleep in America poll showed that 80% of the students who are getting nine hours of sleep say they are getting A's and B's in school(National Sleep Foundation 521-526).
Dr. Mindell, director of the Graduate Program in Pschology at Saint Joseph's University, emphasizes the importance of highschool students getting enough sleep when he said "Sending students to school without enough sleep is like sending them to school without breakfast. Sleep serves not only a restorative function for adolescents' bodies and brains, but it is also a key time when they process what they've learned during the day"(522).
More than half of our nation's highschool students go to bed at 11:00 p.m. or later and are getting up 6:30 a.m. regardless of when they go to sleep that night. Jodi A Mindell, co-chairman of the National Sleep Foundation poll task force, explains why highschool students are not getting enough sleep, "In the competition between the natural tendency to stay up late and early school start times, a teen's sleep is what loses out"(522). If there were no early school times and if highschool students weren't forced to leave at 6:00 in the morning to get to school at 8:00 a.m. then they could afford to sleep in and get the required amount of sleep.
Richard Schwab, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania performed a study on his high school daughter and concluded that "school systems should be thinking about changing their start times. It would not be easy--they would have to change the busing system--but it would increase their student's sleep time and likely improve their school performance." In 2007 Science Daily surveyed 280 students at a highschool in Philadelphia and the students they are not as alert in the morning and do not test as well in the morning and the best time to take a test would be from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.("Science Daily"). As a result the students would perform better academically and that their grades would improve if they could sleep in longer. Students would not only test better but they would learn and would in result would prepare them for college.
Colleges are just as guilty of early start times and by not having any classes that before 10:00 a.m. If colleges had later start times and lengthen the school year we could spread out the homework we could get rid of all-nighters or late night cram sessions. College students biggest challenge isn't the early start times; it is when they have to work a full-time job to support themselves and still maintain good grades and still get the recommended nine hours of sleep. If we were able to take some of the 100 billion dollars we are wasting a year due to sleep deprivation then we could offer more scholarships and financial aid then college students could focus purely on getting a better education and it would have a trickle down effect on our entire nation and would result in a better America.
Business hours are as much to blame for the sleep deprivation as any thing else in America. If we are forcing our schools to start later it would only make sense for businesses to have to follow the same schedule. Business should not be able to open their doors until at least 11:00 and must be closed at 8:00 p.m. There are approximately 22 million American workers that are expected to work shifts that are extremely unhealthy and cause severe sleep deprivation and we need to limit the number as much as possible("Sleep America"). Obviously we cannot close hospitals, police stations and fire stations and other facilities that are mandatory but twenty-four hour grocery stores, fast-food restaurants, phone centers and other unnecessary jobs need to let their employees go home and sleep.
Overall the quality of Americans' live would improve. People would no longer be grumpy in the morning and cranky all day because they didn't get enough sleep. We would be more alert and prepared for the demands of our daily lives and could handle problems with greater ease. We would be a happier and more productive nation if we were getting our recommended eight hours of sleep.
I love Presidential candidate Barack Obama's simple solution to saving oil and the increasing gas prices instead of drilling for more oil or developing an alternative to oil he simply encouraged people to inflate their tires. If inflating our tires is the solution to the oil crises in America then simply getting more sleep is the solution for our struggling economy, expensive healthcare, improving the educational system throughout the nation and improve the quality of life in America. Each candidate and their respective advisors have stayed up many nights thinking about what new programs they will implement once in office to improve our nation and in actuality the best way for them to improve a struggling nation would be to set the example and get a good's night rest.