A Monthly Thing

I'm sure the kids at Hogi Yogi thought I was pretty weird; then again, I know they did. One of them called me an "RM Geek."

You see, when I first got home from my mission I got hired as a manager down at the Riverwoods Hogi Yogi/Teriyaki Stix. I had worked there for some time before my mission, and so immediately after I got home they offered me my job back. I took it, and then started a weekly tradition there.

I worked every Monday evening, and since that meant I missed FHE I decided to do something about it: I called it Hogi Home Evening.

I'd bring a Book of Mormon and when things were kind of slow all the employees would gather in back and we'd sing a primary song, have a short thought, and then share a frozen yogurt. The others were gracious enough to humor me in this ritual.

Now a few years later I have started another over-zealous ritual, this time on my other blog. You'll see what it is. I know it's kind of silly, but hey, I like the idea of doing it and hope that maybe perhaps it'll do some little good.

You may see my new thing here.

My Tribute

Where can I begin? How about with an anecdote? That's always a nice place to start. Last night, with millions of other members of the Church, Jessica and I got word that President Hinckley had passed away. Jessica's mom called and told us. The following minutes found the two of us hugging each other as Jessica cried, and Joshua came into the room. Anytime Joshy sees Jessica upset he tries his darnedest to comfort her. I explained to him that Mommy was sad because President Hinckley went to live with Heavenly Father. He furrowed his brow and started to say something, and finally came around to saying, "Well, we need to tell Jesus not to take President Hinckley away from us."

That's good. Now where to go? Ah yes, how about this? I got to work this morning and Scott, my boss, said, "We better get our flags to half-staff before the storm blows in." It made me well pleased to do that in honor of his memory. Thanks to Scott for not being ashamed to mourn the death of President Hinckley here on this private property.

When Jessica told me my first thought was probably similar to many others'. "Good for him!" I thought, "He's finally with his sweet Marjorie again." This morning on KSL a reporter said that a lot of people had expressed this sentiment to him. What a wonderful couple they were! How blessed that they can finally be together again, after nearly four years of separation. Of course we each will miss him dearly, but thanks be to the Lord for allowing him to be relieved of mortality and come into the presence of his beloved companion again.
Speaking of reunions and meetings. Think about what it must have been like when President Hinckley met, as I'm sure he has, Joseph Smith! Joseph, who was the instrument in introducing all of the wonderful things that President Hinckley has so wonderfully and effectively spread, including the blessings of the temple. President Eyring testifies in Special Witnesses of Christ that Joseph saw visions of temples spreading across the earth. In no way has that happened as it did in the last thirteen years. I can't even imagine the incredible meeting that must have been between these two prophets of God!

That's all I'll write now. There is so much more to say, so much that can and will be said in honor of this incredible person. He is our prophet, those of us who grew up with him! I love him.

Does This Violate Child Labor Laws?

This Guy is Genuine

I don't know. I'm not really one to comment on politics and things like that, but I do find it interesting that there are a lot of talking heads out there encouraging (to use a euphemism) everyone to do their part to save the environment. It seems like this is especially prevalent from the Hollywood crowd. Now, I have nothing against speaking in favor of the environment. I really do think that everyone needs to be careful to take care of this world that we have stewardship over. After all, the Lord gave men and women "dominion" over the earth and the things therein. If you ever want to read a really great exposition on what that means, find Hugh Nibley's "Man's Dominion or Subduing the Earth." He tells how the words used in the texts refer to the type of kingly dominion that King Benjamin exemplified.

Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh yes. Hollywood telling us to be enviro-conscious. I can't speak for all of the folks in the entertainment industry, but it does seem like they use more than their share of the energy out there to make their productions, and probably cause more waste than the average person/family/community... I don't know. But seriously, think about it, are they really the ones who should be telling us to turn off the water when we shower? (By the way, how does that work?)

Yet, in the midst of all this we see one entertainer who really seems to be the genuine article. A man who stays pretty well down to earth--literally. A man who, if you do a google search of his name, you may find an older newspaper article that discusses how he helped build a garden for a local elementary school (so that kids can learn how to take care of plants and renew life in the earth), and his wife brought lunch for all the workers.

This man is releasing a new album on Feb. 5. There is a video on youtube that kind of documents the making of this new album. I'm posting a link to it so that you can see how he really does do his part in taking care of the environment (recording in a solar-powered studio built out of refuse lumber). But what I love most about this is that there is a conspicuous lack of self-righteousness in his demeanor. He's not preachy about it! He just does it because that's who he is--you can sense a real-ness about him that is lacking in a lot of the entertainment world out there.

Not only all this, but his music sure is beautiful.

THE LINK

YES! More BYU Humor

I came across these today.

Bell Tower Jams
South Stairs Movie

BYU humor is unlike anything else out there. It is so particular to the culture of Provo and the university. I love having things that keep me linked there--to that place of so many wonderful memories.

For a Smile

Check this out.

Lesson Learned

Morgan really likes to do the dishes. He will occupy himself for extended periods of time at the sink washing and rinsing. As you can see, he's really cute when he does it too.
So this morning I needed to go downstairs and fold a load of laundry. Morgan had just got up to the sink to do the dishes, and I thought I had at least fifteen minutes. Perfect!
But while folding in our laundry room, which is directly below the kitchen, I heard the distinct sound of hundreds of small things falling onto the kitchen floor. I came upstairs to find Morgan busy, but not at the sink...
He had moved his chair and grabbed the box of his favorite cereal (Cinnamon Life) and dumped it on the counter and floor.I don't know if you can see it, but he had also opened one of the bottles of water pictured and dumped it on the spilled Life. Ahhh, Soggy cereal!
Annie didn't mind so much. I'm sure Cinnamon Life tastes a lot sweeter than her dog food.
Oh. Morgan had spent some time at the sink, but only enough (apparently) to get Mommy's ivy plant out of its pot and into the sink.
We hope the plant survives. It was a gift from a dear sister in the ward after Jessica's appendix removal.
Annie continued to assist me as I swept up and tried to get the kitchen presentable again.
What did Daddy learn today? If Morgan is doing the dishes, I may not leave him alone. You'd think I'd be wise enough to figure that out already, but I'm always so anxious to steal a moment or two to get something done. Oh well.

Michigan!

The nation's focus is on Michigan today (well, those who are into the Presidential Primaries anyway). Since so many are thinking about that state, I thought I would add my shout out to that wonderful land of the hand, or the mitten I should say, the land of my two-year ministry. My friend Brad is going to law school out there. I wonder if he and his wife, Karri, are voting today...

Children and Language

Two years ago, when Joshua was a little older than Morgan is now, I was taking a Lingusitics class at BYU. This thought first occurred to me when studying topics related to that class. I wasn't blogging then, so now that I have been reminded of these fascinating little musings I offer them to the bloggers and blog readers out there.

Toddlers, by and large, communicate with two main types of words: nouns and imperatives (the distinction between these two word-types is sometimes blurred, as will be discussed below). Occasionally they will rattle out a complete sentence like, "There you go!" That's one of Morgan's favorites. But for the most part, as they are learning to speak, all they need are nouns and imperatives.

The nouns are the obvious ones. First words usually include such things as Mama, Dada, ball, or as in the case of both our little boys, kitty (or at least the wet-tongue rolling sound that means kitty).
Our little linguist

Morgan has a lot of nouns. He seems to learn a new noun frequently. Some favorites include wawa (water, of course), jayjay (his catch-all word that now means "cat" because his grandma has a cat named JJ), good-girl (that's our dog, Annie), kr-k (cracker or cookie), chshhh (cheese), etc. It makes sense that toddlers would learn nouns first since there is usually something concrete/physical to associate with the word.

Now for imperatives. I'm not sure how long it takes most kids, but it sure seems that Joshua and Morgan learned "NO!" really quick. Morgan says it all the time. "No! No! No! No! NO!" he will say if we pick him up and remove him from a mischievous situation (such as climbing on the computer desk to get Mommy's iPod Touch). He uses "no" frequently, but he has also figured out another imperative, just about as useful, "Go!" He uses this when he wants to go from one room to another, say from our bedroom where I am holding him and talking with Jessica (and where there's always the potential that he may be put to bed) upstairs where he can play or eat or whatever. He also says "Go!" when we are going somewhere in the car and waiting too long at a stoplight.

Joshua, at about the age Morgan is now

Sometimes, though, nouns serve as imperatives as well. Take, for example, when Morgan's thirsty. He communicates this to us by saying very emphatically, "Wawa! Wawa!" Which, being interpreted means, "I would like a drink of water, please." It's a noun that he's using, but he's using it to command, therefore it is an imperative.

Amazing that children understand the subtle nuances and implications of language from such a young age...

Police Beat

If you went to, have ever been to, or ever heard about BYU, you may be aware that in the campus newspaper there is a section called "Police Beat." It covers just about everything that police were called to respond to in the weekly life of the campus. I mean everything.

Yesterday, while browsing through one of my favorite sites I re-read an old and favorite humor column that parodied this section of the Daily Universe (BYU's paper). I can't do justice to either the actual column or the parody, wherefore I will provide links to each in turn.

The first two are not meant to be jokes at all. They are the actual Police Beat columns from the Daily Universe. The last one is the parody. Enjoy!

Police Beat example 1
Police Beat example 2
The Parody

I hope you got a good, hearty laugh from it. I know I did.

Just My Opinion

Last week I began a facebook account for the sole purpose of finding an old mission friend. In that week I have not only found my friend but a few other people from different areas in my life (mission, school, work, etc) and am now connected to them. It's really dang cool!

Not only that, but there are numberless games and things that you can play on that website--quizzes about random stuff and ninja fighting, and, well, I haven't really spent the time on it yet, but it seems extremely cool.

Unlike that other site out there that is kind of infamous for not-so-great stuff (I mean myspace, of course). I don't know, maybe it's just me, but the whole feel of myspace is just kind of, um, well, like walking into the wrong section of a video store or something. Facebook has a totally different feel to it--I'm sure there are those who are on it that may give that feeling of ill repute, but so far it's just been fun to browse the photo albums of old friends.

That's all.

Youtube Too

Here is my next youtube offering. The library looks a lot better.