Life and stuff

So my grandmother just passed away tonight. It's tough to say goodbye, but it was definitely her time. Past her time, really. She's been basically vegetable since moving up here from Vegas two years ago. So sometime in the next week or so I'll be doing funeral stuff. Probably head down to Vegas for the burial, so she can be buried with my grandfather.
Here's a sweet pic of my grandma and I a few years ago when I stopped by for a surprise visit at her old nursing home in Vegas.

It's Truth

"There are two kinds of people in this world that go around beardless—boys and women, and I am neither one".
—Greek saying

A Cougar Fan

I am a BYU cougar fan. For life. But, what I witnessed on Saturday at BYU's game against UNLV disgusted me.

Most of the game was great. It was a beautiful day, my buddy Trevor Perkins and I had great seats on the east side, BYU kicked trash. But during the 3rd quarter, with BYU aleady ahead by 5 touchdowns, UNLV's quarterback took a bad hit and got hurt. He was on the ground, not moving, for about 5-10 minutes. They eventually had to remove him via stretcher, but during the wait what did the fans do? The wave.

You gotta be kidding me. The fetchin' wave. Now, the Alumni section on the west side eventually stopped when they saw the hand stretcher being pulled out. Everyone else didn't stop until they drove the drivable stretcher up next to him. Like they couldn't tell something was wrong when BYU's trainer was out there for 10 minutes.

Throwing tortillas, booing, yelling at refs, and all the other stuff that BYU's admim repeatedly tries to tell us is 'unsportsman like' is part of a gameday atmosphere. But doing the wave during an injury? During a serious injury? What if he had broken his neck? What if he had snapped his back? The man becomes a parapalegic while BYUs ignorant trash fans do the fetchin' wave. Luckily, he only broke and dislocated his ankle.

I am and always will be a BYU fan. But that was jacked up.

Balad

Balad is in trouble.

I've heard the base I was at has been having a lot of attacks too...

Some interesting links

Here some interesting things I've seen on the internet lately...

This man and his son are incredible.

I don't know how many of you saw the horrible fight in the University of Miami football game this past weekend, but this article about it was excellent.

Book Review: The Road

For those of you haven't read any of Cormac McCarthy's books, you are truly missing out on one of best writers of American Fiction. I personally wouldn't describe most American writers these days as writers of American Fiction, but rather feeders of American consumerism. Tom Clancy, Grisham, and Michael Crighton: all storytellers, sometimes short, sometimes long, but rarely do you feel the pain, the fear, the pale sun on cracked lips that McCormac makes you feel. American Fiction -to me- brings sharpened senses of what it feels like to live and be an American, what our darkest dreams are alongside with our brightest hopes, whether it's floating a raft with Tom Sawyer or walking a desolate road with an unnamed man.

Which brings me back to McCarthy and The Road. Wonderfully written, it made me feel as if I were walking the road myself, looking for something to eat, hoping for a safe, warm place to sleep. Be warned: this book is very intense aka scary at parts. But the way McCarthy pulls you in is almost hypnotic. I'd put the book down, only to pick it back up 30 seconds later.

It's new in book stores, but some other very good books by McCarthy are All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing,and Cities of the Plain. His book Blood Meridian is by far the most violent book I've ever read, but just as powerful as the rest.

I highly recommend The Road.

Adventure of the Day: Windmills

After work today I went and visited some of the windmills near Mojave CA. Pretty cool. Of course, almost running out of gas in a rental car on a dirt road in the middle of the Mojave desert, not so cool. But hey, what's life without a little stress?

Adventures in Palmdale

So my weekend had it's ups and downs...

On Friday I spent the day with Jared and Becky Shaver in LA. It was really good to see them - I was amazed at how much little Jonah has grown in the past 3 months.

On Saturday I felt like crap, so I basically sat around most of the day. Disappointing because great weather, and how often am I just sitting around in the high California Desert?

Today I went to a singles ward nearby. I was excited, hoping maybe I could find some people to hang out with. Well, it was pretty bad. Most of the guys were pretty cool. But that was 25 out of the 40 people who showed up. Take out the bishopric and their wives, and we're talking about 8 girls, 3 of which were already spoken for. 5 left. 1 that actually looked and seemed normal. I asked the guys if the odds were always like this, and they said that this was actually a good Sunday, and that it is like this everywhere in the valley. Basically, if you are a man, DO NOT move to Palmdale CA.

Better Diggs

So I've moved to the Courtyard hotel here in Palmdale. It is SOOO much nicer. I'll be around for awhile yet (at least another week) but at least I have a nice room, and I'm only a mile or so from the nearest '24 hr fitness'.

Plus, I'm excited because I should have a few days to explore the Mojave desert.

Oh, and 'Lost' was totally rockin' tonight. I frickin' love that show. If you don't like 'Lost', I question your judgment. Put another way, our tastes differ. Severely.

Ramada

Just in case anyone was wondering: The Ramada Inn in Palmdale, CA is just as gross as every other Ramada Inn in the world.