1 Year Anniversary Extravaganza

Today, June 6th marks the 1 year anniversary of me beginning this blog. This post is, by my unscientific count, #95. In honor of this special anniversary, I invite you to check out the post that started it all, and here's the story about how the blog got its name. FYI, the title was going to be "A Life More Ordinary", before Chris made his whole "Big Digital" comment. I'll offer you some fun facts about the blog. For example, since I started tracking site visits back in late February, there have been 1415 hits on the blog, averaging approximately 14 per day.

Some of the search terms that bring people here most often are ones related to the McDonald's characters, gaucho pants, milk going bad, and more recently Voltron searches.

I've made several friends who I only know from their blogs, or perhaps their blogs and their flickr/myspace/etc accounts.

I've had two weekly features -- the Friday Featured Fast Food Favorites and the Classic Cartoon Countdown, currently at #4, I'm a sucker for alliteration, can't you tell?.

Some of my personal favorite posts include: Gaucho pants, What Bonnie said, Why I Hate Catch Phrase, What I Learned in History Class, and the Underwear Shopping story.

Two posts tied for the most comments (8). Those were the end of the Friday Featured Fast Food Favorite, and the post about Superfriends.


Thanks to everyone out there who reads. While I would probably keep writing even if no one was reading, its still nice to know that someone is enjoying what I have to say.

Classic Cartoon Countdown #4: X-Men

If only I'd made the X-men #5 on my list I could have coordinated this entry with last week's huge opening of X-men 3: The Last Stand, which I saw on Monday by the way, and thought was pretty entertaining.

Movies, aside, I'm pretty sure the only reason that I am even a fan of the X-men is because of the Saturday morning cartoon that used to come on. It introduced me to the likes of Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, along with such badguys as Magneto, Mr. Sinister, Apocalypse, and the ever present sentinels.

There were several different plotlines explored during the run of the show, and I never was able to follow one of them, but I remember parts of the stories of the Phoenix, the X-men going to some island where there were dinosaur people living, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, Wolverine going to Japan, and even one where Magneto had teamed up with the X-men, at least I think I remember that.

I think the coolest thing about the X-men is that they are like the other all-star shows I've already mentioned (Superfriends, Laff-a-lympics) except that they were designed that way from the beginning, so they are more likely to compliment each other in terms of personality and abilities.

And beyond anything else you might say about this cartoon, it was just so freakin' cool. I'm sure that a large portion of the recent film trilogy's success can be attributed to the fact that this cartoon was one of the sweetest ones that ever hit the airwaves.

Here's the updated countdown:
#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats
#8: G.I. Joe
#7: Superfriends
#6: Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics
#5: Voltron
#4: X-men

Summer of Productivity Weekly Update #1

Hello again,

As I stated last week, this has now officially become the summer of productivity here in Big Digital-land. Its now been a week since I set some goals and parameters to guide me through the summer. And we'll call this week the "Proof of Concept" week, i.e. while the last week was far from perfect, I did prove to myself that it can be done. A large part of this past week's lack of productivity will be credited to the holiday weekend (my schedule only applies on weekdays), and yesterday's post-holiday ramp-up. On the positive side, I did get up at 7:30 3 days last week (4 if you count Sunday when I was at the church by 7:30), and was in bed by 11:30 or midnight nearly every night.

Just yesterday I made myself a spreadsheet on which I could track my compliance, so look forward to more quantitave data and perhaps even some statistical analysis further down the road (I have to put my prestigious education to use somehow, right?).

And don't worry, there's still 4 more cartoons left in the countdown along with some honorable mentions I need to get out before the countdown is done.

Classic Cartoon Countdown #5: Voltron

Among the classics cartoons of my childhood, a special place belongs to Voltron. For any of you who somehow aren't already familiar with this show, basically there were some evil space bad guys trying to take over the universe, and Voltron was a robot designed to defend the universe against these kinds of threats. Then, somehow this robot was broken up into 5 pieces (lion-shaped robots) that required someone to drive them and put them together to form Voltron.



5 space explorers were sent to the planet where the lion robots were to be the ones who would put Voltron together in time of need. The explorers were:

Keith (Red suit, black lion). He was the leader of the Voltron force and also the pilot of the black lion that formed the head and torso of Voltron.

Lance (Blue suit, red lion). He's the wiseguy of group, cracking jokes and what not. He pilots the red lion that forms the arm of Voltron that holds his Blazing Sword.

Pidge (Green suit, green lion). Pidge is the little kid of the group. I personally, was never sure whether Pidge was a boy or a girl. The clothes Pidge wears often feature some kind of fringy trim, and Pidge is often shown with some kind of headband or barrette holding his (her?) hair in place. The green lion forms one of Voltron's arms.

I'm supposed to believe this is a boy?

Hunk (Yellow suit, yellow lion). Hunk is the strongest member of Voltron force and pilot of the yellow lion that forms one of Voltron's legs. Spends a lot of time hanging out with Pidge.

Princess Allura (pink suit, blue lion). Princess Allura is the reigning royalty on the planet where the Voltron robot is. Originally, I'm not sure for how long, the blue lion was piloted by a guy in a black suit named Swen who was injured in an attack which forced Allura to take over piloting the blue lion, and also resulted her being the token female (we're still not sure about Pidge) on Voltron force. She often talks to some mice who live in her castle. Oh, the blue lion is one of Voltron's legs.

Note: You can see Swen in this picture. He's in the black suit.

Pretty much each episode consisted of the evil space people coming up with a plan to stop the Voltron force from forming Voltron, then sending a giant space monster down to the surface of the planet in a large coffin shaped landing pod. This giant would then get ready to wreak havoc, which would spur the Voltron force to enter their lion robots -- each of which came from a special color-themed location on the planet. The blue lion was under water, the red lion was in a lava cave, the green lion was in the woods, the yellow lion was in the desert, and the black lion was disguised as a statue in front of the castle.

Then, in their separate lion robots the Voltron force would attempt to defeat the monster, unsuccessfully of course. Then they would, wisely, decide to join together as Voltron, which resulted in this impressive checklist of technical jargon:


"Ready to form Voltron! Activate interlock! Dynatherms connected! Infracells up! Megathrusters are go!"

Then the lion robots all came together to form Voltron, who then proceeded to use a variety of again unsuccessful attack methods (shooting lasers, launching limbs at the monster, etc.) before finally deciding to "Form the Blazing Sword!" which was the ultimate weapon in the universe and always successful in dispatching anything that dared to defy it.

Some thoughts about Voltron:

-Why didn't they just always go straight to the full-on Voltron with Blazing Sword attached mode? Seems like it would have saved them some time.

-Why would the people who wanted to control the universe always attack the planet Voltron was on? He didn't seem to be capable of space travel (maybe I'm wrong) so why not just move on and leave him alone?

-The "live action" children's show Power Rangers was such a blatant Voltron rip-off that the first time I watched it I predicted the appearance of a blazing sword and was shocked to be right. The only real difference between these two shows was that the Power Rangers had different kinds of animal robots that went together to form the big robot.

Here's the updated countdown:
#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats
#8: G.I. Joe
#7: Superfriends
#6: Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics
#5: Voltron

And so begins the Summer of Productivity

Lately I've been feeling a little unproductive. I'll be honest, I'm far from the best person to motivate me. Self-starter I am not, at least not on the things I think I need to do. If all I needed to do was surf the web and organize my iTunes music library, pencil me in as self-starter of the year. Unfortunately there are things that I'm not so good at getting myself to do. But all that has changed, starting yesterday. I've made myself a daily schedule with things that I need to do on it that looks like this:

7:30 Get up, exercise
8:30 Shower, Get dressed
9:00 Eat Breakfast
9:15 Read Scriptures
9:45 Leave for "work"
10:15 Arrive at "work"
4:00 Leave for home

11:00 Get ready for bed
11:30 Go to bed

In addition to the fixed items, I've also made a goal to each day pick some task that needs doing and get it done. Maybe I can make 4:30, when I get home from "work" my daily task time. Yesterday it was grocery shopping. Today its folding the laundry I washed on Monday that been sitting in the laundry basket since then. Tomorrow -- I've got some bills that need paying. I'm also going to need to dedicate time most days to my new church calling (Executive Secretary for my bishop) as there appears to be a limitless supply of people who need to meet with him, but I'll probably get a better handle on that as time goes on.

As far as "work" (my research project) goes, I figure that if I at least am here at my desk for nearly 6 hours a day I can't help be manage to be productive. I realize that may be a stretch, but considering all the other changes on the above list, I don't want to try to do too much at once. I have some other things I'd like to improve on as well.

So far (1 day) I'm batting 1.000. I'm sure I'll face some challenges along the way, most likely in the form of things that I'll have to do early in the morning some days that will throw a wrench into my schedule. I'm not sure what I'll do on those days, but I think the key is not to let it mess up my schedule for the other days. I'd like to say I'll worry about that when it comes up, but I think its probably a good idea to have a plan in advance. Any ideas?

I'm planning to post a weekly update, more for me than for you, as a way of holding myself accountable. Feel free to skip over those updates if you like. Not sure what day they'll be coming. Maybe Monday, maybe Wednesday. We'll just have to see.

Classic Cartoon Countdown #6: Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics

Similar to last week's entry (The Superfriends), this week's entry is another all star cartoon of sorts. Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics was a show where in each episode 3 teams of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters would travel the globe participating in Olympic style competition. At the end of each episode, one team would be declared the victor and get the gold medal.



The three teams were the Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens. The choice of who went on each of the first two teams seemed fairly arbitrary, and of course the Rottens were made up of bad guys and villains from a variety of cartoon shows.



I can't recall everyone on each team, but I know the Scooby Doobies had Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Scooby Dumb, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Hong Kong Phooey, and Captain Caveman. Yogi's team included Yogi Bear, Booboo Bear, Cindy Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, Augie Doggie, Doggie Daddy, Wally Gator, and the Grape Ape. The Really Rottens were made up mainly original characters including such baddies as Mumbly Mutt, the Dread Baron, an evil magician named the Great Fondoo and his magic rabbit, and Orful Octopus.

For each event, each team would pick a team member or two to compete. The Really Rottens, shockingly would usually try to cheat to win, but more often than not would get caught and lose points as a result. The other two teams seemed to win fairly often, although the Scooby Doobies won more than the Yogi Yahooeys.

Overall I thought this show was a lot of fun to watch, as each episode had a brand new variety of events and it was always interesting to see who from each team would participate in the event and how their specific abilities would affect their performance.

Some credit for this entry is owed to Wikipedia and this page.

Here's the updated countdown:
#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats
#8: G.I. Joe
#7: Superfriends
#6: Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics

Classic Cartoon Countdown Honorable Mention: Star Wars Droids

Star Wars Droids: The Adventures of C-3PO and R2-D2 is a cartoon that I remember as being exciting because anything to do with Star Wars back then was exciting. Basically this cartoon was set in the time before Episode IV and after the yet to be made Episodes I-III. C-3PO and R2-D2 basically were on their own looking for someone to be their master. They'd find someone and spend a few episodes with that master before circumstances led to their moving on to finding a new master.

Not much stands out to me from this series, other than somehow through this series I was informed that C-3PO and R2-D2 were characters in each of the Star Wars plots that George Lucas had written, even though at this point I don't know that Eps. I-III had even been green lighted for production.

Also of note, Anthony Daniels,the actor who voiced C-3PO in the movies, was also his voice in this cartoon.

Got Lame?

Apparently the Got Milk? ad campaign is the single most awesome, creative advertising campaign in the history of advertising. Because if not, then why in the world would everyone else be just ripping it off for their own Got Something? campaigns. I mean c'mon. Got Milk? has been around for years, can't we come up with something else?

A little searching led me to this page, where the Got Milk? folks have rounded up 100 of their favorite Got Milk? ripoffs. I'm sure they love to see people keep on reusing their oh-so-creative slogan, since it makes the original look that much better by comparison.

Just last year the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) the academic society to which I belong unveiled their new Electronic Health Record promotion campaign, with a super creative title: Got EHR?

Its getting pretty ridiculous people. I expect better.

Classic Cartoon Countdown #7: Superfriends

The Superfriends cartoon was, in my opinion, pretty much one of the coolest ideas ever in cartoon history. Get all the superheros together as one all-star team of heroes and pit them against all their individual arch-enemies and some collective enemies. How could this fail to work? If you ask me, it didn't.

Basically, you've got the Justice League of America (Good thing America is always there to save the world and even the universe at times. You can't tell me the UN could put together a team like this.) consisting primarily of:

Superman
Batman
Robin
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
Green Lantern
Flash
Hawkman
Apache Chief
Black Vulcan
Samurai



They are based out of the Hall of Justice


Their enemies go by the name of the Legion of Doom and include such baddies as:

Lex Luthor
Brainiac
The Riddler
Scarecrow
Bizarro
Cheetah
The Toyman
Sinestro
Black Manta
Captain Cold
Giganta
Grodd
Solomon Grundy



They hole up in a little place that looks like this:


While logic might imply that someone like Superman would be sufficient to handle any number of bad guys, but luckily logic doesn't need to enter into the argument when cartoons are in the mix. Each episode allows different superheros and supervillains to take center stage and often allows them to team up with exciting results.

The lists above do not include some heroes who also appeared in some of the other seasons. I remember the Atom, Green Arrow, and some kind of girl that hung out with Green Arrow. A large number of these comic book heroes (and villains) I would probably have never heard of if not for this show. It allowed these lesser known supes to get their day in the sun, while drawing in those of us who'd never heard of the get to them know them along with folks we'd already heard of before.

Here's the updated countdown:
#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats
#8: G.I. Joe
#7: Superfriends

Classic Cartoon Countdown Honorable Mention: Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a Saturday morning cartoon that does not seem to have had the syndicated success that some of the other cartoons of its era enjoyed, but was certainly an interesting show. At least to my and my brother. I'm sure some if its popularity with us was due to the fact that our favorite babysitter happened to be familiar with the whole D&D scene and even ended up leaving us his multi-sided die collection (He left us with 4-, 8-, 12-, and 20-sided dies).

The premise of the show was that a group of kids were on a Dungeons & Dragons ride at an amusement park (don't ask me why an amusement park would have a D&D ride) and somehow got teleported over into the real realm of Dungeons & Dragons with each kid being assigned to a certain character class (Ranger, Thief, Acrobat, Barbarian, etc.)



Their main goal always was to return home again, but each week they needed to achieve some other objective either as a step towards their return home or as some kind of side quest that resulted from their desire to help everyone in their path or avoiding one of their several antagonists. Each week the Dungeon Master popped up and gave them some cryptic advice on how to try to get home next, only to disappear just as magically.



One of their enemies were Venger, a fairly evil looking dude who looked like the bad guy in Legend but with only one horn.


Another was Tiamat, the 5-headed chimera dragon with different heads that each spit different bad things (Fire, Ice, Lightning, Acid, and Toxic Gas).


I distinctly remember one episode where the kids managed to make it back to the amusement park, but one of their friends had been turned into a Merman of sorts, so they returned back because they didn't want him to have to remain a merman in the real world.

Why shoot the 3 when you are only down by 1?

Its a rare sports-related post from me, but I guess I just want to ask the world at large a question, inspired two of the Cleveland-Washington games in this year's playoffs.

If you are down by just 1 point with a chance for one last shot, wouldn't you want to try to get a shot close to the basket? I mean, this might be going out on a limb, but it seems like shots are easier to make when you are closer. That's why you get an extra point for making one that is far away. But if you are only losing by 1, then you don't need to make a 3 pointer to win. A regular old 2 pointer will give you the victory. And I'll concede that it might be harder to get an open shot in closer, but even when these guys had some room to get closer without going right into the defense, they made sure to stop behind the 3-point line, as if they need to make sure its a 3 pointer. I mean I think I'm pretty good at math, and last I checked 2 points would have put them 1 point ahead.

Classic Cartoon Countdown #8: G.I. Joe

A Real American Hero. G.I. Joe is There. G.I. Joe....Go Joe!

G.I. Joe while perhaps not the most popular cartoon of my childhood certainly deserves its ranking here among the top 10. G.I. Joe came on every afternoon and was part of my daily regimen of cartoony goodness.

The premise was that the American armed forces were battling against C.O.B.R.A. some kind of terrorist group that was always trying to take over the world.

The Joes were made up of a crew of military men (and at least one woman) each of whom had their own special skills. Duke seemed to be the only regular soldier, and perhaps because of that he was the leader. Snake-Eyes was always my favorite and dressed like a ninja. There were also characters who specialized in nautical stuff, or drove tanks, or were a girl, each with their own inherent specialties.



C.O.B.R.A. was the biggest crew of freaky terrorists ever dredged up I'm sure. The COBRA commander hid his face behind a metal mask, and he was shortly joined by Destro who had a face apparently made of metal and flew around in some kind of flying chariot. There was also a guy (my research reminds me his name was Zartan) whose skin changed color in the light.



G.I. Joe had a very popular line of action figures, and I may have even had one or two at some point. I remember being surprised to find at my grandparents house some of my uncles old G.I. Joe action figures which were much larger than the ones we got, and not nearly as cool in my opinion. The old ones seemed much more like dolls than action figures.

Some of my favorite memories from the G.I. Joe cartoon were:
-an episode where Snake-Eyes was trapped behind a wall while a room filled with toxic gas and radioactivity of some kind, (Kind of reminiscint of Spock in Star Trek II) as the cliffhanger of an episode that I never saw the end of.
-actually sending in a postcard to some kind of drawing they used to have. I don't even know what you could win, but I remember when they used to roll that drum full of cards hoping that this would be my chance.
-the PSAs that would come on at the end of every episode where we learned such things as how to escape a burning building, not to swim right after eating, and the heimlich manuever. These always ended with the awesome lines "Now I know!" "And knowing is half the battle." Truer words have never been spoken.

Here's the updated countdown:
#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats
#8: G.I. Joe

Classic Cartoon Countdown Honorable Mention: CBS Storybreak with Captain O.G. Readmore

To tide you over til tomorrow's entry in the countdown, I thought I'd throw out a fuzzy memory from the past: Captain O.G. Readmore:



The CBS Storybreak was a cartoon where each week they would take some children's book, cut it down to make it fit the time slot and animate it. It was hosted by this cat dressed up as a sailor, Captain O.G. Readmore. In fact, he's probably even more O.G. than Ice Cube and Dr. Dre.

Anyway, this was a show we didn't watch much because it didn't come on until nearly lunchtime (maybe even after lunchtime) on Saturdays and at that point we were usually out playing with friends or doing whatever we did on Saturdays back then. But O.G. was always a featured commercial during the earlier cartoons encouraging us to read books and of course tune in for his show.

Sounds kind of like whining to me

With the initial test release of Internet Explorer v.7 having recently occurred, Google is complaining that the new browser's default search engine is MSN. Basically, IE 7 will have an embedded search box the same way that Firefox does. (IE 7 will have a striking number of similarities with FF. Shocker.) And the default setting for this search box will be MSN search. Another shocker. You build a browser, why not set the default search to your own search engine. The search box is customizable in a way that I'm sure that Firefox works. You can switch between search engines and add more to your list of possible searches.

Google, however feels like this is a deliberate attack on them, and not only that, but that it borders on the kind of anti-trust stuff that Microsoft has gotten raked over the coals for before. But you know what? I'm not buying it. I think Google is just being a whiny baby because the most popular browser will have its default search set to something other than Google. You know why I feel that way? Because Firefox and Opera come pre-configured with Google as their default search engine. Google is trying to make Microsoft consider some wacky setup option that would require a user setting up IE 7 to either enter the URL of their preferred search engine or choose it from a list.

Keep in mind, that I am happy with Firefox and I use Google as my preferred search engine and am blogging this on Google's blogger service. But it just seems whiny of Google to try to imply that Microsoft is breaking the law here. If people want to use Google to search they will. Google didn't have any problem being the default search engine on other browsers, so for them to complain here makes them start to sound more and more like Microsoft every day.

Classic Cartoon Countdown #9: Thundercats

This week's Classic is one that I think everyone will remember more clearly than last week's. Thundercats was a cartoon of the afternoon variety (as opposed to the Saturday morning kind). It was about a group of cat-people who lived on a place called Third-Earth and were always battling against a villain named Mumm-ra who lived in a coffin-looking box inside a pyramid.

The Thundercats themselves did their best to provide a character for everyone. There was the main hero type Lion-o who had the sword that when he yelled "Thundercats, Thundercats, Thundercats, Hooooooo!" it would send up a signal for all the other Thundercats to come running. Also he could use it as some kind of binoculars/telescope/mystic viewer thing where he would look through the hilt and be able to see either far away or maybe something that wasn't even in view.

After Lion-o there was the older mentor type (Panthro), the girl (Cheetara), the kids (Kit and Kat), Tygra (the sidekick), and of course the annoying talking animal (Snarf).

It seems like these guys were always getting into sticky situations where Mumm-ra had lured them into some kind of trap and then they'd have to get out of it. Generally Lion-o's magic sword came in handy in these situations.

One memorable series of episodes was when Lion-o had to pass a series of trials to prove that he truly was worth to be the leader of the Thundercats (Snarf excluded of course) and had to take on each of his fellow Thundercats and best them at their own strengths.

Look for a few honorable mentions to show up next week (but definitely not before I have my committee meeting on Wednesday afternoon).

Here's the countdown so far:

#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats

Every once in a while, the U gets it right

Got back about an hour ago from enjoying a great show outdoors at the U put on by Yellowcard. Who totally rocked the joint, and managed to grace us with more songs off their next-to-last album than off their new one. I was kind of glad that they didn't try to force their new stuff on us, and the crowd definitely seemed appreciative to hear their favs. The band really seems to have an affinity for SLC and mentioned that this was their biggest audience ever (approx. 8,000 attendees). Not sure if that means for a show that they were headlining, because I would guess they've opened for audiences that big before. My ears are still ringing a bit. Normally I would have worked my way into the pit, at least for a bit, but I was with some friends who were a bit ansy about getting trampled.

I don't know why the U doesn't focus more on having more of these free big name events and fewer events where I can get discount tickets to see someone I've never heard of. I realize they probably don't have the budget to get lots of big names bands to come and and give students free tickets, but I'd prefer two great shows like tonight to the 20-odd events featuring Nobody McNo-One and his backup band.

Anyway, for at least one night, they got it right. Props to whoever was behind that one.

Addendum: Just in case anyone was wondering, I thought I'd add the list of songs they played. I don't remember the exact order of the setlist, so I'll just give it to you by the album that the song is on.

From Ocean Avenue:
Way Away
Breathing
Ocean Avenue
Empty Apartment
Life of A Salesman
Only One
Believe
Back Home

From Lights and Sounds:
Lights and Sounds
Down On My Head
Sure Thing Falling
Rough Landing, Holly
Waiting Game

and from One for the Kids:
October Nights

Introducing the Classic Cartoon Countdown

That's right, the new weekly feature which will replace the FFFFF will be a nostalgic glance back to my childhood and the wonderful days of cheaply animated children's television. I'll be counting down my top 10 favorite shows, along with some honorable mentions thrown in for fun.

I'll be honest, cartoons were a huge part of my life growing up. Every afternoon we'd sit down and watch cartoons for a couple hours, sometimes with the neighbors, sometimes at home. And of course the weekly highlight was Saturday morning, where you got 3 channels full of cartoons for at least 4 or 5 hours. That's approximately 30 different cartoons to choose from in one morning.

I remember my mom used to come down to the bedroom that my older brother and I shared on Friday night with the TV listings so that we could work out beforehand what shows we'd be watching the next morning, so that she wouldn't have to worry about being up at 6 to keep us from fighting. The rule was that we had to make our beds before we could watch them, so we'd set our alarm clock (the first alarm clock we ever got in our room was to wake us up for Saturday morning cartoons) for 5:50 so we'd have time to get up, make our beds, and get out in front of the TV before the first shows came on. This was in the era where if you turned on the TV before 6, then the channels were all showing the multi-colored bars. Don't you miss those? Now there's crazy infomercials on all night, but not back then.

At some point as I was growing up, I never really knew when exactly, Saturday morning television moved away from these great shows and all of a sudden there was news on TV on Saturday, or even infomercials sometime. Now you're lucky to even find cartoons on broadcast television, and the ones they have just don't seem to be as cool as the ones I used to watch.

Anyway, rather than turn this into some ramblingly, teary-eyed, diatribe about the disappearance of cartoons, lets jump right into the countdown at spot #10:

Underdog


Underdog, if I remember correctly fell into the category of cartoons that were on during the day, which meant I only got to watch it if I was home sick from school, or during the summer when I wasn't doing chores or out playing with friends. As a result, I could never seem to get a coherent Underdog storyline, but basically, he was kind of a Superman type character whose mild-manner alter-ego was "Shoeshine Boy" and when it was time for him to become Underdog he'd hop in a phonebooth and change, but he also had a vitamin in his ring that gave him his super powers. He was always trying to save the girl dog/lady whose name was Polly Purebred (I'll admit, I had to look that one up).

I think the main reason that I never got a whole Underdog storyline, was because Underdog was one of those cartoon shows where the actual Underdog portion only lasted maybe 6 minutes of the 30 minute time block and the rest was made up with other cartoons, same as on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and I had a hard time remembering which other cartoons went with which, but after doing some research, Underdog's animated pals included:

The World of Commander McBragg

where the general guy would tell outlandishly false tales of his adventures.

Klondike Kat

who was always trying to stop that mouse (Savoir Faire) from stealing everything. "Au contraire, mon frer. Savoir Faire is Everywhere!"

The Go Go Gophers

who were gophers who were also Native Americans and were constantly doing battle with some US army types who lived in a fort and were trying to scare them off their land.

These cartoons actually had self-contained episodes and didn't leave you hanging for next...whenever you watched next. Meanwhile, Underdog was always in dire straits and they say to tune in next time to see what happened, but I almost never was able to watch two episodes in a row which was kind of frustrating.

I think what I loved probably the most about Underdog was the cool theme song, which you can listen to here. "Speed of lightning, roar of thunder, fighting all who rob or plunder. Underdog!"

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the new feature, and look forward to seeing more blurry, internet-enhanced memories each Friday.

These are the times...

In our stake conference this past weekend, one of our counselors in the stake presidency gave talk based on a quote from Thomas Paine that I'm sure I've heard part of before, but not sure if I've heard all of. Most of you out there are probably more familiar with it than I am, but I just loved it so much that I wanted to share it and some thoughts with you.

From "The Crisis, No. 1" written in December of 1776 near the dawn of the Revolutionary War:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls.

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated."

(emphasis in the wikipedia article, not sure if in the original)

There is just so much in this quote that I love.

The talk focused on not being summer soldiers and sunshine patriots (interesting given that the Declaration of Independence was signed in the summer and this was written in the winter) in the war against sin. I appreciate the high value given to freedom in this quote and certainly it is applicable even today, despite having been written over 230 years ago. But by far my favorite part is the part about the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph, and how we truly value things that we have worked hard to accomplish, and how the truly great things in life, the blessings of heaven, are highly rated and not easily won. I think there's probably books that could be written on that topic alone. Probably have been. But it makes me glad to think that the things that I struggle over are things that will be of great worth to me once I achieve them.

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly...Heaven knows how to put a proper price on its goods." Why didn't I ever get to read that in my History classes? Maybe I would have taken more if I would have realized how much greatness there was on display.

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #12: Chick-Fil-A Chicken Nuggets

During at least one semester of my college career, I was forced to eat lunch at the Student Union Building a couple times a week. You'd think that a place whose whole goal is to serve food to college students could do a better job at having decent food, but other than some ethnic options that I could never really trust, the only choices were a limited selection Pizza Hut, and a Chick-Fil-A. And while Chick-Fil-A seemed to think that a chicken sandwich (which supposedly they invented) is just a breaded ball of chicken with some pickles on it wrapped in a wimpy bun, thankfully their chicken nuggets are some of the best nuggets out there in fast food land.

Coming in packages of 8 or 12 pieces, and a choice of dipping sauces, you can count on these nuggets to be tender and not buried in breading. I recommend the BBQ sauce (the honey mustard is a frightening shade of yellow bordering on green), but if you actually find one of these place outside of the student union, they have more sauces to choose from then just BBQ and honey mustard.

The waffle fries here are also pretty tasty if you can get them fresh.

******************************************************************************

Now that I've addressed this week's FFFFF, I have something to say. This is going to be the last of the regularly scheduled Friday Featured Fast Food Favorite. I'm kind of worried that I'm nearly to the end of my Fast Food Favorites, and I'd hate to keep dragging a dead horse. Before I'd know it I'd be telling you how much I like the bigger straws at Arby's or how Wendy's salt packets are the best. While from time to time something may catch my interest enough to merit a one-time comeback of the FFFFF, I've decided that its time for the 5-F to be retired. Besides 12 is a nice round number. Don't worry though, this doesn't mean that Friday's will just be another day here at the Big Digital. Stay tuned next week for the debut of a brand new weekly feature.

In retrospect, here a list of all the FFFFF:

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #1: Arby's Chicken Bacon 'n Swiss
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #2: Einstein Bros.'s Turkey Sausage and Cheddar Egg Sandwich
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #3: Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #4: Taco Bell's Zesty Chicken Border Bowl
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #5: Panda Express's Orange Chicken
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #6: Arctic Circle's Bacon Cheeseburger
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #7: Great Steak and Potato's Great Steak Sandwich
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #8: Schlotzky's Turkey Bacon Club
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #9: Sconecutter's Club Scone Sandwich
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #10: Sonic's Chicken Club Toaster Sandwich
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #11: KFC's Twister
Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #12: Chick-Fil-A Chicken Nuggets

Go Big or Go Home -- You're Kidding Me, Right?

"Going Big"

"Go Big or Go Home" Its a phrase thats seems to have inundated my daily life. It conjures images of snowboarders soaring through the air while attempting ridiculous acrobatic moves and people doing double-backflips on bmx bicycles. Strangely, though, it seems to have expanded in meaning of late, and now can be used for anything you want. I googled it and found that in addition to so-called extreme sports athletes, the motto also could be applied to investing, playing poker, small businesses, protests, and custom rims, among other things. I've even heard people say, "My life motto is to go big or go home." Mountain Dew would have us belive that by drinking their soda, we must be "Going Big". Recently my ward had a 5K run-walk with T-shirts that said "Go Big or Go Home."

I'm not sure what it is about the phrase "Go Big or Go Home" that people enjoy so much. I can see its application in the sense of a philosophy to risk everything in order to be the VERY best, rather than just good, or sufficient. But I don't see why this appeals to people so much. I mean, I don't know if any of you have seen "Deal or No Deal" on NBC (its kind of hard to miss these days), but the people who hold out hoping they have the million dollar suitcase almost always end up with chump change, when they could have gotten a better deal by selling. In life I think the same generally applies. Its one thing to want to do well, quite another to risk everything to be the best regardless of the odds.


"Going Big?"

But what really gets under my skin is the regular old people like you and me who claim to always "Go Big", when really the only thing they "Go Big" on is their Biggie-sized combo at Wendys. In fact, I'm suprised that Wendy's hasn't adopted this as their latest marketing slogan. Its used so much by people who don't personify its meaning that now its lost its meaning. When I saw it on our 5K shirts I asked, "Will there be some kind of bungie jumping that I have do in the middle?". "No, its just the slogan we picked." I mean, c'mon, its a 5K. Thats like 3.1 miles. I walked it in 42 minutes. Did I "Go Big"? Not that I was aware of, but then again, no one tried to make me "Go Home" either.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that unless your life is frequently in danger or at least your limbs, try to refrain from proclaiming that you "Go Big". And if you can't refrain, then please..."Go Home."

The Tortoise and The Hare

You know the fable of the tortoise and the hare? Well I think its full of crap. I mean c'mon. The turtle is never going to beat the hare in a race. I mean, why does the hare have to get labeled as irresponsible, just because its faster than the tortoise. I mean, "Slow and Steady" wins the race? I think that "Fast and steady" or "Fast and even kind of steady" beats "Slow and steady" every day and twice on Sundays.

I realize the moral of the story is the need to be consistent and basically that consistency in the right direction beats bursts of movement in the right direction, but hares are so much faster than tortoises. I think the hare could totally stop for a nap, or lemonade, or a tennis match, or whatever the hare supposedly did and still win the race. A hare has humongous legs for running really fast. And tortoises -- they're reaaaaly slow And who's to say that tortoises are any more steady? We should focus more on their good qualities, like their sturdy shell and whatever else tortoises have going for them that hares don't.

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #11: KFC's Twister

I'll be honest. I had to think for a (brief) moment about what to feature today for the fast food favorite. But after a quick moment of pondering I remembered that I had failed to feature anything from another Utah original: KFC. I could be mistaken, but I think that Kentucky Fried Chicken has officially changed its name to KFC much like other organizations like the AAA, and I forget the rest, but its a change that's the exact opposite of IHC changing its official name to Intermountain Healthcare, although I guess IHC was never its official name anyway, but now its not its name at all.

Sorry for the confusion to anyone who is unfamiliar with our state's largest medical provider and my life's largest research location.

Back to the lecture at hand: The Twister.


The Twister is essential a chicken strip burrito, for lack of a better term. And I think its an admirable idea. Chicken strips by themselves tend to be a bit dry, even with some sauce to dip them in. By wrapping 3 of them in a tortilla, you allow them to be surrounded by lettuce and tomato, in addition to some kind of sauce that's in there. Personally, I like to get some dipping sauce, usually BBQ or Honey Mustard, and empty the packet's content into the open end of the Twister. I've seen a chicken strip salad at other places, but this is the only place I'm aware of that sells a chicken strip wrap.

The Commercial That Almost Made Me Cry

Not because it was sappy. In fact it shouldn't have evoked any emotion at all other than a lust for bargain priced furniture. But no. At the end it said, "Spring isn't half over. Its half off!"

You have to realize that as this commercial was playing in the background, I was looking out our front window at a snow-covered lawn as rain continued to fall. "How can Spring be half over?", I thought. "Its still winter outside."

Honestly, Utah. I thought you were a desert.

2006 College Slam Dunk Contest Highlights

I've been seeing a lot of blog posts with embedded video lately, and just happened on one that I wanted to share with all of my basketball fans out there. Its highlights from this year's NCAA slam dunk contest. Needless to say, this has been the slam dunk contest to watch over the last few years in my opinion. The pros can barely get 4 guys to come out and compete and then they spend hours trying to get elaborate dunks to work, often missing on numerous attempts before finally being successful. It seems like the college guys get more and more athletic each year and their dunks seem to be a bit simpler with more of an emphasis on athleticisim. Anyway, without further ado, I give you the highlights:



I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to watch it, but there are some spectacular dunks, including some foulline area takeoffs that are much more elaborate than Dr. J and Air Jordan ever managed to pull off. These guys can literally jump out of the gym. (By literally, I mean figuratively).

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #10: Sonic's Chicken Club Toaster Sandwich

This week's Fav comes to us courtesy of Sonic Drive-In, a place that I only eat at rarely because I never seem to live anywhere near one. And while I do usually love their television commercials, they do not seem to be funny enough to make me drive 10 minutes out of my way to find one. That said, there is a sandwich there that I really do like: The Chicken Club Toaster Sandwich.



The sandwich comes on two thick pieces of Texas Toast and has chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a nice honey mustard sauce. I think the toast really makes the sandwich. And the honey mustard sauce is a nice touch.

Another thing I like about Sonic is how they are putting credit card readers out on the drive-thru ordering station. I mean, we no longer are signing receipts at fast food places, so why not just speed that part of the process up.

I also like that Sonic seems to have a pretty wide variety of specialty drinks, shakes, and side dishes. You aren't stuck with just a drink and fries to go with it. Onion rings, chili cheese tots, cream pie shakes, etc. Sonic's got'em. Others don't.

The Dizzying Downfall of Disney

I'll start this post by saying that I am no Hollywood movie guru, and my thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are based entirely on my personal experience as a consumer of entertainment media.

That said, what in the world has become of Disney? When I was a child growing up, Disney represented everything high-quality, super-memorable, classic storytale magic. I was raised on Disney films in the theatre, from the video rental store, and even in the form of "tape-books" that gave a summarized version of the film along with an audio accompaniment to help young readers get some practice. I think what I always enjoyed most about Disney was the songs. Every movie featured great songs that will forever be associated with the films and with Disney in general. I was probably about 5 years old when I took my first trip to Disneyland, and it will forever hold a special place in my heart. The moniker "the Magic Kingdom" still rings true for me.

But somewhere along the line, in the last 10 years or so, Disney strayed from their magic formula. No longer do I wait with anticipation for the next Disney classic to be released in the theater. No longer does a Disney trailer invoke the same excitement as a Star Wars trailer. No longer do I find myself singing along to songs from the latest Disney release. Classic Disney animations featuring Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest have become hard to come by on television. What has become of the name that was once the highest standard in family entertainment?

Some of my earliest Disney memories including going to see the Jungle Book (re-released of course) with my dad and older brother, being super excited to find out that our hotel room carried the Disney channel, and listening to Disney tapes on a family vacation to northern California.

This era was followed by what I'll call the Disney Renaissance which spanned, in my mind, the years from 1989 (the release of the Little Mermaid) to 1994 (the release of the Lion King). Also included in this span were Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992). At this point, Disney could do no wrong. They had just released 4 back-to-back theatrical triumph, each one critically acclaimed and full of the songs and storylines that Disney was famous for.

And yet, somehow they did do wrong. The next big animated feature released was Pocahontas (1995). A film based on a story from American history that featured several songs, but none that resonated with viewer like the others. Its no wonder we've yet to see a Broadway version of this Disney film. I remember that I took my little brother and sister to see this movie in Tooele and in the other theater there was a Power Rangers movie playing. About halfway through Pocahontas we were all wishing we would have chosen to see that one, because there was no way it could be as dull and preachy as Pocahontas.

Pocahontas, for me, marks the beginning of the end of Disney as we once knew it. Theatrical follow-ups to Pocahontas included The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan. Each of these while decent family entertainment failed to meet the high standard that movie-goers had come to expect from Disney. Mulan could arguably be considered a last gasp of Disney greatness, but at that point Disney had already lost its hold over the family animation market. Tarzan could arguably be considered as the first big-release Disney animation feature to not feature any real songs, other than Phil Collins singing in the background. At this point, I was done with Disney. No longer were they making the effort to produce films that would stand the test of time with songs that kids could learn and sing throughout their lives. More recent Disney releases have not even seemed interesting to me (Brother Bear, Home on the Range, Chicken Little) and while I'm sure they are fine family entertainment, they fall far short of what I've come to expect. The most recent Disney animated release I've seen advertised is something called "The Wild" which as far as I can tell is a rip-off of Madagascar.

In parallel with this decline in theatrical release quality, Disney began another practice that reeks of just trying to make a buck entertainment -- the straight to video release sequel. 1994 marked the first of these sequels to established Disney classics with the release of Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar. The hallmarks of these straight to video releases is the failure to return the same voice talents as the original films, coupled with substandard animation quality and an overall decline in the quality of the final product. It would be one thing to me if they were just releasing a lower-tier series of animated products, but its another thing when you are taking characters and storylines that people have grown to love and expanding them without giving them the proper respect just to make a buck. It was one thing to make The Rescuers Down Under theatrically, but quite another to make a film like Peter Pan 2 just to capitalize on the popularity of the Peter Pan franchise.

Other examples of Disney fairytales that have been extended in this fashion include: Beauty & the Beast (Belle's Magical World), the Lion King (Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, and Lion King 1.5), the Little Mermaid (Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea), Lady and the Tramp (Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure), Cinderella (Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True), 101 Dalmations (101 Dalmations II: Patch's London Adventure), The Jungle Book (The Jungle Book 2), and Dumbo (Dumbo 2). How long until we see Steamboat Willie 2: Willie's Adventure?

Imagine if you will that 30 years from now, after George Lucas is dead, whoever owns the rights to the Star Wars franchise starts making sequels to the movies, and in addition, making straight-to-video poor quality Star Wars films. Or someone deciding now to write sequels to the Lord of the Rings books, but just having some no-name run of the mill fantasy writer sit down and crank them out to make a buck.

The final vestige of Disney magic, Disneyland, has as yet managed to hang on to most of its magic, but given that it has previously relied heavily on characters from Disney's theatrical releases, how long until we see older classic rides like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride replaced with something like Home on the Range's Wild Tractor Ride.

I honestly don't understand what Disney is doing these days. If not for their serendipitous relationship with Pixar, it would have been years since I'd even cared about a film with the Disney logo. Its not like there aren't good song writers out there. Broadway seems to still be cranking out hit musicals filled with original music. Has Disney given up on creating the best in quality family entertainment? Disney now owns ABC and ESPN. What does that have to do with making quality family entertainment? Right now, I feel as though I've lost a piece of my childhood.

In the Beginning...

Back in 1997, I went to college and got my first email address. This was a time when the internet was usually slow and email was something that had to be checked at the school (not that I had a computer at my apartment). With the advent of this new-fangled messaging communication came the infamous Forward. Honestly I don't know how people got their humor before the internet existed. Letterman pretty much had the corner on Top Ten lists, and even Jay Leno might share a joke that you hadn't heard before.

In this time of ASCII-art and non-web-based email, a friend of mine sent me a forward that truly has withstood the test of time, and today I would like to share it with you. I try to be very judicious in the things I forward on to others, but this is one that I would never be ashamed to pass on. My only guess as to its origins are the name at the bottom, but even then I can't be sure that that person was the original creator.

Warning: this forward falls into the category of "Bathroom Humor", but in a very literal sense. Also, its mainly for the guys, but I think that girls may find it humorous as well. Without further ado:

**********************************************

Okay this is pretty funny especially for men.  Ladies,
I hope you can
appreciate this!


The following is the urinal configuration in a sample
men's room.
An X above the number will indicate "in use."

(Sample):

| - | - | x | - | - | x |     (Indicates that urinals 3 and 6
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |     are occupied.)
-------------------------

You are to identify correctly, based on urinal etiquette, at
which stall you are to correctly stand.  Good luck!

--------------------
  Easy Section
--------------------
1.)

| - | x | - | x | - | - |     (Urinals 2 and 4 occupied.)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
-------------------------

Your choice: ___
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Correct answer: 6        It's the ONLY one to go to and every
                        guy instinctively knows this.
===============================================
2.)

| x | - | - | - | - | - |    (Urinal 1 occupied.)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
-------------------------

Your choice:  ___
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Correct answer: 6        Stall 5 is acceptable, but you run a
                        greater risk of being next to someone
                        who arrives later.
===============================================
-------------------------
Kind of tricky Section:
-------------------------
3.)

| - | - | - | - | - | - |   (empty)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
--------------------------

Your choice:  __
-----------------------------------------------------
-----------
Correct answer:  1 or 6    You are tacitly saying,
                          "I don't want anyone next to me."
===============================================
4.)

 | - | x | - | x | - | x |       (2, 4 and 6 occupied)
 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
 -------------------------

Your choice:  ___
------------------------------------------------------
-----------
Correct answer:  1        You're stuck being next to at
                         least ONE guy, so you minimize the
                         impact and get a wall on your left.
                         NEVER go between TWO guys if you
                         can help it.  Exceptions to this
                         are stadium restrooms where the
                         herd thunders in.
===============================================
-----------------------------------------------
Subtle, tricky, but important to know Section
-----------------------------------------------
5.)

| - | x | - | - | x | x |          (2, 5 and 6 occupied)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
-------------------------

Your choice:  __
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Correct answer:  4       Believe it or not,  1 and 3 "couples"
                        you with the guy in stall 2. And we
                        wouldn't want THAT now, would we?

                        This differs from question 4 in such a
                        subtle way that the nuances cannot be
                        explained.  Suffice to say, only we men
                        would understand!
===============================================
-----------------------------
VERY tricky indeed Section
-----------------------------
6.)

| x | x | - | - | x | x |          (1, 2, 5 and 6 occupied)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
-------------------------

Your choice:  ___
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Correct answer:  NONE!  You go to the mirror and pretend to
                       comb your hair or straighten a tie
                       until the urinals "open up" a bit more.
                       If you have to go REAL, REAL BAD, for
                       goodness sake! . use a doored stall.
===============================================
Other parts of the Unwritten Code of the Urinals:
-- NO Talking, unless it's a good friend. but even then, keep
   it terse and unemotional.  This ain't no clubhouse.
-- I don't think I need to tell you, absolutely NO touching of
   anyone other than yourself.  A touch of another's elbow is of
   the highest offense.
-- NO Singing.  Period.
-- Glances are for purposes of acknowledgment only."Yeah, I see
   you there.  I will not look again".

- ------- End of Forwarded Message- ---
Caffeine Boy
caffeine@iastate.edu

------- End of Forwarded Message

------- End of Forwarded Message---
                             Chad D. Navrude
                          Iowa State University

------- End of Forwarded Message

********************************************************

I think that too often today's forwards rely on people doing some stupid and having it either reported in the news, or captured in a photo, or on video. That or some silly flash animation of a baby singing and/or dancing. If only we had more like the urinal quiz. C'mon America. We can do better.

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #9: Sconecutter's Club Scone Sandwich

This week's review takes us to another Utah original (I'm always surprised to find out that all these restaurant chains started here, although I guess I haven't lived enough other places to find out if they actually exist elsewhere): The Sconecutter.



While being a Utah original, they happen to have a pretty weak web-presence and it was pretty hard to find any pictures of any of their scone sandwiches, so I decided to just get the logo which required some cutting and pasting just to get it isolated. Anyway, moving on to the sandwich itself...

The Club scone comes on your choice of white or wheat scones (white for me). Its main ingredients are sliced turkey and a couple strips of bacon, and the toppings include lettuce, tomato, cheese, sprouts, and pickle and onions that I always skip.

I think the key to a good sandwich is the bread that hold it together. Great ingredients can be ruined by bad bread (see Gandolfo's). I think that Sconecutter does a great job of making scones that are consistently hot, fresh, and the right amount of thickness, along with just a hint of classic scone taste. And the way it holds all the ingredients in makes it feel kind of like a burrito. I do recommend getting some sauce (mayo at the least) to put on it because otherwise it can be a little bit dry.

While Sconecutter is a bit pricier than regular fast food fare, I find that it makes a nice change from the run of the mill menu. Open 24 hours, I believe, so its makes a nice late night fastfood run when you've had your fill of Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers, but aren't in the mood to go all out with a place like Village Inn.

1 for Sorrow, 2 for Joy...

"Today...I consider myself...the luckiest man...on the face of the Earth..."

So said Lou Gehrig once, but I'm feeling that way right now, after having just returned from seeing my favorite band, The Counting Crows, play here in Salt Lake at the Delta Center. It was part of BrainShare, a yearly Novell conference, and they were ever-so-kind enough to open the concert up to the public, although it wasn't really announced and even when I heard about it, it wasn't for sure that we could get in without a ticket of some kind. So I didn't invite a lot of people to go down with me in case we couldn't get in in the end, just one friend who is also a big fan (although not as big a fan as I am). We got there about 7:30 or so and it sounded like at 8:00 they were going to open it up to the public. When we got there, there was a small line forming, but by 8:00 there was a line stretching from the doors back to the intersection (quite a ways if you aren't familiar with the DC setup).

We got in, found decent seats, across the floor from the band, right about center stage. We heard some comedian who was somewhat funny, mixed in with some Novell parodies of TV shows like 24, Lost, and CSI, and then about 8:40 the band took the stage and went to town. They played for about an hour before leaving the stage, and then after the crowd refused to be denied more CC goodness, came back and gave us 3 more songs. Here's the setlist:

Recovering the Satellites
Mr. Jones
St. Robinson and his Cadillac Dream
Mrs. Potter's Lullaby
Rain King (Acoustic)
Miami
Friend of the Devil
Long December
Hanginaround

and for the encore we got:

Black and Blue
Hard Candy
Holiday in Spain

So not too shabby if you ask me. The only one I don't especially like is Recovering the Satellites, but even that was fine to open with. I wish they could play here more often.

A couple fun items from Adam's monologue included his thumbs-up to the Red Iguana and this little narrative (which I'm obviously not quoting verbatim):

"I made friends with a woman here in Salt Lake a long time ago, a devout Mormon. She's recently divorced, and I know the rule is no sex before marriage, but I thought I was pretty smart and thought maybe there was a loophole for sex after marriage. Nope. It doesn't matter how smart you are, you're not getting anything from a woman that she doesn't want to give you. But we did have a good conversation on religion and a lot of stuff. But no sex. Which was fine, because I've had sex before, but I've never had that conversation before."

All in all, a great night. Lots of fun, great music, and all for $3 worth of parking, and Kelsey chipped in $2 on that since I drove. I'm so lucky. Thank you Novell. Oh, and did I mention that Yellowcard is playing a free (for students) show at the U next month? Good times.

Why I Hate (or at least strongly dislike) Catch Phrase

Last night after our weekly Sunday night ward gathering of many names (ward prayer, ward stare, pray-n-stay, scope-n-hope, have-a-cookie-and-take-a-lookie) several of us stayed to play some games. We started with the classic Nerts and then moved on to Scattergories, before someone moved on to the world's dumbest game: Catch Phrase.



While I realize I may have offended many people, among them whoever makes Catch Phrase (Milton Bradley? Hasbro? I really don't know who makes games any more), but it is not without reason. I can't stand that game. And there is a sense of dread that comes over me whenever someone brings it up, because for some reason people love this game, and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

For those of you who have never played Catch Phrase, its basically a guess the word game where when its your turn you hold the beeping timer that also shows you the word you need to have your team guess before you can pass it on to a member of the other team. When the timer runs out, whichever team is holding the timer loses that round and the other team gets a point. Sounds simple enough, right? That the problem its too simple. Generally the clues are some simple phrase like "apple pie" or "center field" or something along those lines. And obviously some people will take longer than others to come up with a good clue or two to help their team guess it. But basically all the game is, is hot potato with a little bit of guessing to make you feel like there is some skill involved. But there isn't. When you look past the word guessing fluff, its really just a timer that you pass around and when it buzzes whoever is holding it loses. I like to emphasize the silliness of this by saying after each round to whoever is holding the timer, "You are terrible at this game!" Because really it has nothing to do with their ability to play the game.

I'm sure that some will argue that that's why the game is fun, anyone can win and its a easy game that everyone can enjoy. But if that's the case, then why not just play pattycakes. The amount of skill involved is pretty much the same. Just to give you an idea of the irrational love bestowed on this game, here are some excerpts from an Amazon.com user review of the game:

"Catch Phrase" is one of the many cool things I have discovered since being in college

And I thought my college life was a little boring.

For example, if the word was "pumpkin," you could say something along the lines of, "Okay, guys, Peter-Peter-blank-eater!" If someone has been keeping up on their nursery rhymes, he or she will know that the word in place of "blank" is "pumpkin." Make sense?

Sounds tough, right?

Educational Value: This is a thinking game. That's the only way I know how to put it. You have to think about what it is your teammate is trying to say without he or she actually coming out and saying it. And they're not all as easy as "pumpkin." There are some real stumpers in this game, and that only adds to the fun (or frustration depending upon what side you're on).

For someone in college to call this game educational, calls into question their standardized test scores. Even if they aren't all as easy as pumpkin.

In short, "Catch Phrase" is a very cool game. It's great to play with a lot of people, and it never gets boring. I've played this numerous times, and I always have interesting stories to tell the next day.

I'm sure he could tell us some really doozies.

I'm sure part of my bitterness toward the game also stems from a New Years Eve a few years back when I got stuck in a room full of people who were all so tired that once they started playing Catch Phrase they were unable to come up with any other idea, and we played Catch Phrase for at least 2 hours straight. The last hour was a variation that someone came up with where there was no timer, no teams, and you had to think of just one word as your clue. Granted this required a bit more creativity, but just playing Catch Phrase for 2 solid hours was enough to move me from a level of indifference to a true distaste for the game.

Personally I feel that Taboo, with its buzzer that must be used as an electric razor by someone each time it is played, is a much better word guessing game that allows players to be creative and benefit from their skills. But maybe that's just me.

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #8: Schlotzsky's Turkey Bacon Club

I'm going to have to hurry to get this one in under the midnight Friday wire, but I can't be held totally at fault. In case you weren't aware, Blogger had a bit of a brain cramp and my blog has been inaccessible over large portions of the last two days. Thankfully it seems to be back up and running. *Crosses fingers*

This week's fast food favorite comes to us courtesy of Schlotzsky's Deli, another fast food joint that I can't seem to find outside of the mall food court these days, which is kind of weird considering the relatively considerable wait time for your sandwich to be ready. There used to be one down the road from where I live, but its gone now. Too bad. Also for a word, it really has a high consonant to vowel ratio. (9:2) Those Poles (is Schlotzsky's a Polish name?) really know how to get the most out of their vowels.

I am totally in love with Schlotzsky's Turkey Bacon Club sandwich (and most of their other sandwiches for that matter). I couldn't find a picture of the club itself, but here's a picture of their Original:



I think what really makes the sandwich for me is a) the quality of their baked fresh daily bread, and b) the toasting process that makes the bread so nice and crispy and melts the cheese and get the turkey warmed up....mmmm. Its really a shame that there isn't one of these near my house anymore. At approximately $7 for a combo meal they could be really taking my money off my hands for me. Just thinking about it makes me want to drive downtown and get one tomorrow.

American History as Taught to Me in Public Schools

In my life, I've always made an effort to do my best in school. I've done quite well academically and as as result feel like in many fields I have learned quite a bit. However, I find that History is always something that I don't know very much about. It's not that I didn't pay attention in history class, it's just that I feel like there are some inherent problems in the way that history is taught in school. Every history class feels like it has to start as far back as possible. I can realize that if you are writing a history book that you'd want to start at the beginning, but it seems like someone should be explaining that students actually study history more than one time as they grow up, so covering the same ground maybe is a bit redundant. Allow me to elaborate by giving you the full extent of what I know about US History.

First, there were Indians here. Thats right, Indians. Native Americans if you will. They were here before Columbus came. I don't know if you knew that, but I suspect you probably did. Some famous ones include Pochantas, Squanto, and Sacajawea. Every single American History class I've ever had felt the need to make sure I was aware of that. We get it. They were here first.

Then Columbus came, and there were explorers from Spain and France and Britain and the Netherlands. Then the colonies were formed and we fought the British and won. Then we got our Constitution, and there was something called the Whiskey Rebellion and the Missouri Compromise. Then there was the Civil War. I'm sure something happened in between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War besides the Whiskey Rebellion and the Missouri Compromise, but that stuff seems to have escaped me.

After the Civil War is where things start to get pretty fuzzy. I know there was the Depression and the World Wars (I & II). But I think a lot of that I learned about after high school, as a result of watching TV and Movies. I pretty sure that most of my history classes never got to World War II, much less anything that happened after that.

So basically, in my mind, there was the Holocaust, and shortly thereafter Reagan was elected. I only know about Reagan and beyond because I lived through it. Doesn't it seem silly that every history class has to start at the beginning? No class ever makes it all the way through to those back chapter, except for maybe AP American History, but we didn't have that at my school, so I can't say if it did or not. Can you imagine if every math class started with counting, and covered the same ground as every other math class? It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Timeline:

Long ago - Indians were here
1492 - Columbus came with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria
15?? - There was that island where everyone disappeared. (Roanoke?)
16?? - The pilgrims came and landed at Plymouth Rock and Squanto taught them how to grow corn, 1st Thanksgiving
1776 - Declaration of Independence
1787 - Constitution
17?? - Whiskey Rebellion
18?? - Missouri Compromise
18?? - The Gadsen Purchase
18?? - Civil War
1869 - Transcontinental Railroad Completed (It happened on the 10th of May in 1869, a wedding sealed with gold and silver nails. The Central Pacific...and Union Pacific...hugging and a-chugging down the rails.
194? - World Wars
1980 - Reagan Elected

Princess's Lib

Now before I begin typing anything in this post, I want to preface it by saying that I'm not trying to push any kind of agenda here or change the way that things are currently. That said, lets begin our journey to a place where I may possibly offend any and all of my female readers.

Yesterday I heard two contrasting stories. The first was in Sunday School where we were reading the story of Rebekah and how Abraham's servant found her and knew she was the girl that Isaac was to marry. Essentially, the servant went to the well with his 10 camels and asked if someone there would draw water for him and his camels. Some of the comments were about how that must have been a whole lot of water and how Rebekah clearly was a special woman to be willing to draw water for all of them, and clearly she would make an excellent wife for Isaac.

Fast forward to later in the day at an evening ward activity...a girl is there telling some story about how when she was in high school choir how this one time they girls in the choir were carrying all these flowers and they were soooo heavy and how none of the guys offered to help them carry them, and how lame those guys were.

Discuss.

I'm not saying that guys shouldn't help girls. I'm just saying that somewhere in between then and now, this whole "princess" mentality cropped up and some girls feel as though everything should be done for them, and the fact that a guy would let them do something without offering to help makes them pretty much the scum of the earth.

I realize that by just showing this contrast I'm going to imply that I am that kind of guy. I don't think that I am, but on occasion you either just don't realize that a girl needs help (heaven forbid she ask for it), or you assume that given the nature of the task they can handle it on their own. In this era of women's lib mixed with princess syndrome you pretty much can't win. In fact a lot of times, girls want you to ask if they need help, but then act offended that you would even suggest they couldn't handle it on their own.

I suggested to the girl that perhaps by carrying the flowers herself, someone was picking her out as a potential wife. She didn't think that was too funny.

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #7: Great Steak and Potato Company's Great Steak sandwich

I've been taking a bit of flack lately for my apparent obsession with bacon (the unfancy portion of the pig). And while I can neither confirm nor deny any feelings for bacon at this time, I've decided to offer up a weekly favorite which is coincidentally pork free:

Great Steak and Potato Company's Great Steak sandwich.


Essentially its a cheesesteak with lettuce and tomato. Cooked up hot on the grill right in front of you. Served with some burn-your-mouth-hot french fries it was a staple of my time working at the Church Office Building, as the vocal leader of the Temple Department programmers could rarely be talked into eating at the in-house cafeteria. Its a little pricey, but as a special occasion meal its a real winner. Granted, I'm sure in Philadelphia this place is fairly run of the mill. But here in Utah, we just don't have very many fast food joints that will grill up some steak for you at a moment's notice.

Great Steak and Potato Company falls into the category of fast food places that I've to date only seen in Shopping Center Food Courts. I can't figure out why this place isn't more popular and why the only one that I have ever even seen is in the one at the ZCMI Food Court. I think they have several delicious menu items to choose from. In fact the only reason it hasn't made it on to the blog until now is that I forgot that it existed until today as I was trying to think of what to write about.

Wierd side note: The spellchecker on blogger tells me that 'blog' isn't in their spelling dictionary. If I weren't so confused on what constitutes irony (thanks for that Alanis Morrissette), I'd call that ironic.

Why Firefox dominates IE

Because you can have the Forecast Fox extension pop up and let you know that the current weather is "Heavy Snow", which then makes you get up and look outside for the first time today and realize how lucky you are that you can work from home if necessary since the road outside is packed with snow that continues to fall. Go My Favorite Browser Go!

Random Thoughts on the English Language #8

When something doesn't have an author attributed to it, we say that its 'anonymous', but as of yet, I've never heard of anything being called 'nonymous'.

Pickyness, Pt. 2: The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives

I'm sure that my faithful readers have been waiting on pins and needles to get the follow-up to yesterday's post about my pickyness about smells. Or they've been hoping that I'll forget I ever started this thread and move on to something less boring. Well, in an attempt to appease both groups, I'll try to wrap this topic up today.

In addition to being picky about foods and smells, I also tend to be very picky regarding the sense of touch. When I shop for clothes, the way the fabric feels is a deciding factor in whether or not I will consider buying something. I pick things whose appearance I like, but then I definitely need to see how it feels when I try it on before I can ever commit to buying it. I find that I tend to choose fabrics that feel heavier and thicker. I love my Oxford dress shirts and hate when I (due to lack of clean laundry) have to wear something thinner. Lets just say that me and cotton are good friends. Nylons and polyesters are tough to find in my closet.

I also love the feel of my down comforter and down pillow when I crawl into bed at night. Something about the substance of it all. Not sure what. But I really do have a preference for those. I try to take my pillow with me when I'm road tripping. It doesn't pack quite as well on flights, but it makes a huge difference to me and sleeping.

Anyway, I guess that wraps up this topic. I am not particularly picky about sight and sound. I have one of the most diverse music collections of anyone I know, so I certainly wouldn't consider myself picky in that realm. And as for sight, I'm not even sure what a picky see-er would be.

Thanks for indulging my self-analysis. I'll try to keep it to a minimum in this space unless you, the reader, demands more of it.

Pickyness: Its more than just an eating disorder

On a completely un-fast-food-related note...I thought today that I'd share a little bit about myself, something I don't do here often and certainly don't take this as a shift in the type of fare that you can expect to see here.

I've been thinking lately about some tendencies that I have. Sensitivities if you will. As a child, I was a very picky eater. There were certain foods I would refuse to eat, despite having never tried them. I'm sure that most parents can probably relate to the situation. As a result, there were quite a number of foods that I didn't first try until I was an adult.

When I was called to serve as a missionary to Argentina I promised myself that I would eat anything that was put in front of me. A bold statement, certainly, but I was lucky enough to travel to a place where I saw a minimum of foods that would be considered a novelty here (cow tongue, blood sausage). However, unlike most people, eating things like grapes and oranges was a fairly new experience for me. My trainer almost died laughing at the mess I made eating an orange at one of my first lunch appointments. Long story short, I made a lot of progress in what I am now willing to eat compared to before my two years in Argentina. Pretty much seafood is about the only thing I really am opposed to eating, and even then I can put away a few coconut shrimp from time to time.

But the crux of this post, is that I have come to realize that in addition to tastes I am also picky about several others of my 5 senses. For example:

Picky smeller: For the life of me, I can't understand how some people can handle the cacophony (smellophony?) of aromas that they surround themselves with. I think this might be biased towards the female gender, but lets just look at how many different smells you might be faced with when associating with some people. Start with shampoo and soap, followed by deodorant, hairspray, and the minor odor that comes with makeup. At this level, you probably aren't smelling anything unless you get pretty close. Now, add perfume.

I think that is pretty near the maximum aroma that anyone should be personally putting out. Sadly, we are not through. The next layer of aroma comes in the form of lotion that a large portion of the population cannot seem to stop applying to their skin. I mean, before Bath and Body Works came into existence were people just covered in open wounds as a result of how dry their skin was? I doubt it, but that's what they would have you think. And heaven forbid that a person stop smelling like apple blossom, or peach bouquet, or sweet pea (this name conjures up images I don't want to think of), or smelly-Mcsmell of the month. I mean the smell of these lotions is strong enough to stun a large buffalo if you ask me. Who hasn't had a co-worker would couldn't make it through a 30 minute staff meeting without needing to re-apply? Its getting to be as bad as smoking. Can we get a ban on public lotioning? Can someone please show that secondhand lotioning has harmful effects? I'm dying here.

In addition to the lotion-madness that has gripped the world around me, its hard to get in a car that doesn't have some super-pungent car "fresh"ner overpowering me. And I don't know if its swept the nation yet, but Utah is completely under the power of the scented candle czars, who have convinced a large portion of my state that normal house smell is just not up to snuff for visitors. One must always have a candle of some special aroma greeting, nay bombarding, each guest as they enter. Between candle hotplates and candlelighters I keep expecting the candle market to pass iPods for number of most available accessories.

Now, please realize there are some smells that I like (fresh brownies, certain perfumes, gasoline), just like they are foods that I really enjoy. Being a picky eater, doesn't make me dislike all food. Being a picky smeller doesn't make me hate all smells, but if you are personally carrying a cocktail of upwards of 10 different aroma in your aura, chances are one of them is going to be too much for me.

In the interest of keeping this post brief, I'll save some of my other pickyness stories for later this week.

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #6: Arctic Circle's Bacon Cheeseburger

Its a little sad for me to note that I haven't made an entries in the blog since last Friday's entry. Maybe that will be my new goal: at least one entry in between the Friday features. Anyway, I'm starting to get busy with a little project for school (we'll call it the Spring Break Wrecker for now), and I'm actually heading down to Las Vegas for the weekend. So I can't be beholden to this blog at all times.

Anyway, on to this week's feature: The Black Angus Bacon Cheeseburger at Arctic Cirlce (Hold the pickles, please).



Now, as a kid I remember eating at the Arctic Circle in the old downtown part of Tooele (even older than the current downtown). But as an adult, I never seemed to live near one. Just recently I realized that there was one just a few lights from where I live, so I decided to give it a shot. And I'm glad I did. While their menu is loaded with different burgers, chicken sandwiches, and fish items, I've yet to move beyond my first selection, the Bacon Cheeseburger.

Nothing too fancy, unless you consider bacon fancy, in which case we need to have a talk about which part of the pig qualifies as fancy (My vote goes to ham -- anything that can be the main course of a holiday meal deserves the title "fancy". Sorry bacon. I love you, but you ain't fancy). But always taste good and goes great with their fries and fry sauce.

The fact that they have fry sauce featured promiently on their menu made me look a little further and I discovered that, like KFC, Arctic Circle is a Utah original. I think we should consider a new state slogan: "Utah -- Cradle of several fast food joints". I'm not sure I even what our current slogan is. I remember when I was little seeing stuff that said "Utah: A pretty great state!" or something to that effect. Not quite "Best Valley City", but not much better.

Friday's Featured Fast Food Favorite #5: Orange Chicken at Panda Express

I'm finally getting this up at 7 on a Friday night. (Don't worry, I have plans at 8, I'm not home blogging away my sadness).

This week's Fast Food Fav comes to you courtesy of Panda Express. A restaurant that I frequent from time to time. Its not very close to home but on occasion I'll stop on the way home from school. Anyway, as you may or may not know, they have a fairly wide selection of entrees. The problem is that so far I've yet to find anything that compares with the Orange Chicken or even comes close.



So its kind of a double edged sword. I LOVE the orange chicken, but am not really excited about anything else on the menu. So I can't really go there frequently and just eat the same meal over and over again. You would think they could come up with something else as good as that. In fact they've had some entrees I like pretty well that have disappeared off the menu (sweet and sour chicken, beef and potato).

But the orange chicken can stand alone as their signature item, and maybe someone will get suckered into ordering the Beef and Mushrooms (which is really the Mushrooms and Vegetables and a tiny bit of Beef).

The terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles! aka Asking a Girl on a Date

Can I just say that even now at age 27, dating is not an easy thing. Calling a girl and asking her out on a date, even when she, to date, has not fled, screaming, away from my prescence. From the very first time I asked a girl out down to the very last, there always is a feeling of almost crippling terror that seizes me as I make the phone call to ask a girl out. Why? I don't know. But whenever I make that call its like what I imagine jumping out of an airplane must be like. Once you've dialed the number there's pretty much no turning back, and yet you really aren't sure whats going to happen when they pick up on the other end.

Given that, the relief/elation/amazement that I get when she says that yes, she'd be willing to go to a restaurant with me and eat some food, is pretty much uncomparable as well. There's just something about asking someone out on a date that makes me feel so completely vulnerable that it feels like walking a tight rope. Even after having successfully completed numerous such calls.

So girls, if there are any girls who haven't already gotten bored by my descriptions of fast food and obscure presidents, please be nice when a guy calls to ask you out. If you don't want to go out, try to make it clear so he doesn't have to get shot down repeatedly. If you do want to go out, but can't at that day/time, say you'd like to go out another time. If you want to and can go out, let him know you are excited. Just some tips for helping us date, since its clear that you think we should.