"someone grab the tea, its going overboard!"

So, the Failout bill passed. I couldn't be more disappointed. The original proposal was set at 700,000,000,000 Dollars yes that's 11 zeros. To compare that to something Forbes reports that had Bill Gates not donated any of his money to charity including the Bill and Melinda gates foundation he would have about 90 billion dollars (he is currently around 40 bill er so). Also everyone is crying about how much the war in iraq costs, its currently at about 580 billion. just some prospective.

The rage I feel comes into play when the bill that President Bush signed came out to 850 BILLION DOLLARS!!! that's an extra 150 billion dollars on what? WOODEN ARROWS BUILD FOR CHILDREN! TAX BREAKS FOR NASCAR RACE TRACKS, all pushed through and earmarked because this is a hot issue.

So instead of coming up with a better plan, they push a crappy plan on the taxpayers saying its good for us because its the only thing we can do and that if we do nothing the world will end. I called there bluff from the get go when Secretary Paulsen drafted this failout plan.

When he wrote it up it was 3 pages long. it bloated to 110 in the house before it was shot down. The senate picked it up and now its at? any guess's? 200 pages 300, wrong 487 pages of earmarks and legalese

Another thing. Paulsen now has a blank check, read this mess:

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

Not only that but he can buy any asset he wants and only has to tell congress what he bought once every quarter with NO explanation. So he can buy anything he wants. retail, commercial, industrial, pawn shop loans. whatever. Can you Smell the fail? Paulsen is an EX- Executive of Goldman sachs. which is one, of if not the biggest company on wall street. talk about back room deals.

Excuse me while I grab the tea.

Writing

"Calvin: I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog! Want to see my book report?

Hobbes: (Reading Calvin's paper) "The Dynamics of Interbeing and Monological Imperatives in Dick and Jane: A Study in Psychic Transrelational Gender modes." Calvin: Academia, here I come!"

In other notes, I really enjoyed this Talk:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_harris_collects_stories.html

Real Salt Lake

We went to a Real Salt Lake (pronounced "re-Al") soccer game with some friends and family last Saturday. We had tickets for Zions bank box seats, which was also catered by a excellent local BBQ joint.

As I watched and enjoyed the game I realized that I didn't pursue a lot of the things I was interested in, in part because of my brothers likes and dislikes had a huge part in what I spent my time on. So as I watched these athletes run around for over an hour and a half I was impressed with there stamina and endurance. Most of both teams played the entire game.

In all the sports I played growing up I peeked at around 8th or 9th grade. Right around the time people started the puberty thing is when my crazy good skill became mediocre. I ended up not having the drive to compete for the first string or the best positions because I had to work to get them, they weren't handed to me.

So I find myself sitting in the stands telling myself "I could be down there" or "what is that guy thinking? I could do better than that!" then I start to entertain the thought of actually working out, getting in shape, being better than most, then reality sets in.

In an alternate universe this post was about how fun sporting events are to attend, regardless of what sport. I went to a SLC Bee's baseball game a Utah Blaze Arena football game and now a Real SL game and had a great time at all of them. I think its the thrill of the competition that makes it enjoyable for me.

Mai bebe

So a few nights ago my baby was in the bed with Holly and I. Holly is a light sleeper and often will nurse in bed. Well after the baby was done nursing I figure it was my turn to cuddle with her (the baby) So I pulled her over and stroked her hair as she went to sleep.

Well, then I wanted to go to sleep but I didn't want to wake her, so I kinda rolled on to my back with her on my arm and its not to bad. As it turns out I can't fall asleep on my back*. I have to be on my side, by myself. But my baby's there and shes to cute/tired to wake.

So I lay there on my back falling in and out of sleep for another 3 hours all crooked on the bed with my head hanging off the side and my legs across Holly so my baby can sleep peacefully. Enough ended up being enough and I slid her back over to Holly with only the slightest stir and fell promptly to sleep.

*more on this later

The Problem with Standing for Something. Part 1

This could probably be view in a glass half full sort of way but I find myself on the half empty team with this topic as I debate and analyze it over and over in my mind. I've been kicking it around in my mind for at least the last six years but have yet to write it down. Writing helps to clarify. So here it goes

The Problem with standing for something means your a target for someone. example: I Love to do X and I am very passionate about it. Wait forget the X here is a real example. There is a restaurant in SLC that serves "Living" food. What the crap is living food? Well its food that isn't cooked above 118 degrees Fahrenheit and is vegan. So wow, where do i start? I guess thats part of the problem as I see it because in my mind thats silly, and I'm not about to pay 15 bucks for lettuces and nuts. So its easy for me to point fingers at this chief because wheres he going to go? He can't say, well I was just kidding or, look I'm eating a cow now, yumbo. No he has to defend what he stands for, regardless if the accuser is making a legitimate point or merely taking a cheap shot. So the question is how does the chief respond without getting defensive, upset, or sounding like a raving lunatic?

Thats where I am at. I believe things, and when questioned (not in a "what do you believe/think/feel kind of way) I get defensive, no I get Offensive, I want to go after them and something they stand for, but when they don't take a stand for anything I'm left with nothing. Am I making any sense? maybe not yet. maybe another example will illustrate

In Florida theres was a guy who was very anti religion, not just Mormon, religion in general. He had the life of a super star, unemployed, smoked, drank, no shower for days and cloths from the gutter. So when he attacked or belittled my beliefs, what do I do? I explain, I talk nice. It evolved into calling him out on his smoking (in the course of 5 minutes he had downed 3 cigs and was onto his 4th) for which he "believed" in, which obviously did nothing. I guess I just want people to stand for something so I can have something to attack when they attack me.

One last thing, a bumper stick a brother had related to me which I agree with. (something else to attack)
In opposition to the bumper sticker that says
"Respect Diversity"
I favor the sticker that says
"Not All Diversity Is Respectable"

Arena

Tyson and I played 3 games in the 2v2 arena last night. Team comp: Paladin, Warlock.

after a few skirmishes we queued for the real deal.

Game 1. The first game was a flop. we went against a warlock and rogue combo. they completely shut me down. they sapped me and opened up on Tyson. i was then feared right out of sap. so i trinket ed and started to heal. i was then spell locked by the warlocks felhunter. right after the spell lock i went to cast another heal and i was blinded, i bubbled out of that and before i could get a flash heal off Tyson was dead. it was a quick game. ill chalk that one up to paladins being so susceptible to cc and my unwillingness to pop my bubble sooner. we lost 14 points.

Game 2. Mirror match. Paladin/Lock vs Paladin/Lock. This was a long fight as you can imagine. Tyson played it really well though, ended up attacking both players and casting full dots on them. I was watching what the other team was doing to see if there where things i could improve which helped because i changed my aura from concentration to shadow like the other paladin did. beyond that i switched in my pve gear for the + healing and mp5. Tyson stayed on the paladin forcing him to heal. we had the advantage as the warlock had summoned his fel guard instead of his fel hunter. 5 minutes in the other paladin and I where equal on mana. Through an unintentionally well timed course of events we forced the paladin to bubble and spend a lot of mana healing. the paladin was also spending a lot of mana trying to kill the fel hunter but I was able to keep it healed. all the while Tyson's dots ticked away. they ended up killing our felhunter which was summoned back immediately. The pally at this point had no mana and was at half health, we tried to burst him down but he was able to stay alive. we waited for nubcoil to finish its cool down and then we struck. holy shock Judged Wrath and dots/shadow bolt and he died. I ended the fight w/ 50% mana and full health. we got 16 points off the game. Well played IMO.

Game 3. Was awesome. We played a Feral druid and Spriest. When playing priests of any kind it is most important to LOS them at all costs. If you don't you will be oom and the game will end quickly. The game started with me being mangled on my mount by the druid. I stayed mounted and ran around the grave in middle of the arena 3-4 times. when I dis mounted I had about half health because of bleed effects and dots. I healed right away and started to dance around the grave with the druid on me and the spriest trying to mana burn. the typical fear/burn that priests do was effectively shut down because as soon as I was feared the priest was feared by tyson, that saved me a lot of mana. he ended up not getting 1 mana burn on me which had a huge affect on the game. The druid could put out a lot of dmg and Tyson at one point was down to 823 health. to which I had to holy shock, bubble, run away from mass dispel flash heal, holy light, and he lived. the priest was oom with 1/8th his health when they left the arena, we didn't even get the pleasure of giving them a dirt nap. They just left. we got 18 points off the deal.


p.s. unedited for content.

Calvin & Hobbs

I've been searching the interweb for intellectual entertainment and was lead to calvin and hobbs quotes. Though there are many quotes out there that will spawn blideas (just made that up, it is a mix of ideas and blogs....maybe idogs would work better) but this one I found extra tasty.

"Why isn't my life like a situation comedy? Why don't I have a bunch of friends with nothing better to do but drop by and instigate wacky adventures? Why aren't my conversations peppered with spontaneous witticisms? Why don't my friends demonstrate heartfelt concern for my well being when I have problems? ...I gotta get my life some writers."