Ubiquity

Found a cool little Firefox add on called Ubiquity. It is a way for you to get the web to work for you. Fully user expendable and you can add functionality to it. Here is a little video about it. If you use Firefox (I do) it could add a lot to your web experience. One thing that I like is that it makes it easy to embed maps into email messages or to email content from a page to someone. So give it a try. And if you are not using Firefox, then give that a try too!









Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Quotes from Obama's speech

I have not 100% made up my mind about which candidate I will vote for in the Presidential race. But I wanted to share a quote.

I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain.

The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together, and bled together, and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a red America or a blue America; they have served the United States of America.

This is not partisan. This is American.

Fact Check Friday...

The Democratic Convention is over and the Republican Convention is about to begin and so I bring you another episode of "Just the Facts" the weekly vidcast from FactCheck.org. As the election draws closer it is important that we get accurate information that is not just emotional rhetoric. So, take a look at this weeks installment...

Wait Wait.

If you don't listen to "Wait Wait. Don't Tell Me!" You should. "Wait Wait. Don't Tell Me" is a weekly quiz show on NPR. Here the show is broadcast on Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM on 91.5 KBSX. I typically listen to the show in podcast format and enjoy it when I am driving to for work. You can get the podcast through iTunes or from their website here. On their site they have a daily quiz. I wanted to share the quiz from Monday. (I use email!)

Almost time...

College football season is almost here. Time to get ready for the Orange and Blue. Here are a few things to wet your whistle.

Dedicated....

Sunday was the dedication of the Twin Falls Idaho Temple. Tammy and I attended and it was a great experience. To be able to hear the words of a living Prophet of God dedicate the House of the Lord for it's divine purposes was truly inspiring. I have the opportunity of driving past the Twin Falls Temple whenever I work in Twin Falls. Here is a video from when the cornerstone was laid.

Happy Birthday Tammy!

I wanted to wish my lovely wife of eleven years a Happy Birthday! Tammy is a wonderful wife and mother and does so much for our family. She sacrifices so much for the kids and I to be happy and have a great home life. Whether it's reminding us to have family scripture study or family prayer or reminding me that they ARE kids or helping me to be a better father; she does it all. She deserves the best birthday ever! I love you honey!

Happy Birthday!

To Boldly Go...

Space... The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It's continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.

My uncle Danny was a Trekkie. I'll admit that as a kid I loved going to visit my uncle and see all of his cool Star Trek toys. The Klingon Bird of Prey, The Romulan Bird of Prey, and of course The Enterprise. He had so many models that he had built or kits that he has put together. I remember when he lived upstairs at my grandmas house how I loved to go up there and look at all his cool stuff. I remember as we got older that he would take my brother and I to the Star Trek movies at the Karcher Twin Theater. And there were many Sunday nights that we would go visit my grandparents and find Danny watching reruns of the original Star Trek series. As I grew up I realized that I had a little Trekkie in me, as well.

I never watched Star Trek the Next Generation while it was originally airing, until I was serving as a missionary in Southern California. I had a companion May of 1994 that was Trekkie and as the series finale was about to air we were invited by a family from the church that lived in our area to watch the final episode with them. So we enjoyed dinner with the family and then viewed the last episode of Star Trek: TNG. I had to admit that I really liked it. I had seen bits and pieces before, but not really full episodes. When I returned home from missionary service I took many opportunities to view reruns and keep up to date on the happenings in the 24th Century. Even after getting married, my wife not too much of a trekkie, I would find episodes in syndication and watch. When I find Star Trek on even now, I like to enjoy an episode. So whenever I hear about or think about Star Trek I think of my uncle Danny. Danny passed away in 1995 just two weeks before I was to return home from serving a mission for the LDS church. So he didn't see much beyond Star Trek the Next Generation.

So I have to admit that when I heard about the New Star Trek Movie that is coming out in 2009 I was excited. I know that Danny would be excited too. The new film is a prequel to the original TV series and concerns the lives or our favorite characters before they were who we knew them as. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, and Checov are all coming back. So mark your calendars May 8, 2009. You know I'll be there (Danny will be there too). Live long and Prosper. Engage! Beam me up, I can't wait.

See more here.

Fact Check Friday...More Ads debunked

With election day getting closer I suspect that we will see more outlandish claims from both sides of the political isle. Factcheck.org does it again, buy helping to clear through the misinformation.

Blog links....LPT part II

Now I know that not everyone reads the same blogs. We all have different friends and although it is fun to see where you end up whilst clicking links from blog to blog. Here is one I wanted to make sure those of you who don't click on my links, were directed to. Here is a superior post about our recent sojourn to the wilderness. Have a gander, see the pics, relive our memories. Until next year!

GEWP 4EVR

Lucky Peak Camping....2008

Did you every wonder what it would be like if you were in a location with no communication with the outside world, only one way in or out, without electricity, no running water or indoor plumbing? That was our experience this past weekend.

But it was not as bleak as all that; it was a fun time had by all (even the kids [and adults] longing to play video games). It was nice not to worry about who was calling or what the kids were watching or anything. It was a worry-free weekend. Three days on the lake can rejuvenate you. We went wake boarding, knee boarding, got pulled behind the boat in a tube, even went fishing on Thursday and Friday nights.The only casualty were my Dragon sunglasses. I dropped them in the lake while we were fishing. They went down deep, too. But a small price to pay for a weekend of fun.
Here is where we were:

Click to view in Google maps.

We went with some friends that I have written about before (the rockband crew). I think everyone enjoyed themselves. From the Thursday night trolling, just the guys to Friday night trolling with eight kids and still not catching anything until fishing off the dock on Saturday morning. Both nights were fun just sitting around talking about everything. Then seeing the noisy campers next door get their just reward for being too loud and pulling tubers in the dark (I had never seen someone get pulled over in the water before).

But a highpoint would have to be when we were christened as real rockers...

GEWP 4EVR

Had to share...

I was purusing the blogs of Idaho and I found something that I had to share...Posted on her blog http://www.jenxmusic.com/, Jen shared a video that I thought was pretty funny. I imagine that when some guys get dumped or feel disappointment in their lives this how they react. I would NEVER act this way...

Personas...nope not persons in Spanish

"Personas are lightweight, easy to install and easy to change “skins” for your Firefox web browser." That is what personas is. I am a techie, but not a programmer by any means. So I tried Personas, and here is the result.

My first try with personas I HAD to try Boise State. You can't tell me that if a Cougar fan was here he wouldn't do the same thing. It is not perfect, but a work in progress. But I could see this as a great way to market and promote brand recognition. And it was fun! So check it out yourself. Here is the link.

The Bloggernacle

Have you come across the Bloggernacle? If you have read any LDS oriented blogs then you have. According to Wikipedia:

"Bloggernacle is a name that has been adopted by some in the LDS blogging community to describe the Mormon portion of the blogosphere. It was created as a play on words of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir."

If you are looking for a good place to find places in the Bloggernacle you can start here.

So I was reading in the Bloggernacle and found a quote that I thought was great. It is from a devotional given at BYU May 2005 entitled, The “Welding Link” of Culture by VAN C. GESSEL. I was reading a post on By Common Consent about what constitutes something good or bad as far as art and literature go. I received my undergraduate degree in Spanish and in many classes I read short stories and novels that I would not read to my seven year old, but that did not make them bad. I agree with the author that it depends on the situation. If it is something that is in the world that can be seen in many forms and locations or is it a lie?

Anyway, I wanted to share this quote about why it is important to learn about things that might not be in total harmony with the teachings or standards of the church.

"Eight years ago, just after I was appointed dean of the College of Humanities, Elder Henry B. Eyring, then commissioner of the Church Educational System, challenged me to spend some time pondering the answer to a simple question. He asked, “Why do we teach a book like The Great Gatsby at BYU?”…And why is Fitzgerald’s novel about adultery, obsession, alcoholism, and murder taught at a place like BYU? Well, in part, because all those who are crowned with glory and immortality and eternal lives will have, in their own kingdoms, an array of offspring who are, in their own ways, disobedient, annoying, and horrifying. We will have to learn how to deal with an abundance of our own Jay Gatsbys and Sweeney Todds and Pol Pots and Marquises de Sade and Brian David Mitchells. Just as it is presently the work and the glory of our Father in Heaven to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life—in spite of all He knows about us, which is everything—we hope it will someday be our work and our glory to help provide those same blessings for countless souls who are very much unlike ourselves, and many of them will be supremely unlovable. In my experience, the best way to come to know such people—and not merely to know them, but to know them well enough to be able to love them beneath all the layers of their sins and imperfections—is through the instrument of good books. After all, the Lord has repeatedly instructed us to seek wisdom “out of the best books” (D&C 88:118; 109:7, 14)."

We are instructed to "seek wisdom" and there are many places that wisdom can come from. If we limit ourselves then we are not seeing the world for what it is; a glorious place prepared for us by our Heavenly Father.

Twin Falls with Darling Wife.

For any of you that have read this for a while (there is at least one person) I travel through southern Idaho for my job. This past Thursday I had the chance to go to Twin Falls. I talked to my darling wife and she decided to come with me. We let the kids spend the day with grandma and grandpa and the two of us took a day trip.

Now this was for work, so I did actually have to work and that took about five hours or so. But darling wife and I were able to have lunch together and she did some sightseeing (can you do that in Twin Falls?). Then after I finished working we decided that we would go together to the Twin Falls Temple Open House.

The Temple was very beautiful. It was also very enjoyable, just the two of us. It is not too often that we get time like alone like that. I reminded me of when we were first married before any children, when we would spend hours together doing anything. The drive wasn't too bad we talked and listened to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" podcast edition. I have got darling wife into listening to that. If you have not listened to that program it is great... It will test your knowledge of current events.

I loved spending time with her. I love spending time together. I love her!

Fact Check Friday...New Ads debunked

In this weeks episode the folks at Factcheck.org debunk some political ads that have been in the press lately. A great place to get non-partisan information, not just polarizing sound bytes.