It happened to me...

If you know me you know that I have kind of a lead foot. From 1995-1997 I received enough speeding tickets to get me one point away from having a problem with my drivers licence. I mean, I was attending school in Eastern Idaho my family lived in Western Idaho- between was just desert. After driving it once, you've seen it enough. Anyway, after being married for almost fourteen years there have been ups and downs with my donation to the police quota fund. But there was this one time...

I was driving on the highway from Interstate 84 to Twin Falls and the speed limit is 60 MPH. I thought I was going that speed, but apparently I was not. I was pulled over just before crossing the Perrine Bridge into Twin Falls. I guess I should also explain, that I was talking to my wife the entire time. I didn't have time to hang up and once the office had left me with my ticket to the policeman's ball (wait, policeman don't have balls. They have galas!) Tammy asked me, "What was that?". even though she had just listened to the entire conversation.

Here is my word of warning: If you get pulled over TURN OFF THE PHONE!

Freakin' Fast Friday...

I woke up this morning at 5:20 AM and was on the road by 6:00 AM. On my way to Twin Falls for work. As I have said before I love being up that early to see the sunrise. Something else was out early this morning... The Wind. It was very windy on my way down to Twin Falls. As it turns out I was driving INTO the wind the entire trip there. That would explain why my mileage was much worse than normal for a trip to Twin Falls. 


I finished with class at 3:00 PM, with one thought in my mind... Getting home! Tonight I get to spend the evening with all four kids. Tammy is going out on a girls night to watch "New Moon". She and her friends have read all the books and have been waiting since the announcement of the film to see it. I don't feel left out. I have something else tonight that I am looking forward to...


Tonight is Boise State vs. Utah State on ESPN2. I am sure there were a lot of Boise State fans driving down to Logan, UT for the game. I am not one of them. I will be watching it from the comfort of my own family room. I can tell you the State Police expected a lot of Boise State fans to make the trek... they were out in force when I was driving home. I guess they are trying to make up the budget deficit they are going to have. 


Well off to watch the game... thank goodness for DVRs.  GO Broncos!

News from the job front...

Not to worry, I am not out of a job or job hunting (I happen to like my job and stay pretty busy). There are however many blogs an websites emerging dealing with people that are that situation. Not the typical "Here's what you need to do" mumbo-jumbo, but real people documenting the experience they are having while trying to market themselves and survive in this down economy.


It is interesting to see how people adapt in these trying times. Through other economic turmoil in history there have always been retrospects and compilations of peoples experiences gathered after the fact. But there are many people that you can read about the experience that they are having right now and what they are feeling.


As a people we (Americans) are pretty resilient. No matter the situation whether natural disaster or man-made crisis we tend to pull our selves up and move on. These blogs are examples of people doing just that. Our history is littered with stories of people doing that exact same thing and in fifty or an hundred years we may read about some of these people that overcame hardship and re-invented themselves and learned how to survive in a different economy than they were accustomed to.


Take time to read about these people who don't ask for pity or judgment. They are just sharing the experience of being American.


Laid Off blogs:


Laid Off Loser (Boise guy documenting the experience- videos from media as well)

Laid Off Artists Survivor Guide

10 Steps for Those Who Get Laid Off

Laid Off Dad

Recently Laid Off

Jobless and Less

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!

Why I blog. Part II of II

Why I blog.


I blog because I like to talk. You can ask my wife, brothers, parents, even co workers. I am a chatterer (is that even a word). I have always been that way. When my honey and I were dating there were times when we would chat on the phone for hours and hours. Sometimes we would talk until one of us was falling asleep, since it was 3:00 AM. She and I still chat. I recently looked at my recent call list on my cell phone and more than 95% are to her. Sometimes they are little things and short conversations other times we talk from the time I leave work until I walk in the door at home 30 minutes later.


One problem that I Have due to my need to chat is that I am an habitual interrupter. Again, you can ask all the people previously named and they’ll tell you. But the person that gets the brunt of this bad habit is my honey. There is no excuse for it, I just do it. My dad does and so does my brother. I guess we just grew up and had to interrupt to get our voice heard.


With blogging there is no one to interrupt but myself. So I can ramble on and on about whatever and it is ok. And if I decide to change topics halfway though I can and there is no one to tell me that I am wrong.


I guess I blog because I have things to say. Right now I want to say that I love my honey and the little bees. They keep me going every day. When I am not with them I think about them all the time. My honey does so much for me and the little bees. And after almost 11 years we still have fun. I love you guys!



I blog.

Welfare....

With the recent hubbub over a Mexican flag at a Magic Valley high school and the ensuing debate over what it means to be American and the services that "illegals" get it is interesting to note the WELFARE that some of the Idaho Legislature receive.

From the unequivocal notion comes the following information:

Too busy to debate

No, this time it isn't Sali or Risch, it's House Majority Leader Mike Moyle. Seems he's too busy to debate with Nancy Merrill for the upcoming Republican primary. He says that he's too busy farming, I'd say he's too busy collecting farm subsidies.

Welfare is only bad when poor people are using it to feed their kids.

Updated

While I realize that the fact that Idaho Legislator-farmers receiving farm subsidies is not anything new, it's still pretty interesting. You can have some fun on the Farm Subsidy Database website.

Rep. Thomas F. Loertscher (R)'s interests: $943,937 from 1995-2006
Rep. Mike Moyle (R): $147,844 from 1995-2006
Rep. Dell Raybould (R)'s interests: $715,905 from 1995-2006
Rep. John Stevenson (R): $179,340 from 1995-2001
Rep. Tom Trail (R)'s interests: $69,906 from 1995-2002

Interesting. I wish I had access to that amount of free money$$$. The rich get richer....like always. I guess. Think about this when you go to vote!

Buyer beware....haven't they always said that?

As some of you know I work in the real estate industry, although I am not a Realtor. This morning on the today show there was a story about a homeowner who is suing her Realtor because they paid more for their house than the neighbors. Buyer beware. If I buy a car from a dealer and then someone else buys the same car for less, can I sue? Of course not. You watch the story and judge for yourself.

Minimum Standards...

Minimum standards, those exist in so many places. If I was going to attend college it would be assumed that I would have some understanding of how to read, write, and use a computer. There would not be a place really to learn that after the fact. As I have mentioned in my work I provide classes to people on how to use a tool that they need for their work. This is a tool that without they would not be able to work at all. This tool is computer based and so the classes are taught using computers. We have a great computer lab where I work newer machines that are connected to a fast network. Well, people come to these classes all the time without any understanding of using a computer. None. I have people in class that don’t understand the concept of opening and closing windows, in the environment of a computer operating system. This is ironic since the test that they take to be able to do this job is given on a computer.

When the Macintosh was released in 1984, twenty-three years ago the concept of windows and a computer desktop screen went mainstream. With the imitation of windows to copy the Mac and the prevalence of windows 95, 98, and Xp computers are everywhere. You can by computer supplies at the grocery store. I never took a computer class in school. I never took a typing class (if you watched me type you could tell). So for the most part I taught myself how to use computers and how to get along with them. The program that I teach people about, I learned that by sitting alone in a room and I listened to an audio tape of a class given in Arkansas about this program and tried to follow along on my own. So forgive me if I don’t have patience for people who are too apprehensive (lazy, unmotivated) to invest the time needed to learn computer basics and programs that they need to do their job. During the class I try my hardest not to show my displeasure, but afterwards I always have to vent.

There are basic things that everyone should know; in 2007 basic computer knowledge should be one of them. There are many places to get information many universities and colleges offer low-cost or free classes on subjects for non-degree seeking individuals and usually theses include computer classes.

FYI: This is my 130th post. Who knew I would last this long.

LDS Press Conference...*I learn more programming

The Church held a virtual press conference and asked an Apostle M. Russell Ballard some questions. It is pretty interesting. He answers some common questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Elder Ballard responded to the following questions:

1. Are you Christian? What is the role of Jesus Christ in your faith?

2. Do you worship Jesus Christ in your Sunday services?

3. Why do some people say you are a cult?

4. In what ways are you similar to other Christians?

5. In what ways do you differ from other Christians?

6. Was Joseph Smith a prophet? Are prophets necessary today?

7. Is there scientific proof authenticating the Book of Mormon?

8. Does the Church support political candidates? (this is the question I picked to embed)

I took this chance to try embedding flash on to my blog again. I tried before but it was unsuccessful. We'll see if it works.

Coeur d'Alene here I come.

Today I fly to Coeur d'Alene for the state real estate convention. This will be the first time that I will go. I am pretty excited, we are flying up there this afternoon and then Thursday and Friday we have a trade show that we are working in. There are three of us going from our office. This convention is a big conference of Realtors from all over Idaho. They can take classes to keep their license current and see all the new stuff available in the Real Estate Industry. We are flying on Horizon Air in a two prop plane. Right now it is raining here in Boise, but hopefully we can get above the storm. It is only a 1 hour flight, so we'll see. I'll do some blogging from there and keep this updated.