It's interesting how many people's jobs may be glamorous. Me, I get paid to fly around the country, try to inspire others, and stay in hotels where I use mini shampoos. The side people don't see is where I continually have to pack a suitcase because I'm in a new hotel every day. I don't really get to talk to anyone because I don't drink or smoke or go to strip clubs. That means I get to speak in front of an audience twice a day for 2 hours, then go to my hotel room. I don't speak with anyone for a whole week. I'll tell you right now, it gets kinda lonely.
I'm in Alaska right now. In the morning, I'll get up around 4:00am to catch a flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage. I was on two planes yesterday. I'll catch a 1:00am flight on Friday.
Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that I have a job, especially one that pays well, but it's not what it appears on the surface.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Service
"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and ver agree to serve. You don't have to know the second law of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Everything is Amazing and Nobody's Happy
Today's post is inspired by this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus
(Sorry, embedding has been disabled.)
We live in a time of such convenience. I marveled today at how I set my oven to clean... and it cleaned itself! Amazing, I know. We often take for granted such conveniences and think that the world owes us something when these things don't work properly.
I often feel these amazements, mostly, I believe, due to my time spent out of this country. Just about everyone in this country has a microwave, self-cleaning ovens, and my favorite: a washer and dryer. I was at the store the other day marveling at all the different ways food is packaged and pre-prepared to make our lives more simple. In South America, if you want canned food, you better be prepared to drive to a large city, so you could go to a large grocery store, and shell out some extra money so you can buy one of the five canned foods... they just don't do it there.
All these conveniences are awesome, in the true sense of the word... not like hot dogs.
http://www.youtube.com/v/0rYT0YvQ3hs&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus
(Sorry, embedding has been disabled.)
We live in a time of such convenience. I marveled today at how I set my oven to clean... and it cleaned itself! Amazing, I know. We often take for granted such conveniences and think that the world owes us something when these things don't work properly.
I often feel these amazements, mostly, I believe, due to my time spent out of this country. Just about everyone in this country has a microwave, self-cleaning ovens, and my favorite: a washer and dryer. I was at the store the other day marveling at all the different ways food is packaged and pre-prepared to make our lives more simple. In South America, if you want canned food, you better be prepared to drive to a large city, so you could go to a large grocery store, and shell out some extra money so you can buy one of the five canned foods... they just don't do it there.
All these conveniences are awesome, in the true sense of the word... not like hot dogs.
http://www.youtube.com/v/0rYT0YvQ3hs&hl=en&fs=1
Friday, March 20, 2009
Grammar Nazi
Come on people! The correct usage of the word "too" is to be applied when something is in excess. For example, "I'm sorry if that rehearsal was to tiring" is incorrect. In this case "too" should be applied.
On that same note, there, their, and they're also have different meanings.
There: Indicates a location. "Look over there."
Their: Possesive (that means "belonging to them") "It was their cat."
They're: A contraction meaning "They Are" "They're really tired"
These things aren't that hard to remember.
On that same note, there, their, and they're also have different meanings.
There: Indicates a location. "Look over there."
Their: Possesive (that means "belonging to them") "It was their cat."
They're: A contraction meaning "They Are" "They're really tired"
These things aren't that hard to remember.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
What's on your Mind?
Ever notice the ever growing way to communicate with people but not really communicate with them? My belief is that society is growing farther apart the more methods with which we have to communicate.
Twitter: Update what you are doing and hope that it's clever enough that someone cares enough to respond.
Blogging: Good for finding out about people, yet still lacking in true conversation.
MySpace: Can you even read stuff on people's pages anymore- it's so cluttered with other things
Facebook: You can add someone as a friend and then never talk to them again. You can update your page and status and even comment on other people's items, yet that's all it is, a comment. If you don't want to talk with someone, you block them or ignore them. If you want to invite them somewhere, they can get a mass invitation. "Oh, by the way, party at my house on Friday and I cared so much that I am personally inviting you... and the other 400 people on my friends list."
Texting: "I don't really want to talk to you, so... here's a short message instead. We can converse like this."
Message Boards: "Look how clever I am to come up with a response to this meaningless subject, see how smart I am?"
I think we are becoming too reliant on these forms of communication as a society and that our interactions are losing meaning and value as we continue to do so. Someone I know pointed out that as our forms of communication have progressed, its value has decreased.
I have noticed that as we have "progressed" our communication, our words, have become less descriptive, weak, and I daresay, redundant. I was reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island the other day and soaked in all the radiance of so many prepossesing words that appear to have been forgotten. No one writes like that anymore and it's sad. America's literature has been "dumbed down" to fit the lowest level. In that process, America as a whole has been "dumbed down."
*Heavy Sigh*
Twitter: Update what you are doing and hope that it's clever enough that someone cares enough to respond.
Blogging: Good for finding out about people, yet still lacking in true conversation.
MySpace: Can you even read stuff on people's pages anymore- it's so cluttered with other things
Facebook: You can add someone as a friend and then never talk to them again. You can update your page and status and even comment on other people's items, yet that's all it is, a comment. If you don't want to talk with someone, you block them or ignore them. If you want to invite them somewhere, they can get a mass invitation. "Oh, by the way, party at my house on Friday and I cared so much that I am personally inviting you... and the other 400 people on my friends list."
Texting: "I don't really want to talk to you, so... here's a short message instead. We can converse like this."
Message Boards: "Look how clever I am to come up with a response to this meaningless subject, see how smart I am?"
I think we are becoming too reliant on these forms of communication as a society and that our interactions are losing meaning and value as we continue to do so. Someone I know pointed out that as our forms of communication have progressed, its value has decreased.
I have noticed that as we have "progressed" our communication, our words, have become less descriptive, weak, and I daresay, redundant. I was reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island the other day and soaked in all the radiance of so many prepossesing words that appear to have been forgotten. No one writes like that anymore and it's sad. America's literature has been "dumbed down" to fit the lowest level. In that process, America as a whole has been "dumbed down."
*Heavy Sigh*
Monday, March 16, 2009
Both
"Would I rather be feared or loved? Um… Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me." -Michael Scott
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Politics
"In America, they have the right to bare arms, in Europe, thy have the right to bare breasts."
-Eddie Izzard
-Eddie Izzard
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Today's Quote
"You don't have to be a genius. You don't have to be a straight-A student. You just have to do your very best with all the capability you have. You have to do your very best. And somehow, if you do that, God will open the way before you and the sun will shine, and your lives will be fruitful and you will accomplish great good in the world in which you take a part."
Dedication of the Gordon B. Hinckley Building, 22 October 2002, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Dedication of the Gordon B. Hinckley Building, 22 October 2002, Brigham Young University-Idaho
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I've Got a Yolk for You
This morning I have been humbled. I had not only one, but two boiled eggs explode in my face today
I was at the concierge and needed protein. All they had was cold boiled eggs. Cold eggs make me gag, so I heated three of them in the provided microwave. I was careful to cut slits in them and cover them so they wouldn't explode in the microwave. They seemed fine, but when I went to separate the yolks from the whites: SPLAT! Yolk everywhere!
"Wow, I've never seen an egg do that before." Commented the concierge attendant. Little did she know, it wasn't over. I made an attempt to wipe up some of the mess, but only managed to grind it into the table.
I began a slow attack of the second egg with my fork, this time covering it with my hand. The funny thing about this action is that when an object ricochets off of an object that close, it seems to send it farther, thus making a ginormous mess. And as the hot yellow substance came in contact with my hand, I felt not only the pain from the heat, but I think I also heard a chuckle from the attendant. My degradation was complete. I feigned wiping up the mess once again, humbly finished my breakfast and then left a nice tip on the table right before I slipped out of the room drawing as little attention as possible.
I was at the concierge and needed protein. All they had was cold boiled eggs. Cold eggs make me gag, so I heated three of them in the provided microwave. I was careful to cut slits in them and cover them so they wouldn't explode in the microwave. They seemed fine, but when I went to separate the yolks from the whites: SPLAT! Yolk everywhere!
"Wow, I've never seen an egg do that before." Commented the concierge attendant. Little did she know, it wasn't over. I made an attempt to wipe up some of the mess, but only managed to grind it into the table.
I began a slow attack of the second egg with my fork, this time covering it with my hand. The funny thing about this action is that when an object ricochets off of an object that close, it seems to send it farther, thus making a ginormous mess. And as the hot yellow substance came in contact with my hand, I felt not only the pain from the heat, but I think I also heard a chuckle from the attendant. My degradation was complete. I feigned wiping up the mess once again, humbly finished my breakfast and then left a nice tip on the table right before I slipped out of the room drawing as little attention as possible.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Planes, trains, and automobiles...
The funny thing about me and airplanes is that I never seem to be able to stay awake through takeoff, and sometimes landing. It probably goes back farther than I can remember. I began flying shortly after I was born. My mom told me that she would take me in her arms on the plane and as she approached her seat, the nearby passengers' eyes would widen in horror at the same time speaking to her their thoughts of displeasure at the thought of being stuck next to the lady with the baby. By the time we had landed, their horror had faded to relief and their displeasure to admiration for my mother.
As I sit here on this plane now, the air rushing by, sounding against the outer hull like so many tiny marbles hitting a tin plate rhythmically, every nano-second, I dwell about what's going on in the world. We have a president who has just spent billions upon billions of dollars trying to temporarily allay the fears of so many Americans. We are at war in other countries and there seems to be no end. We are at war in our homes fighting against weapons such as pornography and struggling to keep our families strong and safe. People are scared, wondering where the money for their next heating bill will come from. Jobless Americans are everywhere to be found. Our politicians are dishonest: to a greater degree than normal. Hollywood is perverting truth, honor, integrity, and delving into sacredness, displaying pearls before swine. All this negativity and yet, I feel calm. I still have my own burdens and stresses, yet right here, right now, I return to that little child on the plane. Calm, quiet, waiting for fear to be allayed and for positivity to take its hold in the lives of those nearby.
As I sit here on this plane now, the air rushing by, sounding against the outer hull like so many tiny marbles hitting a tin plate rhythmically, every nano-second, I dwell about what's going on in the world. We have a president who has just spent billions upon billions of dollars trying to temporarily allay the fears of so many Americans. We are at war in other countries and there seems to be no end. We are at war in our homes fighting against weapons such as pornography and struggling to keep our families strong and safe. People are scared, wondering where the money for their next heating bill will come from. Jobless Americans are everywhere to be found. Our politicians are dishonest: to a greater degree than normal. Hollywood is perverting truth, honor, integrity, and delving into sacredness, displaying pearls before swine. All this negativity and yet, I feel calm. I still have my own burdens and stresses, yet right here, right now, I return to that little child on the plane. Calm, quiet, waiting for fear to be allayed and for positivity to take its hold in the lives of those nearby.