T h e '10 ! (as in 2010)

"Here's to you and all the rest, and those to whom we love the best..."

It's a new year, a new decade, and a new post, from a new man (sorta).

I personally hope you all have a great year and NOT buy stuff made in china.

That was kindofa joke, but not really.

Here are my predictions for this next year:

- Obama will continue to be a big schmo
- Arizona will keep losing money
- I will date a hottie (more than once, with any luck)
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will hit 14 million members
- You will be more into blogs and blogging than ever before


TO BE CONTINUED

Ideas...

a list of New Year's resolutions:

- break down goals by month, week, etc.
- focus on fixes (personal traits or habits)
- do a good deed daily (like Cub Scout theme)
- write a letter and send it to someone far away
- less facebook, more face time
- discover new things (shakespeare, landscaping, whatever)
- get your vitals taken/find out your blood type
- exercise a little bit, make it physical AND mental
- dabble in various genres of music...mix it up!
- volunteer time
- recycle things

* feel free to add some

'Tis the Season

( you can pretend to open them and make up what is underneath )

for sale

It's a custom New Era Phoenix Suns cap size 7 1/8, in a case, signed by Amare Stoudamire back in '03, when he won NBA Rookie of the Year. He came in to the AZ Mills Hat Club while I was working and signed it.














































It cost $30 originally. I am trying to get at least that, maybe more for the case...
Let me know if interested!
: )

3rd x CHARM

April 1994: trip to Conference w/ Priests

April 2004: trip to Conference w/ the Scout's owner

October 2009: PRETTY MUCH THE BEST CONFERENCE ROAD TRIP EVER! (w/ owner of THE BLACK BURRO)

Stayed at HOTEL WILSON in PROVO (w/ "ROXY" as security)

<--- This is Roxy













AND got to be in the same room as the prophet and the apostles!

...how's that for awesome?

R-a-n-d-o-M

my name is

i have a confession to make:

i checked a movie out of the library called "Babylon A.D." (for curiosity's sake)

and yes, it was a

on rotten tomatoes.com (out of 100)

SO

I'm looking for a champion, who wants to help me out with this bad boy? (one of you Sudoku freaks...this one is tuff)

AND

i still can't believe Disney and Marvel got "married"

time for school, time for books...

"In honor of the annual return to academics I present some former moments of mentoring"













Myself, and Jordan, at Periwinkle Elementary in Albany Oregon, 1998 school year, S.M.A.R.T. reading program
(Good kid but bad pic)



















10 years later-
Me w/ my lil' friend Albert, at Ward Elementary in Tempe Arizona, ASKT program
(he was a character)
check out the website to volunteer http://www.askt.org/

It's about Freedom

U.S. National Debt 1791 to 2006 2006 8,366,862,634,494 2005 7,932,709,661,723 2004 7,379,052,696,330 2003 6,783,231,062,743 2002 6,228,235,965,597 2001 5,807,463,412,200 2000 5,674,178,209,886 1999 5,656,270,901,615 1998 5,526,193,008,897 1997 5,413,146,011,397 1996 5,224,810,939,135 1995 4,973,982,900,709 1994 4,692,749,910,013 1993 4,411,488,883,139 1992 4,064,620,655,521 1991 3,665,303,351,697 1990 3,233,313,451,777 1989 2,857,430,960,187 1988 2,602,337,712,041 1987 2,350,276,890,953 1986 2,125,302,616,658 1985 1,945,941,616,459 1980 930,210,000,000* 1975 576,649,000,000* 1970 389,158,403,690 1965 320,904,110,042 1960 290,216,815,241 1955 280,768,553,188 1950 257,357,352,351 1945 258,682,187,409 1940 42,967,531,037 1935 28,700,892,624 1930 16,185,309,831 1925 20,516,193,887 1920 25,952,456,406 1915 3,058,136,873 1910 2,652,665,838 1905 2,274,615,063 1900 2,136,961,091 1895 1,676,120,983 1890 1,552,140,204 1885 1,863,964,873 1880 2,120,415,370 1875 2,232,284,531 1870 2,480,672,427 1865 2,680,647,869 1860 64,842,287 1855 35,586,956 1850 63,452,773 1845 15,925,303 1840 3,573,343 1835 33,733 1830 48,565,406 1825 83,788,432 1820 91,015,566 1815 99,833,660 1810 53,173,217 1805 82,312,150 1800 82,976,294 1795 80,747,587 1791 75,463,476
* Rounded to Millions (Source: Bureau of the Public Debt - United States Department of the Treasury; www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opd.htm) As we pay homage to our blessed independence, I took it upon myself to include some of the minor details...lest we forget. Congress has increased the debt ceiling to NINE Trillion dollars. All things considered, the burden of debt for every man, woman and child in the country has risen to over $100,000 each. Our nation is overspending at a rate of about $2 billion per day. During the first half of 2005, Americans got poorer at the rate of $80 million per HOUR...China...lends the United States $300 billion per year...Dick Cheney has reminded us that: "Deficits don't matter." In the private sector during 2005, for every $19 Americans earned, they spent $20. AMERICA = empire of debt [Skousen, 2006, p. 299] When we say God Bless America, we really need to mean it viva la liberty!

a QUOTE and a QUESTION

quote:

"Try not to become a person of success. Rather become a person of value." - Albert Einstein

* the challenge now is to pick the topic that this quote falls under, and then reply with a similar type quote of your own (if you can)

question:

You are given a chance to return to any previous point in your life and change a decision you made, but you will lose everything that has happened to you since then. Is there a time you would return to? If so, would you like to retain the memory of the life you are giving up even though you could never recapture it?

* feel free to offer an opinion, or a response
(it might be a bit of a silly question, but how sensible of an answer can you come up with?)

MAY IS FOR...

- movies @ midnight

- meaningful messages on monday mornings
* here's one "Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly." (Benjamin Franklin)

- movies in the park

- me subbing @ Perry High (go Pumas)

- movies w/ movie goodies

- multiple birthday parties

- my car does give rides :)

- many kinds of wings

- morning runs on Saturdays

- Mother's Day! (of course)

- must get my tooth checked out by dentist before it kills me

- man, it's already time for renewing car registration again

- mucho school graduations

- Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games

- making snowcones

- marking up the conference Ensign articles

- meeting the author (and i know her brother)

- maximizing salads, minimizing meats

- memories of those who've passed on

- mixin' it up a little

- mental exercises: 5 riddles (for the answers you have to post a reply and ask for them)
1. A murderer is condemned to death. For his execution, he has to choose from three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in three years. Which room is safest for him?
2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together, and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?
3. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away ?
4. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday?
5. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious as to just how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so ordinary and plain that you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly unusual though. Study it and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching!

-meeting the world for the first time (welcome to earth, junior)



















- my opinion of honoring a special day

You are who you say you are, a superstar...

Did you know I was famous? Do you still not believe it? Well, being that on April 2 of this year, I celebrate an anniversary of sorts. It is a personal holiday, a.k.a. my birthday. You know you wanna eat some cake and ice cream now as soon as I blow out my candles. Then I can open up all the nice presents you did or did not get me. Well, I will enjoy the day no matter what. Another year of surviving and not thriving. Thank you for sticking it out with me. I'm greatful to know all of you. I look forward to giving you grief this time next year, you rapscallions!

- John "the family history consultant" Long

Missed-her (Mr.) March

Picture: to the left
Story: pay attention

The timeframe for this is the beginning of August 1997. I am standing out in the front yard of my friend's house and going home for the night. His name is Kevin Weeks. He was a Tempe motor cop. He died 9-28-06 after a bad accident. I hung out with him that night and we just were being goofy guys. In the snapshot my nose is kinda red. This is from blowing it too much (the friction from all the tissues I used making a rash). The previous Sunday
was my farewell talk (leaving on the mission). Kevin was there with my other friend Jeff (who is also a cop-in PHX). When I got home from my mission two years later, I went to his police academy graduation shortly thereafter (since he went to my farewell, ya see). We wrote some letters back and forth while I was away. He and the other fellas had some crazy times while I was gone. The photo looks kinda funny because I put it in Paint first and then took it to Word. The Abercrombie & Fitch shirt waited in the closet for me to finish my mission. It was my only green shirt for a long time. I miss Kevin, even though we weren't that close when he passed. His letters still induce a few chuckles and grins. The irony is the amount of tissues I used when I gave my farewell talk was quite a few; the scenario was the same for when I went to his "policeman's" funeral. And that concludes my tale for now...

*John*

or as I like to call it, the 'familiarly-4-fridays' month

a quick peek at the calendar for feb.





mon. the 2nd: groundhog day (go Phil!)





fri. the 13th





sat. the 14th: st. valentine's day...of course





mon. the 16th: president's day, aka '2-presidents-birthdays-in-1' day






whole month: black history month - not african american history month

future honeymoon?

I caught myself staring at this part of the world on a globe recently and had an idea for a trip I'd like to take that might be hard to do but tons 'o' fun all the way. I think it would include 12 cities and last at least 24 days (rushed?). I put the start and finish spots on the little map. I'm not sure why it costs so much less to fly from PHX to Dublin, Ireland than from Paris, France back to PHX - about 4.5 times less actually! Anyway, here is the mini "agenda":

1.Come into Dublin, take pics

2.Jet over to London, hit up Buckingham

3.Shoot across to Amsterdam, film an "illicit" act

4.Drop down to Brussels, eat normal food?

5.Bust it over to Berlin, find the old wall

6.Slip into Prague, just be sneaky...like a spy

7.Pop up in Vienna, get a souvenir

8.Cruise over to Bern, meet someone famous

9.Roll down to Rome, avoid mafia

10. (quality) S L E E P

11.Cross Mediterranean (boat?)

12.Go out with a Madrid hottie

13.See if Lisbon has hotter hotties

14.Last stop:Paris

15.Eiffel tower at night?

It's a generic plan but "on paper" it rocks my socks. If any one has any advice they can offer a fool like me on this crazy jaunt, feel free. Yeah, I just opened it up to you for mocking my only fun idea ever. Oh and if you feel so inclined, I am taking donations to make this whole thing possible. Every litte bit helps. It's a new year, why not be more giving in '09? : )