Halloween Hauntings!

Madame Leota: Whom do you seek?

Jim: I am seeking a way outta here.

Madame Leota: Then you must look within.

Jim: I don't wanna look within, I wanna look without! Are you deaf?

The Haunted Mansion

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Unstoppable Urges

Anna Valerious: What are these things?

Van Helsing: I think they're Dracula's children.

Anna Valerious: His children?

Van Helsing: A man, with three gorgeous women, for four hundred years?

Van Helsing


Apparently, a guy doesn't have to have a heartbeat for a woman to get his blood pumping.

Not As Tough As He Thought

My middle son, J2, is our little tough guy. He loves monsters and scary movies at the age of 5, where his 10-year old brother, J1, won't watch them because they give him nightmares.

I was watching The Incredible Hulk with my wife one night (see my previous post) and J2 was in the room with us. All the Hulk-ing out and roaring and smashing didn't even phase him. In fact, he loved it. He thought it was great.

But there was one point in the movie where he was suddenly clutching my leg tightly and whimpering a little bit and there wasn't a monster in sight.

What was happening was that a character in the movie was getting some injections, including one by a large needle that was being inserted quite forcefully into the characters spine. At that point, J2 looked up at me with his pleading blue eyes and said, "I don't want them to stick a needle in my back."

My wife and I did our best to not laugh while we reassured him that nobody was going to stick a needle in his back and that it was only pretend in the movie. I guess our little guy has his limits when it comes to toughness.

Anger Management

Betty Ross: [Betty and Bruce need to get across town in New York City] The subway is probably quickest.

Bruce Banner: Me in a metal tube, deep underground with hundreds of people in the most aggressive city in the world?

Betty Ross: Right. Let's get a cab.

The Incredible Hulk


This turned out to be an excellent movie! I wasn't sure that I wanted to see it after the first Hulk movie being such a disappointment, but I went ahead and watched it - and I was glad that I did. The CGI in this movie is better and a little more realistic than the last. While you can still see it is CGI, it is darker and grittier so that it doesn't look so cartoonish.

The cast they assembled for this film did an excellent job in their individual roles. From what I have read, Edward Norton and Liv Tyler spent hours in conversation about the relationship they would have on-screen and Norton made several changes to the screenplay to incorporate their ideas to make it more "real" in its portrayal. I also thought that William Hurt did an awesome job as General Ross and really delivered in his portrayal of a man who sacrifices nearly everything for "the job".

As with any Marvel film, Stan Lee makes his cameo appearance and Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk from the 1970's television series, makes an appearance as a college guard and does the voice of the Hulk for the movie. My wife and I didn't not recognize Lou at first, but when he made his appearance in the movie we both remarked on how incredibly muscular the guard seemed for a campus guard. So, even after all these years, Lou is still a bit of a Hulk.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, I highly recommend you give it a shot. And watch for the scene following the quote I shared above. It sets up a great comic moment for Tyler!

Classified!

Jack: I went back to check some of my own personal files, and they'd been classified. These are my files!

Alison: It's not my fault that there are things about yourself that you're just not cleared to know.

Jack: Yeah, I'd hate to stumble across something that if I told me I'd have to kill me.

Eureka: Before I Forget episode



I love this show! It is one of my all-time favorites!

Let's Play!

I don't ever recall actually seeing this movie, but I really like the simple truthfulness of this quote:

Mr. Bloom: The day we stop playing is the day we start getting old. Start watching the clock. Waiting for the days to hurry up and end. Counting the years.

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Visualizing Something Better

Mutt Williams: [as Indy sinks in a quicksand-esque substance, he is passed a long snake] Grab on! It's a rat snake!

Indiana Jones: Rat snakes aren't that big!

Mutt Williams: Well this one is, all right? It's not even poisonous! Now grab on!

Indiana Jones: Go get something else!

Mutt Williams: Like what?

Indiana Jones: Like a rope or something!

Mutt Williams: There's no Sears & Roebuck here! Grab the snake!

Indiana Jones: Maybe I can touch the bottom.

Marion Ravenwood: There is no bottom! Now grab it! Grab the snake!

Indiana Jones: I think I can feel it with my feet

Mutt Williams: Grab the snake!

Indiana Jones: Stop calling it that!

Mutt Williams: It's a snake, what do you want me to call it?!

Indiana Jones: A rope!

Mutt Williams: What?

Indiana Jones: Say "Grab the rope"!

Mutt Williams, Marion Ravenwood: Grab the rope!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The Little, White Lie

Elsa: It's perfectly obvious where the pages are. He's given them to Marcus Brody.

Professor Henry Jones: Marcus? You didn't drag poor Marcus along did you? He's not up to the challenge.

Walter Donovan: He sticks out like a sore thumb. We'll find him.

Indiana Jones: The hell you will. He's got a two day head start on you, which is more than he needs. Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan, he speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, he'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again. With any luck, he's got the grail already.

[Cut to middle of fair in the Middle East, Marcus Brody wearing a bright suit and white hat, sticking out like sore thumb]
Marcus Brody: Uhhh, does anyone here speak English?

[Back at the castle, Indiana and Henry are tied up]
Indiana Jones: Come on, dad. Help me get us out of here. We have to get to Marcus before the Nazis do.

Professor Henry Jones: But you said he had a two day head start. That he would blend in, disappear.

Indiana Jones: Are you kidding? I made all that up. You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Who Are You Calling Funny Looking?

Willie: Aren't you gonna introduce us?

Lao Che: This is Willie Scott; this is Indiana Jones, a famous archaeologist.

Willie: Well I always thought that archaeologists were always funny looking men going around looking for their mommies.

Indiana Jones: Mummies.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

A Little Monkey Business

Indiana: Do we need the monkey?

Marion: I'm surprised at you. Talking that way about our baby. He's got your looks, too.

Indiana: And your brains.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Hooked On Phonics

I heard this joke the other morning on the radio and thought it was pretty funny. I thought you might enjoy it, too.

A teacher was looking over her lesson plans at her desk as the children were looking through books about animals. She heard one of the children say to another, "Hey, look! It's a frickin' elephant!"

Her head shot up at this and she asked, "What did you just say?"

"It's a frickin' elephant," the child repeated.

"Johnny," she explained kindly, "we don't talk like that in this classroom."

"But that is what the book says it is: a frickin' elephant," Johnny replied in his defense.

Suspecting that a mischevious child must have written the word in the book, the teacher asked Johnny to bring the book to her thinking that she could just erase it. When Johnny showed her the book, however, she saw that there was nothing to erase because the caption below the picture did say ... African Elephant.

World-Changing Legislation

You may not be aware of it, but there is a piece of legislation in committee that is attempting to reduce the amount of complaining that goes on in the U.S. Click HERE to read my posting on how you can support it and what it can do for you!

Smooooth!

George McFly: Lorraine, my density has bought me to you.

Lorraine Baines: What?

George McFly: Oh, what I meant to say was...

Lorraine Baines: Wait a minute, don't I know you from somewhere?

George McFly: Yes. Yes. I'm George, George McFly. I'm your density. I mean... your destiny.

Back to the Future

The man has a way with words, doesn't he?

Don't Be A Goob!

Lewis: I don't even know what I'm doing.

Wilbur: Keep moving forward.

Lewis: I mean, this stuff is way too advanced for me.

Wilbur: Keep moving forward.

Lewis: And what if I can't fix this, what are we going to do?

Wilbur: Keep moving forward.

Lewis: Why do you keep saying that? And don't just say keep moving forward!

Wilbur: It's my dad's motto.

Lewis: Why would his motto be keep moving forward?

Wilbur: It's what he does.

Meet the Robinsons



I love this movie, partly because of its entertainment value, but primarily because of the message it delivers. Here is an aspiring inventor whose inventions never seem to work out the way he plans. In fact, more often than not, they explode. And to top it all off, his mother abandoned him on the doorstep of an orphanage when he was a baby and nobody seems willing to adopt him. He has had well over 100 adoption interviews and, so far, no takers. He is frustrated and fed up and has lost all faith in himself and his abilities.

Do you ever feel like that? Like, no matter how hard you try, things never work out the way you plan and so you might as well give up? Do you ever feel like the entire universe is conspiring against you to hold you down? I know I have. In fact, I felt as if I could point to numerous pieces of evidence that demonstrated that I had been put on this earth simply for God's amusement so that He could see just how much disaster and heartbreak he could heap upon a single man before I would completely cave in.

Wilbur encourages Lewis with his dad's motto, "Keep moving forward!", but Lewis doesn't really get it until the villain catches up to him and explains just how Lewis had ruined his whole life:

Lewis: Goob, I had no idea!

Bowler Hat Guy: Shut up! And don't call me "Goob"! How many evil villains do you know that can pull off a name like "Goob"? Bleh!

Lewis: Look, I'm sorry your life turned out so bad. But don't blame me you messed it up yourself. You just focused on the bad stuff when all you had to do was... let go of the past and keep moving forward...

Bowler Hat Guy: Hmm, let's see... take responsibility for my own life or blame you? Dingdingdingdingding! Blame you wins hands down!

It is an easy trap to fall into when we start blaming others, the environment, the economy or even God for all the trouble in our lives. But one thing that I have learned is that when we play the "blame game" we give up our power over the situation. We surrender our ability to learn and grow and overcome the difficulty that stands in our way. And then, to make matters worse, we relive these failures over and over in our minds, making ourselves mental martyrs, as we constantly remind ourselves why our lives are so awful and why it isn't our fault.

And while we are busy doing that, great opportunities are passing us by and we only see them once they are fading off into the distance as we recognize that those opportunities could have been ours but now it is too late. So now we have a whole new set of complaints that we can blame on others, the environment, the economy or God and we get locked into a vicious circle of blaming and complaining.

It is important to let go of past frustrations and failures. One way to do that is to remember a very simple truth:

There is no such thing as failure - only feedback.

What that means is that when something doesn't go right, it is only feedback about whether or not our approach is working or not. We just need to make the small corrections necessary and keep moving forward. Little kids are great at this.

In my house, we have a long, narrow kitchen in which the cutting board is constantly pulled out because we were slicing or spreading something there and it often does not get pushed back in. My youngest is notorious for running or even just walking through the kitchen and catching the corner of that cutting board right in the head. Depending on the speed he is traveling, he may cry for a couple seconds and then come get a hug or he may simply rub the sore spot and move on. The next time through the kitchen, even when he is distracted in playing with his older brother, it is interesting to observe how just a step before he gets to the cutting board he will suddenly veer away or duck his head to the side without even consciously thinking about it and keeps moving forward. In that one moment, he has learned that traveling this path is painful and with just a small adjustment he can avoid future painful experiences.

Why does he do this? Why doesn't he blame the cutting board for being so hard? Why doesn't he blame his mother, father or brothers for leaving it out? Why doesn't he blame the home builders for not installing safety strobe lights to warn him when it is sticking out from the counter? Why doesn't he blame God for allowing him to get hurt that way? These questions may seem silly, but it is simply to illustrate that he hasn't learned the "blame game" yet like you and I have. Someday I hope he learns that the kitchen isn't exactly a safe place to play, but I hope he never learns the "blame game". I know the chances of that are slim, but I hope at least chooses not to play it.

And that is the point right there - we all have a choice! We can focus on the bad stuff that has happened to us in the past or we can look to the future, open a new door and keep moving forward.

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
~ Walt Disney

The only thing in this world that can stop you is you! So, don't be a goob! Just keep moving forward!!!

-----------------------------------------------

I know that sometimes we get depressed and we want to wallow in our self-pity and we want to blame our difficulties on someone or something else. I understand that because I feel that way at times, too. What really helps me is to get a little perspective on how bad things really are. The next time you feel that way, I recommend you do some research on W. Mitchell. Read about his life experiences in this Parade Magazine article and then read his personal advice in the articles on his website. It might help you come to the realization that things really aren't so bad after all and only you have the power to make them better.

My Memory Bank

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn' t have anything to do with it," he replied.

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged .. it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.

"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

"Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.

"Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing."

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Let's Be Foolish

Kurt Godel: I would rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.

I.Q.

Since the production of The Secret in 2006, the Law of Attraction (LOA) has been a hot topic on talk shows, in articles and among friends and family all over the world. LOA, in its most basic form, says that we attract into our lives that which we focus on. If your focus is primarily on how terrible your life is, you will attract terrible experiences to you. If you focus on how great each and every day is, you will attract great experiences each and every day.

I don't know what your personal take is on LOA, but I am a believer in it. That is one reason why the quote above me describes my personal philosophy so perfectly. I would rather think optimistic and happy thoughts and be considered a fool by the general populace than be a grumpy, bitter pessimist waiting for that moment when I can shout to the world, "See? I told you! The world is going to H - E - Double Hockey Sticks in a handbasket just like I told you it would!" Do you really want to live your life like that?

I love being an optimist!

• Being optimistic makes me excited to get up every morning just so I can see what wonders and miracles are in store for me that day.

• A pessimist hates having to wake up to another dreary, disappointing morning.

• As an optimist I am more aware of and constantly looking for beautiful things that I may encounter throughout the day that add to my joy of living.

• Pessimists see the litter and garbage.

• My optimistic nature opens me up to look for opportunties to improve my life and the lives of those around me.

• The pessimists can't see any hope for improvement and constantly reaffirm how bad things are.

• Optimists are more ready to take risks and, win or lose, learn and grow by the experience.

• Pessimists don't dare take the risk because it will never work out.

• Optimists say, "I can do it!"

• Pessimists say, "I don't stand a chance."

There are many more ways we could illustrate the differences between optimists and pessimists. But each and every example points out how pessimists miss out on the joys of life. You don't want that, do you?

Come on! Let's be foolish!

Beating Back Adversity

Hardy Greaves: [Talking about his father] He's sweeping streets, Junuh, in the middle of Savannah where everybody can see him; me, my friends and everybody.

Rannulph Junuh: You feeling sorry because your daddy sweeps streets?

Hardy Greaves: He ain't the only man who can't get work. Wilbur's dad can't neither. But he says he'd rather do nothing than something beneath his dignity.

Rannulph Junuh: Grow up Hardy!

Hardy Greaves: It ain't time for me to grow up, Mr. Junuh.

Rannulph Junuh: You're daddy is out sweeping streets because he took every last dime he had, and used it to pay up every man and woman he owed and every business who worked for him, instead of declaring bankruptcy like everyone else in town, including your best friend Wilbur Charles' dad, Raymond, which is why he's able to sit around all day long on his dignity! You're daddy stared adversity in the eye, Hardy. And he beat it back with a broom.

The Legend of Bagger Vance

My wife may not like me sharing this with you as it is a personal and emotional issue, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past where our family had fallen on hard times. Bad financial decisions in the early years of our marriage compounded by a plethora of medical problems that struck our small family all within in a few short years left us deep in debt and living paycheck to paycheck. I worked for a small construction company for seven years, staying loyal and working hard in hopes that as we improved the financial standing of the business our personal financial standing would improve as well. In six year's time, the business did grow and improve significantly and enormous bonus checks were given to a couple of "favorite" employees while we were given the smallest bonus check of all (2.5 times smaller than the boss's son's friend that had only been there for a few months). I stayed on another year until the bonus situation repeated itself and I decided to go somewhere where loyalty and hard work were both appreciated and rewarded. Unfortunately, the damage was already done.

Shortly after I had switched jobs, we quickly realized that our bills were burying us. With our families in similar financial situations but with fewer dependants, we were unable to call on any of them for help. We set up an appointment to visit with Consumer Credit Services to find out if they could see some possibilities that we were blind to. The people there were very nice and understanding, reassuring us that they would see if they could help us set up a plan to weather the storm. Unfortunately, once we laid out all the details, their only recommendation was the only one that neither of us wanted: bankruptcy!

My poor wife, already severely stressed out by the situation as it was, started to tear up as the counselor outlined our bankruptcy options and how we would need to proceed. I, on the other hand, felt myself strangely detached from the situation. It was almost as if I were watching and listening the meeting from a distance. A strong feeling of peace flowed into me. And through that spiritual experience I received a reassurance that we were going to be just fine.

While the counselor continued to explain things to my wife, my mind started to race and I quickly formulated a plan of my own. The details fell into place quickly and I sat through the rest of the appointment just smiling politely at the counselor. I thanked her at the end and told her we needed some time to discuss what we were going to do before we acted, which she understood (although not in the way that I intended), and I ushered my tearful wife out of the office.

In the parking lot I tried to console my wife and let her know what had just happened, detailing the basics of the plan that I had just formulated. Understandably, she was still overwhelmed by what she had just heard and didn't see the hope that I felt. She pointed out that a professional financial counselor just told us our only option was to declare bankruptcy - what hope was there to be had? I simply told her that the counselor only knew statistics and numbers - she did not know us!

That evening, I laid out my plan in greater detail and discussed it with her. She started to see the possibility and decided to trust me and put her faith in us. To make a long story short (I know - it's too late), we plugged the money pit within a couple of weeks, leveled our financial situation out in two months, and within six months had a couple thousand dollars in the bank and were making good progress on paying down our debts.

Like Hardy's father, I believe strongly in paying my debts. If I dig a hole, I don't expect someone else to come behind me and fill it in. I believe in the Golden Rule. I wouldn't like it if someone didn't pay back money that I had loaned to them, so why wouldn't I pay back the money someone loaned to me?

Hardy's father beat his adversity back with a broom. I beat mine back with a newspaper.

Keep coming back and I will tell you more about that.

The Golden Rule and Our Economic Crisis

WARNING! Serious blog topic ahead. Proceed with caution.

Every morning I catch the tail end of the AfterMidNite radio show hosted by Blair Garner. It is generally a country music show, but the last two days Blair has gotten on his soapbox a little bit about two issues that I wanted to share with you.

The first issue started with the Tuesday morning BrainBuster question which was: "Statistics show that only one in five men do this. What is it?" The answer to the question was give up their seat in. While Blair was shocked that the statistic was so low, Tim, the producer of the show that is frequently the butt of Blair's jokes and is occasionally heard laughing and commenting in the background, said he could understand why men wouldn't because these days many women will get offended if you offer her your seat or open a door for them because they feel it puts them in a subservient position. I agreed with Blair who thought that was a ridiculous reason to not do it. He went on to eventually say that it is an act of kindness and consideration and follows the golden rule. Whether they take it or not is up to them.

Blair's comment about the golden rule sparked another commentary session on this morning's show regarding the $700 billion bailout that lawmakers are trying to pass. Tim and Blair started out talking about how we, as Americans, have become a bit spoiled. We have had it so good for so long that we just want more and more and more. When money isn't readily available, we have ready access to credit cards and loans to get us all that we want right now. When we overextend ourselves, we declare bankruptcy and then start over. It is like a "get out of jail free" pass.

Corporations and banks have become exceedingly greedy these past few years. With the expanding housing market, financial decision-makers took advantage of the population's general financial awareness and engaged in subprime lending practices (the practice of giving loans to those who would not normally get them) and predatory lending practices (deliberately targeting borrowers who may not have fully understood the terms of their loan or lending to people who were never likely to afford the interest payments in the long-run). Many of these loans included exorbitant fees and hidden terms and conditions in the loans that translate to dollars for bankers.

Now that the housing bubble has burst, these practices among others have unleashed an economic crisis that is rippling through nearly every household in America and extending outward to countries around the world. And all this happens as corporate and bank executives take home multi-million dollar bonuses. Did you know that Alan H. Fishman, the newly-hired chief executive officer for Washington Mutual that was on the job less than three weeks before its crash, was given a $7.5 million signing bonus (which he gets to keep) and is eligible for $11.6 million in cash severence? At least Kerry Killinger, the previous WaMu CEO, turned down his $1.4 million bonus for 2007 due to the deteriorating situation of the bank. Fishman can walk away with up to $19.1 million for spending less than three weeks worth of his life guiding WaMu into bank failure. (I think WaMu customers got a raw deal on that one. I would have done it for only $1 million.)

I always wondered what the difference is between an executive that illegally takes millions of dollars and crashes the company like Enron and one that takes millions of dollars while legally crashing the company. They both make their decisions out of greed and self-interest. They both ultimately run their company into the ground. The only difference I can see is that one goes to jail while the other one doesn't.

The point is that all of this could be avoided if Corporate and Bank executives and even each of us, individually, followed the golden rule. How different would this be if the banks really considered the borrower and their long-term ability to pay back the loans rather than focus on the fees and the interest they would collect that would boost their annual bonus? How different would this be if they considered the long-term impact on the American economy if the housing market turned rather than expect it to be booming forever? How different would this be if we stopped throwing billions of dollars at the people who are trying to get the American people deeper and deeper in debt and actually used it to teach and help people to get out of debt?

The $700 billion bailout package that is being considered is like a "get out of jail free" card for the very people who have caused the financial crisis we are in. They get to keep their fancy houses and summer homes, their flashy sports cars and their millions of dollars they have collected creating this mess; they get to keep the job that they failed to do right! And the majority of the American people that are suffering because they got greedy get the tax bill that is going to result because of this.

I don't know about you, but I prefer to get what I pay for. Did you know that if you applied the $700 billion to every existing mortgage on the books today, you would pay down over $20,000 on each and every one? If you took every mortgage under $75,000 that is currently on the books (my mortgage does not fall into that category) that $700 billion would pay them all off completely!

I would prefer not to spend the $700 billion at all and follow a better plan to work our way out of this. Dave Ramsey has an opinion on how we can fix this without putting our nation deeper in debt. See Dave's 3 Steps to Change the Nation's Future and read all of it, including The Common Sense Fix proposal.

Now I did mention that each of us need to follow the golden rule as well. Do you have any idea how much smaller our nation's deficit would be if none of us cheated on our taxes? Do you have any idea how much different your children's lives would be if you set the example of living within your means, paying off your debts and avoiding bankruptcy by any and all means possible? I am sure there are other examples to apply the golden rule to and it is definitely something worth thinking about.

There is no doubt that financial hard times lay ahead for our nation, but if we use the golden rule as a guideline and look at the long-term effects of our decisions rather than settle for band-aid solutions that will fail to stick in the long run, we can weather the storm and make things better all around.

Inspired Scripture Reading

Have you ever heard the story of the man who was having a difficult time in his life and decided to look for an answer in the Bible? He decided that he would close his eyes, open upon the scriptures, stick his finger in the book, read the verse that his finger touched and do whatever the verse said to do. What can be more inspired than that? Well, when he opened the book and blindly selected a verse, he read:

"And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."
~ Matthew 27:5

Somewhat shaken by this, he quickly determined that he needed a better course of action than that. So he decided to give it one more shot. He closed his eyes, opened the book again, stuck his finger in and read the following verse:

"...Go, and do thou likewise."
~ Luke 10:37

My wife and I had a similar experience last night. We were headed to bed a little later than I had planned, but my wife was feeling very amorous. As she made her intentions quite clear, I had to gently refuse as I was going to be getting less than five hours of sleep and I was already pretty run down. She understood and we decided we had better read scriptures and pray really quick so I could get some rest.

I asked her if she had any favorite passages she would like to read that night and she didn't, so we decided to give the inspired method a shot, much like the man above. I happened to open up to the Book of Mormon and both of our eyes fell on the center of the exact same verse where we both read:

"...In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not...."
~ 1 Nephi 17:48

We both burst out into laughter at the timing of that "inspired" bit of scripture. We decided to tempt fate as the man above did and give it a second shot. Our results were far better than his:

"Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen."
~ Mosiah 5:15

Hero-Worship

Homer: [to John] Dad, I may not be the best, but I come to believe that I got it in me to be somebody in this world. And it's not because I'm so different from you either, it's because I'm the same. I mean, I can be just as hard-headed, and just as tough. I only hope I can be as good a man as you. Sure, Wernher von Braun is a great scientist, but he isn't my hero.


October Sky

Being a parent is never an easy job. It is hard to find the balance between giving your kids wings to fly and making sure they don't try to fly so far and so fast that they crash and burn. We have to give them guidelines and rules and allow them to suffer the consequences of breaking those rules, all the while praying that they don't end up resenting you someday for it. I don't think there is a more gratifying moment for a parent than when their child says that, out of all the incredible people in this world that inspired them to be who they are, their parent is their hero.

I have three little boys and I have to admit that I get a boost of pride when one of them says, every now and then, that they want to grow up to be just like me. Being fully aware of my own faults and fallacies, I usually respond by saying, "Thank you, son, but I hope you are better."