New President

I decided to write up a post about the inauguration of our new President of the United States. I tuned in over the internet to watch the procedings but as we got closer and closer to the actual swearing in, the bandwidth clogged up and I was not able to watch the whole thing live. I did, however, watch parts of the inauguration later in the evening on our Tivo.

You have all probably seen the one clip I will be commenting on. The clip was President Obama saying the oath of office. I have seen Barack debate on many occations and I have never really seen him flustered. Even when on The Oreily Factor he didn't seem to flinch with the barrage of questions Bill through at him, however, during his "swearning in" I could tell the Barack Obama was nervous. This should have been a time to focus and repeat the lines of the oath but he was unprepared and the Chief Justice was also a little flustered and the "Oath of Office" was botched. Here are the exact words that should have been said in the Oath of Office as stated in the Constitution.
At the bottom right it says that the new President has to take this oath.




On the next page of the Constitution, the Oath of Office is recorded. Read the first paragraph at the top left.



As I witnessed the error when taking the oath, I started to wonder if they should do it again. It stuck in my mind that if they didn't get it right, they should have started over and made sure that it was said perfectly, no mistakes. I don't know if it was just my church background getting in the way or if I was just paranoid. They seemed perfectly happy to just accept that the new president had come really close to repeating the oath and that maybe it was good enough. I am happy to announce, that Barack Obama and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. got together again and made sure that they got it right this time. Here is the story.

Flip Video

Some of you may already know but for Christmas I received a Flip Video. My Brother Blake got one last year and really loved it, so, it has been on my Christmas list for a about a year.

With the Holidays over, I have finally taken some time to start using it. I had grand plans for all of the movies I was going to make and post on YouTube but there haven't been any full length motion pictures produced by me, yet.

After much thought and lack of time, I decided to start with something simple. There is a small smattering of people that have posted a small video about what they have in their room/house/dorm. If you just type in "51 things" on YouTube you will see what people have been doing. Therefor, I setup my Flip Video camera in the living room on a tripod and told Savanna and Katie to grab 51 items from their rooms. I thought that maybe 51 items was a little to high so I was thinking of lowering the number. As you might imagine, it took a total of 30 seconds for them to amass 51 items.

Below are their videos entitled, "51 items from my room". Maybe I will be a little more adventurous for my next video.

Watch out Hollywood!

Photographer

This weekend Andy had a basketball tournament in Buhl Idaho. He had a game at 10, 12, 2 and 6. With games this close together we really could not jump in the car and head back home because the minute we got home we would have to turn around and drive back to Buhl. So, we stayed in Buhl the whole day. Since we had some time between games, I decided to try out our new digital camera that we got for Christmas from Grandma Carter.

Buhl is not the most exciting place to take pictures but the day we were there was very unique. We have had fog in the Magic Valley for a few days now. In Twin Falls the fog usually vanishes by the afternoon and it warms up to 40 degrees. However, in Buhl, the fog had hung around and never dissipated. So, if you look on all of the trees and even the grass, there are ice crystals that have formed on every pine needle and blade of grass.

I know that I'm not a professional but some of these photos turned out really nice. Here are some of my favorites. If you like them, please feel free to download them and use them as backgrounds on your computer. *wink*


A very cool tree I found in the park near the school. Don't mind the garbage can in the bottom left corner.


Very symmetrical fence line that caught my eye.


My second or third attempt at getting a very close up picture of pine needles.

Dreaming

I don't know why but this past week or so I have had the curse of going to bed and dreaming about work. Now, if my work was to sit on a beach and sip a frosty ice cold A&W Root Beer, then I really wouldn't be complaining. But, I have been stressing about a couple of very important server installations and so I have been dreaming about that all night long. I'll get up and go get a drink of water in the hopes that my brain will focus on something else before my eyes shut and my dreams take over. Therefor, instead of having a nice restful night sleep, I find myself with clenched jaws and worry marks on my face the minute I wake up in the morning. AARRGGHH! I hate that.

Breaking News on "Ward Family"

I just wanted to announce some breaking news. In a previous post I had mentioned that I really dislike people saying Ward Family and that I had never heard anyone mention a Stake Family. Well, it has just happened. This past Sunday it was mentioned from the pulpit that one of the members is part of our "Stake Family". I'm now waiting to hear, during general conference, that we can now start using "Regional Family", "Temple District Family" and "General Church Family".

Glenn Beck's Autograph

I have had to sit on this story for the longest time because I gave this book to Deanna for Christmas. I guess it is time to tell.

I decided to give Deanna a signed copy of Glen Becks new book, "The Christmas Sweater".


Amazingly, Glenn Beck had scheduled a book signing in Twin Falls Idaho at the Barns and Noble book store. So, I just had to figure out a way to get it done. I wanted to do something special so I devised a plan to print up a copy of Deanna's face and I would have him sign the book. I would put Deanna's face in front of mine and have a picture taken so it looked like Deanna had been there. It was goofy but I was going with it. I had to plan this event to the minute because, he was only in town for 1 hour.

I had a computer job to work on in Burley so I was pretty sure that I would not be able to make it over there to get the picture part of it accomplished. I called one of my friends, Connie, that I knew from church that is a HUGE Glenn Beck Fan and asked her if she was going over to the book signing. She said she planned on going, so I asked her if she could take a book up for me and get it signed. She said she would, so I was very excited.

As it worked out, my job in Burley finished on time and I raced back to Twin to see if I could make it to the book signing. I called Connie at the bookstore and she was about 11th in line. I called her again as I arrived in Twin and Glenn was still not there. I jumped out of my car and ran over to the bookstore. The line was all the way out the doors and weaved back and fourth. I squeezed myself through the line to make it up to where Connie was stationed. She was there with a book in hand ready to go. As I explained my idea about the photo of Deanna, Glenn walked in and the crowd went wild. Connie couldn't really hear me but she told me that the line would go really fast and I probably wouldn't have time for my plan to work. I decided just to stand back and take a picture of Connie getting Deanna's book signed. As I sulked away, the person behind Connie said, "Why don't you just step in here and go through yourself". I looked at him with shock as he offered his place in line. "Are you sure?" as asked. He confirmed and before you know it the line started moving and I shuffled myself into the line. I was #13. I didn't have anything for Glenn to sign so, when I got up to the front, I wasn't sure what to say. All I had was a camera and a copy of Deanna's picture on a sheet of paper. When the guy that prepared the books for signatures reached out his hand to get my book, I handed him the picture of Deanna and said, "Thats all I have." He looked at me very strangely and put the picture on the signing table and slid it over to Glenn Beck. I smiled and said, "This is all I have for you to sign". Glenn said, "Who is this?". I said, "It's my wife". He said, "What is this hand sticking out of her head?". This is what the picture looked like.

I told him that it was my son trying to put rabbit ears on her head but he isn't tall enough. He chucked at me as he signed the picture of Deanna's face. I shook his hand and said "it was nice to meet you". He said the same and that was it. I was shuffled off the end of the line into the crowd.

I snuck back around to find Connie and left her my camera to take some more pictures. I had to get back to work.

Later that week I found out that the Times News had posted a video clip of Glenn's visit and in the clip is shows Connie and Glenn Beck. The clip of her and Glenn is shown from seconds 59 - 55. The book he is signing is the book I gave Deanna for Christmas. There is a flash of light during Connie's visit which is me, taking a picture of Connie and Glenn. I was 2 people behind Connie. It was very exciting.

Viruses and Spyware

I don't know why but I have been inundated with people bringing in their computers that have Viruses, Spyware and Malware. Many of you non-techy people are probably wondering what the differences are and if they should be worried about it. Well, I'll do my best to explain.



A virus is a small program that is copied to your computer by email, web page, downloaded files or from another computer. This small program is malicious and will delete files, rename files, or change files. After it does this, it will try and replicate itself and send itself to other users. Most viruses come through email but have also traveled in flash drives and embedded themselves in music files like mp3's. If your computer isn't too badly infected, you can normally remove them easily.

Spyware is a small program that is copied to your computer just like a virus but spyware has a different function. Normally spyware is interested in feeding you advertisements and popups. Spyware will also track your internet usage. It will find out where you go and what kind of ads you would want to see and start showing you ads that match your interests. Sometimes they just feed you popup ads. Spyware normally isn't that harmful but if you have too many of these little guys running on your computer, it will bog down your PC to the point that it is no longer usable. Some spyware is easy to remove, others are harder.

Malware is a small program that is copied to your computer just like a virus and spyware but has malicious intent. Malware will feed you ads, will pretend that you have a virus, will pretend that it is a spyware removal tool, will pretend that it will fix your registry. Malware is dificult to remove and has become more and more destructive. Sometimes it can not be removed and the PC needs to be erased completely and re-installed.

If you have a Virus, Spyware or Malward, you should run these 3 programs to get it removed. These are the same 3 programs we use at work to find these bugs and stomp them out. All of them are free.

Spybot Search and Destroy
SuperAntiSpyware
Malwarebytes

Movie Review

I watched an interesting movie over the New Year break. Our little girls really wanted to see the movie Marley and Me. The title and previews make it look like it is going to be a story about a dog and that's what excited our girls. If there is a movie about talking dogs, or dogs that play sports, our kids want to watch. I was not excited about going to the theater to watch this movie because that is what I expected. Dogs playing a sport.

The other clue that this was a kids movie was that the movie was rated PG. So, we expected it to be a little kids movie. The ads and the signs also denote that it is a Christmas movie but it is not. You are probably now guessing that this movie did not turn out to be what we expected. It definitely had its uncomfortable moments. It had it's couple of swear words and a couple of sexual innuendos and of course a skinny dipping scene for the Aniston fans. (you only see her back, not her backside) Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson play a married couple that go through the life of a typical marriage and having children. Overall it was a good movie.

I wouldn't even write this blog post if it wasn't for one reason. This movie was about every married couple. It was about MY life. There were no bombs, no guns, no supernatural powers. It is a story about a couple living their life. Both Deanna and I saw ourselves in many of the scenes of this film. The wife (Jennifer Aniston) was frustrated with the rigors of rearing a family (yes, I said rearing and not raising). He (Owen Wilson) struggled with his dream of becoming a reporter while his friend is touring the world on exciting adventures. He finds his career lacking excitement and feels less than successful. Both realize that the life of a husband, wife and parent bring them all of the joy they need in life. The dog is just an undercurrent of what went on in their lives.

I don't know if Deanna will agree with me or not but if you want to see a film about our life, just watch Marley and Me.

I never thought that people would pay money to watch my life, but now I know they would. I might have to break my nose first so I look a little more like Owen Wilson though.