He doesn’t trust me

Trust is one of those things that comes naturally between a parent and child, right? Well, I don’t get Myron then. Or rather, he doesn’t get me. At least not when it comes to trust and food.

We’ve been experimenting now with food and Myron. He’s pretty easy going and likes most of what we like. Like Katherine still does, he also sniffs each new food before trying it. More often than not, that means he gets a healthy dose of food on the tip of his nose, but that’s part of the fun.

What we’ve noticed, though, is that Myron will NOT take food from me. As in ever. He could be approaching death with me offering his favorite treat, and he’d rather die than take a bite. We’ve even done the classic test of having me offer him food, having him reject the food, obviously giving the same bite of food to Courtney, and having him scarf it up.

I don’t get it….

Just because I’ve fed him blue cheese, balsamic vinegar, BBQ sauce, and various other strong foods is no reason to not trust me. Is it?

I mean, I haven’t even tried to feed him kipper snacks yet like I did with Katherine.

Seriously… I just don’t get it.

Christmas Trees, Camels, and Tents

I assume many of you are familiar with the parable of the camel, the nomad, and the tent/sandstorm, but if not, the story runs much like this….

A nomad and his camel were traveling through the desert when a sandstorm came up. The nomad quickly set up his tent and, leaving the camel outside, retreated to the safety of his shelter. Soon the camel began complaining of the sand and entreated upon the nomad to let him put just his nose inside the tent so that he might breathe more easily. The nomad agreed, but soon the camel complained that the sand was getting in his eyes. The nomad agreed once more that the camel could bring his head far enough into the tent to get his eyes out of the sand. But then it was his ears. Then his neck. Then his front legs and so forth until, finally, the entire camel was in the tent and the poor nomad was crowded out into the storm.

In real life, I’m the camel. Or maybe Christmas is the camel. Not quite sure, but let’s just say that this last week started with us just listening to Christmas music. Oh, but can we just put out the Christmas candles? Yes? Excellent! Can I light them? How about we go buy our new lights right now. Oh don’t worry. We won’t set them up yet…. Oh, I have to take the old lights off the tree, and it’s a big job. Can I just do that this Saturday while I’ve got some football games to watch? It’ll keep me out of your hair and be easy. Well now that the tree has the old lights off, can I put the new ones on? Oh look what I just found!!! Our Christmas wreath. Well, I hate to put it back in the closet, so I’ll just put it on the door right here. You know, Courtney, while I was pulling the wreath out, I also just happened to find all our other Christmas ornaments. I want to go through them and pull out some of the old ones that we don’t want to use anymore. Now that all the ornaments are out, can I just put a few favorites on the tree right now? Yes? Hey Katherine!!! Mommy says we can decorate the tree!!!! Oh LOOK!!! Someone made a big pot of hot chocolate and a huge bowl of popcorn!!! We should just decorate everything tonight!!!!

…

And so it was that last night, Christmas descended upon the Loveless household in a roar of Christmas spirit. If you’re looking for Courtney, she’s the frazzled-looking nomad out back. And don’t feel too bad for her. She did manage to stop me before I put up all the lights outside. Soon enough….

Oh, and I should point out that Courtney has very little reason to complain. According to past blog posts, this is the latest we’ve set up the tree in at least three years.

Here Comes 12 Trillion

Here it comes….

I’m not sure if it’ll have the impact I hope it does, but the United States is expected to cross the $12,000,000,000,000 (that would be 12 Trillion if you’re counting zeroes) mark in our national debt sometime in the coming 24 hours or so. See for yourself.

And I get the feeling that most of us have no clue how much that is or how critical the problem is. To help you see, check out these facts:

• If you were to stack $1 bills on top of each other, a stack of $12 trillion would stand roughly 67,900 miles high. That is not quite 1/3 of the way to the moon.
• If you laid those same dollars end to end, they’d go from the Earth to the sun and back again with plenty of room to spare (over 1.3 billion miles in total!).
• If you were to spend $1 a second, you would spend the 12 trillionth dollar on November 11, 382,265. Yes, that’s 380,256 YEARS from now.
• The Earth has roughly 50 billion square miles of land. To reach 12 trillion square miles, you’d need 240 Earths.
• For another geography one… 12 trillion miles would mean circling the Earth at the equator roughly 480 million times!
• One trillion seconds (31,688 years) is MUCH longer than modern humans have walked the Earth. Now imagine that times 12. We’re back to the age of many of the oldest humanoid fossils.
• And of course this incredible visual demonstration…. Please note that that is only 1 trillion, not 12.

It seems that everyone has been talking about the national debt and the deficit (not the same thing by the way), but so little is being done. Unfortunately, current politicians on both sides today seem unconcerned by the gross overspending, pushing this critical burden off on the future in favor of overspending today.

Well try this on for size… in the next 10 years, we will spend $4.9 trillion dollars just paying interest on that debt. The interest payments alone would completely pay for the current health care proposal more than five times. The interest payments alone would resolve the Social Security crisis.

And if that doesn’t convince you that something must be done, think of it this way: There are roughly 103 million tax payers in the United States. The interest payments we will make in the next ten years on our national debt will cost the average tax payer $4,757 annually.

You want economic stimulus? What could you do if the average tax burden were lowered almost $5,000 every year just in interest payments to service the national debt?

This isn’t a future problem. This is a today problem. This was a yesterday problem to tell the truth. If you haven’t already, make your voice heard on all levels of national government. If they don’t listen, use your power to vote them out.

If America is to maintain glory, we cannot do so in debt.

Katherine’s first calling

Katherine got a calling last night.

For about a year now, she’s helped our ward organist post the hymn numbers in the chapel on Sunday, and the ward music chair showed up last night to offer Katherine the calling of Ward Music Number Person. It’s a completely made up calling of course, but the ward music chair was very professional about it going as far as to clearly explain Katherine’s duties and responsibilities.

It makes me wonder if the bishopric will ask to sustain Katherine in church on Sunday…. Either way, Katherine is wonderfully excited and feeling very “big girl” with her new calling.

It’s things like this that make me truly appreciate my ward.

Importance of Marriage

In my continued efforts to be silent no longer, I thought I’d post this nice piece on marriage written by a former divorce judge from Georgia.

In so many ways, she nails it right on the head.

Book Review: World War Z

I don’t know what it is about Halloween, but I always find myself attracted, even if only briefly, to the horror genre of book and film. This year was no exception, and on the recommendation of a friend, I picked up this book.

World War Z, by Max Brooks, is an oral history detailing the experiences of a host of characters during the great zombie war. The book is set in the  not-too-distant future and runs with the premise that a viral invasion has caused the undead to rise again in typical zombie-esque fashion. The thriller details the war from Ground Zero (Patient Zero) to approximately twelve years after.

The Good

There’s much I could say here… Max Brooks has a fluid, natural style to his prose that is so uncommon for one as unpublished as he is (this was his second book). To say that his writing reads well would be too benign; no, his writing pours from the page with a simplicity and comprehension relegated to a handful of truly great authors.

More than the prose, however, is the remarkable depth of research into both hypothetical apocalyptic scenarios and, more particularly, the range of human response. Beyond accounting for every conceivable response in the scope of human emotion, Brooks is intelligent enough to recognize that there are even greater heights and deeper depths that the truly stressed mind will reach.

His descriptions of individual and national responses to the crisis are deeply chilling, disturbing, and much more frightening than the undead, but they are also natural, believable, and utterly unshocking. Any other writer would have created this book in a way where each scenario played out in surprising disbelief, but Brooks has created an expectation that when the unbelievable and shocking happens, you not only believe it, but you accept that there truly was no other way.

The Bad

My only real complaint here is the language. The book is certainly not something your grandmother would read.

I debated listing the horror aspect, but if you pick up a zombie book and are disturbed by the horror…. Leave it to say that you took the first step.

Conclusion

I think this book is probably mislabeled as horror. It’s truly not scary. It’s not a book that is going to keep you up at night thinking of the moaning dead lurching through windows and doorways, although that is certainly a large part of the story and the imagery is resoundingly horrible. But this will keep you up at night pondering the reprehensible nature of what an apocalyptic world might actually be like. And while that is psychologically disturbing enough, Brooks paints the happiest possible ending without descending into Disney or Hollywood styles.

A treasured read. Truly. Probably not one I will return to again in the near future, but also one I will not soon forget. It’s being made into a movie currently, and I can sincerely say that I hope it’s not rated R even though I have little to no expectation that it won’t be.

One final accolade… It is truly rare that you encounter a genre-defining work, especially in a genre as old and worn as zombies, but World War Z is not just genre defining; it is arguably the opening salvo of a true literary mastermind. In the future, it would not only surprise me to see World War Z as the standard by which all zombie literature is compared, but to see Max Brooks appropriately seated as the keeper of this particular gate.

A full Four Stars for this one.

Election Day 2009

It seems like we were just here not that long ago….

Local elections only for me with a new mayor and two council positions open. I’m fairly confident my selection for mayor will win and quite possibly both council positions as well. I suppose that’s a good thing, but I readily admit I’m kind of not really that concerned with the mayor; both would be overall good candidates I think with an equal measure of political yuck associated.

But the Council…. One race, city-wide council rep, is completely beyond my interest. It’s been dominated by one person from the get-go, and the election is merely a formality. Besides, as with the mayor, I think either candidate would be acceptable.

The other race has been somewhat bitter with a strong candidate in one corner and a nameless entity in the other. This race has seen an anti-group speak much louder than an actual opposition. Instead of presenting a clear alternative, the opposition has stepped forward with an “anyone but…” approach that has been wonderfully bitter and angry.

In large measure, it has defined my political frustration this last year.

It seems that politics in general have disintegrated into stopping the other party more than actually offering a solution. I felt that way in the past, and I definitely feel that way with both parties currently. Not all, of  course, but there is certainly a measure of hindrance rather than discussion that I find distasteful.

I think it was Louisiana governor Jindal who said that an opposition party’s primary duty is to offer constructive alternatives, a thought that truly practiced would lead to great success. But I don’t see that anymore from either party.

From Obama’s sham of bipartisanship to republican stall tactics, all I see lately is a me-first, party-first mentality that seems bent on political failure. Ideas and thoughts are no longer encouraged, especially in the public forum where opposing camps immediately label outsiders as fools while simultaneously choosing to ignore and reject out of hand any other options. Tell me: Who is more foolish? The person who suggests something different or the person who rejects those thoughts based on preconceived notions of right and wrong?

I miss the true political dialog of constructive debate. Watching this council race has shown me quite clearly that many of us have lost the fine art of developing alternatives, presenting them in meaningful ways, and building on mutual foundations. Instead of introducing an alternative, we are too eager to impede.

I’ve found it interesting that the most commonly used phrase in relation to this council member is “stop so-and-so.” Where is progress in this argument? Where is the constructive moment? Where is the opportunity?

No, I’m afraid I’m going to support that candidate simply because the alternative appears to be an empty vacuum of negativity. If they had offered a solution, I would have taken a hard look at it. From where I sit, though, all they are offering is to stop.

Sorry, stopping isn’t an alternative; it’s an acceptance of failure.

Review: Transformers 2

We watched this from Redbox this last weekend, and it deserves its own special type of review:

DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM!!!

There I said it.

Seriously, this is hands down one of the dumbest films I’ve ever seen. And it’s not just the film as much as it was the stupidity of the sexual references. I haven’t seen stuff that stupid since the playground in 6th grade.

I regret that the movie ever entered my home. I really should have researched it first, and I take the blame for not doing so. I give this film a perfect tie with another bomb, Hancock.

Zero stars.

Thanks for wasting a few hours of my life. If there is a third, I will NOT be watching it. I never should have watched this one… or the first one….

Travis… Why didn’t you save me from yet another stupid movie?!?!?

Update: Swine Flu

Katherine’s fever finally broke Sunday morning. It took three days, and we had a couple scares of 103+, but she’s feeling better. I think the sign that she was truly feeling well again was when we realized that her talking had increased from about 1 word a minute up to 150 with gusts approaching 300.

She’s still the only one that got sick, though several coworkers have called in this morning saying they were ill. I think I may have been a carrier…. Does it make me a bad person if I find that slightly humorous?

The worst part of the whole experience was that Katherine didn’t get to do anything for Halloween. She was most depressed by that. She’s been counting down for a long time, and the saddest part for me was coming home from work on Friday and finding her in her Halloween costume slumped on the couch. I think it had just set in that she was not going to go trick-or-treating, and she was truly heart broken. It made me want to reach up and pull down the moon for her….

I think we’re going to get together with Nosurfgirl’s family this weekend and do a mini-Halloween just for Katherine. Nosurfgirl has four daughters all around Katherine’s age, and I could just see the huge princess party that’s going to be with all of them dressed up and marching around the house trick-or-treating. We still haven’t carved our two pumpkins either, so we’ll hold those aside for this weekend as well. Should be fun, and Katherine will be thrilled to go trick-or-treating even if it isn’t really Halloween.

Swine Flu

It’s not quite official, but I’m calling it anyway.

Time of Arrival in the Loveless household: roughly 7:45 this morning.

Well, that’s when it first started showing anyway. Katherine came into our room at 6:00 this morning and crawled into bed with me. She likes to sleep in my arms when she’s not feeling well, so that was the first sign. After I left, Courtney got suspicious of Katherine’s behavior and took a temperature: 102. That combined with a serious case of lethargy, a lack of desire to eat, a strong dry cough, and a strong change for happy boisterous to constant sleepiness is enough for me.

It promises to be a long week, but we’re ready for it.

I never had aspirations that we’d avoid swine flu this year; It’s a new disease with no resistance in the human body. I wouldn’t be surprised to see total infection rates jump quite high around the world. I’m not really worried though. We’re all healthy and strong people, and I’ve hopefully passed the legendary Loveless immune system on to my children. And if I haven’t, there are plenty of worthy priesthood holders who will join me in blessing my family, and Courtney is a wonderful mommy-nurse.

Honestly, the only person I worry about is Myron. He’s still young enough to worry me, though I think even he will do just fine. The only other thing I worry about is me and my schedule. This week is ward conference, and I have a lot of things that need to get done in relation to callings and home teaching assignments, teaching on Sunday, and so on. I’ve decided that I’m going to head off to the church tonight to get as much done now just in case Katherine shares with the rest of us.

But the worst part of it all is that there is an extremely sad princess at home who is probably just now realizing that she doesn’t get to go to any of the Halloween parties (there were three) or trick-or-treating. She’s been counting down to this holiday for at least three weeks now. Once everyone is better, I think we’ll do a little mini-Halloween with some friends and have them go door to door around the house.

But for now, the H-word in our house is verbotten.