When will we learn from history?!

Today I was sitting in my truck on the project waiting for my inspector to show up to give him some paperwork. I was playing with my new company Blackberry and was messing around on the internet. I found my way onto my dashboard and clicked a link for one of the notable blogs. The blogger was talking about how he was in Washington DC to visit his parents and participate in the activities surrounding the inauguration. (Don't worry. This post is not about politics or politicians.) He began musing about how historical this is. He talked about how we can learn about people and human nature from history but that is all because it doesn't happen again. Everything we are experiencing now is new? Are we smarter or better than our predecessors? How arrogant people are! To think that history doesn't apply to us because we are somehow different, better than people in the past. History doesn't repeat itself? What are we teaching in schools? We have done a remarkable job of building on past knowledge to increase our technical understanding. We have done a much less admirable job of building on the past to better our social situations. I felt like a Nephite sitting at the top of the pride cycle wishing that I could somehow get through to my fellow nephite.
He talked about all the people he admired who have done so much to dispell racism and discrimination. They were all part of recent history, if not contemporaries. It seemed as if he believes that racism is uniquely American and once we can rid our country of racism (as if that is even possible), then racism will be gone from the world for good. Huh?! Doesn't he realize that racism is a HUGE part of all of history? Moses freed an entire race from racism and slavery thousands of years ago. Didn't fix the problem for good. There are millions today in Asia and Africa who would like to eradicate that race still. Racism still leads to slavery throughout much of the world. The problems we have in the US are minor compared to other parts of the world. I am hopefull that the inauguration will be a huge step to reducing racism in our country, but I am not foolish enough to think that it is even possible to cure it entirely without Divine help and a major change in attitude. But I digress. I guess the point of my rant is that this guy didn't understand that history repeats itself and always has. We have more knowledge, mostly thanks to God and technology. If the internet was available thousands of years ago, those peoples would have been able to gain the much of the same knowledge. We are not leaps and bounds smarter than people like Adam, Abraham, Moses, Peter, the Founding Fathers, etc. We have better opportunities for learning in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. We have more history availableto us, and yet we keep repeating the same mistakes.
I actually wonder how well we are living up to our potential given the opportunities we have. But that is the subject for another post. I hope that more people can begin to learn from history rather than try to make it fit their personal political, social, or religious mold.

-Vern

No man is an island?

I have come to realize that within my sphere of influence, the people I know, my little corner of the world of blogging, I am a man in a woman's world. Just look at the list of blogs that we follow. The posts are mostly about the kids or girls stuff. Nothing at all wrong with that. I enjoy reading many of the posts. And Jen reads them too; she's just not one to comment. But I have been wanting to blog for some time now to be able to organize my thoughts and get things off my chest. I also enjoy posting about the kids and family activities, so please keep checking from time to time to find posts that you are interested in. If you stumble across ramblings of mine that do not interest you, just skip 'em. At some point in the future, I hope to have practiced organizing my thoughts and putting writing them coherently that I will be at least a little interesting. And to have a guy or two reading it once in a while. I am also trying to encourage Jen to do some posts. But until then, you will have to sort through it. Because I will use this blog from time to time to get things off my chest. And until then, I believe that a man can be an island.

-Vern

Sometimes it's OK to be a hater.

In my post "Welcome Sports Fans", I mentioned that I am not a Ute hater because I don't believe in being a hater based on rivalry. It's kind of like a relative you don't necessarily like. I definitely want to beat them and beat them good myself, but don't you mess with them. I mentioned that I believed that there are valid reasons to be a hater, but that is a subject for another post. Well... this is that post.
I have long been a hater of two teams, Notre Dame and Washington and for very different reasons. First, let me discuss Washington since it is in my opinion, the lesser of the two reasons. I am a little predisposed to dislike a team whose mascot is a purple dog, so maybe my dislike of the Huskies is a little unfair. But, the main reason I don't like them is that it seamed that, for a while, every time I watched the Huskies, they played dirty. Now maybe I just happened to catch all the bad moments, but it seemed like every time I watched them, they played dirty. I have decided to keep an open mind toward them, because that was in past years. They have all new players and all new coaches, more than once, since the incidents that soured my opinion of them. That's the problem with becoming a hater based on dirty play. These things can change rapidly.
Now, for the Notre Dame bashing. I just got plain ol' sick and tired of Notre Dame being ranked higher than they deserved year after year simply because they are media darlings. Somehow, they have fans everywhere. (I hope it's not Rudy. I didn't like that show.) It's that simple. They get so may votes in the AP poll and are always rated higher than they deserve because they are so popular. Fortunately, they have become kind of a sympathetic figure lately because they have been horrible. I think that Ohio State has been the recipient of a portion of that favor since the demise of Notre Dame...
Hold on! Don't try to use the Fiesta Bowl to refute my point. Nobody doubted that they could score 21 points on Texas. There are many teams that could. I would have predicted it. What I didn't predict was Texas' low score. I would have thought Texas would score 50+ points. McCoy forgot to show up to the game. A quarterback with a season completion percentage of 70+% is lucky if he got 50% in that game. A quarterback who typically gets a lot of yards running had three noteworthy runs. He was horribly below the standard he set for himself during the season. Ohio State, who should not have been ranked number 10 and in a BCS bowl, did not impress. Texas stunk. I'm not saying Ohio State is a bad team. And they are only going to get better with Pryor at quarterback. They were not number 10 though. Boise State and TCU both were better teams in my opinion and neither got to go to a BCS bowl. And why? Because Ohio State gets more credit than they deserve season by season. I understand that it is somewhat earned as one of the top 5 winningest programs in the history of college football, but every four years, they are an ENTIRELY new team. I would argue that in college football, they are almost always a new team every year.
Call it my opinion, but those are logical, valid reasons for being a hater. Hating a fellow conference team and wishing them ill simply because they are rivals is foolish and somewhat self-defeating.

Vern in Mourning

As is sit and write this post during a timeout of the last college football game of the season, I ponder the timing of it all. I have had a great Holiday break. There have been some good football games. But now the break is over and I am facing the longest run of work without a holiday. If that wasn't enough, college football is coming to a close and I have 9 months of waiting until there is TV worth watching again. (Besides General Conference, of course)
There is one recent, encouraging development when it comes to football. After our ward New Year's Bowl, there was plenty of talk about having regular football games. I love playing football more than I love watching football. We have discussed having a February game and calling it the Love Bowl.
So with football watching coming to a close, I am clinging to the hope of many good football games in which to play.

-Vern

Sunday Activity

Spencer is in the front room of the house where he is whining about having to pick up a toy rather than play with it. The toy is broken. THWAP! Spencer looks around trying to figure out what just happened. THWAP! Spencer looks up just in time to see the marshmallow that just bounced off his head fly through the air. He looks up on the banister in time to see Dad throw another marshmallow. Earlier in the evening, Spencer and Dad planned to have a marshmallow war, but Spencer's marshmallow gun was AWOL and Dad's was missing a piece. And Spencer wandered off to find another activity. The two marshmallow bags that had been prepared were still close at hand, however. Spencer reached for his bag and Maloy Mayhem broke out everywhere.

For the first while, everyone was involved but soon Mom, either out of cowardice or just good common sense (she'll claim the latter), left the game and grabbed the camera. (I always scoff when I hear a member of the media say "we" as if they were involved in the dangerous activity of the military just because they made a trip to the safe areas of Iraq). Jen however was in the war zone and took some friendly and unfriendly fire during melee.

Apparently marshmallow fight turn me into a monster...

Jen did get a shot off of a marshmallow just before it hit the camera...

And Jen got some video compiled below...

Since these moments are spontaneous, you rarely catch them on camera, much less video. I thought I would blog about it and share. I hope this does justice to the crazy fun we had just throwing miniature marshmallows at each other.

-Vern

Welcome Sports Fans

I watched a GREAT football game last night. I had it ranked as probably my second most intriguing bowl game this year behind the Poinsettia Bowl featuring TCU and Boise State. I was confident that TCU would beat Boise State but not as confident that Utah could beat Alabama. All season, I have felt that TCU was a better football team than Utah. Until last night. You may think that, as a huge college football fan and life long BYU fan, I should have been upset by last night. I'm sure that there are many, particularly in Utah, that are. I am not one to be a hater based on rivalry (there are better, legitimate reasons to be a hater, but that is topic for another post). As a BYU and UNLV fan living in Air Force country, I am also a big Mountain West Conference fan. And last night put to bed any well reasoned arguments against the strength of the conference this season. Earlier this season, when the MWC was beating up on the PAC-10, the talk was about how weak the PAC-10 was this season. Now that the PAC-10 has swept their bowl games in convincing fashion, the talk is about how strong the PAC-10 is. And we beat them 6-1 in the regular season. The fact that Utah was in last night's game means that the conference gets a lot of money. The fact that they won and won well means that the conference gets a stronger recuiting class next year.
As a BYU fan, I am definitely frustrated by their collapse. One of the big arguments against BYU is that they have an adventage because they are older and more mature. Why is it then that 18 yr old hot headed punks handle success and are able to finish a successful season than these return missionaries, husbands, and fathers. My theory is that it is a detriment. By the end of the season, BYU players are more tired and wanting to spend time with wives and kids whereas 18 yr old punks have nothing but football and an ego that is dependent on football. Despite BYU's pathetic loss to a mediocre Arizona team, there were some things for BYU fans to celebrate. Utah was able to finish and in convincing fashion (perfect 13-0 even), TCU also beat a top ten team that should have been in a BCS game and is a media darling (beating Boise State also ensured that Utah would be the only undefeated team in the league), and a former BYU quarterback, as an offensive coordinator, coached his team to a convincing win (just as I anticipated) in his last game with the team before moving on next season to be one of the youngest head coaches in the league.
I know that most of you likely to read this post are BYU fans and therefore probably at least partially predisposed to be Utah haters, but please join me in congratulating the Utes and ultimately the whole conference in a wonderful season. And next season, wouldn't it be nice to have another MWC BCS buster?

GO COUGARS!!!!!!

-Vern

Blog on Blogging

I have been having thoughts about blogging for probably over a year now, but have never acted. I have now decided to act thinking this could be fun and help get the creative juices flowing (which can be tough for the analytical engineering type), but so far it has been a little frustrating. I didn't realize that blogging would entail so much set up. And that has been the frustrating part. I look at other blogs and see the creativity and personalization. I am stuck with the provided templates, which are all very narrow and not very customizable as far a layout goes. I haven't even tried to google new templates, because I don't have any idea how to import them into my existing blog. It is going to be a big enough commitment for me to sit and and type posts and read other blogs, I don't have the time to research how to set it up the way I want it. So it may be a little while before this thing looks like I want it to. The other issue I have is the multitude of names and titles that were required when setting this thing up. I entered several thinking that they would be used or displayed differently. I'm not exactly happy with the way they ended up. If it is possible to change them, you may see them change, such as our name when we comment on others' posts. I hope the blogging turns out to be more fun than the set up has been. I do look forward to posting from time to time.
-Vern