Oh, it's been a while...

since I've posted to the ol' blawg.  Shame shame shame!  No excuse.  So, here's a summary:

Autumn (a.k.a. The Sweetie™) and I got hitched last month.  We kinda sorta didn't tell our families what we were doing.  Is that bad?  I don't think so.  The second time around is totally different, and the same rules don't apply.  (I'll follow up on the whole marriage thing in a different post...later.  Later, I said!)

So, after surprising the fam with the news, "Hey, we're married!" we went to Wisconsin and Minnesota for Christmas.  I had a great time at the Porter's, getting to know Madison, enjoying The Prime Quarter (where you cook your own meat), and just enjoying the time with Autumn and her family. We were "lucky" enough to drive across the plains, something I haven't done since I was a teenager. We stopped in Omaha for the night and made it to Wis-can-sin safe and sound.

Santa brought me, among other things, "Mayberry-opoly", which was purchased on the sly at the Farm-n-Fleet, an amazing combination of Wal-mart and Ace Hardware. I also got some UW swag, in honor of Autumn's sister Lark, but really it was because I liked the mascot: a badger.

I have some really great stories about getting married, driving across the country and more, but it will have to wait. I have a lot of posts to make up, so I wanna break them up into bite-sized, manageable bits.

Uh are we sure this is a hotdog?

On becoming 34...

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm 34 now. Why does this seem older than normal?

Because it does seem like more than usual. A bigger 34. The distance between 32 and 33 on the number line is like half the distance between 33 and 34. This is how I feel.

With the birthday comes a new sense of urgency. I feel like time is short. So much to learn and do and say and experience, and time is not cooperating, the jerk.

But I had a lovely birthday with my Sweetie™; we were, as I put it, "shameless carnivores" at Tucano's. Dear me, that beef teriyaki will be my demise if I'm not careful. Which reminds me! I need to finish off the Brazilian lemonade I brought home.

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes. I love you, and I'm grateful for you.

Temple!

Some venting...

Recently, a friend posted a link on Facebook about a kid she knew from high school who joined the Marines and was killed in Afghanistan in 2008. Reading about him, about how much his parents and sister loved him, how much this marine loved his wife and children, got me thinking about what we, the American military, are really doing in Afghanistan, not to mention Iraq. More and more I feel the Iraqis and Afghanis are not worthy of the American blood spilled on their behalf. I want my brothers and sisters in the armed forces to come home to their families. I want my brothers and sisters to stop being deployed so many times their kids don't know them when they return. If they die for anyone, I want them to know it was for a people who truly value freedom, who honestly value the efforts of these brave soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines.

I'll tell you right now the Iraqis and the Afghanis do not appreciate what the United States is doing. The U.S. is a force of occupiers and crusaders to most of them. And while I oppose pretty much every single policy the Obama administration has put forth so far, I do support the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible. If we leave those two countries a chaotic mess, so be it. Let the Iraqis and the Afghanis fight for freedom and a constitutional government if they truly want them. For me, slogging it out for years or decades to come is absolutely not worth the price in talented, promising, beautiful young American lives.

Yee haw!!!

I'm here in Killeen, Texas, right next door to Ft. Hood for some high-speed *cough* not really *cough* Army training. You don't want to hear about it because it will make you sad, and it will hurt your brain. To summarize, I'm learning to use a computer tool that is old, finicky, hard to use, and not particularly powerful, but Uncle Sam wants me to learn, so I'm learning. I've been surprised by how exhausting my class is. It drains all my energy, and when I get back to the hotel, and all I want to do is vegetate and not think. At all.

Another surprise what a tough experience it is being away from Autumn (a.k.a. The Sweetie™); I miss her. But I don't think you want to hear about that, either. It's kind of mushy. Let me just say that I am SO excited to be Autumn's husband. We have a lot of fun together, and she's an angel.

Speaking of becoming a husband, for those who don't know (I'm not sure who that would be, exactly, but still...), since Autumn and I were both married previously in the temple, and we want to be married there again, we need approval from The First Presidency (capitalized, I know!). Yes, even the Church has a considerable bureaucracy, and navigating through its labyrinth has been interesting. There are forms, letters, interviews, waiting. And waiting, and waiting.

We've blown through a couple of wedding dates, so now we're waiting for the approval before we make definite plans. "When are you getting married?" "Uh, November, no...I mean December...no, now it's January." Honestly, I give people a month because they want some information, and it just sounds better than, "Whenever President Monson says we can get married." I have no idea, though, when the actual date will be, so if you get a month-like response from me, it's because I like you enough to not say, "Who the heck knows?"

End the Fed...

End the Fed by Ron Paul


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ron Paul's "End the Fed" is the clarion call for Americans to awake and realize how the federal government is destroying wealth and future prosperity through the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve System.

Paul explains the history of America's central bank, how it was created to serve a select few in the banking sector, and how its power has constantly expanded to meddle with and manipulate the value of the dollar. Paul reveals that the Fed's monetary policy of simply printing money is an insidious tax on Americans that funds wars and bailouts and stimulus boondoggles.

Paul also bases his argument to abolish the Federal Reserve on three cases: the philosophical case (inflation is morally wrong because artificially devaluing the dollar is the same as theft), the constitutional case (the only legal tender was to be based on gold and silver - Article I, Section 10), and the economic case (central planning a la Fed leads to malinvestment, crushing consumer debt, and many other ills).

Reading this book has convinced me that ending the Fed is a no-brainer. We don't need a lender of last resort for foolish banks that deserve to go bankrupt. We don't need a central bank that prints as much money as it wants, with practically no accountability. We don't need to have our hard-earned money, and with it our purchasing power, lose value. We don't need the Fed.

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Meltdown (the book, not my state of mind...)

Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods Jr.


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you want to wrap your mind around the recession, financial crisis, housing bubble and taxpayer bailout of financial and insurance firms, you need to read "Meltdown A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse". Thomas E. Woods Jr. explains how a combination of central economic planning, perverse incentives, interest rate manipulations and other government tactics are the root cause of this economic mess we're in.

And to clear up any misconceptions, the crisis wasn't caused by a failed "free market" in need of more oversight and regulation. For starters, the Federal Reserve's manipulation of interest rates and its ability to create of money out of thin air, along with the countless laws and alphabet soup of regulatory agencies, the market is far from free. The Fed, especially, sent all the wrong signals to investors, speculators, and potential homebuyers with an artificially low interest rate for much of the 2000s. And the answer to failed regulators who were supposed to have averted the housing bubble, ponzi schemes, and wild speculation about all kinds of financial instruments is NOT more regulators.

A part of the book I particularly enjoyed was the way Woods debunked myths about the Great Depression. Woods explains just how Hoover's and FDR's massive government works projects did more to prolong the Depression than restore the economy to sound footing. Woods also draws interesting parallels to how the Obama administration is repeating history, and the outlook isn't too bright.

Chapter 6 focuses on money and how the Fed has devalued the dollar by inflating the supply of money (without anything to back its creation). Because of inflation, Americans have no incentive to save because over the years, their currency erodes in value. Woods also makes repeated reference to the Austrian School, an economic philosophy devoted to liberty, sound money, and limited government developed in large part by Ludwig von Mises and Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek. (Two great websites where you can learn more about the Austrian School are The Mises Institute and the Foundation for Economic Education.)

Not only does Woods reveal the sources of the crisis, but he also offers solutions for the future. He says letting foolish companies go bankrupt is a good thing. The assets they mismanaged can be liquidated and better managed my wiser companies. Another solution is to get rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored entities that have way too much power to meddle in the real estate market. The bailouts need to end. Where's the incentive to act prudently if you know the government is going to step in when you screw up? If I were a corporate executive, I'd make my company as big as I could, hoping I'd be "too big to fail". That way, I can pocket all the profits during a boom, and I can rely on the taxpayer to bail me out during the bust. The Fed's power to manipulate money must be abolished, and legal tender laws must be reformed to allow Americans an alternative to the ever-decreasing dollar.

The book, my friends, is a great, great read, and I plan on visiting it again and again to remind myself how we got where we are now and what we must do to avoid a similar crisis in the future.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid...

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If only I had Jeff Kinney's artistic skills, my own journal would look a lot more like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This book reminds me a bit of Calvin & Hobbes, only without the tiger much less philosophical.

No doubt the misadventures of Greg Heffley will induce smiles and chuckles as he deals with bullies, strange classmates, a lame older brother, a useless younger brother, and a world that simply doesn't appreciate him.

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Busy Saturday...

The Sweetie™ and I had a busy Saturday. Pretty much on a whim, we decided to run the BYU homecoming 5K. We signed up on Wednesday and showed up about 10 minutes before the race began. The course followed the path of the homecoming parade to follow, and, considering the lack of training (and a full bladder for one of us), we did pretty good. I got a little depressed seeing much of the BYU track/cross-country team running like roadrunners (the male winner ran the race in 15:10! Me? 24:12. Ugh.)...it makes me feel so old. It was a crisp fall day, kind of rainy, but beautiful.

We then devoured some delicious omelettes and french toast at IHOP and crashed for a long, long nap. Not at IHOP, though. They frown on that kind of thing, I think.

Anyway, after awaking from our peaceful slumber, my Sweetie™ and I went on to do our daily routine of "Insanity", the latest in masochistic exercise. I kinda feel like I'm in basic training, and Shaun T is actually Drill Sergeant T. It kicks my butt and makes me sweat like a you-know-who in church, but what can I say? I really enjoy exercising with my Sweetie™.

We cleaned up quick because we had to zoom up to Sandy for the Real Salt Lake v Colorado Rapids football (soccer) game. Our RSL did not disappoint, and I yelled myself hoarse at their three goal shutout of the Crapids, as one banner termed the opponents. I am a Yura Movsisyan fan. He scored the third goal on a sweet breakaway.

So, after the game, you'd think we'd call it a night, but no, we went to Thanksgiving Point to check out Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, which was pretty entertaining, thanks to John C. Reilly, Willem Dafoe, and Salma Hayek. The kids in the movie were okay, but the lead actor was kind of a dud. It was a bit darker and more morbid than I had thought. I'm kind of tempted to check out the book series.

We left the theater, got home, said prayers, and Autumn headed to her house, and by that time I was ready to crash after a busy, busy Saturday.