Honest Scrap Blog

My wife forwarded me a request to write 10 honest things about myself. The instructions are little vague as to what really is considered honest about oneself. So I've thought about this over time and here is my list.

1. I've had just one major car ordeal. I was 16 years old. During the summer I worked as a carpet layer for a member in our church named Brian Snokes. This job required me to drive to Tremonton, UT every morning. I drove a blue astro van that James Morgan and I called the Blue Ox. Being new to driving I wasn't up to speed on the necessity of oil changing. I'd never done it. I had noticed my oil light come on but then go off. I thought it was a short in the wire. I thought nothing of it and didn't check the oil. A short while later I was driving home from Tremonton with several work guys when all of a sudden the car shook like an earthquake. It made a loud noise too, loud enough to wake those sleeping in the back. I pulled over and we took a look. Turns out I was out of oil. There was not even a hint of oil on the dipstick. I had seized the engine. I hitched a ride to Brigham City, called my Dad, who brought the red truck to tow us home. I don't recall how the other guys made it home that night but they didn't come with me. And they never drove with me again.

2. Shortly after getting the Astro van back from a complete engine replacement (which I remember my Dad saying to me "Scott, we'll take care of it this time but if it happens again you get to pay for it), I had my first near death and so far only near death experience. I was driving up a street to turn left on to Orchard drive. I hated then and still do turning left especially on busy roads. Orchard Drive in Bountiful can be that way. Well, a large white truck passed and I saw my opening, however small it was. I gunned the engine, turned into the middle lane, looked behind to speed up in front of the car speeding up behind the truck. When I looked forward the large white truck was attempting a U-turn in the middle of the road. The middle lane was blocked as well as the first lane and some of the second lane. The car behind me was not slowing down and I wsa going too fast to stop. I was going to hit the truck and the impact would be severe. At nearly the last second I swerved to the right into the second lane barely missing the truck my mere centimeters I'm sure and the car behind me by about the same gap. I quickly served back to the left lane. The light ahead was red. I stopped, looked right, and was witness to the most beautiful display of foul body language one close to death can muster. The man in the other car was visibly upset with me. I smiled.

3. I lied about the the only near death experience. I recently had another. I was flying to Philadelphia for a TMS implementation. We had just taken off and was only in the air for a short time and still ascending when suddening, without warning, the plane dove. My stomach nearly came out of my mouth. The lady next to me gasped and grabbed my arm. There were several shouts of alarm. I don't recall how long the plane dove but it was about 10 seconds. The plane then leveled. We all looked around wondering what happened. Then the plan dove again for nearly the same amount of time. It then leveled off again. The cabin was in panic. I remember thinking this was it. I was going to be a plane wreck casualty (yes not a pleasant thought). The captain came on a few minutes and explained what had happened.  We had dropped nearly 10,000 feet.  A military plane coming into the Charleston Air Force base was coming in. This particular commercial airplane and I think all planes are equiped with a sensor that picks up when other planes are close. This military plane was in our flight path. Our plane reacted and dove to clear the path of the military plane. Man it was scary!

4. My wife often pokes fun of my dating life, or near lack thereof.  I tell her I didn't have to date lots of women to find the perfect one for me. I do find it funny that of the few woman I did date that it just happens that I dated a second woman named Jessica, who was from Southern Utah (Kanab), who I had met on www.ldssingles.com. My wife is also named from Jessica, from Southern Utah (St. George), and I met on www.ldssingles.com.  And I'm glad I met the second Jessica who agreed to marry me after only 1 1/2 months of dating.

5. Until high school I had never really heard of The Beatles. Then a good high school friend named Ben Lawrence introduced me. It was the same time The Beatles Anthology came out on TV. I watched the whole thing and then bought The Beatles Anthology on both DVD and the music. My first Beatles album, though, was Rubber Soul. It remains still today as my favorite Beatles album.

6. When we were little I watched my sister Trish push my little brother Kelly from a dock on a lake. My Dad reached down and with out arm yanked him from the water. Kelly's first words when out was "that fish almost got me." We went back to our RV to eat and our poodle Peaches had eaten the raw hamburgers. I don't remember what we ate instead. By the way, my sister still, to this day, denies pushing Kelly in the lake.

7. My favorite stuffed animal as a young boy was a stuffed seal named Sparky. It's possible my Mom still has him somewhere. I remember one day when my Mom asked me to clean up my room and put in the D.I. (for those outside of Utah it's like Goodwill) pile including stuffed animals. I struggled with Sparky. I could not put him in the D.I. pile. It's probably this reason I still get sentimental with Easton's stuffed animals. I hope my wife never plans on getting rid of those. They are priceless.

8. I love eating chicken hearts at Brazilian churrasaria's. I once was afraid of them until I tried one while living in Brazil. Now it is a must eat when I go. Usually I'm the only one in the entire restaurant who wants them so I get an entire skewer. That's just fine by me.

9. I cannot burp my ABCs. In fact, I find it rather repulsive.

10. For my Eagle project I helped create 200 feet of the Great Western Trail. For those interested, here's a link regarding this trail. It's one of the longest trails in the United States. It stretches from Canada to Mexico. Thanks to my scout troop we had nearly 15 young men come and we were finished within 2-3 hours (before lunch) of starting. I still remember the faces of other scouts as we left to hike back home.

This is as honest as I can be with my faulty memory.

Valentine's Day Surprise

For our Family Home Evening this past week Easton and I decorated a Valentine's Day mailbox. In this mailbox we were able to put Valentine's surprises for our kids and for each other. One morning I found a surprise in there for me. It was a CD with hearts colored on it and it said "To Dad." Naturally Easton couldn't hold his excitement about it and said I had to take it to work so I could listen to it.

To my surprise and enjoyment I heard Easton sing his renditio of Twinkle Little Star and Old McDonald. How many of you knew that on Old McDonald's farm he had a worm? And how many of you knew what that worm says on Old McDonald's farm? This is one of Easton's favorite songs to sing at night before bed. Also on this farm, on occassion, he has a spider and a lizard too. Maybe that song will come out on the bonus track. :-)

I did listen to this song to the way to work and for the first time I slowed way down to be sure I listened to the whole CD before I arrived at work.

Thank you Easton and Jessica for a wonderful Valentine's gift.

Valentine's Day

We are fast approaching February 14th, the United States Day of Love.  On this day there will be more chocolate sold than any other day and on this day the price of roses nearly doubles.  Valentine's Day is also the second largest holiday for greeting card sales.

What is the history of Valentine's Day?  Using this site as my guide I learn that there were actually three Catholic Saints named Valentine or Valentinus.

The best legend for this ancient holiday stems from a priest named Valentine that lived during the 3rd Century.  The then Emperor of Rome Claudius II thought that unmarried young men made the best warriors.  He outlawed marriage in his army.  The priest Valentine thought this decree an unjust and continued to performed secret weddings for young lovers.  When the Emperor discovered this treachery he ordered Valentine to death.

Why celebrate in February?  Well, some say it was celebrated in February to celebrate either the death or burial of Valentine, which would have occurred near 270 A.D.  Others say because the Catholic church was trying to "christianize" a pagan festival called Lupercalia.  We may never know the true story as the true reason has been lost in all those greeting cards and chocolates that are sold each year.

May we all remember our Sweetheart this Valentine's Day and make sure she (or he) knows just how special she is.  I love you Jessica!

Scouting

I was recently called as the Young Men's President in my ward. Since then it seems like all my thoughts revolve around how to help the young men accomplish their scouting goals. There is a lot of work to be done here. I don't have any scouting records to know where each boy is at. The only way to get that now is to ask each boy to tell me.

I've remembered my scouting adventures since becoming YM President. I remember going to an organized scout camp in Utah, where I'm from. I don't recall the name now. We had a large scout troop. There was probably 20-25 active boys so we always had a great time at these things.

On this particular scout camp there had arisen a dispute between some in my tent with those in another tent. I don't even remember what the disput was. But I do remember we were in our tent when suddenly someone let our poles down. Quinn Capson, who was always larger than the rest of us, stood up when suddenly something came flying through the air and hit him in the head. We didn't know what it was then but later discovered it was large branch with a huge knot in the middle of it. I guess he was lucky he wasn't knocked out. He ended up jumping out of the tent, chased the person who threw it, and started beating him up. It was an all out brawl in our camp. What's odd is I don't remember there being any leaders around. I'm sure there were.

Well, eventually the fight was broken up, kids went to the tents to cool down. Quinn was furious and said he wanted to go home. We had to convince him to stay. Later that night our leaders did have us all apologize to each other. I remember it being a rather spiritual experience and something that eventually drew us all closer together.

I also remember an experience with dirty socks. A young scout named Jon Van Horn was tent buddies with me and Quinn and Micah Christensen. Jon dressed in full scout uniform every day. He was the most consistent scout out of all of us. There was one problem. He only brought one pair of scout socks. This was a 5 day scout camp. Well, after about 3 days the socks smelled so bad that it made our whole tent smell. It became so bad we wanted to banish him from the tent. Once the leaders smelled it they forced him to wash his socks and wear something else. That was a relief.

And the final memory at this scout camp was earning the canoe merit badge. Quinn and I decided to do this together. He had some experience with canoing where I didn't. One of the tasks was to paddle a canoe in a triangle using just the J stroke out of one side of the canoe. This wasn't a small triangle either. At least it seemed a long distance then. Well Quinn finished relatively quickly compared to me. It took me about 3 times as long as Quinn. I struggled with that J stroke but I eventually passed and earned the canoe merit badge.

However, if you were to ask my wife how my canoing skills are now she would probably roll her eyes, and say "Oh my gosh, let me tell you about the time he and I shared a kayak." Then she would probaby relate the time we were in Mexico paddling through a small creek to get to a large cenote. We were one of the first to leave and the last to arrive. :-) Ah, it was a joyous time. She was pretty upset with me by the time we finished and since then she's never wanted to share a kayak with me.

Tremor by Craig Dirgo

The book Tremor starts in the late 1890s when an inventor named Nikola Tesla is poised to test his latest invention - transmission of electrical currents without wires. With his experiment set up he successfully transmits electrical currents without wires a short distance. He invests most of his money into this new invention. It leaves him nearly bankrupt. Nearly 10 years later he sets up his experiment one last time. This time the electrical currents are transmitted from Colorada to San Francisco. The day is April 18, 1906 - the day of the San Francisco earthquake. Unbeknown to Nikola Tesla his invention has caused one of the greatest natural disasters on U.S. soil.

The book then flash forwards to current date when John Taft, a special agent for the NIA (National Intelligence Agency), is called into action after a series of unusual earthquakes hits Italy and then Spain. We later discover the sinister plot of a fanatical Serbian nationalist to destroy the U.S. economy by knocking out the largest power grid in the United States. This would raise gold prices and reduce the value of the dollar at the same time. It's up to Agent Taft to uncover who is behind the series of earthquakes and stop the terrorist before the US economy is destroyed.

I found this book at the library several weeks ago. It caught my attention because this author has co-authored two books with Clive Cussler -- Sacred Stone and Golden Buddha. I enjoyed Sacred Stone but I was not thrilled with Golden Buddha. I decided to give this book a try.

Out of 5 stars I would give it 2.5 stars. I really liked the idea of this devise, used to emit electrical currents without wires. And I liked how it was being used to create earthquakes. It's an interesting paradox we have with new technology. Even the greatest technology that sounds great can be used for great evil.

I struggled with how the story was written, though I had a hard time sticking with the plot. The story moved from point to another and I became lost trying to keep up. There weren't a lot of story sidebars to follow but I didn't find the story really flowing smoothly.

I also found it difficult to keep the characters straight. Some of the character's names were similar so as I was reading I couldn't keep straight who was was. There could have been a bit more character development so I knew who each person was. This apparently is the second book in the John Taft series so perhaps if I had read the first book first I would have understood more of the characters. When writing a series of books the author must write with the expectation that his audience has not read any of the others books so it's good to develop a character in each book. In all of Clive Cussler's books you learn that Dirk Pitt has deep green eyes and is an owner of classic cars. You get from Cussler's description he's a tall, blond man, who walks with confidence, and women pick up on his aura quickly.

I didn't like John Taft all that much either. He sounded wimpy to me. Near the beginning of the book we read that he wants to retire for not apparent good reason. He's then later pulled from the investigation and instead of fighting to stay on the job he allows himself to be pulled. He shows some anger with what happens but there is no passion. I imagine someone with passion for what he was trying to do would have disobeyed orders, gone in with guns blazing, and saved the day. Instead John just happens to be in the right place as none of his own doing and is able to be part of the rescue.

The book also ends pretty week with us not knowing if John Taft is alive or living as a vegetable. The book doesn't end with a strong sense that John Taft is a hero. Instead it comes across feeling we just got lucky.

If you like reading action books then pick this one up. Just be sure to keep a pen and paper close to write down the characters and what they are responsibly for doing as otherwise I think you may end up as lost as I did.

XPLOR Adventure

This last week my family and I spent time in beautiful Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It's around 40 miles south of Cancun and not as populated with tourists. I'm sure with time that will change but for now it's a wonderful place to visit. It's also very close to lots of activities. While I didn't want this blog to be a journal of my daily activities but more a tool for me to improve my writing I discovered I can still practice good writing skills and tell you about my life together. So, it's my blog and I'll do with it as I want.

I've attached several pictures from a park near Playa called XPLOR. It was built over a huge cenote. For those not familiar with Mexican terminology a cenote is an underground cave formed by water. This place had ziplines, ATV-type vechicles, underground rivers where one can either board a raft and paddle through caves or one could put on a life jacket and swim. This place was awesome! It was a lot of fun.

My wife and I did the ziplines several times (13 stations), the ATV, and the underground river in a paddle raft.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.