Lack of Interest for Winter Olympics

I must confess. I hardly watched the Winter Olympics this time around. Instead, I caught myself watching a Clint Eastwood movie or two and surfing the Internet for news on events instead. What can I say? I’m a modern man of the 21st century that doesn’t like watching a sports event that is pre-recorded and half-a-day late. It’s like buying a Big Mac and letting it sit for half a day before I can eat it. Forget that.

Forbes has a couple insightful comments about the just finished Winter Olympic Games. Point one, the events in the Winter games are missing tension. Finally, someone brave enough to say it.

Yet sport is about tension. Unlike track or swimming at the summer games, there are few head to head events in the winter games. You want to see the best in their sport going skate to skate or ski to ski --not snowboard to timing device. Even in speed skating, which is a race after all, competitors start on opposite sides of the track. What's with that?

Point two. Just covering the United States and human interest stories on select athletes is beginning to backfire on NBC. Sports watchers are getting to the point that they cannot even watch sports on television without it being crafted by a Hollywood formula for success, well, actually the New York television broadcasting corporations’ formula.

… America operates on a grander scale. As blogger Pierre Tristam put it in a much quoted post "NBC covers the Olympics the way American neocons do foreign policy: The world is 95% America, 3% water, and 2% everything else."

Iosepa, the Colony for Hawaiian Saints in Utah

A man and his dog – few things in life get much better than the loyalty and friendship of one’s dog. Humankind has done well in taming and domesticating the wolf for our purposes. We certainly knew what attributes we liked.

I took my dog Lani out for a very long walk Saturday afternoon -- 75 miles long. I drove her to play in the wilderness around the ghost town of Iosepa, a Mormon colony of Hawaiians located in Skull Valley.

This is a photo of Lani amidst what is left of the colony’s homes, described in letters and talks as a Utah paradise. Having grown up in Hawaii, I can tell you that this place ain’t my definition of paradise. Having our family dog here helps liven up the desolation though.

My dog’s Hawaiian name, which means Heaven, gives away my roots and interests. It’s here at this ghost town that many of my interests intersect -- Hawaiian, Mormon, the taming of the West and Utah. What more could I ask of a place?

And the town of Iosepa is full of mysteries – but more on this later. I don’t quite know what to think of this place and its history. I’m going to sit on it for a day or so and then write what I’ve found.

Zion's National Park, Utah

Came through Zion's National Park after attending a meeting in Las Vegas. Zion's is one of those naturally blessed places, something Utah has so much of. And fortunately for those of us who live here, one of the most endowed places in this country is off the tourist's beaten path.

It was one of those quiet Winter mornings in the park. I was one of the few visitors, with the only other traffic being deer.

This guy didn't stop at the stop sign. He's lucky I didn't report him.

I managed to get fairly close to this adolescent mule deer with the big ears. The secret to getting so close is to be quiet, keep low, no abrupt movements, and try to blend in as much as possible with the vegetation. With my bright yellow Lands End jacket, I blended in well with the local banana trees. Make sure one's camera has as humongous a telephoto lens as possible. I did. Oh, and one last thing. Be in a national park where wildlife is protected and are used to being around people. That helps a lot.

Even then this guy somehow spotted me and darted off, despite my camaflouged bright yellow jacket.

I've been around this big wide planet. What a blessing to have some of its best features right here at home.

Scorpion Queen and Centipede King Marry

Here's a match made in heaven if ever there was one. I mean, they just fit together like... well like a scorpion and a centipede. Yahoo's Odd News leads with this beautiful Valentine's story:

The couple with a soft spot for creepy crawlers; Thailand's Scorpion Queen and Centipede King; held their Valentine's Day's wedding Tuesday at a haunted house.

This story just pulls at my heart strings. Some things are just meant to be.

Uh, which one in the photo is the centipede?

Kimchi-spiced Air Conditioners Fight Bird Flu

Now I think I've heard of everything. I happen to love Kimchee so if it can ward off any bird flu virus that might hit, more power to it. This puts kimchi over the top to include in my food storage program.

South Korean firm LG Electronics is poised to start marketing an air conditioner with a filter made using an enzyme from the pungent national dish kimchi that is aimed at protecting against the bird flu virus.

All I can say is that some Kimchee and air conditioner marketer are worth their weight in gold. What genius.

While I'm thinking about business, I wonder if there is room in the valley for another multi-level marketing firm? I could start out a healthy morning drinking Noni, Pomegranate, Transfactor, Xanga and round it off with a glass of medicinal kim chee juice and extracts. Mmmm, mmm good.

Hey, there's a business idea for Utah if ever there was one...

The Real Olympics

This was picked up by a friend of mine -- a back-handed compliment to Latter-day Saints around the world from the Opinion Journal.

"Here's a proposal to increase harmony and goodwill among nations. Cancel the Olympics forever... The Games are the reason that Nancy Kerrigan got kneecapped, Danish cyclist Enemark Jensen died under the influence of amphetamines, and hundreds of East German women were involuntarily turned into hairy testosterone-stuffed she-males. Olympic fever could even corrupt Mormons, and did."

Photo by Tex, Just Tex via Flickr

Self-Esteem

This blog post is a week late but I had to comment on one of my favorite commercials from the Superbowl on self-esteem for girls. I'm a guy who had to find out through my two daughters how tough the world of girls can be. Unfortunately, a girl's understanding of what brings happiness is not yet fully mature. It's easy to be led astray. Their really cool self, the girl on the inside, gets easily pressured by the fog of peers and what is popular. My eldest, whose stunning Eurasian features has won her a number of modeling jobs, wanted to dye her hair blonde, looking like all of her close friends. (How come there are so many blondes in Utah's schools?)

If you don't know what I'm talking about, rent a copy of the movie Mean Girls to see what happens to a cool American girl who's been abroad when she trys to integrate into life in an American High School.

The great meme that we LDS have to be true to our higher selves, the source of real happiness and self-esteem, is that "we are in the world but not of it." The world and its pressures confuses us. Being in the world but not of it reminds us to rise above its corruptions and scoffs. Bad grades, a game that didn't quite go so well, or not quite fitting in can make us feel down. And peer expectations are so fleeting. No matter how hard we try, we are inately different so might as well feel comfortable about it.

Here's counsel from someone who knows and loves us best to remember in times of low self-esteem.

1 Corinthians 2:9. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Proverbs 17: 22. A merry heart doeth good like medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

The State of the Union 2006

The 2006 State of the Union was one of the better speeches that our prez has given, in my humble opinion. But it's hard to take these speeches too seriously. After all, State of the Union addresses seem more like a laundry list gathered from various bureaucracies than a speech with political clarity and aim by the prez. I mean, remember when President Clinton was going through the Lewinsky mess and he threw everything into his SOTU address including the kitchen sink?

So in the spirit of the times, here's a parady of the 2006 SOTU. This line is a killer:

"I understand that there is an enemy out there that kills theirselves. My message to the suiciders is that we will hunt you down and kill you."

One word of caution to my fellow Republicans before watching the video -- please have your sense of humor ready.