Bona Vida

This week I've had to watch a slew of Sherlock Holmes videos for a class I'm taking. The videos were made in 1984 and they're really lame. Not once have I heard Holmes say, "Elementary my dear Watson!" I only have one more to watch and then I can move onto to better videos.
On Saturday night Mitch and I went with my parents to a new Italian restaurant called Bona Vida. It's off of 12300 south and Minuteman Drive in Draper (next to the See's candy store). My friend Ally is the assistant manager there. I must say this restaurant truly has the best Alfredo sauce I've ever eaten in my entire life. I'm not exaggerating-it was amazing! I highly recommend it. Mitch and I went to the home show afterwards. It wasn't quite as cool as we expected, but we did climb the rock climbing wall they had there. For some reason we both thought we were good enough to climb the expert walls, so we raced up them. My wall was a grade easier than Mitch's, so I made it 5 feet from the top and Mitch about 10 feet from the top when we both realized we couldn't go all the way. Ha,ha. We totally weren't as good as we thought we were. It was fun though. We also rented Baby Mama and watched that. It was pretty funny. It's definitely worth renting.
It's been crazy Utah weather as usual, and while it was warm and sunny last week it snowed a few inches and was very cold today. I think we get more of the lake effect in Layton because we seem to have more snow than in Ogden or Salt Lake. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I just hope it doesn't snow again until December otherwise we're in for a really long winter.

This says it all

After watching last night's presidential debate, this article sums up my feelings about the two candidates. It is kind of long, but worth reading through to the end.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/10/13/081013taco_talk_editors

Randomness

Last night Mitch and I went to the Hobby Lobby to look at knobs for some furniture Mitch is fixing up. We were walking around, looking for the knobs, when Mitch purposely made us detour down the car model aisle. If you know Mitch, you know how much he loves cars. He restored a 1966 Chevy Monza Corvair (hope I got that right) when he was in high school. It's pretty sweet. For Christmas last year I gave Mitch a model car that he painted and put together. He had a good time doing it. So, he pulls me onto this aisle at the Hobby Lobby and I kinda rolled my eyes, but chuckled. We're looking at the car models and Mitch says, very seriously in his whiney voice, "But I want a real one." Ha,ha! I had a good laugh about that. I guess that's the difference between boys and men: boys are satisfied with toy model cars, men just want the real ones. I told Mitch he can have two cars at a time, pretty fair right? Currently, he has an '04 Subaru WRX STi and the '66 Corvair. I think he's fine on cars for a little while. I'd love to get him his dream car. The first time I have an extra $80K I'll get it for him. Silly Mitch. I love him and his car addiction though! I really would buy him his dream car if I could!!!

Also, I mentioned before how much I loved President Uchtdorf's talk from the Relief Society Broadcast a few weeks ago. The church put the talk on their website, so here's the link for it. I really think all women should read this talk, it's great.
http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,285-1-54-31,00.html

I'm still studying both candidates for the presidential election. I'm hoping to get out of class in time tonight to watch the debate. I haven't had very good feedback on my support for Obama. That's okay, I'm not supporting him for anyone else but myself. I do have to write down my thoughts on this though: (here's where my stubborn attitude shows through) I am looking at both sides of every issue, and yet people are telling me I'm wrong without considering both sides themselves. I think we should all check out Obama's and McCain's websites and listen to the debates to see what both candidates are all about before deciding who would be best. I am tired "goody-goody" Mormons automatically voting Republican because they think that's what the Church would have them do. Didn't anyone go to sacrament meeting a few weeks ago when the letter from the First Presidency was read over the pulpit that told members to study all parties, make an educated decision, and pray to God for understanding on whom you should vote for? I think this is good advice for every American, whether they're Mormon or friends of other faiths ("Foofs" as Mitch calls them).The letter did not say, "Vote Republican because the church tends to lean towards Republican's views on many moral issues." That was not said nor implied. I think we should all heed the great advice from the leaders of the church: let's study both parties and pray about it before we decide.
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php http://www.johnmccain.com/
I want people to make educated, thought-out, researched decisions. If people study this out, pray about it, and vote for McCain, great! At least they made an educated decision for themselves. I don't think people should vote one way because their mom and dad follow that party or because they heard so-and-so's opinion so that's automatically their opinion too. I want everyone to make an educated decision for themselves.

The Mighty Baltic Mission

This weekend I went to my mission reunion. I have only been to one reunion previously and that was in 2006, so it's been a long time since I've seen everyone. (It seems like there was always something else going on or we went to Mitch's reunions instead of mine.) I had two mission presidents, the Barrs and the Wattersons. The Wattersons just got home in July, so this was the first reunion they attended. It was neat to have both presidents there. (The Barrs live in Australia, President Barr was actually born in Lithuania, his family fled during WWII to Australia. President and Sister Watterson live in Colorado Springs.) President Watterson spoke and of course he cried. I had forgotten that he cries every time he speaks. It's just a tear or two, but it's kinda funny. I'll admit it though, I cried when I heard President Barr and President Watterson bear their testimonies. They are both amazing examples to me of great faith and dedication to the Lord. I look up to them and their wives so much.They are very wise and noble people. I hope I become more like them.

This is me, Britt, and President and Sister Watterson

I had so much fun catching up with fellow missionaries. My MTC companion., Sister Strait (Britt), and I ended up being companions again in Lithuania and Latvia. We were companions for half of our missions. We had the best companionship and we're still best friends today. I am so glad I could spend the day hanging out with her, we don't see each other often enough. I enjoyed seeing the elders I served with all grown up and married. Most of them are pursuing competitive educations and will do great things with their lives. I truly served with amazing people.

Britt and I as comp.s in Vilnius, Lithuania

We built this cup model to relieve our stress. We would
shoot down the cups with our plastic b.b.s. The cups said things
that stressed us out like fleas, Elder Smith, drunk men, the bus, below
zero tempertatures, frost bite, falling on the ice, etc.
This is Britt and I today.

This was our district from the MTC. This pic is towards the end of my mission. Far left: Nathan Lott, Natalie Waites, Me, Brittney Strait, Troy Thomas

As you can see in this pic if you click on it, Elder Thomas (far right), has a huge chunk of skin missing on his forehead. That's because the day before he ran into a light pole while walking down the street. It was so cold outside that a chunk of his skin got ripped of his head and stuck, frozen, to the light pole. It looked nastier than it does in the picture. Don't worry, as you can see in the pic below it didn't scar.
Those of us who could make it last night:
Far left: me, Brittney Jones, Nathan Lott, and Troy Thomas

I hadn't seen Nathan since I left the mission on May 31, 2006. At that time he was an AP and took Britt and I to the airport to go home. It was great to see him last night after over two years. He looks exactly the same. Troy, Britt, and I have hung out a couple of times over the last two years. He's a cool kid. He and Nathan will both be at BYU-Idaho this year if any ladys are
interested ... let me know! They're both great guys and I look up to them a lot.
This is Britt, Spencer Shell, and I.

Spencer and I served together in Riga, Latvia for my last 6 months. Me, Britt, and Spencer finished our missions at the same time and Spencer and I flew home together as he is from Sandy. He helped me a lot when we got home. I missed being a missionary and coming home was such a difficult transition. I cried every day for the first two weeks. Spencer (though he won't admit it now) had the same problem, so we talked a lot and helped each other out. I was glad I could visit with him at the reunion and catch up with him.

I am thankful every day that I could go on a mission. Sure, I have some physical ailments now as a result: bad hips, S.A.D. in the winter, stunted hair growth because of nasty water in Lithuania, a strange cough, flea bite scars, etc. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I grew more from those 18 months than I have any other time in my life. I loved being so tired (mentally and physically) at the end of the day, knowing I had done my best to spread the Gospel to the people of the Baltics. I love the Russian people. I love their stubborn, unwavering, enduring conviction in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the Gospel and my Savior. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my mission and I will never forget what I learned there.

Now this weekend I get to be uplifted and enjoy General Conference. I love conference time and always find myself rejuvenated afterward.
As President Watterson would say I feel so blessed to have been part of "The Mighty Baltic Mission."

Energy and Economics

Hey all. This is Mitch again. I guess the politics stuff going around has got me all spun up so I want to voice my opinion. While I know very few people will read this, it makes me feel better to get it all out.
First off, energy. I'm not an expert in this area, but I do know a thing or two from my education in engineering. I'm quite disappointed in the current administration and what they have and have not done for energy in this great nation. First off, is cars. Bush has spent millions of dollars over the past few years having automakers off chasing the holy grail that is the hydrogen powered car. It sounds great at first. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Hydrogen burns clean. There are two fundamental problems with using hydrogen to power automobiles. 1. Where to get it, and 2. how to store it.

1. Where to get hydrogen. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but hydrogen in its raw form is not very abundant on Earth. There are two ways that we can get hydrogen. One is to get it from natural gas (where they get it for the space industry) and the second is to break water into hydrogen and oxygen by putting an electric current through it. This was the big tout of Bush, that the ocean is full of the fuel we need for our cars. The big problem with this is that it takes more energy to break water into hydrogen and oxygen than you get back out of combusting it. Most of the electricity in this nation is made by coal power plants. So, unless there is a big shift to nuclear or some other sort of renewable power, hydrogen powered cars will not reduce our dependence on non-renewable resources. For cars, it doesn't make much sense to expend the energy to convert natural gas to hydrogen to power cars since it is relatively simple to convert existing gas powered cars to run on natural gas.
2. How to store hydrogen. If you remember back to chemistry class, hydrogen is number 1 on the periodic table. This makes hydrogen the least dense element in the universe. This means it takes more space to store hydrogen than anything else. A company in Brigham city who makes composite pressure vessels came and gave a presentation at USU about the work they were doing for the government on trying to solve the problem of how to store hydrogen. What they had come up with was storing the gas at thousands of pounds of pressure. They showed us pictures of the hydrogen powered car that used their storage vessel. It works. It runs. It drives. Why isn't it out on the road? Safety. A hydrogen powered car that gets in a bad wreck and has the pressure vessel rupture, will result in a Challenger like explosion. The Hindenburg burned up because it was full of hydrogen, but having it pressurized a thousands of PSI will cause significant damage just based on the vessel rupturing, not to mention the explosive nature of hydrogen.

I wish that we hadn't spent the last 8 years researching a technology that is just out of our reach right now. There are plenty of alternatives. Cars that run on natural gas are out on the road today. Ethanol is a great solution. I don't think corn-based ethanol is a good solution because of the impact to our food market, but switchgrass (which is basically a weed) promises to have greater yield that corn and requires little upkeep. Electric cars are an emerging technology that shows a lot of promise. Energy storage (battery) technology needs to take a leap before it becomes completely feasible. I think we have a lot of good alternatives for a long-term solution to powering our cars. I'm sure that gasoline will be around for the rest of my life, but the more cars and trucks that we can get on the road using alternative fuels will only mean a drop in the price of gas and a cleaner environment. It also will help us reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Now for domestic energy production. Clean coal is something I find exciting. At USU I heard a presentation on clean coal. Basically, an algae has been developed that feeds on the nasty chemicals that come from burning coal. This algae can live in the smokestack of power plants and feed on these nasty chemicals. When the algae is mature, it is harvested and put into the power plant to be burned to produce more power. Pretty cool. That could help clean up the power plants that we have now. Safe nuclear power is also a great way to go in the future. Wind is also an area that has a lot of promise. While we can't run the nation off of wind, we can definitely make a large contribution to the power generation. The area just east of the Rockies is on average, the one of the most windy places in the world. Solar power in the Southwest is a possible contributor as well. It would not power the nation, but it definitely is an easy way to contribute. Solar panels don't have much maintenance (no moving parts!), and are easy to make. There are many ways that this could go in the future, and no one single technology is the answer, but a combination of all of them according to where in the nation they are most applicable.

Economics

I don't claim to be any kind of expert on the economy, but with all the bailouts and bad decisions that have made lately, I've started to learn more about it. Personally, I oppose the bailout. We are basically practicing the worst king of socialism there can be. Private companies get profits from their investments, and the public pays for the money they lose. Privatize the gains, and socialize the losses. The housing bubble had to burst. How can the average American family afford a $500,000 house in California? The prices need to drop. I also think that people need to be held accountable for the decisions they make. If they make risky investments, get a mortgage they can't afford, or make any other sort of bad decision, they need to accept the consequences of their decisions. One thing that made me really mad was when all this bailout stuff started, I saw John McCain on TV stating that banks have "forced American families into mortgages they can't afford." Ridiculous! No one forces anybody into any mortgage. Banks were definitely offering these mortgages (I was approved for a mortgage about 30% above what I bought my house for, and I know that I could never afford that much so I didn't get a house that expensive). What seems to be coming out of all this is that the government has to tell the banks what the American people can afford, since we don't seem to be able to make that decision for ourselves! I can't believe that. I know what I can afford, and I would hope that most Americans are smart enough to figure that out too. It is a sad day when the government feels the need to step in to the people's financial decisions. I guess if the government will not allow people to suffer the consequences of their decisions then this is what happens.

Personally, I think that people need to suffer the consequences for their decisions. Making mistakes is the only way we learn. My biggest fear is that the bailout will only allow the current situation to continue, and will result is worse consequences down the road rather than not performing the bailout. The consequneces of not doing the bailout definety aren't good (a lot of people upside down in their homes and losses in retirement funds), but will the consequences of the bailout be greater? Only time will tell. As a nation we need to stop investing into these bubbles and inflating prices way beyond value to the point where eventually the bubble bursts. Well, those are my basic observations from an outsider to economics.

Superdell for Governor!!! - or maybe not

Hey everyone. This is Mitch. This is my first blog ever. I found something that was so funny I just wanted to share with everyone. Do you remember that crazy Totally Awesome Computer guy? Yes, the one who pulled a gun on his neighbor for throwing rocks at his car, yes that super annoying guy. Well... anyway, he is running for governor of Utah. I got my voter information packet in the mail and while I was looking through the candidates for governor, I saw Superdell. Based on his article in the packet, his campaign has no goals other than to say the other candidates suck and God wants you to vote for him. He calls the other two candidates 'socialists' and says that you need to pray about your vote and you will be held accountable for your choice. I don't remember reading that anywhere in the scriptures! I guess since he is running a smear and guilt campaign that he doesn't have anything good to offer Utah. Maybe we could all get a Totally Awesome computer for free! or maybe we could all get into Totally Awesome gunfights with our neighbors. I can't even imagine how annoying he would be at a debate. If he gets invited to one I am definetly going just to watch the show. I don't even want to think about how horrible his speeches would be. Well, I guess if you want a Totally Awesome Utah, vote for Superdell. As for me, I might just have to move out of a Totally Awesome Utah to somewhere a little less bipolar.

Palin and Biden

We just watched the vice-presidential debate. I hadn't previously watched any debates or educated myself on the opposing parties. (I plan to before I vote so I can be an educated voter.) I don't understand a lot about politics and I've never been into the whole thing. But I learned a lot from the debate. I've always been a Republican. I still am, but I'm leaning towards Obama. Here's why according to what I gleaned from the debate:

• Palin's whole spill is "I'm a cute, little soccer mom. I'm a business owner. I understand you. *wink, wink* I was governor of a large state, Alaska. I can't wait to give more rights to families with children who have disabilities. We should drill in Alaska, where I'm from. *wink, smile, nod* The McCain Campaign is going to make changes. Unfortunately, guys, I can't tell ya what those changes are cuz I'm too busy babbling and changing the darn subject."
• Biden's whole spill is "We will focus on the middle class. The middle class is the economic engine of this country. Let's find other energy solutions besides oil. Obama and I are a team. He wants me in the room with him during decision-making times so I can give him my best opinion. We have a plan to pull out of Iraq. If we can get Bin Laden, we will."
• My feelings about Palin are "Sarah, my mom is a 'soccer mom and business owner' too. Does that qualify her to be the vice-president? No! Don't tell me that just because you have kids that play sports you're automatically qualified to run this country. I don't want someone like me or my mom to be VP. (No offense, Mom.) I want someone who knows more than me and speaks better than me too. I want someone with background, history, education, and experience. You're soccer mom days won't help you defend this country against terrorists. Quit using that as your commercial line. I don't want to get oil from America. I want another, long term solution. And Palin, what are you going to do for this country? You never answered that question directly. You say you're going to make changes, yet you can't say how or what you're going to change. Spit it out."
• My feelings about Biden are "Thank you for being straightforward. Thank you for your experience and time in the U.S. Government. Thank you for pulling troops out of Iraq in an efficient manner. Thank you for still being concerned about terrorists and Bin Laden. Thank you for focusing on the middle class. Thank you for realizing that there are more important things for America than helping families with disabled children. Don't get me wrong, I think we should help them, but I think the VP's focus needs to be on issues that will serve the vast majority of America and leave the smaller-reaching issues to others. Thank you, Biden, for proposing a new energy plan that moves us away from our dependency on foreign oil and closer to other answers like solar and wind."

Sure, I have a lot more research to do before I make my final decision. But tonight's debate was very insightful.