Thought for the Day

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. - Calvin Coolidge

The Goracle II

I read another great article on the Goracle titled Gore the Preacher Man that I thought was great and I highly recommend. In the article, Michael Barone goes though to point out how Al Gore exaggerates from articles that he quotes. An example is as follows:

“Gore foresees a 20-foot rise in sea level — 240 inches. The IPCC panel report foresees a maximum of 23 inches. Gore says that ‘our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this.’ Geologist Don Easterbrook says there have been shifts up to ‘20 times greater than the warming in the past century.’”

Spring Break 2

On Friday night we went to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show at the Reliant Center by the Astrodome. The Reliant Center is where the Houston Texans play football. I was able to get 4 free tickets to the Rodeo which was great because we really did not want to take Ryan anyway. We knew it would be a late night and we did not want to fight with him all evening. I was glad we got a babysitter for him because it made it better for all of us.

I heard that the Houston Rodeo had a bunch of other activities besides the rodeo and we discovered that it was like a state/county fair. There were highly over-priced carnival rides that we did not go on. There was also an area with a petting zoo, livestock shows and judging along with tons of vendors selling their wares. We went to the petting zoo because we thought Brett and Jared would like that.

Brett liked feeding the goats but Jared was a little nervous and first.

Jared is thinking hard about whether or not hand feeding goats is such a great idea.

Jared then decided that it might be OK to feed a little goat.

Brett and Jared petting a little pig.

Lori, Brett and Jared in the cow showing area.

We wandered through the vendor booths but did not find anything too intriguing to buy. We then bought some highly over-priced food and found a place on the floor to sit down and had some dinner before going to the rodeo. We should have waited to buy our food because we could have gotten equally over-priced food at the Reliant Center and had a chair to sit down in to eat it. Live and learn.

Jared, Brett and Lori at the Houston Rodeo in the Reliant Center.

Jared and Brett were fascinated by the rodeo since this was their first one. They sat like that through most of it.
A picture of the area from where we were sitting. I am glad they had the big screen TVs or we would have had a tough time seeing all the action.

After the Rodeo there was a concert by Dierks Bentley. We stayed for the first half hour of the concert but it was getting late for the kids and we needed to get Ryan from the babysitter. Since I am not a country music fan at all, I had not ever even heard of Dierks Bentley before the concert. He was OK but certainly not someone I would pay money to go see. When Jared started looking for a way to lay down in his seat we knew it was time to leave. I was really glad we did not bring Ryan because he would not have been able to handle the late night.

Spring Break 1

The week of March 12th the kids were out of school for a week for Spring Break. I took Thursday and Friday off from work that week so we could have a little fun with the family. The previous 3 days it rained most of the time so it was good we did not have plans for those days because everyone was stuck at home. On Thursday morning it was a little bit cool, cloudy and even foggy in some places so we were concerned about our plans, but we headed to Galveston anyway. When we got there it had warmed-up a bit and the fog was starting to burn off. We planned to rent a surry and go for a ride and we proceeded with our plans. At first it was a little bit cold but once we started pedaling, we got warmed-up.

This is a picture of us in the surry.

This is Lori in the surry. As you can tell from the picture, at that point it was still cloudy and a little bit cool. There were people at the beach and even in the water as we were riding by, but I thought it was too cold.

Jared and Ryan decided that riding in the front where there are not any pedals is the place to be. On the way back when the wind was blowing against us they decided it could get a little chilly up front. It thought it felt great to have the cool wind to help cool me off.

We stopped at the dolphin statue along the sea wall at Galveston and took a few pictures. Then we turned around and went back to turn in the surry. We rode for a little more than an hour and had a blast. Then we went and had lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack while we waited for it to warm-up a bit.

After lunch we drove a little bit beyond the sea wall to a beach we could drive out on. We got set-up and the kids tried out their new skim boards. Unfortunately, we all discovered the skimming is not as easy as our Cousin Robbie Comeford makes it look. I gave it a try and discovered that I am getting too old to try such things. Brett and Jared did some practicing and were able to skim a bit.

This is Brett and Ryan out in the water. The water was a little cold (like the ocean in Southern California is in the summer) but the kids did not mind it. Lori and I decided that the water was too cold for us to get completely soaked, but the kids did not mind.

Here is Brett showing us how to skim.

This is Jared doing some skimming.

This is Jared showing the hazards of skimming.

Ryan got a little cold after playing in the water so I wrapped him in towels to warm him up. He was so tired after pedaling the surry (Not!) and playing at the beach that he fell asleep. So we made room for him in the back of the van so he could take his nap. It was nice to just sit in the chairs, listen to the waves and watch the older kids play in the water and the sand. It was perfect weather that afternoon and we had a great time at the beach.

The Goracle

Al Gore, the prophet for the new Environmental Religion that worships Mother Earth, testified before congress this week on Global Warming. The “do as I say not as I do” hypocrite was pushing his agenda that is full of “inconvenient truths.” Apparently according to the Goracle we can save the planet without suffering any economic repercussions and actually grow the economy. There is no basis for these assertions and basic economics and most economists disagree with this assertion. But, the Goracle has spoken and everyone that disagrees with him is a heretic and blasphemes against the faith of the environmentally religious and worshippers of Mother Earth. There are a couple of great articles today by Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry that discuss these new revelations by The Goracle about saving the planet and growing the economy. Because the Goracle has said it, it must be true despite all the “inconvenient truths” of reality. The Goracle drives me nuts and I have not been converted to the religion of the Goracle. I just cannot believe that so many people listen to this guy even though he is such an obvious hypocrite. When he sells off 3 of his 4 houses, quits flying and driving, then I will believe him. I do not think any of this is really about saving the plant, I think it has more to do with growing the government and giving power to the likes of the Goracle.

Global Warming Madness Continues

As anyone that reads my blog (which most likely consists of Lori and me and very few others) you will know that I am not a big fan of all the global warming hype. In spirit of full disclosure, I do work for a large oil company so that does influence my thoughts on the issue. But, more than that, I am scientifically inclined and I am not prone to all the hype. Throughout modern history and I suspect that throughout all of human history there is a looming catastrophe that people get all excited about and the world’s sages predict will destroy mankind and then nothing comes of it. I would like to review a few of those predictions and then ask where they are now.

In the 1930’s all the way up through the 1960’s the looming disaster was the population explosion and the lack of food. There was talk of making synthetic food to stave off mass starvation. There was a movie made in 1973 called Soylent Green that was loosely based on the 1966 novella Make Room! Make Room! where there is mass starvation and they are making food from humans. There were all sorts of looming disasters that were predicted but when we look at what really happened we can see that the doomsayers were completely wrong. Not only do we not have mass starvation, in developed countries obesity is considered to be a major problem. The food shortages in today’s world are caused by politics, not over-population. Nobody is making synthetic food; they are converting corn to ethanol and using it as fuel. It appears that the experts missed that prediction by a mile.

In the 1970’s the looming disaster was “Global Cooling” and we were headed into another ice age. I am old enough to remember that one. It appears that the experts blew that prediction as well.

Another impending disaster that was predicted during the 1970’s is the world was going to run out of oil. I remember an advertisement on TV with a kid standing on the Statue of Liberty talking about conserving gasoline or there would not be any left for him when he was old enough to drive. I was freaked out about that and told my mom that she needed to quit driving so much and save some gasoline or there would not be any form me when I was old enough to drive. My mom had the good sense to recognize what was being said as propaganda and told me not to worry about it, it would be OK. There would be plenty of oil for me to be able to drive when I turned 16. My mom was right and the “expert” doomsayers were wrong again.

In the 1980’s and early 1990’s the biggest threat to mankind was the ominous “hole in the ozone layer.” We were all going to die of skin cancer due to the harmful UV radiation due to the hole in the ozone layer that was supposedly caused by the use of Freon. The terrible chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs) were supposed to be the end of civilization. Do we hear anything about that now? I think that all the hype was because DuPonts patent on Freon was up and they had a bunch of more environmentally friendly, patentable refrigerants that they wanted to sell. In addition, the chemistry really did not make sense. Ozone is unstable and it reacts with just about everything, including CFCs. But CFCs are much heavier than air so I still do not understand how man-made CFCs enter the upper atmosphere. I think the hole in the ozone layer is much better explained by the seasons. Ozone is created by the sun’s energy (UV radiation) hitting the O2 (Oxygen) molecules in the atmosphere and breaking the bond into two O atom. These atoms are unstable and so they combine with a nearby O2 molecule to form an O3 (ozone) molecule. These reactions are going on continuously leaving a residual amount of ozone present in the upper atmosphere. If there is not any sunlight, there will not be any ozone. During the winter months the sun does not shine much at the poles of the earth and particularly in Antarctica where the hole in the ozone was discovered. During the winter when the sun is not shining in Antarctica, the hole in the ozone layer gets bigger because O2 is not being converted to O3. During the summer, when the sun is shining the hole in the ozone layer gets small again because the energy from the sun’s radiation is converting O2 to O3 again. I do not think that the hole in the ozone layer has anything to do with man’s activities, but all the hype has made DuPont a ton of money, which is why we do not hear about the hole anymore.

Global warming is just the latest in a long list of looming disasters that are being used for political gain. The BBC did a documentary call the Great Global Warming Swindle that does a good job of showing additional scientific data that Al Gore and company do not want anyone to know about. I have watched over the internet and I recommend that everyone see it. You can click here to see it on the internet but I would like to get a DVD with it. It is really good. You can go here to read a great article that summarizes the points that the film makes. Although some people would like you to believe that there is not dissent among the experts in regard to global warming, the fact is there is quite a bit of dissent. Just as in the past there were those that dissented from the vision of the future presented by the doomsayers, there are dissenters now and I expect that in 10-20 years when the global warming has not proven to be the disaster all these people are hoping it will be that they will find another impending disaster to beat us over the head with.

One way that the Global Warming Hypocrites like Al Gore are trying to ease their conscience and make some money in the process is by buying and selling carbon offsets. In this way the rich and famous can use their vast wealth to pay someone not to emit CO2 so they can live an energy extravagant life and still feel good about being green. They basically pay someone to not emit CO2 so they can. There is a great web site called Cheat Neutral that parodies this attitude that I think is great. I think that they are totally incorrect in their thoughts on the need to reduce CO2 emissions and living a carbon neutral lifestyle, but the parody on the CO2 trading is funny.

Retirement Home

I have found the perfect retirement home! Lori and I are so excited and we are saving now so we will be able to achieve the dream.

Pictures of the kids

After a couple of political blogs I decided it was time for more kid pictures along with a thought for the week. We have been busy with life and not doing much fun and exciting but hopefully that will change this week as the kids are out of school for Spring Break. Lori has gotten the camera out and has taken some fun pictures of the kids so those are below. Lori took Ryan out to the back yard and she took pictures of him while he played with bubbles.

This one is Ryan playing on the trampoline.

Ryan showing a little bit of attitude.

Ryan doing some jumping on the trampoline.

Lori spent some time at Old Navy recently and got the kids some new clothes for Spring. They looked so good in their new clothes that we had to take a picture of them before going to church.

Yesterday Jared lost another tooth. He is happy to show-off his new hole in his mouth. He lost the tooth on the left side yesterday.

Brett showing us his great smile.

Now for a thought for the day.

LIFE IS ONE BIG MUDDLE. Sometimes you have to muddle more, sometimes you have to muddle less, but for all of us "muddling through" is the natural state of things. Luckily, while we muddle, we can surround ourselves with things we cherish. We can muddle nobly, happily and with a sense of purpose. We can choose to love and allow ourselves to be loved as we muddle. Ultimately, if you want it to be and let it be, it’s a beautiful muddle indeed. - Hugh Hewitt

Global Warming Hypocrisy

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Senator Barbara Boxer asking me to sign a “Thank-you” note for Al Gore for all his work on behalf of the environment. I do not understand how I got on her mailing list because I cannot stand her or Al Gore. It seems that since Al Gore’s docudrama that is full of falsehoods there is quite a bit of hype about global warming. I even read an article in PC Magazine that discusses global warming and treat’s Al Gore’s political documentary (lie-umentary) as if it is the gospel truth. The truth is that there is not a consensus about global warming even though the Left would like everyone to believe there is. In addition, Al Gore is a hypocrite when it comes to global warming and the environment as has been shown in the news lately. I think he needs to start showing everybody how to live and stop telling them. He could start by getting rid of his guest house. How many people in the United States are paying to heat and cool a guest house?

Beyond the hypocrisy of all those elites hyping global warming, what are they proposing that we do to stop it? It is one thing to point out there is a problem, it is quite another to come-up with a solution. Even if the US abided by 10 Kyoto Protocols it would not put a dent in the global warming problem. There is a great article by Jonah Goldberg that highlights this. In addition, Europe has smugly signed on to the Kyoto Protocol but they are not abiding by it. So now you have the entire EU joining Al Gore and his elites as hypocrites.

I am really getting tired of all the hypocritical doomsayers reporting that life as we know it will come to an end because of global warming. For me, the cure is much worse than the disease. I do not want to go back to living in a cave as a hunter/gatherer and I do not think anybody really does. I am sure Al Gore and Barbara Boxer are not lining-up for such options. They want the rest of us to be happy peasants and give-up our lifestyle so they can jet around the country. It is not about the environment for them, it is about political power and taking away our personal liberties.

For more of the great political cartoons by Michael Ramirez that I have posted, you can go here.

New Skim Boards

Because we move around so much we acquire things that in some locations are useless. An example of that are boogey boards that be bought and used in California and Venezuela and then were sitting in our basement in Illinois. Several times Lori wanted to give those away and I told her we should keep them because you never know when we will live in a place where we will use them again. Then, we moved to Texas again and we have used them at the beach several times. The problem we have discovered are the waves on the Texas beaches are not good for surfing or boogey boarding so mostly the kids just float on them and I drag them around in the water. But, one thing that we have discovered is the beaches in Texas would be great for skim boarding. My cousin has a web site dedicated to skim boarding called RCSkim that is cool and has video of skimming tricks. He also has some instructions on how to make a skim board but I have backed away from making our own. We found some that were not very expensive in a beach shop on Galveston Island and decided to buy the kids some skim boards instead of making them. Since I did not move all my tools to Texas with me we decided that would be the best thing to do. I am going to have to borrow tools to make the Pinewood Derby cars this year. Below is a picture of the kids with their new skim boards. Now we are anxiously waiting for it to get warm enough for us to hit the beach.

Baketball

Brett and Jared have been playing basketball with the YMCA this year. I signed-up to be a coach and they needed someone for Brett's age group so I was the coach for Brett's team this year. Fortunately for me, one of the fathers that knows much more about coaching than I do has been helping me. Below are pictures of the kids that were taken and one of Brett's team with me as the coach.

One interesting thing about the team that I ended-up coaching was one of the kids on the team used to be our neighbor when we lived in the Houston area 8 years ago. They had since moved from the neighborhood that we both lived in and if he would not have been on my team we would not have been able to find them here. It was really funny when I got my team roster and realized who it was that was on my team.

Tiger-Man

Jared went to a birthday party where they did some face painting and they really did it right. Following the party we took advantage of the weather and went for a bike ride. Jared got quite a few strange looks as he was riding around on his bike looking like tiger-man. It was funny.

Thought for the day

On my planner program I have a thought that comes-up every morning when I start-up the program. It comes from a collection of thoughts that I have been gathering for some time now. The thought for today was from C.S. Lewis which says the following:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

On of my favorite web sites and magazines is National Review and today on there was a movie review on National Review On-Line that I thought was interesting. The title of the movie is Mine Your Own Business and it exposes the hypocrisy of the Left and the Environmental Movement. They have a web site for the movie that is interesting as well. As I was reading the article and about the movie, it made me think about the quote by C.S. Lewis above. The Left’s environmental movement is a bunch of busybodies that think they know better than everyone else what is really in their best interest. Nobody is in favor of polluted air and water so the environmentalists can feel good about keeping people in poverty, killing jobs and tormenting the rest of us by telling us that it is for our own good and then feel good about what they are doing. I think that C.S. Lewis captured the tyranny of the environmental movement very well in the quote above and the movie exposes the environmentalist tyranny for what it really is. I bought a copy of the movie and I am looking forward to watching it.

I have been very skeptical of the environmentalist for a long time and I have found them to be highly hypocritical. What is interesting is you will find very few environmentalists living in poverty. They find that others living in poverty to be quaint and want to keep them there. I think that instead of telling us how we should live they should shut-up and show us. After they have really lived what they preach and have frozen to death in the dark, then the rest of us can move on with our lives without being bothered by the busybodies.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Dimond

Grandma and Grandpa Dimond came to see us last week and we had a great time. It was a short visit and the kids were in school but we made the most of it. They came last Thursday and left on Monday. On Friday Brett and Jared had to go to school but I had that Friday off because I work a flex schedule and I get every other Friday off normally. Sometimes I have to work if I am traveling or doing a HAZOP, but I did have last Friday off. So, we went to Galveston even though it was cold!! We stopped at the beach and froze (it was about 45-50 degrees F) but it was still fun. Even though it was cold it was much warmer than it was for Grandma and Grandpa back in Utah. Then we went and visited the Moody Mansion in Galveston. It is a big, fancy old house. If you want to learn more about it you can go to the following web site: http://www.moodymansion.org/ . We had to get home before Brett and Jared got home from school so that was all we had time for.

On Friday evening we had basketball practice so we did not do anything else. Grandma and Grandpa Dimond went to Jared’s practice with Lori and Ryan and I went to our basketball practice with Brett. I am the coach of Brett’s team so I always to with him to all the games and practices.

On Saturday morning we went for a walk around Brazos Bend State Park. We were hoping to see some alligators but it was too cold for them. We saw quite a few birds but no gators. We did go to the visitors center and we had the opportunity to pet one of the baby alligators so we at least saw some babies. We had to hurry home from that activity so we could go to our basketball games. Grandma and Grandpa had the chance to watch Brett and Jared play basketball, which was fun.

After the basketball games we went out to eat at Texas Land and Cattle. The kids eat free there from noon until 4:00 on Saturdays so we took advantage of that.

Sunday was a relaxing day. We went to Church in the afternoon and Grandpa Dimond talked to some of the people in our ward that he knows. It is amazing because Grandpa Dimond seems to always know someone, even in Texas!

It was a short visit but a good one. We love to have people come and see us.

Vist from Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen

The day after Christmas, which was also Brett's Birthday, Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen came to visit us. They had to catch a flight from Salt Lake City at 2:00 am which arrived at 6:00 am in Houston. They were really tired that day so they needed it to recover. Brett was a little disappointed because he had to wait for Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen to wake-up before he could open his birthday gifts. But, he was finally able to that evening and we celebrated his 9th Birthday.

Brett wanted to have a Friend Birthday Party at Build-a-Bear so we invited the Selcho Family and we had a great time. Following the party at Build-a-Bear we blew out candles and had cake and ice-cream at home. Actually, we had a big cookie with ice cream because Brett does not like frosting so we do not have cake for his birthday.

Following his party we got packed-up and we headed to San Antonio so we could go to the Alamo. We had been there before but we did not see the IMAX movie or go into the museum because the kids were getting agitated. When the kids start getting agitated I tend to get agitated so we were not able to see the whole thing the first time. We arrived in San Antonio that evening and then got-up and went to the Alamo. We also saw the IMAX movie and walked around the Riverwalk as well. Last year when mom and Dad came to visit we went to Memphis, TN and ran into the crowds for the Liberty Bowl. This year we discovered the crowds associated with the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio so we were not able to see the entire Alamo this time either. We did not go into the Chapel because the lines were so long. We got there early enough that we did not have a crowd for some pictures in front of the Alamo, but once the Alamo opened-up, it got really crowded.

Following our visit to the Alamo, we went to the Texas Hollywood, Alamo Village. This is the place where the John Wayne version of the Alamo was originally filmed. In addition, they also filmed the IMAX Alamo show that we watched in San Antonio there. It is a regular film location and there were many films shot there. It was a bit of a drive to get there (it is near Bracketville, TX) but it was fun to see. It was Grandpa's idea to go there or we would not eve thought of it. We barely had time to see all that we wanted to see before it closed. We missed a few things but Grandpa did not want to go back the next day to see what we missed.

The following day we went to Mexico. We crossed the border at the city of Eagle Crossing and went into Piedras Negras. We walked across the toll bridge because we did not want to drive the car into Mexico since we did not know where we were going. I am glad we made that decision because the line to get back into the US across the bridge was very long.

We were a little disappointed in Piedras Negras as there was not much to see or do there. There was an open market area but it was pretty small compared to what we saw in Tijuana when we went there. We bought the kids a Mexican Jacket that you can see in the pictures. We probably could have negotiated a better price but it did not seem worth the effort. We also bought a cowboy hat for Jared since he did not have one and they had some cheap ones there. It was fun to speak Spanish though and I had a very good time. There was a guy that wanted to be our tour guide that followed us around that was a bit irritating. I told him we did not need his help and his broken English because I spoke Spanish and could get around fine, but he just kept following us. I want to go back again but I think we will find another border town to visit the next time because there was not much in Piedras Negras. We went there to shop but from the general flow of traffic and the looks of all the stores in Eagle Pass, I think more people tend to go the other direction to do their shopping.

We spent the afternoon driving to Corpus Christi and arrived there in the evening. The following day we went to the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington, which is a retired Aircraft Carrier. The Texas State Aquarium was a ton of fun. The dolphin show was not as good as the shows as Sea World but it was fun. The kids had the chance to hold hermit crabs, pet sharks, sting rays and a snake. We also had the chance to see an anteater eat some yogurt (which gives the anteater gas) and learn about them. It was a fun time.

Following our day at the Texas State Aquarium, we went to the USS Lexington. We should have left more time to tour the ship but we were able to see most of it. The living quarters are pretty tight. The ship was hit by a kamikaze plane during World War II. For anyone that is interested they can learn more about it at the following link: http://www.usslexington.com/ .

The following day we drove home. On our way home we stopped in Goliad to learn about the history there. There was a fort that has been rebuilt there called Presidio La Bahia (http://www.presidiolabahia.org/). Santa Ana killed a bunch of men there after he took the Alamo. Unlike at the Alamo, this group surrendered but Santa Ana had them all executed anyway. For anyone that wants to know more about the Goliad Massacre, they can go to the following web site: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/GG/qeg2.html .

It was a fun trip. After we got home we had to spend a day recovering from all our fun. We had a great time and were able to see some of the sites. Grandma really likes history and we were able to learn quite a bit of Texas history. A little tidbit that we learned on this trip was that Santa Ana was an opium user which may explain his large mood swings. It may also explain why he was found wandering around confused after Sam Houston whipped him at San Jacinto.