2013: A Year of Change

2013 was a year of big changes for me. The highlights:

In January, I took a leap and applied for a job in the hotel industry. I got the job, and I loved it! It's the first job I've had in quite a while that I can say that I truly enjoyed. Well, the first job that I can say that about that I've gotten paid decently.

In March, I bought a car. I car that I picked out and financed all by myself. I feel so grown up.

In April, I finally moved out of my parents' house, thus ending the stereotype of a blogger living in his mom's basement.

In May, my parents, who had planned on dying in the house we lived in since 1990, were offered a large sum of money for their house.It was significantly more than the house was worth, and they took it. They fell in love with another house, bought it, and moved in the space of two months from the initial offer. It was hard to sort through 23 years' worth of stuff, but we did it. As we were moving, more and more things started breaking in the house, and we were glad that my parents made the move. The new owners tore down the house in the fall.

In November, I got a call from a friend offering me a job at another hotel. This was similar to the job I already had, but with a few differences: less work, better job title, better pay. I took it, and am even happier than I was before.

And, in December, my Grandfather went to meet his maker after a 3 year battle with cancer. He was someone who I looked up to greatly, and even though we knew his passing was coming, it has still left a big hole in my life.

So, on to 2014. When I started a blog clear back in 2001, I wanted it to be full of more personal posts like this one. Over the years, as politics became a bigger part of my life, this blog became all politics, but I had no outlet for other, non-political, things. Then, as Facebook and, to a lesser extent Twitter, came in, I found myself using this as less and less of an outlet. I decided a few months ago that I wanted that outlet again. After talking with some folks, I've decided that I will go back to blogging, and use two blogs -- this one will be more political, and another one (that has had a few incarnations in the past) will become my journal of life. Stay tuned, as this will involve some restructuring of things on both blogs.

And, moreover, thanks for reading.

Environmental Activism at Olympus Jr High Built a Park

I was sent a link to a policy paper (I think that's the right term) from Sutherland Institute about environmental activism in Utah's schools. You can read the paper here.

I read through most of it, and found several things wrong. However, I'm not an environmental expert, so I'll leave that to real environmental experts.

However, I do want to share a tale about some environmental activism that took place when I was a student at Olympus Jr High in the early 1990's. (Am I really that old?)

My eighth grade science teacher (Ms Augustyn, if memory serves me correctly) disliked the fact that school lunches were served on Styrofoam trays. So, she educated her students on the environmental impacts of Styrofoam. That lead to a petition drive that captured the attention of some of the local media, and got Granite School District to change to trays made of recycled cardboard throughout the district.

Not only that, but it also laid the groundwork the following fall for the Olympus Jr High Environmental Club.

And that year, we got the year started off right with a paper recycling program. Then, one of our members heard that an intersection near the school was going to be realigned. In realigning the streets, they were going to tear out some pioneer-era trees. So, a new petition was circulated at the school, and the response from the road people was that they didn't really care what a bunch of Jr High kids thought. So, we spent a couple of Saturdays out talking to neighbors about the trees, getting them to sign our petition.

Well, They relented, moved the road to run on the east side of the trees (vs the west side where it previously ran). They also decided that the area around the trees would become a park.



And, that is the story of Olympus Pines Park. It all started with an activist teacher.



The bush to the right of the sign is one of the few plants we planted that day that has survived the past 16 years. I planted that bush.

-Bob

On, my LDS mission, I was mistaken for INS (now ICE)

So, this story about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents allegedly posing as Mormon missionaries reminded me of when I was accused of being an INS (what ICE was back then) agent.

From January through April of 1999, I was a Mormon Missionary assigned to the town of Faribault, Minnesota. My companion was from Mexico, and were were doing most of our work with the Latino community in town. Keep in mind that I didn't speak much Spanish, so it became the "Elder Guitierrez and the big, silent American" show. However, we were the top-teaching companionship in the entire mission for several weeks.

Then, suddenly, the work dropped off. And I don't mean just a little bit. It died completely. People weren't home when we came for our appointment and people weren't answering their doors for us.

After a few days of this, I noticed that when we'd pull into the trailer parks, there would be lots of people out and about, but they'd disappear by the time we got our stuff out of the car. Nobody milling about, nobody home. Just disappeared.

We had a non-practicing member of the Church who was friendly to us that agreed to ask around and see why everyone was hiding from us. Turns out that the only other minister in town that offered services in Spanish (We translated our meetings) told his churchgoers that there was no such things as the LDS Church, that it was all a front for the government, and we were spies set on deporting them.

I'm surprised that it's taken ICE this long to figure out this tactic. However, it's a horrible practice on so many fronts.

Check out this week's City Weekly

I haven't gotten a chance to grab one yet (it's hitting newsstands as I type), but I go quoted in this week's City Weekly:

Democratic Party delegate Bob Aagard, of Holladay, thinks a liberal primary challenger for Matheson would be good for the party because it would force Matheson to tiptoe to the left to win in the primary. But he also thinks it would be good for Matheson in a general election because he could deflect criticism that he shares the same liberal beliefs as a certain Democrat from San Francisco.

“It will help him because the Republicans always say that Jim Matheson equals [Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi,” Aagard says. “[A liberal challenger] gives Matheson the opportunity to say, 'Hey, look, this guy is a Nancy Pelosi Democrat. I'm not.'”

Thanks to reporter Jesse Fruhwirth for making me out to not sound too stupid or crazy.

I'm famous

About 27 seconds in:



-Bob

All About Bob in 50 questions

I usually hate these things and ignore them, but I feel too drawn in to this today. Maybe it's the distraction. Maybe it's the knowledge that maybe you'll learn something new about me.

I took this from Jessica. It's all her fault.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My Grandfathers -- Robert and Dayle

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Sunday

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Not really

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Is Peanut Butter meat?

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? No, but my nephew has made me less scared about that propect.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? If I payed myself enough.....

7. GREATEST FEAR? Failure #2? Success. That's my world.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Never.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Frosted Mini Wheats with Chocolate Milk.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Stronger than many.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Any that I'm eating right at the moment...

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Eyes.

15. RED OR PINK? Red. Definitely.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOU? I fairly introverted, and I don't remember people's names very well.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My dad.

18. WHAT IS THE GREATEST THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF? I can often see multiple sides of every issue.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW? Tan (khaki) pants, black shoes.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? I can't remember. I never had breakfast, a fact I just realized....

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Enoch Train

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Forrest Green

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Rain, cookies baking, bacon

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Mason

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO TAGGED THIS TO YOU? Sure. That's why I read her blog.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH: On TV: Football. Live: Hockey.

27. HAIR COLOR? Brown

28. EYE COLOR? Brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS OR GLASSES? glasses. I can't see sticking foreign objects into my eye wllingly.

30. FAVORITE FOOD? Bacon, Pizza

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy Endings. I hate scary movies.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Die Hard, on TV, with my mom. It's one of her favorite movies.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Tan, I guess.....

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream.

37. WHO IS YOUR HERO? Mr Rogers, because he loves me just the way I am.

38. WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO? Take Pictures, Blog, Road Trip

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? I just read a book called Join Me. Excellent story.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? A mouse. Duh. :)

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? I didn't watch TV last night.

42. FAVORITE SOUND? good singing.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles, but that's not to knock the Stones.

44. WHERE IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Which is farther, Boston or New York City?

45. DO YOU HAVE A WEIRD TALENT? I make up songs, a la Elf.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Holy Cross Hospital

47. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED? This MOrning.

48. WHAT TIME IS IT NOW? 11:33 am

49. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PRAYED? This morning

50. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOU WHAT WOULD IT BE? My employment status.