My Talent

there is really only one thing I think of as MY talent. It is not that there aren't a lot of things I do well or enjoy doing, but there is just one thing I do BETTER then everyone else.

That one thing is the Etch-A Sketch.

I learned that you could actualy draw pictures on the E-A.S. while serving a Saturday detention back in high school... Sophmor year I think. I honed that skill during the time I was commuting by bus to work at Nordstrom after I graduated. I packed an Etch-A sketch with me when I went on my mission and truely stepped up my game in the laundry room of the MTC where I learned that I could do portrats of the temples. One of the papers I wrote in english 300 was on why the Etch-a Sketch is such a great toy. In Short I love 'em.

I don't use them daily any more but every once in a while I will take the Etch-A Sketch I keep in my bookbag out and draw something.

Now along time ago I had to refine my beliefs on the subject of this medium and answer such questions as "is this an artform". I belive it is art, but I view it almost as preformance art. In the grand scheme of things all art is temporary including painting and statues. The attitude I take is that the "drawing" become real once I show it to some one, then it will live on in their mind even if I shake it to draw something new. Sometimes I try to keep it safe for a few days to show several people, but I have only ever been frustrated the shaking of an E-A.S. once and that was a while ago (Justin shook up an amazing eagle I had spent over an hour on, that I had wanted a photo of)

Below is Saturday night's project. It has already been shaken but will live in your minds. (and of course there are photos of this one)

The inspiration came from the comic strip Grand Avenue a few weeks back, in witch the little boy had done Stary Night on a E-A.S.

I found a copy of the painting using a google image search and printed it in black & white as the first step but I ended up drawind it off the color monitor because it had shrunk in printing.

I have inluded a pic of where I was at when I took my first break. I did it in a series of four or five create burst of five to ten minutes each.

I played around a bit trying to figure out the best way to take a picture of it. In the end I covered my flash with a piece of paper and used the computer to tweek the brightness and contrast to make it easier to see. Sorry if it is still hard to make out.

I am not entirely satisfied with this one, it is not bad but I think I want to try again with the full size Etch-A Sketch and take a bit more time trying to creat the illusion of illumination. On the whole I'll say it is a good first try.

the original I was working from 

just started 

the finished product

the finished product!!! 

A big day at church

Today was a big day for me church wise.

Last week I was asked if I would prepare a talk for today on the rather vague topic of "the priesthood". I was also told that all but one member of the bishopric would be out of town, so I should sit on the stand as one of the presiding authorities in attendance.

Through out the week I read old conferance talks on the priesthood. I prayed about what I should say. I created mentally a direction I wanted to go. I highlighted sections of the talks I had looked at. I woke up this morning and still didn't have a talk writen. I cut down the thirty five page of talks to a hand full of clipped and color coded paragraphs and a half dozen sheets.

When services began I still didn't have a writen talk. I had been told by Brother Starks, the conducting member of the bishopric, that I was the last talk and would either need to cut short or extened my talk depending on how much the other speaker said. No problem.

Presiding was no big deal. In this case all it really ment was that I sat on the stand where I could see how painfully small the ward is and I saw the back of the speakers head rather then their faces.

Both speakers kept their remarks brief. It looked like I had thirty plus minutes to use when the hyme preceding me ended. I started by asking my father, who had come to listen to me, share his testimony. I enjoyed his words but they left me a bit emotional as I began. I talked on the differant meanings of priesthood to start and then the history of the priesthood from before the world upto today. I also shared a large excerpt from a talk by Robert D. Hales where he lists the blessing of the peisthood in a persons life from birth to parenthood, and of course, my experiances with the priesthood and it's role in my testimony of the gosple.

I think the talk went fine but I second guess my decision to spend so much time on the history of the priesthood, not everyone like history as much as I do. I was emotional several time while on the stand and a bit more nervous than normal while speaking. It just now occured to me that this is the first time since my home coming that I have spoken at church and the longest talk I have ever had to give. (this paragraph is disjointed and hard to read but this is my journal and it doesn't have to make sence to antbody else)

After Sacrament meeting Brother Starks left, meaning that I was "in charge" I didn't find this out for an hour when he was supposed to be conducting joint preishood and relief sociaty. Conducting that was not hard at all but knowing that I was the presiding figure in that meeting disconcerted me some. It is not that I have never presided over anything before but some how this is just different.

missing devon

Last night two men in their 60's came into the hotel two check in. They had driven down together from up near the Oregon border. As I checked the two of them into there rooms I found out they are brothers (not surprising since they had thew same last name). They teased each other about who snores and other little things. They where a lot of fun.

Checking them in made me think of Devon. I hope when we are in our 60's we go on road trips still.

Me... not so much lost as discontent with my current location. 

Trouble with Cars

The following was extracted from a letter to Devon and so it is structured differantly the most of my posts

The breaking news from Darrenland this week is on the subject of cars. As you well know I am not much of a car person. I am more of a bike guy, but in the recent past I have been considering acquiring a car. It would be useful for things like transporting kayaks, staying dry on rainy days, getting to church on Sunday, and last and most likely least, going on dates. I was told a week ago that I could have a Rosie’s sorely afflicted Acura if I could get it out of her apartment complex by Wednesday, when the apartment complex would tow it away. I am a busy person so I didn’t get out to Rosie’s until late Tuesday evening. Father went with me and we started the car but it died right away. We put oil in it because it was low but that didn’t change anything so we ended up pushing the car out of her complex and a block down Folsom blvd where we left it in the parking lot of a hotel and restaurant and then we left it there for the evening.
As noted above I am a rather busy individual, I did not get back to the car until Saturday when Jeremy and I went up there with a car dolly rent from National rentals. It took several attempts to get the car onto the dolly due to the fact that we forgot fathers council to take a come-along with us. In the end we got the car secured and towed down the hill it is now sitting in the drive away of the vacant half of the duplex. The next step is to check out its diagnostic computer using the fun little gadget I borrowed from the lovely and gracious Ester. Hopefully, the computer will tell me why it keeps shutting the engine off immediately after it starts.
The next step will be to fix the DMV paper work. Rosie’s mom handed the title of the car to me but it isn’t yet in her name. They have had the car for a year but never registered it after getting the title, so I have an appointment at the DMV to find out how to get the title fixed. It will probably cost $200s minimum to straighten that out, maybe more. After checking the computer and talking with the DMV I will have an idea what it will cost to get the car working, then I can decide what to do with it.

long over due: HHG2G

I should have posted this a while ago but here it is:

Late on an other wise ordanary thursday night David, Jason, Jordan, and I crammed into Davids truck, loaded it up with junk food, and drove the better part of an hour to the small inconspicuos town of Fairfield CA. And what, you may ask did fairfield ever do to diserve such a thing. It was home to the only theatre in Northern California that was showing The Hitch Hikers Guild To The Galaxy at 12:05am opening day.

I had made a tee shirt for each of us. Jordan's is my favorite, it reads "Equiped with genuine people personality" on the front and the back says "Another fine product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corperation". Most in my Family prefer Jason's, it reads "if there is anything more important around than my ego I want it caught and shot now!" My reads Zaphod Beeblebrox is my persident on the front and "count the heads" on the back. David's bears the timeless wisedom of The Guild "DON'T PANIC". We each proudly wore our towels around our necks like scarves and we each had a blast.

Many of the people there were clad likewise, if you love it enough to drive to see it at midnight, let alone drive to Fairfield you love it enough to bring your towel!

I thought the movie was good, yes it broke from the book, but that is okay, I already knew every punchline from the book by heart anyway! The kept the whale! This is incredably important, as Douglas Adam's falling whale may be the glue that holds my family together (at least the boys) and the things they added are funny.

All in all Doug would approve.

Back of Jordan's shirt 

Front of Jordan's shirt 

my shirt  

Rain in May

In California it doesn't rain in May. Except of course when it does.

The past week it has rained heavily on several nights, and I have been reminded of how much fun it can be to ride in the rain. You didn't expect rain so you have no rain coat, you will be completely drenched by the time you get home anyway so you hit every puddle on the way. You revel in the warm precipitation that falls in great drops and forms tiny rivers from your hair down to your chin. You peddle as fast as you can in and along the streams that form on the asphalt. Your rear wheel kicks up a rooster tail that distributes road grime all up the back of your work shirt but you don't care about that.

Why is everyone else in bed don't they know how much fun they are missing?

It's wet. It's dirty. It is pure joy!

Midnight People

Long ago a teenaged me was walking down the street in the late hours of the day/ wee hours of the mourning with a half gallon of ice cream in tow. I did this frequently I found a nice walk and a prodigous selving of a frozen comestible did wonders for the spirit and was a good thing to do when sleep was elusive. This particular night I saw as I walk a lone figure headed in my general direction. I had the distinct thought "only weirdos are out walking around in the middle of the night" and I crossed the street. Three seconds later another distinct thought wanders through cavernous mind "wait, I am out wandering around in the middle of the night"

Years have gone by and I still find myself wondering the streets on the cusp of morning. Monday was one such occasion. I had biked to work but had gotten a flat tire on the way in and had completely forgotten about it until it was time to head home. At 11:00pm I began making some phone calls to see if I could get a ride with anyone, this turned out to be the most fruitless of endevers and by 11:30 I began trudging down the street.

As I walked I was hit up by and enibriated pan handler, I had a brief discussion with a couple about the hours of opperation of the local mass transit system, I attempted to walk through the drive through lane at a jack in the box, and I went to bree's. Bree's place is home of the midnight people. often when I go there nobody is at home and awake, because I don't keep late enough hours. Bree showed me her current art projects, we talked about school and summer and old times and old friends. I got a drink and continued my walk.

It would seem that a universal truth about midnight people is they don't have cars.

I left a note on the door of an old friend who as I walked by. Later I found out what it ment to her, maybe that note was the real reason I was walking for hours in the middle of the night.

who knows? I don't!

In the end the night keeps me sane. It makes me love sleep,and dreams,and the lumpy couch I sleep on, and maybe most of all, the morning

Elders Quorum

I am Mormon. One of the things you might not know about the LDS church is that no one is paid and no one is a volenteer, everyone is "called." You can turn down a calling but I believe that most callings come from inspiration and though it may be a challenge all callings bring blessings. Another Back ground item is that there are two types of Wards or congregations, Family wards, and singles wards these are self explanitory. I have never been a big fan of singles wards.
Now that you have the background here it goes...

I was called to be in the elders quorum presidency of the local singles ward a few weeks back. I prayed alot about it before excepting the calling and felt that the lord wanted me there because there were people to serve and it would help me to grow, so I took thew calling. So for the past month I have been attending the singles ward with its forty precious souls, and there are some good things to say about the ward.

First is that this really are more oportunities to serve people, not because it is a singles ward per se but because it is such a small ward. In the past month I have been able to bless and pass the sacrament sveral times witch is something I hadn't done since the mission days.

Second is the bishopric. bishop Larson and his councelors are awesome. I already feel closer to them then I did to my family ward bishop. once again this could be related to how small the ward is, but I think that it is more than that.

Lastly is Elders Quorum in the singles ward is the one thing I have always liked about the single ward. They don't alway stick to the scheduled lesson but it is always a good lesson and geared to me, rather than to the wife and kids crowd.

Last week I had my first chance to teach the lesson in Elders Quorum. It went okay but should have been longer. I have only taught sundayschool lessons to childern while in the family ward and their lessons have much less content. I know I can do this and I know that it will help me grow. In the mean time I simply need to learn to be happy about being in a singles ward.

Hair Cut

I got a hair cut last week. It is shorter than I have had it in a while, and I think it looks pretty good. I will post a picture when I get the chance.