And We're Back

I suppose that most, if not all of you out there are aware of the fact that I am once again unemployed. A little after 4pm on September 20, 2011 my manager came into my office and let me know that they were going to have to lay me off. I was in a state of shock for a few seconds in which time though I didn't really think it was joke I did kind of hope it was. My manager was very upset about it as well and the next day she actually called me up with a job lead. Lisa, if you are reading this; thank-you.

So, for the past 2 weeks I have been working on trying to find employment. I don't really want to spend to much time on this but I do want to say that even though I didn't expect to be in this situation again so soon I am much more optimistic than I was back in 2008 when I got laid off before. I know a lot more about how to effectively job search so I won't waste nearly as much time as I did before.

So, in order to help myself not to get too stressed out I have prepared a list entitled: The Top 5 Ways that this Unemployment is different than the Last One:

5. Last time I was out of work I referred to that period as "The Dark Time," borrowing a phrase from Star Wars. This period of unemployment shall be known as "The Second Darkness." A phrase borrowed from The Lord of The Rings.

4. While I search for jobs I get to listen to the same annoying, noise-making toys as I did last time. This time however, they are being played with by a different kid.

3. Alisa is not working this time. This is a down side in that we don't have her income but it is a plus since this means I can devote more time to job searching and networking and less time chasing babies.

2. I have two more years experience in shipping now than I did then.

1. There is no way in $&#@ that I will allow this unemployment to last 14 and a half months!

White Pumpkins

I have picked my first two white pumpkins. The one on the left weighed in at 10.6 pounds and is called My DHARMA Lady. I picked that one last Saturday. The one on the right weighed in at 2.4 pounds and has been dubbed Wannabe Softball. I picked that one this morning. There's still one more white pumpkin out there. I'll probably pick that one pretty soon.

Ten Years Later - Where are we now?

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was at BYU and I woke up the same as I did every other day, got ready for class and headed to campus. I got to my Hebrew class and heard people talking. Something about some plane crashing in New York. My teacher got there a little later and gave us a bit more information. However, I don't think anything could really have prepared me for the shock that came when I found a TV on campus, surrounded by my fellow students where I first saw the footage of the attack that none of us will likely forget.

We all learned a lot that day. We learned that in spite of what we may have long thought, our country was not invulnerable. I think that we realized that maybe we needed to look a bit more at our priorities and spend a little less time focusing on the trivial and more time concentrating on what is most important.

Now, 10 years have past and I have to ask the question: Have we forgotten those lessons we learned that day? The Washington Post printed a series of articles written by religions leaders of numerous faiths about the effect that the 9/11 attacks have had on the nation. One of those articles was written by Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spoke of the "remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy." But, after that he wrote something that I think we would all do well to think about:

Sadly, it seems that much of that renewal of faith has waned in the years that have followed. Healing has come with time, but so has indifference. We forget how vulnerable and sorrowful we felt. Our sorrow moved us to remember the deep purposes of our lives. The darkness of our despair brought us a moment of enlightenment. But we are forgetful. When the depth of grief has passed, its lessons often pass from our minds and hearts as well.

It makes me think about the Nephites spoken of in The Book of Mormon. Throughout their history we see cases in which they boast of their own strength and take it for granted that they cannot be hurt by their enemies. They are than attacked and lives are lost and the people turn back to their God with renewed fervor. But, without exception, within a few years after the initial shock of the tragedy has worn off they forget God and go right back to their lives as they had been before and forget all the lessons they learned.

Are we really much different from them? I sincerely hope that the answer is yes.

On this tenth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in our country's history I hope and pray that we will not just remember those who lost their lives but that we will really remember all of the lessons we learned. I pray that we will never let our devotion to God, our families and all those around us waver. We should not need a tragedy like this one in order to remember what is really important in this life. When we say that we will never forget, for heaven sake, let's mean it!

May God bless us all.

First Pumpkin of The Year 2011

So, back on Monday September 5th Collin and I went out and picked the first of this year's pumpkins. This pumpkin had actually been ripe and ready to pick for weeks but I didn't really see any good reason to pick it in the middle of August. However, on Labor Day I just couldn't resist any more and we went out and picked it. This is actually a really nice looking pumpkin that weighed in at 12 pounds. Considering our less than stellar crop of pumpkins last year I should note that this pumpkin, which is by no means the biggest one out there, is almost 2 pounds heavier than the biggest one I got last year. So, after picking this and weighing it the next task was to decide on a name for it. Since I picked it about a week earlier that I picked the first one last year I contemplated calling it something along the lines of Early Bird or some such other descriptive name. But, in the end, my good old Hobbit sense kicked in and I picked a much simpler name. I therefore dubbed this pumpkin Super-Sonic Sucker-Punch. OK, there's no real practical reasoning behind the name but hey; it's pretty cool!

Pumpkin Patch Update

As you can see from these pictures, all our "pumpkins" are growing well. The pumpkin patch has been doing remarkably better than last year. In the pictures above and below you can see that the big max pumpkins have actually been a success this year. The one that Liam is sitting next to will most likely turn out to be the biggest one I've ever grown. The one in the picture below should also be pretty huge.

One of the best improvements this year is the fact that, for the first time, I have not had problems with the dreaded powdery mildew. This has come about mainly because of a combination of changing the watering schedule and some homemade fungicide spray.

The above is currently the biggest of my jack-o-lantern pumpkins. We have several more but this is the one that is the furthest along.

I tried my hand at growing white pumpkins this year as well. The above is the biggest one we have. Anyway, if all goes well we should have between eleven to fourteen pumpkins of various sizes and colors this year.

LOST: Still Awesome

Back at the end of February I made a purchase. An Epically Awesome purchase! I bought LOST: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray disc. So, over the last nearly four months I watched through all six seasons of my favorite show as well as a whole bunch of special features. I just finished a couple days ago. And yes, I did find the hidden bonus disk that was cleverly concealed inside the box lid. You see, you shine the DHARMA black-light on the map of the island on the underside of the lid to reveal a picture of the donkey-wheel. Than you turn the island to get to the disk. Isn't that such a LOST thing!? Anyway, watching it all through again just reconfirmed for me that LOST is still the greatest show in the history of television. Now, I just need to learn to play senet and I'll be all set. Namaste.

Father's Day

As you all know, yesterday was Father's Day. First thing in the morning I got a very nice gift from Collin & Liam. They gave me a new set of cuff-links. Our camera is broken but fortunately, I had no problem finding the above picture of them online. I wore them to church and I was so pleased with them I showed them off to everyone who would listen to me. All and all, yesterday was a very nice Father's Day. Alisa (who I suspect helped Collin & Liam get the cuff-links) gave me a nice card and cooked one of my favorite meals for dinner. I am very fortunate to have the wonderful family that I have.