Jimmy's off to the Afghanistan

Here's the family pic taken Sunday. Top row (left to right): Jerry, Dork, Brett, Russ, James. Sitting (left to right): Mykin, Dad, Mom, Cort.

Get the "live" cuts off the greatest hits!

I recognize the fact that I'm just one person, that my life pretty much sucks, and I'm not really going to effect a whole lot of change in the world; but if there were one thing...

Maybe this isn't it, but it might be one thing that I'd change. It just shows up a bit further down the priority scale.

What I really want to see is the complete and total elimination of "live" tracks on greatest hits compilations--unless of course the title is Greatest Hits Live. Yes, this is one of those pathetic gripes I have that I like to spout off on once in a while.

So, any record execs out there reading my blog, Efforts in Futility: A) don't you have better things to be doing? like B) put out greatest hits compilations WITHOUT the live tracks. The only exception to this rule (aside from the Greatest Hits Live thing) is this--the only live tracks allowed on the "non-live" greatest hits CD would be those that were played regularly and became hits in and of themselves, but the original studio version should also be included unless it, in and of itself, was a complete flop. Even then, I'd probably include it just to satiate idiots like myself who are generally insatiable on such matters.

Hershey Squirts...

Forgive me for the title. Maybe it's a bit too descriptive? Oh well.

Hershey, the dog, is back inside tonight. It's raining and I feel as though I may have been too hard on the poor pooch. And, quite possibly, I've found the problem--and it very well may be that it's my error (thinking the dog should be smarter than he is). I may have given him too much room to call his own at night. So, tonight I've put up his crate and put his pillow inside it. Tonight when I go to bed, the door closes and we'll see what happens. Seems that dogs don't like to poop where they sleep so you give them room to stand, turn, and lay down, and that's about it. And then, first thing in the morning, outside to poop in the same spot with the same instructions and the same reward.

I hope that I'm that lucky.

Tomorrow, my brother James leaves for Washington to begin his Afghanistan deployment. Two months in Washington (state) training and ten months in Afghanistan doing whatever it is his unit does. I wish him well. I hope and pray he is kept safe and well and is able to return to his family in the same condition they sent him out in. His wife, two girls and one boy should be well cared for in his absence--both his and Ruth's families are local and willing to do whatever. Me included.

OK, I gotta get off the Internet and start reading. I have been majorly negligent as far as keeping up with my reading assignments for my two classes. Bad Maynard! Bad!

02/22/08

A few things are swimming through my mind tonight. I came home from work early because I suddenly felt extremely ill, became rather flushed and turned red as a beet feeling like my skin was going to boil right off. Anyways, I made it home safely with the windows open and cold air blowing through the car. When I recovered from whatever it was, I cleaned up the dogs mess.

So far I’ve had no takers on my offer for a free dog. Go figure. Everybody must already know what he does on the carpet—all over the carpet. Stupid dog! Is it too much to ask that the dog bark or something when it needs to be let out? Rather than bark, the idiot dog cowers in a corner somewhere (I’m assuming that because he doesn't poop until I'm asleep) and waits til it can’t wait no more and then lets loose, crap flying every which way. Or he takes 5 or 6 dumps at various times during the night, each in a different spot. I’ve shampooed the carpet so many times this winter I’m going to start vacuuming up patches of worn-out carpet! Well, no more mister-responsible-dog-owner. He's sleeping outside forever!

Westerns. Westerns—as in movies. There needs to be more Westerns. Good Westerns. I watched Open Range tonight. Good movie actually. Would have been a great movie too, IMHO, if they had eliminated altogether, or at least significantly reduced, the romance that developed between Kevin Costner’s and Annette Bening’s characters. Sheesh! It was forced and cheesy. Seriously though, how many really good westerns have been made over the past 20 years? Half a dozen? Maybe? Certainly no more than 10. And if there are more—what are they?

I’m hungry. Maybe I’ll go make myself a grilled cheese sandwich. Maybe grilled tuna and cheese with tomato. Or maybe I’ll just go to bed.

I’m skipping tomorrow altogether by the way. Don’t even think about bothering me til Sunday!

Free to a good home!

Actually, any home.

What am I talking about?

The worlds most stupidest dog.

Any takers?

Running

I've been doing horribly at tracking my miles this year. I have no idea what my YTD total mileage is. Today I ran 13 miles--6 at work and 7 at home on the treadmill. Loverly.

Anybody remember Roxette?

Update II

Corbin is fine. He's got his wrist set now, hopefully with the bones properly aligned so the growth plate can do its thing the way it should. He goes back to see the doc next week. I haven't talked to him since yesterday morning so I don't know how he's feeling. He said just after coming out of "surgery" that it hurt worse then than it did in the days immediately after he broke it.

Update

Corbin had an appt. with an orthopedic specialist yesterday. The plan is to sedate him (put him out—unconscious) Wednesday morning and non-surgically realign his Radius to within 1 to 2mm of what the bone was before the break. Apparently it’s an extremely painful procedure, but because the growth plate is affected it has to be done. Anyways, they’ll cast it after that and he’ll be wearing that for a minimum of 6 weeks. Good times. For the 10-15 minutes they had the splint off, he was scratching his arm constantly.

One of the other options he was given was a local sedative with the same realignment process. He actually would have opted for that if they could have done it right there and then.

Anyways, that’s the latest. I’ll let you know how Wednesday morning goes.

The broken wrist story as told by Corbin:

He's here with me now. I will transcribe the events that unfolded verbatim as he dictates them to me.

"So, there I was, minding my own business going down the hill. I was no more than 200 feet away from base riding right by the trees. When all of a sudden, an old geezer comes out and blindsides me, scaring the crap out of me! He falls to my left and I fall after him with my wrist crashing into the side of his snowboard. After I pulled myself together, I sat up and realized something was wrong with my wrist. And, of course, the old geezer started blaming me. After he bailed, I attempted to put my glove back on, but when I tried my hand twisted abnormally, and at that moment I knew my wrist was broken. I felt light headed and very nauseous at seeing my hand twist in such an awkward way. Bam!"

The arrows in the above x-rays indicate where the break's in both the radius and the ulna are. The last pic doesn't show both very well because it's the side view where both bones are inline with each other.

Saturday afternoon...

I got a 6-mile run in and it seems Corbin busted his wrist snowboarding this morning. He's at the Instacare Clinic right now waiting--they just finished with the x-ray. Oh what joy.

**Follow-up to the broken wrist. The break involved the growth plates in both long bones in his forearm--the radius and the ulna. The text I received suggested that a orthopedic surgeon's services may be required. How might a break involving the growth plates in his arm affect his growth and development? Go here: Growth Plate Injuries and Fractures.

Saturday morning...

I had planned on waking up and going for a good 7 to 10 mile run this morning. What I did wake up with was a headache. No run. Yet. Maybe I will in a while when the base of my skull doesn't feel like it's got a spike driven into the back of it.

Maybe I'll head over to American Eagle later and see what $25 will buy me.

Yes, she's an Ambassador for USU

Here she is in total shock. They told her not to expect any word til the end of February, early March. I don't know how much of what they said was true and factual, but they said she was one of the first chosen and that there really wasn't any question as to whether she'd get the scholarship or not. I'd like to think that it is, in fact, true.

Here she's being presented with an official USU t-shirt. Somehow I figured it would be "bigger" or more than just a t-shirt.

Outside for family pictures and more screaming by Hay. Yeah, I know. And to be honest, I thought it was going to be a lot worse than it turned out to be. But still.

And now she's headed back to work. Personally, I don't think she was a lick of good for the rest of her shift.

Lest there be any more confusion, YES, SHE GOT THE SCHOLARSHIP--4 YEARS FULL TUITION AND FEES!!

Utah State University Ambassador Program and my Hay

http://www.usu.edu/admissions/scholarships/nonres-freshmen.cfm#ambassador

Utah State University Ambassador Program

• Scholarship awards full out-of-state tuition and fees for the first two semesters (1 year), after which students will receive full in-state tuition and fees per semester for the remaining six semesters. Students will qualify and can apply for Utah residency after 12 continuous months and financial independence.
• Applicants must have a minimum 3.4 GPA and 23 ACT/1060 SAT to be considered.
• In addition to a separate application, applicants must submit an extensive recruitment portfolio and letters of recommendation.
• This award only applies to undergraduate coursework. A student must enroll and complete at least 12 credit hours each semester for a total of 24 credits per year to remain eligible.

From the Ambassador Scholarship application: The Ambassador Scholarship is awarded annually to approximately fifteen incoming freshmen and five transfer students. The scholarship is awarded for up to eight semesters, provided a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and 24 credits per academic school year are maintained and the recipient participates in all ambassador functions as assigned by the Admissions office. As an ambassador, students meet weekly to coordinate and perform recruitment activites. While on scholarship, ambassadors are asked to participate in a variety of recruitment events including high school visits, student host weekends, preview events, and other recruitment programs. Additional participation in recruitment committees and campus involvement is encouraged.

University Ambassadors should be well-rounded individuals who have demonstrated ability in and outside the classroom and reflect the quality of students admitted to Utah State University. Because the primary function of the ambassador program is to assist future Utah State students, ambassadors should have strong interpersonal skills, the ability to work in team environments, and display enthusiasm for Utah State. Students who have demonstrated extensive high school involvement in extracurricular activities such as student government, club involvement, service coordination, and other significant leadership opportunities are encouraged to apply.

Alison Moyet

I needed to get a hard case to stick my Oakley's in so they don't get damaged in transit so I started looking around for one on the internet. Found the Pelican 1030 Micro at Amazon.com and to get free shipping, I needed to spend a few $'s more so I ordered Alison Moyet's Singles CD.

Who is Alison Moyet? Well, have you heard of Yaz (Yazoo in the UK)? Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke (of early Depeche Mode fame and currently part of Erasure) put out 2 albums in the 80's. I'd marry Alison Moyet just for the sound of her voice! Go to Amazon.com and listen to some of the samples. Maybe you'll become infatuated with her voice as well. Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just goofy.

For those who were curious about my trip up to Logan yesterday:

She has applied for a scholarship in the Special Needs Education program (not sure that's what it's really called, but that's basically it). There were close to 400 applications submitted and only 80 were selected to come in for the interview/presentation thing. Of the 80 only 15 will be awarded the scholarship which, I believe, includes full tuition and fees for 4 years.

We got there without incident about an hour early. No problem. We found the parking terrace and the building, went inside and waited. Hay studied her presentation and I read my Abnormal Psychology text book. Finally, her time came around and she, along with about 15-20 others made the rounds through 3 "activities." One was an interview with admissions and or important college people. Another was the presentation where she was to "sell" the college to "prospective students." The prospective students were also important college people associated with the scholarship she's hoping to get. The last was a group activity in which she and a few of the others in her group did some team-work exercises. She came out of each of them feeling positive and upbeat. She said as we left that she had a really good feeling, but questioned whether it was because she felt good about her performance or if it was because she was done.

Anyways, it had been snowing for about the last hour that she was doing her thing. At about 1:00 when we left, it was coming down pretty good and there was about an inch or more of the cold, white stuff on the ground. Between Logan and Brigham City is a mountain pass we had to drive through. With the snow coming down fairly heavily, I was a bit concerned. Fortunately, the roads were only wet and slushy save the last stretch from Mantua into Brigham City. We made it through that OK though and I only saw one car that had spun off the road.

We hit I-15 and headed south. Not far from Brigham City the wind really picked up and was blowing snow like crazy. There were a few instances where it was nearly white-out conditions. Near the town of Willard I moved from the right lane into the inside lane to pass a line of really slow moving semi's only to find myself in a lane that was quite slick--and traffic ahead of me was braking to avoid an accident that was being cleared. I knew for sure I was going to rear end the GMC in front of me! Gratefully, I did not rear end any vehicle at that point in time. After moving back into the open lane, we drove through Ogden--again in near white-out conditions. Good times. We finally were able to speed up to near 60 mph around Bountiful, but we were right back to 40 or below as we came into North Salt Lake. All the way through the Salt Lake Valley, I don't think we got going any faster than 35 mph. Going up over the Point of the Mountain traffic slowed down again considerably but we made it across and home without incident. And our timing couldn't have been better! There were a few semi's that jackknifed just after we crossed the point that had traffic backed up from 5:00 to 10:00 last night!

Logan, UT

Tomorrow at 7:00 in the morning I will drive up to Logan with my daughter in tow. She has applied and been accepted to Utah State University--home of the Aggies. She has an interview of some sort at 10:30 a.m. related, I believe, to her program and a scholarship she is trying to get.

She's been asked to give a 5 to 6 minute presentation essentially selling USU to prospective students. She's been stressed about it all week, but I'm confident that she'll do just fine. She always does.

What I'm going to be doing while all of this is going on is anybody's guess. I thought about taking my running clothes up with me but it's supposed to be snowing (which in and of itself isn't so bad) and the chances of having a shower accessible is minimal I think. So, I'll take my school books and do a bunch of reading.

Oakley Half Jacket review

After running with the new sunglasses for the first time today, I noticed immediately the following:

1. I ran faster


2. I exerted less effort


3. I looked hot!


4. I fatigued less


5. I recovered quicker


6. Beautiful women were much more likely to disrobe along the trail.

OK, so absolutely none of that is true. Well, maybe #3. Anyways, I ran 6 miles during lunch today and found that the sunglasses worked as well or better than any of the sunglasses I've owned previously. Could I have gotten by with a $30 pair? Probably, but we'll see after I've run a while in these.

I'm not wearing them mountain biking...

Hands Down, THE best Super Bowl ad of 2008

15 years

Back on Dec. 02 I celebrated (or miraculously reached) my 15th anniversary at my job. They gave me a whopping $10 for each year! Anyways, with most of that I went and bought me a pair of the most expensive sunglasses I have ever owned.

Here they are:

They better darn well be worth the money, but everything I've heard about Oakley's has been good. And even the not-so-good reviews have been good. I need to get a hard case to pack them around in now.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Yes, I've had like 3,796 shoes drop, but it's the "other" shoe that hasn't dropped yet.

I've been covering for a lady at work for the past month--she's been off on medical leave due to a work related injury. Yeah, I work in an accounting office. What kind of work related injuries happen to accountant types? Paper cuts? Respiratory problems related to sniffing white-out? Actually, she slipped in one of the hallways coming in to work one day and did some damage to her rotator cuff.

So anyways, she's been off on medical leave and I've been doing some of her stuff. Most of it has been easy, but the last couple of days I've been compiling and entering the stats for all of the hospitals we account for. And the last two days I've just had this feeling of impending doom in the back of my head. I know I'll forget something and I'm afraid it will be terribly important. But I also know I was given maybe 2-3 hours of training for something that is only done once a month and I've had a whole month to forget just about everything I was taught. I've managed to do OK and if I do have any problems, I think I've got a pretty good reason, but still. I hate feeling this way.

And, I've worked 10+ hour days the last two days--something the higher-ups generally frown on. Payday may turn out to be a nice reward for all my stress and anxiety.

My shoes (the Montrail Hard Rock's) are here!

Montrail Hard Rock

Sorry if you've tried to get in but couldn't. My settings got fouled up somehow. Should be good to go now though. I hope.

Do you think these shoes will help me run farther? Do you think they'll help me finish a 50-mile race?

Tortilla Soup

Good stuff, Maynard!

• Chicken--a couple of breasts, cubed
• 2 14.5 oz cans of chicken broth
• 20 oz diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can of mild green chilies or 1/2 fresh green chili, chopped
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• cilantro
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups cooked white long-grain rice or 1 can black beans (or both)
• tortilla chips (thin strips if you can find 'em)

Cook chicken and set aside. Cook onions and fresh chili in 1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil until tender. Add tomatoes, green chilies (if you didn't use the fresh), and chicken broth. Add chicken, rice and/or black beans or neither. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in lime juice and add cilantro. Throw tortilla chips on top of each serving and enjoy. Makes a bunch.

Now, I started out tonight without the rice. After our first bowl Corbin decided we should try it with rice--and it was pretty good. Then, I got to thinking that adding black beans in lieu of the rice might be really good. Haven't tried it that way yet though.

I had a bowl of tortilla soup a couple of weeks ago from Café Rio that had a scoop of guacamole thrown in each serving. I liked that and may try it next time along with the black beans.