Pause and Reflect

Good day,

Or at least a day. A day can't really be sad to be bad or good it just is? i don't believe that right now.

I understand the value of reflective observation within the learning cycle. I know what they are trying to do from a business point of view too. In fact I think it was a prophet of god who said "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates." 


So i get setting goals and remembering them. But i just hate grading myself. Which is what the system feels like. Really i just hate grades. I thank public school for that. I hated the end of semesters because i knew that whether the grades were good or bad i would still be in trouble. I dropped out of student government after only half a semester because i got a letter telling me i was on "academical probation" or something. I had enough stress without being reminded that my grades were bad twice as often. And i hate it even more now that i give my self the grades. 

Tent cleaning

Four hooks and a ceiling. No poles required.

Memorial Day at Yellowstone

Look pictures and a story!

My sister Rouie and her growing family came back to the main land recently. I've been trying to get the to come visit us here in Williston but the drive is too long. So we met up with them and my Mom and Dad and Little Bro. Robert.

The weather was horrid. Snow and rain and more snow. A few minutes of sunshine but mostly just cold.

Vanessa and I arrived a day late because the West Entrance was closed. We slept in our car at a church house in Cody WY. On Saturday when we finally arrived at the campsite just in time, Rouie and Mom are heading out to find us ( a recipe for playing ping pong on the roads in Yellowstone).

We set up a couple more tents and threw our gear out of the cars then drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs. It was foggy. Mom and Dad and the oldest grandkid went for a walk to beaver sepulcher? Everyone else went on the wooden walkway to see some of the hot tubs. After our walk and sight seeing we eat lunch in the parking lot out of the back of our car. We were worried that the road south would close so we head to Old Faithful as soon as lunch is over.

Old Faithful is still there. It went off on time and everything. Actually Vanessa made an interesting discovery. The weather had mellowed out a little until the geyser went off and then it started hailing. Clearly Old Faithful caused the hail. I watched the 15 minute film in the theater with my nephew and Mom while most of the family waited out side or something. After the hail stopped we went over the the restaurant for hot coco. I am certain that the guy who took our order of 9 hot coco's told his wife about us after work, because he kept telling all his co-workers that he had never had an order this big! And then the coco was gone so we went back to camp.

Driving in Yellowstone is slow, we saw a buffalo walking down the correct lane and a line of 20 cars behind it.

At camp us boys (Dad, Robert, Me, and Kapono with the help of his son) struggled to get a fire going. We broke a few rules and set up a canopy over the fire ring. Cooked dinner of hotdogs and decided we would all sleep in the same tent.

The next morning we parted ways after breakfast and Vanessa and I stopped in a the mud volcanoes and waterfalls on the way out of the park.

It was nice to camp with my family again. Even with the weather I think we all had a good time.

Taxes Aren't Much Fun

Good news? I worked January, February, and March to pay my taxes for 2010.

Yep, no refund for me. I'm just complaining because it's cathartic, that means like therapy right?

I don't like the government at all. I didn't vote for any of those politician fellows. I sure didn't get to approve their budget. And I don't have any friends in the IRS that can help me pay less.

It's really silly that if I could have paid off my credit card and 2 of my student loans with the amount of taxes I paid this year.

How is this any different than left?

Dinner and Catan with friends makes me introspective

I fell like I've been slacking lately. It's time for an update. We just had a couple and their little girl over for the evening. we had dinner for breakfast and played a game with dice. the little girl wandered around getting into stuff. It was a fun relaxing evening. But now I'm thinking too much and have decided to refresh my memory of my new year goals.

a. Play more Violin; upload to youtube? Play at campfire? Play at least 1 time a week.

I am learning "If you could hie to kolob" I can play it all the way through. I mess up a lot but I am getting better. I am playing about once a week. This week I played for 15 mins while I was trying to decide what to write as a reply to an email.

b. Be awesome at my job. Ask my boss for specifics.

I don't feel awesome at my job right now.

c. Go Rock Climbing!

I did go rock climbing, Vanessa and I took a trip to Utah to say goodbye to her father. Matt and Micheal and I found a cliff and jumped off it. Then we climbed up it too. I'll be going again as often as I can.

d. Keep Vanessa in love with me.

Doing alright with this one. Going camping tomorrow evening so that will keep us close.

e. read books.

We got a kindle. I've read too many books. I even read the Hunger Games (barf). I've filled in the gaps from the disc world series, I've read a couple little house on the prairie, the sequels to enders game, and yeah with the audio books on long road trips and a digital library that doesn't hurt my eyes... I've read too many books.

That's my update. I'm going to make a podcast for work soon. Or at least I'm going to keep telling everyone that untill I do it.

why start the day at midnight?

I think the last "self improvement" book I read was "the energy bus" and I read that for work. I must have outlived that addiction and I feel better about myself now than I did while I was reading them.

But it's been a good habit of writing new years goals and resolutions and reflections and such. so I'll do it again. But I don't really have any. Lets start by reviewing my previous goals and plans.

2011: More Violin, More Camping, Less Debt.

2010: Adult Job, More violin, Make a game, Keep Reading

2009: no sleeping in, blog weekly, play the violin, get good grades.. and i made predictions (funny stuff)

That should be enough of the past.

Goals for 2012: I'm lettering them.

a. Play more Violin; upload to youtube? Play at campfire? Play at least 1 time a week.

b. Be awesome at my job. Ask my boss for specifics.

c. Go Rock Climbing!

d. Keep Vanessa in love with me.

e. read books.

Predictions for 2012

e. We will get a new president. (I won't like the new guy either. Actually the new guy wont start till 2013 right?)
f. the world will not end.

g. Vanessa and I will make a baby.

i. Netflix will add all those old musicals to the streaming selection.

Haha. This is great, now all I need to do is write a Christmas letter and send off the gifts.

Fall Camporee

I'm super excited to be writing this post. I might have other work that ought to be getting done but .. oh well.

The Great Plains District just held their fall camporee at Lewis and Clark State Park. 4 troops attended. We had 42 registered attendees. What a great number.

The activities I organized for the scouts were to make kites, Paint posts for the park, explod eggs with bb-guns, and set fires using flint and steel.

of course there was a whole lot of normal troop things happening. like cooking and yelling and capture the flag and some strange stick/gun/war game which they didn't have a name for but i'm blaming on video games. I am saying it's the video games because they made more reloading movements and weapon changing movements than i did as a kid. I'm not a big gun enthusiast but i honestly thought reloading just meant pointing the gun away from the target and pulling the trigger.

i am pretty sure no one really fell asleep till after midnight. and one of the troops left a lantern on all night, or at least i think it was all night, it was on when i feel asleep and on when i woke up. sure i fell asleep early and woke up after some of the older fellows but still that lantern was on.

no one died or was injured during our camporee (actually i think one scout twisted an ankle but it was minor and his mom was one of the leaders she wasn't worried about him and i saw him running around afterward as well). we did lose two troops on saturday after lunch though. i supose they were just anxious to start the activities again and so they did. but they didnt tell me or anyone else. it was odd. but it all worked out in the end.

some pointers for future camp organizers:

1 prepare:

bring extra glue and supplies.

a map of the area with designated activity spots for easy communication.

volunteers should know what they are doing. have a "staff training day" spend the time to walk through each event with the volunteer.

an accurate schedule, pick a clock time set it and make sure people understand the rotation scheme.

show up early and set up props and such to set the stage or theme of the event.

2 get help:

i bit off more than i could chew. don't do that to your self.

get people to help.

every event needs a volunteer heading it up.

every activity of the event need volunteers helping at it.

3 get the word out:

advertise effectivly.

preregistration is a great idea but 3 out of 4 troops didn't do it.

and dont forget to brag about it afterward.

call the paper, or bring a person who will be photographing everything.

yeah i had fun. Vanessa went camping with me too.