Books in 2016

Almost a year late, here's my list for 2016. I was surprised to see it shorter like this. I didn't keep the list throughout the year, so it's possible that I've missed something, but I likely just didn't read as much last year.

1. Crimson Shore - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
2. Shadow of the Hegemon - Orson Scott Card
3. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
4. Shadow Puppets - Orson Scott Card
5. Deathwatch - Robb White
6. Shadow of the Giant - Orson Scott Card
7. Beyond the Ice Limit - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
8. The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King

These books were all enjoyable, but if I had to recommend one, it would be Ready Player One. It was an extremely fun and exciting book to read, and it was fun following all the pop culture references and seeing how the puzzles unfolded. I'm not sure how I feel about the movie from the trailers I've seen, but I hope it's good.

Books in 2015

It's a couple year's late, but here's my list of books that I read in 2015.

1. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth - Chris Hadfield
2. Sphere - Michael Crichton
3. Saint Odd - Dean Koontz
4. The Lost Island - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
5. Blue Labyrinth - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
6. Twilight Eyes - Dean Koontz
7. The Gunslinger - Stephen King
8. House of Odd - Dean Koontz and Landry Walker
9. The Dancing Wu Li Masters - Gary Zukav
10. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
11. The Martian - Andy Weir
12. The Fallen Curtain - Ruth Rendell

I'd have to say that my top three books this year, if my memory serves me right, were An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth, The Dancing Wu Like Masters, and The Martian.

An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth was fascinating and full of great life lessons. And I'm a big fan of Chris Hadfield.

The Dancing Wu Like Masters was fascinating. It was a really slow read for me and parts of it could be tough to get through, but it was a really interesting mix of physics and philosophy. It really made me think a lot and there was more than one occasion where I felt like his explanations of quantum mechanics resonated well with LDS doctrine, or at least my understanding of it.

The Martian was simply a really fun, intense and engaging read.

Books in 2014

Well, here we are in March 2015 and I'm just now getting around to posting my annual book list.  Obviously I don't keep up with my blog at all anymore, but I still felt funny erasing my list from my white board without posting it on here.  So, here you go.  These are the books that I read last year.

1. Xenocide - Orson Scott Card
2. White Fire - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
3. A Dance With Dragons - George R.R. Martin
4. Deeply Odd - Dean Koontz
5. The Giver - Lois Lowry
6. World War Z - Max Brooks
7. In Odd We Trust - Dean Koontz
8. Odd is on Our Side - Dean Koontz
9. It - Stephen King
10. The Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz

The list is a little shorter than previous years.  A Dance with Dragons and It both took me ridiculous amounts of time to finish reading.  I'd have to say that I enjoyed everything I read last year.  I also listened to a few audiobooks while driving between Utah and Alberta, so here's a list of those as well.

1. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
2. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
3. I'm a Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson
4. Children of the Mind - Orson Scott Card

And, just to give you a little preview of next year, I just finished reading An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield.  I highly recommend it to everybody.  It's full of great lessons on not only how to be successful in various aspects of life, but how to recognize and appreciate the successes that you do experience.  If you haven't read it, go find a copy right now and start. Go!

Books in 2013

Once again, it has been nearly a year since I last posted anything on here.  But, the least I can do is put up my annual list of books that I read the previous year.  So, here they are, the books that I read in 2013.

1. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
2. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
3. Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card
4. The Toaster Project - Thomas Thwaites
5. Odd Interlude - Dean Koontz
6. Two Graves - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
7. Dave Barry is from Mars and Venus - Dave Barry
8. Clapton - Eric Clapton
9. What the Night Knows - Dean Koontz
10. Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card
11. Odd Apocalypse - Dean Koontz
12. Falling Backwards - Jann Arden
13. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

There you have it  Apparently I didn't read quite as much last year as in previous years.  Hopefully I can remedy that this year.

Also, for anybody who has read any of the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz, someone has apparently made a movie of the first book.  Anton Yelchin (Chekov from the new Star Trek movies) plays Odd.  The trailer is below.  It looks like it could be a fun movie, but nowhere near as good as the book.  It just doesn't look or feel right to me.  But, it could be fun.

"The World Needs You to Stop Being Boring"

Note:  I realized while writing this that it might sound like I'm being really hard on myself.  Don't worry.  I've been doing fine, these are just some thoughts I've had on what I can be doing better.

So, about a month ago there was a video popping up all over Facebook.  It seemed like everyone and their dog was posting links to "A Pep Talk from Kid President to You."  When I first noticed this popping up, I tried watching it, but turned it off after about 2 seconds.  I don't know why, but I apparently decided in those 2 seconds that the video was boring and I didn't want to waste my time on it.  Well, like I said, everyone was linking to and sharing this video and I couldn't escape it.  So, I decided to give it a second try.  And, you know what?  It was actually pretty good.  If you somehow managed to not notice it anywhere, you can find it here.

The first few lines of this pep talk really struck home for me.  "The world needs you to stop being boring.  Yeah, you.  Boring is easy.  Everybody can be boring, but you're gooder than that."  I felt like this really addressed something that has been bothering me for quite a while now.  It seems like whenever somebody asks me how I'm doing or what I've been up to, I always say the same thing, "oh, you know, same thing as usual.  Going to school, trying to get my research done. And, yeah..."  Don't I have anything more interesting than that to say?  Do I really not do anything new that's worth mentioning?  What's the deal?  Anyway, after watching this video, I realized that it's up to me to not just take the easy route by being boring.  I decided that I needed to spice up my life.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago.  I told her that I had been feeling like I needed to add some more excitement to my life and that I needed to do things that would provide me with stories to tell people.  Well, be careful what you wish for.  That night as I was preparing dinner for my dinner group, I managed to slice off a piece of my thumb.  This wasn't quite what I had in mind when I said I wanted more stories, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, eh?  Anyway, I was slicing potatoes on a mandoline and managed to take the edge of my thumb off.  It wasn't a huge piece, but it was big enough that I debated for a few minutes about whether I should just take care of it at home or run up to the Student Health Center.  The health center won out in the end and I had my roommate rush me up there.  It got bandaged up, I got a tetanus shot, and I got home on time to change my plans for dinner and (with the help of my roommates) still get a meal finished relatively on time.

That extra "e" adds an extra element of danger

This desire to add a little more flavor to my life also came into play with this past Presidents' Day weekend.  Back in January, a group of my friends decided to drive down to Las Vegas during the long weekend to visit another friend who is leaving on a mission soon.  At the time I thought, "sure, why not?  I need to do more fun stuff."  Well, over the course of the next month, I started to flip-flop a lot over whether I was actually going or not.  I just couldn't commit.  Well, the Tuesday before the group would be driving down to Vegas, and not long after I had started seriously thinking about this "boring" dilemma of mine, I went out for lunch at China Town with my professor and the rest of his students.  When it came time for the fortune cookies, my fortune said, "Looking for enjoyment and adventure?  Go on a vacation."  How in the world could I ingore that?!  I committed to the trip that night.  I had a great time on the trip.  It was a fun group of people, it was nice to see this friend before she takes off to North Carolina, and the weather was beautiful.  While in Las Vegas, I also got chance to catch up with an old roommate of mine who I hadn't seen for 2 or 3 years.  And, on top of that, I got to visit with some cousins that I hadn't seen for years...one of which I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen for at least 10 years or more.  This was a real treat.  I am so thankful that I decided to seize this opportunity and go on this trip.  If I hadn't gone, I probably would have just sat at home reading, watching TV, and messing around on my computer.  While I enjoy those activities, they would not have been nearly as fulfilling as what I actually got to experience.

As I've been thinking about this dilemma, I've also come to realize that while seizing and making opportunities for yourself is an important part of introducing fun, excitement, and interesting elements to your life, there's more to it than that.  Attitude and perspective make a huge difference as well.  You need to be able to find the fun and interesting moments in a regular day.  So, I think that another problem with me feeling like I didn't have anything interesting to share when asked was that I wasn't paying close enough attention to the world around me.  I wasn't appreciating the experiences that I was already having.  I wasn't storing away in my memory all the little things that made me laugh, reflect, spring into action or made me feel excited, scared, hopeful or any other type of reaction.

So, after all of that I have two new goals for myself.  The first is to be more willing to seize opportunities and not be too lazy to do what I know will add richness to my life.  The second is to seek out and notice something each day that already adds richness to my life.  I'm a unique individual and I'm doing and experiencing things that other people aren't.  I just need to notice those and share them with others around me.

Books in 2012

Here's my annual list of books I read the previous year.

1. A Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin
2. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
3. A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin
4. The Shining - Stephen King
5. A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin
6. Breathless - Dean Koontz
7. Cornered - Ron MacLean
8. Gideon's Corpse - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
9. Frankenstein: Prodigal Son - Dean Koontz
10. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley
11. Frankenstein: City of Night - Dean Koontz
12. Frankenstein: Dead and Alive - Dean Koontz
13. Frankenstein: Lost Souls - Dean Koontz
14. Frankenstein: The Dead Town - Dean Koontz
15. The Wolf at the Door - Jack Higgins

I enjoyed each of these books.  I really enjoyed the Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz.  After reading the first book in the series I decided to go and read the original by Mary Shelley.  I enjoyed it and it helped me understand some of the dialogue a little better, but it's not necessary if you plan on reading the series.  I think it mostly just put my mind at ease so I wasn't always wondering if I was missing something by not reading the original.

Also, you may be wondering why I stopped reading the Song of Ice and Fire series after A Feast for Crows.  I just haven't had a chance to read A Dance with Dragons yet.  I don't want to buy the hardcover, the paperback isn't out yet, and since it's constantly on hold, I can't keep it checked out of the library for long enough to read it.  I'll get to it some day.

Christmas Movies

Another great way to get into Christmas is by watching lots of Christmas movies.  I feel like I've gotten a decent start on this so far, both on my own accord and with the help of those around me.  So, I figured I'd talk a little bit about some of my favorite Christmas movies.  Some of these I have watched already this year and some I haven't gotten to yet.  Also, these are listed in no particular order of preference.  I'm not even sure I could list them in order if I wanted to.  I've also included clips for some of them.

Mr. Krueger's Christmas

Okay, I know, this is an extraordinarily cheesy and, at times, weird movie, but I love it.  For anyone who may not be familiar with this movie, it's a short film produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints back in 1980 and stars Jimmy Stewart and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Basically it's the story of Willy Krueger, a lonely widower who has various Christmas related dreams and fantasies throughout the film.  So, why do I love it?  The manger scene.  This is a scene where Mr. Krueger imagines what it would be like to be in the stable when Christ was born and expresses his faith and feelings for Christ.  This is one of the most touching scenes I've seen in any Christmas movie and does about the best job of any of reminding me what Christmas is really about.  The rest of the movie really is quite cheesy, but this one scene makes up for all of the cheesy awkwardness.  The scene has more punch to it if you've seen the rest of the movie and gotten to know Mr. Krueger's character better, but it's great on its own as well, so I highly recommend you watch it below.

Elf

This is just a fun movie, and that's all there is to it.  I watched this with some friends in the ward the other night.  It had been a couple of years since the last time that I actually sat down and watched it all the way through.  I think that before I had maybe watched it a little too much and had gotten a little burned out on it.  But after coming back to it this year I was reminded of just how hilarious this movie is and how it makes you want to be a kid and have that same innocent excitement all over again.

Christmas Vacation

I've watched this one a couple of times already this year.  I'm pretty sure this one has played in my parent's house pretty much every Christmas since it came out on VHS.  I can't really say anything about it being a touching and uplifting movie filled with the Christmas spirit, but it is pretty darn funny.  Here's a classic scene from it.

A Christmas Story

Who doesn't love the story of Ralphie and his quest to get a "Red Ryder B.B. gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time"?

Joyeux Noel

This is an amazing movie.  It's not exactly a cheery movie, but it is amazing and it will forever be a part of my must-watch Christmas movie list.  It tells the story of the Christmas Truce that occurred in the trenches along the Western Front in 1914 during World War I.  It takes elements from stories of various occurrences of the truce and combines them into one convenient location.  I can't really put into words the effect that it has on me.  I'm getting emotional just trying to figure out what to write, so I'm just going to tell you to go and find a copy of this movie and watch it.  If you're not sure about it, watch the trailer below and then go and find a copy of the movie and watch it.



The Muppet Christmas Carol
This is by far my favorite version of Charles Dicken's classic A Christmas Carol.  Okay, so, maybe it's one of the only versions I have watched, and maybe I have never read the book, but that doesn't mean it can't be my favorite.  This is another movie that I hadn't seen in a long time, but I was able to watch it Sunday night and I still enjoyed every minute of it.  I mean, it's a classic Christmas story with a great message combined with the lovable lightheartedness of the Muppets!  How could this movie not hold a special place in your heart?  Below I've included one of my favorite songs from the movie.

More on Christmas

I bought and put out our apartment's first indoor Christmas decoration yesterday (I have to specify indoor because one of my roommates put a wreath on our front door the other day, thus claiming overall first decoration status).  I went and bought a nice poinsettia to display in our living room.

Isn't it lovely?

I'm pretty sure that I've always liked poinsettias.  There's usually been at least one in my house around Christmas while I was growing up.  When I was younger, I liked to pinch the ends of the leaves and see the white liquid inside squish out and form a little bead on the leaf.  I'm sure this wasn't good for the plant.  I'm not sure if my mom knew I was doing this to her poinsettias, but I doubt she was too happy about it if she did.  Sorry, Mom.

Like I said, there was usually at least one poinsettia around the house at Christmas, but in the last few years my mom has started covering the house in poinsettias.  I don't know the official count, but there must be a good 20 to 30 poinsettias decorating the house each year now and I think it looks wonderful.  In fact, it's when she started decorating with so many poinsettias that I realized just how much I liked them.  So, when my roommates and I started discussing decorations this year, I was set on making sure there was a poinsettia in our apartment.  Fortunately, I didn't have to twist any arms to get this approved.

Yesterday also marked another little bit of Christmas celebration for me.  I opened my first carton of eggnog of the year.  I love eggnog.  I can't even think how to put to words how much I love eggnog.  And I prefer to drink it straight up.  Growing up we would always dilute it with milk.  I'm not sure if this was because my parents preferred it thinned out a little (apparently a lot of people think it is too thick straight out of the carton), or if they were trying to stretch out each carton, but this is how we drank it.  Well, at some point in my life I discovered the ultimately superior experience that is undiluted eggnog and that is now where my alliances lie.  So, as Christmas approaches, this is one of those special treats that I anxiously await each year.

Marge: Homer, didn't you get any milk? All I see is eggnog.

Homer: 'Tis the season, Marge! We only get 30 sweet, noggy days.  Then the government takes it away again.

I discovered a few years ago that certain eggnog producers had started selling Halloween eggnog.  I was not okay with this.  Eggnog is a Christmas drink and should remain a Christmas drink.  Anyway, upon this discovery I decided that I would not support pre-December eggnog sales.  Well, this rule later turned into pre-December eggnog consumption because I will now buy eggnog before December, but I won't open it until December 1st.  So, as yesterday was December 1st, I opened my carton of eggnog and had a nice thick glass of it with lunch, and it was delicious.

I should mention that I did participation in some eggnog consumption in November that I am not proud of.  We had eggnog and sugar cookies for refreshments after institute last week.  I was so excited when they announced what the refreshments were (I believe I even let out a pleasantly surprised "oooo!"), but then I realized that it wasn't December yet and I was torn.  I mean, there's my resolve against pre-December eggnog, but this was FREE eggnog.  Well, I gave in had a cup of eggnog...and it was some of the worst eggnog I've ever had.  I don't know if it was a bad batch, if the brand just isn't to my liking, or if subconsciously my brain was making me not like it because it was too early in the year.  Either way, I did not enjoy it.  I guess that's what I get for deviating from my standards.

Christmas Season is Here!

I love Christmas.  I love the charity, joy, love and all those good feelings that come with the Christmas season.  However, the last few years, I feel like I haven't embraced the season soon enough.  It seems like the last few years I have been so determined to not start celebrating Christmas too early that I end up realizing on Christmas Eve that I wish I had done more in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  So, this year, I'm determined to not let that happen.  My first step has been to make sure that I'm listening to Christmas music.  So, the day after American Thanksgiving I started making a Spotify playlist full of some of my favorite Christmas songs.

When I think of Christmas music, one of the first albums that comes rushing to my mind is John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.  Every Christmas at home, for as long as I can remember, this was one of the albums that was in constant rotation.  It's a classic and will always be a part of Christmas for me. It also includes one of the few bearable versions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that exist.  As many times as I've heard these songs, however, it wasn't until last Christmas that I really paid attention to the song "The Christmas Wish," sung by Kermit, and it has since become one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs.

When asked what my favorite Christmas carol is, I have pretty much always said "O Holy Night." Okay, maybe I haven't always said that, but it's what I've said ever since I've been an adult and somewhat mature.  I learned a couple of years ago that I love Celtic Woman's performance of this carol and it is now my go to version.

Another song that will always have a place on my Christmas playlist is "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)" by Amy Grant.  I've always enjoyed this song, but it took on much greater significance for me after an experience I had last year.  It happened the morning that I left Provo to drive home for the Christmas break.  I was leaving quite early that morning and I had agreed to give a friend a ride to the Provo airport.  His flight didn't leave until a few hours later, but he was okay leaving that early.  Well, we drove to the airport only to find a car full of people parked outside the main entrance because the airport didn't open for another couple of hours.  This other carload of people had been planning on dropping off one of their passengers and then starting their trip down to Texas.  Well, when we drove up they started asking us if we could possibly wait there at the airport with their friend until the airport opened because it was too cold to wait outside but they really needed to get on the road.  All I could think was, "well, I need to get on the road as well.  What makes you think that I want to delay my plans a couple of hours" and I started getting annoyed that they acted like it wouldn't be any kind of problem for me. Anyway, we finally decided that I would take both my friend and this random girl back to our apartment complex where they could wait in the lounge until the airport opened and somebody else could take them, allowing myself to get on the road as well.  As the girl was loading her luggage into my car, her and her group kept thanking me and saying that I was an answer to prayer.  While this was all very kind stuff that they were saying, I had gotten into a really bad mood for being delayed (which is silly, because I would have been delayed anyway whether this other group was a part of it or not) and was just grumpy about everything.  I talked to my friend about this later on and he said that it didn't really show that I was as put out as I was, but I definitely felt it.

After dropping them off at Alta and arranging a new ride for them, I hit the road again very grumpy and stewing over the events of the morning.  I had a CD of Christmas music playing in my car and the very next song that started playing was "Breath of Heaven."  As I listened to the song, I started thinking about how the Christmas season is all about Christ - His birth, life, example, sacrifice, love...everything.  Well, this made me realize how very un-Christlike I had behaved during this experience.  It was the Christmas season and instead of caring about how I could help out and be charitable, I was only thinking about myself and my precious hour of time.  I felt very ashamed about how I had reacted and was very humbled by this message of Christ.  Now I think of that morning every time that I hear "Breath of Heaven."  It is a lesson that I will always cherish.

So, this Christmas season, let's be sure to fit in some great Christmas music as we celebrate and keep our thoughts turned toward Christ.

Books in 2011

Just like I did last year for books in 2010, here's a list of books that I read in 2011.

1. The Electrical Field - Kerri Sakamoto

2. Hugh Laycock: Legacy - Compiled by various cousins

3. How to do Everything - Red Green

4. Gideon's Sword - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

5. Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz

6. Forever Odd - Dean Koontz

7. Brother Odd - Dean Koontz

8. Odd Hours - Dean Koontz

9. Behold the Fire - Steven D. Salinger

10. Jennie - Douglas Preston

11. Along Came a Spider - James Patterson

12. Kiss the Girls - James Patterson

13. Don Quixote: Part 1 - Miguel de Cervantes

14. Velocity - Dean Koontz

15. Cold Vengeance - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

16. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

For anyone who may be wondering, I would say that my favorite books on this list are Hugh Laycock: Legacy, Odd Thomas, Cold Vengeance, and A Game of Thrones. It's hard to limit it to just those 4, though, because I really liked a lot of these books. I can definitely say, however, that my least favorite were The Electrical Field and Behold the Fire. The former was boring, the latter was pointless, and both were full of characters I just didn't care about.

Vancouver

Wow, so, this post was supposed to go up a long time ago. I decided that I needed to do a better job keeping up with my blog and realized I had started this post and never finished it. Pretty much it's just pictures of my trip to Vancouver, B.C. last June. I went up there to present a paper at the 2011 ASME Turbo Expo. An updated version of the paper I presented at this conference is now being published in the ASME Journal of Turbomachinery.

This is the hotel that Dr. Fletcher and I stayed at while in Vancouver

These are a couple of churches that I could see from my hotel window. I thought that they looked kind of neat.

These are some boats in Coal Harbor. The building across the water, with the sloped roof, is the Vancouver Convention Center. This is where the Turbo Expo took place.

These are the walls inside the Vancouver Convention Center. I thought it was pretty neat how they made the walls look like piles of lumber.

The Olympic Torch. It doesn't look like it's lit, but it is. You could see the ripples in the air caused by the heat of the flames.

I thought this was pretty funny. The Stanley Cup Finals (Vancouver vs. Boston) were also going on while I was in Vancouver, but the Canucks were playing in Boston that week. This is a statue of Lord Stanley in Stanley Park that somebody has had some fun with. There is also a sign at the bottom of the statue that says something to the effect of "Canucks, bring my cup home." Well, they didn't.

Stanley Park was beautiful, by the way.

These sea planes were constantly taking of and landing in Coal Harbor. The outer walls of the convention center was made up of huge windows, so people were constantly stopping and watching the planes land and take off.

The session that I gave my presentation in ended just on time to catch Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Dr. Fletcher and I joined the group of people watching the game on the outdoor screen at Canada Place. We stayed there for the first period then walked up to our hotel and finished the game there.

This is my badge from the conference. I only wore the "Speaker" ribbon while I was there because I thought I would have looked pretty silly with all 4 ribbons hanging underneath.

Good for a Chuckle

Here's a video of a friend of mine. She's in the background. Apparently things were a little slow at work. If you're looking for a quick chuckle, it's worth a gander.

I'm Thankful Today

Today has been a great day. Today was Thanksgiving in Canada and I think it was one of the best Thanksgivings that I have celebrated while living in Utah. It actually started out as a pretty dull day. I slept in a lot later than I meant to and then wasn't very motivated to do much at work. Also, I tend to get kind of homesick at times like these (ie. Thanksgiving, Canada Day, etc.) However, everything changed once I got home.

I have a roommate who served his mission in Toronto. He also is part of a dinner group with some good friends of ours and tonight was his night to cook dinner. He decided to cook a turkey and do Thanksgiving dinner and he invited me to join them for dinner tonight. So, I decided to skip out on my own dinner group and join theirs for tonight. It was wonderful and it really meant a lot to me. I thanked him a couple of times for including me, but I still don't think that I've been able to express exactly how much it meant to me. It really was the closest I've felt to being home for Thanksgiving since I've been down here.

Well, as if that wasn't enough, the night just got better from there. Another one of my roommates came into the room a little later on and informed me that he had a Canadian friend who was going to be having poutine at her apartment. He invited me to come along and, well, I couldn't turn that down even though I was stuffed at it was going to result in me breaking my self imposed no-food-after-9:00pm rule. Well, we showed up at this girl's apartment and, as I'm bent over taking my shoes off, I hear "Robert!" Here, at this poutine party, was my friend Nikki who I went to school with in Raymond but hadn't seen in about 6 years or so. So that was a great reunion and we had the chance to catch up a bit while enjoying conversations about Canadian culture and memories with other fellow Canadians and people who served missions in various parts of Canada.

Anyway, I can't very well finish a post about Thanksgiving without expressing my gratitude for the many blessings I have received. I am thankful for having a family that loves me and that I love. I am thankful for the great friends that I have and the great examples that they are to me. I definitely do a lot of looking up to the people around me. I'm thankful for that opportunity that I have to receive a great education and for all of the opportunities of growth that I am presented with. And, while there's so much more that I could list off, I'll finish by saying that I am thankful to know that I am a child of God and I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the chance I have to follow His teachings and guidance in order to receive the blessings of exaltation.

No matter how hard or frustrating or just plain annoying things might seem at times, I really am extraordinarily blessed and have a wonderful life.

How to Do Everything

I recently read a book by a very well known handyman. Give him a roll of duct tape and he can accomplish just about anything. This man, of course, is the great Canadian hero Red Green. I first saw the Red Green Show in the early '90s and have been a fan ever since. This last Christmas, my parents gave me his most recent book How to Do Everything. This book claims to be a completely exhaustive guide to do-it-yourself AND self help. Red Green guides the reader through docking a power boat, how to apologize, how to turn bad gifts into a weather station, reducing your carbon footprint, subjects you should not bring up with your wife, how to measure your hat size with a 2x4 and many other semi-useful topics. It was a fun read, and some of his advice was surprisingly good (on rare occasion).

Before reading How to Do Everything, however, I finished another book about another man who can do just about anything with anything. This would be my Grandpa Laycock. A few years ago a couple of my cousins interviewed Grandpa Laycock and these interviews were edited and compiled by my uncle and then printed as the book Hugh Laycock: Legacy. Everyone in the family received a copy. It is one of the most valuable books that I own. Since I grew up on the farm, I saw my grandpa a lot as he would come out to either do some work on the farm or on his ultra-lights. I've always known that he is a great man and a hard worker, but I learned so much more about him as I read his book. And I'm not kidding when I say that it seems like he can do just about anything. The following is a list, from page 99 of the book, of activities that Grandpa Laycock pursued:

Actor, airplane builder, boat builder, businessman, carpenter, church leader, drummer (he made some of the drums himself as well), electrician, explosives expert, farmer, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, hunter, husband, inventor, mechanic, photographer, pilot, plumber, public speaker, realtor, singer, tourist, violinist, welder.

And I'm sure the list could go on. Reading about my grandpa, and learning some new stories about him, simply reinforced something that I already knew: Grandpa Laycock is a wonderful, kind, hard working man who loves his family and the gospel. I am so thankful that I can call him my grandpa.

Being Canadian

I'm proud to be Canadian. I like to believe that I don't normally go around being obnoxious about it, but I am proud of it. I usually make it back up to Canada to visit a couple times each year, but it's still nice to have an experience down in the US once in a while to help feel connected with the Great White North. Here are a few of the things that have happened since I've been back in Provo after Christmas.

1. I went to a BYU hockey game. I had only ever been to one other hockey game down here (back when the BYU team was still the Provo Ice Cats), and I had forgotten how fun it was. I'm pretty sure you could have described me as giddy when the teams took the ice.

2. I used the word "dandy." This probably sounds silly, but some

body asked me how my day was the other day and I told them it had been dandy. At this instant I felt a certain connection with home. I think part of it is connected to hearing that word used a lot on Hockey Night in Canada. Another part of it is due to an episode of the Simpsons where the Simpson family ends up in Toronto. At one point Bart and Milhouse end up crashing through a curling match and the announcer says "What's this? Two young Yankee Doodles have turned this matched into a dandy."

3. I listened to O Canada. I was walking home one day, listening to some of my music on my mp3 player, when O Canada, performed by Big Sugar, came on. I was very happy to hear this.

4. I made Nanaimo Bars. For our grad seminar this week we had a cultural and culinary exchange. We were asked to bring food related to our home country or another country/culture with which we are familiar. I decided to represent Canada by bringing Nanaimo Bars. They are always a huge hit anytime I make them. This has nothing to do with my cooking, Nanaimo Bars are just plain delicious. Anyway, it was fun to make them and share them for the seminar, but I think my Canadian pride was affected the most when I got home. There were some bars left over, so I decided to take them to share with my dinner group for dessert. When I uncovered them, one of the girls there said they looked like "fudge cream brownies," or something along those lines. I replied and told her that they are called Nanaimo Bars because they originated in Nanaimo, B.C. This was followed by a short discussion about them possibly being the same thing, just called something different. We're friends, and this was all very friendly conversation, but inside I felt myself getting very defensive, with my thoughts being something along the line of "they are Nanaimo Bars, not fudge cream brownies. Nanaimo Bars are Nanaimo Bars, and they are Canadian. These are not fudge cream brownies. Even if you call them fudge cream brownies, that's not what they are. They are Nanaimo Bars" It's not as if this was going to be a source of contention or anything, but I was very happy when she ate one and informed me that they were not the same thing as fudge cream brownies.

Delicious Nanaimo Bars

Picture taken from www.eclecticcook.com

Dinner

So, I'm kind of proud of myself right now. Yesterday I was watching "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" and the host, Anne Burrell, was making risotto. Well, I decided that I'd try making my own risotto. I found a recipe online (on the Food Network website, of course) for lemon risotto. I think it turned out pretty well. I realized after finishing it though, that I had forgotten an ingredient or two, so it can still be improved. Also, I didn't have the right kind of rice and I didn't want to buy more rice just to make it, so I tried using my plain old long grain rice that I already had on hand. It worked okay, but it didn't get as creamy as it would have with the right kind of rice. I definitely think that I could do a better job in the future.

Anyway, I'm happy to say that for dinner today I made myself Garlic Balsamic Chicken with Lemon Risotto. There's a picture below. The plating isn't wonderful (slicing the chicken and adding a little bit of garnish would have made it look much better), but you have to remember that this is just me living in a college apartment making dinner for myself. If I was making this and trying to impress a girl with it, I definitely would have fancied it up a bit.

Florida

This last Christmas I had the opportunity to fly out to Florida and visit my sister, Kimberly, and her family. I caught the red eye after my last final and arrived in Orlando around 11:00 the next morning and stayed for about a week. These are some pictures, mostly borrowed from Kimberly, of my trip out there.

It was nice to see Charles and Aerie again. Charles warmed up really quickly and pulled out a book to read as soon as we got home.

We went out to eat at Panera. My sister told me that they sold wonderful lemonade, so I got some. Apparently Charles thinks it's pretty wonderful too.

We tried to go to a boat parade, but it was postponed a day due to rainy weather. This lone boat came around to announce the delay. The next day we went back, but all of the boats turned around before reaching our end of the canal. Well, not all the boats, the same boat that came the night before managed to make it down to us.

Aerie helped me make gingersnaps.

We went on a wilderness drive and saw some neat birds.

We also saw an big alligator. A bobcat ran out in front of the van as well, but we didn't get a picture of it.

Aerie and Charles love dancing. Here they are spinning in a circle together while Aerie sings "Baby" by Justin Bieber.

Books in 2010

I've mentioned before that I enjoy reading. If I haven't on this blog, I definitely did on 100 Things. Anyway, here's a list of the books that I read during 2010 and the order that I read them in. I don't really get a lot of reading done during the school year. Most of these were read during the summer.

1. Believing Christ - Stephen Robinson

2. Nobody's Safe - Richard Steinberg

3. Double Cross - James Patterson

4. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

5. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

6. The Second Chair - John Lescroart

7. Fever Dream - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

8. The Face - Dean Koontz

9. Sleeper Spy - William Safire

10. The Four Phase Man - Richard Steinberg

11. One Door Away From Heaven - Dean Koontz

12. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

13. Chain of Evidence - Ridley Pearson

Adventures on State Street

So, I had kind of an interesting experience last night, and you won't be surprised to hear that it has something to do with meat. However, it was nothing that I could have ever expected. And no, it had nothing to do with me dropping ribs on the ground, although I'm sure there were some ribs involved. Anyway, I should probably just get to the story.

Our ward had a small activity last night involving a bonfire and a spiritual thought. It was really quite a nice activity. I got a ride up there with some people in the ward, but then decided that I'd like to get a ride back with a friend of mine who was going to be leaving a bit earlier than the others. So, we had a good time at the activity and then took off. The ride back was just like any other ride for the most part. We talked, laughed, sat quietly, etc. Then, out of nowhere, her truck (which is an old, small Nissan) started making a funny squeaking sound. My best guess was that it was a belt slipping somewhere, but I really don't know a whole lot about cars. Anyway, we kept driving hoping that it wasn't going to be a problem.

Well, here I am listening to the squeaking when all of a sudden a dead deer appears out of the shadows on the road ahead of us! By the time we could see what was in front of us, it was too late to try to swerve out of the way without causing more trouble, so the truck just went right over top of the deer. There was a great big bump and it was all over. Fortunately, the squeaking stopped. Unfortunately, after driving for a little bit, my friend started to notice a bad smell and then I noticed it and it kept getting worse. So, my friend pulled into a parking lot and told me that I had to get out and check things out because I was the man. She didn't really need to tell me this because I was planning on checking it out anyway, but it felt good to be called a man. Anyway, I got out and looked under the truck to find that there was a hunk of deer carcase hanging from the bottom of the truck. So, I figured that the smell was this, and other smearings of deer, burning on the hot and moving parts of the truck. Well, that mixed with the inherent stench of deer carcase.

Anyway, I went and found some sticks and used those to dislodge the hunk of deer from the bottom of the truck. We had parked next to some mexican fast food restaurant that was advertising 99 cent tostadas, so after I finished with the deer I went inside and washed my hands. I did not buy a tostada.

We got back on the road and started searching for a car wash. It took a couple of tries, but we found one that was open and that had an undercarriage wash. Trying to get into the car wash was an adventure in and of itself. It kept rejecting our money and has this annoying voice that would tell us which wash we had selected and kept demanding more money. I swear I heard the creepy electronic voice repeat "plus wash" about a hundred times. We finally got into the car wash, cleaned the truck, nearly had the roof of the truck cave in on us, and got out alive.

Anyway, that's the tale of the deer on the road. I hope all the discussion about deer carcase and such didn't gross anyone out.

Trip to Ottawa

This summer was the first non-missionary summer of my life that I have not spent some amount of time at home in Alberta. Normally I spend about a week up there sometime during the summer months. This year, however, I decided to fly out to Ottawa instead. My brother lives out there with his family and my parents were going to be visiting him, so I figured I would join them. I had a great time out there and it was great to see Patrick, Michelle and the kids. Some of the stuff we did included a picnic at Rideau Hall, a boat ride around the Thousand Islands, visiting various museums around town, going out for sushi, and just visiting and having a good time.

Emily had a great time playing with Grammy

Dad couldn't believe that, after flying across the country to visit, Patrick and I ended up playing Street Fighter

A guard in front of Rideau Hall

Getting ready for our boat ride around the Thousand Islands

Gananoque, Ontario

It was really windy on the boat.

A house on an isand

Another house on an island

The Canadian Museum of Nature

Frontside of the museum

A moose on the museum

The Canada Agriculture Museum