I just got a big stiffy:

Just thought you'd like to know - The atroxi.com Radio Show will return on Thursday, October 4th at 7:00pm EST. The pre-show festivities (well, actually the sound check and assorted what-not) will commence at 6:00pm EST, and the toll-free number (for the moment) is 877-358-4200 ext. 639.

This has got to be the strangest "sport" (if you can call it that) I've ever heard of. With the use of a GPS unit, you try to find things that people have stashed all over the world in remote locations. And even though I don't have a GPS receiver, I think I'm going to go look for a stash this evening just for the hell of it.

Update: This is the cache I tried to find, but didn't have any luck. I did, however, climb Pinnacle Peak. It was an exhausting climb, and I expected to find that stash up there, but it must be somewhere near the base. It was worth it still, 'cause I got some great pictures. Now I want to get a GPS receiver...there are hundreds of stashes near where I live.

Wow...this would be great to have...of course I'd settle for this, but I couldn't afford either. =)

It's open enrollment time for health benefits at work, and I was planning on switching from IHC to Aetna so my family and I could have doctors in Price, rather than having to drive 140 miles round-trip for a fucking doctor's appointment. Well, it turns out our parent company has changed from giving us two options to a single option, UnitedHealthcare, which sucks as bad as IHC in that I can't get a doctor in Price, and it costs quite a bit more. As soon as I found out about this change yesterday, I started looking for a new job. I can't afford to have more money taken out of my paycheck, and still have to travel so much for simple immunizations and checkups for my son. Add all this on top of not having a raise in the past 2 years, and I think it's definitely time for a career change.

Ugh...I was going to finish cutting all the weeds down in my back yard today, but my allergies prevented me from doing much of anything. Besides that, it's much hotter than I expected it to be--it's 83° right now.

So I think I'm going to take a cold shower right now, then maybe take a nap while listening to System of a Down--I'm probably going to buy their new album next time I get paid--I love them. Ty brought over all of SG-1 season 5 last night, so I've at least got something to keep me busy the rest of the weekend. I worked 10-hour days all week, and probably will do the same next week, so I'm ready for some relaxation.

I had never been around children much at all until I had one of my own, and I'm surprised how at generous they can be at such an early age. Michael, when he's finished slobbering all over one of his teething toys, often shares with me by trying to stick it in my mouth. It's a nice gesture, but I think I'll pass. It's touching to me that he actually cares enough to give up what he so obviously enjoys.

After listening to X96 for several weeks, I think I'm finally back in touch with the new-music scene. After living in Price for almost two years, with no radio stations except country, and nothing on MTV except The Real World and other such crap, I didn't know what new music was out there and didn't have much new stuff to listen to. Right now, I'm listening to bands I never thought I would like, such as System of a Down, Nickelback, Saliva, Staind, P.O.D., and quite a few others. God, I love the internet. =)

I was talking to Justin earlier this evening about the whole terrorism/war thing going on right now, and I surprised even myself by what I said:

Me: You know, I don't think anything much is going to happen with all this talk of war. I just don't see how the US can go to war with any country unless they have some real justification, which I don't think they really do. I just don't think there's a fair way to handle this.

Justin: i feel the same way

there's no way the US can just go and kill civilians because of a terrorist force that is not part of the goverment

it would be different if it was the afghan military, but its not

Me: Right...unless they can prove there were ties--monetary or otherwise--between the terrorists and any government, I don't think they have a leg to stand on.

I read an article in American Heritage yesterday about the Mountain Meadows massacre, which occurred September 11, 1857. I had never even heard about this until I read it, and I found it very disturbing. A group of Mormon settlers executed 120 members of a wagon train (mostly women and children) that was passing through Utah on its way to California. The wagon train contained about $100,000 in gold, 1,000 head of cattle, and several thoroughbred horses that would be worth over a million dollars in today's market. The Mormons later denied any involvement, and tried to blame the entire thing on Paiute Indians. It is believed that Brigham "Bring'em" Young, the Mormon church leader at the time, gave the orders to murder the people and distribute their wealth and belongings among church members. Federal authorities didn't arrive until almost two years later to investigate, leaving little evidence and few witnesses.

The thing I found most disturbing about the entire story is that the cover-up is still going on to this day. In 1999, the previously undiscovered remains of 28 victims were found, most of which had bullet holes in the skull, right between the eyes. According to the article, "state law required that any unidentified human remains found on private property be forensically examined and that failure to comply would be a criminal felony." Even so, Utah governor Mike Leavitt, who is a direct descendant of one the massacre's participants, quickly ordered the remains reburied, telling state officials "to find administrative or other means to do so.."

The Salt Lake Tribune published a series of articles on the subject (see below), which according to American Heritage, "has been cited as a primary reason behind the church's intervention in a convoluted business transaction in which the rambunctious Tribune was sold to a company expected to be more congenial to church interests. Founded in 1871 by dissident Mormons who were then excommunicated by Brigham Young, the Tribune has been the independent voice of Utah's non-Mormon minority for more than a century. But like the reburied remains, that voice just might be stifled as well."

The Mormon church makes me sick, as does the Utah state government, which is 90% Mormon.

Links:

S.L. Trib articles: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Archaeology.org article

Mountain Meadows Massacre - online book

Thanks to GreaterThings for most of the links

My mom has been recording Band of Brothers for me the past two weeks, and I really like it so far. It is sometimes hard to follow because it's so action-packed, it's easy to miss something if you blink. Good thing I'm watching on tape. =) It keeps reminding me that I've been meaning to buy Saving Private Ryan on DVD for quite a while now, so maybe I'll finally get around to that when I get some money.

I find it strange that Fox News spells that one guy's name Usama, while every other major network spells it Osama. The FBI spells it Osama, while the State Department spells it both ways. It must be the case that nobody really knows except the man himself.

A power line that runs over my back yard shorted out today, causing some weeds to catch on fire. I had rolled the hose up and put it in the garage just this morning, so when I realized there was a fire, I ran inside the house to get my keys, ran back outside to unlock the garage door, then grabbed the hose and hooked it up to the spigot, and ran behind the garage and started putting out the fire. And I did it all barefoot, so I've got some small cuts on the bottoms of my feet. I ended up calling the fire department afterwards because initially I wasn't sure what caused the fire, and the guy that came out to look at it was kind of a dipshit. He didn't think the power line caused it, even though the power went out in part of my house at the exact time I realized my back yard was on fire.

After he left, I tested the power coming into the house at the fusebox, and found that only one circuit had power coming in. I tried calling several phone numbers at Price City, but of course, nobody was there, and they don't have an after-hours number. I ended up having to call the police dispatcher in order to get a Price City utility worker out to my house to fix the problem. A guy finally showed up and tested the power right at the meter, and found the same thing that I told him I had already figured out. So he called somebody from Utah Power, and after about 45 minutes of waiting, another guy showed up. He quickly found exactly where the power line had shorted out--a tree limb had rubbed the shielding off the wire--but since the tree was growing too close to the utility pole, he couldn't climb it with his climbing spikes. He had to go back to work and get his Ford 1-ton dually cherry picker, which barely fit through the gap in my back fence from my mom's driveway. He trimmed the tree, shut off power to the whole neighborhood, spliced some new wire into the line, then had to make a 10-point turn to get back out of my yard.

I almost wish I hadn't been home when it happened, because I wouldn't mind too much if everything burned down. The fire came to within a foot of the wood pile at the back of the garage, and if that had caught fire, not even the fire department would have been able to put it out in time.

It's late, but it doesn't feel so late. My manager has approved overtime for the project I'm doing at work, so I worked an extra two hours today, and hopefully I'll work many more extra hours next week. Overtime is good.

I just got finished doing a new layout for this site. It's the fifth one I've made in the past months, but none have been worthy of showing to the public--until now. I created it from a picture that I took today, and I actually like it enough to replace the current layout with. I think I'm gonna go to bed in a few minutes, so I'll put the layout up tomorrow after I get some work done around the house--it's completely finished, I just need to change all the multitude of templates in Greymatter. Tomorrow, I've got to take down the swamp cooler, fix the phone line in my office, unload the trailer that we took camping last week, and take my aggressions out on those pesky weeds in my back yard (that is, cut them down). Oh, and I guess I might as well mow the front lawn while I'm at it.

I've never before been so glad that George W. Bush is the President of the United States. I have no way of knowing how Al Gore would be handling things now had the election turned out differently, but I don't believe he would be doing well. I'm still not too sure about all this talk about possibly going to war, but I don't think I'm entirely opposed to it either. Ya fuck with us, we gots to fuck you up / I thought ya knew, but yet and still / Ya wanna get real, now it's time to peel, ya say chill / and feel, the motherfuckin realism / ... i'm hittin hard as steel nigga

I still haven't sold my Nissan, but I haven't been trying very hard lately. I moved it to my father-in-law's driveway the other day, though, where hopefully it will be much more visible than in my driveway. My wife's uncle has a Honda CRX for sale, and he said he'd give it to me for $500, so I'm going to go there today and take it for a spin. It'll be nice to have something other than my truck to drive to work every week--with all the gas money I save, the car will pay for itself in less than a year.

Update: That CRX was shit--broken speedometer, broken horn, bad brakes, and I don't know how I missed this, but it had no back seat. Oh well, the search is still on for a decent vehicle.

I left Price around 6:00 this morning, and when I dropped my wife off at her brother's apartment around 8:00, they were watching the news. It really took awhile for the enormity of the situation to sink in. I don't have a radio or TV here at work, and all the major news websites are down, so I have no idea what's going on right now, or whether or not there are any new developments. I'm thinking about just sitting in the parking lot and listening to the radio in my truck. I don't feel like doing anything right now, especially work.

I'm not sure which I'd rather do right now--shower or sleep. We got back from our little camping trip a few hours ago, but we spent time unloading stuff, eating, and playing on the computer, and now I'm tired. I put some pictures from this weekend up just now.

The battery and charger for the camera showed up just minutes before we left town, and surprisingly the battery was already fully charged. Otherwise, I think I would have sat for an hour or so at the rest area near where we were camped and charged the battery--I'm pretty sure I saw a 120V outlet there on one of the pavilions.

I turned the fridge thermostat to low on Friday night because it was supposed to get very cold and I didn't want our food to freeze, but when we woke up on Saturday morning, everything was almost room temperature. I thought it was because I had turned it down too low, but an hour later I realized that turning it back up had no effect. I finally figured out that it wasn't working well because we weren't level (I didn't think propane appliances were that picky), so I just moved the camper to where the rear-end could be a little lower than the front. Less than 10 minutes later the stuff in the fridge was noticeably colder.

I brought a lot of firewood along, but I wasn't sure if it was legal to have a fire there. There are signs posted a few miles away on the paved road from Price saying that no campfires are allowed, but no such sign exists on the road from Provo, and no signs were posted near the national forest sign a few miles up the dirt road from our camp. Not that I was worried, I built a fire anyway, and we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Instead of using messy chocolate bars, we bought some chocolate-covered graham crackers and sandwiched them around the marshmallows--it makes for a much easier s'more.

Eh...I think sleep is winning out--I'm going to bed now. A shower will have to wait 'til morning. =)

This is sort of frustrating--my camera battery and charger are sitting down at the UPS office waiting to be delivered, which probably won't happen until well after noon. I'd like to go pick the package up myself right now, but their customer counter opens ridiculously late, something like 4:30 pm. I'd like to start charging that battery right now so I can take the camera camping.

I wish I still knew somebody who worked at UPS...my dad worked there for almost 20 years (about 1,670,000 miles in a semi) before he died, and I used to know everybody there, but even if any of them still work there, I doubt they'd remember me from way back then. I doubt the truck drivers have the authority to hand over customer's packages anyway.

Last night, as I was backing my truck up under the camper, I ended up getting it a little crooked, so the front of the camper wasn't flush against the cab of the truck on the driver's side. Instead of jacking the camper up again and straightening it out, which would have been a big pain in the ass, I decided to pull forward a bit then slam on my brakes, and I was hoping the camper would just slide forward in the truck bed. Well, it did slide forward, and it bent the front part of the bed badly, leaving a very big crease in it. It may also have put a dent in the cab of the truck, but I won't be able to tell until I get the camper out and pull the bed away from where it's touching the cab--probably with a large crowbar--should be fun.

Michael started crawling last week, and while it looked pretty awkward, it was effective enough to get him from point A to point B. Before he started actually crawling, he just scooted around, sliding his face along the ground while pushing with his feet, and sometimes he would just roll to get around. But already, when you set him down on the floor, he just takes off like he's been crawling for a long time. He can also pull himself up to his feet pretty well, and if he stands up holding on to his walker (outside of it, not inside), when it rolls forward or backward, he can take a few steps to keep from falling. I don't think it will be long before he's walking. There's nothing that comes close to the feeling of watching your child grow up before your eyes.

It's been confirmed: Chandra Levy is for sure dead. "'She really didn't say anything,' Pelote said. 'When I saw her, she was lying in a ditch and her eyes was closed. She was in a wooded area.'" Please note, her eyes was closed.

As long as you repent for your pedophilia, the LDS church will put you in a position to do it all over again. "Church records show he was excommunicated in 1983 for sexually abusing children but rebaptized a year later."

Web Site Makes It Easy To Find Utah Businesses: "Thanks to a new Internet service that lists 120,000 Utah businesses, consumers can find pet snacks made from ostriches in Spanish Fork or a Provo company that will order you a jack-o'-lantern made from a Pennsylvania gourd." Wow, that sounds an awful lot like the yellow pages. Jackasses.

I started running out of space on my c: drive, so I got rid of about 3 gigs of stuff today, mostly mp3s. I've still got 5 gigs free on another drive, but I'm going to use it just for storing pictures on, so I really need to get a new hard drive soon. That 80GB Western Digital is looking pretty good, and I can get one for $209. That's a little less than I paid for this 20GB drive a couple years ago.

The non-rechargeable battery that came with my camera finally died today. I've been putting off getting a rechargeable battery, but I just ordered one, along with an AC adapter and charger, and the kit cost me about $100 including shipping. So I'm into this camera about $600 now, but it's still well worth it. =)

Looks like Mike isn't going camping with us this weekend because his wife couldn't get work off. He said she needs 3 weeks notice, even though he and I talked about going this exact weekend more than a month ago. I found a nice spot to camp that's almost exactly half-way between my house and Jaysen's, so we'll both have to drive the same distance to get there. All the people that were camping in that area this weekend have cleared out, so we shouldn't have any problems with that spot being taken, and I think Jay is going there Thursday anyway, so we should be good.

Today was so boring, I'm definitely ready for this weekend to be over. Last night, I drank a whole blenderful of lime daiquiri, and after that I had a few copper camels. I woke up in the middle of the night with a bad headache, and twice I got out of bed to drink some water because my mouth was so dry. When I finally rolled out of bed today around 11:30, my headache was gone, and there wasn't much of a hangover.

I'm heading up to Provo for work tomorrow, and I think I'm going to scout some camping spots along the way for this weekend. Mike is almost for sure going with us this time, and I need to find a spot he can get his Integra to without any problems. I haven't been able to fix the heater in the camper because the outside vent is rusted onto the combustion chamber, which I need to remove to clean the burner. If it gets cold wherever we end up camping, we'll just be shit-outta-luck.

I guess I'll bring the camera along with me tomorrow, 'cause the oak brush is probably turning colors in Spanish Fork Canyon. Besides, I usually see a lot of stupid shit when I'm traveling, but it's not worth wasting film taking pictures of it.

Me and the family went on a little outing today, and it was pretty fun. We went to the dirt road that starts at the Tucker rest area, and drove about 10 or 15 miles up the switchbacks 'til we reached the top of the mountain, where we found a nice spot to park under some trees and ate lunch. There were tons of people up there, and it was hard to find a place that was secluded.

When we started to head home, we decided to take a road that leads to Scofield, but after driving for 15 minutes, the road got really rough and it started raining, and since my truck is still a 4X2, we turned around and took the road we came in on. On our way back down, we came around a corner and there was a car dangling half-way off a small overhang on the next corner, with the left-front hanging down at about a 35° angle, so I gunned it through the straight part then locked up my brakes when I got near (gotta love having new brakes). There were four people in the car, and nobody looked injured, but it scared the shit out of me. I jumped out of my truck and opened the passenger door of the car and had to hold it open while the chick in the front seat got out, but the car started tipping further down on the driver's side, so I rolled the window down and put all my weight on the door. Then everybody got out while me, Traci, and the two guys from the car held it from tipping over the edge. One of the guys got back in and started the car, but since one front tire was hanging over the edge, it just spun in the air, so the other guy and I got under the front-end and pushed backwards 'til both front tires gripped. After seeing that car (it was an newer Celica) hanging off the edge like that, I didn't think it would be back on the road anytime soon, but it was pretty easy to get back on the road, and there wasn't much damage. The front air dam was broken and almost all the paint was scraped off, and the bumper had some damage, but that was about it--well, that was all I could see--there may have been more damage under the car. The driver told me he was trying to skid around the corner with the emergency brake on, but he must not have been a very good driver, 'cause he turned too far sideways and went off the edge on the inside of the corner. After we got the car unstuck, they just drove off rather casually, like it wasn't a big deal. I know I was still shaking a little...I hate coming up on car wrecks.

My niece and nephew are staying over here tonight and maybe tomorrow night, because their one-year-old brother had to have surgery on a cyst, so my sister is staying at the hospital with him. Having an infant to take care of is hard enough, but having him and two other kids is more than a handful.