Murder, Mystery, and All Sorts of Trouble

In 2010 I was introduced to my current favorite TV show. I was tempted to title this as my second "Late to the Party" post, but it was only the second season that was run. I consider that getting in early enough. What's the show? Check this out.

Richard Castle is the main character in the show with his name. As you saw (because you clearly checked out the link I posted, right?), Castle is about a murder mystery writer who is tagging along on cases with a detective as he tries to get ideas for his books. Sounds pretty dry on the surface, but is so much better. In the first episode, we learn that Castle has recently killed off his "golden goose", Derrick Storm, because he was bored with the character. He knew exactly how things would go and he was tired of him. While he is at a party unveiling the last book of his series, he is approached by a detective (Kate Beckett) who has some questions to ask him because of a murder scene that looked (almost) exactly like a murder scene that he had described in one of his books. Castle is interested in Kate and figures out a way that he might be able to follow her around: She will be the inspiration for the main character in his new series! He offers his assistance in solving this initial crime and, because of his pull with the mayor, is able to continue following around on other cases.

I LOVE this show! I've always enjoyed murder mysteries and this takes that and rolls it with an awesome dose of humor that has me rolling with laughter in so many of the episodes. I love the character of Rick Castle. I know that this is a Hollywoodized portrayal of an author, but I love it all the same. And I really enjoy the fact that, while he is portrayed as "A nine-year-old on a sugar rush, totally incapable of taking anything seriously" (to quote Beckett), he is also shown as a loving and caring father to his daughter Alexis, who more often than not is the one person in the show who can put him in his place. ...Not to mention the fact that I have enjoyed pretty much everything that I have seen (or heard) Nathan Fillion in.

All of the characters have their moments to share their sharp wit and there are a plethora of great lines from the show. Here's one from the first episode:

Beckett: Half of the guys are waiting for prints. You don't just jump the line.
Castle: Oh, I think somebody feels threatened.
Beckett: I'm not threatened.
Castle: No, no, I get it. I can call the mayor and you can't.
Beckett: We have procedure. Protocol.
Castle: Yeah, and you always come to a complete stop at a red light and you never fudge your taxes. Tell me something: Do you ever have any fun? Let your hair down? Drop your top? A little "cops gone wild"?
Beckett: You do know that I'm wearing a gun?

I'll grant you that I'm biased, but take a look at some of the episodes. I don't think you'll regret it.

Late to the Party #1: Avatar: The Last Airbender

I've noticed something that I seem to keep letting happen to me. Very often, when it comes to the newest and greatest things that seem to be happening, I always seem to end up being "late to the party". What do I mean when I say that I am "late to the party"? I will illustrate:

Imagine you are in a conversation with a good friend and whatever you have been discussing brings to your friend's mind an example or just reminds them about any possible number of other thoughts from a movie that they may have seen. They try to tell you about it or make some witty quote from said movie, and you are left grasping for straws as you inform them that you have no idea what they're talking about. They then proceed to look at you as if you were from another planet... because there is no possible way you could be from this one and NOT have seen this!

Examples may vary. I'm sure that I've looked agast at people when I discover that they have not seen Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (I try not to. I realize it's not everyone's thing.) But, I really have no room to judge. I've been the guilty party of this "crime" on a number of occasions. I have my reasons, most of the time, but the thing that I continue to be amazed at is the fact that so often, I wish that I'd found whatever it is sooner. The most recent example of this was discovered this last summer:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

All I knew about this show was that it had been recently made into a movie (which almost everyone I have talked with did not like). I watched the last about third of this movie when my wife watched it with my brother- and sister-in-law. Needless to say, I really had no clue what was going on, but the effects seemed really cool. I figured that I just needed to watch it (the live-action movie) from the beginning and it would make more sense. ...Well, I'm sure that it would have made a little more sense, but it would not have done justice to it.

I never ended up watching the movie again*, but I did (finally) get around to watching the first animated season after much encouragement and other general harassment from a good friend of mine. ...And the second season... ...And the third season. Within about a month, or so, I had watched the entire three seasons. I finished the first season in about two days! (I grant you this isn't hard. They are only half-hour episodes, but I usually don't burn through stuff like this!) I couldn't stop watching them! They were so well done! And they only got better as they went!

I loved the story. Yes, the story and the show is written for kids, but it's done so that anyone can appreciate and enjoy the storyline. The whole thing is epic. It's your classic good versus evil. And it's just plain FUN! You learn to love most of the characters. Each one of them has depth. All of your main characters (and even most of the one-episode characters) have something that is driving them. There are reasons that they do the things that they do.

Everyone that has seen these has their favorite character or characters. I will pick my top three:

3) Avatar Aang and Prince Zuko

I know. I shouldn't pick two, but I did anyway. (I did keep it to one for the first-place spot, so quit your complaining!) These two are THE main characters. Aang is the last airbender and the whole story happens because of him, but one of the things that I love about this series is that it's not just a story about what happens to Aang. All of the other characters have their own story to tell as well.

I'll admit, I wasn't really that impressed with Aang at the beginning, but he definitely grew on me. He has a very fun side to him, loves to play games, and enjoys being with and around his friends. He is incredibly loyal and takes the fact that he is the Avatar very seriously. One of my favorite parts with Aang comes at the end, when must face the Fire Lord and make a decision of how to deal with him. He takes the advice of many, but in the end, he makes a decision that really is his own.

Zuko is the banished prince of the Fire Nation. The only hope he has been given to restore his honor and be allowed to return is if he can find and capture the Avatar. For most of the first two seasons, Zuko is unrelenting in his pursuit of Aang. After he thinks that he has killed Aang, he returns to the Fire Nation with his honor restored, but he is still not happy. All this time, he has been seeking his father's approval, but once he has it, he realizes that in order to get it, he has had to make choices that are contrary to who he is, or wants to be. In his exile, he is accompanied by his uncle, Iroh (Uncle). Uncle has always seen the potential of his nephew, even if he is brash and lacking both patience and experience. He tirelessly tries to impart the wisdom that he has accumulated over the years through his experiences to Zuko. Unlike the Fire Lord, Uncle truly cares about his nephew and wants to see him rise above the trials and obstacles that have been put in his way. In the end, Zuko finally finds peace within himself and is at peace with who he is. He becomes a strong character and truly a person who knows exactly where he stands.

2) Avatar Roku

I have always loved the mentor characters in movies and books. I think it's because I hope to be like these characters someday. But none of even these characters got to where they are without going through the process of obtaining wisdom. The same is true of Avatar Roku. He got to where he is by the hard process of life's experiences. In the beginning, he was taught by many different instructors and masters. He learned by practice and repetition. He also learned by and from his experiences. Trial and error is a hard school of learning, but as long as he (or any of us, for that matter) learned from his errors, he grew and gained in wisdom. This is not seen until almost mid-way through the third season, but in it, one can see that, just like the Avatars before him, Roku had to learn all of the bending arts and along the way had to learn how to render judgement, how to be a leader, and how to live with the responsibility that became his as he became the Avatar. He readily admits to Aang that he made mistakes. One in particular he views as the reason that Fire Lord Sozin was able to begin his conquest of the world. Avatar Roku gives instruction to Aang at a few very crucial moments in the series, and even though he has his regrets, he still seems at peace with himself, even if he is very concerned for Aang's well being and that Aang is able to stop the Fire Lord.

1) Uncle Iroh

If you've seen the Avatar series and can't at least say that you enjoyed the character of Uncle, I am tempted to say that there is something wrong with you.

Again, here we have another mentor character. But Uncle is ... just that character that you almost don't know what to expect from him next! In the beginning, he seems like an eccentric old man who loves his tea and is not really taking the task that Zuko is trying to accomplish very seriously. To begin with, he doesn't really think that the Avatar can be found. In spite of this, he is tutoring his nephew and trying to help him believe in himself. He knows that Zuko wants to restore his honor, but as time goes on, Uncle is trying to help Zuko restore his honor to himself. It is not the Fire Lord (Zuko's father) that can restore the feeling of honor that Zuko desires. Uncle knows for himself that you always have honor if you live up to your true self. It's almost as if he is telling him to learn all that you can and live according to what your heart tells you is true and right. If you do this, then you will be at peace with yourself and you will be able to live with your own honor. Uncle Iroh has lived this way (it seems to me) for a long time. The change happened sometime between losing his son and when he began to mentor Zuko. He didn't seem to care what others may have thought of him. He lived up to his own code of honor and was always able to stand tall knowing that he had been true to himself and was able to be at peace with himself.

Such an awesome series! Definitely one that I wish I had discovered earlier, but glad that I have now.

*(I still have not yet tried watching the movie that they made from the Avatar series, but I can understand how it didn't really work out well. There was a lot of material to be covered. Trying to cram a whole season into one movie could not have been an easy thing to do and was inevitably going to leave some things out that people wouldn't like.)

A Second Blog

This last weekend was the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I very much enjoyed this conference and the opportunity that I was able to take to spend time with both of my families. (Mine and my wife's)

I have been toying with an idea that I have wanted to do for a while now and have decided that I would start a second blog. This one will be for any and all posts that have to do with my faith. There is a link up at the top of this page and it will take you there. I don't know how often I will post to it, but I like the idea of being able to have a separate place to post things about my faith.

"We Must Away Ere Break of Day"

"Legend tells of a ring, created by an ancient evil, that gave its wearer the power to enslave the world."

Those were the words that I heard as I sat in a movie theater watching the preview before Rush Hour 2. This was the first full-length Lord of the Rings trailer that I saw, and I can promise you that there was nothing that was going to take my attention away from what I was seeing on the screen in front of me! After it was over, my friend kindly reminded me to pick my jaw up off of the ground and stop drooling. I had heard that they were making The Lord of the Rings trilogy into a movie, but hadn't held my breath that it would be something great to expect. (I'd seen pieces of the old animated ones that existed at the time and they didn't exactly thrill me.) So, this first trailer had me on the edge of my seat and more than stoked for the upcoming holiday season when it would be released.

Tonight, as I came home, I knew that I had a bit of writing to do. I had two blogs to post to make my goal of 3 for this week before my seminar on Wednesday. Normally, I would have a bit more time to come up with the needed material. However, because of the fact that this week will be our ropes course week, I have a bit less time. Anyway, I got online to do my writing... and what do I do? I jump on Facebook to check one legitimate item... and let myself get drawn into a posting about the upcoming Hobbit movie. I eventually made my way to the actual movie site and realized that I had not yet taken the opportunity to watch any of the trailers. Now, I had already had every intention of going to this movie when it was released. It's being directed by Peter Jackson, who (I'm sure most of you know) directed The Lord of the Rings trilogy that most people will admit to being a movie masterpiece. I found that they had added a small twist for those who would be sharing the trailer via various social media. The trailer would play in its entirety, but depending on the person who posted it, there were five different endings that could be played. The one that I liked best is here*. I am now much more excited to see this new film! Perhaps I will break with tradition... or perhaps I will continue it. My brother and I went to see The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers on New Year's Day 2002 and 2003, respectively. The movies had been out long enough that the crowds had died down and we were able to go with only a fairly normal gathering of people attending the matinees that we ended up going to. (The only reason we did not go to The Return of the King New Year's Day 2004 was that I was down in the Provo MTC preparing to serve my LDS mission to Berlin, Germany.)

(*Unfortunately, it seems that the site has taken down the trailers. I have since removed the link. The trailer ended with the dwarves of the company tossing around a small sack as Gandalf explains to Bilbo that there was a bet as to whether or not he would show up. Bilbo asks him how he bet. The bag is finally thrown to Gandalf who promptly pockets the change. "I never doubted you for a second!" -16.May.2013)

The Lord of the Rings was a breathtaking visual experience for me. When I saw The Fellowship of the Ring, many of the scenes that were portrayed on the screen were exactly as I had seen them in my mind's eye... and then added upon and made more beautiful. Hobbiton was so lush, green, and simple. Rivendell was ancient, graceful, and gorgeous. The mines of Moria were just as I had pictured them, but I loved how, in the movie, they created something of the grandeur that Balin's kingdom had once been. I had never pictured it as such and loved the scene where Gandalf says, "Let me risk a little more light. ... Behold! The great realm and dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf." Then everyone can see the massive pillars and curious beauty that was the great dwarf city. Sam puts it well as he says, "Now there's an eye opener and no mistake."

The Hobbit has always been a simple and fun story to me. I am looking forward to what we will get to see as Middle-Earth is again taken to the silver screen.

Parade of Homes 2012

This past weekend, my wife and I went to see the Cache Valley Parade of Homes. It was the first time I had been to one of these since I was in my teens and my mom took me to see some of the ones in the northern Utah parade that was going on at the time. I don't remember much from those, but it was really interesting to go to this one.

One of the main differences between then and now is that I am now at a point in my life that I am looking into what I would want to have, design-wise, in my future home. We have now lived in three different apartments since we have been married and are starting to get a feel for what we both want. I am thankful that we actually seem to have pretty similar tastes in what we would like. We seemed to agree on the houses we liked overall and were also in agreement on what houses we really didn't care for.

Now, I won't bother you with the details of the few houses that we didn't care for. However, the house that we liked the best was called "The Sarah" (Funny coincidence, huh?). It seemed to have some of the best qualities that we were looking for. As an example, we would like to have both an upper and a lower family room. My wife had something similar as she was growing up and likes the way that it worked out for her family. The main floor family room moved right into the kitchen which she was very impressed with. Normally, she doesn't care for the greatroom idea, but this had enough space, and the setup worked out well enough that there seemed to be a separation between the two that worked for her. There was a dining area off of the kitchen area and outside was a very large covered deck that could easily be used for an outside dining area.

There were plenty of bedrooms. Obviously, we wouldn't need them to begin with, but we liked that aspect. One of my favorite features was the fact that when you came up to the top floor, for some reason, it didn't feel as if we were on the top floor. There was a large landing at the top of the stairs that made the area feel open and large. And, the master bedroom was just awesome! ...At least we liked it.

The only drawback, that I was seeing, was the unfortunate number of box elder bugs that had decided to perch themselves on the many large windows. I loved the windows though, because of the amount of natural light that they allowed in. We have been without this for the majority of our full year-and-a-half of marriage and is always a plus when we see this feature.

All in all, a great way to spend our Saturday. These homes were beautiful! We are glad that others will be living in a few of them and not us, but, I'm sure that others will feel the same about the house that we will eventually build. It will be ours and we will be happy with it.

Of Sodas and Government

I read an article in the Herald Journal from this last Saturday that got me thinking about the government and the influence it has in my life. The title of the article was "Studies firmly tie sugary drinks to obesity." Some may be wondering how on earth these two topics are even related. I will elaborate.

The article begins:

New research powerfully strengthens the case against soda and other sugary drinks as culprits of the obesity epidemic.

A huge, decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans has yielded the first clear proof that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person's risk of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone.

This means that such drinks are especially harmful to people with genes that predispose them to weight gain. And most of us have at least some of these genes.

My first reaction to the article was irritation and frustration. This stems from the fact that I know that Michelle Obama has made it her own personal crusade to take on childhood obesity. This is noble and good. That idea in and of itself is not something that I will sneer at. My problem comes from the way that Mrs. Obama and other government officials seem to be going about dealing with obesity in the nation in general. The government, in many different instances, is now reaching into the affairs and lives of people and telling us what we can and cannot do in areas that I think they have no business regulating and touching. For example, in New York, there are now restrictions on the sizes of sodas that one can purchase in restaurants, at theaters, and stadiums. The article that I read went on:

[The studies add] weight to the push for taxes, portion limits like the one just adopted in New York City, and other policies to curb the consumption of soda, juice drinks and sports beverages sweetened with sugar.

Is this really the only answer to this problem? More regulations? I submit that this is not the only answer. To me, the idea of more regulation on what we eat is insulting. It seems to me, that many of our leaders seem to think that the American people are too stupid or foolish to be able to change or govern themselves. So, they step in and try to force us, through laws and regulations, to do the things that they think are best for us. While they mean well, I am sorry, but, BUTT OUT! I don't need to be regulated on my soda consumption. As it is, it is a treat for myself. I don't drink soda on a regular basis. I know a number of individuals who need their Coke or Pepsi to get themselves going every day. For me, it is a treat that I enjoy on occasion or when I feel like it. But, I am also capable of telling myself no. If I did have a weight problem (and my wife will be the first to tell you that I don't), I would stop buying sodas and other things that would be contributing to said problem. I know that there are many people who are not able to do so, but there are also many of us who are capable of and do practice self-restraint. I do not feel that it is fair to inconvenience us because some people never learned to tell themselves no.

I also have a few questions to ask the researchers and the writer of this article. They claim that they have had proof that sugary drinks "[amplify] a person's risk of obesity." How much does a person have to be drinking to get this kind of amplification? How many of these drinks were their test subjects drinking? Also, this article and others often say that the obesity rate has constantly been on the rise since [insert year]. While I won't debate the fact that this is more than likely true, I would like to point out that the measurements or requirements for obesity have changed over the years. A report from 1997, for example, would not include certain people that today would be classified as obese. Now, I do not know all of the exact specifics regarding this point, but I do wonder, what would be the obesity rate if it were calculated with the same standards as these other reports that people say that we have more than doubled.

Oh, and the supposed light at the end of the tunnel that the article tries to give me?

Soda lovers do get some good news: Sugar-free drinks did not raise the risk of obesity in these studies.

Gag! I don't care how many people claim it, I don't care how many commercials  try to convince me of this, artificial sweeteners give diet drinks the most atrocious and disgusting aftertaste that enjoying my soda is for all intents and purposes impossible.

I think that the best way to sum this up is a slight modification of a quote that I am fond of:

"...Teach [me] correct principles and [I will] govern [myself]."

A New Journey

I have been attending a seminar for the past two weeks called Power 90, done by a company called Outlook Development. It is meant to be a "Success Attainment System." One of the main aspects of this program focuses on the fact that your beliefs determine your actions. If you can get down to your root beliefs and remove the undesirable ones and then replace them with the beliefs that you want to base your life on you will be able to transform yourself into the person you desire to become. I know, this sounds so simple. But how does one go about doing these things?

The first problem is nailing down the actual belief that is causing the actions and results that you want to change in your life. Once you've done this, you need to decide that you truly don't want to hold on to this belief any more. What then? At this point, you have decided to remove this old and limiting (or even destructive) belief. Just ridding yourself of this belief is not enough. You must replace it with a new belief, so that the old belief cannot return. But, just as with the plants my wife and I have been growing this summer, when you bring in a new belief or plant to put into the place of something else, you have to tend to it quite a bit at first to make sure it settles in well. Even then, it may be a bit of an adjustment and might look like it won't quite take. Continue giving it the care and support it needs and you may be surprised to see how well that new plant or belief does. In the case of the new belief, you may be surprised how good it feels to have a new positive belief, or, better yet, how great it feels to live that new belief.

One of the ways to support and nurture a new belief is to create what Outlook refers to as momentums. As Newton so clearly explained:  "Every object in ... motion tends to remain in ... motion unless an external force is applied to it." Momentums are basically things that can be done to help solidify and entrench this new belief into the very fiber of your being. This belief just becomes part of you and now positively affects the way you live your life.

I could talk so much more about what I am learning, but it would begin to drag on. To finish this entry, this program teaches how to examine many things in life and to change those you desire to change. It helps in building a support network and creating the motivation to be accountable to yourself and those you have invited to help you in changing your life for the better. I am actually enjoying what I have experienced so far and am very much looking forward to what I will yet get to do.