Changing the world, one glorious cup of coffee at a time

My job is not glamorous, it doesn't pay that well, but it is a job. For that I am grateful. This job has really been my first job outside of the medical community. I have worked in doctor's offices and hospitals for years and years and felt extremely comfortable there. I wondered why that was.

Then, as I began the Spring Cleaning of the office where I work ( because there is nothing to do... feast or famine and it's famine right now.... and because I work with 9 men who don't really clean up after themselves or bother to put most things away....) I realized I liked working in the medical setting because I felt I was helping people. I was making a difference in some small way. As a phlebotomist I took people's blood. They, at times, were not particularly happy about it, but if it helped them find out what was wrong, or why they were sick, then, that was a good thing.

But here, I don't really feel that i make a difference. I am an administrative assistant ( though it should be executive assistant). I work at a think tank that is a "privately funded, NGO" but I pretty much found out yesterday that the NGO part is BS, ( this isn't relelvant, I'm just adding volume here.....) Anyway we do research, create policy, and try to educate the public about it. I hope that what we do is helpful to someone. I would assume that increasing security technology at ports, subways, and at airports, etc. will help us all at some point. Or, that if enough commercial trucking companies will switch over to Dimethyl ether powered trucks, the environment will be saved and instances of regional lung cancer will decrease..... but I don't see the results of these things. I see no improvement in the world around me as a result of my work.

Except in one thing. The coffee room. We have a small kitchen in the office. There's a big conference table in it and my co-workers dump things there, or leave things there, or make a mess with their coffee there. There are huge boxes of styrofoam cups and 3 i don't know how old boxes of domino sugar packets... but I had the boss buy me a shelf, set it up and went to work cleaning the kitchen.

It is a beautiful, sparkling clean room now. I arranged all the coffee stuff and the tea etc. neatly in this shelf. I cleaned off the table. It looks great. Everyone here at work was amazed and thanked me profoudly. They were so excited about how easy and nice it would be for them to make their coffee now.

So- my contribution to the world is not healing, it is not even really researching or planning good conferences. My contribution to the world is making it easier for the coffee addicts around me to get their coffee. Am I gonna get ex-communicated for this? I hope not.

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It's About Time the Queen Started Pulling Her Weight

It was August 2004 at the USANA amphlitheatre in West Valley. Through the hot summer air came the honey sweet voice, "...sex bomb, sex bomb, you're my sex bomb, and baby you can turn me on." It was the one and only, the now SIR Tom Jones, and I was on the front row along with hundreds of women of all ages (45 and up that is) who were throwing their underware on the stage. For most singer geniuses that would be recognition enough, but not for sir Tom, he deserved more, and now he's finally gotten the respect that he deserves. It's not unusual sir Tom, it's not unusual at all.

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An unhealthy fixation on Mormon elite?

I’ve always felt like as Mormons we have sort of an unhealthy fascination with those of our brothers and sisters who have “made it big”. Today in property, upon seeing the famous Mormons website appear on someone's computer screen, I started wondering if other religions’ followers have the same fascination with their "elite". Is there a “Famous Southern Baptists” website, or a www.famousbuddhists.net? Finish reading post.

I conducted a Google search “Famous [Insert religion’s adjective]” to see what popped up. Below I have the religion, if such a website existed, and how many hits the exact phrase returned. Frankly, my suspicions were confirmed. I excuse the Muslims, Catholics, and Jews because their religions have been around forever. Your bound to have a few winners every 100 years or so. There are 15,400 websites containing the phrase “Famous Mormons”:
Mormons – Yes – 15,400
Baptists – Yes – 401
Lutherans – Yes – 698
Adventists – Yes – 207
Methodists – Yes – 177
Evangelists – Yes – 652
Jehovah’s Witnesses – Yes – 470
Jews – Yes (Complete with interactive home page) – 64,000
Catholics – Yes – 12,600
Hindus – Yes – 242
Muslims – Yes – 20,000
Eastern Orthodox – Yes – 63
Buddhists – Yes – 308
Christian Scientists – Yes - 191

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Ich Liebe Deutschland

The world is now a better place

'99 Red Balloons' Video to Air for an Hour
Friday March 24 11:10 AM ET

They're kidding, right?

VH1 Classic will present a full hour of the English and German music videos for the 1984 hit "99 Luftballons," aka "99 Red Balloons," by German rock group Nena.

The music video presentation, to air Sunday (2 p.m. EST), caps off the cable channel's "Pay to Play for Hurricane Katrina Relief," which raised over $200,000 for Mercy Corps, a humanitarian relief organization.

Viewers could request one video to be played on VH1 Classic for every $25 donation. For a $35,000 donation, they could select an hour's worth of music videos from the 1960s through the early 1990s.

However, one viewer chose something different for his allotted hour, requesting continuous playing of "99 Luftballons," said VH1 spokeswoman Maura Wozniak.

"99 Luftballons" is a Cold-War era protest song that tells the story of 99 red balloons floating into the air, triggering an apocalypse when the military sends planes to intercept them.

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Law School Has Made Me a Drooling Idiot

Dutifully, I read what I'm supposed to read to get ready for class everyday. I highlight. I write notes in the margins. I spend a lot of time doing this.

Less than a year ago I was a intellectually curious fellow. I read lots of different things and then I thought about those things after I read them. Not so any more. Law school has sucked away that deep resivior of curiosity-juice I used to enjoy so much. I realized this today when I skipped over something in my contracts case book that the non-law-school-me would've loved to read, something I may have even read for fun. The reason I skipped it was not because I didn't think it would be interesting; no, no - it was pure pragmatism: there was no chance I was going to be called on and there was no chance it would be on the test.

How did I become this person who could care less about the ideas and philosophy behind things? How is it that I now drool over ridiculous things like "collatteral estoppel," "the statute of frauds" and.....................best of all..............."the rule against perpetuities"? The world is a funny place.

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LDS lbs: Do Mormon newlywed men gain weight due to less sexual tension?

So here's a theory I've been thinking about lately, and sciencey people out there might be able to help me explain it. I have noticed that, at least among people I know, when LDS guys get married they tend to gain weight. At first I thought that it was just the settling down that made them less active, but then I thought about it and I realized that most of my friends weren't really that active before marriage anyway. Actually, most of them started working out more after marriage (maybe because they noticed they were gaining weight, chicken or the egg right?). My wife has suggested that maybe it has to do with the diet of newlyweds, we tend to eat whatever is fast and easy, which isn't the most healthy. She also suggested that it has to do with the fact that there are only two of us to eat whole meals and when we were at home there was the whole family spread the calories around.

So Saturday I am playing in a ward basketball game against the singles ward in our stake and I noticed that they seemed super aggrassive compared to our team. I started to think that maybe there is some sort of sexual tension factor in that and I connected it to the weight gain question too. I know I feel a lot more laid back being married, without the stress of dating and all. Is there some kind of relation between sex drive and the metabolism? Do non-LDS people also gain a lot of weight when they get married? Does this happen to women too? Anyone have any insights that either support or cut down this theory? I have noticed that with a lot of diseases and drug side effects lower sex drive and weight gain go together.

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"Really?" Thoughts on the Church's new statement on political parties

The LDS Church has long held tight to the idea that its a politically neutral organization, though, at least for me, this has always seemed like somewhat of a sham. Given the upcoming election season, I guess, it seems the Church has changed its tune a little this year. In a statement read over the pulpit last Sunday, the First Presidency urged people away from political inactivity and then stated the following: "Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in the platforms of all major political parties."

Wow! Did that say what I think it said? Or am I just reading too much into it? Personally, I'm not too optimistic about it. Besides providing an extra stone in the sling of the tens of Mormons who claim to be Democrats, I doubt it'll make any difference. Do Mormons really vote Republican because the Church "tells" them to, or do they vote that way because they are, for the most part, white and middle-class? But really, who cares about my opinion? What do you loyal bloggers think about the news?

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Smart School Sports Pranks

This is brilliant



This one was great too

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