Monthly Archives: May 2008

Sunday Thoughts

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One thing we talked about during branch conference was the word try. We discussed how the word implies failure. I had never really thought about it like that before. I completely see it though, especially when talking in the past tense. For example, I try to write every day. We could say instead I will write most days or that I do write most days.

We also talked about obedience and the levels of obedience. Something like good, better, best, there are different levels of obeying what we are told. My brain has already shut off for the night, so I can’t think straight any longer. Long story short, are we submitting our will to obey our Lord?

Things went fairly well today. I could have used more real work to do, but we got some things done in the office like putting up blinds and cleaning up the shop. I added some stuff to the store and we had some good sales as long as they are legit. The summer is starting to come together, we just need to be working on our long term marketing. Sometimes it seems so clear and then other times it seems hard to see the end of the tunnel.

Dinner at the Rodriguez’s new beautiful home was good. We’ve been doing a lot of talking lately about adding more classes. I can’t seem to get anyone called to teach them so it’s just been a lot of talk and no action.

I’m looking forward to going out and seeing more houses tomorrow. Angela explained that some of the ones I flagged need lots of help or look nothing like the pictures. It is really looking like I’m going to be at the top end of my range with high property taxes as well, so I may be seeing how tight I can stretch the budget. Maybe I’ll be looking for some roommates to help cover my costs! I keep thinking of the nightmare it is going to be for me to move and then realize that is barely even a fraction of what most people must go through. I don’t understand how some people do it so often!

Disneyland & House Hunting

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I’ve gotten behind again. There were some late nights when I didn’t think I had the time to write, and then there was just the laziness and getting wrapped up in having to watch TV constantly instead of actually being productive with the time which I have been given.

Disneyland on Thursday was fun with Ashley and Lauren. I couldn’t figure out where I knew her friend Lauren from and then it finally hit me as I was driving home. I met her the night Maegan dragged me to the night at the Oscar’s event in Vista. Lauren and Maegan were hanging out together, and I even believe I spent a good portion of the evening holding her purse. In any event, we had fun. Lauren hadn’t been there in six years and had never been on Tower of Terror. Ashley didn’t want to go, but we forced her into it. We actually were able to walk right onto Tower of Terror which I have never done before – like literally right into the library and then from there to an elevator! Lauren loved it, so we went again while Ashley recovered.

We met up with Tara and some of her friends, then the girls (Ashley and Lauren) left and Batch joined us. Batch and I went to Cheesecake where I had the best orange chicken I have ever had in my life! Tara and David got lost in the two blocks from Disneyland to The Cheesecake Factory, so it ended up just being Batch and I. It was after 10 when we got out of there. I had to talk my way out of the parking garage because I was over the free time by one minute. I tried to explain to the parking lot attendant that if there wasn’t a huge line of cars to get out, I would have been fine. He didn’t like that idea so I demanded to speak with a manager. After it was made clear that I wasn’t going anywhere but forward, he decided to let me through.

Things got crazy in the office on Friday. I don’t remember what exactly now, but I remember being busy which is abnormal for a Friday. I had a real estate agent call and check up on me and we decided to go out and look at houses this week. I got pre-approved for the loan today so when I find the right house I’m that much closer! We looked at a few out in French Valley today. I explained to Angela that I’m not really interested in living out there, I just like the Veranda Model 4. There are a couple great looking (from the web) homes out there, some of which just seem too good to be true and therefore probably are.

The ham radio class went about as expected on Saturday. Nobody was there when it was supposed to start. As Jeff and I were talking and packing things up, a father and son showed up. We spoke for probably a half hour about some of the basics before we sent him on his way and scheduled a new date for a class and exam.

Since I had some time on my hands Saturday morning, I decided to try and nail down exactly what it is that I like so much about Veranda model four. I think it really comes down to the kitchen and the laundry room. It might really just be the laundry room! I love that place! I guess I like the way it feels from the street as well and how much room there seems to be in the kitchen and the layout there. I also looked at the big development at the NE corner of Clinton Keith and I-15. I didn’t really like much there. I did find the KB Home development, Monticello II to be nice and liked the model four they have, but am thinking there are some better deals out there on resales.

I’ll have to get caught up on Sunday and such tomorrow. Good night!

Up Too Early

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I got myself up way too early this morning. Actually, I was awake at like 5 and had a hard time staying in bed till 6. I thought about getting up and getting going before 6, but knew it was only going to cause problems somewhere along the line. Chances are, I would have wasted it on facebook or something stupid all morning anyway. Work went well and since I was the first one there, I thought it only fair that I got to be the first one to leave.

I came home early and went for a bike ride. I wasn’t really feeling up to it, but knew I really needed it. I’m still trying to work off the pounds I put on when we were back in Minneapolis last month. I guess that really means I need to stop eating, and that certainly didn’t happen with the slice of cake I had tonight! I did feel much better after the ride, I just need to work on doing them more regularly!

Looks like more of the same tomorrow. I’m taking Thursday off and headed to Disneyland for anyone that wants to join.

P.S. I was watching some of the CMT Country Music Awards while getting ready for bed and I must say I am looking forward to having Brad Paisley back in town soon

Goals and Practicing What You Preach

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We talked tonight at FHE about setting goals. It was said that a goal not written down is just a wish or hope. I think I’ve long known this is one of my problems. I think I’m afraid to set goals because I am afraid to not measure up to them. I know that we have to set measurable and attainable goals, and further that they need to be challenging enough to motivate and yet not so challenging that they seem unreachable. Or maybe I am afraid of actually letting my dreams come true and obtaining my goals.

I was pondering this morning what I need to do to better practice what I preach. This could probably help me become a better teacher. I know at the office I could probably show more work ethic while still trying to keep things light. Outside of work, I’m not sure how to be better off the bat. I’m sure there is room to improve and maybe that just means opening my mouth more instead of always letting someone else do the talking.

Work went fairly well today. I’ve been doing really good lately at staying on top of my email and my to do list. I have been checking things off like mad which is great. I love leaving with the sense of accomplishment for the day instead of thinking of all the things I need to get done the next day. Of course, I also love being stressed with tons of work and would rather have a busy day than a quiet day at the office. I guess that is where a nice mixture comes in.

Good Week

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So, I haven’t written in almost a week. I got back into the trap of telling myself that nothing interesting happened during the day, so there was nothing to bore everyone with writing instead of finding something good to write about. In any event, the past week went well. Business was fairly good, nothing major, but we had a good number of smaller orders and were able to clear some stock out of inventory which is like cash in the bank practically. I noticed that I was pretty antsy most of the week, which I attribute to not getting enough exercise lately. I’ve just been having problems sitting still and focusing, especially later in the day.

I was planning on going for a ride Saturday evening. Just as I was getting ready to go I got a phone call that someone didn’t show at GT. We’re not sure where the communication broke down, but I drove down there to get a wedding going. They probably could have done it without me, but I didn’t want us to be the reason to holdup a wedding.

We had a good discussion tonight at the Dowden’s. I can’t remember anything concretely enough to write it down, but there is some interesting pondering I need to do.

Cell Tower at Fallbrook Sports Park

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Maybe I don’t know how to use Google or something. I can’t seem to find anything about the new cell tower at the Fallbrook Sports Park, near the Air Park and Fallbrook High School. Neither my Sprint nor Verizon phone’s seem to know anything about it,  yet that could be due to not receiving the latest PRL update or the site not actually being online yet. It’s not like anyone could miss the thing with it’s bright flashing white light on the top and being so prominently placed to where everyone passing by can see it… I’m sure I could dig through the FCC database to figure out who owns it; I’m just not sure if I really care that much. Does anyone have a clue who this belongs to, and really, what network it is for?

Adjusting to the Quiet

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I still don’t think I’m adjusting well to things being slower at work. Its like I sit around waiting for something to happen instead of really getting into a project and working on it until I am done. I just know how to handle myself better when I have to multi task I guess than when I have time to think about what to work on. Maybe it is just that I have more time to do things that I’m not used to doing or that I don’t really want to do.

In any event, I made it through the day and even stayed late at work putting some product online (ZX3, ZXA5, Eliminator Series). I’m working on rounding up our offerings online as there are so many gaps in existing product lines that it amazes me. And yes, I want to go to Maui, so the more EV we put up, hopefully the higher chance that we will sell more of their stuff and earn more trips! I really wish I could figure out how to sell some of the bigger ticket items online instead of having our sales be dominated with low ticket price items. Maybe it is an establishment thing and once we are a bit more established we will see more sales in total and more of higher dollar items. It’s just hard to sell ourselves on a webpage…

FHE was interesting tonight. Mike did a good job bringing a lesson together at the last minute and it was interesting to talk about how we are saved. I think the short story was by grace after all that we do (works). I must admit I was busy text messaging during most of it.

Zach and I worked on getting some home teaching stuff nailed down tonight and have some more work to do, as we always will.

Elder Nelson Encourages Young Adults to Embrace Worthy Music

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Mormontimes:

PROVO, Utah – Young adults need to value the power of worthy and uplifting music and “delete the rubbish from your minds and your iPods,” said Elder Russell M. Nelson at the Church Educational System fireside on Sunday. Elder Nelson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said that “music provides power for us to express prayerful thoughts and bear testimony of sacred truths.”

May I just quickly add my testimony to what is said here, and what was said last night. Music can have a tremendous impact on all of our lives. Everything from as simple as the tempo of the song affecting our mood to the lyrics of the music subconsciously motivating us to do things (maybe not quite on that level, but pretty seriously at times). Many stores and restaurants put a lot of time and effort into choosing the right music to create the appropriate atmosphere for their customers. Some restaurants choose more upbeat music at lunch to get customers in and out and then later in the day switch to something more soothing for those coming in after a long day at work. Stores want to play music which will keep you in the store, slow you down and cause you to look at items and ideally purchase. There is a whole science to it which is pretty incredible.

In any event, we tend to do what we think. Rather, we act on the thoughts we develop. The music we listen to can and will foster the thoughts that will lead to our actions. It may not be an immediate impact, yet it will impact us all over time. I have struggled with choosing appropriate music, and have even learned that there are times when no music is needed. I used to surround myself constantly with music and discovered that I had no time to think. If I was listening to the music, I would be thinking in tune with the songs lyrics instead of pondering  those things which I need to put my own thoughts into.

I’ve totally gotten off subject here, let me see if I can bring any level of sanity back into this. Take a step back and look at the effect that music has on your life. Consider the lyrics of the songs you are listening to, their intentions and motivations. If they are not uplifting, maybe you should consider if they have any positive impact in your life. I’m not saying we need to listen to church hymns all day long. On the other hand, I think we need to remember what’s good, what’s better and what is ultimately best.

Getting Comfortable, Things to Look for in Marriage

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We had a pretty good fast & testimony meeting today. Impressively, we even ended on time! There was a lot of pretty powerful messages shared and inspiration throughout the day of continuing to do better. Zach told a story of a student who was struggling in school. When his teacher read the comments of teachers previously, she learned that he used to be at the top of his class, but the death of his mother made him fall behind. She was able to really begin teaching the student and turn things around for him. We talked in branch council about not being comfortable with where we are, what we are doing and the church in general. Brother Kowallis said that when he was growing up he was not allowed to use the word can’t. He says that the word his kids won’t be able to say is comfortable. I realized during branch council that I have gotten too comfortable in the church, in the branch, in my callings. I haven’t been looking for ways to improve and have just been coasting along. I need to change that as I know in some ways I have not been pushing forward, but have instead by slipping backward at times and in some places. I haven’t been attending as many of the activities lately, and probably haven’t been giving my support to those in the branch as much as I could. I know that I haven’t been very good at meeting new people and lifting them. I hope that I can work on this and that once I get a place in Murrieta some of these things (attending activities) can become easier.

We also talked about adding some more courses this summer. I think we’re going to add a Teaching the Gospel Course and make the Marriage and Family relations course a weekly option. We talked about changing the name of the marriage class to just Family Relations or Communication something or other as it seems the word marriage scares people away. I’ve learned a lot in that class in the past and think it is hugely important for us all to learn as much as we can about communication because almost all of us are failing in one way or another. I’m looking forward to both classes and just need to work on finding some teachers.

We seem to have been talking a lot lately about marriage. Tara (Tata) was trying to convince me the other day that if I don’t have a date on Friday night, I should be at the singles dance as I need to get married. Batch was like wo, let’s work on courtship and dating first! So true! In any event, Sister Dowden had a blog on it the other day and it has just generally been on my mind a lot lately. I’m clearly still working on being the right person and figuring out exactly who that is going to be.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about my list – that Sister Rodriguez got me started on. I really haven’t been able to come up with much and yet I remember talking with Tara about this on the way back from the DR in November. These are the things that I’ve come up with over the weeks:

  • Musically inclined, a.k.a. can play the piano. I think one of us needs to be able to inspire and teach our children to love, understand and ideally be able to play music.
  • Faithful. Of course she needs to be faithful.
  • Follow leadership. This is a big one that is hard to put into words. No one should be overly submissive, yet we all need to obey the words of wisdom and commandments that are given to us. It was said recently that the number one reason we should have food storage is obedience to our prophet. That is a great example. Another common one is that of the limit of one pair of earrings. It was said, we should obey.
  • Communication. Since communication is the number one problem I believe everywhere, she/we need to be good in this area. Most of our time will be spent in communication of some sort, so we will need to be able to carry on a good conversation as well as be ready to work out our problems or concerns as they arise instead of bottling them up.
  • Outgoing. Someone with whom we could make a great team and accomplish goals. I don’t mean that she has to be a cheerleader, just that she won’t be so much of an introvert that we sit at home talking about all the great things we could be doing instead of getting out there and doing them.
  • Smart. Of course blondes are fun, but we need to be reasonable and make sure the job gets done. (I’m not trying to say anything bad against blondes or state any preference here, just going for some light humor.) On that subject, she should be:
  • Frugal. It’s great to go out and have fun, spend money where it is needed, but we also need to agree on when it is time to stop. We need to live within a budget and agree on expenditures. We can’t go buy diamond rings and a great home theater system in the same week. A lot of this comes back to communication too, yet this one is more focused on if she is constantly needing the latest expensive item. At the same point, she should be OK with nice things and not be a total cheapskate.

I discovered one more today. We should have a similar view of the Sabbath, church attendance and what is appropriate to be done, i.e. how we should spend our time. In my mind, the whole day belongs to the Lord (actually, all of our time does). On Sunday, we should not complain about church meetings and extra things when we really have nothing better to be doing. I’m not pushing to be in church from 9 a.m. to midnight, but if the Church is going to go to the effort of producing a fireside and bringing it to us, we should make the time to watch it instead of playing games. This is a matter of good, better and best and I think we should be doing the best possible at all times. I have nothing against those that are doing good, I’m just stating my opinion and desire for that daughter that I would want to marry.

I’m sure there are more things that I am missing. Any ideas?

Well, it’s late, so I should stop here.

Slacking on the Writing

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OK, so I haven’t been writing much this week. In part, there hasn’t been much to write. I also know that is just an excuse and there is always something to write about. That’s what forcing yourself to write every night will teach you: to make something up if nothing really happened. No, that’s not true. Something always happens, even on the most routine of days. The problem is typically that I’m not willing to take the time some nights to actually figure out what interesting things happened during a day that I’m calling boring.

It was an interesting week with it being a short week in the office for me since I took off Monday. I was fairly busy all of the week, but it still hasn’t been the busy like I’m used to. Looking at the financials, our sales are definitely down and we need to come up with a plan to turn that around. We’ve been working on quoting a bunch of things, but quotes don’t pay the bills.

I’ve been looking at houses on redfin and have found a few that might have some potential. Actually, there was a fire in Murrieta behind one of them today! I was looking at satellite imagery of where a brush fire was and thought I recognized one of the houses/lots. Sure enough, it was one I had looked at. (The house wasn’t on fire, just some brush in a nearby greenbelt.) I’m thinking in the next few weeks I will work on getting prequalified for a loan and then maybe go look at some houses. I’m ready to get moving on this project. Of course, I’m a little cautioned by the drop at work, but I have faith that  it will work out – we just need to retool and push forward.

I didn’t make it to Disneyland on Friday with Lauren and her gang as was planned Thursday night. When I got into the office (to take care of the funds transfer for payroll), I ended up having to deal with WaMu for more than a half hour as they wouldn’t let me do a transfer between my accounts. I also found that Paychex had tried to debit our account when there were no funds in there, the idea behind the account, for something they shouldn’t have been charging us for. To their surprise, the transaction was returned and we were charged for a NSF transaction. After getting the ball rolling with that and getting payroll squared away, it wasn’t going to be worth the drive to Disneyland since I had to be back for a wedding that afternoon. Tara was trying to get me to go out and do something instead of staying at work. We couldn’t come up with anything and I actually was able to be somewhat productive in the office. Tata had suggested taking Mandi (as she was the only one she knew of who had the day off) to the beach, the zoo, the mall, etc, yet none of them sounded all that appealing.

Thursday, Tata was trying to convince me that I needed to get my act in gear and get married. She said that if I didn’t have a date on Friday night, I should be at the single’s dance. I tried to explain that the whole dance thing just wasn’t going to happen, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. I finally got off the hook by telling her that if she got me out of the wedding, I would come up with a date for date (Friday) night. Fortunately, she didn’t come up with someone to work a wedding, so I didn’t have to come up with a date and was able to enjoy a nice quiet evening at home. I really do enjoy quiet evenings at home by myself probably a bit too much.

Today I watched too much TV. So much in fact that my DVR started at 99% full and when I finished I think it was close to 30%! It helped that I was able to delete a bunch of programming with only watching a few minutes of it to figure out that I had already seen the episodes. This evening I watched 1408, a movie about a haunted hotel room. It was fairly interesting, I’d give it 3/5 stars and while not really scary, it kept my interest, which can be hard after a day of watching TV already. I keep thinking that I need to watch less TV and spend more time reading, but I haven’t put that plan into action yet. Heck, I haven’t even seen, heard or read the Sunday sessions of conference from a month ago now!

The New Delta, Merging With Northwest Airlines Makes It The World’s Largest Carrier

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Delta and the other large carriers need to get off their large rear ends and figure out the reason why they can’t make any money is because they don’t have an effective plan in place. I finally figured this out when I was one of 11 people on board a 737 from SLC to JFK a few months ago. We got off the plane to transfer to another. The flight we transferred to was on the same plane we just deboarded from and we didn’t leave for four hours. Now, I realize that you can’t have flights at all hours of the day, and they can’t all be fully stocked, but this was in early morning when I believe the demand for flights is fairly high.  Southwest would never leave a plane sitting on the ground for that long. They could also examine this stupid standby policy and realize that the incremental revenue from one customer getting on the plane is infinitely greater than the incremental cost of that customer.

The New Delta, Merging With Northwest Airlines Makes It The World’s Largest Carrier
Also, I think we have to keep in mind that as long as the government doesn’t go messing everything up, economics will rule as long as their is enough compeition. I think there is more than enough now, so a few mergers shouldn’t hurt. Companies like SouthWest and JetBlue are the ones that are going to win when Delta tries to double their airfares thinking they won’t have any competition.

For the record, the only reason I don’t fly Southwest and JetBlue more often is because of either their timing of flights or lack of direct flights. JetBlue seems to have flights at the opposite end of the day from when I want one and it seems with Southwest you can’t go anywhere without going through a hub in Vegas or Phoenix which triples the flight time!

Calzone

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Christa came by the office this afternoon. We (plus Batch) ended up going to dinner to get a chocolate chip calzone. Brooke Wojo ended up being there and caught me, called me and I went and chatted with her and later made her come help me finish off my calzone. She was reluctant at first, but once she had a bite, she was hooked and had no problems cleaning of the plate.

We had a great Institute lesson tonight on the temple. Maegan talked me into going to dinner with her and Larilyn after, so we decided to try Mega Tom’s, where Kels works. They said it was alright. i was still full from the calzone, so I didn’t eat anything.