HR Conference

Tomorrow I am going to a conference up in Salt Lake for the Society of Human Resource Management, of which I am a memeber. We will discuss important and boring HR issues such as current employment law and strategic planning. I've got a lot to get finished before I go so I'm going to stop writing in my blog and get to it. Ready...go.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

So I read this back in July but am just getting to post it now. It still hurts...

It is with a heavy heart that I write this review. What went wrong? Why this feeling of emptiness, disappointment, malcontent? Perhaps nothing could live up to the expectations I had for this book, an expectation caused by two years of eager anticipation. Reading it was like seeing the Cubs disintegrate after the Bartman debacle all over again.

I should make it known that I'm a huge Harry Potter fan (despite the constant urges it gives me to practice witchcraft and sorcery), I even wrote my own book 6 because I couldn't stand waiting for the real one. You can see it here if you want. I think that's the problem--I had thought about it so much that I had enormous expectations and was dissapointed when I saw how it turned out. I have more specific gripes about it, but I don't have the heart to go over them. They are here if you care to read them, post #44.

Anyways, HBP is a good book but it didn't do it for me. By all means check it out. Don't NOT read it because of my review. Me? I'm going to go get a new hobby.

I give it a 7/10.

The Weekend

This weekend we went to Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane with some friends. None of us had ever been there, but we had heard it was fun so we went on faith. It was awesome--picturesque, not too hot, water not too cool, and me and Nick Sidwell went cliff-diving. I really shouldn't have, as I sprained my ankle on Labor Day and had fallen on some rocks on the way to Sand Hollow, cut open my hand and almost broke my thumb. Mmmmm....But I did it anyway. I love cliff jumping...

Sand Hollow reminded me a lot of Lake Powell, another one of my favorite spots in the world, except that it was much smaller, not as crowded, and the water was a much healthier color. I'll get some pic's up later.

Book Review: Post Captain

My latest read is Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian. Remember the movie Master and Commander with Russel Crowe? That was the film adaptation of 2 or 3 Patrick O'Brian books. There's 20 total (not counting #21, which was being written when O'Brian died) and they are very good reads. It's amazing--half the time I don't even know what's going on in the books as they are filled with nautical jargon (booms, pulleys, yards, top-gallants, royals, etc), yet somehow I'm enthralled with it all the same. At first this worried me, until my step-dad Jim (who is a big sailor himself and was the one who recommended the books to me in the first place) told me he doesn't understand most of it either.

The books take place in the early 19th century during the Napoleonic wars and center around the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon friend Dr. Stephen Maturin. I don't feel like writing a summary, so go check the book out yourself. I'd recommend starting with Master and Commander first though.

I give it an 8/10.

I'm officially an old man.

Remember being a kid and hearing your parents and grandparents say, "When I was your age, gasoline only cost 25 cents a gallon!" and you realized that, perhaps 50 or 60 years in the future, you would be saying the same thing to a similarly ignorant and uninterested kid?
Well, that moment has come about 30 years early for me. The other day Amy and I were driving home from work when we passed a gas station posting $2.99 per gallon and I said, "Man, when I was in high school gas was only $1.10!" I then realized that by saying this I had unwittingly come one step closer to becoming an elderly man (at least in mind-set), as I already think teenagers today dress stupid, have despicable music, and are much more superficial and directionless than I was as at their age. All I need now is to hike up my trousers and get an indescribable urge to move to St. George...

Dancing

First there was the enigmatic All Your Base Are Belong to Us. Next came the hefty hillarity of the Star Wars kid. Then the Numa Numa dance came on the scene and revolutionalized the way we look at fat kids with a computer camera and too much time on their hands. Just when I thought the internet couldn't possibly provide another nugget of joy of this caliber, I come across Matt Harding's Dancing. Go see it.


Now here's a guy who has life figured out.

Trip to England

Our trip was actually back in July but I'm working on getting it up now. I should have a new one each day.

The weekend

This weekend we drove up to Salt Lake for a reunion with some of Amy's high school friends. She had a good time and I was happy for her. For me, on the other hand, the experience can best be described by this cartoon.

We also did a yard sale with my mum and looked at cars. The end.

Hiring Your Own Boss

Slowly trudging out of the swamp. I've brought on an assistant, a beast of a nice guy named Layne, and things are progressing nicely. We're almost on top of things. You ever notice how the people who are always going off about how busy they are usually waste large amounts of time telling people how busy they are--and not working? Well, I've realized that I'm one of them.

Anyways, one of the biggest jobs I'm working on is an HR Director. My job being part of the future HR department, I am in the unique and fascinating position of being able to choose my own boss. It's pretty fun.

Swamped.

Ouch. This has been a tough week. I'm working on about 12 jobs right now, not to mention turnover reports, exit interviews, and trying to set up a buddy at work on a blind date.

My job can get stressful at times. Usually when people call me up to fill a position they need someone right away, so if I don't find someone soon they tend to get a little...impatient. It's like they think they're ordering a pizza or something: "Ok, we'd like a commercial lines csr with 10 years experience and extra people skills. Put a college degree on that. No olives. You'll deliver in 30 minutes, right?"

I'm bringing on an assistant soon, so that'll help out. For now though I'm stressing.

Repentance

I've been a horrible blogger. Entire months have passed without a post. I've had pictures ready for weeks and haven't put them up because I'm too busy reading espn.com or playing games. I've been a bad person and a paltry excuse for a blogger.

Whew. That feels much better. The first step of repenting is confession, so thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest. Seriously though, I'll do better from now on. If I haven't posted at least once a week please send me hate mail until I update. I don't want this to end up like Derek's blog...

July 15- Westminster, the London Eye, and sleep.

So after a lengthy flight, an hour and a half in the passport line, and a quick train ride (that cost us $40), we arrive at Victoria station in downtown London. I can't tell you how excited I was. I just about flipped out when I realized we were riding over the Thames. I've been a fan of English Lit for some time, so for me coming to England is like a kid who loves Peter Pan finding himself on a trip to Never-Never Land. The accents, the double-decker buses, the quaint country side, it's all magic to me.

After a quick ride on the Underground we arrived at Baker Street Station. A 5 minute walk takes us past the fictional home of Sherlock Homes and Madame Tussauds wax museum and we arrive at Regent's College, our home for the next 2 weeks. Just a few minutes before arriving it started raining, a pleasant, light, Hawaiin-type mist. By the time we reached the college it was much harder, and we walked into the reception area completely wet, as illustrated in the adjoining picture. The man you see is Doug, an English professor in Colorado and one heck of a nice man.

I got to tell you, these Brits love their parks. Regent's College is placed, quite appropriately, in the middle of Regent's Park, an enormous stretch of open land that seems out of place in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world. Sure it's not uncommon for a city to have a gigantic park--New York has Central Park and Tokyo has Yoyogi Koen--but London has Regent's Park, Hyde Park, and Green Park all within a short distance.

One thing that immediately stood out to me was the diversity of London. I've never seen such a variety of people and cultures together. British, American, Middle-Easterners, Indians (you know, from India), Muslims with their head shawls, French, Germans, and other Europeans, you name it. It's awesome to see so many different people together.

Running on 4 hours of crappy airplane sleep, we then made our way to Westminster station for the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel that overlooks all of London. I guess "ferris wheel" isn't the right term, they call it a "Millenium observation wheel" because it sounds more sophisticated. Kind of like garbage men wanting to be called "Sanitation Engineers" or Hogi Yogi employees being called "Sandwich Artists". Anyways, here's some pics.

This is one of the compartments. They can fit about 30 people I think. Here's a group shot. I think this compartment may have been bigger than mine and Amy's first apartment...

View of Big Ben, Parliament, Thames.

Us.

This thing is GINORMOUS!

We spent most of the day in a stupor brought on from jet-lag and lack of sleep but were told to stay up as late as possible or it would mess up our schedule. Amy and I made a goal to stay up until 7:00. We made it to 6:30.

June 29th- Traveling

We left Cedar City around 3:30 in the morning and took a school van to Vegas. From there it was a 4 hour flight to Cincinnatti, a three hour layover, then another 10 hours to Gatwick airport south of London.

Long flights have never really bothered me and it wasn't too bad. I think Amy got a little bored though, as evidenced by this picture she took.

The in-flight movie from Las Vegas to Cincinnatti was Robots. The in-flight movies from Cincinnatti to London were Hitch and Robots. And sure enough, the in-flight movie coming back from London was...Robots. Not a bad movie, at least not the first time...

My new most favorite website

This is my new favorite website. At first it's just kind of weird, but after a while it grows on you (not unlike sushi, Napolean Dynamite, and George Costanza.) Check it out! Homestarrunner.com.

Thanks be to Mike Brady for telling me about it.

Another Conference!

I just got back from another conference. This one was for a sales program called Integrity Selling that we're introducing the producers to. It's a great program, heck, it even had me excited to sell insurance. Just for a bit. Not anymore. I'm too happy with my salaried, sit behind a desk and interview people job. It takes a special kind of person to be in sales, and I'm just not that special.

Anyways, the trip was really fun. We stayed at a place called Tuscany Suites, which was the ideal Las Vegas location: sunny, nice hotel, cool tropical landscaping, and far enough from the Strip that you're not racked with the usual disdain for mankind that typically accompanies a trip to Las Vegas. Sweet pool too.

I also got to see my brother Gabe and his girlfriend Shea, who have recently moved to Vegas. We don't see each other often so that was quite enjoyable.

RANT- Taking your anger out on the counter-lady

As I was sitting in my aforementioned stupor at the Las Vegas airport, I heard a ruckus at the gate next to me. This beautiful pic is of a man yelling at the Delta lady unfortunately stationed at said gate. Either his luggage got lost, his flight delayed, or, most probably, he is not happy with what he has become in life and is jumps at any opportunity to vent it on someone. You've seen people like this: chewing out waitresses at Denny's, swearing at little league umpires, raging at airport desk clerks. As if somehow it's that person's fault your steak is undercooked, your kid is an uncoordinated gimp, or they can alter the weather if you yell at them long enough.

Sometimes it's hard not to, I guess--like when your flight gets delayed, you're angry, there's no one else to vent it on and you know the poor desk person has to sit there and take your crap--but seriously, what good does it do? All it does is ruin someone else's day.

Anyways, I never heard this guy's reason, but he was really socking it to the poor Delta lady. Just before this picture was taken I heard him say, "I AM NOT DRUNK!!" in a defensive, angry tone that told you he probably was drunk. I apologize for the bad picture quality, but I had to turn the flash off for fear I would become the next target for his malcontent.

Flight Delay

So my flight was supposed to leave today after work. I am told that there is a delay and I will not be able to make my connection in Salt Lake (note to all travelers: expedia.com sucks). My first impulse is to take my frustrations out on the poor lady behind the counter (as is customary in our society, see following RANT), but I somehow manage to harness my anger and instead use it to think up other ways of getting to Boise by 7:00AM in the morning.

Turns out my only other option is to drive to St. George (45 min. away), catch the Las Vegas shuttle (3 hours away), and catch a midnight flight from Vegas to Boise and arive just in time for 31/2 hours of sleep before attending the career fair. Having no choice, I commondere a company car, the sporty Intrepid, and make my way to St. George.

This is a pick I got of myself at the Vegas airport (it has been dramatized to give you the full effect of how I am feeling on the inside).

Boise Trip

So I get to go to Boise tomorrow for a Career Fair at Boise State. I'm way excited; trips are just about the only time I get to eat out and watch sports on TV. Also I love to travel and it's been a while. I'm supposed to fly out of Cedar City after work tomorrow. I'll post some pics when I get back. Peace OUT.

Newspaper

Check it out. We made the front page of the Spectrum doing a career fair at SUU. That's my head in the background. The guy in front is Steve, a beast of a nice guy and one of our interns.

This article was on the front page. Must have been a slow news day in southern Utah...

Book Review: Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Just finished Hard Times. I'll post a review later.