Silent Monks Sing Hallelujah

Six years ago I posted this fun video for Christmas...and I figure it's time to bring it back to the front. Enjoy. :)

Book Review - Christmas Jars

Christmas Jars is an interesting mix between fiction, non-fiction, and inspirational story. The framework of the book centers around the life of a girl named Hope. We learn her story and follow her actions as we turn the pages. But the real story of the book is about the Christmas Jars and their impact on people and families.

We're introduced to Hope when she is found abandoned in a diner on New Years Eve. Her adoptive mother raises Hope without telling her the truth of her discovery for many years. Hope shows an extreme passion for writing and journalism. She works on family papers then school papers and eventually starts working for the city/regional paper at the bottom of the totem pole but with high hopes of a career as a world famous journalist. Then on Christmas Eve (and shortly after the death of her mother), Hope returns home to find herself the victim of an apartment robbery. That night, she also finds a large jar filled with money wishing her an anonymous Merry Christmas. As much as Hope appreciates the gift, the journalist in her takes over and she decides to solve the mystery of "who is the person anonymously delivering jars to people in need?".

The way the fictional story unravels is somewhat interesting but not overly gripping or compelling. Hope investigates stories similar to herself and finds other people who received jars. She interviews a variety of people and eventually stumbles on a family she thinks might be the mysterious do-gooders. Her entire investigative process takes many months and she entwines herself into the lives of the family members and finds a new sense of belonging. The fictional story may not be award winning writing but it does present a heartfelt story with sympathetic (if sometimes predictable or flat) characters.

Mini Book Reviews - Wisdom and Teachings of Stephen R. Covey -AND- The Complete Live and Learn and Pass It On

As a Christmas gift this year I received two books jam packed with quotes, insights and life lessons. Quote books like these are hard to review on a whole but each of these were a lot of fun so I wanted to be sure I showcased them.

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The Wisdom & Teachings of Stephen R. Covey is a cool collection of quotes and stories taken not only from his various books but also from speaking engagements, articles, interviews or other materials. The books is divided into chapters focusing on a key principle or segment of life such as Integrity, Leadership, Proactivity, etc.

For those who have previously read any of Dr. Covey's work you will find yourself immediately reminded of the core principles and insights that his works teach. I found myself recognizing a number of the quotes from my readings of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and others. There are a lot of his works that I haven't read and I found quotes and stories from those books ringing just as true and poignant as those I already knew.

For those who haven't read any of Dr. Covey's books or aren't familiar with his work you will likely find familiar advice resonating with you. In some cases this may be due to the fact that many of his principles and teachings have engrained themselves into society. In other cases the seeming familiarity will come because of the simple truthfulness and straightforward nature of the teachings. Sometimes the best advice is the advice that you already knew but didn't realize you knew or didn't know how to articulate.

This book is a wonderful wealth of great teachings and inspiring motivation and thoughts. It would be impossible to boil down all of the great lessons, stories and thoughts from Dr. Covey into a single book but this book comes pretty close and is a great resource for wonderful advice and inspiring thoughts to help make your life better in many ways. This would certainly be a great introduction to Stephen R. Covey for those who don't know his material already and for those who do, this book is a quick batch of well organized notes and snippets of some of his most poignant teachings.


4 out of 5 stars

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The "Live and Learn and Pass It On" set of books include multiple volumes of "life teachings" as collected and compiled over a number of years. These anonymous nuggets of wisdom range from the profound and thoughtful to the humorous and entertaining. The latest publication contains the "Complete" compilation of 3 volumes of knowledge. The author/editor gathered hundreds and thousands of comments from children, teens, young adults, middle aged adults and elderly adults.

Each statement begins with the phrase "I have learned that..." and includes some life lesson that each individual has learned. I loved the wide variety of bits of learning ranging from how to get along with family members, how to keep an eye on finances and when not to ask your parents to give you something.

I found myself nodding knowingly to some bits of advice and remembering when I learned that lesson myself (for example, learning the difference between a "bulb" and a "clove" of garlic). I laughed at some of the simple observations of children. And I made mental notes of some of the observations of those older and more knowledgable than myself.

The book has a lot of fun simple anectdotes and thoughts. It can certainly be read cover-to-cover and provide some good smiles and learneing but it can also make for a nice "coffee table" book to sit on the counter and just pick up and turn to a random page.

The only real complaint I can voice would be that I would have liked to have seen some sort of organization. While it was fun to just read all these random bits of learning, I think it might be valuable to have the quotes chunked up by subject so that perhaps I could turn to the book as a reference for quick quotes or advice on some particular point I'm working on. One possible help for this would be an Index listing topics and then just doing a general page number reference.

The teachings may not be as timeless or wholly relevant as those of Stephen R. Covey, but it's a fun book and brought a lot of smiles and grins.


3.5 out of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from my family to you and yours!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous December, a wonderful Christmas and a thrilling holiday season. May you all be happy, healthy and have a wonderful New Year.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's wishing a Wonderful Mother's Day to my fabulous mom. Thanks for being there for me and bringing me up right.

And happy Mother's Day to my wife. Thanks for being a great mom to our kids.

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Today's Quote from Quoting Quotes:

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Merry Christmas - Inspirational Videos

And as a balance to the humorous videos, here are a couple of inspirational videos.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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Today's Quote from Quoting Quotes:

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Davis County and the Blustery Day(s)

Well, the past few days have been rather adventurous. Last Monday or so, the meteorologists warned us of severe wind to come later in the week. Now, we've had windy days before…though it's been a long time since I even remember them treating it with the kind of warning they did this time and many years since I remember there being any prolonged wind of any significance. So, while we prepared a little bit, I certainly wasn't expecting the kind of storm we received.

Starting Wednesday evening and though about 10 or 11 AM on Thursday, we had HUGE sustained blasts of wind. I heard varying reports, but it seems the consensus is that the average wind force was up in the 80-90 mph range with numerous gusts up in the 100+ mph range.  Somebody already put up a wikipedia entry with some of the details.  :)

Before I had looked outside, I rolled over and called the school district hotline to see if school was canceled…according to the message, all schools were in session, so I started pushing the kids to get ready for school. Lynette, who had been awake a lot of the night due to the wind, was adamant that they were NOT going to school. Looking out the windows, it looked very blustery but I still wasn't convinced of the extreme nature of the storm.

Our shed doors had been blown open along with the new gate of our fence. The kids let me know that our tramp frame had been blown around and that our basketball backboard was blown off. I rushed outside to shut and secure the shed doors and the fence gate. The wind was definitely strong and made it hard to get everything shut up nice and tight. Our trampoline frame had scooted over a dozen feet and crumpled up a bit as it got caught up in our apple tree (which had shed apples all over the ground). As I was on my way back inside, I noticed that my car (or rather the tree next to my car) was being assaulted by someone's aluminum shed/awning/carport structure that had blown down the road.

Back inside, the power flickered a few times and then died completely. I conceded that the kids should stay home and that I'd stay home from work. A few minutes later, the school secretary called directly to let us know that school was in fact canceled, but due to the power outage, they hadn't been able to update the emergency message or send out a message on the emergency dialer program.

We snuggled down and rested for a few hours while we waited for the wind to die down. Once the wind died down, we surveyed the scene. We lost a bunch of shingles off of our roof as well as our basketball backboard (which had just ripped itself from the pole it was mounted on) but otherwise, our damage was negligible. The aluminum shed that had blown into our yard ended up whipping around in the tree until it tore itself into three chunks in our yard and our neighbor's yard (sadly, one of the chunks broke the window of my neighbor's car).

Wandering around it was quickly apparent that we got off lucky. I walked across the neighborhood, following the sound of chainsaws. As I did, I saw dozens of HUGE trees that either snapped or completely uprooted themselves. Most landed in yards or on fences, but there were a few that pulled down power lines and/or landed on roofs. Across the neighborhood sheds were destroyed, trees downed, fences pulverized, trampolines dislocated (one of them managed to fly across multiple yards, up over a roof and lodge itself in a tree at the end of the block). It looked like a warzone or (as one of the guys put it) a zombie apocalypse, especially once you added in a bunch of folks walking around with chainsaws and other heavy hand tools.

Following the chainsaw sounds, I found a group of guys with the right tools and we started chopping and clearing trees around the neighborhood…the initial goal just being to get them off houses, out of the streets and sidewalks and away from power lines. For the next ~3 days we cut and cleared over and over. And yet, in many cases, it didn't feel like we were even making much of a dent against these huge trees.

Thursday night, I gathered with a group of people and we started canvassing the neighborhood to check and make sure people had food, warmth and shelter. About midway through our canvassing, the power came back on…to much applause.

Unfortunately, there were still a couple dozen neighbors without power…and theirs stayed off until Sunday evening. Generators, camp stoves, and other supplies were offered to those without power…along with inviting them over to power filled homes for hot meals, warm places to rest, hot showers, etc.

On Friday, I had to go to an appointment across town and was amazed at the scope of the damage throughout the city.  Hundreds of trees uprooted.  Sheds, garages, carports, etc dislocated or destroyed.  Power poles, flag poles and other tall objects bent over or knocked down.  Lots of business signs just blown out.  Part of an apartment parking structure collapsed.  Just devastation all over.

Saturday night, the news came in that another wind warning was prescribed for Sunday night thru Monday morning. Up to that point, we had been stacking all of the debris along the park strips at the edge of the road.

But with another storm coming, those stacks of debris now became huge piles of disaster waiting to happen. We went to church Sunday morning and very shortly the word came to go back home, get into our "grubbies" and go move all the debris. Trucks and trailers came from all over the neighborhood and we started loading up.

Once again, due to the size of these trees, it felt like we would never get all of the piles moved in time. And yet through a miraculous effort we managed to clear out all of the major piles of debris from around our neighborhood. The line to get to the city dump was huge...I heard tales of waiting ~90 minutes to get a load into the gate (a video below shows a crew counting the ~400 vehicles they passed on the way out). The city/county had set up numerous emergency dumping areas around the city and we found ourselves part of a county-wide caravan to clean up the mess. The national guard was called out to help with the cleanup and everybody pulled together.

This morning, I was very relieved to see that last night's windstorm had been minimal comparatively. I didn't see any additional damage and the power was still on. I know there's still plenty of cleanup work to be done.

There are still quite a few huge trees that need to be chopped up…there are fences to be rebuilt…and shingles/roofs to be repaired. Hopefully we can get the major work done before the snow really starts flying.

The past 4 days have been an amazing example of what we can do when we all pull together and just get the work done. There were so many people out there helping and nobody was complaining or shirking the work. Everybody just did whatever they could to help their neighbor.

And we got it all done.

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Today's Quote from Quoting Quotes:

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What motivates you?

I know the Internet attention span is generally 2 minutes or less...so the 10 minutes of this video may dissuade some of you.

But you really ought to take a few minutes to watch/listen. It's a pretty cool speech about what really motivates people. It's a paradigm shift that I've seen a number of businesses and organizations make but I'd like to see the idea take hold to an even greater extent.

No Worries

Wil Wheaton talks about imagination, friendship, gaming & more

Below is a cool keynote from Wil Wheaton at PAX East last week. It's lengthier than your standard bite-size-you-tube clip, so prep yourself for an hour or so of watching. It takes a couple of minutes to get going, but it has a great overall message.

He talks about his childhood and experiences growing up. Over at his blog, he gives an excerpt that sort of epitomizes the message he's trying to send.

Gaming is the foundation of the best friendships I’ve ever had, and it’s the mortar that has held my group of friends together for almost 25 years...
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When you play a game - any game - you’re using your imagination to bring a world to life, and that’s truly special, because while all destruction is essentially the same, when you create something, it’s different every single time. When you create something together, you’re building bonds with your fellow gamers that could last for your entire lives. The Venn Diagram of my best friends, my gaming group, and people from high school I still hang out with is one perfect circle. I suspect that for many gamers of my generation, that’s equally true...

I'm all for the power of gaming to bring people together. Gaming definitely increases brain power in many ways...from creativity and imagination, to strategy and analytical analysis. It creates social environments for people to interact by increasing those same skills.

Of all the many things I collect and hobbies I engage in, my game collection is the one I'm most excited to bring out and share with family and friends.

So, pop some popcorn and listen as (Wesley) Wil Wheaton talks about imagination, friendship, gaming and more.

Enjoy.


PAX East 2010 - Wil Wheaton Keynote from Matt Waldron on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!



Yes, I know I'm a week or so late, but hey, better late than never, right? ;)

We had a great New Year's celebration to wrap up an adventurous year and a full filled holiday break. This past year was definitely eventful, if nothing else.

The kids have new little cousins to dote over. Julia started Kindergarten (and loves it). Andrew was baptized and joined the Cub Scouts. Jason earned his Bear in cubs and is stoked to join Webelos in the next couple of weeks (he's actually already been meeting with them). Lynette's having a ball as counselor in Young Women's and I've been busy as counselor in Elder's (I was the Pack Cubmaster for the first ~half of the year as well and that was a lot of fun too). We had a fun family vacation to Yellowstone that everybody loved. A variety of family struggles annoyed both our immediate and external family, but overall, we've pushed through it.

For New Year's Eve, we had a casual, spur of the moment relaxing party at our house. We invited family over and had Karla, my dad and my grandpa hang out and play games. The kids and I played some Chicken Cha-Cha-Cha (Julia's favorite new game from our Christmas haul) as well as Cloud 9, Uno, For Sale and even a little Slap Jack. The adults played some Cartagena, Fearsome Floors, Hearts, Settlers of Catan and Thurn & Taxis. At midnight, we pulled out some "poppers" for the kids to make some noise and lit a couple of ground blooms.


On the evening following New Year's Eve (so New Year's Day--Night?), we had a "Dickens Dinner Party" at the Baxters. Everybody dressed in Victorian dress (including the servant girls) and we all gathered in a lovely Victorian dining room. Amid soft candlelight, we enjoyed salad, cheese, crackers, bread, roast chicken and mashed potatoes. It was a great dinner and a lot of fun.

This past Monday night, the family members each set some goals ranging from "be nice" and "help mom more" to "pay off credit cards." We also decided to get a family exercise regime going and everybody also set a goal for personal scripture study in addition to our family scripture reading.

This next year should be exciting as well.

I'm poised to graduate (finally) in the spring and I'll be sure to have a nice celebration of that event. Jason will be in Webelos and working towards his Webelos and Arrow of Light. We're planning a "staycation" this year and are looking at which summer activities the kids will be involved in (we've got a couple of budding gymnasts hoping for gymnastic classes). Julia will start 1st grade in the fall which means a full day of school for everybody. This doesn't really mean any more time for Lynette (despite the general assumption that it does…since she volunteers in each kids' class), but it will bring some changes.

I'm sure there are other known adventures coming up this year but there are also plenty of unknowns that I'm looking forward to. No matter what happens, a positive attitude, a good outlook, and a willingness to work for the best means that no matter what struggles come our way, we're sure to have a wonderful 2010.

I can't wait. :)

Today is a wonderful day - Happy Anniversary sweetie!

Today is a wonderful day. Yes, it's Columbus Day. Yes, it's Thanksgiving Day (in Canada). But neither of those are my reason for celebrating.

Today I celebrate because my wife and I were married 13 years ago. It's crazy to think that 13 years have passed. Crazier still to realize that we've got 3 kids, all in school and growing like weeds.

Like any couple, we've had good times and bad…ups and downs. Looking back, it's only the good times I remember. I am so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful woman by my side. I daily consider myself lucky to have such an amazing partner in life.

She makes me smile. She makes me laugh. She comforts me when I'm sad and helps me when I'm frustrated. She makes each day a joy. I honestly don't know where I'd be without her.

Thank you Lynette for being my soul mate. You are my best friend. I love you always and forever.


(And yes, I plan to eventually scan in pictures from our wedding...but for now these have to do)

Thanks Boingo - Out of Control

So as I prep to head out early and bring an end to a crazy work week with a number of fires large and small, I set my iPod to shuffle up some good tunes for the drive home.

The first song, one of my favorites that always makes me feel better about the random craziness of life. I don't think I'd ever seen the video. It's interesting to watch. The lyrics and the sound are great though.

So, without further ado, enjoy Out of Control by Oingo Boingo.

Some favorite lines.

I say--don't throw it away
There's about a million reasons why
Though you've heard them all before
And you're getting very tired
Lay your head on my lap and I'll sing you this lullaby

Just soothing, yes?

I say--don't throw it away, you've got too many things to say
If you throw your life, if you throw away your life . . .
The world will never be the same

Great advice..thank you Mr. Elfman.

You're out of control--and you want someone to tell you
When you wake up in the morning it'll only be a dream
And I wish that I could tell you, it'll only be a dream

I can definitely relate...but in the end, it's alright and it's good to know I've got friends and family standing by. :)


As an added bonus, here's another of my favorite Boingo that also has a great sound and great lyrics.

Enjoy.

Quote of the moment - from Robinson Crusoe

I last read Robinson Crusoe probably 4 years ago, so I wouldn't have thought of or found this line out of the blue, but it was reminded to me as I listened to a preview audiobook for The Moonstone in which the narrator notes how that particular novel has had a huge guiding influence in his life. He presented this quote as having particular importance in his narrative...and based on recent events at work and otherwise, it just seemed to fit.

I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.

from Robinson Crusoe

The Education system of America...maybe there's a glimmer of hope?

Talk about a crazy concept! As reported in the New York Times this week, a school in New York will be opening this fall with an experimental program where they actually pay teachers based on the value they provide...and the school actually looks at the value of teachers as a GREAT asset.

The school is called the Equity Project and will be paying its grade school teachers 6-figure incomes. The teachers will also be elibible for bonuses up to $25k. As a comparison, last I checked, the average starting salary for a teacher here in Utah is $28k...so in other words, their potential bonus is as much as my starting salary. As another interesting note...the administration in the school makes less than the teachers (something unheard of in the current system...which is part of the problem...far too many of the good teachers advance their way into administration so they can actually make ends meet).

The school is starting small with 8 teachers and 120 students, but plans to grow to 480 teachers and 28 teachers in coming years. The article describes the application/interview process as sort of like American Idol for teachers. They hired a dream team of teachers who are truly passionate about their subjects, about teaching, and about the kids.

What was very interesting (and sad) to me was a comment from one of the teachers about the interview process. He said "It's so refreshing that somebody comes to a teacher and says 'Show me what you know'...This is the first time in 30 years of teaching that anybody has been really interested in what I do.". To me, that statement is a HUGE reflection on what is truly wrong with our education system. Administration, government, and even parents to some extent, are far too concerned with test scores and attendance rates and other less important factors than being certain the person teaching the class actually knows and is passionate about what he/she is teaching and uses effective methods to ENGAGE students in the learning process.

I truly hope this idea pans out and shows promise. I know not every district can afford this kind of program currently, but if it has success, it could turn government officials on their ears and make them pay attention and finally see where the problem is. Who knows, in 5-10 years, the U.S. might have an education worth bragging about rather than hanging our heads in shame and foolishly asking ourselves why it is that we're seeing such an increase in crime, unemployment, bankruptcies, etc. I personally see the decline of our society as being able to be tracked to two main things...the disintegration of good family environments and a lack of effective and worthwhile education.

Can you imagine...

Wow. Can you imagine what the world be like if all our politicians were like Hazel?





She's down to earth. She's not power hungry (even after 30+ years in office). She's committed to the well-being of the people and place she governs. She keeps the town not only debt-free, but with millions in reserve. She gets out with the people. She is constantly looking for ways to improve things.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Thanks Banzai for sharing this.

Draper Temple Open House

As a family we went to the Draper Temple Open House last Friday night. It was really very cool. The kids were entranced by how pretty and nice everything was. They were very curious about the decorations and the way each of the various rooms were used. The murals in the ordinance rooms were amazing and they loved that the trees in the paintings were "our trees" that we stare at out our front window. The celestial room was very cool and Andrew had fun staring all the way up at the huge chandelier. For a few weeks, he's been asking me what it would look like if you held two mirrors up to each other...so when he got in the sealing room, he thought it was very cool to look at the reflections going on forever.

It was a very cool experience to get to go there as a family and to talk about temples, god, and eternity with our young kids in such a cool setting. I wish we could go back with them sooner rather than later. It was a great time.

Pearls Before Swine?

If a great musician plays great music but no one hears...was he really any good?

An interesting (and sad) social experiment. Long article, but worth the read.

A quote - in honor of the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr Day

For those of you "international" folks, you may not know that next Monday is a holiday here in the U.S. While I always tried to convince people they got the day off because it is my birthday, nobody ever seemed to accept that I was important enough to warrant a national holiday.

Anyway, next Monday is "Martin Luther King, Jr. Day." Sometimes it's called "Human Rights Day."

In any case, I was reading tonight and I came across this quote that I thought was pretty cool and thought I'd post. When I realized it's by MLK, I figured it's all the more appropriate.

Enjoy:

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Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence,
and toughness multiplies toughness
in a descending spiral of destruction.

--Martin Luther King, Jr.,
--From "Strength to Love," 1963

New Year's Goals & Resolutions - 2009 edition

I know that we're over a week into the new year, but I've been mulling over these and finally decided to post 'em. Hopefully by the end of '09, I can look back at this list and laugh at how deftly I accomplished these things.

Without further ado, here's my Top 10 List of goals/resolutions for 2009:

1. Daily Personal Scripture Reading
2. Monthly Temple Attendance
3. Weekly (maybe daily?) Creative Writing
• 5 Complete/Polished Short Stories
• Break out my "book" into 2 separate books and get 1 to a moderately polished state
4. Monthly (or more frequent) "structured" family fun time activity (larger scale such as bowling, skating, going to a movie, hiking, swimming, etc.)
5. Structured Exercise Regime
• Lose 20 pounds
6. Date Nights
• One 'big' structured date each month
• Informal/ad-hoc dates weekly
7. Go Hiking
• Timp Cave hike with family
• At least one other "big" hike (Elephant Rock maybe?)
8. Monthly Letter writing to distant friends/family
9. Read 50 books
10. Finish up my Bachelor's Degree (finally)