Jack is Back

Season 8 is upon us. Jack Bauer isn't done killing bad guys!
Dammit Cloe!

Amberly just turned one

She is growing and getting into everything. She has made our lives a little more stressful, but much more enjoyable! She is healthy and very stubborn, like her Dad.

I love you Amberly. Congratulations on turning one!

Mason's many talents

I wanted to make sure to give Mason his due. Mason had a great summer of Coach pitch baseball, Art/drawing class and swimming. He has just started 2nd Grade and so far he seems to be enjoying it.

Mason is the kind of boy that likes to help others when he can. He enjoys playing with his younger sister (and sometimes with his older sister too).

He is my best bud and we boys have to stick together. Oh and he loves transformers too, but who doesn't? He is a great kid. I love you Mason!

Brylee the Tennis Champ

This is the second summer that my daughter Brylee has been in a Tennis League. Last year was her first year and she did struggle, but this year she has made some big improvements in her game. I was able to go out with her a few times and practice with her which turned out to be really fun!

Well she just recently had her Tennis Tournament, where her team had to play in a playoff against a bunch of other teams in the region. She was given a seed (number for her skill) so that she was set against other players around her skill level.

These girls had to play from 9am-1pm in the heat of the day and that made for a long day of tennis. She did loose most of her matches, but towards the end she was set to play her last match of the day. In her last match she was playing for 3rd or 4th place in her skill level. The girl she played against was older than Brylee, but her skill level was very comparable to Brylee's.

So from the start it went: 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2 and so on. It was very close and very intense! I was literally jumping out of my seat at times and it took a lot for me to not start screaming and cheering when she got a point. In the end though, she lost a very close match, so she earned 4th place. Although she lost a very close match, she still got a trophy for 4th place which was awesome!


I was happy for her! She did lose, but she played so hard and kept it close. I am very proud of her and just glad I was there to see it. Nice job Brylee!

Post Photography

I am going to shamelessly promote and give major props to my sister-in-law Cassi who is starting a Photography gig.

Here is her main website with sample pics and prices. http://www.post-photography.com/

Here is her Photography blog: http://poststudio.blogspot.com/


Just make sure you watch for my kids while you are looking through her gallery.

You made my kids look really cute, thanks for the awesome pictures Cassi!

Review of Transformers 2

Pro's:
Awesome Special effects
The Transformers were awesome and looked amazing
There were awesome robot fights
Optimus Prime (freakin awesome)
SR-71 Blackbird (Jetfire)!
Megatron vs. Starscream
Megan Fox
Music was good

Con's:
Story was a bit lacking & predictable
Hot chick transformer?
Transformer afterlife?
Soundwave was just an extra
Sam's parents
humping dogs

3 out of 4 stars. It was definitely worth the money of admission.

It getting close

Linkin Park & Transformers...Ah, sweetness.
Linkin Park – “New Divide”


Here is a site that you can put your own picture to become your very own transformer. Uh, that pretty much is awesome! Just a few more days to go!!

GeoCaching

My wife and I bought ourselves a Garmin 60csx GPS for our anniversary. I did my research and this unit gets outstanding reviews and is priced very reasonably. And Joe (my bro-in-law who is a big GeoCacher) also recommended this model to my wife. I did also buy a 2g micro card to add street maps so we can use it in our car for long trips as well.

GeoCaching is completely new to me so I'm trying to learn as I go. This GPS unit is really cool, but I haven't the slightest idea how to use the thing. The manual is very vague and doesn't help me very much. My wife has taken on trying to teach herself how to learn this thing. She has been able to load the GeoCaches from the site to the unit and we did go out and try to find some. There is a GeoCache about 3 blocks away from our house, so of course this was the first one we found as a family. It was an old ammo container that had a combination lock on it and in order to open it you must get the combination from the person who set the GeoCache and you get that info online from GeoCaching.com.

There are several types of GeoCaches. Some are very small or micro size, which mean all they have inside are a small piece of paper that you can sign your name on. Others are bigger and can even have small notebooks and miscellaneous items inside as well. The bigger ones are really fun for families because some have small toys or trinkets that you can take, but you must replace them with something you brought with you.

We found a muli-stage GeoCache yesterday that was incredibly fun! We had to find a historical plaque and answered some triva questions on the plaque, then used some math and found the Nav points to the final GeoCache. This GeoCache was about a 1.5 (fairly strenuous) mile hike up the mountains, but we did finally make it up there!

The view down on Utah County from where we were was awesome! The funnest part of GeoCaching was that we would have never found out about this place if we hadn't been searching for some hidden treasure as a family! My kids absolutely love it and I am looking forward to do more treasure hunting...err, I mean GeoCaching throughout the summer.

Brylee's Encore Performance

I know that I am extremely late in posting this, but I have had multiple requests to get it online. So her it is...her Encore performance when she won her cash award!

Changes

A lot of changes have been happening to me and my family recently. I have been doing some major home remodeling for 2-3 years now. The reason they have taken so long is because they are big projects, so of course I am a victim of money & time. But now I am about half way through my scheduled projects. I have finished 2 out of 3 bedrooms for the kids and almost finished with room number 3.

The biggest project that I began with is about 80% completed. All I have left is the bathroom and I think that will go much quicker than the other projects have gone.


There are also other changes that we as a family have been going through. One is a new arrival of Amberly and everyone adjusting to her, especially mom. She goes through cycles of being able to sleep, to not being able to sleep at all during the night. It makes for many tired days and tough nights, but she is worth it.

I don't necessarily like changes, I'm more of a comfort zone dude. I like certain things. I especially like the phrase, "If it ain't broke, then don't fix it." At times that seems to be my life motto. But it is good to mix things up on occasion and actually make changes in your life for the better.

For example, I have some really good friends that I know will be friends to my grave and then I have many friends that are a good support system, but not in my close net circle. I don't like to make very many friends because I do have really good friends and I like to think that my quota is full. So I'm hesitant on making new friends, but I'm trying to extend my circle a little.

There is one goal on the horizon that will change everything for me and I have been putting it off for a while now. This project will cost me a lot of time & money and will severely influence my personal space out of my comfort zone. I know the time is coming very close for me to finally just do it. I will keep you updated.

Looking up to people

I have a few mentor's. I try to examine their lives and see how they handle certain situations and really see what makes them tick. Having examples in your life is good and bad. Because it is natural to look up to them and expect them to be as close to perfect as possible. So you ultimately set them up to eventually disappoint you sooner or later.

There is an one person that I have a great deal of respect and that I do in fact look up to (I'm not referring to Bo Jackson, but I did look up to him in my youth). But he has recently done and said some things that have knocked him off of the pedestal that I placed him on, thus came the disappointment. But who should I really blame? Him? Because he didn't live up to the unrealistic standards I placed before him? I don't think so, so I blame myself.

So now I try to categorize the attributes he had, that I longed to have for myself, and list the attributes, thus separating the attributes from the individual. I like this approach much better. I even have tried to regain some of the respect that I lost from this person, because of my unrealistic expectations. This approach feels much better.

Update of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

I have been trying to keep up to date with the upcoming news on Transformers 2. They just recently released a list of the robots that will be in the movie.


And here is the most recent teaser trailer.

Autobots...Transform and Roll Out!!!

NCAA Tournament

I absolutely love the NCAA tourny. In my opinion, it is the best sporting event currently out there. Imagine how great college football would be if they had a playoff system, oh well, until then I'll just deal with games like this:
Watch CBS Videos Online

Brylee's Piano Perfomance

She did it! With this performance she became one of the top performers of over 350 participants and to think, she entered as a last minute "wild card"! She will perform on March 19th and there she will be awarded her cash prize & award and then play her award winning number.
Congratulations Brylee!!!

A Proud Father

My daughter Brylee is a smart, talented and beautiful girl. Who am I kidding...I'm her father so, yes, I am incredibly bias but that's ok with me. So I'm going to gloat for a minute.

I took Brylee to a piano competition last Saturday. I have heard her play the two songs she was to perform lots of times and she plays them very well! That Saturday, she was very nervous (I was too!). I think I held my breath through the first song! Anyway, the first song she performed was called, "Perpetual Motion" and that song is a very difficult song to play even for a practiced pianist, let alone a 10 year old cutie. She did have a few mistakes, but managed to play it very well, in my opinion. Then she played the second song called, "Malibu Mist". This song is much slower and not as difficult. Brylee aced this song and it sounded beautiful.

Well Brylee needed to score a 38 or higher to move on in the competition. She scored a 37. She was disappointed and I felt terrible for her, she did so well I thought!

Well her piano teacher called today and told us that after an additional review, the judges felt that Brylee should move on. She said that Brylee should have been given some leeway in the first song because of the difficulty. She then said that when Brylee played the second song, she did a phenomenal job and that she should play that song at the next stage in the piano playoff. Well Brylee was very excited to hear that she gets a second chance and we were very excited as well!

Well we are going on a mini vacation this week and her next performance is scheduled right in the middle of our vacation. But I told Brylee that I would be more than happy to take her to the performance if she really wanted to go. She said she did, so I will be leaving our family vacation so my daughter can wow the crowd at the piano playoff. And I'm happy to do it.

Needless to say, I'm probably like any other father, but I am so proud of Brylee. She has been accepted and excelled in the ALL(gifted/overachiever) program at school for 2 years now and wants to try again next year. She is extremely talented at piano and she has a good singing voice. She loves to swim and play sports, especially tennis (which I love!).

Ok, I'll stop now. Oh, did I already mention that I love her very, very much.

I love you Brylee and I am very proud of you.

All we need from you is $250 & $50 each month

Ah, MLM's & Pyramids. These easy money making schemes are very fascinating to me. I've personally been to several MLM "meetings" and for the most part they all have the similar symptoms, the most prominent symptom is the initial requirement for money to either: subscribe/signup/membership/training etc...

This blog is going to be a brief summary of my research of the most recent MLM that I have been approached with. By the way it has been researched that Utah & the LDS religion are hot beds for these schemes. Here are just a few of the MLM's that I have encountered in the past:

Primerica Financial Services
Pre-Paid Legal
ACN
NuSkin
MaryKay Cosmetics

There are others, but I can't remember them all. No worries though, I'm going copy a list of noted MLMs/Pyramids in this blog (scroll to bottom).

I'm not going to bother explaining how MLM's or Pyramids work, what I am going to do is breakdown the most current MLM that I recently encountered and with any luck you can put the pieces together yourself.

It's called MMOGULS. This "company" is offering the first 100,000 subscribers an opportunity to make money off of Video Gamers. They explain in great detail about how much money the video game industry makes, especially in a recession. Eventually they show the comparisons of their new game that is the backbone for this MLM. The game is called Stargate Worlds. It is a MMORPG, just like the gameWorld of Warcraft. Stargate Worlds hasn't been released yet, but is scheduled to be released in May of '09.

They said that there will be 4 levels of monthly subscriptions available to the future gamers. Each member of MMOGULS (only 100,000) will get a cut of the monthly subscriptions. There will be 4 levels of monthly subscriptions: $15 Bronze, $30 Silver, $40 Gold, and $50 for the Platinum membership. The MMOGULS member only gets a cut depending on what the level of subscription the gamer chooses, excluding the $15 bronze membership of course.

Your future "income" is based on the number of gamers subscribed and the number of MMOGULS members under you and the MMOGULS members under them and so on. So its key you get signed up soon, cause you don't want to be one of the bottom feeders!

Well, all they need from you is $250 up front for a membership fee and then an additional $50 a month. This monthly fee includes your very own website for addition promotional and advertising activities (its just your user name attached to their site).

Ready to sign up yet? Sounds good right? Well here is what they didn't tell you that I learned prior to the meeting. First, the company that designed and created the game Stargate Worlds is a company called Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment or (CME). The guy who is the chairman of CME is the same guy who started the MLM company MMOGULS, his name is Gary Whiting. There isn't a lot of public info on Gary that seems credible, so I'll just stick with the credible info on him.

Gary's video game company CME started in 2006. Stargate Worlds is their first and biggest video game. There is an available beta version of the game. This game has been postponed several times. It was originally scheduled to release in Aug '08, but was postponed for undisclosed reasons. Then in November of 2008, CME haulted all paychecks to its employees and didn't informed the employees beforehand or after. Reportedly one of its many employees started a website that only contains a counter of how long CME's employees have gone without a paycheck. There is also a lengthy blog entry from Steve Williams, one of its many video game designers, talking about the problems with CME.

CME did release a short statement back in Dec of '08 concerning the lack of payments to it's employees by saying, "At Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, we have always been upfront with the media and our fans that we are a start-up," said Balentine. "Like many start ups, we face the same cash-flow issues that all pre-revenue companies face." While it is true that this company is relatively new, but short handing your employees months before the release of your biggest product is a quite concerning. And as of this blog entry, the counter was up to 104 days, that's well over 3 months!

So here is what the dudes at the MMOGULS meeting didn't tell anyone. That Gary Whiting (the guy who owns MMOGULS site and started the MLM "company") is the chairman of a video game company who hasn't paid it's employees for over 3 months! But yet this guy comes out to Utah, Arizona & Nevada to start a MLM business that is designed completely around a game that hasn't come out yet? And is being designed by a failing video game company? It is HIGHLY probable that the game may not be released at all...especially by CME. It is also very possible that Stargate Worlds will be purchased by another company and then be re-licensed and still be put out on the market. But it is also very possible that the game will be dumped all together and never see the light of day.

The video game rumor mill thinks that Gary is in serious trouble with the investors of CME and the IRS and owes close to $50 million. So what does he do? He creates a MLM and plans to use that money to pay off as many debts as he can, or maybe, to simply leave the country.

This MLM was one of the very worst I have ever seen. The corruption in this scheme wasn't difficult to find, but yet I saw many people gladly give them money anyway. Nowadays people are desperate to find ways to make some additional money, or just pay their current bills. It truly saddens & angers me to see A$$holes like Gary Whiting take advantage of the truly desperate in these tough times.

Here is a list of MLM's & Pyramids that have been reported and analyzed online:
Acai Plus
Achievers Unlimited
ACN
Adcalls
Advantage Conferences
Advantage Neutraceuticals
Advocare
Agel
AIM
All-star Entrepreneur Amazon Herb
Ambit Energy
American Longevity Ameriplan USA Amerisciences
AMS
Amsoil
Amway / Alticore
American Petroleum Promotions
Amigo Health
Annasa
Apeus
Arbonne
Ascend Technol's
At Home America
Avalla - Nutrimetics
Avon
Beach Body
BeautiControl
Bel’Air
Better Universe
Beyond Freedom Seminars
bHIPGlobal
Big Planet (Nu Skin)
Biometrics
Bioperformance
BioPro
Bodywise
Bookwise Books
Brain Garden
Burn Lounge
Business in Motion
(BIM)
Cell Tech
Cell Wireless
Champion Communications
Citizenre
Cleur
Cognigen
Conklin
Creative Memories Cyberwize
DCHL -Digital Crown Holdings Ltd.
DSX
Dubli
Dynasty of Diamonds
E. Excel
Earth Essence
Easy Daily Cash Ebiz.com
Ecoquest
Eiro
Emerald Passport
Profit Masters
Empire Dreams
Empower Net
Eniva Gold Marketing Enliven
EnvisionCC
Epic Network
Escape International Essante
Essentially Yours Evolution Int'l
eXfuse
Extreme Research
EZ Wealth by Design First Financial
Security
First Fitness Int'l
Fuel Freedom
International
FFSI
For You
Forever Green
Forever Int'l
Forever Living
Formor Int'l
Forte Builder (New
Vision)
Fortune Hi-tech
Marketing
Free Life Int'l
Freedom Rocks
Fruda Vida Int'l
Fruitaigo
Fuller Brush
Fun Unlimited
Gano Excel
Gemcap
Genewize Life Sciences
GDI - Global Domain Int'l
Global Equity Marketing Global Equity Lending Global Health Trax
Global Resorts Network
Global Travel Trends
(PRT Travel)
GNLD
GoHFT
Gold Mine Int'l
Golden Neo-life Diamite
GoldQuest
Goldshield Elite
Good Life Int'l
Goyin
Herbalife
Heritage Health Products
Heritage Makers
Hsin Ten Enterprise USA
iBuzzPro
Ignite
Stream of Energy
Igonet
iLearning Global
Immunotec
Inner Light
Integris Global
Int'l Galleries, Inc. IGI)
Isagenix
ITV Ventures
Jewelry by Park Lane
Kaire
Kanosis
Karemore
Ky-Ani Sun
Leaving Prints
Legacy for Life
Lexxus
Liberty LeagueInt'l (LLI)
Life Force
Life Plus
LifeWave
Life without Debt Lifestyles USA
Lightyear Alliance
The Limu Company Livinity
Longevity Network Mannatech
Market America
Mary Kay Cosmetics Matol Botanical
Max GXL
Max International
Maxxis 2000
Melaleuca
ML International
Monarch Health
Sciences
Morinda (Tahitian
Noni Int’l)
Multi-pure
MXI - Xocai
My4Life
My7Diamonds
My Leisure Business
National Lending. Corp.
Native American
Nutritionals
Natural Air Products
Nature's Sunshine NeutroGenesis
Neways
New Quest Int'l New Vision USA
Nexx
NHT Global
Nikken
Noevir
Nouveau Cosmeceuticals
Nouveau Riche
University
NSA (Juice Plus) NuLegacy Rx card NuMed
Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. Nutrimetrics
Nutronix
Nuvante
Ohana Health Omegatrends
Omnitrition
Online Exchange
OnPoint Direct
Oxyfresh
Pampered Chef
Passport LLC Petromagic
Pharmanex (Nu Skin) PhotoMax (Nu Skin) Plexus Pink
PM International AG Power2Marketing
Power Mall
Premier Designs
(P2M) Prepaid Legal
Primerica Financial
Services
Prixdale Ventures
The Profit Masters Pureworks
Qing Mei
Quixtar
(Amway/Alticore)
Qwestnet
Reliv
The Right Solution
Royal Body Care
Scent-sations
Scentsy
sendoutcards.com
Sevea
Shaklee
Sibu
Silver Cache
Slender Now
Soteria / It Works
Marketing
Sportron
Spring Wellness
Stampin' Up!
Starlight Online
Stimulife
Success University Sunrider
Supralife
Sweet Living
Symmetry
Synergy Worldwide Tahitian Noni Juice
(Morinda)
Talk Fusion
Take Shape for Life
Team Everest
Team Life Changes
(Nutraburst)
Team National
Tianshi
TMII
Tomboy Tools
Tom Danley’s Tape of
the Month
Top Line Creations (TLC)
Traverus Travel
Trivani
Tupperware
Ubifone
UltraeStore
Unicity
Univera Life Sciences USANA Health Sciences
Vemma
Vibe Anti-aging
Visalus
Vision for Life
Vision Trave. Vitagenesis
Viva Life Science VMDirect (Helloworld)
Waiora
Watkins
Wealth Pools Int'l
WIN -Wellness
Int'l Network
World Financial Group
World Group Securities World LeadershipGroup/
World Lending Group World Marketing
Alliance (WMA) WorldVentures
Wynlife Healthcare, Inc.
Xango
Xocai
Xooma
Xzotto
Young Living
Essential Oils
Youngevity
Your Travel Biz
(YTB)
Zurvita

Computers

I wouldn't consider myself a computer geek, but I do enjoy my PC...when it works, that is. Last weekend something happened to my computer, it is still being debated whether it was a virus, worm, another microsoft corruption, simple software conflict, etc... It didn't matter because it made my computer useless.

I do have a backup hard drive and I did backup my vital information on it. But through the mess of formating & re-installing windows somehow the windows software switched my default master hard drive with my backup drive, so it formatted my backup drive instead. So I lost everything.

Luckily my wife had backed up on a different source and she didn't lose anything. But I sure did.

I love computers, but when they go bad on me, it gets really ugly.

So now I'm hoping to go a solid week without any thing else breaking. Well, except maybe my confidence.

Stephanie Meyer

I'm only blogging about her because I have read the Twilight books and finally got a copy of The Host on Audio book and now I am preparing myself to give it a listen.

First of all I am not a fan of her as an author or her books so far. I did find myself enjoying parts of the Twilight series, but they were few and far between.

I also saw Twilight the movie in theaters and thought it followed the book pretty well, but I just don't care for the story too much. It is obviously designed for the girl audience. I would give the movie 2 out of 4 stars. Average.

I also agree with Stephen King when he said, "Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn," he said. "She's not very good."

I wouldn't worry too much about Mrs. Meyer's feelings though. I definitely think she will probably make more money than Stephen King, in the end.

SuperBowl Ads

Some people debate over which of the Superbowl Ads were the best...Uh, it was the new transformer trailer!

Movies

I'm going to recap some of the recent movies I have seen and give a brief review.

From best to worst:

1) The Dark Knight

Probably the best movie of 2008. I really liked Batman Begins, so I was already looking forward to this one. It exceeded my expectations. It has gotten great reviews, rightly so in my opinion.

2) Pineapple Express

Great comedy! I wouldn't recommend this for the kids, but I had some serious laughing fits during this movie. I have never done drugs, but I laugh at this movie like I was high. I loved it!

3) Wanted

I liked this movie. It was a movie that you can't take to serious, but the action is awesome. I thought the acting was good too. I definitely recommend this one.

4) Twilight

I've read the books, (I know I'm a pansy) and this movie follows the book rather well in my opinion. Problem is that I thought the book & movie weren't very good. It is geared toward women, plain & simple. I wouldn't recommend this movie or book unless you like the constant "getting lost in each others eyes..." crap.

5) Step Brothers

Had some very funny parts, but very crude & vulgar. I would recommend skipping this one.

6) Eagle Eye

I thought I would love this one, but nope. I thought the action & special effects were great, but the storyline was weak. Simply put, I didn't like this movie at all.

Movies that I really want to see:

1) Bedtime Stories

2) Taken

3) Appaloosa

4) Gran Torino

5) Doubt

6) RocknRolla

Anything I missed?

Review of 24

I'm not going to say a whole lot and just get to the point.

I would give the first 4 hours of season 7: 4 out of 5 stars.

I am very excited about this season. There are already lots of twists & turns to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat.

Great show and highly entertaining. It's good to have Jack back.

The time has come

The long wait is finally over. 24 season 7 is on tonight! Tonight is a 2 hour premiere with another 2 hours tomorrow!

It's on tonight & tomorrow on Fox @ 7pm MTS.

Or you can watch it online here.

Watch for my review later this week!

Oh Yeah!

Do I cancel my Facebook?

I have to vent for a minute...I hate Facebook. Most of my really good friends don't have a facebook page and all of them have laughed out loud when I told them that I had one. I rarely even check the stupid page and when I do I have an enormous list of friend requests, or racing a car, or accepting a hug, or being nominated for one thing or another, it is very irritating.

I'm not bashing any of you that enjoy facebook and spend a lot of time there. More power to you, if it helps you stay connected with friends & family I say do it. But for me it does nothing but annoy me.

I enjoy blogging though, so maybe I'm a hypocrite of sorts. Facebook is not the same as blogging, but they are like 1st cousins.

I have been contemplating dropping my facebook because I think it is crap. I have tried to search out some long lost buddies and none of them are on facebook. But some of my ex-girlfriends are...so maybe I should hook up with them online? Nah.

It seems like most people on either myspace or facebook become competitive of how many friends they can have. Some have over 1,000 friends?!? Really? You know over 1,000 people personally? Maybe you have read "How to win friends & influence people" and applied it beyond all expectations, or you are a liar and a loser. One or the other, take your pick.

What to look forward to in 2009

Now that 2008 is over and 2009 is kickin in I thought I would go over a few things to look forward to in this upcoming year (in no particular order).

1) The possible end of the current economic recession.

2) My room/garage conversion done. (finally, I know!)









3) A whole new season of 24!

4) Guitar Hero - Metallica!!


5) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen











6) Seeing Amberly crawl and possibly take her first steps









That is a pretty good list and it really pumps me up for this next year. Everyone has things that they can look forward to, even if some of them are superficial and dumb.

And for the record, Transformers are not dumb. Those that think Transformers are dumb will get an order of Tom's fresh knuckle sandwich with a side order of butt whoopin.