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Those (2) of you who have been avid followers of my blog since the beginning will remember the sad realization I had a couple years ago when the recession finally hit home

(for the other 2 of you that read this click HERE )

Well, I am happy to announce today that the recession is officially over.

phew. what a relief.

chart humor

I've had a strange fascination lately with humor revolving around graphs and charts.

I think all these MBA classes are to blame...

Gila Valley Temple, AZ

I know this is quite a deviation from my typical posts, but I felt it was blog-worthy.

I had a chance to make it to the Gila Valley Temple open house yesterday afternoon. For those of you who have been down there before, it's RIGHT off the main road that you drive on your way to Safford. It's in a little town called central which is JUST before you hit Thatcher and then into Safford. Beautiful building with incredible detail on the inside.

For those of you who have been to the Newport Beach Temple you'll remember the creation room is painted with a scene from Crystal Cove beach, the creation room at this new Temple is painted in a similar way with a 360 degree view of the Gila River and surrounding desert with Mount Graham in the background. It's beautiful and gives a strong sense of 'place' when you are there. some of the other art work includes paintings of the local area.

random smatterings of things i've seen lately

bowing to the pressure of millions to update my blog, here are a smattering of things i've run across in my recent travels:

1) i realize we all have to make a living somehow. hats off to this guy and his crude, yet innovative, way of doing just that:

2) you've been to google maps, yeah? well, ever wondered how they got all of those street view pictures? there are hundreds of people in the world driving around in cars like this with these cameras attached to the roof documenting Earth, as we know it. my only regret was that this camera wasn't recording when i discovered it.

3) many churches look alike. what is the surest way to know you are at an LDS church building? is it the steeple, well most churches have a steeple. is it the layout or design? well, even many LDS churches look very different from each other. no, the only way to truly know you are at an LDS building is to look in the parking lot about 3 minutes before services begin:

4) it doesn't come across very well on this site but the bumper sticker on the right reads "Les Claypool for President" - if you know me, you understand why i took a picture of this.

5) it's a cliche picture, i know. but this needed to be documented for my eulogy's sake (taken today 07.14.09)

5) this is me, happy.

Recession, you've gone too far.

perhaps i've been callous. perhaps i've been immune.

i've learned to deal with 'fuel surcharges' and 'contingency plans' at work like forced pto and not getting a raise this year. i've seen close friends lose their jobs. i've had people apply to work for me who are well overqualified to do the job they are asking to do - just to make ends meet.

but now, finally, the reality of the recession has hit me:

MOTHERS COOKIES
Oakland, Calif.
Founded: 1916
Closed: October 2008

For more than 90 years, kids in California enjoyed creating parades of Circus Animal Cookies baked by Mother's Cookies, an iconic grocery-store snack brand headquartered in Oakland. But this generation will be the last to munch on the bright-pink frosted animals: Mother's Cookies crumbled on Oct. 6, when the owners abruptly shut down and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

They blamed a variety of economic factors, including the rising costs of fuel, flour, butter and sugar. "It's a tough market in which to find credit," said Barrett Golden, spokeswoman for Catterton Partners, the private equity firm that bought Mother's Cookies a few years ago.

crossing the line

ah, holiday shopping.

it's wonderful to note that the notion of dressing up your animal for the holidays is shared by both Jews and Christians alike.

i hope you get bit.

i'm still behind you

John W. Gardner wrote: “Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the nonpharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.”

i never intended this blog to be collection of novelty license plate pictures with commentary, but i saw this the other day and it just made me really sad.
i don't have any other information about this person apart from this picture that i took (well, and that they shop at Bashas grocery store in Chandler) but the question it brought up in my mind was this: what kind of life are you living if you walk around with this title attached to you? i suppose we all do it in some ways. maybe we do it to shift blame, to avoid consequences, to title our scapegoat, or for justification. but in the end we could ALL label ourselves victims.

but we could also choose to label ourselves conquerors...