Death

Disclaimer: I'm not real sure what I'm trying to say in the following post as I'm trying to sort through my own opinions on the topic. I think it was just important for me to get my thoughts jotted down.

As anybody who lives here in Utah probably knows, Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad approximately 24 hours ago. Gardner escaped from prison in 1984, seriously injuring a guard in the process before murdering a bartender in 1984 and an attorney in 1985 (while attempting to escape from prison yet again). He was sentenced to die and selected the firing squad as the method.

With all the news of Gardner's frantic last minute pleas for a stay, the death penalty has been on my mind a lot lately. My current stand on the death penalty is somewhat neutral. While I don't like it or condone it, I'm not pushing for its abolishment either.

I strongly believe that there are many crimes for which the criminal deserves to die. The question is whether or not any of us here on earth have the God-given right or authority to pass this judgment. I don't think that we do, or at least I would never want any portion of such a decision to weigh upon my mortal conscience. The United States is virtually the only Christian nation that allows for the death penalty. Would Jesus Christ condemn a man to die? (I think that the LORD of the Old Testament would, but not the Savior of the New).

Graphic found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/18/death-penalty-statistics-us-world

What I found especially disturbing in this particular case, was the celebration and excitement the victim's families showed when Gardner's final appeals were rejected. While they see Gardner's death as closure (many of them witnessed the execution), I find it sad that this grief/grudge/hatred has been festering in their lives for the last 25 years. As a disclaimer, I have never had to forgive somebody for killing a family member (or worse crime), so I cannot speak specifically to the pain that they have had to endure. My only hope is that as tragedies or criminal acts impact me in my life, I will have the strength to forgive and move on (not to say that justice should not be served and punishments handed out).

I find myself becoming more compassionate as I embrace democratic principles and have the opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life. If the death penalty is to be used, it should be saved for the most heinous of crimes and only used when the identity of the criminal is known without a doubt (which actually probably justifies it for RLG).

I realize that all circumstances are different. I do not judge those who seek death as retribution.

Your thoughts?

Unmoderated Thoughts

We just got back from a fun little family trip to La Verkin and Las Vegas (we tagged along with Morgan, Jordan and Brynlee) and I had a few thoughts that I wanted to post.

• We went to Church this morning in La Verkin and I counted no less than 11 men wearing bolo ties. No offense to the cowboys out there but...
• When we are in La Verkin we stay in my great-grandparents old house (that is now owned by my grandparents). We're so grateful to them for sharing their house and allowing us to take a cheap vacation. When we got there Wednesday night, the house had been toilet-papered and there was toilet paper all over the grass and in the trees and bushes in front of the house. wth? [what the heck, people]
  
• Last month we spent upwards of $1300 keeping our two cars running (25 years and "all most" 320,000 miles between them). We were nervous about driving home tonight because our car is suffering from a couple of misfiring cylinders (and our fuel economy dropped from 30 mpg to 22 mpg). Hopefully, the news tomorrow from the shop will be for an inexpensive fix.
• We took a pleasant drive up to Lava Point in Zion National Park (elev. 7,890). As far as I know, it's the only place in the park you can get to without having to pay the $25 entrance fee. I'll post a couple of panoramic photos that I took from the viewpoint in 6 months or so.
• We went to the Brick Oven in St. George for dinner on Saturday night and sat waiting for a waiter for 20 minutes. I found a manager who was embarrassed we had waited so long and gave us drinks and desserts on the house.
  
• When we got home this evening I checked our sprinkler controller and the date & time had been reset. I went to set the date and the default year setting is 1887 - so I had to scroll up 1 year at a time to 2010. I had no idea they had programmable sprinkler controllers back then.
• I'm reading The Death of a President, November 20 - November 25, 1963 by William Manchester and am loving it. The book essentially spans 5 days from the time President John F. Kennedy and his wife left on their Texas trip to his assassination and State Funeral. From reading this book and biographies or historical accounts of other presidents, I have come to the conclusion that to be president you have to be amazing and have qualities that allow you to connect with people on a personal level while maintaining the bigger picture in view. (I'm not sure if that makes sense, so let me know if I need to elaborate).
• Work is busy (I'm not complaining), but I am looking forward to slower days. Up until this last week, I had 8 straight weeks where I worked 52 hours+. From the looks of things, this schedule will have to continue for a couple more weeks. I'm blessed to have a job that I enjoy working at every day.

As Tigger says, ttfn (tata for now).

State of the Blog

January is the month to learn the "State of the (...city, county, state, union, blog, etc.)". I just thought I would join in on the fun before my chance passed me by.

The last few months have had a lot of blog-worthy events.

During the months of July, August and September I taught a series of 9 courses on managing your finances. I kept a blog where I posted information for the class including the handouts, slides and other course materials. While the blog hasn't been updated since I taught my last class, there is still a bunch of good information available there. The classes that I taught (using liberally the slides, handouts and information from the fantastic websites http://personalfinance.byu.edu and http://www.thesimpledollar.com) were the following:

1. Perspectives on Wealth and Setting Personal Goals
2. Creating a Personal/Family Budget
3. Understanding Credit
4. Understanding Debt
5. The Time Value of Money
6. Beginning Investing
7. Insurance
8. Money in Marriage
9. Frugality Tips and tricks

What managing your finances really comes down to though, is one thing, which is summed up in the following Saturday Night Live skit:


This fall I upgraded my work laptop and our home computer to Windows 7 and couldn't be more pleased. While I had very few problems with Windows Vista (on my work laptop) I have found Windows 7 to be extremely easy to use. My two favorite features is the auto-update of programs and drivers and the new taskbar. Every piece of hardware that I have connected to my computer has worked without fail once the software updates everything automatically. The new taskbar setup saves time by allowing me to place my most used programs and links across the bottom of the screen.

This fall I also got a new Palm Pre which I have also become very fond of. I most like that the phone is open source and can be hacked as needed. While not without its problems, the capabilities of the phone are essentially greater than the new Apple iPad in that it has multitasking, GPS, video and editing, full flash support and can handle programs written in C, C++ or using the Palm developer's kit.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were nice. It is always fun to spend so much time with family as we enjoy the various activities of the season.

Work is great. Have I mentioned recently how much I enjoy my job? Because I do. I'm working on interesting and challenging projects and am lucky to have work here with the state of the economy and construction industry in the state.

I have been serving as Elder's Quorum President in my ward here for the last two months or so and have enjoyed getting to know the members of our ward. It has taken an extra effort to organize my time and priorities, but is well worth it.

In other words, even though the glory days of this here blog may be behind us, there is still a lot going on in life and I hope to continue posting about the good things in life. As is usually the case, Alison has continued to update her blog with pictures, stories and information about our last few months.

Flag Friday - U.S.S. Constitution

While in Boston some years ago we simply had to visit the U.S.S. Constitution aka Old Ironsides.

Flag Friday - Utah Jazz

Ah yes. The Jazz and and their old logo. I got this pennant when Karl Malone's big rig came to the Smith's by my house and I waited in a long line to have him and Mike Brown sign it.

Flag Friday - Great Smoky Mountains

Yep. This week's edition is all about the Great Smoky Mountains. That's a place that I would like to visit again and spend some quality time in the area. Just beautiful.

Flag Friday - Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw) is a fun little island in the strait separating Michigan's upper peninsula from its lower peninsula. No cars are allowed on the island, the Grand Hotel has the world's longest covered porch and the little island is very popular with the tourist crowd. If I remember correctly, they've got some pretty good ice cream as well.

Flag Friday - Final Four

Yeah, back in the 90's the Utes were pretty good. They even made the final four once and easily beat North Caroline in the first game. They played Kentucky for the championship and had a 10 point lead at halftime before choking. Maybe Boylen can take them back to where they belong.

Go Utes!

Utah Utes:

• 5-1 all time against TCU, with the only loss coming in overtime
• 7-0 all time in games where both they and their opponent are ranked in the AP top 25
• Win the big games: 13-10 last year against TCU and 34-17 against Alabama last year. Beat Louisville this year.
• 2 Undefeated seasons in the last 6 years.
• Won 29 of the last 31 games
• 16-20 point underdogs in this game
  
• Have more than 600 wins in their football history, with an overall winning percentage of .586 (placing them 36th all time)
• Only school in the BCS era to have two undefeated seasons
• One of 5 schools to have two BCS game wins in the last 5 years
• One of seven school to have two top 5 finishes in the last 5 years
  
• Their "Superfan of the game" a few weeks ago:

Pros of the Utes winning:

• Opens up a three-way race for the conference title between Utah, TCU and BYU, with Utah in the driver's seat.
• Probably allows Utah to move up into the top 12 of the BCS standings, making them eligible for an at-large bid to the BCS (although we know that won't happen)
• The Utes continue their winning tradition and domination of the conference
• Keeps Texas as one of the most fertile recruiting areas for the Utes

Pros of the Utes losing:

• Virtually guarantees TCU a spot in a BCS game.
• The Mountain West Conference gets a $13 million payout, with each team in the conference getting around $1.3-1.5 million.
• The Mountain West proves that one of its teams belongs in the top 5 and that the conference should have an automatic bid every season.
• Keeps TCU ranked ahead of all other hopeful BCS Busters
• Keeps TCU in the national championship picture if the right teams lose.

Some of the better (i.e. more interesting) signs from College Game Day on the Quad in front of Amon G. Carter Stadium:

• Utah Utes - Mormon Fruits
• What's the difference between the Utes and Cheerios? Cheerios belong in a bowl
• Lee Corso sits down to pee
• We pity Salt Lake City
• Toadally going to Crush the Utes
• Fear the Murtleneck
• Top Coached University
• Jerry Hughes is my facebook friend
• Hughes your Daddy
• Utalk the talk we Walk the Walk
  

Hoping for the best, expecting the worst. I hope Desmond, Kirk and Corso are wrong, Go Utes!

Now, if only I could get CBS College Sports in HD on Comcast...

Flag Friday - Salt Lake 2002

Yeah, I wasn't around for the Olympics, but I'm still getting excited for Vancouver 2010. I'll get the chance to go someday.