The Endorsement

Dane has decided to make it official. While weighing the virtues of political neutrality up to this point, he's taken the gloves off now.

He's throwing his full support behind the man he thinks can really change the country: Stephen Colbert!

Here's the ringing endorsement:

"I think he'd make a nice president... He's got a wife, he's got kids... even though he cusses a lot."

In a statement, Mr. Colbert thanked Dane for his willingness to take a stand and for his unfailing patriotism. "Personally, I think that's the best endorsement any candidate could hope for: a full disclosure of my warts, with an acknowledgement that they aren't the entirety of what I have to offer, that there are virtues deeper than the surface."

D.A.R.E. To Say It Like It Is

Dane recently completed the D.A.R.E program at school. It's a national substance abuse prevention program. As part of the requirements, Dane had to write a report about resisting drug use.

Something you may not know about Dane, he watches the Today Show on NBC every day while getting ready for school. He's become kind of a news junkie. He knows a ton about what's going on in the world. He also watches Stossel and The Colbert Report.

You may remember that Dane (then age 7) posited that Barack Obama became President because he stopped smoking, which it turns out is not the case, incidentally. With all the GOP primaries on the news Dane reminded us that President Obama was elected by the people (Dane's leaning toward an endorsement of Stephen Colbert as the South Carolina Primary approaches) and Michelle Obama says PBO didn't stop smoking until early 2010.

With that background, I give you Dane's D.A.R.E. Report (unedited):

Some people think drugs, alcohol and smoking is fun, like Obama did. But, he eventually quit smoking. Drugs are not playthings, but people still use them illegaly. Did you know that in thirty days twenty percent of eighth-grade students drink alcohol? To much drinking can cause death. Smoking can turn your lungs black. Don't be a fool, smoking isn't cool. So don't get involved i alcohol, drugs, violence and crime. Dare to resist. Don't smoke, drink, or take drugs. All of these will do this --> (hand drawn)I, Dane Anderson swear to stay drug free.

Thanks, Dane. We have no further comment.

Great Quotes!

Here are a couple choice samples from our house recently.

Tate was at school and had pushed the boundaries with his Special Ed. Teacher. The established response was that the Teacher would call Cyndie to discuss the situation.

Teacher: Hi, Cyndie. Teacher here. We've got a small problem at the ice cream social here at the school.
Cyndie: OK. What's going on?

Tate (in the background): Abort the call! Abort! Abort! Abort the call!

Teacher and Cyndie: (Trying not to laugh!)
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Have you been to McDonald's recently? Hope not. But if you have, you'll identify with this next one.

With mounting pressure from government and other entities about the obesity level in the US, Happy Meals now come with obligatory apple slices and a severly reduced fry serving. Cyndie explained this to Dane when he earned a recent Happy Meal.

Despite the pre-emptive planning, Dane was not thrilled with the small box of fries. (Aside: I was going to keep the container and post a picture here, but the Dog got it and chewed it up before I could take the pic). Dane wailed "Why, why do they do this to me?"

Cyndie explained that it was due to government pressure and health requirements. Dane began shaking his fist in the air and cried, "Curse you Government!" No word on whether he's forming a militia.
***************************

Finally, here's a look into the power of media:

Tate informed us that our good friend Greg Hefley has assured him that while school wrestling is totally fake, the stuff on TV with masks and chairs, etc. is 100% totally the Real Deal.

OK, Tate, whatever you say.

Zero Hour! Hawaiian Vacation

On the way home from Rock Climbing club tonight, I was treated to the following:

And you're Zero whistling Aloha Oe while you discover that it's hard to do the Hula with no arms or legs, so you just put fresh fruit on your head and continue dancing.

Because apparently while the Hula requires limbs, they are optional for putting fresh fruit on your head.

Too Many Daves

In the fall of 1990, I was a freshman in college. I lived on the 3100 floor of Hinckley Hall on the north end of the BYU campus. Freshman year in college is a unique experience for lots of reasons.

Freshman year in a dorm at a Mormon university named for the Prophet who lead said Mormons from the banks of the Missouri River to the Salt Lake Valley in the Rocky Mountains takes that to a whole different level.

You have a bunch of guys from all over who are preparing to go serve as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not exclusively (some had already returned from service, and some opted not to go), but we're talking about 90% or more, so you're dealing with a super majority by any definition.

If I sat down to count, I could probably still name 80% of the guys on that floor. I think the nicknames were the best. There were a bunch of Daves. You know, like Dr. Seuss's Too Many Daves! But instead of renaming them Hoos-Foos, and Zanzibar, and Oliver Boliver Butt, we just gave each a qualifier. And we were 18, so there's some context for you.

Four-Letter Dave swore. All the time. He also look remarkably like Robin Williams.

Dave Who Plays the Guitar was a budding musician. He also roomed with Four-Letter Dave.

The Other Dave was a friend of Four Letter and Guitar. His sister or cousin (can't recall) was in our sister dorm, Merrill Hall. Not sure where he lived, but he was in our dorm all the time.

Dave From Kaysville really wanted us to name him Dave From Hawaii because he'd worked there picking pineapples the summer before college. But you don't get to pick your own nickname. Ask George Costanza.

There was another Dave. I can't remember either his last name or his nickname. It may have been something as lame as "Gorshe's Roommate". He camped all the time and had a ton of gear. He and his Scott Gorshe were from Enid, OK.

Perhaps the most unfortunate qualifier was given to Mousey Dave. He didn't look like a mouse, but he was really timid and quiet as the proverbial church mouse.

Finally, there was Second Floor Dave who, as you might have suspected, did reside one floor below us in dear old Hinckley Hall. SFD's room mate, Bill, was feeling mighty left out until he went shopping and came back with a bunch of flannel shirts and work boots. He immediately became Lumberjack Bill. But I digress.

I think about those dorm days every so often. I run into a guy here or there. I'm Facebook friends with some. I've even tried to hire a couple of their brothers. There were lots of lessons learned. Lots of growth. And by the end of the year, lots of missionaries. Across the world and in our backyard. Some of the 2000 Stripling Warriors.

If you are bored, here's a shot at remembering who lived on that floor:

• Charles "Chuck" was the RA. He got married and left at the semester break and Rand Kerr moved in. We gave both of them a run for their $$. Kepi Heimuli was the RA on the second floor. He kept the peace.
  


• Matt Busselburg - played guitar too & Tom Nay - skied. Both from MD.
  


• Sean and his roommate who were swimmers and got up way to early for practice.


• Don van Tassle - wrestled


• Dan Nabrotzky & Jeremie McKee - ballers to the max. from Corona, CA


• Tom Cannon - an artist & ?? Campbell who served his mission with my BIL in Germany.


• Jared Jenkins - studied architecture and served with me in Argentina.


• Jason Christensen - to this day, probably the smartest guy I know. Successful entrepreneur today.


• Justin McHood - my roommate. Cool guy that was a natural at sports.


• Chad Garring & Steve Jones - from SoCal. Great athletes. Chad played HS hoops with the NBA's Tracy Murray


• Jared Cowley(?) played baseball & Paul ? played the Tuba


• The Bretts: Rawlins and Dew. Dew played football; Rawlins, the ladies. Dew moved out at semester and guess who moved in, yep, a Dave. He was either the New Dew or Snake owing to a tatoo.
  


• The aforementioned Scott Gorshe
  


• Keith Haraguchi & Kenji Toda - quiet guys. Kenji was from Japan.
  


• "Big" Brian Marshall - a "Guardian of Morality" from Shelly ID. When I saw Napoleon Dynamite, it all made sense. Incredibly smart. & Chris Powell - a math and computer wiz before the rest of us knew how important that would be.
  


• Wyatt ? & Sean Foster (?) - perhaps the oddest pairing, They were just so different


• Jeremy ? & Eric Davis - from Dallas (PESH) and LOVED bass from big speakers.
  


• Derek Todd - mountain man, driest sense of humor ever. & Scott "Surfer Bob" Yurchison. Yurchison: it's not just a name, it's a way of life.
  

So apologies to those I've forgotten. If you know, comment and remind me.

Zero Hour! and My Social Media Fast

This one came while we were sitting together at Cold Stone Creamery for a little family outing to use a coupon before it expired!

"And you're Zero, watching a science video about good and bad bacteria while enjoying your yogurt."


And in a poorly-segued change of topic, many of you readers are aware that I embarked on a social media fast during the month of July. Why would you do such a thing, you ask? I'll give you a little insight and some learning points.

Rationale:

• I probably "browse" too much. Between Facebook and my favorite BYU Sports sites, and various blogs, I could spend too much time perusing information that, while interesting, informative, and/or smile-inducing, isn't critical to my existence.
• I chose July (and I chose it during the last week of June) because I felt that August wouldn't be a good month for 2 reasons: 1) I was gone without internet access while at scout camp for a full week, and 2) Football started and I wanted to read camp updates (which Cyndie picked up on before I even explained it to her, so point made).
• It's summer, there's a lot of other stuff to do when I am not a work.
  
• My wife is pretty anti-social media. She plans to be the last person on earth without a Facebook account. I have a few friends that want to do the same. They've talked of forming a group, just as long as they don't have to do too much to sustain it (quarterly dinner for example, but I'm not sure they'd get it coordinated). I wanted to see the world from their viewpoint.
  

Rules:

• No social media for the month of July
• My initial plan was to check personal email weekly (work email isn't social media, yo), but I figured out that people were trying to get a hold of me and I needed to respond, so I checked my personal email daily (but usually only once at lunch and once at night) and responded to texts (which were mostly for my church responsibilities).
  
• News sites were OK, but only to further investigate news I had become aware of.
  
• I'm the boss, so I can mutate rules if needed
  

Learning points:

• While I am goal oriented, I am better at denial goals (I swore off pop in 2009 and now rarely drink it) than proactive goals (I have a hard time getting in serious exercise every day).
  
• Social media is all around us. There's really no escaping it. We all engage in it to some degree every day.
  
• I can live without it, but I may feel disconnected. I missed some updates... and some events (was there a Swim Herschel Swim reunion?) Please forgive me.
  
• I read more, spent time with the family, did lots of yard work, and watched some old TV on Netflix with Cyndie, but not a ton (see proactive goal difficulty above).

All in all, it was a worthwhile experiment and experience. I do less "browsing" now. But here's the thing: I have friends (both the real kind like Joel, Ryan, and Rick and the Facebook kind like Cougar Tracks and Cougar Corner) who compile great information that I want, but save me the time of searching it out myself.

I will likely realize insights, or come up with learning points and post them later. In the mean time, see you in the ether.

T-Shirts and Stickers and Buttons and Such...

Cyndie was looking for some diabetes awareness material the other such merchandise and came across www.cafepress.com, a site with all kinds of schwag for diabetes, autism and other conditions.

Some choice excerpts from the site:

• WARNING! Tendency to be brutally honest. Strong Opinions and Passion may Offend.
  
• Keep Staring! It may cure my autism. Then we can work on YOUR social skills.
  
• Eye Contact Is Overrated.
• Cure Neurotypicals Now!
  
• Fingertips of Steel.
• Type 1: The Real Diabetes
• Unless Your Pancreas Doesn't Work, Stop Whining!
• Yes, I am diabetic. Yes, I have tested. Yes, I know this is candy. Yes, I can eat it. Yes, I even took a shot. BACK OFF!

I read an article a year or so ago stating that women's groups were choosing more crass names as monikers for their Susan G. Komen and other Breast Cancer Awareness/Cure fundraising teams. As a general rule, I see more and more advocacy groups doing the same.

The rationale, as I understand it, is that the crassness creates a "tougher than the disease" mentality. Not sure if the tougher than you persona actually does anything, but it does make for some funny shirts. And some laughs when you might otherwise cry.

Hunk-cules and Turning over new leaves

We went to the Desert Star Playhouse today. It's a place we take the kids a couple-three times each year to get them exposed to some culture (and comedy) in a place they can't do too much damage. Although we did send a glass of Sprite and ice sailing over a bannister today...

Anywho, today's feature was "Hunk-cules (I'm Too Sexy For My Toga)".

At one point the princess, betrothed to a man that was not her true love, ran into the audience to find the Amazon Queen (apparently she could not be found on amazon.com). She came right up to our table and Dane was able to help her find the fugitive!

After the ordeal, Dane looked at his mom and said, "I finally spoke to a princess. A real princess!" And then he whispered, "Everything is so clear now!"

As we were reminiscing about the hilarity of it all tonight, Dane dropped this gem: "I'm turning over a new leaf, getting a clean slate, living my life on the lam." And we thought he was looking forward to starting school on Monday! Oye!

Zero Hour! Conjoined Ghost Puppies

... and you're Zero, conjoined with another ghost puppy (at this point Tate and Dane touch their heads together, followed by a puppy "yip" from Dane). But don't worry, you're dead, so you're easily separated!

Zero Hour!

I've been on a social media fast. I decided the last week of June that July would be a cold-turkey, go-off-it-all month. I'll post more on that later.

Interestingly enough, Tate took a bit of a hiatus in his Zero game that you didn't miss much while I abstained from blogging. He's conveniently re-started the game, with an intensified complexity!


...and you're Zero in 1937 in the third pilot seat with Fred Noonan and Amelia Erhart, not paying attention to the coming storm.

...and I'm holding the just-been-born puppy Zero and all of the adult ghost dogs are amazed because he's the first baby ghost puppy ever.

...Zero, the ghost puppy, presents "Ghost Puppy Tunes 2"! Including Zero, singing "Smoke On The Water".