The Gum Tree for 2004

Thanks to Leonard, I now have the opportunity to share my experiences and my life.

Just in order to introduce us, (Joe and Louise), we live in Provo, UT and we both are attending Uni. I am in Neuroscience and Louise is in Linguistics. Our plans for the future are; Graduate in April, go to Louisianna for a masters degree for Louise for a year after that, and once Louise is done (or almost done) with her school I will enroll in Medical school. That is us for now. As for today, it has been pretty boring. I was able to set up this weblog with Leonard, and I have also been doing various things at work to fill up time. Louise has been going to Salt Lake every day for training in using the long white cane and Braille, and she has enjoyed that quite a bit. I hope that all of you are doing well.

Well, Yesterday was a fine day. We got up in the morning with plans to do many things. Louise was going to go to Salt Lake for the last of her training and also for a meeting with a counselor for something. Well the counselor called and cancelled her meeting, and Louise had already taken the day off from work. I also didn't have much going on se we decided to take a day off and go to Park City. We enjoyed the ride, and since Louise had never read Farernheit 451 we borrowed that from the Library and listned to that on our drive. There's nothing like a good book and a beautiful drive through the lakes and mountains of the countryside. I also wanted her to get a taste of the allusion that Michael Moore was making in his "Op-Edumentary" (to quote the maker of the movie), and I also got a better idea of how the themes of that book have been intertwoven into other cultural fabrics. We also borrowed the Grapes of Wrath to listen to later. It is interesting to see all the things that we take for granted in our fusion of cultures. Differences have been good in our relationship because they help us to get a better angles at making decisions. We came home and after cleaning up a bit we decided to cap off our day by watching a descriptive movie "Terms of Endearment" (a movie that has the descriptions of the visual cues that blind people miss) that we had mailed to us from the State library. Even though it is rated PG and won five Acadamy Awards, we didn't like it that much and decided to turn it off and go to bed. It was partly a distaste of the style as well as the substance that didn't quite satisfy our palate. We got a quick update of the DNC and then it was off to dreamland. Today will be back to work and back to routine.

Nothing really notable happened today. Louise received what is called a "Pac Mate" in the mail for her schooling. It is basically a pocket PC, and we are excited because it has a refreshable braille display that allows Louise to be able to read. Louise is now reading the Book of Mormon in Braille for family scripture study, and even though it is taking a while it is good to see her learn how to read independant of a huge magnifier. Other than that it is life as normal. It is also good to hear that Francis is out, and hopefully she will be able to come to Utah to see us all.

Yesterday Louise and I bought a couple of DVD's to watch and to have. After having gone to Australia and learned so much (but not quite as much as I would have liked, however,) I wanted to get Louise more interested in the history of the U.S.A. We are listening to The Grapes of Wrath on audiobook and now we also bought the DVD of the Henry Fonda movie (that also has a few historical commentary as well). We also got Lawrence of Arabia and I am enjoying that quite a bit. Concurrently, we are also interested in all of the hoopla that comes from the politicking and sometimes specious arguments of both political camps. Coincidentally, I saw an interview of Ben Affleck by O'He Who Shall Not Be Named. I gained a lot of respect for Affleck and his political persuasions. It's refreshing to see somebody in Showbiz that at least can get a valid argument out if not more than that. Now, today was a day for me to focus on my goal of running. I am proud of myself because I ran for a Whole hour from our house to I-15. I am starting to be able to run at my desired levels of time, but ostensibly I still have a way's to go having a bit of flab that slows me down a bit. It is nice to get a little bit of physical activity out and invigorate the body. I think that I may try a marathon in the time that Louise is in school when we go down to Louisianna. We shall see if I can pull it off. We are also sorry to hear that we lost Elder Haight. Two apostles in one week is a bit of a suprise, but I suppose that is all part of the system. Nothing much else has happened with us. We are just having a good time doing what we do.

It has been a good commencement of another week. Fast Sunday was nice. I spent most of my time after church installing a new hard drive that I bought. I had never done anything like that before, and it was very educational. I had a lot of fun learning about the circuits and the plugs. I always enjoyed working with my hands, and I discovered how very easy it is to build a computer with a little training. Perhaps next job will be to get a wireless card and router and install that so that I can have a home network.

The reason for the new hard drive is because in the next month or so I am going to work on some family photos and scrap booking as well as fileing away all of my music on the computer. Mom is going to come into town the 23rd of August and she is going to bring all of the family negatives so that I can scan them in and make CD’s for everybody. I originally wanted to salvage all of my mission photos, but Mom talked me into doing all of the family’s photos. I think that it will be a nice stroll down memory lane.

Today I am also really excited because I found a source for my Botox. I received a grant to work on the mechanism of botox in In Vitro models, but I haven’t until today found a source for Botulinum toxin. I need the light chain because the full version is too dangerous for me to work with, and nobody I knew of made it. I have been trying for about 8 months to get the protein, and now I can proceed. Work is rewarding, but I find that I need to be better organized.

Louise is in Salt Lake for her last day of training and meetings today as well. She has to meet with her Vocational Rehab manager and then she will be done. It will be nice to have her back in Provo during the day. Louise is making great strides in her learning of Braille. I am gratified and consider myself fortunate to have snagged such a catch as Louise.

In honor of Louise having finished Farenheit 451 I have a word of the Day:

Noctivagant---Wandering at night.

There was a storm last night and the power went out. Needless to say that our alarm clock didn’t go off and we had a nice little sleep in. Work was good today. Tonight I will be with the Scouts and that should be good. We are going to plan something to do for this Saturday’s Scout Day Camp. I also found an interesting little website that archived all of the Presidential Campaigns from 1952 to the present. I would recommend it. The site is: Living Room Candidate I hope that the link came up. I am still learning. The site has some memorable ad’s Such as the “I like Ike” jingle and the 1964 “Daisy ad” that is intended to show how Goldwater was not to be trusted with nuclear weapons. I love the line “We must either love each other or we must die.” I really never realized how cutthroat and accusatory politics were back in the Pre-McCain-Feingold days of Campaign advertisements (see Nixon’s second election campaign ad’s). Not much else is happening. Louise and I are just prepping for school. We also visited my Grandpa yesterday. He is just as sparky and sober as always. It was a nice visit. I think that he really likes visiting with Louise especially. That is basically how it is with the rest of my family. I think that it will also probably be the same for our children. That is OK because Louise likes to be with me. Grandpa is healing from a nasty little fall, and he is excited to have David when he comes up after his mission. Well, that’s it for me for today

This morning I woke up at around 6:30 and I have never felt better. I lied awake for a few minutes and got up invigorated in a way that I haven’t felt in a while. It reminded me of the early mornings when I was in Nicaragua arising with the sun after a good nights sleep that was also after a hard days work. A funny thing happened last night as well. I went to scouting as is usual and we went swimming at Provo High for our activity. I then came home and went on a run. I was only going to go for a 30 min. run, but as I was out there I decided to go for 20 min. out and 20 back. As turned around I increased the pace a bit to see what my body could take. I slipped easily into a clip and was probably running a good 6-7 min. mile. I made the run back home in about 14 min. A beautiful thunderstorm was amassing around the ridges of the mountain allowing brief flashes that lit the sky behind silhouetting their massive girth. In the midst of the clamor of the mountains the valley skies were reticent and lucid in contrast. The light from the stars shined through the crystal sky, and from the side of the mountain you could see the warm lights of the many homes across the valley. I felt as if I could go up in the mountain woods and find a campfire that was surrounded by people and sit with them. We could sit in quiet reverence listening in communion to life while the phony trappings of modern materialism wafting away with the smoke. It was an invigorating night, and a pleasant start of the next day. The air is full of childlike anticipation for something that is to come but that is not quite known. I guess it is the Indian summer that is getting to me, or perhaps it is the abundance that I have from time well employed. Nothing makes me happier than a productive, worthwhile life.

The weekend was an eventful one for us in our humble family. Friday Louise received a call from her sister Geneal who had just come in to Utah from Boston. They are finally finished with Medical school, residency, and fellowships. Her husband Russ is an orthopaedic surgeon and he accepted a job in Murray so it looks as if they are going to settle down there for good. We went up to Russ's fathers house to celebrate Sarah's (our little niece) 7th Birthday. We all went out and took their bloodhound for a little walk after all of the cake and festivities were over. It is nice seeing them again. They are a cute family, and boy am I glad that Louise has some good genes in her because of my scarcity of such things (no offense to family--I am only talking about myself, which I am sure that you all would agree ;). Saturday was also quite a day for me. I was part of a scout day camp activity that took all day. I was the only scout leader from my ward so I stayed to keep down the fort. I did a pretty fun compass class that involves a blanket over the head and an obstacle course. That was pretty fun. I was also a little tired afterwards. Aaron also took the DAT and got a 22, congrats. We all had a barbeque at Dad's house to celebrate. Now I am ready for the rest of the week.

Today I learned something interesting. Three months or so ago there was an 18 year old kid associated with the "Strait Edgers" which is a subgroup of the ALF (animal liberation front who vandalized BYU's agri/horticulture buildings. He went into the animal holding area and stole all of the rabbits and various other animals. At the same time he vandalized the buildings by spray painting his various vulgarities and such on the walls. Well, He took the rabbits and other furry friends home to be "protected" from the evils of science research and commercial animal cruelty. What he didn't know was that the animals had tracking/labeling chips implanted on them for the research that was going on before he took them to his house. Well the FBI searched for the animals using these chips and it just so happened that they found this neighbors dog who had the chip in his stomach, and with a little more investigation they found out that it was from a rabbit that escaped from this kids house next door.(so much for trying to protect the rabbits). The rest of the story that he was just sentinced to 5 years. Today I just happened to be working on a Rat Brain Prep where we took the brains from rats to isolate Acetylcholine vessicles from them. It took all day, and now I am off to swim with the scouts. It will be a nice day to swim.

This was a nice weekend for Louise and I. We went to the graduation of a Friend Adam Rushforth, and then visited with the family afterwords. We all went to Red Robin to eat and celebrate. He graduated Magna Cum Lade, and gave the speech. He was reading Braille and lost his place at the beginning so he had to wing it for 15 min. in front of hundreds of people. I think he did a great job thought and I couldn't even tell that he wasn't going by his notes. As for us, we did a few things around. Louise and I had talks at church so we did that most of saturday. We also watched the Olympics. Louise just loves to see her country take gold. I think that I am also rooting for the aussies a little bit because they are really the underdog. For a country that has a population of 20 million to beat out others (like China and USA) that have many more people is remarkable. Besides, I like the underdogs. It will be good to see Francis and Mom next week as well.

Today was spent at the lab again. I read some papers and figured out the concentrations that I need for a botox experiment tomorrow. A team of us are trying to get some good data for a conference that will be held febuary at Long Beach, CA. It would be nice if I could contribute to that. Louise went DI Shopping today (thrift). She took the Credit Card and boy did she go wild. (If anybody knows Louise, you would know how thrifty she is :) You know, I really am lucky that she is so responsible with money. She helps me to not be so spendy. We also had a lively conversation about who were the most influential people of all time. A friend of mine has this book by Robert Hart, and we used the website http://www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html to fuel the debate. My biggest beef was that he put JFK in the top 80's of the list, and while I support that he was a good president he certainly wasn't as influential as Lincoln (not on the list) or FDR or even Truman who dropped the A-Bomb. These were presidents who were influential for good or bad. You also have to read his criteria for ranking the people. Hitler was in the top 40's for example. Mohommad was #1, and we had a pretty good debate over that. No blood was shed, and we are still on talking terms so a little vigorous conversation did us some good.

No, but we are just about there. Louise and I went to a peruvian restaurant yesterday. It is called "La Carrera" and it was pretty good. I think I would like to make my own food for the cost, however. I also received a call from the Hospital today to go and work as a volunteer. I will work the 9p.m. to 1a.m. shift on wednesdays. I also think that I will go in to work on Sunday same time if that works out better. I have to get a bunch of shots this week.

Kristen is just about ready to pop, and therefore, Mom is here to help when the little one comes. I picked her up on Monday at around 2:00 p.m. We then went to Stan Watts sculpture studio to look at some sculptures that the Prestige family from San Antonio had commissioned for a cancer center they are building. At Stan's workshop we also were able to see a few statues and monuments in progress. Stan was working on the Ronald Reagen monument for the Ronald Reagen National Library. He is also working on a Sept 11th monument that will end up being 50 Feet Tall. It is just amazing to me. His bread and butter work is mostly with Latter-day Saint Temples. He showed us some beautiful door handles and plates that he has placed in temples like the Manhattan, Nauvoo, Palmyra, and currently the San Antonio, TX Temple. I will never open a door in the temple again without thinking of Stan Watts. It is interesting to think that the Prophet dedicates his finished work in the temples. We are shifting into high gear as well right now with school right around the corner. I think that I will really enjoy this year of school. I have quite a bit to do, but I will manage well I think. I have also started playing a little bit of Basketball each morning with some friends. There are only 4 of us and we would invite more people if it were not for the fact that all of us are pretty poor in the coordination area. We do well for ourselves playing for an hour each day without being humiliated by somebody that can actually play well. Yesterday I also saw a couple of friends from my freshman Dorm. My old roomate Aaron was with Jen, and we had a nice little reaquaintance.

I arose today and left about 7:00 a.m. to go to play some basketball and at that time Kristen was just about ready to go to the hospital. She is now there and we are just waiting for the word to go and see the little bambina. I hope that everything moves smoothly. I am also getting ready for a canoeing trip up to Salt Lake City's Antelope Island. The Scouts are excited to go there, and I think that we will have a good time. The weather lately has been sunny and cool with short bursts of wind. It will be a cold night, and I will have to pack my cold weather bag and clothes. We hope to do some swimming as well. Well, School has come once again. I always feel that Fall semester is my best semester. I think my Fall GPA is a whole 0.1 point above my winter semester's GPA, and I hope that those facts carry me through this semester. I am taking three medical school level classes, and if I am able to ace those, it will look very favorable on my applications. I learned from my not having taken all the AP classes that I could have taken in high school. The better prepared I will be the better it will be for my schooling. By all accounts I am optimistic about this next year. There will be adventures galore. Thanksgiving will be a treat going to San Antonio, and just 9 days after that the end of fall semester will come. Christmas will also prove to be very enjoyable as we will probably spend it with Russ and Geneal. I think that a little skiing and Playing in the Snow are in order for this winter which will probably be our last White Winter for a long time. In Febuary we will probably go to D.C. again for Washington Seminar, and then the glory of graduation. Louise's Parents will be in town for that, and then we shall see where we decide to move. The only thing for me, however, is that I need to keep up the work, and work hard in order to make the grade and succeed in my future plans.

And I am going full throttle. Today started off at 5:35 a.m. when I got up to get ready for the Gym. I go to play some basketball at 6:00 with some friends, and perhaps I will also do some cardio/weight training. I always feel great working out. After that came the classes. I am taking Political Sci 202 (history of modern political thought)--with Louise at 8:00 a.m. I think that I will really Pol Sci, it is an honors class and it seems that the teacher is top notch. Then it is off to Biochemistry with a newly hired professor. I am grateful that I will be taking it from him and not from Prof. Graves who is much more unforgiving on his tests. After that it was Advanced Neuroscience. I will really enjoy that class, but I think that it will take all the time I can give it. It is funny, All of my teachers said that I am supposed to spend 3 hrs of work out of class for every hour in class to be able to get A's. That means that with my 15 credits of in class time I will spend 45 hours of out of class work. Added up that is 60 hours/week. Then take into account 20 hrs of work so that I can actually pay for the food I eat and that turns into 80 hrs. Calculate in about 6 hrs a day for sleep, 24 hours for church, scouts, scripture study, Service at the Hospital, FHE, etc., and about 14 hours for eating/showering and I only have about 8 hours left in the week for all other things (grocery shopping, extra sleep etc.) I think that I have enough time for everything, but sometimes it sure seems cramped. I also went in for my security badge today at the hospital as well as my shots and volunteer uniform. It appears that I am Tuberculosis negative and my Hepatitis C is boosted up. I like the badge. It has the area where I will be working, ER trauma, and my name and picture. I can also access certain doors as well. I am also sad because I will not have enough time to watch the RNC. Oh Well. As for everything else, it was nice seeing Kristen and her little one -- Lilly. Mom is leaving Tommorrow and Aaron's Mom is coming in tommorrow as well. We also had a wonderful time Saturday night at Richard Oman's home. Pam made us some splendid, delicious peach smoothies. Francis was there as well as Susie. It was a nice evening.

And I am going full throttle. Today started off at 5:35 a.m. when I got up to get ready for the Gym. I go to play some basketball at 6:00 with some friends, and perhaps I will also do some cardio/weight training. I always feel great working out. After that came the classes. I am taking Political Sci 202 (history of modern political thought)--with Louise at 8:00 a.m. I think that I will really Pol Sci, it is an honors class and it seems that the teacher is top notch. Then it is off to Biochemistry with a newly hired professor. I am grateful that I will be taking it from him and not from Prof. Graves who is much more unforgiving on his tests. After that it was Advanced Neuroscience. I will really enjoy that class, but I think that it will take all the time I can give it. It is funny, All of my teachers said that I am supposed to spend 3 hrs of work out of class for every hour in class to be able to get A's. That means that with my 15 credits of in class time I will spend 45 hours of out of class work. Added up that is 60 hours/week. Then take into account 20 hrs of work so that I can actually pay for the food I eat and that turns into 80 hrs. Calculate in about 6 hrs a day for sleep, 24 hours for church, scouts, scripture study, Service at the Hospital, FHE, etc., and about 14 hours for eating/showering and I only have about 8 hours left in the week for all other things (grocery shopping, extra sleep etc.) I think that I have enough time for everything, but sometimes it sure seems cramped. I also went in for my security badge today at the hospital as well as my shots and volunteer uniform. It appears that I am Tuberculosis negative and my Hepatitis C is boosted up. I like the badge. It has the area where I will be working, ER trauma, and my name and picture. I can also access certain doors as well. I am also sad because I will not have enough time to watch the RNC. Oh Well. As for everything else, it was nice seeing Kristen and her little one -- Lilly. Mom is leaving Tommorrow and Aaron's Mom is coming in tommorrow as well. We also had a wonderful time Saturday night at Richard Oman's home. Pam made us some splendid, delicious peach smoothies. Francis was there as well as Susie. It was a nice evening. Yesterday (Sunday) we also had Katarina and John over to watch the closing ceremony of the Olympics. I also did some scrapbooking from my mission. I had soo many pictures, and I actually did a little more than half of the pictures (I just put the darn things in the binders). I am starting to understand what Francis said about scanning in negatives as well. What tedium!! Well I think that it will take a little more time than just till Christmas.

Nothing exciting has really happened lately. My watch has gone out a few times since I wacked it playing Basketball, and now I think I will have to get a new one. I have also organized all of my folders and I am ready to learn. I don't know how challenging this semester will be, but I am willing to work hard to make the marks. Louise and I are in a really interesting Political Science class that talks about racism and multiculturalism in the west. The other classes are going all right, but I'll get back to that in a month or so to see if that is still the case.

For the world, and all the while I am living quite comfortably her in my padded and protected little community here in Provo. Let's see, this Labor Day weekend we had Hurricane Francis (no relation) and the massacre of Beslan in Russia. It is so easy to just not think about the problems of others, isn't it. And as for Beslan, even though it is so far away, the salient, poignient fact that People can do that to other people is astonishing, but unbeleivable as the madness of terrorist can be, it is what the world has to deal with. An attack of that sort on any nation is an attack on human dignity. The future is exciting for me, however, and I hope that I can just contribute to the wellbeing and happiness of others. Louise and I have been doing great. Our first week at school went by with no major problems. Labor Day Weekend was also exciting for Mom (Anne) who got hitched on Friday. Last I heard they were in an undisclosed location in North Carolina. May they have all the happiness that they deserve, as well as at least half the happiness that they don't. Louise's Mom called on Saturday, and we talked to her a bit. Sounds like we will have a new neice in a week or so. Paul and Rebecca in Brisbane are having their Second Girl. We also spent much of Saturday night with Omel and Sarah Contreras. Since there were two of us out of the four that are currently applying for U.S. Citizenship, we decided to watch "In America". It was a good film (except for a little portion that had to be skipped) about Irish American Imigrants as well as the general human condition of poverty, sickness, death, birth and enduring the jolts and jarrs of life. It was a well rounded film, and it made me want to go to New York for Medical School! Life is great in america, and I hope that we just don't forget the other 70% of the world that lives below our poverty level.

It has been a good week. Basketball in the morning has intensified. We played a game of 4 on 4 today, and we had a good time. It was a good work out. It is still hard getting up at 5:30 every morning, but I always feel more energized when I am up and excercize than when I don't. I think that we will have to take a little bit of a break tonight for some R&R as well. Schoolwork has been busy, and we are a little tired from all of the week's activities. Louise took her first spanish test today. She got 100%, and was quite happy about that. It is certainly a much steeper learning curve than her japanese classes, (which she really didn't learn a whole lot). I am amazed that she is so open and interested in travel and people. I think that will serve us well in the future. Louise certainly is adventurous in ways that I have never been.

and why are we not having any? That is the question of the week for us. I just found out yesterday that a friend of mine is going to have a new delivery within the next 9 months. A little while ago another friend told us that they are going to have their second child. Furthermore, today as we went to dinner in the cougareat we saw Kara, another friend who after a summer in New York with her husband has come back pregnant. Now, not many of our friends are married without children. Those circumstances have been germaine to much thought and discussion about children and everything that comes with them. I suspect that we will have children in about three years (when I am in my second year of Medical school), but we have been thinking about the subject. It will be great to have children once it is the right time, and I think that the time will come soon enough. It is suprising, however, that in one short year nearly all of the married people my age with whom I associate regularly have started having children. Of course, there is no hurry, and once that time comes I think (hope) we will be ready. Life is really wonderfull, though, and there is much for us to be grateful for.

Physiology. . . and I would have liked to have scored higher, but that is OK. Back to the books.

About what you might ask? Well, being around pre-med students who are glazie-eyed dreamy about the future with all its money and prestige I see many of them come across the crossroads of getting into medical school. I am in an interesting position myself looking at the road I will take my family down for the rest of my life. The controversy is over how will I pay for medical school???, and the options are 1) Loan it and be a slave to the interest rate (which are pretty low right now), 2) go the military route and have the government pay it, and 3) do an MD/PhD. Well, my curiosity has been aroused as I perused the different medical school cataloges out East (Georgetown, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Jefferson) amoung others. The concern, all of these schools would cost me more than $30,000 a year in tuition alone. Well, I have been thinking about the military as an option. Almost all of my peers have looked down on that option for some reason or another. My logic is -- If I wanted to be rich, I would go to a two year program of how to extract wealth from others in a purely self-interest maximization way and then I would put it to practice. I also want to be with my family. The military (contrary to popular understanding) allows a much greater time to be spent with the family than the average doctor would normally have. There are many other reasons, but I think that at this point in my life I would like to graduate next year, and start getting paid for doing what I love right now as well as have the flexibility of taking up to five weeks off for my family throghout the year. Louise also wants to go to Australia more often and in the military we will be able to. It is an exciting time for me, and whatever I choose, it will be nice to start on my professional track. As for this week, Louise and I were a little tired and worn down yesterday. ...Flu like symptomes... The weather is beautiful and rainy, but the change wears me down. I also have some pretty important assignments due tommorrow, and that has caused a little stress (not too much though). I will be glad when thursday comes around and I will have some rest time.

After a couple of days of a sniffling nose and a head cold, and now I think that I am better. Two stories of note. 1) LIFE IN THE ER! Well, wednesday was the first of many exciting times at the ER. You really meet some interesting people. I arrieved right in the middle of a huge emergency. A patient came in who had severe chest pains and who said that he just took a pill an hour before (mabey he took Frances' drug cocktail). Shortly after coming in, he started having severe bleeding, and had to be taken to the OR room and endoscopy to see what was going on in there. It just so happened that he somehow opened up a hole in his esophagos as well as his Aorta about 7 mm wide, and he was bleeding all over the place. The hospital gave him 50 UNITS of blood which is roughly equivalent to 25 liters. I know what you are asking me... "so Joe if the human body can only hold 5 liters of blood where did all the other blood go to?" You guessed it!,--- on the floor for the poor sanitary workers to clean up. The blood was just pumped right in and then right out again. He also received 20 units of plasma. Well, I was in and out with the records and biohazard bins. My first sight of him was in the dark OR lieing with his head toward me and with blood soaking his sheets and gurney. If he would have been just minutes late to the ER, he would not be around to tell the story of how his life was spared. As far as I know he is doing OK. It was good to be there in the ER. The later it got, the stranger the visitor to the ER, but in the afternoon/evening I guess that you get a fairly good cross section of society. 2) Wells Fargo "the money tree" We go to Wells Fargo sometimes to use it's ATM for Louise's Aussie Banking. They have free withdrawals. Well, as I drove up to that ATM I noticed that there was a large sum of cash sitting in the cash slot that was from the Blue Jetta that was in front of me. I removed it and proceeded to make a withdrawal. The machine spit out my card and as I was waiting I was thinking, "is this thing going to give me my money?" It took about 2 minutes after I had tried to reinsert my card that my money came out. I took it to the Tellers inside, and they thanked me. I asked if they could get a record of the person who withdrew that money, (surely I thought that they could), and they said that if somebody comes in they have the day, time and discription of the car. I went back to the ATM (it being on the way out of the parking lot) and lo and behold there was some cash sticking out of the ATM from another person who happened to have been bamboozeled by the same machine. All in all I took $240.00 back to the tellers. I got much the same response "if they come in we will know who's money this is," but what if they call in a month and try to dispute their statement that says that they were deducted $200 for no reason. I can just imagine them saying "sorry those are the records that we have" not "We are incompetent and our ATM is defective but we will not place it out of order because it is not our problem". One of the tellers even said in a nonchalant way "oh, it's just spitting out cash". Great... get me signed up with this bank right away!!!! That is compounded with my own bad experience with THAT BANK and how they added unneccesary charges to my account and held half of every paycheck that I deposited for three days. That is my rant for the month. Boy, I wish that I could exact some altruistic punishment sometimes, but vigillante style justice often comes only in the absence of the rule of law. I am sure that they will have their just reward sooner or later. All in all I am doing well and life is good to Louise and I.

And two of them start on saturday. I thought that this was an LDS institution and they wanted to promote the attendance of General Conference. I am in the thick of Biochemistry right now, but it seems that this first test will be a lightweight compared to the next few that are bound to come up. Kristen, Aaron, and we have planned Thanksgiving holiday. Louise and I are driving down with Aaron for the week. I think that we will have a good time, and it will be good to be with all of the family again. During this weekend we went to a barbeque at my boss Dr. Dixon Woodbury's home up in Lindon. It was really nice. We played a little game of Bocce on his lawn and ate hamburgers. I was able to see a different side of Dr. Woodbury, and it was nice to socialize. As a sidenote, Louise had just got her bridal portraits done and so she came with her makeup and hair all done up. She really must have made a good first impression! She looked beautiful.

I think that it also may be the start of hunting season. I was reminded yesterday about the bitter infighting that can happen in politics and the rifts that are in our society. I thought to myself during the presidential debates that the two really aren't too different on the political spectrum. Nonetheless, they really beat each other up and hyperbolize differences in order to win some conflict of ideas. It is all about jockying for power and position.

On a different note, The church will announce tommorrow (i think) who will fill the vacancies left by the deaths of the Apostles. There was no vitriolic infighting in the selection of them, and I will be happy to hear the counsel that they will give tommorrow.

Mt. Saint Helens erupted, and the tabernacle will get a new Anti-earthquake upgrade as well.

Well, more drama with the Michal Moore--UVSC situation. A generous donor has threatened to pull over 1 million dollars in artwork if the university doesn't disinvite the man of controversy. Perhaps more people will donate to the university because of their sympathies toward Moore as well, I don't know.

Incidentally, the article says that he will give the art to BYU instead--a far better venue for his collection in my opinion.

Louise's Mum called last night as well, and we had a nice chat (for about an hour).

I think that it also may be the start of hunting season. I was reminded yesterday about the bitter infighting that can happen in politics and the rifts that are in our society. I thought to myself during the presidential debates that the two really aren't too different on the political spectrum. Nonetheless, they really beat each other up and hyperbolize differences in order to win some conflict of ideas. It is all about jockying for power and position. On a different note, The church will announce tommorrow (i think) who will fill the vacancies left by the deaths of the Apostles. There was no vitriolic infighting in the selection of them, and I will be happy to hear the counsel that they will give tommorrow. Mt. Saint Helens erupted, and the tabernacle will get a new Anti-earthquake upgrade as well. Well, more drama with the Michal Moore--UVSC situation. A generous donor has threatened to pull over 1 million dollars in artwork if the university doesn't disinvite the man of controversy. Perhaps more people will donate to the university because of their sympathies toward Moore as well, I don't know. Incidentally, the article says that he will give the art to BYU instead--a far better venue for his collection in my opinion. Louise's Mum called last night as well, and we had a nice chat (for about an hour).

We went up to Sandi yesterday for Geneal's Birthday. We watched a litte conference and had some cake and Ice Cream (homemade--you know the kind with eggs and sugar). We also spent quite a bit of time with their family. So much time that we arrived home later than expected. The kids (Josh, Sarah, Alex, and Olivia) are all doing well, and Russ is jumping into his practice. Incidentally, Russ had to go at 11:00 p.m. for a surgery of some 20 year old guy who stuck a knife through his knee. Louise and I also got to tour Russ and Geneal's home. It is situated in a little secluded neighborhood up by the canyon. It is complete with a little stream and bridge at the entrance. There are firs and aspens in front and on the sides property to sheild the veiw of other homes. Very idyllic. It is also huge. There are three floors, and one floor is about the size of the entire house that I live in now. It will be nice for company. Speaking of Sandi, I say Aunt Sandy and Shelly Whitney. They were buying out the Bookstore. We talked for about 30 min and caught up. Sandy has ideas to move to Park City. I think that will be fun for family gatherings. I have always liked Park City. Well, the books becon me.

It has been a good week and we have been really busy. I am now in a Lab where we are taking EEG measurements of each other, and other neat stuff. I also saw a video of a guy in a wheelchair that was able to move his chair forward or backward by his EEG monitoring. They had him hooked up to this EEG Machines and with his thoughts he could predictably move his chair back and forth. It is really amazing what people are able to do nowadays. The reverse engineering of the brain will create a whole new field of human adaptation, and it will be very interesting to see where it will be in 60 years or so. Perhaps Louise will be able to get some new high definition eyes in the future, but if not we will not be disappointed. "Quality of Life" as they say is just as high for her as any sighted person (she is probably much happier than most sighted people actually, and that is much more dependant on the way she lives life not if she can see a rainbow). School is much the same as ever. Sunday, however, was eventful because of the visit by Geneal and family for Louise's birthday. They are a wild bunch of kids. I realized how very unsafe and non-child proof our home is as well. That cast Iorn stove in our living room is a really interesting item for a two year old, but not very safe at all. Geneal made a wonderful dinner for us of chicken parmesean pasta, carrot salad and a strawberry cake. It was nice to visit with the family as well.

Louise and I are both in tests most of this week. Louise had one yesterday (physical science), and another today (spanish). She had a traumatic experience yesterday owing to the fact that the Testing Center double booked the room that she was supposed to be in. 20 min. into the test another student came in and saw that she had taken the room. His reason was that he was extreamly attention deficit and he just couldn't study when there is noise (even in the usually quiet Testing Center). Louise felt very bad about this, and it didn't help her on her grade. She of course needed the room because of a TV magnifier that is in the room. Yesterday was also our day of interveiws with INS up in Salt Lake. The interveiwer had to verify that we indeed were married not just so that Louise could be a citizen of the U.S. The whole thing is simply a little humorous. One question that he asked is if Louise was a member of the Nazi party before the year of 1950 or a Communist. Well, he had the Birthdate, and I also don't think there are too many communist in russia trying to come to the U.S. now that the Cold War is "over." He also asked us for some documentation that proved that we were married other than our marriage certificate (which wasn't asked for in the letter that we received calling us up to the interveiw). We didn't have any rental contracts or such, and he was eventually forced to accept the credit cards that we had together. When I deal with american bureaucracy I get a little glimpse of what it is like for other citizens of other not so free countries (i.e. Iraq pre-wrong war, place, and time), and I am grateful that there is at lease a measure of the rule of law here and not just the caprice of some interveiwer that doesn't quite like the way you look.

and it forgot to leave the flu behind. I have been a little scratchy throat this week, but I am surviving. I also found out today that Lorin my brother-in-law in Australia just got signed onto a national record label. He will be on the morning show on one of the Australian channels next week and he is quite busy doing shows and gigs down in Sydney. Congratulations Lorin. Something else that is neat is that you can search his name now on the internet and come up with the newspaper articles about him. Julie (louise's mom) also called today to talk to her little girl. They are going to Brisbane in the next couple of weeks and then to Southwest Rocks. That is a little beach resort town where they often go to stay in a nice little cabin. John is going charter boat fishing out in the ocean. I sure wish that I was there to be with them. I kinda miss family there as well as the beauty.

3 tests in 3 days with another at the end of the week. That's my schedule. I also have some pretty difficult assignments due on wed. I have been moving supprisingly smoothly, though, and I am happy to be getting so much done. In other news, yesterday was my first day in the young men's presidency at church. I am over the larger Deacons quorum, and so far I will also be the interum Scoutmaster. I guess I had better get a scout shirt. We have some good boys, and there is also a lot of work to do. There are a few who come from single mother homes, or they might as well be no parent homes because the kids pretty much do what they please. Hey...my philosophy is, if you don't want to raise them then don't have them. Is that too harsh?, I don't think so. Although, I know that sometimes it's not that simple. I have been playing with a version of Adobe Photoshop Elements that Louise and I received with a digital camera. Yesterday I spent a few hours on our Wedding Pictures as well as vacation, etc. It is really neat what you can do with computer software. The day's here in Provo are nice and wet. I absolutly love the vivid fall colors of purple, red, yellow, up against the Green background glisening with rainwater and smelling of fresh moist earth. I am planning a ski trip during Christmas as well as in January. I am excited to get into the powder and go into the mountains. Up there, the snow dampens all the sound so that all you hear is your breathing and the crisp footsteps in the snow...it is intimate really the way that nature seems to focus on the individual and all things stand in reverence with the trees bowed down and the ground blanketed over with pure white snow. Gosh, there's got to be a Prarie Home Companion monologue in there somewhere.

Today was a bit windy. I sure love these fall days. I had a bit of a snag this morning. Today is a due date for two of my assignments, and when I came to school I found that I had left the zip disk that had the assignments on them at home. It is always a bit disappointing when I forget the little things like that. Louise had a mid term paper due yesterday as well. She was really stressing trying to finish it. I am glad that today it is all over for her, and she can relax the rest of the semester.

Well, I will be glad once this semester is over. I have found myself in another week of tests. I have to memorize the kreb cycle and glycolosis for one of my classes. I also have another test in Neuroscience, a class that I am taking with MS and PhD students. I will be glad once this week is over.

I also spent an hour and half or so with Julie in the E.R. yesterday. She had some pretty severe 2nd degree burns from a cooking accident. She had the burns on her hand and wrist of her left hand, neck and chest. She was in pretty bad pain, but the doctor came and gave her a percocet and she felt fine after that. She also had a "hot" E.R. Tech scrubbing her burns, and so that probably made it all worthwhile for her. She was complaining the whole time that she was wearing a non-matching jacket and shirt.

Anyways, she has another appointment today to re-dress her burns and get some more pain killer.

Well, I will be glad once this semester is over. I have found myself in another week of tests. I have to memorize the kreb cycle and glycolosis for one of my classes. I also have another test in Neuroscience, a class that I am taking with MS and PhD students. I will be glad once this week is over. I also spent an hour and half or so with Julie in the E.R. yesterday. She had some pretty severe 2nd degree burns from a cooking accident. She had the burns on her hand and wrist of her left hand, neck and chest. She was in pretty bad pain, but the doctor came and gave her a percocet and she felt fine after that. She also had a "hot" E.R. Tech scrubbing her burns, and so that probably made it all worthwhile for her. She was complaining the whole time that she was wearing a non-matching jacket and shirt. Anyways, she has another appointment today to re-dress her burns and get some more pain killer.

What a week it has been. The elections were interesting to watch. I wonder how these next four years will turn out. I also went to volunteer in the ER wednesday. I was able to see more that I am usually able to see due to the fact that the place was unusually busy. I was also able to see a couple of cat scans as well as a MRI. There was this one lady (older) who came in complaining that a peice of pork that she swallowed was stuck in her esophagus since the 1800's and that all she could do was swallow saliva. They did a tox screen and monitored her heart, and then it was my turn to take her to the cat scan. She was all hooked up to the monitors and for anybody who knows about einhoven's triangle (where you place the heart sensors; two near the top of the chest, and one on the side of the lower left ribs (the point of the ventricles)) I had to reach down her blouse and unhook the last sensor. It was very uncomfortable. I guess I will have to get over that. The cat scan revealed dead brain tissue from what looked like a stroke. It was really neat seeing the scanner work. It is truely amazing what we can do nowadays. I also did OK on the two tests of the week-- Neuroscience, and Biochemistry. I am happy that I am in the running for a decent grade, and hopefully I can finish strong this semester. I am excited because tommorrow I will go and play some paintball with some of the boys in our young men's. It is sort of an "unofficial activity".

We will be free to go to San Antonio this saturday. I am very excited and I think that we will have a nice little trip. I just have to get a good grade on two of my tests and then I will be home free. I am worried about my Biochemistry test, but the last two tests I've had in physiology I tied for the highest grade, so I think that it will not take too much effort for me to do well in that area. I will just need to focus (and not spend so much time on Crummy!!). Aaron, Louise and I are all driving together, and I think that we will end up in San Antonio by Sunday afternoon. In other news, Kristen and Aaron had their baby blessed yesterday. All of the Smiths were in town with the exception of Melanie's and Josh's families. We all had a nice luncheon that Sunday afternoon (yesterday). I guess that the Smiths (Rick and Sherry) will be down in San Antonio when we will be there, so I think that there will be a variety of things to do and people with whom to go out with. I am excited to see the Matkins. It has been a while. The only thing that I am worried about is that everything will be so hectic that we will have a lot of time, but we really won't be spending it all together.

There was a little bit of excitement last night. Working in the ER wasn't very busy until about 9:30, and about that time a whole lot of people with small complaints (rash, headaches) came in and congested the previously vacant ER. There were also a couple of suicide attempts, and accidents. There were two events that were of note. First, there was a motorcyclist (young College Student with a Harley) who took a wide turn on Canyon road and ran right back into the bottom of a trailer bed. He hit his mouth and upper lip on the trailer bed, and came in with that thousand mile stare in his eyes. He was pretty lucky. a few inches higher and he might be living out his life in a nursing home. There was another guy who came in with vertigo. I took him to the Cat Scan and the tech there did the scan of his head. The scan revealed clusters of dead tissue in the left temporal lobe. It was amazing to see. I asked him a little bit about it afterwords and he told me that he had Astrocytoma (a brain tissue cancer) as a kid and that they had to do Brain surgery to excise the tumors. He also told me about all of the perceptual and functional defects that resulted the whole rest of his life. It is poignant to see that type of difficulty and trial. It is also amazing what the brain can do and can't do when it is damaged. It is a complex little circuitboard that affects emotions, perceptions, and thought. I found out yesterday tha Louise's Dad was assaulted yesterday. A young man from their church Ward was being pursued by some teenage kids (4) who had some kind of problem with him. After John brought the kid into his home and after a few minutes these 4 kids broke into the home and started breaking things and assaulting my father in law as well as this boy from church. We called my father in law (who is 66 years old), and he was pretty proud that he fought back and had the shiner on his eye as his little black badge of courage. I kinda wish that I were there to give them punk kids a lickin', but John handled things just fine. Louise is a little shook up about it though. She wants to get a big blackjack or night stick and put it by our bed for protection. There sure is a lot of violence in this world nowadays. I detest how bad it is getting, but on the other hand, if I saw somebody break and enter into my home, I wouldn't hesitate to attack first and ask questions later. I guess I simply lack that pacifist quality.

Well, I am back to school and life. Thanksgiving was spent in San Antonio, and Louise and I had a good time. We are glad to be back here at home. It is amazing how comfortable your own bed can be after having been away for vacation. We only have one week of school left and then finals will be a comming. I have a few loose ends to tie up before the end, and I will be happy to finish this last big semester of my undergraduate carrer. All in all, San Antonio was nice. It was good to see the family again. They always seem to bring out the best and worst in me sometimes, but it is always nice. I think that the most fun part of the trip was going paintballing at the Prestige's Ranch, and going with Dave to Hermes to buy some DJ equipment. San Antonio is such a lovely town.

Louise is doing a TESOL (English Second Language) internship at Deseret Industries. She was a little aprehensive about it because this is her first out of school job (in high school she didn't have any jobs and the only work she has had was TA or Lab assistant work so far). She worked with a lady in the shoe department yesterday helping her become more marketable in the job market by learning English. Well, Last night she had a funny dream. She dreampt that she was in the olympic Diving Finals. She got up on the high dive, and ran out to do her dive when, she slipped and did some kind of pencil cartwheel in the air before smashing into the water. She also had some nightmare about shoes taking over the world or something like that. I also had the pleasure to see Oliver Sacks speak at devotional today on BYU campus. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to see this world renoun writer and physician speak about Alzheimer's Desease. It was a wonderful lecture, and I can see why Robin Williams was chosen to play him in the movie "Awakenings." He had the most interesting personal idiosyncracies. He was genuine and a wonderful speaker. Oliver Sacks closing statement was that "if one were to develop Alzheimer's, then one would do well to live in Utah with its spiritual base and close community ties." He was brilliant, and my interest was peaked once again to go to Albert Einstein COM to perhaps be able to have him as a teacher and mentor.

Louise and I are excited to get these next two weeks done. Then we will be in the Christmas spirit. We also went to a christmas party for the Utah Valley Chapter of the NFB (natl. Fed. of the Blind). We had a good time seeing old friends and people that we know. Also, isn't it interesting that people who contribute the least take the biggest advantage of free stuff. There were people there who I had never even met before, and I have been to most of the Chapter meetings. There was one lady who RSVP'd 16 people from her extended family!!! Oh well, at least they were able to hear some good information about how to become more independant as a Blind person and enjoy good food and company at the same time. Oh, Pardon me, I shouldn't be so much of a Scrooge, especially during Christmas parties. . . It was a nice event despite my small cynicism. In all seriousness, I am going to really enjoy Christmas this year. It will be a good time to be with some family. I also called some friends from Nicaragua yesterday to wish them Merry Christmas. It was nice to hear from them. They seem so far away in a sense, but after a minute it seemed like it was not so long ago that I was there with them. They didn't know that America was at war or anything like that, and they live out their peaceful simple existance as if nothing had really changed. I always thought that the Nica's lifestyle was like that of a Hobbit.

I found an article for my Brother in Law that was done by Australian Public Radio. http://www.abc.net.au/widebay/stories/s1062130.htm I thought it was interesting if anybody else wants to hear or read it.