Service.

At my work there is a patient named Travis trying to regain the ability to walk. He had a spinal cord injury from falling out of a second story window and broken his upper back. For four months he had to wear a TLSO which is kind of like a hard plastic turtle shell to support and brace his back while it healed. From his injuries he has paralyzed but miraculously he regained sensation, and since April he has been working on regaining his ability to walk. It has been a long road of recovery I remember when I first worked with him he never complained of the pain and was always so positive and thankful to all of those who would help him in some way. He uses a device to help his right leg come into dorsi flexion (being about to lift his foot during walking) so that he can walk. The problem is these are very costly ranging in the thousands of dollars, and even more simpler models are hundreds of dollars because they have to be medical grade. Because Travis's insurance won't cover it he isn't able the afford this he has a hard time trying to move around when he is home. Without this device his toes drag behind and he can't swing his leg forward without tripping, and more importantly he isn't able to do this therapy at his home so his rehabilitation is slowed down.

I wanted to help in some way, so I went to the hardware store and found the necessary things to make this dorsi assist device. I put the it together and tested it our and it worked really well in all actuality. When I presented him with this gift he looked in the bag for a receipt, to pay me back. But I told him it was a Christmas present and his face lit up and he said it was the most thoughtful gift he had ever received. He and his wife graciously thanked me graciously.

I know it wasn't a huge thing that I did but I was grateful to be able to help in some way. I know he still has a long road ahead of him and the chances of actually regaining all of his ability to walk is uncertain. I am glad that I could help him out in some way, because he has been such a great example to me of being positive and focusing on the things that matter most in life.

lants

Sweeping the snow away!

I looked for opportunities to do so some service, and with the fall of snow i had my opportunity to do so. So when it came I set out to clear my neighbors snow. When I looked around for a shovel I realized that I didn't have a shovel...but I had a broom. So I swept away the snow. It wasn't too bad because there was only two inches of snow. But the next morning there was more just about six inches, and I soon realized that my broom was not the most efficient method of snow removal, but it got the job done. So with the weather predictions calling for more snow that evening I went to the store and bought a sturdy looking shovel. Sure enough the snow came and I was anxious to put my new shovel to use, but when I looked out I saw that all of my snow had been shoveled. My neighbor had beat me to the job. Looks like i'm not the only going to get the blessings, but we'll see what happens the next time it snows, it'll be a race for the blessings.

-lants

Saving Thanksgiving

So Thanksgiving huh. What a great time to be able to eat and be with friends and family. I went and played in the turkey bowl this year. It was big time. We had recruits from Boston, Winnamuka, Colorado and more. The ground was frozen solid so it was like playing on concrete but we didn’t have any traction. I was an intense brawl and we fought hard. I caught a few touchdown passes and accidentally took out some player, but in the end we lost. But it was good times. We were in charge of making mashed potatoes two pies, yams, and stuffing. So the potatoes, pies and yams all were made without any incident. But after the stuffing had been in the oven for about thirty minutes to started looking like a firework was going off in side the oven! Unfortunately it wasn’t a firework it was the bake element. So here we were stuck with a half cooked stuffing and sparking element. What could we do? Give up on the stuffing?
Could Thanksgiving survive without stuffing? Well I came to the conclusion that as long as nothing caught on fire then I could keep the cooking going. It worked and nine out of ten prefer my stuffing over Stovetop.

-lants

INnOUT?

So In N Out wasn't quite so easy as that. Friday Night me and some buddies were board and so we went to In N Out and had to wait in a line that went outside and around the building to get the infamous In N Out food. The lines were nuts and everyone always claims how In N Out is so great. The truth is it really isn't. It's a fast food place and is pretty much the same as all of them. We were listening to talk radio on the way there and we were trying to call in because one of guys I was with, his Dad was on. And they were talking about In N Out. He was saying how one of his sons was so great because he waited in line for two hours and bought him a double double. So the son I was with was going to call in and say he wasn't going to get him a burger because he was playing favorites with his sons. Anyway some of the people that called in said how everyone in Utah is trying to be like California by having this incredible chain, and that we all wish we were californian because they are so cool. I doubt that I like to visit CA but I don't want to live there. Another caller said it well, that all of the Californians are moving here because our economy isn't 85 billion in the whole and they are trying to bring their californian things here but we could care less. Bottom line if you want good fries and burger fast, go to Five Guys. It's way better and there are lines a million miles long.

lants.

The New Moon

So my wife got tickets to a VIP premier of the new twilight movie "New Moon" we had official lanyards and everything. So being the good guy that I am I went with her. I was fully expecting to be one of five guys there, but I was wrong. Surprisingly about 25% to 33% of those in attendance were male. So we had to wait in line for a couple of hours in the cold so I told my wife to wait in the car. I was surprised that this movie would draw this big of a crowd. There were tons of people and all of the theaters were both being used and sold out. I don’t know what it is but girls go crazy over “Jacob.” There is a scene where he takes off his shirt to wipe away some blood from Belle, and all of the females went nuts and screamed! They all have secret crushes on him, well maybe not so secret some even exclaimed “I love you Jacob!” Anyway it was all an interesting ordeal being there I have never been in the middle of female hysteria over a movie, but the movie wasn’t half bad because the werewolves were awesome they are way cooler than vampires so Belle should pick Jacob.

lants.

Bow down to Google the Great God of the Internet

So me and my friend we having a conversation how Google has become so wide spread that is it is taking over the Internet. Just to prove the point. Look at your google dashboard. You can access blogs, youtube videos, email, weather, document readers, translators, news, you can use it as a drop box, a history, a friend linking site. You can look up on google just how much information that they have on you. Your address, nationality, search trends, when you access the internet most, what time of day, what day of the week what month. Your top ten web sites, top ten searches. It has your blog, the blogs you are following. Who you have talked to using the internet, who you have chatted with. Google makes 12 cents each search that you make using their search engine. Ironicly I have given 56 cents while writing this blogs. I know that doesn’t sound like much but multiply that by 400 million searches a day. That is 4.8 billion dollars in one day. I don't even need to calculate that out over a year to know it will be monstrous. And just to prove the point the Google is taking over the internet. I used translationparty.com, which is powered by Google to translate a phrase into Japanese and back into English and see what it becomes:

Google is taking over my life.
=>into Japanese
Googleの私の人生を引き継いでいる。
=>back into English
Google has taking over my life.
=>back into Japanese
Googleの私の人生を引き継ぎました。
=>back into English
Google has taken over my life.

As you can see Google has already taken over the internet and your life too. But isn’t it great? You can do everything with it. (I didn’t mean that sarcastically, it IS great)

lants.

23

Well it was my birthday last week. I am now 23. That is kind of weird to me. It reminds me of the lyrics of a song from one of my all time favorite bands Jimmy Eat World. The song is entitled “23”

Amazing still it seems
I'll be 23
I won't always love what I'll never have
I won't always live in my regrets
You'll sit alone forever
If you wait for the right time
What are you hoping for?
I'm here I'm now I'm ready
Holding on tight
Don't give away the end
The one thing that stays mine

I guess this will be my theme for the next year of my life. To me the song seems like it is a turning point in his life and he doesn’t know if he’s ready to move on. So it seems that in the 23 year will be a nebulous state of existence for me. I am adjusting to married life. It is strange to make the adjustment from single life to married life, and I’m not saying I don’t like married life, because I love it! But it is an interesting transition to let go of things I once aspired to do. But I’ll be 23.

lants.