Sunday, our first full day of the trip.

This is a picture of us on our way to church in Zurich Switzweland. The ward had maybe thirty five to fourty members and met in a very hot fkoor above a private bank. it took us a real ,ong time the night before to locate the ward becaue there was  not any of the traditional trademarked church of jesus christ of latter day saints signage and the meeting house was pretty hard to find. but we made it and had a great time going to church with some brothers and sisters in a foreign land. (we were suprised to find out that there are many more U.S. citizens than the naitve Swiss in in the ward)

The Blog Part 2



Even though this picture has got nothing to do with blogging I wanted to put it on the blog. It is me standing outside the garden tomb in Jeruselem.



          So I can’t say that I’ve totally had a change of heart, and that I’m going to continue my blog, and have been totally converted to the blogger nation. However I can say that my view of blogging has changed. I actually enjoyed working on the layout of my blog.The layout is a picture of an elephant in the backgrownd and they are a pretty wild creatur so i thought it fit the title rather well. I enjoyed all the different color combinations that the blog set up gives you to make the space truly your own.  I also learned that an orange and black blog combination is fun to look at for about two minutes, but the residual imprint that the text burns into your eyes for the next ten minutes isn’t fun at all.          
          My still lingering feeling about blogging is that, I just don’t have anything (that I believe) is important enough to put out on the internet and have millions of people have access to it and “follow”. I don’t believe that I’m privy to any information or insights that are outstanding enough to devote the time into committing to keeping on a blog. That being said I would like to mention that if a person feels the need to blog I’m not going to rake them across the coals for it. If a person feels differently than I do about the blog or their opinion, more power to them. That is totally their choice and the nation that I live in has afforded them the right to act or do whatever they want within reason.  This blog for me has not really ever been therapeutic or been a release. Knowing that what I’m putting out there has the potential that millions of people may see it, I have been pretty careful only to post things that I won’t mind people knowing about me. The opinions I’ve stated here are just that, “opinions” they are not facts. The title of my blog “My Wild Rants” is fitting because this blog has been just that,….. “MY Wild Rants”.  

          So to sum up this assignment for me I think that it has been just that, an assignment.My target audience was my close knit group of friends and the people in my Writing 150 class. I believe the theme has been the same since the begining of my blog;  whatever I want to rant about thats what I'll spend time to put down in a blog post.  I’ve enjoyed some aspects of the assignment and I think that is true with many that I’ve had and many that I will still have. But just in case anyone is basing weather or not to blog on reading this article, the blog has not left a bitter taste in my mouth. I think, if its right for you, you’ll know and you’ll be all the better for participating is something that you love and are passionate about.

Writing 150

        Taking Writing 150 has taught me so much about my writing.  Being able to go back to what quality of writing I was turning out just six weeks ago I have been amazed. Just going through the class I have watched as my jumbled up ideas that I would just poor onto the paper now have structure and have a coherent thought process that my readers will be able to follow. It is exciting to be able to express through writing the exact point that I’m trying to make.  Also, having the people that read my writing actually be able to understand the points that I try to get across is very invigorating as well. It gives me more excitement to write rather than look at every writing assignment as a huge burden or un-climbable mountain that I need to summit.

        Being able to reflect on how limited my knowledge was of the MLA form or writing as compared to what I know of it now; the growth has been astonishing in my eyes. I’ll have to admit this summer has really been a struggle for me as far as the work load that I’ve had with my classes but I can say with total honesty that the concepts I have learned in the writing class have helped a new foundation come in my writing that hasn’t ever been there. I’m not even trying to imply that I am a gifted writer and I know that I have a long way to go before my writing is where in needs to be, but I do have a new confidence in writing that I’ve never had before primarily because of the Writing And Rhetoric Writing 150 class.

Missions and Marriage, the Windows to Weight Gain.

I’ve been a big guy as long as I can remember. Big for your age, large, built like a tank, and above average, were never uncommon things to hear from people when they were describing me. I like being big. It helps my confidence quite a bit.

My weight on the other hand is another issue entirely. My weight has had its ebbs and flows through the years. When I was playing football before my mission I was in really great shape. I was a trim muscular 230 pounds. I didn’t have much fat on me. As time went on and my body changed more I began to put on weight.  I put on 50 pounds over the course of a few years and at the age of 22 I weighed 275 pounds.

Then the mission came and my weight got out of control. Thanks to all the members and the glutinous eating habits I had developed by being an athlete the weight was easy to gain. At the peak of my mission I got up to a staggering 325 pounds. I’ll never forget the day I stood on the scale in my apartment in Albany Oregon and was horrified at what I saw. I committed to start losing weight and by the time I got home I was down to 315 pounds.  

I worked out harder than I had ever in my life and actually after 6 months of being home (AND NORMAL EATING HABBITS) I was able to get back down to 265 pounds. That is around where I stayed until I went to Turkey for work. After a little over 3 months I came home at a skinny 240 pounds. I hadn’t weighed that little since I was in my 22.  

Now, given that extensive and personal background, during this time I fall in love and on November 30^th 2010 I was married.  Maybe it is because the feeling of being complete, or just my tendency to be lazy, or my wife’s excellent treats, but it has only been 9 months and I’m now back up to 300 pounds! I have sort of been freaking out. However, I have also had quite a lifestyle change.  For the first time in my life, my involvement in school has not incorporated some type of athletics. The job that I have has been mainly sitting behind a desk or office “white collar” work. Not to make excuses I just am explaining the change that has happened. So for all of you out there will be reading this blog, watch out! After you are married, if your anything like me, you will be in for a rude awakening if you don’t watch your weight.

Riding Your Heart Out

’ve been riding my bike in preparation for a trip I’m taking with my wife and my in-laws. We are going to be riding roughly 150 miles around the Swiss lakes.  It has been quite a different experience riding my bike for the purpose of training for something. I used to ride my bike everywhere. There wasn’t a curb in my neighborhood that I haven’t taken a jump off of. Now being an adult and riding not only just to get around town but to help me get back in shape, the whole thing takes on a new meaning. I never knew that it could be so tough to ride six miles. However the first time I did the first time I pressed myself to do it I learned that lesson pretty quickly. Now riding isn’t nearly as hard as it was that first time. I have grown to really appreciate how great Salt Lake City is for bikers. It is really a biker friendly city and I enjoy that allot.   Like I said before our trip will be taking us 250 miles around the Swiss lakes. My next goal after that is to do 270 in one day in the famous LOTAJA bike race. You ride your bike from Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming. It should be allot of fun to get ready for and finally do in a year or so. Biking has helped me learn more fully  the importance of setting goals. Although it isn't easy to just hop on your bike and take off, it sure has become worth it to me.

When Did We Become Grownups?

I had a pool party at the in laws house this weekend and I sat talking with the boys about our lives.  Since I’ve had the same group of close knit guy friends since I was in the sixth grad it was easy to see how far some have come and how little others have progressed or changed. Some of my buddies have grown more mature and become men, others have just grown up, put on some pounds and really have not matured at all.  Being able to see this snap shot into what our lives are becoming this caused my wonderful wife and I to ask each other almost at the same time, “When did we become grownups”? Really, when? It seem like it was just yesterday that Saturday morning rolled around and it was time to sneak up to the TV. room and watch Saturday morning a cartoons before mom and dad caught us and made us go do our Saturday jobs.  This golden time was decades away from the deadline driven, bills to be paid, making ends meet world we live in today. It is interesting to get these sort of frozen moments in time to look at what has led us to this point in our life. I guess it may be time to just bite the bullet and embrace the fact that time is constant and being a grown up really is not such a bad thing.

I was thinking a putting a blog entry devoted to my wife, since I have written one about  allot of the other things that I am passionate about. She definitely fits into this category.  When I was typing this blog entry she came into the room and saw the first part I had written so I asked her what else I should write. A direct quote she gave me is, “she’s beautiful and kind and wonderful and spiritual and humble”. As you can see, (because the list she gave is actually very close to the truth) I married up! I am very grateful that such a special person should choose to take a chance on me. 

We met at a singles ward “ward prayer”. It was raining really hard outside and everyone was crowded into a one bedroom apartment of a girl in the ward. After the prayer was over and everyone was clearing out I caught a glimpse of her. Since I was relatively new to the ward and I was very self-centered, I had never made much of an attempt to speak to her. Because of the rain howling outside she had decided to wear these pink Burberry rubber rain boots. They were the first think that I noticed as she was speaking to another girl in the ward.  As she was squeezing by me I sarcastically said “nice boots”.  This was met with an equally sarcastic, “well their better than anything you’ve got on”! After that I was hooked. From that night on there were not many girls that could even make me look twice. She has put up with my many failings and even stood by me when I took off for four months and lived in Turkey for work. She makes me laugh, like no one I know. Her witty sense of humor keeps me on my toes. I have to bring my “A” game to be able to zing her after she cuts me deep with the love in her voice to let me know that under our banter is nothing but the most pure love.  

Her statistician mind is constantly teaching me new ways that someone could love numbers and keeping track of patterns. She told me just the other day as we were driving down I-15 that her favorite sunset time in July was 8:54. For anyone else in the world I would accuse them of being off their rocker crazy, but not her. She loves more deeply than anyone that I have ever known. I have a tendency, as you may have been noticing from the other blog posts I have here, that I have a real easy time looking for the negative in allot of situations. Sarah just has to look at someone and she knows just how Heavenly Father sees them.  It helps me to try to see them that way.  She makes me better, or at least striving to be. She just told me that I have to include how “smart” she is….. oh well, there you have it. She is smart.  Oh,… and just so everyone knows I made her keep the boots and they’re on my shelf .

What is it about Music?

What is it about the right song that despite your best efforts you just can’t hold your foot from tapping or your head form bobbing? Music is a huge and essential part of my life. It seems like everything that you do in life is better with a soundtrack.  The gym is better with a little heavy metal,  a barbeque is always better with some 70’s classic rock, it wouldn’t be romantic without some 50’s and 60’s classic love ballads. Every situation we face seems to have the perfect soundtrack for the occasion. Do you think that is the case because we have soundtracks to the movies we are all too familiar with or is there some real physical connection that we as humans have with the grouping of different notes put together in some sort of rhythm? I think that there is some sort of rhythmic connection in our souls. Every civilization since the dawn of time has had some sort of music. The first Lecture in my writing 150 class was all about music through the ages and the rhetoric that music uses to make its message.  There is a seriouse appeal to my Ethos when it comes to the songs I love 

What Is Happening Out There?

What is this world coming to? I was sitting back and reflecting on the events that have happened in the past twenty years and I have to say that I'm a little flabbergasted. Just in the past twenty years the world has seen the fall of communism in Russia, the rise of multiple new governments and countries all throughout the world, the first attack by a foreign enemy on continental U.S. Soil since the American revolution and many more wars and conflicts all over the world.

Throughout all this turmoil the constitution of the United States of America has stood strong. It remains one of the strongest and most unwavering documents that have ever been written. Along with the constitution, the legal system of this country is second to none. Sadly I've witnessed in the past twenty years that the legal system in this country is at the start of a slippery slope.  

Just because a blood stained glove doesn’t fit someone’s hand, he gets away with murder.  Again when I warped super star musician gets away with hurting innocent children. And I thought I had seen a lot, but repeatedly famous sports icons get away time and time again with rape, there just has to be and end in sight.  Sadly no, I fear we are still at the top of the hill and are about to watch the system as a whole take a long painful slide further down. I watched just recently when a women was let free after being accused (and in my opinion committed the crime) of murdering her little child, lying to police and then staging a search and rescue mission that wrapped the entire country  in speculations and scandal. I decided that I am going to practice law; this is the goal I have set out for myself.  I feel that the best way to start building the creditability that our legal system has been losing with high profile cases like the ones I’ve mentioned is to have good men and women practicing law and upholding what’s right. Just because our legal about to slip doesn’t mean that don’t fight the fall. This is exactly what I want to set out to do. Where this road takes me, I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to the ride getting there.

Research paper topic

I have chosen to write my research paper about the brain, and more specifically how high impact collision sports have had a negative impact on the athletes that are participating in the sports.  There is more and more research showing just how harmful these sports can be to the people that are participation in them. I don’t really believe this, but I think that I’m going to be taking the argumentative stance that public funding should go to pay for high impact sport programs. I have learned some of the greatest lessons of my life on the football field, but the impact on my body has been is some ways crippling. So I think that this research paper will be a fun one because of those stances.

My Handy Little Friend

I have resisted the urge to buy into the growing “smart phone” trend. I have been very hard on the phones that I have had in the past. I treat them like the tool that they are. I have always just bought the bare bones basic phone that will make calls and send texts. My wonderful wife has been the proud owner of an I phone for years and before that she had a blackberry, she unwittingly put some ideas in my head to make me investigate a durable smartphone. This was a huge change in the way I thought after all, some of my phones didn’t have cameras or any of the “fluff” features as I called them.  I used to make excuses to talk myself out of having a smartphone like “I don’t need to be connected to everything all the time,” or “why would anyone need to have the internet on their phone” .  Then I found that Casio had put out the only military grade smart phone. I researched it for months. It was water proof, dustproof and they brag that it can fall off a two story building. I don’t think that I will ever these features but I think it’s a good start to put my mind at ease. So after months of research and evaluation I decided to pick up the Casio G’zone commando.

OH MY HECK! There are no more reasons for all my excuses. I don’t have any more weight to any of my excuses. I don’t have to be around a computer to send an email, I can do it right from my phone. I look up simple answers to questions all day using the internet and my phones calendar connects with the computer I have at home and so it keeps me where I need to be and up to date with the deadlines of school and work.  I can look up movie times with the touch of a button and I can plan a road trip in about two minutes using the GPS feature. The possibilities are basically endless. I was helping my friend with some construction on his house when we realized that the level had just driven off in our friend’s car as he went to the hardware store to get parts. So not missing a beat in about thirty seconds I had downloaded a level app on the shone and we were able to keep on with the project instead of sitting and waiting for our friend to return. All things considered I can’t imagine that I lasted as long as I did without such a handy little friend.

Torn Allegiances

I have been an avid Utah Utes fan since I can remember. Growing up within the shadow of Rice-Eccles football stadium I guess this is only natural. Utah football goes very deep in my family. My Grandfather played football for them and so I grew up hearing football stories spanning over fifty years of more. When I was playing football in the East High football stadium that is literally across the cemetery from the stadium it was only natural to look up to the massive stadium as the goal for where you wanted your football career to end up.  The state High school football playoffs and championships are played at the “U” stadium just to make this indoctrination even more thorough.  The Stadium, to me is the top of the mountain. 

So with that background you can only imagine what it was like to sit in head coach Mike Bellotti’s office and be talking the reality of coming to the University Of Oregon to play football. The facilities there were not like any I have ever seen. The weight room has in laid hardwood floors for heaven sake! Could it be that my heart was breaking down walls built to keep any other school besides the U of U out? Well, that’s exactly what was happening.  Now I have a huge tear in my heart when it comes to this football season. Now that the Utes are in the PAC 12 and so are the Ducks I don’t know what to do. My Saturdays are going to be glued to following the drama and excitement that is the up-coming PAC 12 season. It is the ultimate struggle and we’ll just have to see who comes out on top.

Mom Knows Best (personal narrative)

"Everything will be fine I said, we've all wanted to do this for a long time and this is the plan that we've made".

My mother's response came “Peter I don't think that it is a good idea, it’s too late, i dont have a good feeling about this".

This is not the answer that a freshly 16 -year-old high school student wanted to hear from his mother. It had been a fun day full of the typical high school dance activities. This wasn't just my first high school dance; this was also the first date I had ever been on. We had gone to the 49th St. Galleria and had a really fun time. Then we went on to dinner my friend Mike's house. His parents were out of town and had given us free reign over the house. We were on top of the world.  Then, finally it was off to the dance. But that wasn't enough, we had planned to drive up to my family’s cabin in Woodland to watch a movie and have a good time after the dance was over. Little did any of us suspect the events of that night would change the course of our lives forever.  Homecoming dance for high school students is very exciting; the boys look dapper in their suits and tuxedos dressed out all to the nines. Also, the girls look beautiful in their different prom dresses with many different colors, styles and shapes and sizes it looked more like a tropical reef than it did a homecoming dance. My best friend Richard and I were experiencing all these things together for the first time. What Richard was lacking in size he made up for in chiseled from stone muscle.  His mother made him dress like a leprechaun every year for St. Patty’s day to celebrate his Irish roots and run bread around to all their families’ fiends. His body was tight from years of competition soccer and wrestling in the 130 pound weight class.   Richard was a month away from turning 16 himself and his parents let him go to the dance. We'd been friends since I'd moved into the neighborhood and we had experienced many "firsts" together as we had grown up. Since he lived two houses down from me it was a very tight friendship. Alongside our other friend Jordan who was in the grade above us in school but lived just a block away, the three of us were inseparable. We called ourselves the three amigos. We had decided to go with Jordan’s older group of friends because not many sophomores went to the dance.

                My date had to be home and couldn't go to the cabin with us. So did Richard’s. So I said to Richard, whose date also had to be home,  "Come on, come with me I don't want to be alone with the group of people that all have dates and I don't have anyone to hang out with".

Richard said "no I want to go to bed".

I said “come on dude".

Finally after a little more convincing Richard consented and at 10 o'clock we began the 45 minute journey up the winding Parley's Canyon road in the dark toward the cabin. That is when I called my mom and she had tried to talk me out of going up to the cabin, but I wouldn’t have any other way but mine on this "night of firsts."  The car was an explosion of sound.  Between the high school kids crammed together, 16-year-olds nonstop talking and the radios we resembled procession of caged circus animals rather than people headed off towards a fun time in the woods.

When we got to the cabin my parents were already there.  My mom said to me,  “Pete I really think it is too late for you guys to be watching a movie and then turning around and going back tonight".   My indignant response came:   "Mom! It will be fine".

Emboldened by the fact that we had arrived there without any problems and the by the fun that we were hoping to still have; I didn't want to listen to my mother because I thought she was overreacting. There wasn't anything to worry about. In front of my friends and not concerned for my mother’s over protective counsel we went forward with the plans.

              We popped the top to the Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider and opened all the candy that we'ed been saving for the movie and began to have a great time. We started the movie and quickly found that we all had our two cents to throw in about the acting so it ended up being more like a standup comedy routine. Everyone was trying to get the best "zinger" about how lame the movie or the dialog or the senerio was. The Movie finished and at about three o'clock in the morning our group of once routine teenagers piled into our different vehicles and started down the dirt road towards home. The feeling in the car was much different than the feeling we had going up. Everyone was tired, everyone was quiet.  Except for Richard and me we were both in a punchy mood, the kind you get into right before you hit the wall and crash hard.  At one point Richard hopped out of the car when we got to the final gate on the dirt road he took his button up shirt off from around his head with this tie still tied around his neck and said "Look at me, I’m a Chippendale dancer".  But once we got back on the highway and started for Kamas it was a loosing battle with sleep. Richard was asleep fairly quickly against the side of the door of the second seat right behind Mike, the driver, in the Tahoe and I was in the middle of the second seat. Mike and his date were up in the front.  The conversation to keep everyone alert began to be just between me Mike and every now and then his date.
               As we came through Kamas it looked more like a ghost town than a thriving High Uinita farm town.  We took a left turn at the only stoplight in town. We pulled over to shorten the gap we had created with Mike's fast driving. We were far enough ahead of the group at this point that as we took the left turn none of the other cars that were behind us had seen us take the left so they all went straight through the light. The left turn is the only way to get onto the highway to head towards home unless you know the back roads.  If you go straight on the main road it would take you through 45 to 50 miles of small towns before you connect back up to the freeway right around Evanston Wyoming. We didnt want our friends to get lost so at three thirty in the morning, we flipped around and went to catch up with our friends that had taken the wrong way.

                We came up behind the procession of our friends cars traveling down the three lane road. At this early hour of the morning only little streetlights illuminated the area.  As we approched our friends, we flashed them with our high beams to get their attention and have them pull over. Instead of pulling over, our friend Kevin who was driving the last car in the procession flipped a U turn and T-boned us. This caused us to sail into a tree, a telephone pole and the fire hydrant before landing back in the road. The sounds of metal crashing and stretching were horrific. When we finally stopped moving and came to Mike asked, "Is everyone alright"?   
              I looked around and said "Richard is gone"!

As I pushed my way out of the mangled wreckage that once was Mike's parent’s car I ran down the road searching for my lost friend. My mind felt like none of this had really happened and I was in a bad dream.

The I saw a dark shadow lying face down in the road. It was Richard and he wasn’t moving.  I reached around and checked for a pulse,........ Nothinng.

                It dawned on me that we were in trouble so I groped around in my pocket for my cell phone and after producing it immediately dialed 911. While I was on the phone with the 911 operator, after I told her where we were and what happened I began to lose consciousness.  My world seem to be going black and I will remember looking down the road and seeing the lights of the police and emergency vehicles coming towards me before I slumped over and fell face first on the road.

               When I came to, I was in the back of the ambulance and as I began to thrash around and tell the EMTs to go get Richard, to go look at him, one of them grab me by the shoulders and looked directly in my eyes and, said, "When we got here, Richard had already gone."  I sank back down on the gurney and didn't know what to do. Eventually all of the other kids in the two cars were put in the ambulance with me. Aside from Richard and me, no one else was even injured.

               A few months later I was at home contemplating what to do with my Friday night. As you may know, Fridays are very important to a soon-to-be junior's social life. The phone rang and it was Jordan. He talked for a minute and then I answered, “Sure, it sounds like it'll be a fun party."

              When I hung up the phone my mom asked, "Who was that?"  I answered, “Jordan, our friend Ben is having a party tonight and I think we’re going to go."  She thought for a moment and then said, “Peter, I don't have a good feeling about this party I dont think you should go." 
                    I then replied, “OK, I'll call him back and we'll go catch a movie instead."