Friday, July 4, 2008

A little brevity on the Forth.

The History channel, gave this definition of a joke: Two story,s that are told as one, with the first being the long story, or set up, and the second going a different direction from the first.

Here is one of my favorites. Years ago, when designing the space shuttle, NASA contracted with Mortin Thiokol to build the solid booster rockets, to be built in Howell, Utah.

To get from Utah too Florida, for launching, the solid booster rockets have to go, by train, through the mountains of Colorado.

The engineers who designed these rockets, had to make sure that they could make it through the many train tunnels, in the mountains of Utah And Colorado.

These train tunnels were designed a hundred and fifty years ago, to fit the standard American train.

The size for the standard American train was built as large as possible and still fit on the standard American track.

The first trains, were imported from England. So the standard American track was determined by the size of the trains coming from England.

England had designed there trains, based on the size of the roads, of the time. England's roads, had first been built by conquering Romans, centuries before.

The Romans made there roads, wide enough for a chariot, pulled by two horses.

The widest part of a horse is the rear hind quarter.

In conclusion, it would be very easy to say that the size of the space shuttles, solid rocket booster's, were determined by a couple of ancient, horse's butt's.

Even when I tell you whats coming, it's still funny.

Happy Forth of July.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The head line reads: Family splits, as Mormon, man goes from parole, back to jail.

I have been working on a post for a couple of weeks, and don't see a end in sight for the coming political rant.

This is a kind of sub-post to it, because I didn't want to keep going off in different directions.

Part of what is going wrong, with this country, is a very skewed news system. Most of the national or world news that comes to us, in the form of The Nightly News, local newspaper or even the five minute news blips you get when you are listening to music in your car, has one source.

It doesn't matter what story it is, all the facts, or tenure of the story, comes from the AP. Now, Internet new, is not much better, because people like me can state any thing, make any point and never have to tell a lie, to tell a lie.

A friend of mind has eight kids, three of them return missionary's. Until recently, he worked for Utah state corrections , in parole. He has longed, for a long time, to return to Oregon, to be near his (and Her) parents. He just got a job with Oregon's correction's, but in a jail facility. He left his RM's at home. So every word of the above headline could be true, but also a lie.

So how do you know if you are getting the whole story? I have just a few thoughts. Because I know it would be impossible to check out every story, for your self, might I suggest that question every news story and put more than one story together.

Central Utah has many turkey farms. Monday, in between songs on the radio, the news announced that there will be about fifteen hundred jobs lost in the turkey industry, because of the price of corn. Never a mention that the price of corn is rising because our government has decided too turn the corn into ethanol. And of coarse there doesn't seem to be any mention of the fact that the price of oil keeps going up, even though we have, as tax payers, spent all this money on ethanol. All of these stories are connected, but thanks to clever, one source spin, we have to connect the dot's our selfs. Thank You AP for giving us stories that.......

I will have to tell you that I left part of the story out, myself, just to prove a point. The news story also said that they expected the jobs to come back next year. So you can see that I can be caught in a half truth myself. By the way, they didn't say why the jobs were coming back.

We Mormons are counseled to question every thing and then take it to lord, in prayer. If you are a non Mormon, it might be worth it to get to know a Mormon, so you have that option available to you.

It is not going to be easy, but we can and will get to the truth. Sooner than later, I hope.
Trying to do my part, Boyd

Happy Birthday, to two great women in my life.


Monday was my daughter, Michelle's Birthday. tomorrow is my Sister, Stacey's birthday. Two very different Ladies who continue to have a impact on my life.

I hope Michelle won't be upset at this story, because it is very personal. I wasn't at home for Michelle's birthday party. Some time in the middle of celebrating, she found out that her best friend from High School, lost her mother. Her friend had no one to leave her children with but Michelle so her party became baby sitting.

When I got home from work, Matthew told me what happened. Never a complaint from Michelle. None of the "why does this always happen to me" that I think would have come out of my mouth. When you belong to Michelle, as a friend or a relative, you will never need to worry about needing some one to love you.

Stacey has some of the same quality's, and keeps pushing it up a notch. I will never, but really believe that if I told a friend, if you need a place to stay in So. Cal., just give my sister a call, she would welcome in a stranger with open arms. Don't worry Stacey, I don't really have that many friends and don't think any of them would take me up on the offer, if I was offering.

She also has the most interesting blog, I know. The thing I enjoy the most, about her blog, is her ability to let everyone know what is happening with her family.

I really miss my extended family and I am so glad to get any info that I can.

Here's wishing both of you Ladies happy birthday and may you always look just as young as you do now.

Love, Boyd