Front and Center. Does that little boy look like Ian?

Viva la RED ROCKS

I think it has been snowing ever since the 24th. The powder is even building up at Kelly's Canyon. We went there when they had 18 inches of new snow!
Plans are well underway for our vacation to Red Rocks. Right now it is Keith, me, Jo, Kori, Mary, and maybe Angela and Brian that should all be there. YAY! A reunion! I stumbled upon some round trip flights to Vegas from Idaho Falls for only $50, so I changed my arrival date to Jan 2nd (to get the rate). So I will arrive at 12:10 on the 2nd and leave the morning of the 7th. If y'all can stay that long, we are planning on camping the night of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th in Red Rocks.
I forgot to talk about my Christmas: It was a pretty chill and fun couple days with the family. On Christmas eve, we went over to Blaine's house and had a big dinner and, since it was snowing so hard, decided to have a surprise sleepover at his house. On Christmas morning, everyone slept in pretty late and we didn't even get things going till around noon. I was totally blown away with my main present: a super nice Sony mini-DVD camcorder! I guess all of my sisters and my parents all chipped in and bought it for me! That explains why nobody even ASKED me what I wanted this year...... I was a little concerned about that........

Neg's Urban Sports: Urban Sprinting

This looks like so much fun
WARNING: Plug your ears whenever he walks into Burger King. He likes to swear

no friends, no job (bad news, good news)

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." C. S. Lewis
Jo is gone. Kori graduated. My friends are all disappearing! My survival is losing value (especially my survival in southeastern idaho).
On a different note: Getting fired has been good to me. I landed a couple odd jobs throughout the week. The days I had nothing to do I went to Targhee. Today I helped a DJ for a DARE graduation in Rigby. Miss USA spoke at the graduation. She is hot.
Onika and her boyfriend came from Laramie, Wyoming, to ski at targhee with me on Wednesday. It was a blast to ski with other Tele skiiers! We would all get tired and stop at the same times. We all needed to stop more frequently as the day progressed.

Picture to go with my last post

A Kiss from Heaven

Freedom seemed inconceivable. The chains tightly wrapped around my ankles and wrists were too strong. The metal prison bars too thick. The stench of being locked in that horrible dungeon reeked of death. The scourge I was flogged with had shards of metal and glass on the end of each string of the whip. Sometimes it was hard to postulate any degree of hope. I just didn't have what it took to break the chains. Sometimes, during hallucinations, the prison bars would morph into Satan's teeth and he would guffaw and snort at my helpless condition. But then, like a kiss from heaven, the prison walls shook! The walls started tumbling and cracking and the prison guards fled. My chains came loose and suddenly I was FRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Outside the prison walls there were rolling hills of daisies. I could have just ran away, but I chose to frolic! Freedom at last!!!
If you are still wondering, I got fired from Idaho Mountain Trading. I kept making mistakes on the work tickets in the shop. I was also late to work 2 times. Nothing significant I would have thought would result in me being fired, but I was. On Friday evening, 15 minutes before we closed, my boss called me to his office. Confusion and wonderment filled me as I was walking behind him. My wildest imaginations prodded me with, "What if I get fired!!! That would be amazing!" But my dreams usually just remain as dreams. He sat me down and explained, "Sven, I have bad news........ (I start to get a little giddy)...... I am going to let you go."
I said, "Well, that makes sense! I have a horrible memory, and that doesn't work in a job you have to remember a million things! Also, I wasn't really hurting for a job. Also, it will work out with me going on vacation over the break!"
That probably wasn't quite the response he was expecting.
The last 15 minutes of work I was more chipper then I had ever been. Saying goodbye to everyone, already dreaming of what adventure I might go on because of this surprise vacation.
Goodbye IMT, I am going to Targhee!

.......making up for lost time

Yesterday was my day off, and I feel it was well spent. In one day, I played hockey, tele skiied at Targhee, climbed, and slacklined.
When I work almost all day every day I start getting pent up anxiety to do something fun, especially since I know that my boss will not give me ANY days off (except for the one he decides for me each week). Also, last week's day off was spent driving to Sun Valley with Jo, looking at the piss-poor snow conditions at their resort, and driving home. So that gave me even more motivation to get it right on my next day off.
Thats about it

Work Ethic

To be completely honest: I don't like my job at Idaho Mountain Trading. Today was especially bad and it took me a long time after work to wind down and stop being pissed off at everything. I try to think back on other jobs I have hated........ it is hard, because most of the jobs I hated I either quit or got fired very early on. Lets see, what jobs have I absolutely hated?
1. roofing- FIRED! after 3 weeks (my entire crew was fired, too)
2. selling vacuums- QUIT after 1.5 weeks
3. putting caps on lotion bottles at Northwestern Cosmetics- QUIT after 4 hours (didn't come back from lunch)
4. telemarketing- QUIT after 4 hours (also didn't come back from lunch)
5. managing a pumpkin patch- FIRED after 3 weeks (I don't know why)
6. working the night audit at a hotel- FIRED! for sleeping on the job (after being a night auditor for 2 weeks)

It starts to make me question my work ethic. Would I consider myself to have a good work ethic? Hmmm.... well, wikipedia defines work ethic as this:
Work ethic is a set of values based on the moral virtues of hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character. A work ethic may include being reliable, having initiative or maintaining social skills.
My answer is this: I CONDITIONALLY have a good work ethic. The jobs I have excelled at are the jobs that I LIKED. But with the jobs I have hated, 'being reliable' hasnt really been a strong attribute for me. Looks like I will always have to work at a job I like.

Whatev...... it is 2 in the morning and I have to work at 9 (at a crappy job).

Thailand beer commercials

Rollerblades and fanny packs

At Idaho Mountain Trading I work pretty closely with the other shop guys. We are trapped in our cage at the back of the store from 9am till 6 or 7pm. To keep our sanity, we do a lot of joking around and playing loud music. One thing my manager LOVES doing is making it sound like there was a serious accident in the shop and getting customers to rush in and see what happened. He will scream, "GET AWAY FROM THE-" then will pound his hammer on the shop table and say, "oh my gosh are you all right?!"
Recently, one of the big jokes has been making fun of rollerblades and those who pursue the activity of rollerblading. They associate rollerblades with fanny packs and tight spandex.
On Friday, a punk rocker wearing a patched leather jacket with spikes coming 3 inches out of the shoulders walked in and asked about getting some rollerblade wheels. Danny, the shop manager, told him that he might look out by the fanny packs! When he left, everyone busted up laughing.
This gave me the great idea of employing John to make a scene in our shop the next day.
So at about 1 or 2pm today (in the shop), from the corner of my eye I see John skate in with neon rollerblades on! He had a hot pink pullover, glitter in his hair, and was wearing a fanny pack! I had to immediately look away or else I would have busted up laughing. He opened his fanny pack and pulled out a folded piece of office paper. He unfolded a drawn picture of a specific type of rollerblading elbow pads. He asked Danny if we happened to carry the "Extreme Helix Elbow Pad". All the shop guys were in awe. Jake, one of the shop guys, whispered to me, "Dude I think he has glitter in his hair!!!!" Quinn, the other shop guy, snuck around to the rental bench and was taking pictures of John with his phone. Danny explained to John that IMT is getting away from selling rollerblades and told him that he might take a look at our fanny packs in the front of the store. John left and everyone busted up laughing. It was perfect!

Kinder Surprise!

mainstream music ROCKS!! (i was paid to say that)

I'm Fergalicious (so delicious)

My body stay vicious

I be up in the gym just working on my fitness

He's my witness (oooh, wee)

I put yo' boy on rock, rock

And he be lining down the block just to watch what I got (four, tres, two, uno)

So I have a new job helping out a D.J. when he needs extra help. He wants to train me up so I can be an independent D.J. for his company when I move back to Jackson next summer. The hardest part of the job, says he, is reading the crowds and playing what they want to hear. So he wants me to take a clip board to every event I help out at and take notes of how the crowd responds to each and every song. I also need to listen to the latest and greatest and become a mainstream music guru. Listening to Z103 and what he played at the last dance makes me realize how ridiculous mainstream music is today. Yeah, its bad, with frequent reference to sex and drugs, but that's not what i think is so ludicrous about it. It is the lyrics that kill me! It basically doesn't matter anymore what the rappers or pop stars say anymore. Just add lots of layering, some synth, some catchy licks, turn on the base drum to 128 BPM, and rap about sex, and VABOOM!!! you have yourself a record selling 1 million copies!

I read this blurb on mainstream music that is very interesting: popular music is the product of the modern business enterprise disseminated for the purpose of earning a profit. Executives and employees of popular music businesses try to select and cultivate the music that will have the greatest success with the public, and thus maximize the profits of their firm. In this respect, popular music differs from traditional folk music, which was created by ordinary people for their own enjoyment.

WOW! Isn't it great to know that the businessmen at capital records are so good at deciding what we want to hear! "No, no, they don't want a complete meal. Let's throw candy at them!" And that is what mainstream music is today. It holds no intrinsic value. It is no longer a creative work of art. It is just candy that satisfies for immediate pleasure but reverberates nothing but emptiness. Do you think that in 30-40 years from now the "Classic Rock" station is going to be playing Justin Timberlakes 'Sexy Back'?! "I’m bringing sexy back Them other boys donno know how to act I think your special whats behind your back So turn around and ill pick up the slack."

So my deep question for the day is this: In 35 years from now, what will be considered "Classic Rock"? What bands will be the early 21st century greats?

my new blog

OK, so i haven't been good about blogging in the past. But this time i promise i will pull through and will update it whenever i can.
Today Kori and I went out to Blackfoot to do some climbing in the Crank Caves. We got to see Dean out there putting up a new route. It was coming out of a cave and was almost completely horizontal for 20 feet! Dean is the man!
Also, Kori got on a 5.11a and was able to onsite it. It was another new climb in the Caves that Dean put up last week...... that makes Kori probably the 3rd person to EVER climb the route! Then i attempted climbing Crankenstein, a 12b that i led earlier this year............ and it SHOT ME DOWN. I went home a little frustrated about that. Is it because I am running and my legs are getting bigger (and are weighing me down)? I know that is a stupid conclusion, but I subconciously worry about that sometimes.
So I have picked up running again. Why would I do such a pointless thing?! Why are there magazines dedicated specifically to this phenomenon of walking so briskly that you have to trot? Why do some people let society define them as 'runners' and fit the mold, accordingly? What is it about this running problem that causes people to want to keep doing it? These are questions I had plenty of time to think about after my climbing accident. I couldn't really think of a good answer, so I almost wrote off running as something I would no longer do (when I got better). But then I started running and realized, once again, why I ever did it in the first place= because it makes me feel good. It is probably for a lot of reasons. Here are some of them........
1. beta endorphins (?)
2. I like structure in my life, and running is an easy way to structure 'being fit' into my life
3. I like challenging myself physically and being able to gauge my improvement
4. Sometimes, it just 'makes my day'. It makes me feel better about myself. It makes me feel productive.
I pushed myself today and realized how much slower I am then I used to be. Oh well. I don't care, as long as in a month from now I am faster then I am now.