I have recently made a discovery that has dramatically influenced my life for the better. We use it frequently in our apartment. Its "The Scale". The Scale is a simple scale from 1-10 that you rate things on.
Here is the scale:
10 is impossible. It is completely impossible for something to be so good that it is a 10. Totally impossible. Nothing on this earth is so good that it is a 10. No perfect scores. Ever. Not those brownies that you made last week, not that Bieber concert that you went to last year, not that book you read in high school that changed your life forever. Nothing is EVER a 10.
9 is that your mind was blown. There are very few things that ever qualify for a 9. 9 means that you loved this thing so much that you will be thinking about it next week, next month, maybe even next year. 9 means that thing is exceptional in quality. I myself have given very few 9's. I gave a 9 to a cupcake that I had a few years ago that was the best cupcake I had ever eaten to that point. I gave a 9 to a batch of salsa I made last November that still, to this day, legendary. Stan gave a 9 to something awhile back. When you give a 9, you speak it reverently and in a hushed tone. 9's are special.
8 means that you loved it. 8's are more common. Something that you absolutely loved usually gets a mid-8.
7 means that thing was good. 7 is a common way to say "I wholeheartedly approve". Stan's fishing skill? That's a mid-7.
6 means that thing was ok.
5 means that thing was ordinary and unremarkable. I made some grilled ribs the other day that I was really excited about that turned out to be a 5. Unremarkable.
4-1 is the exact invert of 6-9. I'm sure you can use your imagination to fill this in.
0 is impossible. Nothing on this earth is so foul that it gets a 0. Ever.
One of the benefits of this scale is that people can really know quantitatively how you felt about things, and subsequently lets you genuinely compliment them. We are so quick today to bite into someone's mediocre dessert and declare it a 10. We are so quick to walk up to our friends and tell them that their outfit is a 10. The lesson in Sunday School today was a 10. 10's are everywhere. When we do that, it only comes off as flattery. All the person really knows now is that you liked their dessert/outfit/lesson. BUT when you use The Scale, and you walk up to you buddy and tell him his tie is an 8.7, he really knows that you truly love his tie. In fact, you have never heard him give that high of a score to anything, so his true feelings are really made known and you are properly complimented on your fine taste in ties.
The world would be a better place if everyone used The Scale.
P.S. I'm going to go ahead and give this blog post a 6.
P.P.S. I'm going to go ahead and give some BBQ chicken I made for the fam last night an 8.8. It was the best BBQ chicken I have ever made, ever, period. Possibly the best I have ever eaten as well. Yea, it was good.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Camping
Let's get one thing straight right now: I hate camping. Why do I hate camping? I'm not quite sure, but it might have to do with sleeping on a rock in sub-40 degree weather. With mosquitoes buzzing around your face.
That being said, I went camping last weekend against my better judgement. If there's one weakness I have, its fishing. Usually I'm pretty good about saying "Heck no" to people that want me to go camping, but for whatever reason last week I was susceptible to the persuasions of my friends. I think the trump card that they played was that it would be 'more of a fishing trip than a camping trip'. So I went.
We went up to Payson Lakes around the Nebo Loop. It is a beautiful area, made even more beautiful by the new spring growth that was coming in. I took my camera and took some pictures. We got there Friday night and fished down at the lake, and got up Saturday morning and fished some more. My roommate Stan made us look like chumps by out-fishing everyone else COMBINED x2. *sigh* One more thing with which I cannot compete with Stan.
Some people try to be culinary heroes when they camp, cooking up a gourmet meal on the mountain just to show off. Not us. We took everything pre-prepared so all we had to do was warm and eat. Such a good idea. We also got our fill of s'mores (also a good idea) and dutch oven cobbler (a third good idea).
So the take-home lesson from this blog post is: Don't take Stan fishing with you. And if you do, prepare to receive a fishing beat-down.
That being said, I went camping last weekend against my better judgement. If there's one weakness I have, its fishing. Usually I'm pretty good about saying "Heck no" to people that want me to go camping, but for whatever reason last week I was susceptible to the persuasions of my friends. I think the trump card that they played was that it would be 'more of a fishing trip than a camping trip'. So I went.
We went up to Payson Lakes around the Nebo Loop. It is a beautiful area, made even more beautiful by the new spring growth that was coming in. I took my camera and took some pictures. We got there Friday night and fished down at the lake, and got up Saturday morning and fished some more. My roommate Stan made us look like chumps by out-fishing everyone else COMBINED x2. *sigh* One more thing with which I cannot compete with Stan.
Some people try to be culinary heroes when they camp, cooking up a gourmet meal on the mountain just to show off. Not us. We took everything pre-prepared so all we had to do was warm and eat. Such a good idea. We also got our fill of s'mores (also a good idea) and dutch oven cobbler (a third good idea).
So the take-home lesson from this blog post is: Don't take Stan fishing with you. And if you do, prepare to receive a fishing beat-down.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Strep Throat
I got a touch of strep this last week. Let me rephrase that. I got blasted by strep last week.
Monday I got home from the family vacation to Idaho, and that's when it started. (I'm still not sure if I picked it up in ID or before I left). I felt a sore throat come on Monday and Tuesday, and Tuesday night I remember thinking that this tiny annoying sore throat would run its course by Wednesday. It did not.
Wednesday night things got much worse. This is when I started to worry. Luckily I have a lot of nice people around me that take good care of me. After realizing that I probably needed to go to the doctor, I got on gchat Thursday morning with Melodie and said something to the effect of: "Ummm... I think I need to go to the doctor. How does one do this type of activity?" I have been blessed with good health and pretty rarely need to see a doctor. I almost forgot how to do this.
The doctor gave me some antibiotics and I was certain that by Friday morning all this would be just a bad memory. I was wrong. Friday I felt just as bad, Saturday was no better. When I got up Sunday morning and still felt like I'd just been hit in the throat by the Incredible Hulk, I began to wonder if I would ever recover. I had been pretty sick for 6 days now.
I was in a bad way. My voice sounded scratchy and hoarse and talking was painful. I couldn't swallow without pain; I had eaten almost nothing for the past 5 days. I could drink only warm lemon and honey tea. I was taking painkillers every 4 hours, alternating between ibprofen and tylonol. The glands in my neck and mouth were swollen, and thus producing saliva at an accelerated rate (saliva that I couldn't swallow without pain). On top of all this, the antibiotics didn't seem to be doing any good.
Despite being in this awful sounding predicament, eventually my symptoms did slip away and I am now recovered. Yesterday I actually ate solid food (yea!) and didn't have to take any painkillers. Today I feel pretty much 100%.
Its times like this I'm glad that I live in a first-world country in a modern age, where medicine and health care are so advanced. I was in a bad way but mostly my job was to pop pills and read Harry Potter on the couch. What was a nasty little illness to me would have been much much worse had I lived in a different place and time.
Monday I got home from the family vacation to Idaho, and that's when it started. (I'm still not sure if I picked it up in ID or before I left). I felt a sore throat come on Monday and Tuesday, and Tuesday night I remember thinking that this tiny annoying sore throat would run its course by Wednesday. It did not.
Wednesday night things got much worse. This is when I started to worry. Luckily I have a lot of nice people around me that take good care of me. After realizing that I probably needed to go to the doctor, I got on gchat Thursday morning with Melodie and said something to the effect of: "Ummm... I think I need to go to the doctor. How does one do this type of activity?" I have been blessed with good health and pretty rarely need to see a doctor. I almost forgot how to do this.
The doctor gave me some antibiotics and I was certain that by Friday morning all this would be just a bad memory. I was wrong. Friday I felt just as bad, Saturday was no better. When I got up Sunday morning and still felt like I'd just been hit in the throat by the Incredible Hulk, I began to wonder if I would ever recover. I had been pretty sick for 6 days now.
I was in a bad way. My voice sounded scratchy and hoarse and talking was painful. I couldn't swallow without pain; I had eaten almost nothing for the past 5 days. I could drink only warm lemon and honey tea. I was taking painkillers every 4 hours, alternating between ibprofen and tylonol. The glands in my neck and mouth were swollen, and thus producing saliva at an accelerated rate (saliva that I couldn't swallow without pain). On top of all this, the antibiotics didn't seem to be doing any good.
Despite being in this awful sounding predicament, eventually my symptoms did slip away and I am now recovered. Yesterday I actually ate solid food (yea!) and didn't have to take any painkillers. Today I feel pretty much 100%.
Its times like this I'm glad that I live in a first-world country in a modern age, where medicine and health care are so advanced. I was in a bad way but mostly my job was to pop pills and read Harry Potter on the couch. What was a nasty little illness to me would have been much much worse had I lived in a different place and time.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Fun Video
I'm in the middle of reading Hunger Games right now, so no time to blog! Instead I'll just share this fun video.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Aprendendo Espanol
Here's the skinny on my latest hobby. I'm learning espanol. Or Spanish, if you will.
It was the logical next language to learn because its so closely related to Portuguese. Right out of the gates, I could read it and kind of get the meaning out of it. Now, I'm reading in Spanish almost as well as I did in Portuguese. So many of the words are similar.
I've found an awesome free podcast that I subscribe to that teaches you Spanish a little bit at a time. While I can read pretty well, I've found that understanding is harder, and speaking is the hardest. So its nice to be able to listen to it a little bit at a time and pick things up.
I don't know when I will be able to use the Spanish that I've learned, but it is fun to learn. Maybe someday I'll visit Mexico or something and be able to go up to some dude and say "Hola muchacho!"
It was the logical next language to learn because its so closely related to Portuguese. Right out of the gates, I could read it and kind of get the meaning out of it. Now, I'm reading in Spanish almost as well as I did in Portuguese. So many of the words are similar.
I've found an awesome free podcast that I subscribe to that teaches you Spanish a little bit at a time. While I can read pretty well, I've found that understanding is harder, and speaking is the hardest. So its nice to be able to listen to it a little bit at a time and pick things up.
I don't know when I will be able to use the Spanish that I've learned, but it is fun to learn. Maybe someday I'll visit Mexico or something and be able to go up to some dude and say "Hola muchacho!"
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Uhh... Oops
I never pass up an opportunity to make a fool of myself. I managed to pull of a rather historic blunder a month or so ago that I am still hearing about.
So I am the executive secretary in my ward, in charge of keeping notes and records of Bishopric things. One of the main things that the Bishopric does is callings within the ward. My responsibility is to write down who is going to get which calling, call them, and have them come in to meet with a member of the Bishopric. The Bishopric member will extend the calling, and I keep track of all the paperwork.
So, I live in a pretty transient ward. People are constantly coming and going. The Bishopric has to be pretty on top of things, usually we are giving new callings to about half the ward each semester or so. Things are especially crazy around the time that the semester changes, there is huge turnover in the ward and lots of callings to extend. So it was about a month and a half ago.
The Bishopric had just emailed me a long list of people that had been discussed for new callings. They had the list of people and the suggested calling to the side. Let me emphasize at this point that it was a long list. A lot of people and a lot of new callings. I received the list in my email, and then went to forward it onto the official "executive secretary" account.
I typed in the first few letters of the email address and let auto-fill fill in the rest.
Big.
Mistake.
Instead of sending to the executive secretary account, I sent it out on the ward email list.
I don't realize what I have done until about 3 minutes later when I get a phone call from a good friend of mine in the ward. "Darrell, ummm..., did you mean to send a list of new callings on the ward email?" I immediately freeze and the first thing that crosses my mind is OH. CRAP. I immediately rush to my computer and click on my "sent" email. Sure enough, I had sent it to the ward email list. I kind of just sat there in a dumb stupor letting the full weight of this sink in. Oops.
At this point, it was now just damage control. I hurriedly sent out another email apologizing for the first, telling people I sent it to the wrong place and to just disregard the email. Very smooth. That probably didn't do anything but make people more curious to read the first email. After that, there was really nothing else I could do about it, so I basically just shut my computer and sat on the couch staring at the wall thinking "How did this happen!?
Then, to make the rest of the story short, the Bishopric found out and teased me about it that Sunday, but really no lasting damage came out of it. Every now and again someone will give me a hard time, but luckily its pretty much blown over now.
Hahaha, I still can't believe that happened.
So I am the executive secretary in my ward, in charge of keeping notes and records of Bishopric things. One of the main things that the Bishopric does is callings within the ward. My responsibility is to write down who is going to get which calling, call them, and have them come in to meet with a member of the Bishopric. The Bishopric member will extend the calling, and I keep track of all the paperwork.
So, I live in a pretty transient ward. People are constantly coming and going. The Bishopric has to be pretty on top of things, usually we are giving new callings to about half the ward each semester or so. Things are especially crazy around the time that the semester changes, there is huge turnover in the ward and lots of callings to extend. So it was about a month and a half ago.
The Bishopric had just emailed me a long list of people that had been discussed for new callings. They had the list of people and the suggested calling to the side. Let me emphasize at this point that it was a long list. A lot of people and a lot of new callings. I received the list in my email, and then went to forward it onto the official "executive secretary" account.
I typed in the first few letters of the email address and let auto-fill fill in the rest.
Big.
Mistake.
Instead of sending to the executive secretary account, I sent it out on the ward email list.
I don't realize what I have done until about 3 minutes later when I get a phone call from a good friend of mine in the ward. "Darrell, ummm..., did you mean to send a list of new callings on the ward email?" I immediately freeze and the first thing that crosses my mind is OH. CRAP. I immediately rush to my computer and click on my "sent" email. Sure enough, I had sent it to the ward email list. I kind of just sat there in a dumb stupor letting the full weight of this sink in. Oops.
At this point, it was now just damage control. I hurriedly sent out another email apologizing for the first, telling people I sent it to the wrong place and to just disregard the email. Very smooth. That probably didn't do anything but make people more curious to read the first email. After that, there was really nothing else I could do about it, so I basically just shut my computer and sat on the couch staring at the wall thinking "How did this happen!?
Then, to make the rest of the story short, the Bishopric found out and teased me about it that Sunday, but really no lasting damage came out of it. Every now and again someone will give me a hard time, but luckily its pretty much blown over now.
Hahaha, I still can't believe that happened.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Grand Canyon Trip
So a couple weeks ago some people in my ward got together and made a trip to the Grand Canyon for the weekend. We hiked a trail on the North Rim (at least I think it was the North Rim) as a day hike. We drove around after the hike and looked at the sunset and took a bunch of pictures. It was great to spend quality time with friends and see one of the wonders of the world.
We stayed in a docked houseboat on Lake Powell. There were about 20 people that went, and there were about 10 beds in the houseboat which fit all the girls. All the guys slept on some pads that they had. The people who organized it provided the food, and the houseboat had a kitchenette that we prepared food on. The best part was that on the dock, there was a heated bathroom and showers. I had never been to Lake Powell, so it was great to go and check it out.
Here are some pictures from the trip. The Grand Canyon was a perfect place to try out a new camera tecnique I am learning called HDR. It really makes your pictures come alive. I took a bunch of HDR pictures but these turned out the best.
We stayed in a docked houseboat on Lake Powell. There were about 20 people that went, and there were about 10 beds in the houseboat which fit all the girls. All the guys slept on some pads that they had. The people who organized it provided the food, and the houseboat had a kitchenette that we prepared food on. The best part was that on the dock, there was a heated bathroom and showers. I had never been to Lake Powell, so it was great to go and check it out.
Here are some pictures from the trip. The Grand Canyon was a perfect place to try out a new camera tecnique I am learning called HDR. It really makes your pictures come alive. I took a bunch of HDR pictures but these turned out the best.
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