Babies Everywhere

This is what I feel like right now. It seems like there are babies everywhere. I have some friends, Matt and Katie who just had Scott, My cousin Steve and his wife Tracy just had Cody, and my sister Kelly and her husband Nate just had Lyla. I love this commercial and I realized that right now it is kinda like the woman in it. There are babies everywhere and I feel great. Don't worry though, Jen and I are not going there just yet.

So these are pictures of my wife and I holding my my first born second cousin. I have lots of second cousins but none that have been born from my first cousins. These are exciting times!

Hummmmm?!

So I was looking through my pictures at my computer yesterday and a certain picture came up and I noticed something new. Now this was taken last July at our annual Chapman golf tournament at Black Gold in Yorba Linda and is of my wife, Jennifer, getting ready to tee off. What I didn't notice before was in the background my Sister-in-law Nicky. I was trying to figure out what in the world she was doing. I have only one really good guess that involves her feeling much better. What do you think she is doing?

Consider Your Options

Joey, I think that it is time for us to act like adults and settle this dispute civilly. I think that it is important that you call Ali and Kristy and let them know that you do not deserve to be considered as "the favorite". They will laugh at you because they probably don't even like you anyway. Now as for your beef with me. I suggest you follow the example of my little friend here and wave your white flag of surrender. Otherwise, someone is going to get hurt and it's not me.

I Hate Joey Winter

So I wanted to start a website but the URL is taken. The website is www.ihatejoey.com and for some weird reason it is taken by this movie about Jerusalem and its relations with Christians, Jews, Muslims and so on. I don't really get that. How does www.ihatejoey.com relate to this?

Anyways I do hate Joey Winter and I want your support. If you don't know the story between us you need to read about it. I need you to join my side on this too. This is a really serious matter and the more people that hate Joey Winter the better off we all are. Thank you.

All Time Best?

Fine Katie I will update the blog. Sorry to all of my fans for taking such a long time to do this. It has been all too busy for me to update our blog so I will try and do better.

So what are the all time best of anything you can think of? Movies, Bands, Gifts, Friends, Albums... and the list goes on. This post is about my all time best albums of all time. Well one in particular. I love music. I don't think I can put my finger down on "The Best Album of All Time", and I don't really think that is even possible. I would say though that I could easily put Pink Floyd's album, The Wall, in my top five albums of all time. I love every song, and it is laid out so perfectly in the album. I can listen to it for days on end.

Well I saw a little bit ago that The Australian Pink Floyd Show would be playing at the Honda Center and would perform The Wall in its entirety. This was an amazing opportunity that I simply could not pass by.

As "Cover Bands" are concerned I can think of a few that are just spot on to the original. There is Iron Heart, Electric Youth, and now I can say The Australian Pink Floyd Show. They literally sounded just like Pink Floyd and did such an amazing job performing. I absolutely loved it and if you are a Pink Floyd fan and this band is coming to your town soon, I would definitely try and make it to this show.

By the way, although I hate Joey right now I must thank him for taking me and Jenny to this show. He really is the man for doing so, even when we are in a fight for our lives.

New Inspiration

I feel relieved that the election is over now and we can move on and write and talk about other things. I have however been struggling with something to write about and have experienced somewhat of a writer's block. I needed to do something and I needed to do it fast in order to get my groove back. Well here it is.

I promised Jennifer that as soon as the election was over we would go on a hike to some local area. Last July I bought Jennifer a book called Top Trails which has a bunch of hikes locally to Los Angeles. We decided to use it for the first time this weekend and we traveled to Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains. This hike was only about a 40 minute drive from our house and was well worth it. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

We started off on a ski lift that took us up to the point where our hike started.

Basically, I am getting ready to rock this mountain!

First thing was first; Jennifer and I had to get our bearings, so we climbed this tree.


I was totally amazed to see that when we reached a certain point we could to the east see the valley plain off to Victorville and Barstow, and to the west we could see Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Orange Counties. This is to the east.

I don't know why, but Jennifer begged to get her picture taken with this Pine Tree. She really was becoming one with nature.

To me, these were awesome pictures.


Watching Jennifer go up this hill was a moment of pride for me.

And this is what it was all about.

At the end of the day it was a little hard to say goodbye. Jennifer and I felt even more connected with our beautiful local San Gabriel Mountains. We had to leave though so we could go bowling with our friends JD & Katie, but don't you worry! Jennifer and I will be back real soon to reconnect once again with Mother Nature.

Thanks for the Great time Mount Baldy!

Intolerance?

People who oppose Proposition 8 are really quick to point the finger and accuse the supporters of being intolerant. I appreciate people like "K" who was highlighted in my last post for the civility in their arguments. However I find that there are a lot of those who are not like "K" and who are some of the most intolerant people out there. They are trying to take away our free speech, and right to feel safe. Just this morning my Dad found my sticker on my car has been decimated, which might I add takes away my freedom of speech. Now who is being intolerant?

Outlaw Divorce?

In my last post about Bigotry I had a great comment by an anonymous reader who identified herself as K. I was so grateful for this comment for two reasons mainly. First this person was totally respectful and I feel sincere, and secondly it really is a great question she asked. Here is what she said in her comment.

Hey Michael,

I'm a 27 year old woman living in Orange County, CA. I'm opposed to Prop 8 however I'm trying to better understand your point of view. No worries, I'm not here for name calling or any heated arguments, etc. :) Anyway, if your true intentions are to protect marriage shouldn't you be campaigning to outlaw divorce instead of TAKING AWAY other people's rights? It doesn't make logical sense to me.

Thanks,
K

Well I think that this is a fantastic question and though it may seem a little extreme I have thought of the pros and cons if this were to actually happen and it is not a bad thought. Allow me to list them

Pros:
*People would take marriage more seriously
*This would prevent "Shotgun Weddings"
*Couples would work out their differences and try to understand each other better
*Children would still have a Mom and a Dad at home

Cons:
*Adultery would be more prevalent
*Couples would be forced to stay in an abusive relationship
*Children could be at risk by being in an abusive environment
*There still are "dumb" people out there who will not consider the life long consequences before entering into this union.
*My parents would still be married

Now K, if you want to understand my position on this you must understand that I am a devout Christian and my belief on marriage is that it is a institution that was designed by our Heavenly Father. The ideal marriage is a perfect plan that is used to bring God's children into this world and to establish families. I also believe that children should be raised by a mother and a father.

Now although God's plan for families is perfect, the participants are not. It is my opinion that the primary deteriorating factor in marriage is pride. As people become too proud to admit that they are in fault, too proud of their work to pay attention to their families, too proud forgive each other, and too proud in themselves. Pride, I think, can be a good thing when used correctly e.g. Being proud of children for accomplishments. However, when used unrighteously, pride will destroy people and families.

Now as for my family. I have experience with divorce in my family. My parents were divorced after being married for 18 years. I remember very well what it was like to have them both at home and I can very boldly say that a divorce was the right thing for them. I never doubted that my parents were in love. In fact a few years ago I found several letters from my Dad to my Mom written while they were in separate states working as they were courting. I saved these letters and today they are in my filing cabinet at home. These are some of the most loving and tender letters I have ever read and there is not a doubt in my mind that they were totally in love. Now over a span of 18 years things happened, hearts and values changed. I love both of my parents very much so don't expect me to go into any kind of detail about why they grew apart or what caused the divorce, I will say though that it is a good thing that they are not required to be together. Though they were very similar and in love 33 years ago, they could not be any different today.

One last point I would like to make. Proposition 8 is not taking away any rights of gay couples. Under California law, "domestic partners shall have the same rights, protection, and benefits" as married spouses (Family Code § 297.5). Proposition 8 does not take away any rights, it just restores traditional marriage.

K, Thank you so much for your great question. I hope that this response helps you understand my position on Proposition 8.

Bigots?

This past week I held up signs in support of Prop. 8 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I do have a lot of fun doing this but there is one thing that bothers me about it. I know that by the nature of what I was doing this week in support of Prop. 8, other people will respond in a supportive or negative way. I totally expect that and I must say that in the locations that I was holding signs there was an overwhelming response of people who are supporting this Proposition. However, the opposing side is there as well and I actually really appreciate it that they also feel passionate enough to exercise their freedom of speech as well. One thing that I don't like though is when I am being accused of bigotry. Prop. 8 is not about bigotry, hatred towards gays, intolerance, discrimination, or taking away of civil liberties. It is about protecting the sanctity of marriage, our families, our religion, our rights as parents, and putting back in place what California voted on previously. Here is a great video about what I am talking about. By the way, the second person to speak in this video is Katie from Fullerton, CA and I am friends with her. Doesn't she sound so smart?

November

I have been wondering if I would be doing this or not and I thought that I should for some very good reasons. I have decided to talk about the election and two of the things that I will be voting for, Prop 4 and Prop 8.

First, Prop 4. I am a little surprised that this proposition is not getting some more attention. Simply said it is a yes vote will require that Doctors wait to perform abortions on girls whom are under 18 years of age until 48 hours after he notifies the pregnant girls parents or guardians. A no vote keeps it the same and girls can continue to get abortions without their parents being notified.

I agree with Prop 4 and here are the arguments. Prop 4 supporters claim that if this is not passed then child predators will continue to pay for their little girlfriends abortions so they can continue to have sex with them. Also parents will know of all medical procedures done on the girl and can notify doctors if this girl is in the hospital later because of complications due to her abortion. Sarah's Law was created because a girl was taken to get an abortion by her much much older boyfriend and did not notify her parents. She later had to go to the hospital because of complications from her abortion. Because her parents did not know of the abortion they could not report it to the doctor. Eventually they found out what had happened to this girl through test but it was too late. This girl ended up dying because her parents did not know about this procedure. Here is another video for supporters.

People who oppose Prop 4 say that this will force girls to tell abusive family members about their pregnancies. Here is their video.

Personally I feel that parents need to know about their children's medical procedures. They can't get tans a tanning salons without permission but they can get abortions without their knowledge.

This picture kind of helped me muster up the courage to post something about Prop 8. I feel very strongly about Prop 8 but I must admit that I have not always felt so strongly. When I heard about Prop 8 I was actually going to vote no on it. I have gay friends, and I felt that they are good people and they should be allowed to marry if they want to. I used to be angry in church when people would talk about it and make plans for supporting it. I was quite about it though and talked about it to only a hand full of people.

After a while I started to realize some of the consequences of gay marriage. As most of you already know, gay marriage has already been legalized in Massachusetts. We have a unique opportunity to see what has happened there before we make our vote on November 4th. So far children have been taught in schools that gay marriage is an equal alternative to heterosexual marriage. Catholic adoption agencies have shut their doors in Massachusetts and have to operate out of state because they were being required to go against their religious beliefs and place children in same sex households. This is not good for our society. Also as homosexual relationships are considered more and more acceptable, religious people will become more and more persecuted for being discriminative and intolerant. I don't want to have my religious beliefs be scrutinized and challenged because we won't adapt the we believe to coincide to the way people feel today.

Another point I want to make is that same sex couples have all the rights that traditional couples have. This is not a civil rights issue. I agree with this and fully believe they should enjoy these same rights. Here is a video about Prop 8 that I like.

The Ducks

So we went to the game last night and it was amazing. Teemu Selanne pulled off his 21st NHL Hat Trick and for the first time I saw hundreds of hats thrown on to the ice, well maybe like fifty. Also for the first time I saw 4 squids thrown onto the ice and for the first time I saw a fight in the stands between two fans. Rumor has it one of the fans is Bobby Grich formerly of the California Angels. By the way the Ducks won last night 5-4 in overtime!

Halloween 2008

I love Halloween. I really don't need to say very much more than that. I will say one thing about it though. I don't really like that "scary" is being taken out of Halloween. There are supposed to be vampires and warewolves and mummy's and other types of ghouls. I don't want to diss on others who don't do these things because there are some very funny and creative costumes that are going on out there.

Ok, enough of that rant. Let me tell you about last Saturday. I have been wanting to be dead for a while now and I got to do that on Saturday night for not One, not Three, but Two Halloween parties. I was just going to be a dead zombie but my friend Elise suggested that I be Edward Cullen which would have been really easy. I am already really good looking and my wife could have been a good Bella Swan. I did however decide to be a walking dead and here are some of the pictures of the night.

By the way I wish I had pictures of the earlier party and going to Corner Bakery (which was very funny by the way) but unfortunately we forgot our camera at home and had to get it later on in the night. I do have to say that I am extremely proud of my Brothers Chris and Jeff for their costumes, particularly Chris. Chantelle, my sister in law, made Chris a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume and it was awesome. My brother Jeff made an incredible lumberjack and my nieces and nephews were all great in their costumes as well.

So I wanted to be dead and after I finished my make up Jennifer felt bad because she didn't have a costume. All of a sudden she figured it out and we made her a knife. It was a very simple idea and quite frankly a brilliant one too. It only made sense. Jennifer likes this picture which shows her very lovingly killing me.

And I like this picture which shows a little more reality in her expression.

We were sad that our friends JD and Katie couldn't make it to our second Halloween Party. I guess they were just really tired.


Skyler was Ned Flanders...

...and Elise was a Cowgirl.

This was Jennifer's favorite picture for some reason. Just so you know that is a syringe from a nurse at the party.

And a very serious much thanks to our good friend Kristen Lawrence for hosting yet again another amazing Halloween party.

Bank Robbers Are Bad People

So I haven't thought about it but I should have posted this last week on the blog when it happened. So my brother Scott was robbed at his bank on Wednesday and the three men involved got away with a lot of money. Here is a video of the robbery and the news report of what happened. He and everyone in the bank are OK so that is the best thing. The guys kept on yelling at him if he didn't hurry up then they would shoot him. What total A-holes huh? I wish I was there because I could have used my mad skills to detain them. Ever heard of a karate chop to the neck? There would be two hits, me hitting them and them hitting the ground. Sometimes though I wish I was Sylar though. I would totally work them then

Allied Steel

Some people ask me from time to time what I do for a living so I thought I would expound on that. I work for my family's company called Allied Steel. My Dad has been working here for 30+ years and owns the company with his brother Perry, and my Grandfather owned this company before them. I really like what I do, well most of the time. Here are some pictures to show you what exactly we do.


Allied Steel has been in business for the past 60 years and we specialize in steel construction for water treatment plants and sanitation districts. We do the steel construction for all those places that make your water drinkable and those places that clean your used water.


We make handrail...


...and buildings.


Here are some of my employees installing a roof to a building.


Here is the same roof from below.



We also do grating.


We make stairs and ship ladders as well.


This is a cool plant in Rialto that turns human poop into fuel. This is an experimental plant that may or may not work. The project cost over $200 million. This is our building called the Dryer Structure which, well it's going to dry the poop. This is before all the equipment was put in.


...and after most of the equipment.

Now this is the part of my job that I hate. We also do work for Sanitation Districts. This is where my pet Mobey went after my friend Erin killed him. You also may have many pet fish that have gone here too after they have deceased. Other names for the Sanitation District are Wastewater Treatment Plant, Brown Trout Farm, Turd Farm, S%*@ Plant and so forth.


This building is called the Grit Building. FYI from this point on if you have a weak stomach you better skip the rest of these pictures.


Inside the grit building you find big machines that separate water from things.


These machines send surprises onto this conveyor belt.

I'll spare you of the kinds of surprises you can find on this conveyor belt. I have close up pictures of these surprises. Let's just say it smells like crap in the grit building. I have to go to places like this from time to time to measure the spaces where we will build things. In this particular room we are building a platform so people can walk on it and look into these machines that separate the water from the "things".


This is where the conveyor belt takes these little surprises.

Can you guess what are in these pictures?

That's no balloon!


These are everywhere.

Well that is what I do for a living. I hoped you enjoyed your virtual tour of Allied Steel. I really like my job but I do hate to go to the Turd Farm. Click Here for further learning tools about where your pet fishes go.

Wicked Games, Who Did it Better?

Chris Isaak


...or HIM

I AM SO EXCITED FOR TONIGHT!!!!!!

Summer Fulfilled!

All summer long I have wanted to do one thing and that my friends was to ride a bike. I have always been a big fan of bike riding but haven't done it since August 2005. Last month, Mike and I went with our friends Alex and Charisse to Coronado Island in San Diego and this is where my summer dream was fulfilled. The late afternoon was perfect. The bike we took was right next to the bay so we could see all the sail boats and the sun setting. I had such an amazing time with Mike. Here are some pictures of our day.