Provo's Mayor and City Council Elections

Tonight, I had the opportunity to attend the Provo Mayoral and City Council Debate. I unfortunately was late to the Mayoral debate, but from what I can tell, between John Curtis and Steve Clark, that I prefer Curtis. Clark was talking about 2.5 emissions that cause the flu during this cold weather, which from what I can see by a few quick google searches, is bull. I unfortunately don't have much to share.

As far as the City Council goes, it was a wonderful debate. I fortunately was joined by a friend who helped understand a bit more of the issues, which greatly helped me.
But, from the debate today, here is the rundown: You have three city council positions up for vote; The District 2, District 5 and the City wide seat.

The debate overall for the city council was fairly played, everyone had their time at the mic and there was not political mud-rucking, except for District 5. In District 5 you have Sterling Beck and Cindy Richards. Cindy Richards, unfortunately, could not be there as an emergency occurred with her husband, so a supporter of hers filled in for her. But even so, it seems that Sterling Beck is just running to slam the city council for past mistakes (real or unreal), and especially to slam on Cindy Richards. He didn't say anything that really stood out, as he was always pointing out stuff that Cindy Richards has maybe failed to do, and his proposals to do so. He doesn't sound like someone I'd really want to vote for, especially after implying that the many on the city council are elitist. Honestly, from reading his web site and listening to him, he sounds like a wannabe, toned down, Superdell.

From what I have heard about Cindy Richards though, is that she isn't for students. Her representative talked about putting families in homes and cleaning up homes, but although that sounds good, basically it implies converting homes that college students live in to be family houses. So I don't agree with her on that.

For District 2, there is David Acheson and Rick Healey. Both seem like really good, experienced dudes who will do their best to improve Provo. Acheson appeals to me more in demeanor I think. So unfortunately for those of you who live in District 2, I don't have much information for you. Although, Acheson did say something that greatly caught my attention; he proposed to work with the student governments of BYU and UVU, get them involved in decisions that affect the city and students. I think that is a great idea. The city council should totally do that.

Now, for City-wide council there is Coy D. Porter and Laura Cabanilla. Both are well experienced for the position, Porter highlighting his strength in budgeting while he was a firefighter, getting grants and stuff for fire engines without asking the city for money. However, in terms of parking, he proposes a one bed to one car ratio for apartment complexes. He clearly favors overnight parking fees.
Cabanilla, on the other hand, is more assertive and appears to be more of a people person. She looks beyond budgets (well, made the joke about budgets being boring after Porter spoke) and wants the community and students to be more involved.

And, overall, they were all vague on how they want to improve downtown Provo. They all want it be historic, preserving the history of the city, but inviting business in. So I'm unsure how they want to accomplish that.

That's about as far as I can remember from tonight's debate. You all should check out their respective websites, and vote on Tuesday!

Eclipse Fail

So Eclipse is giving me this funky error when trying to open it.



So this is a pain. I'm also needing to put this image up here so those in the Eclipse help forums can help out.

Beginnings of a New Religion...

Maybe.

You know how it was snowing yesterday, Tuesday? Well it is a running theme with The Green Giant and me that we rag on each other when it snows, seeing how I like snow and he, well, doesn't.

Well it escalated to a new level yesterday, with me somehow preaching the Gospel of the Great Snowfall, and calling haters of snow to repentance. Not to mention stating that the great pattern of snow fall does not consider the human desire for warmth to be sin, that preparing oneself adequately to be warm while fully enjoying the fall of the fluffy white stuff is greatly looked upon.

Yeah... I'm not sure what else to say. Although, if a new religion does spring forth from all this, I hope you'll all join me in adoration of that which is cold, fluffy and wet.

- Sam, the Nanti-SARRMM - Herald of the Might Snow Storm.

Missionary Wednesday

Hello you all!

Friday I found out some awesome news. One of my favorite families in this area the Vails went to the temple for the first time. It was good to hear this. At one time this family was completely inactive. Both parents are converts and now look where they have come. Endless congratulations for them!

Unfortunately I have little other good news this week. in the beginning of the transfer they gave all areas a list of their referrals that had supposedly never been contacted so we set to work on finding those people only to discover that over half of them had been talked to already and actually had been updated. We’ve visited everyone on that list now. We are trying to schedule appointments and visit with them. Our attempts to get back with them are failing. These people are never home or don’t answer the phone when we call them. This routine is getting old!! In our areas these people have been dropped many times before. These referrals keep coming back as if we never did anything. We don’t know whether to blame the referral center or the person who ordered the thing but we are about ready to tear someone’s head off. We keep getting the same bogus referral over and over again and they never go anywhere no matter what we do with them. No matter how many times we contact them or drop them they keep coming back then not being there when we try to find them and we are both getting fed up with it. The worst part about all this is after we’ve attempted to contact them and update our records the office gets on our back about not having being kept the records updated even thou we have done everything within our power to do just that. The office give’s us those referrals again and again, saying we didn’t do anything with them!!

The only good thing to come from this whole referral mess is that when we go visit the area again we pick up actual real people who want to hear from us when we tract around the area. Hopefully the people we tracted will actually go somewhere. We’ve also decided to attempt to get our members more involved if they don’t like it because we baptize inactive then they should help us fellowship so we can retain the people we bring in.

Not much else to say this week hopefully next week we will have better news

Sincerely, Elder Fields.

There's a Name For Someone Like You...

And it's Oedipus. You haven't heard of Oedipus, have you Mr. Inglewood California? Are you quite sure, you're actually acting like him, slightly.

Ok, so skipped the killing your father step (I'm assuming) and just leaped right to the next step. Well actually I presume you decided to search for it first, but honestly, searching for "Spooning with Mom" does you no good.

So before you end up being the father of your sisters and putting your eyes out and causing a butt load of problems for your family, a word of advice; don't.

So are we clear on that? No spooning your mother? Good. Now go be a productive member of society!

Cheese

You know what's good stuff? Pepperjack Chese.

Also the chocolate chex stuff. I'm a demon with those. That stuff is delicious!

To The BYU Football Defense

Dear BYU Football's Defense,

You Stink. Now don't act all surprised, but all of campus and everyone who watched tonight's game against TCU is thinking it. You simply stink.

Now don't let my words fool you, I'm a devoted fan, I may not attend the games in person but I try to watch or listen to every single game. And so, as a fan, I have got to say that you really dropped the ball tonight. Yes, there was the blowout loss against Florida, but we all supposed that maybe it was just a bad night for you, and that you'd come back swinging. But tonight merely confirms your mediocre talent and playing ability.

Now I don't mean to say that TCU isn't good, cause they are very good, they are a very talented team. But is that really an excuse to lose this bad against TCU? I don't think so. You could have given them a point for point battle, but you didn't. Instead TCU steamrolled over you.

And you know what's worse, my hope in you guys, as a team, is shot for this season. Yes, BYU will beat Wyoming and New Mexico, but that's a given. What I'm talking about is the game that matters, the BYU VS the Utes. Would I like to see BYU beat the Utes? Yes! But these two disappointing and humiliating defeats have shattered my hope that we can defend against them.

So there you BYU Defense, you shattered the hope of a fan that BYU can beat their rivals up north. How are we as students and fans of BYU supposed to view the rivalry game now? How are we supposed to enjoy in the traditional rivalry shenanigans when we know that you're just going to flop around and get your butts kicked?

Maybe you can pull off a miracle and restore confidence in the team and defense, but with how you're playing, I don't think it is likely.

So, one word of advice Defense, don't let us be completely decimated against the Utes. That's all I ask.