Things wanted or needed

Found this poem while looking through things belonging to my grandfather a while ago and just thought it was very share-worthy.

DESIDERATA

Go placidly among the noise & haste, & remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story.


Avoid loud & aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain & bitter; for always there will be greater & lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.


Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.


Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity & disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not stress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.


You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees & the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors & aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.


With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

While a note at the bottom of the page says it was found in Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore, from 1692, a quick online search actually revealed it to be from Max Ehrman, from the year 1927. The link provided in this paragraph gives a brief history of how it got its usual attribution. Also of note is that in the version I found among my grandfather's things, the second to last sentence reads "Be careful" rather than "Be cheerful." I much rather prefer the latter version, as I've posted above.

Strive to be happy, everybody. I don't think there's much better general advice than that.

Voting with my conscience

"The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood-sucking parasites'."    – Larry Hardiman (attrib.)

So unless you've managed to keep yourself disconnected from the whole world for the last year or so - in which case I somewhat envy you - many of the headlines these days are dealing with the upcoming US presidential election in just a few weeks. And the two main candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, seem to be creating more tension than any previous election ever has (at least from what I've noticed in my lifetime). That, to me, doesn't seem to be what election campaigns are supposed to do; obviously you want to make yourself look better and more desirable than your opponent(s), but this year there's been so much mudslinging and badmouthing that it's hard for me to take either of these two candidates seriously. Even in their final debate last night, while it looked like they might actually keep their cool during the first twenty minutes or so, it eventually ended in arguments and generally making the both of them look very unappealing. Let's take a look as to why:

Republican Party

I first came to know who Donald J. Trump was because of the reality TV show The Apprentice. Obviously he didn't just show up as this TV star out of the blue, he's been in business for pretty much all of his life, but again that's where I really first had a chance to pay any attention to him. And that's part of the issue I have with him: he's a businessman, not a politician. And with his business tactics and business morals, he managed to quite literally bully his way to become the Republican party's choice for president. Which is just ridiculous! Half of the things that come out of his mouth are to demean and belittle other people, and the other half is just lies or ridiculous claims of what he'll do once elected. Building a wall and having Mexico pay for it. Creating a better health care program while completely scrapping the existing one and having no experience in doing so. Vetting more than is necessary, extreme levels of stop and frisk, etc. Banning Muslims from entering our country. Radical claims that have little to no support behind them, because he just doesn't have the experience as a politician.

Lately a lot of the focus on him has been about recent negative comments he's made about how he treats women. He gave an apology for it, but just from watching it when it was first given and when he talked about it at the second debate, it looked and sounded like one of the most canned, insincere apologies ever. And even after that apology, more people are coming up to accuse him of past transgressions that he's just denying left and right. Are any of them true? I don't know, but it's far from a good sign that there are people making these accusations in the first place. All of his supporters accept that he's changed, dismissing it as "locker room talk", and while most of what he's said seems to have been just that - talk, and nothing more - I don't want to give a person like that the opportunity to act on that kind of talk as a president of our country. Aside from the allegations of women over the years that are now coming forward - even if none of them end up being true, I still don't trust this... man. He's not a politician, he's a celebrity that's trying to gain even more fame and recognition to help dig himself out of failing ventures.

Democratic Party

Hillary Clinton obviously has the experience of being in politics for longer than I've even been alive. She's served as a First Lady, a Senator, and up until this election she's served as Secretary of State. So as far as experience goes, at least versus Trump, she's got him beat. But a lot of the things that she and her party stand for are very contrary to what I believe in. She's got some scandals of her own, which of course keep getting brought up by her opponents (her private email server, Benghazi, and her husband's own lasciviousness that she defended [though to be fair, she's the one running, not Bill]). With her being able to get off clean for some of these things, it's hard to imagine a presidency where even more scandals and controversies can just get swept under the rug. For her, the recent announcement of emails being brought forth by Wikileaks is being said by certain news outlets that "you're only able to learn about it from us", that it's different for the media than for the general public, obviously giving way for bias to come through. That's a scary thought on its own as well: I can only learn about something so seemingly significant from one source? That just doesn't feel right at all to me. And yes, I understand that there are even people who have been staunch Republicans – even high profile ones – for the majority of their lives that are now voting for Clinton, but I can't in good conscience do the same. I don't want to vote for the "lesser of two evils", which I've seen and heard many people talk about over the last few months.

Kinda how it feels. Also, one of my favorite animated movies, and a particularly brilliant scene at that.

Conscience. That's a word that I've heard thrown around a bit lately as well. It's that little voice in our heads that's supposed to tell us what's right. It's that Jiminy Cricket or Shoulder Angel guiding us to do what we know we should, and letting us know when we don't. It's hard to know for sure if everyone involved in this presidential race is listening to their own conscience based on what they talk about; even Ben Carson said during an interview with MSNBC "I love the fact that all of a sudden you wanna talk about morality in our country. I would love us to bring back our Judaeo-Christian values and begin to teach those things and to emphasize them at a time other than a political election. Let's do that, but right now the train is going off the cliff." (Emphasis added) This is Dr. Ben Carson saying this, who, when he was still running for the Republican nomination himself, seemed to be one of the most looked-to candidates for traditional Christian values and morality. But now he, and pretty much all the other candidates who were running for the Republican nomination, are backing the same man who insulted just about all of them and fails to represent those values because the focus of the party is to beat "crooked Hillary". Where did their conscience go?! Again, I'm far from supporting Hillary at all, but at least she's able to somewhat answer questions in a debate without always deflecting or placing blame on her opponent!

It's so disheartening for me, and a lot of people from my "millennial" generation, to be faced with such abysmal choices. Bernie Sanders seemed to attract a lot of attention for people my age when still in the running for the Democratic nomination, though I personally never had any interest in him. Four years ago, Mitt Romney was my candidate of choice, but obviously he didn't win the election at the time and even now people who bashed on him are wistfully hoping that that outcome could have been different. So now a lot of people are looking toward third party candidates with the hope that, instead of getting the lesser of two evils, we actually get a somewhat good choice. John Oliver from Last Week Tonight discusses two of them here. (And by the way, he also goes into some detail about the scandals of the two main candidates here – keep in mind though, there is some language as he's a on an HBO show, and able to get away with a bit more than standard cable standards. But he brings up some very good points in each one.)

"To be fair, Johnson's anger [at being called a spoiler for the two main party candidates] is understandable. Just dismissing third-party candidates as spoilers shuts down debate. And while the argument that the only thing that stops Trump is a vote for Hillary Clinton is a powerful one, so is the argument that people should vote for the candidate who most closely shares their values."

That last phrase actually echoes counsel that's been repeatedly given by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who encourages members to not only vote but also "spend the time needed to become informed about the issues and candidates you will be considering... Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties, and members should seek candidates who best embody those principles." (Emphasis added.)

There's a website I've been seeing posted a lot on social media lately, ISideWith.com. It's a site run by two friends, who say in their About section that while they each have very different views of politics they both want to just increase voter awareness by compiling information and data, and together they made the site to make it easier for people to figure out exactly who best represents them based on their values and cared-about issues. I did their quiz, and ended up siding 91% with a third-party candidate named Evan McMullin. He's already made a name for himself here in Utah, but he's incredibly late to the party (forgive the slight pun), and seems to be hinging on the fact that enough third-party votes can prevent either of those two big candidates from winning the main election and having the vote go to the House instead of through the electoral colleges. However... Even with that against him, I feel like voting for him would put my mind more at ease than voting for Trump or Clinton. I can't 100% say he's going to be the candidate I vote for this year, but I can assure you that before election day I'll be doing my research and will know for sure by the time I'm casting my vote.

Google image search never fails me.

Just a last note, I know I've seen some criticism (not to me, but in general) of following the more comedic talk show hosts like John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers, and the like for getting news coverage, since there's a good chance again for it to be biased. My argument against that is just this: in a world where we've got clowns running amok, scaring people across the country, and some clowns running for president, on TOP of all the other awful news over the last couple years, it only makes sense that we get a good laugh once in a while. We can't even have a somewhat entertaining election awareness video made by some very recognizable actors without it getting parodied and criticized. Sure, the original may be bashing on Trump and leaning more towards Hillary, but to be fair the need for this kind of call to action is almost necessary with how low the actual voting population has been in the last couple decades, and how significant of an impact this election really will have for citizens of the United States and our relationships with countries around the world. (Oh, and don't read the comments for the majority of the videos I've linked to in this. It just gets toxic down there in that part of YouTube.)

Oh hey, this is a thing I used to do.

How long has it been since I've actually posted here? ...July? ...LAST July? Holy cow. Better do some cleanup.

Honestly I've meant to post well before now, and even had a few drafts written, at least one of which I'll probably post next week after making sure it gets polished up. Plus, this whole week I've been fairly sick, and while sick I don't really feel like going out and doing anything... So I'm gonna start writing again, as I used to be so wont to do before.

Just to get anyone up to speed for those who missed anything I've posted on Facebook over the last year or so, things are going much, much better for me now than the last time I posted. So I'll try to do a brief recap of all the big events from 2015 I didn't talk about, plus what's happened in 2016 so far.

• At the beginning of June last year, I went with some friends down to San Diego to see some other friends of mine get married. The whole thing was great to watch, and a fun time was had by all.

  

  Chance and Nicole Molen, amazing friends of mine for the last few years

• September of last year was the first Comic Con that I went to, which was the Salt Lake Comic Con (now the third largest of its kind). Besides seeing panels, collecting merchandise, and other "normal" Con activities, I helped join a group of 1,783 other people to break the Guinness World Record for "Largest gathering of people dressed as comic book characters". A fairly specific one, yes, but it's still something I'm proud of.

  

  Posing with my former roommates, Ryan Stevens (Captain America), Ryan Hernandez (Winter Soldier), and me as Star-Lord

• I took a serious look at my health and started actually doing something about it. I began working out with a personal trainer, and while that did go on break for a while for a few different reasons, I have picked that up again and have goals set in place for what I want to achieve, one of the biggest being just losing weight.

  

  While I don't actually use FitBit anymore, I did keep track regularly - and still do!

• Star Wars came back in full force (pun intended). My family and I went to go see it on Christmas Day, and it was actually good! I don't know if there's ever been more hype for a franchise to come back and have it be as successful as they hoped, because now there's going to be an episode 8 and 9, as well as a number of other Star Wars Story movies (like Rogue One coming out this year).
  

• Speaking of Star Wars, I went to Salt Lake Comic Con again this year, and one of the big names they got for visiting actors was Mark Hamill himself. Few other actors in the sci-fi genre are as recognized and honored, and on top of that he has a prolific voice acting career as well, most notably as the Joker in the Batman animated series. He held a panel the day he was here, with thousands of people there watching, and just being able to see him in person and hear him talk about the amazing career he's had was so much fun.

  

  Purposely chose to sit at the top so I wouldn't be fighting for a "good" seat - these screens were plenty good.

  

  See? View was just fine. SO many fun stories he shared... No spoilers, though!

• This February I got a job with Marriott Vacations Worldwide. To be clear, this is separate from Marriott International, which is in charge of the hotel chain (so Marriott hotels, Springhill Suites, Courtyard, etc.). This is the timeshare division, which is its own entity. I don't do any timeshare sales, which I'm kinda grateful for – from how much we help out our owners, timeshare ownership can get pretty complicated. But for the most part it's really not too bad, I help those who already own at certain locations make their own vacation plans for the upcoming year, or sometimes even for just a quick getaway. I honestly love it; they do a great job from day 1 to make you feel like you're part of a family there, and while it is technically work they also try especially hard to keep it fun and exciting for us. That's not something that can be said about most other call centers, which this is, but since our focus is so much different than other call centers it's easier to have that different feel. I've been working there full-time since February and have very much enjoyed it.
• I helped a friend of mine make a parody of Phantom of the Opera for a class at UVU. (Hopefully that link works to watch the video; if not, then just message me and I'll figure out a way for you to see it.) Apparently all of the videos for that class had to be musical-based, and related to politics, so we centered it loosely on the upcoming election. Loosely. We actually had a blast making it, and despite having a short time frame to make it in, it helped her get one of the best scores in the class, so that was something. Just a heads up, for those who do watch it: we're fully aware that the acting and singing is far from professional; again, the point was to parody the musical and current political situation, so hopefully it garners a laugh or two.
• This summer we had a reunion for my mom's side of the family. We had I think around 70 people show up throughout the course of the weekend, some from close by and others from across the country. It was a great opportunity to catch up with some family members I hadn't seen in years, and it was an even bigger celebration because we were also celebrating what would have been my grandfather's 100th birthday.

  

  Our family tree, with my mom's parents centered at the bottom. I think we're up to 130 descendants so far just from them, not including those who have married into the family.

•  I moved from Alpine, where I'd been living with my parents for a while to save some money while not in school, up to Sandy, which really isn't that far but does significantly help in my commute to work every day to south Salt Lake City. It's basically on the other side of a mountain, for those who are unfamiliar with the geography in Utah. I've been here for a couple months now, and could easily see myself staying here for a while. Still trying to get to know my roommates, as we've not got exact schedules, but from what I do know about each of them they're pretty cool and very easy to get along with.
• I've been to a couple more wedding receptions for friends this year and am already planning on going to more, including one this weekend for a mission buddy of mine.

Those are the biggest things that have happened so far. There are obviously other things going on, and more possible events – I'm hoping to go out to Hawaii this Thanksgiving with the rest of my family to see my oldest niece get baptized, there's a presidential election coming up in a few weeks (I'll have a blog post just about that, don't worry), and maybe even some more things going on before the end of this month that I'll be able to write about. I do hope to get better at writing regularly again, because I know that it's helpful for me to write as an outlet, and there are some who seemed to enjoy my posts when I wrote before. So hopefully these new posts can be found just as enjoyable as before to those who used to read them. And if you're new, well... Welcome! This is my place to rant about whatever I feel like, separate from Facebook or other places online, just because sometimes it feels good to go on and on about whatever subject I want. I understand that it's not necessarily something that everyone would want to see on their walls, tweeted at them, or what have you, so I usually just provide a link so that people can choose to come read my random thoughts if they want to. Sooooo..... Enjoy!


Oh, random last thought, I'm also trying out having facial hair. I'm really not one for selfies, so here's one I took a couple weeks ago that I actually liked, and it's not likely I'll take many/any more. But hopefully this gives an idea of what it looks like on me.