Angel's Landing

On my recent trip to Zion National Park, one of the hikes I went on was Angel's Landing. This was actually the 3rd or 4th time I've done that hike. I love it because it has great views all the way up, and the best view at the end. Also because it is somewhat strenuous and mildly dangerous, so you feel like you've accomplished something when you make it to the top.

Check out the footage below to get a feel for the hike:

Almost To The Top



At The Top

Still Shot At The Top

See more pics from the trip here.

Short and Sweet Voice Mail Greeting (Sprint)

When I posted a while back about 10 annoyances, number 3 on the list was:

When I'm trying to leave a voice mail and I have to sit through a long obnoxious automated message, such as "The caller you are attempting to reach is not available. At the tone I will take your message, or press 5 to page this person. Press 6 to leave a call back number. When you are finished with your message, if you are satisfied with your message, press pound, or hang up to deliver the mesage, or press star for more options. [PAUSE...] [PAUSE...] [CALLER COMMITTING SUICIDE...] BEEEEEP!"

I discovered, in my voice mail (which is provided by Sprint), how to eliminate the long automated greeting. Here is how to do it:

1. Call into your voice mail
   
2. Main Menu
   
3. Press 3: Change Personal Options
   
4. Press 2: Greetings
   
5. Press 1: Change Main Greeting
   
6. Press 3: Add or remove caller instructions that are played after your greeting
   
7. Press 2: Do not want these instructions played
   

That's it! Together we can make the world less annoying one voice mail greeting at a time! :)

Webcam Technology

100 Days of Unmitigated Disaster

I received this email from a friend. I haven't studied these issues enough to be able to vouch for its completely accuracy, but he touches on many issues that will affect what's going to happen to our country in the very near future. These are the issues that we need to be educating ourselves about, and hopefully doing something about.

AMERICA:

WAKE UP!

In 100 days Barack Obama has shown us that he is this:
Anti-American, anti-business and pro big government. In addition, that he is socialist, a narcissist and a pathological liar ........ as is vice president Biden, most of Obama's cabinet picks and all of the democratic leaders in congress.

Janet Napolitano and little Timmy Geithner are unimaginably incompetent, yet Obama continues to give them a free hand in jeopardizing both the safety and the economic future of America. And Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank are some of the most despicable slime to ever slither the earth. Yet this is the group of people who are now in charge of handling the destiny of the country. YOUR COUNTRY!

I not only don't support President Obama or his policies, I now strongly oppose his presidency and urge you to do the same.

In a mere 100 days, Obama has already committed to spend America into oblivion to the tune of TENS of TRILLIONS of dollars.......all while unemployment is running rampant, businesses continue to shutter their doors and our GDP is falling off the cliff. You'd think we must be a rich country! Where do you think all the money is going to come from to pay for all of this? Yet, the happy clueless idiots and infatuated Obama cultists are celebrating his first 100 days in office as if they've been reborn.

Billions of YOUR money was recently poured into Chrysler and GM under the guise that "Only the Government" can save them. Well the money's all gone and they didn't save them. Gee, what a shock! PLEASE STOP SAVING US ALREADY!

Of far more serious concern for you as an American citizen is the fact that the United States government is now in the process of FORCING the private bondholders (those who are the primary investors in these car companies) to give up their legal rights - and their money - by governmental order. This is pure CONFISCATION and is against the laws of our country. These bondholders (as do the bondholders of all companies) are legally entitled to be given first priority in receiving their money back if these companies should ever go bankrupt. That is why they chose to be bondholders - to be assured that safety under the law - as opposed to stockholders.

And we're not just talking about the government screwing big banks here; many of these bond holders were private pension funds and private investors, such a retirees or those who invested money in college funds for their children. These people invested this way because these legal protections made these much safer investments. And these people are supposed to be protected by law to be the 1st in line to be paid off before all other creditors.

But apparently the laws don't mean anything in Obama's America. Instead, these investors (who Obama now has the nerve to call "speculators") are being forced to accept mere pennies on the dollar for their investments (in stock swaps) while instead he transfers the majority ownership in these two car companies the United Auto Workers Union (whose fat labor contracts are what pushed these companies into bankruptcy in the 1st place) So Obama has now given the union foxes the keys to the hen house; so they will no longer have to quibble with management over giving themselves sweet union contract deals - BECAUSE NOW THEY ARE THE MANAGEMENT - compliments of a president who is grateful for their unending support. And to boot, another 8 billion of your tax money has already been pledged to Chrysler to help them work through this "difficult" period. And of course, the government - again with your money - will continue to support these car companies in the future for a price: Dictating what type of cars they will be allowed to produce in the future. The banks will be next to fall under governmental control and after that will be health care.

This single act alone should scare you to your core. If Obama is so quick and willing to skirt the legal rights and confiscate the savings of your fellow Americans, what makes you think for a minute that your money or your property won't be next? You know, if he thinks it would be good for the country and all. Nor will his grand agenda make for a safer, better or more prosperous society. Exactly the opposite will happen. American ingenuity will be squelched, the quality of everyday life and health care will go DOWN, not up - and attempting to repay he national debt will consume the citizens at every level of society.

When Obama tells you that your taxes will not go up he is flat out LYING to you. Very soon, you will see huge tax increases passed on to you in the form of higher sales taxes, property taxes, state and city taxes, increased college tuitions, toll roads, fuel taxes, utility surcharges, etc., etc.

Yet the largest, most expensive tax increase that is coming - and will soon affect every citizen at every level - is something called the Value Added Tax. (aka: the V.A.T.) This is widely used in Europe and now our congress is rapidly working to implement it here in the U.S. This will be an insidious, yet huge tax burden that gets passed on to us all and here is how it works:

You will pay an additional FEDERAL sales tax on top of the local and state taxes that you already pay on the goods you buy.

But that's not all.

Value Added Tax means there is also a tax incurred every time that a perceived "value" is added to the unfinished goods before they are ultimately bought by the consumer. So a federal tax will be added to the price of every product you buy at EACH STEP of the manufacturing process accomplished prior to completion of the product. That is, anytime perceived "value" is added along the way.

Ex: If you buy a bicycle, the company that produced the steel for the frame will have to pay a federal tax when they sell their steel to the bicycle frame manufacturer; who in turn will have to pay yet another federal tax when they sell the completed frame to the bicycle assembler/distributor; who in turn will have to pay yet another tax still when it sells the fully assembled bicycle to the local dealer. In the end, all those additional VAT taxes will be passed on to the consumer in the form of a higher purchase price: oftentimes added 10% - 20% more to the purchase price. On top of that - you'll now be paying sales tax AND a federal tax on that higher price.

Additionally, the VAT tax will also be added onto all consumer "services", not just onto the goods that you buy. So if somebody cleans your swimming pool, cuts your hair, delivers your newspaper, provides child care, etc. there will now be a federal tax charged to you for the "services" they provided. This is what's on the horizon. If you don't believe it, do some homework. Did people honestly believe that all the money that is being spent on these spiffy new government programs (the ones that the happy idiots THINK are going to make their lives better) would come without consequences?

As you read this, your rights and liberties as U.S citizens are being stripped away from you by Obama's administration and the den of thieves we call congress. If you do not take some affirmative action and they are allowed to continue down this path, they will do irreversible damage and ALL OF AMERICA WILL SUFFER!

To those of you who believe this isn't happening or that somehow or some way, you personally will be exempted from the results of this impending disaster, well then go make some cake and throw yourselves a BIG Obama party. And in a few years when I see you working as a Wal-mart greeter, you can remind me of how good that cake was........

Regards,

Remote Control Your PC... For FREE!

I've tried out GoToMyPC a few times over the years, and I always thought it was very cool, but I never needed it enough to pay $20 per month.

I recently came across a provider of a similar technology called LogMeIn, and this one has a free version! It seems to work just as well as GoToMyPC. Check it out!

Semi Annual

Semiannual, last I heard, mean's every 6 months. There's nothing in the definition that would make it acceptable to mean "once a year, but 6 months after the other one that we refer to as annual". But yet that's exactly what the church uses it to mean in reference to general conference!

Can someone explain how they can get away with this? Do they think their tax exempt status makes them dictionary exempt as well?? I think I was confused by this for about the first 25 years of my life. (Me: "Wait, wasn't the last one the 160th??") I'm still outraged by it. I'm tempted to boycott conference or start a Facebook group demanding that the naming convention be changed.

Aside from that, conference was really good.