Soccer!

I have been waiting 6 years for this: Having The Boy involved in extracurricular activities. I enjoy being involved, and I am limited in that area at this stage of life. So now I get to relive my glory days through my son.

Happily, he is excited for the adventure that is soccer. Practice starts on Thursday. As long as it stops snowing. What's even funnier is Josh's reaction. Josh played soccer a good portion of his life growing up in New York. "I hope his coach doesn't teach him bad habits!" he rants. (Josh has a poor opinion of the soccer abilities of Westerners in general.)

Of course, we all know the solution to that problem: Next year perhaps Josh should sign up to coach.

Shameless Self-Promotion: New Gigs Edition

SO. I've been trying to get my schedule under control since b5 re-relaunched the business channel as Bizzia (giving me more writing opportunities), and I started contributing regularly at Bankling and Personal Dividends. Even PhysOrg, the physics Web site I report for, has upped my assignments, asking me to blog for them.

In honor of all my new gigs, I'm shamelessly promoting posts from all the new stuff I've been doing. Go stop by. I could use the pageviews.

1. The tax toolbox post at Bankling offers you a number of resources that can help you prepare and file your own taxes.
2. Read about the Spousal IRA at Personal Dividends. Just because you're a stay at home spouse doesn't mean that you can't save for retirement.
3. Bizzia's fancy new personal finance section has me for a writer :) One of the issues I addressed this week is 401k oversight.
4. On PhysOrg, I wrote about two studies that show that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol. And alcohol is the legal substance...
   

Jon Stewart Does What the Mainstream Media and the Government Should Have Been Doing

Many of you know that I have a M.A. in Journalism. Part of the reason I've been so disgusted by the mainstream media for the last few years (especially television) is because I don't think that many of them are doing their jobs. Much of it has become punditry, without any real attempt at actual journalism. As a result, it should come as no surprise that I loved this interview last night on The Daily Show.

Jon Stewart calls out Jim Cramer, and gives us a peek into what really goes on behind closed doors on Wall Street. Warning for my sensitive friends: Some of this wasn't aired on TV, so there is some course language.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Big Love Goes to the Temple

Uh, yeah. So I've been asked how I feel about this. I kind of figured it was inevitable when Big Love first aired, so my response is a sort of shrug. Since I have no idea how accurate the representation will be, nor do I care to order HBO for the purpose of finding out, I can't really comment. I'm watching the entire X-files series from the beginning, at a rate of two or three episodes a night. I really don't have time for this.

I think the official Church response is more than appropriate.

So stop sending me the chain emails. And the Facebook threads.

The "Zion Curtain" Falls

Happily, the Utah State Legislature is about to stop inflicting itself upon us. It's been interesting. And somewhat depressing. It always is.

In spite of statement offering sort-of support from the LDS Church for partner rights for gays, our legislators aren't likely to let homosexuals have the "extra" rights of property, hospital visitation and insurance coverage they desire here in Utah. My gosh, we wouldn't want to give gays "preferential" treatment, would we?

These fine, moral legislators also managed to ignore or kill almost any bill with a whiff of ethics reform. Keep those lobbyist gifts a-coming!

Additionally, the rainy day fund remains totally intact -- just in case we run into a budget problem or if financial issues come to the fore.

My favorite bit of legislative controversy, though, was the debate over the "Zion curtain." In debating changes some of Utah's liquor laws (don't bother trying to understand them), legislators thought that a 10-foot wall in restaurants serving alcohol might be in order. After all, if we don't let kids look at bottles of alcohol and if we don't talk about it, they won't experiment with it. It's worked so very well with sex. At least in the case of the Zion curtain common sense prevailed and the measure was removed from consideration.

Do you have some favorite highlights of the 2009 legislative session?

Life Happens

I was rather touched to receive a few emails from friends who wondered where I've been the last month. Well, life sort of happened. And February is a ridiculously short month, leaving very little leeway in the way I meet the post requirements for my various blog clients.

So, for those of you who care, this is sort of what I've been doing for the last month:

• We bought a car (something that involves looking and, in our case, driving to Salt Lake). Now we're a two-car family. Of course, now we fight over who gets to drive the shiny Prius.
  
• I've been taking guitar lessons. And, well, practice is necessary when you're learning a musical instrument.
• We went to Idaho to visit my grandpa, who has a staph infection. (We're going again next week.)
• My parents came down from Idaho for a weekend.
• Presidents' Day meant that Josh and The Boy were both home from school.
• Parent teacher conferences.
• Taxes. (Well, getting the stuff together. Paul at Saunders & Wangsgard actually does them.)
• The Boy got sick.
• I got sick.

Anyway, I'm feeling better, spring is almost here and I'm terribly optimistic about the coming month -- in spite of the shenanigans going on in the world.

Hope you're all well also.