My Favorite Poem

This for many years now has been my favorite poem.  I wanted to share it because I love the message it portrays about the indomitable human will.  The title is latin for "Unconquered."  

INVICTUS

by William Ernest Henley, 1849-1903

Out of the night that covers me, 

Black as the pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever Gods my be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance 

My head is bloodied but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years 

Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, 

How charged the punishment the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.

Hope you like it...

Thin Ice and Dangerous Water

The only reason that I can't say I have much of an opinion one way or the other on Prop 8, which is the big todo nowadays all over BYU Campus, is because I don't think I really understand all the angles like I think I would need to before I could make a choice.  And I figure, if it's something I don't understand, don't judge yet.  But at the same time, one thing that has been interesting to me, even more interesting then the proposition itself, is the different reactions I've seen coming from so many different people, both members and non.  

For those of you who are unaware of what Prop 8 is, it has to do with the gay marriage question within the State of California. Earlier, the State decided to pass a law to allow same-sex marriages and Prop 8 is the initiative to abolish that law.  Now to give you a background as to the Church's involvement:  The Brethren have sent letters and had firesides officially asking Church members within California to vote for Prop 8 in order to destroy the ability for gays to challenge the sanctity of marriage.  

I've heard many members that have stood up and strongly begun campaigning to have this proposition passed, but I have also heard the fight from many Church members that don't really agree with the stance of the Church itself.  The arguments for this are most often two fold:  1-  Gays are not asking to be married in our Church by our authority, just by any Church that is willing to perform the ceremony, and they are asking for that marriage to be allowed by the state.  Since we still have the authority, even if it is allowed, to say no within the Church, why should we care what other Church's do?  2-  The Church is once again, as they did during the time of women's rights, getting involved in a political process and has no right to do so if they wish to keep their tax exempt status as a non-profit organization with no specific political agenda.  

I think that people that think either of those things forget one very very important detail.  There are a great many things in our Church, doctrinally or historically, that we just don't understand.  But if you believe this is God's true Church, you have accept that God does know things better than we do.  If not you are (even if not knowingly) stating that you think you can lead God's Church better than he can, and that you can make better decisions as to what the Church should or should not do than he can.  That, I think, is a dangerously fine line.  Even in Joseph Smith's time there were a great many things that many of the members did not understand, and on occasion there were times when nearly the entire body of the Church even wished to depose the Prophet.  Did he waiver, thinking that the world must be right, and God was wrong?  Absolutely not.  He stood by the decisions that we as Saints believe were given him by the Lord himself.  

How is this any different?  If I'm missing something, someone please tell me.   

I Wonder...

There are a few things I've found interesting in my life lately, questions or issues that I have been thinking about lately.  I think that the amount of self reflection that I've gone through lately has helped give me time to also see things with our world that I just don't quite understand yet.  For instance...

Why is it that humans naturally tend to unite and work together in times of crisis?  I think we see evidence of this both in the difference of public opinion before and after a tragedy happens, and in how quickly we as a people tend to forget about a tragedy after it happens.  I think though that this only happens in society, not on more personal levels like families and friends.  

What is it about a piece of art that seems to have a soothing and calming effect on the human spirit?  This particular piece is by Maynard Dixon, entitled The Forgotten Man.  For a while now it has been one of my favorite pieces in BYU's Museum of Art.  Take a look...

Moving on...

How is it possible for people who insist on living the letter of the law to instantly forget their desire to be obedient as soon as they close the door to their car?  Driving laws seem to fall into another category of righteousness in Utah...

I guess that's actually it right now.  I had more on my mind, but i don't want this post to be huge.  I don't want to be just venting, I'm just curious about it.

Tired and Sore

In terms of my recovery from surgery, I don't really seem to have any problems with my shoulder.  I have been off the pain killers for a few days now, and only every so often does it seem to actually hurt me.  I have no idea why, but it seems though, that I've been sick for a few days going now and even when I do feel better more or less, I still can't seem to shake it entirely.  Most days lately I have a dizzy head or a sore throat, and it makes sleeping a little tougher than usual.  But I don't need to just keep complaining.  

I told ya I'd drop a little line to tell everyone how I'm doing after the surgery.  Other things in life are weird right now, but I really don't feel like getting into it right now.  Let's just say it's hard to have everything go right all the time in life I suppose, and equally as hard when it doesn't.  I hope sometime this week I'll have something more interesting and perhaps more uplifting to write about.

Increase in Gas Prices Lead to More Popped Collars

This is something that as a problem is dying down nowadays due to the cold weather, but still something that I wanted to rant about because of how mad it made me. If I were to write a newspaper article it would go a lot like this:

Recently all around the country in areas dense in college student population there has been a significant rise in the presence of popped collars. This phenomenon has been seen as a plague sweeping the nation, turning good, wholesome young men into total and complete homos. With origins arguably coming from the world of rap, "collar popping" has seeped into suburban communities, predominately in southern California and Arizona, where fads tend to rule to the ebb and flow of a fickle fashion based youth. For those readers out there who aren't quite sure what it is I'm talking about (because they are sensible enough to not pay attention to idiocy) popping your collar goes something like this:



As you can see, popping collars often tend to result as well in: A) pink shirts, B) stupid hat combinations, and C) really gay, "I think I'm awesome poses." And I know what many of you out there are thinking... "How could we possibly let this happen to our youth?" How could we indeed. Experts, in a recent projection (that I made up for this article), speculated that if the fad were to continue at the rate we are seeing today, within 15 years 165 countries around the world would officially consider us the gayest nation on Earth. Of those 165 countries all European Union nations, England and Russia were included. Imagine that, knowing that France thinks you're gayer than they are.

So how are we letting this happen? What is going on that is making this happen so rampantly? Oddly enough, this dangerous "disease" is spawning from the large increases in gasoline prices throughout America. In college towns we have seen this crunch in one main demographic, that of college students swapping out their cars for a more "economical" means of transportation. And in this situation, we find our culprit.


The Scooter. Small yes, not very powerful. Or is it? Perhaps these scooters, with an average power of 100cc, pack more of a punch than most would assume. But that power comes in the form of confidence for young men everywhere who otherwise would not have the guts to pop their collars, until suddenly and almost magically the presence of "scooter gangs" find for them a home and protective force field wherein their faddish expression can flourish. But is this a truly bad thing? Is that as dangerous as we really are making it sound?

Yes, yes it is. Many, perhaps even 98.99% of young people riding scooters do not deserve to do so. From a more opinionated standpoint, I think it's crazy even that they can be riding on the roads without passing a special scooter/motorcycle course and test. This leads to young people everywhere riding 45 mph and faster on a road with nothing but shorts, a popped collared pink shirt, hideous aviator glasses, frosted hair, and flip flops. As if they want to be killed by even the slightest pebble coming out of a tire and boppin' em on the head. They ignore traffic laws, act as if they are foot traffic, and assume that every car on the road is aware of them. I don't know about anyone else, but I personally have tried to help a young man who had been hit by a car whose scooter was torn to shreds and he was thrown like a rag doll. I saw it from the road and ran to help him. After cutting his sweater away from being up and over his head, I looked into his eyes and saw the last moments of his life. He died on the way to the hospital. He's not the only one who has died because of these scooters.

Now, Italy has proven that scooters are not a bad thing by themselves. But they have helmets, and Italians have always been known to be fashionable, and can pull things like this off. We just plain don't have the history to say we're cool enough for this type of fad. And it's put us in a hole that this guy doesn't see a way out of now.

Your thoughts?

A Pain In The...Shoulder

So many of you know that about 6 months ago I crashed on a mountain bike and suffered what they call an A C, or Acromioclavicular Seperation. When I went and talked to the doctors, they took x rays that looked a lot like this. Now of course these aren't my x-rays, but rather ones I found on the web, but they are pretty dang similar. This is what my right shoulder basically looked and looks like:







And this is more what my left shoulder looked like at the time:







Now, normally after a situation like this, if it's not too bad (the catagory under which mine supposedly fell) then surgery is not necessary. There are three ligaments that you can typically tear here. Originally I was told I tore one and stretched another slightly. Well, that was 6 months ago. This summer I've felt discomfort in my arm from time to time in various painful ways, because of a variety of things I'd accidently do to it. Now that I'm back in school and with the ROTC I've been doing pushups on it for a good month or so, and unfortunately, the pain has once again escalated. So I went back into the Dr's office and after sitting in the waiting room for 45 min (I don't know how they can get away with that, by the way) I was told that the new x rays showed that the healing process wasn't quite as successful as they originally hoped. So...


Joe's goin' in for surgery... Yep, as fun as it sounds, I'm gonna be put to sleep, cut open, screwed around with and sewn up. It'll basically take me off the bike for the next 3 months. Of all things that's definitely my least favorite. Most likely it will be happening next Wednesday, so anyone who feels a desire to do so is welcome to come up to my Mom and Dad's house (most likely where I'll be) and laugh at me while I'm all doped up. I'll definitely add a heads up as to how things are going soon, and leave a full report of the aftermath for sure.

Something To Sing About

So this was something that I and my co-workers decided today while we were at work.  One way to cheer yourself up when you're A) bored, B) bummed, or C) whatever other adjective you can find that is appropriate to this situation, is to sing everything that you say.  In other words, the next time you see your friend and you decide to say hello, do so by singing "It's so good to see you, my friend, I've really missed your face" (or something to that effect) in the corniest 80's rock voice you can muster.  Another good voice is to use the best boy band impression you've got and use it to tell someone that you need to hit the can.  Actually making lines that rhyme is extra points.  

On an unrelated topic, and honestly, a topic not necessarily worth singing about, it seems that our good friend Lance Armstrong is not the only "retired" cyclist that has decided he would like to give the ProTour another go.  Recently Alexander Vinokourov decided that he would like to go for one more Giro D' Italia, and who would he like to ride for?  I'll give you a couple of hints: 1-  One of their colors is yellow, and 2- It's Astana.  

Ok, I gave that one away.  Now for those of you lucky few that actually know of the existence of this blog and do not ride bikes, you may still remember our good friend Vino from his stellar performance in the 2007 Tour De France, where he won a very strong, decisive time trial stage, only to test positive for doping before the tour had even ended.  He and a few of his friends were kicked off his team, which was Astana at the time (a team he had actually co-founded) and he was handed down a 1 year sentence by the UCI.  Now that he has finished that ban, he has decided to jump out of the retirement that he had "emotionally announced" last year (sounds familiar, doesn't it, Lance).  And now he is expressing interest and dare I say even desire to ride for his old team once again, now that it's been completely overhauled and reconstructed under Johan Bruyneel, making him a possible addition to a team that already looks to be the biggest publicity stunt in the history of cycling.  If you can't tell where I stand on this issue, let me help by clarifying.  Vino, don't come back, and if you do... please don't jump on the Lance bandwagon and make it worse than it already is.  All I really have to say about it is, I truly truly hope that Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer both find new teams, and that they both slaughter Armstrong and Vinokourov every time they ride against them next year and however long they stay in the peloton.  But that's just me.  

Click on the title of the post to see what velonews is saying about it.

The Cascade Classic

Ok, so the other day I was reading about something that had happened lately on the 5th stage of a race called the Cascade Classic. On this particular stage there was a breakaway that was lasting pretty long, and looked to have the juice to win the day. About 3 km out, Billy Demong, a professional skiier/cycling enthusiast who races to stay in shape for skiing, decides that he wants to break his chain. Ok, so that obviously is never the case. Actually, when his chain breaks, he becomes so frustrated by it that he throws his bike over his shoulder and begins running the remaining 3 km's. After running a whole km, no small feat of course, especially at the end of a long stage and with cleats on no less, he hears a bike pull up beside him and his buddy and everyone's good friend Astana racer Chris Horner tells him to "hop on." so...

This picture and a few others were taken largely in result of a referee calling into the finish line from a motorcycle on the course, with the message, "guys, get your cameras ready, you're gonna see something you've never seen before." Afterwards Horner was questioned about whether or not his actions had violated any rules of the race. He simply said, "The refs were pretty cool with it, honestly. I think it's because nobody had ever done anything like that before us." Demong successfully finished the day inside the time cut, and went on to finish the race in 51st of 91. Leipheimer of course took the win, what a stud. Chris Horner, who had helped Demong, finished 75th. Sorry, Chris, but you'll be everybody's race hero for your showing on the 5th stage.