Let's take a hike!

This morning I went a hike up Rock Canyon with a few guys from my ward.

It was fun. Rock Canyon is a geologist's dream (but then again, so is the whole state of Utah), the rock formations and samples were breath-taking.



The local wildlife were interesting too. Mostly squirrels, rabbits and lizards. I also found this injured butterfly:



Pretty cool, huh? It's a shame it's dying, but then again butterflies don't live very long anyways.

There's a creek that runs through rock canyon, but by the time you get to the base of the canyon, all the water is underground.




We also found a cave:

Thank goodness for made-up Utah holidays!

I spent Pioneer Day wandering around through the woods in Provo.



I didn't even know this was there...and I didn't know shrubs needed to be researched. How would the findings be considered useful?

Look at this kid!

That's an 18-year-old A-Dawg. He's just barely moved in to his new home in Deseret Towers...which, as previously mentioned, no longer exist. I should also note that the young fellow in the photo no longer exists either. He's looong gone.

I was the first person in my family to attend college as a full-time student. I knew nothing about what being a college student would be like. I had no idea what BYU would be like, having never even seen photos of campus (in hindsight, I probably should have at least downloaded a map.) That was five years ago.

The BYU experience was without a doubt the greatest time in my life up to that point. I was on my own, experiencing complete independence for the first time, I was in a great environment surrounded by amazing people and there was never a shortage of fun stuff to do. On top of all that, I knew I would be gone on my mission before the next school year started, and that made life even more carefree.

Like I said, that kid pictured above is long gone. My carefree lifestyle is gone. It's all serious now. 16.5 months from now I'm done and outta here. I hate to say this, but I really look forward to graduating and shipping off. It's like the novelty of BYU has worn...and I somehow feel that I'm too old to enjoy it.

But I'll try to make the best of what time I've left.

Looking down the barrel of a double standard

Can you believe these political cartoons?





It's amazing that the Democrats would have the audacity to accuse GOP congressmen of racism simply for opposing Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination. It's outrageously hypocritical.

Am I the only one who remembers Miguel Estrada? This guy?:



He was the Honduran-American judge nominated by Bush to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals back in 2001. The Democrats filibustered Mr. Estrada's confirmation until he eventually withdrew his nomination...28 months later. Ostensibly, the Democrats objected to Mr. Estrada's lack of jurisprudence and that his stances on social issues were "outside the mainstream." Nevermind the fact that Mr. Estrada, who immigrated from Honduras at age 17, graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University and later received a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Huh?

Internal memos between Democratic senators and their aides reveal the truth: Miguel Estrada was a victim of racial politics. Behind the scenes, the Democrats feared that confirming a Bush-nominated Hispanic judge to the courts would give the President an edge among Latino voters in his re-election. I'm not making this up. You can read about it here.

I am so enraged by this hypocrisy...I can barely type.

That's why this is such a short post.

Bye.

What better way to celebrate the independence of our nation than by blowing up a small part of it?

On Saturday, Provo had its Fourth of July parade, in celebration of this great nation's independence. We saw marching bands, floats, horses, and everything else you can think of! THOUSANDS of people came out to see it! People in Utah have large families so there were hordes of rambunctious blond children running around all over the place! I saw tons of things I didn't even know Utah Valley had...

Like...llamas:



...the Lehi silver bad:



...and even the local undertaker:



...and best of all, Army ROTC! For our float, rigged the George Q. Cannon (named after an LDS Apostle) to the back of a jeep. Here are the cadets with George Q.:




Our jeep/cannon was last in the parade, and for a dang good reason too! Every block or so we would stop and invite someone from the crowd to fire the cannon. Of course, we used blank shells so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds. Usually a bunch of kids would come up to pull the string while their parents snapped a photo. The kids loved it, and so did the all the spectators.

About six of us followed behind the cannon to make sure that nobody got too close it, and we also tossed salt-water taffy to the kids in the crowd.



Seriously, this was probably the funnest Independence Day ever!

Here are some videos of people firing the cannon:








Isn't that awesome? KA-BOOM!

The whole time the kids waved to us, their parents applauded us, and dozens of nubile young women blew us kisses (or made other coquettish gestures in our direction.) All this makes me glad I'm doing Army ROTC in a conservative, patriotic community that reveres the military and values freedom.

Good signs

Here's one from Monday's outing:



I love ironic photos.

Here's one I saw on my way to campus this morning:



Apparently some trucker drove a little too close to it.