Rainbows and Butterflies

I woke up this morning to cold, wind, and rain. The mountains to the southwest are hidden in mist and fog. They sky out to the east is clearer. While waiting in line for breakfast outside in said cold, wind, and rain the rising sun broke through and thus provided us with a vision of a beautiful rainbow. It has been a long time since I saw a complete rainbow but this one delivered, appearing to rise from the horizon on the left and falling to the horizon on the right and brightly colored along the entire arc. The phantom double rainbow wasn't so lucky. It was only visible on the sides and petered out as it arced towards the top.

The butterflies were even less lucky. There were none.

General Conference

Once again General Conference has come and gone. I wasn't able to watch the sessions but I was able to listen to them on the radio. I have to say that in my opinion this has been one of the greatest ever. So many good messages were prepared and shared and they all offered hope for the future. I'm not sure if I had a favorite session. The Saturday afternoon was a clear winner until Sunday morning came along, and Sunday afternoon was good too. So although I can't pick an overall winning session I can pick two of my favorite talks. Of course there were many wonderful talks, but these two were I think my favorites overall.

The first was given by Elder Holland on Saturday afternoon. I can't remember details but the message was powerful and the gist of it was "Be kind, because God is kind." I really liked this because considering all the great kindnesses that I have experienced over the past couple years and throughout my life, I should be a lot more kinder to my fellow men.

The second was given by President Uchtdorf and was generally about mercy. It really goes hand in hand with Elder Holland's. Again, I could really improve in this area in my own life. I can't wait until the conference issue of the Ensign comes out so I can read again these two wonderful talks along with the many other wonderful ones that were given.

I hope you all were able to watch and/or listen to conference, and if not, I hope you'll take the time to do so through the Ensign and/or internet media that I assume will be available on the church's website lds.org.

Snow

Once again I find myself in the middle of the desert, during what I consider to be spring, and it is snowing. Two days ago it was shorts, t-shirt, and sunburn weather. Today large flakes of frozen water are drifting en masse from the sky and seemingly doing it with a will. The weather band news is predicting ground accumulation, which doesn't happen often here. Is this it? Is this the end? Probably not, but take it from one who's on location, hell is apparently freezing over.

The Blue Planet

I just started a new nightime class where we are watching a series production titled "The Blue Planet". I can't remember if it was done by the Discovery Channel or National Geographic or someone else, but the first episode was very impressive. It's all about the ocean and contains some really impressive scenes. The first episode was a general overview that took us up the food chain from phytoplankton to the great whales.

It was really cool to watch sharks swim through huge masses of sardines and how the sardines would scatter in the immediate vicinity to create pockets of space around where the sharks were swimming. The sardines were so dense that you could follow the path of the sharks from an arial view by watching the streaks of clear water that wove through the sardine mass. It's amazing those fish never run into each other. We also learned about how the dolphins use fences of air bubbles to herd the sardines into even tighter groups and force them to the surface where it's easier for the dolphins to eat them. We also saw the birds that would follow along the surface and then dive down to catch the sardines after the dolphins had herded them to the surface. It was impressive to watch hundreds of birds dive all at the same time into the ocean. It looked like it was raining birds. It was sad though to watch a pod of killer whales work together to first separate a grey whale calf from its mother and then drown it so they could eat it.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

The 10th Kingdom

Many years ago while I was perusing the available titles at 3D Video (a movie rental store), I came across one titled The 10th Kingdom. It was a television mini-series produced by Hallmark incorporating fairy tale characters such as Snow White, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, etc. I am a fan of reading long books in long series, especially in the science fiction and fantasy genres. So naturally I am also a fan of things such as television mini-series where each episode is not a show all by itself but just one chunk of the ongoing storyline. I decided to rent it -- much to the dismay of various family members who shall remain un-named but whose first initial is Jared -- and I am glad I did. I will admit that it's nothing spectacular, but it is cute and entertaining. Being only about 7 hours long, I have ever since suggested it as a candidate for Christmas Eve viewing. Disappointingly my family has always felt disinclined to agree. I did get Wendy to watch it with me. Once.

The other day I was perusing the book selection in the library here and what did I find? Yep, you guessed it. The 10th Kingdom, in paperback, ready for me to read and relive all over again. So I have now read it and can report that it wasn't too bad. The tv show was better though. So while I recommend the show over the book, they are both decent family friendly entertainment.

The Spanish

This is mostly for my brother Jared who served his mission in Spain. I recently read a book titled "Xenophobe's guide to the Spanish" which I found to be quite entertaining. Much of it applies to the Dominican Republic way of life, where I served my mission. I thought I would share just a few of the quotes.

---

The Spanish will only be aware of other nationalities if they have visited their country and had a great time.

Conversely, they will think little of them if they were bored there. As the majority of Spanish have failed to find any night life in Britain and cannot bring themselves to like the taste of flat, tepid, bitter beer, they tend to ignore the English, regarding them as rather flat and tepid.

Brazilians they rate highly, however, as they never go to bed, and drink and dance the nights away.

The Spanish do not particularly differentiate between Austrians, Belgians, Chinese, Dutch, French, Germans, Italians, or Japanese. All are extranjeros, which is not a stigma, though they are often referred to by the risible name of 'guiri' from the word guirigay meaning gibberish, the language most foreigners seem to speak.

---

If the Spanish show off at all it is through noise, preferably at night to make sure that everyone is aware that they are alive.

Stillness can be unsettling, which is why Spanish is not spoken but shouted, except between the hours of three and five in the afternoon when no one talks because they are all asleep.

---

The inability to be punctual is the reason why the paella is the Spanish national dish. Rice and ancient recipes dating back to the occupation of the Moors have nothing to do with it. The paella is a godsend to Spain for the ingredients can be prepared well in advance and be put aside till the guests arrive, then cooked for the essential twenty minutes while gazpacho is consumed - keeping everyone happy.

The mixture of fried chicken, boiled fish, damp squid, uncooked prawns, tomatoes, peas, red peppers, green peppers, old boot laces, saffron and rice, guarantees that no one can possibly know what it is supposed to taste like, so if it is undercooked or overcooked, no one will complain.

To Bid or Not to Bid

If you thought that this was going to be about an auction, you would be right, but probably not as right as you thought. I'm not talking about any common type of auction but rather of the card game of Bridge. Bridge? You mean that old people game? Yes, that's the one. But why should you associate it with being an old people game? Probably because you've only ever heard about it in context with old people playing it. That's not because it's a game for old people, but because old people generally have more time on their hands to spend learning to play and play well. Its rich complexity provides those who play it with a never ending opportunity to continue improving and refining their play ability.

Bridge is consistently the most popular card game of the English speaking world and is almost as popular in other countries. Bridge -- developed from the game Whist -- is a trick taking game played by two partnerships with each partnership competing through an auction process to declare a trump suit. Originally developed around 1896, the latest version Contract Bridge was developed around 1926 and has remained since 1930 the most popular form. It has ridden serenely through such fads as Gin Rummy and Canasta and in the end has always survived as the most popular game. Bridge is the only card game in the world with an internationally recognized and governed set of laws, rules, and regulations.

Many of you may be familiar with the game Rook which has many similarities in it to Bridge, but of course is IMHO inferior in the end. Last year I, along with a few others, decided to learn to play this game of Bridge that we generally knew nothing about at the time. It has been a lot of fun to learn as we go, continually increasing our skill as we are able to apply new principles and methods to our bidding and play. This has become the game of choice here. There is still the odd game of Hearts or Spades but for the most part, Bridge is the card game of choice for us. Going back to Hearts or Spades after playing Bridge is like going back to a tricycle after learning to ride a two wheeler. It might be fun every once in a while for nostalgic reasons, but it is no longer as much fun as it used to be after experiencing the higher level of play that Bridge provides.