I can't keep up with all the additional Olympic events!

We watched the 2014 Winter Olympics last night.  It was cool to see the new slope style course and the left swollen eye of Bob Costas.  Later, I was reading our local news app about the games.  I must have missed this other event.

Freaky Doggie

Life is stressful.  I know, I know...  everyone has stress.  We all have our mole hills, mountains, deep pits, black holes, and fires to put out or let burn.  But man it sucks.  I am not very good at writing out what has been happening with me and my family, which should be obvious since my last entry on the Hot Poopy blog was July of 2011.  Man things have changed since then.  You are just going to have to take my word for it.  We left Arizona and are now in Colorado, closer to family and better opportunities.  My family is doing well.  The kids like their new schools and especially like being so close to several cousins, oh and grandparents too.  The adjustment to real winter is going as well as can be expected after spending 8 years in the desert.

I realized this morning that I think I need to be on my own stress and burn out recovery program.  Part of that program is extra free time.  I can spend that free time stressing out (which I do) and being overly self critical (which I do), but also working on gaining some perspective, resting those adrenal glands, and catching up on things.  The other part of my burnout recovery program is taking steps to accomplish some of my bigger goals.

A few days ago I was browsing my old laptop for documents, pictures, notes, protocols etc that I want to keep.  I came across an old video that I was working on long ago but never finished because life got in the way.  Well, I finally finished it and it is ready for the world to see.  At least 3 years in the making.

Disclaimer:  if you are prone to seizures, have an aversion death metal, or are generally sensitive - you have been warned.

My Favorite Robot Videos

Here are just a few of my favorite robot videos. In chronological order.

The first one is Herbie Hancock's "Rockit". This was made in 1983 and I was 7 or 8 when I remember seeing it on TV and being mildly disturbed wondering what in the world I just saw. I was intrigued by this song and video. Now I realize I was watching musical innovation. Grand Mixer D.ST was the DJ on the turntable and through MTV (when it played music videos) exposed the world to scratch DJ-ing.



Herbie Hancock, Rockit, 1983 by harrison73

Fast forward to 2005. Daft Punk performs "Technologic". We love this song and in fact Luke (9) has it almost completely memorized. We have a couple remixes of it and love them all. Take a look!

Last on the list is "Anyway You Choose To Give It" by The Black Ghosts, 2007. I just really like this song and found the video on youtube a while ago. It fits the theme.

So there you have it. I am sure that there are several that I am missing so feel free to make suggestions and I might add them to this list.

So there, I updated my blog again.

I figured it out

Ever since I saw a commercial for that show "The Voice", I have been trying to figure out where I have seen that C Low guy from.

Then I figured it out.

That's RIGHT!!

Butterball from Hell Raiser. That's where.

The Road to Quemado, an El Malpais Adventure

If I were to write a book, (which I kind of did), that is what the title would be.

This is a father's day post dedicated to my Dad. Allow me to share a story, a true story.

Back in 2001 my Mom's mother passed away. The funeral was to happen in Eagar Arizona and at that time my wife Diana and I lived in Colorado. My parents and most of my siblings also lived there - not too far from each other and everyone else. Earlier in the year my oldest sister and her husband had their first baby, they named him Quinton. A few weeks later Diana and I welcomed our first child into the world and named him Clark.

Grandma died in the summer, so Clark and his cousin Quinton were about half of a year old. 2001 was a strange year. My brother was on his mission, my sister Lysa almost died from ARDS, Diana and I were brand new parents and had no clue what we were doing - at least I didn't/don't. Grandma's death was the first of a close relative for me to experience. It was a strange feeling. I was sad and wasn't quite sure what to expect at a family funeral.

My Dad has a very generous nature and heart. Mom went to Eagar early and Dad offered to drive my family, Beth and Quinton, and Meri to the funeral and back again. He even got us hotel rooms.

It would seem that my Dad has always had a van or large vehicle to drag all of his kids and stuff around in. My memory begins with The Lead Bullet. A gray station wagon that had a rear bench that, when you would sit in it you would see out the back window. I can remember making funny faces to people behind us. Then came the DTV, or more eloquently, The Damn Tan Van. The DTV would take us sailing, road tripping and to Pauls Place for hot dogs - always with my Dad at the wheel. After the DTV was killed, there were a few minivans, but I honestly think Dad's love for big vans resurfaced and along came the Big Green Van. The Big Green Van has many nicknames - The Rig, The Muscle Van, The Mystery Machine and Papa Tom's Big Green Van. It was this van that my Dad loaded me, Diana, Clark, Beth, Quinton, and Meri into so we could all go to Eagar for Grandma's funeral.

The trip was going very well. I don't really remember either of the babies having too much of a problem. West of Albuquerque on I-40, there is a turn off to go south and catch Highway 60 to Eagar. This is the road to Quemado. After we turned off the main interstate, Dad explained where we were going. We were going to go through El Malpais national monument and end up in Quemado. Dad explained further that El Malpais is an old lava field and that Quemado in Spanish actually means "burnt". Looking back on it now, the beginning of the road to Quemado is a bit like the uphill clanky climb of the first hill of a roller coaster.

View Larger Map

Feel free to click and drag this map, zoom in and out to get a good feel of the terrain.

Sure enough it was a lava field. Full of sharp black rock formations to our right, and to our left were cliff walls. The geography forced an atmosphere of tension, leaving you no real choice but to forge ahead forward. That might sound easy, but forward meant a twisty turny up and down road. So there we were Meri, Beth, Quinton and Clark in their car seats, Diana, me, and Dad at the wheel - and the gas peddle.

The speed of the van seemed to be increasing and every bump and curve would bounce us around. The cliff walls to the left begged us to run into them, the sharp black lava rock formations directly on our right dared us to join them. It was exhilarating and scary at the same time. I specifically remember looking around at Beth and Diana and our faces all said the same thing - we thought we were going to go off the road.

My Dad had obviously been down this road before and, in his usual style, enjoyed the scenery by looking out windows other than the windshield. Perhaps memories were relived as he recognized this environment, but for us, we just wanted to be able to have a memory of our first time on the road to Quemado.

I have to give my Dad credit though. At one time on a previous road trip Lysa yelled at him for not paying attention to the road. He responded by stating that he has never crashed us, or something like that. So I knew the answer we would get if any of us questioned his driving. And to his credit - I dont know of a time when Dad was involved in an accident. Maybe he honed his mad skills as a bus driver when he was younger, or maybe there is a past that we dont yet know about, either way he has always delivered us safely at our destinations.

We made it past the cliff walls without leaving any green paint on them and the sharp black lava field began to retreat and pull further away from the road. The sharp turns and bumps were not through with us yet. The silent tension and concern within the van lingered and increased with every swerve and curve. Another glance around the van would reveal Beth desperately trying to breast pump and Diana between both car seats bottle feeding the babies or something like that, all while the tires of the Big Green Van worked to keep us on the road and moving forward.

Finally we reached highway 60. We had made it. Nobody was hurt. Shaken, maybe. We were shortly in Eagar meeting with family and honoring Grandma.

To me, this story illustrates much of my Father. He has always gotten us where we were going safely. He has always been willing to pack us all into his van of generosity - driving us through the El Malpais times of life. He has shown me that moving forward, even in scary situations is possible. He has previously been down roads that I may be taking for the first time and he is willing to guide me along with stories, advice, instruction, perspective, encouragement, and love.

Dad has done so much for me. He has taught me so much. Most of all I know that he will always be my Dad and that he will be there for me as long as he possibly can. He has always had my best interest in mind, even when I thought the contrary.

I love you Dad, Happy Fathers Day.

Some random things I love / remember about my Dad.

• Dad jokes are genetic. Don't fight it, embrace it!

• As kids he would take us to the arcade so mom wouldn't kill us.

• I have very fond memories of Dad taking us to the movies - I even made an art piece dedicated to that memory as a project in college.

• He is an original computer nerd

• The only things he really pushed me to do was to cut my hair, come home on time, go to class in high school, and to not do stupid things.

• yard work. enough said.

• Dad plays excellent guitar. He is an excellent singer. He would sing to us and play the guitar - it is a real treat when he does that!

• Speaking of treats, churros anyone? How about pudding and ice cream?

• He and I repaired and worked on the cars often, even in the freezing of winter.

• He included me in building the deck. That was a transitional experience for me out of childhood. It was great.

• Dad always has his trusty cup. Sometimes he may even ask you to grab him a Pepsi and ice.

• Dad sports one of the best mustaches. He tried a beard for a while, but the stache will stay forever

• He tried teaching me how to sail the boat. I dont think I remember how to do it though.

• He and I had a spectacular boat crash when the catamaran cart wheeled and cata-pulted us off.

• There are so many other fond / less fond memories but I am going to wrap this up. If any of my siblings have more to add, which I sure you do, feel free to add them in the comments section.

The Humpty Dance

I have wasted A LOT of time over the last 2 days.

I seem to have a thing for Llama's.

Enjoy - with the volume CRANKED!

There are any number of better things I can/should be doing, but I just had to get this out of my system.

What the???

Q).  What the heck has happened to the Hot Poopy Blog?

A).  Absolutely nothing.

Laughing to Tears

SO anyway it has been a really long time since i have posted on my blog.  It just always seems like it is too much of a time investment.  But I am sitting here relaxing after a busy day / week, watching the olympics and surfing the net.  After commenting on Beth and Lysa's blogs, i figure what the heck?  Why cant I write on my own blog?

I was driving down the road the other day.  My eye caught a policeman parked in the middle of the oncoming road, police lights flashing.  There was no car crash or anything.  As I drove by, I watched as the policeman got out of his car and walked in front it.  Just then, right as I was passing by, he kicked a dead cat toward the gutter.  As if that wasn't funny enough, as the poor flattened feline flew through the air, a trail of intestines unraveled behind it.  It was as if one end of cat gut was fused to the road, and unwound as the rest of the cat was kicked through the air.


[insert your own imaginary picture here]


I couldn't help myself but to just laugh.  For some reason it was so funny to me.  The whole scene played out in a matter of 3 seconds.  It was just enough. It was what I needed that day.

Who wants Chinese tonight?

A personal expression

Sometimes I feel capable and strong enough.  Most of the time I feel quite the opposite.  Looking back on the last year puts me in a sort of delirious haze that I still am navigating through.  Looking forward seems only slightly less uncertain.  I don’t want this post to get too personal, but then again, it is my blog and I can post whatever I want too.  I have found that many times expressing myself in a medium that others can read or see, helps me sort out what really is going on in my head and my heart.  When I was a bit younger and more creative I would either draw, paint, or whip some image up on the computer and it would be heavily therapeutic.  I would be able to put my headphones on and take the time and space I needed to get it out.  I haven’t really had that luxury lately for any number of reasons; living in Grenada, medical school for the last 5 or so years, a growing family, and more recently living in 6 different places in the last 12 months, etc. 

So I have tried my hand here and there by writing what needs to get out.  I have not shared most of my writings because they are deeply personal, and unlike visual art, is harder for me to encrypt my intentions and meanings.  Even harder has been authentically expressing myself verbally – something that I have been weak at since I was born, I think.  So have patience, bridle a hasty judgment, and allow me this space and medium for self expression.

If there is one thing that I have learned in life so far, it is that nothing is sure, nothing is certain, nothing is definite and nothing is finished.  I believe that life and all that comes with it resembles the first law of thermodynamics: energy is neither created or destroyed, but does change.  Feel free to substitute the word “energy” with whatever you please and I think you will find that it still, with fairness, makes sense. 

I understand that I have a scientific essence at times and a spiritual essence at other times.  On many occasions these two parts co-mingle and create something entirely different, something unexplainable.  For too long I tried to keep these two parts separated, like two lovers whose relationship has to be kept secret as not to upset the established balance.  But, when seen together, an entirely new entity appears. 

What I have experienced is something terrifying and wonderful at the same time.  The new entity that was born within me has changed me and allows me to feel the world around me with my own hands, and to see it with my own eyes.  MY EYES.  MY HANDS.  My experience.  So then I wonder, why didn’t I feel like it was mine to have, mine to interpret, mine to process and experience?  For now, I am satisfied believing that it wasn’t mine because the rules, parameters and interpretations were already set, established, and of course correct. 

Now, I am comfortable with not knowing, I am uncertain about many things, I don’t know that any one thing has all the answers, I don’t expect to find all the answers.  I do expect to have my own experience; I do expect to have my own feelings and interpretations of the world around me, without fear.  I am not there yet, but that is currently where my journey is taking me and it feels warm, inviting and boundless. 

I Hate My Blog

I hate my blog because it is always there wanting me to update it.  I wish I could, but you know what?  I cant.  Maybe I will think of something soon, maybe not.


The End

Themes

So I suppose it is time for a new post from Hot Poopy.  Let me first boast about some of the changes you can see to Hot Poopy.  I am an html idiot, I know nothing about it, put it in front of me and you will see my face with a blank stare on it.  I have really been wanting to add my own art work to the background of my blog, but in order to do that you need to mess with the html or whatever.  SO one night I was feeling adventurous and googled how to add my own images to my blogger background.  I love the internet.  Someone had a quick tutorial on how to do just that.  Now what you see is a swirly pattern I did a long time ago for a different piece of artwork, and I am still fond of the way it looks.  Then I decided to change my header into a complete image, instead of the lameness of what it was before.  Now on to the topic at hand...

There is actually a common theme to all these pictures.  I wonder if anybody will figure it out.

         Luke        Clark            Me               Diana          Sam

Each one of these images contains faces.  Some are obvious and others are not.  For as long as I can remember, I always seem to find faces on the wall.  Something about the pattern of the textures, I dont know. It doesn't happen all at once either.  You really have to kind of look.  The faces I can find usually range in all kinds of emotional expressions.  Some can be scary, happy, sad, you get the idea.  Faces can be found almost everywhere; walls, ceilings, flooring, wood grain patterns, etc.  Speaking of wood grain, growing up I had found some faces in the wood grain along the podium stand at church.  Those were big ones and once I found them, it was hard to look at those wood panels and not see the face images.  Don't worry, no faces have spoken to me, yet, except the faces of my kids - they are always talking.

The Answer Is.....

Ok, so thanks for everyone who participated in my little experiment.  I have to say that I am a little surprised by the outcome.  I thought for sure that more of my 100+ "friends" on facebook would have participated, but I will never know.  SO, thank you Diana, Lysa, Beth, Meri, Dad, and Mike for having the spine to participate in my simple experiment.  In all honestly one of the reasons I did this was to see who my audience was, and another reason was to even see who visits my blog.  Umm, I guess I just said the same thing twice, didnt I.  Oh well.


So if you like Vampire vs Werewolf movies, the Underworld series would be a good one for you to watch.  Besides, I think we are all allowed movie actress/actor crushes.  I have two.  Uma Thurman and Kate Beckinsale.

Sorry, I dont have any actors that I crush on.


What movie actor/actress do you crush on???  if you dare...

Experiment

Random Picture.  Do you know what it is from?

I decided to conduct an experiment.  Post here if you are visiting my blog.  If you are not to lazy or busy, try reading some of my earlier blog posts and leave a comment there.  I am trying to see how many people will visit or have visited my blog.  So LEAVE A COMMENT!  *please*

Remembering Memories of Things in the Past

I am currently feeling extremely overwhelmed.  One thing I like to do to try and escape reality is exactly what I have been doing for the past few hours - browsing music, reading wikipedia about bands, and eventually using up credits I have left on iTunes to buy music.  Don't be mistaken though, I am not much of  a new music guru, in fact I dont know very many good new songs.  Tonight started out by making a new station on my Pandora account based on The Smiths, Morrissey, and Depeche Mode.  That was cool for a while.  Listening to Depeche Mode brought back memories of Front 242, Ministry, KMFDM, and a little My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult.


A few YouTube searches and there I was watching old videos of some of the songs I love from those artists.  That led me then to search iTunes.  That always leads to a few dollars less on my iTunes account.  I already have some TKK songs, I have a few 242 cd's, what I miss are my old Ministry tapes.  Why should I have to buy music I have already paid for?  Anyway the winners tonight were three Ministry songs: Stigmata from the album The Land of Rape and Honey, Just one Fix from Psalm 69, and Thieves from The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste.


It is amazing the memories that start flying through your head when triggered from songs.




Stigmata always reminds of the time I first heard it.  I was with my oldest sister Beth.  She was driving the "Merc" aka "Sex On Wheels" and she played a tape of songs that were played at some dance place at BYU.  She must have been home for the summer or christmas break or something.  I remember the cloth on the ceiling of that car was always coming down.  So thanks Beth.

Just One Fix brings a day full of memories back into mind.  The was Lollapolooza (1993?) and Ministry played.  I remember noticing how often the guy (Al Jourgensen) went over to get a drink.  They were so loud,  and they had like a huge skeleton guy or something on stage.  That was a fun day.

Thieves will forever be liked to snowboarding for me and my mind.  I remember the song playing while getting my gear ready the night before.  I remember jamming out to it on the way up to the slopes.  I always wanted to play that song louder, but the speakers wouldn't oblige.  One time I was driving home from working at the skate shop in the Omni.  I had all the windows down and had this song cranked.  I was stopped at a red light and this guy next to me was yelling at me to turn it down.  It wasn't until I saw him out of the corner of my eye that I turned my head to see he was yelling something at me.  I thought "Oh, crap. the Omni is leaking something again."  I turned the stereo down only to hear him telling me to turn that crap down.  As you might guess I turned away from him and returned the volume to highest it would go.

It was Lollapalooza 1992.

Hulk, SMASH!

Last night we watched “The Incredible Hulk”.  Originally I thought that it would just be the boys and me watching, but Sam and Diana wanted to see it too.  I really like this movie and I actually liked the 2003 version that Ang Lee did.  Hulk has always been a character of interest for me.  I like the fact that we all have great power and strength lurking within us, but often times we work so hard to suppress it.

The difference between Hulk and other super heroes may be slightly obvious.  Other heroes have an abundance of the nice emotions like love, kindness, charity, etc.  Bruce Banner, on the other hand, has to learn to embrace what some may consider the uglier emotions we all have, anger, frustration and even fright.  He is a regular guy who hates what he becomes when these emotions become overwhelming, which in turn causes him a great level of internal conflict.  It disturbs him so much that at one point he is willing to die in an attempt to “cure” him of his condition.  Towards the end of the movie we see Bruce begin to accept himself as he is and work to manage his Hulk rather than trying to get rid of it all together. 

Throughout the movie we would have little discussions about what was going on.  At the point where Bruce is with Betty and Mr. Blue trying to cure him of the Hulk, Luke made an interesting observation.  He said, “He wants to be able to be himself when he gets mad.”  For some reason that was profound for me.  I think because even a 7 year old can understand that showing our emotions / feelings is a healthy thing, it only becomes dangerous when we let them control us. 

Now that I think about it, Luke is our kid that would understand this concept the best.  

Princess Ball

So Diana went upstairs and got Sam in the tub.  A few minutes later I heard Diana call down and ask the boys if they have seen Sam's princess ball, to which they replied "no" in unison, almost as if they didn't even really hear the question.


For the next ten minutes I hear Diana going through things upstairs, and I had forgotten about the ball.  Then I hear Diana ask Sam where she last saw her princess ball, or something to that affect.


Sam answered by asking "What ball?"

Hot Poopy.  

You may not like it, but that’s Okay.  Let me share a little history behind hot poopy.  I came up with hot poopy long ago when I was about 15 or so.  Figures, that’s when a lot of funny things are incorporated into life.  It caught on quickly and my friends and I were often found amusing ourselves using hot poopy. 

 Hot Poopy is very versatile; it can be used in almost any type of situation and at any age.  There have been times when I have used it while in Best Buy looking at new HDTV’s.  I have been known to bust it out while driving, either in a fit of anger or self congratulation.  For some reason I always feel better after some hot poopy.

You may think that your neighbor who has that really nice car has a lot of hot poopy, they just aren’t willing to share.  Don’t let it get you down, I have noticed that people who are tight with their hot poopy usually suffer in some other aspect in their life and just can’t let things go. 

At one point in my life I was using it too much, it was always there, just waiting, and I learned that other people just didn’t understand its value.  Like the lady in the Taco Bell drive through.  She had me repeat my order after I specifically asked for a number 2 and hot poopy.  After a slight moment of pause, she asked to repeat my order.  I realized she didn’t understand and just ordered a number 2.  That was during the time that I thought everybody knew, I guess Taco Bell lady had not experienced the power of hot poopy and therefore had no idea.  Her day will come soon enough, if it hasn’t already.

If you find yourself upset, offended, disgusted, or whatever because of hot poopy; then I propose that you probably are deficient in hot poopy, you may need to relax and release some of your inhibitions.

So go ahead, even if just in your mind, feel free to use, experience, or share hot poopy and see where it gets you.  This may be a particularly good exercise when you are having a bad day.  Also, you should be cautious of the company you find yourself in if you choose to share a hot poopy.


You cannot hold me responsible or liable for what may happen.