Signs of the Times, Issue No. 201 - 03/27/12

"Signs of the Times" - it's better than having a handful of colored chalk thrown in your eyes!


Greetings to one and all. My name is Aaron and this is my blog, which, contrary to what some of you may think, actually hasn't stopped publication. The blog continues! Topics to be discussed today: the little misunderstanding, John the Beloved, March Madness turned misery, my fear of motorcycles, bad grammar, Michael Brunson guest blogs, and my problem with "The Voice". On we go!


Did I say something wrong last week? For some reason, I think many of you thought I actually had gone through with it and put "Signs of the Times" out of its misery. I've had a few people in the last week tell me that they were surprised I would blog again today. I thought I had made it pretty clear that I was going to stop the blog, but I changed my mind in the end. Hmm... Did they not read the last couple segments of the last Issue? Maybe this is a clear indication that either A) my blog last week was way too long or B) it just wasn't good enough to keep some people's attention until the end. And what's with the one person who voted on my poll (thanks for voting, by the way) saying that they're NOT excited for "The District: Season Two"? Um... Seriously? But really, if you're not interested in it, stop reading. Now. The blog will continue, but you should not.

I finished reading "The Hunger Games" (book one) on Thursday night, just in time for me to check out the movie on opening weekend. I thought the book was good. Kind of an innovative concept, anyway. The people rebel against the government, so the government squashes them by making each "district" essentially sacrifice up one teenage boy and one teenage girl every year in a fight to the death. Obviously not a bedtime story for little kids, but I thought it was pretty good. The book was better than the movie. I won't go into too much detail here because there are plenty of girls out there to tell you that you won't be on Team Gale by the end of the series. (Yeah right. I'm Team Gale to the end! That poor kid got Friend Zoned majorly and I feel for him.)

"We're just friends."

I had a dream a couple nights ago that I was in the Hunger Games. The actual Games, themselves, not the book or the movie. I was living in my family's last house going through my normal routine (sleeping and showering, at that point of the dream), but I had to be very sneaky about it all because the Lamanites were all hiding in the basement and trying to kill me. It was actually a pretty scary dream. One of the scariest I've had in recent memory, for sure. I'd even go as far as to say that my Hunger Games dream was a little scarier than the dream I had last night. There was a jellyfish in my sweatpants. I won't go into more detail.

As fun as this looks...

Happy birthday to John Stockton, the greatest point guard ever to play the game. John, my favorite basketball player of all time, turned 50 yesterday. It was nice seeing John from time to time during Gonzaga's NCAA tournament games in the last couple weeks. One of the best moments came as Gonzaga was making a big run during one of their games. The Bulldog fans in attendance rose to their feet to applaud their team's effort. The camera cut to John, looking on in admiration of his son's squad. He applauded with the rest of the crowd, but a smile didn't come close to crossing his face. Typical Stockton. Beautiful. Happy birthday, John. You brought me some of the happiest memories of my entire life. "JOHN STOCKTON SENDS THE UTAH JAZZ TO THE NBA FINALS!!" Oh my. I want to cry.

I'd never seen him jump so high.

It has been requested that I comment on the status of my March Madness brackets. Let's just put it this way: It wasn't pretty. I lost five of my Elite Eight and am down to one of my Final Four. My Final Four consisted of Michigan State and Florida State, both of which got upset early, North Carolina, which I had winning the whole thing but had an unlucky break (literally) when their starting point guard snapped his wrist, and Kentucky, which is still standing strong. I can't win any of my bracket pools this year, which is nothing new, but it still bums me out every year that my bracket gets busted. The good fantasy news is that I made the playoffs in both of my basketball leagues. I've never played in a head-to-head league that culminates with playoffs, so I'm not really sure how it works. But in my Yahoo! league, I'm the number six seed, grabbing the final spot of the winner's bracket, and in my ESPN league, I wound up as the number one seed in my conference, earning a first round bye. I think I could take that league. Fairly confident, actually. There's one guy that could maybe beat me. He ended the regular season at 11-1, losing his game last week, but I think I can give him a run for his money. In other news, I'm starting a fantasy baseball league through Yahoo!... If you want in, let me know.

**QUESTION TIME!!**


Q. "Why do some women refuse to let their very careful and trustworthy husbands get motorcycles?"
- Jordan Holmes

A. Simply because they are worried about their trustworthy husbands falling off and scratching up their handsome faces. Did you know that I'm actually secretly afraid of motorcycles? I've never been on one and, quite honestly, don't plan on it. I guess it would just be like a really, really fast bike, so it can't be THAT difficult, but I'm just terrified of crashing.

When is it ok to correct people's bad grammar? The other day, I accidentally got a text that put me over the edge. When I say that I "accidentally got a text," I think what happened was that somebody sent out a mass text of a picture of them at the Krishna Festival of Colors or whatever you want to call it and one of their friends tried to send them a text in response, but they unintentionally sent it to everyone that had received the mass text in the first place. You follow? Anyway, the text I accidentally got said this: "Your dumb." I'm sorry, but I just lost it. I texted them back asking, first of all, who the heck this person was, and second of all just kindly mentioned to them that they spelled "you're" wrong and they should probably check their spelling before questioning somebody else's intelligence via text message. Is that too much? I mean, it was either call them on it or just take the text literally and respond by saying "My dumb what?" Is it honestly too much to ask? Your/you're. Their/there. These words may sound the same, but THEY'RE not interchangeable. Did you not pay attention in elementary school when they went over contractions? "Your" shows possession. "You're" is a contraction of the words "you are." If you want to tell me I'm stupid, at least give me the decency of saying "You're dumb." That's all I ask.


I was recently told that I offended somebody in the blog where I totally bashed that girl that wouldn't respond to my brother for weeks after he had asked her to the high school dance. This person was offended because I stated my feelings about the subject but didn't give the girl a chance to defend herself. You know what? That's right. I didn't. But it's not like I go around saying, "Hey! Nobody participate in my blog! I don't want to hear from you!" Quite the opposite, in fact. I've encouraged feedback and participation since I came out of the blogger's womb. If you're offended, tell me. If you hate it, let me know. If you want to fight back, bring it on. (But they don't call me the Tag Team Champion of the World for nothing...) And if anybody wants to hear what this girl has to say to defend herself, find her and give her my email address. I'd love to hear from her. I don't take back anything I said and, even if she did try to defend going three weeks and not answering somebody back for a high school dance until a couple days before the actual date, I probably still wouldn't find her actions justified. Just don't tell me I didn't ever give anyone a chance to let their voices be heard. Speaking of which, let's hear the voice of one of the greatest men to ever have lived, Michael Brunson, this Issue's guest blogger. Michael! Welcome!

Greetings to one and all!  This is truly an honor.  As I told Aaron, I picked up the gauntlet he threw down last Tuesday and I hope that I land somewhere near the ballpark of excellence that is "THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES!"

For those who may not know, and for those who really didn't want to know, my name is Michael Brunson.  A-Town and I met a little over a year ago as we both played under the glorious tutelage of Richard Brunson (yes, we are related.  He's my older, better looking, and obviously, more intelligent brother.  Yes, he reads the blog too and no, he didn't pay me to write that... yet...) in the Taylorsville - Salt Lake Community College Orchestra.  Like A-Town, I play the trumpet.  It was here, that a friendship was forged from the devastation of pencil marks, eraser burns, wrong notes, and plenty of commentary of once a week rehearsals.  It was here that we braved the "Into the Woods" musical.  It was here that "Howard" moments came to life (although, we weren't sure that we could prove that Howard was alive...)  It was also here, during "Into the Woods" that the world's first "Triple-Face-Palm" was born.

A bit of quick background on me.  I am married to the most wonderful, patient, caring, understanding, and most beautiful woman in the world.  Her name is Sandra and yes, she reads SotT.  We have three beautiful daughters who keep me on my toes.  They are my little angels.  My world is filled with Barbie, stuffed animals, and Disney Princesses.  (There are times I turn on SportCenter just to get some more testosterone flowing in the house to balance.)  I graduated from Taylorsville High School in '93, served a mission to Sacramento, California, graduated from Utah Valley University in '98 and received my degree in Communications from Brigham Young University in 2005! 

Since the dawn of time, ok, since last century, I have been working for AT&T Mobility, currently as a manager at the Fashion Place Mall location.  The day after this blog is published, my humble little store will be shut down as the big, bad wolf Dillards, expands into the mall and will be taking over our spot.  As of right now, our store does not have a new location and I will become a floating manager, sent to make a nuscience of myself in other stores to help train, motivate and assist sales staffs achieve their goals.  The scripture comes to mind "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."  (heh, heh, heh..)

Through this position, I have had the opportunity to observe people and how they handle different situations.  I can tell you that any one person is smart and intelligent, but people as a whole, aren't very bright.  It's an interesting downgrade cycle watching what seems to be a normal human being digress from Einstien to Pee-Wee Herman, from Stephen Hawking to Paris Hilton.  The transition is 90% humorous and 10% grotesque.  

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that downright shock from those we have to tell, "Your service has been shut off because of lack of payment."  Now, I know that there are those who simply forgot to pay.  That happens to everyone.  We've all been there where we have forgotten about a bill.  The envelope gets abducted by aliens or eaten by the dog instead of our homework, but we quickly correct the error.  I'm talking about those who know that they haven't made a payment and yet, somehow, it is our fault that this miscarriage of justice has occurred.

A few nights ago, I witnessed the father of a former employee of mine come in and ask to use our phone to call our customer service department.  Over the course of the next hour, I listened as this person escalated from one service rep to another becaue he felt that he was being ill-treated.  I pulled up his account and read through the notes.  All I can say, is that his argument had no legs to stand on.  He was certain that someone was going to let him reactivate his service by only paying $14 of his $600 bill.  Oh, the horror!  The humanity of it all!  How dare the company that had been providing service to him not ask for payment owed!  Finally, he left for 20 minutes and came back, and lo and behold!, he payed his $600 bill and magically, his service was reinstated.

Over the past few days, I have had the opportunity to drive to different locations around the Salt Lake Valley for AT&T and I can tell you one thing that is driving me mad, slow drivers on the freeway!  People!  I applaud your desire and tenacity to make sure that you are not speeding.  Going 65 MPH is commendable.  Please, oh please, make sure that you are going at least 65 MPH!  I hate it when you get on the freeway and there is some lost in their own thoughts driver who is going 55 (or less) and believing that they are being safe.  Then, of course, I get stuck behind this person because everyone behind me is changing lanes so fast that I can't get over.   If any of you are one of these, please, at least go 65MPH.  I implore you.  Remember, slow drivers in fast traffic are as just as much a hazard as those excessively exceeding the speed limit.  After all, the only hazard that should exist in driving, should include, Bo, Luke and the General Lee!  Yee-Haw! Good Buddy!

One last cell phone related paragraph.  Simple cell phone etiquette.  I'm not referring to talking loudly on your phone for all to hear your one-sided conversation in a restaurant, elevator, doctor's office, or church meeting.  (All true stories for a later time.)  I'm talking about bringing that thing into the store and where it has been.  Nothing will make us want to lop off a hand more than when someone brings in a phone that has been dropped in the toilet and hands it to us.  Not only is that disguting, but it's not cool.

Like most of you, I have been paying attention to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.  Every year, I make my own bracket and write in the teams as they get announced on "Selection Sunday."  I then dilligently watch the scores and fill in the bracket with the winners.  Up until recently, I had filled out a predicted bracket just to see how well I can guess the winners.  It's become increasingly more difficult as the parity in college basketball expands.  Teams from smaller schools are catching up, talent-wise, to the bigger schools.  Seeing the likes of Norfolk State and Virginia Commonwealth make noise in the "Big Dance" is more and more common than not.  I figured out how to have a fool-proof predicted bracket this year.  I'm waiting till April 5th to fill it out.  Yes, I know that the last game of the tournament is April 2nd, but I want to make sure I have all the relevant information at hand before I start predicting.  Anyone want to lay odds as to how well I do this year?

Aaron, thank you for allowing me this wonderful opportunity to participate in SotT.  I have a greater appreciation to how difficult it is to come up with material each week.  Hopefully, I didn't drive readers away.

In the words of Mr. Spock "Live long and exprire."

- Michael Brunson

I love this man.

I should have thought of that March Madness strategy years ago. You're a genius. Thanks for writing. Great job. Next week, I'd like to have a female guest blogger. I have a couple in mind that I think would do a good job, but I'm not going to make an assignment this week because I want to see how many people actually read until the end of the Issue. (I learned my lesson last week, apparently.) Anyhoo, if you're interested in writing a little segment for next week, you know how to find me. First come, first serve, I guess.

One quick segment and then we'll wrap things up. I've been watching season two of NBC's "The Voice" lately. I became a fan of the show last year and have followed it into its sophomore installment. I've found that there are many more contestants this year that I don't care for than there were last year. I thought last year's contestants were, in many areas, better than a majority of this year's singers, but the main thing I've noticed this season is how hard the producers and judges seem to be pushing some of the contestants. This year, it seems that there is a certain style of singer that they're looking for, often times favoring contestants that may have a certain look or attitude but be less talented than their opponents. This isn't to say that the competitors this year are bad or lack talent, but simply the observation that my "Voice" picks have been even less accurate than my basketball bracket. In one episode two weeks ago, particularly, every single singer that I wanted to lose ended up advancing. It's also of note to mention that I could have told you who would move on during each of the "Battle Round" match-ups before either singer let a note escape their lips. It's rigged! Bias! It's for these very reasons why I stopped making my DWTS predictions. This may, in fact, be the one facet of life where A-Town's opinion means nothing at all. The producers and judges know what they want and they've got people they like and it doesn't matter what America wants. Hmmph!

The Shoutout of the Week this week goes to Nicole Paul. She's a good friend of mine from my days back at K-UTE. She was super awesome and super liberal. I miss the times when we used to argue about religion. But more than anything, I am just curious as to whether or not she's still alive. Ok. Moving on.

That's about it for this week. I had more to say, but I've come to realize how short your attention spans are when it comes to these types of things. Just kidding. But not really. One final thought as I close: If I can't even get people to vote for my blog polls or write me Questions once a week, what are the odds of me realistically being elected President in 2012? Just Curious.

Until next Time,

Move It. Sell It. And Leave the Door Open.

Aaron