Signs of the Times, Issue No. 218 - 07/24/12

For some must push and some must pull...

Greetings to one and all. Let's just get down to business. Topics to be discussed today: Pioneer Day, people who whine more than I do, my glorious week of freedom, the AGT head-scratcher, my thoughts on the final Batman movie, and the desecration of one of the last pure players in sports. On we go!

First of all, let me start off by wishing everyone a happy Pioneer Day here in Utah. For those of you unfamiliar with the holiday, it's a state celebration in commemoration of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. I just got done watching "17 Miracles," a movie from 2011 that depicts some of the struggles that the settlers went through, with my family. What an awesome show. I've said it a million times and I'll say it again - I'm so grateful for the pioneers who made that cross-country expedition because I would have made a really lousy pioneer, myself. As a young man in the LDS church, I had the opportunity once to participate in what they call "Trek," where they make all the teenagers dress like the Amish and pull handcarts like 20 miles. I had a bad attitude pretty much the entire time. I tried to keep my whining to a minimum most of the time, but that, in and of itself, was generally pretty difficult. Thus, my poor perspective continued until I could finally see the "finish line" and was done walking at long last. At that point, I looked retrospectively and realized that, overall, it was actually not a terrible experience - not one I'd like to relive again, but it actually helped strengthen my gratitude for those who crossed the planes so many years ago. So that was cool. And then the air conditioning went out on the bus I was riding home in and that was miserable. Seriously, though, after thinking about what the real pioneers went through, I really have no right to complain about anything. Those guys were TOUGH. I have a hard enough time walking to the mailbox without shoes on. So... props to them. In fact, I think the Mormon pioneers are worthy of the Shoutout of the Week. Good work, everyone. And thank you. (By the way, go read my review. Even if you don't read it, at least go boost my total page views.)

"But with joy wend your way."

Speaking of whiny people, I mentioned this the other day, but people on Facebook are driving me up the wall lately. SEEEEEEEEEEEERIOUSLY, people! I am not sure how many more whiny status updates I can take before I completely lose it. I understand that you hate high school and I'm sorry that he didn't call you last night as you sat, waiting, by the phone, but I DON'T CARE!! I know that you think that men are pigs and that chivalry is dead, but I have no sympathy for these cry-babies. And this epidemic is not only for women, either! There are some guys that are equally guilty. I'm sure I come off as a complainer in a great majority of my blogs, but here's the difference between me and them: I'm JOKING! If I had legitimately had problems or was really depressed about my life, I would not post about it on Facebook - or even blog about it! My personal issues are personal and I don't want you people to know - nor do you need to know - everything about my life. I just don't understand why people get so dramatic about their love life and their bad grades and their lack of friends. Come on. I mean, if anybody out there should have the right to complain about having no friends, I should. And I never do that. Ever. I've been put in a difficult spot lately with all these whiners. They're people that I'm not necessarily ready to unfriend, but I really am sick of having all that garbage clutter up my Facebook news feed. Thank heaven for the "unsubscribe" feature! I've been using it probably about three or four times a day lately. I'll never have to hear from some of you again. Wonderful.

Nobody cares.

Only in America can you become famous for having an abnormally large buttocks. Just a thought.

This is an exciting time for me. I get an extremely rare six-day weekend this week. I worked yesterday, but I have the remainder of the week off. The reason for this is that I had originally taken this week off for my trip to Texas that I outlined a couple weeks ago. Due to high prices for last-minute plane tickets, I had to scrap the trip and postpone it, but still had my time off approved. I got today off for Pioneer Day and Wednesday is my normal day off during the week, so I thought I would be able to go back to work on Thursday, but I still wanted to keep Friday off, just for fun. I scheduled my Texas vacation for next month and booked my flights for August 22nd and August 26th, then requested additional time off appropriately. Then, after thinking about it for a second, I greedily told my employer that I wanted the time off next month and I also wanted to keep the time off this week. So... Now I don't have to work again until next Monday. The great thing about this is that I have TONS of time off. The bad news is that I don't have any set-in-stone plans. I've got some things in mind and I'm looking for ways to go have fun, do something different, and meet new people. So far, I'm off to a fun start so far. Last night was a Salt Lake Bees game with my family. Today, I slept in, watched "17 Miracles," and will undoubtedly have a night full of "America's Got Talent" and the "Love in the Wild" finale. Who knows? Maybe I'll fit some frozen yogurt in there, too. I've got a voucher for a 90-minute massage that I need to use, among other things. I'm sure I'll find something nice to do. I'll make a Webisode that none of you will watch. It'll be grand.

I've been a little disappointed with the latest season of "America's Got Talent" due to the lack of outstanding, um, talent. In the on-going quarterfinal rounds, there are four rounds of 12 acts, with four of the 12 moving on to the semi-finals. We're three weeks in and the talent level has been almost entirely underwhelming, with the exception of a couple standouts. Now, for tonight's quarterfinal episode, there are at least six or seven really incredible acts, which really bothers me. Only four of the acts will be able to move on, so I'm having a hard time understanding why the producers stacked the talent in the final group, rather than evenly distributing it throughout the four quarterfinal shows. I don't get it. Regardless, I'm pumped for tonight's show. If you want a preview of tonight's talent, go check out my AGT tweets from last week.

What were the producers thinking??

I saw "The Dark Knight Rises" on Saturday morning. Let's just say... it was awesome!! If I wasn't exhausted, knew it wouldn't have been totally packed in the theater, and wouldn't have had to pay full price, I would have considered seeing it again that night. I've heard the argument that "The Avengers" was better than Batman, but I don't think that's a valid argument - nor would I say that "TDKR" was better than "The Avengers" - because they are two different types of movies. I think that the action in "The Avengers" is probably better than Batman, but Batman's story is better than Marvel's. I thought that "TDKR" was a great conclusion to an awesome trilogy. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 9.5 out of 10. The acting by the star-studded cast is phenomenal and I was even convinced that Anne Hathaway is not a completely terrible actress. I admit - I kind of liked her as Catwoman! And if somebody had told me 15 years ago that dorky little Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have grown up to be cool, I would have laughed in their faces. JGL, I apologize. I'm sorry. I take it back. That is one slick man. There's a very good chance that I'll be hitting up the theater again this week for round two of "The Dark Knight". That's your Week in Review.

So awesome.

Sports are not the same these days. I've talked about this Issue after Issue, but today I just want to mention loyalty. The reason I loved the glory days of the NBA was because players played like a team and they stayed with their team. Just yesterday morning, I was contemplating whether I would ever want to get a jersey of any current athletes. I've had mixed feelings about this in the past few years after buying Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams jerseys and then watching them get shipped off to different teams less than a year later. I racked my mind to see if there were any long-tenured players that I'd support for the end of their careers. Drew Brees for the Saints came to mind. I like Drew Brees. Other than that, I thought of only one other name - Ichiro Suzuki, the Japanese outfielder for the Seattle Mariners. I've always been an Ichiro fan since he came into the league and I thought it would be acceptable to buy a #51 Mariners uniform. Later that afternoon, Ichiro was traded to the New York Yankees. And then I threw up. Of all the teams, why... WHY?!? would the Mariners deal him to the Yankees??? And they are only getting two no-name pitchers and cash in return. Sickening. I hate the Yankees. Everybody (except Mike Holmes) together now - BOOOOOO!!

This makes me sick on the inside.

Finally, I'd like to express my condolences to the families affected by the horrific shooting in Aurora, CO. I won't say much, but it sufficeth me to say that we live in a Pretty Messed Up world.

Due to the holiday, there will be no guest blogger this week. Sad. I know you're all devastated. I think I'll cut the Newsletter off here so I can get out there and enjoy my holiday. Hope everybody's having a good week. If any of you are looking for something fun to do, let me know. I've got all the time in the world.

Until next Time,

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

Aaron