2008 Highlights from Woods Cross Citizen

This past year has been a great one here at the Woods Cross Citizen blog. This post will be my 108th post for the year. Some highlights of my posts over the past year:

• In January I said goodbye to a great leader, President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I also posted about www.crimereports.com which still doesn't appear to have data from Woods Cross, but, does have data from Bountiful and North Salt Lake City. I also speculated about how much a City Council seat is worth to some people.
  
• In February I answered the question of why I blog.
• March brought the announcement that our Mayor had filed to run for the Utah State Senate. I also postulated on the propriety of City Council Members forwarding their own agenda.
• During April I crossed two items off my bucket list and commented about curbside recycling beginning in Woods Cross. I also talked about our decision to purchase a vehicle from Murdock Chevrolet.
• In May I sent questions to the Senate Candidates for Utah State Senate District 23.
• June brought my 15th wedding anniversary as well as a meeting with Dan Liljenquist and my first ever lunch with a Democratic Candidate.
• In July I received answers to my questions from the Senate District 23 candidates.
• August began my series of posts giving the answers that I received from those candidates. Also in August, Dan Liljenquist survived a plane crash.
• The only posts during September were more answers in my series of posts that began in August.
• In October I announced that my job location would be changing. I also shared my position on California's Proposition 8, the Davis County Commission race, and the State Senate District 23 race.
• At the end of November, I declared that I was happy to see the Utes go 12-0.
• December started off by me saying goodbye to a great University of Utah fan. It ended with a wonderful Christmas.

Blu-ray = Betamax?

Will Blu-ray survive? I came across a column today at ZDNet (see here) that makes some great arguments about why Blu-ray could be dead soon. (Cue Monty Python's "I'm not dead yet" skit.)

For Christmas, we got a 42" Plasma HDTV. Prior to getting this TV, I used to think that the whole HD craze was just a lot of hype. I've discovered that watching non-HD broadcasts on the new TV is painful. We opted for the lower-priced 720p version of the TV. Our original DVD's still look ok on this TV. With time, I suspect we'll purchase an up-converting DVD player. I don't have the desire to purchase a Blu-ray player anytime soon though. If an up-converting DVD player makes all my original DVDs look nice on the TV, why would I want to pay more for a Blu-ray player as well as more for each Blu-ray disc? Switching to Blu-ray just doesn't make financial sense to me.

Book Review - Hometown Weekly by Bruce Lindsay

About two months ago, I started to read the book, Hometown Weekly by Bruce Lindsay. I only read two chapters of this book and I couldn't stand it. I felt like the author was almost insulting my intelligence. While reading this book I felt like I was listening to an 80 something year old grandma who has a touch of dementia telling these stories. The stories make no sense and the way they are told is even more annoying to me. I didn't care for the book and ended up returning it to the store without reading anymore than two chapters.

You can listen to a story at the books website and see if you like the way it's told before you spend your money on the book. Go over to http://www.thehometownweekly.com to listen and let me know what you think.

Merry Christmas!

To all my friends and family (and anyone else who reads this blog), Merry Christmas! I hope this Christmas finds you all happy and healthy! (The picture above was taken this past Sunday.)

Keeping Christmas

This is taken from "The Spirit of Christmas" by Henry Van Dyke:

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs on sun time.

But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow-men are just as real as you are, and try to look
behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really
want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world--stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death--and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?

But you can never keep it alone.

The world has lost another great man.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away around 11:30 p.m. last night. I will miss his talks that almost always included some sports story.

Boycott the Kurt Bestor Christmas Concert?

Kurt Bestor has his annual Christmas Concert coming up at Abravanel Hall from December 10th through the 13th. With the recent boycotts called for (by the anti-Proposition 8 crowd) of those who gave money to pass Proposition 8, (see here) I thought, why not do the same to some of those who opposed Proposition 8? Mr. Kurt Bestor has profited for many years from the LDS Church and it's members. He has written musical scores used in many LDS Church films. I would bet that LDS members who are glad Proposition 8 passed have been a majority of his past audiences of his annual Christmas Concert.

Recently, Mr. Bestor said of the LDS Church's involvement in Proposition 8, "The fact that the LDS Church, ... would rise up as they did is disappointing to me. It doesn’t have anything to do with them. I don’t understand and I’m pissed off." (see here, quote is at the bottom of the page)

Well, Mr. Bestor, I suspect there are many LDS members who are "pissed off" that there has been vandalism to sacred church properties, such as the LDS Temple in Los Angeles. Maybe it's time for these "pissed off" LDS members to boycott Mr. Bestor's annual Christmas Concert.

Racism is not a one-way street

This says it perfectly.