Some more new music... Obadiah Parker

I heard this song on Scrubs, liked it and looked the song up. Obadiah Parker is the name of the group or guy, I'm still not quite sure.



It's arguably better than the original song. So head on over to iTunes and get their songs as they don't have a label or anything like that.

The amazing hunt for a hot tub while down in Arizona, part dos. Public nudity.

As I last left you (which was quite a while ago, sorry about that) we had just gone to a "haunted mansion" in the woods got freaked out by all the people that were already at a supposedly abandoned house. Now you may be wondering what this has to do with finding hot tubs, this area comes to play in a big way in a later on. Trust me.

Anyways a couple days later after a long day of riding horses up in the mountains, which I should mention kind of scared me a little. Even though it was only my second time, running around on small trails and such didn't really bother me, but I don't think my horse liked me or anyone else for that matter. In fact I have to give mad props to Lisa, she's probably one of the bravest persons I know. Seeing as my horse, named Cliff, nearly kicked her... twice. In fact the second time she nearly got kicked in the face as my horse kicked both his feet back and Lisa's head was pretty much in between his two hooves. Now I don't know about you, but I would have crapped my pants right there, no hesitation, time to turn around and get a new pair. But it didn't even phase Lisa. That's hardcore.

Needless to say after all that riding, we needed a hot tub. However, that just was not in the cards.

Apparently, near Thatcher, and I use the word near very loosely as it was quite a drive to get there, there's a hot spring (I also use the phrase hot loosely, because as I will explain I really have no proof that it's actually hot), and that was our destination. After a 20 minute drive we were there, and so were a bunch of other people. We passed one hot tub/spring with a couple of people in it in favor of another that was supposedly larger and better. However, that larger and better one was full. So we decided to go to the smaller one with a couple (meaning a guy and a girl presumably boyfriend/girlfriend) in there. We soon found out why it was nearly empty.

The following is exactly what went down that night as we entered the hot tub area:

"Come on in. There's plenty of room," says the girl in the hot tub

Now as we walk in something doesn't quite look right but we're not close enough to the hot tub to notice what's really going down. The closer we get the clearer it gets, the two people in the hot tub aren't wearing any clothes, at all. Fortunately it was dark enough outside and the water was murky enough that their bits and pieces were covered up but there was no way I was going to get in. However, I followed along because this was a golden opportunity for awkward amazingness and I wanted to see the reactions (I probably didn't get any bonus points toward heaven for that but it was worth it).

"Are you guys wearing clothes?" Shanna asked, after she had hung her towel up and had turned to get in.

"Yeah," the naked hot tub girl replied, "But could you guys turn around while I get my boyfriend's boxers."

As we all turned around, we heard her get out of the hot tub run to the fence, grab something off the fence, and then jump back into the hot tub, cannonball style. After this exchange, it was clear what had been going on in the hot tub and at this point the reactions of the group ranged from hysterical laughter (that'd be me and Lisa), shock and humor (Logan, Jon, Shanna, Felicia), utter horror (Halie) and total obliviousness (Mike). In fact, Mike was so oblivious after the girl had run to get her boyfriends boxers he still headed toward the hot tub and started to climb in. \

"MIKE!" we all yelled. He looked up and noticed the nakedness and jumped back.

"I think we're gonna go somewhere else," Shanna then said.

"No, it's okay. You can come in. Does anyone have a shirt I can use?" naked hot tub girl replied.

"That's okay, we're gonna go somewhere else," Shanna replied.

We then turned around and left. Now at this point, you have to realize I was doing everything I could to keep from bursting out in a fit of laughter, biting my tongue, not looking at anyone in the group. Everything. But I lost all control when I heard the naked hot tub guy yell to us as we were leaving.

"It's not like we were having sex or anything," he yelled.

Only real vampires may apply.

So a few weeks ago while I was surfing the net out of boredom, I stumbled across this website. After reading it's contents, I couldn't help but feel a mix of amusement, bewilderment and wonder. It blew my mind. If you haven't checked it out, you should, it's hilarious. It's a website for vampires, real vampires. Or as they more poetically explain on their website:

"Sanguinarius does not deal with fiction, folklore, or role-playing games. If that is what you are looking for, then you'll need to look elsewhere. I have nothing against role-playing, but if you are a vampire in role-playing-persona only, please do not waste my time and yours trying to convince me that you really are a vampire. I may be a 'Sucker, but I'm not a SUCKER."



That's right folks it's for real vampires, who really suck blood, and are real creatures of the night. All you delusional fakers go away.

There you go all you Edward-loving Twilight maniacs. Go get your vampire boyfriend... or don't, I'm pretty sure you'll get bitten and then get some weird infection.

Some more enlightenment...

Dannyanism Proposition of Enlightenment #34C: Never underestimate the power of pudding snack packs.

The amazing hunt for a hot tub while down in Arizona, part one. The prelude.

Last year around this time, my roommates and I decided to go down to Arizona to visit some friends and during that time we went on a quest to go hot tubbing. Unfortunately, we never actually did get into a hot tub, but the story involved in trying to find one became one of legend and I guess I just wanted to get the down in writing before it was lost on younger generations.

However, before we start, there was some really crazy crap that happened while we were down there, but I'm used to weirdness going on. I have become accustomed to people saying, "Well that's never happened before." It's just normal for me. I've never been to the beach in California when it's actually sunny, every time I've been to Las Vegas, there's been record low temperatures, record high winds, or flooding because of record rainfall. (Although there is an amount of debate as to whether my Dad being the cause of these Las Vegas weather issues, or just our powers combined brought down the crazy). And I'm okay with that, because it just means that all my road trips and vacations have become adventures as a result. These trips down to Arizona are no different, the people we visited to this day can't understand how we never were able to find a stupid hot tub, and ended up dealing with naked people supposedly not having sex in a hot tub, burnt down haunted mansions, cold hot springs and crazy hippie cults in the process.

This is us getting ready to be ghostbusters.

It all started in February when the stars aligned and my roommates and I discovered that over President's Day weekend, we found we could have a potential 5-day weekend and decided to visit one of their mission friends down in Arizona to ride horses, explore and go to some hot springs in the process. It was going to be great, however we had no idea how great it was going to be.

The weirdness began when we decided to go to a supposed haunted mansion that used to be frequented by the Rolling Stones back in the day. In order for us to see the mansion, we were informed we would have to quietly sneak up onto the property while trying to avoid the property caretaker who was known to chase people off the property with his shotgun. That right there is enough to get the blood pumping, but that wasn't going to stop us, because the place was supposedly haunted and who's gonna give up an opportunity to potentially see a ghost? Well, probably a lot of people, but not me.

So here we were climbing over a locked gate, rain beating down on us and getting ready to head up the muddy pathway to the mansion, with visions of ghostbusting grandeur in our head. As we marched our way down the path, in the distance two lights appeared, and started moving toward us quickly. Headlights.

"Quick in the bushes," someone yelled, as we all dove off the path way into the shrubs and bushes off to the side, hoping and praying we hadn't been seen. Visions of ghostbusting grandeur had quickly been replaced by visions of being chased through the rainy desert by a mad man with a shotgun.

The truck passed by without incident, when it dawned on us that in our stupidity, we had parked our car by the gate, and crazy shotgun man was going to know that we were there. Without hesitation, (which I definitely thought there should have been some hesitation, I mean there's supposedly a shotgun involved) Shanna and Mike go running back to the car in hopes of moving it before the guy sees them.

Anyways, as we wait in the bushes, five minutes pass, then ten, then we start to worry. We call Mike up on the phone, and all we get is a short answer, "Can't talk now." And he hangs up.

Another five minutes pass, and we see them walking up the pathway. The crazy shotgun guy, who apparently wasn't THE shotgun guy had caught them and told them to leave, and then took off himself. So they pretended like they were leaving and parked in a different spot and had to sneak back into the area. So we were safe to head on up.

As we turned the corner and could see the mansion something was off. The building had supposedly been abandoned for quite some time and in the time that our Arizona friends had been up there, no one was ever there. However, this night, the lights were on.

This of course wasn't going to stop us, in fact it fed into our curiosity. Logan, Mike, Jon and Lisa quickly took off to go see what was up. I tried to keep up with them, but at the same time also tried to keep the rest of the group within site. So l lost Logan and the rest. However lining the road, leading up to the house cars had been parked there and it looked as if there were people up at the mansion having some sort of party.

Sadly this is where my mansion experience comes to an end. The girls that I was with started to head back toward the car and curse my sense of chivalry I went with them, trying so hard to convince them to stay and explore. I was even more distraught when the others came back telling stories of people with axes and other creepy things. Almost one week later the mansion burned down, and we were some of the last people to see it standing.

This however is only the beginning as we began our quest to find a hot tub that would span over the rest of this trip and into the next, and we would be back.

(Join me next time as I tell the tale of how Mike almost jumped into a hot tub with a naked woman)

This is a photo of the mansion, but to see it as we saw it, imagine that it's in the middle of the night, pouring rain, with the lights on. It looked like it was straight out of a horror movie.

This was the place one week later.

Even more enlightenment.

Dannyianism Proposition for Enlightenment #2: Learning from your stupid mistakes is good, learning from other people's stupid mistakes is great, but persuading others to do stupid things so you can learn from their mistakes is AWESOME! (Older siblings can attest to this.)

More than just an Easter message.

This is definitely something more than something to apply to your life than just on Easter. We should be thinking of this everyday.

This just made me laugh

I saw this picture and decided I needed to share it. That is all.

One of my new heroes.

So in a previous post I mentioned how I was reading, and loving the book Yes Man. The author, Danny Wallace, of this book has seriously become my new hero, and not because he has a great first name. You know that time where you had a great idea of something fun and interesting to do, but then chickened out at the last second, or started doing it but lost all dedication to it. Yeah, he doesn't chicken out, and he definitely follows through. In his first book, which I read by sneaking it off the shelf of the BYU-Hawaii bookstore where I worked, called Join Me, he accidently starts a cult, or a collective as he would rather it be called. In a fit of boredom and curiosity, he took out an ad in the paper stating, "Join me. Send one passport-sized photograph to..." and then he published his address, to see if anyone would join him. As to why they were joining him, he had no particular reason, but soon had to find a reason as people actually started joining him, so he started the Karma Army. Funny thing, the website he started in to bring people into his collective is still there, and if you want, you can still join. He seems like the type of person that everyone would want in their group of friends to make life much more interesting, as he comes up with various projects. Whether it be crazy things like trying to start his own country in his apartment, looking for the center of the universe in Idaho, saying yes to everything for 6 months or something a little more normal like tracking down all of his old friends from elementary and high school, a sort of twisted profoundness comes from it. For example, in Yes Man, no other statement has hit me harder than, "Every good thing in your life has come from saying yes to something somewhere along the line." Or when he realizes that sometimes saying no is a freeing experience and is okay, as long as you don't let it prevent yourself from missing out on life. In the end, he's become one of my new heroes and I strongly recommend picking up one of his books, and I guarantee you'll become a believer.

More enlightenment

Dannyanism Proposition of Enlightenment #42 article C: If at some point it you think you're drowning, and in your struggle you think this just might be the end... just stand up. Chances are, the water will only be about a foot deep, you'll be fine.

Another something new to listen to... Cubworld.

Introducing, Cubworld, aka Jacob Kongaika. It's funny how I came across this guy, he went to BYU-Hawaii with me, his dad was a vice president of the school, and his brother taught one of the classes I took. Now, I knew he was a musician, I'd heard him play but I had no idea that this would come of his few little gigs here and there at BYUH. But I didn't really hear his stuff until a student in my news writing lab did a profile on him and I went to his website. It's absolutely amazing. It doesn't really fit any particular genre per se, and I could probably make up a new genre like acoustic alterna-R&B, but you can just consider it in the genre of awesomeness.



Right now he's not on any major label, but should definitely be on one. Do yourself a favor and head over to his website and have a listen. Then go to iTunes and get the album, help him out, and help him get the recognition he definitely deserves.

Your new path to enlightenment...

I've decided that I want to be like Confucius and start my own -ism, Dannyanism, and start open up a new path to enlightenment. So like Confucius, I'm gonna guide everyone down that path toward enlightenment through vague little sayings, limericks, poems and stories. Get what you want out of it.


Dannyanism Proposition of Enlightenment #72: Sometimes when your brushing your teeth and your brother announces that he just used your toothbrush to clean the ball that he plays fetch with the dog with, you just gotta keep brushing and finish up.

How in the world did I get myself into this situation?

I've come to the realization that I live to ask myself this question. Now, I don't mean asking it in the negative way, like when I'm facing the consequences for doing something wrong or stupid, but when I end up in doing something amazing, awesome, strange and/or completely surreal, just by taking going out and doing things. I am by no means a daredevil, but I love adventure, I love seeing and experiencing things that few others have ever done before.

Over the past month I've been reading the book, Yes Man, by Danny Wallace (yes that stupid Jim Carrey movie is based off it, but the book is way way way different). In the book he decides to say Yes to everything for 6 months, and it leads him on some absolutely crazy adventures, that he normally wouldn't have gone on, and changes his life in the process. This is the way I want to lead my life. Not necessarily saying yes to everything, because sometimes you just have to say no, but saying yes to things that I normally wouldn't say yes to.

Last year, my trip to China was a prime example of a time where I said yes to something I would normally say no to, citing lack of means to go. Now, I am definitely paying for it now, having no savings and a bit of a credit card bill, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Who else can say that they hiked the Great Wall of China and camped out on one of the towers? I personally know of only 8 or 9 other people (because they were with me). Or, who can say they once stood on a street corner in Beijing with a box full of cats, and then went for nachos later on that night? I can only think of one, and he was with me at the time (that was a pretty weird moment in life, huh, Chris).

Either way, I loved the fact that while I was doing each of those things I was able to ask myself, "How in the world did I get myself in this situation?" And just smile.

What to do when the Reester Bunny drops an egg in your basket...

So every once in a while I stumble across a product or advertisement that in trying to be clever completely misses the boat and becomes unintentionally hilarious. Winter semester last year, I was in a Theories of Persuasion class, and for one assignment we were required to bring in examples of advertising that just didn't work. The best example was an ad for Pringles Bold that had a bull with Pringles exploding out his nose. Now I don't know about you, but bull snot flavored potato chips don't exactly sound appealing. Neither do these:


My mom and brother told me about these and I immediately had to go out and buy me some. Now I don't know about where you come from but our wonderful friends at Urban Dictionary (a useful tool to figure out just what the crap some people are talking about and to understand those dirty slang words) define the word reasty as dirty, funky, rotten, disgusting. mountain slang derived from combining raunchy and yeasty. Now in my household and with my friends a reaster was a nasty fart. So when I hear Reester Bunny, I'm gonna giggle.

Nevada's Johnson... Really??

So, this last weekend I went home to visit family. As many already know, I used to work for the newspaper up in Logan as a copy editor. I hated the job and only lasted about 3 months. As a copy editor, I would layout the paper, edit the story and then write the headline. So imagine my delight when I opened up Sunday's paper and read this:



Now, I may have not been the best copy editor around, but I'm not an idiot. I know what is implied by stating something like, "Nevada's Johnson." I guess what worries me the most about this headline is that they let me go because I just wasn't cutting it. There's nothing like finding out that the people who think you aren't good enough for them are complete and total morons.

My brother is sending the letter to The Tonight Show. So watch Jay Leno on Monday's for the next few weeks to see if it makes it.

Rated R

The movie rating system is broken. Over the past few days, this has been weighing on my mind, mainly because so many people really rely on the movie ratings to decide whether to go see a film or not, especially members of the Church.

This bothers me.

And not only because people could be missing out on a great film due to an unjust rating. When a person uses the movie rating system as their main criteria on whether they should watch a movie, they essentially allow someone else to decide whether they should watch a movie. They don't really decide for themselves.

You have to realize every movie that is rated by the MPAA is rated by a panel and it is NOT a unanimous decision, it is a majority vote. This means that the PG-13 movie you are watching could very well have had 3 votes saying R, and 4 votes saying PG-13.

Also in deciding what rating a movie should receive, there is no set criteria. Many assume that if there any more than two F-words and it will get an R-rating. Or that if the F-word is used sexually it will automatically get an R-rating.

WRONG. I could give you a rather long list of PG-13 movies that have more than two F-bombs in it and even more that use it in a sexual manner. In fact, I could name a few PG movies that have the F-word in them.

Nothing bothers me more than when someone walks out of the theater and says, "That movie should have been rated R." Which I heard a lot of people say after watching The Dark Knight.

My response to that statement is, "No, YOU should have done your research before hand, and decided whether that movie adheres to your standards, rather than assuming that because it was PG-13 it would be okay."

Don't ever put your standards in the hands of others.

Now I'm not advocating going out and watching everything an anything to make an informed decision. And I'm not saying ignore the rating system completely, because it is a great starting point. But go out and research the movie before hand. With the Internet these days, we have the tools to go out and properly know what is in a movie beforehand (like this site.)

Don't just go out and see any PG-13 rated movie just because it's not R-rated. And don't write of an R-rated movie just because it's rated R, you might be missing out on something great because a few random people on a committee decided there was just too much violence or drug references in the movie.

Here are some R-rated movies that probably didn't deserve their rating.


Brick - This movie isn't very well known but it is a wonderful independent movie. There is almost no swearing in the entire movie, and very little violence, and no sex. It got it's R-rating because the movie talks about drugs. It doesn't show any actual drug use, and it's references are nothing more than what you would see on prime-time television.

The Matrix - This one is pretty well known for being unjustly rated. There is very little swearing, or sex, and the violence is no worse than what is on television. One rumor that has floated around is that it got it's rating due to the scene where they storm the building in black trench coats, but that's only a rumor.

The Ghost and the Darkness - This is another movie with very little swearing and sex, but has a couple violent lion attack scenes, but again is nothing worse than what you would see on network television. In fact I'm pretty sure I've seen crazier more violent stuff on CSI.







3:10 to Yuma - Another really good movie. Much like the previous films, the movie has very little language at least no more than what is in a PG-13 movie, but got it's R-rating for violence that would go unedited on television.




Slumdog Millionaire - This is a movie that I really fear many won't see because of the rating. It's an amazing movie, and will probably get a post of it's own just because of how it affected me. But in the movie, there is again very little sex and swearing, and while the rating says it's because of graphic violent images, the violence is no more graphic than network television. It's a fantastic movie and I'll talk about it more when I go see it again.

In the end, be your own judge, inform yourself. No one knows your standards better than you. Take heed of what the For Strength of Youth Pamphlet now tells us, "You have the gift of the Holy Ghost, which will give you strength and help you make good choices."

Random name for a band...

Static Muffin

This made me laugh, and I don't know why.



I can only hope that someday I'll be sitting in a diner, look out the window and see that.

Something new to listen to today

Finding cool, new or different music is kind of a hobby of mine (half my hard drive is just music). So ever other day or so I'm gonna post something that I'm currently listening to, something I've discovered recently, or just something I like, for everyone to hear.


Today, we got K'Naan. I actually found this guy while watching those stupid shows on MTV, like Room Raiders or Next or some other "reality show". Remember when they used to actually have Music on MTV... such a golden time. Anyways during the credits they actually show music from up coming artists, most of who suck, but this dude caught my eye, and he made it to my iPod. It's some great stuff, a good mix of hip-hop, reggae, rock and just overall goodness.

Celebrity feud of the day...

I loves me a good celebrity feud, and the more ridiculous the better. It really provides me with some meaning to my life, only a little though. The feud for today has been brewing since the Grammy's few weeks ago. It involves a Disney Channel darling with legions of pre-pubescent girls willing to lay down their lives for her, and a British rock band with legions of disenfranchised Generation X-ers willing to lay down their lives for them. I give you:

In the red corner at probably 100 lbs or less: MILEY CYRUS



(What you don't see are the knives she's holding behind her back don't be charmed by that smile, she be deadly)

And in the blue corner at a combined weight of around 500 lbs. (but each still probably only 100 lbs or less): RADIOHEAD



(Right there Thom Yorke is getting ready to Crane Kick Miley Cyrus in the head Karate Kid style, an unstoppable maneuver, at least in the first movie)

Here's the thing, I'm gonna have to give this one to Miley, because of her fan base. Not only are the millions of 13-year old girls absolutely bat-crap crazy, but so are their SUV driving soccer moms who buy them tickets to see Miss Hannah Montana in concert, they are the true scary ones. You don't wanna be on the bad side of a blonde white chick in an Escalade, she will take you out.

Plus as mentioned before, while much like Ms. Montana, Radiohead has legions of fans willing to lay down their lives for them, laying down their lives just means probably committing suicide, leaving the band high and dry.

It would take a comeback of epic proportions for Radiohead to win.

Old age at 27?

So I found this, this morning. As if I didn't need any other reasons to feel super old, finding out that some of my friends were 10 years younger than me did that real fast, apparently already a year into my old age.



But you 22-year old young bucks better stop laughing, seeing as you've just hit your peak, and it's all down hill from here.

Just the beginning

So I've been meaning to start my blog for a while now but have been pretty lazy and unmotivated.  Hopefully this new found motivation will keep with me so I don't have one of those pathetic blogs with just a few posts every couple of months.