Giggles (Look!  You caused another post!) wrote a blog post titled Drooping Rabbit Ears in which she listed which of the Prime-Time Emmy Award nominations she had seen.  I tried to reply, but somehow between my desk and her server, we lost the comment.  I'll get it right on my own blog!

Here's what I've seen:

• Outstanding Choreography: So You Think You Can Dance - Routines: Gravity/Addiction & Koop Island Blues & One
• Outstanding Choreography: So You Think You Can Dance - Routine: Fear
• Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming: America The Story Of Us - Division
• Outstanding Cinematography for Reality Programming: Dirty Jobs - High Rise Window Washer
• Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming: Terror In Mumbai
• Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special: Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony
• Outstanding Short-Form Picture Editing: American Idol - Dream (Episode 924/925A)
• Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming: America The Story Of Us - Division
• Outstanding Lighting Direction (electronic, Multi-Camera) for Variety, Music or Comedy Programming: Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony
• Outstanding Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series or Special (Non-Prosthetic): So You Think You Can Dance - Episode #615/615A
• Outstanding Music Direction: Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony
• Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics: Monk - Mr. Monk and the End Part II (Song title: When I'm Gone)
• Outstanding Lead Actor In a Comedy Series: Tony Shaloub as Adrian Monk - Monk
• Outstanding Lead Actress In a Drama Series:  Mariska Hargitay as Det. Olivia Benson - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Outstanding Guest Actress In a Drama Series: Ann-Margret as Rita Wills - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Bedtime
• Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program: Ryan Seacrest - American Idol
• Outstanding Special Class Programs: Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony
• Outstanding Reality Program: Dirty Jobs, Discovery Channel
• Outstanding Reality Program: MythBusters, Discovery Channel
• Outstanding Reality-Competition Program: American Idol, Fox
• Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera): America the Story of Us - Division
• Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety or Music Series or Special: American Idol - Episode #943 Finale
• Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming: America the Sotry of Us - Division

The HBO Miniseries, The Pacific, received 24 nominations.  If only it weren't so graphic and profanity-laden.  I love the history of World War II, but no piece of "entertainment" is worth lowering the standards of what I will/will not watch.  *shrug*

A majority of what I have seen is either reality/reality-competition stuff or it's on History or Discovery.  If you take out reality/reality-competition, History, Discovery and the 2010 Winter Olympics, all that's left is a show I happened to catch on TV in my hotel room in Austin, Monk, and Law & Order SVU.

I guess I don't watch much "good" television either, Giggles.

(Because of this post, I have to "fix" the bullet points in this template.  They're mis-aligned and it's driving me crazy.)

For Giggles:

Begging the Question (petitio principii, or "assuming the initial point") is a logical fallacy characterized by the initial proposition to be proved is assumed in the logic.  The initial proposition is never proved by the progression of the logic.  The word beg, unlike in the title of this post, has nothing whatsoever to do with asking for something.  Instead, it means to dodge, or avoid.

The Latin version, petitio principii, can literally be translated as "a request for the beginning or premise."  In other words, the premise (or argument) depends on the truth of the very matter in question.

Examples:

• Opium induces sleep because it has a soporific quality.
• To allow every man an unbounded freedom of speech must always be, on the whole advantageous to the State, for it is highly conducive to the interests of the community that each individual should enjoy a liberty perfectly unlimited of expressing his sentiments.

Or, more simply:

Person 1:  He is annoyed right now.

Person 2:  How can you tell?

Person 1:  Because he is really angry.

As Giggles pointed out in a comment on a previous post, "It's definitely not the same as 'raising a question.'"  However, it's being used more and more often as a synonym of raising a question and whether or not this common usage should be considered correct or incorrect is a question for experts in linguistic description and prescription of a living language.

(Most of this post was shamelessly plagiarized, albeit with slight alterations, from Wikipedia.)

Miles driven: just under 1700 round trip

Days of vacation: 8

Hours spent on the USS Midway: 5

Books read: 4 or 5

Times we ate at Harbor Fish & Chips in Oceanside: 2

High and low temperatures: about 70 degrees and 60 degrees respectively

Days at SeaWorld San Diego: 1

Kites flown on the beach: 2

Number of comments about my REALLY COOL kite: 2 dozen

Number of car problems: 1

Number of States driven: 4

Days we played on the beach: 8

Number of days that older son would have liked to stay on the beach: infinity

Number of "Burger Dogs" consumed: 6

Number of times we passed the San Diego LDS Temple: 4

Number of happy vacationers that WANT TO GO BACK: 4

It was a fantastic time.  We didn't over-schedule our time.  We just did what we felt like when we felt like doing it, which makes it the BEST kind of vacation.

The car trouble wasn't anything major because we didn't get in an accident.  The Air Bag light stayed on intermittently while we were in San Diego, and I thought it might have just been the humidity, but when we came back, I had it checked out.  They checked all the wiring and reset the codes in the computer, but a couple of days later, the light came back on, so we just spent $611.55 for a new driver's side airbag module--a part that we honestly hope NEVER to use.  The rest of the cost of the repair comes later when they charge us another hundred bucks to install the thing.

It was hard to go back to work this week, but not as hard at my new job as it would have been at my old job.  I didn't feel a sense of rising dread as I came nearer and nearer to home.

*happy sigh*

Now to get ready for Scout Camp...

Lately I have noticed quite a few people in online communications on blogs, blog comments, facebook posts and comments and the like typing "here, here!" when they heartily agree with something.

Example:

Mr. Brilliant Person: I think that everyone that reads this comment should be crowned king of the world and be given a zillion dollars.

Ms. In Agreeance: Here here!  Where do I collect the cash moneys?

Ok, so I've noticed it for a long time.  Years ago, in a particular online theater forum, that happened a lot.  A couple of friends and I together came up with the title of this post, probably at a theater rehearsal, discussing the written misuse of this phrase.

So, to clear things up, I now present the proper usage:

Hear, hear!

When spoken, it's no different at all because the words "hear" and "here" are homophones--words that are pronounced the same, but differ in meaning.  When written, there's a big difference.

So, to clear up exactly WHY "Hear, hear!" should be used instead of "Here, here!" I present the meaning behind the phrase as plagiarized from Wikipedia:

Hear, hear is an expression used as a short repeated form of hear him, hear him. It represents a listener's agreement with the point being made by a speaker.

It was originally an imperative for directing attention to speakers, and has since been used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as "the regular form of cheering in the House of Commons", with many purposes depending on the intonation of its user. Its use in Parliament is linked to the fact that applause is normally (though not always) forbidden in the chambers of the House of Commons and House of Lords.

It is often incorrectly spelled "here here", especially on websites and IM.

The phrase hear him, hear him! was used in Parliament since the late 1600s, and had been reduced to hear! or hear, hear! by the late 1700s. The verb hear had earlier been used in the King James Bible as a command for others to listen.

My first introduction to this particular phrase came through Bill Cosby.  I can't find the skit or a transcription online, but he talked about different people at parties.  He mentioned a British person that would always say, "hear, hear!" and then he wouldn't say anything.  What was I supposed to hear?

So, there you have it.  If you agree with this, you now know how to properly respond.

Last week I spent a few days on the Green River with my son. (And with a few other people... It was the "high adventure" trip for the Varsity Scouts in my Ward.)

It was a REALLY fun trip.  We put in at the State Park in Green River City and we got out at Mineral Bottom.

The river was running high and fast.  There were times when the current approached 6 miles per hour.  Rowing really hard in still water, we might have been able to do 5 miles per hour, so if we needed to, we MIGHT be able to stay still in the water if we worked really hard at it.

We had to take everything we needed with us.  All of our food, all of our water, all of our belongings for the week were tied into our canoes.  We had a thorough check by "Ranger Fife" at the boat ramp at the state park.  He made sure we had all of the required items--extra paddles, life jackets in good repair, a method of packing out our waste (That's another blog entry altogether that you don't want to read, so I won't write it.), whistles, throwable floatation devices, and a lot more.

All-in-all, we had a fantastic time.  We camped wherever we could get out of the river.  That was sometimes difficult because most of the beaches that are available later in the year were under water due to an unusually high spring runoff.  Some fished, some played in the water where it was safer up side channels, we hiked to a point where we could see the river on both sides of us.  Nobody really got a sunburn.  There was very little bickering between the Varsity scouts.  We didn't tip over a single canoe.  We only had to fight mosquitoes on the last night of the trip.

We came out of the river 58 miles downstream, dirty and windblown, but very happy.  I hope I get the opportunity to do it again with my younger son in a couple of years.

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I've only ever lost a significant amount of weight by ignoring what they say.

I'm on the obese side of fat these days. My excuses consist mostly of health and injury stories. I tore a tendon in my elbow more than a year ago and I haven't been able to do the two things I enjoy most that keep me from getting fatter: cycling and racquetball. Racquetball may be out of my life forever now. I'm pretty sad about that. Cycling is fortunately back in. I now have the strength in my right hand to actually brake, so I have less fear in riding all over the place.

My other excuse is that food just tastes do darned good and I'm too darned good at cooking delicious things. I know I've been eating way too much and what I've been eating isn't really that good for me.

So now I've decided to try again to eat a little less and move a little more. I've actually been riding my spinning bike at home somewhat regularly for a couple of months now and I've been trying to cut back on how much stuff I shove into my face. Nothing. No results. I've been weighing in about the same since I started that.

Since I know my own body better than "they" do (you know, the ones that say that breakfast is the most important meal), I've decided to skip breakfast every day until I have dropped the 50 lbs of fat that are making me obese and unhealthy.

Go ahead. Cite studies if you will. I know me better than those studies. Tell me that I'm stupid, but not all of the 50 lbs of disgusting fat is inside my head. Tell me that what I'm doing isn't right, and I'll tell you to mind your own business.

Most of the people that tell me those kinds of things are skinny people that have no idea what fat people like me deal with on a regular basis. Most of them have been cursed with such things as high metabolisms or small appetites or some combination of the two. Most of them probably have the willpower to exercise every day of their lives, or they have some sort of compulsion to do so that I just haven't found in my life, even though I have tried. If you're not a fat person, I really don't think you understand what it's like and what we go through. You may have found that breakfast is the most important meal of the day FOR YOU. You may know what works for you, and that's great.

I know what works for me. I've already shed about 6% of the weight I want to get rid of in a week.

I don't think I'm ready for this. My older son turned 16 years old today. I took him to the Driver License Division this morning where he received his driver license. It's crazy.

It doesn't seem like it could possibly be 16 years ago that he came into our lives. At the time he was born, we were living in a tiny 20-foot by 24-foot apartment in south Orem. I was working at Jones Paint & Glass in Provo, cutting vinyl pieces used for window frames. I would come home every day covered in what looked quite a bit like snowflakes.

We had an appointment to go to Payson Community Hospital the evening before my son was born. I remember getting ready to go to the hospital. I was taking a shower and I remember thinking that my life was about to change forever. Never again would I not be a parent. I remember being excited to meet my first child.

A storm came through the valley and the low pressure threw a bunch of women into labor. My wife and I ended up waiting quite a while, because women in labor obviously come at a higher priority than women whose laber is supposed to be induced. It was pretty late at night when we were finally brought to a labor/delivery room and the process began.

Older son was finally born at 9:32 the next morning. I didn't have a clue then how much he would change my life. I probably still don't have any idea.

Today he can drive without having a parent in the car. I'm certain he's been plotting and planning his first date. I remember how old and grown-up I felt when I received my Driver License. Did I look as young as he does to me? Probably more so--I was only 15 at the time.

Happy Birthday, older son! I'm excited for the years ahead. I'm proud of you for who you are and who you are continuing to become.

I'm posting this from my new iPad. So far, I really REALLY like it. It's an incredibly fun new toy. I don't know that it would ever replace a laptop for me, but WOW! It's a solid little device for a first generation thing.

Go get one yourself:

Zagg iPad Giveaway

From Wikipedia:

Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink.

Although the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, foodies differ from gourmets in that gourmets are epicures of refined taste who may or may not be professionals in the food industry, whereas foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news. Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food. For this reason, foodies are sometimes viewed as obsessively interested in all things culinary. There is also a general feeling in the culinary industry that the term gourmet is outdated. "Foodie-ism" is a modern, popular way of engaging food culture for the general population.

I love working here already.

So far it has been much less stressful than my former job.  This is most likely due to the fact that I don't have the weight of all of the responsibilities I had in my former job.  It took most of two weeks working full-time to try to document just the parts of my job that nobody else knew much about.  Honestly, I heaved a big sigh of relief when I walked out of Symantec on the 16th.

Of course, one of my former team members contacted me twice last week for help.  Fortunately, both times I was able to send back a quick email that seemed to help him find the problem.  So far so good this week--he has been silent.

So here are the things I like so far about my new job:

• During my orientation, I got paid to watch a video of Gordon B. Hinckley talking about his 70+ years of employment by the LDS Church.  Neat!
• Monday mornings start with a devotional.
• Team meetings begin with prayer.
• I'm working on a pretty exciting project.
• I work with some pretty fantastic people.
• It seems as if every time I get up from my desk, I run into someone else I know from Symantec, from my Ward, from other previous jobs, or even from theater.

Sure, I've only been here a handful of days, and I know that as I have more responsibilities here, I'll have more stress, but so far, I'm loving it.

Things that I don't really like about my new job:

• The commute

And really, the commute isn't that bad.  It's something that I can certainly handle long-term.  I'm still getting used to it.  Hopefully, I'll join a carpool for the summer.

So... was the a good decision for me?  No question!

Disclaimer – The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.