Ding Dong bin Laden's Dead!

Just a little diddy I modified from a familiar classic. I think the mood of this piece fits the general mood of all who are enemies of hate and terror, and all who love peace and justice, because after nearly 10 years of hateful acts of violence and terror preying on the weak or unsuspecting, the "wicked" Osama bin Laden is dead.

Bet he didn't think we'd pursue him this tirelessly and this doggedly. I bet he thought he was getting away with something; but really, all it got him was a life of fearful hiding and at last a swift bullet in the head, courtesy of Jack Bauer, a.k.a. the US NAVY Seals who courageously and expertly executed a well-planned operation.

God bless the USA!

Hope you enjoy it...

Americans (and all freedom-lovers)
Ding Dong! Bin Laden's dead. Which bin Laden? Osama bin Laden!
Ding Dong! The Wicked bin Laden's dead.
Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, Osama bin Laden's dead.
He's gone where the villains go,
Below - below - below, Yo-ho
Let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know
Osama bin Laden's dead!

President
As Leader of America, In the Country of the Land of The Free,
I welcome you most regally.

Attourney
But we've got to verify it legally, to see

President
To see?

Attourney
If he

President
If he?

Attourney
Is morally, ethic'lly

Father No.1
Spiritually, physically

Father No. 2
Positively, absolutely

Americans
Undeniably and reliably Dead

Coroner
As Coroner I must aver,
I thoroughly examined the monster.
And he's not only merely dead,
he's really most sincerely dead.

President
Then this is a day of Independence
For all Americans and their descendants
Yes, let the joyous news be spread
The wicked Old bin Landen at last is dead!

I am ashamed :..(

Recently, Jen and I have been spending a lot of money on stuff that's unavoidable (e.g. air-fare to siblings weddings, car payments, 6-month insurance premium, and so on... OUCH!). So I looked at our moneys and noticed I/we spent quite a bit on eating out, even just for a quick lunch by myself (despicable, I know). I decided that for one solid month I was going to go cold-turkey on eating out, with the exception of the weekly date, but that would NOT be spent on fast food but on good-tasting food. Because food should taste good. Am I right? Or am I right?

Anyway, we have been doing so good and I have been able to completely avoid eating out and we have gone on a dinner date a week for the past 3 weeks. Jen and I have been eating our own food bought from the grocery store, prepared in our own home, and it has been so delicious! Jen is such a good cook and home-made food is ABSOLUTELY the better way to go (for the record, I have always known this, but sometimes convenience governs the situation where you have to rush out the door and you don't have time to make a lunch). Here's a sample of our St. Patty's Day dinner from last night. Wish you could taste the corned beef through the blog... So tasty and yet so lean!

Such a colorfully festive meal!

...Jen insisted to take my picture as well

Today, however, I broke down and broke my perfect streak of no fast food. I bought Taco Bell at the CougarEat because I was famished and was planning on staying on campus for a while longer to work on my Masters project. And what I'm most disappointed in was not my failure to stick to my morals, but the food. I haven't had fast food in so long that I have been spoiled by the deliciousness of Jen's cooking. And so, when I ate my grilled-stuffed burro, which I know I used to like, I thought to myself, "this must be what they mean when they call is 'Taco Hell'"! So disgusting... I threw it away.

Jen, I will never cheat on your cooking again. My stomach will be ever-faithful to you.

Moral of the story:

Why cheat when what you have at home is far better than anything else you can possibly find outside of it?

Happy Fat Tuesday and I Love My Sister!

First of all,

Happy Fat Tuesday!

I would really like to go to the French Quarter in New Orleans in the Carnival season some year. How fun that would be! (I hear that there are "family-friendly" parts of the parades, so I wouldn't be too worried as long as Jen was with me!) Really, I'd just love to go there any time of year. But check out how cute my niece and nephew are! I laughed out loud when I opened my email from my sister Michelle; and no one was even around so I had to share this picture. They're in Mardi Gras masks they made! My favorite is Russ' expression.


Secondly, I love my sister Annie! She's getting married in just 18 days to Awesome Kenny and I couldn't be more happy for them both. Annie just went through the temple recently and had her bridals taken as well. Here is just a sampling for your viewing pleasure.


Isn't she gorgeous!?! For serious.

Also, I obviously love her because I'm missing this to go to the wedding:

I got this special invitation through my civil engineering class to personally come view the placing of the longest bridge moved using Self Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) in the western hemisphere! Cool right! Yeah, let me just admit what I know you're probably thinking right now... Nerd... Yep, it's true. I just love this stuff. In fact, I wish Jen was driving every time we pass a construction site because I want to slow down and take a good look at what's being built.

Really, it doesn't even compare to witnessing my sister's wedding, but it just goes to show either (a) how much I love my sister by what I would give up to come, or (b) how much of a nerd I am (or the obvious (c) which is both).

What can I even do?

What on earth is a guy to do when I'm here in the computer lab and someone across from me has his head phones in his ear while apparently doing his homework and is singing along to who-knows-what-song(!?!) because whatever he is singing more than likely does not even remotely resemble what he is listening to.

In fact, I have no idea if he even knows that he's singing at all.

It sounds like an even more whispy and airy version of radiohead because he's singing under his breath, but it's somehow higher than falsetto. Whatever the 'h' it is, it's annoying the 'h' out of me!

I plead with you all, if you EVER hear me singing like that in public, please please please throw something at me to at least make me aware that I sound like a dying fairy. I would then stop singing immediately before I continue to make a fool of myself and annoy everyone within earshot of my faint whispery voice.

...the way commercials should be

I feel like a fat kid on free dessert day when I watch this commercial! (for the record, in case that's offensive to you, I'm actually talking about myself)

Just a sampling of some commercials I like from this years superbowl... Enjoy!

Could I be dreaming?

I have a confession: sometimes I wake up in the night in a panic because in my sub-conscious mind's eye I have a horrifying recurring thought/fear that...

(pause for dramatic effect)

MARRYING JEN WAS JUST A DREAM!

(you may gasp out of terror now)

...That the beautifully pivotal day last June was just imagined and that I am just kidding myself that I could ever get such a wonderful woman to marry me! (Seriously, what an incredibly awesome best friend to have, with whom I get to spend almost every day)! I'm so grateful for her and I love her so much! Let me count the ways...


I don't know another person who knows how to live life as fully and as richly as she. She loves it. I will probably never understand her ways or be able to duplicate her methods. But she does her own thing, and I love it, and I love being with her when she's doing it.


Jen loves good food. A true foodie. I'm so glad we have that in common! She's so happy and good and true. She loves with her whole heart and it's such a good heart. So pure. She is passionate and dedicated and consistent. Count on her to do what she sets out to do. And you can take that to the bank.


She is gorgeous. It's hard to believe sometimes that such a dame would ever consent to be seen with a nerd like me, let alone MARRY HIM! I'll let the picture do the talking on this one.



This was my first impression from over two years ago of who would eventually become my wife. What a babe! And to top it all off, as much as I love her, she loves me too! What a Valentine's Day miracle! Happy Valentine's Day, Baby!

"Lazy Sunday"

Here's just a little Sunday "joy" for you. A little Andy Samberg goes a long way.
True that. Double True!

Gold Nugget of Wisdom... SONG!

I heard this song on the radio today and kept listening because of how different it is from the same 14 songs I hear every time I turn that thing on. I'm glad I did. It turns out it's a speech from some graduation in '99 put to a beat and some tunes (the tunes aren't too bad, but not nearly as good as some of the advice!)

No, it's not too long and yes, it's totally worth listening to. Trust me.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Do all star wars nerds love Volkswagens?

.....'Cuz this one sure does!

How did they know?

Well anyways, this nerd also LOVES this commercial!

"You Got Jimmered!"

This was the taunt the cougar-faithful were chanting to the SDSU Aztecs by the end of a gloriously exciting and also nerve-wracking adventure at the Marriott Center tonight in what many in college basketball were saying was purported to be the biggest game of the season in the nation up to this point. Two top-10 teams, hacking it out for the number-1 spot in the conference. And I was lucky enough to actually be in attendance at this blessed event! I'm SO lucky, and SO blessed! So I thought I'd blog about the experience. Also, I'm seriously high as a kite right now from the win and I need an outlet for my excitment. I'm looking online to see what is being said about BYU and by who because I'm just reveling in the glory of the moment. I have to admit I get a little depressed when my team lets me down, but when they win, oooh buddy! I win too! I'm just so proud of my boys-in-blue and so proud to be a Cougar myself. Blogging about it will either calm me down so I can get to bed, or it will just stir me up again and I'll be wasted tomorrow. So I guess we'll see what happens...

Here's a re-hash of the events of the evening:

First half: Daniel almost poops his pants and half of his nails are bitten off from elevated anxiety levels on account of the game being so evenly matched. A very low-scoring, very defense-driven game. Jimmer worked well with the double-team by dishing it off to teammates who were equal to the task of sharing the load. The refs let the guys play by not calling a lot of ticky-tack fouls and calling it pretty evenly on both sides... at least for the first half. The Aztecs definitely threw the Cougars off their normal game plan, forcing us to slow the pace and playing just as good defense as we did offense. And even though they kept us from playing our usual fast-paced score-on-you-when-you-blink can't-stop-Jimmer-any-better-than-a-freight-train style, we were doing a great job keeping it close. Jimmer ended the half with 20 points. Not too shabby. Not at all.

Second half: The Cougars come out running, but so do the Aztecs. When we started to pull ahead they would put a stop to it and come back again. In fact, I read on espn.com that there were 15 lead changes throughout the game. Then there were the refs. There were multiple blatant fouls committed by the Aztecs that otherwise would have led to probably 20 points from the free-throw line. But the Mountain West, it seems, has it out for the people in Provo. They would allow gross fouls when we had the ball on one end, then call the most controversial fouls on the other end against us. Not equally called. It was a very good thing I wasn't within 15 rows of the court because I definitely had a moment of rage when I was screaming myself hoarse and, given the chance, quite possibly may have aimed a full water bottle at the head of one of the officials. This continued until about the last 2 minutes when we pulled ahead by 6, at which point my heart rate started to slow down a little. SDSU made a few critical errors... like fouling Jimmer Fredette, who, as we all know, MAKES. EVERY. FREE-THROW.

By the time we closed out the game with a 13 point victory I was able to just soak in the moment. My first game attended at the Marriott Center this season was not a disappointment, but an incredible triumph. My team did it. Despite having played a very intense, very physical, and not to mention very lop-sidedly called game, my boys-in-blue came out on top and we all walked out the building with our heads held high.

What's that you ask? Was it worth the slight tickle in my throat that will more than likely lead to no voice at all tomorrow? Most definitely.

Here are a few facts for you on the game tonight:

• BYU came into the game No. 9
• SDSU came in No. 4
• Mountain West conference has never had 2 top-1o teams
  
• Sold-out crowd of over 22,700 fans
• There were more blocks (5) than fouls (3) in the first 14 minutes of play
• Jimmer ended up with 43 points on the night
  
• The rematch in San Diego is already sold out

And last, but not least, my favorite factoid comes from a man named Kevin Durant. Ever heard of him? Yeah, leading scorer in the NBA right now. Tonight KD tweeted, and I quote, "Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world!!"

'Nuff said, I think.

I love being a Cougar!!!

Well, I guess the verdict is I think blogging about all of this has gotten me re-psyched out again, but I think I'm so tuckered out from all the excitement, I just might actually get some sleep tonight.

Powerhouse Quote

Teddy Roosevelt was an alright guy.
This powerhouse quote of his is an example why...

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

3 year old Star Wars fan!

Start 'em young on Star Wars, that's what I always say.

Annie Bananie, Fee-Fie-Foh-Fannie!

Sometimes you just realize how awesome your sister is. This is one of those times...

My sister, Angela Banangela Mooney, is one of the most genuinely decent people I know. And it just so happens that she is one of the people whom I know best. We seriously did everything together, from toilet papering our friends' houses to going to seminary everyday at 5:30 in the morning. We even did most of college together. She has been one of my seriously top best friends through the years.

However, we haven't always been allies. We used to be as competitive as brother and sister can be. For example, despite the fact that I'm a whole 2 years and 2.65 months older than her, she may or may not have been taller than me for about 2.65 years in the junior high era. I would then beat her at sports, just to prove my dominance. She would then kick my butt in summer reading because I would spend my time trying to get better at sports. I would then play tricks on her like get her to drink the rest of my Sprite, which actually had milk in it. She then would snobbishly try to get grown-ups to guess which of us was older (I hated family pictures for that reason - I resented having to stand on the box). We even made it a contest who would lost all their baby teeth first and she lost a bunch of her teeth and was ahead of me for some time. I then made a come-back and pulled a few of my own just to beat her.

Then, a year ago, she had to be a big smarty-pants and finish her masters degree 2 years before me. And to add insult to injury, she had to move home to Arizona. And that was the first time in my college career that I didn't have my Annie at least just a couple blocks away. It's like they say, you don't know what you got till it's gone.

Love you sister. Miss you. Miss hanging out. Miss you cooking dinner and me coming over to eat it. And in return, I would let you enjoy my company. I would also let you murder me in speed scrabble... I'm such a nice brother, I know. I miss playing soccer with you and trying to one-up you. Sometimes you would nutmeg me because I was being nice and let you make me look foolish... See? I've gotten so much mature'er in my older years.

I realize now what I then had: a phenomenal sister who is so nice, so fun-loving, and such a good listener. I'm just glad you're my sister and I'll love you forever.

Love,

This guy

We're probably trying to see who could make the silliest face. And of course I'm better at it!

Happy Birthday Annie

An Update In My World of Sports

To the Texas Rangers, regarding the outcome of the ALCS game 3...

At least someone can stick it to the Yankees at home: Rangers 8, Yanks 0.

Cliff Lee, you're the man. Almost single handedly shut down the "Damn Yankee's" usually explosive offense, keeping them to 2 hits and no runs. A near perfect performance. Go Rangers! In fact, Go whoever is playing those pin-striped pin-heads!



To my boys in blue, BYU Cougar Football, regarding the TCU game last Saturday...

I have no comment other than I am embarrassed and my only consolation is that we stopped their shut-out streak.

Oh and at least our colors aren't Purple! Seriously. At the end of the day, I'm glad I don't have to wear purple to show my school spirit. 'Nuf said.



To the Phoenix Suns, regarding their performance in the preseason...

You have lost 5 of 6 preseason games. I hope you guys are faking us all out because you better pick it up and stop playing like a bunch of nanny goats for the regular season. Opening day is only a week away!

Pure Priceless Pandemonium

Two Scarfs............................................. 2 Dollars
One Pair of Sunglasses.......................... 3 Dollars
A Water Bottle....................................... 1 Dollar
Wasting 2 hours of a Saturday morning, crowded around hundreds of bargain-hungry savages............................... Totally worth it! (You thought I was going to say "Priceless.")

So I went to the BYU Lost & Found sale yesterday morning. That's when they take all the stuff that's been turned in to Lost & Found over the past year that hasn't been claimed and put it out on a bunch of tables for the freak-fest that is this sale. They must have a TON of stuff that gets turned in to L&F because all the stuff that's not claimed amounts to what merits hundreds crazed Mormons and lunatics turning out to the event like it's Christmas eve and no on has done their Christmas shopping.

I got there about 15 minutes before they opened the doors and I had to stand in the back of a line that had to consist of at least 4 hundred people already in front of me. People must have been queuing for several hours. I thought to myself, "how ironic... we Mormons sometimes can't show up to church on time, but somehow a few of us manage to show up to the L&F sale 2 hours early!"

Actually, the crowd mostly consisted of poor freshmen and young students who all understand this well-known secret for what it's worth: really REALLY cheap stuff, and some of it can actually be worth your time. It's just that there were so many people there that I was very unproductive. What I needed was a team to organize and to spread out to find all the good stuff before it's sifted through by dozens of others.

Alas, I didn't have access to such a team, and I ended up just observing the craziness of the moment. Picture this:

• Middle-aged mothers bumping into you, and not apologizing, or saying anything for that matter, because they're too distracted with searching through the rubble of sale items.

• People literally RUNNING to get into the sale. Like all the good stuff will have gone if they just walked in. (And by the way, they handed out "Rules" for the L&F sale on a little sheet of paper while standing in line before it started, and Rule #6 was "No Running!")

• A young man (likely a freshman) walking around with at least 5 calculators in his hands, apparently so excited that he could hardly contain his glee. (A site like this is particularly embarassing to me because he's probably going to end up studying engineering for the rest of his college experience, and it's kids like that who give us engineers such a bad rap... some of us are actually normal human beings.)
  

• B.O.

• Unattended little kids kicking soccer balls around or riding around on scooters that are for sale.

• An auction is held in the midst of it all for all the more valuable items, such as cameras and ipods. One such item was an 8 Gigabyte 2nd generation ipod touch that went for $95, even though the auctioneer prefaced the sale of this item by saying that it was going for $70 on ebay!

Needless to say, I was amused by all of the demonstrations of interesting human behavior, of which I must admit I was a part. Although I do have to say I did feel a little like I always feel whenever I'm at D.I.... just a little gross because I'm sifting through a bunch of other peoples' used, and probably dirty, stuff.

All in all, I recommend this sale to all of you who, like me, are in love with a good bargain. And bring a friend because it's fun to observe and make fun of all the crazies.

The end.

History Montage of Rap

One word: Amazing.

OMG, Ichiro Just Punched Me!

I saw this on ESPN today and it was too funny not to share! Ichiro Suzuki is just doing his job and insidentally smacks a fan in the face and she is beside herself with glee. You just have to watch...


Fan Loves Ichiro - Watch more Funny Videos

Culture, Morality & Patriotism - Happy Fourth!

I love my country. Pretty much the opposite of what Jen recently termed "Sacra-country-otic." In fact, I recently got all choked up when I witnessed Carrie Underwood perform The Star Spangled Banner at Stadium of Fire... a little embarrassing, yes. Point is, I'm proud to be an American, where we can worship God and live life according to the dictates of our own consciences, and not by the maniacal whims of some power-mongering dictator or corrupt system of government. We live in a society that chooses to remember the sacrifices of its forefathers by annually celebrating the nation's independence. This, I believe, is essential to our nation's success in the future: the persistence to remember the past and live life according to the morals and principles upon which this country was established.

We are free so long as we are a moral people. We will be that "city on a hill" so long as we seek life, liberty and happiness, for ourselves and our neighbors: domestic and foreign. We will have endless opportunities while we choose to be an honest and hard-working people. Sadly, we have lost sight of that recently with the poor choices that have plagued our economy: laziness, greed, selfishness, entitlement and pride.

Let's get back to what makes America great! Our industry, our tolerance, our loyalty to virtue: honesty, truth, chastity, benevolence, temperance, justice, understanding. As the great patriot Edmund Burke put it, "It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."

My mom posted this on Facebook for me and because I'm such a cool Muppet nerd like that, I'm posting it on my blog too! Even the Muppets get what it means to be American.

Enjoy...

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

You gotta check this out. Stars of the Harry Potter cast came to get a sneak peak at the Universal Orlando Resort of the new Harry Potter park! I'm so excited to go there in a month and totally binge on my nerdy craze!

Live like we're dying!

I had an experience last week that I want to share with you.

As I was driving to work one morning, the radio told about a crash ahead and slow traffic that ensued on a particular stretch of the freeway. Sure enough, when I crept up to the accident I saw one of the cars that was involved and I was horrified! The SUV looked like it was torn up from the inside out! I was so sad, and honestly not very surprised to find out on the radio that at least 2 people had been killed in the accident and a couple others were in critical condition.

And that's the reason why when I heard this song shortly thereafter, I got all emotional. What if a plane crashed into your office building and you had time for one phone call or maybe even none at all? Would you be able to say that you've expressed enough love to the people/person who mean the most to you? That's why we gotta live like we're dying. No regrets. If you have some love to give, why hold back? Give it now! Say it now!

That's why the following lyrics mean so much. So listen to the music video while you follow along and think about the words (honestly, I'm starting to get sick of hearing it on the radio, but the message is clear and beautiful). Please enjoy!

Sometimes we fall down, can't get back up.
We're hiding behind skin that's too tough.
How come we don't say I love you enough
Till it's to late? It's not too late.

Our hearts are hungry for a food that won't come,
And we could make a feast from these crumbs;
And we're all staring down the barrel of a gun.
So if your life flashed before you,
What would you wish you would've done?

Yeah, we gotta start
Looking at the hands of the time we've been given.
If this is all we got then we gotta start thinking
If every second counts on a clock that's ticking
Gotta live like we're dying.

We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or to throw it all away.
We gotta tell them that we love them
While we got the chance to say.
Gotta live like we're dying.

And if your plane fell out of the skies
Who would you call with your last goodbye?
Should be so careful who we leave out of our lives
So when we long for absolution,
There will be no one on the line, yeah.

You never know a good thing till it's gone.
You never see a crash till it's head on.
Why do we think we're right when we're dead wrong?
You never know a good thing till it's gone.

Yeah, we gotta start
Looking at the hands of the time we've been given.
If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking
If every second counts on a clock that's ticking
Gotta live like we're dying.

We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or to throw it all away.
We gotta tell them that we love them
While we got the chance to say.
Gotta live like we're dying.