I would like to congratulate myself on officially becoming an elitist. I volunteered for write an opinion column for the TCU Daily Skiff, which is the school newspaper at Texas Christian. I've been known to have an opinion from time to time, so I thought I might make a good match for the position. I should be contributing one every week or so. So, if you're interested, I will keep a link in our blogroll, and you can check. Otherwise, you've probably heard the last of this column. I would like to add, that I did not provide the title found online.

In order to pay my tuition at school, I work as an associate editor for Descant, which is the department's creative writing journal. My duties are to do some clerical stuff, but the bulk of my time is reading short stories and telling the editor which ones I find worthy of his more discerning eyes. I really enjoy and am very glad for the experience. Today, when I went to work at Descant, I managed to get some pictures of the area around the University Union. I will get some pictures of the other half of campus next week. I am down that way during classes.

Here is the Union from outside the courtyard. This will make sense in a few pictures.



This is looking from the Union to the football stadium.


Looking from the Union across the courtyard. The far building houses the English Department, my home away from home. They are building a new academic building between the fountain and the building I just pointed out.


The courtyard from the fountain, looking at the Union. The building to either side are dorms. This is the heart of campus. It is very nice and very well planned.



This is just outside the building where the English Department is. Notice the jumbo Horned Frog.



Here is the lawn near my building. Perhaps this is one picture too many.

Sorry, all, for being neglectful. School has started and it has kept me exceedingly busy. I am now in my third week at TCU. I do enjoy it. Having come from a public school, I've noticed a few things different about going to a private school.

1. Everything is for sale at TCU. Even the hallways are named after wealthy donors. I believe, for about ten grand, you can get a placard with your name on it fixed above a urinal.

2. More flowers. The blooms follow the bucks.

3. The profanity on the men's room stalls is less frequent and less severe.

4. About $20,000 a year.

Those are about all the differences I can name off the top of my head. I will post soon with pictures of TCU (which is beautiful, I must add). I also have some great video of Salem dancing, which I predict you're going to enjoy. So check back soon. I promise I won't continue to neglect.

Seattle and Phoenix- Girls Weekend!

Salem and I had an excellent weekend in Seattle. Although Salem screamed and didn't sleep much I did enjoy finally meeting friends from my childhood. My parents moved to California and joined the Air Force when I was a baby.There they met Allison and her family. Christie (her daughter) is 2 years older than me and lives here in Fort Worth. Her wedding was this weekend in Seattle. Salem and I flew to Phoenix picked up my mom and off we went to Seattle. Allison lives about 30 minutes from Seattle in Bonney Lake. (Pictures Below) It was wonderful to finally meet her family, visit the temple, and enjoy the beautiful weather. Next time Salem is staying home! Thanks Mom for taking us:)

Lift Off


We stopped in Phoenix to pick up Mom. Ashley joined us for dinner

Lauren and Katie also joined us for dinner

How could Salem be afraid of this face?

SEATTLE

The view from Allison's Home- She lives in Bonney Lake but lives on Mary Jane Lake. Mount Rainier is in the distance

Salem- A Rare happy moment with her new friend Kaylee

Salem and Kaaryn enjoy getting their toes done


Christie and Allison- Bridal Shower

Seattle Temple- Although the temple was beautiful I enjoyed the grounds. I believe in this picture the temple is undergoing repairs. Congrats Christie!

Since Kaaryn and Salem are out of town, I thought I'd take the opportunity to get to the Dallas Temple. It's about an hour drive from our house, so it takes quite a bit more planning than it did when we lived 15 minutes from the Mesa Temple. Anyone unfamiliar with Temples can get more info here.

This makes the 7th Temple I've seen. They are, in chronological order:

Mesa, AZ. I took this one on my cell phone. It didn't turn out too badly.




Snowflake, AZ. This is the only of these pictures that wasn't either taken by me or someone with me at the time.



San Diego, CA. This is where Kaaryn and I were sealed.



Nauvoo, IL. This is probably my favorite one. At least tied with San Diego. My Mom took this from a wagon ride down from where the living history area is. This is how the Temple would have appeared to those who lived in Nauvoo. It's actually quite large.



As you can see here.


Los Angeles, CA. Easily the largest Temple I've ever seen. It's massive.




Manhattann NY.

It doesn't look like a temple from the street. I enquired within, and, sure enough, it is the House of the Lord. I went with my Mom. When we left, some dude heckled us. Welcome to New York.



Dallas, TX. I will post a bunch of pictures of this one. This is from my first trip a while ago.

Double Post!

To begin this double post, allow me to clarify one thing: When I say that TV sucks, I don't mean that all TV sucks, just 99.9% of it. Take, for instance, the ample amount of quality football that can be found on TV. I love football, especially when it's on TV, and even more so when I can receive broadcasts of my favorite games in the comfort of my own home, where I don't have to listen to the incessant boobery of foulmouthed, tipsy, fat guys (Rush Limbaugh doesn't do sports, otherwise I would).

Beyond football, there is another thing I have been known to enjoy on occasion: 30 Days. This is a show from the guy who made the documentary Supersize Me, which I also recommend (especially for you, Limbaugh). The show works the same as the movie: someone who is usually an activist, or the host himself, is put into a situation with which they ardently disagree, for 30 days. They usually do really hotbutton issues like gun control, homosexuality, animal rights, there was one episode where the mother of a girl who attends ASU went on a 30 day drinking binge to try to get her daughter to stop drinking (completely serious here, it's all online). The drinking one was acually quite moving, seriously. However, they aren't always hot topics: in one, a former NFL player confines himself to a wheelchair for 30 days; the host spends 30 days working as a coal miner. You get the gist. In all, though, this show will get you going at times, and always give you much to talk about. They usually begin 2 hour conversations with Kaaryn and I. But, like any good art, it will teach you more about yourself than the people in the show.

The shows are all available online for free at hulu.com. Here is a link.

http://www.hulu.com/30-days

One thing. On hulu, it frequently says they have mature content and require a password. I've yet to come across any mature content, but I haven't seen them all. I would definitely call this family entertainment. But watch out, I guess.

Here's one of my favorite episodes. Use the link above and you can do a full-screen viewing.




Last week, Salem and I got to go on Daddy-Daughter date. We went to the Duck Pond at Trinity Park. She was very well behaved and a lot of fun. Enjoy some pictures.

There was a particularly handsome man behind the camera.


I kept trying to take pictures of the ducks, but Salem wouldn't get out of the way.


"Anyone got some milk I can throw at that baby?"


(Insert joke about nuts here)


We've started lectures on sucker theory. You can see she still has a ways to go.

If you know me, you know I read a lot. Here is my reading list this summer:

Radicals, Rhetoric, and the War--Brad Lucas
The Road--Cormac McCarthy
The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career
Bird by Bird--Anne Lamott
The MLA Guide to Academic Writing
Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent--Wayne Boothe
Rhetorical Power--Steven Mailloux
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Orientalism--Edward Said
The Revolution: A Manifesto--Ron Paul
The Essential Foucault 1954-1984

In addition to books, I read a lot of periodicals and websites. I subscribe to the following: Newsweek (with which, I might add, I am very unimpressed), Home Theater, Sound and Vision, ESPN the Magazine, The Ensign. I don't read these in their entirety. I also read at least one article a day from my favorite websites: ESPN.com, nytimes.com, latimes.com, washingtonpost.com, star-telegram.com (local FT Worth paper), dallasnews.com, digg.com, time.com, hnn.us (the History News Network, I highly recommend it). Plus all of your wonderful blogs.

Why do I list this? For fun. But also, I want you to know that I read a lot, so that you when I say that I read something singularly brilliant, you believe that I have things to which I might compare it.

You might have noticed a book in the list: Orientalism, by Edward Said. I am giving this book my fullest endorsement. I have not read a work this insightful and intelligent in some time. What is this book about? That is a tricky question. This book is not a history of the middle east. This book is a history of western discourse about the middle east. There really is a huge difference. This guy is looking at the way that Europeans and Americans have studied the middle east.

Until you read this book, you cannot understand Occidental foreign policy. You cannot understand relations between the middle east and Western culture, to put it another way. But, beyond the specifics of middle eastern/western relations, this book will show how entire fields of knowledge are established and entrenched and how difficult it is to break out of these discourses. Said is using a lot of Foucault's theories, so if you want more, read the Foucault collection I listed above as well.

Read this book! You will not be sorry you did. It is tough reading, but you will have much to think and talk about afterward. It is still in print. It has been translated into 25 languages. It's that good. Read it! . . . Now!

Dooooo you. . .do. . . eeeeeeaat like I do?

I don't mind telling you that I know my way around a kitchen. I thought I would make a post about some of my favorite thing to eat, which, unfortunately, means I have to cook them first. I'll waste no time.

First thing: throw out your vegetable oil, or, (shudder), canola oil. I only cook with olive oil and I will never go back. It tastes better and is better for you.

I have also been not buying flour. I have a wheat grinder (courtesy of Mom) and I grind whole wheat to make flour. It might not be quite what your used to eating, but it's cheaper and, again, better for you. I have grown to prefer this over white flour. If you're interested in red wheat, you can email my good friend Ryan Fernandez and he will fill you in on the gastrointestinal effects, as he so kindly did for Kaaryn and me.

But enough of this, on to recipes.

I will start with the most simple. There is a certain brand of pancake mix that puts all others to shame. I owe this one to Ryan and Teresa Fernandez. I used to home teach the Fernandi. During one visit Teresa told us about this mix and excitedly sent us home with a box of our own. I have since sent a few boxes home with people myself. That's how good this pancake mix is, it turns you into a crack dealer. "Hey kid, how would you like to fly . . . lumberjack style?" That's how good this mix is. As far as we can tell, it is only available at Frye's stores, they call them Kroger here in Texas. It is called "Premium Quality: Private Selection Belgian Waffle and Pancake Mix." Look for it at your local Frye's/Kroger store. Kaaryn has never liked pancakes, she loves these. When you eat them, be sure you use real 100% maple syrup. We recently began using real maple. It is much tastier and is not just flavored corn syrup, which is what you're eating if it's not real maple.

There is a certain pizza dough that I make frequently. I got this recipe online, but I find the exact one lacking. I found this recipe because it was the first one that came up when I googled "pizza dough recipe." There is the link below. But I make the following change to this recipe: When at the stage when you have just added 1 cup flower and 1/4 cup olive oil, I like to add crushed red pepper, black pepper, minced garlic, and oregano (at least, Kaaryn tells me it's oregano.) Follow the instructions and take my additions and it makes one tasty dish. The recipe will make one extra large pizza or two big calzones.
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/breads/yeast/pizzadough.html

My most simple taco meat. This couldn't me much easier, but we enjoy it quite a bit. I will brown a pound of beef in El Pato. El Pato is a Mexican duck sauce. It runs about 60 cents for a small can. It comes in both green and red cans. I like them both. I put the El Pato in before I cook the beef, cook it in the beef, and then drain it all in a strainer. It leaves a terrible mess in your sink, but is very easy and very good. Look for El Pato in the Hispanic Food section at your local grocer. (Bonus: Put El Pato on a frozen pizza. I call it the heartburn special.)


For all of you out there that think you could never make some good kabobs, I say "Don't be so foolish." Kabobs are simple. Just get yourself some decent beef, some chicken, and some veggies, (I prefer peppers, onions, squash, and mushrooms), marinate that beef and chicken over night and cook it over some charcoal. You heard me, Hank, propane is void of flavor. It may be clean and efficient, but I like the smokey taste of carcinogens.

Also, never again should you have a boring burger. Don't use pre-made patties, unless you're already drunk. Start with thawed ground beef. Knead some seasoned salt, some pepper, and garlic if you please, into the meat. If you have the means and the taste, a couple tablespoons of your favorite marinade is very good as well. This is very simple, but adds worlds of goodness to your burger. Once again, make sure it's cooked over charcoal.

Kaaryn tells me that Navajo tacos are a Snowflake favorite. Start by making some sopapillas. (1 cup flower, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, pinch salt: cut 1 tablespoon butter into flower mix: add 1/3 cup warm water and knead: fry in oil.) (Recipe from Kaaryn's family cookbook). Then just add some Mexican meat (the El Pato beef works very well), some beans, cheese, and whatever else you might like. This, like all my recipes, is very easy.


That's all I feel like typing for now. Please, if you have a favorite thing to eat, and make, leave it in the comments for everyone. I am always looking for more things to try.

2750 South Hulen St., Fort Worth, Texas 76109
The Brimhalls recently paid us a visit. It was a pleasant trip. I think it reached its pinnacle when we all got to hear Shane perform his delightfully profane cover of Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of." It was also nice to have Jalan and Penny around to leap onto the grenade that is Salem's unquenchable need for attention. All kinds of fun things were done. And we have the pictures to prove it.

Jalan was nice enough to feed Salem. She was grateful.



Kaaryn and her family all visited the 6th floor museum. It is a museum in Dallas in the very room where "Oswald shot Kennedy." I put that in quotation marks because it has come to my attention that there is a certain kook conspiracy theory concerning the death of President Kennedy. Apparently this theory posits that Oswald was a disgruntled communist that acted completely alone in the assassination. Outlandish, I know. Thankfully nobody really believes it.

See the white "X" in the middle lane. That is where Kennedy was shot. Seriously, it's still there.


Here's the Texas Book Depository. It's just across the street from the Dallas Money Depository, which is what they call a bank here.


They built this monument for Kennedy. Evidently, Oswald has a monument in his honor at General Dynamics' Corporate Office in Falls Church, Virginia.



We also went to Six Flags, which is in Arlington, between Dallas and Fort Worth. Six Flags in right next to the Rangers ballpark and the new 1.2 billion dollar Cowboys stadium. It's really cool down there. It was a pretty hot day, but we all survived.

Believe it or not, Batman took this picture.


If anyone knows who's car this is, some idiot parked in my space.


It was really hot, I tells ya!


Bald people get thirsty too.


They had some good shows . . . no, wait. That was actually a gubernatorial debate.



We went and ate dinner in the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards District. The Stockyards District reminds me a lot of the old movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" excepts not quite as sophisticated.

This is a small, outdoor mall.


I went in to order a share of Google and they asked if I wanted t-bone or sirloin.


Jessica Simpson would be proud. Too bad she can't read the caption.


Somehow they knew I would be there. I felt very welcome.

The Great Circle of . . . Stuff.

Here is something we have enjoyed of late. Kaaryn notices a bird's nest a few weeks ago. There were eggs in it. I refused to count them so as to, once again, assure compliance with axiomatic knowledge. However, they hatched this week. Three birds. I named them after the three wise men: Larry, Moe, and Shemp. Enjoy the pictures.

Strait from the White House Lawn. . .


Luckily, I have a lot of experience creeping through bushes with a camera.


Call them chicks? You pig!


Unfortunately, I had just vomited all my food for Salem.