Another Reason Government is Less Effective

Living in DC this summer I learned a lot about how wasteful the federal government is. I also learned they are not very frugal, nor can they do things as effectively as private organizations. In the last month that I have lived in Idaho Falls, I have learned that this is the same case on the local level.

In Idaho it is cold. In Idaho is snows... a lot. When it snows, it tends to stick to the roads, and therefore, the city is in charge of making sure the roads are cleared so cars can drive on them. While the roads are always drivable, they are not always plowed, nor are they always free of snow.

In contrast, I have yet to go to a store's parking lot and find more than an inch of snow on the pavement. It seems that the roads are not cleared because the snow plows are busy plowing out parking lots. Well, why plow a parking lot if no one can drive on the roads to get to it!

I find it amazing how private companies can manage to always keep their parking lots clear of snow. Now, Idaho Falls is actually 100 times faster at plowing their streets than Provo, but not quite as good as a non-government institution. But until the day I die I don't think that will ever change.

I am most definitely not a communist.

My New Home, My New Job, My New Life...

On January 1st I moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho to begin my career as a TV reporter. Tomorrow will be my one month mark at my job at Local News 8. I can't believe it has already been a month. I still feel really new, but I also feel like I have learned a lot in the last month. Over the last 4 weeks I have interviewed a Haiti earthquake survivor, snow-shoed in the mountains to measure the snow pack, gone live with breaking news over a robbery, talked with a family grieving over the lost of a loved one and another family that lost all their earthly possessions after their house went up in flames.

I love my job! It can be really exciting, and yet kind of depressing at times, but it's worth the minimal pay. It is a very stressful job since I am working on deadline, but the need to cram everything into the day is like a drug. Working under pressure can be fun and gives me kind of an adrenaline rush. I have a long way to go and feel under-qualified at times, but I also know I am improving with each story I write.

To follow me and the stories I cover, click on the link below, or go to localnews8.com and type Brett in the search box.

Sold to the Higest Bider!

The beloved blazer a.k.a. The Great White is no longer with us. I sold it on KSL for $500 bucks. When I put it on KSL I received more than 10 phone calls in the first 24 hours from people wanting to know more about it. I think the reason I got so many calls was because I just wrote what the specs were instead of naming all the cars problems. The first day I had one guy come look at it, but he didn't offer me anything. Most of the people that called me also said they were going to come look at it but no one showed up. So when the guy who bought it offered me $500 (I asked $900 on KSL fully realizing I would probably only get about $500-600 for it.) the day before I moved, I took it! Funny side note, almost all the guys that called me had a Spanish accent, only an illegal would want that thing! From it's broken door to its lack of air conditioned air even its roaring like a lion will all NOT be missed. Because...



I got an upgrade! Obviously it cost a lot more than $500 but so far it has been worth every dime. This is not a picture of mine because the one I have is covered in snow and dirt but it looks like that. I was deciding between a Mazda 6 and this Nissan Altima but the Altima proved to be the better deal. It's nice having a car you can rely on.

A Christmas to Remember

Christmas 2009 had to be one of the best Christmas' I have ever had, and it wasn't because of anything I got. On the Monday before Christmas we headed up to Sun Valley, Idaho to our family's cabin and skied on Mount Baldy and hung out in the warm cabin. But Christmas proved to be a special day unlike every other day we were there. On Christmas Eve we had a lot of fun. Every year everyone in the family gets a new Christmas ornament to place on the tree. This Christmas we had a real tree for the first time since I was in elementary school and since we were on vacation and didn't bring all our ornaments we decorated it with popcorn, cranberries, and of course our new ornaments.




The kids kept wanted to play with them though...



My mom even read us (or rather recited to us) the Night before Christmas and she did it with motions.



Then we had a little nativity. As you can see the smallest of us, baby Nathan, played baby Jesus. My other two nephews and me were the wise men bringing the baby Jesus gifts. After the pictures we then went and watched Luke 2 and Alex liked it so much we wanted to watch it again!



Once all the festivities were over and the kids were all snug in their beds with sugar plums dancing in their heads the rest of us gathered around the warm fire while Santa got ready for the night. However before Santa came the lights went out...and they didn't come right back on. Power was cut for more than 16,000 people in the area. So we decided to all just go to bed. Well morning came and we were still in the dark. The kids woke up around 7 when it was still too dark to see anything Santa brought them. Eventually as the sun came up they saw some toys though. So once the sun came up we opened gifts and had a normal Christmas morning, but don't forget we all stayed around the fire because with it only being 2 degrees outside that was our only heat source. So our sticky buns and quiche we prepared to make the day before...didn't happen. We cooked scrambled eggs over the fire and used metal sticks to re-heat left over french toast from the day before.



Then the rest of the day was fun, we just hung out together, went sledding outside, played with the kids new toys and had a great time. It was kind of nice not to worry about our turkey meal, it just sat in the fridge while mom relaxed with the rest of us. Instead we cooked dinner in the fireplace. Shoot, my mom still made us all a 3 course meal in the fireplace with the leftovers from the 3 previous days. We re-heated pork to make pulled pork sandwiches, re-heated taco soup, meat loaf, potatoes as well as the the leftover green beans and carrots from my grandpa's garden. We also had corn bread the night before so we re-heated that in the fire too. My mom is a pretty amazing cook I think.



So in the end it was better than a normal Christmas because we got to really come together as a family and spend more time together and pretend it was like the time when Jesus was born, with no electricity. Yeah nobody showered that day and we had to fill the toilets up with the water from the hot tub, but it is those memories that will always be with us.

My Top 13 destinations around the World

So the other day I realized that I needed to write down all the places in the world outside of the country that I want to travel to before I die. Remember a goal not written down is merely a wish. These are not in any certain order.

1. Australia - I think I would visit Sydney for sure, but I also would want to travel north to visit the Great Barrier reef and I also want to go camping in the Outback.
2. New Zealand - The south island!
3. Dubai, United Arab Emirates - They have the coolest and most expensive hotels in the world, not to mention visit the tallest building in the world that is currently under construction.
4. Italy - Rome for the architecture and Venice because it is unique.
5. Greece - Athens and Corinth because they also have cool ruins.
6. Costa Rica - Because it is the most stable Central American country and its a rain forest! I want to walk through a forest and see monkeys swinging on the trees above me.
7. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - for the 2016 games!
8. Hawaii - I know this isn't another country, but it might as well be.
9. South Africa - because Capetown is Beautiful, and its Africa.
10. Spain - I need to visit the land where my second tongue was born.
11. Cuba - Because I met a Cuban once and they had the coolest accent. Plus the Caribbean sea is amazingly blue.
12. Fiji - Ever since I read the book 'The perfect Storm' now titled 'The Other side of Heaven' I have wanted to go to a south pacific island. The people are awesome and the place is amazingly beautiful as well.
13. Egypt - To see the pyramids and the Sphinx. The Luxor in Las Vegas just doesn't quite do it for me.

And there you have it. The top 13 destinations I would like to visit I'd the world. Why 13? Because it's my lucky number.

Negative Ads

I am not a fan of negative ads and their popularity seems to be increasing. In politics they have been around for every election that I can recall in my lifetime, but this fall they seem to have crept into a lot more advertising campaigns. About a month and a half ago Verizon came out with a TV commercial comparing their coverage to AT&T's service. Normally a company just says "competitor(s)" in their ad but in this case Verizon points at AT&T by name and uses graphics to emphasize that they are somehow better. In response to the negative ad, AT&T released at least three different commercials stating that Verizon actually doesn't have better coverage and had their facts wrong.

Similarly Apple just came out with an TV ad that bashes PC's and more specifically the windows operating system. Yes, I am a PC. (If I could have afforded a Mac I would have bought one instead.) Apple sells an amazing product and most people know that. Why does Apple need to bully their competitor. It makes me think poorly of the company, not want to buy their product.

I don't understand why you need to knock down your competitor to sell your product. Isn't that what middle schoolers do? ...Knock down others to build up themselves. Apple has an amazing product! They don't need to sink to a lower level and trash talk Windows. Same thing goes for cell phone companies. They all have a loyal customer base because they deliver a good service. Why do they need to say someone else is worse if they can PROVE they are better?

Every election it bothers me how negative ads skew information to knock down the opposing parties candidate. It is childish and not good for the public. It reminds me of the Jehovah Witness' proselyting strategy...find out what religion the person is and bash it! If your faith doesn't have a leg to stand on without tearing apart someone else s belief then something is wrong.

I will buy a product based on its own merits, I will vote for a candidate because of what they do and say (or what they have done and said), not what their competition says about them. And I will practice a religion that respects others beliefs and can show it's truthfulness without criticizing another faith.

How I like my Women

I believe appearance is very important. Not the fact that you were born with stunning looks or not, but how you present the body God gave you. I think it is important for a person to dress to impress, BUT I have seen many girls who go so far to impress guys like me that it goes a little overboard. Every time I see a young woman wearing designer jeans, I cringe. You know what I am talking about, the jeans that have the colored thread design up and down the legs and around the back pockets. The ones that cost around $300 bucks! Why does a girl think she needs to spend such an outrageous price on the material that will cover just her bottom half! (What is even weirder is when a guy buys designer jeans) Those pricey jeans do not tell a guy like me “hey look at me, I’m cute,” they tell me “I am not on a budget and I think I need to spend a lot of money to get a guys attention because I don’t have enough charisma to do it on my own.”

Think about this for a moment. What can $300 buy? Two ipods, at least a month’s worth of groceries, or 10 tanks of gas for my’ 97 Chevy Blazer. How amazing can a pair of pants be? Maybe I would buy them if they made me fly like Iron Man or something…

Sadly enough some guys do go for the girls in the “costly apparel.” But I think after they start buying the pants they might wish they hadn’t fallen into the trap. Don’t get me wrong, if a girl has no sense of style and doesn’t take care of herself I probably won’t ask her out, but a stylish outfit need not cost near $1,000, it only yell “I’m high maintenance!”