vote for acuna!

friends, romans, countrymen (and countrywomen)...lend me your ears!

please do me a personal favor and go here to vote for my friend and colleague's band, acuna... they'll be playing a live show at the gallivan center tomorrow night in an effort to win a spot in the world-famous (ok, state famous) big ass show, sponsored by x-96. if you are in the greater salt lake area tomorrow night and you are free, GO SEE THIS CONCERT! it's FREE!! kids are welcome! it starts at 7 p.m., with acuna taking the stage at 9:15 p.m. vote for acuna!

here's how you vote. click the link. scroll down. fill out the form... just the required fields. you don't have to put your real phone number or email (but it has to look real to validate). VOTE FOR ACUNA... so riley will shut the hell up and leave me alone. he is the dude on the far left in that picture if you care. i taught him everything he knows about his job. he owes his career to me.

thank you, thank you, thank you! oh...and vote more than once!! check them out on myspace, too. you can listen to their tunes there and add them to your friends.

wtf does acuna mean? no one seems to know. leave us a comment...and tell us what acuna means!!!

tha dawg dayz of summer, yo

it's hot. and not just hot, but HAWT. it's been 95 plus for more than a week...and it's going to stay that way for at least another week. it's even hot at night...the temperature doesn't get much lower than 60. it was 82 degrees at 10 a.m. at least that's what the bank clock said. you know how accurate those are!

as a direct result of the heat, my brain has almost ceased functioning. the days at work are lonnnnnnnng. and as long as they are, they are dullllllll. (in my best ben stein voice...)

it's enough to drive me insane.

the a/c in my car does not work. it's $600 to fix. to remedy this small problem, i park under the one tiny tree in the work parking lot, with the windows rolled down. yesterday, i get to work, and this dude i work with has stolen my space. everyone knows i park there. it's official: i hate him. he probably doesn't care, but so what? neither do i. QUIT PARKING IN MY SPACE!!

i don't know if it's the heat or if they are just bored, but my kids are driving me NUTS. this is my morning, EVERY morning...

the scene: mom is in the bathroom, rushing to get ready for work, because as usual, she hit snooze one too many times. a tiny timid knock comes at the door...
me: yes...
jenna: whine whine whine (i can't hear her, b/c she didn't open the door...which she KNOWS i hate, b/c i CAN'T HEAR HER!)
me: honey, you'll have to open the door and come in. i can't hear you.
jenna: (in a ginormous whiny voice) mom, will you help me find clothes? i can't find any clothes.
me: honey, you picked an outfit last night.
jenna: but i don't like that one.
me: did you sleep well?
jenna: no. jakey kept me up all night long. he stole the covers.
me: go get dressed.
jenna stomps off, crying. she later returns for me to do her hair. this always leads to much crying and threats for me to CHOP IT OFF. and i am not kidding. (it's almost down to her butt.) so i finally come out of the bathroom, gather my things, rush around, tidy up, etc...then...
jenna: (whiny voice again) mommy, i just don't know what to have for breakfast today. there's nothing to eat.
me: you didn't eat yet? honey! you've had 20 minutes!!
jenna: i don't know what to have!! (and she's CRYING)
me: how about toast? (as i slam two pieces of bread in the toaster. i can't BELIEVE this is happening again.)
jenna: fine. can i have sugar on it?
me: NO.

at night, they fight incessantly. jenna's always tattling or crying, jake's always laughing and taunting his sister. i honestly don't know how much more i can take. this...after i drive home for 30 minutes in traffic, with no a/c and parking space dude STOLE MY SPOT...so he can make his five minute drive home.

it's time for bed. at least my home is air conditioned. please send good thoughts to the families of the firefighters fighting to contain the milford flat wildfire in central utah, and to anyone who lives there or who is traveling near there.

i am a guest blogger

...so if you wanna check out my recent stab at journalism, go here.

mwah. i love you, dear reader. come back for more of the evil monkeys soon.

Religion in Politics?

The history of the United States is somewhat complicated. I admit freely that I am particularly forgetful on key points. One of my good friends is an history teacher at a local high school. He often quizzes me about important American history facts. I fail every time. Miserably even.

I do know that our forefathers and ancestors immigrated to the colonies to to better their lives. Many of them wanted to free themselves from religious persecution. In a perfect world that would have happened. Yet religion was often still an issue.

Today it is still an issue.

"Mitt Romney for President in 2008? Should I vote for him? I hear he is a Mormon..."

I personally believe that it doesn't matter what religion someone believes in, as long as they are a good person. I even know agnostic people that I believe are great, and even some atheist. I cannot personally vouch for Mitt Romney. I do not know him. I also have not followed his political career. To be honest, I haven't really paid attention to any of the candidates for president. Guess I should pay attention.

To my point...

I am just really annoyed that Romney's religion is more of an issue than the issues he represents. I am completely unaware of what religion, if any, is practiced by the other presidential candidates. Are they Catholic, Baptist, Buddhist, Scientologist or what? Does it matter? Really? I would think that the job they would do is much more important. They are actually applying for a job. It happens to be a very important job, but a job. I know believing in God is very important to most Americans. I know that their President believing in God is also important. It represents the majority.

Mormons happen to believe in God. If you didn't know this... surprise! The fact that many people do not realize this still stumps me. I know that Catholics also believe in God, as do Baptist, even Southern Baptist. Y'all can just thank me later. Scientologist happen to believe in L Ron Hubbard. If Scientologist happened to believe in George Lucas... you could just sign me up now. /wink

In conclusion, please pay more attention to what issues your candidate is representing than what issues others bring up about them. I do not know who I will be voting for in 2008, but I do know I will be watching very closely at what each candidate says about the other candidates. In Utah I am a minority as I happen to be a Democrat. I am also very liberal for Utah. The other day I was even called a "Godless Liberal" by a family member. /sigh I may be a liberal, but I am not Godless.

guest commentary

today's post is courtesy of one of my very good friends. she's an excellent journalist and mother of two. a newspaper reporter in her past, she's missed writing real stuff and offered me the little tidbit below. i haven't altered it at all, it's been copied, pasted and reprinted with her permission.

if you haven't heard of warren jeffs, he's the leader of the fundamentalist church of latter day saints. basically, they have the same beliefs as latter day saints (aka mormons) with one tiny difference: they believe in polygamy. it's certainly a hot topic here in utah and one that's been followed with great scrutiny in the media over the years.

anyway. here it is. it's well-written and i couldn't have ever written it so eloquently myself. thanks, denise.

weighing in on warren jeffs
by denise albiston

So I must state my opinion about Warren Jeffs’ request to have his trial moved from Washington County to Salt Lake County in an effort to find an objective and diverse set of peers.
You see, as member of a predominant LDS community, I believe Jeffs will find more understanding and sympathy from a jury whose roots are strained by polygamy. Washington County likely houses the largest sect of polygamists this side of the Middle East. As a Mormon—fundamentalist or not—he will find more tolerance for his act as it is part of a historical belief that church members quietly shun but still remember as a significant practice and defend as such. In Salt Lake County, they will find a varied group with lack of historical relevance and many misconceptions about the act itself.

No, I’m not suggesting that marring 14-year-old girls into a life of subservience and intellectual suppression is tolerable; however, it is an act that we ‘Utahns’—yeah I used that word—have accepted as part of the fringe society we live among.

LDS members are often misunderstood, and leaders such as Jeffs help fuel the conceptions of Devil horns and multiple wives. He is the epitome of a Mormon throughout fable and urban legends stirring the darkened kettle of ignorance. If I was a gambler—which that I am not—I would hedge my ‘life’ on a group of peers derived from the same community I belonged to. I believe this would harness the only chance to gain understanding. I’m not suggesting that anybody condone this behavior, but as a member of Cache Valley where 90 percent of its inhabitants are LDS, I can understand his plight. We are much more likely to mingle among the Ostridge farmers from Samaria and look beyond their 25 children and 12 wives. It is a part of society such as chewing tobacco and 36 ounce Mountain Dews at 8 a.m. that we have come to expect—but not necessarily accept.

I still believe that what Jeffs preaches and practices is wrong on the most fundamental level, but I understand where the development came from and look at it as religious expression gone wrong. I still maintain he is guilty and should pay dearly for his acts, but I believe his punished acts will have greater reach and substance if he is held accountable by his own cow mucked, desert living, southern Utah rednecks that have the right to stand in front of this thorn and say his nuisance is no longer tolerable. Southern Utahns need to have the chance to stand before the ‘beloved’ FDLS leader and say your practices and beliefs will no longer be harbored in this red rocked environment.