One Monkey, Ten Minutes

Thoughtful Dissent

2008-08-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Long time, no blog. I am going to attempt to post a little more often.

The one or two of you that happen to read this probably know that I am LDS. A common theme in our church is "obedience"; obedience to God, obedience to civil laws, obedience to church leaders, etc. I ran across some interesting quotes recently that relate to this topic. The following was printed in the Ward Teachers Message of June 1945:

"When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan--it is God's plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy. God works in no other way. To think otherwise, without immediate repentance, may cost one his faith, may destroy his testimony, and leave him a stranger to the kingdom of God."

I recently read an editorial in the BYU student newspaper on the California Prop 8 issue (anti-gay marriage initiative) that included a paragraph strikingly similar to the one quoted above. I dare say that if one was to read this quote in a gospel doctrine class, many members would nod their heads and mumble "amen". Several would probably enthusiastically endorse it. I wonder how many would get uneasy? Interestingly, the quote in 1945 caused a bit of controversy. Then-church-president George Albert Smith was asked about the quote by a leader of a different church in Salt Lake City. I found President Smith's response to be both fascinating and reassuring. Here it is:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Office of the First Presidency
Salt Lake City, Utah
December 7, 1945

Dr. J. Raymond Cope
First Unitarian Society
13th East at 6th South Street
Salt Lake City, Utah

My dear Dr. Cope:

I have read with interest and deep concern your letter of November 16, 1945, in which you make special comment on "a short religious editorial prepared by one of your (our) leaders entitled "Sustaining the General Authorities of the Church'". You say that you read the message with amazement, and that you have since been disturbed because of its effect upon members of the Church.

I am gratified with the spirit of friendliness that pervades your letter, and thank you for having taken the time to write to me. The leaflet to which you refer, and from which you quote in your letter, was not "prepared" by "one of our leaders." However, one or more of them inadvertently permitted the paragraph to pass uncensored. By their so doing, not a few members of the Church have been upset in their feelings, and General Authorities have been embarrassed.

I am pleased to assure you that you are right in your attitude that the passage quoted does not express the true position of the Church. Even to imply that members of the Church are not to do their own thinking is grossly to misrepresent the true ideal of the Church, which is that every individual must obtain for himself a testimony of the truth of the Gospel, must, through the redemption of Jesus Christ, work out his own salvation, and is personally responsible to His Maker for his individual acts. The Lord Himself does not attempt coercion in His desire and effort to give peace and salvation to His children. He gives the principles of life and true progress, but leaves every person free to choose or to reject His teachings. This plan the Authorities of the Church try to follow.

The Prophet Joseph Smith once said: "I want liberty of thinking and believing as I please." This liberty he and his successors in the leadership of the Church have granted to every other member thereof. On one occasion in answer to the question by a prominent visitor how he governed his people, the Prophet answered: "I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves."

Again, as recorded in the History of the Church (Volume 5, page 498 [499] Joseph Smith said further: "If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way."

I cite these few quotations, from many that might be given, merely to confirm your good and true opinion that the Church gives to every man his free agency, and admonishes him always to use the reason and good judgment with which God has blessed him. In the advocacy of this principle leaders of the Church not only join congregations in singing but quote frequently the following:

"Know this, that every soul is free
To choose his life and what he'll be,
For this eternal truth is given
That God will force no man to heaven."

Again I thank you for your manifest friendliness and for your expressed willingness to cooperate in every way to establish good will and harmony among the people with whom we are jointly laboring to bring brotherhood and tolerance.

Faithfully yours,

Geo. Albert Smith [signed]

Lake Powell 2007

2007-07-23T10:21:00.001-07:00

We spent the week of 7/13-7/20 at Lake Powell. We own a share of a houseboat at Bullfrog. It's an older boat, but we have a great time every year. This year, I had a new Nikon D200 SLR camera to play with. It's an excellent camera and I enjoyed playing with it and experimenting with the settings. Especially the shutter priority options when shooting out the back of the ski boat. Here is a sampling of some photos from the trip:

(I need a little filler here so that you can see the first photo)

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A little shout-out to our missionary. He comes home on 9/5.

Cousin Jake getting horizontal:

Jake on the wake skate:

Jake skipping on the foil of the air chair:

Jake making it look easy. Trust me, this is anything but easy.

My lovely wife:

Lance and Laurence dueling it out on the tubes:

Richard Glazier doing it old school:

This is Richard again but he is not crashing. He lays out like this and balances with his hand and foot and then goes right back up (most of the time anyway).

Laurence Glazier catching some air:

We visited "The Crack" just south of Knowles Canyon. It was very cool:

Lance doing a grab:

Lance losing his balance:

Don't worry, he was fine:

Some rappeling shots. We brought our rappeling gear and had a great time rappeling off of cliffs into the water. We will definitely do this again next year.

Me:

Mallory:

Spencer:

Julie:

Mr. Catfish saying hello.

Julie and Carolyn showing their catch. The fishing was awesome.

Navigating the houseboat:

Lance in the water. Check out the reflection in his glasses.

Laurence on the zipline:

Julie doing a morning run:

Julie in silhouette:

Me doing some "long rope skiing". We tied three ropes together (180 ft total length) to water ski in the mornings. It was a blast. You could glide forever.

Spencer:

Showing off our growth after the trip:

The Subway in Zion

2007-07-01T23:06:00.001-07:00

As I have mentioned before, our family loves the outdoors and we try to take advantage of the unique opportunities here in the mountain west. This past weekend we enjoyed what may have been our favorite adventure to date: hiking the Left Fork of North Creek (A.K.A. "The Subway") in Zion NP. I have heard about this slot canyon for years. I have had quite a few veteran hikers/canyoneers tell me that this is their favorite hike anywhere. It is one of 18 slot canyons in Zion NP that require a limited availability back country permit. It is also the most sought-after permit and thus is one of two canyons that are on a lottery basis. You have to apply to a lottery three months in advance in order to get a reservation and they limit the permits to a maximum of 50 people per day. We applied back in March along with our friends, the Glaziers, with the understanding that we would both apply in the hope that one of us would win. We struck out but they got a permit for 12 people.

The following are some photos I took of the trip. The deepness of the canyon resulted in lots of contrasting shadows which made the photography a little tough with my little Canon. I have a Nikon D200 on order and all of the parts came (lenses, filters, flash, etc.) last week except the camera body (argh!). Oh well, that gives me a good reason to go back.

This is a shot of Spencer on the way in. We spotted a car at the bottom of the canyon and hiked from the top to the bottom. It is about eight miles total distance. The first three miles are in a beautiful pine forest with white sandstone from the Kayente formation gradually transforming to the red Navajo sandstone as you drop into the canyon. The canyon runs left to right in the back of the photo, just before the tall mesa in the distance.

Here we are dropping into the canyon. This is my wife and younger three kids. I like the backlighting on this one:

This is Hannah Glazier rappeling over our first major obstacle. She is only seven years old but performed like a champ.

This is my daughter at the edge of the first of several swims. The water was about 50 degrees. My poor wife about froze to death (she doesn't tolerate cold very well. At one point I looked at her and her lips were blue. Next time we go back she will have a full-body wet suit. She brought a shorty but surrendered it to my son.

My son, Lance, at another narrow part:

One of many gorgeous spots. The colors in the photo don't quite do it justice.

We found that inflatables were quite handy in getting the packs through the deep spots:

One of my favorite parts:

The formations were incredible:

Nearing the "Subway" portion of the hike:

One of the more famous spots in the hike. This is in the "subway" section. It is named the subway due to the rounded nature of the bottom of the canyon. You see lots of photos of this particular area on postcards, etc. for Zion NP.

One of several short rappels. The adults just used a hand line, but we put the kids in harnesses and let them rappel down. They loved it.

The bottom part of the subway:

Mallory in a very cold "hot tub".

Yours truly.

The Jones family.

There were several spectacular falls over cascading red sandstone terraces just below the subway. The kids discovered that you could ride down them on the inflatables.

Another shot:

On the way out, we found this rock covered with dinosaur tracks.

A closer look. It appears to be a biped carnivore from the late Jurassic. From the gait, I would say it was a female, about two weeks from dropping her eggs. It also looks like she had an minor injury on her left side.

It took us about 10.5 hours to do the entire hike. We did not see another soul in the canyon. From the cars in the parking lots, it appeared that there was one group in front of us and one behind. When we got to the bottom parking lots, the rangers were there waiting to check on our permits.

This is one of those cases where the reality matched the hype. It was a fabulous experience.

God Bless Hugh B. Brown

2007-03-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

The more I learn about this man, the more I love him.

This is from his talk "A Final Testimony". I have read a few lines from this, but it is enlightening to read the entire passage.

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"There seems today to be a tendency toward flippant thinking, a lack of thought. There seems to be a tendency to belittle what our fathers and mothers thought because we feel we have made some progress scientifically. We are too ready to conclude that everything from past generations is now folly and that our main duty today, as far as the past is concerned, is to get away from it. There is not enough of the attitude of the sincere investigator among us. When we come into a new field of research that will challenge our due and honest consideration, we should be warned against coming too quickly to a conclusion, of forming a decision too hastily. We should be scientific -- that is, open-minded, approaching new problems without prejudice, deferring a decision until all the facts are in. Some say that the open-minded leave room for doubt. But I believe we should doubt some of the things we hear. Doubt has a place if it can stir in one an interest to go out and find the truth for one's self.

I should like to awaken in everyone a desire to investigate, to make an independent study of religion, and to know for themselves whether or not the teachings of the Mormon church are true. I should like to see everyone prepared to defend the religion of his or her parents, not because it was the religion of our fathers and mothers but because they have found it to be the true religion. If one approaches it with an open mind, with a desire to know the truth, and if one questions with a sincere heart what one hears from time to time, he or she will be on the road to growth and service. There are altogether too many people in the world who are willing to accept as true whatever is printed in a book or delivered from a pulpit. Their faith never goes below the surface soil of authority. I plead with everyone I meet that they may drive their faith down through that soil and get hold of the solid truth, that they may be able to withstand the winds and storm of indecision and of doubt, of opposition and persecution. Then, and only then, will we be able to defend our religion successfully. When I speak of defending our religion, I do not mean such defense as an army makes on the battlefield but the defense of a clean and upright and virtuous life lived in harmony with an intelligent belief and understanding of the gospel.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has this practical view of religion: that religion should help us here and now; that we should not have to wait until after we are dead to get any benefits; that religion as understood and applied makes men and women more successful, happier, more contented, gives them aspiration and hope; that religion is the vitalizing force, religion is that which gives men and women an ideal, an ideal so high that it may be seen from both sides of the valley of life.

The religion of the Latter-day Saints teaches youth that as children of God, they are expected to acquire experience as they go through life and that experience will ripen into knowledge, that knowledge will ripen into wisdom and intelligence, and that their greatness will be in proportion to their intelligence. So the religion of the Latter-day Saints is not just theory from a book or taught in church. The gospel is a plan of which God is the author, a plan of which we are all necessary parts. My religion sweetens my life. My religion, if properly lived, helps me to be a better friend to my associates, a better neighbor, a better citizen, a better father, a better man. If I am sincere in it, my religion forbids me to do to my neighbors what I would not want them to do to me, either in word or act. My religion, in other words, is that which is the greatest part of me.

I have been very grateful that the freedom, dignity, and integrity of the individual are basic in church doctrine. We are free to think and express our opinions in the church. Fear will not stifle thought. God himself refuses to trammel free agency even though its exercise sometimes teaches painful lessons. Both creative science and revealed religion find their fullest and truest expression in the climate of freedom.

As we all proceed to make our individual "declarations of independence," I hope we can distinguish between liberty and license, that we can realize that freedom is only a blessing if it is accompanied by wisdom and intelligence. At the same time, we all need to resist the down-drag of mental laziness which sometimes leads to the premature hardening of the intellectual arteries. And I would especially urge all of us to avoid sluggishness of spirit, which is the worst kind of lethargy. Some people are phlegmatic to a degree that would make a turtle seem intolerably vivacious. I admire men and women who have developed the questing spirit, who are unafraid of new ideas as stepping stones to progress. We should, of course, respect the opinions of others, but we should also be unafraid to dissent -- if we are informed. Thoughts and expressions compete in the marketplace of thought, and in that competition truth emerges triumphant. Only error fears freedom of expression.

Both science and religion beget humility. Scientists and teachers of religion disagree among themselves on theological and other subjects. Even in our own church men and women take issue with one another and contend for their own interpretations. This free exchange of ideas is not to be deplored as long as men and women remain humble and teachable. Neither fear of consequence or any kind of coercion should ever be used to secure uniformity of thought in the church. People should express their problems and opinions and be unafraid to think without fear of ill consequences. We should all be interested in academic research. We must go out on the research front and continue to explore the vast unknown. We should be in the forefront of learning in all fields, for revelation does not come only through the prophet of God nor only directly from heaven in visions or dreams. Revelation may come in the laboratory, out of the test tube, out of the thinking mind and the inquiring soul, out of search and research and prayer and inspiration.

We should be dauntless in our pursuit of truth and resist all demands for unthinking conformity. No one would have us become mere tape recorders of other people's thoughts. We should be modest and teachable and seek to know the truth by study and faith. There have been times when progress was halted by thought control. Tolerance and truth demand that all be heard and that competing ideas be tested against each other so that the best, which might not always be our own, can prevail.

Knowledge is the most complete and dependable when all points of view are heard. We are in a world of restlessness and skepticism, where old things are not only challenged but often disappear, but also a world of miraculous achievement, undreamed of accomplishment, and terrifying power. Science offers wonderful tools for helping to create the brotherhood of humanity on earth, but the cement of brotherhood does not come from any laboratory. It must come from the heart and mind and spirit of men and women.

We should continue to become acquainted with human experience through history and philosophy, science and poetry, art and religion... One of the most important things in the world is freedom of the mind; from this all other freedoms spring. Such freedom is necessarily dangerous, for one cannot think right without running the risk of thinking wrong, but generally more thinking is the antidote for the evils that spring from wrong thinking. More thinking is required, and we should all exercise our God-given right to think and be unafraid to express our opinions, with proper respect for those to whom we talk and proper acknowledgment of our own shortcomings.

We must preserve freedom of the mind in the church and resist all efforts to suppress it. The church is not so much concerned with whether the thoughts of its members are orthodox or heterodox as it is that they shall have thoughts. One may memorize much without learning anything. In this age of speed there seems to be little time for meditation.

And while all members should respect, support, and heed the teachings of the authorities of the church, no one should accept a statement and base his or her testimony upon it, no matter who makes it, until he or she has, under mature examination, found it to be true and worthwhile; then one's logical deductions may be confirmed by the spirit of revelation to his or her spirit, because real conversion must come from within..."

Lost Luggage Limbo

2007-03-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Back in January I was coming home from a trip to Austin, Texas. It was an evening flight and I was riding one of those smaller planes. I had my computer bag and a roll-away carry on. I had checked the carry-on at the jetway. In these cases they pull the bag out when you land and you pick it up on the Jetway right as you exit the plane. When I got off the plance at SLC I just walked off the plane and forgot to wait for my carry on. Just as I exited security I realized what had happened but by then I couldn't go back to the gate since I didn't have a boarding pass to get through security. I went to the Delta ticket counter to see if they could call down to the gate and have them send my bag through the luggage system so that I could simply pick it up at the carousel. After waiting in line, they told me to go to the luggage office by the bag claim area. I went to the luggage office and after waiting in line again they told me to wait for it to come out of the carousel. I suggested they call down to the gate and they said "Don't worry, they always just send the unclaimed carry-ons to the carousel. I waited at the carousel for 45 minutes and my bag never showed up. I got back in line for the luggage office and this time the line was very long. Apparently there was a lost luggage epidemic that night. The lady in front of me got on a cell and her conversion went something like this:

"Hello. Delta Airlines? I am standing in line at the luggage office at Salt Lake City and you have lost my luggage. I need someone to help me right now. I am warning you that if you don't do something RIGHT NOW I am going to have a nervous breakdown and something very bad is going to happen."

After about five minutes of this she closed up her phone and got back in line. Personally, I took her nervous breakdown threat seriously. She was in pretty bad shape.

Anyway, I finally got up to the counter and by this time I had been waiting for about 1.5 hours. I got a different lady this time and she had the good sense to call the gate (something they should have done right away). They told her that they would look for it and call her back. So I sat down and waited again. In the meantime, they let me look through the lost luggage room. No luck. Finally, she waved me over and said that they couldn't find but I should call back later that night since she was sure it would show up. I told her that I was coming back to SLC the next day and that I would stop and see if it showed up then. So I went home two hours after I got off the plane and still did not have my bag. Late that night (about 11:30 pm) I got a phone call at home from Delta Airlines. Here is how the conversation went:

Delta: "Hello, is this Norm Jones"
Me: "Yes."
Delta: "This is the luggage office at Austin, Texas and we checked on the computer and we understand that you lost a bag tonight."
Me: "Ummmm.... Yes, I did."
Delta: "Well, we have your bag here in Austin."
Me: "In Austin?"
Delta: "Yes, it appears that when you left your bag at the gate, they assumed it belonged to one of the pilots or crew and they put it back on the plane and the plane returned to Austin."
Me: "Aha."

They said they would send it back to SLC and that I could pick it up in the morning. So the next morning I go to the airport and stood in line again at the luggage office. They looked on the computer and couldn't find any record of the bag coming through. They took me back to the lost luggage storage room and we looked all over but couldn't see the bag. I was about to give up but noticed that there was another small area we hadn't yet searched. I asked if I could look there and they said "No, it won't be there." I kept insisting and they finally relented. Sure enough, there was my bag.

Moral of the story: NEVER FORGET TO PICK UP YOUR CARRY-ON!!!!

The Ultimate Fishing Experience

2006-08-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

OK, time to report on the big fishing trip. On August 12-19, Lance and I went to Canada on one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" fishing trips. It was outstanding. Here is the play by play:

On Saturday, August 12th we flew from Salt Lake City to Seattle. We were supposed to go to Vancouver but it was quite a bit cheaper to fly to Seattle so we decided to fly to Seattle, rent a car, and drive to Vancouver. Big mistake (more on that later). We were traveling with my father (Sherm) and my brother (Aaron) so there were four of us. We got to the Hertz rentals at the Seattle Airport and discovered that the car would not be big enough. It was big enough to hold our luggage but there is no way it would hold all of our fish on the return trip. We checked into upgrading to a minivan or SUV but it would have cost us $1100 (compared to the original price of $400) for the week. We decided to check with some of the other rental car companies. We checked with both Advantage and Thrifty. They had minivans for about $550-600 for the week, but they both told us that we need to buy extra liability insurance (for $10 per day) if we were going to go to Canada. They say that the Canadian border patrol would not let us across the border without written proof of $300K in liability insurance on our vehicle. We decided to check one more rental company. At the Enterprise desk we got a quote for $517 for the week for a mini-van with a folding rear bench. We asked him about the insurance and he said "You don't need extra insurance to go into Canada. In fact, it is against the law for me to tell you that you need extra insurance." We pointed at the other two staff at the adjacent desks and said, "They told us we had to have it." He just shrugged his shoulders. So, we went with Enterprise. The service was great (more on that later, too).

We got the van drove to Vancouver that night. It took us about an hour to get through the border. This worried us a little since our schedule on the return trip was pretty tight. We spent Sunday in Vancouver. On Sunday afternoon we went to a park that had the "longest suspension walking bridge in the world". By the time you walk from one end to the other you have motion sickness. Here is Lance at one end of the bridge:

The next day we woke up at 3:45 am because we were supposed to be at the front of the hotel at 4:15 am. That was brutal. We went to the Vancouver airport and flew this plane from Vancouver to a village called "Massett" on Queen Charlotte Island. Queen Charlotte Island is North of Vancouver and just south of Juneua, Alaska. Massett is at the Northern end of the island.

We flew to Massett in a four-engine prop plane. It took about 2 1/2 hrs.

Then we got on board a helicoptor and took a 15-minute flight over to the Queen Charlotte Lodge.

Queen Charlotte Lodge is in an inlet at the northern end of the island:

Here is the website for the lodge:

http://www.queencharlottelodge.com/index.php

It is a beautiful lodge. The accomodations, food, and service were unbelievable. This is me in front of the lodge with one of my old mission buddies, Scott Bowden, who just happened to be on the same trip. He is a dentist now and lives near Lethbridge, Alberta Canada.

We hurried and got our gear on and jumped in the boats. The lodge provides the boats, fuel, rods, bait, clothing, food, .... everything. We raced out to the fishing grounds (see map above). It takes about 25 minutes to get out there. Within an hour or two, Lance and I caught a few pink salmon (smaller salmon that average 5-6 lbs) and then we both hooked into a couple of big kings at the same time. I landed mine but Lance lost his after about a 30 minute fight. Mine weighed in at 20 lbs:

An hour or so later, Lance hooked and landed a big silver (coho). It was 14 lbs. and was about the biggest silver I saw all week.

It was pretty much like that all week. We caught lots of huge fish every day. The pinks were very easy to land. The silvers averaged about ten pounds and were a blast to catch. As soon as you hook one, they shoot right to the top and start doing cartwheels in the air. They were very agressive. We caught quite a few kings, but the big kings were hard to land. They were so big that you had to play them just right or you would break your line or pop the hook off. We had to use barbless hooks, and that added to the challenge. A couple of days later, Lance caught a nice king very close to where I caught mine on the first day. This fish was 21 lbs:

My brother, Aaron, caught one of the bigger fish caught all week. It weighed 33 lbs. Anything over 30 lbs is called a "tyee" and they give you a pin and a round of applause at dinner each night. I think the biggest fish caught that week was 43 lbs. This shot also shows the boats we were using.

In addition to salmon fishing, we had a great time bottom fishing. We mainly caught halibut, but we pulled up lots of other stuff also. We did the salmon fishing kind of close to the shore in 60-100 feet of water but the halibut fishing was mainly done a mile or so offshore in 200 ft of water. We use salmon parts on a big hook with a one lb sinker and a big stiff halibut rod. It usually only took a minute or two to get something on, then you would crank for a few minutes to pull it up. Here is part of our catch for one day. Lance is holding a couple of halibut. Most halibut were only about 1o lbs, but Lance's two shown here were 14 and 17 lbs. This place is a nursery for young halibut so the really big halibut are kind of rare. The two reddish fish I am holding are red snappers. They were 8 and 10 lbs. They told me that the 10 lb one was quite large and was probably about 50 years old. They live to 110! I felt kind of bad about killing such an old fish.

We also pulled up rock cod and black sea bass. And I caught a "dog fish" which is a kind of shark.

They had a big boat called the "Driftwood" out on the fishing grounds. You can see the boat in the background of this picture. You could pull up any time and get extra bait, drinks, food, or go to the restroom. They fed us hot lunches each day. The rock in the foreground is called "Bird Rock 2". On the last evening my brother, Aaron, was fishing near the kelp by this rock and hooked into what felt like a huge king. He fought it for a bit and then discovered that he had caught a seal! A young seal had eaten his herring. He radioed for the fishmaster to come and help him out and he he cut the line right up by the hooks.

This is one of many commercial fishing boats we saw every day. They were fishing for salmon with long lines (trolling, basically).

Here is a shot of sunrise as we are just heading out to the fishing grounds:

This is Lance feeding one of the friendly black-tailed deer in the area:

Well, all good things must come to an end. That's not all bad; by the end of the week my hands were hammered:

We flew out on Friday. Each of us had two boxes of frozen fish. At the end of each day the Lodge staff would filet, shrink-wrap, and flash-freeze our fish. Lance and I each had about 80 lbs of filets. We ended up with our limit: 16 salmon, 6 halibut, and a few misc other fish (snapper, bass, etc.). The plane back to Vancouver was loaded down with frozen fish:

We got to Vancouver and loaded up the van and took off for Seattle. However, we got to the border and it took TWO HOURS to drive through customs, so we ended up missing our connection in Seattle. We called Delta and asked about getting on a flight on Saturday. The Delta agent (spoke with an Indian accent, by the way) told us that all flights were full and that the best he could do is fly us to St. George. I told Aaron to hang up and I called the Delta SkyMiles number. The next guy got us on a flight the next morning at 7 am. Lesson learned: don't always trust the first agent you talk to and be sure to call the SkyMiles number, not the general number. We got to the Enterprise office and they quickly found us an adjacent hotel that had a freezer big enough for the fish (barely). They drove us there and even helped carry in the fish. The service at Enterprise was OUTSTANDING. I was very impressed.

We got back to SLC the next morning and loaded everything in our Honda Accord. It was a tight fit:

All in all, it was an ubelievable experience. Now I just need to start saving money for next year. I am afraid I am hooked!

European Vacation

2006-06-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

We recently took the entire Jones family to England to spend a week and a half with our good friends, the Mayfield family. We had a great time. We were in England for most of the trip, but we did spend the last few days in France, visiting the D-Day sites in Normandy.

Here are a few photos/stories from the trip:

We spent a whirlwind day in London. Here we are in front of the Tower Bridge. This is just after we left the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. We walked across the bridge and did a tour of the Tower of London. The kids enjoyed seeing the crown jewels. We also saw the exact spot where one of Henry VIII's wives was beheaded. That extra young man is our friend, Austin Andeason, who flew over from Italy to join us for the trip. He is Justin's old buddy.

Spencer and Mallory in front of Big Ben.

The obligatory phone booth shot. The three Mayfield girls are Lara, Rebecca, and Michelle.

We spent a half a day at the London Temple. We did baptisms for the dead with the Mayfield's ward.

The kids in front of Stonehenge. It is amazing how large these stones are. They were hauled all the way from Scotland, thousands of years ago.

We visited Sherwood Forest and they had a rope course through the trees with zip lines, tightropes, a swing into a big net, and all sorts of other fun things. It was a blast.

More horsing around in Sherwood Forest.

We did several fun drives out in the country. This is the Chatsworth Estate that we found. The estate went on for miles. It was amazing.

The English countryside was just beautiful.

We spent a day at Warwick Castle. We saw a knight show, a falconry show, and toured the castle. Spencer tried his hand at archery and we put the kids on a rack and stretched them out. Great fun.

The Mayfields live in Solihull. We did a little genealogy research on the internet and found out that I have some ancestors from Solihull named "Griswold" (no wonder our family loves the Chevy Chase-Vacation movies). We went over to the local church (St. Alphege) and it was full of Griswold-related items (note the grayhounds in the crests - this the Grisworld family symbol).

When we arrived at the church, they found out we were American descendents so they called a member of their church named David Patterson. David drove in to town and gave us a two hour personal tour of the church and explained the Griswold family history in detail. It was an incredible experience, and something we weren't expecting.

We also paid a visit to the Wooten Wawen church near Stratford. This is where Shakespeare was married and it is one of the oldest churches in England. It dates back to around 900 AD. It also happens to be where one of my ancestors was baptized in the 1600's.

Here is the font in the Wooten Wawen church where said baptism took place. Pretty cool, eh?

After all of the excitement in London, we decided to drive to France to visit the D-Day sites in Normandy. To get there we drove to the Channel Tunnel. This shows us driving on to the trains that carry the vehicles through the Chunnel. You obviously don't see much as you go through the tunnel, but we went deep enough that our ears popped. It took about 30 minutes to go through.

We stayed in Bayeaux, France and this is the Bayeaux Cathedral that was near our hotel. It has been around since the 11th century or so and it is huge and incredibly ornate. This is where William the Conqueror left to fight his way to the English throne.

We happened to be in Normandy on the D-Day weekend. There were hundreds, if not thousands of restored military vehicles everywhere you went.

There were also thousands of Europeans (mainly French) wearing WWII military uniforms. They were friendly and always seemed willing to pose for some photos. Spencer was pretty excited about holding this gun.

Perhaps the highlight of the whole trip was our visit to the US Cemetary at Coleville-Sur-Mere. It is adjacent to Omaha Beach, where the US forces suffered the worst casualties on D-Day. This is the view looking down on Omaha Beach.

This is the view from the beach. It is hard to describe what it was like to be there, knowing how much US blood was spilled on the beach. We treated it as a sacred place.

Visiting the cemetery was emotionally overwhelming. Beautifully maintained and peaceful. The graves seemed to go on forever.

These are the cliffs at Pointe-Du-Hoc. This is just south of Omaha Beach. 225 rangers scaled these cliffs under heavy fire. They eventually took control of the site and then had to defend it for 2-3 days before help arrived. By then only 90 survived.

Prior to D-Day, the Allies dropped tons of bombs on Pointe-Du-Hoc to soften up the German resistance. When the rangers got to the top, they were amazed at the number of bomb craters. You can still see the craters after 62 years. It is astonishing that any Germans survived the bombing, but many did.

There were several "re-enactments" on D-Day weekend. We went to the paratrooper drop at Fiere, near St. Mere Eglise. The paratroopers were from the US, France, Canada, UK, and Germany. There was a big crowd there to watch and we had a great time.

This is one of many German gun bunkers that we visited. These were at Longues. Most bunkers were built using this same design. Concrete was steel-reinforced. No wonder the US bombing didn't do much good.

We spent our last night at Arromanches. This is where the allies built three long artificial piers surrounded by an artificial reef. You can see remnants of the pier in the foreground and the reef in the background. As it was getting dark, we took the Land Rovers and spun donuts on the beach. It was awesome.

Lance & the Resurrection

2006-04-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

Today was Easter and the main topic at church was the death and resurrection of Christ. It reminded me of a great story. When our second son, Lance, was about three years old we were having a family home evening lesson on the resurrection. Carolyn was explaing to Justin and Lance what it meant to be resurrected. She was explaining that everything would be restored to its perfect form. If you were blind in this life, your sight would be resored. If you had a disease, it would be cured. If you were crippled, you would be able to walk, etc. After hearing this, Lance looked up and in all seriousness said "Mom, does that mean when you are resurrected you will be a boy?"

Ace!

Each time the topic of the resurrection comes up, I think of this and start to chuckle. I am sure people are always wondering what's so funny.

Trebuchet!

2006-03-21T15:54:00.000-08:00

"What is a trebuchet?" you might ask. Well, it's a big gadget used to throw stuff. Check out this website:

What On Earth Is A Trebuchet?

Be sure to see the dead cow experiment:

Totally Tasteless mode: A Dead Cow!

I am jealous. What a terrific way to kill a few hours.

Speaking of trebuchets, check out this latest round of ads from Volkswagon:

Un-pimp My Ride!

Scroll down and play the third one. Another cool trebuchet. Actually, you should play all three. I love these new VW ads because I can't stand "pimped-up" cars.

Clean Media

2006-03-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

I recently created the following website:

www.cleanmedia.org

as a resource to parents on controlling media content in the home. The main focus is on internet filtering. My new church assignment is to be a "media consultant" and assist parents with these issues.

I gave a talk to the combined RS/priesthood last Sunday on this topic. The response was overwhelming. I am amazed at how strongly parents feel about this (as well they should). However, my wife was talking with someone in the ward and he said "That's pretty neat about your husband's new company." My wife said "What new company?". He replied, "My dad said your husband started a new company and made a presentation about it in church on Sunday." Argh.....

By the way, I need to give a shout-out to Rus Berrett for helping me registering the cleanmedia.org domain name and for donating the web-hosting for the site. I would also like to thank Rus, Jeff, and Mike for suggestions and input to improve the content on the site.

NLJ

My Trip to Redmond

2006-02-27T08:38:00.000-08:00

Last week (2/21-2/22) I made a quick trip to Seattle/Redmond. I am part of a college committee assigned to make recommendations on design concepts for a new college building. We are currently traveling around the country visiting different companies and universities in an attempt to get some ideas. I volunteered to travel to Microsoft headquarters. Darren Gonzales generously offered to help me out. He put me in touch with the right folks and I had a wonderful tour of the MS Workplace Design Center. It was good to see Darren. We miss him here in the EMRL. After my morning tour, Darren took me to his office, gave me a tour of the MS campus, and we had lunch together.

The MS Campus is pretty nice. Lots of big pine trees. Here is the building where Darren works. This is the newest building on the MS campus. It is long and narrow (this is just one end of the building).

Here is a shot of one of the hallways in Darren's building. One of the unique features of MS is that they don't have any cubicles. Everyone has an office. Thus, they have thousands of offices and long hallways like this. To help people find their way around, they have assigned street names to the hallways.

Here is a shot of Darren in his office. He showed me what he is currently working on in Outlook and he also gave me a nice little tour of the new version of MS Office currently under development. It has a completely revamped interface.

Darren gave me a quick tour of campus. This is the building containing Bill Gates' and Steve Balmer's offices. The offices are on the top floor, I believe. I asked Darren if Gates and Balmer have a lot of security with them when they visit different parts of the campus. He says they don't.

Darren took me to a part of campus where they have little metal plaques inserted into the pavement of the sidewalk. Back in the day, each time there was a major release, they put a new plaque in with the software title. It was pretty interesting to go back and look through the history. They stopped doing this a few years ago. I suppose they produce too many titles now for this to be realistic. In the early years, they could get the entire year's releases on one plaque.

The explanation:

Here is where it all began:

Hey, I remember Flight Simulator. That was pretty cool at the time.

Anyone remember this one?

The night before my MS visit, I hooked up with Rus Berrett and we went to dinner. We went to an excellent steak house near Rus's home called "Jak's". Highly recommended. After dinner we went to his house and enjoyed conversation and fresh cookies with Kristy. Unfortunately, the kids were already in bed at this point. I got a tour of the ongoing remodeling project. I was wishing I had taken some photos, but then I realized that there it would have been redundant. Rus has a blog with all of the gory details here:

http://rus.berrett.org/blog/

It was fun to catch up with Rus and Kristy.

Book Review: DOM Biography

2005-12-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Wright. I must say that this was one of the most fascinating LDS books I have ever read. Robert Wright's aunt was Claire Middlemiss who was the secretary to DOM for several decades. Sister Middlemiss spent many hours after work writing a diary and compiling notes and scrapbooks from her daily experiences with DOM. She hoped to write a book someday but by the time she retired, her health was too poor for such an undertaking. She compiled hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. The two authors spent ten years combing through this material and compiling the biography. The structure of the book is a little different from what you normally see in a biography. Rather than documenting his life in chronological fashion, each chapter is devoted to a particular issue that was an important part of DOM's tenure as the prophet and church president. I had some misgivings at first over this format, but it works very well in this case. What makes this book so fascinating is:

1) During DOM's tenure, the church went through substantial changes and growth, emerging from a small Utah faith to a large, more respected, international faith.
2) Given the volume of resource materials available to the authors, the book offers a rare glimpse at the behind-the-scenes drama in the church heirarchy during several critical indcidents in church history.

One of the best parts of the book was the discussion of the issue related to blacks and the priesthood. While DOM did not reverse the policy, it was a major focal point of his presidency due to the civil rights movement of the early 60's and it could be argued that DOM helped pave the way for the eventual reversal of the ban. It is quite stunning to read some of the overtly racist comments made by top church leaders. It is also inspiring to read of the heroic efforts of Hugh B. Brown (one of the few democrats in the church heirarchy at the time) to get the ban reversed. Late in his life, DOM confided to a few individuals that he had come to believe that the ban was a policy and not a doctrine, and thus could be changed without a major revelation. He also came to disavow many of the LDS myths as to why the black were denied the priesthood, including lack of valor in the pre-existence. Unfortunately, he suffered from poor health for the last few years of his life and Hugh B. Brown passed away. Joseph F. Smith, Harold B. Lee and some other hardliners took control and ensured that the policy would not be changed for another decade.

Another fascinating episode was the chapter on Ezra T. Benson and the John Birch Society. It is quite remarkable to read of how overtly political ETB was at the time, including completely partisan talks during general conference. As an example, ETB often denounced the civil rights movement over the pulpit as a communist conspiracy. Hugh B. Brown and others tried to counterbalance this, but none went nearly as far as ETB in giving political talks. It is also amazing to learn how tightly he was aligned with the JBS, a group that was clearly fueled by paranoia, fear, hatred, and bigotry. Many of the general authorities were appalled at ETB's actions. Each time they insisted that DOM should do something about it, ETB would have a private meeting with him and DOM would back down. Apparently, he manipulated DOM's distrust of communism to give him license to continue his controversial activities. When DOM passed away, his political activities were finally terminated.

Other interesting episodes including the controversy surrounding the publication of Mormon Doctrine by Bruce R. McConkie and debates in the church leadership over evolution and the origin of man (very timely considering the current debate over "intelligent design"). All in all, it is a compelling biography of a humble man thrust into leadership at a pivotal time in LDS history. Like all good biographies, this one is honest and shows both the strengths and weaknesses of its subject. In the end, one cannot help but being inspired by his life. Considering the time and culture in which DOM lived, he was amazingly progressive. In several cases, he refused to allow the apostles to excommunicate outspoken members, including Sterling McMullin (a critic of the blacks and the priesthood policy). He was surprisingly tolerant and was a fervent seeker of truth. He was an excellent ambassor for the church and was highly respected and admired by all who came to know him. In spite of the fact that he was a republican, he came to have a close relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson. He was pivotal in changing the policy of "gathering to zion", thus building the first stakes and temples outside of North America and changing the faith to a truly international organization.

Anyway, check this book out. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Brace yourself for Gospel Doctrine class

2005-12-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it appears that we are covering the Old Testament in 2006. That first gospel doctrine lesson on the creation story always spawns some fascinating discussions, most of them highly passionate and highly misinformed. I found this article recently on the history of the LDS church and the issue of evolution:

The Mormon Myth of Evil Evolution

Highly recommended. You may want to print it out and keep a copy handy when you go to Sunday School in January.

Amazing color photo exhibit

2005-12-13T14:59:00.000-08:00

The Library of Congress has a new exhibit of 1600 color photos from 1935-1945. These are rare photos taken by photographers experimenting with new Kodachrome slide film technology. It is quite remarkable to see a time period we traditionally associate with black and white come to life in color. The LOC has painstakingly restored each of the photos. Here are some samples:

Woman painting airplane in factory.

More female factory workers.

Construction of Geneva Steel in Utah.

They have an online exhibit of selected photos here:

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/boundforglory/glory-overview.html

Or you can browse the entire collection here:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html

Highly recommended.

The downside of free speech

2005-12-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

The Provo Daily Herald has an online version of their daily newspaper posted at http://www.heraldextra.com. They have a feature (which is fairly common for online newspapers) that allows readers to comment on the article. Occasionally, when I want a good chuckle, I peruse the reader comments and it seldom disappoints. The PDH comments provide an outlet for the lunatic fringe for Utah County to vent. And by lunatic fringe, I mean both ends of the spectrum. For example, there was an article recently on the topic of immunization. This is one of the comments (I promise I am not making this up):

"A Pertussis Epidemic is choking up Utah County"

Why is that, Because of all the lossers with no health insurance in Utah.

They should make all the retarded mormons stop pay all there money to the Mormon church and put it on health insurance.

If someone can't pay for Insurance and they get sic, no one should help them because they are loosers.

Amazing, eh? You just can't make stuff up. Here is a Christ-like response from one of our fellow offended Later-Day Saints:

Now this profound. How many drinks/snorts did it take you to figure this out? Now is it lossers or loosers, pothead? Were you born this way or did your mommy drop you in the toilet?

Ah, yes. the sweet sound of thoughtful dialogue.

Click here for the complete, inpiring discussion.

Ocean power, baby!

2005-12-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite topics of casual research and conversation with friends is energy. As in, what on earth are we going to do when we run out of fossil fuels? Most scientists estimate that we have 30-40 years of fossil fuels remaining, although the estimate varies wildly based on the uncertainty in the factors going into the prediction. The growth of the economies in China and India is already increasing consumption dramatically. If the third world starts using energy like the USA uses energy, then we are in big trouble. There are some things that will alleviate the problem:

1) Natural gas

Supposedly, we still have vast reserves of natural gas, compared to crude oil. We could build an infrastructure for distributing natural gas and convert our vehicles. However, natural gas is not as efficient (BTU/kg) as gasoline, so we won't make the switch until we have to. Once again, however, this is an unrenewable resource that we will consume until it is gone.

2) Tar sands

Supposedly, the Utah, Colorado, Wyoming area has more petroleum reserves than the entire Middle East. The problem is that it is locked up in tar sands and requires more money to extract. However, once fuel prices get high enough, the extraction will prove economical.

3) Spontaneous generation?

I read a while back that there is a scientist who claims that petroleum is not really a fossil fuel but it is spontaneously generated from deep within the earth's crust, and therefore renewable. As part of his evidence, he points to the fact that most major oil reservoirs have produced far beyond their original estimates. Sounds like nonsense to me, but I thought I would throw it in.

4) Cheap solar cells

Supposedly, scientists in the USA and Europe have invented plastic solar cells that are much more cost-effective than traditional (silicon?) solar cells. The new cells should be cost-competitive with fossil fuels for power generation on a per KW-Hr basis. They claim that they they should be in mass production within 3-4 years. One can envision vast arrays of solar cells in the desert, feeding power into transmission lines. However, talk is cheap. Time will tell if this will really come to pass.

5) More nuclear power

No nuclear power plants have been built in the US for several decades. With increasing fuel costs, that will probably change. Given the small amount of fuel used in the power generation process, there is essentially an unlimited supply of nuclear fuel. The problem lies in the difficulty of building new plants. Nobody wants one on their backyard due to fears of another Chernobyl accident and they require a large supply of water. Another problem, of course, is the storage of the spent fuel rods. New technology is supposed to make it possible to re-process many of the old rods, extracting more energy and making the waste less radioactive at the same time. Once again, time will tell.

6) Dead cats

A German inventor figured out a way to power cars with dead cats. He has since denied using dead cats (you can use any kind of bio-waste to fuel the vehicle), but one can always hope this catches on. :)

This brings me to the main topic of this post: ocean power. One of the more fascinating and potentially most promising ideas I have seen is to harness the power of the ocean to solve our energy needs. This technique was developed by an 80 year-old inventor named John Piña Craven. There is an excellent description of this technique in an article in Wired magazine. The main idea is that there is a huge reservoir of super-chilled water at the bottom of the ocean (just above freezing). This water can be pumped to the surface using large plastic pipes. The temperature difference between this chilled water and warmer surface water can be used to drive an ammonia-based heat exchanger connected to a turbine/electrical generator. The best thing about the process is that it is clean and renewable. Some small-scale tests have shown great promise and the technique is currently undergoing larger tests by the U.S. Navy. The inventors envision massive floating power platforms in the ocean where the energy is used to convert water to hydrogen. The hydrogen would then be transferred to large tankers and distributed around the world for use in fuel cells. This will be an exciting development to watch in the next few years. For the sake of our kids and grandkids, let's pray that it works out.

Book review sampler

2005-12-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

I love to read. I wish I were independently wealthy and could spend several hours a day reading good books. As it is, I have to sneak in my reading time whenever I can: sitting on the can, sitting in an airplane, late at night, etc. My reading tastes have evolved a bit over the years, but I enjoy a pretty wide variety of genres. I am particularly fond of U.S. and WWII history on the serious side and legal and crime thrillers on the lighter side.

One of the things I want to do with this blog is post reviews of books I have read. To get things rolling, I dug up an e-mail I sent to Jeff Davis a while back with some short reviews of books I have read. This is a combination of favorite all-time books and books I have read recently. I have updated this list and I thought it would be a good place to start.

Anyway, here goes (in no particular order):

1. The Devil and the White City - Erik Larson

Starts a little slow, but is an awesome book. True story about two figures: the architect of the chicago worlds fair and a mass murder at the same time frame/location. Both stories are fascinating. A unique mix of engineering, history, and detective drama/thriller. Highly recommended.

2. Pompeii - Robert Harris

Historical fiction about the famous eruption of mt. versuvius. Told through the eyes of a water engineer. I really enjoyed it. Supposedly, all of the details of the setting were meticulously researched. So you get a pretty interesting story wrapped in some fascinating history. And an interesting discussion of Roman engineering.

3. Michael Connelly novels.

I have read most of Connelly's books. Regarded by many as the best mystery/dectective story author working today. Highly recommended.

4. John Adams - David McCullough

David McCullough is my favorite author. May seem a little daunting based on the size and the content (a biography), but one of the best books I have ever read. This book won the Pulitzer Prize.

5. Truman - David McCullough

Another classic by McCullough. Also won the Pulitzer Prize. 1120 pages, but you are still disappointed when you get to the end. Truman was thrown into the presidency out of nowhere at one of the most critical times on our nation's history. Fascinating story.

6. 1776 - David McCullough

The latest book by McCullough. Tells the story of the events in 1776, focusing on General Washington and the Continental Army. The theme of the book is that things could have very easily gone the other way in the war. In fact, it is pretty miraculous that the completely overwhelmed revolutionaries weren't quickly annihilated. My only complaint with the book: too short.

7. Benjamin Franklin - Walter Isaacson

Finished this earlier this year. Just as enjoyable as the John Adams book. If I had to pick, I would choose the John Adams book, but Franklin's life was so fascinating that both books are awfully good.

8. Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson

This is going back a few years, but a very good book. Mystery novel set in the pacific northwest during WW2 era. Outstanding story. Beautifully written. They made a movie about it, but I have not seen the movie.

9. Flags of our Fathers - James Bradley

WW2 story of the flag raisers on Iwo Jima. The bulk of the book is a history of the Iwo Jima battle. But a big part of the book is about the flag raisers and what happened to them. Written by the son of one of the flag raisers. Exceptional book. Highly recommended. Currently being made into a movie by Clint Eastwood. Early buzz is very good. Can't wait to see it.

10. Ghost Soldiers - Hampton Sides

Story of the Bataan death march and an amazing rescue mission at the end of the war. Fascinating history and excellently written. Recently made into a movie but I hear the movie wasn't that great.

11. Citizen Soldiers - Steven Ambrose

One of my favorite Steven Ambrose books. Tells the story of the US war effort in WW2 in Europe from D-Day to the fall of Berlin.

12. Undaunted Courage - Steven Ambrose

My other favorite book by Steven Ambrose. Story of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

13. Scott Turrow Novels

Scott Turrow has been called the "Thinking man's John Grisham". His books are primarily legal thrillers. Goodstory telling like Grisham but the plot, characters, and story development are at a much higher level. Outstanding writer. His best book was called Presumed Innocent. Pretty famous movie a few years back with Harrison Ford. I have read most, but not all, of Turrow's books.

14. All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy

National Book Award winning story about a young man venturing into Mexico (1930's???). Harsh story, beautifully written. One of my favorites. After reading this, I read most of the other Cormac McCarthy books. All were good, but none quite so good as this one. I have not seen the movie. A critic recently stated that he thought McCarthy's Blood Meridian is the greatest American novel ever.

So much for originality

2005-12-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I thought I was pretty original with that "A room full of monkeys" title to my original blog. A few minutes on google dispelled that myth. There are dozens of blogs with similar titles. So I decided to stick with the same concept, but be a little more obscure. At the same time, I decided to go with a more generic URL for my blog (http://normjones.blogspot.com) and this way I can change the title all I want.

Woohoo, I have a blog!

2005-12-05T21:32:00.000-08:00

After months of talking about it, I finally got the blog going. You know, the hardest part about starting a blog is deciding on a clever name. The last thing I wanted to do was post a blog called "Norm's Blog", or "Jones Journal" or something boring like that. I had lots of ideas that seemed pretty cool at the time, but they were all taken. Interestingly, most of them appeared to be used by folks who started a blog but then never posted anything to it (weenies!). There ought to be a rule against passive use of clever blog titles. Six months without a post and you should be history.

Anyway, stay tuned for more posts.

And does anyone get the gist of my title?