cultural cannon fodder

a recent series of events has been plaguing our newswires and toystores, and it all comes from the quality of toy production in china.

in a few conversations i have had with a few close friends and colleagues, the notion of china as a economic superpower ringed true in our minds. its never been a thought of ours that china could lose their grasp on our economic production methods. their greatest natural resource, their workforce, has always been, always will be, a great source of power. the old phrase, "never start a land war in china" will always be a fact it seems.

through this natural resource a great commodity is on the verge of collapse. though endless products can be made, whatever, whenever, however, is no longer or should no longer be the issue. i remember a short chat i had with a rep from a manufacturing plant in china telling me that he could make me whatever, for so much cheaper than anywhere else. he didn't care what it was, he guaranteed me that he would produce a product i would be proud of. i was thinking of alarm systems, and he didn't blink an eye, simply said, "great, here's my card. lets talk!"

how scary it is for the plant representatives now that this mentality is on the cusp of disassemblement. i don't even know if that's a word, but it is now, and most appropriately. nathaniel, if your reading this, i think you know the proper word. help me. also, congrats on the new baby boy. hes adorable.

anyway, i digress.

the response of the american corporations has been rather well. a few companies who were not part of the original products have stepped forward and taken extra products off the lineup. toys-r-us is to be commended. i buy all of my nintendo wii stuff from them for a reason...


but the real question lies in how the american consumer will react long term. americans are generally short in the memory division when talking about their pocketbooks. they want things cheap and now, and this whole high lead content may be passed over quickly. will the american consumer step up and demand a higher quality product for a higher price, and will they remember the price of gas is higher and filling that SUV isn't getting less.

i guess the real question is if anyone is even reading this...hehe.

so i know i am not supposed to say this, but bishop higgins is da bomb. he cares deeply for his flock, and does the uptmost to make sure we, his flock are cared for.

many of you may not know, but he has a website that he uses for helping the ward out. unlike other bishops, bishop g hig (ok, i admit bishop, thats what we call you in certain circles, g-hig, we also call you bee gee, higgy, and sugar baby higgy buttoms) doesnt delegate this calling to the internet coordinator or a website specialist in the relief society, he does this out of the kindness of his own heart. what a guy.

this website address is:

http://bishophiggins.blogspot.com/

i welcome everyone to visit this website and participate in the ward activities coming up. its sure to be a good time.

also, make sure you keep coming back here too...

yep, its been a while. a long while. i have been around, here and there and everywhere. my current location is in burbank california. i still work with the same alarm company running the technical aspect of things. its a good job, but the hours are long and some of the customers are crazy. one advantage of it all is the job is seasonal and i get time off to do things i enjoy, like camping, photography, and traveling to distant cities to watch a concert or two.

speaking of photography, i made the mistake of not bringing my camera with me in my truck. my usual habit is to pack my camera in the center console, and then have it out taking pics and experimenting with new methods of photography.

there are also opportunities to shoot such odd events that are so unbelievable that a picture is the only way to make something believable. my luck wasnt with me yesterday.

while in compton, one will notice churches on almost every block. its almost sickening to see this many churches and then wonder if there are so many churches then why is the area such a shithole of a place to live...

and there it was, the advertisment for this weeks sermon:

HAVE YOU BEEN SPIRITUALLY CIRCUMSIZED?

i didnt know my soul needed that. ouch. what would you use, a spiritual knife, or just one thats really sharp?

on a better note, i welcome everyone to come back to my site, spread the word that i still live, and that i didnt get lost.

hyrum

ok, so i was hooked from the start.

yeah, the hook was deep and i wasnt gonna let go.

it was myspace.

i fought the fight for as long as i could. for months, i would fight the urge to join myspace invites from what i thought were friends. i even took things to the extreme and blocked any myspace email to my site (thank you so much google gmail beta, i love you). for a long period, i lived by the phrase, "friends dont let friends join myspace."

then it happened.

AND DAMN IT WAS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SO GOOD I ASKED ALL OF MY FRIENDS TO JOIN MYSPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i caught the spirit of myspace. and oh what a sweet spirit it was. it was the kinda sweet spirit and was good enough to get to heaven, but to heavy to get lifted off of the ground.

and in the space of one week, the nation got hot and power outages occured, forcing myspace to have some technical issues. all of the sudden, most of the internet world had nothing to do.

today my myspace account was said to be deleted. at first, i thought of the countless bands i had associated with, the high school buds i used to drink beer with, and oh man, the soft porn babes in scantily clad clothes wanting to be my friend, and then it hit me......

i was a myspace dork.

no more, well, at least til i can get my friend list back up to at least 85 again.

ps...the jesus pic is for les. thank you les for being the man you are.

so much has happened since my last posting from abq.

i got lazer eye sugery, lost 15 pounds due to running, and applied to grad school again. so much more is in the horizons for me thats its hard to not ideal to keep this blog as updated as i should.

anyway, went to a mason jennings concert in l.a. a few weeks back and it was incredible.

the pic was from a previous show but i love it so much i had to post it for all to enjoy. thanks kelicia.

hyrum

so i just got back from vacation from vacation. i was second tier vacationing, if thats possible. while camping up in maine, i visited many incredible spots. since this is the first post in quite a while, i dont want to do too much to burn myself out. but until my next post, i feel i must prove i was in maine for all the skeptics out there.

oh yeah, and i regret to post that one lobster did die due to my hunger. but just one, cause otherwise my wallet would have been starving.

for any of you who dont know this, i was recently transferred to albuquerque. it was a work related move.

one of the highlights of my day has been to watch gilmore girls. it sounds fruity, which is rather applicable to this post actually. so anyway, the mom is hot, so i dont think its as fruity as it sounds, maybe its just stalkerish and creepy, i dont know yet. that could be a future post, who knows.

so anyway, i was installing this alarm (cause my techs were all busy) in this rather beat down home. one of the kids that was in the living room there emotional while watching television. needless to say, it was the movie titanic. i was amazed. he was rather thick but groomed for his age. he did not belong there.

out of all the children that i saw (which was about 6 of them, its hard to count when they run that fast), he was the proper one. he showed me what to put alarm sensors on, and was also very cordial and served me, get this, water with a squeeze of lemon juice from a bottle. he said its his favorite, lemon water. yeah, it was refreshing.

as i was finishing my install, he was right behind me with a broom and dust pan to clean after me. after my install, i usually like to get out of the crazy houses, but this kid was crazy. he turned off his television (there were 3 in the front room), and escorted me out of the house to my truck. he gave me 5 bucks for a tip. he said it was from his mom, and thanked me for making his house safer. yeah, he had a certain lisp in his voice too.

ABQ (from what i surmassed, abq is the short version of albuquerque) is a great town so far from what i have seen. i have checked a great used book store, the rei is right down the street from me, the view is nice (the mountain side of course), and the food isnt too shabby. i am proud to say that i now know how to spell albuquerque.