My Blog has Moved!!

My blog is now over here. It looks a lot better, no?

http://markii.wordpress.com/

See you over there!

Mark

Happy HalloW33N in November

Looking for something different to do in NOVEMBER? Try checking out the After Dark Horrorfest (see video) . Looks interesting...

Also: You think Halloween has pagan roots? Guess again. Two new histories of America's second favorite holiday reveal the truth. (Read Article here).

Google Does it Again!

I check a few blogs and websites regularly and Google Reader has made it tons TONS easier to do so. Watch the quick video to see what I mean.

Buy this cD

Hey finally a cd that I like! You should check it out.

Play this Game

Yo you gotta check dis game out. Shi'z tight.

Electronic Garments Sense Emotion

From article:

Related technologies could someday lead to cars that automatically navigate a quiet route when the driver is stressed, or chairs that sense exhaustion and automatically dim the room lights.

Try This Game: Nudist Trampolining

Fun game in which you control a nudist trampoliner. Use the keypad to do different moves whilst trampolining.

Bill Clinton: I got closer to killing bin Laden

CNN article found here. In a contentious taped interview that aired on "Fox News Sunday," former President Bill Clinton vigorously defended his efforts as president to capture and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Funny Quote I Heard On The Radio

Funny Quote:

Molly: "Perry, no one's pure evil… I mean yeah, some people have a hard outer shell, but inside everyone has a creamy center."
Cox: "There are plenty of people here, on this particular planet, who are hard on the outside AND hard on the inside."
Molly: "So they have more of a nougat-y center??"
Cox: "Lady, people aren't chocolates… Do you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling. But I don't find them half as annoying as I find naive, bubble-headed optimists who walk around vomiting sunshine."

Xbox 360

Yeahhhh I finally opened up my 360 that I've had sittin' around for a while and I hooked it up to a HDTV today. It looks beautiful! My wife and I have been playing Halo 2 online but that's not all you can do with a 360. There is an option to scan your local network for computers, and once found you can link your computer's photos and music to the Xbox. There's also USB ports to connect your iPod and listen to it while you play. You can even play your playlists from iTunes. Or, when playing from your music library you can choose a high-def screensaver that is amazing to look at. It's incredible- even moreso now that I'm looking at HD. Anyways, that's it! Go get your own 'cause it's worth it. You can look me up online: my gamertag is T1ESTO (that's a "zero" for the "o") anyways.

pEACE.

Bear Lake!

Today is Independence Day. My wife is sleeping on the bed while fireworks are going off outside. We just got back from a little trip to Bear Lake in Idaho. We left on the second. We went up with my wife's family and and some friends. As soon as we got there we set up camp. It was fun to set up the new tent we bought from the camping store the other day. Its a three-man tent made by Coleman. My head and feet touch the two ends of the tent but besides that its cool. There were some Brazilian families there at the campsite we were staying at. A Gaucho named Junior was cooking Churrasco for everyone. We ate and it was delicious. At night my friend and I played the guitar around the campfire, we had smores and sang and talked.

The next day the sun was cooking so bad that we had to get right out of our tent. We had breakfast. They made some breakfast burritos that were awesome. We went to the lake. It was amazing. Really beautiful. We stayed on the beach in our chairs the whole day. Some played soccer. I laid on the beach and fell asleep listening to DJ Tiesto. Luckily I was using SPF 45 because I fell asleep in the sun. I ended up staying in the sun the entire day. At around 3 we rented Wave Runners. My wife and I went out, then later we went with our daughter. I've never seen her that excited or having that much fun. It really is so fun to take her out and do fun things. We've kind of made this a Fourth of July tradition to rent Wave Runners.

When we got back I was so tired I fell asleep in my chair at the campfire wearing my sunglasses and headphones. I went into the tent as soon as it got dark and slept before anyone in the whole camp. The next day we got up and packed our stuff to go to a famous buffet-style breakfast they have in Bear Lake every Fourth of July. We got there and there was at least a hundred people in line so we bounced. I found someone selling used books in an alley between two stores. I found three books I wanted and asked the price $1. The only problem was that nobody carries cash these days. I didnt have a dollar. No one around accepted CCs and they said there were no ATMs in the city (we were in Paris, Idaho). I got a dollar lent to me after running around everywhere and I was able to buy A Wrinkle In Time, by Stephin Hawking, The Quran, by Muhammad, maybe; and Go Ask Alice which is a journal comparable to the book Jays Journal which is about a boy from Utah and his journal entries about him getting into withcraft and drugs.

We drove back after having an amazing banana-crème shake from the raspberry shake store. On the way back we were almost killed by some idiot cutting us off with his Dodge pulling a trailor. When we passed through Logan I called John Dehlin to come by and see him but he was at work. He called me later and we talked for a little bit. We're gonna meet up at Sunstone where he will be speaking on some panels and presentations. We ended up going to Fashion Place Mall. A Chinese man asked me how to join the LDS church, if I had any sisters, and if I knew any women who liked Chinese men. I bought a leather wrist band.

On the way home my mom told me to meet up with everyone at my aunt's house for a BBQ. We went over there and saw my newlywed aunt and uncle, my parents, and cousins. My dad has been really grumpy, especially today, so I gave him a hard time and kept making fun of him for being down. He punched me in the solar-plexus (I think on accident) and I couldn't talk for three minutes. No one knew I was in so much pain because they were watching Americas Funniest Home Videos and were laughing too hard to pay attention to me wincing. I cooked a bad-ass steak, though.

Brazilian Soccer and Asian Meditation

Today was the World Cup again. Brazil has already beaten a few other countries (we watched Brazil vs Ghana in the theatre room next door with two Brazilian families with us), and today they were to play France. My wife and I watched it at a friend's apt. in Branbury with some friends. It was a VERY stressful first half. We were all shouting, rooting and pleading for Brazil to make a goal and stop the other team from scoring. We could all see that France was playing better overall and it was killing us. I was really upset (as was everyone else) and when halftime came around with Brazil still having no goals, I went outside to get some air. I was way stressed.

This morning I had listened to a Sunstone podcast talking about meditation and how it can relieve stress. I laid in the grass in the shade and closed my eyes. I breathed in through my stomach instead of through my chest. I concentrated on my mantra. I tried to clear the clutter of thoughts in my head. It took at least ten minutes to have the ocean of my mind calm. When it did I felt as if I was about to sleep. I was still conscious, though My mind became clear and a physical feeling like that of the Spirit came over my body, starting in my mind. It felt very good. It was physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The stress and ruckus from the game was now being replaced by this feeling of peace and calm. I was even able to turn off my phone while in this state and still continue Zen. This showed me that I was still conscious. The physical sensation that came over me was great. My lips went numb, though for some reason, and my mouth wanted to turn downwards, which kind of bothered/ worried me. I'm sure it was nothing though and I'll look into that later.

When I went back inside to watch the 2^nd half of the game, everyone could see that something had happened to me. They were all wondering what was wrong with me. I just said that I was fine and then watched the game in complete peace...(until Brazil lost, that is).

After Brazil lost, everyone was down. We went for some comfort-food in a Japanese restaurant called Asuka and had their All-You-Can-Eat Sushi. The sushi was amazing. We ordered so much Sushi that we had to take home boxes of Sushi. My wife was so bummed out by the game that she was moody the rest of the day. The stress was so bad that she even got nauseous! I think that she should try the relaxation and meditation techniques that worked for me today.

After lunch we went to a Churrasco (Brazilian-style BBQ) in a park in Provo. I couldnt eat, I was so stuffed but the meat was amazing, though. I played with my daughter (5) and her friend Rebecca (4). I pushed them on the swings and then when I was laying down in the grass I let them beat me up for twenty minutes straight (I wanted to see when they would get tired of hitting me). I played my father-in-law in tennis and lost miserably. The last time I had played I must have been twelve years old in Ohio visiting my grandparents. They had the perfect setup. Their backyard housed acres and acres of forest where I would find snakes, spiders and toads as a kid. The tennis court was right next to their own pond so when it got too hot I could quickly go for a swim and cool off. My dad even used to catch snapping turtles there when he was a kid. My grandpa was excellent at tennis. He would regularly play with Jeffrey Dahmer's dad, who lived in his neighborhood. He said that when they found the body parts in his home that the police sirens went right by his house to the Dahmers. He had met Jeffrey Dahmer several times as well. I would like to become good at tennis because I saw how it was a sport that my grandpa could play late in his life and still be active.

My Top 10 Places To See in Brazil

I have visited many interesting places in Brazil (I have been there three times so far). People ask me a lot about what places I recommend visiting so I put together this list and pass it on to friends and family when needed. Here is the list (for more pictures of each place I list, simply Google-search the names below):

1) Fernando de Noronha: beautiful beaches and only 400 or so tourists allowed on the island at a time. definately an amazing place to see. My favorite part of our family vacation to Brazil was this little secluded island off the coast of Recife called Fernando de Noronha. We ended up staying in a Bed and Breakfast with some of the locals on the island. The first night we left all of our bags in our rooms and walked down to the nearest of 20 beaches on the island. Each of these twenty beaches has its own character, charm and beauty. The island as a whole is beautiful. Just gorgeous. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place. Warm, secluded, beautiful scenery, an ideal place. Just off the soft sand of the beaches, low rocky hills embraced the beach like protective arms. When we climbed these, we found natural pools filled with clear, warm water, placed sporadically throughout the area. It was a paradise. There were no gates around the houses like the rest of Brazil because there is virtually no crime there. Just peace-loving locals that have lived there their whole live, which is , by the way, the only way you can become a resident of the island.

Being an archipelago home to thousands of species of all kinds of animal life, strict laws are abided by. Almost no cars exist, to help clean the air, only four-person buggies roaming around the streets. You can walk from beach to beach and when you need a ride you can hop in the back of someone's buggy that might be passing by. Everyone’s like family there and they’ll give you a lift or even a tour. For $20.00 we were able to take a trip around the whole island by boat and they promise a 97% chance of having the company of dozens of dolphins swim side-by-side with your boat. We were able to see the dolphins and it was beautiful. It was a neat experience.

Just on the island, though, we ended up seeing an octopus, a Lixa Shark (harmless and common on the “rough side” of the island), a tortoise, moray eels, a sea snake, dolphins, and several sting rays. We also saw many schools of large, colorful fish swimming through the remainders of a sunken ship. We estimated that we could see for about 40' in the crystal-clear water. I could go on and on about this miraculous little island in the ocean but I’m not trying to write a book on the place. Needless to say, it was an adventure. One night, hungry and without food or credit card, we fended for ourselves and struggled tirelessly to crack open coconuts to drink their milk and eat their fruit. That was a chore and a night to remember. Another one of the neat characteristics of the island is a beach called Praia do Sancho with its 30' tall walls around it. One of us found a ladder which lead to a vertical passageway to the top of the hill. On top we found some interesting antique weapons of war and remnants of a military base. Climbing our way up through that tunnel and being surrounded by the natural beauty and lush forests felt like something out of a movie. I hope to one day return and visit this well-kept secret.

2) Porto de galinhas: supposed to have beautiful beaches too.

3) Rio de Janeiro: Lots of stuff to do and see. It has a little of everything. It has lush mountains, lush forests, beautiful beaches, large city.

4) Pantanal (found in Mato Grosso do Norte): ABUNDANT wildlife. Many,
many birds to see. you will see more wildlife here than if you travel to
the amazons.

5) Bonito: cool snorkeling here

6) Salvador: very old; lots of culture here (ca poeira- brazilian martial
art; old cathedrals, etc.)

7) Rio Grande do Sul: "southern" Brazil. much European/ German influence
here. generally lighter-skinned Brazilians, some interesting places to see. Porto Alegre: Nearby is Gramado- a German-style city with a large waterfall. It is comparable to Utah's Park City in its uniqueness and touristy feel. Garopabo is a very cool surf/beach city a few hours away. Porto Alegre is home to the best churrascarias (brazilian bbq restaurants)

8) Foz de Iguacu: (Iguazu Falls- see picture on left). Amazing. Stunning. Definately worth
visiting. To me its the most beautiful place on Earth that I've seen so far.

9) Sao Paulo: Just flying over the airport and city is good enough. It's
cool to see so many tall buildings/skyscrapers but you can do that by flying
over the city. Once you're in the city it is just like any other big city.
It's dirty, too.

10) Amazonas: on a boat trip in the Amazons we saw some pink dolphins as we were fishing for piranhas. I caught 6 piranhas with a simple stick, string, and bloody meat attached to the string on a hook. Eating cooked piranha was not very tasty. Also in the river, we could see aligator's eyes at night. Our host jumped in the water and caught a baby alligator and jumped back in the boat with it so we could hold it. We swam in the Amazon river during the day (that was kind of scary). Monkey's played around the hotel all day long. The bigger monkeys let you pick them up and play with them, too.