4th of July Traditions

The Family '08

Traditions can be good and they can be bad. Traditions of censorship like those at BYU are bad... I say that mainly just to poke those Y fans out there reading because it's rivalry week!

Side Note: I love this week. GO UTES!

Okay, back on topic. I love certain traditions we have. One in particular that I have a love-hate relationship with is the 4th of July family celebration. We all....ALL...head up to my Dad's cabin and set up a miniature city on the grass. This year, there were 3 motor homes, a couple tents, and a ton of cars/trucks. Once everyone is there, it's a barrage of fishing, four-wheeling, flaming 'mallows and fireworks. We take everyone out fishing, too many people in a little tin boat, and fish until the cows come home. I guess in this case it would be the fish, not cows. It was a slow year though since the powers that be in the DWR aren't the sharpest crayons in the box. That's a different issue. The town of Scofield (yes, there is an official town with a hall, a school, a store, a fire department and everything) hosts the Pleasant Valley Days, including a parade, a knick knack fair, a dance, a breakfast and everything. We participate every year in the parade. Each year lots of work goes into getting all the grandkids into a float somehow. The number of children now....exceedingly great thereof. Hence the love and hate. What a great time, but it's exhausting, and a state of barely controlled chaos!

This year it was grandpa's African animal safari. The kids wore those animal masks...lions and tigers and bears...oh my! Dad walked behind with the safari hat and a crop...I guess the whip would have been too much. It was great fun and the kids collect about 5 bags too much candy.

By the way, Mark has his Miss America wave for the parade down packed!

It's packed by the way. You'd think this would be a small affair with the town having a population of less than 100 officially, but no, you'd be wrong. This place is PACKED. It's actually really pretty in this setting and really laid back. That night, the greatest fireworks display you can find. Not just because they go all out and get the fireworks kits you'd see (like I did) at Taylorsville Dayzz and other events of it's size, but because they launch them from from the island in the middle of the lake. The mountains around the lake with all the cabins make for great stadium seating with nothing to block your view. Eye level with the fireworks and looking across a perfect mirror of a lake. My favorites are the extra loud ones...they echo around the valley. Prior to this show there is a boat "light" parade, which is rather entertaining because I'm pretty sure that everyone out there with christmas lights on their boats are nearly drunk and can barely see their own hand. But it snakes its way disjointedly around the lake and parks next to the island in the hopes of catching a flaming shard of firework.

What a great time. I was merely satisfied to stare at the completed roof that was such a process to install. Probably the best part of this year's festivites was the surpise arrival of my uncle Mark from Minnesota. He drove out with Barb and his granddaughter and pulled up to surprise everyone. I love my uncle Mark. I would call him my favorite, but I think that each one is so uniquely different that each is a favorite for some reason or another. Uncle Mark is favorite in the category of "Most Exactly Like John Candy in Uncle Buck." He taught me every dirty thing I know, threatened my life when I did stupid things and has to be one of the most fun guys to hang with ever. He's always been, and still is, the only person who calls me Rupert and gets away with it cleanly.

More to come. As for now I'm back to applications for Rach and I, research, and waiting for the next call from "God" (Uncle Mark) telling my wife to give me a swift kick in the butt and tell me it's holy intervention.

Creativity

I thought I'd post a simple update as well as pose a question. Seeing as the few who actually read our lethargic blog are immensely creative as well as some of the smartest people I know, I thought I'd pose this question:

When you have to generate it, how do you approach important writing? Do you have a process? Or is it seemingly closer to Andy Ludwig's, offensive coordinator for the Utes, process which apparently utilizes a blindfold, some darts, and a play list covered board?

I know how to write....well...mostly. I've never excelled in English classes, I guess that's why I didn't choose it as my major. Though I enjoy reading, and comprehend it, I'm slow at it. Grammar work, as well as a class sized discussion of 'what really lies inside the Heart of Darkness' was as good as NyQuil for me. Normally, when I sit and write, there is little process to it unless it's for work or for school. I have a template for engineering memos, I have a format for corporate license agreements and MTA's, but is there a proper way or process to write important, yet creatively driven and completely open-ended pieces?

The reason I posted this is I'm down to the final bullet I have to check off before a wave of my law school applications can be sent in - The Personal Statement (now is when you gasp and the dun dun dun occurs somewhere off set). It's a 2 page opportunity for an applicant to say whatever it is the admissions personnel can't glean from the rest of your application...which isn't much, by the way. The application consists of your LSAT score, your degree and cumulative undergraduate GPA, any other schooling you've completed, an extensive work history (all the way back to high school), and a one page resume that encompasses these jobs as well as any other achievements you can squeeze onto an 8x11 sheet of tree pulp while still making it readable. I've got some vague ideas I've generated for my personal statement, experiences I want to include, but is there a 'preferred' method of laying them out, tying them together and making the whole boat float, or shine? ..if you get my drift/horrible metaphor. As of now, I think I'm just goint to utilize my standard - an outline of sorts, but filling in the gaps is proving difficult.

As far as updates go, which I've thus far neglected, I'm proud to say we are alive and well...er...at least alive. I've spent this week fighting off a rather unique and bothersome virus. Rach has spent it rejoicing in the fact that 5.5 more weeks and she's out of the hardest semester she's come up against to date. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the basic components of my applications, which will move the process to proofreading and submitting each one, and then completing a set of applications one at a time by completing all their supplemental forms. I have a list of 15 or so schools I'll be applying to. Rachel is getting her applications ready for 5 or so of my schools' PhD in Statistics/Biostatistics/Bioinformatics programs. She's incredibly busy. Otherwise, I'm neck deep in lab research, still trying to get my thesis writing moving faster, working at the technology commercialization office at the U, and I just picked up an LSAT tutor student who is getting ready for the December test. Elvis and Hanna are defiant teenagers (17 months old) who now sport their training collars all day long because they're pretty...not because I need to shock them through the window all day long because they are misbehaving ;).

I plan on posting more old updates for your entertainment as some time frees up, but I have a feeling that it's a date not prior to the date all my applications are complete.