Author: Sagacity

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The Count Down

The count down is continuing.  I am not stressed.  I am not disorganized.  I keep marching the best I can.  What else can I do?

A little over three weeks and I have my first final in Contracts.  I feel like I have no confident grasp on the material.  At least in Torts and Civil Procedure I feel like I have an idea of what is going on.  Contracts leaves me frustrated and irritated.  Part of it is the professor who I feel is trying to dumb it down and in the process has made it so convoluted it isn’t making sense.  I learn more in reading outside material in Contracts than I do in class.  Unfortunately, the professor is the one grading my final and he is my audience.  I am performing for him and have to do it in a fashion acceptable to him.  Well, that isn’t entirely true.  I just have to do average on it to be safe.

I never considered myself above anyone else.  However, I have seen a couple come crashing to reality this week.  I do feel my pride pricked in a number of ways.  I received my first C on a test.  I did better in Calculus.  It didn’t hurt because I was not making it my major!  I actually received a C+ for whatever that is worth.  It was kind of the professor to remind me that C is average so I did slightly better than average.  My first memo squeaked in with a B-.  Fortunately I was not one of the 7 F grades out of about 25 or so students in the writing section.  There were a couple of A grades, but I have yet to put a face with those individuals.

All those years in educational theory.  They worked so hard to convince us our system had become watered down and grades did not mean what they used to.  Those policy wonks obviously never experienced law school.  The C grade certainly still stands for average here.

The 2L and 3L students are quick to remind us all final exams really should receive an F grade but the professors have to curve it up.  So the average F becomes a C.  I find it somewhat pleasing to know the grades actually mean what they are supposed to mean.  The harsh reality is I will have to work for that elusive A.  The sad thing, I am realizing that it may be unattainable.

The C+ was received on an examination that really doesn’t amount to much.  It was citation for crying out loud.  I cannot even score an A on a citation exam.  How encouraging is that three weeks out from finals?  The best part, all examinations are timed.  Just like the citation exam, it is nearly impossible to do a sufficient job if you understood the material.  It is like swimming in a swamp at nighttime trying to follow the moon.

The old saying that these are the times that try men’s souls.  I do not feel doubt or fear.  But more acutely than any point in my life I sense urgency.  The mission always brought the watch cry, “Do you feel the urgency of this work, Elder?”  Every moment I am less than diligent I feel like Walmart.  Rather than prices dropping, every second away from diligence in studying I see my grades dropping.

The Dean attempts to console us in reminding us that 90% of lawyers out there were not the top 10% in their class.  We all roll our eyes at the platitude remembering the bottom 10% probably never graduated law school.  Even more do not pass the bar exam.  Meaning, only about 70% of lawyers out there were not in the top 10% of their class.  While I am confident the rest are not pumping gas in Oregon, they nevertheless are not lawyering!

My final examination for Legal Writing & Analysis is due on Tuesday.  I must have spent nearly 40 hours so far in researching, writing, editing, and working on the paper.  The worst part?  I cannot show it to anyone!!!!  The grammar is all mine.  The sentence structure is all mine.  The word choices are all mine.  The tense, passive voice, adverbs, and all the rest are solely mine.  It is highly frustrating to know a class is based solely on my previous knowledge!!  I cannot get help or attempt help from a writing lab.  I cannot read a book on grammar, there is no time.  The document is of such a nature they don’t let me assign my name to it.  I have an examination number, supposedly to make it subjective for grading.  Meaning, that document cannot give any direct impression it belongs to me or I will lose all credit.  I have to be especially careful it conforms to my classmates and yet has to be above average.  How is that for a standard?  My professor especially warned me to not use any Britishisms.  The best part, I cannot show it to anyone to make sure I did not slip up on one single word which might disclose my identity.  My professor is British and she knows I lived there for several years.

Despite what others joke about an Idaho education, I feel very blessed.  For the most part my teachers taught grammar, sentence structure, and all the rest.  At least I have the background.  Damn them and me for not making more of an effort.  If I had paid attention then I would be less average than I am now!  How strangely I appreciate Mrs. Allen, Mrs. Suhr, Mrs. Workman for the lessons I remember then giving.  I am sure other teachers covered but their lessons were less memorable.  If only I had understood then how seriously it would be breaking me now.

August through December have been nothing but classes.  Each class has covered 100’s of pages of material.  We are to understand the rules, nuances, ideas, and law emanating from the combined 1000 pages of information.  I have to outline it, brief it, understand it, know it.  But when that examination comes I cannot just attempt to waste ink on 1000 pages of material.  The professors then give us a scenario and we have to analyze it, apply it, understand it, and predict it.  If I could regurgetate the entire 1000 pages in the combined 9 hours of testing, I would still fail.  I have to present it in such away around the facts the professor has given in a manner in which they approve.

This might as well be the military in some small way.  The old line they break you down before they break you up.  Only from what I hear they just keep breaking you down.

There is solace for me.  Thousands have walked the trail before and lived to tell the tale.  I am not walking this path alone.  I never have walked any path alone.  I never have been the first down any road.  I have never have been a pioneer, just followed in the tracks of those who went before.  The road is before me, shining in the sun.  Okay, I am exhausted and terribly thirsty.  I sure want to sit down and take a rest for a couple of weeks but that would be death.  That would literally kill my career and hopes for the future.  So I press on like weary saints who walked over 1,000 miles.  We all have our roads to walk, I am aware of mine at present.

As long as I continue at least average I will make it to the valley.  Just a few more weeks to walk.  Oh, and how exciting, I get to start the journey all over again in January!  Even better, I get to do it with even a heavier load!!

We watched Atonement this evening.  Boy am I glad I am not carrying stones like that.  How difficult to go throughout life with that on your shoulders.  I do not believe it is from a true story, but I am in a better situation than that.  Okay, back to the memo.

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Election night, and all through the country…

It is the eve of what some are saying is the most important election for a long, long time.  Some say since FDR, some say Kennedy, some say Lincoln.  We will just have to wait to see what the outcome is of the next President.  However, I thought I would walk through a couple of ideas since I am really torn on who to vote for.

The number one priority for me is to put our house in order.  That starts first and foremost with balancing the budget and paying off the bills.  Some of the most important bills deal with the debt.  So where do the candidates stand there?  Well, McCain belongs to the party who pays lip service to balancing the budget, small government, and paying off the bills.  The Reagan Revolution supposedly did what the Republicans said they were going to do.  Although there is quite a bit of argument of whether he just redistributed and made things appear more in the black.  Generally speaking Reagan is granted the balancing the budget and paying off some bills.  Fast forward a few years and we end up with George W. Bush.  The man spoke the talk but has been an outright liar when it comes to the facts.  If there is one thing I definitely deplore the man for is saddling me and my posterity with a great degree of debt.  The Republicans, if they could have ever been my party, have left me sorely disappointed.

Lets take a look at the other side of the aisle, the Democrats.  What has Obama promised in terms of balancing the budget and paying the bills?  He compares it to a household budget, that when times are lean you cut the pork and go out to eat a little less.  While this is comforting to a degree, we have no real record.  The Clinton’s certainly appear to have left us with the spending in the black.  If there is any indication on where Obama may go, this is some comfort.  However, the Democrats are the ones responsible for the New Deal, The Glorious Revolution, and most of our wars for the past century which are terribly expensive.  In light of the past century, the Democrats scare me, but in light of the disastrous budgetary past 8 years, I may be willing to give the Democrats another chance.  McCain doesn’t seem to have any beefs about war for the next 100 years and we simply cannot afford that.

While we are discussing the war, let’s talk about it.  As most are very aware, I have been adamantly against Afghanistan and Iraq.  I voted against both Kerry and Bush in the last election for this very reason.  In my mind, it seems we could be scores more effective and prepared if we were to keep our military protecting our shores, manning our borders, and investing in technology for better protection.  Why we are off meddling in somebody else’s affairs have certainly concerned me.  Some refer to it as policing the world.  I refer to it as the biggest bully on the playground.  I remember those days.  The bully went around picking on everyone, drawing lines in the grass (figuratively speaking), and making sure everyone knew they were the big dog.  Well, those are the guys that most either cowered or, as we did, seek to undermine.  We hid their lunches.  We put bugs in their desks.  We got them in trouble.  For the most part, that is what I feel like we are doing.  We are running around trying to defend ourselves from a multitude of fires.  In the end, we are stretched too thin, too worn out, and then our friends go become friends with somebody else and they become the new bully.  The whole process starts all over again.  Sure, I got my beating a time or two when I was caught.  It made it all the more sweet when he ate the sandwich with a jalapeño instead of a pickle inside.

If we fast forward to ‘grown-up games’ we find things are pretty much the same.  However, now we use ‘reason’, ‘the purse’,  and the ‘military’ to be the bully.  Isn’t it ironic that we cannot seem to catch these people and there just becomes more and more of them?  The bigger the bully, more there are to undermine.  Then you get the feigned friends who hang out with the bully.  They only do so because he is the bully.  We see this with France, Britain, and other nations.  Would they be our friends anymore if we didn’t have the strength and wealth.  Probably not.

Here we have McCain willing to draw a bunch more lines in the sand and to defend them to the death.  Somehow it feels eerily Animal Farm where instead of crying the name of Napoleon for everything that is wrong, we cry Osama Bin Laden.  Slowly we are getting away from Bin Laden to Iran.  Bin Laden let way to Hussein.  McCain really worries me even though he was apparently ‘correct’ about the surge in Iraq.  In my mind we should not have been there, so why a surge does any good is of little consequence.  Our country has some serious issues, for the cost of the war in Iraq we could have replaced nearly every stretch of national highway and rebuilt every high school in the country.  Bridges collapsing, infrastructure failing, power grids outdated, schools failing, and we claim we don’t have the money?  What a sack of bull.  Obama seems much less inclined to pursue war in any direction.  He seems to gather more favor on my part regarding the war.

Looking back again over history.  The Democrats have been the party of war, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson.  The Republicans are the one’s who claimed to clean up the mess.  However, both parties have their history of war even though more minor skirmishes.  Bush has given a big black eye to the Republican image.  More importantly, the Republicans were the party more known for their isolationist ideas.  Boy are those days gone!  Bush has marched right in there with Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Roosevelt.  Lincoln is, of course, company for Bush, but then one can always argue whether that war was necessary as well.  Interestingly, we had Mr. Paul arguing for a less extreme approach to the secession of the Southern States (don’t forget, slavery while in the background was not the reason for the war).  Is war always the answer?  Obama or John?  Obama appears more reticent but ultimately, the ideology of the Democrats gives more easily to war (at least used to).

Then it comes to the economy.  Just as Clinton kept reminding us and the market has just reinforced.  Boy, isn’t it sad when the market does what we are warned about if we keep racking up debt?  Yet nobody seems so anxious to point out what is mostly obvious.  Pay off your debt, remove your waste, lose the greed, and prepare for the future.  Somehow our government doesn’t seem to recognize these values.  It will be the downfall of our nation if it continues.  We already have saddled on our backs a generation or more of debt.  That is if we are diligent in paying off the bills.  But somehow we seem to divorce debt, credit spending, and more from the example of the government following the people, or more likely the government following the people.  Either way, it has to be fixed now, and once we take care of our extravagence, then the economy will take care of itself.  What is more, if we were to put our government in order and we were not paying all this money on interest, what could we do?  Do you think any Democrat would turn down spending this money on health care?  Do you think any Republican would turn down tax cuts?  Do we realize how much money is being spent on interest and debt every year!  It is a terrible waste and is probably the greatest weakness of our nation.  Rather than throwing money we don’t have at a problem we cannot fully comprehend, how about we take care of our own troubles and let the rest work out on its own?  That will win the race.

Tax cuts.  We cannot pay off our debts with tax cuts.  We cannot pay off our debts with more programs.  We cannot pay off our debts without some changes.  Who will offer it.  Well, neither candidate has offered much for this.  More of the same rhetoric for which they are both weak in showing they would actually do.

Health Care.  Boy, another way of having it all backwards.  How about we let the market forces back into insurance and health care and we would see massive movement.  Deregulation of these industries would alter the way we see health care.  The extreme abuses, both to the government and to the polity, would be changed dramatically.  But then again, will either party do anything here.  No.  Will either candidate?  No.  Both are already cuing up the line for expanding health care.  While certainly noble, unless we change the basic foundation, nothing will change.  Both parties are a draw.

Well, there are the big issues.  Does either really distinguish the other?  Nope.  McCain is Republican and Obama is Democrat.  Republicans screwed up their chance running Congress and the Presidency.  Democrats screwed up their chance before as well.  Honestly speaking, I don’t want either.  Therefore, you will find me voting for neither party, neither candidate.

What does that leave me with?  The Constitution Party who strongly supports much of what I believe.  Chuck Baldwin is their candidate.  However, I cannot vote for him in Oklahoma since The Constitution Party is not on the ballot.  There is the Libertarian Party, which also seems to agree with what I have written.  They also are not on the ballot in Oklahoma.  (Which ironically sent my wife a notice that her registration was incomplete after the deadline.  She turned it in more than a month before the deadline and they could not notify her before the deadline??  Somebody should take up this issue with voter registration!)  So I am at a real loss.

I won’t go into the details concerning Oklahoma politics.  I won’t list my issues here.  Their biggest problem is the terrible roads!  I guess I will just have to write in William Borah or Robert La Follette.  Making a decision this election year is like being asked whether I preferred urine or vomit in my shake.  Neither please!

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MTC anniversary

The 28th was the 10 year anniversary of when I was supposed to enter the MTC.  Time has certainly flown!  Who would ever have thought then I would be in law school 10 years later.  I wonder how many people even thought I would attend law school.  Who knows what they thought I was going to end up doing.  I was glad to be able to go on a mission.  The first eggnog of the season found its way into our refrigerator.  Boy does it bring back memories of may Christmas’ from long ago.  I know, we haven’t even hit Thanksgiving yet.  I guess the eggnog is just early.  I had a happy tummy for a day or two, regardless of the season.

One of my school buddies is looking at the home next door.  Wouldn’t that be great to have neighbors who I went to school with?  We could work on our homes together, we could have parties.  I could ride to school with Andrew and Amanda could sleep in for another hour.  She would be happy about that.  We will have to wait and see.  Since they probably cannot get into the home by themselves, we are taking about signing with them.  The great thing is the house is owned by a trust.  Both of the parents have died and the family really just wants to sell it, even for about 2/3rds of its value.  So we worked it out that in signing with them, they would share a portion of what they make on the house when they sell it in a couple of years.  All the more incentive for me to help when they are fixing it up!

Last night was the last of my classes.  I did not mind it was on Halloween.  I never cared much for the holiday.  Besides, what better way to remember the dead on Halloween than teaching a class on family history and new FamilySearch?  There was wonderful attendance all 4 classes.  I am relieved it is completed.  On that note, the temple work continues forward at a wonderful pace.  I received over 75 completed cards in the mail this week.

It has been a quick, but dragging week.  I have felt somewhat oppressed in soul.  Nothing I can attribute it to other than just weariness and exhaustion.  A good number nights of sleep have helped me recover.  However, I fear I will not completely recover from Contracts.  I really like Torts and Civil Procedure.  I could do with more understanding in Contracts and perhaps I would enjoy it more.  I started outlining it today.  We got about 1.5 chapters completed.  I got a headache by that point so we called it for the day.  I am not sure if it was Contracts or the salty pretzels.

We watched The Kite Runner last night.  I really enjoy shows like that where I get to see some insight into other cultures.  I enjoyed it.  The insight into Afghanistan and Pakistan were very interesting.  I would really like to learn that language and travel those nations.  A whole world to learn.

I finished Deuteronomy this week.  I enjoyed it.  The end reminds me much of a General Conference talk.

Here are a couple more of updates on stories about the family.  Here are some more stories I received about the family from two individuals.  Most of them are about my Grandparents, but I also included the one about an experience with the church.  I am so completely disappointed in those who did this.  This is not at all what the church teaches.

“[Colleen] loved dancing.  She taught me how to be a better follower.  [My husband] put an extra step in his 2 step, I would stumble every time.  When I watched her and [my husband] dance, it was always smooth.  She taught me how to relax and follow his lead.  I am sure that she had much pride watching you grow into a man.  Dancing with all the “old ladies.”  Can you imagine how special and young they felt to be dancing with you.  That is a very special thing you gave to them.”

“Once we moved to [a small town in Idaho], [my son] was old enough and began his religious education at our small mission church in town.  I was very involved with “taking care of my church.”  It was during this time that I met and interacted with “practicing” mormons.  People were not afraid to tell me that I was wrong.  Of course, everyone knew [my husband] was LDS.  The church rolls tracked every one and missionaries, relief society, and elders would stop by before I could finish unpacking.  I had some disagreeable things said to me.  Especially about how awful I was to cheat my son of a greater life.  I felt I was treated meanly by many.  At cub scout functions, no one wanted to sit near us.  Sometimes, we were even told the wrong times for things so we would be very late.  Every one would stop and stare, whisper.  I felt so bad.

“Our ward president’s wife had no difficulty telling me I was an awful mother, but that “scouting” could be for everyone.  Blah, blah, blah…  In order to survive I asked for permission to attend Seminary.  Which I attended at Soda Springs High School.  I had my mother find me out of print books in San Francisco.  I began to read everything I could.  Pro and Con.  I was asked to not return to seminary, it was because I asked too many questions.  I was disruptive to the education of the young people I was told. My father’s youngest sister converted to Mormonism.  She lives in Clearfield, I think.  I don’t have much contact due to the way she treats my father.  She and I had a relationship back then.  She is still very active in the church and assisted in my education.  She wanted me to convert.”

“Colleen had said something about being disappointed in the “church” in Preston.  That Grandma and Grandpa Andra had given land to the “church.”  That the trade-off (my word) was that they would be “taken care of” by the church.  Some one else will have to fill in these blanks.  Something to do with the church wanting the rest of their property.  She spoke harshly at this time and used the term “church” in general.  Not a specific Ward.  Sandy was very upset about the Temple marriage to Evan because she did not like him and the “celestial kingdom.”  Her family would never be together again.  She would yell at Grandma about this, they both yelled.  I really do not remember anyone in the family attending church at all.  [My husband] always welcomed the missionaries, he would have conversations at length.

It was not really a topic of discussion between Colleen and I.  She never openly criticized me or anyone regarding religion.  She did express regrets about her children and Norwood. I don’t remember her expressing regrets about herself.  I felt sometimes that lack of religion in the household was used as an excuse for the way things were.  An excuse for the choices made.  It seemed to always be in a negative reference.  I did find it interesting the times that the “church’ was brought up.  When a person did not want to assume responsibility for a choice made.  It was blamed on the “church.”

“I know that Norwood was always pretty mean to Colleen.  He scared me a lot, but I was pretty little.  I did hear my parents talking about how he did hurt your grandmother and they were not impressed.  I will talk to [my sister] and ask if she remembered more than me.  He was awful when he had been drinking, I did see that myself when we stayed at Colleen’s for a week.”

“[Doug and Linda’s wedding reception] took place in the basement of the library in Richmond.  [Colleen] had made all the arraignments.  She did the decorations.  I remember the spiral staircase with the gifts displayed.  It was very nice.  I had met most of the family that was there at Norwood’s funeral.  [Doug] wore the Tux that his folks had bought him in High School.  I remember how handsome he looked.  We stayed at Sandy’s.  I think she was living on Main St in Logan. I just don’t remember the fine details.  For a Jonas gathering, you might say it was uneventful.”

“The initial call from the police came to [Colleen’s, about your mother’s wreck].  Colleen was not there.  I asked about you, the police said there was no baby.  I had seen you with her prior to her drinking.  Sandy was not above leaving you in the car when she would drink.  So the police began the search.  By the time [we] arrived at the wreck, they had found the dog, I think he was under the jeep.  It was dark, I remember the field, the tumbleweeds.  The shadows cast.  The jeep upside down.  Sandy was at the ER.  The baby carrier that she used had been found, but no Paul. I remember hearing someone say, if you were out there, you were dead.  The smell of the blackberry brandy all over the carrier, the inside of the jeep. (I am crying right now.  This is hurting my stomach a little.) Okay…  I remember [your Uncle Doug] yelling, “I’m going to kill her.”  Typical of the family, he rambled about every single thing she had done wrong in the past.  Making himself madder and madder. I was freezing, terrified, my stomach hurt so bad.  One of the deputies radioed and we were told that Colleen was at home and that you were with her.  [Doug] was so angry by the time we got to you.  He fought with his mom about Sandy.  All I could do was hold you and cry.  Grandma was concerned about Sandy and Doug did not want her to go to the hospital.  Colleen had been spared the emotion that Doug and I had just gone thru.  I think Colleen had run into Sandy and had taken you so she would not leave you in the car while she drank.  Probably because it was cold.  I am curious about Doug’s memory of this.  Your mom would probably not remember, she was drunk.  I don’t remember anyone but the police and Doug and I looking for you.  I believe we looked for a little over an hour before the call.  Thing is, you were never missing.  No one else really lived the terror, so this would not be a story connected with the rollover.  There would/should be in the police report, we did search for you.”

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25th of October

It has been quite the week.  We have replaced the sewer side of our plumbing, moving on to the feed side next week.  We had our ward Halloween Party last night with Trunk-or-Treat, Chili Cook-off, and Costume Contest.  We were there long enough to eat chili but not really do the costume part, even though we did dress up.  I had to walk across the hall and teach my 1.5 hour class on part two of the new FamilySearch website.  The fun part it was completely in my Fitzwilliam Darcy costume.  The class seemed to enjoy it.
Tonight we are having ourselves a Halloween Party at our house.  We have invited over 30 but only about 20 RSVP’d.  It should be fun.  It is for the most part buddies from school.  The interesting fact is that it falls on the 10th anniversary of the murder.  A couple joked they were going to come as an Idaho inmate, but have changed their mind as it was a little tasteless.  I am sure Amanda will post some of the pictures online on our joint blog of the occasion.
I took a mock exam this morning and feel I did fairly well considering only half way through the semester.  I know which areas I need to work on rounding out more of my knowledge and understanding of the specific torts and the elements of each.
This week I have been in contact with some old family friends who were kind enough to share some recollections about the Jonas side of the family.  Here are some excerpts from those communications.
“I woke up in the middle of the night when [Norwood] came home. Yelling, noises, thumping, screaming. I was scared, I had not met him yet. When I heard [voices], I peeked out the door. [Doug] was trying to pull his mother off his dad who was trying to stop [Norwood] from beating Jackie. She was 11 or 12. He was drunk and yelling that Jackie was not his child. Can you imagine the poor child. I had never been exposed to anything remotely like this. TV was not so graphic then. Wow. The next day no one said anything. Pretend it did not happen. I remember Doug suggesting hiding or removing the booze. [Colleen] said that would make him mean so she would not do that. I did not sleep well the entire time I was there. Norwood was cordial to me, even smiled and teased me. He was fine when not drinking.”
“Sandy was drinking and taking Motrin, she told me it was a “good high.” Motrin was prescription at the time and she took it for her constant pain. She had had severe head trauma and reconstructive surgery from the car accident where she totaled Doug”s Opel Cadet 2 1/2 years earlier. She showed me the pictures. Wow. You have probably seen them.”
“[Colleen] said she could not take Norwood’s drinking any longer and was filing for a divorce. Sandy was very upset. She said that if she divorced him they would never be together as a family in the Celestial Kingdom.”
“I must admit that Sandy’s remarks about the divorce struck everyone as being foreign due to her dislike of the church.  But remember it is how you are raised.  She knew nothing else.  I believe that she reverted to a child when faced with the divorce of her parents.  And that child believed in the Celestial Kingdom.  She can not be an atheist, that is just a defense mechanism.  She radically changed her memories of her father after he died.  She embodied him and fought hard with her Mom.”
“[Doug] was very stressed over the fact of his parents divorcing but supported his mother’s decision. In the following months Sandy moved back to Cache Valley. [Doug] used to get late night calls from her. She was usually drunk, unhappy, hated being a Jonas. Hated her mother. She took to wearing her fathers clothes. Right down to his boxer shorts. I don’t know how many times she was in jail for disorderly conduct, drunk in public, open container, drunk driving. The laws were not so strict then. She finally had to leave Logan. The law was not going to tolerate her behavior any longer.”
[Doug and Linda’s] wedding was planned for April 12, 1975. [They] mailed the invitations out on March 12th. Doug’s dad was no longer living at home. On March 14th, he was crossing the street and was hit by a 17 year old boy with his younger sister in the car. There are many versions of the story, no one really knows for sure. All I know for sure is…the day [the] wedding announcements arrived everyone was learning that Norwood was dead. It was a very tough time for Doug. He never had the adult relationship with his father that he always wanted, he grieved that loss for many, many years.”

“After the wedding and [the] open house in Richmond, Sandy [went] back to CA. Doug needed his sister and she needed him. She was very depressed and drinking an awful lot.”
“Colleen definitely softened in her memories of [Norwood] after he died.  Occasionally she referred to him as “a son of a bitch.”  With such a tone uncharacteristic of her.  I remember the yelling in the Jonas household.  It was almost like if [the family] did not yell you could not hear them.  I never experienced [Colleen’s] wrath, she always spoke calmly to me.  At least that is what I am remembering today.”
“I found her to be a very loving woman.  People seemed to flock to her because of that twinkle in her eye when she smiled.  She was up at 3 am to put every hair in place.  Men started arriving around 6 or so for coffee.  A man she called “big brother”, 2 or 3 others, I do not remember their names.  I remember I always got dressed before coming down because you never knew who would be there.  It was always fun to watch her laugh.  She could light up a room.”
“When I met her she hugged me and kissed and treated me like I was her friend.  She shared herself with me as if we were close girlfriends.  I wore rings on every finger, she loved my jewelry, I gave her a very special fish ring.  It was silver and kinda wrapped around the finger.  Needless to say she created her signature look beginning then.”

“I really am surprised you had not seen the pictures of your mom after the accident.  She had reconstructive surgery.  They show the rebuilding of her nose and cheek bones.  I was told that her cheeks were plastic.  There was orbital damage.  It truly changed her overall appearance when you look at before accident and after pictures.  I wonder where these pictures are.  They were Colleen’s.  They were pretty gruesome I remember them pretty vividly.”

“I still cannot smell blackberry brandy without fully remembering when [Sandy] rolled the jeep and we were searching the field, in the dark looking for you, terrified.  You were with Grandma and we did not know.  The jeep had the blackberry brandy all over in it because she was drinking from it when she rolled.  She could not remember where you were, she was hurt pretty bad and I think her dog was killed.  No cell phones at the time or we would have found you quicker.  You were an infant, maybe Oct or Nov.  [We] were living in Paul at the time.  We all worked for Circle A, we called it Circle J.”
Anyhow, some interesting insights from an outsider!
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Family History Class #1 Outline

I have received a number of requests for an outline of sorts for what is being taught in the new FamilySearch classes.  Mostly overseas, here is a quick summary of the first lesson. 

The first class deals with the basics of the program and what its strengths and capacity is.  Most of the individuals who are attending the classes already have signed in a played with the program to a certain degree.  I still walk them through the registration process.  Once we enter the program, the first thing we touch on is claiming submissions to Pedigree Resource File, Ancestral File, IGI submissions, and other various submissions.  I have them search an individual they have submitted in the past, find the contributors, find the one that is them, click on it, and click on the link to declare the legacy as their own.  For the most part, this will claim all submissions the person has submitted.  I have heard of being required to find other submissions done under a maiden name or under another address.

Next, I take them through the program generally.  I look up an individual and give them an overview of the pedigree view and then of each of the tabs down the left side of the program.  We work through the summary page discussing how to make certain information dominant over other information.  We discuss the notes at the bottom, the sources button, and the combined records button.  We don’t spend much time on the first page since much of the manipulation possible here is done more on the Details tab (the tabs are available there too).  But I do point them out.  I point out that if information has been made dominant then we can click on the individual who made it dominant and can e-mail them with suggestions, questions, or complaints.

On the details page we discuss the information listed and available.  How sparingly we use the dispute option except for blatantly wrong information.  If it is that off, perhaps we should check to see if we have a merged individual who should not have been merged (on the summary page for unlinking).  On the details page I show them how to make a dispute and how to remove it.  I show them how to add a source and how to remove it.

I show them the LDS Ordinances tab.  I point out what the ordinances needed, ordinances in process, and ordinances completed buttons look like.  I show them how to reserve ordinances and explain that only the oldest ordinances for a person show.  We don’t spend much time on the map or timeline tabs since they don’t have much value for genealogy and the maps is often wrong (It doesn’t always pull the dominant information, or assumes information sometimes).

We walk through the Parents and Siblings tab along with the Spouses and Children tab.  I show them where how they can merge siblings who are the same individuals.  I show them how to merge parents and spouses.  I emphasize the fact that very, very rarely should we dispute an individual.  Rather we should dispute the relationship to the mother, the father, or both.  But if we dispute the person, even if linked into the wrong family, we are disputing the person in all families in which they fall.  Only dispute the relationship, not the individual.

While working through the whole above scenario, I answer the wide variety of questions people pose.  How to merge a couple when the same individuals are listed as male and female (an example of my own is a Pleasant Bayes, some list him as a girl, but he is a male).

I had to interrupt my writing to eat dinner.  Amanda made some amazing Jambalaya and steamed broccoli.  It was very, very tasty.

Anyhow, I will have to write more another time.  I finished my first memo today, but now I should be reading Contracts.  I should sleep well tonight!  Hopefully no nightmares with the mix of jambalaya and contracts!

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Family History Haunting

Life continues to go well for Amanda and me.  Another week has flown by with little more than a blink.  It is alarming how quickly they seem to be going.  There are a couple of notes to make besides that of school and work.

I received an e-mail this morning letting me know we now have well over a foot of snow at the homestead in Idaho!  How exciting is that?  We are still in the 80’s here.

Amanda and I have organized a Halloween Party on the 25th of October.  We are pretty excited to have a little get together of about 25-30 here at our home.  We are really looking forward to it.  We are even going to get our sewer half of our plumbing done before then so we have our main bathroom’s sink and toilet available.  Baby steps!  Hopefully they won’t look behind the shower curtain to see the missing bathtub and rotten floor.  One of the guys at school has joked about coming as Mom.  It will be the 10th anniversary.

I went to another little auction yesterday up in Guthrie.  If you wouldn’t believe it, I found another couple of steals.  I came home with some Shakespeare volumes (from 1881!) and about 150 other books for $2.50.  Some of the other books included a Hemingway set of 3, a Dickens set of 4, and 1930’s Treasure Island, and other random interesting books.  Looking online, I could make over $100 for my $2.50.  However, most of the volumes I could sell I wanted for my own collection.  We kept about 20.  The other 100+ will be going to the thrift store.  I did find a little hall table for $2.50.  We will have to sand it down and clean it up, but Amanda has already declared she loves it.  I walked away with a bow saw, a water cooler, and other little random things.  It was worth it.  Holt, from school also went, and he picked up some great deals too.

Today was a busy day.  We didn’t set our clocks for getting up so we missed the first 15 minutes of church.  We missed Amanda being sustained on the Enrichment Committee.  We also missed the Sacrament.  I am feeling a bit inactive since we have now missed it for two weeks.  Apostasy setting in!  I made up for it after church.  I went with the missionaries and we tried to find about 15 lost sheep for more than 3 hours.  We were able to locate some good information.  I was happy to report about 15 individuals to the Elder’s Quorum President with address updates for at least 8 of them.  Most of them are not in our ward so they will have to be sent elsewhere.

I haven’t told anyone, but I have been asked to teach some of the family history classes for the new FamilySearch.  My first class was on Friday night.  There were about 50 people there.  I was slightly deceived on what I was teaching.  I thought I was teaching a small number of family history consultants for the Oklahoma City Stake.  Nope.  I was teaching Family History Stake Directors for the entire Oklahoma City Temple District.  There were individuals there from Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  All over the temple district!  The class was apparently such a success they delayed my teaching the second class for a week.  Rather than teaching the second lesson this coming Friday, I am now re-teaching the first lesson with the entire Stake’s Membership invited.  Yikes!!  Meaning, we are setting up the cultural hall for the lessons!!  So much for keeping under the radar for callings in Oklahoma City.  Here I am teaching all who choose to attend from the entire stake.  Not to mention with the temple district’s consultants invited to come back for the second lesson and third lessons.  The funny part was my Bishopric told me they would let me coast a little since I am in law school.  They just wanted me to help with lost sheep and Home Teaching where needed.  Somehow I ended up with a class teaching a stake??  Oddly, it isn’t even a calling, I was just asked to teach the class.  This family history thing is haunting me!  It just won’t leave me alone!

Time to sign off.  I need to read a little bit for my torts class tomorrow.  Yeah for negligence.

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The Ross Market

It has been a good bit of fun on the Ross Market this week.  High, low, all over the board.  Thought I would share a little bit.

We leveraged, Wall Street terminology, our investments in order to put a down payment onto our home this summer.  The stipulation in leveraging our assets is that we cannot have more than 50% of the value of our assets in the loan against our investments.  As I am sure we are all aware, the stock market dropped precipitously on Monday.  Luckily I have a great investment rep who called me Tuesday morning informing me I was having a margin call.  Which basically means I have to drop money into pay off some of the loan or they would sell off investments enough to bring the loan back within 50% or less.  Somehow I suddenly found myself in a similar category with all Wall Street.  Cough up money to put on our debt or start selling off.

This probably would not have normally been a problem.  Except when coupled with other events, it made for a difficult situation.  We lost use of all the bank cards for our regular bank in Burley, Idaho.  I previously mentioned that we had fraud coming from Venezuela on that account.  I did not mention we also lost use of a card for another account a week before.  Add that to the situation where we have been dumping money into paying off other debt.  So we were getting pretty close to not having any room to wiggle like I normally like to have.  Then of all things, one of Amanda’s student loans withdrew the October monthly payment twice for some odd reason.  Knowing the Department of Education is a highly sophisticated and intricate agency where money goes and is easily lost, I decided to just bite the extra withdrawal.

Tuesday rolls around and I am squeezed.  My investments money market is where I usually turn for emergencies but all those savings were sucked up into saving my investments from being sold off.  Those savings were not enough in the money market and I now had to move over several hundred dollars to keep my investments from being herded to auction.

No credit cards, no cash cards, and I am left with checks and the U.S. Postal Service!  Wednesday sent checks from bank to bank trying to keep every account I have in black standing.  At one point, I found another check bounced for a reason we have yet to determine and I ended having to borrow $2 from a buddy at school to cover the possible charge for the bounced check.  Holy hannah!

Here we are arriving to Monday tomorrow.  I am happy to report all bank accounts remain in black.  The U.S. Postal Service worked like I needed it and money transferred easily enough.  Sadly, the money I transferred on Friday was not enough to keep the margin call at bay against a sliding stock market and I contributed to a sliding Wall Street on Friday.  I have decided that since they have liquidated a huge portion of my assets, we might as well pay off the entire debt against the investments and reinvest what is left over.

While I have not any real wealth since my debts are higher than my assets, I have seen what assets I do have shrink considerably this past two weeks.  Think about it.  I have a loan against investments sitting at 50%.  If they sell off investments in order to pay the loan, they have to sell around 225% of what they are paying off in the debt.  When you sell off investments, it lowers the bar for what 50% is.  Therefore, to sell off enough to pay the debt down and to keep the debt below 50% of the investments value is a chore.  Then we can see why banks that have leveraged their assets not only lose value, but lose tremendous amounts of money to liquidate and pay off debt.  Their problem is compounded by the fact that when they start such a scenario the investors get a whiff and start selling stock and the bank loses even more assets.  It is a downward spiral that ends in death for the bank.  Luckily, I did not have to worry about investors lowering what I could sell my assets for (beyond what the stock market already did).

Hence, I start a new week definitely less in debt.  However, at a tremendous cost of doing so.  I guess the only real cost is what it costs to sell the investments, and reinvest what is left.  Oh, and what the stock market did in the meantime.  May I be lucky enough to buy with the price lower than what I sold it for rather than higher.

Let me assure you, we are still solvent.  That is not the issue.  Amanda is paid again this week and the influx will certainly breath life into the Ross banking network.  We will live to see another day.  The real question is, Why can’t I get in on the bail out too?  After all, I have just endured what most of them are!

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Fraud and Honesty

I thought I would take a quick moment to ventilate a little frustration.  Amanda and I have once again been the victims of fraud.  Luckily it is on the same credit card (different number) with a bank that is easy to work with.  I have to admit, I really like Zions Bank and how well they have treated me for some 15 years now.  On that same note, I feel somewhat justified to see Wachovia suffer an ignominious death.  The way they treated us with a little account makes me glad they are out of business.  While I don’t hold much more esteem for CitiGroup, I am happy to see the bird of a similar feather buy the same type of business.

Anyhow, back to the fraud.  Amanda went to do a little food shopping for us this night and found our card rejected her.  We pulled up our account on the internet and found we had purchased several hundreds of dollars of goods in the Philippines.  Well, that is where we assume Las Pinas, PL is.  (Upon wondering, in searching that location on GoogleMaps, it brings up Venezuela.)  I find myself a bit more surprised at Venezuela than the Philippines.  Hmmm, why would I think that?  Venezuela, the country telling us to get a new Constitution over the past few days.  The guy organizing nuclear business with Russia as a neighbor to the United States.  What ever happened to the Monroe Doctrine?  Nobody messes with our hemisphere.  Oh wait, that probably went out the window when we started messing with their hemisphere (the other side of the Monroe Doctrine).  Ironic I joined the J. Reuben Clark law society, one of the men credited with undoing the Monroe Doctrine.

What is coming of the world?  What happened to people living their religion?  What happened to honesty?  It seems strange that a person would take the private information of another for gain.  It almost seems as if there is no cheque for greed anymore in the world.  What is best, we claim it is good to gain on the behalf of another.  Look at Wall Street, years of greed and not playing for the long run have given them one last hurrah trying to continue to make a buck on behalf of the tax payer.  I very much hope they don’t get it.  What if we fall into recession again, or even depression?  Perhaps we will learn to be frugal and industrious once again.  Perhaps we will learn debt is not a solution or viable long term option.  Perhaps we can hope we would see beyond the moment into this continual cycle.  But then, human nature continues.

Now, asking all those questions.  Haven’t we great reason to rejoice?  There are great reasons to rejoice.  Those who are prepared need not fear.  Those who have heeded the counsel of the scriptures and the prophets of ages past and present find themselves once again vindicated.  At least for the moment.  There is always a silver lining.  The world will go on despite poverty, sadness, and loss.  We have eternity and that makes anything now worth it.

Wow, talk about abstract tonight.  Darn fraud.  For some reason Mo Udall comes to mind, “The people have spoken; The bastards.”  We see the cumulative effect of millions of people living in debt, conglomerated into businesses and government, finally receiving some of the due.  Sadly, those who will hurt the worst are probably the poorest.  While we are not poor by any means, in fact, I consider ourselves quite rich, we are finding our finances attacked by some dishonest person in the world.  My only thought comes from the scriptures, “God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.”  (D&C 64:11).  (Look at that citation!  Finally I am feeling some more confidence in my grammar and punctuation.  What a great benefit to law school!)