Dive! Dive!

As I mentioned previously, Jess purchased a pass for an exploratory dive lesson at Dive Utah for me for Fathers Day.  We bought another pass for my brother as a graduation / birthday / getting caught up on whatever else we owed him gift.  Dive Utah was offering to extend the same special price to anyone else who wanted to come along with us, so my sister joined us, too.

Once we arrived, a nice guy named Doyle had us fill out some release forms and then took us back to a classroom where he explained what SCUBA stands for (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) and that the most important thing in SCUBA is to just keep breathing.  We got our equipment, hopped in the pool, and learned how to clear and breathe through the regulator, how to purge the mask, and how to equilibrate the pressure so your head doesn't feel like imploding.

After learning the basics, we swam over to the 12 ft deep portion of the pool, where we hung out underwater, tossed little dive toys at each other (harder than you'd think underwater), and enjoyed the fact that we were breathing in a place that previously was only accessible with the price of intense inner ear pain and aching lungs.  A very cool experience in all, and something that I think I'd like to pursue later in life.  Only bummer was that I felt a little dizzy when we were all done.  Small price to pay.

Here's the video summary:

(From The Life Aquatic, one of my favorite edited movies. My apologies about the poor video quality.)

For Bob

As a little bit of background, a good friend of mine for a long time had misinterpreted the phrase "Pulitzer Prize" as "Pulit Surprise."  While both sound enormously exciting, I let forth a significant giggle when I heard the second one.  So when I saw this illustration on a website that I follow, I immediately thought of Bob.  The elephant's name can only be Pulit.

Big Trouble for Little Bradley

Image from Listicles

So I got a DMCA takedown notice [the most relevant info is about 1/3 of the way through the article] this past week for one of my songs of the moment.  I never expected that little old me would be a recipient of such a thing.  While I understand the desire of content owners to control said content, internally I chafe a little at not being able to share my music with my friends.  So for now, song of the moment takes a hiatus.

In other news, the big move is only two weeks away and the time is flying.  Anything we're wanting to do here in Utah (restaurants, sites to see, fun things with family, etc) needs to happen quick.  We've had a few get-togethers with some of Jess's friends, I finally went to lunch and a movie with my brother yesterday (his Christmas gift from us), next week I'll go on a hike with my sister, and we're planning a few dinners up the canyon.  It's turning out to be busier than expected.

The show my bro and I saw was Prince of Persia, and it was an entertaining summer movie.  Lots of exciting action and parkour, magic, mystery, betrayal, backstabbing, humor and even some romance.  It's made by Disney, but is rated PG-13 and probably too intense for those younger than teens.  End thoughts: I recommend it.

King's English Bookshop

At a work retreat a few weeks ago, Jess won a couple of gift cards.  One was for Red Hanger, so we dry cleaned two of my ties that were really needing it.  The other (significantly more exciting one) was for the King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City.  It sits at about 1500 East and 1500 South, and is a quaint little independent book seller.

Last weekend we wandered around the store for a couple hours and loved it!  The shop is in what was probably once a private home, and the whole place is filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves of books.  Heaven!  I felt little happy tingles as I sauntered past shelves and handled some of the wares.  We ended up buying Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (which I'm saving for our road trip and after) and Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

Check this place out--as an independent local business, they could use the support.  Too bad we're leaving in a couple weeks.




SotM: Sarah McLachlin - Blackbird

SotM change

New song up, Sarah McLachlin covering the Beatles' Blackbird.  Absolutely beautiful version of a very nice song.  Give it a listen.

Fathers Day

First off, happy fathers day to all of the excellent men out there.  Thanks for your examples and help in the little things and in the big things.  I hope to be a good one, too, someday.

Second, Jess got me some very cool presents for FD today (FYI, this isn't an announcement--we like to give each other gifts on FD and MD just because).  Remember that soap I blogged about the other day?  The stuff that looks like bacteria?  Yeah, she got me some of that.  It smells like grapefruit.

The second gift is sort of a joint gift with one that we got for my little brother.  We're going to have a scuba diving lesson!  Scuba diving is another item from the bucket list, and this will be a good way to get a taste.  I'm very much stoked.


SotM: Band of Skulls - I Know What I Am

Return of the SotM!

After some research and a little bit of blog tweaking, song of the moment has returned.  Currently it is a song by Band of Skulls called I Know What I Am.  It reminds me a bit of the White Stripes, but with a fuller sound.  Nice, driving bass line.  It is rock, but not metal.

Also, I am trying to establish a blogging pattern, and so far Sunday nights and Wednesday nights are my plan and I've held to it for two weeks.  I'm thinking that I'll probably just do a new post each time the SotM changes, outside of schedule.  Any RSS readers who have a preference for how they are advised of the change?