Find four differences in these pictures

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of "Rockband." But, I can't say I'm such a big fan that I have taken a picture of myself playing the game for me to forever look at and think, "Here is a picture of me being a star!!!" Yes, I know that's not really why anyone plays the game. The game is designed to put the players on the concert stage and in the shoes of a real rock star. Your progress is tracked by percentage of accuracy and your number of fans. However, in playing the game, and seeing the pictures people take of themselves playing the game, I have noticed a few major differences. Look at these two pictures. Picture 1 was posted by weird people onto Photobucket. Picture 2 (posted on GhettyImages) was taken at a Foo Fighters concert at the Wiltern Theatre in LA. Can you find all 4 differences?

Picture 1:
Picture 2:














I hope all the letters I added to the pictures helped you find those differences, but let me explain why these are differences.

A. Look at Dave Grohl's face, and look at the blase faces of all 4 people shown in picture 1. What's missing? Emotion. I'm not saying that the veins in your neck need to explode in order to be a real rock star, but it trumps the don't-talk-to-me-while-I'm-concentrating expression the home-owners have. Also, look at Dave's posture. If you were at this concert, you wouldn't know when he's going to run around stage and jump and kick--simple activity. The people in picture 1 look like they are trying to make shoe impressions in the carpet.

B. Wardrobe--skin, to be specific. You can't be a real rock star unless you are really sweaty and have gross chest hair. In picture 2, the drummer (Taylor Hawkins) is shirtless and sweaty. In case you are too embarrassed to show your own skin, animal skins, by default, should be your back-up. There isn't any leather in picture 2, but think of your classic rockers and the cow skin is in there. In picture 1, our players are wearing hoodies and turtle-necks.

C. Sound. Is there a law stating that when you play Rockband that you have to turn the sound system up as loud as possible? This is the only similarity to imitating an actual band. Decibels help quench the singer's apprehension and shyness when they are unable to hear their own performance, but there aren't any screaming fans in your buddy's living room. The reason for the difference in the pictures are a surround sound speaker versus a huge sub woofer.

D. Lighting. Yah, this is a stretch, but it would really help the ambiance if there were lasers and pyrotechnics. Sure, it would open the door to lawsuits and stuff if Rockband was sold with flame kit that would attach to the sides of the sofa, but you have to ask yourself what is more important: living the rock star dream, or living with the neighbors until the house is rebuilt and the insurance check comes? Big checks--now that's living like a rock star!!!

Super fan once again!

So I've always been an avid fan of So You Think You Can Dance, but this season I was beginning to wonder why... until I finally watched this last Wednesday's show. Holy cow, there are some amazing dancers on this season. This was one of my favorite dances.

She really makes me want my long hair back.... tear.... sniffle, sniffle....

Con-GRAD-ulations Dr. Dad!!

My dad is a GENIUS! This last weekend Brett and I went home to California to celebrate my dad's graduation from Pepperdine University. He received his Doctorate degree!! It was from the school of Education and Psychology in Organization Change. He was the oldest student they have ever had (In that program). Which he may not like having me point out, but I think it's pretty cool. The day was gorgeous, even if it was 100 degrees, without any form of shade to hide in. The graduation took place on the grass hill over looking the beach. Pretty amazing! He looked so smart in his robes, even if he was sweating his bum off in all that black. We are all so proud of him!!! My mom started to cry when he walked out, it was funny.

Almost the whole family was there. Dana couldn't make it cause she had to go to girl's camp. Alyssa and the kids couldn't come either, and Jenny and Jeff had to work, but it was great to see everyone else there to support Dad.

We had a great time! Thanks Mom and Dad! We love you!!

On Sunday we hung out with Brett's cousin Kimball. He's cool. And his girlfriend is from Thousand Oaks! And she knows some of my old friends and my sister in law, Ashleigh's family. What a small world. Well, I guess it's not that small when you're a Mormon from Southern California. There really aren't that many of us. HA!

P.S. Just to be fair, Brett's dad is almost a genius too. He just has to finish his dissertation and then it will be official.

New Developments

Look what Brett has been doing for the past few weeks!


If you can't tell what it is, we took the carpet from the living room, and moved it up into the bedroom. Then we bought new wood flooring for the living room, kitchen and bathroom. It took Brett a few days to get all the linoleum up in the kitchen and the entry (there were THREE layers that were glued down with some magically strong glue!) But this weekend, he was able to lay the wood in the entry and living room. Hopefully the kitchen and bathroom will be done later this week. It looks amazing!! He did such a great job, I really shouldn't ever doubt his ability, cause he always does an awesome job!

Yes, it's totally dusty, I will have to get some swiffer pads to keep it clean!

New Movie

Well, it's not exactly new, but pretty close. Last night we watched King of California with our neighbors. It was really good, even though I know most of you no longer accept my opinion on good movies, because I was apparently the ONLY person in the world that liked The Fountain. But I promise, this one really was good! Although I still stand by my original opinion of The Fountain.

Let us all go down to Zion

This weekend we went with our neighbors to Zion National Park. Brett and I thought we were going for a warm weekend in the sun. We weren't. We stayed in Duck Creek Village in a cabin with some friends of our neighbors. It lightly snowed just about the whole time we were there. The snow must have scared the dogs because they growled and barked the whole first night and we got little, to no rest. Brett tried to combat the cold by throwing ALOT of extra wood on the fire the second night. It was so hot, we didn't get to bed until after midnight. The dogs didn't bark, though.

Then we went to the park, because it was so cold at the cabin, we assumed it would be cold at the park. So we got bundled up in our jeans and sweatshirts. It seemed to be cold at the park, UNTIL we started hiking. Our friend decided we should hike Angel's Landing, saying it wasn't too hard of a hike, even though the info for the hike said it was "strenuous" and there was a great danger of falling and dieing. We were cool with that, so we started on it. About 20 minutes into it, our neighbor's friend gave up. I thought maybe that was a bad sign since she had done the hike once before and just didn't want to do it again, but we continued on. By that time, the incline was so steep, that we no longer needed our sweatshirts, or our pants for that matter. It was so stinking hot! As we got to what we thought was the top, we looked up, and realized we had to hang onto a chain that was anchored to the side of a cliff as a helping hand for all the fools that chose to climb it. I personally was a little worried/terrified, since the mountain we were climbing on was only about 10 feet wide at it's widest. We could only climb it single file and when people were coming down the mountain, we had to find a place to stop and get out of their way, because there wasn't enough room for 2 people side by side on it. After about 2 hours of climbing we reached the top. It was beautiful and totally worth the death defying climb. As we were coming back down Brett and I stopped to let some people come up, one of those people was a woman who just happened to be 7 months pregnant! Not the smartest idea if you ask me, but I was happy I hadn't given up, if she can do it, anyone can.

I'll trade you places...

My nephew Alex was very intrigued by Stella, who was equally interested in Alex. If there hadn't been a pane of glass between them Stella would definitely be licking his face instead of just looking at him.