Nevada is a leading state in foreclosures, NBC thinks prostitution is more important

I honestly can’t believe this! Here in Nevada we have felt the effects of the housing crunch as much as any state. Working at our church here I come across a lot of families who have been hit hard. This past week I sat down with a family who was slammed by the economy and they were living in their car with 5 kids. Just so you know – temperatures here are triple digits already. I looked at the forecast this past week and there wasn’t a day that wasn’t over the century mark.

And with gas at $4.26 a gallon out here it’s not like they can afford to keep the car running to keep everyone cool. Fortunately we were able to get them into an apartment and back on their feet. But this is every day around here. Family after family, person after person.

So you would think the local news would be covering ways to avoid foreclosure. Or showing you steps you can take if you can’t get out of that situation. Places to go, organizations to seek for help. Shelters, programs, the Federal bailout program. Nope. They decided to do a story on how the economy was effecting the world’s oldest profession – prostitution. Now don’t get me wrong, Jesus loves prostitutes and porn stars as much as he loves me, but come on. There are bigger issues here right? If they were covering the real issues they would be informing these ladies on measures they could take to avoid a horrible financial fate.

I wonder if they are trying to drum up business for them? I also would have loved to been in that meeting where the idea was pitched. I tried to script out what this would look like.

INT – NEWSROOM – DAY We see a newsroom where multiple journalists sit around a conference table. The room is dimly lit and there are papers everywhere. The team has been in this meeting for a over an hour pitching stories and receiving their assignments. The mood of the room is urgent, it seems everyone is ready to hit the ground running to start their reports. Then the News Director speaks up.

NEWS DIRECTOR
Alright team, before we dismiss is there anything else

A hand goes up at the far end of the table and everyone sighs, including the News Director who is clearly frustrated – we can tell from his reaction this isn’t the first time Ron has pushed his buttons

NEWS DIRECTOR
Yes Ronnie.

RONNIE
I have an idea for a new story.

Our New Director let’s out a big sigh and puts his hands on his hips before he answers

NEWS DIRECTOR
What is it Ronnie? Spit it out.

RONNIE
I think that we should go out to Parumph and see how the brothels . . .

A very loud collective sigh and groan comes from the entire room preventing Ronnie from finishing his sentence. NINA, an anchor speaks up.

NINA
You’re pitching that again Ron? You’re such a . . .

NEWS DIRECTOR
Ronnie we talked about this last time. The station is not going to send you to a brothel. No matter how hard you try.

The whole room breaks into a chorus of jeers as they start to stand up and leave the room Ronnie screams to get their attention and break the silence.

RONNIE
No people, I’m not talking about that idea again. I gave that up after I was suspended with pay.

NEWS DIRECTOR
I would hope so.

RONNIE
I think we should cover how the economy is causing a downturn for the number of customers – how the economy is effecting them too.

NEWS DIRECTOR
Brilliant! Only we’ll send Denise – not you.

RONNIE
Son of a . . .

Fade to black . . . .

And scene. If you should want to read the story or see the video – hit up the link here:
[Fewer "dates" at Nevada's brothels during economic slowdown] via [KVBC Las Vegas]

She embarrassed her mother . . .

So yesterday we went on a nice family outing. We left the house at around 10:30 and went on over to Town Square here in Vegas to watch “Horton Hears A Who” at Rave Motion Pictures. I gotta say that it was a GREAT movie! It’s the best animated film I have seen since “Meet The Robinson’s.” It was definitely better than “Shrek The Third,” – that is for sure.

Anyway, afterwards Christina took Josie to play in in the playground area while I dropped the G5 off at the Apple Store for another run at having it fixed (don’t even get me started). I met back up with them at the playground and we decided that since Claim Jumpers was right next door we would just eat there. We had to wait for five minutes or so and then as were are being seated Josie yells loudly “Hey! Make my forks makeout!” I look at Christina and she won’t look up. Our server is laughing, as I am sure a few other people are doing, I am too. But I ask her what that means. She says – “You know, make them friends.” It’s just funny she said it the way she said it – and we honestly can’t figure out where she heard the term. Before now, she would always say that her forks were friends, or partners – but at this rate it looks like the relationship is moving steadily along towards marriage.

Anyway, just thought I would share another Josie story.

The Seven Deadly Sins

So Forbes just did a study on the seven deadly sins, and which cities in America are worst in each category. Here is their explanation – it’s better than mine:

We have unveiled the American city that has fallen the farthest from grace in each of the seven deadly sins ( lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, wrath, envy and pride). For each sin we stretched our imagination to find a workable proxy–murder rates for wrath, per capita billionaires for avarice–then culled the available data sources to rank the cities. Some of the results were surprising: Salt Lake City as America’s Vainest City. Some were not: Detroit as America’s Most Murderous.

Oklahoma turned up twice on the list – this map is for “Gluttony”:

And I thought Sin City would turn up on a few lists, especially lust – but we didn’t. We only showed up on the “Sloth” list:

If you want to see everything yourself, just click here.

If you can’t drive, don’t

Wow, so today I set out with Will and Chris to pick up a new mattress and take it to Chris’. Right out of the gate Chris almost gets taken out by a Mack Truck. The truck had it’s right turn signal on, so Chris decided to go. So the truck wasn’t turning and Chris was inches from eating it. It’s everywhere here. People are just, pardon the expression, RETARDED!!!!

Truthfully, people are so egotistic that they feel like if they have to yield to you or let you go first it means they are less of a person. This is one of the only places I know where you can get flipped off for for driving like a normal person. It’s unbelievable. Following the laws of the road will not emasculate you, especially if you are not a man.

Anyway, there is nothing worse than going to a 4 way stop here. It’s either that guy who waves everyone before him holding everyone up cause no one knows what to do, or it’s the guy who doesn’t believe in stop signs. My GOODNESS – just follow the freaking rules so I don’t kill myself. And also, if you can’t drive your SUV down a parking lot aisle and park without making a 20 point turn, trade the piece in for a Prius please!!!!

I just can’t believe that driving in this town can be so difficult – People need to get it together . . . before I go crazy.

Hold on . . . there’s a New Mexico?!?

So I am long overdue for an update . . . here’s the skinny. Life has been crazy lately. As most of you already know, our car died and so my dad found us a car from Yates Auto Mall in Talequah. So I got my bank on it and I flew back on Thursday and we picked up the car and then I headed to mom and dads house for a nice porkchop dinner.

Afterwards we watched a little TV and then I went with Blake and Jared and I hung out while they lifted. It was a good time. Then the next day I took off early in the morning and headed back in my “new” car to Las Vegas. It’s a 2005 Impala and it’s white. It took me 19 hours altogether and it wasn’t too bad. I am glad I have all weekend to relax though. Because I am a little worn out. I will post pictures of it later today or tomorrow.

I also need to post pics of my new moped. Mine was stolen last weekend and practically destroyed. Someone took it right from in front of my condo while I slept. Buying a new car I really didn’t have the cash to swing a new one, but a good friend helped me out . . thanks to Earl, I have a moped again. It’s much nicer than my previous one. The guy at Vegas Motor Sports gave me a sweet deal on my new one. I am sure he made nothing off the sale. He is awesome!!!

You may be wondering about the picture at the top of this post. I need to convey some music news. You may have heard it already. Jimmy eat world has finally finished their new album. I can’t wait to hear the new stuff!!

And the really good news is that New Found Glory isn’t calling it quits. They have resigned with Drive Thru Records. And they will be releasing “From the Screen to the Stereo 2″ as their first release. I cannot wait – and I am also glad to be able to see them on tour again. They are on of my favorites – and I didn’t want to see them break-up.

And in other news MxPx will be releasing their new album Secret Weapon on July 17th. You can preorder it here. So that’s about it for now. I will post pics of the new car and moped soon. . . . later. Ohh and Noel – sometime this week I will either post, or e-mail my message from the World Trade Festival.

This ain’t a scene, this is a . . .

Wow, it has been too long since I have posted. Life has been stressful lately. A lot on the plate. A lot of videos, and this week will be the second service in a month that I have produced. The videos have been good lately, ever since I got a second camera. Last Sunday after church we shot a drama on video and the two cameras made it so great. Plus Final Cut Pro has a multi-cam function that is really easy to use. Anyway, enough of that -

Last night we took Josie back to the M&M store on the strip. Every time I go it’s more fun. And of course to get there we parked at the MGM and so we stopped and checked out the Lions. It was fun, afterwards we wanted to go eat someplace on the strip, but it was so busy we opted to head to Green Valley Ranch and we ate at Lucille’s. I love this place. It is a Bar-B-Q place that has good food and serves sweet tea in Ball glass jars. And last night there was a jazz band playing and we weren’t sitting too far away and Josie loved it. I need to start taking to more places with live music. She loves being at the church when the band is rehearsing too, or even during service.

Well that’s about it for now . . .