Nostalgia

Last year on this day, I was here.Doing this.and I would really like to be there now.
I think it's time for another vacation.

Reagan Rendezvous

We finally did it. We quickly got ready this morning and took off for Simi Valley to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I was totally excited out of my mind. I'm such a nerd. But really, I love American history and cool museums. Add those together with a fantastic president, and you're in for a good time.

We even got a bonus- they had the temporary Magna Carta exhibit complete with the real deal written in Latin on sheepskin, and it was the Annual Colonial American Experience-the place was swarming with folks in tights, buckled shoes, red coats, and three pointed hats. My fav was when all the kids came marching through the museum dressed head to toe playing their piccolos and drums.

I didn't know that they actually let you go inside the Air Force One,
totally awesome.

I really learned a lot about President Reagan and what a good person he was. It was so incredible to see his diaries and his sincere and private thoughts in writing. He was a man who loved his country, his family, and God.

I was really touched with the Berlin Wall portion. While staying with a close family friend in East Germany, he told us his story about living behind the Iron Curtain- just accepting that you will never be able to see the world and that you may never reach your full potential. When the wall came down, his life was changed forever, and I can really appreciated Reagan's efforts to make this happen.

It was interesting to see this colorful side of the wall, and then the untouched Soviet side

"I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life."

He is quite the legend.

a short note from the Mormon

So a few things...
1)We have a lot of friends who look at our blog, members of our church and non-members, as well as a lot of unknown worldwide visitors.
2)Our religion is the most important thing in our lives.
3)Because #2 makes us SO happy, we want to share it with #1
4)I've recently discovered these fantastic MormonMessages on youtube that are made by our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and want to do my part to share them, along with other things we discover. SO...I intend to post them regularly on our blog (and give a shout out to Elder Ballard for being such a huge proponent of using the media to teach others about our church)
Hopefully this will provide insight to a widely misunderstood religion that has made our lives everything that it is today and everything that it ever will be.

Mormon Temples

Many of you have heard about HBO's "Big Love" showing a scene from a Mormon temple ceremony. I'm sure this has made a lot of people very curious, but not giving them valid answers concerning something very sacred and special.

"...Mormons feel that few outsiders have a full sense of what temple worship means to the faithful, or why they hold it so sacred. That's because the ceremony is richer and more powerful, they believe, than the architecture, the special clothing or even the ritual re-enactments. It has to be experienced to be understood."

Here is the rest of this fantastic and brief article: http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_11942258
Please educate yourself from the appropriate sources about what Mormon temples are really about.

For more info check here or here

R.I.P. nutcracker

Jodi's evil plans have come to fruition. She's forcing me to get my solid steel beast of a nutcracker tooth replaced by something slightly more comely- and ceramic (which we all know I love). As an engineer, I say functionality over form. But my wife, Jodi, says "It's probably rotting under that steel cap!"
And maybe she's right- What if they pry off that oral metallic bunker and find a decaying remnant of a tooth? What if dust and evil spirits shoot out like when they pop the lid off of a mummy sarcophagus? Am I the only one that saw what happened when they opened the arc of the covenant on Indiana Jones? Can't we just leave well enough alone?

Anyways. In dealing with the grief of such a loved one I turned to my good friend Andy. This is the actual conversation which took place via text between Andy and myself:

Taylor: I h ave to have a crown done tomorrow. Pain. My nutcracker silver tooth is goin goin gone...

Andy: Yowza, that sounds like not a fun time. Whelp, he was a good tooth, rest his soul. Send my condolences to the bicuspids.

Taylor: It's just hard you know? I mean... it just won't be the same without him around. He was always my most reliable fall back guy. Got a tough cashew shell? No worries. He's on it. Need someone to talk to? He's always there... by definition.

Andy: You know, it's times like these that we often try and remember the good times we've had, but I don't really see that as productive. Sometimes it takes a good bout of negativity to flush out all the build-up that has accumulated over teh years. I mean, when was the last time he offered you any sound advice? He never really took care of himself, and it seems that despite your best efforts to take care of yourself and him, he still decayed. You'll be better off without him. I'm sure one of your other teeth, perhaps another molar, a canine, heck, even an incisor will step up in his place as the cashew crusher. Better to let the dirty moocher go T.

Taylor: You're right, of course, andy. I guess I've turned a blind eye to the worsening situation over the years. You know, it all goes back to when he lost his best friend, the wisdom tooth. He just started making poor choices.

7 Falls- La Revancha

Making it to the swimmin hole at the top of 7 falls is absolutely worth it. Careful- it's guarded by vicious poison oak!

ivy league backdoor engage

well, it's official. After my finals next week I am done academically at UCSB and as of today I am accepted at Harvard.
It was a little anticlimatic. No crossed fingers. No anticipation. No belaboured essays and personal statements, letters of recommendation or anything of the sort. In fact, I turned my stuff in like 2 months after their deadline. But regardless it should be interesting. The ivy league will never know what hit em. I'm pretty sure I may be the most hillbilly that ever did find himself a backdoor there yet.

We now know when we're moving. It's final. I go to a conference May17-23 and then immediately I'm off to China for 3 months. I'll return August 25th at which time we are moving to Boston. Turns out Jodi won't be coming along. Anybody got any suggestions for what she should do all summer? Maybe this... or this.... or even this...

Welcome home boys!

Both of my sisters' military husbands returned home a week or two ago, one from Iraq and the other from Afghanistan. They have absolutely done remarkable things to help people in those countries, and I am personally grateful for the perspective they have helped me achieve.
(I stole these pics from my sisters)

At last...

A visit from these two. Thanks for stopping by before taking off to Texas. It was fun, and we love visitors!

for amber

Wish I was here.

Dave the cougar hunter

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. The defendant, one Heavy-D, my little brother, an unlicensed semi-truck driver/backhoe operator/stock day trader/racoon killer (story and pictures forthcoming) is accused of dating urban cougars. You be the judge.

Bad form D.

taylor v2.0

With us moving to Harvard I had to redo my webpage anyways so this time I decided to use dreamweaver instead of GoLive/NVU. The difference is amazing! It's so much easier to use and the ability to make global changes on the entire site using CSS is fantastic. Check out the new and improved site, here.

or type this url
http://engr.ucsb.edu/~sparks/