Old Life Blog

These cars just can't seem to stop sliding, LOL.

The strangest thing has been on my mind the last few weeks. Whenever I wasn't thinking about something else, my mind would play this sorting game with the NFL team names. I would classify each type of team name and I couldn't get myself to stop. That is until I "put it on paper", so to speak. And now I give it to the world:

Click here to watch a great NFL Films Presents video on "the stiff arm".

I grew up eating what we called "pigs in a blanket". It's basically a hot-dog wrapped inside a croissant. Very good, but very time consuming as you have to wait for them to bake in the oven. I decided to develop a quicker version of this Collins Family classic. I call them "pigs in a blanket 2.0": They are simple to make: -Take a flour tortilla and cut it in half. -Roll a hot-dog in each half nice and tight. -Roll each again in separate paper towels. -Cook in the microwave for 1 minute. -Dip in our favorite condiment and enjoy! (Click the image to enlarge.)

Real Salt Lake just beat LA Galaxy for the 2009 MLS Cup! This the first national, professional championship for Salt Lake and Utah! Go Real!

I found this awesome website a week or so ago and have been following it ever since. It's great for lifting your spirits if you're down. It's called ZooBorns, and is a blog that shares photos of new baby animals from zoos and aquariums all over the world. Check it out here!

I just discovered this neat utility on the Google Labs called Image Swirl. It works by searching something, and the results are then grouped together by similarity. As you click an image, it pulls it forward and shows it's similar images around it, and on and on. This will be great as I'm always searching for images for my many varied blog posts. Find it here , an example of the Salt Lake Temple:

I just setup my cell phone to use Google Voice as my voice mail provider. Why Google Voice? Because Google Voice will take the message, transcribe it, email it to you along with the audio recording. And it will send the transcription as a text to your phone if you'd like. This is awesome! How does it work? Easy. So long as your carrier has call-forwarding capabilities (preferrably "conditional" as in it will try a few rings before forwarding it) then you're set! Setup your Google Voice, then setup the call-forwarding on your phone. Google walks you through all of this. All future voice-mails will be sent to both your Google Voice inbox and your email inbox as both text and audio. You can also making calls from Google Voice through your phone. You enter the number on the website, Google Voice calls you, then connects the number. All U.S. calls are free and it has better international rates than your land-line. $.02/min to Mexico City! Enjoy!

Our second child, a girl, was born today after 45 minutes of labor. She weighs 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and is 20.5 inches long. She's absolutely beautiful and her brother has only seen pictures but is very sad over how much he misses her. Mom did an excellent job keeping the delivery short and sweet. Dad helped by making her walk across the parking lot instead of pulling up to the front. Here's Liani:

No, that's not some diversity-promoting cliche, but actual bridges that are alive. Check them out here.

If only I knew about this 6 months ago when we bought Skyler his first bike. His bike is cool, no doubt, and he loves it and rides it everyday, but this one makes me want to be a kid again. Via Wired.com : Getting kids on bikes early is a great way to keep them cycling for life. I got my first big-boy’s bike when I was around five. It had stabilizers (training wheels), solid rubber tires and was a copy of a Raleigh Chopper cruiser. I loved it, I often crashed it, and I painted it a hideous 1970s shade of dark blue. In between than and now I have hardly been without a bicycle. And the QuadraByke would have let me start even younger. It begins as a four-wheeled transport, suitable for any toddler to take for a spin around the yard. As they grow older and more confident, the kids can remove wheels one at a time, running through a trike and up to a bike. Best of all, they can do it themselves, and without tools, meaning that they not only learn to ride, they learn to tinker, too. An enclos...

Well, we've had our 20 week ultrasound and found out what gender our baby is. Skyler, Jr. is going to have a baby sister! When it was first confirmed, he got upset and cried because he really wanted a brother. We then explained that he'll be able to teach her how to play basketball and soccer and everything else he could teach a boy, and that warmed him up to the idea. He's now excited about it. I also made sure he understood that he had to serve as a spy for me and a bodyguard for her. As beautiful as her mother is, she's sure to attract alot of attention from the boys and I've now got help in finding out everything that goes on in that area. Here are our latest scans:

Well I'm all back safe and sound with my family after a long week in Michigan. I was able to see a beautiful part of the country that had nice rolling hills and several small lakes scattered around. The dealership I was at was fairly busy the entire week. I visited the Detroit Temple and the biggest shopping mall I've ever been to, Great Lakes Crossings. They had a Van Heusen store there with a giant sale and I spent $110 on $350 worth of shirts, pants, and a belt. They even shipped it all to my house for me. And I saw Terminator: Salvation which was really good. Here's a photo album and slideshow of my trip:

This prank call to a telemarketer who called him is one of the funniest I've heard (3m, 26s, Blogger):

[Written by myself for a college writing course, November 14th, 2006] What I hid in my sock was beautiful. It was made with two bands totaling 13 stones. They sparkled under any light. What Julieta thought I drove her 1500 miles across the United States for wasn’t the real reason. She hadn’t seen her family for some time and we believed it would be a worthwhile experience in developing our relationship. I had never been so far from my family; I had never driven so far either. Our destination was Chicago, Illinois. We were going to travel across five states in two days. The prevailing thought on my mind was what would take place in the city of Nauvoo on the return home. I packed my stuff Friday night and drove to Julieta’s house the next morning. Arriving around 5:30, I picked her up and we drove to the store to by goodies and some gas. After returning, we double checked that we had everything we needed and started on our journey. Julieta brought a camcorder and we filmed most of the d...

My wife and I enjoyed this movie tonight. It was funny and had a great lesson about what's important in life. Go see it before it leaves the theatres!

[Written by myself for a college writing course, November 21st, 2006] The effects of the most important experience in my life are still unfolding. They will continue on, I believe, through eternity. This single moment has brought me untold happiness and growth. It has changed my character, habits, and direction. What I speak of is the precise moment when a young Mexican woman, upon locking her eyes with mine, forgot all she had learned about the English Language. This sole instance caused a young man to search for truth, be joined in matrimony, and give life to a beautiful soul, and many more souls to come. As she walked toward me to order breakfast, I noticed how cute she was, and soon how poor her verbal skills were. She seemed choked up on what she was trying to say and decided to just point at what she wanted. I confirmed her choice and took her order. As it was being prepared, she shared the reason for why she could not speak, in Spanish, and was now blushing, to my co-worker. Aft...

This was a great movie (documentary) and well worth the money paid. It has fantastic shots of real life scenes from different parts of the world. My one fear going in was if and how it would talk about climate change. I was surprised that, although it mentioned the earth warming, it didn't talk about the cause. This I liked, as there is anything but a consensus on that and to have leaned one way or the other would have left a bad taste in my mouth. It also previewed another one that will come out in a year called "Oceans". Can't wait!

Julieta had her first appointment today with her doctor and she told us that everything looks good. Julieta has had some acid reflux and overall not as good an experience as she had with Skyler, Jr. All in all, mom and baby are so far doing well. Here's an ultra sound her doctor did today. The head is on the right. It's already well formed as a person, as you can tell (embedded):

My son is finally going to be a big brother! No, he's not getting a job with the government. But he is getting someone to boss around and exercise power over. Hoo-rah! (due date = Oct. 30)

It's true! Watch more Saturday Night Live videos on AOL Video

Oh man, are these things fun! I was looking for some boxing gloves for my son and I to spar with, to help relieve some aggression, you know, and found these. They are the same plastic as those tall punch bags that pop back up after being knocked down. We're having a blast beating each other up! I don't know how many times I've bopped him and he just keeps comin' back for more!

We rented and watched the latest Speed Racer and all I have to say is Rent This Movie! It was awesome and had crazy special effects, crazy racing, and crazy fight action! We missed it in the theatre and I don't think it did very well, probably because it was released the week after Iron Man and before Narnia and Indiana Jones . Not very good timing or I'm sure it would have done better. Definitely rent and see this movie.

Really, an amputee got a tail. Click here to read all about it. I think it's pretty awesome. I'd ask for one.

Saw Push on Saturday. Well, we saw 95% of it. The fire alarm went off with 5 minutes to go so we don't know how it ended. But as far as what we did see, it was worth it. The action was great, although the story begged for a sequel. Unless of course there was adequate closure in the 5 or so minutes we missed. And we'll be getting free movie tickets!

Ronald Baily wrote an interesting article about the question of what rights should be given to neanderthals if they are ever brought back to life through cloning, which could be a possibility, at Reason.com . An excerpt: Unlike the characters portrayed in Jean Auel's novel The Clan of the Cave Bear, newly resurrected Neanderthals are unlikely to be in the grip of hereditary memories, but they might still have significant intellectual and behavioral differences from us. For instance, they might express a different range of emotions or lack mathematical reasoning skills. The rights they would be accorded would depend on those differences. We do, after all, limit the rights and responsibilities of children and of people whose intellectual deficits make it difficult for them to tell right from wrong. On the other hand, we also have a greater duty to take care of children and adults with diminished mental and moral capacities. So what if we bring back Neanderthals and it turns out that...

Oh yea! My son is now officially the coolest kid on the street. Check it out:

Friends and family, I've updated my main website to show recent posts from each of my blogs and a link to both my Google Reader shared items page and my Facebook profile. If you use Facebook, and haven't already, send me a friends invitation. Quick, do it! Home.SC - http://www.skylerjcollins.com From Home.SC

Saw it last night. If you like the Bourne series, you'll like this movie. It has the same feel, though not quite as shaky camera work. Liam Neeson does a great job as a badass, but comparing his character's skills to Bourne's, no contest, Bourne wins. Go see it! It would make for a great daddy-daughter date, too. (So long as she's a teenager.)

This video is amazing. These complex underground structures built by ants are rightly being called a "wonder of the world." What these scientists have done is taken an abandoned giant ant hill and filled it with cement. Then they dug it up. It is remarkable. Ant Superhighway - LiveLeak.com

Changed the naming convention of my blogs. They are as follow: Truth | Skyler Collins --> Truth.SC Faith | Skyler Collins --> Faith.SC Life | Skyler Collins --> Life.SC

In this hilarious video made by a guy named Joe Nicolosi, the Star Wars story is retold by someone who has only seen bits and pieces. It is really funny: Star Wars: Retold Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo .

This was a great movie and my son loved it. The acting was great and the story was great. If you have kids, even as young as 3, take them to this movie! They'll love you more for it. And it was entertaining for adults, too.

Absolutely insane. And yes I wish I had the cojones to do it. Watch how close one of them gets to the road at the 3:25 time mark. wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo .

Ever wanted a pet spider? Well now you can have your very own, and it will never die! Check out this link to play around with a virtual spider. Use your space-bar to drop insects for it to eat.

Julieta and I saw this last night. I'll admit I was only semi-excited to see it, and now that I've seen it, I'm glad I wasn't fully excited. It had a few funny parts (all in the preview) but overall wasn't worth my nine bucks and hour-forty-five. In fact, I would even pass on renting it. It's unfortunate too because I love Kevin James and his King of Queens sitcom. Also, I was suprised to see that it was produced by Adam Sandler's production company, Happy Madison. Not one of their best. The funny thing is every theatre I looked up was nearly sold out. We went to Jordan Landing to see it and the line for it was huge. I wonder what it'll pull in this weekend.

Lawrence Reed, president of FEE, delivers an excellent commencment address at Northwood University in Midland, Michigan on December 13th, 2008, regarding the "crisis of character" at the root of our liberty and economic crises in America. It is a great talk. The transcript and video can be found here at the Foundation for Economic Education website. The introduction: More often than not, commencement addresses are light and aimed at puffing up the crowd, especially the graduates. But I want to focus on some serious business. We are a country in crisis, and I’m not referring to the economic situation, the stock market, crime, education, or any other problem that dominates the headlines. In fact, the crisis I’m most worried about is the main reason we have all those other problems. Fix this one thing and the rest of our problems would shrink to comparative insignificance. I refer to the crisis of character.