I made it home around 8:30 this evening after being gone since last Saturday (around noon). It has been a long week, but it is great to be back home and able to sleep in a nice bed. And to be back with the family. Of course, I’ll miss my scouter friends who were on staff with me, and my new scouter friends from the Cheyenne tribe – Go purple! – and the other great leaders I met and taught and learned from this last week.

Akela’s Council is an amazing training, and I get more and more impressed with the foresight and thought that has gone into it over the years (25, I believe). Every cub scout leader should attend the training!

I also had a fun time at our banquet Friday night (a Blue and Gold dinner) when I sat next to the mayor of Payson, Rick (Moore?). He is a very funny guy. And I was told by a couple different people that we act a lot alike. I’m not sure if that is good or bad

I loved being a den leader at AC this year. My den members were awesome. They kept me laughing. And they were very sweet. I learned a lot from them. Hopefully, they learned a little bit from me too – other than something about having craftiness in my testosterone-laden pinky, that is.

I may write more later, but this is all I can keep my eyes open for now.

No, this is not a post about tattoos. Plus, tattoo parlors don’t last long in Provo – there is only so much skin on a very very customers. Anyway, this is not about tattoos (but, note to self – Do a post on tattoos soon).

This is about printer ink.

You see, I just purchased some remanufactured (read, refilled) ink cartridges for my HP Photosmart Premium C309g-m. And after maybe 20 pages, the printer said the ink was gone.

Now, I have been having problems with this particular printer and refilled cartridges. Basically, the printer says that using them voids my warranty and then the printer steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that they are full. So, after a little use, the printed pages start looking horrible.

I took some of my other cartridges in (to, you guessed it, a place in Provo) to have them refilled (I now have 3 sets of cartridges).

I’ve done a bit of research and asked the guy who refilled my cartridges if there was a way around this, and the answer . . . No.

Why are we letting the printer companies get away with this?

I realize that the ink is where they are making most of their money, but they are charging WAY too much for printer ink. Some estimate the charge at $800 per gallon of ink. In other words – HUGE profits.

These practices are anti-consumer and monopolistic. Where is the attorney general? Is this naked greed going to stand?

Unfortunately, I can’t even boycott HP (which I am doing anyway because their particular method is especially onerous) because it is something that all the printer manufacturers are doing, apparently.

I’d like to know which ones I can do better with getting around this ridiculous restriction, though, so if anyone knows, I’m all ears.

And the real kicker is that warranty thing. HP says that the refilled or remanufactured cartridges are dangerous for my printer. What an outright lie! Come on HP, at least tell us the truth – you care more about your profits than about the consumer. I’ve been a loyal customer of HP cameras and printers for at least 15 years, but this is the last straw – no more HP for me!

They are in clear violation of the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act:

“(c) Prohibition on conditions for written or implied warranty; waiver by Commission
No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer’s using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade, or corporate name.”

As stated at http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus01-businesspersons-guide-federal-warranty-law#Magnuson-Moss, this means,

“Generally, tie-in sales provisions are not allowed. Such a provision would require a purchaser of the warranted product to buy an item or service from a particular company to use with the warranted product in order to be eligible to receive a remedy under the warranty. The following are examples of prohibited tie-in sales provisions.

In order to keep your new Plenum Brand Vacuum Cleaner warranty in effect, you must use genuine Plenum Brand Filter Bags. Failure to have scheduled maintenance performed, at your expense, by the Great American Maintenance Company, Inc., voids this warranty.”

This is exactly what printer ink is to printers.

There is currently a class-action lawsuit against HP (I just found out in my searching – https://www.hpinkjetprintersettlement.com/) that is in the final stages and HP will be required to make some changes.

However, this does not appear to take this federal law into account. Instead, focusing on the messaging around how much ink is available.

I’m about ready to contact my law firm and start my own class action suit. Who’s with me?

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! An amazing first book for Bree Despain.

I was pulled through from beginning to end, and I thought I was sick of books about werewolves (sorry no vampires in this one).

Although I didn’t get totally tricked or surprised by any of the plot twists, it made me feel smart to know that it was coming (rather than boring me because it was only as expected).

The main character, Grace, felt real and properly conflicted, as well as spunky. I liked that.

I need to get the next book in the series so I can move it to the top of my stack!



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The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Normally I do a nice long review of each book I read, but I’ve been reading so fast, that I really don’t want to take the time to do that right now.

So, I’ll just say that I think Scott Card is getting better and better as a writer with each book.

Some may argue that his opinions come through more strongly, even pedantically, in his later novels, but I think that it is just his characters that have stronger opinions and are therefore more well-rounded. Those opinions may or may not be Scott Card’s.

This was a fun read and a very interesting magic system.

I am anxiously awaiting the next in the series.



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The Dragon Hunters by Paul Genesse

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even better than the first book!

Kept me reading until late and when I should have been grading papers instead.



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The Golden Cord by Paul Genesse

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun read.

I think Paul does a great job of writing fight sequences. It was very visually evocative.

Setting: The setting is unique. The "world" is set on top of a rather large plateau. The plants can be dangerous but also offer unique protections (obscuring scents). The first half or so of the book is spent in Cliffton, the home of our protagonist. The rest of the book is spent traveling to and finding a dwarven mine. I thought the whole thing was well-explored and I am interested in finding out more in the subsequent books.

Plot: The main plot revolves around a young man helping a couple dwarves to find a mine and some lost relatives while trying to avoid some nasty evil creatures. There is also a prominent romantic sub-plot and is continuing. And plots about plans the evil master dragon has put into motion. While the plot arcs didn’t really surprise me, I thought they were challenging for the characters, and thus quite appropriate.

Conflict: There are some religious conflicts, cultural conflicts between humans and dwarves, and conflicts with some evil creatures. The main character also has some major internal conflicts going on.

Character: The characters are fairly complex and, more importantly, likable.

Text: The writing was easy to read and simple. I think even those who haven’t read much fantasy will be able to understand much of what is happening in the story.



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I wrote the following little story for a talk in church.

A long time ago in a far away land, Jacob, a master woodworker, huddled over his work bench, knife working smoothly across a block of wood, comfortable on his old stool. Around him, the apprentices worked diligently on their projects. Eventually, his attention turned to the three young boys and their projects.

Little Timothy’s stool had four legs, each coming out of the seat at slightly different angles, and each a different kind of wood. Timothy sat on it, smiling from ear to ear. “I knew I could do it master Jacob!” he exclaimed.

“Indeed,” Jacob responded, “that seat looks very thick and sturdy.” He noticed that Timothy wobbled a bit as he wiggled around in his excitement. He might fall over, but Jacob knew that Timothy responded best to positive comments. He would break down in tears and not be able to accomplish anything for the rest of the day. Jacob smiled back at him and patted him on the head.

Jacob next moved over to stand in front of Jonathan, his oldest apprentice, who beamed at him as Jacob examined the fine workmanship. “I am going to give this to my mama to sit in when she rocks little Benjamin to sleep at night.” The chair had a high back and four sturdy legs on curved runners that would allow it to rock back and forth. The wood felt smooth under Jacob’s calloused hand. It seemed to radiate warmth; it had obviously been made with lots of love.

“I know your mother will be very happy with your gift,” Jacob replied. “It is your best piece yet.”

“Thank you master Jacob,” Jonathan replied. “I can’t wait to see the look on my mama’s face.”

Finally, he stood in front of Simon and his stool. It was simple, with two sturdy legs attached. Simon was busy measuring and cutting a third leg. He went back and forth between his measurements and the third leg, triple checking before making the cut. He was the slowest worker Jacob had ever had, but his work always turned out to be sturdy, functional, and beautiful in its simplicity. Simon had not yet noticed him.

“So, Simon, why is this one taking you so long?”

“What?” Simon glanced up. “Oh. I am making a stool like yours. I hope that everything is going to hold together.”

Jacob saw the excitement, love, and expectation glowing in Simon’s eyes. “With that kind of hope, Simon, your stool will last throughout your life.”

I used to write stories, or poems, like this all the time when I was younger and had a talk to give in church. It was always fun to do and made the talk more interesting  to give. I’m a little out of practice with it, but I think it turned out okay.

I was spending entirely too much money for a gym membership that I never used. I’ve just been so busy (I know, excuses, excuses).

But, I really want to get back into a semblance of shape other than a circle.

So, I did some research on DVD fitness programs.

At first I thought of the P90X program. It was a bit pricey, but seemed like it could get some results. After doing some research, I concluded that it is not for me (yet, perhaps). The guy on there sounds like he’d be annoying after the first week. If I get a chance to buy them on craigslist, I might spring for them later, though.

Then, I thought about Bob and Jillian from the Biggest Loser. After doing yet more research, I figured that I wanted a set of Bob’s DVDs. I may go to some of Jillian’s earlier DVDs later. I hear those are much better than the latest set.

In any case, I started Bob’s day 1 workout for beginners today. It was only 25 minutes, but I am definitely feeling it. I couldn’t even get through all the exercises. Maybe I shouldn’t have used any weights this time

It was a nice routine though. Pretty simple and easy to do. I liked how he walked through some potential problems and encouraged as we went. I also liked his interactions with the other people on the video. Since I have had a trainer before and been to the gym, I was pretty sure that I was doing the exercises correctly, but it would be nice if there was some way to identify bad form. Maybe the Kinect for XBox will come up with something that can do that.

In any case, my legs are wobbly and my arms can’t go above my head right now, so I’m betting I’ll be pretty sore tomorrow. Should be interesting!

Schlock Mercenary: The Blackness Between by Howard Tayler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have to admit that the first volume (chronologically) didn’t really pull me in. But, because I know Howard, I kept coming back to the story and the current storyline at the website. And, I started to get hooked.

Chronologically, this is the 4th (I believe) book in the series, and though Howard was still honing his art skills at the time, the storyline was very engaging and often hilarious.

I highly recommend the series and the web comic!



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