I really wanted a stand for my iPhone one morning and so I started to think about the design and how I could make one. After finding some tape and 5 credit cards and a rubber band, I came up with this design for an iPhone stand, and put one together in about 20 minutes. I was pretty proud of my little invention for a few days, and I thought I would get a patent and make a million dollars. I showed it to everybody- my 11 month old son, my family, my customers, my friends, strangers, etc. After I showed it to so many people and sensed their lack of enthusiasm for my genius idea, I decided I didn’t want to pursue making this into a product, as I am still being asked how my struggling ipad keychain stylus business is doing. The best comment that was made went something like this, “Mike, I do believe that one day you will invent something that will make you money, but I don’t think that iPhone holder is a million dollar idea.” I was crushed for nearly a whole minute, but then I came back to reality and decided that it was a million dollar idea, but not one that I would be pursuing at this time in my life. I just can’t dedicate myself to developing this unnamed iPhone holder, so if anybody wants to steal my idea and run with it and market it and make a million dollars, all I would expect is this- you take me and my family to a really nice restaurant, and give me credit for inventing it.

But for a limited time, I will make a holder for anybody that wants one- you just have to bring me the five credit card sized cards and maybe an apple or an orange.

My Dad invited me to go ice climbing a few weeks ago, and without really thinking about it, I said I would go. I had no idea what ice climbing was, what equipment is used, how far away the place would be, or what adventure awaited.

Let me tell you about my ice climbing observations. It is rock climbing and dodgeball and exhausting all at the same time. You have spikes on ski boot like shoes, two ice axes and a daunting cliff of ice you are told just to go climb. Yesterday, I thought it was the hardest sport I had ever tried. I made it half way (sometimes not that far) up the route before I was so exhausted and afraid that I asked to be let down. Although I was recovering from a knee and shin injury that I sustained as I saw an ice ax that was dropped, coming fast straight toward my head, I panicked and dodged, but a huge waist high rock impeded my quick escape and took me out, I tumbled, fell and flipped over the offending boulder painfully landing on my back. A couple people came over to help me up and I told them I would just like to lay in the cold snow for a few minutes. The oncoming ice ax stopped and stuck in the snow 10 ft in front of where I was standing, so there was no need for me to even move. Also, 60 and 70 year old men scaled the mountains with ease, and I just sat at the bottom discouraged and dodging large ice chunks.

That was yesterday.

Today was different. I made it to the top 3 times, had them take a lot of pictures. A stark contrast from yesterday.

I am amazed at how much a little confidence influences performance. I guess that is why we need to start small and get little victories under our belts. Especially when we have big goals

If at first you don’t succeed, try starting small and remember “baby steps”. By the way, Liam learned to crawl last week, and it is awesome to see how on Wednesday he couldn’t crawl and then on Thursday he could and a week later he is moving all over. It is cool to learn from your own children- they don’t seem to get discouraged, they fall and then try, try again.

Also- any of the cool looking climbers pictured here- not me.

So in no particular order (chronological or importance) here we go:

Life Events

Liam was Born
Gave Liam a name and a blessing
Bought an iPad
Went to the Masters
Ran a Marathon in Dublin, Ireland
Spoke at a Funeral
17th place in Suncrest Half Marathon

Fun

Went to Disneyworld with the family
Ran the Epic Relay Race with awesome team in beautiful Jackson Hole
Full Week of Scout Camp- created and played Spotlights and Ninjas
Drove the Mustangs at Miller Sports Park
Played Promontory Point
Played Glenwild
Played Salt Lake Country Club
Played Valhalla Golf course
Walked the San Antonio Boardwalk with my wife and family
Went to the Nickelcade to help my wife induce labor
Won 3 point contest by some miracle
Asked and went to Prom with Michelle

Random

Learned the game Dominion
Thought that it would be genius to invent Tattoos that disappear after 3 years
Started mbahack.org which I haven’t maintained
Started Parental Ponderings blog
1st experiment with crowdsourcing
Bought an iPhone 4S- quickly fell in and out of love with Siri-
Started early rise routine for one month
Ended Early rise routine
Bumper Sticker Call Campaign idea
Caught a fly out of the air
Memorized Proclamation to the Word: The Family

Travel

Grand Teton NP
Glacier National Park
Zion National Park
Idea to do an International Marathon entered into my thoughts and never left
9/11 Memorial in NYC
Walked through Occupy Wall Street demonstrations
Visited Stonehenge
Visited Salisbury Cathedral
Toured the Roman Baths in Bath England
Visited Blenheim Castle
Went to Preston, England Temple
Visited York
Visited London Temple
Saw the London Bridge
Toured Tower of London
Visited Churchill Museum in London
Drove the Ring of Kerry
Visited Killarney National Park in Ireland
Toured Trinity College- saw the Book of Kells
Miracle of the returning of our passports
Fulfilled lifelong dream of going to Four Corners

Movies Watched

Knight and Day
Bobby Fischer at Sundance
Unstoppable
Social Network
Source Code
Killers
X-Men First Class
Season 4 of 24
How to train your dragon
True Grit
Regretfully watched “Limitless”
Regretfully watched “Green Hornet”
Harry Potter- Last one
Pay it Forward
Sherlock Holmes (1st one)
Made it through Fiddler on the Roof for the 1st time
2nd Sherlock Holmes

Books Listened to or Read

Listened to “Lone Survivor”
Read “Seal Target Geranimo”
Listened to “The Hunger Games”
Listened to “The Last Lecture”
Listened to “How to Master Your Time” by Brian Tracy
Listened to “Million Dollar Habits” by Brian Tracy

One possible solution is to write everyday no matter how short or how stupid you think it is. Write what you did or didn’t accomplish, write one thing for which you are thankful, or something you learned. When we do this we establish the habit of writing and then when the thoughts and feelings come, we are already in the habit of writing.

As Michelle and I reviewed my 2010 journal we treasured some of the super simple and little things that she had ridiculed me for writing, like “Had a good day at work, really tired, goodnight journal”. And I admit that I just wrote them to say that I had written in my journal. The sheer number of entries provided for some good fun as a review and reminded me of so many things that happened and the timing in which they happened.

Write on!

Asked Michelle to Marry Me (January 9^th)

Sealed to Michelle in Draper Temple (April 17^th)

Learned we would be having a baby boy and selected name William

Got PRK Corrective Eye Surgery

Fun Activities

Snowshoeing with the family

Last Couchsurfing experience (see www.couchsurfing.org)

Rented out bowling alley for reception

Observed a Jazz basketball team practice session

Went Skiing

Went to a couple of Jazz Games

Ragnar Relay in DC

Played in Utah Open Golf Tournament (FYI: not as a professional)

Did an Elvis Presley impersonation

Went to Cirque de Soleil “O”

Random

Taught Junior Achievement Class for Middle School

Perfected my ability to crack and open an egg with only one hand

New Windows on the house

Ran Spectrum 10K- 48 minutes (suckered into it through intense peer pressure and it was done with little to no training, thus not in the fun category)

Fixed up house (replaced lights, ceiling, redid Kitchen cupboards)

Moved Roommates Out

Was on the radio about VLCM

Met Frank Layden (Old Jazz Basketball coach)

Read the Declaration of Independence on the 4^th of July

Michelle cut her hand and got stitches

Got a concussion from Soccer and lost memory for 1 hour

Worked on Opening VLCM Global

Learned the game Dominion

Spiritual

Visited 7+ new Temples (San Antonio, Sacramento, Bern, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Denver, Portland)

Grandma passed away

Gave away a Book of Mormon

Watched 2 friends get baptized

Travel

Las Vegas

Puerto Vallarta on Honeymoon to a private beach house

Road trip to Oregon (Haystack Rock, Temple

Went to St. George and visited Michelle’s Grandma

Went to Boulder Colorado to Visit Scott and Sadie (4^th of July)

Went to Europe

Went to Tour de France

Saw Monet’s house

Saw Arc de Triomphe

Ate hot dog fromage

Slept in Overnight Train Car

Went to Nice, France

Florence, Italy (Cooking Class, Michelangelo’s David, El Duomo, Andy Miller, Uffizi Museum)

Rome (Vatican City, Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Roman Forum, Borghese Gallery, Colosseum, National Museum)

Pompeii, Italy

Salzburg, Austria (Sound of Music Tour, Puppet Show)

Frankfurt Temple

Freiburg Temple

Dachau (Concentration Camp, and Town Party)

Munich, Germany

Interlaken, Switzerland (Hang Gliding, and beautiful mountains and lakes)

Bern Temple in Switzerland

Las Vegas again

Fallon, Nevada for Thanksgiving

San Francisco Roadtrip(India consulate, Dalancey St. Restaurant, Musee Mechanique, Aquarium, Sacramento Temple, SF Moma, Muir Woods)

Movies Watched or Watched again

Avatar

Bourne Identity

Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Star Trek

Truman show

Nacho Libre

How to Train your dragon

Karate Kid with Jackie Chan

Disney’s Aladdin

Disney’s Tangled

The Tourist

Tron

Harry Potter

3^rd Chronicles of Narnia

Books Listened to or Read

Go Getter

How to connect in Business

Influencer

Go-Giver

The 4-hour work week

Ready, Fire, Aim

“Driven” by Larry H. Miller

“What it takes to be #1” by Vince Lombardi Jr.

Listened to Mitt Romney’s  “No Apology”

“The Anatomy of Peace”

The sign reads “do not pass snowplows on the right.” As I read that a lot of thoughts went through my head and they were not limited to; “What a stupid sign,” “Who would ever do that,” I could picture some idiot being pummeled by the snow as they attempted it, but for there to be a sign, somebody must have,  more than a few people must have actually tried and of course failed. I saw in my mind several cars and snowplows driving through a snowstorm going over this Oregon mountain (we had just passed Deadman’s Pass, and yes I did slow down after seeing that sign), and I saw what it must have looked like to the Snowplow driver- almost white out conditions all around and 2-5 inches of snow piled up on the road in front of him, he is going about 30-40 MPH through the long and winding road clearing the snow away from the left lane in hopes that the road will be safer for the other cars after he does his job, all the snow gets pushed off into the right lane either for a snowplow in the right lane behind him, or for him to clear the next time he comes down that road. Then all of a sudden he sees in his right rear view mirror some very impatient driver in a small car attempting to pass him on the right. The snowplow driver has no choice but to drive on and as the car attempts to pass he gets pummeled by the heavy snow being plowed from the left lane, the car gets pushed off the road and death or serious injury is the probable result. Traffic is held up for hours and rescue crews come and the media reports on the accident and the next thing you know, there is a meeting to discuss how to make the roads safer and a committee gets together and decides that they need to make  3 permanent signs for this dangerous road that read “DO NOT PASS SNOWPLOWS ON THE RIGHT”- I think that they could just make a sign that says- “Don’t be stupid”, but that really isn’t specific enough.

I actually learned some lessons from this sign. It was a long drive and I had more than a few hours to reflect on the ridiculousness of the sign, but how in life sometimes we need signs like that, signs that aren’t for all of us, but signs for the few, yet how often we are the “few” that need them.

What can we learn from this sign? I think there are a few lessons we can learn from this

-          We shouldn’t try to pass or go around those that are in front of us clearing away the obstacles

-          It is better to wait and be safe than to hurry and put yourself in danger (i.e.  Speaking when angry, rushing through rush hour traffic,  etc.)

-          Not everybody “gets it” (what is obvious for some people is not obvious for others), and we sometimes need to be taught, told, and reminded of basic things

-          You don’t always have to understand the “why” to benefit from wise counsel

-          We shouldn’t dismiss simple rules because of their simplicity

In life there are obstacles that we encounter and some of them are on dangerous, steep, and slippery roads. Almost all of the time when we can’t get through them on our own there is help- whether it be a friend or family member or a teacher or a role model that clears away the obstacles or makes a way for us not to be pummeled by them. No matter what the obstacle (drugs, immorality, addictions, etc.) there are people, programs, prophets and angels plowing the way for us to not be absolutely pummeled by those forces.  So we shouldn’t try to pass or go around those that are in front of us clearing away the obstacles.

We often need reminders or counsel from parents, teachers, and/or mentors that point out the things that are obvious. The basics are what we are reminded of day in and day out. Not because they aren’t common sense, but because despite the obvious right decision we still mess up and need reminders.

I think that decisions that are slow and thought out are seldom wrong. I am a person that likes to rush into things and make decisions quickly and get going in some direction and then correct course on the way. Sometimes, decisions need to be made quickly and decisively, but most the time and especially on the big decisions we can wait a little longer and think through things before we commit to something, and the wise people in my life are people who make big decisions deliberately, and aren’t forced or persuaded to act more quickly before they feel comfortable with a decision. So I think it is better to wait and be safe than to hurry and put yourself in danger.

So many more thoughts, but so little time to figure out how to write them.

Any other principles we can learn from this sign?

I couple of years ago I decided to run an Olympic triathlon, and so in preparation I signed up to run a few sprint triathlons. My training early on consisted of thinking about how unprepared I was for 6 days out of the week and actually running or swimming one or two days each week. I didn’t tell anybody that I would be running the TELOS Tri (sprint) and when I arrived by myself with my brother’s bike, I didn’t know what to expect. It was such a cold day that they decided to reverse the normal order (Swim, Bike, Run) to be Run, Bike, Swim. It changed from going from my weakest to strongest events to be the opposite (my strongest to weakest). If I was wiser, I would have given up. I ran 3.1 miles, I biked 12, and then the (300 or 400 M ) swim and pain began. After the first lap, I quickly realized why the swim is supposed to be first- there are fewer deaths of people drowning because of exhaustion. I thought I was going to die. My energy was all spent on the less hazardous events of biking and running and I couldn’t get it out of my mind that “if you get tired running or biking, you can stop or pass out and still live, not so easy to do when you are in the middle of a long square pool with people splashing water on you as they painlessly pass your patheticness. I don’t remember most of the thoughts that went through my mind, but I remember finally reaching the edge of the pool after my last lap and it taking me an extra minute or two to muster the strength to climb out of the pool and as I hobbled toward my towel, I couldn’t contain my stomach and the little food and a lot of pool water that was in there came spewing out. After the second time, I was so embarrassed and discouraged, I grabbed my towel and went straight to my car, head hanging low, body beaten, stomach still struggling, and so so sad. It was at that time that I realized how important it was to me to have received the steady and frequent support supplied by my parents throughout my life (seriously, they never missed an event/race/performance/concert). I called my mom after that to tell her that I could barely finish the sprint tri- and I tried to convince her that if I did an Olympic tri, I would surely die. She then gave me some words of encouragement and told me that I could do it and that I would not die. I believed her and it was her words of encouragement that stopped me from giving up on accomplishing my first (and maybe last) Olympic Triathlon.

Mike Linton- testing out wet suit in preparation for first open water swim.

Here is a video of my PRK surgery. I showed this to one of my friends and he passed out, so I don’t blame you if you don’t want to see it, but a lot of people have asked me to explain and I told them I was going to post it. If you want an explanation of what they are doing you can read the part below “How is PRK performed?” and that explains it in detail. The video is 5 minutes long and it is of just my right eye. I was awake the whole time and what I saw most the time was a blinking red light interspersed with several fuzzy red lights which was like looking through a broken single colored kaleidoscope.

From PRK Surgery

The next three paragraphs comes from Hoopes Vision website.

PRK
Like LASIK eye surgery, PRK (short for photorefractive keratectomy) is a surgical procedure that can help to correct and improve vision dramatically through cornea reshaping.

What is PRK?
PRK is an effective refractive procedure that can be used to correct hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism. While the procedure is similar to LASIK eye surgery, the first step of PRK greatly differs from that of LASIK.

How is PRK Performed?
Numbing drops are administered so that the surgeon can operate on the eye without the patient feeling any pain. While LASIK surgery requires the surgeon to create a corneal flap and fold it back to access the inner cornea, PRK requires the surgeon to remove the epithelium (the outer, one-cell-thick layer of the cornea).
After the epithelium has been removed, the surgeon will reshape the cornea with an excimer laser to correct the anomaly that has been causing vision problems. Once the cornea has been reshaped, the area will be “bandaged” with special contact lenses that will assist the eye in healing the epithelium.

Alot of people have asked about the differences between LASIK and PRK and why choose one over the other. This person’s blog describes a few reasons why PRK can be better.

My Recovery from PRK

When I was talking to the eye doctors consultant/sales person who also received PRK I thought he said that PRK  puts you out for 3-4 days and you are in so much pain you just sit with your eyes shut and listen to 12 hours of books on tape and you can’t really do anything else. I expected to be blind for 4 days straight, but so far my experience has been different.

Day of Surgery- went home and could see a little better, my eye was still numb and there wasn’t any pain. A couple of times every hour it would feel like I had an eyelash stuck it my eye, but a couple of blinks and I felt good again. Drops every 1/2 hour and 4 hours, and ice packs for swelling. I slept with eye protection on that night and it was pretty uncomfortable. I watched television and it wasn’t too much of a strain to see.

1 Day after surgery- not much pain or discomfort, drops every hour and every four hours, post op checkup and they said all looked good and I could drive.

2 days after surgery- I drove into work and it was the worst day. vision went in and out while driving and I decided not to drive home and we just went and played board games that night. It was really uncomfortable in the morning, but more annoying than painful. I couldn’t focus on the computer and it was better for me to either lie down in the dark conference room, or walk around with my sunglasses on, but not really accomplishing anything.

3 days after surgery- mild discomfort, blurred vision, but could function normally

4 days after surgery- no discomfort but blurry vision, enough to drive and read and everything, but not clear

Michelle and I went on a hike last week and as we reached the waterfall and started to eat our dinner a rainstorm urged us down the mountain. I was grateful to see this double rainbow as we drove back from the hike.<

More details and picture to come

Ultimate Frisbee

GMAT studying

Michelle’s Birthday

Bought Food Storage

Dinner at Francks

FHE Latin Dancing

Play Basketball at the Energy Solutions Arena

Fireside about Joseph Smith

Ward Amazing Race (stopped to try and Win wicked tickets)

Strawberry Burnt Down Trees

Played Compatibility

Went up to Strawberry

First Golf of the Season

Ward Temple Night

FHE Ultimate Frisbee

Sang at a Fireside

Went on a spontaneous trip to Zion National Park

Hiked Angels Landing

Went Skiing for the last time this season

Dinner with old friends (Andy and Heidi)

D &C Institute Class

Ward Ministry Night

Taxes

Sang at General Conference

Calderwood/Horn Wedding Reception