Getting to Know You

Well in order to fulfill all requirements of Zion Month I need to have four blog entries for the month. This entry will make #4.

I started by googling "speed dating questions" thinking that it would come up with a list of get-to-know you questions. But they were all about relationships and "why did you break up with your last girlfriend" type questions.

That led me to google "get to know you questions" and all the questions I've put down were from the first link. It was some sort of Mormon site and the questions were for young women. Whatever, I'll give it a go.

Why were you given your particular name?

My full name is actually John Scott Darrington. I go by Scott since my dad goes by John. I'm a fifth generation John Darrington.

For future reference for those that intend to have their kids use their middle name. It can be a bit of a hassle on legal documents, drivers license, etc. Sometimes I have to explain the whole "fifth generation" thing so that they understand why I sign things J. Scott Darrington.

On the flip side the J. Scott Darrington thing gives me a leg up on General Authority status. I'm expecting a phone call from Salt Lake at any time. After all President Monson was called as an Apostle at my age.

How many brothers and sisters do you have?

Four sisters:

Melissa- Lehi, Utah
Becky- Redding, California
Stephanie- Odenton, Maryland
Kim- Richland, Washington

Two brothers:

Spencer- Duvall, Washington
Marcus- Dodging Tornadoes, Minnesota

Random fact: All of my siblings and myself graduated from Campbell County High School (Go Camels!) in Gillette, Wyoming. Yet none of us have chosen to take residence in Wyoming. Hmmmm....maybe that's saying something.

What is your favorite thing to do?

Attending BYU football games has to be my favorite thing to do. It's brought tears to my eyes at times.

What is your favorite food?

All of it. I really like Godfathers Pizza, Temari (Japanese restaurant), my own homemade spaghetti (Becky hates it), homemade macaroni and cheese (Becky makes it just like how my mom used to).

I also really like: http://scogg.blogspot.com/2008/01/stupid-wendys.html

What is your favorite book?

I'll exclude the Peter Priesthood answer even though the Book of Mormon is great and it keeps getting better.

But I can't really narrow it down to one book, but my favorite type of books are non-fiction, insider type, sports books. For example I just finished a book called Seven Seconds or Less about the 2005-06 Phoenix Suns. The author spent the whole season with them and wrote about what happened in the locker room, on the bench during games, conversations during time-outs, etc. Pretty much all the stuff that the general public never has access to.

What is your favorite candy bar?

It's been awhile since I've had a candy bar, but a Snickers is always good. I like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and if I'm in jolly ol' England it would be a Yorkie with Almonds. It's been a long while since I've had one of those.

What is your favorite cookie?

White chocolate chip macadamia nut.

What is your favorite sport?

My favorite to play is basketball and my favorite to watch is college football.

What is your favorite kind of music?

Probably rock n' roll of some sort. I like things that are a little more upbeat.

What is your favorite song?

Possibly "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica, but the favorite songs I listen to on the Ipod change from time to time.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Well, since this was geared for young women I would have to say "being a mother". But since I'm not a young woman and I'm pretty much committed to a career, I'll have to say that when I was 16 years old I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to be.

In fact my career choise was probably made when I graduated from BYU in 1995 and decided to go to graduate school. That was about the time I decided what I wanted to do for a living.

How many kids do you want when you get married?

Before I was married I thought that five was a good number. Then for a while I thought one would be a good number. Now I would be totally happy if we're able to get to four. But I've learned long ago that we don't get to choose that number. At this point we'll take whatever we can get.

What is your favorite temple?

I would have to say Masonic.

I guess it's Salt Lake since I got married there and all. But aren't they all pretty much the same when you get indoors?

What place would you like to visit?

Hawaii. Definitely will need to get there someday. Can anyone say "10-Year Anniversary" next year?

What is your favorite thing about your mom?

Mom was always fun. You could be doing something and if Mom joined in it became more fun.

What is your favorite thing about your dad?

Going to ballgames with Dad. I kind of miss it now that their 3,000 miles away.

What is your favorite thing about yourself?

Way too many things to narrow it down to just one. Being extremely humble is one of them.

Do you like to sing?

No. And if you knew what was good for you, you would want that answer to stay intact.

Do you like to dance?

This is a little more complicated. The short answer is "no". Hypothetically speaking, if I'm dancing around with the girls in the living room with the blinds closed then......"yes".

Do you like to play a musical instrument?

Nope. Not really.

What musical instruments can you play?

Define "play". I played the piano and the bassoon at one time. Yep, you read that right. The bassoon.

What is your favorite type of art?

What the heck type of question is that? "None" is the correct answer.

Have you ever seen a broadway musical? Do you like theater?

"No" to the broadway musical, but we did have season tickets to Hale Center Theater for a couple of years. I'm a very closeted theater fan. I would only admit it to the six people who read this blog.

Do you like building things?

No. I like to pay people to build things.

What would you like to learn about cars?

Anything that will allow me to fix them myself without having to sign my life over to the neighborhood auto fixer-upper dude.

What would you like to teach others about?

Deep and philosophical question. How about "Which is better right now BYU football or basketball"? Any takers?

What are three adjectives which describe you?

Smart, funny, good-looking. I'm a triple threat. Oh, and don't forget extremely humble.

How would your friend describe you to someone who has never seen you?

[Insert photo of Brad Pitt here]

Something similar to the photo above.

In five years, what kind of person will you be?
In ten years, what kind of person will you be?

Smart, funny, and good-looking. Things won't change.

What do you want to be doing in five years?
What do you want to be doing in ten years?

I don't think I can answer any of these questions. My guess is I'll be making some lame post on my blog.

What were your favorite subjects in school?

I always kind of liked math, but would never admit that to anybody. I also liked studying the social sciences: Psychology, sociology, economics, geography, history, political science.

When you have an hour of free time, what do you like to do?

What I do: Veg out in front of the TV.

What I should be doing: Playing with the girls, reading stories, helping Becky with the dishes, picking up stuff in the front room, reading scriptures, exercising etc. etc. and so on and so forth.

What is your favorite church movie?

Church produced movie or movie with a LDS theme?

Church produced: Labor of Love, Together Forever, The Phone Call, Cipher in the Snow

LDS Themed: The Best Two Years, God's Army I and II, The Singles Ward

What is the strangest thing you ever did?

I really don't know how answer questions like this because everything I do I consider normal.

Like this: http://scogg.blogspot.com/2007/04/blogging-burgers.html

What is the strangest food you ever ate?

See post above.

Random Musings

In order to meet the Zion Month goals I've got to post two times this week. So here you go.

Rubiks Cube

My sister-in-law Ann got into the Rubiks Cube thing lately and some of it has rubbed off on Becky and I. I can remember getting two Rubiks Cubes one Christmas when they were a hot item. I remember being particularly proud that I could solve one side of the cube and sometimes get close to solving two sides. That was about all my brain could handle.

Ann bought a cube with instructions on how to solve it. If you think that just because you have the instructions in front of you that it will be a piece of cake then you're in for a lesson or two. With instructions in hand I still couldn't figure it out. I needed coaching. Ann graciously stepped in and coached us through the instructions. Becky was the first one to get the coaching and the first one to solve the cube. A fact that she reminds me about every 20 seconds or so. She's actually gotten quite cocky about it.

I, the family genius, still struggled a bit so Becky had to coach me through the last couple of steps. Becky beamed with lots of pride as she helped me solve it. Since then I've solved it a few times with Becky not around so 1) she can't talk trash about how much better at Rubik's Cube she is than me and 2) I can prove to myself that I can survive without the presence of my wife (and not just with the Rubik's Cube).

Just another thought on Ann. Most of you probably don't know that her name is really Andrea. Since her parents don't even call her Ann (I think her nickname is Stinky Poo-Poo or something like that. Don't ask.) I was wondering if we're shortening Andrea then why don't we spell it An. Much easier to spell and much more accurate.

Gas Prices

Filled up the Bonneville today. $53. and something cents. Just a few thoughts on that. #$%^#@#%^@%^#$&@%^$%&@#^@#^@$%@%">&#$%^#@#%^@%^#$&@%^$%&@#^@#^@$%@%^&

Thanks for listening.


Lost

I've recently cut back on the TV consumption. One show that has made the cut is Lost. I've got almost 4 years invested into this show, so at this point there is no turning back. I like the show for a lot of reasons two of them being the fact that it has great characters and is well written.

One of the characters, Sawyer, has to be one of the best anti-heroes of all-time. If you've seen the show you know what I mean. If you haven't then it would take a lot of time to go into the intricacies of the character and show, so you'll just have to trust me.

One recommendation for the future if you haven't seen the series. When the series is over and it's on DVD you'll need to rent them and watch them. This would be a great series to watch if you didn't have to wait a week for every episode let alone 7 months in between seasons. It could be a great FHE activity for about a year.

American Idol

One thing I like about AI is that I can sit a be a music critic even though I can't sing a lick. I'll say things like "they were pitchy" or "they are a horrible singer" or "Paula's drunk again" and not even think twice about the fact that if I were on the show that I would be one of the "he's so bad we have to put him on TV" performers. However I'm 1,000 times more sane (and sober) than Paula Abdul.

I didn't blog the finale which wasn't in great demand anyway. David Cook deserved to win and David Archuleta has a great career ahead of him. David C. was definitely more my kind of music, but Becky downloaded one of David Archuleta's songs "You're the Voice" that I like listening to. Which is ironic since Simon ripped his performance that week. Which leads me to....

Embarrassing Confession

I've taken a liking to the Backstreet Boys song "Incomplete". I've pretty much got the words memorized and perform it all the time in the comfort of my own living room. Aubree joins me with some of the words since she's heard the song a bunch of times.

I also downloaded "Cha Cha Slide" so that we had a family dance to do. It's easy when the DJ tells you what moves to do. Since we're too cheap to pay for actual dance lessons for Aubree then she has to learn them from me. Next week's lesson is "Cripple Creek".

Indy Jones IV

Saw Indy Jones on opening day with some friends. It was very similar to the first three and so I liked it. I can see why some people could have hated it, but it worked for me. The one movie that I think I really want to see this summer is Batman: The Dark Knight. I really liked Batman Begins and Heath Ledger looks pretty freaky as the Joker as he will soon collect his posthumous Oscar next year. I'll also see Ironman and probably Hancock. Hopefully they don't go overboard. I've been getting a little prudish in my old age.

Finally

Becky has created a blog just like everyone else in the world has. Hers is actually funny and interesting. It's replacing the Darrington Happenings newsletter.

Enjoy! http://www.thedarringtonhappenings.blogspot.com

Family Home Evening

According to Wikipedia, Family Home Evening was first introduced in 1915 by Joseph F. Smith for families to set aside one night a week to spend time together. In 1970 Joseph Fielding Smith designated Monday night to be the night set aside for FHE. A good LDS family will attempt to have FHE every Monday night in order to "solidify the bonds of familial love".

While growing up my parents were pretty good about the FHE thing. We usually held ours on Sundays because Dad had city council meetings on Monday nights. Usually we had some singing, some praying, a lesson, and some treats. That's a typical FHE. I don't remember many "special" FHE's but I do have some memories:

• Once we had a lesson when we lived in Soda Springs (I was probably 8 or 9) about treating our siblings with kindness. We were then assigned a secret family member that we had to do an act of kindness for. I was assigned Spencer so right after the lesson I put together a treasure hunt for him. I think he figured out who his "special" assignee was.
• It was always a good day when we got to go outside and do something fun.
• Becky R. was known for having two hour lessons in which every question she asked had to be answered by every person in the room. Which was 9 freaking people in our family.

Becky D. has told me some of her FHE stories growing up. A couple classics:

• Their parents had what was called Family Fun Day in which they got to play with one another and not with friends. It was affectionately called Family Dumb Day.
• One time her Mom announced that they were having "pine floats" for treats after FHE. The buzz was at a fever pitch because they had never had "pine floats" before. After the lesson Becky's mom goes into the kitchen and returns with large glasses of water with toothpicks floating on top. I can almost picture Nelson saying, "Ha, ha".

Family Home Evening was at it's best (or worst) while attending a singles ward at college. Because there were no traditional families in the singles ward we got divided up by apartments to spend our Monday nights together. A Mom and Dad were both called to preside over the "family".

My first year at Ricks College I went to FHE once, maybe twice for the whole year I was there. The girls we were assigned to were sophomores (old maids at Ricks) and because they weren't bikini models, I wasn't interested. I'm sure the feeling was mutual.

My second year I had the privilege of being the Elder's Quorum President. I mention this, not to brag, but to discuss the amazing responsibility one had to help arrange the "families" for FHE. For one of the first times in my life I absolutely and willfully sidestepped Section 121 of the D&C and exercised unrighteous dominion.

I made sure that my apartment (Royal Crest 107) was partnered with Carriage House 201 & 202. One of the unsung beauties of Ricks College was the 2-1 girl/guy ratio (at least in our ward). So we had 12 girls and 6 guys. I liked those odds. Now CH 201 had Relief Society President #1. CH 202 has Relief Society President #2. I was the EQP. It was destiny.

We (Earl and I) thought that we would be setting up shop at CH 201. Earl had a major crush on one of his "sisters" (Hello, Eldorado) and I kind of liked Relief Society President #1. Well RSP #1 has a history that was mentioned on a blog entry about a year ago. She was a MAJOR flirt. So I ended up setting up shop next door at CH 202. Earl joined me after his crush didn't reciprocate, but in true Earl fashion he never gave up on her.

We spend more time at CH 202 than we did our own apartments. I eventually dated and broke up with one of my "sisters" which made our subsequent visits a little awkward. I don't actually remember attending FHE, but I sure remember spending a lot of time there.

So the whole purpose of this post was to replay our FHE from last night. We got the family together and started by singing "Scripture Power". Becky wanted to then sing "Kindness Begins with Me", but Aubree wasn't having it. Kindness didn't begin with her. She refused to sing and was acting like a snot. I started getting "tough" with her so she would sing the stupid song. Nothing like forcing your three year old to sing a song she doesn't want to sing all in the name of a spiritual FHE.

We had a prayer that Aubree whined the whole way through because we asked Sydney to say it and not her. Which ended with me getting "tough" with her again. By this time the Spirit has left the building and we haven't even had our lesson yet.

As an aside, when Aubree won't listen to me I sit up in my chair really fast which tends to get her attention. Becky uses the "1, 2, 3" method which usually gets results about the 2.5 mark. I have tried the same method but I mess it up because I start with "3" and countdown to "1". I keep forgetting I have to start with "1". Doesn't it make more sense to start with "3"? But when I do it, it confuses Aubree and as a result she doesn't do a thing.

Aubree wouldn't sit still during the lesson. Sydney brought me another book to read to her since Becky's lesson was so boring. Finally I was so fed up with Aubree it ended with her getting a spank AND going to timeout. We didn't even bother with a closing prayer. And since I'm not eating sugar I think we had a banana for treats.

So goes a FHE at our house. Someday we'll have the well behaved perfect little children that will sit and answer questions with "Yes, Father" and "Yes, Mother". Until then welcome to Wrestlemania 28.

Zion Month

Our ward back in Afton had a thing called Zion Month. It was basically trying to live the best you could for a whole month. Meaning doing your home teaching, saying all the requisite prayers, going to church (it didn't mention actually listening in church) etc. etc.

I have adapted the Zion Month philosophy in my own personal life for the month of May. I've created spiritual, physical and personal goals just for the month to see if I can achieve my optimum level.

May is a good month for me because we're not traveling anywhere. I'll be pretty busy at work, but the whole "spring is here" feeling motivates me to do stuff. So I laid out my goals (most of which piggy back on my New Years Resolutions) and I created the required spreadsheet that is now sitting on my fridge to remind me of all my monthly duties and an area to check them off when completed. Just like Aubree's sticker chart.

By the way on my New Years goals, April wasn't a complete disaster, but it didn't advance my personal well being at all. We went to St. George for a week for a conference and pretty much ate a lot. I didn't work out at all during that week and then it slowed my motivation for the rest of the month.

Hence Zion Month is here to shock me back into compliance. Remember that I'm attempting this for one month. It's not a long term success plan, but I kind of want to challenge myself. Here are the goals:

Spiritual
Scripture Study Everyday (no skipping Saturday)
Personal Prayer Morn/Night
Family Prayer Morn/Night (no skipping Saturday mornings or oddly enough Sunday mornings either)
Temple 1 Time (similar to yearly goals- a better goal would be two times, but that's a tough one time wise)
Read Entire Ensign (similar to yearly goal but it's the conference edition and we still haven't received it, this one could be the toughest of the goals)

Physical
No sugar entire month
No soda
No Fast Food at all (Subway is allowed)
No eating after 9:00 P.M.
In Bed- 11:00 P.M. weekdays 12:00 A.M. weekends (Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight)
Exercise 6 days a week (no skipping Saturdays)

Personal
Blog once a week
Limit TV (news, American Idol, Lost, NBA playoffs, church programs) I know you're thinking "That's a limit?" but for me it is. I'm trying to get away from idling where I'm just surfing waiting to catch a Simpsons of Seinfeld. If you knew my habits you would understand that this will be a challenge.

It's May 5 and I'm still "perfect". If I get translated on May 31st you'll know why. If any of you want a similar challenge then let me know and I'll email you my spreadsheet (this means you Becky D. if you ever read this).