Halloween / Winter Flowers

Last Saturday, before heading to the Homecoming Game with a bunch of law school friends (to watch BYU stomp SDSU), Sara and I spent some time getting our flower beds ready for winter. Yes, I said winter. We're big fans of planting pansies in the fall and then keeping them around all winter. It works out well. So, after weeding out the beds (thank you Sara) and moving some of our awesome irises (thank you Tyson), here is what we have mid-October:

The pansies are nice, but I'm particularly fond of the HALLOWEEN FLOWERS. The purple pansies go great with the gold marigolds. Bring on the trick-or-treaters:

What can I say, I love flowers.

Here...

I haven't posted in a long time... So if you want to know what we did two weeks ago, go here:

[HERE]

Thank you Mel.

Twitter Accounts

I've decided to separate the random drivel of my everyday life from the random drivel of my profession. Accordingly, I now have two Twitter accounts:

@tysonsnow - for my personal tweets...

@tyson_esq - for my legal and law related tweets...

Feel free to follow one or both. I am trying to get my approximately 1,500 followers at @tysonsnow to follow @tyson_esq too (we'll see how that goes lol). So spread the word!

Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. 'Mankind.'

That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom… Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution… but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist.

And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: “We will not go quietly into the night!” We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!


Happy 4th of July everyone!

Jet's Wedding

Here are some select pictures from Jet's Wedding at the L.A. Temple and her luncheon at Mariasol Cocina, a Mexican restaurant at the very end of the Santa Monica Pier. We had a great time. Sara and I took a ton of pictures (somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 -- apparently we love the Canon XSi). These are some of my favorites.

Me and Dad playing missionary.

Sara and I outside the L.A. Temple

The lone palm tree

Sara and her L.A.-movie-star-style sunglasses

Me and my parents (and my mom proudly holding the marriage certificate lol)

The best side of my cousin Jeff and his wife Stephanie

The whole crew, Susan, Mom, Dad, Sara, Keith, Jeff, Stephanie

Yo. Dad.

Mom and Keith

Me doing a Sprite Commercial

I guess I should include at least one picture of Jet and Pat

Artsy No?

Obligatory formal parents' shot

Best. Shot. Of. The. Day.

Yep

Sara and Jet. Notice how Sara coordinated her dress to match Jet's hair and vice-versa

The second cutest couple of the day

Santa Monica Pier - this is where we had the luncheon

We were at a Mexican restaurant - I wanted to throw beans and rice

Second. Best. Shot. Of. The. Day.

Best family shot. Jeff. Jet. Mom. Dad. Sara. Me. Keith. Susan. Quite the crew.

Two happy parents. One happy girl
Good times were had by all. I doubt I will ever attend a wedding luncheon at the end of the Santa Monica Pier again. If I do, I hope it will be as fun as the one yesterday.

Jazz / Lakers - C.J. Miles versus Derek Fisher

So, the Lakers worked the Jazz. There were a couple of heart breaking losses and a couple of blowouts. It was an extremely painful series. The only good thing about the Lakers is that our mutual hatred (and by "our", I mean everybody in Utah) unites BYU and Utah fans when football and basketball seasons are over. As depressing as the series was, we can all smile about one play:


That block was ridiculous. I was at the game, about five rows from the top, almost directly behind that basket. Even from there, the block made me feel bad for Fish. Talk about getting owned. I could watch it all day. And given how things turned out, I will get to watch it all off-season. I take solace in the fact that the little things in life are responsible for bringing the most joy. Thank you C.J. Miles.

Understanding Federal Budget Cuts

The creator of this video hit the nail directly on the head. The federal budget is out of control. I think we are all comfortable blaming both Democrats and Republicans for that. The numbers are so big that it is hard to actually comprehend. What is a billion here or a billion there when we are talking about trillions here and trillions there? I think this video gives a little perspective:


Well, the solution is obvious. We should probably raise taxes to make sure that we get that 1/4 penny back. We can't be throwing away 1/4 pennies after all. Regardless of your political bent, you should be able to appreciate the Obama Budget Cuts Visualization Video.

Brandon Mull / Fablehaven - Officially Arrived!

If you haven't read the Fablehaven books yet, you really need to. Sara read the latest (and last) installment in a matter of days. I think that my oldest nephew (Josh) read it faster than Sara did and I'm guessing that Mel is right on pace too. We can offer up all sorts of anecdotal proof about the quality of Brandon Mull's writing and the Fablehaven series. But I'm here to give it to you objectively. Rock solid proof that Brandon Mull and his Fablehaven books have arrived and are legit contenders in the Teen Fiction genre. Here is a screen-grab from Amazon (just taken):


Holy freaking crap! Brandon Mull broke the stranglehold that Stephanie Meyer has had on the Top-5 for the last (what seems like) five years! That's right. He knocked another "version" of Breaking Dawn down into the sixth spot. Of course, Stephanie Meyer and the Twilight "Saga" still own ten spots in the top 15. But that is some pretty impressive company no? Way to go Brandon! You are awesome!

The fact that Stephanie Meyer still owns the all those top spots so many years after releasing her last book is kind of sad. And, as Sara just said, why do we give J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter so much credit for reinvigorating reading in our society? Stephanie Meyer, Bella, and Cedric Diggory have done much more to encourage reading (and somewhat frightening vampire romance fantasies). One of these days, someone will unseat Ms. Meyer. It will be a sad day. If vampires died, I'm sure they would be turning in their graves. Until that time.

Go Brandon Mull!

Who Says Twitter Is a Waste of Time

From the Tennessee Bar Journal:

Twitter is a terrific source of information about the law, especially breaking news. But like any other type of research, you must look in the right place to be efficient. The best way to stay informed is to follow others — Twitter calls these your “friends” — who can scour the Internet for you. Twitterers such as Attorney Tyson Snow[3] comb the Internet for breaking news. Snow and others like him provide a wealth of information on the state of the law. For example, he regularly links to articles of considerable importance for employment lawyers. Another Twitter user, @LexMonitor,[4] provides a veritable smorgasbord of legal news. Whatever your palate prefers, chances are that someone is tweeting about it.

My thanks to @timothyperkins for writing the article and including me as an example of effective Twitter use. All the people who follow me may not agree but I'm glad that at least some of the information I send around is deemed relevant. Here are full versions of the article. You should check them out:

[HTML VERSION HERE]

[PDF VERSION HERE]

Jimmer \'jim 'ər\ (n.): the Ball Wizard.

Jimmer \'jim 'ər\ (n.): the Ball Wizard.