I worry about society

Forever and Always

So this might seem like a bit of a sad post but i promise it's only a passing day in a week that has been full of love and great new possibilities. Today my family attended a funeral for someone I've know almost all of my life. I've known grandma rose since long before I can even remember. Even though we weren't related by blood (she's my uncles mother) I still feel like she had a profound effect on my childhood. For over 15 years I remember going on camping trips every summer with my aunt and uncle and the majority of them were with Grandma Rose and Grandpa Gene. They were like a third pair of grandparents to both my sister and I. She was one of the nicest people I've had the privilege to know she's always smiling never saying anything unkind and always thinking of others. As we left the funeral today my sister and I reflected on some of the great stories and memories I couldn't help but reflect on just how much (and unexpectedly) life has changed over the last few years.

Its been almost 10 years since my Grandpa and Grandma Lambert passed within the space of three months.  The same day my Grandma died my Uncle Dave passed away from cancer. Two years later my Aunt Shirley passed away from Lupus. This time period in my life feels like an emotional blur I remembering trying my best to distract myself from what was going on around me. Trying to keep busy with school, friends, church anything to keep me from realizing how much I missed them and how different life was without them. While I was on my mission I found out that my Aunt Amy had passed away..leaving only my Uncle John and my dad as the only surviving members of the Lambert family.

Since coming home I've really been confronted by how much has changed in mine and my families lives in the last decade (especially after the funeral today) and how much I miss them all. They never got to see my sister and I graduate from high school, me go on a mission, go to college, and getting married. I'm so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel knowing they live on and I'll see them again. I came across this song by the band Parachute today and I'm amazed at how much perspective it brought me in this time of reflection. Even when life sends us a curveball and gives us what we never expected or wanted we can always reflect on the love that we had and still have with those people who mean the most to us. I'm so grateful to know that we're all going to be together again :) I will love my family forever and always.

Give a Hoot Read a Book!

So I thought I would dedicate a blog on some of my favorite books. I don't read as much as I use to, but I never shy away about my love of a good read. Here are some of my favorite books I've read in the past year or so and some I'm working on right now.

1. The Peacegiver
Such an amazing book it helped me when I was going through a lot. It's told in an extended parable and the message of this book is pure hope. If you are mormon/christian or just need a inspirational story on forgiveness and redemption this book is for you.




2. The Poetry of Robert Frost
I have to admit that as much as I like to write poetry I often find myself having little interest in the poetry of some of the greatest writers in the world. This has kind of bugged me for awhile so I decided I wanted to find a way to change my mindset and I bought this book. It's an amazing compilation of poetry that is great for when i have some free time. I particularly enjoy reading and pondering some of his more obscure poems. It's made me really consider making a collection of poetry books now.




3. Will the real heretics please stand up
This book has an interesting story attached to it. My mission president met the author who is a former pastor in the mission field and loved his book so much he gave us all a copy to read when we went home! Its a really comprehensive look at modern christianity and what is missing (and needs to be restored) from the church of christ. A great read for anyone searching for better understanding of early christian belief.




4. Blogs of Wrath

This book is co-written by my friend Jordan's husband Zach Shutt. What I love about his book is it's written entirely in the form of a blog. It's a unique form of writing that kept me reading even when I was tired (oh just one more blog post tonight I can do this! :) ). The story itself hits close to home as it deals with the highs and lows of a kid in junior high trying to find understanding in the world and himself. I felt a really strong connection with the main character and enjoyed this book thoroughly. Check it out and help support independent books!



5. Hunger Games

I got roped into this series by a lot of my friends talking about it and I have to say it's worth the amazing amount of spamming I received. I love the writing style and the setting of a future totalitarian government. I love how there's a focus on characters and you slowly get a feel of the world throughout the book. I'm on the second book and couldn't be happier




6. Mafia to Mormon


If you are a member of the mormon church you need to read this book. If you are a christian you need to read this book. Heck even if your only interested in a good story you need to read this book! It's a truly amazing and inspiring true story of a man who goes from a life of crime to a born again christian. It's not very long, but its fully engrossing. I think I read it in about 2 days. Its that good of a story.





7. Anthem


A book I remember reading in High School but thought that maybe It deserved more of my attention (yea i was a sparknotes reader :P) It's a really interesting book if for only the underlying message it carries. That uniqueness and variety are what make humanity exciting.





8. Enders Game

I'm actually currently reading this book again but I thought I should put it down simply because I loved it  in my english class. it's a great space adventure with amazing characters and caught my imagination. I remember writing a song with my friend layne about this book for a final project in English.




9. Hamlet
Ok so I have a problem..I love Shakespeare but it's sooo hard to read sometimes. Even though this is one of my favorite plays of all time but I often find that I watch the Kenneth Branagh movie to help me understand the context of whats happening. I suppose that it's suppose to be seen with that visual aesthetic to help the words have meaning. In any case I love this play and really anything from Shakespeare..he's one talented dude.




10.  I am America and so can you-
Haha oh man this book kind of balances out all of the serious stuff I've read. I always feel that politicians (and really politics in general) often take themselves too seriously. Thats why I love shows like Colbert and the Daily Show. This book pretty much had me laughing more than any book I've ever read. The satire of political pundits and the crazy solutions that they sometimes come up with. It's simply hilarious all the way through.


Books I'm working on
The Lovely Bones
The Alchemist
The Screwtape Letters
Catching Fire
The Chronicles of Narnia
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Jane Eyre

Childhood Memories ruined part 5: Excuse me Princess

I really liked this show. It was on between muppet babies and mario brothers (yes i somehow remember). It's amazing how badly it has aged; I remember being so excited to watch Link fight goblins and save Princess Zelda. Now all I can think of is how freaking whiny Link is. There were only about 13 episodes I guess and this is a compilation of all the times he says his "catch phrase" excuse me princess. I wanna punch him in the animated face! I guess it could have a life as one of those "so bad it's good" things, but otherwise I'd rather forget this laughably bad cartoon. NINTENDO FAIL.

Oh curse you auto correct

Ok so I thought I would share what has to be one of the funniest mistakes in twitter history (ok probably not that big). I was on twitter a couple months ago (october i think) and it happened to have been raining all day. It was a virtual downpour for most of the week and I had gotten really tired of all the rain. Though now I'd gladly take rain to a snowstorm this time of year. Anyway one of my twitter friends Sigrid Larsen (@siggypoop) made to comment that she "loves the rain cause I get to have a warm cup of cocoa". I thought that was a good idea! So I replied back, "I love the rain though I also like to be outside with a blanket to go with my cocoa."

As i waited to hear a reply from someone I got a message from my other friend Aubrey. She said, "Uh what?" I was instantly confused so I looked to see if maybe I didn't phrase it right and I looked and...it wasn't that...necessarily. My auto correct on my ipod touch changed to word cocoa. To what you ask? Well let me just repeat what it wrote. "I love the rain though I also like to be outside with a blanket to go with my COCK." (capitalized for emphasis) yes my auto correct mistaked the word cocoa for cock. Apparently my auto correct either is or thinks I'm a little perv. When i found out I was mortified for a moment and thought it was utterly hiliarious. Later on both of my friends told me it was the funniest thing they've seen and it made their day. So I thankfully got off without everyone thinking I'm a weird guy who likes to go outside with a blanket and his....yea. Moral of the story make sure to read what your sending...you never know when auto correct can bite you in the butt. 

The best date you'll ever have??

Sometimes I wonder what I could do better in the dating scene and how to present myself. Having read this I think I have a lot of work to do. I've never shaken obama's hand and I'm not sure how real I am. I guess I better start working harder.

Childhood memories ruined part 4: We need teenagers...with attitude

As I sit here between conference sessions I felt compelled to do another blog post about something I enjoy looking back on childhood tv shows. Today I look back on two of my favorite tv shows as a kid. Power Rangers. Of course watching power rangers was one of the coolest things ever back in the day but unfortunately not only have they made way too many spin off power rangers series since the original back in the day. They haven't aged paticularly well either. For some reason it never occured to me how they basically pigeon holed the rangers colors on what race they were, Zordons robot alfa (or hatever his names is) is a ripoff of c3po, and my personal favorite is the recap at the beginning of the show. Still the novelty of the Power Rangers will never fade in my eyes.

I still have fond memories of the series (though i can't help but wonder if they had a giant robot why not just use that to fly to the moon and kill the evil witch? I mean why are they always on the defense? also how come the robots always fall into buildings and fight giant monsters and NOBODY in the media says anything about it? Is it that common of an occurrence? wow this is a rant) and will probably have my kids watch the originals as opposed to the new crappy ranger shows. I've attached one of the best episodes and a college humor sketch thats pretty hilarious. Enjoy!