The video I have been talking about was released this morning. I was hoping for a better shot of the concourse of angels, but I was still able to find both Lexi and myself in the video. In the behind the scenes video you can see us a couple times and in many news stories that have reported we have shown up in pictures. I'll post those beneath the video, which you will find below. Click the images to enlarge. Please watch the video, share it with your friends and family, and you can download the song free HERE (no need to do step 1 and 2, you can just click download if you'd like). Enjoy!

About a week ago, I stumbled across a post on Facebook from the Piano Guys (who, by the way, I have a great story about first discovering them when they were brand new and I began sharing them with you all...if you haven't read it, find it in my blog history from last year) that said join us in breaking a world record and be in our new video. I clicked it just to see what they were up to and was interestingly intrigued and immediately signed up. They were combining in Provo with a bunch of other YouTube stars like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Studio C, David Archuleta, and some others to break the world record for most participants in a live nativity and then turning it into a video of sorts. I needed to go to Provo anyway to pick up some stuff my brother left behind when he moved home to Virginia (and by the way, when he says six boxes of stuff, he really means AN ENTIRE SUV FULL), so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and help break a record and grab the stuff. In both things, I got WAY more than I bargained for! For the sake of both my sanity and you're time, I'll just focus on the record event and not the showing up at my brother's house at 10:30 at night to find a room full of stuff that would take almost an hour to move and fit in my full-size SUV.

Lexi has Monday's off so I signed her up to come too. We registered to be angels and were told to bring our own all-white angel costumes with no halo or wings. Recently, I purchased two tuxedos, one white and one brown (and both sexy) from the Utah Festival Opera for $10 each. Yep, two tuxes. Ten. Dollars. Each. I found occasion for the brown tux, but was not sure when I would use the white one. Enter the angel costume. It was a done deal. Shoe color did not matter, so I prepared to rock the white tux as one well-dressed angel.

We arrived to the event expecting to just break the record and go home. We did not make the cut at first for the people in the video shoot. It seemed most of those people were friends and family of the people in charge of the event. After a few hours passed and everyone that was going to arrive had arrived, they needed everyone to help out with one part of the video where we all wore lighted bell-shaped costumes and had flashlights we pointed to the sky when they filmed after dark. We were trained on that and then everyone entered the world record area where we officially broke the record! Then, we rehearsed the formation shoot and they gathered everyone on hand to have enough for it. We shot that several times and finally got what they needed. Then, they said everyone with angel costumes were needed for the other shot, which is the one we originally wanted to be in but only the select few were going to be. Turns out, they had way too few to get the right shot, so we all got in on it. It was in the mid-30s and there was a good breeze, so it was cold and it was getting late. Hundreds of us angels stood on the hill singing and rehearsing and shooting and re-shooting and singing and shooting and shooting and singing for a couple hours before finally, at 10:30 at night, we had a wrap!

Until the video comes out, I won't give away the awesomeness of what all we did, but I can say with absolute surety that this video will be incredible and you will want to share it with everyone you know. It was absolutely worth being outside in a white tuxedo in cold weather for over eight hours. Here are some pictures to get you excited!

I have a countdown on my phone for when Lexi comes home from Alaska. I'll admit it makes me excited, and also nervous, but ultimately it makes me motivated. I have spent the past 4 months working hard to make positive changes in my life so when she returned, I could be a better person. The countdown reminds me of what I am working towards.

Today also marks 100 days until Christmas. I was made aware of this milestone over the weekend and I am now hosting a friend's 100 Days 'Til Christmas Party. Some may say it is dumb, ridiculous, and they refuse to acknowledge Christmas until December or even Christmas morning, but, the thought of it coming ever closer and so many people coming together in special ways that Christmas brings is exciting and reminds me that the Christmas spirit is not reserved for one month a year, but could do wonders if we exercised it all the year long.

There are numerous other countdowns going on in so many lives. Some are counting down until a birthday, a new child, a trip or vacation, a paycheck, and some of you are even counting down the 857 days until a new president is inaugurated, but whatever it is you are counting down, do not sit and stare at the timer as time slowly ticks off. Use that countdown as a motivator; set a goal and achieve it. Every moment we have is a chance to become better and to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. Do not procrastinate, you never know when the countdown of your life reads 1.

Song of the day is "Chariots of Fire"  by: Vangelis...wicked motivational!

I have been using Amazon Prime for a couple years now. The free two-day shipping option is amazing and often I can get one-day shipping for under $5. The instant video collection is also decent enough to keep me occupied a couple nights a month. All in all, it is well worth the cost for me, so long as things continue smoothly. Up until now, I have never had a problem. However, tonight, I wanted to throw on a flick while I packed to leave for a week-long job down at the Zion Ponderosa Resort. I found a movie, clicked the "Watch Now" button, and my computer started wigging out. This may actually be attributed to the trailer I was watching on a different tab, which was apparently slow in closing out. All I know is things went weird, crashed, and then it said I had purchased the movie for $9.99. I thought, "Hmm, maybe it was a glitch, I have Prime, why would it say purchase, must have something to do with it wigging out." So, I watched the movie. Then I looked into it and found I was charged $9.99 and I now owned the film. I don't buy movies! We all know this! I spent a little while looking for how to get a refund on it, but there is not really a page devoted to returning digital movie purchases, I mean, really, how would you even return one? You can't package it up and mail it. Anyway, I finally went to contact them and got on chat and my world changed. See, earlier today I went over to the Comcast Xfinity office. Back at the end of June our internet kept going out and through the 1st week of July it was out again. We had tried to get a technician call but could not get one in a timely manner. Finally, all the negative feelings from our service overtook me and I unplugged everything, brokered a great deal on internet only from Century Link, and I took the Comcast stuff to the local Comcast office. You would think if I unplug everything and ask to cancel the service, a service I am not under ANY contract for, I could be done with it. OH NO! NAY NAY! Not with Comcast. They must have some kind of internal goal to perpetually suck at customer service. I had called in three times prior to my negative feelings overtaking me trying to downgrade my services, but they either insisted I was getting the best deal possible and stuck to that line until I finally hung up, or they quoted me at obnoxiously high prices for the internet only that I wanted, which I knew was cheaper but I was curious how many different prices they would say. So, I go to the office, where the nice ladies are more helpful, I think because they cannot hide behind a phone and stick to the company's perpetually sucky customer service mantras. They have to face people, so you better believe they do more to help you, because if they don't, you know where they are. Anyway, the nice lady helped me cancel the service effective immediately, but the system would take longer to close it out officially. Yes, even she had to deal with the perpetually sucky customer service system. She printed me out proof of it all and wrote notes so we would know if something happened what I was supposed to pay for my final bill. A week later, I got a call from her saying the system had for some reason reactivated my account and I would have to call the perpetually sucky phone number to resolve it. The gentleman on there was somewhat helpful after I recanted all that happened in a somewhat frustrated voice (I was on my way to the airport to go to Alaska). He said he would re-cancel it all out and make sure it was dated the 8th of July, not the 15th. Fast forward with me- I would later receive a bill for $1500 I knew was wrong, then what said was my final actual bill, which was for $115, about $75 over what the nice lady assured me I would have to pay. So, I go in again to the office, wait in a line of 9 people ahead of me (a line that never shrank so many people kept coming in). I talked to the other nice lady and she explained the cancellation was still dated the 15th (big shocker), and a $50 fee was charged for the service call we had, which they finally managed to come AFTER the initial cancellation but before the service finally ended. I had a service protection plan and they assured me more than once before they came it would be free. Thankfully, the nice lady removed that charge, and finally after a month and a half, my bill was the $41 it was supposed to be, but, it would be too easy for it to end there. The perpetually sucky system takes a week to process that, so I now have to return in another week to pay. Time elapsed: 57 days and counting to cancel an account.

Now remember with me back to the movie incident on Amazon. Clicked "watch now", it purchased it for $9.99. I got on chat and this is a direct quote of what happened:

11:15 PM PDT Naren(Amazon): Hello, my name is Naren. I'll certainly try to help regarding your concern.
Are you referring to the video "In & Out" ?
11:15 PM PDT Jon Meier: Yes
11:16 PM PDT Naren(Amazon): I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
I have issued a refund for the order. A refund in the amount of $9.99 would be back into your card within 2-3 business days. The video will be removed from Your Video Library as a part of the refund process.

I PAUSED 30 seconds I was so taken back by how instant the resolve was I actually did not know what to do or say

11:16 PM PDT Jon Meier: Thank you, I appreciate that.
11:16 PM PDT Naren(Amazon): You're welcome.
11:17 PM PDT Naren(Amazon): Is there anything else that I may assist you with today?
11:17 PM PDT Jon Meier: No, that was all.
11:17 PM PDT Naren(Amazon): Thank you for contacting Amazon, have a great evening!!! :-)


COMAST- TAKE NOTE! My entire issue was resolved in barely 120 seconds, a quarter of which was me completely baffled at the instantaneous resolution of my problem.  

I do a lot of reading and following what is going on in all facets of the news. I watched as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge exploded on the internet, which, if you think about it is not too surprising because every person who does the challenge nominates a few other people, so once it caught on and a few well known people helped it along, everyone became aware and joined in. I also knew it would only be a matter of time until my name was thrown in the mix. Sure enough, that day came this last week and I did not hesitate for a moment to keep the trend going. Why? We are experiencing a rare moment that is doing tons of good and I wanted to keep it going as long as possible. You see, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a very devastating disease. It is a neurodegenerative disease that renders those affected slowly less able to control their muscles, eventually leading to paralysis and death. There is no cure. While there is some awareness about ALS, it does not enjoy the kind of awareness other illnesses such as various cancers and diabetes have. As a result, donations to research are limited, I would assume mostly made by those who have known someone diagnosed with the disease.

The ice bucket challenge has changed that, for now.

The numbers have skyrocketed. From July 29th-August 24th 2013, $2.5 million in donations to the ALS Association were made. From July 29th-August 24th of this year, $70.2 million has now poured in, including 1.3 million new donors! When I reported on the increase just three days ago when I did the challenge, the number was around $41 million with 700,000 new donors. In three days, that is a $30 million increase. That is why this moment must continue as long as possible. The world today is unbelievably fast-paced. Breaking news stories captivate us, but only briefly until the next big thing comes around. One day we are furious over the events in Ferguson, until one day something new comes along and we forget all about it. Our attention spans are limited. Thankfully, the ice bucket challenge is still booming, and it is beating out the naysayers and those trying to politicize it (including those trying to change it...ya idiots).

To all you who have been challenged, all of you who have already taken the challenge, and all of you who I hope will soon be formally challenged- no matter how you accomplish the challenge, make a donation too, and don't forget the importance of these moments we have. When the ice bucket challenge is a thing of the past, still find a worthy cause (not a charity, we're focusing on disease research here) that does not spend all day in the limelight and give what you can.

I expect the ALS Association will easily pull in over $100 million this year. I cannot even imagine what a difference that will make when years before they were operating on a fraction of that. The challenge is still going strong, help keep it going as long as we can.

For the song of the day, I have a great Sunday one that fits the topic- Alex Boye and Carmen Rasmusen Herbert's duet "Have I Done Any Good, Today?" Also, enjoy my ice bucket challenge video below, and yes, I will be making a donation to the ALS Association.

A while back, Google combined my accounts and for the longest time, even when I logged in with the correct account, it was registering the wrong one and I was locked out of my blog. The issue has been resolved and I'm back!

It would be far too complicated to try to cover all that has occurred while I was away, so I will start again where I am now. There is so much going on that there will be no shortage of updates, I promise.

As a welcome back treat, here are some random pictures of me and also my ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video.










Found some glasses and punched out the lenses at Bear Lake.








Late at night we take selfies....









There is a good reason for this...I promise.

Balloon festival