Westhoff.Net

The Politics of the Tantrum and the Hissy Fit

Sun, 03 May 2009 14:13:36 -0600

I'm enjoying the latest book by Jonah Goldberg, "Liberal Fascism." An excerpt:

"The exaltation of passion over reason, action over deliberation, is a naturally youthful impulse. Treating young people as equals, 'privileging' their opinions precisely because they lack experience and knowledge, is an inherently fascist tendency, because at it's heart lies the urge to throw off 'old ways' and 'old dogmas' in favor of what the Nazis called the 'idealism of the deed.' Youth politics--like populism generally--is the politics of the tantrum and the hissy fit."

Christmas Letter 2008

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:43:26 -0600

I have decided to break with tradition this year and actually finish and publish the family Christmas letter. A quick check of Westhoff.net reveals that the last time our family went to press with a cheeky yuletide update was 2004. Gentle reader, I take full blame for this shameful travesty. Let's move on then shall we, and knock this out before I run out of diet soda.

Facebooked

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:04:40 -0600

Westhoff.net will never die, though it certainly seems to be in hibernation. If you're interested in my goings on of late, feel free to sign up at Facebook and become my "Facebook Friend." It's kind of addicting.

hi

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:26:55 -0600

i just wanted to say hi i am having a great time in utah

so be safe in watever you are doing

Dunn's in debt.

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:19:57 -0600

Hello everyone. I have had quite a boring day here in Rolla Missouri. And I don't want all of you mothers out there saying, "Well if your SO bored why don't you just get of the couch and help me clean up this place!", because that would not fit the situation. In fact I did clean the house, but sadly to say it wasn't all out of love for my amazing mother.

Taum Sauk Mountain

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:35:17 -0600

Happy Father's Day everyone. I'm doing some tinkering on the back-end of the website and thought I'd use some pictures from a hike we did last fall as a "test post." This particular hike was significant as the entire family was able to summit Taum Sauk mountain, the highest point in all of Missouri!

Pre Fathers Day, Day

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:40:05 -0600

Well today the Westhoff family had quite a few adventures. Most of them were for the better, but the interesting stuff was for the worst (now you have to read!). We woke up this wonderful Saturday morning as if it was just a regular Saturday morning. And it was. The only difference was that this Saturday morning we were heading over to the Fort (Fort Leonard Wood) to go swimming at the pool there. This pool is well known for its high dive. Its definitely the favorite part of the pool for every one. Sept Lukie, who was having a great time learning to swim.

Boy vs. Wild

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:45:00 -0600

You may have heard of the survival show "Man vs. Wild". That is my favorite show of all time. Its a show that demonstrates different survival tactics in all sorts of different terrains. Bear Grylls (the guy in the show) may not be by him self the whole time. But he does teach me a lot of useful skills. For instance: how to climb (trees, rocks, really big rocks), make fire (in various ways), catch fish, trap game, and how to not puke when eating large grubs... Though I haven't really got the hang of that one... Any way in one of his shows he made himself a repelling harness out of vine in order to climb down a 40 foot water fall. It looked simple enough, so I figured I had nothing better to do that climb up a tree and repel down it. With a rope I found in my garage and using a technique I got off a television show.

See Me Run

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:33:42 -0600

As all of you may have heard, I have made a lot of progress on my running skills since my last entry dedicated to running (actually it was my fathers, if you'd like to read that search for See Dunn Run). You may remember that great mile marker for me that day.That was the day I made it into the plural mile club. I ran 2 whole miles! Well ever since then (I was about ten... now I'm fourteen) I have made running not only a hobby of mine but also my sport. I am not afraid to "express my greatness" (bragging), so for those of you with low self esteem, please stop reading this article.

Summer School

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:33:29 -0600

This month Zach and I are doing summer school. Our class is called hip-hop healthy. Emma has a cooking class called: "BAM cooking for cool kids." Well there you go.

Six and a Half Bikes

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:27:36 -0600

Rachel and I have been saying for years how great it would be if all of our family had bikes so that we could go on rides together. A couple of months ago we started applying resources towards that goal and we are pleased to announce that we are living our dream--we are Missouri's newest biker gang. Quite impressive, as you can see from the following picture. That's no small investment in bike-transporting equipment I might add, particularly since I had to get the trailer hitch installed for just that purpose.

Yesterday we made our maiden voyage, i.e. our first real destination ride. We chose the Katy trail for our three hour tour, Missouri's St. Louis to Kansas city "rails to trails" park.

The Wizards Apprentice

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:53:28 -0600

betterwisapprent.mp3 This is me playing my saxophone. A long while back. Like in the fall.

The Rolla Weekly

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:16:44 -0600

Well this week has been rather exciting. I have done something basically every day. On Sunday I took my friend Shay to steak conference and we sat with Joryn (a friend from church that both Shay and I are very well acquainted with) for the entire two hour session. If you're wondering what shay is doing at stake conference (Shay is a friend from school) its because she has been coming to church with me and Joryn for the past month now. Pretty exciting! She seems to get along with the young women in the ward there very well and enjoys the activities they do on Wednesdays.

Me

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:36:32 -0600

Well the last time I made a post about my life and the things I liked was like four years ago. Allot of things have changed since then. For instance, instead of being ten, I'm now fourteen. Though a lot of things have changed since then.

To all Westhoff-dom.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:57:04 -0600

Since this thing is functioning properly you guys should all kinda morph back onto it so that instead of checking out every ones separate blogs i can get on here and see everything at once. And my father worked very hard on this and it would be a shame to see his work go to waste.