New Blog!

Check out Christina's and my new blog--http://hochstrassers.blogspot.com.

For now we are going to leave it a public blog. If any crazies start looking at our pictures we'll have to make it private. Or when we have kids. According to GoogleAnalytics I've got people from If after four months I don't post anything else on this blog, I probably never will. Only time will tell. I doubt I'll have time to maintain too—or enough cool stuff happening in my life.

Jeff at Weddings

So far Jeff has been in a similar picture at mine, Nathan's, and Kevin's weddings.

My Wedding.

I wish it had turned out better, but oh well. Won't be able to frame ours like Kevin and Aubrey did.

Nathan's Wedding

Nathan was posing for the camera too in this top one. Christina and Courtney had no idea it had even happened until after the fact.

Kevin's Wedding, the one that started it all

Your turn, Bwood.

I'm sure everyone wants other wedding pictures too. They will soon be up, but on mine and Christina's new blog. You will need a password for this blog that I can send you—http://hochstrassers.blogspot.com. So if you think I don't have your e-mail address, send it to me on facebook or to my e-mail, jordan.hochstrasser@gmail.com.

Wedding Invitation

Just in case you never got yours in the mail or we didn't have

your address, here's the wedding invitation.

The one we sent out had a little different spacing because we had to make it shorter, but I only have a photoshop version of that right now (so I can't upload it). It's pretty much the same.

Finals

Click to enlarge.

Thanksgiving Break!

Christina and I were able to go back to Washington for the break. We spent some time at both of our family's. We actually forgot to take pictures so I got these from my dad and sister.

We arrived Tuesday night and my parent's took us out to dinner to celebrate my recent birthday.

Daysha got to see this Red Robin they had walking around.

I even got some dessert and they surprised me by singing happy birthday

Daysha, Christina, and me playing.

Ready for dinner!

It was a really fun trip!

Health Care—What to Think . . .

I had to read a lot of articles and write a paper on the current U.S. health care system and plans for reform for my Economics class. I also learned about the health care systems of five other countries--England, Japan, Germany, Tawain, and Switzerland. It was very interesting. I want all of your opinions and thoughts on U.S. health care, so make sure to give me your comments.

I'm still not quite sure what the best solution is for health care reform. I definitely think that President Obama and politicians on both sides are trying to look for quick fixes where the American people don't have to change bad habits--something that looks good, but in the long run will be much worse for us. There are so many inefficiencies in the U.S. health care system it's ridiculous. We spend more than any other country and our care is ranked 37th according to a Frontline video made in 2008. That's horrible!

One of the biggest problems is people don't care how much health care costs because the insurance is paying for it. So the health care providers (hospitals, etc) charge outrageous amounts to make large profits and the insurance companies pay for it. They don't really mind because they'll just raise everyone's premiums for next year. In 2005 health care was 14% of GDP (and rising) compared to about 5% in 1965 (see link). Health Savings Accounts seem like a pretty good way to put the money into consumers hands so that they are more conscientious about where the money is going. But I know that's not a solution to everything--and it doesn't work well for people with medical conditions or the elderly.

I also like the idea of universal health care, but the cost without totally revamping the current system would be tremendous (despite what Obama says). Japan has managed to keep mostly private health providers while supplying universal care, but the hospitals are in a lot of debt because of the government regulations of prices.

I think the government needs to help take care of the vast inefficiencies in health care (but the gov't itself is so ineffiecient I don't know how that will work), put money into consumers hands so they care about costs coming down, and learn from what other countries have done to expand coverage to those that don't have it and cut costs.

Comments please.

That's What I'm Talkin' About!

Best idea to hit college football.

Some people argue that 16-team playoff is too much (even though basketball has 64 (officially 65) teams). I'd settle for an 8-team playoff over the current system. At least we could find out who the real champions are.

Google Voice is great, but . . .

Google Voice sends me an e-mail and a text when someone leaves me a voice message. It's a great idea, but the translator they use doesn't work all that well. Here's the message from my roommate Eric this morning while I was in class:

"Hey Jordan here and flusher. It's Dean collect on this, But 3 inches long trying to touch is. Yeah, I just wanna let you know I'm gonna so growing Custer's right now come up and it."

Yeah, I was confused too. My roommate was gonna bring me up my flash drive that I had forgotten at home (I was already on campus). Here's what the voicemail actually said, from my own translation:

"Hey Jordan, I think I got your flash drive. It says Dane Elect. It's 1 gigabyte. About 3 inches long, has rounded edges. Um, I just wanted to let you know I got it. You're probably in class or something right now. Just wanted to let you know. I'll come up at nine and give it to you."

Yes, my roommate had just recently woken up and probably slurred some words together, but still. It's really funny when I get the translations of my voicemail messages.

Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations are an interesting thing. Christina knew right away that I'm pretty picky about mine. I don't like too many pictures crowded on to the invitation, weird colors, pictures where you can't see the people, and distracting designs. I also think simple is usually better, not always though. We're in the middle of creating our wedding invitations. It's difficult balancing cost and finding one that we like. We've got an idea we like, we just need to work out getting it created on Photoshop. I tried teaching myself Photoshop, but that was a little frustrating. But I think we might have it under control now and you should be getting your invitations in a few weeks.

Charlie Bit My Finger becomes #1 on Youtube

For a while now the overrated Evolution of Dance video has had the most views of any video on all of youtube. Well, in the last few days, the much funnier Charlie Bit My Finger surpassed it in total views and become the most watched video on youtube with 129,719,233 views as of 9:25am MST. Obviously, since I'm posting about it being the most watched video, I know most of you have seen it, but here it is if you want to watch it again.

Halloween Date

Christina and I went on a Halloween themed date last night. It was a lot of fun. We went to the store before dinner to pick up a pumpkin and some ingredients. After dinner, we carved a pumpkin! Even though we didn't have very good knives for it, it turned out really well.

Then we made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for some friends and delivered them.

After we got back we watched a Halloween-ish movie (not a scary movie, cause Christina or I aren't huge fans of those). We watched Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. I thought it was an amusing story, pretty strange though.

Overall, it was a lot of fun!

This is probably the most fame I'll ever get

I've had a lot of people tell me about seeing my face on posters around campus. They'll probably be gone after tomorrow since Homecoming Spectacular will end.

This one is of me and Jake outside the upper level of the bookstore, the electronics section. This picture might be deceiving, it's not very big.

This one is right by the restrooms and drinking fountain by Jamba Juice in the WILK. This one is pretty big.

Oh yeah, sadly, I am not doing Men's Chorus this year, so people have been confused that I am on the poster. Last spring term they asked for the most handsome members of Men's Chorus to come to a photo shoot. Okay, they really just asked who is available for two hours and still has their Men's Chorus jacket—even if we weren't gonna be in it again.

A Few Engagement Pictures

We got our pictures back on Friday night. Here are a few, I'll post more later on Facebook. We've almost made a decision.

Toy Story 3 Trailer!!!

Christina and I saw this in the theatre the other night when we went to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D. I am pretty excited for this next installment after more than 10 years! And for those who say it's just gonna ruin the previous two great films—come on, this is Pixar. Did Toy Story 2 take away from Toy Story? Not at all. I actually like Toy Story 2 a little bit better.

Watch this trailer. Sometimes I am disappointed by Pixar trailers cause they don't do a good job of getting across the humor and STORY of the movie, but his one is great. Here's a look at it, although I highly recommend going to apple.com to see the HD version.

Housing FOUND

Christina and I have found a place to live this coming Winter! It's around 300 W 100 S. It's a spacious (compared to a lot of married housing in Provo) two bedroom place. We're excited to have this big decision made and out of the way. We're also getting two nice microfiber couches from the current tenants for a good deal. So we don't have to search for those and get them moved in.

We also registered at Bed, Bath, & Beyond on Saturday . . . man, that was a marathon. You can look us up already!

Last semester before graduation + Being engaged = Lack of desire to study

Usually people mention one of those as being a contributing factor to not doing as well in classes. I get to have both of them at once. Of course, I wouldn't want to postpone either the wedding or graduation.

Engagement Pictures

Okay, so sorry if you thought by that title that I would have pictures to post. I just wanted to announce that we took them today. It was fun. We took them up at Bridal Veil Falls and the surrounding park and down by the Provo Tabernacle. Christina and I had lots of fun doing them and are excited to get them back and choose our favorites!

P.S. Max Hall needs to quit throwing two interceptions a game. The first one tonight was an understandable mistake, but the second . . . what was he thinking throwing that one?!

100th Wall Post!

This is a momentous occasion. Here's some random thoughts to celebrate it . . .

-Tennis is amazing. I watched the final U.S. Open match today between del Potro and Federer. What a game! Del Potro won, by the way.

-There's a lot to think about for a wedding.

-I'm excited to see all of my family together when they come to Washington for my wedding.

-I accepted the offer with Ernst & Young in Palo Alto, CA.

-I love Christina!

BYU Football

Last week's game was a thrill ride! I'm a huge BYU sports fan. They do often disappoint (BYU basketball in the big tourney . . . ). This season will sure be exciting. I don't know if we'll go undefeated, but it'll be good, that's for sure. And I'm glad they're thinking about it one game at a time.

So . . . if anyone has all-sports tickets that they are not going to use because they will be out of town, please let me know! Christina and I decided not to buy all-sports passes this season because of certain other expenses that are coming up. I remember when I was in the Accounting Jr. Core I left two of my tickets with a roommate to use cause I was busy studying for tests (what memories).

Fortunately I get to go home for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately I won't be here for the Utah game (which is probably the most likely game people will be looking to get rid of, but will also be the best). Any other one though!

Engagement Ring

Here's the ring! And this is the wedding ring too cause Christina doesn't want a wedding band.