I can't take seriously someone who takes themselves too serious.

Here we go Aggies! Let's get your game on!

Lookin good Crimson Tide!

Does this work?

People think that just because your food takes a long time, it's the server's fault. Nine times out of ten, it's the kitchen. Or it's the fact that you ordered a well-done burger.

UNC v Kentucky!! I submit that it does not get any better than this. http://ping.fm/lfe02

Boy the Jazz sure know how to keep things close, and not in a good way. http://ping.fm/vu9g0

Chillin at KSL for my last weekend at my internship.

Love? What is it good for? Everything in fantasy.

I am an idiot. And for this reason I apologize to any and every girl that I have ever dated.

With that out of the way I would like to say something about Love, Happiness, and everything in between, because don't most of us associate love with happiness or vice versa? It seems to be the trend these days but what is worse is how many of us actually know what it is? Hell, I don't! I thought I did but now I have figured out what it is that made me think certain things about what love and happiness actually was.

Films. Books. TV.

How many times have we all ventured into our mind to create this endless fairy-tale montage of images of what we want our love life to be like? How did those ridiculous images get there anyway? I just told you that less than a paragraph ago.

I wished that it hadn't taken some cheesy movie for me to realize this but it's so true. Love and happiness, for a lot of people, can be summed up in almost every movie that we see on TV. The boy meets the girl at a dance or a social event. They spot each other from across the room and instantly they know they are supposed to be with each other. They don't even speak. The two of them end up outside of the part and find their way into sucking on each others faces and then of course there is some fighting but they always work it out in the end.

Dumb.

That is why I am an idiot. That is why I apologized. Every time you ask someone to describe to you what love actually is you can find that same thing in a book or listen to it while watching a movie. I am convinced that people can't describe love for themselves anymore. I speak from experience. Love and happiness are things that only exist in our wildest dreams it seems like. Could this be a reason for such high levels of divorce? I am not saying it is, just saying it would be a possibility.

Now I am not saying love doesn't exist and one day I might be so lucky but it is just funny to think that everything everyone has ever told me about how they "knew" and that it was "fate" were things I have had the pleasure of hearing the same things from Brad Pitt, Hugh Grant, and even Patrick Dempsey. I don't believe them anymore though. We all need to make our own ideas of what we want, what we love, and what makes us happy.

Because in the end, if we can't find our own true happiness, what else is there?

Fear not Fear

I have recently thought about fear a lot lately. I tend to feel it when I am around the opposite sex. My insides regress to the age of 14 when I would get scared to even talk to a girl. The same thing happens now. But I think more often people think of fear as bad or evil. One might fear failure so they won't try or attempt anything that might fall under failure umbrella.

I think fear of failure can also cause you to try harder so you won't fail. But remember it isn't failure if we experience it alone. It is only failure when other are there to witness us not succeeding.

Fear drives you to stand up for the things you believe it.

Fear helps you strive for things you normally wouldn't. If you are scared of disappointment, won't you try harder, work harder for the thing you want most?

Fear is not only good, but as Kevin Hogan said, necessary. It is a driving force. It forces you to either run or fight and both of those things can be good. Everyone is born with it. Mothers and fathers fear for their first born, learning the early stages of that tender life and taking care of them. It can also be learned. People will experience fear in their life whether it is being held at gun point or standing in front of a girl, trying to get the nerves to ask her out.

What causes our fear? Does it stem from our "lack of father figure when we are younger?" Or is it a natural instinct that helps us learn and keeps us from making mistakes? Fear is real. It is a real emotion that drives us to do our best, keep ourselves in line, and can help us not make any stupid mistakes in life. There is no shame in running as also there can be some sense in staying and fighting. From that first time we raise our hands in classroom in the 1st grade and get an answer wrong to when we hold that tiny little piece of life in our arms, fear will always be with us. It is a matter of which direction we let it push us and if we let it effect our lives in a positive way.

Two steps? Only in dancing

The Texas Two-Step is a dance that really isn't all that exciting but its where more than one step is allowed before the action happens. In basketball, well, that isn't the story so much anymore.

The rule allows players to take two steps before dribbling, passing, whining, or dunking. It also gives my sister a better chance at making it to the NBA as well. It is so ridiculous that they have to conform to the complaints of those playing in the NBA. But I guess it has been a long time coming. All the NBA greats from Chamberlain, Johnson, and even MJ have gotten away with it but now it happens all the time. I guess it doesn't even matter because the refs never called it to begin with. You have Lebron and Kobe going 25 feet to the basket and getting there without the ball ever hitting the ground.

I guess it comes down to "how can we make more money? Oh, dunks." People love a good show and this new rule is going to allow the greatest show on earth to give away tickets for free.

I say make the players earn their money the old fashioned way.

I say take this rule and throw it under the feet of those who are actually traveling.

But what do I know? I am just a skinny, white boy who can't dunk.

The sports world as we know it

If I could describe the sports world in one sentence it would be this one: The sports world as we know it is full of a bunch of reactionists.

OK so that is not a real word but it fits. With recent events this football season I see a lot of people jumping on band wagons and turning on teams who have established a name for themselves.

I started noticing this trend during fantasy football. This is my first year and after week one I able to get my fair share of people jumping to players who had a good week one. It's only week one. I think there are at LEAST two weeks in the NFL Football season, though I could be wrong.

Looking around I see that people are fans of the 'Canes now. Ok. Where were you the past 8 years? Harris looks good. He is a QB that, so far, seems cool. Not just cool like high school jock cool, but he can keep his composure and deliver when the team needs it.
Since their 2001 National Championship, the team has put together sub-par seasons, posting a little over .500 some seasons and just altogether ugly football during others. But did you know the Hurricanes holds the longest home win streak with 58? Or that they have more 1st round selections in a single draft? That is OK though because people don't care about tradition when you are losing. We are a society that wants it now. No time to wait. If you can't produce now then get out.

Now the big story of the season is the Sweatervest. Since Jim Tressel replaced John Cooper in 2001 he has become a big deal. His team has played for three National Championships winning one. As of 2006 he has 12 coach of the year awards and is third in overall wins with 196 behind Bowden and Paterno. Teams struggle, but when you have a guy who has produced 7 out of 9 years you can't give him grief after such a short time. I think he still has the answer but that answer relies in his trust in the players he coaches. He needs to let his playmakers make the big plays. If he doesn't then what is the point of recruting such talent? I watched both games and if they can get into a rhythm. . .well they will be established again as a great team. As we saw last night, when everyone said they wouldn't beat Toledo, his big players stepped up.

Basically give the programs time. Even if it's a year or two. Maybe this is the year for Miami, maybe Boise State will get another big game since Utah and BYU lost. Or maybe the guys who run the BCS will all simultaneously have strokes and die and everything will be right in the world.

But that's my opinion.

(most stuff I found on wikipedia on Tressel. And a blog I can't seem to find to give reference.)

Past Projects

So I am going to be posting some of my old videos I did from Newscast, internships and videos from other classes over the next few weeks. If you wanna watch them...here they are. And they are even free!!!

OK BYU. . .I am a believer.

This past week has brought many different stories with football. The Oregon guy connecting a pretty good punch. Favre throwing a pretty brainless block, which to be fair, let's go ahead and blame the coach for that one. You really don't put your star player in harms way during a stupid playoff game. Of course for me, it was seeing the Aggies actually put up some points against a high powered Utah Utes. But if you are a Mountain West Conference man, or woman, then you are loving the fact that the Brigham Young Cougars puts down the Oklahoma Sooners.

I will be honest, for the first 13 minutes I was impressed with BYU. After that I saw Bradford put one into the end zone and thought that maybe he was going to go ahead and take the game over. I was SO wrong. Oklahoma ended up with over nine flags during the game and three of them came in their first drive. They did look sloppy. Also, Oklahoma which is the number one offense in the country decided not to live up to that title. BYU held their run game and didn't look tired all game. Even before Bradford went down, the number one pass efficiency leader for the last two years didn't look like the Heisman winner that we all know him to be.

I do have to say that I am not satisfied with the way the Cougars held onto the ball. They treated it like a loaf of bread. This is not grocery shopping for grandma here. That ball is your baby. Protect it. And let us not forget the red-shirt punter for the Cougs'. He really earned his paycheck today. Giving some 45+ yard punts and putting one inside the 1-yard line.

Seeing BYU hold Oklahoma for three downs, get a flag, then hold them for three more and have the Sooners settle for a field goal made my heart throb with happiness. I will admit that Max Hall played an amazing game and showed his true colors. For being 2-15 against ranked non-conference opponents I thought for sure the Sooners would dominate this game. Boy was I wrong. . .but boy, am I OK with it.

And Boom goes the....players careers.

What do Brandon Marshall, T.O., and Manny Ramirez have in common? Answer: They are athletes duh. But really I have been following these and other players around the league and I am so disturbed by what has happened. Marshall deserves to be traded out of there. What he did was uncalled for and the players on the team should have been in his face, telling him to stop. Kicking the ball in the stands and making the ball boy go get it? Not only is he disrespecting the program now but also the program that has been built around him for the past several decades. For every team who plays against the Dodgers, fans are glad to have Manny in left field. His half-effort is probably due to the fact that his pants are too big and his hair isn't aerodynamic enough.

I think I agree with Mike and Mike this time when they say that kids these days need to find new heroes to look up to. I can't stand, time and time again, these players getting another chance to prove themselves and then botching it. W

But I do guess I owe you players a thank you. You are getting paid millions of dollars to entertain the population and so you do. You continue to entertain me and the whole world with all the ridiculous antics. So thank you for living up to your calling.

The Cabin!

So for the past little while, ok more like few years, my dad has been working on the cabin with barely any help from me and more help from the rest of our immediate and extended family. He finally was able to get a loan so the cabin will be finished in the next two months. I could not be more excited. I got some picture back from my dad and it looks amazing! The cabin will be able to be rented by people if they want but for now I am just looking forward to having a Christmas in it!

It's just one of those things

Recently I received a paper that was about the Holocaust. Although it was titled as such, it was not just about THE Holocaust we are all familiar about; the one found in the torn apart pages and poorly bound textbooks that we read when in grade school. This one talked about the general idea of it. Everyday we go about our business and notice the intolerance, bigotry, and impatient ideas that this country was founded on....oh wait. Ha they WEREN'T founded on that huh? My bad. But I have found myself over the past few months fighting a religious Holocaust with people who are my close friends but don't see eye to eye. It's funny how much "guff" one can receive when an idea or a muse just doesn't match with the rest of the world. I never really understood why.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my friends. You know who you are. But I just don't understand why it gets to the point where the progression of friendship has to actually stop because of differences of ideas. The point I reached literally was a rock and a hard place. Both places are not pleasant to be in and finally it came down to what was I willing to give up. After 24 1/2 years what was I going to stop doing? Well....as you can guess it was, well, nothing. I gave up nothing. I didn't work my ass off this long to just give up. That is not the way I was raised. Too many people give up because it is hard and does not work for them right now. I am sorry that is how you feel. But maybe what we can do instead of forcing other people to join the Holocaust of words and impatience we should go ahead and just embrace our friends for who they are. Because if they haven't left us high and dry and stopped being our friends because of the differences between us, then why should we be the ones to start down that road?

A very long journey

It has been a while since I ventured onto my blog. I am hoping to keep it updated for most people and hope that soon people will actually look at it. So many things have gone up and down. Friends betrayal, engagements, awesome vacations around the country, and multiple friends coming out of variations of buildings with a metal band around their finger. I often ask myself, "why do you continue to do these things to me? I love you unconditionally and am willing to do anything for you yet you throw me out like a disobedient puppy." Too many times have I been hurt but you know what? I have created so many memories. My friends of years past still continue to love me for the goofy, cynical, narcissistic person that I am and we laugh for hours on end. It makes life worth it and it shows my true side. Because let's face it; in the end if we are not honest with ourselves, then what else matters?