Sunday, December 1, 2013

Playoff Layout

So this what the playoffs look like now (assuming Lynch doesn’t get hurt early, and totals 3.6+ points).

#1 – Chad
#2 – Ren
#3 – Tyler (wins his division, and is therefore guaranteed a top 3 seed, even if his power ranking/overall standing would have put him behind me)
#4 – Skyler
#5 – Jordan (had less points than Brady, but one more win)
#6 – Brady

However, if Lynch gets hurt or something, here is what the scenario would be.

#1 – Chad
#2 – Jordan
#3 – Ren
#4 – Skyler
#5 – Tyler
#6 – Brady


So the north division has their spots locked up at 1, 4 and 6.  However, bye weeks depend on Lynch not getting a concussion, or playing his worst game all year.  Though he has scored 3.7 this year, as well as 6.9 and 7.2, and I think that’s without injury.  So who knows. I could be wrong.  I had to double and triple check this and make changes.  So leave comments correcting me.  It’s not been my week. 10 and a half hours in a car leaves you loopy.  Also, had Matt won, he would have been in.  Brady would like to thank Trevor for the help.  Even after I gave Trevor grief about who to start, he still won.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Going into the last week

Let’s get to the obvious.  Rob, Geoff, Koko and Trevor are out.  What I’m about to say isn’t 100% certain.  I mean there is always the chance Jordan wins, Ren wins, and Jordan outscores Ren by 270 points, but it’s not likely. If there is a chance points come into play, I’ll let you know.  Otherwise, someone has a better record, or is leading by like 70 points and should be safe.
Win or lose, chad has a bye.  Ren has a bye if he wins, or Jordan loses.  Jordan has a bye if he wins and Ren loses.  The winner of Jordan and Tyler will win the division. If Jordan wins he has the better record, if Tyler wins, they have the same record and Tyler wins on points. Jordan is in the playoffs no matter what.

Now to the gray areas.  Of the teams with 7 or less wins, I’m leading Hukill by 40, who leads matt by 20, who leads brady by 7, who leads kyle by 40.  Check the standings on Tuesday, or the table at the bottom of the post for point/standing breakdown. 
If Matt or Kyle lose, they are out.  Winner of Brady/Skyler is guaranteed in.  I have a decent enough of a lead in points, that I should get in even if I lose next week, as long as my team doesn’t score an all-time low of like 70. 
If Hukill wins, the last playoff spot will be battled out by the loser of Skyler/Brady, Matt and Kyle (assuming they both win).  I have a 60 pt lead on Matt, and 107 on kyle, so I’m in a solid position even if I lose.  Brady on the other hand is down 7 on Matt and up 40 on Kyle, so that would come down to how much he scores vs how much Matt scores for a playoff spot.  Matt should be cheering for him to win, brady to lose, and tyler to lose just to be safe. 20 points behind hukill can be recovered in one week.

I feel like most everything can be deciphered from there, but I’ll break down the last 5 people real quick in best and worst case scenario (both within the realm of possibility…there will be no predictions of 60 point losses or anything.

Skyler: Best – win and in.  Worst – lose, everyone else win, likely beat matt and kyle by points tiebreaker.

Hukill: Best – win and get division title (but no shot at a bye). Worst – he loses, brady wins, and matt outscores him by 20, while he doesn’t outscore me by 40.  That happens and he’s out. Or brady could lose instead of me, but outscore hukill by 25.  He would also be out.

Brady: Best – win and in.  Worst – lose and have matt win, while not outscoring matt by more than 7 points.  That happens and he’s out…and/or kyle win and kyle outscores him by 40.
Matt: Best – win, Brady lose, Tyler lose.  He then ties them on record, and if he outscored hukill by 20, while staying ahead of brady in points, could take the 5th seed.  Worst – Lose and he’s out.

Kyle: Best – win, Matt lose, Tyler lose, Brady lose.  He would pass matt in record, and then he would have to outscore brady by 40 and Hukill by 65 to claim the 5th seed, and outscore only one of them for the 6th seed.  It’s very unlikely Kyle makes it.  Worst – lose and out.
That’s it.  Here is the table of the teams, their wins, and their points.


I am Batman
9
1584.26
El Gordo
8
1685.18
P- Town
8
1417.88
Dixie
7
1502.8
Hukraine
7
1460.4
B EZ ON MY SNAX
7
1435.82
BHers
6
1442.82
Hit Squad
6
1395.98


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Two Weeks Left

So due to the predictions of one team and his ability to make the playoffs, I decided to write a new playoffs scenario.  Also, at the bottom I am going to include some possible rule changes, format changes, site changes, and owner changes.

So the standings changed.  Some of my predictions happened, some didn’t. Some of my predictions were based on what I wanted to see happen, so I shouldn’t be shocked that I got them wrong.  Unless Ren falls apart and loses out, he will have a bye – just on sheer points.

Chad won.  That makes me mad.  I needed him to lose to have a shot at the division title. This is a big week for both of us.  I have to win by about 80 points to really have a tie going into the last week, but that’s not going to happen.  He will win the division as long as he doesn’t lose both games.

I’m no lock to make the playoffs, so beating chad would make sure I get in, as well as give me a chance at the division title.  Fortunately for me, Jordan plays Kyle this week.  If I lose and Jordan loses, then I’m tied record wise with Jordan and Kyle going into the last week. If kyle loses, that will keep me a game ahead of him no matter what.

Brady also has a big week against Geoff, he is projected for a nice big win, which will help keep him in the playoff hunt now that he has the same record as Tyler and Kyle.

I know already mentioned Kyle vs. Jordan, but a win for Jordan will keep him ahead for the division race. I’ll get to this later, but it’s likely that the South division will only have Ren in the playoffs, and Chad is most likely in. So winning your division keeps you from the elimination bubble.  If Kyle wins (by more than 6.64 points), he will pass Jordan in the rankings.

I’m not sure what to say about Hukill.  I thought he was the surging team (he still could be), but Koko has the highest current win streak (tied with chad) and could be the surging team. While he can’t catch anyone with 7+ wins, he could catch anyone with 6 if they lose out.  He needs Jordan to win his games to keep Kyle and Tyler at 6 wins.  That would put Chad, Skyler, Ren, and Jordan ahead of him, with Brady Kyle, and Tyler all at 6 wins (not likely, but it could happen). 

If the above scenario happens, BHers and Native Americans could still be in the hunt as well.  If Trevor wins out, he will have 6 wins.  That would be 1 more loss to Matt, but if he beat Ren this week, he would also end at 6 wins.  I think it’s all very unlikely, but if 6 teams ended at 6-7, it would then come down to total points, which I’m not going to guess because that’s even harder to get than wins.

Rob and Geoff, I’m sorry.  Better luck next year.  You can play spoiler to some other teams though.  In fact, I need Geoff to win out if I want a small chance to win my division.  Well, I think that’s everyone.  Now to the changes that could happen next year.

So there have been some keeper complaints: should we be able trade them and then keep them, should we be able to keep waiver wire pickups, should we get rid of keepers all together?  I’m ok with whatever.  Honestly, I’m all up for what is best for the league.  You can argue thinking long term is good for the league or playing in the moment is good for the league, and both have valid points.  I just ask that people be objective in their view of the rules. I don’t like how one year keepers are bad, but then the next year it’s great because you have a great keeper. So try and be reasonable. But it appears something needs to change.

One of the arguments for removing keepers is that it puts more skill and importance on draft day, which is everyone’s favorite day anyways.  My only issue with that, is it makes draft day longer, and sometimes we all take too long, or aren’t prepared, and 2-3 extra rounds would make that longer.  You can argue that’s good or bad, but it’s another way to think of keepers changing our favorite day of the year.

Tanking – it happens.  I have minimal issue with what Rob is doing because he is trying to build for next year, and it’s in the rules – I do hate that he is trading with people in my division, but that’s just me being biased and subjective.  However, I don’t want people giving up and not worrying about this year.  Plus now Rob has great keepers and has the inside track to next year’s 1st overall pick.  Obviously, we can’t change this for next draft, because it’s unfair, but what if we have the winner of the consolation bracket get the 1st overall pick? That way people still try all year long.  Other options would be to make the trade deadline earlier (that could be fine), or expand the playoffs to 8 teams. 

I will say straight up, I don’t like expanding the playoffs.  Sure, more people get in and will try harder, but that makes most of the regular season worthless.  The year I won it all, we had several teams with losing records in the playoffs.  If we expanded to 8 teams, how many teams would make it that wouldn’t really earn it? Plus, that 8 seed could upset the 1 seed in the first round.  There isn’t a benefit on seeding (because there is no bye week), the benefit is in the schedule and match-ups.  That is my opinion on expanding the playoffs.

Other changes could be to change tie-breakers. I feel like basing it on record and then points is probably the most accurate representation of someone’s season.  However, if we wanted to make tie-breakers based on head-to-head results to make individual games matter just a little bit more, I’m ok with that.  It would change things to some degree.  I believe the year I won, had we gone to head to head tie-breakers, Brady would have made it ahead of me, I would have moved down to the 6 seed, and Ren would have been eliminated.  I don’t think I would have won that year. So there’s something to think about.

I was thinking there is the possibility of putting the divisions up to 4, with 3 teams each.  That way we could play each division team twice (4 total) plus the other 9 teams (13 games total now) and still have the playoffs go from weeks 14-16.  It’s not great, but it could fit with some of the rule changes (like if we wanted to expand playoffs). Part of the reason I suggest that is because there is one opponent we don’t play every year, and this would change that.

Geoff mentioned switching to ESPN.  I have no issues with that, but I don’t know everyone else’s feelings.  My only concern is having to get everyone to adjust to the new page.


So Konner will be going on a mission at some point, and we will need to replace him.  If we stick with our “tradition” theme we often go with, we should probably have my brother Logan replace him or Tommy Leavitt, since they were both original members of the league in 2006.  However, if we want to find someone else, or widen the pool, we need to find a way to do that.  I was thinking start up a minor league.  We won’t drop anyone down to it, but we have enough interest that we could start up the minor league, and the winner can move up to replace Konner.  Plus we have a pool of replacements if anyone quits, dies, or sucks too much.

Please comment on any of the possible changes.  Feedback is always encouraged. To encourage more feedback, I was thinking of creating a competition committee of 3-5 members that can go over rules and make rule changes.  So let me know what you think of that as well.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Fantasy Football Musings

So in all reality, there are too many weeks left to really analyze playoff scenarios.  There are so many what if's that it's hard to go over every scenario.  So here are the most likely scenarios, based on projections, my gut, and past performances.  Not a lot of player projections though.  So anyways, here we go.  To access the league page click here.

Things I hope: That I win it all again.  Ok, now to the real stuff.

Things I know:

1 - Ren has wrapped up his division.  He has a 4 game lead over Matt (who is number 2 in the division) with only 3 games left.

2 - Rob is out of the playoffs. Other out of the playoffs that will likely happen: Geoff, Koko, Trevor.  Here is why.  At 3 wins, they cannot catch Ren, Chad, Jordan, or the winner of Skyler/Brady (or both if we tied that game) even if those people lose out.  They would then be tied record wise with the loser of Skyler/Brady and Kyle (if those people lose out) and would then depend on points for the tiebreaker.  However, counting on people to lose out or win out is a tall order.

3 - So to make a visual of that last point, Jordan, Ren, Chad and winner of Skyler/Brady's week 13 game will end with 7 wins minimum (Ren already has more, and Jordan and Chad will likely win one of the next three to end with more than 7 wins).  So if you want a shot of getting into the playoffs, you need to get to 7 wins. 8 wins to make a strong case. 9 Guarantees it. 6 teams could get to 9 wins if everything bounces there way.  But really only 5 have a shot since Brady and Skyler can't both get to 9 wins...also, it is a big if for all of those teams to get to 9 wins.

4 - My division will be crazy if Brady beats Chad and I beat Geoff.  The top 3 teams will be 7-4.  That could be fun.

Things I will speculate on:

1 - Geoff, you are my bro, and if I had to suit up and go to McLaren's with anyone from this league, it would be you. However, I think I beat you this week.  The projection will likely change when you update your roster, but still.  I want to believe I will win.  As this is my blog, I can do that. Plus it makes #4 up above possible.

2 - Jordan loses to Koko this week. And maybe to Kyle next week.  I'm sorry, but I just don't love Ryan, Ridley, Richardson or Wallace.

3 - Hukill could go on a run. He has some really good running backs, and I don't like it. I'm glad I don't play him again during the regular season.  Speaking of scary, chad with megatron and CJ2K's schedule...it scares me.

4 - T Rich is getting so many dump off passes this game, I hate him less than when I speculated on number 2.

5 - I don't think Matt makes the playoffs.  He needs to win out to get to 7 wins, and that just isn't a good scenario to be in.  He has to play Ren, and I already mentioned 4 other guys that will get to 7 wins (or more)

Well that's it. I don't want to speculate anymore or else I'll be up all night.  I'll try and write throughout the next two weeks once we know more.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Getting Last Night Out of my System

I have the tendency of either caring way too much or not enough about something. I'm either super passionate or totally indifferent towards most things. Go big or go home right?

Well this drives my wife crazy. She would rather I was moderate about everything. Unfortunately I'm just not that way. And because I'm so passionate about certain things, I get emotionally attached. If things go well, I'm happy, if not -- well it's probably best to not talk to me.

And this leads me to last nights game. As a BYU fan, I'm very passionate about my team, and because we lost, I'm rather unhappy about it. My thought is maybe if I get all my thoughts out here instead of spamming people on Facebook, I'll get over it sooner. So anyways, here goes nothing. Here are all the things that I'm mad about.

Our offensive play calling: I'm beginning to remember why we let Anae go a few years ago. The play calling was too predictable and not very effective. Jocelyn made the comment that she has started learning more when you should pass or when you should run, and that BYU wasn't doing so well at it. I get that we didn't want to abandon the run, but the Utes D line was not giving us that option. Once we started playing a quick tempo pass game on the mid routes, we moved the ball much better than running for three yards, running for two yards, trying to throw for 20 yards, then punting. Then again maybe the deep pass stuff wasn't all Anae's fault.

Taysom Hill: I like Taysom Hill. I think he will be a good QB and I think he has gotten better at passing as the year has gone on. That being said, he holds onto the ball far too long and then goes for the deep throw. However, at least he can throw it deep unlike our last QB and he doesn't throw it so high that it's a threat to be picked like two QB's ago. Hill needs to stick to the quick short and mid throws, build his confidence and skill, move the chains, and only go deep on the last play of the game or half.

Cody Hoffman: Just kidding, I love Hoffman. I blame the subjects of the previous tow paragraphs for him not being involved in the first half.

The Refs: They were bad on both sides of the ball. Everyone has a right to not like them this game. After two bad weeks in a row, they should be out of work for a little while.

BYU fans: I liked the showing up early part, but we got down and quiet too soon. We got to do better at being loud. Speaking of which, we are supposed to be loud on defense, quiet on offense. I think BYU should require all freshman to take a half credit class called how to be a real fan 100.

Ute fans: I just want to say I agree with Max Hall. I mean uh...crap. In all honesty 99.9% of the Ute fans were fine. I have no qualms with you. Your team was better and you should enjoy it. The 0.1% (or less) I have issues with were a few I saw on TV and a few I saw on Twitter.

To those at the stadium I didn't like by just seeing you on tv (there was only 3 of them that did this). I can understand you cheering for your team, but gloating to every BYU fan around you and motioning them to be quiet or sit down after a big Utah play is just dumb.

I don't know if you feel secure that no one at BYU will do anything to you, but there is no way you could get away with that at most other sporting venues (on any level) so please don't do it.  It just makes you annoying to everyone around you, and then when someone responds, you call them names (jerks, mean, classless, hypocrites, etc) and act all hurt. Speaking of calling names.

To a person on twitter I won't call out by name -- Throwing out blanket statements like I don't like BYU fans because they are all classless is Max Hall like. Don't stoop to that level. Doesn't your mean spirited tweet also prove you are lacking in class at worse or overly emotional at best? Give the BYU fans the benefit of the doubt that they are being over emotional too, because I know I was.

Well that's it I think. I certainly do feel better, but that might all change in 10 minutes, so who knows.  My teams went 2 for 3 on the weekend, so I can't get too mad.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

100th post: My thoughts after the passing of my cousin Shelly

For my 100th post I wish to pay a small tribute to my cousin Shelly, and to a smaller extent, my family, and even smaller extent to those of you who are close enough friends that you might as well be family

Today, my cousin Shelly passed away.  It wasn't totally a surprise because I was told a few days back just how bad her health was, and how it was getting worse.  Still, it’s always sad when family passes away.
 
When I heard about her health I started to think about my memories of Shelly.  Now to be fair, we are about 5-6 years apart, so we weren't particularly close, so coming up with memories took a little longer than I would have liked, but I came up with some random ones.  After looking at those memories I realized I had no definitive Shelly memory – which made me feel pretty bad.  I can remember totally random things like seeing her at a local baseball game once in St. George, or different family gatherings (generally around holidays) but nothing that came across as amazing.

After feeling a little guilty for a while, I started to think about other cousins, and then aunts and uncles, and even my immediate family – and then I realized something: I may have more memories with family who are closer in age, or lived closer to me geographically (meaning I had more contact with them), but I can’t think of any definitive memory of any family member.  I mean sure, I remember big special events (sometimes with way too much detail), but those aren't the definitive memory of one single person.  I have lots of memories involving lots of people, and that’s what makes them great – having lots of people you care about in life around you enough that there are no defining memories.  So for those of you that don’t have a defining memory in my mind, I want to say thanks for being around enough that you moved above having a defining memory.  I appreciate it.

Now, back to Shelly.  Like I said before, we weren't close in age – which unfortunately means we weren't close in general.  But here is what I can tell you.  First and foremost, I need to work on being a better family member be it cousin, nephew, brother, son, husband (you can add “-in-law” to all those words as well [except husband, that doesn't make sense]), because as I sit here, I can’t tell you much about her.  What I can tell you is that she has been living in Washington for a while and has two kids.  I can’t remember their names (like I said, I need to be a better family member) but I do remember that whenever I would hear about Shelly and her kids, it was always good things, about how much she loved them and would try hard to be a good mom.  You might think, “Well all moms try hard” and I would say that you’re probably right, but given just how hard of a life Shelly has had, that is no small accomplishment.  Truthfully, I might not even know 5% of all the stuff that she went through, but I know it was a lot – which makes the fact that she tried that much even more impressive.

I will say I'm embarrassed about some of the things I don't know about Shelly (or even my other family) and that I wish had more memories of her and others, but I appreciate the lesson that I was taught while remembering her.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Sanford’s.  It’s got to be an incredibly hard time on them, and I hope they are able to make it through.  And finally, I would like to encourage whoever is reading this to go out and A) be a good family member or friend and B) make enough memories with your loved ones that they don’t have one definitive memory.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

June Adventures and my 99th post

So despite it being summer, I still am a terrible blogger.  But that's ok, because I don't really care that much. I did a lot of traveling this month, and so I thought I would tell you all about it.

Sometime in early June all of our adventures started.  You should know that Jocelyn’s dad works for the government (think of Jason Bourne – and then go with the complete opposite…or maybe that’s what he wants me to think?) and had some conferences in Jerusalem this year.  Well my mother-in-law loves to travel so she was super excited to go, and Jocelyn did a study abroad there so she was super excited to go, and because I’m married to Jocelyn I got invited to go.  Nice little perk if I say so myself.

So back to early June we go, on a Saturday.  We left home around 3 to go to the airport.  And no, that’s not the good 3, but the bad, boring infomercials and old movies are the only things on TV, 3.  So I drove her up, dropped her off, came home, and then slept.  I was home alone for a weekish and then made the same trip Friday morning.  My flight got delayed, which made me miss my flight from Houston to Toronto, but fortunately they rerouted me from Houston to Newark and then from Newark to Tel Aviv.  It all worked out, but it was a little stressful and nerve racking for a while.  I didn’t sleep much on that 10 hour flight, but I did watch some movies, which we will now take a quick detour on.

I don’t remember which movies I watched on the way to Jerusalem or on my way back to America, but I want to comment on some of those movies.  I watched the new Oz and liked it for the most part. I even watched it from Denver to SLC for a 2nd time.  It was a little corny, but that’s ok by me.  I also watched Skyfall for a second time (meaning 2nd time ever, not 2nd time on my trip) – very good movie.  I watched Taken 2, but that was my starting to nod movie, which I was ok with because I saw it in theaters.  At some point I also watched Jack Reacher, which I enjoyed, but I felt like it was like most other Tom Cruise movies.  And I finally watched I am Legend.  I’ve seen bits and pieces of it on TV, and I’ve known the basic premise for a long time now, but for some reason I never got around to watching it.  I was really excited to see it when it came out, but I went into the MTC 2 weeks before it came out.  By the time I got home there were so many other important movies to catch up on, that I never got around to it.  But I’m glad I did.  I enjoyed it a lot, and it was oddly nostalgic, even though I’ve never really seen it before.  Anyways, back to my trip.

So because of my movie watching, I didn’t really sleep on the plane.  I got to Jerusalem around 5 Sunday afternoon and was super tired.  We didn’t really do much and I fell asleep as soon as I got into bed (that happened just about every day on that trip).  I won’t go through all of the details of our trip, but suffice it to say we went to some really interesting sites.  I think I would have found them more interesting if there weren’t so many cathedrals on top of everything, but that’s just the way it is.  I really liked the locations that looked more natural, or that were being excavated.  It was a very different culture, but it was really neat to see and I’m glad I went.  I was just tired and hot all the time and I would struggle to stay awake once we got back to the apartment.  If you want more details, feel free to ask, and I will give them to you.

So anyways, the time came to fly back.  I got more sleep on that flight, but not a whole lot more.  We eventually made it back to Utah and decided to take the front runner down to Provo.  Not the world’s best idea considering they only run every 90 minutes on Saturdays.  Let’s just say we sat around a lot that day between layovers of planes and trains.

So that was Saturday.  Tuesday night came and I had to pack to go to Baltimore for 3 days with Ernst and Young (and yes, I left around the bad 3 again for my flight).  They invited me to go to their Emerging Leaders Summit, which was pretty cool.  There were about 250 of us and they had us go to some workshops and meetings, as well as some fun activities.  It was rather enjoyable and helped me see that I could definitely work for them someday.  The highlight of the trip was eating at Camden Yards after our scavenger hunt.  It was a very cool place.  So anyways, got home late Friday (I took the front runner again.  Not as bad of an experience, but still not perfect.  On weekdays they run from 3 to 10 at every half hour, except at 7:30.  Care to guess what time I got to the station?) and I don’t remember what I did until Sunday, which was fly out of SLC (not a bad hour this time) to Southern California.

I got to John Wayne airport around 2:45 on Sunday and then got to my hotel and didn’t have much to do for a while.  Monday morning came around and we met all of the other people there (both students and full time employees) and learned more about the company, their operations in Irvine, and other things like that.  It was much more specific to the Orange County office, whereas the meeting in Baltimore was about the entire company.  So this visit helped me see that I would enjoy working for Ernst and Young in the Orange County office.  The people were great and the work definitely seemed interesting.

This is a rough transition, but speaking of work, I have enjoyed my internship at the LDS churches IT building.  I work as a quality assurance engineer on an app.  Basically I try and break it and find all of its problems.  I’m in the missionary portfolio, so if you went to the meeting on Sunday where they talked about missionary work, the first few minutes were very exciting for us.  All I can say is there is a lot of work and plans and thought that goes into all the decisions that the brethren make in regards to missionary work.

Also, if you know anything about me, you know I love Disney and have been trying to get an internship with them for a little while.  I had an interview a while back that didn’t lead to anything, another interview with someone else that was really more of a conversation.  I was told it probably wouldn’t lead to anything because most of the positions were filled, but it was still nice to get that chance to be considered. Well while I was in California I had another interview Monday morning.  It went well, but it’s always hard to tell over the phone because you can’t see someone else’s facial expressions or body language, but from just the voices, it was a good interview.  Later that day I got an email from someone at Disney I had had some correspondence with (that’s another interesting story, ask me if you want more details) saying he needed to talk to me at my earliest convenience.  I was thinking this was going to be another interview, so I set it for the next day.

So he calls me up and we have a little chat about the interview the day before and he said he had to collect more information to move along the process.  I thought he meant for a second round of interviews, or for another position, which was fine by me, so we talked for a little bit.  I got a little suspicious midway through the conversation, but my suspicions went away because we kept talking and moved away from the topic that made me suspicious.  At the end of our conversation I asked him a question or two and was planning on hearing that I would get to do another interview in a few more days, but it never came.  After my questions, John (who has been very helpful for the record – very nice guy) said he had to go, but he had one last question for me.  He then asked if I would accept the job.  I started laughing and was in shock and was too excited to really say anything.  Like I said, I was suspicious for a brief moment, but it went away.  It was really exciting and I think that John could tell over the phone just how thrilled I was at the offer, and he sounded genuinely excited for me – like I said, he’s a good guy.  So the big news is that we are moving to Florida and I start working for Disney on August 14th.

So once I officially got that offer, I deferred entering the masters program, which means I won’t graduate with my Master’s degree until 2016 but it will be totally worth it.  So now those are our new plans, which are quite exciting.  We will move to Florida for August to December and then move back and I will finish up some generals in the winter semester and then start the Master’s program in the fall of 2014.

Well, there you go.  If you read this whole thing, kudos to you.  If you skipped ahead, I can’t say I blame you.  I’m hoping to post more once we are in Florida.  I definitely plan on becoming an overactive instagram user.  I’ve been inspired by my friend Brandon to make my own hashtag for it.  I’m thinking something like #AitkenFamilyFloridaAdventure but that’s long, so maybe #affa for short.  If you have any suggestions, let me know. 


Well that’s all I have, I think I’ll go to bed now so that way I won’t be too tired at church tomorrow.

Friday, April 26, 2013

School is Over!

I'm glad school is over.  I finally have time to do things like -- lay around all day in bed and watch movies.  My wife wishes I was more productive, so I even did the dishes today.  I know I know, I'm a saint.  Anywho, despite the late nights, lots of work, uber amounts of frustration and confusion, it was a rewarding semester.  Not saying I would want to do it again, but it was a good experience.  Building a POS (point of sale, not piece of something) system, an e-commerce website, and an android app (not super well mind you) was interesting and has definitely made me think being a some sort of software developer or web designer or something would be fun.  Especially for a start up.  Moving on -- moral of the story, it was a successful semester.

Another good thing about this semester is that I got better grades (barring some sort of curve down in my classes) than last semester. So I consider that a success.  Also, I even took a "for fun" class this semester, which is a first for me.  It was VBA programming, and finding that class fun probably makes me a nerd, but oh well.  Another fun thing about this semester has been the golf pass I bought.  I've been able to go play a round of 9 holes at Cascade a couple of times now and it has been totally worth it.  My golf came has gotten  much better (I was about 9-12 inches away from a hole in one today) because of all the practice.  Too bad once Tuesday comes around my pass expires and I won't be able to go as often.

Speaking of what's coming up, I'm not sure I ever announced that I got an internship with the church this summer up at their Riverton office building.  I will be doing quality assurance.  Basically lots of testing to see if I can break what the developers made.  It should be fun, plus it's paid and that will help us in the coming year.  My wife has been awesome and working/making all the money while I've been trying to get good grades in the core.  So more money will allow us to save and maybe have a little more fun.

This will be my last paragraph, and then I'll let the 7 of you reading this get back to facebook.  We are moving this weekend, so that just adds to the changes we will be having this summer.  Now that I have a little more time (well after we are done moving), I'll try and blog more frequently.  And I'll try and keep them smaller.  No promises, but I'll do my best.  Until then, adios amigos.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

It's February?

Yes, somehow it is already February and I haven't blogged in quite some time. Well I have a few moments to kill and I thought I'd share something that is on my mind. As most of you probably know, my major is information systems. There are some days I hate my major, and other days I love it. To be fair, when I say hate, it's the same hate most have for school during the really busy weeks: lots of homework and projects due at once, you are learning a lot of new things and retaining little, and sometimes it's just hard. So like I said that's just school and college in general. Now to why I love it. I realize life isn't all about money, but it really helps when you do something that pays well. It helps that my major is (on average) the highest paid bachelor's degree at BYU. I also enjoy that it is a ranked top 10 nationally, so people come talk to us. It feels good to be wanted. From last Wednesday and including tomorrow, I will have had 5 interviews. So 5 interviews in 8 days. Let's just say I'm very lucky and grateful to be where I am.

I just want to use this space to say thank you to my professors(even though I sometimes dislike the homework) because they have done a good job getting this program where it is. I also want to say thank you to former students for doing so well. I want to say thank you to Reid Grawe for doing such a great job at getting a lot of students in the Isys program jobs/internships. I also am really grateful for the other students who have helped me so far this year, as well as AIS for setting up many information sessions. And last I want to thank all the people who have shown interest in the program, in me, and some of them for giving me a chance to apply to their positions and for interviewing me: KPMG, E&Y, PWC, Deloitte, Pepsi, USAA, the LDS church, Goldman Sachs, Bluehost, CapitalOne, and many more. I still have around another year and a half in school (maybe 2 1/2 if I get into the masters), so I'm sure I'll rewrite this whenever it is that I graduate. I just wanted to say thanks now to those people/groups that have helped me out.

So anyways, other things of interest would be that my brother Chance is in the MTC. He has two weeks down and four more to go until he is in Tacoma. It's very fun to read his letters and see how much he is enjoying his time as a missionary.

Other than that, there is nothing major to share. I do have a hole in my heart now that football is over, but I can start worrying about the NBA, so it should all work out. I'll try and make blogging occur more often, but we'll see what happens.