A Brief Summary

So school is crazy and I haven't had much time to blog, or made time for it -- whatever.  So here are some brief rundowns.

We went to St. George three weekends in a row before this weekend.  Logan came home, which was awesome.  Picking him up from Vegas was pretty fun.  It was a nice long car ride down to Vegas with my family plus Shellee, and my aunt Jodie and cousin Trisha found us later on the trip.  Once the long car ride got over, the long waiting at the air port began.  The funniest part about the trip was wandering back and forth between terminals to try and find him.  The incoming flights get off on their gate and then ride a train/tram thing to the main area.  We didn't know which section of the train he got on so we didn't know which door to wait by.  We marched back and forth a lot once we saw people coming off the train to try and find him.  We eventually did find him and it was a happy event.  We got dinner and then drove home.  We (the brothers not named Konner) stayed up fairly late talking those first few nights...good ol brotherly bonding.

Anyways, we finished out the week watching Dixie High School football beat Springville and then we left on Saturday so that we could get back on time to teach sunbeams on Sunday because we couldn't find a sub.

That Monday I gave my two weeks notice at the bookstore and I don't really remember what else happened the rest of that week.  We did leave on Friday with the McArthur's to come back down to St. George because my brother was giving his homecoming talk and we were having our western woods fantasy football draft that Sunday night.  We also watched DHS play again...and Konner got some decent playing time.  Logan gave a great talk...other than he confused Geppetto and Jiminy Cricket in his talk.  The draft also went well.  Then we came home...and then school started the next day -- dun dun dun.

Monday was orientation and Tuesday, the I Sys Jr. Core began.  Good golly there was so much homework that first week.  But I got it all done, and I'm hoping to keep the habit up, but who knows.  So far so good, but I'm starting to procrastinate more.   So Thursday we went to the BYU/Washington St. football game.  I had fun and was impressed that BYU's defense did so well.  Too bad the game was so late.  Friday was another busy day of work, school and homework.  My parents came up to watch DHS play Provo.  3 High school football games in 3 weeks.  Jocelyn has never been happier.  Konner got a little bit of time, so it made it all worth it.  Saturday morning was my last day at the bookstore and then we took off with the Pierce's to St. George.

We went to St. George this time for my 5 year high school reunion as well as for my other fantasy football draft.  Everything went well, other than after the reunion we went to play pickleball and the lights turned off early on us.  Also that Saturday, my brother got engaged...yes that same brother who had been home less than 3 weeks.  They will be getting married November 3rd in the St. George Temple, FYI.  At least that is what I've been told...I doubt the date changes, but sometimes things change the further you get into planning the wedding.  So Monday we came back to Provo and had school week 2 starting Tuesday.  This week hasn't been so bad as far as homework goes, but it's still plenty tough.

Wednesday, the NFL kicked off.  Let's just say I was very happy.  Jocelyn's brother Derek also got in that night so we went to dinner with him and then played Settlers of Catan.  I do not have a love for that game as much as I used to.  It was a bad game for me overall, but I just got bored so quickly.  Intramurals started on Friday, and we got smoked.  We were down a man and we didn't have our QB there.  Later that night I watched Dixie/PV online (Dixie won) and then on Saturday we went to the BYU/Weber St. game.  Today was church, and more fantasy football.  Not the best week for me, but I found some silver linings.  Derek also left today.  It was fun having him stay with us a couple of nights.  We did go mini golfing (he beat me by 3 or 4, and I beat Jocelyn by 2-4) and out to eat a couple of times, plus he entertained the cat while he was here.

So that's it.  You might not hear from me in a while, but I'm sure you're not complaining about that.  Also, everything on my countdown list is done except Disneyland.  37 days left and counting.

Illuosry Superiority

***Warning: Sports blog ahead...and even worse than that, it's fantasy football.  Feel free to turn back now***

If you know me (chances are that you do if you are reading this on purpose) I think I'm awesome.  Hey, at least I can admit I'm somewhat egotistical.  Admitting it is the first step, wanting to change is the next step...and I don't plan on getting their anytime soon.  Anyways, like I said, I think I'm awesome, but I think most of us feel that way about ourselves.  According to the all-knowing Wikipedia this is call Illusory Superiority -- it basically says that we all think we are above average...and I think most people suffer from it, or enjoy it, whatever.  So now that we have established we all think we are awesome, I can go on.

I am a lover of sports (my wife still cries about it at nights) and I like to think I know what I'm talking about (blame the I.S.) most of the time.  And any time I can talk about sports with someone, I'll do it.  I feel especially strong about Fantasy Football.  It doesn't help my ego that I won one of my leagues last year and took second in the other, but you can deal with it.  So today I was trying to increase my fantasy football knowledge and was reading different articles, rankings, and strategies when I came across a "Bleacher Report" article.

I occasionally read their stuff but not too often because they are people like me (or in my opinion, worse than me) writing for them.  I'm sure they have well-written articles and insightful information, but I haven't found it yet.  Again, maybe this is the I.S. talking, but I feel like I could write wonders for them.  Anyways, I'll give credit to Kurt Saunders because he actually writes for them and I don't, but his article was awful.  I'll let you read it because I don't want to rehash everything he said (although it validates his article and gives him clicks...dangit!) but he basically said don't draft a certain 5 guys in the first round.  I would easily take 4 of them in the first round and one of them number one (Arian Foster).  Now maybe he plays in a very different league than I do, with standard scoring...and only 6-8 teams, but his advice was awful.  Basically he wants your first round to be something like this

Ray Rice
LeSean McCoy
MJD
Aaron Rodgers
Marshawn Lynch
Ryan Mathews
Matt Forte

and after this I have no idea, so I'll make something up trying to use his logic.

Murray
Gronk
Graham
DMC
Steven Jackson

But that's a stretch because while he makes some interesting points, he eliminates too many people.

If you know this guy, get him in a 12 team PPR league where all TD's are 6 points...and make it for some serious cash.  You'll thank me for it later.

So anyways, to wrap this all together, thanks to I.S. I thought I could be a decent sports writer (decent meaning nothing but educated opinions and stats from ESPN and other sites to back me up) on my blog or something, but Kurt's writing has inspired me to admit I too suffer from I.S.  While I wont give up trying to talk sports, I will use Kurt as my inspiration to battle I.S., do some research, and to not be argumentative just to be argumentative.  And again, please, if you know him, put him in your big money league...and invite me to join.

Best NBA lineups of all time

In honor of the NBA playoffs, and a discussion I had with Brady the other day, I am making my top 2 all time line ups in the NBA.  I'll give you both teams, plus 2 to make a 12 team total, and I'll say why I picked player 1 over player 2 and whatever else I feel like.  This is based on players during their prime, obviously not right now.

Team 1 -
PG - John Stockton
SG - Michael Jordan
SF - Larry Bird
PF - Tim Duncan
C - Shaq

Team 2 -
PG - Magic Johnson
SG - Kobe Bryant
SF - LeBron James
PF - Karl Malone
C - Dwight Howard

Reserves -
Ray Allen
Kareem Abdul-Jabar

Stockton over Magic - It's not a total homer pick, just mostly.  I think he the most pure point guard in the game (as in passing, setting others up, fulfilling the PG role) but I do know Magic is the far better athlete, scorer, and basketball player.  Also, by having guys who need the ball on offense (MJ, Bird, Shaq), I thought I'd put a guy who probably passed more than was necessary.

Magic is on this least because he is Magic, I don't need to defend this pick

MJ over Kobe - Duh. It's MJ, best player ever. Read the above sentence and change Magic to Michael.

Kobe - Closer, killer, good defender as well.

I actually hate both SG's, but I respect both of them.  MJ for the pushoff, Kobe for being a good Laker (I don't hate anyone else for this though).

Bird over LeBron - Larry Legend, clutch (shot at LeBron) and was dominant.  Plus he won executive of the year today, and he's won coach of the year, and mvp, and lots of stuff.  Only person to ever do it.

Lebron because he is the most athletic player to play the game, could play PG if needed, and can defend all 5 positions.

Duncan over Malone - I probably get the most flack for this one because I live in Utah, and I love both players while most people in Utah only love Malone, and hate Duncan.  A lot of this pick is also because he is paired with Shaq.  I like the big combo's that I put together.  One dominant defender, with one dominant offensive player, while the other is still solid at offense and defense respectively.  Duncan has more all defense teams while malone has more all nba teams.  This would be a coin flip for the most part, but I think Duncan is the better PF.  Good thing I don't live near most of my friends, they would probably kill me for this...or try that is.

Malone - 2nd leading scorer all time, tough, homer pick, but even still, I'd put him here if I weren't a Jazz fan.

Shaq over Dwight.  Basically the same guy, except Shaq is meaner, more mature, and more dominant on offense.

Dwight - Athletic freak, still developing, but is a monster.


Ray Allen - Great shooter, and we needed one of those, plus in his prime, he could do a lot more
Kareem - Was on a lot of all nba & all defense teams... This is a respect pick and I wanted one more big.

Agree, disagree? post your own....but no bill russel talk.  he can take those 11 rings and shove them (darn randon).  Could you imagine bill trying to stop Shaq or Dwight? He would get trucked.  Also, I have too many Lakers on this team.  oh well.  if OKC wins right now it makes it all better.  Peace out, and let the arguments begin.

Soccer

Let it be known to everyone everywhere: I do not like soccer.  As a kid, I used to play, and I was a pretty awesome goalie.  That was way back in 2nd grade, so clearly, that is valid because that is some competitive well played stuff, where I had a fair amount of shut outs (in my mind).  Granted, my team was so good that I would sit down a lot in the box because the ball was never on my side of the field.  I also did handstands on occasions and would work on my pull ups.  Moving on...I played one more year and called it quits.  I just wasn't a fan, and I'm still not.  When everyone wanted to play soccer on p-days during my mission, I would long for a real football to play with...and then on defense I would run at people with the ball and maybe knock them over.  In horrible spanish I would say i don't know how to play and plead ignorance.  It was awesome what I got away with, so I felt better about playing soccer those days.

For as much as I don't like soccer (let's say on a scale of 1-10 it's an 8 or something), there are certain trump cards.  If anything on my like scale is an 8 (or whatever I rank soccer on my hate scale) I will watch in support of the things I like.  That list includes, country, family, friends, high school, Mexico, championships, and girls wife.  **In high school it would have been girls, but now that I'm married, it's one girl**

Country - During world cup and Olympics, I like soccer.  And then when the U.S. rips my heart out, I wonder why I let them trick me - again.

Family - All my brothers have at one point played soccer.  I wasn't so supportive in little league, but I'm better now that I appreciate family more than I used to.  This could apply to being supportive of a good friend, and it definitely helps when said friends and family play for Dixie High School.

Mexico - I try and keep tabs on Puebla, but I'm slipping.

Championships - I was cheering for Real Salt Lake when I heard they were playing for the championship.

Wife - If she wants to go, we will go, or if she is every playing (I don't know when that would ever be) I would go be supportive.

So anyways, a couple of those conditions were met this weekend. My brother (1) plays for Dixie High School (2) and this weekend they played in the semi-finals, and then played for the championship(3)...and my wife wanted to be out in the sun (4).  So I went and watched.  Maybe I've been so closed minded for so long, but I didn't mind actually watching the game for the game.  I respect how much soccer players run, but I never respected the strategy of trying one side of the field, going back to the defense and trying the other side of the field, back to the defense, etc.  Perhaps as a former offensive linemen I like trying to ram the ball down someone's throat a little too much to properly enjoy soccer, but I thought Dixie was well coached (good job Myers) and executed well.  I doubt I will start to care more about soccer after this, but I did enjoy the last two days of soccer.  So thank you DHS for letting me enjoy soccer, and congratulations to the team, to Coach Myers, and to my brother Konner (who played a lot and well for a freshman).

He let me know after the semi-final win that he would be the first one in the family with a state ring...I might let him actually get the ring before I kill him for that, but we'll see.