Long time, no blog

This will mostly go unnoticed, but I am blogging again. I've been pondering the return to writing for sometime, and then my M Com 320 class made an assignment to blog once a week. So here I am, blogging. I could blog about my wedding and everything, but that was quite a while ago, and most of you who care to know about it probably do. In case you are one of those people who doesn't know, but wants to, let me give you a brief rundown. Everything went perfect (other than the heat), from pictures (and I hate pictures) to the reception and food and dancing and cake etc. We had a lemonade bar, and let me say, it was awesome. I recommend it for everything. I've thought about opening up a soda/lemonade bar here in Provo. That requires a little bit more capital than I have and more time than I'm willing to give...back to the point, the wedding was great, as was the honeymoon in Disneyworld.

Speaking of Disneyworld, it was AWESOME! I love Disney more than most things, save my wife, and football...yet football (and especially fantasy football) can be viewed in large part due to ESPN, which is 80% owned by Disney, so it's almost the same. This will reveal my inner nerd, but it was also Star Wars weekend, and I was in heaven. Jocelyn likes Star Wars too, but I think I enjoyed it more. We went on Star Tours eight times, and it made it so I couldn't drive home because I felt that everything was a motion ride. I'm sure that would be a great explanation if I would have got pulled over.

"Son, you're driving like a maniac, are you drunk?"
"No sir, I just rode Star Tours 8 times and now I feel like I'm helping the rebel alliance in my rental car."
"So you're high?"
"No officer, just crazy for Star Wars. Now if you'd let me keep driving, I'm going to go swerve between cars while my head keeps spinning."

That would have gone well...so after about 10 minutes I let Jocelyn drive (don't tell enterprise, she wasn't supposed to). Overall though, it was a great trip. Sure it rained on us, and it was gay week, which really wasn't a big deal except for the guys whose shorts were too short. It also seemed like all the obnoxious people were there for gay week, but when well over half of the people are there for that event, it changes the numbers, so I realize it's not a fair evaluation. On a side note, did you hear about the guy who was curbed after he came out of a gay club? I'm not sure who ever invented curbing, but no one deserves it, except maybe the person that invented it. It's just wrong. Back to Disney... we came home, all went well...Brady got pulled over the day before his birthday picking us up from the airport (thanks tuna).

So that's pretty much that. I'll get more consistent in writing...mostly because I have to, but also because it's good for me. Now if only I could figure out how to indent without hitting the space bar 50 times, my blog might be visually appealing enough to read.

Finally: The year in review

So I just realized that I still have forever on this airplane and that I haven’t blogged in about that long as well… So I decided to update the blog. I’m so dedicated, I’m writing this in word and I’ll copy and paste it later when I have internet. Never mind that I haven’t blogged in forever, I swear I’m dedicated. So here is my school year in review. It’ll be more focused on the 1^st semester due to the fact that the blog existed in the 2^nd semester.

1^st semester highlights

This being my first semester ever of college, I had no idea what to expect…much less since Jocelyn was gone in Jerusalem. I managed to survive somehow, and here are some of the reasons why. Many of them are people, but some aren’t. Without further introduction, here we go.

Fantasy Football – I don’t know if I love anything (not anyone, I love people more) more than this glorious game. It takes the goodness of the NFL, let’s you pick the players you want, and compete with your friends. For about half of the year I was undefeated in my main league (I had 2 main leagues, 11 total. 1 championship, 2 3^rd place finishes, 1 4^th place, and a lot of crap) and I finished in #2 for the regular season. Unfortunately I beat myself in the playoffs. Tyler and Shalyse were on their honeymoon in the semi-finals, and Tyler asked me to manage his team the week I played him. It was awful to beat myself; But overall it was fun, I hope the lockout ends just so I can keep playing. Congrats to Geoff for winning it all.

Since we’re already on the topic of football, having an all-sports pass was great for football. I loved it. Too bad we weren’t good, but that’s ok. And part of the reason I loved it so much was because of…

Kyle, Katie and the Jessicas – I won’t put last names because I don’t want to give these people too much credit. Ok, correction, Kyle Pierce can have credit. The girls, don’t get as much credit. I just can’t give it to them. Moving on, these guys gave me a social life while Jocelyn was gone. I had a lot of fun getting to know them better. Kyle is in my fantasy football league, so we already knew each other, but we also had a class together, we were on the same flag football team, and we’d go eat out about once every 2 weeks, there were some good times we had. Jessica #1 – was dating my cousin, who lived in St. George, so we were both kinda loners. It was rather nice having a loner friend. And on a positive note, they did get married, and it was a great wedding. Congrats to them. Jessica #2 I met back at the end of 2009 but I didn’t really get to know her till this semester. Somewhere between asking all sorts of questions and eating all of her cheezits, we became friends. Katie…I’d rather not say anything nice about Katie, because our relationship was always insulting the other, but it was always in good fun. She is hilarious and…I can’t believe I’m going to type this, a quality person. Ugh, that hurt. But I hung out with them a good amount and they helped me get through the weekends during the semester.

Ryan – He gets his own section because he is in a category all by himself. We somehow lived in the same complex, and had our MWF schedule exactly the same. Over time we eventually found this out and we bonded over homework and class. We had several Denny’s runs followed by Mario Party on gamecube. You only wish you were that cool.

Mont, Braden, Adam and Natalie – We all had English class together, which was actually a fun class. Even though it was honors. It was a freshman class, but these 4 were the only ones who were older, so we bonded rather well. I actually had 2 classes with Mont, and that was fun, he educated me on…education: writing and such. And I educated him more with sports. We talked about it a lot and he was also on my flag football team. He had some clutch plays for us. Quite the pick up for the team he was. I run into Braden once in a while, and when I do, it’s always a treat. That guy is high quality in how he acts and treats people. I’m not sure he says mean things. But that could just be I said mean things so loud in general I couldn’t hear him. Adam I met in the first semester but got to know in the 2^nd semester due to freshman monitoring (which I hated by the way…the freshman thing, not Adam). He is similar to Braden in the never negative aspect. He was always asking how life was and seeing how things were. We had some good times in our 2 classes the 2^nd semester. Natalie – Funny girl, but we never bonded a whole lot until we started talking about our significant others…and funny story, we’re marrying the same people we talked about. We actually ran into them getting ice cream once. Very cute couple, I wish them the best. All of these guys helped me get through my classes, and I am very thankful for them.

Shayde – Coolest guy ever? Yes, I think so. He was my roommate for the whole semester. We were both insomniacs and always up till like 4 AM watching TV shows. The funniest example of our crazy sleep schedules was on Fridays. I had 2 classes that day, from 7-9. Way too early. When I got up, Shayde would be in bed, when I got home from school, he’d still be in bed. I’d get back into my bed and sleep. He’d get up, go to class at 12, while I was still in bed, and then he’d come back around 4 and I’d still be in my bed. It was great. He is one of the funniest people I’ve met. If you get the chance, room with him. Even his name is cool.

How I met your Mother - That was a great TV show, I loved it…I still love it. I’m sad that the season is over. That show is legen…wait for it…dery.

School itself – well that sucked. No way around it. The only perk was the 16 spanish credit test that I did really well on. That boosted my GPA big time.

2^nd Semester – It went well, as you hopefully know by reading my blog. Jocelyn came back, and Brady was my roommate. Very big winning combo. And the overall summary of my semester is this…I’m flying to DC right now so Jocelyn and I can get married on Monday. Ya, it’s that awesome. But that will be another post in a while, because let’s be honest, I have 0 plans of blogging on my honeymoon.

2 year intervals

So this post has taken priority over my year in review post. I was sitting on facebook, and I noticed all the recent pictures of the college graduates. You all suck...I'm rather jealous actually... But I started thinking about when I would graduate (4 more years...if you want to do accounting it's 5 years. Yes, that is including the masters program. I've heard you don't get your bachelor until you complete your masters...kinda lame, but I guess it makes sense) and it was a sad thought. I'm going to be in Provo forever. It's even more sad that it's April 30th and snowing like crazy outside...i like the cold...so moving on.

Well so I thought how that was a long ways away, so I decided to see what would be in 2 years, and then I compared that to now. And I realized something, I like to control my life. Little bumps in my plans cause me great stress, even though I know I'll be ok and all will be well, I still stress. I want to know details of everything. Ever since I was 10 I started thinking about who I'd marry and what college I would go to...and that brings me to now. I've known both answers for some time and it's nice to get that off the worry list. But then I started thinking how life was different 2 years ago, and then 2 years before that and before that....and it was really weird to see how life had changed so much....So now here is a 2 year timeline...projected with 2015 and going back to...however far I can get. [These all pertain to the months of April and May of these years]

Future:

2015: Graduating with a Masters in accounting, married for 4 great years to Jocelyn. Maybe 1 kid, but that seems to be pushing it for now. Excited to leave Provo and school and go get a real job in my quest to eventually work for corporate Disney (I could write a novel about that...it will be another time).

2013: Oh glorious day, I will be getting finished with the dreaded JR. Core (I am so excited...not really) 60% done with college. Jocelyn will have been done for a year, and hopefully will be working and enjoying life...and maybe enjoying taking jabs at the fact that I'm still in school.

Present:

2011: Writing this blog. I'll be getting married in a month, and I'm very excited about that (please see like half of my other blog posts that have happened and about half of my future ones. To summarize, I have an amazing fiance...and it's a great story...really, go see my other blog posts). The Spurs lost in the 1st round as the #1 seed, Michael Scott left the office (I almost cried when Jim said goodbye...I don't want to talk about it.) I'm busy pondering life, hoping Jimmer goes to the Jazz or Heat, and hoping to make ends meet with the new apartment and bills.

Past:

2009: I was in my 5th area in my mission. Housely was my favorite companion. We were having lots of success, or I guess setting up the lots of success I'd soon be having. It was the time of my last phone call home (mothers day). Then came the swine flu, then transfers with a phone call from Pres. Rex telling me about a special assignment elder that I'd be getting. This was closely followed by something that could best be described as a dear john...but that's not really an accurate description either. I weighed about 180 (I'm about 215-220 now) I hit 18 months in the mission and had an interview with Elder C. Scott Grow of the 70. He is a great guy. I'd love to go on more here about him, but it's not the time or the place.

2007: I was finishing up high school, which was a great time, and a difficult time. So many memories (5 year reunion next year). There was graduation itself, D Day/week, Bucket Run, Senior Show Off, Mr. Dixie, Grad Night (I still think back on the awesomeness of that trip), Lake Powell and Disneyworld. There was a baseball road trip...and I'm going to cheat here, but lots of good sports adventures that whole year. Lots of good friendships were made, others tested; also had some relationship drama. On a spiritual note, I believe I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time, I got my Patriarchal Blessing, the Melchizedek Priesthood and I turned in my mission papers.

2005: Sophomore year was about to end. Nothing really comes to mind as great. My timeline starts to get confusing here. I'm pretty sure this is about when Sajen, Brady and me decide to tear up the summer. We were the kings...but that's also a different post for a different time. If you ask Jocelyn or Jessica though, they will probably tell you me and Brady talk about it enough. Not surprisingly enough, I was having my relationship issues. Something about me and the months of April and May don't get along when it comes to women. I'm not sure what it is...I just know I got lucky in 2010 and I'm banking on it continuing in 2011 (I'm knocking on wood as I speak...er...type). Oh yes, this was also the time that state baseball was in St. George, I ran track (I can't believe I got under 1:00 twice on the 400m), I actually was playing a lot of ultimate and I enjoyed being in the sun (Sorry Jocelyn, that was a long time ago).

2003: 8th grade...I'm going to assume there was more girl drama, but I don't even know now. All I remember is getting excited to be in 9th grade and at the top of middle school. Also, we always had the end of year party down by Cox Landing.

2001: Ending 6th grade. Awful year. I had to ride the bus and go to school with a bunch of future Snow Canyon people. Gross. I blocked out most of this year.

1999: Oh man this is back there...ending 4th grade... I had a bat thrown at my face at the end of year field trip. That was a shiner...special thanks and shout out to DJ Heppler and his mom for getting me through that event. That was also the year I won the story telling contest...I just can't remember what month.

Well I can't go much further back. I decided to spare the long version of this blog (I know what you're thinking: how could this have been any longer? But believe me, it could have) by not including what my plans were at each stage. 1 constant was wanting to go to BYU, another was somehow involving living in (6-8 years old), owning (8-15ish) or being an upper management employee (current...don't hate) at Disney. Other life ambitions included Astronomy, Engineering, surviving (that one hasn't left since middle school), and business.

Life may be hectic, but it sure has been a lot of fun to live. I'm glad to be a bit more organized now, but I know that come what may, it will be alright if I'm living a good life. Thanks to any of you that have played a role in it. Large or small, I owe part of who I am today to you.

Never Fear

I haven't given up on blogging...I've just had finals and a hectic schedule. Not that any of you out there are faithful followers, but I will be blogging more in the future. It will mostly be a year in review. Some of you will even get mentioned. But now I must go...The Tourist is on and I must watch. Peace out.

A sad day

So it really wasn't. The reason I put the title as is, is because I don't plan to include sports anymore in this blog, unless i'm directly related. For all my sports opinions, please visit www.big3sportsreport.blogspot.com It is something I'm doing with Nick Barnum and Jason Robinson. It should be a lot of fun.

On a legitimate sad note, I didn't get the accounting job I was hoping for, but Preston (the guy who interviewed me) was very classy and took the time to call me and tell me how much he liked the interview and that when they have an opening in the fall, he hopes I apply. So I guess that's the positive part of the situation. It was a good experience nonetheless. Well now, it's time to go out and do something today. Like 50 hours of accounting. Ugh.

1 month

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I went a whole month without blogging; maybe it was midterms, I don't really know. But I decided I should probably start again. So here it goes...and I've got nothing. How about conference...It was good, I liked it...it came at a good time. I probably would have liked it a whole lot less if I wasn't engaged, but I am, so that's safe.
I could also include march madness. That was...well wow. Long live Jimmer. Also, I wish Butler would have won, but oh well. And how about VCU huh? Amazing.
I'm trying to think what else to include. Maybe that my engagement is halfway over, or that we've got an apartment for the future. Also, we took engagements. It wasn't even bad. Which is surprising to me.
Well that will be it for now. I'm going to try blogging consistently...but we'll see how that goes.

Doug Gotlieb, RPI/SOS, and the Eastern Bias

Oh Doug Gotlieb, you make me chuckle. This was taped on the morning of Monday, February 28th. If you haven't watched it yet, you should... Don't continue reading until you've finished watching it. I'm serious. Done watching? I'll keep waiting. Ok, good. I don't really need to explain how bad he looks, but he looks awful. Joe Lunardi on the other hand is a stat master and got 64 of the 65 teams right last year. I think I could maybe get 40. All the conference winners, plus anyone else in the top 25, and probably any teams that get votes to be in the top 25 but didn't make it. That might make 40 if I'm lucky. So Doug puts his faith in Texas, a team that plays in the Big 12. Any idea what conference Gotlieb played in? Hint, it's Big and once had 12 members in it. So anyways, he decides to ignore the numbers and go with his gut. I respect your decision, but only Stephen Colbert is allowed to do that. And this was all before Texas' home loss tonight at the hands of K-State. That only furthered the cause that I think Gotlieb is biased

Speaking of these numbers, why do they exist? I really don't know, but I can give you my best guess. The RPI takes your strength of schedule into account, as well as how well you play at home, away, and on a neutral court. I personally believe this systems and numbers were implemented for one thing: destruction of the little man. For years, smaller teams have done well, wanted to be rewarded, and complained about not getting respect. I believe that the NCAA made up this RPI/SOS systems to "justify" putting the big national teams in the right places. Granted, Duke is always good, Grambling St, GMU and even lowlier teams to make the Big Dance (SUU and Weber St. included) are always worse and a system helps; however, now that the smaller schools and conferences are starting to use it to their advantage, the numbers and systems that have been used for about 3 decades suddenly don't mean anything. Texas is "better" than BYU simply because Gotlieb says so. I realize this is how sports work: bigger teams doing better = more money. Just ask David Stern the year he hoped that the Lakers and Celtics would meet in the finals...the NBA conspiracy will have to wait for another day...back to college. I will say that the Big 12, Big 10 and Big East are all better than the MWC, but after that, it's bad.

The ACC, who is always irrelevant in football is almost just as bad in basketball this year after the flagship programs of Duke and NC. No disrespect to either, especially Duke, but the ACC is just as bad if not worse than the MWC this year. The ACC's RPI/SOS is worse than the MWC this year. Obviously it's not by much, but it's enough. Despite all of this, BYU, SDSU and even USU (even though they aren't in the MWC) are still being considered lesser, because they play in a conference that isn't as good. The Big East is good, don't get me wrong, but they've had success and then flopped during the tournament. Last year they put 8 teams in the tournament, and they had a combined record of 8 and 8, which would be an average of 1 win and 1 loss per team. However, if you take out the success of West Virginia (4-1) and Syracuse (2-1), you get a combined conference record of 2-6. 25% of their teams got them 75% of their success. I would call that a major flop. I don't know if it will happen again this year, but it could. They don't play so well on the road. Part of it is because they are all good, but I still think part is because the Big East gets a lot of love from voters. (the link I previously used for my information on the Big East last year wont load for me, but I'll put it on here anyways in case you are luckier than I am.)

I'm hoping that someday BYU and smaller schools will get the love necessary and that the East will get less love. But until then, I'm glad Gotlieb is out there to make me laugh.

*Note: I have nothing personal against Doug Gotlieb. I think he is qualified given his college career and I generally like what he says. Also, I don't want to be a typical BYU complainer. I am stoked out of my mind we are ranked #3 right now. I was thinking for sure #5, maybe a #4, and a #3 in my wildest dreams. I have definitely enjoyed today, but I just wish we got more love. I know Jimmer is getting it, I just want this team to. But then again, what would sports fans have to talk about if there wasn't any controversy?