the Sun

Animalia

2008-10-06T15:10:00.000-06:00

Remember Primary?

We learned a lot of important lessons in Primary. I don't remember everything I was taught, but I know that the instruction I was given helped me become the person I am today.

Something that has always bothered me is cruelty to animals. Why a person can think it is okay to harm or mistreat them, I will never understand. I love animals! I am grateful for them. And I know that God loves them more than I possibly could, because he created them! (and cares for them and provides for them...)

Personally, I feel that how a person treats the animals under his dominion is a reflection of the class and character of that person. I will NEVER respect a person who treats these, the meekest and lowliest of the Lord's creations, with cruelty and inhumanity. Animals deserve our love, care, and respect, always.

Remember Primary? In closing, here are a couple titles from the Primary lesson manual: Lesson 11: I am thankful for fish, Lesson 12: I am thankful for animals, Lesson 13: I am thankful for birds and insects, Lesson 35: I can be kind to animals, Lesson 44: I can show love for animals... (not to mention countless songs in the same vein)

The College Football Parity

2008-10-03T18:38:00.000-06:00

BYU is a good football team.

People always think they know the parameters of the team's skills. They think that BYU is great because they demolished a "strong" UCLA team; they think they're not-so-great because they could barely handle a "weak" Washington team.

The truth is, either of those games could have gone either way. UCLA could have won that game if they didn't turn the ball over; over and over again. Washington could have won had they capitalized on all of the many BYU mistakes (and, had anyone other than Jake Locker showed up) OR... BYU could have even dominated Washington way more than they did (barring those darn Pac10 refs)

THE POINT: Any of the top 20 NCAA division 1 teams could beat any of the other top 20 teams on any given day at any time.

People should stop feeling like they know which teams are good and which teams aren't. There's a HUGE determining factor that you can never predict. Human emotion. That's why those computer games never predict upsets, but they happen. They happen ALL THE TIME!

To quote something we say in "the other football"... the ball is round, it can roll either way!

EFY

2008-08-07T14:21:00.000-06:00

Especially For Youth 2008: Steady and Sure

This summer I was a counselor for the LDS summer camp EFY (Especially for Youth). It is a week-long program where youths aged 14-18 gather together and basically just escort each other around to classes, devotionals, service activities, and dances. It's a great opportunity for them to feel the Spirit, and at the same time to make zillions of friends and not ever be bored. And, to stay up unreasonably late even though "lights out" is at eleven and they wake up at the break of dawn every day. Did I mention they are aged 14-18?

So, as a counselor you are assigned a random group of boys (or girls if you are a girl) to look after and lead from the moment they arrive on Monday afternoon until they leave first thing Saturday morning. You are with them always. This has the potential for disaster, but for me it was always a great blessing and great fun. Your group of youth is matched up with another group of youth of the opposite gender (with an accompanying counselor) and this is called your company. Companies usually have really sweet, scripture-related names, like "In The House" or "The Last Days". Companies do everything together and by the end of the week, the kids are all great friends, or at least, that's the goal.

Various duties of the EFY counselor include: waking the childs up in the morning, leading them to breakfast, teaching them a gospel-centered lesson during morning gospel study with the company, teaching them a gospel-centered lesson during evening counselor devotionals, teaching them gospel-centered lessons at various times of the day throughout the entire week, helping them feel cool and included, getting the boys to ask girls to dance during slow songs, trying not to completely take over when the kids are making their skit/cheer for the games night competition even though you really want to beat all your fellow counselor friends and your kids are seriously making really lame cheers, and being super fun/nice/kind/helpful all day every day!

Another note-worthy perk of being an EFY counselor is that there are gaggles of other EFY counselors that are on the same page as you and have serious date-potential. But, don't get too excited, as my great friend Ryan Cain always says about EFY, "It's the best place to meet girls, and the worst place to date them."

Truth.

Coaching

2007-12-11T02:22:00.000-07:00

Coaching the Timpview Freshman Girls Basketball Team has been the greatest joy in my life this past semester, I am completely sure. I have done nothing else that has made me feel more fulfilled and happy and proud. I love coaching!

I strive to be more than just a coach. My focus isn't just on winning games and being the best. My sole aim isn't just to help the girls be better at basketball. I want to be a friend to my girls, a role-model, and a leader. I want to help them develop social skills, and leadership skills, and learn how to be team-players. I want to help them achieve their personal best, on and off the court. I want to be somebody they can trust; a coach who is fun and kind and cares about them individually.

I am proud because I know that my girls love me. I know that their parents appreciate my approach and my dedication to their daughters' happiness and well-being. I believe that I am making some kind of positive difference in these girls' lives!

This past week, I was able to notice two girls on my team that were having a hard time. I took each of them aside individually; they cried and opened up to me about the problems they were facing in their lives. I just talked to them and comforted them. I let them both go home from practice early to work out the massive amounts of schoolwork that had been crippling them with stress.

I know I made a difference to them by showing them I care.

That's what being a coach allows me to do.

About a Girl

2007-12-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

I started dating a girl at the beginning of November.

She noticed me in the Anatomy Lab where I was "TA'ing" and wanted to look at my ankle...

Oh yeah, back in the beginning of October I obliterated my ankle during a game of volleyball. Actually, it wasn't even a game... it was hitting lines. I came down off of a hit and landed on a ball that had rolled across the gym under my feet. My left foot landed on top of the ball and rolled of laterally, severely inverting my ankle. I screamed in primal rage! Fortunately, just like last year when I sprained my right ankle, my bestbuddy Chris was there to look after me and help me get medical attention. It sucked and hurt... a lot! Turns out it was a grade three (3) ankle sprain. It took me completely out of commission for two weeks, but I got a nifty parking permit that allowed me to park in administrative parking for the rest of the term! (which ended up being useless cause my car got "deered" not a month later)...

Anyways, a month after the accident and my ankle was still nasty swollen and I had pathetically limited ROM (rage of motion). She offered to rehab my ankle for me. Being the part Hispanic that I am, I graciously accepted her welfare. She worked on my ankle at least three nights a week for the next couple of weeks. During this time, we fell in like.

We got a long really well and I really liked her. That's why it sucked so bad to have to call it off last week.

Timpview Freshman Girls Basketball Team

2007-12-11T02:03:00.000-07:00

I am a Coaching and Physical Education Teaching minor.

Yes, it is a real minor and yes, I am that cool. And it gets better; my lovely PE Pedagogy (pronounced "ped-ah-go-gee"- I know because I was ridiculed and corrected) professor, Coach Padfield, told me of a coaching job at Timpview High School. She told me to check it out and she gave me a real good word. Well, I got the job.

This was back in the beginning of November. For the past month I have been "Coach Jordan", Head Coach of the Timpview Freshman Girls Basketball Team. It is the best and funnest thing ever!!!

I ran tryouts and selected my team. I am responsible for running practice every day. I have two assistant coaches that help me out and carry out my wishes. I am the head coach!

It's still really cool to think about.

Deer (Pronounced "dur" for maximum effect)

2007-11-11T02:43:00.000-07:00

This is what happened. On the Tuesday before Halloween, very early in the morning, T-Money and Mark and Jessie and I leave for Sacramento. I drove until we got to Nevada, and then everybody took turns through that desert hell until we reached beautiful California and I drove us home. Along this point of the journey, the only thing to note was that I drank two coffees and I was getting way the heck pissed off at mark and Jessie who were being retarded in the back seat. I'm pretty sure that I, in my exhausted and irrational state, threatened Mark's life if he ever kicked my seat again and I'm told I even busted out the old "Knock it off or I'm going to turn this car around!" novelty. When it was finally my turn to sleep I menacingly told them "the sun is not even up so shut up and sleep. I don't wanna hear any talking or laughing or coughing or anything... I just wanna be able to listen to my music!"

Yes, we listened to Pearl Jam's first three albums for the first 5 hours of the trip.

I also stole my blanket from them stating that it was, indeed, "My blanket!" and I nearly hit Mark in the head with a swinging arm when I woke up.

Here's something cool: If you are driving and people are annoying the ever-loving crap out of you by talking and carrying on about stupid nonsense, just gradually increase the stereo until it overpowers them.

Anyways, we arrived in Sacramento safe and sound and I was able to surprise my amazing/awesome/adorable sister Alexa on her twelfth birthday. This is a big deal because I haven't been home for a birthday of hers since she was seven. I had a great time with my family and it was good to see old friends, but more on all of that later. The moral of this post is...

DEEEER!!!

On the drive home from California, just as we passed Auburn we came around a curve and a deer was standing in the middle of the left lane (which I was driving in). Taylor and Mark in the back-seat had already been woken up repeatedly by the remarkably haunting sounds of the Mars Volta pumping through my speakers, but the swerving and ridiculous race-car mechanics resulting from that idiot deer was beyond any fear or discomfort that had previously gripped them. They awoke to me, spinning the wheel to the right then to the left then back to the right like mad, all the while the car fishtailing and revolving in harmony with my frantic handiwork.

Well, we survived and everyone was okay. I wasn't shaken up very much at all, in fact I was moderately pleased with the new respect given me of everyone in the car for maneuvering the car as I did. I drove all the way to Battle Mountain before getting tired and handing the wheel over to Mark.

It just so happens that Mark hits a deer! The second deer of the journey! It jumps right out into the lane in front of my car. Mark plows through that thing like an NFL linebacker and the deer flies 6 feet into the air. It's obliterated. Unfortunately, it takes my car down with it.

As I type this I am recovering from the painful ordeal of getting my car towed, filling out the police report, stating an insurance claim, and waiting for someone from Salt Lake to come out to Wendover to pick us up, as well as the long journey by mercy-ride back to BYU.

I have an incredibly crippling fear of deer now and I anticipate them being all along our major roadways, just waiting to destroy our cars. I hate them with all I can muster.

Efterklang Mirador

2007-10-26T02:31:00.001-06:00

the Red Sox are the new Yankees

2007-10-25T00:56:00.000-06:00

"With the exodus under way and the Angels about to be swept at home, a chant went up behind the visitors' dugout: Bos-ton Red Sox. Bos-ton Red Sox. Such a mantra, this hymn without harmony, didn't come as much of a surprise. After all, America has become a Red Sox Nation, Boston now being baseball's biggest draw.

Rather, what was stunning about the drone, is how much the droners sounded like Yankees fans.

If there really was a Curse, as Red Sox fans like to say, perhaps it came with a codicil: You become what you hate.

With the Yankees now vanquished and leaderless, and their principal owner's faculties in question, the Red Sox can no longer be portrayed with much sympathy. The sentimental underpinnings on which the Red Sox Nation was created owed everything to that team in the Bronx. The Red Sox can be underdogs only in relation to the Yankees.

But now that notion has perished. The Red Sox are the best team in baseball. They should beat the Cleveland Indians and win the World Series without too much difficulty. Still, it's difficult to root for a team that can pay $14 million per to J.D. Drew, who, by the way, won't even start in Game 1 of the ALCS.

According to Opening Day salary figures, the Red Sox began the season as a $143 million enterprise (this excludes the $6 million salary they'd pay a mid-season pickup Eric Gagne). The Indians, by contrast, had a $61 million payroll. That gap — approximately $82 million — is considerably more than the gap between the Red Sox and the Yankees.

The Yankees have committed any number of profligate and mercenary acts (the $28 million prorated salary for Roger Clemens comes first to mind, though Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano are up there, too). Still, a good chunk of the Yankee payroll has gone to proven players who never played for another major league team: Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui and, in years past, Bernie Williams.

The Red Sox, by contrast, have not exactly been models of continuity. Julio Lugo, for example, is their fourth starting shortstop since 2004, when they won the World Series with Orlando Cabrera. Of the 25 players on Boston's World Series roster, only eight remain with the team: Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Mike Timlin, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, Doug Mirabelli and Kevin Youkilis (who didn't get a World Series at-bat). Of those eight, it bears mention, only two made their big league debuts with Boston.

It's been almost five years since Red Sox president Larry Lucchino labeled the Yankees "The Evil Empire." It was a great line, and sportswriters everywhere remain indebted to him. But let's frame its context. His utterance followed the Yankees' signing of Jose Contreras, a move that once again demonstrated the Empire's capacity for expensive folly. Still, one imagines Lucchino vowing it would never happen again.

In 2007, the Red Sox outbid everyone, including the Yankees, for the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka. Those rights came at a price of $51 million. And though that figure is not reflected in the Red Sox payroll, it represents almost 84 percent of the Indians' Opening Day roster budget, which was 23rd in the majors. Then again, Cleveland is almost a big market team compared to the Rockies and the Diamondbacks (25th and 26th in payroll at $54 million and $52 million, respectively).

But back to the ALCS, which begins tonight at Fenway Park. Perhaps you shall hear from those venerable voices of Red Sox Nation, Doris Kearns and Stephen King. Or maybe it will be a newcomer, like Kevin Garnett. They will extol the virtues of Boston's baseball team. But what are those, exactly?

Save for a withering owner, the Red Sox are not at all unlike their former nemesis. They are an empire of their own now. And if you rooted for the Red Sox because they weren't the Yankees, aren't you now obligated to root for the Indians?

Do the math. Add the salaries of C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, Grady Sizemore, Franklin Guttierrez, Jhonny Peralta, Chris Gomez, Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez and Ryan Garko.

Now what do you have?

About a half million less than J.D. Drew."

-Mark Kriegel, 14 October 2007

I am a Natural Born Leader

2007-10-22T23:48:00.000-06:00

I took my friends to a corn maze today. We got lost. Then we got out again. I like to think that I was a major component of our success. Why? Because I am a leader and a doer!

And the people were fun too! Amy and Bri and Steph and Aaron and especially Mandy! And even the punks that ditched us and left us for dead among the stalks of corn (i.e. Skyler and Taylor and stupid-Mark). What a great group! Also, I hate physics.

Have You Ever

2007-10-22T00:30:00.000-06:00

Have you ever...

Hated being right?
Anticipated something painful and inevitable?
Been crushed?

There is a girl that I think I let myself care about a bit too much a bit too soon. And it's new for me: actually having interest in someone; actually wanting some kind of relationship. I am very attracted to her and I love being in her company.

But I felt like I was a lot more into it than her. And I was right.

Bless her heart for being honest with me. It takes a lot of courage to say what she did to me. She broke my heart. It's not an easy thing to do- I know from experience, it really messes you up afterwards- but she did it. And I am actually very grateful.

But I am also hurt! Hurt in a very new and very uncomfortable way!

I somewhat expected it from the beginning, however, because of a theory I have about life. About the different worlds of our different lives. That is, she lives in a different world from me: with different friends and different associates. I was just not established in her world. I mean, I am not thought of in the same light as a roommate or a friend she has known for months, mostly because we just met three weeks ago.

All the pieces and branches of her life intertwine. I just grow alone, somewhere next to it.

Basically, I have no place in her world. I could only have a place if she brought me in. But she didn't. She has her reasons, I'm sure, but the bottom line is...

She didn't give me a chance.

Failing at Important Stuff

2007-10-19T14:15:00.000-06:00

One of the strange things in life is this: When you totally understand how something should be done, but still manage to mess it up.

It's horrible. You're sitting in W111 of the Benson building taking an O Chem quiz. You're asked to show the reaction mechanism of the hydrogenation of a certain alkene. You know this nonsense! You've spent irreplaceable quantities of your life studying it! Regardless; you can't seem to put it down on paper.

I know I should be rehabbing my ankle cause' I know that will make it heal faster. But I just don't because I really hate doing it. Same could be said for any number of things in life; things that you understand are very important to do but still manage to not get done.

I feel like I have a great understanding of the psyche of my fellow-men. I love to theorize about why people act a certain way and how they would respond in any given situation. I am usually, nearly right (stated that way with the intent of modesty, because I am almost always right). I know, in my mind, the proper way to treat everybody I know. I know exactly what to do. I know exactly how to act and what to say and when to say it. It's been labeled as my "charm" and I know from experience that I can charm anyone's mom into pushing me to date their daughter, which I usually don't cause' I hate dating. This is a pretty big accomplishment when you look as much like a bum as I do most of the time.

So... when it really counts, when I should really make things play out the way they naturally should, when it's important to do it right...

I FAIL!

Guess I'm not a clutch performer... at all!

[time passes]...

And then I go and get 102% on my Anatomy midterm.

Maybe I only really fail at things I don't understand.

So, maybe I don't actually understand relationships and the complexities of being in heavy like with somebody. Lord have mercy.

Snow

2007-10-18T16:15:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I went up to the mountains with my friend. I had been pushing for us to take a scenic drive for about a week or so, before all the flora and fauna disappeared for the winter. Everything was going to be super and perfect; warm weather, clear skies, colorful landscape. She'd probably even want to fall into my arms because she'd be so struck by the perfect beauty of it all.

Well, most everything had died. And, it was really cold. Like, really REALLY cold. We found that great scenic spot I had picked out before. It was littered with paintball shells. We sat on a rock to eat some lunch. It started to snow. Our fingers froze...

We sat in the snow. We sat there as the snow fell on us.

On top of it all, she didn't even have shoes on, I was battling a relapse of Typhoid Fever, and she turned out to be a Red Sox fan.

Awesome.

and that the Sun will Rise

2007-10-18T01:25:00.001-06:00

I have a desire.

I am not yet sure what it is, but I know there is something that is pushing me forward. I feel compelled.

Life is beautiful to me. There are so many places I want to go, there are so many things I want to do, there are so many people I want to love, and all of this before I die. There is someone I want to become again.

When I lived in Africa, I got sunburned on Christmas Day. And the next day it rained until my roof caved in. This world is a crazy place! When I walked along the streets I played with the children, soccer and cricket. We laughed and they rubbed my skin and called me names. People would touch my hands. We fell in love: I with the people and the people with me. When they told me their stories I would listen and pray to God I would remember all of them. I want to remember all of them.

The point is that I was alive there. I was born from the combination of Anesu's childish smiles, acacia trees through a combi window, and Charity Chikwadzi's tears because I was moving away. From Christmas sunburns, sadza and vegetables, and soccer matches with black children who called me Wayne Rooney. From the hearts, lungs, and minds of the people I loved more than myself, I became someone I loved.

But I was robbed of my life; it was stolen from me! I contracted Typhoid Fever after 20 months and I started to die. Physically, I was dying: I had to come home and suffer here until the doctors could figure out how to fix my deteriorating body. I had that fear of death that you never really have until it is getting way to close.

And the worst of all is that my soul- that part of me that came to fruition in the sub-savanna of Zimbabwe and Zambia- has left me. I was murdered! I have spent the years since silently crying and wishing that I could feel that warmth again.

I was born in Africa and I died in Africa.

I am now praying that I can resurrect my soul from the ashes. I know that I can. I know that it will take everything I have, but I know that I can.

I know that the clouds will clear and that the sun will rise.
And that the sun will rise.