Education

I've been thinking a lot about education lately.  In my opinion there are a lot of misconceptions.  Every once in awhile some school will announce a 16 year old graduate.  What a waste of an education.  Education is more than just factoids, but an opportunity to work out the muscle between your ears.  Why would you want to rush through school?  Jobs stink.  The average person goes through 7-8 jobs in their lifetime.  It would be more advantageous to learn how to learn and prepare yourself for job skills than to hop around from job to job.  Most of the learning that occurs is on job.  So what is the point of an education?  It helps you learn faster and more effectively.  Plus learning how to learn will transfer with you to any job field, while job specific skills will not.  I really do not like it when students say the have gotten their GE's out of the way or that they seek for easy classes.  What a waste.  Not every student who graduates received a quality education.

Charity Never Faileth

I've had a bad week.  On Sunday I offered to pick up a friend from the airport.  I thought to myself, "Self, you are so kind and thoughtful."  However, as I rounded Thanksgiving Point I hit some ice and spun into the barricade.  My car still ran but it is not pretty.  I would be embarrassed to drive someone in it.  And it is going to cost some major dough to get it street legal again.  It is way too expensive to repair the body damage so I am going to use a busted car for the rest of my life.  So the assignment to brighten someones day was a real treat.  I had just finished making a powerful batch of burrito mix when my roommate walked in with two friends.  The polite thing to do in this situation is to offer to share with everyone or put it away and not eat in front of others.  Since my car is busted I am a bit iffy on getting to the grocery store, so my brain told me to save it all for myself.  However, I realized this was my chance so I shared with everyone.  And you know what, after everyone ate I still had leftovers.  Blessed day.

I am thankful for ...

I am thankful for ...
A lot.  Right now I am watching college basketball on a big screen HD TV.  Very thankful.  Yet, I am doing homework on my laptop.  Very not thankful.  I am thankful for Mom's cooking.  Tonight I had awesome lettuce wraps and fruit salad.  Yummy.  But I am not thankful for the bursting waistline.  I am thankful for my family.  But I am not thankful for the numerous interruptions while I'm trying to get work done (my Mom just started to rub my arm while I was typing).  I am thankful for the medicines I am taking to ease my cold.  Yet I am not thankful for the cold that causes me to take the pills and tablets.  I am very thankful for the upcoming Turkey Bowl.  Football is thanksgiving.  However, I am not thankful for the bruises and hurt feeling after the customary neighborhood game.  Yes, I have much to be thankful about right now.  Now back to the UConn Kentucky game ...

Library Modifications

The HBLL is pretty good.  Harold would be proud, but would he be happy?  I think that the Library could undergo some major changes to increase happiness inside its walls.  First, the uncomfortable chairs have to go.  I don't care where.  Just look at what people own at home for a good idea of what people prefer.  The wooden chairs with no cushion are lame and painful.  I am sitting in one right now.  My lower back is tingling.  If only I had a cushions or a chair that adjusts to the sitter.  Second, watching people take naps at desks is gross.  Reminiscent of downtown Portland with a park bench full of bums.  People need to get sleep during the day.  Let's get real.  Provide something that is more appropriate and still sanitary.  Beds would be perfect but not practical.  I think bean bag chairs or cots would do the trick.  Also a room with dim lights and sound proof walls would be fantastic.  Third, students want to eat and study.  The main floor area is not enough.  Some people want to eat and use a computer.  Others want to eat in a quiet zone.  There needs to be some sort of place for those activities.  Lastly, new funding will be required to make all these changes.  Bam, put a snack shop in the Library.  This will allow students to get snacks/sandwiches and even encourage students to use the Library due to the food.  Cecil, if you really are my homeboy you would approve these changes.
Your Fav Student,
Nate

The Big 3

Synergy, synergy, it's all about the synergy - D Wizzo

Miami could take a lesson from this Provo rapper.  Their talent level far surpasses any other team.  3 perennial All-Stars in their prime on the same team?  That is crazy good.  Imagine the Celtics but 10 years younger with no Rondo.  That is scary good.  However, Miami still finds a way to lose despite superior talent.  In order for a team to succeed they need to come together and become a team.  A team can beat a group of individuals any day.  For example, New Orleans whooped the Heat last week with only 1 superstar.  They were able to do that due to their teamwork.  My favorite NBA champions of all time are the 2004-2005 Detroit Pistons.  They won with a solid roster of borderline All-Stars against 4 Hall of Famers.  Yes, the Pistons beat the Hall of Fame LA Lakers roster of Shaq, Kobe, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton.  Talent does not mean everything in a team sport.

The Entrance

Entrances are important.  The whole red carpet scene is a big deal.  The dresses, who's hot and not, worst and best dressed, pre-award ceremony fights, you gotta love it.  The entrance even goes beyond actors or musicians.  The WWE loves the big entrance.  The music and fireworks engage the crowd immediately.  Who can forget Hulk Hogan and "I Am the Real American"?  Classic.  Before the wrestler even enters the mat everyone knows who is coming.  LeBron has a pretty good entrance.  C'mon you know the whole throw the chalk in the air routine.  It is so well known that other companies parody it.  Tonight I saw John Wall's entrance.  It was his first game in D.C., the number one pick and face of the franchise, and he does the dougie.  Yeah, the dougie for like 30 seconds.  Why would you choose a dance craze for your entrance?  Pretty soon that song is going to be dumb.  And there is a rule that you can't have more than one entrance.  It is a one shot kind of thing.

It has begun

Finally.  My fix will occur tomorrow night.  Yeah I have to write the paper for this class still and I need to study for my Writings of Isaiah midterm, but I have something more important to do.  The NBA season starts at 7 PM tomorrow night.  Now I have a purpose other than football to turn on the TV.  Basketball is my favorite sport to watch and to play.  I can watch any game and any team.  The movement and speed of the professional level is incredible.  Each game has other worldly plays.  With the rise of Hulu the TV became more expendable.  However, sports do not have any replay value so they are the only thing that keeps me from throwing my TV out of my second story window.  And to start it off with the Heat vs. the Celtics.  C'mon that is must see TV.  The two biggest big 3's to face off.  That is a gimmie.  Let the fun begin.

P.S.  This post has no discernible train of thought aka cohesion?

The Greatest

Very few people have been called the greatest.  A few more have self-proclaimed that they are the greatest.  I want to be the greatest at something.  Michael Jordan being the greatest at basketball is almost a consensus, although you could make a case for Wilt Chamberlain.  Lil Wayne and Jay-Z both proclaim that they are the best rappers.  I think that since Jay has more record sales, more #1 singles, and more #1 albums than even the Beatles that he takes the cake.  Mohammad Ali said he was the greatest.  I don't care for boxing so whatever.  So from what I've come up with basketball, rapping, and boxing are out.  That leaves a lot of options for me.  I'll need to chose something that I already have a knack for as well.  Lets see ... blowing bubbles, throwing a Lacrosse ball, eating hot foods.  There are a lot of people out there so odds are that someone is better than me at such generic things.  I need to go very specific and maybe into a category that no one has gone before.  I got it.  I am the greatest mountain biker down fire lanes in Forest Park with a matching baby blue outfit.  On second thought probably even not that.

Super Smash Bros.

Probably the greatest game of all time.  And yes I have played Halo Reach on Xbox Live while using an HD TV.  Please do not think that I am a serious gamer, my Mom only let my brother and I play 45 minutes a day on the weekend.  So one might think that I have not played enough games to be taken as an "expert".  Believe me though, I have friends who loved video games and they exposed me to the most critically acclaimed games.  Super Smash is the best because it contains lasting value.  Most games can only be played for a couple months at a steady pace until they become boring.  Each sport games pumps out another version every year.  But Super Smash is timeless.  It was the first game where people would play together in a group environment.  For the purposes of this post I am eliminating all PC games from the discussion.  Tourneys were created to allow people to challenge each other.  It was the first popular game to not be a "main game" game.  The design was to play with others and not by yourself.  This allowed gaming experiences to be shared and thus more valuable.  Yeah I played last night in my basement with three friends last night after Ward Prayer.  It was great.

Buy you a coke

I actually like T-Pain's song Buy You a Drank.  In his song the story follows that the purchase of a drink or drank leads to an encounter with a woman.  In my case this did not happen.  Here is the original song followed by my version:
I'm gonna buy you a drank (wooo woo woooo)
Imma take you home with me
My version:
I'm gonna buy you a coke (wooo woo woooo)
She gonna say thank you
I imagine that T-Pain does not buy women soda but instead expensive liquor.  Now T-Pain is not the stud of the ranch, so I bet that if I bought women at BYU Martinellis to drink they would have a more positive response.  She enjoyed it but 60 cents can't impress much.  Maybe delivery matters as well.  If the coke had been in a cooler she would have had the wow factor as well.  Next time . . .

Why Is Soccer Not a Big Deal in America?

Well we already got football.  American football.  Why would we need another football?  People think that the Superbowl is huge.  Only in America.  Way more people watch the World Cup.  Plus the NFL is not an international event.  Nobody cares outside of America.  But even the EPL makes headlines on ESPN.  When I was in Australia nobody cared about the NFL, I would get questions asking about how it was played.  I think soccer would be a bigger deal if there was an American superstar.  We love rallying around a good cause and bragging about our abilities.  Think about the Olympics.  But without an elite player we have no person to identify with on the big stage.  Freddy Adu for awhile looked like a potential candidate.  Landon Donovan is a household name here, but in England he is a backup on an average club.  Not until we have an American star on the highest stage will Americans care about the real football.

Intramural Flag Football

I enjoy intramural sports.  I like playing anything really.  But I hate it when the sports is changed irrationally.  Flag football is the worst; the rules of the game are ridiculous.  Flag football doesn't even resemble the type of football you play during Thanksgiving weekend with your friends.  From my experience everyone plays the same way.  It is equivalent to two hand touch only that to stop a player you pull the flag rather than touching with two hands.  Simple.  Why did BYU have to change something that has been perfected over time?  Rules such as flag guarding, stripping, contact, and hosts of others change the game so much so that entirely different skills sets and strategy apply.  It is impossible to block someone without touching them.  In order to not get called for flag guarding one has to run like Frankenstein, arms extended outward.  Please let us play flag football like we do during Thanksgiving weekend.

Greg Ohhhhden, Part 3

Gosh, if only his projections weren't off the charts.  How long will potential still be enough value to keep someone around?  In the NBA Jam world Greg would be a slam dunk.  Injuries would not plague him.  His brute strength would never cause a foul.  His two major weaknesses would be neutralized leaving him unstoppable.  I hope the Blazers keep him until his current contract expires.  Right now Marcus Camby is a superb back up and has proven he can be the starting center already.  Marcus' presence allows the Blazers front office to gamble on Oden this season and probably next.  However after that I would pull out and cut my losses.  Maybe he will develope.  He could turn out to be an All-Star somewhere else a la Jermaine O'neal.  But having that question mark lingering around takes a tool on the team in many ways.  I want to see how this Greg thing plays out but if someone offered me a low 30 year old double double machine I would pull the trigger.  I'm done lamenting about Greg.  Time for a new topic.  I think it will be the nuances of flag football at BYU.

Greg Ohhhhden, Part 2

Expectations never seem to be fulfilled as often as one would hope.  Greg tore up the preseason with earth shattering dunks and Dikembe-like swats.  The critics were hailing the rookie of the year award a two man race - Greg vs. Kevin.  But then he got injured.  Halt the fantasy about whooping the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.  The sad thing is that this process of wetting my appetite and then being shot in the face continued for 2 more seasons.  Each time he would flash brilliance.  Last season for the handful of games he did play he averaged 10 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks.  That kind of a stat line will give you a nod as an all-star center in the east, just ask Al Horford.  I am sick of using the excuse, "If only Greg Oden was healthy... ," in every basketball debate.  Now he is training again to get back to playing shape.  This brings into question what the future will hold for him and the Blazers... To Be Continued.

Greg Ohhhhden

Greg Oden.  I came back from class in 2007 and ESPN displayed the Blazers having magically obtained the first pick.  They had finished 13th worst in the league that year so the odds of getting pick number one was less than 2%.  I was stoked.  It seemed magical.  B Roy was budding and the core was in place for dominance.  All the sports writers forecasted big Greg from Ohio State as the number one pick.  How could you pass up on a 7 foot behemoth.  Coordinated and agile he could readily dominate on the defensive end.  As a freshman he broke his wrist but continued to play while using his opposite hand.  He even earned All-American 1st Team Honors.  I should have been more concerned with the broken wrist rather than the off hand adjustment.  I was salivating to see him play.  I even watched pre-season games online.  How watches pre-season games in the first place?  I watched multiple ones to get a glimpse of Oden's future and the future of my beloved Portland Trailblazers.  The season began with high expectations. To Be Continued . . .