(Don't Start With Joke)

Ever notice nearly EVERY sacrament meeting talk starts with either a lame joke or the person takes a good 2-3 minutes "joking" about how they didn't want to talk but now they're there so "bear with me." Let me tell you something, after hearing an intro like that I am definitely not ready to "bear with you" through 15 more minutes of ramble.

Before I get going on this topic I want to note that there are good speakers out there who prepare, share actual thoughts and feelings, etc. and make sacrament meeting spiritual. End of note.

Seriously, it seems like every talk starts like this and it's getting annoying. I certainly don't expect to hear General Conference level addresses from every speaker, just an honest effort and a willingness to speak. If you said you'd speak, just speak! Don't try to formulate the ultimate-combo "not only did i not want to speak, but i'm going to try to make a joke out of how i didn't want to speak" joke. I look over at Rachel whenever someone starts their talk with either of these options. She always glares back at me for being sinfully judgmental. Needless to say I receive multiple glares each Sunday. I'm sure the sin does indeed fall on me and for that I will have to repent, only problem is I have to feel bad about my anger before I can "repent" and if I have to keep enduring these openings to talks over and over my anger will never cease!

So obviously today at church the speaker started in this manner and I made a "note to self" to write about it. Inserting a cleverly placed joke into the middle of a speech can wake up the crowd and really add to a talk. The key is to not put the crowd to sleep right at the beginning with the lame joke. Now, it's difficult to know how a joke is going to fly in any situation so you can think you have a great joke that drops dead or you might have what isn't even a joke turn into an uproar. All I'm trying to say as far as jokes is PLEASE don't put it at the beginning of the talk, it's pretty much guaranteed that it's not going to fly.

On to not wanting to talk. We all know you didn't want to talk but you didn't want to say no either when the bishop calls. I find this interesting that the whole point of the church is to serve willingly, yet I hear all the time about people rejecting callings, etc. And in the case of speaking, I hear publicly that they didn't want to talk. Weird. Oh well, I know I'm cursing myself to speak soon by writing this post. Look out for my opening joke :)

BYU Master! (AKA Longest Post Ever)

Today I officially finished my education at BYU. To complete my journey to total, utter, and permanent zoobie-dom I even took Cannon to my final class with me. I must admit I didn’t finish with a bang; in fact, I should be proudly posting my worst grades ever at BYU this final semester (I know what you’re all saying, B’s and B+’s are not bad grades and you are correct). I truly wanted to finish strong, but I already have a job and they certainly aren’t offering me a raise for an A, just the degree please.

Actually, I’m pretty proud that I finished a 5 year program in 5 years. I took a couple summer courses and independent study courses along the way to get it done in time but it was 5 years nonetheless. I feel the average person usually takes 5 years or so just for the Bachelor’s degree; getting the Master’s degree in that time frame meant knowing early what I wanted to do and sticking to it the whole way, no “fun” classes or wasted classes along the way.

It’s a weird feeling that I won’t be going back to school potentially ever again. This is truly a life-changing moment, like finishing high school, coming home from the mission, getting married, etc. Like those other life changing events, I’m sure I’ll grow to appreciate it more and more as time passes. But enough of my sappiness, I’m doing a monster post tonight on my memories and review of my experience at BYU.

Friends Made-I’m counting good friends and not just acquaintances since I have about 100 of those from the Accounting program. Good friends made would total 3: Bo Holmstead, Cody Johnson, and David Ollmann. Bo was my roommate with Gerry and I at King Henry my first semester (more on that later). Cody and Dave were 2 of my group members in the Junior Core of the Accounting Program our first semester in the program. We’ve had multiple classes together over the course of the program and they both still have one semester left. I saw both of them today and wished them luck but I expect to be in contact with them in the foreseeable future.

Funnest Semester-Not even close my first semester Winter 2003. Roomed with Gerry at King Henry, Bo was our other roommate and we had 3 other guys at various stages. Highlights included kicking a kid we called Bones out of our apartment after he soaked a PS2 controller in water! Pretty much this was my one semester of college life before it became all business. Rachel and I were dating but I really only saw her on weekends. Weekdays involved going to school and work, then we would head back up to campus to study at night until about 10 pm and get all of our homework done, after which we head back home for serious Madden or NBA 2K3 on the PS2 until about 3 am every day. Somehow I could hang out like that every night, stay up until about the same hours with Rachel on the weekend nights, and still function with no problems. Why doesn’t that work now five years later when I’m trying to work the graveyard shift this final semester? Beats me.

Easiest Semester-Winter 2005 all classes at the BYU Salt Lake Center. Classes are just easier there to the point that the majority of people who take classes at the SL Center are actually Provo students who make the drive up just to get the easier class. Needless to say I had a lot of athletes in all of my classes. Even at BYU the almighty football player is not exempt from the easy road. I somehow got screwed with an A- in my Old Testament religion class ruining my only chance for a straight A semester at BYU.

Hardest Semester- Fall 2005. First semester of the Junior Core. I know I mentioned this final semester I will post my worst grades but that is truly more for a lack of effort than of degree of difficulty. My first semester of pure accounting all day everyday. I had religion classes at 7 am and then pure accounting from 8-11 every day. I worked all night as well (you’re only supposed to work 10 hours a week during this crucial year, I worked 35). The actual reason for the hardships were life happenings rather than the actual classes. We moved into our home the second weekend of class and spent the next month putting in the yard. To cap the semester Rachel broke her ankle December 8th 2005 right during my finals preparation. We had to board her up at her mom’s house for nearly a month while I was finishing up school.

Best Class- New Testament with Richard Holzapfel. All the religion classes at BYU are actually quite good (If you’re thinking high school seminary class you’re way off base). This class was absolutely stellar, Holzapfel is just a great orator who could explain difficult ideas in simplistic terms. It was a once a week night class and I looked forward to his lectures every week.
Secondary plus for all of my science classes. I HATE science but every time I took any type of science class the teacher was always SO enthusiastic about science you couldn’t help but kind of like it. I’ve never seen any teachers love their subject more than my science class teachers. Especially Geology with Dr. Harris, he would tell you about a rock and how “You’ll never be the same!” from seeing that rock. I still think about him when I look at the mountains and I took that class 3 years ago.

Worst Class-History with Farmer. First day of class he says, “I know you have to take this class and I have to teach this class so let’s just get through this together.” Yes it was s general, required class, but how are students supposed to respond to that type of approach? I’ll tell you my approach, “This teacher, and therefore this class, sucks!” Needless to say I checked out for the entire semester from Day 1 and pulled a B.

Class I Absolutely Waxed! -Calculus! Of all classes that is probably one most people wouldn’t exactly excel. Well, it was a core class to get into the Business School (precursor to the Accounting Program) and it was when virtually everyone I talked to at school would say to me, “What are you going to do when you don’t get into the Accounting major?” My approach was, “Screw every other class this semester! I passed the AP Calculus class in high school I can tax it this time through.” Well, I got 100% on my first test and went on to treat this class like my own red-headed stepchild. Far and away my most deserved A at BYU without any curve help or anything like that. Just straight up domination.

Testing- Reliving my 100% calculus test got me thinking about how I react to tests and learning in general. Let me explain that when I do homework or take a test and get a problem right I literally start screaming inside. I get SO PUMPED when I know I get an answer right I literally want to stand on my desk and scream “HELL YEAH!” In fact, it was a dream of mine to stand in a packed testing center and scream something such as that phrase and see the reaction spread like a wave across the giant room. I only got a couple 100% test scores at BYU I think 2 from Calculus and 2 from religion classes and that’s it. But if I get THAT PUMPED about every single problem imagine how I feel when I come out of the test and see that type of score (you are also free to imagine what goes on inside my head when my score is not so rosy :)) Yes I know I am a total nerd. I make no apologies for it, that’s why I’m an accountant!

**Note: It is my goal to not swear on my blog but I know of no other way to fully describe my emotions in this situation, I really am that pumped! So I apologize for failing to meet my goal. Hey come on, we all knew it would end someday***

#1 Lesson- You need to take risks beyond your comfort zone to truly grow. At the end of each semester professor’s wax poetic about growing both spiritually and secularly. Emphasis on spiritual growth at BYU is a given, but personal and professional growth is more of a surprise lesson. BYU has the deserved stigma of Happy Valley etc. but the truth is all of my professors have extensive national or international experience. None were people that grew up in Zion and stayed there forever; they all lived elsewhere at some point in their lives gaining real world “outside the bubble” experience. I write this as I comfortably sit in my room with my job locked up right here at home sweet home, but the lesson is not lost on me. I don’t think now is the time to leave Utah as I’ve already punished Rachel for five straight years and now she’ll have to get used to long hours and a growing family. However, I do feel a need to take advantage of future opportunities that will materialize to help us grow to our full potential as a family. That will definitely involve leaving our comfort zone and quite possibly involve leaving Utah. That certainly doesn’t mean we’ll never come back, but taking those types of opportunities will lead to a more fulfilled life. I’m writing this primarily for myself to remember this lesson when said opportunities arrive. Will we be pansies and just ride out our nice little life or will we take the leap? Only the future holds. As for now, to BYU, I AM OUT!!! (Yes, triple exclamation point!)

The Truth Hurts!

Only 3 more actual days of working for the Comcastic. Coming soon, I'll do a long "lessons learned" piece as a sendoff so gear up for that!

On to tonight's "lesson". I've concluded that people don't want to hear the truth, they want to hear what they want to hear!--Funny, now that I write that sentence, all types of memories from the mission pop into my head.-- I've frequently encountered customers that misunderstand a promotional offer, and then become upset at me when I explain what the real deal is. Why are you getting so upset at hearing the truth? You don't necessarily have to accept it, but as Rachel loves to say right now, "It is what it is."

I can understand being disappointed when something turns out to be different than you originally thought, but wouldn't you rather have somebody be up front to you about it instead of finding out the truth later when you get your bill? My policy is to be honest up front and take the short-term pain for the long-term gain. Interestingly enough, one of the key points I've learned through all of my accounting studies is that honesty is the best policy! Sure you might take a hit up front for delivering bad news, but the long term payoff is better than letting people find out the bad news some other way.

Which circles me back to the Comcastic. Would you rather I pretend your misunderstood interpretation is correct to get the sale and let somebody else deal with you when you call in screaming mad about a different bill amount than you originally thought, or would you rather I just get the facts out on the table up front? Let me tell you from the customer service end I LOATHE reps who lie to close the sale and then I end up dealing with the screaming customer later whose bill is not what they were promised up front. So even though it's frustrating to deal with people who get upset with me for telling them the truth, it's actually much less frustrating than dealing with people who have been lied to. Either way you have to deal with the pain sometime, you might as well deal with it up front.

Now, how can I communicate to people in a gentle way up front that "It is what it is"? A lady tonight suggested that I was trying to drive her away from signing up for service because I was telling her the true details of the ever important "deal." Hmm, it is my JOB to try to get you to sign up for service; however, I certainly don't want to lie to you about it. Maybe on my next call I'll let them know about the incredible new "We'll pay you to take our services!" offer and let some other rep deal with the consequences when they receive a bill instead of a check. I'll be long gone by then anyways, right?

Can I Have My Money Back?

Only a few more weeks working for the Comcastic so I better get in my frustrating caller blogs while I can.
So twice in the past 10 days or so I've had people call in and tell me "I just rented a pay-per-view movie but after watching some of it I decided I didn't like it so I want it refunded." I am BLOWN AWAY that people have the audacity to even call. When I deny their request, they obviously ask for a supervisor, who obviously grants the credit.
2 takeaways from these interactions. 1) why do people think they don't have to pay for something they used? Both times I explained repeatedly that if they rented a movie from Blockbuster or went to a theater and after 20 minutes or so decided they didn't like the movie, they would not be granted refunds (and I suspect they wouldn't ask for them in these cases either). For some reason that "doesn't apply" in these situations. How does it not apply? It's the EXACT same thing!!! (Yes, triple exclamation point!) We provide info on the movie and even a preview, more than what you get reading the back of the dvd at Blockbuster. It's like me ordering a huge salad at a restaurant, eating a few bites, and then realizing "Hey, I don't like salad. What am I doing?" and asking for a refund. Absolutely ridiculous.
2) Businesses today (I am positive Comcast isn't the only company that has to deal with this) have to bend over backwards to customers for every little thing. I certainly am aware of the power of the customer and the importance of satisfying customers in any business, but I feel in America it has reached the breaking point. Customers have way too much power. I've written before that when customers call in to sign up for service I get the feeling they expect me to tell them, "As a matter of fact if you sign up today we'll PAY YOU to take our service!" I guess all I can take from these experiences is that I am looking to pay a FAIR price for whatever it is I want. I certainly don't want to get screwed on the deal, but I don't think a company should have to bow down for every little thing. Or maybe just next time I order ice cream I should lick it all over and take it back for a refund.

Mitt Romney: Faith In America

Great speech by Mitt Romney yesterday about the role religion should play in America, both in politics and the public in general. Key points included "no candidate should be a spokesman for his religion" and "God should be incorporated into public life". I think members of the church know fully well that Romney wouldn't be on the phone with President Hinckley every day taking counsel on political affairs, but obviously that message had to be reinforced to the voting public. I'm surprised the 12th article of faith hasn't come into play at all in the religious side of his campaign. Even as President of the United States he would still be subject to the Constitution, which he of course is as a memer of the church. We are all subject to the government of the country in which we live; i feel that is a great part of our religious beliefs. Romney didn't bring up the 12th article of faith but I think his speech reflected its concept.

I particularly liked his strong stance on God's place in our country. As we all know it's usually the minority that screams loudest so we hear about these poeple who want the 10 commandments out of public parks and "In God We Trust" off of the dollar. In reality the vast majorit of Americans either support or have no problem with public religious displays. I think his strong stance in support of public religious displays will help his cause.

This was finally, for me at least, a good strong showing that he will not back down from religious beliefs, unlike what I felt were sidesteps in previous interviews (see previous posts on Mitt). He didn't need to answer any specific questions about our religion, just show that he is solidified in his faith. He even mentioned something to the effect of if his faith led to the downfall of hs candidacy, so be it. Bold statement that could indeed come to pass, but obviously he'll be the better for it. I think it was good enough to re-energize his small lead over Huckabee, et all in the first Iowa election.

Interestingly enough, I noted from a few newspaper articles that many of the religious leaders from other faiths who endorse Romney still note strongly that they feel Mormon's aren't Christians. Weird. I'm not sure that really matters to me personally since I know we believe in Christ and that's all that is important, but these leaders seem to agree that Romney is seeking to build on the common beliefs of all faiths, but then reject that believing in Christ is a not a common belief. How does that make sense? Whatever.

Don't Tase Me Bro!

So the huge youtube sensation right now is the Utah UHP officer tasing a guy after he refused to sign a traffic ticket. My take? Tase him again! The officer probably overreacted a tad early but I certainly would have tased this guy by the end of the interaction. Right from the beginning you can hear the guy refusing to give up his license and registration and talking back to the officer repeatedly. Even after he's tased he's yelling at the officer repeatedly. I love the classic response of someone after they are tased/arrested, "What did I do? I don't understand!" etc. etc. etc. trying to make themselves out as a victim. The kid who screamed "Don't tase me bro!" in Florida who was tased during a forum with John Kerry said the same things right after he was tased. These people act like they were sitting queitly singing a hymn and some random thug came up and tased them! When you're dealing with a cop you might want to recognize that the cop has some authority so you should probably listen to what he says! If you think you're going to win the argument, especially by yelling at him, they'll just look for ways to screw you worse. Dealing with these types of jerks is the exact reason cops get a bad reputation. I'm sure from reading my posts anybody can tell that I get frustrated with people, so how do you think a cop reacts to dealing with these types of people daily? The times I've been pulled over I've been as respectful as possible and the cop has always been formal and respectful as well. I would fully expect a cop to tase me if I yelled at him and walked away from him when he was asking me to do something.

Anyways, there have been tons of articles about this issue in the papers the past few days so I finally checked out the video for myself. My only suggestion would be for him to pop the tase at the woman as well; you NEVER get out of the car unless directed to do so by the officer. Clearly the officer was looking to issue a simple speeding ticket but the "victim" decided it was worth his time and the pain of a tase to argue the issue with him. Next time you'd think he'll pay the ticket because I would dare say nearly all of us are indeed speeding; it's just a bummer getting caught.

Turkey Bowl

The Turkey Bowl turned out great this year even though a few guys dogged out at the last minute. We ended up having 12 people which made for a good game where everyone could spread the ball around and the teams were pretty even. Couple of fun things from turkey bowl.

I exerted my will as pleased as always! Actually, I guarded Brooks the whole time and he was already faster than me before and now that he's dropped 30+ pounds (and I've probably gained 10 or so) I was that much further behind so I had to either jam him hard at the line or get burned. On the offensive end though I did get in a couple of TDs of my own so not a terrible performance.

Marshall was the MVP for our team in the first game, ending it on a qb rush after the blitz in which he first shed a tackle, then lost his shoe in another tackle attempt, and then rumbled down the sideline for the winning TD. Crazy play. The second game ended with Curtis making a nice grab at the back of the endzone for the other team's victoy. It sucks ending 1-1 but we were out of time, oh well. Catch of the day goes to Gehrke who caught a deep ball one handed while Curtis was holding down his other arm. Run of the day goes to Stubler of all people who avoided Jacob's blitz and somehow toed the sideline to go the length of the field for the TD.

Love how many of the guys pined for flag football so Harrison and I bought 2 sets of real flags so that we weren't playing with socks only to end up playing tackle the whole time. You know, you just gotta play tackle on Thanksgiving. I'm not upset about the flags becuase I actually think they will facilitate playing football more frequently, but there's just something about playing tackle once a year and getting so super-sore that you can hardly move the next day. Nobody got hurt but I might as well count how sore my hips are as an injury because I'll be basically incapacitated tomorrow (and tonight as I write this!). I'm about as far from a pro athlete as they come but I don't see how pro football players can deal with the soreness week after week during the season. Good times at the turkey bowl.

Thanksgiving

So what am I grateful for this Thanksgiving? First and foremost, every year my utmost gratitude goes to God for living in this incredible country. Just like everybody else I get greedy and complain about all the things I want that I don't have, but I try my best to keep what I call my "Paraguay Perspective" meaning I don't need anything, and for that I should be grateful. Serving a mission helped put America in perspective more than anything else could possible have. For example, the things I have worry about on this day are balancing my meals since we're eating at a couple of places, deciding which movie I want to see this evening, and hoping I get a solid nap in some time today. These worries are obviously far from needs that are so common all over the world. The fact that I love in a sweet house with heat, air conditioning, carpet, electricity, and every other amenity I could dream of is pretty incredible. Life is good and living in this country is one of the principle reasons for it.

On to other things; obviously I'm pretty happy about having my wife and son in my life so shout out to Rachel and Cannon on being my favorite people and I get to see them everyday. I'm also happy about my health. I'm about to go play (read: dominate!) in the Turkey bowl with all the boys and other than my annual dislocating of my shoulder my health is pretty good. Before I left on the mission I had knee surgery and the doctor told me I had less than 5 years before my knee gave out and I would need a major reconstruction. Well that was 7 years ago and my knee still feels generally really good so I'm grateful for that too (knock on wood!).

I remember being a senior in high school thinking, "There is nothing I could even want right now. I have everything I want and life is going good." Well, I feel the exact same way right now. I'm finishing school, I have a great job lined up, I have a great wife and a stud baby and pretty much everything is going great. How can I not be grateful for all of that? I'll make sure to say an extra long prayer tonight full of thanks; however, being greedy as I am I will have to ask for one little thing to top off my perfect life-as-it-is-right-now. . . a victory this weekend for BYU baby!

BYU-Utah Preview

I want to get in my early BYU-Utah prediction after yesterday's games. I saw BYU entered the rankings this week (generally #23) after 6 straight wins. Interestingly enough I don't necessarily think we should be ranked even after all these wins. Is my BYU fandom slipping? Like I said in my earlier post I just don't have the enthusiasm for this year that I've had every other year of my life. My expectations going into the season were actually very low; the fact that we will win the conference (come on we are going to beat San Diego State regardless of the U outcome) is definitely a surprise and promising for the future considering our entire offense will be back next year. I figured this to be a building year but obviously we've had success anyways. Max Hall is a developing quarterback and luckily we've had a decent defense and a good running game with Unga to bail him out of his growing pains.

Here's my point: BYU has at most 1 quality win this entire year which I count as TCU. TCU isn't even very good this year but I feel they are better than their record reflects. We should've beat UCLA (I blame the entire loss on Bronco choosing to receive after winning the flip instead of kicking) and I blame Tulsa purely on hangover from the UCLA loss. Otherwise we've played arguably weak competition and they've played good enough to win but not dominate anyone. It's especially hard to deal with the losses this year considering if we had beat those two teams we'd probably be going to a BCS bowl considering the amount of upsets and shakeups in the rankings this year.

On to Utah: Utah in my mind has 1 quality loss this year which I count as Air Force. They were playing excellent against Oregon State before Asiata and Brian Johnson went down and I personally think if moron Whittingham had started Johnson at the beginning of the UNLV game instead of bringing him in at the half they would've taken care of that game as well. Air Force simply outplayed them in the loss and no excuses on the QB issue since Johnson wasn't available and the worthless Tommy Grady knew he was the man all week (if he can beat UCLA why can't he beat Air Force?).

BYU-Utah: So after reviewing the seasons I pretty much think BYU has by far the better coach (excepting his one mistake at UCLA) but actually less talent this year. Our talent is young and will become much better to the point I think we can make a BCS run in the next couple years with Hall, Unga, Pitta, Collie, et al; however, the U's talent this year especially Brian Johnson is better and they have been putting people away unlike BYU. BYU has "home" field advantage which is pretty much worthless in this game for either team since so many of both fans are at the game. I'm calling this game purely on who gets the ball first because I see it playing out like UCLA. If the U gets the ball first, BYU stops them and we get the ball with good field position and the ball at the half which equals a win for us. If we get the ball first and get stuffed 3 and out it's the U's game. Either way I predict the classic 34-31 victory. Let's pray the U loses the toss and BYU defers.

Post note: I know I questioned my BYU fandom above but any missionaries out there looking to convert me to the U (read: Brad Ball) can count the number of "we" references in this post and know that it just won't happen. :)

Book of Mormon Word Change

I read in every paper and saw on all newscasts over this past weekend stories on the "uproar" over a change in wording in the introduction page to the Book of Mormon. Instead of calling the Lamanites the principal ancestors of the American Indians it now reads that the Lamanites are among the ancestors of the American Indians. Supposedly this is a huge deal that proves the Book of Mormon is not true! One story said researchers have proved American Indians do not have a history of Hebrew blood which proves they are not descendants of Lehi. My reaction to all of this? A big So What?! We are talking about the introduction to the Book of Mormon written by Bruce R McConkie not anything in the actual scripture itself. In fact, even if it was in the actual scripture itself (correct me if I'm wrong somebody but I believe wording in the Book of Mormon itself has even been changed before) I don' t care. Two reasons 1) the whole purpose of the BoM is built on testimony of Jesus Christ and the veracity that he visited the American continent 2) I'm pretty sure that anybody who studies the Book of Mormon or reads Mormon Authors such as Hugh Nibley feel that the Lamanites/Nephites etc resided principally in Central and South America not the United States. I personally THINK (i emphasize think because it's just an opinion and has no bearing on anybody's salvation so it's really not that important) that the final stages of the battles between Mormon/Moroni's army and the Lamanites gradually reached a migration up to the New York area and the Hill Cumorah but I don't feel that was where they had lived their whole lives.

I was surprised at the attention this trivial story received over the weekend so I wanted to comment on it. Those who want it to be false will always have ammunition and those who know it to be true will remain unaffected by a 1 word change in a part that isn't even part of the actual scripture.

Adventures In Parenting

I was down at a buddy's house this afternoon playing video games and I had Cannon with me. About 10 minutes after I had fed him, I was holding him up on my lap while I was talking with my friend. I went to give Cannon a kiss on the cheek and right as I went in Cannon turned towards me and puked right in my mouth and all down my shirt. My friend saw the whole thing. NOT tasty to say the least. It was officially my first really nasty baby experience. Cannon pukes on my shirt nearly daily so that was no big deal I just wipe up what I can and change my shirt when I get home, but I sure hadn't had a taste of regurgitated baby formula. After my friend could see I wasn't upset he was half-disgusted, half-cracking up at me. Oh well, I actually think I'll take that over the stories I've heard of stuff coming out the other end all over you. I thought I'd log it here so that I can laugh about it sometime in the future. Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself for other undesireable tastes in the future.

Here's An Idea. . . Pay Your Bills!

I've touched on this before on my "we'll pay you" post below and at that time I said I could go on forever (and I can) but I would refrain at that time. Well, I can refrain no longer. Working this graveyard shift has certainly brought some interesting calls. At 4 AM each day the system kicks in to shut off people's equipment who are severely past due. Let me note that if you timed it right you could effectively go pretty much 90 days without making a single payment before your services are shut off, but alas I get angry calls each morning about interrupted services. A common call involves an angry person upset at us for cutting off their service because they use their phone/internet for work. Hmmm, you need your phone and/or internet for work yet you don't pay the bill? How about you make that a priority since you need it for work! Are you kidding me? How do people not understand that concept of paying their bills on time, especially those that pertain to continued employment. I certainly understand people who are living paycheck to paycheck and occasionally let the luxury cable bill slip to the point of getting turned off here and there, but those that use the services for work? Unreal. That's like normal commuting workers not paying their car paymentt and letting their car get repoed even though they know they need something to get to work in.

For some reason I'm reminded of my mission and I'll explain why. When I first got out into the mission field, for some reason I had this idea locked in my head that if I wasn' a stellar missionary I would get sent home so I was sickly worried about it. Finally a couple weeks in my buddy Elder Thayne explained to me that the Mission President's purpose is to keep you on a mission, not to send you home. As any RM knows you can actually get away with a TON before getting sent home. You can certainly break mission standard rules; it seems it pretty much comes down to committing a sin that would be a grave sin in normal life, not just a missionary level, to get sent home. Anyways, it was a relief to me at the time that I wasn't going to get sent home but also a disappointment once I saw the level of some of the missionaries in the field (To close out this thought I am obviously a big supporter of the church's "raise the bar" efforts).

Anyways, the mission example reminds me of how I felt about real life when I got home from my mission. For some reason I was terrified that if was ever a single day late on a payment for whatever bill, the company would shut off the service immediately, hammer my credit, charge an exhorbitant fee to start up again, etc. After these years at Comcast, that is clearly not the case, which I can obviously deduct that it is not the case for pretty much anything in life. Not only can you not pay your bill but once it's turned off you can just make a minimum payment and still get away with it. No wonder people are maxed out beyond belief because you can literally stretch yourself so far! I guess I'm happy to know if for some reason I ever need to be late it won't be the end of the world, but also disappointed to see the low standards we have in society.

Harry Reid Reply

Generally I'll just reply to comments in the comment section since I don't expect too many comments (in fact I was pleasantly surprised to have any comments at all so thanks Brad!). I'm making a normal post just of this one to reply to Brad's Harry Reid commens. Sorry for lumping you in with your dad in my post. I'm sure you do have many different political viewpoints from your dad. I would like to make clear that I view both Brad and Dave as pretty much The political authorities of people I know personally, and my view of them is that they are both strong Republicans. Whether that view is accurate of who they are or not could be completely wrong so I apologize and I will be sure in the future to be sensitive to assuming other people's opinions. I'm surprised that I've written as much as I have because I generally feel I have little to contribute to politics because I don't follow it well. For example, Brad makes some points about Senator Reid's comments on the war that I really don't know about. In fact, writing anything at all about Senator Reid would have never even entered my mind had he not visited BYU recently.

Anyways, I was again pleasantly surprised to have some comments on my blog so I'll try to reply to anybody who wants to discuss with me.

BYU Football 2007=Lame

I can't remember ever being so disinterested in a BYU football season, especially right in the middle of it. My current level of interest hovers somewhere near my level of interest when I was on my mission (when I had no access to know what was going on so I didn't care). Think of the past four weeks for BYU football. Bye, UNLV, Eastern Washington, default bye (you can't blame them for the San Diego game being postponed, but I certainly wasn't up for San Diego State either). It seems to me that BYU isn't all that great of a team, but they're going to win the conference anyways this year because the conference is SO bad. Max Hall is digressing as the season progresses (although I am still pumped about him long-term), the offense is not as explosive as a result, and the defense is fine but nothing spectacular. David Locke on 1320 has constantly commented this season that BYU is irrelevant because this conference is irrelevant, even if BYU ends up going 11-2. I completely agree. BYU's only threat the rest of the way is Utah (who are starting to look really good as opposed to BYU gradually looking bad but still winning). Wyoming and TCU are both downers and pretty much anybody else in the conference stinks. I am now super-pissed we lost to UCLA and Tulsa because even with our mediocre team we should probably be vying for a BCS birth the way college football has gone this season. Had we won those games and still be undefeated, we'd be in the top ten right now. I blame Bronco for choosing to receive at UCLA instead of kick. Last year's play of the year was David Nixon's sack on Jeff Ballard in the TCU game which turned that game, and the season, around. This year's (dumb) play of the year was winning the toss at UCLA then choosing to receive. Bronco should know (and I'm sure does know) that the defense is better than the offense this year so why'd he go offense first? I knew we'd get pinned down and have terrible field position all half. Had we done the reverse and played defense first we could have done that to UCLA and had a better first half, and hence a win. We were obviously the better team as we showed in the second half but that crappy first half did us in. I feel the Tulsa game was a hangover from UCLA so that would've taken care of itself. Oh well, now we're stuck in a stretch where we've played 2 worthless games (where we've been unimpressive besides Unga in those 2 games) in 4 weeks. Usually nothing can keep me away from a BYU football game but I've literally slept through the last 2. Sad but true. Pretty much the Utah game is the only game I find myself getting up for through the rest of the season. And if they lose a game? Even worse! I guess I can just be happy about the fact that I passed on season tickets this year.

BYU Competitive? No Way

So I'm finishing up another endless night of the graveyard shift and I've been working on a couple assignments all night long so I'm spent. With my current mood towards BYU I thought I would take some time to comment on some recent reports that BYU graduate students are rated the most competitive in the country (I can't remember if it was US News or WSJ or who but not important). I had a teacher ask what we thought about that and if it was true. They judge competitiveness on how much time you spend doing homework, at the library, how important a grade is to you, etc. I definitely agree noting that I haven't met anyone in my program to whom BYU is not their absolute #1 priority. Rachel would agree with me and she hates BYU because of it. I'm 2 months away from the end but it has been one hell of a ride because they suck so much out of you. I can't make too many assumptions since I didn't attend a different university so I don't know any different, but I feel safe stating that BYU expects you to not work at all while you're a student and somehow come out the end with little or no debt. We've lived above a student-level lifestyle for over 2 years now but I don't even see how those who rent apartments and live off virtually nothing make it. I know for myself and many of my peers I give no second thought to staying up all night and killing myself over a regular ho-hum assignment, not to mention some type of major project or test.

I've tried to calm down this semester but I find I'm still doing all the work and spending just as much time on everything, I'm just not as focused and that is where my B grade will come in instead of an A for most classes this final semester. It just blows my mind repeatedly that school can be so intense. BYU fell from the top spot of "most family friendly" which I would argue it shouldn't even be up there at all. That's just my experience and like I said I don't know any different. Maybe I'm just ready to be done after 5 years and after a long night of slaving away at 2 regular assignments you start to go crazy.

Jazz Preseason Oct 15 Original Post

I saw roughly the 2nd and 3rd quarters of Jazz vs. Suns tonight pre-season so it doesn't mean too much but I thought I'd post my thoughts for the forthcoming year. Obviously a review of game 1 will bring out true thoughts on our real players but since our scrubs are getting most of the playing time right now it'll be ok to comment on some of them. Wanted to note real quick that for the entire second quarter we had backups in and the Suns had their starters in so they build a 17 point lead. Weird running your starters all second quarter. As for us, Millsap as always looked great. I loved him the night that we drafted him and I continue to have a mancrush on him. Jason Hart looked better than Ronnie Price running the backup point in our system but neither can shoot worth crap. Problem is, Hart can't drive either from what I saw and I know that Price can drive so that might be a factor when the bench is looking for some type of scoring. CJ Miles continues to be as worthless as possible. I didn't get to see Fesenko play but I like what I've seen so far. Almond was decent in the second half as well.

As for the starters, we looked a little out of synch but considering this was Boozer's first game as a warmup I'm certainly not worried. Memo and AK actually looked in good form and D-Will does whatever he wants on the court pretty much.

One last note there is an article in today's D-News that the Jazz are obviously interested in Kobe Bryant as should every team be since he's on the trading block and he's the best player in the league. I personally don't like Kobe Bryant but I can appreciate what he would do for the Jazz. Basically a championship. He's the one player in a trade I would accept giving up Millsap for. I consider offering AK+Millsap+the NY First Rounder we still have as the best offer would could make without giving up our core 3 of Williams, Boozer, and Okur. I think that would equal a championship for a few years running if the deal were done. Obviously this is all dreaming but it's fun to speculate.

Mitt Romney Oct 12 Original Post

I just wrote about Harry Reid's visit to BYU so now I am wanting to write about Mitt Romney and his current article in this week's Newsweek. The article somewhat attacks Romney for being reticent about discussing religion with the public. It said that he's probably acting this way because when he ran for Massachussetts Senator in '94 against Jack Kennedy he was open about things and lost, whereas in the '02 election for Massachussets governor his campaign was focused on his business success including the Olympics and he won. Therefore, Mitt the Mormon can't win an election and Mitt the business turnaround specialist can win an lection. It is apparent from what i've seen in interviews and speeches that he is definitely following this strategy, but i think it will end up holding him back rather than helping him out. In this Newsweek article especially Mitt is basically avoiding anything of controversy or question regarding our religion and trying to link himself up with mainstream Christians of America. For example, when asked if he performed baptisms for the dead, his response was "I have in my lifetime, but I haven't recently." That answer has the feel of, "I have drank in my life, but not recently." Doesn't it? He has answered other direct questions in similar fashion. Not defending vigorously that in which he believes will surely hurt him in the long run. He doesn't need to give a missionary discussion on why we do baptisms for the dead or any other topic, but I feel he should embrace the religious questions because that is what makes him unique to this country and his potential leadership all the while still holding down the same basic values as everyone else. On one side Mitt is right that this is a political race and not a religious race and he's doing his best to separate church and state so to speak, but I think the reality is that his faith will be central to his candidacy to the end so he needs to attack that issue head on instead of avoiding it like he has to this point. I hope he makes it through the primary at least because i think he has a real shot at winning if he can get the nomination. Just a few tweaks of his strategy along the way should only help the cause.

Harry Reid Oct 11th Original Post

Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid spoke at BYU this past Tuesday during our devotional hour. They called his speech a forum instead of a devotional (that's what they do when it's not a religious speech). Harry Reid is a Democrat but also a member of the church and his speech was far more religous based than politically based so i'm surprised BYU didn't label it a devotional. I guess he's not a general authority so not a devotional. Anyways i shouldn't care what the speech is labled. I didn't go (keeping my streak alive of never attending a single real BYU devotional during my time at BYU) but I read his speech last night and I thought it was amazing. He mentioned in his talk that many members of the church always ask him how he can be a Democrat and a good standing member of the church. I know especially my uncle Dave and cousin Brad (who was in his ward for a while when he lived back in DC) are strongly against him and confused at his faith. I've never cared that he's a Democrat i just think it's cool he's LDS. However, i have way more respect for him now after reading his speech. This is a guy who came from absolutely nothing including no religious background to become currently one of the country's most influential political leaders no matter what the party affiliation. He is strongly pro-life which is one of the few political stands I think LDS Members should take regardless of party line; however, in his talk most of his political stands were about global warming, employment, etc. which certainly shouldn't threaten anybody's church standing. His only mention of Mitt Romney was that he hopes he is elected based on politics and not religion. I can agree with that statement especially considering I feel Mitt Romney is avoiding as much as possible confronting the giant issue that is his religion in this political race. I'll write about that another time because that is an entry in itself. I wanted to note that having such a distinguished Democratic figure come to BYU was a big step for BYU in my opinion, even if he is a member of the church. I would say in a general scale i consider myself rebuplican even though i haven't always voted that way, but i am a fan of Senator Reid after reading about his success in life after coming from such humble beginnings.

We'll Pay You! Oct 10th Original Post

I'm enjoying another night of work listening to people call in and ask for what type of deal they can get. What is it with everybody in today's world wanting a deal on absolutely everything? I had a guy just ask me on the phone what type of new deal he could get AFTER his 6 month promotion expired and he hadn't even signed up for service at all yet! I find this to be especially true on any type of large purchase. When I'm talking to a friend or anybody else who just bought a car, a house, even something smaller like a couch, it's never "We bought a couch." It's, "We got a good deal." Doesn't anybody just pay for something they want and move on? I can deal with investigating large purchases and paying a fair price if not a lower "good deal" price but for the love does everything have to be on some type of deal? Is the $5 savings per month worth the hassle of calling in each month to try to swindle some type of promotional price? Honestly, if you just built your phone/cable/internet/whatever price into your budget then you wouldn't have to worry about it. I think a main culprit is people are so maxed out on their limits that $5 really does make a difference on whether they can pay their monthly bills.

Anyways, i'm happily approaching the end of my time as a customer service rep for comcast and even after 3 1/2 years I am still AMAZED on a daily basis by 2 things: 1) how badly people want to feel they got a deal on anything and 2) how many people are late on their payments. It is so rare for somebody who is late on their payment to call in and pay off what they owe, it's always "what is the absolute minimum i can pay to get turned back on?" Insane! The thing is, i'm sure these people are doing the exact same thing with their gas, electric, and other bills. And they come from all over the state not just the stereotypical areas. I think people want to call in and when they ask what type of deal we can get them, they expect us to say, "Actually sir it's your lucky day we have this great new promotion where we pay you to take our service! Sign up today and you'll get checks in the mail instead of bills just for using our service!" Unbelievable!

So that was a fun rant and i could go on and on forever but i think i'll refrain for now.

October 6 2007 Original Post

Welcome to the launch of the balltrain blog! I'm hoping to use this as a journal type setup for myself and my family since i basically haven't kept a journal since my mission. I hope to write here at least once a week about what's going in with whatever. I'm note sure how personal I want to get but as I sit here thinking ab, out it I'm not sure who will end up reading this so I'll probably keep it pretty vanilla for a while. However, I do plan on writing about my sports feelings just to get them off my chest. I don't really post to chat rooms so maybe it'll be fun to write about stuff here.

As for life, life is great and crappy at the same time right now. It's great that Cannon is a little stud and we're healthy, etc. It's great that i'm in my final semester of school. It's crappy because during this final semester i'm working graveyard shifts (I write this at 4 am) and with a newborn baby Rachel and I are both pretty much literally riding no sleep right now. It is 4 am Saturday morning and from Monday-Friday this week I slept less than 10 hours total. I did get in a long sleep session yesterday morning since no school on fridays and i'm looking forward to another one when i finish my shift today.

Today is an exciting day in that it is General Conference and I'm not sure if it will be today or tomorrow but a new Apostle will be named and a new member of the First Presidency will also be named after the passing of Elder Faust in August.

So there is a monster coverpage article about Mitt Romney in this week's Newsweek. It talks about his Mormon upbringing and how he's facing that in his campaign. The article asserts that Mitt is trying to effectively dodge his religion quesitons because religion-Mitt loses elections and turnaround-Mitt wins them so he's focusing on his business and olympic successes. The article also seemed to attack him for this because he's not revealing his true persona. I kind of agree; it seems that Mitt is continuously downplaying his membership in the church when everybody knows that is a central part of his life. He knew going into this that it would be his monster issue so i think he should embrace it rather than avoid it. He doesn't have to be trumpeting Mormonism all over the place but he should probably more open about it than he has in his efforts to continually downplay it. I've seen nearly all of his national interviews (60 minutes, etc type stuff) and read as much as possible to keep afoot on it so I think i've seen enough to see his approach on defending the religion. It'll be interesting to see this play out. I still think he has a good shot at the Republican nomination but I think the Democratic nomination (hillary or barack) will take the election anyways.

Enough about politics (i'm not even a politic guy for crying out loud!) I'm out!

Launch

I started writing some stuff as a journal/blog style entries on my hotmail account but I want to create a blog that will link to the family blog www.thetraintrax.blogspot.com so here we go! I don't want my opinions to interfere with family happenings so I'll just post the link to this blog on the family blog. I'm going to post my entries from the other blog here and get this thing going! I've been reading my mission journal the past night so I'm pumped to start writing about life again.