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.