I hate f-book quizzes. I hate when they dominate my mini-feed when there is so much more interesting info out there on which I'd rather be updated. As such, I refuse to take them.
Sometimes I like to look at pictures of myself. A slight sign of vanity? Maybe. Jill does it too. It's not like I do it all the time, but it's just entertaining. Back in the day when I used to study, if I ever gave my computer enough time to get to the slide show screen saver it turned into a nice long study break. Anyway today while I was taking a work break, because my job is so strenuous, I may or may not have viewed all tagged photos of myself on the fb and in doing so became a little nostalgic. I have met some excellent people here in the Prov and have had some good times. I'm making this sound like I graduated and am moving on to bigger and better things, but I'm not really. I'm still here at good old BYU and probably will be for longer than I would like, but none the less today is a day of appreciation. My life is good.
Here, in no particular order, are just some of the pics that fill my heart with happiness when I see them and remind me of people and places that I love. Just a taste of my college career.
Sorry for the large amount, but really how can you limit so many years to so few pictures? Plus, if you didn't want to look you didn't have to.
So I will admit I don't follow college basketball very closely at all 49 weeks out of the year.
It's pretty much that I just don't care enough. To stay interested in the game, I need someone to cheer for. And to know who to cheer for, I need a personal connection of some sort with one of the teams.
BYU is the only team I've ever really cared about (even if they never make it past the first round). It's in my blood. Somehow, even living in Kansas since age 10, I've never felt a strong connection to the Jayhawks (Sorry, Katie).
But that all changes in March.
I fill out a bracket. Since I don't follow the teams, I really have no legit way to judge who I think will win, so my choices are mainly arbitrary (sometimes I have systems, like which mascot would win in a fight, or who I like better if I know people from the state). I love to pick upsets, but usually pick way too many and pick the wrong ones.
But the point is, all of a sudden, I care. I cheer for teams I didn't really even know existed the week before (Morehead State, anyone? Binghamton?). But they matter to me now because I wrote their name in my bracket.
Also, I LOVE to watch people watch March Madness. Especially in the first round, because there are so many games. My favorite place to March Madness people watch is the Wilk Terrace. The people just get so into it. I love it.
So I just wanted to announce that my bracket is kind of treating me well right now. This is so unprecedented. After the first weekend of play, I was ranked lower than 3 million in espn.com's rankings. I am currently 264,773. Maybe not too exciting to most of you, but I feel great about it. I'm even ranked number one in my friends pool. Holla.
Small hiccup: I picked KU to win it all. First time in a while I have done that--and they let me down. So as this is the highest I will probably be ranked during the tournament, I'm sharing it now.
Why am I writing this right now when I'm already sleep-deprived and should be reading my Evidence homework? There are some questions I just don't know the answer to.
P.S. Birthday shout-out today goes to Grandpa Crane. March 29, 1905 - August 1996. What an incredible man.
I'm not Catholic and I don't drink, but that doesn't mean that walking around and seeing everyone wearing green doesn't fill me with a bit of joy.
This post was inspired by Mr. Ricks, my carrel-next-door-neighbor, when, as we enjoyed our sherbet floats courtesy of Lexis Nexis, he asked me if my favorite Irish band was House of Pain. So I thought to myself, "If I were to make a St. Patrick's Day playlist, what would be included?" Here is what I have come up with:
House of Pain"Jump Around," of course, because 1. it's their only song I know and 2. it's awesome. But their singles "Shamrocks & Shenanigans" and "Top O' The Morning To Ya" also sound promising.
U2 - duh. The CranberriesI bet you didn't know they were originally called The Cranberry Saw Us. What does that even mean? Their debut album was "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" Great motto for life. We only ever had "To the Faithful Departed," of which I probably only listened to one song, but that is definitely enough to merit space on this St. Patty's Day Playlist.
Sinead O'ConnorNothing compares to "Nothing Compares 2 U." I also want to take this opportunity to thank Sinead for the inspiration she gave to another great singing group, Hot Sundaes.
Gotta love St. Patrick's Day.
***Today's post is dedicated to ValPal. Happy Birthday! Love you!***
Welp she did it again folks.Jill went and got herself published in the Daily U again.If you would like to know what she had to say just take a little gander below:
Saved by the Bell
Because of the recent flood of letters complaining about the BYUSA elections, it seems that many people think the only reason people run is to win the scholarship and to pad their resume, which will help them get a job, get married and fine happiness and success (as suggested by the author of the March 4 letter, “Life Without BYUSA”). While I see no problem with joining together as a student body – or at least 10 percent of a student body – to support someone in achieving their dream of campus-wide fame as the figurehead leader of BYUSA, perhaps we should make sure their motivations are not tainted by promises of dollar signs and dates.
In an episode of “Saved by the Bell” (Season 1, Episode 13, “The Election”), Zack only runs for student body president for the free trip to Washington.When Mr. Belding tricks him into believing the trip has been canceled, Zack realizes he doesn’t actually want the job.Maybe we should trick all the candidates into believing they will receive no personal benefits from winning the election.Then only those with the purest of intentions will remain to be the face of BYU.But I ask you, would it really be so horrible for us to help these souls improve their resumes and dating lives?
There you have it.You may notice this is not the first time Saved by the Bell was used in Jill's letters to the editor. she says 'it's just that art imitates life.' Yes, she just referred to SBTB as art. I really believe that all of our best life lessons can be learned from SBTB.
P.S. Recently I’ve been feeling newly committed to our blog.I mean I sit in front of a computer all day and I rely on others blogs for entertainment to get me through the day so I feel I should be giving a little to the blogging universe rather than always just taking.We’ll see how long this feeling lasts.
One more thing.I had to speak in church yesterday.I hate speaking in church because of the amount of nervousness that overtakes me but yesterday wasn’t terrible.I only had one awkward moment where I lost my place and my face turned red but whatev.I would just like to give a shout out to Darren who helped me spice up my talk with sports analogies and another shout out to Cara who managed to included Zac Efron’s swoop bangs in her talk.It’s just that few can manage to get their bangs to look so good.
On this, the 148th birthday of the great state of Kansas, I would just like to make a list of great things about Kansas.
The Sunflower State
Cawker City, Kansas is the home to the world's largest ball of twine. Some people (particularly those from Darwin, MN) may claim that the largest twine ball is actually up north in the land of 10,000 lakes because Frank Stoeber died when his twine ball was just a foot shy of beating Francis Johnson's record in Darwin, and thus had to be finished by the community. "Cawker City, in a touching tribute, built an open-air gazebo over his ball and set it up on Highway 24 in town, where it can still be touched and whiffed by travelers." Locals and visitors continue to add twine to this community project (but be sure to email before you go so Linda can have twine available for you if it's not time for the annual Twine-A-Thon in August). One of my life goals is to visit Cawker City to touch, whiff, and possibly wrap the world's largest ball of twine.
We came in as a free state after the turmoil of Bleeding Kansas.
We are the geographical center of the continental United States.
Who else has a state song as cool as "Home on the Range"?
BBQ - Kansas City is famous for its barbeque and hosts several barbeque cooking contests each year, with one of the more notable being in Lenexa, KS. The Great Lenexa Barbeque Battle began in 1982 with just 12 contestants and 12 judges. In 1984 the governor declared the contest the official Kansas State Championship. It has since grown to its current size of 185 contestants and 240 judges. This year's Battle will be on June 26 & 27 at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park (at 87th & Lackman).
Along those lines, KC has several famous BBQ restaurants, including Jack Stack, Gates (my friend from Centerville, UT imports Gates BBQ sauce because it's so good) and KC Masterpiece. Tragically, only one KC Masterpiece restaurant remains. Thankfully, it is in my hometown of Overland Park.
Chicago has nothing on us. Dodge City is in fact the windiest city in America, with an average wind speed of 13.9 mph
Famous Kansans: *Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, 1885 - 1974, Lawrence, University of Kansas men's varsity basketball coach*Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, 1936 - 1999, Lawrence, University of Kansas basketball player 1955-1957*William Clark (of Lewis and Clark)*Amelia Earhart*Dorothy Gale*Dwight D. Eisenhower, who, incidentally, was the last bald president we elected.
Kansas day miracles like the fact that my only class of the day was canceled, giving me time to write this tribute.
Also, we are the breadbasket of the world. Eat that.
And you can celebrate Kansas Day anywhere in the world. For example, in Utah. By wearing Kansas gear and standing in the shape of a K. Obviously.
