When Landon Donovan Scored...

...I was in class.  Luckily, my professor understood the importance of this match and cut his lecture short when he realized there was 15 minutes left with a 0-0 score.  This allowed me to see, what could be, the most important goal in U.S. Soccer thus far.  It was the latest World Cup goal in history for the Men's team and it led the US Men's National team to their first World Cup group victory since 1930.  Needless to say, when Donovan netted this goal I jumped from my seat and shouted loudly.  It was the Hollywood myth that only American's could create.  Here's some videos of others who shared my same reaction.

Kansas City
Bar in Lincoln, Nebraska
New York, New York

Becoming a Poet

I find myself becoming a novice poet. The past four months have aided me in this pursuit. As mentioned in a previous post, I helped form a guerrilla poetry society here at BYU-Idaho to support free expression among students. We call ourselves the Mid-Morning's Mackles. Our group has become a great success with an average turnout of around 15 people each week, a short-lived section in the student newspaper's A&E section, our own 30+ page book of original poetry, a facebook group of over 80 members, a rumored chapter in Minnesota, and, most importantly, amazing relationships among members.

The group began when my friends Ryan Hayes and Garrett Sherwood said, somewhat jokingly, that they were quitting music for winter semester to become poets. Once this comment surfaced a few times I joined them in their pursuit. It was decided that we'd use a guerrilla approach to meeting where we would have no set schedule and the specifics of our meetings would be shared via the internet about 24 hours before. On occassion we'll use the school sanctioned "poetry slam" as our meeting, an event I've become manager of for Spring Semester. We tend to share our unique brand of poetry as well as our vociferous acclamations of eachother's work. We have a reputation.

Aside from the Mackles meetings, I have also branched out into the community. In Idaho Falls, I participated in my first competitive poetry slam. I registered late with some other Mackles and almost didn't make it in. My friend Jeannette volunteered me to take her place on the roster and I got to be number 17 out of the original 15 planned performers. My poems included my two crowd favorites Public Defecation and Painted Woman. The first poem is pretty self-explanatory and scored me an 8.5 out of 10 and got me into the finals. The second poem about socially constructed conceptions of beauty won me an 8.3 and earned me third place. I was excited for my scores considering the highest given was an 8.9. All things considered, the experience was great and I look forward to future competitions.

Lastly, this past Thursday was the school's first poetry slam of the semester. They call this event a poetry slam although it's more of a reading, there is no competitive aspect to it. After spending 4 hours in the food court passing our over 700 flyers, we had about 49 people in attendance and of that 49 there were 20+ participants. It was fun working for "the man." I plan on making the second show competitive.  It will be interesting to see what the outcome will be.

Genuine Embarrassment

Today, I was sitting by my friend Ryan in my ancient history class.  It's customary for us to small talk and waste the 15 minute break away.  Our conversations vary, sometimes it is strictly on the course material and other times it's extremely random -- like the time I brought up the awkwardness of a man in the stall who was was walking his wife through the steps of making guacamole while he dropped some of his off.  I'd like to claim that our conversation threw me off of my routine but that would be a lie; nonetheless, something went wrong with my brain this morning and set me up for embarrassment.

Classes open with a prayer at BYU-Idaho, this tradition set the stage for my idiocy to prevail.   Seconds after the young volunteer said "Amen" I began to clap. To help you understand why this was embarrassing, it wasn't as though I clapped once quietly; I clapped fairly loud at least three or four times until I realized what was going on.  With the cadence of my claps beginning to slow, I looked over to my friend Ryan and said, "did I just clap? What the..." and we both got a monster case of the giggles.

For those of you familiar with my giggles know that they don't disappear and they are not silent.  It also didn't help that our professor likes to do quizzes at the beginning of class.  These two factors made me stand out worse than the initial clapping sequence.  I laughed for a good ten minutes until I was able to control myself.

Oh well, just another day at BYU-Idaho.

Annual Blog Entry

So, today is the one year anniversary of my last post on this blog.  I'm going to claim that letting a year pass was all a part of my master scheme -- one year, that's ridiculous.  In brief, Cambra and I are on the tail end of our third semester in a row at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg.  The social aspect has been a blast and the school part has been challenging but rewarding.  That being said, here is the list of what has happened in the past year in no specific order.

1. Came back to BYU-Idaho, joined the fast grad program.
2. Cambra and I had our first Christmas at home.
3. I had my first 4.0 in my college career carrying 14 credits.
4. Cambra found out she had thyroid issues but got them promply fixed.
5. Jumped off my first bridge because my friends were doing it too.
6. Discovered the Felice Brothers as well as the Avett Brothers -- Thanks Tyler and Spencer.
7. Made awesome friends.
8. Got reaquainted with music.
9. Helped run Open Mic night in Rexburg for two semesters.
10. Got third place in a chilli cookoff.
11. Played at Guitars Unplugged but didn't make it to Best Of... I guess I'm too cutting edge, haha.
12. Joined Ryan and Garrett in starting the Mid-Morning's Mackles poetry society.
13. Joined Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honors society.
14. Bought a little girl bike and spray painted it gold.
15. GREW A DISGUSTING MUSTACHE.
16. Got glasses.
17. Learned how to rock climb.
18. Got to see the Portland Timber's pre-season game after their announced expansion into MLS.
19. Was given an amazing Scot Thompson autographed jersey from Dylan because he is awesome like that.
20. Made blackberry jam after gathering berries from the brambles at my parent's house.
21. Was going to go to the beach but had fountainhead diarrhea -- I'm pretty sure it was the swine flu.
22. I haven't gone to a devotional since being back at BYU-Idaho, not even Dallin H. Oaks' which made national news.
23. Lifted weights a couple times, realized it was lame.
24. Did yoga a couple of times, got lazy.
25. Realized it's far easier to walk to school than it is to drive.
26. I've read way too much. 
27. Played soccer a couple of times, realized I was out of shape and stopped.
28. Woke up in the early morning to clean glass that was burning into the floor.
29. Bought a goldfish.
30. Dressed up as Bob Dylan in the Subterranean Homesick Blues video for Halloween.
31. Went to Rabbit Stick on Henry's Fork.
32. Took pictures of Cambra celebrating her pink Canadian rain boots.
33. Speaking of Canada, they just won the gold medal in Hockey.
34. Learned how to recycle candles.
35. Got stuck on the toilet at Wal-Mart during a blackout that spanned 20 miles.
36. Fed ducks.
37. Went to Arizona by way of Vegas.
38. Took a wrong turn onto a one-way off-ramp in Vegas.
39. Almost died in Vegas.
40. Got a rash in Arizona.
41. Learned how to play farcry on Xbox 360 -- double joysticks blow my mind.
42. Got a new brother-in-law by way of shotgun.
43. Got two new neices, one nephew and one more neice on the way.
44. Took tourist shots at the hoover dam.
45. Played a house show in Provo with a former American Idol contestant -- does this make me famous?
46. On a whim took a drive up into the Targhee National Forest in winter, almost died again.
47. Got a new cell phone.
48. Got a big tub of honey at the Rexburg farmer's market.
49. Took my two-year-old nephew Trey to an art gallery in Hood River where he managed to find interest in the only painting with naked women -- did we ever tell you that Darcey?
50. Learned how to swim for reals... you know, talk to the fish and listen to the fish kind of swimming.
51. Drove a U-Haul for the first time with Cambra only yelling at me once.
52. Bought awesome fruit crates from an obscure antique shop in Wishram, Washington.
53. Visited the faux-henge across the river from Biggs.
54. Went to a bluegrass festival in I-Falls and tried slacklining.
55. Camped in my parent's backyard.
56. Hiked Oneonta Falls.

That is all I can think of as of now.  If you know more, please share.  Also, I'm totally going to start chronicling my life here more often.  Having an entire year without an entry is pretty absurd.

Pushing Forward by Going Back; We're Off To Rexburg.

This has been a really strange month, I spent five and half hours watching a bunch of zealous lawyers, one of which happened to look like the love child of Patrick Swayzee and a weasel, argue over Wal-Mart at the City Council meeting. We also heard that someone might have shot themselves in our apartment complex. Then, a couple days ago a local man gunned down a mother and son, who were his next door neighbors, a couple streets down from the school I'd been working at this week. Amid all this gloom and doom, we did get some good news; we got ourselves a ticket back to Rexburg, Idaho.


This shouldn't be too shocking to anyone considering Cambra's been accepted for over a month. However, Cambra, on a whim, called BYU-Idaho student housing and we ended up getting the last opening for this semester. We of course took it, especially since he told us that they called two days earlier, without us answering, and moved on without us. Long story short, we now have an awesome place to live across the street from campus and below the soccer fields.


The day following the news of our apartment I went off to work, you know that place where I go and help kids reads and play soccer. When I got home Cambra told me that I had finally been accepted. It was about time, we've been pestering the poor admissions folks for a good month. So we're pumped and only have a six weeks until our momentous return. It'll be good to get reacquainted with the billions of people we know that have moved there. If you're one of our friends that live there, prepare yourselves for some rockin' folk music, bad jokes, hilarious anecdotes and the ugliest mustache that I can grow (Similar to My Name Is Earl); all of which I'm bringing to Rexburg.

Blog Entry #55

Greetings my loyal readers and lunatic fans. I felt like writing a blog and have now begun. Here's what's been goin' on in our neck of the woods.

• We did sharing time today, after remembering that it was our turn 45 minutes before church.
• We finished the journal that we began when we were dating -- expect to see copies on Amazon -- and bought a new journal at my favorite bookstore that was hand-made from leaves and recycled paper. It's pretty much the coolest thing ever.
• We bought about 6 pounds of organic apples and pears because they were on sale, which means the dehydrator's been running like crazy this weekend.
• We finished our exodus without death, sorry I realized that I stopped the tale at one entry;however, most of you who read this know that I'm alive.
• I got a dehydrator for Christmas.
• I've gotten reacquainted with the Beastie Boys.
• I failed my Math class.
• I'm retaking my math class.
• We reapplied to BYU-Idaho.
• Cambra got accepted and I'm still waiting to hear.
• We decided that we'd try to go back to Rexburg.
• I started playing music again.
• I'm currently being called to the living room.

Later, I hope this was exciting for you.

The Exodus; Day 1, 11/19/08.

Late Wednesday morning, Cambra and I began out trek around the western states. It was bound to be our shortest, most familiar leg of our journey and went without, too much, struggle. I forgot my Camera didn't have batteries so this post won't have any pics, unlike the others to come.

As usual, this trip Eastbound on I-84 was going flawless until the hurdle known as cabbage hill between LaGrande and Pendelton, Oregon. The clouds looked ferocious and intimidating, which was strange considering the blue skies that we'd had all week; considering my luck, however, it seemed fitting. To our pleasant surprise it wasn't snowing... it was dense fog. The peacefully white wall allowed us to have visibility between 20-60 feet of visibility from the moment we started the incline all the way up to Deadman's Pass. Since this was a pass I'd been going on since I was a kid it wasn't too frightening but definitely a new experience.

After the mountain pass we made our arrival to Caldwell, Idaho without a hitch. We set-up shop there for the night and enjoyed stayed up late listening to family stories, stand up comedy and playing FIFA on Xbox 360, which I'm horrible at by the way. Our night in Caldwell was a great de-stresser and relaxing especially considering the next leg of our trip which led us to the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.

WINNER!

I know it's a bit late, but here's my "gloating" post. History was made two days ago, the first Black president was elected by a landslide victory over a literal American hero. I've heard many reasons for this happening; the race factor, the Bush factor (the failing economy is included in this). The most overlooked yet most accurate is that Barack Obama was the better choice.*

Months ago, after the candidates were chosen for both major parties I took it upon myself to research them independently. The following are some of the reasons that led me to vote for Barack Obama, contrary to the assumption of upset conservatives who think I'm a brainwashed idiot who has no political prowess and just follows the hype;

• Redirecting tax breaks to the middle class - When I vote, I tend to remember America as a representative democracy and it is our duty to vote for the person who represents us the most. As someone who doesn't have a net worth of a million dollars, I voted for the one candidate who has a goal (remember, these are politicians and there are no magic wands or for sure things)to help out my demographic; the poor college kid who is choosing a career that will cement his place in the lower middle class, below the national average for income. REMEMBER, This may not work; however, I'm more willing to put a man in the white house who will try to help my demographic instead of one who will keep the same faulty tax breaks that save the middle class pennies while the rich save millions.
• Proponent of Americans With Disability Act - This was a plus to me. When I did my research, Barack Obama was the only candidate of the two major parties that mentioned anything regarding disabled Americans. It was only until after Sarah Palin joined the McCain campaign that this became a footnote on their titanic voyage to the white house. That being said, I was very glad to see that Sarah Palin, who couldn't be more different from me ideologically, drew a lot of interest into the political process from disabled Americans, a definite positive result of her presence.
• Energy - I believe strongly that the transition to green energy is the pass into the club of elite countries and Barack Obama shares this vision. Of course, unlike John McCain, Obama wasn't going to rely on potentially hazardous energy sources such as Nuclear Power, although he may not rule it out, and destroy natural environments for Oil just in case the renewable energy thing didn't work out.
• Iraq - I disagreed with the war in 2003. I still disagree with it today because it ushered in a scary era in American foreign policy which is based on unilateral warfare on soveirgn nations. I strongly believe that a timetable is needed for troop withdrawals from Iraq so we can focus our resources on credible threats to our nation's safety. Barack Obama agreed.
• ABORTION - I don't buy into the fear mongering of talk radio hosts who tout Barack Obama as a man who will systematically abort every fetus he sees. I understand that he voted against a ban on abortion. Obama did so to ensure the right to life of women considering that was at stake in the same "gotcha" bill. To call Barack Obama a baby killing candidate would be similar to calling any one who voted "yes" on the same bill a woman killer. It's decisive, partisan hardball that is meant to scare you into voting for crappy candidates.
• Shallow Stuff - He is a good speaker, he is intelligent and he seems down to earth. I also like the idea that he spent time as a community organizer in low income neighborhoods, although some see this as a downside, after graduating from the ivy league with a law degree. That alone shows that he naturally had a different set of priorities than typical politicians. But, this doesn't really matter in terms of politics, that's why it's in the "shallow stuff" part.

I could go on but this is already too long. There are many more reasons why I voted for him and, judging by the sheer size of his victory, there are many who feel the same as myself. But here is a very important warning to all who voted as I did. It is our civic duty to remember that politics isn't something you take part in every four years. It is our job as Americans to make sure that this representative remembers his priorities and remembers those who put him there. We need to stay aware and involved in the political process throughout the years so when the next election comes we can decide whether or not there needs to be another representative to take his seat.

Ending my long shpeel, I've embedded his acceptance speech just in case you missed it. I'd also like to ask all my readers to remember who you are, a vital part in a democratic society, and how much of a blessing it is that you're able to live in a country where authority can switch from one leader to another peacefully.

* as a matter of personal opinion.