Sam Yoshida

When the Going Gets Tough, Get a New Quarterback

2011-10-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

After watching nearly the first half of both the college and professional football seasons I've been surprised to see all of the quarterback shuffles that have taken place so far. The quarterback position has got to be one of the most important positions in all of sports. He is the captain and leader of not only the offense, but the entire team. He is the face of the team, and a team's success can be based solely on how good your quarterback is.

Just ask the University of Florida, who's team declined dramatically after the loss of Tim Tebow. The same can be said for the University of Texas, who didn't even make it to a bowl game the year after Colt McCoy left. The best example is of the struggling, winless Colts who haven't been able to win a single game without Peyton Manning. It can even work the opposite way. The New England Patriots didn't become the franchise team they're known as until Tom Brady emerged.

Because the quarterback is such an important decision, coaches should be hesitant on who they pick as their starter or leader out there on the field. Coaches hesitate to make changes during the season in fear of hurting either of the quarterbacks' confidence. Coaches should pick who their starter is going to be before the season starts and stick with that quarterback until it is absolutely necessary, because no quarterback wants to be out on the field so worried about losing his starting job that he underperforms. Shuffling quarterbacks in and out can be worse than keeping the struggling quarterback in the game. Listed below are a few of the quarterback controversies this year and whether or not they should have made the change at quarterback.

Brigham Young University - (Jake Heaps vs Riley Nelson)

The hype of Jake Heaps started way before the Cougars' football season even started. There were reports of Heaps having a stellar training camp, and that he was ready to take the next step at quarterback. There were even some radio analysts that were saying he would be a dark horse for the Heisman. What many fans and analysts didn't remember was that Heaps did all of his improving against the bottom of the Mountain West last year. Heaps was overrated and overhyped to begin the season. After struggling at the first season against Ole Miss, Texas, Utah, and UCF, Heaps was struggling again against Utah State when offensive coordinator, Brandon Doman, decided to go with Riley Nelson. Nelson had traded snaps with Heaps last year before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. He came into the game and provided a spark for the Cougars as they were able to make a thrilling comeback victory against the Aggies. The Cougars haven't lost a game since then. While the competition has definitely been on the other end of the spectrum, the Cougars entire team has responded to Nelson's fierce competitiveness. People respond different to him.

What the organization should do: Stay with Riley Nelson until the end of the season and then reevaluate each quarterback and make a decision starting next year.

Denver Broncos - (Kyle Orton vs Tim Tebow)

This is definitely a sticky situation that they have going down in Denver. While fans are calling for the head of Kyle Orton and praising Tim Tebow, many analysts question whether or not Tebow can make it in the pros. This controversy should have been handled clear back in the offseason when it was a heated debate even then. This is a perfect example of a quarterback who played scared of losing his starting job. What people don't realize is that Orton doesn't have terrible numbers, except for the interceptions this year. Orton finished 11th and 10th in the passing yards after the 2009 and 2010, and finished right in the middle for touchdowns. Not the desirable numbers for a franchise that had John Elway as a quarterback, but not bad for a team that has worse issues at other positions. While I think Orton is still the better quarterback you have to go with Tebow. If you're going to have a crappy season, might as well give the fans what they want and that is to see Tim Tebow as their starter. He does bring a different demension to the game, but he is definitely lacking in the passing category of being a quarterback.

What the organization should do: Put in Tebow, because that's what the fans want, and then trade Orton off to some other team.

Minnesota Vikings - (Donovan McNabb vs. Christian Ponder)

We all know the story of Donovan McNabb. Five trips to the NFC Championship game with the Eagles before being sent to Washington where he was benched then. He was then sent over to the Vikings. The Vikings then drafted Christian Ponder to groom while McNabb took over the starting roles. McNabb has underperformed this year. Ranking in the bottom half of the league in passer rating and only throwing four touchdowns so far this year. The Vikings gave up halftime leads in each of their first four games and are sitting at 1-5. McNabb was benched in the fourth quarter of the Bears game and will now sit while Christian Ponder comes in and takes the reins. While McNabb certainly has been struggling, the lack of plays utilizing Adrian Peterson has also been a factor. Not only that, but the Vikings play the Green Bay Packers next week. It's definitely a long shot, but maybe the Vikings are getting a head start on grooming their quarterback situation.

What the organization should do: Whichever they feel will get Ponder the most experience. The Vikings only play two teams with losing records for the remainder of the season, and McNabb isn't getting any better. It's time to prepare for the future.

Washington Redskins - (Rex Grossman vs John Beck)

There was a little bit of controversy for the quarterback position going on in the preseason between Grossman and Beck. Each of them played relatively well, but it was Grossman who got the start. Until last Sunday's loss to the Eagles, Grossman had led his team off to a quick 3-1 start. After throwing four interceptions though, Grossman was benched in place of Beck where he had a rushing touchdown. Coaches should have expected Rex to be inconsistent as he's always been. Sometimes it's more constructive to have your starter play through bad games and be responsible for the loss. The Redskins were way too quick to pull Grossman, and are foolish for naming Beck as the starter after a 3-2 record.

What the organization should do: Keep Grossman in until the team starts losing multiple games in a row or games that they should have won.

Oakland Raiders - (Jason Campbell vs Kyle Boller vs Carson Palmer)

Jason Campbell had solidified the starting position for the Raiders, and had his team at 3-2 before going out in the middle of the Browns game with an injury. A broken collar bone will sideline him at least six weeks. The Oakland Raiders showed that they had no faith in Kyle Boller who was the old starter for Baltimore, and went out and acquired Carson Palmer who has been sitting out this season after refusing to play for Cincinnati. Not only that, but they gave up two potential first round draft picks for a player who hasn't been to a pro bowl in several years, and hasn't nearly been as effective after tearing his ACL. The Raiders gave up way too much for this quarterback only to have a giant controversy coming once Campbell is back to full strength

What the organization should have done: Either stuck with Boller or Terrell Pryor or not paid so much for Palmer.

These are the main quarterback controversies that have been happening so far this season. Some organizations have handled it well while some have immediately pushed the panic button in order to save their season. They will be criticized if it doesn't turn out the way everyone hopes, but that is something still yet to be seen.

My Broadcasting story

2011-09-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

A Better Postseason

2010-12-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

The new BCS rankings came out this week as well as the bowls. As I contemplated the bowl selections I could not help but get frustrated at the corruptiveness of the postseason in college football today. If many of you are not aware, there is no playoff in college football. Instead, the Bowl Championship Series uses a matter of opinion and computers to determine who the best team in college football is. It all depends on who you play and when you play. They do not let the best teams settle it on the field. Take Michigan State for example. Michigan State went 11-1 this season, and isn't even playing in a BCS game. Instead, Wisconsin and Ohio State will go. Michigan State beat Wisconsin during the season, and didn't play Ohio State, but Wisconsin beat Ohio State. In my opinion, I think Michigan State is more deserving of the bowl bid.

Boise State was also on the wrong end of the deal. Yes, yes I know that they lost to Nevada in overtime. I know that they aren't perfect, but I KNOW that they are better than 8-4 Connecticut. The have PROVEN that they are better than ACC champ Virginia Tech, but because the way this system is set up, those two teams will get millions of dollars while Boise State is stuck beating up on an overrated Utah team in the Las Vegas bowl.

People who read my blog know that I'm a huge fan of a 16-team playoff. If you've read the book Death to the BCS they use the same exact playoff format. Each conference champion deserves a bid, and five at large teams are selected by a selection committee. Then each team will be reseeded. So here I am showing what the playoff would look like. Most of these first round mathups would provide some exciting stories and make for some really exciting games.

#1 Auburn (SEC Champ) vs. #16 Florida International (Sun Belt Champ)

#2 Oregon (Pac-10 Champ) vs. #15 Miami (OH) (MAC Champ)

#3 TCU (Mountain West Champ) vs. #14 Connecticut (Big East Champ)

* A matchup where the Big East champ will be tested by it's soon-to-be newest member.

#4 Stanford (At Large) vs. #13 UCF (Conf. USA Champ)

#5 Wisconsin (Big Ten Champ) vs. #12 Virginia Tech (ACC Champ)

#6 Ohio State (At Large) vs. #11 LSU (At Large)

* A rematch of the 2008 National Championship game where LSU beat Ohio State

#7 Oklahoma (Big 12 Champ) vs. #10 Boise State (WAC Champ)

* A rematch of the historic 2007 Fiesta Bowl that put Boise State on the map in college football

#8 Arkansas (At Large) vs. #9 Michigan State (At Large)

You can't tell me that these matchups wouldn't make you want to watch college football more. I one day dream of the time when a playoff system like this might work out. I guess until now I'll have to stick with the Papajohns.com bowl, and the clorox toilet cleaner bowl.

A Shattered Dream

2010-12-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna start out this blog by saying it's taking me a lot of guts to write this blog. If anyone knows how much I care about college football and my Boise State Broncos, they would know how devestated I was this weekend. The school that captured the hearts of America when they slew Goliath Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. After that, people expected Boise State to ride off into the sunset as one of the best underdog stories of college football. Instead Boise State went 46-4 since that last win; Boise State was not finished. Instead, this program became a national powerhouse. A team that everyone feared to play, but always hesitant to give them credit for what they have done. This year they earned the respect of the nation and was voted as the #3 team in the country to start the season. In front of Florida, Texas, and USC. There were rumors that Boise State, if everything fell correctly, could play for a national championship.

Their first test came on Labor Day, the first game of the season against #10 Virginia Tech. After a hard fought game, Boise pulled out the win and was now in prime position to sit back and watch the other undefeateds lose while Boise destroyed everyone on their schedule, and destroy they did. Boise was never threatened in a game, and was slowly impressing the voters. Every team except Oregon, Auburn, and TCU had lost. Boise was just where they wanted to be to make history.

Then came the day that will always be remembered in my heart as Black Friday: What could have been. The day was filled with the most anticipation for college football than any other week this year. First #2 Auburn had to travel to ranked Alabama to try to seal their undefeated regular season. Alabama jumped to a 24-0 start and it looked like our dream would come true. Auburn would fall and that would put Boise into the national championship. Someone forgot to tell Alabama that they had a second half to play. In what I still believe is a BCS conspiracy, Alabama completely laid down in the second half while Alabama scored 21 unanswered points and eventually won the game 28-27.... Disappointment #1

The next game was also a big let down. #1 Oregon was hosting ranked Arizona in Eugene. It was a hard fought first half, but at the end of the half, Arizona was winning 19-13, but Oregon did what it always does to its opponents in the second half. The flood gates opened, and Oregon scored 36 points in the second half and won the game convincingly by 19 points... Disappointment #2

Then came the biggest disappointment I have ever had as a Boise State fan. I thought to myself, "It's ok, those teams still have another week to lose. We got this game, and we'll worry about next week." I was right for the first half. Boise State jumped on ranked Nevada early; going to the locker room ahead 24-7. Now we all know the story that Boise State lost, but here are my biggest plays that decided the momentum of the game, and changed the whole game.

#1. The Broncos received the ball at the beginning of the half, but were forced to punt. When they punted the kicker muffed the punt and it was recovered by the Broncos on the five yard line. However, a very very questionable call was made by the ref saying that Doug Martin did not give the receiver enough time to catch the ball. Instead of the Broncos getting the ball and punching it in for a dagger 31-7 lead, Nevada received the ball which lead to...

#2. On third and long for the Wolfpack Colin Kapernick dropped back to pass and was blitzed by the cornerback. Instead of what was supposed to be a sure sack, the cornerback overpursued and Colin evaded the tack and scrambled 18 yards for a touchdown. Now it was 24-14

#3. The next drive the Broncos were faced with a 3rd down. Kellen underthrew Titus Young, but as Titus Young was coming back for the pass, his face mask was grabbed by the Nevada defender, but there was no flag. The Broncos were forced to punt again.

#4. On Nevada's next drive they were faced with another third down. Nevada ran a Wide Receiver reverse that the Broncos caught on quickly. I thought they were going to tackle him for a loss, but instead the defense over committed again and the receiver scrambled 40+ yards for another touchdown. It was now 24-21

Those were the key plays that led up to the final letdown, and will forever haunt my mind as I was utterly stunned by what took place. Boise State had the ball with 12 seconds left. The game was tied 31-31 and likely headed for overtime. Kellen Moore delivered a beautiful ball, and Titus Young made a miraculous diving catch at the 9 yard line with 1 second left. I was screaming so loud with joy. All that was left was a 26 yard field goal by Kyle Brotzman and we would keep our dreams alive. Kyle Brotzman got set to kick and it was up and away. At first I thought it was in, and started giving my family congratulatory high fives only to hear the commentator say he missed it. I almost lost it. I had had enough. I could not bear to watch what was happening. After that kick I knew that the game was over, Boise was going to lose, and sure enough, another 29 yard field goal miss by Kyle Brotzman helped destroy Boise's hopes. Gone are the national title hopes, gone is a BCS bowl game, gone are the heisman votes for Kellen Moore, gone is an outright WAC title, gone is everything that this season was supposed to be. Chris Peterson said, "One play cannot lose a game." But two can. And that will haunt Kyle Brotzman the rest of his life.

Where do we go from here? Boise State plays one more game on Saturday against Utah State in which they will win. Who knows by how much though considering they may show up uninspired. They will probably go to the lowly Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl and slowly fade into the little guy again. Next year they will leave for the Mountain West in which it was a conference that we thought we would be sharing with BYU, Utah, and TCU, but instead we will still be a big fish in a small pond. Boise will not have the TV contract with ESPN anymore to help keep them on the map. This season meant so much to me and to have it disappear in such a disappointing fashion just made me sick. This is the reason why we need a playoff. One game should not determine a whole season until the playoffs. If my playoff plan would be implemented they would still have a shot to win it all, because I truly believe this team could still beat any other team in the nation. My prayers go out to the Broncos that they may learn from this and help them become stronger and finish the season strong. Go Broncos!

Game Review: Halo Reach Album Reviews: Asylum & A Thousand Suns

2010-10-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Blog #4: I love my job

Okay this will probably be my last blog for today cause I don't know of what else to blog about. I'm sure I'll think of something sooner or later though.

First up on these reviews is the new and last game of the Halo series, Halo Reach. This game is a prequel to the first Halo when there were many super soldiers, Spartans, that trained and work on a planet called Reach. The covenant invade Reach in search of a weapon to help take over the galaxy. The humans must secure the weapon and keep it out of enemy hands to avoid the end of the human species. I was really surprised at how well they made this story fit into the beginning of the first Halo. It exceeded my expectations by a long shot. I was really concerned because the multiplayer Beta was terrible. And while not much has changed from the Beta, I have adapted my playing style to best fit the game and now it's more fun.

The positives are the equipment you get to use. You can use to either have a jetpack, be able to sprint, or sometimes go invisible. Every player uses a different set so it makes the game very unique and different every time. I love how they have daily challenges that help you earn more credits to buy cool armor and upgrades.

The only negative I can think about is that the multiplayer maps are not as good as Halo 3's. Oh and the achievements are pretty easy. I've only had the game a few weeks and only need one more achievement to have my 1,000.

Here is my order for each Halo game according to campaign fun:

5. Halo ODST

4. Halo 2

3. Halo Reach

2. Halo 3

1. Halo

I give the game an 8 out of 10

My next review is Disturbed's newest album that came out on September 28th I think. It's called Asylum and it will rock your socks off. Now I know most of you think of Dusturbed as, well, Disturbing, but they are a really awesome band and actually sing about better topics than drugs, sex, and violence. This album had many different songs that sang about various themes. The first song is called Asylum and sings about a guy who has to live without this girl he loves and so his mind feels like an asylum.

I'll see you die, in asylum

i live a lie

Don't you know I'm in love with you

And I wasn't ready, for asylum

relive a lie

To let go, now it's dragging me into your grave

Your asylum

forget the lie

Overcome all the feelings, that I won't get to join you in time

This loneliness is killing me.

Another song talks about global warming. My Child talks about a guy who has become a father and he's afraid of what kind of father he'll be. Innocence is about corrupt lawyers who lie and cheat for their client's to be released from jail:

Your corruption is like a cancer growing inside

You owe the world an apology

You've been taught all your life that truth is easy to hide

You face your judgement another day

And suffer eternally

I love this album and I give it 4.5 out 5.

The last review of this blog is Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns. This album is a concept album, meaning that all the songs flow together. This album is focused on war and the end of the war which is unlike Linkin Park's old songs. Linkin Park used to say, "screw the world" and now we're trying to save it? Their songs have turned into mainstream, light, technoey crap that made me really really depressed to listen to this album. I was very disappointed, and now when I say who my favorite bands are I have to mention Linkin Park but only their old stuff, because they've gone downhill ever since their days of Hybrid Theory and Meteora. RIP Linkin Park

I give this album 1 out of 5.

Well that's all I can think of folks

Buckcherry, Three Days Grace, and Nickelback

2010-10-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here I go again with another post for today. Just trying to keep yall busy. Well, just trying to keep myself busy.

Last week I got to go to another awesome concert with my brother, Zach. I love my brother to death. He makes me laugh, and even though I've corrupted him a little bit, he still sets a bigger example for me then I do for him.

He showed up the night before our concert and we kinda just chilled at the house. We were going to go mini golfing, but our FHE sisters asked us to come visit them for a little bit. By the time we were done talking to them the mini golf place was closed so Zach and I went to Walmart to get some food for the next couple of days.

The day of the concert was really fun. We went mini golfing at Trafalga. We found two extra balls on the course so we felt okay to play an extra round. :) I beat him, but I think it's just cause I get more practice than he does.

The concert started with Buckcherry from Los Angeles California. I don't know much about them so they weren't as good cause I didn't know any of their songs. I think the only song that people know is called "I'm Sorry"

I'm sorry I'm bad, I'm sorry I'm blue
I'm sorry 'bout all the things I said to you
And I know, I can't take it back
I love how you kiss, I love all your sounds
And baby the way you make my world go round
And I just wanted to say, I'm sorry

Next up was the band that was the reason why Zach and I went: Three Days Grace. Three Days Grace is from Ontario, Canada and they have hit singles like: I hate everything about you Animal I've become, Never too late, Pain, and Break They sang those songs and also some songs off their new album that most people don't know, but of course Zach and I did. They sang World so cold which was amazing. My favorite song was "Last to know". It's a slow song that just starts off with the piano and the lead singer, Adam Gontier. Look it up on YouTube because it is awesome. The chorus starts:

You were the first to say, that we were not okay
You were the first to lie, when we were not alright
This was my first love, she was the first to go
And when she left me for you, I was the last to know

And then the rest of the band came on the stage and it became all powerful music with him singing the last chorus:

I'll be the first to say, that now I'm okay
And for the first time, I've opened up my eyes
This was my worst love, you'll be the first to go
And when she leaves you for dead, you'll be the last to know

Last up was Nickelback, who we saw in May. It was very similar to the concert before so it wasn't as exciting, but they were still really good. They didn't sing some songs that I really liked that I'd hoped they would've like Far Away and If Everyone Cared, but at least they sang my favorite song, Someday:

How the Hell'd we wind up like this
Why weren't we able
to see the signs that we missed
and try to turn the table
Now the stories played out like this
just like a paperback novel
Let's rewrite an ending that fits
instead of a Hollywood Horror

Nothing's wrong just as long as you know that someday I will

Someday, Somehow
I'm gonna make it alright but not right now
I know you're wondering when
You're the only one who knows that
Someday, Somehow
I'm gonna make it alright but not right now
I know you're wondering when.

I don't have pictures now cause I'm at work, but I will post them as soon as I get them.

My Top 25 and comments

2010-10-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Wow! Two posts in one day. Work is really dead today so I have time to do stuff like this :)

1. Boise State

Okay, I know this is my favorite team, but when you start off the year ranked #3 in the nation and the two teams in front of you have lost, you're still undefeated, and you haven't had any scares against crappy teams yet, I'm going to put them #1.

2. TCU

Same reason as listed above. I thought TCU's thrashing of Baylor earlier this season meant nothing, but with Baylor now ranked in the top 25, it is looking better and better.

3. Oregon

There's not much you can say about Oregon except for the fact that they just embarrass every team that they play. Their offense is unstoppable. Let's see how their defense does against USC who is looking better.

4. Auburn

Right now the BCS has them ranked at #1 but what the BCS computers doesn't realize is that even though they've beaten four ranked teams, it hasn't been in convincing fashion. They beat Mississippi State by 3, needed overtime to beat Clemson, needed a last second field goal to beat Kentucky, and beat an overrated LSU team by seven. Computers don't see that though. I do.

5. Missouri

6. Michigan State

The reason I picked Missouri over Michigan State: I think Oklahoma is better than Wisconsin. If Michigan State beats Iowa this week, I'll be more convinced to move them ahead.

7. Utah

Ahead of Alabama, because they haven't lost yet.

8. Alabama

9. Wisconsin

10. Oklahoma

11. Ohio State

12. Stanford

13. LSU

14. Florida State

I have them higher in the rankings than the BCS does. To me, they've just looked more impressive than some of the other one loss teams that are ahead of them.

15. Arizona

16. Nebraska

17. Virginia Tech

I know I want this team ranked high because they lost to Boise State, but I really believe that this team is rolling on all cylinders and that they have the best chance of winning the ACC

18. Baylor

Just like Virginia Tech, this team has been looking good the past few weeks.

19. Oklahoma State

20. South Carolina

21. Iowa

22. Arkansas

23. Mississippi State

24. Hawaii

Have them ahead of Nevada cause.... well... uh, they beat Nevada.

25. Miami

Book Review: Death to the BCS

2010-10-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

I finally found a book that I enjoyed reading. This book came out on the 14th of October and once I got it I could not put it down. For those of you who are college football fans, I would recommend this book.

Death to the BCS is a book that calls for college football reform. It explains the corruptiveness of the BCS, and takes all the counter-arguments that the BCS executives use against a playoff and makes them sound ridiculous. The first chapter explains the reasons why the executives of the BCS won't give up their power for a playoff. These executives are getting paid millions of dollars to put on these bowls, and might receive a cut in their paycheck if they were to go to a playoff. The second chapter is the authors' proposal for a 16-team playoff that was very similar to what my proposal was:

1. 16- team playoff with each conference champion receiving an automatic bid.
2. Remaining five teams are selected by a selection committee and then re-ranked
3. All the games except the national championship will be played at the higher seeds' home field

They explain that under this system the conferences would roughly make around $25 million for each game one of their teams plays in. They explain that under this system that conferences like the SEC would have made close to eight times more money than they did under the BCS!

The BCS argues that they don't want a playoff to keep the sacredness of the regular season. They say that if there is a playoff, then there will be some teams who know that they will be selected in the playoffs and will slack off during the regular season. They argue that the regular season will not mean as much as it does now. This is a ludicrous argument, because seeding will be so important in the playoffs that they can't afford to take a game off. The difference between a #3 and a #4 seed is the difference between playing a crappy CUSA opponent and a much better at large bid like LSU. The difference between a #2 and #3 seed is one extra game that you'll get to play at home. Another argument for this will now produce more competitive matchups. Under the BCS format you can only get into the championship with zero or one loss. So now all these powerhouse teams are scheduling crappy opponents to gurantee that there are no screwups. With the playoff format they will be able to schedule more competitive games, thus making the season more entertaining to watch.

Next to that agrument my next favorite argument was how corrupt the current system is at choosing who gets to play in the national championship. Last year there were five undefeated teams at the end of the regular season. Alabama, Boise State, Cincinnati, Texas, and Texas Christian, and only two of them got to play for the national championship. Someone needs to tell me how that is fair. Throw out strength of schedule, because these teams cannot control who they play. Right now the BCS is comprised of three elements. The Harris (media) poll, the USA Today coaches poll, and a computer ranking. In this book it told how each of the undefeateds were fighting for that #2 spot so bad that the coach of Texas Christian voted his team #2 and Cincinnati #8. Cincinnati voted their team #2 while they voted Texas Christian #14. I'm not 100% sure on their exact poll location but it was something close to that. So instead of people voting for who they truly think is the best team, coaches and alumni are voting their teams #1 and voting all of the competition way down the list. The computer polls get me the most because they don't factor in margin of victory in their rankings. Sure, having margin of victory being factored in would motivate teams to run up the score, but it would be better than what the computers do now. This year when the first BCS rankings were released, Oklahoma was ranked #1 in the computers, but what it didn't realize was that Oklahoma had barely beat a crappy Utah State team by seven and Air Force by three. Boise State has slipped in their polls because of Oregon State losing to Washington, but the computer doesn't see that Oregon State lost by 1 in double overtime in Washington and without their star receiver.

There are plenty of other arguments that this book contains that I could not agree with more. This is the way a college football post season should be played. I loved this book and was glad I bought it, and I know that if you are remotely interested in college football and know a little bit about the system it is run under, you would love this book too.

A Disappointing College Football Weekend

2010-09-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

In a week dubbed as "Monster Saturday" it really didn't turn out that scary. Instead this weekend in college football really turned out to be a disappointment. There were four FCS upsets over FBS opponents, and games that were guessed to be close were not close at all. Even though I only saw one game, I was disappointed by the many stories, and have made a list of the five most disappointed college football stories of the weekend.

5. Marshall not being able to hold on for the victory: West Virginia scored on the final play and converted a two point conversion to push the game into overtime and eventually won. If Marshall would have won that game, no Big East team would be ranked in the top #25.

4. Florida State flops big time against Oklahoma: I know Florida State only killed Samford last week, but many analysts were saying that this team looked good. Oklahoma had a hard time putting Utah State away last week. I personally thought Florida State was going to dominate Oklahoma, but instead it turned into a 47-17 shalacking. The game was never close.

3. Jacory Harris's turnovers against Ohio State: Jacory Harris had 4 interceptions against Ohio State, and the Hurricanes lost 36-24. The score was a lot closer than the game really was. 14 points came off a kick and punt return for a TD. Take those away and the score would have been 36-10.

2. BYU vs. Air Force: Like I've explained before, I'm not a loyal fan of BYU, but I was still cheering for them this year. Both quarterbacks didn't play well, and BYU got dominated 35-14. I wasn't able to watch the game, but from what I heard, there were some dropped passes, mysterious fumbles, and crappy defense that all contributed to the skewed defeat. The thing that disappointed me the most was how they abandoned Jake Heaps after the 1st half. I was never really a fan of having two quarterback switching in and out, but when you make that decision you have to stick with it. You can't have one do bad in the first half, and totally not play him the second half... especially when the other quarterback isn't doing any better. What is that going to do for this freshman's confidence? I think you should decide before the game if you're going to use one or two, and then you stick with that decision. This is going to be a down year for BYU and we'll see how they respond after this disappointing loss.

1. My number one most disappointing story of college football this weekend is Virginia Tech losing to FCS James Madison. After Virginia Tech's loss to Boise State they only dropped three spots to #13 in the country. Virginia Tech was still considered to be a powerhouse, because they only lost by three to the #3 team in the country. James Madison comes into town and upsets #13 Virginia Tech which is a devastating blow to Boise State's national championship hopes. Boise State was counting on this one win to vault them into the national championship. Boise State needed Virginia Tech to have an excellent season, but from their performance on Saturday it looks like Virginia Tech and Boise State are doomed. We'll see how the rest of the season pan's out, but it was a very very disappointing weekend for college football.

Another disappointing story that wasn't college football was the 49ers ugly loss to the Seahwaks yeterday. The 49ers were coming in with so much hype and expectations to make the playoffs. Granted, I still think they are the best team in the NFC West, but it clearly didn't show yesterday. All of the pressure has been put on Alex Smith, the quarterback, to lead this team to the playoffs, and he laid an egg yesterday. If he doesn't get this team into the playoffs, look for him to be sent packing, and the 49ers will be where they started at the beginning of the season.

Well that's it for my blog. Please continue to read this. It's way better than checking my status updates on facebook. By the way I deleted my facebook so this is how to see what I'm up to now. Take care everyone.

IT'S FOOTBALL TIME!!!

2010-08-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write this blog for sometime now, and now I'm so bored during my lunch break at work that I might be able to get a good chunk of this done. I love football and it is just around the corner I can hardly take it. The sad thing is that in my new apartment I don't have cable yet. I'm working getting some cable, and hopefully be able to watch some games soon. This is the year to be watching college football. I don't think there will be a more dramatic season of football. Not only do we have teams jumping ship after this year to a new conference. (Nebraska to the Big Ten, Utah and Colorado to the Pac-10, and Boise State, Nevada, and Fresno State to the Mountain West.) You have new quarterbacks ready to take over the dynasty, where they are filling the shoes of great quarterbacks. (Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, and Tim Tebow.) And then you have the drama of the non-automatic qualifiers poised to bust the BCS and even make it to the national championship. Boise State starts off ranked #3, TCU is #6 and Utah and Houston are just out of the top 25. It is a great time to be a college football fan.

BOISE STATE

As I start my college preview, I must start with my favorite team of course, the Boise State Broncos. Boise State starts higher than they ever have, and higher than any other non-AQ team in college football. They start behind Alabama and Ohio State who have very difficult schedules. Boise State finally has the non-conference schedule strength to help make up for their poor conference schedule. If the Broncos go undefeated it will be very hard to keep them out of the national championship game. It would be very unfair to keep a team who has gone undefeated two years in a row. I believe that they might still get shafted, but one can only pray. First they must take care of the #10 ranked Virginia Tech team. If the Broncos can win that game they will have a free ride to an undefeated season. This team is loaded. They return 20 of 22 starters including heisman candidate Kellen More and All-WAC receivers Austin Pettis and Titus Young. Not only that, but they return the whole offensive line who gave up the fewest sacks in the nation last year. Their defense is even better than their offense and will be very hard to run and score against.

BYU

Since i have so many people that are BYU fans I felt I must share my opinion on the Cougars. To be honest, I'm starting to like the Cougars less and less during the coming years. First off I can't stand some of the fans, and now I can't stand the way they are handling their athletic department. I truly believe that BYU is upset that they got left behind while Utah went to the Pac-10. Earlier this month there were rumors that BYU wanted to go independent. Independent is where they are not tied to a conference and they get to make their own schedule every year like Notre Dame, Army, and Navy. Many of the Cougar faithful want them to go independent. They think they can play without a conference, get into a BCS bowl, and not have to share their money with anyone. Of course they could do it. They have their own television network that could reach the whole country. They have a giant fan base. If they were just going after the money this would be a great idea. If they are going for Football Prestige though this would be a foolish idea, and here is why?:
1. The BCS has a system where Notre Dame must be ranked in the top 8 for them to get an automatic BCS birth. Army and Navy however, are only guaranteed a BCS game if they are in the top 2. There is no guarantee that BYU will get the same treatment that Notre Dame does.
2. A Mountain West schedule will bring more strength than a custom one: If BYU were to go independent they would have to schedule close to 12 games. One would be Utah of course, they have received agreements to play Texas and Boise State as well. They also had agreed to play six WAC teams as well (since all of the other sports would become part of the WAC) They would probably play Army, Navy, and Notre Dame, and Utah State as well. That is a weaker schedule than the one they already have. Six MWC games is a lot stronger than six WAC teams and will be more credible. BYU can't even go undefeated in their own conference. What makes them think they will be able to go undefeated with a custom schedule that includes Texas and maybe some other top 25 teams down the road too. The Mountain West will be disappointed that they left them and no Mountain West teams will want to play them down the road.

The Mountain West has invited Fresno State and Nevada to play in their conference. Both of them have accepted. The talks of going independent have died down, probably because BYU doesn't want to play their other sports in a conference with only six teams. In time we will find out.

Here is my top 25 for this season. It is a little biased, but I truly believe the top 25 are in this order:

1. Boise State
2. Ohio State
3. Alabama
4. Texas
5. TCU
6. Nebraska
7. Oklahoma
8. Iowa
9. Florida
10. Virginia Tech
11. Wisconsin
12. Miami
13. Pittsburgh
14. Oregon
15. Florida State
16. Auburn
17. USC
18. North Carolina
19. Georgia Tech
20. Arkansas
21. LSU
22. Utah
23. Oregon State
24. Penn State
25. Houston

Here are my projected conference winners.

Florida Sate - ACC Atlantic
Virginia Tech - ACC Coastal
Nebraska - Big 12 North
Texas - Big 12 South
Pittsburgh - Big East
Wisconsin - Big Ten
Southern Miss - Conf. USA East
Houston - Conf. USA West
Temple - MAC East
Central Michigan - MAC West
Utah - MWC
Oregon - Pac-10
Florida - SEC East
Alabama - SEC West
Middle Tennessee- Sun Belt
Boise State - WAC

And the last thing for my review: You all know how I would love for a 16-team playoff. This is what it would look like going off the Preseason Rankings

#1 Alabama (SEC) vs. #16 Ohio (MAC)
#2 Ohio State (Big Ten) vs. #15 East Carolina (C-USA)
#3 Boise State (WAC) vs. #14 Middle Tennessee (Sun Belt)
#4 Texas (Big 12) vs. #13 Pittsburgh (Big East)
#5 Florida (At Large) vs. #12 Wisconsin (At Large)
#6 TCU (MWC) vs. #11 Oregon (Pac-10)
#7 Oklahoma (At Large) vs. #10 Virginia Tech (ACC)
#8 Nebraska (At Large) vs. #9 Iowa (At Large)

My thoughts on The King

2010-07-10T14:12:00.001-07:00

Many people are arguing whether or not Lebron James made the right decision to leave Cleveland to become the third member of the new “Big 3” in Miami. The answer to this question depends largely upon who you ask. I can assure you that the fans in Cleveland are feeling betrayed, or think that Lebron is being a coward. Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers owner, reacted very immaturely saying that the Cavaliers will win a championship before Lebron James does. “You can take that to the bank.” He also mentions that the Lebron James quit in the second round of the playoffs against the Celtics. I can hardly put any credit to his comments, because wasn’t he in the running to sign Lebron James again? I wouldn’t want a guy who quits in the playoffs on my team again. I think the owner is just a little butt-hurt about not getting his star player back. Meanwhile, the fans in Miami are now screaming chants of “Beat LA, Beat LA.” With this Miami team stacked, they could have a chance to finally take down the Lakers this coming year.
Many people are forming their own opinions about the whole situation. My opinion might be a little different than most, but here it goes. I think Lebron James made the best decision for his career. I know most of you reading this blog don’t play video games where you get to become a coach of a professional team, or even make yourself be a professional career. When I play football or basketball games where I’m a player/coach in a dynasty, I get bored of staying with the same team. Most the time I’m able to win a championship 75% of the time, and that gets boring, so I go to some crappy team and build them up. Now I know that is the complete opposite of what Lebron James is doing, but the guy spent seven years trying to get a ring, and was never given enough good teammates to take him to the top. There are many reasons why professionals play in the NBA. Many play for the money. Some play for the championships, and some just play because they love the game of basketball. To me, there is no problem with either reason. It’s apparent that Lebron James wants a championship and feels that he has a better chance of doing it in Miami than he does in Cleveland. Don’t get me wrong, I have great admiration for players that stay loyal to their team. John Stockton played his whole career in Utah and never won a championship. Dan Marino also stayed with his Dolphins and never won a championship. All in all I understand where he’s coming from.
The only thing I did not like was how Lebron James turned it into a reality show. I think he could have handled things a lot better instead of burning the bridges he had with Cleveland. I think if he would have told Cleveland that he needed some superstars of his own, or he was leaving, Cleveland would have tried harder to get rid of some of the cap room to sign some players. When Lebron told him that he was dedicated to winning championships, it was hard for me not to think he was going somewhere else. Cleveland, to me, didn’t seem to try that hard to sign a Robin to Lebron’s Batman. What did you want Lebron to do? He’s a winner, and he will go where he has the best chance of winning. Part of me thinks Lebron wanted out, because Cleveland wasn’t getting him anybody, but I still think he should have helped them in bringing in other big superstars.
To close out of this blog I would like to criticize my Jazz for their offseason inactivity. They just let Boozer and Kyle Korver walk out of Utah and into Illinois without even putting up a fight. I’m not overly concerned about Kyle Korver, because he only averaged seven points a game, and was a hit and miss with how good he was. If the Jazz expect to win with the current team that they have they will be worse than they were last year, not better. In my honest opinion, I think that they need a center that is big and can play defense. I was kind of hoping that Amare Stoudemaire would have come to the Jazz, but now he’s with New York. We’ll see how the rest of the offseason pays out, but I sure hope that we get someone down low that can play defense, otherwise we will not be able to defend Pao Gasol or Andrew Bynum this season.

Wedding and a Concert

2010-05-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

It had been three months since I got to go to Idaho to visit the wonderful family whom I grew up with. I was fortunate to have all of these events happen on the same weekend.

I didn't arrive in Idaho until 11:30 on Friday night. Friday was a very long day. Waking up for my second day at school at 7:00 and then going to work from 12:00 - 8:30 made a very long day. Fortunately my work day went by pretty fast. I was going to be able to leave early because I had accrued about 45 minutes of overtime over the week. When my shift was scheduled to end at 7:45 one of the supervisors asked if I would like to take some of the agents off the phone and play volleyball with them. Thinking this as an opportunity to meet some people, especially of the female gender, I accepted. I grabbed four females and three males to at least make the competition fair. After volleyball it was off to Idaho in Lester's natural gas truck, because I was picking up a chair from my dad at the end of the weekend. Although it was cheaper it was a hassle, because I had no cruise control, and in order for me to listen to my music I had to use my laptop.
Saturday was my cousin, Caitlyn's, wedding day. It's ironic, because Caitlyn and I had taken a trip to Utah only six months ago, and on the way to Utah all she would tell me is how she doesn't know if she'll ever get married. She told me she will never find a guy that she feels she will be able to put up with for eternity, and vice versa. Well evidently she was able to find one. The wedding was great, and as I was sitting there inside the temple I just had a strong witness bear testimony to me that this is the place to get married. This should be our ultimate goal for our future family. I don't know about you, but to me this life is way too short, and I can't stand the thought of me being without my future wife after death. I also decided that on my wedding date I'm going to wear a white suit jacket. Both Caitlyn's and Britanni's husbands wore a white suit jacket and it looks very sharp :)

As all of you know Sunday was Mother's Day. My mother and step-father had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting. Well my mom did. They only gave them enough time for my mom to give her talk and Bryan to share his testimony. Lucky for Bryan, he gets to give his talk next week. I just want to share with you how much I love my mom. It was exactly a year ago when i was up there giving my missionary farewell. No one expected me to be in this position a year from now, but my mom has always been supportive of me, and has just thought of me and what makes me happy. She has helped me so much this year and I greatly appreciate it. She's the most strong-willed and strong in the testimony person I know. Her talk was on charity, and to me she is a great example of charity.

Now that I got you all teary-eyed it is time to let you know how I got my soul rocked last night. I had never been to a concert before, and after going to this one, I can't wait to go to the next one. Zach and I had been planning this concert for almost two and a half months and we were finally able to go. When we got there we bought the official Breaking Benjamin tour shirts for $35. Pretty spendy but well worth it. As members of the church Zach and I were exposed to lots of things of this world that you wouldn't find anywhere else. The biggest example was all the beer. Everybody around us was drinking beer. It smelled nasty and people were doing some weird stuff. That was about the only negative of the show.

The first group up was a band called Sick Puppies. Sick Puppies is a three member band from Sydney Australia who is an "in your face" screamy band. I liked it. They sang some awesome songs and it was cool to see a female bassist. She was getting into it and she was pretty good. Many of you haven't heard any of their songs. They sang these songs, "You're Going Down", All the Same", "Odd One", and "Street Fighter" WARNING: These songs have explicit lyrics. Beware
Second was Shinedown. Shinedown is a rock band that sings some good hardcore songs as well as some great ballads that many girls would like. I would recommend listening to some of their songs. They opened up with "The Sound of Madness" and sang many other popular songs like "If you only knew" "Second Chance" "Devour" "I Dare You" and "The Crow & The Butterfly" The lead singer was the perfect impression of Jack Black in School of Rock if any of you have seen it. He had the best rocker voice of them all in my opinion.

The next group was Breaking Benjamin; Zach and mine's favorite of the four. Breaking Benjamin is a rock group that has a unique style. Besides the main group, they are probably the most known. They opened with "I will not Bow" off their new album. They also sang songs widely known like "The Diary of Jane", "Breath", "Until the End." They sang their new hit single which is one of my favorites, "Give me a Sign" and also their hit song off the Halo 2 video game, "Blow me Away"

Then it was time for the grand finale! NICKELBACK! They opened with a bang, and never quit. There was flames and a lot of stuff that you would see at a rock concert. It was amazing. Of course they played their songs and did very well at them, but they also took the time to mess around and do some other stuff to. One of my favorite memories was when they were sitting on stools. They had just got done playing Far Away and convinced the audience that girls think its great to make-out in the middle of a rock ballad. They started doing random things and then they said. We're going to sing a song of you. Chad Kroeger said, "I guarantee 100% of the women here no every word to this song, and about 3/4 of the dudes do," and then he started to sing "Don't stop Believing," by Journey. He would stop periodically to let the crowd sing along. He only sang one verse and stopped. Afterward he said, "You guys sing louder to freaking Journey than you do to our crap. That's messed up!" They were really funny.

I came to love each band a little more that night. Concerts are just amazing. If you haven't been to one I would definitely recommend it, but I must warn you. They are musicians and they get to say or sing whatever they want. All of them were crude at some points during their shows, except for Shinedown, but it was still an amazing experience, and can't wait to go to another one.

Testimonies

2010-04-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

I've decided I'm going to try and write weekly blogs with the thing that I had on my mind that week.

Yesterday Shayne and I went to Katie and Skyler's new ward. Skyler got called to serve as a member of the bishopric in one of the UVU student wards. One of my biggest pet peeves of the church is that most members don't know how to bear testimonies anymore. After sacrament meeting I felt that all I heard was a bunch of stories of trials that either tried to one up the previous story, or just try and get you to feel sorry for them. I also heard some "testimonies" that made me feel like they just wanted me to see how well they were living their life. I was getting so annoyed that I was half tempted to just go up and bear my testimony on what testimonies are.

When you bear your testimony you are standing as a witness and telling everyone in the congregation what you know and what you believe about this gospel. It is not a time to tell everyone stories. It is not a time to thank everyone for what they have done for them. Save those for your blogs, relief society, or girls/scout camp. I don't care how you're feeling stressed because you had to drive here, and you don't know if you have enough gas to get back home. I never want to hear the phrase "before I bear my testimony I just want to share an experience with you" This is not the time.

In closing I just want to say that I think the best way to bear your testimony is to bear like you do after giving a talk. After everyone gives a talk they always bear their testimonies on the things they talk and that they are true. That is how we should all bear testimonies. I don't mean to be a stickler, and I'm not trying to be black and white here. You can have funny testimonies, and you can also have powerful testimonies, but please just make it a testimony, and not a storymony/thankamony.

Let Them Play

2010-04-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

With the college basketball season narrowed down to four minutes, and my bracket looking almost worse than my two-year old niece's I decided to write about something different than who the best team is or anything like that.

I know some of my comments might sound a little sexist, but really you can't say anything unless you know sports or have played them yourself. Let's start with Women's Basketball, next to soccer, the most boring sport to watch. I'm sorry ladies but there is no talent in women's basketball. The university of Conncectiut is currently on a 75+ game winning streak, and hasn't lost a game in over two years. Frankly, I'm not that impressed. I give all credit to Connecticut, but let's be real here. I truly believe there's roughly 10 ladies in women's basketball with true athletic skills, and I think five of them are on the Huskies' team. That leaves all the other teams in the country to try and play with what they got. The reason why you haven't seen a men's basketball team do that since the days of John Wooden and UCLA, is because there is so much athletic talent in the men's league that there are numerous teams, loaded with talent. To me, UConn just out talents every one of their opponents, but men's basketball there are many teams on the same level and that's why it requires good coaching, and many other facets to influence a game.

My next comment is about the post player from Baylor. Her name is Brittany Griner. She is 6'8" and has just set the record for most blocks in an NCAA tournament. Again, hello? She's 6'8" and every other girl out there is lucky if they reach 6'3". I sure hope she can be able to block every single girl that comes in for a layup. No 5'8" women have the hops to jump over her and dunk it so all she does is just stand there and put her arms up. To be honest with you I don't even think she should be playing. During the middle of this season Brittany got in an altercation with a player from Texas Tech. Instead of pushing back or just walking away she came back and punched the player like a gang banger. What punishment did she receive you ask? TWO GAMES. Call me crazy, but I think any altercation like that deserves a suspension for the whole year. Heck Lagarrette Blount from Oregon was suspended for 10 FOOTBALL games for punching Boise State's Bryon Hout. I capitalize Football because there is only 13/14 games in a football season and 30+ in a basketball. Even that out and that's 25 or so games she should have been suspended. Click this link to watch the punch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtaPtQnu370

Now that i got that off my back the real reason I'm making this post is that after watching 40+ games this NCAA tournament there is still one that I tend to love the most and that is Michigan State vs. Maryland in the second round. In the last 30 seconds there were over three lead changes and, get this, NO TIMEOUTS taken. I loved watching it go back and forth without haveing to wait ten minutes for the next 10 seconds to play out. It was amazing. Click this link to watch the highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_qjKJelCkE

For those of you that don't know the timeout rules in NCAA here they are:
If a game is televised, which all of the tournament games are, there is one media timeout every four minutes.
Each team receives four 30 second timeouts and 1 60 second timeout a game. Each team can carry over their 60 second timeout and three 30 second timeouts into the second half.
Each team get's one timeout in overtime.
Now most coach's keep almost all of their timeouts for the second half. Add that up and that's eight timeouts that can be taken in one half. PLUS the four media timeouts. That's 12 timeouts... in 20 minutes! That's insane. Some coaches also save two to three timeouts for the last three minutes of the game if its close. It's ridiculous. We all love the overtimes cause there's only one timeout for each team in five minutes of play. You get to watch more of the game and less of the Ivan Brothers, or men lifting up their shirts saying, "Bags Fly Free"

Here's what I think the timeout rule should be:
Each team get's three timeouts a half. (two 30-seconds and one 60-second)
No timeouts carry-over
Media timeouts are adjusted to every five minutes. (One at the 15:00 mark, 10:00, and 5:00)
That way they can still save their timeouts, but if a team goes on a big run at the start of the second quarter, it doesn't allow you to just weather the storm for two more minutes and then have the media bail you out.

Most of this might have blown right past your head but for those who understand what I'm talking about I think that we should ought to just let the boys play!

Super Bowl & Mass Effect 2

2010-02-07T19:08:00.000-08:00

Good evening everyone. I know it has been a very long time since I've posted my last blog. I really hadn't had much to talk about but now that the football season is over I have something to talk about.

BOISE STATE-

All I have to say is 14-0 baby! All year long they were fighting the football experts on how great they were. It all started with their first game against Oregon, and even now they are being criticized on how good they actually are. Even after they beat a team that many experts thought deserved to be in the national title game. Instead of being praised for beating TCU they are downplaying how good TCU actually was. That was the problem I had with them playing each other in the Fiesta Bowl! It will never be settled until we have a playoff. I made a very good playoff system that I think would work. I have it saved as a powerpoint so I can't post it here, but simply put: We would have a 16 team playoff where each conference (11) gets an automatic qualifier and then you have 5 at larges. Then you take their BCS rankings and seed them 1-16. This is how the first one would look. Note: these rankings were before the BCS bowls were played.
#1 Alabama (SEC) vs. #16 Troy (Sun Belt)
#2 Texas (Big 12) vs. #15 East Carolina (C-USA)
#3 Cincinnati (Big East) vs. #14 Central Michigan (MAC)
#4 TCU (MWC) vs. #13 Penn State (At Large)
#5 Florida (At Large) vs. #12 LSU (At Large)
#6 Boise State (WAC) vs. #11 Virginia Tech (At Large)
#7 Oregon (Pac-10) vs. #10 Iowa (At Large)
#8 Georgia Tech (ACC) vs. #9 Ohio State (Big Ten)
That way everyone has their chance of getting a national championship.
Things might work next year for the Broncos. Only losing one starter they should start in the top 5 next year. With a decent non-conference schedule, and a soft schedule if they go undefeated they have a chance to play for a national championship. Very unlikey but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The Super Bowl

I'm going to say it right now that I wasn't really looking forward to the Super Bowl. I was actually looking forward to it being over. I've heard so much about the wonderful, trial-overcoming, Saints
and the ankle of Dwight Freeney that I wanted to shoot myself. However, I was a little disappointed in the Colts. I was rooting for them, because I really like Peyton Manning and in my opinion is still the better quarterback. I also liked to rub it in all the BYU fans face when they criticized Austin Collie for leaving a year early. I think I would take a super bowl appearance over a 4th Las Vegas bowl appearance.
Before you all heckle me in saying Peyton Manning gave the game away I just want to say that he wouldn't of had to throw so much if the defense would have showed up in the second half. Without Dwight Freeney at 100% the Colts got NO pressure on Drew Brees. Brees had enough time that he could bend on one knee and tie his shoe and still have time to throw the ball. Oh well. I'm glad its over. I'm looking for my 49ers to make a playoff next year.

MASS EFFECT 2 - GAME REVIEW

Before I left on my mission I made a post of the many video games I played and the first Mass Effect was one of them. Mass Effect 2 was probably one of the most anticipated games I have ever waited for, along with Guitar Hero World Tour.
What's great about this game is that the decisions you made from the first game directly affected what happened in the game. Thence it is a different experience for everyone. The bad thing is that I beat the first one so many times that I forgot which character made what decisions so when I started the second one with one of my random characters I was mad that I chose him. Oh well.
With Soverign destroyed and the previous Council members wiped out, the humans started the Citadel again under their control. Still convinced that the geth was behind the attack and not the Reapers, Shepard was sent to eliminate all remaining threat from the Geth. Shepard soon finds out that the Reapers have another species, The Collectors, helping them create something to wipe out all galactic civilization as we know. Shepard must stop the Collectors and head into a mission where survival is not probable. Doesn't this game sound awesome.

Visit this link to watch the full cinematic trailor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLhptv1yYMU

Here are some of the likes and dislikes of this game
LIKES:
Different selection of weapons from machine gun pistols to grenade launchers
Biotic Powers can bend around walls to pull enemies out of cover.
Wide variety selection of characters each with a personal mission to help gain their loyalty.
Guns now have thermal clips instead of just always overheating
Paragon and Renegade moves can help you make bold moves in between dialogues.
An amazing storyline that only makes not able to wait for Mass Effect 3.

DISLIKES:
Many of the characters had the same powers and abilites making them not stand out as much.
Exploring worlds for minerals was a drag and hated doing it.
The very end was kind of easy and not as challenging.
The achievements for Mass Effect were very easy and I was able to get all 1015 in just a week.
One of the characters liked to drop the F Bomb a lot for not very good reasons causing me to avoid using that character.
Towards the end of the game it started to get a little corrupted causing my game to lag, but not enough to matter much

OVERALL ANALYSIS:
I give Mass effect a 4.5/5 and can not wait for the closing chapter in the Mass Effect Trilogy. I hope it will be as amazing as this game was.

Sam's Sports Reactions

2009-11-15T23:58:00.000-08:00

I might have to start making this blog my sports blog because that's all I seem to talk about it anymore. Let's face it, sports are my life, and I can't wait to get paid to do this kind of stuff.
My favorite sport to watch and follow is college football. I don't like it because it supposedly has more emotion than professional football. I love it most because there are new teams every year and one team could be great one year and then suck the next year. Here is my top 10 and some of my observations compared to the BCS's top 10
BCS top 10:
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. TCU
5. Cincinnati
6. Boise State
7. Georgia Tech
8. LSU
9. Pittsburgh
10. Ohio State

My top 10 and observations
1. Texas: I put them #1 because to me they have never been in danger of an upset, and also performed great against quality opponents

2. Florida
3. Alabama
4. TCU: Okay Horned Forgs I put you ahead of my Boise State, but now there are so many TCU fans that think they are something special. Thinking they are the best team in the nation, and I'm not saying they can't beat a Florida, Alabama or Texas, but they need to get off their high horse. I truly believe and I said this even before last nights game that Utah is overrated. Utah had not beaten a quality opponent and already had some close calls. BYU is also overrated so TCU really only had one great win against Clemson in my opinion. Let's not forget they needed overtime to defeat Air Force. Every team has their weaknesses.

5. Boise State: I have them ranked ahead of Cincinnati, because they have been ahead of them most of the season but somehow was passed after Cincinnati barely avoided an upset to UConn. I'm not going to praise BSU cause they have their weaknesses like any other team, and I thought I would let you know what I think are some of their weaknesses.
1. Their inability to put opponents away in road games has worried me a little bit. They allowed Fresno State and Tulsa to come back into games that should have been not as close.
2. One way they let teams back into games is that "they allow a big play on defense" there have been many times that Boise State has allowed a big play while they were on defense. 3 60+ TD's against Fresno and 2 long passing plays that led to two touchdowns for Tulsa made games close.
3. Kyle Brotzman. I don't care how accurate you are... hit the freaking field goal from the left hash. This guy has a curse and I have not seen him make a field goal from the left hash yet, and sooner or later its going to cost Boise State a game like it did to TCU last year.

6. Cincinnati

7. Pittsburgh: I don't know why people don't have this team ranked higher. They've only lost one game and that was to NC State at the start of the season. Since then they have been dominate and will give Cincinnati a run for the Big East Title.

8. Georgia Tech: Clinched the ACC Coastal this week

9. LSU: Clearly the best two loss team in the nation. There only losses are to the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the nation

10. Ohio State

My dream college football system would be a 16 team playoff system with the conference winner getting an automatic bid and then taking 5 at-large bids. Re-rank each team and then have them play. I would explain when and where they would play if someone asked me, but if the college season ended today and we went by my system this is who I would have play in the opening round.

#1 Florida (SEC) vs. #16 Troy (Sun Belt)

#2 Alabama (At Large) vs. #15 Central Michigan (MAC)

#3 Texas (Big 12) vs. #14 Houston (CUSA)

#4 TCU (MWC) vs #13 Iowa (At Large)

#5 Cincinnati (Big East) vs. #12 Oklahoma State (At Large)

#6 Boise State (WAC) vs #11 Oregon (Pac-10)

#7 Georgia Tech (ACC) vs #10 Ohio State (Big Ten)

#8 LSU (At Large) vs #9 Pitt (At Large)

My Sports Weekend

2009-10-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that I love football, and football is what I spend the majority of my time watching over the weekends. After watching and reading articles about football from the three levels I have learned and like.

HIGH SCHOOL

I can't go into too much depth about high school football, because I only went to one game, but from the results of games I am excited to say that the Great Basin West conference has been an exciting year of football. The teams are not that good, heck, the #1 Twin Falls record is still only 4-4, but when I say it is exciting I mean that it is not written on paper.
First off Burley did what it had to do and they won the two most able to win games and luckily they got themselves into the playoffs. Jerome was second and beat every team except Twin Falls like you would expect. This is where it gets interesting. First Canyon Ridge beats Minico who just this last Friday beats the champion, Twin Falls, but then loses to Wood River. What does that say? Canyon Ridge, at the bottom of the conference beat a team that beat the champion, and if Twin Falls would have beaten Minico, and CRHS beat WRHS we would have had to have a three way playoff between Minico, Burley, and Canyon Ridge to see who gets the last two spots. Minico > Burley > CRHS > Minico. I love it! However, don't expect many teams to be represented in the state tournament. TFHS will beat Burley and will get one spot, but I'm thinking Jerome and Minico will not win their games this week.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

I learned many things.

1. The BCS is rigged: I don't agree with Iowa, who has had so many close calls and needed a last second touchdown to beat a 4-4 Michigan State team can jump over an undefeated Boise State and Cincinnati team that both beat their teams by 45 and 32 points respectively. How can LSU who's only loss is to the #1 ranked team in the nation be seeded lower than a USC team who's loss is to a 3-5 Washington team? If I got to vote in the top 10 it would be
#1 Texas
#2 Florida
#3 Alabama
#4 Boise State
#5 TCU
#6 Cincinnati
#7 Iowa
#8 LSU
#9 Oregon
#10 USC
Which brings me to my next point

2. Every team is vulnerable. After watching the Florida and Alabama games and seeing them struggle I can honestly think that Boise State or TCU could beat any team in the nation. I'm not saying they're the best in the nation. What I'm saying is that they deserve a shot at a national championship just as much as the next person.

3. BYU IS TERRIBLE. I used to be an avid BYU fan, but seeing them the past couple of years I have lost interest in them. They are one of the most overrated teams. For the past two years BYU has ridden on the coattails of one major vicotry (a 59-0 win over UCLA who finished the year with two wins in 2008 and a one point win over an Oklahoma team that isn't even in the top 25 anymore) After they won their second MWC title they thought they needed to focus more on national rankings than conference rankings, causing them to lose focus on TCU and Utah, getting blown out in the last three games. It sickens me to say that BYU is not good, but its true. They let SDSU score 28 or so points on them the week before, and besides that win at Oklahoma they really haven't accomplished much. So Cosmo, before you go ripping a paper that says TCU in front of national television, maybe you should go rip the depth chart of your defense, because it is terrible.

PROFESSIONAL

I don't follow pros nearly as much, but I just wanted to say that even though my 49ers lost today I wanna say that I'm proud of them. They showed me that they can come back from a deficit, and that they can score in bunches. After being down 21-0 to Houston they could have just thrown in the towel, but instead they brought the game back to 24-21 and actually had a chance to drive down the field and win the game, but just came up a little short. Alex Smith looked great today throwing three TD passes and only one INT which was on the second last play of the game.
I don't expect the niners to win the division, but I would love to see them go 9-7 and maybe even make the playoffs.

Well I know I probably bored all you non football fans to death, but I had to get my feelings out to someone. Hope you enjoy!

Boise State vs. BYU

2009-09-20T22:25:00.001-07:00

You all know me and how I love to gab and gab about sports, well here I am again to plainly state my view on the two teams that have caused the most attention on my facebook. Being a fan of both teams I will make this sound as unbiased/most fair as I can make it.

Which team is better? Or more importantly which team will bust the BCS? After week three of the college football season its plain to see who's definitely got a better chance. That would be Boise State who is currently 3-0, ranked #8 in the nation, and to me only has two tough games that are stopping them from an undefeated season. That would be @ Tulsa, and at home against Nevada. You can't count out Hawaii too, because it has always been hard for Boise State to garner a win in Honolulu, and Boise State has lost the last two trips to Honolulu. Both in 2007 against conference champion and BCS buster Hawaii, and then later that year to East Carolina in their bowl game. Boise State has already topped their two biggest challenges on their schedule. A 19-8 win over previously ranked Oregon and a 51-34 win over Fresno.

Boise State had a close call on Saturday, even though the score doesn't tell. Boise State's run defense struggled as Fresno had three touchdowns on runs of 60+ yards. I hope to me it was an off night, but if it wasn't then Boise could have some challenges against Nevada who has a great scrambling quarterback calling the shots. Boise State didn't show much offense except for some big plays that garnered them the most points. They failed to efficiently drive down the field. They definitely have some more room to improve.

My prediction BSU finishes undefeated and is ranked #4 at the end of the regular season behind Florida, Texas, and Penn State.

Brigham Young University started this year under the radar at #20, but a thriller over #3 Oklahoma immediately put them on the spotlight. They jumped the most spots after a preseason poll ranking to #9 in the nation, ahead of Boise State and in the driver's seat to bust the BCS. After a 54-3 drubbing of Tulane it seemed like BYU had everything figured out. The defense was making plays, and the offense was back to how it was at the beginning of the 2008-09 year.

Then came Florida State. Florida State was previously ranked before losing to Miami, and then needing some last minute heroics to beat a terrible Jacksonville State team. With the game being in Provo, and the look of the Cougars it looked like BYU would be able to comfortably handle Florida State. Boy were they in for a surprise. Christian Ponder and the Seminoles had a sound first half. Scoring touchdowns on every drive. But BYU wasn't a slouch either. If it wasn't for an opening drive fumble in the redzone and a fumble on the last kickoff return, we could have went into halftime with the score 27-21, but instead 30-14. BYU was in catchup mode the rest of the game, and a pick 6 from Max Hall on the opening drive of the 3rd quarter didn't help much. Max Hall played like he did against TCU/Utah/Arizona last year. The defense was nowhere to be found. The Cougars could not make a stop on third down to save their life and the Florida State Seminoles rolled to a 54-28 victory.

BYU will be fine. Florida State is a solid team, and I believe they will have a successful season. BYU will also be successful if they tune up their defense, because let's face it, BYU cannot win when they go down by more than one score. They panic. They get in too big of a hurry and make up costly mistakes that turn a leak into a flood. Almost how I play my NCAA Football games on my XBOX. I worry for this team, and I don't think they'll be able to make a BCS berth this year. They'll be lucky to win the conference with the sound TCU team looking good.

My prediciont: BYU 10-2. They will lose to TCU and be 2nd in the MWC.

What do these two teams have in common? Well they both proved that they have a long ways to go on both offense and defense. Boise State has an easier schedule and right now that seems to be the better strategy, because even if BYU wins the rest of their games I don't think they'll be able to catch back up. And it will definitely look bad for BYU if they lose to Utah, because we all know who Utah lost to this week... Oregon. So even though we don't know which team is better right now, we do know which team has a better shot at the better games, and that is the BCS.

Hola! Ultimo Semana en el MTC

2009-07-14T12:11:00.001-07:00

Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is having just a marvelous day. And I hope everyone had a great fourth of July. Oh how the time is flying and now I only have 5 more days here in the MTC. I'm so excited. Today while I was getting my shot I ran into a guy from Santiago and he just told me how I'm going to love the people.

So on Thursday I got my flight plans for where I'm going. i'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to leave in the morning. My companions and I leave the SLC airport around 3:30, Land in Dallas around 6:30 and then leave Dallas around 9:30PM and land in Santiago around 8:30AM It's going to be a long day but I'm anticipating it.

Most of my 4th of July was pretty much the same. Just normal teaching like always, but at the end we had a little production about America and how God made it possible for us to establish the church here in this land. It was so cheesy. The special effect were not that special and I spent almost half the movie laughing. That's okay. It had a lot of good information though. Afterwards they let us go outside and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the MTC. That was pretty fun.

So this week is called our teaching week where we only have two hours of class and the rest is spent teaching the gospel. Kinda getting us in the mood for how it's really going to be like in the field. I am humble though knowing that I'm going to know diddly squat once I get there...

This past week we've had fun scaring each other. Elder Wilson hid in Elder Ray's closet the other day and scared him. We took one of the poppers Dani gave me for the 4th and we popped it next to Elder Moore who freaked cause he didn't know what was going on. It's just been a fun week. I'm going to miss this district.

Some things I've learned this week as a missionary:

I dislike big people. Now I'm not singling out fat people... wait... I dislike clumsy people that's how I should say it. There are so many tall/fat/clumsy missionaries who just don't know how to walk and don't know how wide their shoulders are. I can't count the number of times I'll just be walking and a guy just runs into me. C'mon.

As far as doctrine goes... I have learned from one of the teachers that you don't have to teach all of the doctrine in order for an investigator to progress in the gospel. I used to get anxious when we didn't start talking about the gospel soon. He helped me realize to just be a pal to them. He said, "Do your investigators need to know what an apostasy is in order to get baptized" obviously no, and he said, "but they do need to be reading, praying, and going to church. So focus on that." Which is true

Well that's it for this week. Until Chile!

Oh yeah my Chile addresses:

For packages send them to the mission office:

Elder Samuel James Yoshida
Chile Rancagua Mission
German Riesco 230 Suite 730
Rancagua
Chile

For pouch (which is single sheeted letters, folded into three-panels, and taped at the top NO ENVELOPES)

Elder Samuel James Yoshida
Chile Rancagua Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

That is how DearElders will work. Write the DearElder and then they'll put it in the pouch and send it to me, which will take forever and cost money. So just e-mail me after July 13th... it will be much easier.

I love you guys
Vive la Chile
Elder Yoshida

An amazing week!

2009-07-03T14:45:00.001-07:00

Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009

I got a bunch of things to tell you so look out, here we go.

Last week's P-Day was fun. After I e-mailed you folk I got to go to the Provo temple and clean. It was so fun. I never thought I would say this, but I actually enjoyed the service. I don't know why, because I got stuck cleaning the grease vents in the cafeteria. Oh man, good times. Brought me back to the good ole KFC days when I had to clean those stupid vents above the fryers as well. Zach you know what I'm talking about. But then I got to go clean the baptismal font. That was fun. I didn't know that vinegar is a main cleaning surprise. Let's just say I almost died from inhaling too much vinegar haha.

MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD? wow! What's up with that? I guess you can say that's the first major event that has happened while I've been gone. Interesting... I heard he was just barely becoming big in Europe. I almost feel for the guy. But what do I know. He's dead now.

So my mission president went to Japan on his mission and he comes storming in to the chapel before priesthood meeting and starts writing some symbols on the sign and looks straight at me. I'm say, "what is that?" and he says, "It's you. This is the Kanji for Yoshida" I was like whoa! that's intense. I ask, "What does it mean?" He gets a huge smile and says, "This symbol means the mouth of the samurai. And this symbol means a field. So you are going to the field to teach the mouth of the Samurai" How cool is that? It's like the perfect missionary last name and I didn't even know it. Maybe I'll have to draw it in my next letters so you can see what it looks like.

Friday's devotional was amazing. We were all anticipating to hear from the first presidency, but none of them showed up, but that's okay. Elders Perry, Oaks, Holland, Bednar, Cook, Christofferson, and Anderson were all there. It was so sweet. Elder Holland spoke to us and we all know how his talks are. Especially on missionary work.

On Sunday we had sacrament meeting with a big group. After sacrament meeting we were making our way back to a classroom to have our district meeting. We spotted a few missionaries congregating around something so we walk over there and sure enough President Monson and President Eyring were just standing out there in the front just chilling. I was literally only 10 ft away from them as they spoke about their Spanish stories. It was so awesome. I was sad we couldn't shake their hands, but just seeing them was amazing. It turns out that Every member of the first presidency and quorum of the 12 except Packer were in a sacrament meeting. A guy in our zone actually got to pass it to Monson. Lucky kid!

So this shows you how immature I am as a missionary. Elder Wilson and I have found these cool looking bugs and everytime we see them we flip them over on their back and make fun of them. Well we were getting ready to take a picture with our camera when all the sudden it started flying at us. Me and Elder Wilson freaked and were screaming, "OH MAN WE'RE TOAST!" haha Everyone around us was looking at us like we were queers but that's okay. You gotta have some fun here.

Yesterday's devotional was fun. Gerald N Lund talked to us. If you don't know who he is he's the dude who wrote the Works and the Glory books. He was so awesome. He taught me an awesome lesson that may help the other missionaries out there. He said, "when an appointment falls through, immediately find someone to teach, because that might be the Lord putting someone else in your path at that exact time." He then talked about many miracles that happened of conversions that took place when other appointments fell through.

That's it for this week. People... 12 days left. So if you ever thought, "maybe I'll send Elder Yoshida something :)" you might want to get on it. Haven't heard anything from any of my friends in a week. Grr. That's okay though. The work is great and I'm sure you're all busy. I'm not sure how Dear Elders work. I think they print them out in Salt Lake and then they have to send them to Chile so It will still probably take just as long now. Anywho's I love you all. Sorry it's so long. Take care.

Hola

2009-06-24T09:56:00.001-07:00

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009

I'm going to have to apologize before hand to everyone out there. Nothing exciting happened this week and I really don't have anything to write about. All the missionaries here are getting antsy for today and the rest of the weekend. As Braden discussed about getting a new president this week we get all of them! That's right, over 120 mission presidents are coming today to get the training they need. I don't know if Elder Hellewell knows him yet, but I've seen pictures of him. Although I can't remember the name. But anywho, because all these dudes are coming this weekend, we are going to have general authorities walking around left and right. Apostles, seventy, you name it. Instead of having our devotional on Tuesday we are having it on Friday, and we are expected to have one of the members of the first presidency speak. It is so awesome. I can't wait.

The language is coming great. Last week we taught the first lesson in Spanish for the first time. It was pretty hard. All we have left to learn is past subjunctive and then its just a matter of getting fluent at it.

The time is ticking down here in the MTC. We are now the oldest district in our zone. 19 more days til Chile.

Love you all
Elder Yoshida

Hey Everyone!

2009-06-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009

Another week gone by, and another week I'm getting closer to blowing this joint. Being a missionary is great, and this week flew. I don't have as many experiences to write, but I will try to entertain you.

I'll start with a Spanish lesson. NEVER DESCRIBE SOMEONE AS CALIENTE. Many high school teens will say "that girl es muy caliente" thinking they're saying she's very hot. No way. In Spanish, when you describe "someone" as being caliente. You're actually saying that they are very willing to... well the slang term is a 5 letter word that starts with an "h" hopefully you get my drift.

I'd like to give a shout out to my step sister Liz. Happy Birthday! and hope all is well.

Funny story: so last P-Day we were doing laundry, and I returned to my room. There's this awesome elder in my district, Elder Wilson, who I've become pretty close with. He dared me to jump a whole flight of stairs. I was like, "dude I got this" So I jumped, and cleared the stairs, however I did not give myself enough room to catch my self and bashed my head into the brick wall in front of me. I think I knocked myself out for about five seconds. It was funny, but very stupid as a missionary. I learned a valuable lesson there. :)

The TRC is a place in the MTC where you teach volunteers in real life situations. We go to the TRC once a week and boy does it get intense. The only thing I can compare it to is when I would get ready for a football game.

Sorry there's not more to write about. The week just flew by this time with not much going on. We're getting new zone leaders this week. It'll be interesting to see who it is. I love you all and thank you for your support.

Elder Yoshida

Almost Halfway!

2009-06-10T14:11:00.001-07:00

Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009

So I got to thinking today that in 3 days I will be halfway through my stay at the MTC. That's so crazy to think about. And then I'm 6,000 miles away. Kinda crazy if you ask me.

Not too much has happened this week. There are still some people getting sick, but for the majority of it it has died down. Until yesterday. Now I'm starting to get neck aches and congested sinuses. It sucks! I'm still good to go when I take some medicine, but not being 100% is a bummer.

Elder Ray is feeling better. This kid had everything but the flu that was going on. He had the flu at first but got better, then coughed for a week straight, got an ear infection, and then got pink eye. He is our sick mascot, but I think he's finally back to normal.

Funny story that happened to Elder Williams a couple weeks ago. As he was getting out of the shower one day some zone leader on the other side of the hall thought it would be funny to fill his garbage can with water and splash it all over him. Elder Williams got soaked. We found out who it was, and made him apologize. He had to beg our zone leaders not to report him, because they don't tolerate pranks here, and there would have been a good chance that he could have been sent home. Our zone leaders confided and the kid is lucky, for now. If it was me I would have told, but hey that's why I'm not zone leader right?

Speaking of going home something sad happened this past week. One of our zone leaders, Elder Cheesman was sent home today, because he was so sick. It was sad to see him leave, but there is a chance he can come back. I sure hope he feels better.

One thing I've learned from a mission, and I feel every young man should know. SCRIPTURE INSERTS ARE USELESS. You know those things you get in seminary where you glue the paper and then glue it into your scriptures. My advice is to not do it. All they do is flip pages when you don't want them to, and they just get in the way. I tore all of mine out, because they bothered me so much. Save yourself the trouble.

It's funny how things can be called different names. Since we can't play basketball "games" we basically resort to playing Lightning. But not very many people call it lightning. I've heard it been called "knock-out" "twister" and "speed" crazy huh? Oh and another thing. I think its only an Idaho thing but people call spinning in your car donuts. I call them cookies, but donuts do make more sense. I still prefer saying cookies though.

Thank you Uncle Kendall and Aunt Anne for the package. I didn't think you would actually send Dew. I love the package, and my companions love it too :)

For the grand finale we had an awesome experience yesterday. For our devotional we had David A. Bednar come and speak to us. It was so amazing, and I hope Braden, Kyler, and Shayne, read this. Elder Bednar said, "the most common question asked to me by missionaries is, 'How do I know when it's me or the Holy Ghost prompting me' My answer is, 'Don't worry about it. Press forward with faith, be a good boy, keep your covenants, and keep the commandments, and your steps will be guided" Wow that's awesome. So don't just sit around waiting for the Holy Ghost to bash you over the head with revelation. He related three stories of where he did things without even thinking about it, and not realizing it was the Holy Ghost til after he did it. I loved it so much and I wish I could share more, but I'm afraid I would be repeating myself, but remember, (this even can apply to you at home) Don't be searching for the spirit to guide you. "Be a good boy, be a good girl, keep your covenants, and keep the commandments, and your steps will be guided."

I love you all!
Elder Yoshida

I Am Legend

2009-06-03T10:31:00.001-07:00

Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009

Day 21

Today has been the first time in four days that I've been out of the residence halls for longer than 3 hours. Things are getting pretty crazy here. The swine flu/regular flu has hit the MTC hard. I don't know how much longer I have until I'm the last one left. Around 60 elders have already had to be put into quarantine (solitary confinement with other sick elders). I don't know what is going on in there but I can only expect the worst. and I'm safe to say that at least 40% of the elders have been hit with some sort of sickness. It's only a matter of time before the MTC turns into a place full of Missionary Mutants and a movie called I am Legend 2 will be coming to a theatre near you.

There's my story for the week. It's all true too. Things are getting pretty crazy, and I've been blessed to not be getting this sickness that's going around. Missionaries are not allowed to leave the MTC until at least June 13th. New missionaries coming in only get to have their parents drop them off on the side of the sidewalk, and that's there goodbyes. Kind of sad, but that's how bad it's getting here. I think they have a thing on LDS.org about it all. No one be worried though. This will all blow over. I just wanted to make a joke of it all. I'm perfectly fine (knock on wood) I say I've been stuck in the residence halls because my companion has been sick and we've had to stay behind with hi. It's pretty cool.

Congratulations Elder Hellewell on a successful mission. I actually have two missionaries in my zone that were supposed to leave yesterday to the Mesa spanish speaking mission, but can't leave because of the sickness.

The gym is finally fixed and I've been loving it. It's fun to play basketball with the other elders, but two days ago they cancelled playing basketball because it's a "contact sport" and they don't want people getting sick. Yeah crazy I know.

Funny experience. I go to the temples on Wednesday after I e-mail. Last week I went to the temple and after I had received my name I was waiting for my companion. There was an old guy waiting at the bottom of the stairs making sure we all had names. He told me to go on upstairs to the chapel. I told him, "Oh, I have to wait for my companion." and he said, "go on upstairs." and I said "my companion's just back there" and then the dude yelled "GO UPSTAIRS" I couldn't help but laugh. An old guy in the temple yelled at me :( It's okay. he's old so I didn't frown on it too much. It was still pretty funny.

One of my favorite things about this place is how everything here is so cheap. In the bookstore everything in here is like 40% off for missionaries. I get bags of candy for like 40 cents, but hey still send me more cause I love candy. I could seriously get the quad scriptures for $30. Pretty nifty if you ask me.

Sorry this letter isn't very long, and I hope everyone is doing well. I'm loving the work and can't wait to get out in the field. It's crazy to think I'm already a third of the way through my stay at the MTC.

Yo Amo Ustedes.
Elder Yoshida

First Week in Pictures

2009-05-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sam sent us these pictures from his first week in the MTC. Enjoy!

"This is the pic I took of Kate in the explorer."

"Mis companeros at the map."

"Our district minus two.
Top elders: Ray, Crabb, Beckstead, Williams, Moore, and Willie
Kneeling: me, Burton, and Mitchell"

"Elder Yoshida and Elder (Tyler) Owens"

"Williams B-day party.
Top: Mitchell, Burton, Willie
Middle: Beckstead, Crabb, Wendt, Wilson, Williams, Moore
Bottom: Ray"

"My companions at the MTC sign"

2 weeks down!

2009-05-28T09:42:00.001-07:00

Date: Wed, 27 May 2009

Hello to all of my friends and family as i get ready to start another wonderful week in the life of Elder Yoshida. Let me just say that this last week went by about as fast the first two days. Things are a lot better now that we're kind of on a set schedule. However, I'm kind of depressed I have only received one DearElder and one email from my friends. I think they need to step it up a little bit. It would be best if you would DearElder me or write me a letter, cause like I said last week I only get 30 mins on the computer so it would be better use that time to write everyone than read a bunch of emails. Not that I don't love them of course. Well I got lots to touch on plus a lot of personal emails so let's get started.
The District is great and I love my companions. However, there is one missionary that I'm not sure everyone sees eye to eye with. I'm not going to say his name, but sometimes I want to punch him. He just acts like he knows everything, tries to teach our classes, and then tries to lecture us when we're not following the rules a hundred percent. I don't mind getting a simple reminder... wait I'll just tell the story. So I was being a gangster one night and I was in his room. My pants were sagging a little bit (my sweats i should say) and this is what he said, "pull your pants up, and get out of my room" i wanted to punch him so i quickly left before anything happened. Now five minutes later I was still gangstering it up when another person in my district saw me and said. "Elder, you might want to pull your pants up just a little bit. Just to respect the garment a little more." and I just thought... you're right and I'm glad you approached me and said that nicely. Maybe I would listen to this companion if he would actually obey some of the rules himself. But I'm supposed to be positive so that's enough on that. I'm having to ask the Lord with patience, and maybe this is good practice for when I'm out in the field and get stuck with someone like that forever.
D&C 31: Elder Halford gave me this scripture right before I left. It talks on how my families will be blessed because of my service. I think I can feel it happening, and I hope I am blessing your lives by my service. Not to mention it says my future families will be blessed so girls: keep that in mind :)
Every Tuesday we have a general authority come and speak to us. First week it was Elder Neuenschwander and this week it was Elder Callister, both of the Seventy. Elder Callister's talk was amazing. It was on Christ and how we always need to testify of Christ. It was so awesome. I'm so looking forward to the coming weeks, because every year they have the new mission presidents come in and there are apostles and the prophet roaming around the mtc. I'm looking forward to that.
My branch president Baird's daughter came home from Taiwan and she shared an amazing scripture. I think it's 2 Timithoy 2:4-5? It talks about being soldiers of God and it just makes me enjoy the work.
To all of you out there. Caffeine is allowed here :) They just don't sell it. They have caffeine free mountain dew but that's kind of like hamburger helper without the hamburger. So for any of you contemplating on sending me a package. I will love you that much more :)
I was given advice by my brother in-law Brandt and cousin Spencer about being yourself, and I have taken that to heart. Almost a little too far. I have become the District's singer and I sing so much to them. They all love it, but maybe I'm not being a good example :) I'll sing Disturbed and Linkin Park and whatever pops into my head and everyone loves it. I couldn't think of not being myself. That would make this experience so boring.
The MTC is still on alert for Swine Flu. How annoying is that? We can't handshake or do anything. If I miss out on shaking an apostle's hand I will be very angry.
> I'd like to give a shout out to Elder Halford. Happy Birthday. The BIG 21. Now you can drink :) I guess that will have to wait til you get home haha.
So I didn't even realize Monday was memorial day until Sunday night when a speaker had to remind us. That's how busy/locked up we are. But I actually like it. I think the more things I worry about outside the MTC the more homesick I get, however I would like to hear updates on the playoffs. The last I heard Cleveland is having a little trouble with Orlando and they're losing 2-1? And the Lakers are beating Denver 2-1? I have no idea.
On P-Days we go to the temple and it's just amazing. I learn something new every day. I look forward to going every week.
Last Thursday I accidentally got me and our companions locked out of our room. That was an adventure. We all had to sit around in our towels for over an hour while we had to wait for another companionship to get us a key. I felt dumb after that.
One funny thing. So most of you know how I was/is obsessed with Pokemon. haha. My companions were too. We had about an hour long discussion on which games were better than the other one. It was awesome.
And on a last note. I'm glad I know how to sing, because I think the rest of my district is a little tone deaf. We try singing hymns in Spanish and man they don't go so well.
I'll email personal emails later today but my companions want me to go considering they had a timer.... SUCKERS! anyways I love you guys and you are all in my prayers. Keep it real.
Love,
Elder Yoshida

My first letter

2009-05-28T09:35:00.001-07:00

Date: Wed, 20 May 2009

Hola Mi familia! It is great to be getting letters from you all. Oh How I love being a missionary. When we first got there everyone from our zone that had already been there for a couple weeks were telling us, "Just make it until Sunday, and you'll be fine" Boy were they right. I won't lie when I say the first two days sucked. I mean they were great spiritual wise, but it's just getting into the flow of everything kind of made it hard to adapt at first. And now that we're starting the new week we are on a set schedule so its a little less stressful.
So Wednesday is my P-Day and that's when you'll be receiving my e-mails. Since I don't have anyones home address I can't really write anyone letter until they send me a letter first. For all my friends my address is:
Elder Samuel James Yoshida
MTC Mailbox #177
CHI-RAN 0713
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
Mom I hope you forward this to all my friends and Zach can help you with that. I appreciate the letters I got so far. I was a little worried you had forgotten about me, because I haven't received a letter until yesterday. Then I heard the story about Katelyn, and I must say that is a little funny. For all you friends who find it too hard to write me. DearElder.com works wonders. You send the mail and I'll get it in a letter form the same day. It's muy bueno.
When we got there they organized us into our district. There are 11 Elders in our district. I will send pictures soon! 8 of them are going to Honduras, and the trio (Me, Elder Williams and Elder Ray) are going to Chile. I love my companions. Elder Williams's birthday was yesterday, celebrating the big 21, so we had a big party for him. He is from Mapelton. Elder Ray is from Mesa. Elder Beckstead is in my group and we were talking. I guess he was a roommate of Braeden Clayson at Idaho State. He wasn't too fond of him I take it :) He's from Clifton, Idaho. I have seen many other Elders I know. Elder (Tyler) Owens is in my same schedule so we have gym at the same time. It's great stuff. I got a picture with him next to the big map and I'll send that as well. I've also run into Elder Moon, Elder (Tim) Johnson, and a couple other Elders who were in my singles ward. What a small world.
The food here is bueno. Some of it can get nasty, but for the most part it's all good. However it does give you some major gas. I've never has such bad gas in my life. I feel sorry for my companions. And for all you. I still can drink pop :) However, no caffeine. They do have caffeine free coke but its not the same. I would love it if someone sent me a package with Mt. Dew :)
The classes are great. My teacher is so awesome and he looks just like Jason Bourne. We always crack jokes on him killing us with pens. I'm progressing a lot in the language. On your mission you use the Usted form instead of the Tu form. For example a lot of people say Come Esta, and you say muy Bien, y tu. WRONG! I guess it's improper and you can say it to your friends. When you're talking to people you don't know you say "muy Bien, y usted." Zach can help explain that. Yeah Mrs. Early was a retard. I learned more in two days then I learned the whole year with her.
I hope all is well and everyone is doing well. Please write, because I love to hear from you all. The Lord has blessed me immensely with not feeling homesick. I do miss you, but a greater work is to be done. I love you all.
Yo se que la iglesia es verdadero. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvadaor y mi redentor. Yo se que Jose Smith es un profeta de Dios. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la plabra de Dios.
Elder Yoshida.
P.S. Congrats Helen and Kyler and Happy Birthday to Kylee!

Farewell...

2009-05-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hello to readers of Sammy's blog. This is his sister Danielle. While Sam's serving the Lord and unable to blog, I will be posting updates so friends and family can keep up with how the mission is going. I thought I would backtrack and post some pictures from the day of Sam's farewell and leading up to when he entered the MTC. Sam did a great job on his talk and I'm sure I can speak for Sam when I say he appreciated all of the friends and family that came to support him that day. After church, we went to Lorraine's Day Care for lunch and had a great time. That following Tuesday, Sam was set apart by the stake president as a missionary. As the stake president was giving him the blessing, Katelyn was being antsy so Linds stood up with her and walked over by the president's desk. Kate quickly spotted a bottle of hand sanitizer and, of course, she wanted some. To keep her quiet Linds grabbed the bottle and meant to squirt some in Kate's hand, but the bottle was clogged and instead it squirted straight up and hit Kate right between the eyes! Of course, Kate immediately preceeds to rub the alcohol-based gel into her eyes and starts screaming, so Lindsay has to weave around all of us to take her out of the room. It was hilarious; for the rest of the blessing I could not stop laughing; my family all thought I was sniffling from the sacredness of the occassion. Nope, I was laughing; it was really funny.

Anywho, after Sam was set apart we drove down to Utah and stayed with Parley and Marilynn for the night. The next afternoon, we took Elder Yoshida to the MTC. On the way we asked Sam if he wanted to stop and get anything to eat as his last meal. He said something fruity sounded good so we took him to Jamba Juice. It was his first Jamba ever (such a deprived soul), so we had to get a picture. I think he liked it :) We had to strap his luggage to the top of the explorer to make room in the car, so when we got to the MTC, Sam had to climb up the side to get them down. When he was standing by Kate's door she grabbed onto his belt and had this look on her face that said either "Don't go Uncle Sam" or "Take me with you!" It was cute so I got a picture of that as well. Then, we all went in, Sam got his nametags, and we met in this huge room with a gazillion other missionaries and their families for a little meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, they announced the opening hymn by saying "and now, we'll sing THAT hymn, and sister so-n-so will give an opening prayer." Then we all sang "Called to Serve" with gusto. It was intense. After a couple of speakers it was time to say goodbye. Tears were shed by some, but it was good; Sam looked excited and ready to go. So he went out the missionary doors and we went out the family doors. For any of you who haven't been to the MTC before, it is a neat experience. It's great to see so many young people so willing to give up their lives for the next 18 months to two years and serve the Lord. They are such great examples.

Elder Yoshida has been in the MTC for two weeks now and is doing a great job. He likes both of his companions and the other Elders in his district. The Lord is blessing him and helping him not to feel too homesick. Syd received some pictures in a letter from Sam a few days ago so hopefully we'll get those posted soon. My plan is to post the emails/pictures that Sam sends to the family each week on here. Feel free to leave comments about the posts if you feel you don't have time to write him a complete letter that week and at the end of the week I can print off all of the comments and mail them to Sam along with my letter. We'll see how this works out. Thanks again to all of Sam's family and friends for their support.

The Temple: Take 2

2009-04-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a step up from what yesterday was. I got so bored yesterday I was about ready to shoot myself.

Today was our youth temple trip to the Twin Falls temple. Mother and I decided to go early and do a session before the youth got there. It was a great session and I learned more than last time. I can get use to this!

After the session we went down to meet with the youth and do baptisms. Bro. Bunn, Bro. Jeff Harris, and I were the baptisers. Bunn did the 1st half of girls, Harris did the last half and first half of the boys, and I did the last half. What a cruel joke. It was great and an awesome experience to baptize my brother, Zach, but the next three boys were the biggest ones in our youth. For those of you who don't know Aaron Tolman he is about 6 foot 4 and 250 pounds. The first time I put him under he almost took me with him. I got it down after the second or third try so It wasn't too chaotic.

I love the temple and I'm grateful to have one close now. The things you learn inside are so amazing. I love being a member of this church, and I cannot wait to serve my mission.

Great Experiences!

2009-04-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

The past week has been such a crazy week for me, and now I'm finally getting the chance to blog about it.

Last Tues-Thur I got to spend time working with my cousin, Spencer and his wife Jessica. Spencer and I have gotten a lot closer since I've moved here. Even though we're about eight years apart, we have so much in common that we could almost be brothers. Even though working insallation was a drag, I was able to survive by sharing some good laughs with him.

Friday was the big day for me. I finally got to move back to Idaho for the last couple weeks before I head out on my mission. I had a great time this year hear in Utah. I had some great experiences. Below is a slide show of all my memories even though there aren't that many. I'm grateful for Parley and Marilynn who let me stay with them. I know that was probably a big burden on them at some points. I enjoyed hanging out with their family and watching their grandkids grow up.

Saturday was another awesome day for me. I got to go through the temple for the first time. It was such an awesome event, and the things I learned there are just greater testimony builders that our church is true. I went through the Twin Falls temple and my step-dad Bryan, and brother in-law Brandt were my escorts. (Head to Dani's blog for some pictures because I forgot my camera that day) Afterwards there was a lot of family there and we went to Chili's for dinner.

The last great experience I had was going to Pocatello yesterday on a road trip. I stopped by Danielle's house first and helped her with some errands. That was pretty fun stuff. Then I met Andrea at her apartment. We went over to Sportsman's, her work, and waited for Sam to get done working. They were both pretty depressed because it is so empty now. Today is their last day and then they're closing down. After Sam got off work we went to, you guessed it, Chili's for dinner. Man, I love that place. Afterwards we went over to a house who Sam's house-sitting for and watched, The Dark Knight. It was a really fun time, and all of us were dead after the movie. I had to make the trip back home around midnight so I was really tired.

So those are my experiences the past week. These next couple weeks are going to be intense. Lindsay's coming, Dani and Brandt's graduation, my farewell. Lot's of emotions are going to be zoomin soon.

My Taste in Music

2009-04-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

I have been running out of ideas, but I see not many people have been reading my previous blogs. That's okay. I decided to write on my taste in music and why I like it. I love all kinds of music, except country, but there are three bands that stand above all of them and they are:

LINKIN PARK

My taste in Linkin Park started in the summer of my 9th to 10th grade year. I was sick of not having a certain band to like, and a style of music to turn to. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was in Logan visiting my family (Lester's family) I was so bored there and we decided to go to Best Buy. I saw Linkin Park's album, Meteora, and I decided to buy it. I knew a few songs off the CD already so I thought it was a pretty good investment. I have fell in love with the band and listen to them constantly. I own all of their CD's and in fact I bought their newest album so early that I didn't get the collector's edition, because they had not put them on the racks yet. My favorite song from this group is "From the Inside"

"I'll take everything from the Inside

and just throw it all away

cause I swear for the last time

I won't trust myself with you"

I love Linkin Park because their songs are not about how much their girlfriend is a slut or how its always the girls fault. They sing about how they feel and all the problems that they can go through. It was this time in my life I was having major girl drama and this music helped me see that it wasn't all me.

DISTURBED

This is my dark music. Even though it's not that dark haha. I love Disturbed just as much (if not more than) Linkin Park. My love for them started early in high school, probably my Junior year in weights when I heard their album, Ten Thousand Fists. They actually have some great songs. If you look up the lyrics (because you can't understand them half the time :) My favorite song, as of now, (it changes so often) The Curse

I've held on too long just to let it go now

will my inner strength get me through it some how

defying the curse that has taken hold

never surrender i'll never be overcome

Disturbed just makes me feel invincible when I hear their music which pumps me up. Which explains why my XBOX Live GamerTag is ND3STRUCT1BLE (pronounces Indestructible) after the song, Indestructible

I'm Indestructible determination that is incorruptible

From the other side a terror to behold

annhilation will be unavoidable

every broken enemy will know

that their opponent had to be invincible

take a last look around while you're alive
I'm an Indestructible master of war

THREE DAYS GRACE

This band is kind of out of the ordinary, but finishes out my top 3. This group is a little more relaxed, but sings about almost the same things. My favorite song is Over and Over

So many thoughts that I can't get out of my head

I try to live without you everytime I do I feel dead

I know what's best for me, but I want you instead

I'll keep on wasting all my time

There are some artists I hate, but the biggest one that stands out to me is TAYLOR SWIFT haha. Not just because she's a chick, and she sings country, but she's only what, 19? She sings songs as if she's a 9th grade drama girl. Every song is about how it's ALWAYS her boyfriend's fault and she's this perfect girl. She's always the victim of her relationship problems. It just drives me insane.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

I'm slowly gaining more love towards this band. This is my screamer band. When you look up the lyrics you'll find that their is some great stuff here.

NICKELBACK

Nickelback is a hit and miss with me. Some of their songs are just so awesome and I loved them before they came out on the radio. Namely: Far Away, If Everyone Cared, Saving Me, Someday, but then there are some songs that I just don't understand. They're kind of dirty for me and nah. Like Figure You Out and Something In Your Mouth.

A Proclamation to the Dating World

2009-04-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

This was an essay/proclamation given by a kid in my English class on campus. It is so hilarious and I think it is all so true. He's from Boise and I think he's gotten a good perspective on the issure, by Nick Harley:

The whole problem started in the beginning, with our first parents, Adam and Eve. Eve wanted what she could not have: the forbidden fruit. I propose that girls are still being beguiled by that same serpent that was in the beginning. Bishop G. S. Nelson once said “Girls think that nice guys are boring and safe.” He acquired this insight during his numerous interviews with girls that attended the BYU ward in which he served as bishop.
The Nice Guy. The guy who is nice, genuine, sincere, and kind. Some girls ask if this guy exists. I am here to tell you that he does. He is that guy that you turned down last week when he asked you out. Yes, that is right. Last week’s rejection fits that description, but why did you reject him? Nice guys are no mystery. They go out of their way to do nice things, compliment girls, and are therefore boring. That’s why nice guys finish last.Girls. I would like you to stop and think for a second of a nice guy in your life that is always there for you but for some reason you cannot see him as a future companion. Then I want you to think of the way you talk to your friends about this person. Would you not say something to the effect of, “We are just friends; we could never be more than that”? The nice guy is the person you talk to when the mean guy rejects you. When you are not asked out on a date he is the person you call so that you are not alone. He is always there for you because he actually cares about you.
The “Friend Zone.” The nice guy enters into the “friend zone,” which is a zone that is impossibly hard to get out of. Once the nice guy tries to get out of the “friend zone” he becomes awkward and the relationship is never the same. But whose fault is it really? Some would say, “I do not find him attractive”, but I do not believe that to be true. It is not necessarily his appearance that makes him unattractive, it is the fact that he doesn’t play “the game”: there is no chase. Girls, it is just as shallow for you to go for the mysterious, funny, impossible guy, as it is for a guy to just go after looks. You are not unattracted to the nice guy, he just isn’t the mystery man you have imagined yourself dating. We all know the nice guy would treat you better than anyone else, but you still reject him.
The Next Best Thing. Girls fear that they can do better than what they already have, that they can get someone that is just a little better. They let this fear dictate what they do and who they date. Once girls have something, they need the next best thing. They are never satisfied. They think they need something new, something that is just out of reach. This fear that girls have causes them to go for the untouchable, the mean guy that does not want anything to do with them. When a girl pursues that kind of guy and gets rejected she says, “Why can’t I just date a nice guy?” She quickly forgets that just recently she rejected the nice guy who really did care about her. (Sam: This is my favorite line) I believe that girls have an inherent quality that makes them honestly believe that if they can already get the guy, then they can get a better one, and that they deserve more.
Victims. An argument that girls often use is that they are victims of guys that take advantage of their emotions, just as the nice guys feel they are victims. Girls need to take into account which kinds of guys are victimizing them. If they would just think about it, they would realize that they are chasing the mean guys. The nice ones do not ever want to upset them, but since they do not go after the nice guy, they are just asking for trouble. Girls, almost all of your problems and issues would be resolved if you would just stop rejecting nice guys, and give them a chance. Good Guys, This Is For You. You know you have been treated unfairly in the past, but please take the following information into account and use it the next time you think about asking a girl out. If the good guy finishes last, then that means only one thing: the mean guys finish first. This is because a girl likes a challenge, things that she cannot quite have. Girls know that nice guys are always available. When girls get lonely they know they can always rely on you being there for them. Nice guys, you appear desperate because you go out of your way to be a gentleman. Girls enjoy this game. The mean guy is mysterious… you never know what he will do next. He does not pay attention to the girls, and when he does, it is usually to make fun of them. For some reason girls love that. Everything he says is funny— not sincere or genuine, but funny. Someone has to change, and there are two options.
1. Girls: Give the nice guy a legitimate chance. Stop being beguiled and have an open mind.
2. Guys: Become the mysteriously impossible guy the girls are looking for. Play the game better than they do.

Utah Drivers

2009-04-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

Another thing that has crossed my mind the past couple of weeks has been how stupid Utah drivers are. Note that it didn't take 10 months of me living here to figure it out, but I really got irritated the other day. They all drive as if they're in a huge hurry to get somewher. I have never seen cars switch lanes so often. There will be 6 cars waiting in one lane at a light and 4 cars in the next lane over. The last guy in the lane with 6 cars will cut you off just so he can be one car length closer to the light. I mean c'mon. Whoopde do you saved yourself 2 sec. It's always funny when the lane he just left ends up going faster and he get's left in the dust.

For being in such a hurry these idiots do not know what the purpose of a green arrow does. There has been numerous times where I will wait at a light for 15 seconds before the few cars in front of me decide they want to go at a green arrow. C'mon dude. If you're going to cut me off then at least go when you're supposed to. Here's another hint to. If you're trying to turn right and you're at a red light. and the intersection to the right of you has a green left arrow. You can turn right without worrying about oncoming traffic. Amazing huh.

Maybe I'm posting this because I'm coming an insane driver, or just maybe because I'm a smart driver and if you use your brains rather than your foot you can actually get places faster.

VIDEO GAMES: MY LIFE

2009-04-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

I have to admit my life is video games. I don't know how I will live without them for 2 years. I have achieved a gamerscore of 8,750 so far. Which is pretty decent for the amount of games I own. Here are some games I find myself playing a lot...

MIRROR'S EDGE:

I let my friend, who I used to work at APX with, borrow my game, Mirror's Edge. This game is about a girl street runner, Faith, who's sister is framed for a murder. Faith must use her street running abilities to avoid cops and discover who actually murdered the victim and clear her sister's name. This game is so fun, because it allows you to do things you could never dream of doing in real life like jumping off buildings and running up walls. I give it a 4 out of 5!

MASS EFFECT:

Mass affect is a story that takes place in the 22nd Century (~2180) I love this game because you get to determine every outcome of the game. When you start the game you will choose your background and abilities you have. You choose the dialogue and how to react to certain situations. You can choose to be the guy who takes the high road, or you can be an officer who it's "my way or the highway" or maybe a little bit of both.

As far as the story goes... The galaxy is made of many different races. There are three main races: The Asari, Salarians, and Turians. Each race has a member who is considered part of the "Citadel Council" For many years the humans have tried to be admitted into the citadel council, and when a Turian Spectre (Spectres are like the secret agents) decides to go rogue, they allow you to become a Spectre to stop him. This turian, Saren, is trying to open the transporter to allow the Reapers, a robotic race, to come in and annhilate all of galaxy life as we know it. This annhilation has been a chain of events that has happened ever since time began.

This game is so fun, and actually makes you play the game at least three times in order to get all 1000 gamerpoints. However I messed some things up and I had to play it all the way through almost 6 times. A sequel is set to come out in the 1st quarter of 2010 and I will be asking Zach to buy that game for me so I can play it when I get home. The sequel has been said that what decisions you made in the first game will affect the storyline in the second. I'm way excited. I give it a definite 5 out of 5!

HALO 3

One of the best trilogies of all time has definately been at the top of what I play. I mostly play this game online against others and am exited to tell you all that I've finally reached a level 45/50 ranked skill level. I'm currently a Brigadier grade 2.

Just yesterday the new "Mythic Maps" were released into XBOX Live Marketplace and you know I was one of the first 1,000 to download it. The new maps include: Sandbox, Orbital, and Assembly. My favorite one is Sandbox. It's a forgers dream. Me and Zach will have lots of fun with that when I come back home.

THE GUITAR HERO SERIES

I have not played a whole lot of guitar hero lately, but how can I not put this game in. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I'm pretty dang good at this game. I've betten "Through The Fire and Flames" on Expert several times now, and am only two songs away from the "Enlightened Guitarist" achievement which is achieveing 100% on 20 songs.

Guitar Hero World Tour is a fun game as well. However the guitar is much easier, and I suck at the drums. Plus I'm usually too lazy to set them up to really play them a whole lot.

Breaking News: Guitar hero is coming out with a greatest album game in June. They will have their best songs from the 1st three guitar hero songs and will make it able to be played on drums and vocals. This means Through the Fire and Flames will be able to be played on drums soon.

The Start of my Numerous Blogs

2009-04-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

So it's been over a week since I've written on this thing and there has a lot that has gone on in my life. Not really, but I feel like I should share to you how boring my life here is in Orem, Utah. I will post other blogs of random things that are going on, but this first one will just explain what I have been doing since my last blog (March 30) So here we go.

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIELLE! For those of you, don't worry, I called her one her birthday. This isn't the first time I'm saying it.

This weekend I went to a surprise party for my friend Darby. The party was on Friday, but her birthday isn't actually until Apr. 6th. Sam Crane was the only other girl I knew there. It was still fun. Darby has some hilarious guys in her ward.

The weekend of Apr 3-5 was crazy. Of cousrse we all know it was general conference. I guess Parley and Marilynn have a tradition where their entire family goes up to the cabin and watches conference. Well there was too much snow on the mountain this year so they decided to have the entire family spend the weekend at THEIR HOUSE. It was crazy, but it was so fun. On Saturday we had a birthday party for Eli. He turned 4. All these birthday parties, and no one had realized my birthday was next Tuesday. That's okay.

Next Week:

Monday of course was the national championship. I was going for Michigan State, but they committed so many turnovers it was unreal. They did not deserve to win that game even if it was close. I also got a text from Katie and she's like, "Sammy wammy it's your birthday tomorrow. we're going to throw a party."

Tuesday was my birthday and it was just another day to me haha. The party that night was pretty fun. Clint & Amanda, Jenny & Judd, and some of Wendell and Ginger's kids came. 19th birthdays are just not as interesting when you've already had your call. Not to mention I didn't get any actual presents on my birthday.

One more class left of school on Monday. I'm so freaking excited. two more weeks and I can move back to Idaho.

Well that concludes on what's been going on. Stay tuned for other subjects that have crossed my mind.

A Very Stressful Week

2009-03-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

Before I get started let me just answer Danielle's question. Sorry Dani I don't think I'll be able to make it up this weekend. I have work, and Lester got me and Kylee tickets to a general conference session. I haven't found out which session it is, but I'm way excited.

This week was no fun at all for me. I have three papers do this week so I was stressing about them all last week and how I was going to get them done. Parley and Marilynn's computer fried so I've been going into Parley's office every now and then when they're not home and doing the computer stuff. It feels awkward sometimes It's also been kind of a stress figuring out on when I'm going to the temple. I told my mom and I think we are getting set on April 26th in the Twin Falls temple. It should be intense.

My car got towed on Friday. I parked it on the side of an insurance building that sits in front of Parley's old PPM store in Provo. I have parked it there for the past two weeks when I go to work. I get done with my job, I'm already tired as it is, I have an 8 page paper I need to get to work on, and my car is not there when I go to get into it. I was so mad. There are no signs that say "No Parking" I called the police station because I thought it had been stolen. They told me that it had been called in to tow it by the insurance company. It's "Administrator Parking" I was like, bull crap it is. So I called the towing company and they said, "I'll meet you at the lot at 8:30" Parley and I went to the lot and he did not show up until 9:10. The dude then told me that they wouldn't have called it in, but it was because I parked in front of a trailor that they had to get out. I told him the trailor was a tiny one that they could move by hand and there were four other cars blocking it so I figured it wouldn't have been a big deal. He told me he was sorry, but that he still needed me to pay for it. As I went for my debit card Parley pulled out his and said I'll take care of it. I tried to fight to let me pay for it, but he wouldn't let me. It's amazing all the things they have done for me. Parley was pretty upset and said that's community parking and he should not have been towed. I'm going to have a talk with the manager of the insurance company and ask him what the deal is. I hope Parley gets his money back.

Saturday was brighter. I went to work and it was a pretty long day, but I got a call from my buddy who still works at APX and he told me he had courtside seats to the Utah Flash game. I was like I'm so not passing that up. We went to a Japanese restaurant first to eat. That was freaking intense. The food was very good. Even the raw fish! The game was awesome. The Flash pulled out the win 104-100. I almost got a picture with the flash girls but I chickened out in the end.

Well that's my week for you. Hope all is going well. I still don't have any ideas on what I need to write. I figured this week was long enough so I think I'll be okay. Until next week.... PEACE

Oh and Happy Birthday Danielle tomorrow. I'll be sure to call you :)

Some Thoughts

2009-03-22T21:03:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to run out of some ideas to write on so someone should help me out here. So I'm just going to start rambling and see what I can come up with.
On Wednesday I went to Idaho hopefull for the second to last time before I move back home. (The last time being when I got to the temple, which is the biggest reason why I came home this time.) Parley and Marilynn got a new t.v. and thus needed a new entertainment center. They decided to give my mom their old one which no joke weighs about 250 lbs on 2 sections and then probably like 400 lbs on the main section. This sucker is a beast. We had to borrow a company truck and fit that bad boy in there. Now Parley and Marilynn went to Jamaica for the week so I had to figure all this stuff out by myself. Great fun. This truck wasn't very big. I think I topped it out at 70 mph on the freeway. Good stuff.
As I was driving I was thinking about my current girl situation. I'm not speaking of all girls mind you, but there are a select few that are kind of frustrating me. Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to be just friends with them and they either a) think I'm trying to get a girlfriend before my miss, or b) I'm trying to get action before my miss. So they just ignore every text I send them, ignore every facebook message I send them, and you can't call them because then they think you're a stalker. Well girls, it's neither, and you're missing out on some fun experiences. I think I'm a pretty cool guy. haha oh well. you're loss.
This weekend was pretty fun. I hung out with Kyler and we kinda got ditched haha. I'll let him tell you the story.
The next day I went to my dad's and watched some basketball games. Yeah my bracket is doing alright I guess. There's definitely not as many upsets this year as last year. BYU choked like they always did, but I have to give Texas A&M credit. (The picture to the right is my reaction after Texas A&M made their first 10 shots) Ben came later that night for his spring break. It was great to see him.
Friday we had a party for Helen and Fran. It was basically just a family party which was fine with me.
The rest of the weekend was spent by me with interviews witht he bishop and stake president to get my temple recommend interview. I'm thinking maybe Easter weekend is when I'll go.
Well that's my week. I'm kind of sick of writing
so until then. PEACE!!!
P.S. Thanks Mom for the camera!!!

Double Duty

2009-03-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

So I totally spaced last week's adventure so I'll have to do double duty this week. Nothing exciting happened last week except for the fact that my sister came from Chicago. Craig's sister was getting married so they came to Orem, to spend a day with us. On Friday we had a huge party with a ton of family over. We also celebrated Ryan's birthday. A lot of people tried the guitar hero world tour. It was a lot of fun.

On Saturday I decided to enter in a Halo tournament with Zach. I thought I was pretty decent, but man those guys were freaking insane. We lost every game like 25 to 6. I finally quit after a couple hours and went home.

This week was just another lame one. Nothing too huge happened until the weekend. I finally got a new job working for Parley and Marilynn’s insulation stuff. I basically just stay in the back of the truck and feed the insulation in a machine that goes through a hose up to the attic. I get paid 2 cents a square foot which isn’t bad. I did about 6000 square feet in about 4 hours which totals out to be $30 an hour. Not bad eh?
I hung out with a couple girls this week. One was that Celes girl from Declo. She had to go to a pre-missionary fireside for her mission prep class, and so I went with her. It was a pretty good fireside. On Thursday I hung out with Brittney Galbraith. Haha no nothing’s going to happen from that. But I didn’t end up dropping her off til like 3 in the morning. Like we got done with the move at 1 and then I took her to her house and we ended up just sitting in my car talking till 3. She sure can talk that’s for sure.
The only other thing happening now is sports. I don’t know if I told you, but the Jazz were doing awesome. They were on a 12 game winning streak, and finally got up to 4th in the Western Conference, BUT they have now lost three straight and are back down to 7th in the conference. I’m telling ya. The Jazz cannot beat any good team on the road, and that’s why they will never win a championship.
BYU do what they do best in choking in the Mountain West tournament. San Diego State beat UNLV in the first round so you figure it will be a breeze now. Yeah right. BYU lost to SDSU the next game by two points. Utah then beat SDSU by 2. It was so frustrating, but it’s okay because BYU is still in the tournament. The brackets just came out today, and BYU will play Texas A&M AGAIN in another 8 and 9 game. Talk about Déjà vu. Utah got up to a number 5. The Mountain West got snubbed this year. They were thinking at least 3 maybe 5 teams would make it into the tournament, but the only other one was Utah at #5. I think that’s a little high for Utah, but I definitely think SDSU deserves a shot in. Just to let you know the #1 seeds are: Louisville, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina. It should be interesting

Missionary Week

2009-03-01T22:20:00.000-08:00

The weekend was really intense. I had a sleepless night on Tuesday, because I anticipated it coming on Wednesday. I decided to skip my evening class so I could come home and check the mail. I arrived as soon as the mailman had just put the mail in the mailbox. I open the mailbox. Bill, bill, bill; Danget! It didn’t come. It’s okay. I was told they usually mail them out to be received on Thursday.

I don’t have school on Thursday so I spent many hours sitting in Parley and Marilynn’s office; taking a quick peak out of the window every now and then in hopes of the mailman coming. It’s 3:30. Where the crap is the mailman? So I decided to give my mom a call:
“Mom, Can you call the bishop and ask him to find out where my papers are?”
“Sure, I’ll call him right now and call you back.” About five minutes later I receive a text from Sydney
“I think we have your call here.” I was so angry and called Sydney
“What did you just say?”
“I think we have your call. It’s in a big envelope and says Elder Samuel James Yoshida” Parley and Marilynn’s phone rings and its my mom.
“Sydney I’ll talk to you later.”
“Hi Sam. We have your call. Bryan just brought it in about five minutes ago.”
“WHAT? Whatever, at least I know I’m coming home for the weekend.”

My third sleepless night in a row was Thursday night. I had to take a communications test, and decided to skip my other classes.

7:00 finally rolled around and I swear there were nearly 50 people there. Here goes nothing:

Dear Elder Yoshida:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Chile Rancagua Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months.

You should report to the Missionary Training Center at Provo, Utah on Wednesday, 13 May 2009. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language. Your mission president may modify your specific assignment according to the needs of the mission.

I’M GOING TO CHILE. I am so dang excited. I’m going to be able to talk to all my Mexican cousins when I get back. I’m so excited.

That was my exciting week. Go to my facebook and there I have a video of me opening my call.

Random thoughts and my week

2009-02-22T22:30:00.000-08:00

First of all. MOM I WANT A DIGITAL CAMERA This blog would be so much better if I could put some pictures up.
Today was a prety productive week I think. I decided to actually start doing my homework which is a plus. I finally got my stupid communications project and my american heritage paper out of the way. Now all I have to worry about is my communications test this week which I am not looking forward to.
I also started working out again. I was so sore the first couple of days, and my chest and abs are still pretty sore. I want to be ripped so I can get more girls to want to write to me on my mission. :)
I don't know if I ever told anyone this, but for the past month or so I have spent a lot of time with Kylee, my cousin. She's always there for me and I hope that she can consider me one thats there for her as well. I tend to sleep over at their house at least twice a week now. I'll usually go later in the evenings and chill, and then Kylee will usually bring me back home on her way to school. I love spending time with her and Ben. I don't have many friends here so it's nice to have someone to talk to.
My Bishop back home called me on Thursday and told me that my call has been made. They are now in the process of sending out the letter to me. I will probably get it Wednesday or Thursday. I plan on making a trip to Idaho again to open my call. Since Parley and Marilynn's family are so excited to see where I go as well they want me to make sure no one tells them, and I will read it to them Sunday evening. I'm so excited. One thing that has gotten on my nerves though is when girls think they know more about the mission process than I do. No offense to Kylee, but sometimes it irritates me when she tells me what I will and won't be able to do and when this and that's going to happen and sometimes I just want to say, you know? How can you be so sure. Trust me, unless you're an RM yourself I will have a very hard time believing anything you say haha.
So we had an awesome churchball game on Friday. I kind of miss being the all-star like I was back home. Now I hardly score any points and it gets frustrating sometimes. I'm used mostly for defense now because I do play stellar defense. But anywho it was tied with one minute. A guy on our team made a 3 pointer with 30 seconds left. Then one of their guys made one with 10 seconds left. On the next play one of our guys drove the lane and put up some wild layup and it went in with three seconds left. They passed it down the court and the guy shot it at the buzzer and one of our guys fouled them. Are you freakin kidding me? so with .5 seconds the guy had two free throws. he missed the first one, tried to miss the second one, and accidentally made it so we won by 1 point. It was pretty intense.
Well that will do it for this week. I'm not sure if anyone besides Lindsay even follows this blog, but if you do give me some ideas to write about. I'm getting kind of bored. Look forward to my next issue where I will let everyone know where I'm going on my mission :)

You know you're a BYU student if...

2009-02-17T23:36:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday I have a class at 1:00 and then one at 4:00 so it gives me plenty of time to have random thoughts come to my head. I've come up with 25 ways to tell if you're a BYU student. For those of you who are BYU students, don't be offended even though you know its true, and I'll admit that some of these pertain to me. I'm going to put asterisks next to the ones I'm guilty of, but here it goes.

You know you're a BYU student when:

You're too lazy to bring your scriptures so you download them on your phone or just look them up from your laptop.

You're happy you got a 46% on your American Heritage exam*

You can't sleep at night when BYU loses.

Some of your term papers are on dating and marriage.

Facebook is the new way to text message.

You sing hymns you've never heard before.*

You pray about how grateful you are to attend this wonderful university.

You drive two blocks to park for school when you only have to walk four.

You think BYU is the best team in the Mountain West in every sport.

The majority of 20 year old boys are dateless

You get engaged after dating only two months

You think you are rebellious because you have a mustache.

Gangsters don't go to BYU. Don't wear your hat like you are one*

Y Mountain is the best place to get action.

You question every answer you got wrong and try to get the professor to okay it, and then you're pissed when he doesn't.

You gasped because i said "pissed"

If you're an RM, you think you are wiser and better than non RM's.

You think holding hands on campus makes you immediately 15% cooloer.

You think the football team will beat Oklahoma next year.

At least 10% of the class is always 10 minutes late.

Your professors tell the same jokes everyday*

You count homework assignments or study groups as dates*

Your second favoritest team is whoever plays Utah.

You think its illegal to walk on the grass.

You have to talk to your bishop about breaking curfew.

I'm running out of ideas to update my blog on so if you have any topics you would like me to talk about or anything interesting let me know. As far as my weekend it was great. I just went to Idaho and I finally got all my mission papers in. Yay. I'll have my call in a couple weeks. I can't wait.

My Trip To Idaho

2009-02-08T22:55:00.000-08:00

This weeend was an exciting weekend and I just have to share it.
I made a trip to Idaho, mostly for my mission papers, but I got to do many things while I was there that made this trip very awesome.
I arrived in Burley Wednesday night which ironically was the Burley Minico game at Burley. I did not sit in the student section, unlike some grad students that do, but I found myself cheering very loud and acting just as rowdy as I did last year. It was a great game. Kyle Hepworth was struggling, and it was a good thing A.J. Hunter stepped up and hit some big three's or else we might've lost.
I got beat up on Thursday. It started at 9 AM when I went to get my physical. They had to take a urine sample, a blood test (which I almost passed out), and a tuberculosis check (they shoved a needle under my skin that made it look like a bee sting). I also had to drop the drawers and get an examination, and that's about as far as I'll go. After that I had to go straight to my dentist appointment where I also got my teeth cleaned. There they weren't very careful in poking my teeth with sharp objects in which I bled a little bit. I got a little break, but then I had to go get my shots. I had a shot for meningitis, hepititis A and B, MMR, and tetanus. I was so scared at first but the lady there was really good, and it didn't hurt at all.
Later that day I went to Sydney's church volleyball game. They lost in two sets. After that game I went to Dairy Queen to visit one of my good friends Sam Foiles who was also in Burley at the time. It was great to see her and talk with her for a while. Then I went to Zach's churchball game. They played Kyler's ward and we destroyed them. It was 92-36 or something like that. I was thinking "Where was this team last year" They played defense better and they shot a lot better than they ever did when I played with them. I think part of it was more experience and a lot of it was better coaching. After the game I went and helped Kyler clean the bank, and then chilled at his house for a while.
Friday evening Kyler and I went snowboarding. This was the first time going for me, and let me tell you it was a fun experience. I'm grateful Kyler had enough patience with me, because I fell a lot. I did learn fast though, and I must say I got pretty good for my first time. I still got a lot more practice to be as good as him or any other experienced snowboarder for that fact. My butt was so sore though. I could barely sit in his truck haha. I spent the night at his house and Zach came over after work as well.
On Saturday I spent the whole day just chilling at home. I did go and pick up my brand new suit though. Later that night though Kyler came over along with his friend/date, Danielle Tilley. Andrea also came from Poky to visit. We played Ticket to Ride which Andrea won, and then we watched a movie. I had a lot of fun just talking and laughing with each other. I think all of us had a good experience.
Sunday I had my bishop's interview for my mission papers. I'll still have one more interview with him, and then an interview with the Stake President and then my mission papers will be done. Woohoo! I'm so excited and can't wait to see where I'm going.
I'm planning on going back to Burley again this weekend to get those interviews. Look forward to my next issue where I will be discussing that weekend.
PEACE!!!

I am a Guitar Hero

2009-02-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

So I've made it a habit of writing on this thing weekly and well today was the super bowl, but I don't really feel like talking about it. It was a good game, and I wish the Cardinals would have won, but I didn't really care none the less. So I decided to write on something I'm good at, and that is Guitar Hero.
Now I know you're all thinking wow, this guy really needs to get out and do something with his life. The thing is... video games are my life. I would rather do them more than almost anything, and guitar hero is one of my favorite games.
My crave started when I first played it at Andrea's house one time. I was pretty good to start off. I went straight to medium. By the end of the night I was playing some songs on Hard. Then I went to Kyler's house when he had borrowed it. I was playing a few songs on Hard and slowly getting the hang of it. I thought to myself "I've got to get this game." So I went out and bought Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock.
I quickly ran through Hard. It took me forever to beat it on Expert, but I finally did. It was an exciting time in my life, but I knew my mission was not complete. I had to do what very few have done. I had to complete what was known as "The Inhuman Achievement" and that was to beat Through the Fire and Flames on Expert. Over 3,000 notes. Some notes coming as fast as 21 a second. It took me nearly 2 months (not of solid play mind you) but I finally beat it. I have now beaten that song 3 times i think? and I have not come up against anyone who can beat me, besides some people on XBOX Live. Even on LIVE I dominate and the only people that beat me are the ones who devote hours to just one song and have it down to perfection so they will beat me even if i miss 3 notes.
There was a guitar hero tournament at BYU and I was really anxious to enter, but I ended up having to work that day and I wasn't able to enter. I still think I'm one of the better guys on campus and I can beat anyone who tried.
This is the only thing I can be cocky about and I know it's lame, but this is what I love to do. People always like to tell me, "Wow, you don't have a life." or "You need to get out more" What if I bashed on the thing you liked to do. "Wow, find something else to do besides snowboard." "You need to stop hanging out and do this a little more" Don't hate just because I'm good at something I love to do, because I don't belittle your talents at other things even though I'm not interested in them

Update on my Life

2009-01-25T22:33:00.001-08:00

I have slacked off on this blog, but I promise I will do better. In the wonderful story of my life we left off at Thanksgiving. I'm not going to go into deep details because nothing too exciting happened. Yes of course there was Christmas and New Years, but I figure if I haven't told you about that already then you are not important to hear it now. :)
My second semester at BYU started about three weeks ago. I'm taking the second half of the Book of Mormon, American Heritage, Family History, English 150, and Communications 101. The classes aren't too bad yet. I know it's going to be harder than last semester, but I think I will enjoy the classes more. My favorite is English 150. The homework sucks in that class, but there are only 20 people in that class. My teacher is so awesome, not to mention attractive. She had us play a few bonding games, and now I'm really tight with them all.
Work at APX has changed a little for me. I found out that I was getting let go off of Data Entry, and for the mean time I will be working on a project for contract admin. It's an alright project I suppose. It gets kind of monotonous, but it's almost done. I'm a little worried, because I'm not quite sure whether or not they will put me back in Data Entry after the project is over.
Girls --- We'll leave it at that
This week I have officially started working on my papers for my mission. I'm way excited, and I hope I get sent somewhere awesome, but in the end I'll be happy to go anywhere, because it's the Lord's decision. I'm kind of scared to get shots though. Hopefully it won't be too bad.
I'll try to keep this thing more updated, but until then... PEACE!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-11-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

I had waited all month to finally go home and visit the family for Thanksgiving and boy did I have a blast. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures from this weekend so you'll just have to read about it. Mom... Digital Camera is #1 on my Christmas list.
I had to work Wednesday morning from 8-4:30, but my work was kind to me and let me leave an hour early. Liann Bolingbroke carpooled down with me, because she does not have a car. It was fun to have someone to talk with me on the way there and back. The best news of that day was that RedOctane finally sent me my fixed cymbal for my Guitar Hero World Tour. We were going to have a party this weekend. We got into Burley about 7. I dropped Liann off and went straight to my dad's house. Ben, Stacey, and Luke were there and it was great to see them. We played guitar hero the whole night. It was a blast.
Thanksgiving was a long day for me. First we all went to Lori's mom's house like always and had dinner with them. I hadn't seen Lori's family in a long time so it was great to see them. After dinner Zach, Sydney, and I went over to Lora and Blaine's house for their Thanksgiving. All of Lora and Blaine's family was there plus Mom, Brian, and Charlie. It was fun. We played some guitar hero with Jamie, because she's always dying to play some guitar hero :) After that party we went back over to Dad's to spend the night.
Friday was an awesome day. It was Dad's birthday (Happy 46th) and for my birthday present to him he, Zach, and I went to the Boise State Fresno State football game. It was so awesome. The game got off to a slow start. It was only 13-10 at halftime, but then Boise State exploded in the 2nd half scoring 51 unanswered points and destroying them 61-10. It was so cool. Ian Johnson also tied Marshaull Faulk for the most rushing TD's in WAC history. I'm still upset that they might not go to a BCS bowl even though they went undefeated
Saturday was pretty fun as well. All of the family went to Zach Searle's basketball game against Preston. They lost by about eight. After that we stayed for the varsity game to check out and see how the team will fare this year. I would have to say the team is not that good. I can tell it's going to be a long season for them. We left in the middle of the 3rd quarter and they were down by 19. I got to see Katelin Robins there who I have not seen since Halloween. It was great to see her again. That night I went over to Kyler's house where Tom Whipple and Riley Christenson came over. We all played some more guitar hero. It was fun. Then we watched Iron Man. I love that show.
Sunday was just a chill day. I went to sacrament meeting. Mom, Brian, Sydney, Zach, and I played LIFE. I took everyone to school. Then I got everything packed out, picked Liann back up, and we headed back home.
This weekend was an awesome experience. I can't wait to be back home again for Christmas... especially when I'll be seeing Lindsay, Craig, and Katelyn. I'm so excited.

Why I Don't Like BYU Students

2008-11-12T23:48:00.000-08:00

This is more of a frustration blog. It's been going through my mind ever since I've started school, and I feel like I need to get it out somehow. Before we start if any BYU students read this it might not be aimed directly at you, but this is how I view most BYU students.
As we all know, BYU is mostly reserved for the smart students. I myself find a hard time figuring out how I got accepted. However, most BYU students know why they've been accepted, and that we should all be appreciate that they are here. I myself tell people how hard I study and how I still suck on the tests, but some BYU students tend to make it sound easy. "I got a 94 on my test, and I only studied for two hours." I know pretty darn well they studied for more than that, but they just have to 1UP anyone they can. In one of my classes we do take home tests. We then bring it back to class and correct in class. If a BYU student misses one question they have to fight for their reasoning behind the answer they chose, and insist that they still be given credit for it. Get over it! It's one freakin answer.
Another group of people I have grown to dislike are the BYU fans. Man they are so annoying. I sit in front of a guy who criticizes every wrong play, and explains why any good play worked. It was just last weekend when we were playing SDSU. We handed the ball off to Harvey and he started running it. The guy behind me was screaming "RUN, RUN C'mon" I was thinking first of all "I don't think he can hear you," and I'm pretty sure Harvey was thinking, "Oh, is that what I'm supposed to be doing?" One series we went three and out and this guy continued to say, "That was the worst play calling ever. He's so dumb. He needs to pass more." blah blah blah. It's like dude, shutup and enjoy the game. So what if we're not beating them by 50. He's not the only fan like that. Almost all BYU fans are like that.
To close out on one last note I will tell you another story of why I don't care for Utahns period. My friend and I decided to go to Cafe Rio for dinner. As we were walking through the door I decided to hold the door open for the people exiting the resteraunt. As the family of four (adults) walked out of the resteraunt, they all just looked at me and continued to walk out the door. Every single one of them. One at a time. I did not receive one thank you. No I'm not one that thinks I need a thank you everything I perform an act of service, but c'mon. Not one of them said thank you. They just continued to walk as if to say, "Yeah, you should be holding that door for me." Arrgh. I was really irritated.

Nathan's Farewell

2008-11-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

I made my second trip to Idaho in two weeks this weekend. This weekend it was for one of my great friend's, Nathan Broadhead, farewell. I had to work from 3:30-midnight on Friday so I didn't leave Friday.

Saturday was BYU's last home game. However, I wanted to leave early so we wouldn't be stuck in traffic all day. The score was 20-0 at halftime so I decided to take my cousin, Ben, to go get his clothes and Uncle Lester's equinox that we would be using to get there. (Since my car is still out of commision) After we got the car ready we picked my friend, Darby, and her friend, Shawn, up from her apartment. Together we all drove up to Idaho. When we reached Burley I dropped Darby and Shawn off at Shawn's house. I went over to my dad's house and visited him for a couple hours. After that Ben, Zach, Sydney, and I went to KFC so I could visit some of my old co-workers. Then we all headed on over to Lora and Blaine's where all of the family was there hanging out. I ended up crashing there, because I talked with Jamie about her Sadie's date and a bunch of other random stuff.

Nathan's farewell was on Sunday. His talk was a little different, but you just have to know Nathan's personality to be able to stand it. After his farewell I went back to my home and hung out with the family some more. I was killing time until Nathan's open house. About eight or so of Nathan's friends showed up and we all just sat and talked. After a couple hours we headed on back to Utah.

I wish Nathan the best of luck on his mission. He will report to the MTC on Wednesday. He is going to Argentina. I'm way exciting for him, and I know this will be a humbling and great experience for him. I can't wait to go on a mission. I'm glad he was able to set an example for me.

Halloween Weekend

2008-11-10T23:50:00.001-08:00

So Dani told me about her blog. After looking at hers and Lindsay's I decided that I might as well keep the family informed as well. I know this was close to two weeks ago, but I'm going to share my Halloween with you.

As we all know Halloween was on a Friday. I decided to skip school and head on down to Poky that weekend to visit my best friend, Andrea. My car hasn't been working all that great the past week and I didn't trust taking it to Poky. My Uncle Lester let me take his truck that runs of natural gas. It was really nice of him. I paid $8 to get there. It was a great feeling.

Once I got to Pocatello I met Andrea there. I hung out with her, Samantha Foiles, and her roommate, Becky. After about an hour of visiting Jacey, Samantha Crane, and Katelyn Lyons came over and we all headed out to Utah State. I went as an Emo (Left) for Halloween. I think I pulled off the part very well with the eyeliner and painted fingernails. We went to "The Howl" but before we did that we decided to get some Cafe Rio. We all went there to party however it wasn't much of a party. Sure there was dancing, and live bands, and movies there, but our group kinda fell apart. Faster than we knew it Andrea and I were by ourselves at The Howl while everyone left. We were kind of upset and didn't talk to our friends much on the way home.

Saturday was a better day. I bought the new Guitar Hero that comes with drums and a microphone. We had a party over at Andrea's house. Later that night we went to Outer Limits. It's a fun place where there is laser tagging, miniature golf, and an arcade. I totally owned at Laser Tag, and I won at golf. Let's just say I dominated at everything.

Before I went home on Sunday I stopped by and visited Danielle and Brandt. It was great to see them again. I can't wait for Thanksgiving when we will all be there as a family