Hunter Hartman

Movie List 2011

2012-01-30T21:55:00.001-08:00

I forgot to put my list of 2010 on the blog but I have added it for 2011. If anyone still follows this blog I hope you enjoy these movies.

The movie I am most excited about in 2012....HUNGER GAMES!

Honorable Mentions-
The Adjustment Bureau- Prototypical Matt Damon movie. Certainly worth watching.

Source Code- This is a poor man's 'Inception'. About a soldier that jumps from body to body from Afghanistan to a man in a train in Chicago. Action film. Jake Glyndehall's acting is solid in this movie.

Contagion- Very interesting concept about a disease that takes over the world and battling it. Lots of A-list actors. Good rental for redbox.

10- Limitless- An action movie about a writer who discovers a drug that changes his life. He starts to use 100% of his brain as opposed to the 10%. It is really interesting to see how he thinks and he has rises to success and then back to reality. Acting by Bradley Cooper is great.

9- Rio- Not sure how this movie didn't get on Brennan's list but it was one of my favorite movies of the year. Really cute movie about bird in Minnesota that goes to Brazil. It's made by the same guys that made IceAge. Cute and clever humor.

8- Moneyball- Brad Pitt played the role well and it's certainly was a good movie worth watching but I expected more. The movie failed to mention that part of the reason that Billy Bean (main character) had three of the best pitchers in the MLB and that he had all of his success from pickign players based on statistics. While there is some truth to this, when you have Hudson, Mulder, and Zito in his prime you MUST recognize this. Note- if you don't follow baseball, you likely will not care about the lack of these pitchers in the movie.

7- Warrior- Since Aubrey bought me a boxing membership for my birthday this year I have been more interested in fighting. The Warrior was about a

6- Mission Impossible- Saw this movie in Mannassas with the family. I liked Tom Cruise performance in this. The movie kept my attention. Another action movie.

5- Puss in Boots- I wasn't expecting much from this movie but I should have. After seeing the Shreks I was expecting this to be taken off of Shrek. It was unique to just Puss. Very clever. Made me like cats more. Good family fun. Would highly recommend this to anyone.

4- Water for Elephants- A movie that took you inside the circus from the early 1900's. I liked this movie so much that I read the book afterwards. I really enjoyed the story within a story from the narrators voice. If you haven't read the book, I would recommend it. I guess there are a couple bad parts but by the time I got to it, Aubrey had already ripped out those pages.

3- Rise of the Planet of the Apes- Based in San Francisco, prequel to the original. I never saw the original but the graphics in this movie were superb. I liked to see the Apes interact together and the psyche of the movie. I love animals.... probably the reason I put this so high.

2- Midnight in Paris- Owen Wilson is one of my favorite actors. This movie makes me want to visit Paris. I thought it was interesting to see the personalities of some of the most famous Authors portrayed. I didn't appreciate it's beauty the first time I saw it as much as the second time I watched it with Aubrey and she explained so much of it to me all over again.

MOVIE OF THE YEAR 1- The Help- I read the book AFTER watching the movie because I was so intrigued with how good the movie was. I even got choked up a little bit in this one. The book was also very good. I LOVED actress Mae Mobley in the movie "You is Kind, You is Smart, and You is important". This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Huntington Beach

2010-08-03T22:47:00.001-07:00

For those of you that actually still follow this blog that has been much outdated, Aubrey and I moved from Provo to Huntington Beach. I recently got a job with a different Medical company and we have moved to the sunny side of the country. We're excited to be here.

Jamaica-

2010-03-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

Since we haven't posted on here for a month or so, I wanted to let everyone know we should have some good pictures this time next week because we're headed to Jamaica on Wednesday for a couple days. Should be a BLAST. Aubrey has been excited for it for nearly a month with her countdown and I am starting to feel it creep closer and starting to get more and more excited. I was disappointed BYU lost to Kansas State but I am stoked for Jamaica, snorkeling, pina colada's, pool, beach..... awwwwww da life.

Serving Others

2010-03-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

So while I was at work today I came across a lady that I work with on a pretty consistent basis. She is a social worker that works with elderly people as they're leaving to go home and she is the sweetest lady. She is an older woman with grandchildren and so she connects well with many of the geriatrics that are in the facility. Today, I sat down and talked to her about how she's planning on going on a mission next summer with her husband and will be leaving the facility. She went on to tell me about how she feels that the best way to be happy is through service. I have been taught throughout my life that through serving others you can see the true beauties of life but this is one o those ladies that really lives what she believes. She inspires those around her and serves those around her. She's the type of person that people want to be around because she is such a nice person. I know that I am blabbering and a lot of this is incoherent but i felt that this was something that touched me in a manner that was atleast worth posting. As we talked about her mission she was planning on going on she mentioned that she had a friend that told her the most important thing to do as a senior missionary was, "show you are happy in our marriage because a lot of people don't have examples of happy marriages." I thought this was so interesting and so true. She continued to say, " That's something I think I can handle!" because she truly is happy. This woman has it figured out and there is something to be learned from her.

Top 10 Movie List for 2009

2010-01-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

Here's my 2009 list of my top movies. If you haven't seen them, check them out. Most are good family fun!

Honorable mention- 500 days of summer, Up in the Air

10- The Proposal- I sincerely enjoyed this comedy. If you haven't seen it check it out.
9- Sherlock Holmes- Robert Downey Jr. is great in this movie, I loved the story. One of those movies you'll hae to see more than once to catch it all. LOVE the music
8- Ice Age- Dawn of the Dinosaurs- Could not believe how much I liked this movie. Def the best of the three ICe Ages
7- Taken- Intense drama that gives us an ugly insight of trafficking
6- State of Play- Clever, had me on the end of my seat the whole movie
5- The Princess and the Frog- Great Disney movie. Impressed with the storyline and LOVED the firefly Ray
4- UP- Great Pixar production
3- Avatar- Didn't have any interest in this movie until I saw it and flew through 2 1/2 hours. Story, production, directing all were great
2- The Blindside- I had to fight to not put this at number one. Maybe because of my love of sports maybe because it's a true story, maybe because Sandra Bullock was AMAZING .
1- Everybody's fine- VERY REAL movie. I thought the acting was phenomenal and I thought the story line seemed very real. Felt for a few minutes that I had actually seen into someone else's life. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

Everybody's fine

2009-12-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

So, I know that I don't write on my blog very often but last night Aubrey and I watched a movie that I thought was worth mentioning. As we sat and watched the Nebraska vs Texas game until the very in, hoping for Texas to lose so that TCU and the Mountain West would get a chance to go to the national title game. As Nebraska kicked the ball out of bounds and then eventually lost the game on a last second field goal Aubrey and I headed out across the street to the movie theater to watch what we believed was going to be a Christmas movie. We chose Everybody's fine because Aubrey is a big fan of Drew Barrymore and it had a good cast and seemed to have a good trailor that we had seen from watching other movies. We walked in after getting our popcorn bucket filled and our Large Mr. Pipp (really enjoying the movies) and sat in our seats.

As the continual trailors for other movies played, I thought that we had come to a movie that might not be as good as I was hoping but I have to admit that I thought this movie was a top 5 for the year of 2009 that I have seen. I don't think Aubrey enjoyed it as much as I did but I really, really enjoyed it. Without trying to spoil the movies for others, the movie is basically about a widower father that has four children that live all across the country. He was a father that always pushed his children for success and always wanted them to have the best. Because of this they would tell their mother everything and not him. As he surprises his children showing up at their house they seem to make continual excuses as why he cannot stay longer. He then leaves to go to the next child's house. While this movie didn' thave the cheer and joy that I was hoping for from a christmas movie it touched me in a way a movie hasn't in so long. It was very heavy, even so much so that Aubrey said she liked it but likely would never want to see it again. The moral of story and what I got out of it could be entirely two different things but I thought the movie was attempting to portray that the most important thing is not how successful you are but rather that the most important thing is family. The movie had Aubrey and I walking out speaking how lucky and grateful we were for our family and how lucky we were to be put in a situation where we could succeed. I felt inspired enough by this movie that I thought I would even post a blog about it to publicy express my gratitude for my family and my new family. I am very lucky for the people that I have had in my life and for their influence on me and in this christmas season, the most important thing is certainly family.... not items. Merry Christmas to all, and if you get a chance, go watch 'everybody's fine'.

BYU Cougars Found Their Foe

2009-09-20T21:31:00.001-07:00

I don't post on this blog that much anymore becuase my wonderful wife has done such a tremendous job on our marriage blog that covers my life very much. You can find that HERE. Anyways, I thought that I would be wasting space if I wrote about my Cougars on our family blog so I figured I would post my thoughts here. This picture above is actually from a game last year. We didn't take any yesterday, and that's probably a good thing because we both would've been red and angry from the horrible game. As all the media and followers of the Cougars said all week, it was supposed to be a big win against the Florida State Seminoles.

On our way in to the game, we talked to some FSU fans that were tailgating and I said to them, "Welcome to Provo!" (I was trying to immulate some of the classy schools around the country). The FSU fan said, "take it easy on us today." Geez ,that was the beginning of the end. They ran all over us in every bit of the sense. The Cougs couldn't slow FSU down at all and unfortunately by the end of the game, it was them that was taking it easy on us....after their 54 points and a silent stadium. Luckily we're still ranked at 19 and have plenty of football left for the season! Aubrey was good at making me feel that football isn't the end of the world and I started realizing that we don't neeed a undefeated season to be happy this year. THe game sure did have the feel of the TCU game that Larson Laidlaw and I traveled to last year. Either way, i'm still excited for the season and figured I needed to post something on here. Follow our blog at aubreyandhunter.blogspot.com. I love my wife.

Hunter

Hunter

2009-07-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I talk too much......

Yesterday we had a sales conference where we took a personality test which helped us understand more about ourselves. Honestly, how many times have we taken one of those? Well, once again I figured out I had a 'D' personality, which basically states that I am demanding, decisive, determined....etc. The same personality that a 'red' would qualify under. I just spout out whatever comes to my mind and tend to interrupt a lot of people while speaking. It's a very aggressive type personality. I really don't even notice it until I talk to Aubrey afterward and she reminds me of something I never should've said in the first place. If you have ever met my old man you would understand where it comes from, the guy could talk your ear off all day. I have been told before that the reason that I have had success in sales is because I talk so much and fast. Who knows how that translates but apparently it does. I apologize that this is probably not a very exciting first post from me in my debut on Hunterandaubrey.blogspot.com but I will make some stronger outings in the future.

NEW BLOG

2009-06-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

ALRIGHT, Now that i am married my new blog is aubreyandhunter.blogspot.com

check it out, aubrey is a much better blogger than i have become!

less than a week

2009-05-03T11:33:00.001-07:00

I get married in less than a week! I am sooooo excited.

Costa Rica

2009-03-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

Just got back from President's club to Costa Rica with Orbit. It was FABULOUS. Monkies, four wheel rides, zip lines, beach, warm weather, Aubrey, 5 star hotel..... and many many more. The resort was amazing, the monkies were adorable, the mango was to die for, and the whole trip was a touch of heaven. We went on a trip up to the mountains, about 2 hours away from our resort and went horseback riding, had a mud bath, went on an awesome water slide, went zip lining where we saw a whole group of monkies jumping from one tree to another... (on film, I will put it up as soon as I get it from Aubrey). It was just the best trip ever. I have lots and lots of pictures that I have to get from Aubrey once she uploads them and you can see for yourself how wonderful it is! I was just so excited I had to blog this.

P.S. I just realized that I haven't blogged about how Aubrey and I are ENGAGED and getting married in DC in May! I guess I can tell that story on another blog but we have been engaged since San Diego February 13th!

Update- president's club

2009-02-08T23:34:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I have posted on here so I wanted to give an update. I am now managing Phoenix reps for Orbit and I just got back from a sales conference in Indianapolis. I was awarded Rookie of the Year and President's club for 2008. We are headed out to Costa Rica in March for 4 days on the company. I am going to boast here for a minute so bare with me. President's club is a calender thing. You have to earn a certain figure for the company over the calender year and if you do then you get to go on a trip. well, 22 reps made it out of 99, giving you a rough idea of how many made it. I was number 9 of them all and I started in April. Anyways, I am veryyy excited to get to Costa Rica.

This coming weekend Aubrey and I are going to San Diego for President's day weekend. We're getting away from the cold weather here in utah and getting down to encinitas to really enjoy the sun. I am so excited. I figured we probably should've flown but we decided to drive because road trips can be so fun so we're leaving this coming thursday and probably coming back monday or tuesday. I am excited. Here is a picture of us recently in DC and around.

Elder Enrique Ugalde update

2008-12-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

I am not really sure if anyone reads this blog anymore but whatever, the reason that I write it is to have some memories for the future. Anyways, my good friend from my mission Luis Enrique Ugalde Guttierez got his mission call and he is going to...........Billings, Montana. yes it is FREEZING there but it is goin to be a great experience for him to learn the gospel more so than he already does and continue to prepare himself spiritually. He doesn't even have to bring a bike. We opened his letter from the first presidency in front of the provo temple (pictures to come soon) and we recently went through the SLC temple for the first time for him. it was such an amazing experience and I couldn't have been more happy for him. he's one of my best friends and i'm going to be sad to see him go but I know he's on the Lord's side and that he will be brother's with the Lord. After seeing him go through the temple it made me realize how important missionary work is and how glad I was to be able to help him in his life to prepare for a mission and a life of missionary work. he's going to be a great leader one day, not only within in his family and the church but others he will lead as well. I'm excited for him and he's excited to go to montana. he was jumping up and down for joy when he found out that he got his mission call there!

Utes

2008-11-23T18:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was one of the ugliest outings I can remember from a BYU Player. Max Hall was awful. He threw 5 picks and fumbled creating 6 turnovers for the Utes and all but handing the MWC title and a BCS berth to the Utes. I wasn't really mad throughout all the turnovers as I thought that Max would bounce back and end up leading the team back to a game winner, as a BYU qb has the last two years. This morning when I got on totalbluesports to see what the other diehard BYU fans had to say 70% of people were blaming Hall for his awful outing and the other 30% were blaming Robert Anae, the offensive coordiatnor. I don't even know what to think at this point. The season is over besides a bowl game but it has been fun to watch.

My sports experience seems to be the same every team Ichose to like. The Chargers, teh Padres, the COugars....all three can win in the regular season, can win games but cannot win when it really matters. They can't win the big game, the series, the super bowl, the game to get them into the BCS game. It would be so much easier to cheer for a team like the BoSox or the Yankees or the Lakers or some other big market team that goes out and spends millions of dollars on a team so they can win. As for me and my sports teams, we can't seem to win when games really matter. The majority of this post is nonsense. But isn't that the reason we have blogs?

BYU FOOTBALL

2008-10-26T11:13:00.001-07:00

I am a die-hard BYU football fan, so much so that my friend Larson and I traveled down to the TCU BYU

Lots of NEW stuff

2008-10-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a very long time since I have posted but I wanted to get on here and write about a handful of things that have recently. For starters, I just turned 24 years old....yes i am becoming an old man. Kind of crazy. Two days before I turned 24, my dad turned 58.... I am pretty sure he doesn't read my blog nor would he really care that I am writing his age on here. For my birthday, Aubrey and I flew down to san diego and enjoyed ourselves for 5 days in the sun, seaworld, Padres games, and the beach! She came away with her favorite being Ponto, where there is a jetti that the ocean water filters into the lagoon in carlsbad. She likes the Rocks.... i am down with ANY BEACH really. I forgot to mention that for every meal I forced Aubrey to eat mexican food. We went to Fidels, Rico's and Santana's (twice) and she had her first taste of a real california burrito. She thought they were really good and liked the fries inside but thought it was weird. It was a great trip. We even got a ton of pictures but I haven't been able to post them beacuse they're on her camera. But as soon as she can get them on the internet I will post them. It was a great trip that we ended with stopping at IN-N-OUT in Mission Beach on our way to the airport! I forgot how authentic the original IN-N-OUT really is, we have a bunch of copy cats here in utah but none of them are as legit as the real one.

Since I haven't posted in forever, i haven't mentioned my BYU Cougars that are blowing the competition out of the water and are currently 4-0 with two consecutive shutouts. Yes, this is on the eve of the Utah State game in Logan which would make a likely 5-0 bid and a possible third shutout. I have been really impressed and didn't think the Cougs would get through the two pac 10 teams without losing but they proved me wrong, and the rest of the country. They're getting tons of national attention right now and i'm loving it. Even the guys from PTI think they have a chance at getting to the national title game. Pretty legit huH? Well, as many of you know.. i'm a diehard cougar so i am enjoying every minute of this season thus far.

As for the company, still blowing up. Things have been very successful since I started and I just continue to work hard to make sure taht I can keep my referrals coming in. I hope that I can continue to have success but thus far i have had a blast and really enjoy my job!

I will have pics up soon. Sorry it's been so long. I'm sure this isn't the most entertaining blog ever but ya...whatever.

facebook frenzy

2008-08-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't have facebook....well, you're probably from the older generations. for those of you that do have facebook, then you know exactly what i am about to tell you. Last week, I decided that I was going to take a break from facebook and deactivate it for a couple days to see how strongly addicted i was. Well, my facebook is attached to my BYU email account, and as I recently graduated....I no longer have a BYU email account. So, i deactivated my account and had no way of accessing the email any longer because of graduation. This is the good part. I wanted to get back onto facebook because I had pictures on there and oh so many friends and well....it's an addiction. I finally got back on to facebook after writing them numerous messages about how I had been stuck without receiving the facebook activation email. It was about a week until I got back on and I have now changed my email login and finally got to it. Oh so nice to be back.....

As for work, I have had a lot of success with Orbit lately. I set a new utah record with Orbit last month, (making it the second record I have set for Orbit since starting, rookie record also) and am having a good month once again this month. With aubrey back in town, it's been hard to continue to blog. This weekend we went four wheeling down in spanish fork canyon and had a blast. I would put pictures up, but they're on my treo phone adn i haven't figure out how to send them over to my computer yet. Well, when I do... i'll put 'em up.

DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA!

2008-07-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Those were the words of the song that my father sang the ENTIRE time that we were in Argentina last week. While we were there it was WONDERFUL! I really really really like argentina. BUenos Aires was very european like and the people down there were very well dressed, good looking and it appeared educated. Now, this doesn't mean that everyone down there was good looking and educated because it was a hugeee city and there were protests every single day but i really enjoyed myself. I got to speak some spanish and communicate that way which is always fun but even on top of that was to listen to my dad communicate in spanish. The guy is on the ball. He speaks much better spanish that i had anticipated, he basically trasnlated everything from english to spanish and spanish to english. He talked to everyone, just like we know Paul Hartman does and when we were in the hotel room he would sing, "don't cry for me argentina" to my mom and I the entire time! IT was AWFULLLL! haha, but it was pretty entertainig. We stayed in a 5 star gorgeous hotel in down town Buenos aires and we had just a blast. Down below are some of the picures of the great things we did! It was so much fun I can't wait to go back.

Return of the QUEEN????

2008-07-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

So I sent home to San Diego for the weekend to welcome back Elder Skeen. Little did I know that he looked more like a sister than he did an elder. Usually when missionaries come home they're fat, well mckay didn't catch the memo and he weighs a whopping buck and a half. I was happy for him but couldn't beleive how skinny he got. We got to take batting practice with my dad over at digueno junior high. We both knocked some balls out of the ball park and had some fun. It was fun. Then we decided to go watch mckay's dirty angels play. His favorite player Gary Matthews Jr. was terrible (complete sarcasm). They got beat up by good ole LDS member Roy Halladay. It was a fun game and as you can see you we weasled ourselves down into some pretty dang good seats. We sat about 9 rows up right behind the blue jays dugout. As normal, I pulled some free tikcets and got my dad and i for free. I just asked some girl if she had any extra tickets and we got in for free. Anyways, it's nice to have McKay home. Beward provo.

A touching moment

2008-06-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

So today I played golf with my married buddy Jordan and he was telling me about this talk he has in church tomorrow that he hasn't written yet and how he needed to do it. I didn't think much of it and told him just to go up and bear testimony like everyone else does in their talks. Rarely does someone prepare much for a church talk at the age of 23. ANyways, Jordan called me later tongiht and asked me if he could use my printer to print his talk. I wasn't home and was like sure just go over there and do what you have to. When I got home, I came into my room and saw that he had left the story he was using up on the screen. I began to read it and then watched the video afterwards. I was going to try to post the video but because of my lack of blog knowledge I couldn't figure it out....yea, yeaa, yeah.... just go to this site and watch it. It's 4 minutes long and literally one fo the most inspiring stories I have witnessed. http://cjcphoto.com/can/ the story is at the top and the video is at the bottom. I HIGHLY suggest you read this if you want a spiritual boost for the month!

The Spirit of Work?

2008-06-22T23:56:00.001-07:00

So recently I have had a lot of referrals and a lot of opportunities to close PWC. Usually I go into the patient's home, show them the chair and then leave after meeting with them. There are few occassions when I feel connected to an individual because there usually are nurses, spouses, children, someone else around that are caring for these individuals and that can take care of these patients. On Friday, I went to the house of a woman that is 87 years old. She lived by herself in a subsidized housing by Provo City. When I knocked on the door to enter into this lady's home with the Jazzy Power Wheelchair I felt that this was going to be another experience where I just want to get in, show them the chair, answer any questions they have for me, let them test drive the chair, and then leave. Especialy considering it was 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. But when this patient opened the door it was different than normal. She was by herself in her apartment, with the TV blaring. The Tv was one of those that i would've seen at my grandparents house 20 years ago. It was terribly pixelated and it did not have a very good picture. It was on the ground next to her chair. I looked at the walls that were covered with pictures of family members and such and then I began to talk to this lady. She told me that she didn't have any family in Utah and had 2 boys. she then told me that she shouldn't clal them boys becuase one of them was about to turn 70......yeah i wouldn't clal them boys either. She has a great granddaughter that is 21 that is pregnant right now!!!!! Talk about a legacy!!!! WOW, I was impressed. I started to sit down and talk this woman and get to know her better. And I sadly regret saying that I felt bad for her. I know that she didn't want me to feel bad for her, she was still very independent. SHe would go to the grocery store on her scooter and get groceries and such. I had a lot of compassion for this woman and thought of the way that my mom took care of her mother. She had a deep compassion for this woman and wanted to help her any way she could. It was a great experience, one where I wished I could do more for this lady. She was a sweetheart and had lived a great life with a great legacy and was still excited about living! Oh, the lessons to be learned by the wise.

Fantasy baseball

2008-06-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you out there that play fantasy sports you can understand my obsession with it. I started my career in fantasy sports in fantasy baseball like 8 years ago when my dad and i decided to go in on a team together with some of his buddies from work. I told him i would help him win the league if he had me his assistant manager, sure enough we won. He went from last place in the league to first place in the league. Well the next season i decided to not keep A rod on our team and we gave him away and had the last pick. Terrible decision and we went back to last place. It was ugly! Now i'm playing in a fantasy league with Jason Reddick, Rory Morgan and some other clowns from my hometown. i'm in 8th place of 10 teams and cannot seem to figure out why i can't get my team into the top half of the league. on paper i have a solid team but i don't know what it's going to take to get them above where they're at now. The reason I write this blog is because sports consume me, they're a part of me, ever since I was a little I always thought there was nothing more to life than sports. Well, as i've gotten older i hav noticed there are some things that are important other than sports, but still haven't found anything i love as much as sports. I remember when i was in high school when my dad introduced me to someone i later asked my dad if he played sports or like sports. He told me that he didn't like sports and i remember saying," what a weirdo. Why not?" my dad gave me good advice and told me taht you don't have to like sports to be a good person, you don't even have to like sports to be a FUN person. I found that hard to believe at the time.

This morning I got an email from Aubrey in Vienna about an experience that Digger Phelps had on his tour of europe. She had to read this quote for homework when she was in Vienna. The quote reads, "I had a very narrow vision of the world, and when I became a basketball coach, I guess my vision became even narrower. I lived basketball 365 days a year. When I became a basketball coach at Notre Dame, I thought I had gone to heaven. Then, in 1975, I took my first trip to Europe. It's hard to explain the impact, but all of a sudden, I saw another world. I went to museums- in Paris, London, Amsterdam- I was overwhelmed by what I saw. I couldn't absorb all of the painters, so I fell in love with van Gogh. I studied his art. I studied his life, his struggles, his sorrows. I stopped being consumed by basketball. The change was visible. I took down the plaques and trophies in my office and I put up paintings. I switched off the hard rock music and tuned in to classical. I even gave up the colorful sports jackets that had become my trademark and bought three-piece suits. I still care very much about basketball. I still want o twin. But there are so many other things in the world, so many things just as important, more important. Give me a choice now between winning the NCAA championship- for te first time in my career- and getting a can Gogh for my wall, and I'm going to have to do some very heavy thinking."

How could an NCAA basketball analyst and legendary NCAA coach have to think about artwork and an NCAA championship? That boggles my mind! Just goes to show that there REALLY IS somehting out there more important to than sports. When I was younger i would chose sports over church everyday of the week....these days, not even close to the case. Gospel's more important. I wouldn't go as far to say that i would chose sports over relationships but if you told me that i would have the opportunity to knock down a game winning three-pointer, be placed in the newspaper the next day with quotes and pictures, and have the opportunity to play in the Championship game to give up my best friend....as a high school student, i would've considered it. These days....not a chance, relationships are far more important. Last year I went to London and saw how the people in London lived without the dedication to baseball, football and other sports. I didn't understand it. They did, however, have that same passion for soccer, a sport that i couldn't care much for but the bottom line is that they had a different passion. They had museums with HISTORY. My dad LOVES history, he used to ask me how i didn't have the interest in history in books. In high school, all i cared about was sports....now a days my interests have expanded. Hopefully one day i'll get to the point Coach Digger got to....

Memorial Day to San Diego

2008-05-27T20:51:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I have written on my blog so I figured it would be a good time to add a picture of my dad and I at the San Diego Padres game over the memorial day weekend. I went down there for the weekend to get away from Provo for a little while and to visit with my parents. Unfortunately when I first got down there the rain followed me from Utah but in all honesty it was fun because i just slept in and used my mom's hairdryer to keep myself warm in bed. (my mom taught me that). On saturday my dad and I went to Petco park and watched the last place Padres face the Reds. Knowing my dad and I we of course got the best deal of tickets and then walked down to the premier tickets where the high rollers sit. It's always nice to get out to see some baseball games regardless of how bad the pad squad is this year or not.

On memorial day my dad and i played tennis at the courts up the street from our house and i beat him around the court a little bit. alright, let's be honest, he's 57 years old and still has one sport where he can still beat me. It's frustarting to know that the old man beat me but it's also comforting to know that he only plays about 3 days a week and every saturday with his buddy and me on the other hand, well i play twice a year or so. I like tennis it's a fun game but i don't have the passion that my dad has for it, probably never will. I have that for baseball and golf and used to have it for basketball. I just love sports. After tennis my dad and i went to encinitas ranch and hit some golf balls courtesy of good ole kindergarden friend Jason Reddick. It was a good father day activity before coming back to our house and having another great bbq meal prepared by my wonderful mother. I really miss her good cooking. The difference between eating fast food and her food all the time is night and day. I took for granted when i had it.

Today I got back to work for Orbit and have set up my 10th delivery for the month. For a rookie, that is pretty ridiculous. Considering that quota is 3 for your second month. I am confident that i can consistently do that but just need to continue to work hard and keep up my relationships with the ones i have now. I still have a complete days left of the month and i'm trying to work hard to continue to grow the numbers. I told my boss that i was going to chase down the #1 one rep in the company last month and i think he thought i was an ignorant cocky young kid....little did he know.

So far so good....

2008-05-14T18:10:00.001-07:00

So my first full month is turnign out pretty well with Orbit Medical. I have 3 chairs delivered as of today and should have 2 more for tomorrow, which will put me at 5 by the 15th with a couple more lurking ready to be swooped up. The top sales reps sell 10 a month and I am on pace to do that in my first full month. I would say I'm doing pretty well and that the learning curve hasn't lite me up.....yet. Now with that being said I have received a ton of help from my sales manager and the VP of sales who have both helped me in making sure I do everything right. But i'm going to take some credit....the bottom line is that I have to get them taken care of and I have proven so far that I can do that. I hope that I can continue with this success, the job is very fun when it's like this and I can get used to this. With that being said the past three days I have not gotten home before 630 and I have been showing chairs all three of these past three days. It's been fun and doesn't even bother me but it is late and i get tired when i get home and have to do it all over again the next day. It's been a blast so far...

With aubrey being gone I can basically dedicate all of my time to the job, softball teams and sleeping. I know she's having fun over there but I miss having her here. You should see some of the pictures she has taken. I also heard from crazy McKay who is coming home in seroiusly like a month or something ridiculous like that. i can't beleive that dude has served a mission already. He's going to live with me here in Provo and we're going to have a blast. He told me that he's ready to play golf and that he shot a 45 on 9 already....i can guarentee you that that is keeping every stroke or every penalty. He's a pretty good athlete but after that long of waiting he's not shooting the same he shot when he left. Thats for sure. Bottom line is I don't care if he's shooting a 36 or a 101, I just wanna hang out with him. That'll be so fun. Until next time when i'm a rookie sensation with lots of chairs.....

Vienna Comes to you

2008-05-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

So Aubrey left like a week and a half ago to go to home for a week before heading off for study abroad in Vienna, Austria. She is going to travel to Italy, Germany and some other cool places in Europe. I don't even remember there are so many places. She just left from Dulles airport the other day and I got a text from her and a call from her today! It was exciting to hear from her. I didn't know if I was going to be able to talk to her much because she's half way around the world but she called me via Skype. For those of you that have someone that is far away and want to talk to them, skype is SOOO cheap and easy. I love that thing. I seriously think when aubs gets back that i'm just going to call her on skype and get rid of cell phones. the other day we were talking on skype through our computers and it seriously felt like she was in the room. IT was like HD cell phones.... you can hear perfectly. Anyways, I know she's having an amazing experience over there. I miss her back here at home but it's a good opportunity for her to learn about so much things in europe. I'm sure she'll have so many stories for me. I will put up some pictues on here that she sends me. There is some song by Elton John that talks about Vienna.... I can't remember what it's called but Aubs would put it on all the time. I think it was called Vienna comes to you... if i'm wrong..correct me somehow.

BYU Graduation

2008-04-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

The summer after I graduated high school, I took a baseball summer school class from Palomar college. It was a 1/2 credit and I remember my dad talking to me saying, "Hunter, you have now finished 1/2 a credit of college credit. you only have 119.5 more." Well, 41/2 school years later and I finished those 119.5 credits and walked to pick up my diploma at Brigham Young University. My College career started out at Utah Valley State College for a year as a freshmen before I went on a mission. Then I returned going back to UVSC for one semester. I applied to BYU and BYU-Hawaii during my first semester at UVSC and was assured that I would get in with my 3.75 GPA. I was wrong and did not get into BYU but was accepted to BYU-Hawaii. I decided that I would go to BYU-Hawaii and follow my dad's footsteps. That Summer I applied to BYU-Provo for the Winter semester and was accepted. I still decided to go to Hawaii for a semester and liked it so much that I returned for the winter semester. I was playing on the golf team in Hawaii and really enjoyed it. After retuning to provo for 2 years, I have finally finished school here at BYU and have begun my career with Orbit Medical as a Sales Rep. .

I was lucky enough to have my parents come up for my graduation and take me to dinner. While they were here I bought myself a 2009 Corolla Sport with the support of my parents as well. It was an exciting weekend and one filled with good memories to take. I got to walk with Jenni and Rachel Skeen and Kristine and Kevin Miller.....all cousins from Steve and Teri Skeen's family. Always nice to have some family to support you in your endeavors. My parents were able to meet enrique (who is in one of the pictures below and is the very reason that my parents and I are laughing so hard in one of the pictures.) He made us laugh, cooked us food and even managed to get a parking ticket in front of my house by parking in a red zone. The kid is classic. He's been fun to have around and he's hoping to go on his mission this summer.

Enrique update: Enrique has been working at a Mexican Restaraunt called El Gallo Giro in Spanish Fork,UT. He was lucky enough to get to know a Spanish Bishop who got him a connection with the right people and then eventually got him a job. He's got his own apartment in provo now and is planning on going on a mission this summer. He's been amazed how much he likes Provo and does not want to ever return to Texas. He even said he wants to trick a 'gringa' into marrying him. haha....maybe we'll start a mexican restraunt together, he's a GREAT cook.

Orbiting in Indianpolis

2008-04-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

I just got back from training in Indianapolis with Orbit Medical. The training days were 830 to 5 every day and there were 9 of us that were going all across the country. We learned for the most part about insurance with medicare and such for the company that qualifies people for getting a Power Wheelchair. I really enjoyed our time out there. When I heard that I had to go to Indy, i was thinking that i would be able to see mckay. I emailed him and told him I was coming to Indy and that i wanted to see him but that i would call his mission president to see if that was ok. he was excited about that but he was recently called a district leader so he wanted to make sure that hte president was alright with everything. When i got to indy I called the President to ask if it were possible for me to go see mcaky and that I was on business with my company. he said that he didn't think it was the best idea right now and asked if i went on a mission. I said yes, basically the reason i was calling him and not going to see mckay on our own time. anyways, the president didn't want me go to see him which i respected.

The first night we were there we went to the Pacers Knicks basketball game, it was the last game of the season and the basketball was BORING. No one was really into it and there wasn't really a star on the floor. of course, with my scalping abilities, i got tickets for all of the sales reps for $5 a piece and then moved down to the lower bowl section where the tickets were $71 a piece. It was fun for sure but it wasn't what i expected, games at La Costa Canyon in high school were louder than this game was and the loudes part of the game was when the scoreboard put up a picture of a FedEx vans that were racing and who to pick to win. After the game we went to Hard Rock Cafe and got a malt. It was a lot of fun and I made some good relationships with some other reps that will be working with Orbit in the future. I am excited for this job. I basically have already started and am going out with my manager on Monday to get out and get started in the field. It should be fun. Here are a couple of pictures from the Pacers game. The thing I think is funny is the fact that I was in INdy for 3 days, mckay's been there for 2 years and I went to a pacer's game. Haha. He got to see the real nature of people there though.

Orbit is back

2008-04-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Oh the life of a graduating senior....so I have been training all week with a company called Medicor, a company consisting of 4 employees as an outside sales representative. I was excited because it would keep me in the Salt Lake area and that I would get some great expereince on the way. Anyways, I had interviewed with a company called Orbit that I have blogged about before. They are a great company, consisting of 180 employees all over the United States. They sell Power Wheelchairs, regular wheelchairs, beds, oxygen tanks and CPAP- something that helps sleep therapy. They have been my number 1 company since day 1 that I found them but they originally wanted me to go to Chicago, IL. I wanted to stay more in the West and told them that and that i'm open. They emailed me last night and told me that a position had opened up in UT and that they were looking to fill it by monday. I responded immediately anxiously seeking more about the position. Today they called me while I was up with Medicor. I couldn't answer the phone so I texted him back and told him I would call him as soon as I could. He said the sooner the better, so I called as soon as I could. I ended up going down and meeting with sales manager. He called me back and I told me that I will be offered the position tomorrow. I'm excited to work for Orbit and think it will be a great opportunity.....the question is...how do i explain that to Medicor? The compensation is much better and the perks are better.....so shouldn't be that difficult but still.....aw , the real world.

Training, End of School and Car

2008-04-09T20:07:00.001-07:00

I wish I had some exciting pictures of the things that I have been doing recently. The Utah Flash, the team that I have been selling tickets for is coming to a finale this saturday as we have three games this week. I have started training with Medicor and getting involved learning about the products that we sell. Today I was a lone Cougar at the University of Utah's hospital up on the hill. We put a backbrace on a girl this morning and then got me a Vendor badge so that I can bring products to the hospital when I get referrals. I'm excited about the position and think it's going to be a lot of fun and a challenging job. My boss told me today that I would be covering some SLC and then also McKay Dee in Ogden and also northern Utah including Wyoming and some of Idaho. Could be interesting.

Let's get into the fun stuff....new car that I have to get to cover the area. I right now am driving a '94 BMW 525i, it's been a great car but it doesn't get the gas mileage i'm going to need to cover all these areas. I have been looking at Mazda 3 hatchbacks and Toyota Matrix as possible alternatives. I basically have decided i'm going to get the mazda 3 but need to get the best price possible. We were working the salesman over last night an dhe didn't like the fact that i didn't buy it when we were there but thats the best way to get it done. Especially right now when nothing is selling.

Training, the flash, and finishing the semester has been a tough task to finish but being active is the way I have been my whole life so it's exciting. i have a total of like a week left of school, certainly have senioritis and i'm only taking 9 credits right now. That has made a difference as well because i'm just not putting that much time into the semester right now anyways. I already have 2 cell phones and i'm going to be getting my 3rd on friday from Medicor. Haha...i'm getting rid of the other two soon though, one is the flash phone the other is my personal phone.

April Fools & Third and Final Offer

2008-04-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

So usually i don't like to write back to back blogs because I think people should get an opportunity to look at the previous couple blogs but today is an exciting one. Today is April 1st, which is April Fools day. I can start off by telling everyone about my clever April Fools joke that Aubrey and I played on everyone. For those of you that are technology illiterate, there's a website called facebook.com. On facebook there are relationships statues that people have. Aubrey and I decided to 'link ourselves up' on facebook and be 'engaged'. When I woke up this morning I had 3 text messages and a voicemail. The messages continued throughout the day until this evening when Aubrey and I broke off our engagement on facebook. Not really the most polished joke but it fooled a good amount of people and was kind of fun while it lasted. Hey it seems that there are really some interseted people in my life, it just isn't that fun to tell them everything on there is not real. haha....So that was my fun April Fools joke.

On another note, after what seemed like a VERY long process of interviewing I was able to finally get the offer I have been looking for in the geopraphical location I have been looking for. Today, I had my second follow up interview with Medicor, a medical company based out of SLC. It's an outside sales position that will allow me to get out and meet with doctors, physicans, nurses and bascially anyone involved in the medical industry. The main products are back braces and wound therapy pumps of all varities. I am excited about this opportunity. I got the offer today and accepted it. It's exactly what I want to do. The funny thing about it is the fact that I have looked for this type of job for a couple months now and the way I found this job was via craiglist. The last place I thought I would find this type of job. I had campus interviews, interviews from all sorts of places that I had applied online, interviews with medreps.com. It's been crazy but I'm glad the recruiting process is basically over and I'm excited to get started. I have to thank Jeff Pickett for making me get after jobs so I know what i'm going to be doing once I graduate. I've called him my 'life coach'

Hare Krishna

2008-03-31T15:34:00.000-07:00

So for those of you that have not heard of Hare krishna...you're missing out. On Saturday, an annual event at the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, UT they have an event where they have thousands of people come out and throw chalk up in the air to celebrate Spring. I had to umpire in the morning (it was FREEZING COLD because the wind was blowing like crazy) and really did not want to go to this 'event'. I was expecting some childish chalk throwing and just some boring ceremony where I would fall asleep and not be very entertained. Little did I know it was going to be one of the most fun things I have done this school year. Aubrey invited me to come with her and I wanted to go but felt like it was more of a tribute to her that I was going rather than really going. Anyways....let's get to the good part. We went to this event, which felt like Woodstock because there were so many young students walking up to this temple from seriously miles away. I would guess there was close to 10,000 people there. It is some religious ceremony and they throw chalk up in the air after they burn a scarecrow looking thing. Everyone buys chalk from the temple, which they have to make a KILLING at, and then when it begins everyone throws the chalk up in the air. When the scarecrow began to burn everyone instantly threw their chalk up in the air. For a few seconds it was sooooo cool to see but then I could not breath at all and had to stick my head down and try to breath very slowly. It felt like armagedden. It was sooo crazy. Once the dust and chalk cleared out a little bit people were still dancing around and having fun singing songs. It was just sooo happy....if I didn't know that 90% of the people there were BYU students I would think that everyone was drunk or high on something....it felt very hippyish. Anyways, on the way out I was in one of my crazy moods and so happy. I kept singing this "Hare Krishna" song out the window and was loving life. I've decided that I want to throw a chalk party of my own for graduation, only problem is I'm not going to get thousands of people there and it's not going to be that much fun. So i'll just wait till next year.

Enrique Luis Ugalde: Un Milagro?

2008-03-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

So for those of you that haven't heard this story yet you will probably enjoy it. I served my LDS mission in McAllen, TX nearly 3 years ago and met a kid out there named Luis Enrique Ugalde. I always knew him by Enrique and called him Rick. rick and I talked every couple days as he was one of the members that i was very close with when I was a missionary. Anyways, a couple of sundays ago I was speaking in church and i kept getting phone calls from a 956 phone number. I knew it was Enrique but didn't know why he was calling me so much. He has been known to do that in the past so i didn't think much of it. This is where the story gets good. So anyways, Last Tuesday as I was driving to work for the utah flash i got a phone call from Daisy Ugalde, Enrique's sister. Because it was a 956 area code and i figured it would be enrique but it was daisy his ssister. I haven't talked to daisy very many times but taught her when i was in the field. Daisy and I then began to speak in spanish, asking, "Has hablado con enrique?" (Have you spoken with Rick?) I said no that he had called me numerous times on Sunday but that I hadn't talked to him. Anyways, she then began to tell me that Rick was on his way to Utah and that one of the members of the Church in Houston had paid for him on a bus to come out here. She continued saying that he didn't know anyone in Utah other than ex misioneros and that he she was afraid. I comforted her and told her that I would take caare of him when he got here. I couldn't believe what i was hearing. anyways, i had to umpire that afternoon and then i started getting phone calls from all sorts of numbers here in utah. I listened to one of the messages that was left and sure enough....it was rick and he was in provo. After i had finished my game i waited for Rick to call me and i got a phone call.....he said that he was in provo and waiting for me at the local blockbuster. I was stunned, what was this dude doing here? that was besides the point, he was here now and needed somewhere to stay. I went and picked him up and brought him back to my apartment. we sat down and he told me his journey to Provo and how he prayed and believed it was a miracle that he was here and he couldn't believe it.

His story went like this..He was living with his McAllen, Tx with his sister Daisy working for his brother in law at a restaraut. He didn't like living there because he didn't feel like they were interseted in the church and he wanted to go on his mission but he doesn't have papers so he had to work there where he could get work. He ended up one day wanting to go to the temple so he got on a bus and took it to houston. On his way to houston he met another guy that didn't have papers and had no money. Rick paid $110 of his $300 for a hotel room that night and allowed this guy to stay there with him. When he woke up the next morning he found that the guy had stole his phone, clothes and anything that had any value to him....except his watch which was on his hand. So now he had no clothes except those on his bag and the church clothes in his bag that was next to his bed. He decided when he woke up that he would walk to find the mormon church in houston. After waking up at 730 he walked until 11 am to find the church on that sunday morning. When he finally found it at 11 am there was no one inside because it was stake conference. Rick just wasn't having a good day. So he waited for the bishop to show up. Once the bishop finally came he sat down with him to figure out a way to get him back to Brownsville, TX where his parents lived. Rick always wanted to go on a mission but he didn't have the money or had sat down to start the papers. The bishop was mad with ricky about his decision to try to come up to houston without papers and told him that he needed to call his family to get money to get back to brownsville. This is the reason that ricky had called me 40 + times on sunday, he needed money to get back to brownsville. I was at church so i couldn't talk to him....anyways. Rick was rightfully upset with the bishop, as he had done everything the church had asked...pay tithing, do what's right and prepare to go on his mission.

Then Rick ran into a member who was now living in Houston who used to live in the same stake as Rick down in Brownsville. The member rememberd Rick and asked him what he was doing there. Ricky told him he wanted to see the temple and needed money to go back to Brownsville. The member asked him how much he needed and ended up giving him $300. Ricky then decided that he was going to go to Utah. Two days later he showed up in Provo and called me.

Since he's been here I have taken him to the Provo and Salt Lake Temple. Upon seeing these temples he was very excited. When seeing the SLC temple he acted as a 5 year old does on christmas morning. It was a humbling experience. We had the chance to see the Jose Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration movie and he loved that as well. You can see the spirit working through him and he's been a pleasure to have around. He's spent the past 4 days working in the MTC with missionairies as they prepare to leave on their missions. He has worked in the TRC with the spanish missionary for nearly 10 hours every day. It's been an amazing experience for the both of us. He talked to the bishop last sunday and is trying to get his papers in as soon as possible. Wow....what an experience. Humbling but a great one at that.

BYU & March Madness

2008-03-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

BYU sports have been good to me over the past two seasons as I have seen them lose a total of zero times in Provo in two seasons. The majority of that is against MWC teams, which don't get that much respect on the national level. I have covered the BYU Basketball team for this entire season, writing for totalbluesports.com and grading the players on their performance. It has been a timely but yet fun experience for me. Alright, the real reason while I'm writing this article is because BYU lost AGAIN in the first round of the NCAA tournament. I don't even rememeber the last time BYU won a game in the NCAA tourney. I knew that BYU wasn't going to go very far and I basically was hoping they would win one game in the tourney...wasn't suppose to be I guess. My bracket is awful now-a-days anyways.

March Madness

2008-03-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

For all those sports fanatics out, like myself, it's the most fun time of the year...March Madness. Where there are cinderella teams that upset the big name teams and there are teams from conferences all over america getting into the tournament of 64. For me, i'll be betting on numerous tournaments with my friends, my uncle billy and anyone else that will allow me into their tournament. I was one win away last year from winning the whole thing in my uncle billy's tournament but i was not able to convert the victory. I have a couple of goals for the tournament this season, first and foremost I want BYU to win a freaking game in the tournament. They have gotten to the tourney 3 of the past 5 years but have yet to win a game in the tournament. A couple years back I picked 3 of the 4 final four teams, I'd like to repeat that if not get all 4. Last year, my special ed roommate bobby won the tournament and then decided that he wasn't going to make anyone pay him.....what an idiot. He lost out on about $50 at least. The tournament starts on thursday and i plan on watching as much as i can.

On another note of march madness, i have a huge interview tomorrow with stryker communications. My resume obviously is a little bit light because i am just graduating from school and i don't have a ton of sales experience but i know that i can succeed in this industry. i have the confidence, people skills and the competitiveness to make sure things get happen. i'm excited for the interview, it's game day....just like the old days on the golf course, basellball field and the basketball court.....time to bring the a game.

Daylight Savings

2008-03-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

Awww.... it's that time of the year. Yes, that time of the year when the sun doesn't go down until 8 pm and you can walk out of your evening BYU class and it is still sunny outside. After reading peter nichol's blog, I was inspired to think of the greatness of daylight savings. I was arguing with my roommate bobby the other day about daylight savings. He said that he thinks daylight savings is stupid. We both knew that it was established for the farmers and the farming population of the country is diminishing but I have farming roots (my mom grew up on a farm) and i believe that daylight savings is still important for the farmers. Besides, if we decided to take away daylight savings we wouldn't be as happy once March came around and we got more sunlight to enjoy life.

Here in utah it doesn't get dark until like 930. I love when it gets dark that late. I specifally like to play golf in the sun. Here is a picture of tally and I from our trip to Hawaii last summer when i was playing golf. I cannot wait until i'm playing golf 3 x's a week and playing men's softball in the warm nights. Aw, summa summa summa time.....

Beautiful weather and baseball

2008-03-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

Today the weather was gorgeous here in Provo, UT. It reminded me of the gorgeous days that I did not appreciate in Encinitas growing up. Provo does have one thing that the Coast doesn't have, the snow capped mountains. In the spring time, the mountains are covered in snow and the sky is blue. I wish the weather was consistently this nice so I could appreciate the beauty regulary but that wouldn't be possible if it didn't snow on the mountains. Last year when the weather was this nice I would get/send text messages to Marrianne telling her that we need to go to lunch and blast country music because it was so nice. We started this a couple of years ago in the spring days. Well, the weather today was nice enough that I got a text from Marianne that said, "I hope you're blasting country music right now." It was just a reminder of how much we appreciate this good weather. I did a couple things today that really can only be done in nice weather.....walked to sonic to get happy hour drinks with aubrey and umpired a sophomore baseball game at Provo High School. I tried to convince aubs to ride bikes with me but we only had one bike and it wasn't even ours....so we walked instead. The baseball game was not great, the players are just getting into it because it's been cold for a while and their has been so much snow but it was nice to get out and get behind the plate again. Three things that I love to do when the weather is nice 1) Golf 2) play/umpire/do something related to baseball 3) go get food, walking, riding a bike or skating board...... I knocked two of the three out today in this great weather.

recent exciting life moments

2008-03-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

So recently a couple of really cool things have happened. Jordan and Kristine got married today in the Mount Timpanogous temple and BYU won it's second straight outright MWC basketball championship. while these two items don't seem to be on the same level they both are exciting events to me. Jordan is one of my best friends and one of the closest friends I have had get married. It was weird for me today to see him take that next step in life. I know he's ready for it but it's still so weird to me that my friends are getting married. i still feel like a little boy....and to think that my friends are getting married is weird. I remember a couple of years ago i was telling my dad that some friends were getting married, mike rose, mark strong...etc.. and he said, "get used to it hunter...they're all going to start getting married." I thought he was crazy, but apparently he's right. my dad is always right and the more i listen to him the more i get things done the first time. anyways, another friend married for me. soon here i'll be hitting double digits. one thing is for sure though, robert davis wright will never get married before me but if he does i will know that i am in deep trouble.

As for the other exciting moment, byu won it's second straight outright championship last night in the MWC by beating up on Wyoming. larson and I went to the game, usually jordan comes with us too but he didnt make it because of his marriage eve obligations. it just wasn't the same without him but he larson is stil fun to go with. I wonder what is going to happen when my cousin slash best friend mckay skeen gets home. I have seen the Cougars lose a total of 1 game (in person) in football and basketball since he has left on his mission over two seasons. The cougars have not lost a MWC game in two seasons and they have not lost at home in two seasons. I have seen the Cougars lose on the road over TV and to UCLA when I traveled down there but I have not seen them lose live since Mckay left. The last game that I saw with mckay was the Vegas bowl against Cal where the cougars lost by a touchdown. I hope they continue their winnings ways when he gets back because he is just as much of a diehard as I am. in fact, i sent him a shirt while on his mission that he reps currently in Indiana. A picture of it is above. Gosh I miss this kid....

D-Leauge: Semi-Pro

2008-03-03T21:46:00.001-08:00

Today for work we went to the movie "Semi-Pro" starring Will Farrell. It was some what ironic because the movie was about a semi-pro team and we went with the entire front office and about 5 players that play for the Flash. I was a little disappointed with the film, Will Farrell had some funny parts but the movie was boring.

Forest Anthony has returned to earth because he recently broke up with his girlfriend. I think they'll end up getting back together but it's not to have the lunatic around a little bit. Alright I'm getting bored with this blog. Until later.....

Second Offer

2008-02-28T16:58:00.000-08:00

Well, today I received my second offer for post graduation. Orbit Medical offered me a job and want me to move to Naperville, IL or Chicago IL. I think that Chicago would be sick and a fun place to live for a while but i don't know if i would wanna live there forever. I have some decisions to make in the next week. decisions. decisions. decisions.

Faith Story

2008-02-26T17:21:00.000-08:00

I received a very exciting email yesterday from my cousin Catherine. Her and her husband Randy live in Sierra Springs, AZ with their three kids Caitlin, Riley and Bailey. They're adorable kids and I have had a fun time with them in the past. Because Randy and Catherine could not have kids they had the privelege to have these wonderful little spirits in their home. Today i got an email from catherine that said that she was pregnant for the first time in 18 years and how excited they were for it. They have said either way however the Lord decides, they're going to have another child. What this tells me is how incredibly faith based Catherine and Randy are. They have always been such strong examples to me regarding faith and i'm inspired by the fact that they have finally had the opportunity to get pregnant. The Lord is on their side and has been. The thing that strikes me so much is the fact that they said they whatever the Lord's plan may be they will have another child in their family whether that means adopting another one or having this one. Faith can move mountains. one can always improve their faith.

Revelation

2008-02-25T22:56:00.000-08:00

While I don't necessarily want to write this down on a blog, I find it something that is important to document and something that might inspire someone else. For that reason I will write it.

Aubrey and I tonight were reading some interesting G Chat conversations from when we first started hanging out and met. It gave us some good laughs until Aubs came across a conversation that made her upset. I did not think much of the conversation and thought that she was being irrational but it was until I finally humbled myself and saw her point of view that I was able to see why she was so riled up. I know this may sound absurd but once I humbled myself I felt inspired and believe I received revelation for the things that we were talking about. It changed the entire mood of the conversation and really helped us get closer and solve the problem that we were having.

You know that feeling when you feel like you can change the world and solve all of world problems? Like you're invincible? Well, thats how I felt tonight. I felt like Superman. I was inspired, I felt that I had received insight on something and that it was certainly divine. It was a great feeling. After this Aubrey and I began to read together and it was a great experience. Aw, how I love knowing that God is on my side.

Careers

2008-02-25T16:35:00.001-08:00

I received my first job offer today as I was on my final interview with another company. Wells Fargo Financial offered me a job today as a Credit Manager in their office in SLC, UT which I am very excited about. I also went out with Orbit Medical as a ride along outside sales rep. It was exciting and certainly something I can see myself doing in the future. Both Wells Fargo and Orbit are great companies and I'm excited to see how things work out. I get scared sometimes of graduating and going into the real world but then there are these moments that get me excited about getting into the work force. Tomorrow I have a meeting with Stryker Endoscopy, a Medical company and then I'll round things off with Pfizer.

As my cousin Jeff Pickett said, it's a fun process and I've enjoyed it. It shows that there are certain things in life to get excited about.

BYU @ SDSU

2008-02-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

Going into the SDSU game, BYU had the longest winning streak in the country after Memphis lost. But that didn't last long, as the Cougars lost the game and a chance to get into the top 25. Behind Lorenzo Wade's 28 and freshman phenom Billy White's 15 and 8, SDSU was able to end BYU's nine-game winning streak. BYU was led by Lee Cummard's 20 points. Grades are in for a tough loss at Montezuma Mesa.

Point Guard: D-
Ben Murdock was a complete nonfactor Saturday. He had two turnovers, zero assists and two points on 1-4 shooting. On the first possession of the game for the Cougars, the Aztecs pressured Murdock and this resulted in a traveling call against him. He also made a terrible pass to JT at the 14-minute mark in the first half of the game that went for a Lorenzo Wade dunk. This was one of the poorest games that Murdock has played since the nine-game winning streak began. Because of the way that Murdock played early Saturday, Coach Rose pulled him and he only got 22 minutes of playing time. Jimmer Fredette and Michael Loyd both got minutes playing the point Saturday in lieu of Murdock. I will mention both of them more below.

Shooting Guard: B+

When the Cougars were in a man-to-man defense, Burgess was guarding Lorenzo Wade. This is not an easy thing to do. While the Cougars were not in the man-to-man defense the entire night, Sam Burgess had his hands full with Wade when he was guarding him. Wade dropped in a game-high 28 points on 10-16 shooting. He's one of the most talented players in the MWC and he showed why Saturday. Burgess was called for a couple of ticky-tack calls early on, which I believe made him be less aggressive on the defensive end.

Against Utah this past week, Burgess didn't score a bucket. Saturday, he was 4-5 from the field and ended with 11 points. These 11 points included 3-4 shooting from the three-point line. I would have given Burgess an 'A' for his performance Saturday if Wade didn't put up 28 points. Burgess played very well. He had a tremendous steal and pass to Cummard for a dunk at about the four-minute mark in the first half and he also finished a tough transition lay-up after a great Chris Collinsworth block.

Small Forward: B+

In the pregame show Saturday the CSTV announcer Sean Farnum said about Lee, “Lee Cummard is in the top 10 in seven statistical categories in the MWC. That’s good enough for me to claim him the MWC Player of the Year. Hands down, it's like Tiger Woods going into the final round of the Masters with an eight-stroke lead and they start engraving the trophy already. That’s Lee Cummard's trophy this year.” Lee Cummard certainly deserves the pub that he is getting as of late because he has been phenomenal. Besides a couple of miscues late in the game that cost the Cougars big, Cummard was great Saturday. He had 20 points on 8-11 shooting in his 36 minutes of play. He also pulled down five boards and had four assists before he finally fouled out.

The aforementioned miscues that Cummard made Saturday were missing the front end of a one-and-one that the Cougars desperately needed late in the game. When an 86 percent free-throw shooter goes to the line in a one-and-one, you need him to knock down the front end of the one and one, especially on the road in a tough place to play like San Diego when the game is on the line. Cummard also made an awful pass on the sideline where he threw the ball out of bounds with less than two minutes to play. If he wouldn't have had these couple errors late in the game, I would have also given him an 'A' because he was great Saturday. But I can't give him any higher than a 'B+' when he made two crucial errors late in the game. I agree with Sean Farnum though; he's still the MVP of the MWC this season.

Power Forward: B

Jonathon Tavernari’s shooting percentage was not great Saturday, as he shot 5-13 from the field, but he made some big shots and kept the Cougars in the game. He also had three big steals that helped the Cougars in a big way. JT ended the game Saturday with 12 points and six boards. He shot 2-8 from beyond the arc. While his percentages and stats don't look very good, JT played better than the box score shows. He was great on defense.

He took a terrible shot late in the game where he shot up a prayer from the three-point line that hit the front end of the rim, but rather than moping around and getting back to the defensive end, JT ran to the ball and got a jump ball and a Cougars possession again. He turned a bad thing into a good thing and got the Cougars the ball back.

JT still didn't play as well as he had recently in the nine-game winning streak either, but he did not go back to his ways of shooting terrible shots like the box score might indicate he did. With the exception of the mentioned prayer he shot up late in the game, the majority of the shots JT took Saturday were good shots. They just weren't falling.

Center: F

Did Trent Plaisted play Saturday? I ask because I certainly don't remember him. He had a nice hustle play early in the game where he dove on the ground after a loose ball, but other than that I really don't remember much from him Saturday. Neither does the box score. He was 3-10 from the field, finishing with six points and three rebounds. He did not even get to the charity stripe Saturday. Plaisted also found himself in foul trouble early on. While he did not play well at all Saturday, Chris Miles showed why he has become one of the best back-up big men in the MWC this season with his performance Saturday.

On a future highlight film play, Chris Miles ripped the ball from Wade at the Aztecs’ three-point line and took it to the hoop as he got fouled, and hit then hit the free throw to complete the three-point play. Miles gave Coach Rose and the Cougars great minutes Saturday, as Plaisted was in foul trouble and was a nonfactor.

Bench: B+

Jimmer Fredette got some minutes as the point guard Saturday early, as Murdock did not do anything, but Fredette did not do much with his opportunities either. He ended the night with one three-pointer, three points and 1-4 shooting. He also was uncharacteristic, as he had zero assists as well. The preseason MWC Freshman of the Year was playing on the same court Saturday with his competition for MWC Freshman of the Year, Billy White. White won the duel Saturday and might have sealed up the award for the Aztecs. Fredette has played well as of late, but White was the difference maker for the Aztecs Saturday.

As Murdock did not play well at the PG, Michael Loyd got a chance to show off what he could do. He performed Saturday with his new cornrow hair cut and he knocked down two shots in the first half. He brought in some energy and created some momentum while shooting 2-2 from the field. He did, however, have two turnovers to his two assists.

Chris Collinsworth had a great block that went for a transition layup at the two-minute mark in the first half. He also took a charge that killed a possession for the Aztecs when the Cougars couldn't get a rebound. He pulled down six boards and knocked down a three to contribute off the bench Saturday.

As mentioned earlier, Miles contributed some big minutes and was great defensively on the block. I don't think there's much of a difference between Miles and Plaisted defensively. Miles has come a long way since getting home from his mission this past summer. Thank goodness he has improved and we do not have to watch Vuk Ivanovic play anymore.

Coach: B

It was nice to see Coach Rose get after the officials Saturday when he didn't agree with some of their calls. I wish that Rose would get after them more and show his players that he's on their side. He also mixed up the defensive set to try to slow down Lorenzo Wade and Billy White, but those two just played too well Saturday. I don't think the Cougars lost Saturday because they did not play well enough, I think they just got outplayed in one of the hardest places to play in the MWC.

Random Tidbits: I absolutely hate the camera viewpoint that CSTV had Saturday. It was like we were in the bleacher seats. It was hard to recognize players from the viewpoint they gave us. The announcers are much better than those on the MTN, but the camera work is just as bad. There was a lot of pressure on the Cougars whenever they were inbounding the ball or in the back court. Steve Fisher wanted to go right at Murdock and make him prove himself. Dave Rose was getting after the officials Saturday, the first time I've seen him do that this season. Billy White is the frontrunner for the Freshman of the Year in the MWC and he had eight points in the first 12 minutes of the game, including two steals that went for dunks. The Cougars now hold a one-game lead over UNLV for first place in the MWC. Both BYU and UNLV still have

James Littlejohn

2008-02-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

Jameslittlejohn.com- Check it out. This dude is having a show on Thursday February 28th at the dollar theatre in Orem, UT. If you have q's ask me or check out the site. He's a pretty funny dude.

Vantage Point

2008-02-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

I just got back from watching the movie Vantage Point that has been advertised for what feels like 6 months. If I didn't know better I would think that the majority of these advertisements were from Blockbuster saying that the movie was out on video. With all these advertisements this has got to be one of the most hyped movies in recent memory. It was a trailer in the movies since at least November of last year. Anyways, I went to the movie with Larson, Alex, Bobby and his buddy Andrew. We tried to go to the movie at 2:20 at Provo Town Center but it was sold out so we went to ghetto River wood theater's. For all of you out there that are regular Hunter blog reader's I don't want to spoil this movie for you but I will tell you that I expected more of the movie. The concept of having multiple vantage points for a movie is intriguing to me and I thought there was a possibility that the movie could be one to remember. The beginning of the movie really had my attention but it began to become repetitious with the different vantage points. About an hour into the 90 minute movie, it began to move forward and get into the good parts of it. With some of the big name actors the movie had I expected some very good acting but I'm not going to lie, Forest Whitaker, Dennis Quaid and Jack from Lost were not at the top of their game. I've seen them all perform better in other roles. I mean, Jack from Lost is arguably one of the greatest actors in television history. Think that is a bit of a statement? Ask all your Lost groupies what they think of him. I also thought Quaid had a better performance in The Rookie a couple of years back.

While the movie was not as good as I expected it to be with the hype, it was not terrible and it was entertaining. Larson gave it a '4' out of 10 which I definitely do not agree with. I would've given it somewhere in the '7' range. It was entertaining for the most part all the way through but some of the acting wasn't great and the plot was a little bit unrealistic. There were a couple of car chases that had some good special FXs but those types of scenes seem to be in EVERY movie recently. Bourne Ultimatium had a pretty good car chase scene but the camera was moving all over the place.

I also have to admit during the film I was already thinking about blogging about it. I find this blog about as addicting as facebook. Believing that people are reading what you write is something that always gets me excited, but really....who reads this blog?

President's Day and Encinitas

2008-02-22T16:38:00.000-08:00

I finally got my pictues uploaded from my trip to Encinitas, CA this past President's day weekend. Aubrey and I went down to Southern California for the three-day weekend because it was 25 freaking degrees in Provo, UT and 65 degrees in beautiful San Diego. Because Aubrey drank a bottle of water on the trip down we stopped about 16 times until we finally reached America's Finest City. It turned out to be about a 9 hour trip and didn't turn out to be too bad. The weather was beautiful, the beaches were beautiful and Aubrey was beautiful. My mom's food wasn't too bad either. She made us strawberry crapes and some dope meat. I'm down with that.

Check this picture out Aubrey and I took in the harbor of San Diego. We went on a day cruise in the harbor of San Diego. The weather was beautiful as you can see and the skies were blue. This picture turned out tremendous. We have a sailboat in the background and the water is glistening.
After the harbor cruise we went to Mission Bay and walked on the boardwalk. Aw, it was so beautiful. I love San Diego.

BYU vs Utah article

2008-02-20T22:17:00.000-08:00

While more fans showed up to the relatively new rivalry game against UNLV last Saturday, the 19,000+ fans that watched the biggest rivalry in the Mountain West Conference tonight saw a more intense game and one that came down to the final minutes. While it was a tough fought game for the Cougars, they extended their home winning streak to 45 games led by number 45, Jonathon Tavernari. After a goose egg performance up on the Hill in the first match up with the Utes, Jonathon Tavernari came dropped 20 tonight, a game high. With the win tonight, Coach Rose moves to 4-0 in the past two years against the Ute’s and energetic Coach Boylen is winless in his lone season against the Cougars. Grades are in after the third win against the Utes this season, including football.

Point Guard: C

Ben Murdock knocked down a big three-pointer down the stretch that gave the Cougars a lead that they held on to. Normally a consistent free-throw shooter, Murdock missed the first end of a one and one late in the game. With the game already out of reach at the end of the game, Murdock knocked down back to back free-throws to assure the win for the Cougars. Murdock had 3 turnovers tonight to his 4 assists and played some good decent against an offensive liability Kepkay.

Jimmer Fredette contributed some big minutes and made the most of those minutes tonight. We will talk about Jimmer more below.

Shooting Guard: B-

I was going to give Burgess a lower grade walking away from the game but after reading the box score I have to give him a ‘B-’ because of the 8 rebounds he pulled down and the tough defense he contributed. Burgess was scoreless tonight shooting 0-3 from the field and turned the ball over four times. Guarding one of the quicker and more athletic guards in the conference (Johnnie Bryant), Burgess gave him fits and Bryant ended the game with 15 points on 6-14 shooting. Most of those points were three-pointers that Bryant found himself open in transition as well. While not contributing on the offensive end, Burgess was second for the team in rebounds at 8.

Small Forward: B+

Lee Cummard was his normal self, consistent. He recorded his third double-double of the season and the sixth of his career as he pulled down 11 boards and poured in 14 points. Lee’s signature shot must be the turn around jumper that he has mastered. Late in the game when the Cougars needed a bucket Lee posted up a smaller defender and knocked down his turn around jumper. It was big and a momentum movement for the Cougars. Lee did have a big block where he jumped so high he would’ve touched the top of the box if he would’ve tried. He barely got a finger on the ball but it was enough to create a miss and a rebound for the Cougars. Cummard continues to display why he should be the MWC player of the year.

Power Forward: B+

Without #45 tonight, the Cougars would not have extended their streak to 45 games. He poured in 20 points tonight for the Cougars and was influential in the victory. He was 7-15 from the field and 3-7 from three-point land. JT also knocked down a big turn around jumper with a minute to play to put the Cougars up 5 and force the Utes to force something on their next possession. JT knocked down a big three in the second half that got the crowd going. How the ball went in is still unknown but it hit the front of the rim then the backboard and somehow found it’s way to the bottom of the net. While JT made some big shots, one three-pointer that would have put the game out of reach was in and out late in the game.

Once again JT was the X-factor and proved to be the difference maker in the win tonight. He has played very well recently and hopefully can continue to play at this level to help the Cougars win the MWC.

Post: C-

The big-man war continued between Trent Plaisted and Luke Nevil tonight and once again, Nevil won. Trent simply has been owned by Nevil in his three years at BYU. For those of you that believe that Trent is going to leave early from BYU and go to the NBA after the season need to re-watch the past 6 performances by Trent against Utah. Luke Nevil is a good player and maybe will play in the NBA one day but he is nothing compared to what Trent will find at consistently at the NBA ranks. Nevil held Trent to 9 points and 3 rebounds tonight in limited playing time due to foul trouble.

Trent shot 2-9 from the field and 5-9 from the free throw line. The majority of those foul shots came when Nevil was on the bench in foul trouble. In Nevil’s limited playing time, he scored 11 rebounds and consistently went right at Trent. I don’t’ know what it is but Trent simply does not play well against Nevil. Maybe it’s because of the size or the strength of Nevil, but he is going to see plenty of that at the next level and those guys will be much more athletic. Trent could not get it going tonight and appeared to be waiting for the officials to bail him out as he went to his hook shot. When Nevil was out, Trent needs to dominate against much smaller defenders. He also needs to be more of an influence on the boards. Trent did not play well tonight.

Bench: A-

Cougar fans, if you haven’t heard of Jimmer Fredette by now, it’s time to get acquainted with him. He has a very real chance of being the MWC freshmen player of the year. He had 14 points tonight (a league high for him) and was a great scoring threat for the Cougars tonight. While playing the PG, Jimmer got to the rim and made things happen. I love watching Jimmer play the Point and believe if he had been this consistent early on in the season that he would be getting 30 minutes a game and most of those at the point. I think we have found our PG for the upcoming years. If Jackson Emery can come in after his mission and can come in and play the off guard, Jimmer could be a tremendous PG. He knows how to get to the rim, he shoots the ball exceptionally well from beyond the arc, and he knows how to get his teammates involved, all important attributes for Point Guard’s to have. BYU is very lucky to have Jimmer for the next 3 years, he’s going to be special.

Chris Miles was great tonight. Many of you may remember Miles’ freshmen year when he kicked Andrew Bogut in the back when they were on the ground. This is the type of energy that Miles brings to the game. He grew up in Provo and he understands how deep the BYU-Utah rivalry runs. Tonight he played great defense against Nevil and he also contributed 5 points. This was not all Miles did, from the bench he got the crowd into the game by jumping up and down and getting the crowd into it. He’s come a long way since returning from his mission in August.

Chris Collinsworth needs to improve his free-throw shooting. He missed both of his two attempts at free throws tonight and nearly banked one in, it was disgusting.

Coach: B

I loved the fact that Coach Rose had Jimmer playing the Point at crucial parts of the game tonight but why take him out with three minutes to play? He’s been a scoring threat all night, he’s getting to the hoop and making things happen and he is not hurting you on defense. He also is one of the best free-throw shooters on the team. I did not agree with this decision. Murdock should’ve been on the bench at the end of the game in my opinion. Coach Rose once again had his Cougars playing tremendous defense. On more occasions that one, the Utes were forced into low numbers on the shot clock and did not get good shots off. This needs to be recognized.

Random Tidbits: Coach Boylen of the Utes reminds me of crazy Coach McClain of the Wyoming Cowboys from last season, the guy is all over the court and full of energy. He seems to be the Barry Bonds type, you hate him if he’s not on your team and love him if he is. I am not a Ute fan, so you know where I stand towards Coach Boylen. Minus a couple of calls, I thought the officiating for the game tonight was good. There were a travel call underneath the Cougars hoop that the officials missed and Luke Nevill was given a call or two that were questionable but for the most part the officiating was very consistent. I still do not know how the Cougars can sell out the crowd against UNLV and not sell out the crowd against in-state rival Utah. There was more red against UNLV on Saturday than there was against Utah tonight, that has got to be the first time that has happened in the Marriott Center. Shawn Bradley was in attendance for the second straight game. You can’t miss his 7’6 frame, even when you’re sitting in the nose bleed section.

Next up: @ SDSU Saturday

Rod Benson and San Diego

2008-02-19T14:20:00.002-08:00

I just finished reading Dakota Wizard's forward Rod Benson's blog on Yahoo.com. He's got his own site at toomuchrodbenson.com and then he has a link to his blog on Yahoo that he writes about his D-leauge experience. The guy has some good readings on his blog. Recently he has talked about 12 year old hecklers, the loser that committed to CAL to play football but never had an offer and his experience in the D-league all-star game. I really enjoy reading his blog. I don't know if it is because I like the fact that he's a D-league player getting some pub or the fact that I feel like i know him some because I played against him in high school.

I played against Rod in San Diego when I was playing for La Costa Canyon and he was playing for our rival Torrey Pines. I saw and talked to him at the Utah Flash's home opener when the Flash played the Wizards and Benson had 18 freaking rebounds. Rod probably doesn't remember this, but I still remember all 6'6 Rod Benson (he's 6'11 now) playing baseball against me in Pony League. He had his pants pulled up to his knees and his high socks. The dude seriously looked goofy and I never thought he would turn into much of an athlete. While he was one of the only black kids in our little league he still was not a bad baseball player. His strike zone was giant compared to anyone else that played in the league but he was a good defensive player and you could tell that he enjoyed the game.

When we got into high school Rod played basketball and volleyball. He was a very good volleyball player as he could jump and he was long but he obviously had a ton of potential in the basketball world as well. Rod graduated in '02 and I graduated in '03, so I was a year behind him but I remember playing against him my junior year as when he was a senior and my sophomore year because Rod played JV as a junior. How Rod could play JV as a junior and then turn into a force for the Cal Bears and then become a D-leauge all-star with a good shot at being an NBA player is beyond me. When we played Torrey my junior year when Rod was there, the game was at 9 am in the morning because we had to play before all the other Nike Prep tournament games at Torrey Pines. I remember Coach Cassaw telling us that we needed to just go at Rod and try to get him into foul trouble. He was swatting everything that we threw up. He tossed our point guard Robby Delaney about 3 rows deep early in the game and got the crowd in to the game. While this is a huge rivalry in North County San Diego, the game was still at 9 am so there were not a ton of fans there. If there were, it would've been bumping. This game was 5 years ago but Benson was swatting everyone. I remember sitting on the bench with a fellow junior Rory Morgan and laughing that this was the same Rod Benson that couldn't walk a straight line as a junior.

The summer between my junior and senior year, I remember going to LA Fitness (the local place to play pick up hoop) and seeing Rod Benson practicing his post moves with one of my buddy's dads Steve Strandemo. I thought it was a joke. Here Rod Benson, who had a scholarship to Cal was practicing with Steve Strandemo. While Steve was not an expert at basketball, he knew enough where he could probably help Rod a little bit. It just showed me Rod had the commitment to work hard enough to get there. The dude was raw, real raw and I wasn't sure that he would be much of an asset to the Bears. But he was and he continues to impress me with the way that he has excelled in the D-Leauge. He also can market himself. For those of you that have not heard of Rod Benson, he has a blog and videoes called the Boom Tho movement. My buddies and I seriously reference his slang all the time and have become a big fan of Rod Benson. Sometimes I can get carried away and I think to myself 'Too Much Rod Benson'.

The guy has become an American Hero. Playing JV as a Junior, now he's a D-League all-star and has a great chance at having a future in the NBA. Congrats on your hard work Rod.

The Flash and Life

2008-02-11T23:36:00.000-08:00

Tonight I worked the Utah Flash game as they prevailed over the Idaho Stampede. It was quite entertaining as Forest and Thomas Anthony shared their presence with me. We sat in the Flash suite up top and talked about life and how life is slowly but surely moving forward for the both of us. Thomas is full blown nuts. I love the guy, but he's nuts. It's hard for me to believe that he is a practicing lawyer. I think thats why I like him so much because he can connect with us.

Wednesday I have an interview with Orbit Medical which I'm excited about. I need to figure out what i'm going to do with my life and medical sales is certainly something that I'd like to do. I just need to get into the industry somehow or another.

I did not get to see my boo tonight. These types of days are never that exciting. There's something about her that just makes life that much better. For those of you that think this is stupid mushy non-sense, wait until you finally fine someone that you feel that way for and you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about. She is adorable. Her family was in town because her grandfather passed away, so they were here to attend the funeral services. I still haven't met anyone from her family other than her cousin Tricia. Well, whatever. It will happen sooner or later. I have attached a photo of the two of us. One of the only ones I own. We need to improve that, and I'm sure that will happen in San Diego.

First Post

2008-02-08T23:30:00.001-08:00

Alright this is the second time that I have entered this text because my computer connection failed the first time I tried to publish it. This is basically my first post ever but I feel it it something that I can find something fun to do. It can become a journal for me and a place that I can add my random thoughts. I figured I try to start by putting up a picture of my rocking girlfriend and myself but the image is so big that I can't even publish it. Boooo! I have a headache right now and I am planning on going and playing football tomorrow morning in the snow.

Say hello to my first post ever on this thing.