21: Blog Evaluation

I really enjoyed doing this blog actually. The problem is that i want people to read it so bad and it usually doesn't happen. I feel like i might need to give my blog address to my mom to read. I can see why people don't read it though because i have no desire to read everybody esle's blog. Its just nice to get things out there though. I think that this works well as a type of journal. Its fun to go back and see what went through your mind during the past and how you handled situations that are popping into your life again. Like we talked about in class its nice to know that your not the only one who goes through certain problems in life. I believe we write in journals to realize later on that we are not going through things for the first time and that our previous self went through the same thing. We'll see if i keep doing it it just depends on if i have an audience after this. Thanks so much for having us do this though Sister Steadman i was blown away by this assignment at first thinking it a bit random. It was perfect though. It helped get my writing skills up a bit without the problems of essays and works cited pages uggghhh.

20: Getting Ahead of Yourself

This is my last post. I am so close to being done. All i have to do is get to the bottom of this paragraph and i'll be... wait i still have to do that blog evaluation. Don't you hate that when you feel like your done with something and you realize there's more to go. For example, i graduated from high school and realized i still had four years of college and a masters degree or two and then i have to work. Heck i am already ready planning what i am going to do during retirement and i haven't even started working yet. I guess the best thing to do is enjoy the journey. I GET to go college and then i GET to work.
Another time when i hate jumping ahead of myself is when during the week you get a day a ahead. That's the worse because according to your mind its the end of thursday and Friday along with the weekend is just around the corner. One time on the show "The Office" Jim tricked Dwight into thinking that it was Friday instead of Thursday. I felt so bad for Dwight because i'd been there so many times and it didn't even take anyone tricking me to do it. Like i said though enjoy the journey and make weekdays just as fun as weekend and you don't have to worry about what day it is.

19: The Best of Times: All About Your Attitude

Today i got the chance to go to the weekly BYU devotional given by the presiding bishop H. David Burton. He spoke on something that was very interesting to me. He said that these can be the best of times or the worst of times quoting the famous line from history. He also said that we decide if it the best of times or not through our attitude. Do we view life with the glass half full or half empty. This made me think about how we can look at our lives here at college. We could say that all we do all day is study and it seems like we just want to get school over with. This was my attitude in high schoo. Just get the grade and i don't care what else i get out of it.
Recently though especially here at Brigham Young University i have adopted the attitude of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the first presidency who gave a talk in priesthood session of general conferece. He said that in times of adversity its best to do two things: work and learn. He went on later to talk about learning and how he had a friend with his own desk at home where he could study and he was so jealous of that. I realized at that point that he truly loved to learn and that i could do the same. As i ahve applied this i have realized that school is almost fun now. I get excited to learn new things and therefore i wake up everyday happy to be at an institution such as BYU. Its all about attitude.

18: My Own Best Critic

Hahahaha so guess what i just found out. I was posting my last blog called "shorts" and i saw the comment box at the bottom. I had never thought about leaving a comment for myself so i tried it to see if it would work. Sure enough i am the first person to comment on my own blog today. Kinda weird but i thought i could make a connection with that to life.
I often found that in sports my harshest critic was none other than myself. I knew what i did wrong and how i needed to fix it. I would get so frutrated with myself and realize later on that what i was mad about was not even that big of a deal. I also noticed this in school. If i didn't get a good grade on a test only i knew if i had given my best effort and usually i felt that i didn't. My point in this is that its important to ask for guidance and help from others, but its almost more important to take a step back and look at things for yourself. You know what you've done worng and you also know how you've done that same thing the right way in the past. Don't be afraid to be harsh on yourself because its better to be too caring than to not care enough.
In life its important to set goals. Since you are the only one who can set reasonable goals for yourself you are also the only one who can know if you've done your best to acheive those goals. Be honest with yourself because if you try and sugar coat it the only person that is hurt by it is yourself. So comment on your own blog every once in a while it helps.

17: Shorts

Haha i am loving winter time in Utah. I wore shorts to class today for the first time in a long time. I was so excited because that was all i used to where until i came up here. In fact all throughout middle school i wore jeans once when my mom forced me to since i was sick on a rainy day. I can't quite explain just how much better it feels to be wearing shorts than pants. It reminds me of the summers in California at the beach or just playing soccer. The only thing other than school shorts that i would where is soccer shorts. The problem with those is that they have no pockets so as i went through high school i didn't carry my phone around much. I soon became known as the kid who would never answer his phone. Just leave a message after the beep and i might get back to you.
Shorts have affected all parts of my life. Some of my greatest memories with friends can be associated with the shorts i wore. For example, on my first date with this girl from home it happened to be a double date with my best friend. He showed up at my house ready to go and luckily we realized that we had the SAME EXACT pair of shorts on. To this day i still have those shorts and there were many times in high school that we'd make the same mistake of not coordinating or outfits. It didn't help that we walked everywhere together.
Another peculiar thing about shorts is that there are certain pairs that just don't shape right after the first wash and some that can go on forever. One pair of shorts that i just got rid of lasted me through all of high school and some of middle school to. It helps that i haven't grown at all since eighth grade and i never will again. Other pairs that i fully expected to be awesome would wind up being way to short or just uncomfortable after the first wash or two. Its funny to see how one item of clothing can make an impression on your life, but look back and see what it was for you that was so important in your image. Who knows maybe it was jeans for you or a certain pair of shoes. All in all its important to realize that as long as you are fine with how you look that's all that matters.

16: Time's Fun When Your Having Flies

There are only eight days left in the semester and the year has gone by so quickly. The first few weeks took about two months it seemed but as soon as i got settled in, October blew by and November is now complete. I can only imagine how fast the next semester will go and then a mission will be just around the corner. It is weird to think that every stage of my life has a time limit on it now. The clock is just ticking away until the next level.
My dad used to mess up the saying time flies when your having fun and would say "time's fun when your having flies". That is kinda random but i thought this title might get your attention more than the generic way. All i can say about life is that in order to feel like you are moving with the pace you have to set reachable goals that you can use to measure how well you are doing in life. I have seen this alot in college with those goals that i have acheived and those that i never even got close to finishing. Make goals that could raise the bar in your life and then use them to actually raise that bar.

15: Pick On Someone Your Own Size

"I'm not giving up on this one that would be humiliating"
"O come on you can't get out of this one" My 13 year old cousin had me in a head lock on the floor. He wrestled for his school but that was no excuse to lose to him i weighed 40 lbs more than him. It was a pretty good head lock though. The only option was to use my weight to push through it. As i shoved him underneath me i got closer and closer to getting out of it but it came at a price. He held harder and harder and the strain on my neck was painful. Finally i got my arms around him and from there it wasn't too much trouble to push him aside.
Once i got him off of me i proceeded to make sure that he knew who was boss and just laid on top of him for a couple of minutes until i got bored. Yep i had won but what did i win. My neck was hurting and i had only beaten him by a final push. There was no way to truly win that fight. Even if i dominated him it was my thirteen year old cousin. Anyways i realized that day that its best to pick on someone your own size and that i wasn't quite as young as i used to be haha. My neck killed for the next few days and i had a huge knot that reminded me of how dumb it was to try and get something out of competing against someone i was already supposed to beat.

14: Monday Mornings

"Ahh Watch Out"
"What! Where! I can't see it!"
"Its Monday morning!"
Ok so maybe Mondays aren't scary monsters or dangerous situations, but there is something intimidating about them. The college student's internal clock ticks backwards measuring in time left till that final class is over on Friday's and that time is never as far away as when the alarm clock goes off early Monday morning. The day is full of school and homework that somehow appeared overnight. Assignments that were put off over the crazy weekend start becoming a reality and the pressure sets in. There is no method to stopping it, at least none that any college student has felt worthwhile. Procrastination gets its payback on Monday mornings and procrastinators are left high and dry.
Here's the problem: When students get to that weekend they have been pushed to their limits throughout the week. They have two choices for the next 48 hours of freedom. One is that they can keep going and sacrifice that weekend to get ahead for the next week. The other is that they can put off the work until the time comes during the week when it is necessary that the assignment be done. The latter pushes life in a continuous cycle that can only be stopped with the former. There comes a shift in the work being done by the student as he looks to finish work that will be due and not work that is due. The inherent problem with this is that the mind has been programmed to give an excuse when work doesn't have to be done. When this is fixed so will the rest of the problem. Good luck.

13: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Note: If you this doesn't make sense read some of my previous blogs. There is a theme. Try and see the connections between college and surviving in the wild.

O wow. The moments just after Thanksgiving when the turkey seems to be settling in the stomachs of so many thankful people and the motivation for Christmas lights brews within. Out here in the woods its not so easy to see those lights, but the "most wonderful time of the year" is very apparent. The birds have changed there siren song to the sweet tunes of christmas music and the douglas furs have moved into their role as Christmas trees. The snow, however, is not residing in this part of the world, at least for now. This is good though. I hail from California and the snow is no where to be found there. Christmas to me is not a white one but a blue one. Not blue like the song, but blue like the skies above without a single cloud.
My previous survival location was full of snow. That week was a cold one. When i got off the plane to come here i fully expected the same thing, but it turns out no snow has come for the past few weeks. This will make it easier to make it through the week because walking on solid ground seems to take less time then drudging through the snow. This week has its ups and it has its downs, but this Christmas season as a whole could never be anything less than the "most wonderful time of the year".

12: Survival Trip Number 2

Note: If you don't get what i am talking about you haven't been reading the previous few blog entries.

Today was horrible. I have no food, i am sick, and there is so much to do. I got home safely last week after the busiest week ever. There was so much put into surviving that environment that i feel i deserve an easy week in my next survival test. Of course when i asked for that i only got a harder one with different challenges and less and less will to go on. Today my food supply (the cannon center) only tided me over for a short period of time (3pm to 6pm) so i wasn't able to be completely nourished for the night. It was important that i get enough food too because i have plenty to do tonight.
One of the things that i have realized is a big problem here in the wild (BYU) is that there are constant things you have to be doing along with the extra stuff. Sometimes the extra is small and can be handled while there are times when the extra can be worse then the day to day survival. I once heard a quote that i am paraphrasing and it says make sure to plan time in your day for sacrifice. How true is this. As i plan my week i find that, although the plans fit on paper, they never seem to work out in real life. This is because of many things (including procrastination), but the main one is when we have unexpected trials that require sacrifice of time and energy. It is important to not only plan for those things, but also to try and look out for them in the future. See the walls in life before you have to jump over them and you will never have to slow your stride. Now things like sickness can't be planned for, but extra projects in school and lack of food temporarily can be avoided if done right. Anyways i am trying to apply that out here in the wild, but we'll see how i do. If i make it back to talk to you again you'll know its working.

11: The Best Game Ever

Ok i am diverting from my survival story to talk about the BYU football game. That was the most amazing sporting event i have ever been to. My tickets were in the second row on the south endzone which was awesome. My family saw me on TV and i got to have one of the best seats in the house for the best game of the season. My voice is gone and my stomach hurts from yelling so much but it was all worth it. After the game i was one of the first people to run onto the field and i got to see all of the players. As Andrew George caught that last throw by Max Hall i couldn't even believe my eyes. I decided to just follow the crowd onto the field. All in all this game was one for the history books and i am so glad i came back from thanksgiving early for it.

10: Personal Narrative

“Jacob if you can make this putt then you set the course record”
“Shh Nathan I know that. Let me concentrate here. Ughh! How am I supposed to do this when the wind is blowing so hard in my face. The ball won’t even stay still. Why does the wind have to blow so hard?”
“What do you expect you’re on a boat”
“I’m on a boat? Wait a minute what’s happening. Oh that’s right this is a cruise ship not a golf course. Can you tell the captain to stop moving so I can beat this miniature golf hole real quick?”
“Even if that were possible why would I do it when we’ll be stopping in Mexico in five minutes?”
“Holy cow I am way too deep into this whole golfer mindset. We were supposed to show up at like one in the afternoon. It can’t be later than nine or ten right.” Sure enough my watch said 12:55. We were pulling in right on time. The smell of the breeze brought a familiar feeling to me. It put me back on the beaches of California with the sun drenching my skin just as the water did to my swimsuit. The sand in my toes sent a feeling of warmth up through my spine radiating to the rest of my body. That breeze, although so familiar to me, brought a sense of new adventure. I was crossing the boundaries of my world and taking a trip to the another land, something I had never done before. There was excitement in that air. One could play soccer or fly a kite or go parasailing… “Parasailing?”
“What” you could tell that the rest of my conversation wasn’t with Nathan by the look on his face. “What are you talking about?”
“Over there. That’s either a huge kite with something lifelike dangling from it, or a man parasailing”
“Huh lets give it a shot I think that’s where we’re going once we get off the ship. That looks like a ton of fun.”
“I don’t know man I made sure I would not get too tall because I am afraid of heights.” Ok maybe that’s an exaggeration but I really do have a problem with heights and anything that appears to be too risky.
“Come on Jake when you get back home from your cruise to Mexico what are you going to tell your friends that you did? Play miniature golf?”

As we got off the ship we decided to find the beach where we saw the parasailing and see how much it would cost. Along the way we were forced to find out how much everything else in Mexico could cost us as well. The natives had realized that there was a good profit in American tourism. The constant hustle and bustle looked more like a war zone than a shopping center. The enemy seller was in constant battle over the prices of the good. When it seemed like the seller had finally given into a price that was low enough for the buyer the battle ceased and the buyer had won. It seemed though that no matter how many battles the buyer won they were losing more and more in the war. No matter how much money each person saved on individual items they always ended up using all of their money and therefore allowed the seller to win.
Once free from this madness we walked through the shacks full of delicious treats. To a pair of teenage boys this was the hardest part of the whole trek to the beach. The smell of fresh tortillas and steak filled the air and surrounded our nostrils until we could no longer stand it. Our option was to run past or buy something to satisfy the hunger that had spontaneously showed up. We realized though that our sandals couldn’t carry us fast enough to flee from that aroma.
Nathan started the flood gates: “Jake I have to get something”
“I’m glad you were thinking what I was thinking” As we proceeded to buy the food we realized that what we had been calling traditional Mexican food back in the states was not actually that. Nothing seemed to compare to the tacos we got at that little shack. “Ok Nate let’s get out of here before we get hungry for more.”
“Good point we need to have enough money to do the parasailing.”
O joy that’s right we need to get to parasailing. I was not excited for this at all. How was I going to pull off going in the air when I wasn’t even happy with being on a roof or a bridge for that matter?

Oh the beach was so nice to be on. The waves curled on top of each other wrestling to see which one could get to shore first. As one would get out enough the strength of a new wave would pull it back in. The fight was never won and the race went on and on and would keep going for eternity if it had to.
“Wow you wouldn’t believe it is the middle of November right now” Nathan observed “I’m sure in Idaho its getting close to snowing soon” Idaho, Nathan’s home state could not compare to this place even in its prime. As a matter of fact California couldn’t compare either. The only water in California that you can find that is warmer than the ocean here is in my shower. “Okay Jake let’s get over to the parasailing”
“How about we enjoy this water first” I figured that if I were to die up there I could at least spend my last moments in paradise first. Can’t a man have such a thing in life? “I’m not ready yet.”
“Oh so you’re scared Jake. That makes sense you never liked roller coasters either. You have to do it man this is part of manhood.”
“Hah boy don’t even try to lecture me on manhood. Don’t forget I am six months older than you. By the way I’m not scared I just don’t want to go yet. We just got to the beach so I’m going to enjoy it for a bit.” At this point my mom was walking over to the guy running the parasailing boat and asked how much it cost. Soon enough my mom was strapping up to go flying up in the air. My fate is sealed. If I were to chicken out at this point I would never hear the end of it. One time we had a skunk in our garage and she took the initiative for getting it out because I was scared of it and I am still hearing about that one. “Ok Nate let’s go” Nathan, being the kind cousin that he is, felt that I should go right after my mom.
The man put the straps on to get me set to go. He went on about the rules and told me what I needed to know to get back down safely afterwards. Although I should have been listening to him I couldn’t tell you one thing he said. All I could think about was how the ground beneath me would soon be replaced by the sky above me.
“Good luck Jake” The look on Nathan’s face showed just how happy he was to see me sweating this one out. The wind was extra powerful ready to take over when I went into his territory. As the boat went off I braced for the explosion of power that would thrust me up into the atmosphere. The boat started pulling and I ran a bit and let the parachute take its turn.
The next twenty seconds consisted of liftoff which was the best adrenaline rush of the whole thing. Once I got to the peak of the flight I was content to just sit and watch the world below me. As I looked down the biggest shock was that my feet were dangling from so high up. The fear of heights just drained from my frame as I took in the beauty of the landscape. The mountains near the coast showed signs of life as the trees moved and swayed in the wind. The ocean below was a clear blue and each rock and fish could be seen. The wind that started all of this was settling and I could just sit in peace. The cares of the world and the fears that I had were left on the ground as I ascended into the sky.

9: Day Two in The Wild

Ok so for those of you who haven't read my last email i talked about how i am relating this year and especially this week before Thanksgiving to an episode of Man vs. Wild. Let me take a second to get back into character.
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Ok welcome back last night was crazy. Its hard to sleep out here in the wilderness when you know that at any second you could remember another homework assignment due the next day or realize that there is no way to finish the three papers in the next three days (man i'm digressing ok back into survival mode) before the rescue team comes to get me and take me back to the sunny beaches of California. Ok i can't talk about that because it only makes me sad. Anyways i got a couple hours of sleep last night so i am ready to take on another day of survival. My goal for the week is to survive basically, but to extend that a bit more i want to show you how to get up to the top of the nearest mountain and look for a way out. Now the mountain takes time to get up so its a risk to try and do it because if you fail then you have lost precious daylight. The best thing to do is to get a good sight of that temple, i mean mountain, and take the climb when survival is under control. Imagine yourself at the top looking down at the world above all of the commotion and in the best place for peace.
A warning for this though is that you need to manage your time wisely. If you climb the mountain when you aren't ready or haven't finished preparing for the rest of the week then you could put yourself in more trouble than you would save. A great survivalist (hint: general authority) once said that it is possible to go to that mountain at the wrong time. If you are slacking on your school work, i mean survival (sorry i'm still getting into character) than you could lose sight of the long term plan for this life. Make sure you go when you are ready, but don't use that as an excuse to not try. Make your best effort to be ready to get up the mountain and then do it. Now i have to go work on something but i'll be back to help you out some more. Keep surviving. Until next time good bye.

8: College Student vs. Wild

"Ok so its day two of our journey and my food is running low along with the temperatures. The natives are becoming hostile and i need to find a way to communicate with them."
Ok maybe not but i was just thinking about the theme for this blog and how i could show you guys inside the college life. Then i remembered how i feel like i am on an island here at BYU and one thing led to another until i realized how much i can compare it to survivorman or man vs wild (which ever you prefer). For those of you hwo don't know about this show its where the host goes and gets "lost" for a week and has to survive showing the audience the techniques to get through his troubles. There are a lot of techniques that could come in handy if we were lost in the wilderness and i feel this is similar to our lives right now. There are many techniques that could be useful to make it through college and its not too hard to get "lost" here.
Back to my story i am actually not running low on food, but i have seen those who are taking unusual methods to get there food. The upper classmen that consist of my cousin and his friends take to waiting outside of the cannon center trying to mooch off of people's meal plans. They pay them for the amount it costs but it is cheaper for those with a meal plan. They look for the girls because most girls don't eat all of their meals at the cannon center and therefore have more than enough money acruing on their cards. Yesterday they got caught doing it but still managed to get inside somehow. Desperation breeds weird charateristics.
The temperature on the other hand is affecting me a bit. I looked at the weather the other day and the low in California was still higher than the high here in Provo. That was sort of depressing, but it helps to know that this survival trip will only last a week longer just like on the shows. This is because Thanksgiving is just around the corner and i am so pumped. I guess that's all for now i have to go to English class right now and keep surviving this wilderness. So long until next time.

7: Two a Days

Ok so my plan to do one blog a day hasn't been going so well. Therefore until i can get caught up again i plan on doing two a days. It just so happens that i am doing this during the busiest week of the entire school year. From the three papers to the two big tests to the normal reading and homework in all of my classes this week rivals even finals week for me. My solution: just keep on blogging. I have so much wasted down time because i can never seem to get started on anything. I am constantly trying to figure out what assignment should be done first and i never seem to pick one. Blogging is my new first assignment each day after school. As i finish this i will be pumped up to finish the rest of my homework for the week. Maybe i am on to something and then again maybe you won't hear from me for a few more days.

6: Losing The Game

Down by one with the ball at my feet. Can't turn left, can't turn right, the only way past is to confront the defender between me and my teammate. The reason for this situation is that there are cinder block walls on both sides of me and the goal was the door at the end of my dorm room hall. Its not too hard to stop someone as a defender when you only have to guard 3 feet of space so my only hope is to kick it over his head and try to get past him. Upon leaving my foot the ball soars over his head just grazing the ceiling before it lands at my teammates feet. Now's our chance to catch up as i run past the opponent the ball is passed to me and cut off by the other team. Now they have a clear shot at the goal with both me and my teammate behind them.

What would any rational soccer player do in this situation? I grabbed the opponents arm and proceeded to thwart his efforts to get the ball to the door down the hall. There is no way to win this battle as the other players are gaining on us and will soon be there to aid the opponent's cause. My choices are to hold on and hope my teammate gets there before his or risk it all and let go of him while i try to out run him to the ball just feet away from us. I risk it all and lose----badly. As i try to get past him he starts falling towards me and i begin to veer off towards to doors lining the side of the hall when i come to a sudden stop. The cause: my foot kicking the concrete frame of one of the doors set back about two inches from the wall. A straight shot to the fourth toe on my right foot, OUCH! To make the rest of a long and embarrassing story short i broke the toe and all my chances to play intramural soccer for the next four weeks. What is the moral of this story? I don't know, but the other team scored while i was laying on the ground and therefore risking it all might not be the best choice from now on.

5: Organizing Life's Tiny Miracles

Alright five down and fifteen to go. If i do one blog a day i'll be done in time to finish the assignment. Ok that's a bad attitude. I have realized as i do these blogs that i am learning how to look back on my life though. Its kind of like the journal i write in. In my opinion the purpose of a journal is to put together all of the tiny miracles for the day or week or month and see what you are supposed to learn from them. For example last week i was torubled alot about the rest fo my life. I want to make a difference somewhere in the world, but i also want to enjoy my career. As i took this question into the week i realized that every talk, prayer,scripture, and thought i had that stuck with me were about what i could do to be more confident about where i was going. One thing i thought to do was write down all of my goals for my life and then explore different careers that would fit into that description. I am still in the process of doing so but at least i am in the process and not at a stand still.
Another thing that happened was the devotional by the author of "Three Cups of Tea". It was amazing to see the impact that one life can have on the lives of so many others. King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon (this is another thing that i read during the week by the way) said that we are given excess or wealth in life so that we can be his hand in blessing his other children. This is exactly what i want to do. I want to be successful and live a good life financially then once i am settled in, start giving what i've got in the most effective way to those who have nothing. This is what i enjoy and therefore i just need to pick a career that will help me do this. Sounds easy enough right. We'll see how it goes.

4: Working Through Life on a Team

This week was so hectic. From the English paper that i had to turn in to the American Heritage test that i had to study for to the everyday craziness of college i was booked solid. But i did manage to get in an intramural soccer game in which my team was awesome. It was the best we had ever played and we won 2-1. I realized how much of an effect the team can have on how much i enjoy the game. As a team we played beautiful soccer and it was so much fun. There are other days whhen we are horrible and the game is not fun at all.
I want to correlate this to life and how important it is to have friends who are doing good. As a friend it is important to look out for those you hang out with and show them a good example. As you do good in life they will succeed as well and everyone will enjoy it together. The sunday school lesson i gave today was on being self-reliant and helping others be self-reliant. I found it odd that the way to be self-reliant or independent is to first be dependent. One thing that i like in the scriptures is how if we share all of our talents with each other and gain other talents from those we hang out with than we will blessed so much more. I truly believe in this because it makes sense and is an effective way of perfecting yourself. One last thought i want to leave you with is that when God gives you success and wealth its only to help someone else in need of his power. We are all beggars to God as the scripture says meaning we are eternally in his debt and if we don't give to his other children then why should we have his help?

3: Is Solar Power A Cost Effective Way of Running the World

Recently I've been given the chance to write a research paper in English class. We had to choose a topic that would interest us so I picked solar energy. this is an awesome topic because the world is constantly looking for new ways to replace fossil fuels for two reasons. First, the fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource that will run out someday. Second, the new movement is for everybody to go green. When fossil fuels are burned and carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere temperatures can rise slowly and take with them species of plants and animals. Solar energy has the advantage of being completely free of pollution and its an unlimited supply. The sun can produce enough energy in one hour to power the whole world for a year. This is amazing considering the fact that solar energy only accounts for fractions of a percent of our energy use today.
I am setting out to try and find out why this is. What are the draw backs to solar as a main source of energy for the world. I have realized that the possiblity of solar becoming the only osurce of energy or even a main source is diminished alot with the fact that the sun only produces this energy during the daytime. During the night time when energy is used alot how will this be able to power the world. Also, there is a lot that goes into installing and maintaining solar panels and it might even offset the positives from this sort of project. The direction I am heading in to show that this can be done is by previewing Germany's recent boom in the industry. They do not have a lot of sunlight but what they do have is a political group that has passed laws and incentive that make solar a huge chunk of power in their country. What can we learn from this?

2: WIN

Recently my Book of Mormon teacher, Brother Johnson, gave a lesson that really hit me hard. The lesson was right after our football team had lost so he was showing us the best way to get over the losses in our lives. He told us the story about Lou Holtz, one of the greatest coaches ever, who coached for Notre Dame's football team. His team was one of the best so they rarely lost. When they did though, he would sit down with his team and tell them what they needed to do next after losing the game. He simply wrote the word WIN on the board which at first seems like an obvious statement. The coach went on too explain te this stood for "What's Important Now". The team was not going to benefit from being down about the loss and in reality they would actually do worse by dwelling on the past. On the other hand, the team couldn't just say that they would be happy for the next season to start and write off te rest of the one they were in. They had to focus on working for the very next game and for everything else that mattered in their lives beyond football.

Brother Johnson went on to tell us how our life in college is what is important now. We can't look back and wish we were still in high school and at the same time we can't look forward and say that we'll be happy once we get on our mission. He said, "If you're livving for the future, you will never be happy in any present time, no matter how far into the future that may be." It could not have been said any better. If you have a bad roommate or a class you don't like the best thing and the only thing to do is to be positive about it. If you say that you'll be happy once you get to your mission, you'll soon realize that your roommate there stays with you all day. Bad companions in the mission field will come, but the most effective way to get through it is to like where you are in life NOW.

My favorite talk is one by Dieter F. Uchtdorf called "We Are Doing A Great Work and Cannot Come Down". He talks about finding out what matters most in life and sticking to it. He told a story of a plane that crashed in the Florida Everglades one night. The plane was working fine, but one light that had burned out wasn't signaling that the landing gear had come out. In the end while they were trying to fix this problem they slowly descended and crashed to the ground. All I can say to back this up is to take the big picture in life and focus in on the present time. Make your situation positive and fun and you won't have to worry about waiting for a better time. I guess we'll see if our Cougars take the advice of Lou Holtz and concentrate on today's game instead of the rest of the season. GO BYU!

1: Truly Blue Football

Wednesday was a very normal day until five o'clock hit. Helaman fields was covered in blue foam, a foot deep in certain spots. The constant spray of foam that kept the slip and slide going was ending up at the bottom of the hill in a lake of byu blue. Although the title for the event was true blue football, and there was some football, the main event was definitely these two massive slides. The results were bodies flying down the hill at high speeds, but you would never know they were human beings. As the students of BYU went down the slide they were enveloped by the foam and the viewers perspective showed a lump making its way to the bottom.

I got the chance to go down the slide twice. Both times i went head first which resulted in a few things. First of all, any bumps that i hit were felt by my head before anything else. Also, as you can imagine when i got down to the bottom there was foam all over my face and in my eyes. The problem was that i couldn't wipe it off with my hands because they were layered with the same foam. Needless to say, I came home with red eyes and blue contacts, which was a sight to see. More importantly though, i came home from one of the most exciting activites that i've ever done. Its amazing how one event can change an ordinary day into something extraordinary.