Norm's Blog

RSL Road Trip 2010

2010-10-27T21:29:00.004-06:00

For the last regular season match this year I was able to make the trip to Denver to see our RSL boys play the Rapids. It has been awesome being a season ticket holder this year and I've already renewed for next year. RSL are looking to be the favorites going into the playoffs, so it's getting super exiciting.

I rode to Denver with the same crew I traveled with to Seattle last year for the MLS cup final. Like usual we had some pretty good times.

Why Americans Should Be Soccer Fans

2010-06-23T12:13:00.006-06:00

I'll have to admit that by the looks of how our group stage was going this World Cup I was a bit worried that the game would lose much of the traction it had gained in the U.S. over the last few years. The draw against England and the two wrongly disallowed goals that each would have easily put us through to the knockout stages I feared would have turned off many casual American fans once again to finally taking this game seriously. The casual American sports fan doesn't like to watch a game that ends in a tie, and definitely cannot tolerate a sport that can be so obviously unfairly officiated. Instead though, we got a miraculous result that will likely keep those casual fans hanging in there, so they will hopefully really see what this game is all about.

For some reason soccer is still hated among many American sports fans. They criticize the lack of scoring, the draws, the foul faking and the faulty refereeing. Some of these may be very valid arguments, but I would say the real reason Americans can't embrace the sport is because we've never been the best at it. In soccer, Americans have never been dominant on the world's stage, so they hate the sport, but I'm going to say that's the exact reason we should love it.

America was built on a foundation of facing great challenges head on and overcoming the odds. The pilgrims faced religious persecution so they sailed off to an unknown land. Our founding fathers wanted independence so they went to war against the British. It was Americans who first mass-produced steel, built an intercontinental railroad and were the first to land on the moon. Over the two hundred years of our existence we have come out to be the strongest military power, have the richest economy and in many sports, produce the best athletes. It is only in the world's most popular game that our nation fails to compete well on the world's stage.

Soccer is America's final frontier as the underdog. This is the very reason why we should love it. To face the odds and compete to overcome them is a very essential part of the American spirit. With the U.S. team advancing to the knockout stages, we now have a chance to challenge the world's expectations of us as a soccer power. What better opportunity do we have as Americans to come out on top as the underdogs?

To turn away from a sport because we suck at it is traditionally very un-American. The fact that so many Americans do this with soccer suggests in some respects a decline in American values. Could you imagine if Rocky would have had this attitude and refused to face Ivan Drago?

The U.S. has a men's national team that truly embodies the American spirit. They have shown game in and game out that they never give up and they never stop believing. In the wake of their miraculous win against Algeria, Landon Donovan said,

"This team embodies what the American spirit is about. We had a goal disallowed the other night. We had another good goal disallowed tonight. But we just keep going. And I think that's what people admire so much about Americans. And I'm damn proud."

So to all you American sports fans casually looking on to this world cup snickering about players rolling around on the ground and getting their dose of magic spray; I don't ask that you buy season tickets to your local MLS team or buy a jersey of some obscure player in Europe. I only ask that you take the world's game a little more seriously and get behind our American boys!

soccer players more creative than basketball players?

2010-04-27T22:06:00.007-06:00

I have to follow up on my last post by saying yes, I know my logic was a bit ridiculous. You can easily turn it around in either direction depending on your point of view. The point I wanted to make though is that more scoring doesn't necessarily mean more exciting.

It's silly to try explain why one sport is better than the other, because people like what they like and that's the end of it. However, it is fun to express a personal point of view and why you like what you like.

That being said, I want to expand on my last post a bit. I made the point that I didn't see excitement in the sport of basketball because of a perceived lack of variety in scoring methods. Though I still think soccer definitely has better variety when it comes to scoring, I think the core reason for my preference is the amount of creativity that comes through in the game.

I like a sport where players are pushed to exhibit a great deal of genius and unpredictability. It's for this reason that I love soccer. It's amazing to see the thousands of different ways they come up with for putting a simple round ball in the back of a net. The level of creativity I see in basketball just doesn't even come close to soccer in this respect.

Both sports use creativity primarily for the same thing—to create scoring opportunities. In both sports it takes creative passing, fakes and dribbling to open up a shot. Then it's up to skill of execution to actually score. Creativity used in any other aspects of the game I would assume to be equal. This would include defensive tactics, overall game tactics and training methods. If you can think of inequalities in these areas or any others, please comment. As for this argument, however, it is assumed that creation of scoring opportunities is the primary objective for being creative in either sport.

I believe also that the demand for creativity in either sport correlates directly to how difficult it is to create these scoring opportunities. The harder it is to get open shots, the more creative the players have to be to get them.

I think anyone could agree it's far more difficult to get scoring opportunities in soccer than it is in basketball. Just look at the scores. Let's face it. It's not hard to get an open shot in basketball. There's usually just one guy to worry about blocking your shot and then it all comes down to how accurate you are. In soccer you have to worry about the one guy covering you, plus the goalkeeper, plus whoever else is in between you and the goal. Not to mention, the size of the playing field is much larger and you have more defenders and an offsides trap to worry about.

Therefore, based on the assumptions that—a) creativity in either sport is used primarily to create scoring opportunities; b) demand for creativity correlates directly with the difficulty of creating scoring opportunities; and c) creating scoring opportunities is more difficult in soccer than it is in basketball;—it is safe to conclude that soccer demands more creativity than basketball. In my mind this is what makes it far more exciting.

I don't mean to say that I hate basketball though. I still love watching big games in the playoffs and I get what people love about it. Everyone has their own reasons for liking what they like and it's all good.

If you have good points to add, please comment.

why i'm not really into basketball

2010-04-25T19:55:00.005-06:00

So I'm watching the Jazz in the playoffs right now and I have to be honest that I just can't get into basketball. To me it just isn't fun to watch.

Now I've heard time and time again what basketball fans say about soccer—that there just isn't enough scoring. Basketball fans need a constant I.V. of scoring. They love the multiple lead changes and the buzzer beaters—I get it. But there's something about basketball that bores the heck out of me and I'll try to explain it.

There's a lot of scoring in basketball, but is it really exciting? How many different ways are there to score in basketball? I can only name about five; or six if you count hook shots. (The game would definitely be more interesting if you saw more of those these days.) If you think about it though, there really are only about five ways to score in basketball. You can shoot a jump shot, a three pointer, lay it up, dunk it, or shoot a free throw. That's it. And when you see these over and over in the same game, how exciting is it really?

In soccer there are hundreds of ways to score. You can shoot it from outside or you can try to walk it in. You can drill it into the near corner or bend it into the far post. You can cross it in high for a header or low for a deflection . You can score on a diving header or one up in the air. You can score on a free kick by bending it over the wall or by drilling it underneath. You can get a goal off a breakaway or work it in through a bunkered in defense. There are bicycle kicks, half volleys and full volleys. The list seriously goes on and on.

It takes a lot of creativity to put the ball in the back of the net in soccer. It's something that attracts me to the game and it's something I just don't see in basketball.

i think i'll take cancer

2010-04-21T11:13:00.004-06:00

I've been freelance designing for a good 5 months now and I've really been enjoying it. It's nice being able to be home all day and work on various projects. It's nice getting out of bed whenever I feel like it. I also like being able to make real meals for lunch. Oh and did I forget to mention I'll be watching a Champions League match around noon today?

It also comes with its challenges though. Sometimes it's tough to keep the work flowing steadily. That's when I just end up working on my own personal stuff and learning new skills. I'm also still trying to figure out how I'll handle tax season next year and whether I'll be able to ever afford health insurance.

There's one big challenge I've found with design work in particular though. It's one thing that all designers are familiar with and is probably the toughest thing we face. The challenge is that our work tends to always go under judgment of people who know nothing about design. If you think about other creative arts or even other professions, you'll realize they have it much easier than we do in this regard. When a dancer enters a dance contest he is often judged by dance experts. Actors audition in front of people who know about acting. Singers are judged by voice experts. In most creative arts, your work is generally judged by people who know something about what to look for.

Graphic designers face the challenge of trying to impress people who really don't know what to look for in professional design, but often think they do anyway. I came to particular realization of this when I gave crowdsourcing a shot a few weeks ago.

Crowdsourcing is an internet business model where anyone can post design contests in which anyone can post entries in the hopes of winning the predetermined cash prize. The prize is often lower than the cost of hiring a designer to do the job and the result is often that they get hundreds of options to choose from for a really low price.

I've always kind of been against crowdsourcing because I think it really cheapens the profession, but I decided to give it a shot because I knew I could produce much better logos than a lot of the crap that was on there. The result, however, was not that my superior design skills beat out the competition, but that my highly conceptual and original logos were often turned down for logos that were really generic and had really no concept.

Designers will often submit 3 or so logo designs to a client to choose from even though they know which one is definitely the strongest. More often then not though, a client will choose one of the other designs for whatever personal preference reasons they have.

I think this is a challenge pretty unique to designers. Could you imagine if you went to the doctor, asked for 3 diagnoses and chose the one you thought was the most logical? You wouldn't be allowing the doctor to really do his job. In the same way, clients often disallow designers to really apply their expertise, which is really what they are paying them for.

Well, I thought this would be interesting to point out. Are there any designers out there who could give some insight to this and how to deal with it?

gentlemen broncos

2010-03-16T11:50:00.003-06:00

Warning: May contain spoilers.

Last night I finally saw Jared Hess's third film Gentlemen Broncos and I absolutely loved it. It's a story of a Benjamin Purvis, a quiet and awkward homeschooled teen from rural Utah. He's an aspiring science fiction author who goes to writers' conference only to have his work stolen by his favorite author.

I was shocked though to see how badly all the hollywood critics hated this movie. Yeah, it probably could have done without some of the snake diarrhea, puke kisses, and steaming piles of crap, but I just don't get the lack of appreciation this film gets. It only scored 16% on Rotten Tomatoes. Here are some of the critics' comments:

"A tedious and unfocused concoction involving science fiction, plagiarism and the nightgown industry."—Colin Covert

"You can't root for [the characters] while laughing at the work they hold dear -- it just doesn't go both ways."—Jeffrey Chen

"Jared Hess, who made Napoleon Dynamite, a film I admit I didn't get, has made a film I don't even begin to get."—Roger Ebert

"Excruciating...its awfulness is so profound that it actually takes on a perverse fascination."—Frank Swietek

That's just a few of many negative reviews of the film. I just don't get it. I loved the film. Maybe you have to also be a mormon kid from a small town in the western US to understand the humor in Hess's work, but that's what I am and I love his movies.

Ever since I saw his first film Peluca in my BYU film class, I have been a huge fan of Jared Hess. I love how he captures the humor of what it's like to be an outsider in a small world of outsiders. Napoleon was an unpopular teen in a small town high school. Nacho was an outcast monk in a monastery. Now Benj Purvis is a backwards homeschool kid attending a writers conference with a bunch of other nerdy kids.

I loved how the film used creativity as it's theme. You see a boy who seems to have no personality, but when you see the depiction of his novel, a whole bizarre world is revealed. I also loved his interaction with his mother, also a struggling creative, who designs night gowns and makes popcorn balls. Seriously, how can you not find humor in that? An though they don't necessarily understand each other's creative pursuits, they are both support each other, which presents a strong message about what it means to be a family.

I also liked the theme presented in what it's like to be a creative seeing your work being bastardized and plagiarized. On one side he is talked into selling his book to a "film maker" with no talent while on the other side his story is stolen by his idol where his heroic character is replaced by much more effeminate version.

I really hate to see people reject Hess's work because it doesn't fit the mold of what you expect from a hollywood film. It's refreshing to me to see a film driven by a person's own experiences rather than box office expectations. It's also refreshing to see an independent film not littered with themes homosexuality.

I really hope Jared Hess continues to make films.

What did you think of Gentlemen Broncos?

Here I leave you with the fantastic theme music of the film, Zager & Evans' In The Year 2525

my thoughts on last night's match

2010-02-25T13:53:00.001-07:00

norm's soccer blog

the first month and a half of my new freelancing venture

2010-01-04T18:52:00.003-07:00

It's now 2010 and I have been unemployed for a month and a half. Though the money supply is now dwindling, I've had a great experience thus far with my new venture. I've had time to revamp my portfolio, do some tutorials, apply for lots of jobs and even take on a few freelance projects.

One of these was for a charity organization, Africa Is Life Changing. They had me design a logo, which is still under the approval process. This has been a great project to help me get my feet wet in getting back into logo design.

Another old acquaintance of mine, Charlie Estes had me do a couple simple production jobs for his business, Legacy Health Group. He was nice enough to give me a little bit of work and actually pay me well for it, which is the type of client I hope to work with more often.

The most recent job I've had was actually a lot of fun. I came into contact with fellow Moses Lake High School alumnus, Tony Farag, who runs his own Iphone application development business called MobilEaZe. He had me design the interface to a new iphone app that he's currently programming. Since it's not released yet, I won't say much more about it other than I really enjoyed that type of a project and I hope to do many more like it.

Though I've had some great experiences freelancing so far, it hasn't been without it's downsides. It's been hard keeping the work coming and making much of an income so far. Being unemployed and getting tight on money tends to get a bit depressing at times. I'm doing well to stay positive though. It's really helping me to develop my faith as well as make more of an effort to improve myself. I'm confident it will pay off in the end.

I'm grateful for every little opportunity I get to share and expand my skills.

norm's soccer blog

2009-12-29T16:58:00.003-07:00

For a long time I've wanted to start a blog specifically dedicated to soccer. I've finally done it. I've exported all the relevant posts from this blog and plan to post much more about the beautiful game. Check out normssoccerblog.blogspot.com.

my letter to real salt lake

2009-12-28T14:10:00.001-07:00

To the people at Real Salt Lake,

As an enthusiastic fan of Real Salt Lake, I would like to provide some input to you and the organization in relation to its success this season.

I really like what Real Salt Lake is doing for soccer in the area. Since the opening of Rio Tinto Stadium in October of last year, I have been a fully committed fan of the team. I've attended a large portion of this season's home games as well as the MLS All Star game, the USMNT World Cup Qualifier, the exhibition match against Chivas and the MLS cup final in Seattle. As a coach I have taken my youth soccer teams to home games on numerous occasions. Also, most times I attend the games, I bring along friends who may have not been to a pro soccer game before. Attending these games has always been a fantastic experience for me and the friends that I bring. The stadium is beautiful, it's placed in a fantastically convenient location and the quality of soccer played on the pitch is great.

There is however one thing that has continued to bother me about the atmosphere at Rio Tinto and I think there are things that can be done about it. Though the attendance levels are great most of the time (you're doing a great job of putting butts in seats), the stadium lacks a sense of supporter culture for Real Salt Lake's home matches. It seems that the Salt Lake crowd just doesn't know what to do when attending a soccer match. The majority of the fans sit the entire game. Most of the supporters groups are quiet. There are no songs or chants that the whole stadium ever participates in. If I wasn't there for the soccer on the pitch, I might as well be attending a baseball game. More needs to be done to foster a bigger, more exciting supporter's culture.

I think we saw particularly strong evidence of this at our playoff game at home against the Columbus Crew. Attendance at this game was 11,499, which is pathetic considering our average home game attendance during the regular season was over 16,000. You would think a playoff game should attract more attention and should have a higher than average attendance, right?

I don't know why this game was so meagerly attended, but I have a few theories. That game was held on October 31—Halloween. RSL "fans" chose not to attend this game because a.) they weren't able to plan far enough in advance for it, being a playoff game, or b.) they had other plans for their Halloween festivities.

I believe this game's low attendance reflects a couple things about our fan culture. 1.) Not enough fans at each game are consistent attenders. If more fans were to follow the team throughout the season, they would be more emotionally committed to the team and would make a bigger priority of attending a playoff match. My guess is that many of the "butts in seats" are fans that attend one or two games in the season and get their tickets either through group sales or corporate accounts. 2.) Many of the "butts in seats" during the regular season are children who come through group sales. I experienced first hand that it was tough to talk any of my under 13 players into dropping their Halloween plans in order to attend this game. This is not a bad thing though. I believe it's important to get kids attending the matches so that ten years down the road we have fans who support the team based on tradition and memories. This is probably the strongest fan culture you can get. The problem however with children is that they are not the ones consistently at home matches, the ones traveling to away matches or the ones making the noise during the games. We need more fans that do these three things.

The next thing I think needs to be done to help foster our fan culture is aiming to sell out the supporters section each game. That south end looks pretty bare all too often. Credit goes to La Barre Real though for being the life of the party. The rest of the supporters groups really need some work. My theory is that the whole south end needs to be full of rowdy noisy fans so it can resonate throughout the rest of the stadium. This way more of the clueless fans that sit quietly as they would through a baseball game will catch on to how a soccer game is supposed to be.

So where are we going to find enough rowdy noisy fans to fill that end with? I know efforts have been made to build up the supporters groups, but I haven't seen this approach to be as successful as I think it should. In addition to this approach I would suggest to look toward the college campuses. We need to get those kids that are painting their faces and wearing capes with their shirts off at those BYU and U of U football games over to Rio Tinto during the summer when they have nothing better to do.

This is how I suggest you do it: Go to the college campuses, and pass out $10 ticket vouchers. These would only be good for south end sections where seats are not yet sold on game day. They take the vouchers to the ticket booths, show a student ID and they get seats in the south end as long as they're available. Once those are sold out, the remaining students who have made the trip to the stadium will end up buying $15 or $18 tickets in other sections. This way you get young adults coming with groups of friends that are going to have a good time together and make some noise together.

This is just one variation of one idea. Selling the south end as general admission or even season tickets as general admission is another idea to think about.

Though the rest of the supporters groups are a bit weak in my opinion, we have something good going with Barra Real. I love the hispanic influence they bring to our atmosphere in the stadium. However, there is a major disconnect between them and the rest of the supporters. Their songs and chants are in spanish so not too many other people are able to join in. It would be great to somehow bridge that gap. Maybe we can get the supporters groups to work together come up with songs and chants that everyone can sing. I think we should let Barra Real lead the way for everyone else to follow, but we need to blend the two cultures.

When I went to the MLS cup final in Seattle, I was amazed at the supporters culture Seattle already had after only one year of their team being in the MLS. I realize that they have the advantage of their tradition associated with the Sounders of the USL and NASL, but I think there is a lot we can learn from them. After all, they sold 20,000 season tickets in their first season and they get over 30,000 fans out to each of their games. I think if we also look at things they do to foster their supporter's culture—such as the pre-gameday rallies, pre-game marches with the band, and expectations for fans to stand throughout the games—we can find more ways to boost our own.

With a nice championship under our belt we have a vast opportunity to revolutionize soccer in the state of Utah. We have a lot of great soccer enthusiasts that are just on the verge of becoming "real" RSL fans. I hope you will take my suggestions into consideration when planning your marketing strategy for the upcoming season.

thank you,

Josiah Norman Lybbert

Season's Greetings

2009-12-24T19:36:00.004-07:00

Mike, Billy and I have put together this little treat for all to enjoy.

mls cup '09

2009-12-21T17:56:00.014-07:00

I think it's about time I give a little recap on my trip to Seattle last month to see Real Salt Lake beat the LA Galaxy to win their first title as MLS Cup Champions. I have to say it was one of the most amazing trips I've been on and the best soccer game I have ever been to.

This picture was taken at the beginning of our journey on thursday night. I went with my friend Randy who is a soccer buddy of mine. He's pictured in the middle. The one on the right is Brant and the one sitting in the front seat of the van is cookie monster. As you can see here, we are all very hard core fans excited to see our team win a championship. Randy was lucky enough to have had someone hit his car that week so we had a rental van to make the drive down to the Emerald City. Adam who also rode with us had not joined us yet at this point.

We drove through the night and arrived in Seattle Friday morning. A crazy thing that happened is we had electrical problems with the van. Every now and then it would just quit taking in gas so we'd have to pull over and restart the car. We ended up getting it fixed once we got near Seattle.

I sort of saw myself as tour guide showing these guys around my home state, so I insisted we stop by Snoqualmie Falls.

One thing I wanted to do in Seattle was check out some soccer pubs. The one that I knew of was the George and Dragon, which is on 36th St. just west of the University District. Well, across the street we found this fantastic little Italian pub called the Azzurri Vino Bar. The guy was so nice to us and made us some killer food. Plus we got to watch some Serie A games while we were there.

Adam's wife Tacy joined us later from the airport. Pictured are from left to right, Brant, Randy, Tacy, Adam and me. It was fun roaming around town in our RSL gear. The Seattle residents were all really friendly to us and wished us luck with our team playing in the final. It was also fun seeing other RSL fans around decked out in their gear.

On Saturday we went to the George and Dragon Pub and met Grant Wahl, writer for Sports Illustrated and author of The Beckham Experiment. I was pretty excited about this because I always listen to interviews with him on World Football Daily.

No visit to Seattle is complete without a visit to the Space Needle. We also went to Pike's Place Market and ate some fish at Ivar's.

The night before the game we met up with a mob of RSL fans at a pub across from Qwest Field. It was amazing how many RSL fans had made the trip for the game. Randy won himself a pair of Will Johnson's game-worn boots. (Will Johnson scored the MLS goal of the year in 2008)

On game day we participated in a pre-game march to the stadium. There were a couple thousand of us RSL fans, while the Galaxy fans were almost nonexistent. The Sounders marching band played and led the march. It was wild.

This picture is a bit blurry, but yeah that's us kicking it with Drew Carey. He's a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders and a huge reason why the Sounders have been so successful in their first season in the MLS.

I found this photo on Adam Spangler's blog. It shows Drew Carey getting into it while the Soundwave Marching band leads the pregame march. If you look closely I'm behind Drew's head waving a Real Salt Lake flag.

Here's us sporting our colors in a sea of apathetic Sounders Fans. That's me with the flag. We were in the lower bowl on the end where they had the penalty shootout at the end of the match.

Here is us right after our boy Kyle Beckerman lifted the MLS cup. What a crazy game! I was literally screaming like a girl when Robbie Russell put in the the winning spot kick! This was the funnest trip of my life.

Did you go to the MLS Cup Final? How was your experience?

phone books: a dying industry

2009-11-18T18:52:00.003-07:00

I finally did it. I quit my job. 2 years and 5 months after taking a job i didn't really want in the first place I finally got the balls to walk out the door so I can start something new in my life.

Why did I take the job in the first place? I graduated from BYU in April of 2007. At the time I was a student employee in an on-campus job and I could no longer work there after graduating. It was a great job. I was senior designer in an on-campus creative marketing firm. I made quite a handsome wage for a student employee, but I had to find a job in the real world, so I took an offer I got with PDC.

In many ways PDC was a downgrade. The computers and software was out-of-date, the building had no windows, and I took a 9% pay decrease to work there. However, they offered a permanent full-time position and benefits. I was able to steadily earn money to pay off some of my student loans, get some dental work done and buy a car among other things.

A year after taking the job, I started to seriously search for a new job. Though several companies seriously considered me, none of those prospects panned out and I found myself another year later working in the same dead-end job with the same starting wage.

The last straw came the tuesday before halloween. I saw a posting on craig's list from my company advertising an opening for my same position. They were offering $2 an hour more for a starting wage than I was currently getting. This was kind of a kick to the balls especially since I had never had a pay raise in the 2 years I had been working there.

I then decided it was time to make an ultimatum. I told my boss I wanted a $2.50 raise or else I was leaving. They could only offer me a $1 raise so I decided it was time to go. It was time to get out of phone books.

So here I am now looking for a new job and freelance work.

I figured the only way I will be able to build my portfolio and learn new skills would be to get out of that dead end job. As soon as I decided to quit I knew it was the right decision and I've felt good about it ever since. I'll admit it's a bit scary wondering if i'll be able to replace that income on freelance work alone, but I've got good people to help me. The way I see it, it will be like being a student again. I just won't have tuition to pay for.

So if you know anyone looking for a freelancer to do some graphic design work, I would greatly appreciate the reference. Here's my online portfolio: jnlybbertdesign.blogspot.com.

a bit of good news

2009-09-02T22:35:00.002-06:00

So Steven and Kenny are coming back on the air and rebranding the show as World Football Daily. I was pretty happy to hear this. They won't rely on advertisers for their revenue for a while. I'll be paying about $10 a month to listen to it, but it will be well worth it.

my loss of world soccer daily

2009-08-26T20:25:00.005-06:00

Monday morning I turned on the Friday podcast of World Soccer Daily and heard Steven Cohen, the show's lead host, say this:

You can read more details of the story here.

After a long battle with angry Liverpool fans, World Soccer Daily was going off the air.

I was completely devastated. For the last two years, I listened to this 2 hour show every day. It has been the lifeblood of my football fandom.

Steven and Kenny, both passionate fans of the game, would just talk football. They would cover the latest happenings around the world. They would have knowledgeable guests call in. They would have listeners call in. They would provide insight and opinions about teams. They would give opinions about certain issues with the game. Callers would participate in many very interesting and thought-provoking discussions. It was funny a lot of the time and always very entertaining.

Almost everything I know about English football I learned from these guys. I'm a lonely American soccer fan and to me a lot of the time Steven and Kenny were the only ones talking football that I could listen to.

Two years ago I didn't follow the English Premier League. I didn't know about Tottenham Hotspur, or Jose Mourinho, or Old Firm Derbys, or Terraces, or Trebles, or the Busby Babes, or even Hillsborough. Now I could tell you about all the biggest transfers in Europe, which teams are looking the best, who's really going to struggle to stay in the top four, or which managers I think are going to get sacked by the end of January, even though I've never been to a european football match in my life. I am the educated football fan I am now because of a little radio show called World Soccer Daily.

Now that this lifeblood of football knowledge has been ripped from me. I am completely gutted…devastated…dejected—however you want to say it. I just don't know what can possibly replace this for me.

I am really disgusted at the selfish attitude of the Liverpool supporters who effectively shut this show down. Yes, the things that Steven said about the Hillsborough disaster were very offensive to many and he probably should have kept quiet about such a sensitive topic. But did such a fantastic show really deserve to be driven to the ground by an endless harassment of sponsors? Did american soccer fans deserve to lose their best source of insight and knowledge on the game? I think the real losers in this whole battle is the budding community of american soccer fans.

After his out-of-hand remarks in April, Steven Cohen issued a formal apology and vowed never to discuss the Hillsborough disaster on the show again. Though it wasn't a heartfelt apology and he insisted on standing by his opinions, which people are allowed to have in this country, he was for the most part true to his resolution not to discuss Hillsborough any more. Why couldn't Liverpool fans have just left it at that? Why couldn't they have just accepted that Steven Cohen is just as human as the rest of us and can learn from his mistakes? Why couldn't they have just stopped listening?

It seems to me that these Liverpool supporters are out for blood in any chance they can get. They want revenge. They want to see their enemies suffer. That's why they felt they had to go after his sponsors. And when this wasn't working well enough many of them felt they needed to send hateful remarks bearing anti-semitic slurs. They went so far as to issue death threats to Steven and anyone else associated with him or the show, including his two step-daughters. It was when it came this far that Steven finally decided to pull the plug. He quit the show when he seriously felt the safety of himself and his family was in danger.

What baffles me is to see how many Liverpool fans see this as their victory even though it was achieved on such a disgraceful level. How can they feel vindicated for their efforts when their goal was achieved by threats to children? How can anyone say Steven Cohen got what he deserved when his children were threatened? No one deserves that.

The real losers in this whole debacle, however, are the American soccer fans. It is in my opinion that World Soccer Daily has been one of the biggest contributors to the increasing popularity of the game in this country over the last few years. Americans have had a way to become educated about a game that has previously been so foreign to us. Let's face it—we didn't know about Hillsborough in 1989 and we don't care about who was at fault for the tragedy. It is the game of football that we love. That's it. I didn't share Steven's hatred for Liverpool fans just because of things he said. I just love listening to passionate life-long fans talk about the beautiful game.

Things are a bit different now. I have a bad taste in my mouth about Liverpool Football Club because of a few of the people who associate themselves with them. They shut my show down. They took something from me. It has become personal. Liverpool and everything about it disgusts me. I hate the red jerseys. I hate Carlsberg—whatever that is. I hate Torres and Kuyt and Gerrard. And the sad thing is it has nothing to do with football. My impression of Liverpool supporters has become tarnished with a reputation of hatred, hypocrisy, racism and terrorism. I can no longer view anything remotely associated with these vile people with any amount of respect.

It was extremely selfish for Liverpool supporters to want Steven Cohen off the air. They don't care about the growth of the game in America. They don't care about the American sports fan. They don't care to share their game.

They say someone else will just come in and take his place. But who? and how long will it take? It took Cohen 7 years to build that show up to what it was. Now after 5 months of tearing it to the ground, who is just going to step in and out of thin air create a two hour daily football show with all the interviews, insight, entertainment and humor WSD had? I just don't see it happening.

In my mind World Soccer Daily is irreplaceable. Yes, the format of the show was bound to be offensive at times, but that's the thing that made it so great. I tried listening to 606, the 5 Live daily, and the Gaurdian, but those shows are boring. They are informative, but they lack personality. They lack people that talk from their own passion. That's why people like Glen Beck, Oprah, Colin Cowherd, and Jim Rome are so popular. Yeah, people hate them, but the things they say come from their own love of whatever they talk about and that's what makes it interesting. It's thought provoking. Yeah, I hate Jim Rome because he hates soccer and will take whatever chance he gets to bash it. But do I try to shut him down? No, because other people like him and he can say what he wants. Besides, I have what one calls a job and other more important things to worry about—such as helping other people. I know—it's a concept not many Liverpool fans are quite able to grasp.

Steven Cohen's remarks about the Hillsborough disaster may have been offensive, but they were thought provoking. How is that such an evil thing? You may call them lies or what you will, but they got us thinking about the topic. American soccer fans aren't idiots. We are sophisticated intellectuals capable of thinking things through and forming our own opinions about them. What used to be an event we were completely ignorant about became a topic of great importance to us because of Steven Cohen. Wouldn't the 96 want us to talk about this topic and address solutions to how we can continue to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again?

The loss of World Soccer Daily is a huge setback to the growth of the game in this country. I hope everyone who contributed to its demise realizes this. I really hope we can get it back in some form or another. I give my respect to the memory of the 96. I also have a deep love for the game of football and want it to flourish in this country. I want people to be able to speak their mind without having to worry about their family members paying the consequences. Steven Cohen and Kenny Hassan deserve to be on the air. They are the best we've got. I wish everyone else could see that.

You can express your support for World Soccer Daily by signing this petition.

world champions?

2009-06-16T21:06:00.007-06:00

So the LA Lakers have successfully pulled off another world championship. This is what cracks me up about American sports. The title champions just isn't enough for the winners of our professional sports leagues. Somehow they are also qualified to be dubbed world champions. The Pittsburgh Steelers became world champions in January with the Super Bowl and the Philadelphia Phillies did it when they won the baseball World Series last October. It may just be me, but this seems a bit arrogant.

Granted, the NBA, NFL, and MLB are the biggest competitions in the world for their respective sports, but here's my suggestion: If you really want to be world champions, do it in a sport that the world gives a crap about.

When I was a kid I invented the sport played in my grandma's backyard known as Hill Soccer. It was a game where you had to kick a ball up a hill and make it stick in some bushes. I was dang good at this game. No one ever beat me, including my little brother. Since I highly doubt anyone else in the world even knows what hill soccer is, I guess technically you could call me the World Champion of Hill Soccer.

Yeah, you don't give a crap and neither does the majority of the world about Kobe Bryant.

So if you're really interested in knowing what sports really matter on the world stage take a gander here. Yes, cricket, field hockey, tennis, and even volleyball are much more widely played and watched around the world than basketball, baseball or American football.

Isn't this kind of an eye opener to how arrogant and apathetic Americans are in relation to the rest of the world?

All I'm saying is we shouldn't make too big of a deal out of what goes on in our own back yard. You should just take things for what they really are. LA Lakers—world champions? Probably not. National Basketball Champions?—That's a bit more like it.

man land

2009-06-14T16:40:00.002-06:00

So yesterday I saw this show on HGTV called "Man Land" where they show different manly things people do with their homes. Well last night, i hung out in quite a man land with my friend Mike. He works for a design firm in Salt Lake City and in their studio they have a room with two x boxes and two full sized HD televisions side by side. We both played call of duty together online side by side with separate televisions. It was fantastic. We didn't even need to use our headphones.

more than your stomach can handle

2009-06-12T21:46:00.002-06:00

I spent my afternoon viewing this site: www.yourlogomakesmebarf.com. Simply priceless

one thing i love

2009-05-26T23:45:00.002-06:00

Today I want to bury my head in a hole.

You know how I said I was going to take a break from coaching for awhile? Well I'm not. At least not now. We had tryouts this weekend for Utah FC. I got so excited with the great turnout, I decided I love coaching too much to quit. I love being a part of the player's development. To see so many of my players returning and playing so well made me not want to miss the opportunity to grow with them.

However, coaching is not all roses and sugar pops. It is a learning experience. And the biggest thing I keep learning again and again about running any kind of organization is you can't please everyone all the time.

I had to cut a player today and it was not fun. I felt it was for the good of both the team and the player, but that didn't change the fact that I had to tell it to his mother.

I also had an incident today where a high school player called me out on the phone for an email I wrote. I had sent an email to some of my former players, which was intended to encourage them to come try out for the club. In it I made some negative comments that I probably shouldn't have. And though I sent out an apology I can't get over the fact that people who respected me so much saw such an immature and proud side of me.

These experiences remind me of yet another experience I had a couple years ago when I benched a couple players an entire game because it was against a tough team I thought we had a slight chance of beating. I'll never forget the look of those players at the end of the game and the reprimand I got from the father of one of them who was also a coach. That is one thing I will never do again.

Well these experiences go along with many other experiences that help us become wiser and better people.

I talked with another coach the other day who said that in coaching winning is not his number one priority. He said it's the development of the players. Coming from a coach who's team is the best in the state, that says a lot to me.

This has become my philosophy as well. I try to make it so that every decision I make, whether people like it or not, is intended to improve the development of the players.

I love coaching. Days like today are tough, but there is so much reward that comes out of it in the end. It would take a lot to get me to stop.

an attitude adjustment

2009-05-12T09:48:00.007-06:00

The production manager at my job sent out a memo today saying that we should only have positive messages in our google chat statuses on our company email accounts. Here's the email message:

Good Morning, Everyone,

Just a quick reminder for those of you who use the status part of the Google chat. Please do not put negative comments about yourself or Production or the company on this. As you you know this status can be viewed by everyone in the company. I have had a couple of comments from other departments about some negative remarks by Production employees on these statuses. Thanks for your help with this.

It's funny because mine said, "Does Worker's Comp cover the loss of one's soul?

the latest sensation to grace the town of orem

2009-05-11T22:20:00.006-06:00

Friday night before going to see the Star Trek movie some friends and I decided to eat at the new Five Guys burger establishment right next to the movie theater in Orem. It seemed like a pretty hip place so we decided to give it a shot. To my dismay, however, I don't really get what's so great about it.

The first thing I noticed is their branding design. They went with a very simple Helvetica type face in their logo with a very bland red and white color scheme. The signage on the inside seemed to use every font available with Microsoft Word. I saw some Cooper Black, Times New Roman, and even some Tekton Pro. Well, sure their design sucked, so there had to be something about this place that was really great.

There wasn't. I decided that 5 guys was just a permanent concession stand. You wait in line to order from a menu that has like 10 things on it. You pick your food up a few minutes later in a paper bag. Your burger is wrapped tightly in plain aluminum foil. Your fries are in a styrofoam cup. Nothing about the food is really that special. And I could have sworn that was the Rotary club behind the counter making the food.

Let's face it. We have a lot of different burger joints around these parts. And for me to want to go to a particular one above the others, there has to be something special that the others don't have. Five Guys just doesn't have this. It's just fair food. The only thing missing is a hypnotist or some cloggers.

end of a great season

2009-05-06T00:31:00.002-06:00

I ended the season with my under 12 boys today. They had a semifinal game against a team they had drawn against twice this season. We were tied 2-2 at the end of regulation time. The other team scored in the second period of extra time and we were unable to answer.

It was a fun year coaching these boys. They are a lot of fun and quite a handful at the same time. It's tough saying goodbye.

I won't be a head coach this next year because I want to leave the door open for other opportunities (if there are any). I mainly need the extra time to focus on other things in life that have been pushed to the wayside in my last 3 years of coaching. I will however try to be an assistant coach where I can.

I have found coaching to be quite an incredible experience. I love working with and teaching youth. I like to see them learn and grow. I also love to see them pull together and unite in working toward a common goal.

I'll take a break for a while, but i'll definitely get back into it.

billy didn't want to get sentimental so i will

2009-05-02T20:49:00.011-06:00

This week I said goodbye to a dear friend. Well, he didn't die; he just moved on to bigger things. Billy moved to a town called Manhattan in New York City or the Big Apple for an internship. It's tough seeing him go because he has been one of my best friends and we have a lot of great memories together.

Billy and I first knew each other when we lived at the Branbury Apartments in 2006. I think we first became friends when we both took on the challenge from the relief society of performing a Backstreet Boys type dance number. (if anyone still has a photo of this, please send it my way so I can post it up). We later lived together in the 10 man club 45 house and we've been tight friends ever since. Now he has graduated from college and is pursuing his advertising career in New York City.

One of my favorite memories was when we got stuck in Salt Lake when his Geo Tracker broke down. You can read the full story here.

Well Billy, I wish you the best of luck and I hope you get hired on. Here's a collection of photos to remind you of the good ole days. Happy Birthday by the way.

here's to denny's

2009-04-29T22:58:00.004-06:00

For the past year and a half, my friends billy, mike and I had this little tradition of going to the Orem Denny's on monday mornings at 12 am. It was mainly a nice way to wrap up the weekend and commence a new week.

We have many different people join us from time to time and at times we actually had quite a few people coming with us on a weekly basis.

Lately my cousin Dave has been a regular. Also in the recent months we've had this server, Jennifer, with whom we've become tight buds.

We would joke around with her and get her to fill crazy requests. For example, Mike orders the same thing every week: a chicken ranch melt with seasoned fries, a dr. pepper and a side of ranch dressing. However to make it seem like he had some variety, he would request his ranch in different portion sizes. It's mostly large sizes, such as a soup bowl of ranch, a trough of ranch, and yes, even a carafe of ranch. Yes, all those requests have been filled, except of course the carafe.

Another cool thing about Jennifer was that she got to the point where she would look forward to us coming and have the corner booth all ready for us. She even brought us easter baskets once. How many servers do that?

This last weekend was Billy's last time with us for he has gone on to bigger and better things. We made this one extra special. We had a bunch of our other friends come and join so we had like 18 people. It was pretty sweet. Mike, Billy, Dave and I also did something special for Jennifer. Billy and Mike made a card with a list of all our cool memories. It was dope.

It's been some great times with the Denny's tradition. Most people can't handle it. They can't handle the terrible food, or the slow service, or the late nights. I love it though.

while all you dopes were watching the jazz lose on saturday, this is where I was

2009-04-28T00:13:00.002-06:00

Real Salt Lake killed the New England Revolution 6-0! This video was from the second goal, which is what dreams are made of. Yeah it was a pretty fun night for sure.

look what happens to me when i'm bored on a saturday

2009-04-19T02:08:00.006-06:00

I shave my head and buy a $200 pair of football boots (which are the ones Cristiano Ronaldo is wearing in the video featured in my previous post by the way.)

squeaking by

2009-04-17T01:00:00.004-06:00

With some games I just can't handle the wait to watch the recording after work, so Wednesday I pissed off from work in the middle of the day to watch Manchester United play Porto FC in the 2nd leg of the quarterfinals in the Champions League. I turned on the TV seconds after Cristiano Ronaldo scored this screamer in the 6th minute of the game:

Wow. This put Man united up 3-2 on aggregate, but there was yet a long way to go for them, for if Porto were to score just one goal, it would put them back on top on away goals. This game was intense. Time went on and on without any goals being scored, making the possibility of Porto nicking that goal all the more perilous, leaving Man United with less and less time to answer. With a sigh of relief the final whistle blew with a final score of 1-0 and Man United advancing to the Semi-Finals.

lean pockets top 5

2009-04-14T18:37:00.006-06:00

One thing I eat a lot of is Lean Pockets. They are cheap, easy to pack for a lunch and are actually quite filling and satisfying. Here I shall post my top 5 favorites.

5. Barbeque Beef

4. Mexican Style Chicken Fiesta

3. Meatballs & Mozzarella

2. Chicken Parmesan

1. Philly Steak & Cheese

need a little more rowdiness

2009-04-13T00:07:00.005-06:00

Saturday I took a few of the boys i coach as well as a couple parents along to the Real Salt Lake game. It was quite a blast sitting midfield on the upper deck on a rainy day covered by the tarp overhead. RSL played a fantastic game, winning 2-1 with a tiebreaker in the 80th minute.

I love Real Salt Lake and am very excited and grateful to have a local professional football club to support in a beautiful stadium. One thing i'm having trouble getting over however is there just isn't much atmosphere in the games. No chants, no songs, and people only stand and get loud when a goal is scored.

The problem I think is that the supporters group, the Loyalists as they are called aren't given enough influence. Let's face it, average Salt Lake fans are lame. They don't get drunk and rowdy and they don't know what to sing or chant during a game. The best they can think of most of the time is chanting "R S L." And so the members of the supporters group that do make an effort to get up and loud are segregated over on the south end and no one else in the stadium can even hear them well enough to get involved. I think they need to be right down on midfield so they can get everyone chanting and singing with them.

Frankly, however, i think the Loyalists' songs and chants are a bit lame in the first place. Compare those of the Loyalists to those of Seattle Sounders FC's Emerald City Supporters. The ECS songs are way cooler. If I ever move back to washington I would definitely become a sounders supporter because of this. It seems like way more fun.

There's also the factor that not as many RSL fans get drunk and rude during the games that deprives the stadium of the atmosphere it needs. I think RSL focuses too much on keeping it a family-friendly atmosphere. They should just let go a little. Seriously, if i wanted a warm family atmosphere, I'd watch baseball.

the super mooch

2009-04-11T10:14:00.002-06:00

Last night I went with my friends Billy and Mike to BYU's senior celebration where they had all kinds of free food, prizes and games. Billy's main mission was to win a door prize since he had never won one in his life. In addition to that, Billy decided to work some of his famous mooching charm while we waited for the raffles.

Now I've seen Billy do his thing many a time. Mostly at fast food restaurants he'll get chummy with the workers and ask for some extra fries or a free drink. For some reason, they can never say no to his loving charm and he gets hooked up.

Last night in the Cougareat all sorts of free food was being served including pizza, burgers, chips and ice cream. After we had filled our bellies with pizza, Billy walks up to the table serving chips. "Can I just have one of those boxes to put some chips in?" Next thing I know, he's walking away with a box of chips.

Not long later he walks up to the ice cream table with a huge box of chips under one arm. "Can I have a tub of ice cream?" Now these were not small tubs. They were 3 gallon tubs.

Ice cream man: "well I don't know if I can do that."

Billy: "well if you can't give me a whole one can you at least give me a half?" Sure enough it wasn't long before Billy was carrying around a mostly full bucket of ice cream along with a box of chips.

Billy is the most amazing mooch i have ever seen.

amerino idol

2009-04-05T16:20:00.008-06:00

Friday night, my good friend Luis Merino put together an American Idol type competition for his birthday. I sang Cake's version of "I Will Survive" and everyone loved it. They just forgot to vote for me or something though because I got eliminated the first round! Screw them. I'll be back next year though and I'll blow them all out of the water.

dang cravings

2009-03-31T20:54:00.003-06:00

I had a dream last night about Rice Krispies Treats Cereal so I looked for it at the store today and it wasn't there. Dang it!!! Anyone know where I can find some?

march blandness

2009-03-28T19:12:00.002-06:00

I used to say i only like basketball in March. It's march now and I'm still really not into it. It may be because BYU went out in the first round and all the washington teams are out as well, but I didn't even care enough to fill out a bracket in the first place and I usually do that.

The sport just doesn't quite do it for me anymore I guess. Granted, I like seeing the end of a close game, especially when it goes into overtime, but really, that's about it.

There are just way too many exiting things going on in the soccer world this month for me to even give a crap about basketball. The Premier league is in full swing, Champions league wrapped up the round of 16 and came out with a draw for the round of 8, MLS just started up, and some big world cup qualifiers are going on this weekend. When you're a soccer fan, you really never have any reason to follow any other sport. There are different competitions going on in the game literally non-stop all the time.

football, not futbol

2009-03-25T19:55:00.002-06:00

Ok, well I like a sport known in the USA as "soccer." I, however, like to call it what the rest of the world calls it, which is "football." When I call it that, though, everyone seems to be confused at first and then says, "oh, you mean 'futbol'." No, I don't mean "futbol." I don't speak spanish. In England they call it "football" because you use your feet to kick the ball. It just makes sense. And it's not my fault that americans had to make it all confusing by using the same name for a completely different sport.

women's professional soccer

2009-03-24T15:09:00.004-06:00

The women's professional soccer league will be kicking off this weekend. I just see this being a huge flop. As Steven Cohen nicely put it, "This is my stand. I love football. I love women. I just don't need them together."

the ultimate epidemic

2009-03-22T17:39:00.004-06:00

Last thursday I went to the field for soccer practice and started setting up. There was this guy who was running a white ribbon in the shape of a big rectangle on the field. I asked him what he was up to and he was like, "we're going to play Ultimate." It turns out that that means frisbee. They were the hard core ones there to have practice and run some serious drills.

There is an underground frisbee subculture and its pretty scary. These people take what was meant to be a picnic game way too seriously. They wear cleats, run drills, and i think i might have seen a few wearing protective eye goggles.

I see these people to be a moral threat to the very fiber of our society. Not only do they steal our perfectly good soccer fields, the uprise of this subculture has much deeper implications. Think about it. Once frisbee becomes openly accepted as a real sport, what next? Hula hoop? Pogo sticks? Koosh Balls? The very definition of the word "Sport" is being attacked.

This is an epidemic that must be stopped. Join me in taking a stand against this threatening alternative lifestyle.

on the market

2009-03-18T18:27:00.002-06:00

I had an interview today with a job recruiting firm (kind of a glorified temp agency, maybe you would call it more of a "perm agency" i guess). It was for a graphic design job with a scrapbooking company in provo. I'm not sure if that's quite my thing, but it's probably a step up from where I am. I'll probably go for it.

I was dressed up for the interview all day at work today. It's funny getting all the comments. One guy just came up and asked me what time my interview was and then fisted me good luck. It's no secret most people want out of there.

it's bad enough that i don't have any windows, now i can't even check the weather online

2009-03-17T15:00:00.002-06:00

I'm on my break on the breakroom computer because the internet has been blocked on our work computers. I can't check the weather, scores, news or anything else that keeps a normal person sane at this job.

my biggest pet peeve

2009-03-14T13:27:00.005-06:00

I HATE cheap rip-offs of the "got milk?" tagline. The original ad campaign for milk began in October of 1993. It was clever and original and very successful. However, everybody and their dog figured out that the word "milk" can be replaced by absolutely anything and for some reason many think it's still funny and original. Well it's not. And it's annoying. I hate it.

for the sake of blogging

2009-03-06T18:48:00.002-07:00

Well billy says I got to update my blog, but the thing is I haven't really had much I really wanted to blog about, so now I find myself rambling about nothing just for the sake of blogging.

Well, for a little life update, I'm still working everyday, living for the weekend and then not really doing anything with my weekends.

Besides that, I've been an avid gym patron, making sure I get some sort of physical activity every day. I lift weights at 24, jog around the neighborhood occasionally, swim at the orem fitness center and play on two soccer teams. I gained a little belly fat over the winter so I freaked out and decided to try to get a six pack. It's not quite there yet, but coming along quite well.

I started practices with my U12 team this week. I wasn't really too excited to start up again surprisingly, but now i'm back into it and looking forward to practices again.

I'm trying to start studying for the GMAT to get into business school. I've decided with the economy as bad as it is right now, it's probably a good time to go to school. I'd really rather just get into a good job, but I don't know if that would happen any time soon.

Well there's my blog for the sake of blogging. I hope you enjoyed it.

super bowl prediction

2009-01-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

I predict the Arizona Cardigans will win 1-0.

cut that hair, it's turning everyone on or something

2009-01-27T22:53:00.005-07:00

BYU wouldn't let me play intramural soccer today because I was too good looking. Well, the dude said my hair was too long. Whatever. I even cut it shorter just to play. Why is it such a big deal at BYU anyway? I'm not even a student. What if I was a member of another faith and that was the only impression I got of the church? Would it really be a positive one? It's a fricken kick-around soccer game. Let the kids play for crying out loud! Take those anal intramural workers and put them in a more useful job stopping people from longboarding in the parking lots or something. My bad for having a different looking haircut. I'll paint myself green like the hulk next week and see what happens. Or maybe I'll just get a 90's bowl cut. That'll show 'em. Well here's one theory for silly rules like this.

pdc is soo cool

2009-01-22T22:04:00.003-07:00

Yesterday my work had a "mandatory meeting" where everyone in the building had to the movie theater to watch Paul Blart Mall Cop. They said it was out of appreciation for doing such a good job in the last quarter of the year, but I think it was their way of saying "sorry for no raises." Yes, my company announced this month that they will be making no pay raises this year despite all our "great accomplishments" in the last year. Oh well, it's just another sign of how bad our economy is right now. I'm just thinking I'm glad I still have a job at least.

The crappy thing is that they know they can treat us like crap now that there are no jobs anywhere. Our boss over production just decided to revoke all internet privileges, as well as ban listening to talk audio files for everyone in production because these cause too many "distractions" that make us make mistakes. I wonder if she remembers how fricken busy we've been in the last few months and thinks maybe that had something to do with that. We did publish an unprecedented 34 books last month. And this is the thanks we get: no raises and a sullen work environment with more rules and restrictions. They said they're going to periodically search our computers for any podcasts, booktapes, comedy skits or anything like that. I bet if they could control our thoughts they'd do that too.

Well, Paul Blart was pretty funny.

i fricken love soccer

2009-01-16T00:59:00.003-07:00

The other night I played my first game with my new indoor team, Liverchelsenal United FC. We play at the indoor facility in Lindon. My friend Joe and I decided to have a team. He got it together and we are playing in the top division. It's pretty hard. I'm not used to the pace of game they play, so it will take a few games for me to adjust. It is so much fun though. It's nice to have a good challenge and to be able to push myself.

i'm not an addict, i'm only a social gamer

2009-01-12T17:06:00.002-07:00

Because my friends were all doing it, I bought Gears of War 2 for the Xbox. I have to say it's pretty fun. Friday night I stayed up until 4 am playing the horde with a couple buddies online. There's nothing like a good gorey first person shooter game to bring some old friends together. A couple of other games I like playing online are Halo 3 and Fifa 09. And Rock Band and Guitar Hero are good ones to have if you ever want girls around.

my home town

2009-01-04T14:45:00.003-07:00

For the first time in two years I took a trip back to my home town, Moses Lake, Washington to visit some family and old friends. Moses Lake is very different from Provo, Utah, where I lived for the last 6 years. The public dress code seems to consist of Carhartt, jean jackets, flannel shirts, and hunting gear. I've seen more handle bars on men's faces in the past week than I've ever seen in any bike shop. The main hub of social gathering here, Wal-Mart, provides a healthy supply of more beer, overalls, and AC/DC cds than you would ever need. I went to Pizza Hut and even dined in. That was fantastic. It was nice seeing a lot of my old friends and though there are quite a few things I miss about my home town, it will be good to get back to Utah.

dating

2008-12-16T19:20:00.004-07:00

My good friend Mike Morris likened dating to trying to find a piece of hay in a stack of needles. You can see exactly what you want, but it freaking sucks trying to get it. And then when you get it it's just a piece of hay.

where's the love?

2008-12-07T17:10:00.002-07:00

What's kind of mind-boggling to me is how little respect the world's game of football gets in the American sports media. It is the "red-headed step child' among other sports in their eyes. Yeah, it may be just reflective of America's view of it in general, but if you compare it to how they treat a sport such as mens tennis, which was 1% less popular than men's soccer among Americans in 2008 according to the Harris Interactive Poll, the attitude seems to be a bit more on the negative side than it should be. Why? They criticize it for being so low scoring, causing so much rioting and for the dramatic fake injuries. Here are some examples:

Here they sarcastically call it a "man's game," referring to the dramatic acting that takes place in order to win advantageous calls from the referee.

This one is titled "what ESPN play instead of Champion's League." The Champion's League is the most prestigious soccer competition in the world besides the World Cup. This was posted in 2006 and since then the Champion's League now has coverage on ESPN2 which is some progress.

Here's a guy named Jim Rome. I don't know much about him and I don't care to watch his show, but I do know he'll take whatever chance he can to burn soccer.

Finally here is Colin Cowherd from ESPN Radio. Here he makes a good point about how the popularity of soccer around the world relates to poverty and the popularity of American football relates to our financial ability to support it.

So why the lack of love? The American sports media criticize it for being low scoring, causing violence, and having more Oscar nominated performances than a Martin Scorcese film. The real reasons at the base of these, however, I believe come down to two things—1.We're not the best at it and 2. It doesn't fit our expectations for a sports viewing experience.

Americans hate soccer because we are nowhere near competitive on the world stage. Americans like to be the best at everything and we almost are. We have the most powerful military. We have the most money. We arguably have the smartest people and the most scientific innovation. When the Giants win the Superbowl, they are crowned "World Champions." When Americans learn that we are not even close to even being competitive in soccer, they are confused and immediately become disinterested.

The second reason Americans hate soccer is it doesn't fit their expectation for a sports viewing experience. In American football, baseball, and basketball there is lots of scoring and the lead constantly changes between teams throughout the game and when it's a close matchup, the final outcome of the game is almost always determined in the final seconds of the game. You don't get that with soccer. You often see only one or two goals in a game, if any and last second game winners are rare. It's really not any less exciting, it is just different.

I really don't care if soccer ever gets as popular as, say basketball in the US. I just want the sports media and fans to show just a little more love.

i know you're thinking it

2008-12-03T19:21:00.002-07:00

When someone says "It's hot in here," do you ever just want to say, "um, no…you're just fat?"

thanksgiving

2008-11-27T18:58:00.003-07:00

For thanksgiving I drove out to my Aunt Judy's out near Las Vegas. It's in a small town out in the middle of nowhere. Ther are no walmarts, malls, or universities. They don't have TV and i'm pirating off of a neighbor's wireless network to get on the internet, as long as the signal is strong enough. Last night we took an imaginary trip back in time by watching Neverending Story. I tried longboarding around the neighborhood, but it's all just too flat. The nice thing about being out here though is it's nice and warm out. I don't even have to wear a coat outside. It's also nice to come out and spend some time with my cousins. I brought my xbox, so we've been able to play some halo and stuff.

In the spirit of thanksgiving i'd like to list some things i'm thankful for.

• I'm thankful for my job. I haven't loved my job, mainly because I know i'm qualified to do better. However, after finding out that the company that I had been trying to get hired by all summer went out of business, I realized I really should be thankful that i'm able to work for such a stable business throughout these rough economic times.

• I'm thankful for all my friends and family. I haven't had an opportunity to start a family of my own yet, but I have a lot great people around me that keep me going. My cousin Shandy is nice enough to let me live in her basement so I get to be around her family all the time. I also have lots of great friends that I consider family as well. My parents are also a great support to me and I am excited to see them next month.

• I'm thankful for soccer. I LOVE soccer. I love playing it, coaching, and watching it.\

• My car.

• Directv. We just recently got it and I get 3 soccer channels now! Manchester United play Man City sunday at 6:30 am my time and I will see it.

• My Ipod. I love music and my Ipod gives it to me pretty much like an IV.

our new president

2008-11-09T13:46:00.002-07:00

Though I was a McCain supporter, I'm looking forward to seeing what Obama will do for our country. I have disagreed with his approach to mainly national finances and the war. I have also felt that McCain was the much more qualified candidate for the job. However, since the people of the country have chosen Barack Obama to take office, I hope some good things get done under him and that our country becomes more unified. I have just been so sick of democrats being so critical of Bush's administration, so I would kind of like to see if they can do any better. I feel that no matter who is in office, that is the person the majority of the people chose and the rest should support him in the good things he does.

best sick day ever

2008-10-21T14:06:00.002-06:00

It's 2:30 on a tuesday and what am I doing? Lying on the couch, eating pizza and watching Manchester United kill Celtic FC in a Champions League match. It couldn't be better. I called in sick this morning because guess what, I'm sick with a cold. Now I promise my decision had nothing to do with the Man United game, nor did it have anything to do with it being menu day today at work. I felt myself getting sick at the end of the day yesterday and I wasn't feeling any better this morning. So i've been spending the day chilling in the basement keeping up with blogs, playing a little Halo 2, eating pizza, and watching soccer. It simply couldn't be better.

real salt lake

2008-10-19T17:14:00.004-06:00

After 6 years of living in Utah I am finally sold on Real Salt Lake. Aside from their usual position at the bottom of the tables, the biggest thing that was keeping me from being a Real Salt Lake fan was Rice Eccles Stadium. I hated the gridiron lines on the field, it was so far away, and worst of all, it was at the U. Their new stadium, Rio Tinto Stadium opened a week ago and I went to their second game in it yesterday. I was thoroughly impressed. The stadium being specifically built for soccer gives it a fantastic atmosphere. There is no gridiron on the field. They have a tunnel at the half line. There is plenty of space on the outsides of the field. The seating is great. I just loved everything about it.

I was also impressed with the quality with which RSL was playing. They were able to take control of the game really well and they scored some fantastic goals that gave them a 3-1 win and may have secured them a spot in the playoffs for the first time ever.

Well I bought myself a jersey and I am ready to become a true supporter of the club.

a dashboard confession

2008-10-14T19:44:00.003-06:00

I recently started listening to music I've been so morally opposed to for so long. Yep, I even listened to Fall Out Boy today. For a long time, I've been pretty against the whole emo-pop-punk movement for quite a long time and I'm actually starting to like some of it now.

Here's the thing. I've always been into very instrumentally-driven music. Some of my favorite bands are Dream Theater, Rush, and Pink Floyd—extremely talented bands, very instrumentally driven, and entirely their own sound. I've been against the whole pop-punk sound because it's usually much more vocally driven and most of the bands pretty much sound exactly the same and really don't offer a whole lot of originality. With so many bands sounding so similar I really never had any interest in getting into it.

Recently, however, I've opened myself up to listening to a lot more newer music. With my current job, I'm able to listen to my Ipod for around 5 or 6 hours every day so I listen to a lot of music. And though my Ipod has quite a bit of music on it, I still crave more.

Hence I have come to this end. I have started listening to bands like Yellowcard, 30 seconds to mars, Deathcab, Brand New, Dashboard Confessional, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and even Fall Out Boy. And I actually like a lot more of it than I thought I would.

I used to be so adamantly against this type of music that it had to be pretty annoying to some of my friends—Sorry about that. I'm a lot more open now though. If I like it, I listen to it. If I don't, I don't listen. That's all there is to it.

working too hard for the money

2008-10-12T12:54:00.002-06:00

I worked a seven hour saturday yesterday, completing two weeks of grueling labor trying to get rid of the backlog at PDC. Since the acquisition by new owners a year ago, the company has been making lots of changes. We recently adopted a new information system, which put a kink in things for a little while, creating a backlog, which has to pass through all the stages of production like a rat through the digestive system of a snake. So in the last couple weeks, we in production have been required to work 12 hours over two saturdays, plus 4 more overtime hours throughout the two weeks. I probably ended up working around 10 weekday overtime hours, plus the 12 saturday hours. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for my job, but I don't love the place enough to spend THAT much time there. Hopefully, things will get better and run more smoothly soon.

good old fashioned dude fest

2008-10-12T02:21:00.003-06:00

Every once in a while I have a need to just have a night of Halo with a bunch of dudes. I had some friends over tonight to play some halo–not on xbox live and not Halo 3. Yes, we did a good old fashioned system link in two separate rooms with Halo 2. There's something about Halo 2 that just completes the Halo night experience that Halo 3 just doesn't have. And I prefer the system link much more than any play on Xbox live. I guess it brings me back to the old days of having Mitch Poth chewing me out for sucking so bad and Dan Tolley coming over and ALWAYS pulling me away from my homework to play just one gritty little game—or 12. We had pizza and pop, plus a surprise appearance by Luis Merino, adding to all the makings of a real Halo party. It truly hit the spot.

world soccer daily

2008-10-08T18:09:00.002-06:00

I need to pay tribute to what's been getting me through the workday for over a year now. It's a little radio show called World Soccer Daily. The hosts, Steven Cohen and Kenny Hassan, though they don't know it, have become two of my best friends. From 11am to 1pm every day, they just talk soccer and I never miss it. I usually listen from their website: worldsoccerdaily.com, but you can also listen to it live on itunes, on podcast, or on Sirius.

crazy times

2008-10-06T18:17:00.002-06:00

So the world is acting like it's about to cave in on itself with all the economic woes going on. The DOW plunged like 800 points today in the wake of that $700 bil bailout bill not passing and all the other crazy stuff happening on Wall Street. The presidential election is in full swing with neither candidate seeming like he knows what to do about the economy as well.

I wonder how this economic crunch is really affecting everyone on a personal level. I guess I should be very grateful I have a job that seems to be pretty stable throughout all of this.

As many who know me may know, I haven't been all too happy with the way my career has been going since graduating from college. For a year and four months now, I've been working for Phone Directories Company, designing phone book ads. No, it's not quite the design career I dreamed of. I'm stuck in a very production-oriented position, where the quantity of work is far more valued than quality. I'm expected to produce between 30 and 40 ads a day on top of whatever rush corrections I need to make to various ads throughout the day. With more and more books being published the demands of my job continue to rise, demanding more and more overtime and weekend work. This is all done at an hourly wage, I feel is too low even for someone who hasn't attended college, let alone a college graduate like myself.

Since June, I've been a candidate for employment at two companies, either of which I imagine would be a great start to the kind of career I want. One is builderfusion. They produce magazines that feature home builders. The other is Agel, a Provo based nutrition company that produces supplements in gel form. Both of these companies seemed to want to hire me, but were unable to due to budgeting issues.

I suppose the wretched economy may be the major factor in my inability to get a better job. I guess I just have to make the best out of my situation by doing my best to earn a raise and by working on my skills outside of the job. I know things will get better. I just have to be patient.

norm's house of metal

2008-09-19T20:14:00.009-06:00

A few months ago I realized that rock band 2 would be coming out on Sep 14, the week of my birthday, so I had the incredible idea to host a rock band 2 party for my birthday at my new place. I wasn't going to make this just like all the other rock band party's however, I wanted it to trump them all.

In the past we had our rock band parties at our "frat" house—the one with 10 guys, and we always had a PA, so they were usually pretty intense. For this reason I made sure we had a PA for this party as well. This time, however, I wanted it to be more like a rock show than just a bunch of people coming over to play video games. I set the patio in the back yard to be like a stage with the band members facing the audience and a tv facing them. To let the audience in on the whole experience of the game as well, I figured out how to split the video signal so it would play to a tv for the band members and to a projector for the audience to see.

A friend of mine also came up with the idea to have everyone come dressed as rockers. People went wild with this and it made it a whole lot more fun.

The end result was brilliant. We had at least 40 people come. We had plenty of food as well (thanks to my awesome friends, who really got into this to help make it a fantastic gig). Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy it and I know I had a blast.

school daze

2008-09-17T01:20:00.003-06:00

All my friends are back busy with school again and I hate it.

my new pad

2008-09-14T13:25:00.002-06:00

I've been living in Cousin Shandy's basement for about 3 weeks now and I'm loving it. I finally decided I was done with student housing and that I would grow up and move into my cousin's house. It's awesome. I have my own room, one roommate, who is way cool, washer dryer and lot's of space. I'm closer to work now as well.

I had company over for the first time yesterday as i invited some of my friends over to play some rock band in anticipation for my big rock band 2 party later this week. It was dope.

my hero

2008-09-13T23:35:00.003-06:00

I wanted to write about my hero. The coolest guy in the world --- the Prince of Honduras himself... Luis R. Merino. He is so cool.

soccer in the usa

2008-08-10T23:40:00.006-06:00

Will soccer ever catch on in the U.S.?

I believe it already has come a great distance in the last 20 years and I believe it will continue to grow. I don't believe, however that it will ever get as popular here as American Football or basketball. Those sports are just too well ingrained into our culture. I see soccer catching on in the sense that some time in the future the U.S. will start producing more and more players that are able to compete on a global stage and the whole culture and excitement of the game will become less foreign to americans.

I really don't care if the sport gets a whole lot more popular here for my own sake. I tend to like things that are unpopular anyway. I bet if I were born in Europe I would probably be a basketball fan. It is however important for the sport to gain popularity for a number of reasons.

One major reason the sport needs to gain popularity is so that the US can be more competitive with other world powers in the sport. It tends to be a custom that american boys play soccer when they are young, but later get distracted by all the pomp of the other american sports. Let's face it, we just have too much of a variety here and all our talent just gets spread too thin. Other countries produce such great soccer players because that's really all they do. Kids grow up idolizing the Ronaldos and the Riquelmes and play soccer all the time. It's the cheapest team sport there is to play. All you need is some sort of ball and some coats to set down as goals and you've got yourself a soccer game. In the states we have basketball hoops, tetherballs, jungle gyms, foot balls, baseball bats, foursquare, karate classes, and the list goes on and on.

Besides that, our kids aren't idolizing Ronaldos and Rooneys—they just don't see them on TV. They idolize the Kobe Bryants and the Tom Bradys. Because of this, even if they've played soccer since they were 6, they want to take part in the glory they see on TV and they sign up for tackle football when they start middle school or high school.

Two things need to happen for soccer to grow in the states—forget all the garbage with David Beckham showing his package over Sunset Boulevard in an underwear ad or David Beckham winning an Espy for playing in 5 games and not even making it to the playoffs in the MLS or David Beckham this or David Beckham that. There are two things that will foster the growth of the sport in this country. First, more world class soccer games need to be broadcasted in the states on basic cable channels. Right now the only channels that show any european league games are only available through premium cable services or dish. ESPN needs to buy rights to broadcast english premier, Italian, or Spanish league games saturday and sunday mornings. This way kids will be able to have heros in the game, such as Deco or Cristiano Ronaldo. This will fuel their interest to keep playing as they enter junior high and high school.

The most important thing, however, that needs to happen is that the US national team needs to become more competitive in the world arena. I personally have noticed that Americans tend to be much more responsive to international play than to league play. Not too long ago the US played Argentina in an international friendly in Giants Stadium. That stadium was PACKED. I'm not sure what the exact capacity of that stadium is but it's huge compared to the 15,000 average attendance of any MLS game. Americans are more interested in international play than they are in league play. When the US gets good enough to consistently get out of the group stages in major tournaments and play in more semi-final and final games, I think more and more americans will get into the sport.

Soccer truly is a beautiful game. It would be nice if Americans could just at least understand why the rest of the world loves it so much.

luis's wedding

2008-08-07T21:19:00.002-06:00

Luis & Natalia got married yesterday and it was dope. I went and saw them get sealed and later we partied all night at the reception.

One thing I thought was funny was how awkward of a kisser Luis is in public. Most of us had never seen them kiss before, so seeing them kiss when they came out of the temple was highly anticipated. I think everyone was a little unsatisfied with it so they kept calling for an encore to see if the next one would be any better. And on top of that, seeing Luis trip as he walked out the temple doors was just classic.

It was cool meeting their families and such. Natalia's mom is way cool. Actually all their parents are quite fun people.

It was also cool seeing old friends at the reception. Mike and Maridee as well as Braden & Sarah are expecting babies, which is cool. We also saw people like Chase, the Reeves family and even some people from our club 45 house ward.

Awkward moments didn't end with tripping out of the temple, of course. I loved when Luis dropped cake down Natalia's dress and when he had trouble finding the garter so he just dove in head first. To top it all, Natalia left her purse so they had to come back and get it after they had already made their triumphant exit.

What a night!

byu cops

2008-08-01T01:00:00.004-06:00

I had a little encounter with the law this evening. At about 12:30 am after leaving Billy's house I accompanied a couple girls home on my longboard. As I returned to my car in the student parking lot right by Billy's, I decided to take a stroll on my board around the empty parking lot and enjoy the fresh summer night air one more time before heading home. On my way back to my car, a car pulled into the parking lot and approached me. It was none other than one of the infamous byu cops—those same officers who continually face the perils of byu provo crime which is so finely documented in the Daily Universe's Police Beat.

The kind officer informed me that it is illegal to skateboard on BYU property and that it is illegal to skateboard at night without reflective clothing. I thanked him for his wise counsel and pushed my way along the remaining 20 yards or so to my car to pack up and go home.

That jerk then flipped a U-ey and pulled right along side me again and said, "I thought I told you…blah blah blah, Is there any reason why I shouldn't give you a citation?"

I was just shocked by the whole situation so I really had nothing to say as he asked for my identification and told me to wait in my car.

Well he was gracious and let me off with a warning, but he told me he took my information so if I'm caught doing it again I could get arrested.

Now I've never really been angry at a cop but this one did it for me. I guess the downside to living in a safe community is that you can get arrested because cops are bored and have nothing better to do. I hope you all feel safe knowing that officers out there are continually toiling to keep criminals like me off the streets.

strikerfest 2008

2008-07-31T21:04:00.003-06:00

I haven't gotten around to this post yet so here it goes.

I had my U12 boys compete in strikerfest last week. It is a tournament hosted by our own club, the UC Strikers. For my boys it was quite an eye-opening experience. We played 3 games, all in which we got killed at least 8–0. Even though two of these teams compete at the state level, i'm realizing my team is lacking in talent a great deal. We're still missing some key players and the technical skills of all the players are below what they need to be. We have quite a bit to work on. I am confident, however, with a little hard work, this team can get pretty good. I think that by next spring, we can be good enough to beat one of the teams we lost to in the tournament last week.

billy & norm's pioneer day trek in the tracker

2008-07-25T00:43:00.000-06:00

My original idea for celebrating this grand holiday on the 24th of July was to build handcarts and have a pioneer trek, but I found that wouldn't be necessary as Billy and I were faced with a trek of a different order.

On the eve of the 24th Billy invited me to go with him to Salt Lake to hang out with his brother-in-law's family as they camped out on the street for the parade. I agreed to go with him as long as I would make it back home in time for the soccer game I was to coach at 11 in the morning.

The street camp out was fun. For a while Billy and I just chilled with our laptops out. Later we played games with his brother-in-law and his brother-in-law's brothers, including Pit and Settlers. That was dope too.

Now I being a little under the weather (yeah somehow I was sick with a cold in the middle of summer—totally sucks nard) wanted to get home that night and get some sleep before my game the next day, so we left around 3am.

Earlier that evening, Billy was a little worried about the condition of his Tracker, which was getting close to overheating, so we stopped at a gas station and put some oil in the engine and some water in the radiator.

Now at 3 am we set off on the freeway to head home and his engine was getting really hot so we pulled off the freeway to get some coolant at a gas station. We put some coolant in and drove further, this time through town on State Street. The engine kept getting hotter so we pulled over to check things out. This time it was steaming like crazy and we found that down under the engine a hose was loose and all the water and coolant was spewing out of it.

So there we were stranded on State Street in Salt Lake at 3:30 am. There was no way anyone was going to pick us up at that hour. Billy tried making some calls, but no one answered but Luis, who couldn't really help us at that time.

It was really up to us to get ourselves out of this situation. We saw there was a 7 eleven down the road, so we made our way down there to see if we could find something to jimmy rig the hose back together with. They didn't really have anything, but they gave us directions to a nearby Walmart. We ended up stopping at a Smiths on the way there, figuring they would also have something we could use.

At Smith's I bought a roll of electrical tape, a pair of snips, and two permanent markers. I took one of the markers, cut off the ends and used the casing to bridge the two ends of the hose that were loose. We propped the tracker up on a curb, I crawled underneath and proceeded to tape that piece of marker casing to the two hose ends. It was pretty difficult because I could really only get one hand on it at a time, plus I had to be careful not to burn my hand on the engine. I did however get it all taped up and I hoped it would stay together. I knew it would still leak, but at least we slowed the leak down a great deal. My big concern was weather that casing would stay on there with the hot steam and all.

We put more water in the radiator and coolant in the coolant tank. Then we said a little prayer and made our way down state street.

It actually ended up working out pretty well. The whole way the marker casing stayed fastened to the hose. It still leaked so we had to fill up on water and coolant several times along the way, but it got us home.

A funny thing that happened along the way is we ran into our friend Jake Glauser's father-in-law at the 7-Eleven at Orem center street. We showed him our little engineering feat and he was quite amused.

Well we got home at 7am and I was able to get about an hour of sleep before heading out to my soccer game. I thought it was quite appropriate that we were able to celebrate our pioneer day with a little trek of our own. I know exactly what it was like to cross the plains now.

batman: the dark knight

2008-07-21T16:39:00.000-06:00

I went and saw the new Batman opening night last thursday at 12 am. I had to drink a monster to stay awake and it was well worth it. This has to be one of the best, most exciting action movies I have seen. Heath Ledger was simply brilliant. There were like 5 climaxes that made you think the story was wrapping up, but it just kept going and getting more awesome. I want to go see it in the Imax now.

las vegas

2008-07-20T17:55:00.000-06:00

I flew to Las Vegas with some of my cousins for my cousin Brady's wedding this weekend. It was a lot of fun, but we didn't do anything too crazy. (We were kind of lame going to bed at like midnight both nights.)

The highlight of the trip for me though was the sealing at the temple. I just think it's the coolest thing in the world.

byu vs. real salt lake

2008-07-15T23:40:00.000-06:00

BYU had the opening game in their new stadium tonight. It was a friendly with Real Salt Lake. My team was invited to be ball boys, along with a Rangers team. At halftime we had a little scrimmage. We kind of got schooled by the Rangers, but it wasn't bad, considering the Rangers team was premier, competing at the top level in the state, while mine is still AA. My whole team showed up, plus one more. I now have 15, which is pretty much a full roster.

Real ended up winning 3–0 and the boys had a blast.

hancock

2008-07-15T17:05:00.001-06:00

Saw it yesterday. Way good. Go see it.

coaching

2008-07-13T13:26:00.000-06:00

I have recently started coaching my 3rd competition league soccer team now. The last two years I coached the same age group of boys with two different teams. Those boys are U15s now and a different set of coaches has stepped in to coach them so I decided to take over a U12 team under the same club, the Utah County Strikers.

It's definitely different coaching younger kids. Even though it's the same sport, and their skill level isn't too much different than my last team, I've realized they are children and it takes a little different approach to training them. I do miss coaching the older boys, but i'm still way excited for a new opportunity to build a team.

We had our first club-wide conditioning session of the season yesterday. This is one of my favorite things about coaching with the Strikers. Everyone ran a mile and then we did agility training and had scrimmages at the end. It was dope.

Euro 2008 final

2008-06-29T14:38:00.000-06:00

Spain beat Germany 1-0. They were by far the better team. They were creative up front & powerful in the back. They won the ball really well on defense, crowding the ball and challenging quickly, giving Germany no room to work with it. Finally, they were incredible on the counter attack, with which they got so unlucky with countless attempts, yet snuck one in, which is all it took.

Germany lacked creativity up front and failed to capitalize on their opportunities. They weren't able to deal with Spain's pressure on the ball, causing them to lose the ball too quickly. Crosses and free kicks were horrendous.

There was one bad call toward the end that completely robbed Germany of an opportunity, but that's no excuse for playing badly and failing to win.

Overall it was an absolutely fantastic tournament. I enjoyed every game. Some of my favorite teams to watch were Turkey & Holland. There were some brilliant moments.

I'm sad to see Germany lose the final, but at the same time happy for Spain. They played incredible the entire tournament and deserve the championship in every way.

WWE RAW

2008-06-17T17:47:00.000-06:00

I did something out of the ordinary last night. I went with Spencer to WWE RAW at the E Center in SLC. It was really stupid, but still kind of fun. I still can't get over the fact that i'm watching fake fights, or else I would be able to be a bit more entertained by it. However, it was something i had never done before, so that made it kind of fun (despite it being 3 hours long).

Spencer got to touch HHH, so that's pretty cool. The most entertaining thing to me, however, was the never-ending showcase of trashy people. Who knows where they all come from, but it's quite a sight, i'll tell you what.

Euro 2008

2008-06-10T23:07:00.000-06:00

I've been pretty exited about the Euros, which started this week. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's an international soccer tournament like the world cup, except just with european countries.

The first round of the group stage has now been completed and it's looking pretty exciting. The teams that are looking good so far are Portugal, Germany, Holland, and Spain. Particularly surprising was Holland basically having their way with Italy, the current world champions. Another surprising result was France's draw with Romania.

I'm personally pulling for Germany, but I'm also excited for Holland, as it's where my grandma's from. I would love to see a Germany/Holland Final. Portugal and Spain also look like particularly tough contenders. I also wouldn't count Italy or France out though. They both had a poor first round, but they could bounce back to their normal form in the next round. Watch out!

my little curse

2008-06-07T12:36:00.000-06:00

I have extremely bad luck with girls. My dating life tends to follow a very distinct pattern. I will develop an interest in a girl, then i'll ask her out. Then things will be going pretty good for about two weeks. It will get to the point where I'm absolutely crazy about her, when the tides will turn and she will end up saying she doesn't want a serious relationship and it ends. It won't be long after that (within 6 months every time) before I find out she really meant "I don't want a serious relationship with you," when I learn she's engaged.

It follows this pattern to the T. It's happened 4 times now. I guess the moral of this story is: if your a pretty little girl desperate to get married all you have to do is go on a couple dates with me, get me to be crazy in love with you and then kick me to the curb two weeks into it. It's a formula destined for success.

What to do with my life—part II

2008-06-03T18:40:00.000-06:00

Ever since graduating, I've never really felt satisfied with my education. I've just had a lingering feeling that I'm not done learning yet, like I haven't really done what I'm capable of. I see my friends around me working their butts off in school as they work toward their degrees. I didn't really do that. I just kind of finished school. It was still hard, but I didn't feel like I had really accomplished something that mattered.

I had that feeling of accomplishment when I graduated from high school, when I got accepted to BYU, and when I finished my mission. However, ever since I failed to get into the BFA, I lost that feeling. I lost my ambition and drive to succeed.

I hoped that my design experience from working at BYU would give me a good boost into something, but a year later I'm still in a dead-end job and my life is going nowhere.

I decided grad school is really the right thing for me to do to get that feeling of accomplishment back. I thought of maybe doing sports psychology because of all the fun I've been having coaching soccer. It's a subject that really fascinates me and I think it would be a fun job to do. I looked into it and it turns out I would have to go out of state to go to school, I would really need a Phd to get anywhere in the field, career opportunities are slim and pay isn't much to write home about.

My other grad school option is business. I minored in business at BYU and I really find marketing to be an interesting subject to learn. I looked into the MBA program at BYU and it really seems like the perfect thing for me to do. I would be able to stay here in Provo, tuition would be cheap, my grades are good enough, and I think I will be able to wrap my head around the GMAT.

I'm actually excited about the MBA idea. I bought my GMAT book today. I'm going to do it. I'm serious.

What to do with my life

2008-06-02T17:55:00.000-06:00

So I've been stuck in a depressing rut ever since I graduated from BYU just over a year ago. It was a year ago this week when I started my job at Phone Directories company. It was anything but a promising start into a career. I took a 75¢ pay cut coming from my previous student job as a designer at BYU. My workspace went from being a tiny spot in a cubicle with a relatively new Imac to a spot on a table in a computer lab setting with a dinosaur of an Emac with the old Panther operating system.

My new job coming out of college was truly a downgrade from the student job I had on campus. It is now a year later and I still hate it. It has sucked the soul out of me. There is no opportunity for me to exercise any expertise over anything. I don't get to talk to clients, I rarely get to exercise creativity, and there is no opportunity to move up in the company. I'm just expected to do what's written on the layouts and keep quota. It's miserable.

I've tried applying for better design jobs, but no employer seems to give me the time of day. Design firms want someone who graduated with a BFA and I don't have that. Other companies with in-house design want someone to basically build their websites and I don't really do that either.

I have decided I need to do something bigger and better to get out of this rut. I think I want to go back to school at BYU and get an MBA. This will open up tons of opportunities for me as well as lots of money.

I think there's a reason why I didn't get into the Graphic Design BFA after applying 3 times and there's a reason why I haven't been able to find a good job after being out of college for a year. I think that by going back to school, I'll find that reason and things are just going to get better.

My Crazy Dream Last Night

2008-06-01T14:09:00.000-06:00

It is very rare that I have a dream that's so detailed and suspenseful I might as well have watched a movie, so I've got to write about this one.

I was some dude in a military getup burglerizing this huge house out in the middle of a desert with one accomplice. We had just finished loading the huge plasma TV in the van when somehow the house bulldog had pinned me up in the upper room of the house. My accomplice, sensing the imminent return of the homeowner, ditched me, taking with him all the loot in the van. I was left to fend for myself.

I saw a motorcade of cars pulling into the driveway and knew I was screwed. I jumped out the back window and jumped over the back fence, narrowly escaping the jaws of the house watchdog. With the dog barking, I knew I needed to hide, for the owner had surely heard. The lack of foliage on the desert terrain made this extremely hard to do. All I could do was just lay flat on the ground and hope my tan camouflage clothing would hide me.

The lady came out to see what the dog was barking about and could obviously see me lying there, so I pretended to be a lost drunk and got up and made my way. Apparently, she hadn't noticed stuff was missing out of her house yet, so I had a little time to get away.

I gradually picked up my pace as I increased my distance from the house. I made my way toward a huge hill in order to get to the other side of it. On the other side of the hill was a small village where an acquaintance of mine lived. It was in a small apartment in the top floor of a 3 story building. There I took refuge with this heavy-set old lady and her 10 year-old son. It wasn't long that i was there when I heard this knock on the door. They had found me already! I slipped out the backdoor of the apartment, but I saw it was only a neighbor. I decided to get the heck out of there. I then hid in a haystack nearby the open field below the hill from which I came.

It wasn't long before I saw some poofs of smoke on the horizon at the top of the hill. Then there were several huge Apache helicopters coming from behind the hill where the huge house was. Hundreds of paratroopers then dropped from the sky. When they hit the ground, they all whipped something out of their backpacks turned into a tent that set up right in front of them. That was weird.

The leader of this fleet then proceeded to tell the villagers what was going on. "The house on the other side of the hill was robbed and the perpetrator was seen approaching this village. He took an Ipod and some other stuff."

The next thing I did was pure genius. As the villagers were rabbling on about this, I slipped in and said, "Your doing all this over an Ipod!?" and then receded back into the crowd.

All the troops then moved past me and I just waited there awhile. They eventually shot down some other guy wearing tan camouflage and claimed they had nabbed the criminal.

That's when I woke up.

Why I'm Not A Throwball Fan

2008-05-28T19:27:00.000-06:00

If you know anything about me you probably already know that I LOVE football. Now I'm not talking about that sport with the helmets and a million lines all over the field. I'm talking about the one that you play with your feet. It's the world's version of football—soccer as many know it in the states. Now to avoid confusion, I like to refer to the helmet game as "throwball." Trust me, it just makes more sense.

Now, being an average American, I've watched throwball all my life, so I'm definitely no stranger to the game. Since becoming a much more involved football fan, however, I've completely lost interest in the sport of throwball. Here I shall list my reasons:

• There are way too many rules. Like I've said, I've been familiar with the game my whole life and I still see calls made for things I never heard of. And what's with having like 8 refs on the field anyway? What fun is watching a sport that gets stopped every few seconds for some obscure rule violation?

• Once high school is over, most players never play again. Throwball requires too much equipment and full-team participation to just throw together in a pickup game or backyard league. Sure you can play flag football or two-hand touch, but seriously, is it really as good as the real thing? I've always found it pretty lame.

• It's all about who's bigger, stronger, and faster rather than who's really got any talent. If you're not a quarterback, you really only have to be good at one thing to play american football. If you're big and can block, you're an offensive linesman. If you're good at tackling, you've made the cut for defense. A kicker only has to be able to kick and a receiver only has to be good at catching. Now if you have TWO skills, that's where you really get somewhere in the sport. It's great if you can catch, but if you can catch AND run fast you're destined for the pros. It's really not that difficult of a sport, you just have to be big, fast and strong and have like one talent to succeed.

• There are a million players on the team and no one gets to play the entire game. I know some kids who tried out for their high school's freshman football team and apparently they take something like 75 players. Correct me if i'm wrong but 11 players on the field at any give time is a pretty low percentage of people who actually get to play. I guess you have an offense and a defense and a special teams, but still that's only like 33 players who are starters. What do the other 42 players do the whole time? And how many of those guys actually get to play? And remember—it's just a freshman team. I'm sorry, not for me.

• Most of the players don't ever even touch the ball. The people who touch the ball are the quarterback, the running backs, receivers, and tight ends. That leaves you with all these offensive and defensive linemen who are never even expected to touch the ball. Not to mention all the benchwarmers on the team who can only dream of that one play in the season where they just so happen to block a pass when they get subbed in for two minutes in a game their team is already losing 42-10. It is beyond me why you would still want to play if that was the position you ended up with.

• A game takes 4 hours to watch! This really tops all my reasons. 60 minutes of action often takes 4 hours to watch. I like sports that are free flowing, have no commercials, and take the exact amount of time it says on the clock to watch.

There you have it. This is why i'm not a throwball fan anymore. Soccer is simply a much better game.

Well folks this is my blog

2008-05-28T18:28:00.001-06:00

Well I thought it's about time to join the online sensation of blogging. Now the world will finally be able to access some of what goes on in my brain by the click of a mouse! Technology is truly amazing these days.