Final Required Blog Post

Well, here we are at the end of the semester.  Time has flown by, like always.  I feel that it's appropriate to take a moment and express my sincere feelings towards my blog and the experience that I've had being a blogger.  I admit, when we were first given the assignment to create and maintain an active blog, I felt a little anxious and nervous.  I had only heard about blogs in the movies and thought you had to be really cool to have a blog.  I wasn't even sure how to spell "blog," but I hesitantly signed up anyway.  My first few posts came only after a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.  Gradually, though, as the semester passed, I felt more and more confidence in my writing.  I even began sharing very personal feelings, hopes, and dreams, including a heartfelt poem that I had written in the silence of a dark, cold night.  Now, as I ponder on all the many things that I have learned over the last few months, I realize that blogging, to me, has become something far greater than a weekly assignment.  It truly has become a delightful dive into my distant dreams (note the alliteration, a sure sign of an ace writer).

Serving the Stressed

This is a formal report of the assignment given from Shayne to find someone even more stressed than myself and do something nice for them.  I really took this seriously and was looking all week for just the right individual who was pushed to the limit and who could really use a helping hand.  I think I must have been inspired, because of all people, I thought of my very own sister and concluded that she would be a great candidate (I've been sarcastic, it was actually a Sunday night, last minute cop out).  I called her up and asked if I could do her dishes.  She liked the idea of course, but said that she and five or six other girls were still eating dinner and that I should come over a little later.  When I heard that, I knew that I had been inspired to call her.  Now I was going to get the chance to be "caught in the act" of serving by a whole group of girls.  I went over at the time my sister designated and pretended to be shocked that a whole dinner group was gathered, even though I already knew they were there.  I collected the dishes from each of the girls while they were still seated and got to meet each of them.  What a deal!  True service should come from the heart and isn't rendered to attract the praise of the world, but it is really nice to show up at the right place at the right time and attract the praise of six girls just by fulfilling a mandatory service assignment!

Mountain Man Update

As promised, here's a little update on my aspirations and plans to become a mountain man/cowboy/rancher.  Becoming a mountain man or cowboy can be kind of general, it encompasses a variety of checkmarks or degrees.  I'm still beginning and have a long way to go, but recently, my mind has been obsessed with going fishing.  Now fishing is something i've done a fair amount of in my life.  I've always enjoyed it, but i've never been the one to push my dad to take me fishing, or had the drive to go out fishing by myself.  This last week or so, though, i've wanted nothing more than to drop a line in the Provo river and land myself a good-sized brown trout.  I'm serious about making this dream a reality too.  When I was home this week, I talked my dad into letting me take a rod and reel back down with me to Provo.  I also talked to my "Mr. Outdoors" uncle about what bait or lure to use on the Provo.  I even have an idea of when i'll actually make the trip.  My Saturdays usually have a 3-4 hour block scheduled out for me to watch the BYU football game.  Since our regular season is now over, i'll just go fishing for that time instead.  Anyway, that was a lot of details that I just threw out, but the main point is that I am still serious about becoming a woodsman and the next step or checkmark is to go fishin.

Thoughts

I'm not sure if I know all the rules or requirements for our weekly blog entries, but today I feel like just writing as if it was my journal.  This is just what's on my mind right now, and I hope it's legal to do this.  I randomly have had the desire to go fishing for over a week now.  I would love to just head up the Provo River a little bit and drop a line in the water.  I haven't been since I've been home from my mission.  Also, I want to get back into rock climbing and camping.  School has kind of separated me from many of my hobbies.  I spend hours on end indoors studying and my desire to be free and in the woods has been building up inside of me for a long time.  I feel like going to Cabela's just to feed the flame.  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to plan very carefully if I want to be able to fit those things in in the near future, because after a short Thanksgiving break, it'll be the home stretch for school and I imagine that things will be pretty busy.  I do have to admit, though, this semester has flown by!  It is almost over already.  Yikes! Yes!

BYU Basketball

I really do try to talk about a variety of subjects on my blog, but it seems like I always fall back on sports.  On Friday, I took one for the team and got in the line outside the Marriott Center at 2:00 pm to get good seats for the 7:00 pm game for my buddies and me.  The three-hour wait in the cold and then the two-hour wait inside the arena was long and boring, but it was a small price to pay to get good seats to the home opening b-ball game.  By the time the lights in the arena went out and the giant sheets fell from the rafters as part of the pre-game celebration, I had completely lost my mind and my voice.  BYU started off a little sluggish, but thanks to Jimmer Fredette, they finished the first half on a roll and opened up a big lead.  The second half was just an extension of a practice as BYU blew out Fresno State and kicked off what should be a very successful season.    

Cowboy Up

This is unusual: I have two specific topics to write about and I want to write about both of them.  Usually I have to rack my brain to think of anything to write about.  The two themes are, first, that I have always wanted to be a cowboy/rancher someday and, second, that my roommate just cooked some awesome Thai food that rocked my world.  I think I'll write about becoming a cowboy.
I can't remember when I first starting having this desire, but its been building up inside of me for a long time.  When I was little, I often wore a worn-out cowboy hat around the house.  When I was a teenager, I had a job of feeding two of my neighbors' horses.  This last summer, I became fascinated by western movies.  John Wayne and the Sackett's are some of my new heroes.
Even though I am preparing to apply to the accounting program at BYU this spring, I am also making plans to turn my dream of being a cowboy into a reality.  The following is a list of the next steps to be taken:

• Purchase boots and a hat
• Continue to develop a healthy taste for country music
• Plan trips to rodeos, fairs, and demolition derbies
• Stalk, catch, and train a wild stallion

Please follow this blog to get updates on the progress of this worthy endeavor.

Customer Service

I think this will be kind of a random blog post.  Over the weekend I went out to eat at a restaurant for the first time.  While I was there, though, I noticed something that has made me think.  When I go to restaurants I like to talk to the restaurant servers or other workers for their suggestions on what to order.  Many workers automatically recommend the most expensive thing on the menu, and it is clear that they are only trying to increase my bill and their tip.  Other can't even give a good recommendation because they really aren't even familiar with the menu.  I'm kind of weird and I like to observe the different responses that I get and then compare them with my own opinion of the food after I finish eating it.  I usually find my opinion of the meal to be quite different than the description from the original suggestion.  The other night, though, the worker at the restaurant we went to, gave us honest, blunt descriptions of the menu items and even talked us out of what we were going to order in favor of a less-expensive item that was his personal favorite.  My post-meal analysis found that he had been extremely accurate in his description and we tipped him heftily.  I learned how much of an effect a worker can have on the satisfaction of their customers.