The One Thing Beer is Good For

This has to be top-ten best commercials ever. I don't condone the consumption of alcohol and never will, but Heineken definitely deserves some props for this one...

My First Holy War

I attended my first BYU-Utah football game last month, and beheld the Cougars' magical 17-10 win over the rival Utes. I wasn't sure what to expect from the game, but was certainly impressed with the emotion and competition both on and off the field.

Craig, Angee, Megs and I arrived at Lavell Edwards Stadium about two hours before kickoff. The air was cold and crisp but the bright sun livened up the day. Before the game started, I was worried that there would be an unpleasantly large contingent of Ewte fans there, but by the time kickoff arrived, the only red section large enough worth noting was the very top and extreme west portions of the north endzone. Other than that, Lavell Edwards was a sea of screamin' blue. A downpour of boos rained down on the Utes when they ran out on the field, I was surprised at how loud us Cougar fans really were... It was impressive. Right before kickoff, a few Utah players got in a small altercation with some Cougar fans in the front row of the north endzone. Mormon cuss-words abounded. I admit, I must've called atleast 200 Ute fans and players fetchers.

The game itself was a defensive battle, with BYU outplaying their Salt Lake counterparts, but unable to put many points on the board to open up a large lead. With the score 3-0 at half time and 9-3 in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, the Cougar faithful screamed at every snap, and yet an uneasy tension hung heavy in the air, knowing that our failing to get in the endzone might very well come back to bite us as the game progressed.

Sure enough in the final 4 minutes, Utah put together a long drive, converting on third-down time and time again (4 times) and scoring off right tackle from 3 yards out with only 1:34 to play to put Ewtah up 10-9. After the ensuing kickoff sailed out of the endzone, QB Max Hall fumbled on first down, but luckily didn't lose it. 2nd and 3rd downs ended with incompletions and we found ourselves with 4th and 18 on our own 12 yard line with barely a minute to play... Slowly, rising from the Cougar Student Section, first barely audible among the Utes fans' cheers, then suddenly deafening the chant...

B-Y-U!... B-Y-U!... B-Y-U!... B-Y-U!... B-Y-U!... B-Y-U!... B-Y-U!... B-Y-U!...

4th & 18, our own 12 yard line. Down 10-9 with a minute left to play... just watch the video.
(the 4th & 18 play is at 3:50)



Final, 17-10. Go Cougars!

A Dream Come True...

I've always wanted a son (or several for that matter) to play football and be drafted in the NFL...

Megs and I can dream....
Credits to Belle-Maman for finding the video.

Ol' Man Winter's Still Got It

The NFL just released the current Pro Bowl voting results for the 2008 Pro Bowl and guess who's in first place?... That's right, our own Brett Favre!

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/hashmarks/0-3-830/Favre-Leads-Pro-Bowl-Voting.html

How cool is that? At 38, he's still got what it takes to lead a winning team and make it to the Pro Bowl! The only question that remains is, How many times have YOU voted for him?

Click here to cast your vote to send Favre to the Pro Bowl one last time! And don't be bashful, you can vote as many times as you like! Go Packers!

Like Mother Like Daughter

Megs and I were chatting online earlier today and had little talk that reminded me of a conversation that FFIL had with FMIL. And I quote from FFIL's "Phonetically Speaking" post (July 27, 2007)...

[Quote]
I received a phone call at work today.

So, I was thinking.

Yes.

Since, I'm about to turn 50 and my name has 5 letters in it, we can start to celebrate early. We can go out to eat each night at a restaurant that starts with the letters of my name. We'll start with "C" and we can go to Chili's. Then tomorrow we can go to Applebee's for "A", next would be Kneader's for "N"…

Excuse me. I hate to burst your bubble of excitement, but doesn't Kneader's start with a "K"?

Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong silence — like the "K".

I go on. You could change the spelling of your name. C-A-Kn-D-Y. The "K" could be silent.

Okay, forget it.
[End Quote]

So alas, here's the conversation that I had with Megs online today...

[Quote]

Meghan: hey what u.s state starts with an H?

me: hawaii, why?

Meghan: oh duh! I couldn't think of one

me: OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Meghan: LOL, all I could think of was new hampshire

me: ok then, name a state that starts with an r

Meghan: rhode island, YOU BUM. I promise you i'm not as dumb as you think i am

me: hehehehe just checking... ok now a state that starts with a p.

Meghan: philadelphia

me: yeah, philadelphia is a great state huh? that's where pittsburgh is isn't it? pittsburgh, philadelphia, right?

Meghan: me hate you

[End Quote]

Wow... the striking similarities :)

Flickin' with my Chick...

Let me preface this post by saying that I'm in love with a certain female by the name of Megs and after her and The Truth, my true love is the manly game of football... I love action movies and sports movies and smart-action thrillers with twists and war movies.... So, with all that out of the way...

Meghan and I stopped by Hollywood Video last night on our way to Albertson's to buy our Pack-o-Lantern (refer to Megs' last post) and we rented 3 movies... One chick-flick for Meghan and then a couple movies that fall more into the category of action movies and sports movies and smart-action thrillers with twists and war movies. Through all my woeful past experiences with chick-flicks, involving, but not limited to, The Wedding Planner, My Best Friend's Wedding, Pretty in Pink, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (which I was straight-up conned into watching in the theater... twice) as well as pretty much anything with Matthew McConaughey or Jennifer Lopez... or both, I have found only two that I even remotely enjoyed.

First, Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts was fairly entertaining... There was enough smart humor (uncommon for most chick-flicks) to watch occasionally... really occasionally...

And secondly of course is the only Staples Family Officially Approved Chick-Flick (SFOACF), French Kiss, with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. That movie is down-right hilarious and while Meg Ryan brings her own unique style and humor, Kevin Kline is absolutely hilarious while doing a spot-on impression of a Frenchman (Kary can attest to that).

Alas, back to last night. Meghan chose the Certified Chick-Flick (CCF) Music & Lyrics with Drew Barrymore and again, Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant plays a washed-up, 40-something recording artist who used to be a part of an 80's pop group. To make a long story short, Drew Barrymore comes into his life and they find ways to make each other's lives better, all-the-while falling in love. At the surface, it sounds like your typical don't-want-to-watch-it chick-flick, but... I can not tell a lie... I really liked it. Even with my unbridled dislike of Drew Barrymore, this movie still somehow "rocked the house" in my opinion. Now let's not get carried away, I wouldn't watch this movie every week, but I'd definitely watch it again because it was so funny.

Now that I think about it, I seem to have a slight affinity to the comedic style of Hugh Grant, as most chick-flicks I watch with him seem significantly funnier than most other "girly movies". This movie, Music & Lyrics, definitely gets off on the right foot, opening with a two and-a-half minute music video of Hugh's 80's band, Pop. I just about died laughing right from the get-go.

Here's the music video...



So there you have it, while Music & Lyrics doesn't join the ranks of French Kiss as a SFOACF, it might be in the ballpark, as I'd watch it again... just gimme a few weeks of football in between showings.

Tagged by the Blog

In my relentless pursuit to humor my Belle Maman (FMIL), and in the everlasting, all-permeating spirit of 'tag', here I am, a tagged man.

Alas, on to my five-things-that-no-one-else-knows-and-there's-a-reason-for-that-
but-oh-well-here-goes-all-my-secrets-that-I-wanted-to-keep-secret.

1. I came home 'early' from my mission. This one always seems to heighten not-only the curiosity of those around, but often the tension that accompanies the conversation. When I was 16, my dad was called to serve as a mission president in the New Zealand Wellington Mission. Because he was still serving when I turned 18, I was able to enter the MTC a year early (a little-known church policy), just 19 days after my birthday. After serving the full two years, I came home, just 23 days after turning 20 years-old. For the next 12 months, I endured many blank stares and awkward pauses from many-a-person who asked me my age. Most of the conversations went like this:

them: Have you served a mission?
me: Yep.
them: So you're 21 then?
me: Nope. Just turned 20.
them: (pause)... oh, so are you sick?
me: Nope, healthy as a horse.
them: Are you going to go back out?
me: Nope.
them: uh... well, how about that weather recently? Mighty cold huh?

Now just because I didn't explain in detail the situation, doesn't mean that I was lying or misleading them... besides, anyone who'd judge someone else based on how much of their mission they served might deserve an emotional roller-coaster of their own. :)

2a. I have a Green Bay Packer tattoo on my upper-right shoulder. False. But if I got one, that's what it'd be.

2b. The Packers will win the Super Bowl this year. That's right, it's a secret no longer. Consider yourselves warned.

3. I thought Meghan was cute on the mission. I realize that there are certainly some parental-figures that likely would have preferred to not read that, but while it is true, let me explain myself. When she came into my district in Ottawa as a greenie, the first time I met her I thought to myself, "Whoa, Sister Walker is kinda cute." And that was it. Promise. I ended that whole train-of-thought right there and didn't let it go any further, until of course I saw her again here in Utah, when my thoughts quickly changed to "Wow, ok Sister (Meghan) Walker is a babe. I'm going for it." And wouldn't-ya-know... a few months later, she's gonna be Sister Staples... boo-yah.

4. I reached a decent age before I realized that Jefferson Starship sang "Marconi plays the mamba" and not "While Kody plays the mamba." So yeah, when I was but a lad, my older bro Kurt told me that he was friends with the lead singer and that he wrote "We Built This City on Rock and Roll" with them for me... I expect free, life-time medical attention for me and my entire progeny as recompense.

5. The best basketball game I ever played... was on Sunday. I was on my high school basketball team (I played shooting guard) and our school did a 'sports exchange' with another school in the region. (A sports exchange is basically where all the sports teams from one school travel to another school and play in every sport over the course of the weekend.) The sports exchange culminated in the last game, basketball, Sunday night. The entire student body of each school was in the gym to watch the game and the atmosphere was electric. My coach asked me to play and the temptation to play in front of such a huge crowd was too much for me... seven 3's and 31 points later, I won sports exchange MVP honors and was mobbed by hundreds of my peers... and felt absolutely terrible about it.


So there you go Belle Maman, you tagged me and here's my shout-out to you... And of course, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, so Megs, I now tag you! :)

The Return of the Prodigal Son

That's right ladies and gents... your favorite blogger is back from his 45-day hiatus. What have I learned from my time out of the spotlight? My priorities.

What has happened in these past 45 days? Let us reflect; The summer school term ended, Megs and I traveled on down to the 505 so my parents and grandma could fall in love with her too, I moved, the NFL regular season started, as did the school fall semester. Now with all these things going on, not including church and work responsibilities, I've had to really juggle my time and energy with everything that's been happening. Now I'm not really a fan of quantifying such things, but I figure I'd objectively look at what I've been up to recently and try to put some things in order...

1a. Religion/Spirituality

1b. Megs/Family (One might wonder, why 1a and 1b? Well, I figure that it's impossible to serve one without serving the other. Notice however that Heavenly Father gets the edge here as 1a because well, he's God.) Note: All wedding preparations and such fall under this category, let's not get too specific.

2. Football I*. More specifically the NFL, but I'm down with all genres of God's Game. Go Pack Go. (*) refer to priority 7.

3a. School.

3b. School. (I have so much of it I thought it appropriate to put it twice.)

4. Fantasy Football, yeah it's that important.

5. ESPN.com

6. Work, blah.

7. Football II. *There are two types, (I) the kind that you MUST watch (i.e. The Super Bowl, all playoffs and Packers games, games that have playoff implications or affect the Packers, as well as all marquee-matchups) and (II) the kind that you'd watch if you didn't have other priorities that prevent you from watching (i.e. all other football games).

8. Sleep

9. Madden... my thumbs are exceptionally strong and nimble.

These of course are neither complete nor final, (nos. 4 and 5 could be interchangeable) but I feel that they are a decent representation of how and where I've been spending the majority of my time and energy. So if someone asks about me, you can just tell them that God and Megs are my life, God's Game is my favorite pastime and I work hard to be a good economist.

Oh and I almost forgot...

10. Blogging. :)

Wikipedia...The Bane of My Existence

Wikipedia.org.... the source of 21st Century light and knowledge. Hundreds of millions of people contribute to what may become the single most complete database of information ever known to man. And I'm never going back. Thanks to Wikipedia.org, as well as Megs who started this downward spiraling cycle of low self-esteem, I have discovered that many parts of my life have been in-reality, a lie.

It all started with a simple claim on my part, that humans are physically inferior to almost every other God-made creature on earth. Even a squirrel. I claimed (and still do) that if one of us were to get in a fight with a squirrel, we'd have our eyes gouged out before we could say 'acorn'. Megs told me that I was crazy to think that a human could get beat up by a guinea pig's cousin, which started me thinking, "I bet that guinea pigs could be pretty nasty out in the wild before they're domesticated and put in their little cage of wood shavings and newspaper..." Megs told me that there are no such things as wild guinea pigs and after bantering back-and-forth for a moment she uttered the ultimately dooming words "Well let's check Wikipedia then..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_pigs

In the fourth line we read "while they are no longer extant in the wild, they..." Kiboshed.

Once we got on this Wikipedia adventure, Megs decided to keep it going, referring back to discussions that we had had previously. The day before, we were sitting on Megs' front step and saw a daddy long-legs spider crawl across the sidewalk. While the little lanky bug was creeping his way along, I commented on the well-known fact that daddy long-legs spiders are the most poisonous spiders in the world, but their mouths are so small that they can't bite us, so they're of no threat to us. So in an effort to sucker-punch my self-esteem, I again heard the words "Well let's check Wikipedia then..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvestman

Scroll down to the first paragraph in the Physical Description section, 11th and 12th lines, "Harvestmen do not have silk glands and do not possess poison glands, posing absolutely no danger to humans." Again, kiboshed.

Lastly, as a continuation of our "Animals-can-beat-the-tar-out-of-humans" discussion, I raised the point that even some plants are man-eating; further illustrating my point that humans are poorly equipped physically to survive, and that without our brains, we wouldn't stand a chance in H-E-Double-Hockeysticks of surviving. Meghan quipped that such plants don't even exist, to which I hastily replied "Well why do they call them man-eating plants then?" Alas for one last time to my final demise I heard the words "Well let's check Wikipedia then..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-eating_tree

As we read in the second line, "No such plant is known to exist." Third time's the charm?... Kiboshed.

In conclusion, why would I ever return to Wikipedia? I guess the next time I have a dream or a wish or think of anything good in this life, I can always turn to that menacing site to have my dreams crushed, wishes shattered and all the goodness of this life strangled to death by all that is wrong in this cruel world.

The Ring of Fire

Ok, so in the past week, I've learned how important a ring is when claiming one is 'engaged'... and I've learned it the hard way. A couple weeks ago, Megs and I decided to get married... super, grand, fantastic... crazy happy. And after I tell Mum and Dad, I decide to wait until talking to Megs' dad about it before spilling the beans to the rest of the family... Not a bad idea. Now what was a bad idea?... not getting the friggin' ring first!

Since sending the "Who's-That-with-Kody-Oh-My-Goodness-He's- Engaged-Video", as it will be hitherto known, all I have heard as reaction from relatives of both sides are questions like "So how did he propose?" or "Can you send a picture of the ring?" These questions only to be followed by others such as "So wait, are you really getting married?" and "Well what's taking him so long? You know you don't have to marry him until that ring is on your finger..."

I have not proposed. Correct. She does not have a ring yet. Double Correct. Not my fault... Triple Correct. Just to 'clear the air', we have picked out a ring, and I will be purchasing it very soon, and I will be proposing to Megs with it soon after... The ring has to be custom made, and they won't do it until I actually spend some cheese, hence the "we're-engaged-but-she-doesn't-have-a-ring-yet" situation that we find ourselves in. So in an effort to dispose of the nay-sayers and their squabblings... the temple is booked, the JSMB is reserved and I am officially spoken for.... mmm, feels good.

I Blog, therefore I Am

Memories... Experiences... Relationships... The essence of what this life really is. A very wise woman once said "You'll regret it if you don't write down the things that happen in your life. Mark my words, I'm always right." So Mother, in case you ever read this, You were right... again. Will this be a personal diary? No. My life isn't nearly interesting or eventful enough for that. Rather than keeping a record of my existence day-to-day, I'll share the essence of my life with you; the memories, experiences and relationships. Please share back... comments welcome. Game on.