Under The Sea

So, this will be the shortest post ever, but I watched 'Taken' the other day, and all I could think was:

This is how 'The Little Mermaid' happens in real life. When one of my daughter's friends shows her 'The Little Mermaid', I'm showing her 'Taken'. Why? Because sometimes, Daddy does actually know better.

I Could Be Chasin' But My Time Would Be Wasted

Yeah, midterms are in 10 days and finals a week after that, but it's Thanksgiving, and I've got to do laundry, so I figured why not put a list of the things I'm thankful for. Now, this is not the obvious list of things like family, friends, gospel, tootsie rolls, roof over my head and freedom. Not to say I don't appreciate those things, but this is the list of things that make me think 'Oh yeah, this is why my life is awesome' on an hourly basis.

Peach fruit snacks by Haribo. Or basically anything by Haribo. Grab yourself a bag. And then, go onto Amazon.com and realize that you can sign up to have a 5 lb bag delivered every month. Almost pulled the trigger twice already.

Sunglasses. I wasn't sold on them until I moved to Arizona 2+ years ago, but now...well, I almost had them Fedex-ed down to my island when I left them at home after a break. (Side note- I still don't like talking to people while wearing them. Most of my non-verbal clues are eye-related, and the sunglasses obscure that.)

Chris Farley. To know him is to love him, and to love him is to miss him.

Books. Maybe it's because I live in a place that does not have a walmart* $5 bin, or a Blockbuster 4 for 20 deal, but this past year I can firmly say that I spent more on books than DVD's. And that's not including text books, just pure reading for pleasure. My dilemma now is that when I move back to the States, I'll know that I can read books for free at the library, but I really like having them on a shelf. What's the tipping point where I say, that's too much money to own, I'll just read it from the library? I don't know. I mean, if it's a dollar or two, that's worth just to not worry about late fees, but beyond that...

CMT. There are about 10 radio stations here that are at least in part English. None of them are country stations. I'm not the type of guy who needs only country, but I need me some country. CMT, bless their hearts, roll non-stop videos for the bulk of the day. It's fantastic. I get home from class, watch a replay of SportsCenter and then turn the channel to CMT and let their smooth sounds carry me through my studies for a bit.

The Spring of 2006. Why? Simple. This guy:

He taught me that I should never try to grow out a mustache again. Ever. (Side note- that dude has two more NBA championship rings than Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard combined. He can clap with the best of them.)

Barney Stinson. I only met this guy within the past year, but I can tell you that he is fantastic.

Baseball.

Word.

Word. (Yes, I'm thankful for 'Word.')

It's Call It In the Air, Alright Yes Sir We Want The Ball

I couldn't sleep the other night, so I got to thinking. One thing led to another, and I wound up on college football. Now I'm watching college football (UF vs South Carolina) which led me to another thought on the sport, but we'll get to that in a second.

First, I was thinking about how Boise State has no chance at the national championship game. I want to say they do, but they really don't. Which is a shame, because I think they're the best team in college football, and if you watch them play, you'll be hard-pressed to disagree. Regardless, they're not making the big game.

So I tried to figure out a way to give them a chance. Now, I can't be the first person to come up with this, because, well, it's too simple. But if I am, I want it to be known as the 'Russell plan' for determining the national championship. Here's how it works:

The first part is that the college landscape is carved into 10 conferences with 12 teams a piece (Conveniently, there is currently exactly 120 teams). Each conference is split into 2 divisions and holds a conference championship game. These champions then enter the playoff brackets. The six current AQ conferences, will receive first-round byes and will rotate the top six seeds every year. The other four conferences, some conglomeration of the Mountain West, WAC, Sun Belt, C-USA and MAC, will play in two elimination games, with the winners joining the AQ 6 to form an eight team bracket. Then it takes three wins to become the national champion.

This clearly adds a couple games to the schedule, so the regular season will be shortened to 11 games. So, for an AQ school to win the crystal football, they will have played 15 total games, just one more than if they came from a current AQ conference with a conference championship game. Or 10 games to make it the same amount as it currently is. Either works. You figure each team plays the other five teams in their division, and then 2 matchups across the division (with a possibility for one of them to be a protected rivalry matchup). This leaves 3-4 open dates for the team to schedule at will. Which is about as many as most teams have now.

The first round of playoffs (the non-AQ conferences) will play out in two bowl games the weekend before Christmas. Preferably bowl games that are already prestigious, but it's not that important. Quarterfinals the weekend after Christmas (with two of the games being current BCS bowls, given to the #1 and #2 seeds, and the other two of respectable prestige like the Cotton bowl). Semifinals the weekend after that (the other two BCS bowls) and the National championship the weekend after that, which would roughly be Jan 8 like it is now.

I know. It's too simple. But hey, it makes sense, and just might fly.

The thought I had while watching the South Carolina Gamecocks pick apart the Gators was that Urban Meyer is over-rated. Substantially over-rated. His win-loss record is outstanding and he does have a pair of national championships on the mantle. Impressive stuff. But most of those accomplishments have been because of the personnel he walked into. He showed up at Utah after Alex Smith was known to have a quality arm. Meyer never coached a team of his own recruits in SLC. He went to Florida in 2005, and was greeted by a team overflowing with talent and a veteran QB, again. To his credit, he did sign Tim Tebow. And that Tebow guy has to be considered one of the best college football players ever. Like, top 3 status. So, you do have to give Meyer some credit for bringing that guy onto the Gainesville campus. But how much of Tebow's character or ability do you think was a result of Meyer's coaching? I wasn't there in training camp, but I'm betting not a lot.

Now Tebow is gone, and for the first time, Meyer is without a veteran star on his team. And he's struggling. Well, struggling by Gator standards. After tonight, he'll have lost his third straight home game. That's struggling for just about any program. So yeah, I think Urban Meyer is over-rated. He can turn a talented team into a title contender, but he can't foster a championship program over multiple recruiting classes.

Maybe if this Brantley fellow turns things around next year, I'll have to re-evaluate, but as it stands, I'll say that more than anything, Meyer's success can be attributed to his ability to evaluate a team's talent, and then move to a team that has a lot of it.

Word.

Baby, Baby, Baby I'm Gonna Leave You, I Said Baby, You Know I'm Gonna Leave You

Well, I've waited long enough I guess. I wanted to make sure I told my parents and classmates before I went completely public with this. Mike's known about the possibility of it for about a couple months.

After this semester, I'm leaving medical school.

While I'm not thrilled about it (and the incumbent financial issues), it's what I feel is best in the long run. There are several reasons why, but I'll give you the three biggest, in no particular order.

First, after spending this much time on the inside of the medical establishment, I've gotten a much better look at how things are. And I have to say, they don't look good. I still love the field, and the idea of it, but the passion to become it has faded as the reality of what it entails has set in. And with the way things are going politically, it appears to only get worse. Now, I'm not saying that the political moves were wrong, I'm just saying they're wrong for me in particular. Essentially, they make doctors glorified mechanics, but with worse hours. I don't think the demands, nor the compensation are going to get better any time soon, and I'd rather not live that way.

Secondly, I'm having to put everything I have into studying, and still struggling to be middle of the pack. I don't ever want to be known as "struggling to be middle of the pack", especially in my profession. That's just unacceptable to me. I believe I've got it in me to be the best, or at least among the best, and if my best efforts aren't landing me there, then maybe I should not be trying to get there. To go along with this, I decided to set a standards bar for my classes this term. If I gave it my all, and couldn't get A's, then it was time to look elsewhere. Not to be a knock to my classmates, but I don't think they're so much smarter than me that I can't achieve what they can. After two months of busting it, I can tell you I'm not going to be getting A's. I've run the numbers, and it's just not there.

Thirdly, I may be the last to recognize this, but maybe I never was supposed to become a doctor at all. I'm not saying I'm not capable, because, well, I am. But if I was supposed to become one, the path wouldn't have been as rough as it has been. When you score in the top 5% of the national entrance exam, but get turned down by 100% of the national schools (twice), something's not adding up. When you try to get experience by working as a paramedic or a CNA, and neither work out, maybe you're not supposed to be a health professional.

So, yeah. I've had to let this dream go. I've spent the past ten years wanting to be a doctor, pushing against and through every wall, and making it all the way to medical school, but enough is enough. It's just not for me. I'm for it, but it's just not for me.

In December, I'll pack up and fly home for good. I'll spend Christmas there, and start moving on. The plan is to go to Utah and land a job in the financial sector, with aspirations possibly towards an MBA, but we'll see when we get there. I do, or at least did, well with business matters and feel that I can both excel and provide for myself and family in that arena. To be perfectly honest, I'm not trying to focus too much on it because I still have to get through this semester. I'll finish out these classes, and leave as a student in good standing, academically and otherwise. While I will be sad to say goodbye to all the friends I've made out here, I've got to do what's best for me in the long run.

I sure hope this is it.

Word.

Cause I Want It All Or Nothing At All

Reading my friends' blogs, it's always feast or famine. Either I get a new post, or I have to continue starving. Today, I got all sorts of excited. I was going from friend's blog to friend's blog and was stoked to continually see that people had put in updates over the past day. Usually they come spaced out about once or twice a week, so this was an exceptional treat to have so many all at once. Now, maybe I'm a little slow, but it wasn't until about the third picture of someone's child dressed up as a pirate or a giraffe or a ladybug that I realized why every friend that I have who has spawned was wanton to post something.

That old Halloween sneaking up again. For the most part, I enjoy holidays. Big fan of Christmas and Thanksgiving. What's not to love about days revolving around large meals and taking the entire day off to do nothing besides eat those meals, and talk about other great meals? You give me a reason to sit down in front of food, and I'm your best friend. Here on the rock I take the missionaries out to dinner about once a month, not necessarily because I feel like I'm doing a good deed, but mostly because it gives me a legit reason to sit down to a nice steak dinner. (Side note: Here, they don't take a dinner break. Not kidding. They just take their lunch around noon, and work until 9:30. Blew my mind. And now I know why I wasn't called to this part of the world.)

Which brings me to Halloween. I struggle with this holiday as an adult. It's not a big meal type of holiday, it's more of the appetizers and dip type of holiday. Not that that's a bad thing, but it does knock it down a peg in the holiday totem pole. The other issue I have with it is dressing up. If you know anything about me, it's that I rarely do anything half-way. It's my greatest strength and my greatest weakness. So, if I'm supposed to dress up on Halloween, I either want an outstanding outfit, or nothing at all. I'm not the guy who shows up wearing cleats and a polo shirt and says he's a rugby player. I don't wear a red shirt and grab a plastic pitch fork and say I'm the devil.

I join three other friends, buy suits and sweater vests, wigs and glasses, and memorize catch phrases so we can recreate the Channel 4 News Team from Anchorman (I was Brick Tamblin, and I think I ate your chocolate squirrel). I do grow out a beard, cake it and my hair with flour, and make three dozen cardboard medallions so I can go as Alfred Nobel (It was right after Obama won the Peace Prize after being in office for a couple months. I figured since the actual committee had decided to hand them out willy-nilly style, I would help them out). I swing from the heels my friends, and sometimes I connect.

However, if I can't come up with a solid idea, I don't dress up. At all. This Halloween was that situation. I only had one decent costume idea, and it was to go as a WWE wrestler. I mean, when you already have a championship belt, the costume doesn't take much more. But again, if I was going to do it, we were going all out, and yes, I'm purposefully using the phrase "all out" to describe a wrestling costume. I'm talking black boots, black knee pads and a black speedo. That's it. And if I had the speedo, I just might have done it (Your retinas just sighed, relieved that there won't be pictures of said outfit). But I don't. So instead, I just put on a nice shirt and jeans, and went out for the night.

And you know something, Halloween was just as much fun not dressed up as it was dressed up. I knew this in fourth grade when I figured out that as long as you wear a baseball cap and a glove, people will still give you the candy. You didn't have to put on a Spiderman leotard and layout a mascara spiderweb on your face. Just put two items together and watch the bag fill. (Side note: Reading from Jake and Holli about how Carder went to town eating his candy and it reminded me about how cruel/genius my parents were with this scenario. They'd let us eat as much as we could that night. Never went to the point of a refund, but many years felt that it would be a relief if I had. The next day, we were allowed to pick 30 pieces to keep. That's it. Toughest draft ever. The rest went into a huge bowl and was taken into my Dad's office. That one act single handedly staved off diabetes.)

Somehow I forgot that no one really cares whether you made a working Optimus Prime costume that actually transforms, or just put on a flannel shirt, messed up your hair and carried your loot bag on a stick. I'll never know how I forgot that, but I remember that lesson now. So next Halloween, you can expect one of two things from me. You'll either get the best costume in the room, or no costume at all. Feast or famine.

Word.