I Guess I'd Rather Hurt Than Feel Nothing At All

Recap of 2010 Resolutions:

• Watch every episode of Jersey Shore and die laughing (Watched every episode, not all of them were great)
• Consume my weight in granola bars every month (Some months yes, most no. Man can not live on Honey and Oat alone)
• Eat at every restaurant on the island (If by every, you mean the handful that I frequented often, then sure)
• Go to a gym (I did. And even ran. Twice. In a year. I'm a bit out of shape)
• Acquire more random T-shirts (True, to the point I had to get rid of some to make luggage weight restrictions)
• Be known as the king of something (Accomplished [King of Wii Fencing after I pioneered the "Windmill Attack"])
• Review every class twice a week (Actually did this one. Pretty proud of myself about it actually)
• Read the books I had on hand (Yes sir, except I haven't finished Pres Hinckley's Bio yet. It's very long and a bit dry)
• Make better resolutions for next year...

All in all, I feel like a success looking back on the handful of goals I set out for myself. Some of you might bring up the fact that hardly any of those goals have any lasting impact or benefit. To those people I say...you're right. Beyond the reviewing and reading, they were all pointless. But they were still goals, and I still had to put in some effort to achieve each and every one of them. So we'll agree to disagree.

As for 2011, I see bright things in my future. Not so much the immediate future, but starting in a month or two, things are really going to start coming up Rick Russell. For this next month, it will be a deluge of essays and applications all over again for business school as well as preparing for the GMAT. If I'm not looking into jobs or going to the gym (more on that later) than there's a 90% chance I'm either sleeping or working on some sort of application. Nothing new, just another grind.

Now back to the gym. I've gone five times since Friday. That's more than the past 3 years combined (I can't know for sure, but I know I only went 3 times during the year and a half I was on the island, never for the year I was in Florida, I think I had already canceled my membership for the last semester I was at BYU, so it's certainly a safe assumption). Above all else, I realize just how far I've slipped. I hurt in all sorts of new muscles. Flexors on my shins scream at me. The levator scapulae are my sworn enemies after a couple laps swimming. And one set of chest flys provides enough radiant heat to render my jacket moot. Absurd. Nevertheless, I plan on riding this horse until it bucks me. Or until I have a job that forces me to change my workout schedule. I enjoy going at 7:15, when there is hardly anyone there to realize just how pitiful I am. Went the other day around 5:30... straight madhouse. There was a line just to be checked in. And I'm probably wrong, but I certainly felt like all of them were in better shape than I was. I prefer my failures private.

Other resolutions (yes I'm counting attending the gym more often as a resolution, and yes, I have already accomplished it) include:

• Going on a date. It's been nearly a year and a half since I've been out on a one-on-one date. I have to imagine I'm rusty, and I know that I have little idea what is the social norm for someone in my current social stratum. Let's just hope dinner still works, because beyond that I would have no clue what to do.
• Read the new books that I have. For Christmas, above all, I received clothes and books. I'm very pleased about this. It helps that I picked out all of said clothes and books, but that's not the point now is it.
• Not get a speeding ticket. I figure it would be good to put down 12 consecutive months where I haven't had to sit through a defensive driving course. Check back in October to see if I succeeded. If I can get through September unscathed, I have a good chance.
• Attend a Rockies game and one other team I haven't seen yet. The most likely other candidate, proximity-based, would be the Oakland Athletics. Any other team would have to be some stroke of luck and coincidence, like going to Milwaukee for the cheese festival and the Brewers happen to be in town. Either way, I've only got 11 teams left, and like Pokemon, I gotta catch 'em all.

So yeah, those are my goals for the next year. Additionally, I would like to secure a job within the next month, both as a mean of financial gain, and as a something in case B-school doesn't work out (which is a strong possibility given my rather light resume). Truth be told, if I found the right job, I have would have no problem postponing B-school for a year or even indefinitely. Right now, lot of possibilities are out there for me. I just hope some of them come through.

Word.

I Would Like To Think Our Paths Are Straight

Maslov's hierarchy of needs lists achievement in the second to highest category, meaning that it the second thing that can be stripped away without any reparable damage being done. I'm skeptical on this. I like achieving goals and receiving awards (also in the 2nd to highest group). The only way I get things done is by challenging myself to do them, and then rewarding myself (usually with a 'take that' to the version of me that said I couldn't do it).

Because of this, I've decided to hand out a couple of awards concerning the Florida-to-Utah cross country trip I just finished. Some are good, some are bad, but all are deserving.

Most impressive state: Oklahoma. I know what your thinking. How on earth could Oklahoma be considered impressive. Here's how. For starters, the speed limit is 75 all the way through. It's like they realized that anyone driving in their state, is merely driving through their state and would like to do so as quickly as possible. Additionally, for the first time ever, an office let me off with a warning instead of writing a ticket. I was something along the lines of 9 for 9 before that (wow, that sounds like a lot of tickets. In my defense, I spread them out fairly evenly). Granted, I was only going about 82 in the 75, so I wasn't exactly a menace to the other drivers, but I was nevertheless stunned to be let go without having to pay any money or sit through yet another defensive driving course. New Mexico was in the running because of the their 75 mph speed limit, but the weather got rough as I was exiting there, and that really cost them.

Least impressive state: Arizona. Horrible weather across the entire state. The worst part was that I chose the path through Arizona because I though it would help me avoid horrible weather. Could not have been more wrong. Snow dumped all through the night and into the next afternoon. Major highways were closed. Traffic was slowed to a grind, if not completely stopped. And to top it all off, at one point, the car behind me caught some ice, over-corrected, went across the entire road and rolled onto it's side, just off the road. You want to know what bring your senses to full attention? Watching the car behind you suddenly wind up with it's wheels in the air.

Most valuable organ: Bladder. Came through like a champ, eliminating any extra stops.

Least valuable organ: Nerves. Specifically, the ones that remind me just how cold it was every time I had to fill up for gas. You might hear me complain about the cold for a while. I know I brought this on myself, but when you spend the past 365 days with the weather being under 75 degree for only 5 of those days, you lose your grip on how 15 degrees feels. Now, I'm just losing feeling in my grip.

Most desperate restaurant: 72 ouncer. There's a restaurant (I don't know it's name because they never advertised it) in Amarillo, TX, that has the classic eat-this-massive-steak-and-it's-free gimmick. You can't miss it because they start advertising along I-40 in Arkansas. Two state away, and they're tossing up billboards. Did I think about pulling in? Yes. Did I think about trying to tackle that beast? Not for long. I've eaten a 32 ouncer in one sitting. It's a lot of meat. I couldn't imagine eating two of them and then chasing it with an 8 oz slab. That is a gustatory feat I hope to never be able to accomplish.

Favorite part of the car (non-Ma Lady division): Seat warmer. Do they make couches that can do that? I'd buy one today.

Least favorite part of the car: Layer of filth. Oh my goodness. I just washed and waxed the thing before I left, and now it's a wreck. I'm a little embarrassed to introduce it to my friends. It's like I have one of those girlfriends who demands to put makeup on in the morning, only today my friends, who haven't met her yet, are coming over early. They can tell she has a nice body, but then they take a closer look and it's just a disaster. I still love her though, but it's not putting her best foot forward. (Side note- Don't really want one of those types of girlfriends, but I thought the analogy was fitting.)

Best support: The Gordens. They were more or less on the way, and when you haven't even met your friend's 2.5 year old son, nor his couple month old daughter, you better make a stop. So they let me stay at their house (It's beautiful, by the way) and hang out with them and their kids for a day. That experience taught me two things about having little kids: First, they make you feel alive. Watching them, you get to vicariously experience things for the first time. Everything is amazing. Everything is borderline magical. Water fountains are the coolest things in the world and the promise of a cookie can resolve any pain or discomfort.

The other thing I learned was that they make you feel exhausted. I spent one day. I kid you not, I thought it was three by the time I went to bed. It was fun while it was going on, but the second it stopped, I was looking for a pillow. Doing that everyday? Kudos to all the parents out there. I'm sure I could do it, but you definitely get a boost by it being your own child.

Had a blast with them, and they sent me on my way with some tootsie rolls. Really can't ask for much more than that.

Best technological advancement since last cross country trip: Smart Phone. Check emails in the middle of Texas? Of course. Research hotels while cruising through New Mexico? Done. Listen to Pandora when the only radio station is some financial news (Like anyone in Central Oklahoma was interested in how the stock market was doing?)? Easy Kapeezy. When I got back to the states, I wasn't sure if I wanted to get one. Now I'm very glad I did.

Word.

I'll Be Waiting Here, Santa That's My Only Wish This Year

There are too many people asking me what I want for Christmas. Between all the celeb-utantes, athletes, starlets and congressman, my voice mailbox is stuffed with pleas requesting guidance as to what they should give me. So, I figured I'd make it easy and just publish the list. I thought about registering somewhere, but the only store here is ACE Hardware. Not to besmirch ACE, but not even they carry everything on my list.

So, to make things simpler for everyone, especially me so I don't have to tell everyone individually, here is the list of things that you could and should get me for Christmas:

1) Some ownership in Half.com and/or Betterworldbooks.com. I have what must be described as unhealthy addiction to the healthy activity of reading, and between those two websites have pushed my personal library to new levels. It's at the point where I have to leave over a dozen books behind on the rock, while taking about as many back home. I simply don't have the luggage room. Oh, and to get myself established in Utah, I already have a shipment of five books on their way. Yep, I buy them 5 at a time. You don't?

2) An express lane from Florida to Utah. It only needs to be up for about a week, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. It'll be like the secret path that only StoneCutters were allowed to drive on. It's a pretty long trip, and I'm willing to bet there will be snow on parts, so an express lane that is free of other cars and poor road conditions would be nice of you all. I figure since it's little bigger, two people can go in together on this.

3) A 5k time under 30 minutes. Right now, I'd be lucky to keep it under 40, but that's ridiculous considering my age and my self-image. I know that if I went running today, I wouldn't make a mile without stopping. But I also know that tomorrow I could go sub 8 minutes. (I know because I used to always run to D'Angelo's 'Untitled which runs a little over 7 minutes, and I would finish the mile a couple seconds into the next track. And usually on the second day of any sort of regiment, I could make that happen.) Now, I'm not the smartest, but I know that even a 9-min mile will get your 5k time under 30. I just need someone to remind me that when I'm out running one. Rex Lee Run, I'm looking at you.

4) A Baseball/softball championship. It's no secret my love for Baseball runs deeper than the Mariana Trench. Now that I'm coming back to the states, I look forward to city rec leagues, especially ones that don't have former AAA talent playing in them. Come spring, I'll be on at least one team. What I also plan on looking into is being involved one way or another with the local Little League program. I spent 8 seasons from 1st-8th grade playing in the local little league back home. I just assumed that's what everyone did growing up. Why wouldn't they? Turns out, there are thousands of boys in Utah who never play little league Baseball. Blew my mind. In fact, I don't know one person who grew up in Utah and actually played in little league ball. It hurts my soul to know this is going on. So, I'm going to see what type of time commitment they're looking for, and see if I can be of some service to them. I've been tracking this game for over 20 years. I have a lot to share.

5) Tootsie Rolls. Of course.

Word

Famous, Everybody Wanna Be Famous

This wasn't my intended goal when I titled the blog "Can't Be Any Geek Off The Street", but needless to say, I'm very proud of it. Go to any major search engine and type in that phrase. It's going to be within the top 3 results. You don't even need the whole thing, just "Can't Be Any Geek" Of course, if you string any four unique words in a line, chances are there are only a couple of hits no matter what the words are, but I picked one of the iconic songs of the mid-nineties, which stole it from a somewhat popular movie. You would assume there would be more relevant references on the entire internet, but you would be wrong. This little blog of three years now has eclipsed both Warren G (Feat- Nate Dogg)'s legendary mid-90s track "Regulators", as well as the movie "Young Guns', where the quote originally came from.

Conversely, typing in my name gets you nowhere near the actual me. The closest I get is using google, and if you type in "Rick Russell Satellite Beach Diving 2000", it shows the results from Florida's 2A state diving meet where I finished 10th (Yeah, I used to be pretty dang good at that. Now, I'm probably just better than you and can impress people who aren't well versed in how to score a dive. It's weird how fine tuned skills atrophy when they're not used.) That's right. It takes more words to find any article about me, as opposed to one from me. And it's not even an article. It's one line, from a results sheet, of a high school event, 10 years ago.

The Internet. If you don't make a name for yourself, no one will do it for you.

Word.

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.