Well March Madness is now in full swing and what a madness it has been. I said last week that filling out a bracket is like trying to “predict the unpredictable”; these last few days have proven that true. Who would have guessed that Kansas would lose to Northern Iowa? Or that Villanova would get beat by St. Mary’s? Upsets like these can destroy even the most carefully picked brackets and cause an aspiring bracketologist to weep like a schoolchild.
But amidst the tears and angry screams at the television, one can see the true beauty of March Madness. The true beauty of March Madness does not lie in picking the perfect bracket or winning the office tournament, it lies in the experience.
There are few things in this world that are more exciting to a sports fan than being able to cheer on their favorite team. March Madness is the only time of the year when every game has “your favorite team” playing. Every game matters, every win makes you cheer, and every loss hurts you. This week my roommate and I were watching three games at the same time and we cared about every single one, because all of them were important for our brackets. That is a sports fans dream, to be able to go crazy and be passionate no matter who is playing.
So if your bracket is destroyed and you have no more chance to claim the coveted title of champion, do not be depressed. There are still two more weeks of March Madness. That is two more weeks of buzzer beaters, two weeks of amazing upsets, and two weeks of cheering for your picks to go all the way. So to all the sports fans out there, keep watching, this holiday only comes once a year so don’t waste it pouting over your busted bracket.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
March Madness
People say that the best time of the year is Christmas time. As far as sports fans are concerned that is a lie. This week marks the beginning of one of sports most sacred holidays, March Madness. This is the only time of the year when family and friends band together in the spirit of friendly competition to see who can predict the totally unpredictable.
Every year my family has the “Theurer Family March Madness Competition” and everyone participates. Even my niece and nephew join in. When my nephew was one and a half years old his dad held up cards with the team names and let him pick his brackets that way. Needless to say, it gets pretty intense.
I however have yet to claim the chalice of glory that is first place. I have been in the top three and I think one year I came in second but never first, until this year. This will be the year that I take the Theurer family bracket glory and earn the ever so coveted bragging rights.
Wish me luck!
Every year my family has the “Theurer Family March Madness Competition” and everyone participates. Even my niece and nephew join in. When my nephew was one and a half years old his dad held up cards with the team names and let him pick his brackets that way. Needless to say, it gets pretty intense.
I however have yet to claim the chalice of glory that is first place. I have been in the top three and I think one year I came in second but never first, until this year. This will be the year that I take the Theurer family bracket glory and earn the ever so coveted bragging rights.
Wish me luck!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Hunger Banquet
Yesterday I had a really great experience attending the 20th Hunger Banquet. Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Hunger Banquet, it might sound like an oxymoron. But the Hunger Banquet is not your average feast; in fact it is the only dinner I know of where people will pay eight dollars to attend a dinner they will likely leave hungry from.
The hunger banquet is divided up into three groups, high-class, middle-class, and the poor. The size of each of these groups is proportional to the world’s actual economic ratios. Ten percent of the people who go are randomly chosen to sit at super nice tables with all the trimmings and eat delicious food catered by Tucanos. Twenty percent sit in chairs and eat hotdogs with chips and a can of soda. The remaining 70 percent sit on the floor and have beans, rice, and tortillas. It’s an eye-opening experience to see such a visual representation of the amount of people in the world who leave hungry from every meal.
Besides the meal (I was middle-class so I got a hot dog) they had performances and a interesting key-note speaker. The speaker spoke on the theme of the night, “Celebrating Human Dignity.” He said that all people have the same value even though their economic circumstances might be different. He called us to action and said that we can make a difference in the world by supporting organizations that teach people how to help themselves leave poverty. The speech was short, direct, and memorable.
The best meal I ever had that I left hungry from.
The hunger banquet is divided up into three groups, high-class, middle-class, and the poor. The size of each of these groups is proportional to the world’s actual economic ratios. Ten percent of the people who go are randomly chosen to sit at super nice tables with all the trimmings and eat delicious food catered by Tucanos. Twenty percent sit in chairs and eat hotdogs with chips and a can of soda. The remaining 70 percent sit on the floor and have beans, rice, and tortillas. It’s an eye-opening experience to see such a visual representation of the amount of people in the world who leave hungry from every meal.
Besides the meal (I was middle-class so I got a hot dog) they had performances and a interesting key-note speaker. The speaker spoke on the theme of the night, “Celebrating Human Dignity.” He said that all people have the same value even though their economic circumstances might be different. He called us to action and said that we can make a difference in the world by supporting organizations that teach people how to help themselves leave poverty. The speech was short, direct, and memorable.
The best meal I ever had that I left hungry from.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Iron Chef
This week we had an amazing ward activity, Iron Chef Olympics. Personally I am a big fan of Iron Chef on the food network and lately I have been baking a lot, so when I heard that we were doing an Iron Chef activity to make desserts I was really excited. My excitement only increased once I found out what the secret ingredient was, Peanut Butter Captain Crunch.
Each team was made up of the FHE families and my FHE family is awesome so as soon as we found out what the secret ingredient was we took off running to my apartment and started thinking of ideas. We shot off a bunch of tasty peanut butter ideas and finally settled on a delectable concoction. We made a crust from the peanut butter crunch, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. We layered it with chocolate pudding, another crust, and topped it with a homemade chocolate sauce, vanilla cream sauce, and a strudel made from the peanut butter crunch. All I can say is, delicious. Iron chef is awesome.
Each team was made up of the FHE families and my FHE family is awesome so as soon as we found out what the secret ingredient was we took off running to my apartment and started thinking of ideas. We shot off a bunch of tasty peanut butter ideas and finally settled on a delectable concoction. We made a crust from the peanut butter crunch, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. We layered it with chocolate pudding, another crust, and topped it with a homemade chocolate sauce, vanilla cream sauce, and a strudel made from the peanut butter crunch. All I can say is, delicious. Iron chef is awesome.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Shaun White
If any of you have had been watching the Olympics I hope that you were able to watch the men’s half pipe final this week. It isn’t often in sports that you have an athlete that is way above the rest of the competition, but that is the case with Shaun White. This was shown in the men’s half-pipe final this week where he blew everyone out of the water. All the athletes were spectacular, but Shaun White was able to do the tricks better and fly higher than everybody. In the half-pipe competition they take the best score out of two runs. After his first run Shaun had already won by a few points. But rather than take a conservative victory lap he went all out, landed an amazing trick never before seen in competition, and improved his score from 46.8 to 48.4 (out of 50 WOW!). I was going to post the video of his run but NBC has is copyrighted so just follow the hyperlink at the end of this and be amazed.
Click here!
I don't think the hyperlink is working so just copy and paste this (I know not as cool but I am still figuring out this blog thing)
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=d924411a-bea6-4fd8-b485-f58dc5238dfe.html
Click here!
I don't think the hyperlink is working so just copy and paste this (I know not as cool but I am still figuring out this blog thing)
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=d924411a-bea6-4fd8-b485-f58dc5238dfe.html
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Lockout?
As I was watching the news Friday I was surprised to hear of a possible NFL lockout for 2011. I couldn't believe my ears. Was I really hearing this? No professional football for a whole year? My mind raced back a few years to when, because of salary problems, there was no professional hockey season. Could we have that same thing happen for what I consider a much larger sport? Just think, that would mean no Superbowl!
Now I lived in Massachusetts and am a New England Patriots fan but I can't say that I follow professional football as faithfully as BYU sports or the Boston Red Sox. So what got me was not the fact that I personally would not be able to watch football, but the reasons behind the possible lockout. NFL teams say that they are loosing money because players' salaries are so high. The teams want to keep the salary cap, which is set to expire, and give the players an 18% cut in salary (according to the article I read). The article that I read on ESPN.com (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4887844) said that this would mean an average loss of $340,000 for each player. After a bit of math I learned that this means the AVERAGE salary is $1,888,889. I'm sorry but if you are making that much you have no room to complain.
So a word to the NFL players. Get over it! You make more than almost everybody in this country. Maybe taking an 18% pay cut will be a reality check for you (if you can call making $1,550,000 reality). Hold off for a year before you buy your new yacht, it will be good for you. Learn how the rest of us feel.
Well, there you go, my first opinionated article of this blog.
Now I lived in Massachusetts and am a New England Patriots fan but I can't say that I follow professional football as faithfully as BYU sports or the Boston Red Sox. So what got me was not the fact that I personally would not be able to watch football, but the reasons behind the possible lockout. NFL teams say that they are loosing money because players' salaries are so high. The teams want to keep the salary cap, which is set to expire, and give the players an 18% cut in salary (according to the article I read). The article that I read on ESPN.com (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4887844) said that this would mean an average loss of $340,000 for each player. After a bit of math I learned that this means the AVERAGE salary is $1,888,889. I'm sorry but if you are making that much you have no room to complain.
So a word to the NFL players. Get over it! You make more than almost everybody in this country. Maybe taking an 18% pay cut will be a reality check for you (if you can call making $1,550,000 reality). Hold off for a year before you buy your new yacht, it will be good for you. Learn how the rest of us feel.
Well, there you go, my first opinionated article of this blog.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
What a Game!
I don't think that I would be a true BYU fan if I did not blog about my wonderful experience yesterday, culminating in an exciting victory over a face-punching Utah.
What can I say, I love BYU and have always been a huge fan. So when BYU and Utah go head to head you know that I will be there. Now that doesn't mean that I am going to wait in a tent for a week to get a good seat. But if that's your style, good for you, I can respect that, you really really want a good seat and are willing to be cold for a week to get it. I on the other hand just love being in the student section and feeling the energy of the other true cougar fans. I love the cheers, the chants, the fight song, and just going crazy when Jimmer drains a 3 or BYU gets a sweet dunk.
So even though I won't wait a week for a good seat, being a little closer is always better, so my friend and I were out there in front of the Marriott center at one o'clock to soak in the pre-game atmopsphere and play some games in line while we waited for others of our group to arrive, and more importantly, to wait for our chance to cheer on the cougars to another glorious victory. The wait was well worth it. After a few hours sitting on a blanket with a hand-warmer that refused to warm we finally got our chance to rush through the doors and grab our well-earned seat in the student section.
For those of you who saw the game there is no need for me to give a recap because it was unforgettable. For those of you who didn't see it you need to, so I won't recap it for you either, that is what ESPN.com is for. I will however point you to the link I will post (if I can figure out how) to the youtube video that shows a Utah player showing a bit of "classlessness" and punching Jackson Emery in the face. But know this, it was a spectacular game, an awesomely exciting win, and best of all a win over the Utes! What else needs to be said? GO COUGARS!!
What can I say, I love BYU and have always been a huge fan. So when BYU and Utah go head to head you know that I will be there. Now that doesn't mean that I am going to wait in a tent for a week to get a good seat. But if that's your style, good for you, I can respect that, you really really want a good seat and are willing to be cold for a week to get it. I on the other hand just love being in the student section and feeling the energy of the other true cougar fans. I love the cheers, the chants, the fight song, and just going crazy when Jimmer drains a 3 or BYU gets a sweet dunk.
So even though I won't wait a week for a good seat, being a little closer is always better, so my friend and I were out there in front of the Marriott center at one o'clock to soak in the pre-game atmopsphere and play some games in line while we waited for others of our group to arrive, and more importantly, to wait for our chance to cheer on the cougars to another glorious victory. The wait was well worth it. After a few hours sitting on a blanket with a hand-warmer that refused to warm we finally got our chance to rush through the doors and grab our well-earned seat in the student section.
For those of you who saw the game there is no need for me to give a recap because it was unforgettable. For those of you who didn't see it you need to, so I won't recap it for you either, that is what ESPN.com is for. I will however point you to the link I will post (if I can figure out how) to the youtube video that shows a Utah player showing a bit of "classlessness" and punching Jackson Emery in the face. But know this, it was a spectacular game, an awesomely exciting win, and best of all a win over the Utes! What else needs to be said? GO COUGARS!!
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