One year down...eternity to go

I’ve been a dad for a little over a year now. While that may not qualify me to write books concerning fatherhood or have my own talk show on the matter it does provide me with knowledge – knowledge I didn’t have a year ago.

It’s incredible, really, the things that being a father does to you.

I find myself caught up in a desire to protect and shelter the tiny creation (of which I was an integral part) from anything that would cause those perfect brown eyes to rim with tears from slipping and scraping a knee as she masters walking today; or the breaking of a heart caused by cruel and thoughtless words muttered in derision by some stupid prepubescent boy down the road; or the catty and diabolical scheming of teenage girls when the edict of the popular minority has decided to ostracize or tear down.

Perhaps my angst would be different if I were the father of a boy; perhaps it would stay the same. Silly as it is to find my mind wander five, ten, and fifteen years in the future, the instant in which the twelve months prior have passed before me makes those coming years ever so relevant now.

Greater even than these anxieties – which cross my mind only on occasion – are the joyous moments of the now: the smile and squeal which greets when opening her door after a nap; the pitter patter of little feet racing around the kitchen during hide-n-seek; the intense babbling of words not known yet expected to be understood. Prior to that Tuesday afternoon at 1:23, I had no idea the ability to love someone or something else so perfectly and resolutely was within my capacity. Even now it surprises me.

So, between the angst of future events unknown and unseen and the elation found in the trivial happenings of today, I count being a father as the greatest privilege to have ever come my way.

A Satisfying Weekend

I'd be remiss if I failed to mention my Cougars of BYU. As many of you know, I am a big fan of the Cougars and an advocate for all their program stands for. One of the reasons I love BYU football is because of what it embodies: a group of athletes who are not the premier at their position, but are individuals who are good people. While I'm not ignorant to the errant ways of some, as a whole I believe these football players are honest, moral and good people; I would go as far as to say there isn't another football team in the nation that espouses the virtues of the BYU Cougars. Find me a team that presents a spiritual devotional every Friday night before their game on Saturday, whether at home or away; find me a coach (not local law enforcement) that requires regular community service participation.
The consequence of such standards is that it prevents the elite athletes from attending BYU. Nothing against the Mark Sanchez's, Beanie Wells, Knowshon Moreno's and Michael Crabtree's of the game, but there's no way they'd go to BYU even if they were in a BCS Conference going 11-2. No alcohol after the game? No sex? No Starbucks? No chance. So, BYU competes with below average athletes with above average morals. And sometimes that translates to a mark in the 'L' column. Such is the trade-off. And a trade-off I'm happy to make.
However, in recent years it seems moral fortitude and athletic ability have converged to produce the nations longest winning streak, the 2nd leading receiver in the nation, a QB 3rd in YPG, % and TD's, and a scoring summary (against a BCS team who knocked of a ranked BCS team their previous game) that is rarely seen. It's something to rise and shout about.

Making a case for C-Mak

Don't forget to become a Cyber Commoron! (see previous post)

The powers-that-be at ING have shutdown all personal email access, so I don’t get to check the ol’ Gmail account much – every other day or so. Anyway, the other day when I did check I had a message from my buddy Nick expressing his concern for my political soul after reading my endorsement of Cynthia McKinney for President of these United States. Additionally he asked for why I would support the former Congresswoman of Georgia.

All of you know of my love for the club. There’s nothing that brings me more joy that slipping into some pleather and rollin’ up onto the scene with the bass-line thumpin’ in the Camry. Clubbin’ is my happy place. For me and other members of the Hip-Hip Generation, Cynthia McKinney (C-Mak, as we call her) is our girl.

“Cynthia McKinney is a strong advocate, mentor and supporter of the Hip-Hop community. Her unique popularity among the members of the Hip-Hop generation and young people across the United States of America has made her a trusted voice on behalf of producers, retailers and consumers of Hip-Hop entertainment.” Posted on her website before losing seat in Congress

This fact alone is sufficient means for me to vote for C-Mak. Of course, there might be some who are not members of the HHG who need more reasons cast their vote for C-Mak come November. Here are some that might help:

1. C-Mak is an expert on race-relations. Skirted the metal detectors on Capital Hill but did not wear the pin required to identify her as a Congresswoman. When the security guard stopped her by grabbing her shoulder after repeatedly calling after her to stop, she punched him. In a move learned from our greatest ambassadors for racial peace (Jesse Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright), she said chalked up the incident to racial profiling. Some may see this as divisive but I see it as resourceful. See, when Crazy Hugo Chavez, or Putin’s puppet President (alliteration), are starting up some ruckus with us, she’ll play break out the race/gender cards and BAM! the ACLU will be all over those guys! No one can beat the ACLU. Crisis averted.
2. The woman knows how to run an effective, clean campaign. In 1996 when she called her opponent’s supporters "holdovers from the Civil War days" and "a ragtag group of neo-Confederates", even though the guy was Jewish. And there was that other time in 2000 when she wrote “Gore's Negro tolerance level has never been too high. I've never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time” even though Mr. Internet’s campaign manager was black. The best example of her graciousness in defeat was expressed by her father after her loss in 2002: A reporter asked Billy McKinney about his daughter's use of an old endorsement from former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young. Such endorsements were worthless, Papa McKinney replied, because "Jews have bought everybody. Jews."
3. C-Mak is intimately involved with the War on Terror, as illustrated by the fact her list of campaign donors while a Congresswoman included both terrorist sympathizers like Abdurahman Alamoudi, the former executive director of the American Muslim Council, and actual terrorists like former college professor Sami Al-Arian. Don’t think this isn’t a strength; it means she already has an in with the terrorists and we all know they’d never let anything happen to their own – except for those guys they strap with explosives and send into areas with large amounts of people.

There it is – my case of Cynthia McKinney. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a drink of water. My tongue fell asleep after being in my cheek so long.

Nippin' and Tuckin'

Cyber Commorancy has gone under the cyber knife and I've changed the look. The mantra I'm operating under is "Simpler is better" and since I don't post a ton of pics (leave that to Paula) the overall desire is to make the reading of the blog a bit easier. Hopefully this works.
Additionally, on the right-hand column there are a couple new things:

1. I've gone through and labeled all my posts so that they are sorted by topic. Most are self explanitory, though some are random; I'll have to hone the process over time. I'm sure some are miscategorized and others could have different labels applied, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to go through almost 200 posts and get it right everytime. So if there are some posts with the wrong label, let me know.
2. I've added this feature that Blogger calls 'Followers'. I changed the heading to "Cyber Commorons", which is based on a comment by Zach and which I am referred to on Natalie's blog, because 'Followers' is lame. I don't think this is a tracking thing, like if you visit it automatically adds you. From what I can tell you have to add yourself. If you want to become a Cyber Commoron, just click on Follow this blog and that should do it. Due to my giant ego, if this ends up getting no love I will remove it. But if there's a lot of people who want to become Cyber Commorons then maybe I can make t-shirts and we can all ride around like a cyber gang! Woohoo!
3. I don't really follow a lot of blogs - rather, only the blogs of people I know. Paula has a list of like a million people she keeps tabs on, as do other people related to her, and probably countless others. I don't have a problem with that - when I find out people are reading my rants I think it's cool. Keep on lurkin'. Anyway, Paula's been trying to get me to read this blog by someone she and Nat knew from school and I was like 'yeah yeah yeah....' and didn't bother until Monday-ish. Now I find myself checking it out regularly. chalk one up for Paula.I enjoy the topics, the writing style and comments readers leave. To get to the point, the new link on the sidebar is Salt H2O. Check it out - don't forget to read the comments.

Summer Vacation

Well, summer is over and so should my lack of blogging come to an end. I just realized that from June to August I only posted three times. Dang. Ridiculous. What can I say - life got/is busy and the blog became last place on the priority list. And I work in front of a computer all day, so after work I have very little desire to get back in front of a computer monitor.
How about the political landscape? Wild, wild stuff. I've thought many times about posting some talking points concerning who I will vote for and why...I mean, it's not a mystery since I'm morally, socially and economically conservative. But one of these days I'll tell you why I'm voting for Cynthia McKinney and why she is the person who should be leading our country in these trying times. I just haven't had the energy for that 2000 word rant. I'll leave that to this blog Paula directed me to.
Why haven't I had the energy? Two things, really. One is college football. The season is young but it is here and I love it. My Cougars are 2-0 after a win over the Washington Huskies in Seattle; unfortunately, the fact that our QB had a 75% completion rate for almost 350 yards and our RB picked up over 130 yards on the ground or that our TE still leads the nation in receiving after 2 weeks or that our special teams blocked the game tying (not winning) PAT. The focus by the pundits is on the correct call of a crap rule. If you want to read an entertaining and totally bias blog, go to this blog by Adam. He's a Florida and SEC homer and rags on the non-BCS schools, but I like Adam so I'm directing traffic.
The second reason I'm usually spent is because I arise every morning to teach a religion class. It's true. Let me give a little bit of a rundown about what's going on.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is run by a lay ministry - no one gets paid. Not the Bishop in charge of the congregation, not the Stake President who is in charge of 6-10 congregations, not the Sunday School teacher...no one. These people are called from the general membership of the Church to serve. I've been asked to serve in a number of callings through the years. Anyway, I'd been teaching the 14-15 year old Sunday School class for a few months when I was asked to teach Seminary. Seminary is a class for high school aged students to attend daily before school. Each year a different book of scripture is the topic - this year is the New Testament. So, every morning I get up around 5am, shower, throw on a shirt and tie and go teach Seminary from a little after 6 to just before 7.
I get a lot of sympathetic looks and comments from people, but I really enjoy it. Why? Well, first of all you spend a lot of time studying which has been very beneficial; of the 14 potential students (I teach freshman and sophomores) on the roll, I have 12 out regularly and that's pretty impressive. Early morning seminary is not for the faint of heart and I give props to the kids for showing up every day and staying awake.
There are my weak excuses for not blogging more. If anyone still reads this thing.