A Different Perspective

Recently BYU Forward, Brandon Davies, was suspended from the most successful basketball season to take place at BYU due to an honor code violation. As you can imagine what would happen to a player who plays for a team that is nationally ranked #3, he instantly not only became the talk of the town, but the talk of the country.

Davies' situation has become a number one topic all over ESPN and several news agencies and blogs. He has been one of the top Tweeted topics on Twitter over the past few days, consisting of over 185 million tweeters.

I respect the fact that BYU has a standard and sticks to it, but I would like to point out that Davies has gone through much, much more than what an average student would have had to go through if the exact same rule had been broken. Has his punishment been detrimental? I think so.

The church is centered around the fact that the natural man is evil and constantly committing imperfections that prevent man from returning to live with God someday. Because of this fact, a savior was needed and a gospel was created to give man the opportunity to be forgiven of his sins through repentance. It's a church of forgiveness.

I believe that some kind of restitution had to take place in order to teach a lesson, but was it necessary to take away hopes and dreams, destroy a chance of a lifetime and basically inadvertently defame that crap out of a student just because he had sex with his girlfriend? The school should have taken into consideration the effect this would have on Brandon Davies. Was public humiliation part of the god's forgiveness process? I don't know, God works in mysterious ways, but it's possible.

If you asked me what a proper shellacking would have been, I would have said a suspension from the regular season, and maybe take away the guy's scholarship for next year. This student has had it far worse than any normal student who would have committed the same violation. So if every honor code violation punishment is resolved on a case-to-case basis, why couldn't this case take a slightly different turn to avoid broadcasting a man's sins to the world? Something so personal that should only be known between you, your bishop and God; according to the LDS faith. I suppose Davies knew what he got himself into, so technically nobody should feel bad for him; however, I wonder how many other BYU athletes are sweating bullets right now?

Hanging Loose

I recently returned from an lds singles retreat to Maui, Hawaii. I had a such a good time meeting and making so many new friends. I got to do a lot of fun activities around the island.

One thing interesting that I learned was where the "Hang Loose" came from. I always knew Hawaii was famous for the hanging loose hand gesture, but didn't know what it meant until now. It is actually called the Shawka, because there was once a surfer who had a shark take a bite of his hand, leaving the thumb and pinky finger. Every time he waved to the local people, "hang loose" is all they saw. They called him the "Shawka" because a shark had got to him.

My favorite experience in Hawaii was watching all of the whale breaches. It is whale season and I have never seen so many whale jumping out of the water. One day I was out kayaking with my group, and paddled over to a couple of whales. We were hoping to get a picture of maybe the tail coming out of the water rather than just the blow hole. We were about out of time when all of a sudden the whale started jumping out of the water next to us. It was a momma whale showing its infant how to jump. It was so dang cool! Our tour guide told us that we were lucky. This kinda thing only happens to him once a season. If we were any closer, the whale would have landed on top of us. It was pretty much epic.

The snorkeling was fun to see the turtles and some colorful fish, but there weren't a lot of fish swimming around, so it was hard to spot them. The coral was sweet though.

We went up the Haleakala one morning to catch the sunrise at 10,000 ft. That was pretty cool to be up above all of the clouds.

The road to Hana was a little intense. It is so pretty, but holy cow was it a doozer. I read somewhere that it has over 600 curve turns. Be prepared to get a little car sick, but that part of the island is tropical, so it's worth it.

Having time to travel has been nice. I wish I was able to go with most of my friends who are all jealous, because they're working. But in return, I get jealous of them during the summer when I am super busy working and they all get to go on vacation. Lucky them!

Mini Fiddler

Last week Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband played another phenomenal concert at BYU. I was able to spend nearly an hour in the green room before the show, talking with Ryan and other members of the band. I am friends with most of the guys, so it's always a good time for me to catch up with them, since everyone is always busy with life.

I asked Ryan if he could play a song at my request. He said they didn't know the song. He continued to reject my next two song choices, because they hadn't practiced the songs together. He went on to try to teach me about the theory of concerts. He explained a concert performance like a roller coaster. It has to start high and fast and have low and slow moments, but ending on a high. I knew this, but just wanted them to play something new and different for a change. I went around asking the other band members if they knew the songs, and they all said they did, so I'm no sure why they couldn't squeeze an extra song in.

I saw Ryan's little kid, Trevor walk by with the littlest fiddle I have ever seen. I thought it was a toy, but everyone reassured me that it was real. Trevor is Ryan's Mini Me. He looks just like Ryan, and I'm told that he looks just like Ryan when he was a kid.

Trevor is the kind of kid who wants to be just like his dad. He watches his dad play and gets up and tries to be just like him. With what little vocabulary 2 year old Trevor has, he asked his dad if he could play with them in the concert. Sure enough they let him! Trevor came up during two different songs and played (unplugged) and would occasionally sing into his mini mic. It was so cute! I'm pretty sure Trevor will continue the traditions of his family name and be the 6th generation of fiddlers to be produced by the Shupe family.

I Found a Schmuck!

I was recently talking to a good friend, who I will keep anonymous, about school. He had graduated in December 2008; the same semester I graduated. Since then, he has been going about his business as a college graduate. I have never had a reason to doubt him, until now.

We got to talking about how hard it is to look at a piece of paper, framed on the wall, and make monthly student loan payments for it. I have my Bachelor degree in Communication framed and hung up in my bedroom.

My anonymous friend says, "Oh I never got my degree in the mail." I continued to question him as to why he never tried to figure out why he never got it. He responded, "I just thought it got lost in the mail or something. It doesn't really matter to me, cause I know I am graduated and that's good enough for me." Shocked in awe about how bizarre that response was, I proceeded to tell him about how proud I am of that framed piece of paper that has me $13 grand in debt.

I think that was when the wheels in his head started to turn. A couple days later he came to me saying something about talking to a counselor at UVU and found out that he never officially graduated, because he still has one more class to take. I asked him, how he did not know that? He gave some kind of response that he didn't know. He did say that he had some good news. Since he's an employee of UVU, he can take this class this semester for free! Haha!

Ok so here's my dilemma. How on earth does it take 2 full years to figure out you never graduated?

If you haven't seen the movie "Dinner For Schmucks," you need to watch it.

Does anyone want to invite me and my friend over for dinner?!

Sad Day In Provo

I woke up early this morning to a couple of text messages from my mom and friend letting me know that the Provo Tabernacle was on fire. I immediately thought dang it! What am I gonna do about my date!? I have a date on Sunday night where I was planning on attending the Provo City Christmas concert that is held there annually. To the north side of the the building there is a live Nativity scene that is always a nice addition to the concert.

I grew up in Provo and have been to the tabernacle multiple times. I've been there for stake conferences, concerts, and have even performed there multiple times with the Provo High Band and singing in the Stake Choir. The first time I performed there was back when I was 14 playing the Alto Saxophone in the band. Again I returned multiple times to perform there.

I remember the spirit that I always felt when arriving to the building, and it only grew stronger as I entered into it. It does look, smell and feel as old as it is with each visit. The building was built in 1883. It is a historic reminder that took 15 years for the Mormon pioneers and others to build. It's a pioneer legacy left in Provo.

I hope that maybe some of it can be salvaged and rebuilt. It will be interesting to see what happens with it in the future. (Pictures courtesy of The Daily Herald)

An Attitude of Gratitude Reminder

After speaking with a good friend of many years the other day, I decided that I had better start count my blessings and be grateful for them. I hadn't talked to her in almost a year (i'll call her L). I asked her what she had been up to this past year and she responded optimistically that things are going great now . Ever since returning from a cruise this past week, she seemed to think that life was going to treat her a little better now. I was a little curious. Better? Isn't life always just grand? Apparently I had gotten use to my life that is full of adventure, has zero drama and not so much stress compared to my friends'.

She began to tell me all of the things/misfortunes that had happen to her this past year. I decided that I would share some of her experiences, so others can compare their life stresses to hers and maybe feel a little more grateful for the hand the lord has dealt them.

L had found out earlier this past year that her mom had developed stage 3 of breast cancer and had to go through lots of chemo. Her little niece died. Her good friend and co-worker was killed on a 4 wheeler accident. The house across the street from her business exploded earlier this year blowing out all the windows to her place and sending shrapnel into her business. She had surgery on her nose and head, got into a car accident a couple weeks ago and broke her nose on the steering wheel. She lost her best friends and roommates, because they became addicted to drugs. Had to deal with another roommate who had to be rushed to the emergency room multiple times due to her eating disorders that caused her to have seizures. The list goes on and on, but these are all I can remember. I'm sure i'm forgetting other things that she has experienced.

L's life experiences over this past year have really helped me to put into perspective the things that should, and do matter most to me. I'm never going to complain again about how crappy it is to not to have a great job, or be 30 and single. I'm grateful for what I got, and thankful that the Grim Reaper doesn't like to lurk near by everywhere I go.

I'm glad that God has decided to lighten my burdens. So what if my life is mediocre? At least I don't have to live with the stress of my friend L. She's a real trooper and hero in my book.

Demo Day at Brighton

I hit the slopes of Brighton up today with my buddy Ryan in search of some powder. We were able to find plenty of that and much more. Today was probably the sickest snowboarding experience I've ever had, because there was a little of everything you could ever ask for all in one.

It all started with the Quad Wednesday deal where you get a lift ticket for $20 if you donate a toy for tots. Can't beat a $20 all day lift pass in comparison with the $62 regular all day pass price tag.

This day also tasted delicious. The guys at the Vans tent were making and giving out free food. It was delicious! Waffles on a stick, hot dogs, and other goods made it well worth being up there. Not to mention that some of the companies there, such as Skull Candy, were giving out free swag.

Aside from that deal, today was a demo day. I have been yearning to try out the latest technology that companies have been using in competition to have the sickest ride on the mountain. I was a little blown away seeing what extremes some companies have used in order to have a competitive edge on the market.

Nitro, K2, Lib Tech, and Arbor. I tested all reverse camber boards, or commonly called Rocker boards.I was able to test ride 6 different snowboards including my brand new Rossignol Split Twin board that is great for all mountain riding, and gives a lot of energy going in and out of turns and ollie-ing. It's a solid board that I picked up for $130... you can't beat that kinda price for a rock solid snowboard anywhere.

Aside from my new board, I demoed other boards that all run from $500-$700 dollars.

I started out with the NitroT1 board. It seemed great. My normal board is a regular camber board, so riding a reverse camber was just different. The difference is a umbrella kinda shape compared to a U shape if that makes sense. The base was bad on it and it slowed me down. I like a base that doesn't always need to be waxed. But it handled decently. The bindings they put on the board had air cushions on the heel and toe part of the binding. That was nice.

The Arbor Coda board won the board of the day for me and Ryan. It seemed to be just as responsive as you would want a board to be. Attached to the board were Flux ds45 bindings that allow the biding to twist left or right, but stiff from front to back, so i think that helped to make initiating a turn feel like you were cutting through butter. Very nice. I believe this board was partially made from bamboo, and it just also felt really light.

The next board was an Arbor Del Rey board that was a regular camber board. It seemed great to me, like any other regular camber board. The bindings weren't set up equally apart, so I didn't ride it long.

I then moved over to K2 to demo their Turbodream board. It seemed like a chill board, but they put these Uprise bindings on there that had a one ratchet tighten up the heel and the toe strap kind of an operation. I wasn't a fan of that crap technology. It just felt uncomfortable for some reason. Wasn't horrible, but just wasn't a fan.

The last board was a Lib Tech Banana Magic board (wide). Now this board I thought was going to be insane, cause the rep kept talking about how the technology and construction of the board was one of a kind. The owner of the company went to Russia to collect basalt mineral from a volcano that was brought back and used in a synthetic fiber used in the base of this board. No fiberglass.

Unfortunately they didn't use any of their fancy bindings with this board. They put Ryan's old crappy bindings on it, so that made it a little tough to get a better feel for it. Neither Ryan or I were impressed with this board though. We were disappointed and thought it was a little heavy and not as responsive for being a rocker board. It looked sick though and had wavy, serrated edges. It may be Eco friendly and super durable, but just didn't feel the the smoothness of what they put into making the board. It's possible a shorter board might have been better. It was a 159. It was still great, but was still the least favorite board of the day.

I also demoed some Van boots.. They were decent, while Ryan tried out some 32 boots. He said they felt like a cast and were straight crap, but he has a size 13 foot, so who knows? Maybe they don't make good big boots?

As much as I would have thought there wouldn't be a difference in the different boards using the same technology, but surprisingly each board had a different feel to it. It wasn't a huge difference within the same technology boards, but noticeable enough to feel the difference. Overall this day turned out awesome and I only hope there will be more days like this in the future.