The Best Super Bowl Commercials 2011

Two things I've always loved:  America and Star Wars.

Today - The First Unmarked Scroll

Today I begin a new life

Today I shed my old skin, which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and
the wounds of mediocrity.

Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.
Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest and fullest vines in the
vineyard, for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come
before me, generation upon generation.

Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily I will swallow the
seed of success buried in each and new life will sprout within me.
The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak
and despair and the bodies of those who have failed, were they piled one atop
another, would cast its shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth.
Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts, which will
guide me through perilous waters to shores, which only yesterday seemed but a
dream.

Failure will no longer by my payment for my struggle. Just as nature made no
provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my life
to suffer failure. Failure, like pain, is alien to my life. In the past I accepted it as I
accepted pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principles which
will guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness
far beyond my most extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden
of Hesperides will seem no more than my just reward.

Time teaches all things to he who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity.
Yet, within my allotted time I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never
in haste. To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An onion
plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now
I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesmen.

And how will this be accomplished? For I have neither the knowledge nor the
experience to achieve greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen
into pools of self-pity. The answer is simple. I will commence my journey
unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of
meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct
far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated,
usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.

In truth, experience teaches thoroughly yet her course of instruction devours men’s
years so the value of her lessons diminishes with the time necessary to acquire her
special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men. Furthermore, experience is
comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable
and impractical tomorrow.

Only principles endure and these I now possess, for the laws that will lead me to
greatness are contained in the words of these scrolls. What they will teach me is more
to prevent failure than to gain success, for what is success other than a state of mind?
Which two, among a thousand wise men, will define success in the same words; yet
failure is always described in one way. Failure is man’s inability to reach his goals in
life, whatever they may be.

In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have
succeeded lies in the differences of their habits. Good habits are the key to all
success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey,
which precedeth all others is – I will form good habits and become their slave.
As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am slave to my habits, as are all grown
men. I have surrendered my free will to the years of accumulated habits and the past
deeds of my life have already marked out a path, which threatens to imprison my
future. My actions are ruled by appetite, passion, prejudice, greed, love, fear,
environment, habit, and the worst of these tyrants is habit. Therefore, if I must be a
slave to habit let me be a slave to good habits. My bad habits must be destroyed and
new furrows prepared for good seed.

                                                                                -Og Mandino

What's cooler than being cool? ICE. COLD.

He came. He saw. He Jimmered.

“That’s what you want to do,” he said. “You want to kill your opponent.”  Consider them skewered and deep fried.

My dad and I were lucky enough to go to the game and see the superhero live and up close. Needless to say, it was a performance for the ages.  47 points (32 in first half), 6 assists, and about all the entertainment you could hope for from the nation's leading scorer.  His half-court shot still gives me goosebumps...

...and his reaction is priceless.  Just like those old-school action heroes that don't look at the huge explosions behind them.  If you are a BYU fan, cherish every minute of this season.  Players like Jimmer only come around once in a generation.

Save Ferris

Techno Jeep

Proof there is still imagination in the world. And Julian Smith is my new hero. 

The Will To Live

"So your adventures are over?" -Wendy

"Oh no. To live...to live would be an awfully big adventure." -Peter 

                                                        ~Hook

The new movie, "127 Hours", is based on the book I just recently read, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", by Aron Ralston.  While I haven't seen the movie yet,  the book was amazing.  For those that have a hard time remembering names, Ralston is the guy back in 2003 that was trapped by a half-ton boulder in Moab and had to cut off his own arm to escape.  I was 16 when I first heard about his story on Dateline NBC and, like any teenager that loved the outdoors, I immediately thought this guy was a superhero. 

The book recounts, detail after detail, what happened during his 127 hour long experience in Blue John Canyon.  Many people criticize the fact that he broke two fundamental rules for hiking and canyoneering: going alone and failing to tell anyone his actual destination.  "Why should a young guy who made such a stupid decision be treated like a hero?" For one, although completely against what I was taught in Boy Scouts, exploring the outdoors alone is the purest way to truly experience the awesome in nature.

Most importantly, I realized Ralston is hardly the superhero I thought him to be.  And that's what makes him so endearing and his experience so intriguing.  He's a normal guy that wants to explore the world and see what makes life so beautiful.  He doesn't like sitting in a desk all day crunching numbers.  He's ambitious yet slightly overly confident.  He yearns to "live the dream". He values and loves his friends and family.  He makes mistakes.  He's human.

Ryan and I at Zion's. Aug 09

 While reading about those six lonely days in the middle of nowhere, I saw myself in Aron.

From April 26 to May 1, 2003, Aron suffered complete dehydration, hypothermia, sleep deprivation (127 hours total), hallucinations, searing pain, and near fatal amounts of blood loss.  He resigned himself to death more than a dozen times before he finally figured out how to break his forearm bones and proceed with the self amputation. Then he had to hike out of the canyon, set up and rappel (with one hand) down a 65-foot cliff, hike 8 miles uphill in the blistering desert, and then drive 2 hours in his standard truck (he cut off his right arm, remember?) to the nearest hospital.  It was a miracle that a National Park helicopter spotted him before he actually had to drive and bleed to death in the canyonlands.

After his rescue, and several surgeries and shots of morphine later, he received thousands of letters from people all across the globe.  One woman from Salt Lake City sent a card telling him she had flushed a stockpile of her deceased husband's sleeping pills down the toilet. She said, "Your act of bravery has inspired me to hold on more dearly.  I had promised myself that I would end my life if things had not gotten better one year after my husband's death.  I know now that suicide is not the answer.  You inspire me to stay strong, remain brave, and fight for life."


We're all mortals, living and dying here together on the same earth.  We're all human, and we all make mistakes. Yet despite this inevitability called "death", there is an innate will inside each one of us to survive and fight for life.  While neither myself or those I know have ever experienced what Ralston did, that's not to say that we've never experienced those same feelings of hopelessness, fear, and believing our life purpose amounts to nothing.  I truly believe, in our most dire moments, that each and everyone of us would fight for our lives whenever our own personal boulder has us pinned.

But why?  Why fight for something that will ultimately, at least physically, be lost?  I think it comes down to simply wanting to feel and experience "being alive."  We want to see our own dreams become a reality.  We want to see majestic sunrises and sunsets.  We want to show our family how much we cherish and love them.  We want to become better.  We want to build new and strengthen old friendships. We want to right our wrongs.  We want to find joy in the little things, like a rodeo cheeseburger or hot fudge-caramel malt milkshake. We want to hear music that makes us cry. We want to explore. We want to change. We want to learn.  We want to live.  And in the most desperate and trying times of our lives, all of those wants and yearnings of our soul suddenly become our most pressing needs.

The Most Interesting Man in the World on Rollerblading

   Couldn't agree more.

Gratitude

1,316,175. One million, three-hundred sixteen-thousand, one-hundred and seventy-five.    That's the reported number of how many American soldiers have died for this country since the Revolutionary War.

I'd like to think that I could understand the magnitude of what those numbers mean.  Sometimes I convince myself that I do understand, because of the stories I've heard or the things I've witnessed.  My Papa, Bernie Boxx, was a cook on a submarine during World War II. While he never was involved in any real combat, several of his closest friends were...and many of them were killed.  As a missionary in France, I was able to speak with several French and American Veterans that lived through the Nazi regime. I served in a small coastal town called Saint-Nazaire, a city that was completely decimated by raid bombings in 1942.  I've seen several movies that realistically depict the horrors of war. I've read history books and watched documentaries that revisit Vietnam, Gettysburg, Bunker Hill, the Persian Gulf, Normandy, and Afghanistan.  But I will never fully be able to understand what each of those young men and women personally went through to preserve this nation's freedom.

I just turned 23, and sometimes life as a college student gets me down and out.  Yet I realize that had I been born 70, or even 30 years ago, I wouldn't have had an opportunity to go to school at all.  I wouldn't be worried about any of things that I worry about today.  I would probably be stuck on some beach being shot at.  Sometimes we don't realize how fortunate we are because of the sacrifices of generations that came before us.  They gave up their youth, and some their very lives, so we could enjoy ours.

The Far Side

Goodbye, Goodnight.

  

Mae. Also known as (M)ulti-sensory (A)esthetic (E)xperience.  I've listened to their music ever since I was in 8th grade.  Their farewell concert was last night,  but man, they sure went out big.  I believe their unique sound and originality puts them up there with the all-time greats like The Beatles, U2, and Coldplay.  But it's tragic how they'll never be recognized as such.

If you haven't experienced Mae, I suggest you do so now.  This is their only track that is pure piano.  

Enjoy the journey.