JC 1010E

There really are smart BYU fans out there. However, a large majority have gone overboard this year I think. I am referring to mainly younger fans. The older fans are a little more conservative in their cheering. Anyways, I got this e-mail from a friend. His brother wrote it.

I am a huge BYU fan. I have been a BYU fan all of my life and truly love to see them do well. I have defended them for years when my Utah friends and wife put them down. More difficult is defending the BYU fans when they do stupid things. They seem to be dumber this year than ever. It was bad enough to start the year with the quest for perfection shirts, however, we were not selling them to other schools or pushing them elsewhere. It was just for us. The fact that I have heard of so many BYU fans still arguing that we could go to a BCS game if we beat Utah is getting out of hand however, and encouraging everyone to realize BYU fans are dumb. We are starting to sound ridiculous. There is no way we are going to a BCS game.

I have followed this season closely, watching BYU and most of the other conferences big games. I think I have a pretty good grasp of the teams. The following is a best case scenario for the Y. This means the people who the Y needs to lose, lose a plausible game. I do not think that Florida will lose to the Citadel or Ohio State lose to MI. Here are the numbers.

1 Tech B12 Champ
2 Florida SEC Champ
3 / 11-1 Texas
4 / 11-1 USC
5 / 9-2 Ohio State (will not lose to MI)
6 / 11 -2 Bama (L-Florida)
7 / 10-2 Oklahoma (L-TTech)
8 / 10-2 Penn State (L-MichState)
9 / 11-1 Boise State (L-FresnoState)
10 / 11-1 BYU (W-Utah)
11 / 11-1 Utah (L-BYU)
12/ 9-3 Georgia (L-Georgia Tech)
13/ 9-3 OkState (L-Oklahoma)
14/ 9-2 MO (L-Kansas)

Champ Florida v T-Tech
Orange N-Carolina v. Cincinnati
Sugar Texas v. USC
Rose OregState v. Michigan State
Fiesta
Ohio State
Bama
Boise State
BYU

Penn State & Oklahoma would not go because the Big 10 and Big 12 would already be twice represented.

There is no reason to think that BYU would leapfrog Utah even if we beat them. Nor would Boise state losing ensure that we leapfroged them. There is a 5 rank difference between us and Boise State and we would both only have one loss. However, in the unlikely event that we somehow leapfrog both Boise State and Utah it is still difficult to see us beating out Bama or O-State when we did not even win our own conference outright.

I guess that really puts it in perspective. If Utah loses, they are going to a BCS game. You think I'm crazy now don't you. Well, that is what all the BYU fans sound like that say that BYU is making the BCS this year. If you want to make a BCS game then you better have an undefeated team (see the 2004 Utes as a good example).

GO UTES!!!!

***Update***
I wanted to make sure that people understand that I am not trying to condemn anyone with the below post. I wrote a sentence about being disappointed, and it was not the correct word. I think I am saddened by this issue more than anything. It has caused me to do a lot of thinking about myself and where I stand. Please take a moment to read the comments that have been left as well. I do believe that this issue is a sign of tough times to come and that we must really begin to decide and know what we stand for. Once again, I don't mean to demean anyone by this post and say that I am better than you. I simply wanted to make my opinion known (the whole point of my blog). Thanks to Derek for bringing this to my attention that he found this post offensive.
***End of Update***

It is crazy how worked up people are getting over the passing of Proposition 8. I understand people have their rights to their opinions and I don't think that should be taken away at any point. However, there is one thing that has bothered me more than anything regarding the opposition to the passing of Proposition 8. The thing that has bothered me the most is members of the church who are against Proposition 8.

Proposition 8
Regardless of the issue (meaning gay marriage here) and the fact that I disagree with it morally and do not think that it should be legal, this is not the reason that these people bother me so much. The thing that really bothers me has more to do with a scripture and these people's testimonies. Before I get into that though, I just want to say that I don't think people should be surprised by the stance of the church on this issue (See the Proclamation). I think what has surprised members the most is the focus the church put on Proposition 8 which many consider to be a state issue. Regardless of your thoughts on this, lets look at the scripture:

What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.
-D&C 1:38

The church's support in this issue has come from the prophet, which has come from the Lord. Thus, by going against Proposition 8, these members are going against the Lord and are ultimately rejecting their own testimonies. It is quite sad that people would reject the spirit and the testimony that they have. However, there were times in earlier church history when people rejected the church and it's beliefs and stances even though they had testimonies. I think that this is another reminder that we must have our testimonies centered in Jesus Christ and in his Atonement. It must be centered on the fact that the Lord is directing us through a living prophet. The Lord knows what He is doing, and He will continue to lead the church.

With all of the above being said, I want to make one thing clear, and that is that I have no hard feelings towards those who wish to live their lifestyle in this way. I disagree with it, but I care for people and I have someone very close to me that leads such a lifestyle. No matter your opinion or belief on the matter there is no need for bigotrous comments. My post is simply to state that I am disappointed in members of the church going against their testimonies.

A resource for the church's involvement and stance is here.

I recently found out about a very cool music program. It is the online iTunes. Seriously. The site is lala.com. The way it works is you download a little program that will scan your computer for MP3s and then will start the "upload" process.

The way it works is it looks at each song and compares id3 tags (possibly other information) and looks for a copy of the song on the server already. If it finds a copy of the song online already, then you are in luck and you get a song match. Basically, the song is not uploaded, but simply added to your library of songs. If the song isn't found, then it is uploaded and then added to your library (and made available to other libraries). All of the songs are kept in the cloud and available to you at any time that you are connected to the internet. You can see from my screenshot that I had several songs that had to actually be uploaded. That is likely due to the fact that I have a lot of cds from Russia that probably didn't have all the ID3 tags. All the same, it only took about 12 hours to upload the over 500 songs.

Once you have your songs matched and uploaded, then you are set. You can even delete the little program that you had to download to get your songs online (but if you add new music to your collection often, then you are better off keeping the program installed). You can now access your songs from any computer at lala.com. Here is the interface:

Looks a lot like iTunes, and if you had iTunes on your computer then all of your playlists are also uploaded. Convenient. If you can't install anything on your work computer or don't have room for your music, but can access the internet, then you now have all your music available from any computer with a decent connection. Obviously the big downside here is that you have to be online to have access to the music. However, if you always want your music with you, that is what an iPod is for. This is an absolutely free alternative.

Another great service is the ability to listen to any song in FULL one time. How great is that. Now you can fully listen to a song before you decide if you want it or not. Also, if you want to buy music that is available only online then it is only 10 cents (89 if you want to be able to download the MP3 and burn it). Oh yeah, and you get 50 free songs to start. How great is that! Check it out and let me know what you think of the service. I have enjoyed it already and look forward to even more great features. You can follow me by searching for JC under the members section! Look forward to seeing you on there.

Oh yeah, and just as a note:

All four major labels including EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have agreements with Lala to stream and sell music.

And unlike ad-supported music sites, Lala has garnered support from publishers and over 170,000 independent labels and distributors.

See the full story here.

Well, there isn't much time left until one of the biggest decisions is to be decided by the citizens of the United States. In just a couple of weeks, the final votes will be in and in about 3 weeks, we will know who the new president is. To be honest, until tonight, I have not taken a major look into either campaign, but tonight I watched "The Last Debate" and finally got informed on what is going on. Take a look at these two men:

(Just because O'Bama is on top here does not say anything, I just can't put the two images next to each other)

So, I just wanted to give a couple of thoughts about what I saw tonight.

- First off, McCain could not stop taking shots at O'Bama. Seriously, on every issue it was how O'Bama's plan is a bad one. I wish he would have just talked more about his own issues.

- Health care is an interesting topic for me. I liked what O'Bama had to say about it. I agree that the government needs to give more help in the health care in this country and provide more benefits. I don't think that an additional 5000 dollars will do the job (McCain's plan), but I am not sure.

- I am still confused on the abortion stance of O'Bama. He says that he is against abortion (except when the woman's health is at risk), but I don't know how convinced I am. Aren't the Democrats the pro-abortion in general?

So, I didn't see the first of this debate, so I am not sure what they talked about, but this was certainly interesting. If you want to get even more details about the issues in the next couple of weeks before the polls open, then you can go here.

The last time there was a vote, I was in Russia and unable to vote. This will be my first time voting for President so I feel like I should understand the issue and vote for who best supports what I believe (mainly what the beliefs of the church). I think that either way, this will be one of the biggest voting turnouts of all time and will be maybe one of the most important in the last 30 years. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the debates or the issues.