Every year I feel frustrated for the same reasons during March Madness. Now it is clear that some of that frustration stems from the seemingly annual disappointment of a BYU first-round loss. But I also am frustrated because of the unskilled production of the whole March Madness TV experience. It drives me crazy when I have to watch a game, ANY game, that is far from being over when there are other games that are coming into the final minutes or that are much closer. It seems that I get stuck watching some blowout when there is a better game happening because CBS has decided that the blowout is my "local" game. Last night this scenario repeated itself. I was stuck watching the Kansas game, which was not terrible, but was not the game that Stanford-Marquette was. I only got to see the last 10-20 seconds of regulation and again in over time, while instead I was forced to watch Kansas toy with UNLV. Granted the UNLV game was closer than I thought it would be and I was probably more bitter about the game since I feel strongly that BYU is better than UNLV, but I think that any fan would choose to see the end of a close game rather than more of the dominated one. Why don't they have focus groups telling them this? March Madness is one of my favorite sporting events, and I have clear early memories of watching games with my dad while we (mostly he) stripped wallpaper in my room. I remember that BU lost that day. I also remember watching Josh Grant, or someone like that, and the U beat Steve Smith and Michigan State. I remember seeing Laettner's amazing shot to beat Jamal Mashburn and Kentucky. Call it biased childhood memories, but I don't remember my father yelling at CBS like I do now- "Change it to the other game!" He probably did.
I made cookies last night for the first time since the last week of my mission. They turned out pretty good, though I think I will use less flour next time. It doesn't taste like anything so I will use flour as little as possible. The key to my cookies is that I cook them as little as possible. On my mission I would mix the ingredients in our sink because we never had a bowl big enough. I mixed the ingredients with my hands because we did not have a mixer, and I doubled and tripled the recipe which made using a spoon a very slow process. I never worried about germs and I gave these cookies to everybody. I would buy Fazer chocolate bars and cut them up with a butter knife and use them as chocolate chips. Those cookies were really good, and I am sure angels were busy getting the germs off of them before I gave them to people.
My wife is wonderful. After a wonderful afternoon of church we returned home, and I could feel basketball games calling to me once more. After about 5 minutes of basketball Carrie suggested that we watch church movies she bought the last time we were in Utah. And while those movies have sound and picture that are about half a second off from each other, I definitely feel good about watching them. We have three DVDs of movie snippets that give the history of the church. My favorite "snippet" would have to be the one about the three witnesses with David Whitmer as the main character. Not even the awkward acting and poor camera angles that expose Whitmer's bad make-up job can overshadow a great story. I find it so interesting that the three witnesses all fel away from the church for some time, but none of them ever denied the story of the Book of Mormon.
3 comments:
If I had known about how you mixed the dough with your bare hands, I wouldn't have insisted you make me cookies this weekend.
okay, a few things:
1. The problem you have described is a tricky one. I of course will want to watch the BYU game over almost any other game, even if it's still in the middle. However, that's the problem with only one station covering all those games. The close games are so much more fun to watch. I am not an especially avid college bball watcher. i only feel strongly about byu. but i find myself shouting at the tv during these nail-biters, feeling passionately about these teams for the first time, and only because i chose them (completely at random usually) to win in my bracket. so i guess what i'm saying is i agree. there must be a better way.
2. i kind of love the idea of mixing cookie dough in the sink with my hands. maybe it's because i love the idea of that much cookie dough. also, i'm a firm believer that the germs "cook away." except if you don't cook them very long, you maybe can't use that excuse.
3. carrie WOULD suggest turning off basektball for not-the-highest-quality (in production only, not content) church movies. i'm not saying she's a better person than me (even if she might be sometimes) (she does have weaknesses, such as overindulgence in chocolate covered cinnamon bears) but she's always been good about that kind of stuff.
4. i don't even need to get my own blog. i just write all my thoughts and feelings on your comment pages.
i maybe still check your blog pretty much everyday even though there is nothing new...
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