Monday, September 26, 2005

I heard my tradition calling at 9:17 in the First Quarter, but then I couldn't hear it anymore.

The wife and I attended the BYU-TCU game. Well, we sat through the first half, and then went home because we don't have very long attention spans. At 9:17 in the first quarter, I heard the BYU football tradition calling. It was fun. We were passing for long TDs, scoring all over the place and even playing some nice defense. Just like when I was a student and Ty Detmer was the QB (and every offensive holding call was no big deal, it just meant 10 more yards on Ty's passing yards record).

But at 9:15 in the first quarter, TCU ran the kickoff back for a 100 yard return ending in (not surprisingly for a 100 yard return) a touchdown. I couldn't hear my tradition calling any more. And then we managed to fritter away the game in the last quarter and quietly loose in over time.

I am still a big Bronco Mendenhall fan and, assuming that we can figure out special teams, I am confident that I will hear my tradition calling again. Bronco is young, he'll need some time to get the whole thing figured out, but LaVell was young when he started too. The ideal scenario would be to keep Bronco around for 20-30 years and win another national championship (I am assuming that the BCS will go away, it has to) or two.

deseretnews.com | 3-game Y. homestand wasn't good beginning

2 comments:

Tap tap tapdo said...

Hi,

Thanks for the prompt and detailed reply.

I have been in the US for over one year now and have travelling as one of my most involved hobbies. I find myself totally intrigued by Utah (even though I have never been there). From whatever little I have heard, googled and read on various blogs, I find it a very interesting place.

Your reply to my previous questions got me interested (being a medical sciences grad student, I could not help it). I was wondering about LDS/BYU policy on animal testing and / or stem cell research.

I guess a good source of info would be the college website.

Also, based on your previous response I was wondering if returning missionaries bring home some interesting perspectives based on other cultures/religions/faiths or their stay abroad is more focussed on their own line of thinking?

I skimmed through Neha's blog. It's (like mine) more about her experiences than about Utah. But interesting nonetheless.

Thanks,
Navs

Mike Jones said...

Navneet,

I love your questions. The fit right in with things I've been thinking about. I turned the stem cell thing into a longer-than-I-expected post.

I don't do animal research, but I think it would liven things up in my lab, the University has a review board for research involving vertebrates. It looks like the board allows what I would consider "normal" animal research: poking, proding, poisoning etc.

I do think that having missionaries that have lived for 2 years in a place other than their home and, hopefully, learned a deep and profound love for the people that live there helps our diversity and tolerance. One manifestation of that is that you see a lot of interest in soccer at byu because soccer is a big deal in most of the rest of the world. Idealy, this tolerance and diversity compels students to do things that benefit people from a wide range of cultures. I am afraid however that once a returned missionary settles back into the homogenaity of Provo it becomes easy to forget those feelings of love and tolerance and become insular. But that could be just me (becoming insular that is). I served in northern california, which was very diverse in a not-so-exotic kind of way.

If you ever find yourself in Provo, look my up at BYU and I'll give you the tour :)


mike.