Homework is Fun Sometimes!!!...(Sometimes being the operative word)

Here is a story I wrote about a couple of my swimmers for one of my classes. (I got a 97% on it!!)

GILBERT, Ariz., Learning to share with siblings is a very trying time in young children’s lives, so it stands to reason that it would be just as difficult learning how to share the spotlight with a sibling early in high school.  Gilbert brothers Luc and Cole Jordan would tell you that it is not as hard as you might think.

Luc Jordan, 15, is a sophomore at Campo Verde High School in Gilbert where he competes on the varsity swim team.  He joined the team last year as a freshman after a conversation with his mother.

“Once Luc entered high school I told him it was mandatory for him to do a sport and I suggested the swim team,” Brooke Jordan, Luc and Cole’s mother, said in an email.  “So the summer before starting as a freshman at Campo he did the swim camp and that was it.  He was hooked. Cole followed in his footsteps upon entering Campo as a freshman.”

Fourteen-year old Cole said that being on the same team as his older brother has some benefits, “Having Luc be on the swim team definitely motivates me.  He always pushes me to do better and just being in the same lane with him during practice helps me.  I try to keep up with him and even pass him so I give it my all.  I love having him on the team with me, it totally helps me out.”

Being on the same team does not always put the brothers in direct competition with each other as they can focus on different events.

“Even though competition is good for the kids, I want them to be excited and encourage each other to succeed and I feel that comes easier when they are not competing against each other in the same event,” Brooke said.

Luc focuses his energy on the sprint freestyle and breaststroke events, while Cole is one of the school’s top distance swimmers.

Even though they focus on different events they do sometimes end up swimming head to head on occasion, and the sibling rivalry comes into play for the brothers.

“Whenever we are in the same event I want to be in the same heat, in the lane right beside him just to make sure he does not creep ahead of me,” Luc said.

How would Luc react if Cole did creep ahead?

“Well it depends on which race, if it is something like the 500 (yard freestyle)…then it does not affect me too much.  On the other hand in something such as the breaststroke or the 50 (yard) freestyle, I may become addicted to finding a way to get back on top,” Luc said.

This past season Luc did not have to worry about “getting back on top” as he was busy setting the school record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.43 seconds and qualifying for state championship swim meet in the 100-yard breaststroke, while Cole came within two seconds of qualifying for the state meet as a freshman with an impressive time of 5:52.97 in the 500-yard freestyle.

While they might not be swimming against each other you can be sure that whoever is in the water is being cheered on from the deck by the other.

“I definitely cheer for my brother a lot, and I try to watch him swim every time.  I look up to him and I always yell a little louder when I’m cheering for him,” Cole said.

Even though the brothers have both been in the spotlight early on in their high school swimming careers jealousy has not become a factor in their relationship.

“Most of the time we help each other out with a lot of stuff and if I need help with anything he is the first person I talk to.  He is a great brother,” Cole said.

Kill it.....Jerk

Well my summer hiatus has ended and now I must begin a new semester and, in doing so, a new entry to my blog.

As many of you know I keep myself busy during the summer working for the Town of Gilbert in the Aquatics department.  This past summer I was the head swim coach at Williams Field pool.  Along with my coaching responsibilities I also taught swimming and diving lessons to children between the ages of six months and 14 years old.

During one of my diving classes this summer I had my class of five girls lined up behind the diving board getting ready to practice the skill I had just taught them.  I believe they were getting ready to do pike two and one-half front flips…. oh no wait they were about to do kneeling dives.  Anyway, I had just completed y demonstration and was swimming to the side of the pool when I heard a five-girl chorus of screams.  Now these were not screams of pain or of joy, these were screams of terror.

I jumped out of the pool and ran to where the girls were huddled together.  They pointed to the side of the diving board and one of them said “There is a killer bee next to the board.”

I went over to investigate and found this:

I used a flip-flop that was next to me on the ground and hit it as hard as I could.  It laid there still and I left it where it was and continued class. The little girl whose shoe I used was very unhappy with me for doing so, but other than that I was looked at as a hero by this group of five and six year-olds.

Class ended and I took the bug back into our guardroom where I took these pictures:

Some of the other male lifeguards came in and thought it was as cool as I did but then the female coworkers entered the room.  They freaked out screaming and frantically telling me to kill it, not knowing it was already dead.  I explained that it had already moved on to a better place, having been motionless for 30 minutes.  They convinced themselves that it was just stunned and was going to wake up seeking revenge any minute. 

After telling me to kill it several more times I decided that I would just pull off the wings.  I figured that by doing this the girls would be satisfied that the hornet would not be able to sting them to death, and I would get to continue examining my find.

Well that was a mistake.  I was not the hero I thought I would be, instead I became the greatest villain the guardroom had ever known.  I was called a jerk by more than one of the girls.  Apparently, killing the bug would have been considered heroic, but pulling off the wings was inhumane.

I admit that I do not support animal cruelty, but the thing was already dead and was heading for the trash can anyway.  Luckily, the whole thing was forgotten by the next day and I was not hated anymore.

My boss and I looked up pictures of the bug and decided that it was a European Hornet. Why it was so far from Europe the world may never know.

Words with Friends ... or Enemies??

Rod Works Arizona is opening soon!!!  Everyone should totally check out that link AFTER you finish this blog.  I bring this up because my fabulous in-laws are the owners of this franchise.  This means that they get to open a cell phone account for their employees, one of which is my beautiful wife.   Due to this, we found ourselves at the Verizon store last Friday where they were picking out their new “smart phones.”  Casey got a iphone 4, while my in-laws opted for the htc incredible. 

Now as many of you know the invention of smart phones led to the explosion of “apps.”  There are so many different types of “apps” for almost anything imaginable.   “Apps” can be used for news, weather, movies, jokes, pranks, killing egg-stealing pigs, and my favorite, word games!!!

You see I too am the proud owner of a smart phone (Droid 2) and a few weeks back I started playing a “scrabble-like” game called Words With Friends against my brother in Provo and various classmates at school.  I love it and so it was the first “app” I suggested for all of my in-laws.  They all downloaded it and we spent Easter weekend playing one another.  It was all fun and games until Sunday Night…

My wife and I were playing against each other and she was getting frustrated because I was only using short words, making it difficult for her to find places to play her letters.  I finally used a five-letter word so she would be able to start a new branch with a longer word and open up the game a little bit more.

So what does she do?? She plays a two-letter (QI) word that blocks any other potential moves off my long word!!!  I started joking with her about how she just did exactly what I was doing that got her so frustrated.  She responded by hurling a pillow at me that knocked the ipad I was holding out of my hands and into my face resulting in this:

This is a few hours after “the incident,” but you can still see the result.  Initially, it bled like crazy!  I thought I was going to need a transfusion… okay not really but it bled more than I thought it would.

Anyway, this incident set off a wave of emotions.  My wife felt horrible and was near tears.  I had to ensure her multiple times that it was an accident, and that I was not mad at her in any way.  I was a little mad that I had a gash in my face, but I did not blame her.  I blame apple for making their ipad cases so dang sharp! 

This was the first time either of us had actually physically hurt the other.  She felt bad until the next day when I accidently cut her toe shutting that stupid drawer most people have beneath their oven.  Then we were even.  It was a first in our marriage.  

I hope you all go out and get words with friends (my user name is jordanbrough ßjust like that).  Just beware of pillows and ipad cases if you do.

JB

PS Now go click on the Rod Works link above!!!

Pity the Fool

This Sunday while doing my hair to attend church I realized I was in dire need of a haircut.  My hair was beginning to look like Eric Foreman’s on “That 70’s Show.”

Luckily for me this past January I married a hairstylist and will now get my hair cut for free the rest of my life. (As long as I still have hair.)  I asked her when would work best and she said I could come in on Wednesday. 

Therefore, yesterday I found myself in my wife’s chair at Blossom Salon and Boutique.  As summer is fast approaching my preference was to buzz it all off; Michael Scofield style. 

Sadly, Casey was not a fan of the idea. (Even though she thinks he’s dreamy.)

We made a compromise to do a 2 on the sides and a 3 on top.  Midway through the 3 Casey said, “We should do a Mohawk!”  I agreed wholeheartedly.  Now I have a Mr. T/Puck hairdo!!

Here is a few pictures of my haircut and one of me and my super sexy hairstylist!!

JB

P.S. Casey now has feather hair extensions so if you are interested in getting them done comment below and I will put you in contact with her.

Pancakes and Kills

Volleyball is my new favorite sport.  I do not know how many of you have ever had the chance to attend a men’s volleyball game but I would highly recommend you do so soon.  They are exciting, and where else are you going to find pancakes (placing your hand flat on the floor so the ball pops up) and kills (hitting the ball and not having it returned by the opposition) at the same place? (Other than Saturday morning breakfast at a Halo convention)

I became a big fan a couple of years ago when Landon was the team manager for the Varsity and Dalton was on JV.  Since then I have not missed a game that I was available to attend. (School and Work sometimes interfere, and now that I’m and “adult” I have to prioritize my activities.)

The pace of the game is fast and the energy is electric.  Each team has a variety of chants it does when various aspects of the game happen.  For instance when a player on Mesquite’s team blocks an opposing player the players on the court, as well as the bench, chant “Rufio, Rufio, RUF, I, OOOO.” (You could say they stole it from Hook but most of these kids have never seen that movie.)  Another favorite is when the other team finds itself out of position and the ball drops to the floor for a point.  The entire Mesquite squad waves one of their palms in front of their face and says in a deep, drawn out voice, “CONFUSIOOON.”

My little brothers pretty good volleyball players. (They both start as of yesterday.) Dalton has also contributed in another way to the success of the team. You see Dalton had the flu about a week ago and found himself kneeling before the porcelain god a few times.  He noticed his eyes were burning after he finished and looked in the mirror and saw this:

Dalton Brough

Only it was worse because it had just happened and all the way around his eyes was bright red. (He popped blood vessels in both eyes while he was going “number 3”)  It provides a nice distraction initially to the opposing teams on game day.

Here are a couple more pictures courtesy of www.steinophoto.com:

Dalton Brough warming up

Caleb Brough v. Red Mountain

Dalton Brough v. Brophy 1

Dalton Brough v. Brophy 2

If you want to see them bigger, and less blurry, click the link and look in the Sports Galleries in the Men’s Volleyball section.

JB

Thrust Capacity

At Life Time I coach three different levels of swimming.  I coach a beginning group, advanced group and a Jr. Masters group.  In my advanced group I have a seven-year-old boy named Andrew.  The other day I realized he was doing his breaststroke kick incorrectly.  I stopped him and explained to him the correct kick and sent him on his way.

Now the kick he was using is known as a scissor kick and is faster than the traditional breaststroke kick.  Thus, he was swimming significantly slower and got passed by one of the older boys.  When he finished his lap I noticed he was crying and talking under his breathe.  I assumed that he was angry that he got passed so I told him it was not a big deal; that is was normal for older kids to be faster.  He looked up at me and said, “I don’t care that he passed me.  I hate this new kick you are making me do.  It does not have the same thrust that my old kick did, and my potential speed is much slower.” 

The kid is seven-years-old and has a better vocabulary and understanding of physics than most of my high school age kids.  I had to explain to him that his potential speed would be slower, but that by doing the kick correctly he would not be disqualified for using an illegal kick at meets.  He responded, “So by doing the kick your way it eliminates the possibility of me being DQ’d?”  I explained that he could be disqualified for other things but not for his kick if he did it the correct way.   He asked what other things he could do to be disqualified and I had to explain them all.  The kid is sharp.

JB

Mattress Stamp

Riding the light rail is the greatest!!!  I have to admit that I enjoy eavesdropping on my fellow commuters, and do so almost every time I ride the light rail.  The other day I was riding home from ASU and a man got on and sat a couple rows ahead of me.  He was on the phone and ended his call by saying, “I love you, tell the boys I love them, and I can’t wait to see them tonight.”  

I was touched.  I had immediately judged this book by its cover.  You see the man had a shaved head and was wearing baggy pants.  He had tattoos over at least 50% of his body and just looked like someone I would never want to wrong.  As I was thinking all of these things and chastising myself for my haste in judging the man, another man got on the train and sat right next to the scary looking, loving father.

This man also had a scary look about him.  He had a tattoo of the devil on his shaved head.  He wore a shirt condemning police officers, and had tattoos over most of his visible skin.  I decided that I should not judge him and waited to see if the men would begin talking to one each other. 

It started out as a simple introduction.  The scary looking, loving father turned, held out his hand, and said, “Hi I’m John. *” The “man with the devil tattoo” replied, “How is it going, I’m Michael.”  As they were shaking hands Michael apparently saw one of the tattoos that John had and informed him he had just done a similar one.  Michael then talked about his profession as a tattoo artist.  This was interesting, as he told stories of famous people he had tattooed and strange places he had inked.

I lost interest for a moment as I received a text from my beautiful wife.  When I came back I heard John say, “Man, federal prison is like a resort.  I loved my time with the feds.”  John replied, “I know man.  I didn’t feel like I was being punished.  It was more like a break from my (girlfriend.)” 

Apparently, both men have done time in the federal prison system.  They also have logged time in various different states.  John has a warrant for his arrest in California, and Michael is wanted in Pennsylvania for violating his parole. (Apparently he is not their number 1 priority as he recounted a story of being pulled over.  He was not arrested because the “system” in Pennsylvania did not want to foot the bill for his extradition.)

Anyway, John asked Michael about his time in the PA system.  He asked if he wanted to hear about his first time when he was 18, or the second time when he was 23.  John elected to hear about his second stint.  Michael told the story about being booked and walking into the cell.

“I walked into the cell and this big (man) started looking me up and down.  He asked if I had had my ‘mattress stamped’?  I told him to (back) off; that this wasn’t my first go round and I already had friends in the pen who had my back.  He told me to give him one name and he would back off.  I gave him the name of the head of my gang and he didn’t give me (crap) after that.”

Apparently this was a very funny story because John got a good chuckle out of the whole experience.  Now, I am not sure I really want to know, but I cannot find anything about having one’s “mattress stamped.”  I assume it is some sort of initiation into prison, but who knows.

Michael got off at the next stop and my entertainment went with him.  John and I got off at the same stop and, I have to say, I was more than a little intimidated.  I could not help but think that my initial judgment of the man was correct.   Then I saw a car pull up and two little boys jump out and run to him.  They were ecstatic to see him, and called out “daddy” as he wrapped them up.

I guess even though my initial judgments of John were true it did not mean he was not a loving father too.  His kids obviously adored him, and the “scary man” I saw on the light rail was not present as he was holding them in his arms.

JB

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Why is there no dislike button??

I have discovered one of the most awkward experiences known to man this week. It was horrifying and unexpected. We all know that Facebook has taken over the world. Rarely do you see a computer screen where Facebook is not up, or at least on one of the tabs. We all see people looking at other people’s pictures, and we all do it too, but have you ever caught someone looking at your pictures? It is weird, especially when they realize that you know they are looking at them, looking at your pictures.

Over the weekend I had befriended a few of my ASU classmates via "the social network”. Most of them are people in my Glee group for my gender and communication class, but a couple were in my Philosophy class. I made my way into class and took my seat in the second to last row. As I have mentioned in my blog, Anti-freeze and Shovels, we all have laptops in front of us in class. While waiting for class to start I opened my Facebook and noticed that the kid in front of me had requested that we become Facebook friends. I figured it would not hurt to have an easy way to access a member of my class. I mean you never know when you might need to double check on assignment requirements, due dates, or test dates right? So I added him and thought nothing of it.

A few minutes later I noticed he was looking at my profile page. That in itself was a little awkward but not out of the ordinary, but then he started looking at my pictures. I will be the first to admit that I too do this when I make a new Facebook friend. Looking at pictures of other people is really fun, but I never thought about how awkward it would be for that person, especially if they happened to be sitting behind you in class. I felt a little violated, which is funny because I was the one who put those pictures up for others to see. I think it stemmed from the fact that I do not know this person at all. Therefore, what concern does he have with my summer biggest loser contest I had at work?

Well, as he browsed through my pictures he must have thought one of the girls in my pictures was cute because he left my page and started looking at her pictures. What single guy has not done this? I bet everyone has at one point or another, myself included, but it is really weird to watch someone doing it with your Facebook page and friends.

One would think that I would have learned my lesson, but later that day I did the exact same thing to a new Facebook friend in my Gender and Communication class. I had made the friend request over the weekend, and this potential friend accepted that request at some point during this particular day. I did not get on Facebook until this new Facebook friend was sitting right next to me. What was the first thing I did? Any guesses?? If you guessed that I looked at this new friend’s pictures you are correct. That is right, I did the exact same thing to this new friend that my new friend had done to me in Philosophy class. The only difference is I realized that my new friend was witnessing me doing this, and that my friends is even more awkward than seeing someone look at your pictures.

JB

Flannel and fun.

While I was sitting in class one day (actually it was the day I wrote 99 out of 10) Cameron sent me a message through facebook chat.  He asked me if I had heard of Devilpalooza.  I informed him that I had not.  He explained that it was an event put on by the school that included a free concert.  Casey and I thought that a concert sounded like a cool idea and we agreed to accompany Cameron to the event.

Upon arrival at the field where the concert was being held I was surprised that along with a free concert, I would also receive a pat down.  It was not a TSA grade pat down, but I had a man’s hand on my butt nonetheless.  I felt for the guy doing the frisking, he was less excited about it than the friskees.

After that wonderful experience we headed in towards the crowd who was listening to The Maine.  I thought I was entering an Al Borland tribute concert.

Al Borland from Home Improvement

I am dead serious.  There was more flannel there than in Paul Bunyan’s closet.  I could not help but take some pictures.  Here are a few of them:

It was incredible.  Most of these are from the back cause I did not want people to think I was creeping on them.

After I got a hold of myself I remembered that it was a concert and I settled back and enjoyed the fun.  The fun is, of course referring to the band fun.  The former lead singer of The Format heads this awesome band.  They sound great live too.  Here, have a look and listen:

Here is the only semi-decent picture I got from my camera:

Speaking of Als does not the drummer look a little like Weird Al Yankovic from a distance?

Well this was my first attempt at blogging with pictures and video.  I hope you all enjoyed seeing the concert through my eyes.

JB

Everyone is an Expert

I found myself at Life Time Fitness in Gilbert at 6:00 AM when I overheard this conversation:

Man 1: “Hey man, I told you that the ‘Pack’ were gonna win that game.”

Man 2: “Yeah you did, I just couldn’t believe how Rodgers broke down that coverage.”

Man 1: “Dude I saw that coming from a mile away.  It was apparent that Polamalu was not 100%.  When I re-watched the conference championship game I saw that he didn’t have that extra gear.

Also it was apparent that the Steelers would not be able to defend the five wide set that the Packers like to use so much.

Plus, I told you Jennings was the most underrated receiver in the NFL."

Man 2: “Well not only that but the O-Line for the Packers took Harrison out of the game, I mean he had one sack but it looked like Green Bay was ready for everything the Steelers threw at Rodgers.”

Man 1: “Yeah, well you need to watch more film man.  I NEED (emphasis included) hit the sauna, I’ll see you later.”

Man 2: “Later.”

Alright, Man 1 had a couple intelligent points during the course of this conversation, but had a couple of completely ridiculous quotes as well. (not the least of which being, “I NEED to hit the sauna.”  I mean does anyone ever really NEED to hit the sauna?  I know it is nice but I still find it a luxury not a necessity.)  Now, the first thing that made me laugh was that this guy stated that he “re-watched the conference championship game...” I mean was that really necessary?  Were the Packers waiting by the phone for this guys analysis of the Steelers defensive schemes?  He then went on to say, “you need to watch more film man.” which made it necessary for me to put my notebook in front of my face so he would not see me laughing.  I do not think that Man 2 is suffering much from his lack of pre-game film study, but what do I know? I had the audacity to not even watch one of the conference championship games.

I stated above that Man 1 provided a couple intelligent points during this conversation.  I did not, however, mention that I saw Man 1 sitting on the couch in the locker room, watching a segment on SportsCenter in which one of the commentators made each of the points (almost word for word) that this man would go on to use in his conversation with Man 2.

Man 2, on the other hand, used a point that one of the sports-talk newscasters I like to listen to on my way to work made this morning on his show.  Leading me to believe he is also a fan of Doug and Wolf.

I find it very interesting how easily people steal other’s thoughts and ideas in order to sound like an expert.  Everything I heard from these men I had already heard from some of my favorite commentators. Neither of these men gave those commentators credit for their ideas.  It is a sort of verbal plagiarism that is rampant in our society.  I admit that, I too am guilty, from time to time, of this intellectual theft, although I do make a concerted effort to give credit to the person from whom I’v received my information.

I just find it funny that everyone has this unquenchable desire to be an expert in whatever it is they choose to discuss.  Well, I NEED to get to class.

JB

Freak Out!!!

In case you have not been on Facebook lately, or have no Facebook friends who live here in Arizona, you might not know it is cold.  I admit it is cold, but it absolutely cracks me up how people react to weather changes in Arizona.  If it drops below 50 degrees Fahrenheit another Ice Age is on the way.  On the other hand if it rains for more than a couple hours you would think all Arizonians were regretting their decision not to get on the arc that Noah built.  Just to put this recent cold streak in perspective (and by the way, this cold front is the result of a massive storm that is affecting most of the country) I have done some research on the temperatures in other cities across our great country.  

First off here is the High Temp. and Low Temp. from Phoenix Wednesday:

High: 43°

Low: 33°

Now here are three cities around the country and the Highs and Lows in each of them, along with the reason I picked them to use in my blog.

• Dallas: High: 21°,  Low: 14°, Super Bowl weekend is upon us, and the Super Bowl itself will be held in this Texas City.
• Billings: High: 15°, Low: -5°, A truly cold city.
• Salt Lake City: High: 21°, Low: 6°, I have a lot of friends in Utah and a lot of them are also Facebook friends of mine and I don’t recall a post about the weather Wednesday from any of them.

Alright now that we have established that it was a pretty warm day here in Phoenix if you compare it to these other cities, here are a few of my Facebook friends posts from Wednesday:

• "freezing my bollocks off.”
• "it is thirty something degrees outside....good thing my apartment is 90 degrees!! :-D"
• "Why is it so cold?!”
• "Dear Arizona, WHY ARE YOU SO COLD?? I do not have a thick enough jacket to protect me from cold piercing wind. Please stop. That is all. Love, Me”
• "its cold and i am not a fan..."
• "Walking to campus in that windchill was the most painful thing I have ever done"
• "At TPC Scottsdale freezing my tootsie off!!"
• "First taste of actual COLD in a long time, people in cold climates you are brave souls!"
• "don't worry everybody... its only 33 freakin degrees outside"
• "I want my 70 degree winter back.”

Alright, I am not saying that is is not cold, it is well below average.  I just find it funny how people react to the weather, and thought you might too.

JB

99 out of 10

Just a reminder that time is running out on the current poll question.  I would love to see more feedback.  I also welcome comments of any nature, from anyone who feels so inclined.  It is always nice to know who is reading what I write and how they respond to each topic.

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I do not know if any of you have ever taken a gender and communication class but it is interesting, to say the least.  There have not been any huge blow-ups yet, but the overwhelming feeling I get as I sit in class each day is that my professor is hoping it will happen.  She breezes over hot button issues like abortion, homosexuality, and free love as if they were common topics to discuss over tea.  She always pauses after her statement and looks to us to see if we want to comment, but as of right now there are only a few of my fellow students who participate frequently in classroom discussions, although that is beginning to change.  The past class almost everybody made at least one comment.  We were talking about the genderizing that takes place in American culture.  She asked for examples of genderization in America.  Many examples where given, but my favorite part of the conversation came when the topic of school uniforms was examined.  It started out as a skirt v. slacks debate.  My professor stated that she could not believe that skirts were still the requirement for girls while boys were permitted to wear slacks.  The guy sitting a few seats down from me stated that a lot of uniform wearing schools were allowing girls to wear slacks if they did not want to wear the skirts.  My teacher said that might be the case but 99 out of ten girls would still wear the skirts because that was the expectation.  I do not believe she realized the interesting ratio she threw out, but I find it hard to believe that 990% of girls are caving into social expectations.  That is just my personal opinion though.  I pointed out that it is very acceptable for women to where slacks in formal settings, although the idea of men in skirts still has not become acceptable.

JB

She’s your life?!?

Well Casey and I received a calling today in our ward.  When we got married we both commented on how we really did not want to get called to be in Primary.  For those of you who are not Mormon, Primary is a Sunday School for children ages 3-11.  Each age as their own class.  Anyway, we were getting ready and I looked at my phone and realized I had a missed call and a voicemail.  I listened to the voicemail and it was from the first counselor in the bishopric asking if we could be at church 15 minutes early so he could meet wit us.  Yep, that’s right,  It was pretty much the death sentence.  We got to church and, sure enough, we are now teaching the CTR 5 primary class.

CTR 5 kids are five turning six sometime this year.  We have six kids in our class, and five of them where in attendance this Sunday.  They threw us into the fire too.  Normally, they call you and then you have a week or two before you start teaching.  Not us, we had to teach because the former teachers had already moved. So we took our little class to our classroom and asked them all their names and little get to know you questions.  After quickly memorizing their names we began to introduce ourselves.  I said, “My name is Brother Brough and this is my wife, Casey.”  One of the kids did not hear right and asked in a non-believing tone, “She’s your life?!?”  I turned to the little girl and said, “Yes, she is my wife, which does indeed make her my life.”  I gave her a big smile and she smiled back.  It was really cute.

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This is a clip of my little brother Caleb’s sweet touch pass in his basketball game this Friday.

Anti-Freeze and Shovels

Philosophy: Where Nothing Exists

In my philosophy class today we were talking about what arguments can be made to prove or disprove the existence of a creator.  Now, normally this would be a hot button issue, but it is an early class and there are laptops sitting in front of each student, making it difficult for the majority of the students to pay attention.  Well we were talking about how things have always been one way, or something along those lines, (I might have been using the laptop at this particular moment) when my professor used the analogy of a man buying bread at the grocery store.  The man picks up a loaf of bread and a passerby tells the man he should not be buying bread at the store.  The man asks the passerby why he should not be buying the bread at the store, and the man replies, “Because it could be poisoned.”  The professor then pointed out that is not sound reasoning for not buying bread at a store because, in all likelihood, that man had probably bought 1000’s of loaves of bread from the store previously in his life.  My professor was using the story to illustrate the point that just because something could happen does not mean it is very likely to happen.  He then started talking about how anything we buy could be poisoned.  He started talking about sugary drinks and then said something along the lines of, “You do not know that your diet coke is not poisoned, do you?  Someone could have put anti-freeze into your drink.  If you want to kill someone you can just pour anti-freeze into their drink and that will do the trick.  It’s a good way to kill someone.  It tastes awesome."

I could not help but raise my hand and ask if he had ever tasted anti-freeze because he seemed to know so much about the product.  He said he had not and asked me if I wanted him to go and try a glass of anti-freeze.  I told him no, that I did not want him dead, but that if I did he had just taught us “a good way to kill someone.”  We all had a laugh and he clarified that he meant that it was an effective means of murder, but that he did not mean to be advocating anti-freeze poisoning as an action in itself.  Anyway, a couple minutes later someone asked him a question and he used an analogy involving shovels.  Midway through the analogy he stopped and more or less said, “A shovel is another good way you could kill someone.”

It was the most lively philosophy class to date.

JB

School is Cool

I love the reaction you get when you say hi to someone and they cannot figure out who you are.

On the light rail today I noticed one of my professors hop on in in between one of my head bobs. (You know when you are dozing off and it feels like your head is falling off a cliff and right at the last second you shoot it up only to realize you were no where near a cliff, but just dozing off?)  I wanted to say hi but she chose a seat out of my line of sight.  To preface this next part I need to tell you that   on the first day of her class she told us that we could call her by her first name, professor, or doctor.  Well upon exiting the light rail I was walking next to her.  I looked over and said "Hello Kate.*"  She looked absolutely shocked!!!  She had that look on her face that said she was trying to remember from where she knew me.  Now, I'm not trying to be rude but just by the process of elimination it should not have taken her long to figure out I must be one of her new students.  Let's check out the facts:

I knew her first name.
We got off at the same stop which is right next to ASU.
I was carrying a backpack.
I was wearing an ASU hoodie.
We were both walking toward the campus when the interchange occurred.

Anyway, the look she gave me was priceless.  She literally was staring at me, trying to figure out who I was and how I knew her the rest of the walk to the campus.  It did not click that I was one of her students until I said, "I guess I'll see you in class.", as I entered the  building and headed for the stairs.  I'm sure she is sitting in her office trying to figure out who I am and which class I'm in as I type this post.

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A side note:

I do not know if any of you have seen Toy Story 3 but my Principles and History of Journalism professor sounds exactly like Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear.  He is not nearly a devious, (unless you count attempting to bore your students to death as evil) nor as cute.  The class in itself is interesting and vital to my education so I do my best to tough it out, but it has proven difficult.

JB

*names have been changed to protect the innocent.

King George VI meet Oscar

My favorite wedding gift so far might be our sandwich maker.  Now this is not your typical sandwich maker.  It makes a mean sandwich do not get me wrong, but it doubles as an omelet maker... I am not kidding you it makes omelets too.  My beautiful wife, Casey, used this feature this morning and my stomach was extremely grateful.

Gossip Girl fans put your hands up.  Yeah that's right Casey has got me hooked.  I know, I know turn in my man card.  Well guess what, I have not possessed said card since I started watching Gilmore Girls with my wonderful mother a few years back.  Shoot, any of you who know me well know my favorite show is Glee.  Anyway, back to my current guilty pleasure Blake Lively stirring up trouble in upper Manhattan.  It's great drama and a little humor all packed into a story about people with whom I can in no way relate.  Perfect right?

This weekend Casey and I were able to take one of my best friends, Cameron Tattersall, out to dinner and a movie for his birthday.  He blew out 25 candles on the 16th!! We had gotten married the day before so we were not able to do anything with him on that day.  Accompanying Cam was another childhood friend, Kellan Durrett, which was a great bonus.  We met up at Paradise Bakery and enjoyed a quick bite.  The King's Speech was Cameron's movie of choice.  Other than the occasional snore from Kellan, who lasted all of 20 minutes before counting sheep, I was riveted.  It was a GREAT movie that I would recommend to anyone who meets these qualifications:

a good nights rest at least two nights prior
a full stomach
at least a 32 oz. diet coke (caffeine included)
a midday nap prior to the viewing
insomnia

Okay so that might be a little dramatic but the movie moves very slowly.  I really did love the movie and I think that Colin Firth deserves the best actor Oscar for his performance as King George VI.  Geoffrey Rush deserves at least a nomination for best supporting actor, but I feel that Spidey (aka. Andrew Garfield) deserves to win that award for his performance in The Social Network.  Which is a must see for anyone who has ever heard of facebook.

JB



  

   

I need to write more because I'm a Journalism Major

So I started at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Broadcasting on Tuesday, and about an hour into my Psychology class I realized that being a journalist would undoubtably require me to write quite often.  I then took an inventory into all that I had written within the past week.  It totaled something like four facebook posts and three tweets...not exactly Pulitzer caliber writing.  I began to mentally list ways I could write more, and quickly realized I could start by writing down my ideas.  Sadly, I could not find my pen anywhere and no one was sitting next to me.  Rather than interrupt my professor, who at the time was making each and every kid in the class feel like idiots, I decided to jot the ideas down in my newly acquired MacBook Pro...I couldn't figure out how to bring up the Microsoft Notepad equivalent of Macintosh.  Thus I decided to table the idea until a later date.

Thursday I had completely forgotten about the need to write more until I was sitting in my Principles and History of Journalism class and my professor made some offhanded remark about how we students of journalism all better enjoy writing or find a new major.  I quickly asked myself if I did indeed enjoy writing...the answer was yes.  With that I started to decide how I could write more. At that exact moment my phone vibrated informing me I had received an email.  It was from the bookstore informing me that my OfficeMac would be shipped out Friday.  That in itself did not help me, but when I closed that email I saw the email my little brother Landon had sent me from his mission.  (He's serving in the Australia Sydney Mission.)  That email reminded me that my mother posted all of his emails to a blog (http://elderlandonbrough.blogspot.com/) that his friends could then read.  I felt a lightbulb illuminate above my head.  The idea had taken root.

I am not really sure what all I will write about, nor do I know who will actually read this, but I do intend to update it often.  I'm sure between riding the light rail twice a week, being a newlywed, attending a university full of young adults acting upon every urge and idea they have, and whatever other life experiences I have I will be able to find topics to dissect.  I hope you enjoy.