Of Bears

This morning I received a Marco Polo from my three-year-old niece asking me if I like bears. I do like a good bear. In my opinion, bears are one of the more underrated animals out there. They're such unusual predators because they aren't sleek or sneaky or crafty. Bears are large, strong, and surprisingly fast. I don't understand how they're so fast because they don't look efficient at all when they run. I can't quite get a read on these fascinating animals. What do bears think about? What's hidden beneath that all that thick fur?

I've always wanted to see a bear in the wild. I've seen deer, moose, rodents, foxes, coyotes, beavers, otters, numerous species of fowl, but I've never seen a bear or a gator in the wild. One time I was on a hike in the Tetons with my young mens group. There was a group in the front and a group in the back. I started out with the back group and then decided to catch the front group. At some point between leaving the back group and catching the front group a bear walked across the trail in between me and the back group and I missed it! If I would have just chilled with the group in the back I could have achieved one of my life dreams. Alas, it was not meant to be. 

In preparation for tonight's blog post, I watched several videos on bears, specifically black bears. I watched a video of a bear in a tree getting tranquilized, falling out of the tree onto a trampoline, and bouncing way into the air and onto the grass. I also watched a video of a bear chasing a skier all the way down the hill and a compilation of trail cam videos of a bear waking up from hibernation. Today I took a much-needed nap in the classic nap spot. Unlike most other days where I just kind of just lie there, today I was out cold. I had no idea where I was when I woke up and it took me like a half hour to come to my senses. It took me a while to snap to and start being productive again. Likewise, it took the bear days and days to finally fully wake up and leave the den for good Watching the video of the bear slowwwwwwly emerge from hibernation made me realize that maybe we aren't so different than bears. Though we live different lives and can't even communicate with each other, I feel like there's a lot that can be learned from our bear friends. 

Of Feet

Before beginning this highly anticipated second blog post, I feel the need to explain the name of the blog to the maybe three people who will ever actually see these words. Brigham's Buckets is the name of my fantasy basketball team. In the four years I have participated in fantasy basketball my team has taken last, first, first, and last, respectively. I started out this current season by losing three games in a row but the boys came through clutch and got that dub for me last week. 

Today I had an appointment with the foot man to get my ankle checked out. I sprained the inside (medial) side last week at practice and it's felt good despite a ton of swelling, but it's great to have full confidence now knowing that it isn't broken. The foot man made a few comments and observations that really cracked me up:

• "Looking at your foot it's a miracle you've had an athletic career at all!"
• "Is your other foot flat too?"
• There is a bone spur in the ankle
• One bone is way bigger than it should be. It's the bone that attaches to the tendon that supports the arch which would explain the flat feet
• One of the bones in my ankle/foot is misaligned by 45 degrees
• Another possible bone spur on the ball of my foot
• "You have probably the flattest feet I've ever seen"

I never knew that so many things could be wrong in a single foot (not even including the ankle sprain which originally brought me to the Provo foot man). I am so grateful that I haven't had foot pain besides the occasional rolled ankle at practice. I'm grateful for the gift of flat feet that I received from my grandpa, it is truly the gift that keeps on giving, ha. 

For reference, here is a footprint (mine) of a person with no foot arch. Next week I'll have something more exciting to talk about than a visit to the foot man.

Of Mullets

One of my favorite songs is Good Morning by Kanye West. It's a good song, and one that is gracing my ears as I type these blessed words on this blog, and in case my mother is reading this, it is the clean version, don't worry. As I thought about what to write about on this occasion of this first required blog post, I think of beginnings. Each time Kanye sings "good morning," I think of the beginning of a new day or the beginning of a new era or the beginning of a semester. People start out new years or new semesters with plans, schemes, visions, hopes, etc, and though it's been years since I've made a list of resolutions or goals at the commencement of a new year, I often find myself with a new energy and a new plan of attack for those new periods of time. The extra week of winter break gave me an opportunity to really catch my breath and actually be excited for a new semester. I was able to read a book for pure enjoyment rather than by assignment for the first time in years. I loved the ideas I learned from Mindset, and would highly recommend it. I'm taking this opportunity to think about several new things that I hope to exploit to my advantage this coming year:

• A new schedule that provides me with big blocks of time to be productive and get a lot done. 
• New people moving into the ward to become friends with
• New skills obtained in classes to increase my qualifications for future jobs
• New vision of where I want to go with my stats background (not so much the actuary path as the business/marketing route)
• New additions to the CHI ultimate team
• Some new dinner options I became aware of/learned to make over the break

It's going to be a good time. A month ago I began the process of growing out a mullet. Why? Who knows. But it's actually starting to come in now and yesterday I convinced two of my roommates to join me in my endeavors. One of them got it cut yesterday and it looks dang good. So by the end of this semester of blogging you know we'll be looking good. 

Since I want to practice adding pictures to these posts to spice things up, here's a picture I snapped after practice yesterday at 7:35 am.