This has happened a couple of times. I've started a post, then come back to it later to make revisions. Then when it is finally perfected, I go to post it, and it doesn't post, and the last saved version is pre-revisions. I guess I should stop trusting that it is autosaving.
Oh, well. Due to this malfunction, you have missed out on my thoughts on college football conference realignment and my take on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's.
Your loss.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Launched
Today I finally launched the self-reliance class I have been pondering and working on since last March. The Bishop and I came up with this as an additional offering in Sunday School. We identified six basic principles of self-reliance - finances, education, employment, home storage, health, and spiritual strength.
We started with finances. I developed a simple lesson covering four basic principles: paying tithing, saving/building a reserve, avoiding/eliminating debt, and self-discipline in day-to-day money decisions. I went ahead and taught the class, given my financial education and experience.
I was most worried about getting the word out. I've been doing fliers and having them announce in sacrament meeting, but if people are anything like me their church memory sometimes only lasts about five days. So when they didn't include it in the sacrament meeting announcements this morning, I started to get worried that no one would come. So I actually had to take a note up to the counselor before the last talk asking him to do a quick reminder of the class before closing the meeting.
And the turnout was good! I think we had about 12 attendees and the participation was good. So I'll teach the same class for three more weeks and then we'll move on to the next topic after stake conference.
I'm hoping to be somewhat less involved in the lesson development and teaching with the next topics than I was with finances. Honestly, I haven't even really started to think about the next one.
But I am excited to finally have this thing off the ground.
We started with finances. I developed a simple lesson covering four basic principles: paying tithing, saving/building a reserve, avoiding/eliminating debt, and self-discipline in day-to-day money decisions. I went ahead and taught the class, given my financial education and experience.
I was most worried about getting the word out. I've been doing fliers and having them announce in sacrament meeting, but if people are anything like me their church memory sometimes only lasts about five days. So when they didn't include it in the sacrament meeting announcements this morning, I started to get worried that no one would come. So I actually had to take a note up to the counselor before the last talk asking him to do a quick reminder of the class before closing the meeting.
And the turnout was good! I think we had about 12 attendees and the participation was good. So I'll teach the same class for three more weeks and then we'll move on to the next topic after stake conference.
I'm hoping to be somewhat less involved in the lesson development and teaching with the next topics than I was with finances. Honestly, I haven't even really started to think about the next one.
But I am excited to finally have this thing off the ground.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Seems Familiar
Okay, so let me get this straight. Word came out this week that BYU is looking to follow Utah out of the MWC, become an independent in football ala Notre Dame, and rejoin the WAC in all non-football sports. This would make two conferences that BYU and Utah have deserted.
The classic WAC of my youth consisted of BYU, Utah, CSU, Air Force, Wyoming, New Mexico, UTEP, San Diego State, and Hawaii.
In the early-to-mid nineties, the WAC got caught up in the expansion craze and added three more west coast schools (Fresno State, San Jose State, and UNLV) as well as four southwestern schools (Rice, SMU, TCU, and Tulsa). After three years of this mega-conference, a few of the classic WAC schools got to thinking that a conference that stretched from Honolulu to Tulsa maybe wasn't such a great idea.
So the classic WAC schools ditched the schools that they had just invited to join, along with distant Hawaii, and conveniently replaced the El Paso school with the Las Vegas school, and formed a brand-new conference, the Mountain West, aka WAC 2.0.
The WAC 1.0 has evolved a little bit over the past decade or so. The five southwestern schools all eventually left the conference, and were replaced with more intermountain-y schools - Nevada, Idaho, Boise State, Utah State, and New Mexico State. Also Louisiana Tech joined, which made sense geographically when they had all the Texas schools, but doesn't anymore.
Meanwhile, the MWC stayed lean and mean for the first few years of membership, with the eight schools. Then in 2005, they decided to add TCU. I thought this was a little odd at the time, because didn't you guys just up and ditch TCU six years ago?
More recently, the MWC added Boise State ostensibly as a 10th member, but really it was to replace Utah, who left for the Pac-10 a couple of days later. And now comes news that the MWC has raided the WAC for Nevada and Fresno State, supposedly as additional members, but really to either replace BYU or persuade them to stay. Does any of this sound familiar? How long before we get word that Rice, SMU, and UTEP are joining the Mountain West as well?
So the reason the Mountain West came to be in the first place was that they wanted a more tidy geography, which was accomplished pretty well in a neat little triangle extending from San Diego to Laramie to Albuquerque.
But now the triangle has doubled in size - San Diego to Boise to Dallas.
And so now BYU might become the big brother in a conference that includes Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, Utah State, San Jose State, Hawaii, and Idaho.
Definitely a step down in competition.
I think I might see where this is going. BYU does this Independent/WAC hybrid thing for awhile, realizes they still can't get in the BCS. So the presidents of BYU, CSU, Wyoming, Air Force, New Mexico, San Diego State, and maybe Utah State get together and decide to form a new conference that is more suited to their needs and feels more like how things were back in the WAC's heydey of the eighties. They'll probably call it the Mountain Athletic Conference or something.
The classic WAC of my youth consisted of BYU, Utah, CSU, Air Force, Wyoming, New Mexico, UTEP, San Diego State, and Hawaii.
In the early-to-mid nineties, the WAC got caught up in the expansion craze and added three more west coast schools (Fresno State, San Jose State, and UNLV) as well as four southwestern schools (Rice, SMU, TCU, and Tulsa). After three years of this mega-conference, a few of the classic WAC schools got to thinking that a conference that stretched from Honolulu to Tulsa maybe wasn't such a great idea.
So the classic WAC schools ditched the schools that they had just invited to join, along with distant Hawaii, and conveniently replaced the El Paso school with the Las Vegas school, and formed a brand-new conference, the Mountain West, aka WAC 2.0.
The WAC 1.0 has evolved a little bit over the past decade or so. The five southwestern schools all eventually left the conference, and were replaced with more intermountain-y schools - Nevada, Idaho, Boise State, Utah State, and New Mexico State. Also Louisiana Tech joined, which made sense geographically when they had all the Texas schools, but doesn't anymore.
Meanwhile, the MWC stayed lean and mean for the first few years of membership, with the eight schools. Then in 2005, they decided to add TCU. I thought this was a little odd at the time, because didn't you guys just up and ditch TCU six years ago?
More recently, the MWC added Boise State ostensibly as a 10th member, but really it was to replace Utah, who left for the Pac-10 a couple of days later. And now comes news that the MWC has raided the WAC for Nevada and Fresno State, supposedly as additional members, but really to either replace BYU or persuade them to stay. Does any of this sound familiar? How long before we get word that Rice, SMU, and UTEP are joining the Mountain West as well?
So the reason the Mountain West came to be in the first place was that they wanted a more tidy geography, which was accomplished pretty well in a neat little triangle extending from San Diego to Laramie to Albuquerque.
But now the triangle has doubled in size - San Diego to Boise to Dallas.
And so now BYU might become the big brother in a conference that includes Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, Utah State, San Jose State, Hawaii, and Idaho.
Definitely a step down in competition.
I think I might see where this is going. BYU does this Independent/WAC hybrid thing for awhile, realizes they still can't get in the BCS. So the presidents of BYU, CSU, Wyoming, Air Force, New Mexico, San Diego State, and maybe Utah State get together and decide to form a new conference that is more suited to their needs and feels more like how things were back in the WAC's heydey of the eighties. They'll probably call it the Mountain Athletic Conference or something.
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