Saturday, February 26, 2011

A Great Day to Learn How To Do Internet Screenshots

Screenshots.

For the uninitiated, meaning mostly me, screenshots are pictures you take WITH your computer OF your computer. More precisely, pictures of your computer screen while logged-on to the internet.

Mr. Late-to-Every-Party just learned how to do them tonight. And naturally, in my enthusiasm over a newly-acquired skill, I decided it was time for a new blog.

We will call tonight's offering: 'What The Internet Sports World Is Saying About BYU After The Cougars Crush San Diego State On National TV'

((warning: you will soon discover it is impossible to read the fine print, but the originating publication, the title and the photo are plain to see))

Enjoy.


Salt Lake Tribune - Bill Walton meeting Jimmer


Salt Lake Tribune - Columnist Gordon Monson's thoughts from San Diego


Fox Sports.com - Jeff Goodman has been bagging-on BYU and Jimmer all season long. Sounds like he became a convert today. Jimmer will reportedly perform his baptism


CBS Sports.com - it was CBS's party today and the whole world was invited


San Diego Union.com - Aztecs (and especially their classy student fan section) without honor in their own country. I call this one KARMA



ESPN.com College Basketball Front Page - this from the 'worldwide leader in sports' To paraphrase Ron Burgandy, they are a 'pretty big deal'


and finally.....my personal favorite:




Sports Illustrated/CNN.com - the title and photo say it ALL, don't you think?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Happy Birthday Jimmer.............


Jimmer and the Cougars are in San Diego today.



I wish I was too.



I'm guessing all the people trying to get to classes
down there (that's BYU, by-the-way) are wishing the
same thing I am. Seaport Village is sounding
especially nice right about now.




The GOOD news? The storm has passed. The BAD news?
I have to go un-bury my car if I want to go anywhere. Luckily
for me, I am good-to-go with Spaghettio's, Netflix and the internet.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Have You Ever Actually Prayed For BYU To Win A Game?

Somewhere, back a LONG time ago, I remember a cartoon or caricature which depicted two LDS missionaries in their apartment. One says to the other: '....QUICK Elder...on your knees...the Y is losing'.

A classic case of tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating LDS humor. One 'peculiar person' calling out a 'peculiar people'. What made it so funny is that no one would actually ADMIT to praying to their Father-in-Heaven to intervene on behalf of the Cougars......would they?

There are stories in Mormon folklore about people praying in Sacrament Meeting for a BYU victory. Even worse, I have heard tales of people calling the temples and asking to have BYU players or entire Cougar teams played on the prayer rolls.

Well, brace yourselves. I am coming out the the closet. Right here, right now. Going on-record forever, or at least until the internet dies, which ever comes first:

I actually offered a prayer to Heavenly Father for divine intervention on behalf of the team from Provo.

A very quick, very sincere, very PRIVATE one.

I was standing on the sidelines of Jack Murphy Stadium at some point during the 3rd quarter of the 1984 Holiday Bowl. BYU trailed Michigan 14 - 10. The Cougars' perfect season....AND the 1984 National Championship was on the line.

BYU's All-American QB, Robbie Bosco, was limping on a bad ankle AND a bad knee, courtesy of a cheap shot in the first quarter which saw him carried off the field and into the locker room by trainers and the BYU team doctor.

My unspoken prayer....offered up in the silent recesses of my heart went something like this:

'Heavenly Father, I know this is just a football game, but it would be REALLY great if BYU could win...just tonight...just this once'.

I would never presume that it was MY supplication which was heard. Especially because I'm pretty sure there were quite a few others sent heavenward that night on behalf of the Cougars and their fate in a game in San Diego. Long story short: BYU gets two 4th quarter touchdowns, Michigan can only manage a field-goal, BYU wins 24 - 17 and is voted the 1984 National Championship.

Which brings me to February 26, 2011.

Cougars BACK in San Diego. Different sport. Different stadium and opponent. Different stakes.

The 7th-ranked basketball Cougars collide head-on with the 4th-ranked San Diego State Aztecs in an insane-asylum known as Viejas Arena. With literally the entire nation watching live on CBS.....which, by-the-way, will be a very nice change for both BYU and SDSU after having their lights hidden under the proverbial bushel known as the mtn. network.


When they played the first time this season, some guy named Jimmer had a pretty good game. Scored 43 points. It was the Aztecs first - and thus far - only loss of the season. I was there. My ears are still ringing because it was louder than any rock concert I have ever been to, and I've been to a few.

So here comes the re-match.

To the victor will go rich spoils - the 2011 MWC Regular Season Championship, the top-seed in the UNLV Invitational, otherwise known as the MWC Basketball Tournament AND, a massively-coveted, almost-certain #2 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

(...personal note here - March Madness is my 2nd favorite sporting event in the world next to any BYU football game - an event I was lucky enough to get to cover several times during my TV sportscasting career..)

I don't know about anyone else, but yours truly 'might' just say another little prayer for Brigham's Boys.


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The World's WORST Drivers Live In....


Quick - what just flashed through your mind? How did your brain finish that sentence?

L.A. ? N.Y.C. ? Paris? China? Honolulu? Rigby, Idaho? Anywhere along the Wasatch Front in Utah?

I've driven in pretty much every state West of the Rockies not-named Alaska or New Mexico. I've been a white-knuckled passenger in a lot of other states - and - a couple of foreign countries.

A few quick thoughts (...who are we kidding here - is there ever a 'quick thought' when I am doing the talking?)

* L.A. - I learned how to drive in L.A. The Alhambra School District's Driver's Ed program was so backed-up that my parents spoiled me - not the first time nor the last - and popped for private driving lessons. What follows is a true story.

The day my instructor picked me up for my very first lesson, he had me take the wheel and told me to proceed straight to the San Bernardino Freeway. I gulped. I prayed. I complied. After successfully negotiating the on-ramp and merging over a couple of lanes, he literally said '...c'mon, live a little' and reached his left foot over and stepped down on my right foot (...side note: he was a pretty young guy - early 20's)

It was terrifying and thrilling all at the same time. I don't remember how long that first lesson went, but we sped up & down both the San Berdooo and the 605. Good times. All joking aside, this guy proceeded over the next few weeks to teach me incredible defensive driving skills which kept me alive in a few of the places I'm about to mention.

Bottom line: California drivers are fast drivers, but they are also, for the most part courteous drivers. I used to get out of the parking lot at Dodger Stadium in half the time it takes me leaving a BYU game in Provo (...this is called foreshadowing)

* Honolulu - An insane maze of one-way streets filled with pedestrians. At least around Waikiki. Once out on the highway to the North Shore, life was grand. I had no problems getting in & out of the Dole Plantation roadside pineapple-stand parking lot nor that shrimp shack place right before Laie.

* Paris - once you learn how to drive the traffic circles, you are home free. Traffic circles - more on these momentarily (...still more foreshadowing)

* China - never driven there, but I was a frequent motorist in Monterey Park, California. Does THAT count?

* Next stop >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Not enough time nor space to even BEGIN my Rigby Rant. If you ever see an Idaho plate with a big 1J on it - RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!

((disclaimer: my Mom was born in Rigby, I had grandparents and great grandparents who called Jefferson County home and I learned how to break the Sabbath playing basketball with my cousins in Rigby))

Moving along.....

* N.Y.C. - my only experiences I can recall came as a passenger on buses bouncing around between LaGuardia and JFK during my wild United Air Lines stewardess days (...which will be the subject of a future blog - I promise)

* Wyoming - keep the pedal to the metal - don't stop too long in Rock Springs unless you're strapped and packing heat - and NEVER get off the freeway in a place called Laramie unless your vehicle is a fully-loaded B-52 (...LaVell's joke - I'm just recycling here)

* Denver - pothole capital of the world. Have a slush-fund for axles, rims and front-end alignments.

* Which brings us to........UTAH.

Not ALL of the Beehive State mind you. I have no beef with Cedar City nor St. George.

No, I am going to lock and load and take aim at a place called the Wasatch Front, also known as the I-15 corridor between roughly Tremonton to the North and Spanish Fork to the South. 123.69 miles (...according to MapQuest) of Hell on Earth disguising itself as the Indy 500 or Daytona, and that is, no-doubt, an insult to the State of Indiana and NASCAR.

Imagine L.A.'s freeways, but minus even the tiniest shred of courtesy, civility or manners. A full-on motoring COMBAT mentality. 'Survivor: I-15' Dog-eat-dog, and everyone is wearing milk-bone underwear.

You drive 10 m.p.h. OVER the speed limit and people STILL blow past you like an F-14 on afterburners, sometimes giving you half-a-peace sign on their way past. Signalled lane-changes? Laugh Out Loud. Where in the hell can EVERYONE be going in such a ________ hurry? Tailgating is the national sport and the Wasatch Front-er's have elevated it to an art-form. Aflack tried to come to the rescue but the duck got ran over.

You want a white-knuckle thrill ride to rival any roller-coaster in the world? Try the I-15 construction zones, which can be found year-round and like the painters of the Golden Gate Bridge are never finished.

My personal recommendation used to be Ogden, but that was so LAST year. Provo-to-Lehi is where it's at now. Posted for 55 with double fines for endangering construction workers and everyone must be a millionaire. Concrete lane barriers that squeeze you like a Bolivan Anaconda.

And once you get OFF I-15, you're not that much safer. That's because then you have to deal with the traffic circles. They are popping-up everywhere, but they require yielding and merging skills. Apparently no one here has driven in Paris. Ever.

And the punch-line here: everyone acknowledges the insanity, but no one is part of the problem. Yours truly included - at times.

I'm done. Now it's your turn - if I rigged the comment thingy correctly. Dust off your keyboard and tell me where the world's worst drivers live.

Ticket Scalping: What Goes Around Comes Around

So here's the deal: I suddenly realized that out of BYU's three remaining home basketball games, I will be in Denver at Chez-Terry for the New Mexico game and the regular season finale and Senior Night against Wyoming (...pausing here to fight-back a tear or two...goodbye Jimmer, thank you, Jackson. Best BYU guard tandem EVER - with apologies to Ainge & Runia)

No complaints here - I can't WAIT to see the Terrys. At this stage of my life, choosing an out-of-town family visit over a BYU game is a no-brainer for me. (...pausing for a second until family members recover from shocked fainting spell)

That leaves Wednesday night's rematch with Colorado State - a team close to the McQuain family hearts.

Last month, the morning after BYU crushed Utah (...see also: Pukes, U-Tards, Little Red Sisters, SNOT) in SLC, I rolled down the hill from my Y-mountain palace - code for 'ghetto apartment with stunning view' - to the Marriott Center Ticket Office and bought seats for the next four home games: TCU, San Diego State, UNLV and Utah. I didn't have the foresight (...translation: budgetary constraints) to buy CSU tickets that day.

Fast forward to this week.

The CSU game is sold-out. As of LAST week. This creates a dilemma, as I finally convinced Caitlin and Anthony they HAD to see the Jimmer Show before it closes. Their schedules were amenable for this game. I checked all my 'usual suspects' for tickets. Not happening.

This left...the scalpers.

I have been grumbling to myself for two days now until the karma fairy smacked me right between the eyes - I used to BE a scalper.

Yes...let's hearken back to those golden days when the McQuain family - the branch I am responsible for - lived in Boise. West Goldenrod Avenue. Just a stone's throw from the corner of Five Mile Road and U-Stick - Albertson's - a TicketMaster outlet.

I quickly figured-out that: #1 - scalping in Idaho was NOT illegal and #2 - I could hire/con my daughters and their friends - and later, young strangers - to stand in-line for several hours, which later became overnight, to buy tickets for me.

This is how it worked.

I would arm my 'employees' with enough cash to buy their full allotment of tickets - it was 10 per person back then if memory serves. If it was a concert we wanted to see, I would cherry-pick the very BEST seats for the family. Then came the pay-off for each of the strangers - the next two best tickets for each of them. However many tickets that left me with - often as many as 20 or 30, seriously - I sold through classified ads in the Idaho Statesman (...a newspaper near and dear to the hearts of our family - can we have all of that missed sleep back? Please?)

Business was VERY brisk - and successful - back then. I'm talking Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, the Eagles, the Doobie Brothers, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, Chicago, Three Dog Night. I always made a profit - sometimes double or even triple face-value depending on how primo the seats were and who the artist was.

Those days finally caught-up to me today. But I am not complaining - too much. Caiti, Anthony and I are ticketed and booked for one of the last performances of JimmerMania.

It's all GOOD.


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Ocean's 12 soundtrack ROCKS....

I just noticed that 3 of the 5 songs I have on my little cyber jukebox pop-up thingy to the right of where you are currently reading are from the Ocean's 12 soundtrack. Props to Ocean's 12 - Cake and Maroon 5 only got one place each.

I tried to add 'One Shining Moment' by Luther Vandross in honor of Jimmermania but the jukebox ap has never heard of this song. Must not be a March Madness fan.

Also tried to add Mindy Abair and Candy Dulfer as I am burning UP with smooth jazz fever - the music jazz, not the crappy SLC semi-pro NBA team.

I have lost my struggle against social media


I don't know if it was boredom, ego, loneliness, Jimmermania, a writing itch that still needs scratching or all of the above, but I caved-in completely over the past week or so.

I fought social media - and social media won.

  1. I am now on twitter, username: kugrlover. I told Caiti about it this afternoon while I was painting my first ceramic mug at 'Color Me Mine'. She looked slightly worried. I promised her I would try very hard to NOT embarrass any of the sisters with my tweeting. What was I thinking? I spent YEARS embarrassing them with my TV sportscasting - why should a new medium be any different?
  2. I pumped-up the volume on facebook - opened my FB page to the public and sent out dozens of new friend invites. The best way to describe my newly-energized friend list is - eclectic. I found out you can post videos as well as photos to your FB page and popped-up one of my movie-extra clips, one of my TV commercials and my best and latest work, my corporate training video (Nicole's comment was 'hilarious' - to me that's better than 2 thumbs UP from Siskel & Ebert, which would now be impossible since one of them is dead)
  3. I uploaded my first-ever video contribution to youtube. Don't worry, it was NOT any of the items mentioned just above.

I have no illusions about my name going truly viral and creating fame and fortune at midlife. If anything, this is probably a cathartic exercise in creativity and a way to stay connected with family, re-connect with old friends and make a few new ones.

People are always telling me to journal and I have always failed in those efforts in the past. Why? Because I have always thought my handwriting sucked and my hand would cramp-up. Hopefully this digital alternative will be acceptable to family as a history/legacy if the day ever comes that I am no longer able to grace them personally on holidays, birthdays, weddings, baptisms or funerals.

At any rate, internet here I come. First star to the right...and straight-on 'til morning.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Kugrlover Klassics: March Madness BEFORE JimmerMania

Kugr's Korner: "On a sports weekend dominated by college basketball's big party, it's 'marketing madness' not 'March Madness' that's grabbing this writer's attention. Yes, it's hype, not hoops that's in-my-face with every click of the TV remote."