Liftoff, we have liftoff!

This was in the Record-Courier yesterday.  I wrote the
caption and my dad took the picture.  Thanks to
Roger Di Paolo and Laura Nethken!

It's July, which only means one thing for me the last few years: another year of This is Kirtland! We opened last night for our 8th season.  I'm finding it hard to believe we are already open now as time has just flown by.  We've been out of school for a month already and by the time the show clsoes July 16, the month will be half over and then I go into two back-to-back trips that take me into August.

Because of not being able to find a teaching job yet and subbing, I find myself looking forward to school being back in session.  Never thought I'd hear myself say that!  But as much as I like having lots of free time and being able to sleep in a lot, not having very much income coming in during the summer makes it somewhat difficult to really enjoy.  Oh well...it is what it is and after last summer, I made sure I saved enough money to get me by if I wasn't able to find a summer job, which has so far been the case.  Given the roller coaster ride I'm just now beginning, I doubt I'll be able to find anything before school starts again at the end of August.

I am also in the midst of taking three graduate credit hours at Kent State to renew my teaching license, which officially expired yesterday.  One class is online and deals with the use of social networking in education.  It started June 20 and officially ends July 10.  I have been working ahead in that class so that all I have left is the final paper (5 pages) and a discussion post.  I pretty much have gotten everything done for the week at the beginning of the week.  That was especially helpful this past week because my second class was a 3-day class on campus on how to better use SMART boards.  We met Wednesday-Friday at White Hall from 8 AM-Noon.  Even though I already have familiarity with SMART boards from my MAT degree classes and a few times where I've used them subbing, I learned some additional things and enjoyed the workshop.  Even better was the fact that there weren't any written assignments that I had to worry about, so it was a pretty easy class!

Now, on to the show.  I was pretty worried these past few weeks leading up, but as usual, most things came together for us to have a good opening night.  It was by no means perfect, but I was very pleased overall with how things went.  Definitely things to improve on for tomorrow and the rest of the run, but all in all, I wasn't disappointed at all.  I'm finding that the joy of being in the show I had back in 2009 is back this year, which I'm really happy about.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed 2010's run, but in many ways it was frustrating, especially compared to 2009.  The difference for me is how I feel about going to practices.  In 2009 I looked forward to going to rehearsals, while in 2010 it wasn't something I looked forward to all that much.  Here in 2011 I found myself again looking forward to rehearsals and have found my testimony of the Gospel getting stronger.  It's fascinating to me to see how Church history affects my testimony along with anti-Mormons.  

Anyway, I'm excited about this year's run and my role as Lorenzo Snow.  After being Sidney Rigdon the past two years, I was ready for a change and have really enjoyed the process of learning a new part and having 2 solos in the show.  When the Lorenzo Snow part was added in 2009, it was a part I really wanted because I liked the solo he has so much.  It didn't work out for me that year (I was Sidney Rigdon that year and thoroughly enjoyed that part).  This year Lorenzo's role has been expanded somewhat and the main solo he has now includes a small duet with his sister Eliza R. Snow that sounds great!  My other solo is in a totally new song about building the Kirtland Temple.  It's not a Lorenzo Snow solo (especially since historically Lorenzo Snow joined the Church after the Temple was dedicated), but I really enjoy singing it in the middle of that song, which features quite a bit of choreography for the entire cast.  Hopefully tonight I will sing it a little better than I did last night.  It wasn't horrible, but could've been a lot better.  I have also enjoyed learning more and more about the history in this area and the characters in the show, especially my own character.  He grew up in nearby Mantua, Ohio, right here in Portage County, so it's neat to be able to portray him on stage.  

The other development related to the show I was very happy about was my own ankle.  3 weeks ago I sprained it pretty badly in dance rehearsal.  It was a "high ankle sprain", meaning I had some spectacular bruises on my foot (in 4 places) and on my leg just below the calf (2 bruises, one fairly large).  Since then I've done my best to stay off my foot as much as I can and while it's definitely not back at 100% (my last ankle sprain, also the "high" variety, took a little over a month to totally heal), it's well enough that I can dance both the men's dance (which is where the injury happened) and the couple's dance.  I started doing the couple's dance again about a week ago, but was only able to start practicing the men's dance on Wednesday.  I am happy to report that I relearned it enough that I pulled it off for last night's opening.  It can still be better, but considering how much I couldn't remember on Wednesday, I was pretty thrilled with how Friday went for both dances :).  I still can't really jump, but I do my best.

So, for those of you in the Northeast Ohio area, we still have shows tonight as well as July 7-9 and 14-16 at 7:30 PM.  Doors open at 7 PM at the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, at 8751 Kirtland Road (S.R. 306).  I've been told the show on the 14th is full due to tour groups and a youth conference, so hopefully many of you can come to another night.  I'm sure we could fit a few extra then if we absolutely needed to!  And don't forget, there is NO admission cost and no, we won't be passing a basket around or asking for any kind of donations either.  If you do want to come and let me know in advance, I can get you reserved seats too! 

Passing on some info

I've discovered a few things about AT&T U-Verse the past few months in terms of aspect ratio and HD programming that I wanted to pass along.  Both of my grandparents have U-Verse and both have HD service and HD flat-screen TVs.  My Derby grandparents got U-Verse way back in 2007 when it was still new because my grandpa had an HD TV that he wanted to get more out of (i.e. HD channels).  Right off the bat, despite paying for HD channels, he wasn't happy about how they looked and it seemed they never displayed totally right on the TV.  We always had to mess with the aspect ratio and adjust the picture so it fit correctly.  The control box for U-Verse also has a little blue light on it to indicate it is getting an HD signal.  Despite several phonecalls to AT&T early on, he was never able to get that little blue light to come on.

Well, last year the original HD TV (which weighed a ton or so it seemed) up and died, so he got a new flatscreen TV to replace it.  I figured that would help some of the aspect ratio problems since the old TV was a very early HD TV (from 2002).  We got it all set up, but it still seemed to have problems.  Not only did we still have to set it at "Zoom" even on HD channels, but when we did so, the edges of the picture were cut off.  In most cases that's not a big deal, but on channels like ESPN, CNN, Fox News, etc. with a ticker on the bottom, you can't read it.  Because of that, my grandpa would leave the setting at normal, so even HD channels would be displayed with a huge black box around them.  My Ridinger grandparents, who had also gotten an HD TV and AT&T U-Verse in 2008, had the same problem with the picture being cut off along the edges.  They really didn't care, but it bothered my dad and me.

Earlier this year I was looking into getting U-Verse phone service for my Derby grandparents to combine their phone, Internet, and TV since TV and Internet were already coming from U-Verse and the landline was from AT&T anyway.  While looking into whether running 2 phone lines into the same router the TV and computers were also using would affect Internet speed, I stumbled across some U-Verse forums that talked about the settings for the AT&T control box, particularly how to change the aspect ratio.  When I had the chance a little while later (maybe a few days or so), I checked the settings at my Derby grandparents house and sure enough, it was set at 4:3 standard definition.  So, not only was the signal coming in without the HD, it was being formatted for a traditional square TV, hence the need to use "Zoom" on the TV (to eliminate the black box around the picture) and why it displayed with the full black box around the picture when in "normal" mode.  The AT&T box was putting the vertical black bars on either side of the picture (formatting it into 4:3) and the TV itself was putting the horizontal bars above and below the picture too.  I switched it to 1080i (the highest available), and boom, not only did that solve the problem of picture size, it also made that little blue HD light come on.  AT&T boxes are automatically set at 4:3, but few people seem to realize that.  As a result, people are paying for HD channels, but are getting cheated a bit because it's not as sharp as it should be and it's not displaying properly, either with edges cut off using the TV's Zoom setting or with the black box around the picture.  If you have a flatscreen TV that is HD capable, then it can handle the highest setting.

When I figured that out, I thought I had figured out the problem with my Ridinger grandparents' TV as well.  Once I was finally able to have time to "mess" with it (both my Ridinger and Derby grandparents have the TV on much of the day, so it's hard to get time to do anything with it), I discovered it was slightly more complex.  Even after switching the settings to 1080i, it still wasn't displaying correctly on the TV and was cutting off the edges.  What I found out was that the AT&T box was connected to the TV by way of a standard coaxial cable, so even though it was now properly receiving HD signals (the little blue light came on), the box had no way of relaying that to the TV because of the cable.  So I went to Walmart and bought an HDMI cable and plugged it in.  While that made a noticeable difference with the picture quality, I noticed it was still cutting off the edges on channels like CNN, ESPN, Fox News, etc., channels that use the tickers on the bottom and/or side of the screen.  Through trial and error, I discovered to correct that, I had to set the AT&T box back to 4:3 standard definition, then put it on 1080i again.  And by set, I mean totally set and confirmed it.  Once I did that, problem solved.  The other day my dad was over there and he did something to the TV or AT&T and the edges were being cut off again, so I had him set it at 4:3, then change it back to 1080i and it corrected it again.  No idea why, but it did.

SO, if you're having problems with your AT&T U-Verse not displaying correctly, make sure it's set properly!  It can be found using the AT&T menu, go to "Options", down to "setup options", and then to "aspect ratio".  When you choose a screen resolution, you select it, then the TV will "test" it, and if it displays a picture, you confirm the change.  Make sure your TV itself has the aspect ratio setting at "Set by program" or "Automatic".  This varies by TV, but it usually found in the TV Menu under video settings or Setup.  Some TV remotes have an aspect ratio button on them.  Also, make sure your AT&T box is connected to your TV with the proper cables, either HDMI or HD component video cables (has blue, green, and red ends), not the typical red, white, and yellow component cables or coaxial cable (black and round).  When your AT&T box is receiving HD, a little blue LED light should come on.  It's located on the front of the box in the middle and is labeled.    

Downtown Kent updates

I actually started writing this yesterday talking about how I hadn't been able to get new pictures of the progress in downtown Kent since this past fall when I took pictures just as demolition work was starting.  Well, today ended up being a beautiful day perfect for going downtown (I walked there from home) and getting pictures.  The Earth Day festival known as "Who's Your Mama" was going on along East Main Street, so there were quite a few people downtown for that.  The weather was partly cloudy and windy, but around 72 degrees.  I had a wonderful time just getting out and walking!

The demolition ended up being in phases. The block bordered by South Water, East Erie, South DePeyster, and Haymaker was cleared first. A few weeks later, the old Record-Courier office was torn down. That was done before the winter really set in, so for the last several months we've had this big open area downtown (except for the little green shelter for the gas line) kinda waiting for something to happen. Meanwhile, PARTA had to go through some legal wrangling to get the last property for their facility, which they got in the last few weeks.  The last building they need to tear down is a former auto parts warehouse.  Before construction can begin on the new hotel, a 3-story brick house on East Erie Street behind where the Record-Courier office will also need to be torn down.

Above is a picture from September just as demolition had started.  The picture below is today from roughly the same angle.  A point of reference is the two trees with the lamp post in between them on the left of both pictures.  The construction in the background is Acorn Alley II.

This is the corner of East Erie and South Water Streets.  Previously a small diner was here and a hardware store.   Below is what the view will look like when construction is finished. (edit: I had the blocks mixed up when I first wrote this in 2011.  The Davey Tree building seen below was planned for and built on the opposite corner--corner of S. Water and Haymaker Parkway--from the block pictured above.  The building built on this site--the corner of S. Water and E. Erie--was mainly for Ametek and looks similar). It should start in the next few weeks.

Even with all the demolition of the first block, what's been interesting is the next expansion of the highly successful Acorn Alley has gotten off to a much quicker pace. Demolition of the buildings on that site was in late December and construction started soon after. Despite some delays because of our long and cold winter, the steel superstructure is already up and the retaining walls have been up probably for a month or so already. It is scheduled to be done by this Summer. PARTA's new facility, the Kent Central Gateway, is supposed to be done late next year. Because South DePeyster Street is partially closed, I really don't drive by the site much, so I'm not sure how much actual construction work has started. It doesn't seem like much from a distance. The block that had demolition first will be one of the last to finally have construction commence. The final pieces to the funding puzzle were put together last week when Davey Tree and Ametek signed formal leases to move office personnel to the development that will be bound by South Water, East Erie, South DePeyster, and Haymaker. With the announcement of Davey and Ametek, 8 restaurant tennants were announced. They're all local franchises, so for some people they will be familiar, while for others not from the Akron or Cleveland areas they will be new. For me, most are ones I've heard of or been to once or twice, but not very often because they're not close by. Acorn Alley will be bringing 4 restaurants of its own. Suddenly downtown Kent is becoming less of a bars-only area, not that our bars are that bad (especially Rays Place!!).

Current view from the corner of East Erie and South DePeyster Streets.  That old hotel in the background is looking worse every time I see it!

The same view when it's all done!

The center is where the pedestrian alley will come out to the street.  The stairs have not been poured yet nor has the steel skeleton been built for the other building on the left!  The highly-successful Acorn Alley I can be seen in the background.

Looking east at the new site from the parking lot of the warehouse that still needs to be torn down.

The last remaining house on East Erie right next to the dead end at Haymaker Parkway.  I have no idea when it will be demolished.  I took some pictures of it so there was some kind of record of its existence!

I'm hoping construction doesn't remove this fire hydrant so I have somewhat of a frame of reference when it's all done.  Everything else will change, including the part where I stood to take the picture.  The warehouse can be seen in the center (it extends much further back).  The hillside will be cleared and largely excavated.  I took several pictures of it.  Acorn Alley II construction can be seen on the left.

Corner of East Erie and South DePeyster opposite the Acorn Alley construction.  Below is the approximate view of the new hotel from the same angle.

Corner of South DePeyster and Haymaker Parkway.  Below is the approximate view of the new hotel and conference center from the same angle.  The warehouse I mentioned previously can be seen in the background along with the last remaining house and the hill where the PARTA facility will be built.

This is a site plan for everything except Acorn Alley.  The large gray building on the top right is the PARTA Kent Central Gateway, immediately south of it is the hotel and conference center, with the Davey/Ametek development immediately west of the hotel.  The view posted above of the Davey building is the top left corner (northwest corner) of that block.  

While I was downtown today, I also got a picture of some facade improvements at Dominicks bar, which is right next to Ray's Place and across the street from the historic train depot (which we know better today as the Pufferbelly restaurant).  A year ago they announced they would be updating their facade to help it fit in better with the other buildings around it.  From the looks so far, I really like it.  It's certainly an improvement from where it had been.  My goodness!

Looking south down Franklin Avenue today.  The white areas are the second floor of Dominick's.  Below is the picture from the Record-Courier article showing what it used to look like.  See what I mean?!?

All the architectural drawings and renderings come from the Kent Ohio Development Facebook page.  The renderings from Pizzuti (the company developing the hotel & conference center) are marked, but they also came from the same Facebook page.

Fulfillment!

April 5, 2011
Record-Courier
Page B3

I was finally able to do something that I've been wanting to do for years and years: sing the national anthem at a Cleveland Indians game.  As I blogged last month, I was pretty excited about it all and I've been wanting to do that since I was in probably 6th grade.  My chance finally came, and I hope it's not my last one.  I was very happy with how the singing went, which is no small task for me.  I'm definitely someone who is rather critical of my own singing, but I also know when I have done well.  As I was finishing the song, I was practically floating I was so happy, but my upbringing kept my emotions under wraps to a degree.  In looking at the pictures, I never burst out in a full smile.  Not sure why, but I didn't.  I'm not someone that gets overly emotional all that often, but I was near that point when I was about done singing.  It was just an intense feeling of happiness; accomplishing something I had always wanted to do along with realizing that I didn't blow the opportunity.  It's one thing to be cocky and arrogant; it's another to be confident and know when you totally nailed something like that.  There was an interesting echo to deal with too.  It didn't affect me staying in tune, but it did keep me from changing the tempo.  The echo was probably a good second behind me, so far different than when I have sung in a gym like the MAC Center at Kent State.  

The whole experience was a lot of fun.  I was glad to have my sister and parents at the game.  Not only did we get great (FREE) seats, but also free parking in the garage adjacent to Progressive Field.  Normally when we go to games on our own, we have seats much further away (cheaper!) and end up parking several blocks away for at least $5, sometimes more.  The only downsides to the evening were the weather and the attendance.  The weather was pretty cold (gametime temperature was right around 40), so it made for a "memorable" game.  It felt more like when I watch late-season football than baseball.  I can't remember the last time I wore my coat, gloves, and winter hat to a baseball game.  I remarked the last time I was at Progressive Field I was basically wearing the same thing for Snow Days back in December.  Oh well; weather in Northeast Ohio like this is nothing new, though it's been a colder Spring than usual, even for here.  The weather, combined with the Indians' not playing so well the past few years and many fans' unhappiness with the owner pushed attendance way low.  The attendance for my game was 9,025, the second-smallest crowd in the history of Progressive (formerly Jacobs) Field.  The night before was the smallest crowd of around 8,700.  I'd always hoped the stadium would be full or mostly full, but it was not meant to be.  Maybe next time.  When I chose April 5, I figured having the Red Sox in town would bring more fans in, but that didn't really happen.  The Red Sox didn't bring as many as usual and neither did we.

Me with Mom and Katie...Mom's first trip to
Progressive Field!

Despite the cold and sparse attendance, we all still had a great time.  It definitely made for a memorable night on many levels.  Seeing myself and my name on the scoreboard was pretty cool.  I noticed in the pictures Dad took that my name was also on the auxiliary ribbon scoreboards around the park.  Later that evening I was editing Wikipedia and another editor mentioned he had seen my name on the scoreboard in the background of the Indians' pre-game show on SportsTime Ohio (STO).  Awesome!   The game was fun too as the Tribe beat the Red Sox 3-1, which keeps a streak alive of my teams winning the game I sing at!  I know it's all coincidence, but still pretty cool.  I also enjoyed seeing parts of the ballpark I have never seen before like the area underneath the lower deck.  I've been going to Indians games at Progressive Field for 16 years and there is so much I haven't experienced yet!

Oh, and the article I have up at the top?  It's an interesting read.  The Indians sent me a press sheet to fill out, and then they sent something to the Record-Courier about it.  I had already emailed the editor that I would be singing and he said they'd have a reporter call, but nothing ever came of it.  I can tell from this article they had some of what I wrote to the Indians plus they came here to my blog and got some information and the picture (it's a crop of my picture here on the top right).  It's mostly correct, last year's performance at the Aeros game was my first time singing for a professional sporting event.  Singing at the Indians game was my first time singing for a major league (and Major League Baseball) event as the Aeros game was minor league baseball.  The two times I sang at the KSU-Akron games were 2008 and 2009.  I find it interesting that being a graduate of KSU is always mentioned, but not the fact that I am actually from Kent.

On the huge scoreboard just before singing.  After 16 years of
Indians games I finally made it onto the scoreboard!  What's
funny is later in the game we were all on the scoreboard when they
did random crowd shots!

Singing!

Gives you a good idea how empty it was (made for an interesting echo).
You can see my name on the far right on the ribbon scoreboard!!

Picture the Indians took.  They had a photographer who took
several shots while I was singing and I selected this one

Singing on the scoreboard and looking all stretched out!

Conference observations

Interior of the 21,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
I found this picture online a long time ago, so if you know its source,
please let me know!

These are just some general thoughts I had while watching General Conference this past weekend.  They're as random as they can be and it won't surprise me if I add more later.  For those of you not familiar with General Conference, it's a series of meetings held every 6 months in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where the various church leaders address the church membership as a whole.  It is structured into 5 sessions of 2 hours each (3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday) with the 3rd session on Saturday for the Priesthood (men ages 12 and up).  Conference always happens the first weekends of April and October.  Since 2000, it has originated from the 21,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City and before that (from 1867-1999) it was held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.  For those of us out here, the best part of Conference is that on Sunday, we don't start until noon (10 AM Mountain Time) instead of our normal 9 AM start (well, for our congregation at least).  Instead of normal church services, we watch the broadcast.  In Utah and areas where there are lots of members, Conference is available over regular TV and radio (except the Priesthood session, which is shown only at church buildings).  Out here, anyone who gets the BYU channel (channel 867 on AT&T Uverse!) can watch all but the Priesthood session at home, which is what I do.  Many also will watch Conference at the church building in Rootstown even though they can easily watch at home either on TV or on the Internet.  For many it's a matter of necessity, but for others who can watch at home (like my sister and grandparents), it's a matter of tradition and getting together with everyone.  I'd imagine too some feel there are too many distractions at home.  Me, I love being able to watch without having to get into Sunday clothes and being able to have some good food while I watch! :)    Anyway, on to my random observations.

• As I remarked on Facebook, President Eyring gave the wrong year of the Teton Dam Flood.  He said 1966 and it was 1976.  I want to give him a pass here, but he was President of Ricks College at the time (Ricks College is now BYU-Idaho) so was living in or near Rexburg, one of the hardest hit towns in the flood.  Oh well...maybe he just misread it or remembered wrong?

• Not to pick on President Eyring, but I've noticed A) he cries at least once (usually more) in every talk he gives and B) when he starts to get emotional, he always raises his hand about halfway and then moves it to emphasize whatever he is saying, usually an up-and-down motion maybe 2 or 3 times.  Not saying it's good or bad, it's just something I noticed consistently (he usually speaks twice over the duration of the conference).

• I reeeeeealy enjoy President Uchtdorf's talks.  He's become my favorite speaker.  Not only are they interesting, but because he grew up in Germany, he has tons of stories that I can better relate to in relation to being in an area where church members are few and far-in between.  

• Going along with that point, while I definitely enjoy many of the stories from our various speakers, many times it's hard to relate to stories that involve neighborhood-sized wards (the norm in Utah) where everyone around you is also LDS and the temple is a few blocks away. 

• I've found I'm warming up to Elder Bednar as an Apostle and speaker.  I was not excited at all when he got called as I never really cared for him while he was president of BYU-Idaho.  He seemed far more concerned with rules and tradition over logic and fairness.  When he was called as an apostle, I knew that everything he ever said at BYU-Idaho would somehow get canonized (which it did) simply because he was, as someone said once "an apostle in training" (excuse me while I HURL).  Anyway, I have enjoyed his last few talks and yes, he still has PERFECT hair!  It's amazing, not a strand out of place!

• I was disappointed that no mention was made of the 175th anniversary of the Kirtland Temple dedication (March 27, 1836).  Several mentions were made of the 75th anniversary of the Church Welfare program (which is an awesome program, by the way since it not only helps people, but teaches people to help themselves!), but the only mentions of the Kirtland Temple were not in reference to that event.  My pessimistic side thinks it's because Church Welfare is headquartered in Utah (so it's right in front of most of the speakers) and the Kirtland Temple is 2,000 miles away in Ohio (and of course not owned by the Church) so no one really thinks about it.  That's sad to me seeing that it was a highly significant milestone of development in LDS theology.  As a side note to support my pessimism, there was quite a bit of commemoration all over the Church in 1993 for the 100th anniversary of the Salt Lake Temple's dedication.  

• Easter was mentioned once (well, I only heard it mentioned once).  I wonder how much mention Christmas would get if Conference were around Christmas?  In terms of Christian doctrine, Easter is THE most significant holiday, yet too often it seems to garner very little mention (certainly not what Christmas gets) in the Church and in Christianity in general.  As much as I love Christmas, Easter is a far more important occasion to remember and celebrate in my opinion!  For goodness sakes, we're celebrating the triumph over death!

• I noticed a LOT of people say "beloved" before mentioning President Monson ("our beloved prophet, President Monson").  That was true with President Hinckley too.  While I certainly don't disagree, I'm a firm believer that saying or doing something too much causes it to lose its meaning (like giving everything a standing ovation makes it a lot less special!).  I love President Monson too, but I certainly don't know him well enough to say "beloved" like I would for a family member or close friend (though in all honesty, I really don't say beloved much at all...seems kind of archaic).  Ya know?  Oh well, I just think it's a tad overused, like one person says it and it becomes the "thing to say".  

• I'm SO glad I can watch Conference at home.  Not having to get dressed up and drive 20 minutes to the church is nice.  I'm also not too big anymore on actually going to Conference in Salt Lake City.  I have been to 3 live sessions in my life.  I'm very glad I was able to go, but in the end it was a huge hassle to get downtown and I had some less-than-wonderful experiences when I have gone, at least the last 2 I was at.  It's kind of a "been there, done that" thing now, but I do recommend doing it at least once if you ever can.  Just seeing the Conference Center is worth it! 

• I really enjoyed Sister Silvia Allred's talk about service.  Too often it seems the sisters give talks that are directed at only the women or children, but hers was all-encompassing and had a great message.  AND, because she has a heavy Spanish accent, I really had to pay close attention so I didn't miss anything.  It was also nice to hear more faith-promoting stories from outside Utah!

• I definitely felt like Elder Holland's talk was directed at me.  Every Conference seems to have talks that seem to speak directly at you.  I totally got what he was saying, but I still stand by my feelings after President Monson's Priesthood talk.  I'll explain a little more on that later in this.  

• Oh, I saw one of my old directors from BYU-Idaho on TV during the 2nd Saturday session.  He was directing the combined choir from BYU-Idaho.  Let's just say seeing him didn't exactly bring back a flood of good memories; memories related directly to him and memories of my time at BYU-Idaho period.  I think if I had seen my other 2 directors that I had there, more pleasant memories would've been more forthcoming.  The choir did sound really good though and was very colorful!

• I won't really go into my feelings about President Monson's remarks about single, marriage-aged men here.  That is an entire blog in and of itself.  He wasn't the only person to bring it up, but his comments bothered me the most.  I'll leave it at the fact that I'm not concerned about the doctrine behind his remarks, I'm more concerned about the prejudice in many parts of the Church (particularly in Utah and southern Idaho) about single guys who are in my age group.    

• One thing I did notice in my discussion on Facebook after Conference was that because I wasn't happy with certain things that were said, some of my friends interpreted that to mean I felt like false doctrine had been spread or that I misunderstood the message.  Nope.  I simply disagreed with how it was presented and I felt a stereotype was being perpetuated.  I also find it interesting that if you ask pretty much any church member if they think the Prophet is infallible, they'll say no.  At the same time, if you question something the Prophet or Apostles (heck ANYONE at Conference) said in Conference  you get arguments from a lot of members, like you're somehow less faithful.  If everything said by the Prophet is straight from God himself, wouldn't that make him infallible?  (yes, actually it would) In the end, yes, I believe he's called of God, but being called of God does not remove someone's humanity or ability to think for themselves.      

• I enjoyed hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing "The Spirit of God", the very same arrangement we sang in our choir last week for the 175th anniversary of the Kirtland Temple dedication.  While the MoTab certainly can make any choral piece sound amazing, I definitely thought our choir wasn't too far off of them in terms of quality AND singing it in the Kirtland Temple was WAAAAAY cooler than at Conference.  WAY cooler.  Just saying.  :)

Major League Callup

In the midst of my sports-related adventures last week for my birthday, I got an unexpected phone call on March 3rd.  This was the day after my exhausting (but fun) birthday, and I was home and not subbing that day (normally I don't like not subbing, but that day I needed to sleep!).  It turned out to be a good thing I wasn't working, because if I had been, I wouldn't have answered the phone call.  Normally I don't answer calls from numbers I am not familiar with, but since this was a 216 number (Cleveland area code), I figured it might be a call from someone involved with This is Kirtland! since many people in that area have 216 numbers.  At first I wasn't sure what to think and thought maybe it was some ad or something.  Well, imagine my surprise when the caller identified himself as being from the Cleveland Indians!  As soon as he said that, I pretty much knew why he was calling.

Well, to make a long story short, I'll be singing the national anthem at the Cleveland Indians vs. Boston Red Sox game in Cleveland on April 5th.  It's a night game and it's the Tribe's second series of the season, so who knows what the weather will be like.  When I got off the phone I was SOOOOO excited.  I have been sending recordings to the Indians for YEARS and was always too late and have always wanted to sing the anthem at a Major League event.  Geez, I've been wanting to do that since I was in middle school!  This year I got recordings sent off in early February (instead of early March last year) and at least for the Indians, it paid off.  I also sent recordings to Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York (Mets), and Chicago (Cubs).  If I had to choose one, of course I'd choose the Indians since they're my favorite team and are the closest, but I'm a baseball fan (particularly baseball architecture!) and love singing, so I'd be happy and thrilled to sing at any of the places I mentioned too.

Picture I took from a game last year that shows where I'll
be singing from!

I also sent a recording to the Akron Aeros, and just like last year I was contacted the next day (no surprise since our mail has to go to Akron anyway).  I was soooo excited to sing for them last year, as it was my first time singing for a professional sporting event and I am excited to sing again this year on April 22nd, which is also Good Friday AND Earth Day.  That is a day game (3:00 PM) if you'd like to go!  My blog post from that game talked a little about sending recordings out to the Major League teams that I did last year.  I ended up sending recordings to the Cavs and Browns last year, but never heard back. This year, in addition to the Indians and Aeros, I haven't formally heard from any of the teams.  Baltimore sent me the standard reply (Baltimore was first to reply and that's because everything is done electronically, even the recordings) and I got an e-mail from the New York Mets inviting me to their "Mets Idol" competition at Citi Field.  As much as I'd love to, I sent the recording because I can't get to New York right now or even more than once this year.  Give me a specific day to sing and I'll be there :).  Hoping to hear from the other teams I sent recordings to as well.

Initially, I decided to take the April 26th game against the Royals (I was given 3 choices: April 5th, 7th, or 26th), but I talked to my dad right after that and he had something going on that he was going to get out of, but in looking at the schedule and seeing the Red Sox on the 5th, I figured it would not only probably work better for him (and possibly others) to take the 5th, but there would likely be a bigger crowd at Progressive Field for the game against the Red Sox than the Royals.  The 7th is a day game, so I will need to work and friends and family wouldn't be able to come either for the same reason.  Anyway, for me, the bigger the crowd, the better!  Whenever Kent State asks me which game I want to sing at, I always take the Akron game if it's available because I know it will have the biggest crowd.  Thankfully, the Indians were able to accommodate my request since I pretty much did so within 30 minutes of the initial call.

I'm definitely looking forward to this.  Hopefully the weather cooperates and we have a large crowd for the game and friends and family can come.  I also hope this can serve as a catalyst for more singing opportunities!     

Go Kent! 2011 Edition

This week was my 29th birthday, so I decided to celebrate I'd take a little road trip over to Bowling Green to see Kent State play the Bowling Green Falcons at Anderson Arena.  Next season the team will move to a new arena (the Stroh Center) and since I have a little connection to Anderson Arena's namesake, Harold Anderson, I figured I might as well make the trip to see a game there one more time.  On top of that, seeing my good friend Michelle made it a fairly easy decision even though I normally wouldn't make a trip like that on a school night knowing I had to sub the next day.  Oh well, I was totally tired the next day but it was so worth it!

Right near the end of the game at Anderson Arena

For starters, my connection to Harold Anderson is my Great-Grandpa Wetzel.  He and Harold Anderson played basketball together at a YMCA in Akron when they were growing up.  Anderson ended up coaching at the University of Toledo from 1934-1942 and then at BGSU from 1942-1963.  He was probably the most successful coach at BG, so it's of no surprise they named the arena after him that opened in 1960.  I went to a game at Anderson Arena 3 years ago with my sister Katie and ended up seeing Kent State lose in an upset.  This year, however, I was able to see KSU pull of a 63-57 win that ended up clinching a share of the overall MAC title for the 2nd year in a row.  I had a great time hanging out with Michelle too!

Inside the MAC Center just before the end of the game

I got to see Kent State play again yesterday as they hosted the arch-rival Akron Zips at the MAC Center in the season finale that was broadcast nationally on ESPN2.  It was the first Kent-Akron men's basketball game I'd been to at the MAC Center since 2008 (though I attended the KSU vs. Akron MAC Championship game in March 2008 in Cleveland and then sang the national anthem at the 2009 game in Kent).  My only disappointment was that the planned "gold out" didn't really happen.  Either a lot of people didn't get the memo or they just ignored it.  Either way, while there was a lof of yellow in the stands, it wasn't as complete as Akron's "white out" last year at the JAR Arena.  I, however, was in my gold gear and so was Katie.  The game sold out, so I was a little worried Katie wouldn't be able to get a ticket, but she did and we had a blast together watching Kent State beat the Zips 79-68 after trailing at halftime 31-27.  Like I said, beating a rival is always enjoyable, but even more so when something is on the line.  Last year was a winner-take-all game where the winner was the overall conference champion and top seed in the tournament.  This year it wasn't the case as much as Akron's loss on Tuesday eliminated them from the conference title or #1 seed.  For Kent, though, the win clinched the outright regular season title for the second straight year (first time that has happened in the MAC since 1990).  Interestingly enough, KSU coach Geno Ford is the first MAC head coach to win two consecutive outright conference titles since none other than Harold Anderson back in 1962 and 1963.

Right at the end of the game...you can see the final score
in the background on the left :)

Katie and I had a great time, even though we didn't exactly have the greatest seats sitting up in the balcony section in one of the corners.  It's not like seats in that building are THAT far away, but since I'm used to sitting wherever I want, it seemed much further away than I'm used to!  It was nice to see the MAC Center totally full and very loud.  I wish it could be like that every game.  When I was growing up, the team wasn't that good, so I didn't see a crowd in the balcony sections until I was in high school.  Most crowds were around 2,000 or less!  I was also happy to see not nearly as many Akron fans there as I have seen in some years past.  There have been times it was almost a 60-40 split.  Not sure exactly how many, but probably in the neighborhood of an 80-20 split this time.  Most of the Akron fans were in the lower deck section for visitors or in the balcony sections right behind that.  On our side of the arena there were a few very scattered Akron fans that were quite vocal during the first half, but were much more quiet the second half.  Gee, I wonder why?  Katie had to take her old KSU shirt apart because the sleeves were too short (I got that shirt for her like 8 years ago).  We turned her extra sleeves into what I termed "rally sleeves" that we waved around like rally towels.  Those sitting in the lower sections were given white rally towels, so we joined in with them. :)

Celebrate!

Now on to the MAC Tournament.  After losing in the quarterfinals last year, I'm definitely nervous for this year.  We will most likely have to play Buffalo, a team we really don't match up with all that well.  Buffalo killed the Flashes earlier in the season at Buffalo and then only a big comeback helped KSU beat the Bulls in Kent just about 2 weeks ago.  As is my normal tradition, if KSU gets to the championship game, I'll make the short trip to Cleveland to see.  I won't go to any other round since I don't have that much time and money!