It's about to get mad all up in here

That's right, March Madness season is upon us.  Normally I don't care two hoots about college basketball. (I've never even been to a BYU basketball game). But this year the extended Carr family is really getting into it by having our own bracket tournament complete with smack-talk and making fun of each other's respecitve alma maters. There are only two or three things that govern my picks. 1. BYU won't usually make it past the first round. This year I'm being generous and having them go to the second. 2. Gonzaga-from Washington-usually does pretty well. So I have them win. 3. Duke is really good and they kick trash a lot. Other than that it's mostly random, and I like to have some underdogs win. Somehow though I ended up with all the number 1 seeds making it to the final four. I hope at least one team upsets this. I picked Kansas to win over all. I still don't care about basketball, but now I feel included.

Speaking of family, I've been doing some research on my grandpa on my mom's side. He attended BYU from 1931 to 1935. There's not a ton that we know about his college years so I set out to find more. I knew that he worked on the school newspaper, the Y News, and that he was Associate Editor for one year. I looked through copies of the school yearbook from those years and found a few pictures that my grandpa was in. It was fun to hunt him down, I went to the Special Collections section of the library, I even had to use white gloves to handle some of the photographs I was looking at. I felt like National Treasure. It was also fun to see pictures of him as a young man, looking different from how I knew him as a 74-94 year old grandpa. The same age as I am now, going to college at the same university, all that stuff. Anyway here are the ones I found. They are scans of copies of the original pages, so the quality will probably be poor. If it's hard to see, click on the image to see a larger version.

My grandpa(Francis Foster) is the short guy on the right. This is the International Relations Club of 1933-34.

The news writing class of 1932-33. Again, the short guy on the left.

The Y Journalists. Grandpa is in the front on the right.

Makes me think about what BYU was like back in the day when there were only 1,500 students instead of 30,000+. And grateful that these people helped make BYU what it is today.

Thank You

I am so sick of staring at my computer screen looking for jobs. So now I'm going to stare at my computer screen and write in my blog. I've had an interesting week or so. Nothing too consequential but there are some things/people I would like to thank.

Thank you Sister Julie B. Beck. She came to my stake Relief Society conference last Thursday. She is such a great lady-she just let us ask her questions and would answer them. No talk or prepared words. It was awesome and inspirational.

Thank you Audrey-for letting us play volleyball at your church and sardines in your pitch black house. It is very freaky walking around with 12 other people in the dark in a strange house-but fun!

Thank you BYU Rugby-for beating Utah in the Wasatch Cup. It was my first rugby game and I have no idea how the rules go, but it is very manly. And exciting.

Thank you Avril-for writing angry girl music. Sometimes I just have to punch dance out my feelings and nothing helps more than doing Kevin Bacon moves to "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend."

Thank you dryer repair man-for fixing our squeaky dryer. It works amazingly now and is not freakishly loud.

Thank you roommates-for the chats. They are delightful as always.

Thank you HBLL employees-I have no idea how to do family history, but I did find out some stuff about my grandpa!

Thank you Disney-for offering the give a day get a day program. I am going to Disneyland in a week and a half. I am so pumped. 70 degrees here I come!

Thank you russian music website-9 cent songs are so appealing. GLEE, Norah Jones, The Ting Tings, 500 Days of Summer, and Hall & Oates are among recent purchases.

Thank you sun-for shining today. I hope spring is not too far away!

And thank you Jenna, Jared, Eric, Leland, Jillian, Jules and McDonalds-for letting me watch the Olympics on your tvs. Mine is super ghetto and I would have been sad had I not been able to watch at all. Go USA!

Olympics-days 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16, or El Fin

Dear Olympics I will miss you. You too Bob Costas. And Apolo Ohno. Good thing I have a back-up. DVD of highlights from the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. Here are the best from the last week or so.

Day 12
USA wins silver in women's two man bobsled. Go Erin Pac and Elane Meyers! They came in second behind a Canadian pair. I am sad that Shauna Robock, an Orem native and BYU alum did not medal.

Women's downhill was plagued by a lot of crashes. They kept replaying the crashes, they are way too graphic to watch the whole time.

Day 13
USA goes 1-2 in the Nordic combined. What the Nordic combined includes is a ski jump and a cross country race. Manly isn't it? I think they should add target shooting with guns into that. Even more manly. Anyway, Bill Demong got the gold and Johnny Spillane got the silver. Spillane got the gold in some cross country race earlier.

Aerials-Jeret "Speedy" Peterson won silver after busting out his patented "Hurricane" trick. The other American, Ryan St. Onge got fourth. It is what diving is for the summer olympics. Fancy twists and flips but with skis, and a scarier landing. Go team USA.

Women's figure skating finals. It was amazing. The Americans did well but they are only 17 and lack the experience some of the other skaters have. Rachel Flatt and Mirai Nagasu gave really beautiful performances, they should be really proud of them.

Joannie Roachette gave another moving performance. She was beautiful on the ice and skated a very clean performance. I loved her routine and thought she very much deserved the silver medal she was rewarded with.

The gold medalist of the night was Kim Yu-Na. Her music was twinkly and costume dazzling. She did amazing clean jumps and skated very powerfuly. She looked so relieved when she finished because she had so much pressure from her country of South Korea. Yu-na is so popular there and they love her so much. At 19 years old, she has had to endure a lot. She ended up getting the highest score anyone has ever received under the current scoring system. I think she really deserved the gold medal. They are talking about how her performances will go down as some of the best in history. Mao Osada won the silver.

Day 14
Maria Reisch won gold in women's slalom. She won in 2006 I believe so it is her second gold in this event. She is really good.

USA beats Finland in men's hockey to head to the final. A showdown against Canada.

Apolo Ohno gives us the last performances of his career. In his last individual race he should have gotten silver. He was fourth at the last turn but a crash made him second across the finish line. But judges determined that he pushed someone and was the cause of the crash. He was disqualified. I don't think he should have been DQed but that is the sport. Then came the relay. During the 49 lap race there was lots of excitement. USA was usually 4th out of five. Apolo did the last two laps in the race and did a lot to catch the team up. They ended up getting silver. JR Celski also raced for team USA. Ohno now has eight winter medals, more than anyone else. Congrats Apolo. We will miss watching you race. Short track has a lot of fans because of you. It was always exciting. And your cute little Asian dad cheering you on. Thanks for the memories. Good luck in retirement.

Day 15
USA driver Steve Holcomb and his team take gold in the four-man bobsled run. They had the fastest time racing their "night-train" christened sled. Also I think the correct term is bobsleigh. But sled is easier to say/write. IDK.

Day 16
Canada and USA face off for gold in men's hockey 30 years to the day of the "Miracle on Ice." It was a close game. USA had already beaten Canada in regular play. But they couldn't do it again. They tied 2-2 at the end of regulation but Canada won 3-2 in OT. Good job Canada.

Medals Count: USA wins the most medals with 37 beating the record set in 2002 of 34. They took home 9 gold, 15 silver, and 13 bronze. GO TEAM USA!!! Canada broke the "no-gold-on-home-soil" curse and got 14 gold medals. Way to show up. All in all great Olympics.

Well, that's the end of my Olympic commentating. I'll have to find something else to do. I look forward to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. But before that I am counting down until the 2012 Summer Olympics in London!

Olympics-days 10 and 11

Day 10 is pretty boring. The ice dancing finally ended. Canada won. USA got silver. Russia bronze. The qualifiers for men's freestyle skiing were held. Two Americans made it. Jerett "Speedy" Peterson and Ryan St. Onge. I hope they do well.

Also, the Dutchman who won gold in the 10,000 meter speedskating was disqualified for an illegal lane change. The sad thing is that his coach told him to change when it really wasn't time for him to do so. It totally stinks but that happens sometimes.

Day 11 was the free skate for the women's figure skating. There wasn't a really outstanding American woman. The Korean, Kim Yu-Na, skated very well. She scored the highest anyone has ever done with the current scoring system. She is a very strong skater and heavily favored to win. Her jumps have so much speed and power in them, it is refreshing to watch. The story of the night though was Joannie Rochette from Canada. Her mom died unexpectedly on Sunday and she decided to skate two days later. During her warm-up she was visibly upset. She held it together throughout her performance and skated very well. As soon as she finished she started crying again. The home crowd cheered so loudly for her. I got emotional for her as well. She is third after the short program. I hope she decides to skate for the long program.

Women's ski cross also occured. It is just as crazy as snowboard cross. Tons of people wiped out. A Canadian (Ashleigh McIvor) won gold. They are cleaning up at these olympics.

Also, Bode Miller and Ted Ligety failed to medal in the men's Super Combined. Tough. More olympics on tonight!

Olympics-days 7, 8 & 9

Hello there, I haven't been able to watch the Olympics in a few days so I've had to catch up online.

Day 7
Bode Miller wins another medal, silver, in the Super G. Andrew Weibrecht of the USA, got bronze.

Amy Williams of Great Britian won the first individual gold medal for the country in Skeleton.

Day 8
Shani Davis got a silver medal in the 1,500 meter race in long track speed skating, he holds the world record but this kid from the Netherlands ended up having a faster time. 

Simon Aman from Switzerland won ski jumping again. His second gold of this olympics and fourth of his career. He was like five feet ahead of everyone else. When he competed in 2002 he was 20 years old and looked like Harry Potter. He still does.

Lindsey Vonn won bronze in the Super G. She stil has two more races in the Alpine events.

Three Americans qualified for the women's freestyle, they haven't qualified for the finals since 1998.

Lacey Schoor

I did see the Canadian bobsled flip over, the guys fall out and they slid along the track. It was horrifying to watch. They interviewed the team afterward, they were ok, but seemed a little shaken up.

One race I did see was Apolo Ohno's 1,000 meter short track final. Jillian and I happened to be at McDonald's getting milkshakes and saw they were on the tv there. We ended up staying for an hour. It was funny because we were screaming and yelling in the middle of the restaurant. People looked at us weird. The race was really good, Apolo was in the middle of the pack and about ready to make his move but then he bobbled on his skate and lost all his speed. He ended up catching up to win bronze which is quite amazing. The only thing was that the Koreans once again dominated and took first and second. The medal helped him become the most winningest winter olympian. Passing Bonnie Blair with seven medals total. Cool.

Day 9
Ted Ligety the 2006 gold medalist in the super combined moved from 15th to 5th which is quite a jump.

Bode Miller finally won his gold medal!!! He was 7th after the downhill competition but came back with a wicked awesome slalom run. He's pretty much redeemed himself from the 2006 Olympics where he didn't win anything. I'm so excited for him.

Bode and his gold medal slalom run

Also, they have a new thing called ski cross. It's like snowboard cross but skiing. Four skiiers race each other down the hill with jumps. I'm sad I missed this. I hope I see it later.

And I'm glad ice dancing is done after today. It is the worst thing in the world and I haven't been able to watch Olympics because of it. I'm excited to go back to it.

Olympics-day 6

So this was awhile ago so I'll write what I remember. The first thing I watched this night was the women's combined. They do the downhill and the slalom and add the two times together. All the hype about Lindsey Vonn was continuing (some say the media are faking the injury to add more hype). She did really well in the downhill but wiped out in the slalom and lost her ski, and did not get a good time. Maria Reichs won gold, but the American Julia Mancuso won silver yet again. Good for her.

Julia Mancuso

Next up was the women's half pipe in snowboarding. We had four Americans in the event and a really good chance to sweep all the medals. To me, it wasn't as impressive after the men's event because they can't quite pull off the tricks or get the air the men can. I also felt bad because it seemed like everyone was falling. It was heartbreaking. In the end, an Australian woman claimed gold, Torah something. Hannah Teter (who won gold at 16 in 2006) got silver and Kelly Clark got the bronze. Good job USA.

Hannah Teter

The main event of the night was the men's free skate for figure skating. Going into the night there were three men within a point of each other, it was going to be an interesting night. Jeremy Abbott did well besides a fall in the beginning, but it seemed like he couldn't shake it off. He's young so he'll do well in the future. There was also a kid from Khazakstan who did really well, and I was proud because he learned to skate at rinks at malls. Another kid, from Japan I think, his shoelace broke in the middle of the performance and he had to stop. He had to tie it together the best he could and continue on. The Canadian, Patrick Chan, fell early in his performance and couldn't get it back. But he has excellent form and great strength. He skated to a medley from Phantom of the Opera. I really enjoyed his performance even though he fell. I think he will also do well in the future. Johnny Weir gave a dramatic and excellent performance but not well enough to get a medal.

The other Japanese guy-Takahashi-fell, but gave an excellent performance besides that. I really enjoyed watching him and felt that he deserved his bronze medal. I think he was pleased with the outcome.

Evan Lysacek skated earlier on. He was yet again in a bold black costume. His choreography was great and artistry near perfect. Evan can't get his tucks quite as close because he is a tall guy but he didn't mess up on anything. He was so happy with his performance that he started pumping the air before the music even stopped.

Evan Lysacek

Yevgeni (this is the correct spelling I think) Plushenko was the last to skate of the night. He did a quadruple jump in his performance. It was amazing. He also did this hip body roll thing that was kind of creepy and we were all grossed out buy it. The rest of his performance was really good but there were a few bobbles here and there. At the end of the night I wasn't sure who was going to win. But the scores came out and Evan Lysacek held his first place standing. He was so happy to do so well in his sport. The first gold in men's figure skating since 1988? I guess Plushenko was really pissed about his second place finish. The Russians are looking into the scoring to see if anyone cheated. Plushenko also said that the gold medalist in the Olympics should be able to do a quadruple jump, if they can't they don't deserve to be there. Lysacek countered back with something like, if the skating were solely about jumping they would only get 30 seconds to do the best jumps they could. (Someone is bitter). I think that the situation is purely the result you get when the sport you compete in is judged. It's purely objective and people can have different opinions. It's really hard to compare people in this sport. However, I do think it's interesting how a few years ago, all the men were trying to do quadruple jumps, now only a few can even do them let alone try.

Anyway, good job Evan Lysacek! Way to beat the Russian.

Olympics-day 5

The Olympics never cease to amaze me. It can be so dramatic. Yesterday was so amazing, let's recap.
First, the USA team qualified for the final in the men's speed skating short track relay. It's interesting because people are switching in and out of the race so quickly. USA was racing South Korea and two other countries. There was a crash in the middle of the race so the other two countries fell behind. The thing I thought was funny was that the Korean tried to put some speed on in the end of the race. Apolo was content to let them win, save his energy, and finish in second. The finals are on February 26th.

Shani Davis took his second straight gold in men's 1,000 meter speedskating. He is like lightning on ice. It was also cool that he was able to put the South Korean in his place. Another American, Chad Hedrick got bronze. Shani was the first African American to win gold in the winter olympics in 2006. Now he's repeated his gold. Shani is so nice and chill, and was very gracious about winning gold.

One of the biggest stories of the Olympics was Lindsey Vonn. A downhill skiier, she didn't do so well at the Olympics in 2006 so she was back for redemption. But then she got some kind of shin-muscle injury that threated her being able to compete. The weather was bad so she got a few days to rest and recover. An interesting thing about Vonn is that she uses men's skis, they do better on the rough terrain. She's been able to win almost all the World Cup races. Julia Mancuso, another American skiier went earlier and got first with a really fast time but there were a lot of other fast skiiers left to go. Many of them had trouble with the course and crashed a lot. Lindsey started her race and was a little behind Julia's time. But with great skiing she was able to get faster and claim the gold. Lindsay was so excited to win gold, she was yelling and crying because she was so excited. I was really happy for her.

Lindsey Vonn

Lindsey Vonn

Julia Mancuso

Next up was Shaun White and the men's half pipe. I wanted USA to sweep the whole event, it didn't happen but we still did well. After the first round Shaun White was leading, and when he did his second run he already had gold. It was more like a victory lap. Shaun is such a good athlete and he pushes the limits of his sport. He gets more air than anyone else. On his last run Shaun busted out a double McTwist, a trick that no one else can do. He improved his score by like 3 points blowing away all the other competition. I learned that Shaun has a private half pipe that Red Bull built for him and flys him out to in a helicopter to practice tricks. There is a foam pit on the side that he can use to fall when he tries out new tricks. How cool is that? I will try to link a video of his win soon, because it is that awesome. Shaun White got a repeat gold in the half pipe. It made me proud to be an American. Another American, Scotty Lago, claimed bronze. He put up a superb run. I love the snowboard half pipe.

Get ready for day 6 because it was GREAT.