The Tragedy of the Utah Jazz

This blog is meant to tell the reader why my beloved Utah Jazz will never win an NBA championship- at least not in the next 10 years. There are many factors which figure into this complicated equation, including location, politics, and bad moves by the team.
The first problem with the Utah Jazz is that they are the Utah jazz. Utah? Where is that place anyway? This is what most east-coasters think of when they hear Utah. Now don't get me wrong. I love Utah. It is a great place, but let's face it. Ninety-nine percent of NBA superstars want to live and play in a big-time location like New York or L.A.. As Salt Lake City grows, I expect this to be less and less of a problem, which may enable the Jazz to attract more big names to the team.
Then their is the more theoretical problem with the team. While I have no "actual" evidence that this theorem is true, I believe there are many fans out there who agree with me. Here it is: The NBA is scripted. Now perhaps not every single play is written into it, but I believe that NBA referees are instructed to give the more "popular" team the advantage. Also, and to a greater extent, the star players get all the calls in the NBA. Case and point: the recent loss by the Jazz to the Los Angeles Lakers. As the game clock expired, Kobe Bryant missed a long jumper. As he was coming down off of his shot, he threw his arm into the defender, thus creating the illusion that he was fouled. The Lakers went on to win the game. However, despite this "scripting" of games, all teams still have a chance, if they play hard enough and get some lucky breaks. I believe John Stockton's last-second 3-pointer against the Houston Rockets in 1997 to send the Jazz to the finals was not supposed to happen; I also believe that Michael Jordan's no-call push-off against Bryon Russell in the finals was supposed to happen.
Lastly, there is probably the most frustrating problem with the Jazz of all. Foolish moves by the management have set back the team time and time again. Let's relive some of these moments, shall we? The Jazz have had only one first-round draft pick in the last 10 years really turn out, that being Andrei Kirilenko. The many foolish choices of players such as Raul Lopez, Curtis Borchardt, Quincy Lewis, and Kirk Snyder have prevented the Jazz from improving as much as they should. And then of course, there is the big one. The signing of CARLOS BOOZER the LOSER. I have a deep dislike for the man, as I believe many Jazz fans do. Not because he is not a good player, he most definitely is. But his injuries are becoming ridiculous. He has not played a game since February, and at that time there were questions about his effort. To top it all off, Boozer does things like purchase a $9 million dollar mansion in L.A. when he plays in Utah! What a mess!
Despite all of their shortcoming, I still will not give up on them. The people who live in Utah and don't like the Jazz need to be sorted out and kicked out. They are our only REAL professional sports team, and we simply have to support them or it is possible they could leave. Yes, the Jazz have many shortcomings, but I will never give up on them.

Jr. Jazz - A True Man's Game

With all the hatred and violence going on in the world today, people need something they can look to in times of great trials. For me, and many others in this community, this beacon of hope is Jr. Jazz basketball. Jr. Jazz, while it may be a less prestigious league than, shall we say, the NBA, it's competition is just as intense. While most enjoy this competition, and partake of it any chance they get, there are always those that feel they are too, well, "cool" for the game.
From the moment I first picked up a basketball, I eagerly anticipated the day I would play in Jr. Jazz basketball. I attended my brother's games, which fueled my drive to compete even more. My proud day finally came in January of 1998. I was in the 3rd grade, my first year of eligibility, and I was psyched to get started. Why do I love this game so much? Well, some of us are just born with a natural drive to compete, and to dominate. It is lucky that I was blessed with the skills to do these things. Just as Jake Glenn about that one.
Well, here I am in 2005, with the fear that I may not be able to play Jr. Jazz this year. Yes, it's true that if I walked away from the game right now, I would leave Jr. Jazz basketball as the all-time career leader in points, assists, and assists-to-turnover ratio, but quitting is just not my style. While some (Hank Hillstead) can live with themselves after quitting something they have worked their whole life for, I simply cannot. This is why I need you, reader. Give me a call. My number is 224-7215. And Mr. Rich, if you would be so kind as to post this on the wall of blog fame, it would be most appreciated. I need your help!
But why do I need your help? This is a question I have often asked myself in my most solitary moments of meditation. I believe the answer is simply put, that I lack the resources to organize, manage, coach, and star on a winning basketball team. While I could put together a sorry excuse for a team with a half-baked effort, I choose not to. I've always been a team player, and I believe the reader should be as well, and pass on my desperate message. Again, that number is 224-7215, and my name is Cuyler Frisby. Hi-C for short.

See you on the hardwood!

Lord of the Flies

Last term, I read William Golding's Lord of the Flies for my outside reading. I enjoyed the book thoroughly. It is a very symbolic piece, and it can be applied to anybody's life.

The book begins with a large group of young English boys being stranded on an island. They form a tribe, elect a chief, and organize a society. In the beginning, this system works very well. This can be related to the real world. Mankind usually think that everything is ok in the world in times of piece. They are oblivious to the looming terrors that may be lurking around the bend.

After a time, there begins to be a division among the boys. One faction wants to do nothing but hunt, while another group believes that keeping a signal fire going is most important. Over time, the hunters split from the original tribe, taking most of the boys with them. Only 4 older boys are left in the original group.

This represents the silliness of war. One of the main themes of the Lord of the Flies is that men's squabbles are trivial. When the boys are rescued by soldiers from Britain, who are fighting in World War II, the soldiers laugh at the boys and say, "are you having a war?" What these men do not realize, is that the boys are behaving in the exact same manner as the various nations who are at war. However, no one is going to save these "men" off of their "island". How will all the chaos in the world stop then? This is the question which William Golding poses in the conclusion of his masterful work.

Weezer

Why is the band Weezer so great? Well, if one listens to their music, it is quite obvious. People simply fall in love with their tunes. They are extremely catchy. But there is more to this simple rock group than meets the eye.
Weezer is one of the first bands that I ever liked. I first heard their music when I was in about 2nd grade. Their melodic melodies know no equal. Every single one of their songs is catchy and makes the listnener want to sing along. However, it is not just the music that makes Weezer so great.
Weezer is not like the typical band. They are, in a word, geeky. They don't sport the long hair, or have a known affiliation with drugs. They wear somewhat nerdy clothing, sing about funny topics for the most part, and their music videos are groundbreaking. They always have fresh, new, funny ideas. These ideas are the brainchild of the lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Rivers Cuomo.
Cuomo is definately not the typical 'rocker'. He spends hours a day meditating, which he claims helps his songwriting and singing skills. He also used to be a jerk to the other members of the band, but has since changed his ways - another possible effect of the meditation. This newfound kindness has given me and thousands of other Weezer fans hope for the bands future. A good band doesn't become a great band unless it endures. All signs point to endurance for Weezer.

=W=

Chris Farley

In my opinion, Chris Farley is the funniest man who has ever lived. He had an undeniable talent for making people laugh. But why is he so funny? Why do I enjoy his comedy so much? These are the questions which I will attempt to answer in this blog.
The first encounter I ever had with Chris Farley was the movie Tommy Boy. I first saw it probably 7 or 8 years ago, but ever since it has been one of my favorite movies. It is one of the best comedy films ever produced, without a doubt. The tandem of Chris Farley and David Spade is undeniably hillarious. They compliment each other so well. Chris Farley's strength is his physical comdey, while Spade's is his wisecracking verbal jokes. These two skills bring out the best in each other.
For years, I did not see any other films with Chris Farley in them. But when I saw Saturday Night Live's The Best of Chris Farley, I instantly knew he was my favorite actor. I have now seen every movie with him in it, my favorites being Tommy Boy and Almost Heroes.
Everyone knows Chris Farley's strength is his physical comedy. In all of his SNL skits, and each of his movies, there are many moments where Farley takes over the show with his physical antics. He is so skilled at this, a seemingly stupid joke can be made hillarious by his delivery. His physical stature compliments his style very well. Perhaps it is because his stature is not "the norm". Maybe he isn't "hygenic". Perhaps he isn't "Camera-friendly". However, few can resist to laugh when they see Farley. We feel sorry for some of his characters, and yet can't help to laugh.
Farley died in 1998. It was a very sad day. Chris loved to make people laugh. So go and watch some of his stuff. It's gold.

Ipods

Why does everyone love ipods so much? I, having recently purchased one of the new video ipods myself, wondered what it is that makes them so cool. While this may seem obvious to anyone who holds one in their hand, upon deeper exploration, it is a more advanced subject.
When you hold an ipod in your hand, you instantly know that this is a cool gadget. It may be its sleek white design, or its colorful menus, but many people instantly fall in love with this toy. What is it about listening to music that is so exciting? We hear music every day. It is impossible to avoid. Yet people spend hundreds of dollars on ipods and other mp3 players. What is wrong with listening to a portable cd player instead?
The answer is this: People are lazy. People love anything that will make it easier for them to accomplish a task. With the use of an ipod, you are not required to fumble around with disks. All your music is just right there, a click of your thumb away.
Why does adding video playback make the ipod so much cooler? Why is it so amazing to see a movie on a 3 inch screen? It's been done before. I think the answer is that people love small things. Look at all technology. Everything is getting smaller. People have a natural attraction for small things.
Because people love small and lazy things so much, a gadget that has both of these characteristics will sell like crazy. Thus it is with Apple's iPods. What are you waiting for? Go pick one up at your local retailer today.

I was reading Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift the other day, and some thoughts crossed my mind.
Gulliver’s travel to Lilliput describes the small men of the world. This is way the lilliputians are six inches tall. The lilliputians have a serious dispute with the empire of Blefuscu over the matter of cracking eggs. In the novel, the king passes a decree that eggs should only be broken on the small end. He does this because his grandfather made a mistake, so the king had to make it look right. This represents the rulers of the world who are more concerned with themselves than the welfare of the world.
Another interesting characteristic of the lilliputians is that they have small minds to go with their small bodies. They only believe the kingdoms of Lilliput and Blefuscu to exist. They are not interested in what else there may be around them.
With Swift’s description of Lilliput, you would think he was a very pessimistic person. It sounds as though he thinks people are doomed to self-destruction. He shows that this is not what he believes with his description of the Brobdingnags.
When Gulliver ventures to Brobdingnag, his role is quite reversed. He is the small-bodies, small-minded person, while the king of Brobdingnag is gargantuan. This represents the king’s wisdom.
Gulliver describes to the king how wonderful it would be for their kingdom to have gunpowder. He tells him how they could just blow their enemies up, and not have to worry about them.
The King of Brobdingnag thinks that Gulliver is quite a fool for these remarks. The king sees no reason why he would want to blow his enemies up, and that gunpowder sounds like a solution for small men.
This analogy represents that the world has great rulers also. Many rulers would never revert to violence as a solution to their problems. The Brobdingnags are the hope for the human race. With these virtuous people, the world cannot fail.

A “tribal affiliation” is very important in every person’s life. A “tribe” can help a person feel like they belong and are a part of something. Without these tribal affiliations, a person could feel like they have nobody with whom they could be accepted.

There are many different tribes in my life. Some of these include my family, church, sports teams, and peers in school. Each of these tribes helps me in some aspect of my life. If one or more of these tribes broke down, it could be difficult and life-affecting.

My family is the tribe with which I am most affiliated. I fit in the most with my family because they have the most in common with me of any tribe I belong to. Some people’s families break down through such ordeals as divorce. If something like that happened to my family, it would be very difficult to cope.

One of my tribes has already broken down. My Jr. Jazz basketball team was defeated in the tournament, so the team is no more. I am somewhat upset about the breakdown, but I can cope because I know there will be another team next year.

I do not think I am very affiliated with the “Bruin Tribe”. I do not participate very much in extra-curricular activities, and therefore am not a prominent member of this tribe. I am a member, however, of smaller tribes within the Bruin tribe, which consist of my friends.

A tribe is very important to a person’s well-being, and the breakdown of one can be a very dramatic change to one’s life.

Reading

I have enjoyed reading ever since I could do it. It has long been a favorite pastime of mine. I used to gather a large pile of picture books every night to read before I went to asleep. You could say that I enjoy reading thoroughly.

Some of my favorite books to read when I was young included The Big Bad Pig and the Three Little Wolves, The Big, Hungry Bear, and the Shiloh trilogy. I probably enjoyed reading so much because I had been read to from a very young age. When my brother and I shared a room, he would often read me Goosebumps books before we went to sleep.

Reading can be both very beneficial, and very fun. However, television has almost replaced reading in the lives of many people. Instead of reading a good book on a rainy day, people will now most likely turn on the TV. While, TV is not bad, it does not stimulate the brain the way reading does. I find that reading can be much more exciting than television, if you will give it a chance.

Many people believe that they just don’t like to read. I think that if they sat down, and put in the time to read a good book, they would find it very enjoyable. Many people are too lazy to read. While reading takes a substantial amount of effort, television takes none at all. Because most people are lazy, they will opt for the television. This is a shame, because many people could learn many valuable lessons from reading good books.

Up to this point, I have had a very trauma-free life. I must be a very lucky person. While the worst thing that ever happened to me was probably falling off a rope swing, I have heard of others who have gone through some amazingly difficult challenges. These people are incredible for their will to carry on and their durability to hardship.

When I think of hardship, I think of the victims of 9/11. These people did not deserve the punishment which they felt. I do not know how these people got through this hardship. They must have had very hardy personalities. The victims who did live it can all tell stories of miraculous escapes. However, many did not live through this terrible ordeal. The death toll was in the thousands.

For all those around the country who had friends and family killed in these attacks, the grief and pain must have been almost insurmountable. These people must have had great inner strength to carry on day to day.

If I encountered such a hardship in my life, I do not know how I would cope. I would have to take life day by day, and try to keep my head up. The pain and grief would be so intense, I may want to just lie in bed and cry all day. However, that would not help me move forward.

To overcome hardship, a person must take life a day at a time, and try to be happy. The more that one does this, the easier it will become to encounter trials in the future.

My high school experience has been very intense and action-packed thus far. It has been an exciting journey of homework assignments and tests. In many ways, my high school experience has been what I expected. However, it has also been different in some ways.
When I was a young boy, I always looked at high school students as the coolest people in town. They could drive, date, and stay up late. As I grew closer and closer to my actual high school experience, this perception lessened. However, they still seemed so much older than me.
Now that I am in high school, it doesn’t seem like I am. I remember seeing the high schoolers driving to school and thinking, “Wow, they’re old.” Now that I am that age, I don’t seem old at all. It seems like just yesterday I was going to my first day of 7th grade.
My high school experience has been like what I expected in many ways. In most ways, it is just like junior high. The only major differences are that people can drive, and I am no longer the oldest in the school.
The differences though, are what stand out. When I was little I thought high school would be so cool. However, upon further investigation, it’s not everything its cracked up to be. Not that high school is extremely boring or anything, but I don’t think there are that many differences from Junior High.
Up to this point in high school, I feel pretty successful. I haven’t procrastinated as much as I did last year, and therefore have had a lot less homework. I think one of the reasons that high school hasn’t been such a challenge, is that I took some pretty difficult classes in Junior High..
I have many goals for my high school years. I want to make the honor roll every year in high school. I also want to take many AP and concurrent enrollment classes to build up a lot of college credit. When I first started 7th grade, I had goals like, making the basketball team, and being “cool”. Those things, however, don’t matter to me anymore. When you look at the big picture, where is being popular, or being on the basketball team going to get you?
This is why I have tried to concentrate on the more important goals, primarily academic. Many kids in high school don’t think that doing well in school is that important. Just call them popular and they’ll be happy. I don’t believe this philosophy. Doing good in school is important, and that is my main goal as I continue my high school journey.

To me, my parents’ money problems aren’t a very big concern. My family may not have the most money around, but we don’t spend the most either. We don’t have the boats, four-wheelers, snowmobiles, etc. that many people have. Yet we still manage to have fun. I think a lot of people in this world are way too materialistic.
My family doesn’t have the nicest cars or the biggest tv. Even our computer is about seven years old; and yet we still manage to get by and have fun. My brother had a friend who was very rich. They have everything a person could want. They were no happier than us.
Money and “things” do not bring happiness, though it is often thought they do. It is kindness, service, the satisfaction of a job well done. Money can’t buy everything, a wise man once said.
Some kids don’t have to work for anything. It is all handed to them by their parents. I believe that if you work hard for something, then achieve it, it will have much more meaning to you then someone who got it given to them.

When adults go to their jobs, they do no’t want to bring their work home. The purpose of going to the office is to do work, not to get work to bring home. School is the same way. Students should no’t have to bring assignments home.
I think teachers should not give as much homework to students. Whenever I have a lot of homework to do, I cannot concentrate. Sometimes I am so stressed out, I just put together a sloppy project, which does not help me learn.
Teachers say they have plenty of reasons to give homework. They say there is not enough time in one period to teach what is necessary. However, when you are doing homework, you don't learn. Instead, you just get stressed out and overwhelmed.
I realize that not all teachers give a lot of homework. My eighth grade science teacher did not give us homework if we would apply ourselves during class. He said that he did not like to bring work home, so we shouldn't have to either. I learned just as much, if not more, in that class as I have in any other.
School should not be about homework. It should be about schoolwork done at school. With less homework, students could concentrate more and even learn more in class.