Wedded Surprise...

I believe in the traditional family. I believe that marriage is a sacred institution, a bond and a union between God and His children. Marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Basically, what I believe about marriage is perfectly captured in "The Family: A Proclamation to the World":

"The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."

Marriage, when it is gone about correctly, should be the best, the strongest, the most rewarding relationship we have on this earth. I am grateful and feel blessed that mine fits this description.

Among the myriad trends that are threatening this God-ordained institution is one in particular that I would like to mention...

This is the cake that my wife and I had at our reception. It was beautiful, and it tasted even better than it looks.

So why on earth would you want to shove something like this in the face of the person you just married hours earlier? I don't think that shoving food in someone's face is a good way to start off what many people believe is an Eternal marriage. You should conduct yourself with class and dignity, not reduce the most wonderful day of your life to a pseudo boxing match.

Do I think less of people who DO shove cake in eachother's faces at their reception? Yes. It is a harsh reality, but even the people I like the most fall sharply in my list of people I respect. I don't know if studies have been conducted on the subject, but I think you'd find a nice relationship between divorce rates, and people that start off their marriage by shoving eachother in the face in public.

After all, aren't you supposed to be ADULTS to get married?

A Few of My Favorite Things, Part 1...

I love animals. And I've included a few of my favorites below.

But then I decided that they all have a disturbing trend...they're all awkward in some way--most have some feature of their body that is abnormally large. But I still love them.

In no particular order, I give you...My Favorite Animals:

Black-Capped Chickadee

African Penguin

Hippopotomus


Loon

Mallard Duck

Octopus

Killer Whale (Orca)

White Indian Runner Duck

Leopard Frog

Giraffe

Black Dutch Rabbit

Beaver

Kermit

"Jacket Weather"

The title of this post is blatantly lifted from fellow Blogger and great friend, Marissa Benton. She and I grew up in the same part of the country, so it stands to reason that we would agree on this topic. And I love the imagery.

Fall is the most underrated season. So few people appreciate how amazing it is, that if we're not careful, we may lose it altogether. In fact, there are only a select few places where it truly exists in its purest form. And I happen to have spent the formative years of my life in one of them.

So I will show you why fall--or autumn if you prefer--is the greatest season of the year.

Fall Foliage

Fresh-Picked Apples

Apple Cider

Crisp Air

Pumpkins

Hot Chocolate

Cool Rain

Cranberries
(Kathleen chose this picture.)

Polar Fleece

Maple Syrup

"Called to Eat"

When I was in the LDS Missionary Training Center, or MTC, there was a slight food-shortage crisis. Record numbers of missionaries were in the MTC at the same time, and there just wasn't enough food for everyone to be able to eat as much as they wanted. This revelation came to light because the people in the later meal schedules sometimes had nothing to eat but "onion rings and cereal." It was determined that it was because people on MY meal schedule (the first shift) were eating 3 or more entrées.

After that, this famed all-you-can-eat buffet-style MTC dining experience was limited to one entrée per meal, per person.

In protest, the 12 members of my District composed new Spanish-language lyrics to the missionary classic "Called to Serve," which we would then sing loudly in protest as we waited in line for our meals. The lyrics follow:

"Llamados a Comer"

Voy a comer tres o cuatro entrées,
No me importa lo que pasará.
A los otros, que vienen tardes,
No recibirán nada...

Como, siempre como,
Engordándome al fín,
Glotón, yo soy glotón,
Como oso en jardín
Pollo, Super-Pollo,
Mi amigo a comer,
¡Yo estoy feliz,

porque yo se que gordo puedo ser!

Rediscovering My Love of "Man vs. Wild"

I returned home from an LDS Mission to Spain in August of 2006. A few weeks later, I was attending BYU in Provo, UT. My new roommates and I made a discovery on Discovery..."Man vs. Wild."

Imagine, if you will--for those of you who weren't there to witness it first-hand--the reaction of three 21 year-old guys living alone when they came upon that show.

It's the closest you can get to being outdoors while still watching TV.

Bear Grylls, host and star of the show "Man vs. Wild" building a fire.

For those of you who have never seen the show, here's the premise:

The show centers on a man named Bear Grylls, a former member of the British Special Forces. He now travels the world speaking and teaching survival classes and techniques. From this stemmed the show "Man vs. Wild" (as it's called in the U.S.) Each episode shows Bear being airlifted into the middle of an expanse of wilderness somewhere in the world (The Sahara Desert, The European Alps, etc.) and he has to survive long enough to be rescued or find civilization. In each episode he brings a few key items, like a cup, a knife, or flint. In a true survival situation, you would do/eat almost anything, and that is true of this show as well.

In the Kalahari Desert episode
Bear eats the leftovers of a zebra killed by lions or hyenas.

As you can understand, a show like this--so far out of the norm of television programming--would caputre the attention of (mostly) men and women around the world. We tuned in with rapt attention every week, and even printed a schedule of every time episodes would air for the rest of the school year.

So, also understandably, I was more than a little heart-broken to be wrenched from my illusion of reality when I found out that Bear Grylls doesn't do everything on his own--he recieves assistance on more than one occasion. As I read rumors on the Internet, and watched interviews on TV, it seemed everything was unravelling. For a time, I confess, my love of "Man vs. Wild" grew cold.

But, like the emergence of new life in the spring, my dormant love reflourished and grew when my wife Kathleen bought me a DVD collection of the first two seasons. As I watched them, I was at first dissappointed, because I realized things had been changed from how the episodes originally aired. For instance, in the episode that takes place in Alaska, Bear is seen eating a freshly-caught, live, uncooked salmon. In the original episode, they lead you to believe that he caught it with a stick. In the DVD version, they make it clear that Bear lost patience trying to catch one, so he ate one that a member of the crew caught.

Bear devouring "the freshest Salmon you'll ever have."

At first I was outraged that I had been so easily duped, and I if felt like I had been betrayed, or that the show had been cheapened. But then my feelings began to be pacified...I thought about it, and I realized that THIS IS STILL REAL. Do you see him eating that Salmon? Do you see that Zebra? He's really doing these things.

So, say what you may, "Man vs. Wild" is still an amazing show. The events and things he is doing are real. And if you want him to be completely up-front and honest with you, just get ahold of the new DVDs...they have changed everything to make it factual and not misleading.

And I love it.

Internship Report, Week 3

Intern Name: Mark Hamilton
Internship Site: KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM
Emphasis: Broadcast Journalism
Semester and Section: Fall 2008, Section 001
Week Number: 3
Number of Hours This Week: 20

Week 3 Report:
As will probably continue to be the case, this week was much like the others, so I will do my best to highlight things that were different, and spare you a re-hashing of things that I do every week…

This week was notable because after last week’s stomping of UCLA 59-0, BYU has attracted quite a bit of attention on a national scale, and actually, as of this writing, they are ranked 11th in the polls nationally. All this attention is both good and bad for BYU, because both BYU and the Mountain West Conference need more national recognition and respect, but at the same time, it proved to be a distraction from the team’s focus.

In the opening quarter of Saturday’s game against Wyoming, BYU’s offense didn’t score. Both Max Hall and Bronco Mendenhall were flooded with interview requests and appeared on ESPN during the week, putting a strain on them that they haven’t known before. As a result, they have changed their policies dealing with the media in order to refocus. That made me think more about the fine line the media walks in their lust for information and interviews…sometimes it is hard to remember that these are real people, with real lives, that are going out of their way to accommodate you. We ought to respect that.

This week went well, as far as the day-to-day things go. On Saturday, up at KSL Headquarters, the game was a bit slower than normal, since BYU easily handled Wyoming. But that didn’t stop it from being one of the craziest days for me at work. I was following the Utah-Air Force game and cutting highlights from that at the same time I was cutting highlights from the East Carolina-Carolina game, and other top-25 games. I was answering phone calls, E-mailing audio highlights to ESPN and The Mtn., etc. I was literally running around doing 5 things at once. And it was great…time flies on Saturdays, even though it’s more than 8 hours. My job satisfaction there is great…I love working there, and the people I am working with.

Still waiting to hear word on the new car we’ve ordered through a car broker. I’m not sure my current car can keep up this rigorous schedule of commuting.

That’s it for this week.

Thanks!
~ Mark Hamilton