Today is actually a pretty historical day. On this day in history, Vikings sacked Paris. On this day, Union soldiers repulsed the Confederate army’s advance into New Mexico in the Battle of Glorieta Pass. On this day the Three Mile Island incident happened. Indeed, on this day of days President George “Dubya” Bush awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Jessie Owens (posthumously). Most significantly, I was born 24 years ago on this day.

I’m in some good company. LDS Presidents Spencer W. Kimball and Harold B. Lee were both born on March 28. Coach Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz was born on the 28th. So were Vince Vaughn, Reba McEntire, and Julia Stiles. Not too shabby. (For more information on March 28, check out Wikipedia’s page here.)

In celebration of my birthday, I’ve decided to create a list of 100 things I’d like to experience or accomplish before I die. But 100 things is a lot, so I’m open to suggestions. Just go to my List of 100 Things I Want To Do Before I Die page and (until I get a cooler interface) leave any suggestions for the list in the comments. I’ll add the ideas I like to my list, and then as I accomplish each item, I’ll cross it off.

Technorati Tags: birthday, goal list, march 28

Friends of the blog will notice yet another new look for the site. They will also notice that after an almost two-month hiatus, I’m posting again. Let me be the first to point out that there just might be a correlation here.

Let me first say that the old blog design, while appealing to me at first, ultimately became offensive to my sense of style. It was hard to read, it looked busy, and it was a pain to use and edit. Needless to say, I think the problem has been rectified. This theme is much more customizable (On your end as well as mine. Try clicking the little squares under my blog title.) so hopefully it will have more longevity. Overall, it feels a lot cleaner.

The other thing you will notice is that the post about my parents’ house with all the pictures has mysteriously disappeared. Actually, I just took it down from the blog proper until I have a chance to change the pictures so that they load up a lot faster. I got tired of the 5 minute wait while my blog loaded.

Anyway, now that I’ve made these changes, hopefully I’ll be a little bit more consistent about posting. For those of you that stuck around while I took a break, I’ll try to make it worth your while.

Technorati Tags: hiatus, new theme

Baseball is pretty much the greatest sport. Ever. It just screams “America!” which is obviously awesome. Think about it. Hot dogs. Popcorn. Sitting around. What could possibly be more American? How about free stuff? That’s the American Dream, my friends.

I bring that up because I was at a BYU baseball game this weekend with my girlfriend and some friends. Sometime during the 4th inning, one of the marketing people for the team approached me in our upper-deck seats and asked if I wanted to be in a promo during the 5th inning. Who’s going to say no to that?

I figured they were going to give me a little stuffed Cosmo the Cougar or maybe a spiffy BYU t-shirt that I’d never wear. But, fortunately for me, this was the Bookstore promo, and the Bookstore wanted to come large. I was told that I’d be playing a version of “Deal or No Deal,” where I’d be given a $40 gift certificate to the Bookstore, which I could either keep, or return to Cosmo the Cougar for a chance to pick one of three boxes. (On no uncertain terms I was instructed to choose one of the boxes. “You might want to think twice about choosing box 3 though,” the promo guy told me. “It might be lame.”)

Anyway, the fateful moment came, and it was showtime. I gave the card back to Cosmo and, wisely avoiding box 3, chose box 1. They turned over box 2, which was a DVD player (I started to sweat a little here). Then came box 3 (a box of pushpins. Thanks, Promo Guy. I owe you.). Finally, they turned over box 1 to uncover… an iPod Shuffle. Needless to say, I was ecstatic.

So let me just say that I now love America. Also, I now also love the bookstore more than I ever have in my entire life, especially during the beginning of every semester when I have to hemorrhage cash to get my textbooks. I can’t help but feel like I deserve a little something back after all the benjamins I’ve dropped into their coffers. Now about that tuition…

Technorati Tags: byu bookstore, baseball, byu, free ipod