The Evolution of the Superbowl Party

For the last couple of years the superbowl party has gotten better each and every year.  This is largely due to an increased organization and the ability to learn for the years past.  Last year we executed our party to near perfection.  Anyway I thought it would be amusing to chronicle the last few years.

2006 - Although we had previously had superbowl parties this was really the birth of the superbowl committee.  We really didn't know what we were doing, and we invited everyone who wanted to come to join the committee process.  The result, as you might imagine, was 12-13 guys crammed into a living room arguing for 2 hours over what tastes better: shrimp or bagel bites.  We were loud, unproductive, and argumentative, but it was the begining of something  wonderful.  Probably the best part of the commitee was when some girls came up to visit; they had been assigned to teach people the 7 pitfalls of dating.  It was classic these 2 girls teaching 13 very roudy guys about why relationships don't work.  The last part of their lessons was about when one of the persons has underlying emotional or mental problems.  It was a riot to hear our running commentary.  To make it even better I had had a fling with one of the girls teaching the lesson, she had just gotten engaged and had violated at least 4 of the rules she was teaching us.  Classic. (It would appear that the pitfalls aren't really affecting her marraige she has a kid now)

Superbowl MVP: Seth - the candy he brought was great.  We had too much greasy food and it was nice to be able to munch on something.

Superbowl Bust: Me - my chicken wings didn't get cooked well enough.

2007 - This year the committee went much smoother.  We ran into the problem of having way too much frozen stuff and not enough ovens to cook it all.  Also, our popularity at Roman Gardens was causing problems.  We had too many people who wanted to attend the day of the superbowl.  But rules are rules and if they didn't pay their dues they were not getting in.  At one point this poor girl knocked on the door.  Someone yelled "who is it?" to which I callously responded "Who cares! Everbody important is already here!"  Then we laughed and laughed and laughed.  I have often thought of how this would play out at a family reunion if my uncle knocked on the door and we laughed at him until he left.  

MVP -Mark - For the idea of bringing icecream

Superbowl Bust - Skyler  - for birnging 4 bags of sour cream and onion chips: we only ate half a bag of that nasty stuff.  

2008 - We got it right.  We hit a stroke of genious and started bringing fruit and vegatables to counter balance all the crap we were eating.  Dyson pulled through and brought a ton of pizza from little ceasers.  But by far the best thing to eat, chicken wraped in bacon.  Yep it was pretty much perfect, although the commitee was starting to get out of control with ideas like having a gift exchange and arguing about if the Superbowl is better than Christmas (its not!)

MVP - Drew - for the homemade food.

Bust - Dyson - for yelling an increadibly loud and awkward comment.  Looking back it was awesome but at the time it just made people uneasy.

2009 - This year I think we got the committee process down.  Just four of us got together and made executive decisions and then distributed assignments to the rest.  This year will be different than in years past due to the presence of women.  Usually it's just Courtney and Deanna who are brave enough to handle the roudy guys.  But one of my new years resolutions was to start bringing a date or a good friend of the feminine sex anytime I attend an activity with several couples (im tired of being the odd man out) and so I told the group im bringing a friend.  To which Dyson replied that he was too, Kyle had already invited some girls, Matt and Mark have better halves, and courtney always comes.  Only afterword did i realize the problem of bringing a nice girl to experience such gluttony and debachery.  Luckily I found a pretty girl who is awesome enough to handle it (I know your reading this).  I am looking forward to Sunday!

Here is the menu for Sunday.

Pep + sausage pizza

Hawaiin pizza
Pepperoni pizza
Supreme pizza
Buffalo Wings
3 bags of tortilla chips 
4 bags of flavored chips
7 Layer bean dip
Chili Cheese Dip
Veggie tray
Fruit tray
Costco wraps
Pepsi, 
Mtn Dew, 
Root beer,
Dr. Pepper
Diet Coke, 
Lemonade 
Ice 
Cookies
Brownies
Banana Bread
Cheesecake
Donuts
Lil Smokies
Onion Rings
Taquitos

More random pics stolen for Digg users

Why the oath for VP is longer.

As I watched the inaguration today I couldn't help to notice that Joe Biden's oath was significantly larger than President Obamas.

 

Vice President:

I, ____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God

President:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

So i went home and did a little research and figured out why.  The president recites the oath as written in the Constitution of the United States.  However, the constitution does not require the Vice President to take any oath whatsoever.  Over the years the vice presidents have used different oaths and currently use the same oath as Senators, house representatives, and other governmental officials.

My constitutional law teacher (and google) were happy to provide some other little tidbits about todays events.  

It wasn't President Obama's fault for stumbling during the oath.  The Cheif Justice John Roberts actually said it wrong; President Obama who had memorized the oath was justly confused.  Some experts argue that the President must redo the oath to so he could say it correctly.

As young as John Roberts seems he is actually older than President Obama.  He is also the first Chief Justice to swear in a President when the President had voted against the Justice's confirmation.

The Second most senior justice of the Supreme Court is given the honor of swearing in the vice president.  In our case this is Justice Stevens.  Justice Stevens has actually been in the court the longest but by law the Chief Justice is considered the most senior justice.

The constitution sets forth that the President becomes president at noon with or without the oath.  The constitution also mandates that the President must give an oath.  It would be an interesting constitutional law question if the President just refused to take the oath.

Many Presidents (including our current president) end their oath by saying "So help me God" this isn't required by law.

President Obama used the same Bible that Abraham Lincon used to swear in.  (That thing was huge!)  The president isn't required to swear on the bible or even swear ( he can say "I affirm")

President Obama wrongly stated that he was the 44th person to be sworn into this office.  This is technically incorrect, Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th President.  Accordingly, Obama is the the 43rd person to be sworn into office.

Anyway, the whole thing was very touching.  Regardless of what you think about American Politics, it is truly remarkable that the most powerful country in the world can have such a peaceful transition of power.  

Sidewalk Chalk

Wow. Serious skills with chalk.

I enjoy this article very much

January 8, 2009 9:29 AM PST

Delete 10 Facebook friends, get a free Whopper

Posted by Caroline McCarthy

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(Credit: Burger King)

Facebook's developer platform has been used for a zillion marketing campaigns so far, but this one is actually dead-on hilarious.

Fast-food chain Burger King has created "Whopper Sacrifice," a Facebook app that will give you a coupon for a free hamburger if you delete 10 people from your friends list.

Burger King has put out some interesting campaigns as of late ("Whopper Virgin," "Subservient Chicken"), but this one piques our interest because of how gleefully it pokes fun at our social-networking obsessions. "Now is the time to put your fair-weather Web friendships to the test," the Whopper Sacrifice site explains. "Install Whopper Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we'll reward you with a free flame-broiled Whopper when you sacrifice ten of your friends.

The funniest part: The "sacrifices" show up in your activity feed. So it'll say, for example, "Caroline sacrificed Josh Lowensohn for a free Whopper." Unfortunately, you can't delete your whole friends list and eat free (however unhealthily) for a week. The promotion is limited to one coupon per Facebook account.

My Facebook friends had better appreciate the fact that I made a New Year's resolution to cut out red meat. Hint, hint.

This comic made me laugh.  I spend a great deal of time considering the meaning of words that would ordinarily be commonly understood.  For instance this morning I debated the definition of "human being."  Similarly, during the BYU v Utah game my friend Mark asked me if the Mountain West was better than the the Pac 10 this year.  I responded (in all seriousness) "that depends on how you define better."  To which he rightly told me to go to hell.  Long story short, i'm apparently a nerd. 

really cool article about an Autistic Savant

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126881.800-inside-the-mind-of-an-autistic-savant.html

"The secret" lol.

Random Thoughts

On the way back to Utah, i borrowed a friends car. Well foolishly I forgot to bring my own cd's, and the only cd in the car was n-sync. During a particularly long stretch of silence, I tried to listen to the boy band I made it about 1 1/2 songs before i felt my soul start to die and i turned it off. Anyway, the point is i had a lot of time to think and some really random thoughts jumped into my head:

Who ever created the first insurance company is an evil genius.
The marketing department of Apple is also headed by an evil genius
Al Davis just looks evil and is clearly not a genius
"Caution - Flooding ahead" is probably the scariest road sign I have ever seen.
"Caution - Falling rocks" should be scary but its not
The street sign of the family running across the freeway near mexico is hillarious
I want to personally thank the man who created the carpool lane
It was 75 degrees on december 29th... living Southern California is worth every penny
It may be sick, but i love to see the dissapointment on the faces of SEC and Big 10 fans when they lose a football game they thought they should have won. I Absolutely love it!
At what point will i stop listening to Weezer's blue album?
After 30 years, Metallica has finally lost its prestiege
Bill Simmons has replaced Tony Kernheiser as my favorite ESPN personality, its not even close
Kurt Warner has replaced Wes Welker as my favorite offensive football player
Ray Lewis is till my favorite defensive player


I wrote this blog while watching the Utah v Alabama game and had the following thoughts

Utah's football cheerleaders need to win some sort of award for being gorgeous
Last years UCLA cheerleaders were even prettier
Why does the ACC get an automatic bid? they are 2-8 in BCS games
This Utah team is better than the 2004 team
I hate Alex Smith
I hate the snow!

Bringing a whole new meaning to "Rasing the Bar"

Ariel Wood - Working on her papers

Courtney Ball - Called to serve in Madrid Spain

Angela Howell - Called to serve in Paris France

Rachel Schwarts - Called to serve in Riverside, California

When I left on my mission my friend and guessed that two of our prettiest friends would be married by the time we got home. To our surprise both of them served missions. Since then I have been surprised time and time again when the most beautiful girls I know decide to shun the dating world and turn in their papers. When my friend told me today that she is turning in her papers I had to document this phenomenon. I have included pictures of just the last 4 girls who have decided to turn in their papers. Here they are in order of when they recieved their call. For any single male readers who think they can persuade a girl out of a mission, only Rachel has left.

On a more serious note, sister missionaries rock! The best missionaries i knew were sisters, they are simply more mature and approachable. If any of the 4 of you happen to read this, I am sure you will do amazing.