Tuesdays with Muerte

Recently, I have been made painfully aware of a couple of failures in my life. This inspirational clip of Oprah Winfrey speaking to the Stanford Graduate School of Business on Career, Life and Leadership made me feel good. Below is a highlight clip of one of my favorite moments. (Watch the entire 1-hour speech here .) "There are no mistakes." "Get still." "What's the next right move?" "Failure is just there to point to in a different direction." p.s. I'll be sharing this message with a couple of tennis students this week.

Well, I'm finally convinced. Thanks to these five events, I'm ready to begin Marie Kondō's guided journey of limiting my surrounding to things that spark joy: Katie Bastian's Example — For the past year, Katie, an online friend of mine, has been journaling her decluttering process via Instagram. I believe her when she raves about how the process has benefitted her. Scriptures  — Today, after reading Isaiah 23 (the final "burden" chapter), I observed that I didn't want to suffer the same fate as Tyre—a merchant city which was cursed by the Lord for its obsession with materialism. I recognized myself as a participant in the stereotypical middle-class culture; one who constantly thinks about and gathers things. Macklemore —Have you seen Macklemore's Thrift Shop or Wings music videos? Macklemore is an American hip hop artist/MC (from Kent, WA) who writes a lot about the negative effect of global materialism. He's got a lot of good points. ...

BYU-Idaho's top choral group performed  The Heavens' Flock in the SLC Tabernacle during Music & The Spoken Word last Sunday. I was incredibly moved by the Christian message by the non-Christian poet, Paulann Petersen. In the piece, the poet lauds the stars in the heavens, which obediently graze across the sky like animate beings, never straying. The poet, lost and wandering herself, enviously emulates the Great Shepherd's celestial flock by building a makeshift fire of her own made of gathered  "lichen" and "branches" and "twiggy clatter" . I loved the inferred metaphor of the collected "earthfood" to stoke the poet's internal fire. To me, her gathering efforts represent mortal obedience and sacrifice—the fuel of my own discipleship. Like the poet, though my fire is far from a constant, celestial blaze, my feeble attempts to be a light are seen and appreciated by my God, the Creator of all. LYRICS Stars, you ar...

Origin of Under Armour's 'Rule Yourself' Campaign Adam Peake, executive vice president of global marketing for Under Armour, said: "The concept of the ‘Rule Yourself’ campaign is simple — you are the sum of all of your training.  "It’s the only way to get better, and it’s the common thread that unites each of our all-star athletes around the globe,"  "We also want to give them that extra inspiration to improve everyday, to keep building their inner army and to stay focused on success even when the going gets tough." Source How I Got Hooked My obsession with the UA brand began two weeks ago when I saw this  Phelps' 'Rule Yourself'  video on facebook. Phelps' re-energized and whole-hearted commitment to his craft inspired me. I say "re-energized" because I didn't always view Phelps as 100% committed. Similar to Tom Cruise's character Maverick in Top Gun , Phelps re-engaged, despite temporarily losing...

Background In celebration of International Women's Day (March 8th, 2016), I dedicated some time to reflecting on my beliefs surrounding gender equality. According to popular feminist pundits, a feminist is anyone—male or female—who is in favor of gender equality. For me, identifying as a feminist was just another way of saying I rejected bigotry. I championed the idea that feminism  meant gender  egalitarian , and I believed that any decent person should believe in equality between the sexes in terms of political, economic, and social power. I am grateful for the courageous generations of liberal feminists who have fought for women's rights to do things like own property, wear pants, vote, and go to college. I'm especially grateful for the industrial feminists during WWII who proved that women were capable of factory work and paved the way for other social equality. However, modern feminism is different kind of beast. I've discovered that feminism today is...

The Martian by Andy Weir My rating: 4 of 5 stars Basically, The Martian = Apollo 13 + Cast Away. What a page turner!  I enjoyed reading it even after watching the movie.  (Now I want them to write a play so I can go see that!)  I didn't give it 5 stars was because—despite the realistic scenarios and elaborate math validating every action taken throughout the story—my disbelief was never fully suspended.  When I give 5 stars, it's because I was able to lose myself in the story; when I have become one with the narration.  Perhaps Weir's style of writing was too fast paced for me.  Perhaps my mind didn't have time to struggle with the problem before the solution presented itself.  I think due to this and other factors I never fully became Mark Watney, the protagonist. Re: Language — Weir's use of swearing didn't bother me because I recognized that Watney was from Chicago, not Provo. Personal lessons learned: I had hoped that by r...

Reaction Two years after its theatrical release, I finally got around to watching Jonny Depp in  Transcendence . Waiting for the new-release excitement to die down was a good decision.  Transcendence  is one of those films that causes you to leave the theater disappointed. But as time goes by, the ideas from the film burrow deeper and deeper under your skin (in a good way). Immediately after my viewing of the film, I jumped online, eager to see what conversations were going on relating to the themes and questions addressed by the film. I opened the first three discussion groups I could find, read the first few review titles, and felt instantly dejected. Overwhelmingly, critics ranted about how the film failed to meet their entertainment expectations. With the all-star cast and killer trailer building up anticipation since 2012, these film buffs wanted a blockbuster—a Hollywood  sci-fi—not what they got—a true sci-fi (which happened to have expen...