Sunday, March 29, 2009

A Time

I seem to remember a Time, a time with four Seasons.
Summer and Spring were sublime, and Winter and Fall gave me reason.
A Time of joy and joyness.
A Time where happiness and laughter were abound.
A Time with no distress.
A Time where no sadness was found.
Each season came and went, went and came.
When Winter was spent; spring, on it came.
Each season shared its life, no one took more than any other
So as to avoid strife and to care for one another.
This Time, it has past, and it seems that Father Winter is here to stay.
He comes each year a little to fast, as if we can't wait to play.
He stays a little too long, like an awkward friend who doesn't know when to leave.
He stays tho he does not belong and does his best to deceive.
A Time of cold and coldness.
A Time of heavy coats and jackets.
A Time where the out-of-doors are a mess.
A Time without any tennis racquets.
Now we can only dream of those Times of four Seasons
Of Summer Time ice-cream and Times of reason.
A Time, of Seasons.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Life Abnormal

This morning as I left for school, I hit my head on the light hanging from the ceiling and it caused me to ponder upon all the great aspects of life as a tall person (currently i reside at 6'6"). I just want to impress upon all people of normal height just what it is you are missing:

1- You often hit your head on objects. Including, but not exclusive to: ceilings, hanging decorations, lights, and doorways.
2- I've realized that most vehicles are made for people 6 feet tall and shorter. Cars are way too small, you're not able to fit comfortably in the front seats so don't even try the back seat (back seat in the middle on the hump is the worst). Airplanes are rides from hell, not only do you have to pull your legs up into your chest to be able to sit down, you can't even stand without having to bend over so your head is between your knees.
3- Clothes are almost impossible to find unless in addition to being tall you are also fat. For some reason the people that make clothes have come to the conclusion that if you're tall you must also be overweight. But it's a lie, some of us aren't that fat.
4- People use you. If I had a nickle for every time someone asked me to do something simply because of my height I would be filthy rich.
5- People always assume you must not only play basketball (which I do), but that you must also be good at it (which I am not).
6- Beds (and couches for that matter) are almost always too short, so you either spend your nights with your legs hanging off the end of the bed or with your legs bent in not-so-comfortable positions.

But don't worry, it's not all bad.
7- I never have to worry about being shorter than a girl.
8- You don't need a ladder or chair to reach items up high in the atmosphere.
9- It's easy to intimidate people, and make them feel insignificant.
10- You can take 3 steps at a time going up the stairs, no problem.
11- You take 1 step for every 2 steps a normal sized person takes.
12- You get to stand in the back in group pictures.

Don't get me wrong I love being tall and stuff, I'm just trying to give ya'll some perspective. So please just take it easy on those of us who might be abnormally tall, it's not as easy as as you might suspect.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Really?

The Aggies just lost in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament to Marquette by a score of 57-58. I'm glad they put up a good fight and everything, but I'm pretty livid that we lost. Then to think that when we're down by 3 with only seconds to go we give the ball to our center, Gary Wilkinson, to shoot the 3-pointer...don't get me wrong, I love Gray Wilkinson as much as the next Aggie fan, but the game tying 3? Really? Seriously?

I just think it was dumb, and I am mad.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Two Brothers on a Hotel Be-ed

Oh how i love spring break! It is such a good time, so many good memories are made and crazy times are had by most during this break. So when you think of spring break locations what comes to mind? Maybe Mexico or So Cal or Florida?

Not so in the Zollinger household, the first place that came to mind was Reno, NV. You might be thinking to yourself that it doesn't seem like a prime place to visit on spring break (and you'd be right, it's a trashy hole in the desert) but you might also think that it could be fun since it's in Nevada, and pretty much anything goes in Nevada. And to the credit of my family, Reno was the host of this years WAC basketball tournament, giving us a decent excuse for choosing it as our spring break location.

We (me, dad, bro) were in Reno for a total of three days, and let me tell you, we had some crazy times. You might come to the conclusion that we had some fun in the casinos, or clubs, or any of the various inappropriate activities of the Reno nightlife. But let me tell you, the Zollinger family is not your average family. Besides the 8 games of basketball we planned on watching, we had only two other activities on the schedule:

1- Go to the Reno Temple.
2- Have family scripture study.

Needless to say we had a blast. The 16 hours of college basketball were pure goodness. The Aggies won the tournament by beating Nevada on their home court, which was oh so sweet, and I was privileged enough to witness Big Blue humiliate New Mexico's weak sauce mascot "Pistol Pete" by ripping off his mustache and adding insult to injury to our victory over them in the semifinals. But then add to that goodness the joy of feeling the spirit in the Lord's house, and the good times talking about the gospel with my dad and older brother and you've got a recipe for a pretty killer time.

It really was a great spring break and i dare say the best i've ever had(even tho i missed out on a million jokes). I feel like a new man. Who would've thought that a spring break spent in Reno would actually help me become a better person...not I.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Rationalize this

As this is the beginning of my new foray into the art of blog, I feel the need to start off on a good foot and let the world know just how smart and complex a man I am. In my studies of political science and economics, it is often said that most people act in a manner that is self-interested, but nonetheless in a manner that is rational. I agree with the self-interested part and the rational part sounds good if you don't think about it, but then you ask yourself, "what in the hell does it mean to be rational?"

This is where the confusion begins. If you asked me, I'd say that I'm one of the most rational people alive, but I'd also say that there are tons of people out there that aren't rational at all. But are they really irrational? See, the problem is that being rational is based almost exclusively on perceptions of individuals. So who decides what is rational? There are people who think it's rational to smoke (it's not, don't worry), other people may think that being a suicide bomber is rational, and there's prob some crazies out there that think baby Bush was the greatest president since George Washington.

We all know that none of these views are rational, but again, that's the problem with rationality, it's always subject to the perception of the individual. There is no system or set of rules to determine whether someone is acting rationally or not. This is what makes the different studies of human behavior so difficult, yet so intriguing. Really tho, what I'm trying to say is that I'm rational, and there's a good chance you're not, unless you agree with me, then in that case we are both rational and we are friends.