This Is It

I recently had an incredible experience. It was a night that changed my life, one in which I realized that if I want to make the world a better place, I need to start with the man in the mirror; I discovered that I need to strive to make the world a better place for you, for me, and entire human race; I understood that no one wants to be defeated, but I should nonetheless just beat it; and I learned that crazy girls named Billie Jean will spread all sorts of vicious rumors about you (I'm watching you, Billie Jean King!)

Yes, I went and saw the Michael Jackson movie, "This Is It" and wow, I left totally impressed. I am a Michael Jackson fan (despite his overall weirdness and creepiness factors, which are through the roof) and always said that I would pay big money to attend one of his concerts. Well, after seeing the rehearsal footage in this movie for his London shows, I can now say with all sincerity that I would DEFINITELY have paid big money to see this concert. It looked like it would have been such a great show. I feel bad that no one gets to see it, and for all the people who put so much time and energy into it and never got to see it materialize.

The photo accompanying this post is me and my three friends on the night we went to see the show: Jamie, me, Amy, and Elaine. Roommate Steve insisted on taking a picture of all of us in our hip coats with buttons. Sadly, mine was not double-breasted, but looked great anyway. So, summing up, go see the movie if you have any sort of admiration of the talent of Michael Jackson. It was great.

P.S. There is still time to enter the contest in the post below.

Some Slight Changes to the Blog

As you may or may not know, I'm not necessarily a big fan of change. Just as an example: when I was in high school I had a really cool, extremely comfortable, pair of Airwalk shoes that I wore quite frequently. For years. And years. My mom would suggest I get new shoes and my thought was "Why bother? These are just fine and they are super comfortable." Even now, I only have a few pairs of shoes (that I've had for a while) and wear constantly. 

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that if I am comfortable with something, I don't see a lot of reason to change it.  I only today finally updated my stone-age version of linking to my friends' blogs and installed that gadget that notifies you when there are new posts.  An excellent example of this is my blog's template.  The Foggy Bottom Tribune has had essentially the same template for nearly four years now.  Looking at the other templates blogger has to offer, I figure "Why bother changing it? These aren't any better."  But I hear there are all kinds of templates out there in the blogger world.  So if you can find one that is masculine enough to truly represent me, and is an improvement on the boring ol' template the Tribune currently has, I will put it up for the Foggy Bottom Tribune's Fourth Anniversary, complete with a complimentary post dedicated to the finder of the chosen template.

START SPREADING THE NEWS

There's no better way to say it than this: The New York Yankees are World Champions again! I realize I am definitely a minority around these parts, but I am so excited! I have been a Yankees fan pretty much my whole life, however, this was essentially my first chance to really celebrate a Yankees World Series title. The last time they won was in 2000, and I didn't become extremely obsessive with following the Yankees until the postseason of 2003, when they lost to the Marlins in the World Series. Since then, I've followed every game, read every box score, and died a little inside at the end of every year. Except for this year. I realize that my "pain" over the last few years is nothing compared to fans in Cleveland, San Francisco, San Diego, and of course Chicago, among others, but it feels so good to finally get this win! Oh, and mad props to the Phillies. They're a great team, one that really gave me a scare.

Due to some unusual circumstances, I didn't start watching this game until around 11:45 PM last night at my sister's house, where she so graciously TiVoed it for me. I stayed up until 3:30 AM watching the game, enjoying the victory, and having a celebratory root beer. Given the fact that this is the Yankees 27th World Series Championship (most for any team of any sport all time) and that I am 27 years old, I thought I would present...

27 Things I Loved About The Yankees 2009 Season

1. Seeing how good CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira look in pinstripes.

2. Brett Gardner's first career home run is an inside-the-park special, the day after a girl in a children's hospital gave him a bracelet that she said would help him hit home runs.

3. Watching the Captain break the Iron Horse's record.

4. Nick Swisher and his crazy haircuts exceeding my expectations by far and rejuvenating a once-docile clubhouse.

5. Walk-off wins and A.J. Burnett's cream pies.

6. Beating the Red Sox nine of their last ten matchups of the season.

7. A-Rod's walk-off homerun against the Red Sox in the 15th inning on August 7 in the Bronx.

8. Brett Gardner's amazing catch in Game 5 of the World Series.

9. Jay-Z coming out with the perfect anthems for the New York Yankees: Empire State of Mind.

10. The opening of a new, absolutey beautiful Stadium, and saying goodbye to the old one.

11. Finally seeing A-Rod live up to his potential in the postseason. I always knew he had it in him.

12. Hideki Matsui winning the World Series MVP and putting up 6 RBI in what could quite possibly be his last game as a Yankee.

13. As if to shut his detractors up, the Captain has an absolutely stellar season on offense, and shows vast improvements on defense. Still, by far, my favorite player.

14. The Gang of Four win one for the thumb.

15. Yankees have a monster run following the All-Star break to clinch the AL East.

16. After a slow start, CC Sabathia finally gives the Yankees a reliable, near untouchable ace at the top of their rotation.

17. Mariano Rivera gets his 500th save and has another outstanding year, all but assuring that Enter Sandman will be played at the Stadium for years to come.

18. Andy Pettitte becomes the all time leader in postseason wins.

19. After what had to be for him one of the most miserable offseasons ever, A-Rod hits a home run on the first pitch he sees in the 2009 season. Then, on the last pitch he sees in the 2009 season, A-Rod hits his 30th home run and 100th RBI of the year, giving him a record 13 consecutive years with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBI.

20. Johnny Damon's 2-for-1 steal in Game 4 of the World Series.

21. The Yankees proving, once again, just who is Pedro Martinez's daddy.

22. 114 wins. 65 losses.

23. Getting screen shots of Kate Hudson and Minka Kelly during tv games.

24. Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano competing all year for the team's highest batting average and the team leader in hits. They wind up being the only middle-infielder combination in history to both have over 200 hits.

25. Melky Cabrera hitting for the cycle.

26. Getting to watch baseball in November.

27. This.

Go Yankees!

Just Another List

1. Halloween was great. I watched Game Three of the World Series, handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, and then went to my friend's Halloween party in the following costume, where I got the high score for the night in karaoke.2. Speaking of the World Series, it's going well for my team so far. Yankees lead 3-1. However, I can tell that I am too emotionally invested in the outcome of this Series: last night, I woke up in the middle of the night and could not get back to sleep because I suddenly became very worried that A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, and CC Sabathia would all be pitching on short rest for the remaining games of the Series. If they don't win, I might not be able to speak for a few days.

3. This makes me happy.

4. I'm going to my sister Michelle's show Curtains at the Hale Centre Theatre in Salt Lake for the second time this week. It runs until November 21 and you should totally go see it. It's a pretty great show, and my sister has a huge ol' part. Only problem is I don't know who I'm going to take with me to see it.

That's all for now. My 1:00 appointment will be here any minute. Thanks for checking in.

Fall Break

So Fall Break is over and I'm back to school again. I was extremely lazy over the break, and am now in the midst of a fairly busy week, so I'm really missing my vacation already. Just to give you a little idea of my break festivities, I went to my good friend Shallie's wedding in Idaho Falls. You might remember Shallie as my coordinator partner at EFY from Summer 2008, The Farewell Tour. The wedding was very nice, and some of my old team members were there, so it was good to see old friends. For photos, click here. They were taken by my former Seminary teacher, who does excellent work. It was a very nice wedding, with very professional wedding invitations, as you can see in the picture below. Shallie is very formal with titles.

Editor's Note: I decided to delete the photo, as it contains my home address, and given the nature of the internet these days, I've thought better of having it on here. I will just tell you that the invitation was addressed to "Rev. Dr. Sir Michael Brian Lundberg Esq. III." I loved it.

Although I was pretty lazy during Fall Break, I got started on one important task: putting together my bar application! It is an ordeal. Aside from the normal stuff, like name, birthday, SSN, etc., they want every address you've had for the last ten years, your driving record, a list of any tickets you've ever had, six character references, your credit history, all ten fingerprints (for the FBI background check, of course!) and a full body x-ray and MRI. Okay, kidding about those last two, but it feels like they want to know everything about you. After getting through this, I shouldn't have any trouble running for national office, right?

On my last day of the break, Sunday, Steve and I had a dinner group from our ward at our house. I managed to make my mom's delicious Swiss Cheese Chicken without messing up, and it received rave reviews. All in all it was a very successful evening. Here's a picture of our happy diners.All right, that's all for now. Thanks for checking in, and have a great day!

3L Year

I think this chart adequately displays my level of attentiveness this school year.

Some Thoughts About the Weekend

I lucked out recently and had an extended weekend (of sorts) and thought I would share with you some of the events. On Thursday and Friday I attended the National Leadership Conference of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, of which I am a Student Chapters Board Member (if you click on this link and scroll all the way to the bottom, you see my name). The first day was held in Provo at the BYU law school, and that night and the next day was held at Aspen Grove, a camp that BYU owns up Provo Canyon. I had never been before and I wish that I had brought my camera. It was so pretty up there, especially at this time of year. The leaves were just beginning to change and the tops of the mountains were just barely dusted with snow. I arrived early Friday night and spent some time walking around the camp, taking in the peaceful beauty of the area. No wonder Robert Redford lives just down the road from Aspen Grove. I saw a lot of "For Sale" signs on the drive up, and found myself wishing that I had the money to someday buy a place up there. Sadly, that remains unlikely.

Another exciting event of this weekend was General Conference. I went to the Priesthood Session in the Conference Center with my dad. It was kind of sad because this will probably be the last time for a while that we'll get to go together because he's being released from the Stake Presidency before the next General Conference so we probably won't be getting tickets anymore. Too bad. I also went to the Sunday Morning Session, which was great, and then enjoyed the Sunday Afternoon session at home. I am sad to announce though that I was already asleep for Elder Holland's talk, which I hear was one of the best one's of the Conference, so I'm upset with myself.

Most exciting of Conference for me, however, was Elder Nielsen's talk. He spoke about serving in Finland and hearing an older member talk about Viipuri, a town that became part of the Soviet Union during World War II, and of all those left behind who did not enjoy the blessings of the Gospel. He said that he and his companion used to go near the border between Finland and the Soviet Union, see the fences and the guards, and wonder about the brave missionaries who would go over there first. He talked about praying that one day missionaries would be able to bring the Gospel to the people of Viipuri. Then, years later, his son was called to the Russia St. Petersburg Mission, and his first area was the town of Vyborg, which was at one time known as Viipuri. Elder Nielsen realized that those many years ago he was praying for his son. Well, the cool part for me is that I served in Vyborg for four months, so Elder Nielsen was praying for me too! Hearing his talk brought back a lot of memories. I'm very grateful that I could go to Russia on my mission. Looking back on it, I wouldn't want to have served anywhere else, and I'm very glad that I could go to Vyborg and enjoy the benefits of the first LDS chapel built in Russia. I'm also thankful that my parents could come to Russia and see Vyborg themselves. It's truly a beautiful city.

Anyway, I know I'm biased, but that was possibly my favorite thing from Conference. And I know this wasn't the most exciting blog post, but I just wanted to write about some of these cool experiences I had this weekend. Congratulations if you made it all the way to the end of this post.