New Book...

I've been told several times that I like to use "..." a lot... see... oh well.

I have another thought for today. I found a new series of books to read. Glenn Beck interviewed author Brad Thor because he loved the books and is afraid for Brad's life. The latest book in Thor's series is called "The Last Patriot." It's about the missing last revelation received by the prophet Mohammed that would have revolutionized the world of Islam. Knowing me and my obsession with getting the whole story, I started reading the first book in the series...The Last Patriot is the 7th...I'll get there. Another series to occupy my time. Here is Brad Thor's website. Check it out...

I do well with blogging...

It has been a while...I'm a slacker...what are you going to do? I just thought I'd add links to my wife's blog for our family and my brother and sister-in-law's blog. They post things a little more often that I do.

I'm looking forward to a potentially awesome season for BYU football...SI.com just predicted that the BYU-Utah game at the end of the season will be one of the 10 best games of the season and that the winner has the potential of gaining a BCS berth. I just hope that BYU can overcome the University of Washington's secret weapon (chocolate milk...I'm not kidding...) and Norm Chow's new team at UCLA.

The All-Star game was almost hilarious. Ever since that awful tie in 2002 and Bud Selig's embarrassment over it, I have been cheering for another tie to show how dumb he is. Word today is that the next inning would have featured JD Drew and David Wright on the mound. That would have been FANTASTIC--two position players pitching in the All-Star Game. Too bad Justin Morneau scored on that sacrifice fly...

My other passion (besides my family (see my wife's blog)) is TV. I know...I'm a couch potato... but lately I've been enjoying Last Comic Standing. I really like the guy from Utah--Marcus. I find it really funny that in his initial audition, it listed his hometown as West Jorday, Utah. Only a dork like me would notice that. I'm also excited for the return of Monk, Psych, and Eureka. Fantastic shows that will finally provide something for my TiVo to do...

Hope all is well! Until next time...a few months from now... :D

Sports

So, I'm a huge sports fan. Name a sport and I will watch it. I, however, define a sport as something where you actually do something. This disqualifies NASCAR and IRL. All that is involved in those 'sports' is driving. Anyone can actually participate in those sports. As long as you have a driver's license, you can do what it takes to be in NASCAR. Anyway, for posterity, I thought I'd list my favorite sports teams.

NBA--Utah Jazz. I'm from Utah and have lived here my entire life. I've loved the Jazz as long as I can remember and if it weren't for a guy named Jordan, we'd have 2 championships. We peaked at the wrong time.

MLB--Boston Red Sox. My wife and I went on a honeymoon to Boston in 2001. Random place, I know. Her dad works for an airline, so she's been everywhere, including 6 visits to Hawaii. So, I gave her 5 choices for a honeymoon location. California, Florida, Alaska, Hawaii, and New England (because she had worked in Maine for a summer). It boiled down to time and temperature in August leading us to New England. While there, I pretty much adopted teams from New England for everything that I didn't have a Utah team. I'm accused of being a bandwagon fan here...I joined 3 years early.

NFL--New England Patriots. See explanation on the Red Sox. I'm very disappointed...

NHL--Colorado Avalanche. When this team moved to Colorado, the Denver Grizzlies became the Utah Grizzlies. I thank them for sending hockey back to Utah by being a fan.

MLS--Real Salt Lake. I played soccer for 10 years as a kid, so yes, this is a sport. My dad has been a season ticket holder since the beginning. I'm hoping for a little more success this year...

Golf--Phil Mickelson. I'm not a fan of Tiger Woods. I've boiled this down to the fact that I hate frontrunners. I hate the Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, the Lakers, Tiger, DC United, Manchester United, etc.

English Premier League--Arsenal. I played soccer in a league called Arsenal. The translation was easy.

College--BYU. I have to cheer for the alma mater and now that the mtn. is on Directv, I can...

Random information for my random thoughts blog...

Intro

Since this is my first foray into the world of blogging, I thought I'd start with a bit of an introduction. I'm Nic. I have many interests and opinions and I think I'll share them here. This should be an interesting experience and I think my kids might enjoy looking at what their dad thought about things when they're older. We'll see...

One of my great passions is reading. I love books! Mostly, I enjoy reading novels. Historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, adventure, pretty much anything except romance. Basically, I'm a sucker for a good story. I can't really enjoy a TV show if I don't watch all of the episodes because I need to know the story. I even stick with some bad shows because I want to know the story. Anyway, I'm reading a great book right now called "The Venetian Betrayal" by Steve Berry. Mr. Berry is one of my new favorite authors, but skip the first book he wrote called "The Amber Room"...it was a good story, but was a little too vulgar. I almost didn't read his other books because of that one. Now, I'm glad that I gave him another try. "The Romanov Prophecy", "The Third Secret", "The Templar Legacy", "The Alexandria Link", and now "The Venetian Betrayal" have all been great!

"The Venetian Betrayal" is the third book to feature Cotton Malone. I think I have a personal interest in Cotton because he moved from the States to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a lot of fun to read "The Templar Legacy" and envision the sites in Copenhagen that the characters visit since my family went to Denmark in June 2006. Cotton chases one character up a tower that I walked up and have pictures of the top. It's fun. Without giving too much away about this one, in "Betrayal", Cotton, a retired federal agent, again starts in Denmark and reluctantly heads out on an adventure to help out his friends.

Berry's books always have an interesting "what if?..." factor with an interesting twist of actual world events. The creation of the Central Asian Federation as an Asian nation of former Soviet Republics creates new and interesting situations for the characters to deal with. I plan to finish up with this one tomorrow...I guess that's today with as late as I'm writing this...Check it out!