More Aerosmith Pics. . .

Here's some more photos from the Aerosmith concert.

Aerosmith 2010

Yesterday, Tara and I took to the 10 minute drive to the fairgrounds to partake in the age-old American ritual of rides, trinkets and fried food! The New York State fair was definitely a site to see. We walked around for a couple of hours, and didn't see all the different areas with all the different booths.

Despite our better judgement, we enjoyed some New York style pizza, cotton candy and even some fried dough with cinnamon and sugar on it (pretty good, but nowhere near deep fried Oreos). It was a lot of fun, and we even saw a sea lion show that was pretty entertaining.

However, yesterday's trip had one purpose, and one purpose only. Aerosmith. They are simply the best band ever. Period. I'd seen them twice before, in 1999 and 2001 (I think), and couldn't wait to see them again. . . especially after rumors circulated that they had contemplated breaking up late last year. It was also Tara's first Aerosmith concert, and I knew she would love it as well.

We weren't disappointed.

Though it's been nearly 10 years since I've seen them live – and Steven Tyler is 62 – they haven't slowed down a step. They rocked the socks off of everyone there, and did it with more energy than the 20-something kids that opened for them. Tyler pranced all around the stage with his signature scarf covered microphone stand, Joe Perry played his guitar behind his head and took of his belt and wailed on it while on the ground. Drummer Joey Kramer had a great drum solo, and even kept banging on his set with his hands and his head after tossing his sticks out into the crowd.

This was the best Aerosmith concert I've been too yet, and I hope they've got another 10 years left in them. Tara had a blast too, and said it was the best concert she's been too as well. The sound was great and the entertainment was better. These tickets were the most expensive tickets the New York State fair has ever sold. . . and they were worth every penny! (Though I got a deal, because I bought them on ebay off somebody that couldn't go anymore!!!)

We're definitely loving New York!

Jet's camp, Toby Keith and other assorted things

I've had a couple weeks of off school, and though that is coming to an end now, Tara and I have been having a lot of fun. We visited the New York Jets training camp, went to a Toby Keith and Trace Adkins concert and celebrated her birthday among other things.

First off was the trip 30 minutes down the road to Cortland, where the Jets hold most of their training camp. The camp started at 8:20 a.m. and finished up by 11 a.m. Since Tara didn't have work until 1 p.m. that day, she woke up and came with me, and it was a lot of fun. You're able to get pretty close to the players, and the Jets have a lot of big name players this year like LaDanian Tomlinson, Braylon Edwards, Mark Sanchez, Santonio Holmes and Jason Taylor, just to name a few. I got some good pics of the players, though I missed out on autographs because we picked the wrong side of the facility to watch from. Overall it was pretty cool though, and Tara even enjoyed it!

Last Saturday was Tara's 22nd birthday, so to surprise her, I got us a pair of tickets to go to the Toby Keith and Trace Adkins concert at Darien Lakes. That is a state park and amusement park near Buffalo, about a couple hours away. The concert was the Friday night before her birthday, so I picked her up when she got off work at 4:30 and we just headed right up there. It was a great concert, but it was definitely a different experience. The venue was outside like Usana, it was massive and it looked like a giant redneck gathering. In the parking lot it looked like a tornado had hit a Pabst Blue Ribbon factory (hey, we're by Canada), and inside the venue – even though we were on the grass – we thought we might die of smoke inhalation!

We should be in for another interesting experience today as we're getting ready to go to the New York State Fair. We're also stoked for another concert, as we'll be taking in the Aerosmith concert there tonight. This will be the third time I've seen Aerosmith and Tara's first, so it should be a lot of fun! Check back soon for a recap. . .

Conference craziness. . .

For a change of pace tonight, I'm going to take a few minutes and discuss the recent events that have shaken up the non-BCS football world. In a matter of a few hours, Utah State and the Western Athletic Conference went from a solid foundation with an exciting future, to surviving on life support.

Yesterday morning when I first heard the announcement that BYU was considering leaving the Mountain West Conference to become Independent in football and return to the WAC in all other sports, I started celebrating. I couldn't believe that it would actually happen. Though this entire mess is football driven, the idea of USU and BYU being in the same conference for men's basketball made me giddy. Recognized by Cougar fans or not, at least on the basketball court, USU-BYU is a rivalry. Over the past decade, USU holds a slight advantage in wins, 7-5, but the teams are evenly matched and would consistently battle for the WAC championship.

Then the Mountain West struck back. Having already poached Boise State from the WAC, the MWC reached out to Fresno State and Nevada (and we now know USU) and offered them an invitation to the conference. When I first heard this, I wasn't too worried, and frankly I'm still surprised that Fresno State and Nevada jumped at the offer so quickly. . .

Here's why–

Money: Fresno State signed the $5 million buy-out deal and Nevada verbally agreed to it or something along those lines. For two schools that are operating in budget deficits, that is a lot of money to shell out.

Schedule: As part of all other BYU sports joining the WAC and the football team staying Independent, the Cougars agreed to play a series of games with each of these teams.

Television Exposure: The WAC currently has a deal with ESPN that guarantees a certain number of televised games. With the addition (more or less) of BYU, that arrangement would most likely have been expanded. And finally, the MWC is stuck with "The Mtn." network, which offers little payback, little exposure and a lot of headaches for the teams already in the conference.

WAC power: Had Fresno State and Nevada held out, it is very possible that the MWC would be on the verge of collapse, and not the WAC. With BYU leaving, TCU most certainly would have seen the writing on the wall and pushed hard to get into the now 10-member Big 12. That would leave Boise as the main team in a weaker conference than the one they just left. Ultimately, they would have decided to stay in the WAC, and the MWC would have collapsed. The WAC could've picked up the pieces, adding UNLV (rival for UNR) , New Mexico (rival for NMSU) and San Diego State. Not only would this have been a solid football conference, but it would have been a very strong basketball conference, worthy of multiple bids.

In short, had Fresno State and Nevada been patient and honored they're commitment to the WAC, the end result probably would've been similar to where the find themselves now. . . and they wouldn't have a $5 million bill that WAC comish Karl Benson is very adamant that they'll pay.

The big news tonight coming out of Logan, is that the Aggies received and invite to the MWC before Fresno State and Nevada were even contacted. USU, however, turned down the offer, believing the rest of the teams in the conference would honor the agreement to remain together and the WAC would emerge as the stronger power (as mentioned above). It's obvious from the statements made in Scott Barnes letter, that USU and BYU have been working behind the scenes for awhile to put this thing together, and it's also obvious that it is not working out how either of them envisioned.

BYU will be fine. If they choose to do nothing, they have the MWC and if the choose to go ahead with the move to independence, then they have multiple options there as well. The Aggies, though, are now backed into a corner. Their next move most likely hinges on what the Cougars decide. If the Cougs decide to leave the MWC and deposit the remainder of their programs in the WAC, there is hope for the conference. At this point, I don't know that BYU will do that though. If BYU stays in the MWC, the conference is now stronger with the additions of Boise, Fresno and Nevada. . . making the possibility of a BCS auto-bid more realistic.

Here are the Aggies best case scenarios:

1 - BYU remains in the MWC and lobbies for USU to become the 12th team in the conference. This allows the MWC to have a conference championship game, and the up-and-coming USU squad is decent addition. Certainly above MWC bottom dwellers Wyoming, New Mexico and SDSU. This also creates a solid basketball conference that would be worthy of three to four NCAA bids year-in and year-out.

2 - BYU leaves the MWC, which in turn with the departure of Utah to the Pac-10, leaves no Utah market for the MWC. In an effort to keep at least a share of the Utah/SLC market, and add a regional member, the MWC invites the Aggies to replace the Cougars.

At this point, I see option one as the more viable choice. USU worked hard to get BYU back to the WAC and smooth that transition. Now that that path has been nuked, BYU should repay the favor and pave the way for the Aggies to join the MWC. No word yet though on whether BYU will back down from its aspirations of independence. Stay tuned for what happens next!

One down. . . three to go!

Tara and I officially apologize for the long lapse in our blog. Tara's been pretty busy with work and has been too tired when she gets home, and I've been in school from basically 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. everyday and then doing homework after that so I didn't have much of an opportunity either. Enough excuse making though, I'll get back to filling you in on what we've been up to. . . or, in the case of myself, I'll show you!

This is a business card and accompanying stationary with a personal logo that I designed in my graphics class using Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. I was trying to give my logo a sporty look, I think it turned out great and I freaking love it. . . and I got an A on it!

Some of the other projects we had to do, included creating a poster for an actual non-profit event, redesigning a magazine spread and redesigning a current website. Using a combination of my passion for sports and my love for the Valley, I created some pretty awesome designs. For the non-profit organization, I designed a poster for an NFL Play 60 event in New York City.

For the magazine layout, I redesigned a spread that ran in the Cache Valley Magazine on Gary Wilkinson. I used photos from my friend and former Editor in Chief Patrick Oden and put it with my own story that I wrote about Gary and it turned out awesome as well.

Finally, for the Web site, which I just finished today, I redid the Cache Valley Humane Society site, cachehumane.org. The site they have now, is actually a big upgrade from what they used to have, but it's still a little helter skelter. I simplified it and made the animals the focus, and made accessing the animals easier. I had no idea it was so easy and fun to design Web sites, and definitely hope to use that skill again. Designing the website, I really learned a lot about Photoshop, so that was really helpful as well. Here is what I've been doing:

If you click on any of the images above, it will take you to a bigger image if you want a closer look! Let me know what you think.