My favorite Players per NBA Team, 2026

    I will start with my number one player favorite in the NBA. It is now in 2026, but he may become my all-time favorite. He went to my school in Provo, Utah, brought glory and good vibes to it, and I will love him forever for what he did for the school and what he said about my Church and the Book of Mormon. As far as I know, he is quality as a person from beginning to end. His confidence is not hubristic. He is well grounded, kind, nice, and a winner.

    AJ Dybantsa (1). I may get a jersey of his, which I have never done for any player in the NBA, NFL, and only once in the MLB. (Tim Raines). I am almost 56 years old. Big NBA fan since 1986.

    Go Wizards! You are likely my new favorite team. Go Wiz.

    Who would be next?

    Pacers? 

    Tyrese Halliburton (2). He brought a lot of joy, entertainment, excitement, hope, and admiration to the home-based Indiana Pacers. Took them to the finals, unexpectedly. Wishing you the best! You are a bit like Reggie Miller. Here's hoping.

Who comes in third? An underdog... Utah Jazz. 

    I will go with the L.A. Clippers next, fourth. 

    Okay, da Jazz: (I have to check): I guess I go with Lauri Markannen, because he is Finnish, not because he attended the University of Arizona. While I loved the Wildcats in 1997 for beating the vaunted Kentucky Wildcats, I am not so much a fan since. Better them, however, than Duke, UNC, Kansas, UConn, or Florida. Or UCLA, when lording it over my Indiana Hoosiers. Or BYU Cougars. Or even the Boilermakers or Utes!

    Clippers. I had to think of the state I lived in a while and which team I would derive the most pleasure from winning. Not the Lakers! Not the Warriors. Go Clips. Or even Kings.

    Rui Hachimura (4). Always impressed, I liked him with the Wizards. I like his Japanese-Beninese heritage. Go Rui!

    Next up... Hmmmm. Kings. No, I lied. Suns.

    Phoenix (5). I'll go with Collin Gillespie. I like his moxie.

    Now Kings (6). Damontas Sabonis. His dad is a legend, he is a dog. Is that two Gonzaga dudes now? Ichhh... They cannot help it. AJ will surpass them all! Go Brigham Young!

    Next,uhh... Cleveland? (7).  Sam Merrill. Represents the Church of Jesus Christ, Utah State. Second place, Thomas Bryant. Indiana Hoosier forever.

    Maybe I go...alphabetically... Nah, Atlanta. (8) Kingston Flemings. This guy is a killer, I think. Fun to watch, so forceful.

    Ok, to the order of the site. Boston. (9) Paul George. Brought some love to the Pacers. I pull for him.

    Brooklyn. (10) Egor Demin. Picked BYU for his one and done. Not his fault that his Russian murderer president Vlad the Impaler is a bad, evil, leader. Unlike Alex Ovechkin, he does not support Putin. If he does, I will drop Demin like a rock. Go Ukraine. Stay free and safe. Vladimir? Many will see you in hell.

    New York. The champs (11) OG Ananoby. Love the guy. Hoosiers.

    Taco Fall. The name alone. And the height.

     Toronto. (12) Trayce Jackson-Davis. Four years with the Hoosiers! Thanks for trying. Seriously.

    Chicago. (13) Matas Buzelis. I like his background. I think I dislike the schools of most of the others.

    Kevin Huerter. Detroit. (14) Impressed me at Maryland. I like his style and his unconventional red hair. If that is not an under dog, I do not know what is. Bill Walton, anyone? 

    Milwaukee Bucks (15) Kel' el Ware. Hoosiers!

    Denver (16). DeMar DeRozan. De Old dog, wid the De Old School Mid De Range.

    Minnesota (17). Donte DiVincenzo. But I am curious about this new guy Rocco Zikarsky. What a name! What is in a name? With a name like that, some of us have to be fans.

    Oklahoma (18). Bennett Stirtz. Iowa guy. Hopefully a good influence to many.

    Portland (19). Deni Avdija. Israeli. Cool to see compete. What is that name? Yang Hansen has me intrigued. Chinese? Norwegian? 

    Lakers. I have hated them, historically. Too much success. (20) Sandro Mamukelashvili. May he flounder with the Lakers and bring glory to his home country. Georgia, anyone?

    Charlotte. (21) Hannes Steinbach. Studly and cool in college. He is going to eat some people up in the pros.

    Miami. (22) Tim Hardaway, Jr. I liked his dad. This guy passed up pops by 9 inches.

    Orlando (23) Franz Wagner. We like some Germans. Keeps the game honest.

    Dallas. (24) Kyrie irving. Never helped Duke much and he got handles, yo.

    Houston (25) Bogdan Bogdanovic. Love the Balkans. Shout out to the Doncic, too. Entertaining.

    Memphis (26) Richie Saunders. BYU man. Not signed yet? Get a clue, Memphis.

    New Orleans. (27) Bennedict Mathurin. He got game. I believe.

    San Antonio (28). Dylan Harper. I like his dunks.

    Whoops. I miscounted. There should be 30 total. 

    Good enough for now...

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

        

 All - Time Indiana Hoosier Team

    Walt Bellamy, center.

    Alan Henderson, power forward.

    Calbert Cheaney, small forward.

    Steve Alford, shooting guard.

    

    Isaih Thomas, point guard.

    It would be fun to see these guys run at their primes. The guards are undersized, but I think that they would offset any defensive liabilities with their amazing offensive prowess.

    Go IU.

    Fight, fight, fight!

    Trying to get a favorite Hoosier for this season. Last season? Maybe the best scorer... but he was one and done. Typically he needs to be there longer.

    Go, my guys. Hope they can break into the Big Dance, 2027. It has been too long...

Happy Birthday, and Thank You!

    Dearest Mother-In-Law,

    This is a belated birthday wish and a letter of appreciation, as it were.

    When I think of you, many impressive things come to mind. You are a super good person for many reasons. I will explain a few of them. But know that I love you; you are beloved by hundreds if not thousands of people, living and dead, and of course God and His son and all the saints and angels. You are on the right side of righteousness, which is the best place to be. You are quite special and choice.

    Before you became a mother of eight outstanding human beings, raising them and making them the best people that I know, who all incredibly have supported and sustained me for over 26 years in my associations, marriage, and child rearing with your fourth child and our five of your multitudinous grandchildren, you were the daughter of two humble parents in Pasadena. You and your sister and three brothers grew and became pillar parts of your communities and groups, professions and associations throughout all your lives. I got to know each of them to various degrees. They, like you, are loving, supporting, and conscientious, devoted, and kind. We love all of you.

    You set yourself up for success, going to college, marrying and being committed to your family and God, your fellow members of society and your neighborhood.

    When I first met you you were working as a dutiful middle school teacher, and maybe you were teaching part time at the local junior college. I enjoyed learning about your art work and your teaching experiences, and your service to others and random acts of kindness, sometimes with little prompting. Spontaneously righteous or Christlike.

    

    Always exemplary.

    You always were welcoming in your house while I dated your daugter. Later, after I graduated from a a master's program without a job lined up in my hopeful position in the State Department, you let me, your daughter, (my wife), our first daughter and later our second daughter stay in your house for two years! It enabled us to earn and save money and pay off the graduate loans that we had accrued, live abroad and then move to the East Coast.

    You always communicated with us, sending us nice cards and birthday money and wishes. You visited us once we moved out to the East Coast, you traveled with us to Chile, you always welcomed us in your home in California.

    You have been a tremendous boon to me and my family's life. Your stalwort faith and dedication has been noteworthy, to people of all stations. President Dale Poulson, my mentor when Branch President of the Spanish Sixth Branch, always noted that you were a saint and a force of good. I concur. 

    You are a great person, teacher, artist, mother, wife, member of the faith of our people, grandmother, great grandmother, and a boon to the country and its citizenry.

    Thanks for being you and for all you are and have been.

    

    You are awesome and sweet.

    Love you forever, 

    Your 26 plus year son-in-law.

    

Demography is One of my Favorite Subjects

    But, perhaps my math was too klunky or slow.

    Too klunky or slow.

    Oh, Eduardo! How could you mistake the DeCameron for the Canterbury Tales!

    Yes, colour me guilty, as charged.

    Not tightly wound enough, not polished, but more generally vast and even vapid.

    My daughter works on the social sciences of demography now. It brings me back to my time at UCLA.

    Times of thought and promise.

    Church growth, but of little matter. The science, including math and formulas, and greater data, was not focused and concentrated enough.

    Statistics and regressions.

    Too ... widely spread, the knowledge and lack of discipline.

    Leading to perceptions and failures across the board.

    Distracted and meandering, accussing of OC, or ADHD, and all the other acronyms of sickness and lack of mental acuity, or acerbic capacities.

    All those negatives.

    Speaking of distracted, I wish to re-read the book about the Rock of Jerusalem and the books by famous authors in and around Fortaleza, Brazil.

    yes. yeah. Yay.

    

Sports are Easier, Simpler. Better Clarified, Less Messy

    Maybe that is why. Heiristics to help some avoid the harder problem sets.

    Distractions with flashy colors and personalities to pull us away, in a perhaps indulging escapism, moving us away from harder, or even better and more useful informations and knowledges.

    

    Easier to talk about the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers than the crime rates of Baltimore or the violence perpetually wrought in Yemen or other parts of the world.

    Science and economics, topics that make our lives better, yet they are harder to grasp, to get our heads around, to entertain and amuse.

    Yeah.

    What about those Lakers this year? Too many white guys to succeed, Stephen A. Smith?

 The Man of Disappointments

    There once was a man, who did not always succeed,

    He ran into obstacles, he disappointed his seed.

    Or his spouse.

    Some times it was bosses, who found him quite lacking

    His confidence sent packing

    From day to day or year to year.

    Not achieving the overarching hopes or dreams.

    His time needs or productive outputs.

    Welcome to failure, welcome to this world.

    Mediocrity. Rejection.

    Disappointment.

    

    Perhaps too long he failed to push the right ways.

    Settling for less then, not trying hard enough.

    Not going far or fast enough...

    But he has hopes, beyond Jesus, his country,

    The dreams of all.

    He maintained those hopes.

    He himself recognized some wont of greatness within him

    Perhaps he gave up years ago

    With time and some efforts

    That he could not 

As My Stomach Turns - World Political Turmoil and Us

As My Stomach Turns - World Political Turmoil and Us. And Me.

    Things are not perfect in the world. They rarely are. Many of us are not too affected by higher prices, higher fuel costs and food, or awful credit or mortgage rates that are untenable...

    No perfections found, really. As would-be economists we need to manuever the dismal sciences of efficiencies and demands. Let's make do.

    Figure things out individually, collectively. Let the best minds decide and make choices. For the better. The betterment of all.

        Where to start? Where it ends in the Bible? In the Holy Land? Israel and Palestine. The never ending battles, debates, human rights abuses and hatreds. Unending.

    How to end it? We need a smart, dedicated, confident group of acerbic Americans or other leaders and people of sound judgment to settle the awful siituations there.

    C'mon, world.

    1. Russia versus Ukraine.

    2. Iran versus the world. To include confederate Shia proxies in Iraq, Yemen.

    3. Fighting in Congo, Rwanda, Burundi. Many people fighting over some rotten apples. (Perhaps not accurate or too simplistic.

    4. Somalia. Terrorism. Al-Shabab.

    5. Nigeria. Boko Haram.

    6. Ethiopia. Tigray tensions.

    7. What have I forgot? There are other bad issues roiling places of the world.

    8. Eco-terrorists? People who fight to save the planet, one tree or climate change prevention at a time.

    9. Fossil fuel fights. Space development and exploration.

    10. Artificial Intelligence battles.

    11. Cyber shenanigans.

    12. Electronic warfare? Not sure of the overlaps.

    13. China mapping out over Taiwan and the western Pacific.

    14. Drug cartels. 

    15. Over nationalistic causes in the sub-continent.

    16. The ice areas melting. Temperatures rising. See eco-terrorists. The cost of being greener.

    17. Did my dumb, faulty computer erase my last ones?

    18. North Korea.

    19. Mad economic schemes.

    20. Inflation and exhorbitant prices.

    21. Not replacing population.

    22. Cutting off medicine and the proliferation of HIV and malaria.

    23. Poverty.

    24. High priced education.

    25. Increased marijuana THC levels, inducing psychosis and violence.

    26. Pollution.

    27. Cheaper, greener energy. Wind, solar, geothermal. What else? Hydroelectric.

    28. Drying up of aquifers and rivers. Ice melting. Seas rise, islands and coasts inundated.

    29. Religious competition, persecuion.

    30. Radical movements. Violent or persecutory ideologies.

    31. Pornagraphy and sexual exploitation.

    32. Greed.

    33. Mental illnesses.

    34. Traffic safety and death.

    35. Cancer and other deadly and impairing diseases.

    36. Ivy league elite smugness.

    37. Pride.

    38. Unfaithfulness.

    39. Apathy.

    Ok, who cares about forty things. 

    You? Me. We should.

    Blog it.