Ethan Parker

I haven’t blogged in forever- that explains the lengthy length of this piece. I was reading my friend’s super rad blog again and I got all motivated to write.

This post is about the people who have shaped who I am. If I could be more like the following list of wonderful people I would be some kind of all-knowing super hero that shoots lasers out his nose into the sky, illuminating the world and spreading baby unicorns and peace roundabout the land, for the good thereof.

Here they are in order of appearance; besides the last two

Ammon Parker

My older brother has been my hero pretty much since I can remember. He’s never been afraid of anything and is always looking for his next adventure. As kids we were all over the place. We sledded of our roof, mooned innocent bystanders, caught snakes, grasshoppers, and praying mantises. We built countless model airplanes and cars, we blew these models up with illegal fireworks, set stuff on fire, and were never afraid to discharge a firearm whether doing so was a smart or thought-out thing. Home-made silencer. Enough said.

Ammon has always been such a baller. he lead the way on all these adventures and sometimes I felt a little like Chuckie from Rugrats thinking “I don’t think this is such a good idea” but as long as Ammon was there I pretty much felt safe and wasn’t worried.

Teenage years brought a little more gusto to the mix. By this time we had motorcycles that would triple the speed limit. We used to drag race them which was awesome. He then went into the Army to find some more adventure. I didn’t go with this time but I thought it was cool that we were fighting battles simultaneously, I was on a mission and he went to Iraq. While in the Army Ammon ninja threw a huge black guy trying to beat the crap out of him on his birthday, and did a cage fight. A little later he rode a bull. Yup. Here’s the cage fight:

Holy crap that video still gets my adrenaline pumping. He’s the one that wins. Chokes the dude out.

Two days ago Ammon and his wife had their first baby and Tate the Tank was 11lbs 4oz. The doctors said he was pretty strong for a baby and he already thinks he can roll over and hold his head up ha ha.

Hugh Gregson

In the Missionary Training Center Hugh was my branch president, or bishop. He is 6′ 8″ and not small in stature. When I first got into the MTC he said “Your mission has STARTED” and everything changed for me. He finally made being active in the church cool for me. For some reason I never really felt I had met a compelling example of gospel obedience up to that point. People in the church always seemed pretty nerdy or two-faced to me. Hugh was different. He had loads of self-confidence and knew exactly who he was and what he wanted at all times.

Knowing him caused me to re-evaluate what I wanted out of life and make some changes. I decided that I was going to be active in the Church and live what that really meant. I decided to read the scriptures which I had never done with much consistency up to that point. I felt that this was such an important thing that I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning pretty much my entire stay at the MTC reading. I finished the Book of Mormon then read through the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the New Testament for the first time. It was great. I really felt like a new man.

Hugh was part of the biggest turning point in my life up to now.

Janie Thompson

Janie is one of the most amazing, talented, hard-working, inspirational, loving, listening, aware people I have ever met. She is simply a wonder. To know that people like her exist really makes me feel better about the planet and life itself. It’s also motivating. I have a whole topic on this blog about her. Here’s how we met. She started BYU’s Young Ambasadors and Lamanite Generation, now known as Living Legends. Early in her life she sang with Tony Bennett and personally knew Mickey Rooney. She also served on the Young Women’s General Board for 16 years.

Seriously one of the coolest people ever. She called me today and it was so great to hear from her, I usually go visit a few times a month. I have so many great memories of Janie since I’ve lived here in Provo and consider her one of my closest friends.

Rosalind Hall

I met sister Hall in January of 2007 when I was fresh off the mission. I saw Men’s Chorus do a dress rehearsal of some Disney songs and it totally rocked. 200 very talented guys rocking it out and having tons of fun. I tried out for the BYU Men’s Chorus. After getting past the graduate student screening it was time to meet my maker, the Welsh-accented lovely sister Hall. I was nervous about auditioning so I had my friend Kip give me a crash course 2 days before. Under “experience” on my application I put “one hour with Kip from Singers” to which she replied “what makes you think you can sing in the Men’s Chorus???” ha ha. I looked her square in the face and said “because I want to”. She said “do the University Chorale (an unauditioned choir class) and come see me in the fall”. That’s exactly what I did. Oh yeah and did I mention I was extremely sick for that first audition? Yes I was.

Men’s Chorus was an amazing experience I wouldn’t trade. I got to hear from her 5 days a week which was like a motivational speaker mixed with an LDS general authority every day. I also got to sing in General Conference in April 2008. Look for the guy on the end with a wicked sun burn from snowboarding. Men’s Chorus totally rocks. Here’s them doing a flash mob. I wasn’t part of this but you get the idea.

Nerd power. Men’s Chorus rocks, if you’ve never been to one of their shows it’s a must.

Mike Zevallos

Winter semester 2007 I was taking a Spanish class and a couple kids came in asking for volunteers to mentor kids. They espcially needed people that spoke Spanish to help out with the kids whose parents spoke Spanish. I was feeling really lucky at the time because I was able to quit a crap telemarketing job because of some financial from my sister. I needed to study extra hard so I could get into the accounting program at BYU. I decided to be a mentor.

I worked with a kid over the summer then got paired up with Mike in September. He was 9 years old and super cute kid. His biological father left when he was 3 and passed away in prison when he was 7 years old. His step father who pretty much raised him had three more children with his mom and they split up when Mike was 8. You wouldn’t know it from getting to know Mike, though. He has always been a very happy, smart, and motivated kid. I feel lucky to know him.

We try to see each other every week and do something fun whether it’s play frisbee, soccer, get Jamba Juice, go to a football/basketball game, or go on an unexpected crazy snow hike. Mike has greatly enriched my life and I’m so grateful for him. He’s the closest thing I have to a son and he has made me look very much forward to having children of my own.

Last and anything but least are my parents, Don and Tish Parker.

They are amazing. I can’t imagine what it would be like to raise 6 children. Three boys, three girls, and we’re all doing great raising our own families or preparing to do so. My mom and dad are super cool. They have certainly allowed me to make my own mistakes and be free but at the same time have given much-needed guidance at the right times. I owe them a ton. They always paid for sports I did as a kid and came to all my games. They paid for me to serve a mission, too, which is something not all parents can do. Since I’ve been at college they always came to my choir concerts and come down here often to do fun stuff or take me out to dinner and buy me groceries and things like that. It’s awesome. Couldn’t ask for better parents in college. It’s kind of nice that they moved up here to Utah from AZ, too. And nice that my dad introduced me to the joy that is late model BMWs, ha ha. Theirs is way cool and they let me drive it a lot when they first bought it. Yea, even to LA where my brother and I left for our super sweet cruise last summer.

I shant leave out my other siblings. My younger brother Eric has been my best friend for a long time now. We share a ton of interests and no one can make me laugh like him. We were in a band together, rode motorcycles together, and have been roomates for the past 3 years. Eric rules. It’s his birthday soon! My sisters rock, too. Emily is fun because we can talk about BYU and music and stuff. She’s brilliant and I love her personality, she funny, too. Ahlena is like Yoda. She’s a great listener and she’s always very interested in what you are doing and what you have to say. If she gives advice it’s always from the heart and is timely and usually needed. My youngest older sister Anna is super cool, too. She owns a dance studio and is always lotsa fun. Her daughters are super funny and I love hanging out with them. I got to go there earlier this year for a trade show, soooooo nice to stay with them and see them instead of staying in some lame hotel. They might be moving out west some time soon which is super exciting!! It will be awesome to have Anna and her family nearby.

Werd. Improvements in the biz. Today was Boston’s second day at the office and it’s been going really well. He is all about Parker Planners and owns his work. He showed up today with a whiteboard and markers to help keep track of things. Rock.

Here are some pictures I’ve been sharing on Twitter lately. Sorry to those who aren’t friends with me on facebook or follow me on twitter, they wouldn’t see this stuff. It’s kind of a lazy man’s way to blog. When I post something on twitter from my phone it automatically goes to my facebook feed, too.

I got another key for my office made today and met the owner of this vehicle in the key place. It’s also a mid-1980’s VW diesel contraption. Front-wheel drive, weird.

My office now has a second person, a second desk, and some cool stuff on the walls.

Eric and I went to the BYU vs UNLV basketball game. Jimmer Fredette did it again by silencing a critic star player on the other team and proving he can pass the ball, too. 29 points but also 7 assists and 2 other team members scored 12 points or better.

This is a hilarious and amazingly long discussion on facebook about “The Jimmer”. It made it on ESPN.com.

The ESPN article: here

The amazing facebook thread: here

Mike and I went to a BYU Volleyball game recently, they’re ranked 3rd in the nation. Great to watch.

I’m on an intramural soccer team. This is my coach, he don’t take guff.

Thanks for reading.

Ethan

If you haven’t heard this name yet you may be living in a cave. A cave with wireless internet and a power outlet so you can read my blog and have now heard it.

I just got back from probably the most watched college basketball game in the nation. #4 San Diego State vs #9 BYU. Jimmer scored significantly more than 1/2 of BYU’s points. That’s 43 out of 71. The guy is a miracle worker. While the game is going on stuff happens and he does alright but then you look up 10 min later and he’s got like 30 points and no fouls. It’s amazing. BYU showed America they’re the best in the Mountain West Conference and a likely contender for the NCAA tourney coming in March.

I took Mike the 12-yr old stud who I mentor. It was his first BYU basketball game. We screamed our guts out and had a great time; BYU’s pre-game stuff is way way cool. They had giant white sheets that dropped down from the ceiling on all 4 corners of the jumbo-tron then projected video clips of BYU rocking it on the court. Loud music and great light effects. They know how to put on a show!

The national anthem by Vocal Point was way way good, too. So so talented. That’s the group I had sing to my girlfriend last summer Yeah good times. I’m single now, though and lookin’ for love. (here we go) Kinda weird to admit that but it’s about time, right? Have you ever heard about guys that are scared off when a girl is too confident? I think that’s crazy. Makes no sense to me. “Yeah, but I’d rather have a girl that can’t look people in the eye and second guesses everything she does and says”. Uhhhh, ok. Not me. I’ve heard it from multiple places that some girls don’t get asked about because they are too attractive, have a plan, and are applying themselves in school. Ludicrous. Show yourself! Send me an email, hunny, cause you don’t scare me.

They say if you don’t fall down on occasion you’re not running fast enough. Let’s just say I haven’t been aiming too low

Crazy as it sounds I don’t mind when a superstar girl says nay. It makes them decide. They don’t just get to ignore you and leave it at that; I get some kind of sick satisfaction out of making a really popular girl tell me she’s not interested strait up after she’s not called back or taken a long time responding to communication.

It’s not all rejection, though. When you win it’s heaven on earth. Guess I just haven’t found a real Yin to my Yang yet. I’d like a girl who understands stuff I say, is capable of disagreeing with me, and is smokin’ hot. That’s about it. Not too much to ask, right? So where do these goal-oriented creatures congregate?

Maybe they’re holding pom-poms at basketball games . . .

This “morning” I woke up and knew that I had a big meeting with a regional president of Zion’s Bank and hoped it wasn’t really Friday the 13th as my blurry morning vision could have suggested. You don’t want to have an important meeting on that day. So this meeting came about from the Utah Student 25 event that transpired back in November. I got a letter from the CEO of Zion’s Bank congratulating us on our performance and said to contact him personally if I ever needed anything. Hmmm. CEO of a bank offering his services? Yes, please.

I emailed him and he got back to me surprisingly quickly. The very next day. He then put me in contact with a guy who has a sweet office at their brand new very nice building here in Provo. The meeting went well and I got to tell the whole Parker Planners story. I was surprised at how interested he and the other guy in the meeting were to hear my story. It was a confidence booster for sure. I kept thinking “why do these guys care about a planner company?” but whateva, it was good times. They were very helpful in answering some questions and Zion’s may just help Parker Planners get to the next level.

I then hung out with Mike. It was awesome as usual. The last few times have been better than ever. It almost feels like he’s my son sometimes, kinda weird but fulfilling-weird. He’s so sharp and mature for a 12-year-old. We went to Denny’s and got hot chocolate and pancake puppies- fried donut holes made of pancake. These were blueberry with white chocolate chips and they came with warm syrup- yes, as good as it sounds!!

Their hot chocolate is re-fill-able and I think I had like 4.

Afterward we stopped by my office so we could pick up a planner. Mike wanted one because his school planner is too big and he likes Parker Planners. We agreed on a price of $0.50 and it was a fair deal. He was in luck because we just got some samples from China, brand new improved version!!

Guess I should have got a pic with he and the planner.

After that I rocked out with my new roomate Andrew and we ate some chili I made from scratch. It came out great. Chips and chili is what I make when I want to pretend I eat healthily. I like to eat it with white corn chips and lots of cheese, salsa and a little tobasco.

Then it was inner-tube water polo time!! It sounds a little crazy but it’s ridicu-fun. It’s an intramural team and I love it. Rocks. We unfortunately forfeited but got to play for-fun game anyway.

Then I went to a western-themed birthday party and it was a dandy. Night y’all.

Ethan

ps my sister sent me this link. Yes it’s a Miley Sirus song but you gotta give the guy credit for his talents. He’s got a few others that are very good, too.

Here’s a video from last Friday. I went to an overnight training for a service organization I belong to. They had a little talent show and I probably wouldn’t have participated but they said the prize was $100! “Well shoot dang” methinks, “why don’t I give it a go?!”. I didn’t win but it was still tons of fun. You may remember the wig from Antoine Dodson’s infamous appearance on the interwebs. I didn’t know a girl from the audience was filming this and she kindly emailed me the footage. That explains the incompleteness.

I didn’t decide exactly what I was going to do until about 20 min before I went on stage, the wig and bandanna thing was pretty much improv.

Mike has a science project due next week so we worked on it yesterday. He had to burn 3 hunks of wood and measure which one caught ablaze first and how tall the flame was. It was so much fun. When was the last time you burned something for recreation? I recommend it. Embrace your inner pyro now and then.

Today I also met with my partner in crime Nick. He and I are working for Zappedy, inc. out of Palo Alto, CA on a deal-of-the-day kind of website. It’s like Groupon.com for mid-size cities. The idea is to have one krushingly good deal per day where you get a big discount on a restaurant, recreational thing, etc. We’re still in the super early stages of it all- wish us some luck!

Here’s a video glimpse of fire fun.

Mike and I did some homework that he turned in last week. It was a picture made of geometric objects. I taught him how to use Adobe Illustrator and he rocked it! He ended up getting 110% he tells me! So proud of that kid, he’s way smart. Here’s what it looked like:

Mike and I played tennis today, rocked. He’s very good for it being his first time playing. The goal of tennis for me is to hit the ball as hard as I can but still have it land in the serve square. Mission accomplished twice! Mike got one, too! We got to see the BYU tennis team practice a little, too. They rock.

Yesterday just after I got home Mike called and asked if I could help with some math homework. It was a very busy day and I had great excuses to say that hanging out on Friday was enough this week. I went anyway. I love how life asks you what your priorities are sometimes.

Mike and I bowled, we were both around 100. We played at the BYU games center, they have free pool, too. He does a lot of ballroom dance and football. Rock on. Mike got a spare and I got 2 strikes in a row!

Mike and I worked on our custom Parker Planners more tonight (his idea!). Mine is going to have stuff from the header of this blog on it and his has NFL players, soccer players, and probably a Lamborghini. He had a football with him that was a little flat so after we were done in the computer lab we headed to the Richards Building (all about exercise) on campus and in the locker room they have a super nice electric pump for balls.

We played some catch outside, it was so much fun. Too bad it takes like 10+ years to have a son who is 10 years old. I wouldn’t mind one now. Mike is the coolest, he was telling me how one time he was playing D-line and he broke through the line so fast that he got the hand off instead of the running back! ha!

Here’s Mike and I making our new custom Parker Planners on Adobe Illustrator courtesy BYU. A girl on a computer in front of us said she’d take our picture and email it to me, thanks! I’ll post the finished planners.

Fake snow, that is. It still felt great, though. We went up Provo Canyon to this cool place with tubing fun. The mentor program paid for it and there were probably 30 mentor pairs there! Here we are on the slopes!

Here’s Mike, his sister, and I being hoisted up the hill.

Felt great.

Mike and I went to a park and played some Frisbee Football. It was a game we made up right then and there where you throw each other the frisbee/football and catch it at the same time. The game then evolved into throwing the football at the frisbee, then throwing the frisbee at the football in mid air. It was lotsa fun.

I don’t know why its called that, but its a fun place by Utah Lake along the Provo River. Here is a picture of me jumping to catch a ring, it was cool! They put you in a harness, you climb a tree, jump to get the ring, then lower you to the ground and you think about how cool it was. The BYU 4H mentoring program through Utah State University did it for us. Its the thing I mentor Mike through.

This is from Aug 12. Here’s Mike with the girls basketball team at BYU. Lucky we were walking by their court and he wanted to peek inside. They were cool about it. Man, girls just seem to trust you more when you hang out with kids. Bonus!

Mike and I played soccer in the Indoor Practice Facility today. It’s supposedly the largest one in the United States for any college. It’s got this cool rubber grass and dirt and feels grea to run on, but not to fall on.

Mike and I hiked the Y again today. This time we got to turn 5! That thing can’t stop us. We had to turn back a little early but we’re going to destroy it next time. That igriega doesn’t stand a chance. Mike suggested we pray before we went up this time. He’s a good kid.

Mike and I at the Alumni Center. We went on campus today expecting to just run into something fun to do, turns out they give on the spot guided tours of this place. It was good. We learned lots and watched the animated short “Piñatas”.

Here we are resting on a rock. This is our first attempt at hiking the Y. We got a little past the first turnpike and then had to turn back due to severe weather conditions and extreme wildlife disturbances. We’ll try again some other time.