IronMatt. My defense is impregnable.

Soo.... I know it's not quite March yet, but for some reason I felt like blogging.  So here you go.

Amazingly I can actually report that I am still in the same major, Recreation Management.  For those of you who don't know, the Rec Management major at BYU is a part of the Marriott School of Business.  Yeah, I know, that's pretty legit.  I just thought I'd mention that and boost my image a little bit (my image can always stand a little boosting).  It's still working out well for me.  The classes are laid back but still informative and interesting.  Unfortunately, I am no longer 100% optimistic about having an April graduation.  After this semester I have 3 more classes to finish and an internship to do. And unless I can squeeze all of those into winter semester, it looks like I'll more likely be graduating in August.  But I'm OK with that, if that's what ends up happening.  I'll just be happy if I have a job lined up for after graduation. (fingers crossed)

In other news, a few months ago I decided that I was hardcore and signed up for a half Ironman here in Provo.  Not surprisingly, when I mentioned this fact to family and friends the information was received with much laughter and a series of inquiries such as "Do you even know how far a half Ironman is?" and "Have you ever swam, biked, or ran that far?".  I had no idea that I was associated with so many doubting Thomas's.  True, I had never actually swam 1.2 miles, biked 56 miles, or ran 13.1 miles, and in fact, I hadn't biked since my mission 5 years ago or swam for anything but recreation in my life.  But, I mean, how hard could it be, right?  So me and my buddy Steven started training.  Turns out that swimming is actually pretty hard to do.  Who would have thought?  But I was still determined to show all of the naysayers a thing or two about how manly I really am.  I also bought a road bike online and went out a few times for some training (this included a spectacular crash while I was getting onto the bike.  Pretty awesome.  Unfortunately no one else was around to see it).  As part of the training Steven and I did a sprint triathlon, which is about 1/4th the distance of a half Ironman, about a month before the half Ironman was scheduled.  In spite of the fact that I had done a lot of swim training in the pool at the gym, it turns out that open water swimming and getting punched by 30-40 people all around you is a little different than swimming laps in your own lane at the gym.  But other than that the race went pretty smoothly (please note that I am using the term "smoothly" relatively loosely).

Even though I had done some training, I don't think it would be too far of a stretch to assume that I had done the least amount of training of everyone at the race.  I didn't really know how fast I should be expecting to finish, but I settled on shooting for 7 hours.  After a swim that went surprisingly well, a bike ride that was fun but long and painful towards the end, and a run that was murder and caused thoughts of suicide on more than one occasion, I managed to finish the race in 6:49:40.  And yes, the rumors are true.  Of the 98 women that competed, I beat 12 of them.  TAKE THAT WOMEN!!!!!!  Of all of the rewards that came from training and finishing the race, such as being in peak physical condition from the training and the satisfaction of completing such a tough task, the most rewarding thing that came out of it all was most definitely this picture.

Bam!!!

The oddest part of it all is that, despite the fact that I am now half iron, half man, all Ironman; I'm still single and not married.  What's a guys supposed to do?  Jeez.

Now to close this post, a quick update on my bowling goal of beating my sister Sara's score of 237.  I bowled a 230 the other day.  Getting closer.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your stay.  Please visit again soon.  And by soon, I mean in a year or so from now when I update again with a new post.  Until next time amigos.

uhWhaaaaaa?!? A second post? No way!!

Yep, I think it has been sufficiently long enough to prove that I indeed don't have any intentions of blogging with any sort of regularity. It has also been just long enough that maybe I have a few interesting tidbits to share with my devoted fans. So buckle up, grab a snack, and call a friend over, because we use the buddy system here and everybody likes a nice snack.

Step 1: Bowling
As all of my followers know (yes, my blog has followers), a year ago I posted that I had set the goal of bowling over 200 before I die. (If you aren't one of my many devoted fans, just scroll down a quarter page to the post from last year to get yourself updated) It actually wasn't very long after I set the goal for myself that I accomplished the amazing feat. Since that time I have bowled over 200 six or seven times. My highest score so far is 211.

BOOM!!!! Insert photographic proof.


Unfortunately, my life is not yet fulfilled. I still haven't beaten Sara's 237. But soon, and then I will be ready to give up the ghost and leave this life.

Step 2: School
Contrary to what I said before, it turns out that I really didn't want to go into public relations. This may or may not have been influenced by the fact that BYU told me I wasn't good enough for their Public Relations program. We will never know for sure. So instead I'm studying Recreation Management. It's really called Recreation Management and Youth Leadership, but I don't like saying the whole name because the Youth Leadership part makes it sound pretty pansie. So far it seems like this is a good major for me, minus all of the classes I've taken so far that have an emphasis on what to do if you're disabled. (Despite what you may believe, I don't actually have a disability) The classes for the major have a lot of small business application, which is what I really want to do. So, if the stars align and I eat enough vegetables, I should be graduating in April 2012. Which is pretty good considering that it's only 3 years behind schedule.

Step 3: The Ladies
Next topic.

Step 4: Picture
I've been told that posting pictures on your blog makes it like a billion times more interesting. So here you go.


Step 5: Game Time
To keep things interesting we're going to play a little game. The first person to comment on this post and tell me the correct number of fish in my coy pond on the right will get a shoutout in my next post. Hint: It's harder than you think.

And there you have it. I'm sure that will hold you over for another year. I'll see you guys in 2012.

Brace yourselves. (Especially you mom)

Yes, it is true. I, Matthew David Nixon III, have officially blogged. I'm still not quite sure why. Maybe it's all of the incredibly interesting and insightful things I have to say. No........ that can't be it. It's possible that I did it because I knew it would make my mom extremely happy. Yeah..... that sounds good, we'll go with that. That and being bored while at work. But mostly the first one.

I feel I should clarify that this is in no means a commitment to blog with any type of regularity. I do, however, promise to attempt to get on here and update with interesting stories, factoids, or happenings in my life, but it should be understood that these types of things rarely come up or happen to me. So I make no promises.

Ok, so now, as my good friend Ignacio would say, "Let's get down to the neety greety". There really isn't much to report on with what is going on at school. I'm finishing up the rest of the prereq's for the communications program here at BYU. Classes are going pretty well so far. Busy at times but overall not too bad. I'm still working at Independent Study while I'm going to school. It's kind of weird to think that I've been working here for almost a year. It might sound sad, but I've never worked anywhere for more than 3 or 4 months. So a year is a pretty big milestone for me. You would think that I'd have been promoted by now, but I guess that's just not how things work here. Hopefully soon though. I could use the $1 raise.

I'm not even going to bring up the girl situation, so I'll just continue on to other subjects.

In other news, I've always had the goal to bowl over 200 at least once in my life, but about a month ago I decided to take this goal a little more seriously. I figured it wouldn't be very likely that I would accomplish this goal by only bowling once or twice a year. So I've bowled two games a week for the past month or so. Overall I have bowled pretty well, but still nothing above 200. The closest I've gotten is a 194. The split in the first few frames definitely cost me completing my goal. Hopefully before too long I will need to make a new goal. Like beating Sara's 237. You're going down Sara. But for now I'll focus on breaking 200.

Well, I guess this concludes the first ever blog from yours truly (and possibly the last, *gasp*). I invite you to take the poll so I can figure out 1. if anyone is even reading this, and 2. if anyone wants me to keep it up. Don't worry mom, I already voted yes for you. Until next time my friends.