JJ Ross's Dunk

Hermiston High School sports I have always rooted for. After all, my dad graduated from their, having participated in track. When I saw this video on ESPN's SportsCenter the other night, I was really excited. Go Dawgs!

BYU vs. Portland

I know it is almost four months old, but I have pictures from a men's college basketball game held in Portland. It was the University of Portland Pilots against the then ranked 23 Brigham Young University Cougars. BYU was able to win the game by around 20 points.

My seat was excellent for the game, being only three rows back from the score table. With that said, my pictures are still only somewhat decent since I used my cell phone. Overall it was a very fun game to watch, and I saw a very young BYU team play very well.

Note: The Chiles Center, home of the Portland Pilots, is where my high school's basketball team (Astoria) won the state champioship in 1998.

Miles, one of the centers for BYU, I met sinced he served a mission, where one of his wards that he served in was the Seaside ward. Let me tell you, he is tall.

Trent Plaisted, a talented center in the Mountain West Conference, is a fun, athletic center to watch.

Here is BYU during one of their timeouts.

Here you can see Plaisted taking a free throw shot.

Here is a much bigger picture of a BYU timeout.

You can tell how close I am to the score table from this picture.

This was the scoreboard with about five minutes left in the half.

Here is a picture of Plaisted during the warm-ups.

Jonathan Taverenari is another high scorer for the Cougars. Only a sophomore, he is making his mark already.

This is a picture of Taverenari leaving the game after a BYU win.

Air Museum (Cont.)

Here is a continuation of photos that I took at the air museum.


I was very tempted into getting this shirt after I saw it in the gift shop.

This made me laugh. If you can't read what it says: Complaint Department - Please Take a Number. Behind this is a grenade with the pin ring, which has a number attached to it.

This is a shot of the Spruce Goose's propellers. They were just as huge as the rest of the plane.

I thought that this was a really cool plane.

Ever since I was a kid I've always liked the design on this fighter plane.

You can see the enormosity, (is that a word?), of the Spruce Goose next to this good sized plane.

A neat name for a plane, even if it is remote controlled.

Apparently, even though Evergreen International is a commercial company, they used to offer airfare. Here is one of their older planes, built by the Ford Moter Company.

Its always awesome when you come across sweet designs on planes such as this one.

This World War II bomber had very stylish propellers.

Here is the tail end of the much anticipated Spruce Goose. It's hard to capture the size of it on camera.

The cockpit of the fast jet in the world. All though it is no longer in service, it was still amazing to look at. Faster than the speed of sound.

This museum was rich in helicopters, and there were some pretty cool models.

As stated earlier, this museum had other things, such as this cool antique motercycle.

This reminds me of planes that you often see at the small airports.

I thought that this plane had a cool design.

Viewings of planes aren't complete without a seaplane, such as this one.

Air Musuem

About a month ago our venture crew went to a air museum down in McMinniville. I think it is called the Evergreen Aviation Museum. There we were able to see the spruce goose, the biggest wooden airplane ever created. Below are some of the cell pics that I took.

This is a plane that is currently used by the US Air Force. Most of the outside pics that I have are of active planes.

This was another plane that was outside. You can see just how big it was, when it is sized up against a very big museum.

This was a cool shot that I was able to get looking straight down the nose of a jet.



The museum wasn't limited to airplanes though. Tanks, as well as other types of transportation could be seen.



Here is another plane that is still widely used by the services. Many will recognize it as a F-15 fighter jet.


With these type of signs, I've always wanted to see someone break one of these rules, when it is so obvious that you aren't supposed to climb on the plane.



Here is another shot at the F-15.


Another active plane, the Blue Angel, is one I recognized from the airshows that I have been to.

Here is a more detailed look at the logo

The name on the nose of the jet.

Not only could you see planes on the ground, but they had them hanging from the ceiling as well as helicopters.

Happy and Sad Time as a Fan

This past week of college football has turned out to be a mixed emotion week for me as a fan. The Oregon Ducks played Arizona on Thursday and lost not only their national title spot and hopes, but their one-man wonder, Heisman candidate, and one of the last weapons on their offense, Dennis Dixon. Word is now that he is out for the season.

The positive note is that BYU has broken into the top 25, and Boise State has a chance at a BCS bowl game.

BYU is Becoming Another Strong Presence

BYU is having another great year this year. By the way things are looking, they are going to finish undefeated in the Mountain West Conference for the second year in the row. A dominating defense is the reason this year, compared to the outstanding offense last year lead by John Beck. While BYU hasn't had the hardest schedule this year, they still have beat somewhat good teams like TCU and Arizona. There two losses are another set of close ones, bringing you to have the what if question pop into your head again. There season could have been undefeated right now. Oh well, they will still get the MWC championship. GO COUGARS!

Hooray Oregon, Ohio State and LSU-You Had Better Lose

After a successful season gone wrong last year, no one expected the Oregon Ducks football to make any success in this year's college football season. My, how we all were surprised when the Ducks ran the tables, winning all but one game so far this year. That one loss, was a few mistakes from a win. Now Oregon is number 3 in the BCS standings. Part of the reason for the success in the transformation of Dennis Dixon. I've watched him play for Oregon the past two years and turnovers have been his woes, along with the football team. This year is another story. He has only thrown three interceptions this year, with two being in the loss they had.

This reason for all recap-Oregon is one of the best teams in the nation, and should go to the national champioship. Two teams stand in their way right now. One is Ohio State and the other is LSU. Ohio State is a pretty good team but should be ranked lower, because they have not played against any real good teams yet. LSU has had a tough schedule, but their are two reasons why they should'nt be in the championship. On is that they would have homefield advantage, literally. The other is that of the tough teams they have beat, they have only gained the lead in the last five minutes of the game, some less, on some very lucky plays. Eventually their luck will run out. To me that is not vey impressive.