Ford created a complimentary, one-day driving school for Focus ST owners, the ST Octane Academy. The only catches are that you must have bought the car new and you must get thee to Miller Sports Park in Tooele, Utah, at Ken Block's Hoonigan Racing Headquarters where the course is being held. It's a special chance to learn how to drive our special, little cars more like a pro. The course itself is free, but the optional liability insurance (limits your liability to $5K) is $105. Money well spent, I say. I'm using airline miles to get up there and my hotel was booked on hotwire months ago.

I've been trying not to think about it too much, but then I saw this video.



I don't really say this much, but OMG. I can't believe I'm going to get to do that! They have their STs outfitted with a special handbrake lever, which they call the "Hoon Stick". That makes it easier to do forward and reverse 180s and the 90 degree power slide. These are essential driving techniques. Pretty sure I'm going to need a Hoon Stick on my ST.

Here's the official promo video.



Some dates offer an optional second day where you can have a similar day in a Mustang GT or an off-road course in an F150 Raptor. Those are each $1K for the day, so I opted not to do that. Instead, I'm renting a Mustang GT for the weekend, so I will get to create my own race course between Salt Lake City and Tooele. If they still have spots open for the optional day and want to cut the price by a bunch, then I might still go off-roading in a ridiculously powered 4x4 truck.

Otherwise, I will have a day to sightsee in beautiful Salt Lake City. Where should I go?

Cooking a chicken breast.  Not that much to it, really.  But how often do they come out as dried up, tasteless mounds of flesh?  They're still a good source of protein, but not that great in a salad all dried up.  I found a great way to cook the juiciest ever chicken breast and felt like sharing.  I'm also more likely to remember if I write it down.  

1. Heat up a skillet on high.  Put a pat of butter and some olive oil in the pan and swirl it around.  The amount is not important; just don't overdo it.  Turn the heat down to medium.  

2. Lightly coat your chicken breasts with flour.  You can also mix in some spices with your flour to add more flavor.  Don't goop it on.  You just want a very light coating.  

3. Cook the chicken breasts on medium for about one minute.  Just long enough to give them a golden color on one side.  

4. Turn the chicken breasts over and turn the heat down to low.  Cover the skillet and cook on low for ten minutes.  DO NOT open the lid at any point from here on.  You're going to want to see how they're doing, but you must resist the urge.  If you open the lid, it's not going to work.  

5. After cooking on low for ten minutes, turn the burner completely off and set the timer for another ten minutes.  Keep it covered!  I know you want to see what's doing in there, but they're not ready yet.  

6. Perfect, juicy chicken breasts.  

You're welcome.  

This drill has a name, but out of respect for my buddy, we'll just call it the "Lost fish" drill. To this day, the Lost fish drill is an unmentionable subject around him. He gets this look of terror and anger on his face. In fact, I'm a little afraid that he might find it here and then see fit to kill me. Which I have no doubt he learned how to do when he was a U.S. Marine.

Okay, he's going to kill me.

You have to watch carefully as he does an amazing job of blending in. It starts with one wrong turn and then lost panic from then on. See if you can find the lost fish. We join the Aggies v. t.u. 1991 halftime drill already in progress...

- 0:20 - On the left 35 yard-line, you can see a hole, but then it looks like he corrects.

- 0:52 - On the same side, 45 yard-line, he bumps into the last line, in between two ranks.

- 1:18 - This time on the right 30 yard-line, he starts making his way across.

- 1:25 - Miraculously finds his spot and the crowd applauds.

The very first halftime that the class of '95 marched with the Aggie Band was Monday Night Football at Texas Stadium. I believe the Redskins beat the Cowboys that night.


The BQ tradition is that the fish earn their brass after marching their first 8:00 (or, 8 O'clock, meaning perfect) drill. The brass being the band insignia that we wore on our uniform.

I get a little choked up watching these. The years of 1991 - 1995 represent some of the most awful and greatest times of my life. I only wish I had been smart enough to keep a journal during those years. Too bad we didn't have cool stuff like LJ or... internet back then.

Enjoy!

The 1991 Highlight Reel.

This one has fish Band, Midnight Yell, Bonfire, and Cotton Bowl footage. Check out the second-to-last trumpet player that comes on screen at about 0:11.. that's me!


Many thanks to Barker Video of Bryan, TX. I'm not sure what their policy is on YouTubing, but I made sure they got credit in the description.

Eh. It's a rainy Monday. I guess we take what we can get.

I was able to edit some video! The quality on this is pretty horrible, but it originated from VHS as a .mpg and was then converted to .wmv so I could edit it. I pretty much have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to working with video.

This was from my senior year, during the Aggie Band's Centennial Celebration. We were on CBS This Morning live from Kyle Field.