Birthday Countdown - 3 Days

It is now three days till my birthday if you count today, tomorrow, and my birthday.  Which I do.  Today's list will be of three websites I frequently enjoy:

icanhascheezburger.com - because cats with captions are one of my favorite things.  Also dogs, sci-fi pictures, and uncaptioned pictures of cute animals.

xkcd.com - because cats with captions are one of the artist's favorite things.  Also, this.  And always remember to read the hover.  A note of warning: xkcd can be a sketchy comic.  Read at your own peril.  (I am always ready to skip a comic...)

twistedsifter.com - pictures of cool things.  Lots of nerdy stuff.  The shirk report!

There you are.  Three websites that probably should be visited every day.  Or several times a day.

Birthday Countdown - 4 days

Apparently I can't be bothered to blog on a weekend.  But my birthday is on Thursday!  This year it's really been creeping up on me, but I'm finally starting to get excited about presents and people catering to my whims.  In the last year, I have watched many episodes of 4 TV shows, and left other shows to find other viewers.  I really like these shows.  Some are new and some are older.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Possibly the best cartoon of all time!  Seriously, though, this show has it all.  It's funny, creative, and has a great cast of characters.  I have watched the whole series through at least 3 times.  10 pts if you know my favorite character.

Psych - What are my two favorite types of stories?  The answer is 1) comedies and 2) detective stories.  And thus we see that Psych must be my favorite kind of show. 

Fringe - I also like sci-fi.  Fringe is cool and interesting and sometimes I have to cover my eyes because whatever has just happened is too grotesque.  I blame addiction to this show on my roommate who has DVR. Otherwise I wouldn't watch new episodes as soon as they came out.

Legend of Korra - It's a bit of a cheat, because it's the sequel show to The Last Airbender, but it's still awesome.  The graphics are awesome and the story is great, even if I didn't think Mako and Korra made a good pair.  Amon is a great villain.

**In completing this list, I realize that I also watched a lot of Big Bang Theory, which has two of my favorite things as well: 1) comedy and 2) science.  Sadly, it fails in one big quality: watchability with my mother.  The ones above are all pretty watchable with Mom, but she would probably cover her eyes in Fringe even more than I do.

Birthday Countdown - 1 Week

In 7 days is my birthday, if you include today.  I will below list seven books I have enjoyed in the last year.  First, I have to mention that I have slowly become addicted to late 19th and early 20th century literature.  Especially British and humorous, detective, or both.  So.  PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie have taken up much of my reading for the past year with some American contemporaries and Sherlock Holmes thrown in.  On to the books:

1 Murder on the Orient Express - Awesome.  Everyone should read it, but I feel that they should read some other Poirot books first, to get to know the detective better.

2  Leave it to Psmith - Everything with the character Psmith is great.  Everything set at Blandings Castle is great.  Read all of them.  But this has both!

3 Death in the Clouds - This one proved to me the futility of trying to guess the villain in an Agatha Christie book.  I just can't do it.  It's too hard. 

4 E=mc2 - I like science.  'nuff said.  Also, it talks about some pretty awesome women throughout the history of the equation.

5 The Alloy of Law - I know it's crazy, but I liked it better than the Mistborn books.  Maybe it's because I was finally used to the metal based magic by this book, but I liked it and hope to see a sequel soon.  I also enjoyed Elantris, by the same author.

6 Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - It made me think about different jobs that I've had and why they seemed so painful or not.

7 The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Lots of pictures.  I really liked it, and would recommend it to anyone.

"I don't get you, but I want to."

This post, as you may not have guessed from the title, is about Pinterest. I have been intrigued by the idea of Pinterest, so I investigated. My investigation left me slightly frustrated when I signed up for a membership invite, or something.

Weeks later, after no notification that I had been selected for membership in that exclusive club, I was ready to give it all up. Then something else (can't remember what) piqued my curiosity again. I asked my friend janeheiress for an invite, and she came through in a major way.

I signed up, but hated that it had to connect to either Facebook or Twitter. I quickly removed my link to Facebook, because the thought made me a little ill and started exploring. I learned that I regretted signing up for Pinterest. I had a mild loathing for it and how it works.

I hated that to pin something requires several steps, including my own comment. My most common comment: " ". (That's a single space.)

Soon I decided that I must pin things that I didn't see much of on the main page when I logged in. Soon I was manically pinning xkcd comics and animals from the cheezburger network.

Over the next week, what followed was-to me-a surprising amount of attention from people I didn't know. Every woman who loves animals (actually like 10 women) was repinning my cute animal pictures and several others repinned my comics. Some people I don't know started following me, and several started following one of my 3 main pinboards. I felt popular. Also, strangely proud of my work. Is this mild explosion of repinning what everyone experiences?

I am confused and intrigued by the phenomenon that is pinterest. I would tell you to find me, but I'm not sure how.

Bragging Rights

For my mom's birthday dinner, I made Boeuf Bourguignon. It was delicious. I did not take pictures, although that would have been wise. Let's pretend it looked just like this.

I have never bought wine, so I used a mixture of home-canned grape juice, water, and apple cider vinegar for the wine. I thought it tasted good, but I've never had the no-substitutions version.

"Is is 'Nopf" or 'Ka-nopf'?"

"Who cares?"

The makings of a Zion Society

This may be a little more philosophical than most of my posts, but bear with me. I've been listening to this book about what motivates people on my drives to and from Orem. It's written with business in mind, but the author mentions that one of the psychologists he studied and interviewed mentioned that he was a war refugee as a child and when he saw all that violence he thought that grownups really didn't have a clue what they were doing, and that there's got to be a better way. That had me thinking about how we all hope for a peaceful society.

The book's main point is that motivators like bonuses or commission actually make people work less effectively, and that what they really need after a good salary is Autonomy, or the ability to make decisions about what they work on, how they do it, who they work with, when they work, etc.; opportunity to master and become better at any skill they wish (with guidance from supervisors, perhaps); and the chance to work toward a larger purpose. He said that lots of people are becoming really concerned with how their work helps the world and the different struggles we are having right now with sustainability, etc.

All of this made me think of great societies in the scriptures, namely the City of Enoch and the people of 4th Nephi. Both of them dwelt in righteousness and there was no contention and no poor among them. My thought was that we already have it in us to live like that. Studies mentioned in the book showed that people are much happier when they are working for something that will help others. I think that people successfully living together with no contention and no poor would be working hard at things they love in their own way, striving always to become better, and working for the happiness of all.

Nerd Alert

I am feeling pretty nerdy today, what with a second experiment supporting the possibility of faster than light travel. I feel like this is a good time to mention a realization that I had.

Let me preface this by mentioning that I have always had a hard time remembering my age. Whenever I start to get the hang of it, it changes! So I always look for ways to easily remember my age. 24 and 25 were great years. 24 is made up of lovely numbers like 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12. It's just easy to remember. 25 was even better! A square number!

26 was unmemorable. Sure, it was two times a prime number, but still no fun. As I was driving down the street the other day I was thinking about 27 and how it's also totally unmemorable, when suddenly I realized that 3 time 3 is nine, and nine times 3 is 27! My age is a cubed number!! I also realized that the next time this will happen is when I turn 64. That's a long time away. However, I realized my mom turns 64 in a couple of months. I think we need to have a party to celebrate this momentous occasion. Maybe we should wait until my nephew turns 8 in March.

Inseparably Connected

I hereby declare that the looseness of clothing in inversely proportional to self-confidence.

Backstory: Years ago, when I was a very small child, my older cousin was at the mall. This was long before cell phones. She called her mother to come get her and mentioned that she was nervous because a bunch of hoodlums were milling around. But she phrased it to her mother that she was surrounded by people with "low self-esteem." This became a family joke, and as I was growing up, I always pictured the hoodlums with low self-esteem to also have the very loose, baggy jeans that was the style for skater and gangsta types a few years back.

Currentstory: At my work, I am always trying to find that perfect mix between stylish and functional. Working with farmers, it's not always useful to dress in the fanciest clothes, and the urge to wear my grubbiest is great. So not long ago I wore a combination of lovely cowboy boots and skinny jeans and hit on something amazing. I felt powerful. Tall, strong, and powerful. Then it hit me. It's all about footwear and the tightness of your clothes! This is the great lesson in life. To feel confident, wear skinny jeans and leather boots. Always.

After nearly a year of nonblogging, a text conversation

Number I don't recognize, 7:05 am: "Forgot my phone and bb at home mom and wife"

****I assumed this was a wrong number as I didn't understand the term bb, and my mom signs her texts "love mom" or "love mom and anne"

Number I don't recognize, 8:53 am: "Hello"

Me, 8:53 am: "Who is this"

Number I don't recognize, 8:56 am: "Mom sent u a text b4 u didnt get it"

Me, 8:56 am: "Who are you? I think you have the wrog number"

****note my poor spelling.

Number I don't recognize, 8:59 am: "This is ur mother. left both my phone and bb at home!"

****I'm thinking, "That was helpful. What in the world is a bb?"

Me, 9:00 am: "Look, please stop texting me. You have the wrong number."

****I felt pretty bad about that one. No need to be rude. Plus, I was curious.

Me, 9:07 am: "Actually, I'm curious. What's a bb? Some sort of gun?"

Number I don't recognize, 9:10 am: "Lol...blackberry. sorry bout the wrong number"

Me, 9:11 am: "Oh. Thanks. No problem"

****Now I am left with the unanswered question, "Why does she need both a phone and a blackberry?"

3 things

I have decided to tell three things about my life recently. I am still deciding what they are. By the end of the post, there will be three!

1. I went to Hawaii for Thanksgiving!!!! It was so much fun!

We got to go to the temple, which was rededicated the day we arrived. I think we did as much as humanly possible in one week in Hawaii. Maybe not, but we did a lot!

2. I learned that on power cables that have fuses in the pug, the plug will have the type of fuse needed written right there where it's easy to see. I learned this after I went to Radioshack 3 times to get a fuse that worked. But now our Christmas tree shines brightly and without fear of overheating or blowing a fuse!

3. I saw Harry Potter 7a, or whatever they're calling it these days, and I really liked it. This surprised me. I've been ambivalent about most of the previous movies.

FHE 2.0

So this week we split into our FHE groups, finally. It was a bit messy. There are four large groups for the whole ward, and four leaders for each group, in an attempt for them not to get too burned out planning activities every week. Each group was supposed to get to know/entertain people from about 7:15 till 8:00, when we would all share dessert together. I expected two groups to succeed with flying colors, and two to have varying levels of fail. This happened, but it was not the groups I expected. My star-studded cast of four totally awesome group leaders didn't last more than 20 minutes! They were supposed to set the example for everyone else. Sadly, the one I expected to have the most problems did have the most problems.

My quiet but steadfast lonely group leader was stellar, going above and beyond what I expected of him, and keeping the largest contained group of young single adults entertained so long that I had to come looking for them to tell them dessert was served. Finally, the group I was in. It's amazing how you can influence things to keep rolling when you're there acting slightly too enthusiastic and strong-willed to be denied. This group succeeded because I added a little certainty to the very uncertain group leaders. So there you have it. I am not sure how my group leaders will fare in coming days, but so far things are going ok!

FHE, my reward for complaining

I learned on Sunday that my new calling was a curse muttered at me the last time I voiced my opinion about activities. My good friend, the former FHE co-chair, placed said curse upon me. Now I am at a loss. What do I do? How do I help these people to like FHE when I barely like it. Here are my thoughts (based on my previous complaints):

1. Start on time
2. Don't go over an hour
3. Always have food
4. Spiritual thoughts should be no more than 2 minutes, gospel lessons no more than 20

Ok. This is what I've got so far. Now, what ideas do I have to actually keep the masses entertained and coming back for more? So far...pumpkin carving?

Concerts in the Park!

Tonight I went to a concert in Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City. She & Him! But first we had to find a good spot and wait. We played my new (from a thrift store) travel Scrabble and I lost spectacularly. Maybe my sister Glarcy will play with me now that she realizes that she can cream me. We also had a little picnic while we played. I made Jello. I love how it jiggles.

Finally, the opening band came on, the Dum Dum Girls. They weren't exactly my thing, so I read some Jeeves while I waited for the main attraction. When the Dum Dum Girls stopped singing, the guy in charge stood up and listed every business in the greater Salt Lake area and several of their employees as a thanks. Finally, She and Him! It was really fun, although we almost got trampled! Oh well. Zooey Deschanel was fun to see. I liked watching her bounce around with her tambourine. Once she got tired, one of her backup singers did the jumping and tambourine banging. Eventually, the smell of peoples' alcohol was and the jostling became unbearable. She sang some of my favorite songs, especially "Black Hole."

Twelve-step programs

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem. Maybe that's my difficulty. I can see that I have a condition, a situation. Most of me thinks it's not really a big problem, though. Yesterday I bought 5 books from Savers. I am excited to read them. I already started The World is Flat. I weeded out 3 or 4 other interesting looking books just on principle. Mostly because my mom was with me and asked where I was going to keep all these books. Luckily my cousin was there and asked for one I was going to buy but had already read. I decided to share the joy.

So. Do I start attending Book Buyers Anonymous? I just don't ever see how more books can be a bad thing. Even in Texas, when I realized that I would have to cart all those heavy things back to Utah, I considered the difficulties and bought books anyway.

Lesson 13: The Priesthood

I just got asked to teach the Relief Society lesson on Sunday. It's last minute, and the education counselor apologized, but I totally understand. Sometimes teachers bow out last minute. Anyway, I am really excited because I have enjoyed teaching RS in the past. I am also a little nervous because it's been a while since I've taught. So here's the lesson.

Anyone who has any thoughts, experiences, ideas on how a lesson on the priesthood from the Gospel Principles manual can be taught to a bunch of young single adult sisters is welcome to share. Nay, invited; beseeched!

I can see blue sky when it's raining.

Seriously.

It happened yesterday.

I was floating down the Provo river in an inflatable kayak, minding my own business, recovering from capsizing just minutes earlier (I don't recommend this; it was so cold I couldn't breathe), when suddenly I felt some water droplets. I thought at first that it was from my oar splashing in and out of the water but then my friend yelled that it was raining. I looked around and I could see drops hitting the water around me. I looked up to blue skies and one tiny, wispy, white cloud. The raindrops didn't even look like they were coming from the cloud. I watched as they came down, and it looked like they were forming right out of the air. It was awesome.

The only man in the room

I did many fun things last week, and, had I written them down earlier, I would have remembered some good stories to tell. As it is, I have a few. Tuesday last week I went with some friends to Spiral Jetty! It was so much fun and so interesting. Every time I have gone it has been different. This time the jetty and the land it sits on were completely dry. The water didn't even really come near. We had to walk out a ways to get to the water. The water was very shallow for quite a ways (to be expected in the GSL, where the whole lake is shallow), but it was separated, almost into pools, by raised lines of mud. Sticking out of the mud were gypsum crystals, which looked pretty surreal. All in all, we had a wonderfully salty, wet good time. Afterwards, we hiked a little hike at Golden Spike National Park, and saw a little gopher snake, which was awesome and a black widow spider, which was not so awesome.

A couple of days later, I was at a wedding reception where the parents of the bride wanted everyone to open the bottles of sparkling cider to have a toast. Nobody could open their bottles, and nobody had any tools to open their bottles. At our table, I pulled out my Swiss Army Knife and we opened our bottle. People noticed what we were doing and asked to borrow the knife. Soon the knife was passed around the whole room. I was shocked. I was the only man in the room!

Finally, tonight Jessi and I made churros from a mix. They were very tasty, but not as good as from a restaurant. We are now committed to perfecting our churro making skills.

Richard Peck, Richard Peck, Richard Peck!

As a collector of Newberry award winners, I have definitelly picked out my favorites over the years. At or very near the top of that list is A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. Because of that one that I loved, I have read several others of his books. I have become a big fan (even though the books are a bit below my age bracket), and thus was very excited when my sister told me he was coming to town and her friend who works at the library that hosted him had reserved us some seats!

Afterward my sister commented, "I wish I had a transcript of his whole speech. It was like reading CS Lewis. You want to take time to study every line. Every line was thought out and penned beforehand, you can tell." She was right. Listening to him talk was a feast for the ears. He had a lot to say about education and families, mentioning that if schools seem like they are failing, families have already failed. He's a big advocate of reading to very young children. He said that too many people come up with excuses like they're too busy, or the kid is too hyperactive; "I wanted to be hyperactive, but my mother wouldn't let me."

All in all, it was great, although, he did manage to get in a dig about me not having a job. During his speech he talked about what makes a good story and mentioned that moving home after graduating college is not cool.

Ego Boost

I like ego boosts. I like them a lot.

So this morning I have been working on sewing an apron for my mom to give her friend for her birthday (pictures to come later). As I was sewing, one of my mom's piano students' younger sisters came wandering in. Her mother grabbed her and answered her questions about who I am, then told me what her daughter said, "She's even beautiful, mom."

This tells me a lot of things, the first being that kids really have no sense of attractive. I was wearing my pajamas, hadn't washed my face, hadn't put in my contacts (so I was wearing my glasses), and definitelly hadn't touched my hair. And yet, I still felt pretty good about myself.

Foods

Lately I am really enjoying my once a week cooking assignment. It has led me to believe that I would be quite happy as a housewife. Hear that all potential husbands?!? I like to cook foods and stay home and such! Take note!

Anyway, I have cooked two things lately that I really liked. Interestingly, one is very vegetarian, while one is as un-vegetarian as you can get! The first is black bean burgers, and they were yummy! I ate them with the salsa that my roommate and I made up.

1 can Rotel (diced tomatoes and green chiles)
1 green onion
1 small garlic clove
small handful of fresh cilantro
half a lime

*Drain the Rotel and chop everything up in an electric chopper, except the lime. Squeeze the lime juice into the completed salsa, add maybe a little salt, and enjoy!



The other recipe is a direct result of watching Julie and Julia. My mom wanted to make something special for her dinner on Friday, so she thought she might like to try Boeuf Bourguignon. I got to try making it Tuesday so she could know if it would be good. We found pdf's of the recipe on this website. Turns out to be a winner. It's a beef stew, and it tastes pretty awesome. We ate it according to the directions on the recipe, with boiled potatoes and steamed peas. It is just so meaty and good.