Under the Skin

Life is Good

2012-01-15T21:00:00.001-08:00

As I scurry around BYU campus each and everyday, I find myself stressing over many things. I stress about the fact that, try as I might, I can't always make political philosophy and American history make sense to my students. I stress about the fact that I can never remember that a dalet looks like a "t," whereas a resh looks like half of a "t." I stress about how my hands shake because of my natural physiology, and thus each new gel-load is an adventure for me. I stress about how Elizabeth Whitemarsh appears to be married to Thomas Clarke, even though family records have her being married to John Clark. I stress about how my ward's family history/indexing numbers are not even big enough to merit five digits, and if I were not a part of the ward, we wouldn't even merit four digits; without my committee, we wouldn't even merit three. I stress about why hydrogen cannot hybridize its orbitals, but carbon can. I stress about how my characters fell in love, and didn't really seem to have any reason other than the fact that I felt obligated to include some level of romance. I stress about whether or not I should plan for the possibility of medical school while being married, or just surrender myself to maidenhood and plan for it without. But, with all this stress that I put upon myself, life really is good.

I have an awesome family:

Two nephews to gladden my heart:

An nice apartment with many roommates to keep my company:

Even if they do things that leave me all by myself sometimes; like, getting engaged:

Or getting boyfriends:

But I guess when push comes to shove, there are, in fact, worse things that they could do.

Anyhow, I suppose that when all is said and done, I have it pretty nice here in Provo, UT. Even if I do have to stress about whether or not there is euchromatin inside the nucleolus.

My Sole Moments of Creativity

2011-12-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

As many of you may know, I am not creative. A lot of people say, "Oh, I'm not creative," when they really mean, "I'm not Monet, but I have creative aspects." When I say that I'm not creative, I mean "I really am not creative." I cannot paint, sculpt, draw or design. Given, I can draw a very cartoony banana, but that comes from the fact that when I was in fourth grade, I ran for ASB vice president, and my posters had cartoon bananas on them. I learned this from my mother (who is creative) drawing a cartoon banana, which I then traced using a light table so many times that I can now draw cartoon bananas.

I cannot sew. I can follow a pattern, but I cannot actually come up with anything, and I need the fabric to be chosen for me before hand. I have zero ability to assemble outfits in the morning that match, and I cannot do artsy hairstyles or makeup. I cannot dance. I have become a passable Irish dancer, but that's solely muscle memory and I have no artistic ability to choreograph, and no natural ability for it. I cannot write music. Though I can play both the violin and the piano, I can only play what is directly written on a page, nothing else.

I cannot create food. I can cook. In fact, though my sisters Beth and Carol both out-cooked me consistently growing up, I have been told by many people at college that I am a good cook. Even my father, previously very critical of my domestic skills has admitted that I can make good food. And I do make my own recipes. However, I am heavily influenced by previously accepted combinations of flavors that one would see on the Food Network. If I were to try such out-of-the-box flavor experimentation as seen on Food Network game shows, I would very quickly fill up the apartment complex's dumpster with food not fit for those starving in Ghana.

All this said, there is one "creative outlet" which I can pursue. For what it is worth, I can write, and I love doing it. And to celebrate this craziness, every November, I participate in National Novel Writing Month. For some reason, writers all over the world decide to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. And, for some reason, we enjoy it! This year marks my 7th year attempting and successfully completing NaNoWriMo. I do not know that everything I wrote is really worth keeping, but that's not the point. The point is that creativity is being attempted. Too many people say, "I'm not creative," because they get stuck in perfectionism. I'm probably one of these people to some extent, but another part of me is simply a science mind. If designing experiments and the like counts as creative, completely disregard all prior claims. However, the point of National Novel Writing Month is, "Before you can edit, you have to write." So, I wrote.

This year, I decided to work on a project that I had wanted to write for a long time. Basically, it is a Santa Claus story--in my world, Santa Claus is an inherited position that goes father-to-son. I also infused a lot of LDS theology into it. Anyways, since people always ask: You may read it when it is fit for normal human reading. At the moment, it makes little sense to anyone but me.

So, I'm not creative, but I can try, can't I?

Again Here

2011-09-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

It seems that I keep on thinking of things that I should blog about, but then it never happens! School is back in full force, but I don't feel like I took enough credits this semester. I am not nearly busy enough. Main places my time goes this semester:

1) Classes. I'm taking Chem 107 (General Chem Lab), MMBio 241 (Molecular Bio Lab Techniques), PHSCS 121 (Physics 1: With Calculus. It's the one for physics and engineering majors, but I'm taking it anyways because I need physics, and my father really encouraged me to take this version), PWS 340 (Genetics), REL C 324 (D&C), REL A 211 (New Testament). I don't feel like it's enough. I have too much time on my hands. But, oh well.

2) Work. I'm an American Heritage TA. And where many TAs just go to lecture and grade papers every now and again, and then lead review before tests, American Heritage TA is a 10-20 hr./wk job. We prep lab sections (the 30-student section of the class we teach), grade, enter grades, lead reviews every week, teach new material every week, plus have office hours, plus attend all the lectures, do all the reading and go to meeting to coordinate with the professors and other TAs. It's CRAZY. But I'm really enjoying it.

3) Research. I'm doing some research for credit in Dr. Griffitt's lab. We study bacterial genetics. Particularly of our friend Sinorhizobium meliloti. My specific project is about transcriptionally silent regions of the S. meliloti genome. Basically, there are some places of the genome that exist, but the genes never get transcribed to RNA and thus never get translated to proteins. And we're trying to figure out: "If they're not transcribed, what DO they do?"

4) Writing. I'm still going strong with my novel. My best novel is almost done. It's getting really close.

5) My calling. I'm the co-chair of the Family History committee. I guess I'm just destined to family history.

6) Writing 2. I'm still freelancing a bit.

And then there's the little, itty-bitty other pieces. It's good in all. I miss you all. I miss my family. And I'm anxiously awaiting the birth of my second nephew! He's coming in November, and I'm very exciting. He doesn't have a name, but I'll let you know when he's born and such.

My Guilty Pleasures

2011-07-31T16:59:00.000-07:00

Do you have something that you do when you're blue? Something that helps you fall asleep? An odd quirk that makes you happy? Well, listen up, because I've decided to bear my guilty pleasures. Don't worry, there's not anything bad, just kind of odd.

Ready? Okay!

-When my roommates aren't home, I sometimes turn on spy music and run around my apartment with my fingers making a gun, hiding behind doorways and shooting the bad guys
-Sometimes, I go to itsaboutlove.org (the LDS Family Services Website) and read the profiles of the Hoping to Adopt Families. They're just such cute families! It makes me feel fuzzy inside.
-I secretly believe turning on Vivaldi's Winter from the Four Seasons makes it snow harder (it's kind of one of those things that you know it doesn't, but you kind of feel like it does)
-I kill time by playing Gingerbread Circus 2
-Christmas music makes me happy and so I occasionally listen to it regardless of the season
-watching old TV shows while folding laundry or cleaning. Yeah. This is why another confession I have to make? I have seen every episode of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman through this method. Isn't the internet great?
-At times. I concentrate better while reading in the bath tub.
-I sometimes stare at diagrams of scientific conundrums hoping to see something I missed before.
-When I'm feeling tired in the middle of the day, I'll dance the St. Patrick's Day Jig with just my feet to wake me up.
-I have characters whom I pretend to be while laying in bed.
-I hate the song "Signs" because I feel like it is belittling the plight of Irish immigrants in the 19th Century by comparing discrimination against them (No Irish Need Apply signs) to lack of acceptance of alternative lifestyles that were choice in the 1970s.

That's it for tonight.

As Time Goes By

2011-06-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

(A little background music while you read my post):

Back in New York, and not quite sure what I'm doing with my life next. That is Hannah.

I am currently working as a CNA at Finger Lakes Health (specifically Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital). I am glad to be working here, and as I've gone through their training on their technology, equipment and gone through their protocols and policies, must say that if I'm injured in the Finger Lakes, and I don't need emergency services that exact minute, I say go to Finger Lakes Health. They have top notch technology, comprehensive injury prevention protocols, their accident prevention is phenomenal (particularly their medication verification systems), and their infection control protocols are great. Their transport policies are above and beyond to avoid injury, and after seeing their billing policies as well, so long as they follow them, they will be one of the fairest healthcare systems you'll have ever worked with. Now, that you have my plug...

I don't know what I'm going to do next. I'm planning on MD/PhD still, but I'd really like to go into medical school with exposure to all major areas of healthcare. I've worked in records/billing/clerical, I'm working in "nursing" (I'm technically a nurse, just not what is usually meant when someone says, "I'm a nurse"), I'm going to graduate in diagnostics. A few more to go, but I'd like to do that. The plan isn't solid. Just outlined.

I am also still tutoring for Regents exams. You know, it is what it is. I'm frustrated because the practice tests have not been quite as successful as I had hoped, but we'll keep on keeping on.

The rest of the time, I have a summer plan.

Index 1000 names--I have about 400 done so far.
build the patio*--I'm building a patio in my parents' backyard. Don't worry, they wanted it, I'm not just doing it. But, I've got some bits and pieces done, but I need to get going with that this week.
clean out the flower beds*--off and on, but my parents have worked with this a lot
clean out the basement*--okay, I don't know if this one will happen, because I don't know what to do with what.
decorate the guest room-- mostly done, to tell you the truth
read City Upon a Hill--So, I've been hired as an American Heritage TA, so I have to read the textbook. We all have to do things that we don't really like to get something that we want, right?
read Articles for research in fall--I'm going to be working with a professor at BYU on some research, come fall, so I'd like to have a thorough understanding of this lab's past literature going in.
finish novel (specific novel) first draft*--Yeah. I'm getting there. This novel has been being planned to be finished by x date for about the past 4 years. I just keep changing things. And changing them for the better, but the fact of the matter is that I need to finish the thing.

And then, there's church. So, most of the time I have been here, I have been working with the primary or nursery or something. I have been asked if I would be willing to be the official sunbeam wrangler. And I said yes. You see, here in the Canandaigua Ward, we have a whole piece of the ward ditch us during the Hill Cumorah Pageant. As such, there gets to be understaffing, particularly in places where they have trouble digging up substitutes, like the primary. To compact the problem, everyone has visitors during the Pageant, which is great, but overwhelming! They need someone to wrangle sunbeams while the sunbeam teacher is in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, so I will probably do that. Today, I was a sunbeam wrangler as well, even though the teacher was there. We have some very active sunbeams, and a fairly severely autistic sunbeam, so it can get interesting in there. Today, by the end of church, we had a 3 adults to 5 children ratio going on in there: the teacher, myself, and the boy with autism's father (it was a hard day for him. I don't know why today was agitating, but before his father came, I was hit and kicked several times. Don't worry, I don't hold it against him. I understand). I really love it in primary, and I'm excited for this assignment if they make it official.

I wanna be a part of it...New York, New York!

2011-05-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

So, more correctly, Canandaigua, New York! But, here's my update. I have a job! I am a CNA at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital. And I'm currently a Regents Biology tutor. Regents is the test that New York high schoolers must take if they intend to receive a high school diploma. As such, this is very much so harvest time for the tutors. To be completely honest: I hate tutoring! I'm not a great teacher, and though I don't mind teaching (I've taught lunchtime French catch-up in high school, I teach merit badge clinics for the Boy Scouts, and I have been hired as an American Heritage teaching assistant), I despise teaching those who do not want to be taught. Which most children who need tutors are. But, I am quite happy to have a job.

My new job has the most amazing amenities, including a kosher kitchen (for Ultra-Orthodox Jews), and a barn in the parking lot (for the Amish).

Tale of the Bitter, Old Gate Agent

2011-04-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

Today, I am musing about people who are convinced their lives are terrible, so they make them that way.

As I was flying home from Utah (I'm back in New York), I flew through Chicago. I'm not a big fan of O'Hare Airport, but that's the way that it happened this time, so that's life. Anyways, there was this super bitter gate agent. She hated her job and mostly her life, I think. She was so miserable, that she was making everybody else miserable. I tried to make her day easier and lighten the area around her, but she would have nothing of it.

For example, there was a lady who came to check in for the flight. She was seventy-five years old, and was going through chemotherapy and so she was very weak and feeble. When the gate agent found out that she was booked for a seat in the emergency exit row, the bitter gate agent informed the woman that this was not going to be possible. The emergency exit door was much too big for her and she was not legally able to serve in the exit row. However, because of all the flights in Chicago being grounded the night before because of windstorm, the plane was full and had a huge waiting list as well. So, the gate agent was going to boot this lady from the flight. Overhearing the issue, I informed the gate agent that if they needed someone to switch with this lady, I would be happy to switch spots with her. I am small and short, so I don't find airplanes uncomfortable really at all. Put me where you like. I had a row 25 seat on a Airbus 320, so it was towards the back, but it was an aisle seat so it wouldn't even be that bad for the lady. The gate attendant said, "No, ma'am you're fine. Mind your own business!" and then told the lady that she would look for another seat, but she would most likely not be able to find one and that she would probably have to wait until the next morning for a flight (the 9:15 pm to Rochester was full too). I wanted to scream, "No. You found her a seat, just give it to her!" It made me angry.

Religious Art

2011-04-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I picked my favorite religious paintings for the purpose of building a screen saver that I liked. So, here's the thing: I could add more later, but here are my current favorites.

(Simon Dewey) I really like this picture of Christ because He looks protective and contemplative.
(Simon Dewey) I guess I'm the type of person who looks pictures of the things we don't usually picture. And usually, we show pictures of Christ talking to Mary Magdalene and such. But I like this picture of Him emerging from the tomb because it takes the Resurrection to an event rather than a before and after. I think too often we think of it as "He was dead, then He was alive," and skip the part in between.

(okay, so I really like Simon Dewey) I like Joseph's paternal stance in this picture mostly. I think too often we think of Joseph as a "the guy" in the story. Joseph must have been a pretty awesome man for several reasons: 1) God trusted him as the surrogate father of His own son. I don't think that He would let anyone do that. And He did a good job of it. Christ was taught just like the rest of us. And Joseph (and Mary) taught Him well. Kudos to Joseph. 2) His trust and benevolence to Mary. Even when he thought that Mary had betrayed him, he was going to go out of his way to be as delicate and kind about it as possible. He didn't want to hurt her. And then, when the angel came to him and explained it, he accepted that and he believed that. I'm sure that there were members of his family saying, "Are you nuts? Dump the woman!" But he had the faith to just endure that with "Don't worry. It's covered."

(Greg Olsen) I know everyone always looks at the kid that He's reaching for. I think everyone needs to take a moment and just look at the one in His arms. Christ is there to help us when we slip, but is He going to drop the one in His arms to help the one on the rocks? I don't think so. He's always carrying us and will continue to carry us, even while rescuing others.

(Greg Olsen) Classic. And we get the picture. No commentary needed

(Liz Lemon Swindle) So, once again, I like the moments that we don't think about. John and Peter did not walk casually or as soon as they could to see Christ's miracle. They ran. And with a lot of faith intertwined with hope that Christ would be there when they got there. But remember, hope is not based in doubt, but in expectation.

(Liz Lemon Swindle) I love pictures that demonstrate the love that Joseph Smith had for his wife (and family). They had such a beautiful and sweet relationship.

(Carl Bloch) Since the Carl Bloch exhibit is at BYU, I've been seeing a lot of Carl Bloch that I've never seen before. And consequently, some of my favorite religious paintings are emerging. I blew this one up a little bit, because it was small and hard to see. It's Jairus' daughter. What I like about this one is the expectation. Christ has not performed the miracle yet. It's the moment before. Kind of Michelangelo in that regard. The energy before the action. If you can see in the upper right corner, Christ is entering the room, bringing the light with Him.

(Carl Bloch) Okay, another Carl Bloch I had not previously seen. Regardless of the anachronism of this picture, I love it. As some of you may know, I sometimes feel like we are a little squeamish in the LDS religion about dwelling too long on the pain of the atonement. And yes, I agree that the beauty of the resurrection is what we focus on (not that He died, but that He lives), but I find it important to recognize Christ's pain and to ponder it. That's what the Sacrament's for after all. And Christ's expression in this picture is as if He's looking at me and saying, "You have caused this to be necessary, and you should feel remorse. But you don't need to despair for it, because I will take care of it. I will do this for you."

(Carl Bloch) My third new-favorite Carl Bloch painting. This is a bad picture, couldn't find a digital copy of the good one. But I love this one. And there's a second version that Carl Bloch painted where the angel is on the other side of Him, which is more common, but I like this one best. In real life, this painting is HUGE. So, you can't see the facial expressions very well in a small version, but that's what's heart-melting about it. The pure agony in Christ's face is indescribable, and the look on the angel's face says, "I know that it hurts. I'm going to stay with you."

(Simon Dewey) Here's a very Mormon concept: This painting doesn't focus on Christ's miracle as much as her effort for it to be achieved. And I think that that is a very important aspect that doesn't get depicted much. So that's why I like this one so much.

(Simon Dewey) Christ's personal relationship with the Father is so real in this painting. That's why I like it so much.

And those, my friends, are my favorite religious paintings. Other thoughts?

Cooking for College Students #8

2011-02-19T15:08:00.000-08:00

Vegetable Salad

I love salad. A lot. The downside? When there's only one of you, you'd have to eat nothing but salad every meal every day in order to warrant buying lettuce because it goes bad SO fast. I don't love salad that much. So, I concocted lettuce-less salad the other day. It's a keeper.

Lettuce-less Salad!

radishes
celery
cauliflower
carrots
a TINY bit of onion (because it's a dominant flavor)
a bit of olive oil
a tad of vinegar (I used balsamic, because I borrowed it from my roommate and that's what she had)
salt
black pepper

Chop it up and go. I'm feeling that a little cucumber would really make this, but I don't have any. So, yeah. It's quite good.

Valentine's Day Post! Best Kisses of the Screen

2011-02-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

Film Mojo for this Valentine's Day named the nine best screen kisses ever. Hulu editors named the best TV kiss moments of recent tv and made a film playlist of it. And people vote all the time. I indulge the Valentine's Day romance. I believe in romance, contrary to popular belief, but I just think it has its place. And one of its places is in film entertainment. What are the best? The worst?

I was given the option of writing an article for this, so I thought I'd take on the endeavor. These were my opinions, not necessarily what I wrote in my article, because some of them aren't the Hollywood classic ones, but my favorites. Before I name the 21 best in my opinion (21 because I like numbers that are divisible by three), I think we need a rubric so to speak. A sidenote though. This is not on the rubric, but after reviewing some lists to inspire mine, I set the standard: heterosexual kisses ONLY. It is just a pre-req to be even considered by the rubric

First: I think that any good kiss needs to be between a couple that I actually want to be together

Second: For this, I turn to French. In French, there are multiple words that mean "to kiss." There is "embrasser" and then there is "baiser." The difference is a good distinction. Let's explain it this way, the latter of these two words is sometimes loosely translated as the "f-word," but that isn't exactly what it means. "Embrasser" means to kiss, passionately and in love. "Baiser" is to kiss while turned on and being driven less by love and more by the instinct to reproduce. (NOTE: There's also "donner un bissou" but that's like kissing a little baby while it sleeps or things like that.) I feel that in order for it to be a kiss that I just melt for, it needs to be "embrasser." Basically, I don't want to watch a kiss upon which I feel like I'm really intruding.

Third: It needs to be a culmination of connection and pent-up desire for them to finally just kiss each other

Fourth: bonus points if its in a highly romantic atmosphere or ironically UNromantic atmosphere

Fifth: Car kisses are disqualified. I think that car kisses automatically fail requirement two. It's just raunchy to kiss in cars. Because the cultural association is that you don't just kiss in the car.

I must also clarify that some of these were picked solely because of the kiss and do not necessarily reflect that I really enjoy the movie. Many, however, do.

And now, in no particular order, with the sharers in the kiss in parentheses:

The List

(and then a video compilation so you can see them all).

1. Gone With the Wind (Rhett and Scarlett)
2. It's a Wonderful Life (George and Mary)
3. Lady and the Tramp (Tramp and Pidge)
4. The Empire Strikes Back (Han and Leia)
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Will and Elizabeth)
6. North and South (John and Margaret)
7. Tale of Two Cities (Darnay and Lucie)---Unfortunately, not in our video, but it's awesome
8. Psych (Shawn and Juliet)---Okay, so I'm defining kiss very loosely
9. Sense and Sensibility (Edward and Elinor)
10. Never Been Kissed (Sam and Josie)
11. Princess Diaries (Michael and Mia)
12. Tristan and Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)
13. Lost (Charlie and Claire)
14. Enchanted (Robert and Giselle)
15. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton (Pete and Rosie)
16. Chuck (Chuck and Sarah)
17. Stardust (Tristan and Yvaine)
18. Far and Away (Joseph and Shannon)
19. Tuck Everlasting (Jesse and Winnie)
20. Leap Year (Declan and Anna)
21. Princess Bride (Wesley and Buttercup)

HONORABLE MENTIONS(needs explanation for why it wasn't picked, which I will give):

1. Lost (Sawyer and Kate)
2. Dr. Zhivago 2002 UK version (Pasha and Lara)

Lost Explanation: It's an amazing kiss. Unfortunately, Sawyer is doing it partly because he loves Kate but mostly because he wants to tick off the bad guys, and Kate isn't the girl he's meant to be with. Juliet is. So, I couldn't count it on the list.

Dr. Zhivago explanation: I've always wished that Lara and Pasha stayed together. But they don't. And Pasha loves her, but Lara just wants his redemption and innocence. So, yeah. I have this whole thing about Pasha, and if you only know Dr. Zhivago in context of that 1960s version, go read the book. Because it completely mischaracterizes Pasha and his motivations. My theory? It was made during the Cold War. Communism could not be portrayed as even partially good. Pasha's a communist. He's using it with VERY good intentions, even if it's a bit misguided. We can't have that in Cold War era film. We must make Pasha evil. But that is for another post. But I really like Pasha.

And was this a total waste of time for me to do? No, because I was asked to write an article about this anyways.

Weird Habits: Oats...Kind of "Cooking for College Students"

2011-02-04T19:10:00.000-08:00

So, this is just something that I've started doing recently. Ever since I was a small child, I have hated oatmeal. I used to think it was the taste. But this week, I bought some raw oats for an apple crisp I was making. I just ate some dry, raw oats when I was making the apple crisp, and then I found that I LOVE THEM! It was just the mushy porridge-y thing I hated. Now, I eat them raw. With a spoon. A few drops of milk add a bit of sweetness. Yeah. The internet says there's nothing dietarily wrong with it. I don't know if that's true, but that's my new thing.

However, this does not come as that big of a surprise for me. Because I don't have a very strong sense of smell, my sense of taste is kind of basic. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Those are my tastes...all other nuances are pretty lost when it comes down to it. So, I've noticed that a lot of my likes and dislikes are based solely on texture. It's just another one.

A thought from one of my professors

2011-01-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

On Thursday this week, my American Christianity class was about Anabaptists. In the lecture, my professor said something that I really liked:

"I am going to say something that you will probably never hear an LDS religious historian say again: Why did the mobs hate us and why were they justified? We like to believe that they were working under Satan. But really, they were just scared, and happened to be fulfilling Satan's desires in their fear. Because when a guy jumps up, claims he's a prophet, says that God speaks today, that there are miracles today, that there are apostles, that every person can receive revelation and that the heavens are open, and they start playing around with polygamy, the European protestants are programmed to scream, 'ANABAPTISTS!' And when those neo-Anabaptists start amassing an army, they scream, 'MUNSTER- 1534!' and that scares the heck out of them."

I thought that was an interesting take, and I like it. I was never quite comfortable with the explanation that they were possessed. I think that people are generally good, and that intentions are usually good, even when someone isn't doing good.

Cooking for College Students #7

2011-01-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

Today's issue of Cooking for College Students is going to be slightly different. We are going to discuss, instead of a recipe, the basic techniques of college student cooking. If I had to give one piece of food advice to college students everywhere, this is what it would be: Don't decide what you want to make and then go to the grocery store. Look at the grocery store ads, see what is on sale and then decide what you think you could use.

Now, I'm not saying buy something just because it's on sale. Last week, there was a massive sale on rice. I would really rather eat mashed potatoes. I don't dislike rice, but I know that each night I would say, "What carb tonight: rice, potatoes or pasta?" and every time I would choose potatoes or pasta. So, I didn't buy any rice. There was this huge sale on baked beans. I despise baked beans, basically. So, why would I buy them? However, cater your cooking to the sales. People have criticized me that I never try the more crazy stuff, because it is never on sale. This is not true. This week, I introduced another ingredient into my repertoire of possible ingredients for the concoctions I invent. It's name is radish.

Radish is a good friend. On Wednesday, I was doing my shopping at Buy Low Markets and found that they had radishes. For 25 cents a bundle. I remembered liking radishes when we had them growing up and figured that for 25 cents a bundle, I could just eat them raw if I couldn't figure out anything to do with them. Eating them raw has been fun, but I've also found them to be remarkably versatile little buggers and can be anywhere that I carrot could when it comes down to it. After doing some research, I learn that they are also fairly healthy little buggers. So, I think that radishes are here to stay as long as they stay on sale.

Have You Ever Really Wanted to Say, "I told you so?"

2011-01-17T17:16:00.001-08:00

WARNING: THIS POST MAY BE INTERESTING TO YOU. IT MAY JUST BE A THERAPEUTIC THING OF ME TRYING TO RECONCILE MY YEARS OF PHILOSOPHICAL DISSONANCE WITH MY CLASSMATES IN HIGH SCHOOL. TAKE IT FOR WHAT IT IS

We are all aware that I do like to read. One of my favorite books is The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. Today, I tell you something about my love for this book. My disclaimer is this: If you have never read this book, and would like to read this book, I might spoil parts. I promise nothing.

So, in high school, I was once reading it for the third-or-so time during lunch. Some of my friends came up to me, saw what I was reading and said, "That's a great book!" I told them that I agreed and that it was one of my favorites. They then said, "Really? I don't know how someone as religious as you could love a book about someone realizing the falseness of religiosity!" This began a very intense debate between us, as I don't think that is a theme of the book. As in, not at all. In fact, I do not feel the book reject religiosity at all.

For those who haven't read the book, and don't care if I spoil it, the story revolves around two Orthodox Jewish boys in WWII New York. One of them, Reuven, is a plain Orthodox Jew. A very Orthodox one, but still a regular one. The other, Danny, is a Hasidic Jew. And he's not just a Hasidic Jew. His father is a tzaddik--basically Rabbi 2.0. His father is his community's absolute leader. Religious, political, everything. He is also expected to take on the pains of his community and "listen to the world cry." This is an inherited role, that Danny does not want. Eventually, Danny tells his father that he does not want to be a tzaddik and goes to college to become a clinical psychologist. At the end of the book, Danny does this, cutting off his Hasidic earlocks, shaving his beard, wearing normal clothes and tucking in his fringes.

My friends said that he was abandoning his faith. I argued (with textual support from the novel, I may add) that Danny was not abandoning his faith, had not rejected his faith and had not lost his faith. He still believed in Judaism, and really even Hasidic Judaism. He was just sending his tzaddikate to his younger brother and abandoning outward expressions of Hasidic Judaism. It's not the same thing. They told me that I didn't know what I was talking about. They were insistent that he was escaping repression and all this stuff. I held that it was a lot more complicated than that.

So, last week before Molecular Biology, I was again, re-reading The Chosen. It's something I do with books I love from time to time. A person sat down in the seat next to me and saw what I was reading. "Oh, I love that book!" they said. I agreed that it was a wonderful book. "Have you read the sequel?" they asked. I responded that I didn't know there was one. "Yeah, it's called The Promise. It's really good."

Part of me was excited. There was a sequel? On the other hand, I've always been a little bit skeptical of sequels. Too often, I read it and then like to pretend the sequel was never written because I liked the way it was before, or I liked the after-story I concocted for myself better. But, I decided to read it anyways.

I didn't like it as much as The Chosen. I will just say that. But, I like The Chosen even more after having read The Promise. Very odd, I know.

Anyways, here's the kicker. Atheistic friends of high school in Seattle that glob onto anything you can construe as being critical of religion: Maybe you saw Danny as abandoning Judaism. Apparently, Chaim Potok doesn't. Because, Danny is every bit as Jewish in the next book. Evidence:

1) "He's still very much a Hasid, isn't he? Except for the beard and the clothes."
2) "Does Mr. Saunders always wear a skull-cap?" "He does," I told Michael.
3) "How did you do it? How did you get him to go on a date with you? Hasidim consider dating an absolutely dangerous and lustful activity... I see, the wily female in pursuit. You tricked him, didn't you?"
4) "Twentieth-century sophisticate. Daughter of college professors. And I am in love Danny Saunders. Isn't that crazy? I love him. He's so gentle and kind and so deeply and honestly religious...and so stubborn about some things. He won't touch me. He won't hold my hand. The second time we dated he asked me outright--but in a somehow beautifully gentle way--if I was a virgin."
5) (To Reuven in regards to Danny) "I think he might even be more religious than you are."
5) "'You are having a Hasidic wedding?' I said in a tone of mock despair. 'I will have to dust off my caftan and fur-trimmed cap.' ...'Yes,' Danny said, suddenly serious. ' But it's my world, best friend. And I haven't seen anything outside that is better.' 'Nothing?' I said. 'Nothing I can't use and still stay inside.'"
6) "I...felt suddenly drained and hollow with the realization that the months of seesawing between the two worlds had finally ended for me this night with nothing but an awareness of how deep the separating chasm really was and how impossible it seemed to bridge it--unless you were Danny Saunders and were rooted deeply enough in one world to enable you to be concerned only about the people of the other and not about their ideas."
7) "He was doing very well in his studies, and his phenomenal memory was the subject of much conversation in the psychology department at Columbia. He was finding it somewhat difficult to make friends. The nonobservant Jewish students in the department were embarrassed by his skull-capped presence; the two other Orthodox Jewish students in the department were easier for him to talk to but not interesting enough for him to want their friendship; and the non-Jewish students treated him as some kind of holy man, an Alyosha Karamazov thrown suddenly into their midst, a Jew with the mind of an Einstein and the soul of a Schweitzer, someone to talk to perhaps about a sticky experiment, someone to use as a resource person when they needed a reference ... But Danny did not really care about his nonexistent social life. As a matter of fact, he would not have gone anywhere to eat even if he had been asked, for he was holding rigidly to the laws of kashruth and he ate only those foods he prepared by himself in his apartment or at his father's home."
8) Danny uses Hasidic philosophy in his psychotherapy techniques. Consistently throughout the book. Reuven even notices it. Including the "raising in silence theories" that Danny did not understand and disliked so much.
9) When Reuven is angry with Danny, he will sarcastically say things such as, "That's what I love about you Hasids." or things like that.
10) On the weekends, Danny returns to his father's house and even speaks in his father's synagogue. And he is technically still a rabbi and at one point is called "Rav Saunders" and he does not object.
11) Danny eventually gets one of Reuven's teachers to stop harassing him about something (which needn't be spoiled because some may wish to read it) through vicious use of Talmudic rhetoric. He knows what he's doing.

So, I kind of want to say, "I told you so!" I was right. He wasn't abandoning Judaism. He sounds pretty Jewish to me.

I guess this post was really just for me, because I was having a triumphant moment.

Cooking for College Students #6

2011-01-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

I invented another one tonight!

Unnamed

chicken
chopped olives
chopped bell peppers
chopped onion
paprika
parsley
dab of olive oil
pasta

You know what to do! That's right, cook the pasta. Put the rest of it in a skillet. Cook that up. Put it on top of the pasta. AMAZING

A CHANGE IN TITLE!

2010-12-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

So, my friends, I have changed the title of my blog. I know, I know! It is scary. I had just finished my post below (so proceed to that post), when I looked at my title.

I still love linguistics. But it's not really me anymore. When I started this blog, my mind was a whir of words. And I still love words. I will be listening to people talk and have random "I wonder why they used that syntactic construct?" moments. But when I am thinking and having thoughts bumping against the pia, arachnoid and dura maters, they are different thoughts. My mind is a jumble of molecules bonding to one another, blood doing its thing, Latin anatomy terms labeling everything as it goes, cells speeding around in their chosen method of mobility, proteins going along DNA doing their designated jobs, and ideas of how to save the world from the terrors of messed up clotting cascades. So, I felt a shift in focus was appropriate.

Yes, I also changed my color. The pink was also just "not me." I think we can all agree on that.

Feedback on our new title? More me? Less me? Cliche? Too odd? Just plain stupid? Thoughts on why I ask the first interrogative of this stream in first person multiple?

End of the Semester

2010-12-30T18:13:00.001-08:00

I am a semi-delinquent blogger. I will fully admit it. But, I suppose that I could be more delinquent. You do have to admit that. Anyways, how did my semester end?

Could have ended worse. There are some classes that I feel sad to see go, such as Clinical Lab Techniques, Old Testament and Anatomy. I will especially miss anatomy. I wish I could take it again, just to take it again! Other classes, I do not regret I will not have to return to. Science of Biology for example. I did not like that class, I did not like the teacher, and let's just say I felt a strong urge to go directly to his office without passing go and collecting $200 and slugging that man after he said on our homework that it was physically impossible for girls to get bleeding disorders. I mean, it would be ignorant enough for a college biology professor to make such a blanket statement about hemophilia (which at least selects for males), but when there are bleeding disorders that are AUTOSOMAL, I could barely contain myself. Anyways, I will calmly tell myself that I can just leave that in my past. And I have other grievances. But I will not unleash here.

In all, I was rather pleased with my classes and I did not completely destroy my GPA. I have a goal of a 4.0 next semester. It's my reach goal. Then I have my push goal of A's in Molecular Biology and Infection and Immunity. And my safe goal of A's in Econ and my religion classes. We'll see what happens. What this means it that I will be angry with myself if I don't get A's in Econ or my two religion classes. Because I know that I'm 100% capable of that. I will be satisfied if on top of that, I get A's in molecular biology and Infection/Immunity, because they are important classes to me, and I believe that I have the ability if I work. I will be pleased with myself if I get an A in Chem on top of the other two goals, because I feel that I have great ability in Chem, but I know that Chem 106 is kind of more than just ability. But I can. It will just be hard.

So, there is a little update for all of you.

Cooking for College Students #5

2010-12-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

So, we return to Cooking for College Students. I made something up today. It was risky and I was afraid that it would be disgusting, but it was absolutely AMAZING!

Baked Pork

boneless, lean pork chop
potato
carrot
olive oil
nutmeg
cloves
dried onions

Put them all together in a pan, put them in the oven at 375 degrees for awhile. I don't know how long. As long as it took me to visit teach the girl upstairs. Anyways, it turns golden-colored with some kind of carmelized looking things on the sides of the pan. I also did it on top of foil in the pan. Mostly to facilitate easy clean up, but I don't know if it would make a difference.

Basically, it was just amazing. I had nutmeg and cloves from making gingerbread, and wanted to try some new spices on my meat. Basil was getting too basic.

The Question of Salt

2010-12-01T21:43:00.001-08:00

So, my roommates recently asked me why I use kosher salt. The answer is complicated. The first answer is just that that's what I bought. The second answer is that I find it to be more flavorful meaning that I use less of it (which is both cost-effective and healthier) and that it contributes more than just "saltiness." But those were things I discovered I liked about kosher salt after I bought it. They mean I'll probably buy kosher salt next time.

My mother, on the other hand, has recently started using sea salt almost exclusively. I don't really have an opinion about this one. But she says that she tastes a difference and that she like sea salt better. I could analyze this, but I don't know.

So, my question, dear readers, is what about you? What salt do you use? Sea salt? Kosher salt? Iodized salt? Some other kind that I've never heard of but would love to?

Is It Okay to Feel Discouraged in Life?

2010-11-07T19:06:00.000-08:00

I take a short hiatus from Cooking for College Students for a few reasons. 1) Tonight, I just had a boneless pork chop. Which is pretty uninteresting. I just seasoned it and stuck it in the oven. 2) I have something I wanted to share.

I have learned that I do have a favorite book in the Bible. It's Jeremiah. I have learned so much from Jeremiah, and it has gotten me through so much. I savor and crave the words of Jeremiah. Today, I want to talk a little bit about adversity in the context of Jeremiah.

In the LDS Church, we oftentimes speak of adversity as something that you have to endure. And it's almost as if you don't approach adversity with complete happiness and a gung-ho positive attitude, you are being evil. I would like to put adversity in the context of Jeremiah. Note: Most of this could also be applied to Joseph Smith, whose story, as my Gospel Doctrine teacher pointed out, in a lot of ways is Jeremiah Part II. Anyways, a little bit of history (that I learned from Religion Ancient Scripture 302 which is an amazing class if you ever get the chance). Jeremiah is considered a Pre-Exilic Prophet. This means that he was in the last group of prophets that tried to rescue Jerusalem before its Babylonian destruction in 587 BC. The Pre-Exilic Prophets are Jeremiah, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Habbakuk and Lehi (for those confused, yes, Ezekiel and Daniel also were both this period but were carried into Babylon during the 1st and 2nd Deportations of Jerusalem in 606 BC and 598 BC). The thing that sets Jeremiah apart from the other Pre-Exilics is that Jeremiah before the end is going to be the only one. Lehi and his family leave for the Americas and we don't know if the other three are led out or die, but we know that Jeremiah will be the very last righteous person in Jerusalem. And when we say last, we mean last. Jeremiah did not marry because the Lord told him that he would see so much evil that he would not want to subject a woman to it, so he didn't even have a righteous woman with him. That is another reason that I admire him--he did it completely by himself with no one to comfort him but God, but that's another time.

Jeremiah is tortured, ridiculed, threatened with death and just generally persecuted. And does he approach it with gung-ho happiness? Well, in the LDS church we probably think, "Well he was a prophet. He must have had faith. He must have."

You would be wrong. In fact, at one point, Jeremiah says,

"Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide; Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?”

So, for those of us that have trouble with Biblical language, Jeremiah is basically saying, "I wish I had never even been born." So, am I saying that it's okay to be depressed all the time. Well, not exactly. Because, you see, Jeremiah had downer days, but in the end, he made the right choice. In the same chapter as him wishing he'd never been born, Jeremiah also says, "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." Non-Bible language? Jeremiah is so fed up with Judah that he's saying, "I am done. I don't even care anymore. They can just die for all I care. I give up." But he couldn't just give up. Jeremiah loved God too much to do that. He knew the truth and he could not keep quiet.

So, is it okay to have downer days? Well, I'd say yes. Jeremiah had a right to downer days. But, he didn't have a downer life. So, downer days are fine. But in the end, what matters is what we do after the downer days.

Conclusion: You can have a downer day. There is nothing wrong with feeling down, discouraged or inadequate. You just have to remember to pull a John Striker and "Saddle Up!"

Cooking for College Students #4

2010-11-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

So, this is kind of a recipe, thus why it goes under this series. However, this is more a story of my life. At some point in your life, you will open up your food storage unit and realize that you have nothing to eat for dinner. Whether this is because you don't have the money to buy food, or your need to visit the grocery has increased from "need" to an actual imperative NEED, or whatever, this day will come. Mine came. And the reason was the second listed.

So, I went to anatomy with the assumption that I was going to be eating jello for dinner when I got back. Come on, there are four servings per box, and so if you eat a whole box, that's 320 calories. That could be considered a meal, right? There are even 2 grams of protein in each serving! But, I donated blood yesterday, so I know that my caloric demand is a little higher. So, while studying Old Testament, I came to a realization. In the Book of 1 Kings, Elijah comes to a widow to ask her for food. Her response is that she has nothing but oil and flour and that she only has enough for her and her son and that tomorrow they will starve to death because that's all they have. Elijah promises her that if she feeds him first, the oil and flour will last until the end of the famine.

Some of the things I have in my "empty" cabinet: flour and oil. And I'm not exaggerating on how slim the pickings in this cabinet are. So, if this widow and her son lasted an entire famine off of flour and oil, why can't I last one night? So, I put flour, water and a tiny bit of salt into a bowl. I heated up some oil, poured in my mixture, cooked it, and here I am doing my homework with a bowl of jello and a bowl of Elijah's Widow's Famine Food. It's not actually that bad. I wouldn't eat it forever though.

Cooking for College Students #3

2010-10-22T18:11:00.001-07:00

I haven't been to the grocery store in a while. This means that instead of coming home from work and thinking, "What do I want for dinner?", I come home from work, stare at my shelf of the pantry and then my corner of the fridge in turn and think, "What can I concoct out of this stuff?" I mean, the pickings are getting slim.

This has lead to a couple of things. One of them, Beth actually invented and I altered it, but I'll share it anyways. The other, I was wary about, but it worked out and turned out to be very good.

RECIPE 1: Ranch Chicken

chicken
ranch dressing
basil
tiny bit of salt (it makes the meat more moist in my opinion, so even though my dad never liked it and thus my mom never cooked with salt, I do).

So, you cook the chicken in the salt and basil using your favorite cooking technique. I like to put a DAB of oil on the pan so that it doesn't burn up, but not too much, or the recipe gets oily. Then, you add the ranch dressing and let it cook. Very good.

RECIPE 2: Chicken Broccoli Stroganoff

pasta
sour cream (when I invented it, I actually used half sour cream, half milk, because I didn't have enough sour cream)
chicken breast (with a tiny bit of salt), diced
1 can cream of broccoli soup
fresh broccoli, chopped

So, you cook your pasta. Then you cook the chicken in a separate pan. When it's cooked through, add the fresh broccoli. Mix them together for a small amount of time and add sour cream and cream of broccoli. Let this cook, stir it up, just like a regular stroganoff. You have to let it get its chunkies out and for the sour cream and cream soup to mix with one another. Then put it on top of the pasta.

And this has been cooking for college students. Over and out.

Cooking for College Students #2

2010-10-10T16:16:00.001-07:00

So, I have a new recipe. It was developed yesterday for dinner. It doesn't actually have a name yet. But I liked it, and it was inexpensive. This one, there aren't set proportions. I just kind of decide as I'm going along how much of each to put in there.

Ingredients:

Turkey that masquerades as ham (you know the stuff)
carrots
broccoli
tomato
Montreal Steak Grill Seasoning
olive oil

Mix it all together in a pan and let it cook. It's very good.

Cooking for College Students #1

2010-10-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

I have embarked on a blog project which may or may not live to adulthood. It's called "Cooking for College Students." Since living in my own apartment, I've learned a few things about me and cooking: 1) my meal choices are heavily influenced by what is on sale at either Macey's or Smith's depending on which car-bear-roommate is going to the grocery store and her personal grocery store choices. 2) While cooking for myself, I don't have to eat things I don't like, and things that I love which basically no one else in my family does, I can eat to my heart's content. 3) My cooking is also heavily influenced by my ability either to not make leftovers or to make an acceptable form of leftover, given my terrible dislike for food that has been adulterated by a microwave.

However, I have noticed that the general college student kitchen is governed by two factors: price and time constraints. That is why I am sharing my college student recipes. I know many of you are not college students. But, if you are, or even if you're not, you are welcome to try my recipes, or at least be inspired by them. Google searching and adapting are how I make most of these recipes anyways.

Tonight, I went Greek. One thing I have to share. My mother does not like chickpeas. And as many of you know, if the mother does not like it, it probably does not become part of the standard household diet. I love chickpeas. Now that I'm in my own apartment, I can eat all the chickpeas I want. At Smith's about two weeks ago, canned chickpeas (or garbanzo beans) were on sale. I thought, "I really like those. I have no idea what I'm going to make with them, but they're a good price and I'm sure I can find something to do with them." So, I bought them. Tonight, after a wonderful conference, I looked into my cupboard at my shelf and evaluated the dinner options. I saw that can of chickpeas. It seemed like a good night to try, so I went online, googled some chickpea recipes, and then went back to the kitchen and developed a salad:

Chickpea Tuna Salad

1 can of garbanzo beans
1 can of tuna
10-12 black olives (I chopped mine up)
parsley
dried onions, lightly grilled in olive oil to make them not crunchy anymore
salt and pepper to taste
grated cheddar cheese (I know I was deviating from the Greek thing, but in my imagination it appeared as feta cheese. But, what kind of college student has feta hanging out in their fridge? So, the cheddar sufficed)

I drained the cans, mixed it all up and ate it. It was very good. Would it have been better with fresh onions? Yeah. Would it have been better with feta cheese? Yeah. Someday would I like to make it with those changes, plus some bell peppers and some artichoke? Sounds very yummy. But, now, I have some of this in a tupperware in my fridge, and it fulfilled my college student needs.

And so, Cooking for College Students #1 brings you Chickpea Tuna Salad.

And I'm a Mormon

2010-09-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

So, I have recently had my profile on Mormon.org approved. The Palmyra Stake did a lot of pioneering on this project, and I submitted a profile. I think it's a wonderful idea, and it really helps people understand that Mormons aren't cookie cutters. We're all types of people from all types of places. You can see my profile by clicking on my Mormon button.

Camp Little Oak and My Life

2010-08-14T16:58:00.001-07:00

Today, I got back from being a counselor at Camp Little Oak. Camp Little Oak is a camp for girls with bleeding disorders such as hemophilia and Von Willebrand's disease, or who carry the gene for it (symptomatic or asymptomatic). I went there for a lot of reasons. For one, because I want to research those types of diseases. But now that I'm back, I can't wait to go back next year. I loved being with those girls, and the staff members. I loved their zest for life and their enthusiasm and optimism. It was one of the most tight-knit places that I've ever seen (excluding the church) and I have most all positive things to say. I also enjoyed the humor with which the hemophiliac counselors treated hemophilia. No taking themselves to seriously there (ex: "Someday, we bleeders might have a revolution, but it'd be a short-lived revolution. Just hit us too hard, and we're all down for the count," or "You clotter!"). I also have now officially seen mouth bleeds stopped with tea bags and nosebleeds stopped with tampons. Yes, just like in She's the Man. A tampon.

However, this brings up the valid question. Why do I want to research bleeding disorders? Until last Saturday, I had read most every book I could find on the subject of hemophilia, but had never met a bleeder in my life. (For clarification: bleeders is used as a generic term referring to hemophiliacs, Von Willebrand's and symptomatic carriers) Let's just say it this way: I had heard about hemophilia in passing when I was very little. I don't remember how. But, I was just fascinated. I read every book, every article, every encyclopedia entry I could find on the subject. How could one gene change so much? It was mind boggling. I just wanted to know more, and then more, and then more. And now, here I am, going to college to spend eleven years of my life learning how to learn to help these people. I just felt that it was my calling. I feel like this is where God wants me to be. Random in the eyes of the world? Probably. But the way it is.

One thing I learned this week is that I don't think of it as merely a fascinating scientific phenomenon anymore. It is a real live thing, that effects real, live people. These people have lives, they have brothers, sisters, parents, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, daughters, sons. They live. And you know, this has just heightened the whole thing for me. Don't get me wrong, the science of it is still out-0f-this-world fascinating, but it is also now a passion. And that is the way that it is now.

Things I have learned about New Yorkers

2010-07-17T20:05:00.001-07:00

I am approaching having lived in Upstate New York for four months. And as such, I’m starting to notice things about New Yorkers. These are just general observations, and do not mean that every New Yorker is this way, but, living about them in their rural world with almost everyone about having been born, bred and lived their entire within the same 30 mile radius, I’m making generalizations. Further, I must clarify that I love living in New York. I really do enjoy it. It is perhaps one of my favorite places that I have lived (Colorado still wins). But, there are things I’ve noticed.

First, Upstaters tend to be short. I know, I know, I’m short. But I’m not the only one to make this observation. I admit fully that I am short, but I feel less short. I’m 5’1’’, and generally, people around me are fairly similar heights. My mother, only about 5’5’’, says that she will sometimes even feel tall in grocery stores when compared with those around her. I don’t have an explanation for this, but my mother says that a reason for it may be that most people are almost at least a quarter Italian, and statistically, Italians tend to be shorter.

Next, lifestyle choices often drift towards unhealthy. For one, it seems that everybody and their dog is constantly lighting up a cig. I thought it was just that I’d just gotten out of Provo, UT, where pretty much nobody smokes, but I have been informed by my family that it’s not just me. Compared to Seattle (which as much as I didn’t like living in Seattle, is, for one, a vastly health-conscious city), smoking is what everyone does. Further, where everyone in Seattle had to have their coffee, everyone here has a small coffee in the morning, but only to wash down their six donuts. And when I go to the grocery store for weekly grocery shopping with my mother, where in Seattle, you’d see women doing their weekly shopping that included chicken, produce, milk, eggs, bread as well as some snack foods, Upstate NY grocery shoppers (who wear very little clothing, look like they haven’t washed their hair in ages and weigh approximately 200 pounds), have steak, steak, maybe a few apples and a whole lot of donuts. Of every Little Debbie variety. Also, you thought that obesity was rampant in the United States. I am willing to wager that the state of NY has raised obesity rates 10% in of itself.

This is absolutely random, but I have noticed that the Deaf community is much larger here. Maybe I just notice because I can sign, but in Seattle, I saw a Deaf couple signing to one another maybe once or twice. In all eight years of living there. In one shopping trip today, I found three. I have seen more Deaf couples in these two months than I have seen in the rest of my life. I am aware that this might also be related to the Mediterranean influences. Hereditary hearing loss’s demographic group is Mediterranean. That’s where deafness in the European royal family comes from—it’s the Greek Royal Family’s fault.

Apparently, I’m the only one who has noticed, but parents are a lot more hands-on about their parenting.What I mean by this is not that parents are abusive. I mean they're just more hands on. For example, when I was with my father at one of my brother's orchestra concerts, there was a mother in the row in front of us with three young boys. When the children were being rowdy, she would quiet them down. But where in Seattle, mothers might nudge their shoulder and say, "It's time to be quiet," this mother would flick the boy's arm and then say, "Quiet." Or, while in Seattle, a mother might get a child's attention in a grocery store when they were scolding their child by calling, "[Name], you need to look at me" and then proceed to give the correction, here in NY, I see a lot more mothers, run to the child, grab their hand and pull them around so that they are looking at them before telling the child what to do. None of these things are abusive. However, they are much more hands-on parenting techniques.

Most bizarre red tape and control practices. New York lawyers have their fingers everywhere. And I mean everywhere. And there are red tapes everywhere. And they have control issues. You literally cannot do anything in this state without a lawyer (including buying a house) and everything involving the government, "It's going to be a problem." It's actually easier to get a passport than a New York State driver's license because of all the proof of identity that you have to provide. And switching my nurse's assistant certification to NY was a five-week headache. To pick up a child from school, you have to go inside the school, show ID and be a person authorized to pick up that child. Otherwise, the child stays inside the locked school. It's CRAZY!

New Yorkers are unhappy. They are. In fact, New York is the 51st most unhappy state (apparently this poll/survey counts DC as a state). And if you smile at someone, they look like you must be wanting something from them. I was noticing in a grocery store that people just look dissatisfied. They're dissatisfied with their family, with the children around them, with the world, with the produce, with the prices. Basically, they're unhappy. I don't know why. And cashiers and people like that in general are less perky. Again, this is a generalization. I've noticed that those who aren't vastly unhappy are very, very happy. But there's a discrepancy.

Lastly, while I was living in the West, I believed that people who claimed that racism was a problem were just looking for problems and were nutsos. It's not that I believed that there weren't racists. I believed that there were people who lived their sorry lives hating people of other races. But I thought they were few and far between. Until I came to New York, I didn't believe that it was an actual problem. I come to this state, and I see that it is. Blacks are harassed by cashiers, by people on the street and spoken badly of. If a black is driving a nice car, they are pulled over by the police with the assumption that they either stole the car or are dealing. Of course blacks don't have nice cars of their own hard work and labor, they say. They don't honestly obtain money by their own merits. That's impossible that a black person could be a smart, hardworking, successful member of society! What sort of world are we living in? In the West, I think that people are not against blacks, but they can be purely ignorant of them. Here in the East, I see people who are honestly judgmental and racist. It kind of makes me sick.

New York has many, many merits that I love. But, I am not going to pretend that there aren't oddities that I have noticed.

Update on the nephew

2010-07-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

More pictures! For the enjoyment of all. We all love pictures of babies, especially of babies that we love, and personally, I love this one. The above is the happy daddy!

Sarah holding him

Me Holding him

He's ready for his close-up

Uncle Caleb with the little one. Caleb says that he identifies with the little guy for many reasons (making labor difficult for their mothers with huge heads and the mean ways that doctors try to get those babies out, and huge heads that don't fit in hats among them) and is already telling him secrets and whispering things that he won't tell us what he's saying. He says that he will be the best uncle ever and a favorite.

It's the grandpa! I think he's pretty excited to be a grandpa!

He doesn't like life in his crib, as he would much rather be held, but that's not quite possible all the time.

NEPHEW!

2010-07-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

So, my mom posted this on facebook, but here he is, my nephew. I suppose the only people who visit this blog anyways are the Hatches, so here's welcome to the family I guess. His name is Adam Samuel Russell (on his US citizenship) and Adam Samuelovich Russell (on his Russian citizenship, which isn't existent yet). He was born on July 5th at 4:23 am and weighs 8 lbs 6 0z. He looks a lot like his mommy, but he has the Hatch head, and doesn't fit into newborn hats. The hat that he's wearing is a 3-month hat. He also has hair! It's kind of light brown, but you can't see it in the picture because he doesn't like his head touched or his hat removed. This picture is Sarah holding him, but there are all the other pictures too, they're just on my mom's camera.

We May Be Reaching the End of My Own Personal Depression!

2010-06-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

So, good news all around!

1) My computer is still dead, but here's the story. My hard drive failed. Irreparable. So, I bought a new hard drive (a bigger one, I use to have a 60 GB, now I have a 320 GB). I bought a SATA, and I needed an EIME or something like that, but that will be remedied shortly. I can return the SATA for a full refund, so yeah. It's getting there

2) I had a promising interview with a medical personnel temp agency on Tuesday. They think they'll be able to find me something in Med Records or medical reception. They sent my resume to the VA Clinic in Rochester, and we'll see what happens with that.

3) I called Prometric today. They're the company that manages the Nurse's Aid licenses for NY. It's not a sure thing, but my application for my Washington State registration to become NYS certification, has apparently been processed and a "certificate" was mailed on Wednesday. I think that sounds like it was approved.

So, there's all the good news!

How do you solve a problem like a crashed computer...

2010-06-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

So, my faithful Acer 2480, Windows XP Media Center Edition, kicked it on me. On Monday, I pushed the power button, and unfortunately, I got the lovely Acer splash screen, however, after that, nothing but the black screen of death. I am probably too self-reliant. I like to fix things myself. Computers included. If I don't know how, I will go and figure it out.

So, I embarked on a mission. This mission included, but was not limited to, buying Avanquest Fix-it Utilities, external hard drives, trying to repair with XP recovery console, loading Linux and trying to rescue my files, all sorts of stuff. I got everything safely off of the D, but the C (which for a long line of reasons is not backed-up) had screwy file allocation, which I think--now that I've sorted through a lot of online info, and played with the computer-- is probably what caused the inability to boot up anyways. There are many, many things that I must rescue from said C drive, so after a successful rescue mission on the D drive, and all that info now living safely on an external hard drive, I decided that I would load windows onto my D drive and then hopefully be able to fix the file allocation of the C with my D up and running.

I still don't know if this will work, because when I loaded XP, I learned that my product key wasn't working. Who knows why! So, after about 45 minutes on hold and getting transferred from one Microsoft call center to another, I was informed by a foreign call center (by the sound of it), that my product key was a valid product key, however, if it wasn't working, it wasn't Microsoft's problem. I would have to contact the company from which I purchased the software. I didn't purchase this software, my dad did, back when Caleb was building his own computer and bought a couple of extra licenses for reloads and what have you. So, now, I'm trying to figure out where Dad bought this thing, and why it's not loading. Once I do, I probably won't be able to fix the file allocation anyways (that's just a bit too advanced for me), and unless I want to wipe my C and reload XP there (which I DON'T because everything I've ever written in my creative writing life--everything since from the ages of 11 to the present--is stuck on there. Hundreds of thousands of words of the only creative thing I know how to do) I'll probably end up getting the Geek Squad. Oh, how great this has been. Many, many, many hours, only to surrender to the guys with pocket protectors.

I will back-up from now on. It's not that I didn't believe in backing up files, I just never did it for a long strand of reasons which I will not share, because I get passionate about all the terrible things that happened to me. Really, if I get all the files out of there, that's great. But really, all I will not surrender to wiping is all my creative writing, and my journal. That's it.

My mother says I'm having a slump in my life. That's why I shouldn't climb stairs at the moment. I'll probably break something.

The Job Search Continues

2010-05-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

So, the job search is not complete. I haven't heard back from hardly anyone. And in the meantime, I am freelance writing. The pay is not great since I'm not well-known or anything like that, but the choices are 1) stay home waiting for a call making no money 2) stay home waiting for a call making measly money. I think I'll take number 2.

I don't think that the problem with employment is because of the downturn in economy. I think that Upstate NY is just a stagnant economy. Always has been, always will be. They don't really get ups or downs here. It is, however, a summer resort, so maybe as we get closer to summer, seasonal positions will open up. Maybe as we get closer to summer, I'll get a call from one of my applications. All the same, we'll see what happens.

Homecoming, and the Job-Search Ensues!

2010-05-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

So, a little over a week ago, I returned home from college. I would here post all the pictures I've taken of New York State since getting here, but I'm not quite sure what I did with the adapter that gets pictures off of my camera and onto my computer. I think I might have put it in a box that didn't come to New York. At least I remembered the one that recharges my camera, and I have approximately 145 picture-taking-spots available on my camera. So, we'll just have to get them off the camera later.

All the same, it is wonderful. I know that a lot of people find Seattle to be a beautiful place. I do beg to differ. I find it a dreary, ugly, terrible place to live. And you may quote me, as someone who spent 8-9 dreary years living there. But back to business. I have decided to add Upstate NY, particularly Canandaigua Lake Resort Area (where my family now lives...not because it's a resort, just because it's where they live, but it happens also to be a resort) to my list of the most beautiful places on earth. When I can upload pictures, you'll see why, or if you come and visit you'll see why.

So, since coming home, rebonding with the family and the like, I have plunged into the wondrous world of job searching! So, the prospects as they stand:

1) Rochester General Health System, Newark-Wayne Community Hospital: So, I talked to their recruiter before returning home and she says they want me as a patient care tech, but they still haven't decided exactly what they want to do with me, so I don't know what to do about that. They're still decided exactly what unit gets me, what exactly I'll be doing and whatnaught.

2) Thompson Health Care System, Canandaigua Thompson Health Hospital: So, this is about 5 minutes from our house, and I applied for an Acute Care Nurse Aid position, but we'll see what happens.

3) MedScribe Victor, NY: They're looking for people to process denied Medicare claims. I'm sure it would be wonderful and all, and I have the experience. The distance is fine and the pay is good. They're looking specifically for indefinite temps, so that's good. I wouldn't mind doing this, but if I could get a patient care job, I'd enjoy it more. But hey, we do what we can.

4) Nannying: There's a family in Marion that is considering me for a nanny. They're wonderful kids and very obedient kids. However, it's about 40 minutes away, and if I can get something in the field I actually want to work in, that'd be great.

5) I found a posting for an EKG tech. I have all the experience and licensing they want, so it would be possible, but it's all the way in Geneva (New York...not Switzerland). So, I'd rather not.

So, that's how the tale goes. We'll see what happens.

Are You a Don Quixote or a Hamlet?

2010-04-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

On my Russian Literature final there was a prompt that really made me think. And don't worry, our essay questions were out in the open for all to see before the final and we were allowed to think about them prior to the final, so I'm not breaking any Honor Code restrictions by sharing this.

It started with a quote from the Russian writer, Ivan Turgenev (whom I've learned to love a lot this semester) from his essay "Hamlet and Don Quixote." I would love to share the exact wording with you, but it seems that I can't find my copy of the questions, and the text is not copyrighted, but the translation is. The basic idea is that Don Quixote is faith. He is faith in himself, in humanity, in life, in others, in something higher. Hamlet, on the other hand, is so analytical that he doubts everyone and everything. He is an egoist, but his doubt goes so far that the natural consequence of his doubt is that he does not even believe in himself. Not even his egoism can save him from that. Turgenev argues that you can analyze all people and all characters in this light--not necessarily that all fall into one camp completely, but that those are extremes with which you can analyze.

Then we had to go and analyze to Russian lit characters in this context (Levin from Anna Karenina and Bazarov from Fathers and Children). But, the part that really struck me is the idea of it. Looking at the two options explained, I think I know which I would want to be. And then having read both Don Quixote and Hamlet, I know which end I'd like to have. But which am I? You probably guessed right, I'd want to be a Don Quixote. So, I don't want to go insane and fight windmills, but that's not the point. The point is, I want to believe that everyone and everything is inherently good. I want to have faith. But I'm a very analytical person. And I've discussed this before, being analytical isn't particularly a bad thing. In fact, that's why I chose the career path I have. But it needs a limit. I have to be careful to not become so analytical that I'm a Hamlet. I need to have some faith in others, in myself and in the possibilities. And I don't all the time.

So, that was just a thought that came to me. If you're not analytical to some extent, you're going to be in trouble. And we need people who are more analytical and people who are less analytical. That's how the world has been running for thousands of years. But be careful to not let that analysis consume you, your personality or your way of looking at life. Ask yourself, are you a Hamlet or are you a Don Quixote?

What does it mean to be a Russell?

2010-04-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

As many know, most European families (not all, but most) have a coat of arms, a crest, a motto, all that good stuff. So, I decided to look a bit into what being a Russell means. And maybe I'll do the same for Hatches, because I am a Hatch too.
The last name Russell is Scottish and means "Red-headed" and derives from the Norman name of Roussel. The Russells are a well-respected Highland Scot clan, complete with Scottish crest and tartan:

The motto on the crest "virtus sine macula" means "Virtue without blemish."

As Scotland incorporated more and more into England, the Russells became nobility in that world as well, and were thus presented with a coat of arms:

And yes, the motto written on that one is "che sara sara." You've got to admit, that's pretty gosh-darn cool. It really does mean "Whatever will be, will be."

And in honor of that:

100 Best Books of All Time?

2010-04-10T08:59:00.001-07:00

A literature society recently voted on the 100 Best Books of All Time. I've decided to see if I agree. They are, in order:

1. Crime and Punishment
2. 1984
3. Brothers Karamazov
4. Hamlet
5. Les Miserables
6. To Kill A Mockingbird
7. The Great Gatsby
8. Pride and Prejudice
9. War and Peace
10. The Bible
11. Lolita
12. Don Quixote
13. The Stranger
14. A Tale of Two Cities
15. Catch-22
16. Anna Karenina
17. Master and Margarita
18. The Picture of Dorian Gray
19. The Grapes of Wrath
20. On the Road
21. The Sound and the Fury
22. King Lear
23. The Divine Comedy
24. The Catcher in the Rye
25. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
26. The Idiot
27. In Search of Lost Time/ Remembrance of Things Past
28. Lord of the Flies
29. The Lord of the Rings
30. The Odyssey
31. Siddhartha
32. 100 Years of Solitude
33. As I Lay Dying
34. Frankenstein
35. Wuthering Heights
36. Beowulf
37. Dead Souls
38. Madam Bovary
39. The Old Man and the Sea
40. Slaughterhouse 5
41. The Sun Also Rises
42. Ulysses
43. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
44. Jane Eyre
45. Dracula
46. Fathers and Sons
47. Heart of Darkness
48. Metamorphosis
49. Notes From Underground
50. Of Mice and Men
51. The Republic
52. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
53. The Trial
54. Animal Farm
55. Brave New World
56. Cat's Cradle
57. The Count of Monte-Cristo
58. Faust
59. Fictions - Borges
60. The Fountianhead
61. Gargantua and Pantangruel
62. The Good Earth
63. Jude the Obsecure
64. Paradise Lost
65. The Mayor of Casterbridge
66. Macbeth
67. Oedipus Rex
68. Moby Dick
69. North and South
70. Oliver Twist
71. Night
72. Oblomov
73. One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest
74. Perfume
75. The Kite Runner
76. Tristam Shandy
77. Watership Down
78. Women in Love
79.. The House of Mirth
80. L'Assomoir
81. Bleak House
82. Middlesex
83. The Magus
84. Canterberry Tales
85. Brideshead Revisisted
86. Candide
87. In Cold Blood
88. No Exit
89. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
90. For Whom The Bell Tolls
91. The Little Prince
92. Montaigne ~ Essays
93. Iliad
94. Sometimes A Great Notion
95. A Clockwork Orange
96. Amerika
97. Julius Caeser
98. Invitation of a Beheading
99. Le Bete Humaine
100. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkbale Things

Some good ones. Others, I disagree with. For example, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre need to be chucked off right now. And I wouldn't put the Bible so far down the list, but I suppose if we're talking in terms of literary merit and not spiritual merit, okay.

Two-fold: Conference Report and Semester Report

2010-04-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Conference Report:

My favorite musical numbers
1. "Abide with Me 'Tis Eventide" I've always loved that hymn.
2. "Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah" I've also always loved this hymn
3. "God Loved Us So He Sent His Son" I know that it was the priesthood session, but I had a good number of friends singing in the choir as it was BYU Men's Chorus and then all the boys from the choirs above that, so I went online and watched it. And I found them, and I really liked this arrangement. Of course, I think that all choirs should consist of men only.

My favorite Talks

1. Bishop Keith B. McMullin.
2. Julie B. Beck
3. Francisco J. Vinas
4. Thomas S. Monson Sunday Morning. I love the "NEVER" kid.
5. Russell M. Nelson. A note on this one: I am the BYU 17th Ward Family History consultant. I have been praying in my heart and aloud for months now that I would be able to stress the importance of family history to my ward, which on large completely ignores family history and has actually told me they feel, "We can do it in the millennium." I have been discouraged recently and praying a lot about this. I don't know if this talk will really make a difference among those in my ward, but it let me know that God is with me on this, and it just felt that my prayer had been acknowledged. I know that it will be answered, and I don't know that this is answered, but it at least feels that it's the confirmation email that God has received the prayer.

Semester Report

The classes I took this semester and my opinion of them:

1) Music 202: Music in Civilization 1600-present day, from Dr. Howard
I really enjoyed this class. Dr. Howard is amazing and makes each day entertaining and fun while still getting across every concept that he needs to. I can also find him in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during conference and that's fun.

2) Physiology/Developmental Biology 305: Human Physiology (with LAB!), from Dr. Silcox
I just had to add the (with LAB!) part because that's how it's written on my schedule, sans all caps and exclamation point, but it sounds as if it's some sort of added bonus. I really like the class, but since it's physiology, if you don't want to take about blood, guts, fecal matter, urine and human reproduction, don't come. Especially since Dr. Silcox never misses an opportunity to gross someone out. I enjoyed it, but I guess I'm a 13-year-old boy at heart

3)Russian 340: Russian Novels in English, from Dr. Kelly
So, I pretty much loved this class. Basically all I can say about it. We read all sorts of cool books, and I liked most of them. Exception being Anna Karenina. Just am not a fan of that one. And Dead Souls was just weird. I don't know whether or not I like it.

4) Religion, Ancient Scripture 122: Book of Mormon part 2, from Bro. Moore
So, basically, it was a good class. It's Book of Mormon part 2. I really enjoyed Brother Moore's insights, because they were so well-thought-out and direct. But still, he managed to not be fire and brimstone. I had a fire-and-brimstone Book of Mormon prof last semester, and he was good too, but I think I needed a break from that.

5) Chemistry 285: Intro to Bio-Organic Chemistry, from Dr. Vollmer-Snarr
So, here's the deal. I loved this class. I know everyone else hated it, but I loved it. I didn't think it was inordinately hard. I know everyone else did, but I didn't. I thought Dr. Vollmer-Snarr was kind, clear and thoughtful. I know no one else did, but I did.

6) Dance 373R: Advanced Irish Dance Technique, from Jeanette (Geslison)
I loved this class, I loved this teacher. They were much meaner to us in Advanced that they were in Intermediate, but that's life. It was good for us.

Anyways, my friends, there is my happy life. And my happy thoughts.

Another One on the Role of LDS Women

2010-03-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

I had previously written an essay of the role of women in the LDS society which directed towards non-Mormons. I now find myself writing a second one, but not towards non-Mormons but towards Mormons.

I admit it, I want to study. I want a graduate degree. I will not, I repeat, will not not get my bachelor's degree. That is just not happening. I am sorry. I firmly believe that the role of women is in the home. However, I do not think it's any where in God's plan for women to be ignorant, uneducated or suppressed. We are told to gain knowledge in this life so that we can have more in the next. And I think that applies to secular knowledge as well. I mean, we'd better get used to learning about how earths, animals and people are put together, because if we do what we're aiming for, we're going to have to build some ourselves. And as we all know, two heads are better than one, so I wouldn't leave this all to our husbands. I mean, I can just imagine it now, "Honey! Do you remember which goes on top, the spleen or the liver?" "I'm sorry, dear, I thought my job was to do the dishes so I never bothered to find out."

I was recently cleaning my dorm room, and for the fun of it, put on an apron while doing so. A girl on my floor walked by (who is a feminist in the worst sense of the word). She asked me why I was wearing an apron to which I responded, "I don't know, I like feeling domestic."

Her response? "Well, in this stupid church, you might as well get used to it."

She looked like she was in a hurry, so I didn't, but I really wanted to say this: Hold the phone. My job is to be a MOTHER IN ZION! Not a HOUSEWIFE in Zion. Reminder: my current plan is to go to medical school.

I suppose that this is probably where I should end my rant. Because I'm getting passionate here. But here's what I think members of the church should never do:

1) Girls: NEVER assume that you can drop out of college or high school because your "husband will support you." A) You don't know that you'll get a husband when you're 21-years-old. B) You don't know that your family will be in a situation to subsist on only one income C) You don't know that your husband will always be alive or in a situation to work. Things happen, and you need to be prepared for that. D) You don't know what God's plan is for your family

2) Girls: Even if you are always in a situation to be at home and that's the plan, having an education in ANYTHING will help you be a better mother.

3) All members of the church: NEVER assume that if a woman has graduate degrees, works, what have you, that she is neglecting her family. You do not know the situation, you do not know the prayers that have gone into that decision, you do not know ANYTHING about that person.

4) All members of the church: NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER lower the divine and sacred role of motherhood to be synonymous with housewifing. It's not the same thing, and it will never be the same thing. And yes, there's a huge difference between housewife and homemaker. A housewife is a subservient woman who stays at home and does exactly what her husband tells her to do. A homemaker is one who stays at home, actively making their own decisions about how best to make the best home life for their children and spouse. It's a skilled job not for the uneducated. So, get your education.

I know that I used a lot of caps, but I wasn't in the mood for bold or italics.

The Tall Girl Complex

2010-03-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Today is Hannah either complaining about an issue or just being flat out bitter. All right, to start with, I'm 5'1''. Yes, I'm short. But girls who are 5'7'', 5'8'' plus, you don't want to be 5'1''. There are down-sides to being tall and there are downsides to being short. I acknowledge this, but I don't want to hear about the following and how it makes your life so hard:

1) Boys don't like tall girls. Really? I wasn't aware of this. In fact, why then do girls wear heels? The tall girls on my floor instituted a rule (which is not being obeyed) that short girls may only date short guys so that the tall girls have guys that are taller than they are. The exception to this rule was a 5'6'' 1/4 Japanese boy in our ward who they thought highly attractive and so he was deemed "tall for his ethnicity" and made available to tall girls only. For the record, not all Asians are short, and 1/4 Japanese makes him more Caucasian than Asian, so is his ethnicity really "Asian?" Anyways, I'm sorry. I understand that it may difficult for you, thinking that guys want a girl shorter than them, but hey, when I had a boyfriend, he had to either lift me up or I'd have to stand on a stair so that we could hug. It's inconvenient for both extremes. Whenever they complain about this and I say, "Well, there's advantages to being tall too, so just be thankful." I get told, "We weren't talking about being short. You just don't understand."

2) Tall girls have an excuse to dress against the honor code. This makes me so mad. The honor code says knee length skirts. Not, knee-length depending on how tall you are. Some girls I was with today got turned away from the Cannon Center because their skirts were too short and then went on about how they were being discriminated against because they're tall. That it's hard to find skirts that are long enough when you're tall. That doesn't matter. The Honor Code says knee-length and why did you even bring that skirt to BYU if it wasn't that length. It's hard for more well-endowed girls to find shirts that cover all their cleavage, but does that mean that it's an excuse to show their cleavage? No. It's hard for me to find skirts and jeans that don't drag in the dirt, but that's life. You can find the skirts that are long enough. My roommate is 5'8'', and I have never seen her wear skirts against the honor code. One of the girls upstairs always follows the honor code in her dress and she's at least 5'9" if not more. And then, these girls went on, when they saw a girl who was short with a very short skirt who hadn't been seen, about how they don't even look at short girls' skirts because they assume that only tall girls would be a problem. Well, I saw the girl checking skirts look at my skirt when I walked in with these girls, and guess who is definitely not tall.

I'm sorry. There are advantages and disadvantages both ways. But that is life. Look on the bright side. When you talk to a guy, you can see his face. When you're walking down the hallway, people don't step on you, look down and say, "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't see you." Do people make fun of you for being tall? I don't think so. Do people make fun of me for being short? Well, yeah, but I've gotten over it. But just because you're tall, doesn't mean the entire world hates you.

A New Direction

2010-02-28T18:34:00.000-08:00

So, right now, I'm a nursing major. But this will change in the next few days as I go through the official steps. Three questions I'm sure you have: 1) To What? 2) To do what? 3)Why?

1) To what am I changing my major? Well, my major is changing to Clinical Laboratory Science. Question 1b is "What the heck is that?" Well, Clinical Laboratory Science is a major that focuses on the very small-scale aspect of health care. When the doctor draws your blood and says, "We'll wait for this test to come back," who is it coming back from? Why the Clinical Laboratory Science majors of course! I'll be taking a lot of chemistry, a lot of biology and a boatload of microbiology and molecular biology. At the end of undergrad, I'll be certified to work in a hospital, analyzing that blood (and urine and other bodily fluids you don't want to know about) and also to tell the doctors what the heck any of it means. I still get to take pathophysiology and stuff, but just the "molecular/microbiology level" of it. There are other things that fall into what I can do with this, but we're getting to that.

2) What am I going to do with this major? Well, I'm going to go to 7 years of graduate school! I'm going to go to an MD-PhD program and become a medical research scientist. That's right, an MD and a PhD at the same time. It goes like this. You go to Med school with all the med students, but you're going to graduate school too, doing research, and getting your PhD in some other field (usually biochemistry, or molecular biology, or neuroscience, or genetics, or public health, or epidemiology or something like that). This is what I want to do with my life. So, I'll be a double-doctor. A doctor of medicine who "knows" how to surgery and diagnose and all that (knows in quotes because I'll have done the classes and the clinicals, but not the internships or fellowships), but a doctor of some other subject to research. I'll probably end up doing the PhD in molecular biology or genetics, because I really want to work in bleeding disorder research, most of which are genetic, and coagulation kind of belongs in the molecular bio subject. But thankfully, I don't have to decide that right now.

3) Why? Well, I'm just feeling like I belong in research. Being on the clinical side of everything is important and all, but I just strongly feel like with the particular way my mind works and what I'm good at, I have a lot more to offer in research. I love finding the answers and I love looking for all the data. It intrigues me, and after thought, prayer and making the decision, I can safely say that this is where I belong. I feel more comfortable about this decision than probably any other decision I've ever made.

The follow-up question I'm sure you're all thinking about: What about your family? I'm not going to throw having children out the window. I will still have children, maybe a little bit later than many people, but I will not even say I'll put them off until after school. I don't know all about this, partly because I have to find a father for said children before I can think about when I want to have them, but I feel comfortable through prayer that this is the right way to go with my life.

Another follow-up question I'm sure you're all thinking about: How are you going to pay for those 11 years of school (4 undergrad+7 grad)? Well, thankfully, these MD-PhDs are in short supply--they're not too common, so the NIH will pay for everything. And give you an annual stipend. Maybe they'll be broke by the time I get there, but for now, that's what they do, and if they are, I'm sure there are private research labs that are willing to cough over some cash to train some MD-PhDs.

Another question: Where do you do this graduate work? Well, there are good number of universities that have this option. Obviously, I haven't decided on a place for me, but I wouldn't mind joining my family up in New York where they have a program at the University of Rochester--a fairly prestigious one that loves BYU students.

It's tough to get into these programs, but I'm ready to work hard. I want to do this and I want to make a difference. Sure, nurses can make a difference, but I feel like I personally am capable of making a bigger, better difference through this because of the way I am.

Olympics Time Again!

2010-02-16T17:00:00.001-08:00

If you remember from 2008, I'm absolutely in love with the Olympics. Things haven't changed. And our first Olympics post of this Olympics is about something my sister Sarah loves, figure skating. Today, we shall analyze the men's possibilities.

First, do the US men have a chance of resolving their medal drought? The US men haven't won a gold medal since Brian Boitano, 1998 in Calgary. And they've been pretty short on all medals since then as well. Do they have a chance this year? The short answer, yes they do. We're coming in with Evan Lysacek, reigning World Champion and the man who beat Lysacek soundly at the Nationals, Jeremy Abbott. Plus Johnny Weir, but I don't have much hope for him. Why? Weir is inconsistent and a diva. That's why. But, back to Abbott and Lysacek. Lysacek is consistent and artistic and well-experienced in international competitions, where Abbott has little experience in international competition (not none, just little). Abbott, however, still beat Lysacek by a good margin at Nationals. Abbott is technically advanced and artistically superior. If you don't believe me on that one, watch his Nationals performances, preferably without commentary. Then realize that not only was that beautiful, but he landed a quad, a triple axel-triple toe combo, and a triple lutz-triple toe-double loop combo in there. And Abbott is the only one on the US team with a quad.

But that doesn't mean he's the only one in the world landing quads. Oh no, that's where Russia's Yevgeny Plushenko is a huge threat to US hopes. He is consistently landing multiple quadruple axels (by the way, Abbott is only landing quadruple toe, less technically valuable than a quadruple axel). France's star skater, Brian Joubert, also has a solid quad, but he is artistically lacking. Canada's hope, Patrick Chan, is strong and on home-turf but just coming off of an injury. And though the Japanese aren't the first picks for the gold, they'll be ones to watch.

My predictions: Plushenko and Abbott are the two to watch. Do I think that Lysacek will come out with a medal? Yes, I do. He is the reigning World Champion and has said that he won't let what happened in Torino happen again (he came out of Torino with no medal, landing in 4th by a few points). He wants his Olympic medal badly, and he's 25 years old. Will he be able to compete in 2014 at the Sochi Russia Winter Olympics? Probably not. Do I think he'll come out with a gold? Not sure, and leaning towards probably not. If it's not him, it's Plushenko or Abbott.

I've put myself out there. If I'm wrong, I apologize, but this is what I think.

"The Demon"

2010-01-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is just a poem that I read in my Russian Literature class. I really liked it, so I thought I'd share it. Yes, I also posted it on Facebook.

“The Demon”
Aleksandr Pushkin

In the days when all the impressions of
existence were new to me–the glances of
maidens, the rustle of a grove, and the
singing of a nightingale at night; when sublime
feelings–freedom, glory, and love–and the inspired
arts were agitating my blood so strongly,
Then, casting a shadow of sudden anguish
over hours of hope and enjoyment,
a certain malicious genius began to visit
me in secret. Our meetings were sad:
his smile, his wondrous glance, his
wounding speeches poured cold venom
into my soul. With inexhaustible
slander he would tempt providence;
he called the beautiful a dream;
he despised inspiration; he disbelieved
in love, in freedom; he looked on life
scornfully, and nothing in all nature
was he inclined to bless.

A Frightening Facebook Fad

2010-01-11T21:35:00.001-08:00

All right, so last week, there was a Facebook Fad. Girls all over me were posting a color as their status update. Or sometimes it was a pattern, such as polka dot, striped, pinstriped. Or sometimes it was something such as lacy. I didn't really know what was up with it, so I just ignored it. I'm usually out of it. Not really anything new there. Finally, after most every girl I know had posted (especially popular among those whom I do not know from BYU), I figured, "I've got to figure out what's going on here." So I asked.

Apparently, all over, girls were posting the color of their bras! Apparently, the boys weren't supposed to know. Apparently, this was somehow supposed to raise breast cancer awareness. How it raises the awareness when we're keeping a secret from the guys? I'm not quite sure.

But all the same, I am happy to announce, that you are not going to find out the hue of my undergarments. It's not that I have no sympathy for cancer patients. I really do. But in the long run, I don't think this really helps them.

Girls get mad when guys talk about their mammary glands. Why are they drawing attention to them?

I'm sorry if anyone out there found this to be a good project or whatever, it's just plain, flat-out weird. I'll raise awareness some other way, thank you much.

Depressing Proposals of Cinema and Literature

2009-12-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

So, I was thinking about this topic, as it came up last night on the floor. Many girls hold that the first proposal of Pride and Prejudice is the most heart-breaking thing in literature and cinema. This proposal and subsequent refusal can be seen here.

But worry not, because this is the end result of this relationship:

Anyways, I would contend that this is not in fact the most depressing proposal in Cinema/literature history. I submit a second contestant of a refused proposal, this one just makes me want to cry, that between Margaret Hale and John Thornton of "North and South:"

This one too ends well, as seen here:

But I find the reasons of refusal more sad. It's not a "you proposed very badly" but "I believe that you're a jerk because I'm a stuck-up fool who doesn't understand why you do what you do, even though you have to, and you're business-class and I'm upper-class, so leave me alone."

It makes me happy that they get together in the end.

'Tis the Season to Take Finals, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

2009-12-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

November ended, I once again completed the National Novel Writing Month challenge, and I realized that December was upon us. I realized that this means one thing. Only two more weeks of classes before finals, and subsequently GOING HOME!

I thought I'd let you know that I have the following feelings about finals in each of the classes.

1) Rel A 121: The Book of Mormon, Part 1. So, I have been studying the Book of Mormon since I was a small child, yes. But I'm a little nervous about this exam. Why? Because exam questions are sometimes things such as, "Which of the following was not cited as a sin of Israel by Jacob, the brother of Nephi?" (Disclaimer: This wasn't an exam question, but a practice question that could have been on a final). I see questions like this and think, "duhhhhhhhhhhhh...," mouth hanging open and looking as stupid Tom the cat from the Tom and Jerry cartoons. There are always the give away questions, (things along the lines of, "Who of the following did not teach correct principles to the Nephites?" and your choices are a. King Benjamin, b. King Mosiah, c. Nephi, d. King Noah), but there are hard questions in these exams. I shall have to study. A lot.

2) SFL 210: Human Development. So, I feel pretty good about this exam. I have done quite well in this class in general, and I feel that if I scan my earlier notes (it's comprehensive), I'll be all right.

3) LING 330: Introductory Modern Linguistics. Pragmatics, morphology, semantics, language variation, language processing? They're all fine. 1st language acquisition, 2nd language acquisition, syntax? Darn we're in trouble. Time to study those. One of the most confusing things about 1st language acquisition is that the linguistics department and the communication disorders department don't agree and they're trying to indoctrinate their students to their perspective, but I have these concepts on exams in a linguistics department class as well as a communication disorders department class.

4) A HTG 100: American Heritage. We're good. If I can remember the differences between Lincoln's first and Lincoln's second inaugural addresses, all will end well. And if I can manage to not get the XI and XII Amendments confused. They want to switch in my mind for some reason.

5) ComD 332: Language Structure. So, I'll just have to remember what is linguistics department theories and what the is ComD department theories. And by the way, at least the linguistics department admits they're theories. The ComD department actually says that they're right and that the linguists are operating on false research (which they're not...it's legitimate research).

6) DANCE 273: Ethnic Irish Technique 1. Practice significantly is required. And then, hopefully, what happened to the Eight-hand jig will not happen to the 2-hand reel nor will it happen to the "Trip to the Cottage"

7) NURS 180: Preview of Nursing. NO FINAL!!!!!!!

8) ComD 133: Intro to Communication Disorders. Painful. But, I have 100% right now and a boatload of extra credit. I've heard that the final is a doozy, but I'll just study. It doesn't help that I have no interest in this. I have learned this semester, that Communication Disorders is not my minor. Bye bye, I will hopefully never see you again!

So, that's how it goes. Studying is a must, the majority of it falling in the categories of ComD 133 and LING 330.

100 Things I'm Thankful For

2009-11-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

For sacrament meeting today, we combined half of the Helaman Halls wards into one and just had testimony meeting because not enough people were back from Thanksgiving yet. The girl next to me was writing a list of 100 things she was thankful for as the meeting continued. So, I thought I'd follow suit right now. 100 Things I'm thankful for: (And don't feel compelled to read them all if you don't want to)

1. Mom
2. Dad
3. Carol
4. Sam
5. Marina
6. Beth
7. Caleb
8. Sarah
(yes, family would have sufficed, but I'm grateful for the family unit as well as each individual person in it)
9. Jesus Christ
10. Heavenly Father
11. The Holy Ghost and the Gift thereof
12. my extended family (I'm grateful for them individually as well, but that'd take up WAY too much space)
13. heated rooms
14. blankets
15. computers
16. the internet
17. email
18. cell phones
19. modern medicine
20. BYU
21. The fact that I don't have to be a Ute
22. colors
23. language and communication
24. creativity
25. Irish dancing
26. The United States of America
27. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
28. Christmas
29. Christmas lights
30. Christmas music
31. ball-point pens
32. silverware
33. socks
34. my violin
35. Hatch family reunions
36. Joseph Smith
37. friendship
38. roadtrips
39. hamsters
40. snow
41. letters in my mailbox
42. cleaning products
43. washing machines
44. economic stability (in the US, we may be in a recession, but we're pretty stable when it comes down to it)
45. the military
46. refrigeration
47. food
48. clean water
49. hairbrushes
50. books
51. literacy
52. non-messed up genes
53. Michelle (my roommate)
54. drawers
55. zippers
56. hand sanitizer
57. lotion
58. chapstick
59. post-it notes
60. plant life
61. the push pin
62. fingers--they're just so convenient
63. duct tape
64. ankle braces (I've developed an immense gratitude for these recently)
65. unimpeded speech (so, no speech impediment)
66. relatively healthy body
67. mountains
68. indoor plumbing
69. 3-ring binders
70. rubber-bands
71. staplers and paperclips
72. sharpie-pens
73. joy and happiness
74. President Monson (and the concept of living prophets)
75. The Bible
76. The Book of Mormon
77. All other scripture
78. cars
79. names--personal names, place names, just names in general
80. Hindu-Arabic numerals
81. nerves
82. the rest of my anatomy
83. physiology and just how fool-proof it is. Think if our bodies had to rely on Vista!! God truly is smarter than man
84. family history
85. temples
86. human love and charity
87. marriage
88. purity
89. morpho-phonemic alphabets
90. geniuses
91. keys
92. light-bulbs
93. sound technology
94. mythology
95. musicals
96. my mom's sewing abilities
97. electronic pencil sharpeners
98. accessible healthcare
99. Louis Pasteur (I know I already thanked the world for geniuses, but he belongs in his own category, inhabited by no one else but perhaps Robert Koch and Joseph Lister)
100. people I can admire

Thanksgiving Excursions

2009-11-28T10:56:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday, my classes ended earlier than most Tuesday, because what was known to the rest of the world as Tuesday was known as Friday here at BYU. Therefore, my last class ended at 1:00. I had said goodbye to my roommate before leaving for that, as she was leaving for California (her home). After the class ended, I then returned to my dorm, thinking I'd find Beth as that is what usually happens on Fridays. I'm done with class at 1 and she's done with work at 1, so we go on outings. However, she started work earlier, so she got off work at 12 instead of 1. I therefore walked to her apartment where we ate pasta, gingerbread families (father, mother and siblings), and hung around. Then, I returned to my dorm in order to pack, engage in a friendly game of Apples to Apples with ward members and then returned to Beth's apartment where I slept. At 10:03 AM, we boarded the bus for Orem.

Unfortunately, we took the wrong direction and ended up in a different part of Provo. Anyhow, we managed to get on the express bus that took us to Sandy. On the bus to Sandy, I met many lovely little children, and we had a fun conversation together. In Sandy, we boarded the train to Salt Lake. On the train, Beth and I met Janine (or however she spells it), who was from Australia. She was a nice lady. We then made it to Temple Square, where we were picked up by Grandpa and Clarine, and brought back to their abode. We stayed around there for awhile, talking, catching up and watching "The Ultimate Gift," then went to a ward activity at their church. We returned to the making of pies after that activity.

Thanksgiving the next day was wonderful. However, the house was inhabited by Clarine's relations, none whom I knew. And I swear that there were people in that house with whom I never even came in contact. There were at least 35 people there. After things had quieted down, naps were in order, followed by the watching of "Up."

The next day, we started the day with the making of many turkey tamales with relations that I knew! Phil, Lisa and their children came for this and directed the operation. There were so many of the tamales in the end! By the end of that excursion, my fingers had shriveled up from being wet and in flour-y stuff. But were those tamales ever good!

After the finishing of the tamale-making, we loaded up the truck and headed for South Jordan to meet the new cousins-once-removed (or for Grandpa and Clarine: great-grandchildren). Avri and Macall are the cutest little babies imaginable and it was great to catch up with the Dan Hatch side of the family. We brought Alex back to Grandpa and Clarine's, where Grandpa and Clarine went to bed and Alex, Beth and I caught up with one another. I hadn't seen Alex in three years! Questioning around the board was in order, as well as in the end, wonderful games of "Date, Dump, Marry." For those not of my generation, Date, Dump, Marry is a game in which people take turns being "it." The others playing will then come up with three persons, (real, celebrity, movie, literary, fictional, whatever), of the gender opposite the person who is "it." "It" must then decide who they will date, who they will dump and who they will marry. Sometimes they can be all such great choices you don't know who you wouldn't marry (such as one given me: "Westley from "The Princess Bride," Mr. Darcy from "Pride and Prejudice," and Robert from "Enchanted""), or such terrible choices you don't know what to do with yourself (such as one given Beth: "Voldemort, Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy," or also given Beth: "Laman, Kishkumen and Corianton), or plain hard to choose ones, (such as given Alex: Biblical characters Deborah, Ruth and Esther).

This morning, we rode up to Salt Lake where we met Phil and Lisa, who brought us back down to Provo and that was the end of the Thanksgiving excursions!

Life in Hannah's Dorm

2009-11-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't written in awhile, and when I have written, it's not really that much about my life. So, I thought I'd let you all know that BYU is going well. My days are spent with classes, studying, goofing off with people in the dorms and volunteering. I love all the service opportunities around campus! And since it's November, I couldn't go a November without National Novel Writing Month. True, I'm somewhat behind, at 23,000 words. But I'm catching up, as I used to be even further behind. And still, I have not been as far behind at any point as I was at times last year. And I still made it last year.

My dorm room has been decorated all nice and pretty for Christmas. We have a snowman figurine, Christmas lights, a tiny little tree and a nativity scene--those were all the decorations that I had, and Michelle (my roommate) had none at all. But we are well decked out for Christmas, and are complimented on the decorations everytime someone's in our room, and the boys actually have heard about it and come to the dorm during visiting hours to see our decorations! Apparently, we're becoming a tourist attraction! The hall advisor also complimented us on our decorations last night as she was checking to make sure that we cleaned our room. We passed by the way. She came in, looked around and said, "You two are definitely good. Even your walls look clean." Apparently, Michelle and I have a reputation around the floor and beyond of having a clean room. Maybe that's because we're both a little bit obsessive about cleanliness and tidiness, and if we have a few socks on the floor on our side, we say, "Girl, I'm so sorry about the mess. I promise I'll clean it up pretty soon here." We don't get angry with one another though, so I don't know why we apologize, but we both do it.

I have been plagued by an illness so graciously bestowed upon me by the girl behind me in the testing center during my second American Heritage midterm exam, but I have recovered. I still, however, enjoy hating the name of that girl--whom I don't even know. But she was coughing, sneezing and snotting all over me throughout the 1 hr 15-30 mins that I was in that testing center. Several times, because it was so nasty and distracting, I considered just upping and moving to another spot, but I didn't know if that was allowed. When I related this story to my American Heritage TA, he assured me that they don't care what you do in the testing center, so long as you don't open your backpack or cheat. He said that you're allowed to get up and take walks if it helps you.

So, I tried to update you a bit on my life. Is this at all satisfactory? I hope so. But anyways, take this to be my letter to you all. I hope that in time I will be better about updating! Have a great time with your lives and enjoy it.

Because Testimonials are What I Write When I Have Nothing Else to Write

2009-10-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

So, when my mom was at Walmart with me, buying laundry soap before I was left on my own, she also bought me some other laundry items. You know, Febreeze, stain pretreaters and the like. She also bought me a set of Stain-Be-Gone Mini Pens (a set because they come in twos). Anyways, I hadn't the chance to use these for awhile, because for some reason, I've ceased staining myself now that I'm equipped. So, today, I had the chance. Because I had gotten a nosebleed in Nursing 180 (I know, a great place to start bleeding), I had bloodspots on the sleeve of my jacket that had escaped the tissue. I thought, "Oh no, my jacket is ruined." But then I remembered the Stain-Be-Gone Mini Pens. And I thought: "no better time to try it. "

Ladies and gentlemen, you can no longer tell that my jacket went through a sanguine episode. It is repaired!

And the Stain-Be-Gone Mini Pen is now my friend. Who knows what next testimonial will be! Maybe Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, because they are my friends too.

I Felt Like Writing an Essay: Women in the Latter-day Saint Belief System

2009-10-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

The Role of Women in Latter-day Saint Religion and Society

I have had many questions, accusations and false-assumptions directed towards me in reference to my religion and my role as a woman in my religion. Sometimes these illocutions truly are questions—people just wanted to know. However, sometimes they are prejudgments or negatively charged sentiments that they have disguised as questions. In response to all of these illocutions, I have composed this treatise on the role of women in the Latter-day Saint, commonly known as Mormon, religion. Before we begin, I will let all know that this is an informal treatise, but all the same, an academic one. All my sources will be cited, but I will be sure to let you know the nature of the source at the same time. Not everything stated in this treatise is an official standing of the church. Some of it comes from members of the church, many of the well-learned and well-read. However, those coming from official church publications, canonical scripture or from the mouths of apostles or prophets will be acknowledged. For those not familiar with the Latter-day Saint Church, any public statement from an apostle or prophet is regarded by members of the Church as the words of God and like unto scripture.

The first question that is commonly asked is are women lesser than men in the LDS Church. The answer is no. The answer has always been no. The answer will always be no. As stated by former apostle (official doctrine here), Elder John A. Widtsoe, in 1942:

“The place of the woman in the Church is to walk beside the man, not in front of him nor behind him.

“In the Church there is full equality between man and woman. The gospel … was devised by the Lord for men and women alike. Every person on earth, man or woman, earned the right in the pre-existent life to come here; and must earn the right, by righteous actions, to live hereafter where ‘God and Christ dwell.’ … The privileges and requirements of the gospel are fundamentally alike for men and women. The Lord loves His daughters as well as He loves His sons. …

“This makes individuals of man and woman—individuals with the right of free agency, with the power of individual decision, with individual opportunity for everlasting joy, whose own actions throughout the eternities, with the loving aid of the Father, will determine individual achievement. There can be no question in the Church of man’s rights versus woman’s rights”

(as quoted in “The Church and the Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: A Moral Issue,”)

It is correct to say, however, that in the LDS Church, women are not the same as men. According to an official statement put out by the Church in 1995 which I will cite a lot in this treatise, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”, “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). Yes, the Proclamation is an official stance of the Church. In Genesis 1:27, God did not create neuter beings, but “male and female created he them.” (The Holy Bible…, Genesis 1:27). Male and female are together in marriage, and in their missions. According to former prophet Spencer W. Kimball, “Our roles and assignments differ. These are eternal differences—with women being given many tremendous responsibilities of motherhood and sisterhood and men being given the tremendous responsibilities of fatherhood and the priesthood—but the man is not without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord” (as quoted in Eternal Marriage, 79). To be simply put by former apostle, President James E. Faust, “In marriage, neither is superior; each has a different primary and divine responsibility” (as quoted in Eternal Marriage, 80).

Man and woman must cherish each other in a marriage and in the family, according to LDS belief. Apostle, Elder Russell M. Nelson states:

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, compares with the companionship between a husband and a wife. And nothing, absolutely nothing, can provide the joy and growth that come from happy children who make a family circle. Throughout my life, I have answered to many titles, including doctor, captain, professor, and elder. But the titles I revere most are those of husband, father, and grandfather.” (Nelson)

In 1872, a prominent woman in the LDS Church, Sister Eliza R. Snow, said that though women in her time were being treated not up to their divine gifts, potential and values, women must be careful to not assume the same disdain and antagonism for men that men had assumed towards women (Snow). Sister Snow also cautioned against women becoming entirely independent from the man and vice versa. In the LDS Church, man and woman are different, but reliant upon one another. According to apostle, Elder James E. Faust, “becoming like men is not the answer; being who you are and living up to your potential and commitment is” (Faust)

This leads to a second common question or accusation: that women are not able to achieve full heavenly reward without being married to a husband. I will not try to lie. This is entirely true, according to Latter-day Saint belief. However, this does not seem to be all that discriminatory after one considers that the converse is also true in Latter-day Saint belief. A man also cannot achieve full reward in heaven without a wife (or wives is also okay, but we’ll get to that later). In one of the books regarded by Latter-day Saints as scripture called “The Doctrine and Covenants,” it states, “In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; and in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order...the new and everlasting covenant of marriage” (Doctrine and Covenants 131: 1-2). So, shortly, yes, but not in the way that it is phrased when usually asked.

The next question, may as well not avoid it: polygamy. Did the Latter-day Saint Church practice polygamy? Yes, it did. Are we ashamed? No, we are not. Do we practice polygamy today? No, we do not. However, some things that you need to know about polygamy. Firstly, not anyone could practice polygamy. He was specifically called and commanded by God to take another wife. Many of those who were commanded to practice polygamy wanted nothing less. According to Brigham Young, second prophet of the church and husband to twenty-seven wives, when he was told to take another wife, it “was the first time in [his] life that [he] had desired the grave” (Young). John Taylor, third prophet of the church and husband to fifteen wives, stated:

“I had always entertained strict ideas of virtue and I felt as a married man that this was to me…an appalling thing to do…Nothing but a knowledge of God, and the revelations of God…could have induced me to embrace such a principle as this…We [the Twelve] seemed to put off, as far as we could, what might be termed the evil day” (Wagoner, 89).

It is also important to understand that in the belief of polygamy, if a man were commanded to take another wife, he would first have to ask his first wife. If she did not consent, than he would not be allowed to follow the commandment. She still had the choice. Further, each time another wife was taken, all current wives and the new wife must consent (Doctrine and Covenants 132: 64-66).

Polygamy, however, was banned in 1890 and has not been practiced by the church since. Any person who is practicing polygamy, has no part in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If a member of the Church is practice polygamy, that is grounds for excommunication. In the words of then prophet of the church, Wilford Woodruff, “We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice” (Doctrine and Covenants: Official Declaration 1).

Next order of business related to that: the marriage of young people in polygamous marriages. Yes, Joseph Smith did at one point marry a girl who was 14-years-old. However, there was never any evidence that they ever engaged sexually, and according to evidence, it was more of an adoptive relationship than anything else. (Compton). Even the woman herself, Helen Mar Kimball Smith Whitney, stated that she did not feel violated, but respected and honored by his treatment of her (Holzapfel, 487). In fact, there is no evidence whatsoever that Joseph Smith ever engaged with any of his wives other than Emma Hale Smith, his first wife and the love of his life. Nine children have been said to have been his children from other women. However, in all six cases where DNA evidence is available, he was not the father. And following this concern: age differences. Quite common for plural wives to be 10-15 years younger than their husbands, but in all honesty, it was the 1840s. That was common in general (Ruggles).

Let us move on now. Are education, employment and civil and political rights important for women in the LDS faith? Yes, they are. In the 19^th Century, the territory of Utah was far ahead of its time in women’s rights. In fact, one of the arguments against statehood was that if they were to join the union, they would have to take rights away from women because the federal government did not allow those rights (Ison). In response to this question, prophet Brigham Young stated, “We believe that women are useful, not only to sweep houses, wash dishes, make beds, and raise babies, bt that they should stand behind the counter, study law or physics, or become good bookkeepers and be able to do the business in any countiny house, and all this to enlarge their sphere of usefulness for the benefit of society at large. In following these things they but answer the design of their creation” (as quoted in Olson, 53). Women are needed in education and in all areas of life. Yes, woman’s primary responsibility is “for the nurture of their children” (The Family…). However, in the same way that a father who ignored his children because his responsibility is to provide for them, not care for them would be in grave error, as would a mother who ignored the external world.

Women have been incalculably important to the LDS religion, both anciently with Biblical examples such as Eve, Miriam, Deborah, Esther, Ruth, Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Anna, Rachel, Leah, Rebekah, Huldah, Lydia and others; through Book of Mormon examples such as Abish, Sariah and the mothers of the Stripling Warriors; and through “modern” day examples such as Emma Hale Smith, Eliza Snow, Amanda Smith, Mary Fielding Smith, Lucy Mack Smith, Amanda Knight, Elizabeth Ann Whitney, Sherry Dew, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, and so many others. I feel this is where I will stop today, but if anyone has any other questions they would like me to address, I would love to do so. Just tell me what you would like, and I will answer it bluntly and with reference. It may not be the next day, but I will do it. And please do not criticize my citations. I tried to write them in pretty MLA format, but I do not really care for that format.

Works Cited

“The Church and the Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: A Moral Issue,” Ensign, Mar 1980.

Compton, Todd. In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1997).

The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Salt Lake City, 1921.

Eternal Marriage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Salt Lake City, 2001.

"The Family: A Proclamation to the World," Liahona, Oct. 2004, 49; Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102.

Faust, James E. “A Message to My Granddaughters: Becoming ‘Great Women.’” Ensign, September 1986, 19.

The Holy Bible: Authorized King James Version with Explanatory Notes and Cross Refereces to the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Salt Lake City,1979.

Holzapfel, Jeni Broberg and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, eds., A Woman's View: Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History. (Provo: Religious Studies Center, BYU, 1997).

Ison, Yvette D. Woman Suffrage Dominated Politics in Utah, History Blazer, January 1995.

Nelson, Russell M. “The Family: The Hope for the Future of Nations.” The World Congress of Families V. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 12 Aug 2009.

Newell, Linda King, et al. Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, 2nd ed. (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 136. See also discussion in Danel Bachman, "Plural Marriage Before the Death of Joseph Smith (Master's Thesis, Purdue University, 1975), 140n173.

Olson, Camille Fronk. “LDS Women and Education.” A Twenty-Something’s Guide to Spirituality. Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, 2007.

Perego, Ugo A., et al. "Resolving the Paternities of Oliver N. Buell and Mosiah L. Hancock through DNA," JJHWA, 133.

Perego, Ugo A., et al. “Reconstructing the Y-Chromosome of Joseph Smith Jr.: Genealogical Applications,” Journal of Mormon History Vol. 32, No. 2 (Summer 2005) 70-88.

Perego, Ugo A., et al. "Resolving the Paternities of Oliver N. Buell and Mosiah L. Hancock through DNA," JJHWA, 134-135.

Perego, Myers and Woodward, 2005.

Ruggles, Steven, et al. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 3.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota Population Center [producer and distributor] (2004), accessed 8 Oct 2009.

Snow, Eliza R. “Woman’s Status.” Woman’s Exponent, 15 July 1872.

Wagoner, Van. Mormon Polygamy.

Young, Brigham. "Plurality of Wives—The Free Agency of Man," 14 July 1855. Journal of Discourses 3:266-266.

Words that only Seattle-lites can say

2009-09-18T12:48:00.001-07:00

Since leaving Seattle, I've begun to compile a list of words only people from Seattle seem to be able to pronounce. Most of these are proper nouns, but here we go. I haven't thought of them all, I'm sure (I've just been writing them down as they come to me), but here it is so far. Also, if you want to try saying them, transcribing the pronunciation and then checking your work, feel free.

Sequim
Puyallup
Skoomuchuck
Wynoochee
Stillaguamish
Skokomish
Nisqually
Snoqualmie
Chamokane
Klickitat
Squillamish
Snohomish
Stillamish
Issaquah
Skykomish
Willamette
Enumclaw
Spokane
Kalaloch
geoduck

The Taste of Phonemes, Morphemes and Graphemes

2009-09-05T20:58:00.001-07:00

I eat my words! BYU has beaten University of Oklahoma. This is unbelievable. And you should see Provo tonight. Crazy doesn't even BEGIN to describe tonight.

Brigham Young University

2009-09-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

As I sit in my dorm on this somewhat cloudy day that has promised us thunderstorms later tonight, I feel happy that I am here. I love Brigham Young University. I love the classes, I love the atmosphere and I've already watched two sporting events. Yes, one was on tv, but for me, that's a big thing. So, last night I watched Women's soccer on BYU TV, which was fun and frustrating. And I learned a lot about soccer from my very soccer-knowledgeable roommate. Let's just say that BYU didn't yield any score...but many almost scores (almost 20+). And basically the only time that William and Mary got near the goal they made it (and were the epitome of off-sides but it wasn't called). Then this morning, I went to Cross Country to watch my roommate run. Yes, I have an athlete roommate. She finished 25th in Women's 5k in a time of 19:36.9 or something like that. The winning time was in the mid 18s, they say because of the elevation all the times were high. And there were about 40-45 people running, so really, she did very well. I mean, I don't know if I can make it to 5k, let alone in less than 20 minutes. And she's only a freshman, so I am seeing a good future for the cougars in her. Also, apparently her optimum distance is about 2 miles (5k is about 3 miles), so she's looking forward to track season. The cougars won both events in terms of team times, and swept men's 5k. If I remember, places 1-6 of men's 5k were all BYU. UCLA took the 1st place of the women's 5k, but 2 and 3 were BYU and overall, most of the BYU runners (even unattached freshmen (such as my roommate)) were towards the front.

So, that's my sports life. I'll probably watch football tonight on tv too, but it could be painful because BYU will probably lose. Oh well.

Travels to BYU

2009-08-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

Some pictures that I took on my way to BYU!

An Honest Testimonial: For all your sticking to your legs needs

2009-08-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

So, when the going gets tough, write testimonials. As I prepared myself for church this morning, I realized just how much I love this one product:

That's right, Static Guard. Static Guard is my best friend. I have always had staticky legs. Any dress with even somewhat knit fabric would be clinging to my legs in a ridiculous manner. Fly-away hairs was always a problem, and I shocked everything I touched. When I had a digital watch, I would have to reset it multiple times a day because it would go to zero everytime it touched anything with static on it.

But then Static Guard came to the rescue. You can spray it on your dress, on your clothes and static is gone! My favorite trick, spray it on your brush and your fly-away static hairs are GONE. I love Static Guard.

5 Month Long Writer's Block

2009-08-02T09:47:00.001-07:00

I have writer's block. In general. My novels have gone no where since March and even my editing abilities that were tiding me over shut down in April. My blog looks like I've died, and even my journal entries are pitiful. Unfortunately, IB testing fell inside this writer's block. For those who aren't familiar with IB testing, it's pretty darn essay-based. I still managed to pass everything, though not with the scores I would have liked, nor would have expected to tell you the truth. In some subjects, I was expecting better to tell you the truth (English Literature, French, MAYBE Biology), and some I'm thanking my lucky stars (Calculus, Chemistry).

Think not that my writer's block has left. It has not. I spent 1 1/2 hours in front of my computer screen this morning as I do every Sunday, trying to force some fiction into ANY of my novels. It didn't work.

So, I guess the best thing to do would be saying what I've done this week.

I worked! And I'm still recovering from one beligerent person's insults. I shouldn't take them personally, and I usually don't, but for some reason this man just hurt me. I feel that I should be getting over it shortly, but I promise nothing.

Last week, my family left me for a family reunion that I couldn't attend because I was working. Each night, I felt like Scrooge with my little bowl of canned soup for dinner alone in my house. On the Saturday night, I went to a friend's wedding reception before heading to the Kirkland Performing Arts Center to see some other friends in Sweeney Todd. It's a strange play and I don't know if I'd have gone if I weren't good friends with the actors playing Mrs. Lovett, Tobias and friendly acquaintances with the actor playing Sweeney.

I've been getting my fill of teen theatre as last night I attended Godspell, which had some other friends in it.

Letting you know that I'm not quite dead. I promise I'll try to make posts less like travel-logs in the future.

The News of a New Life in New York

2009-06-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. My family is moving.

My dad and Sam have both been transferred to Upstate New York, so we will be up there in Palmyra area. But it has a population of 2500 basically, and they have humid summers and grotesque accents. All the same, the historic sites will be great, and I for one am looking forward to come home to snowy Christmases.

My New Comforter

2009-06-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

So, my mom and I were at target, where we slowly get things I'll need for college. Today one of the items was a new comforter. I have a gingham bedspread that my mom and I made together many, many years ago that is still functional. But the comforter is dying. So, I got a new one.

This is what my bed looks like during the day:

But then, when the bedspread is removed for the wonderful time called sleeping, this is what happens:

And just so you can see the other side of the bedspread:

I like it. Why do the little boys get all the cool stuff?

I Haven't Been Here For Awhile

2009-06-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

I have neglected you all for quite some time and I apologize. I suppose that I should probably just glory in the natural and small things in life and not worry that nothing huge happens in my life. I am going to try to be better about letting you know what's going on, but I've just been quite stressed as my high school life draws to a close.

So, what happened today?

So, I went to school. The biggest highlight of today's school was that we had our "IB DONE Party." It's like Sr. Breakfast, except that it's just for IB Diploma and IB Certificate of Merit students. We even have awards a la Sr. Breakfast. Like the "most likely to develop warts in the future" style awards. Except that the IB ones are all fairly nerdy. I won three, which is a lot. Some people didn't receive any. I guess I'm just extreme. I received, "Most Likely to Read Neil (our textbook) for Fun," "Most Likely to Become a Diplomat," and "Biggest Bookworm."

I then went to work. Since our receptionist has gone on maternity leave, I am officially the receptionist. It's excited but also frightening and difficult. Don't ever put down medical receptionists, I have a new found appreciation for everything that they do and how much they actually have to know and do and how much trash-talk they put up with. I mean, since watching our receptionist since I started working at Evergreen Diabetes and Endocrinology I've been noticing this, but I recognize it even more now. And I've also recognized that health insurance is the most screwed up system known to man. Medical receptionists don't just answer phones, people, okay?

And I've also noticed that people don't actually always listen to a word you're saying when you're a receptionist. And they talk down to you, but I think that this is a good experience for me. Even though I've gotten over being sensitive like I once was, I'm still a push-over and I don't stand my ground. I stand my intellectual ground, but this is different. I need to get the, "I'm the doctor's secretary. I know his policies, you don't. No, we can't do that. No, you can't. No, we don't accept DSHS even if you beg me and tell me a sob story. No, I don't have any appointments that I'm just 'not telling you about.' What? Do you think we have a pharmacist and complete pharmacy back here? Yes, we require a referral regardless of whether or not your insurance requires it. Yes, I'm sure that you have a $20 copay. No, I know that Regence isn't a no copay company." This is a valuable experience.

IB TESTING

2009-05-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

I know that I haven't posted in a while.  This is why I have decided to tell you about
what it is that has caused me to have to not talk with you all recently. IB testing.

I had told you about the terrors of IB scheduling, and here is how it's going so far.

One thing you have to know about IB tests: some years, one subject is killer and another
is not that bad. In fact, the IB teachers classify the years sometimes as "the year
that the Japanese test murdered" or "that one year where the History questions
were gorgeous."

So, we'll go in chronological order:
English A1 HL Paper 1: You get about a page of prose and an approximately page long poem
(give or take).  You pick one or the other, and you have 2 hours to write a commentary on
it.  That means describe the general feel, reference the literary techniques that achieve
this effect and kind of tie it all together with what this means in the larger scheme. 
The "why do we care?" aspect. This went very well this year.  Two great
choices. In fact, I'm usually a poetry person on commentaries, but I felt that I should
take a peek at the prose option, and it was very nice.  So I chose that one.

History HL Paper 1:  There are three sections: Soviet Union (usually Lenin or Stalin
based), Single-Party States (usually Maoist China or Castro's Cuba), and Cold War.  You
choose one section.  Because of what we study, Inglemoor kids usually book it straight to
the Cold War section.  I was no exception. Some will go to the Single-Party or Soviet and
see if it's something they did their IA or EE on, in which case, they'll try it.  You
don't know what aspect of the topic it will be.  Cold War this year was Detente.  I hear
that SPS was Mao's Great Leap Forward and Soviet was Stalin's Five-Year Plans. But I
didn't even look at them.  So, there are a series of documents.  Primary source or
secondary source. They relate to the overall topic (so, this year, detente). Then there
are a few questions about the documents. Compare and contrast documents a and e. Evaluate
the origin, purpose, values and limitations of document d.  Stuff like that.  Then there
is a short essay question that relates to the documents, but you can pull in outside
knowledge on the essay question. You get 1 1/2 hours on this one, I think.  It wasn't bad
this year, especially since our history teacher has only once not guessed correctly on
what the topic was going to be...he just finds patterns and guesses the Paper One topic
with 11/12 accuracy.

History HL Paper 2:  You get a whole boatload of essay topics.  You pick 2 (Inglemoor
students choose them out of the Rise and Rule of Single-Party States section and the Cold
War section). You get 1 1/2 or 2 hours. Start writing. This was very do-able, but not the
the-smiles-are-appearing-on-our-faces-as-we-read wonderful.

History HL Paper 3: You get 25 essay questions pertaining to your chosen region (we chose
Western Hemisphere aka "The Americas"), and you pick 3 of them and write time.
2 1/2 hours on this. Inglemoor kids usually look first for the Great Depression
questions, the turn of the century American foreign policy in Latin America questions and
the Civil Rights movement questions.  If there is one that's not great in those, there
are sometimes some good Cold War questions, usually a pretty good go-to on WWII homefront
and for those who are good at it, US Constitution, Constitutional Congress or Articles of
Confederation shows up at least once. I went for the Foreign Policy, one of the Civil
Rights (they had a bunch this year), and the WWII homefront (which kind of doubled as an
end of the Great Depression) question.

Biology HL Paper 1: 40 multiple choice questions. 1 hour. Designed to destroy you.
Approximately 50% will get you a 4 on this (assuming that you basically bomb the other
two papers).  The grading scale is a 1-7.  4 is passing, 5 is a "good job," 6
is a "you really know your stuff" and a 7 is a "dude, you're a freaking
genius in this subject." 24-hours after the test is over, our teacher gets the
exams, and our bio teacher told us how she would have answered the questions on the
multiple this morning.  If my calculations are correct, I got a 25/40. Plus, IB has a
world-wide curve.

Biology HL Paper 2: Some data-based questions...which could kill me. And then 4, 3-part
long response (pick two).  It was actually kind of hard to pick two.  The first was about
plants, which I hate, so it got chucked out of the mix first off. The second was about a)
Down's Syndrome b) oogenesis and c) ethics of IVF.  Let's put it this way, someone told
me, "I read that question and thought, "this is Hannah's question."" 
I did that one.  Then the third was about a)DNA vs. RNA b)DNA replication and c)enzyme
activity.  I liked that one too, and ultimately chose it as my second.  The third was
about a) immunization mechanism b) pathogen resistance and c) concerns of immunization. I
was tempted by that one, but ultimately didn't choose it.

Biology HL Paper 3: Option paper. For the sciences (and some of the others...they existed
in Psych too), your teacher chooses two specific topics that you're going to study that
not every IB school does.  Ours were neurobiology/behavior, and advanced evolution
studies. So, this was just questions.  It went fairly well.

Calculus (Math Methods) SL Paper 1: Kill time.  10-15 questions (ours was 12 I think). No
calculator. 1 1/2 hours. TERRIBLY HARD QUESTIONS THIS YEAR.  This will probably kill my
IB score.

Calculus (Math Methods) SL Paper 2: 10-15 questions (I think we were a 14). Calculators
allowed. 1 1/2 hours.  Why was this so much more do-able than PAper 1?  I don't know, but
the questions were all more plausibly done.

English A1 HL Paper 2: You get a bunch of essay questions.  Pick one, reference
literature you read in class in the Group 3 group of literature.  That's kind of like
your option in literature.  Ours was drama.  Have fun. 2 hours. This went quite well. 
Some good stuff. Since I'm obsessed with theatre lighting, the "explain the
significance of the use of lighting" was a great question.

The Tragedy of "Puff the Magic Dragon"

2009-04-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

I love "Puff the Magic Dragon." And the Peter, Paul and Mary recording cannot be beat. It is awesome to the 270th degree. But I cry each moment I hear it defiled by people saying it's about drugs. It's such a sad song. The little boy has his friend but then he grows up. And when Jackie doesn't come anymore, Puff doesn't have any reason to live, and it's so sad. And sometimes I cry. But why do we have to destroy the way that see Puff and his friends? Talk about depressing. And then people try to ruin it with drug connotations, and it makes me sad.

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee,
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on puffs gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flag when Puff roared out his name. Oh!

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the Cherry Lane.
Without his life-long friend, puff could not be brave,
So puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. oh!

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Overlake Terrace and the Disasters Thereunto Related

2009-03-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday, I was asked to help with a late St. Patrick's Day Irish dance show at a nursing home called "Overlake Terrace" in Redmond. I said that I would be able to help, and it was a fun experience, but there were several mishaps and disasters.

I went to work and knew that if I was able to get to Overlake Terrace by 6:00, which I had thought to be the call time, I would need to be sure to leave work by 4:45 or so. I did so, and I went onto my email to get the address for the venue. When I got home, I learned that the call time had been changed to 5:45, but I had been at school or work all day and I did not know this. So, after the due panic, I managed to say, okay, if I leave by 5:20 or 5:25, I'll still be okay, as I knew that Overlake Terrace is approximately 20 minutes away.

I typed Mapquest into the browser, but doesn't it always turn out that the browser goes slowest when you need it to go fastest? Why is that? So, as I bounced up and down saying, "Come on, come on, I'm late," I decided to get the rest of the things in order as I waited. I grabbed the change of feminine supportive wearbecause one doesn't do Irish dancing in regular feminine supportive wear for obvious reasons. However, I knew that I'd have to change when I got there, as I didn't have time. I grabbed the bag that contained my dance shoes (both ghillies and hardshoes) and actually managed to realize that my Irish dance socks were still on the towel rack. Thankfully, they were dry (Irish dance socks are handwash, air dry only) and I slipped them into the bag as well.

I ran back to the computer and quickly printed the directions to the venue before returning to my bedroom. My Irish dance dress is too big. As demonstrated here:

So, anyways, I was given a new dress at my class on Friday. However, I stupidly forgot it at class, so I just had to wear this one. As you'll soon learn, this is really the least of my worries.

I had thought that I would be just fine with everything. It was raining quite heavily. And I was now running a little late. It was definitely 5:25. As I ran out the door and said, "Bye!" my mom asked whether or not I had my cell phone. I'm terrible about my cell phone. I always forget to bring it places or turn it on or both. So, I had forgotten it, so I had to run back to my room to get it. Thankfully, it was charged. By the time I got into the car and out of the driveway (four cars just had to be passing when I was trying to pulling out of the driveway, didn't they), it was 5:30. So, I knew that I was definitely pressing the time.

There is a road near my house called Avondale RD. This road has a speed limit of 40 mph and 45 mph in some spots, but really people go 50+. I keep the law, but most people do not. Because of the copious amounts of rain, people had decided to actually go the speed limit, and this backed up the road a little bit. Avondale ends as it turns into WA-522 and it was about where it turns into WA-522, that the place where I was going was 2 exits further than I had originally imagined. So, it was definitely a 25 minute drive from my house to this place. I had the phone number of the girl who was in charge of this show, and I called her up (using speakerphone, because the use of non-handless cell phones while driving is now prohibited by Washington State Law). I told her that I had had a mix-up on time, and I was coming as fast as I could. She said that it was fine and that not many people were there yet.

I continued to drive through the pouring rain, where the usually 60 mph highway was more of a 50-55mph highway because of rain. I get off the freeway at the correct exit and am about to turn onto the road which is the home of Overlake Terrace, however, I get into the left turn lane (and am in such a way that I couldn't get out of it) before I realize that this lane turns onto 151st, not 152nd (which was the street I wanted). I therefore took the turn, came back on the road and went an intersection further. No tragedy there. Just a little time wasted, but not the end of the world.

I found the place where I was supposed to be going, but it was now almost 6:00. I didn't know where within the nursing home I should be, but they had a receptionist, so that was shortly remedied. As I went up to the room where we were going to be coordinating everything to get ready for the show, I realized that this was just a plain room, like where they held physical therapy at the nursing home where I completed CNA training. I needed to change from everyday clothes into an Irish dance dress, and I even needed to change the feminine supportive devices housed underneath the chemise. Luckily, except for five-year-old Jamie, all occupants of the room were female, so I huddled against a corner and practiced the art of under the shirt changing. I then pulled the dress on over my pants and changed that way. As I slipped off my jeans, I went into my dance bag to find the pair of black shorts that I wear underneath my Irish dance dress. Unfortunately, I had not put them back into the bag after washing them last feis. It took a few minutes for it to sink in. I HAD NO KICK PANTS!

Since we were all girls (except for Jamie who's so small he doesn't count), and we were all either Irish dancers (including Jamie) or parents of Irish dancers, I figured it wouldn't be too embarassing to just say, "I just realized I have no spankies." All dancers rummaged in their bags to determine whether or not they had extra pairs of kick pants.

When all dance bags were exhausted, we began to look for anything shorter. Shorts of any kind. When none were to be found, the girl coordinating the show said, "Your dress is long for you anyways and this audience probably won't even notice. Dance low to the ground, rein in your jumps and don't do your turns too violently. Don't worry, there won't be any teenage boys or anything watching."

I admitted that this was definitely true, so I simply began to practice with the other dancers. There are two major types of choreographed reels which are the Big Circle Reel and Salutations. The Big Circle Reel is easier than Salutations, but neither is particularly hard in of themselves. Each person will solo at some point in the dance and your solo can be infinitely difficult, but the choreography itself is not. Still, until Tuesday, I didn't know how to do Salutations. Still, the girl in charge put me in Salutations, because the Big Circlers were all small and she wanted to keep the older girls together and younger girls together. So, I was taught Salutations in about 5 minutes, and amazingly, that didn't fail terribly at all. However, solo right after a Championship level dancer is a little intimidating (plus the fact that she was the first in the show non-elementary school "cut 23" dancer that the audience had seen so they oohed and ahhed at her anyways).

The Slip Jig was simple as we all just went down the line doing our slip jig step, but it is in my slip jig that I have many jumps and many turns. I felt sure that I had flashed the audience, but I was later assured that I had not. Even though they were mixing big dancers with little dancers, I was asked to do the crossing light jig with the little kids. The crossing light jig can be quite confusing for the seven-year-old mind, and they need the visual cue (and the spacing judgment) of watching an older dancer, so that's why I was there with them. The small children then got to sit out for hardshoe dancing. I can hardshoe dance some dances, but some are harder than others. After awhile of hardshoe dancing, one graduates from fast hardshoe dancing into slow hardshoe dancing (counter-intuitive, but fast hardshoe dancing is actually slower than slow hardshoe dancing, because the fast and slow refer to the beat of the music, not the number of foot articulations put inside each beat). The girl organizing really, really, really wanted to put a fast treble jig into the hardshoe segment, but all of the dancers better than me had graduated out of fast treble jig and didn't remember any, and all the dancers less advanced than me didn't know how to hardshoe. So, I got to solo! Which was fine; treble jig and slip jig are my best dances, so I was fine with that. However, as I was changing back from hardshoes to softshoes (the closing, finale number was softshoe), I wasn't fast enough. I fell behind on the tying and my group went out before my shoes were tied. I therefore again had to dance with a group more advanced than I, which was again intimidating. Because I had been tying so fast trying to get my hands to move through the laces, I neglected to tie my right ghillie tight enough, and right in the middle of my step, I felt the ghillie fall of my heel!

Thankfully, I managed to keep it on my foot, but it's hard to keep a piece of leather hooked on your foot as you Irish dance.

We then had to answer their little questions: what are your names, how old are you all, are your curls all real (mine were!), how expensive are your dresses, how far can you compete, where are the world championships held (follow-up to how far can you compete), is your company sending any to worlds and my favorite: can boys Irish dance? (Jamie had gotten shy at the last minute, and since he's only five we didn't make him go on if he didn't want to and he was the only boy we brought!)

We then had to do the meet and greet thing and that was my experience. It seemed to be small disaster after small disaster, but I felt that it could have gone worse. In the end, it really was quite fun.

In House Chem Field Trip

2009-03-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

The IB Chemistry kids spent all of today in the Chem lab, building Rube-Goldberg machines, and I made a documentary about it.

Note: the upload of the video failed. We'll see what I can do. :-)

Update: 3/15/09- I've tried again, but it didn't work again. I'm going to try to see if it's a format problem. I don't understand, I've done this before.

Who's To Blame: Galen or Rush?

2009-03-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

Throughout our school-days and even after that, I would assume, we are informed of the perfect stupidity of old-fashioned medicine. We are informed of the complete idiocy of doctors through their beliefs in bleeding and the four humors and all that good stuff. When we're in elementary school, we're just told about them, then when we get to middle school and high school, the teachers, in an attempt to "further inform" their students of the idiocy of past doctors, blame it all on Galen. Galen was the guy who came up with the four humors, for sure, and he was quite the advocate of bleeding. But was the idiocy really all his fault?

True, throughout the Middle Ages, Medieval Era and Renaissance, Galen was followed, but in many ways, the beliefs of Galen, with the exception of bleeding, were fairly harmless. True, they helped no one, but does it really hurt you to eat flour and water when you have the flu? It's moronic, but it's not really harmful.

I would argue that complete idiocy came with the advent of another "friend." But, still, we named a medical school after the guy. His name was Dr. Benjamin Rush. Not only did Rush fail to recognize the lack of intelligence involved in bleeding (nay, he continued to encourage that), but he also introduce some even weirder ideas.

1) Purging. Let's make everyone puke or poop and it will make everything better. What's even better than making them puke or poop. Let's use mercury salts to do it! That will solve all our problems.

2) 45 second amputation. It was Benjamin Rush's belief that no amputation should take more than 45 seconds. So, maybe it was less painful, but let's take some pride in our work here and watch what we're cutting, please?

3) Opium. He made it even bigger than it was. He had Sears and Roebuck selling morphine complete with the hypodermic needle sets. Weird guy.

4) (my personal favorite) Blistering. So, the purging didn't work, and the bleeding didn't work, or they're already passed that level (because we got involved late), so we're going to move onto part three: blistering. Yeah, it's a great plan to put acid/flammable materials onto the chest of people with fevers and then light it on fire. Why? Well, it creates blisters that we can then pop and we'll get the toxins out that way! What sort of weirdo are you?

Given, Rush is sometimes cursed for his belief that being black is a hereditary disease, but he was still an abolitionist. He was only saying it out of naivete, not because he thought that they were lesser human beings. He simply met a black who had lost his blackness (probably through vitiligo), so he thought that it was something that was "curable." He however, did believe that they were equal humans who deserved equal rights, as well as "treatment of their disease."

At least Galen taught us some good things about medicine, and really, he helped us in the long run. Why does Galen get cursed and Rush gets a medical school? I really don't know.

Forgot to tell you all!

2009-03-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten to tell everyone: I'm officially a BYU Cougar. Class of 2013!

Update on the Wedding

2009-02-17T20:48:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to make Grandpa and Clarine able to come, Sam and Marina have changed their wedding to April 16.

Sam's Wedding Date

2009-02-14T18:55:00.000-08:00

As the Russell with a blog, I'm here to tell you that Sam will be getting married on the 23 of April. Mark your calendars, it's going to be here in Seattle. Come if you can!

Romania would like to relate its experiences to the delegates...

2009-02-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

So, just got back from Bellingham MUN, and I'm still thinking in third person (you never say, "I feel..." in MUN, you would always say, "Romania feels..." or whatever country you are), but it was fun. It was kind of funny because as I was coming back on the bus, I actually thought to myself, "Romania would like to make a motion to sleep for a period of 15 minutes." I then said to the guys next to me on the bus, "Are you still thinking in third person?"

Their response was, "Yeah, I'm still thinking of myself as Bahrain/Saudi Arabia."

Someone on the bus actually said, "Point of Information: When are we getting back to Inglemoor?"

I received best diplomat in the ECOSOC (which was exciting), and I was the sponsor of two draft resolution (one went through to resolution, but the other...the meeting was adjourned right before it was about to go into voting bloc). One of them, was a resolution on providing relief to sexual violence victims (sponsored by myself (Romania), Iraq, Russian Federation, Canada, Portugal and the Czech Republic with almost countless signatories)--that's the one that passed. The other was a draft resolution concerning the training of medical healthcare professionals by taking them to universities and then returning them to their home countries (yes, I got the idea from Perpetual Education, what of it?). This was sponsored by myself (Romania), Portugal and El Salvador, with Malaysia, Brazil, the Phillippines, Canada and the Czech Republic as signatories. And that's the one I was actually passionate about. Oh well.

It was still exciting. How come the US is jerky at MUN Conferences. This one wanted to pass a resolution about selling pharmaceuticals to third world countries. Great plan, because they can definitely afford that, and that's not at all a blatant furthering of your own economic interests.

I was actually surprised that this United States wasn't louder. Some other things that I heard about in other committees include: they added 21 seats to the Security Council (I know, that will be a mess), and the League of Arab States did something weird with two warring Arab states, but I don't remember what it was.

What's up

2009-01-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

Well, what's up?

First item of business that I'm very sad about: I don't get to go to Washington DC. So, there weren't enough people who had paid their money because of snow stuff and things, so we're not going to DC. However, the air-heady juniors in the club are happy now, because they had never wanted to go to DC anyways. The whole time they'd wanted to go to California, which was our other out of state option. Why? They said that they were worried about the between conference activities--they said there wasn't anything to do in DC. WHAT? HELLO! There are millions of things to do in DC. Did our full itinerary of things we were going to do mean nothing? Capitol Building, White House, Lincoln Memorial by night, Holocaust Museum, Library of Congress, and SO MANY OTHER THINGS! And actually, these are the girls that had voted to go to the Six Flags. You're in DC, and you're going to go to Six Flags? Who are you?

Now I see that they were talking about wanting shopping and lots of amusement parks. Seriously people. No fun.

Anyways, now, I get to go to Bellingham for an MUN conference, where I will represent Romania. I'm part of ESOC (Economic and Social Council). There are two topics in ESOC at this conference: there is human trafficking (I believe) and distribution of medical care. As far as I know, one other person from my school is on ESOC (but we're not all signed up yet), but he's representing Bangladesh or Malaysia or something like that. There should be another Romania on Arab affairs...I think...from my school, but no one's signed up yet.

Romania's hard for this one, because it's right in the middle. In MUN, you have to argue from your country's point of view. Your actual country (for me: US) isn't the viewpoint you have to go from. It's the country you represent. So I have to think, "What's in this for Romania?" not "What's in this for the US." Usually on ESOC, there are two groups of countries. Countries that are "This will really help our country" types (Africa, parts of South-east Asia, South America, etc.), and countries that are "Yeah, but guess who has to pay for it: we do!" types (US, UK, France, Germany, etc.). East Europe goes both ways on this.

So I'm excited, but we'll see how it works out.

What I have done today

2008-12-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

So, I'm going to just give a travel log because that's what I can give.

Today, I woke up, and then I read Hamlet for a few hours and then I played Oregon Trail a few times because I haven't in forever. Now I'm going to work on some TOK stuff, and then I'll go to work and then I'll write. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Things I'm Counting Down To

2008-12-09T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have the habit of stealing post ideas from family members. Since I'm having a rotten day, I'm tired of my life, I'm dealing with a bunch of junk at school today and I'm frustrated right now as I attempt to remove a trojan from my computer, I'm going to attempt to make a count down of things I'm excited for.

10 days until I get to go to Christmas break!

12 days until I turn eighteen. I don't know what I'm going to do to celebrate, because all the "now you can..." are things I wouldn't do anyways. Maybe I'll go get some dry ice...because I can.

16 days until Christmas.

6 weeks until the Literary Magazine deadline and I get to start EDITING all the submissions. I'm actually excited for that.

7 weeks until I go to Washington DC for NAIMUN (North American Invitations Model United Nations)...It's sort of my highschool graduation present. And it will be my first time on a trip without my parents.

24 weeks until I graduate from high school! YEAH!

Another NaNoWriMo Complete!

2008-11-29T20:16:00.000-08:00

Another NaNoWriMo complete! I know that some people do not understand the amazing feat of this, but I have once again written 50,000 words in the month of November. I know that that doesn't seem like a lot at the moment, but there have been multiple times that I just wanted to stop. However, I have made it through. I have continued onward. I have achieved what I sometimes doubted I would. I have won!

I love my characters deeply by now, and though I must admit I have written some bone fide garbage this month, I feel I have gotten the beginnings on paper, and I have acheived some gems this month.

The things I'm most proud of this month (those moments when I could swear that some amazing writer has come to me... and I'm not writing it) are as follows (sorry if it's stuck up to share my favorite parts of my own writing):

1. "It was surprising to me that Andros Andropos would make this opening up of his soul—he was a Greek Orthodox! The Methodists were seen as strange enough to us and I’d never even met a Greek Orthodox before. We didn’t really take kindly to people who weren’t Catholic. I’ve already explained that my town was not exactly the type of town that one would look at as a model of the future. We were usually significantly behind. So, it is with our acceptance of other religions."

2. "Yeah, I’d imagine that your head hurts like you wouldn’t believe. I don’t know whether or not it’s a demonstration of how ‘unmanly’ I am, but I’ve never actually been knocked unconscious."

3. "'Can you count backwards from 100 by sevens?'
Alexandre took a deep breath, opening his eyes a little bit, but not very much at all, '100, 97…no 93…86, 78…no 79…74…68…59…'
'Stop,' Dr. Depierre instructed.'No you can’t.'
'So?' I spoke up, 'I don’t think I could count backwards from 100 by sevens either and I haven’t been hit by anything.'"

4."There are records of people who don’t actually ever recover from all of the effects, but it’s not exactly common. So, we’ll pretend it’s not going to happen and if it happens then we’ll deal with it.”

5."Perhaps you have to be French to notice, but did you know that there are no sufficiently masculine feminine names that exist in French culture. We have more than our fair share of masculine names that to an outsider would appear ridiculously feminine: Michel, Daniel, René, Camille—we’ve even named some Jean-Marie! But all our girl’s names are so ridiculously feminine as well."

6."Well, just tell me which is the opposite, and which is the adjacent,' he insisted.
I huffed quickly before grabbing my pencil and turning back to the triangle on his paper. 'Okay, which angle?'
'What do you mean which angle? Can’t you just say about the triangle as a whole?'
I shook my head. Christophe was sometimes a little frustrating. 'It’s all relative, Christophe.'"

7."With World War I, the St. Martins had all hoped that Edouard Peuxperdeau would somehow die for his country, and the Peuxperdeaus had hoped the same for Christian St. Martin"

8."I notice that people often tend to forget that in France, we don’t actually eat frog legs all the time. We do have some sense of taste. Alright, stereotypically, I must admit, I have had frog legs, and I must admit, I actually do have something of a liking for them. The one thing I must say to defend myself is that escargot is kind of not really a Breton thing."

9."Jean Gâteaux was frightening, and there were many rumors about what he really waSome speculated that he was a spy for the Germans—waiting for the day when Germany would again unleash its fire upon the people of France. There were others who speculated he was a spy for the only body that French people held as more evil than Germany. And that was Satan. Others, especially those who were interested in the old heathen traditions that Bretagne’s history was so richly decorated with, felt that he was a werewolf or other such creature. Something that creeped and bumped in the night."

10."'Remember the Great Peuxperdeau Slaying of 1786?'

Mireille was quick to add, 'We Peuxperdeaus call it the Cock Night Massacre of 1786.'"

11."'Geneviève, do you swear by the saints in the heavens—by your patron saint, Ste. Geneviève—that you will not tell a soul about Mireille and myself until we have been able to find some way that we can reveal this without starting open war?'...I slowly nodded my head, though it was reluctantly. 'Okay,' Alexandre said...'And that goes exactly the same for you too, Jenny.Do you also swear by all the saints…wait are you even Catholic?'
'No,' Jenny admitted.“I think I'm kind of Episcopalian, but not really.'...'All right,' Alexandre continued, 'All the same, do you promise, in what ever sincere way that you Americans promise, to not tell anyone about this?'"

12.“Humbert Peuxperdeau has done the lowest, slimiest thing that I would have ever thought a man would do. And to think I thought that he had slunk as low as he could by just breathing!”

13."However, unfortunately, the very thing that has created justice—the law—has also created mayhem. Unfortunately, the way that our law system works these days, anything is possible. Provided you have a good lawyer. And Peuxperdeau does.”

14."We were as helpless in that court as the Peuxperdeaus and St. Martins had been back in the first revolution when we all started denouncing each other as aristocrats and aristocrat sympathizers like it was some sort of a sick sport (Because, after all, it really kind of was)."

15."'Well, I don’t know why you think that it’s such a crime for us to want to know what’s going on!' Brigitte yelled back to him. Brigitte always the most hotheaded.
'Why is it a crime?' Christian continued.'You ask me why it’s such a crime? I’ll tell you why it’s such a crime. It is such a crime because we have approximately four days before we have to have a defense of some kind, and though I have the basic skeleton for one, there is no way that if you all do not stop bothering me, I can have a solid line of defense.That’s just the way that it goes!'
'Maybe if you stopped yelling at us and just did it, you’d have a little more success,' Brigitte continued.
'I wasn’t yelling until you bothered me,' Christian defended himself. 'Once you started bothering me, then I needed to get my point across of why I needed to be left alone, because you weren’t listening. In order to get your attention, it was necessary for me to yell.'
'You seem to be successful enough at formulating a defense as to why you’re bad at making defenses. Why don’t you make a defense that will actually help us?'
'I never defended why I was bad at making defenses. Because I never said that. I am just bad at making defenses that have no evidence nor counterevidence. There is a certain level of difficulty in making a defense for something that should have never been a court case in the first place, and I am facing that dilemma. And I’ve never even been to law school!'”

So, there are my favorite parts. :-) Read if you choose.

Movie Review: Australia

2008-11-28T15:35:00.001-08:00

So, Caleb and I have a tradition. We ALWAYS go to a movie during the Thanksgiving break. Every year. This year, we attended Australia. I must say, I cannot write movie reviews without spoilers. Just an ability I've never had. I'm sorry. If you don't want it spoiled, read no further.

I have seen better movies, but I have also definitely seen worse movies. I guess, It's probably a two or three out of five. It was almost three hours long (which is just too long), and there were definitely parts that easily could have been cut.

People say that it's called "Epic Drama," but I call it, "There were way to many plot lines, all good ones, but just too many." I think that there were two plots that I just loved, but they were stacked so that they were "one after the other." I would have liked it if there were instead the two interwoven with one another.

Another thing that I would have liked, (AND THIS IS BIG TIME SPOILER) I think that it would have been better if when they thought that Nicole Kidman's character, Sarah Ashley, was dead, she really was. It was very near the end, and the way that it hit Hugh Jackman's character, Drover, was absolutely gorgeous, and I think it would have been a very sweet and touching bittersweet ending. Instead, there's a "looking at the body closer, we realize that it's not Sarah Ashley, it's Cath Fletcher, and Sarah Ashley has lived, even though she's in the army headquarters during the bombing of Darwin!"

Also, Caleb was very upset that it was marketted as an action film, but the action was a bit lacking. I think an awesome face-off between Drover and David Wenham's character, Neil Fletcher, would have been a better way to handle the comuppence of the villain.

There was an agenda of half-aborigines that would have been a good message, if they didn't have the "Australia has now apologized to the Lost Generations" hadn't been present. What Australia did to half-aboriginal children was terrible. And I thought that they handled it wonderfully. They made the message sweet and strong without completely villainizing all white Australians. I think we do need to talk about this issue in history, and we need to discuss it without villainizing or candy-coating. These pasts of racism need to be approached with understanding that it was wrong, but also understanding that people weren't doing it because they were bad people, but because times were different, and people didn't have the same understandings. Also, an issue with half-race, as the half-Aboriginal child says, is that they fit in neither world completely. But I would have liked it, had they not taken it from message to agenda.

In summary, to make it better they should have:

1) Had Sarah Ashley actually die
2) Had a face-off
3) Either have chosen between the two plots or interwoven them
4) Had better editing of random parts (such as face sucking between Kidman and Jackman), and then developed the side-characters that you kill off so that you care more when they die
5) Left the typed thing at the end off

However, Hugh Jackman's still a very attractive man (read: absolutely gorgeous), the little half-white-half-Aborigine boy was very cute, and it had it's values. The acting was very good, I liked the story lines in general (though they had the aforementioned flaws), and the score was quite masterfully woven. It was a variation on "The Sheep May Safely Graze," with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" woven at various intervals, and it was quite impressive. The little boy (Nullah was his name) had amazing control over horses as well. That was quite impressive. He was a pretty cool kid.

I found some parts touching. I cried (multiple times), but Beth would claim that it was simply because I'm that way.

In general, it wasn't a terrible movie, even though Caleb says that he wants the three hours of his life back.

What junk is contained in a wallet.

2008-11-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

So very recently the question came up for a writer's group. What is in a man's wallet? The few men responded before they asked, "So what is in a woman's wallet/purse?" So I thought I'd tell you all as well.

So, my purse contains:

seven pens
checkbook
transaction register
moist wipe things
this little plastic hamster that I don't know why is in there
three band-aids

In wallet:
receipts
the results from my drive test that was forever ago
post-it notes
a statement of my tuition to CNA school. I'm keeping it because if I get employed at a sponsoring hospital/facility within a year of taking the class (for example if I do end up working at Overlake, I get it refunded)
Museum of flight wristband also from forever ago
scripture mastery cards from Old and New Testament
Family picture
money
CareFresh hamster bedding coupons
coupon for Baby Formula--it was one of those ones that "You WON!" at Safeway
change
a phone number for a friend
a movie stub graveyard (Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (as well as Sarah's from that), Indiana Jones Kingdom of the Crystal Skill (x2, because I went with Brayden and then again with Caleb), National Treasure 2, Enchanted, The Bee Movie, Spiderwick Chronicles)
Nursing Assistant Registered Card (Issued by the WA State DOH)
First Aid Card
CPR Card
YMCA Card
Health Insurance Cards
Driver's License (it's vertical though)
Credit Union MEmbership card
Business card for some bank lady, I don't know what she does
Inglemoor ASB card
Stake Dance Card (and an expired one)
limited use temple recommend
An old copy of my driver's license from before I got the plastic one
debit card
a random acts of kindness card
Thespian Society Membership Card
Library Card
French Alliance Card
Blood Donor Card
Business Card of my work (the Administrator there)
Business Card for my CNA School
A picture of Christ with the YW values on the other side

And that is my purse. I'm sure you all feel enlightened! And it was useful to get to clean it out.

Bye Bye Birdie Update!

2008-11-09T17:33:00.000-08:00

So, some notes on how it's been going so far, and some solutions that we've found to our previous problems/updates:

Techies Needed! Update!
So, the update on this one is as follows: We still have this problem. We're still bumping techies left and right, but that's all good. We haven't missed a change yet--yes the trashcan was a close one on Opening Night, but it made it on. Also, it would have been better if the techie putting it on didn't slide offstage as if it were a baseball game. Would have drawn less attention, but that's okay.

The Case of the Colorblind Fly Operator CASE CLOSED!

This was relatively easy to solve. We simply put navy blue under the orange spike of all the flies that he flies in. And that solved it.

The Dilemma of Detained Shriner Table Clamp DILEMMA ELIMINATED

If you can't solve a problem, eliminate it. We just don't have a clamp anymore, and when the tables move as two of the shriners do Russian stars on the top of the tables, they just deal with it.

The Mess of the Monotonously Sugar-Loaded Conrad Birdie LESS OF A CONCERN

He is still being monitored closely, but we've simply water-logged him, so that essentially, he'll just pee it all out. Now, the leather-pants dilemma is coming in, but I'd much rather him have that problem than the problem he was on the verge of before this. The hints for hyperglycemia are subtle. However, I am trained in recognizing when people are having medical problems (and then not really knowing how to solve them...that's the nurses' jobs).

The Hullabaloo of the Hoarse Hugo NATURE SOLVED OUR PROBLEM!

Not a problem. His voice came back! YEAH!

Yesterday's show, Rose's stockings ripped in the middle of the shriner number, but that's the way things go. And her fringe got stuck in one of the shriner's belts, but the number was still amazing! The shriners struggled with that number some, but on opening night, it was just spot on, and yesterday's show was close to it.

All in all, the play has pulled through.

Bye Bye Birdie

2008-11-06T20:34:00.000-08:00

This is what dominates my life at the moment. I have been roped into being the support Stage Left ASM. The real SL ASM is having a rough time in her life, and she's never been a stage manager before, so my English teacher (who is also the drama teacher), has asked me to kind of help her out. Now, this means that I have gotten hardly any sleep this week, because with the exception of today (they let us out early for good behavior), I have been in rehearsal until 9:00.

A couple of problems that have been prevalent that we're still trying to work out:

Techies Needed!

We have to bump them around sides of the stage to make the numbers work out for the scene changes. We don't have enough. In fact, we've had to abduct an actor and turned him into an actor/techie hybrid.

The Case of the Colorblind Fly Operator

We have a colorblind fly operator. We really appreciate him, as he's a last minute helper, and he's a really great guy. However, our fly master decided to make the spikes on the flies bright orange (the marks on the fly lines (ropes) that show where to stop). To someone who is red-green colorblind in a semi-dark backstage area, they don't look any different than the white ropes. Thus, myself and another techie were very nearly killed by coming down flies that shouldn't have been that far down. And they were big, and coming down fast, and would have been painful.

The Dilemma of Detained Shriner Table Clamp

The two shriner tables need to be fastened together as to protect them from moving. Unfortunately, removing a clamp in the dark in approximately 45 seconds is not as easy as it sounds. Thus, our techie/actor hybrid had some trouble unfastening. This took a should-be 25-second scene transition to a 1.5 minute scene transition.

The Mess of the Monotonously Sugar-Loaded Conrad Birdie

So, many of you have seen Bye, Bye Birdie, correct? So, Conrad Birdie is supposed to be slightly alcoholic. How do we simulate this? Soda pop spray painted to look like beer cans! Now, the problem is that this poor actor has now drank 15 cans of soda in the past three days. Not good. By next Saturday (closing night), he'll have drunk 35 cans of soda. He's starting to get sick from it--feeling sick, lethargic, trouble concentrating, you know the drill. Which is not good. Now we're trying to find a way to counteract it. Should we just make him drink tons of water? But then he has to get out of the leather pants to go to the bathroom, wouldn't he? It's just ridiculous. Any ideas, I'm open. Any ideas for how to counteract sugar overdose in approximately 16-year-old males who need to also be able to dance?

The Hullabaloo of the Hoarse Hugo

It's officially not good. Hugo Peabody has lost his voice. It's coming back, and hopefully he'll be okay by tomorrow morning. BECAUSE OPENING NIGHT IS TOMORROW! He had significantly more voice today than he did yesterday, but we still need more out of the guy.

So, those are some of the highlighting problems. Any solutions, I'm open.

National Defense Luncheon

2008-10-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

So, not yesterday, but the Saturday prior to that, my mother and I attended the DAR National Defense Luncheon (Daughters of the American Revolution). Yes, we're Daughters of the American Revolution--well, almost. We have to be "validated."

DAR luncheons are interesting. There are the fun parts, like the nice ladies and the speaker (a black, female Air Force pilot) was very interesting as well. However, there are those little bits and pieces that you kind of just accept. For example, the lady who was kind of deaf and we were passing notes around the table the entire time. Also, the fact that one of the raffle items was this:

It's a toothbrush sanitizer...have no idea what that is. Anyways, when this was announced, just everyone started laughing.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

2008-10-16T19:30:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

I'm Offended!

2008-10-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

So, I was a senior portrait model person. And it was a lot of fun, but just for the hey of it, I looked at this website, and to think that I'd be accused of being a Woodinville Falcon! I go to Inglemoor High, thank-you very much. I'd never want to be accused of being a FALCON. This pure Viking feels this to be serious injustice. Oh well, one of the girls on there accused of being a Bothell Cougar is a friend of mine at Inglemoor...she's pure Viking too.

Taking Votes: Will I die?

2008-10-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

I'm looking at the IB Exam Schedule for May, and I'm taking votes. Will I die come May?

So here's how it goes down.

On Monday, May 4, in the morning, the torture and chaos ensues with Paper 1 of Higher Level English Literature.

The next afternoon, the torture and brain-racking will continue with Papers 1 and 2 of Higher Level History. This will focus on document analysis in Paper 1 and I believe 20th Century History in Paper 2. Carol or Beth may correct me if I'm getting Papers 2 and 3 backwards.

The next morning, on May 6, the torture will continue with Paper 3 of Higher Level History. This shall be history of the Americas. This does not mean specifically only American history, though it's rather central. If you don't mention some other country in the Western hemisphere, they probably won't like you much. Even if it's bringing up how the Great Depression was detrimental to the Brazilian coffee market.

That afternoon, I will be subject to Papers 1 and 2 of Higher Level Biology.

The following morning, Thursday, May 7, Biology shall continue with Paper 3.

Thursday Afternoon, we shall begin my least favorite and most "I'm freaking out about it," standard level math methods, Paper 1. This is also known as Calculus.

Friday Morning, the numerical reasoning portion of the human brain shall be continued to be racked, with Paper 2 of Standard Level Math Methods.

The weekend will offer some respite, though little.

Upon returning from said respite, I will then enter the land of English Literature once more, for Paper 2 of this test.

Gladly, this week is not my terrifying week, as all students engaging in the testing of Physics, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, German, Music Theory and Higher Level Math (Paper 3) will be tortured, and I doth not fit any of these categories.

The next week, I shall return for the last two tests. On Monday morning, May 18, I will hold my breath as the Spanish students wish they came from some Latin American country where they understood every word naturally, for that afternoon, I shall enter into Standard Level Chemistry Papers 1 and 2.

The following morning, I shall finish up chemistry torture, with Paper 3.

Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, the Computer Science children shall engage in programming or whatever it is they do on the computer science test.

Then, I shall re-enter for the final test (though not the final day of testing) on Thursday, May 21, for Higher Level French, Papers 1 and 2.

I will then be done. With IB. Forever. I will then encourage the Philosophy and Psychology students who are subjected to pain on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning (in the case of the Psychology students: the same pain that I was subjected to last year), and then the Inglemoor High School IB Community shalt rejoice.

So, votes: With the stupid Week 1 schedule that somebody invented, doth the masses believe that I shalt die?

Funny Moments of the Day

2008-10-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Some very funny things happened at school today. To share the small parts:

1) So, in English, we were supposed to be working on our Extended Essays/Culminating Projects (another day to explain this annoying graduation requirement). We had all worked on them, and were getting slightly bored with the heinous project. So, we were discussing politics. And we got around to Sarah Palin and creationism in schools. So, one of the guys in our group, his dad is a minister, he's full preacher's boy. He just gets this really confused look on his face and says, "Wait. What's Creationism?" We all look at him for a few seconds before he gets the "duh!" look on his face and says, "Oh yeah, nevermind."

2) I'm tutoring this girl in French. We come to this part of her reading that says, "Je te l'ai dit." This essentially means, "I told you about it." She wanted to know what it meant, literally. I tried to explain to her that it means, "I told you about it."

She said, "No, what does each word mean?"

I just said, "Don't try to translate French word by word. It has a different sentence structure. It won't work." But she insisted. "Okay, it, word by word, means, 'I you it have told.'"

3) In ToK (Theory of Knowledge), we're talking about perception being altered because of what you're focusing on. Our teacher says, "So, who's ran a red light before?" The kid next to me says, "I once ran this red light but I swear that I thought it was a stop sign for some reason. It just got translated into my brain that way. I even stopped, inched out, looked both ways and went. I didn't even realize I'd ran a red light until the people behind me started honking and I looked in my rearview mirror."

4) So, tomorrow, the IB Senior History is having a Vice Presidential debate viewing party. This one girl in the class says, "Here?"

My teacher responds. "Yes, here." (He thought she was talking about the room specifically)

"Oh! On TV!"

Everyone just kind of looks at her funny and the teacher says, "You know, when you do things like that--have moments that stupid, you usually try to keep them to yourself."

"I was just really confused. I just thought, why in here? Why not the nice big theatre?"

At this neither the class nor teacher could contain the laughter.

5) Best for last. We're in Calculus. We get some time to work on our homework, and it's derivatives of trigonometric things. After a few moments, one of the boys at our group just throws his pencil onto the desk and says, "I'm done. I don't want to take calculus anymore. I hated trig identities back in pre-calc and I hate them even more with their derivatives. I'm not taking calculus anymore. I'm going to go and be one of the information desk people at the mall. But you probably need calculus for that too!"

The teacher then says, "But you're only a junior. What are you going to do next year?"

"I really don't know. Is there anyway I could take calculus again?"

"Not unless you fail this year. And I don't think your parents would be happy about that, would they?"

"My little brother is as dumb as bricks and my parents still love him!"

So, in short, I had a great day. It was fun and those are just the highlights. By the way, the kid in Calculus is not really going to quit the class in case anyone was worried.

High School Slang

2008-09-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

I've decided that for the sake of all adults, I have created the glossary of high-school slang. So they know what teens are talking about. If any teens would like to add to this glossary, please post a comment.

awesome

used when something is particularly exciting or buff

awkward turtle

done in the place of awkward silence, done by placing one palm on top of the other and rotating the thumbs

beast

when someone does something particularly buff

"Chaaaaarlie"

just done to annoy people. Etymology: from the online animation "Charlie the Unicorn"

chillax

a combination of chill and relax

"Come to Candy Mountain"

see "Chaaaarlie!"

creeper

used to describe people or are disturbing

cutter

a derogatory term, referring to people who self-harm

delicious

amazing, see "awesome"

emo

also used as derogator (see "cutter"), but also when someone's having a bad day, they might say, "I'm emo today" or when they do something dumb, "okay, I'll just sit in my little emo corner now."

epic

see "awesome" and "delicious"

fail

when one does something dumb. If especially stupid, can be combined with epic

"Frick!"1

an exclamation of frustration Etymology: from the Scrubs character, Eliot

"Frick!"2

must be accompanied by the voice, used as a form of whatever Etymology: from Napoleon Dynamite

"Gasp!"

sarcastically used when someone is surpised but shouldn't be

gay

dumb

ghetto

when someone is doing something particularly cheapskate Usage: "That's so ghetto," "I'm so ghetto"

grody

disgusting

"I hate my life"

used when one makes a minor mistake that is just annoying, such as doing all the math problems when you only had to do the odd-numbered ones

"I'm not gonna lie"

Followed by most phrases Usage: "When he started dancing like that, I was creeped out, not gonna lie" Derivatives: "I'm not even gonna begin to lie, no lie, I'm not even gonna try to lie

"it's cuz I'm…" an explanation of dumb behavior, or really any extreme behavior. "It's cuz I'm cool," or when someone does something particularly nerdy, "It's cuz I'm AP/IB," "It's cuz I'm OCD," "It's cuz I'm ADD"

jacked up

messed up

legit

see "awesome," "delicious," and "epic"

newb/noob

used to describe someone doing something obvious socially/culturally or otherwise unacceptable

nice

see "awesome," "delicious," "epic," or "legit," but can also be sarcastic

ownage

failure

phat

amazing, but not in the same way as the "epic" family

plug and chug

"just do it" Etymology: from algebra, pre-calc and calc teachers referring to formulas

pwned

"ouch" or "that stinks"

redneck

used as an adjective, compare to "ghetto"

sick

see the "epic" family

skanky

particularly, disgustingly immodest

sketch

see "creeper"

smooth

sarcastically used to describe clumsy behavior

spaz

can used to describe many types of people, cutely immature people, ADD people, clumsy people, etc.

sweet

see the "epic" family

"that was awesome"

"That was amazing"

"that was hot"

ALWAYS sarcastic after someone does something embarrassing or clumsy

"that was intense"

see "that was awesome"

"that's like a super-power"

When people have strange talents and abilities

"that's what she said"

a response to something, which has a vaguely vulgar meaning (unintentionally vulgar)

tight

see the "epic" family

"violence is not the answer, it's the solution"

Used to break up fights (verbal fights)

win

"YES!"

"yo mama"

just a response

"you would"

hard to describe. Just typifying behavior. For example, if someone were particularly studious, "I stayed up until 3:00 last night working on that assignment" (if it wasn't due) "You would!" If the assignment were due and the person was a procrastinator, "You would!"

"your face"

a comeback

"your mom"

another comeback

"your mom's face"

a comeback to "your mom"

I'm back

2008-09-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

So, I kept on having ideas of what I was going to do to update my little thing-a-ma-blogger, but none of them were working out so well. So, here we go: I am back in school (yuck!), and I'm enjoying it for the most part. My schedule looks as so:

0. Seminary New Testament- I haven't really met my teachers yet. Thursday was the welcome back breakfast, and Friday was parent day...so I'll get back to you.
1. IB Biology 2- same teacher as last year, but not pregnant this time. I really like her. She knows what she's talking about and she's friendly.
2. IB Chemistry- I like this teacher too. She's a really friendly lady with this "Texan y'all drawl." And, especially compared to my Pre-IB Chem/Bio teacher, a VERY good teacher.
3. IB English 12- Okay. So, on Thursday and Friday we were discussing this story called, "The Witness" written by Jorge Luis Borges. I liked it when I read it myself. I interpreted it to be about legacies, and what we're leaving behind. By the end of the period, this teacher had turned it into a story about the evility of Christianity. He goes on about how there are no wrong answers, but when I put forth my idea, "You think that? Huh...anyways back to what I was saying."
4. IB History of the 20th Century- My teacher is SO ADHD. Oh my goodness. That guy can't sit still can he? Anyways, he's a hilarious guy. And History of the 20th Century is like history of dictators. Serious it's like Unit 1: WWI and Russian Revolution, Unit II: Stalin, Unit III: Hitler, Unit IV: Castro, Unit V: Mao, Unit VI: Cold War. It's great. But it's just...a set up for some interesting times with this guy.
5. IB Math Methods II/ Calculus- So it's going to take a little getting used to. You know how most math teachers make little arithmetic errors. Like losing a sign and that sort of stuff. My Pre-Calc did it like twice in the entire year. This teacher still knows what she's talking about, but she makes more errors.
6. IB French 2/ French 400- I still love this teacher. I've had her for going on three years now. Unfortunately, she's...swamped. The other French teacher got kicked out of teaching higher levels.
7. Theory of Knowledge (this IB Diploma capstone thing)- I love this class. It's laid back, but not slack off. It's fun without the teacher yelling at us. She jokes with us. I really like this class. People always ask what Theory of Knowledge is. Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is a required class for the IB Diploma. It's epistemology, and psychology and sociology and a lot of stuff. It's just about knowledge verses belief verses wish verses hope and all that sort of stuff. It's quite interesting. The first day, we came up with at least 25 ways to get paint on a wall, the second day we created shapes of tanagrams...it's pretty cool.

So that's that. My senior year goals:

1. Get accepted to BYU Provo (If not, I could go to BYU Idaho, but I don't want to, and I applied to Drexel--they waived my application fee)
2. Get a 4.0 first semester and at least a 3.8 second (I'm allowing myself senioritis. I'm terrible, I know)
3. Graduate from Suzuki (2 Concertos to go!)
4. Win NaNoWriMo (I have a plot)
5. Receive at least 3 scholarships
6. Advance to at least novice in all dances--in Irish dance (will take at least 2 feisanna, if I win in every dance...it could happen)
7. Receive my IB Diploma

Of couse, there's also graduate from highschool, but I didn't even bother to put it there. I'm stupid I know.

Oh, also my Stake Seminary is on probation, meaning that people weren't having good enough attendance...but that's another issue.

The Rings are Out, the Torch is Lit!

2008-08-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

All right everyone, I don't know if I'd admitted this before, but I am an Olympics addict. No really, I am. What's even weirder about this? I couldn't care less about sports most of the time. However, when the little doo-doo-doo-doo theme comes on, I just get excited. I think it's because I like the more obscure sports. Anyways, I'm really excited about these games. I can tell you what's going on in them at most anytime, give you the update on a fairly recent medal count and explain details about different athletes. I'm INSANE about the Olympics.

So, I root for mostly the US athletes. Of course I'm rooting for Michael Phelps (because who isn't?), I'm quite pumped up for Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and excited about the Redeem Team (somewhat...I don't really like basketball), but I shall share my less-well-known rootings and fascinations.

Non-Americans!

-I was rooting for the Ukrainian Men's Archery team (Viktor Ruban,Markiyan Ivashko and Oleksandr Serdyuk), but they missed out on the Bronze after China beat them. Darn. (The US never played Ukraine in archery, so my loyalties were not challenged at all).

-I am still rooting for the Latvian Men's Beach Volleyball team (Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Somoilovs). Yes, I even rooted for them when they were going against Rogers and Dalhausser (the Americans). I just kind of liked them, and the NBC announcers were being so rude to them. So I rooted for them, and I just keep rooting for them. However, today when Rogers/Dalhausser went up against the Swiss today, I rooted for them. Lenseless sunglasses and all. I'm still going for the Latvians, but unfortunately the beating the Americans was a one-time thing. They lost to Argentina.

-I am rooting for the British diver, Thomas Daley. Why? The guy's only fourteen. That's cool. And he's cute--in the cute little fourteen-year-old sense of the word. He only achieved 8th in the synchronized diving event, but hopefully he'll have better luck in the individuals.

-I was rooting for Denmark in Badmitton, but that didn't quite work out too well. Singapore has beat their bunnies so far.

Lesser-known Americans!

-I was rooting for the ladies in foil fencing all the way. Unfortunately, all three of our competitors didn't make it passed the second elimination round, but nicely done gals.

-I'm completely rooting for American Equestrians. After dressage, the US was in 3rd. Unfortunately, the cross-country event didn't go so well. One unseated rider, and two disobedient horses. OUCH USA! Now we're in 7th. But hopefully, we'll make it up in the show-jumping event.

-Rooted for Corey Cogdell in trap shooting. Nobody knows who she is. Well USA, she won us bronze, so say thank-you. Probably the only sharpshooting medal we're a-getting.

-Rooted for the ladies sabre fencing. Nice job gals. You rule that podium! Gold, silver and bronze.

-Rooting for the ladies epee fencing too. COME ON TEAM!

-Rooting for all the men's fencing, but the details aren't coming to me as well.

-I'm in all ways rooting for Alexandr Artemev in the men's gymnastics. He's a last minute alternate, the NBC announcers were being very rude to him at the qualifying round, and he's one of our two who made it to the all-around individuals and the only one to make pommel horse, and quite possibly saved our little American hineys when it came to qualifying for teams, so shut your faces NBC announcers.

So there are my current loyalties. I hope that the Olympics should continue in loving splendor. GO USA!

So, what is Inglemoor music like?

2008-08-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd let you all know how good Inglemoor High School music is, because I had a discussion with how much better Inglemoor is than Woodinville more than once this week. Here's a band video from last Christmas. It's better than Woodinville, which is the following video. I picked these videos because they were easily accessible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNGqTmUGGI4
(Inglemoor: The Polar Express)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPYBqb5WrLU
(It's the April Fool's Day Parade, but the music is the Woodinville High Marching Band)

I guess it's only fair to put in an Inglemoor marching band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCLAa7ptWAw
(Inglemoor: Iron Man and Inglemoor Fight Song)

CNA Class Complete

2008-08-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have now passed CNA school! YEAH FOR HANNAH! Anyways, I'm very excited to take the test. I will probably not work as a CNA until next summer, because the shifts are not very conducive to the high school schedule, but I'm still excited. I'm also very satisfied with the people in my class. I'm so happy that I can say that I'm very impressed by all the people that were in my class, and I liked everyone so much. Usually in every class there's that one person who you just kind of think, "Wow, they're kind of annoying," but everyone was an interesting and fun person to be around. I liked it.

Teething Bites

2008-07-24T13:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, so in my CNA class, they tell us that those who you care for are in their second childhood. Many of the things that they learned to do, they can no longer do. I have found that I'm somewhat in that second babyhood, as I teeth. The wisdom teeth kind. I actually usually really like the feeling (I guess I'm a masochist, because I like the feeling of hypodermic needles too), but today it hurts. I think the reason it hurts today is because I have a canker sore right next to the excavation site (or more exhumation site I suppose), and that's somewhat painful. I don't want to get them out though. Because then I'd miss school and/or work. My hope is that I can hold out until Christmas of my first year in college. Because then I will not have a job and I will not be in school. Whether that happens or not, I know not. It's only one side that has ever hurt, and I enjoy chewing on hard stuff when they're coming in. I love the little shooty feeling. Once again, I guess I'm a masochist

Why do I like Joyce?

2008-07-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

At my family reunion, my uncle asked me what I liked about James Joyce. Here's why: I only like some of his work. He's an intriguing man, who has some good things to say. Ulysses is nuts, Chambermusic is weird, and I have to admit, I find Finnegan's Wake incredibly hilarious, but I couldn't do with more than two lines at a time.

But, awhile ago, I made this slide show about Dubliners, and I'll put it here:

The interesting parody about the music I chose (I thought it fit very well), is that the group, Battlefield Band, all the members are actually Scottish.

What's up?

2008-07-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

Well, first of all, everyone, I have no TB. Good news there, right? Yeah, I had a really weird red bump for my TB test, but I have been declared negative anyways. It's a little frightening that when you get them read, a lady comes into the waiting room, brushes her finger over your arm and then hands you an already printed out sheet that says you're negative. It wasn't THAT big ever though. Probably like 1.5 cm in diameter at the largest point.

Anyways, what's going on in CNA school? Well, I can now take blood pressure, pulse and respiratory rate can TECHNICALLY take temperature, make and change sheets in an occupied bed, catch falling people without injuring myself regardless of weight, can roll people over to any desired position, can assist with Passive Range of Motion exercises, can put a bedpan under somebody even if they cannot lift their hiney, can care for ostomy bags and catheters, give bed baths, know how to clean the gender-determining parts of either gender, can dress people, can transfer people from beds to wheelchairs, can assist weak people at walking, give oral care and comb hair, clean nails, feed people who cannot feed themselves, give back rubs (in theory...I'm probably just as terrible at it as ever) and other miscellaneous knowledges. Some of that list is a little bit disturbing, but hey, somebody's got to do it. In the future, I will be learning about CPR and AIDS, and practicing all this stuff and weighing people and taking height (I don't really think either of those belong on the particularly difficult list).

I have also been thoroughly briefed on treating elderly people with dignity and respecting and being sensitive to embarrassment of these people who cannot do these things themselves. As well as what to do in case people become violent, how to help with Alzheimers, things never to do, things to report to nurses and all that good stuff. By the way everyone: THEY ARE NOT ADULT DIAPERS. They are referred to as incontinence briefs, or adult briefs. Diapers are for children. And our book is sometimes like, "Nursing Assistance for Dumbies." Our favorites so far include, "AIDS is when the immune system doesn't work too well" and "homeostasis is when everything in the body can work at its complete function." Yeah. I know. Pretty obvious.

So...there is my life.

I blame Katherine Heigl

2008-07-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

So what did she do to me? Let me explain.

So, on Monday, Beth, Carol and I begin our class. Our CNA class. Yes, we're going to be Certified Nurses' Assistants. Fun times. Anyways, I was searching out our uniforms: light blue scrubs and white sport shoes. Why is this a problem?

If you google for medical apparel stores in Seattle, you will not find any very easily. Why? It's Katherine Heigl's fault. Why? She just had to star in a medical drama that takes place in Seattle, and then (to make everything worse) she is releasing her own line of...wait for it...fashion scrubs. No. I'm not even kidding.

So, all I find are articles about this fashion line of Izzie Stephens Scrubs or whatever. To make it even worse, what is the line called but Seattle (well...one part of the line). Curse you Katherine Heigl! By wanting to make life more "fashionable" for women in healthcare, you have made my life more difficult. When I become an RN (not if...when), I doubt I will buy them. They're not even really so much more fashionable than regular ones: http://www.lydiasuniforms.com/category.asp?cat=272&ovchn=GGL&ovcpn=Katherine+Heigl&ovcrn=katherine+heigl&ovtac=PPC&SRC=PGOOGL08&gclid=CNiMo5mGt5QCFQ4UiQodXRrLTA.

My First Feature Film

2008-07-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

I'm learning. But here is my first feature film. Yes, the dorky smiles are on purpose. Why did I pick this topic? I currently don't have a sound-capture camera, so I'm doing something that doesn't need it. I can capture sound, and I can capture film, but not the two at the same time. Maybe I'll try something with synchronization, I don't know.

Why do I always get stuck with the conspiracy theories?

2008-07-05T20:13:00.001-07:00

So, I've been working on my extended essay. That's my big, huge, macho, large essay that I have to finish for my IB diploma, and it also doubles as my culminating project, meaning I get to graduate from high school. So...I've been reading a lot of websites and books and whatnaught. My guiding question for my essay is as follows (we can pick any subject, any topic): "To what extent, if any, did the hemophilic status of Czarevitch Alexei Nikolaevitch Romanov effect the outbreak and outcome of the Russian Revolution of 1917?" It's a history topic, by the way.

So, while I've been researching, I've realized that I always get stuck in places of research with ridiculous conspiracy theories. This one lived, that one lived, they were all saved by random aliens, Rasputin was a nice guy (yeah right). Et cetera. I think my favorite one that I found was a website where they were putting out all the most random garbage about how Rasputin was a nice guy who made prophecies and healed through the power of God, Alexei didn't really have hemophilia, he had "aplastic crisis" (which, by the way, has pretty much only one common symptom), and a lot of you'll never believe trash presented as facts. And then, it presents the idea that the reason two bodies were missing is because they successfully burned where the others did not, and says that that is a conspiracy theory. DUDE! That's the first logical thing you've said (by the way, they found the bodies this year. As far as they can tell, they're the remaining Romanovs). Or just other great stuff.

Great ones I've found today: "I've read that Alexei was 5'6'' or 5'7'' when he died but he fluctuated the year before his death between 80 lbs and 105 lbs. Do you think he was anorexic?" SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. You're imprisoned in Ekaterinburg by people who really aren't too happy with you, you're bleeding in random places sometimes, internally and externally, sometimes in your stomach (common one for him), and you've been kind of small your entire life. Yep. He's anorexic all right. Or "I've seen pictures of all of the Romanov children smoking. Do you think the pictures are just posed?" No. It was the 1910s. Most people smoked. Even children. And the Romanov children weren't really children when they died. They were in their teens and twenties. The youngest was almost 14. And why would they pose the pictures? And why would the children's personal letters and diary entries make references to cigarettes?

One that just bugs me is the Dmitri Pavlovich one. How come in every single, stinking, stupid history situation someone has to be labeled sexually deviant? Some people say that Dmitri Pavlovich was bi, and that he had a relationship with Yussopov and that's why they went and killed Rasputin. Hello. The guy was like the biggest womanizer in Russia, and had no evidence of bisexuality. This same source says that's why the impending engagement between him and the Czar's daughter, Olga, was called off. They didn't want a bi Czar. They were homophobes. ;-) Anyways, in all reality, Olga called off the engagement, because she was very uptight in many respects, and didn't want to marry a womanizer. She said so in her diary. Anyways...moving on.

Anyhow, I love the ones where people say Alexei lived through the shooting. HELLO! The kid was so injured from a previous incident (cited by some as a suicide attempt) that he could not walk (his father carried him to the place where they were to all be executed), where they fired round upon round of machine gun followed by concentrated machine gun fire on Alexei (they don't want any heirs to the throne popping up unexpectedly a couple of years later) followed by bayonets to Alexei. I'm sorry, a normal person couldn't live through that, let alone a hemophiliac.

Anyways, I must end saying that I love my topic all the same. Fascinating, but so sad as well. I really do like Russian history, and I really am fascinated by hemophilia (fascinated is not the word I'm looking for...maybe intrigued?), so it's a great topic for me.

TIME FOR ROMANOV PICTURES!

Czarevitch Alexei, probably about 1910 or so (making him either six or seven). I could find out for sure, but I don't want to. Isn't he a cute kid though?

The Romanov family. From the girl seated on the left and then clockwise spiralling in to the Czar, we have Maria, probably Olga and Tatiana (might have those two backwards. Once again, I could check but don't feel like it), Anastasia, Alexei, Alexandra and Nicholas II. The picture is probably about 1912-1914.

Anyways, I personally don't feel that the Romanovs deserved what they got. Yes, Nicholas was exactly the Czar-type. In fact, he was a rotten leader, but he hated it, he never wanted to be Czar, and didn't know what to do. He had some awful advisors as well. However, all of the Romanovs were recorded to be extremely kind and gentle and generous in their personal lives. They just weren't cut out for the ruler thing. Anywho. I should shut up now.

I'm Back...sort of

2008-07-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

So, I've been trying to think of something to update with and I just haven't had the will-power. I was going to put the pictures I promised, but I don't have any clue what mom did with them. I was going to update with the Scotland thing, but it's missing something and I don't know what.

Well, I don't know what to update even now, but at least I'll give you a reason why. I'm going to write about the reunion, but I don't feel like it at the moment. Isn't this just sad? Anyways...umm...

Well, last night, Caleb, Sam, Carol and I stayed up and watched literally THE WORST MOVIE of all time. It actually has won an award saying as such. It's the #5 worst movie of 2005 technically. It's called, "Stealth." Don't worry, we didn't spend any money on it. It came from the library. Even if it were not completely and in all ways cliche, it also had antics involved by several characters that would have the US Navy in serious trouble with the people of Alaska, and the entire United States at almost sure war with North Korea, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and possible Myanmar. It's about a computerized plan that goes haywire, stops taking orders, and then eventually develops a conscience and feelings and in the end, commit suicide in order to save Lt. Wade and Lt. Gannon (yes, they're male and female). It had already killed Lt. Purcell, the third of the stereotyped dream-team. Yes, Lt. Purcell is black. Yes Lt. Gannon is macho-man. Yes, it was bad. But so bad, it's kind of entertaining.

Feis Frenzy!

2008-05-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hey there! I know that I was doing stuff with the Scottish thing. It's being worked on. Partially done. However, I went to a feis on Saturday, and I've got to tell you about that!

Firstly, a feis (pronounced fesh) is an Irish dance competition. I competed in reel, light jig, single jig, reel special and light jig special. I won second in everything except light jig where I won a third. Pictures are to come. Some of me, some of my awards. :-)

I learned a very important lesson though:

First, let's just clarify the make-up of Irish dance costumes. They're wool. They're layered. They're long sleeved. They're to your neck. They're HOT. It was 90+ degrees on Saturday. Irish dancing is not an "endothermic" sport. Both Hatches and Russells are heavy sweaters (not good genes there). Don't ever forget to bring deodorant to one of those feis things. I'm just glad that in Irish dancing you don't move your arms, because some dancers on the other sides of me probably would have passed out if we did.

Pictures are to follow.

Celtic Cultures Lesson 2: The Irish

2008-05-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, I guess I should continue our Celtic Cultures Course. The next people on the list are basically the people that everyone think of when you say "Celtic Culture": The Irish.

The Irish people have a long, complicated and engaging history. Where Manx was easier to write about because it's just so quaint and lovely and endangered and dying, Ireland is hard to write about. Where the Manx are just the Manx, the Irish are vividly diverse. Their on-island variety is so complex it is rivaled in complexity only but Irish history and Irish politics. Irish culture isn't just Irish culture anymore, but a culture influenced not only by its ancient roots but also by the minds and brains that have come out of Ireland: Shaw, Joyce, Swift and many others. I really don't know where to start.

If you want to hear the history of Ireland in fifteen minutes in humor that will never be matched, ask my English teacher, Mr. Curtis. It's hilarious.

To begin with the basics, here is the introduction of Ireland by Wikipedia:

"Ireland (pronunciation /īrlənd/; Irish: Éire; Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third largest island in Europe,and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain. Politically, the state Ireland (described as the Republic of Ireland in cases of ambiguity) covers five-sixths of the island, with Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, covering the remainder in the north-east.

The population of the island is slightly over six million (2007), with 4.34 million in the Republic of Ireland (1.7 million in Greater Dublin) and an estimated 1.75 million in Northern Ireland (0.6 million in Greater Belfast). This is a significant increase from a modern historical low in the 1960s, but still much lower than the peak population of over 8 million in the early 19th century, prior to the Irish potato famine.

The name Ireland derives from the name Ériu (in modern Irish, Éire) with the addition of the Germanic word land. Most other western European names for Ireland derive from the same source, such as French Irlande, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Irlanda, German Irland and Dutch Ierland."

Does that help anyone understand something more about the Irish? Probably not. I guess we'll go into the parts of Ireland that I can approach. Their language is Irish Gaelic, though all Irish (with the exception of a few scattered grandpas that are virtually all gone) speak English today. Recently, encouraged by the efforts and success of the Welsh (whom we will learn about soon), the Irish Government has been hoping to revive the Irish language by making Irish language a required subject in all public schools, and also making it possible to study Irish language and literature in most all Irish universities, though it is never expected to become the mother tongue of the Irish again.

However, Irish is the official language of the Republic, and Northern Ireland recognizes Irish (and Ulster-Scottish) as officially recognized languages of the government. Ulster-Scottish is a language spoken in Ulster, which is a quite different region as technically the inhabitants are in Ireland, but ethnically and culturally they are actually Scottish.

Though Ireland (as addressed in the quote) is split into two parts, there are parts of Irish culture that are all-Ireland, as well as institutions that are all-Ireland. For example, in religions where each country has an Archbishop or a leader for that country, Ireland is considered one country. Many sports teams are the teams for "Ireland" (though many in North-Ireland are on teams for UK), and most sports have Ireland championships that cover all of Ireland. Some political parties, such as Sinn Fein (yes, I'm leaving out fadas. I'm sorry) and the Irish Green Party exist in both parts of Ireland. Another party, Fianna Fail (once again, no fadas), has considered merging with a Northern Ireland party that I don't remember the full name of, but it's something about the Socialists and Labourists and Democratics and stuff.

Ireland has a very moderate climate. The warmest temperature ever was only in the low 90s and the coldest ever was only a couple of degrees below 0. It always rains there and it's always windy. To tell you the truth, in a lot of ways, it's quite similar to Seattle. Interesting factoid about the land, there are only 26 land mammals native to Ireland, but there are approximately 400 species of birds. There are NO snakes in Ireland and only one type of lizard (attributed to St. Patrick who allegedly banished all snakes from Ireland). Also, wolves are completely extinct from Ireland, as well as their once signature animal, the Great Irish Elk.

Just for Brayden: Because geologically Ireland is a ring (with limestone in the middle and there's igneous on one ring and metamorphic in another and such), it's geologically diverse. The provinces of Galway and Donegal are Scottish Highland Coledonide. Ireland has also recently been discovered to have a boatload of oil in it. Also, Ireland is attempting to convert all operations in turbine wind-power. Frighteningly, it might actually work in Ireland. They have so much wind there. They're currently building a wind-plant off the coast of Ulster that is computed to be able to provide for 10% of Ireland's energy needs.

Agriculture has always been important in Ireland, and most traditionally Irish meals include potatoes and cabbage. We're skipping most history because it's SO complicated. That's a whole lesson in of itself, that I don't know if I'll include.

The most nutty thing about Ireland is that there are roads EVERYWHERE. During the potato famine, the English government had to create jobs, so they built roads. Roads that go places that already have roads, roads that go places you don't need to get to, roads that cross over themselves again, and roads that lead absolutely nowhere at all. They have nothing to do with the roads now, so they just kind of sit there.

About 86% of the Republic of Ireland is Catholic, and about 75% of the whole island is, the other religions being Protestant (most Anglican), with a slightly growing Muslim population, a mini-mini-mini bit of Jews and 4% of the population reporting themselves as non-religious.

I'm thinking we need more Ireland. So please vote at the bottom on which topic I should address, or if I shouldn't at all. It would be at the end of all the other topics, and I might end up doing with the Scottish and the Welsh as well.

Announcement Everyone!

2008-04-16T21:18:00.001-07:00

Okay, we'll revert to the Celtic Culture lessons shortly, but as the only Russell with a blog, I feel I must make this announcement. Carol's mission extension was working, but then all of the sudden, it's not happening anymore. Carol is coming home next Friday from her mission. I'm sad that she didn't get the extension she wanted, but I'm also excited to see her.

Celtic Cultures Lesson 1: The Manx

2008-04-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

I feel that people misunderstand Celtic cultures way too much. So, being a person fairly well-versed in Celtic culture (at least for an American), here I am to teach you about Celtic cultures. I'm going to break my pattern today, but here's the way I'm going to usually go:

I'm going to arrange it by lingual development, because being someone who studies lingual development for fun...you know. And we're using the Insular/Continental Hypothesis. I don't like the P/Q Hypothesis. If you understand that, good for you. If not, it's not really important.
So, we'll start with the Insular Celts, because they're more...stereotypically Celtic I guess. I'm going to start with the Goidelics, because they're my favorites.

We should technically start with the Irish (their language came first), but I'm starting with the Manx (second in the Insular Celtic languages), because I want to start with someone obscure. Then we'll go to the Irish followed by the Scottish (their language came third).

We will then move on the Brythonic Insular Celts. We'll start with a quick stop at the Picts, and another quick stop in Cumbria. The Welsh will then be learned about, followed by the Bretons. We'll talk a bit about Cornish, but that's more of a language than a culture.

We will then leave the Insular Celts to focus on the few Continental Celts there are. We'll start with Gauls and then move to the Galatians. I'm don't think we'll stop for the Leponti, unless someone wants us to, and I don't know enough about the Noric to talk about them.

Today's Celtic culture is...Manx!!

The Manx are an interesting people. They are native to the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish sea, between England and Ireland. It is not part of the UK, but the Queen of England holds the title of the "Lord of Mann." It is also not part of the EU. It is considered one of the six Celtic nations (Ireland, Scotland, Island of Man, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany). It's name comes basically from the Manx Gaelic word for "Island." There are approximately 85,000 people who live on this island, and their language is Manx Gaelic, though most everybody there also speaks English today. Their economy subsists off of salmon and other seafoods, and most of the people eat meats that have been raised on the island or seafood that has been caught of it's coast. Cheese is also popular, the island being popular for its special kind of cheddar cheese. As you can imagine, it being a small British Isle, it is not very conducive to farming. The National Dish is "Spuds and Herrin." It's just potatoes and herring all mixed together.

A little word about mythology. It's most famous myths are that the Isle of Man was the home of the Celtic sea god, and that he protected it. It is also traditionally the home of many fairies and spirits. In Irish mythology, the Isle of Man was created when the Irish giant, Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) picked up some dirt to throw at Scotland, and some dirt chunked off midway through the Irish sea, creating the Isle of Man. Not even making that up. It's really in Irish mythology.

The Manx language is very endangered, very beautiful, and a descendant of middle Irish. The main difference between Irish and Manx is that Manx uses guttural sounds a bit more. I have attached one of my favorite Manx songs for your enjoyment, so that you can hear it being sung and spoken a bit. This song is sung by Emma Christian (or Christiani), who was born and raised on the Isle of Man.

Note: I'm working on the one I like most. It's called Ushag Veg Ruy, but my upload feature isn't working the way it usually does. So, here's a snippet for the time being. Same artist, but this one is called Oikan Anys Bethlehem.

HERE YOU GO!

Also, This whole thing is about my trying to get a break from my homework. Everything due tomorrow is done. But I'm going to try to finish some Pre-Calculus tonight too. I LOVE genetics, so that wasn't draining at all. It's so much easier than some other things.

UPDATE: I decided that'd it just be easier to put this nice song with a movie. So, I made a slideshow of some pictures from The Isle of Man at the same time. It's a pretty place, so I thought it'd be nice, and it wasn't hard to whip up at all.

Will I Take the Plunge?

2008-04-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

The question is becoming more real. As my first good piece of writing (at least my first good novel) is nearing completion, I'm beginning to consider publishing. I know, I know. How could I let my baby out into the world to be picked apart? The answer? I really don't know. I guess I've just finally realized that eventually this baby needs to grow up and be out in the world. I've submitted short stories to magazines. The many rejection letters posted on the wall remind of where those all went. I should become more involved in that again, I think. I've submitted freelancing. I've made a total of $.05! YES! But I tell you, eventually, they will get accepted as well, if I keep trying. My nonfiction skills have not developed enough yet I guess. To tell you the truth, the $.05 is because the source/freelance agency that I uses gives you a cent if you're in the top five choices. You don't get the actual cash promised to the writer unless they use your article.

However, as I look into the world of novel publishing, I'm getting discouraged. It looks like I have two choices that are options for me in my current state: publish where I put no money down and work with a gosh-awful publisher for the rest of that book's career (PublishAmerica), or publish where I put down $225 and I do my own marketing and editing (XLibris). I have no agent and no way to get an agent so the big publishers are pretty much out, and if I want XLibris to actually market and edit for me, it's more to the tune of $2500. For $225, they'll design my cover and print it for me! I'll have to research more and stuff, but right now, from what I've heard of PublishAmerica both on the internet and through people I know who have published through them, I'm going through XLibris.

The Three/Four Things That All Writing Will Eventually Come Down To

2008-04-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

All right guys. I'm having some trouble writing anymore today, which is what I LOVE to do on Sundays. Why am I having trouble continuing? Today it is not writer's block as it usually is. I know what I want to write. It's writing it that's the problem today.

You see, there are three/four subjects (one is kind of a subset of the another), which all writer's will eventually need to face at least one of in every novel. What are they?

1) Law
2) Military protocol, organization, strategy, etc.
3) Medicine
Subset 4) Mental Health

I pride myself on being able to do the medicine thing. I usually know enough that I can navigate my way around the internet to find exactly what I'm looking for. Sometimes, I can do the mental health thing, though some subjects are harder (such as PTSD, which is what I'm facing in my writing right now). However, Military, I always have to revert to one of my three trusty sources. Their names are Sam, Caleb and Dad. Amongst the three of them, they've never failed to yield an answer, that I can remember. Yes, I can usually call out, "Hey, could a lieutenant call a captain by his first name if they were friends?" and out pops the answer from one of the three.

However, that was earlier today, when I was facing the military. Now that novel is stuck on the PTSD thing. How does one help someone with PTSD, prior to the naming thereof (except for the all-known "shell shock") and when psychology either consisted of Freudian analysis or...well Pavlovian dogs?

I thought, hmm, let's go to my other novels. No, they're all stuck on law. WHO STINKING CAME UP WITH CHILD CUSTODY LAWS? Good heavens. Those are probably the most confusing things ever written. And I've even read Kafka and some Finnegan's Wake.

So there it is folks. If anyone understands child custody or PTSD treatment without "get professional help," I'm very open to that.

A FUN JOKE:

You'll probably like this best if you like language and its peculiarities.

What was GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU spell?

ANSWER: Potato

EXPLANATION:

GH makes P as in "hiccough"
OUGH makes O as in "dough"
PHTH makes T as in "phthisis"
EIGH makes A as in "neighbor"
TTE makes T as in "gazette"
EAU makes O as in "plateau"

Survey of the Day: Sexism in Cytology?

2008-03-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a poll at the bottom of the page. Please give your opinion.

In biology, anything that either replicates (such as DNA) or reproduces asexually, is considered "female." For example, cells that are reproduced out of another are called "daughter" cells. Chromatids that go together are called "sister" chromatids. This goes on. After research, I've learned that the reason for this is that biologists refer to these organisms as female (though they actually in reality don't really have a gender) because women are reproducers. Or at least in the traditional sense. Anyone over the age of thirteen knows how babies are made and understands the man's part in it, but you know what I'm talking about.

So the survey question: Is this sexist? (Some feminists organizations say it is, so I'm getting a feel for it).