traditional blog entry

Well, kids, it's the last day of the year, and I am probably the only one who knows what that means! It means that it requires a special entry today. So, here goes.

MEMORIES FROM EACH MONTH

January: breaking up with K
February: joining every club known to man
March: LENT!! YAY LENT!!
April: Easter--AKA, the end of Lent!
May: crashing my dear old car Nicholas
June: biking to work up in Orem every day. My legs were so hot
July: quitting that job to write my novel instead, going to DC to vote at convention
August: Shelley getting married and Brandallyn engaged
September: start of Fall semester
October: carbon monoxide leak!
November: Thanksgiving at the C
December: finals and freedom


WHAT I LEARNED THIS YEAR

1. Life goes on (Obladi, oblada. And so forth).
2. The longer you look at a cat, the more it looks like an alien.
3. The best way to deal with life = distractions. At least sometimes.
4. While internationally-focused clubs might be cool on the surface, they don't actually get much done.
5. Sometimes all you really need in life is SpyFox.
6. Surprisingly, you don't have to work that hard to become politically in charge of things. You just need to have the right friends and exhibit slight desire. They practically force you into being in charge.
7. The only way to get something done is to start it.
8. It's important not to make decisions entirely alone (prayer!).
9. My family is way cooler now than I remember them being 3 years ago.
10. Sometimes "forever" doesn't really mean that. Get over it.


OFFICIAL RESOLUTIONS

1. Use my new running shoes at least 4 times a week.
2. Get that internship at CEI.
3. Get 60 credits this year.
4. Help my candidate win the election, or at least prevent Hillary from doing so.
5. Read 52 books over the course of the year.
6. Become the chair of the CRs.
7. Go to the temple once a week.

UNOFFICIAL SORT OF GOALS I WOULD LIKE TO ACHEIVE

1. Get that novel published!
2. Run a marathon.




HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

results

Your career profile shows you are an Opportunist.
As an Opportunist, you can easily interact with all types of people, and you have an excellent memory for factual information. You are results-oriented, and primarily concerned with whatever it takes to reach your goals. You naturally know how to maneuver people to get them moving in your desired direction, while winning their confidence in the process. Because you are very observant, you can look at a situation and see what needs to be done and how to do it. You prefer living in the present moment, and you see little use for concepts or theories that do not help solve today's issues. You are seldom interested in conforming to structured establishments or protocols, unless you consider the benefits or incentives sufficient. You have leadership ability, but are more likely to get behind someone else's idea and advance it to success. Your unusual ability to read the nonverbal cues of others is another factor that helps you persuade and negotiate; yet, others often mistakenly perceive this ability as empathy.

ADVENTURE!!!!!

Just got back from my adventure!

My dad and I woke up bright and early and left the house at 7 am to get to NYC by 11:30. There was this long, complicated part involving security people but eventually we made it onto the ferry to Ellis Island. We wandered around there, and then took the ferry to Liberty Island, and wandered around there, and took lots of pictures. And then we spent a bunch of hours being lost in uptown while looking for Patsy's, and then we found it, and met my cousins and their parents there, and bonded over the best pizza potentially in the world, although maybe not. And then at 7:39 pm (not that I was looking) we came home! And got back at exactly 12:19 am this morning. O frabjous day, calloo callay, and we go shopping for new shoes on the morrow!

My dad + adventures + pizza = :^D

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, yo! Awesome things received:

-iPod Nano
-The Tenth Kingdom on DVD!!!
-Ann Coulter's new book, which is hilarious
-some beautiful art
-the 2008 Writer's Market
and money for new running shoes.

My family is so funny. I was so excited to see the money presented me by my grandmother, I basically exploded with joy that I could finally buy new shoes! Over the summer I ran 3 miles a day every day, and now my old shoes are so worn out... I'd had them since I was like 14. Talk about holey. But finally I can get new! [My dad said he'd get me some for Christmas, which he didn't, but when he said that a few weeks ago I just kind of threw my old shoes away just because, so I haven't been running or even had running shoes for a while.]

And my mom just looks at me and says, "yeah, but once you get running shoes, then you have to run in them."

And the entire clan is turned in my direction with looks of horror plastered on their faces. LoL.

Which reminds me of the other day, apparently my grandmother in UT called my mom to complain that I have too many opinions. :^P

I had the weirdest dream last night. I was going house hunting in Provo and I walked up to this one house, and a bunch of my Chambers friends were there. So in greeting, I began singing Elohim Hashivenu, the most gorgeous Hebrew motet we learned one time. They all joined in (well, all five of them or whatever), and we sang the whole thing. At the culmination of the singing, this one guy I've never seen before in my life comes up to me and asks if I've ever written. I tell him, yes, I write fairly frequently, and he asks if I want to give a concert on their baby grand in the backyard. Everyone looks excited. I go over and play a few songs, come back, and this same guy grabs my arm. "What?" I ask. He pulls me down gently, and then we just sit there for like, indefinitely, and then I woke up. It was weird.


ADVENTURE TOMORROW!!!!!!

my dream come true!!

Guys! My daddy is an answer to my prayers!

Mostly because my only real prayer for this break was to have an adventure.

Anyway, this morning he came over to me and asked if it would be cool if just he and I went up to NYC for the day on Wednesday. He wants us to go to the Statue of Liberty, which I've actually never been to. And I HOPE we go ice skating at Rockefeller Square. That was my big dream for an NYC adventure this break. Oh man, guys. We'll go to Patzi's, and the Buttercup Bake Shop, and maybe we can go dance somewhere!!! Just kidding, I don't think my dad dances. But wouldn't that be fantastic!! And we can listen to rockin sweet music in the car. I think we both like Blood, Sweat and Tears, and also the Beatles, Five for Fighting, the Goo Goo Dolls, the Killers, and Queen, and, um, Seal, and... well, hopefully we'll talk.

Yay! Guys, I'm SO EXCITED!!!!!

atmospheric instability?

So I just got out of my PAS 340 final: Air Quality and Air Pollution. I feel pretty good about it. My flashcards worked! Huzzah huzzah!

Anyway, as I was walking up to the test, I was looking at those infamous flashcards of doom and imminent destruction, and one card in particular stood out.

What is the major cause of health-affecting inversions?

Atmospheric stability.

And it was so weird to read that, even though it had never been weird before. It just hit me--

I did a lot of research on the Bujagali Falls hydropower dam just a few months ago, and in my research I found that hydropower dams cause a lot of problems in the surrounding environments. Why? Because they cut off the flow of the water. Stagnant water eutrophicates, which basically means that while it's stagnating, algae and other small organisms thrive, and eventually use up all the oxygen and suffocate everything in the lake. You know a lake has experienced eutrophication if the whole thing is basically stinky and dead.

Anyway. It never occurred to me before that stability, in that sense, could be so.... you know, not good. I guess so many times I've looked at myself and halfheartedly wished I could pick just one or two things to focus my life on--but actually, tying yourself down to stability could lead to your own spiritual or physical or mental or emotional eutrophication. It's important to have air flow in all directions, to prevent harmful inversions. Severe inversions can kill you in less than 48 hours. It's important to have water flow in order to prevent eutrophication and subsequent suffocation of everything. Minor--and sometimes major--changes in life direction can actually be life-saving.

Um, my conclusion: the world needs to stop putting so much emphasis on the need for stability and the ability to predict the future. And we should all just accept the fact that we don't know what's coming--and that even if the air current is annoying and blowing a way we don't particularly like, it's far better than dying from Donora-esque acute respiratory failure.

In other words: change is good. Amen.

nothing like a little stochasticism before bed

these rules are made to break
and these walls are made to fall
these rules are made to break us all

Those are lyrics from The Hush Sound's "Momentum." I just finished reading a book called "How To Think Like Einstein," and it's all about learning to solve problems by breaking rules.

Did you know? Albert Einstein hated being a citizen, so he renounced his German citizenship and became stateless. He didn't like classes, so he didn't go. He totally stuck it to the man at every opportunity. It was freaking awesome. He is so my hero.

So anyway, here is what I learned this week: anyone can do impossible things if they don't know they're impossible. And sometimes the only way to solve a problem is to break a few rules.


All of a sudden I feel a lot better about hating school. :^P

power plants and feminism

So I just got back from a tour of a power plant down in Delta. I drove. I paid for the gas (it was a full tank there and back...!). I took one of my male classmates. In return he held a door open for me. X.x; Boys suck. Oh well. Other than that he's a cool dude, I guess.

The tour was fine. The building was designed for men. The hard hats were huge, I had to manually hold on my goggles, the earplugs wouldn't fit. The ladder rungs were spaced way too far apart, and basically it was annoying. I don't think power plants are a place for women to work, honestly, but at the same time, if women aren't meant to work there, they shouldn't be forced to tour it either. Dang.

And the guy giving the tour? He was a sweetheart, but at the same time, he played that same stupid game so many men play--he didn't even look at me half the time. Eye contact is a sign of respect and denying that is a sign of disrespect--at least in excess. I counted. He looked at me about 10 times during the 3.5 hours. But he talked to S the entire time.

So basically I feel discriminated against. I don't really care about that, but I care that it would be a class requirement to endure that. Argh. And from my professor, too. You'd think he'd be ultra-sensitive to those sorts of situations. You know, being a hardcore freedom-hating liberal and all. Those sorts of people usually get all up-in-arms about feminism, I guess. Maybe not if you're not female.

Anyway, lame.

Oh yeah, and my car broke on the way home.

songs

I don't really understand some of the songs that have been dedicated to me. Specifically the one that was dedicated to me by my wee brother today: Starts With One by Shiny Toy Guns. [edit: he apparently only thinks of me when he hears that "catchy ending" and it has nothing to do with the lyrics.]

Anyway.

GOOD SONGS DEDICATED TO ME
She's So High by Tal Bachman
Drops of Jupiter by Train
Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World

BAD SONGS DEDICATED TO ME
Apologize by Timbaland
Cold by Matchbox Twenty

Yay, good outnumbers bad

PS. Oh yeah I remembered this other song a random guy dedicated to me: Beautiful by Flickerstick. Sad for him, I wouldn't date him if you paid me. But hey, there are worse things.

PPS. Oh yes, there was also this one that someone dedicated to me once.... hehehe...

idiosyncrasy

So, I have a number of really weird quirks. Here are some of them.

1. I am allergic to adhesive tape. All of it.

2. I am also allergic to mildew.

3. I can't handle it when shower curtains are randomly closed. Like, when you walk in the bathroom and no one else is in there and the curtain is closed. Why? Because obviously there is probably a dead person on the other side that someone stuck there to hide them while they soak in flesh-dissolving acid. Ew.

4. I have this weird paranoia when it comes to my eyes. Why? Because probably at any given moment some projectile--a pencil, maybe, or some sort of eating utensil--could just fly at my face and land in my eye! And then I would be BLIND! How traumatizing!

5. I really have troubles when people look at me too much. Really, it creeps me out. Okay, that was kind of a lie--I don't mind it when men look at me, actually I kind of enjoy knowing that I am a distracting woman, but when other girls look at me too much, I really get freaked out. This is especially amplified when I can tell that the person staring is doing so to figure out what I am thinking--when obviously all I am thinking about is how creepy they are when they are staring.

6. I HATE it when I go to a comedy or something, or am watching a funny TV show with insecure people who always look over at me to see if I'm laughing at something funny. Look, it really doesn't matter what we all find funny. You just go ahead and laugh at whatever you want, and please don't look over at me while you do it, because I find that creepy. Look at someone else in the room if you must have your sense of humor validated by other people who have no idea how your mind works and therefore have no authority to tell you what you should find funny. Whatever.

7. When I get nervous or excited I shake my hands around in the air.

8. I can make my eyebrows twitch really really fast.