I'm listening to talk radio

I'm getting older. I think this is a sign. Its interesting stuff though. In my economics class I'm required to listen to this talk radio podcast entitled, "The Financial Crisis for Dummies." So if you don't understand all the financial and accounting jargon you hear on the news but would like to understand why we are in a "Great Recession" that should actually be called Depression...listen to this by clicking on this link. http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/player/CPRadio_player.php?podcast=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/xmlfeeds/375.xml&proxyloc=http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/player/customproxy.php

It's an hour long. I listened while I was at work. Just shows how prideful and greedy the world is. The American peoples' debt (the collective consumer debt) in 2007 was equal to the 2007's GDP. It was 100% of the Gross Domestic Product. The only other time this has happened in our history was in 1929, right before the Great Depression. It says this in the video and I think this means that everything that was produced new...GDP doesn't include things that are recycled and bought used...in 2007 was bought on credit, so people went into debt. Crazy stuff. This is why I like accounting and am majoring in it. All this is so interesting to me, sorry if it bores you. So listen to it, it'll give you some unbiased inside info...unlike what you hear on the news.

Also, this is put on by This American Life which I hadn't heard of before but now I'm listening to some other episodes on it. Its interesting as well. You can get to it at http://thisamericanlife.org/
I don't know what its all about myself yet but you can check it out, browse around. I've been listening about these two babies that were accidentally switched at birth and one of the mom's knew right away but she didn't say anything to anyone about it until about 40 years later.

Have a good day! Hopefully I was able to give you an interesting way to gain more knowledge!

Look-alikes?

I always remember when Nora still lived at home that so many people would tell us that we look so much alike even with almost 10 years difference in age. Since Nora posted this ancient picture on her post, I thought I would steal it and see if people still think we look alike. Nor, you can steal this pic if you want and post it on yours...you get more readers. So I made a collage with her picture in the middle and mostly new pics of me, within a year. The age that she was when this was taken was when she was 5 months shy of her 20th birthday. That's if the title of the picture was correct, 08-1999. And right now I'm 5 months shy of my 20th birthday. Tell me what you think!

(click on picture to enlarge)

A word on words

Lately I've been thinking about the annoying words that are considered cuss words. I hear them all the time, probably a few times a day, either in the bus going to classes, working in a group on a project, in class either from students or teachers (ridiculous that such educated beings use language that shows they can't choose a better word to get their point across). I've been doing my research on vulgarity. Trying to explain to anyone why cussing and vulgarity is bad is very hard. And I find it difficult to make others understand. Really, they are just words...even I think that, so what's the harm in it? How is the d or f word any different than the word building or mouse? So I wanted to get a strong explanation and argument for why profane words are so different from other words.

One thing I love about the internet is that there is a lot of information, and that there are a lot of talks on LDS.org that explain a lot of the high standards in life that I hold that I don't always understand. So after reading quite a few articles, to find that perfect statement, the perfect argument, I found this one. I whole-heartedly agree with everything that is in it. The info for the talk just in case the link doesn't work is: Ted E. Brewerton, “Profanity and Swearing,” Ensign, May 1983, 72 And here's the link: http://lds.org/ldsorg/EmailArticleProcess?action=view&cmlId=399165&locale=0&emId=755414172

If you think about it, words are what make us a people. What we choose to speak defines us. The people who use lofty and what-the-heck-does-that-mean words are classified as the snobs or the really smart people. If you cut off the end of your words, such as doin, 'em, brotha, gonna...you're thought of as a hick, from the south, illiterate perhaps. And there are 500,000 words, well that was the statistic in 1983 so way more than that now, in the English language. Why be boring and use the same ones over and over again. Really, read this article, I'm repeating a lot that is said in it and it really helped me to know why the words we choose are so important.

If you think about all the cuss words there are out there, they are descriptive and describe everything they are used for in a negative way. They have a pessimistic nature and sound to them. And being a pessimist does not bring happiness.

One last thing I wanted to point out that was in this article that I liked most especially.

How interesting it is to hear nonmembers of the Church express their feelings about bad language. I like very much the title and comments used by Bob Greene of the Field Newspaper Syndicate who speaks of swearing in these terms. The title he uses is “Hear Pollution.”
“Obscenity, the open use of which used to be a mark of lower social strata, has somehow become acceptable in everyday conversation for everyday people.
“And yet, I am offended—not out of a sense of morality or of prudishness—but because foul language used casually in public comes close to the idea of a violation of privacy. I know that there are some around who feel assaulted by hearing it. I chose that word very carefully; certain language is an assault on the senses.
“Those who disagree are probably saying, ‘after all, it’s only words.’ But words are vehicles; they convey messages. And to some people, the message of profanity is a message of ugliness and aggressiveness and a disrespect for civil behavior.
“Bathroom and sexual obscenities can now be heard in certain popular songs on the radio, and even some magazines and newspapers have begun to print language that would have been unthinkable five years ago. This practice is usually defended under the name of ‘freedom.’ But whose freedom is it? If the language of ugliness becomes so much a part of our society that it is impossible to escape no matter where one turns, then who is free and who isn’t?”

So don't take away the freedom and privacy of others. Thanks for listening.

Of Late...

Quite a few random things to talk about. Ridiculous things have happened of late. And fun ones too!

So back on Feb 20, it was my roommate Whitney's birthday. We did a little scavenger hunt late at night for her. She had a drumline practice and didn't get done till almost 11 that night. The 4 of us roommates each hid at a 24 hour store with some articles of clothing and when she found us, we would give her the clue, she would put on what we had and go to the next place. The places were a gas station, a diner, Safeway and Walmart.

All piled into the car to get in our positions and drop everyone off.

They finally found me at Safeway. I was actually in the front, reading a quilting??? (random) magazine when they walked in. I ran down an aisle to try to get secret snapshots. Didn't work and they finally found me. I had a fun time exploring Safeway though cause I was the 3rd stop. I had goggles which fit nicely in my pocket so it wasn't embarrassing to carry them around the store.

Here she is reading the clue I gave her. Her shirt says, "I've got people" on the front and on the back it says, "My people got my back" cause we were all following her around. It was perfect for this occassion.

And she's trying to figure it out, it said: "Where does Wall-e shop?" Walmart of course!

Group shot in Wal-Mart. Didn't even think about Wal-Mart being the last place with so many people, even at midnight...she was kind of embarrassed in her hideous getup.

...So at the gas station she got the hideous hat and shirt, at the diner (Mike and Rhonda's: The Place) she put on the scarf and dishwashing gloves, I gave her the goggles in Safeway, and at Wal-Mart she got the robe.

And lighting the cake. All of us roommates are turning 20 this year.

So there's that event that happened a little while ago. Here's some pictures of us after church so we could have a nice picture. None of them turned out too well. I've become more of a dress kind of girl in recent years.

For IWA, one activity we had someone's sister come in and show us how to decorate cakes. She didn't really show that but she did show us how to make roses (the frosting, decorating kind)...mine weren't good so sorry no pics of that. And she also showed us how to make these cute cupcakes.

And while running errands and going over to a friend's house to make a derby car, pics down a little further...I was only in their house for like 20 mins then went back out to go to another friends place to get a knife so we could carve our derby car, this happened>>>

YEAH, talk about RIDICULOUS!! My rear view mirror came off!

Now whenever I drive I have to hold it so it doesn't sway around by the electric cord, and doesn't ram into my dash if I have to make a sudden stop. I found that out the hard way. Also, if I want to look behind me cause my side mirrors aren't cutting it, I have to pick it up and hold it. One nice thing is I can turn it towards me just like a compact mirror. So I gotta do somethin about that. Until then, I'll be holding my mirror and doing without.

And here's Bridgette and Jessica working on our pinewood derby car. We made it a pickle! haha, we're so silly! They're putting the ugly speckles on to make it look like a pickle instead of a cucumber. For the Friday Night Activity (FNA) we had a pinewood derby competition. There were quite a few cars.

Kosher...as the license plate.

And dill...with 57, it's associated with Heinz. Makes sense, right?

And the "after-party" after FNA. What else is there to do at 1:30 AM? We hopped into Bridgette's convertible Mustang, put the top down, brought a ton of blankets and went to Wendy's. I'm the one in the back, in the middle...I'm covered with blankets and coats as well as my hoods. We even went out to the airport, could have driven on the runway but we didn't get Sean's dad's code to open the gate. So the cruise was about 20 mins. And it was like 32 degrees outside. See what I mean by ridiculous and fun?

Adios for now!

A Time

This weekend I did quite a bit. And um...no school work. I hung out with my future roommate Jessica and we didn't stop until Saturday. Thursday night I went to her place and ate some lamb with some good mixture on it in a pita...don't know what its called but it has a name. Then we went swinging at the park with some more people, went on top of Mars Hill aka Makeout Hill but there were 5 of us in the car, 2 boys and 3 girls...we didn't but made fun of others who were up there for that reason. Like we had a flashlight and a sun roof that Nick kept sticking his head out of. We weren't that mean though. Its a nice lookout of the city, especially at night. We got some Frostys and went to Nick and Ridge's apt. They were watching Simpson's and I fell asleep. Me and Jessica went to her house and watched a movie, then finally went to bed at like 3 or 4. The next day we played tennis cause it was nice outside. And I haven't played in forever. Nick came with us to do that. I went home to get ready for the IWA sleepover and make two pans of Cheerio Bars for the sleepover...and to take a shower.

Jessica came to the sleepover and then we went to the FAN (Friday Activity Night) which was Ice Skating from 11 PM-1 AM. Yeh, a church activity that is that late, the first I've heard of it. I didn't fall on my own...I did though when I was helping someone who hadn't skated before and she pulled me down. That's the first time I've ever fallen ice skating. And it hurts, ice has no cushion. After ice skating, and it was like 1:30 AM, and we went to Nick and Ridge's house again, watched a movie that I fell asleep through again. We left around 5 AM. I've had a couple of late nights. Me and Jessica were going to go back to the sleepover but we would have been locked out at 5:30 AM. :( And we were going to wake up and be there by 6:30...that didn't happen either. We woke up around 10 AM instead and we went downtown to eat lunch at a place called Big Foot BBQ. Anyway, I gotta get goin, there's fireside tonight.


Me, Bridgette (another future roomie), Jessica, and Nick Becker at ice skating.


Jessica, me, and Bridgette at a store called Basement Marketplace, downtown.

Me and Jessica sleeping on the floor, this is the second night we did this.

Me, Bridgette, and Jessica at ice skating.

Birthday and love time!

(click on collage to see each image better)

This is how I spent my Valentine's. At least I know my family loves me :D.

The snow takes a month to melt and then...

in just 2 days it snows almost two feet! I'm sure hoping NAU cancels class tomorrow cause the snow is way too deep for safety...and we just watched movies in our apartment pretty much all day. Oh, and I introduced my roommates to Farkle. They kind of freaked out about the adding and math stuff...just basic arithmetic. And I shoveled my car out of the snow, tried my best anyway. It had stopped snowing so I went out to lessen the amount I would have to do later but it started blizzarding when I was out there. Needless to say, I changed my pants and sweater cause they were pretty much soaked.

I'll tell ya, the funniest things happen when you're trying to unbury your car out of freezing white stuff. This guy came along who had gotten his truck stuck and asked if I could help him push it...ran upstairs to get some more help from people in my apartment and I'm pretty sure he got it into the parking space. I had been shoveling my car for about 45 mins already so I wanted to finish my own car...don't worry, there were people to help him. And so I started back on my car, it still snowing like there's no tomorrow and this guy comes along and says, hey, how are you doing? I said good...and he said that he was going to climb through the mountain of snow I had piled up. He was a goofy guy but it made me laugh cause he could have totally went around it but he decided to trudge through hip deep snow.

What a time, what a time. I don't mind shoveling snow, gives a good workout...I just need to tell myself to go inside once it starts snowing again so that I don't get cold after all the work I've put in. So pictures....

The poor tree outside our window, all saggy and droopy...and my car, that's about a foot of snow on my car. I'm glad I bought a shovel a few weeks ago, a piddly scraper won't fix this mess.

An IWA activity, it was our crock night where we had a crock pot potluck and it was yummy. We played games, such as this one where you have to have your feet planted on the ground and bite the paper bag, no help from anything else, just your mouth. If you get it, tear off the piece you bit and put it back down for the next person. It was crazy fun.