A List of the Positive

There is pretty much no way around the fact that I have had a pretty crappy week; I am not going to lie. And the light at the end of the tunnel (Thanksgiving break) is still a few days away, so in an effort to counter my current mood of frustration, I have decided to make a list of some things that have gone right this week.
1. I held a baby yesterday (courtesy of Maggie's sister)!
2. I went to a pre-Thanksgiving dinner for friends that was yummy and lots of fun.
3. Everyone liked the pumpkin dessert I made! The recipe is so simple it feels like cheating - here's the link http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeID=7918&Source=SearchResultPage&terms=pumpkin%20cake
4. I got an A- on a paper I thought I had totally messed up on.
5. My parents are awesome - they call me.
6. My cousin Glen is coming for Thanksgiving.
7. I am reading a book for extra credit in a class that is interesting and very applicable to life.
8. I have a job that allows me to "take a free" which means all I have to do is simply call them and tell them I'm not coming to work that day. I took a free on Saturday, and loved it! :)

Swings, Tag, and Soreness

So this past Sunday afternoon, some of my amazing friends and roommates went to a nearby park for a picnic and to play kickball. We never actually got around to kickball, because jungle gyms and swings apparently have still not lost their charm when you are 20-23. Discovering this fact made me extremely happy!

We spent 90% of our time either on the swings a jungle gym. Our main activity was ninja tag which we played on the jungle gym for over an hour. Ninja tag is a game in which the "it" person is blindfolded while trying to tag anyone they can find. All the players, except for the "it" person, are required to stay on the jungle gym at all times, while avoiding being caught. The game is fun because you have to be really creative with your super awesome ninja skills to avoid being tagged. Hanging off the sides of railings, and jumping from the fire pole to the slide without touching the ground are both excellent examples of the sweet skills necessary for winning (which means simply evading a blind person who runs into all the metal bars that the jungle gym is made of). The added bonus of the game is that you get to laugh at the poor blind "it" person as they walk around like a zombie with their hands in front of them. Taunting your blind friends is also extremely funny :) I also loved the fact that the parents that were there with their kids got a huge kick out of watching college students be so entertained by activities that their children do. One couple even expressed their disappointment when we finally left. hahaha

So the point is that I have several comments about this outing.
1. I love my friends for having so much fun being kid=like
2. I love the fact that the weather has been so awesome for so long this fall
3. Girls like to prove their sweet ninja skills too
4. I am sore from all the monkeying around, and I have no idea how kids do it
5. I am now going to develop an exercise program for moms based on tag and other games to be played on the jungle gym. If I don't make any money, at least I will be as in shape as a child. Which, apparently is saying a lot.

Dilbert is the best!

Dilbert is my favorite comic. Often times it is the only reason that I even pick up the Daily Universe (well, Dilbert and on Tues. the Police Beat - see Andrea and Adam's recent post of the best of the police beat). The sarcastic commentary on the workplace is awesome! And it always has just the right amount of truth behind it. If you ever happen to glance at the comics, just know that I am probably still chuckling from my daily dose of Dilbert.

Since this one is so hard to see, here is the link. http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-10-10/

Prop 8: Beyond Defending Marriage

You all have probably heard the name "Proposition Eight" and know that it has something to do with gay marriage in California. I feel the need to shout from the roof-tops that the definition of marriage is only the tip of the iceberg among the implications Proposition 8 will have if it does not pass. The events in California regarding defining marriage will have a huge impact on the entire nation's freedoms of religion and speech. And court cases in other areas tell us what will happen in our future. For example:

(1) In 2000, 61% of California voters voted to have marriage defined as a union between a man and a woman in Proposition 22. On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court violated the wishes of the majority by striking down Proposition 22. They completely ignored 61% of Californians!

(2) In Canada where same-sex marriage is legal, ministers who preach against same-sex marriage can be sued for hate-speech and risk government fines. The situation in Canada foreshadows what very likely might happen in America once same-sex marriage is defined legally. This is a huge blow to both freedom of speech and religion. What if our government begins to try to limit what we can say in General Conference?

(3) In Boston, the Catholic Charities recently closed down its adoption program because the state of Massachusetts insisted that every adoption agency must allow same-sex couples to adopt. Thereafter, an affiliated agency in San Francisco did the same. Will LDS Family Services be forced to close its doors?

(4) A Methodist group in New Jersey lost part of its tax-exempt status because it refused to allow two lesbian couples to use its facility for a civil union ceremony.

(5) In Albuquerque, a wedding photographer was ordered by the state's Human Rights Commission to pay $6,637 to the attorney for a gay couple because she declined to photograph the couple's commitment ceremony. She had explained to them that because of her religious beliefs she photographed only traditional marriages.

(6) Doctors in America can no longer refuse to perform artificial insemination of lesbians even if other doctors are willing to perform the procedure.

(7) In Massachusetts, a 2nd grade class was read a children's story of a King and a King who married each other and were told they could marry either a prince or a princess, and these children's parents were told by the courts they had no right to be informed beforehand if same-sex marriage was going to be taught so they could take their child out of school for that part of the curriculum.

Our rights as citizens of America are being threatened. Freedoms of religion and freedom of speech were the rights our country was founded on, and now our own people are attacking these rights. It may be that soon in the future, you will not be legally allowed to act according to your conscience to choose whether or not to support same-sex marriages. But will this be the end to the limitations on our freedoms in the future? Once a law to be passed, courts almost always support those laws that were made previously by the Supreme Courts, such as California's.

Wars have been fought for our freedoms that are currently being threatened. If I recall, there was a little tea party that started a big war because the people's voices weren't being heard. And the courts in California just did something eerily similar. I feel like the question of defining marriage has the potential to snowball.

Protect our rights. Vote for Proposition 8 if you live in California. Educate yourself and spread the word to everyone, because everyone knows a Californian they could talk to about this to get another vote. Donate to the cause at protectmarriage.com. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

A Personality Color Code

For my business writing class we were required to read The People Code which was previously published as The Color Code. The author, Dr. Taylor Hartman, claims that every person on the planet has one of four core motives in life, and by understanding how our core motive can influence our lives, we can understand ourselves and and all types of inter-personal relationships better. The four core motives are power, intimacy, peace, and fun (in an incredibly over-simplified explanation), and each motive corresponds to a color: red, blue, white, and yellow respectively.

I took the test to find out which color I am, and what do you know? I am an completely even split between red and blue. Great. According to the book my even, multiple dominant colors indicate that I have the most inner turmoil of any of the color combinations. Having inner turmoil is like my middle-name, so maybe there is something to this theory! Or maybe I just have a split personality and don't know it :)

The book is interesting mainly because after detailed descriptions of each type of motive force, the ease with which colors are combined, pitfalls in communication between person's of different colors, etc. are addressed. If you read this book, you will forever view inter-personal relationships differently. The information this theory provides can be quite helpful, because I think it is relatively accurate.

But the point is, after reading the book, I can more easily identify other's personality color, and as such, I have developed an intense desire to know if my postulations are correct. So if you've ever taken the test or heard about this theory enough to know what your color is, leave a comment for me. I am dying to know! Also, there is a free online test at http://www.colorcode.com/personality_test/. Copy and paste into your browser, take the quiz, and tell me your results!

Just call me Piet

This weekend I became an artist- I painted a painting for my bathroom.
It all started because I had this shower curtain that was white and black, and both yellow and blue towels and I felt that I needed something to tie it all together.
I started by coloring a few of the white circles on the shower curtain yellow, but that took too long. Markers are small! So I thought bigger. And that led me to a painting I loved from ArtH 202 a year ago. An altered version of it was going to be just what I needed! So, I bought canvas, paint and those cheap sponge brushes and designed my work in the neo-plasticism style of Piet Mondrian's Tableau 2.
And then I took the paint to the shower curtain (much faster). :) I had a lot of fun, and didn't even get the paint too many places that it isn't supposed to be! But I am still waiting for the blue to come off my toe :)

Honorable mention for this blog goes to the football team. There has yet to be a point scored against BYU during their past two games! Woohoo! They are so awesome!

As a very random side note, I would also like to mention that I apologize for the obnoxiously gigantic picture of myself that has been at the top of my blog for such a long time now. "How conceited is this girl?" you are wondering. The truth of the matter is I couldn't figure out how to make it so much smaller the way I wanted, and so I got frustrated and gave up and have been ignoring it ever since. Please try to do the same until I find the time and patience to fix the problem. Cheers!

I suddenly love football

Dear readers,
I am writing to inform you that I went to the BYU vs. UCLA football game today, and I loved it! As someone who previously has had a very hard time sitting through an entire game, this comes as a small surprise. My throat hurts from screaming, and my hands were sore from clapping. I would just like to say that admiring the skill with which people beat each other up in a civilized way is thrilling. I mean, at the beginning of the game there was this amazing tackle, and another time one guy vaulted himself over the man that was running at him. It was crazy! The point is that this is the first time I have owned an all-sports pass, and I am loving it! I had excellent, twelfth-row seats today and I heard that they aren't rotating the seating this year! (And btw, I was so glad when the guy in front of me finally took off his huge gardening hat. It was totally blocking the view.) An added perk is that we are in the corner next to the portal through which the players run onto the field! Mmmm yeah :) Ha ha ha! Life rocks.