Wow. So this post totally can't beat my mom's on her blog. But I took a trip and a half this past week too.
On Thursday we drove down to Salt Lake City. We left at 6am. Ew! I rode down with my friend Allison (we did the Humanities tour together last year). Three vans went and I king of wanted to go in one of the vans the students were driving, but she wanted to go with the teacher. Because really, college students will stay up all night even when they know they're making a four hour drive the next morning. She knew the teacher would be more awake.
So down we went to Salt Lake. We went to visit the Museum of Art. It was okay. This whole entire trip reminded me a lot of Europe, except like a tenth the magnitude. We had similar assignments we had in Europe. But the museum as a whole didn't even compare. Our tour guide was all excited about the random artists most of whom I had never even heard of. The only ones I'd heard of were Church and Moran. And of course William Bliss Baker but that's only because I chose to primarily focus on him (he only drew like four paintings in his whole life) because his "Fallen Monarchs" is one of the most beautiful paintings I've ever seen. But anyway, this museum was small and a lot of the art was kind of sad. Meh. I'm too spoiled. This is the only museum I've ever been to where I actually enjoyed the modern art section more than the older stuff.
Anyway, we went to the "Creamery on Ninth" for "dinner" although we all got ice cream cones. They were gigantic too, it was great. We had to sit there and eat while our teacher ran to Little Caesers to pick up our pizzas for dinner. Dessert before dinner. Yum!
We spent less time at the museum and in Provo than we did in the car. I took a bunch of pictures in the car because we were really bored. Allison, Kathryn and I were all in the back seat. Kathryn slept pretty much the whole way down and the whole way back so we started taking pictures of her sleeping and zoomed in on her face. Then she woke up, told us she hated us, and went back to sleep.
We played the alphabet game. It was over in like five minutes which was kind of sad. We went backwards and we blamed it on that.
I have pictures. But none are really that great and I'm too lazy to post them on here at the moment. We got back to Rexburg at night so it didn't even feel like a real day since I didn't even see my own town in the light.
I don't even remember Friday. I had only one class. I think I didn't really do anything productive (except we made lasagna, it was soooo yummy!) thinking I'd accomplish everything Saturday. Except Friday night my friend called and asked if I wanted to go with her and her family to the fair in Pocatello Saturday. I totally accepted since it would get me out of Rexburg. So yesterday we drove down to Pocatello which is like an hour and a half drive.
It was worth it. I had to pay a dollar to get into the fair. But I got a free knife fancy paring knife from the cooking show as well as a free glasses shine/defog treatment thing. We also got to play on these workout machines where you stand on this vibrating surface and it moves your whole body. Weird.
There was a lot of cool stuff there. But all expensive. At the cooking show, they were trying to sell these uber fancy pots and pans. I'll admit, they were incredibly nice and he did a fantastic job showing them off. As he handed out the paper there was the different "sets" of pots and pans you could buy and beside it the price wasn't written (you had to listen to him tell you the price and then write it in). Kelly and I looked and tried to figure out what the prices were before he told us. We knew they'd be expensive. The first set which included four pots/pans and their lids we decided would be around $500 and the "family set" which included about eight pots/pans and their lids plus a cake pan we decided was like $1200. We were wrong. The first set that we thought was $500 was actually $1995 and the second one was actually $2495.
Yeah, I could possibly buy the pans. But then I would have no money for the food that would go in them. Not. A. Chance. But I will admit, they were very very nice cookware. They even gave us the food they cooked and it was fantastic. (chicken, potatoes, carrots (my weak spot), etc.)
We went to Golden Corral for dinner. I hadn't been to Golden Corral for dinner in a while. It's always a family place. I was surprised at how expensive it was. I thought a dinner there was around 7 or 8 bucks. It was over 10! But I got all kinds of amazing food that I haven't eaten in a long time, including steak which was incredible! Every food I got was stuff that I normally wouldn't be able to make or afford. Except the rolls (they have the best rolls though) and dessert brownies which I decided are not nearly as good anymore. They taste to preservative-y. I guess this lack of eating out is making it more obvious when I eat precooked/packaged food. Gross!
Anyway, it's been a fun past few days. Now all I have to do is finish up the last two weeks of school. I'm so excited it's almost over and I'm over half way through with college now! I can't believe how quickly it goes. But really, I'm also obsessing over Disney again. I can't wait to go back! Hopefully my roommates and friends this fall will be as amazing as last fall!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Ph. D
In order to be a professor at BYU-Idaho you have to have either gotten your PhD or at least be actively working on it. I'm not sure if it's that way for all colleges, but it is at least for this one. Pres. Clark, the dean of our whole school used to be the dean of Harvard Business College before he came here and had received his PhD law degree there. I didn't realize he was so accomplished until recently.
Well, one of my teachers is currently working on his dissertation for his PhD. Therefore, he's been canceling class every once in a while. And the day he doesn't cancel class? Let's just say last Friday we ate ice cream and watched a YouTube video of him when he used to work at the U of I.
Anyway, these were extra little tidbits I forgot to include in my last post. Ergo I put them here. (I've been wanting to use that word in a sentence all day)
Well, one of my teachers is currently working on his dissertation for his PhD. Therefore, he's been canceling class every once in a while. And the day he doesn't cancel class? Let's just say last Friday we ate ice cream and watched a YouTube video of him when he used to work at the U of I.
Anyway, these were extra little tidbits I forgot to include in my last post. Ergo I put them here. (I've been wanting to use that word in a sentence all day)
A Bunch Of Random Updates
-I have Spanish class every MTWTh. On M and W I go down the hill to Mass Media and on T and Th I go up the hill to Humanities. This is a very horrible setup. I always forget which class I need to go to and walk the wrong way and then realize this fact and have to do the whole "awkward turn around and walk the opposite direction" thing. This was made extra weird today since after class, Sean caught up to me and wanted to talk about something and while I was talking to him I remembered that I was walking in the exact opposite direction I wanted to go. But I couldn't just turn around and start walking the opposite direction while talking to him... ugh. Story of my life.
-There is nothing that bugs me more in a teacher than when they speak so quietly I have to strain my ears to catch what they're saying. Usually my college teachers don't do this. It's normally my church teachers who speak uber quiet and it drives me insane. I eventually just stop even trying to pay attention and draw pictures on paper. But I'm a crappy artist, so I then get annoyed with myself. It's a never ending cycle of annoyance when people speak quietly.
-It also annoys me when people want to have full on conversations with me in the middle of a teacher's lesson. This girl in my Organizational Comm class does this frequently. "Oh my gosh, Dianna, do you see that red headed boy over there? I think he's looking at me. He is like, so cute. Don't you think so!? Like oh my gosh!"
-Speaking of good looking men... The guy that sits next to me in Spanish looks exactly like Taylor Lautner. Exactly.
-I went to my friend Krystal's birthday party yesterday and we played Apples to Apples. It's been a loooong time since I've played that game. It was way fun, plus she had the yummiest cake ever.
-I'm really excited for all of my classes next semester. There are a lot but they all sound fun. The downside is I accidentally signed up for 21 credits. The upside is that I'll have room to drop two. The downside is that I can't think of any I'll want to drop because they all sound fun and I have to take them eventually anyway.
-I recently found the game ZZT online. It's this computer game I used to play as I kid. I had forgotten how difficult that game was, but it's also so fun!
-Healthcare bill passed. I've been spending today figuring out exactly what that means for me... as well as keeping up with my paper that's due tomorrow and printing off some notes from the conference I attended Thursday and preparing for my trip to Utah this Thursday.
-My left arm's been twitching a lot lately. Like for the past three weeks. I wonder if this will be a permanent twitch. Like in "The Kid."
-Our bathroom is missing the little toilet paper roll holder thing. So we keep our TP on the back of the toilet. I'm a lefty. My roommate's a righty. You can always tell who was in the bathroom last because I always leave the TP on the left side of the toilet and she leaves it on the right side. TMI, I know, but it makes me laugh.
-My friend made me brownies yesterday (that's right, I have great friends! Be jealous!). When she was cooking them she decided that 2 cups of sugar sounded like a lot of sugar so she only added one deciding the recipe was wrong. Well... the recipe was actually right. 2 cups in fact is NOT a lot of sugar when you're making chocolate brownies. Some people said they were bitter. I actually loved them. They had Ghiradelli chocolate chips in them and basically tasted like dark chocolate brownies. Totally amazing after I drank milk with them. I loved them! In fact, I'm asking for her recipe and will probably make them again... adding only half the sugar. :)
-I just went to eat the last of said brownies and discovered that it's snowing outside. For the first time all month! All the snow was melted in fact. We've had beautiful weather. I haven't even put on my coat all month. AND IT'S SNOWING!!! I don't get how something so huge and hot and powerful and bright and NOT DO IT'S JOB IN REXBURG!
-I checked out a book from the library to read for a class. Someone has gone through this book and highlighted, underlined, and done all kind of things to the book. This annoyed me at first, until I realized that every single word in the book that I don't know has been defined for me and then the explanation of each of these difficult sentences has been written in the margins. Awww, how nice.
-I need to finish that book by tomorrow and have a paper written on it. I still have 200 pages left to go. I'm going to stop here. :)
-There is nothing that bugs me more in a teacher than when they speak so quietly I have to strain my ears to catch what they're saying. Usually my college teachers don't do this. It's normally my church teachers who speak uber quiet and it drives me insane. I eventually just stop even trying to pay attention and draw pictures on paper. But I'm a crappy artist, so I then get annoyed with myself. It's a never ending cycle of annoyance when people speak quietly.
-It also annoys me when people want to have full on conversations with me in the middle of a teacher's lesson. This girl in my Organizational Comm class does this frequently. "Oh my gosh, Dianna, do you see that red headed boy over there? I think he's looking at me. He is like, so cute. Don't you think so!? Like oh my gosh!"
-Speaking of good looking men... The guy that sits next to me in Spanish looks exactly like Taylor Lautner. Exactly.
-I went to my friend Krystal's birthday party yesterday and we played Apples to Apples. It's been a loooong time since I've played that game. It was way fun, plus she had the yummiest cake ever.
-I'm really excited for all of my classes next semester. There are a lot but they all sound fun. The downside is I accidentally signed up for 21 credits. The upside is that I'll have room to drop two. The downside is that I can't think of any I'll want to drop because they all sound fun and I have to take them eventually anyway.
-I recently found the game ZZT online. It's this computer game I used to play as I kid. I had forgotten how difficult that game was, but it's also so fun!
-Healthcare bill passed. I've been spending today figuring out exactly what that means for me... as well as keeping up with my paper that's due tomorrow and printing off some notes from the conference I attended Thursday and preparing for my trip to Utah this Thursday.
-My left arm's been twitching a lot lately. Like for the past three weeks. I wonder if this will be a permanent twitch. Like in "The Kid."
-Our bathroom is missing the little toilet paper roll holder thing. So we keep our TP on the back of the toilet. I'm a lefty. My roommate's a righty. You can always tell who was in the bathroom last because I always leave the TP on the left side of the toilet and she leaves it on the right side. TMI, I know, but it makes me laugh.
-My friend made me brownies yesterday (that's right, I have great friends! Be jealous!). When she was cooking them she decided that 2 cups of sugar sounded like a lot of sugar so she only added one deciding the recipe was wrong. Well... the recipe was actually right. 2 cups in fact is NOT a lot of sugar when you're making chocolate brownies. Some people said they were bitter. I actually loved them. They had Ghiradelli chocolate chips in them and basically tasted like dark chocolate brownies. Totally amazing after I drank milk with them. I loved them! In fact, I'm asking for her recipe and will probably make them again... adding only half the sugar. :)
-I just went to eat the last of said brownies and discovered that it's snowing outside. For the first time all month! All the snow was melted in fact. We've had beautiful weather. I haven't even put on my coat all month. AND IT'S SNOWING!!! I don't get how something so huge and hot and powerful and bright and NOT DO IT'S JOB IN REXBURG!
-I checked out a book from the library to read for a class. Someone has gone through this book and highlighted, underlined, and done all kind of things to the book. This annoyed me at first, until I realized that every single word in the book that I don't know has been defined for me and then the explanation of each of these difficult sentences has been written in the margins. Awww, how nice.
-I need to finish that book by tomorrow and have a paper written on it. I still have 200 pages left to go. I'm going to stop here. :)
Saturday, March 20, 2010
One Of Many Final Papers
I've been working on two final projects/papers today. Both for the same class. Yep. One class requires two huge final papers. And when I say huge I mean one is about 5-7 pages and the other is 10-12. So they're not really that huge. But still, they're important.
So the one I was gonna write about is the paper where I have to pick a company and basically analyze the heck out of it. I really wanted to pick Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. This teacher has shown "Office" clips in class, has a sense of humor, and loves creativity and new ideas. I was just slightly nervous at the fact that I'd be making the big final paper of the semester into a joke. And the fact that there's info I need to talk about in this paper that isn't available for Dunder Mifflin.
The benefit of using Dunder Mifflin is that it's dysfunctional enough that I'd have plenty to write about. But instead I chose a highly NOT dysfunctional company. Pretty sure you can guess what it is, though, seeing as how I'm obsessed with it.
Oh, speaking of Disney... ;) With my acceptance letter came a pair of 3D glasses and a black paper saying something cheesy like "Dr. Evilness is out to take over the world! Rescue the universe and log onto www.website.com and save the planets by doing Disney trivia!"
So I went to the website, put on my handy 3D glasses, and played their video game. Yes, I am that much of a dork. It's actually hilarious and cheesy! The cheesiest thing ever, but sooooo Disney! Basically you have to pick a planet to "rescue." You then have to click on the moons around the planet to learn trivia about the various aspects of Disney, and then when you've read everything, you have to "take over the planet" by doing a little quiz. When you win a planet you get a key. You then have more stuff to do with the keys. The rest is more complicated, but you get the basic point. Oh, and it's all in 3D.
I'm ranked number 13 out of I don't know how many people. I think at this point I've done everything in the game except "collect all the hidden mickey's." Love it!
Anyway, back to my paper that I should be working on....
So the one I was gonna write about is the paper where I have to pick a company and basically analyze the heck out of it. I really wanted to pick Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. This teacher has shown "Office" clips in class, has a sense of humor, and loves creativity and new ideas. I was just slightly nervous at the fact that I'd be making the big final paper of the semester into a joke. And the fact that there's info I need to talk about in this paper that isn't available for Dunder Mifflin.
The benefit of using Dunder Mifflin is that it's dysfunctional enough that I'd have plenty to write about. But instead I chose a highly NOT dysfunctional company. Pretty sure you can guess what it is, though, seeing as how I'm obsessed with it.
Oh, speaking of Disney... ;) With my acceptance letter came a pair of 3D glasses and a black paper saying something cheesy like "Dr. Evilness is out to take over the world! Rescue the universe and log onto www.website.com and save the planets by doing Disney trivia!"
So I went to the website, put on my handy 3D glasses, and played their video game. Yes, I am that much of a dork. It's actually hilarious and cheesy! The cheesiest thing ever, but sooooo Disney! Basically you have to pick a planet to "rescue." You then have to click on the moons around the planet to learn trivia about the various aspects of Disney, and then when you've read everything, you have to "take over the planet" by doing a little quiz. When you win a planet you get a key. You then have more stuff to do with the keys. The rest is more complicated, but you get the basic point. Oh, and it's all in 3D.
I'm ranked number 13 out of I don't know how many people. I think at this point I've done everything in the game except "collect all the hidden mickey's." Love it!
Anyway, back to my paper that I should be working on....
Thursday, March 18, 2010
What Have I Accomplished Today?
3 Things That I TOTALLY LOVE About My Computer Screen Looking Like This:
1. My totally favorite movie of all time in Spanish so not only is the movie amazing with awesome music, I can pretend I'm learning at the same time!!
2. Check out the top right corner. Note the temperature. AND THIS IS IDAHO! How freakin' great is that!? Spring begins Saturday!
3. This game... Not only am I about to win but it's leading up tooooooo.....
This screen:
Need a better look at the box? Here:
And then I sit back and think about the things I could have been doing. You know, like writing that 5-7 page paper due Tuesday. Or the 10 page paper due Thursday. Or the art project for Humanities. Or my brochure for Visual Media. Or my paper for my practicum class.
Yeah. That.
But hey, 100 wins at 100% perfectness! At least I'm good at something, right?
Buenas Noticias
I finished my online course yesterday. Now I'm officially down to 17 credits. I've already been graded for everything it's possible to get a grade for, but throughout the course there were things that said, "Now pause here and write some thoughts about ________ on the discussion board. You are encouraged to respond to other's remarks as well." Except there is no discussion board. So I didn't..... hope that's not a problem.
Also, I got my first A on a Spanish exam. This excited me greatly and it brought up my average!
AND, yesterday, I watched The Lion King in Spanish (El Rey Leon). LOVE it! I decided that since I watch so many youtube videos in my boring free time I might as well be learning Spanish. So I did. I only got to watch it for a little while because my friend Kelly came and kidnapped me and we went to her house, made kettlecorn, and watched "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." We do that a lot. Go make kettlecorn and watch movies, I mean. :)
Anyway, there's your update. Today I have a big presentation in one of my classes. I have a meeting with my Spanish teacher where I'll have to only use Spanish the whole time. And a week from today I'll be in Provo!
Also, I got my first A on a Spanish exam. This excited me greatly and it brought up my average!
AND, yesterday, I watched The Lion King in Spanish (El Rey Leon). LOVE it! I decided that since I watch so many youtube videos in my boring free time I might as well be learning Spanish. So I did. I only got to watch it for a little while because my friend Kelly came and kidnapped me and we went to her house, made kettlecorn, and watched "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." We do that a lot. Go make kettlecorn and watch movies, I mean. :)
Anyway, there's your update. Today I have a big presentation in one of my classes. I have a meeting with my Spanish teacher where I'll have to only use Spanish the whole time. And a week from today I'll be in Provo!
Monday, March 15, 2010
FHE Fire!
We had an awesome activity for FHE tonight. Kudos to whoever's idea it was. It was one of our sisters in another apartment.
Anyway, you start with several copies of The Scroll (school newspaper). And a few cigarette lighters. Catch the scroll on fire. Eat a mouthful of powdered sugar....
And then blow as hard as you can directly at the fire. It looks awesome in real life.
It's super hard to capture good pictures. I didn't take any, these were all taken by our FHE bros and I just stole them off of facebook.
Unfortunately, they didn't get a very good one of me. I did it three times. You have to blow quickly before your saliva and spit make the sugar too wet. I think I kind of spat it one of the times. Lame. This time actually looked cool, but they caught the picture just after the "explosion."
We even had people looking out their windows from other apartments to watch us. So cool. This is definitely something I'm gonna keep in mind for fun ways to hurt myself in the future!
Anyway, you start with several copies of The Scroll (school newspaper). And a few cigarette lighters. Catch the scroll on fire. Eat a mouthful of powdered sugar....
And then blow as hard as you can directly at the fire. It looks awesome in real life.
It's super hard to capture good pictures. I didn't take any, these were all taken by our FHE bros and I just stole them off of facebook.
Unfortunately, they didn't get a very good one of me. I did it three times. You have to blow quickly before your saliva and spit make the sugar too wet. I think I kind of spat it one of the times. Lame. This time actually looked cool, but they caught the picture just after the "explosion."
We even had people looking out their windows from other apartments to watch us. So cool. This is definitely something I'm gonna keep in mind for fun ways to hurt myself in the future!
Why I'm Failing Spanish
Today in class the teacher was teaching off of a powerpoint. There were loads of words and things we didn't understand. Finally, one of the students asked the teacher...
"What's comeremos?"
"That's the future form of 'we eat.' Oh, I guess you guys wouldn't know that. Man, there's a lot of new stuff on here."
Our teacher looked at the powerpoint a little more, "Ohhh, that's the problem, this is a 302 presentation, not a 202 presentation."
The whole class was silent as the teacher tried to figure out what to do/change. Then the student raised his hand again, "Sir? Are you aware we're only in Spanish 102?
Yeah, my teacher's used to teaching 300 and 400 level classes. Obviously not 100 level. Ugh!
"What's comeremos?"
"That's the future form of 'we eat.' Oh, I guess you guys wouldn't know that. Man, there's a lot of new stuff on here."
Our teacher looked at the powerpoint a little more, "Ohhh, that's the problem, this is a 302 presentation, not a 202 presentation."
The whole class was silent as the teacher tried to figure out what to do/change. Then the student raised his hand again, "Sir? Are you aware we're only in Spanish 102?
Yeah, my teacher's used to teaching 300 and 400 level classes. Obviously not 100 level. Ugh!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Typos
My teacher had us do this reading for class on Tuesday. Well, I think technically every day we're supposed to have done a reading, but he never really enforces it so I've never really done it. I know. Bad student. Smack my hand.
Well, he actually told us to do the reading this time and really emphasized it's importance. So I decided I might as well do the right thing at least once this semester.
This book has so many freakin' TYPOS! It's an online book. Actually, I think it's a real book but the teacher had mercy on the fact that we're poor college students and put it online so it's free. But seriously, there are so many typos and they're really keeping me on my toes in this reading. Here are a few sentences:
"The right action is the one chat avoids punishment and gains approval."
"...an equal exchange that satisfies die individual's own interest"
"...does not yet have the power to identity with others"
"being responsive... is considered die right cling to do"
Yeah, I could seriously go on and on. These were taken from only a paragraph and a half. AND EACH PARAGRAPH IS ONLY FOUR LINES LONG!!!
And no, there isn't a reason for the typos hidden creatively in the meaning of the text. It's about Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Growth. Maybe it's seeing if I have the morals to not make fun of silly people.
I don't. Although I'll be surprised if I don't have a typo of my obn somewhere in this post. But at least I don't have thrie in a single paragraf.
Well, he actually told us to do the reading this time and really emphasized it's importance. So I decided I might as well do the right thing at least once this semester.
This book has so many freakin' TYPOS! It's an online book. Actually, I think it's a real book but the teacher had mercy on the fact that we're poor college students and put it online so it's free. But seriously, there are so many typos and they're really keeping me on my toes in this reading. Here are a few sentences:
"The right action is the one chat avoids punishment and gains approval."
"...an equal exchange that satisfies die individual's own interest"
"...does not yet have the power to identity with others"
"being responsive... is considered die right cling to do"
Yeah, I could seriously go on and on. These were taken from only a paragraph and a half. AND EACH PARAGRAPH IS ONLY FOUR LINES LONG!!!
And no, there isn't a reason for the typos hidden creatively in the meaning of the text. It's about Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Growth. Maybe it's seeing if I have the morals to not make fun of silly people.
I don't. Although I'll be surprised if I don't have a typo of my obn somewhere in this post. But at least I don't have thrie in a single paragraf.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
I Don't Like Going To Offices
I hate going to see teachers in their offices. Hate it. No matter what teacher it is or what the reason is, I hate going to see them. I don't even know why. There's no rational reason. I have just always dreaded it.
Today, though, I finally made up my mind that I just had to see my Spanish teacher. I got a 50% on an exam a while back which is very clearly not like me at all. It was seriously bugging me a lot. It was actually two exams ago but I've been dreading seeing him so much that I've refused to go until today.
Well, I went upstairs in the Smith to talk to my teacher today. On my way to his office I decided I had to go to the bathroom first. I was so nervous! On my way to the bathroom I walked by my friend Tiare (T-R-E). I said hi, she said hi back.
She asked me where I was going. I pointed behind me and said, "On my way to go see a teacher..." She looked at my hand pointing back in the direction I just came from. "Annnnnd?"
"Annnnd.... umm.... I'm going to go to the bathroom."
Kay, well it was funnier at the time. She just laughed at me. I don't know why I even pointed. Ugh.
I hate going to see teachers. But I did eventually make it into his office and we discussed the exam. We noted some errors the computer made in grading my exam and he bumped it up a bit for which I was grateful.
We also talked about the ones I got wrong. As usual I had everything right but just got a basic idea backwards accidentally and that killed me on several questions. He said the whole class average went down several points with that exam so it wasn't just me. And he drops the lowest exam score anyway so it wasn't really a big deal.
The best part is I now totally get what I did wrong and I've proved to the teacher that I truly do understand what's going on in his class even if my stupid grades don't reflect it. He really is a fantastic teacher and is genuinely interested that each individual student not only gets a good grade but thoroughly understands the material.
But I still hate going to see teachers. Hate every second of it. Which is weird cuz my dad is a teacher and I've always felt like he's totally cool with students coming in to see him. That's why they have office hours. But I still don't like it!
Today, though, I finally made up my mind that I just had to see my Spanish teacher. I got a 50% on an exam a while back which is very clearly not like me at all. It was seriously bugging me a lot. It was actually two exams ago but I've been dreading seeing him so much that I've refused to go until today.
Well, I went upstairs in the Smith to talk to my teacher today. On my way to his office I decided I had to go to the bathroom first. I was so nervous! On my way to the bathroom I walked by my friend Tiare (T-R-E). I said hi, she said hi back.
She asked me where I was going. I pointed behind me and said, "On my way to go see a teacher..." She looked at my hand pointing back in the direction I just came from. "Annnnnd?"
"Annnnd.... umm.... I'm going to go to the bathroom."
Kay, well it was funnier at the time. She just laughed at me. I don't know why I even pointed. Ugh.
I hate going to see teachers. But I did eventually make it into his office and we discussed the exam. We noted some errors the computer made in grading my exam and he bumped it up a bit for which I was grateful.
We also talked about the ones I got wrong. As usual I had everything right but just got a basic idea backwards accidentally and that killed me on several questions. He said the whole class average went down several points with that exam so it wasn't just me. And he drops the lowest exam score anyway so it wasn't really a big deal.
The best part is I now totally get what I did wrong and I've proved to the teacher that I truly do understand what's going on in his class even if my stupid grades don't reflect it. He really is a fantastic teacher and is genuinely interested that each individual student not only gets a good grade but thoroughly understands the material.
But I still hate going to see teachers. Hate every second of it. Which is weird cuz my dad is a teacher and I've always felt like he's totally cool with students coming in to see him. That's why they have office hours. But I still don't like it!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Wallace the Rat-Dog
We went to a member of the bishopric's house for FHE tonight. They try to have each group do that at least once a semester here at BYU.
Our First Counselor has a rat dog. No seriously, it was the tiniest, rattiest little ball of fluff I've ever seen.
His wife told him the dog, Wallace, needed a haircut last week. So, our counselor took it upon himself to give his rat-dog Wallace a mohawk.
Now his wife insists poor little Wallace wears a rat-dog-shirt to cover his little rat-dog-mohawk.
But when she left the room he showed us Wallace's awesome mohawk anyway.
Poor rat-dog Wallace. Those poor little things seriously have zero dignity. None.
But it is pretty interesting to see a greased-up mohawk on a tiny half pound rat dog!
Our First Counselor has a rat dog. No seriously, it was the tiniest, rattiest little ball of fluff I've ever seen.
His wife told him the dog, Wallace, needed a haircut last week. So, our counselor took it upon himself to give his rat-dog Wallace a mohawk.
Now his wife insists poor little Wallace wears a rat-dog-shirt to cover his little rat-dog-mohawk.
But when she left the room he showed us Wallace's awesome mohawk anyway.
Poor rat-dog Wallace. Those poor little things seriously have zero dignity. None.
But it is pretty interesting to see a greased-up mohawk on a tiny half pound rat dog!
Friday, March 5, 2010
OCD... Or Maybe I'm Just Weird
My first meal of the day has to be breakfast. It's just one of those things about me. No matter how late I sleep in, or how long it's been that I've been awake without eating, I have to have breakfast food as my first meal of the day.
Today I woke up and had some errands to do in town. I left the apartment before eating breakfast. When I got home from shopping I was starving and I really wanted to make a sandwich or eat some of my leftover enchiladas, or maybe eat some of the broccoli pasta-roni I bought.
But I couldn't. Because I hadn't yet eaten breakfast food (eggs, waffles, cereal, oatmeal, sausage, pancakes, etc.). I just had to eat a breakfast food first. I ate some cereal.
And then I was too full to eat my leftovers. But my first meal of today was breakfast, and that's all that matters... right? Normal food is for later in the day and that's all there is too it.
Today I woke up and had some errands to do in town. I left the apartment before eating breakfast. When I got home from shopping I was starving and I really wanted to make a sandwich or eat some of my leftover enchiladas, or maybe eat some of the broccoli pasta-roni I bought.
But I couldn't. Because I hadn't yet eaten breakfast food (eggs, waffles, cereal, oatmeal, sausage, pancakes, etc.). I just had to eat a breakfast food first. I ate some cereal.
And then I was too full to eat my leftovers. But my first meal of today was breakfast, and that's all that matters... right? Normal food is for later in the day and that's all there is too it.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Identicals
My roommate's identical twin is in town this weekend. I was shown pictures before and I was well prepared to tell them apart. I saw them. I truly can tell them apart... it takes me a second, but I can do it. I mostly do it by facial expression (if it looks familiar it's Alexis, if not it's Ashley) but I'm slowly noticing other differences.
BUT their voices and mannerisms and just the way they talk is so identical it's stinkin' hilarious! They came in our room just now and I was just listening to them talk to each other. I swear it was exactly as though it was only Alexis just talking to herself. I had no idea which one was talking because their voices are exactly the same and they talk the same way with the same phrases and everything.
I had to work to keep from laughing.
Alexis has a yellow coat. Ashley has a blue one. This I know.
I also know that they have a lot of fun trying to confuse people as twins.
One of them came in in the blue coat just now and for a second I seriously thought it was Alexis wearing Ashley's coat to confuse me. I had to just stare at her for a second to figure it out... probably creeped her out. It was Ashley. I figured it out when she gave me the weird look. It's easier to compare them side by side, okay?
This is gonna be a fun weekend, I've never roomed with identical twins before...
BUT their voices and mannerisms and just the way they talk is so identical it's stinkin' hilarious! They came in our room just now and I was just listening to them talk to each other. I swear it was exactly as though it was only Alexis just talking to herself. I had no idea which one was talking because their voices are exactly the same and they talk the same way with the same phrases and everything.
I had to work to keep from laughing.
Alexis has a yellow coat. Ashley has a blue one. This I know.
I also know that they have a lot of fun trying to confuse people as twins.
One of them came in in the blue coat just now and for a second I seriously thought it was Alexis wearing Ashley's coat to confuse me. I had to just stare at her for a second to figure it out... probably creeped her out. It was Ashley. I figured it out when she gave me the weird look. It's easier to compare them side by side, okay?
This is gonna be a fun weekend, I've never roomed with identical twins before...
Study Tips 101
I had an art quiz in my Humanities class today. I started studying for it yesterday. For the record, normally I'm not a procrastinator but... well I don't really have an excuse except I've been feeling particularly lazy lately.
So yesterday I was standing outside one of my other classes with my little flashcards out trying to memorize art/artist/location (I had gotten there early) when a guy friend from my class came up and asked what I was doing. When I explained it was for a quiz in a different class he immediately took it upon himself to teach me art and good ways to memorize each piece.
I had hardly even looked at the art pieces when he first came up (only enough to make them into flash cards but that was it) but by the time our class started fifteen minutes later I had memorized every single detail of every single art piece we went over as well as every single detail of our conversation, every word he said to me. And then I replayed it in my head throughout class. Some call it having my head in the clouds... I call it studying smart!
It really helps to have an awesome, fun, cute guy help you study. I got a 46/45 on the quiz today (the teacher provided an extra credit point for knowing where the Spiral Jetty by Smithson was located).
So yesterday I was standing outside one of my other classes with my little flashcards out trying to memorize art/artist/location (I had gotten there early) when a guy friend from my class came up and asked what I was doing. When I explained it was for a quiz in a different class he immediately took it upon himself to teach me art and good ways to memorize each piece.
I had hardly even looked at the art pieces when he first came up (only enough to make them into flash cards but that was it) but by the time our class started fifteen minutes later I had memorized every single detail of every single art piece we went over as well as every single detail of our conversation, every word he said to me. And then I replayed it in my head throughout class. Some call it having my head in the clouds... I call it studying smart!
It really helps to have an awesome, fun, cute guy help you study. I got a 46/45 on the quiz today (the teacher provided an extra credit point for knowing where the Spiral Jetty by Smithson was located).
Monday, March 1, 2010
Oh Spanish...
Today in Spanish we were split into groups and were supposed to be conjugating verbs and reading sentences aloud to each other. As I began a sentence I noticed the last word.
"marihuana"
I didn't know what it meant. I thought it sounded like a cute little girls name. You know like "Mariella" or "Marianna"
Nope. Marihuana is just like it sounds. Marijuana.
This is where I get my "naive" and "innocent" status from. Failure!
At least I got a few laughs.
Oh, and as a followup on my pirate post, you guys were right.
"Dead men tell no tales." Good job! :)
"marihuana"
I didn't know what it meant. I thought it sounded like a cute little girls name. You know like "Mariella" or "Marianna"
Nope. Marihuana is just like it sounds. Marijuana.
This is where I get my "naive" and "innocent" status from. Failure!
At least I got a few laughs.
Oh, and as a followup on my pirate post, you guys were right.
"Dead men tell no tales." Good job! :)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Guitars Unplugged
I really wasn't planning on going tonight. Well I was, sort of.
Guitars Unplugged is a yearly/semesterly (not sure which) event. Basically, they get all the students in the school who are stinkin' awesome at playing guitar or have a band and said bands get to play on stage.
You have to pay to go see it. I had an FHE brother who was in it one year. He was inCREdible at guitar. No seriously, he could have been the best one up there. Tonight, I saw a kid from one of my classes who played. He was super duper amazing too. Sometimes it amazes me how talented some of the people at our school are.
Well, I've been to Guitars Unplugged before. I wasn't really planning on going tonight either. I didn't have friends who were going. I just went to hand out bracelets for our Student Safety Committee. People actually collect those silly rubbery bracelets people hand out all the time. I had people coming up to me asking for them and more for their friends. Funny...
Because I handed out bracelets they stamped my hand. So I got in for free. Something I was totally not expecting. So I stayed. For a little while. One of the guys got up to introduce his band.
"Hey there! We were going to dedicate this song to a special someone tonight.... but decided that might be too risky! So instead I'm dedicating it to all you people out there screaming!" And he began to play.
Guitars Unplugged is pretty cool with their effects. They had the lights and the smoke and the lasers. Partway through the song these white lights started going off all around the gym. "That's a cool effect. I didn't know we had that in our gym!"
Then I heard a noise. Sounded sort of like a buzzer, right in time with the music. "Wow, the buzzer and the lights go off together nicely. With the music. Nice! I didn't know they had such awesome effects."
And then I heard this woman in a formal looking outfit come through saying something about fire alarms in a panicked voice.
"Oh. Crap."
It took like two minutes for people to realize it was the fire alarms. All the lights and stereo equipment up front suddenly shut off. People were screaming, "KEEP PLAYING! SCREW THE ALARMS! KEEP PLAYING!!!!"
And then the loudspeaker system came on. "The fire alarms have gone off. We need to calmly evacuate the building. If everyone could calmly make their way to the nearest exit and--" Yeah, I didn't even hear the rest of that statement. When there's five thousand people in already energetic moods in one gigantic room with fire alarms going off, the word "calm" isn't even an option.
People weren't really freaking out or anything. No running or anything. We just all walked slowly out of the building saying to each other, "Well that sucks! Ruined a perfectly good song." But it was loud. Opposite of calm.
I have to say, I myself thought it may have been that "special someone" that the boys decided not to risk dedicating their song to tonight who pulled the alarm.
But it wasn't. Too much smoke got caught in some pipe. Five minutes later we were all back in our seats, excited as ever to continue the show. And the show went on.
And all was well with the world. The End.
Guitars Unplugged is a yearly/semesterly (not sure which) event. Basically, they get all the students in the school who are stinkin' awesome at playing guitar or have a band and said bands get to play on stage.
You have to pay to go see it. I had an FHE brother who was in it one year. He was inCREdible at guitar. No seriously, he could have been the best one up there. Tonight, I saw a kid from one of my classes who played. He was super duper amazing too. Sometimes it amazes me how talented some of the people at our school are.
Well, I've been to Guitars Unplugged before. I wasn't really planning on going tonight either. I didn't have friends who were going. I just went to hand out bracelets for our Student Safety Committee. People actually collect those silly rubbery bracelets people hand out all the time. I had people coming up to me asking for them and more for their friends. Funny...
Because I handed out bracelets they stamped my hand. So I got in for free. Something I was totally not expecting. So I stayed. For a little while. One of the guys got up to introduce his band.
"Hey there! We were going to dedicate this song to a special someone tonight.... but decided that might be too risky! So instead I'm dedicating it to all you people out there screaming!" And he began to play.
Guitars Unplugged is pretty cool with their effects. They had the lights and the smoke and the lasers. Partway through the song these white lights started going off all around the gym. "That's a cool effect. I didn't know we had that in our gym!"
Then I heard a noise. Sounded sort of like a buzzer, right in time with the music. "Wow, the buzzer and the lights go off together nicely. With the music. Nice! I didn't know they had such awesome effects."
And then I heard this woman in a formal looking outfit come through saying something about fire alarms in a panicked voice.
"Oh. Crap."
It took like two minutes for people to realize it was the fire alarms. All the lights and stereo equipment up front suddenly shut off. People were screaming, "KEEP PLAYING! SCREW THE ALARMS! KEEP PLAYING!!!!"
And then the loudspeaker system came on. "The fire alarms have gone off. We need to calmly evacuate the building. If everyone could calmly make their way to the nearest exit and--" Yeah, I didn't even hear the rest of that statement. When there's five thousand people in already energetic moods in one gigantic room with fire alarms going off, the word "calm" isn't even an option.
People weren't really freaking out or anything. No running or anything. We just all walked slowly out of the building saying to each other, "Well that sucks! Ruined a perfectly good song." But it was loud. Opposite of calm.
I have to say, I myself thought it may have been that "special someone" that the boys decided not to risk dedicating their song to tonight who pulled the alarm.
But it wasn't. Too much smoke got caught in some pipe. Five minutes later we were all back in our seats, excited as ever to continue the show. And the show went on.
And all was well with the world. The End.
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Best Teachers
I found this typed in bold print about half way through my midterm exam.
"Did you know that there is a tribe of dyslectic devil worshipers in the Ozarks who have sold their souls to Santa? Sorry. Just trying to break the tension…."
Seriously. I love this teacher.
"Did you know that there is a tribe of dyslectic devil worshipers in the Ozarks who have sold their souls to Santa? Sorry. Just trying to break the tension…."
Seriously. I love this teacher.
And So It Begins
Midterms were this week. I was doing fine with twenty credits until this week. Now I'm kicking myself that I didn't work harder last week so this week wouldn't be so terrible. But then again, last week there wasn't much I could do about it.
I have a take home exam to do (about ten pages worth of writing.. the teacher told us it should take us at least 6-8 hours), an American Humanities exam to study for and take, Spanish homework (ten workbook pages worth), an Illustrator project (I have to make up a company and make up a logo, stationary, business cards, etc.), and Case Study paper to write all by Monday.
If I were smart I'd be working on all of that right now. I've sort of begun some of it. But definitely not as well as I should have. Today the plan is to get the Humanities midterm and the Comm midterms both taken care of and maybe start on the Illustrator project.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish everything else, but I also have a meeting tomorrow at 7 for Guitars Unplugged (our commercial is airing and we have to hand out these bracelet things).
Even though I've had four canceled classes in the last two days I'm still swamped. Mainly because when a teacher cancels class, he takes it upon himself to assign extra homework to make up for it.
Oh shoot, that reminds me.. I also have a paper to turn in today. Fortunately I already wrote it. I just have to print it and take it to campus because the teacher only accepts hard copies.
Better get to work.
I have a take home exam to do (about ten pages worth of writing.. the teacher told us it should take us at least 6-8 hours), an American Humanities exam to study for and take, Spanish homework (ten workbook pages worth), an Illustrator project (I have to make up a company and make up a logo, stationary, business cards, etc.), and Case Study paper to write all by Monday.
If I were smart I'd be working on all of that right now. I've sort of begun some of it. But definitely not as well as I should have. Today the plan is to get the Humanities midterm and the Comm midterms both taken care of and maybe start on the Illustrator project.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish everything else, but I also have a meeting tomorrow at 7 for Guitars Unplugged (our commercial is airing and we have to hand out these bracelet things).
Even though I've had four canceled classes in the last two days I'm still swamped. Mainly because when a teacher cancels class, he takes it upon himself to assign extra homework to make up for it.
Oh shoot, that reminds me.. I also have a paper to turn in today. Fortunately I already wrote it. I just have to print it and take it to campus because the teacher only accepts hard copies.
Better get to work.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Pirates Trivia... Sort Of
When I worked at Disney we worked a lot with pins. One of the pins sets is a Pirates set (actually I think there are a lot of pirate sets) from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I can't remember if I wrote about it at the time, but each pin in this set had some sort of Chinese characters on it. I asked the Chinese people I worked with to translate for me.
One of the pins translated in English as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and another was "The Black Pearl." But there was one pin in the set that no one could really figure out the meaning of at the time.
I remember asking Jean. She couldn't think of a way to describe what it meant. "It's a Chinese saying." She would tell me. "It's complicated.
I asked Evan. He probably described it best of all the Chinese people I asked. He said, "It's hard to explain. But it means that if someone does a crime. And then they are killed.... then the secret goes with them." I still didn't get it. So he took my pen. "If I steal this pen. And then I die... I am the only person who knows that I took your pen though. There's no way for you to prove that it was I who took your pen. Yes? Okay. You get it."
I couldn't believe how just the two or three characters on a little pin could say all of that. I never got what the saying was in English. But then, a short time ago we were watching Pirates of the Caribbean and there was a line in that movie that made me realize the exact English translation of what my Chinese friends were trying to tell me. There is a short English saying that could be said in place of the description my Chinese friends gave me.
Can you figure out what it is? I'm gonna feel like an idiot if I'm the only one who had trouble making this connection. However, at the time it didn't even occur to me that we would have the same type of saying in English so I didn't really think about it.
I'll post the answer in my next post if no one gets it.
One of the pins translated in English as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and another was "The Black Pearl." But there was one pin in the set that no one could really figure out the meaning of at the time.
I remember asking Jean. She couldn't think of a way to describe what it meant. "It's a Chinese saying." She would tell me. "It's complicated.
I asked Evan. He probably described it best of all the Chinese people I asked. He said, "It's hard to explain. But it means that if someone does a crime. And then they are killed.... then the secret goes with them." I still didn't get it. So he took my pen. "If I steal this pen. And then I die... I am the only person who knows that I took your pen though. There's no way for you to prove that it was I who took your pen. Yes? Okay. You get it."
I couldn't believe how just the two or three characters on a little pin could say all of that. I never got what the saying was in English. But then, a short time ago we were watching Pirates of the Caribbean and there was a line in that movie that made me realize the exact English translation of what my Chinese friends were trying to tell me. There is a short English saying that could be said in place of the description my Chinese friends gave me.
Can you figure out what it is? I'm gonna feel like an idiot if I'm the only one who had trouble making this connection. However, at the time it didn't even occur to me that we would have the same type of saying in English so I didn't really think about it.
I'll post the answer in my next post if no one gets it.
Monday, February 22, 2010
The Return Of Walt Disney World
I got my acceptance letter today. It came in the from of an email this year. I guess Disney is seriously working on that "eco-friendly" image. I must say it's way less exciting to get an email. And it's way less exciting the second time around.
But I still squealed and called/talked to pretty much everyone I know who would care. I've already contacted all my friends from Disney and told my roommate and called the parents.
But I'm not in Merchandise this time around. I'm going to be in Main Entrance Operations. I don't totally know what this means exactly...
Oh well. I'm excited as ever! Time to celebrate! Pizza/movie/brownie party! Tomorrow night (cuz tonight's FHE). YAY!!!
But I still squealed and called/talked to pretty much everyone I know who would care. I've already contacted all my friends from Disney and told my roommate and called the parents.
But I'm not in Merchandise this time around. I'm going to be in Main Entrance Operations. I don't totally know what this means exactly...
Oh well. I'm excited as ever! Time to celebrate! Pizza/movie/brownie party! Tomorrow night (cuz tonight's FHE). YAY!!!
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