The question was submitted to the board. They answered it. Someone even wrote in and went into more detail for her. I felt like none of the answers so far were good enough. So I wrote in my own, we will see if it gets published (or how much of it).

Original Question

Dear 100 Hour Board,

I need to lose weight. I'm 24 and I weigh 175 lbs---and I'm a girl. I don't think that the goal of losing 35 lbs is too lofty. That would put me down at a healthy (and yet still hefty) 140 lbs. So I've started to make positive diet changes (not fad diet---but just good, responsible eating choices). I've also started to exercise.

My question concerns the intensity of my workout. When I choose the "Fat Burn" option on the elliptical machine, it says that I need to maintain a low heart rate---only 127. To tell the truth, it's hard for me to keep it that low. The first time I worked out, when I wasn't concentrating on going slow, my heart rate would get up to about 170. Then I'd have to force myself to go slower again.

Now I know that I've heard that for losing weight, you want to keep the workout at a fairly low intensity, but why is that? Don't I burn more calories when I go faster? Do I really have to exercise at such a low intensity if I want to burn fat?

- Phatty McPhatt

My reply

Phatty McPhatt (and I won’t call you dear),
I was so infuriated by your name and some of the comments that you made in your question that it took me a few days to cool down enough to send this in to you. I took some time to look up a few statistics for you. I will give you those and then let you know what got me worked up so badly.

* The average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140 pounds.
* The average American model is 5'11" tall and weighs 117 pounds.
* Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women.
* Four out of five American women say they're dissatisfied with the way they look.
* On any given day, almost half of the women in the United States are on a diet.
* Almost half of American children between first and third grades say they want to be thinner.
* Americans spend over forty billion dollars a year on dieting and diet related products.
* Between five and ten million women and girls in the United States struggle with eating disorders and borderline conditions.
* One million boys and men struggle with eating disorders and borderline conditions.
* The number of people with eating disorders and borderline conditions is triple the

Sources: Crowther et al., 1992; Fairburn et al., 1993; Gordon, 1990; Hoek, 1995; Shisslak et al., 1995., US Department of Health and Human Services, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 1998, Treatment Advocacy Center, 1999, Smolak, 1996., Mellin et al., 1991., Collins, 1991., Shisslak & Crago, 1995.

So there are the statistics. We are a nation obsessed with models like Kate Moss and Gisele (women who will not even release their weights to the public because they are so painfully thin) The average American woman is 5'4" and 140 pounds. You can’t be much shorter than that, and if you are taller than you will carry around more weight than someone like myself who is only 5’2”.

I was infuriated by your insinuation that 140 lbs is a hefty weight. I graduated from high school at 140 lbs and I was gorgeous. I filled out my clothes and had breasts, and hips, and thighs and I look back at those days and envy what I was before I came to college and stopped being so active and hit the 185 lb mark that I am at now. Yes, 140 lbs is hefty, for a 10 year old. For a 25 year old WOMAN 140 lbs is beautiful. You will have hips for bearing children, and breasts for providing life for them. You will fit into your clothes how they were meant to look, and the men around you will appreciate you for the beautiful daughter of God that you are.

How much do you know about Marily Monroe? Did you know she was 5 feet 5 ½ inches and weight 140 lbs? Pretty average I would say, and yet she was the sex symbol for an entire generation. Maybe even more than that. In 1999, Marilyn was voted the 'Sexiest Woman of the Century' by People Magazine.

I am not sure where you are basing the assumptions that 140 pounds is “hefty” (my best guess would be from the monster that we call the media), but I suggest you check out the article found at http://medialit.med.sc.edu/pre.... Also, look at the page found at http://homepage.mac.com/gapoda... (Caution, woman in a bikini is pictured, so do not visit of this will be offensive to you). They took an absolutely gorgeous woman and destroyed her. All in attempt to make her look perfect. They fixed her belly-button for Heaven’s sakes. What could possibly have been wrong with her natural belly button?

And yet after all of this you made the biggest mistake of all. Your name. Phatty McPhatt. Maybe it was meant as a joke. It wasn’t funny. I weigh 5 lbs more than you do, and every day I fight the urge to hate myself. I fight the urge to call myself names (Fat, ugly, un-loved, you name it) and hate my body, instead of respecting the beautiful temple that our Father in Heaven has provided me with. I can run, and jump, and spin in circles. I can laugh, joke, cry, and climb up to the Y if I so fancy.

So maybe Elle and Marie Clair won’t be approaching me for cover shoots any time soon. But even if they did, I would tell them no. Because I don’t need that. Phatty, I hope that you will seriously consider your attitude about yourself and what is normal and right for you. Someday you will have daughters of your own, and I hope that you can help them to proud of themselves and their strong beautiful bodies as well. No matter what size they are.

Please also see sites- Adiosbarbie.com and about-face.org

Sincerely (very sincerely),

One who believes in the power and beauty of a real woman

Italy is Out

It's over folks. I was dropped from the study abroad program over a week ago. Maybe next time (if there is such a thing for me).

Excerpt from letter to Heather

I worked catering tonight and I am so happy because I think I have an in with 2 of the captains. Tonight 2 of them told me that they really liked me and thought I was a hard worker, and Candice (one of the captains) even told me that she wrote some good things about me on my evaluation. I think if I go in and talk to Aubrie and Robyn (who is an event coordinator) my chances of being able to work when I come back will be greater. I really like working there and I hope I can do it when I come back in Winter. I really want to work as a captain though because you know how I love to have power.

So today I rode my bike to school for the first time because I thought that would be a good idea, which it was on the way to class because it was fun and I was going downhill and everything was right until I was turning up the little path in between the MOA and the HFAC and another biker was coming and you know how when you first start biking again you are really unsure of yourself (like how I hate to stop at intersections because I am always afraid I won't be able to get my bike going again and the people in the cars will laugh at me, and how when I was crossing this morning I tried to get on my bike but it wasn't happening fast enough so I got back off and just walked it across the street?) So anyways we were both coming and he was coming from the south and I from the north and I cut the corner too close and scraped up my leg SOOO bad. It was black for awhile and even bled. I actually ran into the cement corner so hard that I must have cried out (I had headphones on) and the 2 girls behind me turned around and looked at me to make sure I was okay. The other biker gave me a weird look and I am sure thought I was crazy.

So then at the end of class after I had run all of my errands and stuff I went back and got on my bike and my backpack was so heavy and I am so out of shape that I made it to Heritage Halls and then I pretty much WALKED all of the way back up to my house. It was humiliating because I am sure that everyone thought A. she can't ride her bike or B. she is too out of shape to ride her bike up hill (when it wasn't even a very steep slope you know). But I decided that I am going to make myself ride every day as punishment for letting myself get so out of shape in the first place. Plus it is really nice to ride all the way up to the doors when I have to go to class and the ride there is so fun. Maybe tonight I will empty out my backpack a little bit so it is not quite so heavy and I think I will get a little farther.


Note- I did ride my bike to school today (in the rain even) without hitting any concrete walls! Instead of walking it home though, I decided to ride the bus back and a nice boy taught me how to put my bike on the front of the bus. Yay for nice boys!

outre de à Paris

I'm going to Paris! It's all I can think about right now, and I am floating on cloud nine. I will be staying in Paris for a week, right after our study abroad gets done. Anyone have any tips for me? Time for me to learn some French as well.

I am a pretty cherry red color right now. 3 hours in the sun by the pool was a little to much today.

I do have to sell my car to go though. Pretty Pretty Bella. I love her. We have had some good times, but the Eiffel tower awaits!

Lost on a Sunday Afternoon

Today is Sunday and I feel lost.

I am lying on the grass under a huge pine cone tree (I don't actually know the name of it) on one of the blankets I got at graduation that at one point or another during my Freshman year had holes burnt through it by the ashes of a fire

I keep looking at the sky, which has a perfect blue color. And wondering what it all means.

I didn't go to church today. I don't know why, because when I went to bed last night I had every intention of going. For some reason I just didn't make it.

At least I made it out of bed

I am scared by what this could all mean. Scared because I don't think I have any way of figuring it all out.

I am unhappy and I don't know how to fix it. I was at a party last night and I felt myself opening up to that happy feeling for a few minutes.

It was like in some way I had stepped outside of myself and was watching everything from a distant perspective. A boy paid a little extra attention to me, and for a few moments I was in the middle of a flurry of activity, but then it was all gone.

I had a hard week last week, at one point working 30 hours in 3 days. I didn't go to class for three days straight and I am kicking myself for putting myself in such a position that I have to deal with the agony of being unsure again.; I have to keep myself out of this and remember what is important. Italy is important. Second chances are important.

I need someone. I need someone to talk to. I just don't know how to go about doing it.

A new beginning

I really like the flower beds next to the library. Actually I love all of campus in the Spring. It smells wonderful.

I usually try not to post so close together, but today I say screw that. I woke up with a bad attitude today and I am not sure why.

While laying in my bed last night I spent alot of time thinking about my blog and what I wanted it to be. Funny how something so silly sounding as a blog can become so personal. Now that it is Summer again, I feel like I have alot more time to write. I take that back, I do have alot more time to write.

So, I have decided to start a new period in my blogging. Alot of the stuff that I haven't written on here has been very superficial, the kind of things you would expect to see on my to do list, or what I would tell you in passing if you stopped me to ask "what's up".

I had refrained from writing personal stuff, the stuff I was really feeling, because I was afraid of the consequences. Now I am done with that, and I plan on blogging real posts from now on. Things that really mean something to me.

Hence the name "A new beginning" for this post.






See that girl? That girl is everything I want to be. She is blissfully happy to be where she is. Something that I am waiting for, it elusive, but I think I will get there soon. Something hits me whenever I look at this picture. Something about the way her arms are stretched out, and the way her head is thrown back so carelessly. Nothing about it seems posed, though it is obviously so. I use this photo as a reminder of what can be for me.


Oh, and by the way.

You Belong in Rome You're a big city girl with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian men - could life get any better? What City Do You Belong in? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

Synopsis

Sometimes Utah is really out of control. Dissecting a dog?

What is going on here?

Teacher says you have been a very very bad boy, go sit in the cooler.

Even little Royal City never had this happen at their school.

Every time I log on to update, I want to tell some great story like many of the other bloggers that I read up on daily. I can't seem to think of anything exciting to write, which I think is probably a problem that plagues most bloggers.

I am not dating.

I don't have a particulary exciting or eventful job. In fact I don't really even have what you would consider a job. Just a temp.

School is Italian, well actually my life is Italian.

I think the reason is that to have something to write about you need to get involved in something. Basically I have no desire to get involved with anything because I am only here for 6 weeks (4 more now), and then I am back home for 2 months. It's hard to get excited about things that are going to last for such a short period of time.

I do plan on using this blog as a way to communicate with those I know back home once I am in Italy.

Until then everything will be subject to randomness.

Acutally I should amend the above comment. There are a few things I wouldn't mind expounding on, but there is always the chance that something I expound on will hurt someone I care about.

Check out Poundy.com. I have been reading her book, and except for the occasional swearing, I am really liking it.

The Good Old Days

Remember when I used to spend alot of time browsing the net and finding crazy/cool links to post on here? Well tonight is one of those days.

Grant Robinson has two cool sites you should check out.
The first is a photo montage creator, just type in a keyword and it will generate a montage from Google's image search.
The Second is called Guess-the-Google, you have to guess what the keyword was that generated a certain photo montage.
The third is interesting expirement into the World of Stereotypes.

I
have a fourth link that I will eventually share with you, if it works.
It is supposed to be free ringtones that you create yourself from any
mp3 or mp4 file. More about that one later

It is 2 in the morning and i just woke up an hour ago from a 5-hour "nap". I will probably head back to bed in 2 hours or so. I am listening to the 13 Going on 30 Soundtrack, which I love, but is a big no non since I am trying to only listen to Italian music during the week, weekends I give myself a break. Oh well, what are you going to do?

My roommate is yelling at me for typing too loud. If you hate it get a private room honey.

Netdisaster.com and the Photobloggies

Biting your nails is such a bad habit but I CAN'T STOP! I hate it when I do it

Speaking of hating things, do you have a web site that you hate? Want it to die a slow-burning death? Or have burning hot coffee spilled on it? Or you could have it slowly grow old and moldy. Visit netdisaster.com and see what I mean.

Also, check out the winners of the Photobloggies

I think it's time for me to give my finals run down like all of the other BYU blogger's. They actually went better than expected (not that my grades seem to be any indicatin of that fact)
Italian-passed with a strong D, good news for me and my failing grade
Public Relations-Studied for a few hours, memorized the entire study guide, went in and the test was nothing like what I had studied. I could have walked into the testing center that morning and taken the test with no amount of studying and still recieved the same grade. Pshaw. Didn't like the class anyways.
Student Development-Our Zion's camp presentation, which went well and I got an A on. Ok class that I will never take again. Rather unorganized, and I didn't feel like I got much out of it
Cultural Survey-Got a C on an open book, open note, untimed test. GRRR I probably deserve it for using Wikipedia instead of the stupid book that was reccomended.
Comms 101-I will proudly say, without bragging or conceit (ok maybe with a little bit of bragging) that I spanked this test. 120 questions, took me under 30 minutes, 88.3%, my highest final score of all time. I don't test very well, especially in the JSB or Testing Center where it is always too hot and I always seem to sit next too someone who is crazy or has a cold.

Moved into the Italian house on Saturday. I spent 16 hours moving and packing and cleaning. Our ward gave my apartment the "not getting your deposit back" award for having the dirtiest aparment, and after hours of cleaning the check-out staff said the would agree! Oh well, they promised that I was getting my deposit back, and that is all I care about.

The Italian house is fun, I really like it, even if I am not too excited about dinner every night, solely because half of the time I have no idea what is going on, and when people ask me questions I mostly just reply with "si si" or "no so" (which is yes yes and I don't understand) It is the most extreme expample of getting out of your comfort zone that I can think of (besides living in Italy, which I will be doing in the Fall!)

It's time for me to get back to packing. Cross your fingers for a good GPA for me. Ciao!

I was really sick yesterday. I think it may have been food poisining, my first case ever. I couldnt sleep all night, and then I took some Tylenol PM which is always a bad choice for me. Here was my sleeping patter for the past 2 days.
Thursday night-Friday night= 4 AM-9:30 PM (Pretty muc non-stop)
Friday night-3 AM-2 PM
Wow, now that I have totally thrown my sleeping patterns off I am having a hard time pulling myself together and being productive.

I have been reading through the Singles' Blogward and I have to say I hate people who blog and don't use punctuation. It takes away from the posts, and I just don't even want to read them at all.

I took the "What kind of Mormon are you?" test

Perfect Mormon 7 Orthodoxy, 4 LDS knowledge, 15 Cultural homogeneity Orthodoxy ranges from (-) anti-, non- and liberal Mormon, to mainstream, conservative, and fundamentalist Mormon (+).

The obedient Latter-day Saint. Temple recommend in hand, you live the gospel every day. Like a city on a hill, you remember the slogan every member a missionary. You beat your peers in seminary scripture chase, and you look forward to (or fondly remember) your beautiful temple wedding.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 88% on Orthodoxy You scored higher than 99% on LDS knowledge You scored higher than 99% on Homogeneity

Link: The what kind of Mormon are you? Test written by SLC-Mike on Ok Cupid

Tia and Sara were just asking me who I woudl want to out out with this weekend and I realized that there isn't anyone on my list. That is so sad. Katie, who works up in BYUSA with me always has a top 5. I need to devote some time to thinking if I have a top 5 or not.

I just let myself start playing Hexic which is a bad idea because I can never just close out the game, I always have to wait until I lose the game (which takes forever to happen because I am so good at that game LOL)

Babysitting today was so good. The 2 year old was so cute and said the funniest things to me today. He told me he thinks I am nice. I loved that. I am not planning on having kids anytime soon (except for my love child maybe), but when I do I am sure I will think it is all worth it because of the little things like that.

The more I work with kids (which is what I am constantly doing) the more I wonder why I am not going into Elementary Education or Special Ed or something. I just think that Elementary Ed is such a copout major, something that girls go into when they don't have anything else. Like MFHD. Don't even get me started on that major.

I pre-paid my gym membership, which is nice in some ways and pretty much the worst idea ever in others. I don't have to worry about making a payment each month, but on the other hand because I am not reminded about my membership I am constantly throwing my money down the drain when I don't go. I assume that this is something that tons of people struggle with. After working at a gym for so long, I have realized that their is an incredible number of people who pay for memberships and never use them. Xcell had 600+ members and probably around 100 active. I have got to stop throwing my money down the drain.

I am over committed and I hate it. I don't have anything to drop though. Sometimes I am just tempted to move home and give it all up. I am tired of being grown up, but I love it at the same time.

I got back my 360 degree feedback from Student Leadership, and it is nice to see the different ways that I can improve, but in so many ways depressing to see all of the things that people said about me. I want to be a good leader and this only reminded me how far away I am from achieving that. They included that comments that people had verbatim (without names of course) it was an interesting project, something that I will always be able to value, but it's a slap in the face as well.

I am parked in a service only parking spot (I parked there 1/2 an hour before the 4:00 open time). Someone is going to lose an eyeball if I have a ticket.

Mason, from Provo Pulse called me today to see if I wanted to have lunch with him (I couldnt because I was babysitting). It was sweet and I think that we are going to meet next week. My first arranged fellow blogger meeting. I love how nerdy this all seems.

Home sweet home

Ahhh....... to be home. I sleep in until 11, have the house to my self, devour all of the shows that my family has on the PVR. You get the basic idea.

My Comms 235 professor raised an intersting question in class last week. Where do you get the majority of your information about current events? After he asked the question I realized that I get most of my news from other blogs. What do you all think of this? In so many ways it can be dangerous because I am missing out on things that bloggers don't deem worthy of touching on or even that aren't true at all.

Seriously Mason, I love ProvoPulse but the commenting is getting so crazy. I am not going to ever say that I agree with censoring the comments, but could there even be one discussion that doesnt turn into a mud-slinging fight? Nobody escapes the wrath of the anonymous commenters on your site anymore. On the other hand, congragulations on the popularity and success of the site. It is a staple in my daily blog diet.

Mr. Marbles and I are friends on The Facebook. Yay for us.

Junior Miss is this weekend, and I am in Filmmakers heaven. I forgot how much I love taping programs like this, and it will be even more fun once I get back to the bubble to edit. This is going to be the best Junior Miss Video of all time.

If you love your palm as much as I do, you will probably like this blog.

Failing all my classes

I am actually failing my classes I think. Do my parents read this because I don't really want them to know. Don't worry Mom and Dad, I'll pull through. In the meantime does anyone know of a good major at BYU that you don't have to apply for?

I discovered thefacebook.com and I am loving it. Get on there. And then be my friend.

Provopulse is getting out of control. I like all the commenting but I am tired of being attacked any time I write a comment on there.

If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.

My roommates are all up at Brad's cabin with half of the ward which means I have the apartment to myself. I love it when that happens.

The Talent Showdown was tonight. It was awesome. Don't think I could have done better myself, ok well maybe..................

Elections are over, Adam and Chrissie won. Except for the fact that I think the name Chrissie belongs in the 1970's I am okay with it. I wish them the best of luck and I hope that this is the year that they can convince that Student Body that BYUSA is really worth something. I don't regret my time spent up there, but will I run? I am not sure. Check back with me a year from now.

Something I have been thinking about lately is the need that people seem to have to always be out and doing stuff. Why do we have this inner desire to avoid the things that need to be done? (An indication would be what I am doing right now, I am sure you all know that this isnt the most productive thing I could be doing) My roommates love to be going out every single night and hanging out. I see the social implications of staying home often, but what about the personal implications of neglecting one's responsibilities and needs all the time in the pursuit of "fun" with friends? I would rather stay home a Friday night or two, than spend the rest of the week regretting my time spent playing. When I go out for the night, I want it to be guilt free, knowing that I have crossed off all the things off of my to-do list. (which unforunately, has never happened before, but there is still hope)

Has everyone heard of the Foxytunes extension for iTunes? If you haven't you should get it.

I am thinking about starting up an 80's club. Anyone have any good suggestions for the perfect name for it?

Failed Elections

I know it seems like I can't get off of this topic but I spend enough of my life up there to justify my semi-obsession with BYUSA.

One of my pet peeves is hearing people talk in circles about things. Every year when the BYUSA elections come up people complain because they don't see the point in voting while BYUSA tries ever harder to prove that there is a purpose behind electing a president. Each year voting turnout gets worse and worse.

What is the solution here?

Is the viewpoint in the Daily Universe the answer? I am sure that BYUSA is infuriated with this editorial (they get worked up pretty easily), but I think that their are some very valid points. One day isnt enough time to get to know anyone and what they stand for. Without more information why shoudl anyone care?

People hate the fliers and advertisements for elections but without them how would anyone know the candidates or their names? How would anyone know it was time to vote in the first place?

If people don't like the promises that people are making, what kinds of things are they looking for?

If you are so unsatisfied with the options why don't you make a suggestion, or better yet make an effort to make some changes?

I agree with this article.

WHY AM I VOTING?

BYUSA Elections are on Tuesday? I don't care, and I'd wager (yes, a bet) that over 90 percent of BYU students feel the same way. Information about candidates is available on Monday and since elections are on Tuesday, I have less than 36 hours to conclude who to vote for. Not that it really matters who I vote for because if I vote for candidate A and candidate B wins I can expect the same results.

Next year I can still expect to see BYUSA activities such as Fall Fest, Homecoming, Preference, Battle of the Bands, Friday Night Live, clubs, etc.

In my opinion, BYUSA President is not a position that should be voted on by the student body. The position should be renamed to something more accurate such as BYUSA Director and let the full-time staff conduct interviews to decide who will do the best job. I'd wager (yes, another bet) that we'd have better dances and activities. The elections wouldn't waste our time and BYUSA can be seen for what it really is: a student activities and service committee. All this nonsense about promising to improve student life with radio stations, concerts, closer parking, etc. would be gone and we can move on with our lives. Best of all, we could also be assured not to have stupid signs and pins cluttering up campus anymore.

Nate Bird

Wenatchee, WA

Why did I vote? Because I have been up there. I have seen the problems, and dealt with them, and attempted to solve them. I know the people and how they act, their potential. BYUSA is always looking for more volunteers, so many opportunities to get involved. If you want a reason to vote next year, be proactive about it. Do something to help yourself realize why this could be important and what voting can do for you.

Question of the Day: I need new Athletic shoes, any reccomendations? (I have wide feet and need a little extra room, anyone know any specialized brands?)

Mony Mony

My dating life is frustrating. See my post at Provopulse.

I hate when there are so many things to post about and my brain can't settle down enough to write about anything.

I got a new job. A therapist for an Autistic boy. I love it, I love him, I love his mom, love the whole situation.

Got a ticket today. My fury knows no bounds.

Oh yes, the weekend

I am off to Boise this weekend for a nice break at my roommates house. Hopefully there is no drama (I would post more details but I don't know who reads this) because I am ready for a nice long weekend.

I got a second job yesterday. I working for a lady cleaning her house and taking care of her kids. She has a little boy named Wilson, and a little girl named Alison. They are probably around 2 and 5 respectively and absolutely adorable. I am going to babysit them on Tuesday, and then I will go back to clean her house on Thursday. I am killing myself with all of the responsibilities I am signing up for but Italy has to become a priority for me.

I was thinking about how I never post funny stories on here. Do I just have a boring life? My roommates and I are so dang funny, I can't figure out why I don't have more clever things to say.

My parents have come around, and it sounds like we are going to stop fighting about Italy and look for some ways to get me there. I have been looking up the possibility of a Europass, has anyone purchased one before? Is it worth the $?

Questions of the day-Best place you have ever vacationed before?

Site Changes

Please notice the site changes. Though they are subtle, they were made during a time that definitely could have been better used studying. Screw that idea. I miss the daily blogging, the hours wasted at Xcell searching all over the 'net for sites to post for my lovely readers. Is anyone else finding that blogger is taking forever to update this site? When I make template changes or write a new post it takes several hours for the changes to go through. Could this be something that I am doing wrong?

I AM GOING TO ITALY! Sorry for the yelling, I despise those who feel the need to write everything that they say in all capitals (as well as those who still have not caught onto the idea of using punctuation, which I think also applies to text messaging, but that is another story for another time). I was informed last Friday of my acceptance into the Fall Study Abroad Italy 2005 program and I have been walking on a cloud ever since. Here is the first paragraph of the email they sent me

Dear Jenna,
By now you should have received the letter of acceptance for the Fall 2005 Study Abroad in Italy. Congratulations! This year we had over 100 participants, all very qualified, and the review process has been long and laborious. We look forward to working with you and sharing with you the wonderful culture and civilization of Italy.

What an awesome feeling it was opening up that email! I have been rejected from a lot of things that I have interviewed/tried out for. Actually, now that I think about it, whenever I interview face to face for something, I make it in fine, its when I have to do group things or send in packages (such as the Film Program App.) that things don't work out so well.
I will spend from September to December going to school. There is the possibility that I will stay through the end of February and volunteer at the Olympics, but I still havent made up my mind about that yet. Any advice? My parents don't think that it will be that great of an experience. Did any of you work the Salt Lake Olympics? How did you feel about those? Is it worth putting myself in debt for? Missing out on an entire semester of school? Not seeing my family for 7 months?

I recently decided that I want to be a bridal consultant (otherwise known as a wedding planner). I hate how nerdy it sounds (I have been spending how much money a year to do what?), but the more I plan events up in BYUSA, the easier it gets to admit to myself that it would be something I would be very good at.

I have been dreaming of my Italian teacher lately. I don't know if I love him because of his accent or his eccentric personality. He is a little crazy, but I will admit that I love it. He is only 22 or 23, would it be so wrong for us to date?


Wow this is turning into a long post. I am a nerd who can't get enough of broadway. My launchcast player just played this song for me. I loved it.

Don't Marry Me

You are young and beautiful,
Sweet as the breath of May.
Earnestly I speak to you.
Weigh ev'ry word I say.
If you want to have a rosy future
And be happy as a honey bee,
With a husband who will always love you,
Baby, Don't marry me.
If you want a man you can depend on,
I can absolutely guarantee
I will never fail to disappoint you,
Baby, Don't marry me.
I eat litchie nuts and cookies in bed
And I fill the bed with nutshells and crumbs.
I have irritating habits you'll dread,
Like the way I have of cracking my thumbs.
My grandpa was a big game hunter,
He met grandma swinging on a tree.
If you want to have attactive children,
Baby, Don't marry me.
--I would like to see my sons and daughters
Sliding up and down their father's knee.--
They'll get splinters in their little fannies,
Cookie, Don't marry me.
I'm devoted to my dear old Mama,
And if you and Mama disagree,
I would always side with her against you,
Schnookie, Don't marry me.
--I would always like to know where you go.
I don't like a man to keep me in doubt.--
Honey that's a thing that's easy to know,
You will always know where I am, I'm out!
I am talking like a Chinese uncle.
I'm as serious as I can be.
I am saying this because I love you,
Darling, Don't marry me!

Mi vida loca

I debated whether I should title this post in such a manner because its not that things are crazy for me right now, they are always crazy. I hear my peers say things like "I just go and sit at home all the time" or "There is nothing to do in this town". I wish I had the time to figure out what that meant and how to make it happen in my own life. Not that I regret anything that I am involved in, I love being so busy I just wish I knew how to handle it a little better.

I had my first ever face to face meeting with a fellow blogger this week. Hannah and I both work up in the BYUSA office and it was inevitable that we meet. Her last post talked a little bit about valentines day and wearing pink and red and when I heard this girl up in the office talking about Valentines Month and wearing pink and red I knew it was her. It was weird actually (not meeting her) just knowing it was her by the way she was talking. Meeting her face to face was totally normal, she is a cutie. I am sure we will be seeing more of each other since we both work in "THE BLACK HOLE" (as my roommates have termed it)

Check out the new site that blogger has up on their homepage. Things I hate about my Flatmate.
The swearing might put you off, so ignore it if that will offend you (not that I am a fan) but anyone who has had roommates before, or even lived with another person will love this girls rantings and ravings about the stupid things that her roommate does.

The 2005 bloggies are being voted for. How many people with terrible blogs vote for themselves? I bet the numbers are pretty high. (Although I admit I wouldn't deny being flattered if anyone voted for my blog even though we all know it isnt deserving of anything.) I am only a Crawly Amphibian in the TTLB Ecosystem after all.

My roommates are at Disneyland today. Lucky little....... I would be there if it wasnt for my impending acceptance into the Italy Study Abroad program. I better be getting in to that for this sacrifice I made. I would give anything to be there right now.

Today is my productivity day. Clean my room. Play DDR (that is productive in that it gives me some exercise). Clean the kitchen. Go to Costco. Buy karaoke revolution ( I cant resist the temptation any longer). Spend the rest of the night at the library.

Question of the Day: Favorite program to pirate music?

What you waiting for?

I am dying for a nap right now, but I know that if I get into my bed (which I will have to clear off first, it is stacked a foot high with clothes and junk) I won't finish this when I get back up.

My computer has been in the kitchen lately and I like it, I don't have the privacy that I need to do my homework, but its nice to have my 3000 songs in the kitchen where everyone can listen to them.

It has been almost a month since I last posted, the longest I have ever gone between posts, but I promise that I have good reason for it. I have been named as an Executive Director in the BYUSA office which is pretty excitng and crazy. I am sure that many of my posts from now on will concern the issues that affect me because of my involvement.

They are making me switch around my schedule which is driving me crazy because I like the schedule that I have right now and I fought hard to get it that way. There is a possibility that this next week I am going to have to go to the classes that I am a part of right now, as well as the classes that I am interested in getting into. I dont even want to think about how horrible that will be.

On the plus side I know that I am going to love being in charge of the activities that they have given me. Freeze Fest is next Friday, the WyBall is March 18th, and the Brigham Awards are on Friday.

My dad was in the hospital earlier this week, quite a scare for me. Good to realize how much I really love and appreciate my parents though. He will probably have to have his gallbladder otu sometime soon.

I applied for study abroad and had the interview yesterday. Wish me luck. If I go I plan on studying through the year next year and volunteering with the Olympics. I think it will be absolutely amazing. Hopefully no boy decides to take interest in me and ruin my plans. No dating for me.

Question of the Day-If you had to be allergic to sugar or salt which would you choose?


I got this email and thought it might be fun to see if anyone wanted to take a guess at any of these answers. It might be funny to see how I am percieved.

Your name:

Where did we meet:

Take a stab at my middle name:

How long have you known me:

Do I smoke:

Do I believe in God:

What was your first impression of me upon meeting:

Color of my eyes:

Do I have any siblings:

What's one of my favorite things to do:

Do you remember one of the first things I said to you:

What's my favorite type of music:

What is the best feature about me:

Am I shy or outgoing:

Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules:

Any special talents:

Would you consider me a friend:

If there was one good nickname for me, what would it be:

What's your favorite memory of me:

If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what one thing would I bring?

The "aughts"

How many times have you been listening to the radio and heard the DJ say "the hits of 80's, 90's, and today". Has anyone else been bothered by the idea that we still don't have a name for the decade we are living in? I just found an article that tells me I am not alone in this concern. Timothy Noah of Slate has written a great article called "Name that Decade". It is one of the best articles that I have read in a long time.

Question of the Day-What is the best song of the 90's?

Answer-You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette

Its official. I have finally decided on a major and there is no changing my mind now. I will never understand when people say "oh don't worry about it, you are young and can change your mind a hundred times" I hate hearing that and I think its the worst advice I have ever heard. I want to get settled into something and go after it, I want to pursue something and never look back. It's funny that I decided on PR because communications was what I originally thought that I would enjoy in high school, unfortunately I got distracted by all of the other fun options at the Y.

My problem isnt that I can't find something that I like, its that I think I would love so many things and I can't make myself settle on one thing. I think I would really enjoy Dietetics, I would love film, and I think I would even enjoy psychology. Photography would be amazing and Fitness and Wellness would be great. It's time for me to face reality though and decide where I am going to start taking my life. The nice thing about PR is that I know I will really enjoy it and BYUSA will give me such great credentials. So I am signed up for Comms 235, and I will hopefully get into Comms 101 and 211 sometime soon. The beginning of a new semester always gets me excited and I am ready to take on the challenge of a new school year. Most students look at the syllabus at the beginning of the year and feel a sense of dread at all the work that is ahead of them, but honestly I just get excited about all of the opportunities that I am going to have.

Its not writing for a newspaper that interests me, its running and managing programs. Campus activities is perfect for me, and I hope to be an ED next year; which means I will have to do a killer job on the talent show.

The one thing that bothers me about communications is that it seems to be a copout major. Students will say "I can't think of what I want to do with my life so I will just go into communications." I think that is why I resisted the major for so long, but my parents feel really strongly that it would be good for me and that in the end it would be something that I could really enjoy. I guess I am more of a Type A person than I ever imagined.

The holiday's were good for me. The same old routine, but I like it that way. My parents spoiled me with a brand new video camera, which I hope to put to good use this semester.

I think I found the perfect job. When I get it I will let you all know.

Question of the Day-What was the best Christmas present you got this year?

Answer-Probably the Hollywood watch the my Grandma got for me (that my mom found!)

a lesson in blogging

There has to be alot of disappointed males out there who search for the word "breasts" and ended up at my site. I decided to check out the recent searches that had brought people to my site and I thought I would share some of them with you.

naked wild women photos
Joe Francis AND girls gone wild AND superbowl
girls gone wild photo's

and my personal favorite
mormon breasts

I am finally starting to get old. Christmas has hit the point where it isn’t about presents anymore but actually about family. Something I never though would happen. I went to my cousins house on Sunday and they were counting all of their presents and trying to decide what each one was; it made me sad to realize that I don’t do that anymore. Not that doing something like that is just for children, my mom sits down and shakes her presents pretty much every day. I have the best present to give to my sister but I wont detail it on here yet because I don’t want her to read this and spoil the surprise.

I have been driving the huge Silverado this past week and I hate it. I will be excited to get back to Bella, my cute little car. My dad isn’t happy because someone knocked a dent in the drivers side, probably sometime when it was parked at the gym.

I have finally decided on a major. Public Relations; and I will reapply for the film minor and get another minor in Women’s Studies. I want to get so many majors but my dad told me I have to stop because minors don’t do anything for you really. They are so fun though!
Question of the day: If you could minor in 5 things what would they be?

Christmas or XMAS

Does it make any difference? Can you really claim that by using the word Christmas you are bringing out the true essence of the word? I will admit that I routinely feel offended when I see the word XMAS written in huge letters anywhere but if I am honest with myself I don't think writing the word out or abbreviating it makes any difference in the Christmas spirit that I feel.

Finals Schminals

Its finals week again, the time when I become a walking zombie. I have succesfully gone 3 days without doing my hair or makeup. At all. Its actually quite liberating in a way, but not something I would do all the time. Sad that so much of my self-confidence comes in a bottle.

Does anyone else have a hard time keeping track of the rap and hip-hop artists and their posse's? Does anyone else hate Top 40 like I do?

I wish I had the energy, or the time to blog about the awesome trip to California that I had last week, but its not happening. A brief snyopsis will have to do. 4 girls, 4 guys. California. LA, Anaheim, Disneyland, The Price is Right, The Ocean, Santa Monica Pier, No hookups the entire trip. The best video ever made.

I am feeling stressed about a gift I have to buy for a family gift exchange. Its got to be a unisex, inexpensive (between $20-$40) gift that someone might actually want. If I dont find anything absolutely perfect I will just choose what I want for myself and try to get it back.

I know I don't write about romantic topics often, but that is because they are practically non-existent in my life. There are two boys that I am interested in. One who reminds me of my dad (roomies if you are reading this I am sure you know who I am talking about) and one who I want to like but don't. The dad-boy is someone that I like off and on, and I cant figure out why I have no attraction for boy #2 although I really want too. My roommate has resorted to singing the Dashboard song "Jamie" to me and replacing his name with the word Jamie. I still havent come around though. Its because I cant ever imagine kissing him, or holdling his hand, or anything of the sort. I am just holding out for something, although I have no idea what that is. Dad-boy is the ward boy, way to popular to settle for just one girl so he was ruled out awhile ago. I don't have enough energy to chase that hard.

I am not sure if I mentioned that I am in charge of BYU's talent show this February but I am looking for some ideas for it. We still have not come up with our finalized theme, and I am looking to throw some possibilities out to you guys and see what you think. A few people keep suggesting ideas that play off of the word cougar and I hate all of them. I think its cheesy and overdone. Of course I wont say that to their face, so I just have to come up with something so great that the cougar idea goes right out the window.
Talent Expo
Time to Shine
Talent Fair
King of the Talent
Shine
BYU Show Off
The Quest

I am also looking for Judge ideas. We are looking into getting "celebrities" around BYU. I got in contact with Ken Jennings, got a no, but I did make some progress their. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas on how we can get people to come judge the program?

3 more finals to take. 2 of them that I really have to take today. Am I studying for them right now? Obviously not. I told myself I cant take a nap until I finish my nutrition notes so I can sell back my book. I have already got back 70 dollars from the books I have sold back. What a great feeling. Wish me luck through the next 24 hours, I am going to need it.

Question of the Day-What is your favorite movie made before 1970?
My Answer-Gigi

Take Your Mama Out

Whenever I am not posting, which happens frequently, I wish I was. But as soon as I sit down in front of the screen I start to have problems. Its not that my mind goes blank, its that my mind is running so fast I cant get it to slow down enough to type anything. I think about all of the things I should be doing (homework), things I wish I was doing, and things that are coming up within the week. Maybe that is why I am having such a hard time in school, I have a hard time concentrating on one thing. Or maybe its because I spend so much time focusing on one thing that its a problem.

Life this past semester has been hectic, and I miss the lazy days of summer that I spent posting on my blog and working at the gym. Just thought I would give everyone an update on the craziness of my life.

School
Well there isnt much to say here other than the fact that it is hard and this is the worst part of the semester. I have no idea when most of my finals are, I dont have any study guides, and it gets to stressful that I just want to give up. I wont though, because I will not go back to Royal City again.
Anatomy is killer, I have my lab midterm next Thursday. Learning the Male and Female reproduction organs has been an interesting experience. Yesterday I taught 3 boys the male parts, something that always brings some akwardness with it. I tease my guy friends that I know more about them than they do.
Nutrition isnt that bad, I could have done better if I would have remembered moer throughout the semester. Everything that I didnt do well on was a result of forgetfulness on my part. I don't even know if I will get enough grade in the class for dietetics to be an option. Retaking the class does not appeal to me at all.
Womens studies is still good, I always skip and feel bad about it. I didnt turn in my last paper, and still havent written it. I am not feeling too bad about it because I just found out that I aced the last one I turned in (the one on breasts).
Intro to Allied Health and Latin are easy. Enough said.

Romance
There is none. Whatsoever. Zip. It looks like I am going to be winning $50 from Bob Murphy after all. If I make it about 6 more months, I win the bet between on us on whether I could go 2 years without getting engaged. I do have the hots for 2 boys in my ward, we will see if anything develops. I would like to be more specific, but I have heard too many horror stories about people who write about other people in their blogs and regret it later.

California
We leave on Friday for a 5 day trip to California. We includes my roommates, and apt 11. We will be in Disneyland on Saturday, having a bonfire on Sunday night, and attempting to get on the Price is Right on Monday. It should be the greatest time ever. I made shirts, and my parents sold me my car for $1 (to get rid of some of their liability). I don't think we realized what we were doing when we planned the trip, we will get back 5 days before finals and I hav ea final the day after we get back but we dont care. The thought of 5 days with nothing to worry about, with the coolest people I know is very liberating in and of itself.

I have no idea what I want to do with my life, and I dont know what to do about it. I guess I will just take GE's again next semester and apply for the Film minor. We will see how all of that goes.

Question of the Day:
What is your pet peeve?

My answer:
People who will not say what they think. I hate dragging it out of them.

Another paper-nutrition this time

Posting my papers is pretty easy, and most of them are about things that really interest me. This paper is concerning an article that I had to read for my nutrition class. It is about how to feed yoru children, soemthing that I think many parents struggle with, and its something that I will be reading when I have children of my own. I would have liked to make the paper longer, but there were restrictions concerning length and content. Let me know if you would like to know more about it, I thought the entire thing was very interesting.

There are many parents across the country that have the same questions you do. They want to know how to feed their children, when it should be done, and what is best for them to eat. This can be done through the “Division of Responsibility”, which clearly outlines the tasks that parents and children should each follow to make eating a positive experience for all.
Division of Responsibility
As a parent your responsibilities are going to be much easier than you might imagine. You are responsible for choosing what your children eat, where they eat it, and when they eat it. You should not “short order cook” for your children, but don’t make their task of eating impossible by serving a meal of lima beans and meatloaf and a bitter fruit. Children need at least one food that is negotiable and easy for them to recognize and like. Bread is your best bet for this, as it is soft and chewy, as well as having a taste that most everyone can love. Sit down as a family and eat your meals, don’t rush through them or eat in front of the television. Talk to your child, but don’t make him the subject of the entire meal. It is important to teach him how to eat but don’t pressure him about what he eats. Respectable table manners are a must for individuals of all ages, and it is important that children learn what is expected of them at a young age.
Before you can accept your own responsibilities you need to realize that your children will eat. We are all born with instinctive drives concerning food and eating. Your child has the ability within himself to eat the right amount of food today to account for what he ate on previous days. Offer him a variety of food; though it may take him some time to adjust his palate to the sensation of these new foods, over time he will accept and even come to appreciate this new source of nutrition. Many parents push or restrict their child concerning what is being consumed, but it is up to you as a parent to accept that your child’s body has a specific genetic code determining how fat, short, thin, or tall he is. Pushing a seemingly heavy child to eat will only cause them to reject the food when you serve it, and secretly make up for it at a later time. Young children should not be taught to take on the adult views of what is or what isn’t a healthy body, they do not have the maturity nor the capacity to understand the terms healthy or unhealthy and it is important to let their bodies tell them what is or isn’t right concerning eating. Let a child decide for himself how much he should eat at each meal, he is obeying those natural hunger signals that are built within each of us.
Basis for Recommendations
The Division of Responsibility was devised by Ellyn Satter, MS RD LCSW BCD. She is an internationally recognized authority with 40 years of experience behind her. Her methods emphasize an individuals own aptitude for proper food behavior to develop.
Personal Experience
I see the contrast of this method in two of my Aunts, both my mother’s sisters. One short-order cooked, fed her child whenever he desired, and bought high-fat or high-sugar foods. She is dealing with an overweight, always snacking, unhappy child. My other Aunt fed her kids regularly scheduled meals, always healthy yet familiar, and kept nutritious snacks on hand for her kids to find for themselves if they were hungry throughout the day. She also kept all of the “unhealthy” foods locked up in a cupboard reserved for special occasions. Her children today are very healthy and active, with a positive relationships towards food and its benefits.
Over time, though the changes may be slow, you will see your child start to take on a naturally healthy view towards nutrition and you will find it is easier to provide them with the food and let them decide what they want to eat when they want to eat it.

Main Page - Provopedia

Main Page - Provopedia: "Provopedia is like a pot-luck dinner: it's the sum-total of our contributions, except instead of food we're dealing with information (which apartment complexes are good, what auto shops to avoid, how to throw a sweet house-party, etc)."

Check this out!

BTW, I updated my Firefox and found out about this nifty little extension that lets me blog anything really quickly. I just highlighted that text and right cliked and a window opened up for me. Pretty sweet.

Another Women's Studies paper

My last post seemed to be so popular (5 comments is alot for me) I thought that I would post my last paper as well.

See Image Here ( I cannot get the link to work. It says the tag is wrong so I will have to work on that later)

This image brings to mind a song that was very popular during my high school years titled “Barbie Girl”, by a band called Aqua. Its lyrics included lines that said

I'm a barbie girl, in the barbie world
Life in plastic, it's fantastic!
you can brush my hair, undress me everywhere
Imagination, life is your creation

Almost every little girl grows up playing with Barbie’s. I read somewhere once that the percentage of girls ranging in age from 2-12 who played with Barbie’s was somewhere around 90%. Any young mind can spend hours imagining the different worlds of adventure that they can visit with their perfect, yet hardly realistic, plastic friend. By presenting this young model as a Barbie, the makers of Moschino Jeans have objectified a human being to the point that she actually becomes that unattainable shell of a toy that we all grow up playing with.

Objectification is to present or regard something as an object. This woman has lost everything that makes her a living breathing human being. Because of this we can almost allow ourselves to treat her as a “thing”, impersonally, without feeling. By turning her into an entity, the advertisers have made her into an unattainable shell that other woman idolize yet never become. Women will cut out this picture, hang it on their refrigerators, force themselves to compare their bodies to this woman’s as they forbid themselves that last bite of dinner for the night. This woman, like many other fashion models, does not represent 98% of the American female population. She represents what is the unhealthy, unrealistic goal of far too many women.

The woman in this picture is bound in an awkward position to the wall behind her. Her stance in wide with her feet and knees pointing inwards, making her look unbalanced and unsteady. If she is unable even to stand up straight and support her weight, how can she face the world around her? Her arms are bent at unnatural angles, not only making her look odd, but unwilling as well. As in many advertisements, there is an imbalance in the careful lighting of this photograph. Closer inspection reveals that the lightest part of her body is her pubic area and legs; her face is darkened and covered by shadows. Highlighting the sexual areas of her body, while hiding her face, gives us an excuse not to recognize her for the human being that she is. The advertisers hope that the viewers of this add will desire to buy their products in the same manner one might desire after the body of this young woman.

The position of this woman and the lighting of her body make her look powerless; anyone who wanted too could take control of not only her body, but her mind. Barbie’s can be molded to become anything that the imagination desires. Do the makers of this advertisement and this brand of clothing want to mold the women who buy their items into whatever they desire? If this ad had been truly been designed with a woman in mind, clothes would actually be sold, not sex. Avenues to accomplish this can involve stunning photography and amazing set design; there would never be any need to stoop to the degradation of the pornographic image above. It is the mind of a man that believes showing half-naked and submissive photos of women will sell clothing or products. Ads such as this one can considered the illustration of how men view and value women’s bodies. They would rather turn her into a defenseless doll, this woman is easy to manipulate and control, just as they would like to do with the women around them.

By using images of sexually stimulating young women in their ads, advertisers for major clothing brands across the world hope that they can convince women that buying their clothing will turn them into the young woman they see before them. Women are smart enough to realize that this woman has a physique that is very desirable, and may fall into the trap of thinking that if they do not look like this presently, buying this brand of clothing may help them become like this woman in the future. The marketers behind this ad for Moschino may also hope the women who do represent the ideal will identify with an ad featuring a girl who is bound and confined. Many beautiful women are just as unhappy as the other 99% of the female population who are not considered alluring by the world’s standards.

At first glance this ad may be considered slightly appealing. The color scheme is well thought out, and Barbie’s are thought of as the ideal toy as well as image. Just like a young girl molds her Barbie into what she wants it to be, so will the designers of this ad manipulate you into becoming what they want you to become. Just as they took advantage of this young woman, so will they take advantage of their consumers in an effort to make a little extra money.

Paper for Women's Studies

I wanted to post this paper that I wrote for my Women's Studies class. Kim it was inspired by your post on breast feeding in public. I never realized that I felt so strongly about Women's rights and the sexualization of women. Let me know what you guys think.

Breasts and the Sexualization of Women

If a child were to learn everything he knew about breasts from television and the media he would think that breasts are meant to be shameful, sexual, forbidden, big and upright, and existing solely for the pleasure of men. Exposure of breasts is considered indecent exposure in many places, and a man by the name of Joe Francis is now a millionaire from a home video series called Girls Gone Wild that features young women frequently baring their breasts to the world. Young girls who are exposed to the “fake and perfect” breasts of Hollywood develop a distorted view of their own bodies, eventually yearning for this perfection and attempting to realize it through plastic surgery. In all actuality, breasts are only reproductive organs because they produce milk. As a culture we must realize that though breasts are a part of what makes a woman female, they are not intended for a sexual purpose.

To understand how outrageous it is for breasts to be regarded in the way that they are, it is important to understand what other cultures value, as well how they view a woman’s bosom in their own culture. In our own culture during the 1920’s a flat chest was seen as the ideal. Bra’s were invented during this time to flatten a woman’s chest; strange to imagine in our society of push-up bra’s and implants. It is not just our culture that resorts to strange methods to changing the natural shape of a woman’s body. Padaung women in Burma are considered appealing if they have long necks, through the use of metal rings introduced around the age of five a young engaged girl can have a neck that is stretched up to 25 cm. In Vanuatu, Malakula a young child’s head is bound from the time that it is 1 month old. This process is continued for about 6 months to produce the desired, elongated shape of the head. A person with a finely elongated head is thought to be more intelligent, higher in status and closer to the world of spirits. Ironically, the women of the 1800’s worried about being too thin. In an advertisement from 1890 Professor Williams comes to the aid of women who would like to gain a few extra pounds.

Don't look like those poor unfortunates who, shorn of her artificial inflationary devices & pads, must, in the confines of her bedroom, through shame, try to cover her poor thin figure from the gaze of her beloved spouse.

"In four weeks Professor William's famed FAT-TEN-U Foods increased my weight by 39 pounds, gave me new womanly vigour and developed me finely."

Professor William's "Fat-Ten-U Foods are guaranteed to make the thin Plump & Rosy with an Honest Fleshiness of Form!

As we reflect on what we value as American’s today, it is easy to see that the things that makes a woman beautiful change extensively over time. Today when women are seen wearing leggings, extremely big hair, and gaudy makeup, they are termed to be “living in the past” or “living in the 80’s”. Yet, twenty years ago those things were the very height of fashion. Just as the view of what makes a woman’s overall appearance enticing has changed, so have the ideas about what is the ideal shape of a female chest. Not all men in the world have such a distorted view of the mammary glands however. Carolyn Latteier, the author of Breasts, The Women’s Perspective on American Obsession, relayed some of her views on the subject.

"Well, we do have a peculiar obsession with breasts in this culture. A lot of people think it's just the human nature to be fascinated with breasts but in many cultures, breasts aren't sexual at all. I interviewed a young anthropologist working with women in Mali, in a country in Africa where women go around with bare breasts. They're always feeding their babies. And when she told them that in our culture men are fascinated with breasts there was an instant of shock. The women burst out laughing. They laughed so hard, they fell on the floor. They said, "You mean, men act like babies?"

The women of the Mali culture were amazed to hear that men could have such a fascination with something that they had to deal with every day. The sexual attitude that the Western culture has developed concerning a women’s chest has classified them as sexual organs, another part of the female genitals. This assumption is incorrect; breasts have no part in producing a child, merely in nourishing one. The basic anatomy of the breast is the glands, fatty tissue, ducts, and nipple. Instead of honoring it for the miracle that it is, men have turned the breast into an obsession. It is interesting to note that it is the nipple itself that seems to be causing all of this stir. Some of the string bikini’s seen on music videos are nothing more than two tiny triangles on top, but as long as her nipple is covered the soft porn on display is allowed. The nation was shocked to see Janet Jackson bare her breast during the halftime show of the Superbowl game, yet they had know problem with the provocatively dressed dancers surrounding her who were bumping and grinding with everything they had.

Many women across our country, as well as countries much like ours have attempted to confront this backwards way of thinking. The Topfree Equal Rights Association was started to fight back against this view of breasts by emphasizing that fact that if a man is able to take his shirt off in a public facility, so should a woman. Many people will attempt to fight against movements such as these for varying reasons. Conservatives will simply not approve, but it would be the pornographic industry that would fight back the hardest against the de-sexualization of women. Without the mystery and forbidden nature of a woman’s chest the porn industry would lose billions of dollars each year. Arguments will also be given that defend the biological and chemical differences in men and women and in their brains. These arguments cannot hold their own, since it is not all cultures that feel this way about breasts.

Though the concept of women walking around topless equally with men is a bit extreme, as a culture we need to change our view about women and their bodies in general. Women should never be rebuked for breastfeeding in public, and young women across the country should not feel so extremely bad about their bodies that they would resort to methods as drastic as plastic surgery. It is unfortunate that the upcoming generations of children will be raised to think that the purpose of the breast is to sell beer, instead of providing the best possible nutrition for the baby.

Trivia Question

An examination of the 1989 issues of Sports Illustrated Magazine found that of the 644 photographs of females, only __% were of athletes, and these were concentrated in a very few sports, especially tennis.

Trivia Question

This has turned into "What can I do to stump Kim question"

What are the permeable capillaries that recieve the tissue fluid, but also allow any bacteria, viruses, or cancer cells in the loose connective tissue to travel throughout the body with ease?

Hello Everyone

I went home last weekend and it was so fun. Trevor Safford went with me, and we visited the pigs, picked some apples, visited my grandparents dairy and watched a calf be born, went to the homecoming game (Everyone is asking Shaylene who my boyfriend was), went to a hockey game, went to a haunted house, played some playstation, carved pumpkins. Basically did everything you could ever want in 2 days.

I have been running around like crazy for the past few weeks after I got involved with BYUSA (the student leadership association) as the Program Director for the Baby Pageant during Homecoming week. I dont think that I ever could have guessed how time consuming that job would be, but now that it is all over, I definitely think that it was worth it. I did skip a few too many classes and I havent seen my roommates for a long time, but I am stil really glad I did it, and I think that next year I would like to work in the offices Luckily I have awhile before I decide on that because it is such a big deal and such a large time commitment. I really like the people that I work with in the office, and it is a great feeling to know that I helped such a large group of people have a good time. Everyone I talked too said they walked away from the pageant with a really good experience. There were about 100 babies who particpated, and I was even in the Daily Universe (BYU's newspaper). Newsnet still does not have the article up on their website.

When I was getting the prizes ready for the baby pageant, I did something so cool. One of the categories had a football signed by the football team, and a volleyball signed by the volleyball team as a prize. When I took the volleyball and football down to be signed, I took an extra volleyball and an extra football down with me and has those signed as well. Now my aparment has the football on display, and I am going to give the volleyball to my sister for Christmas.

Things are going pretty good with my roommates, I hardly ever see them because I am so busy, but I dont regret living with them. We do have a few minor arguments (nothing verbal, girls never say anything to each other, they just vent to the other girls that they live with), but nothing too out of the ordinary for college life. We have cleaning checks on Tuesday, but we arent worried about that becaue I am friends with the girl that checks us off and I dont think that she will fail us.

School is hard, and I am basically failing every class that I am taking. I am going to have to devote my life to the lab this week, somethign which I am not excited about because spending time with dead bodies is anything but fun. I dont hate it as much as I did when I started, my TA taught me that sucking on Jolly Ranchers will keep me from getting sick, and it is pretty cool to learn about how the human body works. I have started looking into majoring in Dietetics, which I think I would love, but if I do I am going to have to try a little harder in nutrition. I dont think that they will appreciate an F on my transcript for the basic nutrition class. If I do go into Dietetics, I will reapply for Film, this time for the minor, which I think will be so perfect me, as well as a minor in women's studies.

When I right click and drag the mouse around in my Firefox browser it makes some red lines. Does anyone know why this happens?

Us and Apartment 11 are going to Disneyland the first week of December and we are so excited about it. Any suggestions on places we should visit in LA?

Questions of the Day (Feel free to post your answers as comments!)
1-If you were starting a rock band what would you name it?
2-Do you prefer Peanut butter on both slices or peanut butter on one slice, jam on the other?
3-Who is your favorite superhero?
4-If you could have one super power what would it be?
5-What scares you more than anything?

Trivia Question

What Native American tribe does this story originate from?

Before the beginning, water was everywhere. But no people, animals, or earth
were visible.
There were birds, however, who held a council to decide if it
might be best to have all land or all water. "Let us have land, so we can have
more food," said some of the birds. Others said, "Let's have all water, because
we like it this way."
Subsequently, they appointed Eagle as their Chief who
was to decide one way or the other. Eagle decided upon land and asked, "Who will
go and search for land?"
Dove volunteered first and flew away. In four days
he completed his hunt and returned, reporting, "I could not find land anywhere."
Crawfish came swimming along and was asked by the council to help search for
land. He disappeared under the water for four days. When he arose to the surface
again, he held some dirt in his claws. He had found some land deep in the water.
Crawfish made a ball of the dirt and handed it to Chief Eagle, who then flew
away with it. Four days later he returned and said to the council, "Now there is
land, an island has been formed-- follow me!"
The whole bird colony flew
after Eagle to see the new land, though it was a very small island. Gradually,
the land began to grow larger and larger as the water became lower and lower.
More islands appeared and these grew together, creating larger islands into one
earth.

Crazy Suicide Story

1994's Most Bizarre Suicide.
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given by the American Association for Forensic Science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:"On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head. The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency).
As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this." "Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been successful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands. "The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus. "When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her -therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is, the gun had been accidentallyloaded. "The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus. There was an exquisite twist. "Further investigation revealed that the son [Ronald Opus] had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window. "The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide."

Trivia Question 18

Name the female athelete who, while competing in a national amateur track meet for women, entered the meet solo (in a team event) and still took the gold, scoring thirty points total.

Trivia Question 17

Today's trivia question is a story. Your only hint is that this story comes from Russian History. Your job is to find the name of the Princess who did all of these mean and nasty things, and what tribe it was that killed her husband and caused her wrath.

The greatly revered and later canonized _______________, the grandmother of _______, took over the ________ throne upon her husband's demise. Her first action recorded in the chronicles was to avenge her husband's death. And she did it not once, but twice, and in a very creative fashion at that.

Now it must be said, in all fairness, that Princess_____ husband had it coming. After all, what could you expect, as a prince, if you tried to collect taxes twice in one year? Nevertheless, the ________________ should not have tied the Great Prince's legs to two saplings, and... You get the idea.

After the deed was done, the ________ chieftain sent a marriage proposal to Princess ______. In his mind, since he had killed her husband, he had a duty to take over the role, and since he had defeated the said prince, he thought _______ should be flattered by his proposal. But she wasn't (would you?). Yet she dissembled, and persuaded him to send his envoys. _____ pretended to show them great honor by having her men carry the ________ boats from the river ________ towards the Prince's residence... and straight into a huge pit where they were buried alive, lock, stock, and barrel, or should I say ship?

But that was not enough. ______ pretended to enter into peace negotiations with the ________ and urged them to send a dove from each house in their city. When ______ received the doves, she sent them back with a burning branch tied to each one. The doves returned home and set a great many fires which burned the _________ city to the ground. Only then was ______ satisfied.

_______ went on to rule for a long time, first by herself, then as regent during the long absences of her son, with great ability and wisdom. But let this be a lesson and a warning: Russian women are not frail and helpless damsels in distress!

Trivia Question 16

What is the proper name for the heel of your sock?

True Blue Baby

Trivia Question below this post.

I am eating a very huge and delicious pomegranate with blue fingernails. My feet are blue, underneath my arms is blue, and my face still has a slightly blue tint. Yes, tonight I participated in the marvel known as True Blue Football. I think its one of my favorite activities on campus, and tonight I heard a great comment "Its probably the closest that BYU gets to putting on activities like other colleges have all of the time."

I really agree with that comment for 2 reasons. First, because BYU is trying so hard to keep people from getting drunk and partying too hard, that some of their activities arent as fun. The second is because this is an activity without all of the attempts to impress the opposite sex that other activities have. The girls that I saw who were dressed up just looked stupid when they ended up getting blue dye all over themselves.

For some strange reason, I really loved running the grill. I cooked hamburgers and hotdogs for about an hour, and I think I could have done it all night. (Other than the smoke that is). I also made a new friend.

I quit my job today. Yes, I finally put in my two weeks notice, and I am not looking back. No more job for me for the rest of the semester. I have to pass anatomy, which is going to take everything I have. I am not meant to be a doctor.

The baby pageant is over, and I loved every second of it. I think that I would really enjoy being a member of BYUSA for next year.Maybe I will be lucky enough to be present when they pass the torch. As an Executive Director of course.

I have decided what I am going to go into, for sure. (I know you have heard this before, but I am not letting myself change after this.) A major in dietetics, with a minor in film (hopefully) and Women's Studies. I love Women's Studies. I could discuss it all day long. Sometime I will bring up some of the issues that interest me and see what everyone else thinks.

I hate this Letter of the Week, that was published in the Daily Universe. Get a life sweetheart, turn on the lights, pee, and leave the rest of us who need a nap in peace.

Site of the day (Yes its back!)-My children will all have one of these.

Trivia Question 15

What band recently did a disco-cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and is fronted by an ex go-go dancer?

Trivia Question 14

What movie is this quote from?

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.

Trivia Question 13

How many flowers must a honey bee tap to make 1 lb of honey?

Trivia Contest Resumes

I am starting back up again with a bang. Question 12 is worth 3 points.

As for Trivia question 11, I am going to give the point to Kim because he kept trying so hard, and I dont know if I was clear enough on what I was looking for. I was looking for "Earth's oldest living inhabitant "Methuselah" at 4,767 years, has lived more than a millennium longer than any other tree." The Bristlecone Pine found in California.

Trivia Question 12-Salem Witch Trials
Approximately how many people were arrested? How many were actually tried? What year was this in? How many of those who were tried were sentenced to death? How did they die? (Specifically how did they die, for instance you could say that 12 were hung, 3 were decapitated, etc etc.)

Its That Time Again

Running on 2 hours of sleep, I am completely exhausted. Give me some time to recuperate and study and I will be here for you all yet again. Yes the trivia contest will resume. Unfortunately I need to memorize all of the muscles and bones of the body first. As well as a few other things. Wish me luck. The average score on these tests is below a 75% percent. But of course I am above average.

Community Laundry

I know that it is normal for all blogs in the bloggernacle to post their thoughts on conference the day after. I am going against the grain and posting on something totally different. Maybe I will get around to conference later.

Last year I lived in the female dorms so we had a female laundry room in the basement. If I remember correctly boys werent even supposed to be allowed into the laundry room. I dont know why any boy would be interested in going in there, unless he was a perverted underwear-stealing-kleptomaniac.

This year I live off-campus and have had to come to terms with what I call "Community Laundry". Its almost like a sporting event with activities like the "Drag and Haul" (Just how far can you drag a laundry basket with 6-weeks of clothes in it without looking as tired as you feel?) and my personal favorite "Handful and Hurry or the Armful and Shuffle" (In other words, should you grab your laundry by the handful and move back and forth from the dryer to the washer faster, or should you try to cut it down to one trip and risk dropping your undies?) I am more of an armful at a time person, although I would resort to the handful and hurry if I got the washer furthest from the dryer.

Its just weird for me to be carrying on a conversation with someone while moving my unmentionables around. Doing my laundry during the day is the only way I can thing of to solve this problem. Otherwise I must resort to stimulating discussions of whether Tide and Cheer work better, and why Fels Naptha is the best thing ever invented.

Then there is the question of whether you should move people's wet laundry out of the washer when they forget to change loads. What do you do with it if you do? Carry it over to the counter, leave it on top of the washer? Dump it in a dryer? Leave hate notes for them? Rewash it with something bright red and ruin all of their clothing? Of course this is the type of thing that you would only attempt if you are alone int he laundry room, you don't want to get some kind of reputation. I think it is everyones pet peeve when people leave their laundry in the washer for 6 hours, especially since most college kids wait to wash their clothes until they are on the last pair of underweare to their name. Washing them in the sink is not an option. Plus how would you dry them, with your blowdryer?

I know I am spoiled, many people have been doing their laundry at the laundromat for their entire lives. What do you do while you are waiting for your laundry at places like that? Is there food? Are there tables for you to sit at? I am guessing that they have a large supply of Reader's Digest. What place would be complete without them.

Check back later for more astute observations on daily college life.

Back on Track

Blog Entry for October 1st

I'm alive! I know that you probably didnt think so, but I am still going strong. In fact that is the reason I have been lax in my blogging, I have been going so strong I havent had time for anything other than those things that are absolute necessities. Sadly, blogging does not fall at the top of my list of things that have to be done each day, although I would like it to be. I hope to post every 2 or 3 days from now on, hopefully I can begin to settle into a normal schedule.

The trivia contest will now resume with a bang with 3 questions. Get all 3 right and win a gmail invite. The first to 10 pts will still get one as well. You are free to win as many gmail invites as you want. Give them out to your friends, do with them what you please. Its a beautiful thing.

Lately rumor has been spreading that Mt. St. Helens may blow its top again. My parents had their graduation postponed because of the eruption of 1980 and I have seen many pictures and heard many stories of the event. I am sad that I am not going to be there for it this time, but not too sad. You can't drive your car in the ash, which means that my sister will be stuck at home with my parents for long periods of time. Something that I am sure she would not want to happen. It also is such a huge pain to clean up and take care of, although pushing the ash off of the roof might be fun, Shaylene and I always enjoyed sneaking onto the roof of our house when we were younger.

I have been so busy because I got invovlved with BYUSA a few weeks ago. It started out when I became a chair for Fall Fest (I ran the X-Box station), and continued from there when they asked me to be the Baby Pageant director. I am just following in my mom's footsteps more and more every day (My mom has run and been involved with our local Junior Miss Pageant for many years). I was/am excited about it, but I dont think I could have ever predicted what a huge time commitment this activity would be. Katie, my supervisor, wants to meet with me every single day. I feel stressed about whether I should sleep, finish my homework, or work on the baby pageant. And on Wednesday I skipped all of my classes to finish the proposal. Definitely not good. I have been debating whether I would like to become a part of BYUSA (as opposed to just a volunteer) but there are so many pro's and con's to the issue that I have a hard time knowing what would be right.
Pro's
-Great leadership experience
-Good way to pump up a resume
-Meet fun people who share the same interests
-Learn how to develop business relationships
-I get to tell people what to do
-Have control over the activities that go on at BYU
-I get a name tag
-After you get a program approved you get to use the BYU credit card
-How cool is it to be given $1000 and hear "Okay do what you want with it" (well sort of, this is tithing money so they are very careful about how it is spent, but essentially I get to design whatever kind of a program that I want)

Con's
-Very time consuming
-Hard to find people to delegate work too, end up doing too much myself
-Very stressful
-If I dont like the people that I work with I will be spending 2 hours a day with them
-I have to block out M-F 3-5

Those are the basic things that I have a hard time/really like about it. I will have to keep mulling it over until the pageant happens. I know that I cant wait until the 1eth to decide because I will be so hopped up on excitement that it will seem like an easy choice. I hate choices.

I am excited for General Conference this weekend for a few reasons.
1. What other time do we have to sit around in our pajamas and watch TV and not feel guilty about it?
2. I love playing conference bingo and trying to get as many people as I can to play Don't Eat Pete
3. I think the prophet is the greatest man on the face of the earth and I love listening to him
4. Its always exciting to find out what conference rumors are true and which are not
5. You know that the a huge uproar is going to follow the actions of the protestors over the weekend. The Daily Universe will most definitely have something to say about it (whether or not that something will be good/worth saying is very subjective)

Happy Conferencing to all of you Saints, and a great weekend to the rest of you. You will hear from me soon.

By the way, I loved this little gem of a post.