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.

Roommates

I live with 3 former dancers (all captains of their drill teams in high school) and when I came home today they were all having this huge dancing party. Micheal Jackson was blasting and they were just going for it. Now they are talking in the language of Sims (Aygay Orgay). I love my roommates.

I decided today that I dont want any of my roommates to get married soon. We just have to much fun together. Being with a male all the time can not possibly be as fun as this. This reminds me of the song "Why cant a woman be more like a man" from My Fair Lady. Except I want to know why a man cant be more like a woman.

Rocinha and Pirate Talk

This is what happens when you are very desperate for a date. Or else very crazy.

Website of the Day- Learn to Talk Like A Pirate

Blog of the Day-Maybe it isnt a blog, but it is falling under the Blog of the Day category. Rocinha. Here is an excerpt from their website telling what it is all about.

And it was fascinating. First off, it was visually intense: the tiny houses and crazy vertical separation from one street to the next made the whole place feel like an ewok village, and ensured that every rooftop had a stunning view of Copacabana beach, Corcovado, and the rest of Rocinha curving up and around the mountain.

And whether or not we were exploiting them, people were very friendly, and little kids ran out of their houses excited to see us. I let them use my camera, and showed them pictures of themselves on the LCD, and they'd laugh and call their friends over.

As we're nearing the bottom of the hill and starting to head home, I was thinking about how much the kids enjoyed using my camera, and wouldn't it be interesting to see what they photographed on their own, if they had their own cameras.

And so The Plan was formed.

Trivia Question 11

What is the oldest living thing in existence? How old is it? Where is it located?

Trivia Question 10

The first toothbrush with bristles was developed in China in 1498. What animal supplied the bristles for this first toothbrush?

Trivia Question 9

J. Francis you are up too 5 points, Suzie you have 1, Justin you have 2

What is the most popular food item ordered in sit-down restaurants across the U.S.?

Trivia Question 9

J. Francis you are up too 5 points, Suzie you have 1, Justin you have 2

What is the most popular food item ordered in sit-down restaurants across the U.S.?

Trivia Question 8

What are the two lines that connect your upper lip to your nose called?

Smittens

Maybe if I had a pair of these I might get a little more action this Winter.

Trivia Question 7

What is the only animal that is born with horns?

We Must Always Remember

We Must Never Forget

Every single night I come home so late and tell myself that it is time to post, yet when it gets down to it it never seems to happen. I want to do better though because there is something about writing on here that is slightly theraputic. I would say its a good thing that I am so busy, college is all about being social and I certainly feel like I am doing enough of that. From this point on I will commence describing my life in college. Because that is what you keep coming back for right?

There are so many things that are unique about the BYU college expereience, and the things that we dream up to do (instead of throwing back shot glasses and lighting up) are probably the biggest difference. Things like spying on the girl next door as her boyfriend drops her off, getting Maverick Yo-Cream (95 cents!) every night, and feeling slightly guilty when we realize that its 1:00 in the morning and we still have boys in the apartment. Big emphasis on the word "slightly".
Here are a few things that we have done the past few weeks.

As I tell you this story I wish I had never revealed my identity at the risk of someone in my apt. complex being angry with me.
In our apartment complex many of the girls have the annoying habit of not knowing how to park in-between the lines. I would think they would have learned something about lines when they were in Kindergarden. Isnt that when you were told that its best to stay inside them? Many times when I come home at night I will have to skip past 5 or 6 spots because I cant fit The Regal in without scractching off some paint. After a few nights with this I was so fed up that I came up with a plan. I took post-it notes, and in the wierdest handwriting I could muster wrote "Try parking in-between the lines next time". I took the huge thing of vaseline that I have and two of my roommates came outside with me as the diversion. They stood in the middle of the parking lot and danced while I smeared globs of vaseline underneath peoples car door handles. We made sure to leave each person a nice little note to let them know why this dreadful thing had happened to them. I think it worked pretty well because as near as I have seen there haven't been any more problems. Yesterday we saw one of the worst offenders with drips of melted vaseline down the side. Sucker.

As I mentioned we had been getting Yo-Cream from Maverick lately, almost every night. This stuff is amazing 95 cent fat-free ice cream, and the best part is that you can fill your cone up as high as you want. Sometimes we even get refills. If you have a Maverick near you, I reccomend that you give it a try yourself.

Lately our apartment has become "The place" to hang out. Last night there were about 20 people eating Lucky Charms, playing spoons, watching friends, and playing DDR. Most of this at the same time as well. I still dont really know anyone in our ward but I am getting there.

Last night was Fall Fest and I thought it went really good. I was the chair for the X-Box station, and other than the speakers blowing out, everything pretty much went off wihtout a hitch. DDR was pretty popular, and it was awesome to watch some of the really good people. I would love to be that good, but I dont necessarily want to be playing so much that I get there. I didnt get to see the rest of Fall Fest because I had to stay with the X-Xbox stuff the whole time, but I didnt feel like I missed out too much, and I still had a lot of fun. I did have to tell some boys that they couldn't play Halo, which I hated, but its BYU so what did they expect?

Trivia Question 6

Who was it that shot an apple off of his son's head, and what was his son's name?

Trivia Question 5

What is the part of a belt that holds the end in place called?

Unrest in the Big Apple

Many blogs are talking about the protests and general unrest that was going in on New Yorklast week becaue of the Republican Convention. I thought everyone might be interested in seeing some of the picture and hearing some of the stories of people who are in the middle of it all right now.
Pictures can be found here, here (arrests being made), here, here (picture with descriptions), here (picture along with the story of an arrest), and my favorite one so far which talks about an arrest that never should have happened.

Trivia Question 4

Which state was the first to put a seat belt law into effect, and what year did they do so?

Money vs. Love

MSN.com had an article the other day, that I really wish I could have saved. I cant find it now, but that article is the inspiration for my post today. I found an article over at Forbes.com that I think is just as good. "My Job, Myself, My Problem". Starting out my sophmore year of college has really made me start thinking about this. Should I go into something that I absolutely love, or something that will guarantee me security?

My mom tells me about how she really was excited and interested in Interior Design in college, but decided to become a Dental Assistant instead because she didnt know if being an Interior Designer was "practical" enough. I would think that there are a lot of people who end up doing the same thing in their own lives because they dont want to be worried about money, they want to be uber succesful (the CEO of a large company, succesful politician, etc.), or they feel pressure from their parents to do something that they dont really want too. So they might end up becoming a Doctor or a Lawyer because they associate money and success with happiness.

On the other side of the spectrum are the people that dwell in the Liberal Arts. They are the people who work in Non-Profit, the Teachers, the Artists, etc. Instead of focusing on the future they dive right in and start doing what they know that they love. They trade in Beamers, 3,000 sq. ft. houses, and unlimited budgets for job satisfaction and the knowledge that they will be getting up every day to go to a job that they love.

I am not saying that people who become Doctor's and Lawyer's only do so for the money, nor am I saying that if you become an Artist you will always live a poor and lowly lifestyle.

But the question does need to be addressed for me. Should I go into Film or Fitness and Wellness? 2 things that I know I will love and always be very happy with, but dont necessarily supply people with large amounts of money. Or should I go into Psychology or Business because I know that I could live a comfortable lifestyle in one of those occupations.

The article over at Forbes quotes that 55% of people used the words exhausted, confused and unsupported to describe their job. My boss at the Tennis Club talks all the time about "job satisfaction" and I think that is the key to being happy in work. Keep busy, be productive, and always look for ways to improve. That is how I can be happy with what I do. The problem is that I am still unsure of how to choose exactly what that is.

Those of you who are already out of college and in your jobs, what do you think? Those of you who are in the same position that I am, what are you planning? What is your motivation behind choosing the profession that you do?

Trivia Question 3

That last question was a humbling experience, I guess I will have to do a little more homework on these questions from now on. But remember thats how it goes with school, you win some you lose some.

I am going to give both J. Francis and suzie a point because the widespread opinion seems to be that it was something under 10. Sorry JL, but it sounds like at least one of her poems was published.

Suzie-2
J. Francis-3
Everyone else-0

Question 3
What were the original 8 jelly bean flavors launched by Jelly Belly?

I plan on posting a real post tommorow, I am so burnt out lately though, 5 hours a sleep a night is not doing it for me.