How Life Relates to a Business Executive Lecture

First of all, I have to say this weather is ridiculous. Torrential downpour all day doesn't make me feel much like leaving the house, even though I already had to, but when it has actually been SNOWING on my side of the mountains for 3 hours?? Yeah, I'm really not happy. Here's what it looks like outside right now:

Here's what it SHOULD look like:

Mother Nature, did you forget that it's April now?? Did you fail that portion of the test where you match up the month of the year with the correct temperatures and sunshine quantity? Because this is all wrong!


But what I really wanted to talk about was this cool lecture I attended today for a business class. I think most universities have this, where successful business people (CEO's and such) come and talk for an hour about their success once a week or something, and students get to ask questions when they're done. I've seen a lot of videos of these online, mostly from MIT, as a requirement for a previous business class I took, but today was my first that I actually attended. The experience was interesting firstly because it was the only time I've been in a room with so many people in the college setting. I know most class sizes in college are usually huge, but my school is not like that at all. In fact, I think the most I've ever had in one class is 70 people, and that's way higher than the average. So it was cool.

I took lots of notes throughout the lecture, because I have to do a short write-up as an assignment before the end of the semester, but even if I didn't have to, I probably would have done it anyway because I found the talk so interesting. Even though I'm technically an Accounting major, I still thrive on anything Business, and hearing from the CEO of a fortune 500 company was way cool. The main thing that inspired me to write today was the section on strategic planning in order to achieve your company's goals. This is done by categorizing things into the following 3 levels:

L1: Current Projects
L2: Defined Opportunities
L3: Concepts/Vision

There was a cool graph that related each level to its associated time certainty and risk rating. Current projects are things that you are working on now, that usually you have the most resources in. They have a high time certainty (How debatable is it that I'm writing a blog post right this second?) and low risk. Concepts and Vision, the third category, is for long-term desires a company has but won't make a priority yet because many things need to happen before they're possible. In this level, the time certainty is low and the risk is high. The middle level of Defined Opportunities is where those visions and desires become more attainable and are actually considered as something that might happen soon. Risk and time certainty are in the mid-range. Most often, the thing that moves a project from L3 to L2 is the timing - perhaps one goal of a company involves coordination and transaction with another, and when that other company is ready to move forward, it becomes a Defined Opportunity - you're ready to start talking about the details. An event or project can also move backwards, from a Level 2 to a Level 3, because of certain circumstances, but naturally a project cannot move from a Level 1 to a Level 2 if it's already in progress.

This organized idea was all nice and pleasing to the left side of my brain, but it became even more fun when I realized this concept can be applied to everyday life. Current Projects that I'm currently working on include finishing up this semester's classes, planning an end of the year Apprentice party (it is facebook official now), and looking for a job. Defined Opportunities include planning my birthday party and maybe looking for an apartment. That one could also fall into the Concepts/Vision category, where I also keep the far-off dream of taking a trip to Disneyland with friends and getting my motorcycle's license. Essentially, this system of categorizing goals and plans is a way of setting relative priorities to all the things going on in your life. Most people probably do this naturally without even thinking about it, which is why I think it's interesting that we can match a given model for business strategies to the human psyche.

The speaker at this lecture also laid out many other foundational beliefs, such as his company's core elements of success being Geographic Growth and Innovation, which lead to constantly increasing Productivity. That sounds pretty boring, but the explanations provide meaningful significance. Let's zoom in a little on productivity though - one of my favorite words, along with the similar word efficiency, which always get me going inside. Just ask my mentors at IV and they'll confirm that for you, with giggles on the side, since apparently it's so amusing that I'm this excited about the weird things that nobody seems to want to pay attention to in this organization! If the Accounting thing doesn't quite work out, I'm sure I can find another career in business that satisfies this desire of my heart.

I also couldn't resist jotting down some of the last small pieces of advice, no matter how obvious or cliche they seemed: "Pursue the Premier," "It's easy to be mediocre," strive for a "culture of constant improvement," and "A good leader is never satisfied." Whether you aspire to be the leader of a global company traded on the NYSE or not, these are probably good principles to live by in any job or walk of life. Never settle for anything less than premier, or else your heart won't be in it, and you don't want to end up someone who hates their job. Because after all, when you're not going to school anymore, you're pretty much working all the time. I myself am pretty set on not letting that happen, which is why it was so important to me that I figure out what I like to do before picking some ho-hum degree that I didn't love.

So yeah. Those were some of the thoughts circulating around in my noggin today. Part of me is so excited I'm learning all this stuff now, rather than later in life like the majority of the people in that lecture room who already have kids and are going BACK to college. But I shouldn't boast ... I'm definitely thankful for these opportunities. And the application of the learning experiences ? Starts now :)

Nighttime Musings of the List Girl

Will it be possible for me to crank out one more post to add to my February tally? I want to get my numbers back up, but this probably isn't a good idea to just start out writing with no real topic in mind.

See, that's all I've got so far. Stuck already!

We went to Red Lobster today for my dad and brothers' birthdays. It was yummy.

A person from my past who has caused me many conflicted feelings randomly up and texted me today and we had a rather long conversation. I don't know exactly how I'm feeling about it, though. Good, I think, but it's hard to tell. Hopefully when I go to sleep tonight I'll have some sort of revealing dream that makes everything clear. Lately I've been having this issue where I end up having to get up in the middle of these dreams that are just so entertaining, and it's almost depressing to have to leave. It's like I'm placed in someone else's life, where nothing really magical or interesting is happening, but there's a STORY that I'm captivated in, and it's really hard to get up without trying to go back to sleep. That really doesn't sound too special, but when all my dreams as of late aren't memorable at all, the only chance of escaping real life is so appealing.

And then today I was so tired from lack of inadequate sleep this weekend, that I went to take a nap in my room and I just could not fall asleep for some reason. I think a lot of things were going through my mind that I need to take care of this week, and I've just been on such a go-go-go schedule that I can't relax until everything's done. And I could tell that the pressure of only having so much time to sleep before getting up to do things again was making it worse, because when I know I've got a small window for getting good rest, it never ends up happening. Like when I took the ACT for the first time and I wasn't really nervous at all, I just had the worst night's sleep because all I could think about was how much I NEEDED to sleep so I could function well and do a good job. Everybody in the morning was like, "It's totally nerves!" but I was like no it's not, guys, I know what it feels like to be nervous and this is not it. Anxiety, perhaps, but those are completely different. It wasn't anxiety over the test, it was anxiety over getting adequate sleep.

Something I've been thinking about recently - The more I grow older and realize all the funny things that have happened in my family, the more I appreciate those silly experiences that I normally would take for granted. I didn't even know that I was run over by Christopher on his tricycle when we were kids until he said it tonight, but just imagining it makes me laugh. I could tell it was something he remembered vividly, and he was surprised that I didn't. We all have those memories that stick in our minds for some reason even though they're nothing close to monumental events. With our limited capacity at such a young age, I wonder what causes us to keep certain memories and leave others out. For instance, I always always will remember that in kindergarten I taught a girl named Tess how to snap her fingers. Did that mean anything in the course of my life? Of course not, so why do I remember it? Just something to ponder, I guess.

But anyway, I'm going to have to start keeping a catalogue of all the funny stories to tell when new people enter into our family - fiances far in the future, perhaps? People often say we are such a sitcom family (mainly my mom, actually), but I just don't normally think about our experiences in that way. However, I'll always remember the time I was pretending to swing our wooden kitchen mallet at Garrett from across the room and the top part came off flying through the air, soaring across the way and hitting the wall behind him, leaving a serious dent in the wall. And now we'll forever get to tease him about breaking his thumb from running into a tree skiing. I wasn't there so I don't know the circumstances, but just the idea behind it is quite humorous. And now I love telling the story of how I drank a bottle of Benadryl when I was 3 or 4, playing house and being the one who needed medicine, when Christopher tattled on me and I was taken to the children's clinic and forced to throw it all up. Mom never fails to mention how stubborn I was - I didn't want to throw up so I kept holding it in, despite the fluids they gave me to prevent otherwise. This might explain why I have a high tolerance for things that should normally make me gag. I couldn't even be bulimic if I tried, because those muscles have been built up so well to not allow for up-chucking.

Is this getting a little uncomfortable? I still don't know where I'm going with this post.

Another thing - I find it increasingly shocking to myself how much time and effort I'm willing to spend on some of my classes to prep for tests that take up almost no time at all. I would estimate at least 15 hours total of reading/note-taking/studying for my second Visual Arts QUIZ all culminated in a 30 question assessment that took me no more than 20 minutes. The material covered 5 chapters, with so much information that we could have been tested on - 100 questions, easily. I almost feel like I've wasted all that time, but I can't go that way of thinking because there would be no way I could pull off grades in the 90s without it, despite how not time-consuming the quizzes are.

And don't you hate it when you take a test not on the computer and you actually have to wait a few days to know how you did? I'm getting so used to automatically knowing my score when I finish, it drives me nuts that I can't know my grade for the test I took in another class today. I rushed out of the house this morning to get to school early so I could squeeze in extra study time and get my 3X5 notecard ready with the notes allowed, only to forget said blank 3X5 card and have to purchase a whole pack of like 500 hundred just for the one that I needed for 50 minutes. The things you do for good grades . . . Sigh . . . It'll all be worth it when I get my scholarship back and graduate with supreme confidence two years from now in my area of specialty, ready to start my career and take on the world.

Why College Classes Are Messed Up

Dear Blog,

I sincerely want to apologize for being absent for a whole week - not that I haven't done it before - but I've been wanting to write many times, I just have not had time! School and work and social activities are seriously piling up and it has been a stressful few days. Hopefully I will have time to relax over the three day weekend coming up. Actually I shouldn't even be writing now because I still have studying and homework I could be doing! But I couldn't stay away from you much longer :)

As one of my facebook statuses said this week, I'm really sick of putting so much effort into studying and practicing problems for my classes and never being able to get the grades I want. I KNOW the material, but college tests and quizzes are ALWAYS structured so questions come up that are impossible to answer correctly due to strange wording or unexpected topics. In fact, most of the professors I've had tell the class what the high score and the average was after every test, and I never remember hearing that anyone has ever gotten 100%, no matter what class. This is why college sucks! Add to that the typical incorrect answer I always have every time because I'm stupid and I inevitably misread one question - and I get rather cranky ending up with a B (or much drastically worse on some Stats quizzes) instead of a deserved A, since those scores make up the majority of our grade at the end of the class. Seriously, teachers should either curve all tests or give more weight to other regular things, like actual assignments, if the exams are always impossible to ace, by at least one person.

Since I'm on a rant about this right now, I might as well go on about the other things currently pissing me off related to school, although I must be very careful about the specificity of my words. Within the first few weeks of the semester, I declared one of my professors an idiot, in my head and probably on facebook too (unnamed, of course), and I still sometimes hold to that. For instance, today he told the class that the phrase "mind your P's and Q's" came from something that was completely false. Back in 6th grade, and a few times after that, I learned that the phrase meant "mind your pints and quarts," and was used in pubs to remind people to keep distinction between the two sizes. I just now looked this up for confirmation, and sources say it is one of the theories, yet there is no provable origin. However, the point is that what my professor said was completely unrelated and wrong, not cited as a theory on any of the websites I found. I thought he might've been joking at first, but I wasn't sure. I'm choosing to assume that he was being serious because it makes it easier for me to be mad at him. I felt bad for the rest of my class because they probably believed him and are now telling their significant others at home the interesting factoid they learned in _____ class today. Which is wrong.

Another thing the same teacher did was use the nonexistent word "heighth," and even proceed to write in on the board as if it were real. Again, if these people do no know better, I pity their minds for absorbing false knowledge brought on by professors who are bad examples. In the same category, we have online teachers whose syllabi and assignment rubrics are littered with grammatical and spelling errors. I can honestly say that I don't try to stick to the correct rules of grammar all the time on here, but at least I'm aware of it, and I'm not writing for something professional like a college course. It's pretty sad when students can find multiple corrections to make on a single page of text written by their "superior." Not to mention that the actual organization of the instructions for the assignments is so horrible that they don't even make sense half the time.

And have you ever encountered a professor who decides that his way is better than the book? This would typically be OK with me, if a) We weren't still assigned problems that tested us on those debatable methods, where our answers can never be in line with the book, and b) The "better" formulas we learned didn't carry through to every subsequent topic in the class, and possibly even mess us up in following courses. It also doesn't help when the prof says one thing and then confusingly changes it up slightly after you've already messed up on a quiz by following his first advice.

Phew. I think I got most of it out of my system now ... if any more annoyances spring up, I'll add them here and notify readers of the update.

**As far as past updates go, this might seem pretty random but I have to say I was a little harsh on my opinion of Three Days Grace back in the 10 Years post when I compared the two bands. After being reminded of their impressive success with hit singles, I have to correct myself and say that they DO have many memorable songs, and they don't all sound the same. However, I still stand by my statement that their song titles could be more unique for ease with remembrance. But not every song is a hit either, so I wasn't completely out of it when I wrote that post.

I feel much better now. Hope to see you again soon, Blog. I miss our good times.

  -  S

Blood, Hard Rock, Number Crunching, and Technological Innovations

Things I Am Loving Right Now

Giving Blood....
It's hard to explain why this has always been one of my favorite things to do. Despite the whole process taking sometimes up to two hours, and the same person asking me both my name and whether or not I am allergic to iodine 4 times each in 5 minutes, I still enjoy that short amount of time when I can actually give away a piece of myself to share with someone in need. Plus, my blood type is the wildcard for all, which means hospitals need it even more because it matches anyone's blood.

"Until We Have Faces"....
RED's new album (released 8 days ago)!! Words cannot describe how strongly I feel for the sounds I'm hearing on this CD right this minute. RED is one of my top 5 all time favorite bands (Christian/Metal), and yes it takes me a few listens of most albums to start falling in love with the songs, but now that I've heard it enough times, I am head over heels. I wish I could write a legitimate review for a substantial blog post, but all I can say is that this music literally resonates with my soul. It's "hitting the spot," so to speak. One of my favorite expressions in reference to music. If anyone's interested, ask me to recommend a song.

Accounting....
Relief: An emotion I'm feeling as this semester continues and I'm still enjoying my freshly declared major as much as I did when I made the quick decision of what career path to follow. A LOT of information is soaking into my head every week, and I suspect it will only increase in intensity as I progress with this degree. But I actually have fun doing homework and practice exercises, just because the satisfaction of getting the right answer as a product of complete understanding is so awesome! I feel like I own the problems, and what's great is that Accounting is the type of path that people only pick because, like me, they truly like it, or else they wouldn't be doing it at all. I mean, most of you reading probably hear the word and think "Ew, numbers and math," so it would take a lot of outside motivation for a normal person to go that direction. It's never like, "Oh, well, Accounting isn't a complete nightmare so why not?" It's a love or hate thing.

Right now we're on the chapter about Activity Based Costing, which in simple terms is the way you allocate various costs that go into production of goods and services, to the specific products themselves. It's a more accurate, detailed, and complex approach than the broader method using a predetermined overhead rate, which just seems silly to me now (for reasons sort of explained in a second), but as I've been reading, ABC methods are a lot more costly to implement. I was thinking today if I ever partner up with someone to start a business, I'll start off with all the smartest accounting methods, but that may not be possible when they cost so darn much to implement. But seriously, ABC is so much better because you get a much more accurate calculation of the cost to produce each product in a line. Sometimes companies estimate poorly and end up with misleading figures, causing them to make the wrong decisions based on that incorrect information. I wonder if this is making sense to you right now because in my head everything clicks perfectly, and I just hope I'm putting it into words understandably.

Thinking along the lines of publishing again (thinking again, not publishing again), I really REALLY wish I could put a video/sound clip into a book, because sometimes the songs from my posts are what capture my mood and thoughts the best. Sometime during my lifetime this better be made feasible. Heck, we have picture frames with changing photos, and that must've sounded like a crazy idea 30 years ago, but they're totally in use right now. It's just a shame I can't turn the entire first year of my blog into a yearbook, all forms of media included.

But we are at least making progress with cool inventions. Like I said, those digital picture frames are pretty cool, and I've seen ski/board goggles with a camera built in for videotaping. I still think hovercars are taking too long, as are a simpler, portable storage form of music that actually lets you listen at the same time - I'm thinking a USB drive that you can plug headphones into. I always want to get a few CD copies from friends, but until I get them on my laptop and then my ipod, they are stuck on that flat disc unless I can find a CD player, and who carries around a walkman anymore? We could be sharing 50 songs at a time on cheap USB drives (or something similar) and walking around campus listening to those instead of wasting so multiple CDs for the same amount of songs that aren't even accessible by themselves. Does this idea make even less sense than the benefits of accurate cost accounting methods, or can you picture what I'm thinking? Feedback is appreciated.

Also, what do you think are some cool new inventions that have sprung up recently?

Scantron Failure

And the Nobel Piece Prize for Scantron Failure in 2010 goes to ... the List Girl! 

This chick here is a bonafide retard when it comes to filling out scantron forms. For some reason it takes an unusually large amount of effort to get the right bubbles filled in with the right numbers, and matching up with the answers I actually want to choose. I have missed questions on tests that I knew the right answers to because I simply filled in the wrong bubble. This is a big deal in college! Every little multiple choice counts! Additionally, at other times I can fill in the right bubble but it will be on the wrong line, and I'll have to go all the way back to the root of the problem and erase like 20 answers. It always worries me that I don't erase the wrong ones all the way because the machines are so picky about that and I don't want to be marked down because there was still some smudging left, due to a crappy eraser. I made at least 5 mistakes like these today on one scantron sheet alone. Go me...

And there was even one time this semester in class where we completed a practice quiz with about 25 questions and I intelligently started my answers at #2 instead of #1. The beauty of this (yes, sarcasm) was that I had no way of realizing I messed up until I got the sheet back graded with an entire line of red marks on the side, indicating almost every one of my answers was wrong. Imagine my embarrassment when I had to ask my professor if I could fill out a new one. This wasn't 5th grade, this was college. He must think my ACT score was a 12 or something. (However, if this was the case, I could just blame it on my inability to fill in the right bubbles - who knows, maybe I'm still a genius and that is my only error.)

On a somewhat related note, does anybody else get excited when they have four answers in a row that are of the sequence A C D C ? Because it just tickles me. :)

Catching Up With Nothing of Any Real Importance, But Still Interesting Stuff

Hello, blog, long time no see. You've missed me, have you? Well that's nice to hear. I'm kind of having a writing crisis this season, as you may have noticed, since I haven't posted very much in the past few weeks. I feel bad but I just can't do it ... hopefully this funk goes away and I can get back to my regular schedule and get back to loving blogging again.

But here I am, trying. I have no subject for this post yet. I thought I might talk about how much of a creeper I am, since within minutes of posting a facebook status about it, I got 3 or 4 likes. Meaning it was a successful discussion topic ... ? I'm rather pleased that my statuses have been doing so well recently, capturing many likes and comments on each one. I feel like facebook isn't such a waste if people actually pay attention to my activity and conversation is generated.

You know what would be really sweet? If I could publish the spectacularly awesome white paper on this blog that I've been putting so much time into with my group in Technical Writing. We finally finished today after hours and hours of work and stress. It was a 6 week long project that spanned many documents, assignments, and a presentation. I'm so proud of our professional piece of work completed today, it could legitimately be a real white paper produced in a successful business. Of course now that we've spent so much time being nit-picky on every bit of language in the 15 pages, I can't help noticing all the flaws I already have in this one post. BUT I don't care. :) I get to be myself on this blog and I write the way I think, which is in no way perfect.

Back to the creeper thing though - 

Funny story, but I happen to have recently developed a crush on this amazingly designed specimen in my accounting class. He's kind of gorgeous. Quiet and mysterious. (And by kind of gorgeous I mean he's really attractive.) I've never talked to him, and I don't know anything about him except that he asks smart questions, falls asleep adorably sometimes in class because of his work (?), and does not wear a wedding ring. In proper detective fashion, I carefully listened the last time our professor was handing out graded tests, and I caught his last name (it came right before mine!). Upon filing that piece of information away in a safe place in my brain, I was able to look up the one e-mail our professor ever sent the whole class, and scanned the list of recipients till I found his last name. Luckily our school e-mails consist simply of our first and last name, so with that one step I gained the most important part - his whole name!

I owe much thanks to Mark Zuckerburg for ever creating facebook because within seconds I had found him on the internet and was gazing upon his very nicely done profile pic. It's not one of those you can place in a category on a mockery list of all the stereotypical douche pics guys always use (the party pic with beer in one hand and arms around friends in a dark location, or the phone snapshot in the bathroom mirror, etc.). I didn't friend him or anything, that would definitely be really weird. I don't know why I was compelled to look him up at all, but at least now I know his name. I'm really hoping he's in my next accounting class. So yeah. That's my story of creeperness for this week. My services are available in exchange for suitable compensation.

In other news:

- Harry Potter 7 is a good movie.
- I'm even more in love with the new Taylor Swift album.
- I've been producing a lot of awesome mix cd's for friends that I wanted to just upload the playlists for, but they're all specialized to each person and purpose, so that might be ineffective for other people to see.
- Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties are fun, even if they end early. I shall post about that later when the pics are up.
- I had my first Mormon Muffin a few weeks ago. It was HEAVENLY.
- I'm also REALLY enjoying the Hunger Games series!! Man, those books have the best cliff-hangers I've ever seen. You simply MUST obtain the next book as soon as you're done with one. Good thing they're all out now because I would have a hard time waiting a few months/years for more to be published.
- If I had my way this Christmas, I would get the normal amount of presents, plus about 5 pairs of converse on top of that. I can't look at their website without finding too many pairs that I want, but they're all so expensive!
- On the Christmas note, we have a real tree this year, finally. I was expecting it to smell of pine but it actually isn't that fragrant at all. I want to buy a pine-scented candle to light next to the tree so when people come over, they're really impressed with how good the "tree" smells.
- Also pertaining to Christmas, my highly organized and geeky CD Wish List, complete with priority ranking:

I love Excel. I also love music. I also think I might love accounting. I'm thinking I should work for some sort of music production company's finance division. (Wow, that was one noun-compact phrase if there ever was one.)

How to BS
Speaking of technical writing, again (the reference, if you didn't catch it, was in that last statement in parentheses), I have to say that I have actually benefited a lot from this class. I think everybody should take it, because people these days suck at writing intelligently. Our book is great - Technical Communication by Mike Markel   - especially the chapter on "Writing Effective Sentences." It's all about being concise and clear, and eliminating unnecessary words. Very useful for professional documents, but also if you apply the concepts in reverse, it's a great instruction guide for how to BS.

The high school I come from gave us lots of practice in that (unintentionally of course), but these techniques are even more helpful. I can't claim it's a good thing for college students to follow this advice in making papers longer because I expect professors catch onto these things and aren't appreciative of our deceitful efforts. But I bet such tactics work wonders for high school kids. So if anybody who's reading this post is in high school, I recommend you pick up a copy of that textbook. If you're smart, you can find out which principles to use from chapter 10 that it actually advises against that will work wonders for adding length and fancy-speak. The book also has legitimate chapters that tell you how to write a good argument, which you'll end up learning anyway in regular english classes.

That's all I have to say for now. I hope to be back soon but I can't make any guarantees. At least know that my absense is not due to laziness, but other more complicated reasons that I can't explain.

I bid thee farewell.

BOB Challenge 3: The Universe

Technically the topic is something more like "the universe and its vastness." These words bring up bad memories for me, since I unknowingly signed up, in the Spring of 2010, to put myself through the torture of an astronomy class (knowledge of the signing up was there, not the future torture). Anytime the word astronomy comes up in a discussion, I tell people not to take that class, because there is so much information to learn and not enough time. You pretty much have to know everything about the universe!! It's true. And is there no thing bigger than the universe? I think not! If I wanted an A I would've had to put an hour or two a day into reading the book and memorizing things alone, and that does not include time spent on homework. The early chapters talked about some scientific laws and everything about the planets in our galaxy, but then branched out into all other possibly existing pieces of material in the universe, what the stuff is in between, and then the size of the whole thing itself.

Apparently the universe has no boundaries. Scientists try to talk about the shape of the universe, whether it is open or closed, flat, spherical, etc. It's cool and all in theory, but honestly the percentage of people on this planet that care is probably about .00001%. Because as far as I know, our own galaxy is so huge and full of exploration, how can we attempt to solve and know everything about things beyond that? I don't see how we can benefit from it. Traveling from Earth to the Sun takes 8.3 minutes, traveling at the speed of light, which frankly, is not really something I believe is physically possible for human beings and spacecraft to figure out how to do. Not that we'd want to get to the sun of course, but to give you some sense of how big the Milky Way Galaxy is, if Earth were a peppercorn and the sun was a bowling ball, the two would have to sit 78 feet away. A peppercorn! That's tiny! Plus, that's just one sun out of many in this galaxy.

In the scheme of things, I don't give a crap about how large the universe is. I know that the chances of intelligent life on other planets is calculable (we did it in a lab, there are many steps), and that it's also really small. If you want to bring the big bang theory into this, I would just flat out say that's impossible. God had to have created us, given the chances of us existing normally, and how complicated our existence IS. Just looking at the way our bodies are put together and function so creatively is ... well it's just a work of art resulting from great, detailed planning.

I appreciate the universe and the stars and everything. When I'm walking the dogs on a clear night, I'll cup my hands around my eyes and stare at the stars while still walking. They don't move at all. I can almost trick myself into thinking I'm on a treadmill and not going anywhere. It's because they're just that far away, and to us the night sky looks like a dark blanket spread out with bits of light peaking through. I read the textbook, the one that changes every year because things are being discovered so fast. I attempted to learn everything about the universe (ok, it was definitely a half-ass attempt), and I still don't see how it matters to me, or anybody else on this planet. I know studying things in our own galaxy is important to see how Earth is affected, but beyond that I don't really think it matters. Frankly, a good number of people are probably earning salaries based on useless research. Lucky them?

I maintain my position about astronomy class. Don't take it unless you want to go into that field, because you're probably thinking it's an easy, fun general that lets you chill in the planetarium all the time. Yeah, I did fall asleep a lot in my reclined chair in that secluded, dark bubble, which was nice until I tried catching up on the notes. Unless your teacher tests on the most general of material, in which case you probably won't have to study the book AS hard, you're going to spend a lot of time on this class. And it sucks. The end.

Caution: Treacherous Road Ahead

"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

John the Savage knew what was important in life. Brave New World took me months to read, but I'm glad I finally finished it. In this classic by Aldous Huxley about a utopian society some hundred years in the future, the very few people who hold power in the world devote all their time to keeping the entire population in a perpetual state of mere satisfaction and comfort. They don't know pain, love, addiction, hard work, sacrifices, competition, lust ... They don't know about mistakes, because everything in their lives is laid out for them, and if something goes wrong, they take a half-gramme of soma and embark on a mental trip for the rest of the night to la-la-land to cure any problems in the real world.

These people don't know the joys of being independent, earning rewards, being in a passionate relationship, having a FAMILY, being in love with a sport or hobby, and many other things. All of that is given up, without their knowledge, all for order and stability. I say, Mustapha Mond, be the hero in this world and throw it all away - because what is a civilization without danger, freedom, and sin? If your existence is downgraded to 75 years of emotionlessly performing duties like a robot, all for the survival of the civilization, then what's the point? Your life will not have meant anything, except that it was part of continuing what rulers are striving for the longest-living society in the books. You think that the longer something lasts, the more successful it was, therefore the participants must have been happy, right?. Not true! If my world self destructs from the result of individual thinking and conflicting ideas, I will be proud. At least we are not being raised like clones.

If this makes no sense to you, I encourage you to read Brave New World. I also encourage you to read it even if this does make sense. Just don't take as long as I did, or else you'll gradually lose cohesiveness of the genius ideas in this novel, which is a shame. It's fun to read in the beginning, but you'll have to put effort into finishing after the initial excitement wears off. It's worth it, though, because some of the best material is at the very end. I wish I could write an A+ comprehensive and lengthy review on the book, but I don't have the capacity with my words to do it justice. Perhaps if I were writing a heavily-weighted essay for an English course, I could spend hours and hours of time on it. But alas, this is just my blog, and with only a few readers plus myself, I'm fine with just saying it's a great piece of literature that everyone should read. Oh, and congrats to myself for knocking off another one of my list items. It took you long enough.

Really, Truly, a Bunch of Random Stuff

It's hard to schedule inspiration. Everything else I can put on a checklist for the week: call about those discounted tickets, submit online homework, read the Bible, go to the bank ... DONE! Well, not all of that is done. But one thing I can't plan out is blogging, because I gotsta feel like blogging to blog! I'm always keeping my mind open for things to write about, but many times they are too small and insignificant. Or, I do get a good idea, but I still don't feel like writing. What is up with that, eh?

♥ The Social Network was really good. I could've done a well-thought out review on that when I saw it last week but I didn't feel like it. Regardless, go see it! I'm on Eduardo's side all the awy. And that is only partially because I think the actor who played him was the cutest in the whole movie. (Yes, even cuter than Justin Timberlake)

♥ Last Night I played this typing game for 2 + hours. And that's not while talking to friends on facebook and watching TV and eating ice cream. It was just me and the keyboard, locked in a melody of tap-tapping on my way to a higher and higher score. The addiction was unbearable, worse than nicotine. I should've given my hands a break because they've been sore all day today, as well as certain muscles in my arms, even! If every time I hit a key, I fed a starving child in Africa, I would've made Africa the fattest nation on the planet. Just saying. Oh yeah, the game is
Fast Typer 2. Go get addicted!

♥ Remember when I briefly explained my theory of collecting hours of deprived sleep that add up over time, in the Stupid Morning post? Well I just read an article that basically confirmed that theory. In my head I believed it was true while thinking it had to be false, and I even had friends say that's not how it works. But lookey here, guys:

"In fact, if you feel tired during the day, you may be running a significant "sleep debt" - the total hours of sleep you've lost, one sleep-deprived night after another. If you need 8 hours of sleep and only get 8, after a week you've lost the equivalent of almost one night's sleep. That's your sleep debt. After losing only the equivalent of one night's sleep over the course of a week, your body will respond as if you'd pulled an all-nighter..." - Barbara Loecher & Lauren Gelman

Straight from this article on Yahoo! Health. I'm not going to be all picky about the credibility of the source, but it sounded pretty legit to me.

♥ I've been wanting to mention this observation for a while. I've found in the last few weeks of school that it's a lot easier to pay attention to lectures if the professor looks at the audience when he/she is talking. If they walk back and forth across the front of hte room and talk into space, it's a lot more tempting to close my eyes and nod off, or just open up my pocket game of scrabble on the phone. But when the professor makes eye contact with people, even if it's not you, and faces the students while he/she is lecturing, I have greater difficulty NOT paying attention. This works with all publich speaking. I don't know how I'll benefit from stating this, but you will benefit, readers, if you ever need to give a speech or talk to a group of people, and you keep in mind this bit of information.

♥ Maybe sometime in the future I will do an educational post on one of the many Principles of Accounting. I am fascinated by that class. It is possible that I have found a future in my future. I still hold a special place in my heart for English majors, though, despite my testing out the waters and immediately running in the opposite direction.

♥ Is it just Utah or are JC Penny cashiers slow all over the United States? I almost don't want to return for any amazing sales just because the lines are so long and unnecessary. You know when your little brother is getting ready for school in the morning and you say "Hurry up, we're going to be late!" and he says, "I AM hurrying!" but in fact his speed stays the exact same? It's like JC Penny cashiers must be aware of the fact that the lines are backing up and it's a busy time, but for some reason they just don't kick it into gear and MOVE. Get a grip, ladies. Can I have my free discount now, for reviewing your customer service?

Thoughts on Human Nature

One last post before October! My apologies in advance for these long paragraphs and even longer sentences. 

There has been a recurring theme in my life this past week, or at least one that I keep hearing about, mostly in my Anthropology class and then tonight at Intervarsity. In Anthropology our teacher really stressed for the first few lectures how we attempt to study cultures, and the things that every human being has in common, and also how they differ. That seems like a really obvious thing, but you can read a lot into it. It's crazy to me how much things are different in some societies that live on the same planet as me, for example, the idea of "consanguineal marriage," in which spouses don't live with each other, they stay in the same home as their blood family for the rest of their lives. Fathers don't father their own kids, but rather the children of their sisters whom they are around all the time. Everyone is essentially brought up getting the same things out of family as we do, just from different people. 

We've talked about culture shock, and how the best way to study another group of people is to totally immerse yourself in it and leave behind all aspects of your own. Our teacher said sometimes when you come back home from field study, the adjustment back to your old life is often the worse culture shock, which I thought was really interesting. So obviously people in this world can be really different from each other, in beliefs, customs, behaviors, etc. But the idea that's been on my mind lately is the fact that there ARE things that every person has in common. This may be entering into religious/spiritual territory, but I believe we were all created with an innate desire for human interaction. God (or whoever is our creator) made us so that we have emotions, and those emotions are affected by how we relate with people. 

One of our assignments in Anthropology is to experience something cross-cultural and write about it. As a last resort due to time constraints, I attended a showing of a Spanish film about a woman in Spain (go figure) who gets by on working odd jobs to maintain a living for herself and her two grown sons, who quite frankly need to get their acts together and a) stop doing drugs and stealing shit, and b) stop being mentally insane. The second one is probably a lot harder to do, given you can't just turn off a malfunction in your brain. But anyway, in the end of the movie the woman has an opportunity for this great life in America with successful, kind people who want her to stay with them, but she ends up going back to take care of her sons when they need help again, despite her constantly saying she was sick of putting up with them. You could tell along that secretly she loved scrubbing floors everyday past the age of retirement, and finding jobs for her sons when they were too messed up to do it themselves. Why? Because she was a mother and she was taking care of her kids - pretty much all she lived for. What would she be if she wasn't needed by them anymore, and had no obligations? 

When writing my paper on the movie, I kept trying to think of the ways Spain's culture is different from ours, but I kept coming back to the idea that it didn't matter how poverty-stricken their family was compared to what I know, or that they spoke another language. All I could think about was how we were the SAME. What mattered in that woman's life at the end of the day was her relationships with her sons, and I feel like that would be the same no matter was culture you were part of. Kind of like the saying "A smile is the same in every language," which I've thought about a lot, actually. We can all relate to one another somehow.  I can't think of any time you could smile at someone and have it mean something offensive, unless there was some strange taboo of showing teeth or something ... everyone just naturally takes a smile for meaning happiness and warmth. 

This idea was driven home tonight by the speaker at Intervarsity. He talked about how there is no reason for us not to reach out to certain people because they're different from us. We can always find something that's similar on both sides. Does everyone want to be successful in life? Yes. Has everyone felt fear at some point in their life? Yes. Have most people experienced the loss of something/one they loved? Yeah, most. 

Another way this truth has manifested itself is through a silly internet website called omegle.com, that I've used to talk to strangers halfway across the world. I wanted to start keeping a tally of all the countries people were from that I conversed with. When you start up a conversation, you have no idea who you're talking (IM-ing) to, and lots of people will ask "asl": age, sex, location, to see if they want to talk to you. It frustrates me that people will turn down someone who says they're from Korea or India or even Canada probably, because they don't think there will be anything to talk about. I always say you can have a conversation with anyone as long as you speak the same language, because it's true! I've had intense religious discussions with Muslims and Atheists before, and I've had talks with Indian and Chinese girls about love and relationships. Further proof that we all go through the same things in life, no matter what continent we live on.

And just to add on to that mix, I even thought about something similar when I was reading part of Brave New World today. In the utopia the book is centered on, people are born and raised like robots, with no concept of family whatsoever. The word mother is like a swear word because mothers don't exist, and people are completely discouraged at all points in their life from maintaining relationships of any kind. You don't have brothers and sisters. There is no such thing as monogamy or even dating one person. So when they tell the story of one woman who goes to visit a reservation in America (the book is set somewhere in what we call the UK now) and gets stuck there, pregnant, having to give birth to a real child when the culture she was raised in had every single embryo grow and emerge into life from a tube in a LAB, you can imagine how awfully foreign it might have been for her to have to mother the child. She was ashamed at first because it's not what she was used to, but her son grows up and ends up recalling all these instances of her singing to him, teaching him how to read, rocking him to sleep, etc. So far in my reading (and I'm almost done), they haven't addressed the issue of how easily she knew what to do with her own kid, but I was surprised at, well, how easily she knew what to do with her own kid. Except then I thought "Well duh, it's our instinct to care for each other and develop nurturing relationships." See what I mean?? No matter how much you try to decondition people to NOT rely on each other, that basic nature is still there in all of us. Nobody told the woman how to act towards the child she bore, she just learned very quickly and caught on like any normal mother would.

Of course, Brave New World is fiction, and that instance doesn't provide real proof of my theory. But no matter. I'm still counting it. Basically, to tie these ideas together and sum it up: Human beings will always have things in common, mainly the fact that we were made to live with and in the company of other people, and relationships will always have a place in our lives. Our desire for interaction is universal, and such are the similarities that everyone shares that make it possible to relate to anybody in the world.

Just a Plethora of Things

☼ First of all, I want to dedicate this post to my life companion of two years, the white & electric blue Samsung Blackjack smartphone that almost never left my side. You were there for me through all my times of sadness and joy. We had a lot of fun memories together. I'll never forget that roller coaster ride last summer when I neglected to seatbelt you in properly and you came flying out of my pocket during that thrilling corkscrew. You were such a trooper for surviving that horrendous fall, and all the myriad times I dropped you on rough cement surfaces. But no matter how many scratches and bruises you received, I still loved you for your unlimited inbox storage, note taking capability, high quality music player & camera, and overall cuteness. I promise that in no way will I forget your services to me and all the good conversations I had on you when I replace you with the iPhone in a few weeks. Here's to you, good friend.

R.I.P. the Almost Indestructible Blackjack

2008 - 2010

☼ Secondly, I feel the need to tell the world I'm getting slightly addicted to
nail polish. Most recently, in between hours of studying and finishing up schoolwork for summer classes today, of which the progress bar would look like
this: [_________________] (in terms of estimated hours to go, when I started last Wed.), I decided to randomly paint all my nails a different color. I like it, but soon after I did so, I realized this means I can only wear plain colored t-shirts while such mismatched colors adorn my nails, or else it would terribly clash with any planned outfits I attempt. Oh well. I also understand that many people find this idea childish and not appealing at all, but the beauty of it is I don't care. 

☼ Totally different topic: BEING GREEN! 

In my business class, part of our assignment is to watch 10 online videos of our choice (out of 20) of presentations given at MIT by top business leaders and theorists within the past few years. They're an average of an hour long, and then we just have to write up a few paragraphs on them afterwards. I keep finding that some of this stuff is quite interesting to me, such as the talk on how to get the market for alternative fuel vehicles propelled as part of the sustainability revolution. Apparently simulations have shown that more success will come from introduction of such vehicles in more rural areas, as opposed to strictly urban like one might suspect. I wrote that I'm really interested to see how that actually plays out, and I wish I could be one of the first to jump on the bandwagon, however there are factors I know will be limiting that decision, such as my need/desire for long distance car travel. Obviously they can't put fuel stations up everywhere in the first stages of development, and that was one of the reasons phasing out gas-powered vehicles is going to be so hard - there won't be demand for AFV's where they don't already exist, and simultaneously they won't put fuel stations up in certain places until there IS a demand. We'll just be stuck in a loop, like the chicken and egg problem 

(which one came first? although I think that's easier to answer).

I wish I was one of those innovative thinkers that could offer some insight, otherwise saving the planet is going to be really hard without enforcing rules. Or maybe that's it, we just need to implement legislation that dictates what we can and can't drive. Ha. Whatever needs to be done, I just hope someone figures it out soon, because if you pay any attention to statistics, it's no secret that we're quickly sending Earth to the grave. Or at least our existence on it. I sometimes wonder how long it will actually take until the environment changes so much that we actually can't survive. Because it looks as if, at the rate this whole global warming thing is taking off, we just can't physically adapt that fast. It has taken thousands of years for our bodies to become accustomed to our living conditions now. What if human civilization is only around for another few hundred years?? That's really drastically thinking. 

On the other hand, we ARE smarter than we give ourselves credit for, so obviously we can come up with the technology. It's actually available right now, the problem is just getting people to change their ways. Well, if you're at all interested in watching the video that inspired that rant, which actually doesn't take up the whole time it says, I encourage you to watch it here: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/553. As always, comments on my posts are enjoyed if you have opinions on anything I jabber on about. 

☼ To add to this melting pot of random topics, I will now refer my readers to a game! that I really loved playing the other night when I was uber bored, called I Love Traffic. If you know me at all you'll realize this is funny because I HATE traffic, more than the average person I feel like. This game is fun, though, and slightly addicting. When I finished, I think my total collisions were 93. See if you can do better! I won't be surprised if you do ... 

☼ Also, if you look to your left on the screen you'll see that I put a new widget on the sidebar called "recent additions to the ipod," which I will update when I get hooked on a new cd, (or song or band). Now you can always keep track of how my music tastes are evolving! If you care. And by "you", I know that I'm mostly talking to nobody, because that's about how many people I think read this. So, world, this concludes my lengthy post. Have a nice day! 

Kids & Math These Days

I've been assigned this summer to "tutor" my 13 year old brother G in math - he just finished Algebra 1 in 7th grade (they get them going really early these days!). Every summer we always have these cheesy workbooks that just make you practice what you already know so you don't lose your skills, but I can see he's fallen slightly behind in all that they've tried to jam into the little tweens' heads this year. I understand that schools want kids to learn math faster, but they obviously aren't doing a thorough enough job when not everyone is understanding and they continue to build on an unstable foundation.

Alas, here I am helping my brother out with math for about an hour each day and going over all the topics he's learned, but in more depth and making 100% sure he gets it all. What a joy it is to see things click in his head that never had in school, and watch him after one week be able to find his own mistakes, understand what he did wrong, and fix them! I love it. 

We've been using this program I downloaded a free 2 week trial for - the full version is $120 - that allows me to formulate my own worksheets with problems the computer comes up with. The process is basically 

1. Choose a topic (Compound Inequalities, Mutliplying Polynomials, Factoring Quadratic Expressions ... )

2. Choose the number of problems and the difficulty level

3. Preview problems and add to the worksheet.

In the middle step, you can actually customize very specific details of each type of problem, and decide to make the questions free response or multiple choice. At the end of adding all the problems, you have the option to mix them up at random, provide a detailed heading, and even print an answer sheet. This thing is awesome!! If I ever become a teacher I am totally investing. But for now it's awesome because at the end of each day of teaching G and doing practice problems together, I can observe what he specifically needs to practice, and generate a worksheet that caters to those needs. 

On top of that awesome program, from "Kuta Software", I've been having him keep a log of all the rules that he commonly forgets or gets wrong, and I've found that actually helps him make less of those mistakes. I really feel that most kids need individualized attention in math, because it's impossible to get a class where everyone moves at the same pace. Even if something needs to be explained in a different way that takes 2 extra minutes, it makes such a difference in the long run, but realistically you can't do that for every kid in a classroom setting. No wonder fewer and fewer people are entering college on the proper math level (or so it seems, I'm not certain on any facts), when curriculums are rushed and classes are full of kids. To propel math education, it needs to be one or the other: Fast-paced curriculum with a small amount of kids to get more individualized attention, or larger classes that move slow enough for everybody to keep up. 

I really hope someone understands that besides me and acknowledges it in schools. And who knows, maybe just Utah is bad and other schools around the country are doing it right. If so, then Utah needs to get with the program and start teaching the right way. Or else I'm gonna have to get a teaching degree and change things myself! 

Oh, and here is a cool screenshot of that program I was talking about. Click on it to get the full view:

If anyone is interested, the program is available HERE for Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1 & 2, and Geometry.