Understanding Standards

When I spent the day alone in Disneyland Paris (how many people do you know that can say that!) it was very hot. Not the dry desert heat I've come to know and love but a wet soggy Parisian heat. I had moisture pooling in all of my crevices and I just wanted to take my clothes off and jump in a body of water but I couldn't. I was waiting in line to get on Thunder Mountain. To distract myself from my own moistness I began to observe all of the foreigners around me. The people behind me were speaking German, in front of me French and the ride instructions blaring overhead were spoken in a heavy American West English (music to my ears). But what caught my attention in this melting pot of people were three teenage Arabs a little way ahead of me. One was a boy and the other two were girls. The boy looked like a normal teenage boy in shorts and a t-shirt but the girls were completely covered from their foreheads to their toes. They were wearing normal clothes, jeans and sneakers and stuff but they were in long sleeves, no sandals, and their heads were covered. I stared in disbelief. I was dying in the heat. Literally dripping pounds of water weight right off. I couldn't imagine wearing more than I was. "Incredible," I thought "And just for their religion. They must be dying. I can't understand how they can put up with wearing that much in this heat just because their religion says so." As I tried to wrap my mind around this I took notice of my own attire. I was wearing knee length shorts and a high necked t-shirt. I glanced around me. Excluding the Arabs I was the most dressed girl in line. Everyone else in front or in back of me no matter their size or age was wearing a tank-top and barely butt cheek grazing shorts or a skirt. Suddenly I understood. I still don't understand why they were completely covered from head to toe but I do understand why they choose to dress the way their religion and culture dictates. Because I do it too. Who knew that in a line of foreigners I would find the most in common with three Arabs.

"There's so much that we share that its time we're aware its a small world after all"

Notes

Some thoughts...

Can you steal something from someone and not know it? Like a heart? I know you can steal a heart from someone and know about it but if you steal it and don't know about it can you call it stealing?

I think that homosexuality is another way that some men discriminate against women. If homosexuality made sense women wouldn't exist. Unless they were lesbians.

I find myself attracted to arrogance. I think that maybe this is because if they (whoever I'm attracted to) thinks that they are the bomb.com its easier for me to think that about them too. Too bad being arrogant is closely associated with being a selfish jerk.

The global warming forecast for desert areas such as Utah is increased precipitation. Hmmm...everybody recycle and ride your bikes...I'm tired of the cold.

Nobody is born smarter than anybody. We are all given the same capacity and potential as everybody else (the exception, of course, is people with special needs)....some are just better learners than others. Luckily we can all learn how to learn.

"I've been thinking a lot today." -- Ben Folds

Quote Wall

On my facebook profile I've gotten into the habit of posting any and all quotes that I happen to hear and like. I've used my facebook profile for the lack of a better alternative. My roommate Beckie informed me that she has never read through all of the quotes on my facebook profile because there are so many so I'm going to "simplify, simplify" (see what I did there...Thoreau?) and start using my blog as a place to put those thoughts and ideas that are so pleasing to me. I figure people visit my blog expecting to read what I think whereas they are visiting my facebook profile to see who I'm flirting with online or to see pictures of me at parties or whatever. Basically my blog is a more appropriate place for important thoughts. So anyway here's what I've accumulated:

"We do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.... If the foundation is firm, the superstructure will stand." Calvin Coolidge

"I've never tasted heaven but I've smelled Joseph Smith." -- Sue Barton

"Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen."
--John Le Carre

"It seems to me that if you can't trust...you can't be trusted." -- Ben Folds

"We're living the law of consecration, what's mine is his and vice versa, except I don't need any of his stuff so...whatevski" -- Elder Ryan Barton about his greenie.

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.
I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given
-- Emily Dickinson

"I'm not Irish or Catholic, but I am Irish Catholic." -- Guy in the grocery store

"Everybody laughs, everbody cries, sure it can hurt you baby but give it a little try. See that's the thing about love..." -- Alicia Keys

"Does it look like I'm losing control?!...My pants are kind of wet." -- Heidi Lamb

"Everything is the worst." -- Liz Lemon

"If you're not prepared to look stupid, nothing really great will ever happen."

"There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know" -- Harry S. Truman

"You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well you might find you get what you need." -- Rolling Stones

"It's never a mistake to care about someone." -- Erika Johnsen

"Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark, as sages say:
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasent day."
-- Charlotte Bronte

"The best books...are those that tell you what you know already." -- George Orwell

"There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad." -- George Orwell

"Roastnuts chesting on an open fire..." --Micahel Barton

"Whatever you are, be a good one." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Pain throws your heart to the ground, love turns the whole thing around. Fear is a friend who's misunderstood, but I know the heart of life is good." -- John Mayer

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." -- Paul McCartney

"They'll come for the cleavage, they'll stay cause you're a good person." -- Sue Barton (thanks mom)

"I'd like to think that the best of me, is still hiding up my sleeve." -- John Mayer

Anyway, not that exciting really. I just wanted a more permanent place to put these little gems and my blog won over my facebook profile. I can't decide if I want to add to this blog as I encounter new quotes or I want to make new posts as they come along...we'll cross that bridge as we come to it.

Also, how do you all feel about quoting yourself? Weird or cool?

"I feel like a quote out of context" -- Ben Folds.

Baby Mama

I really have a ton to do and I haven't been blogging as a result but I'm at the lab for like the third straight night in a row and I don't know if I'll be leaving anytime soon but I just wanted to empty my head of at least this thought. I have a lot of potential blogs buzzing around in my head but I haven't had time to write them...I can do this one fast though...:

I realize that television and movies are not accurate portrayals of the lives, activities and beliefs of the American people but when it comes to stuff outside of the church I kind of can't help but take their word for how things are. This being said I've been seeing something in television and movies that kind of disturbs me: older, single, career women wanting to have test tube babies.

I'm only twenty-two and I totally understand the want and the need to have a baby (just ask Sadie). And as a member of the church I believe that their is no greater cause that I could devote my life to, so single, older ladies I feel for you. Sometimes my biggest fear is not that I won't get married, but that I won't have the chance to be a mother. I realize that the two are not mutually exclusive and that's why I can't understand these women who cut out the middle man (literally).

Lets evaluate this for a second...for whatever reason these 40+ women have never been married (or maybe they have been but divorced and there were no children) but all of them have failed to have long-lasting important relationships. I'm sure one of the reasons is because they are so career oriented and not willing to make sacrifices. In a word, they are selfish. And because they are selfish, they are alone, and because they are alone they're depressed and because they're depressed they want to bring to life a creature who's existence is completely dependent on them. Who will love them unquestioningly. Who doesn't want that after all?

My advice to these women...GET A DOG!

You couldn't get pregnant the real way because of selfishness, and you think that selfishness is going to go away because you have a kid that is totally dependent on you. Motherhood is the most thankless, self-sacrificing job in the world. If you can't establish a give and take, communicative, loving, relationship with another mature adult what makes you think you will be able to do it with a being who ONLY takes and CAN'T communicate? It just doesn't really make sense to me.

Now the point that I haven't factored into the equation is that some of these women are not choosing to be single. And I feel for those gals. Sometimes men are jerks and sometimes (actually all the time) its better to be single than to be in a bad relationship. But to you my advice still applies...get a dog. A dog won't blame you for how screwed up it is after eighteen years of your care. It will just be glad to see you.

I guess this was brought on by a House episode where a woman and her baby were near death all because she was so old. She would have rather died than abort the unhealthy fetus that was killing her. That fetus was all she had. If she had gotten it together in her thirties she wouldn't have this problem. Also the movie Baby Mama is coming out. I'm actually really excited about it because I have a girl-crush on Tina Fey. Tina Fey's characters are usually always these pathetic baby-hungry women I'm talking about but I can love her because in real life she is married and has a daughter and gives credit for her stability and happiness to her husband and child.

Family is where it is at.

I hate doing homework right now.

Someone near me in the lab has really bad foot odor.

"One love, we get to share it. It will leave you baby if you don't care for it." -- U2

Waist Deep

I've been a full-time student for roughly eighteen years now. That's a lot considering that I have only been alive for twenty-three. As a result I've gotten pretty good at sitting and listening to people tell me stuff. It probably wasn't until sometime in junior high that I began to wonder if all the things that these people (teachers) were telling me were true/right/correct. Thus the seeds of doubt were sown. Ever since then its been my job (as a student and a member of the human race) to wade through a vast sea of predjudice, opinion, perception, misinformation, and plain old b.s. in search of absolute truth. (In my opinion we are all looking for truth. Some of us are more active in our search and some are better at finding it than others but we're all still looking nonetheless).

Needless to say its exhausting to always be wondering if you can believe what you are hearing when you're hearing stuff most of the day. And that is why it is so refreshing to sit and listen for eight hours every six months to messages that you don't have to doubt for a single second. Of course I'm talking about General Conference. I loved Elder Oak's talk on testimony when he described that knowledge comes through two channels: we recieve personal knowledge through the Holy Ghost and knowledge through church leaders. Because I personally have gained the knowledge that the fifteen men that lead our church are prophets, seers and revelators I naturally believe that whatever they say is truth. It's not blind obedience...its knowledge. Just thinking about it makes me breathe a sigh of relief. I know that I will never be led astray or decieved by these men. They have no hidden agenda and stand nothing to gain from telling me falsehoods...I love Conference. It makes my search for truth so much easier.

"It's funny how many times they prove that the only true fortune you can save is the truth." -- The Beautiful Girls

Unencumbered, numbered words

Being the mediocre student that I am I would like to take this time that I could and should be doing homework to post some of my favorite words.

I like these words for their etymology, orthography, phonology, and/or semantics. So without further ado and in no particular order:

apogee
archipelago
veracity
ambiguous
cartography
necromancy
melancholy
masochistic
grotto
ersatz
bowson
satiate
placenta
coup d'etat
hysteria
heliocentric
monochromatic
thesaurus
narcoleptic
audacity
crenshaw
crecent
asparagus
pomegranate
pineapple

I'll probably add to this list as I encounter more of my favorite world-expanding treasures.

"I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror and bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer. My breath fogged up the glass so I drew a new face and laughed." -- Jason Mraz