Education for life, right here

Stuff I've learned from my Math 313 course: 


1) "Are we happy?" actually means, "Do you kind of understand, even just a little bit?" And any answer in the affirmative will ensure that the lesson continues at breakneck pace.


2) Even math teachers hate fractions. We religiously celebrate No Fraction Friday, and it's my favorite part of class. Professor has abruptly given up on matrices in the past because fractions were necessary to solve, but it was a Friday. I am seriously contemplating using this in my own classroom someday.


3) Every upper level math course will have a few goobers, but their comments are far more entertaining than anything you'll ever say, so just let em have at it.


4) Praying before, during, and after a test is a healthy activity. Today I swear I had no clue what I was doing or why it was working, but I might have scraped an A on material I maybe knew at C level. No joke. That is what we call a tender mercy.


5) Notebook paper real estate is valuable stuff, and unless you learn to maximize it, those darn matrices will take over your entire 5-subject notebook. 

How all the great mathematicians finish their proofs

Oh, and I suppose I've learned some stuff about linear algebra, but it's all pretty much secondary to these real life lessons. 

Welcome, folks, to Math 313. 'Tis a partay.

Hey look!

Gadgets, yo. 

------->


Yes, amigos, you can now look through my archives.
But please don't do that unless you really have NOTHING to do with your life.
And if you think that's the case, go serve someone.


I went to an awesome forum at my school today.
Mayhap in the near future you will hear my thoughts regarding his thoughts.
But not tonight because I have cereal to eat, letters to write, and sleep to enjoy.


Hope your Tuesday was lovely!
Peace out, homeslice.

Color Me Mine

Last week for Monday night (family night) we went to Color Me Mine. It was technically Tae's birthday party, but there was no cake involved, so it's debatable as to whether we truly celebrated or not. Anyway, if you haven't heard of it, Color Me Mine is a place where you go paint some pre-made pottery, pay an arm and a leg and a firstborn child, and they fire/glaze it for you. It's totally a blast and totally something for people who are not perfectionists.


Considering I forgot to give myself my usual "I'll love it even if it's ugly" speech before we left the house, I was quite pleased with my project. Check it out:

Pretty neat-o, yes? You think everyone's celebrating Easter with the way all the colors are pastel in the store, but then you get your pottery back and some of those colors are straight from Dragon Tales or something (ok, favorite childhood TV show, I'll admit it now). I'm fairly convinced it's magic, whatever they do before they give it back to you.


I think Tae chose a lovely birthday party idea. I gained a perfect-sized mug for hot cocoa, which is especially beneficial at the moment because there are currently two inches of snow on my car and it's still snowing. Yay for the easiest winter in the world thus far! Dang for tomorrow morning. But that was a tangent. Thanks much to Tae and the padres for sponsoring our lovely FHE. All my pottery dreams have now been fulfilled. 

Alrighty, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Rye got some nifty bangs in the car.

I don't know why I look so worried, but I thought that facial expression was hilarious. Pottery is serious stuff.

Jen and Little E, who is probably munching on Swedish fish.

With the birthday girl!

Mostly here to show off Rye's photo-bomb. It's pretty impressive.

PS: If you are wondering, I received four letters in the mail today, and life is blissful. Ok, that's all, over and out.

word vomit.

Feeling quasi thoughtful tonight. 


Today I caught my second wind for letter-waiting. Every time I pass the normal three weeks of waiting, I get a little schlumpy (yes, that's a word.) for a couple days. But then I tell myself that maybe that particular set of letters got lost between here and Mexico because it's happened before and who's to stop it from happening again? Then I say a little prayer that I'll get them eventually and I wait for the next batch instead. Thus, the second wind. 


Kind of a poopy system, but what can you do?


In other news, I went on a date last Friday. Super chill, super fun. Plus also, I got my first ticket stub to SMASH in my journal. It hath been SMASHed and captioned already. I have a feeling there will be a ton of BYUArts tickets in this journal of mine...


I am a narcissistic person and I'm trying to fix that. I met another narcissistic person in one of my classes and found myself inwardly competing with them. Tell me that's not the single most obnoxious trait you've ever heard of. Yeah, I was annoyed with myself. So I said, "Cut it out, nobody likes that." 
Now hopefully I will be a more pleasant person in conversation. 
Also, I'm trying to become more service-oriented because part of my narcissism is thinking that my own agenda is always more important than anyone else's out there. Realized it's actually not. Fixing it.


Sorry Mom that I got all huffy when we talked about this the other day. I often get frustrated with my self-improvement projects; you were the lucky soul who heard that frustration. Thanks for listening. 


Tonight, I am going to write two letters to two different people who are NOT in Mexico. How's that for a change?


Note: I'm sorry I said "vomit" in the title of this post.

Picture: 

Dedicated to Jenna. You're welcome.

And now I shall do some linear algebra because frankly, I enjoy it. 
You know it's a good semester in school when your homework is fun.
The end. 

5 things I love:

*Note: not from Pinterest!!*

(Two exclamation points for thinking on my own.)

1. This hair-do.

2. This blog on any particularly boring day.

3. This video, on any day.

(Sorry for the necessary evil called "advertisements". It's worth the wait, though.)

4. This quote.

"Everybody likes a compliment." 

-Abraham Lincoln-

5. And this song. Heard it TWICE on the radio on Friday. Love love love, all of a sudden.

On my desktop

This is my secret to handling math homework, bad hair days, and carrots.

Happy Friday!

SMASH Journal

I used to be really great at documenting my life.

I wrote in my journal every night during high school. 

Then I realized that was a little mundane,

and I accidentally went to the opposite extreme. 

Now I write about once a week, which isn't quite enough for me.

So I bought this:

It's for the moments and musings that stick, of course.

AKA: ticket stubs, to-do lists, quotes, and...whatever else I please.

Here's what it's all about:

The idea is that making life documentation a fun thing will make me do it more often.

Yes?

I am so excited to fill this thing up.

I shall let you know if I come up with anything excellent.

Love

I didn't expect to give much thought to Valentine's Day this year. 
It's never been one that I celebrated much. 
Not because I didn't have someone to celebrate with.
Not because I don't do "mushy."
And definitely not because I hate it.
Just because I've been waiting.
Goodness knows what I'm even waiting for...


But then I did get to thinking. 


I remember a Valentine's Day in 6th grade when I thought maybe I should like a boy. Any boy.
Then I had to stay home from school that day because I was sick. 
I thought that was the tragedy of the century.
Honestly, though, no great loss.


I remember a Valentine's Day in high school when all I wanted was one of those nasty suckers that NHS delivers.
Good news: I got one.
But I bought it for myself, so that's totes lame.


And I remember a Valentine's Day which wasn't actually celebrated on Feb 14. 
But it was the best one of all. 
I've thought about it a lot in the last year, actually. 
Because on that particular date night, we wanted to see a good movie, but nothing stellar was at the cheap theater.
Or so we thought. 
I was talking to Gram a few days prior. It was one of the last full conversations I remember having with her and no one else. Just me and Grammie and some advice for life.
I didn't expect that at the time, or I would have written down every word.
She recommended Secretariat, a horse movie. A long horse movie.
I've never liked animals, and I've never liked long movies. 
But she insisted it was a really, really good one. Almost begged me to watch it.
And so we did, and it truly was stellar.
And the next day, I told her how much we'd loved it.
And one week later, I realized I'd practically fulfilled a minor sort of dying wish.


And Secretariat is one of my favorite movies.


Today I do miss that one missionary, but I also miss my lovely Grammie. 
I apologize for being a little somber on everyone's favorite holiday. 
I do not mean to bash on Valentine's Day, and I hope nobody sees it as that.
It's just what I've been thinking about tonight. 
Reminiscing is good.


Love truly is a powerful thing. 
I think I shall start celebrating it for real now.

A recipe

I know there is nothing remotely healthy about these, but they jumped to the position of "second favorite treat in the world" at first...taste. (It's distantly related to love at first sight.) I figured I would do the world a quick favor and post the recipe, since I'm domestic like that on my blog. 


Peanut Butter Squares (I call 'em Homemade Reese's)


1 package graham crackers, crushed
2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup margarine, melted
2 cups peanut butter
1/2 lb Hershey's chocolate, also melted


Combine crackers and powdered sugar in a bowl. Add melted margarine and peanut butter. Stir it all up and press into a 9x13 pan. Spread melted chocolate over the top and let it harden. 


And then you shall have enough Reese's goodness to last a whole day! (Ok, I jest, it'll last about two days.) But for reals, give these babies a chance and you will fall in love. The end.

Just another success story

A sock bun success story, that is.

That brings my total for "hairstyles I can do on my own" to... 7. 

Well, at least that's one for every day of the week, right?

Woot woot.

Good news, I'm a geek (sorta).

[via]

"Happy Groundhog Day, Harry."

...

It just doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Darn.