Music and missionaries

I have 77 drafts of posts for this blog. SEVENTY-SEVEN. Sometimes I feel ridiculous for not just posting one of those 77 other ideas I had at some point in time, and today was one of those times. I decided to just go choose one and post it, as is. However, they're all pretty short, so here are a couple unrelated ones.

"Their music all sounds the same"

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This is an argument I've never understood: 

"Their music all sounds the same."

Well yeah, isn't that the idea? If you want to be an artist, you've got to develop something that's your own. Only by making everything sound similar can you ensure that those who hear your music will know it's really you. 

Plus also, if you want variety, you are welcome to listen to, like, different artists and stuff.

And apparently that's all I really have to say on the subject.

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"The nice thing"

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Well you see, 
the nice thing about waiting for a missionary
is letting them go.
It's that they change while they're gone.
They change to be something so much greater:
more humble, 
teachable, 
open,
welcoming,
charitable.
And you watch them. And you fall even more in love. 
Because now, they have even more good stuff to love.
And you loved them before they left,
and you thought you couldn't let go in that one last hug,
but you did.
Because it was the good, better, and best choice, all in one.

And then they come back. 
And you love them so much more.
And when you hug them, you think you might never let go.
But that's the nice thing about waiting for a missionary: 
eventually, 
you don't have to let go.

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Hey look, now I'm down to 75. That's a nice round number. This was fun, maybe I'll do it again sometime. 

Rainy days and Mondays

I hope you sang that title. 



Today I have had a severe case of "the Mondays."
I felt fine when I woke up, but then I lost all motivation when I walked out the door. 
It was very strange to walk more slowly to class and to not take notes. 
(She puts the PowerPoints online, no worries.)
I enjoyed my class with Joseph at 11:00, of course, but then for my next class I was a few minutes late. 
And at work I just haven't been as productive as I needed to be. 
Lazy lazy lazy.
Sigh.

I never have this problem! I think it's because our weekend was wonderful and I didn't want it to end. Most of our weekends are equally wonderful, but for some reason, today was just full of that don't-make-me-go-back feeling. 

Probably because it rained. Rainy days and Mondays. You understand. 
(If you don't understand, click that link at the beginning of this post.)

In any case, I found this cute graphic of umbrellas!

Yay, bright colors! No more lazy for me.

Now I get to go to FHE with my husband, and that will probably turn everything around.

I love FHE.

Have a happy Monday, e'rybody!

Homework

IP&T 202, online discussion board. Informal weekly writing on the topic of LEARNING.

Prompt 3: Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind...The natural desire of good men is knowledge” (p. 49).  Do you agree or disagree with Leonardo’s statement?

I agree with Leonardo’s statement, and I especially like that he calls knowledge a “natural desire.” We know from fairly recent research that exercising our minds is important, but most of us would probably exercise them even if scientists did not tell us we need to. People in all times and ages have desired to learn, regardless of their knowledge or lack of knowledge of the benefits of doing so for their future brain coherence. When I reflect on my own learning, I find joy in the moments I can recall that I suddenly understood something more deeply or differently. I think we are simply wired to enjoy those moments.

However, I am not sure why we enjoy these. Why did a new discovery cause Archimedes to run through the streets naked exclaiming, “Eureka! I have found it!”? Why have scientists in different eras and different countries dedicated their lives to discovering new elements, formulas, and species, and then explaining their thoughts on those things to the general public? Why do I tell my husband every little thing I learn in school every day? Perhaps the key here is growth. We are wired to survive so that we can grow physically; therefore, maybe we are also wired to learn so that we can grow mentally.

Another possibility is this: We learn from modern revelation that “the glory of God is intelligence” (D&C 93:36). If His glory comes from what he has learned, and we want to be like God, we too are going to have to learn. We might as well enjoy it!

School is cool.

Wait! While I'm here, let me tell you my favorite story about Archimedes because, surprisingly, it is not the eureka one. I learned this one last semester in Math History.

Archimedes was a nut job about his mathematical works. He was constantly working out problems in his head, and sometimes he would go for days without eating, bathing, or otherwise taking care of himself. When others would make him participate in normal life activities, he would still draw his calculations in whatever nearby medium he could find (e.g. his mashed potatoes, oils on his skin, the dirt on the ground). 

When Roman soldiers attacked his city, they were told to bring Archimedes back alive. He was a valuable resource since he had a talent for inventing war machines. One Roman soldier found Archimedes drawing a geometry problem in the sand, completely oblivious to everything happening around him, and commanded him to come along. Archimedes simply said, "Don't touch my circles." (I picture him saying this like a moody teenager.)

The Roman soldier was mad about that response, so he killed Archimedes. The end.

Ok I'm sorry about that ending, but I just love how cray-cray that Archimedes was. So much focus, so little time! If only I could do so well at focusing on my homework...

Name changes!

This week, we have been on a quest to finally change my name for realsises (as opposed to me just writing "Alyssa Facer" at the top of my homework and pretending that it's legally true). We've had boring lunch breaks, but we're almost finished!

On Tuesday, we spent a little over 2 hours at the social security office. 
On Wednesday, I had a dentist appointment. This seems unrelated, but I was taken from being under my dad's name and put into my own family on their records, so it counts.
On Thursday (today), we spent a little under 20 minutes at the driver license division. 
On Friday (tomorrow), we plan to visit the administration building on campus. Not sure how long it will take.

But I ask you: what can we learn from this??
We can learn that the social security office is poopier than the driver license office.
Proof by example. Boom.

In other news, my new license picture is awful compared to my last one. I've never understood why people care about this so much, but now.....actually, I still don't understand. 




In really other news, I am on an informal quest for the best orange chicken recipe in the world. Anyone have one they love? 

Picture!

I had a test in here today. School is cool.

A bright idea

Technology needs a way to staple things together. Like if I read a PDF and then write a paper on it for my class, I don't want those two documents to need their own folder within a folder within a folder to know they go together (FOLDER-CEPTION). That's craziness.

But I want them to stick together so that I don't have to remember what I named my paper and what I named the article because I am lazy. What if I could just "staple" them together so that they stick together automatically but just in the folder they're already in?? Saweeeett, right?


I'm thinking of submitting this to Microsoft. Maybe I'll submit to Apple too, just for kicks. 


Alternatively, does anybody out there have a great way of organizing their documents so that this isn't even an issue in their life? I would love to hear it.






Another bright idea, one which I already carried out yesterday: signing up for Google Fiber. Yeah, that's right. I'm comin at you with all my free time, interwebs. (But it'll be sometime after March 7th, so...yeah.)

Birthday month!

My birthday was this month, which means free stuff, woo! I'm not signed up for very many birthday freebies, but I think I'm signed up for some pretty good ones. The following mail all came on the same day, and it was pretty darn exciting:

Godiva Chocolatiers sends you a $10 gift card for use anywhere on their website or in-store. I used it in combination with a free shipping offer to get a package of sea salt caramel toffee chocolates shipped to me for $2 instead of $20. I realize that I still spent money, but it was, like, manageable. I can handle 2 bucks, and "It's my birthday present to me! I'm so happy" (name it). Except I signed Joseph's name on the card because I think I'm hilarious.

Tucanos sends you a buy-one-get-one-free meal card. Since Tucanos is a little bit outside our newlywed price range (cough cough how does anyone ever afford this food), we went as frugal as we possibly could on this. We used it for lunch instead of dinner, and we did not get the Brazilian lemonade (single tear), and we used a gift card we got for Christmas. Which means it was free-ish and we still have gift card money! For Joe's birthday, of course.

My other lovely piece of mail was not a birthday thing, but I'm counting it because it arrived just in time. Shutterfly did a New Year promo for 101 free prints, and I had the epiphany that I could use these free prints promos over the next year (they come up every few months) to print our wedding photos! Because I want hard copies. Just because. So that first batch came, and that was pretty exciting. It's different to hold them in your hand than it is to scroll through on a computer, you know??



Anyway, birthday months are fun. You should all celebrate one sometime.

Winter 2014 semester run-down

It is a new semester and I have a full load of fresh new classes. I love new semesters. I talk about this often, but I really just do love school and homework and learning and stuff. This semester is a good blend of generals and major requirements, plus my one fun class (of course).

So! Here's what I'm taking currently:

History of Learning in Art, Science, and Technology (1500 to present) :: Completely fascinating. This was my decision after I pled for advice. It was the one which was harder but more interesting, basically, and I think I chose correctly. There is an online class discussion every Wednesday, so it's a 3 hour class credit with only 2 class hours. #winning

Communication in Organizational Settings :: AKA business writing AKA how to write a rockin cover letter and a nice looking memo. This class mostly just requires us to blog and comment on each others' blogs, which is pretty easy homework. There's also a strong grammar emphasis for the first half of the course, which is apparently scary for most people but I don't mind it. The professor's great. Bonus: I'm taking this with Joe!! Awww.

Combinatorics :: Math math math math math math math. I didn't take a real math class last semester, and now I'm on my very last one. WAHOOOOOOOOOO. It's pretty interesting, I guess, but I have, like, math senioritis or something. But wahoo for the end of upper level math classes!

Teaching with Technology :: This is my other major class for this semester and it's pretty interesting. Basically, we learn how technology in a math classroom can enhance learning. For our first activity, we explored how and why nobody uses logarithms anymore, and I found it completely entertaining. I think Joe might vicariously take this class this semester because I tell him everything I learn. (Actually, I'm just realizing that applies to every class I ever take. Huh. He's getting a steal of a deal for his tuition.)

Interior Plants and Landscapes :: This one is the wildcard fun class. I am so obsessed with plants and flowers, it's not even funny anymore. So I'm taking a class that will teach me how to be a plant lady! It's just like floral design, except now things come in pots and there's no lab fee. And the textbook's smaller. And class is usually held in the greenhouse, which I am anticipating will be warmer than the majority of BYU's classrooms. Best of all worlds. 

In other news, look what I did with my tabs today during a very slow work moment:

(They're in rainbow order, in case it's just too darn hard to see.)

Aaaaand that's a wrap. Have a good weekend, folks.