Well.
First things first. My ipod ran away from home. We had a blessed relationship that lasted app. 10, beautiful months. My little friend is possibly hiding in a crevice of my room (i can hope...) or it got dropped between my car and my apartment that ONE TIME i parked a block away. Figures. The trouble is, what does katie usually do when she's frustrated/sad/moody in any way? That's right, download new songs from itunes. Oh, the bitter irony.
In better news! I added books to my blog. Check it out on the right side -->
Just in case you care about my literary opinion. I mean, i have been checking books out by the forklift-full since I developed the fine motor skills to turn the pages, so I'd say I have some experience. Just kidding....but seriously. My new trouble is finding books to read that don't have scummy scenes or words in them...you'd be surprised. Satan hides in the library sometimes....even the big, beautiful castle-looking Provo City Library. But i've been managing to weed out some good ones :) The first time I went to visit I stumbled across an entire wing of the building devoted to Children's books...AND it was all decked out for Autumn, with colored leaves and Halloween-y things. I think I died and went to heaven. (Seriously though, i felt a little emotional and teary-eyed so I just stood in the doorway and determined to come back sometime and spend a whole afternoon. Someday when they don't require flippin' masters degrees to be a librarian then I will fulfill my dream and have weekly reading groups with the childrens.)
And in other news...I think I'm graduating in August :) I know, right? When did I get so old? One minute I'm making sculptures out of mud in the backyard and the next I'm getting a bachelor's degree. Insane. (Actually, let's be honest, the mud sculptures thing could still happen. I struggled to think of something I only did when I was little that I don't do anymore. The list is practically nonexistent.) The key for now is to immerse myself in an online Stats class and get it done before next semester. Hand me a barf bucket now.
It is interesting, however, to think about digging up the part of my brain that does mathematical things. I used to eat that kind of stuff for breakfast in high school....I've been getting nervous that I'm not as smart as I used to think I was. So I guess this is my new testing ground to see if my brain has degenerated or not in the last 4 years. Hopefully I don't fail miserably.
But if I do...there's always downloading songs on iTunes, right? Right.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
bergaflickle.
i don't think i've ever written a blog about anything negative or something that makes me angry, but occasionally in life, something just makes me downright MAD.
Word 2007. Bane of my existence. (or is it 2008? Whatever the newest version is...)
The point is....what is the point of this upgrade? It makes me want to pull my hair out. Upgrades are well and good, but when it reaches the point where Microsoft is trying to force us all to jump on the "upgrade bandwagon," i inevitably want to throw up in my mouth a little bit.
The problems...among many...
First and foremost, is the fact that if you save a file as the "new and improved" .docx, you can't open it in the older Words. Yes, if you go to the trouble of saving it as an older file, then you can open it in the older Words....but besides sheer inconvenience on my part, what about when a professor sends out a document that i REALLY need to read, but unfortunately they default-saved it as a .docx file, and i have yet to "upgrade" my Microsoft Office. The new program is like a leech...it's going to suck us all in, because even if we would rather not live with it, we will all unavoidably be unable to live without it, for the sake of surviving in tech-world.
Secondly and secondmost....the spacing. For crying out loud, when does default spacing EVER call for double spaced with an automatic extra gap between paragraphs. No teacher wants that...nobody uses that....the "logic" here escapes me.
Idiocy.
Just had to get that out there. No more angry blogs, I promise :)
Word 2007. Bane of my existence. (or is it 2008? Whatever the newest version is...)
The point is....what is the point of this upgrade? It makes me want to pull my hair out. Upgrades are well and good, but when it reaches the point where Microsoft is trying to force us all to jump on the "upgrade bandwagon," i inevitably want to throw up in my mouth a little bit.
The problems...among many...
First and foremost, is the fact that if you save a file as the "new and improved" .docx, you can't open it in the older Words. Yes, if you go to the trouble of saving it as an older file, then you can open it in the older Words....but besides sheer inconvenience on my part, what about when a professor sends out a document that i REALLY need to read, but unfortunately they default-saved it as a .docx file, and i have yet to "upgrade" my Microsoft Office. The new program is like a leech...it's going to suck us all in, because even if we would rather not live with it, we will all unavoidably be unable to live without it, for the sake of surviving in tech-world.
Secondly and secondmost....the spacing. For crying out loud, when does default spacing EVER call for double spaced with an automatic extra gap between paragraphs. No teacher wants that...nobody uses that....the "logic" here escapes me.
Idiocy.
Just had to get that out there. No more angry blogs, I promise :)
Friday, September 19, 2008
something splendid this way comes.
So, besides the delightful fact that my roommate is currently singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" in the shower...
Today I left work, ready for my daily 5pm brain-unwinding walk down the hill to my apartment Lost in my thoughts, I was crossing South Campus Drive (i made up that name. i think it might be right.) when a gust of wind sent a shower of leaves off a tree and into my hair and swirling about my mango-colored toenails. Wait, leaves? Yes...leaves. YELLOW leaves. And although I have had carved pumpkins on my front porch for a good week now in anticipation of the change of seasons, this pre-Autumn descent of pigmented foliage still caught me by surprise.
I turned and looked up at Y mountain and confirmed my hopes...the very tops of the mountains are already painted with a smattering of fiery red shrubberies, creeping slowly down the mountainside in volcanic-esque trails of joy.
Good things are around the corner :)
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
fruit salad.
So, twice a week I have to write a journal entry for my Book of Mormon class. The idea is to pick one scripture and apply it to my own life, and today I was writing about 1 Nephi 8:27. It's not the most eloquent paper I've ever written, but I liked the lesson I'm learning, so I decided to share it. Enjoy :)
One element of Lehi’s dream is the great and spacious building filled with multitudes of people. In his dream, these people are mocking and laughing at the people who are partaking of the fruit. Consequently, some of the people who stayed on the path originally and tasted the fruit begin to doubt and wander toward the building into the mists of darkness. Although the people in the building are often described as representing the wicked and apostate people of the world, I think the metaphor is one that can relate to a condition within the LDS church itself. There sometimes exists an attitude within the church of “being good but not too good.” Among the teenagers in the home ward I grew up in, the “cool” kids were always the ones who edged the lines and pushed the standards, and in order to fit in there was pressure to bend the rules. I spent the last three summers working as an EFY counselor, and one of the most common problems among the youth is that the “popular” kids are the ones who adopt a more callous attitude toward living high standards. Unfortunately, the mindset among many of these youth is that it’s considered cool to use profanity occasionally, disobey your parents, or watch inappropriate movies and TV shows. And, beyond just the youth of the LDS church, I have seen this same scenario played out in many college settings, even among BYU students. Sometimes it makes me sad – and sometimes it downright drives me crazy – that such a trend has caught hold among otherwise faithful members of the Church. Since when did it become a bad thing to be a “Molly Mormon” or “Peter Priesthood”?
However, the purpose of this journal article is not for me to jump on my soapbox (although I’ve certainly done just that…). I think what I need to learn from this scripture is to be less bothered by the people in the building and focus instead on inviting people to the tree. It’s easy to get distracted by the desire to fit in, even if that means toeing the line or changing a standard. However, if all I do is sit there with a piece of fruit in my hand and fight the desire to throw it at the people in the building, I’m no better off than they are. And besides, I’m not perfect; I know I have my moments and situations where I’m probably more of a building-goer than a tree hugger. So, although it could prove difficult to not get frustrated, my goal is to stop letting the building bother me, and start inviting more people to partake of the fruit.
The end.
So there it is...my thoughts on fruit and trees. I've decided to include a picture of a tree for good measure...even if the Tree of Life probably wasn't a beautiful Autumnal tree...if it had been MY dream, it would have been....oh how I love it with all my little season-deprived Arizona heart :)
One element of Lehi’s dream is the great and spacious building filled with multitudes of people. In his dream, these people are mocking and laughing at the people who are partaking of the fruit. Consequently, some of the people who stayed on the path originally and tasted the fruit begin to doubt and wander toward the building into the mists of darkness. Although the people in the building are often described as representing the wicked and apostate people of the world, I think the metaphor is one that can relate to a condition within the LDS church itself. There sometimes exists an attitude within the church of “being good but not too good.” Among the teenagers in the home ward I grew up in, the “cool” kids were always the ones who edged the lines and pushed the standards, and in order to fit in there was pressure to bend the rules. I spent the last three summers working as an EFY counselor, and one of the most common problems among the youth is that the “popular” kids are the ones who adopt a more callous attitude toward living high standards. Unfortunately, the mindset among many of these youth is that it’s considered cool to use profanity occasionally, disobey your parents, or watch inappropriate movies and TV shows. And, beyond just the youth of the LDS church, I have seen this same scenario played out in many college settings, even among BYU students. Sometimes it makes me sad – and sometimes it downright drives me crazy – that such a trend has caught hold among otherwise faithful members of the Church. Since when did it become a bad thing to be a “Molly Mormon” or “Peter Priesthood”?
However, the purpose of this journal article is not for me to jump on my soapbox (although I’ve certainly done just that…). I think what I need to learn from this scripture is to be less bothered by the people in the building and focus instead on inviting people to the tree. It’s easy to get distracted by the desire to fit in, even if that means toeing the line or changing a standard. However, if all I do is sit there with a piece of fruit in my hand and fight the desire to throw it at the people in the building, I’m no better off than they are. And besides, I’m not perfect; I know I have my moments and situations where I’m probably more of a building-goer than a tree hugger. So, although it could prove difficult to not get frustrated, my goal is to stop letting the building bother me, and start inviting more people to partake of the fruit.
The end.
So there it is...my thoughts on fruit and trees. I've decided to include a picture of a tree for good measure...even if the Tree of Life probably wasn't a beautiful Autumnal tree...if it had been MY dream, it would have been....oh how I love it with all my little season-deprived Arizona heart :)
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