Trees are the answer

Then what's the question?




Oh, and I was watching a press conference for the Jena 6, and the prosecutor thanked some people for their support and then said that he owed them his undying gratification.
Eww and oops. Gratitude, buddy. Next time you're on national TV get your nouns right.

Becky's NASCAR Tattoo

I called Becky today to chit chat since she's still in the country because Spain still isn't in the mood to okay her visa for the teaching job that they hired her for. Ahhh, bureaucracy....
Anyway, she reassured me that she's been keeping busy helping her parents with the extension to their house. They've been putting up siding and they've had a protective cover up, it's plastic that's been okayed by NASCAR. What the??? Anyway, she was much pleased by this. We got on the subject of how 47% of NASCAR fans are women. Why? The drivers are supposedly hotties.
Somehow this whole conversation ballooned into her marrying a NASCAR driver. I said, mocking her, that she would look great with a racing tattoo on her arm. "Arm?" she protests. "I would get one on my butt, thank you!"
For all of you who had an idea of a pristine Becky, I hope that it's been dashed.

Oh, here are some links to some of my favorites: Star Wars, prophets, last supper, eyes, head mowing, hugging, star wars again, clay aiken, star wars 3, star wars 4, star wars 5, Boba Fett, Yoda, Yoda 2, Yoda 3, Yoda 4, Van Gogh??!!, and a scary grandma.

I must admit that I laughed

Should I be so horribly offended? I mean it's pathetic and it's not exactly following, to be honest, their covenants, but it's so stupid!!!
Mormons exposed, Men on a Mission, an elder calendar. I'll let you hunt out the video they made that's posted on YouTube.

Thought that might only be interesting to me

There's been an uproar lately because the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, is not only in New York, but got invited to Columbia University for a forum. He said some pretty far-out there things today about his country. He claims that Iran has no gays. He got a laugh for that one. But he was serious. ???!!! I really think the man's a wack job. But he's sorta smart in the way that he words things. This man would be a nonentity in a lot of ways, but he's standing up to a big country--or at least that's what it seems like.
People away from the U.S. see the protesters against him and he looks like he's standing up against this great nation. It only emboldens his supporters and makes some people in the middle ground lean toward Ahmadinejad.
Who knows, maybe the best way to treat a man like this, one who wants to wipe Israel off the map, denies the existence of the Holocaust or at least its extent (like 1 million is better than 6?!), claims that his uranium enriching is for peaceful purposes (except the type of enrichment is only for bombs [note the part about wiping Israel off the map]), now claims that it's for dangerous purposes, etc. etc. etc., anyway, maybe the best way to treat a man like this is to not protest, to not pay him any attention, to ignore his blabbering claims, to make him the mostly nonentity that he was, to treat him like a useless outcast that gets his country no where on the world's stage.

But I understand the desires to stand up to him as the Columbia University's president did today in the most unkind introduction of an invited speaker I've ever heard. I understand why the people outside at CU's campus would want to voice their opinion. It's a free country and free speech is so important. But now we've shown Ahmadinejad that we way take him seriously, even though everything he says shows that he's a total dotard.

I say laugh at him like he got laughed at today.

#100!!!!

Post the hundredth!!

And to celebrate, I thought I'd tell you all about how I got owned yesterday. I missed the bus that I normally take, so I waited 15 minutes to take the bus that would get me to class at about 9:03. I was going to be late, but the clocks at UVSC are always off. The bus was late so I got into class at about 9:10. Who was there waiting for me? My supervisor had picked yesterday as the day to stop into my class. Nice. I've been on time this semester--in the morning. I am notoriously terrible at mornings and morning classes. So of course the day that I'm really late is the day she shows.
But other than that, things went well. She said that she liked the classes and what not.
I was on time to class today.

Siblings

The rest of the family, compared...

This is a fun comparison shopping game...








Mom and Gpa and Gma Pittsley. It should be no shock that she looks more like her mom...


Dad and Gpa and Gma Swenson.


Wow! Now wasn't that fun? You should all give it a try. They've got a celebrity look-alike thingie going on too.

Who do I look like more? Clark or Cindy?

Someone's Suing God

I wasn't going to post for a bit after my really long post yesterday, but, seriously how can I let this one go? Someone is suing God. Here are some of the excerpts:

Chambers lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Douglas County Court, seeks a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats. The lawsuit admits God goes by all sorts of alias, names, titles and designations and it also recognizes the fact that the defendant is “Omnipresent”.
In the lawsuit Chambers says he’s tried to contact God numerous times, “Plaintiff, despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service upon Defendant (“Come out, come out, wherever you are”) has been unable to do so.”The suit also requests that the court given the “peculiar circumstances” of this case waive personal service. It says being Omniscient, the plaintiff assumes God will have actual knowledge of the action. The lawsuit...says God has caused, “fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like.”
**Me interjecting**
Look at the beautiful alliteration in the previous sentence. I mean, WOW! Continuing:
The suit also says God has caused, “calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction.” Chambers asks for the court to grant him a summary judgment. He says as an alternative, he wants the judge to set a date for a hearing as “expeditiously” as possible and enter a permanent injunction enjoining God from engaging in the types of deleterious actions and the making of terroristic threats described in the lawsuit.

Here's where I found the article. Now, I acquiesce that the man was just trying to prove a point against what he sees as frivolous law suits. But, come on, honestly...

mongolian

Sarah-seems as though your Mongolian contact hasn't been as fun as mine.
Bepa-i said that i loved Mongolians, not that i knew any Mongolian. What on earth did you type me?

I can be such a pragmatist, an old pragmatist at that.

I've gone to our new ward 3 times now. I know it's still the beginning of the year and things haven't gotten settled down, but our ward's sorta weird. I'm still not sure what Sacrament meeting was about. I think it was supposed to be about the temple and the first speaker spoke about why she liked the temple (that was the topic she was given), but the other two speakers didn't really talk a lot about the temple (but they did say a lot that we've since texted back and forth to each other). The Sunday School lesson wasn't a lot better (I'm not sure at all what the topic was except for some anecdotes about a competitive friend from high school).
But Relief Society was a lot better, which restored my faith in the ward--sorta. At least I know that once a month when this girl teaches I'll learn something and enjoy RS. There's a funny story from the lesson that I'll tell in a sec.
The thing that bugs from the ward is that it's pretty fluffy, very much into the "you-need-to-just-feel-good" attitude. That's all well and good, if that's your flavor, go for it. But at church when we're supposed to be discussing doctrines? Honestly...I miss talking about the beautiful truths of the Gospel. I'm too much of a pragmatist: here's truth, let's discuss it and figure out how to apply it in our lives so that we become better people. Outlandish, I know. Hopefully things'll get better. (fingers crossed)

So when girl was teaching the lesson she was discussing about how she went to her home ward for 18 months instead of the single's ward in Detroit. She said that she became really, really good friends with the older women of the ward. We're all thinking the widows, right? Then she says, "I mean a lot older, like 40 or something." I died. Forty??? Problem: bishopric's wives. Hah!! One of their hands immediately shot into the air, "Excuse me??!!" She had a smile on her face and girl teaching was totally embarrassed and didn't mean what she had said and tried to smooth it over by saying, "Well, relatively." Smart. It was hilarious. A lot older. According to G&K's niece that's the downward end of middle aged, which begins at 29. G&K are so old!!

Oh, another age anecdote about people hating on their elders. On Monday we went to the combined FHE ward opening social. By we I mean me and cousin Brock and Twink (his sister not in the ward). Free pizza. Soon after Chance and his 2 buddies showed up. We were talking and Chance was teasing his friend about being old (because he's older than Chance). They were discussing for some reason turning 16. Chance to friend, "Yeah didn't you turn 16 in, what, '95?" Friend, indignant, "A-hole! It wasn't until '97." I responded under my breath for Twink and Brock, "I turned 16 in '95." They enjoyed that. Then Chance started teasing friend again about graduating forever ago in like '97. I responded again, quietly, "I graduated in '97."
People can be such haters. I mean, why do you gotta go being all agist, hating on your elders and all?

So with that, I leave you something funny to round out this rambling post. Hopefully this will help you to always take a good path in your life, fool.



Courtesy of MormonAdz at divinecomedy.net

Bibliophile

I'm such an addict. I have rules that I've laid out for myself. I'm not allowed to go to Circuit City, for example. I'm not allowed to go to book sales, either, or bookstores, for that matter. Bookstores are disastrous for my checking account. All I was going to get in Barcelona was 1 Harry Potter book and an English-Catalan dictionary. I left with I think 9 books.
Case in point, today I needed to get some ink for my fountain pens so I had to go to the bookstore. I'd already bought a cheap book by José Saramago, A NOITE, at the progressive book sale, so I figured I was safe. I'm weak, so weak. I walked by the foreign book section, you know, the one with grammar books and dictionaries. I started pawing at different languages: Italian, German, Indonesian, etc. I decided that today was a multiple book day. Maybe a French book? But I have tons of those and nothing was jumping out at me. I wandered to the Harry Potter section and saw that the foreign language selection has been dwindling. Very sad. Well it dwindled a little bit more when I bought book 3 in German. But I can't have a book in a language I don't know without a dictionary. And honestly, what good is reading in German if I don't understand the basic grammar of the language?
I'm gonna learn German--but later, after Catalan.
I am weak. Very, very weak.
Books.............

derelict

I do believe that I've been a derelict poster of late, I'm sorry about that. Moving has gotten me into a different rhythm in life and I need to figure things out.
Today I hung out with a bunch of Mongolians at my friend Tseegii's baby shower. Mongolians happen to be my favorite people. They are so much fun, so nice, so caring. Yes, I believe they trump the Brazilians. Since it was me and 6 Mongolians, this is what I heard all afternoon, "Tchilheisngai aitche disgusting chiidertai aimiichiikhai!" or "Tsichai typical Mormon chetykailha buklitsemai bii chamd hairtai. Scrapbooking chi bayerla bii bayertai." or "Baby lotion tsii chamai bubble bath chekha meghilai." I would understand the random English words, but never had any idea of what was really going on. But they were all smiling and laughing and I completely enjoyed myself. I love Mongolians.

In one of my classes we were discussing clothes and one of my students (they're all guys) was having a hard time remembering vocabulary and said the first thing in the book that his eyes caught a hold of: bikini. "Eu uso bikini." How can you not laugh? He wears a bikini? It was so funny.

Terror warning!: When we moved in to 331, I was rearranging the storage closet a bit, the closet doors that were stored in there, etc., there was an unopened wrapper from planned parenthood on the floor. I hadn't recognized what it was and picked up what I thought was some trash. Blech. We'd heard that there'd been some problems at our apartment, but we weren't expecting to find an unused condom. I'm sorry if any of you feel scandalized, I certainly did. Then I put it in Claire's (Em's friend's) makeup bag.
What kind of place did I move to?!?!?!?

Always look on the bright side of life!

This post has a theme song:


Tonight Scottie, Laurel, Cindy, Clark and I went to see Spamalot in SLC. It is one funny musical. I laughed uproariously (shocking) at many moments. What do the Knights Who Say "Ickyniaogishneioxoingn Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me aoioangoing" (the former Knights Who Say Ni!) ask for once the shrubbery is delivered? That King Arthur perform a Broadway musical, and what's worse? It has to be an Andrew Lloyd Webber (gasp!!).
Don't worry, the true moral of the story is to find the grail in all of us, ahhh, the grail, the great symbol of something.