Try me

I was at Fashion Place Mall tonight with a friend who was looking for something at one of those specialty soap and lotion stores. I was wandering around, looking at the different varieties that they had. Then I realized that there were body washes and shower gels that had a green sticker on them that said, "Try Me"
How does that work? I looked closer at a bottle and realized that it was only about 2/3 full.
I really don't know what's been going on in that little store, but I'm pretty sure it's nothing I want to be a part of.

I was done posting for the day, until...

Until I found this:

Just thought I'd share.

A scary teammate, a poll and BOOKS!!!

Would you want this guy on your team?

So far I'm the only one who's voted for wassail. Unsurprisingly hot chocolate is leading the way. Eggnog's gotten a vote, too. I call on all wassail lovers to unite by voting in mine olde polle.

And, Merry post-Christmas! I made off with a happy haul: bookity book book bookey book.
I made off like a bandit, if you ask me.
Then, Barnes and Noble was having a sick sale online. So, I got this, this, this and this. With shipping and everything, the total was only $26.52. I meant to get this one, too, but that's what I get for ordering at 5am. It was only 3.99 or something when I was ordering (wistful sigh).

Have you read this? It's great fun. You should all check it out of the library or something.
Oh, and this book, too. You can get it at Deseret Book, I think. Probably at Seagull, too.

Astronomically cool

**You're probably not seeing the whole image, b/c I just checked and my computer isn't showing it. Just click on the picture and the whole thing'll show up.**


These pictures are hard to believe, but they're real.
Isn't that amazing?

Anyway, just outside (in galactic terms) of our galaxy, we find the Large Magellanic Cloud. (There's a Small M.C., too.) Inside the cloud there's star building going on like you can't believe. Some of these stars are gargantuan. Their length of life is a fraction of the length of our sun and they can be 10-60 times heavier than our sun. This means they burn faster and when they explode, man, it's HUGE.
Here's a nice view of the Sombrero Galaxy:


Here are some other shots that I fancy:



I get lost looking up at the sky. I love constellations.
What got me on this specific kick today? An article about NFL football on ESPN. Go figure.


All of these pictures are courtesy of the Hubble Telescope.

tears, tears, tears

I just want everyone to know that I'm in mourning:

ASU 76 -- BYU 75
Arizona 31 -- BYU 21






As of right now, I am boycotting the state of Arizona--even though it's nice and warm and is mostly snowless. Those that know me will understand the depths of my sorrow if I'm willing to boycott warmth and no-snow.


A video that I think epitomizes today:

Devil's advocate and feigned opinions

I have a nearly insatiable need to understand things. I can get into tight spots because of this. But the desire has also led me to learn a whole slue of things (often the trivia which comes in handy at our family dinners). I've often felt that if I could understand the minutia/facts of an event, I could understand the reasons why it happened. This has, at times, led me to the Devil's advocate in conversations. I've tried to rein that one in.
Anyway, anyone who knows me at all, knows that I love talking and having conversations. I'm horrific at small talk, but anything deeper can keep me going for hours. I often portray ideas as my fixed opinions, which is a problem, I know. But what I'm really trying to do is throw out ideas to learn more about life.
I guess I'm too abrupt. Anyone got any ideas about how I could throw out ideas without making them seem like my set-in-stone opinions?

Maybe this all stems from my paranoia about being cocky and a know-it-all. (shoulder shrug)

Wrap-up and poll intro

Hi. It seems as though slap bracelets were overwhelming the most important accessory from the 80s.
Now the poll intro. I know Chex isn't exactly as interesting as leg warmers, slap bracelets and fanny packs, but there's history to this one. I semi woke up earlier this year and was oddly uber depressed. For some reason I had decided that I just couldn't go on anymore or something. Remember that I was mostly asleep. But the, luckily, I remembered that I had some Wheat Chex. Suddenly everything was okay. I was happy again. I fell back asleep. When I woke up again later, I started to laugh out loud.
Anyway, there's the background to the poll.
And I'm still sick of being sick. Every once in a while I start to feel better, but then it hits me again and I start tipping over to the left. Scottie think I need to drink some V-8.
I think I need to play some Wii. Or correct finals.

A bit more HP madness

What do I do when I'm sick? This:

I know that some of the last one has already been posted. But it's good to review.

I don't know why I found this so funny

But it made me laugh right out loud, enough that Scottie and Mom heard me downstairs**.
**I recognize that it's not a big stretch that someone would hear me guffawing from a level down.

coverear

That's my newest Spanish verb. It means "to cover someone else's song."
Jimi Hendrix covereó una canción de Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower.
The verb's almost as good as googlear. That's a great verb, too.

blown mind

Not because of anything cool, but I have altogether too many things floating around in my mind. This is a note to let you know that if you've contacted me and I haven't gotten back to you, it's not because I'm ignoring you, but that I am totally scatterbrained right now.

On a happier note, today I had a Pastel de Romeu e Julieta. yum yum yummy

To make it:
click here for the recipe.
To understand the recipe, click here and here.

oxymoronic

I just saw this album and thought, "Uh-uh. Really?"

What I did on the lonely streets of Brazil

In some of my mission areas there were long empty streets and fields where there was no one to contact. In one of these areas I was in a threesome with Síster Horne and Síster Costa. Síster Costa would teach us random things about the culture. One thing she taught us, along with the hand motions, was Cinco Patinhos as performed by Xuxa.



Ahh, good times...

SNL keeps them coming

New Poll!

Ahhh, the beloved 1980s:
Slap
Fanny
Bow
Clip
Warmers
Suspenders

who, me? no: JULIE RAE!

Dec 3's Shirt Woot.


But what is the most important thing about today?
Britney Spears' birthday?
Georges Seurat's birthday?
The University of Leipzig opening for the first time?



Mais, non!
Happy Birthday, Julie Rae!

You're so cool we say your first and middle name.

bizarrely androgynous voice?

I take care of a whole slue of online courses where I work (UVU Distance Ed). Because I contact the students about their courses and answer phones, often they think that I'm their professor. Today I got a phone call from a student wondering about a Math 1050 course. Near the end of the conversation, he asked me if I were Professor Christine Walker or Professor Joseph Hwang.
It reminded me of this line by National Security Advisor, Nancy McNally, from the West Wing:

"I'm the only woman on the conference call; Delaney can't tell when it's me talking. Do I have a bizarrely androgynous voice?"

Take on me.

Don't king away?

Well, she tagged me

Since I can't come up with anything über substantial to blog about, I'll finally post (sorta) what Anna-Lisa tagged me to do:

7 Things I Can Do:
1. Speak Portuguese
2. Play softball
3. Drive a stick
4. Find random things on the internet
5. Make spectrograms of sounds
6. Eat fish (a big step)
7. Make a mean feijoada

7 Things I Cannot Do:
1. Tread water worth beans
2. Control my pocketbook in bookstores
3. Run fast (Swenson slows)
4. Eat a chocolate and peanut butter together and not gag (Chris, remember my crazy reaction?)
5. Handle watching Seinfeld
6. Control my laughter
7. Do pull-ups

7 Favorite Foods:
1. Beans and Rice
2. Swenson family pizza
3. Pie
4. Christmas breakfast at the Swenson home
5. Broccoli (it's how I decide what to get at restaurants)
6. Flavored drinks
7. Salgadinhos

7 (of the) Books I'm currently reading (yes, this is a problem I have)
1. Les Mis
2. Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mêlé
3. The Bourne Identity
4. 1776
5. Lectures on Faith
6. Reagan Diaries
7. Meet your Match

7 Most listened to songs on iTunes
1. Hypnotic, Craig David
2. Time, Sarah McLachlan
3. Samedi soir sur la terre, Francis Cabrel
4. Use Your Words, Owen
5. Femme Fatale, Owen
6. The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi, Owen
7. If You Ain't Got Love, Mason Jennings

7 of my favorite words:
1. Irokesenschnitt (mohawk in German)
2. paralelepípedo (cobblestones in Portuguese)
3. ustedes hermanas (I totally misunderstood the Spanish at the Santiago temple and shouted out a wrong answer. Scared the poor sister)
4. d'ac (French for "agreed)
5. Яд ([Yad] it's "Venom" in Russian and is what Megan, former Sister Neeley, calls me)
6. sipo (Chilean for yes, uh huh, right)
7. rã (frog in Portuguese, pronounce like huh? but nasally)

7 of my favorite quotes from the West Wing:
1. I'm Marion Coatsworth Hay. (CJ)
2. I thought my reflexes before, in the press room, were catlike. (CJ)
3. I don't understand. Did you trip over something? (Toby)
4. You want to tempt the wrath of whatever from high atop the thing? (Toby)
5. Abbey: Hon, this is like, nerd hot talk.
Bartlet: Who's your Commander in Chief?
Abbey: You are.
6. Margaret: Can I - can I just say something for the future?
Leo: Yeah.
Margaret: I can sign the President's name. I have his signature down pretty good.
Leo: You can sign the President's name?
Margaret: Yeah.
Leo: On a document removing him from power and handing it to someone else?
Margaret: Yeah. Or... do you think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea?
Leo: I think the White House Counsel would say it was a coup d'etat!
Margaret: Well. I'd probably end up doing some time for that.
7. CJ: "What are you, 4'10"?"
Annabeth: "4'11"."
CJ: "I can't believe we're the same species."


There. I sorta doctored what Anna-Lisa did, but it's close enough, at least in the spirit of it all.

Vote in the new poll! ------------------->

Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny

One of the more important things that I've found lately

I stumbled onto this tonight. I really think it might be one of my most momentous finds in a long time:


TR2N is going to be in 3D. oh my oh my oh my.
Sorry the quality of the clip is bad.
Viva Comic Con.


user, user, user...


and for good measure:




YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
NO NO NO NO

the Sirius link

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I really like the winter night sky, its stars and constellations.
Sirius is the brightest object in our sky that does not come from our solar system. (First the Sun, then the Moon, then Venus, then Jupiter)
The Egyptian name of Sirius, the Dog Star, or main star of Canis Major, was KLB. (Vowels were not noted at the time like the are today.) KLB was Egyptian for dog. At the time, the appearance of Sirius in the sky was the way that the Egyptians knew that the Nile was going to flood. This was the way those living along the river survived, the Nile flood essentially making the land fertile. Obviously this was an important marker to the Egyptians. They used an important name that would recall a few things to them. KLB was a play on words because it also meant, and was probably said like, Kolob. It was as if it were a reminder to them, the star's appearance meant temporal life. Thus it was a symbol of eternal life.

Even though later this meaning and idea was lost, the initial reason why KLB was used is linked to the facsimiles in Abraham and the time he spent hanging out with the Egyptians and teaching them. That topic will be for another post. And it is darn cool.


As a side note, the Nile no longer floods. Crazy, I know. But it's not like it wasn't to be expected.


And for an etymological side note in Semitic: Qalb in Arabic means heart or home of God. In Hebrew, Qereb (Qarab) means center or nearest part (to the soul), etc.

No graduation?

I was just in the BYU bookstore looking for a greeting card: Happy Graduation. They didn't have one slot marked for said cards, nor did they have any just hanging around. Anybody else find this disconcerting?

and now for something completely different

a student emailed this to me. how could I not share?

an addendum to Sauron's eye/new planet picture thingie

ESPN.com can be useful in so many ways. I just found this picture in an article from ESPN that helps us find the planet (referenced in an earlier blog post) around Formalhaut, the brightest star in the constellation Piscis. This is pretty cool:
For a better view, click here.

Isn't that simply amazing? Wow. I love the stars.

Speaking of stars, you know my favorite part about Winter? The stars in the night sky. Aren't the winter stars beautiful?I love Orion, it's such a great constellation. And the star Sirius in the bottom left corner of the picture is great. I think I'm going to post sometime soon about Sirius and the Egyptians, and the Mormon connection. If I forget, remind me. It's pretty schwank.

my Christmas wish list proves just how nerdy I am

Mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, what my wish list was. It took me a while to think of anything. After I'd told mom what I wanted, I yet again realized how uber nerdy I am:
John Adams Bio
Team of Rivals
History of American Political Thought
Toothbrushes, yes, plural.

And there's an item that's perpetually on my general wish list, and that someday I'll convince myself to finally buy: Ken Burns' Baseball. Oh, and this, too.

What else should I want? I can't think of anything. Especially when some of my most favorite items are free.

New Trailer

This is the new HP6 US trailer that they're releasing with Twilight this next weekend.
I would like to point out that this next weekend was supposed to be the date of HP6's release.
The new trailer makes the movie look great. We'll see. I'm thinking about protesting the pushing back of the release and not going to see the movie until it's been out for a bit, so that their opening weekend numbers aren't as good.

Oh, click here for bigger versions.

would you want to live on this planet?

So according to CNN, "Astronomers capture first images of new planets."
This is the picture that they have right now on CNN's homepage:

Which of course inevitably reminds us of:
Would you want to live on this new planet?
Eesh

never give up! never surrender!

This is the last post for today, I promise.
In Relief Society today we were talking about the 2nd Coming & Millennium (I imagine a lot of you out there were, too). A girl quoted this movie, saying "Never give up! Never surrender!" I seriously had to bite my lip, concentrate hard on being reverent, and deny myself a belly laugh. I love that she quoted this scene:

salmon

2 nights ago I had a dream about a mad craving for salmon. I got a fillet in my dream and commenced eating it. I woke up right after that and thought it was a rather weird thing for me to want so desperately.
But I couldn't shake it, so I had a grilled salmon fillet yesterday. It was great.


Who am I? What have I done with myself?

ologies

I just stole this from both Emily and Anna-Lisa [ænəlísə]

*FOODOLOGY*
What is your salad dressing of choice? chunky blue (bleu?) cheese
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? i really don't think i have one. i like lots of different places and different styles of food. that churrascaria in Foz do Iguaçu had some great food.
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? beans and rice, beans and rice.
What are your pizza toppings of choice? pepperoni and pineapple (sometimes with sausage for fun)
What do you like to put on your toast? scottie and mom made this tasty strawberry freezer jam a few weeks ago that's just great

*TECHNOLOGY*
What is your wallpaper on your computer? a picture of Grand Canyon West
How many televisions are in your house? 3, but only 2 are used.
What color cell phone do you have? navy blue. but i need a new one. i'm sick of it sending random texts.

*BIOLOGY*
Are you right-handed or left-handed? right
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? 4 wisdom teeth. bone spur. the alien. (okay, that last one was bad.)
What is the last heavy item you lifted? not the foggiest. do pushups count?
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? yep. wallyball, once. softball once or twice. probably other times, too.

*BULLCRAPOLOGY*
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? nope.
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Lorgh L'kor (click here), or maybe Eviess Ariennye (click here), Sweva Laspa (click here), maybe someday my last name?
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000? right now, maybe. when i'm financially a bit more stable? not on your life.

*DUMBOLOGY*
How many pairs of flip flops do you own? 4 or 5. maybe more.
Last time you had a run-in with the cops? a run-in? never. but i got a speeding ticket over the summer.
What do you want to be when you grow up? mom. teacher. political wonk. youth sports coach.
Last person you talked to? scottie
Last person you hugged? mom

FAVORITOLOGY*
Season? hot days of summer
Holiday? i like the 4th of July and the 24th b/c of the BBQing. i like christmas.
Day of the week? i don't know if i have one. saturday for sports. weekdays b/c of teaching. sunday b/c of church and family dinners.
Month? july for weather. october for baseball. march for basketball.

*CURRENTOLOGY*
Missing someone? sure am.
Mood? pretty great :D
Listening to? football game. (in general, harry potter books)
Watching? football game. (in general, too)
Worrying about? i'm trying to figure out if i'm worried about anything. oh, probably nothing, then, huh?

*RANDOMOLOGY*
First place you went this morning? out of the house? church
What can you not wait to do? eat the homemade pizza downstairs.
What's the last movie you saw? we watched Pirates 1 last night.
Do you smile often? yes, with belly laughter.

99

So I'm subscribed to 99 blogs.
Who wants to be #100?

Song in the head

Some of you probably know that I often have a soundtrack to my dreams. I wake up a lot of times with a song in my head. But yesterday's was weird: I'm Henry the 8th, I am.
I really wonder what I was dreaming about.

the GOP regrouping at homebase

I can't believe that I'm about to write this entry.

The GOP needs to regroup and needs to do it fast. Among the leadership of the party down many, many republicans that I've talked to, there seems to be a lack of continuity of idea. The party needs to gather around strong leaders that represent the best of the GOP, leaders who have a vision of the future.
Man alive, am I going to write this? The GOP needs to rally around Mitt Romney (and people just like him). The reason why is that his basic political beliefs are exactly the core ideals of what the GOP has had as its backbone for the last I don't know how many decades.

The political stances of the bulk of the members of American political parties tend to clump together in a moderate middle. By that I mean a moderate position within the party's ideology. The bell curve below shows the Republican party circa 1998. The party was fairly united on many core Republican issues. Because of this unity, the ideology of the Republican party looked a lot like a good bell curve:
There are obviously some going to be some people who are more the right or the middle of the party. But the majority will be found in the middle.

People in the W. Bush administration (note, not necessarily the President) pushed a political stance that was much farther to the Right than the so-called "base" of the party.
i.e.
It was a very sly movement on their part, and not totally perceptible, but it happened.
Because of this movement, it made the Democratic party look farther Left than it really was:
The Dems actually were much more of a standard deviation bell curve this whole time. If anything they were leaning toward the middle because it gave them more political clout and helped them to keep their Congressional seats. But it looked skewed because of the Administration's movement.


But what happened to the Republicans? Well, eventually this movement to the Right became obvious and very unsettling to many member of the GOP. In an effort to reestablish the middle ground, people started to look for political positions and ideas to help fix the problems in America. Because there was no longer a firm foundation in the middle, the GOP started to look like this:
There were calls for this and that from all over the spectrum of political opinion. Do you remember hearing anything during the GOP primaries/caucuses and national campaign that carried a solid theme that had actual planning and information behind it? Rarely was there a constant ideology. Senator McCain was trying to rally a disparate Republican party that had no unity in their ideas. This unfortunately made his campaign struggle in their message to the American people as a whole because they didn't know how to calm down the party.

So what's to be done? The GOP needs to examine the basic difficulties in America today, then look at its core ideology and come up with unified front of ideas. These plans must be worked on and then explained to every senator and congressman, who must then clearly explain the ideas to their constituents.

We'll see if this happens. The GOP needs a plan for America, yes. But first they must rein in all of the outlying ideas and move the party back to its center. We'll see if the RNC can do this. We'll know by February.

44

That number has always been a cool one in our family, anyway.
But I especially like it tonight.

Thanks for everyone who GChatted me congrats, left a comment or texted me. It's as if I won myself. It made me smile.
Laurel and I broke out the fake Mormon Champagne and had a jolly good time.

When I saw McCain's speech, I ached for him though. I really wish that he had gotten the GOP nomination in '00. He would've won easily, I think, that year. I would've voted for him then, too, I'm guessing. Oh, how these last 8 years would've been different.

But my craziness of the day? Yes, I wrote in my mom's name under County Commission - Seat C
I usually don't vote for someone who's running uncontested, but this time I pulled a trick.

But I'm pretty overwhelmingly excited as all get out. Yep, stoked.
Whoop!
It's a new thing for me, voting for a winner.

Another possibility ------------->

For those of you who aren't hyped about voting for different candidates or sundry issues, you can vote for your favorite muppet in the poll I created for a friend in a similar predicament.

**Sorry that I forgot Miss Piggy. Totally spaced that one.

My Blues and Reds

First things first: I wanna have a big party tomorrow, all blued and redded up. What should I do?
Also, I'm going early tomorrow morning to vote. I haven't voted yet because I get all cheesy romantic about voting on Tuesday and wearing around my sticker. I really should just get over it.

This is my guess for tomorrow (maybe Wednesday?)

States that I think will go Blue for Obama
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Maine (1 electoral could go Red)
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virgina
Washington (state)
Washington D.C.
Wisconsin
The total for Blue? 338

States that I think will go Red for McCain
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Georgia
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska (1 electoral could go Blue)
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
West Virginia
Wyoming
The total for Red? 200

My crazy prediction? Utah could be at only 59% for McCain! This percentage would be seismic.

Anyway, here's the map:

States that I'm not really sure about: Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio

This is why I like him so much: College football playoffs


As soon as I find Senator McCain's, I'll upload it. It was pretty funny.
Found it:

the founding brethren

I almost always accidentally refer to the Founding Fathers and "The Brethren." I've done it before. It's very embarrassing.

Anyway, I can't remember who I promised the comparison of basic political platforms to. So if I promised it to you, will you let me know. I should really write these things down. And if I haven't promised it to you, and you want it, let me know.

Anyone else annoyed about Falling Back? I'm a big fan of making Daylight Savings the standard. Time to start counting down to the 2nd Sunday in March. I love sunsets occurring after 9pm.
You know, I was really happy when the dates were changed to extend Daylight Savings during the year. But I really miss President Monson's reminders during April Conference.

BYU and Colorado State played a game today that was more reminiscent of the crazy scores from the Wacky WAC. Seriously, where'd the Cougars defense go? 45-42?

I don't know how much this will help the Senator's presidential campaign, but it's pretty darn funny:


And one more:

failblog & row vs wade

You should click here right now. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

Saw this shirt on shirt.woot
It made me laugh.

Excellent adventure

There are times when I'm writing my thesis when I just don't know what to say. I feel like I'm stuck, blathering on about nothing specific. At these moments, I really just wanna write in all caps:
SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!

a joke that will cause a kerfuffle

Little Tommy went to school one day wearing a BYU shirt. His teacher asked him why he was a Cougars fan. He said, "Because my parents are." His teacher replied, "That's not good enough. What would you do if your parents were drug dealers and hookers?" He replied, "Well, then I'd be a Utes fan."


*Before you have too much of a freak out, let me put on my Utes sweatshirt.

International HP Trailer

I'm still annoyed at how they moved back the release date, though. I'm protesting by not seeing it the weekend it's released. We'll see if I hold myself to that.

Saturday

Anyone else nervous about BYU's football team? What's happened to them? They used to play like a well-oiled machine and now they're playing haphazard and their defense makes me wanna go crazy. I'm struggling with the knowledge that'd it'd be better for the U to go undefeated this year (beating BYU) and making it to a BCS game. I might have to do a Megan Neeley and pray about the game.
(She's home on Thursday!!!!)

The TB Rays lost tonight to the Phillies. This makes me sad.

I hit the wall today in thesis writing. Today was more like the camel through the needle syndrome.

I saw the 4th Indiana Jones this weekend for the first time. I ended up rolling my eyes at various moments, fastforwarding at others and then simply freaking out about this:
Iguaçu Falls is NOT in the Amazon. I know this doesn't really matter a whole lot, because they were stupid enough to bring in aliens, thus unwisely destroying the believability of the show (yes, I totally believe the others are possible). But seriously! They're thousands of miles from each other.

Sign that Sarah Palin is mailing it in, not believing the ticket can win, and setting herself up for later political and television opportunities.

But, honestly, they should have had a better feel for her politics before they tapped her out of nearly nowhere. Then they should've let her talk to people rather than muzzling her, just making sure that she doesn't stray too far off the reservation.
Speaking of, wouldn't it have been nice to have a campaign where McCain was also McCain?

Presidential Trivia

Most of you probably know I'm addicted to trivia. Anyway, learned this today:
The last time a Republican presidential ticket won and it didn't have the name Nixon or Bush on it was...


guessed yet?


1928!


What the heck?
2000, 2004: George W. Bush, prez
1988: George H.W. Bush, prez
1980, 1984: George H.W. Bush, veep
1968, 1972: Richard Nixon, prez
1952, 1956: Richard Nixon, veep

a family photo

ew.

Okay, I know I'm a nerd

I think guys in argyle sweaters is really hot, you know sexy. I didn't realize how bizarre this was until recently. I'm pretty sure my cousins think I'm a nut case.



But one thing that is a big turn off is a guy's v-neck t-shirt. ew.
V-neck argyle sweater with a shirt underneath, okay.


And some great Gov Palin SNL vids. Oh, sorry about the initial adverts, once I get the videos, I'll change things around

This is how I got it done and who sang to me on the way

Over the last three days I've gotten 11 hours of sleep. That explains the 25 or something pages of the thesis. Surprisingly, today at work I did not turn narcoleptic.
Would you believe that part of this lack of sleep is that when I get into the writing, I'm having so much fun that I have a hard time stopping?
I think I'm a mental case.


I've also become a Van Morrison fan. I put his music on every night when I'm working.

This is how I feel about tonight's BYU game

I think I might've decided on something

I have been trying to figure out what to wear for Halloween. Granted, I might not have as great of an idea as Jenny, but I think this idea comes from my life right now, as I blog this at 2:43am after having spent X number of hours working on the thesis. I have produced 9 pages in the last couple of hours (woot!). Enough vainglory and tired rambling.
I think I should go as a zombie. I'm thinking a thesis zombie. My deadline is the 31st of October, which is oh, so fitting, ¿no?

Truthfully, though, I've wanted to go as Marion Cotesworth Hay of Marblehead, NY, for a very long time. I want to have people look at me and ask, "Who are you?" just so that I can respond, "I'm Marion Cotesworth Hay."

See below at 1:20 for explanation.

Shout out to Sarah, again! and some less interesting stuff

Happy Columbus Day. Shout out to Sarah and her Leif shirt. Oh, and I should probably give a shout out to Leif Ericson, too. This is a darn cool map.
Oh, speaking of Old Norse, does anyone else think that if the Dwarves from Lord of the Rings were around, they'd be speaking a language that looked like this? Or this? ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.")
So cool, seriously a nifty, barely comprehensible language, Old Norse.


*Columbus monument at the pier in Barcelona. He's pointing west, which is toward the land because of where Barcelona is in Iberia.



There's also a lot of blah blah blah going around about taxes. Both of them are set to give a tax cut to people like you and me. Well, I say you and me, because I don't think I know anyone who reads this blog who makes a half a million.
Here's a basic breakdown of the tax relief from the candidates.
Make of that what you will.
If I find any more info, I might post it.

First Snow in the Valley, BYU game #6

Tonight as Mom and I were walking out of Macey's, we caught the first snowflakes of autumn. Yet again I was confronted with the question, "What in the Sam Hill am I doing living where it snows?"


BYU won their game today 21-3 (really, it should have been 21-10 because New Mexico had a TD taken away on a bad call). They looked a bit sluggish and couldn't seem to overcome some of the Lobos' defensive moves. This could be a problem come Thursday against TCU. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the way the Cougars played defense. TCU's offense is quick and mobile, especially at the quarterback position, which will be a problem. But BYU handled the Lobos pretty well today. This bodes well. BYU's offense needs a little bit more pop for this Thursday's game, too, or the winning streak is going to end at 16.

Three top five teams lost today, too. #1 Oklahoma lost to #5 Texas, #17 Oklahoma state beat #3 Missouri and #4 LSU lost to #11 Florida. I don't know what this is going to mean for the top 10, or if BYU is going to stay in. How much do you want to bet that BYU's going to get leapfrogged by Florida and Georgia, maybe even Oklahoma State, and those top 5 teams that lost will stay in the top 10?
I'm hoping that I'm wrong and that BYU can stay in the top 10, because if they can beat TCU in Texas, the Cougs could conceivably go as high as #7 or #6.
*As a side note Texas Tech--at home--had to go to overtime to beat lowly Nebraska. BYU could beat Texas Tech at their home. They're ranked above BYU. Overrated? Yes.

The trick to all of this is that teams in the top 10 are starting to play eat other in their conference play. The conferences essentially cannibalize teams, meaning that teams that are currently undefeated cannot stay that way. We need to cross our fingers that these teams can beat each other up and that the Cougs can stay undefeated.
#7 Texas Tech is going to end up with possibly 2 losses. #6 Penn State will lose at Ohio State, most likely. #2 Alabama could lose any game because they're in the SEC. Georgia will lost at LSU. Florida could lose another game. #8 USC will win out because the Pac-10 is pathetic.
Anyway, BYU could get into the top 3 or 4 if they continue to play well and stay undefeated. Oh, this is such a pipe dream...

phhhbblltph debate, more 80s

Did anyone else absolutely hate tonight's debate? It was just dumb. Brokaw was driving me crazy, too. I want Gwen Ifill, she's the best moderator out of all of them.

But since the debate was thoroughly annoying, onto more fun things from the 80s that we want back:
**Special for Marie found below**
American Gladiators--hey it started in '89. "Visually interesting"

The Delorean.

Perfect Strangers.


Arby's 5 for 5 deal


Michael Jordan dunking.


Fun Christmas Movies.

My afro?

Excellent Star Trek Movies.



KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

Hot French Captains.


Nintendo, the original NES.

John McCain thinks that Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill need to get back together.


Mary Lou Retton



This is just for Marie, since she thinks The Edge is the beanie god.