In a strange turn of events, I got my assignment turned around on me. I was sitting in the library with my headphones and someone drops a salt water taffy (I almost called it a sweet water taffy. I always screw names up. I called the movie there will be blood there might be blood. I should make a list of everything that I screw up like that.) on my desk. (Interesting that I'm blogging for my writing class and completely ignore the fact that that parenthetical aside (and here's another parenthetical aside... try to use the word "that" four times in a row in one sentence. prize for the winner) was far too long. my blogging is almost entirely parenthetical asides. (when you use a word to often it becomes meaningless. like the word boy. say that word 20 times and it sounds ridiculous))))) (I don't know how to close off that many parenthesis.) Ok. Start over. That was entirely muddled.
So he puts the candy on my table and gives me the thumbs up. I was very confused and tried to figure out if he was someone I knew. Then I literally wondered if he had poisoned the candy. Then I ate it. And it was delicious. I love salt water taffy. I took one from the candy jar on someone's desk today. I also remember a time in Newport Beach when we went to a candy store and the sign said "1 lb unless" ... and then I can't remember what it said. But Katelin Goings read it 1 L Bunless.
What a terribly convoluted blog posting. Luckily nobody reads this blog.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Buy someone a coke.
For some M COMM is need to buy someone a coke and see their reaction. I haven't done this yet, but when I do it, we're going to do a little twist on it. I'm going to pretend like I'm doing a survey for a class on people's favorite candy bars. Then I'm going to leave and buy it for them and give it to them. Then I'm going to stand over them with a notepad and take notes on their reactions. I'm going to intentionally create an awkward situation for them because I love seeing how people react in awkward situations. Should really weird someone out, but should be pretty interesting also.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
M Comm Assignment
Turns out I have to blog once a week for my M Comm class. 150 words a week, straight from my brain to the computer. Whatever I want words to say I'll make them say.
Here's a little update on my life in the order that they have happened or will happen:
1. Taking spring classes. M Comm and Chinese 441, Classical Chinese Literature
2. Doing a fundraiser for the non-profit organizations First Book. Going to be collecting books and selling them to fundraise for First Book. It's a pretty cool organization. They are able to buy the first books for children of low income families for $2. Pretty stinking cheap way to change children's lives.
3. Trying to get a job working for the United Way.
4. Getting married June 27th in the Manti Temple.
5. Going to Washington DC for an undecided internship for fall semester
6. Graduating in April 2010.
Super lazy blog. I just needed to get it done before I went to bed. Better blog next week.
Here's a little update on my life in the order that they have happened or will happen:
1. Taking spring classes. M Comm and Chinese 441, Classical Chinese Literature
2. Doing a fundraiser for the non-profit organizations First Book. Going to be collecting books and selling them to fundraise for First Book. It's a pretty cool organization. They are able to buy the first books for children of low income families for $2. Pretty stinking cheap way to change children's lives.
3. Trying to get a job working for the United Way.
4. Getting married June 27th in the Manti Temple.
5. Going to Washington DC for an undecided internship for fall semester
6. Graduating in April 2010.
Super lazy blog. I just needed to get it done before I went to bed. Better blog next week.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Summer Reading List
I realized my favorite thing about blogging is input. So here's your opportunity. It's time again to make my summer reading list and I need your input. I enjoy non-fiction over novels, but am not opposed to novels if they're good.
Currently on my list:
Outliers
Hot, Flat and Crowded
An Ordinary Man
For One More Day
Still on my list from last year:
The Art of Thinking
The Good Earth
Catcher in the Rye
Kite Runner
Mere Christianity
Currently on my list:
Outliers
Hot, Flat and Crowded
An Ordinary Man
For One More Day
Still on my list from last year:
The Art of Thinking
The Good Earth
Catcher in the Rye
Kite Runner
Mere Christianity
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Somethings that I like recently.
Here's somethings that I really liked in January.
Books:
The Last Lecture of a professor from Carnegie Mellon who is dying of cancer. The kind of book that makes you want to go out and make the most of your life.
Tuesdays with Morrie. My favorite book of all time. Fourth time I've read it. Quick read, amazing story, why not? Such a great story about the way that one man was able to touch so many people's lives. A goal I set this month is to read a book about someone who is dying every month. Depressed by the morbidity of the goal, I quickly discarded it.
Music:
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
The perfect album to listen to late at night when I'm writing in my journal and reflecting on my day. Thanks to James Alexander for tipping me off to them.
Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Thanks to wherehouse.com I turned in some of my old high school music cds in exchange for this album, Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast, TV on the Radio's release last year and Bon Iver's new EP Blood Bank. This is my favorite of the group.
Hypem.com
This is a great website. Takes all of the music that people put on blogs and puts it together and tells you who is the most searched artists. Great news for all aspiring early adapters. For all you late adapters out there (me included) they put together a list of their top 50 songs, albums and artists of 2008 and made it all available to stream. Check it out here: http://hypem.com/zeitgeist/2008/
Movies:
Prom Night in Mississippi. I've never been to the south and don't understand it at all. This documentary tells the story of a high school in Mississippi that up until 1997 was having segregated proms. 1997 and there's still segregation? So Morgan Freeman offers to pay for their prom under one condition: They integrate. His offer is REJECTED. Flash forward to 2008 and the same offer is made, only difference is that it is accepted. This documentary gets into the minds of kids who want to see change, who are stuck living how their parents would have them, and some who want to see the prejudices perpetuated.
Be Kind Rewind. I'm an unashamed Jack Black fan. I like just about everything he's done. Big Nacho Libre, School of Rock and Orange County fan. I love this movie not just because of him, but I love Mos Def in his role. This movie is extremely creative and so fun to watch how they film each movie.
Organizations:
The Meaningful Life Club.
This is a club that gets its name from Tuesdays with Morrie and is in conjunction with my Business 371 Class. Craig Wilson is my favorite professor that I've had in college. In his class he stresses living simply, consecrating your life to the service of others, and making that possible by becoming financially free. I've become the event director of this club and we have some really cool ideas of ways to make a difference and influence peoples lives around here through service. Our meetings are Weds at 7PM. Let me know if you want to get involved.
Somethings that we're getting involved in:
Kiva.org
Micro-crediting or Micro-Financing for those of you that haven't heard of it is lending small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in undeveloped countries to help them break free from the exploitations of loan sharks. Many only need a small amount of money to start their path to financial independence and breaking the poverty cycle. Your donation of $25 (or more) will be paid back in full, so it's not even really a donation. Join the BYU group if you're a fellow coug.
Tap Project
Did you know that $1 will provide water for 1 child for 40 days? Most don't have access to clean water, so the tap project is calling for restaurants to charge $1 for tap water on March 22nd and have the money donated towards getting children in undeveloped countries the drinking water they need. The project raised $100,000 last year in one day. In New York alone. This year it's going nationwide. Go to the tapproject.org for more info and to figure out how to get involved.
Books:
The Last Lecture of a professor from Carnegie Mellon who is dying of cancer. The kind of book that makes you want to go out and make the most of your life.
Tuesdays with Morrie. My favorite book of all time. Fourth time I've read it. Quick read, amazing story, why not? Such a great story about the way that one man was able to touch so many people's lives. A goal I set this month is to read a book about someone who is dying every month. Depressed by the morbidity of the goal, I quickly discarded it.
Music:
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
The perfect album to listen to late at night when I'm writing in my journal and reflecting on my day. Thanks to James Alexander for tipping me off to them.
Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Thanks to wherehouse.com I turned in some of my old high school music cds in exchange for this album, Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast, TV on the Radio's release last year and Bon Iver's new EP Blood Bank. This is my favorite of the group.
Hypem.com
This is a great website. Takes all of the music that people put on blogs and puts it together and tells you who is the most searched artists. Great news for all aspiring early adapters. For all you late adapters out there (me included) they put together a list of their top 50 songs, albums and artists of 2008 and made it all available to stream. Check it out here: http://hypem.com/zeitgeist/2008/
Movies:
Prom Night in Mississippi. I've never been to the south and don't understand it at all. This documentary tells the story of a high school in Mississippi that up until 1997 was having segregated proms. 1997 and there's still segregation? So Morgan Freeman offers to pay for their prom under one condition: They integrate. His offer is REJECTED. Flash forward to 2008 and the same offer is made, only difference is that it is accepted. This documentary gets into the minds of kids who want to see change, who are stuck living how their parents would have them, and some who want to see the prejudices perpetuated.
Be Kind Rewind. I'm an unashamed Jack Black fan. I like just about everything he's done. Big Nacho Libre, School of Rock and Orange County fan. I love this movie not just because of him, but I love Mos Def in his role. This movie is extremely creative and so fun to watch how they film each movie.
Organizations:
The Meaningful Life Club.
This is a club that gets its name from Tuesdays with Morrie and is in conjunction with my Business 371 Class. Craig Wilson is my favorite professor that I've had in college. In his class he stresses living simply, consecrating your life to the service of others, and making that possible by becoming financially free. I've become the event director of this club and we have some really cool ideas of ways to make a difference and influence peoples lives around here through service. Our meetings are Weds at 7PM. Let me know if you want to get involved.
Somethings that we're getting involved in:
Kiva.org
Micro-crediting or Micro-Financing for those of you that haven't heard of it is lending small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in undeveloped countries to help them break free from the exploitations of loan sharks. Many only need a small amount of money to start their path to financial independence and breaking the poverty cycle. Your donation of $25 (or more) will be paid back in full, so it's not even really a donation. Join the BYU group if you're a fellow coug.
Tap Project
Did you know that $1 will provide water for 1 child for 40 days? Most don't have access to clean water, so the tap project is calling for restaurants to charge $1 for tap water on March 22nd and have the money donated towards getting children in undeveloped countries the drinking water they need. The project raised $100,000 last year in one day. In New York alone. This year it's going nationwide. Go to the tapproject.org for more info and to figure out how to get involved.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Fire Jars
Massage parlors are probably about as common as convenience stores in Nanjing. There's one in particular that my friends go to, and they've gotten to be pretty good friends with them. They've given them English names, helped them with the translation for their frequent massage card buy 10 get 1 free dealies, and go there to just hang out. They're really funny people.
I went in there last night for the first time since the first week when I got a massage and got the fire jars. Basically how it works, they have these jars that they light a fire into and then really quickly put it on your back. It creates a suction and they cover your back with these jars like so:
They leave them on for about 15-20 minutes, slap your back around a little bit and then you're good to go. Afterwards, you have purple souvenirs on your back, the more purple an area is, the more unhealthy it is. So yes, my lower right back is very unhealthy.
More to come soon. I know I say that all the time. But I'm going to do more frequent, but shorter posts.
I went in there last night for the first time since the first week when I got a massage and got the fire jars. Basically how it works, they have these jars that they light a fire into and then really quickly put it on your back. It creates a suction and they cover your back with these jars like so:
They leave them on for about 15-20 minutes, slap your back around a little bit and then you're good to go. Afterwards, you have purple souvenirs on your back, the more purple an area is, the more unhealthy it is. So yes, my lower right back is very unhealthy.
More to come soon. I know I say that all the time. But I'm going to do more frequent, but shorter posts.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Guilin is a beautiful place in China, but Yangshuo is better.
So the best part of the study abroad is the schedule. We just got done with a week vacation, and I have another 10 day vacation coming up. But first thing's first. Guilin is a beautiful place in China, but Yangshuo is better. That's a quote from our tour guide's business card, and it's very true.
Our trip to Guilin and Yangshuo started out with a 24 hour train ride. If you're thinking that that sounds like it would be miserable, you're wrong. Given the choice between a 14 hour plane ride from America with in flight meal/movie and stewardess and the sleeper train, I would choose the sleeper every time. The downside? Loud Chinese people and stinky. The upside? Loud Chinese people, the trains go through the night, and you can roam around and talk to people. The trains are just rows of beds, so the majority of the time spent on the train is sleeping, reading, playing games if you're with other people, or looking at Chinese people or vice versa.
The 10 of us hopped in taxis and "bread cars", which are mini mini vans.
And headed to our hostel. I was surprised how cool Guilin was. Really cool mountains, and there was one with a little hole in the middle.
After that we got some dinner, walked around a bit, found a market and bartered a bit and then called it a day.
The next day we went to seven stars park. It was pretty cool. A bit too much like a theme park. Still very cool. Right when you walk in, if you look to your left you'll see this:
We kept walking a bit and saw this little booth where you could take pictures with peacocks. We were all going to take the picture, but realized that it cost 5 yuan (about 75 cents), so everyone except us three backed out.
There was a waterfall. I wanted to stick my feet in it, but it seemed kind of gross. Brinley stepped in it on accident.
It's a very green place.
Camel's are perhaps God's ugliest creation? But I still got on one for 10 yuan. Notice the droopy hump.
The panda's at the zoo that they had are the big attraction. I've heard that zoo's in China aren't that great to go to. In fact they're depressing. I found that out first hand with this panda, trapped like a prisoner.
Well, it takes forever to post pictures. That's guilin. And I have tons more from yangshuo. I'll post them on Tuesday since I only have one class that day. Until then.
Our trip to Guilin and Yangshuo started out with a 24 hour train ride. If you're thinking that that sounds like it would be miserable, you're wrong. Given the choice between a 14 hour plane ride from America with in flight meal/movie and stewardess and the sleeper train, I would choose the sleeper every time. The downside? Loud Chinese people and stinky. The upside? Loud Chinese people, the trains go through the night, and you can roam around and talk to people. The trains are just rows of beds, so the majority of the time spent on the train is sleeping, reading, playing games if you're with other people, or looking at Chinese people or vice versa.
The 10 of us hopped in taxis and "bread cars", which are mini mini vans.
And headed to our hostel. I was surprised how cool Guilin was. Really cool mountains, and there was one with a little hole in the middle.
After that we got some dinner, walked around a bit, found a market and bartered a bit and then called it a day.
The next day we went to seven stars park. It was pretty cool. A bit too much like a theme park. Still very cool. Right when you walk in, if you look to your left you'll see this:
We kept walking a bit and saw this little booth where you could take pictures with peacocks. We were all going to take the picture, but realized that it cost 5 yuan (about 75 cents), so everyone except us three backed out.
There was a waterfall. I wanted to stick my feet in it, but it seemed kind of gross. Brinley stepped in it on accident.
It's a very green place.
Camel's are perhaps God's ugliest creation? But I still got on one for 10 yuan. Notice the droopy hump.
The panda's at the zoo that they had are the big attraction. I've heard that zoo's in China aren't that great to go to. In fact they're depressing. I found that out first hand with this panda, trapped like a prisoner.
Well, it takes forever to post pictures. That's guilin. And I have tons more from yangshuo. I'll post them on Tuesday since I only have one class that day. Until then.
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