Ssh! Secrets Contained Within

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ME
a product review
a self-directed, psychoanalytical case study

Preclusions=

Facebook: waste of time?
Twitter: the latest trend
iPhone: elitest
Human beings: easily persuaded
Me: above consumerism

Facebook= a social networking site, where old friends come together and declare a long-lost friendship; where old acquaintances pretend they were once friends; where new friends come together and publicize that they have just met and perhaps will develop a friendship (Amendment: an accepted practice of information seeking, otherwise known as Facebook stalking or formerly known as nosy people); where actual friends continue their day to day conversations digitally as well as live; where...

Twitter= my news network. I polled my friends on Facebook (meaning=remember that it's old friends, acquaintances, strangers, and friends) for the purpose of Twitter. =News. Was the answer. I tried it, and now am a more informed human being. I now read many of the New Yorker's political cartoons, smile at Justin Bieber's genius social media tactics as he reels his teenyboppers in (clarification: I love JB's music; I follow him as an experiment), get the latest and greatest about Hurricane Irene and the turmoil in Egypt, and get the same information about Emma Watson's shopping spree from the IMDB updates as I would were I to spend $$$ on People Magazine. Results? I'm more informed about laughter, current events, and items of supreme social importance.

iPhone= a pleasantly lost battle. I was resistant to the phenomenon of smartphones for about a year after I came home from Argentina. I thought they were evidence of a consumer driven, instantly gratified society. As I would go about my daily life, friends would say things like "let's google it" or "googlearlo" or "GPS!" or "Facebook! (meaning update something funny said or immediately upload pictures). These comments of convenience slowly crumbled my resolve and when I graduated, my kind grandmother outsmarted my reluctance and I now am attached at the hand with my phone, which I now proclaim my love. I love the constant emails, news access, gps, words with friends (scrabble), and camera!! Resistance=futile.

Conclusions=

Facebook: awesome
Twitter: potentially awesome
iPhone: irreplaceable
Human beings: easily persuaded
Me: a human being

You: you tell me.

P.S. Thank you arkarthick (twitter user) for suggesting to spice up my blogging with a product review.

Outcome= possible failure, but fun to write.

First Week of Teaching

"Welcome to English 10 and 11," I said. I learned names, asked questions, and after two days, suddenly had a brain ache from learning 200+ names. But I did it! And I remembered most of them. The first two days seemed fairly easy, but I was very concerned later in the week. After seeing cell phones about, a few glazed stares, and apathy and feigned apathy in the faces of my students, I realized that teaching can be hard! I had forgotten. I knew I would face some apathy, but experiencing it is much more keen than simply expecting it.

Though I had experienced this before, I have the convenient habit of forgetting bad memories; thus, every time something reoccurs, I can't remember the previous feelings, and so the fresh frustrations feel just as distressing the second, third, fourth, and hundredth time I experience them. Every yawn pierces my soul. Every sigh wounds my confidence. And each time I meet resistance, I have to remind myself, "the world isn't ending. Some people don't love English or school. And unfortunately, I am a new, imperfect perfectionist teacher."

Though, I love my students and am partially saying that because it helps me love them more, my goals for this week are:

1. Look for the positive in every class period, even the one that has somehow grouped together a batch of kids known as the "class of hell" among other teachers in my department. (Disclaimer: my colleagues are awesome; they just are up front and honest about certain realities.)
2. Look for the positive in myself; i.e., nix the perfectionism.
3. Abstain from killing someone.

I am most confident about the third goal. Hopefully this shows maturity in my less experienced, teaching career; or, it reveals that I'm new at this and haven't had my pet peeves peeved enough yet.

More to come.

Trek: Knoxville, TN Youth Conference

Ten years ago, I attended a wilderness youth conference, where we night hiked into our camping area, set up camp, and lived church history for two 1/2 days. On our first day, we built rafts like Nephi in order to cross to the promised land (we crossed a lake on makeshift rafts); on the second day, we were pioneers. That day, the mobs came and drove us out of camp.

(Youth conference is a camp when youth 14-18 years old get together to learn, socialize, and spiritually strengthen themselves by learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ; this particular one simulated the dedication of the Mormon pioneers who helped in restoring The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the earth; hence, the pioneer clothing and handcarts.)

These pictures depict my life ten years later. At this Trek youth conference, the youth, assigned to handcart families, came in and "lived" as pioneers, with the exception of food. I was part of the kitchen crew, captained by my mother. That was my ticket.

As I looked at the youth, I thought back to my conference and realized that when I was in their shoes, the youth were at oldest four years old. I thought of all that they would do in the next ten years.

In that time for me, I survived high school, served a mission, and graduated from college. I couldn't help but imagine that some of them would be married and be parents; some would serve missions; some go to college. I could not help but also think about the temptations in the world, hoping that they would not weaken and fall away. This weekend they were sitting in a grove of Tennessee trees, feeling strong. Oh, how much they have to accomplish afterwards.

This weekend my testimony grew by seeing them. My commitment to stay close the Lord and do His will has deepened. I know that He has a plan for those youth, just as He has had a hand in my life. God is in control and provides opportunities for us.

Memory Lane

I found this picture today on our piano. When I was little, I wanted to be Belle for Halloween so my wonderful mom sewed me this costume. I LOVED it, though in the picture, my face doesn't show it. Unfortunately, it was so cold that night that I had to wear a jacket while trick or treating, but I didn't care because I knew that underneath the jacket was my dress. I played dress-up in that many many times for years to come. Whenever we'd play pretend, people would always want me to be Cinderella because I had blonde hair, but I wanted to be Belle or Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).

Camping In Tennessee

NINJA!!
BEST OUTFIT EVER!
ZIPLINING!
OUR ISLAND

Imagine this:

It's beautiful in Tennessee. My family and I have our own hide-away island in the middle of Douglas Lake (the big lake near us-not to be confused with the giant lakes up near Michigan...). We set up five tents, returned to our fire built many years ago, and made camp. We strung up two hammocks, created a kitchen area with some tables, and even a bathroom area, though I still prefer running water and electricity. We played for five days, boating, tubing, and jet-skiing.

Because of the storms hitting lately, the water is higher than I have seen it in years. The lake covers farmlands from yesteryear; they flooded the area with a dam so that they could create a power plant, which means that when we're swimming, we're really above old farm fences and such sixty feet below. The sunsets were great. We need to find a good spot to see sunsets in Provo. Maybe Utah lake?

I'll admit that I'm tired of the spiders.

I am only moderately sunburned! (Sweet! That means I'll turn brown!)

I read two books.

I swam a lot.

I jet-skied!!

I played tetrus.

I think I decided on the I-Phone, unless Ashlee tells me her (speak to text) is worth it.

I beat my Mom at a game (usual).

I have since showered.

I slept on the ground for five nights (with three bed rolls...)

I sweated my body weight off (oh. wait... the s'mores put it all back on; it's still there).

I built a fire.

I killed spiders.

I saved spiders that weren't in my tent.

I played "Ninja" with my nieces and nephews.

I talked with my older sisters.

I relaxed on a tube with Grace.

I discovered how much I depend upon electronics.

I swung in a hammock.

I stared at the fires flames and red coals; this never bores me. They're fascinating.

That probably covers the last five days.

Face Crunch: the Opposite of a Face Lift

New Experience:
Got hit in the face with a volleyball. I don't know how this was a new experience, but it was. It hurt a lot more than I expected!!! Note to self: avoid ball hogs who will try to steal your playing space and hit you in the face (even if only accidentally).

Official Business: A Utah Bank Account And A License

Well, I opened an account with a credit union yesterday. Grown up stuff. I'll be transferring my funds there soon.

Also, I went and got a Utah license. Because of a mishap, I didn't realize that they'd be taking my picture again that day. The following comment from my roommate sums it up.

"Well, it doesn't show you off... but it's not too bad..."

Thank you Rachel.