riddle me this

Answer to the riddle in previous post: Turn one light switch on, leave on for awhile, then turn off. Turn second switch on and leave third switch off. Then go into the room-light bulb that's on goes with on switch, light bulb that's off goes with off switch, light bulb that's off but feels hot to the touch is the one that's been on. So there you go.

The weather is getting better and it makes me so, so happy. The flower trees have been in bloom for a little while now and I all I want to do is go ride my bike. Seriously.

General Conference is this weekend and I'm sure it's going to be baller.

Am I the only American that did not see "Hunger Games" last weekend?

The London 2012 Olympics are coming in 120 days. Get. Ready.-Also did you know they renamed all the Tube stops in London after famous Olympians and they names will stay until after the Olympics? The ones right near the Olympic stadium are named for Cassius Clay and Michael Phelps. Similar sports are grouped on the same line. So cool. (although I think since Phelps still competes he should not have a stop named for him quite yet.) See the whole map.

I love easters candy.

Things turning 100 this year:

Oreo Cookies

The Girl Scouts

The Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic

Boom. Knowledge. You're welcome.

la de dah

sorry for the dearth of posts lately. I haven't felt too bloggy. Monicky took me to task for that so here are a few random thoughts.

-I don't like it when light switches are off pattern. For example, our kitchen has two entries with a switch by each entry. When one switch is used to turn the lights on and the other off, then the switches are not in a correct flip up for "on" and down for "off." So that means I am flipping down for "on" and it feels so weird.

-speaking of light switches, here's a riddle: You are outside a room with three light switches. They each correspond to one of three light bulbs in the room. Your job is to figure out which switch goes with which light bulb. You can only go in the room once, and you can't peek out the door or anything to see what you left turned on or whatever. How do you find out which switch goes with which light bulb? I'll post the answer in a few days.

-I just got done with a two week streak of having something every night to go to or be at. Most of it was parties, fun things and the like. So it was good, but I am glad to have a break. Things included were Dessert Night, Pi Day, Crank It Slow, a bachelorette party, a bridal shower, a wedding reception, cooking food for the RS b-day party, eating the food at the RS b-day party, hiking Badger Mtn, having an impromptu BBQ, having peeps over for games and just chatting, having a girl's night, FHE, and probably something else all the while trying to fit in the gym and take care of other life things. I guess I party hard.

-I've been reading David McCullough's book about John Adams. It's not a fast read, but it's very good. Some observations: John Adams was very devoted to doing his "duty" even at the expense of leaving his entire family; he loved his wife, Abagail, very much, they were devoted to each other, and were very much equals in their marriage, tons of their letters have survived and it is impressive to me to read how they treated, spoke to, and supported each other. One thing I thought was funny was how Adams made a statement about Franklin and Jefferson. Basically he said that history would remember Franklin as the creator of America or something like that and that Jefferson would be idolized for stuff he did. Men would one day honor them and build huge statues or memorials to their name. When really Franklin was lazy and a dirty old man that never lifted a finger if it put him out. Which is pretty much what happened. One thing I remember from my junior year english class was that Franklin was a dirty old man. He got all the ladies, somehow. Adams was pretty cool, but earned a poor reputation. I enjoy reading about the "founding fathers."

-I had a sweet idea for a party. Get a bunch of the Now cds together (Now, That's What I Call Music!) but just the early ones, like 1-7. It will be super nostalgic and full of songs you forgot about (or maybe songs you still listen to every day). Remember back when Backstreet Boys, Britney, and Chumbawumba were big? Yeah, and how did Aaron Carter ever get famous? Well, you'll listen to these cds and basically sit on a cloud of late 90's early 00's nostalgia.

-I've decided that I want to use more big words in everyday life. I feel like there is a lack of good words being used. Words like "pithy" or "inveigle"are fun to use and throw around. I think it's a combination of reading the book about Adams and reading his letters, this new blog I found called Letters of Note, and another blog I found recently of someone who was a very good argumentative and persuasive writer. People used to write a lot differently back in the day. I think more thought went into it since you couldn't erase what you put down. Not like this here blog where I can word vomit all day long. There was also a lot more use of big words and more imagery. Good writing is enjoyable to read.

-the other night at FHE we were supposed to bring something that we really enjoyed. I took my 2002 Olympics highlights DVD. It shocked me that someone said they didn't like watching the Olympics. Another girl said she didn't know equestrian was an event. WHAT?! Ok, maybe I should explain that I am very passionate about the Olympics. (I've blogged the Olympics a few times now). I love everything about the games. The nations of the world uniting in a way that can't be done very many other ways. The pagentry (Beijing opening ceremonies anyone?). The schmultzy stories about the athletes that had to overcome incredible odds even to be there-even though they have no chance of winning a medal. I love Bob Costas, he is an integral part of the Olympics for me. I listen to the Olympic songs sometimes, especially good when working out (think Celine Dion's "Power of the Dream" not the John Williams fanfare). Even the commercials during the Olympics are some of the best ever. I love the athletes competing. I love when the favorites win. I love when the underdogs win. I know that I hate the NBC commentator lady who does the swim events. (She is annoying). I also can't stand Dick Button (we know you won a gold medal in figure skating in like 1954 but the sport has advanced way beyond you and can you please be positive about people instead of picking their performance apart? Let's see you do a quadruple salchow!) I know athletes and recognize them from games to games. So, you see, I'm very passionate about the Olympics. I can understand not being as passionate as I am...but to not like them at all? That's like saying you don't like ice cream, or babies. The London 2012 games are coming soon-July 27th!!

-Biography titles: I've thought of two really good ones. The first is for Neil Diamond-"Touching Me, Touching You: The Biography of Neil Diamond." Get it?! Sweet Caroline...The second is for my dad-"I'd Rather Be Right Than President, But I'm Often Neither: The Biography of Baby Darrell." The title is a phrase that he says a lot. Totally describes him.

-I know Gotye is pretty hot right now, but I like this other song of his-I Feel Better. It's got lots of Steve Winwood/Stevie Wonder overtones to it. I love the 60's motown feel. Also, a little Kelly Clarkson in one's life is a good thing.

-I finally saw that movie, Contagion. I felt I needed to as a former public health major. I ate it all up-and let me tell you, even though that movie was a little extreme, all that stuff could totally happen. Easily. All it would take is the right strain of something. It would spread and we wouldn't know how to contain or treat it. I learned a lot about the scenarios portrayed in the movie at school. Closing state borders, choosing who would get a vaccination, containing a disease, the run it would make on drugstores, grocery stores, and banks, how the trash could pile up and then just cause more problems itself, propaganda, lawlessness, people using their power corruptly (ie when the guy tells his girlfriend to escape the state before they announce the border closure), not having enough body bags, etc. This is all very possible. Again, I felt like the movie was extreme, it would have to be a very rare, strong disease that we know nothing about. But I did feel like they showed a lot of things that would be affected by something such as this.

-I had a choice of action or inaction today. I chose inaction because I got scared. I hope I get the guts to act or I could miss something good.

Here's to future blogging!

how European trains made my day

Wanderlust is real and kickin'. I was looking at European train websites trying to learn how all that stuff works b/c being from 'Merica and more so being from Western 'Merica the only trains I have ever ridden have been at theme parks (ie. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), so commuting by trains is a foreign concept to me. We got enough space that we just build roads and drive there.

While researching I read that discounted passes are available for "Youth." And get this, they count "youth" as up to age 26. That made my 25 year old heart feel young and my 25 year old brain excited at being able to still qualify for some sort of discount. It'll probs be 30 years till the next discount. (The cinema here gives senior price starting at age 55, they accidentally gave it to my pop a year or so ago thinking he definitely qualified and he was just so confused as to why his ticket was so cheap-he later paid for the rest of it as a matter of dignity).

So that said, thinking about riding the Eurostar sometime in May...;)

sometimes a little neil diamond is all you need

Truth. Sometimes it's so good just to listen to him croon.

Also, got myself The Jazz Singer for my birthday and it is everything I wanted it to be. Neil, 1980, music, sequined shirts, Neil even grows a beard at one point, Jews, yarmulkes, America, 80's hair, and Hebrew singing. Why did he stop making movies?

family photoshoot

We got family pictures taken back in December. I would have loved a nice summery setting but Christmas is the only time of year when we're all home together. So I made everybody get dressed up and smile. Siblings, pick out which ones you want prints of and I shall send them to you. BTW Corina Manning has the copyright to all these photos, I have her permission to use them. But you don't.
A

B

C

D

E

F

This one makes me die of laughter

G

H

I

J

My favorite

K

L

M

N

O

P

So my dad has this thing where he thinks he looks super handsome in his overcoat, so we had to pacify him and let him take some GQ shots in his coat.

Q

He really likes that his foot pops in this one

R

S

Also one of my faves.



duty of the jurors

I got the summons, yep. And this was the first thing I thought of when I pondering having to report:



Ha ha hahaha!

But seriously, they wanted me for jury duty. So I sent back my info and called in on the right date, and they told me to report. I was actually sort of looking forward to it because it was new and interesting and I'd never really dealt with the justice system before. Plus I got to get out of work so...win-win! Both mom and dad had done it before so they told me to take a book because it was a game of hurry up and wait. I reported on a Monday at 8 am. With like 120 other people. Some were interested in being there and some were just the biggest grouches in the world. (I hope they don't need a jury of their peers anytime soon). I wasn't the youngest one there, but there were a lot of older people, plus a lot of retirees. After about an hour a bailiff came in and took about 30 people to be chosen for a first trial. Then after another half hour another bailiff came in to explain that we would be answering a questionnaire and then assigned us numbers and put us in numerical order. Then the actual judge came in to talk to us about a few things. It was an interesting case, the nature of it meant it would be on the long side (two weeks), and that they needed such a large pool of jurors (90). He also explained some of the rules and how things would run. We took the questionnaire and waited another 45 minutes, the bailiff then told some of us to return that afternoon and the rest to return the next morning. I got assigned the morning.

The next morning I reported and then got told to come back at 1:15. Hooray! It was weird because most of the 90 people were still there, I thought some of them would have gotten dismissed already. Then we got taken down to the courtroom. I got a nice tour of the county courthouse. We were led in, the first 12 jurors were seated in the jury box, and the rest of us sat in the benches. It was a tad scary in the fact that it was very serious, proper, and legal. And I've never been in a court room before (except the time I went to Drug Court for class-that was an awesome experience). We had to stand when the judge came in and had to take an oath to tell the truth. After that the process of Voir Dire (old French for "that which is true") began. Essentially they interview perspective jurors. Then the judge asked for people to state any reasons why they couldn't serve, ie financial hardship. He dismissed a few people. Then both the prosecutor and the defense attorneys got up and asked questions to all 90 of the prospective jurors. They each took an hour to ask questions, present situations, pose hypotheticals to see if we could be fair and impartial. They tried to show the difference between having an opinion on something and being able to set it aside in order to look at facts and then just being biased and making a decision based on that bias. They were very lawyery in their questions, you could start sensing a trap sometimes, but really they were trying to smoke out any people who would be really bad to have on a jury. I kind of enjoyed this part. It got me thinking a lot. I don't think I've used my brain that much since college. It was somewhat unusual to be kept that long as part of a jury pool, but like I said, it was a really important case that needed a lot of prepping. After that we had to have a break so all the old people could go to the bathroom. I guess 2 hours is a long time. Then the two lawyers could dismiss up to six jurors each for "Cause," meaining they could turn down a certain person, but didn't have to say why. It could be that you looked at them funny. They passed around a paper, the bailiff passed it around, and wrote numbers down and crossed things off. Twice they had to go to a "sidebar" to conference about things. Then the judge dismissed a few people and thanked them for their service, they started with the first 12 numbers. They were the jury until a few were dismissed, then they were replaced with the next highest up. They became the official jury. I was pretty high up so I wasn't even close to being selected. And then we got dismissed. That was it. The judge thanked us for coming and we were allowed to leave. It was kind of fun to see how that process works and made me appreciate the people who work to uphold the laws of the land, I guess I'm a nerd. Yay America.

no interest in pinterest

If you haven't heard of pinterest, it's this website where you can get on and troll through images of various things and places and people and then "pin" the ones you like or think are cute to your own pinboard. It sounded kinda fun to me at first, I went on once just to check it out. After thinking about it and seeing others' use of the website I decided that I didn't want to use it. Here's why: so there's lots of stuff to look at. Crafts, food, pretty scenes, photos and the like. It could be a cool place to get a lot of ideas for things. But I noticed that after awhile, I started to get envious and covetous. I want a cute hat, I wish I could make that, etc. Thinking like that could get you in trouble. You also start wishing your own situation in life were better than it was. By this I mean that you wish you had the capacity to do all that it looks like everyone else has done. Decorated their bedrooms, sewed a cute outfit, created a fun party theme, BUT you have neither the time, capacity, money, nor energy to do any of it. So it makes you more depressed because you won't accomplish any of your wishes. At least that's where my thinking goes. (Ie., it would be fun to redecorate with paint, throw pillows, pictures etc, but that is money I don't need to spend and I have a perfectly good bedroom set up already). The above thoughts were reasons why I stopped following a few blogs. It's a pet peeve of mine when blogs are too perfect and cutesie. Ladies gushing over this and that, which you know they didn't have a hand in, they just found it somewhere first. Also, it's kind of a sensory overload and I can only handle so much. I've heard that some people spend hours upon hours on pinterest just looking at tons of stuff. I try really hard not to spend too much time on the internets. I'm not really creative when it comes to web surfing. I concede that it could be helpful when planning a wedding. I've heard a few people doing that. It could be greatly helpful, in fact. And I'm not trying to diss anyone that does pinterest, I've just decided that it's not for me.