Taxes are done!

After procrastinating them for so long, and then scrambling to figure out how to pay the suckers. But they are done now (thanks to a lot of help from my sister who is an accountant). Turbo Tax was wonderful! What a great source of media. Without it, I would probably still be trying to figure out how to put my name in the confusing mess of boxes.

YouTube has helped my marriage

My husband and I both compete on the BYU track teams. Many weekends we are apart because we travel to different track meets.

Last weekend my husband went to Texas where he won the meet on Thursday, and then polevaulted a lifetime best. I was so excited for him; but bummed that I wasn't there to see it.
So, Saturday night I typed his name into YouTube, and these videos popped up. I was so excited that I was able to see him jump and experience his win with him through YouTube.

Thursday's winning jump

Saturday's jump: His lifetime best

Conference

I love General Conference weekend! I also love living in Utah and having conference be on three different channels and on the radio. On Sunday morning I had to pick up my husband who flew in, and I was able to still listen to Conference in the car on the radio while driving.

And then because I slept through a few of the Sunday afternoon talks (after eating a big Easter meal), I was able to go back and find the talks I missed and listen to them on the LDS.org website.

Technology is so great! It's amazing that General Conference was able to be viewed and heard in so many countries across the world. It is incredible that as a worldwide church, we are all able to hear the Prophets and Apostles voice, at almost the same moment they speak.

Thursday's class inspired me

(my little brother and I. I think that may have been an Easter dress)

After last week's class on Home Videos I decided to watch some home videos this weekend while I was home all alone.

It was so much fun pulling out the old tapes. I had to find an old VCR hidden in the basement, and then figure out how on earth to connect the ancient machine to the TV. But, the effort was worth it!

Even though I watched them by myself, at some points I was laughing so hard, I cried. Sadly, I realized that some of the tapes are deteriorating.

This led me to my new goal: To transfer the VHS tapes onto DVD's. Then the brilliant idea struck me: I could do this as Christmas gifts for my whole family!

So, first things first. Does anybody have any idea how to transfer VHS to DVD?!

How embarrassing would this be?!?

The video Dr. Coyne shared in class this past week of her proposal caught on tape reminded me of this proposal video and that didn't come away with a happy ending.

Poor guy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtPkxzHKLpk

I finally figured out how to post videos!

So, now that I figured it out and realized how incredibly simple it is, I feel kind of sheepish. :) I couldn't find the upload video button before.

Now I am a blog video uploading machine! And because a proud wife has to brag just a little, here's video of my husband pole vaulting.

We finally saw it!

My husband and I have been eagerly wanting to see the movie Blindside ever since we saw the first preview.
And last night our dream finally came true! (We've been waiting for it to go to the Dollar Theater)

I absolutely loved it! I love feel-good inspirational movies.

p.s. I think I might have a girl crush on Sandra Bullock with blonde hair. She looked awesome

GPS saves the day!

This past weekend I went to southern California for a track meet. We stayed in Irvine and we didn't know the area at all.
Thanks to GPS though, we were able to navigate our way to our hotel, restaurants, the Newport Beach temple, and the track.

An Extraordinary Movie!

I went to a movie this week for the first time in months. My husband and I needed a break from school, work, and track, so we decided to spend a relaxing night at the Dollar Theater.

We saw Extraordinary Measures, which is based on a true story. Harrison Ford, Keri Russel, and Brandon Fraiser star in the film. I wasn't expecting much going into the movie, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how great this movie was.

The film had a fabulous message and portrayed a healthy, functional, loving family (which is definitely not the norm in the media these day). I give this movie thumbs up!

I guess I don't watch very sexually explicit shows

For the sexual content assignment I expected to get much higher numbers of sexual messages in the media. But, the TV shows I watched contained very little, if any sexual messages.
This is probably due to the type of shows I watched.

Well, that's good news to me!

I am extremely ashamed to admit...

that I watched the ENTIRE 3 hour season finale of the Bachelor.

I don't even know why I did it. I haven't watched that show at all this season. Maybe it was because I was mourning the loss of the Olympics.

The show sucked me in. I got so worked up over the results of the show too. Tenley was adorable and captured Jake's family's hearts, and mine. But of course, the Bachelor picked the trashy girl with the boob implants who all the other girls hated.

For the past 2 days I have been upset over the results of the show. But then I realized, the Bachelor himself is a dope, and it's probably best for Tenley the adorable girl to not be stuck with him.

Besides, Vienna and Jake will probably break up soon anyway.

Now that the Olympics are over...

I don't know what to do with myself.

Reconsidering friends

After our class discussion yesterday on facebook and what constitutes a "friend" I was motivated to go through and edit my friends list. I deleted about 80 people who I was "friends" with. Many of the these people I have never actually talked to, or haven't talked to in years. There were even a few people on there I didn't even know who they were or where I knew them from.
It was actually was very refreshing and almost therapeutic cleaning out excess people.

All Eyes on Tiger

Ever since the unfortunate news came out about Tiger Woods, the media have been buzzing around trying to pick up on every juicy detail they can get their slimy hands on.

After Tiger's first public statement on Friday, I was shocked that for the rest of the day on ESPN and many other news channels, "analysts" dissected every part of his statement. "Forgiveness experts" were called in to weigh their opinion on Tiger's remarks. Some even diagnosed Tiger's statement as an "alleged apology," claiming it did not contain all the necessary ingredients to be considered an apology.

Leave the man alone for goodness sake! Why is it that as a society we thrive off of hearing about the tragedies in celebrities lives?

Is this really a sport?

I think it's so funny how a sport that I normally could care less about, during the Olympics I get sucked in and have to see who wins.

For example, short track speed skating. I think this event is ridiculous. But last night I had to watch the relay (that went on forever) just to see how the Americans did. In this event, grown men in tight spandex suits just skate around in a tiny circle, and then their buddy gets out in front of them, and they give them a big push in the rump. And then they keep spinning in circles over and over again, rotating who skates.

C'mon, that's not a real sport is it? But because it's in the Olympics people suddenly become interested in the "sport". We proclaim these people as world class athletes. Are they world class because they are the only ones who enjoy spinning in circles, touching each other, and crashing on the ice?

Oh the Olympics

This weekend my husband and I are in Colorado Springs. We got back to our hotel room last night and turned on the TV. We were excited to see that the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics was on. It was the Parade of Nations. What is so interesting about this, is that actually it is very long and boring, but we could not peel ourselves away from it.

We flipped through the channels several times, but for some reason were always drawn back to the Opening Ceremonies.

I'm not sure if it is the excitement surrounding the Olympics or the "spirit" of the Games, or perhaps maybe the glamour of the athletes, but we were enthralled by the long Parade of Athletes; while also bored out of our mind. A weird paradox, I know.

Number the Stars

This was one of my favorite books growing up. I read this book over and over in elementary and junior high school.
The story is about a ten-year-old girl named Annemarie who lived in Denmark in 1943 and was caught up in the events surrounding the Nazis and Danish Jews. She and her family risked their lives to help Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, by pretending that Ellen is Annemarie's older sister; the sister had died earlier in the war during her work for the Resistance.

You market to your audience

I spent this past Friday and Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho (oh joy...)
I paid attention to the advertising banners and sponsers in the Holt Arena (where their track is) at Idaho State University.

There were advertising banners thru-out the complex, just like at most sport events. I noticed an interesting theme among these banners. This is just a small sample of the banners:

-Got milk? Idaho DairyMan Association
-Simplot (Idaho potatoes)
-Farm Bureau of Idaho
-Heinz ketchup
-Idaho Lottery

Technology helps erase the miles

This week my husband and I are separated. He is in New York City for a track meet. It is funny just how LOOOONG 5 days can feel when you are alone.

I am VERY grateful for technology! We have texted throughout the day and emailed each other. It helps erase some of the distance between us.

The past couple nights when I am home alone I've played music when the house feels empty without him. I started paying attention to the music and its effect on me after our class discussion on music Thursday.
I realized different types of songs put me in different types of moods. Love songs or songs that I equate with my husband just made me feel lonelier. The songs that helped me feel comforted the most were Church music, and I have to admit; some of the cheesy EFY cd's.

So I have to admit, I do not feel like the most media savvy person. I hardly ever watch TV, I haven't seen a movie since Christmas break, I rarely listen to the radio while in the car, and I'm not an I-pod junky. So lately I have been trying to pay attention to what types of media I do use.
So this is just a list of typical day in my life and the media I use:

• In the morning I wake up to my cell phone buzzing.
  

• Each morning at school I pick up a BYU newspaper and flip through the pages quickly to see if anything catches my eye. Usually I skim through the paper and then take time to analyze the grocery ads.

• I consult my phone several times throughout the day hoping someone has texted me.

• Sometimes in class I will take notes on my laptop if I'm in the mood to act like a good student. And of course, if there is internet access, my screen may occasionally from time to time flip to my email or facebook account.

• I read many types of written media throughout the day; scriptures, textbooks, online articles, printed articles, recipes, labels, traffic signs, and emails.

Texting Updates

Okay so this post is a little similar to the last one... oh well :).

The Church has announced a new temple in Payson! It's so exciting. (Hopefully it will help make the Provo teemple a little less busy.)

My religion professor today said she received the announcement via a text message. Apparently there is a number you can text to receive announcements of big Church news and events. How neat is that?

If anyone knows that number, let me know!

Travel Time

It's track season again....which means traveling almost every weekend from Jan to May. My husband and I are both on the BYU track team and so we travel to track meets on weekends, which means we have to travel on a lot of Sundays. Right now it's Sunday morning and we are stuck waiting in the Las Vegas airport and we won't be able to make it to church in time.

Unfortunately, we miss church more often than we would like to. When we are traveling we love taking advantage of all the resources mormon.org and lds.org offer. We watch the Mormon Messages, Church commercials, and listen or watch Conference talks and devotionals. The Church has revamped these sites and they offer many wonderful sources to access talks, music, and articles. It is amazing the access we have to almost anything we want. It is so fun to search by topic, speaker, or year. There are thousands of articles available.

We are so grateful the Church as provided this invaluable tool!

Expelled

My husband and I watched this movie this past week. It is a documentary film about the science vs. religion debate. Ben Stein is the director/main character. In the film he chronicles his journey of trying to discover the truth of how Darwinism and its proponents suppresses the ideas of Creation and Intelligent Design. Stein interviewed several professors who have lost their jobs and have been shuned in academia because of their research in the arena of Intelligent Design.

This was a fantastic film! It was eye-opening and inspiring. This film serves as a great example of how the media can be used to expose the public to issues such as this that need to be addressed. Unfortunately, because this film is so controversial, it was shut down and canceled from movie theaters days after it was released. It is near impossible to find, but can be viewed in 10 video segments on YouTube. I definitely recommend watching it!

Beer commericals...

Disgust me! There is a new commercial and I am not even sure which brand it is for, but it shocked me. When people become addicted to alcohol they are not able to maintain healthy relationships. The beer producers and advertisers know this, and rather than hiding it, they promote it in a comical way in their commercials. They try to show that it's okay that alcohol takes over your life and that it is funny.

The newest commercial I have seen of this depicts a couple sitting in a nice restaurant. The girl tells her boyfriend for the first time that she loves him. When the male tries to reciprocate, he stumbles over the word "love." He cannot form the word with his mouth. However, when a waitress walks by and asks him if he would like a beer, the man exclaims, "I'd love one," then when he goes back to talking with his girlfriend, he cannot get the word love out again.

My husband and I just moved into a new apartment and the internet has been sketchy. Sometimes it will connect and sometimes it won't. When it does connect it is so slow that it takes about 10 minutes to open a new page. We've been frustrated because we haven't been able to check our email.
It's funny how dependent we are on computers and the internet. It's amazing to think how much technology has transformed our lives and it's hard to imagine life without it.