So this week as I was driving to Walmart I discovered something about my car... its turn signals don't work anymore! They had before and now they didn't. Problem! A bit panicked I called my dad (1. because he's an automechanic of sorts and 2. well... it's his car. My parents are currently using my jeep and I've got their car). Needless to say he wasn't too happy about the situation and started explaining all the things it could be - some of them not being so cheap to fix... Hoping for the best, I got in the car and tested all the things he told me to and we narrowed down the problem. There were only two options left - one of the flasher cylinders was bad or the whole system was bad. One was going to cost $10 to fix and the other about $500... Hoping that it was cheaper of the two, my dad proceeded to tell me to find the flasher cylinders and check if one was broken (one's for the hazards (which worked) and one was for the turn signals (which didn't). Can I just say how slightly frustrating this process is? My dad knows exactly what to look for and where and I have not the slightest clue! The only things I know how to do on a car are check the oil, power steering fluid, antifreeze and air pressure. So telling me to look for a metal bottle cap looking thing under the dashboard doesn't work so well... This is one of those times when I wish I went to school a little closer to home! After much frustration and a little help from the men at Autozone I was able to locate these "flasher cylinders." Which, may I add, was not an easy thing to find! This is the angle I had to be at (reinacted later for the entertainment of my roommates):
Awesome right? I can only imagine what people passing by had to think :-) Anyways - to our great delight I discovered that one of the flasher cylinders was bad and I replaced it. Thank goodness! So now I have working hazards and turn signals... all thanks to my patient father and me, the would-be automechanic ;-) The moral of the story? If anyone is having trouble with their turn signals - let me know! I now know what to do!
New Story! Thursday I had the amazing opportunity to go down to St. George and go to the temple with a few friends. Afterwards we stopped at In-N-Out and had dinner. Which, bytheway, can I just say how overrated that place is? I mean, yes the burgers are good and I love the fries but I can say that of several places. I honestly don't see what the big craze is with In-N-Out. It is just a regular burger place - seriously people! Anyways, moving on... So we were heading back to Cedar, chatting it up and having a good time when I look to our right and see this Semi coming over on us and it's not stopping! Personally I would have freaked out but our driver calmly moved into the shoulder and continued to drive there until the Semi driver finally noticed what he was doing and moved back. Um... scary!! All I can say is we are darn lucky that the shoulder was wide enough to drive on - the funny thing? There was a cop right behind us and he didn't do anything! Hello! Thanks a lot...
So when get back to Cedar we go our seperate ways. Well I'm sitting at home, settling in for the night, when my friend comes over and we decide to go over to the Student Center to buy a Homecoming T-Shirt (I wasn't going to ($3 for a freakin T-shirt! I know that's not bad but the thing is we've never had to pay before!) but my friend had just bought one and they looked pretty awesome). So we get there, buy one, and then we sit around for a bit. Or rather I did... my friend found some of his friends and was chatting with them while I waited. So when we finally start heading back to my house the light drizzle that had been happening all night suddenly changed into a full out down pour! Deciding 'what the heck?' we went out and danced around and played in the rain (which made me happy because it reminded me of moutain rainstorms up at camp and all the counselors going out and playing it :-) ). Needless to say by the time I got back home I was drenched! My roommate came home shortly after and we were feeling a little silly so we started having a random dance party and making videos. For the entertainment/boredom/sucking of brain cells of others I've posted one of them below. I call this "Kate Films While Bryan and Becky Act Like a Bunch of Idiots." Enjoy! Well... at least I know you'll laugh - if nothing else at the awesome stupidity of it all! (Mind you this was shortly after the rain storm so we're still soaked):
After that we went out for hot chocoate, came back home and proceeded to watch stupid videos on the internet. Oh man! We spend way too much time doing that... but! We find some freakin hilarious things! For example, one of my friends introduced me to Neg's Urban Sports - seriously some of the most hilarious videos you will ever watch! Here is one of my favorites:
Friday only continued the excitement when I got the chance to go to a Smashmouth concert! For those of you who don't remember Smashmouth perhaps you'll remember the songs "Allstar" or "Walking on the Sun" or "I'm a Believer". Ah... it's all coming back now right? I felt pretty old school the whole time I was there but it was so amazing! And I loved the group of people I was with - we totally had a blast singing along and rocking out (which, surprisingly enough, is easy to do with Smashmouth - I don't recall them being so "hardcore" awesome!).
The rest of my weekend was less exciting - I went to the Homecoming parade on Saturday and then made a 24hour visit to Salt Lake - it was a little spuradic but definitely worthwhile. Though I do have to admit it was really hard to only be up there for a day - it felt so weird! Luckily I'm I get to go up in a few weeks for my cousin's wedding - yay excitement!
As a heads up (or maybe a warning) to all of you awesome Happy Valley people I'll be up that Friday (October 10th) in your neck of the woods by 2pm and am planning on spending a few hours visiting people. In other words - if you guys have time... let me know! I miss you guys and want to see you! Yes - ALL of you Happy Valley people :-)
So this weekend was amazing! I really can't recall the last time I've had so much fun in Cedar City! I mean I love this city but to be honest there's nothing to do here... so! To have an entire weekend be exciting is a very rare thing ;-)
It all started on Friday night when we decided to have a little get together at my house. There weren't a lot of people there but that was ok :-) We ordered pizza, talked, danced a bit, and watched a few internet videos. Yay party! I think one of the coolest things about it (not to sound prideful) was that the majority of the party was my idea. For those of you who really know me, know that while I like to have fun I may not always be the most outgoing and sociable person. To my camp friends this might come as a bit of a shock. You see, at camp I am a completely different person. I'm outgoing, loud, adventurous and crazy. I don't know what it is about Trefoil that makes me feel that way but it's definitely a good thing! So I kind of made it my goal at the end of this camp season to be more camp-like at school. IE - I need to stop hiding behind my shy-ness and get out there and be Snickerdoodle not just Becky. Now my close friends already know the "Snickerdoodle" side of me (though it didn't have a name for years. Wow... I just realized I have an alternative personality... that's awesome!). Especially my old roommates. To much of the outside world I am this quiet, somewhat shy person but to them? Well... just ask them! I am anything but! I'm sure there are times they wish I was! Anyways - what I'm trying to say is that Friday was a big step for me in the right direction :-) I'm very proud of myself *pats self on the back*
Dani and me having a bit of a dance party. Yeah we're awesome.
The excitement continued on Saturday when bright and early I accomplished one of my college-long goals. Ever since I was a freshman I'd heard of the Kanarraville Falls hike. I knew of lots of people who'd done it and loved it so I was determined that before I graduated from SUU I would go on this famous hike. Well! Saturday I finally got the chance to do that. Silly though it may be it totally made me happy! And why wouldn't it? Accomplishing goals after a long time is great! So anyways, Saturday Dani and Karina came over and we made the long drive to Kanarraville (all 9 miles ;-) ). Here are a few pictures documenting our amazing journey...
Karina and me starting out
So this was the infamous "log of doom" that Karina remembered from her Freshmen year... only... the log was now on the ground and therefore not scary. Nonetheless we decided to still conquer it! As you can see I'm very supportive of my friends :-) Dani - hard as I try to get rid of her I just can't! *sigh* Just Kidding - I love that girl! I'd go crazy without her :-)
One of the awesome waterfalls from the hike! It was so great because most of the hike you're walking through water! There is even a time when it's up to your waist! The only down side is that the water is freaking freezing! But it's still amazing so I really can't complain :-)
Some nice guy took a picture of us all. I love these two! They seriously are some of my favorite people ever! It's days like these that I remember this saying - I got it off a bumper sticker from Facebook, a little lame I know, but I love the truth behind it - "I've learned that your college friends become a kind of family. You eat together, you have movie all nighters. You laugh; you cry; you fight; you do absolutely nothing together until you cannot seem to remember how you ever lived without them." Ok so it says nothing about hiking together... but work with me! I'm trying to be senitmental ;-) (Random side note: notice the progressive increase of soakage (wow that sounded cool)? Dani is soaked to the knees (she didn't go as far), I'm soaked to the waist (I went a bit farther) and Karina is thoroughly soaked (she slid down the freezing waterfall. Crazy girl! She seriously was beginning to lose all feeling in her body by the time we started heading back - it was little scary...)
So a weekend would not be complete without Sunday (wow that was profound... ;-) ). Church was really great. I feel really bad because I'm in the same ward that I was last year only last year I didn't give it much of a chance. My first two years in Cedar City I lived in Juniper Hall (a ghetto fabulous sleep and study dorm). I really got spoiled becase every year the ward would start anew - Juniper didn't really have residents in the summer so all the students that came in the fall were in the same boat of adjusting to a new ward. That being said, the ward was really close. So upon moving out of Juniper into a ward that existed all year round... I was a little unfair. Since the ward was well established there were already friends and cliques. And since I only knew my roommates I didn't try and be too active in my ward... not to say I went inactive - I just never gave the ward a fair shot. I went home quite a bit and visited my other friends wards. Well - upon returning to the same house and thus the same ward this year I was a little nervous. But I decided the best thing to do was to try and forget my past ideas and treat this ward as if it were one of my Juniper wards... it worked. I left church feeling wonderful! Why didn't I give this ward a chance last year? It's amazing! Um wow side tracked... anyways! So church was wonderful, I'm really starting to feel welcome and at home in it.
After Church my roommates and I watched a movie and went to the weekly firside (we had Elder Snow of the Seventy come down! It was great!) After the fireside Bryan came over and taught me how to play Risk. It was great because I've always wanted to learn but have never been given the opportunity... nerdy as it sounds? I loved it! I think I may have found another favorite game to play! Only... since it was my first time my strategy wasn't so great... let's just say I ended up with all my people on Madascar fighting to the death against Bryan's army... Needless to say I didn't make it...
Thus concludes the recap of my awesome weekend. I'm really hopeful more of my weekends in this small town will be just as exciting :-)
Ok so pretty much today has been freak out amazing. Well... not initially... but now it is! Explanation? Ok!
So I have a job where I wake up at 5:30am every morning (shoot me in the foot) and clean the Science Building on Campus for two hours. Not a thrilling job but hey it's work. The cool thing about the job is that it's very repetitive. Yes I said that was the cool thing. It's really cool because as I'm going about tasks it gives my brain a chance to wander and think about things. Now in some instances this is definitely a bad thing (some people I'm sure know what I'm talking about) but for the most part it's amazing! I don't know about you but most of my days are spent being forced to think about certain things and I never really get the chance to sit back and just let my mind go. Yes there are times in class (*gasp* Becky doesn't always pay attention in class? Shocker...) but it's honestly not the same. Anyways! Back to the story - this morning despite my "I don't want to get up and go to work" attitude I went and as I was cleaning a few things became clear in my mind and slowly started to make sense. It was like *bang!* someone just flipped on a light switch! Have you ever had those moments? The answer's right in front of you and you've been looking everywhere else for it?
Anyways, so I left work in a pretty up beat mood. I went to the gym (a good habit I'm trying to acquire and slowly am) and worked my body hard and left feeling refreshed and ready for the day. I get to my first class and I hit the downer. I get get put into a group with this guy who is middle aged, a know it all and has an attitude. Lucky me... We have to find information and give a presentation in class that'll count as a quiz - well! Low and Behold this guy takes charge of the group (shocker) and takes little to no feedback/input from the rest of the group. After everyone's submitted their presentation AND presented it - he still hasn't sent ours and is snapping at anyone who tries to talk to him. Honestly? This is a project that can be done in less than 10 minutes - easily and by now it's been at least an hour - oye! Anyways - lucky for us the teacher is great and agrees to let us present our project next time. Phew!
Then it was on to the library where I couldn't find a computer. Which - can I say? That is one thing this campus seriously needs to work on. I can't tell you how many times you go to the library and can't find a computer and it's not just me because I see at least a dozen people wandering around looking too. So I'm about to give up when someone asks "Are you looking for a computer?" I turn and it's this kid from my service trip to Mexico last fall. "Yeah I am actually." "Well I'm done so you can have mine" *insert hallelujah chorus here* It was so nice! That almost never happens!
After the library I headed over to the student center to and listen to a presentation. This thing is so cool! So there's this program (http://www.isvonline.org/) where students go and volunteer in a country for 2 weeks and then go and have an "adventure" for 2 weeks. And I'm not talking about just site-seeing adventure I mean full on rafting, exploring, horseback riding, scuba diving, rappelling, zip lining through the rain forest kind of adventure! Um hello! Amazing! So I really want to go because:
How cool would it be to go and volunteer in a country - like help in conservation of endangered species, rebuild houses, help protect the rain forest, teach English to kids and the like. For two weeks! Do you realize how much of a difference you would make? I love it! I did Alternative Winter Break last year and helped with this kind of stuff (minus the animals and rainforest thing) in Mexico and I can't even begin to describe how that made you feel. Honestly one person really CAN make a difference.
It's a foreign country. I don't know about you but I LOVE to travel and don't really get to do it a whole lot. I was so lucky to get the chance to go to Europe after high school as a student ambassador and it really changed my life. It is so amazing to go to a different country and see the sites, meet the people and just live! Granted I'm really not the kind of person who would just be like "See ya I'm going to Russia for a week!" I'm very much one of those people who likes to go see things but with a group... call it issues but whatever. I love to travel and see new things.
Holy Adventure. I was reading about the different things you'd get to do and it's stuff that is seriously exciting! Those who know me know I'm not much of a "Let's go jump in a river and go White Water Rafting" or "You have rope? Let's go rapelling off that huge cliff." Nonetheless - to get the chance to do some of the things they're offering would be life changing. They're things people only dream of doing and you'd get to do them - lots of them! - with in a two week span of time. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!
So moral of the story? I want to go... SO badly! The only thing that's really stopping me is money... it's kind of a pricey thing. It really was a miracle that I was able to go to Europe in '05. A miracle. My extended family, ward members, and family friends were more than generous in donating money to me so that I could go. I honestly can't even begin to describe my love for all of those people! I could never ask them to donate money again - I just don't have it in me. The only way I could do this is if I am a work-a-holic and can maybe get sponsered by local companies - which would be a huge challenge. I wouldn't even know where to begin... Oh! Just so you know - the two places that I want to go would either be to New Zealand or Costa Rica. Given the choice I'd go to New Zealand. Yes it's more expensive and some of the "adventure" activities aren't as cool but um, hello!! It's New Zealand!! I've wanted to go there for SO long and when else will I really get the chance?
So after my grand adventure in learning about this amazing program I headed off to my Honors class. I love that class... It messes with your mind and makes you think! The new TED talk we discussed was "Larry Lessig: the Law is Strangling Creativity" (In case you want to watch it here's the link: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html) It's insane. It's all about how crazy some of the copy right laws are and that we, in all reality, are just remixing things in our society. For example, you go out to youtube and see a video like say this one:
Funny Right? Well is this thing a violation of copy right laws? People are trying to tell the creators of things like this that it's "piracy" but it's not! Everything that we do is built off of what others have already said or done in some form or another. I don't remember who said it but there's a quote that says "The only man certain he had an original thought was Adam." It's true! We are what others have said or told us. So does that mean when we write an essay for a class that along with citing all of our sources we took our research from, should we have to cite our parents? Our church leaders? Our friends? If you think about it a lot of the conclusions we draw in papers like that are from what others have told us. Are we violating a copy right by not crediting them? Oh man I love that class...
Anyways! I'm off to see what other events will happen today. Wish me luck!
Well here I am. I've finally joined the world of blogging. It's something I've been avoiding for years and now I've at last given in. I'm not sure why I waited so long or what the big deal was but I'm here now and that's all that matters. Right?
So my final deciding factor for "giving in" was Dani... well really my Honors class... but we'll just say Dani so she feels special. In my class we're supposed to be tracking our thoughts throughout the semester and present all of our random connections to the class as our final project. Dani thought it would be a good idea to create a blog to track the mind process. Inspired by her brilliance I have decided to follow in her footsteps (which is really hard considering my feet are twice as big as hers!).
Anyways! So my Honors class seriously has to be one of the most amazing classes ever offered. The class involves watching lectures online (http://www.ted.com/) and then discussing them in class. These lectures, however, are not your typical sit-in-class-wanting-to-chew-your-leg-off kind of lectures. They are actually really exciting! The people giving the lectures have 18 minutes to talk about whatever they'd like and believe me it gets interesting! For example, in our first class we experienced this TED talk :
Crazy huh? I love it! Who thinks of these things and finds these kind of connections? Granted I really don't think this guy did this in all seriousness but it really does make you think... How many thing in life ARE connected? How many times have you talked with people only to find you've met them before? Or they know some random person that you do? Or how about events that occur that have some obscure connection to something else? Our world is seriously full of connections and if you really think about it, it can be kinda creepy. Maybe Rives really isn't too far off from the truth.
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