FW: tonight

I am so tired of being on campus. One of the jobs I have is being an RA/TA for the Sociology department. The students in Soc 300 are required to give phone interviews for one of the professor's research projects. They get research gathering experience and he gets free labor. Well, almost free. A TA has to be in the phone lab with the students when they are calling people (from 7 to 9:45), and so we each take our night. Tonight is my night. Good joy. I've been patrolling half the time and going through a semester's worth of physical science homework (another glamorous job--Physical Science TA). You ever have those days when it just seems to be really really long? I do too.
Oh, my word. The best thing just happened. Three of my students just came and gave me some food. Bless their souls. I love them. It looks like onion rings, fries, and some kind of burger. Some kind of barbecue burger. It looks good. Happy day. (P.S. they aren't bribing me; they can't bribe me because I can't change their grades.) This tastes really good. I've been living of apples and soup for the last week because that's all I've had and I haven't had time to go to the store. I really hope that this is 200 words because this entry is getting ridiculous.

TA: Audience; a book club that is discussing Wright's poem

There are a few precious moments marked in a person’s life that are just as important as the epic milestones or the monuments of accomplishments. They are the moments of a deep self-contentment—a realization that everything has its place. James Wright’s “A Blessing” tells about a moment when he had such an experience. Wright finds himself in a condition of pure unfettered happiness, where he was able to undergo the awe inspired by an experience with two Indian ponies at twilight.
This poem serves as a reminder for those who get too tied up with the business and strain of the social world, a world whose social strains are often self-created. The reminder shows that sometimes it is necessary to slow down. The poem illustrates that occasionally moments are just captured, that time can hold its breath and allow a few minutes for someone to breathe in deeply and truly appreciate the glory of the simple and the overlooked.
I think that these types of experiences happen at different times to everyone. It doesn’t happen so much when a person’s physical surroundings change, but when the person changes a little in how they perceive their physical surroundings. Their senses become more acute and intensified with the wonders that encircle them. When reading this poem I couldn’t visualize exactly the grass and the ponies that Wright spoke of, but I could feel how they made him feel. It moved me to instances were I felt the vividness that he described. He writes, “Suddenly I realize that if I stepped out of my body I would break into blossom.” Reading his poem made me recall those instances when I felt in the same condition.

FW: D&C

D&C 59:1 The Lord gave a commandment to assemble in Jackson County, Missouri, and He blesses those who have done so with an eye single to His glory. The eye is “a representation of light, knowledge, insight, and revelation; (it) can also represent what we desire or long for.” The eye is the window through which the beholder is to receive knowledge, and to have an eye single means that the person’s desires are focused entirely on one thing. In this verse the blessings are for those whose eyes are single to His glory. Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk where he outlined six reasons of why people serve the Lord—six motivations for why people choose to obey the commandments. The first was out of a hope for an “earthly reward,” to be recognized by the community and to receive compensation. The next was a “personal desire to obtain good companionship;” the desired consequence for doing right is to associate with others who do right. Other reasons for serving the Lord include “fear of punishment,” “sense of duty or loyalty”, and “hope of an eternal reward.” These are all good reasons if they keep a person from sin, but the most essential reason for following the commandments is out of a love for God. It is the desire to submit to God’s command for the humble purpose of fulfilling His will—not for reward, punishment, or other design—but simply because it is right. The Lord had given the saints a commandment to move to Missouri, and those who obeyed this commandment for the right reasons, who went with “an eye single to (His) glory,” are blessed.

FW: thanksgiving

I am thankful for:
The sweatshirt that I'm wearing, teeth, post-it notes, pictures, blue wigs, tithing, peacock feathers, laughing, garbage cans, hymns, noses, pillowcases, weddings, electricity, guitars, chocolate, stained glass, blush, toe-nail clippers, hack-E-sacks, twirling dresses, pants that fit just right, sushi, etch-a-sketches, nail polish, calculators, an alphabet, alarm clocks, chopsticks, lotion, tomatoes, chick flicks, family, friends, relatives, hair, glasses, bags to carry things in, college, vacation, singing, cell phones, the color white, audrey hepburn and fred estaire, dancing with a partner, conciseness, literature, bows, toothbrushes, daisies, tupperware, quilts, freckles, cereal, stars, cafes, wooden floors, ipods, earrings, love sacks, drum sticks, filing systems, computers, cherries, envelopes, three-toed sloths, sharpies, chocolate chips, exercising, my shoes, sketch paper, compliments, winning wagers, clean clothing, clouds, vegetables, ciran wrap, purses, mace, yarn, memories, jackets, balloons, late nights, winkleberry, paper plates, metallic markers, teaching physical science labs, bubbles, mushrooms, the word "goober", hole punchers, ear phones, zebra pens, cds, greeting cards, warning labels, jack handy quotes, uno cards, poison control, art, pasta, some forms of debauchery, being romantic, candles, good music, snails, words, pockets, change, good conversation, potato skins, holidays, road trips, the united states, erasers, hampers,drawing flowers in margins, good ideas, paper clips, funny faces, God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Scriptures, religion in general, faith, LDS religion, truth, the prophet, missionaries, charity, mercy, justice, plaid, plastic reusable cups, cardboard boxes, pink doors, mountains, windows, cars, calenders, restaurants, and more....

TA: Audience awareness, artist public statement

Artist’s statement
I believe that there is something inside of artists that they try to bring out in the medium—something like how they have been living up to this time, their mentality, their opinion of the subject they are painting, their feelings, and expressions.
This is not to mean that artists must paint puppies and hollyhocks when they are happy, and corpses when they are depressed. It does not mean that in order to paint the artist’s opinion of life he or she must paint in a literal manner to illustrate concepts; a spilling cup symbolizing a death, a cat symbolizing the demon inside, etc.
If you want, you could paint a portrait of a little girl when you are happy, and this same portrait when you’re depressed, or anxious, or tired. These feelings don’t have to be literally manifested in the subject but they will come out in the way that that the artist paints. The brushstrokes made become an indication of who the artist is and what he or she is thinking or feeling. As layer is laid upon layer and feeling upon feeling, depth is created—the painting will show humanity.
The artist must strive to have the freedom to express what he or she wishes. They must choose and master a medium that allows them the greatest freedom to express what they wish. It is a communication with the viewer, but instead of using words the artist uses image.
Art should put the viewer in a state of aesthetic arrest—to take them in. In my paintings I’ve striven to paint lifelike. This is not to be confused with photorealism—I want to go beyond realism and paint life not by what I paint, but how.

RA: Cummins and Gulutsan

They make the argument that those who speak a second language will be better at "objectification" and creating "sets." They go through a couple of studies that they did, where they give an operational definition of the concepts "set" and "objectification" and explain how these studies would be good ways to measure such things. For their studies, "set" is to be thought of as "the underlying dimension which integrates all the psychological processes and behavior of the individial." They measure levels of mental activity. Their conclusions are that "bilinguals performed at a significantly higher level than unilinguals on both verbal and non-verbal intelligence measures was attributed to the fact that becuase bilinguals have two words for the same reference they objectify both their linguistic operations and the conceptual features of the external environment more efficiently than unilinguals." I believe that their argument worked for their audience, especially as their audience was probably a bunch of dry old ostentatious intellectuals who needed some type of scientific study to justify any type of political conversation over some snobby wine-filled, cigar smoking social hour at the country club.

RA: Immigrant America

Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut's book "Immigrant America" talked about why immigration is a good thing. They used statistical research and logic. They point out that America is a nation that has been established from immigration. They show good sides including bilingualism and culture. They take arguments about wellfare being a problem and that immigrants don't pay taxes and other issues that people have had with immigration and counter them by using other arguments. Much of the book is just explaining immigration. What it is, what it does, what some immigrants are like, migrant patterns, and more. I don't know if their arguments were sufficient. Maybe for their audience, people who know some about immigration (probably pro-immigration people who would like some data to "prove" their claims). As for me, I still don't understand immigration. I've heard it both sides, but I still don't understand it. When did we start setting up walls and fences for people who wanted to come to America? Is the crime rate going up? Is our society really being hurt by it. Why is there this big separation between "us" and "them"? There is a geographical separation it's true, but it's not like those who were born in the U.S. merit this coincidence. Do those in America deserve to be in America? And do others deserve to be where they are? I don't understand, it might be things with the government that makes it more complicated than i'm able to comprehend. One day perhaps.

FW

People name their daughters Autumn and Summer but not Spring or Winter. I wonder why,

I like chocolate chips. In or out of the cookie.

We have two wire giraffes in our apartment; one is Cleo, one is Andy.

What if toes were called fingers and fingers were called toes. I don't think that would be a good idea.

I think that almonds taste like what trees ought to taste like.

Dear Blog,
I am tired.
I like the color white.
I also like to draw stars on my papers.
I can't draw stars on this paper though because it is on the computer.

I kind of like the the name Ralphie for a girl. I don't think I will name my child that, but I think it would like a friend who is a girl named Ralphie. Maybe I will call Heather Ralphie.

If I was in an air band I think that that would be cool.

If I worked at a hospital I think I would wear green scrubs.

I really don't understand where blonde stereotypes come from.

TA: Audience awareness, another for whit

It was Halloween. Ryan had invited us to a Halloween party at his house. We said we’d be a little late—because we had to go trick or treating.—and off on a little tangent—trick-or-treating was especially good that year—It was so cold that not too many people were out—so we were getting a lot of candy. Also Whitney, never ever let anyone tell you that you are too old to go trick-or-treating.—so after trick-or-treating we went to Ryan’s house. The people who I remember being there are Cambri, Lori, Heath, Brenton, Jordan, Ryan, you, and me. WE played some games ate some food. Cambri, Lori, and Heath left. Then we went outside and had the biggest snowball fight that Jordan, Ryan, and Brenton had ever been a part of. We were the white-washing queens. Yup, our techniques were so perfected we could actually be called royalty in this art. I must confess those guys were also pretty good snowball fighters and at the end we were all pretty cold and wet, but we were all sure laughing. Oh, except for Heath; He came back, got white-washed, and left. I think Spritely Twink almost got stuck on the way out. You know, we once made signs for those guys to hold up during basketball games. One said something about binging the opponent’s leg off, but I can’t remember what the other one said.