Why I'm a Geologist

People often give me strange looks when I tell them I am a Geologist. Here is why, in a nutshell, I love Geology.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1VfDva/www.mediadump.com/hosted-id186-most-fascinating-geological-wonders-on-earth.html

How can you not be awestruck and intrigued?

All the things I know I learned from Dr. Suess

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."
~Oh the Places You'll Go


“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
~Dr. Suess


“A person's a person, no matter how small.”
~Horton hears a Who


“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
~The Lorax


“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”
~I had trouble in getting to Solla Sollew


“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
~Dr. Suess


“If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.”
~Dr. Suess


“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed)
~Oh the Places You'll Go


“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”
~I can read with my eyes shut


"If we didn't have birthdays, you wouldn't be you.
If you'd never been born, well then what would you do?
If you'd never been born, well then what would you be?
You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree!
You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes.
Or worse than all that . . . Why, you might be a WASN'T!
A Wasn't has no fun at all. No, he doesn't.
A Wasn't just isn't. He just isn't present.
But you . . . You are YOU! And now, isn't that pleasant!"
~Happy birthday to you!


“Today is your day, your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.”
~Oh the Places You'll Go

27 random tidbits

1. The smell of dill makes me sneeze

2. I also sneeze when I'm excited

3. I still don't have my ears pierced

4. Papayas genuinely taste like throw up to me

5. I love water balloons. And throwing them at people.

6. If I could choose only three colors that the whole world would be made of, I would choose teal, brown, and white. I could look at those colors together forever and not get sick of them

7. I had a security blanket when I was little that I carried around with me everywhere. Even once I stopped carrying it with me I still slept with it on my pillow every night til I was like 12

8. I went through a phase in high school where I got really into spray painting. I spray painted our croquet balls, my sister's dresser, even the shed in our backyard - bright blue walls, black doors, and a solar system all over the roof

9. October is my absolute favorite month

10. The last time I threw up was when I was 12 years old

11. I love Aquafresh toothpaste. Mmmm it's the greatest ever

12. I couldn't swallow pills (of any size) until Margaret taught me how our first year rooming together

13. Graphing calculators give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Yes, I'm a nerd

14. I have never had the chicken pox, even though both my siblings exposed me to it

15. I fastidiously wax my car, Rickie, every six months

16. I collected jolly ranchers when I was little. I had some pretty crazy flavors too - rasberry lemonade, tangerine, banana pineapple

17. I love melk with all my heart

18. I once rode an elephant. But I was only 1 so it doesn't count

19. I have a goal list I started in junior high with 73 things on it. #7 is Go to all the dances in high school. Oops, guess I missed that one

20. Goal #63 is to learn to whistle

21. Goal #56 is to climb to the top of the crow's nest in a ship

22. From 5th grade until I hit high school my favorite book was The Lord of the Rings

23. There was a 10-foot wide canal running between our high school and our seminary building and my favorite thing to do in high school was to leap across it. Occasionally my classmates would try and imitate me and once or twice someone wouldn't make it all the way across and would get all muddy and smell like a rotten egg for the rest of the day. It was hilarious

24. I once had over 300 digits of pi memorized. But now I'm down to 110

25. I would love to get way into scrapbooking but I don't know where to begin. Plus it takes so much time

26. I currently have a bag of groceries sitting my car waiting for the next time I pass a person with one of those cardboard "Need Help" signs

27. I have a new favorite sport. It's called Ultimate Balloon and I intend to get a group together to play it one of these days

Tantus labor non sit cassus

Excerpt from Uncle Tom's Cabin:

"What a sublime conception is that of a last judgement ! " said St. Clare, - "a righting of all the wrongs of ages! - a solving of all moral problems, by an unanswerable wisdom! It is, indeed, a wonderful image."

" It is a fearful one to us," said Miss Ophelia.

"It ought to be to me, I suppose," said St Clare, stopping, thoughtfully. "I was reading to Tom, this afternoon, that chapter in Matthew that gives an account of it, and I have been quite struck with it. One should have expected some terrible enormities charged to those who are excluded from Heaven, as the reason; but no, - they are condemned for not doing positive good, as if that included every possible harm."

"Perhaps," said Miss Ophelia, "it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm."

"And what," said St Clare, speaking abstractedly, but with deep feeling, "what shall be said of one whose own heart, whose education, and the wants of society, have called in vain to some noble purpose; who has floated on, a dreamy neutral spectator of the struggles, agonies, and wrongs of man, when he should have been a worker?"

"I should say," said Miss Ophelia, "that he ought to repent, and begin now."

Sometimes I feel this pressing urge to write, but when I sit down with a pen and paper I find that I have nothing to say.
Sometimes I wish I were still in school, just so I could study for tests again.
Sometimes I ask myself what kind of person I really want to be and when I'll ever get there.
Sometimes I get this crazy desire to just hop on a plane and go somewhere.
Sometimes I wish I were the type of person who was okay with being in a relationship just for the sake of being in a relationship.
Sometimes I wake up in the morning so full of good intentions that I can't decide on what to do and end up doing nothing at all.
Sometimes I ponder the mysteries of the universe and I get so impatient because I'm only 22 so the answers seem a long, long time away.

I like to shoe in the snow

San Jorge I love you

WARNING! The following blog contains images guaranteed to induce longing for warm weather, crazy adventures, and good times. Viewer discretion advised. This is just a teaser of what is to come next week . . .










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Get psyched for Spring Break 2011

Please hold . . .

To the woman who called the office yesterday and couldn't understand a word I said and hung up when I tried to transfer you to someone who did speak Spanish:

I'm sorry. I have now learned how to say, "Yo no hablo espanol. Por favor espera." I'm ready now, you can call back anytime.

This is your brain on God

I just read a fascinating book called "How God Changes Your Brain." It's a new book by a neuroscientist about his research on what happens to your brain when you participate in spiritual activities. All of their studies concluded that religious experiences are really good for your brain and help to make it healthy, wealthy, and wise. In fact, here's a list they came up with of the eight best ways to maintain a healthy brain:

8. Smile. Seriously - smiling interrupts mood disorders and strengthens the brain's neural ability to maintain a positive outlook on life.

7. Stay intellectually active. Read books, watch educational tv, take classes, play chess, write in your diary. But don't do math exercises or crossword puzzles - apparently those don't help.

6. Consciously relax. Um, not by taking a nap or vegging in front of the tv, unfortunately. Try simple, repetitive activities such as knitting.

5. Yawn. That's right - yawning is good for you. It evokes neural activity in areas of the brain that are directly involved in generating social awareness and creating feelings of empathy. It relaxes you and brings you into a heightened state of cognitive awareness.

4. Meditate. There's even solid, scientific proof that if you meditate before taking a test you will significantly improve your score.

3. Aerobic Exercise. Vigorous exercise strengthens every part of the brain and has been proven to lengthen your neurological life. Also, the more intense exercise, the better. 24-hour run, anyone?

2. Dialogue with Others. Not talking about the weather or gossiping about who's dating whom. We're talking about abstract ideals like world peace and evolution and the beauty of the number pi.

1. Faith. Faith can be defined as the ability to trust our beliefs, even when we have no proof that such beliefs are accurate or true. Faith is equivalent with hope, optimism, and the belief that a positive future awaits us. It is "neurologically essential for maintaining motivation and good mental health."

That's it. Now you can all go out and become geniuses.

Dear Bloggers

I'm sorry, I took a month long break from blogging and reading other people's blogs but I'm back now. And as I caught up on all of your blogs today I remembered why blogging is so great. I laughed, I cried - your blogs moved me. I know, I'm way behind the times, but I have some comments that must be made:

Jason: I was extremely saddened to read that you are no longer blogging. Extremely saddened. Your blog was one of my faves. I know right now you feel like your blogging relationship is stagnant and going nowhere, but sometimes you just have to take a break to realize how much you truly love someone. I hope this happens to you and that you and your blog are reunited once again very soon.

Jenna: Your dreams make me laugh more than ever. And they have made me more aware of my own dreams, though I'm definitely not brave enough to blog about them. I love it. P.S. Your Rachel post was hilarious. I'm so proud to call you both my friends.

Madeline: I love your blog even though it makes me frustrated because you're so mysterious and I wish I knew you better. We should hang out sometime very soon . . . like this weekend.

Taylor: I enjoy your blog because it's very sophisticated and thoughtful. I appreciated your post about why your blog is called "Taking Effect" because I have actually pondered that before, so thanks.

Carli: I'm so sorry, if I'd read your blog a week ago when you'd posted it then perhaps I would have driven all the way up to Farmington just to bring you a Jamba Juice . . .

Pancakes: Going down in history as one of the funniest blogs of all time. You guys are musical geniuses and I am so proud to know all of you.

That's it everybody. I'll try and stay a bit more on top of my blogging from now on . . . my bad.

Movie Quotes Quiz Answers

"The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all." ~Mulan



"Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?" ~What a Girl Wants


"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all." ~The Princess Diaries


"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'. " ~Yoda


“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back. There are some things that time can not mend. Some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold.” ~Lord of the Rings, Return of the King


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." ~Akeelah and the Bee


"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories - the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something." ~Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers

Thanks for playing! PS Madeline, you win . . . 10 bucks!

Movie Quotes Quiz

How well do you know your inspirational movie quotes? Answers to come . . . later . . .


"The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all."


"Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?"


"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all."


"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'. "


“How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back. There are some things that time can not mend. Some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold.”


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."


"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories - the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."