Good ol' Pythagorus, I will be faithful as you have been

I never thought I'd end up taking classes like physics, calculus, or chemistry. In high school, my favorite classes were English and history. I hated math. I wanted to be a high school English teacher for a long time. I also wanted to be a cowgirl singer, a movie star, or a cashier at taco bell so I could wear a purple shirt. I don't really know what other career options I considered. But it was a while before I decided I wanted to end up in the health care field.

That all being said, the purchase of my first calculator in the sixth grade didn't seem like such a monumental event. It was only needed to get me through the next few years of math, and then I'd be done with it. Well, I was wrong. Good ol' Pythagorus (for short: Gus) has become a dear friend. He's got 'MLA' written on his cover, like Woody's got 'Andy' scrawled on his boot.

Gus has been here for me since I was twelve. All the years of algebra. And then physics, trigonometry, calculus, biology, physiology, biomechanics, microbiology, statistics, nutrition, chemistry. What a great sport he was. I've taken many frightening classes, classes I've felt too dumb to be allowed to take, let alone succeed in. But having something familiar with me is very comforting. Oh, old buddy.. He fits into my hand just so, and I feel like I can conquer anything thrown at me. As long as I've got my friend, Gus, with me. I've even picked up other TI-30Xa calcs and known, without glancing at the blank cover, a desert of teal (beautiful color, by the way) sans the 'MLA' scrawl, that they were not my Gus.

I've even trusted him with my personal affairs: finances, random math questions, etc.

Have the smarty-smarts pulling out their Optimus Prime graphing calcs laughed** at me for keeping him? Yes, a few have. Do we care? No. We are a team. I don't need something younger or cooler. Pythagorus tells me everything I need to know. And we know how to work together; if you handed me your spiffy, uppity Optimus, I frankly wouldn't know what to do with half the buttons. He's such a superfluous waste of space. He's big, chunky, clunky, and ugly. Pythagorus is sexy--sleek, sophistocated simplicity. Vintage is the way to go.

**And I'm actually laughing right back at them because they paid ~$130 and I paid zero

So, here's to the TI-30Xas and all those guys that have stuck with us from the beginning. Pythagorus will never die on me and I will never trade him in! Compare his good looks to those lacking in Optimus:

Potter Fever

I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I've probably read them each ten times. Love. I'll be at the midnight showing for the first part of the seventh movie for sure. Watch the trailer and say you're not excited about it. Yes, I know, it can't be done.

Wonders of the Human Body

Friends of mine may wonder why I study what I do. But those who know me best know I study the body because I love it; I am constantly telling the poor things about boring topics that I find fascinating. Yes, I don't go out as much as the average spring/summer student and get less sleep than I'd like, but it is worth it. I love this study. I love learning about the genius organization, the artistic design, the miraculous intricacies of our bodies. I hated chemistry in high school, but after learning how it is the most integral part of the body, how every process, every movement, every sensation, and every regulation is an effect of chemical processes, I find my chemistry class fascinating.

Think about it. Your body converts the bread you eat to fuel your fingers typing. It uses sodium and potassium ions moving via a gradient of high to lower concentration to send signals from your brain to the voluntary and involuntary parts of your body--telling glands to secrete essential hormones and telling your tongue to move when you want to speak. Pressure receptors in the skin work so that they sense the immediate touch of something, but cancel out the reception thereafter, so you aren't irritated with the feeling of ever-present clothing, rings, glasses, etc. Your heart forms during development in a twisting formation so that when it beats, it contracts with a wringing affect, efficiently pumping the most blood for the amount of energy invested. Your lungs are at the right pressure so that as the lung cavity expands, air naturally floods the lungs as it goes from a higher atmospheric pressure to the lesser pressure inside the body. The biggest, most important nerves, veins, and arteries are deep, in between muscles, so as not to be affected by minor injuries. You encounter millions upon millions of microbacteria a day and your immune system functions at peak performance with many specialized cells so you get symptoms of an illness say 1-5 times a year. Your muscles are so incredible; with one or two steps up stairs, you can stop thinking about the steps and your muscles retain the memory of the height and energy required for each step; you need no longer think about it. You have a reflex arc, where, upon touching a hot surface, the signal needs only go to the spinal cord for optimum speed of a reflex to contract the appropriate muscle. Your brain and muscles can control the strength and magnitude of every movement; you can pick up a pencil or bench press 100 lbs. The hand can perform a gross movement such as itching your leg or the finest movements of a dentist, sculptor, or surgeon. The brain is a powerhouse that houses our thoughts; controls our internal temperature, sleep cycle, emotions, and interpretations; can communicate with the Holy Ghost; and can invent vaccines, artistic expression, the airplane, and theories of physics, sociology, and chemistry. The body regulates a complicated array of hormones that cancel each other out, signal the release of other hormones, and even regulate the development of an embryo. A woman's body can create life and sustain it. This is the greatest miracle of all.

I could go on and on, but wanted to share with you some of the words of the brethren.

"I marvel at the miracle of the human mind and body. Have you ever contemplated the wonders of yourself, the eyes with which you see, the ears with which you hear, the voice with which you speak? No camera ever built can compare with the human eye. No method of communication ever devised can compare with the voice and the ear. No pump ever built will run as long or as efficiently as the human heart. No computer or other creation of science can equal the human brain. What a remarkable thing you are. You can think by day and dream by night. You can speak and hear and smell. Look at your finger. The most skillful attempt to reproduce it mechanically has resulted in only a crude approximation. The next time you use your finger, watch it, look at it, and sense the wonder of it.

You are a child of God, His crowning creation. After He had formed the earth, separated the darkness from the light, divided the waters, created the plant and animal kingdoms—after all this He created man and then woman." President Gordon B. Hinckley “The Body Is Sacred,” New Era, Nov 2006

The following is one of my favorite addresses. I'm only including a small part of it. But I really recommend that you read the whole thing! It is incredible!! You will not regret spending the time reading it.

The Magnificence of Man--Russell M. Nelson

the link: http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6997

I invite you to ponder things magnificent . . .Think, if you will, of the most magnificent sight you have ever seen. It could be a meadow in springtime filled with beautiful wildflowers. Or perhaps you have been awestruck, as I have, at the magnificence of a single rose with its special beauty and perfume . . .

You may be surprised at what I am going to suggest now. Ponder the magnificence of all you see when you look in the mirror. Ignore the freckles, unruly hair, or blemishes, and look beyond to see the real you--a child of God created by him, in his image . . .

. . . A marvelous process of genetic coding is established by which all the basic human characteristics of [an] unborn person are determined. . . . Approximately twenty-two days after those two germ cells have united, a little heart begins to beat. At twenty-six days the circulation of blood begins. . . . Yes, awareness of the magnificence of man begins with the miracles of conception and our creation. . . .

A self-focusing lens is at the front of each eye. Nerves and muscles synchronize the function of two separate eyes to produce one three-dimensional image. Eyes are connected to the brain, ready to record sights seen. No cords, no batteries, no external connections are needed; our visual apparatus is marvelous--infinitely more priceless than any camera money can buy. . . .

Compacted into an area about the size of a marble is all the equipment needed to perceive sound. . . .

To control the direction of the blood's flow through the heart, there are four important valves, each pliable as a parachute and delicate as a dainty silk scarf. They open and close over 100,000 times a day--over 36 million times a year. Yet, unless altered by disease, they are so rugged that they stand this kind of wear seemingly indefinitely. No man-made material developed thus far can be flexed this frequently and for so long without breaking.

The amount of work done by the heart is most amazing. Each day it pumps enough fluid to fill a 2,000-gallon tank car. The work it performs daily is equivalent to lifting a 150-pound man to the top of the Empire State Building, consuming only about four watts of energy--less than that used by a small light bulb in your home. . .

. . . As I observe the lives of great individuals, I sense that the capacity of the brain is seemingly infinite. Wise men can become even wiser as each experience
builds upon previous experience. Indeed, continuing exercise of the intellect brings forth increased intellectual capacity. . .

The human brain is certainly a recording instrument that will participate in our judgment one day as we stand before the Lord. The Book of Mormon speaks of a "bright recollection" (see Alma 11:43) and of a "perfect remembrance" (see Alma 5:18) that will be with us at that time. Each one of us carries that recording instrument guarded within the vault of the human skull.

There are so many other incredible parts of his speech I'd like to post, but no one would want to read through a post that long :) So thanks for reading and go look up the whole thing! We really have been blessed with something incredible, God's greatest creation:

"The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The devil has no body, and herein is his punishment… All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not." Joseph Smith

C’était dur, mais cette classe me manquera!

I love to write. For so many reasons. Today, I am writing for two in particular: as a means of watering down my intense feelings and to inform you of something wonderful. Writing style today: freestyle. I love free-writing, just writing whatever comes to my mind. And that's what I feel like today. Sorry if it's a little unorganized; you can ignore this post and tune in next time for a more polished post if that's what you like :)

I feel weird. You know that terrible terrible feeling you have when you finish a great book? That's how I feel. Except it's more than just finishing the average good book. You can always pick up the book and read it again, which brings some comfort to its completion . . . But do you remember how you felt when you finished the last Harry Potter book? That's how I feel. Ya, you can pick it up again and read it, but you won't ever be able to read new Harry Potter text. No more surprising Potter plotlines, no more characters, no new funny happenings. When i finished the seventh book, I think I just kind of existed around the house for a few days. It was so sad! Just this feeling of helplessness. Now what am I going to do?

Well, today's a repeat of that. French 321 is over. I just took my final and then kind of wandered aimlessly on campus for a while before I had to go to work. Yes, I will continue in the language, but French 321 is done, as is its fantastic teacher. I have to admit, I'm very surprised by this . . . [feeling]ness. It's a hard feeling to describe. I don't think I'm sad . . . no, I am. But I'm also happy; but it's a weird happy.. I appreciate the good times I had, but now it's gone..

French is hard. The grammar's always made any French class difficult, but this class especially since it's titled Advanced Grammar. This is the class where those of us who have struggled through learning French on paper are thrown into a class with those who have been immersed in the language for two years with the catalytic help of our Heavenly Father. Yes, the return missionaries. I was pretty nervous, sure they would all find me stupid. Throw on top of it that I would have the department's hardest teacher, a true Française. She wrote my previous textbook and oversees all student French teachers.

But I was wrong. The return missionaries were kind and really respected that I had gotten to this point just through books. And my teacher was incredibly understanding and supportive as I struggled through. There was a ton of information, but she was great at showing us how to simplify it all. She told us at the beginning of the class that it would be hard, but that she guaranteed results. Well, she was right. I've learned so much. I'm really sad to leave the grammar behind (who am I kidding, it's never left behind, but you know what I mean..) because I feel like there's still so much more I need to learn; I'm kind of tempted to pull out the grammar book for fun and peruse through it; it feels like an old friend, its covers all bent, pages scribbled with charts and hints, spine creased . . . But more than the course, I'm sad to leave the people. I've made some friends in that class. And even the people who didn't necessarily become friends. I've seen a few of them on campus and they always stop and we talk for 5-10 minutes.

There was a cheese night a bunch of us attended in order to get one of four required cultural activities. I looked frantically around for people I knew and saw no one. The girl I was with had to take off and I found myself sitting with people I didn't know. And then, to the rescue! came some of the guys from my class. People I didn't really know very well. But we all sat together and had a great time. So many laughs throughout the semester. It was just a very warm class. I hope to see them all in future classes, but know it will never be the same group. Sad. A warm class, that was the perfect descriptor. And of course, I will miss the teacher who taught us well and also got to know us, who had us sing God Be With You Till We Meet Again (en français, of course) at the final, and who invited us to her house for a FHE/end of the semester party. Such good times.

Well, that's where I'm at...

I hope you don't mind future posts that may come in french. I do love it so

A Dream of Someone Else

SPOILER WARNING FOR "YOU'VE GOT MAIL"

One of my favorite movies of all time is "You've Got Mail." I love the actors and the characters, the filming and the written communication laced throughout. And I love love love the story. I love the idea of falling in love through writing.

There comes a point when Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Frank Navasky (Greg Kinnear) break their long-term relationship. They spend a while talking about a woman Frank is interested in. He then asks Kathleen, "What about you? Is there someone else?" She pauses, looks out the window, and says, "There is a dream of someone else.." And a shy, little smile slides up her cheek.

I have not had much experience in relationships. I am very picky, I'll admit. But not consciously. I don't write off a person because he doesn't play the piano or because he doesn't play sports or because his style is too casual. You laugh, but it's not uncommon out here for people to check of someone who's fantastic and perfect for them simply because they're lacking in some trait off of a list. It's not that I ignore feelings for someone because he's not everything I dreamed I'd have. I just don't feel it; he's just not right for me. I've tried to force it, tried to make myself feel something. And that's worse for him and for me than if I'd have just told him I wasn't interested.

Well, I have a dream of someone else.

The kids start to get antsy when they know he'll be home soon. And immediately after he walks through the door, he scoops their little bodies up into his arms
He holds my daughter in his arms and dances with her
He teaches our sons how to work and be polite, how to treat women and their sisters, how to be responsible Priesthood holders, how to be selfless and sincere
He leans on the door frame with a smile on his face just watching me
He wants our home to feel open and accepting to everyone who visits

He sings to our children and me, whether or not he's a good singer
He loves people
He gardens with me, an activity that allows us the opportunity to work hard together and relax together
He reads the scriptures and prays with me every night
He loves deep conversations

He sets his book, newspaper, etc down when approached by one of our children
He'll read Little Women because I love it. And tell me his favorite parts
He delights in making people happy

He reads to the kids before bed each night and prides himself on the fact that he taught them how to read before they started school
He likes to cuddle and laugh and stargaze
He loves to read and talk to me about what he read
He enjoys spending evenings with me on a swinging chair in the backyard



So I'm kind of a romantic. And although I love each of these images, they aren't necessary; I'm merely painting a picture of the husband and father I'm looking for. If you're reading this and feel like it's you . . . . I'm free on Friday

My Happy Place

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time looking at gardens. I've been getting emails from Better Homes and Gardens on how to make mulch, prepare soil, get rid of weeds, make compost, etc, how to plan around this and that.. and I love it.

I'm not usually a stressed person, but sometimes, despite my best efforts, I do get a little overwhelmed with all the necessary things in life that push aside other necessaries and all wanted unnecessaries. I always heard of a happy place, but didn't really have one. When stressed, I'd imagine myself cooking dinner in my future house with sweet, little children (that always tend to look like those curly-haired, rosy-cheeked precious Hobbit children from the Lord of the Rings movies..) pitter-pattering down the hall when Dad comes home from work and kisses me on the cheek. Or I'd picture myself happily working as a part-time PA when the kids are in school, loving it and knowing all the school was worth it. Well, I still picture those things (of course much more of the former) but now I do have a happy place. And it is my future garden.

My garden is very green and lush. I love color and I love flowers, but I'm not sure if they're in this garden. At least not all of it. Tall trees completely shade the entire backyard and the thick canopy casts a cool, serene, green tint. There is a rustling of leaves and the trickle of water; there are a few crooning birds in the morning and maybe even a quiet rush of distant traffic. But no other sound.

There are little paths that wind through the trees to secret places. My favorite: a seating area where my husband and I sit together in puffy patio chairs crowning a shallow, long pool of water that flows off to some other area of the garden. There is a little table between us and a low wall that surrounds the narrow resting area. Another favorite is in the very back corner. It is another pool of cool water, raised to the height of your hips, contained by a moss-covered, dark-stoned wall. This area is very shaded, a shade darker and a degree quieter than the rest of the backyard. The surface of the pool is absolutely covered by algae and other green flora. A Bocca della Verità-esque fountain mounted on a wall embellished with cracked tiles (which are, like everything else in this garden, covered in green) creates the only movement in the still pool and the only glimpse of clear water void of the obscuring greenery.

Well, this is my beautiful, serene, happy place. Welcome.

Of Characters

My mom and I realized something over the Christmas break: that she likes books for their plot lines and I love them for their characterization and writing style. I love reading about a character whose traits fit perfectly. I think of characters as 3-D puzzles with unique curvature, outjuts and inlets, each their own shape. These characters have so many talents and weaknesses, fears and quirks, that you'd think all the descriptions of them would bulge out awkwardly and make a ragged outer surface on the container that couldn't contain. But, they don't. Somehow, they don't. The surfaces are smooth and the containers seem to have the ability to be all-encompassing. There is no limit to a person.

Once you know the character well enough, you know what makes him upset, what types of people he gets along with, what makes him nervous, and what his dreams are. There comes a point in the book when your response to his action is, "Oh, John, he would do that.." or "Of course that bothered him.." And you don't know this because you've seen him before. He's not a cookie-cutter character we see over and over again. Nor did you predict his action because it fulfilled something that needed to happen in the typical storyline and was therfore assigned to a character--any character--regardless of whether or not it's actually something the character would do. No, you can predict him because you understand him. Because looking at his traits you see hundreds rather than twenty. And they all connect and interconnect.

Your character John has some of the same components as does Huck Finn and Frodo Baggins and Scarlett O'Hara, but none of these characters have every one of his components. Someone may have a dominant personality that is very like the person John feels he needs to be and tries to be when Sarah is around. But the characters are still different. Nowhere in the world is there another like John.

Sometimes these different characteristics seem as if they could never describe the same person. But they end up doing just that, going into the same person. And they do so unexpectedly smoothly, like those smooth curves of the 3-D puzzle. They go together differently in John than anyone else. And their arrangement in John fits perfectly, just like their arrangement (amongst other descriptors) in Huck Finn fits perfectly.

Now, characters can be introduced in many ways, but they all fall under two main methods. The author can list traits flat out or can show you traits through events. An example of each is below. The two quotes were taken from Little Women, one of my favorite books of all time with perhaps the greatest character development of all time.

"Poor Meg seldom complained, but a sense of injustice made her feel bitter toward everyone sometimes, for she had not yet learned to know how rich she was in the blessings which alone can make life happy." (Little Women, p35)

"That night, when Beth played to Mr. Laurence in the twilight, Laurie, standing in the shadow of the curtain, listened to the little David, whose simple music always quieted his moody spirit, and watched the old man, who sat with his gray head on his hand, thinking tender thoughts of the dead child he had loved so much. Remembering the conversation of the afternoon, the boy said to himself, with the resolve to make the sacrifice cheerfully, 'I'll let my castle go, and stay with the dear old gentleman while he needs me, for I am all he has.'" (Little Women, p136)

The latter exerpt is one of my favorite passages; the imagery and characterization is so beautiful to me. So many things about the characters of Mr. Laurence and Laurie can be pulled from this. The two unwind from a long day by listening to Beth play; we know Beth is precious to Mr. Laurence because she reminds him of his child and that she is precious to Laurie because he loves each of the March girls; we also see that the music is a means of relaxation to the two, which, in the case of Laurie, who loves to play and compose, is no surprise, but in the case of Mr. Laurence, who seems to wish Laurie'd play less, is a surprise. Laurie standing hidden in the curtain, listening to "the little David" is not only a beautiful image, but shows a bit about his character and his relationship with his grandfather. We learn Laurie must feel strongly toward those with whom he discussed in order to want to change (March girls). Mr. Laurence's character and occasional harshness could be due to the death of his beloved daughter. . .

Obviously I prefer the second method. There is so much to deduce. And often times I can see more or less--or simply differently--than someone else. Therefore, the Laurie in my mind is different than the Laurie in yours. And, of course, my Laurie is based off of me--my experiences and my preferences--as is yours based off of you. So he means so much more to me than yours would to me. And he reminds me of me. And I LOVE that. That's why we read. To create our own.

You can give me the most boring story ever written and as long as I can fall in love with characters that are beautiful in their complexity and with a writing style that is effortless and artistic, I'll love it forever.

Welp, that's that...

How To

Every now and then, we do something random for no reason other than a lack of reason not to. Why not?

Well, a few weeks ago, I did just that. The result? Much amusement. If you ask any co-worker of mine, he will tell you that I'll often emit a little chuckle when reading something on my computer. All thanks to the day I decided to add a HOW TO box to my igoogle.

I changed my email and therefore went about setting up a new igoogle page. I added a weather box, a to do list (which I like very much; I'd recommend it), news updates, a word of the day, places to see, and a few other applications. I also added a "How to of the Day" because I thought, "Why not?" In that moment I didn't appreciate the gravity of the situation. I didn't see its potential for free little package gifts of happiness.

I love these How To's of the day not because I actually take advantage of them, but because the actual activities themselves are amusing to me. Here is a list. I've only had about two weeks of how to's and this is just a snippet of the many gems I've gotten:

HOW TO:

Make towels more absorbant

Treat a bullet wound

Use a plethora of apples

Throw a boomerang correctly

Decorate a gift with plastic straws

Plan a Grand Canyon vacation

Raise an Alaskan Husky

Get rid of bats

Make gummi bears

Respect yourself

Use a dash in an English sentence (I actually looked at this one and, ironically, the grammar wasn't quite accurate..)

Fall safely

Make a charm ring

Oxidize silver with egg yolks

Tell if you're watching TV in HD



I hesitate to publish this tonight, in fear of missing some upcoming greats, but had to share. The How To's come from WikiHow. So great!

Thee v Thuh

Have you ever noticed things we do in speech that we were never taught? Not as in slang, but in technique.. Here's something:

It sounds awkward if people don't use thee and thuh appropriately. I'm sure you've noticed. People usually say 'the' with a long e (ee sound) proceeding vowels (with exceptions like mute h's (thee hour) or consonant-sounding-yet-vowel-beginning words (thuh university)). Thee early bird.. Thee apples.. Thee other day... And they usually say 'the' with a short e (uh sound) before consonants. Thuh world. Thuh girl. Thuh whole city.

If someone said "thuh entire field," there would be an awkward glottal sound..

My reason for this blog: try to do it the un-done way and see peoples' reactions :)

Thoughts for Grammar

The dog wagged it is tail. How many times have I thought this phrase? Hundreds. Thousands, maybe. (I've always been terrible with estimating numbers. Are there 80? 140? Or 200 people in this room? I couldn't tell you..) I'm sure you think it's an odd phrase. It isn't even grammatically correct. Well, it's all thanks to.. Mrs. Miracle. Or Mrs. Ferrill. Or Mrs. Reid. I don't remember when I was taught this life saving little reminder.

Once I learned my left and right, I knew the difference with little difficulty. I'm not one of those people you still see, extending their thumbs and pointer fingers to see which side shapes an 'L.' In fact, I never used that trick. I knew I was left-handed, so if the side in debate was on the side with the hand I wrote with, it was the left side. Logically.  And so I never had a hesitation in my left and right differentiation. Back to the point: although I had no difficulty with right v left, I did with it's v its. Until a brilliant teacher taught her class a brilliant trick.

Unlike many cases with the 's, the word 'it' does not get an apostrophe s when used possessively. The apostrophe s is, instead, used for the contraction: it is becomes it's. So, when looking at the phrase, The dog wagged it is tail, we see it is incorrect and, therefore, does not get the apostrophe s. So that phrase would be The dog wagged its tail. If we look at a phrase like I like the sun because it is hot, we see it is correct and, therefore, receives the apostrophe s. This phrase becomes I like the sun because it's hot.

Well, I can't really say why I decided to write this, let alone post it. Maybe I just wanted you to see one more extremely weird thing that makes Morgan Morgan.

You Learn Something New Everyday: CONTRONYM

This is interesting:

Cleave: 1 to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly
2 to separate into distinct parts

Cleave is its own antonym—a contronym. Huh! Here are some more. Comment with any others you can think of. Some of these are a bit of a stretch, but I like them anyway:

bolt - secure v run away
buckle - fasten v fall apart
custom - usual v special
dust - add fine particles v remove fine particles
fast - quick v unmoving
left - remaining v departed from
mean - average v excellent (e.g., "plays a mean game")
out - visible (e.g., stars) v invisible (e.g., lights)
screen - show v hide

I hope you find this as interesting as I do. You think about things like this too, right?