Work - It's an ongoing project

So, I've now been in my new position in the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU for about a month and a half. It's been quite the experience. I'm the Science/Maps Reference Specialist and one of my duties is to discover why students aren't using the reference desk as often as they used to. That's really an easy question. The answer is simple. The internet. Now, the more thought-provoking challenge I'm facing. How do I convince students to continue to use our resources....especially since we're shelling out thousands of dollars for electronic resources they have access to FROM HOME!?!?!

So, here's my dilemma. I need to get students aware of resources and get them to ask questions. Not that my example was good. I only went to the library to work. I didn't study. I didn't check books out. Heck, I didn't even ask out girls in the library (of course, my roommate, Landon, met and asked out his wife in the library so perhaps I should have). But, that's my task.

So far, I've come up with a couple solutions that might work. I created a Science Reference Facebook group. It's called the HBLL Science, Engineering, and Technology Forum. We'll see how it works. It's open to anyone in the BYU network and hopefully will spark some discussion.

Next, I'm trying to create database seminars that I will teach in the department buildings. Hopefully, if a session is only half an hour and we advertise well, people will come. After all, jobs hire people for their skills in finding information in databases and we have several of the most important databases on the market.

Any other suggestions on how to reach out to students would be greatly appreciated. I just graduated eight months ago and I'm having trouble knowing even how I thought that long ago. :)

I'm So Proud!

Last night, Patrick asked out a girl. A girl he didn't know. In public. I'm so proud!

At about 8:30, Patrick and I ventured to Chandi's weekly Tuesday get together. This week, once again, we took advantage of Applebee's appetizers (ummm....shrimp). Our party consisted of Patrick, myself, and six girls.
After a very spririted sugar packet fight, blowing our straw wrappers at Jessica simultaneously, eating our food, and a hushed discussion about why our server had been in the bathroom crying prior to come serving us, our conversation turned to the random things guys talk about.
You see, on Saturday night, Jessica, Joel, Derrick, and I had gone to IHOP for dinner. Derrick had told Jessica that guys do not talk about girls when they are alone. Jessica was pleasantly amused that we were talking about how cute our waitress was and were trying to get Joel to ask her out. He didn't, but it did make for a lively conversation later at Applebee's. Derrick's reasoning was that since Jessica was present, we could talk about girls. :)
So here we were, sitting in Applebee's discussing these topics. Patrick mentioned that the hostess was cute and he thought he should ask her out. Patrick, however, is extremely shy. He's never just asked a girl out before. Ever. We discussed it for some time. Patrick mentioned that it's best to be direct because phone numbers left on tables just induce laughter and not dates. He should know. He worked in a restaurant and was usually the one who laughed.
Suddenly, Patrick stood up and started talking to the girls sitting behind us. He said, "Hey, I'm wanting to ask out the hostess over there but I'm really shy. What should I do to ask her out?" This coming from someone who's supposed to be shy. We were laughing too hard to actually catch what they were saying, but Patrick got the suggestion to just do it and be direct. Talk about original suggestions.
Our waitress looked at us from the other table and we mentioned that Patrick wanted to ask out the hostess. She suddenly smiled and said, "Oooh. Just a second." She came over presently and informed us that she was not dating anyone and encouraged him to go for it.
Patrick was so nervous he kept looking around. He said he felt like puking. I half expected him to do so. After a while, the hostess started clearing a table near the exit and we made our move. Patrick went to talk to her and the rest of us slipped outside so we wouldn't be a distraction (although we were guilty of peeking through the door at the scene). Well, Patrick got her phone number and has a date.
Patrick immediately called Nichole to tell her that he had completed her dare. He also called Garion because Garion wouldn't believe him.
But there are witnesses. Patrick did it. He asked out a girl. Because she was cute. In person.
I'm so proud!

Singing Praises

So about three weeks ago, Russ, Joel, and I were jamming on the piano after ward prayer singing hymns. Unfortunately, that is a risky thing to do in my ward. You see, Didi, in our ward, is the stake music director...and the ward music director. Well, Didi animatedly asked us to sing a special musical number in our ward. We sang a bunch of songs, trying to choose a hymn. We then called to invite Kimball to sing in an a'capella quartet.
That's about as far as we got. We talked about it and practiced once, but never really had anything definite. We weren't too worried because we're all pretty good at sight reading...except for the fact that I was to sing Alto. Crazy.
Well, I was sick last weekend and totally spaced the fact that we were singing. Oh, and somehow, our singing in our ward morphed into singing in Stake Conference. Today. Once again, crazy!
So, yesterday I received a phone call from Didi at about 10 am, asking if we were ready to sing in Stake Conference and if I'd come to choir practice later that day. We were already in the program. I tell you, when you miss one day of church, you completely miss everything! Well, I called Russ and he was in Florida. I called Kimball and he couldn't come practice yesterday evening. We did decide, however, that Kimball, Joel, and I would sing a trio but we didn't know how we would sing each verse or even what song, for certain, we would be singing.
Choir practice went well and I was asked to lead the music in the stake leadership priesthood session. Hey! What's a little more singing? :) I told Didi we'd do the song we'd planned (even though she had put Be Still My Soul).
After Stake Priesthood session, we met for stake choir practice. Kimball wasn't not there yet, so I texted him. Of course, he had slept through his alarm. By the time he got to the church and we finished practicing our choir number, it was about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to sing and we didn't know what we were doing!
The Lord accepted our desire, forgave our slothfulness, and decided he would help us in singing praises. Joel said, "While, we should probably practice once with the piano." Our pianist for choir, Charie Brown, asked what we were singing. When we told, she said, "I have a really cool arrangement for that song." We asked if she had it with her. She said, "Oh, I made it up and don't have it written out." She played it while we sang and it was amazing! She agreed to play for us.
Needless to say, the performance went well and was highly acclaimed and we had Charie to thank for that! I switched from Alto to Lead which was good, because I still haven't got my voice all back which I'd lost at the hockey game on Friday, so I doubted I could hit all the high notes. It was a lot of fun.
It just goes to show, when you sing praises to Heavenly Father, he's always there to help you out and buoy you up.

The Newest Menace to Socitey!

Yesterday, I successfully completed another trip around the sun. It takes a whole year and this was my personal record, 25th time around the sun! I know, it's a pretty impressive stint. My goal is at least sixty more. Think I can pull it off?

Yes, I am officially a menace to society, borrowing from the lesson Steve Young gave in the movie, Singles Ward. Of course, he was in his thirties when he married, so I'm learning from the best. I had to argue, however, that I have been a menace to society long before I turned 25.

Yesterday, I got birthday wishes from Auntie Arlene and Uncle Michael in California that brought up an interesting point. I may have turned 25 years this year, but next year will be my Royal birthday! I'll be 26 on the 26th. This will be a big par-tay!

My friend Jennie asked me what I wanted for my birthday, however, I really couldn't think of any thing in particular. I recently (I was officially hired on the 25th) started work in a full-time position with benefits that pays pretty good considering I am only seven months out of a bachelors degree. :) That was my biggest wish. My second is that my mother get a better job. She has an interview on the 10th for a position she really wants, so pray for her. My last wish, I'm keeping to myself. Bwah hah hah!

So, I passed an otherwise uneventful day at work. I set up an interview for Special Collections because they are understaffed. Even though I'm on another payroll now, I'm going to stay in my old position for about 10 hours this week. I'll also return to train my replacement a bit. It's quite the transition though. Special Collections to Science and Maps.

So anyway, some of my friends planned a trip to Applebees to take advantage of 50% off appetizers like they have after 9. Shrimp and Hot Wings. Ummmmm.... It was quite the way to celebrate a birthday, although I do get embarrassed by fusses and having a hundred people sing Happy Birthday at Applebees (it was kinda busy) was a little much.

Overall, it was a quiet, non-plussed birthday. Just the way I like it.

Wedding Craziness

My sister got married again yesterday. Combine Kelli's five kids with David's five kids and you get quite the family. Plus the fact that David's oldest is married and has a kid. That makes, um....14 people in the family! Crazy. Kelli's new last name is Haggard, which is what everyone is like after an afternoon of attempting to corral the twins. Lucky for me, I got to help with that last night after the wedding. :)

This is the beautiful family picture I stole from Nancy's blog. Seriously, I don't know if we'll ever get them all sitting in one place at one time again. It took several people waving arms and making goofy faces to get the twins to sit still.

It was a nice wedding. Only family and close friends were present and it was a simple ceremony. It had to be with all of the kids running around. Dave and Kelli looked so happy, although they were both obviously very stressed.

Dad toasted the new couple. He only gave them one piece though, and it had no butter or jam or anything. Uncle Kevin did the DJing. Nancy and I did some swing dancing. It was fun to see Sabrina get into the action.

After the wedding, I took the twins home with Grandma and Grandpa Layton and we attempted to get them settled and ready for bed. It was amazing how much energy Olivia has despite her IV that is still in her arm from her infection. Also, Sabrina did not want her dress off at all, even though she was poopy. I was glad to leave.

Note to those visiting Kelli. You can not turn left from her street onto the main street. I tried. There is a large divider in the middle of the road. I don't usually like to use main streets as round abouts, but in this case I did, otherwise I would've been heading up the wrong side of the street. :) Luckily, there was no traffic due to a red light and construction up the street. Whew!

Do we really need to read?

Have you ever noticed that when you go to a public bathroom and the neighboring stall is occupied, you can often hear them chatting away on their cell phone or you hear the mad dash of fingers texting away? A lot of people take that as a sure sign that books are dying and that literacy is at an end. E-mails are even starting to have texting lingo included in them so that you can ttyl to your bff. What is happening to our society?
Back before Aristotle and Socrates, or even before Homer, education was oral based. The learned man was the one that could quote all the history, rhyme and verse of the people. They learned rhyme and rhetoric and were hailed as the learned men. An emperor (who ruled, but was usually not very educated) demanding popular support could hear these wisemen give him praise and think it grand, when in reality the educated people would leave something such as bravery, or kindness, or proper rhyming or timing out of their poetic praise. The learned people would read between the lines and know what was not being said and therefore what was being implied and would laugh at their little joke.
Suddenly, the Phoenicians invented written language and all of a sudden, these oral traditions and learning were banned from the "inner circles of logic and resoning" by the likes of Socrates and others. Writing and the "scientific method" replaced oral tradition and whoever could write were given a certain power or status over those who could.
This would explain why the church became such a powerful entity during the dark ages. Those who could read and write had a special gift fom God and those that had the word of God had a mandate from him to lead his people - even if they were followed blindly and ensured it stayed so.
This led to another revolution as the printing press was invented by Gutenberg and the likes of men such as Martin Luther and Jon Wycliff paved the way for revolution. We owe these men for the power of books which guided the world for another four centuries.
We are in the middle of another revolution though. In the mid-1800's, something called the telegraph was invented. Then we had the telephone, Morse Code, talking pictures, television, computers, the internet, cell phones, blackberries, etc. We are being bombarded by a new digital age and the way we are thinking is changing. We are now a visual and oral society that is based on immediate information....and lots of it.
For example, when President hinckley died, I think everyone knew within 15 minutes to an hour. Example 2: When a student does research, he first goes to google. Example 3: We don't trust sources anymore. Anyone can say anything about anything. We trust the masses. That's why feedback and comments are so important on Amazon.com, eBay, and consumer testing sites.
So I ask, where are we going in the future?

I read this article last night. It's rather polemic in its thinking, however, I found it intriguing and have been thinking about it ever since. I kind of summed up my thoughts on the article and it's main points in the previous paragraphs, but I recommended reading the full article.
http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/WhyJohnnyandJaneyCantRead.pdf

America's Next Top Model

While I wast last up in Canada, my sister, Abra, said that I should try out for America's Next Top Model. Abra had done modeling when she was younger and said that the photos were good. I showed the photos to my mother and she thinks I should try professional modeling. Weird, eh? I'd never actually thought about it before.
I bring this up because today, I received some of the photos taken by one photographer during my photo shoot last August. How I got there is quite the random story.



It was a fine summer's day in June (I think....it might've been July). Patrick had planned a morning of Ultimate Frisbee and we were playing hard. While we were resting between games, a woman came and asked if some of us would like to model sunglasses for her. The only people who would were me, Ashley, Lindsay, and Donny. After the "shoot" (only one picture each and a group shot), Kris invited me, Ashley and Lindsay to come to St. George for a photo shoot of rock climbing, biking, hiking, etc. We decided to go.


So, there we were in St. George, Utah, taking pictures in the hot sun. I was selected for a few rock climbing shots, some hiking shots, some video game shots, and...well, that's about it. During the course of the three days, I felt fairly unused and to tell you the truth, I was a little put out about that (and for some other reasons). Well, I decided to market myself with some gymnastics, facial expressions, and capoeira and surprise, surprise, my photos actually turned out pretty good and were right up with some of the better selling photos from Redrockalypse on istockphoto.com.


Maybe I am a model!

We actually found one of my photos being used online at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071019174410.htm.

It was a fun experience and you know, I probably wouldn't mind doing it again.
Besides, Abra says I could be America's next top model.

What say ye?