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?

David Layton - Super Agent

Notice. This could be the start of an adventure novel. Don't steal my idea. I'll write it!
Notice. This could be extremely weird, considering it was the dream I had last night and if I remember dreams, you know they're weird.
Notice. I don't remember everything so it's going to be jumpy.
Notice. I'm hungry.

5:32 a.m. The sun had yet to rise, but the lightened hue of the horizon told us that dawn was on it's way. My partner and I were on a stakeout in the middle of [insert city]. Our mission was so top secret, that the waking of from my dream has driven it out of my memory.
Coolly we waited. Looking at my companion, I could read nothing from his featureless expressions. I knew, however, that we were in for a wild ride.
3:07 p.m. My partner and I have been joined by a female super agent. She is your typical Hollywood-type, multi-million dollar agent. Blonde, cute, gorgeous eyes, and a nice smile. Plus, she was trained in virtually every martial art known to man.
8:56 p.m. My partner and I discovered that the girl was a double agent. The method of how we discovered this has left my mind, but tracking her took us to a museum. My partner and I separated and all of a sudden, I realized that the girl wasn't really a double agent. My partner was. Fortunately, he was unaware of the fact that I knew that he didn't know that I was a double agent. Yes!
I was the first to find the girl. Fortunately, one of the exhibits was a swamp. It was narrow, but it was a real swamp -sans alligators- and about twelve feet deep. I heard hot-female-super agent call me from the swamp, whispering we were both in danger and needed to hide. I went into the swamp to hide with her. Unfortunately, I made a splash and she only had enough time to show me how to use a log to breathe underwater when my partner came to the exhibit looking for us. It was painful to see how he threatened to find her and she gave herself up and was being led away.
I followed at a distance, and was about to swing in and save her when....
~~
The dream switched and I was at a swimming pool witnessing an entire football team hop out of the hot tub and run towards the pool. They were all boasting about the cool splash they would make, however, as soon as the first reached the edge of the pool, they all simultaneously decided that it was too cold, turned around, and ran back to the hot tub. Heh heh. Wimps.
~~
Suddenly, I'm back at Nancy's house with the girl. She was as cute as ever. Nancy and her were playing a game and Nancy lost a bet. Her loss was that she had to retrieve some really gross stuff from a gross-looking pond. There was a big fish in the pond, but she went in anyway.
That was when I discovered that the girl was only 15 and I couldn't date her. I was so dismayed that the girl I had liked, Miss Super Agent Hottie, was only 15, that I...
~~
suddenly had a repeat of the football portion of the dream. Heh heh. Wimps.


Notice. Perhaps this wouldn't make a good novel after all. Either way. The plot is still copyrighted.
Notice. Did this stem from the fact that I was recently dumped or that my girlfriend (different girlfriend) over the summer was only 18?
Notice. Did this happen because I was reading Sherlock Holmes for two hours last night?
Notice. I'm still hungry so I'm going for breakfast.

I am sore and I don't know why....

Just kidding. I know exactly why. I'm out of shape since I graduated and have not been dancing (whether folk or ballroom) everyday for hours on end. Not that I haven't wanted to....it just costs money and there is nothing close. Or hardly anything. I need to try harder.
But this post isn't about dance, although I do miss it. It's actually about ice skating. Why? Because we went ice skating yesterday. I have not been skating since Nancy's crazy near-arm-break-crash-into-monster-girl experience at 7 peaks. You'll have to read her blog about that.
It was starting to snow as we got to the church to meet with the rest of family home evening group. It was cold waiting outside but we passed the time doing donuts in the parking lot or sliding on the ice on the sidewalk for as long as we could stay on our feet (I won). We left right as the snow was coming down it's hardest. Fun times.
I hopped in Joel's car for the ride there and I have since repented the fact that I though Patrick was hard on cars. Joel is much worse. I was grateful when we arrived at the arena. We had 20 people from the ward there.
Skating was fun, like usual. I didn't fall once, although I had some near misses). I didn't hit anyone, although a little girl cut me off about two minutes in and I almost hit her - but dodged her, dodged another man, and hit the boards. My backwards skating is coming back to me, but I still have trouble using the front edge of my skates.
The night was rather uneventful; little games of tag, pretending to be a figure skater (I can lift a back leg up pretty high...Ryan was good too, perturbing Russ and his date (he was the only one who brought a date)....you know, the usual.
I was a little wary to hop in Joel's car for the ride home. He, however, suffered for his erratic driving. His belt started squealing while Skip and I joked about how much hamster power his car had. Unfortunately, they were rebelling.
I woke up this morning and was really sore. I need to do more dance (My English teacher would be so proud). Then I would be able to do things without being sore again.
Taking offers for free back massage.

Farewell to a Prophet

President Hinckley died today. He was 97. I'm happy that he has the opportunity to return to be with his beloved spouse. I'm sure he would enjoy nothing else. It is sad though. I will miss him. He's been my prophet for the last 13 years. I remember when President Hunter passed away - rather, I remember being teased by my neighbor that my prophet had died back in 1995. That wasn't the same. I didn't know him like I know President Hinckley. Not that I have met him. I haven't. But the stories from general conference, from the mission, from my memory. It was all President Hinckley. I love how he was energetic and optimistic right to the end. That's the way I want to go.
Mom said that on her and Josie's walk, Bishop Bybee was leaving a house in the ward. Mom and Josie stopped to talk to the Bishop and Mom said that they were just walking because Josie was upset that President Hinckley had passed away. Bishop Bybee responded that that could not be - he had just been to the Olsens (grandchildren to Pres. Hinckley) in our ward and they hadn't said anything. He said he'd have to check and turned on his radio. He stopped his car and said, "I think you're right." By the time Josie and my mom got to the top of the street, the bishop was headed back towards the Olsen's house. Crazy, eh?
At ward prayer, just about everyone knew within an hour of it happening. News travels fast. At least we have a wonderful line of communication in church. If information travels as fast as gossip, we'd all know of a natural disaster or danger within half an hour of it occurring!
Well, President Hinckley will be missed. He was a great man. I'm looking forward to President Monson's tenure as President of the church (if the Lord calls him). He is also a great man. And we'll get to hear his stories more often. :)