The List of Thirty

My lovely friend Alyssa has decided to create blog substance by responding to the list of thirty items below. I love it. I'm totally going to do it (see previous post about positive internet interactions) cause I'm all about a little more structure in my care-free-summer-life.

 

1. List twenty random facts about yourself.

2. Describe three legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.

3. Describe your relationship with your parents.

4. List ten things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.

5. What are the five things that make you most happy right now?

6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

7. What is your dream job, and why?

8. What are five passions you have?

9. List ten people who have influenced you and describe how.

10. Describe your most embarrassing moment.

11. Describe ten pet peeves you have.

12. Describe a typical day in your current life.

13. Describe five weaknesses you have.

14. Describe five strengths you have.

15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

16. What are your five greatest accomplishments?

17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?

18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?

19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

20. Describe three significant memories from your childhood.

21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?

22. Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years? Fifteen years?

23. List your top five hobbies and why you love them.

24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.

25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?

26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?

27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?

28. What is your love language?

29. What do you think people misunderstand most about you?

30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

 

I do, however, reserve the right to tweak the questions. Plus it's very likely I may get bored of myself as the sole blog subject, so maybe I'll start posting about your five weaknesses instead of mine. Don't worry, I'm kidding. Kind of. Also there's no time limit on this list so it most likely will take me yeeears to finish. 

and the internet passeth over me

I've been thinking about how I use the internet. The other day (March 20, 2012) Amy Petersen Jensen gave a BYU devotional on media. Jensen said many good things, but her recommendations for how we should strive to interact with media struck me in particular:

1. Choose to be a record keeper: it will build your faith and the faith of those around you.
2. Choose to engage in active media conversations and avoid passive media consumption.
3. Choose to consecrate your everyday--your thoughts, your communications, and your actions.
4. Choose to look outward in service to others for answers to your own prayers.
5. Choose to find ways and go to places and create circumstances where you can unite symbolically with our Father, and gain access to his power to help you navigate through the choices and challenges of your generation.

I love these recommendations and Jensen's second recommendation struck me in particular: am I engaging in media conversations, or am I merely a passive media user? Sadly, I think I often fall in the former category. I can use the internet to distraction. When I surf the internet I often have no desire to engage in meaningful conversation--reading celebrity news, watching TV shows, perusing Facebook--I do these things because I want to avoid engaging actively in anything. My internet surfing habits are not activities guided by overarching goals and purposes, but are rather a direct avoidance of goals and purposes.

Granted, everyone needs some down time, but how much more productive could I be if I made it a point to make my media intake always meaningful? Maybe this blog is an attempt at that...and maybe this is one more summer goal: make media meaningful.

So here are some things the internet hath brought me that I've loved and want to share with you. So here I am attempting some form of media conversation ranging from the deep to the mundane:

1) These little messages make me happy often.

2) How we use media is all the rage now. You should watch this awesome TEDTalk that my high school English teacher posted on her Facebook page. It's all about media and loneliness. Worth a ponder.

3) I need to cut back on celebrity news reading. It's one of my more worthless habits. However, this blog I do love because I think Kate Middleton is classy and she has awesome (and wowza, expensive!) clothes. For someone somewhat fashion ignorant, this is a nice break from the monotony of my own closet.

4) Please view this most gorgeous picture of my true love. Thanks for the URL Mallorie G.

Wow, this is a depressingly short list of positive internet love. Rest assured, however, that I am determined to be better. I was watching some Katie Couric snippet on Yahoo! (ironically found by some mindless internet surfing) about how 20-somethings need to form good habits now (while our brains are in their final growth spurt) else then we will be stuck with our bad habits FOREVER. So here's to being the master of internet pith, time management, and engaging in meaningful media conversations before I turn 30. Hopefully this is a first(ish) attempt of many.

What I will

Ah. It is the time of spring and summer. Again. 

I love that spring and summer come again. and again. Food tastes better. Walking barefoot feels better. And oh how Utah smells in the Summer? Wonderful. Like my childhood rushing back to me all over again.

It's a little sad that this summer won't be spent in Honduras. But it will be spent in other, milder ways.

I will finish my independent study course. I will finish my editing capstone class. I will become an InDesign master. I will intern for the Haiti Health Initiative. I will swim (a mile of) the Great Salt Lake! I will yoga every day. I will finally finish All the Pretty Horses. I will budget. I will grow basil. I will read  Independent People. I will take pictures. I will cook. I will relish the time I have in the luxury apartment villa that Grace & I accidentally stumbled upon and into. I will write. I will spend time with family. I will paint and draw. And I may even upload some of those drawings to this blog. 

I will GRADUATE. 

That is what I will. 

obsessed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvbSiQZfACQ&ob=av3n

Ansokubi omedetou

One of my favorite authors is Shusaku Endo. He is a Japanese Catholic and his insights on God, life, and the purpose of paradox cutteth to the very center.

These are two of my favorite bits from Endo's The Girl I Left Behind:

"You can call it a chance encounter if you like. But which encounters in our lives do not stem from chance? And yet chance plays an even greater part in other events during the course of our lives. Maybe the occasion when you first met your spouse with whom you end up sharing the rest of your life was no more auspicious than the time you happened to share a lunch table in some department store cafeteria. However, it has taken me until today to realize that these are no mere trifles, but keys to understanding the true meaning of life. At that time I had no belief in God, but were such a God to exist, perhaps He would choose such insignificant and routine incidents in our everyday lives to reveal His existence."

"If Mitsu had taught me anything at all, it was that every single person with whom we cross paths during our journey through life leaves an indelible mark on us. So does loneliness stem from such marks? Furthermore, if the God in whom this nun believes truly exists, does He speak to us through these marks?"

Happy Sunday.

You know who's awesome?

Grandpa, that's who.

This man taught me how to drive.

And to love vienna sausages.

And I cannot count how many times

he's picked me up from college,

driven me to and from the aiport,

and helped me move in.

He's the best.

Grateful

For beaches and brilliant birthdays.

[and for El Salvador]

For the promise of temples.

And for temple promises.

For roommate photo shoots.

For roommates.

For friends who are smart and awesome.

For my childhood.

For never having to go through 7th grade again.

For 7th grade friends you still visit.

For the children of those grown-up friends from 7th grade.

For college friends coming home from their missions.

[isn't it awesome that this is the only picture in high definition?]

For new sisters.

For little brothers.

For grown-up puppies.

For new friends.

For children.

For traveling to new places and meeting inspiring people.

For the eventual Spring.

For my parents.

For Japanese food.

[Mostly for my Uncle Brad and Cousin Yuri who make me Japanese food]

For morose self-portraits.

It's a good life.