Horse hair

In Thai, the word for bangs is "horse hair" which could have dissuaded me but I decided to get the only brand of crazy I know how to get and snip away.

Which is better, straight...



















or curly?

Almond MIlk

I'm always on the hunt for new non-milk milk products to try. I'm not sure why. They're almost always gross. Lately I've been compelled to think more about it and I stumbled across the idea of Almond Milk. I guess before the advent of the refrigerator, cow's milk was all too frustrating to keep in stock, so they turned to nuts to offer the milky texture with a longer shelf life. Who knew, right? It just so happens that I've had a jar full of almonds that I'm sick of snacking on so I made my own batch, like this:

Combine 1 part almonds, 4 parts water: let soak 1-2 days
Blend in blender, sweeten with dates, syrup or honey
Strain almond flecks (optional)
Drink!

Verdict: It's not awful; grainier than I'm used to and not sweet enough for my taste. But I think it will be good for baking, or cereal. Give it a shot! If you have a blender that works (like I thought I did when I started but found out half way through my first Pulse when almond juice started splurting out the sides that I do not.) it's way easy.

Hot bag

For all you men who feel a bit self-conscious.
Apparently Wheaties has your back.
And your pecs.
The pecs you want.

NexGen... did I mention I'm rich?

As a non-profit minor at BYU, we are affiliated with an organization called American Humanics. I went to Indianapolis for their conference in January and blogged about it. Several years ago the Kellogg foundation gave AH a $5 million grant, which is divvied out to lucky AH members for internship grants through the NexGen program. NexGen, by the way, is a sassy abbreviation for Next Generation Nonprofit Leaders. About a month ago I applied for the grant, made the thrice-extended deadline by about 10 minutes and Boom! last week I found out that I got it! $4500 healthy dollars (hopefully in stacks of ones like this picture) to help fund my internship with Community Action Services this summer (more info to come). Hooray!

Doesn't this look rad?

I Love Atlases. You may know this about me. I love being able to take some obscure facts and figures that I can't picture in my head. As a geographer I like to think of everything as spatially distributed. How about art or political activism? Surfing the philanthropy blogs today (yes, not studying) I came across this map set that crosses these two seemingly unmixable ideas. An Atlas of Radical Cartography. An Atlas of Radical Cartography is a collection of 10 maps and 10 essays about social issues from globalization to garbage; surveillance to extraordinary rendition; statelessness to visibility; deportation to migration. Here's the intro:

"INTRODUCTION | Alexis Bhagat & Lize Mogel
This Atlas is an atlas and not the atlas. Rather, it is one of many possible atlases, given the abundance of artists, architects, and others using maps and mapping in their work. While all maps have an inherent politics that often lies hidden beneath an “objective” surface, the contributions to An Atlas of Radical Cartography wear their politics on their sleeve. This publication includes ten pairs of politically engaged maps and texts from within the growing movement of cultural producers who have parallel or integrated activist practices. With that in mind, we intend for An Atlas of Radical Cartography to act as a primer on issues which the maps and essays address: identity, land-use, imprisonment, energy, migration. "



For ages, people have used maps as a method of spreading their agendas; as propaganda, both positive and negative. Look at a map of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands from Britain and from Argentina. Both nations claim them as territory still to this day and show it proudly in their maps. Look at just about every map from the last political campaign. You can know almost without a doubt what agenda the map is trying to sell you on without having to read or hear any accompanying argument. In every major War, governments produce maps that cause citizens to feel a certain way. Here's a fun (fun?) one from WWI showing all the bickering between nations. You can tell who's picking fights with who and just how aggressive they're being at it.





Did you know the old UN flag logo used to be centered on North America? Big surprise, right? At least now, they disguise their American focus with an Arctic-down look at the globe.



In all the mapping classes I took, there was an ever-present anthem. That is, that unlike Miss Shakira's hips, MAPS LIE. As potential map-makers, we need to be aware of this power and distrust accordingly. Aren't the rad?

Happy Birthday to ME

Raisin Brahms!

Now this is good advertising by Americans for the Arts. Lindsay introduced me to this ridiculously silly commercial where Brahms "Oh Yeah's" it into a family breakfast to convince them of the power of the arts. "Guutentaaaag!!!"

Sidenote: I really do believe that arts enrich and empower individuals to have better futures. I'm not sold on increased test scores and genius but music, literature and visual and dramatic arts give children (well, everyone) something personal to be passionate about. Art brings beauty and hope to situations otherwise desperate. "As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life." ~John Lubbock

Grandpa's Funeral

Isn't he handsome?
I've posted about my grandpa before. I love my grandpa. I grew up just a couple blocks from him and I have amazing memories of him in my childhood. Magic shows and Christmas morning menu breakfasts. He used to hide sugar-free candy around his house for us to find. Weekly Sunday dinner and accompanying card games (usually Pounce, which I usually lost). We sang a lot too. I remember him playing the organ. later, when he lived on his own, I remember lots of meals with microwaved pot pies and bland vegetables. Grandpa had a wry smile. He was old and a little goofy but he was sharp. Until I was maybe 8 he worked as an aerospace engineer at Boeing. I remember his retirement party. He had worked on a lot of prestigious projects.

About 4 years ago, grandpa moved to Courtyard at Jamestown, a senior living community here in Provo. Here he got a girlfriend (NancyLee) and fell into a lovely routine of participating in lots of activities. I visited him a lot in this time of his life and I feel like I really built a relationship with him. Whenever the ridiculousness of student life began to get to me grandpa's was always a fresh escape. By this time his memory had really begun to deteriorate. He spent a lot of time doing crossword puzzles to protect his memory (hundreds of his old crossword books and pens were used as center pieces at the service. See right).He had a stock of about twenty stories that he would rotate through. Some of them I can recite from memory, complete with his facial expressions and hand movement.

I really miss my grandpa. He was such a solid, strong, amazing man. I hope this isn't disrespectful but his funeral weekend was SO much fun. All of the extended family was there (except a few in-law wives and their children). I can't ever remember everyone being together. The men sang a BEAUTIFUL rendition of Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy and all the grandkids cried through Love is Spoken Here (at least me and Kelsie did). We laughed over silly grandpa stories and just had so much fun!

Rene Descartes says Live Here and Now

"It is good to know something of the customs of various peopls, so as to judge our own more soundly and so as not to think that everything that is contrary to our ways is ridiculous and against reason, as those who have seen nothing have a habit of doing. But when one takes too much time traveling, one eventually becomes a stranger in one's own country; and when one is too curious about what commonly took place in past ages, one usually remains quite ignorant of what is taking place in one's own country. Moreover, fables make one imagine many events to be possible which are not so at all. And even the most accurate histories, if they neither alter nor exaggerate the significance o things in order to render the more worthy of being read, almost always at least omit the baser and less noteworthy details. Consequently, the rest do not appear as they really are, ad those who govern their won conduct by means of exampeld drawn from these texts are liable to fall into the extravagances of the knights of our ramoces and to conceive lans that are beyond their powers. "

Renee Descartes, Discourse on Method

Elder Jenkin's Funeral

I'm fairly new to the funeral scene. I've only been to a few ever in my life. My mom's cousin Denise died of Crohn's disease when I was like 10. Last Spring Uncle Roe died after suffering years of Alzheimer's. Both funerals were beautiful, in the spring and expected. Yesterday, I wen to share my condolences with the family of Joshua James Jenkins, and Elder I served with in Thailand. He got home just over a month ago and died in an avalanche last weekend. He was just a greenie when I served with him and you could tell snowmobiling was in his blood. Our district theme became "Braaap" (the sound of a snowmobile cruising through the back country) and "Keep er wiked" (basically the 'Pedal to the Metal' of snow machines). We had a district wave where when me and Sister Greer saw he and Elder Blood we would raise our hand up and waved it like we were pushing hard on a hand accelerator. I even have basketball shorts that saw Braap on them both in English and in Thai. Elder Jenkins was full of life and I could see that as soon as he mastered the language he would be a missionary force to be reckoned with.

The funeral could not have been sweeter. When we arrived the family asked the 20+ Thai RMs to sing Called to Serve in Thai. The Eulogy told silly stories about Josh and Elder Laing, a senior missionary who served with Josh, came home a day early so he could talk about Josh's mission and read a letter from President Dodge. I became emotional several times during the service, and felt particularly touched when several times speakers told us that Josh was surely continuing his mission in the Spirit World. I know that this is true. What a blessing to know the plan of salvation and be at peace with such an untimely death.


I'll admit it was great to get together with some great mission friends.

Somehow the sisters still ended up divided from the boys. Just like Zone Conference...


What a great crew!