Winter 2010 schedule

While I was looking for classes to take next semester I stumbled across some winners:

EXCS 106: Badminton, Beginner (Full already)
GEOL 100: Dinosaurs
PlWS 100: Living with plants
PWS 270: Animal husbandry (recommended for me by Dad)
RMYL 233R: Fly fishing
SFL 180: Clothing the family
SFL 230: Housing the family
STDEV 214R: Integrity for life: Building personal character
and from my own beloved college BIO 270: Animal Restraint

Runners World

You should all be scared. After an embarrassing defeat at the 2009 Cougar Run, I have started a new running regimen. It's called Exercise Science 139: Jogging second block. Today we ran timed 2 miles so we could group ourselves in running groups. I am pleased to report that I had the fastest time out of all the females, plus I lapped some of the males. And that was after I got up to run with Janet at 6:00 AM, went to work, and went to classes. All Scoresby Scamperers beware: Sarah is getting in shape.

Show and Tell

The art fad that has swept the house on 350 N in Provo is not over yet. After an FHE activity, here is the art gallery featuring various styles and themes:



And here is my newest masterpiece:

epidemic worrying

Apparently, the flu is becoming a problem on campus. It's not the swine flu though, it's just normal flu. I got this email today from BYU:

You may have the flu if you have a fever or chills AND a cough or sore throat. If you think you have the flu, stay home or in your residence.

Contact your professors through e-mail or by telephone immediately. All faculty members have been asked to work with you to make up missed assignments, quizzes and even mid-terms.

Most cases of the flu do not require medical attention. However, for a list of CDC warning signs that warrant medical attention please go to flu.byu.edu under the “Signs & Symptoms” tab.

I also received a similar email from a TA and some verbal warnings. So, I will keep washing my hands and try to avoid the epidemic. And maybe I should go get that shot.

What I will be doing in my spare time

DU hosts Stephenie Meyer Writing Contest

By Daily Universe

- Fri, 10/09/2009 - 11:38

Photo illustration by Jamison Metzger and Marianne Jolley

In 1982, the English Department at San Jose State University sponsored the first Bulwer-Lytton Contest, which the contest’s Web site describes as “a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.”

The contest was named after the otherwise eminently forgettable Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who opened one book with the line since made famous by Snoopy, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

With grateful acknowledgements to the folks at San Jose State, The Daily Universe and Friday411 have decided to sponsor a writing contest of its own. But since few people on
this campus know who Bulwer-Lytton is, we have decided to sponsor our first Stephenie Meyer
Writing Contest.

In case you have been on a mission since 2005, Stephenie Meyer is the BYU English graduate who penned the best-selling “Twilight” series of novels. While Meyer has made coffin-loads of money, some in the book world have questioned the literary quality of her efforts. A review in the New York Times said “Twilight” “suffers at times from overearnest, amateurish writing.”

We are not literary critics, but that review might have been referring to such gems as:

“Edward in the sunlight was shocking. I couldn’t get used to it, though I’d been staring at him all afternoon. His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday’s hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface. He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare. His glistening, pale lavender lids were shut, though of course he didn’t sleep. A perfect statue, carved in some unknown stone, smooth like marble, glittering like crystal.”

This contest, inspired by the upcoming release of Meyer’s second movie, “New Moon,” is an opportunity for BYU students to test their writing mettle against the standard set by Ms. Meyer.

Write us a paragraph of purple prose, emulating as closely as possible Meyer’s overearnest style, though it does not necessarily have to come from the “Twilight” storyline. Winners will receive valuable prizes. Rules for the contest are as simple as baseball apparently is to vampires:

■ Each entry must consist of a single paragraph, no more than 100 words, and you may submit up to three entries.

■ Entries must be original and previously unpublished.

■ Entries must be submitted via e-mail; write the entry in the body of the message, not in an attachment.

Include your name and phone number. Send entries to: Friday411@byu.edu

■ The deadline is noon, Thur., Nov. 5.

■ Three prizes will be awarded. First-place winner will receive dinner and “New Moon” movie tickets for two.

Second-place winner will receive “New Moon” movie tickets and popcorn for two. Third-place winner will receive

“New Moon” movie tickets for two. Tickets may be used for another film.

■ Winning entries will be published in the Nov. 13 edition of The Daily Universe’s Friday411.

■ Employees of The Daily Universe may flex their creative minds and participate, but are not eligible to win the prizes

If you have any ideas for one of my three entries, just let me know.

My job

I finally figured out what I'm supposed to be doing at my job, and I realized it is a mixture of all the jobs I've had:

I put things in boxes (Eastbay, packer)
I make copies (Women's Research Institute, secretary)
I pick up and deliver things (Mickelsen home, nanny)
I prepare food and wash dishes (Creamery, food prep)
I am bored a lot (Eastbay, WRI, Mickelsen home, Creamery, Taylor's)

Maybe that's why I was hired. I have experience doing really important and difficult things. So bring it on, BYU Food To Go.

Happy Birthday!

Oh somebody's had a birthday--our little Sarah dear. Kind Father in Heaven bless her through all the coming year.

Here are some pictures from the party, attended by Janet, my roommates, Susannah, Nathaniel, Krystal, Jeff, and Jared (those two were late, but with a good excuse.)

The roommates and I.



We didn't have candles, so we improvised with tea candles and really big matches.


The cousins doing karate. They didn't really want to pose like that, but Jenae made them.

Editor's note: If you would like to read my roommate's birthday blog about me, her blog is at the right. It's called Here Comes the Sun. Please don't leave her any rude comments. If you must do so, do it on my blog.

Job? Nah...

I was doing some reading for my bioethics class, and I decided I no longer need a job. I found a new way to make money. This is quoted from my book, the chapter called "Manufacturing Children" in the section about donor embryos:

It is not unusual to see advertisements in both college and leading newspapers asking for healthy young women (typically tall, white, athletic, and with high SAT scores) to serve as egg donors. Egg donors are typically paid from $3,000 to $5,000 per cycle, but couples seeking donors with particular characteristics may offer as much as $20,000 to $100,000

So, why do I need to work making $7.25/hour when I (tall,white, athletic, and with high SAT scores) could donate my eggs?

The Literary Book of Answers

Just behind Anne of Green Gables and To Kill a Mockingbird there is a third favorite book. Unlike the aforementioned classics, this one is lesser known and a different genre. It is known as The Literary Book of Answers by Carol Bolt. This is how it works, as per the instructions on the back:

1. Hold the CLOSED book in your hand, on your lap, or on a table.
2. Take 10 or 15 seconds to concentrate on your question. Questions should be phrased closed-end, e.g. "is the job I'm applying for the right one?" or "should I travel this weekend?"
3. While visualizing or speaking your question (one question at a time), place ONE HAND palm down on the book's front cover and STROKE THE EDGE of the pages, back to front.
4. When you sense that the time is right, OPEN the book and there will be your answer.
5. REPEAT the process for as many questions as you have.

The literary answers range from Aeschylus' Agamemnon to Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. The book is quite accurate, although the front matter explains "Hyperion and the author of this book take no credit or responsibility for what The Literary Book of Answers advises or results thereof. Tonight we asked The Book if Carolyn should go to ward FHE. The answer was a commanding, "You must go," by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Verger."

So, according to The Book, this is how my future will unfold:

Will I get a job anytime soon? "You shall not fail." --Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
Will I get married in the next year? "Lump the whole thing!" --Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad
Will Obama's socialized Health Plan go through? "It is a far, far better thing." --Charles Dickens: A Tales of Two Cities
Should I get a flu shot? "Might be happy all the same that way." --James Joyce: Ulysses
Should I go eat some ice cream? "Change your ideas of what you want." --Euripides: Hippolytus
And most importantly, will I win the Scoresby Scamper? "Begin with the beginning." --Lord Byron: Don Juan

If you need any important questions answered, I will be available with The Literary Book of Answers during daytime and evening hours. But first I must skip the ice cream and go train for the race.