The government says so

10 December 2009, 1:35 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family

It took me more time to print off articles to read while I was waiting at the Social Security office than it did for me to actually wait for them. Didn’t even get through one paragraph while I was sitting there.

Several questions later and the government now recognizes my name as Lisa Marie Giles Dennis (first name = Lisa; middle name = Marie Giles; last name = Dennis). I called Brett when I left because I figured he should be the first to know.42D

I’m going to say that was a big hit with reality this morning for me. It still seems just this side of strange.

4 Shared thoughts

We have a time line!

9 December 2009, 4:14 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education

Generally it is understood that a Bachelors degree takes between 4 and 5 years. You know what classes you need to take and can figure out how many semesters that will be based on how many you take each semester. A Masters degree is similar, except generally less time than the Bachelors. My Bachelors took me ten semesters (although I graduated with almost twice the required number of credits). And my Masters took me four semesters.

A PhD is a little different. And the joke is that you just don’t ask a Doctoral student how much longer they have. Because honestly, we generally have no idea. There’s the whole class work thing and the defenses and the dissertations and the conferences and the publishing. And it’s just hard to nail down how long that will all take.

But today, today I have a time line. For today, I’ll finish up my course work in the coming calendar year. (Yeah!!) During that time I’ll also prepare some papers to be submitted to journals or conferences. Then I’ll get my dissertation proposal in the first half of the next year (Spring 2011). And I’ll run my dissertation research during the 2011/2012 school year. I’ll get the write up all done and ready to go and my Christmas present to myself (and Brett too) will be a diploma in 2012. :apple: 42D

So that’s the time line. For today. Next week it could change. And who knows what could happen at the end of another semester. But for right now, that’s the direction we are taking things.

2 Shared thoughts

Baby it’s cold outside

7 December 2009, 8:38 am by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Life

An odd blessing to count: If the heater in your house doesn’t work, at least you can live in Tucson.

It’s cold in Tucson right now. I know that’s relative. We aren’t below freezing, but 40 is still real cold. We tried turning on our heater the other morning when we got up. It was 64 degrees in the house when we turned it on. It was 63 in the house after we got dressed and were eating breakfast. Last I checked, that’s not how a heater is supposed to work.

So Thursday we called the heater guys to come fix it on Friday. They said they’d come some time between 2 and 5. Apparently that means 2+5 because they showed up just before 7pm, minutes before our Tucson shin-dig started. So we’re having to reschedule.

Saturday we bought a small space heater to use in whatever room we are in at the time. And we have sweatshirts we wear. And of course no house of mine is ever low on blankets. So we’re warm.

And of course, at least we’re only 40 degrees cold instead of 10 degrees cold without a heater.

15 Shared thoughts

The language of prayer

6 December 2009, 4:14 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel

Brett has been studying Hebrew and Greek a lot. Yesterday we started talking about the various verb forms in those languages and how conjugating a verb in the various forms gives a slightly different meaning.42D

In English we generally don’t think about the possibility of there being multiple forms of past tense. While there is a subjunctive tense in English, we rarely label it as such. But these tenses and others are important to know and understand in other languages.

When I was learning Portuguese on my mission, another missionary told me not to worry about the subjunctive, that nobody really uses it anyway. And if I did all past as the preterit and did not worry about the imperfect, people would understand me. While what he said was probably true, I would’ve sounded like a 2-year-old the whole time. So I worked on recognizing and using them correctly.

I don’t speak constantly in Portuguese any more, but I do still say all of my personal prayers in Portuguese. And as Brett and I talked about the importance of using the correct verb form, it struck me the implication of using the subjunctive in prayer. Simply by using the subjunctive you are expressing an attitude of “thy will be done.” I am asking for the possibility of blessings when I pray, not demanding those blessings.

I have been praying in Portuguese for more than ten years and yet that has never occurred to me before. I just knew that when asking for something you used the subjunctive. I didn’t realize just what that meant in a prayer.

5 Shared thoughts

30 Days

30 November 2009, 9:25 pm by Giggles
Categories: Random

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty too,
Except for February –
Because it’s weird.

Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve written poetry. And I never actually knew that one that well, especially the last line. But if you think about it, the poem is kind of silly to begin with. The months don’t even go in order. Who thought September came before April?!?

1 Shared thought

The wish of mine heart

29 November 2009, 11:04 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Musings

In the Book of Mormon, Alma declares that the wish of his heart is that he could be an angel and share the gospel of repentance with the whole earth. He wants to speak with a voice like a trumpet. He wants to share the truth that redemption is possible with everyone. And he wants to do this so that there will be no more sorrow on the earth. He has seen much of sorrow, but he knows that there is an alternative.

Chapter 29 in Alma has always been one of my favorites. What a wish! What a heart felt desire! I think I used to be fascinated simply by the idea of wishing to be an angel, a heavenly messenger. But that chapter has continued to fascinate me for other reasons throughout the years. It is a chapter that I continue to learn from.

Even as I sat down to blog tonight it struck me that he didn’t just want to preach repentance, but it was redemption that he wanted to share. Redemption from all the bad and sorrow and wickedness of the world. A plan that allows us to leave that sorrow behind. A plan that takes us towards happiness and joy and light. And that such joy is possible. What a different world we would live in if everyone understood that simple truth, that joy is possible and is part of the plan.

And I am also left to sit here and wonder, if the true desires and wishes of my heart were to be written out for all the world to see tonight, what would you read? I know I can give voice to what I would hope the true desires of my heart are. But am I living in such a way that would show that? Am I pursuing those desires as goals or am I simply letting them be wishes and dreams?

What is the wish of your heart? What are you doing to reach it?

Share your thoughts

Well that’s just perfect

28 November 2009, 3:47 pm by Giggles
Categories: Random, Science & Tech

Seriously, numbers are just fun. When I was 28, I was perfect. And that’s definitely better than being in my prime. Unfortunately I won’t be perfect again until I’m 496. And if it’s okay with everyone, I’d just rather not live that long. I was perfect when I was 6 though.

What do I mean by perfect? A number is considered perfect if all of its divisors add up to it. The divisors of 6 are 1, 2, and 3. Add those together and you get 6. The divisors of 28 are 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14. And those all add up to 28. Why that is considered perfect, I’m not sure.

But it definitely makes you wonder where we decided you could get a perfect 10 on something. Ten is actually an deficient number (its divisors, 1, 2, and 5, add up to less than 10). The number 12 is an abundant number (its divisors, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, add up to 16, more than 12). (I always remember abundant numbers as obtuse or obese.)

This year, at age 31, I’m deficient. And I’ll be deficient until I’m 36. At least I’m still in my prime this year.

1 Shared thought