Political Bands

9 July 2008, 4:26 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Health, Politics

It’s a presidential election year. Which means we have to deal with politics in the news a lot more than normal, and have been for the last year.

I love my right to vote. I exercise it every chance I get. I generally don’t get to vote in primaries because I’m not a registered anything, but I vote every November. I even voted in 2000 when I was out of the country.

I follow the candidates for the most part and I do my research on who stands on what side of the issues before I vote. But what I would love is to find one candidate who shares my views on all of the issues I think are important. I don’t think I’ve ever found one person who thought the way I do. And it can be frustrating when I’m doing research on candidates because the issues I think are important are not the issues they seem to think are important enough to take a stand on.

So what are the issues I think are important?

Morality. Yes, I want a moral politician. Marriage and abortion are issues I have strong feelings on. I’d like a politician who shares those feelings.

Education. Considering this is the area where my professional life lies, I have a LOT of opinions on this. Short answer – maybe it would be better to look at other posts where I’ve talked about education before.

Health Care – There are a lot of problems with the health care of this country. But there are also a lot of problems with the health care in the countries most politicians these days are looking at as something to copy. Why would we want to throw out our problems and start a system with a whole new set of problems?

Immigration – Yes we do need to work to make sure people enter this country legally. But that does not mean that people who are not citizens need to be treated like the scum that lives on the underside of a rock. The vast majority of this country is the result of immigration. But many people seem to think that if you hadn’t immigrated 100 years ago you missed the chance. How a politician speaks of people who aren’t citizens is a big thing for me.

Yes there are a lot of other political issues out there and I am interested in what the candidates have to say about those issues as well. But could they maybe address all of my issues at some point?

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Dissolve

8 July 2008, 3:35 pm by Giggles
Categories: Musings, Relationships

When I suggested the title of this post to several people, each of them said it should be about relationships (one did say cleaning). And in a way, it probably will. I thought it interesting that relationships wasn’t the first idea that I had though. I actually got stuck with the idea of making juice from a powdered concentrate for a long time. I knew that wouldn’t make a very interesting post, so I tried to think of something different.

I have been playing with digital photographs quite a bit the last few weeks. It has been a lot of fun to see what I can do with them. One way I’ve enjoyed playing with them is making the background basically dissolve away. It lets certain parts of the photo stand out that you might not have noticed before. It lets you focus on the subject of the photo rather than be distracted by everything else that was in the frame.

An example:

Photo A:

It’s a nice photo, but at first glance you’re probably wondering why I took a picture of the ground.

But if I dissolve out the background you get this:

Photo 2:

And suddenly it becomes clear that there is a chipmunk in the picture. By letting other things lose focus, you are able to focus on what is important.

It’s not really that hard to do that with pictures. Doing it in life is a bit harder though. In life it can be hard to focus on the important things, to keep your priorities straight, or even to just focus on the moment. It can be hard to let the past and future dissolve away and just be there in the present. I often find myself living in more than one place. I’m reliving what I did in the past and working out what I’m going to do in the future.

Yet those times when I do let everything else dissolve, when the only time that exists is now, the only place that exists is where I am, and the only people in the world are the ones I am with, those are magical moments.

I had a few of those moments this weekend. It was a bit strange at first to discover that the only thoughts I had were about the moment and I was no longer thinking about anything else. But letting myself sink into that moment, really enjoying it and experiencing it rather than trying to keep half of my mind elsewhere, it was a wonderful moment.42D

It’s those moments that make up life. When everything else draws our focus away from the moment we are in we can get easily distracted and miss the small beauties of life. Let your worries dissolve into the background and focus on what is important.

I think Elder M. Russell Ballard‘s advice to mothers could be said to all people:

First, recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction.

Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less” (Loud and Clear [2004], 10-11).

(M. Russell Ballard, “Daughters of God,” Ensign, May 2008, 109)

The joy of life comes in moments. I hope I can live more in those moments and let the rest of the world dissolve away more often.

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One people

7 July 2008, 11:17 pm by Giggles
Categories: Learn Something, Random

One person can do a few things, but it’s amazing what that one person can do when they get together with other one persons. No one person can do everything, but one person can help one other person who can help even more people. As one people, a lot can be done.

Just one person can help keep track of ladybugs for scientists. I’m going to have to keep my eyes out for them now. Scientists at Cornell are looking for lost ones and trying to keep track of different species with their “Lost Ladybug Project.”

Astronomy also takes advantage of one person helping out the whole. Astronomers can only keep track of so many things at once. But amateur astronomers can keep an eye on so many other things. And when they find something, they can let the professionals know. It happens frequently.

And I am so glad for all the one people who help me. Take this weekend for instance. A discussion on entropy and quantum physics morphed it’s way into a discussion on why we refer to pants as a pair and speak of them in the plural when it’s just one item of clothing. I know many things, but this was one thing I thought I was only taking an educated guess on. Luckily, I know people who know things I do not know. And in this case, I was able to call my friend Heidi, because if anyone would know, she would. And she did. And my educated guess was a very simple version of the right answer.42D

There are a lot of things I myself can do. But I’m always glad that this one person has people.

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It becomes necessary

4 July 2008, 12:52 pm by Giggles
Categories: Books, Education, Exercise, Family, Gospel, Happy Things, Health, Life, Musings, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting, Relationships

The Declaration of Independence spoke of the necessities faced by the Colonies. What are the necessities in my life?

My ancestors traveled the plains with an entire family’s worth of possessions in a covered wagon or handcart. Those are not that big. Just me alone was a whole Uhaul earlier this year. I wouldn’t make a very good pioneer. But every now and then it is good to sit down and think about what is really necessary in my life, what I really wouldn’t want to live without.

I have chocolate syrup as part of my food storage. If I’m poor and destitute and eating cracked wheat and beans, I’m going to want chocolate syrup to make it taste better. It’s a necessity, but I could live without it.

Twice now a person has come to my place and commented on the number of movies I have and that I must spend a lot of time watching movies. This completely baffles me. I have one small movie stand of movies on one wall. On the other wall I have four bookcases full of books, several shelfs stacked two deep. I could do without the movies, but don’t ask me to do without my books. I love reading. I love the feel of a book. I love the smell of new books, old ones too for that matter. Reading is a necessity in my life. I actually miss being able to go to the library at BYU. That was an amazing library. Unfortunately the one here just doesn’t compare. Reading is a necessity in my life.

Stemming from that is my education. I have worked hard to expand my mind. I am proud of what I have accomplished. Even if I weren’t still enrolled in school I would be looking for ways to continue to learn. Learning is a necessity in my life. And I love being able to share what I have learned with others, stretching our minds together.

I know things will all work out in the end. I have faith that everything will be for the best. I have faith in God and His love for me and His plan. I have faith in things I have only experienced with my heart. I cannot provide empirical evidence for these things. But I know them, just as strongly as I know that the sun came up this morning. Without that faith I would not be the person I am today. My faith is a necessity in my life.

With that faith, I also have an optimism that things will always work out for the best. I’d wager that more than half the time they don’t work out the way I wanted them to in the first place, but looking back, I can say that things have always worked out the way they were supposed to. There may have been moments where I felt despair or defeat, but they were only moments, and in the grand scheme of things, those moments are passing and fleeting. My outlook is a necessary part of who I am.

I am surrounded by some of the most amazing people to have ever walked the earth, my family and friends. Their influence, teachings, guidance, and support are necessary in my life.

And beauty. The beauty of creation, of the creations of my own hands, my sewing, photography, teachings; and of the creations of the world. There is little in this world that does not make me stop and wonder. The magnitude of stars in the sky. The cutting brilliance of lightning. The soft glow of a rainbow. Laughter. Tears. Love. The beauty of the human body, the heart, lungs, muscles, all of it working together in a perfection that cannot be matched. Using my body when I go running is often a spiritual experience for me as I push my body to where I thought the limits might be only to discover that my body was created better than I imagined. And to run out in the world, with the wind, rain, sun, passing me, it is beauty. Life requires beauty and wonder.

And I am blessed. I live. And I live in a land that allows me all of these things that are necessary, as well as many others.

Tonight I will watch the fireworks exploding in celebration of the Independence that was declared 232 years ago. And I will rejoice for all they stand for. But I’ll also enjoy them because fireworks are real cool. They are beautiful to the eyes. The sounds, the smells, feeling them. It’s a wonderful sensual experience, and one I can enjoy because of all the necessities in my life that have been met.

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Human events

3 July 2008, 4:52 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Gospel, Politics, Relationships

A letter was read in all the congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in California on Sunday. The full letter can be found on the LDS website. The California Marriage Protection Act also has an official website.

I do not live in California and so I can’t vote on their issue, but I do vote when it comes up in the states I live in.

This might seem like a small matter, but it could drastically change the course of human events. Either way it will change things, I just hope it changes things for the better and California votes to maintain marriage between a man and a woman.

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When in the Course

2 July 2008, 8:03 pm by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Learn Something, Politics

It was on this date, 232 years ago, that the Continental Congress unanimously voted to declare our independence from the British. Two days later it was adopted.

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

…

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

One small document, and look what it did to change the world.

The Library of Congress has some great things related to the Declaration and other documents related to Thomas Jefferson. I suggest checking them out. The National Archives also has some good information online.

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This, that, and the other, but mainly photos

1 July 2008, 4:09 pm by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Random

I went to the desert yesterday. I like going. My year membership has already more than paid for itself. I want to try and go once a month, and since June ended yesterday and I had not gone yet, I had to go yesterday. I took some nice photos (as seen here). There is always something different in bloom, especially with the start of the rains now.

I also bought a pet saguaro cactus at the desert yesterday. He needs a name. If you have any suggestions, write it in the comments. This is a picture of him so you can see what he looks like.

Friday night I went up to Roosevelt Lake here in Arizona with my ward for a water skiing trip. I didn’t see anyone water ski though. They did wake board and tube. Because I know me and knew that even if I got on a tube, when I flew off it (as everyone did), I would’ve landed in the water hard and wrong and twisted my weak ankle in a way it shouldn’t. So I just rode around in the boat all Saturday morning. But I had a good time. I need to find places where I can see the stars like that more often. I had the perfect tent for camping in an Arizona summer. I left the rain guard off and the whole top half almost was net. What an amazing skylight at night. I took pictures there too (as seen here).

And I’m the sexy personality of the month on Players Anonymous, a Utah theater website I’m a part of. So my photos for that went up today as well. Miriam Latour took the photos and then I did all the Photoshop type stuffs. It was a lot of fun, getting ready for the pictures, taking the pictures, and then playing with the pictures after. The photos are to be seen here.

When I moved in to my apartment, Pizza Hut had a coupon to welcome me to the neighborhood with a free one-topping medium pizza. It expired yesterday, so I had Pizza Hut for dinner last night. Brett and I split it. I provided the food and he provided the movie (The Forgotten). I picked up the pizza and then stopped in at Jamba Juice to get some of those to go with dinner. I walked in and there was nobody there. I looked at the menu, decided what I wanted, and still nobody there. I walked around a bit to see if I could see into the back and get their attention, still nobody. Finally I called out, “Hello?” Only apparently it came out a bit more impatient than I had thought it would, because the two employees came out front and apologized and then gave me my two drinks for free! I was completely willing to pay for them too. But instead I got us both our whole dinner for free. I don’t think I could do that again. Sorry, but no pictures of dinner.42D

Feel free to comment about any of the photos I’ve linked to as well and tell me what a great photographer I am. 🙂

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