Pinterest Irks – Kill the exclamation point

10 June 2013, 10:30 am by Giggles
Categories: How To, Science & Tech

I will admit that I do like Pinterest, but I think I use it for different purposes than most people do. I use it to save ideas for later. It’s a visual filing cabinet for me. I know it’s billed as a social network. I do get ideas here and there from what other people have pinned. And my sister used my “filing cabinet” to get ideas for things to crochet for Iddo. But how is that social interaction? I don’t get it. Mostly I pin things from stuff I found elsewhere on the internet, not on Pinterest itself.

But there are definitely several things that just really irk me about it, or, to be more precise, that irk me about the way most people use it.

1. Source Citations

Since that’s how I use it, it’s very important to me for the pinned image to actually link back to the original source of the image with all the good information about it. Pinned images to Asian sites that have clearly stole the images do me no good and irk me. Links that go to the entire blog rather than the specific post leave me frustrated. Links to that go to just an image file frustrate me even more.

Maybe it’s the graduate student/researcher in me, but the lack of proper citation on Pinterest is probably my biggest complaint about the site. Find the source people!

2. Irrelevant Descriptions

And then there are the descriptions of the posts. You can change those, you know. If you see a pin that says “This would be perfect for my son John” and you don’t have a son named John, that description is going to make no sense. And if I know you do not have a son named John, I’ll be irked.

3. Over-the-Top Descriptions

It also irks me when the description is along the lines of “This is the BEST most AWESOME doohickey I’ve ever made/baked/done!!!!”

For starters, I’m pretty sure at that point the person whose account I’m seeing the pin on has actually not done a single thing with that idea yet. How do they know it’s the best? They don’t. So stop saying it.

Maybe the person who originally pinned it had done it and it was totally awesome, but since you do have the option of changing the description when you pin something, change it to reflect what your actual experience is with the idea.

Also, I’m pretty sure every idea on Pinterest is not the most awesome thing you have ever seen. Stop it with the over the top descriptives already!

The best descriptions are those that just say what the thing is. Let me decide how totally awesome it is.

4. The Exclamation Point

And that brings me to my final irk, the biggest one. The exclamation point. I would love to see Pinterest implement something that removes every single exclamation point on the site. People use the exclamation point with wild abandon there.

The overwhelming excitement for brownie recipes and hairdos scares me a bit. What do these people do when something actually exciting happens to them? Would an actual exciting event kill them from the intensity of it?

I get excitement for new ideas. I do. But I can’t live at the level of excitement a lot of people on Pinterest apparently do. That’s just way to intense for me.

Conclusion

I think to summarize this post I could just say – I like technology, like Pinterest, but humanity keeps finding new ways to bug me, especially with technology. 😀

10 Shared thoughts

Honoring and upholding the priesthood

9 June 2013, 3:17 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Musings

I had a realization during today’s discussion with the young women about the priesthood that suddenly threw into focus all the fuzziness of lessons on the priesthood from when I was a youth.

Growing up, whenever we had lessons about the priesthood, there was always one on how to “honor and uphold the priesthood.” Except that’s never what the lesson was about. And those lessons always felt slightly off for me. And today I realized why. Those lessons WERE slightly off. They weren’t lessons about how to “honor and uphold the priesthood,” they were lessons about how to “honor and uphold the priesthood holders.”

There is a definite difference between the two. The priesthood is not those who use it.

In the case of honoring and upholding priesthood holders you are getting lessons about how it’s up to women to make sure men have pure thoughts and do righteous deeds. Which is off. Men have their agency. Men make their own choices about their own thoughts and actions. The truth is that it is on each of us to be the type of person that makes it easier for those around us, no matter who they are, to live good, honest lives. I can choose who I want to be with, just as easy as any male can. And I choose to be with people who uplift me. Men can make those same choices. These were lessons about social skills, etiquette, and being kind and decent human beings. They taught nothing about priesthood power.

However when we talk about honoring and upholding the priesthood, we are talking about honoring the covenants we make through priesthood power such as baptism and marriage. We are talking about studying and using the scriptures which we have through the righteous exercise of priesthood power. We are talking about keeping the commandments and following the counsel God has given us. We are talking about accepting the atonement in our lives. The priesthood is the power of God that allows for our salvation. Honoring and upholding that power means striving for salvation and exaltation.

The summary for the discussion outline we used today even states:

We honor the priesthood by sustaining our leaders and following their counsel. We seek for and live worthy to receive the blessings of the priesthood. We show respect for the authority God has given to bless His children.

It’s all right there – keeping the commandments, honoring our covenants, respecting the authority of God. There is no gender difference in how men and women honor and uphold the priesthood.

If you are the type of person who is striving for salvation you will be living a good and honest life, uplifting those around you, and encouraging others to do the same. But you will be doing it because you honor the priesthood and understand what the priesthood is. Not because it would be your fault if the people around you made bad choices.

The surface application of the two lessons might be the same. But the difference is in the doctrine and principles behind them. The why. Understanding the true doctrine of the priesthood allows us to truly honor the power of God, to do more than just strive to be a good influence on others, but to strive for salvation.

3 Shared thoughts

Blogging and dissertating

5 June 2013, 10:26 am by Giggles
Categories: Education

As I was tying up all the last strings for my degree I found an interesting article on Scientific American about how graduate schools should require their students to blog. I actually started this blog as the first assignment I received in one of my very first classes for my masters degree. It has not gone the way of scholarly articles, but I’m a firm believer one of the best ways  to become a good writer is to write, especially in a place where you are encouraged to get better.

Expertise is developed through deliberate practice (practice with the intention to get better) and quality feedback. Although there are times when I question the quality of the feedback I get on my blog. It’s always surprising to me what posts get the most comments.

The other way to become a better writer is to read quality writing, which is one of the requirements I have for what I read. It gives you a model to follow. I require it of the books I read as well as the blogs I follow.

I don’t know if my blogging helped me directly with my dissertation. But I know that writing is something I feel compelled to do. Ann Madsen said that writing allows thinking to gel. And I believe that. When you can put your thoughts down on paper/computer you’ve managed to grab them and make them sit still for a while. The more practice you have doing that, the easier it becomes. And a dissertation requires a lot of thoughts to sit still for a long time.

I have several blogs. I have my personal journal I hand write in on a semi-regular basis. A lifetime of writing in several formats, for multiple types of audiences, certainly made writing my dissertation easier than it could’ve been.

7 Shared thoughts

My husband can read my mind!

4 June 2013, 8:22 am by Giggles
Categories: Relationships

It’s true. My husband can read my mind. But I’ve found he is a lot better at reading my mind when I think out loud.

If I think to myself out loud, “I’d like to cuddle,” or it’s alternative “Apparently, I’m cuddling,” it’s amazing how often he figures out I want to cuddle and we cuddle.

Same thing when I think out loud to myself “I’m thirsty/hungry,” and he randomly decides to ask me what he can get me to eat/drink.

It’s kind of spooky. 🙂

It doesn’t work so well when I don’t do my thinking out loud.

5 Shared thoughts

Otter Pops

29 May 2013, 11:23 am by Giggles
Categories: Food, Health, Musings, Random

A while back I read a post from a friend of mine about how her growing baby was made up of all the things she was eating. Which makes sense when you think about it, but most people don’t think about it. I’ve been thinking about it though, what I eat is what my daughter is made of.

She’s made of Thanksgiving dinner, New Year’s grilled steak, Cheerios, chocolate, pomegranate infused craisins (amazingly good!), yogurt, apples with cheese, lots of waffles and tacos, guacamole, Taco Bell, Chili’s, Little Caesar’s, black beans & rice, homemade pizza, tater tots & hot dogs, orange chicken, chicken teriyaki, Hawaiian haystacks, McBlatts, home grown lettuce and tomatoes, groundhogs in a blanket, stir fry, caldo verde, chicken pot pie, cottage pie, meatloaf, Beyond Bread (Brett told me I could “crave” Beyond Bread whenever I wanted), lamb, pesto meatballs, asparagus rotini. Lots of good stuff. Lots of easy stuff too.

At this point she’s not making any new systems, just developing what she’s got.

I keep reading about how the brain is developing at incredible speeds right now and I need to make sure I’m getting plenty of iodine and omega-3 to help her along with that.

I sure hope there’s a lot of iodine and omega-3 in Otter Pops, because I’m going through those like nobody’s business right now. I had thought the pregnancy would probably run out before the box did, but that’s looking less and less likely as the days go on.

15 Shared thoughts

Not Forgotten

27 May 2013, 7:59 am by Giggles
Categories: Life

My grandpa served in WWII. And made it home. There were only a few stories I heard him tell from that time in his life because he had a lot of friends who didn’t.

I’ve been to Arlington and seen the precision and care of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I’ve seen my dad recognize names of people he knew on the Vietnam Memorial. I’ve had students not know if their dad or mom would ever come home from war and I’ve cheered for them when they did. I have friends who have sent spouses off and I pray they come home to them. I have cousins who have served and I have a nephew talking with a recruiter right now.

Thank you to all who serve for your dedication and service. May you never be forgotten.

2 Shared thoughts

I like our boat

22 May 2013, 9:08 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Folks, Happy Things

A friend asked me if we had plans for an upcoming holiday, saying he knows we tend to do our own thing in our house and added a “whatever floats your boat” comment as well. I replied that I like our boat.

Our boat includes celebrating Towel Day (this Saturday, we’re having Cottage Pie for dinner, the only British dish I know how to make), Pi Day (we eat pies), the Ides of March (Little Caesar’s Pizza for dinner), wearing hats and picking ponies for the Kentucky Derby, half birthdays, eating tacos every Monday, blowing kisses when we leave in the morning. I fixed a steak dinner with a raspberry glaze, strawberry and spinach salad, with cheesecake topped with fruit for dessert once when we were dating and Brett asked me if it was a national berry day or something (not a bad idea, but I was just going for a cohesive dinner).

Monday I wrote a guest post for the website A Practical Wedding about how the little daily things are traditions that help us connect on a daily basis. These little things we do keep our boat floating every day. The big traditions we do for major holidays can give that boat direction and connect us to others out side of us. But I love how our little “quirks” connect us to each other from one day to the next.

We really do have a great little boat going here.

6 Shared thoughts