Could I Rock This Look? Public Opinion Poll

I need your opinion. I'm thinking of getting my hair cut in a style similar to the pictures below (the style in the first picture is a little longer than I was thinking. Think Natalie Portman meets Keira Knightly), but wanted to know what you guys think first. My main questions are 1) would this hair cut look good considering my face shape and body proportions? and 2) do you think I could pull off this look in general? Just wanting to know what you think. Be brutally honest.

"May I see your identification?"

The Players
Leanna
Karma
Ben (Leanna’s Boyfriend)
Ryan (Leanna’s Brother)
Junior (Ben’s Brother)
NOTE: Ben, Ryan, and Junior live together in an apartment in Orem.

So, the other night (I believe it was Thursday) Leanna called me around eleven pm asking me if I wanted to run with her to the grocery store. While at the local Albertsons (it’s one of the few things open that late at night), Leanna noticed a stand of Valentine’s Day merchandise and decided that she wanted to get Ben something, so she picked out this little red teddy bear.

Well, Thursday nights are the unofficial “boy’s night out,” so Leanna thought it would be best if we left the bear outside Ben’s window as a surprise so we wouldn’t interrupt them. Upon arriving at the apartment complex, Leann found a nearby parking spot and shut off the car while I took the bear and, being as sneaky as possible (which is hard to do when the ground is covered with very crunchy snow), went up and placed the bear by what Leanna told me was Ben’s bedroom window and ran like a girl back to the car. Not having the patience to wait and wanting to see Ben’s reaction upon discovering the bear, Leanna promptly texted Ben telling him to look out his window. Ten minutes and ten texts later, the bear was still sitting outside. Apparently, Ben was having trouble figuring out what was supposedly outside his window because 1) he was looking for Leanna thinking she had shown up as a surprise, and 2) because the bear had been placed outside of Ben’s kitchen window, not his bedroom window. So, I once again ventured out into the snow and once again sneaked up to the apartment, moving the bear so that it was outside of the correct window.

While running back to the car like a giddy girl, I noticed that there was a police car on the other end of the parking lot. Apparently, something was going down. Well, we began to discuss the possible reasons behind why a police officer would be in the parking lot at this time of night (it was a little after midnight at this point) when the police car starting driving towards us. This didn’t cause too much alarm…until the car pulled into the free parking spot next to us. But wait, it gets better. A second police car pulled around the corner and stopped (you guessed it) right behind Leanna’s car, blocking us in. Next thing we know, one of the officers is shining a flash light into the car and knocking on the driver-side window. As Leanna rolls down her window, we hear the most frightening words imaginable. “May I see your identification?” Apparently, Leanna and I weren’t nearly as sneaky as we thought. One of Ben’s neighbors had seen us and reported us to the security office for “suspicious behavior”. But wait, it gets better. All of the commotion and police lights had attracted the attention of Ben and his roommates. Next thing we know, Ryan, Ben, and Junior are all outside and trying to explain the situation to the officers between fits of hysteria. Yeah, because that’s really going to help the situation. Luckily the officer was really nice and understanding. He gave us back our id’s and told us, for future reference, to either have our fun at a more reasonable hour of the night or to be less obvious while doing it.

I just can’t get over how ridiculous the entire situation was. Plus, it seems kind of ironic that the first time (in my life!) a police officer asks for my identification was over an aborable Valentine's Day teddy bear.

Tickle Me Emo

My roommate showed this to me, I thought it was too funny not to share.

For your enjoyment (or, if you're anything like me, slight disturbance), I present Tickle Me Emo. This little guy is Elmo's cousin from Depress-A-Me Street and is full of issues. He's sad, whiny, and (of course) overly emotional.



Needless to say, I think there is something seriously wrong with today's youth and the whole "emo" scene. I just don't understand the mentality. Unfortunately, my generations' contribution to society seems to be one of disrespect and selfishness. I am constantly amazed by the lack of consideration shown by my peers and the complete disregard demonstrated towards their elders. They seem to think that their few years of experience qualifies them to know what's best and everyone else is an idiot. That and the whole "I'm too deep for you to understand" attitude really bug me. All I can say to people like that is "seriously?"

I'll get off my soap box now.

Xbox to Exile?

I came across this article, which discusses a link between social behavior and video games, today while browsing the internet. I thought it was pretty interesting and that all of my child-raising siblings and friends (as well as those considering having children in the near/distant future) might find it interesting. NOTE: I'm not trying to preach, just thought it made some good points. A few of the remarks are a little "no duh" and could easily be reconciled with the whole "everything in moderation" ideal, but it provides all of you statistic-quoting junkies with additional numbers and percentages if nothing else.

Xbox to Exile? Videogames Linked to Antisocial Behavior

Karma's Got A Gun

This weekend Garett drove down from Idaho to spend the extended weekend with his sister, DeLana, in Lehi. I was the one who benefited from his trip, however, since Garett invited me to spend Saturday at his sister's house. The day's activities consisted of shooting and Guitar Hero (I know, it's pretty much the perfect day). Not to sound morbid, but shooting was by far my favorite part of the day. I had never fired a gun before (ever), but had always wanted to so I jumped at the chance. I don't remember the official caliber size and names of the three guns I got to use, so bear with me. The first gun I fired was the shotgun. You're never fully prepared for the reaction of actually firing off a gun until you experience it. Although the kickback wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, it still startled me a bit. I didn't hit any of the targets until my second round with the shotgun and (not to toot my own horn) one of the bottles that I hit literally popped twenty feet into the air. It was pretty awesome. Then we started goofing off and firing at clay pigeons that were only about ten yards in front of us. That left a lot of pretty black gun powder marks in the snow.

The second gun was a hand pistol. I had assumed that the kickback would be considerably less than the shotgun (smaller gun, less power right?), so I was extremely surprised when, after firing, my arm went flying back causing me to nearly hit myself in the face (I hadn't locked my elbow. The result of my first shot is why you can see Garett's arm steadying me in the above picture.). The hand pistol was harder to aim with, but I got the hang of it and was able to hit a few targets.

Last was the semi-automatic. This gun was the easiest to aim with by far, so I had a lot more success with hitting the targets. However, by this point my arms were pretty tired (those guns are heavy!) so that affected my accuracy a bit. Anyways, by that point people were thoroughly numb and it was getting dark, so we packed it up.

Since Steve, DeLana's husband, was kind enough to let us play with his guns, we all pitched in with the cleaning process. I was given the job of reloading the magazines (apparently that's what they're called) for the semi-automatic while Garett and Elaina (Garett's friend from Idaho) helped Steve clean the guns. After finishing up with the magazines, I offered my limited cooking skills to DeLana by helping her make dinner. After a dinner of homemade pizza, we all played Guitar Hero on their projector in the living room for a few hours. Good times.

I Love Lucy

I’ve been meaning to post something concerning my New Year festivities for a while now. Although it is belated, here it is. On New Year’s eve I went to a single adult dance with Leanna, Ben, and Ryan. Nothing too exciting happened during that, so I’ll move on to the next event. On New Year’s day, I went with Mom, Dad, Kassie, and Garett to the Pacific Science Center to see the Lucy Legacy exhibit.

For all of you non-anthropology buffs (which includes every other sane person on this earth…anthropology people are a little eccentric), Lucy is an early hominid and her remains represent one of the most complete three-million-year-old fossils ever discovered. She is famous in the anthropology/archaeology world, so I was extremely excited when I heard that her fossil would be in Seattle during winter break.

The exhibit was great (and made me feel really smart because I knew a lot of what the exhibit was talking about), but I have to agree with Mom by saying that the two hours we dedicated to visiting the exhibit were not enough. I barely got five minutes to actually look at Lucy’s fossil (ok, that was partially my fault). So, here’s the story behind that; near the end of the exhibit, there’s a hallway with fossil replicas that represent Homo sapiens sapiens relatives and ancestors. Well, at the end of the hall there was a dark room through which you could see an illuminated ‘exit’ sign so I naturally assumed that this hallway was the last room in the exhibit. This kind of bummed me out because I hadn’t yet seen the famous fossil and had assumed that Lucy's remains were going to be there. I had been sitting on a bench discussing this frustration with Kassie when Mom came over and asked me if I had seen Lucy yet. At that point we only had a few minutes until the museum closed, so I had to rush through the last room. O well, it was still awesome. Plus, Mom bought me a human evolution poster that I promptly hung up in my BYU student dorm. It’s a great conversation piece.

That leads to another topic I would like to address. Being an anthropology major at a Christian university, I get a lot of weird looks when I tell people my major. Following the weird look is the inevitable "How does that work with you being Mormon?" question. Well, first of all, to quote a wise man, "Faith did not come to me through science and I will not permit science to destroy it." When it comes to questions such as, "how do neanderthals fit in with the Adam and Eve story," I give the only solution that I have come up with. "My knowledge and understanding of the universe is very limited. I don't know all of the answers right now, but I know that God is real and that's good enough for me." Secondly, in all of my studies of anthropology and evolution, one thing has become clear to me; evolution theories (in their purest sense) do not try to disprove the presence of a supreme creator. If anything, evolution theories such as natural selection, adaptation, mutation (which, despite popular belief, is a good thing in many cases), and so forth prove that there is an all knowing and loving being orchestrating everything because without delicate systems such as the ones previously mentioned, life would not be able to continue (if you are interested in modern day examples, click on the following link: Malaria and the Red Cells). So, here's my question; How, in studying any scientific field, can one not see God's influence?

The Search is Over!

Are you ready for this? I have fantastic news! The other day, while roaming the aisles of the local Wal-Mart, Becky (my roommate) and I made an exciting discovery. I have been waiting my entire life for something this monumental, so imagine my surprise when I finally found it. Seriously, this could change all of our lives...forever.

I know you're dying to know what we found. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the world's most unhealthy and sugar-packed cereal ever conceived by man. 'Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys.' Not only is it chocolate-y, but it has marshmallows! I know, exciting, huh? But hey, in the cereal's defense, it does contain eight "essential" vitamins and minerals (we'll just ignore the fact that those vitamins and minerals are also found in pretty much everything else).

Verbal Vomit

I realized that I am not entirely aware of 'Blog manners' concerning what is and is not appropriate to post, so I apologize if I over step my bounds. I don't want to come across as one of those overly emotional teenagers who publishes their personal lives for the world to read, but this is significant to me (and is therapeutic if nothing else). Anyways, let the verbal vomit begin.

I broke up with my boyfriend on Thursday. Keep in mind, I'm not looking for sympathy (like I said, I "broke up" with him). In fact, we ended on very good terms and agreed to work on becoming better friends. And I can honestly say that I don't regret anything. Yes, the relationship didn't and couldn't lead anywhere and that has been hard for me, but I learned so much about myself and what I want out of a relationship in general these past few months (the last few days especially).

I never understood before why people would say that best friends make the best boyfriends. I always responded with, "but if you don't work out, you've lost a friend." I now see that all those people were right. You really do need that friendship foundation in place first. For example, near the end of the relationship I realized that I wasn't myself around him and wasn't comfortable speaking freely. Not only that, but I didn't like the person I became. It wasn't me. But if you are able to be friends with the person before all of the physical factors and tension come into the picture, I imagine that it would make everything that much easier because you'd already know that you can be yourself and that the potential-significant-other would still accept you. Another reason why forming a friendship first is such a good idea is because I've noticed that when you're so caught up in the moment and the thrill of it all, you don't see the person clearly. You subconsciously try so hard to make everything about the person perfect that you overlook the things about them that don't necessarily compliment your personality.

I always thought of myself as a mature person for my age. But looking back, I realize that my attitude towards relationships was very, very immature. I would see a cute boy and decide I liked him purely based on physical aspects. I always knew that relationships were deeper than that, but as someone who had never really gotten to that point in a relationship, it was hard to relate. I've discovered now that if there isn't any sort of mental, or rather intellectual, connection and if you can't bounce ideas off of each other or ever talk about anything of significance, it really doesn't matter how good-looking the person is. You reach a point where you crave something deeper that no amount of charming smiles can fulfill.

I probably sound extremely naive right now, but I don't mind because I know that I have learned so much. And don't worry, I realize that most of my comments were purely speculative. One day I'll look back and roll my eyes at what I've just written. I just feel the need to write this down because my perspective has been dramatically altered. I guess this post was more for me to vent and get all of my ideas out, so I apologize to all of you who sat through it. I also apologize if I divulged too much personal information.