2025 wish list

 A Broach/scarf pin in my colors, shape could be oval, S-curves, or square.  It is a plus if the design frames or has spaces in it that show the scarf through it when you're wearing it, if that makes sense.

Big Moonstone ring as a cocktail ring, something to make people wonder if I'm a sorceress.  Needs to be size 11 to wear on my my fat index finger.

A gym bag with an external pocket for my water bottle  I need to put my running shoes, a beach towel, my workout clothes, and some other smaller stuff like a comb and deodorant 

Cutting board made of tree wood  

Covered butter dish 

Illustrations of wishlist items  

https://www.pinterest.com/rocktreesky/wish-list-2025/

guest post: my son on church talks

It seems like whenever someone gives a talk at church, they always cry excessively.

"boo-bhoo-hoo, sniffle, and that is my secret chili bean recipe, for which I am very thankful. sniffle."

Brandon Sanderson, the mormonism seeping into the fantasy

I'm reading Sanderson's The Way of Kings, and I'm a well established Sanderson fan.

I'm wondering who else is caught up short when they read phrases like this:

The [noble] turned to the [man]. "It is better for one man to sin than for a people to be destroyed, wouldn't you say"

(redaction to prevent spoilers)

My guess is that Sanderson knew this phrase would draw us up cold, is supposed to raise our goosebumps and the little hairs on the back of our neck, and freak us out a little. It's a play on what Caiaphas says in weighing the political advantages of having Jesus of Nazareth killed: "Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." (KJV, John 11:50)

Furthermore, if you're mormon, which I am, and mormonism is something Sanderson is well familiar with, we get the 1 Nephi 4:13 justification, used by an angel telling Nephi to kill a local corrupt ruler: " It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief."

I don't think Nephi's murder of Laban was justified. The things the "angel" says to me are excuses that don't hold. I'm looking forward to what use Sanderson is going to make of the phrase--is the person who says it evil and unjustified?

But I do like how he inverts it. The scriptural versions are a a death to preserve the faith of many. Sanderson's play is a sin (murder) to perserve the lives of many.

Measuring in feet and inches

Relevant to the school assignment on architecture.

Stonehenge/Spinal Tap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeGteg74mjw&feature=related
at 5:58

iPod shuffle again

• How Does the World See Me?  Rocks, Sticks, Bugs and Fire (Bengt Washburn)
• How is my life going? Roy G.Biv. (They Might Be Giants)
• What do my friends really think of me? Sam's Second Toe (iCarly)
• Do people secretly admire me? Same Old Scene (Bryan Ferry)
• How can I make myself happy?  Same Thing Happens Every Night (Bill Cosby)
• What should I do with my life? Santa Evita (Evita Sountrack)
• What about children?  Saving Time (Bengt Washburn)
• How will I be remembered? Science is Real (They Might Be Giants)
• What is good advice for me? She is a Diamond (Evita Soundtrack)
• What is my signature dance song? Silent Sea (KT Tunstall)
• What do I think my current theme song is? Simplest Love (Edward Sharpe)
• What do my friends think my current theme song is? Sissyneck (Beck)
• What song will play at my funeral? Slave to Love (Bryan Ferry)
• What is my day going to be like? Small Talk and More Death (Bengt Washburn)

iPod shuffle meme, cheated

Here are all the questions:

• How Does the World See Me?
• How is my life going?
• What do my friends really think of me?
• Do people secretly admire me?
• How can I make myself happy?
• What should I do with my life?
• What about children?
• How will I be remembered?
• What is good advice for me?
• What is my signature dance song?
• What do I think my current theme song is?
• What do my friends think my current theme song is?
• What song will play at my funeral?
• What kind of men do I like?
• What is my day going to be like?

Cheat version: shuffle through until I see or think of a good answer.

• How Does the World See Me?--Face Fashion, Bengt Washburn
• How is my life going?--Both Sides Now
• What do my friends really think of me?--Meet the Elements
• Do people secretly admire me?--I Caught Myself, Paramore
• How can I make myself happy?--Noah: Me and You Lord.  Bill Cosby
• What should I do with my life?--More Than This.  Roxy Music
• What about children?--Novacane.  Beck.
• How will I be remembered?--Waltz for Eva and Che
• What is good advice for me?--Of Course, Jane's Addiction
• What is my signature dance song?--Hard to Handle.  Black Crowes
• What do I think my current theme song is?--Glasses, Sandwiches, and Pizza. Bengt Washburn
• What do my friends think my current theme song is?--Take Me As I Am.  Wyclef Jean, Love Actually soundtrack
• What song will play at my funeral?--Simplest Love.  Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros.
• What kind of men do I like? "Ain't No Other Man But You" Christina Aguilera
• What is my day going to be like?  Bust A Move.  Glee Cast.

iPod shuffle meme

Since I've managed to accrue 365 songs into my iPod, here is one of those iPod memes.  I have to answer each question with whatever song title comes up next in shuffle mode.  Half the questions are more fitted for teens than 40-somethings, but I figure a random shuffle quiz fits a random mode.

1. How does the world see me?
"No Air" Glee: The Music Volume 1.
How much I love this song: I don't know this song at all.  I bought this CD for the kids.

2. How is my life going?
Welcome Back.  Bengt Washburn, Earthquake in a Coffee Shop.  Comedy album
i LOVE this track.  "This is Janet."  Ha!

3. What do my friends really think of me?
Black Horse & The Cherry Tree.  KT Tunstall, Eye to the Telescope.
One of those ex-favorite songs I'll always love, but not so much.
"No, no, you're not the one for me."

4. Do people secretly admire me?
Funny, not one of my favorite tracks of his though.
Boycotting Disney.  Bengt Washburn, Earthquake in a Coffee Shop.

5. How Can I make myself happy?
How much I love this song: yes, excellent.
I Just Dropped In (To See What My Condition was In). (soundtrack: Big Lebowski)

6. What Should I do with my life?
How much I love this song: totally unfamiliar with it.
Stoppin' the Love KT Tunstall, Eye to the Telescope
another one I don't know.

so you think it's funny
that you've been calling all the time
and I don't know why I wouldn't follow.
You got me looking up
Even when I'm looking down
You've got me crawling out of my skin.
I am underneath this big ole sky
Stoppin the loving getting in.

7. Will I ever have children? (Ha, I have more children than you.)
How much I love this song.  So Much.
Makes Me Wonder.  Maroon 5

I still don't have a reason
And you don't have the time.

8. How Will I Be Remembered?
How much I love this song:  Also so much.
If I Never See Your Face Again.  Maroon 5.

9. What is good advice for me?
Back to You, John Mayer, Room for Squares
How much I love this song--came with the album.  It's pleasant but I don't know it well.

"I can't turn and walk away."

10. What is my signature dance song?
Old Weird Harold, Best of Bill Cosby
How much I love this song: I bought this album recently, mostly for my son.  But when I listened to it with him, I had to explain to explain so much cultural context to him.  But I thought it was very funny.

But seriously, this is my dance song?  There's no music.

11. What do I think my current theme song is?
Copeland, Billy the Kid, The Ope... (track 20)
How much I love it.  Love it.  Love Copeland.  Love Copeland dances.  Love all that grand, grand sound.  And it's short.

12. What do my friends think my current theme song is?
Growin' Up Mormon.  Bengt Washburn, Earthquake in a Coffee Shop.
Love this track.  I can quote long passages of it.

13. What song will play at my funeral?
Obvious.  Jane's Addiction.  Ritual De Lo Habitual
This is one of the songs I just *love* the sound of.  But don't play it at my funeral  "Digging something up" and "You don't know me."  That would be rude to anyone who would go to anyone's funeral.

14. What kind of men do I like?
Defying Gravity, Glee: The Music Volume 1.
Okay, that makes no sense as an answer.

15. What is my day going to be like? (although it's close to midnight and I'm about to turn in.  If it were morning, I wouldn't be doing such a silly thing as an iPod shuffle.)
Go All The Way (Into The Twilight) Perry Farrell.
Everyday, we're going all the way.  Tonight lighting strikes.
how much do I like this song: I am a Perry Farrell fan.  This song is very commercial, so commercial is it really Perry Farrell, our Perry Farrell?  But its placement in the movie as a soundtracks song, at the high school prom, was just right.  When I hear it I think of little twinkly lights and happy kids.

16. And what came next on shuffle:
High Flying, Adored.  Evita Original Cast album.
how much I love it?  I love it.  We need a question here so I can include it.  And Mandy can sing (pitter-pat my heart)  Make this the answer to all the above questions.