Match the following terms with their correct equivalents:

1–The current number of posts on The Bloggeriffic Kazoo.                                                                   A. 30×31

2–The current number of approved comments on The Bloggeriffic Kazoo.                                                B. 123²+ 33×2

3–The current number of spam comments blocked by Akismet.                                                             C. 5³x2

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1. What color are your socks right now?
  Cream (nude-for-me) Fishnet Stockings
2. What are you listening to right now?
  Children laughing, the Weird Al Show the children are watching, a toddler with a flashlight, Phoenix “1901″, the hum of the laptop cooling pad, and the voices, of course =)
3. What was the last thing you ate?
   A piece of shortbread to accompany my meds
 
4. Can you drive a stick?
  Yes, and I prefer it, though it will be many many many years before I obtain a personal vehicle that will fit that bill.
5. Last person you spoke to on the phone? 
   Curtis
6. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
   Yes, she is very endearing.
7. How old are you today?
   32 years, 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, give or take 
 
8. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? 
  WiiSports & WiiSports Resort
9. What is your favorite drink?
  Common–Dr. Pepper & Barq’s Root Beer
  Less Common– Carrot juice & hot drinks with flavored creamers
10. Have you ever dyed your hair?
  Yes, though the outcome of using Black Cherry KoolAid was not as successful as I’d hoped. The most noticeable results were the reddish ears and the new nickname on my tag at work.
11. Favorite food[s]? 
  Freshly baked bread, a well made fruit salad. Runner up: Bacon. Honorable Mention: pie crusts with whipped cream.
 
12. What is the last movie you watched?
  Metantei Conan: Tengoku No Countdown (US title–Detective Conan: Countdown to Heaven)
 
13.Favorite day of the year?
  Unsure. Last day of school, perhaps?

14.How do you vent anger? 
  Not well. Listening & singing to loud cathartic music & writing are the better two of my methods.
15. What was your favorite toy as a child? 
  Right now I’m thinking of a little red saucer sled & my first teddy bear, Radar (probably named after Big Bird’s stuffed companion rather than the M*A*S*H character).
16. What is your favorite season? 
  Winter.
17. Cherries or Blueberries?
  Fresh blueberries typically edge out fresh cherries. If the cherries in question are baked, candied, or an artificial medication flavoring ::shudder::, blueberries win, no question.
18. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
  Key word is ~friends~. I would always want to hear from friends.

19. Who is the most likely to respond?
  Someone who is bored or finds something offensive.
20. Who is least likely to respond?
  Anyone who is bored or finds something offensive. 

21. Living situation?
  Chaotic brushfire-fighting, with occasional moments or bliss, rarer instances of ecstasy and the unfortunate, wholly consuming conflagration. Er, an unemployed aging woman married with six children, four of whom she schools at home.
22. When was the last time you cried?
  Today. (Didn’t note the exact time though)

23. What is on the floor of your closet right now? 
  My collection of boots, two empty suitcases, a couple of hangers, the destroy-upon-death footlocker, and the jeans I didn’t like for my outfit on Friday.

24. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to?
  Probably Jaime (yo, Omaha!), going on 11 years and AJoy, almost 9 years.

25. What did you do last night?
  Explored more of the Lord of the Rings Online world.
  Expressed myself through swearing.
  Examined this week’s Gospel Doctrine lesson.
  Experimented with alterations to take in my church outfit

26. What are you most afraid of ?
   Failure (and the rejection that comes with it)

27. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?
  Bacon cheeseburgers

28. Favorite dog breed?
  Not a dog person, but I’ve known some cute Bichon Frise. 

29. Favorite day of the week? 
  For a long time after baptism, it was Sunday.
  When Richard had only one day off, it was Saturday.
  Now, all I can say is it’s NOT Tuesday.

30. How many states have you lived in?
  Idaho, Washington, Idaho, Kentucky, Idaho, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Idaho, Arizona… 6. (and no, Idaho is NOT next on my list)
 
31. Diamonds or pearls?
  Diamonds, of course. Who can resist the allure of one’s birthstone?

32. What is your favorite flower? 
  The Tulip.

33. Did you get an H1N1 vaccine?
  No, but I did start using those cart wipes at the grocery store.
 
34. Are you going to turn this into a cheap & easy blog post?
  Why yes, my dear reader, the better to post something in February 2010 with…
 

The Baron’s post this week over at Waters of Mormon, Block-Hour Smackdown: Sunday School vs. Auxiliary Hour, takes a good look at both sides of the popularity and practicality of post-Sacrament church meetings.

I’m curious to know what you would say, my dear reader, if you had your way.
What’s the answer?

I can tell you I’m grateful that I’m not on the 3-6pm block at our building here–yikes!

transcript of three text messages I received from my husband this morning on the subject

Self-loathing is really just another form of self-pity, in which a person explains their lack of desired successes by attributing them to persistent mistakes that are characterized by introspection and negative self-talk as inherent flaws
 
The sad irony is that a person likely starts down this avenue of thinking intending to be their own harsh critic and shock themselves out of complacency. The effect of the incessant and merciless self-criticism (which rapidly loses all sense of perspective and spins out of control) however, is that it leaves that person feeling wounded and powerless trapped under a mountain of seemingly unsurmountable flaws. Such a feeling of powerlessness is far more crippling and debilitating and difficult to escape than the perceived sense of complacency (which was just as likely actually discouragement to begin with) ever would have been.
 
The key then, I suppose, is to break the cycle of self-centeredness and help someone else with something. Simple acts of service for those we love can help us change our focus away from ourselves while building a sense of self-worth. If your strength doesn’t support doing chores, play with a child and/or teach them something. Prepare a birthday card (or other card or such thing) or talk to a friend about their day. Pay compliments to people and you will soon see yourself in a different light.
 
Another way of looking at your quandary is that if you start a conversation with yourself by asking “What’s wrong with me?” you, being a smart person, are no doubt going to find an answer and perhaps several, but they won’t make you feel any better. If, instead, you ask “What is a simple thing that I can do that might make someone feel better?” you’ll probably find a much more useful answer.
 
You might try singing through all the verses of “Have I done any good in the world today?” and substitute the phrase “than beating yourself to a pulp” for the phrase “than dream of your mansions above”. Also bear in mind that you have already cheered me up and made me feel glad, so you can’t have failed indeed today.  :)

Or we can use the original title as I snagged it from Zadyball, Memory Tag. 

Here are the rules as I’ve altered them:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don’t want to play on your blog, or if you don’t have a blog, I’ll leave my memory of you in my comments.

If you want to implement this in its entirety on your blog, I just might leave a comment there too. Then again, if I could guarantee a future comment on my visit your blog, I wouldn’t have altered the rules in the first place…

I must warn my family of ancient curses that will befall anyone who tells a story that involves any of the following: me being naked, inebriated, toileting, or any other situation in which I would invoke my fifth ammendment rights. You have been warned…  

I figure that I owe y’all and this is something that should leave you pink and tickled. A tip o’ the hat to BiV [Bracketed italics indicate me]

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1. What is something Mom always says to you?

Duncan: “Uh…Most often? Probably comments on how much work we need to do.”

Cheanna: “I love you.”

Emma Catharine: “Hmmm…probably just my name.”

Elena: “Clean up the living room?”

2. What makes Mom happy?

Duncan: “Her children being nice to their younger siblings, and older but that doesn’t apply to me.”

Cheanna: “A clean room and when we do something nice for her.”

Emma Catharine: “I think that when I put away my stuff.”

Elena: “Having the whole house clean.”

3. What makes Mom sad?

Duncan: “Ephraim making messes.”

Cheanna: “When you paint on the couch.”

Emma Catharine: “When Daddy gets very angry and shouts at you.”

Elena: “When we tease her.”

4. How does your Mom make you laugh?

Duncan: “You say some funny stuff sometimes, also you can be pretty fun.”

Cheanna: “I love her laugh. Sometimes we have more in common than we realize.”

Emma Catharine: “Probably by kidding about something or tickling me.”

Elena “By telling jokes”

5. What was your Mom like as a child?

Duncan: “Um… (laughs) Are you kidding me? (giggles some more) I would say that although I didn’t know you I can probably guess at it. I’m going to guess that you were probably a fairly basic kid, pretty mild, pretty nice. I’m also guessing that it felt good to be around you, you didn’t have that aura like ‘I need to get out of here!’”

Cheanna: “I’m going to take a guess here. Playing with her younger sister?”

Emma Catharine: “Well, she loved to run around in the backyard with her family, which is my grandma and grandpa and Aunt Heather.”

Elena “Hmm, well, I don’t know.”

6. How old is your Mom?

(more…)

In replying to my previous post, I started thinking about what makes an online discussion good or worthwhile. I realized that what I like or dislike about them is probably very different from what others think and I’d like to hear from you.

Do you have favorite blogs or forums? If so, which one(s)?

Do you participate often, sometimes, mostly lurk, or lurk completely? 

Are there places or features you avoid like the plague?

What do you find enjoyable or irritating about online interactions?

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? 3 “little old ladies” according to my Mom.
 
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Thursday evening

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Most of the time
 
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Brown Sugar Ham
 
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? No baby goats here  ;^)  6 children

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?  This is one of those paradoxical Star Trek situations, because if I’m someone else then there is no “me”, right? If the other me wasn’t disdainful of home education, larger families, dry humor, and was open to intelligent discussions, playing board/card/video games and generally respectful of humanity, the other me might want to get to know the real me. The real me has never had oodles of friends though, so odds are we’d just be pleasant acquaintances. 

(more…)

BiV called me out this weekend and I must give the matter some attention, especially since I have no business asserting that I’m any more occupied than someone packing for an (as the crow flies) 12,396 km journey. My assignment?

Here are the rules:

So not only do I get to go back to the affirmative debating days of my youth, I can take this time to do my very own ranting talk-radio imitation! Excuse me while I pull out my special bombastic keyboard…

I had a few potential topics swirling around in my head as I pondered this meme. One of them is the power of dialogue, how clear communication goes a long way towards solving any problem.  I feel strongly that a woman should be able to breastfeed her baby whenever/wherever that may be. These will take their turns later.

Right now what I’m going to talk about my love for the 11th Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It reads:

 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

I’m passionate about preserving religious freedoms. Every one should understand the importance of protecting this right just as much as we safeguard freedom of speech. In particular, every LDS person who accepts the Articles of Faith as truth should defend the religious freedoms of all people. We should not deny this freedom to those “outside God’s true church” , theists and nontheists alike.

This defense must include extending the kind of respect we wish to receive for ourselves. Sadly, this not always the case. LDS Apostles have publicly rebuked Church members for unChristian behavior, and we should heed their words. Would that kind of a General Conference was completely unnecessary. But as examples pour in to Church HQ (eg, ripping another’s cross necklace off, telling a Catholic that s/he belongs to the Church of the Devil) we will continue to receive that correction. Shunning others who believe differently is something many Church members need to repent of as well.

These behaviors go against the very liberty that made the Restoration possible–so many people just don’t get it. All too often I see things that look like this garbage:

“It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Why don’t we just tell the 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!”

This horrifies me. If you agree with this sentiment you really really don’t get it. Democracy is not served by the trampling of minority rights. What if the numbers were reversed–would not those Americans who believe in God feel oppressed and persecuted? In fact there are many countries where such silencing is standard operating procedure. Do not our hearts ache, longing for them to practice religion as they please? Why then would we treat nontheists in this outrageous way?

If we will secure religious freedom for all, no matter what they do/don’t believe, we will serve our fellow men & women, and by doing so serve God’s purposes for His kingdom. We can claim this privilege for ourselves, just as Joseph Smith wrote. We need to put our actions where our mouths are, practice what we’ve been taught.

Our land of liberty must prolong the sound of freedom’s sweet song so it will ring true and clear so that other nations may follow. Our defense of religious freedom will make our nation to be as one set upon a hill, full of light that the world can see. Let us do all we can to stop anyone, including ourselves, from extinguishing that light.

Update–here’s a bumper sticker my husband saw that goes towards this: