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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Mormon Messages

I am obsessed with Mormon Messages.


I could watch these all day. Too bad I have finals to finish.

More about the LDS (Mormon) church??



Friday, April 19, 2013

Laughter Game

Somewhere on the internet, I ran into a little saying: If you fake laugh long enough, you will actually begin to laugh.

Try it. We did. Last night, it was late, okay it was only 10 pm, Sarah and I put that saying to the test. Hahah, hehe, hehhehe. And then that moment, when you really start to laugh is a moment unlike any other. It was so great that we both wanted to mood of the room to calm down so we could do it all over again. Then it was a game. Who can hold out longer before cracking up?

Speaking of laughter, I would really love for the weather outside to turn into Spring again. So I could go on a bike ride or sit around outside with otter pops like I did a month ago.


Thursday, April 18, 2013

Hard Things Are Cake

When I was a wee lil senior in high school, I really wanted to run for BYU. Dream came true when I looked at the ringing phone's caller ID: Patrick Shane. Only there are lotz of crazy NCAA rules about recruits, so when there was a mess up with the plane tickets or the dates for the official visit, Coachie couldn't call me, but I didn't know that. I was scared to call him, intimidated. I remember holding the phone, sucking in, and telling myself I was holy-cow not going to let this chance pass me by. Turns out he had just postponed the dates, n even a bd.

Okay so maybe we did have basically all the ingredients we needed.
We still make a pretty huge cake.
When I first started substitute teaching, some of the junior highs would hand me a free lunch pass for subs when I checked in at the front office. If walking through a crowd of middle schoolers in a lunch room, waiting in line with them, and eating their food doesn't sound uncomfortable to you, then buy me a box of chocolates. Honestly, it really wasn't that hard, and it tots def for sure's not a big deal. I mean you just walk into the lunch room, grab your food and leave. Why do I sometimes think some of the easiest things in the world are hard?

Like yesterday. I bought a plane ticket for myself. I have flown around quite a bit, but someone else - my mom, BYU travel, random people off the street - have always arranged my travel. And don't ask me why, for some reason I thought buying a plane ticket would be hard. I've purchased a few train tickets in my lifetime, but planes? Different story. That is why people used to hire travel agents isn't it? Well guess the penny, buying a plane ticket is easier than scooping ice cream.

And reading 30 books in half-term? Easy. Planning out how to teach an entire school year to eight graders? Easy. Running 10 miles in the snow when there is icicles forming on your eyelashes? Easy. Just one foot in front of the other. Baking a giant cake, without flour or sugar or eggs or milk or frosting? Easy. Easy as cake actually.

So ya, sometimes easy things seem hard, but they're not. After the fact, I always look back and laugh at myself for ever stressing. And I blog about it so you can all see the awk little quirks of mikeln.

*I have never, and would never, let someone random off the street buy me a plane ticket.




Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Who Started This Ice Cream Thing?


Once upon a time people lived without freezers because they hadn’t yet been invented. People would harvest enough ice in the winter to last stored in their ice boxes throughout the whole summer or they would have ice delivered to them (How). And if you think that is strange, think about what that actually means. People also lived without cold drinks, leftovers, and ice cream. How did people live without ice cream?


There must be many people in the world that don’t get to enjoy a good ice cream cone on a sunny day. Begging Mom to give you money for the ice cream truck, buying a triple scoop at the park—these are things some people don’t have. And once, no one at all had any such an experience.

So when did this ice cream craze all begin? When was the first lick? Who invented ice cream? Turns out, ice cream is so ancient that no one really knows whose genius it was that whipped up the first batch of candy milk (The History). Ice cream is much older than the flimsy old freezer. In as early as 54 Ad, “Roman Emperor Nero was said to have sent his slaves into the mountains to fetch snow to mix with nectar, fruit plump, and honey” (The History). However, sources say, this is most likely a tall tale. It is more likely that ice cream originates in China during the T’ang dynasty, happening in about 618-907 AD (The History). Although, there are rumors that China had ice cream as far back as 3000 BC (Olver). Wait, so did the Chinese have freezers? Nope! The king kept about “94 ice men on hand to lug ice to the palace to make a dish or kourmiss (heated fermented milk), flour, and carnphor” (The History).

Of course, I don’t think you have 94 extra men sitting around in your backyard just waiting to bring you some ice cream, but ice cream did somehow become a part of the American diet. From China, to Italy, to France, and finally to the US is the most probable guess when tracing ice cream’s history (Olver). In 1939 it began to be sold in American grocery stores and became so popular during WWII that Mussolini banned it from Italy because it was seen as a symbol of America (The History). American food is such a mix of other cultures that it is hard to pin down what is considered American. But it is even harder when you don’t know facts like this: When Ronald Regan was president, he declared July as National Ice Cream Month and encouraged everyone to celebrate any way that they can (National).This year, ice cream day will be on July 21st. How are you going to celebrate America’s dominance over ice cream? Ice cream trucks? Homemade ice cream from science class? Banana splits from the shop down the street?

Whatever you do to celebrate, you won’t be able to commemorate the inventor of these most delicious and popular treat. Ice cream wasn’t invented; it was slowly discovered over time through a process of strange experiments and myths (Goff). But, we can’t even celebrate who we think might have invented ice cream. There are so many different stories, and there is absolutely no historical backing to any of them (Goff). So, for National Ice Cream Month this year, I think I might just hashtag “IceCreamMonth” and join the trending party as IDFA suggests (National). And of course, I am going to have me some dark chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream in my favorite bowl.

Works Cited

Goff, Douglas H. "Food Science." Ice Cream History and Folklore. University of Guelph, 2009. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"How Did People Make Ice before Freezers?" How Did People Make Ice before Freezers?N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.
"National Ice Cream Month." National Ice Cream Month. International Dairy Foods Association, 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.
Olver, Lynne. "TheFood Timeline: History Notes--ice Cream." TheFood Timeline: History Notes--ice Cream. N.p., 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.
"The History of Ice Cream: Who Invented It?" Timeline Invention Cone. Yankee Publishing: The 2004 Old Farmer's Almenac, 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Give Me Twenty Days


Blue House

So maybe I haven't blogged in a while because it is the end of the semester and my fingers are about to fall off from all the papers and lesson plans and unit plans I have been writing. And maybe last week at FHE instead of helping my group create an effective egg drop carrier, my roommate and I went and explored the basement of the old house where FHE is held.

It was one of the first houses built in Provo. Just think about all the people who have lived there; if walls could talk...Anyway, the basement was awesome. After swimming through some old camping stuff, we found about a ten by ten inch little cupboard door near the top of a sliding closet. It lead to all this extra storage space, full of cobwebs, and completely empty except for a solitary box. Such a great hid-n-go seek place, except really not. It was drafty and full of dust and who knows what sorts of memories. The box was empty though. Yes, we were brave enough to check.

Now I can't walk you through the whole experience. So let's fast-forward through Sarah and I stumbling on one piece of mysterious history to another. Until, we find the dungeon. Yes, under the house is a holocaust looking crawl space dungeon colored with mean rocks covering the floor that would suck the breath right out of you. These people, our FHE family, are maybe living over a dungeon. What was worse, was the little cupboard, under the stairs, opening to a huge shaft - probably the chimney because it was under the fireplace. And lying all cuddled up in the rocks was an sad, old, dead bird. That was enough for us. Back up to FHE where we threw some eggs out the window to see if they would break.

I mean, ya, it was creepy, but also, this house is pure history. Who built it? What happened here? Who left all this stuff and why? Some of my teammates used to live here, and now my FHE members, who else will throw things down the laundry shoot or open the ironing board cabinet, get their mail through the mail slot, throw things out the window, store their forgotten treasure in the basement?

Kind of cool.

And maybe I don't have a picture because I don't usually bring my phone to FHE. And maybe, well definitely, I am supposed to be typing about teaching, not about dungeon houses; and finishing my unit plan, not creeping you out with Provo history.

But just so you don't get bored: Here is me with a tarantula on my arm.
We found it in the basement  ; )



Friday, April 5, 2013

Novelinks: The Kite Runner

Rewind five or so months ago and I was camped up in the basement of the HBLL pulling ideas out of my hat on how to teach The Kite Runner. It was for my teaching reading class: a project called Novelinks.

Novelinks is pretty cool actually. It is a website that any teacher can access where other teachers post ideas on how to teach a book. My trusty classmate Kasey and I spent a few qualities hours putting our project together and it payed off. Our grade was a 199/200, and I think we lost one point on the reflection (not even part of the project).

So the other day, like today, when I didn't feel like typing up my forever-and-a-day research paperz and lesson plan upon lesson plan, I mosied on over to novelinks.org and bam, our project had been published.

Because I know you are all dying to teach The Kite Runner, here it is.

(Some of the work on this link was done by another student, but the work done by Kasey and me is cited with our last names.)

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

What I have been reading

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons.

I am a little bit over half way through right now. The book has such beautiful voice, and is able to create this voice not only with words, but also with style and grammar. It gives a glimpse into such a different life which fascinates me; although I do think it is important to be careful of the single story. This book is not a representation of a poor broken family in the south, it is a representation of one girl's life and experience. Still, fascinating. The quote on the front of the book says that Ellen is a southern Holden Caulfield, but she is so much sweeter than that. I am excited to see how Ellen turns out. Does she rise above all her tragedies and  find happiness? If only it weren't so close to the end of the semester and I wasn't so buried deep in lesson plans and unit plans and essays and papers, then maybe I would finish this book.