Wrapping Presents

My dad has always been the one to wrap presents.... My mom buys them and my dad wraps them while listening to Christmas music.
One Christmas eve my sister and i stayed up talking so late that my parents knocked on our bedroom door and asked if we should help wrap presents for our brothers because they didn't have time to wrap all the presents.
Once, my siblings and I were wrapping the presents we had bought for each other. One brother was reading on the top bunk while some of the rest of us wrapped his present. I begged my sister to wrap my present while I was still in the room. I even climbed into the closet but she refused, saying that I would peek.... And I probably would have. What is funny is that last year or maybe the year before one of my brothers gave me my present in the mail packaging and made me wrap it. My own present.... And I didn't peek. I must have grown up some...
I remember wrapping presents with my sister. She showed me how to line up the wrapping paper so that the stripes matched and the little penguins weren't weirdly overlapped.
I can't decide if I think wrapping presents is actually really boring....I kind of think I do.... I know how to do a nice job but who cares that much. I find it much more entertaining to wrap things poorly.... As in mismatched (if not downright clashing) wrapping paper pieced together..... Basically I like to wrap presents so bad that it's funny... But I always completely cover the gift... Because it has to be a surprise!
I also think it is fun to wrap odd shaped presents sometimes, if I can think of a sneaky or visually appealing way to do so. Or, making obvious presents look (or sound) like something else or otherwise make it hard to guess is entertaining. Like the time we put bells in with the puzzle for my dad so he couldn't hear the pieces shifting around over the bells.... Or when we wrapped a stack of tumblers for my mom in a long tube and then added a hook so the whole thing looked like a candy cane.
Anyway.... Those were some random thoughts and memories of wrapping presents. Happy December.

A Beast Named ...

Three years back I heard rumors about a mysterious monster hidden in the depths of the mountains. Vague descriptions told of a mottled brown beast, entirely unappealing. It was no majestic dragon, enigmatic sphinx, or noble griffin. However, according to the castle armorer the beast was thought to guard a sizable treasure and it needed to be vanquished for the sake of the poor mountain dwellers. I reluctantly agreed and he placed in my hands a long spear. It glowed with a faint blue light.

"What is this?" I asked.

"A magic spear, of course," the armorer said. He also spoke of an old knight who knew more of the beast than anyone. Then he shooed me away. And thus I went forth to combat the beast.

The old knight found me as I left the city. "Beware the great head, with it's fierce teeth," he said. I gulped and set out.

It was a long trek into the mountains and the beast was elusive. The occasional track on the rocky ground and far off glimpses revealed only the motley brown I had been told to expect but despite myself I was intrigued. One foggy day, as I made my way down a ravine I found myself unexpectedly at the very maw of the beast's lair. It leapt from its' cave, mouth gaping, long neck darting out towards me. I jumped back, and clumsily threatened him with my spear. One fateful blow bounced off the creatures teeth. The head darted back into the hole and I heard a great scraping and a thump as of a great footstep. I turned and fled. Luckily it did not pursue. I knew now that my clumsy attempts with the spear would not be sufficient, but at least I knew now where the beast lay. As I made my way back toward the castle my  shoulders in shame how had I thought I was prepared for this? A passing woodsman saw me and joined me for a stretch along the rocky trail. He asked what I was doing and I explained my mission. He looked on me with compassion. "Didn't the armorer show you how to use the spear?"

"Um, no" I said, feeling sheepish. "I thought I would just learn on the way." As I said the words I realized just how ignorant I was, using a magic spear as a walking stick was no way to prepare to fight a beast!

"There is a hermit high in the Canyon of Mirrors," he said, "go to him and he will train you."

"Thank you," I cried, and shook his hand vigorously before I turned from my castle-ward trail and headed to the Canyon of Mirrors.

For months I studied with the hermit. At first all I learned was what I was doing wrong, but slowly I began to understand the spear, and how to wield it effectively. The only thing that kept me from my training was an attack of hippogriffs that kept me busy with some of the other knights in training for a few weeks and when I travelled home to help my parents with the harvest.

After such a long time I decided it was time once more to confront the beast. Leaving the hermit and the Canyon of Mirrors I approached the beast's lair for the second time. Again the beast, sprung from its lair, not one but two heads threatening me with fierce teeth, but this time I met it with a steady spear. With the magically lengthened spear I swept out and cut through bone and sinew. The beast's head lay at my feet. I thrust my spear upward in triumph only to see two heads spring fully-formed from the severed neck. I staggered back for a moment, but then stepped back into the fray. Thrice more I cut out with my spear and thrice more heads fell at my feet, and yet each time new heads sprang out of the creatures neck to take the fallen's places. For the second time I fled the lair and for the second time the beast failed to follow.

I returned to the Canyon of the mirrors but alas, the hermit knew how to wield the magical spear, but not how to defeat such a creature. Then, I sought out the armorer. He offered belief in my ability but his advice was based on the rumored beast, not the beast I had come to know. For days and weeks I wandered, not knowing what course to take. Soon, I realized I had returned to tracking the beast. Watching it from clifftops and from caverns. But as I watched I began to learn its patterns, and count its heads. Additional heads kept popping up, and I decided it was time to hunt down the old knight once more. He welcomed me into his hut and told me once again to beware of the beast’s heads.

“Heads?” I asked.

“Aye,” he said.

That was when I noticed his sword, leaning in the corner of his hut, a bloody rag on the ground next to it.

“You keep chopping heads,” I accused.

“Aye, if I don’t find them you surely would. He will run out of new ones eventually and then you can pare him back to one.”

The advice was strange but something rang true and so once more I returned to the lair and I fought. At dawn I began, fighting until piles of heads lay scattered on the field, and exhaustion spread through my very soul. As the sun set, turning the rocks red, the beast looked at me with a single set of eyes that spoke of loss but also relief. We sank together to the ground, and I patted the head of my foe. No longer was he the fierce beast set on destruction he had been at our first meeting.

The next several weeks I worked with the brown creature and we became friends or companions of sorts. I even brought him home to plow my parent’s fields.

When we returned, I left him in his lair and went to see the armorer. He complained of the beast and told me again that I must conquer him. I told him I had, but not in the way he had envisioned. I brought him and a few nobles to see the beast. They were not immediately convinced but I pled with them, defended him. He did not deserve death. I even showed them how I had trained him to the plow. Finally, they agreed that if I brought back glowstone dust,  spider’s blood, and a griffin’s feather and used them to anoint the creature, I could save him. I nearly sank to the ground in despair. Did not they understand the months and years of training, and tracking, the great battle, and the weeks of working with the creature. I was tired, but they were adamant. And so, I left the lair once more and hunted down the strange ingredients. Three times I brought back spider’s blood, only for them to shun my offering. It is not the right type of spider they claimed, but finally it was deemed acceptable. I anointed the creature, and he was accepted as harmless. I patted his head once more, and whispered goodbye to him. It was time for me to move on. I led him to the old knight’s door. “He is yours now,” I said.

The old knight smiled, “you have done a great feat, thank you. He will be of great value to me, and the villages he tormented will now benefit from his labor.”

“Yes.” I smiled a sad smile.

“And what is his name?” he asked.

“I call him, Thesis.”

Well that was a lot longer than I was intending.... I hope you didn't get too bored. This is a fantasized retelling of my Master's thesis experience. The armorer is my thesis advisor, the old knight is a paleontologist from my field area who I worked with extensively. The hermit was a book about databases that I read in the early stages of the project. Notice that I defend the beast near the end. The strange ingredients represent the annoying nit-picky hoops, deadlines and miscellaneous signatures I had to gather after my thesis defense. The ending is a little less detailed and a little more imaginative then the first part (because I got tired of writing and because I got into the story more). I started writing this as stress relief because it tickled my sense of humor to think of signatures from people I've never met as weird potion ingredients instead of dumb hoops to jump through. After my defense the paleontologist (old knight) I referenced earlier sent me the following as a text "I'm glad you were foolish. (er .... wise0 enough to undertake this. You,... [the armorer], me and others have created an amazing thing. No one else would have done it.... You should be very proud of this. It is like fighting the 7 headed hydra of Greek mythology ... chop off one head and two appear!...."  But I just couldn't bare to actually kill the beast... I kind of like him.

Top of the Ladder

I'm at the top of a ladder again.
Started out small, not knowing much, not comfortable with the people I was surrounded by, don't quite know what's going on and then I climb the ladder and I'm comfortable. I talk back. I know people. I like them. I'm friendly with the newbies so I tell him how it works.
It happened in elementary, middle, and high school. It happened on my mission, and in Nauvoo, it happened in wards and it happened as as undergrad but I always forget when I'm at the bottom of the ladder how much I like about being at the top. And yet, I kind of hate it too because when I'm at the top of the ladder it means I have to get off/jump off/climb off/fall off. And looking around to jump is really pretty miserable.
So even though the bottom isn't near as much fun as the top, I'm not worried about jumping off because I'm just making sure the rung I'm on is above water.... and at the top maybe the fun and comfortableness of it somehow balances out the lack of another rung to climb on?

Ubiquitous Art

Recently I have been doing some creative/artsy things... but I can't think of anything to really say about them as a whole... sorry. But I still wanted to show them off.... Plus, I haven't had pictures in my blog for a while so this way you get them all at once.
These are two figurines (about 2 in high) that one of my friends got with a game (based on Brandon Sanderson's . He said he wished they were painted so I volunteered. He has very high expectations and is pretty particular so I was a little worried he wouldn't approve but he liked them so that was good. Unfortunately they were a little too big for my camera to focus on the whole thing so the pictures are kind of blurry.
Medium: acrylic paint on plastic

Kelsier

Inquisitor

I have also been working on some illuminated letters for the first letter in my Robin Hood book. I thought they would give it an interesting medieval artistic field, but I in no way made them as detailed (or colorful) as real illuminated works. Here is one of them.

Medium: Gimp 2 (Raster illustration)

Also I went on a hike a few weeks ago and ran across some mountain sheep which was pretty awesome. This isn't really artistic per se I was just lucky to see them and the shoot and snap philosophy worked pretty cool, but yeah. I think it is cool that you can see how some of them have neck trackers.

Medium: Camera, Olympus

Finally, I have been finishing up my thesis and working on my presentation for my defense and thus, have been playing around some figures for that. Here are two of my best.

Medium: Inkscape (Vector illustration)

Illustrating different types of data I've included in the database. An early version of this one was already been shown in my blog here.

Illustrating the maps I used to create a master map for the Carnegie Quarry and how they overlap.

Alright, so after putting all these images I realized why I had a hard time relating them at the beginning. They are done with different mediums. They were all done for different reasons (just for fun, for a hobby, because the opportunity presented itself, for school (and to communicate ideas). Which is actually really cool. I think sometimes I forget how prevalent art can be in my life.

Small Talk: the Death of Conversation

Several weeks ago I went on a hike with some geology people. One of them is a Muslim boy from Indonesia. When we were driving back I asked him what was the most surprising/confusing thing about this new culture he was currently immersed in. His answer floored me, although I agreed whole-heartedly. He said that he hated how conversations all started with "How are you?" here because that was usually where they ended too. He talked about how impossible it felt to actually get to know people because the small talk killed all chance for connections (well that was my interpretation). He said in Indonesia people often invited each other to go places together to get to know them which was more effective.
Around the same time I moved into a new apartment and found myself at several social events (including church... not always a social event but for what I am talking about here for all intents and purposes it is). I felt like every new conversation was identical to the last. "What's your name?" "Where are you from?" "What are you studying?" "How far along are you in your degree?"
Notice how none of those questions have "Why" at the beginning (I am convinced most conversations get interesting when why is asked).
I kind of just wanted to give up, I mean why bother talking to people when the conversation is so redundant I won't even remember who they are or what we talked about 10 minutes later?
At another activity I decided to try harder and I asked a girl what the most boring thing she did that day was. It was a far more interesting conversation.
I decided I really wanted to ask questions like this more often, throw out the boring questions I mentioned already, but there are two things I didn't like about that question. 1) It is a "favorite" question, and sometimes asking a "favorite" or "most" question is annoying because it puts undue pressure on speaking accurately... I have to think too long about it and that is not really necessary. 2) It focused on a negative aspect of life... I don't want to ask for complaints.
So then I spent some time trying to think up questions that I could ask that weren't boring. Here are a few I thought of:
What was the last animal you saw?
Do you like trees or mountains better?
What inanimate object makes you smile?
What made you smile today?
I asked the trees or mountains question to someone and they said "Why?" which I guess is the epitome of the problem.... non standard questions aren't really seen as quite acceptable, and thus, I often don't have the guts to ask them.... and then I dread asking the boring questions I just don't ask anything...
So is the compromise just asking the boring questions with "why" follow up questions (that works ok sometimes)? Or just to stop caring if people are totally confused when I ask them about odd things?
Of course I could always just stop talking to people I don't already know. I just can't get over how an outsider who had such a different culture background focused on how westerners kill the possibility of relationships before they even begin all with our small talk. Let's stop sabotaging ourselves!

Education and Faith: A Partnership

Two posts ago I mentioned writing this, so I thought I should actually include it for those who I didn't discuss it with.

Harvard University, founded in 1636, is arguably the first university in what is now the United States. Like many other early colleges and universities, Harvard was founded to train clergymen. This was not a new phenomenon. Throughout medieval Europe, education was predominantly handled by churches with the most well-educated members of society typically being clergymen. During the same period, the middle east flourished under what is now known as the Islamic Golden age. Inspired by words of the prophet Muhammed, and scholars like Al-Zarnuji, Muslims prized education, teaching children from the Quran and sending them to schools that were associated with mosques (Berkey, 2004). During this time Muslim scholars made enormous strides in mathematics, science, philosophy and medicine.
In contrast to this expected partnership between education and religion are the studies found today with titles such as “Why Education Corrodes Religious Faith” (Zucherman, 2014) or “Does Higher Education Experience Undermine Faith -- or Enhance it?” (White, 2012). These studies are inconclusive with individuals backed by statistics coming down on both sides of the issue. As shown by history, however, education does not inherently undermine faith, previously it was an assumed partnership. However, in the modern era college campuses are rarely associated with a specific denomination and their purpose has moved beyond educating clergymen. Instead, because of the diversity among students and faculty, students are often confronted with ideas that challenge their paradigms, and experiences that broaden their knowledge of cultures and beliefs. These types of ideas and experiences bring up questions and sometimes doubts that have the potential to shake the foundations of seedling faith that is blind, dogmatic or untried. However, in my experience, when individual’s faith is based on their personal experiences with divinity and seeking for truth wherever it can be found, then questions become stepping stones for faith. 
The broadening questions and the very topics explored in higher education experiences can increase faith, if approached with a mind open to revelation. Historically, one of the reasons early American colonists valued literacy was because they could read the Bible and religious tracts (Miletich), and thus learn about and become closer to their God. Higher education can be valued for the same reason. Learning about science and mathematics is learning about God’s creations and His laws. The study of human nature, God’s own children, using psychology, and anthropology is a way to better understand ourselves and learn to serve those around us. The creation of music, art, and literature celebrates God’s own creative power by practicing the same quality. These topics can impact religious faith for good, but the challenge of learning can also be beneficial. 
Two years ago, I started a Master’s program in geology, after studying anthropology as an undergraduate. While taking advanced classes without the extensive geology background of my peers and working with my advisor on my thesis project my own inadequacies have become woefully apparent, making it necessary to lean on the experience and knowledge of others. Learning to ask questions and accept answers, and sometimes the lack thereof, has been crucial to my learning. Working consistently day by day on classwork and my thesis has also been essential to my progress.
These values; humility, patience and diligence, that I have honed in a secular setting are the same values that nourish my faith as I rely on God and His timing, and in the meantime, do the little things to keep Him in my life. However, these and other values can be cultivated in many circumstances including participating in manual labor, missionary work, or being part of a family. No matter the circumstances, working with integrity to achieve something better helps me develop values that when applied to my spiritual life helps to increase my faith in God.
The questions I have explored and the doubts I have overcome, plus the amazing facts, theories, and anecdotes I have learned combined with the values that have become an integral part of my life because of education have brought me closer to God. Understanding that God is not only just, merciful and all-powerful but also all-knowing, is it any wonder that striving for knowledge—becoming like Him—brings me closer to Him as well?


References
Berkey, Jonathan. “Education.” Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, edited by Richard C Martin, MacMillan Reference USA, 2006.
Miletich, Patricia. “Religion and Literacy in Colonial New England” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/religion-and-eighteenth-century-revivalism/resources/religion-and-literacy-colonial-n.
White, Mercedes. “Does Higher Education Experience Undermine Faith -- or Enhance it?” Deseret News, 11 March 2012: www.deseretnews.com/article/765558804/Does-higher-education-experience-undermine-faith-2-or-enhance-it.html.
Zucherman, Phil. “Why Education Corrodes Religious Faith.” Psychology Today. 3 November 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-secular-life/201411/why-education-corrodes-religious-faith.

Jumping to the Rescue

This week a friend bought a box of cards. She was siting next to me when she opened the box. It took her like 30 seconds and a couple of attempts to open it, and in that short amount of time  I offered to do it for her. She declined kindly. Not for the first time I realized that at times I am over eager to fix things. I explained to my friend that I didn't think she was incapable it is just that I like figuring out simple mechanisms and making them work. I like it when my roommate hands me an offending package, razor, lid, etc. Instead of being annoying I think it is kind of fascinating to see if I can figure out how it is supposed to work, why it isn't working, and if I can fix it.
Later that day I was at this same friend's house and when the drain of her bathroom needed to be drained she said it had to be done by hand because the little plug wasn't hooked up. She then promptly volunteered me for the task, adding "because Becca would think it's cool."
I drained it for her and then reconnected it... because I could.

It made me think, liking to figure things out and fix them is not a bad trait, and it is usually a good one, but realizing why I jump to the rescue and being willing to give the person time to fix their own dilemmas (unless they want help) is good too. However, realizing why I volunteer to the rescue made me wonder about all the times people have jumped to my rescue and I was annoyed... but maybe they just jumped at the chance because they liked to do whatever I was struggling with... not because they think I'm incompetent or whatever.