Children's names for Adults

The last month or so I have spent quite a bit of time with my nieces and nephews, and I've come up with a list of some alternate names I think kids often have for their parents (or adult guardians). So in honor of Mother's Day here are some other names:
Coat Rack
Door Opener
Holder of Things
Hand Hold
Pillow
Step Ladder
Refrigerator
Storyteller
Audio Book
Stroller Engine
Entertainer
Fan
Trash Can
Chair
and that is not to mention the other ones like, Torturer.
To all those who take care of children. Thanks.

My Mind on GPS

Two weeks ago I drove across the country in four days. Our GPS died on the third day but we had a good map and a mother who kindly looked places up for us on the Internet and called us back with the directions. Overall it went pretty well. Honestly we got slightly lost four times, thrice while we had access to the GPS. The only other time I worked with a GPS was on my mission and I didn't use one much then.
I find that when I work with a GPS three things happen to my brain.
1. The GPS works great, showing the roads nicely and leading us directly to where we need to go through unknown roads and I pay attention on the way. Meaning it's teaching me.
2. The GPS tells me where to go and I follow it blindly and I get wherever I was going and say "I have no idea how I got here. There's no way I could retrace my steps." Another words I wasn't paying attention and have now lost myself. . . especially unhelpful if I will be driving there later and need to learn the area.
3. I follow the GPS knowing it is heading me in the wrong direction (whether the address was incomplete or it is just not working correctly), but not trusting myself enough to not follow it. After all it's technology. It has to be right. Right? And then I end up where I don't want to be, and turn it off, and get out a map and figure it out based on the map and my own intuition, leaving me really frustrated with the GPS.
The problem is most of the time either options 2 or 3 happens to me. At first I thought I hated GPSs but after it being so helpful (some of the time) on our trip I realized that it isn't the GPS that I hate, it is the way I either go stupid or doubt myself when I use one. I find it really frustrating.
Neither of those ever happen when I just use a map :) (but sometimes maps are inaccurate, incomplete, or not detailed enough, and they can't just tell you where you are).

Personal Lies

Lately I have been noticing lies, and not just any lies but lies people tell themselves about themselves. For example I tell myself that I'm quiet and I like to try and portray that self to people. The thing is I always comment in classes, I often find myself the talkative one in awkward interactions, and especially among my family I find myself dominating the conversation. And yet on stupid papers where you are supposed to write three words that describe you I often write "reserved."
I know some other people that tell themselves they aren't smart enough when they probably just don't want to deal with that knowledge. Or others who describe themselves as outgoing, when they hardly talk to anyone. And yet in all of these instances, myself included, the people seem to believe these things about themselves, at least sometimes.
It would almost make more sense if the lie I told myself was actually helpful (like telling myself I am stronger or braver so that you can "fake it 'till you make it") but I know the lie I tell myself can sometimes be detrimental. Not that being quiet is a bad thing, but forcing myself to be quiet in a situation when I don't need to be and I don't actually want to be, can be.
And certainly telling yourself that you are awkward, or not smart enough or that you always need help doesn't seem like a helpful sort of lie.
Where do these lies come from and why do we persist in telling them? To others and most of all ourselves?

Scripture Cases

When I arrived in Indiana as an LDS missionary I had two sets of scriptures. One with a normal case and the other was a small quad that had no case. I quickly decided I needed one, and the fad of the mission was to make your own out of cardboard, pictures and tape. So of course I made one. It is pictured on the right. It has five sides meaning it's a box without a top. Each side has pictures portraying a theme: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Holy Ghost, and Enduring.

About a year into my mission I decided I wanted to make another case for my big set, and shortly after I gave my normal case away to someone who needed it, so I got busy and made another case. It is pictured on the left. This one had a top plus a flap and I made it's theme scriptures so each side portrays a different type of scripture. The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are the four sides. The bottom has Modern Day Prophets, the top is Personal Revelation, and the flap just says "Scriptures."

Recently I have wanted to carry around just my Book of Mormon around, but wanted to keep it protected, so I decided to make a case that fits just my Book of Mormon. I was a little lazy though and didn't want to do all the pictures and try to think of a theme and all that. Plus, I had the fun idea of making it look like gold plates like the ones the Book of Mormon was originally translated from. So I covered my cardboard with tinfoil and then with a gold plastic and finally with tape I made another case. Pictured in the middle (sorry the picture isn't great). It's not amazing but it amused me, and it will keep my Book of Mormon safe, so it's good enough. I enjoyed making it.

For more information about Scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon you can go to http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/book-of-mormon.

Conversation: Part One: Kinetic Conversation

Last night I had a long conversation with my preteen nephew. Almost the whole time we were flinging a stuffed octopus like a frisbee back and forth. It reminded me of countless conversations I've had with my brothers and friends while tossing pillows or occasionally actual frisbees back and forth. It seems to me that there is something about doing things with your hands while you talk that can help conversations be more comfortable.
Even driver/passenger conversations on road trips or talking while doing a puzzle seem like the same thing. Maybe it is simply because you don't feel like you have to be talking the whole time, because you are interacting the whole time in a more distant way, but still interacting. So if you can't think of anything to say, it's not a big deal, you can be silent, or even comment on the way the octopus flipped, or the puzzle piece you are looking for.
However, some types of kinetic conversations seem like they don't work. For instance, when you are shopping (there are too many decisions that need to be made).
As I write this it also makes me wonder if it is a gender thing. If boys are more likely to enjoy kinetic conversation, because most of the example from my own life seem to be with boys. But then again maybe it is more about who I have conversations with. . .

Sound Effects

Quote Walls are interesting things. I've participated in a couple of them, both on my mission. In High school I kept a quote paper for my history class. Sometimes they are just dumb, but other times they are fun. One of the walls I had on my mission was made up of notes written on hot pink sticky notes (I was trying to use them up), I brought the stickies home, so it's almost like I still have that Quote Wall. Here are two of the quotes from them:
"Life is more fun with sound effects." -Elder W.
"Every good day deserves a drum roll." -Me
They are still true. I often find myself clicking my tongue, whirling (supposedly it sounds like a bird), or knocking on walls.
Once when I made a whirling sound one of the people I was with looked around abruptly and asked "What was that?" My roommate answered them "That's the noise Becca makes when she is excited."
When I was little I prided myself on my realistic dog bark (I wonder now, how good I really was).
I enjoy making strange noises, which is actually a little ironic because (1) I'm not musically inclined, and (2) the rest of the time I feel like I try to be really quiet. For instance I hate it when the zippers on my backpack rattle around, or my keys clink together in a big mass. But I guess those are sounds and not sound effects.
Happy noises.

Tests and Patterns

In college I took a basic economics class. I've had better classes. One of the things I didn't like about the class was that the tests were super boring. 50 multiple choice, and that's it. I got so bored taking them. To make them bearable I would skip around, do a couple per page, skip to the end and do them backwards, or do one question per page. They were still boring, I would find myself reading the questions several times before finally focusing enough to comprehend what I was reading. Which means I took longer to take the tests than most people, but I couldn't help it. I was so excited at the end of the semester when the professor said we didn't have to take the final if we had a good enough grade. Hurrah! No more boring tests.
I think it's kind of weird to get bored taking tests, but because I do it made me observe tests more. Like checking to see if the scantron sheets spell BAD or DAD or FAD or BAA. Also, I found it entertaining to try and guess the answer by the way the question and the options were phrased or set up, and then compare it to what I would choose looking at what I thought was the right answer.
That tendency probably would have got me into trouble if I hadn't already learned that sometimes the patterns do not point to the right answer.
When I was in first grade I remember taking a quiz. It was a photocopied page filled with handwritten sentences with blanks. A simple fill in the blank with the answers/options at the bottom of the page to choose from. I didn't read any of the sentences, instead I put the longest words in the longest blanks, the shortest in the shortest. I failed the quiz.
That didn't stop me from looking for the patterns in tests, instead it was my backup method to finding or checking my answers. I never let it be my first method again. At least if I did, it never ended so badly again :).