Marrakesh? Marrakech?

The other day I got an email from Gwyneth Paltrow (yes, Pip, always the best of friends) telling me to go to Morocco and see Marrakesh, though I didn't need her to convince me. Morocco has been in my travel plans for ages. You can read the newsletter here (http://goop.com/newsletter/61/en/). But doesn't it just seem amazing? I would love to go to North Africa. I love the architecture and I think it would be quite the experience to spend some time at a market there, not to mention the potential photographic opportunities.

P.S. Firefox is broken on my computer and I can't tell you how much I miss it so. Safari is stupid and Chrome is confusing.

In This World of Purchase...

Pioneer Book is a used book store on Center Street in downtown Provo that has been there since probably before I can remember. Whenever we went there when I was a kid, I'd spend the hours (my mom really was and still is that dedicated to her book searches) wandering in awe through the maze of ceiling-high bookshelves, breathing in the aroma of millions of dusty old pages, of the rejected readings of thousands of people over the years. I'd literally get lost in the maze of narrow, makeshift-looking shelves of the huge store. It was always quiet, quieter than a library because all sound was muffled by the buffer of books at every turn. Sometimes I'd go into a dead end of the maze and sit, lightly and quietly fingering through the books with interesting-looking covers or enticing situations summarized on the back.

In short, I was enthralled by the magic of the store, and when a road trip to Utah to visit grandparents or spend a few days at the Shakespeare festival was announced, I got used to asking if we were going to go to "that cool bookstore," and it became a regular stop.

Several years later, my sister Megan worked there and loved it. She told me how she wished she could slip into the envelope of books they were mailing to faraway places and be mailed along with them. I remember her opening the book vault for my mom and I once, where they keep rare and delicate books. The magic just couldn't go away.

Or so I thought.

Yesterday I went there looking for Christmas presents for myself and a loved one (who shall remain unnamed since the Holiday hasn't yet passed). I noticed that they'd finally opened the wing with a little cafe that apparently has been in the works since my sister was employed there. I was excited to see how it had turned out, since the time I went with my sister and her kids to talk to the manager about how it might turn out. My first thought as I approached the store this time was that they had chosen a rather silly name for the cafe: Cafe Trendz. Really? Trendz? And with a 'Z'? It seemed ridiculous. But I went inside-- you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, you know. Immediately I could sense that something was different. There were no stacks of books on the checkout counter, waiting to be sorted and reshelved. Had there ever been? Had my memories of the place been only romantic visions? I moved on. The entire first part of the store was covered in LDS literature and the like, with a small section for 'Popular Picks' and History. Okay, fine, it is called Pioneer Book. So I moved into the second room, now the cafe. It was cute, but looked just like a Starbucks or any other little coffee shop-- only far fewer people, and at least half of them were only there for the WiFi.

So I passed on through to the third section, where two giddy college girls were laughing at each other and shelving books. I was only slightly annoyed until one of them threw a couple of books to the floor from where she was standing (on a ladder, shelving on the topmost shelf). The books landed, splayed awkwardly, with a flapping thud. I'm certain my eyes widened because after noticing I was there she said quickly, "Oh, that was a bad idea." But didn't get down to pick them up or set them straight. I wanted to browse the general fiction section, but that's where the employees were working hard, so I looked at the Classics section and got a little peek at General Fiction when one of the girls left to go get something, but I couldn't find anything I was looking for. I did find a couple of books I liked, but they were priced exorbitantly. I mean really, $2 for a book with a bent and grainy cover? I saw one for $3 that was almost water-damaged beyond recognition.

I thought about asking one of the girls in the next aisle if they had any Bradbury or Vonnegut, or if they could direct me to Mary Stewart's section, but doubted they knew much about the situation. They probably might have, but when I realized the bookstore was no longer quiet (the hip tunes emenating from Cafe Trendz and the laughter and odd remarks from the employees saw to that) and the scent of the books was being masked by the smell of black coffee, I began to be annoyed, but mostly disappointed. I put down the books I was thinking of purchasing, stepped over the pile of books on the floor that had been tossed there, and left thinking how sad it was that one of my favorite childhood places had been turned into something else.

Kenna

That book I mentioned yesterday, Blink, had a chapter on why marketing research is bunk. Among some other products (like Coke and some crazy new chair that sounded a lot like the one Eric and Adrien have in their office), Malcolm Gladwell used the example of Kenna, an artist who had lots of promise and was adored by top people in the music industry like U2's manager and some other people. However, research showed that he wouldn't be popular or a good sell, even though the couple of live performances he'd had started an apparently very devoted fanbase. I'd never even heard of Kenna, so I looked him up and thought most of his music was just alright, but I rather like this one song of his, "Hell Bent." Mostly I like it for the match with the music video, which...well, just watch it.

Embedding is disabled, so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsRB-N_WCOo

Kenna was nominated for a Grammy this year for his song "Say Goodbye to Love," which honestly...is alright, but not okay. The sound is (to me) a little too synthesized, and makes me think of the music in the Chip's Challenge game. Also, I'm disappointed because he seems to have gone a bit more mainstream, when his original idea was to be different from everyone else. They couldn't even categorize him. This song makes me feel like now they can.

Roles

I was reading my Anthropology textbook this morning and came across something that made me wonder. The chapter was "Sex, Gender, and Culture" and this is the paragraph that made me think:

"Western colonialism also appears to have been generally detrimental to women's status, perhaps because Westerners were accustomed to dealing with men. There are plenty of examples of Europeans restructuring landownership around men and teaching men modern farming techniques, even in places where women were usually the farmers. In addition, men more often than women could earn cash through wage labor or through sales of goods (such as furs) to Europeans. Although the relative status of men and women may not have been equal before the Europeans arrived, colonial influences seem generally to have undermined the position of women."

There are a lot of things this makes me think of, one being that the European mindset seemed to have been that women are not "worth" as much as men, even in cultures where they clearly had already established some form of status. It seems like a step backward.

Coincidentally, I was also reading this morning in Blink by Malcolm Gladwell about how people, whether they like it or not, tend to judge people upon first glance based on race and gender, generally putting white men above all others. This is even true in people who have made a conscious decision not to. The reason for this is because these sorts of judgments are made subconsciously. Harvard has a test called the IAT that puts your tendency to do one thing or another on a scale. It's pretty interesting. If you want to try one or a few tests, go to www.implicit.harvard.edu and select the demonstration. I think you should try as many as you are even vaguely interested in-- it could be very educational.

I digress. Both the things I read today implied that the culture we are exposed to determine about how we feel about the roles of gender (or minorities). It is possible to counteract these stereotypes, consciously and subconsciously (though subconsciously is more difficult) by exposing ourselves to and interacting with those types of people more often.

Food for thought.

P.S. If you want to know results I got on the tests, email me privately. Tell me yours privately too. I don't want people to be too judgmental one way or the other.

Changes

Sometimes when we feel we need a change in our lives and we can't really do anything about it without making a drastic difference in the way we normally go about things, it helps to do something small (but effective) like cleaning your room, reorganizing books or movies, repositioning furniture, or changing bedsheets (I have many sets for just such a reason).  I tend to do the last one the most often, especially since with my currently tiny room I can't really rearrange furniture.

Maybe you don't really need a new job or really want to quit school or get new friends or anything, maybe you just need new sheets.  At least for a while.

Note:  Yes, I did do a photoshoot with my bedsheets.  Shush.

Bonneville Seabase

On Saturday Adrien and I braved the snow, freezing winds, and ill-fitting rental equipment to spend the day SCUBA diving at Bonneville Seabase up in Grantsville (very near the Great Salt Lake).
When we arrived, there were several snorkelers already on the premises kicking up silt and screaming and being generally irritating. They left around lunch time, however, and a beginning SCUBA course arrived, who were also loud, but not quite as irritating. Adrien and I were there until closing. What I loved most about this place was that since they don't get tons of customers, especially in the winter, the customer service was excellent. From the time we arrived we were barraged by equipment help, dive trip information, jokes, recommendations on everything, inquiries as to our well-being, assistance in weighting, and orders to holler no matter where we were on the base if we needed anything at all. It sort of felt like they were our personal team of dive helpers.

On the base, there are three "bays" to dive (or snorkel) in: White Rocks Bay, Habitat Bay, and the Abyss. White Rocks Bay is where we did three of our five dives. White Rocks was a covered pool with tons of fish and fabled nurse sharks (which we spent two dives searching for but never found, sadly). We bought lettuce for $2 and fed the fish with it. It was fun to hear them munching and feel the strong pull of fish beaks on soggy lettuce (fun to watch too, but visibility was so bad that most of the time they caught me by surprise). In Habitat Bay (called so because of a sort of diving bell "habitat" area under the water somewhere...we couldn't find it) there was a boat "wreck" for divers to investigate on clearer days. We did poke around there for a bit, but since it was unsheltered, it was considerably colder and we didn't stay long. The Abyss is about 65 feet deep and the deepest spot on the base. We originally intended to only descend to about 40 feet, but after local light failure and my neglecting to take my flashlight into the Abyss, we ended up going to 50 feet, which was all well and good except that it took a little longer to ascend and we ran out of air faster than we'd planned for so we couldn't do a sixth dive to look for the sharks (again). I plan on returning in warmer weather for a better look for the sharks and the boat.

The entrance to White Rocks Bay

Habitat BayThe Abyss-- under that white thing

This picture is funny for 3 reasons: our faces, since the guy gave us no warning as to when he was taking the picture; the fact that we can't put our arms against our body; and that it documents the aftermath of putting on the wetsuits-- we considered making a video of us trying to get them on because it was quite a hilarious endeavor and people had to ask through the dressing room door if we were okay.

How to Look Creepy

I don't even know how I found this. This is me as a shrunken head:

You can customize your hair/head style, decorations, skin and hair color, background, and even soundtrack! What fun!

Update (Boring)

Currently I'm working on a few projects and I seem to be not doing very well on many/all of them. I need help and inspiration!

For instance, my "50 books by the end of the year" (which started at 100 if you recall) is going very slowly. I noticed in reviewing my list that nearly two-thirds of the books I've read were within the first four or five months of the year. There are only about 50 days left until the start of 2010 and I still need about twelve more books (however, I must say that the one I just finished-- in three days I might add-- The Wild Trees, was a very interesting, informational, and inspiring book-- especially for non-fiction-- and I will readily recommend it to anyone). The main problem here is that I'm trying to work through Founding Brothers, which is probably the dullest book I've ever been required to read (after Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics I had to read for my Greek Literature class a year ago).

This obstacle brings me to my next suffering goal which was to finish all three of my Independent Study courses by January first. I have to get through F. B. and another required novel and I must point out my online instructor claimed about these two books, "you will enjoy them so much that you'll soon forget that you are reading for a class." Ha. Clearly this person has never met me. Anyway, so I might be able to complete the courses by January first if I become a temporary hermit for a while and speed through as many lessons as I can, but I'm afraid the quality of my work would greatly suffer. I've determined that I'm a better student in a physical, rather than cyber, classroom.

This month I'm supposed to be participating in the NaNoWriMo challenge alongside my mom and sister Megan, but it's nearly two weeks in and I still only have one sentence and a lot of ideas, but no clue how to put them onto paper.

Also, I'm rather sad to say that my third day in the food challenge I'm working on did not go very well at all. I'll write about it more tomorrow over on the Hungry Thing so I can combine it with day 4, but I'm really quite disappointed in myself. At least it isn't a real, health-threatening situation.

Tomorrow we have a cleaning check, and for some reason the management gave me the longest list of things to clean out of the rest of my roommates. And the most difficult tasks...like the fridge. Wish me luck for tomorrow (yes, I have yet to clean) and hope that I come out of the sticky, drippy, smelly mess of the fridge alive and on-time!

P.S. Perhaps this will cheer you up (the first two minutes are the most important part...and also the part at 5:40):

Looking Forward

The New Moon premiere is coming up in a couple of weeks. Unlike my sisters, I will not be attending the midnight showing. No, I'm setting my sights on a different midnight showing...a year from now. That's right kids, I'm already counting down to Deathly Hallows pt 1 on November 19th! Don't get me wrong, it's not like I've put up a paper chain or anything, but there it is. I'm just a little miffed that Germany gets to see it two whole days before we do. Harumph.

Harry and Hermione bury Dobby at Shell Cottage

Also, part two comes out July 15th, 2011.

Other things I'm looking forward to?
-dive trip to Bonneville Seabase next weekend
-Christmas, a time to see family and an excuse to make tons of sweets (and eat them of course)
-SCUBA stress and rescue course starting Feb 25th
-St Patrick's Day (a favorite holiday because I get to show what pride I have for a place that contributes, however minimally, to my ancestry...and who doesn't love corned beef and cabbage?)
-two weeks in England at the end of April/beginning of May (oh gosh. I just said it. Now I'm excited.)
-sailing lessons if I can raise the money and find someone to take it with me
-probably starting culinary school next August (read what I think)

Puggles and Fingerlings and Squeakers, Oh My!

I found this list of baby names for various animals and thought it was both interesting and sort of hilarious:

Alligator = hatchling

Alpaca = cria

Ant = antling

Antelope = calf

Ape = baby

Armadillo = pup

Badger = kit, cub

Bat = pup

Bear = cub

Beaver = pup, kitten

Bee = larva

Bird = hatchling, chick

Bison, Buffalo = calf

Boar = piglet, shoat, farrow

Bobcat = kitten or cub

Butterfly = caterpillar, larva, pupa, chrysalis

Camel = calf

Caribou = calf or fawn

Cat = kitten

Cattle = calf

Cheetah = cub

Chicken = chick, pullet (young hen), cockrell (young rooster)

Cicada = nymph

Clam = larva

Cockroach = nymph

Codfish = codling, hake, sprag, sprat

Coyote = pup, whelp

Crane = chick

Crocodile = hatchling

Crow = chick

Deer = fawn

Dinosaur = hatchling, juvenile

Dog = pup

Dolphin = pup, calf

Donkey = colt, foal

Dove = squab, chick

Duck = duckling

Eagle = fledgling, eaglet

Echidna = puggle

Eel = leptocephalus (larva), elver (juvenile)

Elephant = calf

Elk = calf

Emu = chick, hatchling

Falcon = chick

Ferret = kit

Finch = chick

Fish = fry, fingerling

Fly = maggot

Fox = kit, cub, pup

Frog = tadpole, polliwog, froglet

Gerbil = pup

Giraffe = calf

Gnat = larva

Gnu = calf

Goat = kid, billy

Goose = gosling

Gorilla = infant

Grasshopper = nymph

Grouse = chick, poult, squealer or cheeper

Guinea pig = pig, pup

Gull = chick

Hamster = pup

Hare = leveret

Hawk = eyas

Hedgehog = piglet, pup

Heron = chick

Hippopotamus = calf

Hog = shoat, farrow

Hornet = larva

Horse = foal, colt (m), filly (f), stat, stag, hog-colt, youngster, yearling or hogget

Hound = pup

Human = baby, infant, toddler

Hummingbird = chick

Hyena = cub

Jay = chick

Jellyfish = ephyna

Kangaroo = joey

Koala = joey

Lark = chick

Leopard = cub

Lion = cub

Llama = cria

Louse = nit, nymph

Magpie = chick

Mallard = duckling

Manatee = calf

Mole = pup

Monkey = infant

Moose = calf

Mosquito = nymph, wriggler, tumbler

Mouse = pup, pinkie, kitten

Mule = foal

Muskrat = kit

Nightingale = chick

Opossum = joey

Ostrich = chick

Otter = whelp, pup

Owl = owlet, fledgling

Ox = stot, calf

Oyster = spat

Panda = cub

Parrot = chick

Partridge = cheeper

Peacock = peachick

Penguin = chick

Pheasant = chick

Pig = piglet, shoat, farrow

Pigeon = squab, squeaker

Platypus = puggle

Porcupine = porcupette

Porpoise = calf

Possum = joey

Prairie dog = pup

Pronghorn = fawn

Quail = chick

Rabbit = kitten, bunny, kit

Raccoon = cub

Rat = pup, pinkie, kitten

Reindeer = calf

Rhinoceros = calf

Sand Dollar = larva, pluteus, juvenile

Sea Urchin = larva, pluteus, juvenile

Seal = pup

Serval = kitten

Shark = pup

Sheep = lamb, lambkin, cosset

Skunk = kit

Snake = Snakelet, neonate, hatchling snake)

Spider = spiderling

Squirrel = pup, kit, kitten

Swan = cygnet, flapper

Termite = larva

Tiger = cub, whelp

Toad = tadpole

Trout = fry, fingerling

Turkey = poult

Turtle = hatchling

Wallaby = joey

Walrus = cub, pup

Wasp = larva

Weasel = kit

Whale = calf

Wolf = pup, whelp

Wombat = joey

Woodchuck = kit, cub

Woodpecker = chick

Wren = chick

Yak = calf

Yellow Jacket = larva

Zebra = colt, foal

Color

A rainbow of color...in vegetables!
Check out my new post on l'autre blog.

Trick or Treat?

Happy Halloween everyone!
I haven't dressed up for Halloween since high school when I was Queen Elizabeth and Ian was Tony Blair:
But this year I was invited to a Halloween party at the Hughes' so I decided to dress up. The only thing I could think of on short notice was a skipper:
While I would much rather have been a Star Weasel crew person:
Oh well, maybe next year.
In the mean time, enjoy this funny trick:

I'm Basically Famous

About a week ago I sent in a question with a couple pictures to Apartment Therapy (since I recently learned how to do a screen shot-- so simple, so awesome!!! I'm easily amused...) about the headboard in Across the Universe, which I think is a beautiful piece of carpentry and would love to have grace my future perfect bedroom.
Anyway, tonight the editor/s decided to post my question! Hopefully I will get some response from this.
In somewhat related news, over the summer when Mom and Adrien and I went shopping in Salt Lake (and didn't buy anything...) we passed this wonderful apartment building that looked like it was falling to bits, but I of course loved. I took a couple of grainy pictures with my phone:

What is wrong with me? Why do I find such dilapidated buildings so beautiful?

Boo

When I say "Boo" I'm not really talking about Halloween stuff because I don't really have anything Halloween-related going on right now (though there's a party at the Hughes' I might go to the day before and a movie at Jared & Megan's Halloween night, which I'm excited about). I sort of want to make Kleenex ghosts to hang around the house, but I don't have any Kleenex, so...boo.
That's really the sort of "boo" I mean to talk about right now, so this might be a little complain-y for you. Feel free to not read on.
I curled my hair today. It was frizzy and creepy so I put it in a ponytail. That made me feel like a 50s librarian. Or maybe like I needed to be wearing a poodle skirt.

Yes, I did just take this picture as I was sitting here typing this.

Actually that doesn't look too bad, at least not from this angle. I guess I'm too hard on myself sometimes. Well anyway.

My grilled cheese sandwich stuck to the pan, which has never happened to me before...maybe it was the pan? Though I'm pretty sure I've used that pan to make grilled cheese before...hm. Anyway, it made it taste all nasty and tore holes in it. But I'll have you know I ate it anyway. So there.

I didn't babysit this past week because the grandma/mom was in town, and you all know how grandmas are, they love their grandkids enough to babysit so the babysitter doesn't have to. For me this meant not only that I didn't have to wake up before the sun rises over the mountains and brings light and life to the valley, but also that I didn't get my $30 in spending money this week. But my habits didn't change, and the bills came early (or late?) so I have no money (though I did save enough cash to be able to buy a few necessities at the grocery store this coming week, thank goodness for my moderate foresight), and I'm having a craving to make many tasty and delicious things but I can't pay for the ingredients! I am so very, very sad :(
Luckily, Mom's coming to town on Thursday so maybe I can get her to pay for some superfluous groceries if I make tasty things for her to eat!

Madraste? Will you?

P.S. I posted a recipe for cheesecake on my other blog.

Having Fun

You know how kids are lean and scrawny because they run around all the time? (Well, besides those whose parents buy them video game consoles) Well, it's because they're having fun. Remember the days when you didn't want to come inside when you were called in for dinner as the sun was setting on another beautiful day involving running all over the yard and maybe even down the street to the huge open fields? Even if you don't, you can learn something from all of this-- fun is good exercise! Remember my post on the Tumble Gym? I went again last week and woke up sore the next morning, and I don't remember doing anything that wasn't fun, meaning the fun is what made me sore (okay, I'm stretching a bit here, but I'm trying to make a point, mkay?).
The other day Adrien and I discovered this type of "dancing" that, when we tried to learn it, put us out of breath but also made us anxious to try more because it was fun.
In Sweden they did this test to see if they could get more people in the subway/metro/whatever to use the stairs by making them more fun. And it worked! Watch the video:

So getting more exercise doesn't have to be a chore. Find a way to make it more fun. Go to the rock wall place (definitely gets your heart rate up, especially if you're afraid of heights like me), go to the tumble gym, make up challenges like "how many jumping jacks can I do during the course of this song?," or learn a jumpstyle dance! You'll feel a lot better, I can assure you.

Des Livres

So far I have thirteen books left before I reach my goal of reading 50 books this year! I have compiled a list of books that I would like to read next and came up with twelve.
Here, in alphabetical order, with an explanation:

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
-recommended/ in preparation for the London trip this spring

Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan
-read a good review/recommendation

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis
-read somewhere one's life would be incomplete until this book had been read

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
-I read the beginning of this book ages ago and loved it but had to surrender it to the proper owner before I got very far

Blindness by Jose Saramago
-recommended by a friend

Blink by Malcom Gladwell
-recommended by a friend

Founding Brothers by Joseph J Ellis
-required for my Political Science class

Gideon's Trumpet by Anthony Lewis
-required for my Political Science class

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
-I think this is an interesting story and hope it will be a good read. I know the guy had flaws, but no one is perfect, right?

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
-recommended by a friend

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
-read a good review/recommendation

The Wild Trees by Robert Preston
-came across this book a while ago, thought it looked interesting, and haven't had the chance to read it yet

Now here's where you come in. I need a thirteenth book! Recommend something to me! Also, if you see something on my list that you read and didn't like or that you want to read too, or something/anything you might want to comment on, go right ahead. Here's to fifty books!

Spontaneity

Today I went and saw a matinee by myself. I saw White on Rice, a weird independent(?) film that was in town for a while.

WHITE ON RICE-THEATRICAL TRAILER from Dave Boyle on Vimeo.

Today was the last day it was showing in Provo and I read about it somewhere and went to see it. Everyone was in class or at work like most normal people are at noon on a Thursday, so I went alone. I was actually the only one in the entire theatre. What bothered me was that the movie was playing when I got there. It didn't bother me that it had already started because I was a few minutes late anyway, but since I was the only one in the theatre, that must've meant they were planning to show the film whether or not anyone was there. That bothers me. I'm sure Cinemark is wasting a lot of electricity by playing a film when no one is watching it. Anyway, the movie has moved out of Utah now, so I can't recommend it if you live in the area, but if you don't, check the website and see if it's coming to you. I do recommend seeing it, but only at a matinee. It was a good show and had quite a bit of comedy, but it was just a little too awkward at times. Maybe it's a better show when you have some company or don't have a headache (which I did)...
Anyway, in other news, I randomly found this song and happened to like enough to take the time to download it for free on the band's website (there's a link in the description of the video if you're interested).

Tell Me Something

Why is it that I cannot attend a concert when an interesting band comes to town with fairly good priced tickets? Oh that's right, because it's 21 and up.
And why is it that one of the best scores I've heard is unavailable in sheet music form alone? Here I've found "River Waltz" and "Promenade" from The Painted Veil in a collection, but there's no music just from that particular film. There's still The Hours I suppose, but I really love the music in Painted Veil.
Listen:

Am I not right?

New Things

With all my free time, I've decided to branch out in the blogosphere with a new food blog and participation in a fashion (of sorts) blog/project with Megan and Adrien.
Check them out!

Oh and P.S. Happy 60th birthday to Lindsey Buckingham, one of my favorite musicians.

Stuff

I'm considering making a new blog just for food stuff. But do I really cook or bake often enough to make even a weekly post? Would you read it? Input please.
Also, this is pretty cool: