The Hunger Games

A couple of days ago, my roommate started telling me about The Hunger Games. She bought the book, and suggested I give it a go....So last night, I did! I started reading at about 9:00, and finally finished this morning around 3:00! This book was amazing. And horrifying. And intense! And romantic (Why can't she just love Peeta??). It's about a young girl, Katniss, who lives in a world governed by The Capitol. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual reality TV show where the Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts. The children (ages 12-18) are then set loose against each other in a game of survival and forced to kill until only one remains. Intruiging or what??

My roommate bought the 2nd book yesterday, so I plan to read that one next week. If you've ever thought about reading this book but haven't gotten around to it...I suggest now is the time! If you haven't thought about reading this book, again, I suggest now it the time! :)

Washington Mutual Commercial

My teacher for SFL 351 showed this to us in class. It is hilarious!! Our teacher was showing us what benign attributional bias would really look like. We had a discussion in class how to teach our children to have this sort of attitude, to always give people the benefit of the doubt. Because of this particular lecture, I'm working on having a more positive attitude now!

(I'm not sure how to put the actual video on my page, so click on the link to watch it)

Hunger Banquet at BYU

I saw this advertised, and looked more into it! I'm planning to go this Saturday and I'm WAY excited!! The Hunger Banquet is basically where you go, not knowing if you'll get Brick Oven, hot dogs, or rice (it's divided into the upper, middle, and lower classes). There will be entertainment and a motivational speaker about world hunger. If you'd like more information, click here.

Awkward Family Photos

If you're ever bored and want something to check out...click here! Awkward Family Photos is full of pictures that you can browse through for...maybe hours?? Not the most productive way to spend your time.

Mamma Crickets

I was listening to Classical 89, when suddenly they started talking about an example of nesting: when a mother plays her baby Mozart while still in the womb. I remembered discussing this in class! Well, they switched over to talking about crickets. Apparently, a study has shown that mother crickets can warn their fetuses to be wary of spiders. For the experiment, they exposed one group of pregnant crickets to spiders, while the control group was not exposed. The offspring of the 1st group were more wary of spiders than the offspring in the control group. This is an important bit of wisdom for the mother to pass on, because crickets abandon their unborn eggs before they hatch! You can read more about it here. Enjoy!

Media?

Sometimes I think I confuse media with technology, just because they are so interlinked. For example, is the Internet media? Or just certain websites? Or all websites? What about Skype? Facebook? I know the basics of media--for example, the ones that are in the PowerPoint slides (Yes, I just looked them up). Anyway...just a random confusion of mine.

Oh the joys of Vegas...

I went to Las Vegas this past weekend with my boyfriend. WOW. I would not recommend that. As cool as the strip is (as in...cool building structures), it is WAY to dirty for me to enjoy. I've been there many times in the past, but I think this time may have been my last. The whole time we were there, I was just so concerned about all the pictures of naked ladies everywhere (seriously everywhere--on the cars, billboards, sidewalks, buildings), as well as the scantily clad women walking the streets. The worst part of the strip are the workers that stand along the sidewalk, snapping porn advertisements on their hands or shoving them in your face. I felt bad for recommending to my boyfriend that we go there. I'm sorry he, as well as myself, had to see all that. Anyway...yay for Las Vegas...?