The Delectable Quality of Music

This post may come across as somewhat cliche and obvious. However, it has long been my personal opinion that cliches have only become that way because they contain truth. And as there can never be enough truth in this world, I'm going to write this post anyway. Plus my roommates have been bugging me to post something new because they think I'm funny... Well, at least someone reads this thing...

I'll let you know what I'm listening to (via Spotify, of course) while writing this post. Currently it is "Guilty Filthy Soul" by AWOLNATION. great song.

I spend approximately 83.4% of my waking day with music playing. If we were to breakdown my time, I basically have music playing when I am not in class. always. Music is awesome. I don't think the word awesome should be used lightly. I am full of awe for the qualities of music that make it so appealing to our senses.

"Daylight" by Matt & Kim just came on. this song reminds me of Lauren, a fantastically awesome girl I went to high school with. She introduced me to Matt & Kim for which I am eternally grateful, as their music is sweeeeet.

When I hear a particular song, I am often brought back to a time when I first listened to it or my most vivid memory of it. My friends tease me because whenever a song comes on, I have some story associated with it, whether or not it has any real meaning or any plot lines whatsoever. One evening was spent entirely explaining odd associations that I have with various songs.

"20 Years" by the Civil Wars just came on. They have such lovely voices- their music makes me want to spin around in a field of wildflowers, roll down a grassy slope, have a picnic in the rain, and then prance down the road, holding hands with an attractive male before arriving at our house that obviously has a white picket fence and a porch swing.

Music also helps to calm me down when I am upset or depressed. I have a playlist on my computer titled "iamsad" that contains the perfect blend of sad songs that make you want to cry and upbeat songs that aren't annoying enough to make you more sad, but happy enough to make you hopeful and know that everything will work out. When I am angry, I typically listen to my "gym" playlist which contains mostly mainstream pop, rap, and techno/dubstep mixes. It pumps me up and lets me "rage against the machine" as needed. Venting my frustration through music has always been helpful to me. When I was in high school, I would often yell along with the song "Admit it!" by Say Anything as I was driving home from school. I proudly know all of the words to that song and recently had a chance to go to their concert. Being a part of a sweet mosh-pit to that song (and to all their others, of course) was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life thus far.

Now the song "Hope and Persistence" by Baldwin Games is playing. That is my friend's band- if you don't know them, you should. haha- They are really good and I try to go to as many of their concerts as I can (they are a local band where I am living). In fact, they have a show tonight, which happens to be the last show Kevin (my friend) will be playing in until after his two year mission with our church. So I am planning on going to hear them play tonight. 

It's funny how when you listen to a particular playlist or cd multiple times, you become accustomed to the order of songs. Because of that phenomenon, I often expect a particular song at the close of a different song, just because that is the order on the current cd in my car. Its funny how interconnected music becomes in my life. (and undoubtedly anyone who is a music connoisseur, as I claim to be.)

The song "Capulet" by J.Wride is now playing. This is another local band that I saw in concert. Actually, I think I saw them when they were playing a show with Baldwin Games... I don't remember. But I'm pretty sure it was that night... Anyway, I got their cd and they are talented musicians. I enjoy their sound.

The award for my favorite artist has to go to Andrew McMahon. He is the lead singer of Jack's Mannequin and previously of Something Corporate. He also plays the piano in both bands (SoCo broke up before Jack's was formed). No matter what mood I am in, I am always in the mood to listen to either of those bands. I go to their concerts whenever they come to town and it is always an aesthetic experience for me.

I am currently listening to "I Am Not a Whore" by LMFAO. Although not uplifting in any way, this song is superb. It also reminds me of my former roommate, Jennikins, who would often blast this song and she and I would rock out to it. 

I really miss living in the Bay Area because there is such a great music scene in San Francisco. gah. I love that city so much. I loved growing up in that area and spending so much time in the city. (we lived about 30-45 minutes outside of SF) That was great. Salt Lake has a good music scene too, but I don't know if I'm busier now or what, but I have only been to a few concerts since being here... I don't know... Regardless, I love the Bay Area and I love music.

Mumford & Sons "I Gave You All" just came on. That is another extremely talented group of musicians. I love that band right now. It makes me a little bit sad that they are so well known now. I liked them before that. Generally, I believe bands are better before they become part of the mainstream media- even though I am happy for the success that they have earned.

Basically, music is an enormous piece of my life. I love poetic lyrics, feeling the emotion behind the voices that serenade me, and moving along to the beat (although my dance moves are quite atrocious as I am extremely clumsy and often quite awkward). I listen to everything (except country, which has no place in my music library) and I think there is a time and a place for all types of music. When all else fails in life, I know I can tune in and shut the world out of my mind while I envelop myself in the experiences of others, manifested by the pieces of their souls that are made known to me through the sound waves that enter my ears.


-E

A Tribute to my Adorable Roommate

My adorable roommate says the most hilarious things. I don't think it is intentional, but nevertheless, we find great humor when discussing current events with her. I will provide you with a few examples:

1) For the first few months we roomed together, every Thursday evening as soon as the clock struck midnight (signifying the beginning of Friday) my adorable roommate and my cool roommate would blast the song "Friday" by Rebecca Black and dance around our apartment to celebrate. One night, my adorable roommate was singing along and she sang the lyrics "MJ: Rebecca Black!" We all stared at her in confusion, as the real lyrics are "RB: Rebecca Black" (as in, Rebecca Black's initials...) We asked her to repeat herself, which she did. We didn't mis-hear her, she actually thought that the song said "MJ: Rebecca Black" (MJ as in Michael Jackson)... 

2) Another quote from a fairly recent conversation: "And the way she gets into everything, it's like she's your boyfriend with every guy!" (this was about a girl who is apparently very flirtatious... and a man?)

3) "You two sexuality for me! hey!" This one is verbatim. I don't exactly know what she meant, I'm pretty sure she was trying to call me and cool roommate sexy, but it seemed to get lost in translation... I'm pretty sure the two of us are not "sexuality" but hey, I'll take it! ;-)

4) After watching a talent show: "Dude! That guy was sick- the one who broke dance!" ... I'm not sure, but I don't think "broke dance" is the proper past tense of "break dancing"... it sounded silly either way.

5) I liked this one a lot- it came pretty much out of the blue too: "My sister and I look nothing alike, like we don't even look like sisters. So sometimes we would skip down the street holding hands and proclaiming 'we're lesbian lovers!'" hahahaha, I love her. 

6) A while ago, while discussing what food we wanted to eat, (and I don't remember her reasoning for this) she said "We can snack on gasoline food!!!" 

Anyway. I love my adorable roommate. She is so cute, and her comments are typically hysterical, whether or not she intends them to be. I'm definitely going to miss her when I move out in a couple weeks!!! 

-E

Running into the Law.

I am not a criminal. But I did have a little snag with some police officers a few months ago... I am hesitant to publicize this, mostly because I'm pretty sure I never told my parents about this and I'm also fairly certain that my parents are the only people that read my blog... BUT. This is a pretty good story and I have another hour until my shift at work ends and I have run out of patience with my homework, so I'm going to share with you few readers about my little trouble with the law.

It all started because my roommates and I wanted to rent a redbox movie. After literally running to the redbox (we decided we would permit ourselves to lounge around all evening if we took a "jog" to the redbox located quite far from our apartment), we retrieved several movies. We then proceeded to watch these movies.

One movie we watched was titled Something Borrowed. It was a pretty good movie until the end. One of the main protagonists, Ethan, did not reach a satisfactory conclusion. My cool roommate and I were less than impressed. In fact, we were excruciatingly distressed.By the time the movie ended, it was approximately 2:30 in the morning. We decided in a fit of college-aged-female stupidity that we would express to the world our distress. We thought it would be a brilliant idea to exit our apartment and yell into the night. We did this. After we were outside, we began yelling things like "ETHAN!!! NOOOOO!!!! ETHAN NOOOOO!!!! PLEASE!!!" mixed with our loudest, most anguished screams.

Almost immediately after we began expressing our disappointment to the night air, we heard running footsteps. Figuring that someone thought we were in trouble, we thought it best to vacate the scene. We turned and started walking in the opposite direction of our apartment. Then we saw two cops running towards us, their hands reaching for the firearms on their belts. Unbeknownst to us, they had been literally standing around the corner when we started shrieking into the very still night air.

My first thought was "Oh, crap. These police people think we were being raped by some guy named Ethan. That is not the case."

I decided to play it cool and keep walking away, because maybe they wouldn't notice me?

They noticed me.

They were like; "Ma'am! Please come back here. Are you two okay?" all concerned and stuff. Cool roommate and I looked at each other sheepishly and were all "yeah..."

They asked us why we were screaming. I responded by saying; "We were extremely dissatisfied with the ending of a movie."

They reminded us that it was quite late at night (actually, it was pretty early in the morning, but I wasn't exactly in the position to correct them). And expressed concern for our safety, as we were yelling as if we were being attacked. They were pretty annoyed. I suppose this is reasonable, I'm sure they thought they were about to get some serious police-y action, which is probably pretty rare in Prove, Utah. I am sorry to have disappointed them.

We promised to stop making loud panicked screams and said we would return to our place of residence. (although we walked around to a different entrance to our building so they wouldn't see where we lived and then come back to arrest us or something) As we walked away, the more good-natured of the two asked us "By the way, what was the movie?"

We told him.

He told us that he agreed that the ending was horrible.

Well, at least our screaming was justified.

-E

The Possessed Nature of the Bicycle

When I was younger, I loved the whole bike-riding/roller-blading scene. I was good. And by good, I mean I can only recall one instance where I was riding my bike downhill and somehow ended up careening over the handle bars and skidding nose first on the pavement, earning myself a lovely scar.

Not until I arrived at college did I truly understand the real nature of the bicycle: all bikes are possessed by evil spirits. Possibly the same evil spirit that possessed the little girl in the movie The Exorcist, but that has yet to be determined. No matter where the evil spirits originate, the fact remains that bicycles inherently have it out for me. I described in a previous blog post my first experience with bikes in college. Well, I have another piece of evidence to prove the demonic intentions of bicycles.

On this particular evening, I attempted to do a good deed. Jennikins, my cute little blonde roommate was planning to take a test that would determine whether or not she wanted to drop out of a certain science class of immense difficulty. At our University, the Testing Center is a building with the sole purpose of providing a location where tests are administered. In this way, we are able to take exams any time within a given window rather than taking in-class exams. The tests are administered upstairs in the building, and as you exit after finishing your exam, you walk down a set of stairs. At the bottom is a TV monitor that displays the scores to scantron tests, so if your test was multiple choice, you can see your grade immediately. Then you exit through the adjacent door. It is common for friends to leave notes of encouragement or support on a window ledge so that as you exit the testing center, you will see them.

We (meaning me and adorable roommate) knew that Jennikins was probably going to be distraught at the conclusion of her test. We therefore decided that we would leave her a note. Unfortunatlely, we decided this after she had been gone for about an hour. The testing center is at least a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We figured she would probably not be done with her test in that time frame, but we didn't want to waste 30 minutes walking if we would miss her. We decided to ride bikes to the testing center to leave her our supportive note.

Here I must inform you that I am somewhat athletically challenged. I am only mildly coordinated when I have both feet on the ground, so when you throw in WHEELS, I am definitely ill-equipped to handle myself. Adorable roommate had a bike (I say "had" because it has since been impounded). This was our only mode of transportation. For whatever reason, we decided that fitting both of us on that bike would be unwise (although we knew it was possible because this was after our experience described in my previous post). We went to find someone who would lend us a bike. We found a boy. I like boys.I also like getting what I want from boys. So naturally, we convinced this boy to let us borrow his bike. If he knew at that time how uncoordinated I was (although I must admit that I think it was entirely the bike's fault for being difficult to ride), he probably would have decided against loaning out his precious bike.

I assumed that this bike would be somewhat easy to ride as I am roughly the same height as the male that we borrowed the bike from. I did not anticipate, however, that his bike would be so utterly dangerous and useless. The seat was really tall, and when I finally mounted the thing (that took a while- it was much more complicated than mounting a horse.) my feet did not reach the ground. In fact, they barely reached the pedals. Also, this bike was designed so that the rider would need to lean forward on the handle bars while riding it.

So here I was, following my adorable roommate. It was then that I realized the last time I had successfully ridden a bike was probably when my age still matched my shoe size. I spent the majority of that bike ride yelling "MOVE! I CAN'T CONTROL THIS DEMON BIKE!" at innocent passers-by. When there were no passers-by, I simply chanted "I hate this bike. I hate my life, and I HATE KYLE!" Of course I blamed Kyle for owning a faulty bike. Therefore, I had to let the world know that I hated him and that it was his fault that I was unsteadily mounted on a bike that I had yet to figure out how to dismount.

We finally arrived at the testing center, and as I was unable to reach the ground, I discovered the only way to stop was to position myself next to a grassy patch and fall over. This bike was effing heavy. It hurt me when it pinned my legs beneath it.

We left our note for Jennikins and turned around to head home. It was difficult to get started and almost immediately after we got going, I almost hit some person and had to swerve to avoid them. I ended up crashing into a light post. At least it was next to some grass, but that landing definitely hurt more than my purposeful falling... It took me several minutes to get out from beneath the bike, during which I was yelling loudly my dislike for Kyle and for bikes and for Kyle's bike.

Eventually, my adorable roommate noticed that I had crashed and she returned to laugh at me. She remained on her bike. I somehow managed to get out from under the bike that must be made out of lead or some kind of really heavy rock imported from Mars or something. I also managed to get back on the bike by climbing up the lamp post and then kinda throwing myself over the bike until I was somewhat steadily back on the bike.

On our return trip, I yelled my chant of "I hate this bike, I hate my life, and I HATE KYLE!" even louder, receiving several bemused and even more confused looks from those that I passed. I think I crashed in the middle of the road near our apartment building while swerving out of the way of a car or something... I don't remember.. oh yeah, and neither of us were wearing helmets because we are cheap and don't own any.

When I returned the bike to Kyle, I noticed that the handles were slightly bent. I don't think he noticed because I was too busy telling him how his bike was possessed by demons who were hell-bent on removing me from the face of this earth. He didn't seem very amused.Then we played musical chairs.

And this, my friends, is why you should only do a good deed if it is convenient. Or you should make sure the person you are risking your life by riding a demon bike that probably would have bucked you off if it had the opportunity is worth it. Jennikins is definitely worth it. And she appreciated our efforts to give her a note.

-E

Thanks for the ride, Uncle George.

At the very beginning of Fall semester this year, our ward (for those of you who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a ward is our term for a congregation at church) had the first "break the fast" of the semester (for those who don't know what this is: on the first Sunday of each month Mormons fast for 24 hours and donate the money we would have spent on food for those meals to the church's system of feeding those who cannot feed themselves. In designated singles wards [meaning all the people who attend are young and unmarried] we have a party-esque meeting on Fast Sunday evenings where we get together to break our fast with yummy food) ANYWAY. The first break the fast was held at the house of one of the members in our Bishopric. Although this was very generous, I don't think our leaders realized that for a ward containing a large amount of young college students, the vast majority of whom did not have a car, it was unwise to hold an activity 3 miles from our apartment complex. (They have since remedied this by holding activities at more convenient locations)

At this point in time, none of the six of us (me and my roommates) had automotive transportation. We decided that we would ride bikes there, even though only two out of the six of us had bikes, and one of those bikes had two flat tires. We were not deterred.

We unsuccessfully attempted to fit all six of us on one bike (remember, the other bike had flat tires and as college students, none of us wanted to invest in a bike pump). We literally spent at least 45 minutes trying to configure ourselves onto a bike. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, and we were not about to let the evil bike win. At some point, I think we toppled over and the bike crushed me (I should have realized then that I would not be getting along with bikes ever again.). After several bumps and bruises, we realized that it was really only logical to fit three on one bike. (because of course, that seems logical...) We rode around in circles this way for a bit and decided we could make it work. However, some of our male friends saw us through their apartment window and were rightly outraged at our dangerous attempts at transporting ourselves. (In reality, I believe we knocked on their window to draw their attention to our idiotic exploits, trusting in the righteous indignation that would surely fuel them into assisting us in our quest.) Regardless of how these young men noticed us, we somehow ended up trying to convince them to loan us a bike (none of them had cars either). After successfully being unable to attain a bike, we decided to seek other alternatives.

My roommate who shall be referred to as Cat Lady told us that she could probably convince her uncle to give us a ride.We all agreed that this would be best. Uncle George showed up to take us to the random house that we had never been to before, nor did we know the exact location of. An increasingly awkward car ride ensued. Uncle George seemed quite annoyed at our plight, and the fact that we were all very compressed in the back seat of his car did not seem to make him any happier. As I recall, the ride was partially filled with silence broken up by our pleading glances to one another and partly Uncle George telling us that we would need to find our own way home because he had better things to do than pick us up later in the evening. We were all wondering how we would manage the three mile trek back home in our heels, navigating the labyrinth of unfamiliar Provo neighborhoods.

Eventually, we arrived at what we thought was the correct address (in reality we were approximately two houses down.) Once the car came to a halt, my cool roommate opened the door and began to disembark. With one foot out the door, and approximately 50 percent of her weight distributed within the confines of Uncle George's vehicle, the car lurched forward. I couldn't help but chuckle at the disgruntled state of my roommate's predicament. Her forward motion caused her to move in a continuous trajectory, forcing her to stumble out of the car. Uncle George continued driving, apparently unaware that one of his passengers was no longer in the cluttered back seat. My cool roommate tried to walk alongside the car as we shut the door and continued driving. Her bewildered look was matched with ours and we all chuckled as we drove a few more feet, arriving at the correct address. (I think it is worth mentioning that at this point, we had been living together for a week or two and did not really know one another very well.) We thanked Uncle George for the ride and carefully left the car, attempting to withhold our laughter until we were a safe distance from the vehicle. We still talk about our wonderful exploits with Uncle George's car...

We had our Bishop give us a ride home after the activity.

-E

All Humans Resemble Animals.

I have long believed that every person resembles a specific animal. When I was younger (and actually, I still do this...) I would look around at a crowd of people and assign an animal to them. It's sort of like a game for the cruel-minded who also enjoy playing "your team" (maybe I'll write a post about that game some day...).

Recently I shared this thought with my roommates and consequently, we sat down and came up with animals for everyone we know. So here we go.

This is a photo of my roommates (note: this was from last semester so the one on the far right has since moved out and been replaced)

Let's begin left to right.

On the far left is "starmate" who I share a bedroom with. We decided she most closely resembles some sort of cute mole/sloth that burrows into the ground where she hibernates and lives in pajamas. Also, she is so little that she would probably literally fit inside a mole's house. (Seriously, her feet are approximately half the size of my feet.)

Next we have C-Crayon, or the "cool roommate" who most closely resembles a peacock. She wears bright colors that look like peacock feathers. Also, she is tall and I assume that peacocks are also tall. Also, as I previously mentioned, she is cool and unique as are peacocks.

The shortest one is my adorable roommate. Isn't she adorable! At first, I thought she looked like a guinea pig or something, but on closer examination, we decided she is more like a lemur. More specifically, the really cute little lemur in the animated movie Madagascar. (the one that almost dies all the time)

I'm next. I claim that my animal is magical unicorn with special sparkle powers... However, one is not allowed to assign an animal to herself. I was informed last night that I am a black lab. I have no complaints as the black lab is the superior dog and dogs are the superior animal.

Cat Lady is next. You may think this is too obvious to be true, but she is a cat. Mostly because she meows at random intervals and one time I saw her untie starmate's boyfriend's shoes by batting at them while meowing on all fours on the kitchen floor. This may seem odd. I assure you it is every bit as strange as it sounds. In the best way possible.

Finally, we have Jennikins. Who moved out and deserted me. But we are in the same Statistics class this semester, so I still get my fill of her fun stories about weekend exploits ;-) Her favorite animal is a dinosaur, however, she looks nothing like a dino therefore that is not the animal she most closely resembles. Jennikins is what I like to call "fun sized" because she is so little that her size resembles a baby candy bar, like a fun-sized candy bar... Anyway. If she was an animal she would be a My Little Pony. She would have tattoos of stars and hearts on her butt and a tail made of rainbow sparkles. Probably she would prance around a plastic field and chuckle with the other carefree little ponies. If she ever got mad her little pony nose would snort fairy dust (not as in drugs, as is in literal dust from fairies) and she would stomp her pink and purple little hoof. It would be too cute to take seriously.  ;-)

We have come up with animals for pretty much everyone we know. They range from ferocious lion to fish to a range of different dog breeds to giraffes and birds and stuff. We even named a few people after Pokemon. It's a fun game while you are sitting in church or a large lecture hall or if you are perusing "the menu" (that's what we call the photo-directory of everyone in our church congregation). 

Your eyes have now been opened. You are welcome.

-E

I Live with 5 Females.

After my last post, my roommate referred to as "other roommate" demanded that I give her a name in future blog posts. I therefore decided to write a blog post about my roommates. I'll try to focus on the positive aspects of them. Not that there are any things I dislike about them...  ANYWAY. We are all college students and live in an apartment together (there are six of us).

1) The female I share a room with is hereby dubbed "starmate" I choose this name because she loves Star Wars a lot. I wake up in the morning and when I get out of bed, the first thing I see is the huge Star Wars posters that adorn the walls above her bed. She also loves Lord of the Rings. a lot. I've never read those books before, I'm a big Harry Potter fan though... Anyway... she also skypes her boyfriend often, works at Subway, borrows my hair straightener every morning, stays up past my bedtime, and used to have a haircut like Rapunzel does at the end of Tangled but then she cut it even shorter. (by the way, I think that Rapunzel's name should be Flower in that movie... It's not REALLY the story of Rapunzel, and they refer to her as Flower several times...)

2) My adorable roommate. She is so adorable. She is half Mexican, wears lots of cute vintage clothing, and has stacks of cups on her desk at all times because she always drinks out of a straw and requires a new cup after all of the liquid in her cup has been sucked up. One time, she made this soup stuff out of some animal's guts... It made our kitchen smell really horrendous. She wants to be a doctor, and often shares interesting anatomical facts with us because she is taking an anatomy class where she looks at dissected humans. We have a class together this semester and we usually sit on opposite ends of the classroom. One day, I waved to her and then made a little kissy-face complete with head nod and lip smacking. These gestures were intercepted by a random guy sitting between us. He pointed to himself and mouthed "me?" at the exact same time my adorable roommate did the same. As I was looking at adorable roommate, I nodded my "oh yeah" nod. Random guy looked all happy and smug, that is when I realized my mistake and was like "oh! not you... I was talking to her! sorry..." and then he looked embarrassed... Anyway... adorable roommate also looks kinda like a lemur. Like the cute little ones in the movie Madagascar.

3) The roommate that shares a room with adorable roommate is the one that wanted a nickname. We affectionately refer to her as "C-Crayon" because her name begins with a C... I'll refer to her as cool roommate. She has wonderful taste in clothing and accessories, loves foreign films, has sweet dance moves, and is generally really trendy and cool. She is going to study theater education, which I'm sure she'll do really well at. One time I helped her practice for a scene for one of her drama classes. We got to yell at each other and throw things around. It was fun.

4) In the final bedroom lives Cat Lady. I call her that because she has a strange obsession with cats. No joke. Personally, I am a dog lover and have held a grudge against the cat population ever since a cat swiped my precious puppy's nose, leaving her with a fear of cats for the rest of her life. Anyway, Cat Lady makes a lot of rice and pasta. She also cooks meat after leaving it sitting out all day to thaw which always kinda reminds me of monkey brains or something... Cat Lady wants to study business, just like me. She's a bit cutthroat, so I'm sure she'll make it in the corporate world... in the best possible way... Cat Lady is a very nice girl. Also, she is allergic to cats, but still meows often and says "kitty" in a high-pitched squeal every time she sees a cat.

5) Cat Lady's roommate is The Italian. She moved in with us in January. She is Italian, and makes yummy smelling garlic bread and pasta and stuff. She is very sweet and I have nothing negative to say about her. I like her. Also she wears a lot of cute shirts.


So. there we go. These are my roommates for at least another month. They are lovely people. We watch Once Upon A Time together and sometimes share food and toilet paper.

-E

Blue Banana

Living with roommates is great. sometimes. Tonight is one of those great nights. I have one roommate who is absolutely adorable. Her gullible nature makes her extremely fun to mess with. Often, she'll spout out an idea of questionable goodness. In these cases, I typically just look at her and say nothing and then she has these cute little conversations with herself that go like this, "No? ... Oh, okay. not a good idea. okay. it's good! bad idea..."

I love adorable roommate.

So tonight, my other roommate walks into the kitchen, where I was innocently watching 30 Rock, and tells me that in a minute, she and adorable roommate are going to come into the kitchen and at that time, she will tell us a joke that is complete nonsense. At this time, I will laugh hysterically and adorable roommate will be confused and try to figure out the meaning of the joke...

This situation played out perfectly.

The joke went as follows:

"so there was a couple walking along the beach, and an alien UFO landed and two aliens come out. They look at the couple, they look at each other, and they say: 'Blue Banana'"

Adorable roommate was extremely confused. We got our two other roommates in on it too. They came out and the joke was retold and they laughed hysterically.

Adorable roommate is currently google searching possible meanings for this joke.

I hope your evening was as humorous as mine. :-)

-E

Agency: An Inherent Right

 The following is a posting for my American Heritage class at BYU. The assignment was to write a substantial blog post about something that relates to our class discussions. We have had several class discussions on slavery. The discussion that caught my interest the most was a comparison between agency and freedom. This posting directly relates to our class discussions. In writing this paper I realized the differences between agency and freedom and the most basic reasons why slavery is immoral.

        

         One of the greatest powers given to mankind is the ability to decide. Recently in my American Heritage class, we have been discussing slavery in America’s history. The immoral nature of the practice of enslaving another human needs no emphasis. However, it is interesting to take a deeper look at why slavery is such a cruel behavior. While many other factors contribute to this moral debauchery; at the most basic level, slavery is immoral for its implicit and total removal of an individual’s agency.

It is essential to make a distinction between freedom and agency. For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the concept of agency is an ever-present gift that was bestowed upon all of mankind by a loving God. The purpose of having agency, or the freedom to make our own decisions while on this earth, is so that we may choose to follow a path that will lead us to liberty and eternal life, or to captivity and death. We are free to make the decisions, but the consequences are eternal in nature and therefore we accept the consequences that have always existed. Freedom, by comparison, is a legal right to act according to one’s desire. Freedom is not guaranteed to all humans based on the merit that humans are on the earth. Rather, freedom is guaranteed to those who are constituents to a government whose policy grants freedom. The laws of man restrict freedom, while agency is restricted by the consequences of God.

In this way, a person can maintain their agency when freedom is taken from them. For instance, in cases of indentured servitude in colonial America, servants maintain a God-given ability to make decisions that will affect their eternal progression. However, they agree to give up freedom for a period of time in exchange for passage to America. Slavery differs from this model not only in nature of the work and the treatment of the enslaved being, but also in the allocation of agency and freedom. A slave’s freedom is taken away from them forcibly under the laws of the government.  An indentured servant chooses to give up freedom, using their agency to remove that freedom. A slave is not given the opportunity to practice agency because their ability to decide is compromised by forces outside of their control. They become the property of their owner, thereby having no freedom whatsoever. Not only does a slave lack freedom, they also lack the ability to gain that freedom back, thereby removing their agency.

One may question whether or not it is possible to remove a person’s agency when agency is a gift given unconditionally to mankind by God. While it is true that all are born with a natural right to agency, the actions of some impair others’ ability to recognize, utilize, and maintain agency. Murder is an example of an action that removes a person’s agency, and consequently, is one of the most serious sins that can be committed. When an individual is murdered, they lose the ability to make choices in this life. Cutting a person’s agency short robs them of the gift and intentions of God.

While slavery does not hack away at a person’s tethers to this physical world in the same sense as murder does, it interferes severely with that individual’s agency. A slave, particularly one who was born into slavery, lacks not only their freedom to make decisions, but also their agency. They are literally the property of another person and therefore, are at the complete mercy of their owner’s agency. Slavery literally takes a person captive and places them in an inescapable situation.

In American history, slavery is most closely associated with the slave trade from Africa. In that situation, slaves brought to the American continent were in an unfamiliar territory, had no access to proper education, and were dependent completely upon their master. Because of this, even if they could escape, their options would be limited to a degree that would make life unlivable. In this way, a slave’s only option was to follow the will of the slaveholder. Total submission to another human being is the process of giving agency to that individual. Therefore, a slaveholder holds not only the slave’s freedom, but also their agency.

Agency is the force that gives decisions in life weight. In this way, the worth of a life can be summed up in the way that person chose to use their agency. When agency is forcibly taken from a person, that individual is no longer the master of his or her fate. Slavery is the act of stripping a person of freedom and more importantly, agency. The distinction between agency and freedom is important to note, however, in the case of slavery, both rights are withheld from the slave. Utilizing agency is one of the most important practices in this earthly life. Because of the total destruction of agency, slavery is one of the most immoral practices that man can encounter.  

Genesis

So I have decided to keep a blog. Part of this stems from vain rivers of thoughts in my mind that try to convince me that my thoughts are worth sharing, part of this comes from my passion for writing and the potential that I could have an outlet for that while still pursuing a more lucrative career path. And mostly, I need to keep a blog for a class. (more posts to come).

Whatever my reasoning, it remains unlikely that others will enjoy reading my thoughts, but honestly, I don't really care. I don't really expect anyone to take interest in what I've got to say, but I'm still going to say it. Maybe that's one of my problems, I think that what I have to say deserves more merit than it really does. Regardless, It'll be nice to have a receptacle to put my thoughts and writings in other than my overcrowded mind. Think of this like a pensive. (sorry for the HP reference...)

Anyway, for the few (or none) of you reading this: this is the beginning of a journey through uncharted waters that might drown me, might contain a brick wall that I'll hit tomorrow and never post again, and might prove to be smooth sailing. We shall see...

Have a lovely day.

-E