Monday, August 25, 2008

Personal Mosaic

Concept: 1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. 2. Using only the first page, pick an image. 3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php (choose four columns and three rows, also choose individual URL's)
Questions:
1. What is your first name? (Scott)
2. What is your favorite food? (Mexican Food)
3. What school did you go to? (Cal State San Bernardino)
4. What is your favorite color? (Brown)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Scarlet Johansson)
6. Favorite drink? (Milk)
7. Dream vacation? (Italy)
8. Favorite dessert? (Chocolate Covered Pretzels)
9. What you want to be when you grow up? (Dad)
10. What do you love most in life? (Amanda)
11. One word to describe you. (Nerd)
12. Your nickname. (Scotty)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

New Ender Book

For everyone out there who loves the Ender series this one's for you. Ender in Exile will be a direct sequel to Ender's Game and is due out for release November 11, 2008! I just pre-ordered mine (which maxes out my book budget through November, oh well) and I kind of have a netflix for book type thing going. I get a new book this week (hopefully), a new one another couple weeks later, two new ones in mid-October, and now this in November. I know, it's a sickness this Bibliophilia.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Of Appendicitis, Hernias, and The 9th Wonder of The World (i.e. our vacation weekend)

Well, this weekend (Thur-Sun) Amanda and I took off for a vacation before school got hectic again (by hectic I mean I am only taking one class right now, just eight hours of study a week and 40 hour work weeks, not too bad, ha ha). Anyways, Thursday starts off with me getting to sleep in, woo hoo!! that part was good. Then after waking up around 12pm I studied for six hours for my evening class, went to that for three and a half hours, stayed after for an hour and a half hours for an extra credit psychological study that this lady was doing for her doctorate degree. This put me out of school around 10:50pm (where Amanda was waiting outside to pick me up). This gave me a round total of 11 hours of Organizational Behavior on Thursday and one fierce headache & complete lack of ability to function. Amanda got me some food and took care of me, what an awesome wife!!

Just as I was settling down to watch Shooter in bed (now around 12:45am) Amanda says that she is having pain in her lower-front abdomen, has been nauseous, and had some other symptoms. After some discussion we decided that we think that where her pain is is also where your appendix is. So I tell Amanda to go on the internet and find out symptoms of Appendicitis, of which she ended up having many! Appendicitis' aren't things to be messed around with as they can kill you, so again I get on the trusty computer to find a local hospital (about 5 miles away, Nice!) while Amanda calls a nurse hot line to double check if we should be going or not. The Nurse says that it could be a number of things, but that we do need to go to the ER.

Now it's 1am in the morning and off we go, me with two comic books in tow, and Amanda with Memoirs of a Geisha to read. Now luckily at this particular hospital, the ER isn't packed at 1am in the morning, so we actually got in quick (took more time to fill out the paper work that to be admitted into a room). They put Amanda on an IV, then through a bunch of tests ranging from blood work to a CAT-scan in this initial process. The results: "Clinically," the doctor says to us, "it can't be diagnosed as Appendicitis, but the CAT-scan showed possible inflammation of the Appendix, so I've talked to the surgeon about your case and he will have to make the final decision if we are going to operate or not." (given the events of the wee morning did not happen so fast and there were great gaps of waiting in between). In the mean time they got us a room and admitted her to the hospital, by this time it was about 4am and the surgeon wasn't going to show up (supposedly) until 6-7am.

We then called Amanda's parents so they could come take over at 5:30am, and so Ken and I could give Amanda a blessing. They needed to come take over for me because Amanda was supposed to be watching G-ma Hendrickson who is at Mom & Dad's right now (so I took over, which meant I went to Mom & Dad's and finally got a few hours of sleep). I went back to the hospital around 11:45am. The surgeon had ended up coming around 10am to make the decision. He said it was not an Appendicitis and that it was possibly a hernia and made the decision to have Amanda get an Ultrasound to see what it could be (hernia?). Amanda got her Ultrasound shortly after I returned, which was around 12:15pm in the afternoon. During the Ultrasound they said that it was not a Hernia but that She had a muscle in a place where they had not seen one before! So they looked at the other side to see if the muscle was symmetrical (normal, not a weird growth seeing as there was only pain in one side) and it was! So they declared Amanda the Ninth Wonder of the World because the eighth was "that swimmer guy who won eight gold medals" (i.e. Michael Phelps).

Imagine, my wife the Ninth Wonder of the World, how exciting right? She got back around 12:45pm from the Ultrasound with this knowledge that nothing was wrong and we would be going home as soon as they reviewed the results. Well, EIGHT HOURS LATER (yes about 8:30pm), after much TV watching, naps, and me taking a quick break to eat and shower, the surgeon finally released us and we got out of the hospital (granted he came in around 7:40pm and it took nearly an hour for the release to happen.

From the Hospital we went to Papa John's to get Amanda some real food (that's right she didn't eat for over 19 hours of her hospital stay because there might have been a surgery) and then went over to her Parents to hang out a bit and relax. But all-in-all I can't complain too much cause Amanda and I were able to spend lots of quality time together and talk and cuddle on a hospital bed. Of course I forgot my camera (Nicole wouldn't have) so no pictures. That is my vacation so far! Woo hoo! But tomorrow looks pretty busy so we'll make the best of it and be grateful that nothing was wrong with Amanda (thank goodness!!!).

P.S. RESULTS OF THE POLL: Well, since I only received a consensus of two votes (both third place) on one of the books listed, I went with that one, which is the Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is pretty interesting so far. Also, the poll was a success because I found a lot of people who read my blog that I didn't know even had blogs. Thanks to all of you for making yourselves known. I also didn't hear from someone I thought I would hear from but I guess HEIDI had no input for me on what to read because of my No Stephanie Meyers clause.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Poll (Participation Required)

Well, right now I am reading a great book called Point of Impact by Stephan Hunter (for those who don't know, and I'll assume that's everyone, it is the basis for the movie Shooter, one of my favorites). The problem is this: I have so many books that I want to read that I don't know what to read next!! For me this has never been a problem, I always know which book I'm going to read next. So today when I was thinking about this (yes, I know it's sad that I think about it), I thought "maybe I'll blog about it and see what my readers (i.e. family) have to say about it?" Also at the same time it's a chance for me to see who else reads my blog apart from my sisters and brothers (hint, hint).
So here is the list of options (in no particular order):

-Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
-Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
-Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
-Eragon by Christopher Paolini
-Foundation by Isaac Asimov
-Total Recall by Piers Anthony
-The Folk of the Fringe by Orson Scott Card
-The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card
-Treasure Box by Orson Scott Card
-The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
-Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist
-A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
-Old Man's War by John Scalzi
-The Good Guy by Dean Koontz
-The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

Obviously I am open to suggestions but will place two restrictions:
1) My book budget is maxed-out through October so I probably won't be able to buy your suggestion (and I don't like libraries)
2) I WILL NOT READ the Twilight series (or The Host), sorry

So thanks to all in advance for your votes and let me know what you think. Also, if you haven't noticed, I have been keeping a list of books read along the side bar of this blog (I actually had to create a separate list for comic books) so you can see what I've read so far this year, Thank You to Lisa Kirtley for that idea.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

ONE YEAR!!!!!

Well, how time flies! I can't believe I have been married a year now. But like they say: Time flies when you're having fun. And what fun it is to wake up every morning next to the one that you love. Amanda is amazing and I couldn't ask for anyone better so I hope that she'll forgive me my little quirks and imperfections (I know, can you believe I have 'em? me quirky? haha). Anyways, the time has gone by so fast and I thought I'd share some pic's in review.






The day we were engaged
On the honeymoon, Amanda jumps for joy

Oakland Temple

Safari Trip
First Christmas
Snowfall in CA (Amanda's parents backyard in Fontana)
Space Rangers
??? fun with wedding deco, I guess
AE winter collection
Prep for the wedding
In Love.

Saturday fun/ REI vs. Bass Pro Shop

This month, because of a different school schedule, I have Saturday's off, so this Sat. Amanda & I went out and had some fun. I went to Barnes & Nobel and picked up a collected work of Charles Dickens (5 books) and a copy of Peter Pan for Amanda. Then, I picked up Amanda from work and we went and walked through Bass Pro Shop and then REI. We decided that Bass Pro Shop is more like an Amusement Park whilst REI is more practical for any outdoorsy type (specifically I wanted to look at climbing equipment; i.e. climbing shoes, harness, rope, etc.), Bass Pro Shop had none of the above and was mostly clothes and fluff with big scenery. REI had everything I was looking for and it was easy to find. Plus, REI had everything in easy to find sections that were much smaller with more useful stuff.
Then we came home and had a three hour nap (Nice!!) and went to the grocery store so that Amanda could make some Amazing Nachos:
They are made with chips from a latin supermarket (Superior Grocery Store) that are Lemon Guajillo chips (important first ingredient; if not available, then normal chips with Tony's seasoning and lemon, or other spice will suffice), then some grilled chicken (on the handy George Forman Grill), refried beans on every chip, and topped off with Tillamook medium chedder cheese, olives and sour cream.
Then, after that refreshing meal, we set ourselves to cleaning the apartment and a little reorganization. Amanda worked on the kitchen and dining room, and I helped on the dining room and worked on the living room. After the cleaning, we changed up our dining room area in order to free up some space. The table used to be in the middle of the area shown and the bookcase was against the wall on the left (under the clock). This is the result. Whoo, what a day.Before (above) and After (Below)

Friday, August 1, 2008

Critical Thinking

I am taking an organizational behavior class right now from a professor who has a PhD in the subject and I really am enjoying the class and her perspectives. In class yesterday she said something I think we could all apply. She said "Critical thinking is key to all learning," and went on to define Critical thinking as "the questioning of everything." This was something that I thought was neat and wanted to remember it and share it with you all. How many of us apply this in our learning/educations? How many times do Church members question that which is presented to them as "fact" from less than reliable sources? Now obviously, you have to have some foundation, hence the scripture in 1 Corinthians 3:11 "for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ," or Ephesians 2:20 "and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Or the Book of Mormon being the keystone of our religion, et al. One things I have learned from brothers-in-law TJ and Chris is this "question everything" attitude, while I don't do it as often as they do I'm trying to open my mind more and more. And you know what? as I do so, my testimony grows stronger! Imagine that! "You mean to say that flexing your brain will help you learn and grow?" Yes! In a Church where "The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth" (D&C 93:36) and where agency is one of the principles upon which is built the entire cosmic multi-verse (see D&C 93:30-31) you would think the ability to practice critical thinking would be commonplace. Anyways, i just read TJ's post on his Mormon culture sins and was a little fired up.
How good are you at questioning new things presented to you? or, how good are you at critical thinking?
How do you react to cognitive dissonance? (where cognitive dissonance = the disparities between what you thought you knew as fact, and what the truth really is when presented to you).