Pride & Prejudice

I decided to start listening to books on CD during my drive to school and back every day. It adds a little flavor and pleasure to the otherwise occasional dullness and monotony. The last 2 weeks I listened to Pride & Prejudice. I don't know why I've never read it before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book is always better and allows you to better come to know the characters as there is more development and insight into their thoughts. I always wondered how the heck Elizabeth could fall so madly in love with Mr. Darcy after despising the man so much. Just didn't make any sense. Turns out Mr. Darcy is actually not the proud one. Elizabeth herself was the one casting prejudice through the eyes of her own pride. Just think, what would have happened if she had not realized her own pride? She would have missed out on Mr. Darcy! I wonder what we all miss out on due to our own pride limiting our views?

Something to think about. After listening to the book, I then watched the movie (Keira Knightley version) and could appreciate it much more. Someday I will watch the Colin Firth version..... I don't foresee having 5 extra hrs. any time soon to watch it though, unfortunately.

My New Pleasure Reading......

Summer Plans

SCHOOL IS OUT!! I have been waiting for this day for a while now. It is going to be a glorious summer, especially since I have a whole 3 months off. We don't go back to school until after Labor Day. I am also taking a break from my Master's so I can play, play, play stress-free. I plan to spend lots of time out in the sun reading, mtn. biking, hiking, swimming, etc. I DO have a few things planned, however...

Trips

1. Arizona - my little sis is getting married. Aaaah!
2. California - visit a friend in San Francisco, little sis's reception in Sacramento
3. Idaho - rafting down the Snake with some friends
4. Mexico, Cancun - soak up sun on beach & explore ruins with friends
5. China, Beijing - organized tour with other teachers. Great Wall here I come!
6. Lake Powell - boating & camping with the fam
7. Oklahoma - visit Sonya & Tyler (just got accepted to dental school there!)
8. Cross country drive with my Pops to Maryland (he'll be teaching at Frostburg State University in the Fall)
9. Spain is also a possibility....

Utah Checklist (Other things to do)

1. Moab
2. Lava Hot Springs
3. Hike Timp
4. Tube the Provo River
5. Wakeboarding
6. Baseball games
7. Ensign Peak
8. Mtn. Biking
9. Salt Flats
10. Outdoor concerts
11. Rodeos

Books to Read
I read 9 books last summer, so I have a new goal....10 books. I have to beat my record. Here's some books on my list that I want to read. Do you have any other good suggestions? Your favorite books?

1. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
2. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
4. Think by Michael R. LeGault
5. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
6. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
7. Temples and Cosmos by Hugh Nibley
8. The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball

As you can see, I have a FUN FULL SUMMER ahead of me! Glorious! I'll keep you updated on the way.

Read-aholic

I love reading, no doubt about it. I read some GOOD books this summer, not too many novels but great books. My goal for the summer was 10 books and I fell short by one. Ah man, only 9 books?! That's still pretty incredible I must say. There's still so many more I want to read, but it'll have to wait till next summer. Here's my list (in the order read) and I recommend them ALL to you. although here's my star rating system. 5 *'s = must read. Let me know if you want to know the author.

*****Outliers
***The Five People you Meet in Heaven
**Green Grass Running Water

*****West With the Night - a favorite
*****Diary of a Wimpy Kid - hilarious
*****Three Cups of Tea
*****The World is Flat
****Freakonomics
**The Little Prince

Outliers

I just finished reading this book today and I loved it! It's a must read. Malcolm Gladwell makes so many connections that people never even think about. But he puts it forward so straight and simple to make perfect sense. The book is about Success and how people come to be successful. I won't say much about it because you need to read it, but it will surprise you to find out just how people do become successful. He puts it in the context of opportunity and cultural legacy, which we so often put in the context of pure talent and genious.

Gladwell has also written Blink and The Tipping Point, my other two FAVORITE books. He just gets you really thinking about things and how they work. It's fascinating to me. Gladwell writes for The New Yorker and I plan to catch up on all of his columns real quickly.

Oh my heck. I folded and wrote him an email today. Yeah, I know I joined the fan clubs out there. Scary. I don't expect to hear back from him, but................

Television vs. TV...........TV vs. Books

Television vs. TV. What's the difference anyway? I wish I could give you some intellectual fancy answer, but guess what....there is no difference!! Ha, you probably already knew that. I just needed a better way to start my post than the norm.

So June 11 was the famous (or infamous if you don't have a new tv like me) switching of the analog to digital formats. Oh wait....I didn't even have a tv that worked before. Or rather Lisi didn't. Her short fat stubby little thing would starting blinking out after being on for a while. Kind of reminding you to blink yourself while you watch tv. Have you ever watched someone watching tv? It's quite entertaining, but also quite sad. Anyway, this blinking out got to be very annoying very fast. So, I basically never watched tv. I haven't really missed it, except for those long days when you come home and don't really want to do a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g. I think you know what I'm talking about.

So neither Lisi nor I will be purchasing a new tv in the near future. One of these days we'll head "Back to the Future" but for now it's Back to the Stone Age. Plus, who doesn't like reading a good book?? If you don't, you're missing out.

As Ray Bradbury once said, "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." And that is essentially what television is doing to us, or rather we are doing to ourselves.......destroying our own culture.

Arizona & Utah Sweetness

Last week was my Spring Break - kind of late, I know. But now I only have 6 weeks of school left! So Lisi and I drove home to AZ for the week to enjoy the warmth. I heard we missed a big snow storm in UT...or something like that :) We were home just in time for Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny even came to visit me! I think I ate one too many jelly beans.....

So most of the time at home I spent outside (running, hiking, biking) and also reading. I read 4 books in 5 days: The Alchemist, The Screwtape Letters, The Tipping Point and Tuesdays With Morrie...all really good books and I highly recommend them.

So we picked up a friend of Lisi's in Phoenix on the way back up and the 3 of us spent 2 FULL days driving back to UT. We made many numerous stops along the way to play a bit and fully enjoy the outdoors.

Stop #1 - Besh-Ba-Gowah, Globe AZ. These are old Indian ruins that we have driven by a million times so Lisi and I finally decided to stop and see them. They're pretty rad and you can even explore inside. All you Thatcherites, you need to see this!

Stop #2 - Montezuma's Castle, Camp Verde AZ. We didn't actually see it because you had to pay $5 and you didn't even get to explore. It's an old Indian cliff dwelling. We just decided it wasn't worth the five bucks.

Stop #3 - Sedona AZ. We basically just drove through because we didn't have much time, but I've always heard how spectacular it is. I want to come back and hike/bike around. It's comparable to Park City I'd say.

Stop #4 - Sunset Crater, Flagstaff AZ. This is an old volcano that I thought you could hike in and around the top, but you can't. Go figure. There are some pretty cool lava flows all around it though.
Stop #5 - Wupatki National Park, Flagstaff AZ. Many of you know that I absolutely LOVE to explore old ruins. Well, after teaching my Winterim on Native Americans, I really wanted to see these Indian ruins. There were old pueblos in several different places located pretty close together. They were amazing!

Stop #6 - The Grand Canyon, AZ. I hadn't been here since I was about 8 or so years old and I've always wanted to go back. It was a bit of a detour, but well worth it! We got there about dark so we stayed in Tusayan. The next morning we spent a good amount of time at various viewpoints, then we also took a short hike down in to the Ooh-Aah Lookout Point. Ooh Aah - Look at those views! There's also a pretty sweet old lookout tower you can climb up in....

Stop #7 - Lake Powell / Glen Canyon Dam, UT. We wanted to stop and swim, but we just ran out of time, plus the water would be a bit chilly. So we stopped at the dam instead - great views!

Stop #8 - Dinosaur Museum, Page UT. Isn't this a great picture? I love it. So I didn't even know it, but they find dinosaurs bones all the time around the cliffs of Lake Powell. They've found over 100s of species and just 5 weeks ago they found a T-Rex!! Sweetness!

Stop #9 - Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Kanab UT. This was our last & final stop. Running around on the dunes and getting sand everywhere.

Twilight

I did it. I read Twilight. I was stuck on the whole falling in love with a vampire thing and really had no desire to read it. Everybody always talks about it, though, and now the movie is coming out so I decided I would only read the first one, that's it. I actually liked it, but a few things bothered me like.....

-Edward didn't even bother to hide what he truly was. He just straight up answered Bella's questions. That's no fun.
-She wasn't even scared of him in the least bit. Kind of odd don't you think? Even when he kept telling her he could kill her any time he wanted (didn't like that either).
-The romance was more of a college level romance than high school.

Other than that I really enjoyed it! I won't be reading the rest though, mostly because I have no extra time to. I had a good friend give me the synopsis of the other books.....Hey, I was just dying to know if she became a vampire or not!