For What It's Worth

Sing it Buffalo Springfield

Where To Live

I've been doing a little apartment shopping for when I move down to Provo next year and I'm not fully sure which direction to go. I've lived with 4, 6, and 8 people. I've lived in on campus apartments, off campus apartments, and a house. I've had a washer/dryer in my apartment, and coin operated ones. I've always have had a dishwasher. I haven't always had cable. I've never had my own room.

I've been checking out a few places on vacancy.com and I'm liking the idea of Heritage House. 

Now from my few experiences I have come to find some very necessary details. 

1. Washer/dryer in the apartment is a HUGE plus. I absolutely hate the coin machines. I hardly ever use cash which means I hardly ever own quarters, especially in copious amounts just to wash a load of laundry. Also, who likes carrying their dirty laundry across the apartments where everyone can see? And I swear I'm always cursed with the apartment furthest away from the laundry room. 

So far, Heritage House is looking good, washer/dryer included in the amenities list!

2. I really don't mind sharing a room so private rooms aren't a necessity for me but I have found that I enjoy living with a good number of people. (Good number meaning more than 4 but 8 is probably the limit.) Well, Heritage House has 6 private bedrooms, that would be a first for me but I definitely won't argue with those living arrangements. 

3. Bathrooms are very important. They can either make or break an apartment. My last semester we had tons of counter space, lots of mirrors, and plentiful outlets. (Just a reminder that I was living with 8 girls so that was an absolute need.) We didn't have the greatest showers, and essentially it was 4 girls to a bathroom but it was really just one large space. There are lots of fond memories in that beloved space. Do you remember our beloved chair?  Oh the loved memories of staying up late in the bathroom talking, nail painting parties, headbanging parties, music as loud as it will go while you shower, constant singing. Twas a good bathroom.

(I don't think Heritage House will have the same magical qualities but it's okay, we've taken the number down to only 3 to a bathroom.)

4. The kitchen is another area of large importance. I love dishwashers. And sadly, Heritage House doesn't have one. Instead it has 2 fridges, which is great when you live with 8 people, but there's only 6 living there. I think I would much rather have a dishwasher instead. 

5. And lastly the living room, the area of living, plays an important role in social entertaining. The house I lived in last semester was lacking serious proportions for the ideal living room. It was seriously tiny. But no matter. We made due and had a blast anyways. (Picture below shows how we would rearrange the living room for projector movie watching. It was terrible trying to get in or out of the apartment with the furniture this way. You could hardly open the door because the love sac was right in the middle of everything.)

But don't worry, the living room looks acceptable in Heritage House and after dealing with the Sunset Hall living room, I'm sure anything else will be just perfect. 

Anyways, check out Heritage Hall and if you have any suggestions for me on other lovely abodes to live in, tell me!

http://www.vacancy.com/utah/provo-apartments/heritage-house-763-2-priv-fwss-contracts/photos/

Slightly Oxymoronic

A very upbeat song to have lyrics like this...

p.s. why are there so many different ways to spell "Megan"?

July

Tonight I heard fireworks.
So I ran around the block barefoot,
searching for the best viewing spot.
I thought about last years month of July,
and the July before that.
I don't like the connections I found,
they're not very promising.
But being barefoot was nice.
I felt like I was living in an older America.
"The American Dream"
I found the big dipper, the north star, and Cassiopeia in the sky
amid all the fireworks.
It was nice,
could have been better.

Bath

I forgot about these pictures until Amberly reminded me with one of her posts. Lucky us Kamo has been declawed so no casualties on our end, except for how ugly she looks when she's wet. 

The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary

Please tell me that someone out there remembers playing this PC game...

Whit and I basically relived our childhood watching all 7 parts of this guys walk through. It was fantastic and completely worth it. 

Benjamin Franklin

So I've been reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and I am so impressed by this man. Firstly he was raised by a wise father who "liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children. By this means he turned our attention to what was good, just, and prudent in the conduct of life." I can only imagine what a huge impact this had on Franklin for he seemed on improving himself for the rest of his life. There was no petty gossip in his teenage life. He made friends with those who among himself, loved reading. They would go into the woods and read aloud to each other and discuss ideas, themes, poetry... I can't even imagine a group of boys in high school reading to each other like that. Too bad though, Franklin makes a good point later saying, "Influence upon the private character, late in life, is not only an influence late in life, but a weak influence. It is in youth that we plant our chief habits and prejudices; it is in youth that we take our party as to profession, pursuits and matrimony."

Another quote from him that I thought was very interesting about the religions of that time, "These I esteem'd the essentials of every religion; and, being to be found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, tho' with different degrees of respect, as I found them more or less mix'd with other articles, which, without any tendency to inspire, promote or confirm morality, serv'd principally to divide us and make us unfriendly to one another."

A few years later Franklin tells about 13 virtues which at that time were necessary and desirable to him. He gives his own definition of what they mean and puts them in a specific order at which to work at attaining them.
1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
"Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up... This being acquir'd and establish'd, Silence would be more easy. This and the next Order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my project and my studies. Resolution once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues; Frugality and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, ect., ect."
Franklin goes on to say, "I was supris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish."

Now can you imagine any leader of this nation right now having this on their mind? I would be shocked and surprised if any of them were striving like this to better themselves.

Anyways, one last quote.
"In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it."

Tolerance

"Until recently in our national history, tolerance referred to racial and religious non-discrimination. It meant civility in the political arena; in other words, respecting the right of others to express their views, even if we do not agree with them. It meant treating all people with decency and respect.

"Today, however, the world is in danger of abandoning all sense of absolute right or wrong, all morality and virtue, replacing them with an all-encompassing "tolerance" that no longer means what it once meant. An extreme definition of tolerance is now widespread that implicitly or explicitly endorses the right of every person to choose their own  morality, even their own "truth," as though morality and truth were mere matters of personal preference.

"Curiously enough, this new modern tolerance is often a one-way street. Those who practice it expect everyone to tolerate them in anything they say or do, but show no tolerance themselves toward those who express differing viewpoints or defend traditional morality.

"Now let us go one step further. Even in its original and correct connotation, tolerance is surely a secondary virtue in comparison with the far higher virtue of love. Certainly it is good to be tolerant of those who are different than we are, treating them with kindness and civility. But love, or charity, is the highest of all, and it is far better to genuinely love those with whom we differ."

"Life is not like a river but like a tree."

"We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good."  - C. S. Lewis

Interesting thought no? I've been thinking about his phrase of life being more like a tree than a river, but not in the religious good and evil sense. The other night I helped a friend prepare things for her wedding reception. I haven't seen her in a while and it was good to catch up but it seems that all old friends can catch up on is what everyone else is up to. I'm afraid I find myself slipping into those conversations more then I like but it's hard when you haven't seen someone for a long while. Things aren't as natural as they used to be. It's like you have to go through a polite greeting/get to know you again before you can delve. But then the delving isn't must deeper then the level of the kiddie pools. Life is like a tree. You all branch off in your own direction, move into your own life. You become more distant from each other, spreading into different regions, growing next to new branches. Then those branch off and you continue down your course in life. How many people from my high school do I still keep in touch with? There's a handful but everyone else is sporadic. How many people do I keep in touch with from college? I'm trying harder to stay with them, (let's be honest I was done with high school long before I graduated.) they're the more recent ones in my life. I seem to have difficulties with loosing touch with people but also with not caring about loosing touch. What a sad dilemma.
But through all these changes, I'm always closest with my family. That's more important then my friends I think. I know that people are put into my life, and I hope that I'm utilizing what they're teaching me, but my family is here to stay.