Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Craziness.

Today I woke up at what I thought was 9:40 a.m.  I was mad because that meant I was going to be late for my 10 a.m. volleyball class.  After I started getting ready, I realized it was only 8:40 a.m.  I love when that happens. Yes, I'm a little sad I could have slept for longer, but it gets me out of bed with time to get ready for once in my  life.  :)

Volleyball was good.  It's because I ate breakfast.  Haha.  Except, both of my earrings managed to fall out at separate times while playing.  I had to make everyone look for them both times.  I didn't want my the piercings to close.  I can finally change my earrings this Saturday!  Can't wait.

After volleyball, I went to work.  I was covering for someone.  If you haven't heard, there is this storm/blizzard that “will far surpass anything that we've seen, probably for the last several years.”  (According to the National Weather Service)  Supposedly it's heading straight for us.  Anyway, about 2:30, the library announces that since the rest of the campus is shutting down, the library is too!  It was great!  A little stressful trying to get everyone's books checked out while they were blasting the closing music.  But all is good!  It's not even snowing yet but according to one site, there is a 100% chance of precipitation tonight.  Can you even say that there is a 100% chance of anything in the future?  I don't think you can.  But whatever.  It's supposed to be -8 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill in Provo tonight.  Haha.  Should be interesting.  I'm excited.  I have a feeling it won't even snow.  But I guess I can count this as my first ever snow day!  Hurray!  That's about it.  Just in case you were wondering, I am in fact going to brave this large storm to go to the basketball game tonight.  :)

Saturday, November 20, 2010

It's been awhile...

You see.  I knew this would happen.  I would not post for a long time and then end up with some super long post like this one is going to be.  Don't worry.  I've been keeping a list of things to blog about.  Yes, I'm a nerd.  I'll try to limit the rambling.  Here goes...

1.  Every Thursday, Women's Chorus has a devotional.  This means we sing a hymn and have a spiritual thought in addition to the prayer before class.  Anyway, it never ceases to amaze me how good hymns sound sung by Women's Chorus.  I'm serious.  So good.  It's a shame we only sing one verse.  P.S.  I hate only singing one verse.  You could say it's a pet peeve of mine.

2.  BYU is a funny place.  For example, people will be studying by themselves in good ol' Harold B. Lee Library and then decide they want to go somewhere.  Obviously not somewhere super far, but far enough away that they cannot see their stuff.  They just leave their laptop and all sorts of valuable stuff laying there.  No, they don't even ask people to watch it.  They just leave.  It cracks me up.  And in case you're wondering I leave my stuff all of the time.  People are so trusting.  I guess it's a good thing.  :)

3.  Shoes.  I might be obsessed.  Okay, obsessed is not the right word.  But I just love, I mean LOVE, my Vans.  All three pairs in fact.  They are the greatest.  Here they are in Espana.


And I also love when I see other people wearing them.  I often catch myself just looking at other people's shoes while wandering around campus.  I also love my Rainbows.  But it's a little cold here in Provo so I haven't worn them as much lately.

4.  Cancelled classes are the best.  THE BEST.  Nothing makes me happier.  Okay.  That's a lie.  But as far as school goes, cancelled classes are great.

5.  Veteran's Day.  While I am still a little bitter that we didn't get school off, I still can't forget to blog about it.  I am SO thankful for all those who serve and have served our country.  I am so proud to be an American.  This country would not be the great place it is today without our armed forces.  Yes, our country is far from perfect, but I wouldn't ever want to live anywhere else.

6.  So you know how sometimes someone will ask a question in a public setting such as a lecture and then the person answering will totally not answer the question at all?  Yeah.  It's kinda funny and awkward.  And that is all I have to say on that topic.

7.  Lately, I have been wondering if President Samuelson ever wears anything other than a suit.  I am almost positive he doesn't.

8.  College basketball.  More specifically BYU basketball.  I LOVE IT.  A LOT.  I'm serious.  The home opener was super cool.  And we crushed Fresno State.  Their coached by Steve Cleveland who used to be BYU's coach.  I decided he looks exactly like a basketball coach.  See picture below.


9.  College students will do almost anything for a free t-shirt.  I'm serious.  

10.  Utah is super dry.  Not that California is super humid.  But believe it or not, it is not as dry as Utah.  My hair is the biggest indicator of this change in humidity.  What I thought was not curly hair in California is way curlier than my hair in Utah.  My mother used to comment that she liked that girls in Utah always did something to their hair as opposed to just leaving it down.  While this is not entirely true, I have realized that perhaps the underlying reason for this phenomenon is that girls in Utah know that it's harder to have good hair in such a dry place.  Just a thought.

11.  Spain.  I want to go back.  Really bad.  It is so great.










12.  Grocery market.  My family always called it this.  In fact "grocery market" or simply just "market" means exactly the same thing "grocery store" does.  Not until this year did I realize that no one else calls it the "market".  Who knew?  

13.  The other day, we were at a stake fireside.  I was thinking about a time over the summer when Kellie, Emily, and I played baseball.  Or at least tried to play.  :)  We had softballs, baseballs, whiffle balls, and tennis balls.  Somehow, while sitting listening to the fireside and thinking about this baseball playing experience, I thought of the most hilarious thing ever.  What if someone decided that they wanted to break a car window with a tennis ball.  So they throw a tennis ball as hard as they possibly can at a the chosen car window.  And all that happens is that the tennis ball bounces back extremely fast and hits the person in the face.  For some strange reason, I thought this was HILARIOUS.  I laughed for quite some time.  :)

14.  Anna and Anna and I made crazy cake the other day.  Why it is called crazy cake, we do not know.  All we could think of is that it might be called crazy because it had vinegar in it and no eggs.  I liked it.  :)

15.  On Monday, I had to wake up early.  Okay so it was only about 8 a.m. :)  The purpose of this early awakening was so I could watch this movie that I had to for a class.  Quick plug for iTunes: their movie rentals through iTunes are extremely convenient.  Anyway, at one point in this movie, the characters were going to sleep.  I then realized I was jealous of these movie characters for getting to go to sleep.  Jealousy of sleeping movie characters, my friends, is one of the many signs of lack of sleep.   

16.  Editing is done best late at night/early in the morning.  The reason for this is simple.  It is harder to comprehend anything during this time.  Thus, whatever you are editing will end up being extremely clear.

17.  Laceless shoes are the best.  Especially in the rain.  

18.  Life-size cardboard cutouts.  I don't like them.  They are kinda creepy.  And what are the purpose of them anyway?  I guess they do succeed at getting my attention every time, but I still do not like them.

19.  BYU vs. Utah State basketball game.  SO GOOD.  We won 78-74.  Besides the game itself being super exciting, the signs students made were quite comical.  There was the "Voldemort can't stop Jimmer" sign that was probably in celebration of Harry Potter.  Which I haven't seen and don't plan on seeing anytime soon.  I do not understand the hype.  There was also the "U applied to BYU."  I'll admit, kinda harsh.  Then there was, "You stormed the field???  We were 1-4" in reference to our football team's loss to Utah State this season.  Hilarious.  However, my favorite sign was the simple but direct, "You're not good."  Hahahahahahaha.  Emily and I later discussed how the sentence "You are not good" could either be "You aren't good" or "You're not good".  Or you could use the triple contraction and say "Yo'rn't good".  I like it.  :)  

20.  The word "snooze" is bizarre.  Simply bizarre.  While it could be my delirium, I am quite often unable to read the word.  It looks so strange on my phone.  In fact, once I thought the language on my phone had been changed because the word "snooze" looked so strange.

21.  I had volleyball class today which I love.  A few weeks ago, I ate five pieces of french toast before class and went on to play way better than normal.  I blocked a guy!  It was great!  So I decided it was the breakfast that made the difference.  However, today, I did not eat breakfast.  However, I did start watching Space Jam last night and had the Space Jam song stuck in my head this morning.  


Once again, I played some better than normal volleyball.  So I have come to the conclusion that one must either eat breakfast or listen to/sing Space Jam before class in order to play excellently.  What would happen if I ate breakfast and listened to Space Jam music on a Friday morning?  What a crazy thought.  :)

22.  Indoor tracks are funny to me.  Totally unnecessary in California.  :)

The end.  Aren't you glad to be done?  I sure am.  

P.S. Did I mention that Jimmer Fredette is on the cover of Sports Illustrated?  Well, he is.  So cool.



Thursday, November 11, 2010

Why I shouldn't have a blog.

So it is 1:12 a.m. and I could be finishing up homework.   But no.  I am blogging.  How did I know this would happen?  :)  Anyway, looks like it's gonna be another random thought post.

Well, I guess I'll focus on one random thought.  So I went to this performance by a bunch of the cultural clubs at the Wilk tonight for my World Music Cultures class.  That class is running my life.  Haha.  Not really.  But kinda.  :)  Anyway, one of the groups who performed was the Korean Association.  And you know what I realized?  I miss my Korean friends!!!!!!!  So yeah, BYU is diverse alright.  We have people here from every state and a ton of countries around the world.  However, besides white people, there is no massive group of any ethnicity here.  When I swipe people's ID cards at the library, their home address pops up.  So occasionally I'll see people with addresses from Nepal or India or Korea or Mexico (just to name a few), but really there are just a lot of white people at this school and in Utah in general.  I miss California.  For example, back in 2006, my high school was 33% Asian/Pacific Islander, 1% African American, 8% Latino/Hispanic, and 58% White/European American/Other.  I would insert a fancy chart at this point but I am not smart enough to figure out how to copy and paste one.  :)  Now these numbers don't even come close to the percentages of cool ethnic people in the city of Los Angeles that is extremely close to mi casa.  Just look at my home stake.  We have a Spanish ward, a Filipino branch, and a Korean branch!  Isn't it great?!  And the Arcadia mission, which is my home mission, is a bilingual mission.  Every missionary learns to teach in Spanish and English.  And you may be thinking to yourself that we aren't terribly diverse with 58% white people at my high school.   However, you must remember that the 58% included European Americans and Others.  I LOVE DIVERSITY!  :)  My point: I love my hometown and all the ethnic people who live there too.

Ok so this pictures is a bit deceiving.  All of these kids are actually all foreign exchange students from Asian countries.  It was at a summer camp I worked at.  But you get the point.  :)

Well, that's about it.  Happy Veteran's Day!  I'll write more about that later.  Oh don't you worry.  :)

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Random Thoughts for the Day.

First of all, I forgot in my last post that sometimes our orange juice goes bad too.  That absolutely never happened back home.  Orange juice is one of my top five favorite liquid beverages.  (Don't ask me what the other four are.)  So I can't stand to waste it.  This means I either leave it in the fridge forever or I pour myself a glass and drink it as fast as I can so I can't taste it.  :)

Random Thought #2.  I love snow!  It was snowing while it was sunny today!  It was so great!

Random Thought #3.  Balinese music is so interesting!  We just started studying it in my World Music Cultures class and it is super cool!

Random Thought #4.  All I want to do in life is read.  OK not entirely true.  But I do miss reading purely for enjoyment.  And it doesn't help that I work in a library where I am surrounded by books that look so good!

Random Thought #5.  I LOVE PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.  Seriously...true love.  I can't eat only one at a time.  And they aren't sweet enough to make you feel like you are gaining 75 pounds when you are eating them.  They are so good.  Anna Toone made them.  She's the best.

Random Thought #6.  Cheese is also one of my favorite foods.  The type of cheese does not matter at all.

Random Thought #7.  People (including myself) go crazy for sales.  Even cruddy sales.  It's funny.  :)

Not Random Thought #8.  The Lakers won again tonight!!!!!!!  Still undefeated.  :)  And the Jazz beat the Heat.  Hahahahahhahaha...sad.  :)

Alright.  The end.  Until tomorrow my friends.  :)

Monday, November 8, 2010

What I have learned in college this year.

Aside from the academic knowledge gained from my sophomore year thus far, I have learned some good practical life lessons.  Mostly about food.  :)  And mostly about what different foods looks like when they go bad.  These are the types of things one doesn't learn in a house of nine people simply because food gets eaten so fast it never has the chance to even think about going bad.  Rotten food makes me sad.  The truth is I wanted to eat it. I was even looking forward to eating it.  I just have so many great options, I can't possibly eat everything before it goes bad.  And you wonder why college kids eat junk.   It's because they can keep junk food forever and it doesn't go bad.  Here is the food I have had to throw away so far this year:

1.  Bread.  Since I somehow never have time to make a sandwich for myself (I'm not as smart as my father who makes them the night before), I sometimes just bring slices of bread to school.  So I broke out my bread slices in my World Music Cultures class and soon noticed they were moldy.  Disgusting.  Mold is seriously one of the grossest things ever.  For some reason I forgot that bread stays good longer when put in the fridge.  You see, this rule does not apply at the Ostler home because we go through about a loaf a day (especially during the school year).  From this experience, I have learned to put bread in the fridge.  And I remembered that you can freeze bread too!  What a concept!  :)

2.  Bagels.  This made me really sad because I splurge and buy the good freshly baked bagels.  I can't stand throwing any food away...especially bagels.

3.  Orange and yellow peppers.  Yep...they got mushy and fuzzy.  So gross.  I figured that since red and green peppers stay good forever, orange and yellow peppers would stay good equally as long.  False.  I have come to the conclusion that orange and yellow peppers go bad faster than red and green peppers because they are genetically altered vegetables...meaning not natural...which would make them weaker than natural colored peppers.  However, you will be pleased to know that I did use the non-mushy/fuzzy parts of the peppers.  :)  And to all of you out there who say I should have just thrown the whole thing away at the first sign of mold, I am still alive and well.  Some feel that as soon as mold appears on food, the entire piece of food is infected.  I beg to differ.  If this was so, that means that food would technically be bad before any mold showed up.  Thus, there would be way more sick people in the world today.  Yes, I'm probably just justifying my salvaging of food, but my explanation works for me.  :)

4.  Refried beans (canned).  I love refried beans on my quesadillas.  And without food storage (I miss food storage) how else am I supposed to get refried beans?  So I bought a fairly large can of refried beans that I kept refrigerated after I opened it.  One day I noticed some white fuzzy mold on a portion of the beans.  Disgusting.  But I couldn't throw away all the beans.  So I threw away the moldy part and then put the rest of the can into ziploc bags and put them in the freezer.  And I am still using them to this day.  :)

5.  Mushrooms (pre-sliced).  They were slimy.  Disgusting.  The slime would not even wash off.  Of course I called my mom to see if she thought they were still edible.  She thought they would be fine as long as I cooked them.  I then checked the internet just to be sure.  And guess what the first source I found said.  Yep you guessed it.  It said the first sign that mushrooms are bad is that they get slimy.  Hahahaha.  But I don't blame my mother.  She's never had mushrooms long enough to experience the slime that appears when they go bad.  :)

6.  Grated cheese.  I've made it through bags of grated cheese before, but unfortunately this time was different.  The cheese didn't get moldy, just sour and gross.  I had to throw it away.  I cried.  Hahahahahaha.  Just kidding.  But I was sad.  I then quickly ate the rest of my block cheese to make sure it didn't go bad too.

7.  Ham (deli sliced lunch meat style).  So I'm not really a fan of meat sandwiches.  (Unless they are from Subway or Quiznos.)  Although, I did eat homemade ones every other day for about 12 years of my life.  Thanks Dad.  :)  But I bought the ham because I was involuntarily going vegetarian up at school.  I love to eat meat and would never purposely be a vegetarian, but I don't like to have to cook it or deal with it.  So lunch meat sounded like a good solution.  I could put it on my grilled cheese sandwiches.  Well, let's just say I didn't eat enough grilled cheeses.  :)  Today, I was going to make one.  Then I noticed pink slime on the slices of meat.  Gross.  Super unnatural looking.  Who knew pink slime was what happened to lunch meat when it goes bad?  So, believe it or not I was still going to use it.  I rinsed off two pieces of the ham and put them on my sandwich.  However, while it was cooking, I looked up how you could tell lunch meat was bad on the internet and lo and behold pink slime was a symptom of  bad lunch meat.  So I took the meat out of my sandwich and threw it away.  Don't worry.  I still ate the sandwich.  :)

A success story.  So one time it was my turn to buy the milk.  I was at the market and called Anna to see if we needed milk.  We had less than half of the plastic jug (I'm thinking jug is the wrong word) left.  So she suggested I buy some more.  I did.  Turns out, we managed to not drink the remaining milk very fast.  In addition, Anna's parents left us a small carton of milk that they didn't finish.  So we had three containers of milk.  The expiration date on the milk I bought was soon approaching.  I was trying to think of every way possible to use milk.  Unfortunately, the expiration date came to pass.  But I wasn't about to throw out that milk.  So every morning I would pour a little bit of milk into my milk-testing glass and sample it to see if it was bad or not.  It surprisingly lasted four days after the expiration date.  We finished it on October 13 and it was supposed to go bad on October 9!  Success!  I had to take pictures to document the miracle that had occurred!  :)




So the bright side of having to see so much mold and throw away so much food?  I will know what to look for in the future.  :)  This is the real reason people have to go to college.  Not to get degrees, but to learn how to tell when food goes bad.  Looks like I'm on the right track.  Haha.  The end.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

I'm in love...

With Google.  I'm serious.  I just got done with a long editing session on a group assignment on Google Docs.  And it was way too much fun and way too convenient.  OK...so the only reason it was fun is probably because my group is HILARIOUS.  But Google amazes me everyday.  My friend Mercedes once quoted some random guy behind her in her Facebook status.  He said, "I have this personal belief that God knows everything and Google knows almost everything."  SO TRUE.  What did people ever do without Google?  I mean how else are people supposed to know when random anniversaries occur?  For example, without Google changing it's logo on the search start page today, I would not have known that today is the 115th anniversary of the discovery of x-rays.  My life could have never been so complete.  And Google has the solution to all problems.  Google Maps is a life saver.  I used to be a MapQuest loyalist, but have been converted to Google Maps.  It allows you  to take people on a virtual tour of your home town with the satellite view.  What could be more entertaining?  :)  A little creepy at times, but extremely useful as well.  My power points would be oh so boring with out the magic of Google Images.  And Google Scholar is quite helpful as well.  I can't forget Blogspot, the provider of this very blog, which is the child of Google.  And YouTube is owned by Google too.  And Google Chrome is my favorite web browser.  And Picasa is a Google product as well.  I've heard nothing beats G-Mail...although I have not been converted yet.  (Mostly because I am too lazy to switch.)  I am reminded of this one time when Google didn't work for awhile.  I did not know what to do with myself.  Luckily it began to work soon.  So, basically Google should hire me to be a spokesperson for them.  :)

And since it is Sunday...here is a spiritual tidbit.  Elder M. Russell Ballard came and spoke at BYU for a CES fireside today.  (It was SO good.)  There was this humongous (I'm talking 700+ people) choir who performed.  They sang "True to the Faith".  Here is the chorus to the song:

True to the faith that our parents have cherished,
True to the faith for which martyrs have perished,
To God's command, Soul, heart, and hand,
Faithful and true we will ever stand.

Evan Stephens (he wrote it) was genius.  These words are so great and inspiring!  I love the gospel and am so blessed to be a member of the church!

Anyway...have a good week.  :)


Why hello...

Hello everybody. So...I finally caved and created my own blog. Yes, it could be a huge distraction from homework and studying and all other academic activities. However, so is my sports addiction. And so the day I stop going to sporting events, I will delete this blog. And if you know me at all, you know that day will never come. :)

So what am I gonna use this blog for you ask? Well, let me tell you. I am going to record all...OK not all...but many of my random thoughts. And you know me. I'm very random. Oh and I've been pretty bad at journal writing lately so the thought is if I blog enough I can count it as journal writing. Plus, my posterity will probably enjoy reading my blog someday much more than my journal considering I never write anything too terribly personal or exciting in my journal for fear that someone will read it. (Probably the result of being the oldest of soon to be eight children.) Now don't you think that I'm gonna write anything super personal here either considering blogs are easily accessible to the entire world. :)

Funny story. I was about to start this paragraph with the word "so" but I refrained for fear of repetition. But it proves that my title describes me and many of my blog posts extremely well.

So (you see, I didn't start the previous paragraph with "so" so it is now OK for me to start this paragraph with "so") I will tell you about my day. It was a very good day in fact. Tangent: Do you notice the use of separate paragraphs? This is a first...kinda...I never like to use paragraphs. End of tangent.

So here is why my day was pretty great:

1. Today's football game was at noon, which is good because I don't have to get work covered to go to the game, but bad because that means I actually have to wake up and get ready before then. However, some sponsor of BYU football decided to give out free stuff to everyone. Not just a measly little BYU flag, but a BYU t-shirt, beanie, sticker, and draw-string backpack. Unfortunately I was a little late. Let's make something clear. I HATE BEING LATE. That does not mean I am never late to anywhere. In fact, I am almost always late. But I still hate it. Do you know what I hate more than being late though? Being late to football games and all other sporting events. So luckily there was lots of free stuff to help my mood. Explanation for me being late: I decided to get ready very slowly plus I had to gather everything I needed for work and my concert since I wasn't going to be home before work or my concert. Shout out to Emily Iroz for saving free stuff for me. :)

2. The second reason my day was great was that BYU beat UNLV. The score was 55-7. Yes. We basically killed them. We should've shut them out but we let them score right at the end. Lame. So most seasons this score would not be very surprising. But ummm...BYU football is not quite up to par this season. When you are worried about winning a UNLV game, you know something is majorly wrong. But don't worry. We won. By a lot. And even Jake Heaps looked good. :)

3. So guess who sat two rows behind us at the football game? No, not Obama as Fredrik guessed. It was the entire basketball team. Yes. The entire basketball team. Jimmer Fredette included. I LOVE BYU basketball. And since football has not been all that good this year, I have been looking forward to basketball season even more than usual. And Jimmer Fredette is SO good. SO GOOD. So, they sat there for probably about a quarter of the game. The only reason they were all there was because they all went on the field (our seats are one row away from the field...yes...I love our seats) during half time to promote their home opener (which is on Friday by the way...come.) Anyway, my cousins took a picture with Jimmer. I was thinking about doing the same but didn't. Why? 1. Because I'm a wimp. 2. They left before I could get up enough courage. 3. They're really only college athletes. I mean I go to school with these kids for crying out loud. They've been in my classes before. No need to treat them like celebrities. Best part...Jimmer high fived me. Never washing my hand. Hahahaha...just kidding. :)

4. I only had to work two hours today because Katy took half my shift since I had to go to my concert. Katy is the best and I am sad I don't work with her normally. One-hour shifts are the best. Two-hour shifts are doable because after an hour, you have less than an hour left. Three-hour shifts are not too bad. Four-hour shifts are not as fun...getting a little long. Five hour shifts are unbearable unless you can split up between BP and working up front.

5. I found this flyer behind the desk advertising a one-day sale at the bookstore. And they were advertising a HP printer/scanner/copier for $20. Twenty dollars. It was normally $80. What a deal! So I was not in dire need of a printer, but how can you pass one up if it's only $20. The only downer was I had to carry the printer around all night.

6. My concert was great! I love Women's Chorus. Which is surprising because women's choirs are my least favorite. But BYU makes everything better. :) But I will admit, sometimes I completely zone out during songs in my concert. For example, I was thinking about my printer and how my life would be different now that I had one during one of the most intense songs on the concert. And Men's Chorus was great too!

7. I had this music test due at midnight that I hadn't really studied for. Luckily it was only for my music class meaning it wasn't going to be too incredibly difficult. So, I just realized this post is getting long and boring and that if I keep writing such long posts, absolutely no one will ever read my blog again so I'm going to get to the point. Anyway, I ended up submitting my online, closed-book test (only at BYU) at 11:59:57. Perfection. :)

Alright. That's it. If you haven't noticed my life is not terribly exciting, but I find it entertaining. And I like to give lots and lots of background information which leads to a sub-par climax or no climax at all. Buenas noches. :)