Decay of Learning Answers

Before I say anything else, let me give a mini-lecture about how you'll never get anywhere in life if you wait for answers to problems to be given to you. Instead, you should embrace the difficulty and figure out what you can!

Haha.

For reals, I am finally posting the answers to the Decay of Learning Test. Hope you did well!

1. William Howard Taft
2. Jakarta
3. Echidnodermata
4.William, Duke of Normandy (defeating King Harold II of England)
5. Islam, mostly Sunni Muslims
6. Abolition of Poll Tax
7. A triangle with two equal sides and two angles of the same measure
8. Ukranian or Russian
9. Cirrus
10. Charles Dickens
11. 1215 (Could you even get within 100 years?)
12. Au
13. United Kingdom
14. Paul Gauguin
15. Mammalia
16. Mekong River
17. 13
18. 8
19. Baroque
20. British (fought against the French and the Indians together)

Hope ya remember some of these answers now that I tell you what they are! I felt kinda stupid after missing ones that at one time were so easy to me. Thank goodness for the internet so I could look up these answers for you! :)

Decay of Learning Test

On the last day of my Substance Abuse and Addiction (Health 460) class, Dr. Lindsay asked us what we would remember from this class 10 years from now. (Side-note: I will remember loving the class! I'll remember other specific details or visuals that Dr. Lindsay shared with us, too, but I just wanted to make sure that it was known that this was one of my favorite classes of my BYU experience thusfar.) As a fun activity, during the discussion he passed out a little test for us to take. It is called the "Decay of Learning Test." Now as I share it with you, I encourage you to dig up those past tiny details that you once learned and knew sometime throughout your life. Don't cheat by reading other people's comments before you answer, but go ahead and comment with your answers to the test! And don't be cheatin' none by looking up the answers, either. Just try to pull the information directly out of your noggin and see how well you can do. Honestly, I did quite poorly, so don't feel bad if you perform likewise. Plus, I guess you could skip a question or two if you need to. In about a week I will post the correct answers, so make sure you take this quiz before the deadline!

1. Who was president after Teddy Roosevelt?
2. What is the capital of Indonesia?
3. What Phylum does a starfish belong to?
4. Who won the Battle of Hastings?
5. What is the predominant religion in Turkey?
6. What is the 24th Amendment to the Constitution?
7. What is an isosceles triangle?
8. What language is spoken in Kiev?
9. What type of cloud is high and fleecy?
10. Who wrote David Copperfield?
11. When was the Magna Carta signed?
12. What is the periodic table symbol for Gold?
13. Who controls Gibraltar?
14. Which French impressionistic painter did much of his work in Tahiti?
15. What class do whales belong to?
16. What is the largest river in Southeast Asia?
17. What is the next prime number after 11?
18. What is the atomic number of oxygen?
19. What musical period did Bach belong to?
20. Who won the French and Indian wars -- the French or the Indians?

Good luck!

General Thoughts

• Due to an odd set of circumstances, I don't have any classes until next Monday. In other words, I've finished some classes and had other professors cancel a few class meetings. Add this to the fact that I never have class on Tuesdays or Thursdays (for this second half of the semester), and what do you get? Only two more days that I have to attend class this semester (next Monday and Wednesday)! And, even though I do have some classes on Monday, I also have one that was canceled that day. Crazycrazycrazy.
• I've done a bit of listening to Christmas music when I stop by the library lately. This came about not only because Christmas season naturally increases the amount of time I listen to music, but because I finally remembered to put my headphones in my backpack. I used to always keep them in there, but sometime near the beginning of the semester I took them out and kept forgetting to put them back in. Anyhoo, because I've been signing into Pandora in a public place more often, I've seen other people's station lists. (Many websites automatically sign you out when you leave the site or sign off the computer. Pandora is not one of those websites so if someone forgot to sign out before me, I can still see his/her radio stations.) I'm happy to report that from my small case study, many others are also relishing this wonderful time for Christmas music. However, I've also found some very weird stations. People are interesting.
• The end of one month and the beginning of the next always seem to be a tidge more stressful. Who decided to make life like that?
• It is getting awfully cold around here. And yes, it's awful. However, I'm not miserable most of the time and our heater works wonders, so I'll try to be more positive about this particular tidbit.
• I really want to take a certain section of NDFS 100 next semester. Prayers in my behalf (or that someone will decide to drop that class at that time) would be greatly appreciated. That also brings me to a thought: Would it be better for me to completely drop the class and hope I can add the new time that works in my schedule, or should I continue to hold on to my spot in the class even though it conflicts with the another one of my classes? Wouldn't it just be silly if someone was experiencing my same distress but in reverse? Perhaps me dropping it would really help someone else out. Hmmm...
• Okay, back to Pandora. (I realize you're probably sick of it...) But seriously, the last 3 or 4 songs that have played on my Taylor Swift Holiday station have been literally some of my very favorite Christmas songs and arrangements of said songs. What joy!
• I can't quite decide how to use all my free time tonight. Usually I'm in class right now, but my teacher never showed up (and subsequently sent an email explaining his absence). Usually I have a class after this class, but since our concert was last night I no longer have to attend rehearsal. Thus, oodles of free time tonight. I think I'll go home and be even more productive than I am being right now. (Yes, I know you all just love to hear from me, but blog posts don't rank extremely high on my "productivity" list.)
• Okay, now can you see why I couldn't come up with a title for this post? Really I just wanted to talk to someone and my blog was the first thing available...? Sure. Have a splendid evening!
  

Not Classy

Folks, I've realized the truth (again) today. I'm just not a classy person.

In other words, I HATE registering for classes!!! I always get so stressed and worried about what I will do. Perhaps I want to change my required teaching minor from its current status of History Teaching. But how do I do that when all of the new classes I want/need to take are full? And if I do get into the classes I want, do I really want to kill myself with 19 credit hours next semester? I have two 2 credit classes that are each blocked, meaning I would really only be taking 17 credits at a time, but still I must be crazy. Why do I have so much school left when I've already been here for a while and I had a lot of credits carry over from high school? This is frustrating.

Okay, thanks for listening. Now I'll leave and quit trying to figure out classes like I have been doing for the past hour and a half. Barf.

(On a brighter note, remember how it's officially Christmas music time? I love it.)

BYU Football

I just gotta do a post about BYU football this season. So perhaps the team isn't always winning games, but I sure have winning experiences when I go to the games. Why? 'Cause I'm with my rill good buds!

The following pictures were taken a few weeks ago on the 9th of October when we played San Diego State for our Homecoming game.

Whitney and I were rill excited to be there!

Becky and Nick weren't.

Or perhaps I just caught a candid pose of them earlier and just needed to get them laughing...

In honor of the big day, our hungry tummies, and our desires to have one since the beginning of the season, we decided to buy funnel cakes! Whitney and Becky just couldn't wait to get theirs.

Nick is allergic to basically everything and its dog, so he couldn't eat a funnel cake. Plus, since he came straight from work to get to the game, he was hungry for a real meal. Luckily for him, the "everything and its dog" that he is allergic to doesn't include hot dogs.

Whitney's gettin' her deliciousness made specifically for her! Yum!

Don't you worry. I got one too! I thoroughly enjoyed that $6.

Another great thing about the game? We were on the 6th row of the North endzone. We tried to pretend like it was no big deal that it was the endzone in which most of the exciting stuff happened, but let's be honest. It was a big deal. Plus also, we won the game 24-21. Hooray!

Cute Boys

So I know of this really cute boy. He's got a great laugh, wonderful eyes, and he loves me more than words can say. He loves playing with me, and he lets me hold him really tight when I need to. Isn't that just all you want in a boy?? I'm so lucky....


to be an aunt!! :) haha. Here's the boy of whom I speak with his parents:

A little Hansen family portrait, ruined by Jon, of course.

A few weeks ago they came over to my apartment to play and eat.

And did I tell you how much I like the cute little guy?! I only wish my other nieces and nephews lived closer! Good thing I have a couple of nieces just in Salt Lake City! ...But what about the guys in Washington and Minnesota? Let's play rill soon, please.

Creeper?

Creeper, creeper, who are you?

Once upon a time I discovered a nifty little tool called the "Stats" tab on blogger. It tells me who has viewed my blog and where my audience is.

Who in the world views my blog from Ukraine and Russia???!! Are you creeping on me? Go away. That is, unless you're my friend.

You've been warned.

Kbye! :)

2

2!

• 2 more months until Christmas!
• 2 more nights (tonight and then tomorrow night until midnight) until I register for Winter classes
• 2 roommates dating people (whom I love!)
• 2 more home football games
• 2 people together... ___ and me. We're madly in love. (HA! That'd be nice.)
• 2 people coming to visit teach me in roughly 2 minutes.

KBye!

Monday

Today as I was walking to class with my friend Tara, I commented that I sometimes feel like I don't have a brain on Mondays. Today is one of those Mondays, mainly because I didn't get much sleep last night (homework gets done at silly times in my life), but also because I feel like so many things are due in the near future that I just keep feeling like I'm forgetting to do something. On my lunch hour between classes, I decided to run to the computer lab to get a few things done. Luckily, one of those aforementioned assignments popped into my head and I was able to quickly print out a news article about health for my Health Promotion class tonight. The interesting thing? Read what the article says:

Tuesdays, Not Mondays, Most Miserable Day of the Week

If you thought Mondays were bad – it turns out Tuesdays are even worse, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A study by the London School of Economics monitored the mood swings of more than 22,000 people using an iPhone application

called “Mappiness.”

Over a two-month period, an alert was sent to the study volunteers twice a day asking them how they felt, who they were with, what they were doing and whether they were at home. And the results showed that people felt at their lowest on Tuesdays.

“It seems plausible that on Monday, the weekend has not quite worn off,” study author, George MacKerron, said. “By Tuesday, [people] are well into the working week and the following weekend is not in sight.”

Found here.

Interesting, eh?

New-ness

Ah, 'tis the season of new things.

Some of my great friends got engaged this week, and I'm so excited for them! I can't even imagine how excited they are to begin a new life together. :)

General Conference is this weekend! I love hearing the messages and getting a new start (or re-start) on perspectives about life and the gospel. New scriptures brought directly to me in my own home; who could ask for anything more?!

I got a new phone after a couple of years of being stuck with the "pee phone." Yes, that's right. My old phone was a donation from my sister after she had it for a year. Can you believe that she accidentally dropped it in the toilet once? GROSS. It's about time I don't gotta use that nastiness anymore.

I've been getting new responsibilities at work lately. Namely, I now count and pull some tests in the middle of the day so that there aren't ginormous stacks of tests for the closing shift to deal with. Plus also, I seem to be gradually climbing the totem pole since there are a ton of new employees that know less than I do about what is going on around the TC. Perhaps in the future I can be a supervisor and get a raise...? Who knows if that's even what I want? While I'm still just doin' what I already know, it sure is a fun job.

A new month started on Friday! Can you believe it's October? What a wonderful, Fall-y, pumpkin-y, crisp-y (air, that is), pleasant month.

What else is new?

Well, this blog post is. Teehee.

Disneyland!

I went to Disneyland for my very first time right before the semester started! It was lots o' fun. We had practically no lines, and the longest line we did have was about 20 minutes. I went to California with my roommates Whitney and Becky, friends in the ward Nick and Dan, and their friends from high school Kaitlin and Josh. We spent a day driving there, a day at Disneyland, a day at Laguna Beach, and a day driving home. I tried many times to put videos up here, but they didn't want to work and I haven't made time to figure out a way to get them to work. Maybe later. I'll also have to get some of the fun pictures of the group with various Disney characters from Becky. :)

An end in sight....?

I've officially gotten my first email telling me about information for graduation. I guess all those credits have put me on the "look at me, I'm almost done with school" list. Too bad I'm not, huh?

Actually, I'm really glad that I'm not almost done with school. Thinking about graduating makes me sad. Here's to working hard here at BYU for at least a couple more years!

p.s. Maybe later I'll tell you all about all of my new classes. :D

Day 4

Sunday was our last full day in California. At church we got to hear Mom give a talk in sacrament meeting. Then we had Gospel Essentials and Relief Society. After church we ate and made some peanut butter cups for later. Yum! That night we went up to the mission office so we could all three be on computers as well as so we could enjoy the air conditioning.
Here we are:
These are the pieces of the pluot that we ate. We wanted to try a new fruit for Drawn to Scale, of course! Ironically enough, this was about the time that I gave up on the keeping track of points... :)

Tomorrow

School. Tomorrow. 7 AM class.

YIKES!!

The good things:
1. This week it's only a 7:50 AM class.
2. I have a rill nice Mom and a happy scholarship to help pay for my education.
3. No work yet. Nobody takes tests at the beginning of the semester.
4. I'm ready for a schedule again.

Something I should be doing right now?
Sleeping.
Kay, bye.

Day 3

We started off our Saturday morning very early so that we could hike Mt. Rubidoux before it got hot. The hike was not too hard (a paved path the whole way), and it was delightful weather. Here I am at the top with one of the monuments:
Then, before we went home for much-needed breakfast and naps, we stopped to see the world's biggest paper cup! Although it is not really paper, we saw this giant "cup" outside of what used to be a Dixie factory. We did the fun tourist thing....

Later that day we went to the Redlands Temple where I did baptisms (in the most awkward baptism experience I've ever had... long story) and Mom and Jen did initiatories. Temples are so pretty, and this one was especially fun to see because it looks so much like the Lubbock Temple that I grew up going to. (Haha.. Oops! I'm looking at the picture and noticing that I accidentally cut off Moroni's head a bit.)

That night we went shopping for clothes for Mom. Missionaries get tired of wearing the same clothes all the time, ya know? Jennifer and I had a lot of fun being the "runners" going out to grab more clothes while Mom stayed planted in the dressing room and tried on what we told her to try. However, by the end of the evening, we were all hungry and ready to leave! Mom started just throwing the garment and hanger over the door in an attempt to save time so she could just focus on changing and Jen and I could hang up the clothes. See the pile? Haha.

We finally got to eat, and Mom treated us to a meal at El Torito, a favorite Mexican food restaurant of hers.

Day 2 in California

On Friday, we, being daughters of our mother (with our mother, of course), took a bunch of pictures of trees! How delightful. We started by taking pictures of the first orange tree in Riverside. If you look at the fence in the second picture, you'll see the bell that is the Riverside "sign" and which is all over town.
Then we took pictures of a giant tree that was right in the middle of the road. Mom discovered it once upon a time, and she liked it enough that she wanted to take pictures. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't the best at the time, and when she tried coming back she couldn't find it. The night before this, one of our activities was driving around for a bit until we found it again! Unfortunately the lighting wasn't good again, so we remembered the intersection and came back this day when it was still daylight.
We next went to the Hampton House, a very old house that was available for tours.... September through June. Because we couldn't get in, we just took pictures with the palm trees along the street. (Can you see Mom and me poking out behind the tree?)
Next we went to Mission Inn, a big hotel and fancily decorated place. It was fun looking at all the details of the place. There were trees....

but we finally quit taking pictures of those. Instead, we sat in "President Taft's Chair." I don't know if it was really his, or even if it was really an appropriate size for the guy, but Jen and I had to take pictures sitting in it. How would you like to be remembered more for being fat than for anything cool you did (like, uh, I don't know, being President of the United States??)? Poor guy.
We went back to the Mission Office so Mom could enter in baptismal information for people and get it to Salt Lake by the month's deadline. All of that tree photography did me in, and I was pooped! (Of course, maybe my sleepiness had to do with me still fully recovering from strep throat. See those antibiotics layin' on the table? ... Nah. It was probably all those trees.)

What a fun day we "tree" amigas had. (Bahahaha.)

1st day in California

I had the great experience of getting to visit my mom this summer! The cool thing? She's currently serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Riverside, California. Jennifer and I drove out to California for a weekend with the lady.

See? She was rill excited to see us! We all must like each other lots and lots.

And Jen was so excited her hand jumped out of the picture...?

Here's Sister Blake at work opening some mail. She's so official she has a sweet letter opener! Elder Densley is also working hard in the background.

Even as a sister missionary, my mommie loves me so much she lets me sit on her lap! Tender. (And, Jen, look at the background. We have GRAPES! :D haha!)

Baseball in WA

Another post about Washington! :) I must have had fun or something. Plus also, I just have fun pictures I want to tell you about.

This picture makes me smile, because I remember climbing on Dad like this when I was little. Looks like Lisa's carrying on the tradition with her kids!

The Richland Dust Devils playing their winning game. What an American pastime.

I really like this picture of Luke and Lisa! Family is just wonderful.

Here's another of my favorite pictures from the trip. This was the group (minus me, of course) watching the game together. What fun!

Slip 'N' Slide in WA

Because it was so hot outside in Washington, many of the outdoor fun we had involved water. One night Lisa got out the slip 'n' slide and let the kids have fun racing each other.

At the beginning, Josh and Tyler were great at knocking Sarah over while she played in the puddle area at the end. It was actually pretty funny to see them run into her and have her just get right back up.

Jon was really good at helping Sarah slide down on the little floaty board. This particular time she was quite cute as she reacted to all that water splashing in her face!

This is a good view of Josh and Tyler racing to get the flag at the end. I thought the slip 'n' slide was quite ingenious how it had Velcro holding the flag up right in the middle of the two lanes.

I'd say his clothes are a bit too big for him, no? But Luke sure is cute!! It's amazing how much he looks like his 'rents.

Here's Luke getting in the "pool" for the first time. He was a little surprised at how cold it was.

This activity was lots of fun even though all the adults did was watch. It's so cute seeing kids get excited about things!