MODERN FAMILY

I have a lot of favorite TV shows, I love TV. It is awful timing that when school starts so do all the new seasons of all my favorite shows. I am anxiously awaiting Grey's Anatomy, The Amazing Race, Once Upon a Time and Psych. But seriously, Modern Family tops them all. This show is absolutely hilarious. It started last night so hopefully I can get some time ASAP to reconnect with good old Hulu and watch the season premiere. This is what the recap of the episode says, "Phil takes Jay on an unconventional fishing trip; Gloria wonders how to break the news about her pregnancy; Dylan temporarily moves in with the Dunphys; Cam and Mitch think about adopting a cat." I LOVE IT. Can't wait. If the description of the episode making me crack up and this excited I can't wait for the actual episode.

Being Young

Last summer and the beginning of last school year I was really struggling socially. I mean I had a lot of friends and had a lot of fun, but I wanted to be done with being the single, crazy young adult. Ya I know at 20. Sad right? So I tried to change my attitude. I found a lot of quotes and inspirational sayings about living in the moment. I started t live by them. I mean, you aren't young for long. I have a lot more years left to live and I tried to remind myself of that. There is no use yearning for something you don't have yet, or wanting to be at a stage of life other than what you are in. You look back and have no regrets and look forward knowing those stages are going to be awesome once you get there.

"You pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays. There is no tomorrow to remember if we don't do something today."

It looks like media, in a lot of ways, helped me to change my perspective. I read numerous talks and quotes like I mentioned before and also tried to remember the song "We're Young and Beautiful" by Carrie Underwood. It's about living it up and loving being crazy and free while you're young and beautiful. A new song just came out that reminded me of my struggles last year. Of course it is from One Direction.  It's called "Live While We're Young." Definitely a great song and helping to remember to love being young. 

Foolery and Car Music

Yes. I drive a Grand Caravan and I love it. It's name is The Trojan. Obviously because it can hold many people inside. There is something terribly wrong though. The AC doesn't work. This causes some rifts between my car and me, but I live with it. I always drive with the windows down, which I realized the other day leaves me quite exposed. I am one of those crazy people who pumps the radio in their car, when they are by themselves, singing and dancing along. When the window is rolled down, people can more readily hear and in fact see you. Unfortunately this doesn't keep me from rocking out everyday in my car to those same songs that you hear over and over again. I love me some rocking radio music, with the windows down in my Grand Caravan. 

Reading for Fun

I love school. I love learning. Don't get me wrong. But I also love to read, and not read textbooks but read for fun. Once the school year starts, reading just for the enjoyment of it doesn't make it on my list of priorities. The last book I read this summer was "The Alchemist" by Paula Coelho. Great, easy, deep, meaningful, short read.
It is about a young man trying to pursue his personal legend. He meets numerous people, has many challenges and learns 'the language of the world.' At the end he and The Alchemist are captured and The Alchemist tells their captors that in 3 days the boy will turn into wind, and if he does then they have to let them go. The boy doesn't think he can do it. On the appointed day he climbs up a mountain, talks to the wind, the sun, and eventually God himself. There is a huge wind storm and the boy ends up miraculously off the mountain. That was sign enough for his captors to let them go.

"The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles."

It's all about the journey. It's who we meet, what we learn and our goals that we are fighting to achieve. We can accomplish so much, we just need to put ourselves in those situations and follow our dreams. With God's help, we can perform miracles. No matter how great or small.

"The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon."

Moses 1

While I am on the topic of scriptures this week I thought I would share one of my favorite scenes and lines. We don't read the Pearl of Great Price very often, but I am in the class right now and it is the one I have been looking forward to the most and hasn't let me down. Luckily I found my quad because I didn't have an extra Pearl of Great Price laying around. Our first assignment from the actual text was Moses 1:1-20. Seriously I love how stalwart Moses is here. After Moses had a really spiritual experience Satan came tempting him.

Moses says, "Who art thou? For behold I am a son of God; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?"
Satan has no glory and Moses could see that. He understood his worth as a son of God and asked what Satan had to offer, if anything, for him

Next verse 16 "Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not."
He speaks with power and force and by this Satan get desperate. It shows his true nature that we do not see other places in the scriptures. He tries to convince Moses he is the Only Begotten. Moses is scared by this reaction but not fooled. He then calls on the name of God and Satan leaves. 

I honestly hope to have the strength of Moses. To understand the difference between those who want to hurt and those who would help me. Media has a way to tell stories but also to show truths and teach lessons by example, not just in the scriptures but it all forms.

Lost Scriptures

My religion is everything to me. I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of my favorite parts are the scriptures. I have always loved to read and the scriptures are some of my favorite stories. We don't necessarily think of the scriptures or necessarily books as media, but I learned this week just how attached I am to that big old thing.
Like I said, Thursday was my birthday, so after class I booked it out of there to get on with the festivities of the night. On Friday night I went to read my scriptures like always and couldn't find them anywhere. I went all weekend without them. I mean I had other copies of the scriptures I could read but I actually felt lost and so empty without MY scriptures. I know them and they are part of my identity, they have a part of me inside them. It is amazing how we can become attached to the media, for religious or secular reasons alike. We are so dependent on it and make it personalized to ourselves.
Luckily I headed to the lost and found yesterday and there it was! I can't tell you how relieved I was. In this particular way the media has definitely changed my life.

Cyber Birthday

Yesterday was my 21st birthday. The world has changed the way you receive birthday greetings. Most of them now come in the form of some type of media communication. If you take a look at my facebook wall of course it is covered with happy birthday wishes. I received many texts messages throughout the day, a few phone calls and even a letter. Of course many people wished me a happy birthday in person, but you can't see everyone that cares about you on the actual day for many reasons. For example, my brother and sister-in-law are currently living in Oklahoma, so when it came time to open presents and sing happy birthday we brought out the ipad and face timed with them.

My family on my birthday. My brother and sister in law on the ipad in Oklahoma got to celebrate with us

It is interesting how even if it's just a simple text or facebook message, a lot of the time it's who is writing it that makes it more meaningful. If you have history with someone or know how they really feel about you then even the most simple birthday message can mean so much more depending on the person they come from. Media can be a cheap way out to think about someone for a second on their birthday or it can be to really get in contact with someone you truly care about. I am grateful for the media and that it could connect me to loved ones who are far away on my special day.

Pandora

I didn't start using Pandora until last year. (For those of you who don't know it's an free internet site that lets you listen to music). I had no idea how to make playlists or use it effectively. I have a desk job here at BYU so that's where I learned to use it. Even as I have become proficient with it I don't think I fully understand it still or I just find things to judge about it. I put it on at work because I can zone out and still have something in the background but I swear the same songs seem to play over and over again. There are only so many playlists you can make. The worst is when you give a thumbs down to a certain song and that exact same song comes on a different station but doesn't have the thumbs down recorded so you have to do it again. Maybe I am just too lazy to figure these things out but I find myself going to Grooveshark or YouTube to listen to songs when I am feeling like listening to specific songs or can't stand anymore versions of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Oh and does anyone notice that T Swift comes on basically every station? I have no idea what genre that girl is in these days, but I still love her. Obviously I still use Pandora so I appreciate it but I guess sometimes you just have to shake things up.