TRUE BLUE

As a testament to the Trueness of the BLUEness of my blood.

True Blue Football 14/10/11

P.S.

A note on the two previous posts: Shortly after I came home from vacation I decided I wanted to write about it because I had thoroughly enjoyed the outing! However, in my first attempt to write it I only got as far as the bit about Zions. I then saved the post on Evernote, and continued with my life. Apparently at two different later dates I came across the post on Evernote and thought that I should finish it. So that is why there are two. I'm leaving both up, because...who could choose? That's the long and short of it! 

Summer Vaca in So. Utah

Lake Mead:

     Boating on the lake included episodes of wake boarding, wake surfing, knee boarding, air chairing, tubing, and even a little actual skiing. We packed both days with fun for all the sizes, although the boat finds it easier to pull the smaller people right up. This was my first experience with the wake surfing and knee boarding. Both of these I rather enjoyed. Wake surfing entails a bootless wake board, a short handle rope,  and the biggest wake your boat can manage. Reportedly the rider is to "surf" the perpetual wave created by the wake, without holding onto the handle. It turns out it is a bit more difficult than it appears.  All in all the lake was a success. My favourite part came from the blasting work at the bottom of the lake. At random times throughout the day a blast would go off that sent shockwaves through the water and rattled the current rider, most frequently the middle sister. The middle sister did not take to noises and bubbles from beneath. 

Zions:

    Look but don't touch. I used to think that this rule only applied to glass shops, apparently this is one of those rare times when my thinker is off. IT turns out that this rule also applies to the emerald pools at Zion National Park. Basically this rule seems to apply to all of the water sources, as they were all reserved for ankle dipping. This is one of those moments when you wish to have lived 20 years ago when people were still apart of nature rather than a force against nature. But maybe one day we'll make a return. 

Rafting:

    For our river rafting activity we brought along the nearest grandparents, and had a great time. The river proved mostly calm with a couple of spots exciting enough for even our hardened eagle scout. The guide proved more interesting than we had bargined for. His three favorite topics? Politics, Religion, and the River, in that order. Everyone took an interest to the river, and the rock formations along the ride, but the rest of the time we got a monologue on all things wrong in the world. In the end we were all wet and not too traumatized by the crazy man.

ATVs:

Nearly everyone's favorite activity took us around the Grand Staircase, the largest national monument in the United States. Although this trip included its share of religion and politics, mostly on the evils of not being allowed to ride ATVs in national monuments, mostly we enjoyed the wind, dust, and beauty of God's great earth. While some people enjoy the high speeds of a single horse, the rest of us sought all the horse power we could get racing along dirt roads. 

Favorite Moment: 

The look of confusion on the face of the waitress that had recently been asked just which soup had made the middle-of-nowhere restaurant so famous.

For the most part everyone enjoyed the trip, or at least some parts of it, and whoever permenantly borrowed our cooler ejoyed our travels through their town as well. 

Summa Fun

Lake Mead:
 Boating on the lake included episodes of wake boarding, wake surfing, knee boarding, air chairing, tubing, and even a little actual skiing. We packed both days with fun for all the sizes, although the boat finds it easier to pull the smaller people right up. This was my first experience with the wake surfing and knee boarding. Both of these I rather enjoyed. Wake surfing entails a bootless wake board, a short handle rope,  and the biggest wake your boat can manage. Reportedly the rider is to "surf" the perpetual wave created by the wake, without holding onto the handle. It turns out it is a bit more difficult than it appears.  All in all the lake was a success. My favourite part came from the blasting work at the bottom of the lake. At random times throughout the day a blast would go off that sent shockwaves through the water and rattled the current rider, most frequently the middle sister. The middle sister did not take to noises and bubbles from beneath.

from Gravityx9

Zions:

 Look but don't touch. I used to think that this rule only applied to glass shops, apparently this is one of those rare times when my thinker is off. IT turns out that this rule also applies to the emerald pools at Zion National Park. Basically this rule seems to apply to all of the water sources, as they were all reserved for ankle dipping. This is one of those moments when you wish to have lived 20 years ago when people were still apart of nature rather than a force against nature. But maybe one day we'll make a return. 

from StuSeeger

Religion and Politics:

My two favourite subjects to talk about in the same conversation, especially two days in a row. It turns out that our guides, for both the Sevier River and ATVs on the Grand Staircase, wanted to talk about both of these. In summary: Politics: The government is going to the dogs because people have left God. The dogs are then not letting people use ATV on National Monument Land which is not fun. Religion: We all need a personal relationship with God, so that he can save us from the dogs. Although, personally I don't see how cats ruling the world will help us any. 

from Eran Finkle

All in all I enjoyed the whole trip, despite nearly no sleep and generally no good food. Of course I'm looking for going back to school, where the same joys await me, hopefully I'll get to fix the food part!

Julia Says...

Julia wanted some space to say a few words. I take no responsibility for these words.

On this day...

Yesterday 18 years ago the world was a dark and dreary place. Today 18 years ago the world suddenly experienced joy as a tiny new life entered spreading light, joy and happiness where ever she went. The following are pictures from the world-wide celebration of my birthday. As you can see those closest to me must look away at my joyous brightness. =)

Done, Done, Done!

We've Done It! 

August 31, 2010: Jen and Erin begin the adventure called Freshman Year of College. 

April 21, 2011: Jen and Erin take their last finals officially closing the chapter of their lives called Freshman Year of College. 

So yeah....

We've Done It!

P.S.  Jen and I will be moving into the recently

 vacated basement at 294 E 60N. Lindon, UT. 

Any suggestions for a name change?

P.P.S. If you'd like a slightly more sentimental 

reflection check out Call Me...Erin.

Valentine's Day - A mockery

Some people spend their Valentine's day with loved ones. Some of the rest of us clearly are not getting enough love living away from family. We have parties that center around the making and destruction of a man shaped piñata, that only gives chocolate when destroyed. This is our story...

Typical man made into Piñata.
Big Head and all.  

Editing

I am aware that it is now February, but January flew by so I still consider this to be the beginning of the year. Moving on.
As this semester moves along its way there has come a time for editing. Changing, altering, readjusting, anytime anyone starts something new this time period comes around, and this semester follows that rule. I had thought that with one semester under my belt I had a handle on college. However, this is one of those extremely rare occasions when I, Erin Hamson, am wrong. I know you are all furiously recording this moment in your calendars and journals, go ahead, I'll wait. Are we all back?

DU's Defense

The following is the email the sports editor for the Daily Universe sent in defense of the paper:

Dear Erin Hamson,

Thank you for reading The Daily Universe and for responding. It's always great to know we have readers out there who pay attention to what we're doing.

First, I want you to know right away that we at The Daily Universe have no intention of discriminating against women or treating them unfairly. But I think where your argument might be a little misguided is that you're taking a stand for women's rights, when really this is an issue about sports journalism and not sexism.

Thursday is now Tuesday

Apparently to The Universe Thursday is now Tuesday. Don't ask me why this is, it just is.

The Daily Universe: A Rant

A long, long time ago, (in a galaxy far, far away...) it was decided that men and women are equal. So why can't a very nice university, BYU for example, that has a fairly good paper, the Daily Universe, treat us as such?

Warning: Below is a rant about how amazing BYU's Womens basket ball team is and how they deserve more page space than Jimmer Fredette the day after they pound the Utes. No offense to Jimmer, but he can wait.

Family History

These are some wordles I made about family history.


　



Wordles are a great way to express ideas in a picture. Not to mention fun and exciting to look at! They are fairly easy to create.
1) Ascertain that your computer likes you and is willing to obey.
2) Go to www.wordle.net
3) Click on the tab or link labeled "create".
4) Type or paste a bunch of text. The key here is that the words that you want biggest need to be typed the most. However, you need at least 15-20 different words to make your wordle's look their best.
5) Click "go".
6) Then using the "edit", "language", "font", "layout", and "color" tabs you can adjust nearly every feature of you picture.
7) Click "save to public gallery", and fill in the appropriate information.
8) Remember to write down the URL for your project! There is no way to search for Wordles. So unless you wrote it down you get to spend hours sifting through millions of pictures looking for yours.
9) Good luck!

A Digital Revolution

Tonight was the live presentation of final projects for my digital civilizations class! It has been an amazing semester and I've been able to gain many skills and insights from this wonderful class! Here is the video of the live presentation!


Watch live video from Digital Civilization on Justin.tv

In other news BYU v. UVU 74-47, with Jen being her normal awesome self!

Peanut Butter: As made by Starving Students

This post has been a long time coming, seeing as we actually made the peanut butter sometime in October when the weather was actually tolerable.

The logic was simple: All homemade foods taste better than store bought. (Take any example, bread, root beer, brownies.) Peanut butter tastes amazing. Make homemade peanut butter and it will taste even more amazing.

The question: what does even more amazing taste like?

Melanie's plan: Make homemade peanut butter and find out.

The Answer: Indescribably fantastic, especially with chocolate while watching UP.

How it all worked out:

Recording Our Personal History

Recently in our family history class Jen and I were encouraged to begin recording our own histories for future generations. So, I though I'd help Jen with hers. I decided to start with our very own Daily Universe, the on-campus newspaper.

I take no credit for picture quality.
If you want a better look, come to a game. 

In the Minority

Today in my Digital Civilizations class we studied Mormonism from a historical perspective, and had an interseting time exploring the influence of the digital world in Mormonism, and how the church has begun to use the internet to propagate their views and the truth about the Church. As a part of the class we Skyped the Elderers at the MTC, through Mormon.org. After talking about their mission and what it was that they do and how, we got to ask them questions and some of their successes, which they have had a lot of in conjunction with the local elders.

Anyways after that chat we talked about the influence of the one in sharing the gospel. As a part of this the our professors shared about Mormon.org and how people can set up profiles to talk about their experiences in the Church. Well, I thought that I would go and check the profile page out, however when I signed in I was sent to this nice page...

So in conclusion of adventures today, it really stinks to be a minor. Good thing I only have about forever left to be one! =)

Family History

Jen and I have always known that family history is an important part of our church membership, but little did we know that soon it would become an hour long part of our church membership. Today we found out that we will now be in the Temple and Family History work class, for Sunday School. We are collectively thrilled with the opportunity to do Family History and Indexing on a regular basis through the class. Our first lesson was on the importance of doing family history work, and have been reminded that the happiness of our ancestors depends on the work that we do for them as saviors on Mount Zion. Here's to a semester of family work!

Average Day

6:30 - wake up because wonderful roommate has to eat breakfast inside dorm, now that Cannon hours have changed to 7:00. (When weights start. I should probably actually note that I would've gotten up at 6:30 anyways, but it make me feel better to put this in here lol)

9:45 - leave for a math lecture, I've already had, in freezing cold weather

11:30 - excellent lunch

Education an Inspirational Story

The beginning of week four finds these girls mulling over their respective deficiencies in their chosen areas. Jen believes that her's lies on the volleyball court. I am here to help refute that nigh inconceivable proposition. On the other hand my perfectly legitimate failing is in education particularly in regards to Chemistry, as cleverly illustrated by the Testing Center Monitors yesterday afternoon. 

However, I have decided to put the most positive (lacking in electron) twist on this damp beginning as possible. Therefore, I have been searching for inspiration anecdotes on education to bolster moral, up (or down) here.