travelouge or intellectual discussion

I've been reviewing past posts and realized that my blog is a nice record of the things I do. Except that it is never updated, because it isn't that interesting. So I think that I will change it and make it more of a social commentary than a review of my life.
So the other day I go in to sit down with a counselor in the college of life sciences to have a small chat about signing up for the microbiology major. Strangely enough the adviser didn't really want to talk about my major. Instead we spent most of the time discussing a change of policy in the college called "Zion Learning." It encourages students to help each other learn by doing a couple of things.
1) It eliminates the curve entirely. So many of the Large classes are structured so that students don't have to actually know the material to get an A. My American Heritage class is on about a 15 percentage point curve overall. But it is designed this way. It isn't that the kids taking the class are all unintelligent, or incapable of learning the material, rather it is structured to prevent grade inflation by asking vaguely worded test questions, or esoteric questions that no one knows the answer to.
2) by eliminating the curve, they encourage students to work together. If your study partners get A's on the test, it doesn't affect your performance. In fact in Biology 120 last semester my professor gave out A's to a full 65 % of the class. Not because the material was easy, but because the students had learned it, and had helped each other learn it. Out of over 300 kids, only 3 failed, and none of them showed up to the final exam. The story is told of a graduate professor who fed up with the competitiveness in his biology class declared that all 20 or so of his students would receive the same grade. Everyone would get the grade attained by the lowest scoring student in the class. Those students rushed to the aid of the lower scoring students, and as a result, learned the material better themselves. I believe that the lowest score in the class by the end of that semester was an A-.

Perhaps for a while graduate schools and employers will devalue BYU grads for "grade inflation" but I sincerely believe that if we implement a Zion learning community, we will all benefit. Graduates will be better prepared, will be more empathetic, and will be better qualified overall to do the work required of them. Soon I think that employers and grad schools will see that an A at BYU really signifies mastery of the material, not just cutthroat competitiveness, and mastery over classmates.

I'm in favor of Zion Learning...

I guess its time for an update

So because I have failed to update this in like two weeks, I will do so.
The last few weeks in Happy Valley have been entertaining. School is really not all that hard. I actually get better grades than I did in high school. Unfortunately, the workload is much higher.
So yeaterday I was bored. So I made Amish White bread. It took like 3 hours to make, but I managed to do it while doing my laundry, grocery shopping, and homework. Skill, I know. Then I ate some, and decided that I couldn't eat it all, so I found other people around my building that might like some. Big sucess!!!
Then we saw the season premiere of The Office, and I think I should start a 5K to cure polio. Unfortunately, all that jogging made me want to scream.
So running...I wake up every morning at like 630 so I can go running at 7, and still make it to class by 9 some days. Generally me and my favorite running buddy just run several miles, but once in a while we will go to the track and do speedwork. Which is uber-fun at 7:00, when the small amount of humidity in the air is condensing and then freesing on your ears, and the insides of your lungs. Needless to say, I don't do my most productive track work when its this cold. Maybe we need to go to the indoor track. O well. I still enjoy it immensely, and I feel like I'm getting in better shape.
Another thing I noticed. People are just not smart about dating out here. At all. I have seen like 5 people ask out complete strangers in the past week or so. Maybe its the Connecticut in me that says that dates mean something, but I think its just a little odd. I mean, I have no delusions that a date means any sort of a lasting committment, but I'm smart enough to know that if you want to avoid date rape, its probably a good idea to not go somewhere with a complete stranger. Although, some people would say the statistics on this are higher if you actually know the person, but it still sounds like a bad idea to me.
So tonight I wanted to go to Jon Schmidt performance. Jon Schmidt is a new age painist who does alot of cool stuff, like back flips, and playing ragtime upside down with his hands crossed. Unfortunately the concert was sold out. Sad. The next time I think I can catch him is in March, unless I want to drive 3 hours to Logan. I am wondering why i wasn't informed that he was performing sooner. Anywyas, I had to reconsider my weekend plans.
Tommorow I think I will workout and run in the morning, study a few hours, and then go hike the Y, and swing dance after.
So it snowed in Provo. In September. I scraped ice off of my bicycle seat. I think this is a little bit absurd for mid September. Whatever though.
Wow, this sounds like a travelouge. Too bad, you read all this, and didnt get any of my usually strange outlook on life. Deal.

I was wondering

So today I sat pondering why females are so confusing. And then it hit me. Hard.
So, as always, I will use the scriptures.
Suprisingly the answer is one of the first things recorded in our canon, in Genesis, in Moses' account of the creation. It took God Seven days to create the earth right?
Here is what he did each day:
Day1: God created the Heaven and the earth, and the light, and made night and day.
Day 2: God divides the waters
Day 3: God creates land, and all the plants, fruits, herbs, etc that exist on the land.
Day 4: God makes the Sun and the moon, and the stars, and gives them light.
Day 5 and 6: God creates animals of every kind
Evening of Day 6: God creates Adam, the first man.
Day 7: God rests
Then finally, after much adieu, God creates Women.

The strange thing is this: We found out as humans very early about this phenomenon called light. It was pretty easy to see that God had divided Day from night, and the waters on earth from those falling from the sky. The next thing we discovered as humans was all these plants and the ground around us. Adam and Eve ate of it in the garden of Eden. We figured out fairly early how to control plants, and grow them so they would make food for us to eat. Yet it wasn't until millenia later that we learned to domesticate animals, or that we learned how the sun, moon and stars get their light. It seems that our comprehension of God's creation has a positive correlation to the time when he created them. For example, we are much better able to understand the water cycle, and even predict it (Day 2) than human behavior (Day 6.) Similarly, we are all able to understand such complicated matters as human behavioral psychology (Day 6) much easier than we are able to understand the nothingness, and rest, the emptyness and eternity of Day 7.
So, Due to this logic, which could not possibly be flawed, the only concept that could ever possibly be more complicated than the eternity, nothingness, and infinity of Day 7 is the last of all of God's creations; the female.

I rest my case.

smile

just remember that you are never fully dressed without your smile!

I got the most amazing package in the world with those words in it. I don't know who sent it, nor do I want to know, but I need to thank them, and God. I am so glad that I know that he and so many other people are looking out for me.

first week of school

I am almost finished with my first week of school. Although the Campus is huge, and there is alot to do, I am loving it here at BYU. NO other University in the world (at least that I can think of) makes no apologies about its aim to spiritually strengthen its students, and would rather see them go on missions and be happily married than get A's or graduate. That's so cool!!
So life has finally started. No more trite conversations that are all about the same things. Thank goodness. I love my ward. There are some pretty awesome people in it, and my bishop is so cool. He got up and says something like this
"I testify to you young men that you need to go on at least one date a week or you will make terrible missionaries."
Even though the Holy Ghost isn't really required to confirm the eternal and everlasting truth of that statement, it was really cool, and kinda different.
But he did give some very good counsel. He said, "When you put God first in your life, he will put you first in his." That makes alot of sense, and so I am trying to follow his counsel on that point.
Anyways, I am so glad this week is almost over, and I can't wait for the weekend. Perhaps I'll go swing dancing, that would make my weekend.
So I was reading D&C 84 (oath and covenant of the Priesthood) verses 6-13 dilineate the priesthood line of authority of Moses. Verse 12, a man in that line named Esaias is ordained under the hand of God. Verse 13 says he was a contemporary of Abraham, and was blessed of him. (Take into account that Abraham held the keys of the higher priesthood that he got from Melchizedek) So my question is, why did God ordain this man Esaias and Not Abraham. Wouldn't that make more sense. I've asked like 6 or 7 people so far. No answers. If anyone has any ideas, please send them my way, I am rather curious.

orientation

So I have spent the last several days being "oriented"
O joy!
Lots of trite conversations that all go something like this
"Hi"
"What's your name?"
"Where you from?"
"What's your major?"
end of trite, brutally awkward conversation.

So Today I skipped orientation completely. So I went to Amy's house and just spent some time with her. Then we got my books, and it is expensive. So I have 18 books!!!! Ridiculous!!! Next I went to the temple with Mollie, and it is like 5 minutes away, and it only takes like 1 hour. We met there at three and were out by 3:55. I was impressed.

So my phone, is interesting. Its this relic from before my parents were born I think. Anyways it recieves calls but can't do outgoing calls. I'm extremely dissapointed.

Alright, thats all for today. I'm off to see a hypnotist show with mollie!!

Computer

So I get here to Utah, and the next day I open up the laptop that my sister handed down to me because she bought a new fancy one for more money than I can afford. And I turn it on. Or at least that was the intent. But I find that instead of turning on, it has hard disk failure. Which means it is practically worthless. So I lament and gnash my teeth for a little bit, and then someone tells me that BYU rents computers. So I look it up online, and find that for a middle of the line desktop I pay only $12 a month. I think it is well worth it. So as part of my excursion to Provo on Monday, I drop by the information technology building to pickup my computer. So I go down to product management and ask a 40 something guy who looks well informed if he knows where the computer rental is. He looks at me funny, and after calling some guy who does know, he tells me that it is in the Ellsworth Meat and Livestock Building. (So I'm thinking, O, of course, why didn't I think to look there?) Why a Livestock building? Is it like, O Thanks for renting a computer, and as a free gift we'll throw in a nice fresh cut of steak on the skewer and still bleeding to go along with your ethernet cable. Is this making sense to anyone else. Anyways, fortunately my computer is more than adequete, is fast, is cheap, and isnt cluttered with my family members forays into fields like architechture and photography. The only thing my computer lacks are speakers, which I have been sorely missing, as I can't watch movies or listen to music.

Ok, so today's thought comes from the book of Proverbs Chapter 21 verse 19
"It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman"
You see the bible can be fun