That's better.

Click on this LINK.

Maybe I just need to move to the UK.

Notice that Meyer woman at #23. JKR is #1. Yep.

And notice JRR Tolkien. #25. Still at the top after all these years. Shakespeare, Dickens, and Dr. Seuss are on there too.

This website places Harry on the list, and NOT Twilight. I like them.

This one includes HBP (Half-Blood Prince), and not ONE of the Twilight books. It is a list of best books of the last 20 years, and they were voted on by ACADEMICS.

Sorry I suddenly got so fierce about this. That's all.

ATROCITY.

So mad right now. Are they serious? Twilight before Harry Potter??!?! I can't even speak.

I just don't understand.

There is not a single person in the world that can claim that Twilight is better literature than Harry Potter. THERE ARE FREAKING TYPOS IN THAT MEYER WOMAN'S BOOKS!! (and I don't use that word!)

Click on the link above if you are confused. And then scroll down to the list of "top 10 books of the 2000s."

And I know that some of my readers with laugh at this. But let me make myself clear: THIS IS NOT FUNNY.

I'm officially excited.

Yes, Audrey P., you have me hooked. Everybody, you should read these books, and then you can go to the movie:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Coolest series since Harry Potter (obviously not nearly AS COOL, but still very fun).

I couldn't pick which trailer I like the best, so I embedded #2 and #3.





Coming 12 February 2010.

As a side note, I am officially enjoying the Christmas season through Elvis Presley music.

An Ode to Max, Dennis, and the gang.

I love BYU football, and I love that we totally creamed Oregon State tonight. A perfect finish to a kind of messy season.

But remember at the very beginning of the season WHEN WE BEAT OKLAHOMA? That was incredible. I feel like a lot of people forget that happened. But I sure didn't. And remember how we celebrated in the streets in massive, but very controlled riots? Remember meeting the team at the airport and yelling our guts out and feeling like fainting? Yeah, I remember that. (And did I mention that OU has a TOTALLY HOT quarterback who was injured and stood at the side of the field without his helmet the whole game? Could it have gotten any better?)

And then we lost a couple games, and won a couple games, and it was all very peachy and normal and fun.

AND THEN, we beat UTAH a couple weeks ago, and I was happier that I had been since Andrew's wedding. It was a fantastic game. And I sat in the front row, and I rushed the field, and the players wore the old royal blue uniforms. Beautiful.

It was a good season. And even though I kind of complain that I'm not graduating for another year, I'm actually just really glad that I get to be around for another football season. All-Sports Pass HERE I COME!

Now I'm just excited to see how the new quarterback will perform. And who will it be? I'm betting on Riley Nelson.

Anyway, see ya.

I love Shopping on Amazon

First, to recap, finals week was last week, and it was horrendous-- except for the fact that we ate out four nights in a row. Like at real restaurants (Carrabbas, Zupas, IHOP, and Pizza Factory). Yeah, I don't really know how that happened, because I promise that it was amidst massive amounts of studying, stress, and chaos.

But somehow, I made it through, and I have been able to enjoy three days of Christmas break so far. AND, I got to meet Jenny's baby today, who, by the way, is just so precious and perfect!

Second, I promise that Michael Jackson ISN'T the only thing that I ever think about. I know that my posts are in regards to that man a lot, but that's only because I listen to him when I'm on my computer a lot, and then I'm thinking about him, and then I usually have something to say about it.

The same thing happened tonight, except I was actually listening to Rihanna, and not Michael. Steph and I just decided, for some reason, to look up Michael Jackson memorabilia on Amazon. Best idea I had all day. We looked in the apparel and accessories section, and found some gems. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

1. Michael Jackson wigs (whoever thought this was a good idea?) AND WHY DID THEY KEEP USING THIS AWESOME/TERRIFYING MODEL?
So funny Stephanie and I almost cried.
2. Please buy this for my first born child, boy or girl. NOT.
3. Excuse me, I actually really want this.
The piano shirt from the Beat It video. Too cool for words.
4. Michael Jackson+A little bit of David Bowie+Adam Lambert's 80's comeback style=Total awesomeness. Am I right?
5. Why ANYONE would wear these on their ears I have no idea.
6. And last, two T-shirts that would serve very well for pajamas and wall decorations. Pajamas because I would never wear them in public, and wall decorations because of their double layeredness and intensity.

Is this too much? I just think it is hilarious. And can I just say, I am LOVING the Michael mania that has followed his death. Do you realize that before June 25, 2009, there was hardly ANY MJ memorabilia online? There is a ridiculous amount now. A ridiculous amount of lots of ridiculous stuff. And did you know that a person could not find a copy of his autobiography, "Moonwalk" anywhere? Well, now... a person... can. YAY.

Love you guys.

One Word:

FINALS.

Oh, Happiness.

OMGosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My little sister just alerted me to the fact that MICHAEL BUBLE is coming to SALT LAKE CITY on MARCH 21st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tickets go on sale on December 11th.

I guess now I know what to ask for for Christmas.

Vancouver

I realized something today.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS IN THE WHOLE WORLD IS COMING UP!

So, who else is like, A MAJOR FAN of the OLYMPICS? PICK ME PICK ME PICK ME! (My arm is waving very frantically in the arm, very Hermione-ish.)

Okay, so I love the Summer games the MOST, but winter games are also really really awesome, and they are going to start on February 12, 2010. That means we only have 65 DAYS!

I searched for a promotional video to get everyone all excited about this, but unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of the commercials that the Vancouver team has set up. Maybe the better ones are coming. BUT, here is a video with the Olympic song. It will get you right into the Olympic spirit. It sure got me all boosted up. I think I'm actually going to make it through finals now! There is nothing like listening to the Olympic song to get motivated!

The Jacksons.

December 13, 2009.

Yes.

Snow.

I live in constant fear of slipping and falling and either:

a) Smacking my tailbone and bruising it again (remember the painful tailbone incident at Classic Skating last winter?),
b) Twisting my already slowly-healing sprained ankle again and living for another 2 months in excruciating pain,
c) Dropping my laptop (which doesn't fit in my backpack), watching it splat on the ice, opening it to see a shattered screen and a damaged hard drive, and consequently, losing my most valuable (for monetary and sanity reasons) possession,
d) Sliding down any stairs on campus (whether it be in the library, down to the JFSB, or down the hill from the Maesar building) and breaking every bone in my body, probably including my skull.
e) and/or landing face first on the icy sidewalk, resulting in a broken nose and removal of all my lovely, pearly white, straight teeth.

The only valuable part of my appearance that is not in danger of being damaged by falling is my hair. Thank goodness for that. OMG! UNLESS I slip, and my hair sticks to a pole or something (like on A Christmas Story), and when I continue falling, it keeps sticking to the pole and RIPS OFF MY HEAD. Oh my, I'm going to avoid poles. And other forms of frozen-sticky metal. Aye, aye, aye.

This is what I think about as I walk around campus in the snow. And I thought that Finals were going to be stressful. Sheesh.

Now let's talk about my fear of driving in the snow. I literally CANNOT drive anywhere in snowy weather without having at least one incident in which I slide into a curb, through a stop sign, around a corner, or into large snowbanks that I need to be towed out of. Yes, all of those things have happened to me. And yes, I swear I was driving carefully. Obviously. I'm terrified.


P.S. Audrey P.: you have no idea how lucky you are that you are in Arizona. When I look outside, the only color I see is white, and there is absolutely no sign of life.

Today.

What went through my head today while walking around campus and sitting in class:

1. I have come to terms with the fact that I think boots are ugly. That doesn't mean that when people wear boots I think that person is ugly, or that they are dressed ugly. But seriously, I just don't like them. I don't want to wear boots because I kind of think they are just plain ugly. That's all. (The exception to this rule are rainboots. Love 'em.)

2. 90% of the people I have ever talked to do not know the difference (or cannot remember the difference) between OHIO and IOWA. To most westerners (and easterners) the two states are the same thing. I am here to tell the world that they are very different. And for the record, I lived in IOWA for three years, not Ohio.

3. Blue jeans are a miracle. On any given day, 95% of the people I see are wearing jeans. I doubt that the person who first invented jean EVER imagined the affect that they would have on society--- on the WORLD. Everyone underestimates the power of the blue jean. Seriously.

4. Being a teacher is actually sounding a little bit fun to me again. Phew.

5. I am obsessed with babies. I had a dream the other night that I had a baby. And when I woke up, there was no baby, and I was actually really sad. You know when someone in a dream does something mean to you, and you wake up mad at them? Or you dream about someone, and then like the whole next day you are like super attracted to them? Well, same sort of thing.

6. Confession: I would do my reading for class if my teachers let me read from the textbook instead of some stupid article on course reserve! I hate those articles. They are boring and lame, I hate reading on the computer screen, it costs money to print out a 30 page article, and seriously, why can't we read from the textbook that the professor required us to buy AND PAY GOOD MONEY FOR?!

7. Quote from my grammar textbook today: "Success is intrinsically motivating." Totally agree. Why would you EVER try if you keep failing, over and over? WHY?

8. Tights/Nylons are fantastically comfortable and warm.

9. I finished ALL THREE sudoku from the newspaper this morning in ONE CLASS PERIOD. That proves three things: I am getting really pretty good at Sudoku, I don't pay that much attention in Utah History, and my class is JUST THAT BORING.

10. So I really highly dislike my U.S. Women's History class (we're bordering on "kinda hate" here), but today, I really, really enjoyed it. Well, the first five minutes anyway. This video clip is why:

Don't ask. Just love.

11. Also, in class today we were talking about the modern feminist liberation movement. In 1968 a whole ton of women stormed New York City and Atlantic City protesting the Miss America Pageant. It was a big deal. They threw away all their girdles, bras, beauty products, curling irons, hair dryers, etc. to symbolically free themselves of the bonds of femininity and womanhood and whatever. Makes no sense, right? Well, a bunch of men that were standing around and watching the spectacle of apparently bra-less women were like, "They're just mad because they're too ugly to be in the pageant." There is actually record of men saying this to the protesters faces. That story just made me happy. It was probably true.

So that was my day.