hard bigotry vs. soft bigotry

Va. schools criticize No Child Left Behind rule for English learners
way to go, Virginia!

Sidenote: The Lorax is my favorite Seuss, and I hope that people get to read it in whichever language they like.

on this valentine's day

Today is the day of San Valentin, and by all means, I'm glad about it. But I'm glad about most days. Here's the thing: every year on Valentine's, it seems to me, you hear the rants and raves of Valentine's day. The people who love it, the people who cry in their pillows at night, the people who dress up as cupid and shoot arrows at one another and get locked up. This was not what was intended when we created this semi-pagan holiday. No, no. This is a day to celebrate love. A day to think about how lucky we are in that aspect of our life. A day to appreciate and share that love. It's not necessarily a day to over-materialize and buy all the heart shaped candy and cardboard you can find, or prove your love with a diamond of dubious origin that will probably get flushed down the toilet, planted in the garden, or eaten by a small child in those later years of love.

One heart. One love. Let's get together and feel alright.
*this foto was taken by amy, and i stole it like a scallywag from one of her sites.

coloring contest

i would like to one day sponsor a coloring contest. so i'm starting here. the winner of the contest wins some cookies.

this is a beautiful purple potato

cnn.com and wiki-wiki-what?

In this age of information, I find myself ever so grateful for cnn.com. I drink from this fountain of global knowledge as I drink from my green nalgene late july on the grand staircase.

I remember a time on my mission when at each house we entered I was met with the question: "sabes que pasa en tu pais?" (do you know what's happening in your country?) accompanied by worried looks. Of course I didn't. There was a world between me and my pais. And besides that, the Argentine people had me convinced by that point that I was in my country. What was happening in that country? The thought hadn't even crossed my mind that something was happening.

And this was when the American tsunami was. New Orleans, they told me, was under water, and Bush wasn't doing anything, and people were drowning, and people were going crazy, and all.

I think I went a little crazy. It's a good thing I couldn't call my parents, because I would have told them to donate my skimpy bank account to the South. That's when I realized that the information addiction I had was causing some withdrawal affects. I don't know what it's like to need some sort of illegal substance physically, but I know that I needed information then.

But I got over it, because I was a missionary, and missionaries are blessed like that.

So I like cnn.com. And wikipedia. And the web.

my wikipedings of late:
lionel messi
rosario central
newell's old boys
infant mortality rate of guatemala
water
marie antoinette
shoes
blue ringed octopus
postal service
picasso
maynard dixon
quetzal
quetzalcoatal
demetri martin
colbert report
united fruit company
el mano de dios
guatemalan midwife
havasupai
i will follow you into the dark
teotihuacan
groundhog day
mayan calendar
frilled shark
dumbo octopus
calf creek falls

all i can think about is guatemala.

that's not completely true.

i think about other things, i do.

but guatemala seems to monopolize a major portion of my thought processes.

i'm a fancy writer, amn't I?

the bird is a quetzal. i'd like to see one. a resplendent quetzal. now that is a classy name.

imagination status: captured.

i've gone to cnn.com an estimated 7 times to see this photgraph. i also googled and wikipedia'd its name (frilled shark) several times.

in response to heather: i think i'm in love.

this looks effective.

if it hurts, it must be good.

i am seriously considering this procedure after having had a cold for the last little eon of my life.

forgiveness

my hands are in shreds, and i have one santiago de la cruz to thank.

finals.

1. Ps. 107: 29
   29 He ^amaketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

cup runneth . . . way over.

when i am most over my head in life, i feel good. my head doesn't want to believe this, but my heart knows it. i'm being vague, and maybe cheesorific, but this is true. what i am talking about is that when i feel like everything is overwhelming me, i can see the blessings i have been given, and i'm happy. still vague. i can't fight that.

i was thinking about the time i spent in southern utah, and how i love that place. this has correlation to what i am thinking about only in my head.

i was also thinking about God's love for me, and how He gave me just what I needed last Sunday. i'm talking about a talk that our stake president gave about making choices with the Spirit. i'm not going to go into details, but i am thankful for the trust that God puts in me, and the honesty and sincerity of good people.

and now george michael has come on again with that stupid song. last christmas i gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away. but i can deal with that. i even look forward to hearing it, because it makes me chuckle to myself.

i love christmas and i can't wait for it to come, to get me out of this mess of this semester. but then bring it on. it's good to be in the thick of it. hebrews 12:6 ether 12:27

feliz navidad

has to be one of the great 8. i mean, one of the great 8 christmas tunes of all time, or at least of the last quarter and first quarter of the 20th and 21st centuries, respectively. i don't know what the other seven are. i can attribute upwards of 14% of my bilinguality to the song "feliz navidad." i hope someday you can say the same.

be not fooled.

i don't care who you are: if you sing "little drummer boy" you sound like an idiot. pa rum pum pum pum.

listening to the byu-sanctioned music, which is coming up as "santa claus is coming to town" as performed by neil diamond. this is pure entertainment, but i still don't know how i feel about pure entertainment.

i could really go for some purple corn right now.

talking about agency yesterday in relief society got me thinking. sometimes other things get me thinking. one of those other things is purple corn. but it slipped out of my mouth that i wished that thanksgiving break could go on forever and that i could live in a perpetual state of thanksgiving innocence. then i realized: we couldn't progress if we lived in a utopic thanksgiving break for the rest of the eons. if we couldn't progress, then you know, the whole plan gets messed. so that brings me to this conclusion: satan wants us to remain in thanksgiving break forever. so as for me and my house, we shall be sitting here at work.

Rocky Raccoon aka Rocco aka Wolfgang aka Santiago aka Frank Lloyd Wright

The kitten slept next to my head the whole night. I had little kitten dreams and nightmares.

free, maybe fancy free.

paintings by astrid dahl

as to life, i'm for it.

even when homeworks and dead-lines wants to eat me alive.

bonobo

this is a classy monkey.


her name is panbanisha.


she would whip me in a duel of wits.

gushman's kwest

gushman now sports a pin that says "future missionary." sorry i don't have a picture of that. i don't know how i feel about him wearing said pin. i don't know if he will ever go on a mission.