scriptures.lds.org

It's that simple.  All you do is type in that web address and you have instant access to the scriptures!  It is so nice not having to carry the (lovely) quad to school if I want to read my scriptures.  All I have to do is go to a computer lab.  I really like how the church hasn't been scared to use the media for its good.  I feel like that has helped many many people to strengthen their testimonies because spiritual and uplifting material is literally at their finger tips.  But, I must say, if I had to choose I would probably still go with my hard copy as long as I don't have to haul it around during the school day!

Facebook

Since we are talking about it in class tomorrow, I thought I would share some of my thoughts here, inspired by the reading:

Why I use it: To stay in contact with friends and family.

How many times per day:  Depends on the day.  Anywhere from 1-10x

How long am I on FB each session: anywhere from 30 seconds to 5-10min.

When did I get facebook:  Apparently August 6, 2007.  Shortly after I turned 16.

Why?: Because it was the cool thing to do?  And as a family rule I couldn't get one until I was 16.  But looking back, it looks like I only used it every couple of days.

First "friend": my older sister, Danielle

First profile picture: 

Number of "friends": 319

Number of pictures: 307


What about you?

Jokester App

Apps on phones and other devices are becoming a huge form of media.  My husband loves making apps for the Android phone, so this post is about one of his more recent apps he has made: Jokester.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=davis.jokes

He was tired of the joke apps that have all of that inappropriate junk on it, so he decided to make a clean joke app!  I think this is a great way to turn the negative media into a positive form.  He does have a "dirty" section on the app, simply because it is near impossible to monitor everything by yourself.  This way if you come across an inappropriate joke, you can flag it to get it moved to the dirty section.  With this method, only the people that want to read dirty jokes have to.  I really like this app because you can get a good laugh without worrying about reading inappropriate content.  Check it out!

Downton Abbey

We watched the first episode of Downton Abbey a little while ago because it was highly recommended by several people.  But, we couldn't figure out why it is so popular!  Our review of it was that it was:

• slow
• plot wasn't too exciting
• slow
• a little boring
• and, slow.

I don't know if it was just me, but in that first episode it seemed like they spent half the time just cleaning or cooking.  They were picking on a cripple, which was sad, but not all that exciting.  We find out one of the characters is gender confused.  That really is all that I remember from that episode.  Should we try for episode 2 and see if it gets better?  Do you like the show? Why?

Henry and Mudge

 

My favorite books as a child were the Henry and Mudge books.  The books are geared towards those in early elementary school.  The main characters are a little boy (Henry), and his best friend and dog (Mudge).  The stories are about their adventures together, and Henry also learns life lesson about loyalty and love.  My favorite book was Henry and Mudge in Puddle Trouble.  I even still have it at my home.  That story is about how it rains and there are puddles everywhere, so they two buddies go and splash around in the puddles and get all wet and dirty.  They also find a beautiful spring flower.  I love the simple water color drawings in all of the books.  It has been a while since I have read the books, but I always looked forward to checking more out from the library, and I hope my daughter will too.

This book series was my favorite growing up for several reasons.  The first was that I wanted a dog, and through reading this book I kind of felt like Mudge was my own dog that I went on adventures with.  Another reason is that I was a tomboy and I could relate with Henry when I was a little kid.  He would go on adventures and get into trouble, and that was how my life was, so it felt like we had a connection.  I remember being sad when I had read all of the books in the series, because that meant our adventures together were over.  The impact that these books had on my life was that they got me to read.  I wasn’t a huge fan of reading, but I really loved these books.  I don’t think I would have read as much when I was little if I didn’t have these books.  It created a greater love of reading, I suppose.

 

Sharing

It's only the beginning of February and I am already running out of things to talk about... So I went onto good old Facebook to see what people were posting.   My cousin had "shared" this photo, so I thought I would share it here:

There are many things I like and don't like about Facebook.  One of the things I do like is the positive messages that make you take a step back and reflect.  The media can bring such a positive light into our lives that makes us think about the more important things in life.

Total Recall

The movie we redboxed this week was Total Recall.

I liked the plot of the movie a lot.  It reminded me of the movie Inception, but this plot was easier to follow and less confusing.  The movie is essentially about a guy who finds out he is really a spy after he goes to this place that puts memories in your brain called Rekall.  He then fights to free his country from an invasion from Britain and to figure out who he really is. 

The main thing about this movie that I didn't like was the swearing.  I would have liked it a lot more if there wasn't a bad word every few minutes.  Since the media has such a big impact on our lives, I wonder what the language of society would be like if they removed even half the swear words in movies.  Would their be less foul language that people speak?  I would love it if Hollywood tried it out.

Smoking in Children's Books

Last week I checked out a book from the library to read to my 8 month-old daughter.  It was about a carrot seed that a boy planted and was watching to see if it would grow.  His family members would walk by him and say that it wouldn't grow. I was shocked when I turned a page and found this:

Yes, I may be overreacting a bit since the book was published in 1945 and smoking was a part of family life then.  But I still wasn't expecting it in a children's book! I hope my baby doesn't take any bad messages away from this boring exciting children's book.

...and in case you were just dying to know the ending, the carrot did eventually come up :)

Call Me...Baby?

I was on campus the other day, obviously, since I'm in school.  And, this girl was walking around singing Call Me Maybe.  Because of that, the song has been stuck in my head!  It is amazing how much media can impact our lives.  I heard the song.  I looked it up.  I had to look at advertisements everywhere on youtube, etc.  Whenever we look at one aspect of media (such as a song), we usually find another media (advertisements).  So, I present this lovely youtube find of a parody of the song.  Who doesn't love babies with crushes?!?