General Conference Prep

As a newly carded Graduate Student my life begins another hectic turn.  Between the strange setup of modules (classes) and the fact that graduate studies requires a higher effort and greater focus than undergraduate, I find myself with no free time and my mental faculties are reeling from this recent barrage after a wonderful summer.  So what did my mind wake up to this morning?  "Only three more days to prep yourself for GenCon!"
This came to me as both a relief and a panic.  I am ready for the spiritual uplifting that listening to the authorities of the church provide but I'm panicking since I've forgotten  to take the preparatory steps that I usually do in the week leading up to this event.   




Well I was gonna make this into a what I'm gonna do but I'm feeling tired and don't think I'll want to finish this post in the morning.  So beyond the scripture reading, praying for specific help, re-reading previous addresses, do any of you have a process you go through prior to Conference?

I'm a Foreigner

So y'know how you sometimes look at people who are obviously visiting and not from the same place you are? I'm the recipient of that a lot here.  It can come just as an odd stare at my clothing, a giggle at my American accent, a quick look over a mug of coffee as I pass by.  Now I don't differ terribly much from the majority here me, I have the same skin color as the majority here, I even speak the language spoken here but there is something about me that people are able to pick out which identifies me as an outsider.

At the bank the something came in the form of my passport.  I admitted to it too, handed over evidence which definitely pointed to the fact I did not hail from Ireland or any part of the European Union. Though I had a letter from my school saying I in fact attended the school and going through the rigmarole of classes in order to receive a masters degree through them. Somehow this did not satisfy the bank. Because of my outsider status I must now go through a fraud check to make sure that the money I'm giving them, which comes from the American Government and was given to the University (who won't help me even though they took their pickings) and then given to me in the form of a refund cheque from the bank I'm attempting to start an account with, isn't some scheme on my part to fraudulently make some money.  I would think that it would be an easy call to the branch or the university contact and ask if the cheque i attempted to deposit had validity, but no, this will somehow take 2-6 weeks to confirm that money which will be coming from the US government through the largest University on the island which banks with them isn't me stealing money.  
Le Sigh

So I'm figuring of giving them a couple days and then the response will happen.  They say the squeaky wheel gets oil and I'm quite in need of access to those numbers on that check made out to me.  We'll start with something simple: a flood of emails to the branch manager's inbox.  I'm debating between an email every 10 minutes or so or 500 at once for the next several days.  If that doesn't elicit response I may need to go to the branch and set up camp as I'll likely be unable to pay my rent which will come due during the 2-6 weeks.  Then as I have no money for food I'll have to find my way to the branch manager's home asking that, since he is holding my money ransom, he feed me.  Should this not elicit any response I'll move on to online picketing of the institution on banking blogs.  This will naturally lead to picketing the branch in person.  Should I at this point be quite literally starving I may have to email the US embassy and see if they are able to pull some strings to let me get my money.  I haven't thought beyond that point but hopefully all works out well and tomorrow morning I can look at my account and see my money.

Sasha Dichter: The Generosity Experiment | Video on TED.com

Sasha Dichter: The Generosity Experiment | Video on TED.com

I have to say that I am typically enthralled with TED and you all should go explore it if you are not familiar with it.

Scatterbrained

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. -Oscar Wilde
Perhaps this is why Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are so wildly popular.

Came across this guy in Dublin

Being in Grad School I will read....A LOT.  I like reading though I'm gonna have to find something outside the academic reading to keep me sane.  Ergo the quote from Oscar Wilde.  Since I have chosen Ireland as my locale I figure I should read and reread a selection of his works as well as other Irish literature. So my list will consist of the following authors: Jonathon Swift, J.G. Farrell, Laurence Stern, James Joyce(maybe..), Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker.  I think that should suffice for a bit.  And if I see anything in the theatre by Wilde or George Bernard Shaw I'll undoubtedly go.



That being said I do need to find something else to keep my sanity around here.  There isn't much in the way of rock climbing out here even though I brought a pair of shoes for the off-chance.  I should track down an instrument rental for a Horn and find some small community band. 


Ok I feel as if I'm rambling here.  I assure you, once school starts I doubt you'll have to read as much from me.  I've unfairly unloaded on you my reader and I apologize.




Though you did choose to read knowing it was I who pushed the pen.

Differences

The hot and cold water on sinks are swapped: hot on the right and cold on the left.
Lots of lights have pull cords but not attached to the actual light.
The outlets are turned on and off at the outlet.  You can't just plug something in, gotta turn the outlet on too.
The passenger door is on the other side than the one I usually want to get in.
Really Crazy Narrow Streets
Pounds rather than Dollars unless i go south a bit then its Euros
Everything that I'm used to being in plastic is in glass jars out here; mayo, nutella, peanut butter, etc.
It's not the Institute Building it the Centre for Young Adults.
The cars are so small here that when I saw a Prius it looked like a crossover in comparison.
Accent of course
It was already in the 50's when I got here leaving 95 degree weather....I mean near 15 here and I left 35
I'm a foreigner here in the minority so I may actually get stopped when I wear my t-shirt saying "I could be illegal".
Clothing sizing
Shoe Sizing
Stones and Kilos
Little words here and there like craic, banger, fag (meaning cigarette), bollocks, eejit,
The clothes washer is in the kitchen
There is no tumble dryer so there is a drying rack or the clothesline if I want it to rain
Public transportation is nice here and plentiful and not fulfilling of the stereotypes you hear of public trans.
Haven't seen much in the way of Police out here.  Two times speeding past blaring siren but that's it.
I'm sure I'll find/think of more and add them.

Date a girl who Reads

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

stolen from Sonia

Here we go Again

Wow, feels funny to say but I'm living in Ireland.  I'm going to the campus in Belfast of Trinity College and will be studying Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation.  Hopefully I'll find better methods than the ones suggested by my family when I told them I was going into this field; peace through superior firepower seemed to come up a lot.  I'm excited for this field of study personally.  I think one can understand much of the human animal by studying the trek from conflict to reconciliation.

So that being said I am now moved in to a cute little duplex with two other fellows.  The locale of my residence here was not decided until this previous Saturday when Darren let me know he had an open room.  I was quite concerned I may have had to move out here and live in the hostel until I located accommodation.  Thankfully that didn't happen.  Though since it was short notice Darren didn't have time to furnish the room here so i'm sleeping on an air mattress at the moment and will go looking for furniture later.  On a side note, craigslist doesn't seem to be used much out here.

When I flew in I decided I would stay up the whole day and go to sleep at 9-10.  My day consisted of unpacking (kinda), checking up on my loan money out here (also found out I will be getting scholarship money too), but around five I was losing it and starting to doze so Darren decided to take me out and show me around and eventually dumped me at the institute building while he went out with the missionaries.  Coincidentally it was the first day of institute for the semester.  I got to meet with the instructors and meet the missionary couple serving there.  All the other kids there kept asking me why i would ever move from Florida here.  I guess they don't think of Belfast as much of a place to come to.  

Well even though I don't quite feel as if I'm on my own two feet yet I'm getting there.  Just need to remember to keep myself founded in truth and doctrine while i'm on this adventure. 

Rewind

Today filled my heart.  As it is fast Sunday I promptly forgot and consumed a bowl of corn flakes this morning. Remembering on my way to church (with my mother, it's wonderful to see her again....finally) I decided I would delay the usual time frame and begin then.  Usually I would just push it to the following Sunday but much weighed on my mind.

I decided yesterday that I would visit a ward not of my own (anymore), but the ward in which i spent most of my formative years (from a few months prior to baptism till I went on my mission).  Before I even walked in the building I ran into a friend that I had looked up to while I was in the Aaronic Priesthood.  This began a day in which I would encounter people that had influenced me in many ways, from previous bishops to young men leaders to just fine outstanding people who provided an example of balanced, righteous living. 

The stock of the day rose when I found out that two other certain people were there.  These two and I had grown up together being the only ones of similar age that were there for a long period of time (though I was the outsider considering they were cousins).   One lives in Idaho and one in South Carolina so I found it quite lucky that the three of us decided to descend upon the church at the same time.  There was a lot of reminiscing and catching up.  They are both married and were showing off their children and teasing me for not being married myself.  It was quite wonderful and brought back even more memories more poignantly then before.

It was definitely nice to go and see the old ward and catch up with friends

(Dunno why this didn't post back in August)