Lightning

As I've been moving those 30 foot lightning rods across wet fields as the thunder heads roll in I've wondered about some things about lightning. I've been told that lightening can travel as far as 3 miles from once strike to the next. So using that tricky little thing with 5 seconds per mile, I've decided that any closer than 15 seconds and I need to stop moving pipe. But then I feel like I quit way before I really am in danger, so I decided to do some research on lightening. My research was not reassuring. I learned that lightning can strike as far as 10 miles from where it is raining and that if you can hear the thunder you are within striking distance. That sucks as my first warning sign that lightning is coming is that thunder rumbles quietly on the other side of the mountains. Oh well, I suppose I can only hope that that research was done at a lower altitude than I am at and that my 15 second method will continue to keep me safe. Off to move my 30 foot lightning rods!

Alternate uses for... Coffee filters?

A while ago I was searching my family's food storage room for an item, and I stumbled across a package of coffee filters, which baffled me as to why they were in there as we don't drink coffee. So I asked my mom about them, she told me she had bought them to filter water in case of emergencies. So picture you need to get water from the creek :P you get it, and run it through the filter to remove the big pieces and then boil it to kill off other delightful things in it, or if you can't boil it at least you'll have been able to filter out the bugs, bark, and other objects you might find in creek water. In that frame of mind I stumbled across this interesting article on Yahoo, as well as the suggestions past 12 that came from the comments at the bottom of the article.

1. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they don't leave behind any residue.


2. Save a bottle of wine. Broke the cork? No problem. Just place a filter over a pitcher and carefully pour the wine into it.


3. Line flower pots. Place a filter at the bottom of the pot to prevent soil from leaking out of the drainage hole.


4. Protect china and non-stick cookware. Place a coffee filter between dishes or pans when storing or packing.


5. Wipe off smudges. In a pinch, you can use to clean eyeglasses, camera lenses, televisions, and computer monitors.


6. Keep your microwave clean. Prevent splatters by covering dishes or bowls in the microwave with coffee filters. Using another plate is your best bet, but filters are a good alternative to plastic wrap. And you can easily reuse them a few times.


7. Make a bouquet garni. Tie up bay leaves, parsley, or other herbs in a coffee filter. Drop it in your stew or soup pot, and easily remove it when you're done cooking. Recipes often suggest cheesecloth for this process, but a coffee filter is an easy-to-find alternative.


8. Diffuse the flash on your camera. Place a coffee filter over your flash to soften the brightness. You can also try putting coffee filters over lights or lamps to lessen the harshness of direct light when taking indoor photos.


9. Make sachets. Tie lavender or other dried flowers and herbs in a coffee filter to make great-smelling bundles you can store in drawers and closets.


10. Use for sewing projects. Coffee filters make a great backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.


11. Make tea bags. Wrap loose tea in a filter and tie with a string.


12. Use for storage. Wrap Christmas ornaments and other rarely used fragile items before packing away.
13. Use for Baking. Make muffin "scones" by placing filters on a cookie sheet and dropping dough onto it and baking.
14. Use for straining. Strain plain yogurt through it and wind up with a more firm, 'greek type' yogurt for dips and recipes.
15. Stop bleeding. They’re the perfect fix to stop bleeding from razor nicks when shaving.
16. Absorb Grease Use them to absorb the grease from fried foods. Put them on the plate and put your french fries, bacon and other fried food on top. Or when browning hamburger after the burger is brown and you need to pour it off, drop a coffee filter in and stir it around a bit to soak up the grease instead of trying to drain it and losing the meat. Then just throw it away.
    
17. As a splash guard. Use a coffee filter to cover dishes when they’re cooking in the microwave to prevent messes.
    
18. As a drip guard. Stop that Popsicle from dripping all over the place. Poke one or two holes in the filter and put the stick(s) through it.
    
19. Use for potting. Line your plant pots with a filter to keep the soil from leaking out of the drainage holes when you water them.
    
20. As a buffing rag. Use a coffee filter to apply shoe polish.
    
21. As an odor eater holder. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and put it into shoes or a closet to absorb and prevent nasty odors. You can even put potpourri into the filter, tie it up and put into your drawers, etc.
    
22. As a funnel. You can use the cone-style coffee filters to safely pour in oil and other liquids into your car’s engine
23. As emergency...necessities. Emergency toilet tissue, emergency baby wipes
24. Excess moisture absorbers. line small Tupperware with them for grapes or strawberries in lunch bags.
    
25. Crafty supplies. use them in craft projects.
26. Strainers. Recycle your frying oil, use them to strain the grease from what ever then store the used oil in the fridge until next time.

That is all for that thought.

Contemplating

SO I've been recently contemplating the impact several of the events of the past year have had on my life as I had it planned, the major one being I am still living in the Valley, not that I don't love it here. I am also still living at home, yeah, didn't see that one coming. And I am currently unemployed, also didn't see that one coming. So I've been thinking, in the grand scheme of things this period in my life is much like a small piece of a jigsaw puzzle, and I don't know how these events will all wind up to put together my jigsaw puzzle, but I do know that He does. I feel like I got one of those 50,000 piece puzzles, and don't have the picture on the box, so I have to guess where each piece fits in the puzzle. It is as though my first 22 years have been the edges, which I managed to fit together, but now I am a college grad, who is unemployed, living with her parents, and looking for a job, it is as though this next step is my first inside puzzle piece. And I just don't know where to look, or what it should look like, and when I pick up a puzzle piece it doesn't fit anywhere. When I try to force it, it just creates an even bigger mess. But I've recently picked up a new puzzle piece. I really hope this time the puzzle piece fits, and I can move on to the next step in my puzzle, finding the next inside piece.

On another note, I have to say, I know that there is a plan for my life, the puzzle pieces will fit, and as I get older I know that I will be able to look back and see where the pieces fit, and how each piece worked together to get the big picture. I know that He has the picture on the puzzle box, and when I rely on Him for guidance, I can save myself frustration. I know that He loves me and knows what is best for me. I just have to learn to trust Him in all that I do.

Bucket List-1-85

101 bucket list

Ø did it, but won’t do it again.

× did it but would like to do it again.

×× multiple times, × per time

» in progress/plans

1. Graduate college »

2. Own my own car

3. Get married

4. Have kids

5. Own a home

6. Successfully grow a garden

7. Have no debt »

8. Go bungee jumping

9. Travel to Australia

10. Watch a sunset from the beach in Hawaii

11. Play in the Atlantic, and Pacific (×) oceans

12. Visit all the temples in the US

13. See Europe

14. Learn another language

15. Go to Cedar Point in Ohio

16. Visit the Church History Sights

17. Tour as many light houses along the coasts as possible

18. Go to Disney World, Disney Land ×, Sea World, Universal Studios

19. Learn to Scuba Dive

20. Go on a cruise »

21. Walk in the Holy land

22. Establish the habits of Study my Scriptures and pray daily »

23. Sew a pair of pajama pants ×

24. Correctly hem a pair of pants and have it look good

25. Sew a quilt that lines up at all edges

26. Learn how to decorate a cake

27. Exercise in some form regularly

28. Always be less than a 29 BMI

29. Learn how to preserve all kinds of foods

30. Learn how to dance »

31. Learn how to swim well

32. Develop smile and laugh lines-not frown lines »

33. Learn how to cut hair (more than just buzzing)

34. Learn how to dive

35. Learn how to play the guitar

36. Learn how to decorate a house -and make it look good

37. Learn not to be embarrassed so easily

38. Make a gingerbread house-that looks good

39. Learn to knit/crochet

40. Go skydiving ×

41. Learn how to make soap from scratch

42. Learn how make pretty loaves of (wheat) bread

43. Be well read, both in secular and non-secular readings »

44. Endure cheerfully-whatever comes

45. Make an entire thanksgiving dinner

46. Become knowledgeable regarding as many religions as possible.

47. Pet or at least see a platypus up close

48. Be in a community play

49. Take up backpacking

50. Learn how to shoot a gun (and hit the target being aimed at)

51. Go rock climbing (gear and everything)

52. Get in the habit of meditating »

53. Swim with dolphins

54. See the highlands

55. Make a full skirt

56. Make a patchwork quilt

57. Never be to busy to enjoy the sunset

58. Walk in all 50 states

59. See the grand canyon

60. Visit the statue of liberty and other NY sites

61. Visit the holocaust memorial and other DC sites

62. Meet an Amish person

63. Stand on the 4 corners (NM, Az, Co, Ut)

64. Attend the temple regularly

65. Visit the space needle

66. Serve a humanitarian mission

67. Put at least 30% of every paycheck to their causes. 10% tithing, 10% nest egg, and 10% toward a humanitarian mission

68. Save up to have, don’t go into debt for anything other than a house and a car if necessary

69. Learn how to change the oil in my car

70. Learn how to make sushi

71. Do genealogy

72. Visit Canada and Mexico

73. GO body boarding

74. Try wake boarding, water skiing, etc

75. Be more organized

76. Spend time with people of other cultures to learn their traditions and rituals-find the truth in all

77. Get red highlights at least once ×

78. Learn how to flirt

79. Be more sociable

80. Learn how to function without stress- when I have nothing to do, aka no stress, to still accomplish things that I want to do.

81. Achieve Nirvana

82. Gain control of my mind, thoughts and emotions.

83. Be gainfully employed

84. Live in the moment

85. Be positive

BOOKS!!!

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

(*) 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
(*) 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
(*) 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(X) 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
(x) 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(x) 6 The Bible
(*) 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
( *) 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
( ) 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
(*) 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
(X) 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
() 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
(*) 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
(*) 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
() 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
(X) 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
( ) 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
(*) 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
( ) 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
( ) 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
() 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
(*) 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
(*) 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
(*) 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
(*) 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
() 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
() 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(*) 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
(*) 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
(X) 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
(*) 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
(*) 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
(+) 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
(*) 34 Emma - Jane Austen
(*) 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
(+) 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
(*) 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
() 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
(*) 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(*) 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
(*) 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
(*) 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
() 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
() 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
() 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
(*) 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
() 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
(X) 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
() 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
(*) 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
() 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
(*) 52 Dune - Frank Herbert
( ) 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
(*) 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
() 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
() 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
(*) 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
() 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
() 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
(*) 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(*) 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
() 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
() 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
() 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
(*) 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
() 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
() 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
() 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
() 69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
(*) 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
(*) 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
() 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
() 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
() 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
() 75 Ulysses - James Joyce
() 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
() 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
() 78 Germinal - Emile Zola
() 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
() 80 Possession - AS Byatt
(*) 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
() 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
(*) 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
() 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
() 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
() 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
(X) 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
(*) 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
(*) 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
() 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
() 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
() 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
() 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
(*) 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
() 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
() 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
(*) 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
(*) 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
(X) 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
(*) 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Eleven Read, not too bad, though my to read list just got lots longer.

Five lessons

For one of my classes we have to read a book called The Five Lesson a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth. A rather lengthy title I know, however, the lessons are quite amazing. It is by Richard Paul Evans. I'm going to write out the lessons as I have to do for my book report, sort of as a rough draft, even though I'm writing out the lessons I still recommend getting a copy of the book and reading it. There are some excelent points in the book and some really fun quotes and stories that I'm not really going to touch on. Read it for yourself, follow the lessons and learn how to be a self made millionaire.

The lessons are as follows:

1. The first lesson starts off by saying, “Decide to be wealthy”. Many of the people in the world wish that they were wealthy, but they don’t ever decide to be wealthy. To decide to be wealthy one must first decide what it means to them to be wealthy. To me, wealthy means I don’t have to worry about money. I wouldn’t have to worry that my check may not pay all of this months bills, and in fact I would never worry that it wouldn’t. To me, wealthy means that when my car has a problem and requires a whole lot of work to be fixed, I am not worried about how I am going to pay for it, because I have money that I have set aside for such problems. That to me means wealthy. To me opulence doesn’t mean wealth. Comfort and peace of mind means wealth.

2. The second lesson teaches you to take responsibility for your money. Manage your money, don’t let it manage you. You manage your money by knowing how much you have, where your money comes from, where your money is going, and what your money is doing. These can all be done by following simple steps. Know your net worth, know your cash flow, budget your money, calculate all the costs of an expense before buying it, and take the time to calculate interest rates, and organize your finances so you know what all your investments are doing.

3. The third lesson is to keep a portion of everything you earn. This is an important principle in becoming wealthy. Remember to pay yourself. Save at least 10% of your average salary, and 90-100% of any additional income. Build a nest egg. That Nest Egg is kind of like your retirement fund. You don’t touch it for anything. It is always building, and a person who truly understands this lesson will enjoy watching it grow so much that the idea of withdrawing from it comes with a sense of dread, and consternation, as well as a decision to not withdraw funds from the nest egg. The nest egg is not the place to get funding for risky ventures, and when invested should only be invested in the safest of investments.

4. The fourth lesson is to win in the margins. This means you find additional ways to add to the growing nest egg, through cutting costs, and making extra on the side. It is important to remember is the idea of keep your day job to support your family and provide insurance, but find other ways to win in the margins. The book gives examples of waiting tables on the weekend, training dogs, turning your hobbies into jobs etc. This section in the book was especially interesting to me because he talks about all these places that we can cut costs. The most important way he mentions to cut costs is to keep the millionaire mentality. The millionaire mentality requires its own set of explanations. There are four ideas in the millionaire mentality(i-iv).

i. First, carefully consider each expenditure. Ask yourself is this expenditure necessary? Is it possible to get the same personal effect without using money or by using less of it? This can be done in several ways, when purchasing something, especially something expensive, ask the salesperson, “Is that the best you can do?” Before going to look at an item in a store take some time to do some research. Look things up online, so you can have a better idea of what is a good price for an item. When at the store or on the show room floor, continue to ask “Is that the best you can do, until the salesperson says, “I am sorry, that is the best we can do.” Don’t spend more than you have to on any item. Another way to consider expenditures is to ask “Is this expenditure contributing to my wealth or taking from it.” Wise wealthy people invest their money in their house, which usually appreciates, not in their cars, which almost always depreciate. Also ask yourself, is this an impulse purchase, or a planned purchase? Am I being pressured to make an expenditure I am not sure about? The important thing here is to learn how to say no. “This offer is too good to refuse, you won’t get another opportunity like this one…” the answer should be no. Offers are rarely too good to refuse, and another opportunity may come along and be even better if you hold out, and keep an eye out. Take time to think over a purchase. Leave the store, and go and do something else. You may come back several times before you decide the expenditure is worth it, or not worth it. Also, never want anything so bad, you’ll give anything to get it.

ii. Second, believe that freedom and power are better than momentary pleasure. This means, delay gratification. Take into account how much the interest will cost you, before you make a purchase. Needs are different from wants, and wants can always be delayed. For example, if you rent an appliance rather than waiting to buy it, then a $60 appliance can cost you a couple hundred over time, because of the fees. Calculate it out, and don’t ever buy on impulse or because of being pressured by a sales person.

iii. Third, don’t equate money with happiness. Be grateful for what you have, because if you aren’t happy with what you have, more won’t make you any happier. In fact, more will only cause less happiness because of the increased load on the finances that purchasing more will place.

iv. Fourth, protect your nest egg. Purchase proper insurance. Purchase health insurance, home insurance, car insurance and life insurance. Make sure the plans are comprehensive and cover all health, and home problems. Hint, when buying home insurance, only insure the house. The ground it sits on shouldn’t be going anywhere. Those are all the millionaire mentality lessons. Following those mentality lessons helps to save in the margins.

5. The fifth and final lesson is probably the most important lesson of all. That is to give back. The wise wealthy man lives modestly, meets the needs of the family, gives regularly to worthy causes, and helps those who are less fortunate. It is important that this step not only be done when you finally achieve wealth, but is followed the entire time you are working your way to wealth. We are to love our brethren, and service, through sharing our wealth and our time, is love manifested.

Lessons from my Religions Classes

My world religions class is absolutely facinating. I am learning so much about worship and finding christ in all religions. I love the parallels that he draws between the doctrine of these other religions and the doctrine of the church. I especially love the idea taught that there is some truth in all religions and no person, organization or religion has ALL of the truth that is out there. The church has the part that is essential for salvation but there is an entire ocean of knowledge out there and the amount that we need to know to get us back to Heavenly father is an atom in the depths of a great ocean. So saying we have all the truth, isn't quite true. I also have been learning that the culture of a society can interfere with the teachings of the spirit. For example, western society is so caught up in obtaining material posessions, that the teachings of living simply are difficulty for many. Also western society is so busy being busy we forget to "be still and know that I am god". The eastern religion's meditation is focused on quieting the mind to be able to better become one with their gods. Should this not also be our goal? See what I mean about learning truth from other religions?

In my old testament class we were reading and discussing about the pre-existance in Abraham 3. My teacher pointed out a verse that had never really stuck out to me. He called it the big question. In verse 25 it says, "and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things what so ever the lord their god shall command them." The big question to ask yourself every morning before you start your day, and every evening before you go to sleep, " Have I done everything the lord has commended me to do?" I think implicit in this is the idea that to know that we are doing everything that the lord has commanded, we also have to be in tune with the spirit. If we aren't in tune how do we know when we are being promted to obey the lords commandments?