A new appreciation for body building

My friend Derrick participated in a body building competition last weekend. Here are some pictures from that. I still do not understand people's desire to do this, but I learned a lot about what they have to go through to do this and I can now respect them more for it.

An eternal animal?

The turritopsis nutricula

is the only animal in the world that can potentially live forever. "Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span," the article quotes. Pretty interesting if I do say so myself! Researchers are now studying to determine how exactly the species does this, perhaps hoping to find a way for humans to do the same.
"Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They're now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters. "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion," says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute. "

Teach for America

My friend TRavis just got accepted to Teach for America's program. I went to the acceptance dinner/social they had and decided that I needed to research this idea.

Teach for America

It sounded like most of the people that were accepted had business or family and marriage degrees from BYU. Interestingly, they applied because they 1. either couldn't get a job with a philosophy or marriage and family degree, or 2. they decided that they did not really even like business or their major. What a bummer. Anyway, maybe it is something to consider for next summer.

A Future Educator

As a future educator, especially a Physical educator, we often talk about the problems of obesity in America. It is said now that this is the first generation that will not outlive their parents. Why? you may ask...it is because of the crummy eating patterns that are shown in America. Most kids eat school lunches here in Utah, because they are on welfare and cannot afford it. Utah County has a giant population of Hispanic children and most of those on welfare are hispanic. I read this article on Yahoo.com and was interested to see what this teacher was doing. Poor thing, I never really ate school food and now am glad that I was fortunate enough to have a financially stable family that could provide a sack lunch for me.

"Fed Up with School Lunch"

Another teacher from Japan also has a link that I enjoyed. He talks about the way that lunch is done with his students. Interesting to read both of these.

http://www.mrfergusonsclassroom.com/

Julie B. Beck

Today Sister Beck came to our Stake down here in Provo and talked to all the Sisters. It was a great time together and we were all uplifted. She just formatted it in a question answer way. There were some great moments and I loved what she said. The thing that I loved most was that she told us no matter what we have learned here at school, if we leave college life without learning to hear, perceive, and act upon spiritual promptings, we will really have learned nothing. What a lesson on the important things in life. She was wonderful and I got to give her a hug. :)

Snowboarding

So my freshman friend Koda wanted to teach me how to snowboard so we went up to Sundance last night. It was awesome but sometimes kind of painful. He said I was the fastest learner he had ever taught so that was cool. It was awesome when I started to figure out how to balance and I could relax a bit more while going down the hill. I took some pretty funny spills throughout the night. I had several guys ask if i "was the one who went flying back there." Yes, I made an impression on people. ;) I was pretty excited about not getting hurt and we went up once more to the top of the mountain and boarded down to the parking lot. I went the whole way without falling (except for off the lift--I couldn't seem to master that and even knocked others over as well.) Sorry poor souls.

We parked and then took the way crowded bus down.
Here was my group. John and Chelsie who are married and then Koda.

I saw Jeff Schwarting and Rob Perry up there along with Clark and his wife. I first saw them on the lift.

I also saw a guy I work with at the RB and a friend from home (did not get a picture of her). The guy in the back though is my new friend Travis...well, at least for that lift ride.

I am trying to take the easiest way...naturally. ;) (PS...we didn't follow the sign this time)

It was awesome. Anyway, so we rode down to the parking lot and i saw this deep hole on the ground and decided that I was definitely going to biff it but saw the snow around and didn't really care. Well, it was not snow around it...it was a thin layer of snow over cement and i fell right on my knees. Needless to say, they are swollen and I was glad we were done for the night.

Here was me today at work. Ice Ice Ice! MY knees hurt! :)

After all that...

Welcome home Cameron! It seems like it has been so long and yet not long at all. Thank you for serving an honorable mission. You make me proud. :)