Halloween

Here's the pumpkin I carved (with a lot of actual carving help from my fiance) this year for Halloween. I think it turned out really good.

A few weeks ago, Family Search Indexing made a goal to index 5 million names in one 24-hour time period. Indexing this many names in one day would break the record of names indexed. I made an effort to do as many batches that day as I had time for, which wasn't too many, but more than I do in a usual day (which is usually none...). Not only did we reach 5 million names, we more than doubled it! 10, 340, 879 names were indexed in 24 hours. That's a lot. I'm happy to say that I helped break a record, even though I didn't do a whole lot, but without my help, we wouldn't have quite reached that number. :)

Tag Answers

Okay, I've been tagged twice now, but I'm only going to do one tag I think. Here goes.

The Tag rules:

1. You must post the rules! 
2. Answer the questions and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged. 
3. Tag seven (because it’s a magical number) people and link to them. 
4. Let them know you’ve tagged them.

1. Do you like cats or dogs better? Why?                                                                                    This one is kind of hard to answer. I used to say I liked dogs better, because I had a dog, and I thought dogs could do really cool tricks. But I really never liked other people's dogs. I don't particularly like big dogs, and I especially don't like barking dogs. Dogs usually scare me. So then, I said I liked cats better, because they are quiet and a lot smaller and a lot less scary. But then one time, I was at a friend's house, looking for her after my piano lesson, and instead found myself in a dark hallway with some glowing eyes peering out at me. Kind of creepy. And plus, now I've found myself becoming allergic to cats. So, I'm going to say that cats are usually cuter in pictures, but dogs are more fun to watch movies about, because they can do some really neat tricks.
2. What kind of books do you usually read?                                                                                     I read just about any kind of fiction book. I usually go through phases where I'll just read fantasy, then I'll read some fairy tale retellings, some historical fiction, LDS novels, mystery, adventure. It just depends on what kind of mood I've been in, or what I'm feeling like reading.
3. About how long do you spend on the computer per week?                                                       This question feels incriminating. I spend way too much time on the computer per week. I listen to music, play games, work on writing, read blogs, and lately, apply for jobs on the computer. I probably have been spending a good 15 - 20 hours on the computer each week. I am trying to cut back on that. It doesn't help any that this week is Spring Break...
4. If you could turn into an animal, what animal would you be and why?                                    This is a really hard question. I think I would want to be a dolphin, because dolphins are awesome! Dolphins are highly intelligent creatures. The way they speak to each other is like speaking in code, which is cool. I  also think it would be really cool to be such a great swimmer, and dolphins are known to be happy, fun animals.
5. If you could visit any place, real or fictitious, where would it be?                                           I've always wanted to go to Europe. Boring, I know, when I could pick any made-up place as well. I think it would be really cool to go to Venice and some of the other places in Italy; Paris, France; London; and Germany, just to name a few.
6. Do you play any video games? What are some of your favorites?                                              I can't say that I really play any video games. I've played a few with friends at their houses. The ones I've played are Mario Kart, which I'm terrible at, but it's fun; Pheonix Wright, a game where you're a lawyer and you have to try to solve cases; and DDR- don't know if this one counts as a video game, but it does use the Xbox or whatever, so I'm counting it.
7. What is your favorite color?                                                                                                      My favorite color is yellow when it comes to most things, but with clothes, my favorite color is blue, which is my second favorite color overall.
8. How do you feel about the current state of the world where you live?                                  Wow, this is a deep philosophical question... I feel pretty good about the current state of the world where I live, but I feel like there are some aspects about it that are getting worse.
9. I love sugar! Yes or YES!? What's your favorite treat?                                                          My favorite treat is an icecream sundae. Chocolate or strawberry, with M&M's and sprinkles.
10. Who's your favorite author and why?                                                                                         My favorite author right now is Rick Riordan. His Percy Jackson books are my favorite, and I really like Greek and Roman mythology. His other series with The Throne of Fire is really good too, with Egyptian mythology. I really enjoy reading about those time periods. Rick Riordan has a nice easy-to-read, action-packed way of writing. His characters are fun and realistic, and add a lot of humor to what would be a serious event in the story.
11. If you've read anything from Tsirash, who's your favorite character and why?                         I think I'd have to say my favorite character is Octras. He's the most relatable character, and the one the reader knows the most about, so it's easy to relate to him.

I think this post is going to end here. I might add some questions later, but I really don't have seven people I can tag... so yeah...

Field Trip

On Thursday, the fourth grade at my school was going on a field trip, and I got to go with them as a chaperone. We went to the Museum of Natural History up at the University of Utah. I had heard people talk about how cool it was since they redid it, so I was pretty excited to go. The bus ride up was kind of noisy, but I was surprised that I didn't hear any kids break out in song. I remember that being what we always did on field trips in elementary school. They had three to a seat, so it was kind of squishy, but it was fine.

When we got there, we had to pass out pencils and wristbands and get everyone in their groups. I had six kids in my group which wouldn't have been bad if they were kids that would stay together. I had a couple kids who wanted to be in other groups, so if were a little bit ahead of one group, they would lag behind to talk to their friend; or if we were a little bit behind, they wanted to move on with them. There was also one kid in my group that was always trying to move ahead and go on without us. I had to keep telling him to come back or to wait until everyone was ready to move on. Luckily, the other four were pretty good at keeping together, but I found myself counting heads at least every five minutes.  The museum was really cool though. I kind of want to go back and actually look around for myself without having to worry about losing children.



The view from on top of the museum



The dinosaur exhibit

(Note: I don't know why these pictures have the lines across them. They don't have them on my camera.)

LTUE Convention

Last week, I went to the LTUE Convention. Sadly, I was only able to go one day, but I thought there were some pretty good sessions that day. My friend Jaron, who went with me along with his wife, Rachel, has been posting about all the sessions he attended in great detail. I didn't take as good of notes as he did, but here are the highlights basically of what I learned at LTUE.

The first session I went to was done by Brandon Mull. Although the main focus of his presentation was on his books, he used examples from his own experience to talk about things that everyone can do. He said:

Write about what you're most passionate about.

Use evocative details to tell the story to paint pictures in the readers' heads. Places you've been are easier to describe and write about than places you've never been to.

Characters are everything. You should include characters you can relate to or that are interesting. Be observant. Being a people-watcher can help you write about different kinds of characters. It's good to have diversity in characters - different kinds of personalities.

"If it's all happy, nice people, it's pleasant, but it's boring." -Brandon Mull

Know your audience. It's important to remember who you're writing for. It will change what kind of things you include in your story.

Hang in through the rejection and keep writing. Write a story that fits into an existing category but is new.
Agents/editors are the gatekeepers.

Think about your story when you're not writing, so that when you have time to write, you don't spend your time staring at a blank page trying to decide what's going to happen next.

Geography in Your Story

I never realized just how important geography can be in a story. Some things geography can affect are:
Clothing, the sense of realism, setting, houses- what they're made of, artificial geography such as roads or railways, provisions needed or taken on a journey, government, how people travel, cultural effects, natural barriers, natural resources, and travel time. Travel time is dependant on how people travel, what kind of technology they have, what they're traveling on or through. Roads increase speeds, making travel time shorter. Twelve horses per rider make it possible to travel faster than having just one horse per rider.

Use geography to cause conflict in the story.

Beliefs in fantasy

Almost every civilization is based on faith of some sort. Faith/religion is the motivation to do things.

Actions are affected by people's morale beliefs. Belief systems are important.

Religion affects symbols/symbolism, even things like colors.

People's daily routines are different because of religions.

Science answers how, religion answers why.

Subplots
I think this one was my favorite session and the most useful as well.

Subplots are good if they are vital to the story and add to the plot.

Make your story fell alive - subplots don't have to be directly related to the main plot, but they should tie in.

Middle grade plots are much more linear, but subplots are important there as well.

Subplots are a great way to round out your characters and give the reader details about them.

Subplots reward careful reading, and can help foreshadow events in the main plot.

Rank chapters from 1-10. Each chapter needs to be important and ranked pretty high on that scale. While one plot is resting, another one should be growing.

Integrate subplots.

Don't add new things in the last quarter of the book.

Don't add too many subplots, but level the existing plots.

Subplots have to have a beginning, middle, and an end just like main plots.

With series, outline next books to help foreshadow in earlier books.

Some subplots are planned, but most of them just happen.

Foreshadowing is laying clues so that when things happen, they are surprising, but inevitable. When you look back, you see all the clues. Lay down a spectrum of clues.

All plots need to have a main character, some noble goal, obstacles that get in the way, and successes and failures.

New Year's Resolutions

For New Years, we had a party with some cousins on the Friday right before New Year's Eve. Then on New Year's Eve we went to a stake dance, so those were both fun. I sat down to write some New Year's resolutions, like I do every year, and was pleased to see that I met one of the resolutions I made last year, and that was to read 100 books during the year. I finished the last book on New Year's Eve, in the morning. For the complete book list, click here.

Sad to say, that was the only goal I know I met for the year. I will try to do better this year. I am going to try to read 100 more books this year. There are just so many that I want to read...

Happy New Year!

Gingerbread House

This post is a little late, but I finally got around to posting it. We had a family Christmas party the weekend after Thanksgiving, and one of our aunts and uncles gave us a gingerbread house kit. So the next weekend, we put it together. Here are some pictures of it. I think it turned out pretty good from what we had to work with.