Five Fun things

I’m the kind of person who likes to make lists. At the top of a piece of paper Ill write List, underline it and then number the points 1, 2 and so on. I think because I’m so very very very unorganised it gives me a sense of being organised.

Also I have this friend who regularly texts me “anything fun?”  or “fun things?” which is fine because it just means they must think I’m a person who is up to fun stuff (which is what texting and social media is all about right? Proving how fun your life is when really you are sitting in your pyjamas at 9 on a Friday night eating pears out of a can watching the history channel – oh that’s just me?.......)



equals one hot friday night. oh yeah.



In this vein here are five fun things that might be interesting.........

1. My sister is an actual real reporter for an actual real newspaper.

An example of the Moxy

My sister Kashka has what you would call moxy, if she wants something she will fearlessly do everything in her power to get it. A few years back she decided she wanted to be a journalist and switched degrees and schools. There were some haters and people who said it would be hard to get a job in journalism. Kash is a determined little thing though and she finished her degree just this past November and gave the Waikato times who she had interned with an ultimatum to give her a job. They gave her a job. It is way awesome to see my sisters name in print. Check out some of her stories here, here and here.

2. Autobiography of Steve Jobs

In recent years I’ve become something of a Mac enthusiast. Though I think there has always been a bit of loyalty to the brand ever since my friend Meredith’s grown up cousin bought a Macintosh when we were like 6 and we used to sneak into his room and play a game called real estate agents, pretending to keep records on his computer. Yeah  I know, what the hell kind of game was that ? Anyway we used to get caught and kicked out of there all the time but that beige beauty’s siren call kept us going back.

The tan temptress

 20 or so years on I own my very own Mac products and proselyte like a zealot about how awesome they are to anyone who will stand to listen to me.

So of course it follows that this Mac lovin’ hipster would be given a copy of Steve Jobs autobiography for Christmas.

Prior to reading the book my knowledge of Steve Jobs was limited to the following youtube clips;

and also the general knowledge that he was a bad tempered bully and also of course the fact he had sadly died of cancer in October 2011.

After reading the autobiography – yeah all that stuff is on point but there was so much more to Steve Jobs and the way he went about doing business that reflects the age we live in and shows how thinking differently can take you to a place beyond your wildest dreams. The coolest thing about this book is that unlike some other PR-driven drivel machine – Jobs gave the writer license to write the truth as he saw fit –including the opinions of those who he had clashed with over the years. He didn’t even want to read the book before it was published. The book is so honest and in many ways raw that you can see yourself reflected in the imperfect and  often egotistical character Jobs was, he failed many times before he succeeded and then at the height of success he failed again but only to come back stronger than ever. Its inspiring.

I read the book in my down time when I was in the Gold Coast over new years  and it was probably the best thing that I did while I was there.

3. Safe store savouries

Something else about Steve Jobs you might not know is that he was a committed vegan for most of his life. This year I’m also committed to veganism for various reasons that don’t include any hippie agendas, I promise.

Its flippin hard though, especially when you are a young single adult who bases eating decisions on convenience and speed. Anyone who is vegan knows that eating vegan is neither convenient or speedy. That why its cool that the safe store in Auckland sells vegan convenience food that mimics the less healthy options that we as a nation love to consume – the pastry.

 New Zealanders are obsessed with pies, we even have colloquial slogans like “Who ate all the pies?” and “Always blow on the pie”

 

and the safe store stocks probably the most delicious pies I’ve eaten in a really long time, that even my meat eating flatmate says “smell truly delicious” and the best thing is they are 100% vegan.

 

4. Cher Lloyd

Mindlessly flipping through MTV late one night  a couple weeks ago I came across this cute video and promptly forgot about it

Everywhere I went for the next little while I found myself humming the dah dah dah dah dum dum dah dumdum but couldn’t for the life of me figure out where I’d heard the tune. Until I saw the video by chance again. Curious about the cutie with the side mullet (that I myself once sported) I googled Cher Lloyd and found out that she was an x-factor contestant and that instead of being a manufactured popsicle like I thought was in fact way original, cool and super young.

 Watch this awesome audition where she does her own spin of Coldplay’s viva la vida.

Obviously its not perfect, but I reckon there are some mad cool elements of the song shes singing also she straight up has the most amazing swagger. Love her.

5. My Study Notebook

As I’ve been preparing to teach about Scripture study this year at institute I’ve been broadly looking at connecting to the innovative and different ways we read the scriptures today that are different from say 10 years ago, which is when the manual was written that I'm teaching from.

Even in the last year my personal scripture study has changed drastically from reading from my traditional paper scriptures to either using my iphone’s scripture app or going online to knock out my daily scripture study. On Sundays I have started to prefer to just take along the iphone to church rather than remember to cart my scriptures along. With this change in how I read from the standard works, preparing to teach Studying the Scriptures poses a problem around what tools are available to those who prefer to use the technology they have on hand for whatever reason.



Iiiiiiiiiiin the left corner your old mission scriptures!,sentimental and marked in a way only you can interpret!, In the right corner - The iPhone! convenient, making you look cool and in your bag anyway........ 



As I’ve occasionally read a chapter or two online at lds.org I’ve actually noticed a new tool in the drop down menu called ‘my study notebook’ previously I was too lazy to find out what it was but recently in the last couple of weeks with the motivation of finding out new study techniques for my institute class I’ve checked it out.

‘My Study Notebook’ has revolutionised my personal Scripture Study.

Like I mentioned earlier – currently I’m all about convenience and having everything Im studying and interested in on a handy, user-friendly, readily accessible site not only helps me study what I need to but reminds me of the other things I should be studying and preparing too.

Its early days in my relationship with this online tool, but so far I’ve prepared a talk, my Visiting Teaching message and gotten excited about the lessons I have to prepare in the future, spending more time than I usually would bookmarking and highlighting linking articles and scriptures. As well as completing my weekly Book of Mormon readings.  ‘My Study Notebook’ is A.C.E.