Facebook does not want you to leave

Ok, so I deactivated my facebook account the other day and I'm please to say I don't miss it! It's actually kind of a relief to not have the temptation to waste time on there, especially when I have homework to do. 

However, I found it really interested the process of deactivating facebook. First off, it's impossible to delete facebook for good (as far as I can tell), you can only deactivate it. Second, when you finally find where to deactivate your account, facebook provides all these means to try to convince you not deactivate your account. Let me elaborate. 

When you click on "deactivate my account", a number of your facebook friends appears with this above their pictures "David will miss you" "Ann will miss you" "Cody will miss you"...."are you sure you want to deactivate you account?" If that doesn't dissuade you, then you continue on to click a reason of why you want to deactivate your account. When you click on one of the reasons, a little response appears to give you a solution. Here are just a few examples: 

Reason:"I get too many emails, invitations, and requests from Facebook"

Response: "You can control what email you receive from us here".

Reason: "I don't find Facebook useful."

Response: "You may find Facebook more useful by connecting with more of your friends. Check out our Friend Finder to see who you know on the site. Also, check out the Help Center to get an overview and tips on using Facebook."

Reason: "I spend too much time using Facebook."

Response: "One way to control your interaction with Facebook is to limit the number of emails you receive from us. You can control what emails you receive here"

So this is the conclusion I have come to: Facebook does not want you to leave!!!

 

Facebook

As fun as facebook is and as much as I like to keep up with what's going on in friends' lives, it also very distracting! Every time I go on the computer, I check my email, then I look around on facebook. I've recently been very overwhelmed with school, and so I decided to deactivate my facebook account for a month or so to insure I don't get distracted as much. This will be a nice little experiment for myself to if it'll feel relief to not have facebook, or if I'll feel withdrawals (as if it were an addiction). I guess I'll find out!

Children's Books

I've been wanting for quite some time to start collecting children's book. I don't have kids yet, but I would love to have a nice collection of books for them. It was interesting to learn in a class that a study showed a predictor of reading achievement was the number of books in the home (not just the amount of time parents read to their children). The only reason why I have not bought a whole bunch of children's books is the price! Especially the classic, really amazing children's book and kind of pricy. So...does anyone out there have any good suggestions on where to get children's books for cheap? They by all means do not need to be in new condition.

Childhood Movies

Today I randomly had the "following the leader" song from Peter Pan stuck in my head. I couldn't quite remember how it went so I decided to watch a video of it on youtube. What struck me was that while watching it, it brought back feelings/memories from my childhood of watching Peter Pan. I have noticed that when I see a little bit of a movie that I haven't watched since I was really young, that I somehow remember the feelings I had while I was originally watching it as a child.
Do you experience the same thing while watching a movie from your childhood?

Peter Pan: Following The Leader

Things As They Really Are

I love the talk titled "Things As They Really Are" given by Elder David A. Bednar! It really puts media in perspective for me, and also helps me appreciate this life more. If you have never read this talk, I highly recommend it (it is well worth your time, I promise). If you have read it before, I recommend re-reading it. If you wont do either, at least watch this short video segment that highlights a few things that were mentioned in his talk.

Here's the link for the short 3 minute video segment of the talk:

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/things-as-they-really-are?lang=eng 

Here's the link if you'd like to read the talk:

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,538-1-4830-1,00.html 

Here's the link if you'd like to watch/listen to his whole talk:

http://www.lds.org/broadcast/ces/0,7341,538-1-61-1681,00.html 

Choosing Good Media

I really do like the youth.lds.org website! It has such great resources for the youth. Under media, I found an article that gave some great suggestions for choosing good media.  Below I have copied and pasted these suggestions (you can find the original here: https://www.lds.org/youth/article/idea-list-choose-the-right-media?lang=eng).

• Always let the Spirit guide you as you make decisions about what to watch, play, or read. Follow the promptings you receive.
• Get software that blocks pornography and pop-ups on your Internet service.
• With your parents’ permission, place the computer in an open place in your home where others usually walk by.
• Check book reviews, and read book covers before buying books. Avoid books that are obviously inappropriate.
• When you go to the pictures or rent a movie, make sure you know the rating, and read the reviews ahead of time. That way you will be able to make an informed decision about whether to watch the film.
• Don’t look at inappropriate magazine covers in shops. Focus on something else so your eyes won’t stray to the section where they are displayed.
• Be aware of the words in the songs you listen to or sing along with. Think about whether the words, message, volume, or beat of the music would be offensive to the Spirit.
• Check ratings on CDs before you buy them.
• Be careful watching television at night when programming tends to be less family oriented.
• If you have seen or heard something you didn’t want to see or hear, sing a hymn to yourself and say a prayer to invite the Spirit.
• Have your parents block channels you do not want to accidentally switch to on your television.
• Avoid gossip stories even if they are in what seems to be a reputable magazine or newspaper.
• Stay away from video games that are violent, immoral, or use bad language. Check the ratings of the games you buy or play.
• If you realize you have made a bad media choice, turn it off, put it down, or walk out.

Media

Here's a 2 and a half minute segment from a conference talk given a year ago about the topic of Media. I like this quote from the talk : "let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text".

 https://www.lds.org/youth/video/tune-in-to-the-lord?lang=eng

Free Lunch

In recent years I haven’t read very many books besides ones that are required for my school classes. I did however read (actually listened to it on CD as my husband and I drove to Canada) at book by Hugh Nibley. The book is called “Approaching Zion”. It certainly came across as “different” when I first was listening to it because he basically takes how you already think of things, flips everything upside down, and that has you look at everything from new angles. I think that’s one of the reasons why I really enjoyed this book is because it made me think about things in ways I have never done so before and come up with personal determinations to be a better person.

In the book Approaching Zion, Hugh Nibley mentions in his opinion what Zion should be like, how we a people should be, and gives biblical examples to support his points (such as explaining many parts of the Law of Moses). There is one theme from the book that I’ve thought about quite a bit. It’s the world's idea that there is no such thing as a “free lunch”. In order to obtain the necessities of life (aka “lunch”), one has to work/obtain money, and that’s all there is to it. To the world, free lunch does not exist, so the driving force of the world’s economy is to obtain lunch. This goes against what the Lord has told his convent people throughout scriptures. Consider for instance, manna from heaven, or the great commission from the Lord to his apostles.   Hugh Nibley sums it up this way, comparing the Lord to an employer:

“So let us go across the road for an interview with the Other Employer. To our surprise, he answers our first question with an emphatic: ‘Forget about lunch! Don't even give it a thought!’ ‘Take no thought of what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or wherewith ye shall be clothed!’ ‘But what will become of me then?’ you ask. Not to worry, ‘We will preach the gospel to you, and then you will find out that lunch should be the least of your concerns.’”

This idea has made me think about what my driving force is for the various decisions I make. Am I making a choice because I need to work to earn my lunch, or do I try to follow God’s commandments, trusting he will help me throughout mortality? I like how Hugh Nibley put it: “work we must, but the lunch is free”.

Taking Tests

I was riding my bike to the testing center the other night to take my midterm exam for Media, Family and Human Development. As I was riding, I remembered learning in that class that listening to music before taking a test could help you do better (this particular study didn't did look at listening while studying or while taking a test, but just listening before you take the test). Well, I actually hadn't been listening to anything while studying nor before taking the test, so I was a little disappointed that I hadn't taken advantage of something that could possibly help my score. Then I remembered that it didn't matter if it was Mozart you listened to, rhythm sounds, or the sounds of traffic, but that just listen to something was helpful!  So as I rode my bike to the testing center, I focused on listening to the sounds of traffic around me.  And guess what, I scored a whole 10 points better on this test than I did on a similar test (for a different class, but same teacher).  So maybe, just maybe, it actually worked for me.  It was fun to think about none-the-less. 

Roku

I find that I have a tendency to be behind when it comes to technology and what's coming up. So I don't know how long this has been out, but my husband just told me about Roku. I guess it's a streaming media player that uses your wifi connection to stream media onto your TV.  Companies can create an app for the Roku player and users can select what content they want. The Roku is a one time price (not too expensive apparently) and the apps are then free.

I know in the past I have mentioned to my husband my concern of all the junk that is available on cable and that I wasn't sure if I wanted that in our home for our kids to potentially view. I thought it would be great if we could somehow only have the option of just a few channels that are uplifting (such byutv). But now it seems like Roku is the perfect option for that were we really could just pick a few apps of channels or whatever that we felt was good to have in our home.  Perhaps in a few years when we have money we will get Roku.