Scattered thoughts

On Monday this week, I had a tour of the Church History Library, where I work. No, I didn't get to see anything super special on my tour. (If you go into the library now, in the part open to the public, you can see displays with historic artifacts--original versions of different books of scripture, etc.) But I got to go in the freezer rooms that are kept around zero degrees to preserve photographs. I also learned that they store every available patriarchal blessing there. At one point in the tour, we watched a video clip with early Church leaders. At one of them, our tour guide said, "I'll be surprised if anyone knows this one." I said, "Isn't that James E. Talmage?" When he asked how I knew it, I said, "Because I minored in geology, and he was a geologist."

You may or may not know that I really like Lady Gaga. But I don't really like her morals, which means I have never bought a complete album of hers. (I have one song from The Fame, four from The Fame Monster, five from Born This Way, and three from Artpop.) That changed this week with the release of Cheek to Cheek, her collaboration with Tony Bennett. I like it because of Gaga but also because I'm amazed such a thing exists--a controversial pop-star singing with an old-school 88-year-old jazz singer! There seems to be a perception that she must do all her craziness to mask a lack of talent. This new album proves that's not true. Some songs, like "Poker Face" and "Telephone," disguise her voice. With Tony Bennett, Gaga is stripped down--and this time it's in a good way.

This week at work, I've had to look at various places in Utah. I had to look up a mountain called Barney Top. I should have known this would happen:

I also found a very interesting website where you can see how Utah's counties have changed through time. I'm not into history, but I find myself fascinated by Utah history. I like visiting small towns, because even though they have modern conveniences, they're still very much pioneer towns. My dad is from Fillmore, and I find myself interested in that heritage. As a linguist, I like noticing the Utah accent. My dad uses a few idiosyncrasies. For words like "with" and "teeth," he ends them with "f," as in "teef" and "wiff." They speak that way in some parts of England. I noticed that he pronounces "measure" like "may-sure" instead of "meh-sure"--I'm pretty sure his pronunciation is closer to what the original would have been. He drinks root beer with the "oo" sounding like that in "book." As a kid, before I knew anything about dialects, I remember once talking to my aunt Terri on the phone, who talked about visiting the "crick."

Now, for those of you who may think, "I'm glad I know the correct pronunciation"--stop it! Dialects are a natural occurrence. They are not inherently dumb or unintelligent. One person's pronunciation is no better than yours. Yes, yours.

As of tomorrow morning (the 29th), I will be 26. So I have someone coming over this week to help me with insurance, now that I can no longer be on my parents' plan, and my internship gives me no benefits.

Yesterday, with all the rain, I frivolously spent my time. I may come across as mature, but I'm really not, as I spent a good amount of time watching YouTube videos of people falling down and crashing and such. But then I realized, "This is such a waste of time, and it's not even that funny." And some of the videos are mildly inappropriate, and I remembered President Monson's talk from last April: "If you ever find yourself where you shouldn’t ought to be, get out!" I never view pornographic sites or go to bars or anything like that, but I realized that some YouTube videos or BuzzFeed articles are places where I shouldn't ought to be. "Get out!" is kind of my unofficial motto now.

Then today there was an early morning priesthood meeting and ward conference. At one point, they talked about finding balance in our life, and when they talked about being physically balanced, they talked about getting enough sleep. Ever the cynic, I couldn't help thinking, "Then why did you schedule such an early meeting?" I kind of had a bad attitude this morning. Anyway, in the various meetings today, they talked about priorities and making good use of our time. It really confirmed to me my decision to quit watching those dumb videos.

Except for cat videos. They're just too hilarious.