A Grand Deluge

Ah, what a week!

Monday, Monday, so good to me, was Labor Day, and my last day before classes started. My parents came by in the morning and took me out to brunch. Then I had to finish up my field notebook for Geology 210. I bought some roast turkey socks that I plan to use for Thanksgiving, and then I had to shave. This was the final result of my beard:

 (There is a picture of Jesus that used to hang in my aunt's house and that used to be a tiny magnet on our fridge at home [I Googled but couldn't find it]. I think I kind of look like that picture here, and I didn't even try to do that. Is that blasphemous?)

I am allowed to have a mustache at BYU. But this, folks, is why I do not.

Then Tuesday was back in classes. After turning in my 210 notebook, I first went to Groundwater. Last year I had to choose between taking Groundwater and Geomorphology. If I took Groundwater, I could have taken Middle English, but I decided on Groundwater. I'm glad I did that, because apparently last fall was the first time that professor taught, and he's toned down the workload now. Groundwater is a 400-level class, and I'm not sure but I suspect that once again I'm the only geology minor in the class. It even has two of the TAs from 210. Geology is a really small department (and I don't understand why, because it's awesome), so there are a lot of people that I've had other classes with. One member of my class used to be in my ward, but even though he moved out, his records stayed in the ward, and he never responded to my emails or texts. Now I will be able to accost him to get his records out of the ward. (There are several such people in my ward who moved out a long time ago but never moved their records and never responded to my requests. That really irks me. It makes me question their testimony and their integrity as human beings that they can't even be polite enough to respond. One such person is a famous athlete, and it really annoys me when I hear him on news reports talking about the Church. If you really like the Church, why aren't your records in your ward yet? </ soapbox>)

I also went to my first class of Swimming for Nonswimmers, but we didn't do any swimming that day.

Tuesday afternoon I went to get a new parking permit. When I went in to Aspen Ridge Management, there was a middle-aged man with a mustache. Walmart and my mission taught me that middle-aged mustached men are usually mean. There are exceptions, of course, but they're generally scary. (Young mustached men are just hipsters or wannabe hipsters. Mustached women are socially awkward.) Well, this guy was ornery. I don't know who we was, or why he was mad, but he was ornery. He kept asking to see a manager. People who insist on seeing managers are never up to any good. At one point the receptionist told him that her boss probably wouldn't want to talk to him with the way he was acting. We don't need any mean people. They should become nice instead. And if they are incapable of becoming nice, they should cease to exist.

On Wednesday I went to more classes. The senior course for my major differs every semester, depending on the professor. This professor is Mark Davies, who is the master behind the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the other corpora. Corpora are large bodies of text that you can look at to see how language is used or see how it changes.Our class will be focused on corpus work, which is exciting for me, because I sometimes use the corpora for fun.

Then I went to Old English. Our professor is actually from the English department, rather than from the Linguistics and English Language department. I'm kind of a snob, so I don't always trust English people. But hopefully it will be all right. Old English is nothing like Present-Day English, so it will be like taking another foreign language. (But it's only a three-credit class, whereas most language classes are four credits.)

In the afternoon I have technical writing. This is a class I have to take (well, I have to take some writing class), and it actually is an English class. Once again, there are some trust issues there, but I think I'll do pretty well, since most of my classmates are doing engineering or health. (I'm more trusting of English people who are into writing than I am of English people who are into literature.)

On Thursday we actually did swimming in my swimming class. We put on flippers and got kickboards and practiced kicking in the water. I didn't realize how exhausting swimming could be. (My main form of exercise is running. I had weird running this week. On Monday it started pouring right after I left. It was dark, so I didn't think it was safe to run in the rain, and after only ten or fifteen minutes I was completely soaked. On Tuesday I ran past a house where water was flooding into the gutter. I even had the nerve to go knock on the door to see if they knew what was going on, but no one answered.)

Then Friday night I went to the Rooftop Concert Series. I had advertised it on my ward's Facebook page, but I never heard from anyone. I went all by myself. It was lonely. I couldn't help thinking, "What is wrong with me, that I'm a quarter of a century old, and I'm at a concert all by myself?" I later learned that other people I knew went, but I didn't know they were there.

Then Saturday--what a day! In the morning I drove some people up to Alpine to the home of Brother Jensen, the second counselor in my ward. We ate pizza and had fun. And then the rain clouds came. We watched some clouds swirl and descend. It was cool. They said the sky was green, but I'm kind of colorblind with certain shades of green, so it just looked gray to me. (It's also a problem on geology field trips when people talk about green shale--it just looks gray to me.)

I didn't want to drive in driving rain, so we waited a bit before leaving. But eventually we left.

It was pretty wet. Driving wasn't too bad. But then at one point a car totally cut me off. They didn't just cut me off; they nearly rammed into me. I didn't have time to think; I could only react. I swerved and slammed on the brakes. Fortunately no one was to the side. I honked at them. I think they were driving pretty irresponsibly. Meanies!

As we got to Orem and Provo, it got really slow. I thought it was game traffic, but I think it was probably police clearing debris in the road from all the wind. At one point I went on a side street to get out of slow traffic. The street was all muddy, and there were rocks, some of them with at least a six-inch diameter, strewn all over the road. It was crazy. In geology, I have heard of streams carrying big rocks, but here I saw it for myself--and it was rain that did it, not regular streams! There were lots of broken trees.

Then after buying a journal at Deseret Book and two Halloween CDs at Barnes and Noble, I went to do my grocery shopping. As I was driving by Zupa's and Olive Garden, I was surprised to see waves on the parking lot. Waves in the parking lot! I had to stop my car to look. All I had with me was my phone, so I couldn't get pictures. But it was crazy. People were up to their knees in water. In a parking lot! I have never seen any weather like this before!

You probably saw my crappy video footage. (I shouldn't have panned across; I ruined the quality in doing so.)


Then today was a busy Sunday. The executive secretary told me we had meetings at 7 a.m., but they were actually at 8. Then after church I had to go to ward council, count tithing, update callings, and pull people's records in. But I'm getting assistants, so that should relieve me of some of the burden. I did clerk stuff while I watched the CES broadcast, but I didn't pay very good attention.

I wonder if any of the rain will be discussed in my groundwater class!

I turn my music up, part two

Two years ago, I made a blog post about the playlist I use. My favorite way to listen to my playlist is on shuffle--it's like my own personal radio station. It also allows me to easily put my various holiday music in and out according to the season.

In the past two years, my playlist has changed quite a bit. I have deleted some music, and I have added more. Although there is still some discrepancy between what is in my playlist and what I would like to have in my playlist, I do like my current playlist more than I liked the one back then.

So here is the list of the music I put in my playlist. This frequently changes, usually when I add music, but sometimes when I get rid of annoying or boring songs. Not to mention all the changes for holidays.

Cherie Call, 56 songs. I feel like I talk about Cherie Call enough that I don't need to talk about her here. I did delete most of the songs from her first album, because her first album really wasn't very good at all. I only kept the very depressing song "Two Story House." But lest you think I'm not a fan, I have bought her singles. She's great.



Taylor Swift, 39 songs. Two years ago, I said I didn't understand why Taylor was so popular. I still kind of feel that way, but I figured out the problem. My first Taylor album was her eponymous debut album, which isn't very good at all. I've retained only a few songs from that album, and even those I don't like that much. I really don't understand how she got popular with her debut album being mediocre at best--but I'm glad she did, because I like her other albums, especially Speak Now. (I actually haven't heard much of Fearless; it's the one album I don't have.) Do I think she's overrated? Absolutely. Don't let the numbers fool you; there are other musicians I like more than Taylor, but I've collected so many songs because she makes long albums. Like others, I get annoyed with her one-track relationship mind. But on rare occasions, she'll come out with a song about a different topic--like "Mean."

The Lower Lights, 37 songs. I think I first heard of the Lower Lights because Cherie Call is part of them. I first got one of their songs on Mother's Day last year, because I wanted a recording of "Israel, Israel, God Is Calling." I got a full album for my birthday last year, and now I have all of them. Whereas the Mormon  Tabernacle Choir sometimes sucks the life out of hymns, the Lower Lights puts it back in. I hope they work on another album soon.


Owl City, 36 songs. When Owl City released a new album (The Midsummer Station) last year, I didn't really want to get it, because so much of his music sounds the same. But I feel an obligation to him, since there are so few squeaky clean popular musicians these days. I wasn't disappointed. He has moved away from the predictable sounds of his early career. Some people say he sold out, but if he did, I'm glad he did. (I'm only sad he sold out on lyrics.) I like his last two albums more than his "Hello Seattle" and "Fireflies" days.


Coldplay, 32 songs. When I made the post two years ago, I said I wanted to get Coldplay's new album, Mylo Xyloto, when it came out. Two years later, I still don't have that album. I've just gotten bored with Coldplay. Oftentimes, when a Coldplay song comes up, I think, "Oh great, this song again." ("Oh great" is supposed to be sarcastic there.) If I got their latest album, I think I would like it at first (definitely better than the Parachutes or A Rush of Blood to the Head albums), but I think that once the novelty wore off, I'd be stuck with even more mediocre songs cluttering my playlist. I think "Viva La Vida" is the only song that I'm not bored by.
 

The Beatles, 25 songs. There are people who hate the Beatles and say they are overrated. But even if the Beatles are overrated (and I might argue that their early stuff is, but definitely not their later stuff), that doesn't mean they are bad. The Beatles are probably the most influential band ever. I think people who don't like them simply say they don't like them because they are popular. If you tell me you don't like the Beatles, I'm not going to trust your opinion on a lot of things. How could you not like "Let It Be," as one example?
 

The Monkees, 24 songs. I liked the Monkees a lot in high school, but I didn't like them much right after I came home from my mission. But now I like them again. They may have been a made-for-TV band, but that's no different than when people listen to Glee music (which is probably even worse). Probably my favorite Monkees song is "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?" It's a cover of an old country song, but I didn't know that until my mission when I walked into an investigator's house and she was listening to one of the country versions.


Vince Guaraldi, 23 songs. I find that Vince Guaraldi is the only jazz musician I care to listen to on a regular basis. I used to listen to his songs from the 1970s Peanuts specials, but I got bored of them. A recent favorite CD I got was the Charlie Brown Suite, which was a live concert Vince did. It's Charlie Brown music with an orchestra. I don't listen to all of the songs, because some of them are slow--but others are a-mazing.


Lady Antebellum, 21 songs. I feel that Lady A has polarized my opinion of country music. I was mostly indifferent before, but I have really come to like their kind of country-pop sound--while your more stereotypical country sound (Garth Brooks, Scotty McCreery) I like less, because now I know what country can sound like. I'm not too impressed with their latest album, Golden--especially since I had to delete three songs for language--but their Own the Night album was great.

Kelly Clarkson, 20 songs. Does it make me a girl that I love Kelly Clarkson? (Kelly herself says, "Don't be a girl about it.") I was really sad that she was at the Stadium of Fire this year, meaning she was on my college campus, and I was out of town. I got her Thankful album for my birthday two years ago, and I found it good but not spectacular. Last summer I bought her Stronger album. It is one of my absolute favorite albums. I don't think there's a song I don't like (although my playlist doesn't contain "You Can't Win," since it's a little edgy). I'm really excited for her Christmas album this year. You've probably heard "Mr. Know It All" and "What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)," but one of my favorites is "I Forgive You."


Imagine Dragons, 18 songs. I think the first time I heard "Radioactive" was on my trip to Death Valley last November. I liked it, and I was surprised when the person whose iPod was playing said that they were local. I remember one of the songs sounded familiar, but I don't remember what one (probably "It's Time"). I just barely got this album, so I haven't really listened to much of it yet, but I've liked what I've heard. I like them, and it's an added bonus that they, like Neon Trees, are Mormon. In case you've been living in a cave and haven't heard "Radioactive," here it is (although I don't like the way this video keeps pausing the music).


Simon and Garfunkel, 13 songs. I grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel in my family, but I kind of forgot about them for a while. This summer I needed to buy some extra stuff to get free shipping on Amazon, so their Bookends album was something I bought (along with the Mamas and the Papas). I think a lot of people still like them, and that kind of surprises me. Not because I think they're bad, I just find it surprising. I think they are still popular because their music has a timeless sound. You can often hear music and pinpoint the decade it's from, but I think it's harder to do that with Simon and Garfunkel.


Of Monsters and Men, 12 songs. I'm glad that folk rock is popular now, because I really like it. And who would have guessed that one really good folk rock group is from Iceland? I really liked "Little Talks," so I heard some of their other stuff, and I liked it enough to use an Amazon gift card to buy their album. You've probably heard "Little Talks," but that's my favorite song on the album.


The Mamas and the Papas, 12 songs. While on road trips with my family this summer, I realized how great the Mamas and the Papas are, and now I'm hooked. They exude 60s-ness, but that's not a bad thing. I love their vocal harmonies, their folk rock sound, and Mama Cass's powerful voice. Considering that the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel are still fairly popular, I'm surprised the Mamas and the Papas haven't resurged, especially with the current folk trend. I have their If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears album, which is wonderful. It has both "Monday, Monday" and "California Dreamin'," as well as many other great songs. "Monday, Monday" has been stuck in my head for two months now because I love it so much.


Christina Perri, 12 songs. I think when I got Christina Perri's lovestrong. album two years ago was the first time I realized folk music was making a comeback. She's just innocuous, Carpenters-esque music. I hope she stays that way, since I think her personality is a little edgier--as evidenced by her "Arms" video.


Mindy Gledhill, 11 songs. I liked Mindy Gledhill when I heard her on my mission, but she wasn't memorable enough for me to continue listening after I got home. Last month I saw her at the Provo Rooftop Concert Series, and I liked her, even more than on my mission (I think she has found her niche of musical style). She just has perky, lighthearted music.


Lady Gaga, 11 songs. OK. When I say I like Lady Gaga, some of you probably judge me. So I have to make some disclaimers. First, the songs I listen to are clean enough to be on the radio, or cleaner. (I once downloaded "Bad Romance," only to discover that it had swearing in it, so I deleted it. It was a wasted download. But a few months later I discovered that the swearing was edited. If I had known the song had those words in the first place, I wouldn't have bought it--but since I didn't want a wasted download, and since it was edited, I redownloaded it from my Amazon Cloud Player.) Second, if you look beyond the meat dress, the intentionally ugly makeup, and the outlandish wigs, she's really a talented singer. I have more dreams about her than any other celebrity, and they usually involve her going to church or otherwise hanging out with Mormons. I wish she were more virtuous; if she were, she would probably be my favorite singer. "You and I" is probably the most inappropriate song I own--but it's awesome.


Neon Trees, 11 songs. I first heard and liked "Animal" before I even knew that Neon Trees were Mormons in a band from Provo (although I still don't have that song). I liked their single "Everybody Talks," so when their Picture Show album came out, I thought I'd get it, especially since they're from Provo. I like them. But I wish their lyrics were a little bit more Mormon--no more Word of Wisdom problems or half-enunciated swear words.


Adele, 9 songs. I got Adele's 21 album the day after Mother's Day last year. As I've listened to her more, I've become a little bored with her, and two years ago she was extraordinarily overplayed, but I still like her.


The Black Eyed Peas, 6 songs. I know a lot of people hate the Black Eyed Peas, but I still kind of like them, although they're nowhere close to being my favorite. The problem is getting songs without swearing; I got their Beginning album for Christmas two years ago, but I could only keep half of the songs. You've probably heard their "Where Is the Love?" anthem from 2004, so here's another positive song I like, "Someday." (Even if you're a hater, I think you might find this song all right.)

Michelle Tumes, 4 songs. Michelle  Tumes is an Australian Christian singer. On my mission, I thought she could hold a candle to regular musicians--but now I notice that contemporary Christian music has a certain sound to it that will never make it popular in the mainstream.


Katy Perry, 2 songs. I got my first Katy Perry song after my roommate kept blasting "Part of Me" through the apartment when it first came out. Then when I downloaded Lady Gaga's "You and I," I figured that if I could download that song, I could certainly download "The One That Got Away."

Blue October, 1 song. I liked "Into the Ocean" when I was in high school--in large part because it was depressing. I used a free download a few years ago to get this song on Amazon.

Isabelle Boulay, 1 song. When I took French 321 last summer, we had to get exposure to French by doing things like watching news programs. I would watch news reports about music, and once Isabelle Boulay was a guest on the news program. I fell in love with her song "Fin Octobre, Début Novembre."


John Mayer, 1 song. I downloaded "St. Patrick's Day" because it mentions all sorts of holidays. I've considered counting it as a St. Patrick's Day song, but it's about too many holidays to do that. John Mayer is an all right musician, but I don't think he's anything spectacular, and I know he's kind of dirty. If there are lots of artists who make the same kind of music, why would I pick a dirty artist over a clean artist?


Michael Franti, 1 song. "Say Hey (I Love You)" is another example of a song that I once really liked, but I have become kind of bored of it.

Rachel Platten, 1 song. I first heard "1000 Ships" one cold morning in 2011 when I was on my way to work. I liked it, and then I heard it again at Burger King a few days before Christmas in 2011. Then one day I remembered it again, and eventually I bought it. It's really perky, although I can understand how it could get a little grating if you listened to her a lot.



The Original Caste, 1 song. I grew up listening to "One Tin Soldier," but the version was by Coven (a Satanic band, surprisingly!). I couldn't find the Coven version on Amazon, but the original version is also good. One of the most meaningful songs I own.


Jessie Clark (now known as Jessie Clark Funk), 1 song. Jessie Clark (Funk) is another artist I really liked on my mission, but now she's a little boring for lots of regular listening.


Ke$ha, 1 song. I know, right? "Your Love Is My Drug" reminds me of fall 2010.


Mumford and Sons, 1 song. I like "I Will Wait," although I think I mostly like it for the banjo. If I had to listen to the lead singer's voice too much, I think it would really get annoying. (I've been generally apathetic about the other Mumford and Sons songs I've heard on Pandora, but I probably haven't heard enough to form a valid opinion.)


Yep, that's what I listen to!

Geology 210, week two

This week I had my second week of Geology 210, Field Studies. This week was very different from last week. Like almost entirely different. Last week was a very detailed study of one particular area; this week was a broader overview of numerous places. Last week was hiking all day; this week was mostly driving, with periodic stops. Being the lazy person that I am, I liked this week better.

(I make the same disclaimer I did last week: I am not a photographer, nor do I claim to be one.)

On Monday we met in the classroom to go over the geologic history of Utah and discuss some logistical things. Our professor was Dr. "Doc" Tom Morris. We were amused by his lexicon--"beefy burgers," "munchy bars," "groovy souvies" (souvenirs)--and his recurring expressions ("Screw your neighbor" and "If you can't see that [fault, rock contact, etc.], psychology is a great major"). We introduced ourselves to the class. There were three people in the class who were physical science education majors, and the rest were all geology majors. That means that in the entire class of about forty people, I was the only geology minor, the only person not in a major from the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and the only person who didn't need to take the class. We got out in the afternoon, and it was only in the 70s, so I went running. I think it was the first time I've ever gone running during the day in the month of August.

Then Tuesday morning we were off again. We headed down on I-15. We got out at various stops and looked at the geology nearby.

While driving through Utah, I have often noticed hills with basalt capped on top. Now I finally know why they are there. If I understand it correctly, lava flows down to the bottoms of valleys and deposits as basalt. Basalt is more resistant than sedimentary rocks, so the surrounding rocks erode away, but the basalt remains. Since it is on the top, the rocks beneath it are not eroded. Therefore, the basalt was once at the bottom of a valley, but it is now on the top of a ridge. This is known as an inverted valley. We saw one near Toquerville.

A little further south, we stopped at looked at the stratigraphy. Normally I wouldn't care to show it to you,  but I was pleased with the image I made. (I'm not sure if I got the boundaries of the formations quite right.)

Rocks turn red when they are deposited in oxygen-rich environments. They turn red because of the iron. All of the rocks in the above picture are Triassic in age (around 247 million years ago). Utah was on the coast at that time, and these rocks deposited in a tidal flat environment.

Then we made it to Zion National Park. I went to Zion in 2002 and in 2010, so it wasn't entirely new to me. We set up our camp, then we went and got on the park's shuttle. I wonder how much we annoyed the tourists throughout the course of our trip, since there were around forty of us. On one of the shuttles, one of my classmates met some people from Russia whom he knew from his mission. ("That would never happen at the University of Utah," Doc said.)

We went to Weeping Rock, which is an alcove in the sandstone where water percolates through the sandstone, hits an impermeable layer, and then flows out until it can find someplace else to go--in this case, the alcove. One of the major formations of Zion is the Navajo Sandstone. Back in the Early  Jurassic (about 185 million years ago), Utah was covered in a sea of giant sand dunes, much like the Sahara Desert today. These sand dunes were turned to rock when groundwater rose and froze the sand dunes in place, forming the Navajo Sandstone. All throughout the park, you can see bedding planes of the ancient sand dunes.

The cement of the Navajo Sandstone (what holds the sand grains together) is calcium carbonate. As water flows through the sandstone, it dissolves the cement. At Weeping Rock, it deposits the calcite again as a kind of limestone known as tufa. (Prior to this class, I thought all tufa came from springs and formed around plants, but apparently that's not always the case.)

Another stop in Zion was the Checkerboard Mesa. I have seen it before, but I wasn't that impressed previously.

The Checkerboard Mesa gets its name from the vertical and horizontal lines. The vertical lines are fractures in the rock. The horizontal lines are the base of different levels of sand dunes. I don't think the Checkerboard is that amazing from a distance--but we got to go up close, and it was really cool.

We all climbed on the Checkerboard Mesa to hear Doc tell the story of Milutin Milankovitch, a story he told last year in a BYU devotional. Since I'm a scaredy cat and don't have good balance, I didn't climb as high as the rest of my class (Doc told us not to if we didn't feel up to it; there were also three girls who didn't go up all the way). There were several people who took pictures of us as they drove by. I guess we do provide a perspective for how big the mesa is.

The next morning (Wednesday), we left Zion after taking some measurements of the dip direction of the bedding planes of the Navajo Sandstone. One thing that this class (both this week and last week) has taught me is just how common faults are. We found numerous faults throughout the trip. This one is especially obvious, as shale is place directly next to limestone. I think that in this case, the limestone (on the right) was shoved upwards.

There was also a smaller fault at that same location.

Later that day we stopped at Coral Pink Sand Dunes. This is a relatively small dune field. We sat in the sand as we received instruction. Afterward, many people played in the sand, but I didn't because I got my fill at Death Valley, I didn't want to be sandy all day, and there were lots of plants in these dunes.

There was a fence placed to prevent cars from driving on the dunes, but apparently the dunes have migrated and partially eaten the fence.

Near Orderville, we got out and took a quiz. It was one that was very difficult (Doc told us we were all going to fail), so I was fine with my score. Then we headed toward Bryce Canyon. Outside of the park, we found this very cool fault, where basalt-covered rocks are lifted up against the red eroded rocks.

Then we headed closer to the park and stayed at Ruby's Inn Campground, where my family had stayed back in 2002. We just got to relax that afternoon. I wanted to go swimming, like others did, but I thought there was going to be a thunderstorm. There are some people whom I want to be in a swimming pool during a thunderstorm, but I'm not one of them. But the thunderstorm never came our way, so I could have gone. I took my swimming clothes for nothing. That night we went into the park to see Bryce, but we missed the sunset, so the pictures weren't the greatest.

Bryce is one of the most--if not the most--stunningly beautiful places I've ever seen. Can you imagine being one of the first explorers or pioneers to come across the place, having never heard of it or seen pictures? That would be so amazing! That night I bought a "groovy souvie" of a t-shirt, but I later discovered it was a ladies' shirt, so it doesn't fit me. *sigh*

The next morning (Thursday), we returned to Bryce to learn about it.

During the Eocene Epoch (about 55 to 35 million years ago), there were large intermountain lakes in Utah that deposited the Claron Formation, which makes up Bryce Canyon. So the rocks of Bryce Canyon aren't really that old. Bryce Canyon is pretty simple; there are three kinds of erosion that create the formations: headward erosion, downcutting, and slope retreat. (I don't understand those processes that well, so I won't explain them.)

We hiked down into the canyon. These icicle-like structures are from water both eroding and depositing mud on the cliffs.

These trees were pretty cool.

On the trail we even saw some bridges. We were stopped on the trail and Doc asked us what the difference was between arches and bridges. We didn't know, but a random foreign tourist did--arches are formed from seeping or percolating water, while bridges are formed from running water. We saw a few bridges on our walk. 

After we left Bryce, we drove through more locations in southern Utah. At one location, we got out and talked about the Navajo Sandstone. The sand grains in it are mostly made of quartz, which comes from igneous rocks. The sand grains of the Navajo formed in the Grenville formations of the Appalachians, a formation that formed 1 billion years ago. Eventually the igneous rock eroded until most of it was quartz, quartz being tougher than most other minerals. The grains were carried down by rivers into Utah, where they made up sand seas that covered four states. Then they turned into rock. Doc pointed out that there was no way they would be able to go through that many processes in a mere 6000 years. Doc said that the more he learns about geological processes, the more he sees the structure of the system and the more he believes in a creator--which is how I feel. Doc said there must be a purpose to our lives--otherwise he would probably eat his students instead of smiling at them.

I noticed another structure that looked a lot like the Checkerboard Mesa, so I asked Doc if it was the same thing going on. He said it was.

That afternoon we stopped at Twin Rocks near Capitol Reef. We climbed by the rocks and had to memorize the nearby Triassic formations. My camera battery was dead at this point, so my pictures from hereon out are all bad, since I had to use my phone or else had to use my camera really fast before it remembered the battery was dead.

Capitol Reef is the one of Utah's five national parks that I'd never been to. Doc likes it the most because it has seventeen geological formations, while Zion only has three. That night we set up camp, then we drove to a nearby town to get some "beefy burgers." It was fun riding back in a van full of twelve college students all rocking out to Queen. And people think that BYU students don't have fun!

Friday was our last day out in the field. In the morning, we went and looked at some more rocks. My favorite part was the reptilian trackway. These are part of the Triassic rocks. The currents in the rock indicate that the reptile was struggling against the current.

Then we went and saw the Goosenecks, which are meandering streams in the rock. These meandering streams are enigmas, because usually meandering streams form on flat surfaces. There are a few theories as to why these meanders are here; Doc thinks it's because the river follows fractures.

Then we went and saw various other places in Capitol Reef. I got another groovy souvie of a deck of Capitol Reef cards. We saw various other things in Capitol Reef, such as an outcrop of the Entrada Sandstone;

some dinosaur bones from the Morrison Formation of the Jurassic, when Utah was an alluvial plain;

and the "capitol" for which Capitol Reef is named. At least I think it's the capitol. The "reef" part of Capitol Reef comes from the sailors who named the area--the area was suddenly less navigable, just as a reef is problematic for sailors.

Our last place was closed due to a rockfall, so we went to another place nearby. Basalt boulders are all over Capitol Reef. We sat on some while we heard Doc lecture, but sitting on them was like sitting in an oven.

Then we loaded up and went home!

Then yesterday I spent about eleven hours retyping up my field notes, since we are graded on them. I'm not even finished yet. It was not my ideal way to spend the last Saturday before the semester starts.

But I will have three full credits finished at the very beginning of the semester!

Geology 210, week one

This week I had my first "class." We went to Little Cottonwood Canyon to make a geologic map of the area.

As I think back on this experience, I think of how fun it was and what a good experience it was.

But I'm not sure why I think that, because I don't think I was thinking that while I was actually there. While I was there, I was thinking more along the lines of:
This crammed tent is sure uncomfortable. That outhouse smells terrible. When is it going to stop raining? My back is so sweaty. Where is that blasted contact between the Mississippian limestone and the Cambrian limestone? This mountain is hard to get up. This mountain is even harder to get down. Why does that pesky limestone look and act like quartzite? I just want to take a shower. 

But it was a fantastic experience, and I'm glad I did it. 

(I'm including pictures, but I have to make some disclaimers. First, I never claimed to be a photographer; these are meant to be informative more than they are meant to be beautiful. Most of them are quite awful. I just use a little point-and-shoot camera. This is a new camera, since my last one was six years old. I tried to take these pictures quickly, so I didn't mess with settings. Most of them have too much light.)

(Also, I was going to go into more detail about the geology, but I would have to look a lot of things up, and it would take too long.)

On Monday morning, we met up by the Eyring Science Center to load up into the geology vans to head to Little Cottonwood Canyon. I rode with a TA named Rachel, who was in my geomorphology class last year.

We stopped at a hill looking up into the canyon. Our professor, Dr. Ron Harris, instructed us. There we learned a little about the 10,000-year-old glacial moraine of the canyon and learned about earthquakes. The Wasatch Fault has an earthquake on average of every 1,250 years. It has been 1,350 years since the last one. If the "big one" hit Utah tomorrow, according to Dr. Harris, no geologist in the state would be surprised. Others might be, but not geologists.

Next we stopped at a place called Lisa Falls.

This is a place where a little stream falls down the granite. There was a lot of granite rubble; apparently there was a big rock fall there only a month ago. The granite in this area is from the Little Cottonwood stock. During the Laramide orogeny around 30 million years ago, the oceanic plate was subducting beneath the continent. As it did so, it melted rocks and a magma intrusion formed in the crust. About 20 million years ago, the subducting plate fell off into the mantle, and the area underneath the continent was replaced with hot mantle. The hot mantle weakened the crust and caused it to collapse, and it is still collapsing today. As the valleys collapse, the mountains rise from isostatic rebound, exposing the granite.

Next we stopped at Snowbird to look at the mountains. There are some interesting features here.

On the left here is the Precambrian Big Cottonwood formation on top of a granite intrusion. The brown stuff on top of the Big Cottonwood formation is the Precambrian Mineral Fork tillite. (The Mineral Fork tillite formed from glaciers.) The Cambrian Period started 542 million years ago, and everything before then is often lumped into the designation of "Precambrian," since not a lot is known about the time before the Cambrian. There was very little life in the Precambrian. (That's a structural ambiguity there: there wasn't much life, and the life that existed was very small!)

Then you can see where gray layers run next to the Mineral Fork tillite. There is an extensional fault there. Those gray layers are limestone and marble (the white bands are marble, which is metamorphosed limestone). And then on the very top is more Mineral Fork tillite and Tintic quartzite (quartzite is metamorphosed sandstone). The Mineral Fork tillite and Tintic quartzite are actually older than the limestone, but a thrust fault thrust them on the top of the mountain.

After we saw this, we headed to our campgrounds. Apparently this was the biggest Geology 210 group ever, so we split up into different camps. I had signed up to be in someone's tent, so I had to go where he chose. He chose to go to Albion Basin, which is about 10,000 feet in elevation, in the midst of a glacial cirque. This campground is more primitive, meaning it just had vault toilets, which aren't great, but I grew up with them. It was quite rainy, so we didn't do much the rest of that evening. Some of the time we sat in the vans to wait for the rain to stop. I was listening to my little MP3 player, and by chance both versions I have of Vince Guaraldi's "Rain, Rain, Go Away" came on.

In a lot of my classes at BYU, there has been one person who is really annoying in classes. This person often sits at the front of the room and always has something to say. Sometimes the comments are dumb. Sometimes the comments are obviously intended to show how much the person knows. And it is always a guy. When I took Geology 112 last winter, this annoying guy was incarnated as a middle-age man who seemed to think he knew more than he did. (For example, he once was talking about "Milo Farnsworth," when he meant Philo, and once he said that dimetrodon was his favorite dinosaur--and the professor had to tell him that it wasn't a dinosaur.) Well, this Mr. Know It All was in my camp, and he also signed up for the same tent I did. But he didn't tell the owner of the tent that he had brought a cot. Not a pad or a tiny air mattress, but a full cot. If you're going to bring a cot, you should either have your own tent, or at least inform the person whose tent you're in that you're going to have a cot. This guy continued to be a Mr. Know It All in this class, but fortunately I didn't spend too much time around him.

The next morning (Tuesday) we went out to an outcrop of the Ophir shale. Although it is called the Ophir shale, it is really slate, which is metamorphosed shale. We saw some trilobite tracks in the shale. Here we learned how to take the strike and dip with our compasses. The dip is how much a bedding plane is tilted. You put the strike and dip on a map.

Then we got our maps. They gave us maps that had some landmarks and topographic lines. Our assignment for the next few days was to go out and color in the rock types and other features on our map. We got mapping partners, and then we set out to work. Even though we had partners, we ended up staying with a whole group most of the time. My partner's name was Scott; the others in the group were named Rob, Corbin, Hannah, and Shani. Rachel the TA was with us and helped us most of the time.

Our first outcrop was the Alta stock, another granite inclusion. It had a slightly different composition than the Little Cottonwood stock. Then we found the Tintic Quartzite. The Tintic Quartzite formed in the Cambrian period, after the supercontinent Rodinia broke up. Utah at that time was on the coast, so it was a sandy beach. It is those sands that formed the Tintic quartzite.

Cut through the quartzite--and lots of other rocks--were dikes, which are igneous intrusions that go straight up. The dikes were more mafic than the granite, which means they had more iron and were darker.  Then we found the Ophir shale. The Ophir shale is also Cambrian in age; it formed when the sea got deeper and the water transgressed further onto the continent.This particular outcrop of shale was more metamorphosed than the one we had seen earlier in the day because it was right next to the granite intrusion. The heat from the magma body metamorphosed it more at that location.

My partner and I climbed up the mountain to an outcrop of Cambrian limestone. Limestone forms from calcite deposits from organisms in deep marine environments. We knew it was limestone because, for one thing, it fizzed when we put hydrochloric acid on it. This is our view from that outcrop:

And here is the limestone. At first we thought the gray band was another igneous intrusion, but it was actually dolomite, which is essentially limestone that has magnesium in it:

The weather was perfect that day. It was cool and overcast all day. We had one or two tiny rainstorms, but they were no problem. I would take a few small rainstorms in exchange for coolness.

On Wednesday morning, we headed out to the other side of the area we needed to map. The weather wasn't as great on this day. There were some patchy clouds, but overall it was sunny. We saw lots and lots of Tintic quartzite on the path up to Cecret Lake. I think they spell it "Cecret" because it's not much of a secret. There were lots of people on that trail, and we heard some kids talking about a quartzite outcrop: "This isn't clay. This is rock!" "Yeah, stone!" We could have told them exactly what it was, but we didn't. We found some more dikes in the quartzite. Then we made it up to Cecret Lake.

We ate lunch there and examined the outcrop of the Mineral Fork tillite, which we initially thought was the Ophir shale, since it was slaty. A fault has thrust the tillite on top of the quartzite. Here is a picture of the tillite on the bottom and the quartzite on the top (which is how it's supposed to be--no fault in this picture.) I didn't realize that Corbin's head is in this picture.

As we left, we saw some salamanders in the lake:

We walked through some more quartzite, and then we were at the less steep Ophir shale portion of the mountain.

Right next to this (above) particular outcrop of shale was an outcrop of limestone. I think it was just a place where the sea got temporarily deeper; I think it's still part of the Ophir shale formation. The limestone had a rough texture, so I was able to recognize it as such, since I had seen limestone in Death Valley with a rip-your-pants texture. This is my view from that location:

Then we proceeded to limestone. (This is the typical order of a transgression, or rise in the sea level--sandstone forms on the bottom, then shale on top, then limestone on top of that.) We knew that there were two formations of limestone, the Cambrian Maxfield limestone and the Mississippian limestone. (There is a disconformity there, meaning there is time missing from the rock record; there is no representative rock from the Devonian, Silurian, or Ordovician periods.) Most of the time, we thought we were in the Cambrian, but we were wrong; most of the time we were actually in Mississippian limestone. We found some shell and horn coral fossils in our various limestone stops. Sadly, I only got one blurry picture of a fossil, a horn coral. It's embarrassingly blurry so I'm not posting it. With all our various limestone adventures, we got back to camp pretty late.

On Thursday, we climbed to where we left off the day before. It was a long, steep trail, and it was muggy, so we got pretty sweaty. I couldn't go as fast as the rest of my group, but there was one girl who was really slow, so I wasn't the last one. When we got to the top, it was cold and windy and made our sweat really cold.

The limestone in that location really was Cambrian limestone (thrust on top of Mississippian from a fault). It was white marble. In the midst of one outcrop, I found the world's tiniest Christmas tree:

We got to look over Lake Catherine:

Then we made our way across the side of a mountain covered with blocks of broken granite. We found a goat skull,

a granite wall,

and a big, annoying granite pile we had to climb over.

We ate lunch on an overlook of a valley.

Then we proceeded onward. We were in a place that was quite steep, and not being very coordinated and being a scaredy cat, I went very slowly down the mountain, sometimes just squatting down and sliding on my feet. It wasn't the best way to get down, but I did find a pretty green garnet crystal that formed from metamorphism of limestone. As we came down the mountain, we had to pass through lots of plants, including burrs that stuck to our clothing. They weren't sharp; just a little poky. The burrs loved Rob's shorts, so we had some group unity by helping him remove the burrs from his clothes:

(I didn't even wear shorts. I didn't want to get sunburned, so I was completely covered up. Only my hands and maybe some of my face were exposed to sunlight.) We found lots more Ophir shale:

We could tell that a rainstorm was coming, so we couldn't spend too much time at the locations; I wanted to take a strike and dip measurement but we had to get going. And then eventually a storm hit. It was raining pretty hard, so we found shelter under some trees. They worked well at first, but then they became drippy. It was still better than being out in the open, though. It even started hailing. Eventually I pointed out that it was wetter in the trees than out in the open, since the rain had stopped. We found more limestone as we walked along. We were very annoyed with that limestone (which we had seen all day), because it looked like quartzite, and it even didn't fizz as well as most limestone does. Then we found Rachel, the TA, who was looking for us. She had spent the day at the other mapping area, so we had flown solo that day. We were all wet, so we went back to camp. We learned that everyone else at camp had gone into town and got food. Dr. Harris showed up, and we talked to him and ended up going to dinner with him.

We went to a restaurant/lodge at Alta. It was just a little place run by a BYU alum. We looked at the menus and kind of panicked. There wasn't much on the menu (our host told us that their one chef was a gourmet Boston chef), and what was there was really expensive. The salads ranged from $8 to $11. Most of the meals were more than $20. The waiter told us that the meals were pretty big; when he described the steak, he said it was huge. The TA and the five other people of my group ordered regular meals but split them, while Dr. Harris and I just ordered salads. When we got our food, we wondered why they said the portions were big, because they weren't. Few of us were actually full afterwards (we wanted to go someplace else afterwards, but it was too late). The salad was small, definitely not big enough for a meal, and most definitely overpriced. The steaks were not as big as the waiter said. They might have been a sufficient meal for one person, but not for two people, and poor college students are not going to fork over $25 for one meal. 

Notwithstanding small portions and ridiculous prices, we had a good visit with Dr. Harris. He asked everyone why they got into geology, and Rachel said, "Excluding you two," pointing to Rob and me, since we weren't geology majors. Rob was a physical science education major, and this class is required for that. Dr. Harris asked if I was also that major. I said, "No. English linguistics." There was a little bit of laughter, and Dr. Harris said (not in a mean way), "You're the kind of person I try to get out of my class," since sometimes there's not room for everyone in geology. (But I do think there were still some open spots in the class, and I did get permission from Dr. Morris, who will be teaching the class this coming week.) He did say he had no problem with linguistics, and Rachel assured him that I was a geology minor. He told us the story of how he met with the First Presidency and got them to tear down Deseret Towers at BYU, since they weren't earthquake-safe. I asked him about the crystal I had found; he found out it was garnet by scratching it into a dinner knife. (I guess that was our way of sticking it to the man--if you're going to charge so much for a meal, you should let us scratch your silverware!) We left and went back to camp, sad that it was too late to go get more food.

The last day, Friday, Dr. Harris showed us lots of things that we had missed. For example, he showed us this fault. Quartzite is on the left and shale (or slate) is on the right. The shale should be on top of the quartzite.

He also showed us this sill. A sill is a magmatic intrusion that goes in between the bedding planes of sedimentary rocks, in this case shale. We had puzzled over this earlier, because we thought it was shale intermixed with quartzite or limestone. But when Dr. Harris showed us, it was so obvious that it was granite that I don't know how we thought it was sedimentary. But it did explain why the shale was so warped.

He also showed us a place where there were garnets that had formed in the aureole (a place of intense metamorphism). I don't think any of the garnets were as big as the one I found.

It was cold and rainy--more like November than August--so we left. We went to a posh resort to finish working on our maps. And we were so excited to come back to Provo and take showers.

I came home with a bunch of rock samples. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I think, "What am I going to do with all these rocks?" Except for the garnet. The garnet's pretty cool.

I did take a razor with me, but I didn't shave. I don't think the geology department cares whether I shave, so I'm growing my beard out until school really starts. I've never done so before. This is my beard as of Friday night (it's darker than it looks in this picture):

Then on Saturday we had to go to class to refinish our maps based on feedback the TAs got us. I got Bs on most of my stuff, so in this class I probably won't get the kinds of grades I'm used to, but oh well.

This class did make me a little sad. I'm getting close to the end of my geological career, and this class made me realize I'm not cut out to be a geologist. I just didn't see the same things everyone else saw. Also, geologists are better hikers than I am. I was slower than most of my teammates, and Dr. Harris walked really fast. I suppose that's why I'm going to be an editor instead of a geologist.

And no, I didn't lick any rocks on this trip.

Then school comes along just to end it

All my life, I have never had a school year start in September. They've always started in August.

And this year was my last chance to start in September, since I graduate in April. BYU fall semester starts September 3, the day after Labor Day.

But I blew that chance by enrolling in Geology 210, field studies. This is a class that takes place the two weeks between summer and fall.

It starts tomorrow, thus putting an end to my summer. (I think I've got everything I need, but I don't know if I'm academically prepared--they told us to study, but I don't know how much we actually needed to study.)

Luckily, I've just been working this summer, which means I got a break. I feel bad for those who took summer classes and are taking Geology 210 and are taking fall classes.

It has been a good, interesting summer. Big things have happened, like going to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks and going to Disneyland and visiting my cute nephews. Little things have happened as well: I learned that a relative unfriended me because I used big words, I found some mustard spice in my mom's cupboard that expired before my older brother was born, and a little girl hid in a closet because she didn't like my family--and then her mom did the exact same thing, only in a bedroom.

My final week of the summer was fairly enjoyable. On Monday, several of us went up Provo Canyon near Vivian Park to watch the meteor shower. It was really cloudy at first, and I'm not sure whether I saw meteors or if my eyes were tricking me. Then later it cleared up and we saw a couple of good ones.

On Wednesday, BYU Studies (where I work) had an end-of-the-summer student party. The editor-in-chief at BYU Studies is John W. Welch, who discovered chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. He was present at our party, and he told the very interesting story of how he discovered Book of Mormon chiasmus. Then after his story, we descended into the world of frivolity and watched YouTube videos. I think I must have a different sense of humor than most people, because I didn't find most of their stuff that entertaining. But I did introduce them to the face workout video. If you've ever had a YouTube party with me, you've probably seen it. But if you haven't seen it, you're in for a real treat. Prancercise has got nothing on these exercises.

On Thursday I got my first--and perhaps last--Slurpee of the summer.

Then Friday and Saturday were spent getting ready for Geology 210. There are butterflies in my stomach. I haven't been on a week-long campout in forever, much less one like this. But it should be fun. I have noticed that a lot of geologists study geology because they are outdoorsy people. But I am not an outdoorsy person. Other people do geology because they like the outdoors. I do the outdoors because I like geology.

A year ago, I was surprised when Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" soared to the tops of the charts upon its debut. Unlike "Mean" or "Back to December," I didn't think it was a particularly great song, so it was obvious to me that it was so successful simply because Taylor is so popular. But I fed that beast this week by buying Lady Gaga's new single, "Applause." I got it not because I thought it was a great song (although I still kind of like it), but because I like Lady Gaga and she hasn't released a new song in a while. She is a really talented singer, as evidenced by songs like "Speechless" and "You and I," but this song masks her talent.

Katy Perry also released a new single, "Roar," on the same day. They were released early because they had been leaked. I like Gaga more than Katy (hence the reason I got "Applause" but not "Roar")--I think Gaga has real talent while Katy's just another pop star--but I think "Roar" will do better because it is less weird.

I have bought new (or "new") music by five artists in the last month, but my favorite of those five is still the Mamas and the Papas.


I have found that when I post my blog early on Sunday, I don't get many pageviews. So I probably won't get many today.

Fall really starts in two weeks. And my blogs will probably be just as unstructured then as they are now.

Forgive me, August

I have often considered August to be the worst month of the year. I mean, it's hot, there are no holidays, and summer vacation comes to an end.

But this past winter, with the never-ending inversion and the freezing rain that broke my tooth, I think January moved into the spot of Worst Month of the Year.

And while August is no November or September, it still has good merits. This week I had some enjoyable experiences that could only happen (or are more likely to happen) in August.

Once I asked my previous roommate, Bryton, what his favorite month was, and he said August. I was surprised he would say that, since it was my least favorite. But he said he liked it because of the thunderstorms. And thunderstorms are pretty cool. At work one day this week, a few of us stopped what we were doing and stepped out into the JFSB courtyard in order to enjoy the weather.

This week I also had a rather pleasant drive. My cousins were visiting Utah and staying in Park City, so I went to visit for a few hours. I drove through Provo Canyon, listening to the Mamas and the Papas, while rain fell and lightning flashed in the distance. It was beautiful. I should go on more scenic drives. I was sad I wasn't able to spend more time with my cousins' kids, because they seem pretty cute.

This weekend I went home for one last time before fall semester starts. Most people get a two-and-a-half-week break starting this week, but I don't because I'm taking Geology 210, Field Studies. But this whole summer term has been a break for me (even if I didn't do as many things as I had hoped). I have one week until Field Studies, and I'm nervous. I was feeling less nervous, but then last night I had a dream that I showed up for the first day (at Death Valley, even though that's not where we're going) and didn't understand how the last week of summer had gone by so quickly and couldn't remember if I had gotten everything I needed. I know it's ridiculous to be nervous because of a dream, but I am.

While I was at home I picked plums from the tree in the backyard, and my mom made a pie. I'd never had plum pie before, and it was pretty good, although tart.

It has almost become a tradition to buy shoes during August (at least I did in 2012 and 2011), since that's when Famous Footwear has their buy-one-get-one-1/2-off sale. I got some new running shoes (K-Swiss have become the only shoes I trust) and then another pair of shoes. I felt like a girl, because there were three pairs that I really wanted, but it seemed excessive to get four new pairs of shoes.

My new roommate Chad did some more moving in this week, and I've learned a little more about him, although he is still gone a lot. On Friday morning, while he was still asleep, I heard him say, "It's all right! I got it, dude!" He has been sleeping at our apartment, but that seems to be the only thing he's been doing here.

I'm really sorry. I'm sure you didn't come here wanting to hear about shoes, pie, and weather.

Fossils. Concerts. Mysterious roommates.

Two years ago, when I was packing up all my stuff to move back home for fall semester, I made a Facebook status that said, "Well, Provo, it's been fun." My cousin April commented and said, "Provo's never fun!"

I think she was just trying to start a fight about the BYU/Utah rivalry. But I don't buy into that. Rivalries are dumb, deplorable, and diabolical and should be flushed down the toilet.

But she's wrong. Provo is a pretty fun place. I don't see Salt Lake City putting on monthly free concerts or getting Google Fiber.

Anyway, this week was pretty fun. I only have two weeks until my Geology 210 class and four weeks until fall semester officially starts. I hope I'm all prepared for it when it comes.

On Monday my ward went to the Museum of Paleontology. Compared to the similar museums at the U and the former College of Eastern Utah, BYU's paleontology museum is pretty pitiful. But it is still enjoyable, and it saddens me that it is one of the least known buildings on campus. Every fall, thousands of people clog up roads and sidewalks so they can go watch grown men playing with toys in a giant stadium, yet so few people care or realize that directly across the street you can see animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago!

Before we went over there, many people were saying they'd never been there, but I said I'd been there several times. So someone casually mentioned I should be the tour guide. When we got there, there was another group having a tour from a student who works there, but most of us didn't join that group. Someone once again said I should be the tour guide (after the other group moved on), and I said, "Well, I guess I am the resident geologist of our group." So I was able to talk about how dimetrodons, crocodilians, and pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs; recognize crinoid columnals in a piece of fossiliferous limestone (there were bryozoans in there too, but I didn't remember what they were called until later); point out the humerus crest that is the diagnostic feature of dinosaurs; and provide mind-boggling scales of time. Someone said that if I knew that much from my minor, he wondered how much I know about English.

On Wednesday I got a new roommate. Kind of. I had heard that our new roommate was supposed to move in Tuesday or Wednesday. I was getting ready for bed on Wednesday night when the doorbell rang. I wondered who was coming by at midnight. It turned out to be the new roommate, Chad. He had met my roommate Jordan and talked to him, but he'd never met me. Jordan was in his room asleep, so Chad put his stuff in my room and said he'd decide later which room he'd choose. (My room's better--we have a bathroom, and I'm generally cleaner, AND I'm just plain awesome.) But we haven't seen him since then--although I know he came in today, because when I got home from church his tub was open and some of his clothes were out.  So I don't even know this roommate's full name, his age, his major, his hometown, or anything.

On Friday was the Provo Rooftop Concert series. This was the third time I've been, and it was much busier than I expected. I guess people prefer outdoor concerts in August to outdoor concerts in May and October. I went by myself. I was hoping people from my ward would go, so I posted on our ward Facebook page, but no one was going, so I went by myself. That made it a little awkward, especially since there were all those hipsters around. I was probably wearing an outfit that's as close to hipster as I get (tapered, slim-fit khakis with blue Chuck Taylors), and I still felt out of place. However, there were still plenty of normal people there. I wasn't too enthusiastic about the first guy that played.

The second group was called Mideau (MID-oh). I actually quite liked them; the female singer sounds remarkably similar to the female lead of Of Monsters and Men. I was sitting there enjoying them when they said, "Who likes the Mamas and the Papas?" It has only been the past month that I have come to appreciate the Mamas and the Papas. (What kind of deranged individual wouldn't like "Monday, Monday"?) That sealed it for me, and that night I bought tickets for their CD release concert next month. (You can hear one of their songs on their Bandcamp page.) Both Neon Trees ("Animal," "Everybody Talks") and Imagine Dragons ("It's Time," "Radioactive") came out of Provo and have become quite popular, so I think it would be cool if Mideau did too and I liked them before they got big.

The main/final act was Mindy Gledhill. I knew some of her stuff from my mission (her Sum of All Grace album), and while I liked it on my mission, I didn't find her spectacular enough to continue to listen to now (unlike Cherie Call). I was therefore surprised with how popular she was. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard her sing and I liked her more than I had previously. I think she has transitioned from religious to mainstream music (probably more lucrative that way). I liked her enough to buy one of her CDs, which was the fourth album I've bought in the last two weeks (the others being by the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, and Lady Antebellum).

Then Saturday I had to get serious again, since I only have two more weeks of summer. There were three things I wanted to focus on this summer: looking for jobs, doing things for my calling, and preparing for my Geology 210 class. I haven't done too well on the job search. Yesterday I was going to go get some stuff printed for my editing portfolio, but I need to modify the PDF of my book file first. I did, however, successfully do clerk things. I cleaned out our ward closet of old finance records from 2004 to 2009--we only need to keep back to 2010. Then last night I hit the books and read about the geology of Little Cottonwood Canyon and started the open-book take-home test. While I am nervous for this class, the homework made me excited for it. I have heard from others that it is their favorite class ever, and I have heard that you learn the most from it. I'm excited for that!

When I was at the grocery store yesterday, they already had boxes of bags of Halloween candy out. Sometimes people think I'm crazy for starting Halloween in mid-September--but even I think it's too early now for Halloween.

But what puzzles me most, and it happens every year, is that the trick-or-treat candy is the first Halloween thing to go on sale. I think that most people put up Halloween decorations and prepare costumes before they give candy to trick-or-treaters, so I think those things should appear in stores before the candy. Not to mention that decorations and costumes don't have expiration dates (although candy doesn't have much of an expiration date either).

Now, you may wonder why I think that, since I can't have candy until Halloween candy, and I certainly want to get Halloween candy early in the Halloween season. But the thing is that I don't really eat trick-or-treat candy. I don't consider it to be Halloween candy simply because you give it to trick-or-treaters; it has to have some Halloween connection (like Halloween flavors, colors, or shapes). But even of the trick-or-treat candies that I consider to be real Halloween candy, I'm more likely to consume them in other ways, especially early on in the Halloween season. For example, consider the caramel apple Sugar Babies (which are really good, by the way). They come in theater-size boxes and in individual trick-or-treat packages. (By theater-size, I mean the size of the candy boxes you would buy in a movie theater. Although a box of candy as big as a theater would be amazing.) At the store yesterday they had the trick-or-treat packages, but not the theater boxes. I just don't get it.

Then today I finally had my financial audit for my ward. I've learned a lot from the process, and I finally feel like I know what I'm doing in this calling. I'm glad it's over.

Then tonight I went up to a baby blessing of my cousin's newest baby. Most of these cousins I haven't seen since before my mission. Due to construction and GPS problems, I got into the chapel literally right when they were about to start the blessing. I found it funny that as soon as I went in I was invited to help with the blessing, even though I'd never even seen either the baby or three of his four siblings.

I hope to sleep well tonight, because I certainly didn't last night. (I slept in late yesterday morning because I was having a dream about potty training a little boy to use the litterbox.)