Pictures from Work

Is he a man or a muppet?

I don't even know.

History

Maybe its working at a genealogy company but I've started to get into family history. During a family history class in church today I found the census records for my Great-Grandfather Otting which surprisingly made his record eligible to receive temple ordinance. Our stake has issued the challenge to us all to have one family name to take to the temple by June and I've already done it.

More directly related to work--apparently people really liked writing about the civil war. Over the past couple of weeks I've gone through hundreds of regiment and cultural histories from the time period. My curiousity peaked and I finally went in saw "Lincoln" in the theaters on its final weekend yesterday. It was amazing. I'd tell you that its worth every cent and deserves to be on the big screen but that'd just be rude at this point.

The Oscars have made me entirely too movie hungry.

Valentines

I handed out Lisa Frank valentine cards this year, they had tiny tattoos included. Lisa Frank encapsulates all my memories about growing up in the nineties. Oh and also slap bracelets.

I just Googled this picture.

I went through and cleaned out my closet this weekend and made it an operable space once again thanks to DI and basement storage. When I moved into this house I threw a bunch of stuff on a shelf and hadn't looked at it in years. Among these things were a small collection of spiral notebooks from college. I had already ripped out most of my notes with the idea that I'd use the notebooks again but I missed a few pages. I waxed nostalgic a bit as I read my random doodles and notes to myself about life. For some reason its the easiest to doodle and day dream when you're supposed to be listening to someone.

Most importantly though, I recently discovered that the city of Castle Gate, as featured in the Oscar deserving film Rigoletto, is a real place. It's a ghost town now but there is a cemetery--possibly the one featured at the end of the film! Finding out the city is dead now adds a grim feel to the otherwise hopeful conclusion to the story.

Part-time Model

"[I'm] so beautiful, [I] could be a part-time model."

Above is my portrait as interpreted by Mirielle Sanford. When she first showed me the piece I felt an almost overwhelming vulnerability and immediately commented that I felt naked. My favorite reaction was my sister's for she found the image repulsive on an instinctual level but consciously acknowledged that there was nothing vulgar about it.

Mocavo has been fun the past few days as we had to dispose of several hundred books, and, due to limitations on recycling, each book had to have pages ripped out of hard-covers. The result was a sizable pile of books which naturally led to pillars going to the ceiling.

Favorite kid quote this week: "Christian, did you pass college? You did? When are you going to get married?"

This week brought a tragic discovery. It appears I failed to back up two-months worth of photographs from my phone before I cleared 2012. From mid-June to mid-August, all of my pictures and videos were missing with the notable loss of Independence Day, my trip to Southern Utah, Ringo Starr concert, and my family reunion at Bay Lake. I spent all night seeing what I could recover and did end up finding a backup of my phone from July as well as the entire album from my reunion posted online. Ultimately I still lost over one-hundred photos but I am grateful I have at least some of my Summer back.

Skating and Snow Caves

I don't have a unifying theme for this post so here are just a few highlights of my life this past week or so:

Last night my stake hosted a multi-ward activity (some wards weren't invited I guess) and we all went to the local ice rink. Finding real dates is hard so instead I brought one of my little cousins, Dane. My unintended plan failed as only one girl came and flirted with me but we still had a blast. Summer skating is pretty cheap so I may pick it up as an exercise routine.

Provo had a tremendous amount of snow fall--a least compared to last year. I'm horrible at eyeballing measures but I'd say we had 4-6 inches. It's not often we get snow like this and I always try to do something with it so I made an igloo. Last time I attempted one (2007) I made it much to large and ran out of snow. This year I kept it small for the kids, but it's still big enough for me to curl up in.

Stake conference and the Superbowl this weekend. We're doing the standard Superbowl party at my house so if anyone wants a place to watch you're welcome to join us. Appetizers will abound.

(That weird moment when a girl you used to date shows up on the Mayor's blog.)