Finally

The Les Mis musical movie trailer is finally here! I'm so excited.

Book Review - Divergent

Ok - so remember on yesterday's post when I said I read a book in a matter of hours? Well this was the book. For the record, it was finished in less than 3 hours and is over 400 pages. It was that good. The pace was great and the writing was good as well. I won't give too much of a summary here, because I think you should read it (especially since the second book of the trilogy just hit bookstores and I may be 75% done with it and trying not to finish it here at work...). You can get both books here.

Anyways, here is the plot of book 1 in a nutshell:

The main character Beatrice (aka Tris) is growin' up in a dystopian society (as so many YA book characters are these days). Her society is split into 5 factions based on one major character trait. Dauntless for bravery, Candor for truth, Erudite for knowledge, Amity for love and Abnegation for selflessness. She grew up Abnegation, but when you turn 16 you get to pick which faction you want to live with. She chooses Dauntless and leaves her family behind. (Btw I didn't give anything away, this happens in the first two chapters). Anyways, the first book is all about her initiation into the new faction and the crazy things that happen, and the introduction of her love interest. Fortunately there is NO love triangle in this series which is soooo refreshing. At the end of book one there is obviously a big something that happens to set up for the second two books. That is all I will say about that.

I would say that it is on par with Hunger Games as far as writing and content go. It is really interesting and it keeps you going. There are a couple obvious things that you see coming, but then there were a couple moments (more in book 2) that made me gasp as I read them. Anyways, go read the book and tell me what you think!

Memorial Day Weekend

Pretty rockin' weekend if I do say so myself! Saturday started off with brunch at Beauty & Essex and the food was DIVINE. I will only rub it in a little bit by saying we ate cornbread waffles, grilled cheese dumplings in tomato soup (sooo good), and homemade pineapple mint and strawberry lemonade ice cream. I officially gained 20 pounds in one sitting.

That night, Julia (my roommate) and her twin sister Alina who was visiting and I went out to Coney Island for the night. The weather was perfect. It rained the entire subway ride there and then when we got out, the humidity cleared, there was a great breeze off the ocean and the night was perfect. Of course we did all the favorite Coney Island activities - we ate Nathan's for dinner, rode the Wonder Wheel (in the swinging cars of course), left preggers Alina with our purses for the Cyclone (which is possibly one of the best roller coasters in the entire world), and then finished up with some funnel cake.

Then Monday we headed out to our usual beach spot - Long Beach, Long Island for the day. We were worried we might be wrestling with some thunderstorms but the weather was beautiful. It was mid-80's with a breeze and blue skies. The water was freezing, but once you got in it was great and the waves were big and fun to swim through. I am slightly pink all over but it was a great way to kick off summer officially. Also - I read an entire book in the morning alone it was that good. I will do a book review of that book tomorrow.

So happy Memorial Day everyone and thanks to all our past, present and future military!

Such Great Insight

So I have met Clay Christensen because my boss went to Harvard Business School and he and Clay met there and have stayed in touch. Also, Clay's daughter Kate is in my ward here in the city. The clip is a little long, but it is so good. I suggest you watch it all. Then go buy his new book "How Will You Measure Your Life" as I plan to. He gives such great insight!

Time

So the summer institute class is a little bit different. Each week there is a topic and we discuss how the gospel gives us answers to real life questions and difficulties. It isn't taught by the greatest teachers per se, but at least the assigned reading is good and hopefully a couple great comments get made in class to make up the difference. (although I am a little biased towards our other Insititute teachers who are my really good friends, and also who happen to be amazing teachers).

This week the topic was goals and time management. There was one quote that I really liked because I felt like it was something that I needed to hear.

"We normally operate under some myths concerning time. We often think that we can save time or that we can make up time. It is a valuable excercise to step back and review the fact that each person has the same amount of time - 168 hours each week. We cannot save time. There are no time banks. We cannot make up time; it goes by at a fixed rate always. We often race at high speeds all day only to discover that we have been doing things rather than getting things done. We need to be effective rather than only efficient. The efficient person may be operating with speed and econmy of effort but may not be accomplishing the most important things." - Rex W. Allred

I really appreciated this quote. I feel like it is so true, at least in my own life. I am a type-a personality who lives by my Franklin planner and my to-do checklist. I have a strange satisfaction in checking off each thing on my list each day. However, I am not always great at putting the more important things on that list and making sure that my time is being used to accomplish more important things rather than thinking my day was well spent because I did 10 things on my to-do list. Food for thought.  

This Will Be My Kids Someday...

Seriously - check out the little boy in the backseat. By far my favorite!

Hunter # ?

And I would do skpe* but I am just too lazy sorry. Maybe when I’m out for more than a year. (because he will be less lazy then?)

I dropped some cash money today.

So how old is Kwasi then 13 in the states, 16 in Africa? (Kwasi is one of my Ghanian cousins. It wasn't concrete when they were born so they did an estimate and then "made" them a year younger so they would adjust to life/school in America better).

Tell Harrison he’s a goon, he probably thinks he’sall cool cause he’s in college...man. I remember those days....so immature.

Life’s good, still working out every morning and eating pretty solidly. Weighing in at 207 after fast Sunday ;).

Tell Kat dog congrats and tell Warner he’s finally going to have to grow up now ha-ha. (This is in reference to my brother and sister-in-law are having twins!! We are so excited! She finds out in a couple weeks what she's having)