Traditions

At the Savage house the day after Thanksgiving is not a day for shopping, but a day to start the Christmas preparations. Here are a few pictures that I took today.

YouTube

I posted recently (not recently as in a short time ago, but recently as in only two posts ago) that I quit Facebook. One of the reasons for that was that it took too much time and I had other things I wanted to do with that time.

Well, I’ve realized since then that it wasn’t ever really Facebook that was taking up all of my time. When I spend time online (then and now) it was WAY more often that I was watching things on YouTube.  I freely confess that I’m a bit of a YouTube junky. And in case you are not very familiar with the ways of YouTube, I will explain that on YouTube you can create an account. This allows you to leave comments on other people’s videos as well as keep lists of your favorite videos, and most importantly it allows you to subscribe to other people’s accounts. Subscribing means that when you log in, your front page is full of the latest videos that they’ve posted. It’s like Following someone’s blog.

So anyway, as I was thinking about this the other day, I decided that I wanted to look at the various people/channels to which I am subscribed and see what that says about me. I've decided that pretty much each of these things makes my life happier. So here you have it, these are the things that I really enjoy wasting time on. I’m going to list them in the order in which I subscribed to them.

Kitkatsavge – This is my sister. She occasionally uploads videos of my nephew, so I like to know when those come up. Though, she doesn’t post a lot, so I usually just like to go through her list of favorite videos. We have similar tastes so I usually find AMAZING things in her favorites list. 

Recommendations: Josh and something amazing

Mrssavage18 – This is my sister-in-law. She doesn’t post a lot either, but when she does it’s either really cute stuff of her kids (By “her kids” I mean those she teaches in school. I would be really bummed out if I found out that Matt and Rachel had kids via YouTube.) or they are videos of their cat Callie playing with Matt. So fun stuff, but mostly just for family etc. 

Recommendations: Callie the Alley Cat

BoredShortsTV – Many of you may have seen the “Kid History” videos that went viral about a year ago (though, they were mostly viral in Utah – because the people are clearly Mormon). This is their channel. They’ve done a whole bunch more than just the kid history stuff and it’s all pretty funny. 

Recommendations: KH5 and Dance Class

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy – Also the fruits of a viral video a number of years ago. This is the guy who does the “Hi, I’m a marvel… and I’m a DC” videos. When you have as many nerdy brothers as I do (and who am I kidding, I’m just as much of a nerd as they are) you know some things about superheroes and where they come from and all their various movies. So the videos that this guy posts are really funny as he has the protagonists of different comic book worlds interact. They are especially funny in the summer when all the blockbusters are coming out, because they get new material to work with. 

Recommendations: The original and Avengers

HISHEdotcom – This channel is similar to the above because it deals with movies, but it isn’t limited to comics/superheroes. The name stands for How It Should Have Ended. They make flash animation shorts changing one event that makes the whole movie different or simply pointing out some of the ridiculous things that happen in movies. 

Recommendations: Avengers, Hunger Games (plus)

ThePianoGuys – I've known Jon Schmidt's name for a while. He wrote a song that will be familiar to most of you (link!). He also wrote another song that will be familiar to many who play the piano (I feel like everyone who gets to a certain level tries to tackle this one at some point). But in the last couple of years he and a friend teamed up and started making amazing covers and mash-ups for piano and cello. They are the Piano Guys and they have some really great stuff. 

Recommendations: Beautiful and Peponi

Charlieissocoollike – Ok, there's a history with this one. I love Doctor Who. There I've said it. I feel like most people jump to a lot of conclusions when I tell them that, but you have to know that in order to understand how I found this channel. Charlie McDonald is also a fan of Doctor Who. He's also a member of a band called Chameleon Circuit that writes Doctor Who songs. (Wow, I sound really nerdy.) Anyway, this kid is super funny and he's British. This was the first channel that I subscribed to that was just a person's vlog. But I'm a fan.  

Recommendations: Doctor What and Puppet

Vsauce –  No joke - in the last hour this video was posted on their channel. That's Bill freaking Nye. I love this guy! Anyway this guy does all kinds of nerdy sorts of things. He does videos about cool science-y things or nerdy video game things or he has a whole series about the crazy/strange things that you can buy online. 

Recommendations: Déjà vu and Lut

Minutephysics – I found this guy through Vsauce. But he explains complicated physics concepts through fun pictures and makes it all pretty easy to grasp. I love learning, so I always enjoy his posts. 

Recommendations: 4th dimension and thorn

Vlogbrothers – This is one of my most recent discoveries. I've seen these guys around YouTube and even seen some of their videos, but I didn't really know what they were all about. Then about 3 weeks ago I actually started following some of the things that they've got going on. They started out in 2007 as two brothers who decided to communicate with each other only through YouTube. It went viral and now they've completely revolutionized the YouTube community. I'm not really going to try to explain everything that they've started, because it would take a long time. (Plus you'd really know how nerdy I am, and I don't know if I want to  admit to it...) Basically, Nerdfighters FTW and DFTBA. 

Recommendations: Harry Potter nerds, names, college, and 1000

P.S. Mel, that book we're both reading -The Fault in Our Starts - is written by one of these brothers. 

LizzieBennet – Ok, so I'll talk about one of those things that the vlogbrothers started. Hank Green posted this video that talks about wanting to try something new - telling a classic story through a new medium. I'm really really enjoying the result so far. It's like a TV show where you are waiting for the next episode to see what will happen - except I know what's going to happen, I just don't know how. It's a lot of fun. 

Start from the beginning: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

In case you need further proof of my nerdiness - I get absolutely every one of these references, and they are all something that I love. 

Well, this was the story about how I spend my time. Thoughts?

(This post took me forever to put up because it's so link-y. But if I make anyone smile with even one of those links - than my job is done.)

Pictures

If you look at my blog over the past, oh, 2 plus years that I've had it, I'm pretty sure you would not see a single picture of me.

I'm really bad about taking pictures. Especially of myself. So here are some pictures of me from the last 6 months. (These are all shamelessly stolen from my roommate Katie.)

Katie loves to make delicious food. She often shares with me. 

 This is me and my roommates Angie and Katie and our friend Nathan. Going out to find a new and exciting place to eat is pretty much a weekly occurrence for us these days.

Again, me and Katie - it's all about the food.

Oh, singles dances. There's really nothing to do but laugh... because otherwise you will cry.

Dinner - again. 

The most recent picture of me. This was from only a week ago. We'd gone out to dinner and then decided we needed some soft serve.

 Well, I hope you enjoy. I am going to try to take some pictures of my own and start posting them. Especially because I can take pictures with my phone and post them to my blog with my phone. You'd think I would just be doing this all the time.

Love you all!

I quit Facebook

This has honestly been coming on for a while. I have been growing more and more frustrated with Facebook over the last few months. I have never been a huge facebook user. I'm more private and really don't want the whole world to know what I'm having for breakfast, or that I'm now in a relationship with Mr Perfect. (I'd be making that part up anyway.) So the twitter-like constant status updates were never my cup of tea. When I did spend time on facebook I usually just looked at people's photo albums. But the sad part of that was this: I felt like I was connecting with them. So instead of calling or sending an email, I would just look at their facebook page and feel like we were all caught up. So, as I've been realizing the sad state of my actual relationships, I have liked Facebook less and less.

The kicker for me though was this Timeline thing. It's confusing and awkward and I didn't like it right from the beginning. Well yesterday I got a notice telling me "Congratulations! You are being upgraded to the Timeline profile! Take the tour, start it now, or just wait until the automatic update in a few weeks." I couldn't find anywhere to click that would say "NO, NO ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!" So I quit.

This is not the end of my social networking though. I'm still using Google + because I like that format a lot better. So if you really need to find me online you can.

Well, I'd be interested in your thoughts. What do you recommend I do with all my extra time? : )

What has the world come to...

So, sometimes I think about 10 year old Heather and I think about what she would have thought if she could see (almost) 27 year old Heather. There are a lot of things that would surprise little Heather. The one thing that I'm thinking about tonight though is what I am doing right now. I am typing something into my phone, and in a few minutes anyone who wants to can read it. Anyone. Ten year old Heather wouldn't even know how to conceptualize this phone, let alone the level of communication that is the internet and blogging.

Anyway, as my current roommate likes to tell me, I tend to think about the weirdest things. (I think it's a good thing.)

Welcome 2012

Hello again world!

I can’t believe that 2011 is over already. But I’m looking forward to this year of 2012 and seeing what life will throw at me.

I have decided on 5 goals for this year and I thought I would share them. 

 1. I am going to get my butt in shape, literally. I recently invested in a Wii fit so that I could have an easy method for tracking my progress in my endeavors to lose weight. My weight has fluctuated a lot in the last few years. I gained a TON of weight on my mission. I came home and dropped it all and then some. Then I got really depressed and gained a bunch back. Then I moved in with my parent's and started eating good meals so I lost some. Then I moved in with some friends and I've been slowly climbing the chart again. And I'm thinking - that's gotta change.

 

 2. I am going to keep my room clean this year. This goal may seem really simple, but I think it will help me in a lot of ways. Just keep my life in better order. I sometimes say that the cleanliness of my room is an indication of the true state of my mind. (When I'm stressed or overwhelmed, my room's a mess. When I'm happy and have a good grasp on things, my room is more tidy.) So I'm hoping that it works in both directions. Maybe if I keep my room clean, I'll keep my head above water. 

 3. I am going to finish all of my classes. Yeah, I don’t admit this to everyone, but I have not actually finished my Bachelor’s Degree. Due to some personal circumstances I left BYU with less than a semester left. So I’m so close. I just have a couple of independent study classes to finish.

 4. I am going to be much better about my morning routine. I have got to quit rolling out of bed just in time to get to work. So I’m going to get up in time to work out, read the scriptures, and actually spend some time on myself. (Since I don’t have to be at work until 9 every day, it won’t even have to be that early in the morning.) The funny thing is that I actually love getting up early. I just tend to forget that when it's cold outside and my bed is warm and if I just skip breakfast...

 

 5. Last but not least I am going to take time to start reading again. I have been wasting a lot of time on really trivial things recently, and I want to fill that time with something that will actually improve my mind. I mean, Sudoku is great and everything, but is it making me a better person?

So I guess we’ll see how this goes. I would also like to be blogging more faithfully, so I’ll keep you updated on how I do on these.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!