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!!

Life Update

(Ok, Mel. You are allowed to sue me for breach of contract. But not for too much because I’m only 24 hours late.)

These last few months have just flown by. I think it’s a function of my age, but time goes SO much faster than it did a few years ago. June was fantastic. As mentioned, I moved out of my parents’ house and into an apartment with some friends. That has been a wonderful, if expensive, decision. I love my roommates and we are getting very close. It’s a great apartment – which is good because I’m stuck with it until at least next June.

June was also wonderful because I was able to spend a week and a half in Utah with my long lost siblings. (Or am I the long lost one?) I was surprised with how much it made me realize that I miss about Utah. Ok, not Utah itself. But there are so many people there that I love. I am tempted – kinda – to head back out that direction when I move on from Delaware (maybe next year). I don’t want to live in Utah, but it might be worth it in order to spend more time with these people.

I was expecting to spend a lot of time with Kathryn and new baby Josh because, let’s face it, that’s why I went. Josh is adorable and my whole trip would have been totally worth it just to hold him once. And I got to hold him a TON! Plus I miss Kathryn. Kat – you are my best friend and I’m so lucky to be your sister.

But I was able to spend a lot of time with a lot of other people too. I had dinner with some of my old middle school friends and their families. It was great to reminisce and remember back when we were kids who thought they were so grown up at 12 or 13. And remembering all the good times since then too. And everyone’s kids are so cute!

I got to spend a day or two with one of my very very best friends ever, Jessica Ellison. She is one of maybe 3 people I know besides my family whom I really trust to love me no matter what. Some people are good friends, but no matter how much you like them you still always feel like you need to impress them or you feel like you have to worry about how much they will judge you before you tell them something really personal. It’s never that way with Jessica (or Ellie as she calls herself these days – which is really weird, by the way Guck). We’ve pretty much decided that the day our mothers met and we started playing with each other in the nursery at church was the best day ever… even though we don’t remember it. She’s also the kind of friend who I can not see or even talk to for a number of months or years and we’d still be able to pick right up where we left off with absolutely no awkwardness. And we’d still love each other just as much.

I got to stay with my Grandma and Grandpa Savage who are two of the coolest people on the earth. I really love my Grandparents. All 4 of them. And I know that I am extremely blessed to have all four of my natural grandparents still living and living together. The older I get, the closer they are to my heart. Which makes me a little scared because I know they won’t be around forever. But I’m hoping for another good 20 years at least.

I also spent some great time with Matt and Rachel. I spent a whole day with Rachel setting up her classroom for this fall (yay Rachel!). The three of us were able to go to the temple together and spend many many hours just talking. Sometimes until so late at night that it was really early morning. (And yes, Grandma and Grandpa noticed that I came in at 5am.) Or watching good movies/shows… I keep telling them they’ve done a wonderful/terrible thing by introducing me to the phenomena of Doctor Who. I have lost many hours of sleep to watching that TV show since. But I don’t regret a minute of it.

After I got back July just seemed like a blur. My team leader pulled me aside at work to inform me that things were in motion to have me transferred to a new team/position here at CSC. She wanted to make sure that that was ok with me before it became official. I said yes, of course. But then it became problematic for me because I wasn’t supposed to tell my teammates until a general announcement was made. But I had a lot of things to do in order to get my filings and my clients all in order so they could be transferred to someone else. So I was trying to make all kinds of arrangements without letting on that anything was changing. But I got things squared away and they announced it and now I’m moving from the role of Annual Report representative to a general Customer Service Representative. This is huge because now, instead of specializing in one kind of filing and being able to manage a very specific list of clientele, I have to be on the phones where anyone anywhere can call me and I have to be an expert in everything. So I’m a little nervous. Since August 1^st I’ve been training with various other teams here so that I can have at least a general grasp of what they do before I head into the CSR training. But I’m excited too. There is a lot more opportunity for growth and advancement there. (Not that I’m planning on making any long term career out of this… but it’s nice to know I have options.)

In other news, I’m still the Relief Society president in the branch. My dad (who is the high councilor assigned to the singles) is talking about the stake cracking down on the age limit in the branch. You know how YOUNG single adults is only supposed to go through age 30? Well my branch is crawling with 31-35 year olds. Since my dad mentioned it to me, I looked around our PEC/Branch Council meeting on Sunday… I’ll be the only one left. Which is why they haven’t moved on I suppose. The Elders’ Quarem president is 30, the Branch Mission leader is 30 (I think… he’s new, so I don’t know for sure.) the branch clerk is 31, the Sunday School president is 35-year-old student working on his doctorate, and even the second councilor in the Branch Presidency is my good friend who’s turns 32 this month, but I guess they’ll let him stay. (We don’t have any other auxiliaries in a singles branch.) So it will be interesting to see what happens and how much will change if they start to enforce the guidelines on that.

Also I’ve decided to be more domestic (just in this last week and a half). I have a couple of talents that I haven’t used recently, and I’ve decided to bring them back out. Mostly because I’ve been watching a lot of TV and I decided that instead of giving that up entirely in order to be more productive, I would just find a productive outlet that I could do while watching TV. : )

Back in February my Dad bought me a sewing machine (it was on sale!) as a thank you present for babysitting the kids while they went to Hawaii. So I finally brought it out and started playing with it. I had a project that was half done that I’ve been carting around with me, so I decided to finally finish it. Matt, you’ll be happy to know that the blanket that I promised you (a year and a half ago) is finally being put together. It will be finished by the time you come out here for Christmas. And don’t worry, you can have it even if I don’t draw your name.

I crocheted an afghan as a Laurel project (when they used to have those) and I decided to do another one of those too. Then, since I've actually never done this before, but always wanted to, I got a simple cross-stitch pattern and I'm slowly working on that too. 

Something else that has been on my mind a lot recently is this Christmas. I know, I know, that’s more than 4 months away, but you don’t even know. First of all, it’s Christmas. I love Christmas. But even better than that, Daniel will be home from his mission. I miss him SO MUCH. We are going to speak in Spanish all the time. (Sorry to those of you who won’t understand us, but you are just going to have to deal with it. I’ve been going through Spanish withdrawals lately.) But even better than that, EVERYONE will be home for the holidays. Just as I’m going to start getting used to having Daniel around, suddenly Matt and Rachel and Reid and Kathryn and Adam and JOSH are all going to show up. AAAHHH!! I can’t handle how amazing and epic that is going to be. This is the first time that we’ll have everyone home since the family started adding in-laws. The Savage family now boasts a whopping 15 members: Mom, Dad, Heather, Matt and Rachel, Kathryn and Adam and baby Josh, Daniel, Reid, Victoria, Caroline, Steven, Nate, and Julie. That’s a LOT of people.

So I’m kinda glad I have my own place. : )

I haven’t been reading a whole lot lately. Moving tripled my commute time into work, so I’ve started listening to audio books while I drive. But it’s not the same. Plus I don’t want to get a book on audio when I already have it on my bookshelf. So I havent been reading the books that I said I would. But I’ll get to that soon. Promise.

Well, I hope that this post will satisfy those of you who have been anxiously awaiting information about my life. It’s random, but then so is my life these days. Please post comments. I’m looking for advice on how to do these projects better, ideas for other projects to start, scathing comments about not spending enough time with you while I was in Utah, Christmas wish lists, declarations of undying friendship, your favorite joke, sympathy for my sad new Doctor Who obsession, or anything and everything in between. Love!

(I was going to take pictures of many things mentioned in this post and put those up too... but my camera is broken. Sorry.)