http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5041923/1/Midnight
Go to this site! it is HILARIOUS!!! Its a fan fiction on Twilight but it is really really funny!
-Mary
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Left Alone
Hey Its Mary here...of course. I'm the only one left on this blog. I'm not sure if Liz has gotten a new blog or not but I don't think that she is going to be using this one anymore. This is quite fitting because she is no longer one that is left behind. I will probably also have to change the address and title of this blog. That's okay though.
So another school year has begun and I got a new job. I LOVE IT!!! I am a TA for Anthropology 101 and it is so much fun. I decide when I do my hours and I can do most of it at home. Also, I get to teach two classes on Fridays. Its a lot of fun being the one in charge. I also grade their papers and that's pretty fun. I get paid quite a bit too. I really do love it but I will not be able to do it in the summer so I'll probably have to look for another job at that time.
However, I will be doing field school in the spring done in Southern Utah. I'm so excited. Field school is a requirement of the Archaeology majors here at BYU. It is a time where we go and do excavations in Southern Utah. This will help me learn the necessary skills needed to become an archaeologist. I am soooooo excited for that. This will end in late May or early June so I will probably still almost an entire summer to work and such. I guess I'll just cross that bridge when I get to it though.
I miss you all! I can't wait to see you again. I hope you are all having wonderful lives and I will see you in December!
<3 Mary
So another school year has begun and I got a new job. I LOVE IT!!! I am a TA for Anthropology 101 and it is so much fun. I decide when I do my hours and I can do most of it at home. Also, I get to teach two classes on Fridays. Its a lot of fun being the one in charge. I also grade their papers and that's pretty fun. I get paid quite a bit too. I really do love it but I will not be able to do it in the summer so I'll probably have to look for another job at that time.
However, I will be doing field school in the spring done in Southern Utah. I'm so excited. Field school is a requirement of the Archaeology majors here at BYU. It is a time where we go and do excavations in Southern Utah. This will help me learn the necessary skills needed to become an archaeologist. I am soooooo excited for that. This will end in late May or early June so I will probably still almost an entire summer to work and such. I guess I'll just cross that bridge when I get to it though.
I miss you all! I can't wait to see you again. I hope you are all having wonderful lives and I will see you in December!
<3 Mary
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Once agian
Well He did it again everybody! I just took my final for American Heritage and the score I got was (drumroll please)...84%!! Oh yeah, life is good. God is good. That's all there is to it.
-Mary
-Mary
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Divine Help
-Posted by Mary
As you all know I have been taking classes this spring and trying really hard to bring my GPA up a little bit. One of the classes I'm in I took the summer right after High School. It's called "American Heritage" and it is a requirement course. It is also one of the hardest classes here at BYU. The first time I took it, I got a C. Since I have a scholarship this spring and summer, I decided that I should retake the class to raise my GPA. I have been trying very hard to get a better grade but lately I have felt that there was no way I could get much better than before. I had been doing a little better but I still felt that the class was just too difficult. Because of this, I have been really upset and feeling down about school. I felt like I couldn't do any better no matter what I did.
Well, this week I had another midterm in the class. I was stressing alot! I studied alot but I still felt that because I am not a good test-taker, it would be really difficult for me. So I got down on my knees and pleaded for the Lord's help. I knew I needed it, and then I went to take the test.
It was brutal. I had to go over my answers a few times before I felt like I had done the best I could. I did see the last page of the test becuase it was on the back. They let me go back and answer the last few questions but my score was not shown on the screen by the exit of the testing center. So I had to go look online to see my score which made the pain of waiting excruciating. I immediatly went to a computer lab and looked up my score. I was certain that I would be dissapointed but I was wrong. I got an 83% on the test(which is really really good for an American Heritage test because a curve is applied for each test). The average score for the class was a 69%. With the curve, my score changed to a B+ so I should be able to get a better overall grade if I do well on my final.
Needless to say, I know that the Lord had alot to do with this outcome. I believe this was His way of letting me know that He is still with me and if I look to Him in all things, I will be able to overcome all my adversities. I hope you all enjoyed this story. This experience has really helped my testimony grow. I know the Lord loves all of us and He will always be there for us in times of trouble and uncertainty.
As you all know I have been taking classes this spring and trying really hard to bring my GPA up a little bit. One of the classes I'm in I took the summer right after High School. It's called "American Heritage" and it is a requirement course. It is also one of the hardest classes here at BYU. The first time I took it, I got a C. Since I have a scholarship this spring and summer, I decided that I should retake the class to raise my GPA. I have been trying very hard to get a better grade but lately I have felt that there was no way I could get much better than before. I had been doing a little better but I still felt that the class was just too difficult. Because of this, I have been really upset and feeling down about school. I felt like I couldn't do any better no matter what I did.
Well, this week I had another midterm in the class. I was stressing alot! I studied alot but I still felt that because I am not a good test-taker, it would be really difficult for me. So I got down on my knees and pleaded for the Lord's help. I knew I needed it, and then I went to take the test.
It was brutal. I had to go over my answers a few times before I felt like I had done the best I could. I did see the last page of the test becuase it was on the back. They let me go back and answer the last few questions but my score was not shown on the screen by the exit of the testing center. So I had to go look online to see my score which made the pain of waiting excruciating. I immediatly went to a computer lab and looked up my score. I was certain that I would be dissapointed but I was wrong. I got an 83% on the test(which is really really good for an American Heritage test because a curve is applied for each test). The average score for the class was a 69%. With the curve, my score changed to a B+ so I should be able to get a better overall grade if I do well on my final.
Needless to say, I know that the Lord had alot to do with this outcome. I believe this was His way of letting me know that He is still with me and if I look to Him in all things, I will be able to overcome all my adversities. I hope you all enjoyed this story. This experience has really helped my testimony grow. I know the Lord loves all of us and He will always be there for us in times of trouble and uncertainty.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
A Lesson in Linguistics
Hello, everyone! Just in case you can't already tell by the title of this entry, This is Liz. I was just thinking about some linguistic things and I thought I'd share a bit of my knowledge with all of you (I'm not trying to sound pretentious).
Many of you are familiar with the subjunctive mood through your studies of foreign languages like French and Spanish. But did you know that English retains the remnants of a subjunctive mood?
First, maybe I should briefly explain what the subjunctive mood is. The subjunctive is used to express many different aspects of an idea, action, or thing that could happen but has not. Its easiest description is that it expresses a dream or wish. Many idioms contain the subjunctive mood; "God save the queen," "Heaven help us," and "Be that as it may" all contain the subjunctive mood. "Save," "help," and "be" are in the subjunctive even though they look just like they do when used in the indicative mood (which is used most often--our main past, present, and future tenses are here). Because so many of our verbs are in the same form in both the indicative present and subjunctive present, it is difficult to spot the subjunctive when it is used. The interesting thing is that only the "be" verb retains the past tense in the subjunctive mood ("if I were to go..."), even though it has nothing really to do with the past. So, to continue with my discussion.
Many linguists have simply declared that English has no subjunctive, but there are these few idiomatic terms, along with the "be" verb, that have kept the subjunctive mood from completely dying out in English. It's amazing, once you know how to use the subjunctive properly, how many places it ought to be used in our language. The debate about this mood dying out centers around the fact that it is being used less and less. Here's an example of this decline:"If I were a rich man..." is an expression that shows that the speaker is not a rich man, but he is about to talk about how things would be if he were one. Interestingly enough, this song was recently redone by Gwen Stefani and the phrase was changed to "If I was a rich girl...." No one, however, mentioned the discrepancy because the indicative "was" is starting to be preferred to the subjunctive "were."
Perhaps another reason for this switch owes to the difficulty of deciding when to use the subjunctive versus the indicative. If something actually happened in the past, then the indicative is used, but if something could have occurred but didn't, or is not likely to occur in the future, then the subjunctive is used.
Confused yet?
What got me started on all of this was an example that I found that went against the changing of the times. I happen to have both the original and redone versions of a seventies song called "Tell Me Something Good," and I was listening to the older version and noticed that they said "I'll make you wish there was 48 hours to each day." I got curious, being who I am, and switched to the other version to see if it was the same (you catch that? I used the indicative there). I was surprised to find that, in the new version, they changed the indicative to the correct subjunctive by saying "there were 48 hours...." Interesting that the new version is actually using the correct form. But here's my question: were they trying to switch it to the subjunctive mood, or were they trying to make that verb agree with the plural "48 hours" following it? Stroke of luck? Maybe. I'd be happy if they were actually thinking about the subjunctive when they changed it though.
So, to those of you who are still reading this (congrats!) sorry to bore you! Maybe you have an opinion about it though. If you do then let me know. I love talking about the subjunctive mood, even though I confuse myself if I think too much about it.
Much love!
Liz
Many of you are familiar with the subjunctive mood through your studies of foreign languages like French and Spanish. But did you know that English retains the remnants of a subjunctive mood?
First, maybe I should briefly explain what the subjunctive mood is. The subjunctive is used to express many different aspects of an idea, action, or thing that could happen but has not. Its easiest description is that it expresses a dream or wish. Many idioms contain the subjunctive mood; "God save the queen," "Heaven help us," and "Be that as it may" all contain the subjunctive mood. "Save," "help," and "be" are in the subjunctive even though they look just like they do when used in the indicative mood (which is used most often--our main past, present, and future tenses are here). Because so many of our verbs are in the same form in both the indicative present and subjunctive present, it is difficult to spot the subjunctive when it is used. The interesting thing is that only the "be" verb retains the past tense in the subjunctive mood ("if I were to go..."), even though it has nothing really to do with the past. So, to continue with my discussion.
Many linguists have simply declared that English has no subjunctive, but there are these few idiomatic terms, along with the "be" verb, that have kept the subjunctive mood from completely dying out in English. It's amazing, once you know how to use the subjunctive properly, how many places it ought to be used in our language. The debate about this mood dying out centers around the fact that it is being used less and less. Here's an example of this decline:"If I were a rich man..." is an expression that shows that the speaker is not a rich man, but he is about to talk about how things would be if he were one. Interestingly enough, this song was recently redone by Gwen Stefani and the phrase was changed to "If I was a rich girl...." No one, however, mentioned the discrepancy because the indicative "was" is starting to be preferred to the subjunctive "were."
Perhaps another reason for this switch owes to the difficulty of deciding when to use the subjunctive versus the indicative. If something actually happened in the past, then the indicative is used, but if something could have occurred but didn't, or is not likely to occur in the future, then the subjunctive is used.
Confused yet?
What got me started on all of this was an example that I found that went against the changing of the times. I happen to have both the original and redone versions of a seventies song called "Tell Me Something Good," and I was listening to the older version and noticed that they said "I'll make you wish there was 48 hours to each day." I got curious, being who I am, and switched to the other version to see if it was the same (you catch that? I used the indicative there). I was surprised to find that, in the new version, they changed the indicative to the correct subjunctive by saying "there were 48 hours...." Interesting that the new version is actually using the correct form. But here's my question: were they trying to switch it to the subjunctive mood, or were they trying to make that verb agree with the plural "48 hours" following it? Stroke of luck? Maybe. I'd be happy if they were actually thinking about the subjunctive when they changed it though.
So, to those of you who are still reading this (congrats!) sorry to bore you! Maybe you have an opinion about it though. If you do then let me know. I love talking about the subjunctive mood, even though I confuse myself if I think too much about it.
Much love!
Liz
Friday, April 3, 2009
Scholarship surprise
Ok everyone. So yesterday morning I got a message from the University in my inbox telling me to go to my finacial center online because I had a message there waiting for me. So, expecting a demand for more money I obeyed and proceeded to my finacial center online. I found that there was a charge for me to pay for my rented computer but I also found that I did indeed have a message from the BYU Scholarship program. Expecting yet another rejection, I proceeded to the message. To my everlasting surprise, these words were staring me in the face,"Mary,Congratulations! You have been awarded a scholarship in the amount of full LDS tuition for Spring and Summer Terms." Shocked and amazed, I wanted to brush it off as an april fool's joke. But that day was April 2nd and that would just be cruel. However, being almost late for class, I had to close the message and start my journey to my class. I was deep in thought for the entire class period and I was unsure of what to do about this seemingly unbelievable event. Later, when it all finally sunk in, I started to understand the significance of this offer and that it was a wonderful opportunity. So, after much thought and prayer, I have decided to stay here in Provo to take classes in the Spring and Summer. I am sorry to say that if I have made plans with you for this summer in California, they will most likely be cancelled. This saddens me deeply but I know that this is an opportunity that could possibly never happen again and I need to take advantage of it. Thank you all for your love and support. I hope that we can make plans again for another summer when I return home to California.
I love you all and I miss you!
Love, Mary
I love you all and I miss you!
Love, Mary
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
My Health Class
Ok everyone. I'm taking a health class that is online right now and it has been really interesting. There is alot of information about my health that has been really useful and I think it might be useful for you too. so, I dont know how to attach the lessons to a post but I can email them to you. The only problem would be that the class ends at the end of the semester and I have them saved to my rented computer that i will have to give back at the end of the semester. I think it would be really useful to everyone so if you are interested, just let me know and I will email you the lessons. They are kind of long but you can skip to the important parts. ok love you all!
-Mary
-Mary
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