I’m back on track.  For the past two weeks, I’ve been eating healthy and watching my calories.  I already feel so much better and I’m down another 3 lbs!  I don’t know why I have such huge cravings for bad food because it just makes me feel sick after I eat them (e.g. french fries, other fried foods).  I do still fight sugar cravings almost daily.  But, as long as I eat sugar in moderation, then I still feel okay.

I still haven’t got back into exercising regularly, though. I need to because I feel better when I do and I sleep a lot better, which has a been a problem the past few weeks.   Since I haven’t put a lot of effort into exercising, I’m not sure how my Skecher Shape-ups are doing.  I have noticed that my walks seem more productive when I wear them, though.  By productive, I mean I can feel more of a burn when I walk.  I’ll try to be better at exercising in the name of research.

*****

I feel like I’m in a catch-22 situation every day when I go to school.  I really enjoy walking to class because it gives me some exercise, some alone and relaxation time, I get a chance to be outdoors for a bit, and I can listen to music or an audiobook while I walk.  But, I also like to have Corey drop me off because that means we get to spend a few extra minutes together.

*****

I finally have all my midterm scores back and I’m very pleased.  As I’ve already stated, I got a 95% on my Doctrine and Covenants midterm and 90% on my Japanese written midterm.  I found out that I got an 89% on my Japanese oral midterm, and after the curve was applied to both of my Japanese scores, my written score went up to 122% and my oral score went up to 108%. The score I was dreading the most was my English midterm, but I was pleasantly surprised with an A-.  However, ironically, I did worse on the written essay questions than I thought I did and I did better on expressing the main idea of the essays we had read in class.  Go figure.

*****

I still miss reading for pleasure.  I haven’t had much time lately to even crack open Elantris, so I’m still only a third of the way through.  (I don’t think I’m going to hit my 35-book goal this year.)  It’s killing me not to know what’s going on in Elantris!  But, I’m being responsible and doing my homework instead.

Luckily, I have had some non-thinking type projects to do at work lately, so I’ve been listening to audiobooks.  I finished Twilight a few weeks ago, New Moon a couple of weeks ago, and I’m listening to Eclipse right now.  I’ve decided that I really enjoy listening to audiobooks because I can still satisfy my cravings to “read” my favorite books without them pushing books I haven’t read and want to read farther down my to read list.  Also, the readers do such a good job at reading with emotion and animation that they bring the characters and story to life.  Audiobooks are so much better than movies made from books because you still have all the elements that make you love the book.

*****

I joined and added Google Friend Connect to my blog.  Join or die … er … join if you want to know when I’ve made a post. It’s near the bottom of my sidebar, under my shelves.

My niece Megan posted the Eclipse movie trailer on her blog.  I didn’t think it was available on the Internet until tomorrow, but I guess I was wrong.  Anyway, enjoy!

I read Bedtime at the Swamp by Kristyn Crow tonight.  She gave it to me at the Utah Bloggers 2010 Winter Social.

It’s the story of a boy, his younger sister, older brother, and two cousins who think there’s a monster in the swamp.  They all take cover in a tree to hide from this monster as he makes all kinds of scary racket.

I thought Bedtime at the Swamp was really cute and clever.  My favorite thing about the story was that it rhymed and used onomatopoeia.  I love onomatopoeia because it makes the story more real, especially when you’re reading to kids.

The story was illustrated by Macky Pamintuan and I absolutely love the artwork.  The colors are vibrant and the pictures are fun!

I think kids of all ages will enjoy this story, even though it’s intended for three to six year olds.

I’m a pessimist through and through.  There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.   I try to be optimistic, but somewhere deep down I think that if I expect the worst, then I’ll never be disappointed.   The only problem with this logic is I tend to be a little paranoid and sad most of the time, which I know gets on people’s nerves … a lot.  Even when I have a ton of good things going for me, I tend to focus on the one thing that isn’t.

For the past couple of weeks, things have been going really well for Corey and me.  We’re doing fairly okay financially now that my financial aid has come through, I did well on three out of four of my midterm exams (I could have done well on the fourth too; I just don’t have my score yet), we’re both fairly healthy right now, I have a lot of friends, and I’m going to school.  But, do I focus on these things?  No.  Instead, I’ve been focusing on being dead tired all the time, still having to work at my job, not getting to read for pleasure, not having all my good friends or family members comment on my blog but seeing them comment on others’ blogs, wondering if I really have as many friends as I think I do, wondering if I talk too much when I’m around people, and money going really fast even when I’m not trying to spend it.

No wonder I’m tired all the time.  Anyone would be tired if they focused on all these negative things.  Do you do that too?  I think most people do that to some extent because it’s human nature.  But, I know so many people that do such a good job at not focusing on the negative, or at least that’s the way it seems to me; maybe, they’re just really good at hiding their true feelings.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?  If you’re an optimist, how do you remain positive when things seem like they’re not going your way?  If you’re a pessimist, how do you not focus on that one thing that’s not going your way and refocus on the good in your life?

PS – I’m really grateful for all the comments I get.  This post is in no way a ploy to get more comments; I was just using it as another example of what goes through my head when I’m focusing on the bad.

I wasn’t looking forward to last weekend because I had to decline the invitation to join my friends in St. George for another murder mystery party because of my midterms.  (I got a 95% on my Doctrine and Covenants midterm and 90% on my Japanese written midterm.  I still don’t know how I did on my Japanese oral midterm or my English midterm, but I’m hoping it wasn’t too bad. )  Luckily, my weekend took a turn for the better when I received a tweet from Natasha inviting me to the book blogger social she puts together twice a year.

I felt really privileged to go, honestly.  I had seen Natasha’s post about it on her blog, but I wasn’t going to go because I didn’t think I’m a “true” book blogger nor am I a member of the Utah Book Bloggers group (soon to be remedied; my membership is pending).  But, I guess I post enough book reviews and talk about books and my interactions with authors enough to get an invite.

The evening was full of fun, food, and lots of social interaction.  Natasha told us that this was the biggest turn out yet.  Lucky for us! It was so much fun to socialize with book bloggers and authors.  It’s always fun to socialize with others that share my same interests.

I sat at a table with my friends Debbie and Catie.  And, because of Debbie’s and my connections to our soon-to-be-published-author friend Brodi Ashton, we also got to sit with Brodi, Bree Despain, Sydney Salter, Emily Wing Smith, and Ann Bowen.   I had already met Bree and Sydney thanks to Debbie and Brodi’s connections, but it was fun to see them again, and meet Emily and Ann.

After dinner, we had a book exchange.  I got Jaleta Clegg’s book, Nexus Point: The Fall of the Altairan Empire.  After the exchange, Jaletta came over and signed it for me.  The book looks really interesting and I’m excited to read it.  Kristyn Crow also gave me one of her books to read: Bedtime at the Swamp.  It looks very exciting and I love the artwork.

I was happy to see Karey Shane at the event.  I met Karey at the Children’s Book Festival last May when she told me about her upcoming book Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador’s Gate.  I’ve been keeping tabs on her ever since and I’m so excited that her book will be released on April 6!  It has been a whirlwind of events to get her book published, but her time, dedication, and persistence is about to be paid off! I was lucky enough to get a copy of her book in January when she printed a run of ARCs.  Unfortunately, because of school, I haven’t had the chance to read it yet.  It’s the next on my list, though, once I finish Elantris.

I also had the chance to meet James Dashner and because of my interaction with Brodi on her blog, I felt like I was part of the “in” crowd when I talked to him.  I spent a couple of quality minutes with Shannon Hale discussing a fun event my group of friends had with her last September and a charity event Kristyn Crow and other authors will be hosting this August.  (I’ll post more details about it when I have them since I’m sure it will be fun and a good cause!)

I also met Ann Cannon, Becky Hall, Jean Reagan, and a few other authors of whom I can’t remember their names.  It was also fun to meet not only Natasha, the overseer, but Rachelle Rogers Knight, another book blogger and publisher of reading journals, and Suey, another book blogger.  I know I missed out on meeting a lot of bloggers and a few more authors, but I hope to meet them next time.

I’m glad I had a chance to go to this event.  It was so much fun!  I hope I can go to future ones as well.

Have you noticed the little monster by your comments on my blog?  Those are known as gravatars, or globally recognized avatars.  Gravatars follow you wherever you go on the Internet when commenting on blogs.  They’re linked to your e-mail address so each time you use your e-mail address to post a comment, your gravatar will display as long as they’re enabled on the blog you’re commenting on.

On my blog, the monsters are there by default.  On other blogs, another design or a blank face icon may appear.  However, if you have uploaded a gravatar, like my friend Debbie and me (see image to the right), then the default design/picture won’t show up; your gravatar will.

How do you get a gravatar?  It’s actually really simple and free.

1. Browse to en.gravatar.com.
2. Click the Get your Gravatar today link.
3. Enter your e-mail address.
4. Click Signup.
5. Click the link in the confirmation e-mail sent to your e-mail address to activate your account.
6. Enter a username and password.
7. Click Signup.
8. Click the Add one by clicking here link to select an image for your gravatar.  (You can upload your own image or select an image from their database.)

If you upload an image for your gravatar, keep in mind that the image can be up to 512 pixels wide.  Also, gravatars are always square.  If you upload an image that isn’t square, your image will be cropped.  When gravatars display, they’re usually only 80 x 80 pixels.  But, that can change depending on the design of someone’s blog.  It’s a good idea to choose a high resolution image so when it’s scaled on different blogs, your image won’t look grainy.

Yesterday evening, I had the chance to meet a few book bloggers and authors who live in Utah.  I’d post a recap of the fun I had, but I’m waiting for a picture.  So, I’ll post more when I receive it. 

At the party last night, I explained to many of the authors and some of the bloggers that I wasn’t a reader until two and a half years ago.  As I was explaining this, I realized I didn’t really have anything posted about how I found the passion to read on my blog.  Since I blog about the books I read, I thought it would be fitting to post my story.  Lucky for me, I just wrote about this in my English class a few weeks ago.  Because my English essay was so eloquently written ( ), I’ll post it (with a few minor changes) rather than writing it again.  (It’s kind of long, so enjoy if you take the time to read the whole thing.)

*****

I avoided reading at all costs when I was in high school and during the first couple of years of college.  I knew it was important, yet it didn’t interest me.  When I was assigned a book to read, I’d hunt down obscure movies or read the summations in CliffNotes to pass my quizzes and tests rather than cracking open the dreaded novel.  If there weren’t summations or a movie, I guessed my way through the assignments and was even content with failing that part of the class if it happened.  (It was the one thing in which I didn’t have to be perfect.)  Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot of good novels at a young age.

During high school, I had the opportunity—or should’ve taken the opportunity—to read classics, such as The Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird, yet the only two books I read were The Scarlet Letter and Dune.  It was only because the stories interested me enough that I endured the arduous task of reading.  Historical, religious fiction (particularly those dealing with World War II or religious persecution) and science fiction had always captivated me.  Up to that point, however, the only exposure I had to these genres was from movies and television shows.  When I read the synopsis for The Scarlet Letter and Dune, I decided to give them a try.  Even though I enjoyed both novels (Dune being one of my favorites), I still didn’t want to read anything else.

Years after I graduated high school, my interest in reading finally began to peak.  When I saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the theater, the complexity and excitement of the story interested me so much I had to know more.  Corey had bought the leather-bound edition of the first book a few months before, but until I saw the movie, I had no interest in it.  I began to read feverishly, hanging on to every word on the page, and finished the book in two days.  After I finished the first book, I didn’t want to wait for the long hold times at the library and I couldn’t afford to buy the next book at the time, so I borrowed the second and third books from one of my nieces.  I finished both of them in three days.  At that point, I had to know what happened to Harry and his friends in the fourth book.  My niece was currently reading it, though, and I was too impatient to wait for her to finish.  I bought the fourth book, even though it was financially unwise, and read it in three days.  It was unheard of me to read a book in less than a week and I had read not one but four books in just over a week.

After I finished reading the books in the Harry Potter series, I still didn’t quite have the desire to read more than I already did.  I loved the Harry Potter series and each time a new book in the series was published, I’d reread all the books to prepare for the new adventure.  But, I didn’t branch out more than that.  I’d make up excuses to not read, like “I just don’t have the time,” “I don’t know what to read,” “It takes too much effort,” or “Nothing interests me” because I was simply too lazy to change my attitude toward reading.

In 2007, my co-worker Becky recommended Twilight.  My excuses were still in full force, but, amazingly, I decided to give the book a try.  I had always had an interest in vampires, having watched a couple of television shows and movies, but I was too afraid to venture into that realm of fiction because I had heard the books were extremely scary, gory, and usually contained explicit content—something I wasn’t willing to read.  The world around me ceased to exist (much to Corey’s dismay) while I was reading Twilight; the only thing that mattered was what happened to the characters.  I felt like I was there, experiencing everything they did.  After two days of non-stop reading, I completed the first two books in the Twilight Saga, and all at once my love of reading was ignited.

From that point on, I have felt exhilarated every time I have picked up a novel.  I always want more, so I continue to read more and more books.  (As I mentioned in my previous post, I really miss reading for pleasure right now.)  I’ve even read books I never had any interest in before, like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Secret Garden, and Mansfield Park, because I wanted to broaden my horizons.  I was amazed when I finished an astonishing 31 books last year.

Because my love for reading didn’t develop until I was nearly 30 years old, I feel like I have to make up for lost time.  I’ve made a list of all the books I want to read (see my Shelfari and Goodreads shelves), including The Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird.  Even though my list has hundreds of books on it, I look forward to reading them all and enjoying the feelings of wonder, awe, and exhilaration each time I start a new adventure.