Riven & Work in the Glory

Oh my gosh! This is a pretty scary game! And verry old! my mom said is is like one of the first computer games. IT IS SO SCARY! you never know when someone is gona pop out and attack you, or take you to jail!

You have to go save this lady from the bad guy Gahn, and everyone hates you in the village, and they're all scared of you. It is placed back then when they wore the smocks and stuff, and yet they have trams and lights. I dont get it. Oh well. Well there is lots of puzzle to it. You have to use your Brain.

Well i thought i would blog about what is was doing for fun lately. i also have been reading Work in the Glory. I love it! I know what your thinking! I thought is was going to be about Joseph Smith and his life. I thought to my self "I dont want to read this book, it's gonna be about stuff i know already." But no!HaHa Oh well.

Love you all VERY much! i wish i was with you all!

♥ Brianne Kirkby

education about the financial crisis...

this video does a good job explaining what has caused our current financial crisis and why congress wasn't able to do anything about it before it became a crisis.

the production is amateurish, but the information is top notch.

it goes by real fast, but it suggests that you google the information presented so you can learn for yourself.

EDIT: the above linked video was pulled by youtube after pressure from people who don't want the information out there. here is a shorter version produced by the rncc.

word of the day: somnambulist

somnambulist: one who suffers from an abnormal sleeping condition where they perform normal actions, such as walking and talking, while still asleep.

usage (from robert heinlein's starship troopers):

SCENE: Futuristic high school teacher of History and Moral Philosophy Jean V. Dubois instructs his class on the economic meaning of value as told by one of his students.

"...'value' has two factors for a human being: first, what he can do with a thing, it's use to him...and second, what he must do to get it, it's cost to him. There is an old song which asserts 'the best things in life are free.' Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted...and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears.

"Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain." He had been still looking at me and added, "If you boys and girls had to sweat for your toys the way a newly born baby has to struggle to live you would be happier...and much richer. As it is, with some of you, I pity the poverty of your wealth. You! I've just awarded you the prize for the hundred-meter dash. Does it make you happy?"

"Uh, I suppose it would."

"No dodging, please. You have the prize--here, I'll write it out: 'Grand prize for the championship, one hundred-meter sprint'" He had actually come back to my seat and pinned it on my chest. "There! Are you happy? You value it--or don't you?"

I was sore. First that dirty crack about rich kids--a typical sneer of those who haven't got it--and now this farce. I ripped it off and chucked it at him.

Mr. Dubois had looked surprised . "It doesn't make you happy?"

"You know darned well I placed fourth!"

"Exactly! The prize for first place is worthless to you...because you haven't earned it. But you enjoy a modest satisfaction in placing fourth; you earned it. I trust that some of the somnambulists here understood this little morality play. I fancy that the poet who wrote that song meant to imply that the best things in life must be purchased other than with money--which is true--just as the literal meaning of his words is false. The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion...and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself--ultimate cost for perfect value."

My books

Hi this is Brianne. I have been reading A LOT lately and can't seem to stop. but now i don't know what to read. I'm trying Work in the Glory. but I'm not that interested. my favorite author in the whole wide world is Shannon Hale. she wrote Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, Princess Academy, and others. i love her. i also like Fire of the Covenant by Gerald N. Lund, so that's why I'm giving Work in the Glory a try. But i don't know. if you guys have any requests please tell me! i would love it!

book review: twilight

yah, i read twilight. as a long time reader of sci-fi/fantasy novels, i had to see what the big fuss was about. i thought it was cool that the vampire legendarium was making it into virgin demographic territory and i was curious as to what it took to make that happen.

so i read it.

to be honest, at first i didn't much care for it. partly because the author hadn't even bothered to do her homework about vampire lore and seemed to be making stuff up out of whole cloth. i found that a bit irritating, but i was hoping the story would be able to make up for that.

the story is largely a love story, which i understood even before i read it. vampire stories have always been about love and/or sex when you understand the metaphor, so that wasn't anything that was going to keep me away from reading the book. but, as the story unfolded, my initial assessment was that the "love" part of the story seemed immature and shallow and without the love story there wasn't much there to the book.

but then i heard a fan telling a man "don't let your wife read it! cause if you do then you will be spending the rest of your life being romantically compared to edward *dreamy sigh*".

and then a lightbulb went off. all i have to do is imitate edward and i will get all the kudos for being the world's greatest romantic. I CAN DO THIS!!!1!!11

so i've come up with some tips on how, exactly, to be as romantic as edward.

first and foremost, bella loves edward because he's sooooooo beautiful. paragraph afer paragraph is filled with descriptions of edward as "breathtaking" and "dazzling" and "pretty" and "cant-take-my-eyes-off-his-pretty-face". bella really has little else to say about edward. he even sparkles in the sunlight he is just THAT beautiful.

this one is actually kinda easy for us guys. you got the woman you are with because she was attracted to you. just look exactly the same as you did when you first met and never, ever change. be that beautiful and you, my friend, will have the core of what makes edward so romantic. also, it might not hurt to put on some glitter. i'm just sayin'.

second, it's not enough to just be pretty, but you have to love with the same intensity that edward loves. this vampire/dude loves this girl because she has the exact right kind of blood that drives him insane. his attraction to her begins and mostly ends with the fact that he wants so badly to gorge on her blood. but eating her has the unfortunate side affect of killing her, and then he would lose his love.

a dilemma, yes, but a dilemma that is resolved because he loves her so much that he will not kill her! this is what makes edward so romantic.

how do we ordinary guys try to measure up to this standard? well, it's simple. tell your wife often that you love her so much you won't kill her! if your wife starts crying about how you don't love her because you left the toilet seat up (or whatever), just say "hey babe. of course i love you. i haven't killed you yet have i!?" tada, instant romance.

next, there is a particular scene that i hear oft repeated as an example of how romantic edward is.

i'm talking, of course, about the bedroom scene (not THAT kind of bedroom scene you pervert!).

this vampire/dude stayed all night in her bedroom, unknown to her, just staring at her. out of all the important things a vampire of his stature could be doing during that time, he chose to spend his time just hanging around the sleeping girl whose blood he loved so much. clearly, she (or her blood) meant everything in the world to him (don't worry about the stalkerish nature of his behavior cause it's not stalking if she likes you).

so how do we be like edward and show our wives that they are everything in the world to us? it's simple, tell your wife you can't stand being away from her, quit your job and hang around the house all day. sure, you might have to cut back on the finer things in life (like shelter, clothes, arby's, etc.), but you'll always have your romantic love to keep you happy.

i've got more tips, but i'll just let those stew for now.

so that's how i learned to see the value of the book twilight and am so glad i had a chance to read it.

EDIT: aw crap. i found out my wife didn't like the book because the love story was "immature and shallow". anyone know how to remove a crapton of glitter off your body?

So.

Ok so i think that we should update our blog! so I'm going to write about a surprise party we threw for my friend Cheslea! She is like the most best friend anyone could ever have! so i came home from school last Monday and said i wanted to throw Chelsea a b-day party. my mom asked "where we gonna have it?" i said "here at the house" my mom mad a funny look and told me our house was not suited for a party right now. so then my mom gave me the greatest idea ever to go to Cafe Rio! (is that how you spell it?) so i called her mom and she loved the idea! i also called Dakota and Rachel. her mom called Camille Kemp who lives in highland, and made all of the arrangements. my mom was going to drive me, and Rachel, and Dakota, there and Camilles mom was going to drive her there. Chelseas mom was in charge of Chelsea.so we got there and had balloons, cake and even food ready, then Chelsea came around the corner. she looked at us and thought "oh good my friends are here! i can eat with them." then she saw the balloons. she thought is was Camilles b-day and thought "oh they didn't invite me" then i said "surprise!" and she caught on. she was in shock for awhile but recovered. :) we ate dinner then we were going to Chelseas house to watch movies. instead it turned out to be a sleepover! we went to bed at 2:00am and woke up at 5:00 am. CrAzY!!! we had so much fun and it was great!!
I love you all very much!
♥ Brianne Kirkby