Letter to Cecil

For my letter assignment, I chose to write a letter to President Samuelson about inappropriate use of media in the library. Some of my group members will relate to this. It really ticked me off, so I figured I would have enough passion to write about it, as I truly feel strongly about it. So, without further ado (or as someone once said, blah blah blah) here is the letter:

Dear President Samuelson,

As an assignment for my Media, Family, and Human Development class we have been asked to write a letter to an authority in some area regarding an aspect of media that we wish to change. I contemplated what and who to write, and could not help but think back to a negative experience that I had with media here on BYU campus in the library.

I encountered the problem while trying to complete a group project for a class. There were five of us in the group and we needed to be in the “No Shh Zone” to talk and input statistics into SPSS for a content analysis research project. We were extremely frustrated when we got to the computers and counted at least 10 people on computers either browsing Facebook, watching Youtube videos, or playing computer games. They were by themselves, not talking, and enjoying their media. But while they enjoyed their wasted time, we waited for 20 minutes for a computer to open up in the only available space that we could complete our project (on campus because we needed SPSS and “No Shh Zone” because we needed to talk about it).

I was wondering if there were any regulations that could be placed on that area, as to allow availability for those who truly need those resources for school purposes. I do not in any way think that these things should be banned from campus, but maybe they should be given lower priority regarding the use of the computers. For example, we thought that it might be appropriate to place a sign with the following statement: “Employees or Students have the right to ask students to leave when browsing facebook, watching movies, playing games, etc. if there are other students waiting to use the computers for school-related assignments.” I hope you will consider this idea in hopes of improving the learning atmosphere at Brigham Young University. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Leah V. Jesperson

(Bloggers: Bless your heart if you read this entire letter:)

Me and Talk Radio: Who Woulda Thought?

I can't believe I haven't blogged about listening to talk radio. Yes, I know, it surprises me too. But I don't go a day without listening to at least a little talk radio to keep me informed. I usually listen to KSL (but NOT Sean Hannity, uggggghhh). For one of my jobs I drive to American Fork, Orem, and Spanish Fork every week, so I have a little driving time between courthouses. I started listening to it because I wanted to know what was going on (My husband is an avid reader of The Economist which I guess wet my appetite for the desire to know more. Love it by the way and highly recommend it. Much more informative than KSL, just more time consuming). I've never been one to be super into the news and politics, but I felt so uninformed that I had to do something. I realized today when I was visiting teaching and the topic of health care reform came up that I could explain to the other women what was going on, since they didn't know. So I guess my 20 or 30 minutes a day of talk radio is paying off:) Though I have to take the opinions of others on the radio as nothing but opinions, I feel like hearing what is going on helps me to be a better citizen of society and able to act accordingly.

Blogging About Blogging

So, a few of my friends and I always like sharing recipes and trying new things in the kitchen. So, instead of just emailing them we decided we would just start a blog that we can all contribute too. So, the other day A Healthy Three was created to share ideas. There isn't much there now, but we're excited to get going on it. Check it out if you would like some good healthy/healthier alternatives. I'm currently on a sugar-free kick and experimenting with Xagave (Agave) as a much better alternative. So I just made some sugar-free blackberry jam that was great. Give it a try!

Thank you Halie and Online Shopping

After BYU's loss I needed something to ease the pain. Then I remembered I had only done one post this week. I was reading some blogs of our class and saw Halie's post with some swimsuit websites. When I went to Divine ModesTee I found this adorable dress and bought it! I never do stuff like that! But I totally loved it and was thinking I wanted to get a graduation dress. So, I guess I can check that off the list. All from my living room I could feel much better about the loss and buy a graduation dress. Media has been good to me today.

Free Pizzas

The other day a few friends and I got together to catch up and went to California Pizza Kitchen (isn't it funny that when girls want to get together they go out to eat, and when guys get together they play sports? Topic for another day...). Love their food by the way. I had ordered a pear and gorgonzola pizza and when the waitress brought it out she told me it was kind of like my "appetizer pizza" because they messed up and put cilantro on it when it isn't supposed to come with it on. She said that another one, the right one, was in the oven and would be out shortly. I was fine with it because I say "bring on the cilantro, who cares", but about 10 minutes later she brought out another pizza. I was excited because then I could bring home a ton of pizza to my husband too and only pay for one pizza. When the waitress brought out the checks she told me mine was all free for the "inconvenience". What inconvenience? I got 2 pizzas and it was great!

So my question is: Is amazing customer service a form of media? Because I have now been acting as the medium and telling everyone how great CPK is like it's my job. All because of a few free pizzas. I know I am always telling people where I find great deals or who treated me well as a customer. I also rely on others' opinions and ideas to find great places or products, probably more so than commercials or billboards. And it's free! No wonder so many places value good customer service. It pays off!

Super SENIORITIS

Umm so pretty much I am about one month from graduating and going crazy! I just want to be done right now. It is like pulling my own teeth to get myself to do the homework I need to. During class my new favorite pastime is looking at craft blogs to get ideas for home decor projects I can do at home. Yesterday, instead of spending the afternoon working on a paper and studying for a test like I should have, I dragged my husband (ok this is an exaggeration, he went willingly) to Home Depot to buy wood and a few other things for some projects. When we got home I got right to work and before I knew it, my "homework" time had passed. Well, if it weren't for the internet and wonderful ideas at the click of a mouse I might just be a little more diligent. So the bottom line of this post is that I blame the media (specifically the internet right now) for my severe case of Senioritis. Talk about excuses. I'm ridiculous. But don't worry, that previously empty wall in our home looks great! Pictures to come.

House, 24, and American Idol: Sexual Content Assignment

For the sexual content assignment I watched my usual shows and found that there was very little if any in American Idol and 24, but House surprised me when I really was focusing on it. Nothing was shown, but it was talked about all over the place. This episode was especially bad because House and Wilson were having a little war about House's porno videos. It was totally awkward and I wish that it wasn't there. Sometimes sex comes up with patients when they are trying to figure out what is wrong with them. Really, House always seems to make some kind of comment about it. 24 seems to have a little bit of sexual content, either situations with rape or relationships among characters. In this case it was President Hassan's Daughter and his Head of Security. They showed them in bed (implying afterward). So I guess 24 sometimes does have sexual content, but mostly just crazy violence. American Idol is clean and I appreciate that. I think they should have clearplay for TV shows as well, then everyone can set what "setting" they want to watch their shows at.

The Spirit of Elijah goes to Hollywood...

Ok, so my brother-in-law introduced us to a new show on NBC called Who Do You Think You Are and it is basically famous people doing genealogy to find out about their ancestors. Tonight we were introduced to the first episode of the new series. Sarah Jessica Parker was looking to find out about her ancestors and found that one of them followed the gold rush out to California as a minor in 1850 and another one was accused in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. She was kind of dramatic about it all but the show featured ancestry.com and got us excited about our geneology.

After watching it, we went to new.familysearch.org and spent probably an hour looking at our ancestors. It was great! I learned that some of my great great grandparents were from Sweden and Denmark and only a few generations back! I knew that I had Swedish and Danish ancestors, but not that recently. My ancestors also came from Holland (which is where my maiden name is from) and England. We even traced some back to 700 A.D. to Counts and Dutchesses in England. We even found some names we can take to the temple, all from sitting on my laptop in the living room. Gotta love it!

What did we do before google docs?

I've been thinking about the media I've consumed lately and totally skipped over something that consumes my life for a few days before every test: Google docs. I don't know what we did before...oh wait...yes I do. We would still do them, but someone would have to compile all the results and send them out to everyone who contributed, and if changes were made they would have to do it again and again. Now we can all edit the google doc at the same time (even if we are adding the same info during a review session, haha:) I so appreciate this wonderful form of media that makes studying for tests so much easier. I not only use them for tests, but for recipe sharing among friends, or planning with my parents. We loved using a google doc to coordinate wedding plans when I got married. So wonderful and much easier than before!