Job 23:10

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

When you give a dad a Barbie book.....

There comes a time in every man's life when he is solicited to read a girly book by one of the most treasured females in his life: his daughter.

Tonight was such a night for Nathan.

The book was entitled Glam and Glitz. It is a highly fashion conscious book about Barbie and her best friend Emily (I personally don't know where she keeps digging up all of these new "best friends") and they "...can't believe it! They won tickets to the Mega Music Awards!" And then, "Barbie and Emily couldn't believe their ears!", Ken is assistant to the director and is going to introduce them to the Mega Music Award stars! Now Barbie really has to get a glam gown!!!!! Well, in this happy version of the story Barbie and Emily are best friends forever and Barbie lands on the front page of the newspaper because her gown was the most "glam" even after she had to make last minute sewing repairs because the dress suddenly tore!

Nate's version of the story was a bit different....It involved Ken shamlessly flirting with Emily, Emily deciding to ditch Barbie for Ken, and Barbie buying some new friends and then trying to show them off to Ken and Emily. Emily didn't want to hang out with Barbie's new friends because they were prettier than she was. Then Emily was dismayed because Barbie picked out the same dress to wear to the Awards. Barbie said, "I like it too!" Barbie's dress mysteriously tore (I think she secretly blamed Emily) and she wasn't quite able to fix it. It turned out okay though because everyone thought it was ripped on purpose and it started a new trend in formal wear!

I was laughing my head off! Ellie kept asking me, as she is OFTEN wont to do, "What's so funny mommy?" I just kept telling her that Daddy is funny.

After the book was over, Ellie said, "Sometimes daddies do it wrong. But mommies don't. Mommies always read it right." Then she proceeded to hand Daddy the Clifford book so that daddy could read that one "wrong" as well.

That Hideous Strength

I like to read the works of C.S. Lewis...usually. I can't say I enjoyed every chapter of his Narnia series, but a lot of that was good. If any of you want to catch some more of his science fiction/fantasy books, he has a trilogy for "grown-up" readers. Here is a link for those of you interested in looking into it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransom_Trilogy

I was drawn to the series through Iron Maiden. Yes, that Iron Maiden. They actually do a lot of songs about great works of literature. One of those songs I particularly like is Out of the Silent Planet. I figured I might just like the book too. While researching it, I learned that it was part of a trilogy. True to form, for those who know me, I decided to read the last book of the series first. The last book is called, That Hideous Strength.

I liked a lot of things about it. I'd probably give it an 8.5 out of 10. Some of the science in it was cheesy, and the ending is pretty weird. In some instances, I thought the author was going for that The Man Who Was Thursday feel without really attaining it. Other than that though, it was a good read.

It has a lot of insights into good vs. evil, secret societies, and human nature.

Word Verification

So, I know you all have been wondering what happened to me. "Where did she go?", I'm sure has been your first thought before bed and your last thought before waking up. I assure you that I've been here, in my house.....doing junk.....quite happily most of the the time...

To answer a request, I shall now post pictures of what I've been doing, and I do this at the risk of revealing that I like to read YA fiction, fairytales, and sometimes books that are a *tiny* bit cheesy:

This book was awesome, not cheesy, and mostly clean. It's great book for young adults and older adults alike. 4 and 1/2 stars out of five. In other words: I think you should read this book.


This is actually a children's book, but really very good for what it was. I enjoyed it.


One of my favorite Lori Wick books of all time. Perhaps unrealistic in a few ways, and maybe even cheesy sounding, but good. It's about an arranged marriage that works out--Another weakness of mine is books about arranged marriages that work out.

I've also been reading various other books, but not all of them worth mentioning so moving on....

Nate and I have been obsessed with this two player card game:I've been working on blog designs for various people, here is one example:

I've been working on belated birthday cards which I will NOT post because it will give away the long awaited punch line to the the three of you who have been waiting for them.

I've slowly begun a few sewing projects which are not completed, and therefore impossible to post pictures of.

We had Abigail and Peyton come over to play and I captured this video, delightfully illustrating that kids are funny even when they aren't really funny at all:

OKAY, actually it won't load! Blankity, blank, blank. (I mean....ah shucks!) So I will just have to tell you: The kids were telling knock-knock jokes that weren't funny, but then that in actual fact made them funny, if you know what I mean. You'll have to come to my house to watch it, or check back later.

And, we had fantabulous Valentine's Day where I gave Nate (and me) this:

And I gave the kids this, plastic bags of chocolate chips (yes, somewhat pathetic but they enjoyed it):
Nate and I went out to lunch on Friday AND Saturday. Very delicious and fun. Nate found a Gautemalan restaurant that is very good, and I got a Gyro sandwich from another restaurant that is obviously NOT Gautemalan but Greek. I don't get those often because Nate doesn't like Greek food or baklava that much for that matter. And then we got root beer floats, which we thought were only going to be 99 cents each. But if you want to to have them in the Frosty mug they are $2.19. And, I mean, what is an A&W rootbeer float without the frosty mug?!?! Hello.

And now for all of you that are still with us and awake, you must be dying to know what the title "Word Verification" means. "What is the significance of the title?", you ask? Well I'll tell you: almost nothing....except for the fact that while I've been trying to catch up on your blogs and post comments, I've noticed that my sweet computer has been trying to help me accomplish the tricky task of "word verification". For example, your blog requests that I type in the letters: "blaqdn". Then, I type in the letter "b" and my poor sad computer, so willing to help, gives me a list of "word verification" tasks previously entered in such as: bksljf, buijaiiun, banpli, etc. Little does the computer know that it is missing the point entirely. And so in order to help it maintain it's self esteem, I say to it (in my head): "Good job computer! That's great work!"

Ok, I can't wait anymore

Meridy has had a slide show of our Disneyland trip prepared for a few days now, but she can't seem to get around to posting it. I've decided that enough is enough. I've chosen a song and posted the show myself.

Here it is:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Defense Against the Dark Arts

I went through my Negotiation Professor's article about lying in negotiations. His point is that we can't stop people from lying in negotiations, and it behooves us all to defend ourselves against it.
Here is a sampling of his defense tactics:

Conduct Thorough Background Research
Network to Choose Your Negotiation Counterpart
Create Rapport
Demand the Use of Objective (third party) standards (eg. Bluebook values for cars)
Establish Long-Term Relationships and Watch for Signs of Deception
Ask Come-Clean Questions at appropriate times

Negotiation Continued

I kid you not, someone in the class discussion said, "Why not just lie? I mean, seriously." This started the professor talking about the interesting subject of lying in negotiation--I should probably read his recent article on the subject. He said it is often a really effective thing to do, and that there is a fine line that you probably shouldn't cross. The official comments in the ABA ethics guidelines make it plain that lawyers will be lying to some extent in negotiations. The nice word for it is puffery.

This reminds me of a class in my first year of law school. The professor was trying to demonstrate the difference between lying and puffery. She gave a scenario and asked the class if it was lying or puffery. I answered that it was lying, but most of the class disagreed with me. Then the professor thought about it and said, "Actually...it is lying. Nathan, can you tell us why?" I said, "Well, it's not true, and you said it."

Lawyers don't always think in such simple terms.

Negotiation

You might think that, being raised by the famed Cheryl Reeve, I would be an expert negotiator. You would be wrong. I've learned a thing or two about negotiation over the years, but the most important thing I've learned is that I need improvement. My current strategies are: 1. give in quickly (while thinking "Maybe he'll appreciate this and help me out later." and 2. Hold my ground to the point of absurdity--like when I personalize the negotiation and don't want to give in on moral grounds or because I'm mad. Ideally, I could have some ability to assert myself in a reasonable way.

And why do I bring this up? I'm taking a class on negotiation. This class is like unto a weight training class. It isn't very fun for me, but it will be really good for me. Of course, I dropped out of my 9th grade weight training class, but there will be no dropping out this time, not with graduation so close. Have I mentioned that I'm in my LAST SEMESTER?!

Merinate was Tagged for Randomness and proof of Toquerville's Greatness

Random Things About Nate
by Nate Reeve

1. I wanted to get some direction for this project, so I looked up random in the dictionary.

2. I conclude that random, though it appears to modify "things about yourself," is actually intended to describe the way in which said things are selected for inclusion. That is, the items on the list are to be selected with no definite aim, reason, or pattern.

3. I like the word nonetheless.

4. Lately, I have been declaring at random times to friends and family that I invented and/or made up various concepts, devices, and people. Adults have been very understanding of this latest symptom of my mental illness, but children have taken great delight in contradicting me.

5. I cook by whim and nose. The results vary.

6. I'm not sure, but I think my right leg is slightly shorter than my left. My best evidence for this is how my pants fit, which leads me to wonder if my hips are just uneven. Either way, I'm not exactly balanced.

7. I enjoy reading Lao-Tzu's Taoteching. The version I have comes with commentary by various other ancient and modern Chinese philosophers. One of them, Huang Yuan-Chi, provided me with my theme for law school: "The ancients said, 'Two or three years of hardship, ten thousand years of bliss.'"

8. I met Meridy in the class where I learned about the Taoteching.

9. I also have a soft spot in my heart for stars and planets because we had Astronomy together that same semester.

10. I just remembered. I may have done a randomness post in the past. Now I'm terribly curious to see whether I am repeating anything.

11. The previous post was about "quirks." I guess its a similar thing, this post being less structured. Mer now requests that I link our previous quirk-style points....which means I'll hand her the computer and let her link the posts.

12. But not yet, because I tend to procrastinate.

13. I have one attached and one unattached earlobe. So, is that the sort of thing that gets fixed in the resurrection? If so, which lobe will change? If not, can you imagine going through the eternities with mismatched earlobes? Weird.

14. I love to eat cereal. In fact, I'm eating cereal right now.

15. The words, "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest," keep running through my mind. I thought about it and decided you could do it easily enough, provided you didn't have to have all the men on the dead man's chest at the same time.

16. I wonder what is society's facination with piratas y vampiros. If anyone has any thoughts, let me know.

This is actually Meridy for a sec, starting....now.

We were tagged to do this random list Nate accomplished above, by our friend Annjilla. I love things like that, and I love learning interesting facts about other people (as you know). However, in order to spare many of you from reading yet another one of those all about me, I had decided to post one somewhat impressive random thing, and that was going to be the new Shoe Tree (see POST BELOW and for original shoetree post click here.) Obviously, Nate stole my thunder. (But I'm glad he listed 16 random things himself because he is so interesting.) What I did decide to do, for those who have not read them and/or are interested, is create a link list to my many posts devoted to my uniqueness.

If you want to read 100 things about me: click here.
If you want to read my first list of quirks: click here.

If you want to read my second list of quirks: click here.
If you want a personality readout that I developed myself from a personality test that I took and then posted: click here. (This is very informative and accurate, it may even help you get along with me at the optimum level. :))

But since we are on the topic of that lovely place named Toquerville, I have decided to post some pictures of how beautiful it really is, because I know that some of you (named Sheri) were not previously convinced of Toquerville's greatness.

Shoe Tree 2.0

Those who joined us in our sorrow at the loss of Toquerville's Shoe Tree will be happy to know that another miracle is taking place in Toquerville, where man's indomitable spirit is on display. A new shoe tree is springing up on the north side of Toquerville. You'll have to look closely because I couldn't remember how to zoom in with our camera, but there are shoes growing on that tree--in the dead of winter no less. They can destroy our tree, but not our spirit. The Shoe Tree's legacy lives on!