LOST reading list

• I became addicted to Lost this summer. I wanted to assemble a list of all the literary works it references. In all its glory, I present it here.
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• "Mt.Tianmu Ascended in Dreams" by: Li Bai
• A Brief History of Time by: Stephen Hawking
• A Christmas Carol by: Charles Dickens
• A History of World Societies by: John P. McKay, John Buckler, Bennett D. Hill, Patricia Buckley Ebrey
• A Separate Reality by: Carlos Castaneda
• A Tale of Two Cities by: Charles Dickens
• A Wrinkle in Time by: Madeleine L'Engle
• After All These Years: A Novel by: Susan Isaacs
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by: Lewis Carroll
• An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by: Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
• Animal Farm by: George Orwell
• Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by: Judy Blume
• Bad Twin by: Gary Troup
• Bluebeard by: Charles Perrault
• Book of Laws by: Manu
• Caravan of Dreams by: Idries Shah
• Carrie by: Stephen King
• Catch-22 by: Joseph Heller
• Chains of Command by: William J. Caunitz
• Civilization and Its Discontents by: Sigmund Freud
• Dark Horse by: Tami Hoag
• Dirty Work by: Stuart Woods
• Domes of Fire by: David Eddings
• Easy Prey by: John Sandford
• Eleventh Hour by: Catherine Coulter
• Everything That Rises Must Converge by: Flannery O'Connor
• Evil under the Sun by: Agatha Christie
• Fahrenheit 451 by: Ray Bradbury
• Fear and Trembling by: Sören Kierkegaard
• Fire in the Mind by: George Johnson
• Flowers For Algernon by: Daniel Keyes
• Grimm's Fairy Tales by: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories by: Salman Rushdie
• Harry Potter by: J. K. Rowling
• Heart of Darkness by: Joseph Conrad
• Hearts in Atlantis by: Stephen King
• High Hand by: Gary Phillips
• Hindsight by: Peter Wright
• Holy Bible: King James Version
• Hotel by: Arthur Hailey
• I Ching
• Island by: Aldous Huxley
• Julius Caesar by: William Shakespeare
• Jurassic Park by: Michael Crichton
• Juvenal
• Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Ni'Matullahi Sufi Order by: P. L. Wilson, Nasrollah Pourjavady
• Lancelot by: Walker Percy
• Laughter in the Dark by: Vladimir Nabokov
• Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days (Left Behind #1) by: Tim F. LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
• Lord of the Flies by: William Golding
• Lucan
• Memoirs of a Geisha by: Arthur Golden
• Moby-Dick by: Herman Melville
• Mysteries of the Ancient Americas: The New World before Columbus By: Robert Dolezal
• Nighttime is My Time by: Mary Higgins Clark
• No Place Like Home by: Mary Higgins Clark
• Notes from the Undergound by: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• O Pioneers! by: Willa Cather
• Of Mice and Men by: John Steinbeck
• On the Beginnings of Miss Rachel and Miss Pauline by: Alfred de Musset
• On the Road by: Jack Kerouac
• On Writing by: Stephen KIng
• Our Mutual Friend by: Charles Dickens
• Pale Horse Coming by: Stephen Hunter
• Parker's Astrology by: Julia and Derek Parker
• Plautus
• Prey by: Michael Crichton
• Rainbow Six by: Tom Clancy
• Redemption by: Leon Uris
• Roots by: Alex Haley
• Scientific Genius by: Dean Kenneth Simonton
• Skinny Dip by: Carl Hiaasen
• Slaughterhouse-Five by: Kurt Vonnegut
• Stranger in a Strange Land by: Robert A. Heinlein
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by: Mark Twain
• The Annotated Alice by: Lewis Carroll
• The Bailey Chronicles by: Catherine Cookson
• The Brothers Karamazov by: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Chosen by: Chaim Potok
• The Chronicles of Narnia by: C. S. Lewis
• The Coalwood Way by: Homer Hickam
• The Dark Tower series by: Stephen King
• The Epic of Gilgamesh by: Anonymous
• The Fountainhead by: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
• The Greatest Generation by: Tom Brokaw
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by: Douglas Adams
• The Holy Quran
• The Invention of Morel by: Adolfo Bioy Casares
• The Keep by: F. Paul Wilson
• The Little Prince by: Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The Moon Pool by: A. Merritt
• The Mysterious Island by: Jules Verne
• The Oath by: John Lescroart
• The Odyssey by: Homer
• The Outsiders by: S. E. Hinton
• The Pearl by: John Steinbeck
• The Power of Beauty by: Nancy Friday
• The Scottish Bride by: Catherine Coulter
• The Shape of Things to Come by: H. G. Wells
• The Sheltering Sky by: Paul Bowles
• The Shining by: Stephen King
• The Stand by: Stephen King
• The Stone Leopard by: Colin Forbes
• The Survivors of the Chancellor by: Jules Verne
• The Third Policeman by: Flann O'Brien
• The Turn of the Screw by: Henry James
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by: L. Frank Baum
• Through The Looking Glass by: Lewis Carrol
• To Kill a Mockingbird by: Harper Lee
• Two Dollar Bill by: Stuart Woods
• Ulysses by: James Joyce
• Uncle Tom's Cabin by: Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Valhalla Rising by: Clive Cussler
• Valis by: Philip K. Dick
• Virgil
• Watership Down by: Richard Adams
• What Katy Did by: Susan Coolidge
• Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned by: Brian K. Vaughan

EPIC Spokane road trip :)

Over the last two days, Miss Rachel Schwartz and I journeyed to the great state of Washington, and back. It was quite the road trip. We left Provo just after nine and arrived in Spokane at ten that night. Luckily for you, we v-logged every hour. Please stay tuned for the film to be posted; as you wait, please enjoy these photographs.

[the incredible great skies of Wyoming]

[retirement dream: painting clouds just like these]

Big shout out goes to the Colton's for making this trip a possibility and making sure we were taken care of every step of the way. Thank you again! 

The REAL festival of color

A few weeks back, the Hare Krishna temple over in Spanish Fork held their annual Festival of Color in celebration of Holi. Instead of getting covered in chalk, Lauren and I had a very successful shopping trip. (Her blog: http://thelovelylifeof
laurenlytle.blogspot.com/)

To celebrate my birthday and the beautiful spring weather, Mom and Joe took me to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. According to their website, the gardens cover 55-acres and yield approximately 250,000 bulbs.

The Tulip Festival runs through May 1st. It might be wise to call ahead and see how the tulips are looking.

Tulips are definitely my favorite flower.

reading days are the best days

Dear BYU,
   
Thank you very much for Exam Preparation Days. Not only do they provide me the opportunity to catch up on my studies, I'm able to de-stress and have some fun.

[clubs & g-unit]

[Rachel & Ryan- models.]

[sticky, eyes burning, but oh so happy]

[they're just bruises, right?]

[G+T+K @ OG]

I definitely feel rested and ready to display my knowledge on these finals.

Unforum 2010: BYU Tube

This was the second year that I had the opportunity to participate in BYUSA's Unforum. Adam Ruri, last year's president, planned the event with Deidre Edmunds and they did a wonderful job.You can check out their blogs here: http://adamruri.blogspot.com and http://deejmbl.blogspot.com.
    
Divine Comedy, Rugby Team, BYUSA's Club Style, Living Legends, Folk Dance, President Samuelson, and Cosmo all participated. Unform us also where the 2010 Brigham Award winners were announced. These people are the top of the top. Only five were selected and truly are some of the most incredible people I've ever met.
    
Probably the coolest part about Unform was when we asked for help cleaning up at the end and 80 students immediately came down to lend a hand. That's just one of the reasons why I love BYU.
   
If you'd like to learn more-
BYUSA: http://byusa.byu.edu/
Divine Comedy: http://www.divinecomedy.net/
Rugby Team: http://www.byurugby.com/
BYUSA's Club Style: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2201308752
Living Legends: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BYU-Living-Legends/87491030773
Folk Dance: http://pam.byu.edu/similarpage.asp? title=International%20Folk%20Dance%20Ensemble

Shout HOORAY!

Best birthday ever. No joke. 

     

Tony and Blake greeted me in the morning with warm cinnamon rolls and birthday singing. My lovely roommates came in with balloons and more singing. At work we had doughnuts and even more birthday singing. 
       
I turned 20 at 2:33 out in the warm sun in Brigham Square on my way to the BYUSA office. I supervised the (final?) branding photo shoot for the giant pop up with a big group of beautiful friends. Precious Taylor bought me Jamba. Everyone in the office snuck up and sang just before the end of office hours. Thank you BYUSA friends!
     
Emmie called me in a British accent just after 5 to figure out where I was. Dinner with Emmie and Mom at Fusion Asian Grill; we loved our Korean food. Mom bought me 4 dozen blue and white balloons at Maceys. 

[childhood dream realized]

[BSE- 6 days short of 6 years]

Then it was back to the Wilk to set up for the surprise party. Yes. Surprise. That's what I wanted and that's what I had. 

    

My wonderful graphic design friend Zach Woffinden designed these beautiful invitations for me. You can find more of his work here: 
http://zwoffdesign.com/

   


The party was wonderful. In the end, over 500 guests were invited- woo! Mom and Emmie got to stick around and meet a ton of my college/high school friends. Thanks to everyone for making sure they felt loved and included in all our fun.

[Just a few of my wonderful birthday guests]  
     

It was such a fun night. After the building coordinator kicked us out, and a quick run to Wendy's, we had cake back at Liberty and my wonderful roommates gave me a beautiful painting; I think all my close up pictures of flowers inspired them. I can't wait to hang it up! The night concluded with a car talk into the early morning and reading "nice notes."

Thanks again to everyone that added to my birthday. I loved getting the texts, reading all your facebook posts, hearing your birthday wishes, and seeing all of you throughout the day.
   

That's why it really was the best birthday ever. Goodbye teens; I'm 20 now!

One year older and wiser too!

Happy Birthday to ME! With the inauguration of the 20th year of my life, I have begun a blog that will actually talk about me. Hooray! Please put this address in your RSS and blog reels. If you'd like to keep reading my assignments and random things, feel free to keep in touch with insert-stuff-here.blogspot.com.

So far the day has been wonderful. I've had many birthday wishes and am super stoked for my [surprise] birthday party tonight in the Wilk. Wooo! I'm almost done with the play list and just need to double check with campus scheduling about room times and how good the speaker system is. My mom and Emmie are coming down at 5 to help with the preparations. What family love :)

I should be finding out about campus tours today. Keep your fingers crossed!

Much love!