A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens wrote a Tale of Two Cities in 1859.  Since then it has become a widely considered classic.  Once I started reading it, it was not hard to tell why.  The imagery Dickens using is amazing.  You can picture the setting, the feelings, the atmosphere, all beautifully.  The first part delves into the time period, starting with the classic lines "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...". You get a really good sense of the time period from these passages, the highs the lows.  This is a great way to start the novel because it gives context to the rest of the story.  The second chapter of the first book is where the plot of the story actually begins.  It was in this section that I really got a sense of the amazing writing abilities of Charles Dickens.  When he describes the efforts of the stagecoach and its passengers traveling through the night, I really felt the cold and the dampness.  Here is an example of that:

There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.  Two other passengers, besides the one, were plodding up the hill by the side of the mail. All three were wrapped to the cheekbones and over the ears, and wore jack-boots. Not one of the three could have said, from anything he saw, what either of the other two was like; and each was hidden under almost as many wrappers from the eyes of the mind, as from the eyes of the body, of his two companions.

I feel like that is what really shows the effectiveness of a writer: their ability to help the audience feel the story around them.  Effective writers use language to pull the audience in such way that it captivates them and draws them in.  The story expertly weaves a small cast of characters, each with their own stories, into the much larger story of the political climates in these two cities.  It reaches it's most intense point with the French Revolution.  Again the writing is so effective in helping you feel the tragedy and death around you.  You feel the pains of these people living in a high-strung, frustrated, and paranoid time period.  I was impressed that Dickens's ending of A Tale of Two Cities included some happiness with its tragedy, it could have easily been an "everything-goes-wrong" type ending.  Because that is how real life is.  There are ups and there are downs.  And that, at its core, is why I feel this novel really is a classic.

Conflict Resolution

The introduction of Michelle LeBaron's Bridging Cultural Conflicts brought up some interesting points I had not yet thought about.  Culture and Conflict, are not always words we use together, but essentially culture is at the heart of all conflict.  I thought the point that culture is integral to all conflict, but not the cause of it was very interesting.  Initially, I thought, "that is not true at all."  But the explanation given in the subsequent paragraph clarified the point for me.  It states the following:

"In conflict we react because we care.  We care to protect our identities and meanings we cherish.  We care to protect our ways of life and the views we hold of the world.  We care to safeguard those we love.  Even across the chasm that divides us from an adversary, there is connection.  If we had no connection and no independence, there would be no conflict."

Its our culture, and how strongly our feelings for our culture are, that ultimately put us in the mode of ignore or react when a possible situation arises.  I think that sometimes we need to maybe care a little less, and let things pass by rather than act on every possible conflict of culture.

Who Watches the Watchers

Do Latter-Day Saints believe that war is acceptable?  Its an interesting question.  Members of the church have been involved in armed conflicts ever since the formation of the church, the Mexican-American war probably being the first declared war we were involved in.  The Book of Mormon is full of examples of war, with a good portion of the book of Alma essentially being a day-to-day history of a war between the Nephites and the Lamanites.  Why would Mormon have felt he needed to detail that war so much?  He glazes over most of the other conflicts between the two peoples.  I think that he knew that there at least needed to be one example of what war was like, and to show how a good man like Captain Moroni handled war.  Captain Moroni, we are told, did not delight in the shedding of blood.  He never wanted to go to war.  But when it came to his doorstep, he wasn't about to sit by and watch it happen.  He rallied the people to defend themselves and protect their families, property, and beliefs.  Another example of war given in the Book of Mormon is when the Nephites have left most of their lands and all congregated together to protect themselves against the Gadianton Robbers.  They knew that the Gadianton Robbers would be coming for them eventually.  Some of the Nephites urged their military leader, Gidgiddoni, to go fight the robbers before they came to them.  He said that the Lord forbade it, and they could only fight the robbers once they came to them.

I feel like these examples from the Book of Mormon send the message that war is acceptable when its about defending yourselves, not for conquest.  Today, our church leaders rarely make political statements one way or the other.  The church is worldwide, it would be illogical of them to take stances on issues that have varying opinions around the globe.  I think instead they expect the members of the church to look at the examples from the scriptures and trust that they will make the right choices.

Tami Knows Best

Today I went to the Honors colloquium for the week.  I felt very academic going to a presentation outside of my normal class schedule.  It was a presentation by Jeff Merrill, and art instructor here at BYU-H.  It was a really neat set-up they had.  He had a student sitting on a stool in front, and he was painting her portrait.  There was a camera set up behind him, which was being projected onto the wall.  He narrated what he was doing and took questions as he went.

Lately, in my life, I feel like I get really excited about a particular project and I get a little ways into it, and go "oh...yeah...I don't know what to do with this anymore."  Where did all that excitement I had about it initially go off to?  Is it vacationing somewhere in the Swiss alps?  Anyways, I asked this in a question to Brother Merrill.  I asked him what helps him regenerate his creative energy when he has hit a wall in his work.  He answered with two thoughts on the subject.  He stated that being around creative people is really helpful, because we kind-of fuel each other's creativity in life.  The other thing he mentioned was going to art galleries.  Looking at artwork helps him think about his artwork and gives him ideas or motivation.  I think these thoughts can be applied to any passion or hobby.

It was really neat to see the project slowly take shape over the course of the hour.  His whole idea behind his art is painting what he sees.  On a sheet he handed out at the start of the presentation, it stated that he hoped "you will ask yourself more meaningful questions about your surroundings and information that you are confronted with."  I liked that, because if we don't stop and look around we might miss something. :)

To the couple being super PDA-ish the whole time, your in a classroom not a park.  Come on now.

LaFleur

I applied for five scholarships tonight! These are the five scholarships I applied for:

$1,000 Gen and Kelly Tanabe Student Scholarship

CKSF Quiz Scholarships

GPA Isn’t Everything Scholarship

My College Review Scholarship

Sallie Mae $1,000 Scholarship

Applying for scholarships was not super easy but less difficult than I would have anticipated.  I did notice there was no scholarship offered for white students (yes, I checked).  I looked at a lot of technology scholarships, but most of them were directed at minorities or people in real need of financial aid.  Ultimately I was able to find some that didn't have much in the way of requirements, in fact, I simply just had to register. It was surprisingly easy to do the actual applying, I just had to wade through the lists and lists to find the simple ones.

There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb

Monday holidays are a wonderful thing.  You get an extra day to your weekend and get to put off dealing with the business of the week for one more day.  Its as though the universe is saying, hey, here is a bonus for working so hard lately!  This past Martin Luther King day my roommate Josh and I headed to Honolulu.  Its his first semester so he had yet to visit Aloa Moana.  I love shopping, probably too much.  So a trip to the mall is a good time for me.  Aloa Moana might just be the biggest mall I have ever been to.  Its similar in style to the new City Creek mall in Salt Lake, but its just way bigger.  Most of the stores are so nice it may feel like its too expensive to breathe in there!  But there is still plenty of stuff you can do there on a budget.  Some cool, unique stuff can be found there as well such as the Lego and Disney stores. Walking around the Lego store was a neat way for us to relive our childhoods a bit, although I think they are much more expensive there than they would be elsewhere.

The bus to town is a bit of an ordeal though.  The ride down was so packed I was standing for a good portion of the time.  The way back was much less busy, and we got to sit and relax.  I had an "I can't believe I live in Hawaii" moment when I looked out the window and saw just the beautiful ocean before me.  I love riding on Kam highway because it just runs right along the ocean.  What a wonderful view!  I mean, taking public transportation is not something everyone wants to do, but a view like that sure makes it better.

Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism

What do you want to do when you grew up?  I feel like I always had an answer to that when I was a kid.  It changed constantly, sure, but I had a definite answer to what I wanted to do.  For a while it was an astronaut, until we watched Apollo 13 and it scared me straight.  I think my mother planned that on purpose.  When I got back from the mission and people asked me I would throw my hands up and say "I have no idea." After a while I didn't like doing that because I felt it would make girls less interested in me.  "Oh, you don't have a plan?  Your one of those guys?" That kind of thing. So if I had a thought of something I might want to do, I would just say it as if I was totally set on that.  I felt it made me much cooler.  When I came to BYU-H, everyone else here seemed as lost as I did so I stopped hiding the truth.  Luckily my father hadn't given up on me and after several phone calls going over lots of different career options I decided I wanted to go into Information Systems.  I hadn't really been considering going into the software development world, but as I looked at it I felt it was a good fit.  I play on computers for fun, why not do it for work?  I had done a little programming in high school, I didn't mind it but I didn't necessarily love it.  So that is why I opted for Information Systems over Computer Science.  Because it involves some programming but also a lot of business stuff.  People in the Information Systems world are often in positions where they have one foot in the business world and one foot in the development world.  It involves a lot of work designing databases and refining business processes.  Its a broad field, so maybe I can't say exactly what I want to do just yet. But I have a direction I feel good about, and that sure feels nice.

Plus, I live in Hawaii, so I got that going for me.

The Pinapple Incident

I've been absent from the blogging world for some time. It's fun to be back I guess, hopefully I find some good things to say.  Should probably start this off about myself. My name is Andrew Hansen, I am the oldest of 3 boys.  My father is in management at a software company, and my mother is a CPA and works at an accounting firm.  I was born in Provo, UT and grew up in nearby Orem, UT.  My family moved to Holladay, UT in 9th grade and my family has been living there ever since. I went to Olympus High School, and although the first part of high school was rather dreadful I had a lot of fun towards the end thanks to excellent friends.  After going on my mission to Fresno, CA I returned to Holladay for about two years and now I live in Hawaii. I feel like most students here came not necessarily for a specific program but just because they wanted to go to this school, and I am no exception.  Could you say I ran away to Hawaii?  Probably!  I really am not a fan of the cold!  But I feel like there is a light in my soul brought by this warm climate.  The culture here is wonderful; there is definitely a relaxed and chill vibe here that I really enjoy. As my friends and family know, my uptight nature could certainly benefit from a little more chill in my life! Since getting here I did decide on going into information systems, which feels like the right fit since I have always been so nerdy. Now in my second semester here, I am thoroughly enjoying life in Hawaii. I don't know how long I will live on this beautiful island (maybe forever?) but I sure am grateful to be here right now!