Tokyo Jungle Guide - It's Finally Done!

I love working on big, extensive projects.  They bring on a rush of creativity and get me so excited.  I delve right into the project with a really strong beginning.  By the time I get halfway through the project, however, I start to fizzle out.  The project becomes more laborious than fun, and the end is still a long way off.  At this point, I am always sorely tempted to "take a break" from the project and start a new one.  This was the case with my Tokyo Jungle Guide.  Typically, if you want to get some tips about a video game, you can Google the title and find a lot of different fan-made guides to help you out.  When I typed in Tokyo Jungle, however, I could not find a single guide on the Internet.  I was all like:

"Now's my chance to do something no one else on the Internet has ever done before!"

So I got started on my Tokyo Jungle guide right away!  I love collecting data and organizing it, and plus, I got to play one of my favorite video games over and over.  It just didn't get any better!  But when I hit the halfway mark, I was sick and tired of Tokyo Jungle.  The thrill of the project had worn off, and since I was spending so much time playing a video game, I felt like a neglectful wife and a worthless bum.  But right-brainers are infamous for not finishing what they begin, so I was determined to complete my project before starting a new one.  I've been working on my Tokyo Jungle guide for over a month now...and it's finally done!  I'm sure only a few people will actually download and use it, but I'm proud of what I have accomplished.  Being able to finish this guide means I have what it takes to push through the pain and put out a finished project to the world, something that I've always had trouble with.  Who knows, maybe this success will be the catalyst that helps me finally finish my book.  Whatever the future may hold, behold!  My Tokyo Jungle guide!  Read it and be amazed!  :D

Oh, and the Tokyo Jungle guide will also be placed under the "Products/Services" menu, "Books & Pamphlets" sub-menu.  I hope to add more stuff there in the future!

Young Women Personal Progress

In the LDS church, there is a program for girls between the ages of 12-17 called the Young Women Personal Progress program.  I completed this program in my younger days, and I have fond memories of the spiritual experiences and enlightenment I received in the process.  Once completed, you also receive a special necklace.  I used to wear mine all of the time, but to my dismay, I can't find it!  This made me think about the Personal Progress program again.  I completed it a long time ago, and after going through anxiety, what I need right now is a program to help me develop my spirituality again.  So I'm going to complete the Personal Progress program again!

The basis of the Personal Progress program is centered around the Young Women Theme:

Image taken from Nicki's Personal Progress (check it out!)

The eight values - faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, virtue - are what the Personal Progress program is built on.  For each value, I must complete six Value Experiences and one 10-hour Value Project.  These experiences and projects are unique based on each value.  The tasks are easy, but most importantly, they help me develop spiritual habits and invite God back into my life.

I obtained a Personal Progress manual from my church building, but they have the program online, too.  Check it out here!  In order to actually chart progress online, you need an LDS account, but that's easy to create even if you are not LDS.  All of the information, however, is accessible with lots of resources and videos.  It's a cool site!

Even though I am married and hope to become a mother one day, there's no reason why I can't complete the Young Women Personal Progress program again.  It's a great way to jump start your spirituality.  I'm grateful that my church creates programs like these to help make studying the gospel fun.  Now if only they would create a Personal Progress program for married couples...  ;)

The Young Women Values (can you identify them all?) by gerugeon

My First Experience with HTML

I don't like math.  I respect it, and I respect those who understand it, but it's not my thing.  Yesterday, however, I was forced to use math to upgrade my blog (*le gasp!*)  My blog was starting to accumulate a lot of stand-alone pages, so I thought it would be nice to sort them into drop-down menus.  My mom uses Wordpress to do this on her website, but come to find out, you can't use Wordpress on Blogger.  So I turned to the ultimate resource: the Internet.  To my delight, I found many posts on how to create your own drop-down menus.  To my horror, all of the posts were about using HTML to do this.  HTML, which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, is a kind of computer language used to tell websites what to do and how to do it (I think).  In a nutshell, it's math language.  Therefore, my reaction was:

 

Stubbornly, I continued looking for another (much simpler way) to create a drop-down menu on my blog.  But alas, I couldn't find another way.  It took a whole day to process and accept this.  Finally, I took a deep breath and sat down to try and figure it out.  At first, I was completely overwhelmed.  Seeing all the numbers, symbols, and pointless words made my head go blank.  Thankfully, the tutorial I used was simple and easy to understand.  You can find the tutorial at the blog "Home Take 2: How to Create a Drop-Down Menu In Blogger."   Somehow, someway, I began to understand what I was doing.  I could actual change the code to bring about the desired results.  I changed the color of my text, the names of my menus, and added links.  My drop-down menus are not a work of art, but I did it!  I'm so proud of myself!  Granted, I'm in no hurry to try my hand at HTML again, but it feels good knowing I can do a little bit of it (with lots of help).  If you are like me and get overwhelmed by math-y things like computer codes, then there is hope!  If I can figure out HTML, so can you!

I still don't like math...