[Citation Needed]

Have you ever been reading Wikipedia and after it asserts something you'll notice a link that says [citation needed]? It has turned into one of those memes of popular culture that you can bring out anytime you are unsure of someones facts and challenge them to prove the source.

This related nicely to my Sunday School lesson yesterday. The last part of the lesson is about false teachers from within the church. The scriptures in the lesson talks about people who seem pretty malicious in their intent to deceive. I also think that we should be wary of those who might not be maliciously misleading, but unwittingly doing the same thing.

We have quite a few things in the church that are practiced but aren't actual doctrines. Some are harmful, and some are harmless. Like raising your right hand to the square to sustain. There's no doctrine that you need to raise your hand to the square. A quick look at the conference edition of the Ensign shows the apostles in all different states of arm extension (I'm counting this as my citation as well as citing my D&C teacher John Farmer or was it Farmer John...). Though really this is harmless if you ask me.

Something that was a bit more harmful was a cultural practice that only men should pray at the beginning of sacrament meeting. In fact when I was on my mission and became Branch President in a little branch my departing companion and former Branch President told me that he'd been told it was better to have a priesthood holder say the opening prayer and that the meeting just runs better if you do it that way. I think I followed his counsel for about a week and then I didn't. Apparently it was a misinterpreted comment that Ezra Taft Benson made a few weeks before he died. It started to go around with the pass of "doctrine" stamped on it. Turns out it has no doctrinal basis.

Now that I think about it the talks generally follow a wife first then husband. I don't know if Bishoprics ask the man to go last or if that's just how the couples self select their order. Next time I'm asked to speak with Laurel I'm going to have her go last. :)

So my point in the class was that there are somethings that end up in the church that aren't doctrinal and sometimes we need to say "Citation Needed!" It's also up to us to seek out doctrinal bases. I guess that's why we are supposed to continually search the scriptures.

And yes I already anticipate at least one comment saying "Citation Needed" on something I said.

Elizabeth Bennet, Queen of Hard to Get

I have been reading Pride and Prejudice lately and I got to the part where Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth. Elizabeth politely and promptly refuses his request for her hand in matters of matrimony with the utmost eloquence. Mr. Collins replies that he believes her goal in refusing him is to make him ever more so interested in her so that when she does accept his hand he is even more smitten. He fully expects her to accept him on his second humble request. Indeed he does not begrudge her such antics as it is quite expected among ladies of such a well established background. Despite Elizabeth’s profuse and insistent efforts to dissuade Mr. Collins, her efforts only affirm to Mr. Collins that she is indeed playing “hard to get.” The situation is rather ridiculous and humorous to the extent of a hearty mental “har har har har….”

I don’t think many people believe that playing hard to get is very effective these days. At least not once they get past 8th grade. Perhaps it is effective but the window of effectiveness is very small and therefore very few people actually manage to hit that target successfully. The consequences of missing that target are quite high.

Let’s consider the situation portrayed in the book (at least from Mr. Collins point of view). A suitor is outwardly interested in a lady. The lady is inwardly interested in her suitor but doesn’t show it and thinks that she can increase his level of interest. This would make the relationship more beneficial to her (and him for that matter) later on when they get together. So she concocts a plan to increase her suitor’s amorous desire by leading him along on a string with a hook attached to his nose. She plays disinterested and lets her suitor use his imagination to create an image of her that is even more love stricken. The result is when she does accept his hand he is properly wrapped around her finger and life is ever so much happier than if she had initially accepted his advances.

The theory seems to make sense. I have not yet devised an experiment to test the results of such efforts. However I go back to my small target theory. I posit that it is possible that playing hard to get can be a fruitful tactic. I also posit that the window of success is so small and the risk of failure so large that the efforts are almost certainly bound to fail.

If a girl doesn’t play hard to get long enough then there will be no positive effect and it will possibly even hurt her chances because the guy is going to suffer an initial blow to his interest level due to rejection. So she will have been worse off. Then the guy will start to think about her more often and perhaps his interest will start to increase. Then the window of opportunity will open for the girl. His interest will surpass his initial level of interest and the girl finds some way to encourage him that there might be a chance and he takes it. But since the girl has no idea when this time is, she will probably miss it.

Then there are two more phases. The guy starts to idolize the girl beyond what she really is. If the girl manages to pull him back he will then be disappointed and his interest level will drop even more. Now she is worse off. If she doesn’t rope him in at that point then he will lose interest completely and move on. So now she has no guy at all. She lost that dangerous game.

When I started thinking about this blog I thought, you know I haven’t done an econ related blog in quite some time. It’s too bad that this one doesn’t work out. Well it turns out that it does. However this blog is getting rather long so I’ll leave the rest for another entry.

Life in the Fast Lane

I’m not one of those drivers that you get stuck behind and will box you in. I generally try to go about the speed of what the fast lane is. I figure that if I’m going the speed everyone else is then a cop won’t pull me over because I’m just going with the traffic flow. (Even if that flow is 10-15 miles over the speed limit). I also try to be considerate of people that may want to go faster than me, which means I try to get out of the left lane if there is someone trying to get by (a courtesy that is lost on most people).

Making sure you are going the general speed of the fast lane, passing cars, making sure no one is coming up and getting stuck behind you and all the other things you have to be aware of while careening down a concrete pathway at speeds people 50 years ago would have though insane can be rather mentally demanding at times. I don’t think we notice it much, but everyone has finished a more stressful drive in traffic and felt that relief that it’s over.

Sometimes I like to take a step back and drive in the slow lane. It’s rather refreshing over there. No one is trying to get around you (all those people are in the other two lanes), you don’t have to worry about accidentally going too fast, people don’t cut you off as much, and you can almost feel a sort of camaraderie with your other fellow slow drivers. It’s like you’re all moseying along singing a silent mental tune saying “Life is good, we’ll get there and it will be fine on the way.”
In New Caledonia they have a saying: “Casse pas la tete” which translates to “Don’t break your head.” It basically meant don’t worry about it. Islanders are pretty good about not getting to caught up in life that you can’t enjoy it. I suppose if I lived my whole life on a beautiful beach it might go to my head too. “Why worry? We’re on a beach!”

So I like to enjoy life from time to time and imagine that I am on a beach. Sometimes it’s as simple as taking a breath, relaxing, and driving in the slow lane.

More Salsa

So over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with salsa. I like salsa, but most store bought salsas are just kind of bland. I know how to make a decent pico de gallo but that takes a really long time to make and I don't want to spend that time every time I eat all the salsa. (Something that happens quite often). Pico de Gallo isn't really salsa anyway. (Which for those of you who have ever heard that piano piece I wrote called "No More Salsa" it should actually be called "No More Pico de Gallo")

So I have come up with a recipe that doesn't call for dicing 10 tomatoes into itty bitty pieces and tastes much better than anything I've found at the store. It's also much cheaper and you can customize it to your taste.

And like always, I never really measure anything so these are all guesses. Not measuring makes it more exciting because it's a little different every time!



1 can diced tomatoes and 1 can diced tomatoes with jalapeno added (This will make a medium spicy salsa. For Hot use two cans with jalapeno or mild 2 normal cans.)

4-5 Green onions

1 Onion (Give or take half an onion depending on how much you want.)

1/2 bundle of fresh cilantro

Concentrated lime juice (probably around 3-5 tablespoons)

Salt (like... 1 tbsp? You'll need enough to handle the canned tomato taste. Kind of like how plain tomato paste needs a whole lot of seasoning to work as spaghetti sauce.)

Drain the cans of diced tomatoes into a bowl, you'll need some (or maybe all) later. Dump the diced tomatoes into a large bowl. Dice the onion and green onions and add them to the tomatoes. Dice the cilantro by either wrapping it up into a tight bundle and dicing it or use one of those hand chopper thingies. Pour in some of the juice you drained previous till it's at a consistency you like. (This could depend on how many onions you put in or just how runny you like your salsa to be.) Add the lime juice, salt and mix it all up with a spoon.




There you go, that will cost you about 3 dollars in all and make probably about 9-10 dollars worth of salsa. And it will taste better!

You can play around with the quantities of the ingredients. I prefer to have it lean towards the cilantro and lime flavors, but not everyone likes that.

Stuffed Basil Chicken

I made this up a few days ago. I thought it was delicious.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts thawed
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 1/2 tablespoons basil pesto
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups bread crumbs
1 egg
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon rosemary
3 cloves garlic minced
baby carrots

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the mozzarella, sour cream, basil pesto, italian seasoning, garlic salt, rosemary, and minced garlic in a bowl. Slice the chicken breast in half long ways but not all the way through, like a hot dog bun, or a subway sandwich bread. Dip the chicken in the whipped egg then in breaded crumbs to get a nice coating. Fill the chicken on the inside with the mozzarella filling. Coat a baking pan with butter or Crisco and olive oil. put the chicken in and some baby carrots around the edge. Season the carrots with salt or rosemary or something good. Bake for 35-45 minute or until the chicken is no longer pink on the inside. Try to cook it the least amount possible. It will be more juicy and tender that way.



And voila. Eat it now.

More food!

So a few years ago I created one of my favorite dishes. I call it coconut lemon chicken. As always, I'm not much of a measuring person. I just throw things together, but I'll try to put measurements of what I can.

1 onion
1 can coconut milk
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips or 6-7 chicken tenders
3 cloves of garlic chopped (optional)
Garlic Salt
Concentrated lemon juice usually around 4 or 5 tablespoons... I think
Pepper
1/2 can chicken stock (broth) or 1 cup water and 4-5 teaspoons of chicken seasoning granules or bouillons
Olive or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups rice

Set the rice cooking

Cut the onion into slices. Sautee the onions and chopped garlic with oil in a large sauce pan for a couple of minutes. Season chicken with garlic salt. Add chicken and brown. It's best if you just brown the outside of the chicken at this point, it will come out more tender and succulant! Add chicken broth or water and chicken seasoning. Add lemon juice and coconut milk. Let simmer for 7-10 minutes or until chicken is cooked all the way through. (This is the point where just barely browning the chicken pays off as the coconut milk and other juices soak in.)

Serve on top of rice and enjoy.

I've always been rather proud of this one. I like cooking with coconut milk. That's New Caledonia coming out of me. Maybe you will like it too.

Common Sensiquette

In the Victorian Age children were taught strict rules of etiquette on how to behave in society. Many of these rules have lived to today and guide us all to show respect and be courteous to each other. Simple things like opening doors, and not burping at the table and so on. I personally think it gets a little burdensome and unnecessary when codes of etiquette to eat dinner with the proper utensil at the proper time in the proper way are more complicated than the story line of “Lost”. That’s just my own humble opinion though.

Anyway, one thing the world seems to lack is common sense etiquette. People can rave about how great the “good ole days” were and dream of returning to the Victorian Age (Until you remind them about no central heating, air conditioning, and outhouses of course), but the same people lack many of the basic things I would consider common sense. Here are some things I have noticed as of late.

Funnel points. Every room has them. They could be entrances, doorways, or just places where the hallway gets smaller for some reason. Why do people think this is the best place to stand? I don’t know why but people just plop down and hold huge conversations for 10 minutes in these areas during the most high traffic times like passing period in between class, the end of church, parties, and so on.

Take this picture for example. This is a highly sophisticated, to-scale model of the foyer at our church.



Now ideally you would think people would congregate in the following fashion to stop and catch up with their dear friends.




Instead it generally looks like this:



Please. Allow your fellow brethren and sistren to exit the building with their 6 children below the age of 10, strollers, baby bags, relief society center pieces and inspirational object lessons to pass without having to setup siege and eat their rations of cheerios and fruit snacks till the iron curtain blocking their exit is torn down.

This also happens in grocery stores a lot. My favorite is when there is someone who has their cart on one side of the isle and is looking for an item, and then someone comes from the other side and parks their cart side by side so not even Flat Stanley could squeeze by. I hope you found your favorite brand of miracle whip.

I thought I would have a whole list of things, but I guess I don’t. Other things that aren’t covered in etiquette that I might think of will probably have to do with emailing and texting each other. This post seems long enough though.