Random

I've been thinking about my blog lately, and how I should add something. I just have some random bits and pieces, but here they are.

• The Church is creating a Seoul South mission. I left Korea in March 2010 just as the Seoul West and Seoul missions were being combined (changing the number of LDS missions in Korea from four to three). They told us this was in part because there were fewer new missionaries (the "boomlette" was ending) and because the missionaries that were going out were going to more diverse areas of the world. Now, this article says, because the age has changed for missionaries to go out, there are more again. Why not re-open the Seoul West mission? Who knows. 

• I am going to Ireland for two weeks this spring. A friend and I had started talking about this more than a year ago. Last summer I was in Colombia, and for the next two summers I'll be doing grad school full time. Looking at the calendar, I realized the only time I had to go was Spring Break. So that's when we're going! I'm taking a week off work in addition to that, which I feel guilty about. But I'm definitely looking forward to the trip! 

• We have Netflix, and I end up watching a fair amount of TV while I grade, work out, and that kind of thing. Recently I got kind of obsessed with the show "LA Ink," about a tattoo shop in LA (until the later seasons when all the people on it are just nasty to each other). I was just struck by how so many of the people going in to get tattoos were getting one to mark or work through something hard in their lives. It's just been an observation lately--hard things happen to all of us. 

• I've been really tempted lately to get an iPhone, but always go back to deciding it's too expensive (please see the Ireland bullet point, above) and that I can live without one for at least a bit longer. Recently I took a class on African drumming through the University of Utah's Continuing Education program, and I think if I'm not going to buy an iPhone, I could probably buy an African drum.