A stressful day

I must have had a very stressful day, assuming dreams are anything to go by:

It all started off when I woke up in the hospital. I had been shot in my back, the bullet puncturing one of my lumbar vertebrae discs. The nurse told me the doctors weren't sure if I would walk again, so could I please try?

Thankfully, I could. My back hurt some, but a lot less than I expected. I wandered the hospital with a 104 degree fever while looking for something, but I couldn't remember what. They told me it was not a good time to travel, but I had to go back to Nigeria right away. The semester had already started and if I didn't get back, they would take away all my classes and force me to teach things I don't know anything about.

I finally made it out of the hospital and got into the car so we could drive to the airport. We had not been driving long when we got into an accident - the other driver's fault. I looked back at my parents' car: half of it was a little crumpled, but on the other half only the chicken wire frame that held it together was still there. The rest had been peeled off and lay on the side of the road.

What a miracle no one was hurt! The children got out of their seats and went wandering. I have a feeling that Prince said he didn't want to be in the Church anymore, but I don't remember hearing him say that. I looked for Joy to help me keep the kids together as the other driver came up to apologize, but I couldn't find her anywhere.

The other driver turned out to be a friend from Ithaca, who reminded me I needed to sell our trailer and move our stuff from Ithaca to Goleta before we left for Nigeria. But there was no time left. Then he asked how my job market went, and I realized I had forgotten to go on the job market this year!

And that was just the start of the dream. It got worse.

Two quotes: Success and fear

I read these quotes from Church News articles today and wanted to preserve them:

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a modern day apostle, was speaking to the missionaries at the Provo Missionary Training Center where three new buildings were dedicated to house and instruct the influx of new missionaries.

Elder Holland gave the missionaries this formula by which they can know they are measuring up to the Lord's expectations: "Seek to be personally converted, obey the rules of the mission, strive to have the Spirit of the Lord in your life, and work hard. These are things every missionary can do. 

"If you do those things, I promise you in the name of the Lord and with the authority of my office, you are a success in His eyes regardless of how many other convert baptisms you are able to have in your particular corner of the vineyard."

An anonymously written article on fear and faith started with this thought:

The Bible Dictionary states, "The first effect of Adam's sin was that he was afraid. Sin destroys that feeling of confidence God's child should feel in a loving Father, and produces instead a feeling of shame and guilt. Ever since the Fall, God has been teaching men not to fear, but with penitence to ask forgiveness in full confidence of receiving it."

Their Favorite Music

[Oh yes, and we're back in Yola safe and sound. We dropped off the face of the earth for two weeks with debilitating illnesses that delayed our return. But we're all well enough now and most of us are finally asleep.]

Once upon a time, I kept diligent track of all the vast quantities of music Prince listened to and monthly reported on how his favorite songs were changing over time. It was one of the ways he and I bonded and we could both harmlessly enjoy our occasional OCD tendencies.

Then it stopped. He decided he did not like the system we had going for choosing music and didn't want to pick music any more. In part this was also because he developed other interests and wanted to go for them.

I finally found a new system he likes well enough, and with Princess talking she can also express her music preferences. More recently, he's also taken to dancing before dinner when I turn the music on. For old times' sake, I wanted to post their favorite songs for 2012:

Song title (artist if it's not obvious) - # times played   * if Princess also requests this, ** if she sings along
1. Go, Go, Go (Backyardigans - hereafter B'gans) - 30**
2. Super Mario Castle Theme - 28
3. Brush Your Teeth (Raffi) - 26    [Joy requests this too]
4. Super Mario a capella (BYU Vocal Point) - 25
5. Super Duper Mario (Daniel Tidwell) - 23
    Backyardigan Theme Song **
    Super Mario Wii Theme
8. Lady in Pink (B'gans) - 22
9. Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam - 20**
    A Pirate Says Arr (B'gans)*

Christmas Pictures of our neice

Aunt Emie made two of the yarn dolls. I asked how
we could tell them apart. Ours has red hair, just like our girl.

Going through my Christmas pictures, I was surprised just how many I took of my little one year old niece. She was really quite adorable. Knowing that some of the people who come to this blog also care about Steve and Emie's little girl, here are some shots of her wonderfulness.

Christmas Pictures of Prince

Santa brought Prince many wondrous things - things so wondrous it was really hard to get his face in a picture with the gift:


A big red ball, TWO Mario toys, and a talking Lightning McQueen, plus these little medieval figures on the left and a Wii game. For those keeping count, Santa must have found several of Prince's gifts on sale and was not as lucky with Princess'.

He got two Wii games - Big Brain Academy and Toy Story 3.

Big Brain Academy is apparently designed for 8 year olds, so he currently gets a D on their learning test... but wait. My 4 year old can get a D on a test for an 8 year old? Sweet! ... I get a B--? Funky.

Toy Story 3 is his favorite activity to choose as the family game. I get one life to make progress, then he and Joy get 3-5 lives to figure out what they are doing until I move us forward again. It looks very well made and we're enjoying it.

Christmas pictures of Princess

Santa brought Princess a talking Jessie. She was very excited to see her little friend. Then she looked around said, "Woody!" certain he must be around too if Jessie was.

Santa also brought her a Minnie Mouse doll. She likes Minnie well enough, but Jessie is the clear winner.

Princess has always loved clothes. She was very happy to get several new outfits and was eager to try them on - sometimes all at once! 

Santa got Prince a ball that Princess enjoyed playing with. The big crossover toy though was Kermit the Frog. Prince was happy to get him, as you can see, but Princess coveted "Frog." She carried Frog with her more than any other toy. She gets very excited to see Frog.

Three Seatbelt Stories

Derrill's story:

We don't really have seatbelts in Nigeria. They exist in the cars, mostly, but have been scrunched under the bucket seats so you can't get at them. I've been in only 2 maybe 3 cars where the seatbelts worked and were available.

As someone who grew up after seatbelt laws in the US made them mandatory, I have been conditioned to believe they are necessary, wonderful, life-saving inventions that are absolutely crucial. Especially for children.

How do I deal with the cognitive dissonance this sets up? Mostly by pretending I'm one of those rebellious, aging hipsters from my youth who like to ride motorcycles without a helmet [see left] and claim seatbelt laws are a tremendous infringement on my civil liberties. Nigeria has freed me.

When I come back to the States, I smirk and say, "Seatbelts. How quaint." I then gratefully imprison myself and my children in the comfort of the familiar.

Prince's story:

Prince loves to race. His favorite race involves racing to see who can buckle their seatbelt fastest. He did it ALL the TIME last summer.

For some reason, when we came back to the States this winter, he had forgotten how to buckle his seatbelt. He just couldn't do it. 

We're accustomed to this normal 4 year old behavior of learned incompetence and we generally have very little patience with it, which is also normal for 4 year old parents. On our way back from the library, Joy gave him an ultimatum: get your seatbelt buckled or you and I are walking home.

That got him to genuinely try again, but the seatbelt still eluded him. I had him get out of his seat and try buckling the belt while looking at it. 

He couldn't. We moved his booster seat (how quaint!) to the far back of my parents' minivan.

He couldn't. Then I remembered how we had the car arranged in the summer [see picture]. I had him move his booster seat to the other side of the car.

He snapped the belt right in. It was a handedness issue. He can only buckle his seatbealt from left to right.

The races are back on!

Princess's story:

Princess loves her brother. When he and I agree to do a seatbelt race, it's often a race to see if he can buckle himself in faster than I can buckle Princess into her car seat. (Infant car seats. How quaint!)  Because of this, Prince usually wins and calls out, "First!"

This morning Prince was still finding his church shoes when I took Princess out to the car. I buckled her in. She looked around the empty car and called out, "Fuhst. Fuhst. Fuhst."

Best Disney Animated Villains

Behold, another awe-inspiring table!

After my post about Disney's animated animal sidekicks, the idea that most attracted me was doing my own villains list. I know, I know, I lose a lot of hipster cred doing something so totally mainstream ;)  I still think it is an interesting exercise trying to quantify WHY certain villains stand out. Descriptions below the break, and as always I am open to discussion, improvements, and filling in gaps for movies I don't remember well enough.

It turns out that 2 villains stand out far and above the rest, with 7 more also notably triumphing (>65 points) over other, mediocre villains (35-51). At the bottom, 5 fell far short of the others (<30)

Top Two (tied at 84/90)


Other villains who scored at least 65


Are you as surprised as I am that every one of the Top 10 either wears a black hat or has pointy hair? I will also point out that Jafar, Scar, Prince John, and Gov. Ratcliffe sport evil goatees, while Hook, Shan Yu, and Merlock have evil pointy mustaches. It is rumored that Ursula has a faint, evil mustache as well, but that they photoshopped it out at her request.

Updated: Added Ending

	Cunn	Str	Evil	Plan	Song	Able	Hench	Actor	End	DW	Sum	Chron
Ursula	8	10	10	8	10	10	8	2	8	10	84	14
Jafar	10	10	9	10	4	9	10	2	10	10	84	18
Dr. Facilier	8	6	10	5	10	7	8		10	10	74	33
Prof. Rattigan	10	6	10	10	6	10	4	5	5	5	71	12
Claude Frollo	10	8	8	2	10	7	6		10	10	71	22
Judge Doom	10	7	10	8	0	10	4	5	8	6	68	13
Syndrome	8	10	9	8	0	7	10		5	10	67	29
Scar	10	6	10	8	6	5	2	3	8	8	66	19
Maleficent	2	10	10	7	0	10	10		8	8	65	6
Captain James Hook	8	7	9	6	0	2	8	2	4	10	56	5
Lots-O'-Huggin Bear	10	0	7	4	0	10	8		4	6	49	35
Percival C. McLeach	8	4	7	2	0	8	6	5	5	4	49	16
Gothel	8	0	7	4	10	7	0		7	6	49	34
Charles Muntz	10	4	7	0	0	6	10	3	2	6	48	32
Shan Yu	3	9	10	2	0	10	10		2	2	48	24
Randall Boggs	8	8	7	7	0	5	0		5	6	46	28
Hopper	0	6	7	2	0	8	10	3	5	4	45	25
Merlock (Ducktales)	4	10	9	4	0	6	0	5	2	2	42	15
Queen Grimhilde (SW)	6	6	6	4	0	6	6		2	6	42	1
Prince John	2	8	4	2	0	0	6	5	5	6	38	9
Red Queen	0	8	7	0	0	4	8		8	2	37	4
Gaston	4	4	6	2	4	4	8		2	2	36	17
Shere Khan	4	9	7	0	0	8	0		4	4	36	8
Gov Ratcliffe	2	6	5	0	4	2	8	3	4	2	36	20
Stinky Pete	7	2	2	2	0	5	0	5	4	8	35	27
Lady Tremaine	6	2	6	0	0	6	4		4	4	32	3
Chef Skinner	2	2	1	0	0	2	4	3	10	4	28	30
Cruella de Vil	2	0	5	2	2	2	4		5	0	22	7
Madame Medusa	0	2	6	4	0	2	4		3	0	21	10
Brer Fox	4	0	3	2	0	0	2		6	4	21	2
Sid Phillips	0	0	10	0	0	2	0		8	0	20	21

5 most pitiful Disney villains. Let's face it, they were overthrown by mice, dogs, and a bunny. Not supervillain material.

Visions of Sugar Plums

Merry Christmas

We are enjoying our time in Goleta with my family. My health situation is apparently much better than advertised. The kids are loving being with their grandparents. Merry Christmas one and all.