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  • 23. What is silence?

  • 22. What are my favorite TV shows?

    • Doctor Who
    • Sherlock
    • Star Trek
    • Amazing Race
    • Great British Bake-off
    • Psych
    • Dick van Dyke Show
    • WandaVision and Loki
    • Parks and Recreation
    • Superman and Lois
    • Lois and Clark
    • I Dream of Jeannie

    This list doesn’t include everything; just what I can think of right now. What are your favorite TV shows?

  • 21. How do I stop getting distracted?

    I blocked Google searches on my computer so that I have to go and enter a password if I want to search for anything. I realized that I was spending a lot of time sitting and searching for whatever random question came into my mind. Sometimes I don’t need answers.

  • 20. How do I create a mood board?

    20. How do I create a mood board?

    My favorite way to make mood boards is in Sketchbook.

    This is about how Sketchbook will look when you open it for the first time.

    The first step is to import an image. You can do this by a copying an image from the internet or using the Print Screen feature on your computer.

    You can use the magic wand select tool to select all the white space from your image. You’re going to then invert your selection (it’s in the same select toolbar, the button second from the right with a dashed square nested in another dashed square), and then just type Delete and all that white around the piece of furniture will go away so you can layer it with other things.

    You need to show the Layer Editor Window, and you can do that by going to Window -> Layer Editor.

    I copied in another image. When I copy it, it automatically creates a new layer. In the Layer Editor, I can rearrange the layers so that the rug goes behind the chair, instead of on top of it (I use the little button with the arrows up and down).

    Do you see that circle thing on top of the chair? That’s the Quick Transform tool, and you can get to it by clicking on the button that is highlighted in blue in the toolbar. The middle of the Quick Transform tool can be used to resize. Going outward, you can rotate, and at the edge, move an object around.

    As you add more layers, you eventually create a mood board. You’ll want to save it as a TIFF file to be able to come back and edit the layers. But if you want to share, you’ll have to save it as a jpeg or a png and flatten the images. Here are some mood boards I’ve created for my house:

    They aren’t perfect, but they still help me visualize my space as I work on selecting finishes.

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  • 19. Is it okay to give up?

    Yes. Because a lot of the things we pursue don’t really matter that much after all.

    I don’t give up on family; I don’t give up on people. I don’t give up on myself becoming the best version that I can be.

    But I start a lot of projects, and I’ve quit and given up on lots of them and it was for the best.

    In ninth grade, I sat on the bench of the ninth grade team. I didn’t quit that team because I wasn’t supposed to quit–but sometimes I wonder if it would have been better if I had just walked out and done something better with my time. I never played on a basketball team after that bad experience, but that worked out really well for me, as the girl’s basketball team in my high school was plagued with drama and problems.

    There are the wrong reasons to quit, like being afraid or being lazy. But there are good reasons to let go of something: sometimes dreams are impossible or messy or ugly, and we need to protect ourselves and the ones we love.

    When we start something, we don’t always know what’s going to happen, and when we find out more information or things go wrong, it can be good to get to a better place.

  • 18. What is the optimal time to go to bed and wake up?

    18. What is the optimal time to go to bed and wake up?

    cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.

    Doctrine & Covenants 88:124

    Sleep schedules will vary from person to person and not everyone needs the same amount of sleep at the same time.

    But it is best to have a consistent sleep schedule. Our bodies are also wired to go to sleep when it’s dark outside and to be awake when it’s light.

    And adults need 7-9 hours a night.

    For me personally, I don’t like staying up any later than 11:00, and usually I’m wasting time if I’m staying up past 10:00 or 10:30. I can’t consistently wake up earlier than 6:00 in the morning.

    I know I need at least 7.5 hours of sleep to function, but I don’t need anymore than 8.5 hours. So I should at least go to sleep between 9:30 and 11:00 and wake up between 6 and 6:30. Optimally, I would go to sleep more towards 9:30 or 10:00 than 11:00.

  • 17. What are good ways to solve the world’s problems?

    17. What are good ways to solve the world’s problems?

    The Government Organization

    How did we put a man on the moon? We created a government organization that employed extremely talented people that worked together in teams solving small problem after small problem until they figured out how to do it.

    The Open-Source Crowd

    How did we get a general, somewhat reliable source of information about just about anything on the internet? Someone decided that if there was an open encyclopedia that anyone could edit, eventually there would be quality articles written by professionals and experts. And so Wikipedia exists, and while it’s not reliable, it is still about the best place to go for background information on just about any topic. Writers and editors don’t get paid; people just put their heads together try to create something accurate and useful.

    The Academics

    How do we figure out how to execute monetary policy? There were a bunch of intellectual people who started to think and publish papers and books and in all that discussion, came up with some macroeconomic models that are used to determine how to set interest rates and control money supply.

    The Nonprofit

    How do we make sure that everyone can eat? People created food banks that give out free food to people who need it. Backed by donations and supported by volunteers, food banks use the kindness of others in order to help.

    The Corporation

    How do we communicate better with each other? Tech companies, working for a profit, created and improved email, online chats, video conference social networks, and more.

    There are lots of ways to solve problems, and one way is not necessarily better than another. It depends on the problem, and many different organizations and systems can work together in order to create a better world.

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  • 16. How do I make life easier?

    • Pace myself. Don’t try to do everything all at once. Limit myself on what I do in a day. Realize things may take longer than I realize.
    • Do what I enjoy doing. Sometimes instead of doing what I half to do, it’s okay to do something that I really want to do.
    • Create and follow routines.
    • Simplify. Can I do something in an easier way?
    • Remember why I am doing something.
    • Focus on relationships instead of getting stuff done.
    • Call it good enough. Very few things in life need to be perfect.
    • Be okay with being sort of bad at something. Sometimes a pathetic effort is all that is required.
    • Let go of things that don’t matter. I need to eliminate things regularly.
    • Ask for help and let others do their part. I don’t need to be solely responsible to clean my house, for example.
    • Make things fun.

  • 15. What was my first Amazon purchase?

    My very first Amazon purchase was a book (because Amazon used to be a book store). I bought in on February 10, 2007.

    I bought the mass-market paperback edition, and I still think I have it, but it has been well-loved and is falling apart.

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  • 14. How do I know God?

    14. How do I know God?