Crowd Surfing and Purple Chalk: My Experience at the 2009 Spanish Fork Holi Festival

Hey bloggers,

Last Saturday, I was a part of the largest Hindu Holi Festival in North America - a worldwide rite celebrating multiple important Hindu religious themes. The first is the beginning of spring, the second is the religious devotion of one Prince Prahlad to Hare Krishna, and the third is the birthday of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

During the event, an effigy of a Satan-like figure is burned, performances go on, and a count-down leads to the "throwing of colors," where the entire crowd throws powdered, lavender-scented chalk at each other. The painted faces everyone wears indicate the arrival of spring.

Here are some pictures of my own experience at the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah:


This was a shot of the crowd during the throwing of colors at the festival.


An excited friend...


A group shot at the festival.

Now, what I would really like to talk about today has to do with the dangers of crowd surfing. During the throwing of colors, the crowd was so thick that my friends and I could hardly breathe. Madeleine and Charity, two of my friends at the event, were with me at the time, and they decided to take the opportunity to crowd surf. Unfortunately, they didn't think before they plunged themselves into the crowd. Here is what I would do differently given the situation they placed me in. Hopefully all of you crowd-surfing wannabes can take the same precautions the next time you decide to leap into a crowd of strangers:

1) Take your cellphone with you so the person holding your stuff doesn't lose you for the next hour.
2) Know who's picking you up.
3) Be prepared for an abrupt landing.

With these tips, you'll be a crowd-surfing pro. I still wouldn't recommend it, though.

Wait...How Much is my Blood Worth?!

Unemployed and low on the green? No prob. Jog on over to your nearest Plasma Donation center and donate your plasma (the portion of blood that carries blood nutrients and oxygen throughout the body) for $20.

I've been meaning to head on over to one of these centers for months now. Here's how it works: if you are at least 18 years old, weigh 110 lbs., and haven't given whole blood in 8 weeks, you can travel to one of these centers (BYU Students! Check out the Alpha Plasma Center in Provo at 245 W 100 N) and have your blood plasma tested. If your plasma is healthy, some of it will be extracted, so that it can go to needy hospital patients. Then, you go home...$20 richer. For a 2-hour visit, that works out to $10/hour...

...That's more than I made working at Camp Kaleidoscope last summer.

The best part about it? Plasma regenerates quickly, so many Blood Plasma Donation Centers allow you to give blood twice a week. That can amount to $160 every month!

For more information on Blood Plasma Donation, click here.

The Six-Cent Date...and More Dating Ideas on a Dime

If you think grocery shopping on a budget is tough, try dating on a budget. It really seems impossible to date with a college budget when everything costs money. However, there are ways to curb college dating blues. Here are just a few inexpensive...but fun...date ideas to try out:

1) (For BYU Students) Go to the International Cinema. They play so many great movies for free...and the fact that they're international makes date night a little more unique.

2) Penny Golf: go to the highest floor of a building on campus, take 3 pennies each and mark them with your initials. Then, drop pennies down the hole in the stairwell. The goal is to drop the penny all the way down to the first floor, but it's surprisingly hard. Consider your first drop your first 'stroke,' find where your pennies landed, and drop your pennies from the landing site. Whoever gets all 3 pennies to the first floor in the fewest 'strokes' wins. It's a weird activity, but it's actually fun (I should know. A date had me do this last weekend).

3) (BYU Students) Hike the Y! It's fun and it's great exercise! Besides, the view of Provo at night is worth the trip.

4) Check out your college's free or discounted events. There are usually concerts, dances, or student association events going on every night for free. BYU Students: Join the Honors Program and get a Great Works card for great events discounts.

5) (If you have a little more than a dime) Go out for ice cream -- not dinner. A dinner date can burn a serious hole in your wallet, but ice cream is more fun, and it usually doesn't cost much. If you want to save even more, go to the grocery store with your date and get ice cream and toppings there. It's more personalized, and it's more fun, than the traditional restaurant experience. Besides, if the date doesn't work out, you have ice cream and toppings left over.

6) Photo Scavenger Hunt (great for group dates): Make a treasure map around campus or around town, and bring a camera along. Have your date travel with you to different locations and do activities along the way. At a park, for example, she might have to spin on the merry-go-round 10 times before she gets the next clue.

Have fun Friday night! And don't forget to do your homework...

There's Nothing to Eat! 11 Stomach-Saving College Food Staples

My religion professor once said the following: "Now, when I look in the fridge and say 'there's nothing to eat,' it means I'm not hungry for anything. When you guys look in the fridge and say there's nothing to eat...it means there's actually NOTHING to eat.'"

He's right. Right now in my fridge, I have the following:

1) A container of week-old broccoli
2) An empty soda pop bottle
3) A package of microwave bacon
4) Left-over Thai food

This summer, I'm resolving to keep my fridge stocked, but I still have a budget. So, after doing some research, I found information on basic food staples to keep college wallets and fridges full:

1) Milk: It's getting more expensive these days, but it's essential for healthy living. Look for coupons.

2) Rice: It's great because it's versatile. Rice works with everything from meat to ramen noodles to beans, and a little spice goes a long way...but you don't have to take my word for it. Check out these great rice recipes).

3) Oatmeal: It may be disgusting, but it's healthy and great to buy on a budget.

4) Peanut Butter: A little peanut butter goes a long way. It works great with celery, sandwiches, and a number of unusual recipes (including peanut butter soup). If you're ambitious enough, you can even try making it yourself).

5) Bread! Bread is another expensive commodity, but it comes in plenty of different shapes and sizes. If you want to go cheap, plain white bread is fine, but pitas and english muffins can always spice up an otherwise boring shopping cart. If you aren't afraid of an investment, you might even consider an automatic bread maker. They cost $60-100, but if you normally buy a loaf every week for $3-4 a loaf, it'll start paying back in 6-8 months. Check out this great, inexpensive bread maker here).

6) Fruits and Vegetables: in season, fruits and vegetables can come at reasonable prices, but out of season, the $$ can really rack up. If you don't have the cash, go for canned vegetables and fruits, which last longer than their fresh alternatives. However, get fresh fruits and veggies whenever possible.
Extra tip: It might be wise to invest in a tomato plant or an indoor herb garden. They're easy to maintain indoors, and they can save you some cash when vegetables ripen.

7) Pasta: spaghetti is one of the cheapest things on the market, and it can easily satisfy an empty stomach.

8) Cheese: it may come with a price tag, but it's really filling, and it's versatile in breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. Try cottage cheese for an inexpensive alternative.

9) Soup: this stuff can last you forever if you buy in bulk. Ramen is especially useful, but you can always buy Campbell's soup in 6-pack clusters or on special sales. Learning to make your own soup can be beneficial as well -- chicken broth, meat and chopped-up veggies work out really well. Invest in some soda crackers as well.

10) Beans: this stuff is so cheap, it's ridiculous.

11) Meats: if you need meat in your diet and you have no money, look for canned chicken and tuna. They are great in sandwiches, and canned chicken is surprisingly good in chili. You may need to splurge if you want good meat, but hamburger is generally less expensive than, say, chicken breast.

All right, there you have it. Happy shopping! And remember: always buy a little bit more than you think you need!

The World's Greatest Rejection Letters

You've probably met someone who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer when it came to dating. But what about those special cases when a stalker is really starting to creep you out? For example, a 26-year-old Medieval Club freshman who won't stop commenting on your Facebook pictures? An ex-boyfriend or girlfriend, who, recently converted to a Sadistic cult, wants you back desperately? Well, here at Plasmid, we have a solution for those special cases. Just ship him/her one of these letters and they'll be sure to get the message. Specific details may need to be adjusted to individual needs. These are loosely based on some personal stalker experiences:

(Tough as Nails: Indulge your Inner Chuck Norris) ____________: I'm gonna give it to you straight. The fact that you've been following me around for the last three weeks is creepy and weird. I was fine with the fourteen Arabic Facebook wall posts you wrote me proclaiming your enduring, undying love. I could deal with the daily crushed flowers you slipped under my kitchen door. However, your faked death and consequent marriage proposal in the middle of calculus class went overboard. Straight up, I will never date you. Stay away from me, my friends, and my apartment, or your jaw will encounter, Helga's (my roommate's) fists of steel. Watch your back, ___________.

(Plead Insanity!) Dear __________, I just wanted to tell you how much I love Twilight. I am obsessed with Twilight. And my new passion for Edward Cullen has rendered me completely inable to fall in love or like or to even date any other person. I think that I need to murder Eddie's girlfriend. No. I will murder his girlfriend. I will poison her. I don't care if she's fictional. I can do it with kidney fluids from a rabies-infected mountain goat. I hear that rabies is incurable. Thank you for your understanding, but you just aren't sparkly, pale, or monotone enough to catch my eye. Sincerely, the True Bella

(Build the Ego) Dear _________, I love your special powers…how your hair attracts small pieces of metal…and your toenails, too. Your extensive knowledge of ancient Elvish literature is almost as impressive as your small collection of 1940’s xylophone elevator music. I have seen your skills in speed walking and speed gift wrapping. That’s why this letter is so hard to write. I do not deserve you. You are too far above me in talent and skill. May the elvish nail-loving girl you betrothe...truly complete you. I am sorry to let you go.

So, there you go. Good luck with your, uh, special stalker!

Site Under Construction

Hey Bloggers,

I've decided to revamp this whole site to cater to the needs of all you college students. On this site, you guys will find everything you need to make college just a little more enjoyable. You'll find everything from dating advice, to study tips, to the most up-to-date news links. Have fun!

The Evolution of the Sleepover

So when I was ten, I realized that there would be a point in my life when I would no longer go to sleepovers...those crazy fun girly, "truth or dare playing, movie-watching, staying-up-until-3-and- trying-not-to-be-the-first person-to-fall-asleep" events. I figured the cut-off would be around 13 or 14. And apparently, I was dead wrong.

Last night, as a matter of fact, I went to the second of a series of 'girls' nights' that some of my friends from church decided to implement last October. In a lot of ways, both this sleepover and the one previous resembled the sleepovers of yesteryear: movies, junkfood, talking about guys and life and everything else, finding that anything and everything at 2 o'clock in the morning is funny, and hearing weird noises at night. However, there are some interesting developments in the sleepover department that have been changed both by age and by the slow decay of time in general:

1) The sleepover world has been changed dramatically by technology. We no longer watched old VHS's, but DVDs on Emma's massive television with surround sound. We also had cell phones, and we texted or called 50 people that night. I counted. In the morning, we weren't woken up by a clock or a parent, it was someone's cell phone that was ringing. And, once we woke up, the first thing we did was check our emails and facebook.
2) We have become a lot smarter over the years -- instead of shooting straight for truth or dare, we checked out the lunar eclipse and we spent 2 1/2 hours figuring out a bunch of riddles that Emma had stored away in her memory. As an added technology change, Derek (Loralee's amigo) was on speakerphone trying to figure them out with us.
3) We have become more vain over the years...before going to bed, it wasn't just brushing teeth that was essential. It was all about taking out contacts and getting rid of makeup. And throughout, there were pictures being taken by random cameras, so one of us was always posing.
4) I drove myself home. Weird!

So I have to say, it was a different experience, but still amazingly fun. Sleepovers are a changing event in a changing world...and if they've changed this much in five years, I wonder what they'll be like in the next five.