Good Times – Page 5 – Elissa C. Nysetvold

April 4, 2014December 23, 2020

Chemistry: A Meme-tastic Tribute

In just a few short weeks, I’ll be graduating from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. It’s been a long, hard road, but filling out the senior exit survey brought back a lot of delightful memories. The past four years really have been filled with memorable (if not always strictly pleasant) experiences.

I’ve been wanting to do a little chemistry department tribute post, but I didn’t want to be sappy or overly sentimental. And then it hit me: memes! In my experience, it’s almost impossible to be sappy with memes.

And so, here it is: one chemistry major’s class-by-class experience, illustrated by memes. This will probably only be slightly amusing to other chemistry majors, but that’s okay. (Just to be clear, this should be my only meme post for a very long time.)

Chem 111:

Chem 112:

(Yes, this was the topic of not one but two lectures, one of which was allegedly the final exam review. It was a fun class.)

Chem 113:

Chem 227:

Chem 351:

Chem 352:

Chem 354:

Chem 455:

Chem 462:

Chem 391:

Chem 463:

Chem 464/5:

Chem 481:

Chem 514:

Image credit to Glen Thurston

Chem 521:

Chem 518:

Image credit to Glen Thurston

Chem 523:

Image credit to Glen Thurston

I have no intention of dumping all my chemistry knowledge after graduation, but that’s a subject for another post.

Writing update: 30,509/35,000 words! The end is in sight!

March 28, 2014December 23, 2020

Green Smoothies?! Green Smoothies!

“Tom, what should my first real blog post be about?”

“Food. Talk about food.”

Who am I to ignore such great advice from my excellent husband? Today I’m going to unveil the food item I’ve been making more than any other the past few months:

Courtesy of: Kimberly Snyder. My smoothies never look like this.

Now wait a minute—don’t just brand me as some sort of hippy and leave, never to return. Hear me out.

Green smoothies have definitely improved my quality of life. This is the first time I’ve made it through an entire school year without getting sick, despite plenty of exposure and stress. I don’t crave chocolate as much, and I have more energy. I don’t have to worry about getting enough fruits and vegetables, because I can just drink them all in one fell swoop. Also, I may or may not have lost six pounds by replacing a meal or two a week with a smoothie, making no other changes to my lifestyle.

Now if I can just get Tom to join me, we’ll be all set.

In my opinion, the internet makes the whole smoothie experience way more complicated than it needs to be. “Use only organic produce.” “Make sure it’s a 70:30 vegetable:fruit ratio.” “Don’t eat anything less than 40 minutes before or after smoothie consumption.” “Sip it slowly through a straw and swish it around your mouth before you swallow it.” Ain’t nobody got time for that. Just play around with it until you’ve got something you’d look forward to drinking. You can hardly go wrong.

To start, here’s a simple smoothie recipe I’ve been enjoying lately. Be warned: the frozen berries will turn your “green” smoothie purple. It’s still awesome.

Citrus Berry Surprise [pronounced “soo-PREEZE”] Smoothie

2 cups spinach
1 cup water
1 apple
1 orange
0.5 cup frozen berries of choice

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Happy smoothie-ing, friends!

P.S. On a writing-related note, I’m working on a 35,000-word novella for Brandon Sanderson’s creative writing class. Right now I’m at 27,522 words. Good times!

March 16, 2014December 23, 2020

An Introduction

“If you don’t have a blog, go home and start one tonight!”—A panelist at LTUE

(Sorry, ma’am, but I waited almost exactly a month).

After all these years, it’s finally happened. I started a blog. Here it is.

As an explanation, this blog is about good times. For me, good times include (but are not limited to) family, food, chemistry, books, and writing—especially writing. And now, a bit of an introduction:

My name is Elissa Cardon Nysetvold. I was born and raised in the sweet little town of Provo, Utah. Here I met and married Tom Nysetvold, the quintessential Good Guy. Here’s a picture of us:

Awww. Cute.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I first understood the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As a child, I thought it would be the perfect complement to a successful career as a high-power homemaker. I’ve written stories throughout my life, but for most of them, my only audience was my little sister (thanks, Rach!).

My original plan was to take a four-year break from writing to learn to be a chemist; during the first few years, I more or less abandoned any writerly aspirations. However, when Tom became aware of this, he ~~applied the whip~~ convinced me to “follow my dreams.”

So here I am, about to graduate from BYU and try to make that dream a reality. And because writers apparently need blogs, I’m hoping this will be a good way to ~~con everyone I know into buying my books~~ keep friends and family up to date on the good times to come.