Humble Pie

I have a blog and it is Thanksgiving:  Obligatory Thanksgiving post.

I love this time of year.  The very nature of and reason for it cause us to come to realize all the things that we have to be grateful for and, in relation, humble about.  And really I think that's a big reason as to why I love this time of year so much.  It's a reality check that I probably should cash more often.  It's a time for family, food and friends, but also a time for reflection.  And this break, reflect I have, dang it.  I decided to compose a list of 5 things that I am especially thankful for at this time. This is not an exhaustive list, as I don't think that should exist for any aware person, but I tried to choose categories under which most things could reasonably fall.  I'll try to be concise as at times I get longwinded and I'm trying to make my winds shorter.  But in doing so, I'm also trying to accurately portray how I feel about some truly meaningful things.  So we'll see how it goes :)

1.)  First & Second Chances

     I am grateful for the opportunity to change and become better.  In life we're presented with many opportunities.  Sometimes these opportunities are a chance to do something new; sometimes they're a chance to try again at something that escaped us in the past.  First chances are doors that open to paths down which we never before have tred.  Second chances are opportunities to get back on a simliar path when inexperience has caused us to forsake the former.  I am grateful for both of these kinds of opportunities.  I have been given chances and experienced some things in my life that I wouldn't trade for the world. Literally.  What would I even do with a world?  But within these opportunities has been a mixture of successes and retries.  I think we're not meant to succeed at all the first chances that we're given.  Often it's in the need for a second chance that we learn what we need to succeed when it comes.  This allows us to prepare for pending first chances and find success when they come.  On occasion.

2.)  Influences

     I likely mention this a lot, but that's because it deserves it.  I can't say enough for the influence of the influences in our lives.  Whether good or bad, they are some of the most powerful teachers we'll ever encounter simply by way of example.  Despite their power, however, the responsibility is ours to discover what eaches teaches and improve therefrom.  I reflect often on the impact of influences in my own life and it's not hard to recognize.  They have made me into who I am in a very literal sense and I am supa grateful for it.   

3.)  Mind Over Matter

     I'm grateful for learning.  I have a fairly active brain.  This lowers its risk of obesity.  Its hyperactivity sometimes makes certain tasks difficult, but overall it's something that I am quite thankful for.  It has helped me to learn a lot that I likely would not have otherwise.  It also provides for entertainment as it has spurred interest in a ton of different things.  This has led to a wide variety of hobbies and the development of certain talents that I value greatly.

4.)  Circumstance

     I am grateful for my current circumstance.  Not to brag, but my life is pretty dang good when I think about it.  I am also grateful for the circumstances from which I've come.  Circumstance is an interesting concept in that a large majority of its influence over us is based upon our perception of it and how we react to it.  This can work in our favor or to our detriment.  As noted by Benjamin Disraeli, "Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power."  And I might add that it decides our power.

5.)  Good News 

     Last but not least, I am grateful for my faith.  It gives me perspective, for which I have an ever-increasing gratitude in a world that can be so confusing.  It gives me direction, and a good one at that. It gives me peace, which I could find no where else.  It gives me courage, drive and understanding.  Two thumbs up.

We generally eat a lot at Thanksgiving.  My stomach would testify to that right now but it's busy trying not to suffocate on all the food I just ate.  In spite of all that, I hope that with all we eat during this season, we leave at least enough room for a slice of humble pie and let it change us for the better.  It's likely one of the only kinds of pie that is actually good for you.  A truth learned is a treasure found; a realization of what little we really have to boast about is a shiny one.  St. Augustine referred to humility as "the foundation of all other virtues", which is an assessment that I agree with.  It starts with a recognition that there may be something more--something we might be missing.  Indeed it starts there, and where it takes you is, well, somewhere more.

Eat up.

Notist

I am on Thanksgiving break.  Here are a few things I have duly noted thus far:

1.)  I love watching people - Creepy?  Yes.  True?  Also yes.  In more             ways than one.  Airports are especially fun.  ...unless you get caught.       .......but still though.

2.)  I find it hard to keep a straight face while getting patted down at the       airport.
3.)  In general, I think that people are better than we sometimes give           them credit for.

4.)  Little kids are adorable - my nieces probably lead the pack.

5.)  Birds from Seattle are lucky - Except the Seahawks.  But seriously,         though.  I don't know if anyone has ever had the privilege of flying           into the Seattle/Tacoma airport, but it's breathtaking.  As is custom         (at least whenever I've done it), you're flying through thick clouds           the whole time you approach the city.  Then all of a sudden, you             emerge and there's a gorgeous vista laid out below.  You see a               gaggle of little peninsulas, sticking out in all directions, covered by         beautiful trees (which were changing colors at the time, mind                 you) and orderly housing developments only partly visible through           the dense foliage.  All of these enclaves are connected by manmade         roadways which skim right across the surface of the water.  Off in           the distance to the east, you've got the Cascade mountains.                   Delicious.  I couldn't find or take a picture though.  Let your                   imaginations run wild.

5.)  Running on treadmills barefoot makes my toes stick together                 and the skin on the bottom of my feet not stick to the rest of my foot       anymore.

6.)  Lower altitudes make me feel invincible.

7.)  I have forgotten how I've survived so many winter moons when it           gets dark before 5 pm.

8.)  There's something emotionally and mentally draining about having a         moustache and seeing it every time you look in the mirror.

9.)  Nostalgia runs rampant every time I come home to visit.

10.) Hygiene runs the opposite of rampant.

.

Modesty

Some food for thought.  And it applies to all women, not just Christians:

PS I'd never really thought about it before, but I like that saying.  

"Hi." -♥, Your brain

So cool.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200307/communicating-brain-waves?page=2

Both of my majors rolled up into one brain-sucking robot. ♥

And it adds more plausibility to the reality of the Ninja Turtles.  Winner, winner.

Gourdal eptitude

Though I’ve always loved craftsy activities, there is one that I had never really gotten into.  ...Until this year.  Pumpkin carving!


Last year was my first real run-in with carving, and it showed.  My ineptitude with gourds shone forth in my sad excuse for a lantern:

First off, yes I did put my number on a pumpkin.  Sad #1.  Sad #1a, it didn’t even work.  Probably because of Sad #2, which was that I couldn’t carve it to save my life.  Turns out 5s are a crazy shape and when you cut out the outer part of a zero, the middle part comes with it.  Same goes for 9s.  Something about science or something. 


But this year was a little different.  After intense failure, one learns a thing or two.  I have learned a large number of things.  My first pumpkin opportunity came at an activity I went to.  There was a pumpkin carving contest and they asked for representatives from each of about 8 groups that were present.  They hadn’t picked them beforehand, so it was essentially on a volunteer basis.  No one offered themselves from my group, and after a while they were getting impatient.  I was near the carving table and a friend volunteered me.  So I went to work and this is what I came up with:

Pumpkin#1!  


My second opportunity came later that night wit some peeps.  Pumpkin #2 ended up being:

A monkey with a chainsaw!  What else?  I learned some cool techniques on this one.  First was that of tracing.  You draw what you want to carve on a separate piece of paper, tape the sketch to the desired side of the pumpkin and trace it on by poking through the paper into the workable surface of said pumpkin. The next one was gradient.  Depending on the thickness of the pumpkin, it gives your carving the appearance of shadedness when lit up.  Apparently these technologies have been around forever.  News to me.  


Next opportunity was time for something epic:

And last but not least, a big toothy grin!

….kind of.  


I now very much enjoy carving pumpkins.

Dress up

What’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys?!

Me.

Or at least I was for Halloween this year.  This, dear friends, was my costume:

The idea came to me with the help of my roommate.  A few months ago, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be (Halloween costumes are like the only thing I plan more than a few days in advance).  I wasn’t really coming up with much and I was getting nervous.  I had won costume contests two years running, and I was going for the turkey. The only thing I had so far was to be Sorry by recreating the lid of the board game and placing myself strategically inside.  I thought the concept was alright, but it wasn’t quite there; it didn’t tickle my fancy.  And I figured this costume was going to have to do some fierce tickling to Complete the Threepeat ™.  So I threw the idea out to my roomie and we proceeded to back-and-forth a couple of ideas.  Sticking with the childhood games theme, he suggested, “How ‘bout a barrel of monkeys?”  And then, thought I, Why not more fun than a barrel of monkeys?

It wasn’t as epic as that narration made it sound, but I thought it was A.) clever and B.) theoretically not too hard to make, though that’s always a dangerous underestimation of mine.  Being a perfectionist who likes to make their own costume causes the days leading up to Halloween to be bizzy.  But make it I did.  The barrel at least.  Let’s get crafty!

Ingredients:
2 Salad Bowls
A bunch of strips of cardboard
Aluminum Foil
Tape
Brown spraypaint
Plastic bags or some other creative stuffing
A bunch of monkeys

I started off by foraging for a bunch of cardboard boxes in the dumpster behind my work and then carrying them home along a busy street at rush hour as any normal person would. Then, I cut them into ~4 inch strips. Next was a trip to the dollar store.  I found a couple of salad bowls that actually ended up being more perfectly shaped than I could have imagined and I managed to get out of there having spent less than $20. Success!  This made things much simpler.  Kind of.  I taped the cardboard strips securely to the insides of one bowl so they were sticking straight up, kind of like this.  I then cut the bottom out of the second bowl (which is surprisingly hard and dangerous when using leather cutting scissors) and placed it on top of the standy cardboards.  Then I taped the crap out of it.  The structure was a little flimsy, so I stuffed it with a small portion of the hoard of grocery bags we have under our sink.  It came out looking full and voluptuous, as any barrel should.

Next came the spray paint.  I spray painted it. I then tooksome aluminum foil and tore it off in long sheets.  After folding them into long thin strips, I wrapped them around the barrel at its respective subtropics.  The finishing touch was filling the barrel with monkeys.

The rest of my costume was monkey/fun themed, making sure to point out that I was more fun than the copiously crowded barrel which accompanied me throughout the evening.  Behold:

PS I love the shirt.  DI.  $2.  Although I in no way condone tobacco use in animals.  Especially animals under 18.

I’ve always thought it’d be cool to have my own arts n crafts show.  Thanks for joining me today.  Now you know how I made my costume.  Did you care?  Either way you know now.  And knowledge is power.

Quaffseason

Have you ever felt like you’ve just had your chest cut open and your heart ripped out?  Like the reason for your very being has abandoned you when you needed it most and you’ll never love again?  I have.  At the end of every baseball season.

I love baseball.  If you watched Game 6 of the World Series this year, you will know why.  If you’re a Mariners fan like I am, you may not.  I like keeping up on stats, player development, the standings—everything.  It has gotten even worse since I got involved in a Fantasy Baseball League a couple of years ago.  ...or better.

Needless to say the close of the 2011 season has been a hard transition for me. Throughout the playoffs, I knew exactly what I would be doing when I got home from work every day.  Now I feel so lost. Luckily, school has got my back.  It was like a good friend who, when seeing my lost and fallen condition, did a great job at keeping me busy to the point of forgetting I ever had any free time whatsoever.  Great, huh ؟
 
But really luckily I have eggnog at this time of year; it helps to fill the emptiness.  I don’t drink the alcoholic kind, but the heart slowing thickness calms my troubled soul and ends up having about the same effect.  Maybe if I drink enough of it and calculate it just right, I won’t wake up until Spring Training starts up again.  If not, there are more extreme methods.  

Who's with me?

Optimism

Yesterday was one of the busiest days of my life.

Okay maybe not.  But it was super busy.  Behold my schedule.  Feel free to memorize it: 

          8-10:45 - Class 

          11-11:45 - Devotional 

          11:45-12:30 - Walking! 

          12:30-4:45 - Warking! 

          4:45-6 - Studies! 

          6-7:30 - Test 1 (exclamation mark removed for lack of                                       excitement) 

          7:30-7:33 - Weeping bitterly! 

          7:34-8:55 - Regain composure/Studies 

          8:55-9:59 - Test 2

I have decided that one of the worst feelings in the world results from studying hard for a test, incurring a late fee upon yourself for extra time to study for said test, taking double-said test, feeling like you know most of the answers, feeling good after leaving the test and then finding out you didn't do well at all.  It's like getting sucker punched by those display screens in the testing center.  This happened after my first test.  I did better on #2, but was still left feeling deceived and betrayed by that skanky first one.  I couldn't get over it.  After a while, I decided to try and look on the bright side.  I came up with a list of things that could leave you with a worse feeling than the aforementioned scenario.  Have a look:

• Playing bulldozer with a porcupine
• Playing bulldozer with a bulldozer
• Having your feet licked by this
• The gallon challenge with lava
• Boils
• Jabba the Hut
• Shaving someone's back
• Losing an arm-wrestling match to this guy
• Taking a shower in acid
• Falling into a vat of snails
• Mistaking a bomb for a jawbreaker (although technically.........)
• Playing catch with a wrecking ball

Needless to say, I felt better.  Life's not so bad if you think about it.