Christmas gifts

Circa December 25, 2011

I simply wanted to make a Christmas post.

The Christmas season (and Christmas in particular) seemed to sneak up on me this year.  Another has come and gone.  Time to reflect fondly on the food and festivities which are now past; time to look forward to the use of the presents we have received and reliving the memories which have been made.  But only now that everything has died down.  Christmas, for many, has become one of the most hectic and stressful times of the year:  there are presents to buy, events to plan, visits to make, treats to prepare...

As I retreated to my room after all had calmed, I realized that I still had one gift I had failed to acknowledge throughout the day.  Every Christmas, nestled behind all the trees and presents, the lights and the shopping, lies a babe in a manger.  Instead of festive paper and a gaudy bow, he is wrapped in swaddling clothing.  Yes, quiet as the child who made no crying as he spent his first night in a stable is the message of the birth of the Savior throughout each Christmas season.

So often it seems time is spent focused on what can or will be gained each year at about this time.  It also seems to me that of more worth is to reflect on what was gained on a silent night some two millennia ago when the Christ child was born.  Through the birth of Jesus Christ, we received his ministry and his sacrifice.  Through the ministry of Jesus Christ, we gained the purest of doctrine, the blueprints for a happy life, and a perfect example of how to live one.  Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we gained the ability to feel peace, to overcome ourselves and our circumstance, and his resurrection.  Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we gained life beyond this, and a chance at eternal happiness.  Truly he has given us more than any other, as he has given us all that he was and the opportunity to gain all that he has.

As I sit here Christmas night, I truly am grateful for a gift that we all have received freely—a gift that gave and keeps on giving.  And although we have received much without a cost, yet more is available if we are but willing to pay the simple price of trusting him—a man who, through no obligation, gave everything for us to have the chance to be happy.  The extent to which we can benefit from this gift depends on our own degree of acceptance.  I hope we can learn to accept it more with each passing day.

Sexy jerky

Rant.

What the heck is the recent obsession with Mick Jagger?  There seems to be an influx in pop-culture references to good ole Mick as being the ideal of sexiness and desirability.  Ke$ha and her friends refuse to give heed to any young suitors unless they look like Mick Jagger.  Maroon 5 attempts to seduce either you or me or some inferred protagonist by claiming to have and be able to demonstrate "moves like Jagger."  I don't know if you've had the extreme pleasure of seeing Mick Jagger, but, in my opinion, he's one of the grossest human beings alive.  Coming from Ke$ha, I suppose it's not really surprising.  From Adam Levine, it sounds like a bit of a downgrade.  But either way, stop.  If you're trying to be cool, sexy, or alluring, pick something... well... cool, sexy, or alluring.  If you're trying to seduce hungry bros on roadtrips, keep referencing Jagger, because in all honesty he looks like beef jerky.

Rant over.

Paradise

Circa December 20, 2011

Today, for me, is a special day in history.

Yes, reader, today is the day that Flanders adopted the Gregorian calendar!  Back in 1582!  It was also the day John Jay became the 1st secretary of state, making foreign affairs okay (1784)!  It was also the day the first US Skating Club and Junior High were formed (1849 & 1909, respectively)!  Where would we all be today without Skating Clubs and Junior High?!  Haha, man....

...oh it is also the anniversary of the day I returned from an LDS mission in the Dominican Republic (circa 2008).

Yes that fateful day 3 plump years ago.  I was actually supposed to get home the 18th at around 10 pm, but, because of inclement weather conditions, it took a day and a half and seven airports to finally make it home.  So December 20th at 4 a.m. it was.  Needless to say, it was good to be home.

And it is good to be home.  Though I do very much miss the mission.  It was easily the hardest and most influential experience I have had to date.  I simply wanted to voice my gratitude for having been able to go, and to those who helped me have the desire to.  By the very nature of the work I was doing, it caused me to look outside myself and think about others.  It caused me to work harder than I ever had before.  It helped me to understand and be grateful for and humble about things that I likely would not have even recognized otherwise.  It helped me to come to know myself and what I believe about a variety of things very intimately.  I met people that forever changed me.  It bent me, broke me, shaped me, and rebuilt me into something that is unconditionally better.  It really is hard to put into words, but I will love the Dominican Republic forever.  To me, it is a sacred place.  I arrived as a 20 year old, redhead American boy, lost out of my mind and overwhelmed.  But it was in those narrow alley ways, cramped apartments, and packed taxis, that culture shock, tribulation, and tropical paradise, that I found myself.  Who would've ever guessed that's where I was hiding?  But either way, I'm glad I ended up there so I could.  And luckily, despite customs, I was able to bring a piece of paradise home with me.

The Exception

So I've heard that luck is a lady.  If this is true, she must be hanging out with Carmen Sandiego because I'm pretty sure I haven't the foggiest where the heck she is.  Ever. 

I was taking a final this morning that consisted of over 50 multiple-choice questions.  That's a lot of choices.  ...and opportunities to choose... poorly.  It was one of those tests where I could narrow it down to being one of two of the four options, but between those two I had no idea.  Therefore, the narrowing didn't do me much good.  In fact, I think it stressed me out even more.  It's like on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire when the person uses the 50-50 lifeline and it eliminates the two options they already knew were wrong, leaving them with the two they were debating between in the first place. 

I don't know if it's just me, but I am horrible at guessing in situations like that.  I think my luck is bad enough to undermine the very authority of descriptive statistics.  I can almost guarantee you that I do not guess correctly at a 50% clip, which is what statistics state should be mathematic law.  Also according to stats, this should happen rarely ever, but it should happen:  How scrumptious would it be if you were to guess correctly on most of the questions you didn't know?  I mean, it has to happen every once in a while.  Why not to me?  Right now?

Moral of the story:  Life's not fair and I defy math.  They say there is an exception to every rule, and I guess I am the exception to math.  It is, therefore, in indignance that I supplicate the proofs behind binomial distributions and demand that my guessing skills be made better.  I may be bad at math, but I don't think it's too much to ask for me to be subject to the basic rules of statistics. 

Other moral of the story:  Luck may be a lady, but she's a saucy and a flighty wench and she should settle down and show up a bit more often.  

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. 

Chicken But

As some of you may know, I am no spring chicken.  But sometimes I question my status as a summer or fall chicken, or whatever comes next in the chicken hierarchy.  Case in point:

Today in my Writing in Psychology class, a group of students was doing a presentation on grammar and punctuation usage; they were doing a very good job (I learned that semi-colon trick from their presentation [also that hyphenation]).  After a few minutes, they went into a discussion about conjunctions.  The girl that was explaining the principle had several example sentences on the board of their proper usage.  She then asked if someone could come up with another sentence that used a conjunction.  Someone offered an example using the word 'so.'  In response, another one of my classmates politely commented, "I would use but."  The girl presenting didn't hear the second comment, and she asked one of the other presenters what was said.  The response:  "She likes but."   

Um.  Lol.  I looked around but only one other guy was laughing, and that was only after he saw me laugh and realized what was said.  I suppose maturity's not one of my strong suits...

Proverbial Bull

A few weeks ago, I tuned in to a lil somethin somethin called General Conference.  As a member of the LDS church, I believe that God has called and given authority to men again in these days as prophets and apostles—exactly like Moses or Paul of olden times.  Two times a year, we get to hear them speak on a variety of subjects.  I consider these messages to be divinely inspired and the counsel of God to the earth as a whole, delivered through those appointed to do so—exactly as was done in the times of Moses or Paul.  Given my stance on the situation, this is a big event for me and I look forward to it every six months.

One of the biggest reasons is because of another important facet of my faith: I believe that we are all literally children of God.  I also believe that as such, we inherently possess the ability to communicate directly with Him.  Hand-in-hand with this statement comes the logical inference and empowering reality that He, too, may communicate directly with us.  In other words, we have the ability to receive inspiration individually regarding things we need to know in our separate and personal lives.  This is my favorite part of General Conference:  Though the messages go out to all of us as a collective and are generally applicable, personal inspiration seems to come more readily as we prepare to heed the counsel of the Lord through his appointed servants.

This General Conference, I learned several things, but I will focus on what was most pertinent for me:

We’ve all heard the old adage of ‘taking the bull by the horns.’  It’s an idiom that refers to taking charge or taking control of a difficult situation.  It’s also good to remember that it’s just an idiom, and any horn grabbing should only be done metaphorically. At this point in my life, I have a decent list of responsibilities that I must tend to, as well as interests and goals that I wish to achieve.  If I were to plan them out and do them, I could easily fill most days without a minute to spare.  At this point in my life, I have also found myself to be quite ADD.  Despite all the things I need to be doing and/or worrying about, I find myself not/naught.  We join our hero in this predicament at the onset of General Conference...

One talk that was given was by a man named Ian S. Ardern.  It was titled A Time to Prepare.  The entirety of the talk was focused on the value of our time and the importance of using it to do things of significance.  He warned of the dangers of wasting time and suggested ways that one can better make use of it.  Later on in the conference, there was a speaker that said something that really stuck out to me.  To be honest, I don’t even remember who it was or what they were talking about.  They simply taught that living the kind of life we want to live is never easy.  It requires constant hard work.

This was a very Duh moment for me.  Those are two things that are probably pretty obvious to pretty much anyone.  But sometimes I think we get in mental ruts where we get so focused on shtuff that we don’t recognize basic problems when they glare us obviously in the face.  Or at least I do.  Often.  Despite the logical simplicity of the concept, I don’t think that my anterior mentality was in congruence with what superficially seemed so simple.  I felt like I had just been coasting along for some time, doing what I needed to be doing as long as it was easy and convenient.  But I had been neglecting to push myself to do what required more, both in the way of sacrifice and of myself personally.  The experience was a pretty powerful one for me.  Not only did I finally realize what I needed to know, but I realized it with some oomph.  Some gusto.  Some chutzpah.  Some hair on its chest.  And I think that put some on mine.  The feeling that I needed to make this change struck me deep down, and it’s almost as if while it was down there it awoke something.  It lit a fire in me and under me.  

So I was able to immediately recognize something in my life that needed some good fixins.  Luckily, I felt inspired regarding several things I could do to get the process started.  I was also reminded that it wouldn’t be easy.  I suppose that’s a given, though.  Most things that are of worth require diligent effort to obtain.

So!  Like I said previously, I have goals and ambitions just like any other little boy.  I am currently trying to remember more readily what those are.  As I focus on them, it helps me to both steer clear of things that will distract me and steer near the things that will point me in their direction.  I’m trying to be more disciplined with my time and cut the proverbial fat.  Speaking of, losing weight is another one of my goals.  I had a thought recently that I don’t think I would do a lot of things I do if I were to determine beforehand whether or not those actions would build towards the achievement of goals I have set.  That was a thought I don’t think I’d ever had before, and it really made me think hard about the real purpose behind my actions.  You know.  I hope that thought passes through my mind more often and I’m able to better regulate my actions by recognizing what they are leading me to become.  Imagine what could come of such foresight put into practice.
 

Wish me luck!  Yay Conference!

More science

Holy cow holy cow holy cow I just found this cool video of cool science!  It's this magnetic hovering thingerizer (I believe that's the technical term they use for it).  Fer checkitz.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/levitating-superconductor-floats-within-a-magnetic-field-so-you/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

Science is off the hook.

Heroes

He makes it sound so simple and natural.  I suppose it should be.

 

Blushing Pilgrim

Romeo once described his lips as "two blushing pilgrims, ready stand[ing] to smooth [a] rough touch with a tender kiss."  Physiologically, blushing is the involuntary dilation of blood vessels, causing blood to flood to a certain part of the body.  Pilgrims are these.

Thus, yesterday at work, I could also describe my lips as the same—although his was a bunk pickup line and mine was a call for medical assistance.

I was sitting at my desk, doing my thang, when I noticed that my lips were not completely smooth.  Certain self-inflictive, OCD habits kicked in, and I tried to correct it.  Without going into much graphic detail, I ripped a ragged chunk of flesh out of my own lip and in sailed my bloody blushing pilgrim.  I was finally able to slow the bleeding, but only after about half an hour and one polka-dotted napkin.

And that was only about one half of it.

Who the heck even knew lips bled so much?  This guy sure didn't.  ...but the internet did.  So wise.  I did some research, and I guess lips are thin and house a lot of blood vessels and are moist, so it takes them a long time to heal.  And according to this little Copyrighted, Sample Use Only graphic that looks like a bald Jake Gyllenhaal, there's a main facial artery that runs right all up along there.  So there's like a constant flow of blood to keep things interesting.  Celebrity look-alikes:  Also So wise.

Welp.  Look like I've got a habit to break and not bleeding to death as incentive.  Cheers.

Fptrbrblshmot

Earlier today, I was perusing the internet once again and found something else worth sharing.  After all, sharing is caring, and I love you.  It is a list of onomatopoeias from an array of languages.  Who knew that farts, bites and animals sound different in different countries?  Anyways.  I had a good time going through and pronouncing a bunch of them.  I don't get out much.

Culture yourselves:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linguistic_onomatopoeias 

Aural Influx

If you know me like at all, you know that I love music.  I could listen to it all day long.  I also tinker with various musical instruments, a tinkering that brings me lots n lots of joy. 

That being said, it seems that my immensity of intensity towards music has been slightly more extreme than usual as of late.  I think this has had to do with my level of musical involvement.  I've been doing a bunch of musical stuff lately.  Some of it has been cool/fun.  Some of it has been... well... music-related.

First of all, I think I've been missing my drums a lot.  After all, I like to play.  This isn't simply a hunch, as it has been confirmed by weeks of revelatory behavior.  The first indication is a fairly normal one (for me at least) in that when I'm listening to music, I usually will drum along.  I have been doing so lately.  So if you see me on campus with my fingers flailing wildly about, just imagine them as short stubby drumsticks and it'll look a lot cooler and a lot less spastic.  I promise.  To go along with that, I did a wild double pen solo the other day.  In one of my classes, we had a guest speaker come and present a spiel about a thing:  Mildly entertained.  After said spiel, he announced that he had brought free pens from his company:  Super entertained!!!  I grabbed two for good measure on my way out the door.  They were of the clicky variety.  I walked along campus, enjoying my new acquisitions, one in each hand.  I began to click them, and my enjoyment increased.  After a few clicks of each, I discovered that I could coordinate the clicks into a pretty cool-sounding rhythm. Before long, I was performing a double pen solo, walking along and clicking away.  Luckily there weren't that many people on campus at that time.  But the ones that were got a percussive adumbration when they least expected it.  You're welcome.  The last but not the least involved milk.  And percussion.  I got home from the gym one day and proceeded to whip myself up a nutritive drink, as is my custom.  This drink involves the mixing of powder into a glass of milk and sitting back to enjoy.  As I stirred in the powder, I was surprised to find that the cup I had chosen was squarish in shape.  This made the stirring a little bit difficult, but I could deal.  After even further stirring, though, I came to find that the spoon made a cool clunkity noise on the cup whenever I would hit the adjacent side.  Therefore, the clunking became frequent as I repetitively spun the spoon in circles.  I also came to find that if I did it in a certain pattern, it made a cool rhythm.  So I continued to stir up the beatz, joyfully this time, and probably longer than necessary.  And my roommates were probably wondering what the heck I was doing.  But I'm sure they then got lost in the beatz and forgot everything.  Even who they were maybe. 

A couple of weeks ago, I played a gig with some friends.  My old ward was having a music night, in which I participated over the summer.  I had previously agreed to do it again, and so I played a couple of songs with a couple of peeps.  The first was a cover of Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the movie Once and the second was a cover of Radiohead's Motion Picture Soundtrack, which may actually be my favorite song ever.  If not, it's pretty close.  The link is to an acoustic version, which is closer to what we played.  Should you dare, here is the album version.  It went well. :)

Last but certainly not least, I have been playing the musics with the Austin lately.  We may or may not be planning on sending in a demo to perform at Acoustic Explosion.  We've even got some original songs picked out and everything.  Look at us go.

So anyway.  Yeah.  I like music.

Birthday Goodies

So my very first birthday ever may not have been that fun of an experience, as you may be able to imagine.  But all of them since then have been pretty sweet.  They include unnecessary but much appreciated gifts and distractions that help to ease the pain of growing old.  My birthday was about a month ago, but up until recently, I have continued to receive lovely birthday benefits from lovely people.  I guess the older you get, the more and longer people need to distract you.  Mission accomplished!

 On my actual birthday, I went over to Kira and Austin’s and, together with the Perrys, we made a delicious birthday cake.  I have been liking Red Velvet cake a lot lately, so my first inclination was to make that.  But when I thought about it, I didn’t really want red.  So we made a Green Velvet Cake.  It’s the same—but green! We followed an online recipe, but for some reason after the cake had been baked, it formed all these weird pores. It ended up looking look a giant moldy sponge. 

 

We continued anyway and started making the frosting.  While we were doing so, Austin thought it would be a good idea to put a banana in the frosting to make banana flavored frosting.  Since I had forgotten to bring butter, it was super sugary to begin with.  So we tried it.  The frosting ended up looking like the stuff you soak bread in when you’re making French Toast.  Either that or clotted mucus.

 

And the overall finished product looked thusly:

 Despite the look, it actually tasted quite good.  That was just a bonus, though, as I wouldn’t have wanted/expected the whole process to go any differently.  :)  Exhibition A of why I love my friends.

Exhibition B came a few weeks later.  All throughout my birthday week, my ex-roommate Mark had been asking me what I was going to do for my birthday.  It was kind of a hectic week, seeing as how classes were starting and most people were getting moved in, etc.  I had toyed with the idea of getting a group of people together just to chill and whatnot, but I’ve never been big on throwing birthday parties for myself.  So I didn’t.  Deal with it.  A week or so after my birthday, Mark called me up and he said that since I didn’t do anything, he wanted to invite me over for a special birthday dinner with him and his wife.  I thought this was very sweet of little Marky, so I agreed.  The day arrived and when I showed up, Mark had invited over a select group of my closest friends to surprise me.  I seriously had no idea.  I am a dumb-dumb.  But I prefer it that way.  It was awesome to see most of my favorite people together and  I very much enjoyed it and Mark got me fuzzy bunny slippers.  He knows me so well.

Ah birthday adventures.   Anyways.  Here is a montage of my birthday lute.  I made out with a pretty sweet haul, wouldn’t you agree?