Sunday, November 25, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have been enjoying Thanksgiving break. People have expressed gratitude for their family and friends, as well as other wonderful things. Right now I want to share a few more unusual things that I am grateful for.

I am thankful for indoor plumbing. It's awesome. I love hot showers and the ease with which we can dispose of undesirable waste. I am glad I don't have to wonder about who lives upstream of me and what they do in the water.

I am grateful for e-bay. I can buy things at a tremendous discount and they arrive at my door a few days later! I love that I did all my Christmas shopping this year without dealing with any annoying crowds.

I am grateful for the mystery cash I keep finding in my wallet and jacket pockets. I knew I had some cash, but I didn't remember how much or how much I gave to Lee. As a result, I never ask the question "what happened to all the money I had?" Which is a rather discouraging question. Instead, I say "TWENTY BUCKS?? What magical fairy decided to grant me this wish? It makes life more positive and exciting.

I am grateful that the worlds haters can no longer yell at me for listening to Christmas music prematurely. Tis the season, jerks!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

100th Blog Post

This is my 100th post!! I finally made it! In celebration, I am going to revisit some of my greatest hits. This is a SUPER POST!! Be prepared for a huge amount of assorted greatness as we stroll down memory lane.

Life Lesson #53: It is easy to lose your vision. Going blind is easy, just look at a solar eclipse! Stop eating carrots, stop wearing glasses, turn off the lights. What I really mean is that two years ago I wrote about my various learning experiences on this blog with occasional detours into the realm of he ridiculous. It seems I haven't posted a "life lesson" since 2010.

Life Lesson #54: It's okay to transition to something new, especially when it comes to the format of your blog.

Links to the best things:

He-Man: What's Goin' On?
Batman uses Apple Maps...
How the Avengers Should Have Ended
Disapproving Baby

More Baby Names:
I am voting for Harrison Fjord and Mister Tee as my absolute favorite names ever. These guys have some more suggestions:

Top 60 Ghetto Names
Other Top Ghetto Names
Utah Names (sadly, all of them are REAL)

I think I will share some posts from my favorite tumblr, Reasoning with Vampires!








Just a reminder that Rifftrax exist and they are wonderful! Here is a clip of one that I am very excited to watch!


Some other favorites that I recommend: All the Twilight riffs are hilarious, Troll 2, The Fifth Element, The Hunger Games, The Phantom Menace, High School Musical, Captain America, Jurassic Park, and Inception.

Here are some random pictures that will appease those of you who don't like words or funnies:


We rented a canoe for our anniversary last spring and took it to Bear Lake.

I did jump in the water once. Bad idea

It snowed later that day.

I made cheesecake.

I was very proud of how the cheesecake turned out.
And now, a brief exploration of the mind:

I know I am a nerd. I know the stuff that makes me geek out. I hope everyone is a total nerd about at least one thing. Being a nerd is a simple way of saying you are knowledgeable and passionate about a specific, sometimes obscure, topic.

I am a History Nerd. I love reading biographies, watching documentaries, and my favorite classes have always been history classes. Best classes I ever took? Music History (all three semesters) and AP European History.

I am a Music Nerd. I'd better be! I hate when people use musical terms incorrectly or when they pretend they know how singing works. Guys, if after five years of study I am not an expert, hows about you with zero years of study just shuts up and let's the real experts do the talking?

I am a Sci-fi Nerd. I was raised watching Star Wars. The originals are wonderful films that fire the imagination. That led to Firefly fandom (which leads to Joss Whedon fandom in general), and now I've gotten to really enjoy Doctor Who. I guess I could include "fantasy" in here to and discuss Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. The point is, I like a good story that gets me wrapped up in an adventure, teaches me some life lessons, and then sends me on my merry way with my imagination astir. Who doesn't like to get swept up by a good story?

I am an Improv Nerd. This is similar to a Theatre Nerd, but so much more relaxed; so much less competitive. I don't have to memorize lines, just live in the moment and be real. Improv has helped me with my substitute teaching more than anything else because sometimes you really don't have anything prepared. You don't know where you are supposed to be, what the kids are doing, and you don't understand the teachers vague notes. In that situation, just relax and wing it. The kids can't tell the difference.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Will run maze for cheese, I mean, cash.

I had the opportunity to participate in a research study this past week. So did a lot of other people. So, about 100 of us walked around in a circle with walls made of plywood, wearing graduation caps with bar codes on top. The objective of the study was to understand pedestrian evacuation patterns and how those patterns may be altered by the presence of persons with disabilities, but they could have learned a few other things too.

1. How long it takes for lazy kids to stop doing something that is "boring."
2. How long before everybody pulls out their phones
3. What college students will do for $50 (pretty much anything).
4. How many cookies I take is directly proportional to how long they have been on the table tempting me.
5. Whether or not humans are exactly like lab rats (they are).

The study needs volunteers again this Thursday and Saturday. If you want to know, yes I will be participating again. This time I'll bring a book. Lee can also join in the fun! Which means we will each make an extra $100 this week. As you know, $100 + $100 = Christmas!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Politics: the game where everything is made up and the points don't matter

This election was my first voting experience. four years ago, some idiots on campus messed up my registration and failed to inform me until it was too late to fix it. But not this time! I wouldn't allow some foolish volunteer to ruin my opportunity to fulfill my civic responsibility!

The only thing that came close to getting in my way is a complete and utter hatred of the DMV. Apparently, if your drivers license address is different that your real address, you have to fix it somehow through the DMV. I almost gave up when I heard those three letters. The DMV is the worst!!
Luckily, Lee figured out how to do this address fixing deal on the DMV website. He rescued me from a fate worse than voting: NOT voting.

After all this, I felt obligated to actually put forth effort and learn about the candidates of local elections. I studiously read everything on this Utah voters website. They just send short questionnaires to the various candidates and post the replies on the website. I refused to vote for anyone who didn't answer the questions.

In the end, I went to the voting booth feeling confidently informed about the issues I cared about. It wasn't until I got to the end and had to choose really local leaders--you know, the ones where my individual vote could have made a difference--that I was stumped. No where has I been able to find any information about elections this miniscule. I must admit to having voted for the people with the best sounding names.

In the end, it seems that most of the people in Utah disagreed with me about the proper persons for each position. Only one of the people I voted for actually got elected. Now I have experienced the most important part of the election process: my vote doesn't matter.