fanaticism

I am a fan of:

Giving blood. Love it. I know some people descend into a world of hopeless darkness and fear at the mere mention of needles, but personally it makes me feel good knowing that someone possibly won't die because of me. I gave blood today and found out that my blood is free of some virus that most people apparently have, and is therefore most likely used for children and babies. Happy vibes galore! Plus you get free cookies.

Dessert. I know, right? As my father says, "If it started life as a dough or a batter - I like it." My three favorite sweet treats, in no order of importance, are brownies*, fresh cinnamon rolls**, and cheesecake***. If you ever show up at my house with one of those three things in tow, you'll

probably get me to do whatever you want...within reason...and sometimes without reason. When I become a superhero, my downfall will come about when my arch-

nemesis invents some sort of brownie-sweet roll-cheesecake hybrid. I apologize in advance for letting his nefarious purposes be realized, and the ensuing world dominance and reign of terror, but in that situation I WILL be powerless.

Family. My family is HILARIOUS. Despite the fact that

post-divorce Grandma and Grandpa create some slight awkwardness at family reunions, and the fact that certain members consistently butt heads with certain other members, and the fact that my uncle married a BYU fan (love ya Lis!) there are few people I enjoy spending time with as much - and probably no one I enjoy spending time with more. One of my favorite things to do in the entire world is sit around a campfire with my family and a bag of marshmallows. Ridiculously good times.

Employment. Despite recent evidence to the contrary, I do like being employed. Contributing to society is something I enjoy. And the paycheck doesn't suck. Currently I consider myself an independent contractor. I'm a starving actor looking for his big break. In the meantime I'm looking into set teaching (teaching kids in movies, plays etc.), substitute teaching, educational computer programs companies, and personal travel companion (rates vary, inquire for details). Any leads would be welcome. :)

*I recommend brownies from Great Harvest Bread Co. (you can find the recipe here), or the brownie sundae from either Chili's or TGIFriday's. As for at-home-from-a-box brownies - Ghirardeli is the best.

**Cinnabon has my favorite. Luckily the airport is the only place in Utah where you can get one, so I eat one less than once a year. My heart thanks me daily.

***Cheesecake Factory. Pick your fave, they're all good.

You say, I say

In my efforts to become a better, more well-balanced, educated, self-sufficient, likable, impressive, life-changing, earth-shattering, influential person, I planted some tomatoes.

Being the green person that I seem to be lately, I repurposed a plastic jug like the kind that house those bio-hazard orange cheese balls they sell at Costco.

(Though it wasn't a cheese-ball container. I kind of think if I ever ate one of those I might spontaneously combust, or grow a third arm or something - which

would be useful, but I still don't think it's worth the risk). I went to the Wal-mart to search for one of those little metal support systems that everyone uses with their tomatoes - but surprise surprise Wal-mart didn't have any...so I improvised. Wooden dowels and pipe-cleaner came in mighty handy.

Now I basically have tomato plants growing out of garbage and supported by more garbage. I feel good about it. In 5-7 weeks I should have some delicious tomatoes to eat. Yay for "urban" gardening!

Pockets

There are people who I like enough that I want to have a pocket version of them to carry around with me. Then, when I'm having a downer moment I can pull them out of my little pocket and all will be sunshine and rainbows once again.

So, during class today I drew a pocket version of myself. I'm thinking of making copies and distributing them. Let me know if you want one. :)

Also, this kind of makes me want to take an art class.

One Classy Guy

So...I'm in the throes of achieving life goals and pursuing dreams and changing the world and stuff, and sometimes I just need to pause and laugh at things that cross my path on the way to the top. Por ejemplo - I'm in a class right now about classroom management and student motivation. Here are some excerpts from our textbook:

"The letters that parents receive appear personalized because of word-processing technology."

This book was published in 2008. Really? Word-processing technology? Who doesn't know how to draft a form-letter on the computer?

"A hat dislodged from a student's head during a volleyball game"

This was given as an excuse for the hat rule in dress codes.

Then there's the case study involving a child named "Dick" who says "sh**" during class. Which I find slightly humorous in and of itself. (This book is a bit abrasive with language use in case studies. I makes me smile a bit.) Well, after some argument about the use of proper language use, this knowledgeable educator uses the following relevant example: "It's like belching. Most everyone has a good healthy belch now and then. But most people in our society find other people's belching to be disgusting."

What is this book!? Why did I not have more books like this in college?