let me entertain me

as a serious extravert, i have always had a hard time entertaining myself. when i was young, i made a habit of knocking on my sister's (usually closed) door and begging her to play with me. as a teenager, my constant refrain was "i'm bored." by comparison, college, with its constant academic demands and social opportunities, was a fantasyland.

since i naturally tend toward people, the idea of a hobby - something that i do when i'm totally alone - makes me feel squirrelly. even when i think of the hobbies i do have (such as they are), they're all related to people and to getting out of the house: planning parties and vacations, visiting sites around and about town, dining out, window shopping.

so. what do all of you do when you're wiling away the hours at home? and are there any other "E"s out there who feel my pain?

Happy Halloween

The 6:30 post : Day 4

This week's experiment was pretty much a success -- it really did make me get up early. I would be in bed thinking - I better get up and blog othewise people are going to call me on it. Nothing like a little blog social pressure. ;)

Thanks for the help everybody - and happy friday. Oh! And Happy Halloween too! Tonight Autumn and I are going to a murder mystery dinner where she is Lucille Ball and I am Groucho Marx. Can't wait!

The 6:30 post : Day 3

I wonder if this gets easier over time, getting up early. Is it like learning a foreign language, the more that you do it the more natural it becomes? Actually, learning a foreign language is really hard if you are over 5 years old. It involves countless hours of focus and repetition and flash cards -- things like that. It's almost like you have to re-wire your brain to do something completely new -- like putting on a new addition to a house, or changing the orientation of an outdoor gazeebo - it is permanent results achieved through strenuous effort. Re-wiring my brain seems a daunting task -- something that I'm not very good at. There are plenty of areas where I wish I was more disciplined -- waking up early is only one of them. How do you create resolve inside your own head? I suppose some sort of event or outside stimulous would help -- like me writing every day at 6:30AM. But that is only temporary -- how do you permanently created resolve?

zombie

today i sat in almost five hours of meetings and doodled the following:

block star
turkey
hand (traced, with ring)
branding iron (the letter 'f')
block arrow (striped)
block number 2
man with his mouth sewn shut
'no drinking wine' sign
clock
stick person in a corner
various punctuation marks
light bulb
campfire
the cover design i submitted for my fifth grade yearbook (it didn't win)
a flower
more stars
free-form blob
checkerboard
man doing handstand
ear of corn
comet
castle with flags
square
happy face
rose
heart
bike rack
balloon
logo for the musical wicked

The 6:30 post : Day 2

Well so far so good, eh? Not much to report except that I am up.

Here is a picture of us from Las Vegas this past weekend.

The 6:30 post : Day One

Sheesh it's early.

One of the exciting things that has developed with this whole family blogosphere is the interactive experiments -- especially over on Dave and Jessica's blog Words Making Sound. Currently Dave is running a musical experiment that is pretty sweet.

This made me think of starting my own personal experiment : consistently getting up early.

For many of you this is probably not a big deal -- but with my short commute to work I can usually afford to sleep in until the last moment. Lately I have been convicted about that -- and have a strong desire to get up early and do something constructive with my mornings. Unfortunately - that is rather difficult to do.

So here is where the blog comes in! Every day for the rest of this week I am going to post something by 6:30 AM to prove that I am up and about. And If I fail to do so, I fully expect some snarky comments from all of you.

Where the streets have no name

I really had been wanting to go camping -- and after months of thwarted attempts, our discount tent finally got to leave the trunk of Autumn's car and spread out onto the wild sands of Joshua Tree National Park. We headed out there with two crammed car loads of friends and had a great weekend.



Autumn had secured us a great spot on the edge of the park -- close enough to the action, yet with flush toilets and running water. Come on, we're not crazy.




We had purchased this sweet tent on sale at Target, but when we put it together soon discovered it was the size of Idaho and it quickly became the butt of every joke in Joshua Tree. Even other campers circled our site and made snarky comments. But they were right -- it's insanely huge. I can stand up in it. We spent a lot of time chilling in there. Well maybe not "chilling" since it was in the desert -- but you get the idea.



We also went on a few little hikes up the nearby hills -- the view from up there was incredible, as was the breeze. On a morning solo trek I stumbled upon some desert jackrabbits -- really big rabbits with long ears and legs.





(You can see our gargantuan tent from on top of the mountain. It's next to the Corn Kernel.)

Our evening was spent around the requisite campfire -- cooking smores and other delights, and playing a heated game of charades -- lit up by flashlights.



All in all it was a good time -- except for the fact that the ground was really hard and cold and rocky, and some drunkards arrived at 2 am and started partying at the next site over. But the howling band of coyotes at 4 am definately made up for that.








On the trip back we stopped at the giant concrete dinosaurs off the highway. These contain gift shops and creation museums(!) -- and you may recognize them from the Fred Savage movie "The Wizard"

insane in the membrane

check out justin and me starring in the new high school musical movie!!

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Bloggy McGamerson

1)Post the rules on your blog.
2)Write 6 random things about yourself
3)"tag" 6 people you think should also look deep into their soul to share 6 random things


Six Random things:

1: I love animals -- any animal.

2: When I call home I start speaking in a Wisconsin accent.

3: I wish that men could still wear three piece suits and hats every day.

4: I am getting increasingly sick of chocolate.

5: I know nothing about automobile maintenance.

6: I am creating my own animatronic Enchanted Tiki Room parrot.


(I think everyone that I know who blogs has already been tagged on this one -- but maybe Aaron?)

for jessica

1)Post the rules on your blog.
2)Write 6 random things about yourself
3)"tag" 6 people you think should also look deep into their soul to share 6 random things
4)And if you're "tagged" just do it. Come on...it's gonna be fun.

1. i very often throw my hands up in pictures in a sort of "ta dah!" pose.

2. popcorn makes me sick.

3. i got in a fight in seventh grade with a girl named charity. she had been picking on me for months, and she used insensitive language in reference to my (korean) sister. i chased her down the hallway and turned her around and just went to town (my brother taught me how to punch the day before using the couch cushions as practice charities).

4. i can imitate movement really well, like do physical impressions, but i never show anyone except justin.

5. i had massive crushes on peter pan and aquaman when i was a kid.

6. i am embarrassed by the volume of my sneezes.

and for my tags i choose justin, libby, and winnie. how come nobody blogs anymore??!?

Happy Birthday to Autumn!

This is the best time of year for many reasons. Today was the first day of gloomy, "rainy" weather in Southern California. I'll take what I can get. This is also the time where we celebrate the arrival of another Autumn -- the hot one known as my wife! Tonight we had a little birthday party with some friends -- played a few heated games of pictionary, catch phrase and taboo -- had some homemade (and meticulously decorated) birthday cake from Karissa -- and pretty much laughed ourselves silly.

A is for the totally Awesome stuff she does.

U is for the Uber hot way she looks.

T is for the Totally sweet way she understands me.

U is for the Unbelievably fabulous scent of her hair.

M is for the Mad Skillz she has in supporting her friends.

N is for the No Way I Can't Believe She Is That Awesome way she handles herself.


This picture was not taken on her birthday -- and that is not our dog. But if holding that dog were to represent her complete and total grasp of what it takes to be awesome -- and if that paper birthday cap represented her effortless brilliance -- then this picture is perfect.