Learning is fun!

Even though I am taking this spring semester off to work and just live, I still like to learn new things. I stopped by the library today and picked up a couple of books on Sign Language! I have always wanted to learn it, but have never really felt that I had time to spare! But now, I think I'm ready to try it out! So I'll immerse myself in non-verbal communication for the next few days and see how it works out!

I wish I had a friend close by who could help me learn, because it's always more fun to learn something new if you have a friend backing you up. But I think I'll have fun anyway. I've learnt songs and the alphabet before in sign language, so I hope it'll be easier than not.

Anyway, wish me luck in my new endeavor! Hopefully, I'll expand my horizons and gain new confidence in my learning abilities! Yay!

100 things?

What 100 things do you want to do with the life you have to live?

I've made a list of 50 so far.

I've been thinking more about doing things lately.

Maybe it has to do with this being a brand new decade, full of possibilities and opportunities.

There is a new show coming to MTV* called The Buried Life. You might've seen the commercials for it. It follows 4 guys with a list of 100 things to do. They want to prove that anything is possible if you go after it.

I also had a lesson recently in Sunday School about doing things. I was handed a list that counted to 100 and asked to fill in at least the first five things. That was hard. But the other night, things just started coming to me.

Looking at the list on theburiedlife.com now, I can see that, surprisingly, a lot of the same things are on both my half-list and their whole one. Trust me when I say I never intended for that to happen. I swear I'm not copying. But I see a good 25 or so that I had on my list that they've written on theirs. I also see a few that I'll be adding when I finish up the second half of my list. I've always wanted to take a kid on a shopping spree for toys, but I've never put it in words.

A good number of the things on my list have to do with learning. I want to learn an instrument, I want to learn different languages, and I would love to learn the names of ALL of my cousins. Another majority of things have to do with doing physical things. I want to learn how to surf. Which, weirdly enough, is the exact thing (Out of all the extreme sports, what a coincidence!) on their list. I also want to climb a mountian. I'm not surprised at all that it's on their list as well. I think some of these things are ones that a lot of people would put on their list.

I find it interesting that certain things are different goals, but accomplished through the same means. For example, on their list, they have put "ride a rollar coaster". On my list, I have "conquer my fear of rollar coasters". Different goals, but they will both be checked off through riding rollar coasters.

I like how different people care about accomplishing different goals. For instance, I don't suppose the guys on The Buried Life would care to hug a penguin (#42, I think, on my list), but would love to get into the Guiness Book of World Records; something that I really don't care about doing.

So what crazy, random, or completely normal things are on your list?


*side note on MTV- Why don't they show Music Videos anymore? Why has the Music TeleVision channel turned into reality tv central? I wish they would to back to how they were back in the day. I still remember my first MTV video. Do you remember yours? I hate what MTV has allowed itself to become. It tries making new channels devoted to music, but ends up turning them into the same ridiculous circus act that the other channels have become. PLAY MORE MUSIC VIDEOS!! I think the last time I saw a music video on MTV was like, three years ago? Geez. Do yourself a favor, MTV, and get back to the basics!

Ouch.

Today, whilst joining in some horseplay with my little bro, I went too far ( I guess). You know that movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop? That part where Kevin James' character headbutts the guy and they're in the ball pit and he moans afterward "Nobody wins with a headbutt!" Thats sort of not true. I won. Well, and I lost. See, I got in trouble for it, but at least I didn't cry about how bad it hurt like someone. So I won and lost at the same time, I guess. Is this proof that I'm tougher than my little bro? I think so. And don't forget it!

I'd take a picture of the bruise I left on my head, but my camera is M. I. A, so I can't. But it's a pretty big red circle on my forehead. Luckily (even though I have a class tuesday night), it's like, 4 days until the next ysa dance, so I don't need to worry about it. It'll be gone by tommorrow most likely. And if it bruises, that'll be long gone come friday night.

Here's some music to send y'all off with, and a sweet fanmade vid to go with it- check it out, y'all!

I'm gonna go take an advil for this headache. (Totally unrelated- the headache is from the paint fumes filling our house right now thanks to the painter guys painting our house with paint.)

How I waste my time-

Here's another special "skill" of mine.

Thinking about how some people could possibly know other people. Just listen to what I'm saying, alright? It won't make sense and I'm not promising it'll be completely sensible, but check this out.

By the way, this is another one of my special skills.

I am friends with Dr. Val, right?

Well, at least, I certainly hope so!

And Dr. Val did an interview with Phylicia Rashad about peripheral artery disease back in September, right?

And it seems like the interview was a pretty good one! So it's safe to say that they could be considered friends, right?

Now, assuming that I'm correct so far, let's now go to The Cosby Show. In which Mrs. Rashad starred alongside Bill Cosby and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. So it's probably safe to assume that Mrs. Rashad is still quite good friends with those men she shared the stage with for so long, yeah?

We're going to assume I'm right.

So Malcolm-Jamal Warner recently filmed in a movie with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson called Fool's Gold.

I think it's safe to assume at this point that they're all good friends from spending so much time together during filming, right?

Now, going from there:

Matthew McConaughey just recently finished filming his newest movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past which also features Breckin Meyer.

Breckin Meyer guest starred on an episode of House, MD back in 2008. Alongside both Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard.

Robert Sean Leonard starred alongside Robin Williams back in 1989's Dead Poet's Society.

One of my favorite movies with Robin Williams is Hook. In which he stars as Peter Pan across from Dustin Hoffman's Hook and Julia Roberts' Tinker Bell.

Julia Roberts was spectacular in her performance in Stepmom alongside Susan Sarandon.

And finally, Susan Sarandon starred in 2008's spectacular musical sensation Enchanted with Patrick Dempsey.

So if we assume that everyone is friends with everyone they meet at least once, that means that I AM FRIENDS WITH Dr. Val who is friends with Phylicia who is friends with Malcolm-Jamal Warner who is friends with Matthew McConaughey who is friends with Brekin Meyer who is friends with Robert Sean Leonard who is friends with Robin Williams who is friends with Julia Roberts who is friends with Susan Sarandon who is friends with PATRICK DEMPSEY!!

As you can see, it's very exciting.

Cuz Brandi Chastain says so.

Which reminds me. Not only are there only 12 days until my birthday, but there are only 419 days until the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa!!!! Wooo-hooo!! Start picking your teams and checking their groups! I think Romania has a very good chance this year! They were so close to the semi-finals in Euro '08 last year! But I still love Italy and Spain from Fifa '06!

Anyway, that's all from me. I hope you weren't too weirded out by my crazy movie association game. But I do it all the time. I just thought I'd share this one with you. I spent a good five minutes figuring it all out. And be sure to keep in mind that Fifa '10 Cup is coming up! And that my birthday is coming up sooner. I'll be 22 by the time the Cup rolls around, how weird is that?

But alas, it is time to finish up this blog post!

Farewell all!

Adios!

La revedere!

Sleep

I have a skill. It's a super-secret skill. And I would like to discuss the unique aspects of my "talent".

I'd probably better start by telling you what it is.

I can sleep anywhere, anytime and on virtually anything.

Let me just say here, that no, I'm not narcoleptic. I am just skilled at sleeping. I think it comes from my high school years. But I think my mom would say it comes from years of practicing and staying up late.

But high school is boring. The classes weren't too terribly hard, the work load was light, and there wasn't alot going on. The teachers weren't engaging or interesting, and some classes, even the people around me were boring.

So, like most young high school students, I developed the ability to sleep in one of those desks that has the chair and desk attatched by a metal bar.

Sometimes, when the class was emptier and the day was slower and the teacher was lazy and didn't want to teach, we would have a lazy mess around day. On one of these occassions, I slept in three desks at a time. You just have to arrange them the right way!

So while I was remembering this, and recalling all of the things I've slept on, I came up with a pretty big and quite impressive list!

I've slept :

• On School Desks
• In a movie theater stretched across several seats
• Sitting back to back with a friend one morning in high school
• In a tent with a sleeping bag out camping (several times)
• On a rock. It was a big rock.
• In a tree. Just find a couple of branches close together or one big branch and drape yourself across them! Many an afternoon were napped away in the branches of the big tree in the backyard in Atlanta.
• On a picnic table in an adarondac.
• On a hammock (not that hard)
• In a bed (easiest place for falling asleep)
• On neumerous floors. Carpeted, hardwood, you name it.
• On the ground. Concrete ground, outside of school.
• On the grass, outside
• On the dirt, with lots of rocks and pebbles around.
• Backstage on misc. props whilst waiting for curtain call.
• On a ladder. It's quite easy if it's a stepladder.
• Chairs. Wooden chairs, plastic chairs, even metal folding chairs.
• Stairs. Actually quite relaxing.
• In the pool. This requires a floatation device.
• On a boat.
• On a plane.
• On a countertop.
• On our back porch.
• In a car. (Backseat, front seat, truck bed, even the trunk! Cars are one of the easiest places to fall asleep)
• Couches (any couch can be easily converted into a bed by laying lengthwise on the couch.)
• In a closet
• In a bathroom (oh like you haven't! And it was whilst taking a bath, weirdos)
• On bleachers. While they are, at first, kind of cold, it's do-able.
• On top of cardboard boxes. They're warm and soft and comfy.
• On a car. I already said in, but I've fallen asleep on top of a car before.
• On a beach, lying on a towel. Again, not difficult to do.
• Leaning against a wall.
• Sitting in an empty kitchen cupboard. There are pictures.
• And last but not least- in the middle of a road. On the warm asphault. Soaking wet.

That's all I can think of at the moment. The list includes dangerous places where I don't suggest you attempt sleeping in. And some were for as little a time as 1 minute and as few times as one. But sleep is sleep.

I must say that there are some instances mentioned that happened when I was little, and haven't been tried since I was 12.

So there you have it! Proof, no doubt of my amazing sleep-tastic talent! No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I can best the beast of tiredness using sheer willpower and thinking happy thoughts.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, just leave a comment! I'll be glad to give you the story behind any of these. I'll respond in the comment section as soon as I can, so go ahead and ask about any you feel weren't accurate or weren't safe or just sound like they have an interesting back-story!