Radicals

In this case I'm not talking about people. I'm actually talking about chemistry. Radicals often get a bad name because they can be destructive in the body. That's because they are highly reactive, and the resultant compounds of a radical reaction are often highly reactive as well.

Here's the idea. Electrons like to be in pairs. When they're not in pairs then they are unhappy. It's like some people I knew who raised a llama. They had to buy a goat to keep the llama company or the llama would go a little crazy. Electrons are like llamas and every llama needs a goat (or another llama). Radicals are compounds with an unpaired electron, and so are usually unstable. What do they do? They take a goat from a different llama to keep them company. But with 2 llamas and one goat, you're still left with a lonely Andean camelid. Do you see where this is going? When a radical reacts with a normal compound it forms a new radical which will likely be very reactive. The only way to stop a radical is to pair it with another radical. In the body this means that radicals just keep breaking whatever they're breaking over and over. Complete llama chaos. But radical reactions are also essential to our society.

Quick fact about radicals that you probably didn't know: Oxygen is (usually) a radical (actually it's a relatively stable diradical). This is what make combustion possible. That's right, things burn because of radicals. Remember how a radical just keeps reacting over and over? That's why a fire is self perpetuating once it gets started.

That same self-perpetuating nature also helps make many of the plastics we use. Because radicals just keep reacting, they can form huge chains of molecules that will harden and become solid. In fact, that's the way (most) paint "dries." When we say paint dries, it's a misnomer. If paint were just drying, then water or oil would wash it off (which it does with water colors). What paint actually does is react with our dear friend oxygen the diradical. It forms a huge polymer which thickens and hardens it. That's why when your kid throws their glass of water around and splashes the wall the paint just stays there.

So basically, I think radicals are amazing. I'm grateful that we live in a world where we've learned to use them. Chemistry is for cool kids. And llamas are for cool kids too.

If your heart is a big as a river, it can absorb any amount of dirt

In "Preach My Gospel" (the LDS Missionary handbook) it says:

"Just as the Christian world was blessed by the courage and vision of the reformers, many other nations and cultures have been blessed by those who were given that portion “that [God] seeth fit that they should have” (Alma 29:8). Teachings of other religious leaders have helped many people become more civil and ethical."

First off, I love that we are taught that many leaders who were not Mormons have light and knowledge given to them to help mankind. It goes on to talk about several important religious leaders, including Buddha. The title of this post is a paraphrase of Buddha's teaching of inclusiveness. You'll see variations of it (salt instead of dirt for instance), but the idea is always the same.

If you pour a handful of dirt into a glass of water, it is contaminated. No one can drink it. But if you pour the same handful of dirt into a great river, then the dirt becomes part of the river and the people can still drink from the river. So in life, you will experience injustice or offense. If your heart is small, then the injustice will ruin you. It will gnaw away and contaminate you. But if your heart is large, then you can absorb the injustice (inclusiveness). You will experience it, but your heart will remain pure. I love this idea. If only this teaching were more widely practiced, much of the hatred and disagreements that we have would disappear.

So today I'm grateful for a wise saying from Buddha.

Profs (for basses)

In trying to find something to be grateful for every day, you pretty quickly run out of big things. It's sort of like writing an essay for English class. If you pick a broad topic you don't have much to write about. If you pick a narrow topic then you can write plenty. Today I'm grateful for a vocal exercise. Miss Cuccaro calls it "Profs for basses." I'm not sure what she means by "profs." I think she's mentioned it, but I've forgotten, though I assume it has something to do with the person that she learned it from, since most of her exercises are named that way.

So I've been trying to actually practice regularly since I've been at IU (those of you who know me from my BYU days will understandably be surprised by this development) and I've come to love this exercise. It consists of a quick run from 1-9-1 twice in a row. The trick is that you begin on an Italianate "i" and move through the vowels "e" and "a." Each vowel is used for two of the notes. Once you hit "a," the mouth position remains the same for the rest of the scale until you come back down to the notes that you use "e" and "i" for. Yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition and I don't care.

Even though the mouth position for the "a" remains the same, you mentally imagine singing "o" and "u" following the same pattern as you did for "i" and "e." While that may be gibberish if you're not a singer or closely associated with singers, but it's an amazing exercise. If my voice is out of whack, I do profs and everything lines up again. If I'm having trouble on a high note, I do profs and it's fine. I've gained at least 3 or 4 notes on my top range while maintaining my low notes, and much of that I attribute to profs. It's a panacea for vocal problems in my experience. Apparently it also helps higher voices as well, but who cares about that? So that's the thing I'm grateful for today: Profs (for basses).

Blackberry Grunt

I'm back. I've realized that blogging, especially topical blogging, is something of a state of mind. You have to be constantly looking for things to put on there or you run out. When school got busy at the end of this semester, I got out of that state of mind. Like I said originally, I'm something of an ingrate. Anyway today I made a blackberry grunt. I had never heard of a grunt before but it's a specific kind of cobbler. Basically imagine chicken and dumplings but instead of chicken and gravy you have blackberries and syrup. It's pretty amazing. Anyway, a small thing to start my return with, but I'm pleased with it.

My wonderful wife

Yes, I've been a bit of a slacker this last weekend. That's life. I'll be as consistent as I can, but there will still be days that I miss. Anyway, this post is about my wife. She's the best. It was her birthday yesterday, so I was going to make this post then, but I figured that she'd rather have me help clean the house and make dinner than have me write a blog post. Actions and words and all that...

So, on to Bonnie. I met her when we both worked at the classical music radio station at BYU. It would be great to say that it was love at first sight and all that, but I don't really work that way. When we met, she'd recently broken up with her boyfriend and had lost some weight. She didn't have any extra weight already, and I remember thinking that she was cute but too skinny. Shortly after we met she went off to London for the summer and I stayed in Provo and kept working. I don't think I ever thought of her, and I'm sure she never thought of me.

When she got back from London, we started talking all the time. Our jobs were not exactly difficult or time intensive, so we had a lot of down time that we could sit around. We quickly realized that we had a lot in common, but nothing really happened for a while because I had been dating another girl who had just gone to Japan. So clearly I was off the market.

I really started to like her and we began hanging out and watching British tv shows. Eventually I got up the courage to ask her out. We went to see "The Flying Dutchman" at Utah Opera. We both got free tickets from our work, so we technically had four tickets between the two of us. I had actually asked something like 5 or 6 other girls to go, but they were all busy, so I called and left a message with Bonnie just a few hours before the opera was going to start. Happily she hadn't gotten anyone to go with her either (because she'd been hoping that I'd ask her).

Pretty much once that snowball started rolling down the hill, it didn't stop and it just kept picking up speed. We officially started dating on October 31st, got engaged in March (though we'd been talking about it since December), and got married in June. Best decision ever.

Bonnie is the best thing in my life. She's pretty and funny. She does an amazing job taking care of our daughter. She's one of the smartest people that I know. She's talented and creative, and is the one that makes my our house worth going home to. I don't know how I'd get through life without her, so today (and yesterday...and really every day) I'm grateful for my wife Bonnie.

Making my wife happy

I've mentioned before that Bonnie and I play computer games together as a way to spend time with each other. We like it because we're playing a game, but we're always cooperating so it doesn't cause disagreements. In addition, it's more interactive than television, so it strikes a nice balance for us. Anyway, her birthday is coming up, so I spent a bunch of in-game gold to buy her this rare mount. It's basically a status symbol, since it doesn't confer any benefit that you can't get somewhere else with much less effort, but it looks really cool. Anyway, I'm grateful today that I got to make my wife happy with a small little thing that didn't cost me anything other than some yellow pixels.

Evening Walks

It was warm enough tonight for Bonnie and I to take Lydia out for a walk. The birds were singing, the sun was setting nicely, and the ducks and geese were swimming in the pond near our house. It was a very nice evening. We may have to make a habit of that. I'm grateful for nights when I'm not at rehearsal and I can slow down and spend some time with my family.

Something like a star

The reviews for Vincent have been coming out, and almost all of them have been positive. They all have one thing or another that they wish had been different, but since each reviewer seems to have different things that they want changed, I'm not too concerned about that. Every time that I'm in a show that gets reviewed, I always think of two things. The first is a story that the opera director at BYU told me. He said that while he was touring with the Goldovsky opera theater, one of his performances got a very bad review. He was talking to Goldovsky about and the man gave him some great advice: "When I get a bad review, I read it and I throw it away. And when I get a good review I read it and I throw it away."

I think that's a healthy attitude to take. Don't ignore criticism and praise, but don't obsess over them either.

The second thing I think about is really just another way of saying that, but it always seems to come to my mind when dealing with reviews or criticism (constructive or otherwise). It's the last bit of Robert Frost's "Choose Something Like a Star."

So when at times the mob is swayed

To carry praise or blame too far,

We may choose something like a star

To stay our minds on and be staid.

That sentiment is particularly fitting for this opera, given that Vincent van Gogh is inextricably linked with stars in our popular culture. I'm grateful for stars, and for people who see profound things in their shining.

External Motivation

The opera is like a great bulldozer. All the things in my life that I'm supposed to get done are just pushed along, with no real progress being made on them. As opening weekend has come and gone, the bulldozer is slowing down. Soon, it will drive away into the distance, leaving a pile of missed deadlines and mediocre efforts that pass for schoolwork. I've been surveying the detritus being shoved upon me, and a part of me definitely considered throwing a rug over it and pretending it didn't exist.

Grades have long since ceased to motivate me. When the bar is set so low, it's difficult to care one way or another. I need a reasonable challenge to get me going, but slogging through old work wasn't sounding very appealing. Happily I married a wonderful person who cares about my success. She got me to get started on my stuff. I'm not through the pile, but I'm chipping away at it, and with a few more nights of this I might even catch up in the next week or so. Yes, carrots and sticks don't work well long term, but as far as I'm concerned, they have their place. So, thank you external motivation: for when you just can't make yourself do it.

Gardens

I found out a few weeks ago that Bloomington has community gardens where you can rent plots and grow your own stuff. Bonnie and I just did that with a couple of our friends, so between the four of us we have 400 sq. feet of ground to grow stuff in. I'm totally excited. Huzzah for gardens!

Frozen Pizza Crusts

This is another post about the awesomeness that is sourdough. Usually when you feed your starter you discard half of it. But we found a recipe for a sourdough pizza crust that you partially cook and then freeze. We now have a good supply of the things built up, and that picture is from when I got home from a late rehearsal and wanted a midnight snack. I love sourdough. In fact, right now Bonnie and I are experimenting with adjusting a bagel recipe to use sourdough. I'll give a report later. I'm grateful for frozen sourdough pizza.

World Premiers

Yeah, I'm totally in a world premier of an Opera. And it's at a well-respected opera program. IU is really cool if only for the opportunities that it offers students to participate in big musical things like this. Even if Vincent is quickly forgotten and never performed again, I'm still glad that I've had the chance to work on something like this. Hopefully all goes well at tonight's performance.

Things that keep you doing the right thing

Frequently I think of funny things to post on this blog that in some way mock someone or something. Whether it's a youtube video of someone doing something stupid or some business that I feel is producing a really worthless product, sometimes I have a tendency to do the internet version of pointing and laughing at things I see.

Happily, I have not yet succumbed to doing this. I really don't have a problem with people using their blogs to share things they think are funny, but the reality is that there is simply too much negativity in the world. This blog is about gratitude. For me to write a blog about being grateful for my blessings and then to turn and mock other people on it seems in my mind to cause irreconcilable mental dissonance. So at least on this blog, I will remain positive and will try my best to lift up others. Today I'm grateful for small things that keep you pointed in the right direction.

Open Your Mouth

It is 11:20 tonight, and as you may have noticed, I have not posted yet. You're probably thinking that I forgot, but since the title of the blog implies that I will be posting daily, I'm here to make sure that I do in fact do that. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had a really good discussion with a friend about the church. I have been feeling like I didn't quite do everything because I didn't invite her to talk to the missionaries, I did that tonight and she accepted.

We're waiting until the opera is over to get together, but at least the idea is out there and she seems open to it. Today I'm grateful for small nudges from the Holy Ghost that help you overcome some fear and nervousness and do that right thing. The bit that I think is really funny is that in the last few days, all my friends that are Mormons have been asking how my investigator is doing. Anyway, it's nice to have some good missionary experiences while I'm having a good time playing dress-up on stage.

Funny People doing Funny Things

Yes, this is a post about a bunch of weird Welsh shepherds. Actually, there's more to it than that. I love seeing someone do something really well, especially something for which you have little to no talent or experience. In this case it's a bunch of guys messing around with sheep and lights, but it could really be anything.

Some people get that feeling when they see a good musician or singer, but since I know too much about it, my enjoyment is always a little different than theirs. My brother-in-law gets really excited about a beautiful piece of code. I don't know anything about computer programming, but I couldn't recognize a good piece of code either. For something to really be this kind of experience, it has to be something that a lay person can appreciate but not really understand.

It's entirely possible that those guys are really mediocre shepherds. How would I know? Either way, I got a chuckle out of it, and for a moment I felt some of that childlike wonder and fascination that is perhaps too rare for us as we get older. So I'm grateful for weird Welsh shepherds who have too much time on their hands (or who maybe just got paid well to plug Samsung).

DIY

Bonnie and I have been trying to be more frugal, which has resulted in us taking on a lot of DIY type projects. Many of them I've mentioned on the blog like sourdough and planting some herbs and vegetables in pots. I was thinking the other day about these lifestyle changes that we've been making, because I heard someone on the radio say something to the effect that "there is something very satisfying about taking raw materials and turning it into a usable finished product."

I hadn't put the sensation into words yet, but that's exactly how I've felt about doing all this stuff. Bread tastes better when you make it yourself. Vegetables are fresher and healthier when you grow them yourself. Clothes are more stylish...okay well, maybe not that, but seriously, maintaining that sort of competence and independence that was a natural part of life for our ancestors has been surprisingly gratifying for Bonnie and me.

I have also felt a greater connection with my pioneer ancestors as I've tried to learn some of the skills that were so essential in older times. Amazingly enough, in learning the skills of a bygone era, the values of that time come more naturally. In other words, I'm finding that thrift, industry, and frugality aren't necessarily the motivation for living a certain way, but rather the result of living a certain way.

So in summary, I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow as we're trying to save money. On a side note, does anyone know where I can get some good fruit later in the summer so we can try bottling it?

Cast Iron

We bought a cast iron skillet (anyone know why they're always called skillets when they're cast iron and frying pans when they're any other material?) a few months ago, and it is seriously the best thing ever. First, it's non-stick. I mean honestly nonstick. It's ten thousand times more non-stick than a teflon coated pan. Clean-up is so easy, I honestly just have to run some water in it and wipe it out. After that, just rub a little oil on the inside and you're in business.

Cast iron adds more iron to your food, so it actually makes what you're eating healthier. We're especially happy about that because Lydia was quite low on iron for a while, so we try to make sure that she gets enough.

Finally cast iron makes your food taste better. When I start heating up our pan, it gives off the best smell. It's like it remembers every good thing you ever used it to cook and it just adds a little extra flavor to your meals. So basically what I'm saying is that cast iron cookware is awesome. I definitely need to start using it more. Maybe I should get a dutch oven next.

Good religious discussions

I had a lot of downtime at rehearsal on Friday, and ended up talking with a friend of mine for the bulk of the evening rehearsal. It was a really good and open discussion, and with the exception of another friend who stopped in briefly to assert that Mormons aren't Christian, it went very well. I'm always grateful when I get the opportunity to talk to someone else about religion and our beliefs. It was also fun because we both came away with some homework. I'm supposed to look up some sermons by Greg Boyd, and she's supposed to read the Book of Mormon. I'll keep up my end of the deal, we'll see if she keeps hers. :^)

Dumb Luck

So last Monday, I looked at the schedule for opera rehearsal and was happy to see that I wasn't called for blocking rehearsal. I was quite pleased with that and proceeded to enjoy my unexpected break from the opera. On Tuesday, my phone suddenly found an old message from one of the stage managers. It said in essence, "Hey, I know the schedule says that you're called for orchestra rehearsal at 4:00 today, but maestro wants to work with someone else, so don't worry about coming."

Yeah, I totally would have missed an important rehearsal and gotten into trouble. Good thing I was excused but didn't know about it. Sometimes you just get really lucky and everything falls into place for you. I'm grateful when stuff works out like that.

Random moments when art touches you

(Notice: I do not observe April Fools' Day on this blog. Yes, I know I'm boring, but when I'm trying to write about things for which I'm genuinely thankful, it seems somewhat malapropos to be trying to fool people with a childish prank. That or I couldn't think of something funny to do.)

I've watched this thing like ten times today, and I'm still not tired of it. The characters are simple and fun, but their portrayal makes them seem extremely human. Little touches like the lip bite from the girl and the conversations between the astronaut and the guy really show a lot of skill and care on the part of the creator.

As a performer, I'm constantly interested in how people use their bodies and faces to portray a story, and it's done beautifully here. You get the entire story, and the most language that you're presented with is a few written words in the ship, and a few moments where you can read lips (I'm not kidding, you really can). That's quality storytelling.

I love both the artistic eye that went into this and the craftsmanship. You need to have craft before you can have art, and this beautifully demonstrates the craft as well as the art. In a recital situation you'll often hear people say that you can't touch the audience with your first song, but I found myself drawn in to this story and really caring about the characters. I felt a real bittersweet melancholy at the end. Not cutting onions sad or anything, but I was touched. So today I'm grateful for those random, unexpected moments when something in art or nature impacts you in a positive way.

Sourdough Bread

Mmmmm. Bread. Bonnie and I have been trying to save money, and one big expense has been our grocery/food budget. We've slowly started bringing it down with a variety of tactics, but one thing that has been driving both of us nuts is the price of bread. Your options seem to be either cheap ($1 per loaf) bread that has no taste or substance, or expensive ($2 or $2.50 up to $4) bread that tastes good but kills the wallet.

No more I say! We decided to start making our own bread, and since we didn't want to spend an exorbitant amount on yeast (it really adds up when you're using it two or three times a week), we decided to make sourdough. Best decision ever. The sourdough bread that we make at home tastes better than the expensive stuff, and costs less than the cheap stuff. My math says that it costs us about $0.25 per loaf with sourdough. In addition, we've also made some sourdough pizza crusts with the starter that you'd normally discard, so that has saved us even more. Honestly, if you're willing to put in a little time and effort with the sourdough, you can save a lot of money every month. So today I'm grateful for sourdough. It's seriously the best.

Cheap Books

The Bloomington Library had a sale on books this weekend. Bonnie and I spent about 5 dollars. We got a couple of large hardback books, and about 15 children's book for Lydia (10 cents each. woot). Bonnie and I both enjoy reading, so any time we can get books for cheap we always try to grab some.

I suppose in a broader sense I'm grateful for books and the joy that I've gotten over the years from my love of reading. I'm grateful that I was raised in a family that read, and I'm grateful that I learned to read early (well before preschool). Bonnie and I have four bookshelves in our living room, and we have frequently gotten the comment from people that they love the way that our books look. It seems to be a design thing for them. These people never comment on what books we have, just that we have and display books. And honestly they never seem to consider that the books might be more than just nice decor for us. I'm grateful that the books on our shelves are more than just nice to look at. They're something that we use and treasure.

Seeds (Did you know that they actually grow?)

Bonnie and I have been wanting to try growing some of our own food for a while now, but we've always lived in apartments. Of course we know that people use planters an grow stuff in their windows, but we've just never been good at that sort of thing. Well, we decided to give it a try this year, so we bought some pots and a planter. We decided to grow things straight from seed, instead of buying the already started plants.

Now, I've studied biology quite a bit. I was planning on going to medical school, so I took a lot of science courses during my undergrad. I understand how seeds work and how they grow. Intellectually I grasp the concept of how they work, but when Bonnie and I saw how small the seeds actually were, we both looked at each other not quite believing that they'd actually grow. Well on Saturday I went up to water the things, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but some tiny green shoots and something that rhymes with appear.

I guess it's a human thing that even though you intellectually know something is true, it can be hard to act on that knowledge without your own experience. Well, if you haven't heard it already, I can tell you that seeds actually do grow, and I'm grateful for that.

Hidden Treasures of Knowledge, Part Deux

So yesterday I was talking about being a vegetarian. Here is why the specifically has made me grateful. Let me start with the Word of Wisdom. There is a promise at the end of it:

"And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

"And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;
"And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint."

Pretty straightforward, right? Basically you'll be blessed both body and mind. This story is how I realized some of that being fulfilled. My family came to visit in February, and my Grandma's (we call her Gran, which I will use from now on) favorite thing that she ate while she here was Steak & Shake. If you don't already know, it's basically a chain restaurant. It's kind of a diner place, so it falls somewhere between Wendy's and Olive Garden in price and quality. Probably closer to the Wendy's end of the spectrum.

Gran is a very generous person, and I am her favorite grandchild (due to singing at her retirement community almost every month for a couple of years). She was incredibly kind and gave Bonnie and me some money to go out to Steak & Shake (since I hadn't been able to go because of rehearsal I think) to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement in March. We hadn't gotten the chance to go yet, but decided to go on Friday night.

Since she had specified how we were to use the gift, we decided to suspend our vegetarian restrictions and just eat meat for the meal. I think we were both excited to have some meat, since it had been a few weeks, and we both agreed that the food tasted really great. It was amazing while we were eating it, but as soon as we got most of the way through the meal, we both realized that we had stopped enjoying it quite so much.

Here's the problem: when you're eating vegetarian, most everything is really light. For some reason you don't feel compelled to have these out-of-control proportions. In addition, you just feel really good. I can't explain it, but it just feels like everything is working well in your body. You don't feel heavy. After that meal though, both of us felt really heavy sluggish. You might say that it's because our bodies weren't used to having much meat anymore, but we both distinctly remembered the feeling we were having. It was the feeling we used to use to gauge when to stop eating. We used to eat with that feeling as a goal. Now it had just become unpleasant. It's not that we don't like meat anymore, it's just that we've learned how to control ourselves, and more importantly we understand why it's important to eat meat "sparingly."

Before I go on too much about this, I do want to say one more time how much I appreciate the gift that Gran gave to me and Bonnie. She went and really enjoyed herself and wanted us to have the same great experience. To be honest we did have a great time going out to eat together and having a date. I don't want to take anything away from the gift we were given. I'm not critiquing the gift. I just wanted to share something about the realizations that Bonnie and I had while we were out to eat. I could have just as easily have happened at a backyard barbecue or a pizza party, it just happened to occur here. Now back to the meat of the post.

I'm sitting here writing this on Friday at 1:00 am (so I guess it's actually Saturday). I ate hours ago and I still feel like there is a great brick sitting inside me. Eating vegetarian actually makes you feel better. So, for this whole weekend I'm grateful for hidden treasures of knowledge. Had I not felt inspired to try cutting meat out of my diet while the weather is warm, I would never have known how good you can feel by eating more healthy and by following the Word of Wisdom more closely.

Hidden Treasures of Knowledge

Look at me! Three posts in a row! It's a three-peat, though probably not the most impressive one in history. So this post has a bit of a back story (is that hyphenated?) to it. My wife and I were reading the Doctrine and Covenants a few months ago (if I haven't already mentioned it, we're Mormons). We consider the Doctrine and Covenants to be scripture, like the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Anyway, back to the story, we were reading what we call the Word of Wisdom. It's basically the reason that Mormons don't drink coffee or alcohol, don't smoke, and don't do drugs. There are lots of don't but there are also some important do's there. Here is the section that caught our eye:

And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—
Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

Okay, pretty good so far. Use fruits, vegetables, and wholesome herbs.

Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;

Alright, meat is there for the use of man, but you should use it sparingly. Now here is where I usually stopped paying attention, but there is a little more on the subject of meat in the next verse.

And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

Hmmm. Okay, so if I read that right, the Lord says that it's better if you don't eat meat, except in more extreme circumstances. So we read this, and neither of us were particularly happy about it, since we both love meat. We were both raised in families where dinner was based around the meat. We frequently say things like "everything's better with bacon." Regardless of all of that, we both read that and felt like we should try to live a little closer to what that said. With that in mind, we decided to try being seasonal vegetarians.

We read this in the middle of winter, so we figured that we had some time to gather some good vegetarian recipes and figure out how to do it healthily, but more quickly than we expected our meat days ran out. We actually built up to it slowly so that by the time that our official day came we were already basically eating vegetarian anyway. Honestly it has gone really well, much better than I expected. Regardless, we are several weeks into the experiment and we are loving it.

I was going to tell this whole story in one post, but I hate massive walls of text, so I'll pick this up tomorrow. Just remember these things: Word of Wisdom, we like meat, we are now vegetarian, and the youtube video is rabbits eating because I knew a guy who referred to all vegetables with disdain as "rabbit food."

Weather

So, an amazing thing happened. I actually got to walk around without my coat. I know, it's amazing. Seriously though, weather is just a cool thing. I'm amazed that the planet is able to keep itself in perfect balance between hot and cold. The Earth is the perfect distance from the sun, it revolves and rotates at the right speeds so that we get day and night, summer and winter. And while it can get uncomfortably hot or cold, it never really gets out of the range that humans can't find a way to live there. The world is pretty amazing when you think about it.

I'm a slackface...

But I'm getting back on the wagon here. Yes, it's been a few weeks since my last post. I kept thinking about the blog, but I was really sick and was having trouble being grateful. Remember how I said I'm a bit of an ingrate? Yeah, that's pretty much true. Anyway, here is a new post for today where I recommit myself to doing this.

I'm grateful today that I went to a University that has a high standard of morality. I attended BYU for my undergrad, and as they were just eliminated from the NCAA tournament, let me take a moment to say that I'm glad they stuck by their guns on the Brandon Davies issue. Considering how close the game was, I feel like BYU had a very good chance of pulling out a victory if they had Davies playing, but at BYU it's more important to do the right thing than to get money or national acclaim. I'm proud to come from that culture, which is so radically different than other places. Way to go BYU.

Sesame Street

When I was not a parent, I often listened to and cared what experts said about raising your children. Now I know that it's more about experimenting and finding something that works. And by "works" I mean "will get you through the next month, or week, or day, ...or 10 minutes." One thing that experts say is that you should absolutely not let your kids see television until they are at least 2 years old. From what I can gather from the way that things are presented to me, if Lydia looks at a tv before she turns two, her eyes will never focus properly, she'll lose the ability to have normal face-to-face interactions with others, and she'll essentially be destined for a life on the streets because of my bad parenting.

Now Lydia has had a bad cold for the past day or two, meaning that she's miserable and she spends a lot of time screaming, crying, and wiping snot all over her face and hair. And also our clothes. This is where Sesame Street comes in. You can get all sorts of clips and songs on the internet, and when I put her in my lap and turn on Sesame Street, suddenly she is happy and smiling. She even danced along to some of the songs. So thank you Sesame Street for getting us through at least an hour or two of a long day, even though she is not two yet. Hopefully my child can still be a productive member of society.

Passionate, Knowlegeable Teachers

Today I'm grateful for teachers who are passionate and knowledgeable about what they do. You need to have both of course. Teachers with only one or the other come off as foolish or inaccessible. The first kind can't teach you, and you won't learn from the second.

But you occasionally get a teacher who has both of those things, and those are the teachers you remember. For instance my seventh grade English teacher was like that. I always liked her, and I remember complaining the next year to her about how I disliked my eighth grade English teacher. I had a variety of hard-hitting criticism for her (as only a teenager can have) and specifically mentioned that I hated the books we were studying. We weren't even doing a Shakespeare that year. She then said that if I were interested, she would be happy to discuss a Shakespeare of my choosing with me during some of her lunch breaks. I took her up on that and had a great time reading and talking about Hamlet with her.

Another example, of all the classes that I have ever taken in school, I consider my organic chemistry classes in college to be easily one of the top three best courses I could have taken. My teacher had such an innovative way of presenting the material that I still retain much of what I learned in that class. He focused on making sure that we understood the concepts that we needed, not on memorization. Often he actively discouraged memorization saying that if we learned and internalized the concept then we would be able to figure out the specifics of a problem. He practiced this philosophy on his tests; on the last page of the exam there would be a large, intricate problem using the concepts that we were taught, but often applying them in a totally new way. You would have to spend the bulk of the time in the test just trying to understand and apply what you'd learned to the new content you were looking at. Now, this may sound like he's being too hard or cruel, after the test on his own time, he would meet with each student in the class personally (offering to give you some bonus points if you came to see him so that nearly everyone did) and go over the test question by question making sure that you had the concepts firmly in your mind. That is why he was a great teacher, he expected a lot out of you, but he did everything in his power to make sure that you could achieve that.

Finally for the last example (there are many more, but this post is getting to be too long already), we have my Song Literature teacher. I would consider him both a mentor and a colleague at this point in my studies, but just today I was standing around on campus and he walked by. He stopped and we had an excellent discussion on performance and style in Neapolitan song, as well as the use of portamento and appoggiatura in Mozart. You may or may not care about these things, but the fact that he was willing to spend time with me out of class and talk about a subject that I am interested in was very meaningful to me and got me thinking about some of my other favorite teachers.

So today I am grateful for the teachers who have had an impact on me.

New Music

Right now I'm part of IU's Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. Now, if you know me well, you also know that I'm frequently less than thrilled with one thing or another about the choir. In fact we have a few weeks off from choir right now and I'm really enjoying it. But even though I gripe about it, the reality is that much of the music that we've done I've actually enjoyed.

I'm also in rehearsals for Vincent, a new opera commissioned by IU, so I'll be part of a world premier, which is pretty cool. Vincent is another thing a little bit like CVE. I'll gripe about it, but it's growing on me. I think I'll actually enjoy it more and more as time goes on.

So today I'm grateful for new music. Sometimes it's weird, sometimes it sounds horrible, sometimes the composers don't know anything about healthy writing for the voice. Sometimes you have to make ridiculous noises and call it art. But sometimes the composers and performers find something new, something exciting, and ultimately something meaningful and touching.

Third Time's the Charm

This is not a recommendation of this brownie mix. I just liked the picture, though now that I look at the recipe, the mix doesn't look too bad either. I mean, I has more sugar than flour, and it has more than two cups of cocoa. Win.

This is my first post on this blog, but I've previously started two other blogs, which are now basically defunct. The first one was just a collection of thoughts and things I found on the internet. It also included long posts and explanations about a few things that I had strong opinions about at the time. Considering that I'm both somewhat flaky and somewhat unwilling to open myself up completely in writing, that blog was doomed from the beginning.

The second blog that I started was dedicated to writing about death knights in World of Warcraft. There is a serious lack of good death knight blogs, which frequently means that there is a serious lack of good death knights in the game. Regardless, I lost interest in that (the blog, not the game) so that is just sitting there as well.

In the name of full disclosure there have been two other attempts, but those were so short that I don't really count them. Besides, if I titled this post "fifth time's the charm," it would look even worse than it already does.

So here is the plan: I'm a bit of an ingrate. I'd like to change that. The plan is to hop on here every day or so and just take a minute to find something to be grateful about that day. As my English teachers used to say, I should show, not tell you things, so I'll make this entry number one.

Today I am grateful for brownies. My wife and I are trying to be healthier in life, so we've been eating less meat, more fruits and vegetables, fewer sweets, etc. I made some vegetarian stir fry for dinner tonight (which was surprisingly good), and then I had to go to rehearsal for several hours after that. When I got home my wife threw some brownies in the oven so that she could take some to a friend who she'd been meaning to bring something to. Of course she didn't bring the whole pan, so we happily ruined our healthy eating for the day and gorged ourselves on brownies. They hit the spot for me (I have a bad habit of getting a midnight snack). So in conclusion, brownies=awesome.