Too Much
8 years ago…
After reading numerous studies about the learning process of the brain and how learning things at younger ages is easier, I endeavored to spread myself as thin as possible and learn as many things as possible before I hit that theoretical wall of the learning curve. This led me to take on over 10 extra curricular activities while at the same time trying to balance the course load of the pre-International Baccalaureate Program (read more about the program at Wikipedia). Some of these activities included:
- Ballet lessons
- Jazz (dancing) lessons
- Guitar lessons
- Piano lessons
- Voice lessons (for singing)
- Musical theatre (I was in the Wekiva Riverplayers Anything Goes production)
- President of the Physics Club (despite my dismal grades in the subject)
- Varisty Lacrosse
And let us not forget my work (many jobs held simultaneously)
- Working at Old Navy on weekdays
- Working at Disney on Saturdays and Sundays
- Working at Field’s BMW on Saturday shortly after I went to seasonal status at Disney
Even going through this blog, I can see numerous instances where I overcommitted. For a history major, it seems like I have yet to learn from my mistakes… Read the rest of this entry »
Weblog Migration
I’m in the middle of a migration from MovableType to WordPress (or maybe Blogspot as I’m not a programmer). Of course, this has been over a two year process, so halfway through may mean very little….
Out of Order
I wanted to make a quick post to say that my mind is out of order today. Maintenance will hopefully be working on it tonight, and tomorrow it should be operational again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
A Morning of Repose
Yesterday morning I missed the bus. As I walked out into the parking lot of my apartment complex, the bus passed by in the distance. I was glad to miss it. Since waking up that morning, I had been praying that I would have time to spend with God before going to class. Missing the bus gave me that newfound free time. I try to have devotional every morning, but it almost never happens: it’s so much easier to spend that extra 30 minutes in bed, drifting in and out of sleep than to get up and begin my morning.
150
This is my 150th post, which is kind of sad considering that my 111th post came over a year ago. The reason that the number 150 is a big deal for me is not because I’ve reached some magical number, or because of the abundance of posts (David’s Blog has 374 posts and it’s almost a seven months younger than mine), but because I’ve posted 18 entries in the past 3 months (whoa… okay, so I know that doesn’t seem like a lot). Although, it’s not a lot of posts, it’s reassuring for me to know that I’ve resumed a somewhat consistent pattern of posting, if you would have asked me about this blog last spring, I would have said that it was dead. Well, it’s not dead… at least, not dead yet.
“I’m not dead yet…”
Shade Walking
This summer I’ve noticed an amazing difference between the temperature in the shade and the temperature in the sun. As I walk across campus, I can feel the difference between baking on asphalt and sauntering in the shade. Yesterday, as I walked back from lunch at Tijuana Flats, I noticed that I had actually developed an unconscious path across campus in order to obtain the maximum amount of shade.
I work in about the center of campus, inside the CSE building (next to the French Fries). If you’re not familiar with UF, you can find a map here. Tijuana Flats is located on University Avenue, about a quarter mile northwest of my office. As I made my way back from lunch, I realized that I had unconsciously developed a route that led me through the shaded parts of campus. I consider myself a systematic person, and this incident definitely fed into that self-image.
Wanderlust
The tires grip the road, I’m behind the wheel. My car speeds up I-75 on its way to Gainesville. The thoughts cross my mind, “What would happen if I kept on going all the way to Canada? Where does I-75 end? Does it become another interstate in Canada? Would I wind up on the shores of Hudson Bay?” Then the more realistic questions begin to hit: “Would I be able to catch up in my classes? How much would it cost to do that? How long would it take?”
Recently, I have been overcome with a sense of wanderlust, I’m itching to get out and have an adventure. I tell my friends that I want to take a road trip to Zion National Park in Utah and I’m dead serious. Last summer my friend Greg and I went on a road trip starting in Orlando and making stops in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Lafayette, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. We went all over the Midwest and then back again. It was amazing and I am yearning for another equally exciting adventure.
Crying Like a Baby
Up until a few weeks ago, I could not remember the last time I had cried. I think it was sometime in elementary school, maybe 3rd grade. In high school, I discovered that I was physically unable to cry. I understand the unhealthy nature of my inability to cry and I can testify to it too, there were so many times in high school and even college when all I wanted to do was cry and I became so frustrated that I couldn’t.
A few weeks ago, that changed as I broke down and began sobbing, releasing streams of wonderful tears. It was after an amazingly emotional weekend, one that I’ve had friends describe as something that sounded like it was out of a horror movie. It was a terrible, wonderful weekend and I cried like a baby.
How to Eat Fried Worms
I read a book in Elementary School called How to Eat Fried Worms. Inside the book, a 10 year old and his friends form a bet; they bet that he cannot eat Fried Worms for lunch for 15 days. I won’t spoil the book for you, but for me it was a delightful read (granted, that was 12 years ago). While I haven’t been eating fried worms, I have had two interesting encounters with them.
For the Bots
I haven’t posted in a few weeks because I’ve been working on a new site with two of my friends. While the new site has begun, I still intend to keep this one going (hopefully even more so than in the past). Since it seems from the usage stats that the only people that visit this site are bots, then this is for the bots:
