showtime + npr = strange but good bedfellows

Growing up, my siblings and I spent a lot of time making fun of my dad's dinner conversation. Every time he'd start to tell us some random story, we'd say, "Is this going to be something you heard on NPR?" If it wasn't that, it would be something he read in Time magazine. I never expected that eventually all my random stories would end up coming from the same places. (Since we all seem to turn into our parents, I'm sure glad I like mine.)

My favorite show on NPR is This American Life. Stories like Squirrel Cop and Six to Eight Black Men make me laugh so hard I cry. Maybe this isn't a big feat, I'm known for laughing and crying nearly simultaneously. Regardless, its a great show. If you haven't tried it, you should. I always felt amazingly silly driving down the interstate by myself cracking up.

A few months back Brian and I went to a live show of This American Life. We were in the nosebleed section of the beautiful Paramount Theatre in Seattle. Normally one might complain about poor seats like this, but seriously, it was a live RADIO show, how much could there possibly be to see? The point of doing a live show was to advertise that This American Life was expanding beyond radio into our tvs. The live show ended up being thoroughly entertaining. I couldn't imagine how they would pull off a tv show, but they did.

I totally recommend watching the first episode for free: here. I've only watched that episode because Showtime costs money, and money I lack. I guess everything can't be all wonderful and free like NPR.

the most important human skill

My biology teach in high school, Mr. Underwood, used to tell us that decision making was the most important human skill. According to him, the essential key to making a good decision was relevant facts. I'm pretty sure he mentioned this every single day we had class and it was on nearly every exam. (The really sad part was that some people would get it wrong.)

Regardless, lately I've been thinking a lot about decision making. For the most part, I'm not very good at it. Maybe that's not true, because in most areas of my life I think I make very good decisions. The process of decision making for me is pretty stressful though. I tend to take forever and worry a lot about the outcome. (Maybe this is why my heartburn won't go away).

The main decision that has been occupying my time lately is where to work this summer. It's only a three month commitment, but it seems like a pretty big decision. I was hoping to have a job offer and be done interviewing about 3 weeks ago. I have two offers, but I'm still interviewing for more. I'm hoping sometime soon I get an offer that I really want.

I don't have nearly enough relevant facts to make any decisions yet. Hopefully the facts come in soon so I can start processing other decisions. Maybe once I decide I'll even be able to concentrate on studying. No, I'm blaming that one on the weather. How can I be expected to concentrate when the weather forecast for the next five days is sunny and 60s?

About that, I really should go study...

for hire: new little duh guy

Sometimes I do less than smart things. For example, yesterday I have what I think is a great plan. I bought a big bag of fruit (apples and oranges). So I like apples and all, but I don't really like eating them right of the core. Just not my thing. I'd totally rather have it sliced up.

Here's where the plan starts. I want to eat this apple when I'm not home and I want to be able to cut it up. So clearly I need a knife with me. I grab a steak knife out of the drawer and throw it in my Curious George lunch box. Unfortunately for me, it doesn't fit. I didn't let that stop me. I just threw it in my bag with the lunch box and the apple. Can everyone see where this is headed?

I ended up eating the apple during my construction law class break last night. No knife, because I didn't want to make a mess in the classroom. Then, right as class is about to start, for no apparent reason I reach into the big black hole that is my bag. Anyway, I slice open the tip of my finger. Really really smart like.

The point of the story (if there is one) is that my plans are not so smart. I suppose if I would have stopped to think that through, I could have seen it coming. I really am a disaster waiting to happen. I should really work on my planning skills.

Now, this is a quality blog post.

my first blog

I had this sudden urge to start a blog. Really it all started when I didn't feel like studying one night, so I did something really disturbing... I signed up for myspace. Ew. Then I noticed myspace had a blog thing. Not wanting to get sucked to far into myspace (or really, to deflect Brian's jokes about me getting sucked into myspace) I decided to go to google to find me a free blog. Because google is superfabulous it had one. I'm still occasionally a bit disturbed that google is taking over my life (first my searches, then my email, then my calendar, my home page, my webpage, now my blog?). Mostly I just love google. If they ever need a corporate architect, I so want in.

I'm not really sure where this whole blog thing will lead, but I think I could have some random things to say. So yeah, welcome to my so called blog.