My Bucket of Parts

Messy, spur of the moment thoughts that are awesome!

It's times like these...

...when I have the means to write, but I can't think of what I wanted to write from earlier ideas. It's whenever I drive or I'm lost in thought somewhere (which is usually in the car), I have these great humorous ideas that have a lot of energy and potential to be funny. I can't write them down because I'm not the type that drives and types...I'm not in the mood to kill anyone on the road, thanks.

So, I've started writing songs...

And it's kind of addicting.

  Like, I can see it becoming meth-like addicting, like Intervention-is-going-to-find-my-story-and-interview-my-family addicting. It won't be so, "please, Evan, please just stop!" or "you'll lose everything!" Instead, perhaps it'll gain me something? Maybe Gavin Degraw-like fame?

  Or not.

  I'm not picky. But let me tell you my story.

  I was meandering around the over-conjested mess that's also known as the Internet, and somehow I popped across this new program created by Microsoft in their research labs called "Songsmith." I tagged it on my hyper-active Delicious account, hoping I wouldn't lose it in the mound of other random links I'm always posting there, and moved on with my life. I didn't download the program right away, because I would only get 6 hours of actual play time with it, and what if I liked it? I would have to pay for it, and I wanted to wait and be completely sure before I jumped on that bandwagon.

  I couldn't fight the feelings. I tried downloading it on my "old" laptop (I have since bought my brothers much newer laptop off of him) and it didn't budge. I Googled to find out why I wasn't able to download it, and in my searching, I was excited to find that teachers could download "Songsmith" for free.

  Yup, a small perk for being in education.

  The program writes the chords as you sing into a microphone. You just need to make sure you have your melody down, because as you sing, there's only the beat in your ears.

  So, now that I write random bits of "poetry" places, and I tend to break out into song ALL the time around the house, I'm hoping I can start putting the two things together.

  Let's see where it takes me...

The Thing About the Sweet Potatoes...

Every year Steph and I are in charge of the sweet potatoes for my side of the family's Thanksgiving. It's a fairly simple recipe that doesn't take too much prep. Steph and I cook some complicated things every-once-in-a-while, so you would think we could put together a sweet potato souffle.

  For some reason, something is always off about them.

  One year, we made two of them, thinking the large family event would need two. One of them turned out OK, while we left out the egg in the other one. We had to quickly put it in and mix it up, but it was haphazard.

  Luckily, they turned out fine.

  This year, as I was mixing up the ingredients to make the pecan crumble that goes on top, the topping became more of a dough-like paste, instead of a light crumble. I did the cup of flour, the cup of brown sugar. I thought I had just a stick of butter, but apparently, I put a few tablespoons of butter too many in. Instead of the topping being crumbly and on top, it was a thick gooey mess that sank to the bottom.

  The 30-minute baking time turned into an hour.

  We were late ot my family's Thanksgiving, and again, we weren't so sure how the sweet potatoes were going to turn out.

  Luckily, they turned out fine.

Mad Men? More like Viagra Men

I know that my writing in the blog-o-sphere isn't widely read. I don't update it enough on a regular basis, and although I have big dreams of one day taking this blog national, I do enjoy when someone stumbles upon my blog and comments on writings. 

Except when it's penis enlargement advertisers. 

One comment on one of my blogs was just a bunch of links posted with the word Viagra:

What a wonderful comment Mysterious Cheap Viagra Man. I'm so pleased you enjoyed my writing and that it lifted you up. Lifted what up? Oh. That's been lifted up? 

I think my favorite is "watermelon viagra" at the end of it. 

The other comment on my blog must've been some kind of search. Last summer, I wrote about a tree/bush that grows in our backyard and we call it the Penis Berry Tree. It grows interesting flowers that look just a bit questionable. 

Well, some man out there must've Google-searched the word "penis" and found my blog, and then he decided to post a nice comment on it: 

"Well, penises don't just grow on trees." 

The comment said his name was Aaron, and it was hyperlinked, so I clicked on it and it took me here. 

Apparently, he owns a business called C**k Gym. So, yet again, I was commented on by another fan of penis enhancement. C**k Gym even has a YouTube channel...

I am now making a call to action. Before someone else comment litters on my blog, will someone please read what I write and comment on it before another penis enlargement man tackles my blog and advertises for bigger, hairier members?

Thank you. 

Living As Bachelor: First Moment

I just walked Steph to the threshhold where she is a passenger on a vacation and I'm a faux-bachelor for 5 days or so. This is something people do all the time, but you don't realize how weird it is to say goodbye to someone you are so used to seeing everyday. I know that I will be doing a lot of talking to myself as I roam around the house these following nights. Nigra and Raible are going to get an earful, I'm sure.

When I worked a journalism workshop for a week a few years ago, Steph spent the week alone. We were also only 30 minutes away from each other, so if need be I could jet home. I think she even came up and met me for dinner one of the nights. I lived alone in a dorm room, but the other 16 hours during those days was spent with high school kids and journalism teachers. So, that doesn't really count in my book.

I tend to rely on Steph with decisions, since there's always two of us. Especially when driving on 465. Hopefully, I make it home.

Here I go! Living alone for the first time in my own house! Let the adventure BEGIN!

Harry Potter: OK, so the journey continues

I didn't realize that after the books, there was more obsession to follow. 

Oops. 

How dare I forget that the movies are just as much a part of the journey through the magical landscape that Rowling created. Reading books 1, 2 and 3 weren't as exciting because I had seen the movies, thinking in my anti-bandwagon-jumping way, "I'm never going to read a series of books everyone else is reading, because that is sooo beneath me, but I will stoop just slightly in my pop culture uppity-ness and see the movies." 

Who was that person I used to be? I don't see him in the mirror anymore. Thank God he left. What a downer. 

I am now going to rock my Sunday with some Harry Potter movie viewing, and rock it I will. While Steph is on vacation, I can gorge myself on all the Potter movies, guilt-free, and then do it all over again. Lucky enough, I have 1, 2 and 5 ready to go, but I'm desperate for 3 and 4. I'm not as excited to watch Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets because I remember them, and they were more kiddish when they were created. I'm sure they'll still be enjoyable to watch again, since I've read all the novels now, but what I really can't wait to watch is Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince because they are all darker. I enjoy the darker tones that novels ended up taking on. 

Maybe I'll even "live blog" while watching them. 

Ha ha. 

Oh, stop groaning, will you?