Haikus from my fridge

Last year I was fascinated by the magnet words I found here in Happy Valley. I took every opportunity I could get to form sentences that I considered poetic. In August this year, with the semester fast approaching, I ordered a set of magnet words for our apartment. The first week or so was marked by a flurry of sentences being formed and reformed; somehow it wasn't enough. Then came the suggestion to write haikus. Pure genius. The five, seven, and five syllable poems provide a much more interesting and challenging format to compose with, especially with a limited selection of words from which to choose. Remember clapping helps you figure out how where the syllables are. Here are the results of my efforts thus far:

a far different
rendering is important
if she cried for love

her name stops motion
reality dull and quiet
won't shake whispered dreams

I once imagined
you warm and pretty, but no
you hide sad princess

dreaming I laugh loud
springing with a wild magic
blending storm and truth

Of Capes and Kids

More than once I have started a post without having any idea what I was going to write about. I've decided to write about past experiences when I don't have a recent one to use. With this in mind let's go back to my childhood. I was a pretty typical six year old boy. I liked playing with guns and swords and I wanted to be a superhero. However, unlike most I found evidence that I was a superhero. You know how you get a sort of double vision when your eyes have a different perspective on some objects? I didn't really know that everyone had this. In fact I only knew of one person who could "see through" things like I could; this was Superman. Some children might carelessly divulge their secret to their parents or siblings, but I knew better. I knew that a hero's secret identity had to be carefully guarded. I told no one. Still, I wasn't convinced entirely. I decided I needed a way to test out whether or not I was indeed the man of steel. The first thing that came to mind was that Superman was really strong and really tough. It just so happened while I was thinking this over I glanced at our fireplace; it was stone. Already being decked out in my Superman pajamas, I took a couple of bounces on our little exercise trampoline and ran off it full speed, headfirst, into the fireplace. It turns out I'm not from Krypton. I'm slightly fuzzy as to the details immediately thereafter, but I do remember my brothers hastily gathering me up and putting me one of the many VW bugs native to our house. They then sped (probably even more than usual) to the church. There they told me to stay put just inside the building, bleeding I might add from the rather nasty head wound. They ran off to find my mom who was attending relief society. A few sisters got a rude start when they came to see what I was crying about. Before they could do anything but draw back in horror, my mom came rushing over and drove me to the emergency room. I had stitches for ten days. So lessons to learn from this:

1. Kids do have reasoning skills; though not a great grounding in reality
2. If you want to test to see if you're Superman try using eye lasers rather than testing strength or, as is common, the ability to fly
3. Sometimes what you don't know can hurt you...a lot

Portrait of an alien madman

Invader Zim is easily one of the funniest cartoons of all time as far as I'm concerned. It aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons and then the creator and Nick had a bit of a spat and now no more Zim. Thank goodness for TV on DVDs. Zim is sort of a mix between Brain of Pinky and the Brain and Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes. It's one of those shows that don't even try to make sense. It's great! 

Rejecting a reactionary lifestyle

I just finished talking with some of my room mates and I've come to a conclusion. I need to start a writing club at BYU. Yeah, I know weird. It really surprises me that there isn't already such a club in existence. Part of the reason I want to start this club is that I've often admired those who have started bold projects. I don't know if this is exactly bold per say, but it is something I want to do. It is also something that will take effort to do and I think there is value in stretching our abilities. Additionally, if I want this to actually succeed I can't be lazy and simply talk about it. I hate when people talk about starting a great new project only for it to die because they are lazy. Mostly I feel like this club would be a good place for people to meet and share ideas and help. A major concern at this point is how to get the people for it, but that can be worked out. My roommate Steve has a writing teacher who is a member of a few writing clubs, so he'll know the sort of format that these things follow and I can adapt from there based on what I want initially and then on what other people want. John Greenleaf Whittier said, "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!” I don't want this to be what I say of my own plans ten years from now. Some of this has come from the masquerade my apartment had last Friday. I don't know how many boring Fridays or Saturdays I have wished there was a party. It never occurred to me that I might throw one myself. I'm seeing more and more benefits to living more of an active life rather than a reactionary one. Our society is so chock full of stimulus: TV, movies, books, music, etc. that bombard us that sometimes I think we get complacent and don't make much of an effort to give something back to the society that is forming us. After all, society has botched quite a bit as of late and seems to need all the help it can get even from a recovering elitist.

We all wear masks, some figurative some literal....maybe clown care?

So last night my roommates and I had yes, a masquerade. I type now in front of a wall with assorted masks dotting its surface like bizarre hunting trophies. I have to say that it was one of the best little social gatherings I've been a part of for the last while. Everyone was included in activities and conversation, everyone enjoyed themselves. It's events like this that help me remember why I still have hope for humanity. Okay, so that sounds overly dramatic. The point being that I suppose there are some social gatherings that actually work. So someone brought up the idea that we all wear masks to hide who are to some extent. I guess this is a sort of defense mechanism. We don't want to open up to people until we know what they are like, but someone has to give in first for conversation to ensue. I think we've all been in conversations where questions are met with one or two word responses. Personally I think this is rather rude as it shows no real consideration for the question the other person has asked. On the other hand, how many times do we ask the same questions of new people? Here in happy valley it seems hometown, time at BYU and major are the most popular subjects. The strange thing is, personally, I don't think where someone is from is incredibly interesting as a general rule. I'm not saying I haven't used these questions before but aren't "What's your favorite book?" or "What nicknames do you have?" more interesting? It's odd that questions are usually so limited in scope. I guess what I'm saying is why not ask questions that you actually want answers to? Doesn't that make more sense? Just think how much material for conversation a good question has. "What were your childhood dreams?" for instance could be fun. For me, I would say professional soccer star, artist, and inventor. I'm not really interested in any of that now, but those dreams did play a big part of my childhood and ultimately in who I am now. Besides it's nice to be nice.

No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted.

~Aesop

You will read a title

I have never put much stock in horoscopes, fortune cookies, or the like. At the same time, I do enjoy the very "enlightening" predictions such as "Trouble will come your way", "Seek help from friends", or "Your life will change". It doesn't particularly take any foresight to make any of these claims. However, the last fortune cookie I got had different sort of message. It states, and I quote “You will be advanced socially, without any special effort on your part." Without any special effort...wow. This fortune cookie being a bit of an aberration it makes me wonder if the restaurant has taken to making their own fortunes to spice them up a bit. If so I want to know how I can get a job writing fortunes. It really wouldn't be that hard. The trick is to tell people exactly what they want to hear and throw in the phrase "without any special effort on your part." America is getting fatter and fatter statistically speaking so "You will lose weight, without any special effort on your part" could be really popular. Never mind that this weightloss process is referred to as decomposition, it'll happen soon enough, and without any special effort on your part.