The Sarah Project

My good friend Sarah is leaving the country for two years. This is sad for a lot of us, as she is a good friend. It’s hard to be away from a person that is a social bedrock and a personal confidant. It’s doubly bad for her as she’s going to be away from far more people than silly ol’ me.

But worse is the possibility of missing two years of their lives. It’s one thing to delay enjoying someone’s misadventures, it’s quite another to miss out on many of them altogether.

So I came up with a solution.  Every week, I will film a somewhat social section of my life for at least one minute. At the end of these two years, I will edit all of the minutes together into a 104 minute long movie and present it to her as a gift. It’s my hope that this movie will capture the changing lives of Sarah’s friends so that she’ll be able to see them winge about work, school, and brag about their new houses and children.

I’m also hoping this will illuminate a little bit of my own life in the process.

You should join me.

Last Year: Things I wish I could say to people, but can't (pt. XV of XXVI)
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The 10-Point Public Bathroom Grading Rubrik

I’ve told people about my 10-point rubrik for public bathrooms.  Here it is, for the first time ever. Each item present earns the restroom one point. A Perfect 10 is a restroom worth planning trips around.  What does the restroom nearest you score? The one at the Guglhupf scored a 9 before I used it. It’s probably a 4.5 now. My bad.

• There is running water
• There are toilets/urinals that work
• Toilet paper is in good supply
• Toilet Paper is two-ply or more
• Toilets have doors
• Flushing is appropriate
• There is soap
• There is no grime/stuff lying around.  In other words: it is pretty clean.
• The soap/faucet/drying devices are appropriate and not frustrating
• Doors do not pull inward

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What is your life even for?

(cross-posted)

These are the seven themes of my life.  Things I strive for whenever I’m not decompressing.

1. Trust.  I’d rather die than break a promise. I haven’t broken one since I was 15.  I have lied many times in that decade. Some of them hurt more than others. I try to minimize my lies.
2. Laugh.  I can’t help but to find everyday things in life hilarious. Sometimes I feel it is my duty to permanently warp the senses of humor of those around me.
3. Friends. My friends matter more to me than anything except for trust and whatever seems funny at the time.  When I’m in a giddy mood, this is bad news, but generally I’m a great friend.
4. Create.  There are things that I can say, do, write, and draw that people must be aware of.  I can just feel it.
5. Genius.  I’m a pretty sharp guy. Some day I hope to do something with that.
6. Chicks.  This is on my list because 13-year-old Pixel would be very sad if it weren’t.
7. Ethics.  I want to lead an exemplary life.  To do as little harm to the people, animals, and ecosystems around me as possible. I have found that my mind too easily justifies my actions on consequentialist grounds even when the consequences turn out to be disastrous. So in order to maximize the positive consequences around me, I lead a life according to duties and virtues of my own devising….  it’s not perfect, but it tends to be much better than what the people around me do.

Last Year: Things I wish I could say to people, but can't (pt. IV of XXVI)
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¡¡oo!

I’m… 25?

I wouldn’t repeat 24 if you paid me, but I’m looking forward to the festivities tonight.  Drink Potluck! Dessert Potluck! White Elephant Gift Exchange!  Huzzah!

Last Year: 11000
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29 things to do before I turn 29

1. Not hang myself with a belt
2. Be happy with where I live and who I live with
3. Some  times choose to stay home.
4. Write most of a dissertation
5. Publish something original
6. Cowrite a paper with someone I respect
7. Have all of my best friends meet each other
8. Not lose contact with my 10 favorite people
9. Have a social life too-full with people that matter
10. Maintain myself in the ‘fitness‘ category
11. Be able to do the splits (basically, I just want to be able to kick high)
12. Spin fire again
13. Learn what the various verb tenses are in Spanish
14. Get to be competent in another language
15. Visit every continent
16. Have visited all 50 states (13 left!)
17. Have visited 15 countries (9 left!)
18. Try stand up comedy
19. Upload all of my archives¹
20. Finish 250 microfiction stories
21. Finish first draft of my novel
22. Finish my One Sentence project
23. Get something creative published or publish it myself
24. Learn to draw/paint a realistic self-portrait
25. Learn to play the piano
26. Cook for myself/others on a regular basis
27. Have a car on which I can fully rely
28. Donate my body weight in blood OR some bone marrow²
29. Live above reproach³

1. I have archives.  The 600,000 words on this site are only about a third of what I’ve written for mass consumption.[↩]
2. Then I stop.  Why?  Because I hate pain, that’s why![↩]
3. My own.  Possibly a handful of friends as well. Most of the rest of you can reproach me all you want.[↩]

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