Bunches of Thanks

Today is World Gratitude Day! Aw snap, ya'll! Stuff just got real up in here. You weren't expecting to have to be thankful for anything until Thanksgiving? Well, you best start thinking of something that's happening right now to be thankful for! It's like when a teacher calls on you when you didn't have your hand raised and you freak out because you didn't prepare? Well, that's what I'm doing to you. Here's a quick list of things that I'm quite thankful for so far this year.

1) My recent trip to the UK with Lift Ministries. It was my third time over there and it gets more intense and awesome every year. I can't wait to see what happens next year!

2) My job. It took forever to get one, but I finally did. Also, it's at a bakery and everything is delicious there. You just can't say that about working many places.

3) My friend Lori, who thought that my holiday celebrating was neat, and has even started a blog of her own describing her celebrations and/or thoughts on the holidays. She even found some holidays that were different than mine (My list... may or may not be outdated... by two years... almost three), so you'll get twice the holidays for half the money! Which... is still $0.00, because they are free blogs... OFF TRACK! I was trying to say that her involvement and interest in this has re-kindled my excited-ness in my own blog! (I was getting lackadaisical lately, and also mad at the food holidays for being so... prevalent.) I will do my best to not do that now!

4) Last but not definitely not least, I'm thankful for my loyal viewers. All 8-27 daily viewers (Yeah I'm watchin' you) that read this blog. It may sound small, but that's a good room-full of people. And they aren't always the same ones either! I get people I know coming up to me asking about what holiday it is, and it's all fun times! Without your viewership, I would basically be talking to myself. Which, while sometimes therapeutic, becomes creepy if done too often. So thank you!

Today is also the International Banana Festival Day! I hear tell that this is a Kentucky thing, but that doesn't make sense to me because of the word 'International' in the title. However, from the pictures I've seen, it involves eating a lot of bananas. I am totally down for that. I've eaten banana bread, banana pudding, a banana and peanut butter sandwich, and even a banana smoothie! Feel free to experiment with banana recipes today, too. And just so you don't forget today is banana day, it helps to have this stuck in your head forever.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Mind Over Matters

Today is World Sauntering Day! Again! Last time we had a World Sauntering Day, I told you some good ways to saunter. Don't worry, I'm not rescinding the method in that post. It is still valid. Instead, today I am here to warn you about the possible downsides of over-using the saunter.

UPSIDE: You look like you are very in control of all aspects of your own life.

DOWNSIDE: This will make people hoist their daily burdens onto you.

SOLUTION: Either learn to use the Secret Saunter* (otherwise known as the Cautionary Constitutional by some of the older viewers), or accept your role as problem receiver and prepare accordingly to solve all possible problems that are given to you that day.

*Secret Saunter may require experience in Novice to Intermediate level Sauntering. See Index in Handbook for details.


Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Juggling Again.

Today is World Jugglers Day! By my count, this is the third holiday dealing with juggling this year. I really don't know why juggling has that many. It's not that it isn't a cool talent to have. It's just that I don't think it's three-holidays-a-year cool.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, though... maybe it's World Jugglers Day, not World Jugglers Day. Because if that's the case, then that is a totally different story. I don't know anyone who can juggle worlds, though. I think the closest person would have to be Atlas. And even then, that's only the more modern depiction of him. See, most people think of him as the mythological being that holds up our earth, when in fact he doesn't. He was actually punished (for rebelling against the Olympians) by being forced to hold up the sky. He was put on the western edge of the earth and was told to hold up the sky so that the two would never meet. Plus, I would think the sky would be lighter...

That really makes more sense, too, if you think about it. If he's holding up the sky, that means that there is one point where he always will be just so he can hold the sky away from the earth. If he was holding the earth in the same manner that most of our statues now show him doing, we would constantly see his arms and smell his pit-sweat. And you know when you hold something heavy and it starts to hurt your fingers so you wiggle your fingers just a bit to get a better grip or maybe shrug a shoulder? Yeah he'd do that and we'd be shaking or getting squashed by random fingers constantly.

Anyway... World Jugglers Day.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Advanced Walking Technique #12

Today is World Sauntering Day! Sauntering is an age old art that has been learnt by many beginning walkers, but only mastered by the most agile and confident among them. To "saunter" is to walk at leisure with no particular direction, aim, or destination. It is easy to try, but hard to master for the simple reason that in this modern age, we have some task needing accomplishment at all times.

Having walked for a good amount of my life, and having set time aside when I was young to practice the trade, I am at such a level where I may be able to pass on some basic sauntering maneuvers. I am not an expert, but I am by no means a novice.

I find the first thing that absolutely must be done in order to start a true saunter, is to clear your mind of the illusion of your need to accomplish anything. This can be hard to do, so I suggest you first study in the area of Realizing How Unimportant Things Are.

Once your mind is clear of that pesky to-do list and you have literally nothing to do aside from exist, take a few steps. Keep your body relaxed and let your arms sway however they do naturally. No need to have a brisk pace, but don't go too slowly, or else you will distract yourself by concentrating too much on where your feet currently are. While it is important to know where your feet are, you shouldn't be bogged down by it.

The next key thing to do is to disconnect your mind's conscious control of your legs, and to think of nothing of particular importance. Much like your heartbeat, breathing, or blinking, your natural walk follows a pattern. If you are old enough, your walking pattern has been subconsciously imprinted into your mind so deeply, that you can walk without thinking about it. This will be hard for beginners, due to your want to learn how to saunter, it may come up in your thoughts every now and then. Do not let it.

Once you've cleared your mind and set your walk to auto-pilot, let your thoughts drift. You'll know your sauntering by the look that others give you. It will be a look comprised of disbelief in the fact that you are indeed so calm, disgust in the fact that you flaunt your calm so publicly, and the slightest hint of jealousy over your obvious freedom.

Beginners Beware! It can be easy to become lost in a saunter if you do not set into your mind certain "alarms". Perhaps use your internal clock to know when you have sauntered for long enough, or saunter until an outer event such as your ringtone or a car horn stops your saunter. Sauntering for too long is dangerous to various versions of your health. (Physical, Mental, Social, Emotional, Financial). Saunter Safely!

 Below is a picture of me with my good friends in mid-stride of a synchronized saunter.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Lab Manual

Today is Read Me Day! After three pages of a google search (if you go past three, then you're just getting desperate), I could find just about nothing on this day. However, so few things actually use that phrasing, that I can only assume it to be a day about one thing: Read Me Files. For those of you who haven't ever installed anything on your computer, or maybe just don't look at any files that you have installed, a Read Me file is usually where the file you installed or downloaded is explained. It also might have hints on how to solve technical issues or an access code to a locker containing $1,000,000 in Mexico. So maybe next time you should read it.

Today is also World Laboratory Day! A day to celebrate all the wonderful things that happen in laboratories. Things like science. One of my favourite shows to watch as a child was Dexter's Lab, and due to this show, I now say "Laboratory" like Dexter did. I'd also like to point out that this new show "Dexter" has unrightfully taken it's place. When I say "Dexter" now, people think of murder rather than how annoying it is to have a ditzy blonde sister come into your secret lab and wreck the place. Oh, well. I'm gonna go watch a few episodes in honor of one of the greatest cartoons of my childhood.

Finished Product!

Tada!

Ladies and Gentlefolk, my culinary creation! It is a Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcake. I made it with strawberry cake mix with red sprinkles mixed in to give it a nice look and replaced the water with ginger ale to give it some zing. Everybody loves ginger ale. The topping is butter cream and there is a half strawberry on top being shaded by an umbrella toothpick. Those toothpicks are very, VERY hard to find where I live by the way, so thanks to World Market being the only store anywhere near me that had some.

Well, I hope your Dream Your Sweet day went well, too! I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

~Dukes McGee