"I write, therefore I am."

Must be April. That means the Utah Children's Writers are doing their 30 Days, 30 Stories again just like last year . This year I decided to do a piece from 2007, to highlight the struggle I had when my brother was diagnosed with diabetes: Hope Without A Sugar Coating . In 2008 I did the JDRF Walk for Diabetes as well, for my brother and some friends' children. If you can, please take a moment and donate to the JDRF. My motto still stands: A dollar, a difference . Thanks.

So before the end of the year came around, I had Arbitration for my accident. I knew that after that, I was going to need a break. Good or bad outcome, it was going to be a stressful day and I would need something to take my mind off everything. So the day after we arbitrated, I hopped a plane to Burbank to see Turtle. When I landed, I went outside and greeted the sun. Oh yeah, California is WARM! I waited and waited and Turtle took forever (just kidding). Once we were on the road, we put on the GLEE: Christmas album, even though to her it didn't feel like Christmas. It was 67 degrees outside after all. As we were driving, we decided to get brunch. I said, "I want to eat at a hole-in-the-wall dive." So we looked for a bit, and then found "Tom's #7," which from the outside appeared to be an old school burger joint. Inside it was a mexican restaurant completely staffed and patronized by non-whites. Fantastic. I got a pastrami quesadilla, because why not? Pastr...

Ever since 2009 when I claimed to not read articles, and then 2010 when I acknowledged that I started reading , I've been thinking about articles. Because I read A TON of them. So for this year's best of, I wanted it to be harder to choose (and it will be). I started tracking the articles I perused. Granted, I wasn't super diligent about it, so this list isn't wholly representative... but I think I did a pretty good job. So disclaimers: No guarantee any links will work. Not a comprehensive list. Don't read if there's going to be something that offends you. Articles of 2011 included: Movement to restore children's play Zodiac sign hasn't changed ONE PERIOD DAMMIT Women obsessed with LDS blogs Mormonism: room for everyone? Serenity/Firefly after Mormons and Iomega Disney ditching princesses 11 Things to Know at 25(ish) NEI Responds to AP Article Utah braces for floodings as hot temps melt snowpack Scientists create first memory expansion for brain Toddler...

Immortals (Nov 19) - Grade: B+. This one wasn't really on my radar, and I'm pretty sure I even got invited to see it once or twice and declined, but everyone was talking about it, and then I must've been in the right mood because a friend invited me and I agreed. I'd never seen 300 so I was worried I would be lost, but I found out it was just the same director, not the same story. The story was pretty intense, but cool, though I must say that WOW, I was unprepared for all the blood and gore in this! There were some scenes where the slow-motion cinematography was cool, but GROSS! It was also interesting to me to "go behind the scenes" and read about how much the stars all worked out and how far in advance they trained so that they could have ripped, awesomely hot bodies for the movie. The preparation and dedication to a movie part can be pretty ridiculous if you ask me! Let Me In (Dec 3) - Grade: B-. This movie had always caught my eye from the time trailers...

C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle - Grade: B. Probably my least favorite Narnia book. SPOILER: I like the fact that Lewis brings everyone back, but not that the majority of them die. It just seems unnecessary and unhelpful. Also, the spirituality/christianity aspect gets overly-heavyhanded here. It's tolerable in the other books, but here it becomes a bit much, in my opinion. Turtle was happy to be done with the Narnias so we could get to the last book in the Chronicles Series, Dragons of Summer Flame . Sarah Southerland's Not Another Sarah: Avoiding and Escaping Abuse - Grade: ? I don't really know how to grade this book. It's written by a personal friend of mine about her true story account of being in and escaping from a very dangerous, abusive relationship. The account is harrowing, almost unbelievable in places, and gripping. I read the book almost in one sitting. Something intriguing Sarah has done is pair her account with a guide - "Everything You Need To Kn...

Somehow, someway this post got missed being published. I swear I wrote the thing months and months ago, the original draft was from Jan 31, 2011, but when I opened the draft there was no content! So I guess I failed on that one... James Rollins' Altar of Eden - Grade: B-. A co-worker recommended this book to me. I don't think the storyline was necessarily bad, just weird. Some parts of the book came across as too contrived for my liking. It took me a long time to get through this novel. Parts of it were slow, and then others held my attention raptly. I was up and down on this book quite a bit. Perry Moore's HERO - Grade: A. I didn't think the plot in this book was super-tight, nor were all the characters well-written and developed, but I'm going to give it an A anyway for breaking boundaries and daring to be different. This book is basically a re-invention of the superhero. The main character is gay, his teammate's ability makes everyone sick, and the girl...

I did something crazy. I started a new blog! (I know, I know, I can't even keep up with this one... what makes me think I can do another one?!) But this one is for my writing. My reading. My re-"taking" of a college course I had 6 years ago. I'm pretty stoked about it. You should follow along. There will be new posts everyday ("homework" does that!) Come on over and see me read, write, evoke, ponder, and be.