I commented on Sarah’s blog and got tagged back, so here are my answers:

8 things I am passionate about

1. Music
2. Writing
3. Helping people
4. Making sure people feel like they’re a part of the group—especially those on the fringe
5. Learning new things
6. Making good use of my intellect (however dangerous that may be)
7. Coffee
8. Clean code! If you don’t indent, I’m coming after you!

8 things I often say

1. Good plan.
2. Sounds like a plan.
3. I support that.
4. I’m not a fan.
5. Ok, I think I know how to do this. (true about half of the time)
6. Well, Soren Kierkegaard said…
7. Send me the XML response.
8. Clean code!

8 things I want to do before I die

1. Finish a screenplay
2. Play a show where people are actually paying to see me (and my band)
3. Record another album
4. Go on an overseas mission
5. Take someone in and help them get on their feet in life (it’s part of why I wanted a big house)
6. Get published (and online doesn’t count)
7. See Radiohead live
8. Visit Japan

8 things I have learned from my past

1. The people who are a total drain on those around them usually don’t consider themselves to be so. The opposite is also true.
2. There is a very delicate balance to everything. Sometimes this is found within one person, but very often it is found only in many.
3. The popularity of a show, song, group, or idea means very little if you’re not like most people.
4. Things are usually more complicated than they initially seem. So are people.
5. We are not the masters of our own fate. Life is 30% determination, 30% circumstance, and 40% chance.
6. Conversely, no matter what happens around you, you are 100% responsible for your actions.
7. Positive thinking is an overreaction to cynicism. Irresponsible optimism can be just crippling in life as complete apathy.
8. If something has never been done before, there’s usually a good reason for it.

8 places I would love to visit

1. Japan
2. London
3. Ireland
4. Boston
5. Kona, Hawaii (where I grew up and where some of my grandparents live)
6. New York (where my sister lives)
7. Florida (where my parents live)
8. The bathroom… be right back

8 things I currently need/want

1. A set of bongo drums with stand
2. A stand for my djembe
3. A bass drum (sensing a theme here?)
4. Two fast crash cymbals with stands
5. A 10″ wood snare
6. A baritone guitar
7. Fallout 3 (due out in a month!)
8. My wife

8 people I tag
This is the part where I find out how few of my friends read my blog.

1. Janelle
2. Watson
3. Liz
4. Dave
5. Dagney
6. Adam Hamilton (because why not?)
7. Zoey (who needs to blog!)
8. I’ll take the first person to comment on this blog!

If I tagged you, copy all of this and fill it out on your blog. If you dare!

They claim to actually be the campaign office for the Obama campaign.

Tilly’s a pretty funny cat to watch. The other night, she punched my watch as I rested my arm on the ground. (She didn’t bat or swing at it—the front of the paw just went flying toward my watch, and BAM!)

So anyway, I walk in tonight to shave (a ritual that takes place every three or four days) and saw Tilly laying down beside the bay window in our room. I went over to pet her and saw that she was covering something with her paws as if guarding it. (She was probably playing with it until I walked in.) Immediately suspicious, I lifted her paws to discover a single dollar bill. So we’re at about a week and a half, and already she’s gone from begging for food to hoarding money. At this rate, she’ll have her own bank account by Halloween. I wonder how they compound interest on catnip.

With the cold weather the last two days, I’m happy to say that Fall has arrived in Kansas City. This means a few things:

• Colder weather – This is awesome. Fall is the best time of the year, weather-wise.
• Fall colors are in fashion – It’s the one time of the year that I actually want to dress fashionably. This also means that Fall-colored clothes are on sale. (I can’t believe I wrote a blog post to talk about clothes.)
• Fall-colored cats show up in my house – Ok, this one’s a stretch, but you have to admit, it’s perfect timing on Tilly’s part.
• Leaves are all over my freaking yard – Ok, not so cool. My poor lawnmower just had to be resuscitated as it is. This does provide me the opportunity, however, to glue leaves all over my car and drive around pretending they just fell there.
• Pumpkin spice – Finally, the magnus opus of Fall: pumpkin spice. We’re not limited to driving around and looking at Fall anymore—now, we can actually season things so they taste like Fall. I plan to apply pumpkin spice to almost everything I cook at some point in time this Fall. Pumpkin spice chicken pasta? You saw it here first.
• Kids are back in school – Give me back my Sonic drive-in. Damn kids.

We made it back from OK City. Bryan’s birthday was a big hit. (He’s four now.) We went to one of those arcades/go-kart tracks/pizza buffets. I played a drumming video game and so totally sucked at it. I have never felt so white. We earned almost 1,000 tickets, which somehow turned into almost 4,000 when they tallied them up at the counter (I still want to know how we pulled that trick, because I want a lava lamp).

Explosions in the Sky CDs are meant to be played loud. Janelle didn’t want to put one in while she was driving for fear that it would put her to sleep. When I started driving, I put one in, but because it was playing softly, it very nearly did put me to sleep.

When we got back, Franny was not happy to see us and gave us the cold shoulder for a while. Either she or Zoey jumped up on a bookshelf and knocked everything off of the top of it. Tilly’s still malnourished, and doesn’t like her back scratched too hard (she bit me!).

Man oh man, I’m tired. I’m off. Just checking in. Good night.