In order to keep these updates more uniform I'm creating a schedule. Widdershins (megandurham.blogspot.com/)will update on Mondays. Comfy Fuzzy Ninjas (This one!) will have a major update each Wednesday. Other entries will pop up as they come to me, but there will be...

Here's another word that doesn't quite exist in English. The definition comes from Alexander Macgillivray's (Twitter's legal counsel and an excellent Internet Law expert) blog by the same name.According to pages found through google's glossary (where else would one...

And this is how I started the year! This is the Polar Bear Plunge at Alki Beach and it was approximately freezing outside when I did it. Seriously, there was ice on the freaking roads.

The last week has been absolutely insane. New Year's had been declared a City Year reunion date almost since we all parted ways in the first place. And while I absolutely loved having everyone here I am kind of glad that everyone's gone home and my schedule is a...

Christmas back home was absolutely lovely. I spent my time running between my parents' place and my brothers' place, playing video games, reading books, and catching up with the sun. It's been so long, oh bright ball of fire, how have I lived without you?One of the...

Goodness, this trip has been even crazier than the initial security check incident foreshadowed! I'm back in Seattle now, but I've broken my phone, left my keys back in Tucson, and navigated a near-fifty pound box through the streets and transit system of Seattle. Not...

A while ago I acquired one of the coolest self defense items ever: an extendable baton. With a flick of the wrist and a wonderfully loud ssscwinnk noise the innocuous black cylinder expands into a formidable weapon. The idea behind carrying it, and the reason why my...

I'm luckily somewhere near the top.www.brunching.com/images/geekchartbig.gif

Don't know if I can keep calling this daily fun if I don't do it most weekdays...www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/reaction_version5.swfI'm apparently a rocketing rabbit.

Not that these tests are all that accurate, but this one's fun!http://fun.more.jcisio.com/flash/Color-and-Me.swf

When I heard that Gogol Bordello was coming to Seattle I literally squealed with glee. I originally saw them in Tucson at the urging of my friend who is Russian. Russian Gypsy Punk, I thought, sure why not?It only took one concert to get me hooked. There is something...

And here's the most ridiculous thing that I've seen recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex7SJD6EhC8I love how you can actually see the strings.

Adjusting back to the real world after City Year is surprisingly difficult. It’s not that I have a problem with Seattle (it’s beautiful and there are always tons of things going on) but I’m suffering from something I haven’t had to worry about for a while: a lack of...

One of the benefits of living in the Northwest is that water isn’t a hoarded resource. Thus plants are more likely to waste energy and water on something like fruit, giving us wild foods that you can readily eat, like the Himalayan Blackberry. Now, the Himalayan...

So the founder’s day festival ended up being a bit of a bust. There weren’t that many vendors there, and the music, while good, wasn’t really suited to the open air type style of a street fair. But all of that would have been just fine if there had been more people. I...

I finally have a job! Deciding to stay in Seattle was a bit of a risk, I’ll admit it, but just how much of a risk it was didn’t really resonate with me until I had to empty my savings out in order to pay for the deposit on my new place, the lease having been up at the...

According to legend every year the naga of the Mekong River honors the anniversary of the return of the Buddha from the heavens by sending balls of fire skyward. These glowing red orbs rise from the river in majestic silence, accompanied by much celebration on the...

Can a stereotype kill you? Eighty-six percent of all adolescent suicides are male. And it doesn’t get much better with age; across all age groups, males are four times more likely to commit suicide than females. In fact, suicide is the eighth leading cause of death...

In this long line of kennels Chewy is by far one of the best behaved. A beautiful chocolate lab he’s eager for attention, eyes and ears perked for the faintest sight of fingers coming through the grate for a scratch. He’s eager to please, acting out commands of “sit”...

I need to stop procrastinating! But it's a good break I suppose, and I get to feed my roommates.

Koro, it’s a disease eerily reminiscent of old B-movies. You’re a not-so-mild-mannered shop keeper, engaged in a hearty argument with a foreign customer. You’re practically boiling over with anger when suddenly he firmly takes your hand and shakes it until you notice...

{This and the entries around it are excerpts from my journal, written during the return of my 6 month curse. Approximately every 6 months I hurt myself in some sort of spectacular fashion, usually necessitating a hospital visit. This time, though, the injury was a bit...

Ladies and gentlemen, it is good to see you. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure that I was going to make it back here.See, I have a problem. You may even say it's a family problem. If I'm part of an organization putting on a big event and I'm given the opportunity...

City Year requires that we do a speech to the corps sometime during the year, here's the transcript of mine for all of you to peruse and enjoy. If you could, take a moment and pay attention. Not to me, but to the world around you. Feel the chair underneath you, the...

Picking up a copy of The Stranger on Friday I saw an event notice that caught my eye. It was for Dan Savage's Valentine Day Bash and was sold as "a one-of-a-kind holiday catharsis" where members of the audience give Mr. Savage a tokens of failed relationships and...

It seems that whenever I think that I'm becoming a hermit events and fun things to do suddenly fill my every waking hour. These last weekends have been busy!First of all, a friend discovered and invited a bunch of us to the most interesting place up here... a sushi...

Today I was coming back from our service day on the bus. I was all covered with paint and tired after managing a group of middle schoolers for most of the day and settled down into a seat with my journal without any thought for the world passing me by. At least until...

So it used to be that MLK Day was a day off, not much else. Sure there was the obligatory speech from the principal over the announcements or a workshop in History, but really it was the day off of school that made it special. Not so in City Year. We've been preparing...

Here I am, back from vacation and in school again. I didn't realize how much I missed the sun until I was back swimming in it. It was wonderful being back in Tucson with the open expanse of the desert tugging at the eye and the heart, the bright border of mountains...

I got a couple of compliments from people telling me that I always seem to be doing something, but I don't really feel it. Sometimes I feel as if I'm not really doing anything, even though I'm out doing stuff most of the day. I guess I'm used to being a tad more...

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. We finally have students in our classes, which means that I don't have to spend us much time wandering through classes on the 6th grade floor but instead get to do the job we came here for and work with kids who really need our help....

So, I guess my Magazine Club students don't actually hate me. I was afraid that after the first meeting we had that they were going to all go and change their clubs to something else, but in fact the opposite happened. I've got three new girls, all friends of students...

Today was my first day in the schools and in uniform! It felt very official walking into the school all dressed in our reds, but it was mostly for show. The administration is waiting to give us suspended students until we're embedded a little further into the school...