Day 210: Duct Tape Wallet

     This particular challenge was inspired by my sister, who made me a wallet using nothing but pure duct tape. I thought it was the coolest thing at the time (its still pretty rad) and so did my classmates. I used the wallet for years till it was too torn up and have since had to resort to using an uncool wallet to hold my moneys. So I found out the hard way that duct tape wallets are hard to make. I followed some of the varying tutorials on the web long enough for me to realize that they were all just winging it. These people didn't know the right way to make a duct tape wallet. That's when I took a turn off the beaten path and decided to find my own way. It was a patchwork job for sure, but it turned out pretty alright, although it was pretty small. Check out the pictcha-s.

Day 209: Knot Tying

     I felt like I needed to try more practical challenges that would help me out in the real world. I need to be mastering things like knot tying, hunting and fire starting if I want any chance at the upcoming apocalypse (I think I got lucky that one time, day 140: http://aimforeclouds.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-140-survive-apocalypse.html). So I grabbed an old shoe string and I looked up some YouTube videos and I practiced some basic knots for survival sake. As it turns out, there's like a thousand different types of knots, and a shoestring is knot that great for tying. I did my best to mirror the technique of the people on YouTube and I got a couple down. The bowline knot was the easiest for me. I think my survival practice went well, but I could always use more.

Day 208: Chocolate Chilies

     I had some time to kill before work today, so I made a stop at a store that I felt would surely lead me to new oddities to try; Whole Foods. I perused through the isles of Boulder-Bath soaps and eco-friendly tampons, on the hunt for my new thing. It was a weird experience just being in a store that was so, green. It wasn't bad, just weird. I eventually found myself checking out the candy section (cause some things just don't change) and found a bar of dark chocolate that had chunks of cherries and grounded up chili peppers in it. It was an intriguing combination, I could dig a chocolate and cherries bar, but I couldn't imagine how a chili pepper chocolate bar could be any good. I bought the exotic candy bar and was pleasantly surprised when I bit into it. The chocolate and chili pepper flavors were really bold, but it worked. I thought that the candy was going to taste like straight garbage but the flavors seemed to go together well. If your still skeptical about trying one of these babies, let me just say that I'm not really into chili peppers and I still liked it. I suggest that you go out and buy a bar to try. Who knows, maybe I just turned you onto your new favorite treat.

Day 207: Interview Training

     I had an interview for a position as a BASE (Before and After School Program) program staff member at a school down the street from me today. I was mostly excited and a little bit nervous about the interview because I had gotten a call earlier today from another BASE program who had unfortunately called me to inform me that they were not going to choose me as their newest member. I have been trying really hard to get a position at the BASE program, and that call that I had just received had kind of shot down my spirits. The thought of being denied for both positions was terrifying, so I decided (for my own good) to revamp my entire interview strategy. I didn't want this interview to end up like the last. I didn't want anymore partially answered questions and awkward silences. I wanted an interview that I could be proud of. That's why I enlisted the help of none other than Brian Krueger; the internet entrepreneur, author, lecturer and business leader extraordinaire. Brian has a heap-load of helpful vlogs (video blogs) on his channel that are specifically designed to give "me" (of coarse referring to anyone that is watching his vlogs) the skills I need to land my dream job. He has videos that explain the importance of an organized resume, how to dress during an interview, how to prepare for tricky questions, and even how to overcome 'interview nervousness'. His videos were quite helpful, they taught me that I had a lot to learn. For more practice, I had my little brother help conduct a mock interview with me. A mock interview is essentially when you have a pretend interview where you use the sample questions that are provided on Mr. Krueger's site. The pretend interview is designed to help you realize the flaws in your interviewing technique that you may not have known before. It was actually really helpful. Another exercise I tried was to briefly summarize my qualities and attributes into one manageable paper. I would then reference the paper that had my strengths and the job-related experiences to back them up. This was to help me recall events and experiences that the interviewer my find to be relatable to the job. After about an hour or so of interview practice, I (for the first time so far) felt ready for the interview I was about to participate in. It will be about a week before I hear back from the job, but all I can say is that Brian Krueger helps me out a great deal and I'm feeling good about how the interview went. 

Day 206: Non-Alcoholic Beer

     I think of non-alcoholic beer in the same sense that I think of things like vegan bologna and scripted reality TV, they just don't make sense. It just seems a little pointless to me, that's all. I had never had a non-alcoholic beverage -well I guess I should rephrase that. I  have had non-alcoholic beverages like milk and water and soda, and stuff, but I have never had a non-alcoholic drink that was pretending to be alcoholic (get it?). So that's  why I found myself awkwardly standing in front of Walmart's beer section as I performed a Google search of "O'douls" to try and get the scoop on these near beers. I found that there is, in fact, alcohol in a bottle O'douls, but there isn't enough to really make a difference. My studies told me that there is ten times more alcohol per volume in an average beer than there is in a bottle of near beer and that you would "Die from a bursted stomach long before you ever got a buzz." if your actually tried to get drunk off of them. It said that you would have to down roughly 50 O'douls to feel drunk. I kept reading to try and find out if it was legal for a minor to buy said beverage in Colorado but I couldn't find much of anything. So I decided to wing-it and go try and buy the drinks anyways. The cashier didn't seem to care either way (and that's why I go to Walmart) when I tried to explain the situation. I took the 6 pack over to Mouse's and we cracked one open while watching a movie about a ninja that becomes an all-star basketball player (Its totally real: Kung Fu Dunk). It became way too clear why I had never hear of O'douls before, its cause they suck. There really wasn't much to say that would make the poor O'douls feel good about themselves. They were gross and overpriced and I felt like a total tool caring them around in Walmart. On the other hand, I learned to continue to stay away from O'douls.

Here is where my beer-search led me: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080422195207AA72K5I

Day 205: Tomato Ice Cream

     "Don't knock it till you try it" has never rang so true. I decided to make tomato ice cream and we (Mouse, Mac and I) were all a little weary about the whole thing. What you do to make tomato ice cream is simple; boil tomatoes, skin them, cut them, then throw them in a food processor, then fold the paste into a bowl of vanilla ice cream. So we had a heaping bowl of tomato ice cream in no time. I had made up my mind earlier that this was going to be totally nasty and was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't as bad as I thought. But don't get the wrong impression here, it definitely wasn't that good either. It was just good enough for me to be able to eat without fear of puking all over the apartment. The aftertaste wasn't bad but I'd have to say that, on a scale from 1 to 10, tomato ice cream would have to place at a 6.95 or so. It really wasn't that bad, but there is still ice cream out there that is considerably better.

Day 204: Attend The Renaissance Festival

     The renaissance festival is a place that I never thought I'd go, not because I didn't want to, it just never really seemed that interesting. So I went down to check things out. Mouse and I endure some pretty heavy traffic to get there but we were men with missions. After we got through the driving and parking fiasco, all that was left was to pay $15 bucks at the ticket both and we'd be in. Once inside, we wondered to a renaissance employee that was dressed like a medieval street performer. It was right about then when I realized that wearing tie-die to the renaissance festival was a good way to volunteer myself for punishment. The street performer made eye contact and shouted out "Sir, next time remember to separate your laundry" which got some laughs from the crowd. I had no choice but to stand there and laugh at my stupidity. I was reminded from many people throughout the day that I wasn't fitting in with my T-shirt. I wanted to explain how ridiculous some of these characters looked, but I refrained. We watched some acts and listened to some music, but mostly just wandered around till I felt like I had successfully gotten my $15 bucks worth. The renaissance festival is an interesting place, full of interesting people. But it seemed to remind me too much of amusement park I used to work at. Everything was overpriced and kind of low quality, and so things got boring. That highlight was definitely the parade that tore through the festival. There were drummers and fire breathers and even Jack Sparrow riding an Elephant (which seems inaccurate on several levels). For the most part, it was a good time, just too much traffic and tie-die.