Remember my favorite sister?  Well, I’m at home in Arizona.  I’ve been here for a couple days so far and will continue for another before heading to my grandfather’s funeral.  He passed away the 28th.  Happy Holidays, right?  Right.  He was 92.  He lived a wonderful life and was an amazing man.  I only wish to have had more opportunities to make memories with him.  I have a lot of memories already.  But there’s so much I wish he could have seen of my life.  And there’s so much more I wish I could have shared with him.

Anyway.  I just wanted to say, “Hello.”  Visiting family has been wonderful.  Really, though, I kind of just feel like going away to the mountains or Boise’s foothills and staring at the stars and thinking.  It’s hard to hear myself think when I feel there’s nowhere to escape to.  But I do, indeed, need this time.  And I’ve started this New Year off properly: seeing family and friends, most of those who matter most to me.  And that will continue in numbers I couldn’t have even fathomed a week ago this hour.  He’s been dead for just hours under that duration.  We all have missed him dearly, and will all gather for mourning & celebration.  I like to perceive it more of the latter;  I’m just thankful I had the opportunity to know him.

I didn’t intend on turning this post into a “my grandpa’s dead”-post (whatever such a post would be like).  Had I, I would’ve gotten a picture of him and me to post.  However, I have none in my computer;  they’re all at my grandma’s and mom’s.  But, Abigail is amazing nonetheless, of course.

I think most of you know she’s my favorite.

Well, I’ll be back to Idaho in less than a week.  I’ll be on sporadically, as always.  I hope you all had Happy Holidays. 

Since I made a very family-oriented post yesterday, I feel like making another today.  On Friday, my younger brother turned 18.  And I just want to share the fact that he’s fantastic.  

I’m surprised by how many of you took the time to read yesterday’s family post.  Thank you.  That’s by far the most personal post I’ve ever made on this blog.  And it’s nice knowing you care enough to dedicate time to learn a little more about how I think, beyond simply the political, economic, and philosophical aspects of life.  I hope you enjoyed getting to know my family a little better, too.  :)

I’m not in a very political mood right now.  But I still want to make a post.  And I noticed my stepmom liked my commentary on this family photo in her Facebook album.  So, I thought I’d just share a little bit about my family with you all.  And, this photo shows the personalities of my siblings and parents very well.  It’s amazing to me how we’ve all grown so much but in this photo from a decade ago our personalities are so apparent. 

So, I’ll discuss the family members in order of favorite to least favorite.  Hopefully they run across this post so that they know who’s doing the best at receiving my attention and who needs to step up their game.  

Abigail is my favorite, hands down.  And, as you can see by the family photo, she is the youngest.  She’s very curious and thoughtful, always finding herself learning more and growing faster day by day.  She’s the baby.  But by no means is she babied.  Certainly though I’ve tended to treat her better than my other siblings.  However, while I lived with my family, she was the only one willing to wake up at 5AM to go on a bike ride and get coffee and pastries with me at Coffee Rush (well, she got Italian Sodas … mango with cream normally).  So it only makes sense that I’d have her as my favorite.  And also her personality is very similar to mine.  She’s sarcastic.  She’s dry.  She’s pensive.  She’s humorous.  And she loves to learn what she loves to learn.  … And of course she’s musically inclined.  Though that’s not a unique characteristic within my family.  So, it doesn’t play much part in her being my favorite.  But we must continue because I have quite a few other members to talk about.  And, of course, talking about what makes one member of my family more close to me in relation to other members based on how they act and how they think is a good transition to the next favorite member. So let’s continue.

Similar to Abigail—like, very similar—is my next favorite.  The main difference between these two members is Abigail would wake up and go on bike rides with me in the mornings, and my mom hadn’t.  But their personalities are, for the most part, identical.  They find similar things humorous.  They make the same faces.  They joke the same.  And they both are good at determining appropriate times of pleasure and appropriate times of working (though my mom is far superior at discerning than Abigail is, as my mom is not 11 years old).  And in the picture you can see my mom’s personality: thoughtful, on task, focused yet under pressure.  Since then she still has those traits.  However, she’s become more relaxed.  At least, I feel like she’s become more relaxed.  That may be partly because she doesn’t take the same scolding-role that she had while I was younger and more rebellious.  But that’s beside the point;  the point of the matter is that she’s my second favorite.

My third favorite is my father.  In the family photo you can see his personality is serious and humorous.  He likes to stir the pot, to get people passionate about things he feels are good and just, and to have a good time while he does that, using humor as the primary form of provoking others to think.  Granted, he does discern what appropriate and inappropriate times for doing that is—he definitely discerns it far better than I do.  So there isn’t much of a problem or conflict in how he tends to discuss things with people.  Also, he’s the primary reason I am passionate about politics and the ability of others to restrict my life.  My father cares about his sense of liberty and freedom, as I care about mine.  I am really glad, though, that as I was looking through his Facebook pictures I saw not even one picture of him standing beside any of the immoral corrupt crooks he occasionally hangs out with (I mean, politicians).

There tends to be constant flux for the next three seats (fourth favorite, fourth least-favorite, third least-favorite).  These are consistently filled by Samantha, Emma and Jonathan.  But they average out pretty well making them all pretty equal.  Let’s just say these three seats are really just three spots on the couch, all having equal value.  So in discussing the next three siblings, the order I place them in has nothing really to do with whether or not any one of them I prefer over the other.  But in order to be orderly I’ll just be fair and talk about these three from youngest to oldest. 

Emma’s common thought process goes along the lines of “this is nice. When it’s done, I’m going to go sneak away and get back to my book.”  And I think that that is apparent in pictures of her.  I mean, it’s definitely less likely for Jonathan to think that.  Look at the kid;  he’s too busy joking around to enjoy dramatic fiction books.  I guess I should’ve clarified what types of literature Emma prefers.  But now that you know, you can probably see it better in her pictures.  I used to be a lot closer to Emma when we were younger.  Actually, she was my favorite for a long time.  I spent a lot of time with her in her developmental years because during that time I would consistently visit my father, every two weeks and half the summers and holidays.  And my name was one of Emma’s first words.  For a long time I thought it was Emma’s first word.  But recently I’ve heard otherwise and that long-held belief of mine has been put into question.  It makes little difference at this point though.  I love Emma and her personality and her inputs.  But I don’t see her as rational as Abigail.  I mean, certainly emotions should be taken into account in the decision-making process.  But they definitely should not be the ultimate reason for the decision.

Jonathan, similarly, is more emotionally-driven.  He’s not as emotionally-driven as Emma is.  But he tends to shut out arguments that question his prevailing beliefs and superstitions—at least, the beliefs and superstitions that he fears losing.  Jonathan enjoys memories and finds himself attached easily to objects that remind him of things he cares deeply for.  And he cares deeply for a lot of things.  Pack rat?  Well, I don’t want to get into that :).  But those characteristics of Jonathan I can’t see that clearly in this picture.  Maybe a connection can be drawn from the other traits.  I don’t know.  There isn’t really much to add for Jonathan, either.  The picture speaks clearly for itself.  You wanna know how Jonathan is?  You wanna know if he’d be a cool kid to bring to a party?  Well … maybe on occasion you’d need a short break from him.  But all and all, he’s a shit-ton of fun.  And he will make you smile.  And he will care about you.  And you will know it.  And you’ll know, also, that the world would not be the same place without him.

Samantha is a really unique cookie.  I don’t really know how to explain her personality beyond a really vague, cliché, one-word adjective: AMAZING.  Really, had my father not been my father and instead a sibling, he’d probably be on this couch with Jonathan and Emma and Samantha would be my third favorite.  I guess in a sense I could just say that she’s my fourth favorite;  but really sometimes Jonathan is in front and sometimes Emma.  Maybe averaging it out over time still puts Samantha ahead and places her legitimately in fourth place.  However, I didn’t want to say that in fourth and third least-favorites were Emma and Jonathan.  So, in order to be more fair, as people for some reason try to be with family, I placed them all together.  Shall we continue on with the explanation of Samantha?  I think so.  You haven’t learned anything about her in comparison to everyone else.  Sam is … a little teapot.  She’s kind and sweet.  And, at the times you least expect it, she starts whistling and you devote your attention to her.  You won’t do it out of necessity.  Rather you do it out of a deep desire to enjoy her company, for the same reason you would pour yourself a cup of tea for enjoyment (otherwise you would’ve gotten simply a glass of water).  Man, I know that’s probably a very vague explanation.  But, if you meet her, you would fully realize its accuracy.  She’s not someone who’s easy to put into words.  And that is one of the reasons that she’s so interesting.

Speaking of people who aren’t easy to understand: Eliana.  I guess we weren’t really speaking of someone who isn’t easy to understand;  just because Samantha is difficult to put into words doesn’t mean that she’s not very understandable.  Her actions are pretty rational.  Emotions don’t dictate the majority of her decision-making.  And she reasons very well.  But we must go forward to my second least-favorite family member.  I should preface this by saying that I love Eliana.  But neither my computer nor the Internet have pictures defending that statement.  Even if there were it wouldn’t matter.  Everyone knows photographic truth is a myth.  Look at Ellie.  Look at her red hair, her porcelain face.  Know that her response is: “Huh? I didn’t do anything.” … But the knife’s behind your back, Eliana.  Literally, you know the redhead stereotypes?  You know them, right?  You know them.  Well, they’re all true.  At least, in this case.  That is Eliana. And, similarly, that is the picture.  But before I move on I’d like to note that not all those stereotypes are bad.  I don’t want to give off the impression here that there is nothing I like about Eliana because that would be an absolutely false impression.  Eliana wants to succeed and move forward.  And, she does so however she knows how.  And she wants to learn from her experiences on the way.  Though, I don’t know how possible it is for her to do anything besides that.  She doesn’t heed warnings or take advice.  She learns from how she recalls yesterday and how she perceives tomorrow.  And she’ll do whatever she feels necessary in order to achieve her perceived needs and desires.

My least favorite sibling is my older sister, Tovah.  And, when I say “least favorite,” once again, I probably ought to clarify the fact that I do not dislike them per se.  It’s more along the lines of “if they weren’t related I wouldn’t hang out with them” or “I wouldn’t hang out with them as often as I would the other family members, assuming none of them were related.”  For instance: I would enjoy working with Tovah on projects, getting her input, hearing her criticisms, moving forward.  I’m not one who stresses much.  Tovah does.  And I like diversity in teams for some reason.  I tend to think a certain level of stress is beneficial.  And, honestly, I don’t really have that level.  However, I also find Tovah to be fairly jumbled and discontent.  Certainly contentment isn’t something I find desirable.  But there’s always a good balance that needs to be found, some sort of equilibrium.  And I think that Tovah’s discontentment is such that it restricts her ability to be in the here-and-now.  I tend to enjoy being present as frequently as I can.  Tovah much prefers being tomorrow or yesterday.  And you will find that to be true when conversing with her.  If you enjoy that, discussing things that have happened, people, entertainment for the sake of entertainment, and that there’s always an end to achieve that you ultimately know that’s what you’re going for, you’ll likely have a great time talking with Tovah.  At times there’s no one else I’d rather talk to about things than Tovah.  But in the grand-scale of things, she just happened to not mesh as well with my personality as other family members. 

I hope that by these points and explanations you can easily see how amazing this picture is, how vivid their personalities are, and how unique each one of them is—and, of course, that this picture reveals those facts.

Here is last year’s Christmas picture.

Ricardo and I are hanging out in Anaheim.  Who’s all around?  Wanna kick it with some badass anarchists?!?

This is how you use non-verbal symbols in Internet conversations.

One of the summer courses I’m in has an assignment to make a self-“portrait.”  Here’s what I’ve done.  I’m sure a couple of you can interpret it the way I meant for it to be interpreted.