Who am I...I'm a Savonologist...

We tune in to find our superhero, Savon-girl, keeping peace, justice and order in the town of Savontopia. As she looks out on the town she sees shoppers franticly scurrying to finish their holiday season shopping. She has just finished saving a town member from one of her arch-villains Super-nasty Attitude Man. He though he could get the Preferred Card Savings without his card or phone number, when he found out he couldn't, he whipped out his nasty-attitude laser gun which he uses to belittle people and make them feel inferior. But Savon-girl defeated him with her high level of professionalism and courtesy. He left with a smile and his savings.

But little did Savon-girl know that evil was lurking just around the corner. The evil villains Sticky-Fingers Mcgee and Five-Finger Discount Fred had just broken out of prison and were looking for their next big score. They had heard about the little town of Savontopia and how it was filled with extra goodies just brought in for the holiday season for the delight of all the townspeople. As they skulked around the town figuring out the things they would take for themselves they spied Savon-girl and knew that they would have to come up with an evil scheme to get the loot past her. So they plotted and planned and late one night as Savon-girl was keeping watch they came to Savontopia to execute their evil scheme. Sticky-Fingers and Five-Finger filled a basket with all the delights of Savontopia and took them to Savon-girl saying they would like to buy these wonderful presents for their family. When Savon-girl asked for payment. Sticky-Fingers pulls out a credit card with an sinister smile on his face. Savon-girl immediately realizes this card is stolen so she tells Five-Finger to stay where he is she needs to call the mayor to verify the transaction as it is larger than usual. While her back is turned Five-Finger takes the cart full of goodies and runs past the elderly night patroller who watches the borders of the town. When she turns back she notices only Sticky-Fingers is there and Five-Finger is no where to be found. The mayor comes running up in his flapping robe and pajamas wiping the sleep from his eyes. And Savon-girl says quick Five-Finger is getting away. Sticky-Fingers says I'll go call him back. As they all rush out to the edge of town Sticky-Fingers makes a break to the left and they see him hop into a car with Five-Finger. The villains had used their evil cunning to get over on Savon-girl...luckily they got a license plate number which they take to the police chief to run through the system...

Do Sticky-Fingers and Five-Finger get brought to justice, will the people of Savontopia ever feel safe again, does the mayor ever find his missing slipper? Stay tuned for more adventures of Savon-girl.

I hoped you enjoyed the adventures of Savon-girl her stories are based on true events. The names were changed to protect the innocent and not so guilty. As always enjoy.

It all finally makes sense...

I just finish reading a blog my friend Lauren posted about her fascination with a Star Trek: The Next Generation Star, Wil Wheaton. She went further to outline her other geek crushes which I thought was very brave and it has helped me to realize something. Girls like geeks.

Every since I was a little girl I have always had geek crushes. It's what started that whole nerd equation and the verification of the coefficients of said equation, for those of you who were involved in that. For those of you who know me, the geekier the better. After reading lauren's blog I realized that other girls are into geeks too. That's why you see a geek guy with a non-geek girl and you are wondering, "How did he end up with her?" It's the geek factor. One of the funny things that seems to happen to me quite frequently as some of you know is that I will have a crush on a guy, who even by his own standards realizes he is a geek/nerd whatever. Then I will find out two or more girls have a crush on the same guy. The whole time the guy will be completely oblivious to the fact that he is a serious lady magnet. But now it doesn't seem so strange. See fellas there is hope for everyone. I just wish it worked in reverse. No guy out there is going man I'm looking for a really geeky girl. If only she enjoyed large systems of non-linear equations, enjoys geeky/corny jokes, and would prefer to read to pretty much anything else. If there are some guys like that out there just let me know, we can have a relationship made in geekdom. Anyway that's all I have to say about that. As always enjoy.

I've been dreaming...

I was talking to my good friend Lauren today about a bizarre dream she had last night and it got me thinking again about a subject that has been floating around the back of my brain as of late. She said that in general she usually doesn't remember her dreams. But that the times where she does remember them it is because she has thought about them during the day.

I've been asking some of my friends recently do they remember their dreams and the resounding answer seems to be no. This seems very odd to me because I usually remember at least part of my dream vividly the next day and usually for a long time after. Even if I get a good long nap I'll remember the dream that I had then to. I generally have dreams that are so complex and complicated that when I start to share them people look at me really weird. I can't help it if I'm the only one who is able to reactivate the national security defense system. Is it my fault that I was sent into France to infiltrate the Russian spy network that was trying to destroy the European economy. I thought not. So I took it to the internet (the ultimate source of truth to see what they had to say about remembering dreams. I found one interesting link http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/mindandbody/a/dreamcreate.htm. Which made me kinda happy because maybe I'm more creative than I thought.

I guess in my family we talk about our dreams a lot more than other people do. To get a little more unconventional than I have been, in my family especially my mom, we write down our dreams especially ones we think have some deeper significance. My mom has a dream book where she writes these down and sometimes she tells people about them. The weird part is when these dreams actually happen. My mom has weirded out a lot of her friends since sometimes it has taken months or years since she had the dream for them to happen. She will show them her book at the time and then remind them about when she told them when it happens. This has happened with me as well where I will dream something and then feel the need to tell someone about it. And then at some later time it will happen. Not exactly like my dream, but close enough to weird out my friends.

I've always wondered how this happens. My mom's explanation is that sometimes God will tell you things through your dreams that are meant for you to tell other people. I've always thought that (and this may sound a little new agey) people on some level are connected with each other, whether supernaturally or on some higher level of consciousness. And that some people are more "in tune" with this level of consciousness. And no I'm not talking about "The Force". Although I do love Star Wars. I learned how to read tarot cards a couple of years ago and for some reason I'm really good at it. Some people were asking me if I was psychic which I am not. But it made me think that maybe some people practice being more aware of what's going on with people in more non-verbal ways, which I like to do. I think maybe that could explain the dream thing too. Maybe it's something completely different from either what I think or what my mom thinks I don't know. Feel free to share your thoughts and as always, enjoy.

Random Thoughts by T.T. Evans

As some people know I enjoy observing human behavior and the interactions that exist between individuals and groups. I also love making projects out of these observations and using my friends as unknowing test subjects. As a budding sociologist I feel it is my duty to record/analyze the follies...ooops! I meant activities of my fellow man for the betterment of society.

I have been observing some very interesting behavior in my friends and associates of late. For those of you who know me well that means it's experiment time. As I continue to formulate a more concrete hypothesis I will keep you posted. And there will be graphs! If you would care to know the subject of this experiment you will immediately be excluded from the project and will be required to sign a non-disclosure form. As always have a good day and enjoy.

With a little help from my friends

As most people know I'm an avid lover of the corny joke. I prefer to leave the sophisticated anecdote to the intellectuals. Give me something simple like:
What did one sick casket say to the other sick casket?
-Is that you, coffin?
and I'll laugh for hours. As a matter of fact I'm chuckling right now. However sometimes it takes me a little longer to get jokes than it does other people. A friend of mine once said I'm on a 5 second joke delay. A joke is told and everyone laughs, about 5 seconds later I get it and start laughing. One time it took me 6 months and randomly in the middle of work I started laughing at a joke. I know I need help.

Well anyhoo, the other day I was working at the Mathnasium and I was helping a girl do her homework. In the process of completing the homework we would use the correct answers to eliminate letters at the bottom of the page. The remaining letters would be used to form the punchline of a joke. It went like this...What is the difference between a cheap hamburger and a pulled tooth? After repeated checkings to make sure we had eliminate the correct letters the ones we ended up with in this order were: oneistoo. Now it seems to me that that looks like: One is too. But if that's the case then I don't get it. What does it mean? I asked my fellow mathnasium coworkers and we were all stumped. If there is anyone out there who can help me , please help. I stayed awake late last night thinking about this question to no avail. So if someone could explain:

Joke recap:
What is the difference between a cheap hamburger and a pulled tooth?
One is too.

As always have a good day and enjoy. (Still not laughing yet)

Noh thigh selph...

I was hanging out yesterday with my favorite Los Angeles family the Raceks and having good times and hijinks with their 3 wonderful children and Joe's mom. While in the kitchen talking with Lisa and Joe's mom we got around to the inevitable subject of myself and the man in my life (or the lack thereof).

It was funny because Joe's mom was telling me that she was thinking about me on the plane on her way over here wondering if I had finally got something going with some guy out here in L.A. and when I told her no, her face seemed so crestfallen that I was highly tempted to make something up in my attempt to give her something to go away with on her trip home. As we were talking we kinda got into some more personal subjects which can have a tendency to turn into "True Confessions" time. In the process I revealed a secret that I thought I had kept fairly hidden. Lisa said, "Tanika do you realize that is the first time you ever said that out loud" I said "What do you mean, you knew?" She was like of course I knew it was completely obvious I was just waiting for you to say something. It was then that I remembered talking to Lauren while she was here and I felt like I was revealing something deep about my character to her and she was like "Yeah Tanika I knew that already."

When I got home last night I started thinking about this and remembered something that JR said a couple of months ago. How we as people really want to be known. But we spend all this time hiding our real selves in order to keep people knowing things we feel are our problems or major flaws so that we won't be as vunerable. But when we finally do decide to open up we realize that the people we are close to already know those things about us and still love us anyway...I guess it took all this time for me to realize that no matter how hard I try to hide it my friends know the real me. They may not know all the messy details, but they know what I'm like and they still love me. The truth is the only person I'm really hiding from is myself. Trying to act like the things that I don't like about me, my flaws, and my issues don't exist. But when I open myself up and make myself vunerable that allows the people who already love me help me to deal with those things and not let them undermine my life. It's kinda funny that it took a really goofy conversation to show me that. Well anyway as always have a good day and...enjoy.

Not quite seeing eye to eye

My wonderful visit with Lauren has finally come to a close. She headed back up to NorCal yesterday in horrendous holiday traffic, which she joyously anticipated.

We spent the latter part of the week hanging out, taking in touristy things that amazingly Lauren had never been to on her previous visits (sorry about that Lauren). We also spent time hanging out with some really cool people that I know and some I just met. Some of our more amusing times were spent hanging out with my friend Derek and his brother Shaun or Shawn or Sean (sp? whatever I'll stick with Sean because it's shorter). Anyway both Derek and Sean were born and raised in Zambia, but to hang out with them you wouldn't know that at first. They look like typical white middle-american boys. Although since moving to Arkansas to attend John Brown University Sean has affected a southern accent to help blend in with the locals or so he says.

Anyhoo, we were hanging out one night and Lauren was talking about something and she mentioned the Greatful Dead and Sean said , "Who?" and we all were like you're kidding right? And I really hope he was... we never figured it out, but it brought up the interesting thought that although technically Derek and Sean are Americans for the most part they are unaware of what I consider common pop culture knowledge for people in our age group. I made a 4:20 reference and they both were like "What?" I decided not to fill them in. Let them remain innocent. From what they said they had electricity and other modcons at home but not television and there wasn't much hanging out at the mall since there wasn't one. It made me realize that while they might look and sound like other Americans, when they decided to come to the United States for University how difficult it must have been to try and feel a part of a culture completely different from the one you are used to where everyone else shares a similar thread of common knowledge.

Upon further reflection I thought about this in relation to the people of Kairos moving to Los Angeles. Although it was a culture shock there is still a large VA Tech contigent out here with a similar thread of common knowledge that makes it easier for us to feel comfortable moving to a new place. But on the flip side I wondered how that made people who already live in LA or who moved to LA and joined Kairos feel. Is it a little shocking for them as a person trying to fit into a group where it seems like everyone knows each other or shares a common background and they are the only ones who aren't a former hokie. Does it bother them if they are slowly becoming friends with one of us and a person like say Lauren (just using you as an example honey) comes to visit and she and I have a long history together and know some of them same people? Do they feel like no matter how hard they try they won't be as tight with me as the other people in the group. Does it feel like we are not all on the same page and that it is difficult to relate to people who share so many experiences together that they are completely unaware of? Anyway that was just some thoughts....have a great day...and as always enjoy.

an interesting visit

As you can see from the previous entry my good friend Lauren is visiting me from NorCal. I have really been enjoying the time we have spent together since she came.

I have been making attempts to introduce her to some really cool people that I know who have recently moved to the Los Angeles area so that she can come to like them as much as I do. In thinking about her visit I had visions of what I thought we would do and what I thought we would talk about...

Things like catching up on old times, going to the beach, or even catching a movie. What I hadn't planned on was every conversation we had with anyone we came into contact with turning into deep discussions about relationships past, present, and future, male/female interactions, people they are interested in, and what they look for in the opposite sex. We've learned more then we could ever want to know about people I have to see on a regular basis. The irony is that neither Lauren nor myself are in a relationship, nor am I seeking to be in a relationship with anyone. I'm too preoccupied trying to put Lauren into one. The weirdest part is I totally wasn't thinking about talking about these things with any of these people and neither was Lauren. The other people always seem to bring it up. Which leads me to believe that...

Contrary to popular opinion Kairos singles have relationships on the brain. People might not be hooking up all willy-nilly, every which way, but they are definitely thinking about it. Interesting...(says Lauren) So my real question is why isn't anything happening....Come on Kairos guys get the lead out. Lots of eligible hotties at Kairos (plus Lauren) what's taking so long. All these girls cooling their heels while all of you are all, "Nope not me, I'M CELIBATE!" or "Nope not getting married", "Not ready for that responsibility", "I'm doing my own thing right now". If you don't do something some Angelino jerk is gonna snap her up. I don't wanna hear about it takes time, friendship has to grow, blah, blah, blah, that's a load of crap just a bunch of punks to scared to do anything. That's my opinion anyway. All trying to play silly mind games. If she flicks her hair to the left when I talk to her she must like me. Well get a grip ask her then you'll know. Because if someone doesn't do something soon...I'm taking matters into my own hands.

Hope everyone is having good times...until next time...enjoy

Ode to Kevin Lieu

my good friend lauren is here in sunny Los Angeles visiting me for the Thanksgiving holidays and along with her sharp wit and winning personality she is also a budding poet. For those of you who do not know him I have a friend named Kevin Liu who is one of the nicest, sweetest and most sinister people I know. She has composed one of her best works yet as a tribute to him (not in any sort of romantic sense), which I will share with you here...

Ode to Kevin Lieu
Who fed me good thai food
Unselfishly he drives
And me he will high-five
Because Seinfeld we don't like
And Impressionists are tight
We share these two marvelous friends
Tanika and Mike to the ends
Mike is a fabulous guy
Who tries so hard not to lie,
But is still not quite as cool
As our fab friend Kevin Lieu

I hope you enjoyed this work, and if you haven't had the pleasure of hanging out with Kevin Liu then you really shoud...

trying something new

i'm attempting to start this blog to help...in whatever small way I can...give people some insight into the complicated world that is Tanika Taisha Evans. I make no promises not to offend and upset those who will read this in future. Life is not for the faint hearted and neither is this blog....have a nice day.