When people ask me what I eat, I usually either say, "Not much." or I name my four food groups: Grain, Fruit, Dairy, and Chocolate.
When I was 7 years old, my mother took me to a mall near Tampa, FL just before Christmas. I got her to buy a little crystal pendant as a present from me. The man at the jewelry kiosk wrapped the small box, took a little square of paper, and folded it into a crane to use as a bow on top. My mind was blown and I had to learn how to do that. Now, more than 30 years later, paper folding is still one of my biggest hobbies, but it isn't just cranes and boxes. There is an entire world of paper art that has grown and blossomed over the years. I highly encourage you to check it out. You will probably be surprised by what you find. A good overview is the short documentary film, _Between the Folds_.
I also have a rant about "origami purity" and the idea that there are strict rules that define what is and isn't origami, but I won't type that here. The idea has more with how the Western world decided to define origami, "only one square, no cuts, no glue," rather than something intrinsic to the art. The short version is that you can and should impose whatever constraints on yourself that make you happy, but you shouldn't try to impose them on other people just because it doesn't fit in your "box". Come to think of it, that has more general applications as well.
The other major hobby in my life is board gaming and it is plagued by misconceptions. If you only thought about games like Risk, Monopoly, Candyland, and Chess when you read "board gaming", I would encourage you to spend a little bit of time exploring the landscape of modern games, starting with things like Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Ricochet Robots, Pandemic, and Hanabi. Those games are a good place to start, although my personal preference bends toward luckless strategy games like Go, Food Chain Magnate, Age of Steam, and Roads and Boats.
Driving terrifies me. It is the single most dangerous thing many people do on a regular basis. Any time you are driving or near cars being driven, you life is in the hands of every person behind the wheel of a car. Do what you can, and please consider following the two second rule for following distance. Your reaction speed is not as good as you think it is.
One last thing. I try to live my life according to something akin to the golden rule, "Don't unnecessarily inconvenience others." Hopefully I have not inconvenienced you.
Malachi Brown
[email protected]
Nashville, TN