2. I like not eating. I thought this job would make me fat. I mean, I just sit around all day typing. Not exactly Gold’s Gym. But it turns out that I get so deep into my work, that often I simply forget to eat. When I start getting cranky I grab some juice, which gives my brain the glucose it needs to get happy again, and maybe I’ll eat some cottage cheese. But that’s about it till the fam gets home. I’ve actually lost weight.

3. I like walking to the mailbox. It’s about a quarter mile round trip, which would bother me except for the fact that this walk is really my only exercise. It gives me a bit of time to not think and to remember what outdoor air smells like.

3. I like listening to loud music. From the aforementioned daily visit to the Amazon MP3 special, I have gathered quite a diverse roster of music. Who knew I’d get into Nick Drake?  How long have I lived without the Sex Pistols?  The 1 2 3s never stuck until They Might Be Giants entered the picture. I never envisioned the day I would start listening to someone named Erykah Badu.

However, I have two different kinds of music for different kinds of tasks. I have “no lyrics” music for those days I edit words, and I have “lyrics” music, for the days I’m doing design work.  Speaking of which …

4. I like design work, though I haven’t been trained in it at all. I really enjoy finding that perfect picture to illustrate not only the content, but the ethos of an article. It does takes time, my iStockPhoto account is crammed with folders of pictures I’m saving for later and I’m an avid user of deviantart.com in my never ending quest for THE picture.

I also really enjoy thinking up concepts for our fabulous artist Jett Atwood. It’s like Christmas when she sends me her embodiment of an idea. For example:

This is what I send:

And this is what she sends back:

How can you not love that? By the way, these panels are from the upcoming issue of Sunstone, which includes the first-ever Book of Mormon manga comic book — “Ammon: Warrior Missionary.” Subscribe now to get it!

And in case you’re curious: yes, I am writing this in my pajamas.