Won't you fly high..............Freeblog

The Edge is my real father

2008-02-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

Saw U2 3D the other night down at Newport. Definitely a must see for anyone with any interest in U2. The 3D aspect was kinda cheesy at times but overall it added a pretty interesting dimension (no pun intended) to the experience. The movie follows the set list of a performance in Buenos Aires. There had to be tens of thousands of people at this concert. The 3D aspect of the movie did an excellent job of conveying the shear size and excitement of the crowd. The only thing I could have done without was the occasional text that rushed at you. At certain points, lyrics would appear in vibrant text and fly at you...coulda done without that. I can hear just fine, I don't need subtitles that I feel like I'm going to have to dodge at some point. However, this annoyance was more than offset by the music. The band was in rare form. There's no question why they picked this concert. The Edge is unbelievable. The stage for the event was absolutely ginormous and the dude never moves more than 30ft in either direction. He rarely looks up at the audience and never once attempts draw attention to himself. He kinda reminds me of Jimmy Paige in that respect. He lets his talent speak for itself. Of course, Bono was all over the place. Taking his jacket off, putting it back on, getting new sunglasses every five or ten seconds, changing outfits and lighting fires but what are you gonna do...it's Bono. The movie wasn't as glorifying of U2 as I thought it was going turn out though. There was a healthy focus on the band's message of peace and love and the general atmosphere of the venue. I didn't come away feeling like I had just been "re-educated" by Bono.

Gary Busse '08

2008-02-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

Whoops. Dec. 5th= last post. It's alright though because 1/3 of the people that read this blog, live with me, and know what's going on in my life. I'm beginning to see the flaws, inherent in the whole church/parachurch organization. I've always been aware of the obvious discrepancies between church doctrine and the gospel but now I'm really getting a feel for why Christ was not going around planting megachurches. One thing God has revealed to me (through several important people in my life) is that a large community is a good place for unsaved people to go to feel like they're saved. We go to church, Navs...whatever to feel like we're doin' it right. We can sit down in a seat and blend into the crowd. No one will ask what we're doing to live out our faith or anything spiritual for that matter. At the center of our churches, we have some key people who run things (usually with the best of intentions). These individuals will often pull people into the group who are similar to themselves. I'm not assigning blame, I'm simply saying that it's a natural tendency to gravitate toward someone that has a similar personality. As a consequence, it becomes harder to break into this crowd and easier to become a spiritual spectator. In the end, the corporate church setting fosters the spiritual growth of a small group of individuals in a sea of struggling souls. In this way, we lost our ability to carry out some of Christ's most essential commands. We lose our concern for the least and lost. They don't fit into the crowd so they are continually pushed to the fringe until they fall off the map again.

I want to like churchs like crossroads, where I can tell that good and pure intentions are all around. However, I don't like walking into Crossroads only to find that the crowd consists of a very homogenous mixuture. If I didn't know that it was a church, I'd swear that I just stumbled into a Starbucks. How does this happen in a neighborhood like Norwood? We don't see the people who walk in once and instantly slip through the cracks because no one knew they were there in the first place. When are we gonna start reading the gospel? I certainly don't want anyone to think that I've got this all figured out. If anyone is too blame than I'm definetely among them....wow....now that's a rant.

Yeah...snow

2007-12-05T06:51:00.000-08:00

People are ridiculous. All the local media has to do is throw the words "inch" and "accumulation" together and suddenly you have mass hysteria and chaos. The snow wasn't even covering the grass this morning and yet people are crawling along the roads this morning like they're caught in a blizzard. The snow had completely melted off the streets by 8 but for some reason everyone had switched to "survival" mode. I'm convinced that Cincinnati drivers are the most panicked people on earth. Out by Em's house, outside of Columbus, they don't even talk about snow being a problem until it's at least 3 or 4 inches worth.

Ems and I watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last night. Nothing like a good ol' fashioned dose of '60's social commentary disguised to look like a kid's movie.

A great movie

2007-11-15T05:32:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna break from blogger tradition and title this post according to its contents instead of the usual enigmatic song lyric that no one really recognizes or finds relevant to the post.

I saw Into the Wild on Tuesday night with Ems. What a powerful movie. For those who don't know, the movie details the life of Chris McCandless. McCandless was a college graduate who became disillusioned with the prospect of joining the work force and pursuing the American Dream. As a result, immediately after graduating he set out on the road to live off the grid and be free to pursue any goal. Chris burned all of his identification and money and eventually abandoned his car. He successfully severed all ties to his past life so well, in fact, that a private investigator (hired to find him) was never able to track him down.

The reason that this movie struck a chord with me is that I have been wrestling with the same issues of society's expectation and standards for a "successful" life. It seem that what society wants for me is to throw myself at a career so that everything else becomes secondary. Even my faith takes a backseat. I'll state publicly that God comes first but in reality I'll only pursue God in a manner that respects my career choices and personal ambitions. Never mind the fact that Jesus was a homeless man who wandered the countryside healing and teaching amongst the outcasts of society.

The story of Chris McCandless is inspiring to me because he resisted what we all want to resist. The stagnant lifestyle of the American Dream and living for your eventual retirement when you can finally live as you want, just in time to die. I mean, what the crap are we doing? During the movie, Chris reads a passage from Tolstoy. I can't remember the exact wording but it was to this effect: True happiness is only found when performing good deeds amongst those who are not accustomed to having them performed. I'm not sure what Tolstoy's spirtual beliefs were but holy crap that sounds a lot like what Christ did every day. Chris eventually came to realize this truth. Unfortunately, it was too late to avoid his tragic fate. However, he may have lived more in his two-ish years on the road than I have in my entire life up to this point.

Tune in Tokyo

2007-10-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

So, the Red Sox won the World Series. Now that I have roommates that really care about professional baseball, I've had the opportunity to watch some of the games. I didn't watch too much of the world series but I did catch a couple games of the Tribe and Sox series. Even with an Ohio team in the running, I still can't manage to put together some kind of interest in professional baseball. It's fun to attend a Red's game once in awhile (when its free) but beyond that I've nothing but apathy for the sport.

The Creepy Campout was this past weekend. A good time was had by all. This was Emily's second appearance at the annual event. She carved a "C-Paw" pumpkin for the pumkin carving contest. She wasn't feeling too good when it came time to enter so I ran the pumpkin up there and entered it for her. I barely entered it in time for the judging to start. The pumpkin quickly gained momentum with the crown and easily beat out the majority of the field. The final round pitted Emily's pumpkin against a kid who look like his pumpkin probably took him the better part of a year to carve. To top off his design he installled a strobe light in place of the conventional candle. He also had a posse of about 30 screaming six year olds to back him up. However, they proved to be no match for our group of obnoxious college kids who have no respect for hard work or the family atmosphere. My favorite part was when Jen P. started the UC chant during the time alloted for cheering for the opposing pumpkin. The crowd was momentarily silenced. Emily took home first prize which includes a nice trophy and a pumpkin pie...owned.

I need an adamantium skeleton

2007-10-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

The small group came over last night to watch X-Men III and eat pizza. The movie was pretty good although they had some situations that didn't logistically make any sense. For example, at the beginning of the final battle, Magneto sends in his "pawns". I'm going to assume that these are the less powerful mutants. So, these guys run toward the waiting line of troops and about 15 of them jump 100 ft. into the air to pounce on the soldiers. Alright...so you're telling me that there are fifteen mutants that all have the power to jump really high. Once they land, they begin to fight the soldiers who end up mowing them down with the "cure". However, after the sweet jump, none of these "mutants" use any other sort of power or ability. Seems like lazy filmaking.

Just before that, Magneto uses his metal moving skills to transport his army to Alcatraz island via the Golden Gate Bridge. While this is visually very cool, one can't help but point out that buses, planes and boats are also made of metal. Why can't Magneto just get on a boat and ride across the bay with his army? Lots of small stuff like that makes this movie pretty mediocre. And what the crap is going on with Archangel? You can't just dramatically introduce a character and then completely exclude him from the plot...terrible.

On a completely unrelated note...the Jesse Hartmann and I were discussing the justification of violence in the Bible this morning. We're reading through Shane Claiborne's Irrisistible Revolution together and the author seems to be of the mind that Christians should be completely anti-war, anti-violence and anti-military. While I would like to live in a world where this is possible I don't think I quite buy all that. I'd like to hear some thoughts. Does anyone still read my blog? If so, comment. Also, does anyone know what the Just War Theory is?

All of Which are American Dreams

2007-09-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Readin' through Shane Clairborne's Irresistible Revolution. I don't think I've ever encountered an author that could write with such passion yet can state everything so simply and nearly void of over-emphasizing language. I read through a chapter last night that described his journey to work with Mother Theresa in Calcutta. He prefaces this story with a great description of the state of westernized Christianity. Clairborne exposes that fact that American "Christians" spend a great deal of their time trying to explain away the tenants of the Bible. We make the Bible much more complicated than it really is in order to ensure that we'll never have to act on its simple yet radical (to our standards of radical) truths. This statement is undeniably true. I've been to countless studies and heard countless sermons during which a passage of scripture was adjusted to fit our lifestyles. I'm sure I've even led studies that are guilty of this.However, I really can't blame anyone for this. How else are we supposed to take the New Testament from the pages of the Bible and put it into practical usage and still maintain our middle-class American lifestyle? If we had to take every passage of New Testament scripture literally it would destroy our lifestyles' completely.

Anyway, Clairborne goes on to say that he and a friend decided to search for a real Christian of their summer break. Eventually, they contacted Mother Theresa and were invited out her ministry in Calcutta, India. In Calcutta, these two average college students nursed the dying poor of the destitute city and lived with the habitants of a leper colony. I found it very intriguing that these two guys where almost instantly thrown into a very Bible-esque scenario as soon as they accepted the fact that our precious "American Dream" and the John 10:10 life offered by Christ cannot co-exist. Crazy stuff and more food for spiritual thought than I'm comfortable with but I'm getting the very persistent feeling that God is not interested in/tired of my shallow level of American spiritual comfort.

Oak tree you're in my way

2007-07-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

Yep, for those of you who haven't heard, my parent's house in Delhi was indeed hit by a Jeep. Luckily, nobody was hurt (driver and passenger included). The driver and his passenger were both drunk and were arrested at the scene. I don't know where the legal process is at in dealing with this guy. I know that he has been charged but I don't know how my parents will be involved in his prosecution at this point. Considering the cirumstances, the damage could be much worse. The car knocked out two of the front porch supports, a window, lots of brick, several wall studs and the drywall on the inside. An armoir was destroyed and the piano had some minor damage. The car also destroyed some landscaping on its way to our house. My parents are taking this like champs though. They've come to the realization that all of the damage is limited to "stuff" that can all be replaced. I feel genuinely sorry for the 18 year old driver. He's going to be dealing with the consequences of this for a long time. A lot of people have been offering us advice on how to handle this situation when it comes to insurance claims and what not. It's easy to see why people don't trust each other when it comes to compensation via insurance companies. While this accident is plainly this kid's fault and his insurance company should fully compensate my parents, I think showing some grace would go along way in this situation. We had some people telling us to write down our work hours so that we could be compensated four our time. I really can't bring myself to do that. I know that he's not going to be the one that is writing the check in the end. But it seems like I'd be taking advantage of the situation and not showing the proper amount of forgiveness if I was to receive compensation.

There's a country's soul that reads post no bills

2007-06-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Louisiana for the second time. A new experience this time. I took my youth group down to the rural areas surrounding New Orleans. It turns out that Louisiana is hot this time of year. The temp was over 100 almost every day. The humidity was unbelievable. Not good for a bunch of Ohioans. On top of all that, we worked outside every day.

This trip was much different than the SBC trip that I took over spring break. A couple of the days were spent in the community of Dulac, LA. Dulac was founded by Houma native americans and French-Cajuns. The cultural diversity is amazing. Nobody speaks English as their first language. Most speak Cajun French or a mixture of Cajun French and a Native American dialect. The first family we worked with needed wood paneling hung in their house and a bathroom painted and finished. I've never seen such obvious and abject poverty. Up until recently, the family had lived with rotting wall paneling in their one room house. They have neither the will nor means to attempt major projects. Most of the homes in the area are small and packed with family members. Many people do not work and a very large portion are illiterate. During hurricane Rita, floodwaters filled most houses with 2-4 feet of water. Most insurance policies will cover hurricane damage but very few will cover flood damage. I can't say that most of these people don't have homeowner's insurance but I highly doubt they could afford it anyway.

The other family that we worked with is headed by a single working mom with several kids. In order to obtain the occupancy permit needed to move back into her house, she had to have the house raised 12ft and placed on stilts. This procedure costs in the area of $25,000. She had been denied funding from several relief agencies including Louisiana's Road Home program. Her husband, unable to cope with the high financial pressure, hung himself from from the newly placed rafter under their raised house. She now has to slowly pay off her debt to the contractors and try to feed her family. Volunteer labor helps out a lot.

I also took the kids down to the 9th ward in New Orleans. As expected, nothing new has been done. Still the same scene of thousand of empty houses. It has become painfully obvious that our government intends to ignore the people of southern Louisiana until the problem goes away and low income neighborhoods and shanty towns on the bayous are left to the mercy of developers who can afford to build raised middle class neighborhoods that will be safe from floodwaters. I really don't know when the term "poor" became synonymous with "worthless". I think I've seen too much to be able to ignore the situation any longer. I hope God will allow me the opportunity to go down there again soon.

Quench my thirst with gasoline

2007-05-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

Here's something crazy. The House approved a bill today to allow for the penalization of big oil companies as a result of price gouging. On the outside, this looks like a step in the right direction and perhaps Congress is actually acting on behalf of the general population instead of big oil lobbyists. However, if you actually look at the wording of the bill, you'll quickly realize that it has more "gray" than an aircraft carrier. According the article, the bill states that the only time a company would be in danger of being fined or prosecuted would be when gasoline prices reach "unconscionably excessive" prices and the president declares an "energy crisis". There are a couple of glaring problems with this law.

First, who decides what "unconscionably excessive" is? A college student who is barely scraping by and the Attorney General of the United States probably have different opinions of what qualifies as excessive.

Secondly, why do we need the president to declare the an "energy crisis" in order to stop oil companies from exploting the American public. Of course, this section of the bill was demanded by Texas democrats who would have refused to vote favorably without this stipulation. So what we have here is Congress's typical show of pretending to act while not actually acting at all.

The only real answer I can see to the oil problem is for the consumer to find ways to decrease demand. However, we all need to get to work or school in the morning so I don't really see that happening. Maybe I'll start digging for oil in the backyard. Of course, I don't really own my backyard anyway.

The Light I Never Know'd

2007-05-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

Alright. I need to figure out which concerts I'm going to this summer. It's becoming evident that NIN has no intention of returning to the states anytime soon and definetely not this summer. Rush promises to be a great show but the "Petachs" are getting "married" on the same day so that isn't going to be possible. We do have Def Leppard, Foreigner and Styx on June 27. Other than that I'm not real excited about Riverbend's summer concert series.

I succumed to Austin's constant whining about my fish. Austin is now the proud owner of four more fish. I think I'm gonna convert my tank into a turtle terrarium. My brother has a pretty sweet turtle set up in 50 gallon tank. While I won't be able to touch the 50 gallon, he's volunteered to set up my 20 gallon for a turtle.

Oak Hills afterprom tonight and tomorrow night. I just can't get away from that place. So, I'm leading some volunteers from the Navigators down there to help out.

I don't ask noboby for nothin...if I can't get it own my own

2007-04-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff goin on since the last post. I really wanna change the format of my blog but I lack the initiative and the know-how to accomplish such a task.

I got to hang out with my high-schoolers on Friday down at gameworks. It was a good time. I haven't done much, on a social level, with them in awhile. We paid 20 bucks apiece to own gameworks for the night. It's been forever since I've had some quality arcade time. Arcade games have gotten way too complicated in the last decade. I like the two or three buttons and joystick approach or even the "Time-Crisis" pedal and trigger method. Now-a-days you have these way over complicated controls and game options.

On Sunday I led a study with the same crew. I threw some spiritual stuff out there to them. We talked about "seeing the unseen" as Paul encourages in Ephesians. Most of them have never considered the goings on of the spiritual realm. I really don't know if I truly have either. I know a lot of people that seem to be very aware of the spiritual side of things. I have a lot of respect for this because the Bible is riddled with examples of God "opening the eyes of the heart" or causing mortals to see the spiritual realm with their physical eyes. This is a fun topic to try to explain to a group of high schoolers with a background in the mainstream church. Suprisingly, they were pretty receptive to the idea of spiritual things going on behind the scenes of our physical world.

Whaaa

2007-04-04T05:26:00.001-07:00

What the crap happened to my sidebar?

I fought a bowl of oatmeal

2007-03-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

What an eye opening spring break. I went down to New Orleans with UC's Alternative Spring Break organization. This organization is such a worthwhile cause. Unlike most things that UC sponsors, I genuinely think that this organization actually has pure intentions. I really respect the leadership and goals of ASB. Consequently, I think I'm going to lead a trip next year.

Anyway, the state of New Orleans is unbelievable. I still cannot rationalize why so little has been done in almost two years since the hurricane. Prior to the trip I heard from several people that not much had been done to repair the neighborhoods that were completely destroyed by flood waters. However, I was totally unprepared for the chaos that is flourishing in the city. It's hard to know who is responsible for the lack of progress. If you talk to locals, they'll all say the same thing: the federal government is at fault. Thousands of residents live in white FEMA trailers while there houses are being rebuilt. By providing trailers, FEMA hopes to allow former residents to return to the city and pick up there old jobs and supervise the rebuilding of their homes. However, in many cases residents didn't even receive their trailer until last month. Now, the trailers are being removed from properties because they were designed for only temporary usage. I had the opportunity to talk to three individuals who were all living in trailers provided by the government. While they had been living in their trailers for awhile, none of them have recieved enough federal relief funding to rebuid their homes. Without, proper funding middle and lower income families cannot afford to restore their homes to meet with fire and structural codes.

Volunteer organizations help quite a bit by providing free labor and materials but the non-profit intiative is not functioning on a large enough scale to meet the needs of the New Orleans community in a realistic timespan. Because the rebuilding effort is so sluggish many former residents have decided not to return. In the St. Bernard parish, only 5,000 of the 65,000 residents have returned. No community infrastructure can function when 92% of its members are not residing within the area. As a result, roads can't be repaired, there's very little public education and utilities are slow to return to functionality. To make matters worse, the city of New Orleans is beginning to demolish abandoned buildings.

I had many opportunities to see the progress of the rebuilding process. Organizations such as Habitat for Humanity are doing great things but it is clearly not enough. I couldn't help but ask myself, "is it even worth it to rebuild?" as I observed the thousands and thousands of empty homes with no sign of rebuilding intentions except for the plea "please don't demolish my home" scrawled in spray paint on hundreds of house in the 9th ward.

When the man comes around

2007-03-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

School's over. I have one more final to take and two papers to turn in next week. I really need some off time. This has been the hardest quarter of school in a long time. It feels good to have stuck this one out though instead of withdrawing from everything difficult. Only 1+ more years of not changing my major and not dropping classes to go. I'm not really in any hurry to get done but I'm also not a big fan of paying too much more tuition. I also don't know how I'm gonna keep my cash flow up once I'm done co-oping. I only have one more quarter to do and then I don't have to co-op anymore.

I can't wait for this friggin cold weather to leave. I'm really craving some outdoors time. Robert Kleemeier and I are gonna have to hit up the fishing hole before too long. It's been forever since I've been fishing or done anything outside. We took a spritual assessment at Key Laborers a couple of weeks ago. The purpose of the assessement was to shed light on how you best worship and relate to God. I scored a 97/100 in the creation category. So apparently I need time outdoors. I can totally buy that. I really do need to find a job as a park ranger or something.

1.21 Gigawatts

2007-03-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

There's beens some recent banter around my house about the new gold coin. Someone started up this crazy chain email calling all Christians to arms over the lack of the inscription"In God We Trust" on the coin. I like how it's no problem to get "Christians" all fired up over something like this but its like pulling teeth to get them to raise a finger to feed a starving kid or accept an outcast into their community. It makes you feel good about where the church is headed. That's all I have to say about that really. I'm sure Davie will have a much more prolonged rant coming in the next couple days. Oh yeah...the coin actually does have the "In God We Trust" slogan on it, it's just around the circumference of the coin where people with too much time and no purpose can't see it.

So, once again I'm in real danger of completely failing a class. This time...Organic Chemistry II. And unlike other times in my college career, it's not for lack of trying. This class is just rediculous and the instruction is terrible. I talked to the professor yesterday and she explained to me that in order to pass I would have to get a 77/200 on the final. That's doable right? You'd think so but that would actually be the best score (percentage wise) that I've gotten yet on an exam, in this class. I'm really pretty worried about it.

I Shruted it

2007-02-23T11:42:00.000-08:00

An occasional picture in your blog posts is never a bad thing. Note: I'm 2 for 2 of my last two posts. Consequence: my blog is superior to yours. I really don't have any incite on this pic...just thought it was funny.

Goin' to Chicago with Davie and Robby this weekend to watch UC play DePaul. Chicago is an amazing city with a lot of character. I was there about a year ago for a conference and have been wanting to go back ever since. Bonus: the whole trip only cost me $60. The game will be sweet but I think that I'm looking forward to walking around the city more than the game itself.

I think sometimes we conveniently ignore the desires that God fulfills in our lives. Last year, at about this time, I was really unhappy with the way things were going (ministry, school, life). I wasn't real involved in ministry yet and wasn't finding a lot of satisfaction in school work. I had two desires at that point: to get highly involved in ministry and to travel. Since then, I've been to Tennessee three times, Colorado, Chicago twice, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and soon I'll be in New Orleans and then Tennessee again in May. You could say that if you have enough money you can travel anywhere you want and therefore fulfill this particular desire. However, I have absolutely no money. All of my trips were free or cost very minimal amounts because they were orbiting around ministry. As I type this, I'm amazed out how this has worked out. God has fulfilled both desires completely, one desire making the other possible and vice-versa. If I would have planned out a year ago how I would have these desires fulfilled in an ideal situation, it wouldn't have even come close to the reality of how everything turned out.

Find your soul mate, Homer

2007-02-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

Johnny Cash and The Simpsons...a match made in heaven.

This is a rediculously boring day at work. I finished everything that I know I should do within a couple of hours of getting here. So now I find myself commenting on Dave's blog and searching the Internet for images of the episode of the Simpsons that features Johnny Cash as Homer's spiritual guide. Which is, if you're wondering, El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer, season eight. I've also been trading emails with the Mr. Ben Lewis and wondering if Austin will ever update his blog now that he's back from Chile and has no regular computer access.

I think last night was the worst night so far concerning our heat situation. I had my space heater running full blast and it barely put a dent in the standing room temperature. I woke up this morning and could see my breath...in my room...not cool. I wonder if any health code regulations are being violated here. Of course, ol' Chuck didn't say too much about me creating a geyser in Austy's bathroom. So, I reckon he probably doesn't care too much about how cold the house is at night. Austin's fish finally gave up his fight for life. Must be tough to be a tropical fish in our house.

Anyway...Key Laborers starts tonight. Key Laborers is always a good time. We have Big Evan Griffin doin' the talks. I always appreciate his talks because he speaks from his experiences and observations instead of consistantly throwing biblical principles at you. Definetely a guy that I look up to. I'd be lucky to be half the conversationalist he is one day.

I say we nuke the site from space...it's the only way to be sure

2007-02-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

School's a real burden this quarter. I'm startin' to get overwhelmed. And when I get overwhelmed I usually go ahead and withdraw from everything. I consistantly have a ton of homework and the material is rediculously hard to learn. The amount of time that school is consuming is staggering compared to the past couple quarters. To top it all off, I haven't gotten any calls from potential employers.

Because of the added stress, I find myself continually wanting to drop extra-curricular/important things like ministry activities. I've worked very hard to change my perspective from school takes priority over all to God takes priority over all. The past few quarters were fairly easy as far as school work goes and of course co-op is always an easy time. So, putting God first was never all that hard. Now that things are more difficult, I find myself saying that it would be ok to put God on the back burner and hide from ministry for awhile. I don't think there's anything wrong with cutting back to accomodate both ministry and school but I think its also very important to keep in mind that God requires all of us, as living sacrifices, and he'll accept nothing less.

The flip side to this is that God's not a cruel slave driver. He knows our limits and keeps us satisfied. I'm hoping that by submitting to God that he'll lead me to his perfect middle ground.

Pretty good Super Bowl last night. The Colts definetely had it coming for awhile. However, I don't really have any allegiance to either team. Payton Manning bandwagoners make me angry and it would have be cool to see the Chargers win it all. The Bengals own it next year.

oh look a bighorn...that's why I come up here

2007-01-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

Got back from Colorado late Monday night. You wouldn't believe the property that the Navigators owns out there. It's in a mountain glen outside of Colorado Springs where bighorn sheep and mountain lions roam free. No joke. It's almost surreal. As soon as I arrived I could scarcely believe that this place actually existed. Let me describe it to you.
Glen Eyrie is located above Colorado Springs in the front range of the Rocky Mountains. There was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground but it was not excessively cold. The air smells like pine and there are conifer trees everywhere. Large pillars of red rock fire straight out of ground hundreds of feet into the air. There are several trail that lead into the mountains at the base of Pike's Peak. The trails take you between and up the mountains with crystal clear creeks flowing freely between each hill. At the end of one trail there was a large frozen waterfall that the creek still flows behind. The waterfall itself is about a 50ft drop. Large icecicles had formed to cage the creek in. The Glen is home to all sorts of wildlife. Rattlesnakes, mountain lions, birds, deer and bighorn sheep. I was fortunate enough to come across a bighorn. It was probably the most amazing animal I've ever seen.
As if the property itself wasn't amazing enough, the Navigators owns and operates a freaking mountain castle! Apparently, back in the 50's the Navigators acquired the castle when it was donated by the Billy Graham crusade and several prominent, Nav alumni, businessman who wanted to give the Navigators a headquarters. The castle dates back to the early 1800's and still had much of the original furnishings and general decor. Rediculous. Normally, I'd question the ownership of a castle by a non-profit ministry but Navs uses this place for so many worthwhile causes that it seems more like a divine gift than the misallocation of ministry funds. Plus the castle is self-sufficient. It can be rented for business conferences and weddings so that it doesn't use ministry funds to stay in operation.
What a crazy amazing place.

In the interest of time...

2006-12-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Here I am at work again. I have absolutely nothing that I "need" to be doing. Seriously, I can't think of a single thing that I need to get done today. There are things that I could do and I probably will do them. However, none of things that I can do are going to take very long and in five minutes I'll be right back here where I started. Go ask your boss for something to do, right? I wish I could. My boss decided to go to the UC library for the rest of the day to catch up on some reading. Apparently, there was an explosion during a reaction at Shepherd's sister plant in Mirecourt, France. Therefore, my boss decided that he needed to go to UC to look up some literature on chrome reactions (the reaction that caused the explosion was a chrome (III) reaction that got way too hot in a short period of time). So, I'm gonna be stuck here without anything to do for the entire day.

Went to wing night last night out at Quaker Steak and Lube. That place is great. The all you can eat wings are awesome. Tons of guys went too. I wonder how many wings were consumed by our group alone. Hmm... I personally had around 25 wings. So...25 wings times about 45 guys equals 1,125 wings. Holy crap. Somebody's chicken farm is doin pretty well right about now. Quaker Steak and Lube also has a microbrewed beer. It's a dark beer that tastes a little like Bass. The only draw being the price. One beer was like 4.25. So, 25 wings, a beer and tip cost me like 18 bucks. Not the cheapest place in the world.

I tried the sauce on an atomic wing that we ordered. You would not believe how hot this crap is. There is absolutely no taste to the sauce. It's just burning. I took a little bit on my finger and put it to my tongue and I immidiately began to sweat. No joke. After about 20 minutes I could still feel my tongue burning. No one had the balls to actually eat the wing we were passing around. I wonder what that would do to your stomach?

I want to know what love is...do do do

2006-11-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 7:30 this morning (I'm due at work at 8:00). I'm having a real problem getting myself to work on time. The problem with this situation is my lack of motivation to get to work on time. My boss could care less if I even make it to work on a given day, much less get to work on time. Therefore, if I come strollin in at 8:15 nobody really seems to care. If someone would just take the initiative and give me some crap for coming in late everday, I know that I would start getting here on time. I guess this is one of the perks of being a co-op. You're only marginally essential to the day to day operations of the company. So, if you come in obscenely late, or not at all, its not really a big deal. At least thats how it works here at Shepherd.

Davie, Austy, Craig, Perry and I saw Casino Royale the other night. (No spoilers in here, keep reading) Definetely, the best Bond movie since Goldeneye. That's really not saying too much but hopefully this means that they'll be taking the series in a new direction. Daniel Craig did a pretty good job of portraying the rookie 00 agent, James Bond. I can't see Pierce Brosnan playing this role as well as Craig did. Casino Royale's Bond is very unfinished and much more human than in pervious movies. So yeah, pretty decent. A little sketchy in the plot explanations at times, but decent.

Crap. Mark Dantonio is leaving. Wow. 1.1 million a year plus a signing bonus at Michigan State. I bet UC wasn't even coming close to that. Good for him but that sucks for us.

Insert lyrics from a song that no one has ever heard here

2006-11-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

I'm really freakin bored right now. Fortunately, there's only one hour left until I can leave for four whole days...nice.
I've pretty much decided on two possible routes for my post graduation life. The first is to volunteer for Navigator staff by means of the EDGE corps. The second is to attend grad school at Ohio University. Of course, there is a good possibility that I'll do both but I'm not sure of the order. In either case, I think I'm ultimately going to end up at Ohio University. There's some definite advantages to being out in Athens. Emily's family lives about 45 minutes from the university and she'll eventually want to move away from our crappy city back to the country. My feeling is that I've had enough of the city too. I've found that I really wouldn't mind moving to the country and I'll still only be about 2.5 hours away from my family and friends. I'm also feeling somewhat called to Ohio University. The Navigator organization there is fairly new and just beginning to piece together a ministry. If God allows, I think that I may be able to help out in expanding that ministry. The only real question then is: What will be my role? EDGE corps would make ministry my job as well as my passion. I would have unlimited time to meet with students and try to give my life away to the campus. While I'm not afraid of taking this risk I do have some reservations about my education. If I'm on EDGE corps I cannot be in classes or have a job. This will push that magical day when I'll be done with school back even further. If I'm simply a grad student at OU I'll be finishing my eduacation but at the cost of my time. I'm sure I'll be busy as hell with my coursework and won't really have too much time to invest in ministry work.
I think what I'm most concerned about is the capacity of ministy that I'll be able to engage in once I'm away from the Navigator bubble. The Navigators uses its name and reputation to bring seekers in. That means that I don't have to go out of my way to meet people who are interested in pursuing Christ. After I'm done with UC, I'll be on my own. Eventually, I'll be in a workplace. I'm really worried that I'll burn out on reaching people once I'm away from my supporting ministry. It's so easy to fall into the "I don't want people to think I'm a zealot Christian. So I'll just sit here quietly" metality. At what point, do you make sure that people know you're different? If you're trying really hard to act like everyone else, how will anyone know that you're not like everyone else, at least in a spiritual sense. I'm really worried about my willingess to take risks.

We ain't gonna take it

2006-10-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

What do I wanna do after I graduate? I've been mulling this question over recently. One thing that I know for sure is that I can't settle into a 9-5 job, get married, buy a house, and start living the American dream. I don't think there's anything wrong with all that except for the perception that this post-college routine that society hands us is as good as it gets. There's a bible verse that pounds in my skull:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

What the crap is a full life? I have to believe that it is more than getting good grades, being nice to everybody, going to church on Sunday,graduating from college, raising your kids right and retiring when you're 65. Where is the risk in all that? It's like society is saying "everybody keep your heads low, there's dangerous stuff out there that you don't wanna get mixed up in." John Elderedge makes an excellent point in Waking the Dead, when he points out that Jesus had two objectives. The first, make sure we all don't have to go to hell. The second, and the more important, bestow life eternal. If you read the gospel carefully, I believe there is a distinct difference between the two. I think we've been brainwashed into thinking that our real life will start after we leave this "meaningless" world. I bet to differ with this opinion. I think what Jesus meant by "life eternal" was life right now until eternity. So when I think about settling into the low risk, 9 to 5 routine, something inside of me absolutely screams not to buy it. Obviously, I'm gonna have to have a job. But I think that when my job, or getting a house, or raising a family, or going to church becomes the thing that occupies my passion then I've fallen right into the trap that has been set for me and squandered the gift of real life. So, maybe I'll get a job or go to graduate school or maybe I'll go on EDGE. All that I know is that I can feel God warning me not to buy what the world is selling when it comes to life.

When the deal goes down

2006-10-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

I have a renewed interest in Bob Dylan. I've always been a fan but lately I really can't stop listening to him. What an amazing lyricist and musician. I would definetely put him in the top ten musicians of all time. And who hasn't been influenced by his music? Nearly every genre of music has certain artists that reflect, if not imitate, Bob Dylan's music. I was watchin VH1 classic yesterday (always on at the Asylum) when they did a few of Dylan's music videos. The first video was Just Like a Woman. The video consisted of Bob and two other dudes on a stage. Bob had an acoustic geetar and a harmonica. The other guys had an electric guitar and a bass guitar respectively. The other guys kept rhythm while Bob had the melody and vocals. It was so effin simple. There were no complex guitar riffs or hardcore bass lines, just a dude playin his guitar on stage. Yet, it's an amazing song. Plus, when you listen to Bob Dylan's lyrics you get the idea that he's passionate about what he's singing about. He doesn't care what the audience wants to hear about or how they wanna hear it. His songs are about his experiences and things he's passionate about. That's an extremely rare thing in today's music, I'd say almost non-existent.

These aren't the droids you're looking for

2006-10-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Creepy Campout this weekend. There are a multitude of great things about the Creepy Campout. First, there a lot of people that take this weekend very, very seriously. So the tradition of going to the Creepy Campout has become more of a tradition of mocking the events that happen anually at this weekend. For example, there is a pumpkin carving contest every year. Everyone spends hours, if not days, constructing and carving their pumpkins until they drip with over-achievement. There's little pumpkin villages and pumpkin snowmen and Parky the raccoon always comes out to judge and handout trophies. Here's how we've ruined this for people:
"Parky Sucks", carved by Austin Lubbers
"Elder Sucks" , carved by Doug Schmaltz
Smashed pumpkin, carved and then smashed by Rob Kleemeier
"Bush/ Cheney '04", carved by Doug Schmaltz
"The People's Pumpkin", carved by Rob Kleemeier
knifed pumpkin, stabbed by Jon Meyer

The contest is judged partially by audience noise. So if one of your good friends enters a pumpkin which plainly has no right to be in the contest, your friend has as much of a chance to win as anyone. He'll probably have an even better chance, than anyone else, if your friend brings five of his friends to be as obnoxious and loud as possible during the judging. All of the forementioned pumpkin designs were entered into the contest and made it to at least the semi finals before being removed by facist park officials. However, the point is not to win the contest but instead to beat out as many people, who put their hearts and souls into this contest every year, as possible. Is this crual and unjust? I say no. Is it cruel and unjust when it storms at the end of an otherwise beautiful day? Of course not, it just happens. It's been happening for a long time and will continue to happen for a long time to come. It's the same idea with our campout antics. Everyone knows to expect it now because it has been happening for as long as anyone can remember. yeah Creepy Campout '06

There's a Calm Before the Storm...

2006-10-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Postin again. Yeah now what jerks. I have one hour left at work and nothing to do with it but stare at my computer screen in my makeshift cubical. That's right, I have a cubical. It's not a full fledged cubical, but it certainly serves the same purpose. The walls aren't very high so anyone walking past can see what I'm doing and there's no wall behind me. I need some stuff to put on the walls in here. Right now, I have a periodic table of elements on the right side of my desk and thats it. Maybe I'll get a calendar or a plaque with some inspirational quote on it. Then I'll be like every other corporate tool box out there. It's a good thing that I can walk away from my desk and go work at the lab bench anytime I want. Sitting in front of a computer screen all day, every day is essentially my worst nightmare. I have to be able to get up and do something.
I went to a meeting at church last night (Northern Hills United Methodist). There's some crazy stuff that's starting to happen there. First off, the church is finally looking at modes of outreach to the community. I've been pushing for some Vineyard like, servant evangelism stuff and God has started to break down barriers. Also, we approved a new ministry last night that blends the Buddist Zen tradition of meditation with Christian belief. Essentially, this ministry will focus on meditation as a means of communicating with God. I'm probably going to try it out. I could use some time of just sitting still and doing nothing but being quiet.

Everybody's Workin for the Weekend

2006-10-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

So...I live in Clifton now. Actually I've been living in Clifton for more than a month but I haven't bothered to post on this thing since July. But it's pretty great, never a dull moment in the Asylum. We get along most of the time and everybody does their fair share around the house.
I have notice one problem however. There seems to be some confusion about how often we leave our house and at what time between us and the girls upstairs. I noticed this because one of our female neighbors parked in the driveway yesterday. But instead of parking next to Dave and I to allow us to pull out of the driveway, she parked behind both of us. So instead of blocking no one in, she chose to block two people in until she decides to leave. This is kind of a big deal since I leave for work at 7:30 in the morning. Consequently, I had to try to shimmy (in a Jeep Wrangler) my vehicle out of our driveway. It took all of my driving skill to not hit Dave or the girl's car. This process took at least 5-10 minutes and I ended up being late for work. I shoulda snapped a picture of the situation to post on here. From now on, if I have to park in the driveway, I think I'm just gonna park at the very end so that nobody can park behind me.

I'm leading small group for the first time, this year, tomorrow. It's gonna be a good time. Davie and Robby are in my group this time. It's almost a revival of guy's group. It would be a complete revival if Austin Q. Lubbers hadn't ran off and joined Monday night.

Things to look forward to: Creepy Campout Oct 13 and 14th
Alice in Chains Nov 9th
Fall Conference
Turkey Day Race

you like dags?

2006-07-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah it's been awhile since I last posted. I'm not worried about it. Lots of stuff has happened since then, but I'm not gonna go into it. I'm in school and working part-time this summer. Summer classes are pretty easy. I never really have too much homework. I just have to go.
How bout that World Cup? It sucks to be that French dude that missed the penalty kick. He's probably not gonna go home for awhile.
Davie and I went to a NIN concert in Indianapolis last week. It was sweet. The pit was outta control and there were strange liquids flying through the air at all times. Then you have the occassional liquid on the ground that gets splashed onto your legs. I only got hit in the face once. Some dude jumped up and gave me a shoulder. I was kinda pissed for a second and thought about pushing him but I decided not to when I thought about how many people he would probably run into when he fell forward.
I had Testacular IV at my house on Saturday. The fights were pretty lame, especially the Ortiz/Shamrock fight. It was rediculous. The ref stopped the fight way to early...rediculous. I want our 40 bucks back. Apparently, the was a good fight involving undercard, Jeff Munson. However, since the Arlovski/Sylvia fight went all five rounds, we didn't get to see all of it.

And you could have it all...

2006-03-19T10:57:00.000-08:00

Yeah. NIN is freakin awesome. I never knew what I was missin all these years. I think I might go to another concert in Columbus this summer with little Davie T.

So...I got a job. I'm gonna work at Shepherd Chemical next quarter. I'm not real excited about it but I guess you can't expect too much with the amount of experience I have (none). Whatever, at least I'll be makin money and not doing homework. I'm thinkin about maybe finding a night class to take to catch up a little.

Who wants to go camping later this week?

Zelda survey

2006-02-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

Quick question for ya. If you could live in the land of Hyrule circa the day of Link, Hero of Time, what type of Hyrulian would you choose to be. The choices (as if you didn't know):

Hylian
Essentially a human. The only difference being the pointed ears and occassional ability to do magic. Traditionally, the ruling family of Hyrule is Hylian. Important note: Link is a Hylian, not a Kokiri, a common mistake.

A Sheikah
A very mysterious race of ninja like warriors. Sheikah are the sworn protectors of the Hylian throne. Very skilled in magic and combative arts.

Zora

A fishlike race that inhabit several body's of water in the Hyrule area. Renowned for their skills in medicine. These individuals are very well adapted to aquatic environments and a fiercely loyal to the Royal Family of Hyrule.

Gerudo

Gerudos are a race of thieves that live in a desert fortress. This tribe is composed entirely of females except for a male that is born every 100 years to become their king. Gerudo's are very skilled archers and riders and are known for their stealth. Ganondorf himself is from this race.

Kokiri

This carefree race dwells in the Kokiri Forest. They look much like children and are terrified of the outside world. Each has a guardian fairy and they are closely watched by the Great Deku Tree, an ancient guardian spirit of the forest. Link was raised by the Kokiri which explains his fairy, Navi.

Goron

Gorons are a fierce but loveable. They dwell in underground caverns and enjoy a diet of rare rocks. Gorons are excellent metal smiths and tunnelers. They also have a soft spot for music. It's speculated that Goron's are hermaphroditic because it is impossible to tell male from female.

yeah

2006-02-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

This just in....officials don't actually watch the game.

hey everybody....where did Mary go?

2006-01-31T21:39:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl time again. Time to watch the Seahawks mack on the Steelers. Looks like Navs has elected to have it at my place. That's cool though, just means I don't have to drive to Clifton.

So Em and I hammered out where we're goin for our group's mission trip, finally. Now we just have to raise the money and apparently we both have to attend a conference in Chicago to find out what we have to teach our kids before we're allowed to go down there. Speakin of conferences, we're headed to two of them this weekend. The methodist church has to indoctrinate us to ensure that we're brainwashing their children effectively. So they're gonna trap us in a room Friday evening and most of the day Saturday and pound theology into us. Maybe then I'll turn from my heathen, non-denominational ways and accept the perfection that is the United Methodist Church. Em and I might show up, sign whatever, and then hop the fence (avoiding the sniper fire.)

You know who's sweet? System of a Down. I've been listening to Mezmerize a lot and its pretty awesome. They're definetely one of the best contemporary bands out there (not that that's hard). It's pretty rare to see bands today that are as diverse or generally musically talented as S.O.D.

Thunderlizards Rule

2006-01-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

Been awhile. That's alright though. How bout that call reversal for the Troy Polamalalalalu interception? I don't know why that's a big deal. The Steeler's won. Everybody gets a crappy call once in awhile. Unless you're a Bengal, then you get them all the time. The point is that the Steelers get away with all kinds of crap when they should be penalized. Maybe the NFL should go back and watch T.J. Houshmanzadeh being raped in the endzone after an incomplete pass by two Steelers. Thats not gonna happen though. Whatever, I'll just get more satisfaction next season when we destroy them twice. Also, the Steelers don't stand a chance against Denver. They've won two games they didn't deserve to win. It won't happen again.
Alright. I was gonna show everyone some pictures from Tenn. but apparently Kodak is gonna make me buy the pictures before I can download them for .15 a piece so forget that. There's probably a way around that but I don't have time to figure it out right now. This dude had some great Jesus bumper stickers on his truck and Wemer took pictures of them while I distracted him. Dude was crazy.
Here some good ones:
"Are you following Jesus this closely?"
"Forbidden fruit can get you in some bad jams."
"Condems "con" you into thinking you're safe."
"Godly parents are an endangered species"
"One day you'll wish you had all these Jesus bumper stickers"
The list goes on. I wish I could download them and post them here but I don't want to buy them. Anyway, we're not goin down there anymore.

I did some alone hiking yesterday out at Miami Whitewater State Park. I really wanted to steal some alone time to talk to God and think some stuff out without the the stress and noise of the world to distract me. It was awesome. I highly recommend it. Only when you do it, don't take a trail. Just wander into the woods (provided that you know where you are going and how to get back). I walked about two miles down a creek just because I could. The weather was perfect. You really get a feel of God's spirit out there. Peaceful but untaimable. I don't want to go on a John Elderedge rant, but being out there definetely helped me tap into that. I wanted to challenge myself. I walked across the creek multiple times, the water still had ice sheets in some still areas, just to see if I could and to deny the urge to take the mundane beaten path. The water was freezing but as long as I kept moving I wasn't cold (there's a lesson there, I think). Going back, I changed my route. Instead of taking the creek back (the way I came), I trecked across country through the wooded hills. It's incredibly peaceful. Here's a place that you have no control over, no matter what. Here's God's spirit poured out in something tangible. Before I got back to my truck, God showed me his wonder a last time. An owl flew down out of a tree not 10 feet in front of me. It's wingspan had to exceed 6 feet. It perched on a nearby tree and turned its head to watch me (I had startled it from its old tree). It was the largest and most incredible bird I've ever seen. It's face was unmistakable. It's eyes were huge and black and its body was fat. The untaimable nature posessed by that single owl in that huge forest is amazing to me and makes me thirst all the more to know its creator.

How bout them playoffs

2005-12-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

Ahh those crazy Bengals. 10-3 after a narrow win over the Browns. But this win shows the caliber team we have. When we're not playin the best we can, we still win. But I'm sure everyone saw the game, and overanalysis of every game drives me crazy.
Saw The Chronicles of Narnia today with the family. Pretty amazing. It's been forever since I read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When I read it I couldn't fully appreciate the faith of C.S. Lewis and its impact on his writing. There are so many parallels in the story when compared to the spiritual war going on around us. What an amazing writer. Seriously though, go see it. Other than the whole faith and theology aspect, its just a flat out enjoyable and well directed movie.
OCAS next quarter. Why the crap does anybody keep going to main campus UC? I met with my advisor on Friday. The guy was really nice and respectful. He asked my name and what I wanted to do with my new major. I immidiately got the feeling that I wasn't a number and a tuition check there. Everybody was rediculously friendly and helpful. Moral of that story: quit main campus and go to OCAS where it doesn't suck.

Don't you......forget about me

2005-11-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

Bengals bye week eh. That kinda sucks. Now I have nothin to do but watch everybody else play. Then next week we have big Indy. It's gonna be crazy. The Colts have been looking really good every week. The only thing the Bengals really have goin for them here is that Indy has primarily a passing offense and that definetely plays right into the Bengal's strength on defense. However, if we force Indy to run more than they usually do, our run defense is definetely gonna have to step it up. But whatever, that's next week.
Apparently, I'm starting a new job monday at F.D. Lawrence. I'm gonna be workin in their warehouse stocking stuff and cleanin up. When am I gonna be able to co-op? I' m gettin pretty sick of workin like crazy and not gettin paid anything. I wanna not go to school, get paid a ton, and do nothing all day like everyone else. The good news is that I confirmed my acceptance to OCAS for winter quarter so hopefully I'll be able to co-op in the spring or summer if not both.
Small group is pretty sweet. I'm really startin to like leading. At first, I was just being drained by the experience. I'm at school from 8 in the morning till the end of group on thursday's so I was never really lookin forward to leading. Now I'm kinda gettin the feel of it and I'm learing how to make the studies effective and worthwhile. I'm sure I've still got plenty to learn in the leadership area but I think things are goin better.
What the crap...why does Indianapolis have three monday night games. Dude...give one of those to us. You suck Paul Tagliabue...I think thats how you spell Tagliabue.

Come you Masters of War

2005-10-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

Dah...school sucks. I'm not thinkin that I should be spending so much money on something I can't stand anymore. I'm not studying what I want to be studying and UC's buerocracy and general indifference toward students is driving me insane. So I think I'm headin to OCAS next quarter. Apparently, they've added a major under chemical technology that's pretty much exactly what I originally wanted to do anyway. Plus, unlike main campus UC, OCAS will hook me up with a Co-op. The Biology program at UC doesn't really get the value of a co-op or doesn't care enough to work it into the curriculum. Instead, they pound pointless and rediculously demanding classes into you until you change your major to one of the engineering concentrations or business. There's absolutely no reason why a biology major should be taking College Physics lab but nevertheless that's what I do. In fact, I haven't even had time to take a Biology class yet. I have taken two forms of chemistry, friggin calculus, a slew of electives, and all the associated labs.
You know what's gonna be sweet? The fall conference. The ride up alone is worth the 75 bucks. Can't wait to take part in the covert activities on the first night. It's gonna be awesome. Plus, Evan is speakin instead of Crazy McInsane from Ashland University.

Culpepper....go die

2005-09-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah...slow on the updating. School has officially started back up. My classes are gonna suck huge. Attendance is mandatory in all of them except organic chemistry but I'm gonna have to go to stay on top of it. I'm not thinkin that organic chemistry is one of those classes that you can just not go to and still pass. Never become a biology major.
Haha. So, in case you haven't heard yet, I got fired from my youth group position at Northern Hills United Methodist. Apparently, it doesn't matter how qualified you are to have a volunteer position in the Methodist Church. The only thing that really matters is where your membership lies. Since my "official" membership is with a Church of Christ I can't be trusted with high school kids. Even when I tried to explain that the Vineyard, where I've most recently been attending, doesn't have official membership, it didn't matter. In order to be allowed to lead the high school youth group I'm going to have to join the Methodist Church right now and then wait six months. I guess six months is the magical number of months that it takes for God to like you as a Methodist. So now I have to decide wether I should stick out the six months (kinda sounds like a prison sentence), screw it and leave, or fight the establishment (Sleep Now in the Fire plays in the background). Somethin really bothers me about goin in and "raisin hell" in a church that I just started going to but then again it bothers me even more that this church is crippled by its own pointless rules. I guess the only thing to do it pray about and see what God has in mind, maybe its somethin I haven't thought of yet.
yeah and daunte culpepper sucks.

Don't Stop Believin'

2005-08-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

My mom went ahead and bought me the best of Journey for ten bucks. It's pretty sweet. Don't listen to Davie's ignorant rantings, Journey rocks.
So I got my aquarium runnin. It's sweet like Journey. It's a twenty gallon tank with 5 fish in it. I got some cheap starter fish to start things out. Aquariums are awesome because no matter you can always come home and stare at them for hours when ur pissed off or mass stressed out. Fish are peaceful...except when they're kicking the crap outta each other for food. I can't believe how much aquarium stuff costs. The friggin filter, which is a really good one, cost almost fourty bucks.
Football is almost here. Luckily, my job doesn't require any weekend work so I know what I'll be doin every Sunday. The Bengals are gonna own this season and by own I mean better than 8-8. I don't want to start talkin about playoffs because I hate how people are goin nuts over the Bengals chances in the playoffs before we've even seen them play a preseason game. There's been a lot of changes to the team and I think its impossible to say either way at this point. One thing's for sure, the we had a ton of stuff that had to be worked on in the off season so I think the real determining factor for this season is going to have very little to do with quality of the lineup but instead how much was actually accomplished in the offseason.

9 seconds! Cmon, I gotta be at work in 2 seconds.

2005-07-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yep. Went to the BMV today. Always great. If you haven't heard Dane Cook's bit on the BMV you need to, its great. Yeah, I got my license renewed because it expired on my birthday. I love goin in there because you always have about 2 or 3 people that are redicul0usly pissed about something. I just checked out that link and the BMV bit isn't on there so you might have to go buy the DVD.
I saw War of the Worlds with a bunch of people the other night. It was pretty sweet. I pretty much got what I expected out of it. Tim Robbins was crazy. You never notice how huge that dude is until he's standing next to Tom Cruise. Tim Robbins could eat Tom Cruise if he wanted to.
Live 8 was rediculous. I've been watchin the concerts on AOL's page. My favorites so far are: The Who, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, and Velvet Revolver. I'm still laughin at Chris Cornell. If you haven't seen it yet. Go listen to "Like a Stone." It's the funniest thing ever....ever.
Why does car insurance cost so much? I'm paying more than 1,000 bucks a year to drive fine. What a scam. But what are you gonna do?

big 21

2005-06-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

I turn the big 21 on Saturday. My abstinence from fermented beverages officially comes to an end on the 25th of June. No idea whats goin on yet. I wanna do some camping or somethin but I'm not too worried about it. Just as long as there's beer and no work.
Work is the bane of my existence. I hate jobs where they expect you to earn your pay. This is the age of overpaying people for little to no actual work. I go in everyday at 8 in the morning and work non stop until 4:30. Then I come home and pass out because I'm so exhausted. The other day I was hauling mulch up our hill in 5 gallon buckets so I decided to start counting how many gallons of mulch I was moving. The total count at the end of the day was 360 gallons. 360 gallons....and that was just one day. Rediculous.
...Alright so I just got off the phone with Jony and it looks like we're gonna camp saturday night out at Brookville or East Fork. So get there.

Met a man, locked away for things he hadn't done

2005-05-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

Nine more days till Slave! It's gonna rock. Don't talk to Austin about it because he's "ignant". I can't wait to hear what Chris Cornell and Tom Morello have come up with in the past couple years. It's gonna be rediculous.
Me and Robby volunteered at Oak Hills Afterprom last night. It was pretty sweet. Nobody needed us for the first two hours so we wandered around and frequented the volunteer room for the free food and beverage. People kept mistaking us for students. This one dude on a power trip (giving out disposable cameras) chased us down when he saw that we didn't have security bracelets on. I guess he missed our nametags or failed to realized that the students weren't walking around with volunteer nametags on. So then when Rob and I finally go and do somethin, we can't give away the crappy provided prizes because they sucked. We did hand out a couple piles of cash to people though just to get rid of it. I think we mostly just found people we knew and loaded them down with stuff that nobody else wanted and would probably throw away anyway.
Athens this weekend. One last time, possibly. It's not that the drive gets easier. I just get better at zoning out for an hour or so. I usually snap back to life when I hit the cornfield. But it's all good because I do like to 4 wheel, not doin 70 though. I'm lookin forward to it. Always a good time hangin out Voellmecke's room/cell. Then there's the town of Athens with their huge Big Lots and 3 food establishments. I know why people drink like fish out there. Because there's nothin else to do.
Star Wars on Wednesday at midnight. Its gonna be awesome. My theory is that George Lucas can only screw this one up to a certain extent. He's got all the amazing technology goin for him and the storyline is almost written for him since there's a definite beginning and ending that have already been established. There's also certain things that everyone knows have to happen in this episode. So I'm thinking that this will probably put I and II to shame. Not that that's hard. I watched Episode I today. Dah. It's crazy how pissed off I get everytime Jar Jar says something. I can just see George Lucas sittin there like "you know what we need? A charater that has no meaning and will annoy the crap out of every Star Wars fan. I'm gonna go ahead and ruin the whole series with one character."

Even Flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies

2005-05-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

How long till the new audioslave cd comes out? I can't wait cuz I know its gonna be rediculous. I wanna be Chris Cornell when I grow up. And yeah I realize that means that I've done enough heroin to support the Columbian government for like a year. How bout that Family Guy? Hilarious. The G.I. Joe thing was hilarious. The writers are geniuses. Those guys know and are capable of making fun of everything. American Dad....wow...absolutely terrible. It's hard to believe that they're made by the same people.
Voellmecke was here this weekend. I like how this is workin out so far. She's hear one week and then I drive out there the next. It would be better if she just came here every weekend but what are you gonna do? So we went and saw Kung Fu Hustle. We were the only ones in the theater. Don't know why because the movie was great. It was a good time.

Tell me who are you?

2005-04-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Trip number three to Athens, done and done. Can't say the drive is gettin any better, its still boring as crap. Oh well. OU was a good time as always. We watched pulp fiction and I drove Steph around Athens to get food and supplies for her roommates. I made Steph a blog while I was out there. I'm thinkin she's gonna post on that thing once every couple years. I almost fell asleep on the way home. I was fine until I got on Ronald Reagan. Then I started gettin really sleepy and I almost drilled an SUV in the lane next to me cuz I was dozing off. Apparantly, I need to get some more sleep before I try to drive home for 3 hours.
So...am I takin classes this summer or not. Haven't decided yet. I probably should, but I'm not a huge fan of giving UC money. Especially since they're gonna jack up tuition another six percent. Rediculous. I was tellin Robby the other day that we need to have a good student riot and go ahead and burn down some of those nice new buildings. Speakin of UC. Steph, go freakin apply! Thats all I got.

I dont know how many of you people believe in astrology

2005-04-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Dah. Just took my first calc test of the quarter. not good. I'm gonna have to figure out some way to pass this class. I don't wanna be takin calc II for the rest of my life, I'm already behind from swithchin my major every quarter. Maybe I'll just become a Young Life leader and stick around UC for another five years. I hear that works pretty well.
Yeah so if you haven't heard yet, me and Voellmecke went "official." So stop asking. I think I'm gonna head out there this weekend again. So if anybody feels like seein Athens, Ohio just let me know because makin that trek by myself makes me wanna jerk my truck into an orphanage bus.
I'm really startin to enjoy New Leader Training. I'm learin a ton and its really practical stuff. The memory verses are gonna own me next week. I wonder how they determine who they're gonna ask to lead a group. I'm not that worried about it. If they asked me to lead one I'd pr0bably do it but if not, thats cool too.
Who's up for seein Petty this summer? He's comin with the the Black Crowes. Which could be good or bad. But Tom will be a good show. Plus, you're almost guaranteed to inhale at least a bowl of second hand pot smoke.

Forward yesterday, makes me wanna stay.

2005-04-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Made the drive out to Athens on again on Saturday. Its a nice drive. Not too much traffic and you can do about 80 the whole way. Plus, I'm always up for not choking on Cincinnati air. Hangin with Steph was sweet. Always a good time. Then I had to fly back to Cincinnati for New Leader Training. That was kinda rediculous. Luckily, Steph bought me a pack of oreos which I demolished on the way home. Pfft...I saw the craziest thing on the way home. There was this Amish lookin guy doin somethin on the highway. No idea what. But he took off runnin before I actually got to him. He ran down into the ditch on the opposite side of the highway, so the only thing I could see was his straw hat bobbing up and down. The dude ran across four lanes of traffic. I wonder if that's like an Amish right of passage.

I'm pretty sure everyone's heard about Jon by now. What a great guy. It makes you feel lucky to be alive because we're not invincible. I'm glad I had the pleasure of knowin Jon for as long as I did. Haha. This one time we were workin stage crew for a musical at Oak Hills and we invented this game called "stair ball". The only objective was to try to make it up the steps in the light box without gettin drilled by the ball. Its stuff like that, that I remember about Jon. We're all gonna miss you chief.

It's Hard to Believe that Somebody Tricked You...

2005-03-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

Strep throat is definetely not given enough credit for destructive power. I was thinkin that strep throat was just a really bad sore throat. nah. Your glands pretty much fill your entire throat and constantly drain mucus stuff. You can try to eat but there's really no room for food in your mouth because of inflamed stuff. Plus, if you do try to swallow something it feels like you're napalming the back of your throat. mmmm....napalm. If you like the not being able to eat there's also the constant fever and innability to sleep at night.
I dunno how the crap I got this. It might have been from work. Last Sunday my boss made me clean up his front yard in the rain. So that's a possibilty. I worked everyday of spring break up until Friday when I pretty much died. So I screwed work on Friday and went to the doctor. I should try to get some compensation from my boss since I got sick cleanin up his friggin front yard.
Navs is gonna be sweet this quarter. They have some sweet stuff planned. Plus, New Leader Training is awesome. I really like the book. The topics the guy (author) covers are great. Especially the stuff about being real with people. Nothin makes me more pissed off than seeing people hand out canned, textbook, sunday school, answers to people like it was candy. There's nothin real about that.

and now a thousand years...in between

2005-03-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

The trip to OU was sweet. Even though its the longest drive ever. We hung out, watched some Anchorman, watched Brad get wasted off of 3 Smirnoffs. Did you know there's two versions of the Goonies? In the original version, there's an octopus in the cave with the pirate ship. It attacks them after they jump off the plank into the water. Some of the tv versions have it but the DVD's don't. Spence was sayin that they did that because the octopus woulda upped the rating or somethin for being too scary for little kids. I think I do remember seein the octopus version on tv once.
Dude, I need to register for classes. I have like two lined up for sure. I'm thinkin about not goin next quarter just because I don't want to mess with the hassle of registering for the friggin classes.
So I pulled a Harry Dunn at the gas station on the way home from OU. I decided to fill the tank so I let the pump go, assuming that it had a safety that would stop it from filling. Well apparently, the safety was broken or it didn't have one because it didn't stop. I was even watchin the meter. When it got up around 14.5 gallons I started askin myself "Isn't my tank only 15 gallons." I looked over just in time to see gas start pouring out of my tank. So I grabbed the nozzle real fast and turned it off. Luckily, not too much had poured out but my tank was definetely topped off.
We need to see how many people we can pack into Voellmecke's room without gettin kicked out next time.

It ain't me, It ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one

2005-02-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Key Laborers this weekend. Its gonna be rediculous. I've only heard good things about it. I was talkin to Dan at lunch yesterday about it and he said he wanted to get a football game goin saturday night. So we might have to commandeer the Vineyard's field. What are they gonna do? Kick us out?
I got calc and chem tests this week. So this week will decide whether this quarter was even worth registering for. I should be studyin right now. But instead I'm updatin my blog.
Running is goin well. I'm upping my mileage a little each week. Not enough to run a marathon but at least I'm being consistent. I'm gettin a good 20-25 miles each week. Gettin' back in shape is tough.
My new job in Clifton is pretty pointless. Right now I have a project goin to build a trap for drug dealers. There's a staircase comin up from over the rhine through the woods. The stairs were closed by the city but they're still usable. So drug dealers get into Clifton that way. So I'm in charge of taking some honeysuckle that we cut down and making a barricade so that the steps are no longer usable. It's gonna be funny when I go down there one day and there's gonna be a couple dealers tangled in the brances. Haha I'm like shelob. The pay is good though and its five minutes from school.

It's a Hard Rain is Gonna Fall

2005-02-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

So Voellmecke and Rob were tellin me that they Lynyrd Skynyrd did Freebird last night at the Grammy's. At first I was sorry I missed it. The I heard that it was a duet with country singer, Gretchen Wilson. What is going on in this country? Why does every good thing have to be drug into popular functions, like the Grammy's, and flogged? You're right, I didn't see the actual performance and to tell you the truth I don't want to. I was considering looking at some of the video online but then I talked myself out of it. It would be too painful to watch. I don't have anything against Gretchen Wilson or any other country singer. However, when she goes out there and mocks the spirit of Freebird by performing a duet with Lynyrd Skynyrd, then I have a problem. Freebird was not written as a cute little song to be sung at events where they give bands like Green Day best album awards. I'll tell ya, I'm glad Ronnie's not alive today because I wouldn't have wanted him to see this and he woulda died anyway from seeing popular society rape his song publicly.
To the remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, I'd say that I hope you're happy with what you've done just now. You used to be the symbol of the working class, the farmer, the rancher, the simple man, and the redneck. And now what are you? You're all sellouts.

Break on through to the other side

2005-02-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

We played lazer tag for Robby's birthday the other night. It was pretty sweet. Except for the kid who knows where all the upgrades are and wall hacks everybody. Cici's pizza was good too and dirt cheap. Always keep in mind that barbeque is under no circumstances good on pizza.
I got a job finally. I'm gonna work at an apartment complex on Ohio. I know the guy who owns them and he offered me 10 bucks an hour to do ground maitenance. I can work pretty much whenever I want so I'm gonna take it.
Super Bowl's tonight. This game is gonna be terrible.

I Drive a Dodge Stratus

2005-02-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

So it looks like we're gonna get a house in Clifton at the end of the summer. Which means I'm gonna need more money. Working full time at the park will give me plenty but I'll probably be safe and sell the truck. (sigh). I guess I'd rather move out then have cool wheels. I would try to have both but I don't a car payment hangin over me while I'm tryin to pay the rent. Living in Clifton would be sweet just for the lack of a commute. The gas money I'll save will probably pay for half the rent. Especially if I stick with drivin trucks.
UC still thinks I'm gonna pay their stupid late fee. I like how UC just makes up this outrageous fines to slap on people whenever they feel like it. If you ever wondered whether UC cares if you exist, try being a day late on your bill. Otherwise your just a number and a tuition check.
This is gonna be the most worthless super bowl ever. I hate the patriots and I'm not that big a' fan of the Eagles either. This game is just gonna be dumb. At least there's no shortage of parties. There's Navs and and Justin's so those'll be cool.
Davie, Lubbys, and I went to Lifespring on Sunday. It was decent. In some ways its better than the Vineyard because its so much smaller. I'm not a big fan of the thousands of people services that go on at the Vineyard. Plus if I can avoid the half hour drive to tri-county I'll take it. Lifespring seems like they have a good thing goin. They're a little more formal than the Vineyard with their membership and they take communion every week I guess. So I'm thinkin that they're a mixture of traditional and contemporary doctrines. Which is cool.

whiskey bottles, brand new cars, oak tree you're in my way

2005-01-23T11:24:00.000-08:00

So it was almost unanimous. Looks like the facial hair is staying for awhile.
West side vineyard had their first meeting this week. I didnt go because I have small group on thursday nights but apparently it was a good turn out. This thing is gonna be huge.
I was playin some Halo 2 online last night and I noticed how much crap people talk in that game. It almost makes it not fun to play because no one will shut up and play. Seriously, they get into arguments with each other about who's the bigger newb or who sucks. And its not all twelve year olds doin the bitching. I just sit there and laugh at these people who obviously have nothin else goin on in life besides Halo 2.
School is eating my soul. Calculus is hopeless. I wish they would tell you ahead of time which major a class is geared towards. I'm in a calc class with all engineers and I'm a biology major so this class is owning me. I'm trying to line up a tutor so I can just get done with it with a passing grade. That way I can be done with math for the rest of my life.
I still need a job. I turned in a resume to the public library but they still havent called me. How many "resumes" could they possibly have for part time jobs payin 8 bucks an hour.

Judgement Day

2005-01-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

So I'm wonderin if I should keep the ol facial hair. I figure its had a long enough trial period so I'm gonna put it to vote. So do it and leave a comment.

No, its a cardigan but thanks for asking.

2005-01-11T18:26:00.000-08:00

So...it been awhile since I've updated the ol' blog. Thats probably because lately if I don't need to do it to survive, chances are I'm not gonna do it. Like homework. School is great this quarter. I have Chem. and all of its associated labs and recitations and Calc. I have more homework than I know how to blow off. I actually went in for help today. I sat down with the TA who looked like she knew how to speak English (no offense to foreigners but I gotta pass). She spoke English pretty well but she didn't know crap about calculus. So there u have it. You might be able to understand English speaking TA's, but they're dumber than rocks. So I went to chem lab knowing less than what I came in with.
Vollmecke and I were talkin' last night about takin a road trip out west. That would be rediculous. So I'm gonna try to recruit some people for that.
I really need a job. I've applied just about everywhere and no one has called me back. I'm gonna write a resume tonight and hand it into the library. I've heard that they pay pretty well and have flexible hours. I really wanna go back to the park. I stopped in there the other day to give my keys back. Both of my bosses were sittin there readin the newspaper. haha. What a great job. They said that I probably wont be able to come back till march when the weather gets warmer. So I gotta find somethin before then. I'll probably start sellin crack. Thats all I got.

Real Ultimate Power

2004-12-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

So there's this guy named Robert Hamburger and he wrote a book called The Official Ninja Book. It tells you how to become a ninja, the day to day life a ninja, and how to identify ninjas. This book is probably the most hilarious thing I've ever encountered. Enjoy some exerpts:

Did you know? Ninja means "crapping me pantalons" in Canadian.

600 A.D: For some old queen's birthday, sixty thousand ninjas wail on their guitars and kill a country.

Nothing can kill a ninja. So if two ninjas start fighting they'll probably malfunction and start beeping and smoking.

Q. What do ninja's do when they're not cutting off heads or flipping out?
A. Most of their free time is spent flying, but sometimes they stab. (Ask Mark if you don't beleive me)

Ninjas fight all the time. Ninja means "fight" in German and Mexican.

Doctors: Doctors are retarded. They don't do anything. Sometimes they cut people, which is cool, but they don't do it enough. And when they actually do kill somebody, everybody yells at them.

Did you know? In the past, ninjas would dip their hands and feet into pure lava to make them hard. They don't do that anymore, because where do you get lava?

When hanging out with their clan, ninjas generally don't toss around real metal ninja stars. 'Cause if one ninja does it, then everybody's going to do it, and then some lamp gets busted and everybody has to go home and then what?

How to commit Seppuku with a frisbee:
1. Get a frisbee from the store or a friend.
2. Clean the frisbee.
3. Make sure your parents aren't around.
4. Put something slippery on it, like butter or cream.
5. Get really, super pissed.
6. Fold the frisbee, hard (this is crucial).
7. Keep folded and insert frisbee into mouth, hard.
8. Push hard until you can't see it.
9. Wait.
10. Die.

Turkey Day

2004-11-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

Thankgiving was sweet. I got to see my cousins and friends who came back from school. I didn't get to hang out with everyone that I wanted to but then again Christmas break is only a couple weeks away. I ran the race downtown on Thanksgiving morning. That course get tougher everytime I do it. Running over bridges sucks because you feel like they're miles long when they are only like a half mile. The race was cool though. There were thousands of people down there and it was freezing.
Went to Jony's last night. I don't drink so I was just kinda standin around watchin other people get trashed but Fikri and the Mercy girls were there who I haven't seen in forever. It was a good time.
How bout' them Bengals? 58-48 was the final score. Awesome game. Absolutely no defense from anybody. It's official Browns fans are jerks. They wouldn't shut up the entire time. Then they started throwing crap and pissing people off.
I'm not lookin forward to going to school this week. Its gonna suck. Finals comin up. I have to teach myself a whole bunch of calculus and I gotta decide if I'm gonna change my major to biology.

Master Chief

2004-11-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

Halo 2 is nuts. The story is explained much better that the first. Apparently, the convenant have this huge hierarchy of leadership and its a theocracy. The new vehicles and weapons are sweet especially the rocket launcher warthog. One resounding dissappointment though, the flood make an appearance. I was not at all pleased with this. I thought Halo enthusiasts had made it perfectly clear they didn't want any more rediculously annoying undead guys walkin around in the sequal. But I can get past it.
In case anybody is unaware, Jenny and I are on a break. We haven't called anything off yet but we are spending some time apart to evaluate where we are at with things. This is pretty much the hardest thing I've ever done so there's a pretty crappy slant to this week. Above all, we both want to follow what God has planned for us and if that means we won't be together anymore, then we'll accept that. Right now, I guess we're both trying to figure out what God's will is in this situation.

Victory

2004-11-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

What a night. I was up till about 2 in the morning watching the results come in. I'll tell you right now that I voted for Bush and am extremely happy with the re-election. I am dissappointed with one factor of the nationwide results. Statistics are showing that a record number of evangelicals showed up to vote. Whereas, in years past this population had often refused to participate in national elections. This is a great thing. Christians should have an active say in the goings on of their government. They are part of this country to, its imperative to be responsible members of society in my opinion.
The part I'm dissappointed with is with this trend came an overwellming movement to ban gay marriage. I can't say what other states ballots said or what their new legislation prohibits but in Ohio we already have a piece of legislation in place that protects marriage as that of a man and a woman. Issue 1 blazed new ground. Now, civil unions would not be created or recognized.
So here it is, is it my duty as a follower of Christ to trounce on anything that says homosexual?
I voted for Bush because I believe what he has been doing for the last four years is what we should be doing. Its unfair to blame the economy, which is not as bad as anybody says, on one man and it's getting better. The war in Iraq was and is the right thing to do. I know thats a crazy concept nowadays to do something just because its right.
On that note, I voted down issue 1. I'm not out to persecute gays. I'm out to convey God's love to them. No, I'm not for gay marriage. But I guess I am ok with civil unions because I'm not going to force my beliefs or descriminate against anybody. All I ask is that the official term of "marriage" be granted only to a man and a woman as it always has been.
It's been a real struggle on how to vote "christ-like." One thing I'm sure of though is that God does not condemn my passion for political issues because he put it there and because of that passion I have opinions. I don't expect all Christians to have the same opinion and I refuse to criticize a Christian who votes democratic. I'm sure God likes the fact that I have opinions of my own because I'm acting out who he made me to be.

Forgot I had a blog

2004-10-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

So...fantasy football eh.
Dante Culpepper is the man. 5 td's and almost 400 yards. sweet.

The Creepy Campout is gonna be off the hook. I got horgan to go. She's never been camping before. So somebody needs to tell her that she's gonna get eaten by a bear or something, she'd totally buy it. Most sheltered girl ever. But its gonna be awesome. I got my own site so everyone's welcome to show up. Just cmon up whenever. Dress up like a pirate if you feel like it.

Classes suck. I don't have any that I can skip without immidiate consequences except maybe American Politics, the most pointless class ever. Calculus isn't turning out to be that hard. The prof sucks at everything but I've been able to keep up by teaching myself and doing small amounts of homework. I have a test tomorrow so we'll see.

Back to school

2004-09-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

First day of school. Wasn't that bad. Calculus might be hard but I'm not that worried about it. My American Politics class is huge. Its gonna be great because I have a feeling that there's gonna plenty of arguing about the presidential race.

CBS...haha. Take that Dan Rather. CBS is re-nigging on its stance to support its stupid memos from the national guard. This is the part of politics that I hate. Everybody starts makin' up stuff and lying about where they got it and who said what. Its rediculous.

Dante Culpepper is the man. My fantasy team is doin pretty good but there's some changes I'd still like to make. I' m gonna need some more depth in my line up.

Giant asteroids on a collision course with earth are cool.

We got any rednecks out there?

2004-08-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

The Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at Riverbend was amazing. Hank Williams was pretty good but I'm not a huge country fan. Gary Rossington was awesome. I almost cried when they played Freebird. I was skepticle about the concert at first because there's only two original members of the band but they proved to be much better than anybody gives them credit for.
The best thing about the concert was the people on the lawn. There's nothin better than a thousand 50 year old rednecks getting too drunk to stand up straight. It was hilarious until everybody started breaking out the pot. By the end of the concert there was a haze floating over the lawn. I was seriously buzzed.

My new tires are on the truck. They're pretty sweet. I got them muddy at Spence's last night, fishtailing in front of her house. As soon as I got back on the pavement they threw the mud which is what they are supposed to do. However, when they throw mud they throw it onto the truck which I just washed. So my truck is a mess again but I don't care because it was worth it.

They come to snuff the rooster...

2004-08-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

Somebody found a way to kill him. Nathan Scott Phillips, murdered in the strees of Delhi Park. Our rooster from Clearview Tavern was brutally killed by some careless driver entering the park...or so it would seem. I suspect foul play is involved here. It's a well know fact that Nathan Scott Phillips doesn't hang out in front of traffic like the ducks. In fact, he usually leaves the street when a car turns into the driveway. This mean that jerk came tearing through the park on Friday and probably chased the unsuspecting rooster to his death. None of this matters now though. Nathan Scott Phillips is gone.

If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me? Because I'm as free as a bird now...and this bird you cannot change! Won't you fly high freebird!

Davie and I went to a bunch of bars on Friday to pick up kegs for the skirt game. In every bar we went to we got a comment on how we wouldn't be able to carry it out....and we always got it out and to my truck. We also got some looks from people who saw two underage kids loading 6 kegs into the back of a pickup truck.

This is awesome. Pff...three purple hearts.

'cause I'm already standing on the ground

2004-07-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Village was sweet. Critics are so dumb. I guess if a movie doesn't have tons of special effects and blood everywhere its no good. Whatever.

I was lookin' at the Enquirer today and it was loaded with Kerry articles. They tried not to sound partial but the fact that there were like a dozen articles dedicated to John Kerry's various policies and the campaign trail and not one about Bush unless the article was about how Kerry disagrees with Bush says a lot about where the paper stands. There was also this thing in there about swing voters. They interviewed a handful of people who were not strict conservative or liberal voters. They all voted for Bush in 2000 but they were now all voting for Kerry. One of them said she was gonna vote for Kerry because Bush's stance on terrorism is too weak! Apparently, fighting a war, unseating two terrorist supporting regimes, creating an entire cabinet level department dedicated to fighting terror, crushing the world's largest terrorist network and freeing millions of oppressed people is too weak of stance on terror. I won't even mention the lack of a follow up attack on our soil since 9/11. It almost seems like its working but that can't be because Bush's policies are weak. What we need to do is elect Kerry so he can pull thousands of troops out of Iraq so it can become a terrorist breeding ground. People are dumb.

Do you know how much tires cost? A lot. I have to buy some before winter comes along though and I'd like to get it taken care of before school starts up again. The frustrating thing is that I have three terrible tires and one perfect one that I just shelled out $140 for. Plus I drive a truck, a 4wd druck, with huge tires. I need off-road capable tires because I tend to get in some mud once in awhile. My redneck instincts tell me to get huge mud tires but those are even more expensive. Oh well, im getting huge mud tires.

There are stars in the Southern Sky...Southward as you go.

2004-07-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Horgan is gone. Apparently the family she's staying with is starving her to death and they are constantly pawning their kids off on her. She's also sunburned because her skin lacks pigment that most humans have.

I went to that class I'm taking at the Vineyard last night. Its pretty good. Its done by the same people who do Alpha so I'm thinking about doing that. Jenny has already done it and she liked it a lot.

How bout those reds? I just watched them give up 9 points in a half hour. Nothing like sittin at work watching the Reds blow their season.

The Village comes out next Friday. It should be pretty sweet. M. Night Shymla...Shamala....Shlala...........M. Night S. is a genius. Signs was a great movie and the Village looks like its going to be similar.

Welcome back to big Kenan Fikri (even though he's voting for meltface Kerry).

Wayward Son

2004-07-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

Went and saw anchorman last night. Hilarious. Zoolander is better but Will Ferell is pretty great. Jack Black and Ben Stiller made appearances that were freakin hilarious. I also ate at Benihana's with Jenny. I'm not a big fan of foreign food but it wasn't bad. However, it was rediculously expensive and between dinner, movie, flowers, and gas I dropped 90 bucks last night (doh). It was worth it though because yesterday marked our 2 year anniversary. I can't believe its been 2 years. Awesome.

Who wants to burn me a Kansas cd?

So the Senate intel report came out yesterday. It didn't look good. Apparently, the CIA and other intelligence groups were supplying Congress and the Administration with unreliable evidence about wmd and al-qaeda ties.

Stuff the media's not gonna tell you:
1. The report does not say the intel reports were false.
2. The president does not gather the intel himself, he has to act on what's given to him.
3. Saddam Hussein may or may not have been funding terrorists but he was definetely harboring them (undisputed fact).
4. Allegations of insufficient evidence concerning the existence of wmd in Iraq are good only for the time period post 1995. In 1995 the US intelligence community knew for certain that Saddam Hussein had chemical and bio. weapons and a nuclear program.
5. After 1998 it was impossible for inspectors and CIA operatives to infiltrate Iraq's weapons program because Clinton launched operation Desert Fox, a unilateral military offensive which accomplished nothing save kicking UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq. (good call Bill).

Nothin' on Top but a Bucket and a Mop and an Illustrated Book About Birds

2004-07-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

First post in awhile. Vacation was sweet. My birthday was the 25th so I was still down there but my extended family felt pressured to at least give me some money so that they weren't the only people who didn't get me anything when it came time to open gifts. So I got a bunch of money, Nirvana Unplugged, A CD binder, Best Buy gift card, and some fog lights for my truck.
Spiderman 2 was sweet. Way better than the first. It also had some hilarious comic relief. Plus I got to go see it with Jenny which makes the experience that much better (points). They had some insane special effects. The story line was kinda far fetched but it is coming from a comic book so I'll buy it.
I really want to see both Farenheit 9/11 and Saved. I refuse to pay for Farenheit 9/11 because I won't fuel Micheal Moore's propaganda machine. Dave was saying the we could pay for a different movie and then sneak into Farenheit. I have to see it so I can tear it to pieces and spit on the remains. Its really hard for me to understand how anyone can decide how they are going to vote based upon the opinion of an obvioulsy one-sided movie the came out of Hollywood. Talk about ignorance.
I want to see Saved because it presents an issue that I'm pretty passionate about, Religion. Cory Lester put it best at Young Life camp when he said that Religion and following Jesus almost seem like opposites. According to Justin, this movie satires the religious side of Christianity which is all the world sees. The only thing that I probably won't like about the movie is the non-distinction between those following Jesus and religious characters.
Even if the contrasting sects of Christianity are both given attention in the movie I highly doubt anyone (who is not a Christian) is going to be able to see a diffence between the two or be able to apply Biblical principles on which side is more righteous.
Furthermore, its dangerous to agree with the movie's satire of the church sub-culture because it stereotypes many Christians who agree with a highely traditional church doctrine. Having attented a strict traditinal church for many years I know both the dangers of church rooted in tradition. However, there were leaders from this church that loved the lord and honored the church's rules. It is possible to do both. My family left this church because it had become a hotel for saints rather than a hospital for sinners. The point is, religion is the work of Satan, there's no denying that, but so is condeming those who live out their faith in a traditional manner. Jesus hated the laws and rules of the pharisees but he knew that there were men among them that only desired to serve the lord.

Flip Flop Kerry Strikes Again

2004-06-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

John Kerry: never tells the same story twice.

Went to work today for nine hours. I don't really care though because today we dug a hole and then called it a day. We took a 1.5 hour break (a half hour of which is paid) for lunch and quit working all together at about two. Then we went up to the lodge and drank water and sat around till 4.

I ordered my tire. Its gonna cost me a nice $139. I had a close call today when I found a drill bit in another tire. Luckily, it had only dug into the tread and did not puncture the tire. The good thing is that the tire with the nail in it is out of my bed.

Along with replacing my tire, I'm also gonna have to change my oil this weekend which means I'm gonna have to fork out some more money for oil and a filter. Its a good thing that I do it myself and don't hire somebody to do something so easy...Jenny Horgan. It also need to be washed since I haven't touched it since I used it to push the work truck out of the mud.

Last exam tomorrow. No more school. Vacation in 11 days.

2004-06-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Pres. Ronald Reagan has died at the age of 93. This country has indeed lost a great man today. Reagan was one of the best leaders that this country has ever known. He was part of a dying breed that enters politics not for money or social gain but to make a difference. He took on the job of president, stuck to his principles and did the best he could. Most of us cannot even come close to appreciating what he did for this country.

2004-06-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

Samsonite...we were way off

Horgan and I went swimming yesterday at her pool. It was freezing but her pool and hot tub are sweet.

I got a nail in my tire so I'm gonna have to replace it for the small price of $130. I can't just get it patched because the nail is in the side wall and its against regulations to patch the side wall of a tire. So I'm gonna have to wait till I have the funds to purchase one. It doesn't help that my tires are Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires. Apparently huge tires with aggressive tread cost more to make or something.

Speaking of off road tires. My dad was talking about some place in Indiana where you can pay 7 bucks to do whatever you want on this guy's land. Apparenty, there's offroad trail all over the place that are pretty challenging. So I might try to get out there some weekend and try to trash my truck.

We have a soccer game on Sunday at 3. Which is good cuz I have to work until 10. That'll give me time to sleep.

School's almost done. I have two more regular classes to go to and then two exams next week. After that I'll be workin like crazy to be able to afford my truck that I'm determined to break and school next year. Plus if I find a place to live, other than where I'm at now, I'll need money for that. I have to start full time work soon because I'm leaving for South Carolina on the 19th and I'm gonna need money for my insurance this month. I'm screwed. Maybe my tax refund will come because it is my money and the government just seems to be holding on to it for awhile. So if they could go ahead and give me my money back...that'd be great.

Bush/Cheney '04

2004-05-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Cicadas are everywhere. We killed a whole bunch more of them yesterday after guy's group at Robby's house. They seriously have to be the stupidest creatures on the planet. It's no wonder there has to be a couple billion of them. If there wasn't there's no way the species would survive.

The UC guy still hasn't responded to my e-mail. If he thinks hes just gonna ignore me into submission, he's in for a surprise. I think I pay enough money to deserve his attention.

This week kinda sucks. I guess its cuz I'm struggling with some stuff. I've tried praying about it but there hasn't been too much of a response. There's some things that I need to figure out and I keep asking for God's guidance on but I can't seem to get any response. It just seems like I'm having a lot of trouble experiencing God lately and I'm not feeling a connection.

2004-05-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost here. This weekend was great. I had barely any homework except for a stupid speech thing that involves defending Pres. Bush so I don't really mind doing it.

I didn't play soccer today because I was too tired and Horgan wanted to go to church and I've been missing a lot lately so I thought I'd better go.

Tomorrow is official cicada bashing day. We're gonna go to Davie's and raise some hell. I was thinking about the whole cicada bashing thing. We're probably gonna kill a couple hundred of them, plus the ones that you run over, get eatin, run into stuff and die, get stepped on, and get plowed over by development. I think this is the american buffalo all over again. We're all assuming that there's a million of these things and that the species won't even feel our onslaught. However, thats the same thing that pioneers said about the buffalo and look what happened. Pretty soon the only place ur gonna be able to see cicadas is on a ranch in the Red River Gorge. Yeah what then? I'm still gonna kill a whole freakin bunch of em tomorrow.

2004-05-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

Missed my first class today cuz I was up all night doing homework and I had to print it all out this morning. I also have a quiz in speech that I haven't studied for yet. I'm so tired that I don't think I'm gonna make it through the rest of my classes.

Props to Happy Time Horgan on her scholarship. I wish I got money for my terrible grades.

So the liberals are really pissing me off now. The flyers on the the information kiosk in front of Langsam are pretty much just hate propaganda. I was thinking about those and I realized that they are slamming all conservatives with their "this is a compassionate conservative" slogan. What if I put a sign that says "this is a compassionate Jew"? How would those be different. I'm half tempted to email UC and complain and threaten to sue. But I know that most people are smart enough not to believe their crap.

2004-05-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah. bow bow. chic. chic. chic ahhh.

So hear's the new blog. I'm still trying to put up links but the comments are in order. I think we're going to see Troy tonight. It should be pretty sweet. It looks good. Horgan's all lookin forward to it because of Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. So I might as well not go.

Soccer tomorrow except I don't know if I'm gonna play because work screwed me out of hours this morning. I like this job but I might starve to death if summer doesn't get here soon. They don't have a lot of hours available in the evening and on weekends. It's pretty much a 7-4 job. They never work at night and only a couple of hours on the weekends to pick up the park and line a couple of fields.

You know what's an awesome song? Nemesis by Shriekback. It was really big in the '80s. Me and Lubbs downloaded it last night. The lyrics are hilarious.

2004-05-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

Battlefield Vietnam is the bane of my existence. I can't get it to work. I think it might be a little too demanding for my pc. So I'm gonna go argue with Target to take it back.
We played soccer on Sunday and got pwned. We played down two people because nobody showed up on account of the short notice. We're actually pretty good. We kept up even though we were down some players. We still got destroyed though cuz the half backs couldn't get back in time to help out on defense. There better be more people there this Sunday. We better get rid of the cotton, black shirts too.
Work is sweet. I just ride around in machinery thats not mine all day. I get a good tan and I don't deal with customers. In fact, my boss said to avoid people at all costs because they'll just ask you to clean up something or do something to a field. So I was fine with that.
I'm gonna get a paintball game together for sometime really soon. I don't know which day yet but there will be a game. Maybe the weekend after next.
Troy came out today!

2004-05-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

New job. Man, why did I work in retail for all these years. I could of made way more money doing way less work. Government jobs are the answer. Seriously, in two days and about 11 hours of paid time I've probably done a total of 2 hours of actual work. The other time was spent riding around on the tractor, taking hour long paid breaks, making sure the middle school kids didn't pry up fence posts, and just sitting around. This is the best job ever.
We walked past a big scientology tent today outside of McMicken. I wanted to go and talk to them but I needed to go to class. I wanted to ask them if any of them actually knew what they believed or if they were just mindless drones who will believe anything anybody tells them. What a cult. Where's jigga when you need him?
I think I might pick up battlefield Vietman or UT 2004. I don't know which one but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get one of them. Time to up my rating on Yahoo Euchre.

2004-04-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

I have to think of a word for effective public speaking that I can write an entire speech on. Rob already called "Christianity" so I can't do that. I was thinking of maybe doing "conservatism" or "socialism" or "liberalism". I could say a lot about those but the instructor wants this speech to be serious and not a joke like we made the last one. Even though the class is a joke. So if anyone comes up with a good word, go ahead and leave it in the comment box.
I got my truck stuck yesterday by the Great Miami River. I was seriously getting worried about not getting it out. My dad and I were fishing and we went down to a spot that apparently had just recently been under water. We decided not to fish there but I couldn't stop myself from trying to destroy my truck. I dropped it into a small "lake" that was probably about 3 feet deep. The four wheel was in so it wasn't a problem but then it dropped again suddenly and both of the front tires were covered and one of the rear tires was caught in a rut. I panicked, put it into first, and floored it. Needless to say I threw mud all over my truck and didn't move at all. I stopped to think for a second, then I put it into reverse and luckily one of the back tires was still on decent ground and the posi-track was able to pull me out. My truck looks awesome now.
Kenan emailed me back and told me how much Europe loves Kerry. Apparently, there is no such thing as "conservatives" over there and he is enjoying not having to argue with anyone like us. He also said that he can vote on an absentee ballot.
If you see Horgan tell her to quit her job.

2004-04-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

So I'm at school and Davie and I are not not skipping class. I've decided to go ahead and update my blog. Me and Dave were just discussing the most overated movies of all time. This is subject to change because I'm just pulling these out off top of my head. Feel free to comment and suggest replacements, additions, or movement within the ranks.
1. Titanic- There's no reason this made as much money as it did.
2. Pearl Harbor- Tons of potential, zero quality
3. It's A Wonderful Life- Makes me wanna gouge my eyes out with a blunt object
4. Apocalypse Now- Another movie with enough budget to be awesome but screwed up with a terrible storyline
5. Full Metal Jacket- What was this?
6. Grease- I hate Jon Travolta
7. The Harry Potter series- ok movie, but way overrated
8. The Adam Sandler Movies except Happy Gilmore- talk about a an actor playing the same part over and over again
9. All of the Austin Powers movies- dumb
10. Jurassic Park II and III- the first one was sweet, shoulda stopped there/ they're about to make another one about how the government uses the dinosaurs as secret weapons
11. Gone With the Wind- Wow. How this movie got so huge I'll never know.

2004-04-05T18:35:00.001-07:00

U Conn has beaten Duke and Dougie is victorious. Unfortunately, I owe Austin 50 dollars from spring break so I'll never get to hold the money in my hands.

School is way better this quarter. It's so easy that I'm feeling guilty for the classes I'm taking. So I dropped one of the moron classes I'm in for a more difficult political science class. So I'll have it tomorrow for the first time. Hopefully the professor hasn't gotten far into the class yet. If he's a jerk I'll just pick up the class I was in before.

I got the job with Delhi Township. It pays $8.55 an hour and I was garunteed 40 hours a week. Plus its 7am to 4 pm everyday Mon-Fri. So I won't have to worry about my schedule changing. Also, its an outdoor job and everyone knows that maitenance people stand around do nothing most of the time so I should fit in pretty good. I can't wait to tell the people at Dick's that I'm not working this summer. To bad I can't screw them over or anything because I'll probably come back during the school year if I'm still at UC.

10 years since the world was robbed of Kurt Cobain's music. I had the pleasure of watching Unplugged today. Cobain was truly a genius. The world will never again know a musician of his calibur. (Especially with the direction music is headed today).

I'm not like them
But I can pretend
The sun is gone
But I have a light
The day is done
But I'm having fun
I think I'm dumb
Or maybe just happy

2004-03-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

Time for spring break. Jon has backed out on us at the last minute but we we're only using him for his mustang so its no big deal. We'll just burn down his house later as retribution. Anyway, my pole officially offed itself today. UC, Stanford, UK...all gone. But the memory remains......
So I'm goin down to Kentucky for a few days to do some camping and eating. Horgan's in Georgia so I won't get to see her for like a month until I get back. That sucks.

UC's decal purchase thing is closed so I'm gonna have to go up there to buy one. I hate Clifton. I especially hate Clifton when I don't have to be there.
I just Tivo'd an episode of Aque Teen so im bought to go watch that up.
Later world, I'll see you Thursday.

2004-03-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

So, I have a chemistry final on Monday that will decide if I fail chemistry this quarter. How bout UC? beatin DePaul today and selection Sunday tomorrow. I played soccer today for like three hours and now my knees hurt.
I wonder what would happen if I just didn't write this English paper. I probably won't fail the class cuz I've done pretty well on everything else up to this point.
Shotguns only in Sidewinder sucks. You watch people walk across the level on the ground but you can't do anything about it cuz you don't have a freakin sniper rifle or pistol to shoot them with. So you take a half hour walk across the level cuz all the vehicles have been deposited in the middle and get killed by a camper, hiding on the other side of the tank.
I'm hangin out with horgan tonight. We might go up to Bass Pro Shops to get some fishing stuff.
No more flaming liberal env. science teachers!
Hey backwoods retard............not now, not ever.

2004-03-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

So, I saw the Passion on Wednesday. It was pretty awesome. I've heard the story before so I knew what to expect but it was crazy to see people in the theatre, who I knew probably had never heard anything about what Jesus went through so that we would not have to pay for our own sins, react to the movie. Then I thought about all those writers out there who immidiately went about trashing the movie. I thought that this makes sense. The world will do anything to make Jesus's life seem inconsequential.
So thanks to Austin Lubbers who left me and Dave out in the cold to die Friday night.
I just voted for Goldeneye, which is winning, to get the extra life. It got screwed in the first round by going up against halo.
I need to go buy Nirvana Unplugged and I'm not doing homework tonight.

2004-03-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

So I changed my format so Dave wouldn't bitch at me anymore. In doing so I found out that you have to re-enter your links and comment coding. Done and done. I haven't seen my schedule yet for next quarter but it'll probably suck. At least I don't have chemistry anymore. Speaking of chemistry its starting right............now. Guess where I'm not. I'm gonna leave here shortly though to make enviro. science and learn how the Bush administration is suppressing scientific research and killing the environment. Who puts the anti-war rhetoric at the bottom of my comment page?
The best game ever is Super Mario Bros. 3 for Nintendo. Halo, Goldeneye, Fusion Frenzy, Mario Kart, TMNT: Manhattan Project are my finalists but they can't beat the level of SMB 3 where Mario can obtain the frog suit. This level, I forget its numerical value, made my decision. The problem is that you can't get to it via whistle.
Did you guys know that in the last level when you have to beat one of the floating ships, water not air, you can sink just far enough to swim under the entire ship and jump out just in time to climb onto the back of the ship.
Welp time for school.

2004-02-29T21:34:00.000-08:00

Sweet. Blog. How bout 11 oscars for LOTR. Who likes anti-war rhetoric? I know I'm a fan.