All of Which are American Dreams

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

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

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

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

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

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

What the crap happened to my sidebar?

I fought a bowl of oatmeal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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