Family:

I'm almost certain I went straight to stick figures.

Expression:

I really am bad at expressing myself. Sort of a post-thought from retreat. I know this is one of my many weaknesses... or actually may contribute to my many weaknesses. I just choose not to communicate the condition of my heart so often because I do not know how. Verbally, especially. But also, through touch. As weird as that is, I find it difficult to use physical contact as a way of communicating something... anything deeper than a hand shake. I realize, the more I think about it, that being stoic isn't a quality that I would admire. It doesn't seem to accomplish much.

If I am going to share life with others, that would require me to express my life. One thing that I hope has been helping me is my self expression through drawing. While I have no talent, I am finding that I can spill my soul onto a canvas... or rather, a digital canvas. I guess that's good. As Farrell taught me, there is something beautiful about the process of creation and something intrinsic in us that makes us creative. Examples- God's Creation, Jesus' creativity. Being the non-creative engineer that I am, it's hard for me to embrace the concept. It can only be my hope that I can uncensor myself and spit whatever artistic ability I have onto my screen.

Tonight's drawing is from the retreat and happens to be on paper. Maybe I'll have it handy and you can ask to see it. So in conclusion: Life is our adventure. Take my hand. Let's go.

Winner:

I possibly could check off something from my 43things. Tonight proves that I am the best at wasting time. The list of time wasting activities that I partook in tonight is too extensive to put on here.

This afternoon while Andy and the LARC department were carving pumpkins by Hornbake, I thought to myself, "hmm, I need to get a knife" (since I lost my old one, not because I need two).

Great, now I just spent the past half hour looking at different SAKs...
I've always wanted a one hand blade.

Understand:

Thoughts?

Illadvised:

I am going against my own advice and posting like a maniac. But I couldn't help but waste some time and make one of these. I usually don't aspire to do too much with my future because I like to live in the present, but I found this exercise very helpful by making me think beyond the exam and homework assignments of this week. Plus that's some seriously cool programming on that site. Pretty genious.

Trinity:

Just a thing I've been thinking of recently. I haven't heard many people talk about it, so I don't really know if it's a valid topic at all, but I'll try to explain what is going on in my head.

Often times when we are evaluating each other's spiritual walks, we talk about spiritual gifts that we have. We are all unique and play a different role in the Body of Christ. But lately I've been thinking that my 'spiritual personality' may be because of my sensitivity to the Trinity. What the --- is that supposed to mean? Well there are the three faces of God that we address- Father, Jesus, and Spirit. All one in the same, I believe, but there's too much theological stuff behind the concept to really go into depth here. Flashback...

Fall retreat freshman year, I was praying with someone and I suddenly realized that I was praying that the Spirit would be present in the room. "What does that mean?" I thought. I began to understand, soon after, that the role of the Holy Spirit in my life was something that I barely understood. And since then, it has been quite a learning experience... exploring what it is and letting it act in my life.

So, I think my sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is on a lower level than my sensitivity to the Father or to Jesus. Hmm, this is really hard to explain because it involves separating the Trinity which is typically frowned upon. But anyway, here is an illustration of where I think I am:


Maybe I'm just being blasphemous, but that's just how my response to God is quite often. Maybe this is a good self evaluation that's telling me where I need to grow in.

Unoriginal:

I'm not very free spirited so I just copy off of other people...
Things I'd like to do:
-Go to Europe
-Live in Africa
-Save someone's life
-Fly kites with my friends
-Go to the top of Byrd
-Drag a quarter mile in 15 seconds

Fall:

Fall!

Truth:

Not lying. Will not.

Discipline:

Alright. I will finish this post all the way through, I promise. It's just that I prefer blogging just before I go to bed... and I actually write while in bed, so those conditions have me falling asleep just as I click the "Publish Post" button.

School just seems to be calling for more effort. And I just feel like I need to discipline. What is discipline, though? According to Proverbs and Jeremiah and Hebrews, it has a lot to do with the way God is the Father... the Good Father. A biblegateway search shows the word usually in the context of God parenting us so that we grow up to be strong and healthy. How does that apply to me? I think I click with Hebrews best:

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:11

I don't know how righteousness and peace will result from me being better trained in studying, but I sure like the sound of it. Righteousness and peace... yum.

(Note to self: future post concerning the Trinity... no, it's not going to be theologically intensive)

Rescue:

So parts of this weekend I felt like I was sleeping and laying around a lot, and that I was wasting my life away. But not so when I think about some of the things I got to do. Overall, I would say this was a superb weekend.

Last night/early this morning, LÄFANANJJ and I went to see RHPS at the Hoff. It was... interesting. I tried to stay open minded and think like Farrell. Who are these people and why are they doing these things? What drives people to come and be excited about this kind of production? Something so extreme and so, seemingly, out there. I certainly don't have answers or conclusions, but atleast last night made me aware that such a subculture does exist.


I like the color blue. I think it has to do with my personality.

What does it mean to be rescued? Random, I know. But it must be a thought dwelling in my subconcious because my hand formed the initial shapes without my mind thinking about it.

Rescue implies pursuit. I know, usually this train of thought goes into the 'epic realm'. Choose your own epic movie and pull that scene where the hero battles off hundreds of enemies to save someone. Sure life is an adventure, but I don't think it's necessary for me to go into the dramatic. So...
Rescue implies pursuit. Other elements- danger, following, drive, passion, etc... Doh, I am quickly fading. That's as far as my thought processes go. Good night.

Ponder:

No explanation from me. Not now, not yet.

Splatter:

When I think about it, today has to be one of the better days I've had in a while. Just very content with what I have in front of me, and very excited about what is being planned ahead. Though I'm not sure how I am supposed to conjure up all this extra time to do these fun things. Things include:
1. Trip out to Appalachain Rocks out in western MD. A bit of a hike and then a lot of rock climbing.
2. Nerf gun game. It's a $10 one time buy in (for a nerf gun that you get to keep and play with!) for something that hopefully will catch on. There are all sorts of games we can organize with all kinds of factors. One example- Terrorists start outside and must assault the house (use of any 3 entrances: front, kitchen, basement door), plant and activate the bomb in a far away room (jeff's room, hit his alarm), and lastly hold the room for 2 minutes without the defending team deactivating the bomb. All this in pitch dark, where each person has their choice of flashlight. Exhilirating! All are invited by the way, no prior experience necessary.
3. Thanksgiving dinner. Still in the works, but I love the idea of being one big family. The talk about food and the possibility of a kiddie table with the lovely ladies of 2301 has me totally psyched. Also, as a family gathering I think it would be a great time of just loving on each other (a stress free, yet organized event).

Tonight's sky is beautiful. I cannot find a way to do it justice. I can only throw some digital paint on a digital canvas to try and grasp the colors (and display absolutely no depth):

Walking across campus, breathing the cool fall air. Laying in the bed of Andy's truck going 40 mph with the lines of tree branches flying by in your peripheral vision, but the the moon and clouds sitting perfectly still. Coming off of the excitement that is Maryland Madness. This is how God reminds me to never complain.

Ache:

I'm not sure what to say about today... other than the fact that I have been carrying around a minor headache with me since noonish. A lot of things happened throughout the day, but I am not really thinking of anything that is worth writing about. That is, extremely out of the ordinary.

I thought I blogged a lot. Not so compared to some people apparently. I mean, I could write a lot more, a lot more often (as in, ever second of class) but I try to exhibit some self restraint in my blogging. I can't give details exactly why that is. I don't know. Anyway, I do find it worth mentioning... some people, lots of blogging.

I really want to draw, but I know that with this headache it's just going to suck. So I won't be wasting my time. Good night, moon.

Late:

It is entirely way too late for me to be up. Just a couple of quick items though.
- I really love hanging out. Not necessarily having to do anything, but just being alive and with friends.
- Starlight. Isn't that an amazing concept? Take a moment to consider it.
- I always forget how much I enjoy gospel happy hour. That's what blogs are for, I guess.
- Really guys, pace yourself on the stalking... otherwise you burn out. Take it from an expert.

HAHAHA:

Ooooh man, this is hilarious how one comment can spread.

http://dannaluv.blogspot.com/2005/10/t-found-fountain-of-youth.html

I'm famous!

Blogosphere:

I was going to post a bit about the slightly strange meeting of bloggers tonight, but that's already been taken care of. I was going to mention somewhere in the conversation something about reported incidents of people being kidnapped and people who have gone missing due to them falling into traps. You know, setting up a meeting over the internet and the person isn't who they say they are. But I didn't mention anything because Tony had spoken about taking risks in part of his talk :)

Gosh darn it. I just spent the past half hour trying to draw something abstract to express something, but it ended up not being abstract at all. So I guess you've been deprived of another 'art-if-you-can-call-it-that' posting. Another time kids, another time.

Boom:

Just a quick post before I GDTB. So in case you didn't hear, there's been a pretty strong odor outside of our front lawn. There was a really bad natural gas leak on the public line apparently. We called the company and they came out and said it was fine and someone will fix it in the upcoming months. Later Saturday night, the smell was worse and we could hear the gas gurgling up out of our lawn. The same guy came out again and said it was okay... even though the air in that area of the lawn was 84% natural gas. He said it wasn't too big of a deal and someone would fix it within a couple of months because it wasn't of high priority. Today the gas company came out with a truck and worked on it all day. The two workers said that if this sort of leak MUST be taken care of the day it is discovered. According to the manual the original worker was using, he was supposed to immediately shut off the gas and labeled the case as an EMERGENCY.

So they fixed it tonight, which is a good thing. Apparently, there was enough gas to blow up the entire right side of the house and driveway, and mostly destroy the rest of the house and the next door neighbor's. Maybe a cigarette or a random spark from something rubbing up against the pavement could have incinerated us all. So that's my 'huh' for the week. Just thought I'd throw that out there. And for now, it's go time.

Stimulate:

Parts of this weekend have been relatively blah. Overall it was good. I can't complain about too much. This week is going to straight up suck with the three exams (one which will be impossible) I must take.

Tonight I found Cdigix. It's pretty neat for my uses. I don't think I'll ever need to port music away from my laptop so the free downloading works out well for me. So next to being creatively stimulated through music, I have also tried to draw... since I haven't done any in a while.

Again, a messed up perspective and no depth. I don't have the artistic ability to see or create those things. Anyway, it's supposed to be a guy horizontal on an outward incline (15 degrees), doing a one armed hang and a flagged left foot. Whatever.

Too bad there's no substance in this post, but it's sleep time so you'll have to wait till another time.

Crash:

Like whoa... that was insanely intense! It turns out that the boys had a movie night (maybe because all the girls where having their own) and we rented Crash. Awesome movie that is straight up bold with the topic that it addresses. I'd highly recommend it, just prepare your mind and emotions to be set into overdrive. Now I don't know if I hate human beings or love them. Oh well... there's a lot of that movie I would like to sleep on.

Speaking of sleep, I haven't gotten much recently and will be getting about 5 hours tonight. Please ignore me if I have been or am irritable. I want to draw, but I can't sacrifice any more sleep time. I suppose I had enough creative expression for today done on my hand. Fine then. Good night.

Sky:

This evening I stayed on campus in hopes of relaxing and watching the sunset sky from McKeldin Mall. I also tried to make a point of taking it in so I could hopefully paint it. But my intentional art never works out. Indeed, it did end up looking more like a beach. I think I have become more and more obsessed... or rather, just more and more in need of creative self expression because engineering completely sucks any expressive energies out of me. Speaking of creative self expression, we're complete tards. Ryan and I went around and serenaded the housemates with ridiculous songs we made up. What a bunch of freaking weirdos.

Random: the past couple of days, I've noticed that some people interject odd phrases or ideas solely for shock effect. No genuineness or purpose to the words. Just an effect... probably to grab attention. Doesn't that seem a bit self centered and foolish? There are times when it's fun and everything, but often it bugs me that people will use words in that way.

More randomness: It took me a while to settle down to enjoy the evening. A lot of the good spots were not available. There seems to be a bug problem around the West Chapel Courtyard area. How gross and disappointing.

Voice:

Random ND-esk drawing:

Though I have no voice, may my life song sing to You.

Despite my sickness, I learned about a part of musical worship that I hadn't experienced before really. I clearly couldn't sing with the condition of my throat. Around the second song, I remembered Julie expressing to me the difficulty of going to Large Group and not being able to participate in that way. While the two conditions are pretty much nothing alike and no where near of the same scale, I feel like I could understand what she meant a bit better. But at the same time, I was challenged to explore the definition of worship... some lyrics come to mind:

When the music fades and all is stripped away

What is the heart of worship? The condition of my heart could use some work. A lot of it has to do with discontentness I think. Whaev.

More randomness: I have the sudden urge to live in an African tribe for a day.

Flake:

In light of Änna's comment, I tried to draw something geometric tonight. For the life of me, I can't seem to come up with anything. I sketched for two hours while I kept Andy company in his studio, and I couldn't conceptualize anything geometric at all. Instead, I drew this.

It could definitely use some more depth. And some leaves, but I was too scared to adventure into the realm of leaf drawing.

I was considering what a fall night looks like. A lot of clearity. The air is crisp and slightly cool, the stars seem like they're at arms length, and everything is still. The darkness and the shapes would usually be frightening, but emptiness of the area surrounding you is instead calming.

Today at the climbing wall, JJ's "Flake" came on the radio (which they usually have blasting out there). It just made for a great time of power climbing and relaxing to some mellow music. I looked up the lyrics tonight to find out what the song was actually saying...
And often times we're lazy
It seems to stand in my way
Cause no one no not no one
Likes to be let down

I hope to be a non-flakey person.

Secret:

Yes, this reflection will in fact be about 13 going on 30. While I typically have a strong distaste for chick flicks, this one I found quite enjoyable. I think it was because I could empathize with some of the characters, or could pick out personalities in the movie that resembled people in my life. I'm not going to go into it much, but I do have a few things to say about the main characters.

(::note:: spoilers about the movie below)
What was it about Matt? I think he was described as being "too nice" which could be part of it. Nice and sweet. And he was sometimes the underdog so you had to cheer for him. The thing that stood out to me was that he was very true to himself. He had so many opportunities to take advantage of Jenna's confusion, but he was faithful to her and to his principles. He didn't let the world change him over the 17 years. And he was faithful to his fiance even though his heart was torn. I'm not really sure. I can't defend his decision given the final exchange, but for some reason I found his actions admirable.

I feel like a lot of the situation is nonapplicable, though. First of all, it's not everyday that a beautiful woman who has it all pursues you. Not to mention, an extremely niave woman. And as a result, it's not everyday that one gets the opportunity to prove one's self like he did. Sticking to his guns, but stepping outside of his box to care for her (ex. the thriller dance). I suppose that is rather applicable. Oh well. Now I'm just babbling and providing contradictory evidence for my arguments.

Dyno:

C'mon blogger, please post the picture...

Sweet. This is an illustration of one of the more difficult moves in climbing. It's called the dyno. As shown, you basically start yourself in a really crouched position, rock yourself back and forth, jump off of the wall, and catch yourself on a hold many feet above where you were. I, of course, am built nothing like the drawing so I can dyno only like three feet. Most people can pop and reach that distance. Just FYI.

Living life alive. Climbing is part of that to me. It's just so exhilirating, and it challenges me physically and mentally every time. Adventurous? It makes me feel like I can go out and scale mountains.


I like acapella. I believe, that of all the senses, I am most sensitive to sound. Not so much that my hearing is great, but I think that it heavily effects my inner self in profound ways. For example, I often need to find some silent time to be truly refreshed. Loud is not bad. In fact, I really enjoy blasting some tunes. I guess it really depends on what I need at the time.

Oddly, I believe that I am pretty open minded about music. You would think someone who is sensitive to sound would be pretty picky about what hits their ears. Not so. Of course, I like some styles and sounds better than others, but I don't think I've found music that I can't listen to.

So the acapella concert was rather soothing and enjoyable. Except for the whispering/talking people behind me who were making rude comments. That didn't sit well with my ears. So I was forced to move away to the balcony. I found out, I like it up there.

Get Skype. That's it. Good night.

Nullspace:

Who says linear combining is boring?

edit: note of interest, there is an image to accompany this thought. Blogger isn't agreeing with me today.

Napoleon:

Downtime:

It's only 10 pm and I think today has already encouraged me. It didn't come easy though.

I feel like in my three discussions today I learned a lot, which is a very rare thing. Even though the homework took several post-class hours and we didn't completely get as far as we hoped, a lot has been accomplished. So that end is kind of in good shape.

I then used my pre-small group time very well. I got to visit and spend time with someone important who... this is too ATTAOTB, so IMMA it IYC.

Small group was incredible. It was sad that a lot of people didn't show up, but I do kind of enjoy the smaller size. I think tonight I asked a lot more questions than I usually ask, but the Lord really used that to teach me. Some simple wisdom about a few points really helped me to understand more about the flow of the passage. Super great!

I did hope we would find more of a focus. In my opinion, which is probably far from humble, I think we skimmed over the full idea being presented to us. Jesus came into this world to bring grace. It's simple, but it's the basis for the whole study and the basis for my life. Okay, maybe we didn't necessarily skim, but I would spend a lot more time thinking and meditating on this platform... this beginning of Jesus' mission of love and grace. Fully and completely, covers every part of me and every part of you. Drink it in, kids.

Blah, monologue. It's a byproduct of the massive amount of sugar I've consumed.
Lately (meaning the past couple of days), my drawings have been really bad. Like, stinking up the place. I'll try some more later tonight and see I'm any better.

Smile:

I love my friends. I am thankful that they were born and Stuff. That's all I've got to say.

Image:

Also, tonight's image post:

May not mean much to you, but means a bit to me. Ask if you really want to know.

Amnesia:

There was something tonight that I thought was pretty interesting/funny. I thought to myself, "I should put it in my blog. Don't forget. Don't forget." But of course, I have already. Don't you hate that? Maybe it's just me and my horrible memory. Maybe my memory isn't horrible, but rather... extremely selective.

Good times tonight. Older people are weird. Wait, maybe it's coming back to me. Maybe this isn't what I wanted to write about, but it is kind of amusing.

At one point, some guy was massaging Ryan Deener's (sp?) back. Apparently that was considered pretty personal. Then the guy proceeded to massage Ryan's head and people were cracking up, I guess because there were implications about such man-to-man contact. But I thought to myself, (apprently I talked to myself in my head all night) "Man, us younger guys do a lot worse things to each other's personal space." I don't know, I suppose I just found it amusing to compare the older graduate standard versus the wild college guys standard. This can't be the thought I'm forgetting because it had to be much more interesting than this. Right?

Partay:

Well that was fun. One word for the Hux estate- wow. I can't dance because I am a stiff person in general. Good to see people. Quite some snazzy people. End of succinct post. What a weird word.

Lucrative:

Indeed, today held a few surprises. First, Jeff went to a BAE career fair. He entered the raffle and won after three names were called and no one claimed the prize. The item? A 60 GB Color Ipod. Valued at $400 new. Now that's just straight up sweet.

While walking to class from the parking lot, I saw in the grass a pair of these. Not a bad find. Since it is already 3 AM, I will not have a drawing posted. I will have to vent my creativity (if you can even call it that) elsewhere.

Good night. Aren't you excited about tomorrow?

Scenic:

Last night the system seemed to be down. So here's a double night post.

At Intermission I found out that Sarah from small group likes to climb. That'll be fun. I also discovered how fond I am of the word 'stuckish'. It's so mucky sounding, and fittingly so. Work has been gross. I can't wait for freedom to come tomorrow evening.

Here's a rough sketch:


I think I really enjoy liminality that naturally and simply flows. There are well defined parts and sections, but the separate entities harmonize so well. The little person figure represents a lot of meaning to me. Not much which need be explained here.

Gee golly. I need to stop writing these so late. I cannot hold onto a thought because I drift off to sleep. Go to bed.

Weird:

Today's piece is rather strange. I feel like it's out of character of me to make this. But maybe not. I should explain. Today I burned a lot of time trying to meditate and refocus instead of doing work. This involved a lot of walking and a lot of sitting. So maybe the piece actually reflects my artistic sensitivity better than my late night or class time drawings. Who knows.



Click to enlarge.

It freaks me out. The first flower petal was simple and very pretty. Then the rest of them I screwed up. Hiding behind a flower? Don't ask me, 'cause I have no idea what I was thinking.

Small group was really cool tonight. One thing that I've heard about co-ed SGs is that the guys tend to dominate the conversation for some reason. I really hope that is not going to be the case. I am very, very eager to learn from each woman in our group. I feel like each of them can teach me something different about what it means to be a man. Sounds weird, but I believe it to be true. I guess this whole part sounds 'player'-ish, but I believe, hope, and pray that my intentions are genuinely pure. I also hope that the other guys can do the same.

More on that, I just thought of something that may be sort of controversial, but I think might be a valid point. Maybe one of the worst things that can happen to a SG is when people put on a show. And especially when studying scripture is it most well masked. I'll be the first to admit, I am 100% guilty of acting in such a way. It's a horrible thing and I hope it doesn't happen anymore. When one of five guys looks out on a group of twenty, chances are he'll see a sea of gals. That should not effect his message. Nor should it effect the reason behind he speaks. I abruptly end with some psalm/shane and shane song reference... because it's late and I'm tired:

"May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to You."

Grasp:

Here's an attempt to reflect on what I was reflecting on with the last drawing. Sadly, I will be writing more about my obsession with climbing. It's sad because I am obsessed, but not very good at all. Honestly, I can only complete the easiest of routes because I am just not strong enough. But there are still lessons that can be applied here.

Sometimes there is a move that seems just outside of my limits. Actually it's more like all the time. The move tends to be from something weak and ending with a pop to something good. It also usually involves a well placed flag or a strong toe hold. Anyway, there are just so many situations that seem hopeless. But in order to go anywhere you have to face the fact that you might fall. Failing is pretty much inevitable, even for Jeff. In the end, it all boils down to- go for it and give it your all. There's a lot of faith to be learned.

While venturing into the abstract-thought category, I figure I might bring up something else. Today I thought I was beginning to understand what hope is. Then that understanding quickly seemed to escape from me. Hope is something I yearn for. Lately it has been hard for me to find and hold on to.

Still taking in ideas for drawings to work on.

Climb:

Insert deep thought. Too sleepy to write:

Rock:

I don't think anything like this would really ever exist. After all, the colors don't make much sense.
(Click to enlarge)


It makes me happy though because it would be fun to see a place like that. Lots of rock to climb and pretty skies. I don't know how to draw trees though, otherwise I'd throw a couple of those in there. It's up to you to decide what the next one is.

Loco:

It only takes a few hours at the Crazy House before you begin to say 'Lord help us all...'

:) Love those kids.

A lot of my art work as of late has either been non share-able or just straight up bad.

Lake:

And this is what happens when I get really bored in class.

(Click for a much better looksy)

Beautiful:

Tonight reminded me of how blessed I am to be surrounded by beautiful women. How shallow does that sound? Just let me explain.

I feel like I have been learning a lot about appreciating inner beauty. I find that I am really attracted (disclaimer: you know what I mean) to those that care about the little things. When someone worries about the most obscure detail in someone else's life, it shows that they genuinely care and want to be involved in the things that are important to that person. It makes me smile and warms my heart.

Another trait of inner beauty that I noticed is being appreciative of the gifts they've been given. There's truth in their 'thank you'. I don't think the proper reply is 'you're welcome' because that's too standard of a reply for something that's so heart felt.

Right along with that, they definitely have good vision. They can see where those gifts come from and can see where they need to use them so that they can do the kingdom work set out before them. And to bring everything full circle, a beautiful gal can see the inner beauty in others.

Oh and that physical beauty thing... the women have that covered too, but that doesn't really matter. I suppose I just wrote about Proverbs 31, but didn't think about it until now.

Divert:

I was considering writing a little about what it means to be a 'tool' according to society these days. No, I don't feel like discussing that right now.

Climbing is pretty addictive. I want to get stronger and reach higher. One lesson that I have been taking away from it- it takes a lot of faith to let go of a hold and lunge for one higher up.

Too wiped to write about some of the stuff I'd like to. Every five words I zone out.

Babble:

I have been getting very tongue tied as of late. Maybe it's because I have been overly nervous around certain people.

Fight:

To be who I am. It's difficult when I set my sights on the wrong things. It's not about where I am or how clever I can be or how relevant I want to be in their life. A mission and adventure lies ahead of me and that's where I need to focus. And then from there, everything else depends on how their vision is calibrated to mine.

Tiff:

"but neither self preservation,
nor fear,
and not even wisdom for wisdoms sake,
but wisdom patterned after the cross
should be the motivation for our every breath"

- the last-line-put-into-action person

There's a lot of my thinking that I just need to change.

Novel:

I discovered that some people can read me like a book. I guess I'm not very deep.

I enjoyed meeting freshman in SGs (yeah plural). I like them, and they encourage me. But at the same time, they make me feel old. A lot of them won't talk to me. I don't see how I could be intimidating.

Controversy:

I don't like politics. I think discussion about politics is ridiculous... but I am going to throw in my ridiculous two cents anyway.

I think the only way we, the general public, learn about politics is through the media. Today's media is really lousy and counter productive. I could support that statement with some amazing evidence, but I don't feel like doing that now.

Since no one will agree about politics, whether you're Republican or Democrat... or Independent, Communist, Vegetarian... Christian or non-Christian, I am trying to think outside of the box. I call it Vigilanteism. Imagine all US foreign policy controlled by vigilantes. If some group of people felt passionate about helping tsunami victims, they would go over there and spend their money and time helping people. If some people felt passionate about some injustice in South America, they would gather their own para-army, buy guns and plane tickets, and shoot some bad guys. People wouldn't be paying taxes for foreign relations so they would have the money to do those sort of things.

I don't actually believe in this, mainly because it's pretty much Anarchism with a slight twist, but it's a great way to stump people. There's no flaw to the design, if you rationalize it enough. And it's so out there that there aren't too many pre-designed arguments against it.

My brother tried to build up some controversy about US foreign policy, but it didn't stand up to my Vigilanteism. Try me, it's fool-proof. (Not including ethical issues... those don't count for anything)

Conflict:

I really, really dislike conflicts. It makes me uneasy. Standard defense mechanism (seems to apply to any type) that I use: humor.

Contemplation:

Still hands and sunken hearts. Cold.

Vision:

I came into summer with expectations of this semester. They were pretty radical and lofty, but the also very deep. Somehow coming back to those expectations leaves me very tired. Almost heavy hearted in some sense. Maybe brokenness is the right word. Anyway, summer was a good time away from it all. But as Tiff pointed out to me once, maybe it was just a time to run away from what I needed to confront. I'm not sure how to respond to that challenge (and I'm sure you don't because my stream of conciousness doesn't make any sense because I am being extremely vague).

Thought: by censoring myself, I lose the full meaning... or actually lose all meaning together so that what I write doesn't make sense at all.

Drained, tired, and unsure.

Groceries:

So this afternoon and evening was pretty much completely spent doing grocery shopping. First I went to Costco with Jeff and then after that I went to Shoppers with Andy. I think the time span went from 3 to 10. The sad thing is that I didn't even really buy much food. It's sort of depressing, thinking that I wasted a whole bunch of my day. I suppose it wasn't bad, but just in that specific perspective.

Anyway, I ran into (relatively) a bunch of people that I know today, given the fact that I spent a good amount of time just sitting in one corner of the union and some more time up in North Campus where I know few people. There are a few people that I would have really, really liked to have run into today, just because I haven't had much time to do that whole catching up thing with them yet.

I really love how much being in this house makes me feel like I'm in a crazy family. And I love how there are just a constant flow of people coming and going.

Tomorrow is a long and hard day. But I think we're making home made BBQ chicken pizza and smoothies tomorrow. Yum.

What?:

I found it absolutely hilarious... walking out of commons and running into AZ and Brita. Andy goes "Who's this?" standing right across from Brita and pointing at her. Maybe it's just me.

Family:

Today went from blah to totally cool. After getting back here from church, Mr. Wahba came by to see the place. It has been too long, so it was good to update. Then we went out and took down a tree. That was insanely scary and hilarious at the same time. I then proceeded to cook my first dinner at the house. It was pretty delicious. Lime chicken seared with honey over rice with a side of green peas. Some of us guys went out to the driving range. I think I did pretty terribly for my first time. I doubt I will ever get into golf. It's such a rich-person game, I don't think the whole environment could really fit me. Oh, plus I whiff a lot. We proceeded to cook a massive amount of rice krispies treats while broiling a full rack of spare ribs. It was an impulse buy from Giant... Andy and I couldn't help it. An absolutely delicious impulse buy at that.

There are times in the house where traffic gets pretty busy. People just show up for a bit and leave whenever. It really feels like a big family living here. It's fun. It's also ridiculously late.

Yearn:

What do you yearn for?

Stalk:

So I am back and feeling more complete now. Sad, no? The techy part of Marlbrough is starting to come together. As it is with everything else in the house, the networking setup is overkill. It's a 6 bedroom house. With two wireless router access points.....

Also, if you want to watch a movie, then this is the place to do it. The sound system is pretty sweet. Seriously, check it out. Come on by.

Recently I have been doing a lot of analyzing of room setups and designs. Practicallity, center pieces, seating, colors, patterns, and other room dynamics have been consuming a lot of my discussion topics. I have a pretty big thing with angles. Right angles are fine and efficient, but if you can pull off an offsetted angle then the room has the potential to be really attractive. I don't know. Enough of that.

The Leadership Retreat was good. It pretty much forced me to work on some things that I otherwise would not have thought much about. I suppose that's sort of its purpose. I had a little trouble concentrating, but there could have been factors which would have made it worse. Whatever, got to stay thinking positive.

Tomorrow I get my rice cooker. This thing is really sweet. It's rather ghetto because one of the legs is missing and a little piece of balsa wood has to be used to balance it out, but it makes some awesome rice. I am excited for my rice. I am going to try something new tomorrow evening with the rice. I will try to see what is the best way to get the rice steamed with green onions. There's got to be a certain time and certain way of cutting the onions so that it's attractive and the flavor doesn't get bitter. My mind now wanders to some deeper things than cooking, so now it is time for me to stop.

Dropout:

As school approaches and things begin to get more busy, one can usually observe a significant drop in biog activity. With everybody once again in close quarters, internet updates become less necessary. Typically, I try my best to remain faithful, mostly just out of principle.

Sunday turned out to be awesome. Jeff and Kristal showed up. Then Andy and his dad. Then Ryan. It became an insane moving party really quickly. My arms and back ache like crazy, though. Kristal says we are in the honeymoon stage with our house, and that we are stuck in this mindset that we will have a bunch of people over everyday. I really hope that it will happen. I am also really excited about giving tours.

Not too much going on today except Chick fila in the evening. I may be back to double post.

Beginnings:

Unless you have been to the house within the past few hours, then you have no idea what the interior looks like. A whole lot of work has been done to start getting things in place. I think my back is beginning to ache a little. There is a whole lot that still needs to be done, and I'm beginning to worry about group grocery shopping. That will end up being a lot of work also.

But before I drop off the face of the internet world again, let me update with some scheduling. Tomorrow I go back to the house until sometime Monday evening. Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning I will be going to a Chick Fila opening so I won't be around. Hopefully Thursday and Friday I should be able to get to campus and hang around/ help people move stuff. And then there's leadership stuff. Also by Thursday we should have our internet installed so I should be back to my regularly scheduled programming.

Oh yeah, I put the first coat of paint on today. It's different than what I first thought, but exactly what I wanted.
My furniture is not that nice at all. I don't really have any furniture actually.

Limestone:

This is me standing outside of Limestone. I figured I could walk over and steal their internet for a sec.

Efficiency:

Today I switched browses. Big deal, right? Well, it took me a good while to customize it to the way I like. I left Firefox because of it's problems with handling the TIP. Long story short, it had compatibility issues with some tablet features. Enough boring stuff, onto the coolness. With just two clicksI can open up all of the pages that I regularly read or use.

That's like 8 different blogs all at once! Plus the 40 some people who I am connected to via xanga. Now that's some pretty quality stalking efficiency. Now about this buddy list info stalking...

Due:

Up way too late as usual.

Linked:

Click to read

Banquet:

Tonight's wedding banquet brings to mind two thoughts.

One, ESP seems to be in abundance these days. I get on my friend's case about him not putting his napkin on his lap. He says 'fine' and puts the napkin on his lap. Later in the dinner, he drops some fish on his lap. Major save for those pants, and I do the whole 'I told you so' thing.

Two, it's strange seeing church people go to an event and drink. Not heavily, but enough to noticably loosen them up. You can begin to tell which statements they are only voicing because they have a little liquid encouragement in their systems. It's just... a weird experience. Enough babbling.

Ohh, tomorrow marks the first official day of moving into the Marlbrough Mansion.

Arts:

Expression of thoughts or feelings.

There's something very strange about this sketch. But it describes my state of mind very well. I can't really explain it, so let's just let it be.

Wednesday:

So today is Wednesday again so you can probably guess what at least one of the topics I'll discuss is going to be. Episode three proved to be pretty interesting with a lot of development on the overall plot, but revealed very little about the characters themselves. It's certainly a quality plot/mystery, though.

Note to self: never meet up with someone at a McDonalds. Today I set up lunch with Kristi the staff worker. I went to the McDonald's on 124 near Airpark Dr near Flower Hill. Turns out she went to the one on 124 near Airpark Dr about .8 miles north. We still had lunch, but had to work through that crazy fiasco. Lesson learned.

This post is scattered and poorly written. I can't multitask at all. TV is distracting me.

Visits:

Yes, I was in that 295 traffic that everyone was talking about today.

I got to make some awesome visits today. I like Chipotle. Dana (and Anne's) house is beautiful! I really like the colors they have. They're so solid and classy. I definitely love the fact that it doesn't have that "cookie-cutter" feel that most places have. I think it has a lot to do with the angles. I like a house with non-90 degree angles. Maybe I should look for a house with an octagon room.

So I am doing a pretty good job of doing visits thus far. My week is grabbing a few more events, but I am still open to do a lot of visiting. Just let me know.

I am trying to find something exciting to go do.

Oh yeah, I skipped my nap today again. Exhausted.

Tabletting:

You know I could go on and on about it (and I guess I already have), but I will do my best to spare you and only say a little.

Here is a picture of it sitting in a position that shows off the hinge flexibility. Yes, the screen is sitting flat on top of the keyboard. Completely impractical, but completely cool. Okay, I am done.

Lately, I have been staying up relatively late even though I have to get up quite early. I tell myself that since I am getting up at 6 and doing all my chores in the morning, I can then take a nice nap to make up for the lack of sleep. For some reason, the ability to nap has been sporatic regardless of how exhausted I am.

Changing subjects completely, as I often do... I wish I were a better artist. I was thinking about creative thinking (that sounds stupid) and classified my artistic abilities as being rather inside-of-the-box. So I don't think it is really that creative if I just sit inside of the rules. Anyway, this is what made me wish I could draw better/ be a better artist:

There are a lot of neat art programs, I just can't think of how to use them.

Nap? :

I am so tired right now. Why an I not napping? More on this later.

Construction:

First a news break. I just learned that Peter Jennings passed away. The news was published not 20 minutes ago. May peace be with him and his family.

Coming off the retreat, I am not sure what to think of it. I guess a lot of parts were really good, while some of it was dull. It was really encouraging to see some of the seeds planted long ago in some of the younger group start to bloom.

Moving along with this senseless babble, I've learned that I am really good at building walls. Whether it be mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual- there are things that I can just block out. Of course, it's unhealthy... but it makes it easy for me to keep life moving along. But, at the same time, I find it really frustrating when I can't ignore some issue when I really want to. Some defense mechanism that is.

This week I'll have a lot of free time to do rounds, so tell me when I should do my visiting. Here are some things on my mind at the moment:
-getting psyched about seeing friends
-wanting to plant a few more seeds
-I am not at all fit, I won't be able to climb
-tablet PCs are ultimate nerd-dom
-Happy birthday, Julie... much love :)

Peace Out:

Almost gone, but bringing my lappy... and a copy of NapDyno with me. Have a good weekend. Peace out kids.

Retreat:

So this evening was rather nice and pleasant. Though that billing fiasco was a bit troublesome. I guess it's really hard when people can't catch the drift of, you know... what they're supposed to do. Oh well.

I spent $40 this week, which isn't very impressive in and of itself, but given that about 62% of that was spent on dinner tonight means I did very well. I have to be more conscious about my budget when I'm in the house.

This weekend, starting tomorrow afternoon, is my church's retreat. We're heading out to Messiah College, as usual. It'll be a good time. It would be even better if they have wireless up there, but I think I can live without it. This will be my first full-lecture note taking experience with the tablet so I hope it goes well.

The church retreat holds a lot of good memories for me. Let's see. Last year, we saw a couple of youth come to Christ. Years ago, it was the staging area for a lot of bonding in the old youth group. Many years ago, maybe it was 6 or 7 years ago, I talked to my new brother-in-law about him getting into a relationship. Goals for this year: get in some alone time and spend some time with the Chinatown kids.

Abrupt end of post. Stream of consciousness failing.

Oh Veronica:

So given the recent set of posts, one could infer that all I do all day is watch TV. This is not true. I only flip it on for a little in the evening when there's not much else to do. Anyway, I stumbled across VM again (I really didn't know it would be on) and found my second episode to be less exciting, but still a good overall experience. I dislike that she was less independent in this one, but got to see the bigger picture of the story a bit more. It is intriguing, mainly because I don't have it all figured out yet of course.

In other news, I spent a good amount of time fiddling around with this machine. There are really some small tweaks that I wanted to make that took a lot of research and experiemting in order for them to come to realization. Also, I've been enjoying it's portability (it's 3.5 pounds and has rubber grips for confident handling) as I carry it around the house a lot. Oh geez louise, it's late. More updates tomorrow around brunch time.

Crap-a-roo:

Well that was completely unsuccessful. At about 8 pm I wanted to take a tiny nap (maybe 2 hours at most) so I could catch online rush hour (10 to 12) but be rested for a 6:30 am wake up. Now it's almost 1:30 and there goes my sleep schedule. Completely.

Today was quite a busy day with all the computer stuff going on. I spent many hours of the day configuring my new computer and reconfiguring my old one. The whole process seemed to take from 9 to about 3.

In other news, this thing is ridiculously fun. More on that to come, for sure.

Let's see. Today is now Wednesday and tomorrow is Thursday. Maybe getting out Thursday night will be a really good thing for me. Just a change in pace for this week. I'm going to have to work really hard to get the car if I want to go. Otherwise I don't think I can get out there.

Just more random babbling- I wanted to give the UPS guy a hug, but he didn't seem to be very receptive of my excitement and joy so I restrained myself. It's almost 2:30 now and I will be paying dearly for this screw up.

Nerd:

This epitomizes how nerd I am:

(in reference to a car stereo project)

sirrym0 (9:58:36 PM): time to attempt a removal with a couple of coat hangers
Bertronium (9:59:47 PM): go for it, let the engineer spirit in you soar

Earlier today, I was listening to these two guys who put on a podcast show. Basically, it's a radio studio type discussion, but it's done over the internet. The one I listened is considered the primary source amongst the tablet PC online community. Yikes, how geeky is that?

A lot of talk today about the house amongst some of the Marlbrough men today. I'm getting pretty excited. It's a little daunting looking at all the capital costs that will have to go into setting up the house, but the excitement factor seems to outweight the worrying. On a mysterious note, there are a bunch of secret projects that we're working on so you should be excited, too. I kind of ran into a mental dilemma. We're linked to the Crazy house via Jeff/Kristal and Jason/Jenn, but also linked to 2301 (yet unnamed) through Ryan/Julie and Andy/Farrell. So it's 2 vs. 2 and I can't figure out which is supposed to be the "sister" house. I don't know why I think of these things. Maybe because I like to waste time.

In other news, I really need to go climbing. I feel so weak and out of practice. I'm not going to be doing so hot on the walls when I'm this far out of shape. I wish I was more hardcore.

C'mon:

Another post about some ridiculous TV. I was watching PBS and came across this documentary on a group of scientist who were trying to catch the largest crocodile ever recorded by man. It was ri-freaking-diculous huge! Something like 20 ft long and over 1000 lbs. They built all these traps and cages and watched the crocodile (named Gustav) for some time. Here's the thing. They didn't catch him. I watched the entire documentary and they didn't even catch him? Seriously, c'mon people. What a disappointment.

Also ridiculous. The whole thing takes place in Africa along a small section of the Nile. The scientists can only work over a period of two months because after that, the government can no longer offer them protection. Apparently, the change in state government which was going to happen after the two months expired could result in civil war. I don't know, but somebody's priorities seem to be rather screwed up. Unstable government that could result in hundreds of thousands of deaths or the freakin' pointless/unsuccessful giant crocodile documentary? Alright, end of rant. Rage, fading. I am afterall a ticking timebomb of fury.

Confession:

So I was vegging by the TV for some of today and I was just flipping through the channels. And I must admit, I stopped to watch Veronica Mars for the first time. And I liked it. It had that Sherlock Holmes feel, probably because the execution was well done in developing the mystery. The show also seemed to have a fun mix of her solving "big-person" problems and her trying to solve the mysteries that surround her in her high school life. There are probably a lot of Nancy Drew undertones, but I wouldn't know since I've never read any of them. I like her character, too- daring, driven, and a little grown up for her age because she won't let others look down on her. It was a pleasant surprise and refreshing to find something different on the tele. Anyway, if any guys out there were reading this I'd probably get railed on.

Work:

This post is dedicated to one of my coworkers, since tomorrow is my last day there.

Gilbert Fogle
You can already tell by the name that this is one strange fellow. Gilbert is the guy who stations the dock during the day, which means he's usually outside for 8 hours a day. He's a rather large, grizzly guy and more often than not, he's very dirty. Honestly I don't think he's incredibly intelligent. He knows how to do everything he needs to do, including some paperwork, but somehow I feel like he would have a hard time trying to do too much else. The funniest thing about him is that he doesn't (either can't or just plain chooses not to) enunciate at all. It's pretty much like he's speaking bear-language. No wait. It's more like a mumbling bear.

The great thing about Gil is that he always smiles. Even when it's painfully hot outside, all he does is smile. Not in that creepy way, either. A nice, gentle smile all the time. I think everyone working at Suburban believes that there's something better out there for them. They believe that they deserve better given the hard work they put into the company. And it's true! They are so underpaid and incredibly underappreciated. I've never seen people work so hard and dedicate so much of themselves to their job and duties, and yet not receive what is rightfully theirs. Anyway, Gilbert isn't really like that. He just "hehs" at everything and smiles. Like Charlie in the chocolate factory, he's just glad to be along for the ride.

It's guys like Gilbert who exhibit the most wisdom. Taking life in as it is and enjoying every second of it. So this one for you Mr. Fogle. You crazy old man.

Step:

Sara is right as usual. So I guess I can take a few baby steps forward in being more clear.

Addressing parts of the problem... or rather a problem which is part of the problem. Okay, I'm not doing a very good job of being clear at all. I tend to overanalyze things that don't really call for analyzing at all. Last night was a really good time, and it was very nice to break out of the grind that is work. But all it took was three words. And an hour and a half on the metro with nothing to do but think. This formula made it easy for me to get pretty confused and bummed.

Over the semester, I really prayed hard that I could, instead of dwelling on my own 'what ifs' and 'so whats', move forward and trust in God's plan. Over the summer I've been slacking. So there in lies the problem that's part of the problem.

In other news, the tablet has shipped! But, it's still in China. Sooo, 3-5 business days. I really hope 3 more so than 5 because I'm really impatient like that. Wait, I've been waiting a month and a half already so being impatient is pretty well justified.

Ouch:

Hitting a brick wall here.

Nerves:

Today, a day that seemed like any other, wasn't quite. Exhausting as usual, though. There were a few gems to grab onto that didn't turn today into the usual spiral of endless monotones. One was finding this in the mail thanks to Rob:

Pretty hilarious. The second gem is for me to know.

I don't think I have the nerves to say what I need to say. This referring to maybe right now or soon, I really don't know. Apparently, not only is the presentation of this thought vague, but also the thought itself digesting in my head. I guess there are certain levels of honest I'm not ready to hit, not now and not here. Not usual. Often you can ask me about anything, and I mean anything... (except if it breaches someone elses confidentiality)

I know you can't take this entry seriously with that silly looking puppet picture right there.

Damage-Control:

Today was a fine day. Somethings I could complain about, but I probably shouldn't in my effort to remain focused on the good things. So now, the random thoughts of the night:

I was reading the CVS history section on their website. Don't ask why. It's pretty bad, with it sounding like CVS is taking over the world and destroying everything in it's path.

My urge to go rock climbing has not gone away. I don't think I'm good at it at all, though. Probably worse off now, since I haven't been practicing. I think I can see my arms shrinking (if that is even physically possible given that they are already like toothpicks). Maybe doing a pullups regiment might be a good idea.

You know, there's a nice event that happened today that I didn't think too much about until now. Cool, a golden nugget for me to take away from today.

Sunset:

Today's post is brough to you by the number 24 :)

A most beautiful of days. Some of the family went out to Kent Island to enjoy some crabbing and then some crabs. The crabs we caught were HUGE (pictures some other time). The sunset over the water, while on the pier, was very... majestic. I could be very happy living in a shack on the water... with an old rowboat and a fishing pole. Oh, and some chicken and string.

Crabs today, crabs tomorrow, and crabs Tuesday. Living the high life.

Today, I really want to take a page out of Tiff's book and be appreciative of everything. I've never really been spoiled on my birthday before, and I rarely get a gift (I mean this with no bitterness at all... honestly). But learning to be happy with all of the small stuff is still very difficult for me.

I wouldn't complain if someone got me a beach house and a boat out on the bay, though.

Birthdays:

Tonight was just a lot of fun. It was really chill and I got along with Tiff's Annapolis friends really well... which is odd, because that doesn't happen often. I definitely don't warm up to people quickly. Something that really amazed me was how shocked Tiff was with all of the little things. Like, she was genuinely touched by the fact that we came all the way from CP. Which was only 40 minutes for us, so none of us really thought it was a big deal. And the cake... she just seemed so happy. I find it astonishing that she can take such joy from the little things. That's real vision right there.

Riding the metro and holding the bar (up on the ceiling) made me want to go outdoors. Well, it made me want to go climbing somewhere, which would probably be doing a little bouldering outside. Maybe two weeks from tomorrow.

Gifting:

Right now, I can only think of three things that I would want to buy for myself. All of them are computer upgrades/accessories. When someone asks me what I would want for my birthday, I'm stuck. Why? The parts cost $135, $103, and $50. I would never ask for a gift that expensive. So maybe if people instead just gave me money. That's so impersonal, though. And even then, I'd have a hard time justifying spending that money on additional computer equipment. *sigh* whatev.

Untitled:

Just a thought here and there. Today was tiring, as usual. I work hard... for a job that doesn't pay all that well and at a place where I really don't mind getting fired. Because then I would have more free time. But, I feel bad for my coworkers, who have become friends quite quickly. They work hard, and put in extra hours in the weekend... usually for not much extra or not much thanks. They're smart, well trained, experienced and motivated. I guess I sort of expect that people who work that hard should be higher up on the ladder. I figure, since I'm just a glimpse in their lives, I might as well help them as much as I can. So it's tiring.

I picked up another set of uber-sized fire hazard stickers. Message me to call dibs on them.

I am excited about one particular feature of my incoming, new computer today. Forget logins and passwords. Heck, forget even using a signature as a security level. Think fingerprint reader. Yup, the laptop will only unlock when it scans my fingerprint. It's considered 100% secure... unless someone uses my finger while I'm asleep. Or they take off my hand.

Now, to work on the away.

Routine:

Nothing all that special today.

On Friday, I want to get out and maybe do something for Tiff's birthday if she wants to get something going. Though fighting traffic to get out there might be difficult on a Friday afternoon.

Saturday, I have a pre-engagement at 1, I think. Not entirely sure though.

Sunday is my birthday. Not sure what'll be happening. I just want to get out of the house.

Technology:

I downloaded Google Earth. It's a ridiculous satellite imaging program. Major stalking abilities.

It brings up the topic of the future of technology. I feel like it won't be long before the entire Earth is rendered. As of today, there exist photo-realistic environments that are the sizes of states. The thing is, right now they are fictional environments dreamt up by programmers and developers. How much farther away is our world from these 3D environments? Not far at all.

Imagine this. Click on a program, up pops the Earth in globe form. Rotate the Earth to say, west of the US... zoom in on Hawaii. Choose the beach on the west side of that remote looking island. Zoom in further and...


Minus the gun, of course. Walk around, check out the wild life, and go for a helicopter ride. This is a screenshot taken from a game... yes, you spend the entire game walking around this beautiful tropical island and interacting with stuff (mainly shooting things).

But what about, say Baltimore? Every sidewalk, wallpaper, and graffiti mark documented and rendered into something as virtually realistic as the pic above. Crazy, eh? Not too far away, I say.

That's enough out of me, enjoy another screenshot from that game (Farcry - where you're supposed to shoot stuff, but you'd much rather sit and stare at the sky):

Scandalous:

I'm trying to figure out what happened today, and I can't think of anything really important to relate. I did a lot, but I have been mentally and emotionally numb lately. It's how I run away.

Though, I did come across a picture online that somewhat shocked me. Some people might consider it scandalous, but not me so much. I think it's beautiful. Anyway, if you do a sufficient amount of stalking, you should know what I'm talking about. I'm not going to link to it, otherwise that would be straight up gossip. You can ask me though.

Yesterday, I got to spend the majority of the day hanging out with the Bigelow family (Beau's family). I'll title the day "A Day in the Life of the Bigelows". I love his family, but it was just a iddy-diddily tad bit awkward (relatively speaking) when they took me to a family friend's graduation party. And also, today some of the Bigelow family is going through a rough time given some news they received at church. Strange (in the lightest sense of the word).

*edit* Forgot to mention- two thumbs up on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was absolutely hilarious in that bizarre, obnoxious sort of way.

Last post still stands. I might be busy, but I'd much rather sneak out of those obligations and do a CP thing.

Organizing:

Anybody up for organizing something next weekend? I think I'll be able to break out of any pre-existing obligations.

Stickers:

I am starting to collect the most crazy room decorations for my residence in the Marlbrough Mansion next year. The other week, will cleaning out the basement I found a framed poster. It says "WERF Incineration 300". I think WERF stands for Waste and Environmental Research Facility. Anyway, the poster has an animated, happy little guy in a protective radiation suit. He's handling a barrel of radioactivite material next to a big truck. And he's waving like he's having a good time.

Today at work, I was cleaning out the back and they let me take some extra stuff that I'm probably not supposed to have.

I'll explain this for those of you who don't know what it is. This is the NFPA's (National Fire Protection Agency) standard label for hazardous materials. The blue box indicates biomedical health hazards, the red shows the flammability hazard, and the yellow tells you how radioactive the material used at that facility is. The white box just contains additional information (OXY means oxidants). It's scaled from 0-4 with 4 being the most dangerous.

I picked up a 1 by 1 foot sticker today. It's similar to the picture, except the health hazard is 1 instead of 2 and there's no oxy warning. Sweet, eh? I also got a sticker the same size with a picture similar to those on fuel trucks that say "imflammable". I don't think I've ever had stickers this big.

Bert the Good Dancer's Bottom 10:

1. Anything touching my eye (contacts, needles, etc.)
2. Show offs
3. Wet socks
4. No internet
5. Bad commercials
6. Decadence/over-self-indulgence
7. Mushrooms, yuck
8. People who talk in a loud voice all the time
9. Boredness
10. Being late

Hilarious:

Caution, scroll down at your own risk...

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Don't say I didn't warn you. Some people just need to be a little bit more careful of what kind of pictures they put on the web. Or rather, pictures of them that their girlfriend's sister puts on the web.

Patience:

I seem to be lacking in this department... majorly as of late. And in more ways than one.

Summer has dulled my brain and work has pulverized any extra-curricular activity. Somebody save me.

Picture:

I am, indeed, wearing purple.

Today:

= The Big Day

Tired:

I think having no adventures makes me overly tired.

Ketchup:

There are a bunch of things from today... here and there, but I am too exhausted to think about them. So instead, I will elaborate on a thought last night.

I find I can enjoy fireworks in two ways. The Gaithersburg fireworks are great. The timing of the show is well done every year. Plus, the good use of variety in sound and visually just make it top-notch. But the DC fireworks are great also because of the music. There's nothing like hearing the NSO (National Symphony Orchestra, for those non-Sara imaginary people out there) live, playing the 1812. And they have cannons. The cannons play along with the orchestra. Seriously, that's pretty hard to beat.

Wouldn't it be a great job to coordinate the fireworks?

The 4th:

Spent the day on the Capitol lawn from 2-9 pm. It was hot. And crowded.

I guess it was alright... not worth the wait this year. They didn't play the whole last movement of Tsaikowski's 1812. I'm not sure if that is forgiveable. More later, sleep now.

Recap:

Today was fairly interesting, so I thought maybe a recap would be good.

Before that, though, I just looked up the word recap. Literally, it means to replace the lid on something. However, it is short for recapitulation. Capitulation happens to be the act of surrendering, or a set of terms that discuss the terms of surrender. Only the third definition speaks of a summary or headline. Strange.

The morning was church. There was a joint service to welcome the new pastor to the church of which we share the building with. Reverend Donna. Yeah, a female pastor. Shocker, right? Nah, not really a big deal in my book. She gave a pretty good sermon... nice that is was one of those back-to-the-basics sermons. Sort of.

Went to Church for Darfur. It wasn't as interesting as last weeks. A couple of speakers were missing, so maybe that threw them off. The main speaker/sermon giver used too many political terms and I just couldn't follow his flow of points. Oh well, it was a nice day and a nice location. Dupont circle is sort of neat... besides the fact that I detest the amount of money that flows around there. It's all about expensive style and living. Wasteful.

The rest of the evening and night was filled with birthday celebrations and wedding planning. The impending doom can be strongly felt as the day approaches in less than a week. I hope I look good in a tux.

Tomorrow, the family and wedding crew ventures into DC for the fireworks. Ridiculous. It's going to be so horribly crowded. But, call my cell if you want to do something fun in DC. Like make fun of tourists. One time, my siblings and I took pictures of us next to trash cans and dumpsters in DC... how hilariously mean.

A Nice Day:

So in hopes of not making everything depressing-sounding, perhaps I can elaborate on a semi-nice day. Today.

This morning I got a hair cut... and I use that term loosely. They refused to cut a significant amount of my hair because they thought it was better long. No. I want my hair short. I had to get my sister's fiance to help me trim it down to a reasonable length when I got back home. How ridiculous is that?

Then a bunch of us guys went to watch Batman Begins while the gals had that bridal shower. Okay movie. The actual cinematography could have been a bit better in some parts. Just my humble opinion.

Then we ate and cleaned up (same thing) at the bridal shower place. Food = good.

Then chilling for the rest of the night. What an uneventful day. Oh, and some things/some people I now find extremely offensive. But getting off that note.... a nice day.

Get a towel and stop drooling:

Difficulties:

It is very difficult for me to be away from the computer for extended periods of time. It has a lot to do with me not wanting to miss any messages. I am almost 100% reliable about receiving messages, and I guess I don't want that to ever change.

But it seems like these times are forcing me away. The proximity to my computer that I've come to love is just not possible with so many people in the house. I suppose this might be somewhat of a healthy exercise.

Anyway, please leave comments and send messages... I am a lonely person.

On a lighter note:
Darth Vader's tablet is soon to be mine (maybe 2 weeks?)