Friday, July 13, 2007

I am moving back to my Xanga. I miss Xanga, and I want to return to it. My URL was easier to remember and hand out, the features are better, and there aren't as many glitches, and you get a ton of premium features without having to pay for a thing. I'll be blogging from there from now on, and will get some modules up and running soon with links and all.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Rapid fire blog!

Three things:

1. I bought Lifehouse's new CD today, and I really like it! More than I thought I would!

2. I'm going to post the rough draft for the revised version of chapter two of Cain this Thursday. Or possibly Friday, depending on how much I can work on it. I just realized tomorrow is thursday.

3. I might be switching back to Xanga. It has officially become cooler than Blogger, and it even at its worst it totally blew Word Press away!

4. Wait...I only had three things to say. Later llamas, time to head to class!

But still I'll sleep to the sound of the monster's roar cause I'll sleep right next to your heartbeat forever

Hi llamas.

Not a lot to report of late. We had two more softball practices this Monday and Tuesday. Both were a lot of fun...though Tuesday's would have been a great deal more so had I not been feeling under the weather all afternoon. Actually, I felt somewhat sick till I went to bed, then tossed and turned all night and woke for work not feeling so hot.

I bought two new movies yesterday, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Minority Report, as they were on sale for $5 dollars each...looking forward to watching both. I, Robot was on sale last week too, but I forgot to buy it...

I'm also debating buying a CD. These are the ones I'm considering, in addition to Come Now Sleep, As Cities Burn's new CD, which is as good as preordered.

Falling Up--Exit Lights or Crashings

Lifehouse--Who We Are

Dead Poetic--Vices

Leigh Nash--Blue On Blue

Phil Wickham--uhhhhh Phil Wickham

KT Tunstall--Eye to the Telescope

And maybe I'll get a pet llama when I hop my neighbor's fence. Fufufufufu.

Monday, July 9, 2007

I was a middle son, between two wayward ones...

Hi llamas.

Okay, so the weekend. Yesterday's post may have been a mild exaggeration.

We went roller skating. It was enjoyable. Saturday we had softball practice, which I was late to because of my caregroup's men's meeting. Then we had the singles picnic, where we had...Chipolte. Tasty, but not exactly picnicy food. The picnic itself was sort of not interesting. I almost fell asleep.

But then!! We went on a hike. The area we went up to was really beautiful. It was in the foothills, so we were able to see the Denver area spread out beneath us at the bottom of the hill. And the area itself, grass waving in the wind, the trees, the rolling hills, it was all really beautiful. I saw a little farm on the way back and I was really jealous, because that would be the perfect place to live...if one wanted to live in Colorado. ...which I don't, really. Too dry.

I took a lot of pictures, but I doubt any of them turned out well, because I didn't have the time to really get good shots, keeping up with a group as I was. Maybe a couple turned out. I'll post a few if I like them...

We then, after the hike, returned to Westminster to watch Transformers. It was not as good as I hoped it would be. I kept waiting for it to get really, really good and it never did. It got good, maybe even really good, but not really really good. The CG was all but flawless, and certain parts of the movie were really funny, but there was also a lot of unnecessary crude humor and the token girl character served no purpose in the plot. The whole "love" story between her and Sam, our ADD prone hero, was totally shallow and pointless.

And worse, I think the kids in my preschool class could have fit comfortably into some of her outfits. Do teenagers really dress like that for school?

But that being said, Shia LeBeouf did an excellent acting job and the movie was still a lot of fun...I'd say 2 and a half stars out of four, if I were in a ratings kind of mood. It made me want to watch the old cartoon...which is really half the point to all these summer blockbusters. Driving DVD sales!

Speaking of summer blockbusters, I'm so burned out on all the big, overproduced movies being churned out lately. This is pretty new for me...I'm usually a big defender of summer movies...but I'm getting tired of the focus on good graphics over good writing and acting. There wasn't a single memorable line in The Transformers, at least, I can't think of anything. At least there's still the new Bourne movie to come, perhaps that'll redeem things...

Also, there were two previews that looked interesting. "Hot Rod" which I at first thought might be Napoleon Dynamite III (it's not), since Jared Hess is working on a new movie. And then the curious, untitled, "1-08-08". Which showed a bunch of fireballs falling from the sky and was shown completely from the perspective of a camcorder.

And that's Saturday. Sunday morning was consumed by children's ministry. My fourth week in a row, since I filled in for Jordan. And what a crazy morning it was. The kids have gotten so used to seeing me that they all wanted to play and they all really liked me. First a few of them tried to put tons of different hats on me...a cow hat...a strawberry shortcake hat, a knight's helmet that didn't fit because of my giant nose, and several others. I had a nice faux-hawk going in the morning, and even got complemented for it, and they totally ruined it! So I wound up going most of the morning with very silly looking hair...

Ha, it was a lot of fun though. The kids had to learn the hard way that I can only carry so many of them at once. A half dozen of them tried to climb all over me, and I don't think I went more than five minutes the whole morning without one kid or five trying to get a piggyback ride or just climbing on me for the heck of it.

Then we had our party at Chad Lake. I got Sonic beforehand, and the tater tots were so good, the best I've ever gotten there...but the chile coney thing I got was gross. I have to get something better like popcorn chicken next time.

We didn't even go to the lake, but Nate and Jared and I found and climbed upon the greatest climbing tree on the planet. Then we all went back to the house and everyone scattered to either play a video game called Burnout or a board game called Blokus. Then it rained, and a few people wanted to jump on the Fopma trampoline. But I got bored with this pretty fast and wanted to go out to the stream behind the Fopmas house.

This we did, and I and a few others got very wet. This also was fun...then after changing into dry clothes we played a Cranium game called Hooplah, and I need to get off so I will forgo details...

I think I'm going to preorder the new As Cities Burn CD very soon...if I do, I can get this
offer. The only reason not to would be in lieu of a better offer, but I doubt there will be one, seeing as they are not a huge band, popular as they are.

Anyways, I must go. Later, young obese ladybugs of condemnation.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

I was a pharisee, I never saw my need for grace...

So.

Hi.

Another fun weekend gone by.

In the evening of this past friday, a small but indomitable handful of we brave, intrepid explorers ventured into a great Hall filled with eerie, vulgar music. At the door, we formed a line, and one by one watched as children that could be variously designated "tween" and "teenybopper" and "way too small to be here" were funneled through a carpeted door into the dark inner chambers of the Hall, the thumping and wailing of the brutish music wafting through as one by one the children vanished. As we neared the carpet door, we found ourselves before a great glass judgement booth, where admittance was granted or denied.

For those allowed into the Hall, twin stamps of purple and green were applied to the backs of our hands, presumably trackers in order to aid pursuit should we try to escape. Circumstances also demanded that I purchase special footwear, specifically a set of white cotton socks. All were required to wear white cotton socks once past the carpet doors. This is because the land beyond the door was rife with various fungi and bacteria that would obliterate the feet of any foolish enough to risk going without them.

Our initial group consisted of six:

Erica
Chad
Savannah
Sierra
Nathan

Only I would return to tell the story.

Once past the faded blue carpet doors, we entered into the Hall itself, which was populated by various unsuspecting clusters of those I mentioned earlier, children of various ages. The natives. There was a gaming parlor, a restaurant, a dusty, long abandoned general store, and beyond these, there was, as the locals called it, the Floor.

This Floor was filled with dozens of locals with strange wheeled feet. They would move in seemingly endless laps in the near dark, with that loud, crude music in the background, as if it were egging them on. Circle after circle they went, lap after lap. Stepping past the dimly lit gaming parlor, we journeyed all the way to the back of the Hall and came to a booth with another door. This booth, however, dispensed footwear. The use for our hand stamps became clear then as the man behind the counter here would glance at our hands and hand us our wheeled shoes.

And this was the curious part. Apparently we were to strap these wheeled shoes to our feet and enter the Floor with the locals and do laps. This we did without complaint, removing our old footwear and putting on the new. All of us got four wheels, which were aligned on the outer edges of the either shoe as the wheels on a car would be.

All of us got these shoes except for Nathan, who was able to sneak in a pair of special footwear, shoes with all the wheels in a perfect line, which would have been ideal for all, but the rest of were forced to make do with awkwardly placed wheels.

We came seeking the purpose of the laps, the endless spinning, but we could only guess at what the point to it all was. Predictably, moving on wheels was quite difficult. Many, even some of the natives, would fall. There was little to see once on the Floor. It was oval in shape, with high glass walls in order to prevent escape. Movement required not a step but a shuffle, a gliding, if you will. Perhaps one could almost liken it to ice skating, save for the fact that none save Nathan were able to get around on something akin to true skates.

As I have said, we could only guess at the purpose to the endless movement. I have come to the conclusion that we could only have been powering up an alien starship. The aliens must have crash landed, and in an effort to repower their ship, built the "Skating Rink" as it was called, and lure in unsuspecting humans. I also feel strongly about the fact that they wished to use us as slaves. Our ankles were excersized constantly as we did as we were bid, causing the muscles to bulk up to several hundred times their natural size.

Eventually we came to the terror stricken conclusion that if we did not escape soon, we might never. A distraction was devised. A second crew of explorers would aid us. Jon, Jared, Michael and Daniel had joined us before we could warn them. Jon, leader of this crew would hook his foot under mine and trip me up. This would allow Jared to slip out while they sorted out the mess. He could then escape and bring back help.

This plan was flawless save for one problem. I could not tell the rest of my team. Worse, when Jon and I fell, we accidentally took Jared down with us. Sensing disaster, Sierra bravely dove in to save us and tripped over my prone form, and was sent sprawling. This would prove to be our doom. It allowed us to stop moving, but before we could sort out the confusion that followed, the Floormen who pushed all the natives along and kept their circles arrived to beat us until we kept moving. And so lack of communication was our downfall.

The time for escape did not come until much later. At one point in the evening, all lights were put out, and a fog descended, presumably one of the aliens, coming out of their spaceship to devour unsuspecting natives. As the fog weaved through the air, it began to follow me, hungry for blood, perhaps even sensing my desire to escape with both crews.

I knew I had to escape. I ran for the glass walls and began to skate up them, going so fast that I began to skate horizontally rather than vertically. Before the killer fog could reach me, I skated all the way up to the door and out. So adept was I now at skating, and so thick with muscle were my feet, that I was able to slip out the door before anyone could stop me.

I now seek finances and willing men and women for a second journey, to save my brave friends who linger still in the confines of the Skating Rink.

And that is how it all really happened. This is a true account of our disastrous adventures on the sixth of July, in the year of our Lord 2007.
Hi.

It is morning and I woke up two hours ago, but I am still somewhat tired. My knee is randomly bothering me...it's really weird. It started yesterday while we were hiking, but I can't figure out what is wrong. It's sort of in the back of the knee. I think I messed up one of the tendons, because it only hurts when I pull it a certain way. And it doesn't hurt when I run. In fact, it sort of stops hurting when I run. Probably just a pulled muscle, but it's really annoying the way it will randomly make me limp at times.

The last two days were filled with more fun social activity, as has been the flavor of the last three or four weekends. I'll probably have to talk about it all later...I need to go right now, and have devotions before it gets too late...I have to drive my sister to church...and I have children's ministry. Gah, three hours with children climbing on me and demanding piggyback rides...this makes four sundays in a row since I'm filling in again...I'm going to have to be really assertive and clear today so they know how things are going to work.

Erica's ready now...got to go...later llamas!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Now my heaven tower sways, atop their fleeting praise...

Here be a poem. It's sort of odd and maybe not very good, but I'll try to leave it up for a while.


"Drowning July"

The waves are up to my knees now,
and I'm writing you a song with my last breath.
It's all water out to the horizon,
a sinking boat and a water logged guitar,
Somber out of tune music drifts over the quiet sea.

The ocean waits patiently for my voice to fill the air.
All is deathly still as the water floods in.
So silent I can hear the rasp of air in my lungs,
The last signal flare has been launched,
the hurricane has robbed me of a life raft.

So I wait here on deck to drown,
but I'm not afraid to die,
and I'm not afraid of the silence
I'm more afraid for you.
The waves are up to my shoulders now.

The boat falls away, and this guitar is all that floats.
My voice falls away, devoured by the overwhelming calm,
The sky falls away, the water covers my eyes
All sound falls away, no funeral dirge accompanying me to the deep.
My breath falls away, but I do not think of you,
I only hear the silence, only think of the darkness.

The costliest of costs, the deadliest of loss, the wonder of the Cross...

I'm working on memorizing the Gospel of John(yes, all of it) and i read some insightful commentary today that I thought I would post. I love commentaries...I wish I could afford to buy a bunch.

And I love David Crowder Band...

Anyways, let's see how much I can remember.

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God, the Word was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

That's all I could remember without looking. That's John 1-3.

And here's John 4 and 5...partly from memory.

"In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

I'm really excited about memorizing John. I think it will take a very long time, but the worth will be immeasurable. Just the idea that we can store God's Word in our hearts and take it everywhere is incredible.

Anyways, here's a little bit of commentary on this passage.

"The plainest reason why the Son of God is called the Word, seems to be, that as our words explain our minds to others, so was the Son of God sent in order to reveal his Father's mind to the world. What the evangelist says of Christ proves that he is God. He asserts, His existence in the beginning; His coexistence with the Father. The Word was with God. All things were made by him, and not as an instrument. Without him was not any thing made that was made, from the highest angel to

the meanest worm. This shows how well qualified he was for the work of our redemption and salvation. The light of reason, as well as the life of sense, is derived from him, and depends upon him. This eternal Word, this true Light shines, but the darkness comprehends it not. Let us pray without ceasing, that our eyes may be opened to behold this Light, that we may walk in it; and thus be made wise unto salvation, by faith in Jesus Christ. (Jn 1:6-14)"

This is something of a tangent, but last week I ordered some books from a company called Relevant, and they arrived a few days ago. I got David Crowder's new book, and a selection of Spurgeon sermons. The Spurgeon sermons are especially interesting to me. I had never read of his writing before, and actually, still haven't, but the introduction to the book gives the story of his life and that alone was inspiring. The way God worked through him was incredible. He was giving sermons to 10,000 when he was like 16, and he was leading one of the biggest churches in the world by the time he was my age. My age! Modern society always looks down on the young, but God will work through any willing and give them the power to do all he asks.

I'm looking forward to reading both books. I've always had a hard time getting into theological books, anything nonfiction (with a few exceptions) often seems very dry to me, but recently I realized this is because I don't read what really interests me, but try to get through books I find dry because people recommend them. I think a better place to start would be books I'm more interested in...like this little book of Spurgeon sermons, and this weird David Crowder book about death, and I don't know if I should admit this but I eat up books and articles about relationships and how to conduct oneself in them...I'm also really interested in C.J. Mahoney's...Mahaney...uh. C.J. The dude who leads Sovereign Grace. His books. He writes very little books. I'd like to read them.

If you're wondering who I find too dry, John Piper and Jerry Bridges are the first names that come to mind. I'm going to have to work my way up to their books. I know there's a lot of truth and wisdom in them, they're just really dense and somewhat hard to get through, but eventually, I want to get to where I can fly through nonfiction the same way I can fly through fiction.

Ha, my dog is having a dream under a nearby desk, and she's kicking the sides with her feet and wagging her tail...I think that's a signal I need to stop writing for awhile before this blog becomes excessively long. I'll post a poem later today.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Glory, glorious, aren't we glory, glorious?

I really really like this song. I wish I could write songs this good. As Cities Burn finally posted the lyrics! New poem tomorrow! And maybe new fiction.

"Empire"


i was a middle son
between two wayward ones
i was more deserving of my parent's love

i had an angel's smile
hiding a vulture's bite
i had no use for your redeeming blood

aren't i glory, glorious

glory, glorious
aren't we glory, glorious
aren't we worthy, worthy of hearts at our feet

i was a pharisee
i never saw my need for grace
then your love came to me
stood next to mine and i saw that i was poor

show me i was poor
show us we are
show us we are

glory, glorious
we are glory, glorious
not from what good we have done
but from being the least

glory, glorious
oh, i dont know how i was made

my heaven tower sways atop their fleeting praise
God, i dont know how i was made

glory, glorious
are we glory, glorious?
are we worthy, worthy of hearts at our feet?
glory, glorious
we are glory, glorious
not from what we've done
but being the least

i was a wicked one...

-As Cities Burn

Monday, July 2, 2007

It falls apart, everything around me, when I walk away from you...

Wow, that last blog was really long! And I'm not sure I really said anything. I shouldn't blog at the end of the weekend when I'm really tired. Ever. And I didn't even mention swimming. Ashton has a pretty wicked sweet pool. Nate, Preston and I had a good time trying different jumps and rolling around and such.

In other news, the new Thousand Foot Krutch song "Falls Apart" is pretty rocking. I really like it. Their new CD could be awesome. I'm also excited to hear a new As Cities Burn song, which is going to be posted tonight at 11.

And!! T.L. Hines, my second favorite living Christian fiction author, has his second book coming out this month, "The Dead Whisper On", this I am also excited about...good, new fiction is hard to come by these days.

Um, I've got new writing! A new poem, a new song, and more on the way. Trig is good for my writer's blog!!

I'll post the poem in day or two. It's my "July" poem. Also!! I've decided to turn the last song I posted, which I believe I called "Open Your Eyes" or something(it never had a title I liked) into my January poem. This is a little out of the ordinary since I have written all my month poems in that actual month, but since the song is about being born and I was born in January, it seems appropriate.

Today I'll post the song. Hopefully I will not succumb to the temptation to take it down. I'm sure it's rough and in need of work... The second stanza would be the chorus. The first verse won't really make sense until you read the last...it might help if you just read it like a poem.

"A War of Oceans"

The tide pulls at my feet,
Stars shine above as I stand before the sea,
water stretches on forever before me,
I'm getting soaked but don't even notice,
I could drown and not even know,
I've fallen fast asleep.

All these slow motion dreams,
just drift by endlessly as I wonder without you,
Every dream lures me into deeper sleep,
I think I'm afraid to wake up,
because I don't know if you'll be there when I do.

City lights glow like fallen stars,
I'm just drifting from one nightmare to the next,
switching trains at every stop,
sleepwalking to evade these crying alarms,
sleeptalking only to whisper your name.

The clock tries to wake me,
and the sun tries to warm me
but I'm numb in my endless sleep
and your song is only loud to the waking ear.

Out to the beach I've crept,
to fight this war of oceans,
The strength and war of your power,
combating this vast sea of dark slumber,
A tarry ocean of black filth,
Head on with your sunlit beauty
and all I can do is open my eyes,
for the first time open my eyes...

Sunday, July 1, 2007

This ain't no test you know I love you to death!

Long time no blog.

It's been another very interesting weekend.

Actually, a pretty good week, all in all. Very summer-y.

On Wednesday, I got the new Blindside and Family Force 5 EPs. Both are awesome, of course. Especially Blindside's Black Rose Ep. I think I could listen to Slow Motion all day...actually, all five of the new songs. The live tracks are alright. I'm sure they were great to hear in person. It's kinda cool to see hear some beats they'd never recorded before...and getting different takes on some of their best songs...but they're pretty rough, all the same.

Um um um. Wednesday I was supposed to be studying for a Trig test, but I kept getting distracted ALL DAY. I wound up hanging out with Derrick for the first time in like forever, which was a lot of fun...I hadn't hung out with Randi, his girlfriend, much at all before either...

I totally would have failed my test, but the teacher wasn't able to make it so it was postponed till tomorrow.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I really need to study! All day tomorrow, I'm going to be trying to study. I'm going to watch the Great Raid in the morning, since we rented it, then I'm going to study till I can only speak in trigonometric functions.

Whoo, I really like this FF5 song "Love you to death".

Derrick and I hung out like all day on Thursday, too...we got energy drinks and went to see Spiderman 3. I liked it better the second time. I was more...relaxed. Maybe part of it was because there were no rowdy people screaming at the screen this time. I don't know, I just enjoyed it more.

Thursday night I watched the Devil Wears Prada with my family. Not a good movie. I could go on and on about all different reasons it was bad, but I don't care enough. Just don't watch it.

Friday was sort of dull. Except for Peet's. I gave Jeremy a Walrus and a gift card for his birthday and we had Green Tea frappuchinos and our usual very odd conversations. And we hanged out Derrick and his friend some. His friend whose name I can't remember. Darn it, I'm so bad with names! I was going to buy Jeremy a Bundt cake, which they sell at Peet's(even in the Lemon variety!) and light it on fire (barring the availability of candles), but they are really expensive...

Saturday, however.

We had our regular men's meeting, as usual, then Jared and I helped the Cook men tear apart. This, as it turns out, is not an easy thing to do. All the old shingles had to be forcibly removed with a variety of sharp implements then tossed into a very large dumpster. Tossing large chunks of hot shingles made up the majority of my afternoon. I swept, too. And helped pull some nails.

AND I got to meet Jeremy's pets. They are somewhat obese. And his cat is sort of crazy. But they are both sweet. The dog, Ralphie, is sneaky. We had Good Times, and he stole our extra hamburger and tried to eat it.

It was a good learning experience. Never tore apart a roof before...

Speaking of the Cook house, there was also a party in the evening...the old talk of rival castles got involved when Nathan Fopma and I started talking about building a piratey treehouse city Swiss Family Robinson style.

Chad, Jared, Erica, and now Savannah have some of lame-o castle thing they're starting. I am the leader of a group that lives in a mobile castle that rides about on the back of an elephant. They are very jealous.

But it's great. I have no trouble recruiting people. They have oppressed peasants and we've done away with poverty, so it's not difficult to get people to join us.

Hmm, we had an ice fight too. And I'm pretty sure we did normal stuff like sit around and talk and eat, too. And we walked to a park. WITH A LAKE. As I've mentioned before (right??) I am basically half-fish. Water makes me very happy. So I was very eager to get there, and even ran ahead of everyone to get their faster.

It was sort of gross, though. The lake bed was so soft, it ate my feet and made walking kinda awkward. But water is water.

We also played in a playground, a really wicked sweet playground with a merry go round with loiterers and very dangerous swinging chairs. They had chairs on a chain and I tried to jump and almost died.

We had to wait forever, but eventually all the loiterers got off the merry go round and we were able to use it. Lots of people got really dizzy and sick at this point, except for Jared and Nate and I. We have way higher spinning tolerance than everyone else, I guess, so we kept spinning on it even after everyone else took off...except for Ruth and Sarah and Dan, who were kind of to wait while we tried extra hard to get ourselves sick.

And apparently my Erica, I mean my sister, threw up, but I missed it.

Ooooh, they had a bouncey thing that was a lot of fun, too, but I don't know what it's called. We bounced on it muchly and played bouncing games, this was a lot of fun too. I'm sort of really tired. I think it's affecting my typing.

Effecting? Maybe my typing is affecting a tired air whilst effected by my exhaustion.

Maybe...I need to go to bed. I think I will fast forward to today. Suffice to say that the party was great fun. Oh yes, I totally forgot about going to the Asian marketplace. That was great fun as well. Chad, Nate, Erica, Savannah and I met early and caused a mild ruckus in an Asian supermarket. They had live crabs and fish heads and lots of disturbingly dead animals. And weird fruits I'd never heard of. And lemonade soda, which is really good. It comes in a weird bottle with a marble in it. I spilled or exploded half of it all over the place, because I couldn't figure out the bottle. It was tasty, though. The lychee is better, though. I want a full bottle of lychee soda sometime...

I bought a weird iced coffee, too. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It seems very suspicious. I'll let you know how I feel about it when I drink it...

We went to Dairy Queen, too. And I actually bought ice cream! I know! Very odd for me...I was called "frugal" today when we were at Dairy Queen because I normally don't spend lots of money on extras like energy drinks and pop and ice cream...

But that was because I bought a three dollar blizzard today, which is extra out of order for me...yesterday all I got was a baby cone. I didn't even know they still made them...and they're only a dollar! That I can afford. Three dollars for ice cream is so, so not worth it. I don't care how good it's supposed to taste. What a waste of money.

But yes, good day.

And today was no exception. I had children's ministry, which involved a lot of being climbed on. Two girls in particular, Mollie and Chloe, are obsessed with getting piggyback rides from me. Obsessed. Every morning they run in and grab onto my back as soon as they get checked in. We're turning it into an outdoor thing, though. I have so little room in our classroom, I'm afraid sometime I'm going to trip and send one of the poor little dears flying across the room.

And the boys are getting violent. I got punched more this morning than I think I ever have in my life. I had it coming towards the end of the class, though. I was pretending to be a shark and I think I scared Ethan a little bit without meaning too...

Still, though. It's a lot of fun, and I really enjoy it. The kids can be really fun. And most of them are very well behaved. Far more so than some kids of the same age I've seen out in the world. Our worst kids are better than most of the world's best. They have no concrete guide on how children ought to be raised, so I guess it's only natural...

After church, Franz and I hung out for like an hour making crazy videos on his phone. Some of them turned out so awesome, I can't wait to put them up on Youtube, if we can figure out the formatting. We used some effects on his phone to make it look like we were underwater, and like it was night, and we did a couple mock video game videos too. The first of these was the best. We almost lost it and started laughing in the middle of recording it was so funny. Cell phone cameras rock!

THEN, I got Subway and a very tasty Monster Khaos energy drink and went to the field near Ashton's house and a big group played Ultimate.

It was so hot. So so so so so hot. We fried to a crisp. I am so dark and tan now. ...and sort of sunburned and pink...

I kept getting dehydrated. I wouldn't get tired so much as almost too thirsty to breath...my mouth kept drying out...but we won!! Twice! Well, there were different teams for the games, but mine won both games. Jesse and I are so unstoppable at Ultimate we have to be split up to make the game fair. At first our team was owning 7-1 till we started letting them catch up.

After that, we went to Dairy Queen and I bought a Snickers blizzard...my first in like a year...and probably my last till next summer. I was more jazzed about the water I got, really. I was so thirsty all day today. And water is so good. My exact words at the Ultimate field were "how can anyone drink water on a hot day and not believe in God?"

Then we went to the Van Hempsts(hope I'm spelling that right) and played a weird game I can't remember the name of, but it was also fun. I think I could have gotten the point of this blog across in a few sentences. It was a fun weekend. Today was very tiring. Ultimate took a lot out of me...we also explored some train tracks and found old hobo clothes and a shopping cart graveyard. I found all the broken shopping cart bits very amusing. Apparently people wheel them out there and then destroy them, for whatever reason.

TANGENTS. This is a really long blog, but I'm still leaving out details. But that's okay... I need to go to bed!! As Cities Burn rocks!

Later llamas!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Son! This is it, this is it!

So I have a poem for you today. I wrote it yesterday in Trig when I was supposed to be listening to a lecture on section 3.5. Whoops. At first I didn't know what to do with it or call it, but then I remembered the thing I was going to do with writing a poem for every month of the year. I sort of did September, October, and November and forgot to keep up. But I didn't know what to do with this poem or even what to call it, so I decided to make it my June poem.

It's very odd. I may try to redraft a couple stanzas, but I'll let y'all tell me what you think first. I'll even guaruantee at least 24 hours before I probably take it down tomorrow afternoon. Without further ado and chatter, here it is.

"The Imminent Collapse of June"

The night followed her home.
the stars slid through a crack under the door,
and wove their way through her hair,
twinkling forlornly everywhere she went.
The night followed her home.

The darkness followed her down the sidewalk
a cloud of no-light that scattered shadows everywhere,
and blotted out the brightness of the sun.
The trees bowed with fear before her footsteps,
The Darkness following her down every lane.

At night she made friends with the rainclouds,
but lit bright fires to keep them at bay.
By the sea, on the sands of an abandoned beach,
she held court with summer storms,
and the rains followed her into town.

In the dusky breathless dawn of morning,
she left the night to its withering and decay,
as the stars rolled back under the waters of a blue sky,
and the moon quit its wild songs for the sun's cheery voice,
The day drew her back and the sun brought her home.

Monday, June 25, 2007

But I've never been to Boston in the fall!

I am extremely, insanely hungry. I just got out of trig, and I'm in the library because our computer at home is messed up. Our comcast computer...

I was planning on blogging about about my long four day weekend, but I want to go home so I can have dinner.

So, hurray for bullet points...that's probably for the best anyways...most of the people who read this(if not all of them) were involved somewhere anyways.

-Teen Campout! After a two hour drive to Leadville, my family pitched our camper in a parking lot.

-Uh, stuff!! I can't really remember what happened Thursday night!

-Friday! Crazy long day!

-Dave and I adventured about and built a teepee and then went to a beach by the lake and made sand castles and waded in the water. Thoroughly enjoyable.

-Lots of games. Ultimate, football, volleyball, and some sort of teen olympics
type deal.

-Gestapo! Sweetest game ever. Or at least close. One team is the gestapo(mostly the helpers) and the other team tries to get tickets through a forest in the dark without being spotted by us, who would then chase after them with flashlights and try to spot what color headband they're wearing and call it out, thus requiring them to stop. I got tackled by Mr. Kopline.

-Food poisoning! I don't want to talk about it!

-Saturday. I dropped my pancakes and bacon in the dirt. It was sad.

-The lake!! Nate, Jesse, Brandon, Joe and I braved the cold waters and dove in. This broke the ice, so to speak, for several other people, mostly teens, to jump in with us. Frivolity insued.

-My first visit to the tea box. I played speed scrabble and had my first bubble tea, and hanged/hung out with many Southies and Chad and Jared. We went for a walk and splashed around in a fountain and found a castle with pirate flags.

-Jared, Savannah, Sierra, Janet, Sarah and I had a very odd conversation after the Tea Box closed.

-I'm really hungry.

-Sunday! I had sound crew and children's ministry and the kids once more used me as a jungle gym. If you give a mouse a piggyback ride...

-The southies moved into their new building, and a handful of we northies ventured south to lend our mighty muscularness. It was a really fun day all in all, and I got to meet tons of new people and see some friends I hadn't seen in a while...

-pinecone fights!

-The biggest lumpiest bruise ever.

-An amusingly pointless trip to Cold Stone.

-Diet coke and mentoes!

-A crazy rain storm!

-Nifty two-wheeled skateboards

-Lots of other stuff...I need to go home...
Trig sucks.

Heck yes.

New blog coming soon. I have trig in thirty minutes, and I misplaced a coffee cup full of coffee.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Oh, I've been living in slow motion, I, I've been in slow motion...

Sorry, had to take it down. Needs more work. I'll try to have a bit of Cain up by next Thursday, if I can find time to work on it. I'm going camping, so I'll be gone for then next couple days. And we have Fopmas in our house. Wee Fopmas! Later llamas!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Within the next three or four hours, I should have something up. Probably just song lyrics or a poem. I'm back at work on Cain, and redrafting the second chapter from the ground up (similar to what I did multiple times with chapter one) so it's taking time, but I finally feel like I'm making progress, assuming I can link all the different elements together properly. This chapter is less linear than the last. It has flashbacks and even a flash-forward, making it more complicated...Putting it all together is like making soup, you have to get all the ingredients in all the proper increments or it's going to taste disgusting. Also, which may or not make you all happy, I think the tone is going to be a little more sparse, with less of the whimsical, abstract metaphors. A little more so. It's something I want to build as the story progresses, so that with each chapter the tone is changing.

Long long paragraph. Later llamas. I have trig in 26 minutes! Yuck! See you soon...

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Take back that photograph, it breaks my heart...

I've got solid plans to post something tomorrow, just so you know I'm not all talk.

Two things:

Fantastic Four is not worth 8 bucks. It's good, and funny, but...some of the acting and writing is really cheesy. The story made a little more sense than the new Spiderman, but it lacked punch. I kept waiting for the big conclusion but when the movie ended, it felt like it was still in the middle of the buildup. Maybe it's just me, but the pacing seemed odd. It feels like part of the movie was missing.

The new Blindside CD is going to be completely phenomenal. I kid you not. I highly recommend checking out their myspace. All five of the new songs have been posted. "The Color of Your Eyes" and "The Way You Dance" are especially good. The best part is, it'll only be five bucks!

Hearing my favorite band put out music for the first time in two years makes me very happy. It's been awhile since I got to hear new music I like this much. So if I seem disgustingly enthusiastic, that's why.

Anyways, I should be in bed. I'm reading the Supernaturalist right now and it's really pretty good. Which I should have expected, having read it before. Yes, I know I'm already in the middle of Emma, and Octavian Nothing, and multiple other books...but...

I'm easily distracted, okay?

Later llamnators. New writing tomorrow! Bet your lucky socks on it!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Hold my hand, while I'm sinking in the sand...

So.

Sorry for all the talk of writing with so little actual posting.

I've been finding it hard to make time to write, so it' been slow going with everything except my fantasy trilogy, which is no longer a trilogy at all, actually.

I decided to make it four books instead of three, because the plot was getting too big for three books, and I was starting to feel really confined when I thought about trying to pack so much story into the third book, Shadowflame. It's a notion I've actually been entertaining for quite a while, but it's just such a massive project I didn't want to step into something so daunting for my first project. But really, I feel less pressure now. For some reason it feels less necessary to write all four books at once the way it did with three.

So yes, four books. I'm really excited, because the plot just makes more sense this way. The new book will probably be called Nightshade, named for a flower that plays an important role in the final book, in healing a curse laid on one of the main characters.

That's another thing, I got a slew of new ideas today for Shadowflame. I really want to talk about it, but I should save it for some other time, since it would ruin the plot for the first two books, which are going to be pretty interesting in their own right, I should hope. Although compared to the three books that follow it, the first book is boring! I can't wait to get to the latter three books in the uhhhh Quadrilogy?

I'm still trying to decide whether to post a song or not. I have a few I'm working on. Eventually, when I get better at playing guitar, I'd like to work out chords and a melody and the like for them, but that's dependent on my learning to play. I don't know about singing. For some reason, even though I hate the sound of my own voice, I sometimes like the way it sounds when I sing. I don't think I'm a very good singer at all, but I'd still like to try it some.

Bum bum bum. The same goes for pretty much everything. I have blogs, poetry, and fiction I could post, just not sure if I want to. I've nothing yet rivaling Cain, for sure.

So yes, a full update about not posting anything...I seem to excel at these.

Later lamermines, sons and daugters of llama and ermine.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Oodles of Toy Poodles

I'm back from the camping.

It was pretty sweet. I don't feel like sitting at the computer much longer, so I'll have to write about it later. Hopefully I can type up and put the finishing touches on some other stuff too...

Maybe I'll just talk about it now. It was a wonderful trip, very refreshing, just being out of the busyness and work and school and everything. Worship was great. Devotions this morning were also really sweet. I hiked way up this trail by myself and just prayed and read my bible. God was really moving in my life this weekend, in somewhat subtle ways, just teaching me to listen to God and trust Him.

The stars were incredible, you could see thousands. Last night a little group of us laid out and stargazed...and satellite gazed...you could see quite a few satellites, too. And we saw some shooting stars. Eric got to wish on the first one, but Deborah and I wouldn't let him wish on the next one. We both wished on it really fast so he couldn't. Supposedly there were bats, too. But I didn't see any. And I don't think anybody tried to wish on them. I don't know what bat wishes would even do. You'd probably explode, or turn into a caterpillar.

And we had smores, and leaping over streams, and swinging at a random playground, and scaring Ashton with stories, and we roasted twizzlers on the fire, and jousting, among other things. I slept in my car. I wanted to sleep in a tent, but it filled before I went to bed at like 1. It wasn't bad, though. I have a comfy car.

As usual, i'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but I have coffee waiting and stuff to clean, so I must be off. Later llamus.

Friday, June 15, 2007

I think I've stayed for the last time, goodbye...

Because a certain someone, who shall remain entirely nameless, elected not to change the link on their blog to mine when I switched back from Word Press, I have altered said someone's link to their page on my own...

Anyways, quickly jumping in and out. Later llamus! I'm off to camp! Camp OUT!! Bye!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Everybody dance to the invisible hook!

I was supposed to blog today and yesterday, wasn't I?

Whoops.

Maybe next week...going to be pretty busy the next couple days. Actually, I may have time on Saturday night.

We're preparing some spaghetti sauce for the teen campout for our church next week and the onions my mom sauteed are stinking up the WHOLE HOUSE. At first I didn't mind the scent because I barely noticed it but now it is bringing me to tears.

And in addition to the teen campout, which I may or may not be going to (I'm kinda hoping not, I'd miss caregroup) we have a campout tomorrow! And the best part is, it's sure to rain. Why? Because it always rains at singles campouts, no matter what the weather forecast says. We will plan for games like Ultimate, but I fear any such plans will eventually come to ruin and vanity. Ah well, I'm sure it'll be fun...camping in the rain is pretty sweet. Last year I slept in my jeep, and it was actually pretty comfy and toasty. I'd like to sleep in a tent, this year, but I'm glad my jeep will be there should I wish to use it.

But probably not. If we get attacked by bears, it'll be up to me to use my medieval ninjutsu to protect everyone.

Um, anyways, I always say I don't have time to post anything, then type on and on forever, so I'm going to jet, later llamus, children of llama and emu.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Hope y'all like this layout, because I love it. So much better than dots!

Focus on the horizon, men, should you grow seasick...

Hi.

I got sick of my old look, so I changed it. Dunno how I feel about dots, so I may change it. Let me know how y'all like it. I think dots is a lot better, but I may look for something I like better still. All that blue was just...bleh, it got really bland after awhile.

Also, if there are no objections, I've going to remove my music player. Blogger keeps cutting it off, and I don't like taking the time to mess with it too much, so I can't change the songs that often. I'll keep it if anybody likes, but otherwise it is gone. Same with the facebook badge, it is serving no purpose.

So, here's a little schedule for my blogging. With any luck I'll actually stick with it.

Today: lyrics

Tomorrow: Devotional blog, if it seems fit for posting.

Thursday: New poem or song. I've got a good number of both that I haven't posted yet.

Friday: New fiction. Hoping to have a bit of either Sunset or Cain done soon. We'll see how things go...

I've been cleaning out my room today, and going through all my junk. I own a massive number of books. I think I'm going to get rid of some stuff. Maybe not any books, though. May post something on myspace or facebook to see if anybody wants some of the things I have that need to go...I don't know, anyways.

As I have stated, I like the new As Cities Burn song. I've also said I wanted to post the lyrics. They've really made me think. At church and caregroup, we've been talking about false gospels and how we try to justify ourselves through works, and I think this song was written with similar thoughts in mind...

"This Is It, This Is It"

focus on the horizon, men
should you grow seasick
but don't expect silhouettes
of rescuer ships coming

coming, they arent coming for us

we've got prices on our heads
and millstones around our necks
we try to live forgiven but they won't let us forget
the bodies we're still in
the bodies that we still war against

son, this is it, this is it
you're gonna sink for your sins
unless grace be the wind
son, this is it, this is it
we're all sinking for our sins
unless grace be the wind

forget about being honest
forget about being passionate
wear that smile like you feel it
even when you don't
forget about being honest
forget about being passionate
i think they forgot about Jesus
seeking us out

in the bodies we're still in
the bodies we still war

son, this is it, this is it
you're gonna sink for your sins
unless grace be the wind
son, this is it, this is it
we're all sinking for our sins
unless grace be the wind
to fill our sails

-As Cities Burn

So...speaken you, let me know what you think...later ligers.

Monday, June 11, 2007

You're gonna sink for your sins, unless grace be wind.

Hi.

A new As Cities Burn song has been released, and naturally, it rocks. I'll post the lyrics tomorrowm, since I'm doubting I'll have much to blog about, unless I post one of my lame journal entries or something.

So.

We had our annual church picnic yesterday. Well, bi-annual, I guess. I don't know if we are going to have another this year, but that has been the trend lately.

I guess when most people think picnic, they think relaxation, fresh air, yummy food, all that kind of thing.

Pretty much not how I think of church picnics at all. I tend to be constantly moving from game to game, seeing how far I can push myself before I drop. This year was no exception.

The games:

Netless volleyball!

Frisbee!

Basketball!

Football!

Ultimate frisbee!

Letting kids get me soaking wet!

Grass fight!!

Football again!

All in all, a pretty good time. I do not think I have ever been that sweaty in my entire life.

Hmm. We also had Panera Bread to celebrate Emily's birthday. I got tuna salad. It doesn't beat Qdoba(or Chipolte, for which I was outvoted) but it was pretty tasty.

So yeah, today was weird. I took a nap. I never take naps. It was rather excellent, though. I was pretty sore from my crazy weekend(plus a short but physically demanding shift this morning) but after I woke up from my nap I was groggy but I felt better. Usually I feel awful after naps. Maybe I just needed one really bad, I dunno.

And...I had spicy peanuts and an Arizona green tea, both new to me. And not bad. I have almost completely quit drinking pop. And...I've felt better lately. I've had a little more energy. Yesterday I was running faster and playing better than I generally tend to.

So, so, so. I'm sure I had more to say. Maybe? I thought so. I passed my trig test, which was pretty shocking to me. As I said last week, I totally thought I bombed, but I guess the teacher omitted two problems, worth ten points each, so I jumped up by two whole letter grades from a D to a B. And do you know what that means?! I may actually pass the class!

I'm forgetting stuff, I know I am. Oh well. I'm at the library now, and getting ready to go home. Guitar practice?! Writing?! Zelda?! Anime?! Devotions?! All that and more! Later llamas!!

Oh oh! I'm going to try to post some pictures soon. I have a new camera phone so I can take lots of pictures now. Sadly, it's actually a better camera than my beat up old Sony. But not as good as my parents camera. It's a good thing I haven't used it too much. It's such a nice camera, I would be able to use nothing else.

Anyways, like I said, later!

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Hold up! Wait a minute! Put a little love in it!

Hi!

My weekend is off to quite a start.

Okay, no forced exclamation point heavy enthusiasm this time, but still.

I don't know. I'm actually pretty tired right now. Yesterday was caregroup, and in addition to some great worship and prayer and discussion, we had a good time. I helped make strawberry shortcake (You're not off the hook, jello, I shall defeat you yet!!). I don't know, I'm sure there is lots and tons I could talk about, but I'm finding it hard to remember everything. Mostly now I remember looking at Chad's buggy pictures, and Jeremy being way to friendly with the touching and making me yell really loud at Village Inn.

And...sprinklers. I ran through the sprinklers right before I got in my car to leave. That was pretty sweet.

So. Why am I so tired you ask?

Well...it all started this morning when I woke up. Yup. I woke up this morning. I admit it. And not only that, I woke up before six!! I got like four or five hours sleep, I think, maybe more. I didn't get to sleep until late because there was a big old crowd of people in my house when I got there, and I needed to make sure they all left before I went to bed.

So yeah, leadership class, my last one. This means I may be able to stay out later on some fridays, when my dad's in town to close up the house anyways. Um, I may not be making sense. We have caregroup at our house, a singles caregroup, every friday, but I attend a different caregroup, one I've been going to for, gosh, three years now. So I need to be home by eleven when my dad is up at work(he's a firefighter in summit county, he works solid 48 hour shifts).

Blah blah blah. I don't feel like I'm making sense, nor am I sure why I explain this.

Moving on.

Then.

We had our men's meeting, as is pretty typical for a Saturday. There were just four of us today, me (duh), Jared, Asher and Nate. We talked. We ate cereal. Nate showed us a bug he caught.

Then.

We cleaned the church, Jared, Eric and I. (Jared and I had quite a day...)

I vacuumed!

I sang out loud and didn't realize someone could hear me!

I washed windows!

I moved furniture!

I went home and tried in vain to get ahold of Nate Fopma!

Then.

TUBING.

This part of the day was rather crazy. Those faint of heart may want to skip this part.

First, Jared, Jon La Bass, Nate and I gathered at Jared's place. (Not that Nate, a third one.) We then carried inner tubes on a good like hike through Golden. Golden's pretty sweet. I love it up there, lots of beautiful mesas (or plateus, if you speak french, oui oui) reaching into the sky all around.

The river, I'm told, was quite a bit higher than normal. Nothing I was told as we hiked through town and out to a river outside the city could curb my enthusiasm to tube. This is generally my way. I get excited about stuff and jump in feetfirst. Or headfirst, it really doesn't matter until you land. I was also told there was quite a bit of runoff, and that if you aren't careful, you can get sucked under, get your foot stuck, and drown.

Naturally, I didn't care. I was in. That's all that mattered.

So naturally, when we hike quite a ways along this path, and I'm told we can hike higher to an even crazier area than is generally advisable, I'm in. Let's do it. And yet, before we can even get up there, as we're crossing a little outlet with some VERY fast moving water, I lose my footing and my tube. The footing I got back without slipping, the tube I did not.

The stupid current got a hold of it, and before any of us could do anything, it was gone. I took off running, but I couldn't keep up before my feet started to get torn up by gravel and generally rough terrain. Apparently Jared has feet of steel, because he took off running after I went back for sandals and beat me down, which rather shocked me, I've always thought of myself as having very tough feet. I probably should have just run through the pain. Then running on gravel wouldn't even bother me anymore. Oh well, hindsight. I'll save charging like a lunatic over painfully sharp rocks for next time.

Eventually, Jared managed to find the inner tube. Apparently someone stopped it and gave it to a little kid, and then Jared got it from the little child. And then I showed up just in time to walk back uphill to the launch point for the tubes.

After that, we decided we weren't ready for the crazy area, and just jumped into standard launch point.

Which was quite enough!

The water was SO SO SO COLD.

Seriously, it felt like rolling around in snow, like electricity running through me. I couldn't believe as I started to get going that I was about to spend a very long time in it. Part of me was instantly happy, since I was a fish in a past life, but the cold was quite a shock.

And I had no tubing knowledge save a handful of random tips from Jared and Nate. I'd never gone tubing before(part of the reason for my eagerness) so I didn't really know how to steer or anything. Stear. No, it's steer. Which is fine, really. All part of the adventure. I like jumping in and figuring things out as I go, flying by the seat of your swimming trunks or whatever.

But the rapids, that's where it got insane.

At first, while the going was smooth, I was just trying to learn how to stay upright in my tube (something that takes more practice than you'd think). I fell out almost right away and hit bottom. This was nothing. Cold but excited I climbed back in, eager for whatever was ahead.

But I wasn't really ready when I hit my first wave. I don't know what could have prepared me for such a thing. It's just one second your floating along, the next you're sucked spinning into a jetstream, trying to catch your breath and stay on.

The staying on I struggled with all the way down. I would fall off, get dragged along by my tube, then struggle to get back on without losing the tube. I got completely submerged more than once. It was pretty awesome and exhilarating, and I rather loved it, until I reached a point where I just could not get back on my tube. The current was so fast, I couldn't get it back under me, and I couldn't let it go without risking losing another tube, so I clung on tight while it dragged me over the rocks in some really nasty areas and got some pretty sweet bruises.

And I couldn't stop!

It's really difficult to gain purchase underwater, and when I finally decided I had to get out before I got myself killed, I wound up just still getting dragged along in the shallows, until I finally managed to wedge myself between a few rocks, and then I couldn't get out of the water without losing the tube (not easily anyways) and this kind woman helped me out at this point, and I dropped my tube and all but collapsed into the grass. My limps were bright red and so numb I couldn't feel anything but pins and needles. I felt like a bundle of sticks, arms and legs barely working.

After a few seconds, I worked up some strength and got moving to find my fellow tubers. Jon wound up not lasting much longer than me. When we all met up again, he and I could not stop chattering. I've never actually felt my teeth chatter before. It wasn't until a little later that I realized I wasn't actually cold, which is according to my mom, the beginning of hypothermia. I automatically assumed, since I was shaking and my teeth were chattering, I must be cold.

The Mines portion of our group(four guys at this point) wanted to go back in, but Jon and I, being all but immobilized, were somewhat reluctant. Jon, to my surprise, went back in. I wanted to, but I couldn't. I didn't feel like I could swim, I was shaking so bad. Which is pretty out of character for me. I'm usually the last to quit everything. Oh well, at least I didn't die. It was all very humbling, really. I spent a lot of my time in the water at the river's mercy. It made me realize how frail human beings are in the grand scheme of things. I can't even get myself out of a river when I want, and yet God can make the river, control the river, and even get me safely out of it! Amazing stuff.

So I wound up waiting a little bit, and then we hugged some bronze fish that helped us warm up, or it helped everyone else warm up. I started to get leg cramps...

Um, so! My first tubing adventure! It was quite a bit of fun. And very humbling. I need to work out more. Yes, I said it. I do. If I'm going to do risky stuff like this, especially eagerly, then I need to be strong enough to get myself out of sticky situations. And I do love doing stuff like river rafting. I can't wait to go again. Hopefully it'll be warmer next time.But if not, oh well. Toughening up is always good! I want to go up further and try out the "crazy area".

Anyways, after that we chilled at Jared's, warming up. I tried earl gray tea, and we played ping pong and made french toast, and it was lovely. I'd talk more, but people are wanting to use this computer, so I'm getting off. I've already blabbed enough anyways! Later llamas!

Friday, June 8, 2007

Grace make your way, make your way...

I had my first guitar lesson yesterday...

I can't decide whether I'm more excited or confused. I had to take in a lot of info about frets and finger positions and chords and piano notes and tuning and notes but I think I learned five chords! I'm getting ready to practice now...my teacher, GCC's bass player Mr. Smith, gave me a couple song sheets, too. The only easy song he could find was Brown Eyed Girl, so I guess it'll be the first song I'll learn...I'm going to feel a little silly practicing to it, especially since I have to sing, too, but oh well...Mr. Smith excepts me to sing, and if I don't practice, then I'm going to sound like a total doof next Thursday.

But.

I'm probably going to learn "I'm Calling Out" too, which seems more practical. I won't be able to woo any girls, but I'll be able to participate instrumentally in worship...

Sorry for the topic swerve, but I quit writing for awhile...

I just found out what's on the new Blindside EP!!

Not quite what I'd hoped, but I'm not really disappointed...two Blindside songs tend to be worth ten songs from other bands, case in point, I can't get enough of the crappy, live version of The Way You Dance...

So:

The Way You Dance
Pretty Nights
Fell in Love with The Game(Live)
My Alibi(Live)
When I Remember(Live)

Really looking forward to the live tracks, too. I'm pretty sure the acoustic versions of Pitiful and Sleepwalking were live. I could be wrong, but I think all three recordings will sound pretty sweet.

In other news, I found "The Hoard" (As Cities Burn) on eyetunes, which rather shocked me. They didn't breathe a word about it online or anything. I bought it right then and there...it's a pretty sweet song. Too bad the whole CD's not coming out till August...but they're posting a new song on their Myspace next week!

Hum. I need to go do other things! I'll try to post a good blog soon cheeky llamas.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

"Are you starting to feel it?"

I love Blindside.

I love the new Blindside song.

My "top ten songs" list is back. Guess who's on top. You should really check this video out, if you haven't already. I'm totally addicted to it. Been listening to it over and over again as I do other stuff on computer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLQWuNw4674

At first I didn't like it because you can barely understand Christian's singing in parts, but the beat is great. I can't wait for the EP to come out. Two more weeks...

Later llamas.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Bleh.

I'm pretty sure I just bombed my first trigonometry test.

But, on the bright side, I got a new phone today. Except texting doesn't work right. Apparently a picture text I sent out got picked up by someone in another state with a 314 area code, which makes me wonder who ELSE is getting my texts? Very odd, no?

But anyways...

Um, I don't know. I'm not feeling that great right now. And I'm not really in a good mood.

I need to have devotions. And coffee. And maybe sleep. You know what's weird? I'm in the mood for tea. I used to hate tea. Anyways, I'm not in any sort of mood where I should be posting, so later emus.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

When my hopes seem to dangle somewhere just beyond my reach...

I hate blogger. I tried to create an "About Me" type page and it wouldn't let me. Apparently this is too long for them. So here you are:

On a winter morning in January, I entered the world a lovely shade of blue, suffocating from the umbilical cord wrapped around my throat.

The first thing I learned in life was how to choke. Since then I've made it a running habit to react in like manner to every challenge I face, choking on words, never quite saying what I wanted, or acting the way I wanted to act, constantly frustrated with myself. Naturally, this did not make me happy. In fact, I started to hate myself so much I started to go through depression. I berated myself as worthless and could fine no argument to the contrary.

I wasn't just choking on words anymore, I started to choke on life. But God was there. He picked the exactly perfect moment to pull me from my self-made cage of despair and rescued me, setting my feet on a solid rock and putting the Holy Spirit in my heart. I was fourteen when I accepted Christ as savior and lord.

The problems didn't magically go away, I didn't stop struggling with sadness overnight, but I didn't have to succumb to all the dark thoughts that whispered suicidal urges into my ears. I didn't have to choke anymore.

Hell lost a victim that day. Since then I have been trying to learn how to give my life away to Jesus, to spread the Gospel and witness to everyone I come into contact with, by word and deed, and by the way I live my life day by day.

That's my testimony, and easily the most important thing to know about me. Beyond that...

The first thing people tend to notice about me, I am very quiet. At first, this was bound up in all the fear and paranoia I used to struggle with, and when God healed my heart, I started to break away from it, but I found that I would still wind up regretting running at the mouth, so I decided not to try to do away with my quiet nature and generally try not to speak unless necessary.

That being said, I love talking to people, especially chatty people and I like having conversations. I just don't always like taking an active role in them.

What else could I say? What I'm into? Since I picked up my first chapter book, Mishmash, at age six, I've been a voracious reader, constantly seeking out new experiences and ideas and worlds via books. I can spend hours browsing bookstores and libraries. My preference is fiction, but I also enjoy and will gladly pick up nonfiction of all sorts. And I like poetry...

This love of reading led me into writing. I've found I really enjoy studying words, and putting them together, and telling stories. It seems to be something of a natural ability. Whether I am good is disputable, but I can sit down anywhere, anytime with paper and a pen, and narritive prose will flow out. Further, I get pictures in my head, very vivid pictures, of the worlds I describe in my pictures, which is possibly what leads to others telling me my writing tends to be very discriptive.

I also really enjoy music. Music is deeply connected to writing for me. I always listen to music when I write. I'm listening to music right now...really it's because I tend to find silence somewhat unnerving. Though, as with writing fiction, I make no claim to an ounce of skill, I have recently taken to writing songs and I'm also starting to take guitar lessons...

I think I'm running out of things to talk about, which is good, because I've been babbling for quite some time. Inevitably, I tend to waste time online when I should be doing other things. There's little enough about me you need to know...I like to travel, and see new places, I like to learn new languages, and how things work, I like movies, I like games, especially physically challening games like soccer and Ultimate frisbee, and I like anything to do with the outdoors and nature.

Other random info:

-My favorite bands are Blindside, David Crowder Band, Switchfoot, As Cities Burn, Relient K and Telecast. If I listed everyone I like it would take too long. Maybe some other time...

-I also like House of Heroes. Think I'd forget them? My blog is actually named after th lyrics from one of their songs, which is why they get their own bullet point. Not because they're my favorite band, but because their song "You Are the Judas of the Cheerleading Squad" really seems to sum up my life. "Forged in the fire now the fire it burns in me."

-I have no favorite movie. Or color. Or place. Or book. I like movement and change and new things, so it's rare for me to have favorites, which is why I just listed over a half dozen bands as favorites.

-I was born in London Ohio, and my hometown is Urbana. Land of fireflies, drenching Spring rains, endless cornfields, and gigantic nasty mushrooms.

-I like art and drawing. And climbing trees. And beaches. And throwing rocks at the water at the beach so they splash my friends and huge splashing contests erupt.

-I used to have two horses, Lucy and Belle

-I can touch my tongue to my nose, I'm double-jointed, and I can still get my feet behind my head.

-I like coffee. And tea. And juice. But not pop.

-I have only ever been out of the country once, to Canada, but I can't remember it. Someday I want to see the world, and move to another country for awhile, so when I come back I can have a wicked sweet accent.

-I have over a dozen nicknames, some widely in use, including Bruce, Bryson, Brycen, Max, Horace, Bman, and Aquaman

-I am a sound crew leader in my church, and help with mixing and running the board on Sundays. I'm also a helper in children's ministry. And in my caregroup, I run snacks, a party pack, and prayer meetings.

-Rawr.

"Just in case, I will leave my bags packed, so I can run away..."

Hi llamas.

Had another interesting weekend. Let's see...

Friday!!

Nate's prayer and worship night to christen his house! Open it! Whatever you want to call it! We had a good time! Chad and I played Nintendo DS for awhile, because he JUST GOT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to bed sometime that night, but I can't remember when!!!!!!!

Saturday!!!

Men's meeting! Jared and I tried to keep up with Nate's ceiling fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We all spun ourselves dizzy!! It was great!

I bought music that evening!!!!!!!! Including a Coldplay song I didn't mention before!!!!

SUNDAY!!11!!11!!

Red Robin!! Chile!! Fries!! Dr. Pepper!!

Ultimate Frisbee at the park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dave can run fast! I had a hard time keeping up with him, but I got a couple blocks and interceptions in for the FIRST TIME EVER. I mean, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!!!!

Um um! Then I got sick for awhile and went to King Soopers for my mom, and I bought SKITTLES and TWIZZLERS!! FOR WHAT YOU ASK?!

Pirates 3! Who came, you ask?! In seating order!! Jared, Chad, Nate, me, Molly, Daisy, Savannah, Sean and Daniel!! The movie was weird!! And I couldn't decide if I should be cheering for anyone, because all the characters were morally ambiguous!! There were no good guys!! I never, ever want to see Jack Sparrow look at a goat again!! Or a donkey! When he looks at a donkey in the first movie, it's disturbing now!

*collapses from fit of exclamation point fury*

Okay.

Some quotes from the weekend.

Let's see. Oh yes. I forgot. Monday. Was. Cool. Too. I went to my sister's softball game. And then. Some. Of. Us. Went. To. Denny's, which is not IHOP, it would seem.

Oh yes. Quotes. Here we go. Try not to explode, with excitement.

-"Jon, guard the women!" -Lots of people

-"Barbossa, marry us!" -Orlando Bloom

-"...and really bad eggs" -Chad

-"Bryce gets all the girls cause he has skittles." -Jared

-"They killed Batman!" -Me, at work

-"Yeah, I'll have the Moons Over My Hammy" Me, at Denny's


There's more, but I can't remember them...maybe I'll add more later. The conversation at Denny's was great. Oh yes, and Deborah gave me a word! Apparently she has a thing where she picks one word that she thinks really sums someone's character up...let me see if I can remember them all.

Me: Intentional

Jon: Successful

Erica: Thoughtful

Matt: Cheerful

And she was still working on Zach's...

Whelp, I can think of nothing else to say. I'm going to go shower and do my devotions and then WHO KNOWS WHAT?! Hopefully lots of writing! And maybe (ick) some trig homework.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Fish in the sea, you know how I feel...

Hi.

Haven't had much to say lately. Not blogging as much anymore...I've got no writing to show for my silence. I'm working on getting the plot for a couple books down, but hopefully once everything is worked out, I'll be able to get back into the groove of writing more frequently.

I'm also going to begin studiously seeking out an outlet to publish Cain, which I've not done thus far, and I'm going to continue work on Chapter 2, which I posted half of a month or so ago.

Short term goals:

-Prologue and first three chapters of Sunset

-Prologue and first chapter of The Mobilus,
my superhero story (which needs a new title, I'm thinking...)

-First chapter of The Sea of Forgetfulness a
story you may recall by its old title, Work.

-First chapter of Kingdom Darkness, a story I've never blogged about. Fairly straight-forward allegory. Still not sure I'm even going to write it.

-Outlining for A Hornet's Nest and the Scarred Letters, two trilogies I plan on writing after Sunset. The former is a sci-fi story I've not talked about, the latter is a sequel to the Fall of Light.

-First two chapters of Vivisections and Atom

-Three chapters of Cain

-Rework Adam

Hmm, that's a lot of writing, but it's good to set goals. I feel better now for having written out some of my plans!

I've got a few new poems I've been sitting on that I could also post. I'm just doubtful they're any good. Perhaps I'll at least post the sequel to Descents (Or Nightfall or Sunset, whatever I decided to call it), a poem I wrote for Ascent(second book of the Fall of Light trilogy) called "I Miss the Stars"

Blah blah blah.

I'm considering buying some music on eyetunes. Here's what I'm thinking of getting:

-"Work" -Jars of Clay

-"Rock of Ages -David Crowder Band

-"Feeling Good" -Michael Buble (Only because I couldn't find a better version...)

-"I Can't Explain" -Sixpence None the Richer (I like "Field of Flowers", too, but the lyrics are so dorky...)

-"First Time"- Lifehouse

-"The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" -Relient K

-"Come Away With Me" -Jonah Nones, I mean Norah Jones!

I also really want KT Tunstall's album (90%, anyways...) but I may wait on that...

Speaking of Feeling Good, I've liked that song ever since I heard it performed on American Idol. The one time I watched it this season, I heard this girl perform, and I thought she did great, and i was thinking about watching the season, and then ten minutes later I walk in the room and they're SENDING HER HOME. I never watched American Idol again! Good people always leave too early. America, you have no taste!!

Later llamas!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

No Na

My New Attitude Schedule

Friday

7 am- Work

2:30 pm- take my sister to a piano lesson

2:35 pm- Get my first speeding ticket

6:30 pm- Get really excited about the new Blindside EP coming out next month!!

7:00 pm-My first time at the Brent Hill caregroup. All that was missing was a pink and orange eyepatch. Jared can open his mouth really wide! He was leaping after m&ms in the air like a young trout.

Saturday

12:?? pm-Fall asleep reading Gifts, which is a really interesting book.

6:30 am-Oversleep, dash off to Leadership Class

10:00 am-Help the Lewins move into their new house, have an amusing misunderstanding.

10:05 am- Zach and I will get there and realize no one is home, wait half an hour, and then in the middle of running for food get a call and go to the Lewins new house.

11:22 am- Arrive at Lewins new house.

11:30 am- Leave after carrying in two things, because I am expected elsewhere.

12:00 pm- Get ready to go to Natural Science and History downtown!

1:00 pm-Arrive at the museum, get food, annoy everyone by playing with a toy dinosaur.

2-5 pm-Have a pretty rockin' time at the museum. Mummies?! Walruses?! AND BISON!!!!! A general good time with lots of laughs. If Erica has a child with no arms like a manatee, it may need to hang on with its teeth!!

Oh yes, and we took some health tests and stuff, and I rocked everyone with my flexibility and grip strength.

5:00 pm-Leave museum, hang around on wolves outside for awhile. Randomly fall asleep in Brent's car and get messed with.

6:00 pm Go to Erik Hand's concert. Watch "Blood Thirsty" "King MC" and "RBD" rock out. Or is it rap out?? It was pretty fun. I was the only one willing to get into it and put my hand in the air and bob my head and all that fun stuff, which is kinda funny, me being the extrovert in a group...

9:00 pm-Sonic! The first time I actually ate Sonic and liked it, too. Yummy breakfast burrito, bad fries. BAD FRIES. Chipolte has really nice bathrooms!

10:00 pm- Go to Jon's house to eat and wind up watching Spiderman 2, annoy Erik(comic book geek, he even has a song) by tearing it apart and pointing out mistakes.


Sunday


6:00 am- Wake up, prepare to leave for church

7:45 am- Arrive to church, lead sound crew team and help with mixing

8:00-Panic because DAN ISN'T THERE TO DO EVERYTHING FOR ME.

8:05: Get a crash course from Deborah, Jordan, and Kat on how everything works.

8:15: Mix for the first time!!

10:00 am-Help my sister with her Children's Ministry class, almost fall asleep standing up.

1:00 pm- Leave for the picnic with Jared, Mike, Lacey and Tanith. Buy tastey sandwich and potato salad.

1:30 pm- Arrive for picnic super early, eat, and play groundies for a long time, which is an awesome game.

2:30 pm-Unsuccessfully attempt to fly a kite with Ben.

3-6 pm- Swing and make the swings shake, run for ketchup and get chastised for taking too long, even though you brought mustard without being asked, and play Foursquare for a loooong time.

6:00 pm- Go home, try to stay awake for awhile. Play Zelda and make it to a new and very interesting dungeon, the Temple of Time, and read Gifts for awhile, and then fall asleep.

Monday

8:06 am-Wake up!

1:15 pm- Have Jon over for Memorial Day (the only person who could make it), eat some tasty food, play Bocce and Croquet at the park and win both, play Uno and lose!


Tuesday


7:00 am: Work

11:30 am- Leave work, come home

5:30 pm- Take Erica to class

Thursday, May 24, 2007

So after all, you needed more than a death-threat fall...

Here's a few pages from my devotional journal. Just a little write-up about some things I've been thinking about. Let me know what you think...

5/17/07

Life is hard.

Beautiful, happy, wonderful moments follow after pain and struggle and sweat. Difficulty. Doubt, fear are constantly waiting to rob us of faith and joy and all the gifts God grants his children. We cannot know the number or the measure of our days, we can only trust that same God who died on the cross for us. To eat, drink and take pleasure in our toils, that is God's gift to us, as it says in Ecclesiastes 3:15.

And yet, as simple as this sounds, lures are everywhere. Bait dangles before our eyes constantly waiting to be devoured. Waiting for we sorry, foolish sheep to be led astray. Temptation. This world is filled with beauty, so like a poisonous flower. We can be tempted to drink in its fragrances, but when we catch even a wiff of wordly air, our folly is followed by destruction. What is good? What should we take pleasure in?

Our toil is the Gospel today. It must be spread to all corners of the earth. We must hold onto and follow God, all His plans and ways. He created the enticing beauty of this world and is the only thing more beautiful still. What else can we replace the world with? Where can we run but straight into his arms?

I have let lesser things distract me from the wonder of His grace and mercy, but I must continue striving and growing, yearning after my God and the task he has appointed.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Pretty much back!! No more word press. I didn't like it.

As I’m drowning, engulfing the salt water air...

A blog update in one minute.

I’m going to start typing at 6:32 and stop at 6:33.

Okay, here goes. Sunday was lemon guaca day and it was pretty sweet. Chad’s house was decked out in all kinds of yellow and green decorations and we had games and singing and I helped write a song and we had magic tricks and capture the head and lots of other stuff too.

Oh, I ran out of time. This keyboard is weird. My fingers kept slipping, so I had to go back and fix stuff, otherwise I would have written more. I started Trigonometry yesterday. Not so fun, but at least it’s my only class.

24 last night, Heroes this morning, Lost tomorrow night.

24: lame ending, too slow and quiet.

Heroes: Odd ending, good cliffhanger. I hope Peter and Parkman make it!

Lost: Charlie’s not going to die, that’s my prediction. They’ve still got 48 episodes to go, they’re not done with him yet.

That’s all llamas. Arrr. New writing coming? You’ll just have to wait and see!!

The more I drink of your word, the more I thirst for You.

Welcome to the inaugural post for my newly relocated blog.

I’ve got a poem and a blog posted below, with some fiction and possibly an essay on writing on the way. I’m not moving any of my old stuff, probably. It’ll be fine on my old blog, and most of it wasn’t that great anyhow…I’ll add it to my links section if y’all want to read any of my archives, though…

I’m still playing around with options, so if anything seems out of place or odd, that’s why. Actually, if anything seems odd, that’s probably not going to change anytime soon. I still can’t pick a theme…

Lemon Guaca Day is coming!! Yesterday we painted three huge signs. Well, sort of a sign-decoration combo. Basically huge lemons and avocados cut out of wood and nearly as tall as me.

It was quite messy, but a lot of fun! I can’t wait to get all the pictures together for this year’s bash. The preparation has already been a lot of fun.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a very remarkable game. The storyline is very deep and interesting. If you have a Gamecube, it is, along with the other Zelda for the system, Wind Waker, among the games I would recommend most highly. I’ve spent a great deal of time this last week delving into this new world Nintendo has created.

The sword play is certainly much deeper. Some of the new sword moves you can learn are wickedly cool. I’m becoming a master of the mortal draw, which is basically where you put your sword away and just sort of stand there while an enemy charges you down and then whip it out at very last second and strike. Blam, instant kill. What with getting turned into a dog, riding a charging boar through enemy barricades, fighting on horseback, rescuing a man who has been cursed by his greed and turned to solid gold, and teaming up with a quirky sorcerer from another world ,the game is, as I said, remarkable…I didn’t touch on a quarter of what happens…

Blah blah blah. I already left you enough to read for awhile…

Later llamas!!

Why do you spread your arms and tell me I’m free?

Let me know what you think of this…I might post it on lifteyes…

“All Wisdom and Insight”



“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.” –Ephesians 1:7-8



Time slips by so quickly if we’re not careful. One second we may be doing exactly what we ought to be about, the next we are wasting time. It’s so important to be making the best use of our time because life itself is a gift from God just like everything else. It’s not ours. Wasted time doesn’t glorify God and is nothing but sin. If we are lazy and not seeking God’s will, then what use are we? With every second of every day we must strive to do our very best for God, who has redeemed us from hell.



He gave His son for us, so ought we not live for Him and Him only? We must seek first his kingdom and glory! All other things are secondary at best and sinful at worst.



In the deep riches of His graces there can be no greater peace than to know that our sins are forgiven. He suffered for a time to save us from eternal suffering. What is a few minutes of discomfort compared to all we have gained? What is giving up your seat? Your money? Your time? The king of all eternity has lovingly stepped into our lives to save us and guide us. What are we? Who are we compared to Him?



We have been lavished with grace, LAVISHED, and so we should lavish praise upon God for His mercy and wisdom and love and goodness. Shouldn’t we of all people striving hardest to use our time wisely to serve God? I want to be found praising Him not in word only with lip service but in deed also, every action, every thought, every minute. I’ve done so poorly at this, personally. Time slips by so quickly if we’re not careful. It’s too easy to forget how incredible the gospel is, how incredible grace is. God used all His wisdom and insight to save us. That means his plans are perfect! He isn’t up in heaven goofing off and focusing on our lives and the trials we go through with ten percent, he’s in this with us all the way, one hundred percent, because He loves us that completely.



God sees into all things with an unbelievable insight we cannot come close to. He knows what we need to be doing, He knows where we should be, and nothing in life happens without His careful guidance. Trust Him for it is not merely your time, but also His. In the forgiveness of our trespasses he saves us and sets us in motion with purpose!

Lungs filling up with water, I’ll scream for you…

“Ambient Air”


In a green cool clear lake,

In a rushing river pulling at my feet

At the bottom of a screaming waterfall,

Lungs filling up with water, I’ll scream for you.



I’ll wait, I will, I will wait for you.

Truth and praise upon my lips.



In the dry desert winds that blow,

In the heat, the baking sun

In this flesh so damaged and hurting,

Throat caked with grit and sand, I’ll scream for you



I’ll wait, I will, I will wait for you,

Patience and praise upon my lips.



In an open field of waving grass,

Drowning in the ocean’s lure and grasp,

Under blue sky and orange-pink sunset,

Lost in forests of dark wind-tossed waves of leaves



Breathing out songs in my lungs, I wait for you

Love and praise upon my lips.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

If you can't feel your toes, they're probably made out of bacon.


Change of plans, I ran out of time to do any blogging today. But I did find time to do this whilst otherwise occupied this afternoon...


From Savannah's blog...if my fonts are all weird, blame her. Too lazy/short on time to fix anything...


I grabbed 7 books from my shelf, flipped to page 123 and wrote down the contents of line 3. The Results!!

  1. II. The Garden of Live Flowers 139
  2. The sky now was quickly clearing and the sinking moon was shining
  3. out into a long hallway. Numbered doors
  4. This time there was no protest, only a few scattered cheers.
  5. stood before the man, unable to hold his eyes. The blond German had
  6. now saying. "Oh, Orual," she said, not even I have
  7. friend Orpheus!" Basta put an arm around his shoulders . "The

Now, you should try to match book titles to the excerpt! Here are the book titles in random order:

  • Obsessed
  • Till We Have Faces
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril
  • The War in Heaven
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  • Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
  • Inkspell

Go for it, yo. Most of those are easy if you've read the book...

And something else...just a little survey...

  1. One book that has changed your life, excepting the Bible: Left Behind. I became a Christian after reading it. Hooray for cheesy apocalyptic thrillers!
  2. One book you’ve read more than once: Um, I rarely reread books, so I'm not sure. There are plenty of books I want to reread, though. Obsessed, The Hobbit, Inkheart, and pretty much all of C.S. Lewis's writing is on the list though!!
  3. One book you’d want on a desert island: A notebook, so I could write.
  4. One book that made you laugh: Any of the last five or six Series of Unfortunate Events books.
  5. One book that made you cry: I can't think of anything...
  6. One book you wish had been written: The Fall of Light. I've been working on that story for so long!!
  7. One book you wish had never been written: His Dark Materials. Awful anti-Christian fantasy trilogy.
  8. One book you are currently reading: Emma, by Jane Austen and Not Even a Hint, by Joshua Harris (among other things)
  9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: The list would go from here to China, kid . I keep a list of books I want to read, and I want to reread a lot of what I've already read.
  10. Tag 5 people: I don't think I know five people who really blog!! Ashton and Sierra should do it, though.
Later llamas! Remember to thank blogger for being pure evil!! I can't wait to switch. This will be my last post for sure. I won't blog with blogger again!! Yack!!

Monday, May 14, 2007

Love your llama like your mamma.

The title for my last blog makes me want to watch that Pooh movie with the Heffalumps...it's been a really long time since I had anything to do with Pooh, but when I was much younger, I remember making my dad read the books to me. People don't read books enough anymore...I watched two movies yesterday, and while I love movies, I don't like the focal point of our culture being focused on television. I don't know, I think reading books aloud is more fun than watching TV.

I'm not sure why I'm talking about this...

I've got new writing finished...I'm just trying to decide if I like it or not. A poem and a couple journal entries, as well as a bit of fiction. I haven't worked on Cain for awhile, but hopefully that will change much in the near future...I'm starting to get a picture of where I'm going next. Same for Sunset. Still working on the new prologue, but I'm making progress at last.

I've been playing around with Word Press, getting a feel for it. I'll probably move tomorrow and then post some new writing then. Blech.

Had quite a fun weekend...Friday I talked about...Saturday we went to the park for an uberlong picnic and had ridiculous amounts of fun...we played kickball which I'm terrible at, but it was still fun, and foursquare, which is one of my favorite games...

And there was a little pond/lake type dealio (a tarn, yes, tarn is an actual word, look it up!) and they rent out paddleboats, so we got a few. This was quite enjoyable. I was in a boat with Jeremy, Nate and Caleb. This led to a rather amusing tussle, because there is a huge fountain in the middle of the lake, and Jeremy and Nate did not want to get wet. Caleb and I, however, really really really wanted to go into that fountain.

We won, and the water was glorious. I don't think I've been that happy in a long time. I love getting wet and swimming and boating all.

Hmm, this is pretty much Captain Randomblog. I really shouldn't try to update while I do other things...when I come back and start typing again I want to talk about something totally different.

Anyways, see y'all later...enjoy the lovely weather...

I so wish I had a llama right now. I can't remember why, but last night I really wanted a llama. Maybe the movie we watched. Llamas are so cool. Oh, I forgot to put in a title...I'm not listening to music right now...

Friday, May 11, 2007

Heffalumps.

Wow.

What a long day. I overslept and had to go to work without coffee, I played a dodgeball toss game at work and one a pop, I made jello and had it spill all over my car, I learned way more than I ever wanted to about Ashton's tea, and I found out that I'm a rebel leader with armored elephants and polar bear-squirrel hybrids (or possibly elephant-rottweiler crosses), oh yes, and David would like prayer because he's looking for a wife. Among other things. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff...I drew a miniature graphic novel during caregroup tonight without meaning to...it's actually kind of cool. I might write a story based on it. Anyways, I'm just rambling. This is probably a total mess. I'm so tired...I've had a nasty headache all day...my poor car...it's stained with jello grossness. I don't know where I'm even going to begin with cleaning it out. It's all dried in because I was too busy to clean it today. But I am not defeated. I'm making jello again next week. What the heck, why am I talking about jello. I must go, must go, must go.

Later and goodnight, my young firebreathing elephallamas.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

I've decided Blogger is evil and I'll be moving to Word Press, just to give y'all a heads up.

So, new link, but I'm hoping to move any substantial blogs over before I make the switch.

Spiderman 2.1 better not suck. We're watching it for my party pack tonight...(party packs are something my caregroup does...)

Later llamas.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

So sleep, child, no one can hurt you now, not here..

The newness is here...

Let me know what you think of the new look!

I changed a bunch of sidebar junk.

I have a journal entry I'd like to post. I'm going to type it up now and see what I think. I also want to get some writing done very soon. I'm hoping to get back on track with my fantasy trilogy, the Fall of Light. It's been pretty much overhauled in the last year. The basic story is still there, but I've rearranged details and events a bit to make it smoother and easier to get into, but at the same time, it's a more complex, more interesting read. I hope. Keep your fingers crossed...or toes...the appendage of your choice.

It would be really easy to spend the next two weeks playing video games, but I think that would be a bad idea. In the interests of rest and sanity, I've been plugging into Zelda and Pokemon, but I plan on playing them less and less over the next couple days and focusing more and more on writing.

I'm also going to try to get something published, specifically Cain and maybe Adam as well. I would really appreciate if y'all could pray for me as I go through this process. I want to seek God's will in this, whether or not I should write full time or what.

Oh no!! I just remembered, I needed to go to school today to pick up my portfolio for creative writing! I hope it's not too late! Later llamas!

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

"Hallelujah, amen, you are dismissed."

I PASSED CHEMISTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That may not seem like a big deal, but it was doubtful for a little bit. And it's because of God, not me! I'm going to have to write about that later. It was the most amazing thing, the last few minutes of the test. For now, though, my brain is toast. My brain is boiled liver. It is dead, it does not function. Please don't touch it.

FOUR SOLID OKAY PRACTICALLY SOLID DAYS OF STUDYING.

And I passed!

So, so barely!!

My finals grades this semester:

Creative Writing: A

Biology: B

Chemistry: C

I'm going to go crawl under a porch and die. Later llamas.

God is wonderful, amazing, beautiful, holy, and wise. You are all beautiful people and I love you dearly. The sun is wonderful...God made the sun...I love God...and Jan Fausset...I'm going to go now...