Game night!

Friday night rolls around again and I mentally prepare for another grueling round of.... whatever the supreme dictator (person leading the game night) decides. After several games, we always pick out a movie to watch and watching movies with friends is a surprise joy for me. I rarely watch movies with my family or friends so when I started having that opportunity, I found out I really enjoyed my time spent with friends. There isn't much talking, but the combined wisdom of our group tends to pick great movies that are conversation pieces long after I've finished watching them.

A friend mentioned that my IM info's are no longer fun to read. As I thought about that, I came to the conclusion that I started opting for short, funny jokes that really don't have any relevance at all. If people wanted to read jokes, they would look some up - not look at my profile. From now to whenever I forget, I will keep my IM info funny, entertaining, and personal! We'll see how long this lasts. :-)

My parents are gone to a craft show, and it is only my sister and I at home. It's only been one day and I'm already missing my parents - I now have to do all the chores (And I'm missing them because I love them so much). The main chore I have is to feed many of the dogs in the morning and evening. I can't sleep past 7:00 and when I get up to feed, three litters of puppies make quite a ruckus. I'm sure the neighbors can't sleep past 7:00 also!

As I face the uncertainty of the coming year, years, and life, I'm starting to think I've settled for being confused. Right now, if I don't understand something I just trust that things will be explained clearly in the future. I'm starting to think that this approach isn't the right approach. We are to be as innocent as doves, but wise as serpents. While I think this verse is to guide Christian attitudes towards the world, I think the verse also applies to how we are to live our lives. If I am confused and unsure what is happening around me, I am not and can not constructively learn from my experiences. I am supposed to show wisdom in whatever I do, to be a witness for Christ, but how can I do that if I don't even know what is going on?

At some point, I need to step out of my comfort zone so I can meet and understand people outside of my little bubble. Workplaces and schools may be considered a 'bubble' but the bubble people are able to wrap around themselves can be impenetrable. It is sad, but if I don't actively continue to actively grow, my bubble will automatically grow and harden my heart. By not choosing to step out, I choose to stagnate. I think it is time to step out!

Coming to a close

My college life is coming to a close. Looking back over it, I wish there were so many things I would have done, but time is a constraining factor even when there is 4 years to explore. I'm hoping the rest of my life is that way - so much more to do than I can actually manage to get involved in. It will probably be frustrating, but isn't that a great way to be frustrated? To not know how to enjoy all the good gifts of life? I think it is a great 'problem' to have!

I have another intersession course this fall. The course name is wilderness ministries and hopefully, I can get an intership that a teacher offers to students who take this course. I have some factors that constrain my working time over the summer, so if I do get the internship I'm going to be pretty sure that it was the Lord who opened the door. The question then become what to do after that - but I'm sure something will pop up.

On a side note, the green on trees is starting to peek out of the brown stick sea and make a difference. Driving to school, I see one whole hillside that is partially green and a few sets of yards that have trees in full plumage. Also, the time can be 8:30 and there is still enough light from the sun to see clearly enough to feed the dogs without a flashlight - summer approaches!

And 20 seconds to midnight. Good night!

Rain... Rain... Did I mention Mud?

True Pennsylvania spring weather is here! Rain, rain, and a bit of snow. Unfortunately I'm experiencing the weather in NY, but soon I'll be back in PA having a ball. My favorite weathers are sunny days and rainy days. I enjoy rainy days even if I need to be outside during the rain (but only if I have an umbrella). I'm really looking forward to the first thunderstorm of the year. There is something exciting about seeing flashes of lightning every second, thunder pouring out of of the air, and rain rushing, thundering down so hard on my window I can't hear people talking outside of my bedroom door. As long as I'm inside and safe - thunderstorms are my favorite weather.

I had a great end to this week - game night! I had to do quite a bit of driving on very little sleep, so I had to pay a price for the fun, but it was worth it! There were several things that made this game night a little more worthwhile that just playing games: The pre-game-night practice was a lot of fun, there were seven people involved, and I was invited to intervis for my.... 4th or 5th time ever. During intervis, we watched the great movie Second Hand Lions which will be a classic (although a bit cheesy) . I'm seriously considering moving two movies into my favorite movie classification. The first being The Truman Show and the second being Groundhog Day. They both had great stories and morals. The real test for the shows are whether I can enjoy them more than one time, and I still haven't had the opportunity to test them in multiple viewings. I think being able to enjoy a movie multiple times is what makes a good movie different from a great movie. A lot of the movie's I watch I only watch once and I don't really care if I ever see them again. A great movie is a movie I would be willing to watch several times and be able to learn something every time I watch them.

School is coming to a close. I need to finish most of my schoolwork by Tuesday so I can have my computer repaired for my post-college life. I also have several papers to write, and I think I'll downgrade the possiblity of finishing them this weekend to 50%. Everyone here is asleep, so I think I'll take the hint. Thanks everyone for a great week! Thanks to my good friends, my last days at college are going to be some of the best.

Papers Galore

Maybe the title is a bit over-doing it, because soon I'll go play racquetball, and then start on the papers. I'll probably end up working on only one since I found out yesterday that I only have a two page paper due tomorrow and the 5-6 page paper is due later. How much later? I don't know.

On an interesteing side note, I found during extemp research that a soap opera wedding outdid the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla in TV ratings.

It is a beautiful day

Today the sun is out and the sky is blue. I'm being pretty productive today (if talking is counted as being productive). I found out I have a 2-3 page paper due tomorrow and apparently there is a course paper due on Friday which I'll have to finish by Monday. I'm not sure why, but I'm looking forward quite a bit to starting the papers.

Our speech meetings have started to be organized and I hope people are looking forward to Nationals because I certainly am. It means a lot of work, but the rewards of the trip are so much greater! I get to see great people and with this being my last year at college, that is one of my priorities.

I also am taking a two-week "Wilderness Ministires" course after graduation. There is an internship attached with the course, so I won't know whether or not I have a job until after school is over - that's cutting things close! It just means that I'll need to trust the Lord to decide what I do - and that is a great thing!

I'm busy....

There is so much to do before NFA nationals. Other than schoolwork, which is ever-present, the speech team needs to practice before we leave. I would like to see all the people doing prepared speeches practice twice before then - and only three days to organize times for practices!

The tournament this weekend was a great success! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and everyone I watched did well. I ended up judging every speech round but one, and that was because I was too slow in filling out ballots. I got to meet a lot of people from foreign climes and I also got to meet a lot of people that I had know when I debated. I also finally got the opportunity to play chess against Stuart Keckler! There were several people at the tournament I was hoping would qualify but it didn't turn out as I had hoped, but the people that didn't qualify seemed happy anyway. As always, hopes ran high at the tournament and there were a lot of serious things I learned there, but it mostly boiled down to wait a long time and see what happens.

Today is Sunday, and I haven't done anything useful today. Usually I bring schoolwork home and I relax while I read, but I left most of my schoolwork at college. I'll head into college early together to get an early start on schoolwork for the next two weeks and to get a few hours of exercise done in the morning. I'm guessing I can't run for too many hours, so I'll probably start practicing racquetball in preparation for another game against Mr. Dean. I'm determined to beat him before I leave college and I am surer than ever that I will fail in that endeavor, but the journey is most of the fun.

Blog Titles

My blog titles rarely have anything to do with my blog! I'm going to try having a good title with my blogs. I have a new goal for my life! :-)

Hopes and Dreams

I'm not sure what makes a day good or bad. Some days start out wonderfully and end great but I still have the feeling that I missed out on something. I guess that's what heaven is for. (Refer to March 11th's post) Today was just like that - and it's a bit frustrating not being able to figure out why the day wasn't great.

One of the things that was good today was I made my first snowman!.... at GCC (I've made lots at home). The snow is gone on the ground except where the plow made big piles. 2 other commuters and I decided today was a perfect day to build a snowman. I almost stayed inside, but it occurred to me that I wouldn't have another chance to do this with my friends and from there on it was impossible to stop until the project was finished. The snow was very wet so it packed well, but that also meant the plow had packed the snow well during the plowing. We carried the snow about 20 feet to a place on the grass. We were in bare hands, didn't have a shovel, and needed to hold the snow after grabbing it out of the pile - my hands froze. We eventually made a snowman, and I hope none of the pictures of me with it ever get around. I wouldn't want people to think that I normally make snowmen that badly. I guess I'm just out of practice!

Friends and family of friends are here for the Poverty Conference. From what I've heard, the speakers have been top notch. I hope I can listen to some of the speeches soon. Thats it! part of what I missed today was going and listening to speakers! Now... what else did I miss today? Oh well. I'll figure it out by tomorrow afternoon.

Snow Snow Snow!

The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. The snow on the trees this morning was the thickest it's been. Even on the small, 1/8th inch wide, branches had an inch of snow piled up. I wanted to get a picture, but I was too slow and by the time I got around to getting the camera, it was already 2:00 and the snow had melted off. For a while, I would look over my back yard, and it would be almost solid white until I looked up over the trees. Late snows tend to stick to trees. 2 or 3 days and the snow should be all gone if the temperature warms up.

My brother gets to work on developing a 'game'! From what his blog says, it sounds pretty impressive: I'm impressed (and maybe a bit envious). Good luck Jesse!

I'm reading Hamlet right now and I really like one of his lines, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Lately, as new situations come up, I start to see some of things I've missed in high-school and early college. I believe the longer I live life, the more I will be able to relate to other people and know what people mean when they are feeling bad about something or upset that I don't understand simple feelings or the power that jealousy and gossip has among friends. I'm looking forward to experiencing those things that I have not yet dreamt of!

The domain of Friday

I think Friday affects people differently than any other day of the week - at least here at college. I think it's the release of pressure. One person here was just playing "Suicide is Painless" and someone else is dancing. As soon as my last class finishes on Friday and I first sit in the commuter lounge chair, I melt in relaxation. It isn't that I'm so tense the rest of the week, at least I don't think so? But still, if I'm not tense, why do I relax so much? I don't know.

However tense I may be, the Friday game night is coming up. I just embarrassed myself yesterday by showing my ignorance of the names of the people I play games with. It's a bit sad, but some groups of people I just can't learn their names. Last semester, I had a project with four other people. After talking, joking, and having team building activities - I finally learned their names after 1 1/2 or 2 months of weekly meetings and twice a week class where we all sit together.

I'm leaving for Ohio tomorrow to judge a debate tournament. My sister has already qualified for nationals, so she's relaxed about the tournament - but that doesn't make my judging any easier! I'll be driving Sean and Courtney to the tournament to judge, and I hope they enjoy it. I always feel bad taking people places if it is a bother or they don't end up enjoying it. At this point, it is out of my hands, but that doesn't mean I don't worry about it.

Right now, I'm discussing some of the pranks that go on in the dorms. Time to contribute!

Another lovely day

I got home from my visit to Virginia and it was a very nice break. Right now, my mom is making me get some work done, so I will wish everyone a good day. ::What's for lunch mom?::

Actually - it's half gone now - Lambchops no more

I think I've always enjoyed visiting my brother. Today was no exception. I got to sleep in until 8, and I got an 1 and 1/2 nap this afernoon, and I'll probably be asleep before 11. But the fun part about the trip is seeing my bro' again after a few months away and I got to see my nephew who is just old enough now that I can occassionally make out one of his words, and trying to figure out what he is trying to say is half the fun.

I've started programming again after a long break. The part I'm putting off is updating the college speech and debate website. There is a lot of information I should put up, but I'm so slow with editing websites that adding a lot of information may be time consuming. I am determined to finish the update before I go back to school.

Right now, I'm the last one up to do this blog. We are all in Jesse's 20 by 20 apartment and I will be the 5th and last one to fall asleep. I hope those of you I know at shool have gotten a ride home and everything is going and will go well. A great Easter for all and to all a great night!

Half gone - soon to only be the mustache

I'm at my brother's apartment now. It was a long drive, and in the last week I've driven over 1000 miles. I'm looking forward to just sitting at home and doing schoolwork. In the meantime, I'll have to settle for sitting here and doing schoolwork. Sure... I'm actually planning on working on my computer and working with some more development pacts for Dev-C++.

I've been keeping up on the Terri Schiavo case, and I have to say I have mixed feelings. On my drive down to DC, I was talking to my mom and we both have different opinions. It finally came down to at what point am I or God responsible for my life. If I'm in a coma, am I still responsible for my life? If I'm not responsible, do others have that responsibility? If I'm in a 'persistent vegetative state' such as Terri is in, does God consider me dead and my body is still functioning without a soul? It's too big an issue for me.

I'm looking forward to warm, dry weather. Wherever I step on the yard at home, I can see the ground around my foot deform for 2-4 inches. The two inch deformation is on the heavy grass part and the four inch deformation is where the grass is sparse and it is mostly mud. Oddly enough, there is one large, solid patch of ground out by my dad's shop, and it is all bare dirt!

Offline vs Online

Looking over the last few blogs I've made, I think that when I type up my blogs offline I get far too verbose. Most people reading this probably blog, so let me take a survey - who prefers typing the blog offline and who prefers to type up the blog at the last minute?

Our church just got a new projector to replace the old one and I just got trained to operate it this morning. 2 hours and 15 minutes of explanation for 3 buttons. The three buttons didn't take up the whole time, but training also included how to work with files in windows XP and how to develop PowerPoint slides.

Tonight our church held a large Sader meal, and that was neat, but I'm pretty tired so I couldn't appreciate it as much as I should have. One thing the meal did inspire me to work on was Hebrew. I enjoyed being able to pronounce the Hebrew words, but I've forgotten almost all the vocabulary. I think I'll start as soon as I finish my blog. I'm trying to blog every single day I'm home. ;-)

So Close, and yet so Far

Currently, I am just back today from Syracuse, New York. The tournament only qualified one team, but at least my sister got into finals. The real fun of the tournament started when she found out that she and Charlie got into quarterfinals. One of the things that ended up making this round so funny was that Katie and Charlie were eighth seed going into the round, so they ended up going against the first seed. Katie ended up winning by a 2-1 decision, and moved onto semi-finals. Unfortunately, Katie met another team from our area and only one of them could go on. Fortunately (from my perspective), Katie ended up winning that by a 4-1 decision and moved onto finals. Katie said finals was probably the best round she had at the tournament and that it was a good example round for everyone watching. I couldn't watch the actual debate, because I was too nervous, but I listened to her 1AC and the CX. The CX was tough and I knew right then and there it would be a tough round, especially since Katie and Charlie were 2AC, running a case they had just gotten together 2 days before. They had put a lot of work into it though, so they were pretty prepared for most of the arguments. Their case had lost twice in prelims, and Katie lost the toss, or else I think they would have gone negative. Oh well. It was a 6-1 decision, and Katie and Charlie will be going to nationals! Katie is ready to go, but nationals is so far away so hopefully she won't lose some of her eagerness before then.

And that was a long paragraph, so I'll make this one a lot shorter!

While at the tournament we stayed at a motel, didn't get lost, and ate out with some friends afterward. I was in charge of driving 750 miles and keeping track of the money, and while I apparently did alright, it was extremely nerve-wracking. I guess I was learning first-hand why managers tend to die younger than most - being responsible over things adds a lot of pressure to an otherwise enjoyable trip. But, whatever my nervousness, the Lord was still looking over our trip, because the car we were going to take had just gone to the shop and the mechanic said that the car was getting rusty and the axle didn't look too good. Normally, we don't mind driving cars that are in poor condition because they seem to hold up well for us (another blessing by the Lord), but this time, my mom decided to play it safe, and we took my car for the trip. The day we left, my mom went to get some groceries, and as she was making a turn on the way home, the car started squealing horribly. Mom pulled over to the side and called my dad and AAA and then waited. She decided to try the car again, and she turned it on alright, and she put it into gear with some trouble, but when she hit the gas, nothing happened. She learned later that the axle had fallen out of the car!

As a side note, I'm shaving my beard tonight!

Like a Herd of Turtles

Today started out lovely - I got to get up when I felt like it. Of course, since that was fairly early (why do I wake up early for break?), that meant I needed to feed the dogs before I got ready for church. I had about 45 minutes after that to get ready, and I finished getting ready in about 20 minutes. The rest of that time was spent packing for the debate trip to Syracuse, NY. We'll only drive about 4 hours today and finish the rest tomorrow. Depending on how tired I am, we may drive the whole 8 hour drive back on Wednesday night. If not, we'll stop and sleep.

Packing for a tournament is putting me in the mood to do debate work, so I may try working on 'my' debate case. I'm bringing my laptop and I might even have some internet access at the motels! Internet access might mean that my sister and I will want on IM and check E-mail, and make chess moves, so I may not get any research done. That would be about par for debate research.

On a political note, I'm getting more and more discouraged at the actions of our political leaders. I'm mostly a republican, but what is the use of voting for a republican if they don't uphold the party ideals. Ideals are supposed to be the guiding principles, but if they are not followed, there is only danger ahead. One of my best friends at college is a Democrat. I have a lot of respect for him, because he follows the ideals of the Democratic Party. Just as I dislike much of what the 'Republican' party is doing, so he does not like much of what the Democratic Party is doing. When we talk, we tend to agree on what must be done, which also makes me question how much we are actually following our partys ideals. I'm looking forward to the day that Bush uses his veto, and I hope he starts to use it quite freely. Having too long a reign only leads to license to sin if Christian beliefs are not the basis of actions.

I do a lot of extemp research and I've read a lot of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals, and the more I read, the more I realize how much our ideology is displayed in what is written. I enjoy seeing what papers people view as 'balanced' because they only state the 'facts', because when I read those papers, the biases of the writer is on display for the world to see. There is no 'balanced' newspaper, merely newspapers that agree with our opinions.

Depressionism is bad

In civ arts, I hear about realism, impressionism's and 'ism's left and right. I thought I'd make a new 'ism. Depressionism I'll define as a general gloom that hangs about and the exact source is hard to find.

I like to think I'm decent an most computer games, but when I play Counterstrike with my friends, I am always at the bottom to the pile. Maybe I just need more practice or maybe I'm just bad at it? It's good I only play for fun or else it would be almost depressing.

Forturnately, even with CS, I'm in a good mood today. Maybe it's the fact I've gotten nine hours of sleep the last two nights. Maybe it's because I'm looking forward to break quite a bit. Maybe it's because there is hope that lifts above what today or the semester will bring.

I found a funny video? yesterday. I hope she didn't get hurt too bad.

Class time! No time to double check grammar or spelling. I'm off (my rocker).

Lineage

I've decided that I am a decidedly poor blogger. None of my blogs seem to have any relation to any other blog and the time space between blogs is too far apart to keep interest for people who read blogs.

Time has now come to have a break from school. In another day, I will be on break and will start worrying about schoolwork. It seems backwards, but I do a lot of work for school over 'break'. It's been a hard week, but this day has been getting better since I got up.

I was looking at a website about William Kelsey and I saw his coat of arms. That made me curious about my coat of arms, so I decided to find it. I had trouble finding my family's coat of arms. Of the coat of arms I've found on one website, I find it suspicious that all the coat of arms have names on the bottom. I'm not knowledgeable of how coat of arms work, but I doubt they all have the same style with the same font of name on the bottom of the crest on a ribbon. Something seems fishy. I did find a coat of arms, but I don't know how accurate it is.

activities galore

Today, I have four activities I should attend - at the same time. That wouldn't be bad, except I want to attend all of them. First, what I actually am attending is a "friendly" game. "Friendly" means no one draws blood. It's been set up for about a week now so it can't be rescheduled easily. The second activity available is that I've been invited to go to an intervis. This will be the third time I've ever been invited and I would also make that. Third is to watch a Shakespeare play. I watched it last night and it was magnificent, and I would love to see it again. Fourth is bowling, which I just learned is rescheduled to 3:30 so it won't conflict with anything else!

I'm guessing one of the pleasures heaven has for us is the ability to attend every great function even if they are happening at the same time. It's hard to believe it could be possible, but one of the things I know is that heaven is full of great things we can't even imagine! Even better than what I could wish!

Excelsior

States was last week, and now it is onto Muskingham. Again, I haven't gotten much sleep this week, but the work has been worth it. I've had very late meetings every night this week, and Friday will be busy debating and prepping for the debates. Friday night I'll probably be spending memorizing my persuasive speech.

Right now, 5 electrical engineers are around me working on homework and have been for the last 3 hours. Apparently homwork is due today! :-)

....I'm busy....