Rain... rain... rain...

Cooler, wet weather is quite unusual for this time of the year. If the rain keeps up, I may have to mow the lawn a few more times this year. Usually, by the time September rolls around, the grass is usually too scortched from the August sun to do much growing. This year, I heard some techniques for mowing that keeps the grass from getting scortched as much. That, added with the rain means the growing season will be a little longer. At least my dad's flowers are doing well. He usually has to water them every few days, and it looks like this week he will be getting a break!

After I ran some errands yesterday, I went to the library and checked out a few books. I've always been interested in Aikido, Judo, and Chi because they seem... cool looking, especially when I'm not the one being thrown over a shoulder. Whatever the reason, I've grabbed a beginners book on Tai-Chi and should be a grand master by this time tomorrow.

Wherever I go, I can now safely say, "Evildoers beware!"

'Tis Well

Things are on the up and up... I've been slightly put out the last few days and it was just me depressing myself. Talking with friends, family, getting a little attitude ajustment and a good church service (reverse the order) - and the world looks much brighter!

Another reason the world looks bright is that job offers are slowly accumulating (and I do mean slowly!). That - along with some discussions of where I'll be staying and what I'll do is moving the whole idea of entering the workforce close to the forefront of my brain.

And as a parting note - I don't spill check my clogs. I think mistypins and bad spiling add charcter to a blcg. But mistyping in a title is terrible etiquette! :-P

Here I go again

I've decided that there is little that is as disappointing as writing a blog and then losing it. Here's the layout: Wednesday evening; alone at the computer; happily typing a blog for the last half hour. All of a sudden I realize "Shazzammm! I've just written a great blog!!!". Faster than lightning I move my mouse to "Publish", I hit the left mouse button, and then wait an eternity for the screen to pop up and say, "Error 404. Web's can not be found". I take out a shotgun, aim it at the computer... Maybe not - but that is what I was thinking.

Life will move on I guess, and for me, the last two days have been very exciting. Apparently, the end of the week and the beginning of next week is going to be very exciting for quite a few people. ;-)

Getting back on track, I went to Erie Thursday and Friday and visited with my Uncle Gary. He took us fishing Friday morning and we trilled for a few hours, saw a few whoppers, got a few nibbles, and headed back to shore - it was great!! I always enjoyed the ocean. After that, I got to go golf 18 holes. All I can say about that is I only lost 4 or 5 balls into water hazards. If you want any more information you must ask me personally and awaken horrible memories of an unapproachable island, surrounded by dark water, packed with weeks, and doubtlessly holding countless golf balls hostage. It was a BLAST!! I never knew golfing could be so much fun.

Best of luck to everyone. Hope the move goes well. :-)

Trial by Fire

AFF: Crushing defeat is all the options available to those who attempt to deny my win!
NEG: The empirical evidence doesn't support that claim... in fact... it show just the opp...
AFF: Hold on! This is MY Cross-X time... no need to start rambling.

Maybe I'm no pro at affirmative, but I still enjoy doing debate research. That's what I should be doing at the moment, but I thought, "I've been doing this 20 minutes already, time for a 'brief' break." I spent the first few minutes alternately laughing and being scared at the freshmen GCC pictures, before I thought to move on to something more worthwhile like blogging.

So tallyho! My break has gone on long enough. I need to get back to research. I'm one of 4 people doing an exhibition debate Monday and I want to put my best foot forward. Which means little time for blogging or E-mailing. Don't worry though, the E-mail shall get through (eventually) and my blogs, though short, shall keep on coming!

Should I upgrade my software?

I've been having serious questions about upgrading my mom's computer. Should I take the chance of losing old data and will I get better functionality? I don't know...

Fortunately, when my brother was in college, he found a clear and consice lists of the PROS AND CONS OF SOFTWARE UPGRADING. Scan the list and tell me what you think.

On other fronts, I wanted to finish up a blog on Ireland and get an E-mail finished. After the teasing I subjected some people to, two blogs back, I feel I should have gotten some E-mails out but procrastination strikes again. It's not quite that bad actually, I spent most of the day in town doing errands and preparing for the debate Monday and when I got back I started the procrastination.

If people have been trying to contact me by IM, I apologize for failing to be on IM a lot. I must say I was pretty happy when I got online a few days ago and some people IM'ed me, even people I haven't IM'ed before (The "Biker" strikes again. Thanks for the info. :-) )

I did manage to contact some people I should have contacted just before August. It was quite a pick up to talk. Thanks!

I'm back! :-D

Can you blame me for being happy! As much as I love Ireland, it really doesn't compare to Pennsylvania and the people I find here (and elsewhere). ::Sniffle:: I have great friends ::sniffle:: OK. Emotional moment over. :-)

Actually, I've been back since Sunday night, but I've been busy (and procrastinating), that I put off blogging. Can you forgive me? If you want to know a lot of the nitty-gritty details, you can go look at Jesse's blog. He put a lot of detail. I did almost everything he did and all the pictures he puts up are pictures I snapped. There is one thing that I did a lot of that Jesse missed - shopping. I've put in more shopping time in Ireland than I have the rest of my life. To be fair, I was chauffeuring 7 young ladies around Killarny for several days and I mostly stood outside of shops and watched, but I still count that as shopping. In those 20-30 hours of shopping (that's not walking time, that is time actually spent in stores (or outside as the case was for me)) I came home with only two souveniers, the most expensive of which is a 4 euro songbook of Irish songs. They are all about a young boy going off to war or a lady pining away for a lost love - almost all of them are depressing.

What should I say, there is still so much more, but hold on for the next installment with "David's Ireland - the lost continent". The next installment includes David's infamous pub-hopping stories.

Hello from the Kingdom of Kerry

I have internet access! the caps lock is hard to hit, so I won't be able to capitalize much, and the keyboard is slightly different, so don't look to hard at misspellings. I'm also typing fast since I have to pay for internet access, but I planned what to type beforehand so I shouldn't take to long.

At the moment I am in Ireland! Day... 5 or 6... or 4... of the trip. I'm on Irish time and don't keep track of time and the passage of days well. The weather has been great this whole trip. After leaving 80-100 degree weather, this 60 degree weather is nice. The people who were running the Irish clogging workshop said this was warm, but the dancers from VA said it was great and they loved getting out of 100 degree weather (current temp in VA). The sun does occassionaly peek out, although rare. It's only rained twice so far for a few hours each so that's been nice too.

At the moment, I'm a big Kerry fan, the Kingdom of kerry, in Souther Ireland. I can't help but enjoy everything and everyone walking by. It is a big tourist attraction and there are a lot of shops to chauffeur (sp) people in and out of. (A new record for me! I managed to end a sentence with 3 prepositions!) Today, I'm only in charge of chauffeuring two people: Katie and my sister Katie. There are three people on this trip named Katie. It is a little hard getting in contact with home, and the days are long and busy, so I am already looking forward to getting home and just relaxing. Helping my dad is only a full day... it doesn't start very early and end at 11:00 like it does here.

That is about all my time for now... I'm need to get off so I don't kick into the next level of internet use and the next payment scheme. To everyone who I haven't been keeping in contact with - sorry, and I'll try to do extra when I get home. For those who haven't been keeping in contact with me (You know who you are), make sure to E-mail!

I didn't know what I asked for!

( An Audrey Hepburn look alike asked me these questions )

Okay "MacDaddy" (haha) here's your interview:
1.) what was the awesomest place you ever traveled to and what made it so awesome?
That's a tough one. I've gone to a few neat places. I would say Sea World in California would be the neatest. It was just my mom and I. I was the off season so there were no crowds and we walked from cool show to cool show. As far as nature goes, the top of flat iron in Arizona was the best. My family usually spent a whole day hiking to the top, having a nice picnic (lots of oranges. My grandma grows them.), and walking back down.

2.) what is your favorite knock-knock joke? I don't know many knock-knock jokes...
Knock Knock.
"Who's there"
Banana.... I give up. I can't even remember a good knock-knock joke. Do they exist?

3.) who said the most encouraging thing ever to you and what did they say?
My family is the biggest encouragement I have, but other than my family I would have to say SGA at school gave the nicest encouragement. One day, we took the time to write down something nice :-) about everyone else. All the comments for one person was put on one paper and given to that person. I'm not very social, so all of my comments were very general, except for one person, the president of SGA. I don't remember what the comments were, but I still remember that he took the trouble to get to know me and it showed when he wrote his notes to me.

4.) if you could switch the color of the ocean to whatever you wanted, what would you choose?
Light green. I realize it is close to the color of the current ocean, but I always thought a lighter color would look nice.

5.) what's the best thing to have for breakfast when you've pulled an all-nighter?
A huge bowl of cold cereal with milk. Sugar, raisins, and more sugar can give a quick boost.

6.) YOU GET A BONUS QUESTION! haha, what are your plans for the soon-coming future? if school, what for? if something else, why? etc....
So much to say and so little space... After I finish helping my dad with craft shows this summer, I plan on getting a job (surprise!). There are also groups around my area and at college that I would like to keep working with. Oh... The pain of being an alumni!! (But I hear area residents get a special deal for college classes?!!) Anyway, that's what I plan on doing. It seems quite bland, but the job and groups are only activities. What makes the job and activities worthwhile is the people and the opportunity to make a different for the Lord.

The fine print:1. Leave me a comment saying, 'Interview me'.2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.3. Only respond if you are willing to answer ANY question that is asked of you4. Update your Xanga (or blogger) with the answers to the questions.5. Include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. 6 When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

Time flies

Can it be?! Yes. I'm going to Ireland in a week and two days! If you can't tell, I'm looking forward to the trip quit a bit. I found out today that we'll be touring the south-west corner of Ireland. At the moment, the only town I can remember that we visit is Killarny. The schedule looks like we'll go and see something new everyday. Unfortunately, my mom won't see those sights. She has decided that she can't go to Ireland with a broken leg. Two and a half weeks (when she made the final decision) was just not enough time for the leg to heal enough to handle steps without any assistance. One good result of my mom not being able to go is that someone else will be able to take her place. My mom still has to pay for the non-refundable, non-transferable ticket, but because the group has an open spot at the various places we'll be staying, we can bring a person who would not have been able to go.

And now for another time related topic: watches! I bought a new watch yesterday. I'm pretty rough on watches and I got the last watch wet (still works, just discolored) and I broke the wristband. For anyone who has tried to buy a wristband by itself, it is just the same as a cheap watch. Since I only buy cheap watches (I'm far too rough with them), I bought a plain watch with a black face and a silver wristband. I almost got a sports watch which had a lot of functions such as alarm clocks, multiple timers, and a day of the week display; but the extra features added onto the thickness of a watch, and the sports watches were just to bulky to comfortably wear... although I miss the glow-light feature of a digital display. :-(

While at the craft show this weekend, the sun was out in full force, and I got quit sunburned. I've done pretty well this year staying out of the sun during heavy UV time. I didn't have much of an option this week, so as I look down at my (white) foot, I see the start of a red coloration, clearly delineated where I had my sock. My neck is even worse, but when I looked at my arms I was and am a little confused. The sunburn line is clearly marked, but it comes half way up my bicep on my right arm but only two inches past my elbow on my left. I may have to go to a chiropractor. The only answer I can think of is that I stand crooked, and I hope it is because my back is out of alignment and not because I naturally stand that way! :-)

Here and gone again

Now that the correct weekend for the craft show has come up, I'll be leaving Friday morning. We'll leave about 12:00 and I'll guess it will be a five hour drive, so I'll be gone until Monday afternoon.

I got back from a church prayer meeting about 9:30. It was a very open meeting. We're all praying together to find out the direction of our church. We're moving in the direction of joining the Sovereign Mercy Ministry. Currently, our church is independent and our elders feel that joining another group would knit us closer together as a Christian community, gather support in our fight to follow Christ's teachings, and act as a support to know that our church is part of a larger organization with sister churches all over the world.

I read over my last post and caught a few grammar and spelling errors and I was going to correct them, but I decided, "Nah." Little errors like that add character to posts so I'll let them slide. (All except for very embarrassing misstatements. I've changed a few of those)

there and back again

Remember my last post? Let me narrow that down a little: do you remember something in my last post about going to a craft show this weekend? If you do, then I get to tell you that it was one big hoax. :-D on us! We've just driven 8 hours (It's a 4 hour trip without stops), and we get to the motel about 6:00 and we walk in to the office and talk to the manager and he asks, "Are you here for the Canalfest?".... One thing leads to another, and we find out that the Canalfest isn't until next week!

Things worked out well anyway. We managed to leave one of the gas guzzling vehicles at the motel for the week, and we'll just go next week. On another note, my family is having a hard time right now, so I would appresiate your prayers for a safe and close family. So eprayer for guidance in each one of our lives would be helpful. Thanks! and I'm going to be the earliest I have in several weeks!

Ah, the fun of craft shows!

Can it be! Yes, I go to yet another craft show. In case you think this is the normal, run-of-the-mill craft show, think again! I'm going to New York (the state, not the city) to a show that has over 300 craft booths. OK, it's not that fantastic, but I do get to travel quite a bit when going to craft shows.

And because I'm going to be driving for a few hours tomorrow, I plan on an early night. An early night will also be nice so I can catch up on sleep from driving my grandma to the airport at 3:00 this morning. Yes. It's true. :-( She is home now and I won't see her for another year.

On a happier note, I think my family (extended family included) has started to plan the next family reunion. Wherever it is, I'm sure it will be a blast. Our last reunion lasted about a week and was a blast. I think it was the biggest family group we've had in a long time. A lot of the fun of the family reunion was putting all the pictures of the reunion into a scrap-book. We were a motley crew!

A little debate work

You may be telling yourself, "Isn't it too early to think about debate?" or "Get a life!" I would have to say that you are probably right to say both, but at the moment I don't have much else to occupy my time. Finishing work at 8:30 doesn't give much time to do anything major. Fortunately, having the schedule pretty open with several hour breaks during the day is very nice, but I digress. I've been keeping a close tab on the NFA LD topic, and saw that they have refined the topic somewhat. The final topic will be posted at the NFA-LD website on August 1st - Mark your calendars! If you enjoy economics and foreign trade policy, I think you'll like this topic. I'm guessing that our heavy republican and libertarian team will be a negative force to recon with! :-)

On other fronts I'll mention that my book reading has regressed into more Redwall books. But not to worry, I at least managed to finish the "Swiss Family Robinson" and start on another book on Psalms before regressing. With perseverance, speed, and an iron will I should be able to finish the Redwall books and get back on track soon! Wish me luck!

A small note

I finally figured out how to get my picture in my profile and not just as a blog. The blog with just my face was an accident, but I'll use it to get my picture in the corner until I figure out something better.

By the way, I like google's program "Picasa2". It is a free photo organizer and I needed one. It works pretty well, but I haven't had many to compare it with.

David's head 

People are the important part.

I watched a "Monk" today, and at the end I loved what he said about getting over an addiction he had.

Natalie: "How did you walk away?"
Monk: "I had you."

Family visit

Cutting success! I got a few free hours to do weed-eating. I finished when it was too dark to see about 9:45. I was covered in quite a pile of weed bits, but flattening a bushy hillside was worth every piece of dirt. If I have another 2 hours tomorrow I may be able to finish the weed-eating. Unfortunately, working during the day requires me to wear sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt, gloves, and a huge hat so I don’t get sunburned. It would be a luxury if I actually tanned instead of burning every time the sun glared down on me. Thinking about it, I do tan. I just keep getting sunburns where I tan. Go figure!

About two weeks ago I got so busy with yard-work (and some TV with my mom), that I completely forgot the debate meeting with Sara. I plan to be in prompt attendance this week, but I will only have three days to get homework done. I only have Friday night free to do the research, so I’m not sure when I’ll get the homework done, but I’m sure it will get done…?

What is keeping me so busy is mult-pronged, but the main prong is having relatives here for a visit! My Uncle JD, wife, sons, and a son's girlfriend are in Pennsylvania for a visit. It’s only for one night, but I’m looking forward to it. I only got to see them for a few hours when I went to California, and I was just starting to get into the conversation when I had to leave for my Aunt’s house.

blogs take work!

I learned today that Rachel has a job editing a blog for a Christian ministry. That sounds like a lot of work. I know how much work it is to blog regularly and to keep up with multiple posts, responses to comments, making sure links work, and everything needed to upkeep a major blog. I’m wishing you the best Rachel!

As I write this, everyone else except my sisters is asleep and the whole house is quiet except for some fans, air conditioners, dogs panting, and pups squealing. The silence gives a guy some room to think… what if? I had seen the most recent version of “The Time Machine”, and the bad guy told the main character (name?) that he had a most serious affliction – he always wanted to know, “What if?” I think it’s pretty good to occasionally wonder, “What if?” I can’t say that my life is falling to pieces right now (although speeding time forward a few months would help) so wondering “What if?” gives mostly sad answers.

Right now, I’m so happy to hear my mom and dad breathing, to see the chair that my Uncle brought for my Grandmother, and smell the pies that friends brought for my dad. I like to remember all of the blessings that I’ve been given and one of the ways I do that is through two rings I wear constantly (“two!” you say. “I’ve only seen one!?”), and although I do occasionally take them off when fidgeting, they stay as a reminder of what I should do in the present. My main guide to what I should do is something I’ve recently started doing more – King David’s discipline – hiding the Word of God in my heart. It is a slow process. I am a very slow memorizer and I often forget, but that is part of the struggle we all have: to remember what we have learned and act upon it.

For all the people who have been blogging - great blogs! I read them within 10 minutes of getting home. :-D

Funny picture and my mom's condition

Normally I just launch into odd subjects with no warning but I thought I would alert you this time. I was browsing through the pictures from nationals and ran across this picture from the same memory card. Here is a picture of Belle, Lucy and puppies. Guess which is the mother of the puppies. (Belle is on the left and Lucy on the right).

Today was busy as always, but it didn't start getting busy until after 10:00 so that was nice. I guess I should also mention that I stopped around 5:00, so today was an easy day. My dad and I are completely loaded up for Twin Lakes and we'll be off by 8 or 9 tomorrow morning. Since the days have been warm lately, we're going to work in the morning, go to the motel for the afternoon, and back to work in the evening. I probably won't have any internet access in the motel, so yall have to suffer from lack of my wonderful blog while I'm away. Don't worry too much, the disease of lack-a-blog only lasts for a week.

I’m feeling a little happy this evening and I can’t quite pin down why. I just finished watching “Maverick”. It’s a bit coarse and has some language, but I really enjoy the plot turns and surprises, and I think the ending put me in a good mood. It must be something else though, because I usually don’t get in an extended good mood unless something else is putting me in a good mood. Maybe I already know what it is? I should ask my mom, she could probably tell me what’s putting me in a good mood.

I haven’t mentioned how my mom has been doing for a while so I think I should inform the world to her condition: “Better than before.” That pretty much summarizes her condition. The scar on her head has healed nicely with only a small, long scar. Some of her head is still numb, and she has cut her hair. Katie says she looks “cute”.

As for her leg, it is getting better every day. My mom spent the entire day today in a wheelchair. Normally her leg gets swollen and she gets tired so she lays in bed in the afternoons, but the time spent in the wheelchair gets longer and longer. The knee is far less sore, and the hole in her knee is healing quite well. Other than the T-shape scar of the stitches, that looks almost normal. Except for the swelling, her leg looks normal now. She still has pain when bending, straightening, or holding the leg still. She's so thankful that God protected her in the crash and that he healed her forehead. There was no way that she could have only come away with a cut going half way around a curved head and not affect anything below. If the Lord can do that, then what is yet to come with the knee?

A little sadness

We had a litter of puppies last night, and this afternoon and evening, we noticed that one of the puppies was a runt. When we tried to feed it this evening it couldn't handle the food and had trouble breathing. We managed to get a little food in since then, and we'll see how it does.