The Arm Pocket

Busy Week

2009-02-10T15:53:00.002-05:00

Since my last post it's gotten much warmer out (though it won't last). It's actually 50 degrees outside. Very nice at least for Indiana. Most of the snow is pretty much gone, except maybe for Walmart where there is a huge pile of seriously dirty snow. Nasty looking. We played frisbee for the first time in a very long time on Sunday night and oh boy am I feeling it today. It's feels good to be sore again though. School's going pretty well. I got my first test back today and I got an A. Sweet. This week I've got a lot going on. I'm finally not working at 6am on Saturday...I was really getting sick of it. It really screws up my sleep schedule. Other than that not much to report. Til next time then.

Week Two

2009-01-21T21:35:00.007-05:00

So here I am in the middle of week two of the spring semester. It's hard to believe. I've seen from Sarah's blog that the east has some snow. Not to be outdone, I took some pictures of the foot and half we have here in Indiana. It's been here for a week at least. In the first photo, you can see our street and I was try to get a picture of icicle you see at the top dripping, but I kept missing (I think the shutter was slow). So in the second picture, along with Benny's car you can see the massive icicles hanging of the edge of the roof. It's rather scary getting into the car, one could fall and stab you. In the last picture is the biggest icicle which has to be around six or seven feet long. It's huge. I broke a couple off and was threw them like javelin. A group of us went sledding on Monday and then came back here to have hot chocolate and cookies. It was pretty hilarious to watch people go down the hill because the snow was so deep the sled and the people on it would just dissapear in a cloud of snow. Well that's all for now.

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T22:21:00.002-05:00

Well, you all get a treat. I'm posting. Exciting for you all. Not much I'm gonna say except I'm glad the worst year of my life (so far) is almost over. And it's ending par for the course. Yay.

Sad Times

2008-08-03T01:49:00.008-04:00

Well my friends, it is with deep sadness that I must report that Archie has died. I came home tonight to find him lying lifeless. Though I only knew him a short while, he became something special to me. From his frightened squeaks when I washed him, to the quiet way he would sit in my hand or on my lap. I couldn't believe how quickly he bonded with me and transitioned from panicked scampering at anything to letting me stroke his tiny body. He will be missed. Below is a picture of him in my hand.

Odd Times

2008-08-01T16:31:00.002-04:00

Gee, it's been a while since I've posted. What a surprise. It's been a rather interesting week. On Wednesday, I gave a drum lesson to a teen in the church. It's kinda challenging, but I enjoy it. Last night I made some Chinese stir-fry. It was amazing. Best homemade stir-fry I've had for sure (sorry Mom :-). Afterward I went to play Frisbee with some friends. Who should show up but Meghan Wallwork who has been in New York since May. There was only 7 of us so the game was pretty chill. But Josh threw the frisbee over the barbed wire fence and into a swamp. We stood around quite while trying to figure out how to get it. Teak insanely went to the end of the fence and clawed his way back through the swamp to get it. When he return triuphantly with fribee in hand Jon noticed this guy getting into the dumpster. We all turned to look as he got out and started jogging across the field. Moments later a cop appeared yelling for him to stop. The guy jump over the fence (it was high and topped with barbed wire). The cop stayed by the fence and cop car pulled up next to us and asked if we had seen the guy running. Josh told him what happened and they took off to head him off. We went to Jon's house and watched Aliens (I made some kettle corn). In the morning I woke up and started going about my day, making coffee etc. Suddenly I notice a dead mouse lying by my door. It was probably around three weeks old. I was a little freaked because I had no idea where it came from and how it died. I scooped it up and threw it into the woods. About an hour later a second one came crawling out from under the oven. I scooped it up and put in a box. I didn't know what to do with it because it was too young to make on it's own. I pulled out the stove to find out where they were coming from. I found that the large electicity feed for the oven had large hole around it and nearby was a box of poison mouse food. I figure the mother ate some and must have died in the nest somewhere and the babies started emerging looking for food and one ate the poison and died. Thing is usual liters are around 5-10 so I'm afraid more will come. We'll see.

My Birthday and Some Thoughts

2008-06-11T22:45:00.007-04:00

So today is my birthday. It's been a great day. Lots of birthday wishes from everybody. My friends here organized a party for me and it was awesome. Jocelyn made and brought the Lite Brite sign above. Diane, Jen, Josh, and Jon gave me some hilarious cards. Oh, and I forgot, Ben and Jan kindly gave me a book. "The Gospel and Personal Evangelism" by Mark Dever I think it was. Very nice of them. All in all, a good time guaranteed for all.

This is a post I've been thinking about for a couple of days. It's been bouncing around in my head for a while. I will warn you this is gonna be a long post. It really started about a month or so ago. I was given a guitar for Christmas and have been teaching myself to play. A month ago my friend asked me if it was hard for me to consistently practice. He mentioned that he often didn't practice and it was hard to be diligent. I replied that I really didn't have problems like that. I loved to play it and practice. If I had free time, nearly always I used at some point to play. This really began a thoughtful consideration of why this was so. I looked at my life and noticed that there was little that I was diligent and consistent about. I would always get bored with whatever I had started and leave it unfinished. For example, writing (hehe), I would often get a grand idea, start it and then forget about it a few days later.

I found that this was not true playing guitar. And as I thought back, neither with playing drums. I mean, I taught myself to play drums. I loved it. I practiced for at least an hour every day (much to the annoyance of my family). I would still do so, but my living situation doesn't allow it. I realized that music must be really important to me. I knew I liked music, but I didn't think it was more then that. Music must be something special to me, because playing instruments is one of the few things I pursue with a great deal of passion and commitment. But, I thought back even farther to when I was being taught to play the piano as a young child. I really didn't like it. For years my patient teacher would bear with my nearly complete lack of practice. So, there was an instance of playing an instrument where I was not diligent.

As I continued to remember piano lessons, I thought a time when my teacher wanted me to work on my rhythm and instructed me to listen to the drummer and keep time with my foot (she was from our church). I thought, “Sweet! I do that already!” If any of you see me worship, I'm sure you've noticed that I am always doing that even to this day. It's not even conscious, I have to make an effort to stop :-). It's funny how my primary instrument is the drums now when I remember that time. Later, after years of being taught classical piano, my teacher began to teach us worship songs. I still remember the first song she taught us, “To Be With You”. I was so excited. I practiced like crazy to learn it. I was the first of her students to learn to play it. I learned about half of “We Rejoice In the Grace of God”, then I had to quit to help save my parents money. I remember though being so excited to play worship songs. I thought that this was due to the fact that I knew the songs, but as I've been thinking lately, I believe there is a deeper reason.

So why all this? What have I been babbling on about like this for? Well, because I've realized something. I love music. More then that though. I've come to understand that I love music not for music sake, but because I love to worship God and praise Him through music. When did I really become interested in playing piano? When I began learning worship songs. When I taught myself to play drums, what kind of songs did I practice most to and what was my goal? I practice primarily to worships songs and I most wanted to be able to play on the worship team. When I'm learning songs on the guitar today what songs am I learning and why do I play? I learn worship songs for the most part and all I really want to able to do is be able to whip out my guitar when friends are hanging out and sing worship songs together. This doesn't mean I don't wanna excel. Sure I want to be able play drums like Neil Peart or Mike Portnoy. Sure I would like to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, but my main desire for and joy from music is worshiping God and giving Him glory. I love music because I love to glorify God with it. I can think of an recent example; just recently the new NA Band album dropped, “Looked Upon”. Now musically I really don't like this album. The mix, the instrumentation just don't work. The bass is non-existent, the drums sound like toys. The only thing that sounds good in the acoustic guitar. Yet, I keep listening to it. Over and over. I 'm learning to play the songs. Why? I think it's because the songs are rooted in the scripture and the Gospel and my soul is being turned towards God in worship. Here is an example of where musically I don't like something, but because God is receiving glory I like it.

Now I'm not saying all this to pat myself on the back. It's really because I'm so humbled by God's graciousness to me. When I see that my desire in and through music is to glorify Him, I'm aware that this desire didn't come from me. Left to my own, I would despise worship songs, and I would glory in music itself and seek to gain my own glory through it. God has graciously given me a love for Him, in particular through music, and I am so humbled and grateful to Him for it and all that He has done for me. This makes me want to praise Him. It's an endless cycle!! I love it!! Therefore, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.” Rev 4:11.

New Attitude Log: Supplemental

2008-05-29T12:20:00.003-04:00

Hey I've uploaded my photos from New Attitude to facebook if you wanna see them. Also to flickr for all those who don't have a facebook.

Link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theunderminer/

Na: Day One

2008-05-29T10:48:00.006-04:00

So I'm gonna start a recap of all that happened at New Attitude. You've read about the trip there, so I'll just add some funny things that happened. When we stopped for lunch, it was a gas station/Subway and most of us ate there. Stephen was dying for some coffee. You should have seen him frantically search the exit food signs for a Starbucks. So he and couple of guys went to Wendy's and he managed to get some hot water to make coffee. Jonny Altrogge and I randomly decided to get cheapo nerf guns that the gas station had. We spent the rest of the trip ambushing each other. We finally pulled into the Gault House hotel around 4-4:30pm. And so started the crazy rush that is arriving at New Attitude.

After everyone's luggage was off, Stephen and I took the vans to park them. As we entered, there's that height bar hanging and both vans scraped it. I was was pretty nervous that the vans would scape inside. The whole time I was ducking my head (as if that made a difference). But there was enough clearance and after parking in the farthest point away possible, we returned to the hotel. I had been calling Aaron to get into the room, but he wasn't picking up (seems like no one did all of Na). I really didn't wanna be standing there forever, so I tried Josh and Shanna to see they knew where he was. He finally called me and I went up to the room. He and I went and got registered and then I went to see Gen, who was on the same floor as us, which was pretty cool. I went over to the first session with her and a few of her roommates.

Worship started, it was loud and sounded like crap, but definitely better then last year. Usually it really distracts me, but God gave me grace to be able to worship undistracted. There was the usual 4-5 songs that no one knew (at least outside of Cov Life). That's one of the things that bothers me, they always sing lots of new songs, and most of the time they are not that great. There are some outstanding songs that aren't new. Oh and what is wrong with original version of hymns? Stephen and I were talking about this and the one song Nail My Glory in particular was kinda odd, and left him wondering what he was singing. After worship Josh Harris opened the conference with a message what the right response to God's word is. He gave three examples from scripture: Josiah (2nd Kings 22), Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36), and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15).

After the message we splint into community groups. This year they really separated everyone. There were two people I knew in my group. Zac Dimaio and Rachael Efthimiou. That was it. We were lead by Jimmy Canon (?). The group was then made into about a dozen smaller family groups and mine was led by a guy named Seth Ranneberger. We spent most of the time just getting to know one another. There was a girl in my family group, Liz Dudley, who grew up in Indiana and knew everybody, which I thought was pretty cool. The community groups ended and Zac and I went searching for food. We went to Champions and were eventually joined by Gen and Lauren. Actually a little later a big group from Cov Fell showed up. Zac and I headed back to the hotel after eating. I pretty much just hit the sack (I'm not a young as I used to be).

Andrew and Courtney crashed in our room, because they had reserved their room for the day before and since they weren't there, they lost the reservation. They got a room for the last two nights, but had to stay in ours the first. I ripped some blankets from the two beds for them and we all settled in to sleep.

Na: Monday

2008-05-27T01:26:00.002-04:00

Wow, are the days packed! I have hardly had any time for anything. I'm going to give a much more detailed, blow-by-blow report later when I'm not so tired and have time. For now I just say that it's been amazing. Worship is great. The messages have been just outstanding. And some fun was had along the way.

Welcome to New Attutitude

2008-05-25T07:52:00.002-04:00

Well, here it is. New Attitude. I can't believe it's here all ready. About eighteen of us left from Indiana. We rented two 15 passenger vans to take all of us. Stephen Altrogge and I went to pick up the vans around 6 am. Let me tell you, driving a big van is pretty scary after driving my little car. Plus the windows were fogging up so I could barely see. So we left around 6:45 am, and drove for about 20 minutes or so and then someone in the other van realized they forgot something and turned around. When we stopped for breakfast and waited for the other van to catch up. Except they got lost and took about and hour to finally get here. Finally we met up and continued on. We made a few stops later on, but got to Louisville without much incident. Alright, that all I got time for now. I'll try to post later.

Coming Attractions

2008-04-19T12:14:00.002-04:00

So last night a few friend of mine got together at the Murphy's house to have some worship and hanging out time. It was a beautiful evening and after singing for a bit (and failing miserably at singing 'In the Secret' in the right key. Seriously, we had to give up), we started a little fire. Eventually the conversation turned to pessimism (how I have no idea) and I was arguing the point that pessimistic people are happiest. No one agreed and it was suggested that write in my blog about it. So, coming soon, I will be turning my thoughts to this subject and giving a compelling case for it. I'm sure you all are eagerly waiting now. In other news, Purdue apparently did a study of the most carbon emitting cities. Guess what was number 15 on that list. Indiana, PA. Yeah, I don't get it either. This town is almost completely devoid of anything that we usually associate with carbon emissions. Go figure.

2008-04-16T20:21:00.002-04:00

So this week has been pretty uneventful. Just going to class, doing homework, playing my guitar, etc. Oh, last night during frisbee, my faithful frisbee disc was split in half. It was blocked throw so violent that the disc cracked right in half. Many tears were shed. It had a full life, so I'm thankful for that. I went to Walmart to get a new one and oddly enough they didn't carry them. The one in Exton does, so I was kinda confused. I don't know where else to get one, cause there's nothing else here. Online perhaps. Not much else to mention. Oh, my nice six month old Macbook just developed a crack. Apparently it's a pretty common thing, so I just gotta head to a Apple Store to get it repaired. Problem is, there isn't one for 50 miles. 50 miles of winding slow road.

Alright, Alright

2008-04-03T10:13:00.002-04:00

Due to the incessant whining of my friend Ryan, I am writing my first new post in a long while. I haven't updated because no one reads this, and my life is boring. But Ryan feels that this is no excuse. So, I am writing in it again. If you'll note there is a new logo. Credit for that goes to Ryan. It defaults to the way it is right now, but I kinda like it. So about my life. Nothing new really. School, sleep, eating, frisbee, church. All in all, not much to say about it. There was a recent Resolved (College ministry) Retreat at the church this weekend. There was some worship and we listened to a message. Then came a violent game (many actually) of dodge ball. Lots of fun, especially when David would go scampering across the middle in his ridiculous way. After dodge ball, the party moved into some crazy dancing to 80s music. That in turn changed to swing dancing. By the end of the night I had blisters on my feet from soo much activity. All the girl left to stay a family's house and the guys slept in a classroom upstairs. No one really slept that night. I tossed and turned all night. I only had a sleeping bag, and invariably, when I sleep in one, I end up directly on the floor with the bag on top. One of my friends was working on a computer project all night. The night was punctuated by typing and occasionally a quietly uttered "Crap!" Now, I don't know about you, but I find repetitive ambient noise relaxing and comforting. I guess I'm weird, because no one else in the room like it. There was a ceiling fan and after about an hour it got turned off. A couple of hours later my friend David jumped up and burst out "I can't take it anymore!", yanked the ticking clock off the wall and deposited it in another room. Oookay. I don't think I slept at all, but reports from the guys say that I was snoring for a bit so I must have dozed off for a few minutes. A couple of girls were coming by around 8 am to get breakfast ready, so I got up to help them (and make a sweet morning playlist) knowing I wouldn't sleep anyway. By 9:30 the rest of the girls had arrived and the guys had stumbled down. We ate together, regaling each other with stories from the night. After breakfast we had a discussion and some worship and then left. And some of us went to McDonald's for lunch. And that was the weekend for me.

NA Live

2007-05-28T07:52:00.000-04:00

So, I've been working on the picture question, and I regret to inform you that it's a no go. I left the usb transfer cable at home. I'd purchase a card reader, but there's nothing remotely close to a store that would sell that around here. Alright, on to the good stuff. Yesterday morning, we met in our community groups and spent time meditating on Psalms 103. This was followed by an excellent message by Mark Dever on Discerning Doctrine. After a break for lunch, we returned to hear a message by Al Mohler on Discerning our Culture. I must admit that I was somewhat dissapointed by his message. I really was expecting some "wow!" kinda stuff and it really wasn't. After another break, we came back for an absolutely outstanding message by CJ on idolatry. It was a great and very convicting message. After, we spent a large amount of time essentially wandering aimlessly about the city (I say city in the loosest of terms).

Live From NA!!!

2007-05-27T07:58:00.000-04:00

Hey all you readers back home. This is a live update from New Attitude 2007. We had pretty good trip down. We got into Louiseville around 9:30. We grabbed breakfast at Dennys and then tried to get the girls checked into their hotel. It was too early so we dropped Colin and Less off at their hotel and then found a parking spot and sat for about an hour while the 3 girls went insane. After that we were able to get them into their hotel. Josh Harris spoke at the first meeting. He gave an excellent message on Discernment, and then we met in our community groups. More to come later, and hopefully some pictures too.

Changes and Stuff

2007-05-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

Well, classes are over and finals week has begun. I don't have a final until this Tuesday, so I have been enjoying doing not much of anything. I made some decisions this week about what I'll be doing over the summer. I had planned on staying here and taking classes all summer. But, due to the fact that I'm still looking for a place to stay, and that I really have no money to pay for the classes, I've decided to come home for the summer and just work as much as I can. So I'm planning on coming home after finals which would be somewhere in the 10th-12th. I'm not sure exactly when. I have a lot of stuff to bring home, and it won't all fit in my little car. So I'm trying to figure out a plan to move my stuff back home. Hmm, in other news. . .well there really isn't any other news.

I love warm weather!

2007-04-20T10:27:00.000-04:00

Hey look!! I'm posting again in the same week!! Everyone pinch yourselves, because you must be dreaming!! LOL, I'm sure no one really cares, with the exception of my mom. It's been a fun week so far. It's FINALLY really nice outside. It's supposed to hit 70 today. It's amazing what warm weather can do for one's well being. Tearing around campus, windows down, music blaring, ahh it doesn't get much better. We played frisbee on Wednesday night. It was a lot of fun. We lost, but it was still a ton of fun. I got another astro-turf burn, but not as bad. When we were all leaving, all the students that live on campus were walking back to their dorms and it was on the same street that I take to go to the Basslers. So I pulled along the curb, windows down, music up, and rolled along with them as they walk. A few of the guys jumped on my hood and the trunk. The best part was that as we pulled up to the stop sign, a cop came out of the parking lot next to us. And we scattered. It was hysterical though. I thought the guy was gonna pull me over but he didn't. Anyway, I'm ready for the weekend.

Mondays Are Better Now

2007-04-16T16:17:00.000-04:00

Hey!! Guess what!! I haven't updated this blog in a long time!! What a surprise! That's never happened before! Anyway there hasn't been a whole heck of a lot to report lately. Lets see. I played drums on Sunday for worship. That was fun. But, boy does it get hot in the "cage" especially when all the people get there. :D It went well, no serious flubs, at least until the end. We were singing Perfect Lamb of God after the message and if you know that song the third verse is a half verse. I totally forgot and did a frantic crash into the chorus. Otherwise it went well. I had a lot of fun. Oh, I don't know if any of you out there knew, but new TV series premiered last night called Drive on Fox. It stars none other then Nathan Fillion, ie Captain Reynolds. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend you all watch it at it's regular time tonight at 8pm. I think you can watch the first episode on www.myspace.com/fox. Definitely check it out. Um, other news . . . I have a splitting headache today and I had one yesterday. Very unpleasant. Thankfully aspirin seems to help quite a bit. I actually just took one, and I couldn't swallow it because I didn't take enough water. I didn't feel like getting up to get some more so I just chewed it. Ugh. NASTY I can tell you. Oh yes I forgot. I finally got my accounting test back that I took like a week and half ago. The professor took forever grading them. I was talking to a girl who sits next to me about how bad the class is and how the guy treats us like we're stupid. I mentioned that I thought the class was pretty easy nonetheless, and she was like "Well that's cause you're a *bleeping* genius." When we got our scores back I got a 91. She asked me what I got, and when I told her, she was like "You *bleep*." It made me laugh. Oh yeah. I broke my cell phone. I left it on the floor and stepped on it by accident. It stills makes calls but the screen is cracked and I can't do anything besides answer calls and punch numbers in manually call them. I'll try to check my voicemail regularly since I can't tell I have unless I actually call it. I'm gonna look into getting a fairly inexpensive replacement.

Fading into Mediocrity

2007-03-30T16:01:00.001-04:00

It's been a rather uneventful couple of weeks since spring break. Yikes, it's been two weeks. That went by fast. It's been very nice weather wise since spring break, which is very sweet. Driving through campus with the windows down and blasting music is a lot fun. We've played frisbee twice since then. The first time was on the fields next to the stadium. It was very very muddy. We played on the stadium football field on Sunday. It's very nice to walk and run on, but take a dive on it, lots and lots of pain. I have a habit of sliding onto my knees after a running catch. That kinda rips the skin off your leg. I did it last year, and you think I would have learned, but nope, I did it again. I now have 3-4 inch diameter burn on my leg.
In other news, I had to withdraw from a class for the first time. I was failing badly. It was a really strange situation for me. I was really disappointed because that means I have to be here at IUP for classes over the summer, for both sessions. I really wanted to be back home over the summer, so it's very disappointing. If I can I'm going to try to come for a week or two at some point, but I can't manage more then that.
If you guys think of it I could really use prayer. I've been really struggling with trusting God especially with the recent class situation. It's been very hard not to become depressed. So if you could be praying for me I would appreciate it a lot.
It was a very interesting day today. It was visiting day, ie tons of highschool kids with parents taking up precious parking spots, plus there were 4 notable alumni, including Chad Hurley, who founded YouTube. And you know how much IUP tries to milk non-famous alumni for all they're worth, so famous ones get pumped up a lot. It's kinda annoying. I mean he was addressing the business college, and he graduated with a freaking Fine Arts degree. C'mon.

Today is a good day. . . to live

2007-03-02T09:45:00.000-05:00

Wow, have I been neglecting this blog lately. I know I sound like a broken record, but I've been very busy. And next week is going to be a dozy. I have four exams, two essays, a group project, a group presentation, and thirty-five some odd statistics problems. However, for today, it's all good. Yesterday REC (the church's college age ministry) had a hot chocolate outreach. I was helping to get it setup and as we were boiling water and beginning to mix the hot chocolate, I tasted the results and found it to taste really, well, bad. I thought perhaps that it needed to be stirred more, but after an extended stirring, it still tasted bad. I looked at the packaging and realized that someone got Nesquick powder, which is to make chocolate milk. Not good for water. So someone ran to the nearby Giant Eagle to get the proper stuff. After that I had to go to class, and then returned after it was done and had fun hanging out with people and giving out hot chocolate. But I didn't get back to the Bassler's until around 5:30pm and I had left for class at 7:30am. So I was on campus for about ten hours, and I was running all over the place so I was really tired. I went to bed pretty early. This morning I went to accounting class and got my first test back. I was rather disappointed when I got an 85. But, apparently 80% of the class failed. Badly. I was going to say something about how I was a bit disappointed, but as people began saying what they got (15, 10, 39) I figured I should keep my mouth shut. The teacher is a bit of a jerk, and basically said he didn't care. He's not all that bad of a teacher, but his opinion is that students are lazy stupid idiots. Which, may be somewhat true, but it's a little stereotypical. Class ran for about 15 minutes, then some woman came and the professor had to leave. He has missed 2 classes already, so my opinion is rather low of him. Anyway I got to leave early and it's a gorgeous day outside, so I'm in a pretty good mood.

So much time, so little to do (I wish)

2007-02-09T10:41:00.000-05:00

Yep, it's been quite a while since I updated this. Sorry about that to all my rabid fans. I've been extremely busy the past week and a half. I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch all week because I ran out of food and I haven't had time to go shopping. I had 5-7 page paper about Taoism due on Monday. Sixty some odd problems for stats class that take 10-15 minutes a piece. A quiz on Wednesday. Lots of random stuff for my hardware support class. Two exams on Thursday. The kicker was that the one exam was scheduled outside of class time so that meant I had class from 8am-11:15am, then a little break, and class and an exam from 1:15pm-4pm then another exam from 6pm-8pm. The second exam was for stats class. I didn't really study for it. I get there and it's in Stouffer Auditorium and he is giving tests to several classes at once. We line up and he hands out the appropriate test. I started the test, and started panicking because it was really hard. I was like "I am so studying much harder next time." I got about half way through and for some reason I looked at the front page and realized that he gave me the wrong test. No wonder it was so hard. I walked up and he gave me the right one after apologizing. Ah, there we go, much better. A lot easier. I finished it in like 15 minutes. So then I got back to the Basslers, and pretty much just crashed and went to bed. I had been getting up between 3-4am to work on homework and I was really tired. Fortunately I had nothing due for today so I got to sleep a bit. I'm planning on hitting the Walmart after class.

Thursdays Are Fun...not

2007-01-25T17:18:00.000-05:00

So since I haven't had anyone comment and it's been like a week (hint, hint) I figured I would update again. It's been a very busy week so far. Quite miserable actually. It has snowed nearly non stop since Friday. I mean EVERY single day. I am very sick of cleaning my car off 3 or 4 times a day, slick roads, and slow traffic. Yesterday, I had accounting and history class. My history teacher is crazy. You know Vizzini from Princess Bride? That's him. Doesn't look like him, but sounds just like him. Today was quite a day and it started a lot earlier then I planned. My nightstand is rather close to my bed around 3 inches or so. Last night around 2 am I rolled over in my sleep and smacked my head on it. Hard. I shook it off and started to go back to sleep when I noticed my fingers after they had touched my head where I smacked it. There was blood all over them. Blood was all over my pillow as well. So I got up and held a tissue on it for a few minutes, and then put a band-aid on it (which was a little awkward given that the wound was in my hair). I got up later and went to school. It was snowing hard. Again. In my second class, stats, about a half an hour into it someone walked by shutting all the classroom doors. The prof looked oddly, and one of the girls near me explained that a girl had passed out in the bathroom. What was really weird was that I recognized her. I'm pretty sure she was in my math class my first semester at DCCC. I couldn't figure out why I recognized her until our prof was talking about SATs and he asked her when she had taken them. In 2003. That click it together. So then I left class and went to the computer help desk to have my WebCT password reset so I could log on. After that I went to my final class, in which we installed windows (snore). I walk back to my car in the cold windy snowy outside, get in, turn the key and. . . nothing. I left the lights on. So I asked the next guy if I could get a jump, and he finally agreed (I could tell he didn't want to). So 15 minutes later I was finally headed back to warmth. Stupid snow.

Whew, glad that's over!

2007-01-22T12:05:00.000-05:00

As some of you know already it's be quite a week for me particularly over the weekend. I'll start at the beginning though. I went home for Christmas break without meeting with my adviser, primarily due to the questionable finical status I was in. I was unaware however that I could not register at all until I did. I found this out when I tried to register about 2 weeks before classes started. So I emailed my adviser but she didn't get back to me until this Thursday a day after classes had started. I went in on Tuesday and Wednesday to see if she was in and she never was. I talked to someone in the department and was told that only my adviser could help me. She had office hours on Thursday so I thought I would run in then and try to get this sorted out. Unfortunately I didn't remember her hours right and I missed them. So I sent another email, which she replied to and told me that I wasn't on her list. She sent a email to the department secretary and after confusing me with someone else they figured out I was right. So she set up a time to meet on Monday. So then came the weekend. Friday night at six o'clock was the rehearsal for Ryan Joseph and (now!) Shelsy Joseph's wedding and I was a groomsman. So I google mapped it and left around 3pm. After about 30 minutes I realized that the directions were sending me in the complete opposite direction. So I turned around and started the other way. Realizing that I was going to be late I began to go a little fast. Problem was that it was snowing pretty hard. After about 20 minutes I was going up a hill and as I crested it I lost all traction and spun off the road into a snow drift. I was stuck. Fortunately a guy with a big pickup truck saw me and turned around to pull me out. I was much more cautious after that :-) I arrived about an hour and change late but so was everyone else so I pulled in just as they began rehearsing the procession. I jumped in line coat and all. Afterwards we headed for the rehearsal dinner. After following Angela all over Williamsport because she doesn't know her left from her right ;-), we got to the restaurant and enjoyed a very nice meal. All the groomsmen were housed in the basement of Shelsy's aunt. The room was a literal shrine to the Miami Dolphins and Dan Marino. Posters, wallpaper, lamps, everything. But the really cool thing was that there was a huge home theater system, which meant lots of late movies :D. So the day of the wedding came and it went quite well. Our tuxes were so great. We all wanted to keep them. The reception was good, aside from an embarrassing dance with the bridesmaids. And my trip home was pretty good as well. Whew, that was a lot of writing. Sorry to babble I'm sure it was pretty boring but hey.

Winter Wonderland

2006-12-07T16:09:00.000-05:00

I have finally caught a breather in homework and school related stuff. I've been very busy this week and haven't had much time for anything, much less post in my blog. But I finally finished my big paper and took the big calc quiz so I have a little time for this. The big news right now is that it is snowing quite a bit here in Indiana. Since so many doubted me the first time I will again provide photographic evidence of this. I think there can be little doubt that it is indeed snowing. I am very glad that it didn't get this bad while I was wandering around campus earlier. However it was snowing enough for my black hoodie to turn white. And that's the excitement for today. Tune in next month for; Eating Snow: Cold Killer or Cool Life-Saver?

Down with the sickness

2006-11-15T12:04:00.000-05:00

Here I am sitting in front of my computer. Mostly because I got the flu pretty bad. It started on Sunday, just a headache. Monday I felt a little off, a major headache and a little bit of a fever I think. I got home from my 9:15 class and slept most of the day. I thought I was feeling better by the evening but not quite. Yesterday I got up in the morning with a severe headache, sore neck and back, a fever, and some weird rash/blister things. I downed a couple of ibuprofen and manged to get through my classes. I got home around 2pm and started to get severe chills and sweats, along with the other things. I lay in bed sleeping or watching Family Guy for the rest of the day. I woke up this morning not feeling any better, but I had an exam for my first class so I had to go. I figured I would take ibuprofen and get a long hot shower, and then get the exam done as quickly as possible. As I was taking a shower I started feeling dizzy and nauseous. I began vomiting, or at least trying to, but there was nothing to throw up. I got out of the shower and pretty much collapsed on the floor because I was so dizzy. After leaning on the toilet for about ten minutes, the ibuprofen kicked in, and I was able to get to class to take the exam. I've been feeling a little better, but I think only because I have been taking ibuprofen every 4-5 hours. Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow, because I can't really afford to miss more classes. Yeah, not exactly thrilling, but hey, there's my life so far this week.

Nothing New November

2006-11-07T15:32:00.000-05:00

Since mother has been complaining that in fact it is now November, a fact which I must admit that is quite true, I guess I owe you all a new post. So here it is. Actually, it's mostly because I have nothing better to do (homework not included). So let's see. I got a 93 on a Calculus exam that I took last Thursday, and with the curve it's a 99. And I didn't even study...haha Gen. Just kidding. About the haha that is. I had a group presentation that day as well. I came up with the idea for the game we played, which was Balderdash. Can you believe not one single person in the class had ever played it? Wow. Very very sad. It went pretty well. Hmm, I can't think of anything else to relate in school stuff. Oh, man Sunday was a really weird day for football. Dallas lost to Washington. And Chicago lost to Miami! I came down in the middle of the Pittsburgh game and watched for a bit. The scores were scrolling on the bottom of the screen and I was befuddled. Ah, good word. Lode Runner is the jam. I washed my dishes today. I'm sure you all were wondering. REC is tonight, so I'll be going to that. I think that I have covered most of the interesting things so ah, yeah.

Wait, It's Still October!

2006-10-23T17:50:00.000-04:00

While finishing up dinner here, we looked outside and we beheld this:

Yep that is snow. It's snowing here in Indiana. Sigh, guess I should have expected this, but hey one can always hope. Anyway, I'm glad to have had today off and that I'm tomorrow as well. My parents were here over the weekend. It was great to see them all. Oh, by the way mother, I looked at the schedule and it looks like I get the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and on off, so I'll be down over that weekend. Not much else going on. I went to the Kim's to watch the game on Sunday which was fun despite having to watch a rediculus game. 62 yards! I mean, come on, the guy has missed extra points. Unbelievable. Anyway, enough on that score. I did very little today, despite waking up around eight o'clock. Just sitting around watching a movie, listening to music, surfing the 'net etc. Pretty boring actually. I suppose I could have done the little bit of homework that I have due on Thursday, but it's too soon for that. It's never good to have homework done too soon. It's too intoxicating. However, laundry might have been a good idea, but no avail. I think REC will still meet tomorrow though I think it will be a social type since many students are at home over fall recess. I think I'll finish this post now. :-)

Sidewalk Etiquette

2006-10-11T12:11:00.000-04:00

This is something that has been bothering me for a while now and I'm going to go on a little rant. I've noticed recently a glaring lack of regard for the rules of sidewalk etiquette. There are some very basic unwritten rules when using a sidewalk.
1. Always stay to the right side unless passing. This allows for maximum traffic flow, and leaves room for faster walkers to pass slower ones. 2. Never walk shoulder to shoulder with a friend on a normal width sidewalk. This prevents faster people from being able to pass and can cause various emotions of a negative sort to be released. If you must talk with someone, the right most person should walk off the sidewalk to allow room for passers. If there is no room to walk next to the sidewalk, simply discontinue the conversation and move into single file. Under no circumstances should three people attempt to carry on a conversation or walk together while using a sidewalk.
Now I've noticed these rules being broken quite a lot in my travels between classes on campus. You're late for class and there a big group of friends walking slowly along, blocking the whole sidewalk and preventing you from being able to pass and get to class on time. You show up late, the prof gets angry, you are already angry and the whole situation goes downhill fast. Your whole day is ruined single-handed by a group of rude people.

How About Them Eagles!

2006-10-09T11:24:00.000-04:00

Well things have calmed down enough for me to have a chance and be in the mood to update my blog, as some of you have been whining about (Ryan). In case some of you didn't know, a friend of mine whose name is Ian Murphy was in a serious car crash on the 30th. He suffered a severe trauma to the side of his head and was expected to die within two days. Needless to day, I was not really feeling like bothering with blogs. Good news is, he is still alive, and while still not out of the woods, he is moving in a positive direction. That has been the big thing this past week and a half. Um, I can't really think of a good segue to more trivial things, so I'm just going to jump in. Classes are going great. I actually have all my eight o'clock classes cancelled for the next three days, so I get to sleep in a bit. Ahhh. Yesterday was a great day. I got to mix for church which was quite fun and something I haven't done in a long time. Then came the Eagles game. I got my McNabb jersey and sat down to watch some football. Man, what a great game. I was very, very, very into the game. Yelling, praying, running around the room on good plays, you name I was doing it. Our defense is so much fun to watch. Boy, that last drive by the Cowboys was INTENSE. I was on my feet the whole time and like a foot from the tv. On that 4 and 18 play where Lewis interfered I was screaming NOOOOOO!!!!!! Pacing back and forth, muttering, "C'mon, C'mon." And then Lito intercepted. The instant I saw it, I ripped my jersey off and ran and jumped around the room waving it in the air screaming like a banshee. Was I glad that all the Basslers were out of the house. I was insane. I have a picture that might give you an idea of what I was like:And that about wraps up my week. :-)

I love the smell of cancelled classes

2006-09-21T14:37:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I've been sort of busy. Mostly I'm just not in a mood to sit and write something. But I am now so here goes. Things are pretty usual. Classes are going well, not much to report on that score. I did have a class canceled today and I found out last night so I got to sleep in a little bit. Very nice. I actually have a class cancelled tomorrow as well, so I'm having a good week. :-) I'll be going to band practice for a bit tonight before heading to Frisbee. Man I cannot wait. I haven't played for several weeks and I'm really looking forward to playing. I'm gonna have to go shopping again tomorrow. I'm running out of food. So yeah it's gonna be fun shelling out again. Blah. Um, not much else to report. I went to the Kim's caregroup last night. It was ok. Ben and John go to that caregroup as well. I'm getting pretty good at getting around town. I actually learned a back way that avoids the main road in Indiana (Philadelphia, no less) . It's not really faster, but driving down that road is a bit risky because people never pay attention to when they open their doors into traffic. In my Bus. Calc. class we were talking about if you could get 1% of the sales of one NFL logoed teams merchandise, which five teams would you pick. So of course the Steelers were to first to go on the list, and the Giants, Cowboys and Patriots made it. I thought Eagles, as well as the Packers were good choices but no one agreed. So today the prof. brought in the actual data from the last two years. Steelers were frist, and guess who was second. Yep, them Eagles. The Giants were like 8th and the Packers were 6th. The Eagles were actually first the year before. I was rather proud. Anyways enough babbling from me.

The End of Week 2

2006-09-08T12:19:00.000-04:00

So the end of the second week of classes has come to a close. So far so good. I did have a bit of fun this morning. I went to the Wallworks (no comments from you mom :-)) to watch the Steelers game last night. I got home and realized that I had totally forgotten about a paper due at class today. And it was the eight o'clock class so no chance for a break to write. I got home around midnight and a set the alarm for five. Needless to say I keep hitting the snooze button for about an hour. When I final got myself out bed I scrambled to get the paper written as quickly as possible. I managed to get it done in about fourty minutes. It was only a two page paper and it was talking about myself so I had a pretty easy time just coming up with random stuff to say. So it turned out all right in the end. I can't really think of anything else that happend that is interesting to say. I am looking foward immensly to sleeping in tomorrow. Oh hey, I don't know why but the comments was set to bloggers only for some reason. I fixed it so anyone can post now.

Post Class

2006-08-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

So I've started class and have so far been to two days worth. So far I actually like the classes. It's really cool to be going to a college that I know people at. I've run into people from church everyday. We've actually had time to hang out and stuff. I really enjoy it. I've been pretty successful at finding classes as well. I did get stuck at one point but it turned out that I was right there all the time. My professors seem pretty good. And the class should be interesting except for Bus. Calc. and Music History. Those I think will be the two classes I won't enjoy much. I learned very quickly that if you get a good parking spot in the morning you do not give it up. The first day of class I got there pretty early and found a good spot. I had to back to back classes and then a five hour break. I made the mistake of going back to the Basslers. I was informed of some people hanging out and I left to go back to campus. I spent probably 45 minutes looking for a place to park. Lesson learned: Don't leave unless you have to. Anyways that's the story so far.

Nothing to Report

2006-08-24T17:34:00.000-04:00

Well, not much has happened since my last update. I figured I better keep my one reader happy and post new stuff. Oh wait, I forgot, I got engaged! It's pretty sweet. I still haven't found a job, so prayer would be great. Um, I did do some work for Steve Murphy, who flips houses. I work on the house that they are renovating. Plus we got paid for travel. Other then that not much to speak of.

In case you were wondering/stupid, I was joking about being engaged.

The arrival

2006-08-17T10:54:00.000-04:00

Well folks, I've made it to Indiana. I'm pretty much setup and good to go. The house is fantastic. I couldn't have found a better place. God is soo faithful. I'm about five to ten minutes from campus which is great. I took some pictures for you very own wish fulfillment. (Not really ;-)

This is the front door and the stairs up to my part of the house:

This is the hallway at the top of the stairs. Immediately to the left of the picture is my room. On the right is, grandson's play room, bathroom, and kitchenette, moving toward the couch:
This is the bathroom:
This is the kitchenette:
And this is my room. Note the queen bed :-)
Anyways that's where I'm staying. The Basslers are really nice, and Mr. Bassler is a fan of Firefly! Woohoo!!

Leaving

2006-08-10T11:57:00.000-04:00

Well guys and gals I've finally found a place to stay in Indiana. A family had been praying about it and they agreed to let me stay with them. Sweet! They're a couple that has had their kids move on. There's two upstairs rooms that they don't use except for when they are babysiting their grandchild who is 3. So basically I would have the upstairs to myself for the most part. The room is already furnished which is nice. There's actually a kichenette with counters, a small fridge and a mircowave so I could be fairly self-sufficient. I'm really excited because it was getting down to the wire there for a moment. We still have to work out the details because they went to the worship conference so until they get back we can't do anything. But it looks like maybe Tuesday or Wednesday I'll be moving out!

The Beginning of the New

2006-07-18T17:50:00.000-04:00

Well, this is my new blog I created. As no one has seen it or knows about it I think it would be pointless to post a long message. However I will give some info as to why I started this blog. I mostly just wanted a way to keep my friends informed of what was happening in my life as I move away to school. So there you have it. Boring right? Ah who cares? It's as much for me as anyone else.