this is my new puppy.
to quote yudai - "you will soon be tired of seeing cute ass pictures of [her]"
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
looking for one safe place
my sister-in-law (whom i love) buys me a Bible Verse of the Day calendar every year for Christmas because i'm the xian in the family. most of the time i forget i have it and tear off about 15 days at a time. but i still really like it and i've come across quite a few verses that i've looked up and used in my quietime, and it keeps me in scratch paper.
most of the time when i'm tearing off the 15 days at a time i save the ones i like and put them in a pile. when i was moving into vicki's house i stashed that pile into the back of the calendar so i could look them up later. well apparently the place i stashed them was on December 28 because i just tore off December 27 (Mark 16:15), and found August 10 (2 Corinthians 3:18) and was very confused. in fact i was going to post-date this post to August 10th just to be witty but then realized that it'd be put in the August archives and no one would find it and then it wouldn't be that funny.
but maybe it would. it'd be like that "if a tree falls and no one hears it..." thing. if a post is clever but no one reads it...
the other thing about this calendar is that i get a mini swell of pride every time i'm familiar with the verse (like today - Isaiah 52:7), which is sad. sometimes it makes me want to jot down why i know the verse and save it for future generations. i'm pretty sure this desire comes from the new stacks of my grandma's stuff that show up on the kitchen counter that i spend hours investigating, finding out more about the secrets of the 60 years of my grandma's life that happened before i happened. i tell myself it's okay that i didn't ask more about growing up during the depression or falling in love with the ice delivery man because i'll just ask her all about it in heaven, because i'll be there before you know it. but then i'm pretty sure that when i'm in heaven i won't really care all that much about my earthly life or my grandma's so i guess it's just too late. so in the meantime it's pretty fun looking at her cool old stuff and playing in her jewelery box uninterupted by my mom yelling "putonyourcoatrightnoworyou'llbelatetopractice!"
i like refering to my life as "in the meantime"
most of the time when i'm tearing off the 15 days at a time i save the ones i like and put them in a pile. when i was moving into vicki's house i stashed that pile into the back of the calendar so i could look them up later. well apparently the place i stashed them was on December 28 because i just tore off December 27 (Mark 16:15), and found August 10 (2 Corinthians 3:18) and was very confused. in fact i was going to post-date this post to August 10th just to be witty but then realized that it'd be put in the August archives and no one would find it and then it wouldn't be that funny.
but maybe it would. it'd be like that "if a tree falls and no one hears it..." thing. if a post is clever but no one reads it...
the other thing about this calendar is that i get a mini swell of pride every time i'm familiar with the verse (like today - Isaiah 52:7), which is sad. sometimes it makes me want to jot down why i know the verse and save it for future generations. i'm pretty sure this desire comes from the new stacks of my grandma's stuff that show up on the kitchen counter that i spend hours investigating, finding out more about the secrets of the 60 years of my grandma's life that happened before i happened. i tell myself it's okay that i didn't ask more about growing up during the depression or falling in love with the ice delivery man because i'll just ask her all about it in heaven, because i'll be there before you know it. but then i'm pretty sure that when i'm in heaven i won't really care all that much about my earthly life or my grandma's so i guess it's just too late. so in the meantime it's pretty fun looking at her cool old stuff and playing in her jewelery box uninterupted by my mom yelling "putonyourcoatrightnoworyou'llbelatetopractice!"
i like refering to my life as "in the meantime"
kick you in the head and send you back to bed
merry christmas. i've forgotten to post recently because it's the holidays which means a) no one is ever online and b) no one ever updates their blogs. seriously folks, throw me a bone here.
i live at home now. the only thing that has kept me alive is that i got a snazzy new ipod for jesusmas and i've been playing with it constantly. and i do mean constantly. i finally figured out a reliable way to get pictures on the dang thing, after lots of error messages and having to leave the room at least twice. now i just have to get the snaps from my yahoo photos account on there and we'll be all set. i still can't figure out the video stuff. for some reason i assume that alex will be able to solve all of my iproblems because she has an ibook now...so far this assumption has been false.
my room is all unpacked. and not even in a panicked "shove stuff anywhere it's hidden" way. like, actually unpacked. there's a massive trip to goodwill in my future. today i went to bed at 7:30pm because i was sick of listening to my mom and brother argue about how to deal with our teething dog. i woke up at 1am and now i'm not tired. lame.
more about living at home:
lots and lots of things drive my mom crazy. most of them are not preventable. one of them is that when hairs fall out of my head and land on the floor, they are visible. my hair is long and dark and when she sees one laying on the floor, she picks it up, shows it to me, mutters a complaint, and throws it away...every time. i do my best to brush my hair or put it up when i'm at home to prevent this from happening but stray hairs are inevitable. i've become ultra-sensitive now and can feel when there are loose hairs on my shirt so that i can catch them before they fall on the floor.
my brother secretly stays up until like 3am. when i mentioned this to my mom she was convinced that he should be restricted from the internet that late at night (which is probably true) because "the only people he could possibly be talking to are perverts." that was the first time i'd heard the word "perverts" in a really long time.
there are still stars on the ceiling from when luke and i switched rooms, but not directly above the bed because those are the ones i could reach to take off. 6 months later, i really wish i would have left them up.
that's all for now.
i live at home now. the only thing that has kept me alive is that i got a snazzy new ipod for jesusmas and i've been playing with it constantly. and i do mean constantly. i finally figured out a reliable way to get pictures on the dang thing, after lots of error messages and having to leave the room at least twice. now i just have to get the snaps from my yahoo photos account on there and we'll be all set. i still can't figure out the video stuff. for some reason i assume that alex will be able to solve all of my iproblems because she has an ibook now...so far this assumption has been false.
my room is all unpacked. and not even in a panicked "shove stuff anywhere it's hidden" way. like, actually unpacked. there's a massive trip to goodwill in my future. today i went to bed at 7:30pm because i was sick of listening to my mom and brother argue about how to deal with our teething dog. i woke up at 1am and now i'm not tired. lame.
more about living at home:
lots and lots of things drive my mom crazy. most of them are not preventable. one of them is that when hairs fall out of my head and land on the floor, they are visible. my hair is long and dark and when she sees one laying on the floor, she picks it up, shows it to me, mutters a complaint, and throws it away...every time. i do my best to brush my hair or put it up when i'm at home to prevent this from happening but stray hairs are inevitable. i've become ultra-sensitive now and can feel when there are loose hairs on my shirt so that i can catch them before they fall on the floor.
my brother secretly stays up until like 3am. when i mentioned this to my mom she was convinced that he should be restricted from the internet that late at night (which is probably true) because "the only people he could possibly be talking to are perverts." that was the first time i'd heard the word "perverts" in a really long time.
there are still stars on the ceiling from when luke and i switched rooms, but not directly above the bed because those are the ones i could reach to take off. 6 months later, i really wish i would have left them up.
that's all for now.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
omaha pictures
these are really late but i thought i'd post them anyway because i finally found the right cord.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
paul rust is too cool to be on the internet
i was reading paul's blog and found this story and laughed embarassingly loud in the coffeehouse. but it was worth it.
Last Tuesday, I visited my buddy John and his family in Omaha. After a yummy pizza dinner cooked up by Denise... John and me and his two kids - Isaiah (6 years) and Annora (18 months) - went to the park.
While at the park, Isaiah says to me: "Paul, you're going to be a Hollywood actor."
I - both embarrassed by the compliment and obligated to be modest - replied: "No, no, no, Isaiah. I don't think so."
Then there was some silence. Awkward. Silence.
And then it hits me.
Little, 6-year-old Isaiah had said: "Paul, I'm going to be a Hollywood actor."
I had effectively crushed the dreams of a small child.
Whoops.
Lesson learned? Never ever be modest.
Last Tuesday, I visited my buddy John and his family in Omaha. After a yummy pizza dinner cooked up by Denise... John and me and his two kids - Isaiah (6 years) and Annora (18 months) - went to the park.
While at the park, Isaiah says to me: "Paul, you're going to be a Hollywood actor."
I - both embarrassed by the compliment and obligated to be modest - replied: "No, no, no, Isaiah. I don't think so."
Then there was some silence. Awkward. Silence.
And then it hits me.
Little, 6-year-old Isaiah had said: "Paul, I'm going to be a Hollywood actor."
I had effectively crushed the dreams of a small child.
Whoops.
Lesson learned? Never ever be modest.
from anything we could call loving
so i just finished reading searching for god knows what. don miller made an excellent point in this book that really hit home on something that i've been frustrated with for a long time now. the whole book is basically explaining that the gospel is relational. that word is one of many words on a long list of christian terms that try to explain jesus, or the bible, or the church, that i never really dive into because i've always just been annoyed when people think they've come up with a trendy new word to explain who jesus is. i'm not saying that i don't think people should investigate who jesus is, i'm saying that we keep coming up with these new buzz words all the time and it's like we're jotting them down on post-its and sticking them to the already inacurate picture we have of jesus in our heads and now he just looks like the cover of the Office Space DVD . We spend so much time looking at these words, some of which are quite lovely, yet we should just rip them all away and look at jesus. well anyway, i think that's kind of what don miller did in this book and i really appreciated it.
he basically says that it's not all about morality. he explains that the gospel of jesus is relational, in that any changes in behavior should only be in response to the changes in our lives that have resulted in our relationship with jesus. i agree with him. whenever we get close to anyone there are small (or not so small) shifts in our behavior, vocabulary, etc. that will eventually shift priorities and motives. and when it's jesus that we're getting closer to, these changes will probably be more intense (jesus is kind of intense).
i've gone through these roller coaster stages in my life, jumping between extreme, legalistic morality and whatever escapist activity was trendy (but safe) at the moment. usually this lifestyle fits me quite well because i never have to commit to anything. i've known for a while that the reason neither of these behaviors satisfy me in any way is because neither of them is in response to my relationship with god. being the rebel of the xians and the partier who's secretly on the straight and narrow is very satisfying to my non-committal tendencies.
so yeah. it's hard for me to commit to moral behavior because i decided to trust jesus, not people and morality comes from people. i think that's it.
he basically says that it's not all about morality. he explains that the gospel of jesus is relational, in that any changes in behavior should only be in response to the changes in our lives that have resulted in our relationship with jesus. i agree with him. whenever we get close to anyone there are small (or not so small) shifts in our behavior, vocabulary, etc. that will eventually shift priorities and motives. and when it's jesus that we're getting closer to, these changes will probably be more intense (jesus is kind of intense).
i've gone through these roller coaster stages in my life, jumping between extreme, legalistic morality and whatever escapist activity was trendy (but safe) at the moment. usually this lifestyle fits me quite well because i never have to commit to anything. i've known for a while that the reason neither of these behaviors satisfy me in any way is because neither of them is in response to my relationship with god. being the rebel of the xians and the partier who's secretly on the straight and narrow is very satisfying to my non-committal tendencies.
so yeah. it's hard for me to commit to moral behavior because i decided to trust jesus, not people and morality comes from people. i think that's it.
Monday, December 19, 2005
help me
Wait a year and go to North Africa? I just found out that the island team is full. The Chad team just doesn't sound that great. If you're reading this I need your opinion. They don't even know when the team to N. Africa would be able to leave which means it could be more than a year away. I think I'm already falling in love with this city, and it's in a country that I have always dreamed of going to. I don't want to romanticize this decision and I'm sick of waiting.
i show strongbad how it's done
my email inbox just went from 76 emails to 8. everyone has been replied to, updated or deleted from my life. i feel so free.
ok seriously just one more
1.Hot Chocolate or apple cider? hot chocolate
2. Turkey or Ham? turkey. ham kinda grosses me out. i don't know why.
3. Do you get a Fake or Real you cut it yourself Christmas tree? fake. we got a real one the first year that my parents were married because bryan had always had a real one. my mom won.
4. Decorations on the outside of your house? yes. professionally done actually. but the fuse keeps blowing and my parents are not happy.
5. Snowball fights or sledding? they kind of go together don't they? oh man there has been neither this year. saddest realization of my life. someone had better change that.
6. Do you like hanging around the fireplace because it's warm? for a while but then my face gets all red and hot and the rest of me is still cold so i give up and find a blanket.
7. Do you enjoy going downtown shopping? yes!
8. Favorite Christmas song? "what child is this" and "all i want for christmas is you" (duh) and james taylor even though that's only christmas music to me and cate.
9. How do you feel about Christmas movies? quite nice
10. When is it not too early to start listening to Christmas music? anytime after thanksgiving. i don't like it when the holidays butt in on one another
11. Stockings before or after presents? always before
12. Carolers, do you or do you not watch and listen to them? i've only ever been the caroler
13. Go to someone elses house or they come to you? both. christmas is a busy day
14. Do you read the Christmas story? depends on how late it is when we get home from church/grandma's
15. What do you do after presents and dinner? presents, breakfast with grandma, dad's side at my brother's, lunch, drive to Jesup, dinner/christmas with aunt sandy, fall asleep in the car on the way home