I'm going to Spain.

It's official.

3-Hour Tour

Very odd day yesterday. (still today, but it's 1:15AM) I got up early to study for an exam. That should make you proud, dad. I went to class, then to a meeting, then to my exam. I decided to drive down to see my grandparents in Baytown for the evening, a 3 hour drive. I wanted to take my grandfather to see The Passion, but he didn't want to. So I just ate dinner with them and watched TV with them instead. Then I drove back to Austin cause I had to be back the next day. Randomly ended up picking up a hitch-hiker heading to Austin. That will scare you, mom.
Well, Daniel Kornguth ended up being a really interesting guy. He talked my ear off the whole 3 hours back and kept me awake. He happened to be a yankee, but it is always refreshing to meet some one who is so completely different from you, but with whom you can still have an intellectually stimulating conversation. We talked about history, politics, religion, music, traveling, etc. The usual stuff. I dropped him off at a hotel with a copy 'A Grief Observed' by C.S. Lewis which I had just finished reading. It'll give him something to do while he's waiting for his next ride.

Very cool day.

Hard Dog!

Went to go see The Passion of Christ tonight. Jesus is about as hard core as you could get. Everyone was shocked or crying during the film because it was so graphic. My friend Christy said it made her so sad. NO WAY! I left that theatre pumped! Yes, it was heart wrenching to see a cat-of-nine-tails ripping chunks of flesh from his back and to watch him struggle under the weight of the cross, but it didn't only make me sad. It gave me hope! I felt like jumping up and cheering from the back row when he got back up, picked up the cross, and kept going. He wouldn't quit! HE WOULD NOT QUIT! Rudy ain't got nothin on Jesus!

Been sick all day.

I think I've got a mild case of food poisoning. It's not bad, but it seems to be lingering. Yuck.
On the good side, I got to spend a good two hours talking to a good friend at the coffee shop down the street. I hadn't seen her all semester yet, so we had some catching up to do.
Now I must go to sleep. You know... 'miles to go' and all that stuff tomorrow.

New Skin

Well, I obviously have a new blog skin as you can see. I am still working out all of the kinks, which is quite challenging since I have no idea what I am doing. The new skin is clearly using some different tricks that I don't know yet. So it may be a few days before I get the comments back up and running. (Doug, help!)


Alright, this weekend was awesome. I was at 'Discovery Weekend', which is a training session for summer/semester missions applicants through the BGCT (Baptist General Convention of Texas). I had the privilege of spending a few days with some stellar brothers and sisters and pray about God's calling. It's exciting to see God working much less be invited to take part in that work.

I've been reading C.S. Lewis's "A Grief Observed". It's a journal he kept after his wife died of cancer. Here's the most recent deep thought:

"To see , in some measure, like God. His love and His knowledge are not distinct from one another, nor from Him. We could almost say He sees because He loves, and therefore loves although He sees."

Over and Out

This is the last post until next week. I'll be in Arlington for the BGCT missions training weekend. This is when I find out whether or not I get to go to Spain this Fall. Very exciting.

Proverbs 19
21 Many plans are in a man's heart,
But the counsel of the LORD will stand.

Obsolete

I have been dreaming these nights. Yes, even in the daylight, I have dreamt of Your battles. The path that shines all hope into my heart I have seen it in my dreams.
But I wake each morning. I find myself remaining in this clattering armorment of burdens.
Each face that I cannot turn away from and yet am incompetent to rescue.
These loyalties of oppression, they drown me. These failing strides will not reach their shores even though they put their hope in me.
But I dream of Your debut into these ashen fields. I dream of how you dry up the oceans and render me obsolete, yes superfluous.
Oh glory of rising thunder, come!

Slow learner.

I am slow to learn all of the ins and outs of this blogging stuff. Everyone else seems to have really trendy graphics with well laid out templates. But no, I have to use the standard green blah because I haven't figured out how to make or find a better one. If I had the time to sit around for hours on end to figure it all out, well...
I guess I'm just complaining.


Dimness
This dimness, it speaks in vagueness and tells me of my lack of words.
All of my words, they have said only one thing;they speak of merely, they speak of only me.
All of my searching and all of my language, it is missing this one thing, yes it is you.
I have found that I am not life, nor strength. I am not, I percieve not, I understand not.
They tell me that the world is measured through me, yet you are and I am not.
I am is and I am not.

Very Disappointing.

Went camping out at Enchanted Rock with some of the roommates over the weekend despite the Winter Weather Warning. People in Texas just don't understand the appeal of camping in the snow. And it did snow for the first time in central Texas in 4 years. Nice wet snow that sticks to the tree limbs and looks really cool. Unfortunately, the few shots I managed to get off before it started melting are not as good as I was anticipating. They came out too grainy.

I'll add some more tomorrow.

Last of the rest.

Actually, I think I will save a few for those days when I have nothing to post. But here are a few more.

Did anyone else ever watch Double Dare when they were a kid? They must have gotten their games from a hospital.



Interesting. I didn't realize that grinding the skate board down the railing was a part of physical therapy. I have this mental image of my grandma all decked out in skater gear, pop'in air and getting a grab on a 360. I'm going to have to quit typing for a minute while I finish laughing!

The walking lame.

It's another car trip.

I seem to be making a lot of them lately. My grandma on my dad's side is in the hospital recovering from a knee replacement. It's her third surgery in six months and I think she was getting a little tired of being laid up. As the only member of my immediate family able to, I decided to visit her this Thursday. I had to skip a class to go down to Baytown, sorry Dad. It won't kill me.

We were under orders not to send anymore flowers or plants, so us kids got together and bought her some books. I hate buying books for someone else to read. Two out of three books that I pick up I suddenly realize are ones that I want to read myself. I'm sure she has absolutely no interest in reading about strategic armorment and mobilization of military forces during the latter part of the 18th century or a digest of Roman law. I ended up getting two biographies of Eisenhower and Lawrence of Arabia. She likes biographies.
My grandpa took me to breakfast that morning at IHOP. It was a better deal than scrounging through the year old cereal they have stuffed away at their house for visitors. They don't eat too much of the stuff themselves.

Gramps finishing his pancakes.



The usual goodies on the table.

Grandma seemed to brighten up a bit while I was there. She is regaining some of her mobility, but she is still very tender.
I guess the only thing funny to come out of the trip was hearing about how my aunt answered the phone. As grandma heard it, the conversation went something like this:

-Hello.
(pause)
-No, you must have the wrong number.
(pause)
-No, they aren't here. They must have moved them somewhere else or they died.
-click.

No one ever accused her of being sensative. Turns out the caller was a nurse from the front desk doing a servey about patient satisfaction, etc. At least it wasn't some poor family member of a patient!

I'll finish later. Good night.

Already Past Sad, Now Approaching Pathetic

This has reached a very sad state of existence. I have been reduced to taking shots of stuff in my room with a webcam in order to have material to post. Oh the shame!

I have an ongoing project on my bedroom wall. As you can see (sort of), I washed it terra cotta and have begun laying out my black and white photos on it.

There is the occasional postcard or nicknacks thrown in the mix as well. There are a few color prints that got back lighted so they turned out black and white, but with a blue sky. I think it's an interesting touch.

These shots are so aweful. You pretty much can't get an over all view of it with the webcam. It just isn't good enough.

Well, on to greater things. Found an awesome photographer,

Noah Grey

. Check out his landscapes. He reminds me of me of Ansel Adams, but in color. Very cool stuff.

Short Trip

I went up to the Arlington area this weekend. Several of us from the BSM leadership team went to a conference on small group leadership. It was cool, but nothing surprising on the nitty gritty of it. It's all about the relationships. Programs and 10 step methods are great, but lives don't get changed until you invest in them personally. And that's just about the toughest thing that anyone can try to do. I picked up a few ideas here and there, but the really cool thing was running into a few old friends and making a few new ones. Rocky, Gary, and Lindsey, it was an awesome surprise to see you. Lauren, it was a great time hanging with you.

Stills
My life in black and white, frozen moments of wonder,
And You place them upon a crimson wall,
The pondering, the reverent, and the absurd.
You take these thousands of words,
and you steal away the language of my soul;
Not one word is left upon my tongue.
A thirst comes pouring forth like ten thousand flowing streams,
And Your glory strains this mortal flesh and finite mind.
May Your will be done in my heart as it is in heaven.
-BY

Overwhelming Monotony Due to Lack of New Photos...

My roommate is a bum.

Post Script.
Monotony: from the Latin mono, meaning one, and tony, meaning a man who is married to to ones aunt and collects a cornucopia of paraphenalia. Interestingly, there is no use of the constituent tony with any other prefix denoting number. It is assumed that the ancient Romans knew that there was only room enough for one Tony in the family.

Post Post Script.
Sorry Uncle Tony. It just came to me in a flash of brilliance. Can I still blame it on the Vicodin?

No Comments?!

Alright people. I know for a fact that there are at least 3 people who occasionally read this site! And the only comments I get are... well I don't get any comments, but that's the besides the point. Wait... I mean that IS the point. Somebody give me some feed back!

Getting stuff done!

Hurrah! I finally got the last of my job applications completed and turned back in. Now I can just sit back and wait for them to come beat down my door. No problem... any minute now... there'll be tons of them... any minute. Hmmm... Maybe I could have overestimated the effect that my breathtaking charisma had on them. Nah! They'll be here any minute now...

Alright, at least things are going well at the job that I don't get paid for: Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) leadership team. Basically a "coordinator" should "facilitate" those under him doing their jobs and be the go-to-guy. Right...so they do everything and I just look like I'm busy.
Actually, it's a really fun job. There are 5 of us coordinators and we each have several people under us heading up the different ministries of the BSM. Since most of the ministry leaders are relative new-comers, we are there to help them get their feet under them at first. But our real job is to disciple them so that they continue to grow and mature in their relationship with Christ and as leaders.
Basically, that means that I get to hang out with them in cafes through out the week and just talk about everything. It's great!

Hey Mom and Dad! I hope everything is going well down in Guatemala. I'll be praying for you.

Spoon and Glass.

Here's some more old ones.

Obviously a spoon.

Obviously a glass.

Ok, I'm switching to Aleve today. I think the spoon was at a classy seafood restaurant in Valparaiso. We were definitely not classy. (Not to mention any names... Rocky!)

Tolerance

Sorry, don't mean to gross anyone out but...

Well, I seem to be building a tolerance for Ibuprofen and Tylenol. They aren't working anymore, even though I'm alternating them every two hours now. The sockets seem to be healing ok...no blood, etc. But keeping food out of them is a pain in the neck. They gave me this little plastic syringe looking gadget to jet water into the sockets and flush them out. When it hits just the right spot, it hurts like a molten hot drill dripping acid. But I have to hit that spot cause that's how I know I got everything out. If I don't get everything out, well...we don't want to go there.

I woke up last night about 5AM cause of my teeth. So I took some more Tylenol PM and went right back to sleep. Problem was that I slept right through church the next morning. I hate doing that.