Last post was my first Kansan article....but not my last!! I just received word this morning that I got an opinion columnist position at the University Daily Kansan, effective next semester!!!
I will try to post links to the stories on this blog and the actual stories on the optometrist.
I'm hittin the big time!
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Thursday, December 07, 2006
I'm Published!
My first article in the Kansan was published today! http://www.kansan.com/stories/2006/dec/07/holidays/
It's an article about non-Christmas holidays celebrated around campus.
Enjoy!
It's an article about non-Christmas holidays celebrated around campus.
Enjoy!
Friday, December 01, 2006
November Rewind
Looks like I didn't mind the gap. Sorry for the nopost November, everyone. Stuff has gotten a little crazy with finals and breaks and whatnot down here.
So, to make it up, we'll have November Rewind:
The first weekend of November, I got to go home to see my sister in "Kiss Me, Kate." But I already wrote about all that, so moving on!
I had two weeks of classes in between that and Thanksgiving. They didn't exactly fly by, but they didn't go slow either. It might have just been normal time, or something weird like that.
Not much exciting happened in those two weeks.
Then I got to go home for Thanksgiving!!! My dad came down that Tuesday after my math class, and we drove the long haul back to Hutch (thanks for driving a buttload, dad!). We got back, I danced with my sister in the hallway for awhile (it was late), and then went to bed.
Not much exciting happened in those two weeks.Wednesday I pretty much just sat around. Kayla came back Wednesday night, so I hung out there and did a puzzle with her and her family (don't ask). Thursday we had another family from church come over for Thanksgiving Dinner, which featured my mother's magnificent turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, pumpkin pie, butterhorn rolls (kinda like crossaints, but much better), and a bunch of other stuff I probably forgot. It was delicious. Friday was another sitting around day. I went over to Kayla's again and she stole a bunch of my music I had on my computer (song count now at 2018) with my permission.
Saturday I went with Kayla to her dad's brother's house for Thanksgiving with them (thanks again for inviting me, Lahrs!) It was my first time meeting the extended family all together like that. Kinda scary, but they're a lot of fun. We played two or three board games and got pretty competitive.
Sunday, I went to church and then flew back to Lawrence.
This week has been kind of exciting. On Tuesday, I wore shorts. On Wednesday and Thursday, we had a large ice storm and then some snow (i'm sitting in the computer lab in my stocking cap on and my winter coat behind me). I even had to break out the ninja mask yesterday.
Dumb Kansas weather. Can't make up it's mind.
I also decided to write for the Kansan! They've asked me once before to write for them, but I turned them down. This time, I had a buttload to do (and still have that buttload), but I decided to go for it. I'm writing about non-Christmas holidays that students celebrate. If it's online, and I think it will be, I'll post a link to it.
Well, I think that about does it. Sorry again about the gap.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
Musical
My sister is a STAR! An angry one, at that.
I saw my sister in our high school's production of "Kiss Me, Kate" this past weekend. She was the Kate of the title, so my parents were nice enough to fly me home for the weekend to see her (I also got to see Kayla!).
"Kiss Me, Kate" is a play within a play. The plot follows a group of actors performing Shakespeare's "The Taming Of The Shrew," and there are scenes from both "worlds." It's a little complicated, but quite entertaining. Megan played Kate, who is quite angry and yells a lot
throughout the three-hour show. She also sang a hilarious song entitled "I Hate Men," which a few people have decided will be shown at her wedding dinner. Hehe. She was amazing, and sang louder and more intensly than I have ever seen. And got in way more fights.It was a lot of fun being home this weekend. This was the first time I got to go back this year. Now I have two weeks until thanksgiving break, and then another two weeks before Christmas break. Yay!
Saturday, October 28, 2006
KC Weekend pictures up!
I know it was like a month ago, but i finally have the pictures from the family weekend in Kansas City. They can be found at my Photobucket account.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Chill out!
At least that's what the weather is finally deciding to sort of do, lately. It is Kansas, and as a member of my church here put it, that means that "one day it's summer and the next it's winter."
Not much has been going on here in Kansas. There's a few midterm-type things left, and it's 11 days (seven hours, five minutes) until I get to go home for my sister's musical. I didn't have either journalism class this morning, and my psych lecture was canceled (hence me updating my blog right now).
I had a worship team picnic on Saturday, during which we also listened to the KU/Baylor game. Yuck. This is the fourth game in a row that we have lost in the fourth quarter. Argh. We can't seem to be able to hold a lead. In the first half, we held them at 35-17 or something like that, and then they beat us 36-35 in the last few minutes. Also, in the last minute, everything wrong that possible could go wrong did. Interception? Check. Sack? Check. Dropped pass? Check. Incomplete pass? Check. The list goes on. I think that KU should just not come on the field the first half. Let the other team score a few times, and then come out for the second half and play that like the first half. Argh.
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I updated The Optometrist today, also. "Football dad pulls gun on coach to get son in game." Good stuff.
Not much has been going on here in Kansas. There's a few midterm-type things left, and it's 11 days (seven hours, five minutes) until I get to go home for my sister's musical. I didn't have either journalism class this morning, and my psych lecture was canceled (hence me updating my blog right now).
I had a worship team picnic on Saturday, during which we also listened to the KU/Baylor game. Yuck. This is the fourth game in a row that we have lost in the fourth quarter. Argh. We can't seem to be able to hold a lead. In the first half, we held them at 35-17 or something like that, and then they beat us 36-35 in the last few minutes. Also, in the last minute, everything wrong that possible could go wrong did. Interception? Check. Sack? Check. Dropped pass? Check. Incomplete pass? Check. The list goes on. I think that KU should just not come on the field the first half. Let the other team score a few times, and then come out for the second half and play that like the first half. Argh.
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I updated The Optometrist today, also. "Football dad pulls gun on coach to get son in game." Good stuff.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Fall Break is done. Boo Mondays.
Fall break is finally over. After a wonderful four-day weekend of doing absolutely nothing, I must sadly get off my butt and do stuff.
Dang.
I did watch a buttload of movies this weekend, though. Loren has quite a collection.
Today looks like a standard Monday. Rainyish (misting/spitting/whatever you want to call it), hard to get out of bed, gray, etc. But this Monday was somewhat better, thanks to the results of the Russian test I took the Wednesday before Fall Break! I got a 84%! I got a B!
*dances a Russian jig*
This is quite a large improvement over my first test in there.
Maybe Mondays aren't so bad after all!
Dang.
I did watch a buttload of movies this weekend, though. Loren has quite a collection.
Today looks like a standard Monday. Rainyish (misting/spitting/whatever you want to call it), hard to get out of bed, gray, etc. But this Monday was somewhat better, thanks to the results of the Russian test I took the Wednesday before Fall Break! I got a 84%! I got a B!
*dances a Russian jig*
This is quite a large improvement over my first test in there.
Maybe Mondays aren't so bad after all!
Sunday, October 08, 2006
The Bubble Monster Strikes Again!
Yes, the Bubble Monster (tm) has struck again. Even though they've "fixed" it twice, it's apparently still active. Kendal came out from his room while I was on my computer and noticed it had erupted again. It wasn't a very big eruption, nothing like the first one, but this is after they've "fixed" it twice! Last time they "fixed" it, there was 6 people in and out of our room trying to "fix" it.
So if this is the 7th time, how many more times is it gonna take for them to actually fix it? Last time they had people down in the boiler room knocking around, people crowded around the sink, etc.
Ah, college.
EDIT: The Bubble Monster (tm) struck again around midnight. The count is up to 8.
So if this is the 7th time, how many more times is it gonna take for them to actually fix it? Last time they had people down in the boiler room knocking around, people crowded around the sink, etc.
Ah, college.
EDIT: The Bubble Monster (tm) struck again around midnight. The count is up to 8.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Livin' the fantasy life.
This past weekend, my aunt and uncle celebrated their 30th anniversery by inviting the whole family to Kansas City for a weekend at the Hyatt, free of charge to us! Acutally, my aunt didn't have anything to do with it, she was clueless. My very creative and resourceful uncle set it all up without her ever knowing. I will attempt to post some pictures of the weekend on photobucket, if it feels like cooperating. I had a lot of fun with my family, and it was great to see my mom and dad again. Especially since she brought apples from the local orchard in Minnesota and her famous blonde brownies.
They're going fast.
Nothing else has been going on down here. The weather has been outrageously warm for October, but I'm sounding like an old person. Fall break is coming up next week, which means everyone else in my room gets to go home except me.
Maybe I'll actually write more in my blog! Gasp!
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Remember to keep checking "the optometrist" for more news analysis of the day!
They're going fast.
Nothing else has been going on down here. The weather has been outrageously warm for October, but I'm sounding like an old person. Fall break is coming up next week, which means everyone else in my room gets to go home except me.
Maybe I'll actually write more in my blog! Gasp!
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Remember to keep checking "the optometrist" for more news analysis of the day!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Oooo!
If you're noticing a change, then congrats. You pick up on things fast. "Life of a Jayhawk," as well as "The Optometrist" have undergone facelifts! Blogger, the Google company that hosts my blogs, recently redid their software, so here's the results! Everything should be the same, but if you have any questions about the new format, let me know!
Monday, September 18, 2006
The Black Hole of September
Wow, where does the time go? Sorry about the outage.
Life goes on here in Kansas. I've been posting a lot on my second blog, "The Optometrist." You can find that link over there on the right-hand side of your screen. Stuff's been happening the world that's more exciting than my life, apparently.
I've had two tests so far, one in psychology (easy) and one in russian (hehehe...nervous laugh). I have a test in geology on Wednesday night (Argh!) when I already was going to skip my scheduled Bible study for Navs music practice. Talk about bad timing.
Speaking of geology:
The lecture is fine. Straightforward, easy, notes typed out for you already when you come in. Pretty much the epitome of a slacker class. To fufill the lab requirement, though, I had to take the optional lab which bumped my time in geology up to 5 credit hours. Yuck. The lab is terrible. The T.A. is brand-spanking new to the whole newfangled "teaching" thing and hasn't a clue what he's doing. And he smells like glue. I've identified probably over 30 rocks and minerals in that class so far.
And to what avail? To satisfy my one lab science requirement for the j-school. Argh!
On the other hand, my journalism class is going quite well. The lecture is at 8 in the morning, which puts a damper on things, but the lab is later, and more one-on-one, hands-on style. I haven't gotten to write any hard-hitting investigative pieces yet, but they will come. Hopefully.
Other than classes, life goes as usual. I'm still playing my guitar for Navs and my church, and hopefully will be playing my saxophone for some instrumental thing my church may or may not be doing.
I will get to go home in early November, thanks to the amazing skills of my sister! She recently aquired the lead in the high school version of "Kiss Me, Kate." She's Kate, obviously. My parents are flying me home that weekend on frequent flyer miles (thank you, Singapore) to see her! And I get to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas to boot. Yay!
I think that's about it for the update. I'll try to be more regular.
Read "The Optometrist" for a different view of the world around you!
Life goes on here in Kansas. I've been posting a lot on my second blog, "The Optometrist." You can find that link over there on the right-hand side of your screen. Stuff's been happening the world that's more exciting than my life, apparently.
I've had two tests so far, one in psychology (easy) and one in russian (hehehe...nervous laugh). I have a test in geology on Wednesday night (Argh!) when I already was going to skip my scheduled Bible study for Navs music practice. Talk about bad timing.
Speaking of geology:
The lecture is fine. Straightforward, easy, notes typed out for you already when you come in. Pretty much the epitome of a slacker class. To fufill the lab requirement, though, I had to take the optional lab which bumped my time in geology up to 5 credit hours. Yuck. The lab is terrible. The T.A. is brand-spanking new to the whole newfangled "teaching" thing and hasn't a clue what he's doing. And he smells like glue. I've identified probably over 30 rocks and minerals in that class so far.
And to what avail? To satisfy my one lab science requirement for the j-school. Argh!
On the other hand, my journalism class is going quite well. The lecture is at 8 in the morning, which puts a damper on things, but the lab is later, and more one-on-one, hands-on style. I haven't gotten to write any hard-hitting investigative pieces yet, but they will come. Hopefully.
Other than classes, life goes as usual. I'm still playing my guitar for Navs and my church, and hopefully will be playing my saxophone for some instrumental thing my church may or may not be doing.
I will get to go home in early November, thanks to the amazing skills of my sister! She recently aquired the lead in the high school version of "Kiss Me, Kate." She's Kate, obviously. My parents are flying me home that weekend on frequent flyer miles (thank you, Singapore) to see her! And I get to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas to boot. Yay!
I think that's about it for the update. I'll try to be more regular.
Read "The Optometrist" for a different view of the world around you!
Monday, September 04, 2006
An Odd (un)Labor Day weekend
It most certainly was an Unlabor Day weekend. I did the exact opposite of what the title assumes.
Ha!
Anyways, it was a weird one, to say the least. Saturday passed without incident. Loren and Stefan were home and Kendal was hanging out with friends from elsewhere most of the weekend. Sunday came around, and I was not able to find a ride to church. Turns out most of the Navs people that go to my church were on a Navs leadership retreat thingymabob. So, in lieu of the real church building, I downloaded a podcast of a sermon from August 13th. Yay technology! I had my own little church right here in my dorm room. Then the Mittelbergs (my aunt Beth, uncle Mark, and weird cousin Julia) called me up to invite me to dinner! The parents were in KC visiting Julia, who works in Olathe. So we went to Molly McGee's on Iowa St. here in Lawrence. Really really good buffalo wings. We stayed the entire duration of Ms. Congeniality on TBS (they had a buncha TVs there).
After dinner, it was just relaxation time. I talked to my family, finished up some journalism hw, etc. Around 11:30, I glanced at a headline about Steve Irwin's death (link to my blog entry)
and wrote in my blog about it before CNN even had it on it's ticker! It certainly was shocking news.
Today's been a boring Unlabor Day. Did a bunch of reading, started the Navs bible study, and watched "Pirates of the Caribbean."
Unlabor Day indeed.
Ha!
Anyways, it was a weird one, to say the least. Saturday passed without incident. Loren and Stefan were home and Kendal was hanging out with friends from elsewhere most of the weekend. Sunday came around, and I was not able to find a ride to church. Turns out most of the Navs people that go to my church were on a Navs leadership retreat thingymabob. So, in lieu of the real church building, I downloaded a podcast of a sermon from August 13th. Yay technology! I had my own little church right here in my dorm room. Then the Mittelbergs (my aunt Beth, uncle Mark, and weird cousin Julia) called me up to invite me to dinner! The parents were in KC visiting Julia, who works in Olathe. So we went to Molly McGee's on Iowa St. here in Lawrence. Really really good buffalo wings. We stayed the entire duration of Ms. Congeniality on TBS (they had a buncha TVs there).
After dinner, it was just relaxation time. I talked to my family, finished up some journalism hw, etc. Around 11:30, I glanced at a headline about Steve Irwin's death (link to my blog entry)
and wrote in my blog about it before CNN even had it on it's ticker! It certainly was shocking news.
Today's been a boring Unlabor Day. Did a bunch of reading, started the Navs bible study, and watched "Pirates of the Caribbean."
Unlabor Day indeed.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
New blog!
Yes, that's right, I have two now. This will be my primary personal blog, relating events happening to me and stories and whatnot. My other blog, just started today, is called "The Optometrist." Why the funky title? It will be my goal to help readers better see the world. I will take news stories from the world and then comment on them. Simple enough.
Well, tell me what you think, and be sure to Comment!
Well, tell me what you think, and be sure to Comment!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
New linxx and KS update
If you look over on the right-hand bar, the one that says something about "hot linxx," you'll notice two new ones; one for Christ Community Church (CCC) here in Lawrence and one for Hutch E-Free in Hutchinson. If you want to know more about my beliefs (you could just ask me) or about the churches I attend, click away.
Now for the update. Not much is happening here, besides the weather. I think it's been raining for about a day straight, and shows no signs of stopping. I'm sorry to all those who live in Seattle. I can only imagine. I played my guitar for worship today at CCC for the first time this year. Felt good to be back in the saddle, as it were. And I got some free Dunn Brothers coffee from the worship pastor. And a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. Yum Yum.
That's about it from the great state of Kansas. Be sure to check out the new linxx and leave plenty of comments!
Now for the update. Not much is happening here, besides the weather. I think it's been raining for about a day straight, and shows no signs of stopping. I'm sorry to all those who live in Seattle. I can only imagine. I played my guitar for worship today at CCC for the first time this year. Felt good to be back in the saddle, as it were. And I got some free Dunn Brothers coffee from the worship pastor. And a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. Yum Yum.That's about it from the great state of Kansas. Be sure to check out the new linxx and leave plenty of comments!
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Welcome New Readers!
As if facebook.com (a college networking site; think a more sophisicated myspace) didn't provide enough connectivity, now my blog will be published on my facebook profile! Those not in college or high school will continue to have to read my blog here, but those on facebook will be able to read all about me in one place! Exciting, isn't it?
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Summer Addendum/First Week Back/One Year Blogaversary
There's one thing I forgot to add to my post about the summer that I must add at the request of my mother. When we were shopping in Bozeman, my sister and my mom saw some guy shaking hands with some other guy saying "Nice to meet you!" or something like that. They both thought that was kinda weird, but then the guy turned around and said "I just met the Fonz!" Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my mother and sister met the man who met the Fonz, aka Henry Winkler. My sister tried to get a picture of him, and ended up getting the back of his head.
Oh well.
I've had "one week" here at KU. Classes started on Thursday, and I've had four out of five of my classes. I had just Math 111 (probability and statistics) on Thursday, and Russian 212 (a continuation of last year), Geology 101 (yup, that's what it is), and Psychology 104 (yup, that's what that is, too). So far, so good. I have Journalism 301, a continuation of my hopefully increasing number of journalism courses. Since that is my major and everything.
And now for a big annoucement...MY BLOG IS ONE YEAR OLD!
Yes, one year ago today, I started "Life as a Jayhawk" to keep my homies apprised of any breaking details. Let's have a look back, shall we?
On Friday, August 19th, 2005, I wrote:
"Two days of classes done. Russian looks fun...except for the annoying TA. She doesn't really know what she's doing...she just kinda wings it it seems like. She goes way to fast when teaching us pronouncation, but we catch up. J-101 seems fun; the prof is a goofball. Yay! Speech looks okay...it's a grad student so he's pretty laid back so far. English looks just like A.P. English except with a lot fewer papers.
Hallelujah.
How are things on the social end? Non-existant. I haven't really done anything with anybody yet. I'm hoping the Navs thing on Sunday will solve that.
That's all for now."
Ah, to be a freshman. No wait. That's not nostalgic. I didn't like KU for a while. Nevermind.
Anyways, Happy Birthday Blog!
Oh well.
I've had "one week" here at KU. Classes started on Thursday, and I've had four out of five of my classes. I had just Math 111 (probability and statistics) on Thursday, and Russian 212 (a continuation of last year), Geology 101 (yup, that's what it is), and Psychology 104 (yup, that's what that is, too). So far, so good. I have Journalism 301, a continuation of my hopefully increasing number of journalism courses. Since that is my major and everything.
And now for a big annoucement...MY BLOG IS ONE YEAR OLD!
Yes, one year ago today, I started "Life as a Jayhawk" to keep my homies apprised of any breaking details. Let's have a look back, shall we?
On Friday, August 19th, 2005, I wrote:
"Two days of classes done. Russian looks fun...except for the annoying TA. She doesn't really know what she's doing...she just kinda wings it it seems like. She goes way to fast when teaching us pronouncation, but we catch up. J-101 seems fun; the prof is a goofball. Yay! Speech looks okay...it's a grad student so he's pretty laid back so far. English looks just like A.P. English except with a lot fewer papers.
Hallelujah.
How are things on the social end? Non-existant. I haven't really done anything with anybody yet. I'm hoping the Navs thing on Sunday will solve that.
That's all for now."
Ah, to be a freshman. No wait. That's not nostalgic. I didn't like KU for a while. Nevermind.
Anyways, Happy Birthday Blog!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Summer Summary
Catchy, isn't it? Well, it has been a great summer. I got to make a lot of money at 3M (wheee) and have fun times with my friends and family.
Last week my family and I were in Montana on our family vacation. (The pictures are up on my photobucket account, you can find the link on the right side of your screen.) It was basically like Colorado, except not. That's really the only way I can explain it, unfortunately. We rented a cabin halfway between Bozeman and Big Sky in the Gallatin National Forest. It was great fun. We did some hiking, some whitewater rafting (Megan fell out once...oops!), some shopping, and even some horseback riding. I took probably around 200 pictures there, so I was pretty busy with that. While we were there, I read the combined effort of Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, House, in less than 9 hours. Yes, it's that good.
After we got back on Saturday, it was super-fast-packing-time for me, since I left two days later. I packed for a while that night, went to Kayla's house for awhile, and packed some more. On Sunday, my youth group went to ValleyFair, an amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota. It was loads of fun, except for the whole getting really wet on water rides thing. That, not so much.
And most importantly, behind getting to spend a whole day with Kayla (YAY!), we recieved a new motto in life: "Don't Poke The Bear."
Explanation: We rode one of the old wooden rollercoasters there called "Excalibur." It was kind of out of the way, in the back of the park, so not many people were there. The operator who has to give that mundane safety talk (arms and legs inside at all times, etc.) decided to be a little more wacky with his speech. This is a quote from Kayla's facebook profile:
"Will the next victims please step forward, fasten your seatbelts and pull down your lap bar. If you don't have a lap bar, that's to bad. Just hang on tight. There will be absolutely no laughing, screaming or having fun on this ride. If you do, you might wake the bear. If you do wake the bear, we ask that you do not feed the bear, do not poke the bear, and do not look directly at the bear. If the bear begins to charge, we suggest that you stop, drop, and roll."
Yeah. Don't Poke The Bear!!!
Last week my family and I were in Montana on our family vacation. (The pictures are up on my photobucket account, you can find the link on the right side of your screen.) It was basically like Colorado, except not. That's really the only way I can explain it, unfortunately. We rented a cabin halfway between Bozeman and Big Sky in the Gallatin National Forest. It was great fun. We did some hiking, some whitewater rafting (Megan fell out once...oops!), some shopping, and even some horseback riding. I took probably around 200 pictures there, so I was pretty busy with that. While we were there, I read the combined effort of Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, House, in less than 9 hours. Yes, it's that good.
After we got back on Saturday, it was super-fast-packing-time for me, since I left two days later. I packed for a while that night, went to Kayla's house for awhile, and packed some more. On Sunday, my youth group went to ValleyFair, an amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota. It was loads of fun, except for the whole getting really wet on water rides thing. That, not so much.
And most importantly, behind getting to spend a whole day with Kayla (YAY!), we recieved a new motto in life: "Don't Poke The Bear."
Explanation: We rode one of the old wooden rollercoasters there called "Excalibur." It was kind of out of the way, in the back of the park, so not many people were there. The operator who has to give that mundane safety talk (arms and legs inside at all times, etc.) decided to be a little more wacky with his speech. This is a quote from Kayla's facebook profile:
"Will the next victims please step forward, fasten your seatbelts and pull down your lap bar. If you don't have a lap bar, that's to bad. Just hang on tight. There will be absolutely no laughing, screaming or having fun on this ride. If you do, you might wake the bear. If you do wake the bear, we ask that you do not feed the bear, do not poke the bear, and do not look directly at the bear. If the bear begins to charge, we suggest that you stop, drop, and roll."
Yeah. Don't Poke The Bear!!!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Filler
That's all this is. After a great end of the summer and a great week in Montana with my folks, I'm finally back (yay?) in Lawrence for my Sophomore year here at KU. Tomorrow I'll be regaling you all with vacation stories, explaining why we all should not poke the bear, and what I left behind in Hutch.
Tune in tomorrow!
Tune in tomorrow!
Monday, July 24, 2006
The Summer Is Slowing
...as well as not getting any cooler. It's been in the 90s here for the past week or so. Yuck.
Well, sorry I haven't written on here at all this month. There really hasn't been anything that exciting going on around here.
I lead the youth group on Wednesday for the first time! I'm gonna talk about college life (and hopefully not scare them too much, ;) ). Should be exciting!
I recieved my first mp3 player today! I know, I'm a little behind the curve. I didn't get one of those fancy-schmancy iPods, though. I just bought a Creative MuVo TX FM.
Translation?
It's an mp3 player that has a radio, and can plug directly into the USB port on the computer. It's basically a jumpdrive with buttons and a screen. I'm listening to it now, and I am quite impressed. I bought the 512mb model, and I fit around 150 songs on it. I don't need an iPod that carries around all my music. I can delete and move stuff around pretty easily.
Not much else is going on around here, but my dear mother wanted a new post.
Well, sorry I haven't written on here at all this month. There really hasn't been anything that exciting going on around here.
I lead the youth group on Wednesday for the first time! I'm gonna talk about college life (and hopefully not scare them too much, ;) ). Should be exciting!
I recieved my first mp3 player today! I know, I'm a little behind the curve. I didn't get one of those fancy-schmancy iPods, though. I just bought a Creative MuVo TX FM.
Translation?
It's an mp3 player that has a radio, and can plug directly into the USB port on the computer. It's basically a jumpdrive with buttons and a screen. I'm listening to it now, and I am quite impressed. I bought the 512mb model, and I fit around 150 songs on it. I don't need an iPod that carries around all my music. I can delete and move stuff around pretty easily.
Not much else is going on around here, but my dear mother wanted a new post.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Superman and Journalism, all in one great movie!
Who could ask for anything more?
I just saw the new "Superman Returns" movie last night. I was going because I had heard many good things about it, and because Kayla was back from vacation (so the movie was infinitely better in that respect as well).
Ah where do I begin? The cast. Every person in this film is perfect. Clark/Superman (played by Iowa native Brandon Routh) handles the goofiness of Clark and the superb confidence of Superman extremely well, so much so that Lois Lane and her beau (Lois played by Kate Bosworth and Richard White, her financee by James Marsden) laugh as Richard notices some slight similarites between Clark Kent and Superman.
Despite being the main characters, they were all outdone by Kevin Spacey as the evil (and quite humorous) Lex Luthor. In the original 1978 Superman film, Luthor was played by Gene Hackman, and Spacey brought back the goofiness/creepyness of the original. Long close-up shots are very well-done, showing the emotions of all the actors at various stages of their emotional roller-coasters in the film.
The CGI effects are incredible, and probably why this film took around 200 million dollars to make. I do believe that is the most expensive movie to date...ever. There was only one shot in the entire 2 1/2 hour movie that I thought looked a little fake. Everything else, the waves, the water, the flying effects of Superman himself, various earthquakes, explosions, everything looked legit and photo-realistic.
The story was also quite imaginative. They didn't quite take the same route as the folks did with Batman Begins, with all the darkness and real-world grit, but they did add some very human (pun intended) qualities to Superman and Metropolis. There were several twists that totally threw me off the loop, as it did for many. There is one major twist, which I will not mention, that no one saw coming. You'll just have to go see it!
And of course, the wonderful Daily Planet. I can only hope I can get a job interviewing Superman once I become a journalist.
That was a joke. Hahahaha! Nevermind.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Wait-I have a BLOG? Oh yeah!
Yeah, I remember this old thing! It's been awhile. And sadly, nothing has really happened that is of note.
I've been doing a steady 40 hours a week at 3M. I've made around 1000 so far, so the money's quite good! I get a four-day weekend because of the 4th, so I guess that's exciting.
I really don't have anything to talk about. Nothing exciting in the news (to me). Well, this was just (another) post to let you all know that I'm still alive.
I've been doing a steady 40 hours a week at 3M. I've made around 1000 so far, so the money's quite good! I get a four-day weekend because of the 4th, so I guess that's exciting.
I really don't have anything to talk about. Nothing exciting in the news (to me). Well, this was just (another) post to let you all know that I'm still alive.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Oooooops......
Another week come and gone. Work is getting tougher, but that's how things go. I did training stuff all last week, and this week i started on the machine. I won't describe what I do. It's too boring and technical. It all really depends on who is gone what day. Some days I'll be running the sheeter, some days packing, etc. That's really all that's been going on here...just wanted to update to let you all know i wasn't dead.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
One Week Home!
And it's been a fun week. My dad and I drove all the way home on friday night and got into Hutch around 1:30. On Saturday I went to Kayla's graduation party basically all day. Sunday I played my guitar for church, and we also had a fellowship dinner (or was it a welcome home dinner for me? hmmm...). The rest of this week has been pretty laid back. On monday, i went in to 3M and took various tests for my job which is starting this Tuesday. Last night we had a going-away party/dinner thing for the Davises, which was a lot of fun also.
Overall, it's just good to be home. I start work on Tuesday, and I work 5 days a week, from 7am to 3pm. Shouldn't be too bad. And it pays 9 bucks an hour, so it's really not too bad.
Well, I guess that's about it for this entry. I decided to update since my parents were giving me a hard time about not updating it ("How are we supposed to know what's going on in your life?")
Until next time...!
Overall, it's just good to be home. I start work on Tuesday, and I work 5 days a week, from 7am to 3pm. Shouldn't be too bad. And it pays 9 bucks an hour, so it's really not too bad.
Well, I guess that's about it for this entry. I decided to update since my parents were giving me a hard time about not updating it ("How are we supposed to know what's going on in your life?")
Until next time...!
Thursday, May 18, 2006
STAR WARS DELETED SCENE!!!!
Back in 1977, the first Star Wars film was released. Not included in the original theatrical release or special edition was the famous Biggs and Luke scene. For the nerds, Biggs was the friend Luke saw before the launch of the attack on the Death Star. It was supposed to be in between when the droids escape and when Leia was captured. I agree that it shouldn't have gone there, but now that I have watched it, i think it is excellent and really shows why Luke wanted to leave Tatooine.
I know, I'm a nerd, but this is really exciting for me.
Here's the link on youtube.com. Make sure you have a relativly fast net connection to watch it.
I know, I'm a nerd, but this is really exciting for me.
Here's the link on youtube.com. Make sure you have a relativly fast net connection to watch it.
'Tis a good day
Today was a good day. I completed my last two finals. My history one took all of 8 minutes (it was only 25 multiple choice/true false questions), and my econ took about 30 minutes (40 multiple choice questions). After my history one, I went to the private bookstore here called Jayhawk Bookstore (they are not affilated with the university in any way) to try to sell back the rest of my books. They took the never-used econ one the university wouldn't take back and a bunch of other ones and gave me $100.00 for all of them. I have decided never to deal with the university book stores again.
I have a majority of my stuff packed up and my dad is coming here around 3 or 4 tomorrow to load up all my stuff. I helped Stefan move out all his stuff today too.
One day left!
I have a majority of my stuff packed up and my dad is coming here around 3 or 4 tomorrow to load up all my stuff. I helped Stefan move out all his stuff today too.
One day left!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
*Said in William Wallace voice* "FREEEEEDOMMM!!!"
Hallelujah! Russian is over! True, I do have another year left, but it's done for this year. WOOHOO! The final was....okay. I memorized a composition thingy for it, so i at least got that part right. Now I just have two more finals tomorrow, which I'm not worried about at all. East Asian History's in the morning, and our prof said it should take about 15 minutes tops. Econ104 is in the afternoon, and that shouldn't be a problem. Easy class. Then, come Friday at 4:00, I'm outta here!
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In related happy news (for me, at least), the controversial film The Da Vinci Code opened today to critics and will open "worldwide" as it's ads say tomorrow to somewhat mixed reviews. On the review site RottenTomatoes.com (here's a link to the Da Vinci reviews), many critics said it was "boring," "too long," and just "overblown." I couldn't be happier. While i may be a hypocrite since i've never actually read the book, I think what Dan Brown (the author) is doing with it is despicable. He claims it's all "based" on fact, but he takes certain "liberties" (including saying the peaceful Catholic group Opus Dei is really a murderous cult, saying Constantine decided what was in the Bible and the deity of Jesus, and that Jesus married Mary Magdelene) to make his story more interesting. Of course, many Christian groups are outraged, and the atheists and other anti-Christian groups are (were) having a wonderful time. It is released tomorrow to the mainstream, so we'll just have to see how it goes.
Here's what i have to say to fellow believers, though. You are not to judge. Only Jesus Christ is the true Judge in our world, and we should not tell other people that they are "going to hell if they watch this film." I really don't have a desire to see it, but one of my friends from Minnesota says he's going to see it to see how he can talk to people about the truth. We should not be "Bible-beaters." People love it when Christians come across as rude and uninformed. We are called to love everyone. Not just believers, not just people receptive to the truth. Everyone. That means, no telling people they're going to hell (who are we to tell people that), no trying to get people to boycott the film, nothing like that. All we need to do is just calmly tell people the truth. If we follow Jesus' example, Dan Brown's discrepencies and fallacies will be brought to light and the lies will fail. If we become violent and yelly (if that's a word), no one will take us seriously.
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Alright, i'm done. Probably one more post in Kansas, and then this summer's entries will be live from Hutchinson, Minnesota!!!
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In related happy news (for me, at least), the controversial film The Da Vinci Code opened today to critics and will open "worldwide" as it's ads say tomorrow to somewhat mixed reviews. On the review site RottenTomatoes.com (here's a link to the Da Vinci reviews), many critics said it was "boring," "too long," and just "overblown." I couldn't be happier. While i may be a hypocrite since i've never actually read the book, I think what Dan Brown (the author) is doing with it is despicable. He claims it's all "based" on fact, but he takes certain "liberties" (including saying the peaceful Catholic group Opus Dei is really a murderous cult, saying Constantine decided what was in the Bible and the deity of Jesus, and that Jesus married Mary Magdelene) to make his story more interesting. Of course, many Christian groups are outraged, and the atheists and other anti-Christian groups are (were) having a wonderful time. It is released tomorrow to the mainstream, so we'll just have to see how it goes.
Here's what i have to say to fellow believers, though. You are not to judge. Only Jesus Christ is the true Judge in our world, and we should not tell other people that they are "going to hell if they watch this film." I really don't have a desire to see it, but one of my friends from Minnesota says he's going to see it to see how he can talk to people about the truth. We should not be "Bible-beaters." People love it when Christians come across as rude and uninformed. We are called to love everyone. Not just believers, not just people receptive to the truth. Everyone. That means, no telling people they're going to hell (who are we to tell people that), no trying to get people to boycott the film, nothing like that. All we need to do is just calmly tell people the truth. If we follow Jesus' example, Dan Brown's discrepencies and fallacies will be brought to light and the lies will fail. If we become violent and yelly (if that's a word), no one will take us seriously.
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Alright, i'm done. Probably one more post in Kansas, and then this summer's entries will be live from Hutchinson, Minnesota!!!
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Whoa!
Ooops....it's been a little while. Actually, there isn't really a whole lot to write about. Classes are over as of Thursday, and my first final is on Wednesday. I do have a few take-home essays to finish, but for the most part, finals shouldn't be that hard. Except of course for Russian. That will be the majority of my studying.
Otherwise, things are winding down. I have about half of my stuff packed away and ready to go. I'm moving my carpet and firdge and other big crap out on monday to a friend's house. Then, next friday, i am officially out of here! Woohoo!
Last night, navs had the last event of the year: the decades dance. Plans apparently fell through or something so we had to have it at someone's house instead of the usual bigger place. It was still fun, though. I didn't dress up, so no pictures. Oh darn.
Um...that's about it for now.
Otherwise, things are winding down. I have about half of my stuff packed away and ready to go. I'm moving my carpet and firdge and other big crap out on monday to a friend's house. Then, next friday, i am officially out of here! Woohoo!
Last night, navs had the last event of the year: the decades dance. Plans apparently fell through or something so we had to have it at someone's house instead of the usual bigger place. It was still fun, though. I didn't dress up, so no pictures. Oh darn.
Um...that's about it for now.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Two items of interest
...to me, at least.
The first is the conviction (finally) of Zacarias Moussaoui. He's been sentenced to life in prison. Many people believed that he should have been put to death, but I don't think so. Sure, he was quite possibly involved in the 9/11 plot, but he would've used his death sentence to become a martyr among the Muslim extremists (notice I said extremist-I know that not all Muslims are crazy and suicidal). The life sentence was the best thing for him. And his whole deal with "taunting" the court? That's just him understanding the American press. He would've "taunted" the court no matter what the court said. That's just him understanding that whatever he said would be repeated over and over again on the air and in print. It's his last goodbye.
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In other news, the second Lego Star Wars video games is coming out in September! Call me a nerd all you want, but the first one is a lot of fun. They have witty cutscenes, challenging gameplay, and in the second one, customizable characters (Think, Darththreepio, R2bacca). I'm looking forward to it.
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That's it for this fun week in my life. Tune in next week when I'll still probably not be talking about anything!
The first is the conviction (finally) of Zacarias Moussaoui. He's been sentenced to life in prison. Many people believed that he should have been put to death, but I don't think so. Sure, he was quite possibly involved in the 9/11 plot, but he would've used his death sentence to become a martyr among the Muslim extremists (notice I said extremist-I know that not all Muslims are crazy and suicidal). The life sentence was the best thing for him. And his whole deal with "taunting" the court? That's just him understanding the American press. He would've "taunted" the court no matter what the court said. That's just him understanding that whatever he said would be repeated over and over again on the air and in print. It's his last goodbye.
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In other news, the second Lego Star Wars video games is coming out in September! Call me a nerd all you want, but the first one is a lot of fun. They have witty cutscenes, challenging gameplay, and in the second one, customizable characters (Think, Darththreepio, R2bacca). I'm looking forward to it.
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That's it for this fun week in my life. Tune in next week when I'll still probably not be talking about anything!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Monday, May 01, 2006
Soon
Things are winding down here. After a lovely (cough) weekend of neverending rain, the third-to-last week of school has begun. Well, actually it's more like the second to last...since next Friday (the 12th) is stop day for classes. But I still have finals the next week so...yeah. I'm still looking for a place to store all my big stuff like the fridge, my huge roll of carpet, my big CD/DVD shelf and some books and stuff I don't need over the summer. No dice yet, though. oh well.
Nothing else really that exciting going on here.
Nothing else really that exciting going on here.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006
A month to go....
That's right, only 27 days until I go home! Things are supposed to be slowing down here, but alas, no end is in sight (homework wise). I still have to finish another book and a half for english, do a bunch more russian busywork, read a big book for history, and a few papers here and there.
It feels weird to have passed almost a year here. Seems like just yesterday I was posting about how classes looked for the fall semester (here). Crazy how time flies. I am very thankful for all of you who have been praying for me. You really have helped me survive. Who knows, I might even enjoy next year! Hahahaha, just kidding. I enjoyed this year too.
It feels weird to have passed almost a year here. Seems like just yesterday I was posting about how classes looked for the fall semester (here). Crazy how time flies. I am very thankful for all of you who have been praying for me. You really have helped me survive. Who knows, I might even enjoy next year! Hahahaha, just kidding. I enjoyed this year too.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Change of plans.
Next year's plans went haywire. A lot of the classes and backup classes I wanted to take fell through, so now I'm taking Prob&Stats, Russian, J301, a Psychology class, and Geology. The samurai course apparently wasn't offered, and the polysci one conflicted with my russian class.
It also took me an hour to work through the incredibly annoying and infuriating computer system KU set up for enrollment. Ah, technology.
It also took me an hour to work through the incredibly annoying and infuriating computer system KU set up for enrollment. Ah, technology.
Various Musings on Various Topics
I'm back from a fun filled weekend in Columbia. It was a lot of fun to go back and see all the old sights, like our old house, the mall, the church, Shakespeare's, etc. There's pictures of everything up on my photobucket account. The link is in the right-hand column. ("My Pictures")
Now for the various musings.
The trailer for the September 11th movie "United 93" (which I will not post an imDb link to out of decency) has begun showing. Frankly, when I first saw it in the theater before "Inside Man," I was shocked. It's been 5 years. That's like making a Pearl Harbor movie in 1946. Now, I understand that technology is more advanced. They can make movies faster. But why on earth would you make a movie about September 11th??!? Are people that sadistically entertained? Have we run out of ideas in Hollywood to the extent of making entertainment out of disasters? What's next? "Coming in 2008: Hurricane Katrina the Movie." I mean, come on. Don't you think that people are still probably upset about 9/11? For the sake of decency, why would you put out a movie that recounts events disasterous to our nation that affect people very strongly still today because of lost loved ones? They haven't even had ample time to "heal!" There was a theater chain in New York, I believe, that actually pulled the trailer from theaters. I applaud them. No wonder our society is falling to pieces.
Which brings me to my next musing. This morning while flipping through channels, I came across the horrendous "My Super Sweet 16" on MTV (a channel I very rarely watch). Wow. And I thought some people in college where spoiled. The featured brat was a 15-year-old daughter of a car salesman in Beverly Hills. (Speaking of which, remind me never to live anywhere near there. I'm scared that the snobbiness will somehow rub off. Ewww.) I tuned in a little late (oh darn) and discovered the brat trying on dresses. She was going to get three for her party. Why? Just because. "I want to be a star" was the phrase most often uttered in this half-hour. She tried on one that showed a little too much upstairs, if you catch my drift. She "absolutely loved" it, but her mom was concerned, and rightly so. The brat's response? "Well, I like it, and that's all that matters." $500 later, she had a dress and her mom looked like she couldn't do a thing about it (sic). She then went car shopping (apparantly it's just a given that you get whatever car you want on your 16th birthday. Nevermind working for it, nevermind having to start off with a crappy one.). She really wanted a 06 Mitsubishi Eclipse, but her parents wanted her to get something safer like an SUV. So, the giant Yukon or Escalade (I couldn't tell) it was. Later, there was drama as the brat discovered her father, who also had his own job, was not able to find a band for the party. Nevermind a local band, or even a DJ. She wanted someone like Green Day or Haylie Duff. Drama Drama Drama. The party then followed. Oog. She was driven into the party in one dress, changed right after that, and then changed again. GO figure. Add gratuitous shots of various "friends" saying, "THIS PARTY ROCKS! Every other sweet 16 is gonna look pitiful next to this!" etc. The brat's parents then revealed the big surprise: they bought her both the Eclipse and the other SUV. "Something to drive on the weekend," I believe her father said. Then some famous singer I've never heard of popped up. Woohoo.
Wow, where do I start? First of all, I've never seen anyone more spoiled in my life. Two cars at 16? I'm 19 and am still probably 3 or 4 years away from my first car. Second of all, great job with the parenting, morons. She's obivously discovered that she can whine enough and get her way (if I hear "Daddy, daddy, daddy!" one more time I'm going to puke) at an early age. Her parents virtually had no say. The only thing they were good for was paying for it (around $150,000 the brat said). There was absolutely no discipline present. Third of all, why on earth do people feel the need to spend that much money on one, in my opinion, rather insignificant day? Even if the dad did say "You only turn 16 once!" For that matter, we only turn 14 once. And 15. And 17. And 18. And 19. Moron. But I digress. The only day I can think of where that much money is even consdered is perhaps your wedding day, but even 15 grand is pushing it. Aiyoh.
That's it. I'm burnt out on the whole spoiled brat topic. In local news (haha), I enroll in classes tonight! Hopefully, I'll be taking a Prob and Stats class, the next level of Russian, Journalism 301, a international political science course, and a history class about the Samurai.
Fun stuff in Kansas!
Now for the various musings.
The trailer for the September 11th movie "United 93" (which I will not post an imDb link to out of decency) has begun showing. Frankly, when I first saw it in the theater before "Inside Man," I was shocked. It's been 5 years. That's like making a Pearl Harbor movie in 1946. Now, I understand that technology is more advanced. They can make movies faster. But why on earth would you make a movie about September 11th??!? Are people that sadistically entertained? Have we run out of ideas in Hollywood to the extent of making entertainment out of disasters? What's next? "Coming in 2008: Hurricane Katrina the Movie." I mean, come on. Don't you think that people are still probably upset about 9/11? For the sake of decency, why would you put out a movie that recounts events disasterous to our nation that affect people very strongly still today because of lost loved ones? They haven't even had ample time to "heal!" There was a theater chain in New York, I believe, that actually pulled the trailer from theaters. I applaud them. No wonder our society is falling to pieces.
Which brings me to my next musing. This morning while flipping through channels, I came across the horrendous "My Super Sweet 16" on MTV (a channel I very rarely watch). Wow. And I thought some people in college where spoiled. The featured brat was a 15-year-old daughter of a car salesman in Beverly Hills. (Speaking of which, remind me never to live anywhere near there. I'm scared that the snobbiness will somehow rub off. Ewww.) I tuned in a little late (oh darn) and discovered the brat trying on dresses. She was going to get three for her party. Why? Just because. "I want to be a star" was the phrase most often uttered in this half-hour. She tried on one that showed a little too much upstairs, if you catch my drift. She "absolutely loved" it, but her mom was concerned, and rightly so. The brat's response? "Well, I like it, and that's all that matters." $500 later, she had a dress and her mom looked like she couldn't do a thing about it (sic). She then went car shopping (apparantly it's just a given that you get whatever car you want on your 16th birthday. Nevermind working for it, nevermind having to start off with a crappy one.). She really wanted a 06 Mitsubishi Eclipse, but her parents wanted her to get something safer like an SUV. So, the giant Yukon or Escalade (I couldn't tell) it was. Later, there was drama as the brat discovered her father, who also had his own job, was not able to find a band for the party. Nevermind a local band, or even a DJ. She wanted someone like Green Day or Haylie Duff. Drama Drama Drama. The party then followed. Oog. She was driven into the party in one dress, changed right after that, and then changed again. GO figure. Add gratuitous shots of various "friends" saying, "THIS PARTY ROCKS! Every other sweet 16 is gonna look pitiful next to this!" etc. The brat's parents then revealed the big surprise: they bought her both the Eclipse and the other SUV. "Something to drive on the weekend," I believe her father said. Then some famous singer I've never heard of popped up. Woohoo.
Wow, where do I start? First of all, I've never seen anyone more spoiled in my life. Two cars at 16? I'm 19 and am still probably 3 or 4 years away from my first car. Second of all, great job with the parenting, morons. She's obivously discovered that she can whine enough and get her way (if I hear "Daddy, daddy, daddy!" one more time I'm going to puke) at an early age. Her parents virtually had no say. The only thing they were good for was paying for it (around $150,000 the brat said). There was absolutely no discipline present. Third of all, why on earth do people feel the need to spend that much money on one, in my opinion, rather insignificant day? Even if the dad did say "You only turn 16 once!" For that matter, we only turn 14 once. And 15. And 17. And 18. And 19. Moron. But I digress. The only day I can think of where that much money is even consdered is perhaps your wedding day, but even 15 grand is pushing it. Aiyoh.
That's it. I'm burnt out on the whole spoiled brat topic. In local news (haha), I enroll in classes tonight! Hopefully, I'll be taking a Prob and Stats class, the next level of Russian, Journalism 301, a international political science course, and a history class about the Samurai.
Fun stuff in Kansas!
Friday, April 14, 2006
Easter Weekend
Hello all. Sorry for the long break between posts, but...well...I really don't have an excuse. College just has a tendency to suck time away from you.
Not much has happened this week. I just finished my Russian test (yuck) a few minutes ago, so that studying is finally over. My wonderful parents sent me Easter candy and the Narnia DVD. One would think that the movie would suffer on a smaller screen, but it is just as good. Growing up with those books makes the movie (soon to be movies; they are starting production on Prince Caspian) all the more fun. I always thought of Mr. Tumnus as the faltering, nervous faun that James McAvoy portrayed him as. And Lucy was pretty much exactly how I imagined her. I read on the imDb database that when the older actor's swearing got out of hand, Georgie Henley (Lucy) made a "swear bucket" to repremand them. Quite the little actress.
On other notes, I am going to Columbia this weekend! Yep, it's back to my roots (I grew up in Columbia, Missouri) for Easter. Stefan, one of my friends here at KU, is from Columbia, and so I am going home with him for the weekend. Fun Fun Fun!
Stupid-I mean Student-Senate elections are finally over. No more chalking, pamphlets, or "accosting" (i love that word). For anyone that cares, Ignite won.
Woohoo.
That's pretty much it in the world of KU.
Not much has happened this week. I just finished my Russian test (yuck) a few minutes ago, so that studying is finally over. My wonderful parents sent me Easter candy and the Narnia DVD. One would think that the movie would suffer on a smaller screen, but it is just as good. Growing up with those books makes the movie (soon to be movies; they are starting production on Prince Caspian) all the more fun. I always thought of Mr. Tumnus as the faltering, nervous faun that James McAvoy portrayed him as. And Lucy was pretty much exactly how I imagined her. I read on the imDb database that when the older actor's swearing got out of hand, Georgie Henley (Lucy) made a "swear bucket" to repremand them. Quite the little actress.
On other notes, I am going to Columbia this weekend! Yep, it's back to my roots (I grew up in Columbia, Missouri) for Easter. Stefan, one of my friends here at KU, is from Columbia, and so I am going home with him for the weekend. Fun Fun Fun!
Stupid-I mean Student-Senate elections are finally over. No more chalking, pamphlets, or "accosting" (i love that word). For anyone that cares, Ignite won.
Woohoo.
That's pretty much it in the world of KU.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Friday, April 07, 2006
What a world part II
I was waiting for my english class to start when I decided to read the New York Times. On the front page, they had a story about the so-called "Gospel of Judas." I took some notes on it, and here is my reaction. This is in order of the article, so it might not make total sense unless you read the article first.
First of all, the document says that Judas was the "favored" disciple. The "best." Hmm. They (scholars) believe it to be a gnostic text. For those of you who don't know, the Gnostics were a cult in the time of the early church. In fact, I've found in my study of 1st John this semester, that the book of 1st John was written to dispell gnostic myths. The gnostics believed that knowledge was the key to heaven. They also believed that all matter was evil; that only the soul was redeemable. In turn, they thought it was perfectly fine for them to drink, have sex with anyone, and all sorts of bad behavior because there was simply nothing they could do about it. Keep that it mind. The document also says that Jesus told Judas to betray him. The scholar's mentality? "The standard gospels either give no motivation for Judas to betray Jesus or attribute it to the pieces of silver or the influence of Satan." Wow. You mean that saying that Satan took over Judas' life and then proceeded to appeal to his greed for money isn't good enough? Now, I'm not one to say what Jesus said or didn't say throughout his life. No one but God can know that. I'm just saying that in my opinion, Jesus wouldn't have had to tell Judas that. Jesus was totally reliant on God. God was/is/is always going to be in control. Also, the document quotes Jesus as saying that Judas will "exceed" the other disciples. Try and figure that one out. Judas commited suicide shortly thereafter Jesus' crucifixion. The article says that the document is probably a Coptic (some language) translation of the original Greek text from around 300 AD. 300. That's more than 250 years later. They also said that the manuscript was formed from over 1000 fragile and brittle fragments. No margin of error, huh? Anyway, here's a part that really confuses me. This thing was actually discovered in the 1970s! It jumped around a little and than sat in a New York City bank safe-deposit box until it was purchased by a collector and then given to some antiquity board to translate more than 30 years later. Wow.
Here is a quote from the document featured in the Times article:
Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him,
“Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is
possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal. [36] For someone else will
replace you, in order that the twelve [disciples] may again come to completion with their
god.”
Huh? Jesus never ONCE mentioned in that that He is the way to the kingdom. This seems awfully ambigious, even for Jesus. And what is with the last sentence: "...12 may again come to completion with their god."? Who knows.
The article also said that Jesus shared with Judas alone the "mysteries of the kingdom." This is what I have a real problem with. Jesus did not share with only one person. He died, and therefore shared, for the entire world. Also, there are no mysteries of the kingdom. When he died on the cross he vanquished all the Levitical laws and long lists of the Old Testament. He took the world's sins from all times and paid for them. There is no "holy of holies," no high priest, none of that. Jesus took care of all of that.
Now we get to the actual writing. The scholars said that it was probably a Cainite, another cult member (they didn't go into detail about what the Cainites were, only that they considered Cain and Judas (as well as other "villians") as heroes. Another Hmm.
Next, a scholar named Rev. (ha) Donald Senior said that the document could undermine Christianity if they believe that "early church authorities supressed the free-thinking spiritual gnostics 'for the sake of uniformity and conformity.'" Pardon my French, but B.S. Free-thinking and spiritual is not always a good thing. That's like saying "This is all-natural poison ivy! It must be good since it's all natural!" That statement is just plain drivel.
The last statement in the article said that the Church (the Vatican) is just ignoring this. It's "not on their radar screens." They don't believe that this poses a big enough threat to tell people that it's wrong. We are told to not allow Satan a foothold. If the church does nothing to refute this, that splinter will get in our heads with doubt. We must refute this now.
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Whew! Done with that. Nothing else going on here this week at KU. There's some big casino night in Templin tonight, but it looks pretty lame. Oh, and there's a possibility of a mumps breakout on campus! Exciting! Besides that, life as normal.
First of all, the document says that Judas was the "favored" disciple. The "best." Hmm. They (scholars) believe it to be a gnostic text. For those of you who don't know, the Gnostics were a cult in the time of the early church. In fact, I've found in my study of 1st John this semester, that the book of 1st John was written to dispell gnostic myths. The gnostics believed that knowledge was the key to heaven. They also believed that all matter was evil; that only the soul was redeemable. In turn, they thought it was perfectly fine for them to drink, have sex with anyone, and all sorts of bad behavior because there was simply nothing they could do about it. Keep that it mind. The document also says that Jesus told Judas to betray him. The scholar's mentality? "The standard gospels either give no motivation for Judas to betray Jesus or attribute it to the pieces of silver or the influence of Satan." Wow. You mean that saying that Satan took over Judas' life and then proceeded to appeal to his greed for money isn't good enough? Now, I'm not one to say what Jesus said or didn't say throughout his life. No one but God can know that. I'm just saying that in my opinion, Jesus wouldn't have had to tell Judas that. Jesus was totally reliant on God. God was/is/is always going to be in control. Also, the document quotes Jesus as saying that Judas will "exceed" the other disciples. Try and figure that one out. Judas commited suicide shortly thereafter Jesus' crucifixion. The article says that the document is probably a Coptic (some language) translation of the original Greek text from around 300 AD. 300. That's more than 250 years later. They also said that the manuscript was formed from over 1000 fragile and brittle fragments. No margin of error, huh? Anyway, here's a part that really confuses me. This thing was actually discovered in the 1970s! It jumped around a little and than sat in a New York City bank safe-deposit box until it was purchased by a collector and then given to some antiquity board to translate more than 30 years later. Wow.
Here is a quote from the document featured in the Times article:
Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him,
“Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is
possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal. [36] For someone else will
replace you, in order that the twelve [disciples] may again come to completion with their
god.”
Huh? Jesus never ONCE mentioned in that that He is the way to the kingdom. This seems awfully ambigious, even for Jesus. And what is with the last sentence: "...12 may again come to completion with their god."? Who knows.
The article also said that Jesus shared with Judas alone the "mysteries of the kingdom." This is what I have a real problem with. Jesus did not share with only one person. He died, and therefore shared, for the entire world. Also, there are no mysteries of the kingdom. When he died on the cross he vanquished all the Levitical laws and long lists of the Old Testament. He took the world's sins from all times and paid for them. There is no "holy of holies," no high priest, none of that. Jesus took care of all of that.
Now we get to the actual writing. The scholars said that it was probably a Cainite, another cult member (they didn't go into detail about what the Cainites were, only that they considered Cain and Judas (as well as other "villians") as heroes. Another Hmm.
Next, a scholar named Rev. (ha) Donald Senior said that the document could undermine Christianity if they believe that "early church authorities supressed the free-thinking spiritual gnostics 'for the sake of uniformity and conformity.'" Pardon my French, but B.S. Free-thinking and spiritual is not always a good thing. That's like saying "This is all-natural poison ivy! It must be good since it's all natural!" That statement is just plain drivel.
The last statement in the article said that the Church (the Vatican) is just ignoring this. It's "not on their radar screens." They don't believe that this poses a big enough threat to tell people that it's wrong. We are told to not allow Satan a foothold. If the church does nothing to refute this, that splinter will get in our heads with doubt. We must refute this now.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whew! Done with that. Nothing else going on here this week at KU. There's some big casino night in Templin tonight, but it looks pretty lame. Oh, and there's a possibility of a mumps breakout on campus! Exciting! Besides that, life as normal.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
What a World...
...we live in. I found this today on excite.com news. And people say that the world isn't against Christianity.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Boring Week
Sorry about the lack of posts, but my life hasn't really been that exciting.
I saw "Inside Man" on Saturday after watching Final Four games and playing a game of poker with some Navs guys, which I am actually not very good at. Anyways, the movie was a lot better than some recently. It had a very imaginative plot and incredible characters, but as usual they could've done without the swearing. The Final Four games weren't that exciting.
Today is opening day! The Royals play the Detriot Tigers today at three or so. I'm trying to be optimistic, but I doubt we'll be any good. Oh well. Here's their MLB.com site.
Nothing else really going on here...I'll try to update more often this week.
I saw "Inside Man" on Saturday after watching Final Four games and playing a game of poker with some Navs guys, which I am actually not very good at. Anyways, the movie was a lot better than some recently. It had a very imaginative plot and incredible characters, but as usual they could've done without the swearing. The Final Four games weren't that exciting.
Today is opening day! The Royals play the Detriot Tigers today at three or so. I'm trying to be optimistic, but I doubt we'll be any good. Oh well. Here's their MLB.com site.
Nothing else really going on here...I'll try to update more often this week.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Texas Trip
This is take three on this post! Once, i got interuptted, and the next time i tried working on it, my computer froze half way through. This is for real, I promise.
Well, I'm back from yet another Spring Break. Sorry I didn't get any posts from the road up, but you know how it goes. It was a very fun and relaxing week, despite having to go back to school .
And I didn't get any birthday cake. But I can still survive.
To start out with, my parents got into town on Friday night. We left the next morning for Wichita, Kansas, the birthplace of Caleb Sommerville. We also went to my parents old church and
ate lunch with some old friends of their's from church too.
We then headed off to Oklahoma City to visit some other old friends. Back when we lived in Columbia, Missouri, our family adopted a college student from MU.
He would come over for dinner and we would swordfight with a whiffleball bat and tee. You know, normal stuff. Anyways, he started bringing a girl with him, and they ended up getting married and now have four kids. One of which has out-Star Wars-ed me in his collection. It was quite impressive. After that exhausting visit, we headed down to Austin, Texas.
The first day in Austin was spent primarily shopping. That wasn't so bad, but the fact that I couldn't really buy anything (it was my birthday on the 26th) kind of put a hamper on that. We v
isited various sightseeing places there, including the impressive Capitol building and
Mansfield Dam.
On the way out of Austin, we stopped at LBJ's birthplace farm type thing. It was pretty interesting.
Then it was on to San Antonio. We had a hotel right on the Riverwalk, a historic canal with shops and really good resturants (and expensive; we ended up eating at Joe's Crab Shack, which is still yummy). The Alamo was probably the most interesting thing on the trip. I had no idea there was so much
history surrounding that little white church. Mom and I saw an IMAX film about the battle, too. It would've sucked to be a Texan.
On the way back to Lawrence, we stopped in a little town called Lindsborg, Kansas. It's a Swedish community for whatever reason, and has a lot of great little shops and B&Bs.
There. Whew!
That's the vacation stuff. The most fun part was being with my crazy family. Whether it be taking odd and occasionally banned pictures, or just singing nonsensical songs about nothing, we had a lot of fun together.
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Pictures can be found on my photobucket account. The link is the the "linxx" bar on the right side of the screen.
Well, I'm back from yet another Spring Break. Sorry I didn't get any posts from the road up, but you know how it goes. It was a very fun and relaxing week, despite having to go back to school .
And I didn't get any birthday cake. But I can still survive.
To start out with, my parents got into town on Friday night. We left the next morning for Wichita, Kansas, the birthplace of Caleb Sommerville. We also went to my parents old church and
ate lunch with some old friends of their's from church too.We then headed off to Oklahoma City to visit some other old friends. Back when we lived in Columbia, Missouri, our family adopted a college student from MU.
He would come over for dinner and we would swordfight with a whiffleball bat and tee. You know, normal stuff. Anyways, he started bringing a girl with him, and they ended up getting married and now have four kids. One of which has out-Star Wars-ed me in his collection. It was quite impressive. After that exhausting visit, we headed down to Austin, Texas.The first day in Austin was spent primarily shopping. That wasn't so bad, but the fact that I couldn't really buy anything (it was my birthday on the 26th) kind of put a hamper on that. We v
isited various sightseeing places there, including the impressive Capitol building and
Mansfield Dam.On the way out of Austin, we stopped at LBJ's birthplace farm type thing. It was pretty interesting.
Then it was on to San Antonio. We had a hotel right on the Riverwalk, a historic canal with shops and really good resturants (and expensive; we ended up eating at Joe's Crab Shack, which is still yummy). The Alamo was probably the most interesting thing on the trip. I had no idea there was so much
history surrounding that little white church. Mom and I saw an IMAX film about the battle, too. It would've sucked to be a Texan.
On the way back to Lawrence, we stopped in a little town called Lindsborg, Kansas. It's a Swedish community for whatever reason, and has a lot of great little shops and B&Bs.There. Whew!
That's the vacation stuff. The most fun part was being with my crazy family. Whether it be taking odd and occasionally banned pictures, or just singing nonsensical songs about nothing, we had a lot of fun together.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pictures can be found on my photobucket account. The link is the the "linxx" bar on the right side of the screen.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Spring Break
Hello all. Sorry if you couldn't access my blog. Blogger took everything offline because of some server problems, but it should be all fixed now.
Tomorrow I am leaving for Texas with my family for Spring Break. I will definitely have many pictures and stories to post, but I haven't decided if I'm bringing my computer down there, so it may be a week or so until the next post.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Tomorrow I am leaving for Texas with my family for Spring Break. I will definitely have many pictures and stories to post, but I haven't decided if I'm bringing my computer down there, so it may be a week or so until the next post.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Photo #6
I will be highlighting my favorite aftermath pictures for the next few entries.
Devastation in front of Robinson Gym
Devastation in front of Robinson Gym
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Life as Normal
Life has returned to normal here in Lawrence. The storm that whipped through here has now been classified as a "microburst." From all the news releases and stuff, I think that a microburst is a sudden burst of downward air from a thunderstorm. Other than that, i really don't know the technical parts of it. The paper said that the winds produced were about the same as those produced by an F1 tornado. Damage on campus has been estimated at around 6 milllion dollars. Cleanup has been amazing. All that remains to serve as a reminder is the occasional tree branch or workers fixing a roof.
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In other news, it's only a few more days until Spring Break starts! My family and I will be in Texas for a week, so no updates here until I get back. I'll be sure to post a buncha pictures and stories and whatnot.
That's all for now.
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In other news, it's only a few more days until Spring Break starts! My family and I will be in Texas for a week, so no updates here until I get back. I'll be sure to post a buncha pictures and stories and whatnot.
That's all for now.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
STORM
Well, I've survived my first real Kansas storm. Allow me to elaborate.
This morning, I woke up at 8 to take my shower and get ready for church. I was somewhat lazy and slow, which turned out to be a good thing. I looked out the window and noticed that it was pretty darn windy. The sky looked pretty funky, also. I closed my window, and jumped in the shower. As soon as I turned on the water, the power went out. I dried myself off quickly and looked out the window. It sounded like a hurricane was blowing perfectly perpendicular to our building, straight into the windows. My ears went crazy because of the extreme pressure flucuations. The wind was blasting through the seams of the window, and I was getting a little nervous. "Alrighty...the gust should be dying down now..." I thought. But nope, it just kept getting louder. Then the tornado sirens went off. I was still in my towel. I quickly threw on a tshirt and jeans and my sandals and ran into the hall to find Shmuel running down the hall pounding on doors. He confirmed the tornado, and I helped him knock on doors. Half-dressed and half-awake, the residents of Templin stumbled down the stairs. We hung out for probably 20 or 30 minutes, and then went to see if we still had rooms.
Everything on our floor was fine. Then we looked out our windows.
A list of the damages on campus is as follows:
-several broken car windows
-Air-conditioning unit blown OFF OF THE ROOF
-Three totaled cars
-hundreds of downed trees (some two or three feet thick were snapped in half)
-The "K" on the "KU" flag on top of Fraser is missing
-Tar paper and roofing tiles from Fraser, Marvin, Murphy, Snow, Budig, Dyche, The Union, Danforth, Robinson, Stauffer-Flint and probably many more
-downed power lines
-shingle damage
and probably many more I haven't even heard about.
Stefan and I went out to look around campus at around 11:00am (now the news guys are telling everyone "not to sightsee"). We took pieces of roofing tiles from Dyche (the natural history museum), Stauffer-Flint(the journalism building) and several others as souvenirs. We came back to Templin, dropped off our tiles, and went to eat at Mrs. E's. Afterwards, I came back to my room to watch the news, when I saw the next storm. Thankfully it missed us, but we had to go back to the basement for another 20 minutes or so. Hopefully it's all over now. They might cancel class for tomorrow, but we won't know until 8:00pm tonight.
All the pictures of this will be up on my photobucket account. The link is right here.
And such has been my very exciting day!
Friday, March 10, 2006
The Chalk Is Back
For those of you unfamiliar with the lovely feature of college campuses called chalk, let me fill you in. Sidewalk chalk has made a comeback not only with the 4-7 age range, but also the 18-22 range. Instead of just flyers, which are also quite prevalent here, they chalk the sidewalks and even the sides of buildings in order to draw attention to usually a party ("NEON-Thursday at the Granada" is one I swore I've seen since the first week of school) or some group running for something. Lately (and I'll try to get a picture up of this) there has been an inundation of chalkings advertising something called "Delta Force." Don't ask me what it is, I still don't have a darn clue.
Which brings me to my question. Does all that effort of drawing "Delta Force: Change now!" or "Delta Force: The new pink," (what?) really affect what the students think? Most students don't have a dang clue what the heck Delta Force is, and I doubt many of them really care. If they explained themselves better, perhaps they would have a better chance of doing whatever it is they're trying to do.
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In other news, there isn't any. Well, this morning I heard a buncha sirens across campus, but that's about the extent of my excitement. That, and the orange hightops are back in service after their winter hiatus.
Which brings me to my question. Does all that effort of drawing "Delta Force: Change now!" or "Delta Force: The new pink," (what?) really affect what the students think? Most students don't have a dang clue what the heck Delta Force is, and I doubt many of them really care. If they explained themselves better, perhaps they would have a better chance of doing whatever it is they're trying to do.
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In other news, there isn't any. Well, this morning I heard a buncha sirens across campus, but that's about the extent of my excitement. That, and the orange hightops are back in service after their winter hiatus.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
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