A bit o' filler

I honestly don't have much to talk about, the last two days have been mainly comprised of work but here's a little bit:

The countertops came out rather nicely and the owners seemed pleased. That is always a good sign. There was another small fire today, started by a truck that had a blown out tire (I assume that the rim causes sparks on the road).

Last night some people from the local Sunday School class got together for a little "end of the year" party. There was lots of finger food such as chips, little hotdogs, some pizza etc. In other words, all great stuff to eat :) Afterwards the women gathered around and played "Cranium" while the men sat in another room playing "Chicken Foot," a variation of dominos. I mingled around and sat in the men's room most of the time, listening and reading from my book (commentary on Hebrews). It rather surprised me that only one person said "hi" to me, I half expected that the people in the Sunday School class my parents go to (and that I went to) would ask me how school went the last semester, they haven't seen me in over three months. But then again I don't feel like I know them very well so perhaps they hadn't noticed I was gone :)

I was thinking about prayer yesterday and remembering my father reading Foxe's book of Martyrs to us children many years ago and the story of James I believe it was, and how his knees were like camel's knees because he knelt in prayer so often (he knelt in prayer immediately before they threw him from the temple if memory serves me correctly). Of course that is just tradition, it may or may not have happened but as I was just thinking about it, the thought crossed my mind, or a question really, why did James pray so much? Why did he have that desire? And I realized that a great part of it would be that he missed Jesus, after being with Him through so much and coming to adore Him, and then being absent from His bodily presence for a time, I can imagine the lonliness there. It was this that made me realize that I have come to miss Jesus too, I do wish to meet Him face to face, to behold His glory and truly worship and love Him. Right now (as I have said before) I feel as though I have a heart of stone, insensitive and hard toward what my Lord did for me, I greatly desire a soft heart, a heart of flesh that I might love Him more, with all of my being! Too often I read the Bible simply for knowledge, that I might impress someone else or not appear ignorant to some others, such pride stifles me, if I am not reading the Bible to learn more of Jesus and try to imitate Him in love, in actions, in humbleness, then I am not profiting from the Scriptures very much. When I pray is it with the realization that I am speaking to Him? Is it that "real" to me? Do I pray because I do want to talk to Him, more and more? Do I miss Him?

The old King mused upon his life,
His rule upon the throne,
He sadly remembered all the strife,
The sins that he had done.

The many houses that he'd burned,
The leader whose death arranged,
The many pleadings that he'd spurned,
The men whose lives estranged.

He sadly shook his old grey head
At pains caused o'er the years.
The cries still heard within his head,
The eyes that brimmed with tears.

A sob burst forth and wracked his frame
Withered by his age,
The bed began to squeak his name
As in accusing rage.

Then in the window slipped a man,
Clothed in naught but rags,
He partly stumbled and partly ran
Amidst great wealth in bags.

"Oh King!" He stammered, and fell to the floor
"I was so afraid to come!
I could not stay me any more,
Or remain asleep at home.

"My Saviour has commanded to:
'Go and preach my name.'
This always will I strive to do
Lest I should bring Him shame.

"My family was roughly torn from me
And I put in a cell,
My wife died in my arms yet she
Still then! Did wish you well.

Oh king, you've done no little thing,
Your heart, no man can heal.
I cannot, myself, forgiveness bring,
Only show you One who will."

Then unto him he folded out
The story of his Lord,
His life and how He went about
As written in His word.

The One, whom though He had no sin,
Died as though He had,
That those who should believe in Him
In eternal life are clad.

Yet in the grave He did not remain,
Kept silent by nails and cord,
For three days after He'd been slain,
He was the risen Lord!

He taught His followers many things
Before He had to leave,
Then left, to prepare, where saints will sing,
A home for they who believe.

The old king's eyes began to brim
But now t'was tears of joy!
The hope of a new chance for him,
Oh dared his soul employ?

"Indeed you may, repent! Believe!
Accept as Lord and Saviour
Him whose life will yours conceive,
In Christ, the great Redeemer."

The king soon died, his lips yet smiling
For he, this Bible-hater,
Had bowed his head to his new King,
A king, whose power was greater.

Et Two?

I'm kind of sorry for not posting yesterday but I didn't feel like I had enough material, of course I could have done the usual and just made up some stuff as I went along (one of those "that reminds me...." type of posts) but I'd rather not bore. I spent last evening reading Pink's commentary on Hebrews and listening to a tape by R.C. Sproul.

My father has been cooking breakfasts so that has been very nice. I usually will eat a piece of toast or a bowl of cold cereal so it's been a treat to have sausage and eggs instead. The day was spent doing some Corian countertops for a couple that my dad is finishing their house for, so I was down in the shop until after lunch and we had set some stuff up for the glue to dry, then my dad got a "buzz" on his pager: there was a fire (we could see the smoke on the horizon) that the local fire department had been called out to go to. It was in another county but apparently it was a pretty big one so they were calling in the firefighters from all around. My father volunteered at the local fire department so he went out. That was what gave me time to read the commentary (I'm trying to catch up to the Sunday night study in Hebrews) and to listen to the tape.

The commentary is pretty good, it is very thorough and has many quotes from other commentators, which I enjoy reading. There have been a few things that I would disagree with but nothing major and it's been very rewarding. When A.W. Pink (the author) was going through chapter 8 and speaking of Jesus being a high priest and then though He died, His priesthood continued for it was only His body that had died, (a continual priesthood) etc. well, anyway, it's a bit drawn out, but the imagery made me think of the new body promised to believers, and how it will be so much better than what we have now. Not only will it be incorruptible, but a greater capacity to love, a greater capacity to know our Saviour, it's just unfathomable to me.

So I've been enjoying that, the tape that I listened to was R.C. Sproul on the subject of paedobaptism. He and John MacArthur had a debate where both side presented their case and then there was a question and answer session afterwards. Apparently MacArthur and Sproul are good friends so it wasn't exactly heated. I've heard MacArthur's side (against paedobaptism) and then Sproul's side last night. It was well done I thought and he did it very clearly I thought. It is exactly what I have been trying to explain to others, though I have such a hard time putting it all into words, there is really a lot behind it. I have yet to listen to the question and answer time though.

The fire was apparently put out as well, my father returned home later that evening after having saved a couple of houses (hurrah!). The Red Cross had shown up and given the fire fighters hamburgers, sodas, and pizza, that was pretty nice of them.

Then my brother and I watched "Superman: The Movie" just before bed. I used to love that when I was younger (and I still love Superman). There were a lot of shots that I saw this time though that I laughed at because they looked just a tad fake. It's been so long since I last saw it. Superman is a great hero.

Then today we did more Corian, glued up some more pieces and sanded and um.... that kind of thing. Honestly, there isn't really a whole lot to say, at least not anything that would be interesting to read, i.e. "we applied the denatured alcohol in order to remove the dust and oils left by our hands before putting the pieces together. This allows for a stronger bond and should be done carefully to avoid getting MORE oils on the piece to be applied to the countertop." etc.

Dear Shadow:
Have you ever made something, out of something?
Bye, Dan from FL.

Well Jerome, one time when I was about seven years old, two friends of mine and myself got together and were playing around. We decided that we would be inventors (or chemists, take your pick) and make an incredible glue that would be stronger than any other (we probably needed some for the tree fort). We went to the tool shed and hunted around for all kinds of good chemicals and such. I can still remember my meticulous and precise list of ingredients:
"little bit of tite-bond wood glue
little bit of blue spray paint
little bit of super deck stain
little bit of tacky glue"

It turned out as a watery grey paste that I applied with an old paintbrush. Amazingly, it held things together. REALLY well! I repaired a couple of toy guns I had and used it for a couple of other things. I guarded my secret carefully. I am sure in retrospect though that it was the wood glue that did the most good, the other stuff was probably there as something to make it harder to duplicate (sort of like Colonel Sanders' 11 secret herbs and spices, most of which don't do anything). My other friend's glue didn't turn out, it apparently wouldn't hold anything. His younger brother though, made a glue that worked pretty good, he buried it in a plastic container (along with the "recipe") to keep other people from stealing his idea. He forgot where he buried it though.

Shadow

It's Monday

It does feel rather nice to be caught up, my habit of trying to write something about every day is perhaps a bit too much to chew sometimes, especially (as my brother would say) if I spend fifteen paragraphs saying what any sane person would do in two.

Right now everybody except my brother and I are watching season four of MacGyver (which the family got for Christmas). It's my opinion that my siblings like to watch too many all at one time where I like to drag it out, even one a night seems extravagant at times. I honestly don't watch many movies, I'm not sure what I do normally actually, read or something I suppose. Lately I've been taking a track or two at a time in Mario Kart and trying to get a good time, once I'm back in Stillwater I'll submit them all online and see where I place in the overall rankings. I just don't spend enough time to really be what most would call an "expert." The people I refer to as experts are also those who spend way too much time playing games, such as a person I knew a while back who took a year off from school so he could play this one game for fast times. It's not like it will benefit him any in the long run, he just wanted to do it. On the other hand, I don't like to play at all unless I have the time to spare and even lately I've been feeling more like reading one of my theological books or doing something that will have more of a lasting value. I wasn't always that way though, I never thought I'd be interested in reading anything besides fiction.

It's kind of interesting that I met Jim (my Reformed friend) through competiing on a racing game (and he was much better than I) and at the time he was studying at Reformed Theological Seminary in NC and introduced me to at least the name "Reformed Faith," I was definitely familiar with the concept! If I hadn't been playing that game (in my spare time in the evenings) and gotten involved due to the recommendation from my friend in California, I would never have met him and probably never gone to the church in Stillwater. Kind of interesting how little things lead to others.

Speaking of which, Jim has apparently been accepted to pastor a church so he is very excited about that and I am too. I've never met him or seen even a picture of him, but I do feel a great interest in what happens to him and his family (wife and daughter) because he is a brother to me, I've been able to ask questions of him a few times and he's been very helpful.

Today we took down Christmas decorations and the tree (my mom isn't one of those who leaves the tree up until February) and looked at money and accounts for the coming semester. It seems like I'm in fairly good shape, I did spend more than I planned to this semester on various things like a printer etc. but overall it went really well and I spent much less than I had allotted to my budget. I think next semester should be even better. I'll just go without any heat or food for a couple of weeks to help keep down the cost. I'm joking, but really this next semester I think my extra expenses should be pretty reasonable.

In the afternoon I worked with my father in the shop for a little while, making some sills for the windows in the house he is working on. I think they will look very nice once installed. So that's about it for today, not extremely interesting.

I should say that Charlie Horse is doing fine, but I have found that leaving him alone all day might not be the best thing, when he has too much time on his uh.... hooves, he makes some REALLY bad jokes up, I mean, some real groaners. Perhaps next time I should leave book with him or something like that. I just hope he isn't too active tonight when we go to bed. Have you ever had a horse whispering in your ear all night, one who just will NOT go to sleep? I'm sure it would get rather annoying after a while so I'm trying not to let Charlie start that habit. I told him "hi" for you D.W. and he wanted to know who you were so I explained and he said to tell you "hi" as well.

Goodnight to all!

Another looooong post

I think I left off on Wednesday, the next couple of days after that are pretty "short" and then leave off with today: Sunday.

In the morning we woke up pretty early, the people we were staying with were very busy with work, they have a shop on their property that they work out of and Mr. HR had to get up and work early and Mrs. HR gets up with him. I'm a pretty light sleeper so as soon as there was any kind of bustle I was awake (before they came down into the room) but I stayed in bed for a bit so I could get some more rest, knowing I would have to drive about four and a half hours back home later that day. We played a few games and I showed her my magazines that Mr. Y had given me. It's nice to be able to share them with someone else who appreciates them as much as I do! She oo-ed and ah-ed over them and had me take a couple of pictures of them for her, which I'll send to her as soon as I'm back to my regular high speed Internet.

We played Mario Kart together (with our wireless systems) and had a lot of fun. She thinks that we are very good racers but I have to say that she DID beat my youngest brother FAIR AND SQUARE on Mario Kart: Double Dash. We all wrote an e-mail to a friend who was in California, letting her know that we had seen the movie, some basic impressions and just generally "hello." The time went all too quickly, she fed us very well and after lunch we really had to get going. I didn't want to get home too late, so we said our good-byes and headed on out. It was a most enjoyable time and I was very thankful that we were able to get the chance to visit.

On the drive home we sang a couple of songs and then my brother lamented the fact that he didn't have a voice of his own, whenever he sings he always is mimicking the voice of whoever the person was who sang that song, and I had to agree because I feel much the same way! When I sing "Chivalrous Shark" it's in a Michael Strange voice, when I sing "King of the Road" it's more in a hobo sounding voice, when "Puff the Magic Dragon" it's in a voice like Peter or Paul, and when singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" it's in a high-pitched falsetto..... but I guess that's understandable. The song would NOT be the same without that. But I guess after doing voices for a long time and trying to mimic other people, it's hard to have a voice that is one's own. I mean, I can deepen and make it sound more operatic, or go flatter, softer, etc. all fairly easily. Perhaps they all don't sound fantastic, but it's hard to say that I have one voice that is my own, even the voice that I have when speaking to others doesn't sound (to me) like a normal one, it seems more "whispery" or something. I guess it's all fine but just an interesting subject to speak about.

On the drive home (which is pretty long and non-interesting for the most part) there was a car that I was coming up on. I could see a girl driving and another girl in the passenger seat so I leaned back and said "watch out for this car boys, whenever you see two girls in a car you have to be extra careful." She was of course spending most of the time looking over and chatting away happily with her passenger and going slower than the speed limit so I passed her and pulled over to the right lane after getting a short distance ahead.

About a few minutes later, she comes zooming past me and then goes into the right lane where after a few minutes, her speed once again starts dropping. I glance down at my speedometer, I'm going right at 70mph and I've had the cruise control on the entire time so I know it isn't ME that is fluctuating here. I had no alternative but to go into the left lane again. Apparently the girl noticed me this time because she glanced over (or so I was told, I was staring straight ahead, I didn't want to be nosy or anything) and then, before I went back to the right lane, she zoomed ahead of us and blew a kiss in our direction (the passenger side).

My brother sat there in shock, mumbling "she blew us a kiss" in a stunned voice every few minutes for the next half hour, I muttered something about crazy girls and just kept driving. It was kind of funny I suppose but I was NOT going to play at their game, whatever it was. It just seemed weird for a carload of girls (it turned out there was four in there, goodness gracious) to be doing something like that but then again..... it WAS a carload of girls and you should always be be careful about those!

After a bit we arrived back home, there really wasn't a whole lot else that happened on the trip. Oh, aside from stopping at a Walmart to pick up a couple of games for the boys. There was only two copies and I really wanted the game to (to play over the break) and actually got it for myself but in the car, well, I was driving and my younger brother just sitting in the back and I knew that I would want to play it in the car if I had it so I let him take that copy. I'm just letting you know LES that I actually did have a copy for a very short time but I never opened it, I still don't have one yet. LES has been wanting me to get the game so we can play online and visit eachother's towns when I get back to school. Sometime soon I hope.



Thursday and Friday

I'm just going to lump these two days together because they are essentially the same, I did pretty much the same thing both days, and that is that I cleaned up things that were in the camper and things I'd brought in and tried to prepare things for next semester. Being home again is a bit odd because I'm not sure where to put a lot of stuff, generally it gets stacked up on top of my dresser. In BIG piles. I still haven't gotten used to where everything is in this house, I find myself looking around for washcloths or the hotpads, and wondering where I should put such and such in my room. I've still got so many books in boxes but most of my favourite ones are out, my boys' series that I've been gathering for years. Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, etc. Lots of good boys books that I rarely look at any more but have read to my siblings. I think I'll hang onto them for a while, I may want them in the future.

So that was pretty much it for those two days, just eat, sleep, read a little (very little) and clean up and organize. Not very interesting stuff so I'll bore you with them no further.


Saturday

Now this was an interesting day, I was in my parent's office on the comptuer when a package arrived for me. I was surprised because I didn't remember what it was, I'll often do that, order something and then forget about it until it arrives, I guess I'm not the impatient type...
Actually there were two packages, one of them was another of my textbooks for the coming semester, the other package was.... Charlie Horse! I'd been thinking about getting my own puppet for a long time since I've dabbled in ventriloquism and really just enjoyed puppets for as long as I can remember, yet I've never had one. So I looked around on Ebay and found one that I liked, he was cheap (about $5 including shipping and handling) and so I bought him. We've been getting to know eachother for the past couple of days, he has barely left my side!

Actually it is rather nice to have an actual character now to take on the personalities that I'm making all the time. Charlie is actually rather expressive and very cute. He's also more clever than he looks, and he looks adorable in my opinion.

It's amazing how he really started developing his own personality though, I'll be sitting reading a book and he'll be glancing around, periodically (with a bored look) check out what I'm reading. I don't pay him any attention though, just keep on reading. Then he glances backward to see what everyone is doing in the kitchen and give a big yawn and ask if he can go elswhere and play. It's almost as though my hand isn't moving though, he'll just do things on his own and it's really quite interesting! Oh! He's been showing me his "Aslan" imitation (from the old movies) and I think it's quite good, he's not very good at imitating voices of course, but he mimics the mouth movements beautifully!

My father thinks it hilarious to see a 20-year old playing with a puppet (and loving it). Well I like Charlie a lot and he's just what I need to keep me company in my camper while I'm away at school. He's already learning about a lot of new stuff, such as Linux and other computer things. He led a sheltered life before he came to live with me I think ;)

His favourite movies are westerns because they have lots of horses in them! He had a shocking habit though when he first arrived. He began dancing to the country music that was playing! I had to explain to him that country music was NOT good music and he really should refine his tastes more. I don't blame him though, he doesn't know any better.

That evening we sang a few Christmas songs and then read Luke chapter 1 and played Scattergories. I did terrible on round 2 and 3. I just couldn't think of anything for some reason until after the buzzer had gone off. Perhaps that's my problem, being used to quiet while I think and study and then to play games where I'm trying to concentrate and the buzzer is grinding away etc. I don't know, but I should have done better :)


SUNDAY

And that brings me to today and then I'm all caught up! Hurrah! Mom didn't know that Charlie was coming to stay with us so she get a stocking for him, but he didn't mind too much, I won't let him eat any candy because I've heard it might be bad for horses. He did gnaw on a piece of grass yesterday but didn't care for it too much. We all opened our stockings and then went to church. The service was said to be a "multi-sensory, multimedia experience" and some points were good but for the most part I was disappointed and missing my second family back up in Stillwater and wishing I could be in church that Sunday. It lasted for an hour, three people said "hi" to me and then we left. I didn't see many people I knew though and the place was packed and they had a second service coming up right afterwards.

We picked up my grandma from the care center she is living at. It's actually an assisted living facility, she has alzheimers and isn't doing to well sometimes. She has never wanted to be out here and keeps insisting we take her back (she can get onery). It's really sad to see her like that at times, we were never very close to her but still, she is my grandma. As she was leaving my mom told her "Merry Christmas" and she said "Oh yes, my goodness, it will be upon us quick, only a few days won't it?" Her memory has failed very quickly it seems.

I believe that if one keeps active in their later years by learning new things, or continuing to exercise their mind, that they will have a much less chance of developing alzheimers or dementia and will be able to survive much better. I hope I never go through it but then again, I love learning and am constantly trying new things out (I hope I do that all my life) whereas my grandma would just watch TV all day, every day and not do anything else. She was set in her ways and didn't want any new-fangled stuff to mess up her life. She wouldn't read or play games or go to the social club etc. so in a way I feel like she has brought it upon herself and yet I of course still feel sad for her. I am almost certain she is not a believer as well, there has been no fruits in her life ever.

We opened presents and had a nice lunch (with sweet potatoes and scalloped potatoes!) and we also watched a movie I had bought recently, quite a famous movie too! It's called Casablanca and my brother and I watched it a few nights ago and really liked it, so I watched it again with the family. During the movie I was worried that the situation would get icky but it turned out very well and I think it's one of my favourite movies I've seen. Lots of little subtle things to watch out for and quite humourous at times as well. I wish they made movies like that still, that were essentially clean and were clever and funny at times without being stupid like the new Steve Martin movies, I don't even want to hear about them.

By the way, while I am on the subject of movies, I'm sure everyone checks out movies before they think of going to them, but I've heard (from LES) about a movie I believe is called "Broke Back Ridge" that is supposed to be coming out in theatres. DO NOT SEE IT. It is disgusting, promoting a way of life that is sinful. And hollywood says this is one of the best things ever and it's about time something like this came out and it's supposed to win academy awards etc. I can hardly believe it's come to this, it makes me really appreciate the old days and how it was good, and clean. The cowboys I remember are Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger, and Hopalong Cassidy, not these horrid cowboys they are making in this new movie. I can't even speak about them further.

Charlie Horse would like to say goodnight:

gudnite evreebudie!

We may need to work on his spelling but I think he's doing quite well considering he's only been with me a day. At least he doesn't say things like "u rock" and such ;) I jest!

Inside Information

I have to warn you that I did three posts (well, four including this one) all at once, so if you're remotely interested, I'd recommend going to the bottom most one and working your way back up to the top post.

And still more!

TUESDAY

Error Correction: Before beginning I should say I was mistaken about having Sweet Potatoes at Thanksgiving, apparently we did have them and my memory is simply so fogged (after all, it WAS before finals) from it being so long ago that I had not remembered. I was reminded of that by my mother, who is also making BOTH sweet potatoes and scalloped potatoes for Christmas!

Tuesday was really quite a special day and I don't want to skim over too much of it. After a breakfast of Garlic Freedom Toast (not French Toast) we cleaned up and got ready to pull out. The boys were going to travel down to eastern Oklahoma to visit some friends: the "mature" gamer lady I keep mentioning, and her husband. So after saying our good-byes to our grandparents, my parents drove the camper away toward Springfield, MO while I took the southern route toward Ft. Smith. We made excellent time in spite of being stuck behind a few cars that apparently had never been on any mountain roads. I don't drive extremely fast but I know how to handle a car and narrow roads don't bother me. Some people get nervous if they don't have a huge shoulder on either side. The bad thing though, is these people never seem to be considerate enough to pull to the side for a minute even though there may be six cars stacked up behind them. It was about a five and half hour drive altogether so we were a bit tired by the end of it.

You know, I always seem to talk to myself in the car and I wondered if anybody else would think of me as being crazy if they were to see me. My brothers didn't mention anything but when I'm thinking to myself I'll often just burst out with some random thought that came to my head. For example, after a few minutes of silence I'll just suddenly say "Probably Sushi" without even realizing that I said it out loud at first. I do multitask better than most guys but I admit that girls are better at it, I tend to focus on one thing at a time and I enjoy doing that! I like to focus on my driving but when I have passengers then I want to make sure they aren't bored (or freaked out with my random comments to myself) so I talk and perhaps don't pay as much attention to the road. Though I have to insert here that a girl driving in a car with another girl (or worse, more than one other girl) is one of the most scary things to see on the road. More on that later, in Wednesday's description.

My brother and I sang songs to ourselves while my youngest brother in the back played a racing game and soon became a bit carsick. Trying to drive in a game while being driven on a windy road probably isn't the best combination ;) Again, it's amazing to me to see how fast some people drive, I always try to keep under the speed limit or at the most, right at the limit, not use that as a recommended speed and then go 10 mph faster than that.

We arrived at our destination at 1530 and stiffly clambered out of my low car. LES (or AL as I call her) came out to greet us, we passed around hugs and then went inside. She is quite the conversationalist and we talked for about forty-five minutes and then headed out to go see "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." I had purposely been waiting to see it with her. We had discussed seeing it when I was out of school, I had made these plans oh, probably at least 4 months ago. So that is why, Boromir, I couldn't go out and see it the previous week. She definitely had remembered but wasn't going to press it with me (i.e. pull the "But you promised" card) but I had been really looking forward to it. Apparently on a message board (on my brother's website) I had mentioned something about "As we learned in Narnia." And she remembers those words even though I do not. It prompted her to check into the books (which she had never heard of) and then ask about them. My friend in California and I really encouraged her to get them and read them. She ended up ordering them and giving them to her husband as his birthday present, and he still hasn't read them but she did.

When reading through the first book (we both recommended that she read "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" first) she was kind of doubting, knowing it was for a third grade level reader and when Aslan was killed she was very, very upset and didn't want to finish it. She did though and started to realize what it was all about. I wasn't telling her much because I prefer to let people discover things for themselves and I do NOT give things away. After reading through some more of the books and especially Voyage of the Dawn Treader (she fell in love with Reepicheep and cried when he left) she really began to see the books as more than books. That's how I feel about them, they aren't simply words to me, or not just for literary critics, there is so much more behind them! There was a guy in my chemistry lab that I saw who was reading one of the Chronicles of Narnia, and he seemed to approach them just like Harry Potter or something. I asked if he liked it and he said "it's below my reading level." First of all, I should HOPE he's above a third-grade reading level, but second, he's missing the point of the books, the beauty is lost on him. It's not just a fantasy, it's oh so much more! I can't describe how much they do mean to me.

Then when she got to The Last Battle, and the dogs fighting with the humans to the last (she loves dogs and has many at her house, all "freebies" that were dropped off) and then to see Reepicheep again, she wouldn't trade the books for anything now. The last time I read through The Last Battle I was quite moved too.

Anyway, all of this to say that we were both really looking forward to seeing the movie together and then discussing it afterward. Her husband paid for both the tickets and then wouldn't let me pay for the pizza we picked up afterward, they were very generous toward us and I really appreciated them. She baked a pie JUST because I had said I liked pie and believe me, it was the best apple pie I'd ever eaten, it just melted in my mouth! For my brother she made a chocolate cake that was very moist and delicious. Daisy, if you ever read this far, you've never had chocolate cake like this before, it was SO delicious. I don't care for chocolate cake ordinarily (too dry) but this was good, good, good!

So anyway, the movie. We didn't arrive very early but were able to get seats easily enough. I sat next to AL on one side on purpose so we two (my other brother had already seen it) could be surprised together. They had a lot of previews beforehand, none of which were worth mentioning except perhaps Cars. I'm dubious though, as I usually am about new movies. I felt the same about The Incredibles but I absolutely loved that movie so this could be good too!

During the opening scene I instantly recognized the Nazi's cross on the planes and I wondered if many others did. I think it should be recognizable but it's surprising to me how much history many kids don't know these days. Such as December 7th, a lot don't know about it and it's rather sad to realize it.

Once the movie had started, all of my former fears and critiques (from the trailer) melted away and I was engrossed in the movie. Some of the lines were perhaps a bit too familiar from the trailers but wow, the whole movie itself was very moving. I didn't really care for the in-fighting between Susan and Peter (she seemed to side with Edmund on a few occasions) and it seemed odd that the beavers were still at their house when the wolves attacked (and wow, they sure made a huge tunnel exiting, considering their size).

Mr. Tumnus was very good, perhaps a bit too tall still but very personable. I liked him a lot. The snow falling, everything seemed so rich. The Turkish Delights looked absolutely delicious. I did think that when they ran away from what they thought was the White Witch and hid in that hole, that it would have been extremely easy to track them, being as it wasn't snowing at all but was actually quite sunny. You know, the book itself isn't extremely long but it is packed with detail and much of it they captured in the movie very well. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The central part though, where Aslan, with a very great sadness that you could almost feel, went up to the Stone Table. He let himself be tossed down, taunted, tied up tightly, dragged up the stones quite roughly, and then killed by the White Witch. At any moment he could have easily broken his bonds and torn them all to shreds yet he stayed there. It reminded me very, very much (as it should have) of my Lord and how He could have come off the cross, He had legions of angels who would have come to His aid, it wasn't the nails that held Him to the cross, it was His love for His people, for sinners such as me. It really brought that home, it's about as close as I've come to crying on any movie even though I knew exactly what was to happen. My eyes watered up. I wish they had spent a bit more time on the "resurrection" scene and let the girls get further away and then come running back (because since they were right there, how would they think that the baddies had come back to do worse things to him?) but wow, seeing Aslan pictured in the frame of the stone pillars with the light behind him. His roar was really good too. Too much of the movie was computerized in my opinion but overall it was really, really good and I'd definitely want to see it again sometime.

Narnia does mean a lot to me. I remember being devastated when younger and reading The Last Battle and finding out that Narnia was gone, but it wasn't the "true" Narnia as I later realized. The books seem to mean much more to me as I grow older, one would think it would be the other way around but it's not.

We discussed the movie quite a bit after getting back to our friend's house. We all agreed that they got the key points in the movie and did them very well. I still like the old White Witch better though, this new one just seemed a bit strange for some reason. I liked the Centaur (I can't remember his name right now) and Mr. Tumnus was very good, but I actually like the professor a lot too, as I said before, perhaps his hair stuck out a little TOO much, but he did a pretty good job overall I thought.

One thing that was interesting, was how they portrayed Susan as already being more of the "grown-up" one, Lucy commented on her getting boring etc. and at first I didn't care for that but I have to wonder if they did that so they could set it up for Susan's ultimate turning away from Narnia at the end. I do hope they make the rest of the series, I want to see The Magician's Nephew, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Last Battle (though no movie could do the ending justice) and A Horse and his Boy. I really like that last book for some reason, perhaps it appeals to the boy in me.

Gus, if you're reading this, it's no longer a bedtime story for you, it's got to be an "early morning" story by now ;) I've still got to write about Wednesday a little and then the next couple of days could probably be lumped together fairly easily.

And More

MONDAY

Hopefully this should be shorter than the last post. It's just that I have so much to say about so many things that I don't wish to forget and I'm trying not to take any shortcuts. I can just hear my brother saying "take the shortcuts! Take the shortcuts!" He's offered to make me an "Indenta' Killa" for my blog and limit my posts to three paragraphs. But we all know what would happen then.... my posts would become one huge paragraph and that would be worse than it is now. Of course everyone can just skip it, read the last paragraph and comment on that and I probably would never know the difference so it's up to the reader ;)

Grandpa William loves to see us boys eat, for breakfast we just had cereal but he wanted to take us out to a buffet called "Ryan's" for lunch. I was pretty hungry by the time we got there and ready to "feed my mouth" as my friend in California said. He is always so mild and then one day he sat down at the table (he was visiting) and abruptly demanded "FEED MY MOUTH!" It was so unlike him we all had to laugh, and it's been something of a standing joke especially between my brother and I. He was just playing around of course but it honestly caught me off guard! Oh and what a lunch we had! Fried chicken, sweet potatoes, spaghetti with delicious meatballs that nearly melted in your mouth, fried Okra, which I actually do like quite a bit. My great-grandparents used to eat it, being from Texas and Missouri respectively though I'd never really tasted it until coming to Oklahoma, where apparently it is almost a staple in many people's diets. I had three platefuls but didn't eat to the point where I felt I would be uncomfortable, I'm not THAT much of a glutton, only a little glutton I suppose ;)

It was very good and my parents say I have lost weight at school so I need to put some back on over the holiday break. I don't know if I have lost any weight or not, but I suppose it's better than what I usually hear about people going to a University for the first time, and that is that they put on about 15 pounds the first semester! Partially that is due to worry I think? I guess that wouldn't pose a problem for me because I rarely worry about anything and then it's only for a few minutes at the most, save a few times in my life where I have felt actually distressed. Mostly I feel that tomorrow will bring what it will and I can't really do a whole lot about it. I know a lot of people worry about grades after they finish a final exam and while I admit to curiousity, I don't worry because which of you by worrying can change one C to a D? Or make your percentage go up one point? What's over is over and though I do hope I did well, I can't change anything so why worry? Sometimes I'm perhaps too lax though, hopefully I don't seem like I don't care about anything, because I surely do, it's just well..... trying to look at things in a biblical view, it isn't that I don't care about anything. It used to drive my grandma crazy, she would tell me she got me a Christmas present that she thought I'd really like. I'd say "that's nice Grandma." And she'd ask "aren't you going to try to guess what it is?" and I would say no, I was patient and could wait, no use torturing myself!

The rest of the day was spent with our grandparents, they gave me something of a board game called Sudoku. At first I had no idea what it was, it was just a 9 x 9 grid of squares composed of 9 smaller 3 x 3 squares. But after reading what you were supposed to do I got really interested in it! My brother and I did 4 of the easier puzzles. Apparently this game is taking the place of crossword puzzles in many newspapers. It's interesting because you start off with a certain number of tiles on the board and from there on, every row must contain one and only one of each number from 1 to 9, each column must have the same, and each 3 x 3 square must have the numbers 1-9. So for each "puzzle" there is only one solution but it is logically deduced if you work at it. I thought it was really fun, much better than crossword puzzles where you apparently have to know about the lives of a bunch of hollywood actors and who is married to who etc. I have NO idea what goes on in modern "culture" these days. I think I'd do well at crossword puzzles if it wasn't for that! Singers, actresses, actors....

It reminds me that in the newspaper at the University (which I have only read a couple of times) they usually have crossword puzzles like that and then a cartoon as well. The cartoon is really not funny though. For example: in the first frame two guys with baseball caps are standing looking out of the picture over your shoulder and saying "looks like the cold front is coming in." In the next frame, both have snow on their caps and shoulders and the other guy says "the cold front came in." And I'm sitting there scratching my head and wondering what on earth posessed the cartoonist. Did he stay up at one of those parties until 0400 until his brain was fried and then drew it the morning it was to be published? No idea. That in turn reminds me of a Homestar Runner cartoon, where Bubs is talking about the Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum, he says:

"I never get the comics on those bubble gum wrappers. I mean, the first frame is some guy saying 'Look! The sky is fallin'!' and in the next frame, some guy in a sweater gets hit on the head by a rock and I'm sitting there thinking 'what just happened?' And before you know it, I've swallowed my bubble gum!"

Our Grandparents had a little dog that was named "Dixie" and was a "Puggle" apparently, a cross between a beagle and a pug. She was pretty active but by the end of the day she couldn't be dragged out of her bed, she was plumb tuckered out!

We also were able to meet two of our cousins for the first time! There are five children in the family and when we first met the family about 5 years ago (it's a long story) we only met the two youngest girls. Now we were able to meet the oldest girl and our cousin who is a Senior in high school I believe. There really wasn't a whole lot in common though, he is just celebrating his "six-month anniversary" with his girlfriend, they have been dating 6 months now. I'd never heard of such a thing, he's something of a ladies man I believe. I asked the girls what sort of music they liked and they said that (with my cousin Chris) they liked Rap and hip-hop... I think it was. I'm not extremely familiar with either. They took my brothers and I to their house so we could see their rooms etc. They said a small tornado had gone through their area a few days before and I think it must have stopped by one of their rooms, because honestly, it was the kind of thing you read about in books or see in a movie, clothes everywhere! Haha, nothing is safe, eventually all gets posted on the Internet!

Anyway, on the drive over he was trying to find some music and he asked what kind I liked. I chuckled to myself and said I preferred classical but I also did enjoy some Big Band music as of late (Glen Miller) and some soundtracks. I know I must have seemed extremely weird to them but I honestly don't care too much. We both agreed that we didn't like Country though, so that was good. To be a country singer you have to sing about a beat-up pickup, sing with a twang, and sing through your nose. It's handy to play a "gee-tarr" but not necessarily a requirement ;)

I found out that my eldest cousin (whom I had met for the first time) is to have a baby in a couple of months, her husband was there as well. I'm not sure if that would make me a second cousin then or not, anyway, it was a surprise I thought. It was getting late so they left and we all went to bed. I have to say that I was reading in one of the old Nintendo Powers that Mr. Y gave me and I came across a game that I read about and it literally had me crying I was laughing so hard! Things have come a long way since then eh? It was called Blaster Master and while it looked pretty fun, the story line was ridiculous, here it is, transcribed for your enjoyment:

"This is the story of a boy named Jason and his frog Fred. One day Fred jumped out of his bowl and escaped into the yard. Jason ran after him, but was unable to catch Fred before he jumped onto a huge box marked: "Danger--Radioactive." Jason watched in horror as Fred grew larger and larger until he became a huge monster frog! He then disappeared into the earth. Jason jumped into the pit after him, but Fred was nowhere to be found. Instead, he found an armoured vehicle designed to foil the plans of the evil Plutonium Boss and his band of radioactive mutants. Jason jumped into the cockpit and sped into the cavern beyond."

Now the story line is just riddled with gaping plot holes. I thought it was quite convenient to have a box of some radioactive stuff outside the window and then to find a special machine designed specifically to foil the plans of the enemies. Really, I was tired that evening (and always laugh harder then) but still, this made me laugh so hard I had to share it. Frog named Fred. Pfft!

It sure seems like I'll never get caught up. I've got a lot of things to relate that happened this last week yet.... today is Saturday and I have yet to speak about last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, let alone write about today! Gah! I'll never get all this done!
Well let's start this post with the day that started the week:

SUNDAY

It took everyone a little bit of time to get ready to go to church but there was plenty of time and my father worked on putting things inside the camper for storage and underneath and securing everything. Then we put in the slideout and hooked it up to the truck and hauled it down to the church. It is difficult to find a spot to park a Ford truck and a long fifth wheel, especially when I related that there was another church that met in the community centre and there were usually lots of cars. That is why I started parking my car outside of the parking lot. I figured that there were many people who could use the convenience much more than I, particularly the elderly.

I really enjoyed the Sabbath School, Pastor gave a very good overview in the time he had. In one sense I am always disappointed that we don't go into more depth, but on the other hand he probably went into more depth than he was "supposed" to, considering that it is merely a survey of the New Testament, or in other words, a big picture sort of thing and definitely not for discussing individual doctrines to any great length. I should have warned my parents though because I could tell they were just shocked at the speed with which everything has been going. This is his third week though (if I recollect correctly) and he has already spent more time than he "should have," relatively speaking. I really appreciated that he reviewed a few things (such as pulling out his sheet of paper with passages corresponding to different doctrines in the Corinthian epistles) for the sake of the new people, or more specifically, my family. I noticed that as well in the main service that followed, that Pastor would review a few things and it was mainly for the sake of my family and the Yule's cousins I am sure, and I appreciated it.

I know my mother really enjoyed talking to Mrs. C and Mrs. N a lot and my Dad with the men. I had always felt right at home with the church, it is essentially like a family to me and I felt among brothers and sisters. As I sit here writing this I actually do miss my "family" but I shall (D.V.) return in January, about 2 weeks from now and I'm looking forward to that. I never fit in at all in the Baptist church here, there are some really nice people but there was never any depth, I would be asked how school was going, what I was doing, etc. but I felt as though they were just stiff questions to ask simply because it was the "thing" to do and the outcome would have been the same whether I had answered the question or not. That may be a bit unfair though because there are at least a couple of families that do ask about me when I'm gone from here and I do know they care, but for the most part of the people it seems to be mere politeness, it's usually really easy to tell if a person is sincere or not. Which reminds me of a quote from George Burns.....

"Sincerity is one of the most important traits in a man...... If you can fake that, you've got it made."

Just before the service, I tried to gather enough chairs so my family could sit all together, not a very easy task! I would have been content with two rows even but for my family being essentially a "newcomer" to the church, I didn't feel like splitting it up into two or three (as it would have been) groups and spreading them all over would have been very pleasing to my parents! There were more visitors that day so that helped the problem I'm sure. It actually wasn't that hard to find extra chairs and I made a row of eight in the back and grabbed about 4 Psalters for the family. I really enjoyed the sermon on Psalm 148, Pastor has a way of making it relevant to the children especially and I appreciate that, it's not "dumbed down" like a lot of people will do, but put into terms that children can understand. Children can understand a lot that we don't give them credit for and just as with a language, the quickest way to learn is to fully immerse someone, in the same manner, by immersing a child in issues of doctrine, he or she will learn quite a bit. In so many churches the children are "shooed" out as soon as the service starts and go to play somewhere because they wouldn't understand anyway. Come to think of it, the adults in those churches are like babes themselves at times, desiring milk when they should be eating solid food.

I have been growing a lot lately myself. At the Baptist church here I had often felt as though I was more knowledgeable than most of the people here and that set me up in a prideful state of mind I believe, looking back upon it. I seriously need to work on my abundance of pride constantly! Even as Mr. Vaknor said a couple of Sundays ago, we often tend to be prideful of what denomination or who we follow (the "I'm of Calvin" argument) and I admit that after really enjoying certain aspects of my church, I will look at others as being a bit below or something, less enlightened so to speak. How appalling it is to look back at that attitude though, and frightening! It's a constant struggle of my mind and heart, to act in love and sensitiveness and not pride. Hopefully that doesn't come out in my speech with other people (I don't believe it does) but I know it is in my heart. Coming alongside as a loving brother in Christ is vastly different from standing aloof in disdain.

Afterwards was the lunch. There was plenty of food, Mrs. Yule had promised to bring extra enchiladas (which I have to state that my youngest sister really, really enjoyed) and my family had brought a large pot of spaghetti, which I didn't know about until the day before. So there was plenty of food and all very good! I think my next oldest brother agrees with me that when you get in a group of homeschoolers you're almost intimidated because it seems like they are all so intelligent! We're used to being around other kids and when you get around people who actually understand puns and "intelligent" jokes, it's quite a difference! Usually it's just my brother and I telling eachother things that almost no one else would "get." There are many well-instructed youth at the church and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

I also must say that I was able to meet Mrs. Yule's mother, it wasn't very much in depth but she asked Mrs. Yule
"did you tell him?" To which the response was negative and then she said "Well good, don't tell him." And I'm just standing there, not quite bewildered but just er... slightly on the curious side might be a good description? I must admit though, I'm not extremely dumb and put two and two together rather quickly, along with some previous questions to some key people and I am sure I know the "secret" since she did mention my blog and I knew everyone who has commented save one. ;)

Pastor offered to discuss communion with my parents and I appreciated it very much but my father was already stretching himself by letting us stay for lunch (I would have stayed all day and taken them to the Vaknor's if I could) and since it was a six hour drive to our destination, that didn't work out. We had to get going so I said goodbye to the boys mainly and those who happened to be near and we took off. I was going to miss the people at the church for the next three weeks.

The drive was good, I drove with my two brothers in the car, the younger one played games in the back etc. but my brother and were able to talk about a lot of "important" things that we'd not been able to for a long time, getting a lot of good "geeky" jokes out of our system etc. As we drove through towns it was somewhat amusing to look at all the different churches, "Glansing Liberty Freewill Baptist Church" or something like that, the names were very long and odd sometime, I guess they wanted to differentiate themselves from the other churches. I imagine that there must have been splits. My Grandpa William told us that there was a large church way back, a long time ago when they were making machines that would create ice and there was half of the church who didn't believe it and the other half that did believe it. The "non-believing" half split off and formed the "No-ice Baptist Church." He sounded serious but one is never quite certain with him. In any event, I wouldn't be surprised if something like that did happen, many churches will split for silly reasons such as that.

It took about six hours to drive to our grandparents house, perhaps a bit more and by the time we arrived we were all a bit tired. I like my little car for long trips but even so, after that length of time in the car I start to feel a bit stiff and cramped. It was good to see Grandma and Grandpa again, they visited this last winter at our new place here but it seemed like it had been a while. My next oldest brother and I spent the night in their fifth wheel in the large bed (much, much nicer than the floor!) and some of the family was in the house and some was in our fifth wheel (I almost say mine because it has been my home for so long).

And that brings that day to a close (only 5 more days to write about!). I must say that after a day or two of being with our grandparents, which I enjoy by the way, I was feeling like I wanted to go home. I didn't really want to drive anymore and I didn't really want to sit around, I wanted to go home! But I realized that my home is the fifth wheel, that is where I have been staying, where I have lived for the past few months and that is where I wanted to go, back to my trailer park in Stillwater. I shall be a visitor for a few weeks at my parents house but I do honestly feel like a visitor, my home isn't really there any more and in a way it's sad and in a way it isn't. Perhaps it is time for me to grow up and become an "adult," but hopefully not a boring one, Daisy ;)

The Past

I apologize for the delay, there have been some things I wanted to get done when I got home, cleaning up a semester's worth of collected papers and computer-related things (how did I get five keyboards?) and generally trying to get my stuff all organized for the next semester. Hopefully I can remember enough of the past few days to have a bit of material to post!
Let me first fulfill an old promise by filling in the gap that occurred during Thanksgiving.

The drive down to my parents house was just about as uneventful as usual. I left Thursday morning (the previous night being a Psalm Singing time at Pastor's house) and thankfully there wasn't much traffic at all, which I enjoyed. It makes me jittery driving through "The City" (as everyone refers to it) because it seems like every driver is out to get me or something. I still don't understand the obsession with nearly every driver to go AT LEAST 10 miles above the speed limit and apparently they dislike anyone who doesn't do the same, considering them to be a hindrance to traffic.

It was good to see my family again, since it had been a while since my last visit but it was pretty much say "hi" and unload a few things from my car (computer being a necessity) and then getting ready for company that was arriving for the Thanksgiving afternoon.

There were two families that came over, from a fellowship of believers nearby, they are very nice families but I honestly don't know too much about there beliefs. I visited their church twice on Wednesday nights and the teaching seemed solid, at least as much as I heard of it but there was some things that seemed a bit strange or out of the ordinary in their beliefs, I shouldn't say too much because I couldn't say that absolutely for certain. But our families get along fine. They have one older boy who is about between myself and my next brother (no, my brother is not taller than me) in age. It's hard to find things to talk about because he is NOT interested in any kind of electronics, I don't even know if he touches the family computer at all. He apparently doesn't like to read, his favourite pasttime is riding his motorcycle and "souping it up."

When we visited his house last, he showed the boys and myself his motorcycle, he had modified the muffler so it would be really loud (can't have a quiet MUFFLER now can we?). His friend came over with his new quad and they took out the baffle inside the muffler to make that one really loud too. It made me think of old Mr. Boyd, the gentleman I used to do yardwork for. I always loved his small Toyota he drove, you could hardly tell that it was running becuase it was so quiet. That's the sort of car I like, I don't really want the entire neighbourhood to know when I am driving past, I'm more the "sneaky" or "spy" type I suppose. Creeping along as silently as a Shadow.....

Back to the point, there really wasn't a whole lot in common I suppose. One of the families had brought their deep fryer and the fathers worked on cooking the turkey outside in that. It was actually very good, extremely moist and the flavour stayed in very nicely. Not quite like a traditional turkey but certainly a pleasure to eat! Of course there were the usual mashed potatoes but there were no scalloped potatoes! And (even worse) no sweet potatoes! How can you have a Thanksgiving dinner without sweet potatoes? If you haven't guessed already, I think it's safe to say that I like to eat potatoes.......

After stuffing ourselves as full as a christmas goose, we sat around and chatted for a bit. There were some girls about my age there but I'm not really the type to go up and start chatting with them, I stuck around the boys (even though the conversation was extremely lacking) and eventually the men headed outside to go shoot some clay pigeons with the shotguns (something of a Thanksgiving tradition for some reason). I was doing very poorly for some reason, I only hit about four out of ten, but I was having fun. Some of the older men were good at shooting. One of the dads (his name was Bernie) wanted to shoot, he plays the drums at their church, has glasses, looks like a computer guy or something. Well he gets all settled and ready and suddenly fires the gun, before anything was in the air, he was just as surprised as the rest of us! THANKFULLY he had it pointed in direction of the woods but I was (understandably so) rather uneasy after that whenever he had a gun in his hands. He said he was surprised, this gun didn't have as hard a trigger as his at home did. That's kind of a poor excuse though because he shouldn't have been "testing" the trigger out before he was ready to shoot!

So after about a half hour, the group dispersed and some of the boys went riding on the motorcycles. I stayed in the room and cleaned up a few things and got my stuff organized. I do feel rather badly because I am sharing a room with my brother and when I come home, I often bring in a bit of stuff that I don't really have a place for so it stays on the floor by my dresser until I can organize it and put some things away. I wasn't trying to seem like a recluse, I just had some things I needed to get done and well.... the boys were all out riding and the girls seem to do fine without me, and besides, girls I don't know are very scary.

After the boys got back, we settled down to a couple of games (just the boys). There was Jesse (the motorcycle guy) and another named Joseph who tends to be closer to my own likes and dislikes. He works for a computer company but is also handy with physical labour. So Joseph and myself were on one team and my brother and Jesse were on another and we played Outburst. Joseph and I actually didn't do too badly at all but I felt sorry for the other team. I love trivia games and like my friend has told me, I do have a lot of useless knowledge so I love games like this but Jesse wasn't interested and I don't think even said anything the entire game, just sat there but my brother was doing pretty good by himself anyway. After that I was feeling a bit tired after having been up late the previous night (playing some silly, outdoors game called "football" where they apparently have a million rules to take ALL the fun out it and I broke every single one) and having gotten up early that morning so I was yawning. My brother and Joseph played a game of chess. I enjoy chess but didn't feel like thinking too hard at the moment.

I believe my brother won, but the game was horrible, both people were not thinking properly and so many goofy mistakes were made it was funny. Jesse's dad came by and asked me if I played checkers, I said that I did but I hadn't played for a long time (probably about three years). He said to play against Jesse because Jesse was pretty good. Apparently it's about the only board game he likes. So we broke out the board and the pieces and set up. He did have a couple of strategies for the start but generally he seemed to take each move as it came whereas I tend to (at least try) to look multiple moves ahead and imagine what the move would be countered with, carefully weighing the costs of each move so when he made a move I would expect it and immediately counter with my move (which would usually put him into a tight spot). He was the first to get a king, actually he made two kings but I had already made a tight attacking force and was able to protect my flank (with a "rear guard" of course) and the tables very quickly turned. I could tell it was a disappointment to Jesse and I felt badly because I know he had expected to win. Afterward my brother played with him and also beat him, rather soundly I must admit. After him being bored through the entire Outburst game, and then being beaten not only once, but twice at his favourite board game, I was feeling kind of bad and definitely not a good host.

The evening soon wound down and the guests left and I was able to go to bed. The next day was pretty ordinary, I worked on getting my project done (the projectile) for my Engineering class and organized a few things on Friday, then I left to go back to my "home" on Saturday.



The Present Past

Now to go back to this last Saturday, in the month of December, where I last left off posting. The morning was spent organizing the camper (seems like I"m always having to organize something since I get so messy) and getting ready for my family to arrive. I always get excited about them coming up to visit me but once they arrive and there is suitcases and bags littering the floor everywhere, my table is made into a bed so there is no place for my laptop and I get "deposed" to the floor instead of my ordinary queen-size bed.... one starts to contemplate not inviting the relatives back..... I'm just kidding of course. I enjoyed it and they did take me out to dinner (at the Chinese buffet) that night. Afterwards I took my oldest sister and two brothers to the Game Night that was at the Y's house. We had arrived late and I had promised to bring burritos too! I did bring them but apparently everyone had eaten so it was rather pointless. I set up my Nintendo GameCube by the TV so the boys could play (I had told Pastor's boys that I would introduce them to my brother's playing). My brother really enjoys Smash Brothers and he's quite good at it and I wanted Boromir to see how it was to play against someone who was actually good at the game, quite unlike myself! The boys took turns with the controllers and I think it worked out pretty well.

Meanwhile, there was a group composed mainly of girls playing Taboo in the same room and it became hard to hear oneself think after a time. I think people just like getting into the game and don't realize it but to an observer (sitting on the stairs with a munchkin who is chowing down on chips) it seemed very loud indeed! I periodically checked back upstairs to see how my sister was doing with all of the "new" people (new to her at least) and my youngest brother, who was going back and forth between the games up there and the games down where I was at. I joined the next round of Taboo but I have to say I wasn't much of an asset to the team. I tried and normally I'm decent at word games but like I said, it was hard to even hear oneself think in that room! Yup, that's my excuse.... er.... F.B. did well at the game... come to think of it, most of the girls did very well at the game, though they used some descriptions that really never would have made any sense to me, but they could understand eachother perfectly. Kind of like a personal language I suppose.

When Mr. Y had his turn though, I was able to understand what he was trying to get across! We were much closer in thought patterns. I was reflecting too how it is nice to have family members that are on the same team as yourself (which I didn't have) because there are a lot of things you share with them. My brother and I think very much alike and can each almost read the other's thoughts at times. I think part of my problem with that game is making myself understood (when it's my turn) and I really don't like to guess wildly at what the other person is trying to say, I like to get enough information so I can make a rather close guess, which often takes longer.

It was rather amusing listening to the descriptions other people thought up. There were some very creative ones! I felt like a silent observer much ofthe time, I can still remember F.B. "dozing" on the couch, Violin sprawled comfortably in her chair, head thrown back against the head rest, Dark Warrior bouncing up and down on the big ball, Daniel going back and forth from TV to Taboo and joining in whenever he felt like it (which was all the time) and Raychel walking around happily chowing on potato chips. When I was sitting on the stairs at the beginning, she came over and sat right next to me. When I moved up a step, she moved up too and sat next to me still. She didn't offer me any chips at first but after a while she gave me the whole bag, but it turns out she was just getting in a more comfortable position and once she had done so, wanted it back.

F.B. already described how Raychel enjoyed grinding away on her head with the toy egg beater. I found that quite amusing myself. Everyone was having fun and I truly did enjoy myself but by the time 2130 came around I was ready to go, it was late, I was a bit tired and didn't want to let that interfere with my Sabbath. There have been times where I've been tired Sunday morning and had trouble keeping my eyes focused and I always regretted it, my concentration wasn't at its best as it should have been. I remember an old pastor speaking of how he would tell his children to never let their Saturday night interfere with their Sunday and it has really stuck with me.

It really felt good to get outside and into the cool night air. I don't think I'm a recluse but I do enjoy some quiet time, quite a bit of quiet time actually! I must admit I do like where I am living and the general peacefulness that is around. The most noise I hear is what I make while singing to myself or listening to music while reading or doing some homework. I'm not a "lights and sirens" type of person, I don't know, I enjoy quiet family settings.

That night I slept on the floor, at least what little I did sleep. I had a very restless night for some reason, different "family" noises and a lot to think about I assume. My neck was sore for two days after...

You know, I am realizing that I'm simply writing about me, trying to make me sound interesting. I guess that is somewhat self-centered after all! Sorry about that.....

More later. I'm tired right now, as I'm sure you are.

Flash! In the news!

We interrupt this bit of monotony to bring you a special news bulletin! We have it from a very reliable source (code named M.O.M.) that the results are in for a certain students Chemistry grade, and it's an A, a Four-Point-Oh, a success. The student is reportedly very happy about the grade and wishes to thank all the people that were praying for him during this rough period.

Admittedly the teacher did have a bit of a lower standard for an A in the class, but still, it is exciting for me. So that dreaded "B" is still looming out there somewhere, waiting to nab me...

I guess that last post really wasn't the last post for a while, in fact, it didn't last long at all as a last post. Due to an expression of interest in the continuing of the blog, I shall try to continue during the next few weeks while I'm away. That's not a promise though, it's just a good possibility. It's flattering to know that someone enjoys your blogging (really, what is it more than a diary of ordinary events?) but at the same time it's a bit intimidating. Now I have *gasp* EXPECTATIONS to live up to! So Gus;, this is for you.

My family should be arriving in about an hour or so and spending the night here in the camper with me. It will be slightly crowded but I always did enjoy a "close" family nyuk nyuk. Today I did a bit of laundry and sent some e-mails out and then got one from Boromir saying that he and the boys were free to come over (I had offered to bring them over to play some games sometime). So I gave them a "buzz" and soon headed over to bring them back. We had a jolly time smashing eachother to bits. Boromir was the best at Super Smash Brothers, probably because of his naturally violent tendencies ;)
After getting pummeled for a while (it's really not my favourite game, though everyone else loves it) I suggested we play Mario Party! It's something like a board game, with a little bit of strategy and skill involved but the main game centers around these crazy little mini games at the end. For example: There might be one game where all four of the players are running wildly around on an icy pond (sliding all over the place) while snowmen throw snowballs at you, if you get hit by a snowball, you're frozen! Last player who can move, wins!
Another one (since this is winter after all) has all four players skiing down a slope with an avalanche tumbling behind them, nearly everybody trips over a rock and then gets swallowed up in the avalanche but the player who gets to safety first, wins! The other players are stuck inside snowballs with just their heads showing. It's ridiculous fun and right up my alley (I can't keep serious for very long it seems).

I ended up winning that one by a wide margin so the other boys voted for going back to Smash Bros.
When I play that game I feel like a pinball or a punching bag, getting tossed from player to player as they take turns beating me up. My brother should be coming tonight and I'm hoping to take him to the CY game night and er... turn 'im loose on a couple of boys, he's much better than I am at the game, perhaps the best player I know personally. I'll just sit back with a smug smile on my face as I watch Boromir get pummeled as soundly as I was this afternoon :D
He shall crack thy pate and give thee a sound knock upon thy back!

After some recent correspondence and just my own thinking, I decided to write a little of how thankful I am to be in the church here. To give a little history.....
I was tired of the language and other things going on at the junior college I was attending and was thinking about a Christian School. I looked at going to Bob Jones University and asked someone who had graduated from there. He said that yes, the school was strict but there were certain things that went on. Some examples had to do with something of a work-based theology. He started quietly discussing it with a few friends and someone "turned him in" (apparently it's encouraged to do that to your fellow students). He simply said he didn't think that wearing a collared shirt or something like that was necessary to being a believer. Well, he was put on the "black list" (literally) and given a paper that said he was unfit to lead any Bible studies on campus. From what he described to me, it was nothing bad he was doing at all, he still wore collared shirts but just didn't think it was necessary that you HAD to. So I did NOT want to be in a school such as that. Of course that is just one person's story.

Next I thought about LeTourneau University, down in Texas, there were good reports so I actually went and visited the campus. The campus itself was beautiful and I enjoyed being around it, I stayed in an apartment with four other guys (who were hardly there, a couple were always out somewhere until 1:00). The first night they had some kind of a rock concert. Now I don't know about anyone else, but I actually feel physically ill with that very heavy bass beat and the screeching guitars, my entire frame feels as though it is being torn to pieces from the inside out.
But I could avoid that. One thing that was required was "chapel" everyday. I thought that well, that was kind of neat, until we visited it. The first day there was a rock band there and then a very short, shallow "sermon" about how if you downloaded illegal music it was.... well... illegal and if you were convicted of this in your conscience, you should go home and erase it. One of the roommates I had said that he didn't like it because you can't MAKE people come and worship God. The classes opened with prayer, which I enjoyed (I was able to sit in on a couple) but then you have good professors and you have bad ones. The people at LeTourneau are not very strict as to what kind of Christianity comes in, so you have some conservative people to the really liberal ones as well, all under the banner of Christ supposedly.

The last day were were there, it closed with professor being asked to speak and he gave something of a sermon and then said "I feel that God wants to speak to us today, so I want three people to give me a Bible verse that comes to mind."
One person timidly spoke up and quoted it, so he marked that down, another person said some other verse, and finally a third person spoke up. Then this man took those three verses and certain words and phrases out and pieced together what "God is trying to tell us this morning." I was very angry at that! I couldn't believe someone would do that, it's almost like doing the ol' "let the Bible fall open where it will and let your finger fall on a verse to seek God's will" sort of a thing!

Then he said that he was also sure, he felt in his heart that someone had a question they wanted to ask, God was telling him so. And he sat there and waited for a few minutes but no one said a word. Then (with regret) he said that he was still sure and would wait around afterwards and closed.

That was the last straw for me, I went to the University asking God to show me if I should really go there, I went away with a definite answer: NO! When I asked to stop the application process I was given a sheet of paper with a spot to give comments on the process and why I wasn't going to go to LeTourneau. There wasn't enough room on the front so I covered the entire back of the sheet with the reasons why I wasn't going, and the entire argument centered around Chapel and the "freedom" that the professors had, to teach Christianity as they wanted.

I decided that I would much rather go to a secular school where one could very easily discern the truth, than go to a "christian" school where the truth was diluted to the extent that it was barely recognizable.

So when my family moved to Oklahoma, it was a choice between two schools really, OSU and OU. I liked the idea of a more "laid-back" or "hometown" feel that I kept hearing was in OSU and then they had a better engineering program it seemed, so I applied to there and that is how I wound up in Stillwater. I must say that all of these "random" circumstances have led me to this church here and I think that it is one of the main reasons I was led to come to this college and I mean that very seriously.

The doors opened, there were a couple of minor scholarships, I applied for residency rates even though I was about 3 months short and was accepted. I had been talking to a friend of mine (that I met through video game competition) and he was studying theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (rts.edu) in North Carolina. I had always told people I was a "biblical" christian because I didn't want to put myself in a box, but he told me I was "reformed theology." Something I'd never heard of before. So after moving up here and looking for a church that Sunday and having just "happened" to be discussing that with him recently (after almost no e-mail contact for a year) I did a google search for "reformed stillwater church" and guess what was the first result? The more I looked through the pages (which had much more information than any other church website I'd been to) the more conviced I was that I was going there that Sunday. My mother had told me of some churches that other people had recommended in the area, mainly recommendations from people from the Southern Baptist church down where my family lives. I listened to part of a sermon too and was glad to see it was biblical. I could hear a very young girl in the background, so I must say that I heard young Miss Y before I ever saw her!

The first Sunday was truly a blessing, I arrived for the Sabbath School, stayed for the service, went through lunch, and then continued on into the afternoon service. Mr. Y said he was surprised I stuck all the way through it but I was in ecstasy, finally, a church where God's Word was taught with devotion and reverence. The Psalm singing was new to me but now I feel as though I have been missing something very great all my life. I had never thought of it before but when it comes to singing something to God, what could be more honouring than Scripture? Scripture: that which reveals God perfectly as nothing else can!

By the time the service was over, I was ready for next Sunday. I came home and wrote excitedly to my parents about it. We have been in some good churches before but they seemed to be few and far between and most of the time the Word was watered down and the congregation didn't know what they were missing.

I have already been growing a lot here and very grateful for what I have found and the graciousness of the people. Within a week or two, Mr. Y had told me, rather gingerly, that there was another congregation that had some former members of this church here and they seemed to like the worship style better. He personally thought the teaching here was unparalleled but he didn't know my tastes and just wanted to let me know about it. I had to suppress a huge grin because even though I was struggling in my own life with an issue that had arisen (one that I had never considered before) there was no way I was going to leave a treasure after I'd just found it! I appreciate the genuineness I see, it's not just a "godly face" put on Sunday that you never see the rest of the time, it's genuine!

I love being here, I do believe I am growing here. I am very grateful to have been brought to this congregation and hope to continue here for at least as long as I am going to school. I just cannot describe how wonderful it is to be among brethren like this. I have felt that I was truly among people who cared for me and I for them, not just a face I politely say "hi" to every Sunday morning.

Now this is seriously all I can write for at least a few days. I will be out traveling for a bit and probably not near a computer for any real length of time. Hopefully the length of this post will last for a little while anyway :S
I tend to be long-winded when I have the time.

Game Over. Press Start to continue

And so concludes another semester in the life of The Shadow. It's almost with a feeling of sadness, mingled with relief that I realize I don't have any more studying to do for this semester and I can't do anything about my grades now. It's finalized. Now all I have to do is wait and see what I got on everything! I have high hopes but often those give way to reality and that reality is that I make mistakes, more than I should.

The final exam for my Calculus class was at 0800 hours and I actually stayed for the entirety of the exam. I thought it was much more difficult than any of the others we'd had, which was odd because she had told us we weren't allowed to use graphing calculators, so I expected something easier. I believe I did fine on all the problems and there was also 10 possible extra credit points so I'm not worried about the results of that exam. I appreciated my instructor's cheerfulness and willingness to explain the subjects to her students. I was very much blessed by some great teachers this semester and I look forward to the same next semester!

So moving on.... after that I came home and hung out a bit, cleaning up some more until 1:15, when I went and picked up Boromir at his house and brought him over and it was my intention to play video games for several hours, which we did. I enjoyed the time but more players would be nice. I'm not much of a "party" type of guy in most cases but in this case, it's almost essential :)

I feel as though I have nothing to say this evening so instead of rambling I'll cut this short. I may or may not be able to post over the christmas break because of our poor connection at home, but since I'm writing this mainly for the folks at home.... it may be best if I just put a hold to it until the new semester begins. So actually, this may be my last post for a while, I'm not really sure yet.

So good night and have a blessed Christmas season as you are reminded of our Lord's birth.

My final Final is finally here!

The exam I took today went very well I thought. We were allowed four (!!) pages of notes for the class, 8.5 x 11 too, I only used one side of one page because I honestly didn't know what else to put on there. I could have put several complete programs if I wanted to. So this morning I spent about 15 minutes writing down a few extra things I "might" need and then called it good. I don't think it's being lazy, it's just there was not really anything to study for, there was no "cramming" to do, none of that. Just take a test upon what we'd learned.

The test itself went very easily, it was a matter of copying a few section of code I'd written down and looking at a few simple problems. It was worth just as many points as the previous three exams and only slightly more difficult. I finished in about 30 minutes and we had an hour and fifty allotted. It's just that perhaps my sheet of notes was better prepared, I'm not sure. I'm definitely not that quick normally! I was finished at 1030 hours.

Then I went to the Student Union to wait for Pastor and J. Nathan, the meeting was scheduled for 1345 hours and I had plenty of time. Three hours to wait I guess. I spent it in reading "The Puritan Hope" by Iain Murray. I got up to page 108 I believe, nearly halfway through. I also read a chapter in the weekly book we're going through in this meeting and answered the questions at the back (talk about waiting until the last few hours). And I also went to the registrar and asked about a course schedule and listing of buildings they were in, which I received. The lady was a grump though. I went up to the desk and she stared at me. I smiled (disarmingly) and stated that I wanted to get a listing of where my classes would be and was wondering if I could get it here or possibly when I paid for the next semester.....
she interrupted me right there and said that she would print it out, she needed to see a photo id.
I whipped out my wallet and handed my student ID to her with a smile (the picture isn't the best) but she just took it, typed in my name and asked me if I was so and so (which I was) and then said "it will print out here (pointing to a printer beside her) in a moment. " It soon did, she was back to doing whatever it was she was doing on the computer so I reached over and took it myself, glanced at it and then (again smiling at her in the best way I knew how) said "Well, thank you very much! That was easy and painless!"
She just glanced at me for a second and then went back to the computer. No smile, no nod of acknowledgement, no words, nothing. I slunk out feeling like I had done something worthy of disgrace. All I wanted was to see her smile, to cheer her up? I bet if I told her a joke she'd have called the campus police. Scrooge.

Eventually my waiting upstairs paid off and Pastor and J. Nathan arrived, we had a very good discussion and I appreciated it very much. It was on the Christian Life and dealt with the Ten Commandments etc. I was especially interested in number four of those, dealing with the Sabbath because in the past year or two I have been convicted of that myself and in the last few months have been able to actually do what I wanted to, and that is devoting the day to the Lord, not just going to a morning service and then feeling like the day was wasted because it took out "such a large chunk of my play time" but actually spending it in worship, fellowship, and learning. I have been tempted to study for a coming exam on Sunday but decided to just study a bit more during the week and have that entire day to spend at church and at the Enid Bible study (in between I'll sometimes read a book such as the one I'm working through now). Even though it seems like there should be less time because of that "sacrifice," the rewards are far greater than I'd imagined. Yes, Sunday is not a day for "me" to do what I want, but a day for "me" in that I can spend more time learning and fellowshipping with other believers. I can't explain how much of a blessing it's been but it's something I desire more and more and never grow tired of. Sunday is a blessing indeed. Also I've been convicted recently that if I feel that way, by going out and buying things at Wal-mart on Sunday or doing something similar to that, I'm supporting others who are required to work on Sunday because of their jobs. In Oklahoma it's a bit different than in California because in many towns, the stores to shut down for Sunday, or perhaps the morning (like the Wal-mart down where my folks live). Isn't that kind of odd though if you think about it. It's like just half the day is devoted to the Lord then, that's all we can spare.

It hasn't "just" been devoted to the Lord though, the benefit I cull from it is so much greater than I would imagine. Yes, give unto the Lord and He will richly repay, I do pray for my focus to be for His glory and not just my benefit.

So that was what the discussion centered on quite a bit. Afterwards I went home and have been answering some more e-mails and listened to a sermon etc. Not much else really.

Before I forget, I wanted to mention that on my Economics test, the teacher had a question that dealt with two people in a market: Rose, and Sharon. I gave an involuntary glance at the teacher when I saw that. I still wonder if it was a "coincidence" or if it was intentional. So that was a bit of an easter egg for me.

Now, I've been storing up a few quotes for a little while, so perhaps now would be a good place to use them. Speaking of Economics:

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.
- Errol Flynn

And not gross as in "disgusting," but as in... exorbitant, just to make it absolutely clear! I liked Errol Flynn in a lot of movies.

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can. That's almost $7.00 in dog money.
- Joe Weinstein

That one is pretty self explanatory. For some more funny quotes.....

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.
- Alice Kahn

Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.
- Russel Lynes

That last one is amusing because I think just about everybody aspires to write a novel. I used to dream of doing it myself. After some very poor (and corny attempts) I decided that it would perhaps best be unwritten. My "stories" were entirely too ridiculous, or too predictable. Much like myself I'm sure......
And for a more serious quote,

Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.
- Ronald Reagan

Yes, that is true and I often wonder how someone can say that they are "pro-choice." What if their parents had decided to murder them while they were yet unborn? Does that idea bother them? I think they choose rather to not dwell on that idea but still stubbornly stick with their "beliefs" that women have a right to choose. Choose what? Death or life for an unborn child? As soon as a child is born, it immediately becomes a crime to murder him or her, but while unborn it's acceptable to most. Why? I was going to write some differences and show why they are meaningless (I remembered the acronym "SLED") but this person does a much better job so I 'll simply quote.

1. Size or Physical Appearance – Do humans lose value when they don’t look right? Does size equal value? Men are generally larger than women. Does that mean men are more human than women? Shaquille O’Neil is larger than Hillary Clinton. Does that mean Hillary Clinton is less human than Shaq? The term used to describe the destruction of groups of people based on their physical appearance is ethnic cleansing or genocide. But human value transcends physical appearance. Therefore, “not looking right” cannot disqualify a human being from being valuable.

2. Level of Development – Is a person’s value defined by his abilities, by what he can or can’t do? Do we forfeit our rights as human persons because we don’t have the capabilities others have? Do stronger, more capable, more intelligent people have more rights than others? Do human beings become disposable simply because at their level of development they are helpless, defenseless, and dependent? Human value transcends abilities or the lack of abilities. Therefore, missing abilities cannot disqualify human value.

3. Environment – Do humans forfeit their worth when they change locations? Baby Rachel was born prematurely at 24 weeks. She weighed only 1 lb. 9 oz., but dropped to just under 1 lb. soon after. She was so small she could rest in the palm of her daddy’s hand. She was a tiny, living, person. Heroic measures were taken to save her life. If a doctor had killed Rachel we would have recoiled in horror. However, if this same little girl was inches away from the outside world, resting inside her mother’s womb, she could be legally killed by abortion. Clearly, one’s environment can’t be the deciding factor. Changing locations is morally trivial. Environment has no bearing on who we are.

4. Degree of Dependency – Is human value determined by our degree of dependency on others? The unborn’s dependency on his mother for sustenance is irrelevant to the baby’s value. No baby is “viable” if degree of dependency matters. All babies need their mothers for feeding whether via blood (an umbilical cord), breast, or bottle. Human beings may be dependent on others for their survival, but they aren’t dependent on others for their value. All physically dependent people are at risk if degree of dependency determines their value – those dependent on kidney machines, pacemakers, and insulin would have to be declared non-persons. Dependency does not determine worth.

I just simply don't understand, and never will understand. People, in their depravity, wish to make themselves their own gods, and to live in a lifestyle that they desire to with as little consequences as possible, even at the cost of a baby's life. That is very sad and discouraging.

I didn't mean to end on such a sorrowful note but it is an extremely important issue and one which most American simply ignore even if they don't agree with it.