The New Year

This past year has been wonderful. All the new things learned and friends found have made the time spent worth it all. As usual for most I'll be making some resolutions. Many of my resolutions though tend to lean toward the "I won't eat any ice cream for a year" or "No carbonated beverages" ( 2 years this January 1st) but sometimes is thinking about what we can or won't do the following year. Sometimes we don't think of things like "I'll start doing my devotions every day" or "I'll set aside an hour or two or three just to read my Bible each week or so." Recently my pastor spoke on I Peter 1:13-26 and being born again. It was a rebuke to me when he talked about the fact (yes I said fact ) that many of us don't think about whats really important. When life is good and we're having fun we don't think about God at all, but when we are sad or feel oppressed we are constantly thinking about Him and when He's going to help us. This of course brings up again the "we treat God like a genie in a bottle" illustration and some- most times it's true.
try making more resolutions than usual this year, you may find it harder than it looks.
Happy New Year and to all a good night!

Only exceptionally rational men can afford to be absurd. - Allan Goldfein

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year. I wanted to have a post on one of the greatest reasons to celebrate. Thats right Jesus' birthday. Although many have said that Jesus wan't actually born today, but since we don't know most people celebrate it on the aformentioned 25th of December. The day were you spend time with your families because if you don't you'll hate yourself later. your family members are you friends and like most good things (most) don't last forever (on earth) so to prevent you from crying on your couch 27 years down the road, spend time with your family, play a game of Apples to Apples or Taboo or even Go Fish. Best wishes for another year and I hope you all have a wonderful break and enjoy every minute of it (or else!)
Have a Merry Christmas
Happy Hannuka for those Jewish watchers
And have a happy New Year

If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candle light - George Gobol

Let's Catch Up And Then Bring On The Mustard

The ice fell and so did the tree branches on the last day of Acad exams signaling Dr. Cates to cancel school to the rejoicing of many. After the merry yells and screams of happy Acad's another sound was heard, the noise of dead, ice encrusted tree branches falling on powerlines, houses, cars, driveways, etc. We lost power the entire day until 10:12PM at which there was much rejoicing (yay.) We were much more fortunate than some seeing as some people didn't have power until the monday following. We also lost cable (cursed charter) until today at which I am celebrating with a post. I find the powerless days like those to be somewhat fun. They make you spend time with your family in candle light playing UNO or Go Fish or something. I also will have in a post (this post) that Jeeeeosh will now not be heading on to Alaska. He said he had a slim chance to stay here and apparently he nailed the bull's eye. So that's exciting and Christmas is approaching. I also just celebrated my 15th (permit time) birthday on the 20th. That is basically what it has been over in this neck 'o the woods so have a MERRY CHRISTMAS. You heard me no happy holidays no seasons greetings (by the way Happy Hannuka) ITS MERRY CHRISTMAS. If you want to be politically correct then make it a Christmaholikwanzukkah (thank you Ben Henning) but I digress. Alrighty then may all your Christmases be white and all your roads be clear. Merry Christmas!

"Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl."
- Bill Peterson, football coach

Check It Out

The aforementioned Josh Kelley has made a blog which he will be maintaining from Alaska the URL for it is www.alaskafrontier.blogspot.com so check it out
he'll probably have pictures too.

Ninety percent of everything is crap.
-Theodore Sturgeon

Happy Trails

I had the privilege of sitting in front of Josh Kelley in band. We joked around alot and had some good times. Josh however is leaving next semester. He played his last band concert tonight (12/09/05) and I, among others, will miss him. He was funny, worked hard, and always brightened my day when I saw him. I know this kinda sounds like an obituary, but bear with me. So I just wanted to give notice of his journey (at least I think he's leaving) and I hope we can keep in touch. This blog will remain ever open the the coments whether in enlgish or in german (preferably english) and all the antics you gave to BJA. I look forward to seeing you again whenever that may be, but until then, Happy Trails Jeeeeeeeeeosh and have a good one!


"This is no longer a slum neighborhood. I haven't heard of a Cubs fan being shot in a long time."
- Anonymous Wrigley Field Neighbor, Chicago, IL

Video Games And The Like

A quick issue arised in Figureskater's blog, and if you haven't guessed yet, it's videogames. I'm going to look at this from all possible angles. Angle #1 - videogames are awesome. These kind of people are those who try to make a career out of videogames. These people play 3 days straight consuming enough caffeine to supply a bustling university with final exams. Frankly I find these people detestable, I realize I'm generalizing, they usually have the nerd look about them wearing nerdy (yet comical) shirts like "I'm not a nerd I'm a level 24 Paladin" stupid, but funny. Angle #2 video games can help. These people are more sociable, because I happen to be one of them. While there are many, many stupid, pointless games out there (allow me to re-stress many) there are the precious few that can be useful. I myself have actually learned things from certain (certain) games. There are also those games favored for partays and the like. These are the games that can be fun for many people because of the endless fun the present. Angle #3 videogames are pointless and a complete waste of time. This when applied to many games on the market today is very, very correct. These people chose to spend their time on more "profitable" things and thereby conclude that videogames are completely worthless. My conclusion? Angle #2 and 1/2. Some videogames can be useful and fun, while today many are mindless, poinless, and worthless. I realize that i have not covered all the angles or even completely explored the angles I mentioned, but that is for another time.

"During the scrimmage, Tarkanian paced the sideline with his hands in his pockets while biting his nails." - AP report describing Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian

Just Joshing, If You Will

Recently an issue of "poking" preverbial fun at people has arisen. Some people have been possibly "going too far" for some people's egos. A cetain unnamed jewish resident has perhaps taken things a bit too seriously. Granted, this person may not have the iron hard esteem like the person making the fun, and so I think we should all take a deep breath. Slowly inhale, slowly exhale, there, feel better? Alright lets adress some issues. Some people have more family than others and therefore more people to make fun of them. Some people are born with a natural hard iron ego that resists mocking well, some are born naturaly shy and can't endure the slightest "poking." I think that we all need to take a step back, and think about the person we are commenting about. I myself resist mocking well because I was born into a 7 person family that made-fun of your every "stnank" or mistake. I learned gradually to throw it back, or as my eldest brother once said "he woke up and started cracking jokes like the rest of us." Sometimes you just gotta shake it off, and throw some back. As far as I know any fun-poking that goes on is utterly in jest, unless I'm missing something. So if someone calls you ugly, call them stupid, if you're so critical about yourself that you take every little comment seriously then you won't develop a sense of humor, which is very useful (the sense of humor.)Granted also there are some things we should jest about, Moms for instance, I can realize that we aren't being serious but we need to think about it before we go with the derogatory term of "your mom." So my main point is before you "poke-fun" think - who,what,why. Who am I making fun of and can they handle it? What am i making fun of? Why am I making fun of said person, to hurt,help, or just to "josh" if you will? so remember the 3 dubyahs of "Joshing"


"You guys line up alphabetically by height." - Bill Peterson, Florida State football coach

Mind Boggling

I like things that make my brain hurt. Things that boggle the mind if you will. Things like a good math equation to an abstract logic problem. Recently I have slammed head into the biggest mind boggler of all, God. We cannot understand God, because we have finite minds, we simply cannot comprehend Him. Mr. Huff has talked about God's G.R.E.A.T.S. (Glory Rule Eternality All's Truth Son.) He talked today (12/2/05) about His All's. One of which was God's limitlessness. God has no limits, He is for one example, big. He is everywhere in an eternal universe at once, but not only that but He also is not limited by time, so He is everywhere in that eternal universe at once throughout time. He is still there when the world was created(and eternally before that too) and He is at its end at this very moment. He is also omnisicent. He knows everything that is going on in the past, present, and future, forever. He knows about things no human has seen or will ever see. He not only knows what happens He knows what could happen, he knows all probablilities. He knows everything EVERYTHING about you and everyone EVERYONE that includes the people from the past, present, and future. God is the ruler and creator of the universe and yet He still desires a relationship with those who deny Him daily. That my friends is so far past our finite human minds to comprehend its mildy humorous. The purpose of this post was to make you think about how you react to God the Author of Life, Creator of the Universe, about how He is infinitly (infinite-Immeasurably great or large; boundless. another term we as humans cannot fully comprehend) powerful, knowledgeable, present, good, you get the idea. God's greatness is unsearchable.

I will extol thee, my God, O King; And I will bless thy name for ever and ever - Psalm 145:1
(extol - praise lavishly) (lavishly - extravagantly)

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to give a post devoted to Thanksgiving. We should enjoy Thanksgiving as much as possible, because its getting squashed. People go straight from the candy, ghouls and goblins, and pupkins of Halloween straight to Christmas. One of the problems here is that (just watch its true) nobody will actually call it Christmas. When you go to the grocery store they'll leave you by saying "happy holidays" or "have a good season." This is just stupid, its amazing how we went from the pilgrims of the first Thanksgiving, who had it because they wanted to give thanks and not just eat, to a society who won't even call it Christmas. So be different and tell those grocery clerk dudes "Merry Christmas" and if they say "have a good season" say "sorry I dont play basketball, but you have a Merry Christmas." Overall eat alot of turkey, play/watch some footbal, play some family games, and enjoy the break from school.
Happy Thanksgiving!

"Sure there have been injuries and deaths in boxing - but none of them serious."
- Alan Minter, Boxer

Worth Checking Out

My good buddy, Harvey, just happened to have made a blog. The blog in question resides at www.ericdetandt.blogspot.com. Just thought I'd let you know since he's a buddy of mine. I'm sure he has some good things to say (also a pretty funny picture) So check it out and enjoy

I love oversea places, like Canada - Britney Spears

A Day In The Mountains

Today ( 11/12/05) my family (extended editions included) went to Jones Gap for the day. It was full of fun, food, family, flames, and. . .feet? Yes, alliteration is sometimes hard, but what I'm trying to get across is we did alot in a little time. We threw a frisbee, played bocce ball, ate chicken, brownies, kebabs, bratwursts, and cookies, we played croquet, we threw a firsbee around some more, what I'm saying here is it was very fun. You should try it too, you'll get out of the house, fresh air, and see how flaming beautiful the mountains are! When I say beautiful I mean pretty awesome. So this was just a update of a random accord and, again, you should do it too. Its bunches of fun.

It is not due to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near one - J.R.R. Tolkien

Open, Honest, and otherwise Blunt

The one thing that plagues social lives for some people, the fact that some people are not open and honest about their opinion. Some things are better left unsaid, true, but somethings are heinously needed to be spoken about. Another fact is that both genders think that the opposite is so confusing, and many attribute much of this mystery to the unopened doors of the afformentioned gender. A degree of openess is needed in many peoples lives (unless one of you work at the CIA. . .) because although in the previous privacy post I stated that we should not violate other's privacy. You might think this is contradicting said previous post, but instead it is fitting like a puzzle peice. Listen closely, being open can in fact help your privacy. It doesn't happen often, because we don't give too much notice to it but it's true, unfortunatly I can't think of a good example off of the top of my head. When/if I re-edit this I'll give an example. I digress, frankly being open is good in some respects, but also requires tact (something some of us have yet to gain). You might here me saying that you should always settle differences or else they will turn into anger, then fury, then spite, then bitterness, then being an old hermit on a hill with a big dog in a rickety old house and you spit at everyone, . . . it's true. Being open also applies to telling someone when you have done something/have been done unto. I now refer to Timford's post of jumping to conclusions, that if you are going to talk to someone, make sure you've got the facts right. In the end, if your too open, people know everything about you (bad) if your too private people know nothing about you (bad), but if your both open at the right times and private at the right times then people will respect you for what you are and not someone who keeps too many secrets, or no secrets.
P.S. I shall ( like Harvey[who had the idea]) now be leaving a random quote at the end of my posts. Good day
Prunes are way too disgusting to be funny - C.S. Lewis

Complaining

Stop complaining! Something we hear, but heed too little. Few people have stopped to realize just how much we complain. We complain about things from catching a cold to having "too much homework." We complain so much that it has been integrated into our lives as something normal. It's not uncommon to be walking in the quadrangle and here someone complaining about how hard Biology is or how terrible they feel. We need to just take a step back and look at just how silver our cloud-lining is. For example, be happy you have a school to go to and that you are learning things to help you in your future, instead of scraping an existence off of a barren plain that yields no crops. Be happy that you have antibiotics to take for a cold and that you aren't in danger for you life if you catch one. Be happy we grew up in a society that has good hygiene and education. Also complaining is bad for your health, because it can make you worry which is also bad for you (and need I remind you of what happened to the Israelites that complained after they were delivered from Egypt?). The next time you're about to complain just think "what would my life be like without (fill in the blank [indoor plumbing, medicine, peanut butter, ect.]) And then be thankful for what God has given you in this culture instead of the dirt of others. (I will also state that although USA isn't that squeaky clean itself, but compared to others it’s the best we have)

Privacy

Something you never want to get invaded, Something you always want to have, Something that has great value, and yet we seem to want in on everyone else's. We don't really notice how much people gossip about people or try to butt-in to everyone else's privacy. Privacy is something we all value and yet we have no regaurd for the privacy of others sometimes. I am not talking about anyone in particular or anyone at all for that matter just stating the fact that sometimes we need to mind our own business. This can co-post with a post on trust. When you tell someone a secret you expect them to keep it and if/when they don't you feel that they have violated your privacy boundaries. Trust is hard to gain but easily lost and all it takes is one secret and you may lose trust in someone that they took years to build. Trust like privacy is something we always want to have and yet can be easily lost both of them are very fragile and you rely on and Trust more people than you may think to maintain your privacy. Here's the point trust in people maintains privacy and privacy is a level of security that makes us feel safe and secure but if we lose that privacy than as it suggests everyone knows everything our privacy becomes public. Some people would say "who cares I have nothing to hide," think about it, think about all the things that if everyone knew you would have a psycotic breakdown of embarrassment. Some people really don't have anything to hide, they are very open about everything, but there privacy is still valuable to them. Some people might literally breakdown if everybody knew their secrets which is why privacy is so valuable. So before you answer any personal questions think about who's privacy, who's trust you are violating.

My Number One Fan . . . I Guess

Why do I talk more on Tim's blog than mine, you might ask. Because I get little to no feedback from what I do write on except for Figureskater and Vivere Christus (sorry if it is misspelled) so I get more feedback from commenting on Tim's blog than posting on mine. I don't even know if anyone sees my posts because no one says anything so when I post a topic tell me you read it, tell me whether I'm a genius or a sushi-head, do you agree with me or would you like to take it outside? or just give a what ho Big Jig fine posting job there. I just want to know if I'm being noticed or not or I'm just yelling at a wall.

Going All Out

Today was a fun day at the Acad. Seeing the creativity of some of classes was very very cool. Jared Block's old person ensemble was very very hilarious, the fat guy was funny to just watch walk around, and if I do say so myself I did win the "best dressed" award for the freshman class party and was awarded with the much stolen flamingo Gerorge Jr. The accents and immitations of many of the upperclasspersons was very entertaining such as harvey in large solar shields. The purpose of this post was to congratulate and egg-on all of the Acads. The amount of spirit shown today was large to say in the least. I would like to say that today was another example of the spirit of the Academy and the people who didn't dress up looked like complete doofuses. This is a prime example to show that if you gonna dress up, go all-out because you never know when you might win a flamingo named George

Posting and Such

People have been complaining or at least semi-mumbling about the fact that I haven't posted in a while, this is because i havne't found any subject worthy enough or important enough. I don't like to be the blogger person who tells you what he had for breakfast. I post on this blog things that might actually have some bearing on more than 3 people's lives. I assure you once i find something good (allow me to stress GOOD) I will post it but if you expect me to blog every step I make please do not be dissappointed when I say I'm not going to blog my every step.
definition: Irony- incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs
example: a post on a blog about posting on a blog

Blue + White

I would like to comment on the amount of school spirit shown today. I felt included in many of the cheers and other such chants and yells today (except some of the seniors who of course had to yell themselves alone excluding the 3 other classes) anyway as for me a lowly freshperson I was glald of the inclusion of my class and the welcome with open arms of sophmore, junior, and senior classes and all the yelling blue and white and sheer CRAZINESS of BJA today was awesome (minus of course Sam's and my pants) (I WOULD LIKE TO STRESS we did have pants on at all times of the day though) and though the office ladies made us change I feel no hostility toward them at all altough I think the pesky setback of "matching" should be removed from Blue+White day but over all the 4 classes of BJA got a 5 out of 5 a 100% A+ -0 and perfect 10 good job guys lets keep up this familyhood of the BJA lets just keep this unity up and not remove the preverbial sticky tape of spirit that joins the BJA classes together

Getting Involved

Recently I have been accused of "not getting involved." Why you might ask? I have no idea. the box lunches they're selling for 5 dollars I decided to skip (i.e. it contains a carbonated beverage that I wouldn't drink) so instead of wasting the money I just decided to make my own, apparently the biggest mistake ever. (in my defense I did buy 3 mini-buttons) but some people said I should have bought it any way to provide for the AAP but I saw this as just throwing money at the school. I think some people have gone about "getting involved" all wrong, of course buying a box lunch is getting involved in its self but just because you don't buy one does not merit 100's of fingers pointing at you saying you're not getting involved, people need to just sit back and realize the fact that not doing/buying every thing at the Acad makes you not be "involved" which this post could run parrallel to timford88's post of jumping to conclusions (www.vandh.blogspot.com) so before you point the verbal finger of shame toward someone think about it and who you're pointing at

Text Messaging With Phones

I was recently text messaged on my phone by a person on a phone. I saw no logic in this whatsoever. Text messaging on a phone is pointless, why text message when you can call them and talk to them. "But what if you can't call them like when you're in class or something" some have said, hogwash! I say. Maybe a message such as "my knee is sticking out of my leg." or "a guy in a black mask is threatening me with a knife and/or gun." could be acceptable but something like "Hi!" or "What are you doing?" defeats the purpose of a phone. Why not go back to the good 'ol days of note passing or here's a new one Wait until class or whatever ends. I doubt it's worth the nickle or whatever you spend to send/receive a text message just to say Hi during english.

A Moment Spent on the Idea of Weird

The next time you are about to call some person weird think about this: What is weird? What is normal? Normal can be described pretty much only as a setting on certain appliances. Every person is unique, different, and "weird" in their own way. We can deduce from this that every person is weird. That means that being weird is normal and to not be weird is . . . well, weird. Therefore all of these facts cancel each other out which means that no one is normal and at the same time no one is weird. Everyone is a state of not being weird and not normal so we all are . . . just people.

A More In-depth Explanation of This Blog

I may be a loud person and you may know where I stand on many subjects already. This is a chance for me to voice those opinions or whatever else I want to on this Blog and then make fun of it and for you to post your comments on whatever I say. That is pretty much the main purpose of this Blog.