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)