s'all about the little things...

Here are some "little things" that I appreciate a lot...

• When somebody says they understand, and they really do.
• Shafts of sunlight through the clouds.
• The mint in my window.
• Those moments when you both think about it for just a moment before bursting out in laughter.
• Walks through the country or woods with a couple of friends.
• Watching the sun set over the big lake.
• Thick carpet for lying on and hardwood floors for walking on.
• Kitties.
• Clean clothes.
• Waking up because I don't need to sleep any more, and not because I have to.
• Girls' smiles.
• Orange juice.
• Driving someplace you don't really have to go to and just hanging out there...
• Catching up with old friends.
• Not having to chill with and talk to someone simultaneously, as in, not needing to fill a silence with words...
• Getting to do a favor for someone that appreciates it.

A moderate portion of Chill, if you please?

Alright, first off, waste some time here: http://thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi and find out how you might fit into an advertising campaign if you were, yourself, a product.

Now: Thanksgiving.

I was really, really looking forward to this weekend and it did not disappoint in any aspect except, perhaps, in the sleep department, but that was unavoidable for the most part. Getting up early meant nice, long days, which I really liked.

The Casselberrys put us up in a really swank pool house...we slept in the open loft in the second story and stayed up late goofing around with a minitramp that was relocated to the foyer beneath the railing, and Bumpy, and I flew paper airplanes outside with Hazel late at night. We made some right good gliders.

The pool is pretty awesome too; it's a saline system rather than chlorine or bromine which is very easy on the eyes. I took a dip (a brief one) in the pool when it was at sixty-three degrees, but once we got it heated to 82, everyone was in. Very nice. The hot tub was excellent too, especially with fourteen people in it...

Thanksgiving dinner itself? Very nummy. We had all the usual plus some other things like cranberry mousse-stuff and whatnot. Friday, we did a shopping trip to the mall...I got chased around bath and body works by Abbi and Adrienne who misted me with various smelly things, and I drew a picture of it later upon commission. Milton bought some very cool shades there, and I picked up a $1 DVD of Popeye cartoons...we actually heard Popeye say, "I've never made love in technicolor before," in the cartoon. Times sure have changed!

One of the highlights of the weekend was a walk at sunsdown with a gang of younger children and also some friends and adults down a long country lane. Partly greatly relaxing, partly exhausting (thanks to some pony rides) partly just plain cool...hurray for group walks.

I also tossed a lot of grapes during dominoes and totally got Abigail irritated at me. Still sorry!

I even got homework done before coming back to campus. It sounds like everyone had an awesome weekend which I am very glad about...Plus, I got a call from Shroud, who wants me to join the school newspaper staff doing graphic design. Now, really all that means is coming up with a few graphics and logos and so forth...there's graphic design but there's graphic design, if you see what I mean--I can make some pretty nice looking stuff but ask me by what principles I generate said nice stuff, or how I might improve on something, well, I'm admittedly a trial-and-error-slash-intuitive operator here. Still, it'll hopefully be kinda cool. Something to do and get myself some experience at something.

(so close I could touch it...)

Thanksgiving is nearly here oh boy!

I've actually had a very good week from an academic standpoint. Some tests and so forth back with nice grades on them, and I got my Romans draft turned in, and two tests over with, and a short day tomorrow followed by a nice relaxing car trip to Oklahoma. Who cares if I've got a paper to write and one to revise over the break? Not me!

Also, I think everyone should know that my RA is awesome...he wrote me a nice card and left in my keyboard so I could find it. I appreciate you too, Jimbo! *just a small punch*

Tonight marked Zippy and Julie's birthday celebration so we trotted over to Bodascious Barbeque and filled our tummies with meat and hung out and talked...and when we got back, Jimbo serenaded the ladies on his saxaphone, and I introduced the activity of running, jumping, flying into the mattress against the wall, and bouncing off again. Several people (myself included...bah) fell at least once, and we video'd most of it anyway...woo.

Also, here's an interesting comic strip...

Strip

Sinfest has a lot of rather sacreligious content but I thought this one touched something...
Anyways, my homies are awesome and I can't wait to spend Thanksgiving with them. Peace out 'til Monday!

[SCREAM]

sooo, it's just after 12, and I'm done with everything I had to do, I finally got that Romans draft DONE after a month of it giving me stress (I think that's where this acne sprung up from...phooey)...so yep, I was all done and then I suddenly had a Romans test tomorrow. With all my handwritten notes typed up. I did scream.

Well, it was a good weekend anyway. I worked a lot on things (mostly my Romans paper) but I never felt too hurried...I just didn't waste too much time for once. I've been thinking more about what I want to do with myself and once again I think concept stuff, for video games or movies, art-wise, would be killer, but I can see myself doing mechanical engineering somethings too. I put the question of "what should I do with myself?" to a friend this morning and she replied, "Sit there." Oh yeah, we were in church. But it also made me remember that if I stay on the path God's laid for me, I'll wind up going where he wants me. I can follow a road without knowing where it's going, so long as I know it's going to the right place...

So what happened that was good? Uhm. On the way to church this morning we had a great conversation about dreams. I dream a lot...and I remember a lot of them (at least, when I wake up)...for some reason I am usually surprised when people are all like, "I never dream" or saying they don't ever remember their dreams. I enjoy sleep a lot for my dreams, and even if they're usually pretty darn nonsensical, I still get to explore interesting places, meet improbable people, and for some reason, constantly lose things...(seriously, they're never where I leave them)...all from a very comfy place. When I was a kid it always took me about 2 hours to fall asleep and I never dreamed (I used to make up dreams just so I would feel normal or something...heh) but after I started popping a nummy natural supplement-type bit called melatonin every night (well, just about, I don't NEED it thank goodness) I fall asleep reasonably fast and dream a bunch to boot. yay. Dreamy pills? Sounds kind of suspicious now that I think about it....

I also chose wisely all Indiana-style at lunch today and made my own pizza, instead of trying my luck with the fish. Phew, that was close.

We also got a bunch of peoples that usually don't manage to get together for dinner tonight and went to the ever-luxurious (and easy on the wallet) Taco Bell, and that was pretty chill. I can't wait for Thanksgiving. Even the 6-hour car trip to Oklahoma is going to be a welcome change of pace.

things and stuff

cop-out title alert!

This week was kinda just meh. I hate it when that happens, and I hate wishing that it was not now because I don't like now. I don't mind wishing it was later because later something cool was happening...or something. God wil pick me up and get me through...He always does, because I'm not so good at getting through under my own power.

Jordan and I ebayed the busted dorm microwave too, and wrote a hilarious writeup to sell it that we hope will garner a lot of attention. Do your part and advertise!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4338601595

Heh. Anyways, I have homework to do or something.

da personality test!

Personality Disorder Test Results Paranoid ****** 22% Schizoid ************** 54% Schizotypal ************** 54% Antisocial ************** 58% Borderline ** 10% Histrionic ************ 46% Narcissistic **************** 66% Avoidant ****** 22% Dependent ********** 38% Obsessive-Compulsive ****** 26%

Take Free Personality Disorder Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hit close to home in at least once place...which do you think? :D

More story...

I wrote some more on the story this morning instead of doing homework. wee. don't mind the lack of tabs, I can't get blogspot to do them.
--------------
[Removed...I'm gonna take this story all the way]

when dreams lead to stories

I had a lot of dreams last night. To cut a long story short, I got an idea from one of them for a story that seems like it could have a lot of potential, so I worked on it this morning. I have way too much to do this weekend and I'm not sure how I'll get it all done (probably won't...at least I got my board back, finally. I left it up on G2A and it wound up being held for a ridiculous ransom. I got it back for the slightly less ridiculous ransom of drinking a cup of water while standing on my head, which was weirrrd. Girls are crazy. And yet so endearing...ahhhhrg)

Anywho, here's what I wrote this morning.

[Sorry, folks...I want to run with this story now...so I took it down]

Dum Dum Fatalities

So, tonight I got back to the quad before the G2 soccer game and they were shooting dumdum suckers out of PVC pipes at the plaque in the lounge with lung power. The dumdums fly through the air and explode on the plaque, and it's cool. However, you know me, and before I know it we had a 4-foot length of PVC duct-taped to the barrel of my autococker. I cranked up the velocity to about 450 feet per second and we started shooting dum dums...it was so crazy, they practically appeared on the plaque, exploding, as the gun was firing, they went so fast. Except TJ didn't aim real well and he drilled the wall but good a few times. Whoops. Anyways we filled the whole darn lounge with this weird smell of shrapnelized dumdums (the ones that hit the plaque after being fired from the gun sorta baked on to it...I think from the impact heat being released....)...and lots of yummy bits and pieces, which we had to vacuum. It was crazy awesome, like the awesomest thing ever.

Anyway, then we went to watch G2 play soccer, but the other team forfeited, so I goofed off with their players and we wound up playing girls vrs. guys and I found out just how good those gals really are. They are pretty good. Some are better than me--but not faster, so it sorta settled out in my favor. Oh well. God made guys and girls different (thank goodness!)

Also, the paintball team is now running and exercising 'til we drop every night of the week at ten on the back soccer fields to get in shape for the tournament in New Orleans at the beginning of December. Blah, tired. I just got an email from my awesome grandmother telling me to read psalm 25, so that I shall do followed by bedtime!

So, what do you wanna be when you grow up?

Tonight when I was trying to divine what on earth you might attribute to Dante as a strength or weakness in leadership, my mind wandered--as it has been wont to do of late--to the subject of my future. What am I going to do when I grow up?

I'm not enjoying my engineering classes. To be fair, it is possible that this is just the hard part and it would become more enjoyable later on, but I have difficulty imagining a career in engineering that I would enjoy. Working in the aerospace industry would certainly be interesting, I suppose. But what I keep seeing in myself is that what I truly enjoy doing is working in creative pursuits: specifically writing and drawing.

I think it is safe to say that our society does not appreciate artists as much as they deserve. Becoming an artist is not the road to a respectable career in all but the most rare of cases, and certainly it is not especially rewarding in the financial aspect. I think one of my ideal jobs might be working as a concept artist in either the movie or video game industry. I think that, after some formal art education, I could probably cut it in one of those fields. On that note, however, I don't think art school is for me (though I couldn't say for certain til I tried it...) The closest art academy to home in Grand Rapids would be Kendell, but from all reports that's a pretty bad choice. I think AIC sounds good, though. I just don't think I'm cut out for the environment--all I'm interested in, for the most part in the visual arts, is accurately depicting whatever I'm trying to depict. I don't ascribe much higher meaning to what I do, nor do I look for it in the work of others unless they tell me to (similar to how I relate to people...hmm)...and yet I desire to be taught by someone, so that I can take whatever skill I've scraped together by myself and really go somewhere with it.

A man named Ron Russling, a renowned architect, offered once to take me in for a year, at his home in Arizona, and teach me. I think that would be an opportunity of a lifetime and I think I may take it regardless of where I go with my engineering education. Now if only I could get ahold of him...

My main impediment to jumping out of the track I'm riding in is my own self-respect. I have come this far in my studies and, for that matter, done reasonably well. I'm almost halfway through my junior year of college and it's coming time to start making real decisions. If God gave me these abilities to comprehend engineering and do this math and that testing and so on, why not go with it? So I ask myself. And could I turn my back on three years of hard work like that? I'm not so sure. Could I just up and leave the people I've become connected to, here? That answer seems more and more to be no.

So, stick it out at LeTourneau, graduate, and then pursue a more creative path? If I entered an undergraduate program at an art school I wouldn't be out until I was...like, 25. I don't want to start in the real world at that age! Why did God design me so? I'm sure the reason is pretty cool. I just wish He'd let me in on the deal.

Well, there's most of my thoughts out and written up and I'm no closer to an answer for myself. I'm going to bed instead.

combos are a comfort food

So, it's after a hard soccer game, I'm making inroads on my thermodynamics homework, and my tummy is a little rumbly. I look down, and there, half-hidden in a box from grandma, a bag of pizza-flavored combos.

ohhh.

I think it's safe to say I really appreciate food. Good food makes me feel better. Bad food makes me feel worse. One type of ideal night, in my estimation, is spent alone in the kitchen with something good to eat--and plenty of it--beneath a solitary light, reading a good book. Mmm. And you've gotta have orange juice...orange juice is proof that God loves me. Oh yes.

In other news, the soccer game was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed knocking other players around a lot and stuff. Why move the ball away from someone when you can move them away from the ball? Ben and I have resolved to start running, because we're mighty fast now...so how much faster will we be if we actually exercised? Who knows? But right now I'm in that sort of dreamy half-tired but not sleepy sorta torpor. I find it's actually pretty good for getting homework done...but I'm not sure why.

Another highlight of my day: explaining to Josiah what, precisely a phallic symbol is (he was upset that his painting of the belltower with the inscription "ding dong" on it was removed from display, and didn't know why). I thought it was kinda cool, but also amusing, that he'd never heard of that before. (James always making sure he takes care of his friends...)

obligatory election post.

Since I suppose most everyone is, I must say I'm relieved at the outcome of the election. I hope Bush does a good job for the next four years.

Also, I just did some painting...with my tongue. Finger paints don't taste very good...

a knife and a fork and a spoon.

I used all three utensils at a meal this morning for the first time in a long time. I used the knife to spread margerine (bleh, I like butter) on my biscuit, the fork to eat some coffee cake, and the spoon to eat my captain crunch. Aand my fingers to eat my bacon.

Man, I'm praying about the election...

blaaaaaaaah

I had a weird incident tonight where I was looking at the same fluids problem for about two hours and didn't really do anything. I think it's the fever messing up my brain. I don't feel very good...

Part of me keeps asking if these kinds of things are what I want to do with my life and I can honestly say I don't know. I don't seem to enjoy them overmuch compared to some other things. But where is the line between what I enjoy and what I must do to survive to be drawn? Ideally I think there wouldn't be a line. Ideally you would move towards a place where those two are the same. If only I were in love with doing something that had a likelihood of being profitable. One of these days I may have to come to grips with the idea of not making much money...it's not that I'm not capable of making money, I'm sure of that. I just don't know if that sort of thing is where I'm going to wind up. God gave me what He gave me for a reason.

God has a plan. I know that. I just wish I knew more about it. That knowledge will come with God's timing...and all I have to do in the end is be patient.