So another semester drew to a close. Lots of fun and entertaining jiggers happened including hosting Faculty Feud, getting Mr. Congeniality in Mr. Beacon, and obtaining Mishpat Editor-In-Chief. (Next year's paper will rock) I also will be attempting to make Nationals here in about a day. I can do it; I just have to do it.
Anyway, this just recently popped into my mind. I just recently heard a sermon on Matthew 11:16-19.
16"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17" 'We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge
and you did not mourn.' 18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' 19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."
Chalk up another one to the Pharisees. They can't seem to get anything right. They reject John and Jesus. Why? Wesley (the pastor) put it perfectly. They had their own agenda and the God they saw didn't fit that agenda so they decided he wasn't God. Wesley made a comment about what Jesus would say about our generation and proceeded to list off some things that are definitely anti-God that distinguish our generation (e.g. hedonism, materialism, atheism/pantheism/polytheism). While he was talking, I wondered what Jesus would say about the various church disputes with the world (e.g. abortion, gay marriage, creation vs. evolution). This collection of verses popped into my head. Okay I lied. I had to look up exactly where they were later, but I knew the story.
15Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
18But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, 20and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
21"Caesar's," they replied.
Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
22When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
I always liked this story and read it sniggering "Heh, heh Jesus outthought the Pharisees. Good job Jesus." But I looked at it again with a new thought. The Pharisees were coming to Jesus with a dispute of the day to see what he said about it. They had their own agenda. Jesus wanted nothing to do with their agenda and his response almost seems to say "Why are you worrying about this?" I wonder if he would respond in like fashion to those things we get so worked up over. I mean I have my own opinions on the subjects I mentioned but I have heard of others killing people, injuring people, and maligning these people all in the name of Jesus. I just don't see it. The Sadducees came to Jesus with a question about the resurrection. (I feel sheepish because I couldn't find this verse for a bit and then noticed it was right after the one I just quoted)
23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
29Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'[a]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
33When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
Jesus flat out says "You're wrong." He doesn't bother getting involved in the nitty gritty of the church doctrine but just speaks Scripture at them telling them they are in error. How many of our pet doctrines are in fact errors? Would Jesus tell us the church, "You care way too much about being right. You care way too much about how many people are in your church. You care way too much about what YOU can do for the kingdom of God." Would he tell us we are so swollen up on pride and all these side issues that we miss the great call of Jesus to spread his kingdom and word to everyone even if and especially if it calls upon to assume great risk?
Not really sure where I'm getting at with this, but some combination of these thoughts was fluttering through my head. I started to feel more righteous than the others in the church, because "I was looking at the church and the world, while they are just looking at the world." Then three words popped into my head. They were calm but harshly silent. No clue if that made sense.
WHO. ARE. YOU.
Those words were asking me who I was to judge these people because I had a self-perceived reason of righteousness. In fact, that's most of the basis behind judging. I'm judging you because I have the higher moral ground than you so I deserve to judge you. If there's one thing I'm learning more and more, it's that we have no rights to anything, life doesn't owe us anything (God definitely doesn't), and the only thing we deserve is to be separated from God forever.
So it's funny but pride seems to be something I struggle with a lot and it rears its ugly head again here. Pride is always looking down at the people below and not God above. As long as I focus on the people around me and not on the creator with whom I cannot compare with a sliver of I will always be prideful and finding some way to win the deadend game of "I'm better than you."
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say with this. Maybe what would Jesus say about you? It's a sobering thought as we (I know I am and I'm pretty sure everyone else is in the same leaky lifeboat) are practically never doing exactly what Jesus wants. So pray for me and pray for everyone else. We can't save ourselves. That's the whole point of Jesus.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sam and Chad and Crystal's Excellent Adventure
So for spring break Crystal and I went down to Pasadena to see Cad the Ferfer a.k.a Chad Ryan DeKay (he also goes by "That Awesome Guy"). He graduated last year and there has been a Chad-sized hole in campus so we went to rectify that. In order to go down there we needed to hitch a seventy quintillion hour bus ride (the number keeps increasing every time I write it down) on the Greyhound. I shall now take you on our journey to the magical land of California and all of our fun stuff. Here we go.
Day Monday
We started off bright and early with Amy dropping us off at the Greyhound bus station. All went well with the ticketing thingy, although I did realize that I'd forgot my water bottle. That was the only thing I forgot so, I'd say good job me. Life would have been better if the Greyhound had showed up on time (Strike 1 for the Greyhound. Actually I'm not going to keep track of them because Greyhound may have struck out for a whole ball game). We got on the bus and located a seat near the front. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove. We had a lunch break in Medford where I got to eat LUNCHABLES for the first time in ages (Crystal and I went and purchased food for the trip and we agreed that pizza lunchables would be lunch and pasta that we cooked up would be dinner). That was the highlight of the day at least for me. I also took a random picture of a propane tank.
We had a stopover in Sacramento where we walked around for ages and had fun. I took a picture of the capitol building and a random silver fire hydrant.
The crosswalks made bird sounds when you crossed them. It was cool but I think it might actually get more annoying than the "Walk sign is on across Alder." which means I would probably want to shoot them within two days and then we had to go back on the bus which leads us into...
Day Tuesday
This day started off roughly. Literally. You ever slept on a greyhound? It's up there with playing scorpion-ping-pong with your bare handles as paddles, well at least with the guy we had. I pseudo-slept the whole night, which is more than Crystal could say. What can I say? I've slept through fireworks before. Anyway, we get into the Greyhound station at 5:45 a.m. Our next bus leaves at 10:30 from there to take us oh, about 10 blocks to the Los Angeles AM station, due to brilliant planning by the person who booked these tickets (guess which of us that was). We decided on a better idea. We would take a cab to Union Station (which is basically where you head if you want to go anywhere), call Ferfer and have him meet us there, which we did. We definitely woke him up considering that his alarm went off several minutes after we arrived back at his apartment. We decided to just chillax and watch Sword and the Stone. Crystal got some much needed sleep. Next, I went and did a workout for track that took me nearly an hour and a half (Chad and Crystal were about ready to send a search party after me before I returned). Running in Pasadena area is kind of like running in Phoenix in the winter. Hot, but not unbearably so. Oh and you have to dodge fifty billion light changes.
I returned and we hung out some more and watched another movie (Clue) and then another one just before bed (Robin Hood the animated one). We also wandered around Pasadena just having fun after that second movie. There was lots of talking and random quoting in between all of this. (I am quite certain by the end of this trip the Princess Bride and the Grinch were quoted in their entirety). Oh yeah, and I thought this Chia Spinosaurus was worth taking a picture of.
I went to bed at 9:00 for the first time in ages so I could get up early because tomorrow...
Day Wednesday
I woke up bright and early at 5:30 because I knew that it was the only opportunity I would get to run. Why do you ask? THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! DISNEYLAND!!! On the way there, I got a picture of Angels Stadium because I could. At the park, we met up with Aaron, Bethany, and Annalise there. We hit everything one could hit in this amazing park. Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted House, Jungle Cruise, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder, Buzz Lightyear, etc. I'm not a big roller coaster dude. I just don't really enjoy empathizing with a bowling pin, but I had fun. People asked me to take pictures. Um...yeah. I'm not much of a picture dude (I might be more of one if I had a camera, actually no I'd probably forget to bring the camera) but here we go.
This is Space Mountain. I didn't go on this one when I went to Disneyworld but it was enjoyable. I was quite entertained by Chad yelling "Yeah..." and the girls screaming. As you can tell, this was Crystal's least favorite.
Buzz and Tigger. Didn't really feel like waiting in line to get a real picture. Anyway, we went on almost everything. Yes even me Mr. Doesn't Want To Empathize With Bowling Pins. I found out something interesting. I go dead silent on roller coasters. I don't know why. Maybe because bowling pins are silent.
Anyway, a ride that deserves special mention is the Indiana Jones ride because you feel like you're driving a jeep. Guess who got to be the "driver" and pretended like he was steering and stepping on gas pedals and brakes all while talking in a pseudo-Australian accent? I have no idea.
Other rides that were fun was the hilarious Jungle cruise, the Buzz Lightyear shooting gallery, and even some of the roller coasters I enjoyed myself on. At 3 or so, Aaron, Bethany, and Annalyse left for California Adventure and then the three of us would go on a ride and if rock paper scissors for who was the odd one out. We met back up with Aaron, Bethany, and Annalyse at 7 for the aforementioned Indiana Jones Ride and then hung out and did some more rides and stuff. All in all quite a fun time.
We stayed in Disneyland until like 10 or something and then we all headed back. We finally crashed around midnight at Ferfer's place.
Day Thursday
This day we kind of spent hanging out for the early part of the day. Crystal's grandpa passed away this morning and me and Ferfer did our best to comfort her. We watched the Grinch which is a nice happy movie for such a situation. Ferfer suggested we go to this thing called Medieval Times. After a little bit of figuring we got it all worked out except we realized to catch it we needed to hurry out since we've been relying on public transit the whole time. While we were at Union Station we realized the next train left at 4:20 which was good because it was currently 4:13 when we realized this. We rushed to get tickets and then took off for the train departing place. We got up there and there was a train preparing to leave. Ferfer snuck his way on and tried to figure out if it was where we needed to go. The conversation went something like this
"Oceanside?"
"San Bernandino."
"Oceanside?"
"San Bernandino."
"South?"
"East."
So realizing that this wasn't where he was supposed to be, Ferfer got off the train and very nearly got eaten by it and we all got on the right train.
And public transit comes through again by the train being stupid and delaying us like twenty minutes because someone didn't know how to operate the switches or something. We took a cab after that and ended up arriving at Medieval Times around 6:00. This is when the show was supposed to start. We got these awesome crown hat thingys and were sat down. They gave us a little flag and some soup. It was set up like a medieval arena and basically we got to watch knights fight while eating dinner, which rocked!
Anyway, they subdivided us into groups and we got to root for the knight who was in our section. We got the Black and White Knight. Here's what he looked like.
Yeah. Pretty much awesome. Here's how they described him.
Defender of the Ancient Shrine at Santiago De Compostela. He is mightiest in skill among an order of warrior priests whose arrival upon the field brings despair to the impure of heart. In prayer humble. In service loyal. In battle invincible!
So yeah, if you didn't think he was awesome already...
Anyway, we had soup, a giant piece of chicken, ribs, a potato thingy, and a pastry for dessert. And since it's medieval there is no silverware. Anyway, the whole fanfare thing happens and the green knight is yelling something or other about him being the best and his home country rocking and somesuch and everyone who is paying attention realizes that he's the bad guy. For the first challenge, he asks if anyone wants to challenge him. Our dude is the only one brave enough to do so. (And anyone paying attention knows that means he's probably going to die)
There's a long and epic battle and then he dies. There's more fighting and the green knights loses to a combination of the red knight and the prince, but because I'm well versed in deluding myself, our guy really won because of the following reasons.
1. He was the only one brave enough to challenge the green knight first off. Go back and look at that picture. Do you see any fear? I didn't think so.
2. He very nearly beat the green knight by his lonesome. The red knight needed the prince's help.
3. He's a WARRIOR PRIEST!!!
4. Reason 4. We need one.
Anyway, we took the cab back and the three of us wore our goofy crown hats all the way back. We even got some comments about being royaltly. Here's the three of us because I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay for the picture myself.
We got back and decided to watch a Knight's Tale since we were in a medieval mood and then crashed.
Day Friday
So we headed off to the beach in the afternoon. We spent ages trying to locate the Big Blue Bus station, which shouldn't be that hard to locate, but given our current luck with public transit...yeah. Anyway, we found it and rode out to Santa Monica and had fun on the beach. Ferfer decided to avoid the water because of the wind but Crystal and I wandered out there, her a little farther than me. I also chased seagulls which was boatloads of fun and we wrote in the sand and Crystal tackled Chad and got him all sandy.
On the way back we decided to hit up Hollywood. First we stopped off at Universal Studios and wandered around their mall place. We found a food place with the fanciest looking Subway I have ever seen. Observe.
Probably should have eaten there but I waited fifteen hours for Pizza Hut Express to give me food. They really shouldn't have Express in their name if they're going to do that to you. Anyway, we wandered around this huge mall place, Crystal bought socks at the only sock store I have seen to date, Chad and I talked about all the various items in their toy shop including little dragons with swords that functioned as letter openers. There was also a mug with a bunch of equations on it that I recognized that Crystal said I should get. I didn't. I don't drink coffee. Anyway, after wandering around there, we headed to the Hollywood Walk of Stars and had fun dodging people and looking at all the stars.
I spent forever looking for a Liam Neeson star, but couldn't find it. This surprise though will satisfy me for now.
Here are some more people who deserve their stars and are all favorites of mine.
Okay yeah. That one I didn't see coming.
And this guy got one somehow. It sure as heck ain't for acting.
So after wandering around Hollywood for a good long time we make our way back to the metro. We see a metro preparing to leave and we hop on it just barely avoiding getting eaten by the doors. We all laugh and have a good time about just making it onto the train. And then we find out at our next time we got on the wrong train. Good job us. Especially when one considers that by the time we get back to Union, we miss the last metro to Pasadena by about three minutes. So we had to take another cab. Then we stayed up late until 3 am watching Liar, Liar.
Day Saturday
This was the last day with Chad. We really just kind of hung out, did a load of laundry, cleaned up Ferfer's apartment, watched the Proposal (I actually came back in the middle of it from running), and figured out our plan for the day. Since our itinerary stated that we were to go to the Los Angeles AM station get on a bus at 5:50 have it take us 10 blocks to the Greyhound station, and then we didn't have another bus leave until 10:30 that night, Chad would walk the 10 blocks meet us there, we'd leave our stuff on the bus and just hang out until we needed to go. It was a brilliant plan. Nothing could go wrong with it. We figured AM meant Amtrak and since Union Station was the most likely Amtrak station we headed to Union Station. A bit of talking around and we found out the Greyhound didn't stop there. So...we hoofed it to the Greyhound station where the 10:30 bus departed from, Chad and all.
We checked our bags no problem and then I watched everything while Crystal and Chad got Mickey D's. First time I'd had that in ages. Considering I also had donuts multiple times during this trip, I was overloading on junk food I hadn't had in ages. We talked and had fun in our last hour and a half with Ferfer. He technically shouldn't have been in the ticket center with us, but we snuck him in and then we all decided he should leave when we witnessed an Amber Alert thingy happening and we'd rather not have Ferfer be caught without a ticket where it said "Ticketed Passengers Only." I let Crystal have the last Ferfer hug and we bade him farewell and said that we should do it again next year with more people. After he left out of curiosity I went up to the counter and asked where the hey Los Angeles AM station was. They had no clue. So apparently , there's this phantom Los Angeles AM station that no one knows exists but apparently Greyhounds pass through all the time.
Anyway, a line started forming around nine for our bus, at least that's what Crystal thought. I could not for the life of me figure out why people would get in line for a Greyhound an hour and a half before departure but we wandered over there only to find out that this was another bus going the same direction that was late. That made more sense although both buses boarded at about the same time. And boy were they crowded. Crystal and I very nearly didn't get to sit together, but some random stranger moved so we could. Thank you random stranger. Life would have been much worse without you. Anyway, I drifted off into "Greyhound sleep".
Day Sunday
I actually slept decently and literally nothing happened this day. When you consider that a text conversation about Heroscape was one of my highlights, that should give you a good idea about the day. If I hadn't purchased that puzzle book before leaving, life would have been horrible. We stopped off in Sacramento in the morning, went for a little walk, and also had a stopoff in Medford where we ate Subway. (We didn't purchase food prior to for this trip) When we finally got back at around 6:30, Rob Bell and Jason Haggard came and picked us up and I decided that I would need an amazing reason to get back on one of those Greyhounds. Ferfer is about the only one that comes to mind right now. Thank goodness Crystal was with me. Those things would have been unbearable by oneself.
All in all, it was an amazing rock-awesome time (minus the bus stuffs). We should really get more people so we can drive and not have to take the Greyhound. Any further questions can be directed to Sam Robison or his call taker person Mr. Voicemail.
Day Monday
We started off bright and early with Amy dropping us off at the Greyhound bus station. All went well with the ticketing thingy, although I did realize that I'd forgot my water bottle. That was the only thing I forgot so, I'd say good job me. Life would have been better if the Greyhound had showed up on time (Strike 1 for the Greyhound. Actually I'm not going to keep track of them because Greyhound may have struck out for a whole ball game). We got on the bus and located a seat near the front. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove. We had a lunch break in Medford where I got to eat LUNCHABLES for the first time in ages (Crystal and I went and purchased food for the trip and we agreed that pizza lunchables would be lunch and pasta that we cooked up would be dinner). That was the highlight of the day at least for me. I also took a random picture of a propane tank.
We had a stopover in Sacramento where we walked around for ages and had fun. I took a picture of the capitol building and a random silver fire hydrant.
The crosswalks made bird sounds when you crossed them. It was cool but I think it might actually get more annoying than the "Walk sign is on across Alder." which means I would probably want to shoot them within two days and then we had to go back on the bus which leads us into...
Day Tuesday
This day started off roughly. Literally. You ever slept on a greyhound? It's up there with playing scorpion-ping-pong with your bare handles as paddles, well at least with the guy we had. I pseudo-slept the whole night, which is more than Crystal could say. What can I say? I've slept through fireworks before. Anyway, we get into the Greyhound station at 5:45 a.m. Our next bus leaves at 10:30 from there to take us oh, about 10 blocks to the Los Angeles AM station, due to brilliant planning by the person who booked these tickets (guess which of us that was). We decided on a better idea. We would take a cab to Union Station (which is basically where you head if you want to go anywhere), call Ferfer and have him meet us there, which we did. We definitely woke him up considering that his alarm went off several minutes after we arrived back at his apartment. We decided to just chillax and watch Sword and the Stone. Crystal got some much needed sleep. Next, I went and did a workout for track that took me nearly an hour and a half (Chad and Crystal were about ready to send a search party after me before I returned). Running in Pasadena area is kind of like running in Phoenix in the winter. Hot, but not unbearably so. Oh and you have to dodge fifty billion light changes.
I returned and we hung out some more and watched another movie (Clue) and then another one just before bed (Robin Hood the animated one). We also wandered around Pasadena just having fun after that second movie. There was lots of talking and random quoting in between all of this. (I am quite certain by the end of this trip the Princess Bride and the Grinch were quoted in their entirety). Oh yeah, and I thought this Chia Spinosaurus was worth taking a picture of.
I went to bed at 9:00 for the first time in ages so I could get up early because tomorrow...
Day Wednesday
I woke up bright and early at 5:30 because I knew that it was the only opportunity I would get to run. Why do you ask? THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! DISNEYLAND!!! On the way there, I got a picture of Angels Stadium because I could. At the park, we met up with Aaron, Bethany, and Annalise there. We hit everything one could hit in this amazing park. Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted House, Jungle Cruise, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder, Buzz Lightyear, etc. I'm not a big roller coaster dude. I just don't really enjoy empathizing with a bowling pin, but I had fun. People asked me to take pictures. Um...yeah. I'm not much of a picture dude (I might be more of one if I had a camera, actually no I'd probably forget to bring the camera) but here we go.
This is Space Mountain. I didn't go on this one when I went to Disneyworld but it was enjoyable. I was quite entertained by Chad yelling "Yeah..." and the girls screaming. As you can tell, this was Crystal's least favorite.
Buzz and Tigger. Didn't really feel like waiting in line to get a real picture. Anyway, we went on almost everything. Yes even me Mr. Doesn't Want To Empathize With Bowling Pins. I found out something interesting. I go dead silent on roller coasters. I don't know why. Maybe because bowling pins are silent.
Anyway, a ride that deserves special mention is the Indiana Jones ride because you feel like you're driving a jeep. Guess who got to be the "driver" and pretended like he was steering and stepping on gas pedals and brakes all while talking in a pseudo-Australian accent? I have no idea.
Other rides that were fun was the hilarious Jungle cruise, the Buzz Lightyear shooting gallery, and even some of the roller coasters I enjoyed myself on. At 3 or so, Aaron, Bethany, and Annalyse left for California Adventure and then the three of us would go on a ride and if rock paper scissors for who was the odd one out. We met back up with Aaron, Bethany, and Annalyse at 7 for the aforementioned Indiana Jones Ride and then hung out and did some more rides and stuff. All in all quite a fun time.
We stayed in Disneyland until like 10 or something and then we all headed back. We finally crashed around midnight at Ferfer's place.
Day Thursday
This day we kind of spent hanging out for the early part of the day. Crystal's grandpa passed away this morning and me and Ferfer did our best to comfort her. We watched the Grinch which is a nice happy movie for such a situation. Ferfer suggested we go to this thing called Medieval Times. After a little bit of figuring we got it all worked out except we realized to catch it we needed to hurry out since we've been relying on public transit the whole time. While we were at Union Station we realized the next train left at 4:20 which was good because it was currently 4:13 when we realized this. We rushed to get tickets and then took off for the train departing place. We got up there and there was a train preparing to leave. Ferfer snuck his way on and tried to figure out if it was where we needed to go. The conversation went something like this
"Oceanside?"
"San Bernandino."
"Oceanside?"
"San Bernandino."
"South?"
"East."
So realizing that this wasn't where he was supposed to be, Ferfer got off the train and very nearly got eaten by it and we all got on the right train.
And public transit comes through again by the train being stupid and delaying us like twenty minutes because someone didn't know how to operate the switches or something. We took a cab after that and ended up arriving at Medieval Times around 6:00. This is when the show was supposed to start. We got these awesome crown hat thingys and were sat down. They gave us a little flag and some soup. It was set up like a medieval arena and basically we got to watch knights fight while eating dinner, which rocked!
Anyway, they subdivided us into groups and we got to root for the knight who was in our section. We got the Black and White Knight. Here's what he looked like.
Yeah. Pretty much awesome. Here's how they described him.
Defender of the Ancient Shrine at Santiago De Compostela. He is mightiest in skill among an order of warrior priests whose arrival upon the field brings despair to the impure of heart. In prayer humble. In service loyal. In battle invincible!
So yeah, if you didn't think he was awesome already...
Anyway, we had soup, a giant piece of chicken, ribs, a potato thingy, and a pastry for dessert. And since it's medieval there is no silverware. Anyway, the whole fanfare thing happens and the green knight is yelling something or other about him being the best and his home country rocking and somesuch and everyone who is paying attention realizes that he's the bad guy. For the first challenge, he asks if anyone wants to challenge him. Our dude is the only one brave enough to do so. (And anyone paying attention knows that means he's probably going to die)
There's a long and epic battle and then he dies. There's more fighting and the green knights loses to a combination of the red knight and the prince, but because I'm well versed in deluding myself, our guy really won because of the following reasons.
1. He was the only one brave enough to challenge the green knight first off. Go back and look at that picture. Do you see any fear? I didn't think so.
2. He very nearly beat the green knight by his lonesome. The red knight needed the prince's help.
3. He's a WARRIOR PRIEST!!!
4. Reason 4. We need one.
Anyway, we took the cab back and the three of us wore our goofy crown hats all the way back. We even got some comments about being royaltly. Here's the three of us because I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay for the picture myself.
We got back and decided to watch a Knight's Tale since we were in a medieval mood and then crashed.
Day Friday
So we headed off to the beach in the afternoon. We spent ages trying to locate the Big Blue Bus station, which shouldn't be that hard to locate, but given our current luck with public transit...yeah. Anyway, we found it and rode out to Santa Monica and had fun on the beach. Ferfer decided to avoid the water because of the wind but Crystal and I wandered out there, her a little farther than me. I also chased seagulls which was boatloads of fun and we wrote in the sand and Crystal tackled Chad and got him all sandy.
On the way back we decided to hit up Hollywood. First we stopped off at Universal Studios and wandered around their mall place. We found a food place with the fanciest looking Subway I have ever seen. Observe.
Probably should have eaten there but I waited fifteen hours for Pizza Hut Express to give me food. They really shouldn't have Express in their name if they're going to do that to you. Anyway, we wandered around this huge mall place, Crystal bought socks at the only sock store I have seen to date, Chad and I talked about all the various items in their toy shop including little dragons with swords that functioned as letter openers. There was also a mug with a bunch of equations on it that I recognized that Crystal said I should get. I didn't. I don't drink coffee. Anyway, after wandering around there, we headed to the Hollywood Walk of Stars and had fun dodging people and looking at all the stars.
I spent forever looking for a Liam Neeson star, but couldn't find it. This surprise though will satisfy me for now.
Here are some more people who deserve their stars and are all favorites of mine.
Okay yeah. That one I didn't see coming.
And this guy got one somehow. It sure as heck ain't for acting.
So after wandering around Hollywood for a good long time we make our way back to the metro. We see a metro preparing to leave and we hop on it just barely avoiding getting eaten by the doors. We all laugh and have a good time about just making it onto the train. And then we find out at our next time we got on the wrong train. Good job us. Especially when one considers that by the time we get back to Union, we miss the last metro to Pasadena by about three minutes. So we had to take another cab. Then we stayed up late until 3 am watching Liar, Liar.
Day Saturday
This was the last day with Chad. We really just kind of hung out, did a load of laundry, cleaned up Ferfer's apartment, watched the Proposal (I actually came back in the middle of it from running), and figured out our plan for the day. Since our itinerary stated that we were to go to the Los Angeles AM station get on a bus at 5:50 have it take us 10 blocks to the Greyhound station, and then we didn't have another bus leave until 10:30 that night, Chad would walk the 10 blocks meet us there, we'd leave our stuff on the bus and just hang out until we needed to go. It was a brilliant plan. Nothing could go wrong with it. We figured AM meant Amtrak and since Union Station was the most likely Amtrak station we headed to Union Station. A bit of talking around and we found out the Greyhound didn't stop there. So...we hoofed it to the Greyhound station where the 10:30 bus departed from, Chad and all.
We checked our bags no problem and then I watched everything while Crystal and Chad got Mickey D's. First time I'd had that in ages. Considering I also had donuts multiple times during this trip, I was overloading on junk food I hadn't had in ages. We talked and had fun in our last hour and a half with Ferfer. He technically shouldn't have been in the ticket center with us, but we snuck him in and then we all decided he should leave when we witnessed an Amber Alert thingy happening and we'd rather not have Ferfer be caught without a ticket where it said "Ticketed Passengers Only." I let Crystal have the last Ferfer hug and we bade him farewell and said that we should do it again next year with more people. After he left out of curiosity I went up to the counter and asked where the hey Los Angeles AM station was. They had no clue. So apparently , there's this phantom Los Angeles AM station that no one knows exists but apparently Greyhounds pass through all the time.
Anyway, a line started forming around nine for our bus, at least that's what Crystal thought. I could not for the life of me figure out why people would get in line for a Greyhound an hour and a half before departure but we wandered over there only to find out that this was another bus going the same direction that was late. That made more sense although both buses boarded at about the same time. And boy were they crowded. Crystal and I very nearly didn't get to sit together, but some random stranger moved so we could. Thank you random stranger. Life would have been much worse without you. Anyway, I drifted off into "Greyhound sleep".
Day Sunday
I actually slept decently and literally nothing happened this day. When you consider that a text conversation about Heroscape was one of my highlights, that should give you a good idea about the day. If I hadn't purchased that puzzle book before leaving, life would have been horrible. We stopped off in Sacramento in the morning, went for a little walk, and also had a stopoff in Medford where we ate Subway. (We didn't purchase food prior to for this trip) When we finally got back at around 6:30, Rob Bell and Jason Haggard came and picked us up and I decided that I would need an amazing reason to get back on one of those Greyhounds. Ferfer is about the only one that comes to mind right now. Thank goodness Crystal was with me. Those things would have been unbearable by oneself.
All in all, it was an amazing rock-awesome time (minus the bus stuffs). We should really get more people so we can drive and not have to take the Greyhound. Any further questions can be directed to Sam Robison or his call taker person Mr. Voicemail.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The Return of this Thing
So, it's been a while since I've blogged. I haven't even blogged in the current year. Which of the following do you think is the reason?
A. I died.
B. I was knocked into a coma for several months
C. I was kidnapped by rabid wallabies and forced into hard labor mining plantains while they replaced me with a robot duplicate until I escaped over the electric barb wire fence patrolled by land sharks using only a pocketknife, a piece of paper, and a leaf. I may have lost a limb in the process.
D. Laziness
If you answered C you are correct.
So anyway onto the blog. I'm taking a nice relaxing semester filled with Chemistry and Calculus (yes you read that right; I'm weird) doing lots of running for track and having a good time hanging out with my friends like going to the coast for which I lack pictures otherwise I would show them. Suffice to say, it was fun.
A week ago life became insane. Fortunately it was only a case of temporary insanity. It all started when I ran 25 laps around a track. Normally most people would classify this as insane behavior. I was helped by Riley and Bethany shouting random whatevers at me throughout the race. It really helped to break up the monotony of the race and I waited with eager anticipation at what random thing they would shout at me next. Not content with running just 25 laps I decided to run 12 and a half the next day thinking "It can't be that bad." It could be. 300 meters into it (or 10 and 3/4 laps to go) I thought, "This race is going to suck." That was a very accurate sentiment, but fortunately it was half the length of the other one.
Somehow I pulled through and then stayed in Portland with Aaron, Bethany, Benton, Heather, and Riley. We had a blast eating at a Mexican place, playing Wii, playing on the weird string thingy that was at a playground by Dilla's house, and then crashing at Dillas followed the next day by me waking up feeling like the guy from Avatar (this has to do with my legs, not me turning into a blue man with an electro sensor chip coming out of my ponytail) and then the girls making us pancakes (which were basically drops of heaven rolled up into dough) and then us having an epic drive back with quick stops at the shoe store whose name I forget and Bethany's house for lunch. Oh, and Dilla knows what happened on that trip that I want him to do for Mr. Beacon. If he consents, it'll be epic.
The above paragraph was the non-insane part. The insanity picks up again on Monday. Jedidiah approaches me and asks how I would feel about being a write-in candidate for Student Body President. I figure he's joking since the elections are oh, really far off, you know only two days away. Anyway, he wasn't and he proceeded to by the end of that night tell me he had fifty supporters for me. Well this was flattering news, but I was trying to distract myself from the attention by chowing down wings at Applebee's where we went to for Mark's birthday. Applebee's is forever linked in my mind to Strong Bad. Here's why. http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail205.html
Anyway, I digress. I tell Jed I'll think about it. Much praying, stressing, calling my Mom and Dad, brother, and Ferfer, and multiple texts from Jed that essentially break down to "Can I start campaigning now?", I finally decide at about 5:30 that night that I'm not doing it. Well actually I kind of let Excel decide. Brandon had suggested to flip a coin and if it came up one way and you were happy with that, then do that, but if you want to change it, then you should do what you want to change it to. Never content with using a coin, I used Microsoft Excel's RANDBETWEEN function with 1 being "do it" and 2 being "don't". It came up 2. And when Excel tells you not to do something, you should listen. That and I was content with the decision. So insanity cooled down after that.
What else? There was a really fun scavenger hunt I went on recently. Heather and Bethany made it for me, Cody, Jeremy, Benton, and his brother who's visiting. (My brother will hopefully be visiting over Easter) We went around campus collecting letters and doing random crazy stuffs. They should do that again. And I have another meet this Friday. This time I'm going to try the 12 and a halfer without running 25 laps first.
Anyway, I feel like I should leave you with something cool, something amazing, something awesome. I don't really feel like I have anything. I feel like I need a picture of a ninja with a chainsaw attacking Godzilla. Unfortunately, I do not have such picture. So I shall give you a picture of what Godzilla would see five minutes later.
So yeah, that's what I've got. I'll hop in probably sometime later. Hopefully my brother shows up during Easter. I think I hear the wallabies knocking on the door. Gotta go.
A. I died.
B. I was knocked into a coma for several months
C. I was kidnapped by rabid wallabies and forced into hard labor mining plantains while they replaced me with a robot duplicate until I escaped over the electric barb wire fence patrolled by land sharks using only a pocketknife, a piece of paper, and a leaf. I may have lost a limb in the process.
D. Laziness
If you answered C you are correct.
So anyway onto the blog. I'm taking a nice relaxing semester filled with Chemistry and Calculus (yes you read that right; I'm weird) doing lots of running for track and having a good time hanging out with my friends like going to the coast for which I lack pictures otherwise I would show them. Suffice to say, it was fun.
A week ago life became insane. Fortunately it was only a case of temporary insanity. It all started when I ran 25 laps around a track. Normally most people would classify this as insane behavior. I was helped by Riley and Bethany shouting random whatevers at me throughout the race. It really helped to break up the monotony of the race and I waited with eager anticipation at what random thing they would shout at me next. Not content with running just 25 laps I decided to run 12 and a half the next day thinking "It can't be that bad." It could be. 300 meters into it (or 10 and 3/4 laps to go) I thought, "This race is going to suck." That was a very accurate sentiment, but fortunately it was half the length of the other one.
Somehow I pulled through and then stayed in Portland with Aaron, Bethany, Benton, Heather, and Riley. We had a blast eating at a Mexican place, playing Wii, playing on the weird string thingy that was at a playground by Dilla's house, and then crashing at Dillas followed the next day by me waking up feeling like the guy from Avatar (this has to do with my legs, not me turning into a blue man with an electro sensor chip coming out of my ponytail) and then the girls making us pancakes (which were basically drops of heaven rolled up into dough) and then us having an epic drive back with quick stops at the shoe store whose name I forget and Bethany's house for lunch. Oh, and Dilla knows what happened on that trip that I want him to do for Mr. Beacon. If he consents, it'll be epic.
The above paragraph was the non-insane part. The insanity picks up again on Monday. Jedidiah approaches me and asks how I would feel about being a write-in candidate for Student Body President. I figure he's joking since the elections are oh, really far off, you know only two days away. Anyway, he wasn't and he proceeded to by the end of that night tell me he had fifty supporters for me. Well this was flattering news, but I was trying to distract myself from the attention by chowing down wings at Applebee's where we went to for Mark's birthday. Applebee's is forever linked in my mind to Strong Bad. Here's why. http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail205.html
Anyway, I digress. I tell Jed I'll think about it. Much praying, stressing, calling my Mom and Dad, brother, and Ferfer, and multiple texts from Jed that essentially break down to "Can I start campaigning now?", I finally decide at about 5:30 that night that I'm not doing it. Well actually I kind of let Excel decide. Brandon had suggested to flip a coin and if it came up one way and you were happy with that, then do that, but if you want to change it, then you should do what you want to change it to. Never content with using a coin, I used Microsoft Excel's RANDBETWEEN function with 1 being "do it" and 2 being "don't". It came up 2. And when Excel tells you not to do something, you should listen. That and I was content with the decision. So insanity cooled down after that.
What else? There was a really fun scavenger hunt I went on recently. Heather and Bethany made it for me, Cody, Jeremy, Benton, and his brother who's visiting. (My brother will hopefully be visiting over Easter) We went around campus collecting letters and doing random crazy stuffs. They should do that again. And I have another meet this Friday. This time I'm going to try the 12 and a halfer without running 25 laps first.
Anyway, I feel like I should leave you with something cool, something amazing, something awesome. I don't really feel like I have anything. I feel like I need a picture of a ninja with a chainsaw attacking Godzilla. Unfortunately, I do not have such picture. So I shall give you a picture of what Godzilla would see five minutes later.
So yeah, that's what I've got. I'll hop in probably sometime later. Hopefully my brother shows up during Easter. I think I hear the wallabies knocking on the door. Gotta go.
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