some random pictures
our cat... in semi-normal, sort of cute mode:
our cat... in crazed, devilish attack mode:
THIS IS PROOF! it's not just an urban legend... at the exact moment of both the spring and fall equinoxes, you can balance a raw egg on one end, and it will stay there. i have no idea why it works, but it does. so there. this is obviously an old picture, but the fall equinox is just a few weeks away, so don't forget to try it
mi padre... sans mustache
mom.
my sister, at the piano. she's such a music nerd :)
i've noticed a recurring theme... i always look like a retard, no matter when or where a picture is taken. so, as you can see, i've accepted my fate as being decidedly non-photogenic, and have ceased to care about my appearance.
theend
back2work
it's been a very eventful past couple of days. a brief recap of the major events:
started back at work yesterday at the warehouse. it was actually really good to be back, see all the old familiar faces and get back to doing what i do best. i guess it's been a really beastly summer, with mandatory overtime practically every day, so they were really glad for the extra gelp even for just a couple weeks. on the other hand, i rediscovered just how horrendously horrible canned cat food smells if it gets opened in the summer heat... all it takes is a couple hours after a can gets broken or damaged, and there's maggots and flies and this putrid smell that melts your nose hairs. i'm a little stiff and sore after my first couple days back, which is to be expected... especially considering how much you lift and walk in an average day (usually somewhere around 20-25 tons and 15 miles). even though i didn't miss the place one iota, it does feel good to be back
upon leaving work yesterday, my car told me i needed to add some antifreeze (the beautiful thing about saabs is they let you know when they need something). so i sloshed a bit in the reserve tank, headed towards home, and had gotten maybe a quarter mile down the road when the light went on again. i pulled over, opened the hood, and there was antifreeze
everywhere. turns out the hose i got replaced while at camp sprung a major leak. aargh. so i got it towed to the mechanic, who diagnosed the car and ordered the part toay, and it should be back up and running tomorrow. but it's made getting to and from work a major inconvenience. my folks have been gracious enough to help me out with rides, but they both leave for work much earlier than i usually do, which means i'm getting up far earlier than i'd ordinarily care to both today and tomorrow. oh well... could be worse. i actually was really grateful that it happened when it did. because if that had happened last week while i was doing all that driving, it would have been an even bigger hassle and inconvenience.
i'm one of "those people" now... i got a cell phone yesterday. i'm not a huge fan of them, but i finally became convinced of their advantages and decided to bite the bullet and go against my grain. it's already proved it's convenience several times over (what with the whole car snafu), and i got a pretty sweet phone for a decent price and the type of plan i was looking for. i'd highlight the details except for the fact that cell phones are old news to pretty everyone in the world except for me, so i'll spare you the details. i am on cingular, though, so if they're you're service provider also we can talk for free anytime you want. because i know there's just oodles of people out there dying to talk to me... riiight. anyhow, drop me an e-mail if you want the number, or don't if you don't
dne eht
back to the real world
so i head back to work at the warehouse tomorrow…
hooray?
...or something like that
(only for two weeks, only for two weeks...)
God = love?
one of the most frustrating parts of life is that oftentimes, the answers to some of the big questions you have are simply bigger questions themselves...
case in point: does God allow tragic events to happen, or does he cause them? maybe it seems like just semantics on the surfcae, but there's a deeper issue at stake. if God simply allows tragedies to occur (i.e. the death of a loved one, loss of a job, divorce, 9/11, etc), then it inherently implies that he doesn't have supreme control over our destiny, as in "God would never want this to happen to anyone, but because there's sin in the world, bad things do happen to good people." yeah right... sounds good, makes you feel better for a moment, but it's a load of empty and weightless garbage. here's why i think so: if God is a loving God (which i believe he is), and if we believe that he has supreme and ultimate power over the course, shape, and destiny of our life, then to chalk up events that we would normally label as "tragedies" to any other causeative agent than God is shortchanging him of his attributes. if God didn't want 9/11 to happen, it wouldn't have. end of story. if god didn't want a marriage to fall apart, it wouldn't. so what does that leave us with? the stark, cold, and yet slightly reassuring fact that everything in our lives is there because God loves us.
everything.
so knowing that fact, we're armed with the reassurance that we have nothing to fear... nothing that life throws our way can be contrary to what God had planned for us. reassuring? tremendously. until.... you consider the fact that this means that an all-loving God is then the one ultimately responsible for a great deal of present-day sorrow. life sucking right now? it's all part of the plan. have a great deal of sorrow in your life? no fears, God's behind it. this isn't to discount the incredibly destructive force that sin is in life, but rather to emphasize the incredibly powerful omniscient presence of God. consider the following: right from the very beginning, before there was any sin on earth, God created man knowing that he was dooming him to sin and eventually death, and that a large percentage of mankind would eventually be doomed to hell for all eternity. and i know that most people's "free will! he forgot the part about us having free will!" alarms are going off right now, but again, you have to remember that God is omniscient. regardless of the choices and actions that you choose to take in your life, God already knows the outcome. so when he created mankind, he knew that many would, because of their actions and choices, be doomed to hell. and yet he created us anyways.
why?
if God is indeed all-powerful and omniscient, couldn't he have created man in such a way and in such a place that sin and death and pain and suffering were impossibilities, without diminishing the gift of free will that he's given us by one iota? of course he could... he's God, for goodness sakes. but he didn't, which brings me to only one conclusion...
everything God does is out of love
yeah... it doesn't make any sense to me either. hence the whole "questions leading to bigger questions" thing at the beginning, because now i'm at the greatest question of all that i've ever encountered:
why does God love me?
yikes.
on that note... i'm off in search of some ice cream
(btw... thanks both to john piper's book "life as a vapor" and also to the one and only uncle r.j. for illuminating some of the stations along this train of thought. if it doesn't make sense to anyone else, that's ok... none of it really makes sense to me, either :)
the.end.
what i did today
- ate blueberry pie and ice cream for breakfast
- bought a wicked awesome backpack from l.l. bean
- went to the library (currently reading freakonomics... great book)
- did some extensive planning and research for the road trip
- made supper
- did some consulting work regarding a sound system
- bought five 12-packs of mt dew for only five dollars. what a deal
- typed this sentence
tomorrow i'm helping dad move a piano, and then spending the rest of the day at
the beach. woot
the end
there and back again
so, the road trip was great. drove appx 2500 miles, got way too little sleep and had a blast both driving out to chicago with luke (a.k.a. "uncle elvis") and then spending the rest of the weekend with luke (a.k.a. "luke") back in cleveland. it's good to be back home for a few days, though, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. i baked a blueberry pie earlier today, and i plan on eating it in the near future. i also slept in until nearly eleven this morning. i can't remember the last time i did both of those in the same day... probably never. i'll get in touch with the guys at the warehouse tomorrow and let the know i'm back in town. chances are they'll ask if i can come in right that moment, but i think i'll enjoy some time off and probably wait until next week to head back to my 'real job'
i probably should be writing amazingly long entries about my time at camp this summer, but to be honest, i just don't know where i'd even begin. so i won't try and dissect the memories or compile them into a readable format. plus, it'd be lot of typing, and i'm lazy. but suffice it to say that it was a simultaneously amazing and challenging time, and i feel so blessed to have been able to spend my summer at squanto. good times, good friends, and an amazing God
my sister paid me a dollar this afternoon to go and take a small bite out of several tomatos and peppers that mom has planted outside. the idea is that she'll see the bite marks, immediately go into code red alert, and begin a holy hunt for the prime suspect in every case like this... a groundhog. my mother is a lover of nature, and an otherwise rational and caring human being, but when it comes to groundhogs she shows no mercy. if they get blamed for the bite marks, she's likely to set traps, lay out poison, and possibly even lay in wait for their return armed with a shovel. and, if she finds out that i was the culprit, this will probably be my last entry...
less than a month until the great american road trip. i got to see dave while i was in cleveland over the weekend, and he brought along the van he recently acquired for our journey. it's a gorgeous 1993 dodge grand caravan, with only like 60,000 miles on it that he bought for a song. he's in the process of building some storage and even a couple of beds into it, so it can serve as our mobile home for the month or so we'll be on the road. our agenda: maine to alaska, and then see as much of the west coast and the rest of america that we can before we have to head back
i'm debating whether or not to get a cell phone. i really dislike them, but also grudgingly admit that they can be quite the convenience. and so, the dilemna rages on
time for some pie and ice cream out on the front porch.... boy do i love summer
the end
lessons learned while on the road
- mongolians are amazing swordsmen
- america + french + metric system = canada
- detroit's new tourism motto: "at least we're better than gary, indiana"
- no mater when or where you are, watching rounders will cause intense cravings for a game of poker
- obi-wan kenobi is my arch-nemesis, but boba fett remains my hero
- gas + tolls = alot of $$
- you can find wifi hotspots literally everywhere
- friends, both old and new, are an amazing blessing
still on the road... enjoying the nomadic life while it lasts
the end.
back like corn
so, camp was really awesome. actually, it was wicked awesome, to be precise. so glad it worked out to spend my summer there. and now, i'm back home for a couple days, and then heading off tomorrow for a road trip out to chicago and cleveland. be back sometime next week.
bye again
