Ok, so the other day I was surfing the Mars Hill website, and came across the fact that they had a facebook network. I thought that was pretty funny, so I went looking for it.OOOOOh friends, not only did i find it, to my great delight - friended Mark Driscoll. This was just hilarious. It took him a few days, but he added me as a friend. As you can imagine I totally lord this over Sarah's head, and will continue to do so until she friends him.
Now as of today I went to post on his wall, and to which my adviser said, "NOOOO ONE DAY YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR ACTS 29..AND WHAT IF...JUST...NO!" (Of course she will deny this, but as always, what I say is fact for fact actual reality.)
Anyways. Thats just too funny.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Acts 4
11/2/07
Acts 4 –
During the dialogue following Peter’s second sermon, he and John and taken into custody because the religious leaders are, “greatly annoyed” at the spreading of Jesus’ resurrection. But it’s late, so they just throw them in jail until the next day. We then find two apostles in front of a council that will judge them, as is a quite frequent sight in this new spreading of the Gospel. Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” then makes it quite clear that Jesus did the healing, and “Oh, lets not forget…you killed him. You should call on his name, because it is clearly powerful, and there just happens to be no other name that will get you to heaven.
The reaction of the council is hilarious and somewhat terrifying.
Sadducee #1, “Ok, these guys are bold, they have that going for them.”
Sadducee #2, “True, but they are clearly common men, and uneducated.”
Sadducee #3, “Yea but they were also clearly with Jesus.”
#2, “Alright so what are we going to do?”
#3, “Well they clearly did something amazing…”
#1, “Yea, lets tell them not to do that anymore.”
Literally they see the apostles’ works, see that they knew Jesus, and just missed the point all together. Completely dictated by what they (as righteous religious men) saw as necessary for their culture, they actually tell them to stop. The application here clearly stands that there are some who will oppose the Gospel with all that is inside them, and some that may just do it because they will not understand.
I love Peter’s response – “we cannot help” but preach. And even more beautiful, he doesn’t use the word preach. He says they cant help but speak about things they have seen and heard. He doesn’t limit preaching to a podium. He sees it as talking, for the salvation of souls.
Everybody is happy when they are released, and there is a very Jewish prayer.
Here the role of leadership is clearly seen. Peter and John were noted for their boldness. Then the people also prayed and received boldness. Leaders must lead. Fact.
Then everything gets communist and shared, which helps set them apart from their culture. How they spend and give their money really shows where their hearts are at. Take for example the son of encouragement that gives a whole fields profit to the Apostles.
God uses people. God also recognizes that money gets things. God doesn’t want money. God wants people, and their hearts. God did not grow up in a nunnery in the woods, He understands that money is a demand for goods, but ultimately wants a pure heart – out of which will flow gentleness and giving to others.
Acts 4 –
During the dialogue following Peter’s second sermon, he and John and taken into custody because the religious leaders are, “greatly annoyed” at the spreading of Jesus’ resurrection. But it’s late, so they just throw them in jail until the next day. We then find two apostles in front of a council that will judge them, as is a quite frequent sight in this new spreading of the Gospel. Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” then makes it quite clear that Jesus did the healing, and “Oh, lets not forget…you killed him. You should call on his name, because it is clearly powerful, and there just happens to be no other name that will get you to heaven.
The reaction of the council is hilarious and somewhat terrifying.
Sadducee #1, “Ok, these guys are bold, they have that going for them.”
Sadducee #2, “True, but they are clearly common men, and uneducated.”
Sadducee #3, “Yea but they were also clearly with Jesus.”
#2, “Alright so what are we going to do?”
#3, “Well they clearly did something amazing…”
#1, “Yea, lets tell them not to do that anymore.”
Literally they see the apostles’ works, see that they knew Jesus, and just missed the point all together. Completely dictated by what they (as righteous religious men) saw as necessary for their culture, they actually tell them to stop. The application here clearly stands that there are some who will oppose the Gospel with all that is inside them, and some that may just do it because they will not understand.
I love Peter’s response – “we cannot help” but preach. And even more beautiful, he doesn’t use the word preach. He says they cant help but speak about things they have seen and heard. He doesn’t limit preaching to a podium. He sees it as talking, for the salvation of souls.
Everybody is happy when they are released, and there is a very Jewish prayer.
Here the role of leadership is clearly seen. Peter and John were noted for their boldness. Then the people also prayed and received boldness. Leaders must lead. Fact.
Then everything gets communist and shared, which helps set them apart from their culture. How they spend and give their money really shows where their hearts are at. Take for example the son of encouragement that gives a whole fields profit to the Apostles.
God uses people. God also recognizes that money gets things. God doesn’t want money. God wants people, and their hearts. God did not grow up in a nunnery in the woods, He understands that money is a demand for goods, but ultimately wants a pure heart – out of which will flow gentleness and giving to others.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Pope and Santa
Ok so a while ago (thought the actual time is debated) I agreed to read the Popes book on Jesus if Ryan bought it for me. He "yelled" at me the other day about it, so here is the deal - I will be reading it and posting my thoughts on here as I go. I promised to have it done by Christmas so that is what I am planning on doing. I hope it is enjoyable (the book and the blog).
Oh, and to my supreme delight, a little girl mistook me for Santa the other day at the grocery store. It was great, she was all "blahgabla Santa blahgabla" and I was all " What?" and Sarah was all laughing and yea...it was just beautiful.
no idea what Colin or I weight.
d
Oh, and to my supreme delight, a little girl mistook me for Santa the other day at the grocery store. It was great, she was all "blahgabla Santa blahgabla" and I was all " What?" and Sarah was all laughing and yea...it was just beautiful.
no idea what Colin or I weight.
d
Monday, November 5, 2007
(Queen) Elizabeth - The Golden Age
Recently I have seen several movies that have leadership as a central theme in their message. Munich, Elizabeth, Evan Almighty, and Marie Antoinette all provide the audience with a charismatic, unique, and at times even spiritual leader.
I first watched Munich with my Dad the week I got surgery my senior year of HS (to clarify, I got my gallbladder taken out on my birthday...yea..no joke...worst birthday EVER), and to be honest, I just watched it to feel cool. I liked the idea of watching a movie with my Pops. It portrays the slow decay of relationships between a family due to a "job".
Marie Antoinette was full of color, overflowing with dry emotion, and undeniably empty of hope. No love, no real relationships, and I really wanted to punch Jason Shwartzman in the face the whole time.
Evan Almighty was good, and would have been great if Morgan Freeman had been aloud to just talk for two hours. It really interests me that Tom Shadyac has a big knife in one hand that he stabs at God with, and in the other seems to have what resembles a mostly gnostic bible. Evan, like Bruce, "saves the day," but only to provide people with a good feeling, good time message. The point in the movie that made me think was really when Evan meets God for the first time. Just some guy, in a suite, claiming to be God. I was in bed with mono thinking, "Morgan is the man, but just not God," and then it hit me - Christ did the exact same thing.
Elizabeth was fun. As a lead role Cate Blanchette really did a good job. I believed her the whole movie. It wasnt a movie where I walked away saying, "nope, no way, dont buy it." But to tell the truth, it just made me sad. She was so lonely. The end of the movie has her monologuing about her sacrifice of a man (as a "master") and a child, so that she could be the mother of England. I was sad because the one guy that you think might help her out (note I did not say "fix") ended up being a total jerk. The movie really had a "historical" postmodern, anti "religious" (just to make it clear I do not believe that was true religion in the movie) vibe to it. Elizabeth makes a case for reason and liberty and life for England, though it seems to me that she knows none of them deeply. Either way the movie was well worth watching, especially when you have a cute girl to watch it with.
Nothing too mind blowing today.
d
I first watched Munich with my Dad the week I got surgery my senior year of HS (to clarify, I got my gallbladder taken out on my birthday...yea..no joke...worst birthday EVER), and to be honest, I just watched it to feel cool. I liked the idea of watching a movie with my Pops. It portrays the slow decay of relationships between a family due to a "job".
Marie Antoinette was full of color, overflowing with dry emotion, and undeniably empty of hope. No love, no real relationships, and I really wanted to punch Jason Shwartzman in the face the whole time.
Evan Almighty was good, and would have been great if Morgan Freeman had been aloud to just talk for two hours. It really interests me that Tom Shadyac has a big knife in one hand that he stabs at God with, and in the other seems to have what resembles a mostly gnostic bible. Evan, like Bruce, "saves the day," but only to provide people with a good feeling, good time message. The point in the movie that made me think was really when Evan meets God for the first time. Just some guy, in a suite, claiming to be God. I was in bed with mono thinking, "Morgan is the man, but just not God," and then it hit me - Christ did the exact same thing.
Elizabeth was fun. As a lead role Cate Blanchette really did a good job. I believed her the whole movie. It wasnt a movie where I walked away saying, "nope, no way, dont buy it." But to tell the truth, it just made me sad. She was so lonely. The end of the movie has her monologuing about her sacrifice of a man (as a "master") and a child, so that she could be the mother of England. I was sad because the one guy that you think might help her out (note I did not say "fix") ended up being a total jerk. The movie really had a "historical" postmodern, anti "religious" (just to make it clear I do not believe that was true religion in the movie) vibe to it. Elizabeth makes a case for reason and liberty and life for England, though it seems to me that she knows none of them deeply. Either way the movie was well worth watching, especially when you have a cute girl to watch it with.
Nothing too mind blowing today.
d
Monday, October 29, 2007
Acts 3
Acts 3 –
Notably the first miracle done after Jesus has left is healing. Not only that but it is an unmistakable gift – meaning that the man was in fact looking for something from the two of them. They in turn tell him that they do not have what he looks for, but something greater. This again displays the paradigmatic series of events that seems to happen several times when people are healed in the New Testament –
1. They are sick/demonized (this may seem like an obvious point but it is important to recognized that people must be sick to be healed, hence the word saved) Often times these people are blatantly overlooked by their own community. Though some are willing to carry this man so that he can beg for money outside the temple.
2. They look to a person for something – often times Jesus is called upon by his name, but several times he approaches and the person does not see him for who he is before he heals them – in this case the beggar wasn’t expecting to be healed
3. They are healed by the power of Jesus.
4. They respond. – “He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.”
5. They are seen. People are “filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”
6. Their weakness and brokenness is used by God to strengthen others – In this case Peter preaches to them. It is worth noting that Peter does not preach 10 ways to find disciples so that they can heal you, or “How to fix your broken legs- a message of hope.” Peter preaches the Gospel.
The rest of my thoughts really come from a reflection upon Peter’s words.
First he sets them straight. Apparently he has to do this a lot at the beginning of sermons (applicable? Yes.) “Hey, stop looking at us like we did this. Jesus did.” It reminds me of two things that Raymond told me. He said that when he gets up to preach he often just states what text they will be in, and gets right to it. Why? “Because I want the first words out of my mouth to be scripture,” he sees stories as something that can compliment scripture, not the other way around. Secondly, after he preached the Gospel out of Jeremiah, he looked at me and said, “If your sermon could talk, it would ask, ‘Do I get to talk about Jesus yet?’”
Peter gets to Jesus. Fast.
He then tells them several very important facts.
1. You killed God – “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life…”(I can’t help but read that verse and feel horrible. The author of life – dead.)
2. BUT, “God raised him from the dead.”
3. “It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him,”
4. “as you can see.”
Facts- 1. You killed God. 2. He is alive. 3. His name and faith through him heals 4. You can see it. God has made known to us the “mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,” (Eph 1:9).
He then does some work on public relations and says, “ I know I know, you all are idiots. You acted out of ignorance. The good news is that God is God,” – “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.” (Gods sovereignty, our choices)
And then Peter brings them to the point where the Gospel should always brings us – repentance. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,”
This unfortunately is where many sermons stop. The salvation is seen with a one-dimensional functionality and essentially what happens is that eternity is limited.
You should repent now, so that “times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”
But wait, that is still not the best part – eternal salvation, daily salvation, but really what we look for is “that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.”
Salvation isn’t just not hell. It is Jesus. It isn’t just a life of grace. It is Jesus. Heaven isn’t just not hell; it is the presence of God.
An interesting note on blessing (vs 26)– the definition of blessing is so often getting a tangible thing. Here it is not having to continue in sin.
d
Notably the first miracle done after Jesus has left is healing. Not only that but it is an unmistakable gift – meaning that the man was in fact looking for something from the two of them. They in turn tell him that they do not have what he looks for, but something greater. This again displays the paradigmatic series of events that seems to happen several times when people are healed in the New Testament –
1. They are sick/demonized (this may seem like an obvious point but it is important to recognized that people must be sick to be healed, hence the word saved) Often times these people are blatantly overlooked by their own community. Though some are willing to carry this man so that he can beg for money outside the temple.
2. They look to a person for something – often times Jesus is called upon by his name, but several times he approaches and the person does not see him for who he is before he heals them – in this case the beggar wasn’t expecting to be healed
3. They are healed by the power of Jesus.
4. They respond. – “He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.”
5. They are seen. People are “filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”
6. Their weakness and brokenness is used by God to strengthen others – In this case Peter preaches to them. It is worth noting that Peter does not preach 10 ways to find disciples so that they can heal you, or “How to fix your broken legs- a message of hope.” Peter preaches the Gospel.
The rest of my thoughts really come from a reflection upon Peter’s words.
First he sets them straight. Apparently he has to do this a lot at the beginning of sermons (applicable? Yes.) “Hey, stop looking at us like we did this. Jesus did.” It reminds me of two things that Raymond told me. He said that when he gets up to preach he often just states what text they will be in, and gets right to it. Why? “Because I want the first words out of my mouth to be scripture,” he sees stories as something that can compliment scripture, not the other way around. Secondly, after he preached the Gospel out of Jeremiah, he looked at me and said, “If your sermon could talk, it would ask, ‘Do I get to talk about Jesus yet?’”
Peter gets to Jesus. Fast.
He then tells them several very important facts.
1. You killed God – “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life…”(I can’t help but read that verse and feel horrible. The author of life – dead.)
2. BUT, “God raised him from the dead.”
3. “It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him,”
4. “as you can see.”
Facts- 1. You killed God. 2. He is alive. 3. His name and faith through him heals 4. You can see it. God has made known to us the “mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,” (Eph 1:9).
He then does some work on public relations and says, “ I know I know, you all are idiots. You acted out of ignorance. The good news is that God is God,” – “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.” (Gods sovereignty, our choices)
And then Peter brings them to the point where the Gospel should always brings us – repentance. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,”
This unfortunately is where many sermons stop. The salvation is seen with a one-dimensional functionality and essentially what happens is that eternity is limited.
You should repent now, so that “times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”
But wait, that is still not the best part – eternal salvation, daily salvation, but really what we look for is “that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.”
Salvation isn’t just not hell. It is Jesus. It isn’t just a life of grace. It is Jesus. Heaven isn’t just not hell; it is the presence of God.
An interesting note on blessing (vs 26)– the definition of blessing is so often getting a tangible thing. Here it is not having to continue in sin.
d
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Acts 2:21
"And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
In my effort to stop sucking at reading my the Bible, I was reading the Bible, and these are some thoughts. In the second chapter of Acts you find everyone sitting around praying. I find it interesting that the first thing they do once Jesus has gone is pray. In the lineup they list Mary the mother of Jesus, which is just a strange thing - Honestly, you just watched your son DIE a little over a month ago, then he comes back, hangs out for 40 days, and ascends into heaven. And now she is praying...to...him...
I mean, my mom cried when I went to college...yea...
Anyways, Acts 2 has the famous passage about the Holy Spirit (kind of like the inner monologue voice of God {1 Corth. 2:11), that accomplishes in many ways what He wills by strengthening and empowering people {Acts 4:31}) coming and displaying the gift of tongues. At least 12 but up to 120 people then begin to start talking. In fact they make so much noise that people from the city start to come see whats going on. They get there, and all the different ethnicities all hear their own language.
This kind of makes me think of Annandale High School. I used to love walking down the hall, because there were literally dozens and dozens of different languages and dialects. As of 2006, there were 87 nationalities and 46 languages spoken. So I know the feeling of saying, "Hey! I know that language!"
The interesting thing is that it came to this- Peter preaches a sermon. The context in which he preaches is revolutionary to my understanding of preaching to say the least. In a room FULL of people that are talking about the "mighty works of God," and in front of these Jews that were coming to see, who themselves were "devout men," Peter preaches. What he says, the audience, and the time at which he preaches is (to quote a good friend) "great, thats just great."
He starts off as all good sermons should, "Whooooa whoa whoa, everyone listen up. My friends aren't drunk.Its only 9 in the morning.Here is the Gospel..."
He then off hand starts to quote Joel. Explaining that the Holy Spirit is not a hoax, but has been promised before hand, he then talks about Jesus. He says that David had spoken as to what would happen with him, and that now Jesus (who he makes clear that they knew, and that they watched to miracles, and then that they killed) is now with God.
"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
This sermon does what sermons are meant to, the audience is, "cut to the heart" and leaves them asking what they must do. It is worth noting that when the Gospel is preached, people ask questions. If the only way for people to respond is an invitation to come to the front of the church to be prayed for, or to change their lives, or to become a better person, then perhaps the gravity of the situation has been lost. "You are a sinner, and you killed God."
That kind of thing leads to questions.
"Brothers, what shall we do?"
Repent. Be forgiven. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The room is full of people speaking about the works of God (my guess would be that their were personal stories as well as a lot from the Hebrew Scriptures), and to an audience of devout and listening people. Some would say that the work was done. Peter settles for nothing less than the Gospel. That speaks volumes as to what preaching is to be. There is a supremacy to the Gospel. God died. God rose. God lives. We too must look at doing nothing less than these three things through Christ.
d
In my effort to stop sucking at reading my the Bible, I was reading the Bible, and these are some thoughts. In the second chapter of Acts you find everyone sitting around praying. I find it interesting that the first thing they do once Jesus has gone is pray. In the lineup they list Mary the mother of Jesus, which is just a strange thing - Honestly, you just watched your son DIE a little over a month ago, then he comes back, hangs out for 40 days, and ascends into heaven. And now she is praying...to...him...
I mean, my mom cried when I went to college...yea...
Anyways, Acts 2 has the famous passage about the Holy Spirit (kind of like the inner monologue voice of God {1 Corth. 2:11), that accomplishes in many ways what He wills by strengthening and empowering people {Acts 4:31}) coming and displaying the gift of tongues. At least 12 but up to 120 people then begin to start talking. In fact they make so much noise that people from the city start to come see whats going on. They get there, and all the different ethnicities all hear their own language.
This kind of makes me think of Annandale High School. I used to love walking down the hall, because there were literally dozens and dozens of different languages and dialects. As of 2006, there were 87 nationalities and 46 languages spoken. So I know the feeling of saying, "Hey! I know that language!"
The interesting thing is that it came to this- Peter preaches a sermon. The context in which he preaches is revolutionary to my understanding of preaching to say the least. In a room FULL of people that are talking about the "mighty works of God," and in front of these Jews that were coming to see, who themselves were "devout men," Peter preaches. What he says, the audience, and the time at which he preaches is (to quote a good friend) "great, thats just great."
He starts off as all good sermons should, "Whooooa whoa whoa, everyone listen up. My friends aren't drunk.Its only 9 in the morning.Here is the Gospel..."
He then off hand starts to quote Joel. Explaining that the Holy Spirit is not a hoax, but has been promised before hand, he then talks about Jesus. He says that David had spoken as to what would happen with him, and that now Jesus (who he makes clear that they knew, and that they watched to miracles, and then that they killed) is now with God.
"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
This sermon does what sermons are meant to, the audience is, "cut to the heart" and leaves them asking what they must do. It is worth noting that when the Gospel is preached, people ask questions. If the only way for people to respond is an invitation to come to the front of the church to be prayed for, or to change their lives, or to become a better person, then perhaps the gravity of the situation has been lost. "You are a sinner, and you killed God."
That kind of thing leads to questions.
"Brothers, what shall we do?"
Repent. Be forgiven. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The room is full of people speaking about the works of God (my guess would be that their were personal stories as well as a lot from the Hebrew Scriptures), and to an audience of devout and listening people. Some would say that the work was done. Peter settles for nothing less than the Gospel. That speaks volumes as to what preaching is to be. There is a supremacy to the Gospel. God died. God rose. God lives. We too must look at doing nothing less than these three things through Christ.
d
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
An explanation of my absence, Morgan Freeman, and a "new" song for Ryan
The critics are out in full (aka two very nice people), which is great, because after months of listening to Driscoll I finally feel like I am getting some type of reaction from his constantly mentioned "bloggers."
Did I just make that jump? Really?
I did. It is a new blog, and it is going to be bold...with the same old spelling errors...
As for my explanation, not a defense, because I dont need one of those, it breaks down as follows.
I have had mono for the last week and a half. I recently told someone it is strangely reminicent of the last time i completely shaved my face. First I shaved a mustache, and realized that though it made my heart really glad...the world just wasnt ready...so I got rid of it all. In this case the scenario is just that at first I ended up with a sore throat, and then threw up a bunch and ended up in the ER.
Those things arent anything alike...yet...
Mono - takes 4-6 weeks to get over.
Shaving - takes 4-6 weeks to grow back
Mono - your breath is really bad and people look at you like a sick person
Shaving- people just look at you like a sick person
Mono - "people" cant kiss you
Shaving - "people" wont kiss you
See what I mean?
My life has then broken down into about two parts -
A. Things that are not blog worthy.
B. Things that are not blog appropriate.
And lets not forget, I was really sick there for a few days, so even such things the really funny nurse in the ER got put on the back burner until I was feeling better.
-------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Freeman -
After watching Evan Almighty - which might get a post to itself, or at least a post about the movies i have watched while i was sick - I am once again in love with the man. Why? He is AWESOME.
Who else can do what he does...which is SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM IN EVERY MOVIE HE IS IN.
And do it with a really cool voice. Heck, he even fixed the penguins just by narrating in The March of the Penguins, without him, they could have been lost forever.
While watching LA ink last night, which I am accepting money to fly out there in case anyone was wondering, I saw it... A sleeve - dedicated to him, and all of his amazing characters in their sweet suits. It should be good.
----------------------------------------
Ryan Burns. listen to this. it has ..."helped" with the mono.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzDenAvI8tY
-------
now that post should make everyone happy.
much love
d
Did I just make that jump? Really?
I did. It is a new blog, and it is going to be bold...with the same old spelling errors...
As for my explanation, not a defense, because I dont need one of those, it breaks down as follows.
I have had mono for the last week and a half. I recently told someone it is strangely reminicent of the last time i completely shaved my face. First I shaved a mustache, and realized that though it made my heart really glad...the world just wasnt ready...so I got rid of it all. In this case the scenario is just that at first I ended up with a sore throat, and then threw up a bunch and ended up in the ER.
Those things arent anything alike...yet...
Mono - takes 4-6 weeks to get over.
Shaving - takes 4-6 weeks to grow back
Mono - your breath is really bad and people look at you like a sick person
Shaving- people just look at you like a sick person
Mono - "people" cant kiss you
Shaving - "people" wont kiss you
See what I mean?
My life has then broken down into about two parts -
A. Things that are not blog worthy.
B. Things that are not blog appropriate.
And lets not forget, I was really sick there for a few days, so even such things the really funny nurse in the ER got put on the back burner until I was feeling better.
-------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Freeman -
After watching Evan Almighty - which might get a post to itself, or at least a post about the movies i have watched while i was sick - I am once again in love with the man. Why? He is AWESOME.
Who else can do what he does...which is SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM IN EVERY MOVIE HE IS IN.
And do it with a really cool voice. Heck, he even fixed the penguins just by narrating in The March of the Penguins, without him, they could have been lost forever.
While watching LA ink last night, which I am accepting money to fly out there in case anyone was wondering, I saw it... A sleeve - dedicated to him, and all of his amazing characters in their sweet suits. It should be good.
----------------------------------------
Ryan Burns. listen to this. it has ..."helped" with the mono.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzDenAvI8tY
-------
now that post should make everyone happy.
much love
d
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Peace on Floyd
With the recent subtraction of my bike, I now have the pleasure of walking to school. Some days it takes me 15 min, others 30 - either way I sweat and am thirsty when I get there. Which brings up a strange fact - I can run, and I can jog, but walking makes me tired. I suspect its the little steps I take, but who knows?
Anyways, today I tried walking on the north side of Floyd street because it looked shadyer (a. no I dont know how that is spelled, b. shade here is measure in amount of sunlight being blocked, not amount of seedy people/areas in view)
Somewhere around Lombardy, there is a house that has a bunch of signs outside of it. The signs all had verses on them about peace and what Jesus was here to bring and what would happen when he came back. So that is one persons belief in a savior.
A block down there was a flag of the United Nations. Another persons view of a savior.
Not mutually exclusive, but not always the same either.
d
Anyways, today I tried walking on the north side of Floyd street because it looked shadyer (a. no I dont know how that is spelled, b. shade here is measure in amount of sunlight being blocked, not amount of seedy people/areas in view)
Somewhere around Lombardy, there is a house that has a bunch of signs outside of it. The signs all had verses on them about peace and what Jesus was here to bring and what would happen when he came back. So that is one persons belief in a savior.
A block down there was a flag of the United Nations. Another persons view of a savior.
Not mutually exclusive, but not always the same either.
d
Sunday, September 23, 2007
A lot of dairy.
So I have this friend who desires to remain unnamed.
His name is Dave Ryan.
So he went to Wendys tonight and decided that he wanted to try the new "Twisted Frosty." Because it was such a long drive to get there said he didnt want to risk not liking it, so he decided to get it, as well as get the frosty that he knew he would like. Needless to say when he picked me up there was an empty Twisted frosty cup, and he was working on #2. This was great for me, because I was hungry, and his car smelled like fries, and because he was so sick from the frostys, I got a medium fry and nuggets for free.
Oh, and his story to tell me all of this started off like this, "So you want to hear something funny...that you will prob blog about..."
And it ended with me saying, " I will blog about that."
Thats about all. Bills are higher than we thought, rent is due this week. Life goes on as usual. You can expect my thoughts on Jonah later this week once I iron out the "sermon" I am writing.
d
His name is Dave Ryan.
So he went to Wendys tonight and decided that he wanted to try the new "Twisted Frosty." Because it was such a long drive to get there said he didnt want to risk not liking it, so he decided to get it, as well as get the frosty that he knew he would like. Needless to say when he picked me up there was an empty Twisted frosty cup, and he was working on #2. This was great for me, because I was hungry, and his car smelled like fries, and because he was so sick from the frostys, I got a medium fry and nuggets for free.
Oh, and his story to tell me all of this started off like this, "So you want to hear something funny...that you will prob blog about..."
And it ended with me saying, " I will blog about that."
Thats about all. Bills are higher than we thought, rent is due this week. Life goes on as usual. You can expect my thoughts on Jonah later this week once I iron out the "sermon" I am writing.
d
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Apples.
Today I went on a picnic. I had some apples, the red kind, and I didnt eat all of them. I ended up having two left over. I couldnt really think of whether or not I was hungry, and seeing as the birds started to literally poop all around me - one pooped on the blanket, then one on my shoulder - I decided it was time to go.
On the way to the mall to pick up a really needed new pair of shoes we saw a man in need of some change. I called to him out of the window and asked if he wanted an apple.
"Yea man...I like apples..."
"Ok well I dont have any change, but you can have it."
As he backed away I realized I should give him the second one as well. So I offered and he took it.
No new shoes, just a new appreciation for the fact that God provides, enough to help provide for others.
On the way to the mall to pick up a really needed new pair of shoes we saw a man in need of some change. I called to him out of the window and asked if he wanted an apple.
"Yea man...I like apples..."
"Ok well I dont have any change, but you can have it."
As he backed away I realized I should give him the second one as well. So I offered and he took it.
No new shoes, just a new appreciation for the fact that God provides, enough to help provide for others.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
songs and sayings from childhood
One of my more dedicated readers told me today that I had not posted in a while. I have been lazy, and comments were low (as in 0) on my last post, so I was down.
Well guess what - here I am. Whoa freakin whooooo....
Clearly very tired, and I just spent an hour on the porch with a couple guys that were walking by looking for cigs so we sat and talked for over an hour. They were from W+M and were down in richmond picking up a DVD of 40 min of footage (condensed down from 26 hours) from their AIDS awareness teaching in Tanzania. Cool eh? So I asked myself, and prayed to God that I could share the Gospel with them. It became very evident that I should give them one of the dvds I made from the Ukraine trip, so I did. Who knows what will come of that. Praise God for the Handy Mart being closed.
--------
My mom used to say a few things when I was young that still come back to me -
Be patient, be patient, dont be in such a hurry
When you are impatient you only start to worry
Remember, Remember, that God is patient too
And think of all the times that other had to wait on you
- that was a song she sang me. And I have a sneaking suspicion that I spelled patient wrong (or like a doctors client) but meh, I cant spell. MEH thats right.
Here is another classic -
Where are we going?
Crazy
Ok who doesnt hate that? Case closed.
Eh those are really the only two I can think of. So this is a big crappy blog to bring them back.
Well guess what - here I am. Whoa freakin whooooo....
Clearly very tired, and I just spent an hour on the porch with a couple guys that were walking by looking for cigs so we sat and talked for over an hour. They were from W+M and were down in richmond picking up a DVD of 40 min of footage (condensed down from 26 hours) from their AIDS awareness teaching in Tanzania. Cool eh? So I asked myself, and prayed to God that I could share the Gospel with them. It became very evident that I should give them one of the dvds I made from the Ukraine trip, so I did. Who knows what will come of that. Praise God for the Handy Mart being closed.
--------
My mom used to say a few things when I was young that still come back to me -
Be patient, be patient, dont be in such a hurry
When you are impatient you only start to worry
Remember, Remember, that God is patient too
And think of all the times that other had to wait on you
- that was a song she sang me. And I have a sneaking suspicion that I spelled patient wrong (or like a doctors client) but meh, I cant spell. MEH thats right.
Here is another classic -
Where are we going?
Crazy
Ok who doesnt hate that? Case closed.
Eh those are really the only two I can think of. So this is a big crappy blog to bring them back.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Flinch
Today it became very apparent to me that all I do now as I wander the universe is look for things to blog about.
Example - I keep track of the things that Ryan Burns says that makes me laugh - i.e. advice such as "well you should punch him in the face..."
- I keep track of little things that are out of place - i.e. Ryan Burns picking me up on the wrong side of the street
- My thoughts on life in a larger scale - i.e. What does it mean to pack up a family and move? (see The Burns)
- The fact that I keep typing Ryan Burns, hoping that magically Ryan Burns will suddenly turn into one of those fancy hyperlinks that teleports you to his blog, but it doesnt work.
-----
As we rode home today a Police SUV sped up behind us. As the lights got closer and closer the siren slowly just screemed, "BloooOOOooooggggg BBBBlllllooooOOOOoooooGGGGgggg." (again see the scene in Lord of War when the gun shots turn into cash register noises). To my great dismay the lights passed.
When I told Ryan Burns (see, still no hyperlink) this, he mused (a nice word for sarcastically mocked me) about the fact that I wanted him to get a ticket for the sake of my blog.
-------
Fast forward a few miles to Cary and Boulevard. This is where the joke was on me. Earlier that day Ryan shot me with a rubber band and I decided now would be a good time to shoot him back. So I shot him in the hand. Nothing happened, and honestly I was kind of dissapointed. I turned to my right, and threw my gum out of the window into a huge bush where I felt like it wouldnt bother anything.
As I turned back I saw Ryan's hand. In terror I threw up my left arm to block a punch the the arm/chest/face etc. I flinched. BAD.
Ryan, who coincedentally was reaching for the steering wheel, started laughing immediately. He is one of the people that really laughs. Ashley, Mac, Sarah, Mr. Thurston, Dave Ryan, Big Tom (my dad), Little Debbie (my mom) and all the Jen or Jenns I know also fit that description.
"So we both just got a blog entry at my expense didnt we?"
d
Example - I keep track of the things that Ryan Burns says that makes me laugh - i.e. advice such as "well you should punch him in the face..."
- I keep track of little things that are out of place - i.e. Ryan Burns picking me up on the wrong side of the street
- My thoughts on life in a larger scale - i.e. What does it mean to pack up a family and move? (see The Burns)
- The fact that I keep typing Ryan Burns, hoping that magically Ryan Burns will suddenly turn into one of those fancy hyperlinks that teleports you to his blog, but it doesnt work.
-----
As we rode home today a Police SUV sped up behind us. As the lights got closer and closer the siren slowly just screemed, "BloooOOOooooggggg BBBBlllllooooOOOOoooooGGGGgggg." (again see the scene in Lord of War when the gun shots turn into cash register noises). To my great dismay the lights passed.
When I told Ryan Burns (see, still no hyperlink) this, he mused (a nice word for sarcastically mocked me) about the fact that I wanted him to get a ticket for the sake of my blog.
-------
Fast forward a few miles to Cary and Boulevard. This is where the joke was on me. Earlier that day Ryan shot me with a rubber band and I decided now would be a good time to shoot him back. So I shot him in the hand. Nothing happened, and honestly I was kind of dissapointed. I turned to my right, and threw my gum out of the window into a huge bush where I felt like it wouldnt bother anything.
As I turned back I saw Ryan's hand. In terror I threw up my left arm to block a punch the the arm/chest/face etc. I flinched. BAD.
Ryan, who coincedentally was reaching for the steering wheel, started laughing immediately. He is one of the people that really laughs. Ashley, Mac, Sarah, Mr. Thurston, Dave Ryan, Big Tom (my dad), Little Debbie (my mom) and all the Jen or Jenns I know also fit that description.
"So we both just got a blog entry at my expense didnt we?"
d
Monday, September 10, 2007
Its either really late, or almost time for a pop tart
So my computer tells me it is 3:03, and clearly I am awake. A little over an hour ago I got a call from a really good friend of mine named Mac out in Seattle. We actually talked about blogs for a little while and he gave strong disapproval that I had started my own.
"I dont do blogs, it is 2 dimentional reality."
I made fun of him for having a myspace and still feeling that way and he replied, "Here is my thing with blogs, they are often times way too personal and I cant do anything about that. I read that some guy says, "I tried to kill myself last week" and I think to myself - thats terrible, I want to do something. But I cant. And whats worse, if he is puting it on the internet, no one AROUND him is doing anythin for him either."
Anyways, we talked about a lot of things. For the first time we talked about me changing my mind at the last second and not coming out there. We talked about preaching, and money, and work, and women. He wants to start a church that reaches the deaf community in ways that we currently dont. He said that they are not identified as a people group, but if they were they would be the largest unreached people in the world.
----------------
I started to type a bunch of the rest of our conversation, but it means to much to just post the whole thing up here.
----------
much love, and congrats to the people that got the sleep that i didnt tonight. though you can have it, because i havent seen 3:16 a.m. in a long time.
d
-----
Drew - 177
Colin - 174
"I dont do blogs, it is 2 dimentional reality."
I made fun of him for having a myspace and still feeling that way and he replied, "Here is my thing with blogs, they are often times way too personal and I cant do anything about that. I read that some guy says, "I tried to kill myself last week" and I think to myself - thats terrible, I want to do something. But I cant. And whats worse, if he is puting it on the internet, no one AROUND him is doing anythin for him either."
Anyways, we talked about a lot of things. For the first time we talked about me changing my mind at the last second and not coming out there. We talked about preaching, and money, and work, and women. He wants to start a church that reaches the deaf community in ways that we currently dont. He said that they are not identified as a people group, but if they were they would be the largest unreached people in the world.
----------------
I started to type a bunch of the rest of our conversation, but it means to much to just post the whole thing up here.
----------
much love, and congrats to the people that got the sleep that i didnt tonight. though you can have it, because i havent seen 3:16 a.m. in a long time.
d
-----
Drew - 177
Colin - 174
Saturday, September 8, 2007
USA
No, I am not writing a post on the well known United States of America. Instead I am writing about the United Secular Alliance. Last night I had the pleasure of going to their (I guess "our" seeing as I am on the active members list) meeting. I mostly just sat for 2 hours or so and did my best to listen and not come across as some crazy wack job that wanted their souls. After about the first 45 min we got through the administrative things, and got on to our discussion of the night - the separation of church and state. I loved getting to sit in on and be a part of this. I know that as a child the first thought I had when I heard athiest was, "O God hates them." It is so crazy to me that after years of fighting that kind of thing, it STILL SHOWS! I had to fight the whole night to not be what they, and even I, are fighting against
(THIS IS A REALLY STRANGE THING To think that we are both fighting on some issues against the same incorrect or incomplete gospel. Now of course we wouldnt agree on this, but I tried to make it clear that God DID NOT come to give us a set of moral codes. Without going into detail because that wouldnt be cool to just say things other people say in confidence on the internet, and because you should go to the meetings yourself, I told them that the Bible does not leave the option of being a good teaching book. If all the Bible does is teach nice stories, then it is a load of crap. Because just as someone pointed out, it could be seen as "teaching some very bad things." So A. The Bible is NOT meant to only teach us things. From their I tried to take it to a larger scale and say lets assume that the Bible is on a bigger, more meta scale. It is just trying to teach principles about life - WRONG. B. The Bible is NOT only meant to teach about principles. THE BIBLE IS ABOUT JESUS. If we dont grasp that, and the fact that that INCLUDES morality/principles/specifics/the story of our attempt to have God love us based on our attempts to have God love us/sin/love/condemnation/mercy/grace/forgiveness/lots of bloodshed/lots of miracles/a virgin birth/a death on a cross/a bird being set free in the blood of another/talking donkeys/you/me/Atheist/Jew/Gentile. IT IS JESUS, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN JESUS. HIM AND HIM CRUCIFIED.)
Please. For the LOVE OF GOD - pray that you will understand the love of God.
I did not want to go in there swinging an axe and just have a "bath of blood" (Lord of War, really interesting movie). Granted statistically I was 1/12 in favor of non-christians. So I was rather alone for most of the night, until a rather cute young lady came and sat in on the end of the meeting.
Here were the discussions headlines - Evolution taught in schools, Gay rights, Alabama court house 10 commandments thing, and a few other less talked about subjects.
There was one thing said that people should know about the moment of silence.
Essentially he said that the moment of silence was a completely Christian thing. I areed, but thought it would be hard to really prove on anything other than the, "Lets just say it, and hope everyone agrees" scale. I was so wrong. He said that the instructions have such a clear bias, and the do!
1. You may stay silent.
2.You may pray
3. You must stay in your seat.
He explained that Jewish people pray standing up, and Muslims pray on their knees.
Unfortunately there was a yelling outbreak and a lot of people missed that. Anyways I thought it was great.
More thoughts later.
d
(THIS IS A REALLY STRANGE THING To think that we are both fighting on some issues against the same incorrect or incomplete gospel. Now of course we wouldnt agree on this, but I tried to make it clear that God DID NOT come to give us a set of moral codes. Without going into detail because that wouldnt be cool to just say things other people say in confidence on the internet, and because you should go to the meetings yourself, I told them that the Bible does not leave the option of being a good teaching book. If all the Bible does is teach nice stories, then it is a load of crap. Because just as someone pointed out, it could be seen as "teaching some very bad things." So A. The Bible is NOT meant to only teach us things. From their I tried to take it to a larger scale and say lets assume that the Bible is on a bigger, more meta scale. It is just trying to teach principles about life - WRONG. B. The Bible is NOT only meant to teach about principles. THE BIBLE IS ABOUT JESUS. If we dont grasp that, and the fact that that INCLUDES morality/principles/specifics/the story of our attempt to have God love us based on our attempts to have God love us/sin/love/condemnation/mercy/grace/forgiveness/lots of bloodshed/lots of miracles/a virgin birth/a death on a cross/a bird being set free in the blood of another/talking donkeys/you/me/Atheist/Jew/Gentile. IT IS JESUS, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN JESUS. HIM AND HIM CRUCIFIED.)
Please. For the LOVE OF GOD - pray that you will understand the love of God.
I did not want to go in there swinging an axe and just have a "bath of blood" (Lord of War, really interesting movie). Granted statistically I was 1/12 in favor of non-christians. So I was rather alone for most of the night, until a rather cute young lady came and sat in on the end of the meeting.
Here were the discussions headlines - Evolution taught in schools, Gay rights, Alabama court house 10 commandments thing, and a few other less talked about subjects.
There was one thing said that people should know about the moment of silence.
Essentially he said that the moment of silence was a completely Christian thing. I areed, but thought it would be hard to really prove on anything other than the, "Lets just say it, and hope everyone agrees" scale. I was so wrong. He said that the instructions have such a clear bias, and the do!
1. You may stay silent.
2.You may pray
3. You must stay in your seat.
He explained that Jewish people pray standing up, and Muslims pray on their knees.
Unfortunately there was a yelling outbreak and a lot of people missed that. Anyways I thought it was great.
More thoughts later.
d
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The Gym and International Relations
In case it isnt paintfully obvious, I enjoy writing titles to blogs that say, "This and That." The reason I do that is because I would like to have people lean back in the chair and say, "WOW he is profound." I realize that if I wanted to truly be profound I would do it with the post itself, but honestly the title is just easier. So hopefully everyone feels that way. If not, I just...dont...like...you.
Alright - the Gym.
So here is the quick rundown on the life and times of Drew Cowles in terms of the scale. The first time weight ever really "officially" got in the way of me doing things is when I tried to play football. I played one season in grade school. I can still close my eyes and see the look of the coach and the room when he said that because of my weight I would have to play with guys my age. I am pretty sure I was in the 4th grade, and he told me I was looking at playing with 8th or even high school kids. Great. That will be just awsome to get creamed by a bunch of post-puberty guys that can actually dictate where they want their limbs to go. They told me that I had to drop weight, and gave me suggestions as to how that would happen. Shorty after that meeting you could have found me in my shower wearing a trash bag on thinking that I was going to die. Fast forward a little to middle school. I can distinctly remember graduating the 8th grade at 225 lbs. I can remember getting out of Blakes car and telling his Dad what I was ringing in at and his response was, "Wow you are a big boy." (Note that the titles of the blog are not trying to elicit that response) Needless to say, I was quickly snatched up by the football coaches at Annandale High, and did that for two years. Football/Baseball, and a natural weight loss left me around 200 lbs at the end of my freshman year. Over the summer I lost some more and was about 185. After my second season of football I was pushing about 175. Christmas time brought about some difficult times and I internalized a bunch of things, and decided eating was dumb. So for about a month I tried not doing that, and lost another 10 which placed me at 165. In less than 20 months I lost 60 pounds (I dont know if that is fast or slow). I remember getting into the car one day and my mom saying, "Baby you are so handsome, but you dont look good. You look like you are on drugs." So life (and time) have brought some of that back on. In fact I had about an 100 lb weight loss/gain/loss/gain/loss shift in the last four years.
If you are still reading after all that crap, you should either be congradulated or smacked.
So recently I have decided (for numerous reasons) to try and keep weight off/be healthy. And today I went to the gym. I ran for a little while, did some arm and back stuff, and then ran/jogged home. I was glad to find that is a good 1.3 miles so its nice.
Thats really all there is to say about that.
----------------
The Decemberists are singing about people running around killing people, in their usual way, which is putting me to sleep - which means the next song on the album will keep me awake, but then I am going to sleep for sure - so I will try to make this fast.
Today in international relations we talked about Political Realism, and there were some things said that really interested me. "Basically he( Hans Morgenthau) feels that because each nation state is made up of individuals, individuals that all want a little bit more, state will always make moves towards power." Apparently we live in a Zero Sum System. Who knew? Anyways, with Power (simple measure of material capability) being a fixed sum, this means that the world doesnt just create power. Everytime one state gets a plus, another one gets a minus. So there is that....
"How do you know if a country is powerful? ITS OBVIOUS! If they have enough missles to blow you up, and then enough money to buy whats left, they are more powerful than you."
The Decemberists are on to the crane wife, which is making me sleepy.
Night everyone.
d
Colin - 174.4
Drew-176.6
Alright - the Gym.
So here is the quick rundown on the life and times of Drew Cowles in terms of the scale. The first time weight ever really "officially" got in the way of me doing things is when I tried to play football. I played one season in grade school. I can still close my eyes and see the look of the coach and the room when he said that because of my weight I would have to play with guys my age. I am pretty sure I was in the 4th grade, and he told me I was looking at playing with 8th or even high school kids. Great. That will be just awsome to get creamed by a bunch of post-puberty guys that can actually dictate where they want their limbs to go. They told me that I had to drop weight, and gave me suggestions as to how that would happen. Shorty after that meeting you could have found me in my shower wearing a trash bag on thinking that I was going to die. Fast forward a little to middle school. I can distinctly remember graduating the 8th grade at 225 lbs. I can remember getting out of Blakes car and telling his Dad what I was ringing in at and his response was, "Wow you are a big boy." (Note that the titles of the blog are not trying to elicit that response) Needless to say, I was quickly snatched up by the football coaches at Annandale High, and did that for two years. Football/Baseball, and a natural weight loss left me around 200 lbs at the end of my freshman year. Over the summer I lost some more and was about 185. After my second season of football I was pushing about 175. Christmas time brought about some difficult times and I internalized a bunch of things, and decided eating was dumb. So for about a month I tried not doing that, and lost another 10 which placed me at 165. In less than 20 months I lost 60 pounds (I dont know if that is fast or slow). I remember getting into the car one day and my mom saying, "Baby you are so handsome, but you dont look good. You look like you are on drugs." So life (and time) have brought some of that back on. In fact I had about an 100 lb weight loss/gain/loss/gain/loss shift in the last four years.
If you are still reading after all that crap, you should either be congradulated or smacked.
So recently I have decided (for numerous reasons) to try and keep weight off/be healthy. And today I went to the gym. I ran for a little while, did some arm and back stuff, and then ran/jogged home. I was glad to find that is a good 1.3 miles so its nice.
Thats really all there is to say about that.
----------------
The Decemberists are singing about people running around killing people, in their usual way, which is putting me to sleep - which means the next song on the album will keep me awake, but then I am going to sleep for sure - so I will try to make this fast.
Today in international relations we talked about Political Realism, and there were some things said that really interested me. "Basically he( Hans Morgenthau) feels that because each nation state is made up of individuals, individuals that all want a little bit more, state will always make moves towards power." Apparently we live in a Zero Sum System. Who knew? Anyways, with Power (simple measure of material capability) being a fixed sum, this means that the world doesnt just create power. Everytime one state gets a plus, another one gets a minus. So there is that....
"How do you know if a country is powerful? ITS OBVIOUS! If they have enough missles to blow you up, and then enough money to buy whats left, they are more powerful than you."
The Decemberists are on to the crane wife, which is making me sleepy.
Night everyone.
d
Colin - 174.4
Drew-176.6
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Funny
Listen to the wise words of Mr. Asher Charles Burns. I was complaining after work before we had some amazing pizza at his house, "Hey Asher, you know what?" He set down either his Shark and/or Tiger Car to listen intently. "I am really tired of looking at colonoscopies." With that perfect untrained little kid timing he looks at me and says, "I am tired of bedtimes." As I roll on the floor laughing he gets a huge smile and says, "Im just kiiiiiiiiddddding."
---------------------------------
Colin - 174.2
Drew - 177.8
d
---------------------------------
Colin - 174.2
Drew - 177.8
d
Monday, September 3, 2007
The Competition
After recent trips to the scale, the fellas at the robinson house have been quite shocked at the results. Namely myself and Colin are much closer in weight that we thought. This naturally brings up the fact that we all assumed Colin would be the skinniest in the house. In fact, he turned to me the other day and said, " Drew, I just don't want you to be the skinniest in the house. I want to be." Of course this has now turned into a competition as to when I will drop below Colins weight. I just thought it would be a nice little feature to add to the bottom of the blog daily in case any of the readers would like to keep up/place bets/cheer or jeer/ etc.
Official weight on 9/4/07
Drew - 177.2
Colin - 172.8
d
Official weight on 9/4/07
Drew - 177.2
Colin - 172.8
d
Sunday, September 2, 2007
A gift to Ryan
There is only one point to this post.
Ryan Burns, listen to this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmcmTE7NIAY
Ryan Burns, listen to this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmcmTE7NIAY
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Street Corner Health Thoughts
So today I was standing on the street corner waiting to go to work, and I came to two realizations. Well one was a realization that happened in my kitchen , and the other was more of just a thought. But "two realizations on the corner of Robinson and Cary street" just sounds a lot better.
Number one - My mother and father are people in need of great thanks. Trying to pack my lunch - a whopping pbj with a bag of chips and some water, and making breakfast - a whopping English muffin with honey, was no easy task. You have to make sure you time it all right. The toaster has to be set just right to get the English muffin hot enough to crisp the thin half and perfect the fat side, both of which will need butter (which of course is too hard because it has been in the fridge). To tell the truth I ended up using 3 knives. I could have got away with using one, but I was juggling things and rather incoherent and the next thing I knew my sink has 3 knives - butter, jelly/pb, and the one I used to cut the English muffin in half. Sad. I know. So yea, Mom and Pops - you are more than I deserve.
Number two - As I am enjoying the aforementioned English muffin (which is not easy to abbreviate, because EM just sounds strange), I think to myself - "Man, I need to have a thought to blog about. Oh, here comes one. I am eating a TON of bread. If I keep eating this much bread I am on track to die. ("Drew everyone dies" - To anyone that was thinking anything like that or "We all gotta go some day" your right, but you can take your blog ruining self to youtube or something)" As I am thinking this, quite content that I have a sentence or a least some hint of a blog idea, God saw it fitting to make me laugh.
A bus. A big fat one like a beetle crawling back to a stump, or whatever home it lives in. That home happens to be located across the street from my place, a never ending source of sound to sleep and wake up to, and then beg God to let you go back to sleep to.
Anyways, in the middle of this big fat Beetle Bus there was a sign that read, "NATIONAL STROKE MONTH." In my mind it read, "NATIONAL STROKE MONTH!" I gave my English muffin a good look and kept reading. "The signs of stroke are noticable because they happen fast, " is what I am pretty sure I saw, but I was distracted by the huge freaking paragraph of things that had to look out for below it. Oh ok I will be sure to look for the following - chest pain, temperature, pulse, the sun, eating fatty foods, being out of shape, being American, standing on a street corner, wearing boat shoes, etc. The list went on for miles. Before I could even really begin to read anything the Beetle Bus scooted off .
---------------
Me - Man I have this song stuck in my head.
Mr. Burns - Please. Please do not sing it.
Me- O yea?
Mr. Burns - Yea man I have been very susceptible to songs being stuck in my head recently. ( I kid you not thats what he said)
Me after thinking for a second - Ha le lu ha le lu ha la lu ya....PRAISE YEA THE LORD
Mr. Burns - Is that seriously the song you had in your head?
Me realizing that he hated me and I wasnt really very sorry for it (shown by the fact that I was just laughing at him) - Yea
Mr Burns - Thats just rude.
d
Number one - My mother and father are people in need of great thanks. Trying to pack my lunch - a whopping pbj with a bag of chips and some water, and making breakfast - a whopping English muffin with honey, was no easy task. You have to make sure you time it all right. The toaster has to be set just right to get the English muffin hot enough to crisp the thin half and perfect the fat side, both of which will need butter (which of course is too hard because it has been in the fridge). To tell the truth I ended up using 3 knives. I could have got away with using one, but I was juggling things and rather incoherent and the next thing I knew my sink has 3 knives - butter, jelly/pb, and the one I used to cut the English muffin in half. Sad. I know. So yea, Mom and Pops - you are more than I deserve.
Number two - As I am enjoying the aforementioned English muffin (which is not easy to abbreviate, because EM just sounds strange), I think to myself - "Man, I need to have a thought to blog about. Oh, here comes one. I am eating a TON of bread. If I keep eating this much bread I am on track to die. ("Drew everyone dies" - To anyone that was thinking anything like that or "We all gotta go some day" your right, but you can take your blog ruining self to youtube or something)" As I am thinking this, quite content that I have a sentence or a least some hint of a blog idea, God saw it fitting to make me laugh.
A bus. A big fat one like a beetle crawling back to a stump, or whatever home it lives in. That home happens to be located across the street from my place, a never ending source of sound to sleep and wake up to, and then beg God to let you go back to sleep to.
Anyways, in the middle of this big fat Beetle Bus there was a sign that read, "NATIONAL STROKE MONTH." In my mind it read, "NATIONAL STROKE MONTH!" I gave my English muffin a good look and kept reading. "The signs of stroke are noticable because they happen fast, " is what I am pretty sure I saw, but I was distracted by the huge freaking paragraph of things that had to look out for below it. Oh ok I will be sure to look for the following - chest pain, temperature, pulse, the sun, eating fatty foods, being out of shape, being American, standing on a street corner, wearing boat shoes, etc. The list went on for miles. Before I could even really begin to read anything the Beetle Bus scooted off .
---------------
Me - Man I have this song stuck in my head.
Mr. Burns - Please. Please do not sing it.
Me- O yea?
Mr. Burns - Yea man I have been very susceptible to songs being stuck in my head recently. ( I kid you not thats what he said)
Me after thinking for a second - Ha le lu ha le lu ha la lu ya....PRAISE YEA THE LORD
Mr. Burns - Is that seriously the song you had in your head?
Me realizing that he hated me and I wasnt really very sorry for it (shown by the fact that I was just laughing at him) - Yea
Mr Burns - Thats just rude.
d
Monday, August 27, 2007
History of the Americas
Hmmm...not really sure where I am going with this.
In history class today we were talking about the origin of american culture in terms of the native tribes of the indians. The question arose as to how we view and obtain information about people/culture before writing. The answer is semi obvious in that we look at artifacts and piece together ideas of what the life and times of the people looked like. But then the teacher said something that made me think, "Because of course we knnnnow that when people write things down they dont change anything to make themselves or who they support look better." Yea yea yea I know that, but then he went on to say, " What if someone picked up your diary (journal if that is more manly) and read it? Would you edit out the cigarette you smoked? What about the pack?"
Other than the initial reaction i had about people and thier views of smoking, his question really sparked my thoughts. Why is it that everyone wants to look best in his or her own eyes? How is it that if someone were to just watch my life and never heard a word I said they would come to an vastly different conclusion as to why I live and breath? What would my bones and remains tell that my words wouldnt? Or reverse the question to ask what my words portray that my life doesnt?
-----
VitalKey early in the a.m. so its lights out time.
d
In history class today we were talking about the origin of american culture in terms of the native tribes of the indians. The question arose as to how we view and obtain information about people/culture before writing. The answer is semi obvious in that we look at artifacts and piece together ideas of what the life and times of the people looked like. But then the teacher said something that made me think, "Because of course we knnnnow that when people write things down they dont change anything to make themselves or who they support look better." Yea yea yea I know that, but then he went on to say, " What if someone picked up your diary (journal if that is more manly) and read it? Would you edit out the cigarette you smoked? What about the pack?"
Other than the initial reaction i had about people and thier views of smoking, his question really sparked my thoughts. Why is it that everyone wants to look best in his or her own eyes? How is it that if someone were to just watch my life and never heard a word I said they would come to an vastly different conclusion as to why I live and breath? What would my bones and remains tell that my words wouldnt? Or reverse the question to ask what my words portray that my life doesnt?
-----
VitalKey early in the a.m. so its lights out time.
d
Saturday, August 25, 2007
so internet..but no phone...
if this post doesnt make people happy...I dont know what will.
I am posting from a general good store at a campground on lake gaston on the NC/VA border.
Today I was supposed to get picked up around 7am by my sister, and in true Cowles (note the "silent w") fashion, we rolled out of richmond at 9. This was of course after a nice Hardees breakfast. We got on to 95 to the sounds of, "Shut up, and I have no idea where the heck Im going."
Anyways I curled up and slept in the back of my sisters Ford Escape, and arrived here around 11. So yea...thats the day so far...
They also have arcade games here - yay for X-Men.
Whipped by the blog -
d
I am posting from a general good store at a campground on lake gaston on the NC/VA border.
Today I was supposed to get picked up around 7am by my sister, and in true Cowles (note the "silent w") fashion, we rolled out of richmond at 9. This was of course after a nice Hardees breakfast. We got on to 95 to the sounds of, "Shut up, and I have no idea where the heck Im going."
Anyways I curled up and slept in the back of my sisters Ford Escape, and arrived here around 11. So yea...thats the day so far...
They also have arcade games here - yay for X-Men.
Whipped by the blog -
d
Friday, August 24, 2007
Gone
Alrighty family and friends. I will be out of town til sunday.
Good news - I will be with my grandfather so there will be great quotes.
Bad news - I can not understand very much of what my biology teacher says at all.
d
oh and by the way, you should search "D and D" for a series of documentaries on the robinson house on youtube
much love
Good news - I will be with my grandfather so there will be great quotes.
Bad news - I can not understand very much of what my biology teacher says at all.
d
oh and by the way, you should search "D and D" for a series of documentaries on the robinson house on youtube
much love
Thursday, August 23, 2007
First day on the job
Today I woke up and did something I have never done before - I went to a job that required getting on an elevator. Thats right, I am working for corporate america. Specifically for a company called VitalKey - a great invention that keeps all your medical records on a thumb drive (there is my new job plug). How do I know that it keeps all your medical records? Because my job is to make sure that they all get there from version 1 to version 2.
I must say that I also got a sweet title - VitalKey Conversion Specialist. Granted it is a made up title from Burns (who by the way is upset with me for screwing up his pizza, as well as me claiming that he said "Hey Cowles" which is something that he would not say).
As I got in the car today in my white button up shirt and khaki pants Ryan says to me, "Great buisness casual." I let it soak in for a second before I told him that it was simply the nicest clothes I had. He got a good laugh out of that.
From them til about lunchtime is a blur. With the exception of 5 things -
As you enter the parking lot you can not turn right....or left.... signs block both ways.
On Wednesdays there is a hair on wheels hair cut trailer in the parking lot.
There is a porta potty in the corner of the parking lot.
There are 900 volleyball nets/courts in the back grass.
There is a fake, and completely dumb looking owl on the top of the building.
---
And then there was lunch. A freshly made pb +j by none other than myself, with what turned out to be a life changing chip for Burns - a pita chip.
At first he was very standoffish and skeptical to the chip, but once he heard me eating it - officially the loudest chip since the A bomb, he couldnt resist.
In fact, he ate the rest of the bag as a way of accepting the fact that I was to broke to give him much of anything else (not really sure if he knew that or not, o well, done deal now...)
Back to work for the next 3 hours, where I did what I do.
Got a free T shirt - VitalKey - The future of medical history.
Thats right, you can read that again if you want.
Oh and I found out there is such thing as an Airzooka - http://www.dansdata.com/airzooka.htm
All in all a great day- with a fantastic dinner and good conversation on the front porch.
d
I must say that I also got a sweet title - VitalKey Conversion Specialist. Granted it is a made up title from Burns (who by the way is upset with me for screwing up his pizza, as well as me claiming that he said "Hey Cowles" which is something that he would not say).
As I got in the car today in my white button up shirt and khaki pants Ryan says to me, "Great buisness casual." I let it soak in for a second before I told him that it was simply the nicest clothes I had. He got a good laugh out of that.
From them til about lunchtime is a blur. With the exception of 5 things -
As you enter the parking lot you can not turn right....or left.... signs block both ways.
On Wednesdays there is a hair on wheels hair cut trailer in the parking lot.
There is a porta potty in the corner of the parking lot.
There are 900 volleyball nets/courts in the back grass.
There is a fake, and completely dumb looking owl on the top of the building.
---
And then there was lunch. A freshly made pb +j by none other than myself, with what turned out to be a life changing chip for Burns - a pita chip.
At first he was very standoffish and skeptical to the chip, but once he heard me eating it - officially the loudest chip since the A bomb, he couldnt resist.
In fact, he ate the rest of the bag as a way of accepting the fact that I was to broke to give him much of anything else (not really sure if he knew that or not, o well, done deal now...)
Back to work for the next 3 hours, where I did what I do.
Got a free T shirt - VitalKey - The future of medical history.
Thats right, you can read that again if you want.
Oh and I found out there is such thing as an Airzooka - http://www.dansdata.com/airzooka.htm
All in all a great day- with a fantastic dinner and good conversation on the front porch.
d
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Job and Harry.
In that order here is how the day went -
So as it turns out, the one and only Ryan Burns has hooked me up with a job. His first sales pitch went like this - "Hey cowles, I might have a job for you. It isnt very stable, doesnt pay very much, is pretty boring, and it is really far away from campus." Of course I was immediatly drawn to the job - who wouldnt be?
But wait, a job - a 9 to 5 in four feet away from Ryan Burns, soon to be The Ryan Burns. (Also a pizza comming to Bottoms up - Mushrooms, Pepperonni, Sausage, Garlic on white sauce)
Needless to say after pulling some strings, I got hooked up with a job that is flexible - I get to work from home sometimes, pays a good amount, and is a huge blessing in my life.
Many stories to come from that. I promise.
------
Harry was sitting on his two packs with his back up against the Life Sciences building when I saw him today. His bright blue writing on the classic cardboard medium caught my eye, as well as my wallet. "Traveling broke and ugly," is pretty much going to grab me every day of the week. To be honest it was just a beautiful sight - here is a 20 year old kid with dirty brown hair, one straight jedi lock in the back, his arms blackened by a long and honest summer, sitting there in his Nike Air Force Ones, with his two faithful dogs. Ray and I began to talk to him about where he had been and where he was going. As he started to list off an impressive cornucopia (great word by the way, hard to spell, but it is a word that clearly should be describing a medical term and ended up meaning "abundance") of cities I started to think to myself, "Ok either he is cracked out, or a liar. There is no way that he did this in one summer." Then Ray asked the eye opening question - "Harry how long have you done this for?"
Three years.
Harry has been catching freight trains around the country for three years of his teen and adult life. Maybe that doesnt hit you the way it does me, but I have not been as taken back by anything like this since I met Mac over a year ago.
Oh, and Harry said he was headed out to Oregon next to "visit some friends." Hmmm, and how might he stay in conctact with his friends - by the way he guessed there were about 1000 people just like him currently, and "there are about 8 kids in richmond right now" -
well since most people dont read blogs standing up I wont ask you to sit down, but here goes - Myspace. MYSPACE hahahah that is the greatest thing I have heard in a long long time.
Me - "Ray it is really dangerous to talk to people like that..."
Ray - "Oh yea? Other than the obvious, what is so appealing to you about his life?"
Me - "The obvious."
----
Bed time now, because I need to get up and dress "buisness casual" tomorrow.
d
So as it turns out, the one and only Ryan Burns has hooked me up with a job. His first sales pitch went like this - "Hey cowles, I might have a job for you. It isnt very stable, doesnt pay very much, is pretty boring, and it is really far away from campus." Of course I was immediatly drawn to the job - who wouldnt be?
But wait, a job - a 9 to 5 in four feet away from Ryan Burns, soon to be The Ryan Burns. (Also a pizza comming to Bottoms up - Mushrooms, Pepperonni, Sausage, Garlic on white sauce)
Needless to say after pulling some strings, I got hooked up with a job that is flexible - I get to work from home sometimes, pays a good amount, and is a huge blessing in my life.
Many stories to come from that. I promise.
------
Harry was sitting on his two packs with his back up against the Life Sciences building when I saw him today. His bright blue writing on the classic cardboard medium caught my eye, as well as my wallet. "Traveling broke and ugly," is pretty much going to grab me every day of the week. To be honest it was just a beautiful sight - here is a 20 year old kid with dirty brown hair, one straight jedi lock in the back, his arms blackened by a long and honest summer, sitting there in his Nike Air Force Ones, with his two faithful dogs. Ray and I began to talk to him about where he had been and where he was going. As he started to list off an impressive cornucopia (great word by the way, hard to spell, but it is a word that clearly should be describing a medical term and ended up meaning "abundance") of cities I started to think to myself, "Ok either he is cracked out, or a liar. There is no way that he did this in one summer." Then Ray asked the eye opening question - "Harry how long have you done this for?"
Three years.
Harry has been catching freight trains around the country for three years of his teen and adult life. Maybe that doesnt hit you the way it does me, but I have not been as taken back by anything like this since I met Mac over a year ago.
Oh, and Harry said he was headed out to Oregon next to "visit some friends." Hmmm, and how might he stay in conctact with his friends - by the way he guessed there were about 1000 people just like him currently, and "there are about 8 kids in richmond right now" -
well since most people dont read blogs standing up I wont ask you to sit down, but here goes - Myspace. MYSPACE hahahah that is the greatest thing I have heard in a long long time.
Me - "Ray it is really dangerous to talk to people like that..."
Ray - "Oh yea? Other than the obvious, what is so appealing to you about his life?"
Me - "The obvious."
----
Bed time now, because I need to get up and dress "buisness casual" tomorrow.
d
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
this AND that
I have no idea what that title is about, but I decided that because a few of the people that find themselves unfortunate enough to have the time to read this really hate run on sentences that I think I could create one that went on for quite some time if that is in fact what the "general" and by that I really mean "specific" public demands.
Hows that.
Ok so inside (with a blog I am not really sure if there is something called inside) jokes aside. I have spent a few weeks recently in Ukraine, and rather than trying to catch everyone up on the broad outline of the trip, here is another blog that will do just that - www.ukrainehopecenter4.blogspot.com
In other news - I am currently abusing the fact that my place has wireless. I dont think that whoever invented this thought, "Wow, one day some slob will be laying in bed writing a blog," but even if he or she thought that, I hope they never thought, "Wow, one day some slob will be laying in bed writing a blog, meanwhile talking to his friend dave whose room is right above him." God bless wireless.
This post had some more things, but got deleted and destroyed because of a world wide web screw up....so ....meh....
Hows that.
Ok so inside (with a blog I am not really sure if there is something called inside) jokes aside. I have spent a few weeks recently in Ukraine, and rather than trying to catch everyone up on the broad outline of the trip, here is another blog that will do just that - www.ukrainehopecenter4.blogspot.com
In other news - I am currently abusing the fact that my place has wireless. I dont think that whoever invented this thought, "Wow, one day some slob will be laying in bed writing a blog," but even if he or she thought that, I hope they never thought, "Wow, one day some slob will be laying in bed writing a blog, meanwhile talking to his friend dave whose room is right above him." God bless wireless.
This post had some more things, but got deleted and destroyed because of a world wide web screw up....so ....meh....
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Ukraine
Yea the deal is I will be in Ukraine for the next 2.5 weeks.
There may or may not be a guest writer.
Take care.
God loves you.
Read that as many times as it takes to let it do something.
There may or may not be a guest writer.
Take care.
God loves you.
Read that as many times as it takes to let it do something.
My fight with my mother
So I woke up the other day and realized I had got in a fight with my mom while I was sleeping. One of those dreams that on one level is so real you wake up angry, and yet you still have some grip on, "hey idiot, you are asleep."
Global Warming. Thats what we fought about. Thats right, I had a debate and argument with my mother while I slept. I know what sparked it. Apparently some guy decided he was going to swim at the North Pole (see link) to bring light to the fact that the worlds "biodiversity" is changing. I can't decide what to think about this guy. Clever, but ....something....
Anyways, one specific thing I can remember saying to my mom is this -
"Christians spend thier lives trying to make the world a perfect place. It is stupid, and a waste of time."
I woke up and I am not really sure how I feel about that.
Global Warming. Thats what we fought about. Thats right, I had a debate and argument with my mother while I slept. I know what sparked it. Apparently some guy decided he was going to swim at the North Pole (see link) to bring light to the fact that the worlds "biodiversity" is changing. I can't decide what to think about this guy. Clever, but ....something....
Anyways, one specific thing I can remember saying to my mom is this -
"Christians spend thier lives trying to make the world a perfect place. It is stupid, and a waste of time."
I woke up and I am not really sure how I feel about that.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Some new shoes
So before today Dave Ryan was my best friend. But while we were in the middle of our last game of ping pong, as he overtook my wallet and saw that I was going to owe him 20 dollars again, he says to me,
"Drew you aren't my best friend anymore."
As I hit the shot into the net and lose another point I ask him what has changed,
"Its Andrew Jackson."
"As in the president?"
"Yup, because he is on the 20."
Yea I know, I should have seen it comming.
Anyways, Dave and I traded some clothes today, he hooked me up with some shoes he didnt want (which are much needed and appreciated, and I gave him a tshirt I have of Zidane headbutting some guy.
d
"Drew you aren't my best friend anymore."
As I hit the shot into the net and lose another point I ask him what has changed,
"Its Andrew Jackson."
"As in the president?"
"Yup, because he is on the 20."
Yea I know, I should have seen it comming.
Anyways, Dave and I traded some clothes today, he hooked me up with some shoes he didnt want (which are much needed and appreciated, and I gave him a tshirt I have of Zidane headbutting some guy.
d
Dumb Lyrics
Someone brought this to my attention a while ago, and I heard it at work the other day so I figured I would say something. Here are the lyrics to the number 1 song for three weeks in 1973 (thanks wikipedia) "You're So Vain," by Carly Simon.
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?
Ok so even though wikipedia tells me that she says it was about "many vain men I've known in my life," I still cant get around the fact that these are the dumbest lyrics of all time. The song IS about them. The song could just as easily say, "You're so dumb, or skinny, swell, great, one legged...you probably think this song is about you." It would still be about that person, or even that group of people. Yea....dumb....
Thats all, nothing great today.
Also, I like to imagine that this is added to the end of the Happy Birthday song. Just think about how terrible that would make everyone feel on thier birthday,
"Happy Biiiiirthday dear Dreeeeeew,
Happpppppy Biiiiirthday cuz,
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you..."
d
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?
Ok so even though wikipedia tells me that she says it was about "many vain men I've known in my life," I still cant get around the fact that these are the dumbest lyrics of all time. The song IS about them. The song could just as easily say, "You're so dumb, or skinny, swell, great, one legged...you probably think this song is about you." It would still be about that person, or even that group of people. Yea....dumb....
Thats all, nothing great today.
Also, I like to imagine that this is added to the end of the Happy Birthday song. Just think about how terrible that would make everyone feel on thier birthday,
"Happy Biiiiirthday dear Dreeeeeew,
Happpppppy Biiiiirthday cuz,
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you..."
d
Friday, July 20, 2007
The week and summer's end. And grace.
Today was my last day of work at Hall Constructon Inc. This is the end of the fourth and last summer I will be working there. For a while I actually thought I was going to do that with my life but then again there is a list of decisions like that which include - moving to Africa, staying and going to NOVA, joining the peace corp, going Arizona/West VA/Oklahoma for college, working full time for HCI, going to a musical engineering school, having Sight Unseen (my high school band) hit it big, and most recently moving to Seattle. All that (though most likely not ALL that) could still happen.
Turns out I have decided on Richmond. Twice.
I have always thought of years in terms of schooling. Hence the whole "New Years" party never really took hold of me. I tried throwing one once or twice, but you have to go to school in a few days...so is that really a new year? I give it a nay. Because of this way of thought, my year comes to a close at the end of the summer.
Here are some things I have learned this summer -
Construction is not something I want to do for the rest of my life.
Neither is plumbing.
Being in debt is no way to live. Though there is an obvious and huge blessing here - being in debt means you spent some type of money - money that you either did or did not have. In my case this money was on a year of schooling. For a certain number of green pieces of paper you can learn things like having two roomates forces you to being driven to living on a futon, bad food makes you sick, the gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe (first to the Jew and then to the Gentile), if you are a jerk to people the first week of school it literally takes an entire year to make it up, tattoos flourish in urban areas, carrying a red plastic cup around automatically makes you drunk, freshmen dorms love pulling fire alarms...multiple times in one night....before work, working as a "ticket cop" makes people give you the dirtiest of looks, God and Piccolas provide, a homecooked meal is a thing not easily forgotten or found again, clothes dont need to be washed as many times as one might think, the weekend starts on thursday, there is a range of homeless people in terms of thier reactions to you and your reactions to them, Tolkien wrote some great books, good friends take smoke breaks a lot, and freedom is something provided by grace and carried out by that same grace. (Grace would be a great name for a baby.)
Dry heat is ok.
Greyhound is always, always, always late. Unless of course you get there on time, and then it is early.
Stepping on nails with knock off Pumas hurts.
Dave Ryan is in fact the greatest driver of all time.
Some people change colors, others do not.
Staying in touch is not that easy.
Avoiding people isnt that easy either.
My mom spoils me.
----------------
This weeks lesson.
Thank God for parking lots.
I have come to find that things in life which we are quick to make one thing are often another. As a Christian I tend to over spiritualize things. Hence I get up in the morning - am sick to my stomach and figure "Oh the Lord must be telling me something." He is. "Drew, this is God. Eat. That is all."
Likewise I have a tendency to write one thing off because it ultimately "isnt that important" (doing the dishes, laundry, talking to my family) whereas I blow other things entirely out of reality. All this to say that work is stressful. I understand that people work lots of crazy hours, but I put in 92 hours in the last two weeks, and that isnt including driving time most days. There is a different type of tired that comes from being in the sun all day.
Ok so all that stands, yes it is me complaining, I know, but it is a needed backdrop.
My point in all of this is trying to understand tonight, and the lesson I learned. And NOT write it off to anything other than what it was.
When someone says to you, "Oh and here is something you will like," tilts there head back, laughs, smiles, and is taking you out to dinner to celebrate your last day of work. NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY (be it that they killed your dog, punched your mom, ate the leftovers, or something that sort of bothers you but only in a "This is NOT a big deal at all, but some explanation would be great" kind of way) DO NOT BE AN ASS AND SAY THIS, " Hmmm Im not really sure how I feel about that."
If you do, or have, join the club. Praise God for learning and grace and fights and grace, and ....grace...
And parking lots.
Where people can talk outside the fishbowl. Where people can step back and ask for forgiveness, and be given it in turn.
There is something about leaning up against the side of a care that makes work, heat, debt, visiting/living at home, leaving the country for 2 weeks, just get set down. You get to say, "watch this," and take your hands and open them as this invisible feeling that "something isnt right because YOU DREW COWLES ARE AN IDIOT," fall off the plate of things you carry and shatter in between those white lines that are far to small to park a Suburban in.
I am close to convinced that there is nothing worse than sweeping things underneath the rug. It is much better to take them, talk about them, and then drop them in a parking lot somewhere. Take the perfect idea of yourself, hold its hand, lure it with a piece of candy and say " Perfect Drew, lets go to the back yard." Then blow its brains out all over the place. Your neighbors will see you and hopefully do the same.
So yea, I am off to the living room to sleep because my Grandpa is in town and in my room.
Again, praise God for grace and parking lots.
d
Turns out I have decided on Richmond. Twice.
I have always thought of years in terms of schooling. Hence the whole "New Years" party never really took hold of me. I tried throwing one once or twice, but you have to go to school in a few days...so is that really a new year? I give it a nay. Because of this way of thought, my year comes to a close at the end of the summer.
Here are some things I have learned this summer -
Construction is not something I want to do for the rest of my life.
Neither is plumbing.
Being in debt is no way to live. Though there is an obvious and huge blessing here - being in debt means you spent some type of money - money that you either did or did not have. In my case this money was on a year of schooling. For a certain number of green pieces of paper you can learn things like having two roomates forces you to being driven to living on a futon, bad food makes you sick, the gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe (first to the Jew and then to the Gentile), if you are a jerk to people the first week of school it literally takes an entire year to make it up, tattoos flourish in urban areas, carrying a red plastic cup around automatically makes you drunk, freshmen dorms love pulling fire alarms...multiple times in one night....before work, working as a "ticket cop" makes people give you the dirtiest of looks, God and Piccolas provide, a homecooked meal is a thing not easily forgotten or found again, clothes dont need to be washed as many times as one might think, the weekend starts on thursday, there is a range of homeless people in terms of thier reactions to you and your reactions to them, Tolkien wrote some great books, good friends take smoke breaks a lot, and freedom is something provided by grace and carried out by that same grace. (Grace would be a great name for a baby.)
Dry heat is ok.
Greyhound is always, always, always late. Unless of course you get there on time, and then it is early.
Stepping on nails with knock off Pumas hurts.
Dave Ryan is in fact the greatest driver of all time.
Some people change colors, others do not.
Staying in touch is not that easy.
Avoiding people isnt that easy either.
My mom spoils me.
----------------
This weeks lesson.
Thank God for parking lots.
I have come to find that things in life which we are quick to make one thing are often another. As a Christian I tend to over spiritualize things. Hence I get up in the morning - am sick to my stomach and figure "Oh the Lord must be telling me something." He is. "Drew, this is God. Eat. That is all."
Likewise I have a tendency to write one thing off because it ultimately "isnt that important" (doing the dishes, laundry, talking to my family) whereas I blow other things entirely out of reality. All this to say that work is stressful. I understand that people work lots of crazy hours, but I put in 92 hours in the last two weeks, and that isnt including driving time most days. There is a different type of tired that comes from being in the sun all day.
Ok so all that stands, yes it is me complaining, I know, but it is a needed backdrop.
My point in all of this is trying to understand tonight, and the lesson I learned. And NOT write it off to anything other than what it was.
When someone says to you, "Oh and here is something you will like," tilts there head back, laughs, smiles, and is taking you out to dinner to celebrate your last day of work. NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY (be it that they killed your dog, punched your mom, ate the leftovers, or something that sort of bothers you but only in a "This is NOT a big deal at all, but some explanation would be great" kind of way) DO NOT BE AN ASS AND SAY THIS, " Hmmm Im not really sure how I feel about that."
If you do, or have, join the club. Praise God for learning and grace and fights and grace, and ....grace...
And parking lots.
Where people can talk outside the fishbowl. Where people can step back and ask for forgiveness, and be given it in turn.
There is something about leaning up against the side of a care that makes work, heat, debt, visiting/living at home, leaving the country for 2 weeks, just get set down. You get to say, "watch this," and take your hands and open them as this invisible feeling that "something isnt right because YOU DREW COWLES ARE AN IDIOT," fall off the plate of things you carry and shatter in between those white lines that are far to small to park a Suburban in.
I am close to convinced that there is nothing worse than sweeping things underneath the rug. It is much better to take them, talk about them, and then drop them in a parking lot somewhere. Take the perfect idea of yourself, hold its hand, lure it with a piece of candy and say " Perfect Drew, lets go to the back yard." Then blow its brains out all over the place. Your neighbors will see you and hopefully do the same.
So yea, I am off to the living room to sleep because my Grandpa is in town and in my room.
Again, praise God for grace and parking lots.
d
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Starting a blog/Odds
So as I assume most people that are stubborn and finally decide to start a blog -thereby opening thoughts/good and bad ideas/spelling and gramatical errors/etc to the cyber world, struggle with the same thing that I did today. Namely two decisions - what do I title my blog? and what do I write for the first post? After kicking around ideas such as, "I give it a meh," "Heart and Ass," "All or nothing," "Wonderbread, homework, and pornography," "Floating a balloon," "Drews News," I came to a few conclusions. 1. The majority of those names are lost on the fact that most people don't know the story of my Grandfather when he looked at me and said, "You are all heart....and ass..." Which falls into the bigger spectrum of inside jokes or stories. That also narrows out things that I say all the time, hence "meh" and "floating a balloon (giving someone an idea or proposition and letting them decide what happens), were lost. Of course most of what I say is blatently stolen, and then misspelled. 2. "Drews News" is a dumb idea. 3. "All or Nothing" sounds like I am starting a blog for people that are into sports way to much, even though it is the statement that defines most of the decisions I make on a daily basis. For the record, its not that wise of a way to make decisions. 4. Almost all of the ideas I could come up with were no good - either to cocky, stupid, trying to hard, stolen, or just plain uninteresting.
So, Sparrows and Rags is what you get. Why? It is what I was going to call a website a friend of mine was working on for me. There is more to that, but it doesn't really matter right now.
As for the second problem - What to write? Obviously I opted to write the cliche "What Do you call your Blog and what do you say?" entry. To be honest I thought about starting it in other ways, my favorite being something along the lines of, "My name is Drew Cowles, and if you are reading this my crew and I have been lost in space," but yea...no...
Most of what I was going to write was actually dictated by fear. What would people read? What would people think? So I thought about it and here is how I think it breaks down -
91% - "Yea...idiot..." - this includes my brother and sister if they read this, Dave Ryan, Dave Rowe, Ethan Brand, and Blake Gillespie, and all other relatives that can find it.
6% - "I just dont care" - well then I just dont care about you. So take that
Notice I just assumed that 91 percent of people care.
2% - Cant actually find this site. That would be my mother and father.
1% - Ryan Burns - Honestly who knows what Ryan will think? He inspired me to do it, and he and Ray took me to a lot of unhealthy but oh so tastey lunches, so I owe it to him.
In reading this I do realize how self consumed it is. It is a blog, and right now I just dont feel like writing about the homeless guy I saw that was digging through trashcans in the alley a few days ago.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Odds
Tonight I lost 20 dollars. And 5 yesturday. The quick rundown is that I lost to Dave in pingpong for 5 dollars, tried to win it back, and then bet him 10 on the next game which of course I miserably laid down and died on. Then Dave decided to let me win back the 20 bucks or lose 5 more in a game of 1 on 1 basketball. I should have just paid him the 20, and saved the 5 dollars of pride. He spotted me 7 points in a game to 11. I lost 10-12. As if that wasnt bad enough- being that I am broke- it was infront of my brother ( an allstar district winner) and Kruse (a natural born athelete).
None of this really has to do with odds, but then again it kind of does. Taking a step back in the story we would find Dave playing Kruse in pingpong, and me drinking a bottle of water. I then decided I could bet Dave that I could throw the bottle of water in the trashcan and Kruse said something that peaked my interest.
"Drew the odds are in your favor, if you make it you owe him nothing, if you miss it you only owe him 5 more dollars."
Well this was bad logic, seeing as that was not what Dave was going to agree to, and that it made no sense. How could the odds be with me on that? And here came a flash of idiotic brilliance that shaped my future.
All things in life are 50/50 odds.
Will Drew make the water bottle in the basket - Well wind factor (in a garage?), how much water is in the bottle, size of bottle, Drew's skill level at throwing plastic material, Dave is in the way and will most likely hit it, the need to bounce it off of the pingpoing tabe, etc. None of that matters.
Either I will or I wont make the shot. This is where Kierkagaard would say "And you will regret both"
Other examples that have effected plenty of people that I know - getting hit by lightening - 50/50, getting to have cereal for breakfast - 50/50, believing and or being able to mathematically prove all of this wrong - 50/50, laughing at this or realizing that I am right - 50/50, leprosy - 50/50.
All of these things will or will not happen. Does that fall under "odds" who knows, but it surely is.....dont say it ....odd....
d
So, Sparrows and Rags is what you get. Why? It is what I was going to call a website a friend of mine was working on for me. There is more to that, but it doesn't really matter right now.
As for the second problem - What to write? Obviously I opted to write the cliche "What Do you call your Blog and what do you say?" entry. To be honest I thought about starting it in other ways, my favorite being something along the lines of, "My name is Drew Cowles, and if you are reading this my crew and I have been lost in space," but yea...no...
Most of what I was going to write was actually dictated by fear. What would people read? What would people think? So I thought about it and here is how I think it breaks down -
91% - "Yea...idiot..." - this includes my brother and sister if they read this, Dave Ryan, Dave Rowe, Ethan Brand, and Blake Gillespie, and all other relatives that can find it.
6% - "I just dont care" - well then I just dont care about you. So take that
Notice I just assumed that 91 percent of people care.
2% - Cant actually find this site. That would be my mother and father.
1% - Ryan Burns - Honestly who knows what Ryan will think? He inspired me to do it, and he and Ray took me to a lot of unhealthy but oh so tastey lunches, so I owe it to him.
In reading this I do realize how self consumed it is. It is a blog, and right now I just dont feel like writing about the homeless guy I saw that was digging through trashcans in the alley a few days ago.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Odds
Tonight I lost 20 dollars. And 5 yesturday. The quick rundown is that I lost to Dave in pingpong for 5 dollars, tried to win it back, and then bet him 10 on the next game which of course I miserably laid down and died on. Then Dave decided to let me win back the 20 bucks or lose 5 more in a game of 1 on 1 basketball. I should have just paid him the 20, and saved the 5 dollars of pride. He spotted me 7 points in a game to 11. I lost 10-12. As if that wasnt bad enough- being that I am broke- it was infront of my brother ( an allstar district winner) and Kruse (a natural born athelete).
None of this really has to do with odds, but then again it kind of does. Taking a step back in the story we would find Dave playing Kruse in pingpong, and me drinking a bottle of water. I then decided I could bet Dave that I could throw the bottle of water in the trashcan and Kruse said something that peaked my interest.
"Drew the odds are in your favor, if you make it you owe him nothing, if you miss it you only owe him 5 more dollars."
Well this was bad logic, seeing as that was not what Dave was going to agree to, and that it made no sense. How could the odds be with me on that? And here came a flash of idiotic brilliance that shaped my future.
All things in life are 50/50 odds.
Will Drew make the water bottle in the basket - Well wind factor (in a garage?), how much water is in the bottle, size of bottle, Drew's skill level at throwing plastic material, Dave is in the way and will most likely hit it, the need to bounce it off of the pingpoing tabe, etc. None of that matters.
Either I will or I wont make the shot. This is where Kierkagaard would say "And you will regret both"
Other examples that have effected plenty of people that I know - getting hit by lightening - 50/50, getting to have cereal for breakfast - 50/50, believing and or being able to mathematically prove all of this wrong - 50/50, laughing at this or realizing that I am right - 50/50, leprosy - 50/50.
All of these things will or will not happen. Does that fall under "odds" who knows, but it surely is.....dont say it ....odd....
d
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