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.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
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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