It's been a crazy week, and it's looking to be another one coming up. Of course, with Thanksgiving, we had family in town, and we all went to my grandparents house for a Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt and uncle and 3 cousins from Nashville. Speaking of the 3 cousins, they are all just about taller than me. The first is 6-3, the second is 5-10 or so, and the third is about 5-3 (and he's just 10 years old). I don't know what they're feeding them up there, but they're giants. My aunt and uncle on my mom's side from Missouri also came in for the weekend, so we got to spend some good time with them, and played lots of cards with my uncle as that is something we always do. Dustin was in for the weekend as well, so there was some good volleyball action going on as well. It was an excellent (tiring) weekend.
I don't know if it was out of stupidity or being tired or what, but I thought it would be fun to get up ridiculously early on Friday and go and see what specials we could pick up. There were a number of good deals that I saw in all the ads that I thought would be steals, so I suggested it to mom, and after talking for a bit, she got excited about the idea, so off we went at 4:30 in the morning to Knoxville to the shopping area that every guy would probably like to live in the middle of. You've got Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Lowe's, Circuit City, and 4 or 5 restaurants all in about a 300 yard circle. We just went and parked and then went to wherever we wanted to go. We waited outside Best Buy for about 45 minutes, which wasn't anywhere near as long as I thought that it would be, and managed to get some steals on electronic stuff and DVD's and such. Circuit City proved to be the longest wait of all, mostly because the store is small and so they couldn't have a lot of people in there at a time. I think I've gotten my share of this early morning shopping for a while...but who knows. Maybe next year it'll be the same. I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I'm camping out on Thursday afternoon to get in though...
This weekend will be my first trip back to Harding since Mandi graduated. We've decided that we'll be heading back to Armageddon II, mostly just to see friends and such, although I'm sure we'll end up playing some as well. I think I'm staying at Whitey's place with Stone and about 7 or 8 other guys that are going to be there for the weekend. It's going to be crazy. We're also going to a Keith Urban concert tomorrow night here in Knoxville, which should be good times. And a couple weeks from now I'll hopefully be in Charleston, SC if it works out with a place to stay and such. I'll need to get with Josh on that one...
The job hunt is going...slowly. I've had a little response from a recruiting company called Aerotek who has a few places that they are looking to place people that thought I would be a good fit for. They're currently compiling info on me to send to these companies and then reviewing it with them, and hopefully I'll be able to get an interview with one of them and maybe get myself a job here in a month or so. In the meantime, I've been looking for some type of temporary or part-time stuff, but nobody really is looking for any as far as I've found yet. Who knows. Hopefully something will come up soon in some fashion or other. I'd take rejection letters now just to know that it's actually being looked at. But oh well...I think this is probably the hardest part, just getting that first job. Once you've got some experience it surely can't be this hard. Oh well...it's back to the hunt for now.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Before Tomorrow Comes
The holiday season is here. In what is probably many people's favorite time of the year, we have almost a month where there are family get-togethers, an abundance of food, gift-giving and receiving, and just a general time of joy. It's funny, looking back at these times over the years that have passed, and just seeing how much has happened. At the same time, there's a lot that hasn't changed either. I just looked back over some of the things that I wrote about this time last year. Speaking of changes and everything...this time last year, I was finishing up some big projects for school, I was grading lab finals, I was playing in a frisbee tournament in Knoxville where Jake got his face busted, and Mandi was still at Harding. I am definitely looking forward to the end of this year though, and all of the things that will be happening over the next month.
Luke's last post on gratitude is an exceptional little piece on what we as Christians feel towards Christ for what he has done. I suggest you head over there and give it a read when you get the chance. Being as it is the Thanksgiving season, it is especially appropriate...which I figure is the reason that he wrote it. And there are many things to be thankful, and grateful, for, such as family, friends, and the many multitudes of blessings that we enjoy every day.
Along the lines of what Luke was saying, these blessings, and our own feelings about them, should compel us to make a difference. Something about Mandi that I've always admired is her desire to do something that will change the world. And I don't say that in a flippant manner, as it is something that she truly wants to do. And the more we've talked about what she wants, and the types of things that she's wanting to get involved in when she's finished up school and everything, I've seen just how much this means to her. I think that she sees how blessed she is, and she wants to go out and make a difference for people in any way that she can, wherever she can. She will do great things in the future.
I'm sorry to say that the attitude she exhibits is one that does not come easily to me, but I can't help but to be excited about it and want to help as well whenever she does talk about it. I have no idea what I will do that will have a huge impact, or whether anything I ever do will have what could be described as a huge impact, but the important thing is to get out there and do something. I have to thank Mandi for making me realize this. Given our incredible blessings, we should feel moved to go and make a difference for others who are not as fortunate as ourselves. Does that mean we need to move around the world in order to do this? Not necessarily. Does it mean you need to get out of your comfort zone? More than likely. All I know is that I need to take steps to make a difference. Before tomorrow comes, you could change everything. There's only one way to find out though.
Luke's last post on gratitude is an exceptional little piece on what we as Christians feel towards Christ for what he has done. I suggest you head over there and give it a read when you get the chance. Being as it is the Thanksgiving season, it is especially appropriate...which I figure is the reason that he wrote it. And there are many things to be thankful, and grateful, for, such as family, friends, and the many multitudes of blessings that we enjoy every day.
Along the lines of what Luke was saying, these blessings, and our own feelings about them, should compel us to make a difference. Something about Mandi that I've always admired is her desire to do something that will change the world. And I don't say that in a flippant manner, as it is something that she truly wants to do. And the more we've talked about what she wants, and the types of things that she's wanting to get involved in when she's finished up school and everything, I've seen just how much this means to her. I think that she sees how blessed she is, and she wants to go out and make a difference for people in any way that she can, wherever she can. She will do great things in the future.
I'm sorry to say that the attitude she exhibits is one that does not come easily to me, but I can't help but to be excited about it and want to help as well whenever she does talk about it. I have no idea what I will do that will have a huge impact, or whether anything I ever do will have what could be described as a huge impact, but the important thing is to get out there and do something. I have to thank Mandi for making me realize this. Given our incredible blessings, we should feel moved to go and make a difference for others who are not as fortunate as ourselves. Does that mean we need to move around the world in order to do this? Not necessarily. Does it mean you need to get out of your comfort zone? More than likely. All I know is that I need to take steps to make a difference. Before tomorrow comes, you could change everything. There's only one way to find out though.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Sun
I just wanted to mention, there's the question on the side panel now. If you feel like it, you're more than welcome to pick an answer. After a week I'll change it out and put up the answer to the previous week's question. We used to have the random mind-teaser thing a while ago, and I thought it might be fun to have it up again. I put one up last week...but it wasn't really that great of a question. This week's is quite a bit better I believe. It even appeals to Paul's history side. And who doesn't like something that involves Hannibal anyway? Just to clarify, we're not talking about Anthony Hopkins' character...in case that needed to be pointed out...
From a purely astronomical point of view, the sun is fairly average. It's of average size, it puts out an average amount of heat, it will live an average lifetime for a star. Taken in context with all the other stars in the universe, there really is nothing special about it. If you look at what it does for this particular area of the cosmos, however, you realize that it holds a very significant role. Were it not for the star that we call the Sun, there would not be life on this planet. There would just be no way that we could have survived. Granted, there are a number of other factors, but it just doesn't fit with what I'm trying to say to go in to all of those. I admit, I'm a fan of the sun. I love sunny days, especially in the fall and spring when it's bright and sunny, and yet not so hot that you start to sweat from walking out the door. I love days when you go to the beach, or to a park, or hiking in the mountains with a beautiful blue sky and the sun shining down. Sunsets can be some of the most beautiful natural events that happens so often that we easily come to forget about how pretty they really are. And even with how simple it seems from down here (we just get up in the morning, and up comes the sun for another day), there really is quite a bit going on to make it all work so that it actually emits energy that we get. There's so much that is still not understood about it. But it's still appreciated, and many times simply forgotten about as we expect it to work.
I have an album called Tension by a group known as Dizmas. Quite a strange name, and according to the band, "Dizmas is Greek; a lot of historians and theologians of the Bible believe that Dizmas was the name of the good thief on the cross next to Jesus. It's not biblical truth, so for us as a band, we don't necessarily claim it as absolute truth. The reason we decided to name ourselves Dizmas is more so that whenever somebody did ask us that same exact question (where did your name come from?), the first thing that we have to refer to is the day on the cross when Jesus Christ, in this guy's last breath, gave him a chance and gave him hope, and basically said "today you will be with Me in paradise." Just the hope for the thief that he had in those last minutes. That's kind of what we're trying to do is express hope to people found in Christ, and that's why we are named Dizmas."
The final song on that album (which is in the player coincidentally) is called 'Sun'. Now, if you listened to the song, and knew that the title was called 'Sun' but not the spelling, I think you would do as I did, and think that it was called 'Son'. Take a listen (it's about 2 minutes), and pay attention to the lyrics. I think that it's really easy to take God, who has made us and given us all these blessings, and to just get up in the morning and assume that he'll just keep on doing his 'job' while we go through our day. There is the easy trap to fall in to to just take the distant approach to God, and then say that there's nothing really all that special about it: 'Everyone has something that they believe in, so if yours is God, then that's great, for you'. And I think that's the approach that many now take today. But if you look closer, and move in for a more intimate view, you see that God is indeed special. He sent his Son to bring light to the world. His Son gives everlasting life. And His Son came willingly for us. We should be striving every day to serve Him because he deserves that from us. And because we should feel the need to serve Him, to show him some semblance of the love that he's shown us. How lucky we are, to have a Son do that for us, to show us that love in an incredibly personal way. Do I make you proud?
From a purely astronomical point of view, the sun is fairly average. It's of average size, it puts out an average amount of heat, it will live an average lifetime for a star. Taken in context with all the other stars in the universe, there really is nothing special about it. If you look at what it does for this particular area of the cosmos, however, you realize that it holds a very significant role. Were it not for the star that we call the Sun, there would not be life on this planet. There would just be no way that we could have survived. Granted, there are a number of other factors, but it just doesn't fit with what I'm trying to say to go in to all of those. I admit, I'm a fan of the sun. I love sunny days, especially in the fall and spring when it's bright and sunny, and yet not so hot that you start to sweat from walking out the door. I love days when you go to the beach, or to a park, or hiking in the mountains with a beautiful blue sky and the sun shining down. Sunsets can be some of the most beautiful natural events that happens so often that we easily come to forget about how pretty they really are. And even with how simple it seems from down here (we just get up in the morning, and up comes the sun for another day), there really is quite a bit going on to make it all work so that it actually emits energy that we get. There's so much that is still not understood about it. But it's still appreciated, and many times simply forgotten about as we expect it to work.
I have an album called Tension by a group known as Dizmas. Quite a strange name, and according to the band, "Dizmas is Greek; a lot of historians and theologians of the Bible believe that Dizmas was the name of the good thief on the cross next to Jesus. It's not biblical truth, so for us as a band, we don't necessarily claim it as absolute truth. The reason we decided to name ourselves Dizmas is more so that whenever somebody did ask us that same exact question (where did your name come from?), the first thing that we have to refer to is the day on the cross when Jesus Christ, in this guy's last breath, gave him a chance and gave him hope, and basically said "today you will be with Me in paradise." Just the hope for the thief that he had in those last minutes. That's kind of what we're trying to do is express hope to people found in Christ, and that's why we are named Dizmas."
The final song on that album (which is in the player coincidentally) is called 'Sun'. Now, if you listened to the song, and knew that the title was called 'Sun' but not the spelling, I think you would do as I did, and think that it was called 'Son'. Take a listen (it's about 2 minutes), and pay attention to the lyrics. I think that it's really easy to take God, who has made us and given us all these blessings, and to just get up in the morning and assume that he'll just keep on doing his 'job' while we go through our day. There is the easy trap to fall in to to just take the distant approach to God, and then say that there's nothing really all that special about it: 'Everyone has something that they believe in, so if yours is God, then that's great, for you'. And I think that's the approach that many now take today. But if you look closer, and move in for a more intimate view, you see that God is indeed special. He sent his Son to bring light to the world. His Son gives everlasting life. And His Son came willingly for us. We should be striving every day to serve Him because he deserves that from us. And because we should feel the need to serve Him, to show him some semblance of the love that he's shown us. How lucky we are, to have a Son do that for us, to show us that love in an incredibly personal way. Do I make you proud?
Thursday, November 08, 2007
I'll Put Him In The Wall
Geico has always had fairly funny commercials, and this is probably one of their better ones, in my opinion. The first time I saw this I laughed quite a bit.
Monday, November 05, 2007
A Few Nights of Culture
This past weekend was quite busy. On Friday, I got to spend most of the day with Mandi for the first time in a while since she didn't have to go to Nashville for classes. It was a welcome break for her, as she's done for the semester. Just has a paper to write in the next couple of weeks. To celebrate, we went to Taste of Thai...possibly the best restaurant ever. At least when you're looking for Asian food. Josh, next time you're around here, we'll go to Magic Wok and then we'll go to Taste of Thai. You just can't be disappointed.
Saturday was filled with more work on the new additions in the house. Dad worked on getting wall studs put in so that we can put up electrical boxes for the room, which will allow electricity for the lighting and hot tub to get put in. I put on the second coat of paint in the room while he was drilling holes in the concrete floor. Maybe tonight we'll finish up some of the wall things in order to get the switches and such put in. It's coming along though. That evening, Mandi's dad had got tickets to a surprise something or other. I didn't know I was going, but at about 3:45 Mandi calls and says that there was a misunderstanding and I was supposed to be going with them. So I get going and show up to their place, and we leave about 5:40 with these mystery tickets. It turned out that the Knoxville Opera was doing a performance at a church in town, and since Mark's company was promoting it, he had gotten tickets for everything. So we were there from about 5:45 to 8:30 that night. Not the best example of opera as it was just piano and singing, but it was alright. Certainly nothing compared to Carmen that Mandi and I saw earlier in the year.
Sunday was a good day as well. Church in the morning, where we're doing an interesting study through the book of Acts. Yesterday's discussion centered on the story of Annanias and Sapphira. You remember the story, where they sell some land and bring the money, but falsely claim that they are bringing the whole amount that they received. They are both struck down and die immediately after they lie. The question that was discussed was mainly, why such a harsh punishment for this act? And how much blame could really be given to Sapphira who either had the choice of hanging her husband out to dry, or lying to Peter? Was she completely at fault herself? Or was it because she was married to Annanias and therefore was sort of brought along due to his sinfulness and harshly punished? It was interesting to think about.
Lunch was a spectacular Indian curry that Cathie made. I had not been a huge fan of my previous experience in Indian cuisine, so it was a pleasant surprise at how good this was. Actually, I think she said she got the curry from people from Qatar. So Qatar curry I guess is more appropriate for a description. The evening was finished off with a chocolate fest as one of the ladies in our small group was celebrating a birthday, so we brought all sorts of different chocolate desserts to the party. There was chocolate cheesecake prepared by a chef in our group, we made chocolate-peanut butter pie, there were cookies, chocolate fondue, ice cream cake...I'm pretty sure we were all on a sugar high. That might help explain some of why I'm not feeling all that well this morning...but it was worth it last night.
Something pretty cool that my mom does is the Foothills Craft Guild. Essentially it's a bunch of artists from around the area that are in this guild to show their crafts and artistic abilities. They are having a show this weekend where they are all displaying and selling their creations and such. It's really pretty neat. Mom will be displaying her Temari balls and her baskets that she makes, so she's pretty much frantically working on getting some things together since she's only been home for the past week or so. I've never actually gone to the show before, but Mandi and I plan on going this weekend at some point to look around. Should be pretty cool to see some of the things that people are making in the area. With all this culturizing (is that a word? I don't think so...) I don't quite know what I'll do with myself. I'll have to hold off for a while after this thought I'm thinking. Even so, in honor of culture (somewhat), the music in the player is from the Transformers movie score.
Saturday was filled with more work on the new additions in the house. Dad worked on getting wall studs put in so that we can put up electrical boxes for the room, which will allow electricity for the lighting and hot tub to get put in. I put on the second coat of paint in the room while he was drilling holes in the concrete floor. Maybe tonight we'll finish up some of the wall things in order to get the switches and such put in. It's coming along though. That evening, Mandi's dad had got tickets to a surprise something or other. I didn't know I was going, but at about 3:45 Mandi calls and says that there was a misunderstanding and I was supposed to be going with them. So I get going and show up to their place, and we leave about 5:40 with these mystery tickets. It turned out that the Knoxville Opera was doing a performance at a church in town, and since Mark's company was promoting it, he had gotten tickets for everything. So we were there from about 5:45 to 8:30 that night. Not the best example of opera as it was just piano and singing, but it was alright. Certainly nothing compared to Carmen that Mandi and I saw earlier in the year.
Sunday was a good day as well. Church in the morning, where we're doing an interesting study through the book of Acts. Yesterday's discussion centered on the story of Annanias and Sapphira. You remember the story, where they sell some land and bring the money, but falsely claim that they are bringing the whole amount that they received. They are both struck down and die immediately after they lie. The question that was discussed was mainly, why such a harsh punishment for this act? And how much blame could really be given to Sapphira who either had the choice of hanging her husband out to dry, or lying to Peter? Was she completely at fault herself? Or was it because she was married to Annanias and therefore was sort of brought along due to his sinfulness and harshly punished? It was interesting to think about.
Lunch was a spectacular Indian curry that Cathie made. I had not been a huge fan of my previous experience in Indian cuisine, so it was a pleasant surprise at how good this was. Actually, I think she said she got the curry from people from Qatar. So Qatar curry I guess is more appropriate for a description. The evening was finished off with a chocolate fest as one of the ladies in our small group was celebrating a birthday, so we brought all sorts of different chocolate desserts to the party. There was chocolate cheesecake prepared by a chef in our group, we made chocolate-peanut butter pie, there were cookies, chocolate fondue, ice cream cake...I'm pretty sure we were all on a sugar high. That might help explain some of why I'm not feeling all that well this morning...but it was worth it last night.
Something pretty cool that my mom does is the Foothills Craft Guild. Essentially it's a bunch of artists from around the area that are in this guild to show their crafts and artistic abilities. They are having a show this weekend where they are all displaying and selling their creations and such. It's really pretty neat. Mom will be displaying her Temari balls and her baskets that she makes, so she's pretty much frantically working on getting some things together since she's only been home for the past week or so. I've never actually gone to the show before, but Mandi and I plan on going this weekend at some point to look around. Should be pretty cool to see some of the things that people are making in the area. With all this culturizing (is that a word? I don't think so...) I don't quite know what I'll do with myself. I'll have to hold off for a while after this thought I'm thinking. Even so, in honor of culture (somewhat), the music in the player is from the Transformers movie score.
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