Across The Universe- Day 1

Things I Have Learned:
Arizona has lots of dinosaurs all over the place.
Indians are welcomed in Arizona.
They really want you to buy their jewelry or jerkey.
I need new windshield wipers
It is possible for there to be only one cloud in the sky and it follow you and continue to rain.
The oldest lady to graduate from college is 95 years old
Texas is smelly-like Dotty the diesel.
Fog is awesome
Humidity is not
Chelsea is not good to sleep with-- she is a cuddler=no go0d for me haha
It is possible for me to drive about 14 hours all myself.
Muisic really is amazing and I would die without it.
Cruise control would make life easy..of course I do not have it.

What have you learned today?

Soccer Ballin'

The first two pictures are of a recent game, and the last one is from soccer season my senior year. I love the first two because I was playing one of my best friends Jay. In the last picture--I think that was when I got hurt. haha. I tried to slide tackle the girl in red but she was a beast and didnt move out of the way quite like I had planned. Soccer is the best and I am going to miss it a lot.

Name That Movie

1. "You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events."

2. "Here's looking at you, kid,"

3. Yo rug-man! Haven't seen you in a few millennia. Give me some tassel!

4. "You ain't cool unless you pee in your pants!"

5. "And you must be the monopoly guy!"

6. "I'm Scuba Sam, Scuba steve's father."

7. just when i thought you couldn't be any dumber, you go on and do something like this.... AND TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!!

8. "If she were President, she'd be Babe-raham Lincoln.

9. "Exercise makes endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't kill their husbands. They just don't."

10. O Captain, my Captain. Who knows where that comes from? Anybody? Not a clue? It's from a poem by Walt Whitman about Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Now in this class you can either call me Mr. Keating, or if you're slightly more daring, O Captain my Captain

*answers are in the comments section of my first blog post

Internship Finale

4 days left of my internship at the church. We took some pictures during the final set up for the pulse(a weekly video). I finally figured out how to do it all by myself! Ususally Josiah is the one that is working while I am messing around, but this week I was all business. Some of you have been wondering what I am up to these days..well here it is proof that I actually do work!

Social Justice

When I hear social justice my attention is immediately drawn to national problems that can only be fixed by a civil government with enough power to enforce its policies. I guess it is just a natural thing to blame problems on other people and think that the problems are too big to do anything about them myself. I find it discouraging to see so much need in the world--as well as pressured to handle it myself. Feeling incapable to fix the big problems, and being unable to decide what to do about the small ones... I am left in the same place that I started in. Only this time, I recognize that doing nothing is not acceptable.

So-making an action plan- is extremely hard, I find. Being an optimist with a realist's perspective makes this whole thing difficult for me personally. Well that is where I am at right now on this whole thing but I will keep digging to see what I feel led to do about this topic.

"And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

--Franciscan Benediction

la la la

"When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me."
-Hosea 13:6

I was reading and stumbled upon this interesting verse.

Word of The Week

SCUZZY
definition:

1. dirty; grimy

2. disreputable; sleazy
uses:
"you scuzzy!"
"Skip cleaned his scuzzy glasses in a ruthless manner."
"i'm not sleeping on that scuzzy couch!"

learn it. live it. love it.

Never Satisfied

If you got everything you asked for in life, do you think you’d be happy? I doubt it. Why does so much of our lives depend on provisional things?

Be Last

Be Last.
i've had to put up with it, and i've forced others to put up with it. i've given, i've taken, i've laughed, i've cried, i've let go, i've been let go. life's a game, and it isn't until you learn to play it right that you can take first place. unfortunately, there will always be someone who plays it better than you do. someone will always have the upper hand, know a better route, cheat when you're not looking, steal when you turn your head, knock you back to start just when you thought you were winning. accept it. it's going to happen, and maybe at one point, you'll be the one winning, the one playing better. eventually, you will have the upper hand. once you realize there's more to life than winning first place, that's when you really take the lead.
~AB~

Where is my burning bush?

Are miracles real? Do they still happen?
For a while now I have been praying that I could encounter a miracle like the ones in the Bible. You know, burning bush that would talk to me and give me direction. When I was reading my favorite book, Shane Claiborne brought up an interesting point - we no longer leave the door open for miracles to happen. Then I thought about it and when we are sick, we see a doctor. When we need food, we go to the store. If we had enough faith to depend on God like the lilies and sparrows do, we would see miracles. Or maybe is it that miracles are happening all the time, I am just too busy to notice them? Then I begin to get frustrated because I hear stories of people today having visions or seeing miracles. I wonder why cant those things happen to me? Faith should not happen because of a miraculous sign, so maybe I just need to have basic faith for now. Maybe I will never get my burning bush or get to see a blind man healed...I should be content with that for now.

mi mejor amigo en el mundo entero

I love my best friend Kori. We decided to take some rad pictures while we were getting ready for a birthday party and a concert--this could be the reason we were late to the birthday party haha. I think that she needs to come to Lincoln with me next year. :) She will miss me and come to her senses and follow me to Illinois..I'm sure of it.

American Idol Concert

For my birthday I got tickets to the American Idol tour. Without question I took my best friend Kori. Our seats were pretty good too because the idols would walk to the side of the stage where we were sitting. At the end David Cook threw his guitar pick and it landed right by me but then a crazy pack of girls all dove for it...it was that moment that I realized it was silly and I didnt want it anyways. The second to last picture is of my love Michael Johns. Believe it or not, he is even better looking in person. I talked with Brooke White for a minute too. She was very nice and had a lot of hair.

TOMS

Since its beginning in May 2006, TOMS has given over 10,000 pairs of shoes to children in Argentina and 50,000 pairs in South Africa through the purchases of our caring customers. In 2008 TOMS plans to give 200,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world. Our ongoing community events and Shoe Drops allow TOMS supporters and enthusiasts to be a part of this One for One movement.
Get Involved: Changing a life begins with a single step...
For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need.

One for One

My Big Brother

The bottom pictures are from our frequent bowling nights. I always try so hard to make Alan as bad as I am haha. Unfortunately even when I am standing in front of the lane, he still manages to do better than me. The top ones are just some random ones we took last night when Alan came over. It was the also day that I taught him how to make a poutie face--it took a few hilarious tries for him to catch on. Right now Alan is living at my grandmas house and I miss him being at home. I have no one to mess around with and am SO bored. I cant even imagine what it is going to be like when I go to college and don't see him for months at a time --I think the longest we have been apart is a week. I am not looking forward to that!

fun with my mac

Here are some pictures of my family that I took on my mac. They are HILARIOUS! I love how this thing can make people look so ugly. It's great. The last one of my grandma, me, my dad, and Alan is my all time favorite. Love it.

If Sharing Is Caring, Then I Don't Care

Sharing a cubicle sucks. I love my job and the experience, not the close confines of that little cube I sit in with sometimes two other people. This is a comical photo we took for a newsletter--it makes sharing look like fun. I guess I never learned the whole sharing thing. Thanks mom and dad. :)

Graduation

Graduation Day. The words that I have been longing to hear ever since freshman year. Well it finally came... and went. The family photo shoot before, after, and during the ceremony was hilarious. Somehow smiling for picture after picture gets tiring. I promised myself that no one would take a picture of me with my cap on. That thing, I kid you not, is the most haneous thing I have ever seen. Somehow I could not rock that little cardboard square. My family and friends were all there, even the ones from Oregon. While sitting at my 4 hour ceremony I decided that I am going to be conveniently sick when Kyle has his next year. My school does graduations like no other; They bring each kid on stage and the dean says a speech that the student has previously prepared. Obviously I decided that mine could not be like everyone else's, so I spiced it up a little bit. My extremely silly speech was received well by the crowd as well as my dean ( I was a little worried about my dean). I didn't trip, nothing really embarrassing happened, I remembered how to shake hands and grab my diploma at the same time, I didn't get scolded for my abnormal speech, I lucked out and got to sit next to the very comical duo Austin and Justin Black, and my parents made it through without crying too hard. I would say it was a success.

reading rainbow

When I was little my teachers used to make me watch Reading Rainbow. Back then I thought that reading was the enemy. Lately it is moved from the enemy to a friend. Here is a book that I have read a few times and found to be simply marvelous. The Irresistible Revolution has challenged me to think outside the box on many topics. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a summer read.

LCCS--Where's That?

This is the question that I have got more than I can handle. Or wait, how about the old...that is so far away, and random. What made you decide to go there? I will briefly answer those questions. Lincoln Christian College is where I am going to school in the fall. It is in Lincoln, Illinois. No, I have not been there to visit. That does not sound like me and it is a huge leap of faith, I know. My good friend Jeff Henson tells me daily that he should have a camera crew follow me to school and it will be like the Simple Life with Paris Hilton. I hear they don't have mountains, that will be strange fa sho. I decided to go there because while I was in Mexico some random guy that goes to LCCS told me to. Just kidding. All I can say is that it is where I am supposed to go. Sorry I cant give you a better story there. Its far, yes, but I think it will be good for me to experience something other than the lights of Vegas. I can't wait to bring some party to the little Podunk town of Lincoln.

Catalina Trip

I went with my science class to Catalina Island for a week. Nerd camp was surprisingly fun and I went with my best friend Jay. The theme for the week was Breaking Fears. I learned so much that a book could not teach me--for example: Nurdles Kill Turtles. When we were about to get on the ship to the island, we ran into Horatio from CSI. He was filming in San Padro...strange because it is not called CSI San Pedro. This trip was so much fun and a great time to get to know some people that I see in the halls but don't really talk to. One night we went on this trust walk and it was so funny. I had to be in between two people that I would not trust AT ALL to lead me blind folded through the forest. Luckily I made it out alive. We had a few close calls though. Snorkeling, nature walks, morning mountain top chapels, skit night, pushing my friend Garrett off a boat instead of collecting data, stepping on a snake, turtle hurdles, bon fires, whale watching, boat ride to the island, peeing in the wet suits (that is what they told us to do to keep warm --don't judge me), being on the party bus that danced and sang 90's songs the entire way home, kitchen duty, and In N Out. I loved this nerd trip with friends and good times.