Thinking Differently

Head on over to my photo web site (link on right hand side of page) to see some pics of the Thanksgiving day landscape here in Schroon Lake, New York.

Well, i got a package in the mail today
a spiffy little box
cardboard and clear tape
came from Madison
(my brother did send)
containing goodies within
some chocochip cookies (unexpected)
money for college
and a neuros
“Now what…” you very well may say
“Is a Neuros?”
something to help with that mental problem?
(as if something could help there)
a link to firewire my brain to my Apple
(a bit hasty, i do think, to defrag my memory of kindergarten)
perhaps a neuros is a dictionary
to assist in defining my “mental” moments
or perhaps most simply, a Neuros
is an mp3 player
of forty gigs within
of spiffilicious storage space
for musicalness galore
(this is actually the truth)
that is what was in the box
in the mail
that I got
today

Today we had classes, unusual since we normally don’t on mondays, but nothin too stressful. Started the last bit of theology, learning all about angels. Pretty cool stuff, except that our prof took half an hour to give us his opinions on stuff, rather than what the Bible taught, or rather, his interpretation of what the Bible taught.

No biggE, I can just ignore his opinion and form my own conclusions based on what the Bible says.

I think today I will clean up my room and start packing my stuff. Nate dropped by last night to give me his room key b4 heading off to PNG. I get to stay in his room while I work over the first part of break, which is cool, cause he has a 1000watt home theator system.

NEWAZ (to borrow Hallie’s favorite phrase) You can pray for my mother and brother who are both traveling to PNG. Nate left from Albany, my mom from Cleveland, and they will both meet up in LAX, and continue on to Uka. Nate will hang out for the holidays and come back, so if there is something you want, I can email him and have him bring it back.

Worked my last “service assignment” for fall quarter, and found about a hundred bucks that I wasn’t sure I had. (unrelated events) Always nice when that happens. Now I get to finish/start/continue getting my stuff together to leave on Wednesday!

My countdown widget says that there is 1 day, 16 hours, 39 min, 22 sec until Fall Quarter is Over!

Hallelujah!

em tasol for now

Peace to you.

This week started on Sunday, the 13th. I spent that day in church at my mother’s home church, for the morning service, and was able to observe a new couple being sent into the mission field with Wycliffe. That afternoon and evening were spent at a funeral home at viewings for my grandfather. He had touched so many people in his life, it was so neat to see the massive impact that one man could have. The day was complemented by having my good friend Ann from PNG come up from Canton to be with me and the family. Despite the sad circumstances, she was able to meet most of my family.

Monday the 14th I attended my grandfather’s funeral. My uncle and mother said some words about my grandfather. My brothers and I and a cousin stood up as well. My portion was not very well done, but between my brothers and cousin they captured my grandfather, in deed, faithfulness, and life. The graveside service was nice, God provided absolutely beautiful weather, birds singing and clear skies. I was able to participate there as well, as a pallbearer with brothers and cousins. I was honored to do this. After the service we had a nice meal with the family and a few others, and then were able to hang out for a bit.

Tuesday, the 15th was spent in the car. It rained the entire way back to WOLBI, but the trip was endured safely and without major event.

Wednesday, I got to go back to class, and I started to make up what I missed on Tuesday. Ran around in the afternoon and took care of random stuff that had piled up.

Thursday was a good day, class in the morning, a little work in the afternoon and a work-out in the weight room.

Yesterday I went to class, took my make up test and quiz, that I had missed on Tuesday, and worked some more. The only bad thing about working outside here is that it is hovering below 30 degrees (F) (that is, not rising above 30, not -30 degrees), so its a bit nippy, but not too bad.

And today was just relaxing. Slept in, spent some time talking to some friends, and might be able to help in a movie project. Hung out this afternoon, went for pizza with my dormmates and played some killer 21. As always, my height determines how much of the ball I get (not much) but I did well considering, a total of 16 points.

Tomorrow we have class (to make up for no class on Thurs/Fri) and the week ends on Wednesday!

Break approaches!

~to borrow from Rabbit~

Cheers!

Well, last post, somber as it was, marked a milestone here at StormRider: my 50th post. This site was started on the 12th of May 2005, and has, consequently, been running for 6 months and seven days.

Some highlights:

12 May 2005 – Blog started
19 May 2005 – Categories started
4 June 2005 – Banquet in PNG
13 June 2005 – Senior All-Nighter @ Primary school campus
22 June 2005 – Graduation Announcement
28 June 2005 – Recap of travel back to NorthAm
29 August 2005 – Wait A Wedding at the WOL Inn
12 September 2005 – A Trip to Montreal
25 October 2005 – A Trip to NYC
11 November 2005 – Thoughts About the Death of a Grandfather

so that being just a glimpse into what I have written on this site. Just looking back through the postings, alot has happened, but I have not commented on half of it. Oh well. I shall try to post more often in the future.

My favorite part in Return of the King is when Pippin and Gandalf are in an upper level of Minis Tirith, waiting for the legions of orcs to break through the door, and Pippin remarks, “I didn’t think it would end this way,” and Gandalf says, “End? Oh no, death is not the end…” and proceeds to tell of the Undying Lands and describes them as “A far green country…”

That scene makes me cry every time I watch it, and if it weren’t for the rules, I would be watching it now.

Reminds me too of the Chronicle of Narnia, the Last Battle, when the children die and the world is made new and they run and are not tired…the pure joy and happiness of heaven.

Speaking of which, my grandfather died last night.

He was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer two weeks ago, but that did not kill him. Monday night he went into the hospitol because of some bleeding, had a stroke, laid all day in a coma, fought for life, and died late last night. Very sudden, very unexpected.

I am not having the easiest of times. Obviously.

My mother is flying home alone from PNG to be here for the funeral on Sunday, my brother and I will be driving to Ohio (where the funeral will take place) on Friday after my classes.

Pray for us.

Peace.

Well, the weekend is close to over. Two more hours…

As far as weekends go, it wasn’t too bad. I had an absolute blast in Providence, Rhode Island, working the Word of Life SuperBowl. We went down right after class, leaving here around 1345 (1:45pm) and arriving there around 1800 (6:00pm), The trip was slightly uneventful, and being there was kinda cool. What of Providence I saw was an old town and new skyscrapers integrated rather nicely.

First part of the evening was spent in a hockey arena. The Norfolk Admirals (my home team!) played and got their sorry butts whipped. The even fought like amateurs.

I was elected to be a team leader cause the original guy got sick, so I was incharge of the rest of the students (along with two other guys) and got to divvy up jobs and tell people where to work. It was kinda cool.

So we got treated like VIP’s around the place. At midnight, after the game and an evangelistic message, and over 150 salvation decisions- we played games ALL night. At the arena they came down to the ice and played games, then at 2400 (midnight) we split and headed for two bowling alley’s and a indoor sports complex where we set up a bunch of inflatables for the kids to play on. Round about 0300 the groups rotated and we went until 0530. Finally we packed up, ate breakfast and headed back to Word of Life.

Once back here, at 1200, I went to sleep until 1830. Stayed up till 2300, and headed to bed.

So it was a blast!!

More about what I did that evening in the next post….

I now have a Flickr.com acccount, which is somewhere where I can post pics.

check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormrider/ or just make use of the link on my site sidebar under Captain’s Mates.

None of the current pictures I took.

enjoy!

ok,

so for a REAL update, I am doing swimmingly.

it has been in the upper 50s and 60s the past week, so that means WARM weather for a change, and now that we have had daylight savings, I can go to breakfast in the daylight. Whohoo!

Unfortunately, unless one of you wants to help me drive to Green Bay, I won’t make it to Leah’s, cause I am too poor to afford transportation.

so yeah.

But my Mother is talking with all of her relatives (she has quite a lot, and most of them are our supporters, strangely enough) so I may have somewhere to go for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Other than that I am finalizing plans to work for a week or so of break to make some money towards my school bill.

This weekend I am going to Providence, Rhode Island to work a Word of Life Superbowl, which is an evangelistic outreach to teens. WOL rents a facility, usually a basketball/hockey arena, we watch the game, then hold a meeting, then play games ALL night. Should be sweet. Then Sat afternoon I turn around, after getting back here, and head to Philly/Lancaster for a Newsboys concert with a bunch of friends (Zach, want to come with?)

And get back here Monday.

Will be fun I am sure.

Announcing a New Category of Posts: Shore Leave as a branch of At the Mast.

Shore Leave is where I post all my essays on Star Wars and other things related. See previous post for the first in this genre on the StormRider website.

your friendly Admisistrator