James "Freakin" Taylor

On Thursday Colette and I went to see James Taylor for our anniversary. The show was hands down the best show that I have ever seen. (Colette agrees with that statement). I have seen some amazing shows, but James Taylor is simply in another league. A place one would expect him to be in after doing this for 30-40 years. The show was the perfect combination of laid back tunes to the upbeat and flat out rock n' roll tunes. The man has kept his youth and even though he was bald he still had the energy and excitement of a little kid. His band was equally amazing. Each member (drums, keys, bass, electric guitar, and three vocalist) knew their place and filled their role perfectly. The only sad part of the show was a heckler. Who pays money to go and see an artist just to yell at them. I didn't hear the whole comment but as James Taylor was telling us what a song was about, somebody yelled something to the affect of "shut-up and sing." Peopled yelled back and so James decided mid-story, mid-sentence to just play the song. I was annoyed and so was he, and I still don't know what the song is about. Later in the show, James sort of got back. In the middles of Steamroller, a blues tune with a bit of vocal vamping. He added a "Shut up and sing" in the middle of it. And then before the next song said, "this next song, at risk of opening my g__ damn mouth, is..." It was awesome. Anyway the show was amazing and I can't wait to get another chance to see the man.

As a side note I saw Brody's parents at the show.

Updates

-Colette and I were able to go see Phil Wickham when he was up in Redding, Ca. The show was amazing. He trully has a talent for playing worship. As well he has an amazing right hand when it comes to playing guitar, I am sure it is good for other things too, like writing. Thank you Brody for that little trip.

-We finally sold the van. At 1:00 in the morning three guys drove up from the bay area and decided that this was the van they needed. I say they chose wisely, it is a good van. I am also completely relieved to have the van gone. Now the only thing left to do is pay off the bills and cover the remaining balance. As well I am waiting to hear back from everybody else who are going to dispute that they owe any money whatsoever. People who will sacrifice a friendship over a few hundred dollars amaze me.

-Colette started school again. A week from Wednesday will be her second day of school. She is excited to get underway and will graduate in January of 2010. The best part is that we will be able to afford for her to be in school. We were not sure what sort of financial aide we were going to get, but we are going to get enough help to cover what we cannot afford to cover.

-That is about it, Colette and I are both sick so I am going to sit and do nothing for the rest of the day.

Second Saturday

Last weekend Colette and I had some good friends come up from Southern California and spend some time with us. It was a great time. Relaxing but busy enough at the same time. On Saturday night we went to Old Sacramento, which is a good time, and proceeded over to Downtown Sacramento for this thing called Second Saturday. I know this will come as a shock to you but it is on every second saturday of each month. Basically it is just a lot of art galleries that open up and you can walk around for free and they have wine and cheese and people that think they are really cool and important hang out. As well there are lots of various street performers and musicians. There were a few highlights to the night. First would have to be the fire twirling people. Basically they were just scantilly clad girls twirling balls of fire around on the end of chains. Now before you think I am a pervert, they funny part was the group of three men that had planned their evening around these girls. They had lawn chairs, beer, and cameras. They sat there noddding their heads and grooving to the music. Every once in a while, one guy would nudge the other and they would give an agreeing nod to say "yeah, I saw that too."
Second would have to be the band Art Lessing. You can check them out at artlessing.com (i'm too lazy to make the link). they were just two guys playing various homemade instruments that sounded really cool. They are hard to describe. So go check out there music and just so you know, their music is much better live.
The last thing that was more funny than cool was when we ended up in the gay area of downtown Sacramento. I was not aware there was one, but we found it. We were just walking around and we all happened to look inside a club to see a man wearing nothing but leather chaps and tightie wighties dancing on the stage. We then looked around and noticed the plethera or gay people wondering around. One member of our group was hit on by a middle aged man. Minutes later we were flashed by some lady walking by, she was a little bit drunk. and fortunately at least wearing a bra.
So all in all a good night: art, music, friends, perverts, gay people, and boobs.

The Fight - A combination of what Colette and I saw.

Stopped at a red light, a few cars behind us a black lady, we will call her LN1, hopped out of a white car and ran up to a mini-van that was stopped in front of us. (Sorry I am not politically correct. Though I can't call her an African-American, I don't know where she is from). The black lady from the mini-van, LN2 (again sorry), must have seen her coming as well because as LN1 reached her car she got out of hers to the sound of a pop. There was a few seconds of taunting from LN2, "what you gonna do, what you gonna do" and then the fight started. Now I know I described these women as black, but they were also big women, not scrawny little things like me. The fight consisted mostly of hair pulling and quickly turned to the ground as LN2 got LN1 down and was sitting on her as the hair pulling continued. At this point I was waiting for 911 to answer their phone, and noticed that LN2 was not only pulling hair but was now pointing a small gun at the head of LN1. (Think back to pop). Before the gun was there, there was was no way I was going to try and stop them, and I certainly wasn't going to do anything with a gun in the picture. Slowly, as I would imagine in most gun fights, the gun started pointed in other directions as they wrestled for control of the gun. The direction I remember the most would be the one where it was pointing at the car Colette and I were in. This was not a fun moment in time, thinking this could end really bad for a number of people including Colette or me. 911 finally answered and I explained to them the situation, while on the phone with 911 a new person entered the scene. A muscular white guy, MWG, left his car and walked over to the battle. (Again, if calling a black person black is wrong, then calling a white person white is wrong, but I don't know where he is from either). He being much braver than me wrestled the gun away, thank God, and let them continue to pull each others hair. About 30 seconds later, the cops arrived. Within seconds two female officers that did not look any bigger than me, had LN1 and LN2 separated, in cuffs, and in the back of the squad cars. SWAT happened to be around the corner with nothing to do so they showed up as well. During all of this excitement I noticed MWG run to his car and take off, which I thought was suspicious since he had the gun. I had the wherewithal to get the license plate number from his car, but missed one letter, shame on me. And just as quickly as the battle began, the battle was over. We stayed around for a while since we were "in the front row" and witnessed the whole thing. By this time the white car had pulled up next to us and the driver conveniently mentioned nothing about the lady getting out of her car, and said she was simply on her way to pick up her children from school. We gave our statements and all our information and they let us on our way. I would say the best part of the whole thing was the SWAT guying asking an officer, "So you don't need anybody shot?"

Props to the cops for extremely fast response time, and great work separating the battle.

Bad Attitude

I am sure that you have all had experience with the type of person that questions everything that you tell them to do. This is not always a bad thing. Kids do it and they are cute. Yes, it gets annoying, but you aren't (at least you shouldn't be) getting pissed off. The problem comes when the attitude of this is person one of disrespect. I had a kid in my class like this today. I am used to getting questioned by students. Usually they are trying to get away with something. "Do we really have to do this as homework?" "I know you said no talking, but can we work together?" Questions like that are not that big of a deal. But this students questions were much more disrespectful. After I said no cell phones, he said, "Why not, you're just a sub." When I said no sleeping (it is school after all), he said, "What? We can't sleep either, man what the heck." He just drove me crazy and I thought I would spread the joy.

Abuse of Power

There is not much that a girl can't get a guy to do. Look sad, cute, that sort of thing, and he is like putty in their hands. Pardon the comparison, but it is a lot like a puppy dog. People's hearts melt and they give in to every whim or fancy. I am not sure why they have this power but they do. Really it is not fair.

At the end of school on Friday a girl walked into my class, and like a fly on the wall I got to watch her use this power. She walked over to a group of guys and in the cutest voice she could muster said, "who wants to walk me to the Library?" (Note that the library is about a three minute walk from the classroom). At first nobody wanted to go, but then she gave them the puppy dog eyes. Then in a matter of seconds several of the boys suddenly seemed to want to do nothing else. Now they were stuck having to decide who got to go, when nobody wanted to go just seconds ago. Eventually, it was figured out and one "Lucky(?)" guy got to escort her to the library.

Looking at it from this vantage point, it is rather ridiculous, though we all know that I have fallen for the trick many a time, as have many other men.

"Lord of the Flies"

The other day I had a class where they were watching the movie "Lord of the Flies." The school is a fairly ghetto school and I don't like going there because nobody shows teachers any respect, hardly worth the money that I get. Anyway, if you don't know what the story is about, a group of English kids are stranded on an island after a plane crash. One class I had loved to comment and two of their comments are worth writting down. "Why is everybody white." and "They talk like they do in Harry Potter." Even more disturbing was that instead of reading "Lord of the Flies" they were just watching the movie.

Gizmo

For our Birthday's, Colette and I got a new cat. Her name is Maddy (short for Madeline) though we call her Gizmo because she sounds like a gremlin and might be one so we just don't get her wet. She is adorable, loves to cuddle, follows us around the house, watches movies with us, and plays fetch which is awesome. There is nothing about her that we don't love. Actually, her only downside is that she is mesmerised by the computer just like the T.V. but likes to walk across the keyboard. (though i now have an excuse for the fact the I can't spell) The best part of all is that Solomon and her even get along just fine and love to chase each other around the house. It is great.

(Solomon, since Gizmo has arrived, has become very territorial. At the same time another cat has decided that he needs to hang out on our patio. Normally Solomon is looking and the window and puffs up and starts pacing between two windows wanting to get outside. Though one time Solomon was outside on the patio when the cat came up. Solomon climbed over our "gate" which stands all of 2 1/2 feet tall (he is afraid to jump to the unknown) and started beating the cat up. I ran after them and saw a cloud of cat fur flying and Solomon kicking this cats butt. I grabbed Solomon and the other cat ran away. them. Solomon has not been allowed outside since the battle as punishment plus he destroyed our gate in the climbing process. We finally have proof that the wild cat in Solomon is still there and can kick butt)

Caedmon's Call - Overdressed

If you have not had the pleasure of listening to the new Caedmon's Call album I suggest you find a copy and listen to it. The album has left my CD player once since I bought my copy only to promtly return. Derek Webb lended some great songs to the album, Andrew Osenga proved once again why he a musical genius, and of course the others simply continued to do what they do best. The entire album is amazing and I recommend getting the album.

it has been a while

I have been completely slacking on this blog for the past several weeks. I have been busy getting used to actually having to work again. I apologize and plan on getting things back on track.

Back to school and parents that don't care.

Tuesday marked my first day back as a sub; back to punk little kids who think they are hardcore thugs. On Wednesday I had to break up a group of kids before it turned into a fight. I got the smaller guy and aggressor to back down as he claimed "it wasn't worth it." (I think he really meant he didn't want to get his butt kicked). I had a female student with six different brightly colored extensions in her hair. It looked really trashy and even more stupid. I am sure that more stories are going to be flowing out of this school year before all of the "problem" kids get shuffled around to where they can be managed or just sent away. It is sad to me as I realize that most of these kids just don't have parents that care.

I saw a form on "my desk" from a student whose parents didn't want to participate in a program that would let them check up on their children's progress through the year. The program is free and allows parents to check grades, homework, attendance, etc...Why as a parent would you not want to do that? Even if you have the perfect child, it won't hurt you to check on your children. I don't get people sometimes.

More stories to come...

A Green Car

"The new Accord boasts an environmental first: a six-cylinder gasoline engine that's cleaner than many hybrid systems.
There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultra-green Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short.

"So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000 miles of driving. Grill a single juicy burger, and you've cooked up the same hydrocarbon emissions as a three-hour drive in a Ford Focus PZEV. As the California Air Resources Board has noted, the tailpipe emissions of these cars can be cleaner than the outside air in smoggy cities.

"The PZEV cars don't get any better mileage than conventional versions. Would most self-interested Americans even pay a lousy 100 bucks for cleaner air that doesn't put fuel savings back in their pocket? "With hybrids, the selling point is fuel economy, so there's a dollar amount on that," said William Walton, Honda's product planning chief for U.S. cars. 'We want to give people the cleanest vehicles we can produce, but how much are people willing to pay for clean air?'"

Read Entire Article here

Crazy driver lady

This morning while riding around in the car with my wife we stopped behind a car at a red light. We were in the far right hand lane and on our right hand side there was a shopping center. The car in front of us stopped with the back half of the car blocking the entrance to the shopping center and the front of our car blocked the other half. About thirty seconds after stopping, a older lady coming from the other direction turned into the suicide lane to use the entrance we were blocking. I thought that sucks oh well the light will turn green soon and we will be out of the way. However, she decided to block the rest of traffic and just start going. By this time a car had pulled up behind us blocking us where we are. After she entered and blocking traffic she was then trapped and honked at us for blocking her way. When the light turned green we let her go in front of us and she shooked her head and waved us off, annoyed that we blocked her way. It was funny.

K-Mart in Sacramento

Kevin Martin signed a five year - fifty-five million dollar contract with the Sacramento Kings. Hopefully this next season will bring a lot more wins for the kings. I know i am looking forward to it.

Odd Commercial

The other day I was listening to the radio and couldn't help but notice a commercial for Toyota cars that was directed at criminals. I won't say that I am quoting this exactly but it basically said, "Hi, I'm a criminal and when I"m driving a get-a-way car, I want something that gets good gas mileage. That is why I drive a Toyota." Who thought that this would be a good idea as a commercial. Where they all sitting around in a room thinking, who haven't we tried to sell our cars to? We have the family car, the luxury car, the sporty car...what about a car for criminals? Genius make a commercial and soon enough all the criminals out there will be using Toyotas after robbing the local 7-11. Our sales are sure to take a boost.

Little League World Series

Maybe I am a dork, but I love watching Little League baseball. The kids are playing simply because they love playing the game. At this age there are no egos, everybody plays and everyone has a great time. These are 11 and 12 year old kids who have been chosen to represent their country or region, it is like the olympics for kids, and only for baseball. They are under pressure and they want to win, but the coaches and the players all know that they are out there for fun and when the game is over that is always what it was about. If you haven't been watching the little league world series, I recommend you turn it on. I just finished watching a game which went into extra innings and the game was won by a three run home run to go up by two and win the game. there is nothing more exciting than that no matter what level of sports you are watching.

Jim Gaffigan

This guy makes me laugh.

If you have heard this story, enjoy the retelling.

If you have not been to San Francisco right around Pier 39 or Fisherman's Wharf there are a lot of people who's job is to do nothing more than entertain the tourist and get lots of people to tip them. Talent or no talent they find something that they can do. One guy (who is my favorite) sits on the edge of the sidewalk with a bunch of branchs still covered in leaves. His "act" is to hide behind said leaves and scare people as they unknowingly walk by this man. People gather around and watch the man scare people to death and it is quite funny. Anyway a few days before my wedding me and Colette flew into Oakland rented a car and drove throught San Francisco and stopped to meet my brother for a little trip around Pier 39. On the way back to the car we encountered one such street performer who was just getting set up to do some fire juggling. Colette wanted to see so we walked over and did just that. After about two minutes of us being there, the performer decided that I needed to be his assistant and handed me the flaming sticks (which in hindsight I think he was testing me). Soon after that I was in the middle of the circle with him, and very soon after that i found myself lying on the sidewalk as he continued his show now centered around me. Of course many people see where this is going: man juggling fire, me lying on the ground. But this is this man's bread and butter. He has perfected his show and he could just jump to finale. Not yet anyway. Along the way to the finale, a ring of lighter fluid was sprayed around me and then asked if I knew any Johnny Cash songs. (ha ha very funny) And because we were in San Francisco it was then made into a peace sign, with the center lines sprayed up to me (not over me thankfully). Another one of his oh so exciting moments for the people watching was when he had me cross my legs to hold one of his flaming torches between my legs as close as possible to a certain area for a few minutes. When this torch burned out, that was not a problem he could easily relight it and place it back between my legs. I don't remember there being a reason for this other than the comedy of the situation. In preparation for juggling fire over me, he decided to use knives as practice. And of course before he got to me he dropped a knife, picked it up and continued toward me, tripped over my feet and continued on. When he reached my face he stood over me a while making jokes about the "view" and then decided to squat over me for a few seconds. Anyway the trip was made successfully, now it was time for fire. The fire is less exciting to tell about since he just walked over me up from my feet till he had walked up my body. For me this looked really cool...the fire juggling part nothing more. And then the act was over, and he spilled his secret that the ring of lighter fluid was actually a ring of water. All in all the act was about 20 minutes long but fun for those watching.

Family

For the past two weeks Colette's sister, Cyndi and cousin, Valerie were up spending the rest of their summer vacation. There was a lot of leisure time, but there were a few fun events. First they got to see a concert they were hoping to catch; they were excited, I have never heard of the bands. Second Colette was able to borrow my brothers digital canon SLR (hint for a christmas present ;)) and take the girls out for a few hours of modeling fun for cyndi's senior portraits and of course fun. Colette will probably be posting some of the pictures onto her myspace page. Lastly and the most fun in my opinion was a San Francisco trip. We got up and drove down to pier 39 and spent the day walking around there and shopping. We stopped and checked out the sea lions for a while. The best part of the trip was a boat ride around alcatraz and the golden gate bridge. The boat ride lasts for about 90 min. and cost $11 a person. We were able to get a ride with the same guy that we got the tour from two days before our wedding so that was really cool. He even recognized us. Fortunately, there were no fire jugglers present this time. Which if you don't know that story I will tell it again tomorrow. I don't think i ever blogged about it.

Anyway fun times were had by all.

The Bulletproof Backpack

"Finally there is a product that will help you take an active step towards safeguarding yourself and the people you care about from shooting incidents.

"MJ Safety Solutions has developed, for the first time ever, a full size, lightweight ballistic protection back pack that is affordable and practical.

"Now you can provide on the spot protection against guns and knife violence!

"Independently tested to the standards set by the National Institute for Justice to provide Level II ballistic protection, as found in most police body armor, at almost 1/10 the weight.

"Since 1999 over 328 incidents have occurred, leaving 229 dead and 422 injured in school violence alone. That is an average of about 1 per week since the Columbine Tragedy. In almost 97% of these documented incidents, MJ Safety Solutions backpack could have provided the ballistic protection that could have saved lives.

"This backpack can provide life saving defense for anyone: school children, educators, journalists and tourists to name a few. This is a full size, ultra leightweight backpack packed with features to make it practical for everyone.

"Our children already live with these thoughts every day. School systems across the nation are staging drills for "lock downs" and "shelter in place." Act now to give your children a personal, defensive safety tool that will help them feel more confident and able to focus on learning. Isn't that what school should really be about?"

Is this really where our world has gone?

The New iMac

"All iMac models feature advanced dual-core Intel processors...Banish the clutter. The latest 802.11 Wi-Fi networking and Bluetooth technologies...iMac has all the ports you need for your USB, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 devices...Choose from 20- and 24-inch widescreen displays....And iMac now supports up to 4GB of memory...Up to 1TB storage."

Does anybody else think they just put a stand on a really cool laptop?

The Cap'n Frap

Last night after a pizza party in honor of Brody and Kristin, Colette and I decided that it was time for some Starbucks and a few less people. We made the short walk and found that a friend was working. This guy is quite bizare. One would think that he is on speed or something else like that. Tonight he was extremely excited to show us a drink that he invented. The Captain Frap. If you like Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries, this is the drink for you. I was completely surprised to find that his drink was as exact reproduction of the cereal. Now my memory may not serve me properly, but I am sure that, as he is the type of guy to give this to anybody who asked, the drink has crossed many lips and recieved the same response. I am not sure how he made the drink but I think that I could get the recipe if you so desired a Cap'n Frap.

Oh no...finished

After a few days and nights of reading i have finished the last harry potter book. Life will not return to normal, unless i find another book that i must read. anyway just thought i would let you all know the exciting things going on in my life.

oh no...

i know that i have not been the most frequent blogger that past few weeks. I have been working hard long days (extreme exageration) and i have been tired by the time i get home. It just got worse...colette got me the last harry potter book. yes i read them and i think that for a kids series that are darn good. I can't wait to read it...good bye

Dreaming

If you don't know already, nathan and jessica had their baby on 7-17-07, weighing in at a whole 6 pounds 1 ounce. They named her Cadence Rose. they are calling her Katy, I don't know how they are spelling that. Anyway yesterday colette and i went to visit them in the hospital and spent around two hours with them.

Last night I had the strangest dream (that is a song by the way) that colette and i were having a baby. Probably a little bit of jealousy since i want to have a baby. The only difference is that we had a baby cat. (this is even funnier if you just watched this blog ). I dreamt the whole thing from the birth to hanging out in the hospital getting our baby checked up on, waiting for the baby to go poo. Our baby was wearing a diaper, though i never saw it, I just knew it was there. When we went home with our kitten instead of going to our place we broke into the neighbors house. I don't know why we did but when they came home suddenly they were a good friends and my mom was with her, and they were throwing us a baby shaower. The big present that we were going to get was popcorn. Somewhere around this time our baby finally went poo and thank goodness somehow the diaper ended up sealed in a ziplock bag. it was a cute baby.

The moral of my dream, i want a baby, but i would rather have a baby cat, and i love popcorn not changing diapers.

Work

For the past three days I have been doing something that I hoped to never do again. I have been doing manual labor. I don't know why I agreed to do this but I did. It hasn't been that bad, really it has been really easy. I get to make my own hours, which are usually short, I get paid everyday, and they buy my lunch. Not a bad deal it's just manual labor. Today I got to feel very manly, I loaded and loaded firewood, and then got to rip out a lot of bamboo that was around twenty feet tall. I felt so manly that I almost decided not to go to church and instead watch the game. But then I realized that I don't know what game would be on, and I would rather go to church. I was almost manly, but not quite.

~thoughts from church~

What do you think the message of the church is to the world? What is your message to the world? Do you think it is the same message that Jesus gave?

People reject the Jesus and the church today; People rejected Jesus when he lived on earth. Are they for the same reason?

The King plays solitaire

I heard this song while in a walgreens and i couldn't stop laughing. I am not sure who sings it originally but i know elvis presley sings it and somehow he gets called the king.




here are the lyrics in case you wanted to sing along...

There was a man, a lonely man
Who lost his love through his indifference
A heart that cared, that went unshared
Until it died in his silence

And Solitaire's the only game in town
And every road that takes him, takes him down
And by himself, it's easy to pretend
He'll never love again

And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing Solitaire

Another day, a lonely day
So much to say that goes unspoken
And through the night, his sleepless nights
His eyes are closed, his heart is broken

And Solitaire's the only game in town
And every road that takes him, takes him down
And by himself it's easy to pretend
She's coming back again

And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing Solitaire

A little hope, goes up in smoke
Just how it goes, goes without saying
Solitaireee
And by himself it's easy to pretend
He'll never love again
Ohhh

And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing Solitaire
Solitaire, solitaire

Props to colette for knowing this had to come from american idol.

I'm a wuss and my cat is cool

I played a show last night at a bar in Nevada City. If you don't know the town it is your quintessential hippy town. (We left the show to the overwhelming smell of many people smoking pot). Anyway towards the end of soapbox symphony, I was so used to playing long shows that a four hour set didn't even bother me. Last night after one 45 minute set, I was ready for nap time. Unfortunately and fortunately they were paying us so we had to keep playing.

And now for something completely different...

My cat who is super cool, just caught a fly that got in our house and then proceeded to eat said fly. who needs a fly swatter and cat treats?

Hotel Reservations

So before our trip, I made sure that i had found and decent hotel for a good price and have a reservation. Well when we got to the hotel and about 5 o'clock they didn't have our reservation. They were however, extremelly accomodating and happily offered us their last room for twice as much as i was quoted when i made the reservation. I was also told that there is no way i was quoted that price even though on the wall next to the kind lady was a price list which showed the price that i was quoted. i was so excited at their offer that i quickly said that we would find somewhere else to be staying. Now friday night around disneyland proved to be a difficult place to find a hotel. Eventually we did find a place on priceline.com, made the reservation, and drove over to our hotel. This hotel was not as nice, i was reminded of john candy movies from the seventies. When we walked in to check in the man behind the counter was not happy to see us. I am not sure what happened, but they either did not have enough rooms or they were not supposed to be renting out anymore. I am not sure but the man called expedia and was not happy with them. We were trying to be polite and asked if he had a room for us and he said "i don't have a choice." Room 215 did not have working air conditioning and was about 150 degrees when we walked in. The room was clean enough and thus far we do not have any diseases, hopefully we will not discover them later.

It is Good

it is good to be playing music again. Monday and tuesday night, my current project (that makes me sound cooler than i really am) played a few open mic nights: short, sweet, and simple. they were auditions to get "real" shows and be allowed to play more than fifteen minutes. they went well and i would say that we got the gigs at both places which will hopefully lead to more and more. Anyway it was good to play music again and as always it felt good to hear people like what you do. ironically one guy told us that we should move down to L.A. and play music down there, we would be sure to get a record deal...he doesn't know much about L.A.

The Art of Whimsy

Amy Kuney...Demo

So like i said i would buy the album and tell you about it. the first track is terrible. way over-produced. it sounds nothing like the girl we saw play. in fact it also sounds nothing like the rest of the cd. the rest of the cd does a much better job capturing the sound of amy kuney. however, i am not a huge fan of the producing of the cd. the first song aside, the cd is a lot better but there are a few things that just don't sound good: Levels of certain instruments or vocal lines and arrangments of some of the songs. (it sounds like a an album recorded for pre-production. Get some ideas down and see how they sound, and fix things from there). But these problems are not enough to bother me into not listening to the cd. the cd is not all bad either, the last track of the cd is perfect in my opinion. A simple song left alone. the only thing added was a violin which fits the song perfectly. I would give the album about a 3 out 5 but i like the songs so i would buy it again. She also has a track on her myspace (love is trippy) which i think should have gone on her album but it didn't.

family vacation

Being married brings many new problems...we are planning our first little trip as a married couple, and now that we have our own place we can't just get up and leave. We have plants that need to be watered daily, animals to feed, and bills to pay. We need to get this stuff taken care of before we can go. I guess this is what responsibility is. Also, before we were married we could stay just about anywhere, colette would stay with here friends or family and i would stay with my friends. Now that we are married we want to stay together, and the old places were usually a couch or a spot on the floor. Not as appealling when married. So as we plan for this little vacation a place to stay is needed...a small problem with married life, but i would say it is worth it.

Day Two

You all need to read this...

"overdressed"

"Caedmon's Call returns to what they do best with their new album titled Overdressed. The seminal folk-pop act has moved to a new label home at INO Records with this release, a revival of their acoustic guitar-driven sound. Overdressed also features the return of Derek Webb to the Caedmon's fold, adding his vocals and songwriting to the album and upcoming tour."

Preorder their cd here. You know you want to...

too far?

Why do christians take love songs and turn them into songs about Jesus? Colette just heard a song on christian radio covering Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed." Good choice in music, but why did they find the need to replace or add "Jesus" into the song. (Not metaphorically but literally). What would happen if we continued this to other art forms? I'm thinking of selling this to christian book stores. What do you think?

grill master

Going over to my parent's house on the weekend has sort of become the thing that we do. On these trips we usually do our laundry, which is why we try to find an excuse to hang out there on the weekends: free laundry, free food. These are not the only reasons, but some very good ones. however, there is some give and take. i have become the resident bbq-er. that is what i do. mom buys the meat and i cook it. it certainly beats clean-up and i think that i am getting fairly decent at it. So for father's day, it is no surprise that i found myself at my parents bbqing dinner. tonight was shish kabobs. I have never really thought of cooking these before until i put them on the grill and realized something rather obvious. "i just put a bunch of meat and veggies on very thin, dry pieces of wood and then set them over fire. i wonder what will happen?" I wasn't really surprised after opening the lid for the first time and seeing about half the shish kabobs sticks were black and crispy. (I am not sure who thought stabbing your food with wood and then cooking it over a fire, but their intelligence should be questioned). Anyway i soon also discovered it was difficult turning shish kabobs without either breaking the stick or burning your hand or pulling the food off. it was quite a learning experience but by the second batch i was practically an expert, and dinner turned out ok.

overall, i had a good fathers day, nice and relaxing with the whole family. always good to be able to have the whole family gather around the table to eat a good home cooked meal. if you are father and reading this i hope you had a wonderful and relaxing day.

you're gonna die Bob, well retire.

"Blowing kisses to the camera, Bob Barker signed off on 35 years on "The Price Is Right" and 50 years in daytime TV in the same low-key, genial fashion that made him one of daytime TV's biggest stars." to read more click here

Of course i watched the show, bob barker and the price is right are america. They have been around for 35 years. Nothing in hollywood lasts that long. Being the last show, many huge bob barker fans came out. People were waiting in line for 5 days. And these people, i would not classify them as normal. Most of the people looked as though they have no life other than bob barker and the price is right. My favorite moment of the show was one man after being called to "come on down" was so excited that as he was jumping down the aisle forgot to move his feet and fell flat on his face. it was amazing.

Amy Kuney

With Colette gone for the night at a business meeting, I was left home with nothing to do. So i decided to check out a concert at a new christian coffee house i discovered while looking for venues to play. there were two acts, Amy Kuney and some other guy that i don't remember the name of, we will call him ted. Ted had the sound system and decided to push the start of the show back an hour but did not tell anyone about this. So as we all waited i think there were three of us there, one of which was Amy, we had no clue why he was late. About twenty minutes late he finally showed up, set up and the show began. Amy started and is really impressive. She has a talent for song writting. i was immediately impressed and plan to take colette to see her tonight in Sacramento. Her website is amykuney.com and i would recommend listening to "Breaking Bad Habits" if nothing else. I am going to pick up the cd tonight so i can tell you how it is.

I've Been Memed

Ok so here we go, some things you probably don't know about me...well 8 things to be exact.

1. I hate the idea of having an actual 40 hour a week job. I think i have worked one for about 2 months in my entire life. I am now 24 years old. Wait make that 3 1/2. A part time job turned full time so i quit.

2. I took guitar lessons when i was little (don't remember how old). But i never learned how to play anything, until i started hanging out at the Hamilton's.

3. I am a closet Kelly Clarkson fan. I am ashamed to admit it but i am.

4. Moved to tears easily. Not sure why, perhaps i have too much estrogen in my system. And not like tears just the watery eye part.

5. Struggling to come up with number 5. I never now what to write about myself

6. Animal lover, currently I have two lizards and one cat. All of which are awesome.

7. Swam in the ocean in the middle of the night with about 60 partially nude men, until the cops came...also walked a block to Jack In the Box sat and ate a meal wearing nothing but boxers and a wife beater with about 10 other similarly dressed men, all in the name of tradition.

8. Hate going to school, I don't like being told i have to do something...yet I want to be a school teacher.

Alright, there you go. I am finished, and i get to name others to do the same thing. James Pierce, the Agees, and Cory sorry don't remember you last name. give me a break i just heard for the first time a few days ago and it is difficult. So to those three/four people. You have no choice in the matter, by reading the above you are contractually bound to doing this.

****

Mel Gibson, in my opinion, has sort of gone off the deep end so to speak. I was not thinking this movie was going to be very good. I was expecting a boring rendition of how cortez came and killed all of the mayan indians. Perhaps i never watched the previews since this wasn't what the movie was about at all. If you don't know what is it about i won't spoil anything for you, other than to say if you don't like subtitles don't watch this movie, unless you speak...mayan? If subtitles don't bother you watch the movie. A mild disclaimer, there is a bit on nudity: it is about indians, what did you expect? A bit of sexual humor and a bit bloody. I guess i would say if you thought braveheart was ok than this movie is just fine. I just would not recomend this movie for children at all (escpecially since you will be reading the movie to them).

Green Thumb

On our honeymoon, my wife and i purhased some plumeria plants. By plants i mean, a stick that if you give soil and water it is supposed to grow. After six months, we have growth. We are excited. We only had one casualty, but we have two successes. We officially have green thumbs. The only thing about these plants is that they sort of look evil, right now. You be the judge.

Apology

If you found that last blog a bit harsh I apologize. No offense was meant.

My Mistake

My mother invited us to a musical at their church, she said it was the story of samson and delilah set to the music of grease. I said why not, could be good or at least entertaining. Somebody wrote it and got it published. When we arrived at the church we soon discovered that the time on the ticket was wrong, the play was not going to start for another two hours...we should have known this was going to happen since the date of the tickets did not match the day (friday, June 10th). though to be more fair it was on the tickets twice and one of the dates was written correctly. So after much battle with my nephews to leave, they love church and thought this meant they weren't going to go, we got food. Dissapointingly, i was not hungry i was expecting to eat after a two hour play so i just had food to hold me over. Oh well, it was now time for the play. (If you were in the play, don't read any further, or if you liked the play don't read this either) Upon sitting down, I began to read the little pamphlet about the play, (playbill i think it is called), only to discover my mistake. this play was never published, no no no. It was written by a fellow church go-er who got the idea and wrote the play on a plan trip to Israel. Seems a little quick to write a musical. Now i was getting worried, but at least the music will be good, right? Read (past tense) a little further only to discover that the music for grease withouth vocal tracks doesn't exist...probably for this very reason. So how do you do a musical without music...you find someone to record the music to grease without the words. that is easy enough, right? Well, after the first song i realized just how hard it must have been. Playing the music to grease with only drums, bass, and acoustic guitar just doesn't quite cut it especially when the drummer is not always on time. But the acting, that must have been ok, you ask. No it was your typical bad church acting. All pretty bad except one or two shinning stars. In fact one person's bio even said that she loved singing and acting, but had been cut from both plays and choirs she tried out for in high school. But what about the overall production, something to save this play from possible ruin. Nope sorry not going to happen, each scene was around 7-10 minutes, i would estimate and the time between each scene change? about 3-5 minutes. So a quick boring scene, boring scene change, boring scene...you get the idea. The only saving grace to the play was the singing. Those with main parts that did sing, were good singers, they saved the play for me. So would i go again no, but i ask this question...why are christians ok with being less than par (if that is a golf analogy shouldn't they be more than par?) on most artistic endeavors?

pretend this is my heading, brody's recent blog failures reminded me to try this again. and it doesn't work. still.

The Best and The Worst.

I am not quite sure what to say about Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. On one hand the book was really good. The story was amazing, at times i was on the egde of my seat, so to speak, wanting to know how things would turn out. The character develop was extremely well done. I can't imagine Dickens would have become famous with this not being true of his books. However, the book at times was confusing. Many of the characters had several different names that they went by. So i was constantly trying to figure out who was being talked about. To compound this problem the book reads very slow. If you are the type of person that won't continue reading unless you are hooked within the first few pages, don't even bother trying to read this book. But like i said, the story is amazing so if you can if you can get through the slowness of the book i recommend reading A Tale of Two Cities.

New Music

So I am in a band called "The Art of Whimsy" we just put up a song on myspace.com/theartofwhimsy. the song is a pretty rough mix, pre-production sort of thing. So check it out and tell me what you think about it.

in light of stupid names...

ky and i have decided that all of our children's names will be spelt correctly but bear a single "X" or "Z" to begin their name... just to throw people off. it will be a silent letter of course, so zraymond will still just be raymond, but with a silent "z". it is perfect. and we will call him "Z" for short :)

hey, worse things could happen

Chuck E. Cheese

My next birthday party is going to be a Chuck E. Cheese. Yesterday was my nephew ethan's third birthday. And since his brother just had a big party that involved planning and invitation and dozens of little kids, mom decided to throw a smaller party that involved little or no work. Chuck E. Cheese or CEC as was decided upon, the place where a kid can be a kid. For only $121 we had more than enough pizza, and drinks, for 7 adults and 2 kids. Plus we left with almost a whole pizza left over. On top of all that we also got 250 tokens. Now in Chuck E. Cheese, every single game costs only one token, so with 250 tokens we could all act like little kids, running around from game to game with no concern for the cost and not playing so many games that the "kids" are left bored after twenty minutes. We all played games for about three hours before running out of tokens it was great. Among my favorite games were skeeball, and 99 cents. Skeeball i am sure you all know how to play, but 99 cents was a game of luck and skill. You are given a rubber ball and you must roll it down a short ramp and try to get it down certain paths just big enough for the ball. there are about ten different paths which change in "amount" after each roll. the point of the game is to try and get as close to 99 cents without going over. The closer you get the more tickets you get. Colette and I played this game for quite a long time. So with that being said I want to be a kid again and have my next birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. So anyway Chuck E. Cheese is the place where a kid can be a kid and adults can be kids.

Books

While listening to the Adam Corolla show i was presented with a genius idea. while danny bonaduce was high on crack for the better part of two decades he read books that were important to other people. So i am asking you, what books are important to you (besides the bible). What books influenced your life or simply books that you think everyone should read. you see i have a lot of time to read at my job and i have run out of books that i know i want to read right now. so what books do you want me to read?

The name revealed

those of you on the edge of your seat on how to actually pronounce the name. (i know of at least ten million of you). The name is pronounced Elijah. Ya i don't get it either, the name looks like a girls name in fact i was looking for a girl as i called role, until someone said, "oh, elijah." And then i realized, "she" would be a "he" with parents that can't spell.

Ummm...

This is was too good not to put somewhere. Drawn by a student who wouldn't do his work, this truly captures my likeness. Completely.

iliasia

how would you pronounce this name?

Giving Up

So for some reason i never really ever prayed about this. it doesn't make any sense, if anything is going to happen with this situation it is not going to be me doing it. So here we go. I am asking you to pray for the entire situation. What happened is (if you don't know) i was in a band and we just recently broke up. The most pressing issue is an issue of money. We had just bought a van and along with that got some debt. We really need to sell the van ASAP. we have bills to pay and no money to pay them. The other issue is more personnel in nature. Certain people are taking this really hard, harder than we thought they would causing relationships to be strained. To be perfectly honest i feel like a bunch of little kids. It is weird. So i would appreciate prayer with selling the van, as well that relationships would be healed and that they wouldn't be lost forever. Thanks and we appreciate it.

p.s. here is a picture of the van if you know anyone that wants to buy a 15 passenger van that runs great.

My Amazing Wife

Colette is sick. It has been a long week and it finally caught up with her. yesterday she took half the day off and tried to get some rest and start to feel better. This did not happen and I thought that I would be a good husband. i made soup for dinner and then we sat and watched a movie and I was going to give her a massage and get her to sleep early. Unfortunately, it has been a long week for me as well. By eight o'clock i had passed out on the couch and was woke up by colette at nine to go to sleep. I was completely out of it and am surprised I made it to bed. I woke up this morning and not only did she get me to bed and take care of me but she also cleaned up after dinner, which i didn't do because i was asleep on the couch.

Stupid Students

Kids think that they are so clever and are shocked when you catch them doing something they are not supposed to do. Like texting in class. they sit there looking at their laps clearling doing something and they wonder how you know they are texting. Then after you catch them and ask them to stop, they do it again and are surprised that you caught them yet again. Today though I had a student that just didn't get it. First he walked out of the class to blow his nose and continued walking to hang out with friends. Now this was all noticable to me because of the giant windows he was walking in front of. so i asked him to come inside and work. About 30 min. later he asked to use the restroom. "ok just come right back" so he walks out to the bathroom and stops short turns around and walks to his friends. Again this was right in front of the windows. Again i walk outside and tell him to either come in or go to the bathroom. he says ok and starts walking but again turns to his friends. Again right in front of the windows. so i said him to detention for the rest of the day. Surprise, he didn't go. but instead of just walking away and leaving the area. he hung out right next to the classroom so that about 5 min before the end of school I saw him with his friends again. Anyway his sneaking ability is lacking so tomorrow when i go back to this class he will spend the entire period and possibly all saturday in detention. All because he wouldn't just sit in his seat and do a tiny bit of work.

Old Friends

On tuesday my parents had a wedding at their house of some old family friends. it is sad to see marriages fall apart and people lives get turned inside out, but it is good so see them piece back together what they can. A few years back some good friends of mine starting getting into the wrong crowd and began doing drugs. But since then they have returned to their faith and are going to church and trusting in God. they still have some work to do and cobwebs to sort through but then again don't we all? Anyway, like I said it is encouraging to see dear friends come back to the Lord and living a happy life.

Strippers and ADD

I had a wild and crazy student in one of my classes today. So bad that after a mere 20 minutes I had already sent him out to detention for the remainder of the 90 min class. The teacher warned me about him saying that he had ADHD. And i simply just don't get. I can almost 100% guarantee that if we had a guest speaker in the class that happened to a stripper he would have payed attention and did his work if the other option was to leave. (I picked stripper to grab his attention because he is a teenage boy and he was constantly shouting out the lyrics to rap songs choosing in particular ones with overtly sexual references). Now if this is the case then it sounds like he just needs to learn how to focus himself. I have trouble focusing on a boring lecture, as does anybody else, but i have been taught the discipline to sit still and not be disruptive. Doctors have given people who have trouble focusing on things they are not interested in a name and thus an excuse. Kids labeled with ADD and ADHD are given an excuse. "I can't sit still because I have a disease. It is not my fault." Perhaps if we never labeled these kids and instead expected better behavior, then maybe we might get it. If we label a kid dumb and tell him we don't expect him to get good grades or be very smart, then you can bet they will believe this of themselves and achieve the expected.

Six Months

My wife and I have been maried for six months today. Funny when I always talk to other married couples and they say that the time goes by fast and they can't believe they have been married for X amount of years. I don't feel that way at all. The time didn't go by fast. Six months seems like nothing. It feels like we have been married for years and years already. Don't get me wrong this is not a bad thing at all. We have already been through so much in these six months that they seem like an eternity. An eternity that i would go over again and can't wait until I can say "30 years of marriage seem like nothing, I'm ready for 30 more." I love my wife, she is absolutely amazing. In fact she is making me dinner right now. YES!

Jealous

As wierd as this may sound disneyland has always been apart of my life. I love the place and just about everything that they do. I want to go but i have moved away. Today at work, a group of students were excused early to go to Disneyland. This is not fair and I am jealous.

liar liar pants on fire

At work today I had a students that to be nice i will call interesting. First, he introduced himself but said that he preferred to be called by his religious name which sounded slightly Japanese. Then i found out that he was a budhist. And from there he went on to tell me that he spoke somewhere around 8 or 9 different languages. When he heard my last name and found out that it was german he was exciting and started speaking "german" which once again sounded japanese. So i thought ok he might be a liar. But his stories kept on going. He wanted to show me some of his work that he been writting, and drawing. His drawings were obviously japanamation printed of the internet, as well all of the other work that i saw. So at this point i don't believe the kid. Good student, but probably full of crap. he started doing ninja things in class, which led me to finding out that yes he is a ninja. A master in japanese and chinese martial arts which involve chi. He demonstrated his "power" by grabing the kids in the class arms and asking if they could feel it in the fingers. Only one of them did. After about 5 arm grabing incidents he had to rest his chi for the day. After he completed his work he decided to meditate the rest of class. it was hilarious how much everyone else thought that it was 100% real. I am not so believing.

Crazy People

So because i don't have a life i have been watching this show called moral court. It is basically people's court but the verdict is based on moral criteria. An interesting idea and mildly entertaining. Not a show i would race home to make sure i saw, but good enough to watch because there is nothing else on at the moment. Anyway i just wanted to say that some people are crazy. this lady has a homeless guy living in her house for the last three years (making him not homeless but that is besides the point). that is not so crazy, the crazy part if that he threatens to stab her son, has almost burned the house down on several occassions and she defends him by saying that he is only like that when he is drunk. And to make things even worse, the only reason why he is homeless is because he does not want to spend the money that he receives on a place to stay, he would rather drink it. Stupid Lady.

Side note: i am all for being nice to people who need help, take care of the poor. Isn't that what we are called to do? But at a certain point there is helping and enabling not to mention putting your family at risk.

sexy feet

Today was a real rough day at work. I was "forced" to watch the movie "happy feet" three times during the day. It was really hard since it was a movie that i had wanted to watch and as it turned out, it is a good movie. Which is really the entire reason why i am telling you about my day at work. If you haven't seen "happy feet" i think that you should. It boasted quite the all-start cast including elijah wood, nicole kidman, hugh jackman, and robin williams. Would the movie be funny without robin williams? No probably not. Cute, but not funny. My only concern with the movie was that it was quite sexual for a kids movie. I am not sure that they would get most of the jokes and references but you never know, kids are amazingly intelligent. So watch the movie, but maybe watch the movie before you show it to little kids or else you may be asked where babies come from.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was at our house for the first time this year. We got up early, slaved away in the kitched, cleaned the house, set the table, etc. It was a lot of fun, getting to be the adults who were responsible instead of relying on other people. Plus it was sort of nice for my Mother do not have to worry about having the "get together" at their house with the mess to clean and the food to prepare. She is an amazing women and deserves more credit than she gets. So it was nice to be able to give her the break. We cooked way too many pork ribs and won't be cooking for the next week or so. (Pork ribs do not have bones, the entire thing is meat. I thought that ribs had bones, i was mistaken so we have a lot of ribs left over, serioulsy do you want some)? Baked beans, salad, corn on the cobb, 7-layer dip, chips, veggie tray, eggs of the devil, soda pop (hehehe), homemade bread, banana bread, brownies. It was awesome. The whole family came and we just hung out and relaxed ate food and then people started leaving which was good cause we were getting tired. As well as mother's day it was also sort of a house warming thing, which means that we got gifts! We were given a potted rose bush for our patio area, a fountain, some sushi trays, sauce holders, and soy sauce pourer, and glass bakeware. So it was a good time for all, at least i hope.

sleep over at my place

On tuesday night we had a sleep over at my place. that's right my two nephews (five and three) came over and spent the night at my house. Their parents we going to a friends concert so we agreed to take them for the night. This isn't one of those stories where everything goes wrong. In fact i think thati am going to be an amazing parent, well at least colette is going to be and that means i will be too since my kids will be well behaved and people will equate that to our parenting skills. Jerod the oldest was a little afraid since this was the first time they have been to our place so we let the boys sleep on the floor of our room. I apperently have the ability to sleep throught a kid talking in his sleep every half hour or so because he is having nightmares. Luckliy for Jerod, colette does not have this ability. Other than the nightmares, the night went perfectly well and I got to work on time and the kids even had breakfast. We are officially ready to be parents, just not yet.

a waste of your time

I have nothing to say, i am simply proving a point. Thanks for your time.

American Education

The other day while teaching a 7th grade history class, i ran into some 'slow' students. They were labeling a map, very typical history stuff. You need to know where it is that you are learning about right? Well first of all over half of my students did the assignment wrong. They had specific instructions and few actually followed them. They had to read them to find out what to label, but they missed the rest of the assignment. They did so much more work that was actually required it was sort of funny. Then i ran into a special group of two. Their first question surprised me a little bit. They were both hispanic so i was quite surprised when they asked me to help them find Mexico. (By the way the map was from the United States down to south america). Have they never looked at a map before? Well their next question makes me think no. They were looking for Bolivia. I can understand a student not knowing where Bolivia is right away but when i went to help them they were looking in Africa. Keep in mind that they had a blank map of south america, so the maps didn't even match. When i went to help them i said, well first you need to look at south america. Her response, " which is?" I was quite surprised, but at the same time i was not.

"Delta Farce"

I just want to know who thinks to themselves that it is a good idea to give Larry the Cable Guy a role in a major motion picture and then casts him in a movie. Wasn't the first movie he was in enough of a learning experience not to put him into anymore movies. I think that he is funny at standup but he is not a good actor and should not be an actor. That being said I am sure that i will watch it at some point. that whole morbid curiousity thing.

Your world wireless

My house, ok apartment, (i am not that cool yet) has wireless internet. Possibly one of the greatest inventions in the world, it just makes my life more convenient. not that i need to sit on the couch and serf the internet while watching tv. But isn't that something that we all want to do (you know you are thinking either one: yes i already do that or two: why did i not think of that myself). right now i am watching south park as i write this blog. Anyway i just thought that i would announce this to the world.

Good News!!

The shower will be fixed. Maintenance came in and said that it shouldn't be that way so he is going to order a better shower and head and see if that helps. If not he will go from there to get it fixes. Halleluja!

why i love my job

today, i got paid the same as any other day, but today i really didn't do anything. I got to school late, though not my fault so i was off the hook. it was the teachers fault, he gave me the wrong time. so i go into the classroom take role and push play, end of period. Then i sat there for the about twenty minutes reading "the grapes of wrath." for those who have read it, that book makes me hungry. then i was asked to cover a teacher's class, they are doing star testing, so she could use the bathroom. I did this one other time in the next two hours. then i read some more in a classroom with five students in it. They had nothing to do, they were just too disruptive to stay with the students taking tests. And by 12:15 i was on my way home after a full days work.

Annoyances

One thing that i cannot stand are crappy showers. In my mind there are three things that make a good shower: water pressure, water temp, and water heigth. A good shower must have all three of things or it is just ok. At my new place, the water temp. is great. I have never run out of hot water yet and i hope that it never happens. However, the other two are lacking. The water hits me right at the bottom of the neck. Which is great until i want to wash my face or hair. And then the water pressure sucks. Literally, one must stand directly under or extremelly close to the faucet to remain in the water. Standing on the other side of the shower one would remain completelly dry. something must be done and soon or i will go insane, longing for a good shower.

Rockin' out for Jesus

On easter service, (i know it has been awhile) I was takin a back. During the worship i looked up to see a woman raising her hand, nothing wrong with that, but it was the shape or sign she was making. She had her hand in the rock n' roll sign (i love you in sign language with out the thumb). Nothing wrong with that, it just struck me as odd.

making fun of people

now don't get me wrong, i know you aren't supposed to do it especially when it is something out of control of the person. But sometimes...I don't have a clip of this or anything cool like that but on the special features from the movie "children of men" the director or something like has a voice that is too priceless not to mention. He started out talking nothing to odd, a thick russian accent but then you notice something, yes he also has quite the thick lisp as well. Funny to me. In my little brain big russians are big and manly and do not have a lisp. Maybe i was tired and it was late, but my wife and i thought it was really funny. the movie wasn't have bad either.

God's Faithfulness

If you don't know worrying about money is probably the thing i do the most that i wish i didn't do. I have always been a saver, which i think is a good thing, but sometimes i take it to far. Not to brag but right now my wife and i make enough money to survive and save some money for a rainy day. But for whatever reason it is hard for me to just sit there and trust God. That sounds wrong, it is not that i don't trust God, he has never, literally never failed me and i know for a fact that i will be fine. yet something inside me says watch out don't spend to much, do you have some money in saving, can you pay your bills; constantly. This is all to say that God is extremelly faithful to take care of your physical needs. Surely we are blessed to be in America, there are others that don't have enough, so here is my challenge if you don't already do this...Give back to God. We are told not to test God. But He tells us to test him on one thing...money. If you give back to God, tithe your money, He will take care of you. Ever since i heard this message and started tithing somehow i have enough money. I don't make more, actually less, but it is more than enough. God has been faithful to me and He will continue to be.

nothing to say

not much to say, just got the internet half way up and running at my place. there are wires running all over the floor right now and everything is a mess but the important thing is done. i have the internet, the world is at my finger tips once again.

Planet Earth

This has to be one the coolest things that i have ever seen in my entire life. If you get a chance to watch any of these episodes you will not be sorry. The variety of life will never cease to amaze me. This show, thanks to modern technology, captures on film so many unbelievable creatures, from the beautiful to the absurd. But not only that but you will be amazed at the wonder of this planet that we live on. How much life on the entire planet revolves around that sun and it's affects on the planet. It is hard to imagine that people cannot not help but see the need for a creator and design when studying the world. This show is amazing, i love it and i think that you should watch it and love it as well.

Renta's Paradise

We have found our place! We were about to give up and just start driving around until we found something anything that we liked. But before we did that we wanted to check just one more place: Rivergate Apartments. It is the perfect place. Surrounded by redwood trees, japanese maples, and other green plant like things, so all that is to say the grounds are beautiful. The neighborhood is perfect. Not in the ghetto, it is just in an older area which is exactly what we were looking for. The only draw back is that we will not have a washer and dryer in our unit, but my parents don't live that far away, hehehe. So we move in this Wednesday. We love it and are excited to move into our place!

...in the ghetto

Apartment hunting will take you to some interesting places. Take the rosedown apartments for example. Now i know that i am not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but people make millions a year creating covers for me to judge. That just doesn't seem fair. Anyway so the place looked a little "low income" but hey if the crime rate is low and the apartments are too bad who cares right? I got past the outward appearence, no judging on my part. But then we went into the leasing office and met...we will call her sarah. Sarah appeared to be dressed just fine when she was sitting behind a desk, but then she got up to show us a few apartments. Walking behind her, i noticed her skirt was probably much shorter than it should be and her knee high boots we actually the ugliest shoes i had ever seen not to mention they we falling apart, tearing at both heals. To make this combination even worse the colors didn't match, brown shoes, black skirt and a pink shirt. Not to bad on the pink but brown and black, tsk tsk tsk. Even i know that. After this site i thought, " so this is what represents their apartments." Walking into the apartments i realized that this book had an fitting cover. The rooms smelled like stale cigarette smoke, dirty carpet, dirty walls. Rooms to small to actually fit any bed at all, even a twin. It was terrible, the only place that we thought, "there is NO WAY i would even consider living here if it was the only option." So beware of the ghetto!! I would show pictures but i am lazy!

A return to normalcy or it has been awhile

I suppose with that heading it might be painfully obvious (to some of you) that i like david crowder. but that is not why i am writting. Life is finally returning to some sort of normal routine. Which after a like a month or so it is about time. We are settled in a home for a least the next month or two and both me and colette are working (well i start monday) and are in search of the perfect apartment. we shall prevail since it was God's idea for us to move up here in the first place. So this blog shall begin again and continue as normal until we move again. just thought i would say that but for now i must go...apartment hunting.

word verification or mind control

so the other day while commenting on a post and i was prompted as usual (mmm one 'l' or two?) to type what i see in the box. Normally, i would think much of it other than "i hate doing this part, why must this be done? so annoying." but this time was different what i saw in the box was
"uckfo"
maybe my mind was in the gutter, but it made me think of other words that have those letters in it like ...fock (i don't think that is a word) or cuf (again one 'f' or two). you get the idea, if you don't then it was just me and all of this can be ignored. to cut this short 'cause it is late and past my bedtime. They (you know they, them) are sending subliminal messages out to the masses. everyday. i am not sure what they are trying to brainwash me into doing, but i don't like it one bit.


p.s. i think everyone should read "everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die" by david crowder and hogan something or other. even if you don't agree with what he says, (there hasn't been that much theology yet, more telling of history) it should be read for sheer comedic value. they are funny men, and they make me laugh. and maybe they will make you laugh, and learn as well.

My "mom" is my wife?

Remember when you were a kid and no matter what the problem whether a bruised knee, the school bully, or that you were sick, Mom could always solve the problem and make you feel better? Well I do and since I have gotten married those times have changed. I am back in southern california and was forced to leave my wife behind. Unfortunately, I am now sick and want nothing more than to see my wife and have her take care of me. My mom is here and she went out and bought me some cold medicine and bought me tea and chicken noodle soup, but it is not the same as Colette. I now have a new mom. My mom is my wife. And I don't mean that in a redneck backwoods sort of way. My wife has taken the place of my mom and can solve any problem and can make me feel better. She is not here and I miss her.

California City, Ca

"California City is located a short 120 miles from Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean; only 180 miles to Nevada's stateline. From California City you are never more than a two-hour drive from the mountains, beaches, cultural centers and museums, and all the attractions that make Southern California one of the world's most popular destinations. Any way you look at it, California City offers something for everyone...The climate is dry and mild in all four seasons, which is typical for the California high desert. Low humidity and lots of sunshine provides a pleasant, year-round climate which allows everyone to enjoy the outdoors." Except those you don't like hundred degree weather, or those who get bored in the middle of nowhere. To give you an idea of what the city looks like, the picture of above is what the entire "city" looked like. This "city" is located near the Mohave desert though I think it is closer to Hell. We drove through town in about 5 minutes only to be lead out to the middle of desert and told this is as far as we will go, it all looks the same from here: flat and ugly. We saw some of the local "gangsta's" rolling down mainstreet pushing a shopping cart, the K-Mart (were we really surprised), a golf course complete with brown grass, and the realitor's office (don't worry we aren't buying land, we are selling)
In case you haven't noticed California City is a terrible place and we were all too excited to leave the area. I am not sure why people live there. I think they are lied to and don't realize the truth before it is too late, or they are born there and have never left and don't know the outside world exsists. Either way it is a great lie. So if anyone ever mentions going to California City run away quickly, act like you don't speak english (or whatever language they are speaking), play dead, etc. anything to get away. They are most likely trying to trap you into visiting and once their they won't let you leave. I am sure of it.

Mean People

"It wasn't that this veterinary didn't like animals. I think he didn't like himself, and when that is so the subject usually must find an area for dislike outside himself. Else he would have to admit his self-contempt." John Steinbeck "Travels with Charley in Search of America."

I have often wondering why some people are, for lack of a better term, mean. Why do they find it necessary to belittle others and try to pick a fight whether physical or verbal. I think that John Steinbeck hit on something here. These people are not happy with themselves. They have a certain self-loathing that they cannot get over. Whether they are not happy with their career, marriage, or simply who they are as a person, they cannot admit this to others. That would hurt their pride. Instead they project this hate onto something or someone else. It seems to me to be a unique method of not admit this self-hatred but at the same time getting others to agree, " yes you are worth hating." I guess what this boils down to, as with most problems in the world and in Sunday School, the answer is Jesus. They need to see that despite themselves and their short comings they are worth loving and there is an unconditional love just waiting for them if they would only accept the love of Jesus.

Things We Will Miss.....And Some We Won't

These are a few of the things that I, Colette Booter, will totally miss about southern california:

Top Five

* The Beach- it's five minutes from my house right now, tear

* Disneyland- we have passes and yesterday was probably the last day we will use them

* Coffee Bean- screw starbucks, coffee bean rocks my world in so many ways, its in kauai, but not nor cal, gay

* Rainbow Sandals Outlet- the best, cheapest place to get really good sandals

* NewportMesa Church- been there four years, i love it, it will be hard to replace



That is all I can really think of right now..... So now for the things I won't miss, and part of why I am excited to move:

Top Five

* The 91 Freeway and the Inland Empire In General- crappy freeway that is always busy in the middle of socal ghetto, ew, no more riverside twice a week!

* Traffic- yes, i realize there is traffic everywhere, but never as bad as it is here

* Crowded Everything- overpopulation is overrated

* Houses starting at $300,000- and those are condo renovations.....they used to be one bedroom one bath apts.....

* English Not Being the Prevalent Language- no habla espanol peoples....i am not racist

Ok Kyle, your turn.... :)

Man Vs. Wild

Today after a hard day's work shaping the mind's of America's youth, I sat down to watch a little t.v. A great show, Man Vs. Wild was on and being a fan I turned it on. For those of you who don't know about the show, the idea is that this really manly guy, goes into different "wild" areas without any survival gear and must first survive and second find some sort of civilization in five days. I must be honest it is a really cool show, and I watch it every time that it is on. However, in the last episode that I watched, the host parachuted in the Rocky Mountains and at one point found a large river he either had to cross or use to speed his travel down and out of the mountains. Cool I have no problems with that, but he said that he was going to use his backpack stuffed with his parachute and jacket as a floatation device, and then they showed shots of him floating down the river clearly sporting a life vest underneath his sweater. Now I am not fooled into thinking that everything on t.v. is real, but this is completely opposite of what he said he was even going to do. I would rather have him fail and not reach civilization within five days (they are not going to let him die of starvation or something else possible to control) than "cheat." I will forever question the entire show, I am going to wonder when he is talking about being hungry, or thirsty if he is just not mentioning that they shipped In and Out and a Dr. Pepper that is just over this next hill out of camera shot. Anyway I am dissapointed and wanted to rant to somebody.

Moving!!

So it looks like it is finally official, we are moving back to northern california. I am not sure how we are going to get there and when. But we have until the first of march to be out of our place. My wife got a call yesterday from a supervisor in Elk Grove and was hired the spot and wanted to start monday (ha ha ha). But that is not going to happen, so we are looking at a week from monday. Crazy times, we just got settled moved everything in and oh wait God said move. But, good for us, He said move so He is making everything work out just fine. I don't even have to worry about a thing. It's amazing. The timing of everything was perfect. The only person keeping us down here, gave us his blessing, the apartment we were looking at down here, well i could live there by myself but not with Colette, and then she got a call saying you have a job in Nor Cal. Perfect!